For Whom the Bell Trolls: Hands of the Highmage, Book 1

by D. H. Aire

  Lawson frowned, “What aren’t you telling us?”

  “Please eat…” she said, but no food had been brought to the tables, only drink.

  Casber demanded, “Please, tell us… because I don’t understand,” he looked from Agwin, who was no longer smiling to Nessa, who closed her eyes as if expecting a blow.

  “Very well,” the Seeress said, “Highmage Alrex lies close to death. Your friend, Je’orj, twists fate and touches prophecies of many lands. You, young ladies, already know he and his companion, Casber’s uncle, are Lords of Catha by the Bond. What the trolls have not told you is that Lord Je’orj has descended from the very stars. He is a human mage, in truth. His fate is bound with each of ours. He is the hope of finally defeating the Demonlord and his minions, though, that hope seems dim even to my Sight.”

  “But this has nothing to do with me,” Casber protested.

  The Seeress lowered her head, “You were the first to meet him of all in the Crescent Lands… He saved your life.” The boy nodded. “You’ve offered him yours in return, have you not?”

  “What?”

  “He saved your life and you would save his, if you could.”

  “Well, of course, I would.”

  The unicorn looked away.

  “So, she has claimed you are her own. You are his Hand.”

  Shaking his head, “I don’t understand what that means.”

  ‘Please, do not do this,’ the unicorn begged.

  “With so many Hands in this very room?” the Seeress cried. The jewel about Casber’s throat suddenly blazed. “These girls would give up their childhoods for him and these Lords, who would defend him to their deaths. He will know pain beyond measure, this I see. He will bring terror at his whims. Even Agwin who swore she would love no one again, she feels the power of him in this room.”

  Nessa cried, “Stop!”

  “I am sorry, child. The boy shall never be yours, though you think you’ve given him your heart… as Lady Yel’ane has lost hers to Lord Lawson.”

  “Stop! He’s but a boy and Lawson…”

  “There is a truth you dare not voice, Lady Nessa. You must face it.”

  Shaking her head, Nessa turned and hid her face in Greth’s arms.

  “My Lady, please,” Greth pleaded.

  Truthsayer rose, keening, “Truth!”

  “Sire Ryff is no more. Thy House is Shattered. You have fled the horrors that the Lords would have demanded of you.”

  The girls cried out, rending their white gowns as Yel’ane trembled, tearing her own. Lawson pushed back the bench and took Yel’ane by the hand. “Girls, with me!”

  They sobbed as Jen’yan dropped to her knees and began pounding her fists on the floor. “No, Jen’yan!” Ani’ya cried. Lawson heaved Jen’yan up from the floor, hugged her as she hit him with her fists. “Papa! Papa!” she cried, piteously.

  “Come!” he demanded. The guards thrust open the doors, cringing back.

  The Seeress sat back. “Lord Casber, Hand of Je’orj, Human Mage, and hope of the world. You carry his sigil upon you. I pronounce you human mage and the very world may curse you as a blessing.”

  Casber shook his head, “Nessa.”

  She rent her robe, turned to stare at Agwin. “You will provide him a bodyguard.”

  “Yes, Milady.”

  “That is all you share ever provide him –– for he is now a lord of Catha in my eyes,” Nessa vowed.

  “Truth,” the man said, gaze bleak.

  “Truth,” the Seeress said. “He shall never be more, Agwin. Gwilliam will see to his training. The Lady Nessa needs none, though, Lady Yel’ane Goblinslayer, will desire time with the targets for her and the girls.”

  “As my Lady wills,” Agwin replied, frowning.

  Casber rose, “I, uh, don’t feel… hungry. If you’ll excuse me…”

  “Us,” Greth said, rising and then lifting the sobbing Nessa in his arms.

  The unicorn moved before the table, looked back at the doors, then her eyes, glared red, her horn glowing brighter and brighter in anger.

  The Seeress hastily rose, “Excuse me, Great One. I no longer feel like eating, either.” She glanced back at the still seated Gwilliam as her acolytes moved to follow her. “You have still much to prepare for.”

  “Women and their bloody secrets!”

  She hurried to the door, not daring to look back at the furious unicorn. Once the door closed behind her, she staggered. Her acolytes steadied her, “Was that vision or real?”

  “Real, Mistress,” her apprentice replied.

  “Then it’s changed?” she muttered.

  “Milady, are you all right?” Kusins asked in concern.

  “Hopefully, she’ll understand,” the Seeress said.

  “She who, Mistress?”

  Rain started pelting the roof and the front door opened as people hurried inside surprised that the weather had turned so suddenly.

  “The one who doesn’t understand yet, of course,” the Seeress replied, glancing up. She’s crying even now, you know…”

  Interlude

  She sobbed, “How could you do that to them?”

  The page before her went blank, but not before a pair of imploring eyes looked up out of the page at her, then faded as her tears dropped on the paper.

  She bolted to her feet.

  “That was unconscionable! How could you!”

  Their Papa…

  “You stole their hope!” she shouted down at the open book, its next page threatening to turn.

  “Oh, don’t you dare!” she dropped to her knees and pressed it back down. “You think I’ll read another word of this?”

  A man’s face appeared on the page and her eyes widened.

  Your father lives, appeared beneath.

  “You lie!”

  It is true and will be again!

  “How?” she demanded.

  The page remained blank.

  “Ohhh!” she cried and turned the page.

  Chapter 29 – Practice Field

  Entering their room he saw several mattresses had been laid beside his. Yel’ane pulled back the blankets and Lawson knelt down on the mattresses and set Jen’yan gently down. “Papa, oh, Papa.”

  Ani’ya threw off her slippers and crawled over Jen’yan, “Lawson’s our Papa in truth now.”

  “But Papa.”

  “How?” Vi’ya wept. “How? He was fine before we left?”

  Yel’ane shook her head, “Anything could have happened.”

  Ani’ya looked up at her, her finger signed, They sent us away for good reason.

  Yel’ane gave her the slightest nod, and began tucking the girls in for bed.

  “You’re our Papa now,” En’sta said to Lawson, wiping at her tears. “Oh, we’ve gotten you all wet.”

  “Seems to be a family tradition,” he said, sadly.

  “You are our Papa now,” Thri’la said, almost begging.

  “I ––” he hesitated, “yes, and a proud one. You are all amazing daughters. You ride hounds out of legend and look at an… ugly fellow like me with love. Who could ask for more?”

  Ani’ya swallowed, wiping her tears, “Well…”

  Yel’ane glared back, then shook her head, “Ani’ya, you are going to be a trying child, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, Mother,” she replied ever so softly. “I’m sorry.”

  Jen’yan hastily climbed back out from beneath the blankets and threw herself into Lawson’s arms, “Papa.”

  “I’m here.”

  The girls were suddenly all over him and he fell back as they cried and cried. Yel’ane wiped at her tears, she had the gir… her daughters to think of… and her House. She blinked back the tears as the girls slowly cried themselves to sleep, entangled with Lawson, who looked up at her, hopelessly.

  She knelt and carefully kissed each of the girls goodnight, whispering, “You have a Papa, a strong Papa, who will let nothing happen to you.”

  Jen’yan whimpered, tucked clos
e beneath his right arm, En’sta on his left.

  Ani’ya’s head lay upon his thigh. She glanced up at Yel’ane and whispered, “Thank you, Mother.”

  Yel’ane drew the shutters closed as it poured down rain outside. She blew out the lantern, the crawled in the dark until she felt the top of Lawson’s head. She shifted positioned herself carefully, turned his head and kissed him.

  He craned his neck, “Yel’ane?”

  “Yes?”

  “Um. I thought you might be…”

  “Ani’ya!” she rasped.

  “I’m not doing anything!”

  There were giggles amid the sobs.

  “Uh, that’s better. I wouldn’t want to… hurt anyone.”

  “I’ll hurt her first,” Yel’ane muttered, then moved. He shifted his head.

  “How do you like your pillow?”

  “Um, just fine… Mother.”

  She wiped her tears and sought to lay her hand on his chest and frowned. “Girls, what are you doing? Whose hands are under his robe… and why haven’t you complained?”

  “Uh, troll like… well, we call it, being petted.”

  “They do?” someone said.

  “Well, whoever is doing it, stop.”

  “How did you know?” Vi’ya asked, giggling.

  “Jen’yan is that you playing with the hair on his chest?”

  “Me? No, but it’s rather soft, isn’t it?”

  “No fair! That tickles,” Lawson rasped, “don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

  “Uh, Lawson,” Yel’ane said, “I don’t think…”

  The girls squealed in the dark, giggling. “How did you do that?” Jen’yan chortled.

  “Trolls can see in the dark, silly.”

  “No fair!”

  #

  Nessa hit the ground hard, pinned. “Well, you certainly know the essential moves.”

  “Just didn’t see that coming,” she rasped.

  “You’re distracted. You can’t let anything get to you,” Gwilliam said as Casber stood watching. “Your turn, boy.”

  “Uh, really, I don’t really need to know this.”

  “You need to know self-defense, lad. There are those you will want you dead. After all you’re the Hand of the Human Mage.”

  “I’ve got the unicorn.”

  “And if you don’t.”

  “I’ll hold them off with my dagger.”

  “Against goblins?” Greth asked, watching with the unicorn from behind the wooden fence that hemmed in the training grounds.

  “Then Nessa or Yel’ane Goblinslayer will cast one of their arrows.”

  “You’re as bad as… never mind, that boy at least was willing to learn.”

  “You’ve expertise training boys?” Nessa asked.

  Gwilliam glanced at her, “One boy in particular, destined to be King actually, if Fenn doesn’t steal his Northland’s throne.”

  Casber asked, “Who’s this Fenn you keep talking about?”

  “You think you can keep dancing away without me grabbing you?”

  Casber shrugged, “Working so far?”

  Gwilliam charged him and feinted to the left as Casber tried to duck. Gwilliam’s hands closed on empty air. “Now, where did you learn that, lad?”

  “I’ve a brother and cousins who apparently thought I needed more training than my father had time for,” he replied with a smile. “So, who is this, Fenn?”

  “My cousin.”

  Truthsayer was crossing the training ground, the great wall along the ridgeline, behind him. “Truth,” the man muttered before climbing the up to a perch on the fence.

  “Just your cousin?” Casber asked, glancing back and seeing those assigned him as bodyguard frowned. Agwin giving him a warning look.

  Gwilliam charged, halted and swung out with his leg. Casber leaped over it and Gwilliam’s fist slammed toward him.

  There was a flash of light.

  Blinking hard, everyone was soon staring. Gwilliam was down on the ground, Casber standing clear, arms crossed, “Told you I don’t need to learn this kind of wrestling.”

  “Truth.”

  Shaking his head, he glanced at the just as surprised Truthsayer. “You couldn’t have been here a minute sooner.”

  “Um, sorry,” he replied, turning to stare at the boy, who was being stared at by not just Agwin, but Nessa, and Greth.

  Gwilliam rose, looking about for the unicorn, who had promised to stay away and not interfere. “She’s kept her word,” the boy said.

  Greth chuckled, “Human mage, indeed.”

  “Truth.”

  “Hmm, apparently,” Gwilliam sighed, “let’s find the boy a practice sword of suitable weight. You’ve not had training in that, have you, up in your mountains?”

  He frowned, “Only the little, Uncle Balfour taught me.”

  “The healer?”

  “Uh huh.”

  Gwilliam tried him against Agwin, who hated sword work but was quite proficient. Casber disarmed her not once, but three times. She stalked off and Nessa grinned, “Excellent, Lord Casber.”

  “Don’t call me that!” the boy protested.

  “You’re uncle taught you that last trick?”

  “Uh, no, my grandfather did; claimed Uncle Bal would never have the knack for it, elfblood reflexes don’t always work the same.”

  “You’re grandfather learned that, how?”

  “Um, he lived in the Empire when Uncle Bal was a child, left for the mountain and married my grandmother then.”

  “Founded your clan?”

  “Winome, yes.”

  Truthsayer’s eyes went wide, “Half-truth!”

  Casber frowned as Gwilliam blinked, “Win du Ome? Win du Ome is your grandsire?

  “Why are you saying his name like that?” the boy asked.

  Truthsayer laughed, “Because lad, Win du Ome was the Highmage Alrex’s Hand, the last rider of that unicorn of yours.”

  “Huh?”

  “Truthsayer, bring the boy that elvin-wrought short sword we found in the chest in the manse’s cellar. He’ll train with that… and don’t you cut your fingers with it, boy.”

  #

  The unicorn walked the courtyard unmolested. She was stared at from time to time. When Yel’ane went to archery practice with the girls following like ducklings in her and Greth’s wake, she felt the draw of fate and followed after.

  Agwin was loosing arrow after arrow at first one target then another, leaving bulls-eye after bulls-eye, drawing a crowd. When she had exhausted her quiver, she turned to Yel’ane, “Well, Goblinslayer, let’s see how you do.”

  Yel’ane looked down at the bow in her hand and Ani’ya brought her a fresh quiver. “Milady,” she said.

  “Clear!” was yelled from down range.

  “I haven’t been much good from the ground,” Yel’ane admitted.

  “You want to shoot from atop his shoulders?” Agwin laughed.

  “Uh, Lawson, would you mind?”

  He blinked, grinned, “Yel’ane, I really think you’ll be fine standing on your own two feet.”

  “Please, Lawson,” she half-whispered, self-consciously glancing over her shoulder, fearing shooting wild.

  He knelt before her; she set the quiver against her back. Straddling his neck, she struggled for balance while holding the bow as he rose. There was laughter. “Somehow, Yel’ane, I really wish you’d use the straps.”

  “I’m fine,” she grinned, drawing an arrow from the quiver. Setting it to the bow, she felt… safe and secure. She drew back and sighted on the target. Let fly. There were gasps.

  “Bulls-eye,” Ani’ya said, clapping her hands as the girls cheered.

  “Lawson, would you mind?”

  He looked up at her, “You’re not in harness.”

  “Run parallel and stop and turn when I say and I should be all right.”

  He chuckled, “You’re rather confident.”

  “I’m with you,” she replied.

  Agwin frowned,
“What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Clear!” someone shouted.

  Vi’ya and En’sta cried, “Clear the line to the ends!”

  “Let me know when you’re ready,” Lawson said, glancing up, hoping she would not get hurt doing this fool stunt.

  “Well, Agwin, once is luck, right?” Yel’ane said to Agwin as everyone watched. She drew her next arrow. “Charge, Lawson!”

  He ran down the line. She loosed, arrow after arrow. Yel’ane cried as she loosed at the last target on the line, “Slow and turn back!”

  Lawson did, holding tight to her legs.

  “Run back to our start!”

  He ran. She drew and loosed until the quiver was empty and they reached her original target. There was silence.

  Agwin threw down her bow and stalked off.

  Yel’ane stared, blinked as Lawson laughed and the girls jumped up and down. “You don’t need maged arrows!” Ani’ya chortled.

  “Not when you can shoot like that,” Gwilliam said, having hurried to see what all the shouting had been but minutes before. “I’ve never seen anyone put shafts through their bulls-eyes!”

  “Nor mounted on a troll, I dare say!” Jen’yan cried, wiping her tear.

  The girls all stared at the normally so quiet girl.

  “Well, have you? Any of you?”

  There was laughter and a chorus of “no’s.”

  “Ready for me to set you down, Yel’ane?” Lawson asked.

  “Um, no, I like the vantage.”

  The girls surrounded Lawson and jumped up and down, cheering. Sir Gwilliam’s Army of Thorns seemed to all be staring in her directions as word went out that the Goblinslayer was the likely the best shot in Crescent Lands.

  Nessa and Casber were running toward her, grinning and shouting her name.

  “You all right up there?”

  “This what it’s like not to be screw-up?”

  He looked up at her, “You’d have to ask Greth.”

  She glanced down, tapped him on the head, “You’ve got me, haven’t you… and them?”

  His eyes misted as he looked down.

  “Hmm.”

  “Well, my trusty mount, it’s time we see to the girls living up to my expectations.”

  Ani’ya heard that, “You want us to train with the bow?”

  “You don’t want to?”