by Cindy Dees
She had nothing to cry about. She, Justin, and Cicero had escaped Alchizzadon, and Kadir and Lakanos were safe to boot. It had been a good day’s work. Then why did she feel on the verge of a total breakdown and sobbing fit?
Justin came to sit beside her, his hair still damp from his bath. “You okay, muckling? You look like someone just took your mud pit away.”
She made a face at him, and he grinned at her. She confessed, “Truth be told, I’m feeling a little down. And I don’t know why. I’ve finally got you all to myself out here in the wilds and can have my wicked way with you.”
Justin’s grin widened. “You sound like Callisia. She suggested several utterly scandalous things to me while she scrubbed my back.”
“She attended your bath?”
“No need for jealousy. It wasn’t like I could keep her out, the way she just walked in and out of that tree of hers. Takes a little getting used to seeing a person tree walk like that.”
Raina ladled up a bowl of broth for him. “Yes. It does. Wait till they drape themselves all over you and purr in your ear. I’ve seen Cicero sweat until streams of perspiration ran down his face trying to resist them. You do know not to gaze directly into any dryad’s eyes, lest she charm and enslave you, right?”
“I’m not that fresh off the farm. I do know a thing or two about the world.”
She stuck out her tongue at him and passed him the soup.
Kadir joined them in a few minutes, also freshly bathed. As Raina passed him some of the rich broth, she asked, “What’s the fastest way back to the Sorrow Wold or thereabouts?”
“If Maren’s Belt were finished, I would say that. But the waestones that will enhance speed of travel along it are not yet installed, according to my sources. Barring that, I suppose cutting across the Thirst and then traveling south through the Valelands and Meadowlands would be the fastest way back to your home.”
“I’m not going back to Tyrel,” she replied quickly. “I left my traveling companions in the Sorrow Wold and hope to rejoin them somewhere in the untamed lands.”
Justin snorted. “Good luck with that. Do you have any idea how big the untamed lands are?”
“No, but I’m about to find out—”
She would have gone on to tell him what he could do with his rolled eyes, but a massive wave of noise rolled through her head along with an overwhelming sense of despair. So much so that she barely got her bowl set on the ground beside her before she rolled off the log and into a tight ball, hands plastered uselessly over her ears. Someone was making horrible, choked, gasping noises, a scream not quite making it past paralyzed throat muscles. Oh, wait. That was her.
She was vaguely aware of Kadir, Justin, and Lakanos bending over her in concern. But the pain, both physical and emotional, was so intense she could hardly bear it.
Somebody, maybe Cicero, demanded, “What did you people do to her?”
Somebody else—Kadir, maybe—replied, “The ritual to drain her spirit must have gotten started before she broke free of the circle. There’s been some damage to her.”
That was definitely Lakanos asking in a deep, angry voice, “What kind of damage?”
Justin snapped, “The first order of business is to ease her pain and not stand here arguing over who did what!”
Someone incanted a sleep spell, and that was the last she remembered before blackness, and blessed silence, engulfed her.
* * *
“Well?” Will demanded.
Kerryl sighed. “Vesper wanted to take back the part of her spirit trapped within Kendrick.”
Kendrick started. “How was part of her inside me?”
Kerryl opened his mouth, but no sound came out. It looked to Will as if he was genuinely trying to answer, but to no avail. Finally, Kerryl stopped, swallowed, and said, “The spirit was not in you, boy, but in the boar.”
“What boar?” Rosana asked.
Kendrick groaned. “The boar scion that he used to create me.”
Abrupt rage bubbled up hard and fast inside Will. Whoops. Bloodroot hadn’t liked that bit of news. “Used?” Will asked ominously. “Used how?”
“I wasn’t conscious for most of it, but I believe Kerryl used a magical boar to transform me in the ritual.”
“And what happened to the boar?” Will asked.
“He was … merged … with me.”
“You mean destroyed,” Will accused, barely able to contain Bloodroot’s rage within his body. An urge to take up his staff and blast Kerryl to smithereens nearly overwhelmed him.
Thankfully, Rosana placed a steadying hand on his forearm, distracting him enough from his fury to gain the upper hand over his treant symbiont.
Kendrick winced. “He’s not destroyed, exactly. I carried around his spirit within me. But now that shard of the boar spirit is with this Vesper person you speak of.”
Rynn interjected, “And she will control it and steal its strength for herself.”
Kerryl said heavily, “The Great Boar was present when she died. It and the other animal lords absorbed pieces of her spirit as it disintegrated.”
Kendrick whirled to face his mentor. “Then she will go after all the other animal lords and scions to get back the pieces of herself. We must warn them!”
Rynn added, “And with each piece of her spirit that she gets back, she’ll be one step closer to returning to this plane and wreaking havoc.”
Will commented sarcastically, “Luckily for us, she’s Eben’s friend.”
The jann scowled furiously at him and then sulked, silent by the fire.
Every instinct Will possessed shouted that trouble was brewing with Eben. If the jann had fallen under the thrall of Vesper, they were all in mortal danger.
* * *
Raina woke, more rested than she’d been in weeks. But dryad groves were known to have that effect upon a soul. Thankfully, the screaming voices from last night and the splitting head pain that had come with them had abated this morning. She did not know who had laid hands on her skull and cast magic into her last night to put her to sleep, but she was grateful for it.
Her companions were already awake, seated by a cook fire, chatting companionably with several dryads. Uh-oh. Were all three men ensorceled?
“Morning, muckling,” Justin said cheerfully. “How’re you feeling today?”
She made a face at him out of general principles as she approached the fire. “I’m fine, thank you.” To Kadir and Lakanos, she said, “And how did you gentlemen sleep?”
The dryads giggled, and both men grinned crookedly.
But it was Justin who replied, “We all slept well enough, considering the, um, evocative dreams our hostesses shared with us.”
Raina’s eyebrows shot up. “I don’t want to know.” She ladled some porridge into her bowl and sat down on an upended log. “So, do we know yet exactly where we are?”
“As Callisia said,” Sir Lakanos answered, “we are in the Machaira. That wand of yours packs a wallop.”
“Actually, it’s his wand,” Raina replied, nodding at Kadir. “I borrowed it from him a while back.”
Both Kadir and Justin snorted at that, but neither elected to share the tale of her running away from home and snatching Kadir’s wand to teleport away from Tyrel.
“Where will you go with our Lady Rowan’s wand, now that you have it back?” one of the dryads cooed at Kadir, all but climbing into his lap while asking.
He pushed her away gently. “That is up to the emissary. Where do you go from here, Raina?”
She studied her cereal intently. She needed to rejoin her friends or, barring that, to continue her quest to wake Gawaine. Did she dare speak of that to these men? It would take her weeks or months to rejoin her friends if she was even able to find them out here in the wilds. And time was the one thing Gawaine was running short of.
Frowning, she looked up at Kadir. “Where do you stand with the Mages of Alchizzadon after rescuing me last night?”
He made an inelegant soun
d in his throat. “To say I am persona non grata would be an understatement, I should think.”
“And Justin?”
Kadir answered, “Same. If they catch us, they will do to Justin and me what they tried to do to you. You may safely consider us fugitives from them along with you.”
The bitterness with which he spoke did wonders to calm her fears about his loyalties. “What will you do now?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I have magical skills. I suppose I shall find work somewhere.”
“I know the Mage’s guildmaster. I can put in a good word for—”
Kadir cut her off firmly. “No, thank you. I have no desire to serve the Empire.” He glanced over at the Heart knight nervously. “Not that I have anything against the Empire, of course—”
It was Lakanos’s turn to cut him off. “My duty is to the Heart first and foremost. Who you choose to work for is purely up to you.”
What of Lakanos? Could she trust him with knowledge of Gawaine? “Is there more than one knight by your name in the Heart, Sir Lakanos?”
“Not that I am aware of. Why do you ask?”
“Did you know that Lord Justinius plans to send you with me to the Great Den of the Dominion this summer to act as my bodyguard and advisor?” Even as she asked the question, the coincidence of that selfsame knight being inside Alchizzadon when she arrived suddenly seemed like no coincidence at all.
“Is that so?” Lakanos replied mildly.
“Yes, indeed.”
He nodded politely over his porridge bowl. “It will be my honor to serve and protect you, Emissary.”
“Mmm-hmm,” she responded skeptically. How Lord Justinius had managed to outmaneuver her so adroitly, she did not know, but she was reluctantly grateful that his man had been present to save her.
“Perhaps, sir knight, you can enlighten me more on the relationship that your order and mine share.”
Lakanos set aside his empty bowl and studied her intently. “Are you asking in general, or do you wish to know specifically what my responsibility to you shall be?”
All right, then. Apparently, this knight was as subtle as Lord Justinius had indicated he would be.
“The latter, if you please. How much or little are you required to support my activities on behalf of the White Heart? Or is your duty purely to protect my life?”
Lakanos said slowly, “If you’re asking where my loyalties lie, they are and always will be with doing the right thing. I am a knight before all else and sworn to my code of chivalry first and foremost. I serve the Heart, I serve my lord, Justinius, and I serve you because they are the right things to do.”
A wave of grief washed over her. That was the sort of thing Leland Hyland would have said. She’d admired Hyland greatly and, more than once, had secretly wished he’d been her father.
“Do you place doing right over following the law?” she asked carefully.
One of the knight’s eyebrows arched upward. “Are you planning to break any law in particular?”
“I’m planning to break a number of them,” she answered bluntly.
All three men were staring at her now.
“Please elaborate,” Lakanos said cautiously.
“I would rather not involve any of you and put you at risk, but I did not feel it was ethical to ask you to travel with me without being aware that I am up to no good.”
Justin guffawed. “You? Into mischief? Why am I not surprised?”
Kadir smiled, as well. “You never have been one to do as you were told. If you think to shock me with your declaration, I am sorry to say you do not.”
Lakanos, however, was more sober. “Do you plan to break your vows or ask me to break mine—either Heart or knightly vows?”
“Good heavens, no!” she exclaimed.
“Then what?”
“In the name of upholding my White Heart vows, I plan to commit treason.”
Lakanos stood up, settling his long sword on his hip. “Ah. In that case, what shall we do first?”
* * *
Eben huddled in his cloak, staring at the morning cook fire morosely. The worst of the night’s mist had yet to abate, and the new sun shone through it anemically. He’d spent hours last night arguing with his brother, trying to convince Kendrick to come away from Kerryl Moonrunner and travel with their party or at least to return home to Hyland and take over running their father’s holding.
But Kendrick had refused to do either. He was determined to stay with Kerryl and help the nature guardian along his mad path toward fighting some unknown evil that was supposedly approaching.
Of course, both Kerryl and Kendrick refused to name this evil or even to suggest a rough date when it would arrive. No matter how hard he fought with Kendrick, his brother had remained steadfast in his intention to aid Kerryl.
It was utter madness, and there wasn’t a cursed thing he could do about it.
Sha’Li sat down on the log beside Eben, startling him. They hadn’t been close since she’d betrayed his trust last fall and helped Kerryl Moonrunner escape his sword. She declared without preamble, “Neither of them is insane. You must trust their reasons for what they do.”
“Now they’ve got you ensorceled, too?” he snapped.
“Nay. My feet are planted firmly on the earth, but I am worried about you.”
“Why me?”
“You have worked very hard to save your brother, but he turns you down. You work very hard to save your sister, and she turns down your help, also. It is time you quit saving others and save yourself.”
From what?
A new voice spoke from behind him. “What’s this about Marikeen turning down your help?” It was Kendrick, sitting up in his bedroll.
Eben replied sourly, “She is in league with a group of powerful magicians and refuses to leave them. The only way I can see or speak with her is to find her on the dream plane from time to time.”
“Is she in need of rescue?” Kendrick asked.
Eben half turned on his log. “Why do you care? You’re set on running around the countryside with your hero. The man who enslaved you and turned you into a monster.”
“Don’t be bitter, Eben. You’re a better man than that,” Kendrick said gently. “Anger and petty jealousy are not worthy of you.”
“You’re a fine one to speak of worthiness when you refuse to take up any of the responsibilities our father left to you.”
“My responsibility is to all the people of Haelos, not just those in Hyland. I work to defend everyone from that which comes.”
“That which you will not name or even describe,” Eben retorted.
“Exactly so.”
Eben threw up his hands in exasperation. And they had circled back to the same old argument.
Kerryl spoke up from the other side of the small cook fire. “I shall have to find a new way to pursue my goals, Kendrick. I managed before you joined me, and I will manage after you go. If you need to be with your friends and see to your sister, go.”
“What will you do?” Kendrick asked.
“A way must be found to restore the Great Circle. The Great Beasts must heal and wake. The Great Totems that were destroyed must be replaced. And as for the treants, he who betrayed the Circle must be replaced.”
Not restored but replaced. Eben glanced over at Will in alarm. But for his part, Will merely studied the nature guardian impassively and held his tongue. Eben had long suspected Will knew more about the workings of the great treants than he was letting on, and this moment confirmed it.
“How will you restore the circle?” Sha’Li asked. She was as eager as a puppy around her old mentor, Kerryl, and Eben mentally turned his nose up in disdain.
“Old forces are made new and prepare to act. The forgotten return, and those of us who still remember will call them by name.”
Eben hated prophetic mumbo jumbo, but he gathered turmoil was on its way as forces from the past came into play once more. No surprise there.
“You saved my l
ife last eve. How may I repay my debt to you?” the nature guardian asked them all.
Kerryl’s offer surprised Eben. As did Will’s reply.
“We seek one of those forces from the past of which you speak. The Children of Zinn.”
“There is a name I have not heard in a very long time.” Kerryl stared off into space for a moment. “Some years ago, I heard rumors that one of Zinn’s children attempted to live away from the wake tree.”
“The what?” Will asked.
“That information is not mine to give. It belongs to the very children of whom you ask. Find one who lives away from the others, and mayhap he or she will tell you of it.”
Gah. Kerryl and his cursed secrets.
The nature guardian asked curiously, “How do you know this forgotten name?”
Again, Will answered. “The Black Widow spoke of them. And we have heard from elsewhere that the zinnzari still exist.”
That “elsewhere” was Gawaine himself. The echo of the Sleeping King had told Will and Raina in their visit to his grove on the dream plane that the zinnzari guarded his physical body on the mortal realm. Find the zinnzari, and they would find him.
“Where does the rest of the clan of Zinn live?” Sha’Li asked Kerryl.
“Let me see. That would be a ways north of here. In the Thirst, if memory serves.”
“Where in the Thirst?” Rynn asked. “It is not the sort of place one wanders around in searching for a tribe of elves.”
“In the Drifts, mayhap,” Kerryl answered uncertainly. “Or perhaps the Silver Sands.”
Rynn sucked in a sharp breath. Eben threw him a questioning look, and the kindari muttered, “Many are the legends of the wild magics in the Silver Sands.”
Sha’Li asked, “How will we know these zinnzari when we meet them?”
Kerryl answered, “You will know them by the markings on their faces. They wear the magical web of Zinn across their skin.”
Cicero’s facial tattoos were spiderlike in nature but reminded Eben more of the eyes and mandibles of a spider than of one’s web. Perhaps that was the difference between arachnari and zinnzari.
