by H. M. Clarke
He closed his eyes and calmed himself. His turbulent emotions were threatening to spill out, but he had to still them if he wanted to help Kathryn. He was not a healer, but he could do enough to keep her with them until Donal could get here.
Dagan took a deep breath and opened his consciousness up to his magic and let it flow out into his arm, through his hand and into his runestaff. He felt rather than saw the runes that ran along his staff flash blue as the magic flowed into them and soon the staff was awash as it swished power back and forth along the rune path, amplifying it. When the power began to leach back into his hand, Dagan drew it back into himself and funneled it through to the arm and hand that anchored against Kathryn’s flesh.
The power seeped in and went hunting. The magic washed around broken ribs but did not have the patterns to fix them. They hunted further and found that some of the blood vessels and muscles had been ruptured near the liver and stomach. Dagan could see in his mind’s eye the blood pulsing out from the tear–he did have the pattern to fix that–at least superficially.
He quickly set to work.
Ryn opened her eyes to darkness. And it was cold, so cold. She shivered and turned her head and saw a fire place and the slow orange glow of dying coals in the grate covered with ash. It needed to be built back up.
She moved an arm to throw back the blankets, but found a dull ache and her arm locked tight in something. Someone moved beside her and she turned her attention to the rest of the room.
Dagan leaned closer, tucking a stray strand of dark hair back behind her ear with his long, slender fingers. She sighed in relief at seeing him. His fingertips were warm on her cold skin and his touch made her shiver in response.
“You’re shaking. Are you cold again?” Dagan’s voice slipped to her soft and heavy through the darkness.
Ryn nodded weakly. She could feel his worry through the Link along with other emotions. Emotions which for this brief moment were unguarded. Emotions that he did not want her to know. He loved her. The realization bought a warmth to her cheeks and her body tried to give voice to her joy, but her laugh came out as a hacking cough.
“Here.”
She suddenly felt someone soft and warm scoot up behind her and heard the swish of wool as something heavy was thrown across her body. It was still warm and the musky smell told her that it was Dagan’s black wool cloak. A strong arm moved across her waist, careful not to touch where she was injured, and Ryn now felt very warm.
“Is that better?”
Ryn nodded and snuggled back against his chest. She felt him settle and slowly his breathing became slow and measured. Its rhythmic sound calmed her mind and she drifted off into sleep.
◆◆◆
As Kathryn’s breathing settled back into sleep, Dagan lay awake. At least she had dropped into a true sleep and not pain riddled unconsciousness. His cheek rested against the back of her head and the scent of her hair filled his nostrils. He breathed it in like a drowning man would air, unsure when he would get this chance again.
It was dark outside, and Dagan judged that it had been several hours since he had sent Ashe to meet the others. They should have been here by now. He hoped that they had met no trouble on the road.
She moved against him, snuggling up closer to his warmth. He moved his hand to her stomach and concentrated, letting a trickle of magic course through the palm into her abdomen. The magic flowed through her and concentrated itself around her injury sites. The patterns were holding, but he did not know how much longer they would. For now she was stabilized, but if Donal did not get here soon, then…
Dagan withdrew his magic and relaxed his arm. Worry pulled at his need to stay cuddled up next to Kathryn, and after a moment more of debate, worry won. He moved away from her off the pallet and tucked his cloak back around her, making sure that Kathryn wouldn’t feel the cold. He picked up his staff and walked quietly to the front door. There was no noise coming from outside, but still he opened the door and slipped out onto the porch.
The night sky was awash with stars and the moon was a hand width above the tops of the tree line. That would make it just over an hour after sunset, not as late as he initially thought. Abruptly, something swooped out of the darkness and Dagan ducked. Its claws raked through his hair and a loud screech hit his ears as Peck landed on the porch rail.
“Peck? Is Donal close?” Dagan asked, but then shook his head. “Of course he is otherwise you wouldn’t be here, would you?”
The crow cocked his head and cawed, but Dagan knew what he was asking.
“She’s sleeping at the moment. I was able to take away most of her pain and to staunch the worse of the bleeding, but she needs Donal to lay down the correct patterns to knit the bones and tears back to what they were before the trauma happened.”
Peck clacked his beak and turned a beady eye back to the trees. A moment later, Dagan heard the tell tale sound of several horses coming down the trail toward the farm. They had found their way back through the dark at last.
◆◆◆
Ryn woke alert and fever-free in the room she had seen in her dream. Surprised, she struggled to prop herself up on her elbow. The effort made her heartbeat leap to double time. A crackling fire in the hearth provided dim illumination. She was lying on a soft pallet against the flagstones of the hearth and she could feel the welcoming heat of the flames through the blankets. The only other pieces of furniture were a set of wooden chairs around a heavy wooden kitchen table, a sideboard and a kitchen hutch devoid of dishes.
A sickly odor permeated the air. Spread over the blankets was a black cloak. Ryn recognized the fastening-it was Dagan’s. She ran her fingers over it and a memory fluttered of feeling it draped over her, but then it was gone. Ryn lifted the scratchy wool blanket draping her and sniffed. Great. She was the source of the smell.
Someone had removed her mail, gambeson and boots, leaving her dressed in just her undershirt and pants, but she badly needed a bath. Abruptly, she laughed. Who cared if she reeked? She was alive! But where was she?
A moment later, the door opened and Dagan strode in. He was then pushed aside as Donal rushed past him. “Ryn. You’re awake!”
“Yes, yes I am. Though my body is telling me that I really should get a few more hours of sleep.” She watched as they both knelt to the floor beside her bed and turned to Donal. “I take it I have you to thank for being awake and breathing?”
“You have to thank both of us. Dagan patched you up until I could get here and wave my miracle working fingers over you.”
“Thank you,” Ryn murmured. “Was I really that bad?”
“Yes, you could have died,” Dagan softly said.
A memory pulled at her mind of Dagan placing his hand on her side, but her recollections between riding away from the Inn with Ashe and now were hazy.
“Thank you,” she said again, the words inadequate. “I owe you—”
“Nothing.” Dagan regarded her intently. “It’s just now I’ll not only have to keep you away from sharp objects, but blunt ones as well.”
“That’s going to make my job difficult then,” she replied with a smile. “Can’t be a Blackwatch Constable without having to use my sword at some point.”
Donal sniggered at that. He then turned to Dagan and smirked. “Even if you muffled Ryn in cotton wool, she’d still manage to hurt herself.”
“That is so not true!”
Donal raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Well, maybe that’s a little true,” she conceded to him. “But I’ll always have you two to help patch me up.”
Dagan frowned, but Donal laughed. Ryn suddenly felt confused. Had she done something to upset her Pair? She opened their Link and felt nothing cross between them. He had closed off his end.
“Do you remember anything while you were ill?” he asked her.
Ryn frowned, and she closed her eyes in an effort to rifle through her memories. Apart from a few flashes, she couldn’t remember a thing. She shook her head. “Is there something
wrong? Have I forgotten something?” she asked him uncertainly.
Dagan gave her a wan smile. “No. Nothing is wrong, perhaps it’s for the best.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” Dagan rose to his feet. “Donal, why don’t you get Kathryn some warm water and some wash cloths. I’m sure she doesn’t like smelling like one of Ashe’s socks.”
Donal chuckled at that. “One basin and wash cloths coming up. I’ll even bring you some soap to.”
“Can I also get something to eat as well? I’m starving.”
Dagan sighed, but couldn’t help the grin that appeared on his face. “We’ll give you some privacy to clean up, and hopefully by that time, the others will be back and we can plan our next move.”
CHAPTER Tweleve
“We’re here!”
Ashe pulled on the reins of his chestnut, bringing the gelding to a halt in the courtyard of the old Inn. Banar and Lily halted their mounts on either side of him. The sun was now rising above the trees and the warmth felt nice against his face, especially after the past night. Donal had worked his magic and had fallen exhausted went he was finished. He was back at the farmhouse, sleeping it off.
“I don’t know what the Magister expects us to find here,” Lily’s shrill voice grated again against his nerves.
“The dead body of the man who attacked her for one,” Ashe heard Banar mutter.
He was only half listening to the conversation. There was something about the yard… something that wasn’t… Ashe’s eye flicked back to the barn. He tightened his grip on the reins and his free hand slipped to the hilt of his sword. “Someone else has been here since we left yesterday.”
Ashe drew his sword and the twin sound of metal scrapping metal told him that Banar had as well.
“What makes you think that?” Banar asked.
Ashe jerked his head in the direction of the barn. “The doors were open yesterday. Their banging was what bought Ryn and I here in the first place. They’re closed now, even the wonky one.”
Pink flared up next to him. Lily had activated her runestaff.
“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here now,” Banar said. “We would have been pincushions by now otherwise.”
Lily looked nervously around her and Ashe shook his head. “Let’s go and investigate.” He dismounted while still holding his sword and tied his horse to the oak framework of the decrepit well. He took one step toward the barn and then stopped for the other two to join him.
“What if they are still here?” Lily’s face looked anxious in the pink glow emanating from her runestaff.
“Why did you join the Blackwatch Lily?” Ashe asked as he felt his face crumple in disbelief. “Danger and fighting is part of the job description after all.”
Lily huffed and lifted her nose. “That is none of you business, Cornelius.”
“She joined because this was the cheapest way she could learn magic. Studying at the magic academies is expensive,” Banar said with a snicker.
“Banar!”
The look of hurt that crossed Lily’s face made Ashe regret his jibe. “Let’s just check the barn and then go look at the dead fellow in the main building. Dagan wants clues as to who this guy was and what he was doing here.”
“It was probably just some traveler taking shelter here for a bit,” Lily’s voice had lost the whining quality. “You two surprised him and he attacked you thinking you were bandits.”
Ashe raised an eyebrow. “We were both wearing our Constable uniforms. No one would have mistaken us for ‘bandits.’”
Lily frowned and turned her glare back to the barn.
“The sooner we check out this place, the sooner we can go back to the others… and hopefully they have lunch ready.”
Ashe looked at Banar and grinned. “You do know that Dagan will be cooking.”
Banar’s face grimaced in distaste. “For a man that likes good food, he really can’t make it.”
“Let’s hope that Donal has woken up before we get back and is in charge of the cooking.” Ashe replied, then started walking towards the barn.
They opened up the barn doors, both of which creaked in protest. Ashe didn’t think that the door hanging from a single hinge would last being opened and closed for much longer, since the barn was no longer used for holding livestock it wasn’t worth worrying about. The three Blackwatch moved in with the pink glow of Lily’s runestaff bathing the interior in a rosy glow. The inside of the barn did not look changed from the day before. Rotting, aged wood was doing its best to stay standing in stalls and mounds of graying hay was scattered across the floor and loft. They spread out and started to explore and as Ashe moved further in, he began to see tracks in the hay on the floor. A large wagon had been backed in. He looked up and saw Banar moving toward the back.
“I see fresh wagon tracks on the floor here,” Ashe called to him.
“Looks like something has been moved from here,” Banar called back to Ashe. “From the scrape marks it looks like something big. Do you remember if there were crates back here?”
Ashe tried to remember; he had only explored part of the barn when he heard Ryn shout his name. But he did remember seeing some wooden boxes under some heavy cloth. “Yeah, there were some long wooden boxes, and now that I’m thinking about it, the wood of those boxes looked pretty new.”
“You think someone was using this place for storage?” Lily asked as she used the end of her staff to poke around one of the horse stalls.
“Looks like it. I wonder what was in those boxes?” Banar paused and then called out, “Found something.”
Ashe looked up at the sound of Banar’s voice and Lily popped her head out of the stall she was investigating to see what was going on. Banar strode out from the shadow of the loft with something folded in his hand. Banar moved into the light streaming in from the open doors and he and Lily moved to join him there.
“What have you got?” she asked.
In Banar’s callused hand was a scrap of torn cloth. It was made of finely woven linen, though not to a standard that would grace the shoulders of any of equestrian rank or higher. It had also been dyed in the atrocious combination of orange and brown.
“What is it?” Lily asked, reaching out a hand to finger the cloth. She always had to touch everything, Ashe noted.
Banar smirked, which earned him a sour look from Lily. That made the smirk broader. “It’s a piece of someone’s livery. No one else in their right mind who wasn’t color blind would wear these two colors together.”
“You recognize it then?” Ashe asked.
“Of course, I do. It belongs to the Maluski family. Their Caester is fourth in line to the throne, if the Dragoncaester line fails.”
“So, this belongs to someone working for a Caester family?”
“Yes. The Maluski’s are headed by Von Maluski, the HoundCaester. I’ve met him a few times when we used to follow father around on his trips.”
“Earl Withen is the StagCaester isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is. My family is one of the founding families of Mrycea, which gives us the right to claim a Caester. Our ancestral seats are made from the same stone that created the Dragonthrone, and if a Caester dies, then the seat chooses the next member of the bloodline to carry that title. Bellus willing, my father lives an unnaturally long life, and the seat chooses one of my cousins. Both of my older brothers are idiots and I don’t want to be Caester.”
“Don’t you want to continue your family tradition?” Lily asked him. A frown was beginning to mar her forehead, which made Ashe think that she might be confused with whatever feeling she was feeling from Banar across the Link.
“Of course, I want to see the family traditions continued, just not by me. I have my own life to lead and I don’t want to be dictated to by a Caester.”
“So, you join an organization that has you following someone else’s orders until the day you die, or make Knight Commander?” Ashe asked with his own smirk.
“Th
at’s right,” Banar smirked back at him.
“But the Caesters sit on the High Council….”
Banar rolled his eyes. “Let’s talk about this later. We don’t know for sure if this belongs to someone working for the Maluski’s, but no one else would wear that color combination by choice.”
“We’ll finish looking through the barn and then we’ll go through the main building. We’ll see what we can pull from the body that attacked Ryn.” Ashe felt his face harden at the thought of seeing that man again.
“Ryn was lucky that you were here with her Ashe,” Lily said as she placed a warm hand on his shoulder.
Ashe shrugged it off. “Not lucky enough. I should have been with her, instead I was here poking around the barn.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Ashe. She’s going to be all right. Dagan and Donal worked their magic and she’ll be back to normal in no time.” Banar said.
“Dagan got to the farm so quickly too.”
“He felt it when it happened. We were at the eating house with Vannik and Bron and he just… groaned and then sent me to get Donal and to meet him at the farmhouse. He was on his horse riding out before we even got up from the table to pay the bill.”
“He felt her on the Link from that far away?” Lily asked. When Banar nodded, she tapped a finger to her chin in thought. “Their Link must be unusually strong, usually it grows weaker over distance…” her finger tapped its rhythm out quicker on her chin. “We’ll have to run some tests to see if it remains the same strength or will eventually grow weaker over distance.”
