“There now, that’ll be better,” she said cheerfully.
He opened his eyes and looked around. Rachel was right beside him, and the rickshaw holding the unconscious king was next to him as well.
Kendel remembered Flora kissing King Ardur before she and he had abandoned the palace in Sunob during his first adventure in the land. Later in their journey Flora had recollected the kiss and mentioned to Kendel that it had made her think of her own father, a man with who she had a strained relationship. From that she had gone on to advise Kendel to reach out and fix his own relationship with his father.
Kendel thought about his father, and he knew that Flora had been right. He had made a call to his father when Flora and he had returned to the modern era, and the call had broken the ice. Someday when he was back in that modern world, he thought, he would talk to his father again.
“Are you in pain?” Rachel’s voice interrupted his reminiscence.
“Of course, he’s in pain; look at how burnt his face is,” Weber’s voice was close by. Kendel turned his head and saw the guardsman standing just behind Kendel’s shoulder.
“I, um, yes, have some pain. I’m just confused, I guess,” Kendel responded.
He did feel pain, he realized. His face was sore, like it had a bad sunburn. He began to recollect where he was and what had happened. He had unleashed the green energy, and disaster had ensued.
“Is everyone else alright?” he asked.
“We’re all doing fine son, just worried about you,” Weber answered. “We’re all a bit sleepy, what with not getting much sleep after you turned the middle of the night as bright as day and burnt a hole through the trees.”
Kendel realized why he had seen blue sky – he had released the green energy and it had incinerated all the overhead tree branches when it had vaulted into the sky. The blue he had seen had been the sky that had been exposed by the new opening in the forest.
“Take your time, lad,” Weber said. “Just rest up for a while.”
“No,” Kendel protested. “I feel well enough to move. We probably ought to resume our journey, shouldn’t we?”
He looked around and saw that all the other members of the assorted collection of refugees from the Sunob palace were looking at him.
“If you feel well enough, we can get moving,” Elline agreed.
“Oh, your poor face,” Vivienne spoke up. “I wish we had some make up to cover the redness for you.”
“That wouldn’t hide how swollen up his face is,” Sophie replied matter-of-factly.
“He’ll start healing up and get better day by day,” Grace tried to speak positively. “A week from now he’ll be just as attractive as he was before.”
“Don’t let Parker find out you were calling this boy attractive,” Sophie warned. “He’ll be jealous.”
Grace blushed.
“The boy who ran away with the princess has no room to be jealous of a simple, kind remark,” Vivienne stoutly defended Grace as she attacked Parker.
“Parker didn’t run away from Grace,” Kendel spoke in self-defense for the actions that had been his while he’d occupied Parker’s body. “He was only traveling with the Princess to protect her during her flight,” he said. “As I understand,” he added.
Grace looked at him intently.
“We could all debate the intentions of my former squire,” Elline said, “but perhaps we should resume our flight, if our powerful sorcerer is capable of travel?” the knight looked at Rachel and Kendel.
Kendel awkwardly rose to his feet. “I can start,” he asserted.
And so, the group resumed moving slowly along the back roads of southern Palatenland, bound for the river crossing into Four Borders.
“Sir Kendel,” Sheenda the cook began to speak to him as they slowly trudged up a hillside. Sheenda paused between every few words to take a breath, as she and Kendel lagged behind the others in the uphill climb.
“I can fix a poultice for you to reduce the burn and the swelling in your face. I’ve seen several of the plants I need growing on the south-facing sides of the hills,” she explained.
“Are they yucca?” Kendel asked, thinking of the only healing-type plant that came to mind, thanks to the sunburn lotion he used in the summer.
“Who is Yucca? Your healer in your home?” Sheenda asked.
“No, it’s a kind of plant people use to take away pain on the skin,” the boy explained. “I think it is the sap from the plant that they rub on skin to stop the pain.”
“It sounds like the ever balm fern,” Sheenda speculated. “I’ve never heard of yucca before. Where does it grow? Where are you from, anyway?” she asked.
It was a question Kendel had begun to anticipate he would be asked, but he hadn’t yet figured out a satisfactory answer.
“I came from the west,” he replied vaguely.
“West of Sunob? Out around Gray’s Hill, Oak Knoll? How far west?” Sheenda tried to learn more precisely.
“I came from western Shoreline,” Kendel answered. “It took me days of walking to get to Sunob,” he slowed down as the cook paused to catch her breath.
“What plants are we going to look for?” he turned the topic around.
“There’s some green cable and spotted long leafs,” Sheenda pointed to plants alongside the trail where they stood. “Pick those for me.”
Kendel bent and picked the plants, which Sheenda took from him and rubbed together, then rubbed her hands and the green mash on his face. “You’ll feel better soon. Pick more of those on the way down the path and I’ll put more on your face later.”
They continued to trail behind the others until the group descended the hill and ascended the next, where the rest of the small column were resting and waiting for the two laggards to join them.
“How does your face feel?” Sheenda asked.
“Parts are feeling better, thank you,” Kendel replied. He joined her in sitting down on a fallen tree trunk.
“Here, I’ve got more we can apply. Young miss, will you help us?” Sheenda called to Vivienne as the cook’s hands began to tear and twist and mash the plant ingredients together to make more of the pain reliever.
“How can I help?” Vivienne asked.
“Would you stand there and dab this on the sorcerer’s face where he says he still feels pain?” Sheenda held her hands out before her, displaying the mashed plant material. Vivienne looked at the damp material in the woman’s hands, then inspected Kendel’s face closely, noting the streaks of dried materials still on it. She reached over and dabbed her fingertips in the healing plants.
“Where does it hurt?” she asked Kendel.
“Here,” his fingers traced a crescent around his forehead and across a cheek to the corner of his mouth.
Vivienne leaned in even more closely, and began to dab the mixture on his forehead, her eyes studying her actions, while Kendel looked at her. She had hazel eyes that were flecked with green and brown spots, he saw. And her mouth had slight creases at the sides where her lips came together.
“What? Is there something on my face?” she asked, and he realized that she was studying him as he studied her, as the two of them were so close together that the moment felt – and was – an intimate one.
“It’s just that you’re pretty,” he answered. He wished he had access to Parker’s memories once more so that he could discover if she had a boyfriend. He couldn’t imagine that she didn’t.
Her fingers returned to his face with a new coat of the healing potion. “Aren’t you the charming young sorcerer!” she exclaimed. Her finger scooped a last bit of the painkiller from Sheenda and she poked her fingertip against the tip of his nose.
“There, my wounded sorcerer, I hope you feel all better!” she said mischievously, a grin on her face. She remained in place for a moment more while the two of them studied one another further, both of them smiling, then Vivienne seemed to recollect her sense of propriety and she backed away as she straightened her posture.
&
nbsp; The group started down the slope of the hill, and when they reached the bottom, Kendel realized with a start that it was the same valley where he had encountered the second sun witch. The group crossed the small valley between the hills and went by the pasture where the witch had stood and pretended to need help. Kendel felt a shiver of recognition, and then felt the green energy within him also react to the proximity to its former home, as it grew active.
The blue energy began to shudder into awareness as well. Kendel felt the turmoil within him escalate dramatically as the two energies began to compete for dominance, the green bolstered by the nearness to it former home, while the blue energy struggled to maintain control.
Kendel stopped walking as he felt the intensity of the conflict within him.
“Sir sorcerer, I almost bumped into you,” Gayl partially complained and partially apologized as she maneuvered to avoid stepping into his position in the middle of the narrow forest way.
Kendel barely heard her as he bent over in pain, feeling the two contending forces relentlessly ravage through his soul and body as they sought to dominate one another. He grunted, then gave a cry of pain, and fell to his knees.
“Kendel?” Elline came up to him and put his hand comfortingly on Kendel’s shoulder. “Are you not well, lad?”
The green power surprised the blue and Kendel both as it unexpectedly seized the opportunity to change the battlefield, and it began to leap into Elline.
“Lad?!” the knight gasped as he felt the green energy fight its way into his soul.
“What have you done, sorcerer?” Elline fell to his knees immediately, stricken by the pain of the green energy’s attack.
Kendel felt the blue energy pursue the green – both powers leaving his body for the first time in weeks – and he momentarily felt a welcome emptiness in his soul where the two alien entities had resided; it felt good – comforting – to no longer be host, to the green power in particular. He turned his head and saw Elline on his knees, and he felt horror at the thought of the good knight suffering because of Kendel.
He wanted to help the blue energy; he wanted to help Elline. He reached out his own hand and grasped Elline’s shoulder and tried to imagine how he could stop the green energy’s attack on the unprepared knight. He threw his own soul into the battle, letting his consciousness chase after the blue and green energies, following their spiritual trail into Elline’s psyche.
Kendel’s soul understood its separateness from his physical body. The weeks of hosting the two other entities within him had delivered the realization that his soul could be its own entity apart from him physical presence, at least for short periods of time. With that knowledge, his soul was easily able to slip outside of him to go to join in the battle within Elline.
Kendel could tell he was inside the knight; he could feel the essential goodness of the man as an all-encompassing presence that had become the arena containing the two battling energies Kendel sought. He found the two entangled with one another as they each tried to assert their dominance, and he saw that the green energy seemed to be in a better position. Whether because it was close to its place of origin, or because it had exercised its freedom the night before during Kendel’s ill-fated experiment, the energy of the witch seemed stronger than before.
Yet there was a place where the green energy appeared vulnerable. It was a part of the energy that was outside the reach of Miriam’s powers, as the blue energy lay trapped, but Kendel saw that he could apply pressure and ambush the green power. His soul leapt at the energy, applying his own pressure, recollecting the things he had learned from hosting the two energies for so long, and he strangled the green power as he divided it into two lesser bodies of energy.
Well done, young friend! The blue energy sang out, as the green power squealed in surprise and anguish at Kendel’s damaging blow.
There was an explosive tossing about, and Kendel was violently shaken loose from the scrum. His consciousness was battered by the exchange, and he involuntarily withdrew from Elline’s psyche, rebounding violently back into his own body.
Prepare! The blue energy warned him.
Kendel looked over at Elline. For a moment, the knight appeared to be thrashing in agony, and then Kendel saw two flashes of colored light – one green and one blue – appear from the knight’s chest. Kendel felt himself knocked backwards as he received the energy striking his face, and he felt the blue energy definitively assert dominance of the relationship within him once more. And then Kendel passed out.
Chapter 15
When Kendel awoke it was pitch dark.
He could hear the others in his group speaking excitedly, very nearby, and he wondered at everyone being awake and animated in the night-time darkness.
He felt terrible – aches in every muscle, and a feeling of disorientation. The energies within him were calm at least.
You fool, Shaiss’s voice sounded. You weren’t ready for these challenges; you’re learning hard lessons in the hardest way possible. It’s a credit to luck that you’re alive at all. I’m going to have to clean up after you now, and it won’t be easy.
At least, Kendel thought to himself, she doesn’t sound as angry as usual.
“I’m sorry, my goddess,” he mumbled an apology into the darkness.
“Kendel?” Rachel’s voice sounded next to him. “Are you awake?” she asked. “I thought I heard him speak,” she seemed to speak to someone else.
“Kendel, are you okay?” Grace was very close by –practically on top of him – her voice sounded so close.
“I’m alive,” he answered. “I’m unsteady at the moment. How is Sir Elline?” Kendel asked.
“He’s over here, sitting up. I think he’s less shaken up than you are,” Grace answered.
“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Your eyes!”
“Oh,” Rachel exclaimed. “Oh my!”
“What?” Kendel asked. “How can you even see my eyes? Why is everyone up in the middle of the night?” It was so dark that he couldn’t even see a glimmer of starlight overhead.
There was a pregnant pause.
“It’s not night; it’s the middle of the day,” Grace replied. “You and Elline just had your fits ten minutes ago.”
There was a flipping sensation in Kendel’s stomach, a foreboding of horror.
“It’s pitch black,” he told Grace. “I can’t see a thing.
“My eyes,” he said. “You mentioned my eyes. What’s wrong? Am I blind?” he felt his voice tremble.
“Your eyes have changed. One is brilliant green, like the second sun, and the other is blue – as blue as the sky. They’re so bright, it’s almost like they glow,” Grace told him.
“Those bolts of energy from Elline, they entered you through your eyes,” Rachel spoke again.
There were no other voices now, Kendel realized. The conversations of others had ceased.
“Is everyone else still here?” he asked.
“Right around you lad,” he heard Weber speak up, and other voices murmured as well.
“What happened to you and Elline?” Grace asked.
“Whatever it was, I felt Kendel save me,” Elline spoke up. “Thank you lad, for whatever you did. I didn’t understand any of it, but I know you played a part.”
Kendel was dumbfounded by the situation. He couldn’t comprehend being blind. He was going to lose his ability to save Miriam, to even lead this group of refugees to safety. He felt a world of pressure weighing on his shoulders, and he suddenly was shorn of the ability to carry through.
“I have two powers that live inside me,” he began to explain in a calm voice.
“One of them is a green energy. It is wild and mean and powerful. It came from a second sun witch, when I was part of a fight against her. Miriam came to my rescue and helped me beat her, but the witch left part of her power inside me,” he started to tell his story. Of course, his rescuer had been Genniae, who had actually been Miriam, though Kendel hadn’t known that at the time.
“And Miriam put some of her own power inside me as well, the blue power, and it stays inside me to keep the green power under control,” he told his audience. Everyone was listening, he suspected.
“I can use the green power to do things, as you know, but I have to use the blue power to control it. The other night – last night, I guess – I tried to use the green power without using the blue, as a test, and that’s when it got out of hand, until Miriam’s energy pulled the green energy back under control.
“But just now, we happen to be almost exactly at the spot where Miriam and I fought the second sun witch,” he told the others, and he heard a round of surprised sounds. “There’s a little meadow beside the road,” he explained.
“It’s behind us,” Grace informed him gently.
“The green power tried to break free, and it fled from me to Sir Elline. The blue energy followed to try to bring it back under control. And then my spirit followed both of them into Sir Elline to try to help rescue him and control the green energy. And when we did – when Miriam’s power and I won – I got kicked back into my own body, and then the two energies came back over to me,” he wound up the brief explanation.
“And they happened to enter through my eyes, apparently, and did some damage,” he finished up.
“Maybe it’s just temporary,” Rachel said. “Give your body time to adjust.
“Yes Kendel,” Sophie’s voice spoke from just above his head. “Wait and see.”
“Sir Elline, can you see?” Kendel asked.
“I’m weak as a noodle and feel like I’ve been kicked across the stable yard by a mule,” Elline’s voice spoke. “But I can see. And I thank you for coming to rescue me from those energies.”
“Can you walk?” Waxen asked. “Maybe we can get you to a doctor in a city who can treat your eyes.”
“I can walk, I think,” he answered. “Would someone help me up?”
Pairs of hands suddenly grasped under his armpits and he was lifted to his feet. He was sore but felt capable of walking.
The Blinded Journey Page 9
