He heard a sound behind him and realized that a servant was sneaking up on him. Kendel flung himself sideways away from the servant, then swung his staff back into the empty space he had abandoned, and he felt the staff strike a man who cried in pain and fell to the ground beside Kendel.
Kendel scrambled to his feet as he heard his attacker start to rise. Knowing that the use of magic would be painful, Kendel gripped his staff in both hands and swung it like a baseball bat, which struck a resounding blow on the soft flesh of the servant, making the man cry again and fall back to the ground.
Kendel swung the staff one more time and felt satisfying contact as he struck the man’s skull.
The servant was unconscious, and Kendel hadn’t used magic, thereby saving himself from suffering further pain. He began to hobble forward once more, before he bumped into a hedge of bushes and stopped, releasing a mild curse at the discomfort of the stickers that pricked his arms.
He heard a scrabbling noise nearby, the sound of conflict. He turned and moved towards the sound as he called again.
“Flora!” he shouted.
“Kendel!” her voice was hoarse and muffled.
“Well, well,” a high-pitched, wheezing voice spoke. “It’s the blind boy hero, besotted with the beauty who doesn’t care for him.”
“Who are you? Leave her alone!” Kendel ordered. The voice finally came into his limited range of detection as Kendel stumbled forward with his injured ankle over the uneven ground of the garden.
There was a grunt and a thud and a scrambling noise.
“Kendel!” Flora cried his name. “It’s Erdonn. He’s a monster, a horrible thing! He’s trying to have me!”
“Leave her alone!” Kendel snarled the command as he let the energies within him release. He raised his staff and pointed it at the entity he felt, then released a blast of the green energy, willing to accept the pain he would receive as a result, accepting that it would be a small and temporary price to pay to save Flora.
Erdonn laughed, and Flora gasped.
“He’s holding your energy!” she said. “The attack didn’t hurt him.”
“I heard an echo of a rumor that there was a new young power at loose, bumbling about the world,” Erdonn spoke. “I momentarily wondered when I was rescued if you might be the alleged hero, but then I found that you were blind, and so I concluded that you wouldn’t be able to manage anything notable.”
Angry, Kendel focused for a moment, then released a stream of the blue energy alone, hoping that it would capture and neutralize the green energy that Erdonn held, and in the process would immobilize Erdonn as well.
“Oh, the novice has more than one weapon?” Erdonn sneered as Kendel’s attack inflicted no harm.
“What are you?” Kendel asked.
He felt something happen, and then realized that Erdonn was flinging the blue and green energies back at him. Kendel waved his staff in front of himself as he hastily flung up a shield of blue energy that managed to absorb a portion of the energy that Erdonn used.
Kendel felt the attack strike him and knock him backwards, making him tumble into a bush where he lay in stunned pain for a moment.
“You are a bit of a remarkable thing. With time and training you might even manage to amount to something,” Erdonn spoke confidently. “But I’m not going to give you either training or time. Especially not if you’ve done some of the things I now suspect you’ve done.
“You knew of the tanithae,” Erdonn’s squeaky voice spoke with a deadliness. “She was one of my sisters. The three of us were sent as the vanguard to assess and prepare for the return of the Dons to our homeland.
“And now you clumsily try to assault me with power that you stole from my own sister!” his voice flew into a rage, a shout of anger that deepened slightly. “I think not.
“You will die by my hand, wielding her power, as retribution for your crime,” Erdonn’s voice became a sneer.
Your third power, your own – use it! Shaiss’s voice rang in Kendel’s ears.
He had found and used a third type of power, it was true, Kendel realized. He could delve deeply within himself and draw out a stream of power that seemed to be generated within him. It seemed weak compared to the alien energies that lived within him. But if Shaiss told him to use it, he would.
“And then I’ll feel even greater satisfaction in finishing off your companion, who has so weakly fallen for the illusions I’ve woven throughout my domain,” Erdonn completed the sentence he had begun before Shaiss’s message.
The threat to Flora catalyzed Kendel just as he was reacting to Shaiss’s command, and hearing the threat ignited a determination within Kendel to halt Erdonn without regard for the consequences. He opened the deep gates inside himself and released the energy within, letting his awareness of Erdonn’s location guide the bolt of power that he threw.
Erdonn screamed, and Flora screamed, and then Kendel felt the rebound of pain struck him after his blast at the monster, and Kendel screamed as well, before he passed out.
Chapter 33
“Mom?” Kendel murmured as he returned to consciousness. He felt pain. Someone was tending to him, and he wondered if he were home, being nursed by his mother.
“Kendel,” someone was clasping one of his hands, “it’s me, Flora.”
He opened his eyes, and for a second he thought he saw Flora, but then all was black darkness.
Memories came flooding over him, memories of when he had been and what he had done.
“Where are we? Are we prisoners?” he groaned in pain. The pain was suddenly and completely present as he regained awareness.
“We’re in the ruins of Erdonn’s castle,” Flora said gently. We’ve been here most of the day, while you’ve been unconscious.
“We’re not prisoners. I just thought it was best to let you rest. You may be skinny, but you’re still a solid weight to have to carry up those stairs!” Flora chided him.
“But I did it!” she laughed, and Kendel sensed a friendliness in her that had been missing since the encounter in the graveyard of Impiraght.
“Can you tell me everything that’s happened?” he asked.
“You and Erdonn fought. Well, really, before that, I was with Erdonn in the garden and he was charming, until suddenly he wasn’t. He turned into a monster and attacked me. I fought and I screamed, but I was losing badly until you showed up and fought so bravely. I cried when I saw him beating you at first, and I felt so bad,” she paused and breathed deeply, “because I felt it was mostly my fault you were losing.”
“I was just letting him get a false sense of confidence,” Kendel joked, then felt Flora lightly punch his shoulder.
“But then you won the battle, and he disappeared in a pillar of flame!” Flora said. “So I was there with my clothes all torn and you passed out in the middle of a garden full of weeds.”
“I thought it was a beautiful garden,” Kendel said.
“Erdonn told us part of the truth. He was a master of illusion – everything was an illusion. This castle looked so luxurious, but it’s really a horrible wreck. The gardens are weeds, the servants mostly never existed; he only had two servants in total – all the others were just illusions. And you killed one of the servants and drove off the other,” Flora said.
“I carried you up here to this sad, ruined bedroom – the mattress is really just a sack of straw. And I deserve a pat on the back for carrying you, if I do say so myself,” she told him.
“Thank you, Flora. I’m surprised I’m even alive after fighting Erdonn; you did good work to save me,” Kendel praised her.
“Oh Kendel! Stop it! You saved my life. A couple of times now you’ve saved my life! All I did was put you to bed,” she shushed him.
“I found a pantry with some food. It’s not much and it’s not very good, but we can get out of here and find a city where we can really rest up,” Flora told him. “Whenever you think you’re able to move.”
“I can leave any time,” Ken
del valiantly said, as he tried to sit up without gasping in pain.
“Don’t be a martyr,” Flora said matter-of-factly. “Just rest. It’s already afternoon. We can spend another night here and see if you feel better tomorrow.”
They spent the night together on the cloth-bound mattress of straw, and in the morning Kendel was game to resume their journey.
The servant who had survived Kendel’s attack had taken the horses and fled, leaving walking as the only option for the pair of travelers. Kendel was just as pleased with walking as with riding the horse, although it left he and Flora with the responsibility of splitting the heavy load of coins they had to carry.
“Did you understand all the things Erdonn said in the garden when he was boasting?” Flora asked after they were on the road. “Did he say the witch that Genniae beat was his sister?”
“He did, and he said there was another one of them too,” Kendel confirmed as he recalled the words of the monster. “And he made it sound like they were scouts coming before the big group came. I think he meant the Dons are coming, just as Miriam warned us.”
Do you think he was a Don? Was the witch one too?” Flora asked.
Kendel rubbed his forehead as he considered the question. “Maybe; I don’t know. If there are lots of Dons who can do things like that, everyone is trouble. I can’t imagine trying to fight against an army of Dons. There’d be no way to win.”
“Well, you won the battle you had,” Flora’s hand that was leading him momentarily rubbed his arm affectionately.
Their walk that day was slowed by Kendel’s lingering injuries and the weight of the coins they carried. At mid-afternoon they descended a long hill that sloped down to a wide river valley, where a small village on the river banks hosted a ferry service that crossed the river.
“Is that Headterre across the river?” Kendel asked the ferry keeper when Flora paid their fares to ride the boat.
“It was when I was there this morning; I imagine it still is now,” the man said dourly.
Kendel could imagine Flora turning to looked at him with raised eyebrows, and he smiled as the two of them walked the plank that led to the ferry.
“Now why is a pretty girl like you wasted on a blind man who can’t appreciate your good looks?” a husky voice spoke as Kendel and Flora took a spot along the railing of the ferry, while they waited for others to board as well.
Flora let out a sigh.
“There’s no waste,” Kendel answered for Flora. “I know how beautiful she is, and I’m lucky to be with her.”
“Aw Kendel, that was sweet,” Flora told him with a pat on the shoulder.
“And I’ll be even luckier to be with her next,” the man said, and then unexpectedly struck Kendel hard, knocking him over the ferry railing and into the river water.
Kendel heard Flora scream, and then the water was all around him chilly, while the weight of his coin-filled backpack pulled his torso down towards the bottom of the river, as he inadvertently inhaled a gulp of water.
And then he suddenly was thrust back upward and he felt his head emerge into the air once more. He continued to rise, so that he was suddenly standing upright upon the surface of the water.
“Friend Kendel, hello!” a feminine voice spoke from the river. “What a happy coincidence that we can meet again!” Fontaine spoke in a lilting tone.
“Kendel!” Flora shouted. “What is this?”
Kendel took several deep breathes and coughed as he cleared his lungs and tried to make sense of all that was happening, the simultaneous occurrences of his reunion with the water nymph and the assault by the goon on the boat.
“Thank you, Fontaine! You’re a lifesaver,” he shouted.
“As were you,” she replied.
Kendel let his awareness rise from his body and found the man who was standing beside Flora, apparently distracted by the spectacle in the river.
Flora, is the man who pushed me standing next to you?” he asked for confirmation.
“The ugly oaf is,” she declared.
Kendel had lost his walking staff in the melee, but he raised an arm and pointed a finger at the man. “Leave her alone now, or suffer!” Kendel threatened.
“You’re a demon!” the man shouted, but Kendel felt him move away from Flora at a quick pace.
“Fontaine,” Kendel knelt down upon the surface of the water. “I’m so glad you’re alive! I worried about what happened at the entrance to the cave when we parted. I hope you weren’t hurt.”
“Thanks to you and your magic, I escaped,” she replied her head and shoulders rising up out of the water to speak to him, as Flora and a host of others on the ferry boat looked on in astonishment.
“Are you still blind?” she asked. “I thought so,” she answered her own question. “Did the cave take you where you wanted? Back to that other world you came from?”
It did. I brought my friend back with me. That’s Flora up there on the boat,” Kendel gestured.
“Let’s go talk to her,” Fontaine moved Kendel closer to the ferry’s side and raised him up, while Flora then helped him down onto the deck of the ferry, while the others on the boat backed away.
Fontaine climbed up onto the deck as well, and she and Flora stood face to face, evaluating one another.
“Who are you?” Flora asked directly. “Kendel, who is this?” she asked a split moment later.
“This is Fontaine. She was my guide to find the cave that runs to our world. Her mother and father are gods; Fontaine is a nymph.”
“He is fond of you,” Fontaine spoke. “Do not break his heart. He is a good boy, and he is the hope of the world. You must help him.”
“I am helping him,” Flora instantly replied. “I care for him. We’re here as a team, to help each other.”
“Be sure that you do take care of him. He is my favorite non-human, I think, other than my brother, of course,” Fontaine answered. “Kendel, you call me if you need anything from me. Call me if she lets you down. I’ll find her sooner or later.”
Kendel felt a brush of cool damp on his cheek as Fontaine kissed him, then he heard a splash, and an immediate murmuring from the surrounding crowd on the deck of the ferry.
“I don’t think I heard you mention having a liquid lover before,” Flora said in a cool voice.
She wasn’t – isn’t – my lover,” Kendel said. “Fontaine was my guide. Shaiss arranged for her and her brother to lead our Sunob group to Lumen’s palace, and then he and Fontaine took me to the cave we traveled through from our land.”
“Just a guide?” Flora questioned. “She seemed to come out of nowhere to save you just now. And I’m thankful that she did, make no mistake.”
“Are there any reasons why our ferry shouldn’t cross the river?” the ferry man asked loudly.
“He’s looking right at us as he said that,” Flora told Kendel in a low voice.
“We’re ready to go,” Flora spoke loudly.
A moment later the deck of the ferry gave a jerk and the passengers grabbed lines and railings to steady themselves as the boat began its crossing of the river.
“I’m glad to leave Four Borders behind,” Kendel said aloud, seconds into the trip. “It seemed like there was trouble at every turn while we were there.”
“If I had a glass of wine, I’d raise a toast to a better trip ahead,” Flora told him. “That’s something we’ll have to do when we get to a city – have a drink of wine. We’ve earned it,” she convinced herself and Kendel.
“And another thing we need to do is some yoga. Have you done any lately?” she asked.
“Not since we got back here,” He answered.
“We’ll fix that too,” Flora indicated firmly.
Upon disembarkation, Flora asked a shopkeeper in the village on the Headterre side of the river how far it was to the next city.
“It’s three hours away” the man told her. “Just follow the road and you’ll get there.”
“Do we want another three-hour walk?�
�� Flora asked Kendel.
“You want a room in a nice hotel where we can have wine with dinner, don’t you?” he asked. “And I think we need to travel as fast as reasonable to try to catch up with Agata and Parker, so I say we walk for three hours.”
Slowed by Kendel’s blindness and the need to lead him around obstacles along the way, the journey took closer to four hours than three, but the duo arrived at the gates of Landerton soon after nightfall, and received directions to an inn in the center of town where they got a room and ordered a tub of hot water, then went upstairs so that Flora could take the bath that she craved.
After a long soaking bath, the pair went to a local tavern and ate a hot dinner and drank wine.
“So Kendel,” Flora spoke after the pair had talked about the difficult beginning to their trip. “We have to find Agata and Parker. How do you plan to do that?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said reflectively, the wine having put him in a state of fuzzy contemplation. “I think they’re several days ahead of us, so we need to catch up. I think that maybe,” he paused to try to develop a coherent thought, “maybe the farther east we go, the easier they will be to find. Maybe there aren’t many travelers who say they’re going to try to meet the wizard of Cru Jolais.”
“Not that I place much weight in what he said, but Erdonn denied there even was a wizard,” Flora pointed out. “Of course, he denied his own sister existed as well.”
“No, Shaiss herself told me to go to Cru Jolais,” Kendel remembered.
Shaiss!” he suddenly sat upright.
“Kendel? What is it? Is she talking to you?” Flora asked alertly.
“We ought to find Shaiss’s temple, right away,” Kendel said.
“Right now?” Flora asked in dismay. “I’m just ordering another round for us right now,” she quickly raised her hand and signaled to the waiter with two fingers in the air.
“I need to say thank you to her,” Kendel said. “I just remembered. When Erdonn took on the powers from my first two attacks, and I didn’t know what to do, Shaiss told me to use my own powers, and when I did, I beat Erdonn.
The Blinded Journey Page 24
