Marl stiffened, a slight movement that both Ren and Garundel noticed. After only a moment’s hesitation he bowed briefly. “It would be my honor, Sir Garundel,” he said. “If you will excuse me, I must return to my own mount.”
“Of course,” Garundel said. Ren watched Marl leave, then turned to look at Garundel who had moved to stand where Marl had been, right beside her diplo, looking up at her.
“I have that package for you,” she said. She reached into the pocket of her skirt and removed the pouch, then held it out to him, willing her hand not to shake as she waited for him to take it.
Garundel stared at the worn leather pouch for a long moment, but did not reach for it. “Would you mind keeping that for just a while longer, Hara Ren? You’ve guarded it carefully all of these years, and I’d feel better knowing you continue to do so.”
Ren hesitated. Why would he not simply take it and be done?
“Is that a problem?” he asked softly.
“No, of course not, Sir Garundel,” she said, pulling her hand back beneath her cloak.
“Thank you,” he said, staring directly into her eyes for a long, searching moment. Then he lowered his voice so that only she could hear him. “It is my hope that you will agree to take the time to get to know me.”
“If that is your wish,” Ren replied, wishing she could think of a reason to refuse.
“Thank you,” he said, returning to a normal tone. “As you’ve just heard, I’ve assigned Sir Marl to guard and assist you. If you object to him, please let me know and I’ll assign someone else.”
“I’ve no objections,” she said, glad that no one could see the way her heart leapt at the mention of Marl’s name.
“Until later, then.” Ren watched as her father turned and walked away, stopping to speak with this man or that as he went. It was obvious that he was well respected by everyone he spoke to. She couldn’t help but admire that. She tore her eyes away from Garundel and stared at the neck of her diplo. Did he know? She hoped not, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he did. Why else would he want her to get to know him?
Yes, he knows, she admitted with an inward sigh. So why didn’t he come right out and say so? Maybe he was waiting for her to bring it up. She shook her head slightly. If that was the case, then all to the better since she had no intention of ever doing any such thing.
“Are you ready for this?” Kapia asked, startling her. She looked up, surprised to see that Karma, Kapia and Tiari had mounted their diplos and were all standing around her.
“I’m not certain,” she replied, trying to smile.
“Don’t worry,” Karma said. “The first few days of sitting all day in a saddle will be a bit uncomfortable, but after that you’ll be fine. In the meantime, we’ll get to know each other better. We’ll have all day long, every day, to talk.”
Ren’s eyebrows rose in surprise at that. She hadn’t actually thought about what they’d do while riding each day. Put that way, it didn’t sound like much of a hardship. Especially since everyone was so nice to her. So far.
“Have you thought of a name for your diplo yet?” Kapia asked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have,” she said, leaning forward to pat the animal’s leathery neck. “His name is Spot.”
Karma laughed. “That’s a great name, Ren.”
“Is it…wrong?” Ren asked, suddenly nervous again. She’d learned early on that when people laughed at her for no obvious reason, it was never good.
“Oh, no, Ren, not at all,” Karma said, Ren’s sudden worry sobering her. “It really is a great name and I love it. It’s just that, where I’m from, people tend to use that name for their dogs. It just struck me as funny.”
“Oh,” Ren said, not understanding at all, but relieved that she wasn’t the butt of some joke. She decided to change the subject. “Do we ride in any particular order, or will I be able to stay with you three?”
“Yes and no,” Kapia said. “We women tend to stick together, partly because we prefer it, and partly because it makes it easier for the men to guard us.”
“Why must we be guarded?” Ren asked, glad for the chance to ask the question she hadn’t dared ask Garundel when he’d appointed Marl to watch over her. There were only six women, including Caral and Lashi, and they were amidst about thirty armed warriors, not to mention all the male drovers and servants. Surely that was enough to keep them safe without extra guards.
“Tiari, maybe you should explain this,” Kapia said.
“All right,” Tiari agreed, shifting her diplo a little closer to Ren. “Not long after I joined the Orb Quest, I went to the river to get a bucket of water without telling anyone,” she said. “I spent my life doing things for myself, Ren. Hauling my own water, collecting my own firewood, fixing my own meals, sewing my own clothing.” Ren nodded in understanding. She’d done all of that and more while living alone at the top of Nu Sennet. “It was uncomfortable for me to suddenly have others doing all the work while I sat and did nothing. So, this one morning, a situation arose and I decided to prove that I could be of use. I didn’t tell anyone because I knew they’d stop me.”
Tiari paused and cleared her throat, and Ren was surprised to see that she was fighting tears. “While I was at the river, I was attacked, and nearly killed,” Tiari continued, shocking Ren. “It wasn’t until afterward that I understood the full implications of what I’d done. Aside from the pain I caused Tomas, which was no small thing, I’m Maiden of the Sun Orb. I’m the only person who could have claimed the Sun Orb, just as Kapia is the only person who could have claimed the Moon Orb, and you are the only person who can claim the Heart Orb. We are also the only ones who can find the keystone, and, with Karma, recall the pyramid.
“If I’d been killed that day by the river, every other person on Rathira would have eventually died. All because I decided to prove that I could fetch a bucket of water alone.” Tiari’s strange pupil-less eyes met Ren’s steadily. “If anything happens to you Ren, if you are killed, and believe me, demons will try to kill you, all of the people on our world will perish. You can never forget that, just as Kapia, Karma, and I can never forget it. The fate of our world rests on us. That makes staying alive our first and biggest responsibility.”
“I can see how that might be more difficult to do than it sounds,” Ren said slowly. “I’m used to being alone most of the time, and taking care of myself. I’m certainly not used to being thought of as important.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Tiari said. “But you must do it, Ren.”
“I see how important this is, and I promise that I’ll try,” Ren said. “But I ask all of you to please help me. Let me know if I do something I shouldn’t.”
“Of course we’ll help you,” Karma said. “Never be afraid to ask any one of us for anything you need, either. I know it’s a lot to ask that you trust us after knowing us for less than a day. But we are here for you Ren, just as we are here for each other.”
“Thank you, Karma,” Ren said, relieved. “And thank you, Tiari, for telling me your story. I doubt anything else could have illustrated your point better.”
“You’re welcome,” Tiari said, smiling sadly.
Ren noticed a rider-less diplo walk up to Karma and stop right beside her without any direction that she could see. In place of a saddle, a large, cushioned platform had been strapped to the diplo’s back. Before she asked what it was for Nikura appeared and, with the ease of long practice, leapt straight up onto the platform.
“Greetings, Nikura,” she said. The Sphin turned his round blue eyes on her and dipped his head. Prince Zakiel called out something she didn’t quite catch from up ahead, and everyone took their places, forming a long line. Kapia moved so that she was on Ren’s left side, while Karma moved to her right, and then her diplo began walking along with the rest. It took a few minutes for her to get used to the gentle rocking motion of the animal beneath her, but once she did, she found it soothing.
“Ren,” Karma said after s
he’d had enough time to fully relax, “I expect that after a full night’s sleep, you must have more questions for us. I know that when I first visited Ka-Teru I had many questions about the people and culture.”
“You are not of Ka-Teru?” Ren asked in surprise.
“No, I’m not,” Karma said. “I was lucky to have Kapia and Nikura to help me. Poor Tiari knew nothing of us or the Orb Quest when she came to us just a few weeks ago, but it didn’t take long for her to fit in. You’ll feel like one of us in no time.”
“I hope you’re right, Karma,” Ren said. “I’m curious about the way all of the men around us are ordered. Some wear leather, some don’t, some wear weapons, some don’t. Do they have different ranks or positions? How do you tell them all apart?”
Karma laughed at all the questions, then she and Kapia explained the difference between Hunters and Knights, and the hierarchy of the warriors in their party. That led to more questions and answers until, by the time the morning was gone, Ren had learned the bare bones of all that had happened up until she’d joined the quest. Of all that she’d been told, the one thing that shocked her most was that Karma, Kapia, and even Tiari, fought in the battles against the demons.
“I know it’s not usual here,” Karma said when Ren expressed her surprise. “But where I’m from both men and women may become warriors if they wish, or not, if they wish. Either way is accepted, and no one thinks it wrong.”
“I don’t think it’s wrong,” Ren said. “I’m just…I can’t quite imagine it. I’ve never seen warriors of any sort before yesterday.”
Karma nodded, opened her mouth to say something, then whipped her head around to face Nikura who was now sitting up on his cushion, staring at the sky alertly. “Kapia, Tiari,” she called sharply, “we have incoming.”
Ren frowned, not understanding what Karma meant, though Kapia and Tiari certainly did. They reined in their diplos, as did Karma and, somehow, Nikura. To Ren’s relief, Spot stopped walking when the other diplos did, just as Marl had said he would. The calm, relaxed atmosphere was now charged with tension. The other women had their heads tilted back and their eyes on the sky so Ren looked up too, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary. When she looked back down she was surprised to see that most of the Hunters now surrounded them, their weapons drawn, their attention on the sky. Ren inhaled sharply. From the looks of things, she was about to get a very close up view of her first battle.
Karma held the Ti-Ank firmly in one hand, her eyes searching as she sent her energy flowing into the Ti-Ank. “How many, Nikura? Do you know?”
“Two, but it seems they’re just a diversion,” Nikura said, his eyes narrowing as he turned his attention to a stand of trees about twenty yards away.
“Kadjet?” Prince Zakiel asked as he guided his diplo through the circle of warriors, stopping in front of Karma and her diplo, Dippy.
“Yes, two of them,” Karma said. “There’s something else, too. Nikura hasn’t identified it yet, but I think you should stop everyone from going into the trees.” Bredon immediately spun his mount around and trotted toward the back of the line where the servants and drovers were moving toward the trees for shelter from the kadjet.
“What do you sense, Nikura?” Zakiel asked.
“I’m not certain,” he replied slowly. Suddenly, his ears flattened and he hissed. “Serpin,” he spat.
“What are they?” Karma asked, her eyes on the trees as she searched for what Nikura had seen.
Zakiel growled, and Karma didn’t have to look at him to know that the stripes of the Tigren were on full display. “Serpin are particularly nasty,” he said. “They’re man-sized serpents with several long, spindly legs. They’re fast, vicious, and venomous. There are few of them, but they’re intelligent for demons. If you see a serpin, there will usually be lesser demons under its control.”
“Weaknesses?” Karma asked.
“Like most reptiles, it doesn’t tolerate cold very well,” Zakiel said. “Which makes its presence here surprising.”
A shout went up as the two kadjet came into view overhead. At the same moment, a grayish green serpin sprang from the cover of the trees and started toward them, its long neck swaying hypnotically, its evil yellow eyes fixed on the Ti-Ank in Karma’s hand.
“The smaller one’s heart is in the second section,” Tiari announced, watching the kadjet from the back of her diplo. “The larger one has two hearts, so we’ll need you for that one, Karma.”
“I’ve got the small one,” Tomas said from his place beside Tiari, his arrow already nocked and aimed as he waited for the kadjet to come within range.
“Which one first?” Karma asked Zakiel, torn between the two threats.
“There are more serpin,” Nikura said, jumping to the ground, his eyes never wavering from the one that had shown itself. “Two more, I believe.”
“Nikura and I will keep the serpin busy while you take care of the kadjet,” Zakiel said. Karma nodded reluctantly, even though she agreed with his decision. She was the only one who could destroy a kadjet that had more than one heart. Zakiel leapt from the saddle and drew his swords, then headed straight toward the serpin in order to engage it before it got any closer to the caravan. Karma watched Nikura join him from the corner of her eye, then forced her attention back to the sky.
The smaller kadjet, the one with three segments, was already falling from the sky with one of Tomas’s arrows in its heart, but the one with five segments was approaching fast. “Where are the hearts?” she asked Tiari as she aimed the Ti-Ank.
“Second and third,” Tiari replied. Karma heard Zakiel roar, causing her heart to race, but she remained focused on her current task. It wasn’t easy to send two beams of fire from the Ti-Ank, but she’d had enough practice that it no longer drained her as it once had. The hardest part was aiming the two beams so that they incinerated both of the kadjet’s hearts at the exact same moment. If she was off by even a fraction of a second, the kadjet wouldn’t die. Instead, it would break apart, each section becoming a duplicate of the original five segmented creature.
The kadjet was directly above them, just beginning its dive when she released the fiery power of the sun that she’d drawn on through the Ti-Ank. She knew before the wasp-like creature began falling from the sky that she’d succeeded. She immediately spun Dippy around, already sending more of her own energy into the Ti-Ank.
At first she couldn’t decipher what her eyes were seeing. There were about a dozen unfamiliar creatures doing battle with a group of Hunters in the wide area between the trail and the trees. They had heads, chests and arms similar to men, but from the waist down they resembled two legged goats, with hooves, dirty brown fur, and short stumpy tails. And they were fighting with swords. Since the Hunters didn’t appear to need her help against the strange creatures, Karma guided Dippy in a wide circle around the fighting to where she knew Zakiel and Nikura fought the serpin.
She reined Dippy to a halt, barely glancing at the remains of one serpin lying near the trees. Nikura leapt over another serpin’s back, raking his saber-like claws across its thick neck, opening a set of gashes that were significantly smaller than she expected them to be. At the same time, Zakiel raced in, attacking from the front. The serpin pulled its triangular head back with an ear shattering scream just in time to avoid decapitation by one of Zakiel’s flashing swords.
Karma started to draw on the sun as she usually did, but something warned her that it would do very little good against the serpin’s thick hide. She immediately shifted her focus and drew on power from the moon instead, something she’d only practiced with before now. Seconds later she sent a thick, icy white beam at the serpin. At the last moment it spotted the new threat and moved lightning fast. Instead of engulfing its head and neck as she’d intended, the beam hit its hind quarters. It wasn’t a total miss since it froze the serpin’s back legs, slowing it down significantly. She drew on her energy again, ignoring the familiar trickle of blood that always signaled the end of her endur
ance. The second beam was not as wide as the first had been, but this time Nikura feinted at the serpin’s head, distracting it enough that it never saw the beam aimed directly at its face. A split second later Zakiel swung his sword and the frozen head fell to the ground with a muffled thump.
Relief flooded Karma, but it wasn’t over yet. She turned Dippy around, searching for the third serpin, and was surprised to see both Zakiel and Nikura race past her to help the Hunters with the other creatures. Assuming they knew what they were about, she drew power from the sun to use against the half man, half goat creatures. She was surprised when nothing happened. Fortunately, her help wasn’t needed. Nikura and Zakiel arrived in time to assist in the destruction of the final two creatures. The Hunters, led by Bredon and Garundel, had taken out the rest on their own.
Once he was certain the danger was passed, Zakiel went straight to Karma and waited for her to slide from the saddle into his arms. He didn’t put her down as she expected. Instead, he held onto her tightly, his strong arms trembling around her. She buried her face in his neck and relaxed into him, tears burning her eyes when he held her with one arm so he could slide the other hand down between them to rest lightly on her still flat stomach.
“We’re all right,” she whispered. “We’re fine.”
Zakiel nodded and took a long, deep breath before lowering her feet to the ground. “You strained too hard again,” he said, wiping blood from her upper lip.
“Not much,” she said. “And it’s my own fault for missing the first time.”
“We’re lucky it’s so cold here,” Zakiel said. “The serpin were very slow because of it.”
“That was slow?” Karma asked.
“Yes, very,” Zakiel said grimly.
“What happened to the third serpin?”
The Quest for the Heart Orb (The Orbs of Rathira) Page 11
