Thawed Fortunes (The Guadel Chronicles Book 2)

by Murray, Dean

  The black-clad swordsman pulled back the hood on his cloak, and Va'del felt his heart sink as he took in the too-bright eyes and the gaunt features from which fanaticism seemed to have burned away all excess. Be'ter laughed mockingly as he paced back and forth. "Oh, Va'del. The People's next great hope, the child whose potential that witch On'li went on and on about. All that promise and you were brought to bay by a couple of hounds as you predictably tried to play the hero once again."

  Footsteps approached from the direction of the castle, but Va'del ignored them. It wouldn't be anyone coming to help, and the men arrayed against him already represented overwhelming odds.

  "Did you really think we didn't know you were out here somewhere? We did a very careful count while you were all still at the village. When we came up a couple short after our little ambush at the canyon, Vladir sent a squad of horsemen to the village with instructions to then come back this way. They didn't even have to look for you. The first group of peasants they ran into couldn't stop talking about the strangely-dressed man and woman they'd just run into. Really, I'm just surprised it's taken you so long to get here, we've all been waiting for cycles."

  Be'ter chuckled again, and the sound sent chills running down Va'del's back as he realized that Be'ter wasn't entirely sane.

  Still moving with the eerie fluidity of someone linked and augmented, Be'ter moved around the inside of the ring of horsemen until he was close enough to whisper. "The Baron, of course, wants all of your party alive to increase the size of his ransom, but I think a small exception can be made for you."

  Va'del briefly considered trying to kill Be'ter, but it felt like it would be a futile gesture. Be'ter was just too fast. He'd easily dodge whatever attack Va'del could launch and then just slap Va'del down like a petulant child.

  "Go ahead, attack me. I'd like nothing more than to report that you'd been killed resisting capture."

  The footsteps had arrived, and now one of the horsemen brought his mount forward. "Be'ter, please step away from him."

  Be'ter looked up at the man with hatred in his eyes, and for a second Va'del thought the renegade would attack the apparent leader of the rest of the men, but his eyes then flickered over to where two dozen archers had assembled. It was a wise decision. Not even Be'ter would be crazy enough to think he could kill that many archers before they could bring him down.

  Be'ter nodded savagely, and then stalked away as the horsemen commanded Va'del to lay down his weapons.

  Va'del looked at the forces arrayed against him one last time, desperately fighting the desire to attack them and die rather than be captured. In the end all he could do was follow their commands and allow himself to be tied up.

  Chapter 20

  Va'del hadn't planned on struggling, especially not after he was bound and completely helpless, but that very helplessness had hammered away at the knowledge that resistance was useless until it finally destroyed his self-control.

  The guardsmen had apparently been waiting for him to do something. The closest had deftly avoided his kick, and then the one on the left shrugged and hit him over the head with some kind of weighted club.

  When Va'del opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the metal bars of a jail cell. Memories of being jailed, cold and hungry fought their way to the front of his mind, but the panic started to subside once he realized he wasn't alone this time.

  Javin looked over, and seeing he was awake, tapped Si'mon on the shoulder, and then walked over to Va'del's improvised bed.

  Si'mon handed Va'del a dented tin cup full of water. "How do you feel, lad?"

  "About like someone hit me over the head before throwing me in a cell."

  Both of the other men smiled, but the attempt at humor didn't achieve anything more, and Si'mon continued as Va'del handed back the cup.

  "Once they see you're awake they'll take you to see their mage. He can touch the power like the healers or the female Guadel, and he seems to be incredibly strong, but he doesn't know some of the things they do. He'll ask about the worked stones. There'll probably be a fair amount of other questions, but that's what he is most curious about. Nobody has broken yet, lad, don't be the first."

  Va'del had just enough time to nod, and then a trio of burly guardsmen in blood-red cloaks were at the door to the cell.

  "You there, the new, scrawny one. Time for you to meet the Baron's advisor."

  Va'del complied with their orders to come to the front of the cell, while Javin and Si'mon remained at the back, and soon found himself bound and walking through the keep.

  The sub-Guadel had expected to be led to some kind of dark torture room deeper in the dungeon, and was quite surprised when their destination instead turned out to be a luxuriously-appointed apartment with thick rugs that put anything he'd seen among his people to complete and utter shame.

  One end of the room had a heavy wooden desk in the corner, facing a rough, poorly-made chair to which Va'del was led.

  The man behind the desk looked up, and Va'del found himself looking into brilliant emerald eyes that would have looked at home among the People.

  Dark hair, pale skin and a very slight build, is he another exile like Be'ter?

  The man sprinkled some sand on whatever he'd just finished writing, and considered Va'del for several seconds.

  "Good morning, my name is Kra'ven. Despite the fact that we have not previously met, I happen to know that you are Va'del."

  Va'del did his best to keep any trace of the surprise he felt from his face, but must not have entirely succeeded.

  "Be'ter has been oddly obsessed with capturing you. In fact, his constant mutterings were enough of an annoyance that I finally agreed to help make sure you didn't escape his grasp. Illumination globes are really quite useful in one's everyday life, but that's the first time I've ever had need for one of that magnitude."

  While he'd been speaking, the mage had been straightening up the already-tidy desk, and now that he was finished, he smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in the curiously shimmery material of his shirt.

  "Now that we have the proper pleasantries out of the way, I have to inform you that I'll need you to answer a rather tiresomely large number of questions for me. Some of them I ask on behalf of the good Baron, some of them are of course my own."

  Kra'ven waited, as if expecting Va'del to spit in his direction, or swear that he wouldn't ever cooperate.

  "Ah, the strong, silent type. Very good, I'm going to ask my first question in a few seconds, at which point you'll have essentially three options. You can tell me the truth, lie, or remain silent. I suspect that you'll choose the last option, at which point I'll have to order you beaten. And here we go. How old are you?"

  The first question seemed so simple and innocent, but Va'del had already resolved that he wasn't going to answer any of Kra'ven's questions. If I answer the ones that aren't a betrayal of my duty, he'll slip others in that are ever closer to that line until finally I'll be faced with the same choice. Answer, lie, or remain silent.

  The mage was silent for several seconds, and then he nodded at the two guards who'd remained in the room.

  "Please strike him several times, but do try not to get blood everywhere, and don't break anything quite yet."

  Before Va'del could steel himself for the blow, the guard on his left hit him in the kidney.

  After Va'del had been hit several times, Kra'ven waved off the guards. "Now that we have that out of the way, what is your age?"

  ##

  More than two cycles later, the guards dumped Va'del back in his cell, where he lay quivering on the floor. Nearly every part of his body hurt, but he did his best not to cry out as Javin and Si'mon helped him over to the pile of rags that served as his bed.

  "Hopefully they didn't break any of your bones, if that's the case, then you'll feel much better tomorrow."

  "I didn't talk. I didn't tell them anything."

  Javin nodded. "We know you didn't. After all that you've done, we knew you woul
dn't talk."

  Va'del sighed, strangely content considering how much pain he was in, and then gave into the darkness that had been pulling at him. Unconsciousness was a relief.

  ##

  When Va'del finally woke again he didn't particularly feel better, but as he carefully took stock of his body he was relieved to find that none of his bones had been broken. Everything still hurt, but it was mostly the dull hurt of bruises rather than the sharp pain of broken ribs.

  Javin came over with a hunk of stale bread and some more water. "You okay?"

  Va'del nodded as he sat up. "I'll live. Good thing my ribs are reinforced though or they'd be broken."

  Si'mon sat down next to his cell mates. "Sounds like you got pretty much the standard treatment. Let me fill you in on what little we know."

  Va'del didn't really want to listen, but sat up and did his best to pay attention despite that.

  "Vladir says he wants a ransom. He set two of the guardsmen free and sent them back home with instructions to carry his demands to what is left of the Council up there."

  "Does he really think they'll be able to make it?"

  Si'mon shrugged. "I don't honestly know. He probably doesn't have a good idea of what it takes to make a trip like that, but maybe he does. I've spent as much time with the lowlanders as anyone, and I still don't understand how they think sometimes, and that goes doubly for those in positions of power. I can't say for sure he isn't sending them off to die for some twisted purpose that makes no sense to us."

  Javin nodded. "Maybe going through the motions of making a ransom demand would placate the gem merchants?"

  "Could be. We've been giving them a pretty favorable deal for several years now in an attempt to bind them to us. For all that we're almost impossible to invade, we're still incredibly small compared to some of the lowlander kingdoms I've heard about. All someone would have to do is cut off the food shipments up the mountain and we'd face a very real risk of starvation, so we've tried to do what we could to make as many lowlanders depend on us as possible."

  The half fog that being beaten had left covering his mind started to lift, and Va'del suddenly realized that he hadn't seen any of the women around. "What about Jain and the others?"

  Si'mon held up a calming hand. "They are all fine, as nearly as we can tell. They drugged them when we were captured. That neutralizes their ability to link with us, and makes escaping essentially impossible. I expect that Be'ter or Mali had some part in helping them figure that out, but there isn't anything we can do about it now."

  "What can we do?"

  Si'mon looked away for a moment and then turned back with something very near defeat written across his features. "None of us have been able to come up with an answer to that question yet. It just may be that there isn't anything we can do. Even worse, the Baron just sent out his army to subdue Crimson Rocks. It might not be too long before we're joined by quite a bit more in the way of company."

  "Assuming he leaves any of them alive?"

  "Yes, assuming that."

  Chapter 21

  Va'del paced back and forth inside his cell. The bars were rusting through in several places, but they were still too strong for even three or four men to force their way out. The only hope Va'del could see remaining them was the chance that the guards might overfill the cell. With enough men, there was a chance they could force their way out and then make it to the guardroom before the guards could shut and bar the door.

  The mage, Kra'ven, had left with the Baron, so the most recent beatings at least had the virtue of being less organized, but Va'del had been spared even the casual cruelty of the guards, and now that he'd had another night to recover, his mind continued to futilely chip away at the problem of how they might be able to get out.

  There were so many questions he didn't have answers to. Had there been locks on any of the other doors between the cell block and Kra'ven's room? How many soldiers had Vladir left? Where were the remaining men stationed and were there central points that the soldiers or the Guadel could use to hold off a larger force? Were there enough weapons around to arm even a fraction of the Guadel even assuming they managed to free themselves somehow?

  Va'del didn't have nearly enough information to begin to form plans and he knew it, but he couldn't stop his thoughts from whirling from one question to the next. Each passing moment seemed to decrease the chances that he'd ever see Jain again, and despair was slowly worming its cold tendrils into his being.

  Powers, Jain, I hope you're okay!

  The thought had all of Va'del's anguish, pain and anger powering it, and in some uncomfortable way seemed to pull at his mind, stretching it as if it were an arrow pulling at a string.

  For one heart-wrenching second, his expanded thoughts seemed to flutter back and forth, on the verge of collapsing into something smaller again, but then another presence crashed into his mind, the force painful and unbalancing at the same time that it shored up his teetering awareness.

  Before Va'del could understand what was going on, the other mind started trying to push itself into his. Instinctive defenses threw themselves into place, and Va'del knocked the presence back, but stopped a hair short from breaking contact completely.

  Vi'en, it had to be Vi'en. Not only was she the only person still free, the presence felt like her. Va'del rejoiced that she hadn't returned to the mountains, but something inside him alternately cringed and raged at the thought of letting her inside his mind. More than just whether he lived or died was being decided now, the very survival of the People was threatened, so he really had no choice at all.

  Suppressing the need to become physically ill, Va'del drew upon countless cycles of meditation, and began trying to bring down his mental barriers. A wall of ice melting in the heat, a thick curtain being pulled back to let the light in.

  On'li had told him several times that he did a better job lowering the mental walls protecting him from invasion than anyone else she'd ever seen, but that very control was working against him now. His subconscious knew that he didn't really want her inside his mind and was fighting his conscious efforts.

  With an effort of will he wouldn't have thought he was capable of, Va'del lowered his defenses just enough to allow Vi'en the tiniest of openings.

  His wife took the opportunity and began worming her mind inside his. There was nothing of acceptance in those thoughts. Va'del could feel Vi'en passing judgment over all she saw, and he nearly pushed her back out of his mind as the experience surpassed even his worst fears.

  Jain, I have to do this for Jain.

  The last of his mental strength blazed away as he finally managed to bring his barriers down the rest of the way, and then Vi'en was fully inside his mind, had made all of the judgments she was going to make, and there was no longer a need to fight.

  The presence at the back of his mind still made him want to be violently ill, but the need was less now, and Va'del found himself standing before the door to his cell without any knowledge of how he'd gotten there.

  Calling for help, the sub-Guadel grasped the door with hands that suddenly vibrated with strength and vitality. Time had slowed as Vi'en augmented him, so that it seemed to take long minutes for Javin and Si'mon to reach his side.

  The surprised looks on their faces were all the confirmation needed to know that they'd noticed his sudden grace and were aware he was somehow linked.

  All three men pulled at the cold metal of their cage, and Va'del felt something give and start to bend, but it wasn't enough. More strength, I need more strength, Powers curse you.

  Va'del had never before been able to communicate mind to mind while in a link, but Vi'en somehow understood or anticipated his need, and the surge of strength flowing to his aching arms suddenly surpassed anything he'd ever before experienced.

  The universe seemed to speed up, and Va'del suddenly felt incredibly clumsy as all of Vi'en's strength was fed into one area of augmentation, but he let out a hiss of satisfaction and placed his feet again
st the wall as he pulled at the cell door.

  With an ear-splitting squeal, the lock gave way, and Va'del fell to the ground.

  His hands were bleeding where skin had torn when exposed to pressures that it had never been meant to bear, his bones creaked as if to warn that they'd been on the verge of collapse, but Va'del didn't care. The subtle weave of augmentation Jain and Ah'bi had created not so long ago had held, and he pulled himself to his feet, absently noting that his insides felt like they were on fire as he lurched out the door.

  Somehow Vi'en must have known he was free, either because of the elation that had surged through him or for some other reason. How she knew didn't matter as much as the fact that she modified the link. As Va'del took a second, stumbling step, the nature of his augmentation changed again and time seemed to slow back down as superhuman grace returned to his limbs.

  The shriek of tearing metal brought a pair of guards out of the fortified room where they spent their time, but Va'del was moving so quickly neither man had the chance to do more than fumble at their belts for the heavy clubs that they used to intimidate and quell the prisoners, before he reached them.

  A heartbeat later, both men were down, one unconscious from a knee to the face, the other with a crushed throat. Va'del reached down in one smooth motion and picked up both clubs.

  The remaining guards were just getting to their feet, one with a pair of dice still in his hands, when Va'del burst into the room.

  The fact that there were so many of them slowed the sub-Guadel more than their clumsy efforts to defend themselves. Moving faster than they could follow, casually wielding the clubs with bone-crushing force, Va'del weaved between them with an ease he'd never before experienced.

  Si'mon and Javin reached the door as the last guard collapsed, but Va'del only noted that fact in passing, much like he observed that his insides still felt like they were burning.