But that would be accepting that he was not human. Endrance shook his head. He had to be human, right? There hadn’t been Mercanians for nearly a thousand years. Even if one or two still lived, how had no one discovered them? And how could they have been his parent?
The realization that Valeria might have had a hand in that event was too much for him to handle at this time. He swallowed it down, deciding that once the kingdom was safe, he was not surrounded by the dead and he was home, he’d lock himself into a small room, curl into a ball, and let all the ramifications hit him then.
He reached out, brushing the burnt blood off of Jalyin. It crumbled off of her easily, revealing pale white flesh underneath. It was stark in contrast to her deeply tanned skin. Endrance frowned, but realized that it was possibly a side effect. He brushed some of the blood off of him, but had not darkened in response. It seemed that his spell wasn’t quite perfect, but the care he had taken to keep him from forging a more permanent or intimate link had paid off.
“Jalyin!” Endrance exclaimed suddenly. The Sha’hdi awoke with a start. Endrance saw her lock eyes with him, and surprise registered on her face as she could tell something was different.
“You… cured me?” she asked. Endrance started to nod, but something seemed off to him. Glancing down, he could see the curve of a small blade against his throat.
“Yes. I did.” Endrance replied. “Can you please put that away?”
Jalyin only then seemed to realize that she had a knife to his neck and slipped it back into her sleeve. Looking down, she could see what remained of the circle on her body.
“I would say something joking about you being forceful with me while I was unconscious.” Jalyin said, brushing the flakes of blood off. “But it seems you really did have your way with me. And you left your mark.”
“Yeah… sorry about that. I didn’t account for the difference in skin pigment when I made the spell.” He admitted, scratching at his head.
“Will it change back?” Jalyin asked. She buckled her armor back up and Endrance let out a small mental sigh of relief. He had been having too many encounters with women like this and he was beginning to wonder if the fates were enjoying making him uncomfortable.
“I don’t know. Maybe.” Endrance replied. “Until then, you pretty much have a sympathetic link to me.”
“A what?” Jalyin replied, standing. Endrance stood too, coming up to her collarbones.
“A sympathetic link.” Endrance stated. “Since I had to literally share my blood and energy with you, there may be some… side effects.”
“Like?” Jalyin asked, her eyes narrowing.
Endrance shrugged. “Well, you probably wouldn’t feel it if I got a small cut or something, but strong sensations would be felt by the other. So if I were to die… well, let’s just say that it would be a singularly agonizing experience.”
“You are insane.” Jalyin replied. “If one of your wives kill me, then you would die as well.”
“Yes.” Endrance replied. “And, quite literally, it may be the only thing that keeps you alive for more than a minute. I just hope that they aren’t feeling particularly short sighted.”
“We can leave now.” Jalyin replied. “Right?”
Endrance nodded. “Rothel would rather me leave than come into conflict with a relative, or whatever it was he was saying.”
“You are by far the most interesting human I’ve ever had the pleasure of stalking.” Jalyin stated nonchalantly. “In all my years, I’ve not met a man nearly as complicated as you.”
“If I’m even human, then yeah. I’m certain it was all engineered to be pretty damn confusing.” Endrance muttered.
Jalyin followed him out of the tomb, ducking as the ceiling was too low for her tall frame. “If you’re even human?” she asked.
“I don’t even know how to begin, nor do I really want to.” Endrance replied. “I do not have an answer to that.”
Jalyin shrugged, but followed him across the bridge and up the stairs. “It’s only been several hours since you fell down here. The area above the capstone is bound to be covered in wolfmen.” Jalyin said.
Endrance climbed the steps without slowing, stooping and picking up the remains of his torn and broken armor and clothing he had discarded when sneaking downstairs. Mentally, he reached out for his familiar.
Gullin? Endrance probed, hoping his familiar had recovered since he had last seen him.
Endrance, you have regained consciousness. Gullin replied. Are you safe?
I regained consciousness a while ago, but hadn’t been in contact with you. Endrance replied, sending Gullin a quick burst of thoughts relating what had happened while he was below. Mentally, Endrance felt his familiar do the mental equivalent of a double-take as it filtered through what he sent.
You did what? Gullin exclaimed. The assassin is correct. You are mad.
Glad to see you agree. Endrance replied, rolling his eyes. Look, we need to get out of here. Is the way above clear of wolfmen, or could you clear it?
That would be unnecessary. Gullin responded. While you were gone the barbarians reclaimed the first bowl.
That was quick.
You didn’t exactly make it difficult, after that stunt we pulled above the reservoir. Gullin chastised him. Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to purify that much water after what you put into it?
You mean several thousand dead wolfmen? Endrance asked. It would be incredibly hard. But it was my only option at the time.
It wouldn’t have been, if you had bothered learning to fly. Gullin quipped.
“Where are you?” Jalyin asked, observing him focusing elsewhere.
Endrance glanced at her. “Just checking things out up top. Apparently it’s safe enough.”
Endrance climbed the stairs up to the capstone. With the rods locked in place, a cage of iron bars prevented him from ascending the whole way. He glanced back at Jalyin and shrugged.
“Got any ideas?” Endrance asked. “I never ended up seeing if there was a switch from the inside.”
“I did discover the switch, but it is inside the capstone’s lip. The bars will make it difficult to access.” Jalyin reported.
“I don’t have the reach you do. Maybe you can reach in there and open the door?” Endrance asked. Jalyin sighed and pushed past him. She reached between the bars and up along the stone collaring the capstone. Endrance heard her feeling around and the sound of stones sliding across each other. Jalyin yanked her arm free and hopped back, landing on a lower step without falling back as easily as if it were level ground.
The first rod grated on stone as the lock began the process of opening. Endrance looked up at the capstone and sighed. “We should probably expect there to be some people up top. So stand beside me. Not in front or behind.”
The capstone slid aside, and the light of the setting suns speared into the chamber. Endrance let his dark vision drop, reducing it to only a mildly painful transition. He took a step up and looked around. The assassin was nowhere to be seen. Endrance rolled his eyes.
“Or… you could just pull a disappearing act.” He muttered.
“Time to go.” Endrance said to himself, ascending the steps.
Above, the reservoir was ringed in armed men. Closest to him, more spears were pointed at him than he could easily count. And along the bank of the reservoir, even more crossbows were pointed directly at him. Endrance slowly lifted his hands, palms spread.
“I’m back. What did I miss?” Endrance asked.
Joven shoved his way through the ring of men and released a pent up breath when he spotted the mage. “By the gods! Endrance!” he shouted, dropping easily into the muddy bottom. “You gave everyone a scare!”
“What?” Endrance said in mock surprise. “Why? I was only gone a few hours. I’ve been gone longer.”
Joven grinned, now that he knew that Endrance was more or less all right. “You’ve never vanished in the middle of a warzone, either.” He reminded him. Joven
reached between the iron rods jutting from the capstone and hit the switch that would close the thing up.
“Oh that.” Endrance said with a chuckle. “I thought I got most of them.”
Joven clapped him on the back, causing Endrance to stumble forward a step as they walked back to the outer banks. “That you did. Made our job almost too easy! But we still don’t know what we’re going to do about that orb.”
Endrance looked up. His frozen orb glittered in the light of the setting suns. “Oh yeah that.”
“Can you… you know… fix it?” Joven queried, staring up at it. “Cause that’s just damned weird.”
Endrance looked up at the orb and pondered. “You know,” he began. “I never really did think too far ahead when I did that.”
“So you can’t fix it?” Joven asked.
“I can fix the floating orb of frozen, crackling doom, yes.” Endrance began. “I just can’t figure how to get the dead out without contaminating the water.”
“Well, we ordinarily boil water to make sure it’s clean, but that’s a lot of wolfmen to boil out.” Joven admitted.
Endrance snapped his fingers, a thought dawning on him. “I got it!” Endrance began. He held both arms up, hands splayed and facing the orb. He checked to make sure the reservoir was clear of men and nodded. “This is going to be messy.” Endrance said.
Joven glanced at him and noticed the second bracer. “Hey, where did you find it?” he asked.
“Jalyin had it.” Endrance replied, his thoughts on the counterspell he was working up. He didn’t see Joven’s face register with surprise.
“Wait hold on!” the barbarian exclaimed. “You mean the assassin? You fought her?”
“For a little bit.” Endrance stated. “Kicked me around a bit.”
“But you won, right?” Joven demanded.
“No. She wasn’t being paid to kill me anymore.” Endrance stated. “And she had information about the one who hired her in the first place. I let her live.”
“You what?” Joven shouted. Endrance mentally marked a hold on the conversation and focused entirely on the counterspell. He reached out with his senses, found the threads of the ice spell, and poured more than he had spent casting it into the counterspell.
Above, the orb of ice rippled several times in rapid succession. Starting at the bottom and rolling up to the top, the ice melted. The water exploded outwards, steam spiraling outwards as the water had its temperature raised so suddenly it vaporized. The cloud of steam expanded voluminously, billowing up and outwards, forming a bank of fog all around them, and casting a pillar of cloud up higher than the tip of the formidable Mount Balator.
Hot mist filled the air for miles, rising over the outer walls and ascending higher and higher as Endrance relaxed his concentration. He turned to Joven, who was slowly becoming more visible as the mountain slipped in under the fog banks and started clearing the air.
“This is where it gets messy.” Endrance said with a grimace as he grasped the last remaining spell in effect and cut the line, freeing the remaining energy invested.
The dead and destroyed wolfmen, freed from their icy confinement and no longer suspended by Endrance’s magic, fell to the ground in a rain of wet, shredded and burnt corpses. The men had already spread out, scattering from Endrance’s display of magic when he had thawed the orb, but the sudden rain of dead enemies had his own people cowering in fear.
Joven looked around, watching the dead hit the ground around them, and plucked Endrance out of the way of a falling corpse. Setting the mage down, he shook his head. “Damn it, Endrance.” Joven said angrily. “Don’t try to change the subject!”
“I thought you wanted me to fix the water problem?” Endrance said defensively, looking hurt.
“I wanted you to get the wolfmen out of the water, but was this the best way?”
“Sudden evaporation of water would mean that there would be little to no chance of contamination. And by the time the dead are disposed of properly, the water will come back down in the form of precipitation.”
“Pre-what?”
“Rain.” Endrance clarified, looking up. The volume of steam had not disappeared, but had coalesced into a large cloud above them. Joven looked up and whistled.
“Still!” the bodyguard exclaimed. “I asked what happened to the assassin!”
“I had to get information from her, and she needed me to help her. I did that.” Endrance said, his elation over the success of his spell fading. “But she vanished on me before giving me what I asked for.”
“Damn it!” Joven exclaimed angrily. “You should have just killed her!”
“Should I have?” Endrance said, mostly to himself. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”
“Gods.” Joven exclaimed. “What were you thinking?”
“That I might be able to find out why she was hired!” Endrance shouted back at his friend, his temper finally at its end. Joven stared at him in surprise before shaking his head.
“Damn, Endrance.” He replied. “How could you have that much control? I know you loved Anna, just like we all did.”
His words cut into Endrance’s heart like a thrust from a spear, driving through him and leaving him stunned. Joven thought he was heartless. Of all the people he thought would understand. He didn’t for a moment think that Joven would think him unfeeling. Endrance turned away from his bodyguard, his eyes squeezed shut against the tears.
“You don’t know what I had to do to let her go, Joven.” Endrance said, his voice unnecessarily cruel. “I had faith that you’d support me, even if you didn’t understand.”
Joven wiped at his face, trying to choose his words. “I…” the bodyguard began, conflicted. “I trust you, Endrance. I know that you would make the best decision you could at the time, but I can’t think of how the choice you made was the right one this time.”
The mage’s shoulders slumped. “I had my reasons. She should have just gone with me, and then-”
“Then we would have pinioned her like a target dummy.” Joven said angrily. “Even if you were there. Especially if you were there.”
Endrance sighed. “I guess I don’t know you all well enough yet.” He admitted.
“Look,” Joven said. “You’ve done a good job, and you’re still alive and it has been nearly a year. That’s pretty impressive considering how tiny you are. You’ll learn our ways in time. Hopefully you’ll grow some muscles too.”
“I know.” Endrance admitted. “Once I return from Ironsoul, I’ll resume my lessons - if the kingdom still stands after this wolfmen attack ends.”
“Well, about that.” Joven said. “It seems there’s a whole army of them amassing outside the walls. You might be just a little bit late for your court date.”
“Great.” Endrance replied. “Okay, I will help deal with that once I can get some rest. I’m exhausted. Where are my wives?”
Joven jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Resting up. They fought all the way across the bowl and retook the gate with only a handful of men. It was impressive.”
“Ah.” Endrance said with a nod.
“It would have been more impressive if I wasn’t helping, but it was good anyways.” Joven said with a grin.
Endrance nodded again. “Uh-huh.” He halted, his face paling.
“What?” Joven asked.
“If you had such a bad reaction to the news about Jalyin, I am not looking forward to seeing their response when they hear of it.” Endrance admitted with a grimace. “I think I’d rather go fight the wolfmen now.”
Chapter 17
“I’m going to kill him!” Bridget exclaimed, slamming her fist into a wooden table. “Then I’m going to find her and kill her too!”
“I’m with her.” Selene said, scowling. “What was he thinking?”
They had made it back to their temporary home. Endrance started explaining what had happened once they had been reunited. He had barely gotten to the assassin’s involvement when Bridget and Selene lost
their cool, as expected. They began arguing with him about why, and he realized that explaining anything more wouldn’t get through to them. While the three of them had fought over his decisions, he had gone into his study and locked the door. Selene heard him settle into the cot and likely went to sleep.
Joven shrugged, looking at the door to the study. “I don’t know what. But he’s not a fool. Not much of a fool, at least. He wouldn’t have done so without reasons why he allowed her to live.”
“How could he?” Bridget shouted. “She killed Anna! Anna died in his arms!”
“I know.” Joven said.
“She nearly killed him several times!” Selene exclaimed.
“I know!” Joven said forcefully. “But he’s the Spengur.”
“So?” Bridget demanded.
“The Spengur is the one who makes the decisions. I can see he didn’t take the choice lightly, but he made it regardless. Hearing him out when he’s had a chance to recover would be the best option. If we push him now, it will just make things worse.”
“Fine!” Bridget cried, throwing her hand in the air. “I’m too tired to keep this up anyways. I’m going to bed!”
“Me too.” Selene said with a sigh. “Bridget, let’s use the bath first, then get to sleep. I don’t want to dirty the bed.”
“You’re assuming I’m moving to the big bed.” Bridget snapped.
“Yes.” Selene said, her tone of voice indicating she was not going to yield. “I am.”
Bridget hesitated, looking her sister in the eyes. She could see that Selene’s determination was driven by her own feelings of vulnerability. She rolled her eyes. “Fine. A bath, then sleep!”
Joven watched them go to the bathing room next to the study and shook his head. “Endrance…” Joven muttered. “I can tell more happened down there, but what?”
Selene and Bridget bathed with cold water, not wanting to wait long enough for it to heat. Conversation was lax, and while Selene pressed up against the side of the bath and looked to the door to the adjoining study, she could almost imagine him curled up on the bed, sleeping restlessly. Bridget said something to her, and she turned away. He may have made a mistake, but he was only human.
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