Stripping off her sarand, Sharyn made her choice. And for the first time in many years, she felt truly free.
Chapter Eighteen
Still issuing orders from the center of a large ring of people, Rhia turned to answer a question. Her mouth snapped shut when she spotted Sharyn striding boldly her way.
All of the men stopped talking and followed Rhia’s line of vision, watching as Sharyn shoved her way past several gawkers to reach Rhia’s side.
She wore one of Rhia’s gray tunics, leggings and mid-calf leather boots. Rhia thought she looked incredibly sexy in the sarand, but this form-fitting garb was almost too much. Any enemy that looked on Sharyn in the Draeman-styled outfit would surely drool himself to death.
An exquisite onyx handled dagger was strapped to Sharyn’s left thigh, the near-black blade gleaming dully in the iozene light. As always, her bow was strapped across her back, but her sword was sheathed in a shoulder harness that hid the blade behind her so well that all anyone could see was a bit of the hilt sticking out just under Sharyn’s right arm. With a fully closed cloak, no one would have a clue that the woman carried a two-foot-long piece of death.
“I see you helped yourself to some of my clothes,” Rhia said, as a wide toothy grin spread across her face.
“We are sisters, are we not? I am entitled to steal your clothes on occasion.” Though sober-faced, Sharyn couldn’t hide her smile for long. The two women clapped each other on the shoulder in camaraderie as they’d done countless time before and got back to business.
RuArk’s life was in mortal danger, which was absolutely unacceptable because if anyone was going to kill him, it would be her.
* * * * *
After a busy day of planning, all three of her best friends retired early and joined Rhia in her living room after dinner.
Joan spoke first, barely able to wait until they could get the door closed. “So, who’s behind all this?” she asked impatiently and with an expression that said she’d skin the bastard personally if she could just get a name from Rhia.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him in the Foreknowledge vision. But we have one good thing going. Something is wrong with the bond between RuArk and me so he won’t know that we’re coming after him. It could be a disaster if anyone found out.”
“The warriors will tell no one of your plans. They are sworn to protect their lord,” Sharyn said quietly as she poured herself a glass of chilled red wine from the tray of beverages Lunis had sent up.
Just then Joan turned toward Brita. The woman seemed to be somewhere else, her eyes clearly telling that she wasn’t listening to a word they were saying. She’d gone deathly pale and was trembling slightly, causing the contents of her teacup to slosh about a bit. She seemed to be fighting something.
“Brita, what’s wrong?” Joan asked, taking the cup from the woman’s now badly shaking hand.
“I’m not sure. Perhaps I’m just tired. It’s so hard to focus on anything. My mind keeps running away from me.”
Sharyn took a deliberate step toward the woman Rhia considered one of her sweetest friends and asked, “Are you sleeping much? Perhaps you should go to bed now.”
“No, I don’t want to go to bed. I’ve been having the most horrific nightmares. I’m in no hurry to close my eyes tonight,” she said through a watery smile. She was trying to keep her spirits up, but she wasn’t convincing anyone in that room.
Rhia felt her blood run cold at the mention of nightmares. Sharyn urged the older woman to tell of the dreams. Joan and Rhia shared a look that spoke volumes as Brita began to recount the horror that waited for her every time she closed her eyes. Rhia had indeed had a similar experience until the Grandfather had begun to watch over her dreams right before she and RuArk had become reacquainted. She hadn’t had a bad dream since.
Sharyn spoke first into the silence that followed Brita’s retelling of her dreams.
“Grandfather and the Realmwalkers say there is a taint in the Dream. Someone is misusing their Source. They discovered it some time ago and have been surveilling it ever since.”
“But I don’t have any Gifts. I’m just a plain old Draeman.”
“Those without the Gifts are vulnerable to those who have them. The Gifts protect those who carry them, protect them from others who would attempt to manipulate or control them through things like the Dream.”
“But Rhia had nightmares, too, and she has Gifts,” said an even more pale Brita who seemed to become more terrified as the conversation progressed.
“Rhia may have been visited in the Dream, but she could not be manipulated because of her latent ability. There is a great difference. Now she is twice protected, joined to the Protector of the Realm with the protection of his bond as well as her own Gifts. We must know if your nightmares are true, or an intrusion. If they are an intrusion by this dark, strange taint the Grandfather has spoken of, we must cut all ties to it. We do not know what kind of damage may be done.”
Sharyn moved from her seat to stand in front of Brita, who had risen and began to pace. Joan and Rhia joined her, placing their hands in Brita’s to offer their support.
Sharyn lay her hands on either side of Brita’s head, probing with her Gift of Healing for damage or a dark presence in Brita’s body or mind, just as she and Rhia had searched inside of RuArk’s body the night he’d had his shoulder hacked open by a poisoned Noman blade.
The taint was very subtle but Sharyn was able to find it quickly. It had only taken a few minutes, but Brita fell into unconsciousness, and Rhia and Joan found themselves holding her up, then easing her down onto the long couch. Suddenly, eyes still closed, she began to slap at Sharyn’s hands, trying to get away.
“The taint is there,” Sharyn exclaimed, still trying to keep hold of Brita’s head, trying to isolate and unwind the tendrils that were wrapped around the woman’s subconscious. “It is resisting my Heals, as if it knows I am trying to remove it.” Brita began to thrash in earnest. “Rhia, Joan, restrain her! Now!”
Joan and Rhia flipped Brita over on her stomach and pressed her face into the cushions of the couch. Rhia put her knee and all her weight in the middle of Brita’s back, holding her down. Joan wrapped both arms around Brita’s legs, trying to keep her lower body still. They managed to subdue her. But just barely.
“How is she so strong?” Joan yelled over Brita’s muffled screams, which soon mixed with chilling howls and growls.
“It is more than just her that is fighting me,” said Sharyn, struggling to hold on to Brita’s head. The smaller woman had indeed become incredibly strong.
Brita went rigid, yet the howling went on and on. They could almost hear the darkness in her voice. It was enough to make Rhia silently vow to kill the person who had done this to her friend.
Finally, Rhia ripped off a part of her shirt and stuffed it into the woman’s mouth, still resting all her weight on Brita’s back as Sharyn continued her healing.
Afterward, a relieved, weeping, upset and exhausted Brita lay resting on the couch.
“Brita it is not your fault,” snapped an impatient Rhia, who was handing Brita yet another cloth to wipe her tear stained cheeks as she blubbered on about the consequences of being visited in the Dream. “You didn’t know anything about the Dream. I didn’t even know and I’m part Gaian.”
“I know, but it doesn’t change the fact that I may have betrayed you to some unknown enemy. I don’t know who it is, and I can’t remember what any of the dreams were now. I can’t even tell you how to stop this maniac, which makes me feel pretty fucking useless!”
“But I can.” All eyes turned to Sharyn who lay in the middle of the floor resting to regain some of the energy sapped out of her from healing the damage done to Brita’s mind.
“While I was touching Brita with my Gift, I saw what was done to her, how she was manipulated. I saw the one who violated her mind. And I now know what information was taken by him. Thankfully, she has not slept or napped today so our plans are still unknow
n to him.”
Rhia reached out a hand to help Sharyn up off the floor and settled her into her favorite chair.
“The knowledge was taken directly from Brita’s subconscious mind and she would have had no knowledge of what was being done to her. It was the same man who RuArk threw out of your apartments, the same one who kidnapped you with Brita’s brother, Ricard. Yet, at the same time, it was not him. He was somehow...different, almost another man completely. He looked like Bryan Collaidh but he looked like Bryan if he had been something else. Like a Noman.”
“But how could that be possible?”
“Remember, the Gifts are Gaian alone, but it was not always so. Perhaps this other Bryan has found a way to touch his Source and walk the Dream?”
Perfect platinum brows furrowed in equal parts question and concern, Joan asked, “But without a Gaian to help him, how could he possibly learn such a thing? And if the Gifts aren’t natural to him, then how would he be strong enough to use them in such a way?”
“Well put, Joan. Unfortunately, I have no answers,” Sharyn replied.
“And,” Rhia spoke up, “why would Bryan look like a Noman? And how is it Brita was still being affected even though Bryan is dead?”
“No idea, Rhia. But I do know that this Bryan-who-is-not-Bryan is aware of RuArk’s plans. He knows when RuArk departed for the High City, who accompanied him, and anything else that Brita knew of the journey since her last dreaming.”
“How long was Brita subject to this violation of her mind?”
“We cannot know, however it would explain how Bryan happened to appear in Province Springs and spirit you away the last time RuArk was out of the city. It would also explain her tendency to walk about in a daze. Her spirit was fighting the invasion, yet her mind could not resist. There was no way she would know how.”
Brita, still in tears, blubbered, “Then perhaps my brother was forced to help Bryan. Perhaps he wasn’t a willing partner in all this after all?” One could always hope, but her hopes were soon dashed upon the rocks.
“From what I saw in your mind, the Bryan-who-is-not-Bryan was in league with your brother.”
“But how can you know this if all you saw was what information was taken from me?” Brita was yelling now, almost hysterical at the implications, as well as what could still happen because of her.
“I did not say that the only knowledge I gained was what he took from you.”
A light illuminated brightly in Rhia’s mind. Suddenly, she knew. She understood.
“Sharyn, you saw this counterfeit Bryan’s plans, didn’t you?”
“I saw some of his plans, yes. When you link with someone using the Gifts, it is not a one-way conduit. Yes, knowledge was taken from Brita. But knowledge was also left behind. The only reason she did not realize what was happening is because she does not have the Gifts herself. If she had, she would have felt the invader’s presence as soon as he had reached out to her.”
“So you’re saying that this invader left behind information on his dealings with my brother and his plans?”
Sharyn nodded.
“But why? Why would my brother do such a thing? Why would he join forces with someone like that?” Brita asked.
“Because he was promised something.”
All three of the women asked in a shout, “What?!”
Sharyn took a deep breath, turned directly to the older woman and said, “Your brother was promised Rhia.”
“What?” Rhia was beside herself with anger at the audacity that she could be promised to someone without her knowledge or consent. She was even more pissed off that Sharyn had just confirmed what Ricard himself had told her before he died. And all of this by a man she didn’t even know.
“Rama Collaidh promised Rhia to this white haired other Bryan, as well as to Bryan himself. Then this other Bryan promised Rhia to Ricard. Their plans are to rid this world of the High Counsel and RuArk. They are waiting for them to arrive in the High City. With your father and mate out of the way, it leaves Rhia as High Counsel of Draema province and free to marry either the Councilman, Rama Collaidh, or the white haired Noman-Bryan.”
Brita promptly fell into a dead faint. Unfortunately, Sharyn was too tired to aid her and Rhia and Joan were too stunned to catch her. She landed in a heap with a solid thud on the thick carpets.
This whole thing was a fucking nightmare, even in their waking hours!
Chapter Nineteen
Their party disappeared into the deep darkness of the trees and allowed a lone rider to pass.
Rhia signaled instructions. ‘Oh my mark, draw blades. I’ll approach first.’
One of the warriors signaled back. ‘No, we will surround him and...’
‘When RuArk leads a fireteam, does he ever sit back and let you take point?’
‘Well, no...’
‘Didn’t think so. Now shut up and let me do my job.’ With that, Rhia was the first to burst through the branches to confront the rider. She skidded to a halt.
“Mannon? What are you doing out here?”
“My lady! I knew I would find you,” he gasped, clearly relieved even as he slumped from his horse and landed in the thick foliage in an unmoving heap.
Mannon slowly opened his eyes, squinted up at the night sky and wondered how much time had passed. With the thick clouds and no moon, he could barely make out the outlines of the thick tree trunks all around him.
The last thing he remembered was the ground coming up to meet him as Rhia stood ready to slice his head off. In all his years of serving the House of Greysomne, Mannon had never been so happy to see anyone in his life. He lay on a thick pallet, still wearing his boots and trousers but his shirt had been replaced by a single, soft blanket.
He’d been gravely injured and feared the worst even though the scent of blood was absent. This was going to hurt, but he had to know how bad it was. So he held his breath to keep from crying out as his fingers sought the spot where he’d been sliced as he fled the High City.
Instead of a raw, bloody gash, he found a bandage laid neatly over the site of the deep cut. The surrounding area was sore and achy but somehow the wound felt as if it were a few days old rather than just a few hours.
A moment later, Rhia quietly announced herself as she came and knelt next to Mannon.
“Hey, Manny. Glad you’re awake.”
“That makes two of us,” he said.
“Can you sit up?”
“Yes, sir,” Mannon replied. “A bit stiff, but I can do it.” Ignoring the twinge of pain that radiated across his stomach and ribs, Mannon sat up. The blanket pooled in his lap as Rhia helped him scoot back a bit so he could lean against the nearest tree. Images of the terror he’d faced, the death that he’d been sure would find him, filled his head.
Feeling exposed, he pulled the blanket around him like a cloak and huddled beneath it. Although the night was balmy enough to need no covering at all, Mannon shivered uncontrollably.
“Be right back.” Rhia retreated, only to return a few minutes later.
Mannon was grateful that she slowly eased into his space and made no sudden moves. “Here, drink this,” she said. “It’s thick Gaian coffee laced with anise and honey.”
At his puzzled expression, she said, “Licorice, Mannon. It’s good. And there’s some calming herbs in it to help with the shock of whatever sent you fleeing the High City on a horse.”
“Thank you.” He took the cup from her fingers, sipped and closed his eyes on a sigh of contentment. She was right—it was delicious. Given his circumstances, he felt lucky indeed. He could have fallen from that horse before ever meeting up with Rhia and bled to death. Or worse, become food for the animalistic Noman overrunning his home.
One thing was certain, he preferred his nightmares to stay in his dreams. Instead, he’d seen monsters running around his City, his home. Draema hadn’t been attacked in too many years to count and nobody saw this coming. In this case, even the laser cannons atop the walls were of no use—t
hey faced out towards wild terrain, which did no good when your enemies were already inside.
Opening his eyes, Mannon forced himself to meet Rhia’s concerned gaze. He didn’t bother pretending to be calm or ‘okay’. He let all of his emotions play across his face, hoping it conveyed what he couldn’t quite form the words to say just now.
Wait. Something moved in his periphery, he was sure of it. Peering past Rhia, Mannon tried to distinguish the shapes moving in the darkness. They were quite close now, but made no sound. It was times like this he wished he had Noman sight in this fucking pitch blackness!
Eyes grew wide as they were slowly surrounded by a formidable wall of raw muscle with an energy that buzzed around him until his hair felt as if it stood on end.
“Don’t worry Mannon.” Joan—another person he was so glad to see—stepped into view and moved directly into his line of sight. “They’re with us.”
“They” turned out to be scores of huge Gaian warriors and even some Draeman soldiers, all fully armed. The closest ones wore the colors and sigil of the Wind Storm. Thank god.
“Can you eat?” At his nod, Joan handed over a small plate of cold fowl, bread and hard cheese, and then settled on her knees next to Rhia. “Sorry the food is cold. We had to travel light, so we don’t have cooking equipment that can accommodate all of us, and we’re way too close to the city to risk a large enough fire. But thanks to Draeman tech, at least we have coffee courtesy of a few iozene powered heat elements.”
“Coffee,” Rhia chuckled. “Gotta have it. Survival 101.”
Still a bit unsure of his surroundings Mannon noted how quiet the camp was. None of the men made a sound, though most of them looked much too large to possibly move so quietly and gracefully. So caught up in his observations, Mannon accepted the plate with his left hand and momentarily forgot about the wound on that side. He instinctively winced at the wicked pull, and then realized there was no true pain. Even the soreness that he’d felt upon waking just a few moments ago was diminishing.
Reckoning Page 17
