by Guy Estes
In addition to her scimitar and pole arm, Aleena had taken a southeastern broadsword. Its thirty inch blade ran straight for the first two-thirds of its length, but at the last third it broadened and curved. The handle curved in the opposite direction the blade did. The sword was swung with both arms, but the main force was delivered with the forearms and wrists.
"I'd wager," Ilian said, "that there is quite a story behind that."
"Oh, it is an epic saga," Aleena chuckled. She was still somewhat in shock about her parents' conditions. She could not yet grasp that they would never again do what they'd done so well. And even though it had warmed her heart to send Riona packing, the fact remained that all of her things were gone. She would try to get them back, of course, but still...
"Well?" Ivarr prompted. "Are you going to tell us or not?"
Aleena had begun preparing supper when she opened her tale and it was well past their bedtimes when she finished. She spared no detail, letting her parents know exactly what was done to her and exactly what she had done. She told them about life in the arena. She told them about Anlon and about escaping the arena.
"Tamura, kitten, I cannot imagine myself surviving that."
"Oh, Father,” she scoffed, waving him away.
"Aleena," Ilian said. She was weeping. "I could not be more proud of you than I am now!"
Aleena went to her and embraced her. "Mother, it would take much more than a band of slave traders, a dragon, a few dozen demons, a pit full of gladiators, and the entire Badlands to keep me from you!"
They were soon in each other's arms, enjoying the contact that had been denied them for so long.
“Oh, Aleena, we missed you so!” Ivarr said with a gusty sigh. “I still cannot believe that this is not some cruel dream. Truly, out of all the wonderful things your mother and I have fashioned, you are the greatest. You are our masterpiece."
Ivarr and Ilian went to bed. His last conscious thought before sleep claimed him was that his hands no longer ached. Aleena was also not long in retiring. She made sure all light stones were out, then she went to her room. Had she not been so overjoyed at being home her grief at losing almost everything she owned would have been stronger. She slipped out of her travel worn clothes and pulled her old nightshirt on over her head, but she could not get it past the strength of her back and shoulders or the swell of her bosom. It had been made for a thin, gawky girl. She now had a warrior’s muscle and a woman’s curves. Aleena shrugged and crawled into bed naked and absorbed the feel of its sheets. Content as a cat before a fire, she sighed and fell asleep.
The next day, she strolled into town. She had been given simple clothes while at the arena, brown leggings and a white shirt, and her feet were bound in sandals. A few articles of clothing had escaped Riona's scavenging but, like everything else, they had been fashioned for a girl who hadn't yet reached her full potential.
Upon arriving in Sharleah, Aleena was brought to a halt. The very instant she stepped onto the street she became the center of everyone’s undivided attention. She saw many familiar faces but none seemed to recognize her. Never one to crave the spotlight, Aleena had grown accustomed to it in the arena, but this felt markedly different. Every single man there wanted to ravage her. So intense were their desires that Aleena, who had no psychic abilities whatsoever, felt them like a physical blow. She’d had plenty of men lust after her, but those had been slave traders or people at the arena. It was quite a different thing to feel such desires from her neighbors.
Taking a breath, Aleena straightened and continued on her way. She did not survive her ordeals to come home and once again become an outcaste. She smiled and greeted those she recognized as if she'd never left, and they would return the greeting, confusion plain upon their faces. Aleena felt a curious mix of gratification and tension. She could have any man there she desired, and everyone knew it. This power was new and intoxicating. In addition to talent, Aleena now had beauty fueling the fire of her vanity.
She paused after entering Jac's tavern, allowing her eyes, along with her emotions, to adjust. The place looked and smelled the same – wood polish, lamp oil, Rachel's cooking. She noticed that the blood stains from her first mortal battle had been completely rubbed away. The place was nearly empty but what patrons were there regarded her with the same attention as the people on the street had.
"And what will milady be having today?" Jac asked her from the bar. She could tell from his tone that he did not recognize her. The tavern was dim, and the daylight that had streamed through the door when she’d entered had dazzled his vision.
"A tankard of your best ale," she told him.
"A fine choice."
Aleena could not contain her smile. Jac’s vision was returning and he was much more focused on her as he handed her a tankard. Her large grey eyes regarded him over the rim.
The eyes...
Jac flew across the bar to squeeze her with all his might.
"Dear Tamura! Aleena!"
Aleena laughed as he crushed the breath from her. He finally pushed her away but kept his hands on her shoulders. Aleena noticed that his eyes were a bit puffier than they had been, and as she smoothed her hair where he'd buried his face she felt moisture.
"By gods, it's good to see you! Where have you been all this time?"
"Trying to get back here."
"Rachel," Jac yelled over his shoulder.
"What is it?" the amber-haired Rachel asked as she emerged from the back
"Look what the winds blew to our doorstep!"
Rachel stopped short, briefly wondering who in the seven hells this beautiful woman in her husband’s arms was, but she quickly recognized her.
"My gods," she exclaimed as her hands went to her face and her tears went to her cheeks. Then she rushed forward and subjected Aleena to a somewhat gentler version of Jac's embrace. "Tamura, girl, but you have blossomed! And I remember when you were so certain you'd remain a yearling!"
"Would you like another drink?" Jac asked.
"That I would. The Badlands make a person thirsty."
“Your parents must have had quite a reception prepared for you,” Jac remarked. Aleena looked at him, puzzled.
“No,” she said as she shook her head. “How could they?”
“They knew you were coming a long time ago,” Rachel said. “It’s been what, Jac, about a year?”
“A little more.”
Aleena looked from one to the other, utterly baffled.
“How could they possibly know I was coming?”
“Madigan saw it in a vision,” Jac said. “He saw you set out from a desert city, but he hadn’t been able to see anything since.”
Aleena was silent as she digested this.
“Madigan knew I was coming home?”
Jac and Rachel nodded.
“And he told my parents?”
“Yes,” Jac said. “Well, he told your aunt and she told your parents.”
Aleena was silent, her face going from perplexed to pitiless stone.
“Did she?” she finally said in a quiet voice. “Did she indeed?”
“Aleena?” Rachel, seeing the sudden wrath on Aleena’s face, queried. “Is all well?”
“My parents had no idea I was coming back. They knew nothing. Riona knew, and she deliberately withheld that information! She let my parents sink in grief for over a year when they could have had hope! I sent her packing yesterday, but had I known this…”
After reuniting with her friends and former employers, Aleena went on to the school. In addition to seeing Headmistress Rita, she wanted to make arrangements to continue her studies. The sight of the blue stone buildings, gold veins spidering through their swirling sapphire and cobalt depths, the gold trim writhing down their corners, released emotion that closed her throat, just like when she’d first sighted her home yesterday. Her eyes welled a bit and she smiled. The academy was where her mind’s hunger for knowledge had been fed.
She was approaching the entrance tunnel between two buildings when one of the breaks commenced. A group of five students gathered about the entrance and watched her come. She knew who they were. The gut churning apprehension she’d always felt around her schoolmates was completely absent.
"Are you lost, princess?" the boy in the lead asked. Aleena forced her smile to retreat into a neutral expression and turned to face them.
"No, my boy, I know exactly where I am," she replied to Dirke. Apparently he had paid his debt to Cormac’s parents and was back in school. She noticed that he had put on weight, and she was satisfied to see that it was not due to toil. His arrogant attempt at charm was blurred by his puffy face, but she could see his annoyance with being called "boy".
While she realized the truth that Cormac had been ultimately responsible for his fate, Aleena would always hold Dirke partly responsible. She would always hate him, yet if she followed her most basic natural impulses and slew him she would simply bring legal repercussions to her family and start a new chapter of grief. No one needed that. Cormac would not want that. But she could not fully repress her hate.
"I am no boy," he informed her, as if it were obvious.
"If you are a girl then you have my sympathies as well as my apologies."
Some of his followers giggled.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"At the moment I am answering the pointless questions of an imperious little boy. Before you came I was enjoying the beauty of the campus. Afterwards, I shall speak with Headmistress Rita."
"Now why would you want to leave my company to see that old spinster?"
Aleena laughed. "It is precisely because of your presence that I wish to leave."
Dirke's smile fell from his face, leaving only irritation. "What business do you have with Headmistress Rita, hussy?"
"The business of continuing my interrupted studies, Dirke."
He was thrown off balance when she called him by name. How did she know him? He certainly would not have forgotten meeting a girl who looked like that! And she did have a strange way of talking. Continuing my interrupted studies? The way she used all those big words reminded him of…
Then he took another look at her hair, and her eyes. Yes, those eyes. Eyes that reminded him of an approaching storm.
"Aleena?"
"Dirke."
"You’ve… changed."
"As have you," she returned, poking him in the belly. Her finger sank to a fair depth. He reddened.
"Where have you been?"
"Out and about. How have things been in my absence?"
"Better."
"Yes, 'tis wonderful to gaze upon your lovely face again, too. How is Valkira?"
"Not very well, I expect, when she sees you've returned."
"Ah, the camaraderie of my loyal classmates truly melts my heart."
Aleena left a very frustrated and very confused Dirke Aman and headed towards the school building. He was angry at her for her sharp tongue, not to mention the animosity that had always been there, and yet he could not tear his eyes from her. He watched her backside (easily the finest specimen he had ever seen on a woman) sway all the way across the school ground, something Aleena was perfectly aware of. This new ability to possess men’s minds was quite fun.
Aleena entered the stone building and found Headmistress Rita. She was with Madigan, and it was he who noticed her first. His dark eyes sparkled, merry as twin brooks, and he laughed while opening his arms. Rita followed suit. After they embraced Aleena spoke.
“Madigan, Jac and Rachel told me you’d seen me in a vision.”
“Aleena, I strove to divine your fate so I could give your parents some hope, but my love for you made it almost impossible for me to see anything. In the one vision I had I saw you in the desert, walking away from a city.”
“I had escaped the slavers at Akhbeer. That was over a year ago. You told my parents?”
“Riona wouldn’t let me see them, so I told her and she promised she would tell them.”
“She lied. She never told them anything.”
Madigan nodded and sighed.
“I didn’t know that, but I suspected. She never let anyone see them. I tried to read her mind, but her sheer stubbornness shielded her.”
Aleena could only shake her head.
“How could she do that? How could she be so cruel to her own sister?”
“That I do not know, but I assume you sent her away?”
Aleena nodded.
“If I’d known about this I’d likely have done worse.”
“Well,” Madigan said as he put his hands on her shoulders, “all that matters now is you’ve returned, and you’ve become a fine young woman.”
That banished her anger and brought a smile to her face.
Aleena got all of her official business done and was enrolled to begin the next class session, which was to begin in two months. Exiting the building, she encountered Valkira and her two most loyal followers.
"I heard you'd returned." Valkira said.
"And so I have."
"Nothing has changed."
"On the contrary," Aleena said, while relieving Valkira of a boy's attention by giving him a mischievous smile and sultry wink, "I think much has."
Aleena scolded herself for stooping to something so shallow as stealing admirers but, she admitted to herself, it was amusing. The look on Valkira's face made it more so. Aleena left, fully aware that every boy at the school had eyes only for her. Valkira was totally forgotten.
CHAPTER 20
“If the tongue could cut for any reason, as the sword could do, the dead would be infinite.
He who wants to offend others without reason surely damns his body and soul.” – Filippo Vadi
“… it is foolishness and endless trouble to cast a stone at every dog that barks at you.” – George Silver, English fight master, 1599
Anlon’s claim to kingship was not immediately challenged, but that changed within days of his seizing the crown. Lenore never woke from the blow he’d given her. She bled from the ears and died. Beloved by the tribe, her death infuriated them. Some of the better warriors came for Anlon. They galloped and loosed arrows, every one of them skilled archers. And every one of them fell to Anlon’s skill. A few were taken alive. Anlon had them bound and kneeling. The rest of the tribe was gathered around to see the consummation of his triumph.
“You men,” Anlon told the prisoners, “are to be given the privilege of furthering my reign. You will be an object lesson to all others about what it means to defy me.”
He glared at them as he prowled back and forth among them.
“You,” he said to one. “Get up.”
Looking Anlon in the eye, the man stood.
“Are you going to call this a challenge, too?” the man asked.
Anlon’s pale face went paler.
“What do you mean?”
“You said Cahir challenged you and you claimed the crown through right of battle. But everyone knows Cahir died with his sword still in its sheath. And here you are, courageous in the face of men bound and unarmed.”
”You question my honor?”
“In every way possible.”
Murder glinted in Anlon’s eyes, but his captive merely laughed.
“I’m a dead man, Anlon. I have no illusions about that. You have nothing left to threaten me with.”
“Papa!”
Everyone turned to the little girl who’d cried out. She’d seen perhaps five summers. She ran towards Anlon and his captive, but two people stopped her. Anlon looked from her to his prisoner.
“Your daughter?” he asked.
“Yes.”
The weeping child maddened him. She needled his anger like a stick poked into an open wound.
“Shut her up,” he growled.
“Or what? You’ll execute me twice?”
“Or I’ll execute her, and strangl
e you with her guts.”
He’d been wrong. Anlon did have something left to threaten him with, and one look in Anlon’s eyes convinced the man he was serious.
“Kala,” he called to her. “Settle down. It’s all right.”
The little girl quieted a bit. Her obedience further angered Anlon, though he had no idea why it should.
“Your daughter loves you?”
The man nodded, and Anlon’s irritation grew even more.
“Do you love her?”
He nodded again.
With a growl, Anlon stabbed the man in the belly. He gasped, his eyes going wide and his face going pale. Anlon sneered and ripped the blade up.
“Papa!” the little girl shrieked. “Papa!”
Her cries continued to inflame him. He whirled and split the skull of the next man. He moved from one captive to another, slaughtering them. Some people carried the screaming girl off to a tent.
The rebels’ heads were put on stakes outside Anlon’s tent. Kala saw her father’s head among them.
* * *
In the weeks following Aleena’s return, Ivarr’s hands healed and Ilian’s sight returned. Both of them were once again turning out the superior products they had been renowned for. Ulfberht dropped by for one of his visits. He stopped when he saw her on the front porch, his mouth falling open.
“Tis good to see you again, Uncle Ulfberht.”
The dwarf’s face lit up as he charged forward and wrapped her in an embrace that nearly broke her back, laughing like an idiot the entire time. He finally broke away and looked up at her.
“Gods damn!” he said, punching her in the arm. “Look at ye! Just look at the fine thing ye’v become!”
Ulfberht was the last loved one Aleena had needed to reunite with, and his visit was even more pleasant than they usually were. He eventually went back to the mountains and Aleena worked until school started, just to have some money for emergencies and entertainment. Jac and Rachel took her back with no hesitation. Lately they'd been having some rough customers come in.
On her first day, Aleena walked into a room filled almost entirely with men, many of them drunk, and all of them desiring her more than they desired their next breaths. This new power to possess a man’s mind had started off as good fun, but now it frightened her. She’d faced plenty of opponents who had wanted her dead, but this was different. There was a considerable difference between someone who merely wanted to kill her and someone who wanted to invade her, possess her, and consume her. It was unnerving. Plenty of men had looked at her with lustful eyes in the arena, but she’d been too preoccupied with survival to pay much attention.
