The Shadowbearer (aegis of the gods)

by Terry C. Simpson

  “I don’t need to-”

  “Trust me, General. Think about the decree for service from all Matii.”

  Stefan’s eyes narrowed. Thania was a Matus, once a Shin within the Tribunal. A sinking feeling rippled through the pit of his stomach. “You can’t mean to force-”

  “Go home to your wife. She needs you.”

  Stefan stiffened at the empty tone of the King’s voice. The pendant of his wife became as heavy as the sudden weight threatening to crush his heart.

  CHAPTER 7

  Cold autumn air whipping at his face, his mount’s hooves beating thunder onto the flagstones, Stefan rode hard for home. Yet, the chill wasn’t what sent shivers through his body, and his speed wasn’t what spurred on his racing heart as he dashed past mostly empty side streets in Benez’s Upper City. Concern for his wife was the cause. Another time and place he would not have believed King Nerian could have meant Thania harm, but the look in the man’s eyes, his voice and his apparent insanity sent doubts whirling through the Knight Commander’s mind. Nerian’s mention of his distrust for the Tribunal and their Matii, his revelation of mandatory service, coupled with the fact Thania once served as a High Ashishin only added to Stefan’s trepidation.

  This was supposed to be a time of enjoyment for him and his men. Music feathered through the air. All across the city, the people celebrated. Even here, along the avenue with its expansive villas, nobles dressed in layered silks and satins hurried on their way to join those cavorting on the King’s Road or to the ball at the Royal Palace. Some paused to cheer him on. At any other time, Stefan would have stopped to enjoy the festivities, the foods, the dancing. His expression soured with the thought of revelry.

  He whipped his reins and dug his heels harder into his horse’s sides. Head down, neck outstretched the animal bounded forward. The world became a blur as he raced up the avenue, his anxiety growing the closer he came to home. When the square columns, the manicured gardens, and the roof of his villa appeared over a rise, he willed himself to go faster. Heart aflutter, the last vestiges of the daylight dipping below the horizon and Denestia’s twin moons casting long shadows around him, Stefan reached the premises.

  Down the small incline he went and through the gates, ignoring the servants who waited there to take his mount. He did not stop whipping his reins until he reached the stairs before the wide, mahogany doors. Not waiting for the attendants to take his mount, he leaped off its back and ran up the stairs.

  “Thania,” Stefan yelled. “Thania!” He threw the doors open and entered.

  A long lamp-lit hallway stretched before him. Dressed in the blue of the Dorn house and bowing profusely, his serving men and women greeted him.

  “Thania!”

  “Good to see you, Lord Dorn. It is-”

  “Perta,” Stefan grabbed the steward by his shoulders. “Where’s my wife? Is she well?”

  “Why yes, my lord.” The balding man’s forehead wrinkled. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

  Stefan expelled a long breath and smiled, a gloved hand gripping his chest as a tightness he had not noticed before eased. “King Nerian, he,” Stefan began. “Never mind. Where is she?”

  “I’m not sure, my lord.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “M-My lord, M-Master D-Dorn, sir.” Perta grimaced. He pointed to where Stefan’s other hand still held his shoulder, squeezing.

  “I’m sorry,” Stefan said, releasing his hold. He shed his gloves and tossed them to one of the attendants.

  Perta rubbed at the spot, taking slow breaths. “It’s fine, my lord. What I meant was I’m not sure where she is in the house. It’s been a lot of commotion since your arrival was announced.”

  Stefan nodded. He rounded on the other servants lining the hall. “Do any of you know where she is?”

  A chorus of murmured ‘No, my lord’ spread throughout the foyer. One servant stepped forward. Stefan didn’t recognize the diminutive woman.

  Head down, she said, “Lady Dorn went to her rooms to prepare for your arrival, sir.”

  Relief swept through him for the second time in a few moments. “Thank you. What’s your name?”

  “Clesi, my lord.”

  “Thank you, Clesi.”

  “Lord Dorn,” Perta said, “is there anything we can get you right now? Food? A drink? Maybe you would like a bath before you see Lady Dorn.”

  Stefan cocked his head and raised a quizzical eyebrow at the steward’s suggestion. The man knew Stefan always spent time with Thania first before doing anything of the sort. “Perta.”

  “Yes, my lord?”

  “Walk with me. The rest of you continue with whatever my wife had you doing.”

  After they bowed, the servants hurried away.

  Stefan noted the sweat beading on Perta’s forehead. He made sure all the other servants were out of earshot before he deliberately rested his hand on his sword’s hilt. “Now, would you mind telling me why you’re stalling me from seeing my wife?”

  Perta’s mouth opened then closed. He dabbed at the perspiration with a powdered cloth.

  “You have another moment to answer me …” Stefan allowed the implied threat to linger.

  “The Mistress, sir. She ordered me to delay you.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s supposed to be a surprise, my lord. I cannot tell you.”

  Stefan quirked an eyebrow at Perta and tapped a finger on his sword hilt.

  “Mistress’s orders … she forbid it,” the steward said quickly.

  For a moment, Stefan considered commanding Perta to reveal what he knew, but by the stubborn set of the man’s jaw, he saw he would be wasting his time. The steward’s loyalty was unquestioned. And it belonged to Thania. With a resigned sigh, his earlier urgency washing away completely, Stefan said, “Fine. Take me to her.”

  After a deep bow, Perta led the way. They walked along the hall, their footsteps muted by the thick carpet. The paintings on the walls were still in the same places Stefan remembered leaving them. In the main greeting area, he couldn’t help but smile. It had been three years, but again Thania had made sure the same soft, cushioned chairs and benches were against the walls. The vast area rug they now walked on was also as he left it. The artwork woven into the material showed an ancient war between the Eztezians and other Matii as they battled against each other and the shade’s armies. Materforgings scoured the land in lightning bolts, waves of earth, fountains of flame, maelstroms, and tornadoes. Around the entire scene, a massive forest burned. Shadelings were being herded into an enormous rent in the earth that supposedly represented the Great Divide.

  The house smelled of bellflowers and spices, and sure enough, around the room on short pillars were vases filled with the blue and yellow blooms. Candles, smoke rising from them in lazy wisps that carried the nose tickling scent of the spices, burned in small holders on the three long tables set to either side of the room’s center. Servants hurried to the tables upon which sat various appetizers, from fruits to breads to meats.

  As Stefan and Perta made their way across the room to the wide marble steps, several attendants came to offer Stefan fruit or small pastries of rolled meat. The mouthwatering aromas brought a grumble to his stomach. Hunger denied his temptation to shoo them away. Soon he was gulping down food while washing it down with his wife’s kinai wine. Whatever Thania had planned, she intended to have his attention held until she was ready. My dear wife, what are you up to now?

  The last time Thania had gone to this extent, she’d thought she was with child. When she found out she wasn’t, she’d been devastated. Stefan’s shoulders slumped with the thought. With the threat of another campaign in the way, he wondered if they would ever get to experience the joys of parenthood. At eighty, his chances were rapidly dwindling. Although she kept her age a closely guarded secret, Thania was much older by far, but she had the advantage of being a powerful Ashishin on her side, while he was only a Dagodin.

  They reached the landing, f
ollowed the balustrade to the right, and entered an alcove with a staircase to the uppermost floors. Two flights up, they exited and strode down a short lamp lined hall to the main bedroom. Perta knocked on the door.

  “Come in.”

  Stefan’s heart sped up at the sound of Thania’s melodious voice.

  Perta entered, and Stefan frowned at a noise much like a child’s laughter.

  A moment later, the steward announced, “The lord is here, my lady.”

  The urge to push open the doors almost overwhelmed him, but Stefan decided to let his wife have her fun. She’d gone to extreme lengths to prepare for his homecoming. The last thing he wished to do was ruin her surprise. One boot tapping on the rug, he waited.

  The giggling reached him again, but this time a child did appear, peeking out from the door. Hair midnight black, green eyes twinkling, something about the child seemed disturbingly familiar. Stefan growled under his breath. Now he knew why the whole delay. Thania had once again taken in one of the servant’s children. Had one of them died like last time? He shook his head. When last this occurred, his wife had become irrationally attached to the baby. When the child’s family arrived to claim him from Southern Felan almost a year later, it had taken months for her to recover from her sorrow.

  “My lady says you may enter, sir,” Perta said from where he stood holding the door open.

  Stefan stepped inside, his heart suddenly racing at the prospect of seeing his wife after so many years away. The door closed behind him, and it was only himself, Perta, the tiny boy who couldn’t be more than three and …. Was that another child sitting at a small table playing with a doll eyeing him curiously? Stefan’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead. What, in Ilumni’s name, is going on?

  Rather than question Perta again, Stefan studied the room. Similar to the rest of his home, his wife had kept the room as he remembered: the wide bed, the paintings on the walls and the lamps in their sconces. The familiar rug under his feet showed some battle between the gods. A bundle wrapped in an oiled cloth sat on a table near the door to the sitting room. A pinging noise made him look down. A smile on his face, the boy was knocking on his armor.

  Smiling in return, Stefan peered around the room and called out, “Thania? Love?”

  The door to the adjoining sitting room opened, light pooling in to match that from the glass lamps adorning the room’s walls. In glided Thania, radiant as ever, her hair falling in velvet waves down past the mounds of her tanned bosom and the deep V-neck of her layered silk dress with its many ruffles. Between her ample cleavage rested the twin to his pendant. To add to her appearance, she’d made up her face with powders and paints the way he liked. Upon her entry, Stefan’s pendant bloomed with warmth. Thania did not appear an hour past twenty-five naming days. She was perfect. Blue always looked best on her.

  “My love,” she said, all sweet innocence, a smile that would brighten the dreariest day lighting up her face.

  The thoughts of the King, the children, and all else fled Stefan’s mind. In several brisk steps, he strode to her and swept her from her feet. She smelled of saffron and bellflowers. He gazed into the golden pools of her eyes and kissed her deeply. Soft lips, so soft, like spun silk, greeted his chapped monstrosities. He couldn’t tell how long the kiss lasted but it felt like forever as her tongue played against his own and on his lips, moistening them. When he let her go for a moment to stare into her eyes, they were both breathless.

  The pinging noise came again, and Stefan glanced down. The boy stood there knocking on his armor. Next to him was the girl.

  Innocent eyes peered back up at him then over to Thania. “Mommy, who is this?”

  The familiarity struck Stefan then, and he gasped, releasing his wife. Except for the green eyes, the child, no, both children were splitting images of her.

  “Yes,” Thania said. “They are my … no, correction, they are our children. Stefan, this is your son, Anton and your daughter Celina.”

  Stefan promptly sat on the floor, armor and all.

  CHAPTER 8

  “How?” Stefan stared dumbly. “How can I have children when I wasn’t here for three years?”

  A cough came from Perta’s direction. “My lord, my lady … if it is not too much, I beg your leave.”

  “Yes, you may go,” Thania said.

  The two infants were clutching her dress. As doubtful as he felt, Stefan could see some of him in them, and they certainly had his eyes.

  “As to how,” Thania said, “The last night before you left …”

  Stefan remembered well. Passionate did not quite begin to describe their lovemaking. Raunchy, salacious, maybe lecherous would be a better word. He flushed. Not once that night did he attempt to hold back.

  “Twins,” he whispered. He rolled the word around on his tongue. “Praise Ilumni.” A sudden outpouring of love almost overwhelmed him. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he allowed the sobs to come. “Thank you, Ilumni. In your light I walk.” Then he began to laugh, low in his throat at first until he bellowed with joy and thumped the floor where he sat.

  “Go to your father, children,” Thania said.

  Stefan held out his hands, but neither Anton nor Celina moved. They both still held fast to their mother’s dress, eyes wide and bewildered. A stab of pain built in his chest. If only he’d been there for them since their birth. If only he’d been there to see them born.

  A rustle of movement from Thania made him look up at her. She was clutching the charm, and her eyes narrowed for a moment. Stefan knew she was Materforging.

  A moment later, an image sprang to life next to her. Standing a foot taller than her, lean and broad-shouldered, dressed in the crisp uniform of a newly promoted Knight, it was Stefan’s exact likeness of the pendant down to his dark green eyes. His hair was a little longer and his face had the vigor of youth, but it was him all the same.

  The children giggled and as one said, “Da.” Their gazes went from the image to Stefan, their eyes twinkled, and the next moment they were leaping into his arms. The image winked out.

  Tears streamed down Stefan’s cheeks. Before he could stop, he was openly sobbing with joy. He hugged his children tighter, reveling in their smell and warmth.

  The boy, Anton, pushed back from him a little and peered into his face. Brow knitting, he said, “Da, you sads? Why you crying?”

  Stefan pulled him close. “No, son. I’m not sad. I’m very happy. I have never been happier in my entire life because I have you and your sister.” He took in Thania’s beaming face. Their gazes locked. He mouthed, “Thank you. I love you.”

  She whispered. “I love you too.” Thania hiked up her dress and joined them on the floor, one hand around Stefan’s back and the other hugging Celina.

  While enjoying the feel of his new family, basking in how complete he felt inside after so many years he and Thania spent avoiding the prospect of children, a sense of dread crept within Stefan. I finally have a full family to come home to, and Nerian wants to force me to leave again. NO. I can’t afford to be away from my children. I missed their birth. I will not miss their lives. But there was something worse than him having to go away on another campaign. Nerian’s command. All Matii must enter military service.

  “What’s wrong, honey?” Voice filled with concern, Thania eased up from him. “Why are you so tense?”

  Ever so slowly, Stefan gently held the children away from him. He peered into their fair faces and innocent eyes. Anton’s dark hair sat on his head in small curls, while Celina’s had already grown down to her neck. They gazed back up at him, their expressions joyful. “They have inherited our power haven’t they?” His throat constricted.

  “Yes,” Thania whispered. “Like any other Matii, it may not manifest until after they turn thirteen, but their ability is there. I can sense it. They are going to be strong, love. Very strong.”

  A great fist squeezed at Stefan’s heart with each word. Tears began to trickle down his face again, in happiness and sorrow. “Ca
n you tell if they will succumb to the madness?”

  “Honey, they’re too young to tell.” Thania gave his shoulder a squeeze. “But if their ability to already control their emotions this young is any sign, they should be fine. But that isn’t all that’s troubling you, is it?”

  Stefan shook his head. “I spent the evening with Nerian. He told me about the decree. And he wants me to lead this new army of his. He went so far as to tell me I wouldn’t refuse him then told me to go home to you, that you needed me.” Stefan stood. Hands ruffling his children’s hair, he stared into Thania’s face.

  Thania’s eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were moist. “Cerny said the King promised he wouldn’t enforce the new law on me if you agreed to lead.”

  The pain Stefan witnessed in her eyes, the fear written across her crestfallen face meant only one thing. He asked anyway. “And the children?” He stopped playing in their hair, sliding his hands away.

  The tears that had welled up in his wife’s eyes began to flow freely, leaving streaks in her makeup. Thania’s face contorted. Her lower lip quivered. “Cerny said the King would take them as part of that law should you refuse,” she said in a barely audible whisper.

  Stefan folded her tenderly into his arms. Head lost in his shoulder, she wept even harder. A tug on his trousers revealed Anton on one side and Celina on the other, hugging onto both him and their mother. Although he fought against the urge to clench his fists, he could not help grinding his teeth or the smoldering he felt deep within the pit of his stomach. The heat of his emotions crawled across his body like a living beast, clawing its way to get out.

  He wondered if those really were Nerian’s orders. Cerny wouldn’t dare threaten his family without the King’s blessing, would he? Stefan found it hard to fathom. None of it sounded like the man who’d helped raise him and taught him what he knew, being there more than his own father. Yet, the meeting with Nerian gave him pause and clouded his mind with doubt. Somewhere deep inside, he knew one thing. He would not hesitate to kill either Cerny or Nerian if they touched his family.