JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING BOOK I: MY SISTER'S KEEPER

by JANRAE FRANK

  Tamlestari drew back, dropping the cloth. "Aejys, beloved, it's me. Tamlestari."

  "I know who you are! Someone get this bitch away from me." Aejys thrashed, shoving Tamlestari aside, trying to sit up. A wave of pain and dizziness dropped her and she cursed loudly.

  Tamlestari's face clouded with hurt and she sprang to her feet, fleeing across the cave.

  "Shhh." A healer, someone Aejys did not know, bent over her. "Rest, Lord Aejys. Calm or I'll sedate you." The healer shook back her sleeve to reveal a band of tiny color-coded darts.

  Aejys acquiesced. She lay back just as a tear of deepest sorrow squeezed between her eyelashes. She had to drive Tamlestari off, break her heart – it was the only way to keep her and their children safe. It was far better if she never saw the youth again, never met their children – at least then they would have a chance at life. The only chance they would have with her would be death. Gwyndar was dead. Aejys felt certain then that she could not deal with any more deaths among those she loved – any more and it would be so easy to just go mad. "Aroana God," she whispered, "I'm not strong enough to save realms anymore. Find someone else... Just let me get Laeoli and Ladonys out of Shaurone safely."

  "Aejys?" Tagalong squatted by her head.

  "What?" Aejys looked up into the dwarf's broad, blunt face twisted by grief. "Who?"

  "Jeord ... my friend. He's dead. The. Big. Idiot." Tagalong tried to keep her voice even, but Aejys could hear the cracks and strain that those who knew her less well would miss. "Tried to make like Clemmerick."

  "I'm sorry." Aejys reached up and stroked Tagalong's tangled red locks.

  "Healer says ya'll live. That's something."

  "Clemmerick?"

  Tagalong dragged a heavy sigh, "Got cut up pretty good, but he'll be fine. Ogres got great constitutions."

  "That's enough," the healer said, pouring a golden liquid into a small glass. He raised Aejys up, supporting her head and shoulders as he placed the glass at her lips. Aejys drank and lay back, passing easily into sleep.

  * * * *

  Josh huddled in a rocky niche at the farthest place in the cave from the others. He laid his head on his knees, his arms encircling his legs, his eyes staring in an unfocussed way off into space. Eliahu knelt beside him, stroking his head and shoulders.

  "It's all right, Josh," he murmured reassuringly, as if to a small troubled child. He had been trying for an hour to get through to Josh, but the man seemed almost catatonic. "Everything is all right now. Aejys will live and so will Clemmerick."

  Josh never moved, did not even seem to hear.

  Laurelyanne squatted down next to Eliahu, studying Josh. She reached in her satchel and began to mix several potions in a glass, gold and red and green, yet the contents turned purple. "See if you can get him to drink this."

  "You put holadil in it?"

  "Yes."

  "That's what started all this mess!" Eliahu snapped.

  "No, it isn't." Josh's voice sounded far off and distant as if he was not really there. "My father started it."

  Laurelyanne and Eliahu glanced at each other in startlement, then back at Josh. She pressed the glass into his hands. Josh leaned into the cave wall, refusing to look at them as he continued, but he accepted the glass and sipped at it.

  "I was born with the magic. I did little things – lit candles, talked to animals, called birds out of trees." He paused, took a larger sip, and went on. "Father was a sailor, first mate on a fine ship. He was superstitious. My magic frightened him. He found a back alley, apostate priest mage. Paid him to burn the magic out of me." Tears started down Josh's seamed, weather-beaten face. "My body never quit burning, hungering for the magic. Felt like all the nerves in my skin burned ... except when I drank." The tears ran more and more freely until it was almost like a river running from his eyes. "Holadil just brought it back ... but the pain didn't go away. When I'm sober I still hurt and burn..."

  Josh closed his eyes, leaning against the cave wall. One of the growing side effects of the rite, which had burned out the magic, combined with heavy drinking, was that he appeared more than twice his actual age and he had stopped telling people how old he was because no one would believe him. Josh was only a few months shy of twenty-five.

  "The sins of the parents are always visited upon the children," Laurelyanne said softly, sadly. "When we get to the next village I'll try to mix up something to help you."

  Josh looked up at her then with a look of simple hope and longing, as innocent as a child. He tried to smile. "Help me?"

  "I promise, Josh." Laurelyanne squeezed his shoulder. "Now you rest too." She stood up to leave.

  "Laurelyanne," Eliahu said, "thank you. Would you ask Grawl to come here?"

  "Certainly."

  Josh reached out to Eliahu. "And then ... then there's the dreams. Do you think she can help me with the dreams?"

  "What dreams?"

  "Dreams full of blood, death, and fire. Dreams where Abelard comes to talk with me. He says I'm supposed to do something. But I run away from him. I'm more afraid of Abelard than I am the rest of it."

  Eliahu shivered. "Oh gods, Josh. Why didn't you tell one of us sooner about these dreams?"

  "I'm afraid of them..."

  "Do you know what your birth parents' last name was? Might it have been Abelard?"

  "I don't know their name. I don't remember them. Is Abelard a last name?" Josh's voice strengthened a little as he sipped Laurelyanne's brew.

  "Yes. The mage master's name was Josiah Abelard. He was Sharani. He died five hundred years ago. What does he look like in your dreams?"

  "I never see his face clearly. But there is a flame mark burned into his forehead and when he raises his sword, the mark becomes a crown of flames."

  "Kalirion's mark. He was the last mage-paladin to the Sun-Lord. If his spirit is speaking to you in your dreams, Josh, you should listen to him. He won't hurt you."

  "I'll try. I promise I'll try. But he terrifies me."

  * * * *

  It took six days for the villagers, working hand in hand with the able-bodied in Aejys' company to clear the trees and brush away from the cave entrance. Laurelyanne wanted to stay longer, let Aejys and Clemmerick rest, but Aejys would have none of it. The Valdren mage procured a covered wagon for Aejys to ride in back. Eliahu drove with Josh sitting beside him. In bits and pieces Josh began to talk to Eliahu and Laurelyanne, confiding to them things he had never told anyone. Not even Clemmerick. Especially about the magic, what it felt to have it ripped from him and then the terror of having it back. His foster parents had made him feel that there was something unnatural and evil about his having the magic that was particular to himself. He told them about the dreams and visions and, while they could not interpret them, they could understand how it would disturb him so deeply. The more he managed to get out, the more he was able to speak of, and Josh grew steadier.

  * * * *

  The first night out, they sheltered beside a running stream at the foot of the mountains. The trees were ablaze with the colors of autumn and the weather had taken another warm turn. Although Aejys had driven Tamlestari repeatedly from her side, the stubborn young mon settled Emrindi beside Aejys' tent, and started to move her gear inside when Laurelyanne extended her staff across the tent's entrance.

  "I have a tent waiting for you among our rangers," she told the youth, her voice as gentle as could be managed, fully cognizant of her response to Tehmistoclus' meddling earlier.

  "Like hell you have!" Tamlestari flared.

  Tagalong trundled up and stood looking from one to the other, thoughtful and just a tad speculative.

  "It's for your safety," Laurelyanne continued in her gentle tone.

  "Are you suggesting that my lover is a danger? Or simply not good enough?"

  "Aejys is a good mon," Laurelyanne replied evenly, moving more firmly between Tamlestari and the tent. "Aejys is not the problem."

  "Then what is?" The color had risen in Tamlestari's cheeks and
her eyes burned like bright coals. "She was just fine before your people started meddling!"

  "Your people," Laurelyanne said pointedly. "Like it or not, you are our princess."

  "Uhhhh," Tagalong groaned, catching at Laurelyanne's sleeve. "Wrong translation–"

  "Don't condescend to me!" Tamlestari fairly shrieked.

  "Uh ... uh..." Tagalong pulled Laurelyanne's sleeve hard.

  The mage glanced down, bending closer while keeping an eye on her irate scion.

  "Puttin' the gender on things, makes it a diminutive," Tagalong muttered in Laurelyanne's ear as the volatile youth launched into a string of epithets and expletives in Sharani that brought a burning blush to the dwarf's face. "Let's find Aejys..."

  Tagalong dragged Laurelyanne swiftly in the opposite direction. Tamlestari, watching their retreat, smiled smugly, cooling quickly as she returned to moving her stuff into the tent.

  * * * *

  Aejys eased out of the back of the wagon as Eliahu tethered the horses beside the tent. Josh came around and offered her his arm. She glanced at him and started to refuse, then reconsidered. Josh helped her the rest of the way down. "You should sleep in the wagon," he said.

  Aejys shook her head. "No, I need to have more air."

  As she entered the tent she came face to face with Tamlestari. Tamlestari's eyes filled with tears. "Don't send me away again. I need to be with you. Please."

  Aejys froze, her stomach knotting. Tamlestari's tears nearly brought tears to Aejys' own eyes. "Get out of here," she hissed. "I don't want to see you. I don't want to talk to you. I don't even want to know you're here." Then she grabbed Tamlestari's bedroll, throwing it out of the tent.

  Tamlestari gave a strangled cry and fled.

  Aejys collapsed onto the cot, the movement had hurt her, but rejecting Tamlestari yet again hurt her worse. She folded her arms across her knees, pressing her face into them and wept long muffled sobs. "I love you."

  "Ya sure ya want ta keep doin' this ta her?" Tagalong poked her face into the tent.

  "Yes."

  Tagalong shook her head and started off in Tamlestari's wake, only to have Aejys call her back.

  Aejys turned a tear-streaked face to the stout dwarf, her childhood companion. "Tag, promise me. If ... things go wrong... Don't leave me in Shaurone... Put me next to Brendorn... I've been happy there..."

  "Nothin's gonna happen ta ya!" Tag exploded, "Get that through yer head, ya blasted puddin' head paladin!"

  Aejys smiled sadly. "Tag, if Margren comes any closer to killing me than she has so far, I'll be very dead. Just promise me... "

  Tagalong sighed heavily, her expression twisted by the shadow of trouble and doubt: the more things Margren threw at them, the less confident Tagalong felt in her ability to protect Aejys. "Yeah. I promise. Next to Brendorn."

  "Good. This needs to be understood. I want you to take care of Tamlestari and our children. And if I die unclean..."

  "Yar not gonna die!"

  "Tag, humor me. If I die unclean, you'll take my head and heart."

  "I promise, Aejys."

  "Thanks."

  Tagalong shook her head and raced off, as much to get away from Aejys saying things the dwarf did not want to hear as to catch up with Tamlestari.

  * * * *

  Nothing further attacked them on their journey. It was as if the magical attack by Josh had taken the fight out of Margren. They reached the Fords of Idar on the southwestern border just a little over two weeks later. The Mar'ajan Geoa Odaren met them there with two units of border guards. They sat tall in their saddles, some of the finest light cavalry on the continent. Geoa dismounted, as did Aejys. They met in the middle. Geoa's thoughtful gray eyes looked heavy with inner conflicts, almost sad. Fifteen years older than Aejys, but still too young by Sharani standards of aging for the white streaking her black hair. She clasped Aejys' arm, pulling her into an embrace that she held for several minutes. Then Geoa gave her a pat on the back, pulling away.

  "Come on," Geoa said. "We have to talk..." She led Aejys out of earshot of the troops, settling cross-legged on the ground. "This is hard..." she sighed heavily. "Go on, sit down." She gestured next to her.

  Aejys' stomach knotted with fear. "Ladonys?"

  "And Laeoli."

  "No," Aejys protested, "I've had letters ... she was safe..." She felt her body go numb, the bottom of her stomach seemed to dissolve into yawning emptiness. "I–"

  "Those letters ... whoever sent them ... lied," Geoa said sternly. "Laeoli was slain by the shifter and bears that attacked Ladonys. They found her body the night of the equinox, washed up on the shore of the Arris River. The same night Ladonys died."

  Aejys began to shake hard. She clutched her hands, pressing them into her stomach, feeling a scream rising in the center of her being, forcing its way up like a rock-hard fist through her throat, into her mouth. It broke across the gathered companies, shattering their thoughts, ending their conversations, tumbling their world into uncertainty.

  Tamlestari kicked Emrindi into a gallop, breaking from the company before anyone could stop her. She flung herself from the saddle at Aejys' feet, gathering the screaming, weeping woman in her arms.

  Aejys shoved Tamlestari away, growling, "Get away, you stupid shit!"

  Tamlestari stared at Aejys, and then threw her wombmother a questioning glance. Geoa shook her head, and then nodded that she should leave. Tamlestari turned to Aejys again. "I love you, Aejys... Please, let me..."

  "I hate you. Do you hear me? I HATE YOU!" Aejys screamed, lifting her fist as if to strike the youth.

  Tamlestari recoiled, moving away, weeping now herself.

  Geoa took her arm, leading her back to the assembled units. "Let her be. Laeoli and Ladonys were both slain."

  "Ma'aram," Tamlestari said, letting herself be led, "mei Amita is dead also."

  Geoa released Tamlestari, pressing her hands to her face. "I've known. In my heart. I've known." She started on and Tamlestari followed, catching at her, making her pause.

  "What more?" Geoa asked calmly, but the strain was showing.

  Tamlestari bent close to her ear, whispering, "I'm carrying Aejys and Brendorn's child."

  "You're... WHAT?" Geoa stood thunderstruck. "Does anyone know this child is Aejys'?" She reached out to touch her daughter's conspicuously swollen stomach.

  Tamlestari smiled sadly, shaking her head. She did not bother trying to explain that all of Vallimrah knew, but that their policy of "don't tell the humans" made it a publicly kept state secret. Nor would she tell her 'lasah that her ma'aram was, after a fashion alive, since Geoa had long ago remarried. That would be cruel and needless. The Sharani were as little inclined to gossip as the Valdren.

  "Keep it that way," Geoa said with more sternness than she meant. "I need to think this through."

  Tagalong and Laurelyanne passed them on foot.

  * * * *

  Geoa sent most of Aejys' units under Hanadi's leadership and all of her own on to Iarwind, her capital. She took Tamlestari with her, trying to just take a little joy at the prospect of her first grandchildren.

  Tagalong, Laurelyanne, and ten Valdren rangers, set up camp close to where Aejys sat weeping and cursing into the night.

  Tagalong sat beside Aejys, patting now and again.

  "If I'd taken them with me..."

  "Huh uh. Kaethreyn woulda had every soldier in the entire kingdom chasing us."

  "Margren dies, Tag," Aejys' voice had a dead, broken quality to it, yet now and again, Tagalong heard something else, something disturbing, a thin thread of stone-cold resolve and a freezing fatalistic anger.

  Tagalong's eyes filled with tears and she started patting Aejys again. Laurelyanne squatted in front of them with a tall bottle of liquor and three small glasses. She poured the liquor, setting the first small glass in front of Aejys, folding the ha'taren's hands around it.

  "What did you put in it?" Aejys asked suspiciously.

  "Just whiskey," Laurelyanne repl
ied, lifting her glass, "we're all drinking it." She downed her glass like a veteran and refilled it.

  Tagalong kept looking from one to the other, then slammed her drink down her throat and grabbed the bottle, pouring another.

  Aejys watched Laurelyanne down her second glass and frowned at her. Finally, convinced that the drink held only whiskey, she swallowed it. It had scarcely gone down her throat when she swayed and tumbled forward, collapsing against the mage who settled her gently to earth.

  Tagalong stared, glancing from her glass to Aejys. "Father of Stone!" she yelped. "I thought ya said ya didn't spike it! What am I drinkin'?"

  "Whiskey, Tag, just whiskey," Laurelyanne answered tiredly. "I spelled her glass." She stood up, lit her staff with a word, and waved it at their camp. Borian Silverwing and another ranger came, lifted Aejys up, and bore the unconscious mon away.

  Tagalong grabbed the bottle, thinking seriously about killing it.

  "I just couldn't bear it," Laurelyanne said as they walked, "Listening to such grief... I lost a grandchild and my youngest son... If Aejys doesn't kill her, I think I will."

  "Yer gonna hafta beat me ta her."

  They broke camp quickly heading for Iarwind. Borian rode with the unconscious Aejys on his lap, cradled like a child, his face grim as he thought about his murdered cousins.

  * * * *

  "Hello."

  Hanadi started sharply from her thoughts, throwing stars sliding into her hands as she turned to face the window and the cloaked person sitting there. Just moments ago she had sent Brundarad to check all the rooms in their wing, so she faced the intruder alone.

  "Hsahhh! Is that any way to greet me?" Talons pulled her hood back.

  "Little scamp you are," Hanadi said, sheathing her daggers. "What is it you are doing here?"

  Talons told her the story. Hanadi listened in silence, her face growing steadily more grim. "I cannot believe Archer is dead... She was always so skilled."

  "I watched the shifter and his bears tear her apart. She counted for two of them."

  "And those letters? Who was it sent them?" Hanadi demanded.

  "I assume it was Sorrow or Laeth, the shifter versions." Talons pulled five slender sealed packages from beneath her cloak, handed them to Hanadi, and reached back for the last, which was open. "I took captives. Grandsire interrogated them. They're identical," she said, nodding at the packages. "The open one is for you. Get them in the right hands immediately. This is the last five. Everyone else who needs to has them. I'll find you again in Rowan." Talons turned in the windows. "Back to the war," she said and dropped out of sight.