Maig's Hand

by Phillip Henderson

  “Larniusian and Kathiusian Druids still walk among us?” Michael asked.

  “Yes, both.”

  The men grew serious again and she said, “This evening I was summoned to Ra’majum by a White Druid called Cargius. We hope to have some answers when we get there.”

  “Cargius?” Michael said in puzzlement. “You actually have the name of a White Druid?”

  Danielle took a breath. “Yes. Joseph says he is real enough. I know how that must sound to you all, but it is the truth. And now that you know, I must have your word that you will not speak on this.”

  She greatly appreciated their nods.

  Thomas was holding James still as Blukus poured some of the liquor from Jeffery’s flask into the wound. Danielle felt a surge of relief as James stifled a heart-felt groan and came awake. As the two knights lay him down he whispered her name, then, as if waking from a nightmare he demanded to know where she was. This time Danielle wouldn’t be stopped and she got up and went to his side. He frowned at her through a fog of pain and his hand came up and gently touched her face.

  “You are unharmed?”

  She suspected her face was as bruised as his. “I’m fine.” She smiled and pressed his hand to her lips, careless of the knowing grins the act provoked among the company of knights. They all most certainly knew that James and she were now engaged.

  “Drink some of this, brother,” Thomas said, easing the flask to James’ lips.

  James took the liquor gratefully and fell into a coughing fit for a moment.

  Harris had pulled off his cloak and was tearing serviceable bandages from its hem to dress James’ shoulder. Blukus took the first strip of material and began to wrap the puncture wounds in James’ shoulder.

  “Are we safe here,” James asked when he recovered his breath.

  Thomas handed him a sliver of fesewill root to chew on for the pain. “I think it’s fair to say the crow population in the area has been severely reduced, at least for the time being.”

  Half grins appeared on bearded faces around the fire, only to quickly vanish as the crunch of boots on dead leaves saw Eden step into the circle of light. Danielle avoided his glare as he crouched, though she snuck a look as her brother inspected James’ shoulder.

  “You saved my sister’s life. Thank you. Do you think you can walk?”

  “Yes, Milord.”

  “Then we move out, gentlemen.”

  The knights moved to obey even as Eden gave the order. Blukus helped James to his feet and hoisted his arm over his armoured shoulder for support while Michael quickly fashioned a sling for his injured arm with a piece of bandage. Matthew took several burning branches from the fire and handed them out so they’d have light to see by on their return trip to the ship.

  “How long to Ra’majum from the ship do you think?” Danielle asked as she took the hand Jeffery offered her and stood. They had to be in Ra’majum before noon. It seemed they still had plenty of time but she didn’t know the terrain and couldn’t say for sure whether they could make the journey on foot.

  Her brother ignored her as he drew his sword and took the lead. Danielle strode after him. “Eden. Eden, I asked you a question.”

  “Yes, and you need not concern yourself with that right now.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because you’re not going.”

  “That’s not your decision to make.”

  Eden stopped and nodded at Matthew to take the lead. As his men passed them he said, “I’m afraid it is. I have a damaged ship to salvage, wounded men and dead to concern myself with. We do not have the numbers to see you safely to Ra’majum in the time this Druid allowed, and certainly not on foot. Gods, surely even you can see that?”

  The distain in his tone hurt her, but she wasn’t going to be put off. She caught his arm as he turned to go, stopping him. “If I don’t get there before noon, we’ll have a great deal more than one ship and the loss of a hundred good men to worry about …”

  “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “True, I don’t. But you weren’t in my chamber earlier tonight. You didn’t see what was written on my walls. I am going, with or without you.” She snatched the burning branch from his hand and pushed past him and joined the column of men.

  “You’ll be doing no such thing,” Eden said firmly, trudging after her. As Danielle strode to the front of the column, Eden following on her heels, his knights glared daggers at him before returning their attention to the fog. Their hands were fixed firmly on the hilts of their swords and Danielle half pitied any druid who dared attack her in present company.

  “Milord, if I might speak,” James said, from where he was supported by Blukus. “If this proves anything, it’s that your sister must go to Ra’majum. The Larniusian Druids would not have perpetrated such a brazen attack unless this Cargius and his revelations were genuine.”

  “That’s all good and well, James, but it means nothing if we can’t get her there safely. If it is as you say, these bastards aren’t about to give up. They’ll regroup, wait for daybreak and come at us again. And we do not have the numbers to sustain the sort of attack the ship endured just now. And even with reinforcements from Illandia, there will not be enough time to get to Ra’majum by noon. Like I said to you, if this fellow is so wrought with power, he can damn well find a safer place for this meeting.”

  “Milord, perhaps they must meet there for some reason we are not aware of?”

  “Is that likely, sister?” Eden asked curtly

  “There was nothing in the writings, but I get the impression this man does not act without good reason,” she answered with the same short tone.

  “Besides,” Jeffery put in, “I don’t think they have the numbers to rally.”

  Matthew then said, “It shouldn’t be a problem getting there, Milord. We could use the cover of darkness and the fog to our advantage. One of the ship’s long boats, and a dozen volunteers to row and guard her is all it would take. We would be there in a few hours even with the current against us.”

  “We can do this, Milord,” James put in. “We have to do this.”

  “I’d be willing to volunteer,” Jeffery said. Each knight gave the same answer.

  Danielle could feel her brother’s scowl boring into her back but she smiled gratefully to them each in turn.

  “Then hurry yourselves. Dawn is almost on us,” Eden said after a short silence.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The rest of the walk back to the grounded ship was a silent affair. Danielle trudged along beside James in the middle of the troop of knights. The men kept a vigilant watch on the dark woods, their swords resting against broad armoured shoulders. The flames from their torches flickered, casting a dim light out into the foggy wood. The only sounds were the jingle of armour, rustle of wet grass around their legs and boots and the quiet rippling water flowing by in the darkness beyond the torchlight. Eden was now walking at her side, his mood as dark as the night. He might have relented on letting her continue on to Ra’majum, but she wasn’t certain he wouldn’t change his mind if given half the chance.

  “Any idea why this Cargius fellow did not warn you that Fren and her kind would be waiting for us?”

  Danielle had been thinking the same thing and she shared her brother’s annoyance. The White Druid had shown he could wield unfathomable power; surely he must have known or at least suspected. “None whatsoever,” she said dully.

  “You sure we can trust him?” Eden said his voice stiff with annoyance.

  “Like I said before; after tonight do we dare not?” Danielle felt very ambivalent about all this. Particularly with what she suspected was waiting for her at Ra’majum.

  Her brother grunted a reply and turned his attention back to the woods. It was a short while later that the distant sound of Captain Farus’s voice brought Danielle from her dark musings.

  “Not far now,” Eden said.

  Danielle nodded. Even with a knight’s long coat draped over her shoulde
rs she was still cold and wet. As they walked the captain’s voice steadily grew. Then they rounded a bend in the river and a short distance ahead through a stand of pines they could see that a makeshift camp was being established on the riverbank beside the listing hulk of the Arkaelyus.

  Ropes had been thrown ashore and tied to the large trees at the edge of the woods to keep the vessel from being snatched by the current of the river. Campfires had been lit on shore and Danielle watched as soldiers and sailors alike went about their duties, sword and bow lying in arms reach. In particular, she noticed a cohort of men carrying the dead down a make-shift gangplank and heading off to what looked like a small clearing at the far end of the camp where, in turn, more soldiers could be seen faintly through the fog building a large fire. The sight did nothing to help her appetite as the smell of an early morning breakfast of oats and tea reached her on a slight breeze.

  A soldier on guard duty saw them coming and shouted their return. Heads turned in their direction and a murmur of relief went through the camp as it was seen that their princess and Regent were safe. The captain came running down the gangplank and strode over to greet them as they entered the camp, his craggy features awash with relief. “Milord, Milady, you’re safe?”

  “Safe enough. But we have an injured man,” Eden said gruffly. “With me,” he said, heading for the ship.

  Danielle squeezed her brother’s hand and drew him up. He could barely look at her. “This is the right thing to do,” she whispered.

  He grunted at her then told Jeffery to, “Get some breakfast for the men that are coming with us. And see that our lady and her protector are tended to,” before telling the captain to follow.

  “And the longboat, Milord?” Jeffery asked.

  “I’ll organise that.” At that he motioned Harris and Michael after him and walked off towards the ship.

  It was a short time later that Danielle was sitting beside one of the campfires sipping a cup of piping hot tea. She had changed her clothes and seen a protesting James down to the ship’s galley where the rest of the wounded were being taken care of, and was now trying to prepare herself for Ra’majum. The place left her with a raft of mixed emotions, none of them welcoming. Even so, she was eager to be going, conscious that dawn would be on them soon, and not sure Fren and her ilk would not be back.

  She looked up expectantly when Eden returned with two sailors in tow. Her heart lurched when she recognised the two men in her brother’s company and she moved to rise. “Mr Tally, Mr Grizna. Anyone else with you?” How the oarsmen had survived the slaughter she could not guess. But she was pleased. Wonderfully pleased.

  “No, Milady, afraid not.”

  “I think you’ll want to hear what happened below deck,” Eden said, his frown as heavy as ever.

  Danielle bid the oarsmen to sit with her, bracing herself for what was to come. The knights seated around the fire quickly made room to accommodate their lady’s request.

  “Not sure we got it straight, Milady, but we can tell ya’ what we saw,” Mr. Tally said, nodding a respectful thank you as he was handed a steaming mug of tea by Sir Jeffery.

  “It was Terry’s cousin, Milady. Mr Roy,” Tally began. “The fellow turned up at general muster claiming Terry was ill and he was here to take his place. The lad had done the job before so nothing was said by the quartermaster.”

  “Terry’s cousin?” Danielle said, “Have I met him?” If she had, she could not place a face to the name.

  “I doubt it, Milady. A sullen sort, kept to himself whenever he filled in for Terry on the bench.”

  “Please, go on.”

  “We think he put something in the barrels of water, Milady,” Mr Grizna said. “The lads were complaining about the taste whenever the cup was handed round, but we didn’t think about it until afterwards. You see when the Captain’s call to turn to starboard came down to us and we hear the trouble up on deck, Mr Roy suddenly drops his oar and jumps up on his seat shouting something in an odd language. He cops an ear full from the quartermaster, but he keeps at it all the while the fighting is going on above our heads. The quartermaster biffed him one, but he gets up and keeps going. A couple of the boys help Mr Sharpe hold him down and tie him, and then he starts laughing like a madman. A short while later the fighting stops above deck. Then we hear this horn sounding in the distance, and all chaos breaks loose. The lads on the starboard benches slumped over like drunks. It’s that that caused the grounding; the oars dug in and put us into the riverbank before anything could be done about it. Then after we find our feet again the lads on the starboard benches rose as one from the mess, took their cutlasses and began to hack into the rest of us like the possessed in fables of Larnius. It was some dark predict, Milady, for the boys that did this, their eyes were as black as night, faces twisted with an ungodly rage and none knew who they were and all. I am ashamed to say it but the rest of us ran, and even then more were falling under this devil’s spell. Only us two got onto the deck alive.”

  “You have nothing to be ashamed for. Now do you know what happened to this Mr Roy?” Danielle asked.

  It was Mr Tally who answered this time, “No, Milady, except to say he wasn’t among the dead. The captain had us look.”

  The task had clearly taken its toll on the two sailors and Danielle felt their pain. How many families this horror would affect in the coming days she hated to think.

  “Did he have a blue tattoo of a star on his left cheek?” she asked.

  Both men looked at each other and nodded. “Aye, Milady, brown hair to the shoulders, long face and stubble for a beard.”

  Danielle nodded. “I saw him.” He’d been among those that stormed her cabin, overpowered and hauled her out of the stern window to the dinghy waiting below. The others who’d entered her cabin she had also recognised. And the black eyes and animal rage, she had seen that first hand too. Everyone in company was looking at her. “One of James’ arrows killed Mr Roy,” she added.

  “Can’t say we’re sorry to hear it, Milady.”

  Danielle nodded again. She understood their bitterness. “Thank you, both, you have been most helpful. And I am sorry this happened.” As both men nodded their gratitude and left Danielle glanced at her brother. “Do we have the water from these barrels?”

  “All taken care of. If there’s a link I’m sure the palace alchemists will find it.”

  “Perhaps we should have taken a prisoner or two?” She was thinking of the Druids they had engaged on the riverbank and the opportunity they had lost to garner information. There was so much they didn’t know it scared her. Who were these people and where had they come from? And why were they willing to give their lives so cheaply? Furthermore, how could there possibly be so many of them, when until a few months ago, she and most everyone else had thought Druidism an extinct religion and more myth than truth?

  “Not sure there is much wisdom in that, Milady,” James said as Jeffery made way so he could sit down beside her. She hadn’t seen him approach and was more than a little annoyed to see he’d left the galley.

  “How could that not be wise? We know so little.”

  “I agree with James,” Eden said, “They wouldn’t have talked. We’ve all seen these types before. Their religious zeal is such they die happily for their cause. Not even a good torturer would get much out of them. In fact from Mr Tally and Mr Grizna’s account, I fear we would have put ourselves in even more danger if we had tried to take any of these men prisoners.”

  Danielle didn’t agree but she wasn’t going to argue.

  “Milord, if I might speak.” Everyone glanced at Jeffery. He looked more than a little troubled after hearing the oarsmen’s account. In fact all the knights did. Danielle couldn’t begrudge them that. She wasn’t exactly at ease herself. “How are we supposed to fight an enemy who can turn us against each other? We have to assume this was magic?”

  “I guess we’re about to find that out, gentlemen. The long boat is being readied as we speak,” Eden said,
directing the news to Danielle.

  I hope we’re about to find that out, Danielle thought bleakly. In truth she was not sure what to expect when they got to Ra’majum.

  “What of the camp? Is it secure?”

  Eden nodded. “Under my instruction, Captain Farus has sent a message back to Illandia. I expect vessels and men will be arriving in a few hours.”

  No sooner had he said this than a sailor approached across the camp at a half run. “The long boat is ready and waiting, Milord.”

  Danielle’s heart lurched into her throat as the men stood and gathered up their weapons. This is it.

  James and Eden were among those that stood, and that concerned her greatly. “May I speak to you two alone for a moment?”

  Eden ordered the men to the boat and raised his eyebrows at her.

  James didn’t look so accommodating, and why would he. They’d already argued about this as they changed into dry clothes in the royal cabin and as far as she was concerned he was not to come with them. Not about to continue the discussion with him she said to her brother, “James is wounded and should be aboard the ship, not going up river with me.”

  “I don’t command, him, Danielle, you know that.”

  “Oh, well thank you for your support.”

  Eden’s mouth quirked in a grin and he thumped James on his good shoulder before trudging off towards the riverbank. “Don’t be long,” he said over his shoulder.

  Danielle looked to James. She knew he was struggling with letting her go as much as she was struggling with what she might have to do once she got to Ra’majum. “This is hard enough without you making it harder.”

  James pulled his coat over his sling and looked off at the woods. “I promised to stay with you, and I intend to keep that promise whatever happens.”

  “You’ll be nothing more than a hindrance and you need to rest that arm,” Danielle said, careful to keep her voice low so the sailors and soldiers taking their breakfast nearby did not hear.”