"Then how do you come to the conclusion, that in order to save Jatel, we must destroy another?" The elf's eyes were both cold and calculating.
"I have discussed this with Molly." the wizard explained. "Who else would know how to kill a creature of the night?"
"Question is; is she telling the truth?" Dorian huffed. Nervous, the dwarf kept switching his ax from left hand to right.
"Your point, dwarf?" Keeth asked, squinting his eyes in study.
"Voslow, however evil, is still one of her kind," Dorian pointed out. The tiny man peeked over his shoulder, looking in the direction of Molly's place of rest. It was as if the dwarf was convincing himself that it was indeed safe to discuss such matters. "People stay loyal to those they associate with. That is all that I am saying."
"In most cases, Dorian, I would agree with you. But, keep in mind, before Molly was a vampire she was, and could still be, just a woman. She remembers what it was like to eat, love, and walk in the suns. These are things she would kill, and sacrifice for once more, if only she could perform them again. Her existing life was forced upon her. It was not a rite of birth. That fact alone will be Count Voslow's undoing."
Dorian grumbled.
"Then I repeat the question, wizard. How does one kill a vampire?"
Keeth rubbed his forehead in frustration.
"According to Molly, there are as many ways to kill a vampire as there are vampires."
"What are you saying, wizard?" Ka-Ron asked, still holding tightly to her squire.
"There are vampires who feed on fear. There are those who feed on youth. And, of course, there are those who infuse themselves with blood." Keeth paused, looking off in the direction of a nearby mountain range. "Once we discover Count Voslow's weakness, we will then know how to destroy him."
"Could we not do what we did last night?" Dorian asked.
"Those unfortunates were of a lower order, Dorian. Molly explained that the longer a vampire exists, the more opportunity it has to evolve."
"Wonderful," Rohan stated as he rubbed his hands together. It was starting to get rather cold.
"Do not be down, my friends," Keeth pointed out. "We still have hope. We still have five suns to find a solution."
"What happens to Molly?" Ka-Ron asked. Upon mentioning the female vampire's name, all on board the ship could detect the knight's hatred for the woman.
"She has sworn an oath of loyalty to all on board, including you, Ka-Ron." Keeth motioned all to follow him up to the bridge deck. The wizard was preparing the ship to get underway once more.
"Can we trust her?" the knight inquired.
"I believe that we can."
Keeth noticed the disgust sneaking from the corners of Ka-Ron's mouth.
"Child, it does no good to hate. Molly attacked Jatel out of instinct. One cannot condemn instinct. You might as well condemn life. The woman feels remorse for her actions. Give her a chance."
Ka-Ron mulled the idea around in her mind, saying nothing. Instead, the knight shook her head to an uneasy acceptance.
Jatel, seeing this, again kissed his master upon her forehead.
"I feel it time that you see to our son's breakfast, sire."
Ka-Ron huffed out a tired laugh. "Jatel, we have had a son together. Could you please stop calling me 'sire'?"
"Not even to my death&sire."
Everyone laughed.
Having said her goodbyes, Ka-Ron returned her attention to her child.
"You are a lucky man, young Jatel!" Dorian said, resting an arm upon the line of levers near the ship's wheel.
"Truly," Rohan agreed.
"Gentlemen, we must make way to the castle known as Mull Garden." Keeth pulled several levers down and one upwards. "Do either of you two know where such a castle is?"
Both Dorian and Rohan pointed starboard.
"Then we seek that direction, lads."
Closing his eyes, Keeth moved his hands in the air with both purpose and concentration. He whispered thoriums, truisms, and equations best left to secular and learned men. Clapping his hands together with a firm motion, he opened his eyes.
"It is done!" the wizard stated, proud of himself.
The blue bubble around the Argo popped, leaving behind it a strong odor of metal and static.
The ship was free to navigate.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
"This ship is a wonder!"
Keeth and Jatel could only smile at the innocent child-like amazement coming from the elf. Jatel could understand the emotion. However, it was rare when something caused the stoic expressions of an elf to become almost mortal in their projections.
As the Argo changed shape, and as the huge balloon filled once more with "lighter than air" gases, both Rohan and Dorian kept gawking at both ship and wizard. As the ship rose to the air, both, Dorian especially showed signs of concern. What could go up could almost certainly crash back down.
It took a while for both elf and dwarf to get their "air" legs.
"Mull Gardenlies to our starboard," Dorian repeated, pointing towards the two largest peaks of the Cibola mountain range. "Between the peaks of Alton!"
Keeth spun the ship's wheel towards the mountains.
It did not take long for the Argo to respond.
Below, on the ground, staring up with hungry eyes, what was left of the township of Cibola looked on as the strange airship grew smaller and smaller.
***
Alone in her cabin, feeding her son at her breast, Ka-Ron also experienced new, wondrous things. Softly she held onto the tiny body of En-Don, as he suckled his mother's milk. Her hearts swelled with a happiness she had rarely experienced before.
Ka-Ron now had a family.
More important: En-Don had both a mother and a father.
The knight winced as she realized that her child's impressive hunger was causing her nipples to become ultrasensitive.
"My child, please," Ka-Ron whispered, kissing her son upon the forehead. "Be kind to your mother."
Having shifted her son's weight, Ka-Ron soon noticed something quite curious. En-Don seemed a little heavier than before. Was the slight difference just the nerves of a new mother? Upon occasion, as a servant of the people, Ka-Ron had witnessed new parents calling on town healers for no reason other than to soothe their own fears. Was she now caught in the same game? It did not seem to matter at present. It was better for a baby to gain weight than to lose it. So, the knight continued with her feeding.
A chill soon filled the cabin.
Ka-Ron closed her eyes with a familiar huff.
"Hello, Kai," the knight said, tired.
The Wicca Master walked from out of the shadows marveling at the sight of Ka-Ron breast-feeding her child. The woman started to giggle. It was not a happy response.
"Behold! The brave knight, breast feeding," the witch stated as she took a seat in a nearby chair. "Bet that's gotta hurt."
"It does," Ka-Ron said, allowing herself to smile at the comment.
"How do you bear it?"
"With love, Kai."
"Ah&love."
An undercurrent of hatred oozed through the meaning of each of the Wicca Master's words. She still seemed quite destroyed by the death of her daughter, and still seemed to lay most of the blame upon Ka-Ron. The knight tried to sympathize, but enough was enough. Things had changed dramatically.
Ka-Ron was now a mother.
"He is a dear one, isn't he?" Kai said, leaning over to peek at En-Don.
"He is," Ka-Ron agreed solemnly.
Kai gazed into the knight's features. "It seems my punishment was not so severe."
"Kai, please do not harm this child."
"I would do nothing of the kind, brave knight." Kai looked hurt.
"I should hope not. En-Don is an innocent in our affairs. I should not like to see him suffer for something that was not his fault."
"Sins of the father, eh?"
"What is your point?"
"Do not enjoy motherhood too much, brave
knight. There will be pains for you, but not applied by me, this time. Men can still bring you more pain than I can conjure up."
En-Don let out a loud burp as he stopped his feeding only long enough to breathe. His sudden and quite loud outburst caused both women to laugh, surprisingly. There was a magical moment between witch and victim as they both shared in the innocence.
Kai lovingly touched En-Don on the head.
"He is a dear, isn't he?"
Kai's features turned sad. The Wicca Master closed her eyes, moving her hands in the air.
Ka-Ron's grip upon her son tightened.
"No, Kai!" the knight pleaded, tears starting to fall from her eyes. "Your battle is with me. Only with me! To the gods, woman, do not hurt my child!"
Kai opened her eyes, for only a brief moment, savoring the agonizing pain she was hearing from the knight's pleas.
"Dear knight, I am not through with my lesson."
Ka-Ron, helpless, cried openly, doing all that she could to shelter her child. She tried her best to block the witch's view of En-Don, hoping against all hope, that if she continued to block Kai's way, she would be able to brunt the worse of the Wicca Master's doings.
Ka-Ron, of course, was quite wrong.
"May your child love the milk from its mother, and grow strong."
Nothing happened.
For several moments, all Ka-Ron could do was hold her son to her chest as tightly as she could, keeping her eyes closed. Upon hearing the witch state her warnings and statements, the knight subdued her fears, waiting for the attack to begin. When nothing happened, she found herself too terrified to open her eyes. So, for several beats of her hearts, Ka-Ron the knight prayed to the gods for the simple strength to just open her eyes.
En-Don, quite oblivious to the danger, let out another satisfying burp.
Ka-Ron, struggling each blink of the way, slowly opened her eyes.
She and En-Don were alone in their cabin.
Nothing happened.
"Oh, thank the Gods!" Ka-Ron found herself laughing out loud. She hugged her son with a satisfying relief. "I do not know what I would do if she hurt you."
Ka-Ron sought to kiss En-Don on the forehead.
Something stopped her.
En-Don started to cry.
"Oh, no!"
The room got quite cold. Again all daylight crept out of the room as if forced to leave. Something else was taking over and it needed the dark to continue its evil work. Frantically, Ka-Ron tried to call for help, but soon discovered that she had not the strength to scream. Her voice was elsewhere. Her focus was on her son.
En-Don was feeding, again.
"My, you are hungry," Ka-Ron whispered.
En-Don, as a babe, saw his simple duty and continued nibbling at his mother's breast. With both hands, chubby and innocent, the young lad grabbed hold with an unnatural force.
"Ow!" Ka-Ron winced. "Save some for later, all right?"
En-Don continued.
It had been several cycles since the knight had seen her squire, and she was starting to worry about his condition. She wondered if the Argo was anywhere near the castle they had been heading towards.
"Time for mom to go talk with the natives." the knight stated, readying herself to get out of bed.
En-Don would not oblige.
Ka-Ron, to her horror, could not separate her son from her breast. The harder she tried, the more milk the babe drank. The reaction was becoming quite painful.
"Oh, no!" Ka-Ron cried, "En-Don, please, you must stop."
The babe continued his feeding.
A tingling sensation ripped through Ka-Ron's entire body. She noticed that the room had become so cold that she could see her own breath shooting out of her mouth, as if on a cold winter's night. The dark of the room grew deeper and Ka-Ron found herself praying for candlelight.
She opened her mouth, hoping to cry out for help.
Her voice was nowhere to be found.
Again, the knight gently pulled at the child. And, again, a hungry force drew En-Don closer to Ka-Ron's chest. The knight tried to scream, soon realizing that her breasts were swelling with milk. It was quite impossible for such a tiny creature as her son to drink so much, but he was. Where it was going and what it was doing to him was beyond the knight's intelligence to figure out.
Again, Ka-Ron tried to cry out.
To the knight's horror, a liquid substance poured from her lips, showering her son and causing damage to the bed. Ka-Ron was producing so much milk that her body could no longer contain the substance.
"Gaggggggggrrraggghhh!" was all Ka-Ron could muster.
Before Ka-Ron drifted away into unconsciousness, the knight thought she could feel her son getting heavier.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
"Oh!"
Ka-Ron woke to a normal cabin.
The constant creaking of the Argo's wood attacked her senses. The cabin was once again warm and inviting. Rays of sunlight beamed down on the soft rugs decorating the floor, causing the knight a moment of reflection. Had all this just been a horrible dream? She had heard stories, growing up as a curious boy, about Idoshian women being cursed with nightmares and curious fears after the birth of a child. Had she just experienced the same?
She heard a sound coming from the corner of the room.
The same corner Kai had attacked from.
Ka-Ron relaxed.
Her intruder was Keeth.
Even half awake, Ka-Ron knew that something was wrong.
"Keeth?"
The wizard had such an expression upon his brow that it had caused Ka-Ron to pause. Her hands held tightly upon her bedclothes, not wanting to let go. Her cabin, it seemed, was quite normal. No milk stains. No soaked sheets. Nothing. Even her breasts were of normal size.
"Keeth, why are you&"
The old man held up a hand, causing the knight to stop in mid-sentence.
The room stank of earthweed. Obviously, while in her sleep, the wizard had passed the time by smoking. A small cloud of pipe smoke hovered above his head, making the old man appear to be almost god-like in his patient waiting. However, there was a silent pain beaming from Keeth's eyes that made the moment more awkward than it should have been.
Both had wanted to say something.
Neither knew how to start.
The Argo made a sharp turn to starboard, allowing the rays of the sun to transverse the entire length of the room, shining upon the wizard's countenances. He had blood-red eyes showing the knight, that, unlike her, he had a sleepless night.
"What could any man have done to make one suffer as much as you?" Keeth whispered, returning to his pipe. The wizard closed his eyes, trying his best to escape in a few clouds of smoke.
"What is going on here?" Ka-Ron demanded.
"My dear," Keeth said, tapping his pipe clean. "You must prepare for a shock. A lot has changed since you have slept."
Ka-Ron gave the room a quick inspection.
Nothing.
She explored her own body.
Nothing.
She even gave the wizard a quick up and down gaze.
Still nothing.
"This Kai woman has a lot to answer for, I wager," Keeth mused, scratching his beard, fighting off a tired yawn.
"What are you trying to say?" Ka-Ron stopped. "Where's En-Don? Where's Jatel?"
Keeth grumbled, saying nothing.
"Keeth," Ka-Ron demanded, "I wish to see both my son and squire, now."
"All right," the wizard agreed.
An uneasy knot of discomfort rose in the knight's throat as she watched the wizard walk to the cabin's door and open it. The bright rays of the suns attacked Keeth, casing the old man to place a protective hand outward so that he could see the others on deck. To Ka-Ron's taste, the others were standing quite too close to the cabin's door. As if the others had been close by, just waiting for the proper time to enter.
Things seemed quite dark.
In fact, they were worse.
Ja
tel entered.
Ka-Ron relaxed.
The faithful squire's eyes connected with those of his master and lover. In them they held a pain Ka-Ron, as of yet, could not understand. Like Keeth, before, the knight got the impression that her squire was itching to talk - to burst out some unknown tomb of information Ka-Ron needed to know, but was quite uncertain as to its delivery.
"Jatel?"
"Sire, we must talk of&"
"Where's En-Don?"
The knight heard a rustling of heavy armor.
A stranger entered the cabin, standing close behind Jatel. Upon entering, Ka-Ron noticed her squire's reaction. Jatel lost all color from his face, and Ka-Ron was quite sure that the reaction had nothing to do with the attack connected with their vampire guest.
Ka-Ron's blood began to boil.
The stranger was wearing her armor - carrying her sword.
"Who in the hell does this man&"
The knight stopped.
There was something in the man's face.
The young man, dressed fully in Ka-Ron's old armor, looked to be no more than thirty seasons of age.
Ka-Ron noticed both Keeth and Jatel. Neither could bring themselves to look at her.
The young man brushed a strand of hair from his eyes, clearing his throat. He stared at Jatel, panic clearly written upon his face. Jatel, encouraging the man forward, silently ordered him to explain himself.
"Hello, mother."
Ka-Ron choked on her tears.
The young man was En-Don!
"How," Ka-Ron tried to say, her panic overwhelmed by her fascination. "Keeth&how?"
"Mother, I do not mean disrespect to your station," En-Don said, his hands behind his back. "Father said it was quite allowable for me to wear your armor."
Ka-Ron stared at her son. She had no words to offer him. He was now a full-grown adult. There was no need for her to hold him. No need for him to seek the comfort of her breast. No need to seek nourishment. As a mother, Ka-Ron suddenly realized the harshness of Kai's curse.
She had lost all.
"En-Don, you look quite®al," the knight whispered, wiping away her tears.
"Please, do not cry," En-Don pleaded. Bending down on one knee, the young man took Ka-Ron by the hand.
The Misadventures of Ka-Ron the Knight Page 24
