Lioness of Kell

by Paul E. Horsman

‘Even if I ordered you to kill her?’ Maud pressed on relentlessly.

  The boy nodded. ‘If she were a traitoress, yes, ma’am. If she works against Kell, yes. Just to satisfy a whim, no.’

  ‘Good answer,’ Maud said, satisfied. ‘If ever I would kill anyone for a whim, I should be kicked out of the army. Oh, and stop calling me ma’am, dammit.’ She sat back. ‘Relax and be merry, mate, for tomorrow your training will start. Archery with the Leopardess Dalja, sword fighting with me, fitness ... Yarwan, could you spare an hour a day? Run him up and down the main mast, around the ship, have him rowing the jolly boat, whatever you can whip up that’ll build muscle fast.’ She pointed at Jurgis. ‘Him, too. The continent won’t be a breeze. It’ll mean walking, climbing, fighting, running; the works.’

  Jurgis’ face fell. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I can’t do all that,’ Basil said. ‘Still, I must go with you. So, how?’

  ‘Fly a broom?’ Jurgis chuckled at his joke, but Basil sprang up. ‘A broom! Of course; give me one, I want to try it.’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Maud said. ‘You’ll not risk your neck in the dark. The sportsfield behind the barracks should be wide enough. You can try it in the morning, and we’ll sail at noon. Also, you should think of wearing something else for flying.’

  Basil looked at his long robe. ‘It’s to hide my special boot,’ he said. ‘On the continent that doesn’t matter; I don’t expect to meet any of the Council there.’ He brightened. ‘I’d love to wear something easy, like you. I’m so fed up with all that cloth swirling around me.’

  Yarwan smiled. ‘I’d rather see your legs, too. We’ve chests full of clothing from the former crew. Choose what fits you, love; they don’t want it back.’

  The next morning, they all gathered at the sportsfield, a large sandy place out of sight of the town. There was a squad of tigresses engaged in a ballgame, but that left room enough for them.

  ‘Rough sport,’ Jurgis said, as he looked at the boisterous women.

  ‘It’s a girls’ game,’ Wargall said.

  ‘Don’t be daft.’ Jurgis stared at the action. ‘That sack should go into the circle?’

  ‘Yes. And the big girl in the center must prevent it.’ Wargall shrugged. ‘She’d throw you to the north pole.’

  Maud had seen the look in Jurgis’ eye. ‘Don’t!’ she said sharply, but Jurgis didn’t hear her.

  At that moment, the leather sack landed close by and on impulse, Jurgis picked it up. Screaming curses, he spurted toward the circle, zigzagging around the tigresses. Close by the circle, he somersaulted, pressed the sack down and was out of the circle before the giant one could react. He ran back around the playing field, while the tigresses all stared after him. ‘Remember, girls,’ he said. ‘Not every enemy is like you. Some have other techniques. Be alert to them.’

  ‘Dammit, it’s just a game!’ one of the tigresses sputtered.

  Maud’s eyes turned steely. ‘Nothing a warrioress does is just a game. You should have intercepted him and kicked the stuffing out of him for interrupting your exercise. Like he said, be alert.’

  Jurgis’ face fell, while the tigresses burst out laughing.

  ‘Point taken, Lioness,’ the leader said. ‘Care to try it again, friend?’

  ‘Ah, no thanks,’ Jurgis said, red-faced.

  ‘I told you it was a girls’ game,’ Wargall whispered. ‘They play rough.’

  Jurgis grumbled something inaudible.

  ‘You and your antics! One of these days you’ll get seriously hurt,’ Maud said. ‘You forget these girls are at least twice as strong as you. Don’t think you can play that game with them—you can’t. You’ll end up very dead.’

  Jurgis sniffed, but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut.

  Maud had to grin at his face, and tenderly she ran her hand through his hair. ‘I know you want to prove yourself, but don’t do it this way.’

  ‘Are you all finished?’ Basil said, not hiding his irritation. ‘I’d like to begin.’ He stood with the broom in his hand, like a ship’s boy about to clean the deck. His mismatched outfit of green, close-knit trousers and a slightly too large purple shirt didn’t add to the majesty of his person either.

  When he had everyone’s attention, he lifted the broom. ‘I prepared it already, it only needs the commands.’

  ‘Does that mean everyone can fly this broom?’ Jurgis said.

  His brother frowned. ‘That’s how the spell was written. You can equip an army with flying brooms. I have checked the calculations, and lo! It doesn’t use the caster’s energy at all. Broom spells take their energy directly from the world.’

  ‘Does that mean you can fly one forever?’ Jurgis said. ‘If it doesn’t tire you ...’

  ‘It doesn’t work like that. The few spells that operate independent of the caster are all limited in duration. Flying spells deteriorate, and when they’re gone, the spell needs time to recharge before it can be cast again. The gods don’t want us to become as they, so all magic has its restrictions. Well, here goes.’ He stood straddled over the broom handle, and the others saw his lips move. Then the broom kicked him from behind and Basil tumbled into the grass.

  ‘It’s more powerful than I thought,’ he said, picking himself up. ‘Again.’ This time, the broom pointed upward, carrying Basil with it. The Spellwarden let go of the handle and dropped to the ground, while the broom made off without him. Basil shouted something and the broom obediently turned to land at his feet.

  By now the tigresses had left their game and stood watching his antics.

  Basil gripped the broom handle. ‘Lift - softly.’ The twiggy end of the broom hit his buttocks again, but then it lifted him off the ground. ‘Forward - slowly.’ The broom moved forward at a walking pace. ‘Follow me,’ Basil said over his shoulder, and the others walked with him around the field. The tigresses stared open-mouthed.

  ‘Hm,’ Basil said as they arrived back at the starting point. ‘It’s quite comfortable. The spell creates an invisible seat for you. It’s not painful at all. I wonder how fast it can go.’

  Immediately, Basil shot over the field like a thrown spear.

  Jurgis saw his brother’s mouth move, his words blown away by the wind. But it seemed to work, for the broom obediently began a large circle.

  Basil lifted his hand, and the broom rose up, higher and higher, till he disappeared in the dark recesses of the cave’s roof.

  ‘Damn, what is he doing?’ Maud said, searching the sky with her eyes.

  ‘Look!’ Wargall pointed behind them, and there was Basil, diving down like an attacking wyrm.

  With a ‘Whoop!’ the Spellwarden landed beside them. The tigresses applauded, while Maud embraced him.

  ‘You’re all clammy,’ she said.

  ‘Sweat. It’s rather ... exciting, flying that high. Did you know there are the creepiest bats under the cave’s roof?’ Basil shivered. ‘I woke them up, I think. But flying is grand. I must experiment.’

  ‘Not now,’ Maud said. ‘We haven’t got the time. Will this work on the continent?’

  ‘I think so; it seems easy enough. You must use the correct orders and keep calm. It’s clear they designed the spell to keep you safe; I don’t think you can fall off without conscious effort. It’s a layman’s spell all the way.’

  ‘I want to try it,’ Jurgis said. ‘Shove over, brother.’

  Reluctantly, Basil stepped aside.

  ‘Up!’ Jurgis said, and the broom rose in the air quickly. ‘Not so fast!’ The broom reacted to the command “fast” and shot away like an arrow.

  With her heart thudding in her throat, Maud watched him disappear. Damn him, why does he always want to show off? The minutes went past and still he wasn’t back. Finally she saw him come back, looking both angry and scared. He landed right in front of her and cursed.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Maud plucked an arrow out of the twigs. ‘Annoying someone again?’

  ‘No!’ Jurgis said, seething. ‘I was at the palace square,
looking at the watch changing, when they shot at me’

  ‘Oho,’ Maud said, and laughed. ‘Then the queen was there. She often oversees the ceremony. After yesterday’s happenings they’re a bit nervous, I guess. Luckily you’re but a small target, or they would’ve hung you as a trophy in the Archery Hall.’

  Jurgis snorted. ‘They’ll have to start training then. Had I wanted to assassinate the queen, she would’ve been dead by now.’

  ‘Be sure they will,’ Maud said. ‘Next time you’ll not be so lucky. I can hear that old tigress blazing; the queen’s safety is her responsibility.’ She looked around. ‘Are we done here?’

  Wargall looked with longing at the broom but he didn’t dare to ask.

  ‘You wanna try it, too?’ Jurgis said.

  The boy gave a quick nod.

  ‘Take my place, then. Remember: up, down, left, right, forward, backward. Slow and fast. And keep away from the palace!’

  Wargall’s face was taut as he leaned back into the invisible chair. ‘Slow forward,’ he whispered, and the broom flew sedately over the grass. The tigresses pointed and cried out as they saw him, their faces shocked. Wargall must’ve noticed their expressions, for the broom rose and gathered speed. Now he spiraled up to the roof, circled once and dove down. The tigresses scattered. Screaming a Kell battle cry, he passed over their heads, to land at Maud’s feet. With another cry, he jumped up, arms in the sky, and hopped over the field. ‘I did it! I did it!’ Then he ran over to Jurgis and burst into tears.

  ‘Why do you cry?’ the young thief said surprised. ‘You did great.’

  ‘I’m so happy,’ Wargall said through his tears. ‘I’m all full up with happiness.’ Then he stiffened. His face became expressionless as he marched over to the tigresses. He saluted, fist to the shoulder. ‘My pardon for acting aggressively, leading tigress. It was just an exercise.’

  The tigress looked helplessly at him and at Maud. Then she answered his salute. ‘Accepted, Warrior,’ she said. She relaxed, and smiled broadly. ‘It was a fabulous sight, my brother. You’re quite a male, you know. You don’t happen to be free, do you?’

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ the boy said solemnly. ‘We’ll be leaving today.’

  ‘A pity. I won’t keep you, then.’ Again, she saluted and turned to her companions. ‘Back to barracks, girls; we’ve been gaping long enough. Let’s run.’

  Wargall went back and picked up the broom. ‘Thank you,’ he said to Maud, and to Basil as he handed the broom back.

  Maud fixed him with her stare. ‘We’re going into territory no Kell or Vanhaari has been to in a long time and only the gods know what dangers await us. You’re on active duty now, Warrior. When we’re back on board, I’ll dye your hair red.’

  Wargall sighed and clenched his fists. ‘My heart will burst.’

  MAP OF VANHAAR

  LIONESS OF KELL

  PART 2

  VANHAAR

  CHAPTER 24 - TRAPPED

  ‘Got you!’ Wargall said through clenched teeth as he pinned Jurgis’ arms to the deck.

  ‘Six wins out of ten.’ The young thief relaxed. ‘You’re getting stronger by the day, mate.’

  The Kell boy beamed as he helped Jurgis get up. ‘Come on, it’s time for our cannon ball run.’

  Jurgis groaned over his new friend’s boundless enthusiasm. A cannon ball run meant moving 32-pounder cannon balls from the first gun starboard to the last gun larboard. Even with the deck cleared of all sailors, it was more of an obstacle race than a clean run. The last two times, Wargall beat him by a ball. Jurgis watched the boy putting the shot in a prepared bag; the First Officer wouldn’t like a loose cannon ball running around her deck, should one of them stumble. Jurgis grinned. After five days, the difference in the boy was already noticeable. Wargall had grown more confident, even toward Dalja’s leopardesses. The girls still eyed him with shameless hunger, but he no longer shrunk from their ogling. Sometimes he even preened a little, flexing his muscles in their proximity. Jurgis had to laugh at the sight and he wished him luck in his newfound manliness. Wargall’s swift growth gave hope for all those will-less Kell males.

  It didn’t take Wargall long. He won by two balls, this run, and his victory made him so radiantly proud, that one of the archeresses, halfway between joking and coyness, asked if he thought himself powerful enough to arm-wrestle her.

  ‘I’m a Kell,’ the boy said. ‘I will prove my strength, sister.’

  The other girls, none of them much older than Wargall, gathered around, laughing and giggling. The young archeress, confident of a quick win, locked hands with him and pushed. Wargall pressed his elbow against the brass top of the capstan and resisted. The girl hissed in surprise and the others fell silent. Now the girl brought the full strength of her arm to bear and Wargall began to sweat. One, two, three heartbeats, a fourth, and then his hand touched the metal.

  ‘Ohé,’ Dalja said with approval. ‘Well done! You are strong, brother.’

  ‘You surprise me,’ the young leopardess said. ‘I had to use far more power than I expected. You’re a mighty male.’ She smiled at Wargall, caressing him with her eyes.

  Soon after, Jurgis saw the two of them slip down the hold ladder to Wargall’s cubicle.

  ‘He’s done it,’ he told Maud later. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he was as strong as some of those girls, one of these days.’

  Maud considered this. ‘That would be a good sign. If he can do it, perhaps other boys can, too. That will please the queen.’

  Two days later, the Magonaut sighted land.

  Yarwan, with a nice sense of occasion, called Maud, Wargall and Dalja’s girls. ‘There it is,’ he said, pointing toward the horizon. ‘That haze in the distance is the coast of Old Kell. Yann Talimarch, to be precise.’

  ‘Talimarch.’ Maud unexpectedly had to swallow. ‘Cape Return. Dammit, I’d never expected to see what had meant homecoming for so many Kell mariners.’

  Wargall looked at her. ‘Kell mariners? Who were they?’

  ‘Our forefathers,’ Dalja said, including her girls. ‘We M’Dvarghs were a seagoing tribe. We lived on our ships; trading, fishing, and sometimes doing less legal things. Our vessels brought the surviving Kells to Malgarth. Then we had to scuttle them. All of them, on the high king’s command. He didn’t want us to compete with the Chorwaynie and the Tradeports.’ Her tone was calm, but her eyes said otherwise.

  ‘My opinion of these high kings is gettin’ less ’n less,’ Jurgis said savagely.

  In silence they watched the land getting closer. The coast was a jumble of broken stones, against which the surf broke into white foam. Behind it, the Plains of Kell sloped toward the horizon. A wild land, dotted with purple and orange shrubbery.

  ‘Look!’ Wargall exclaimed, and he pointed at a mass of birds, filling the rocky beach and sailing through the surf like miniature boats. ‘They’re all blue!’

  ‘Wildwings,’ Maud said, smiling at his eagerness. ‘I’ve heard of them.’

  After a while, Wargall and the leopardesses returned to their exercising, but Maud remained, leaning on the railing and gazing at her ancestral lands. Once, she thought to see a pride of lions, black shapes between the purple, and she sighed.

  ‘Homesick?’ Jurgis stood at her side, watching her as much as the strange coast.

  Maud mulled over the question. Homesick? It was an alien land to her; hot and strange. ‘No,’ she said, unsure how she felt. ‘I want to visit it. See the land, the animals; the way my people lived. But home is Brannoe, stuffy as it may be.’

  The Magonaut sailed past the strange coast under topsails, and it took till noon the next day before the purplish plains ended against the sheer walls of a mountain ridge.

  These formed the border with Vanhaar, and it was Jurgis and Basil’s turn to stare. In silence they watched the snow-topped peaks glide by, impassable for all but the canniest broom riders.

  ‘There, a tower.’ Basil’s face fell. ‘It’s ruined.’

  ‘Liv
ing there would’ve asked for strong nerves.’ Jurgis’ hands gripped the railing as he leaned forward. ‘It looks like it’s stuck onto that horribly vertical mountainside.’

  Basil shrugged. ‘Spell-protected. A warlock tower isn’t hampered by the same rules as ordinary buildings.’ He stared for a moment, drinking in the sight of the ruin, hanging above the abyss like a provocation. ‘It must be a strong spell,’ he muttered. ‘It’s still there, even after a century of neglect.’ He grimaced. ‘Such a tower is a better proof of competence than being the beautifullest.’

  His brother grinned. ‘True. Besides being proof of an immense arrogance.’

  ‘I want a nice, quiet tower like it,’ Basil said. ‘Without adventures. There are plenty of challenges in my spellbooks.’

  Jurgis glanced at him. ‘But think of all those ruins; the land must be full of them. How many secrets lie hidden between their broken walls?’

  ‘There is that.’ Basil’s face turned pensive. ‘So many secrets waiting to be recovered. A staggering thought.’

  Beside him, Jurgis stiffened. ‘Over there,’ he whispered. ‘Is that a cave?’

  Basil peered at the rocky outcrop running into the sea. ‘Looks like it. Why?’

  ‘I feel magic. I don’t know what it is, yet it calls out to me in a faint voice.’ He turned around. ‘Yarwan?’

  The captain was talking with Jorlok, his second mate, but he looked up. ‘Seen anything?’

  ‘Felt, rather,’ Jurgis said. ‘I want to take a look inside that cave over there. Any way for you to get closer?’

  ‘Get a leadsman in the bow,’ Yarwan said, and Jorlok shouted an order. Sailors ran up the masts and the ship turned around.

  The cave mouth gaped at them; an algae-stained hole, made by millennia of waves pounding the walls of the plateau.

  ‘This is close enough,’ Yarwan said after a while. ‘Any further and I’ll be kissing the sea’s bottom. Not my preference, love.’ He smiled. ‘Do you want the jolly boat?’

  Basil nodded. ‘If there’s something magical inside that cave, I want to know what it is.’