by K. C. May
He felt a second touch on his forehead, and immediately the two egg shapes appeared. Again they broke up when he tried to focus on them. Then he discovered that if he didn’t focus directly on them, if he concentrated instead on a point near the center of Daia’s egg, perhaps a few inches closer than the nearest boundary, he could see it better. “I see it.” Daia’s haze had a sunny ring near the top. A swirling cloud of orange swept outward from her abdomen. Using the hidden eye gave him a clearer image of the hazes than relaxing his physical eyes did.
Jennalia clapped her hands. “This is your hiding eye at work. You are very strong. You only need practice.”
He opened his eyes, but the haze didn’t immediately fade. He had to blink a few times to see Daia’s bodily form.
She was smiling, her chin resting on the back of one hand. “Well done, Gavin. I didn’t even help you.”
“Next, we try harder,” Jennalia said. “Turn around so Daia is on your back.”
“Behind me?”
“Yes, behind.”
He stood and straddled his chair, leaning on its back. As much as he tried to follow Jennalia’s instructions and do what he did last time, he couldn’t see Daia’s haze nor his teacher’s. She even stood to touch his forehead like she did before, but he felt like he was groping in the dark.
“Vusar, try help him,” Jennalia said.
Immediately, Gavin sensed a brilliant orange flame behind him, stretching outward from her abdomen toward his own like a tongue. The sensation of seeing through the back of his head and looking at her haze was startling. “Seven hells! I see you!”
“Stop now,” Jennalia said. “Let him try find you again.”
They practiced this for another hour until Gavin was able to find both women’s hazes without Daia’s help.
“What’s next?” Gavin asked as he faced the two women. He felt energized, eager to learn more.
“There is no next,” Jennalia said. “I taught you what I can. Only practice now, to build your skill. You must practice finding vusar over great distance, and she also finding you. When you can find each other, you can use her.”
“But what about the vortex? How do I find it? How do I open it?”
“I know nothing about vortex, but everything is done same way — use your hiding eye. When your skill is enough to find vusar across great distance, then you can venture beyond this realm.” Jennalia leaned over and took his face between her tiny, warm hands. “Do not be too eager to journey. Without connect to vusar, how will you return?”
The old woman had a point. The last thing he needed to do was get himself stranded in another realm.
Daia started to mount her horse and paused, thinking about the figurine in her pack. She’d taken it from the corpse of the Nilmarion Sithral Tyr a few weeks earlier, but no one she’d asked knew what it was. “I’ll catch up to you in a bit. I want to ask Jennalia about something.”
“About what?” Gavin asked. “She dug into her saddle bag, searching by feel for the object at the bottom. ”I want to ask her what this is.“ Her fingers found the cold, smooth surface and pulled out a cat figurine made of porcelain with a glassy, gray-green finish and deep black eyes. It might have been attractive except that there was something distinctly... horrible about the eyes.
“You’re still carrying that thing around? Just smash it and be done with it.” He swung onto Golam’s back. “Prob’ly has nothing but sand inside.”
She shrugged as she started back to the mage’s door. “Perhaps. I’ll see you back at the inn.”
Jennalia answered the door with a questioning expression. “Vusar? Something is wrong?”
“I found a little sculpture a short time ago and hoped you could tell me what it is.”
“Oh? Let me hold it.”
Daia put the figurine into Jennalia’s tiny hands and watched her feel its shape. “Where did you get it?”
“I killed a Nilmarion criminal and found it on his body.”
Jennalia pushed it back into Daia’s hands. “Take it away. You must be careful to not break it. It is dangerous.”
It felt heavier than it looked, but dangerous? Only if she broke it over someone’s head. “What is it?”
“Soulcele token. Nilmarion use them to protect innocent souls before death or imprison evil ones. This one contains blackened soul. You must not let it to escape.”
“A soul?” Daia asked in disbelief. “Do you mean the Nilmarion’s soul?”
“Yes. I cannot see shadow because of special ward to lock soul inside.”
“Did his soul go into it when he died?”
Jennalia shook her head slowly. “Nilmarions have ceremony to separate soul when it becomes evil. That man did horrible thing and his gods punish him by removing zhi. Best thing to bury it. Bury it deep in wilderness so nobody ever will find it. Be sure not to let it break.”
“What would happen if it breaks?”
“I do not know. Some say the soul is release to go to afterlife. Others say it finds new body to live in. I want to be far away if it breaks. Far away. Please. Take it.” Jennalia closed the door, leaving Daia standing bewildered and disturbed on the stoop.
Chapter 26
Gavin was quiet on the way back to the inn, considering the things Jennalia had said and weighing them against what he knew he must do. The demon in the palace had waited two hundred years. It would wait a few more weeks. Still, he felt the weight of time pressing on his shoulders and couldn’t shake the notion that he didn’t have weeks to practice. The country needed its king, and he needed to ensure the people’s safety before he could claim to be their leader and expect them to bend the knee.
“Try it, Gavin.” Daia rode beside him on her brown mare. “Ride on ahead and try to find me. I’ll help you.”
He nodded. “Awright. I’ll lift my right hand if I find you. Then stop helping me and I’ll try it again.” She dropped back while he and Golam continued walking. Trusting his horse not to run people down in the street, he shut his eyes and concentrated on Daia’s haze. To his surprise, he saw a dozen of them belonging to the townsfolk they passed. He searched behind him, and there, slightly distant, was Daia’s haze with the orange bolt shooting toward him. It was so intense as it came at him, he had the urge to duck. Instead, he lifted his right arm and watched with his hidden eye while the orange tendril shortened, withdrawing back into the center of Daia’s egg-shaped haze.
He tongued the gap between his teeth while he contemplated what Jennalia had said. Without vusar, how will you return? The question struck him deeply. If his connection to Daia didn’t stretch across the boundary between realms, he could very well be stuck there. King Arek had no mystical conduit to help him, but he still found his way home. If Gavin had to use King Arek’s method of finding the vortex without Daia’s help, then Jennalia was right. He needed much more practice using his hidden eye. In the beyonders’ realm, he would have to find a vortex before summoning Ritol and hope he had time to open it before the demon — and all the other beyonders — killed him.
“What’s on your mind?” Daia asked.
“Thinking about how I’d get home if I couldn’t find you from another realm. If I can’t open a vortex, then I’m stuck.”
“If we had a way to create a more solid connection between us...” She tapped her chin. “I wonder... do you still have that ring you took from Ravenkind.”
The idea lit up in his mind like a torch in a cave. He snapped his fingers. “That’s it. He used the gem in his ring to control Lilalian and the others.”
“If we could get one of the necklaces they were wearing, maybe we could use the ring and necklace to find each other.”
“I broke the connection between those gems at the cave, remember?”
“Couldn’t you reconnect them?”
“Maybe. Or get new ones made.”
After asking several people on the street, they found a gemsmith’s shop fifteen minutes’ walk from the inn. When they entered, Gavin sensed that the proprietor was m
ore than a gemsmith. He felt a peculiar tickle in his gut and knew she had the ability to read hazes.
Comely, blond and voluptuous, she didn’t fit his image of a gemsmith. He supposed he wouldn’t fit her image of a king, either. “Good afternoon. Welcome to Gemma’s Gems,” she said. “I provide full-service gemsmithing: cutting, setting and spelling.”
Gavin waved a hand in front of her in the fashion of a mystic. “I sense... your name’s Gemma.”
She smiled slyly. “No, it’s Brandalyn. I named the shop after my mother.”
Daia laughed and slapped his arm playfully.
“Damn. It was a good guess, though.”
“How might I help you today?”
“Awright, well, Brandalyn, I have this gem.” He showed her Ravenkind’s ring. “It used to be connected to another like it.”
“May I?”
He handed it to her. Brandalyn went to the desk against the wall, held it under the light of a lamp and peered at it. “Yes, I see. The connection was severed quite violently, it seems.” She opened a drawer and pulled out a contraption which she slipped onto her head. It appeared to be a jeweler’s loupe attached to a strap, but the loupe laid between her eyebrows rather than over one eye. “There was more than one. Dozens. This was skillfully spelled. Did you do this?”
“No. I’m the one who broke it. We were wondering if the connection can be repaired somehow.”
She took the loupe off and returned the ring to him. “I’m afraid not. The gem is quite fragile now. Try to use it once and it’ll break into bits. You might as well sell it as jewelry scrap.”
“Oh.”
Daia asked, “Do you have a gem to replace it? Something we can pair with another?”
Brandalyn gestured to a table. “Absolutely. What we do is spell one gem then cut it into two or more pieces. Have a seat. I’ll show you what I have.”
They pulled a pair of stools out from under the table and sat while Brandalyn retrieved a flat box from the adjacent room. After setting the box on the table, she opened the lid. Inside were perhaps three dozen gems of various colors, all smoothly cut into round or oval shapes and polished to a shine. One in particular drew his eye, a brilliant blue gem.
“What’s that one?” he asked, pointing to it.
“That’s a sapphire. It’s particularly good for spells involving locating people or things. Many people use it in divining wands, but it’s especially favored among matchmakers.”
Daia looked at him with raised brows. “You have a good eye.”
“What’s your purpose?” Brandalyn asked.
“Finding someone,” Gavin answered with a grin. He nodded his head toward Daia. “Her in partic’lar.”
Brandalyn blinked. “I’m not sure I understand. Why would you need to find her if she’s right beside you?”
“She gets carried away picking berries and gets herself lost.” He smiled teasingly.
Daia shoved him lightly. “I am not Golam. I can’t believe you said that.”
“Sounds like what you need,” Brandalyn said, smiling, “is a lover’s tie binding. It helps you feel more connected to each other, however far apart you are.”
Gavin scratched his temple. “Uh, a lover’s tie?”
Daia blushed. “Oh, we’re not—”
“Don’t feel abashed,” Brandalyn said. “I’ve heard of Viragon Sisters and warrant knights falling in love before. It’s perfectly natural. You fight side by side, you live similar lifestyles, have similar codes of honor. It’s easy to see why the two of you would bond emotionally.”
Gavin’s neck started to itch. “How much would a gem like that cost?”
“This one is one hundred twenty-five dyclen without the spell. Two hundred with.”
Daia gasped so sharply, she began to cough.
“Do you have anything in the five dyclen range?” he asked, grinning. He figured she would either laugh and ask them to leave, or ask them to leave first then laugh.
“Five? You’re jesting.”
“We’re beggared.”
Brandalyn lifted her chin toward Gavin’s sword. “That’s quite a fine sword for someone who claims to be pielarless.”
Better leave before this conversation goes too far off-path. “Valour-gild,” he said, standing.
“Why not use one of those gems?” she asked.
“Sentimental reasons. Sorry to waste your time.” He headed to the door.
“May I have a closer look at those gems?”
“We haven’t the time to spare, sorry,” Daia said, taking his cue.
Brandalyn followed them. “Those are far better-quality gems than any I’ve ever seen. Wait.” She caught his sleeve. “Oh, goodness! It’s you, isn’t it? The rune solver. Those are the gems from the Rune Tablet.”
As a shadow reader, she’d be able to tell if either of them lied. Better to address the matter before it got worse. “Look, it’s best if you don’t mention this to anyone, awright? I’m not ready to make the knowledge public yet.”
Her eyes glittered like they were faceted. “The rune solver’s a warrant knight. I knew there was something different about your shadow when you came in. I didn’t know how to interpret it. I’m honored to have you in my shop.” She curtsied low to the floor. “I could sell you the gem for what I paid — seventy-five dyclen. I’d give it to you if I could, my lord, but I have all my money tied up in gems and little enough to spend on food.”
“I understand,” Gavin said. He didn’t want people thinking they had to give him the shirts off their backs just because he was king.
“What about your blue gem?” Daia asked. “I’d understand if you don’t want to cut it, but it’s an option.”
That was a good use for the gem. With the other four in his sword, he didn’t need it to help his magic. He opened his coin pouch and pulled it out. “What about using this one?”
Brandalyn’s eyes widened. “Oh, my. A blue moonstone. That’s remarkable. I’ve never seen one with such depth and clarity.”
“How much to spell it?” Gavin asked.
“My normal price is seventy-five dyclen, but for the rune solver, I’ll do it for fifteen.”
“We don’t have fifteen.”
“Perhaps a marker,” Daia said. “Something you can redeem for coin in a few weeks, once His Majesty gets access to the royal coffer.”
Gavin liked the idea. “If you spell my gem now, I’ll give you a marker for twice your price, one hundred fifty dyclen, and I’ll give you the gem in this ring that you can sell for jewelry.”
“I don’t even know your name, my lord.”
“It’s Gavin Kinshield.”
Her eyes brightened. “Kinshield? We’ll have a Kinshield on the throne? In that case, agreed.” She offered her hand, and he shook it. She cradled her hand in the other as though it were a precious thing. “Oh, this is so exciting. The rune solver is in my shop! When will you solve the last rune and claim the... Oh! You already have the Blood-stone. You’re actually the king?”
“He is, and you’ll keep this knowledge to yourself?” Daia asked.
Brandalyn nodded and swallowed. “Pardon me.” She shuffled to the table and sat on a stool. “Goodness.” She fanned herself with one hand. “Seems I’ve a touch of the vapors.”
Gavin and Daia shared a look of amusement as they sat back down. “About the rings,” he said, urging her back to the matter at hand.
“Yes, the rings. Right. Do you have another ring to set the other half of the gem into?”
“No,” he said, trying to look pitiful. For one hundred fifty dyclen, maybe she could include one in the arrangement.
Brandalyn laughed. “That’s not a problem. I can find something to give you, though the fit may not be perfect. Does this ring have any sentimental value?”
Both shook their heads with matching expressions of disgust.
“Very well. I’ll be only a moment.” She took the box of gems and Ravenkind’s ring into the next room and returned a few minute
s later. On the table, she laid several steel rings of various shapes and sizes, each with a setting to hold a gem. One she pulled away from the group. “This is the ring you came in with. If it fits one of you, I’ll reuse it, but feel free to choose the two that fit you best.”
They tried the different rings on various fingers, and each chose one that fit better than the others. Gavin selected the largest one of the bunch, which fit the middle finger of his right hand. He didn’t want it to slide off easily and didn’t want to wear anything on his sword hand that might interfere with his grip. Daia chose one for the third finger of her left hand, the finger women usually chose for a wedding ring. When Gavin gave her a questioning look, she shrugged.
“I’m ready to spell the gem for the lover’s tie— and I presume perhaps you’re not... never mind. The spell is the same regardless.” Gavin handed her the blue moonstone, and she wrapped her fingers around it. “If you would, Lady Sister, place your hand on mine, and you, my lord king, place yours on hers.” She waited until everyone’s hands were into position. “Good. Give me a moment.” Gavin saw Daia connect with Brandalyn, who gasped. “Goodness! So that’s what the flame in your shadow is.”
“Thought maybe it would help,” Daia said with a grin.
“This will be a very strong tie.” Brandalyn whispered something Gavin didn’t quite hear. A white spark rippled across his haze and another across Daia’s. The gem now had a faint white haze of its own. “And it’s done.” They withdrew their hands. “I’ll need about a half-hour to cut the gem in two and set the two halves securely into your rings. Feel free to wait here or return.” She went into the adjacent room.
“Let’s take a walk,” Daia suggested. “We can practice a bit more without the rings.”
Chapter 27
The next morning, Gavin awoke with a start as he did every morning, only this time it wasn’t beyonders that had startled him but Ritol itself. The things Jennalia had said pressed heavily on his mind. He sat on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands, wondering how the hell he was going to make it through all this.
