"What happened to her?" Prince Antion asked.
"I don't know," answered Jared. "I think she fainted as the battle began. I don't know what to do for her. I would heal her, but I do not sense any ailment."
"Did you use the Talent on me today?" Prince Antion asked, his eyes focused on Jared's face.
"No," Jared shook his head. "Why would I draw from you with no reason to do so?"
"I was just wondering," Prince Antion shrugged as he lifted Winona and rose to his feet. "Help me get her on my horse. We need to leave this place quickly."
"What if she is seriously hurt?" frowned Jared. "We should not move her until we are sure."
"She will be fine," promised Prince Antion. "She needs to rest, but this is not the place to do it. I will ride double with her until she wakes up and can ride on her own."
Jared helped the prince get Winona situated and then ran down the hill to mount his own horse and took the reins of Winona's horse. Within minutes the group had reformed at the scene of the ambush. The dead Borundans were draped over their horses, and Prince Umal had roped all of the enemy horses in a line.
"What is wrong with Winona?" asked Monte.
"She fainted," answered Prince Antion. "What are we doing with the bodies of the Borundans?"
"I will take the bodies further to the east," the Odessian prince declared. "We might as well make the Borundan army go the full half-day's ride to find them."
Prince Antion nodded thoughtfully and turned to observe the ambush area for signs of the skirmish. There were pools of blood on the ground and tracks were everywhere. His brow creased heavily.
"I will take care of it," Talot volunteered. "When I get done the area will be covered with a fresh layer of snow with multiple tracks going through it. Unless they are looking closely, they will see nothing."
"You can't possibly eliminate it all," stated Sandar. "They will follow your tracks instead of Prince Umal's."
"No." Talot shook his head. "The Borundan patrol was in a hurry before they got to this point. Prince Umal will keep their herd riding swiftly. The Borundans should not examine any tracks closely as long as they can still see their own horses galloping eastward. Besides, I will also gallop eastward when I am done. I will meet up with Prince Umal before rejoining the group."
"That is the best plan we are likely to come up with on short notice," Prince Antion nodded with acceptance. "Where are we headed, Derri?"
"We will have to angle southeast," replied the Salacian prince. "There will be another patrol heading southeast from their new encampment, and any other path would see us discovered by them. If Umal and Talot head due south when they are done, they will come across our tracks."
"Let's move," ordered the Arin prince.
Prince Derri turned and started the group heading southeast. Everyone except Prince Umal and Talot followed in single file at a slow pace, leaving as little tracks as possible so that Talot's task did not become overwhelming. After they were a fair distance away from the site of the ambush, the Salacian prince picked up the pace to put some distance between them and their pursuers. A couple of hours into the trip, Winona suddenly woke up. She was disoriented at first but she soon realized that Prince Antion was holding her. She frantically tried to pry his hands away from her waist.
"Be still," Prince Antion said softly as he removed his arms from around Winona. "I was only holding you to keep you from falling. How are you feeling?"
"Drained," Winona answered coldly. "My head hurts and my stomach is cramped. Where is my horse?"
"Jared is bringing it up behind us," answered Prince Antion. "In a few moments I will call a halt and you can reclaim your mount, but I would like to know what happened first. Why did you faint?"
Winona looked as if she was contemplating jumping from the prince's horse, but she made no move to do so. Prince Antion sighed with frustration.
"You confuse me," he said softly. "I suspect that you used the Talent in some way to protect me this morning, but I do not understand how or why. Must you be so hostile towards me that you cannot explain it?"
"What makes you say such a thing?" Winona asked guardedly. "I have never claimed to know anything about the Talent."
"No you haven't," agreed the prince, "but I am sure that you are a wielder of the Talent. The way you scale sheer walls is only one reason for my suspicion."
"What are the others?" she asked.
"Orro demanded your participation in the sessions," answered the prince. "He had decided long ago that you would accompany us on this journey, and I often wondered why. As our journey will take us far from Harangar, it was not because of your scouting abilities in the mountains. Nor was it for your skills with weapons, although I am certainly glad to have them available. What did Orro order you to do?"
"Orro's communications with a person are private," retorted Winona. "If he wanted everyone to know what he was saying, he would not talk directly into your mind as he does. You have no right to ask about what he said to me."
"I do not wish to argue with you, Winona," sighed the prince, "but I have every right to ask. My life is given to the task of safeguarding Jared until he meets with his brother. I want to know about anything and everything that can affect that effort."
"Why did you stand in the middle of the trail today?" Winona asked. "Surely you must have known that you would die from such a foolish move? Did it not occur to you that Jared would have no chance of killing Zinan if you were dead? He needs the extra Talent that you carry within yourself."
"Jared will need an extra vessel of Talent to kill Zinan," agreed Prince Antion, "but that is not my concern. My concern is keeping him alive until he gets to the point of needing the Talent. If I had not acted quickly this morning, we would have all died. I did what I had to do to keep Jared alive."
"But you would have died," snapped Winona. "You just don't get it, do you? Your foolish actions could have doomed this entire mission to failure. Jared needs you to succeed."
"No, he doesn't," declared Prince Antion. "While I am filled with the Talent, and I am sure that its use is intended to aid Jared, my death will not result in failure. I truly believe that the Talent would manifest itself in the body of another. The Talent is using me as a vessel to aid Jared in his quest, but I am not the important one here. Jared is. The Talent could just as easily fill Prince Derri, or Monte should I die. Why it chose me as its host is beyond my reasoning, but I am not what is important to this mission. I will do whatever I must to keep Jared alive, including putting my own life at risk."
Winona's mouth opened to respond, but her voice was absent. Her eyes clouded over with confusion as she digested the prince's words. Prince Antion shook his head with his failure to get the woman to open up to him. He raised his hand and signaled for a halt. Almost immediately Prince Derri slowed the pace and halted the group. Winona immediately slid off the saddle and moved to her own horse. As soon as she was situated, the Salacian prince started the group moving again.
As the day wore on, the snow cover thinned and the forests of Hyrem sprouted in the distance. By the time the group reached the first trees of the forest, the sun was beginning to slide towards the western mountain peaks. The group stopped at the edge of the forest for a meal. Less than an hour later, Prince Umal and Talot arrived.
"I sent their horses north," announced the Odessian prince. "Talot and I found a frozen streambed and followed it south a ways. It is likely to delay the Borundans a few hours more."
"Excellent," grinned Prince Derri. "Take a short rest and then we will continue into the forest."
"I will rest when we camp for the night." Talot shook his head. "Our time is better spent in the forest than out here."
Prince Umal nodded in agreement, and Prince Derri gave the command to mount up. It grew dark quickly once they entered the forest, and Prince Derri called a halt within an hour.
"We can have a fire tonight," he announced, "but it will probably be the last one for a few nights. Once the Bor
undans get on our trail, we will have to maintain cold camps."
Monte immediately strode off in search of game while Talot got a fire going. Prince Umal and Sandar tended to the horses, and Winona helped Jared prepare a meal.
"What happened to you this morning?" Jared asked softly. "You had me worried."
"It was nothing," smiled Winona.
Jared did not believe her words, but he shrugged and returned to preparing the meal.
"Do you think that the Talent would inhabit another body if Prince Antion died?" Winona asked without preamble.
Jared frowned for a moment and then nodded. "I suppose it would," he answered, "but I would prefer not to dwell on such a thing. Prince Antion has become much like a brother to me. I would miss him much more than the Talent he carries within him."
"But you would fail with your mission without his Talent," Winona pointed out.
"I would," nodded Jared, "but my task is not one of my own choosing. I never asked to be allowed to save the world. I never requested the Talent that I have been given. I often wish that I did not have it. It saddens me to think that good people must die to allow me to do something that I have no true desire to do. It is easy to develop a hatred for the Talent and everything it has bestowed upon us. It is using all of us as if we were some small markers in a children's game. I wish it was the Talent that died, and not the people it affects."
"But the Talent can do so much good," protested Winona. "How can you say such a thing?"
"The evil it does far outweighs the good," replied Jared. "I know that wispers are taught that the Talent remains neutral and that the good equals the bad, but what is the measure used to determine that? Is the good about knowing the gender of your unborn child truly equal to the death of another person? Is healing a flesh wound really equal to the stealing of a man's identity? Good and evil are relative terms, and I do not think that most men would agree with what the Talent considers a true balance. I would be willing to give up the good Talent if the bad Talent would also perish."
"I don't know," Winona frowned with disagreement. "Orro would not still live without the Talent. That alone must outweigh a tremendous amount of evil."
"I respect Orro," Jared replied. "He has taught me a great deal over the last few months. He has shown me that I must perform the duty required of me, and he has filled me with the knowledge I need to complete my task. Still, the Talent murdered my mother and father. I would easily trade all of the knowledge given to me by Orro to have them still alive. That may make me appear selfish to you, but it only reinforces my statements about good and evil being relative."
"It does make you appear selfish," frowned Winona. "All of the people of Harangar are dependent upon Orro's wisdom and guidance. Are you so willing to destroy those people for your own needs?"
"My own needs?" balked Jared as he stopped preparing the meal and stared at the woman. "My mother was murdered on the day I was born. I have never seen her smiling face, not even in my dreams. My whole life has revolved around my father who spent my entire life running from the Borundans in an attempt to keep me alive. The Talent murdered him. And now I am expected to use the Talent to murder my only brother, a man who I have never met in my entire life. My whole family and bloodline will be destroyed by this Talent you praise so highly."
Winona's brow creased heavily as the normally timid Jared verbally lashed out.
"Look around you, Winona," Jared continued. "Three of the finest princes in the Land of the Nine Kingdoms will be dead before this is all over. Their nations will weep for generations at the loss of these fine men. Talot, Monte, and Sandar will also die. Their only crime is their devotion to the Arin prince who has dedicated his life to keeping me alive. Do not talk to me of the greatness of the Talent. If it were within my power, I would banish the Talent for all time. It is the one thing in this world that I could easily bring myself to destroy."
Jared's voice had risen sharply, and everyone stopped and turned to see what the problem was. Jared's face flushed a brilliant red, and he rose and stormed off into the woods. Winona glanced around at the inquiring stares and then made herself busy completing the meal. The group ate in silence with no one wanting to bring up the question of Jared's emotional outburst. After the meal was over, people wandered off to settle in for the night. Prince Antion sat near the fire and stripped off his furs. He had begun sewing the cut that he received in the morning's fight when Winona appeared and sat down next to him. The prince looked up momentarily and then returned to his chore.
"Everyone seems to think that my views are wrong," she said softly. "Perhaps it is time for me to be asking why I am along on this journey."
"That is a question that we all ask ourselves daily," Prince Antion smiled tautly. "Orro has a plan in place for you, or he would not have decreed our acceptance of you. I would have thought that he would have explained your purpose to you."
"He did," confessed Winona, "but I am thinking beyond the words of the ancient one. Why is Orro what he is? Why has the Talent allowed him to continue to be a force in the world after so many generations?"
"Those are daunting questions," the prince replied softly as he continued sewing. "There is so much that we do not understand about ourselves and the world we live in. Sometimes we just have to accept the fact that we will never have all of the answers."
"Yet you act so self-assured all of the time," Winona pointed out. "How do you know that you are doing the right thing?"
"There is no question in my mind about that," answered the Arin prince. "I have seen both brothers, both sides of the Talent. One is the perfect face of pureness and the other is the darkest evil that the world has seen in many generations. It is no task at all to choose which side I want to stand on."
"But why stand at all?" asked Winona. "You said that the Talent would inhabit another if you died. Would it not also do so if you refused to get involved? You could just walk away from all of this. You could return to Anatar and play a prince as you were born to do."
"Play a prince?" echoed Antion. "You have strange ideas of what royalty is supposed to do. My father brought me up as a servant, a servant of the people of Arin. I am well educated and well trained, but that was done to enable me to serve the people better. A good king is like a shepherd, and the people are his flock. As king, one must see to the cares of his people. He is responsible for more than just keeping the borders safe. He is duty bound to aid the poor, and heal the sick. He has to feed the hungry and stand up for the abused."
"That does not match the stories that I have heard about the kingdoms," frowned Winona. "I hear more about the splendor in which the kings indulge themselves at the expense of their subjects, but let us not get involved in a discussion about kingdoms. My point was, you could walk away from all of this. Why don't you?"
"I could not walk away," Prince Antion shook his head. "While the Talent might be willing to manifest itself within another host, I could not live with myself if I walked away from this challenge. Evil has thrown down the gauntlet and threatened to rule over all of the peoples of the Land of the Nine Kingdoms. If the Talent suddenly decided to depart from within me and inhabit someone else, I would still stand at Jared's side. I will not run from it. Whatever must be done, Jared and I will see it through to the end. We will vanquish the evil from our land."
"I think I am beginning to understand why the Talent chose to inhabit you," Winona smiled thinly. "Perhaps your optimistic courage is just what I needed to hear to sort out my own feelings."
"You are having misgivings?" asked Prince Antion.
"I did not choose to accompany you," Winona declared. "That decision was made for me by Orro. Jared's words earlier this evening caused me to question why Orro has the right to demand my life."
"He does not have the right," asserted Prince Antion. "Everyone here is involved because they chose to be. If your heart is not in this mission, I implore you to return home."
"Talot said those very words yesterday," Winona noted
. "I thought they were to be taken lightly, but I now believe that they were said in earnest."
"What did you do to me this morning?" the prince asked after a short lull in the conversation. "I know your fainting was caused by draining the Talent out of yourself. Orro taught me that much. I also felt the touch of the Talent upon my skin, and I asked Jared if he had done anything. He said he had not."
Winona had been looking into the prince's eyes. She lowered her gaze to the fire before answering.
"I can use the Talent," she admitted. "I have been sent along to protect Jared where your swords might fail. Orro feared that we might run into a situation where Zinan uses other wispers to halt your advance. I am to make sure that Jared is not harmed in such encounters. This morning I saw that you would be killed. Jared was not in danger, so I used the Talent to strengthen your skin. I hoped that it would be enough to allow you to survive. I believe that it did."
"It did indeed," smiled Prince Antion. "The blow might not have killed me directly, but the wound would have been very serious. I am indebted to you."
"You have incurred no debt," countered Winona. "I was merely performing as one of the group."
"You must have pressed close to your personal limit," frowned the Arin prince. "Orro taught me that one can burn the Talent right out of themselves if they are not careful. You could have done that to yourself."
"Orro taught me as well," replied Winona. "I stopped before the danger point."
"I wish he had taught you how to draw it out of me," stated Prince Antion. "You would have been able to protect me without endangering yourself."
"He did teach me," smiled Winona. "The last dozen times you felt the Talent being drawn out of your body during the sessions, it was me doing the drawing, not Orro. He was insistent that I become able to tap into your well, but he also warned me not to do so when we got close to Zinan. It takes time for the Talent to regenerate within you, as it does in any wielder of the Talent. If I were to draw too much out of you, you would become weak and disoriented as I did this morning."
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