by JANRAE FRANK
"I haven't blooded mine yet."
"Don't. Mephistis wants to be present when you do that."
"Is it permitted to poison my blades?"
Bodramet thought on that. "Sa'necari do not poison their blades. However, humans do. I will make certain that many of our human guardsmyn and servants are present to cover what you do. Only be warned, it takes a very powerful poison..."
"As it does for a Sharani. Ishla gave us near immunity."
"Then do it."
* * * *
Isranon accepted the water flask from Rose, wiping a sweaty arm across his face before drinking. He stood bare to the waist in the early autumn sunlight. The first chill was on the trees and a few leaves had turned, although none had fallen yet. Dane sheathed his blades and moved to sit on a boulder. Dane's nibari, Iola, lifted both a wine bottle and her wrist, gesturing for him to chose which he needed more after their hours of exercise.
"You are improving, Isranon. Were you human, they would be close to calling you blademaster."
Isranon settled beneath a pine tree, drawing Rose into the circle of his arms and resting his head on hers. "My father would be ashamed of me."
"This is not a time to be thinking about your father."
"He always said violence begets violence." Isranon settled beneath a pine tree, drawing Rose into the circle of his arms and resting his head on hers. "My father would be ashamed of me."
"This is not a time to be thinking about your father."
"He always said violence begets violence."
"Yet, it did not save them. It only takes one side to make a massacre when the other will not fight back." Dane pointed at the wine and Iola poured him a glass. He sat sipping and watching Isranon's face closely.
Isranon hugged Rose tighter. "I try to avoid them."
"You should not feel ashamed of learning to defend yourself, young one. Nor your mate. You should come away with us, when we leave."
"No. I am my prince's mon," Isranon replied stubbornly. He owed Mephistis a debt, had sworn an oath, and, even more important, at times he thought he understood the prince. He loved him, even while despising what he was. It twisted his insides up.
"Then Isranon, you must work harder than ever to learn to defend yourself and use whatever resources you can call on. Otherwise, both you and Rose are going to die."
Rose gave a small sound of fright at the vampire's words and clutched at Isranon's pants legs before turning in his arms to bury her face against his chest. She had still not caught a child from Isranon, despite their efforts and hopes: a nibari lucky enough to produce a child with the sa'necari gene was generally handled far more gently than the others and rarely killed. Isranon's mother had been nibari, although he never told anyone save Rose that.
"I will defend us both," Isranon vowed.
Dane heaved a sigh. "Isranon, at least, do not travel alone through the citadel until Mephistis returns."
"I will consider it."
CHAPTER TEN. FIREBORN
Aejys woke in Vallimrah, stripped of her armor and clothing in a large bed topped by a brightly patterned coverlet. She wore only her bandages. Her black hair framed her bronze face like a fierce dark halo against the white pillowcase as she stared up at the broad oaken beams. Sunlight came through the open windows in warm golden shafts. She rolled onto her good side, leaning on her elbow to survey the cozy room, trying to discover where she was. Her clothing draped a chair topped by her suede hair thong; her armor lay on her cedar chest beside the door. Two heavily cushioned chairs framed a small table near the windows. A rumpled blanket lay, half covering one chair as if someone had slept in it. Tamlestari's quiver and bow leaned against the wall beside the chair. A vase of fresh flowers graced the table in reds and pinks mixed with purple heather.
Brendorn's mother, a slender auburn haired woman sat in a chair near the foot of the bed, watching her thoughtfully. Her hair curled around her pointed ears and her eyes were the color of new leaves. Laurelyanne wore a simple robe of hunter green and sandals with thongs that wrapped to her knees.
"You wake, daughter?" Laurelyanne asked, her voice soft and unobtrusive.
The lines around Laurelyanne's eyes had deepened since the last time Aejys had seen her; the lapsed ha'taren could see age and sorrow gathered around the Valdren mage's mouth. A rush of fresh grief swept through Aejys. "Brendorn..."
Laurelyanne sighed, nodding. "Tagalong told us. Parents should not outlive their children yet now the last of my three is gone."
"I'm sorry..." Aejys began but could not finish.
Laurelyanne rose, moving to sit beside Aejys on the bed. She embraced Aejys and they held each other a long time, letting silent tears run down their faces.
"We loved him," Laurelyanne murmured as they drew apart.
"My people?"
"Are being cared for," she replied, reassuringly.
"How bad were we hit?" Aejys asked.
"I cannot say," Laurelyanne confessed. "I have not left since they brought you in, except to eat."
"Tag?"
Laurelyanne dropped her eyes, a soft small smile parting the curtains of her grief. "I will send Tagalong up. I have had a hard time keeping her out while you slept. Tamlestari watched you through yesterday and last night. She fell asleep in that chair and I covered her."
"How long?"
"They brought you in yesterday morning. It is now early afternoon."
* * * *
"They cut us to ribbons, Aejys," Tagalong told her grimly. "Half our company is dead or wounded."
Aejys' features drew tight, a deep sadness and sense of loss rippling through her as if one more pebble had been tossed into a darkling pool of sorrow in the middle of her heart as she thought again of Cassana. You vowed to place your life between Margren and me. That promise killed you. Even if you had not made that promise, you would have acted as you did. You died with courage and honor as you lived. You were a paladin in spirit, Cassana, if not in name. I cannot say the same for myself. Be at peace, my friend. If I can find a way to avenge you without dishonoring my vow to Kaethreyn I will do it.
Aejys swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her side twinged sharply, forcing her to rest for a moment on the edge. Sunlight fell across her, heightening the contrast of the pale scars criss-crossing her dark skin. When the pain eased, she went to her cedar chest, moving her armor to the floor and rummaging through for clean clothing. She pulled out a russet tunic with a square neck and a band of paler brown edging neck, sleeves and hem, dark brown pants and a change of under clothing. Aejys dressed, combed her fingers through her hair and thonged it back.
"Ya really think ya oughta be gettin' up?" Tagalong asked skeptically.
"It's a scratch, nothing more."
"It took a cautery! And ya got a cracked rib," Tagalong reminded her stubbornly, taking the spread-legged no nonsense stance that under normal circumstances preceded taking out her hammer. "Do ya get back in bed or do I put ya there?"
Aejys felt an urge to smile at her friend's protectiveness and tried to resist it before finally giving into it and turned her face away from Tagalong's to conceal it. She watched the dwarf from the tail of her eye. "I have things to take care of. Walk with me. I must see to my people. I want a full account of our losses."
Her side hurt, but not nearly as much as three weeks ago or even yesterday. She descended the stairs gingerly, holding to the rail to keep from sending spasms into her side as her weight shifted from foot to foot.
Tagalong followed her closely. "Aejys, remember all those touch healers and lifemages they used ta have here six years ago?"
"Yes." Aejys frowned, wondering suddenly why none of them had come forward to save Johannes.
"Well, they're all either dead or disappeared. Someone's goin' around slayin' lifemages. Every one, every kind they can find."
"Hell shitting damnation!" The curse came snarling from Aejys' mouth "That stinks of Waejontor!"
"Uh huh! And Margren's sleepin' with
the enemy, you said."
Aejys shied away from the last: in the absence of anger it was hard to face. "Who was hit the hardest?"
"That big idiot Jeord took one in the ass, but otherwise he's just fine. Johannes is slain and both of his lieutenants. In fact, Johannes' group was the hardest hit. Altogether we started out with just over five score leavin' Vorgensburg. Now we're down to just under two. Lotta good myn died, Aejys." Tagalong took a golden charm out of her pocket and passed it to Aejys. It hung from a greasy orc's neck thong.
"Margren. It has to be," Aejys muttered. "She must be brought to account. But I can't do it. I must get Laeoli and Ladonys out of there alive."
"That vow was one of the stupidest things ya ever did," Tagalong growled, "Keepin' it's even stupider."
"I didn't have a choice."
"I'd've just walked off."
"I can't live that way."
Tagalong walked over and threw her arms around Aejys' lanky legs in a long hug, "I know. I understand. Ya just leave Margren to Hanadi and me. Don't ya worry about it at all."
"My honor ... my vow..."
"It ain't broken if ya don't know about it... Trust me, Aejys, please."
Aejys loaded her pipe, lit it, and took a long draw. She smoked it down, and then returned it to her leather pouch and her pocket. "Be careful, Tag. And don't do anything that could start a war or a mutiny."
"I won't. Hanadi searched through the dead gobbies and found several things yuh need ta see. I found several gobbies killed in the oddest manner. Looked like they'd been struck by lightnin'. I'd say we had a mage if I didn't know fer sure we didn't. And there was a coatin' of thick ice round the wagons. More magery, if ya know what I mean."
"Clemmerick?" Aejys changed the subject since she had told no one about Eliahu.
"Just fine. Brought Josh and Grymlyken with him."
"Josh? Why Josh?" Aejys had not seen him following in Clemmerick's wake, juggling mage fire. She liked the alcoholic sailor, but she could not think of any reason for the practical minded ogre to have brought him.
"Cause he's a mage, Aejys," Tagalong said in a matter of fact tone, watching closely for her reaction.
"Josh? A mage?" Aejys' face twisted with astonishment and incredulity.
"Yup. And its all yer fault, ya know," Tagalong continued evenly.
"No, I don't know. You can explain it to me while we walk. And everything else you've been holding out on me."
Tagalong rolled her eyes. "Dunno if ya want to hear it all."
"All of it," Aejys said sternly. "How can I make good decisions if I don't have all the facts."
Laurelyanne met them at the bottom of the stairs. "I would order you back to bed, but I know you would not listen. We buried your dead by the north gardens," she said, touching Aejys' arm. "Your fallen captain, Redbeard, lies in state beneath a canopy by the Oak of Sorrows. Your wounded are in the Houses of Healing. You remember where that is? We tried to split the rest up in different houses, but they all refused and are camped on the North Commons."
Aejys started for the door and Laurelyanne halted her.
"Wait," she said reaching into a corner near the door. "Take this." She extended her a tall Maplewood staff covered with delicate carvings of birds and flowers. "Brendorn made it for me when he was a child. It will make your walking easier."
Aejys grasped the staff, sorrow in her eyes. She threw her arms around Laurelyanne. For several minutes they held each other. Then Aejys withdrew gently. "I must see to the others."
"I know."
* * * *
Green Haven, the capital city of the Valdren people, nested on the broad central plateau in the Phoenix Mountains. Many smaller towns and hamlets nestled throughout the mountains as well as a multitude of shepherds' cotwolds. Aejys and Tagalong emerged into the muted sunlight that filtered through the spreading boughs of the gigantic Valdren cedars and ash trees of Green Haven. Widely spaced rows of tall, brown-trimmed white houses encircled the central commons. On the east side beneath the mystical shelter of a stand of sacred blue rowans rose the Long Hall of Meeting. To the north of that stood the spreading, branch-like spires of the Temple of Willodarus and to the southeast, the Palace where the descendants of Eldarion Havenrain still ruled the Valdren people. Turning south, Aejys could see the broad square of the Healer's quad where her people were being tended. Due north, just before the North Commons, stood the Oak of Sorrows and the Field of Heroes. They had to pass by it to reach the tents of Aejys' company.
The Oak of Sorrows was the tallest and oldest tree in Vallimrah. It took a score of myn, linking hands, to encircle its gigantic gnarled trunk. Its branches spread so far that all alone it covered the Field of Heroes from end to end, reaching out over every corner. Legend had it that the Oak was the first tree planted on the reclaimed lands by the God Willodarus, patron and father of the sylvan races. It was also claimed that the great ancestral hero Eldarion Havenrain had been buried beneath the Oak although no one knew where.
The bier of Johannes Redbeard stood a little ways apart with orc weapons and armor piled around it. An honor guard of six stood at attention around the bier: Two from each of the colors. Johannes' people now wore a bit of black ribbon tied around the red.
Aejys gazed at the bier a long time, trying to decide where to go first: her camp to check on her people who would need to be reassured that her wounds had been slight and she was still there to lead them; or the houses of healing to check on her wounded who would need whatever comfort and reassurance she could give them that they would not be abandoned. Then a piquant, laughing face entered her thoughts. "Tag, where's Tamlestari?"
"Helping out at the Houses of Healing," Tag replied, hoping that Aejys would put off the interrogation long enough for her to come up with plausible reasons for all the things she, Cassana, and Tamlestari had not informed Aejys about since their little war got into gear.
"That's where I'm going. You go on and check on the camp. I'll be there presently."
Tagalong grinned broadly, grateful to be excused for the time being. "Sure thing, Aejys."
* * * *
Tagalong walked through the orderly rows of tents, whistling. Most of what she and the others had withheld from Aejys were mere speculations, which they preferred to keep until some hard evidence showed up. Tagalong knew there would be several reports waiting for her at her father's smithy in Armaten. If she could get Aejys to wait a while, she could give her good answers. But the answers were not in yet. At least Clemmerick and Josh had more than justified their tagging along without leave.
Aejys' tent stood in the center with the rest of the tents radiating out from there. Tagalong nodded to the myn she passed, feeling gratified by the respectful nods that even the Red Ribbons gave her. She poked her nose into Aejys' tent and noted that a couple of Aejys' books were laid open on the cot which showed signs of being slept in. She found a change of Tamlestari's clothes folded under the pillow laying askew at the head, a discarded pile of the youth's clothing at the foot and her packs resting where Aejys' cedar chest normally stayed.
Impulsively, Tagalong bent and sniffed at the blankets. They smelled of Aejys: Tamlestari had not changed the sheets. "Can't sleep with her, so she'll sleep where she slept," Tagalong muttered. She had not had many lovers in her life, not nearly as many as Aejys, but she had a keen eye for love when she saw it. She knew the difference between love and infatuation, perhaps better than most since she had always been an observer and almost never a participant. The nearest she came to that emotion was the passionate devotion she felt toward Aejys.
Tagalong would never forget how as a ten year old Aejys had followed her fearlessly and uninvited into the slums of Armaten to find the truth behind the tales the dwarf regaled her with. The rest of the students at the Temple, mostly the daughters of the aristocracy and nobility had avoided or outright snubbed the young dwarf, first of her race to be allowed to study there. Aejys had been different from the start. Different enough to nearly get hersel
f killed by Blackbird's gang, the Market Street Urchins, before Tagalong realized Aejys was there and intervened. Aejys' clothing and manner had made her look out of place and hence an easy mark. After that Tagalong took Aejys under her wing in the darker corners and Aejys returned the favor in the school and aristocratic precincts where the Sharani did not ordinarily welcome non-Sharani.
Tagalong knew that the Urchins were still there, although the membership and leadership had changed as the gang aged. It would always be a kid gang. Blackbird had later served under Aejys in the Great War. The traits that Tagalong's family most objected to in her were the very ones that Aejys valued the dwarf for: insatiable curiosity; a tolerance for and delight in the lower classes; a streetwise savvy; and a penchant for running into interesting, often dangerous, situations even when she was not looking for them.
"Yer not goin' down, Aejys. Not if I have anything ta say about it. Father of Stone! GimliGloikynen, hear me!" Tagalong's voice rose almost to a shout, "If ya don't give me a hand here, I'll put my faith in Cussèd Dynanna instead!" That was a tremendous insult to the dwarf god since Dynanna, God of light-hearted mischief and sheer perversity, was a very young, very minor deity while GimliGloikynen was a very old, very sober god of dwarves, stonemages and metal-working.
Tagalong clapped her hands over her mouth, peeked from the tent, and looked quickly around, hoping that no one had heard her blasphemy. The myn moving about the camp paid her no heed. So she walked out into the center. A small group sat at the front of a tent on the near east side, three rolling the bones and another five looking on. Jeord was one of the watchers, bent, hand on knees, his wounded posterior thrust up higher than his head. The healers had bandaged it so that he could get his pants on, and then tied a pillow to his ass. Even with the extra padding, Tagalong suspected that sitting was still problematical for the big man.
Tagalong hailed them as she walked up. The myn paused in their gaming to acknowledge her with friendly nods and greetings; they did not invite her to join in. Aejys had put a firm stop to that.
