She stirred again, then opened her eyes, blinking them. It took her a moment to focus on him, then she smiled weakly.
"Lord Valin," she said.
Rial helped her raise up a bit and drink some water. She managed a couple of swallows before nodding and pulling away.
"You had us concerned, brat," he told her.
She nodded, relaxing back against his arm. "My feet hurt," she said.
"I've cleaned them and put some medicine on them," he told her. "They should start to feel better soon."
"Like Yenene's medicine?" she asked.
"I'm pretty sure this is better than Yenene's," he said. "It's one of mine from Valin. It's hard to make, so I save it for important things."
"You should give some to papa," she told him. "He gets hurt a lot."
Rial chuckled. "I don't think I could make enough in a year to cover how much your father gets hurt in one battle."
Valry tried to sit up, but it was obvious she was still weak. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at the fire as Rial helped her up.
"What's left of dinner, are you hungry?" he asked.
She nodded her head, then paused, smiling.
"I hear mama," she said, her voice relieved, then paused again. "She says we should stay here."
"Does she say why?" Rial asked her. Tion set aside his drawing and came to help Valry sit up while Rial went to cut some of the meat from the rock chuck and Inacia rummaged through her packs for one of the small loaves of bread.
"She says there are church guards around, but we're safe in here." She took the bread from Inacia as she cut some small pieces from it, then the meat from Rial. "But papa will be here soon, then it'll be safe to go." She took a small bite of the meat, chewing slowly.
"We shouldn't travel until you've recovered some strength anyway," Rial told her, taking his seat across the fire again.
"Valry, do you remember what happened?" Inacia asked her.
Valry turned and nodded at her. "Zared's gone now," she said. "And Gaurel won't let him come back here again."
Inacia smiled. "Yes, he is," she said.
"I can do something now," she said.
"What's that?" Rial asked her, tilting his head slightly.
Valry held out her free hand, her palm up. After a few seconds, a bright green orb grew from her palm and hovered in the air before it collapsed, falling back into her hand.
"It's hard here," she said. "Gaurel says I'll have to practice."
Rial stared at her as Inacia and Tion both did the same.
"What was that?" he asked her.
"It's from the Well," she said. "I have it inside me now when I'm awake." She took another small bite of meat. "It can't hurt anything. It's not like what I took from papa."
Rial exchanged looks with Inacia.
"Can you do anything else?" Inacia said.
Valry shrugged. "I don't know. I just know I can do that." She leaned against Tion and looked at Rial. "Will my feet get better so I can walk?'
Rial nodded at her. "Yes, they will," he promised. "We'll put more of the medicine on in the morning." He only had a small amount of the powder, so he was glad it was used sparingly. He looked at Inacia. "I don't suppose you found a water source while you were looking for dinner?"
She shook her head. "I'll look in the morning."
"We'll need one since we're apparently going to be here for a few days while the brat recovers." He twisted his first two fingers together where they rested on his knee.
Valry smiled at him.
Inacia nodded her head. "There should be one around here somewhere."
Twelve - "Ye put on a hell of a war"
Nahtan pulled his cloak around his arms, staring at the walls of Basiyr. Brijade and Jedrik had found him on the battlefield two days before, barely conscious and nearly dead. With Garren's help, they'd gotten him off the field and back to Yenene, where she'd found the wound in his chest from Rial had reopened. At first she'd thought he'd been injured there again even though there was no damage to his armor. This time repairing the wound had been simpler; his heart and lung hadn't been pierced and the wound hadn't been as deep.
He didn't tell them it had reopened when Valry had saved him.
Tearing the power of the Well from him and closing the link had torn his flesh with the force of it. He clearly remembered every second of it. Feeling her pulling the power back, containing it, breaking it away from this world along with all of his anger and hatred for Zared and Thorvald.
He had forgotten everything Mo'ani taught him as a boy, and he'd realized so long as that ancient part of him still existed, he would always run the risk of forgetting. In a split second's decision, he'd told her to take everything, closing him forever into Zakris' world. Whatever Zakris had done to his soul so he could be born here, he was now truly one of their world.
"Ye put on a hell of a war," Asher said, coming up beside him.
Nahtan sighed, nodding his head. "It should have been a different kind of war," he said. "Too many innocent people died."
Asher turned to look at him. "I don't pretend to know what's goin' on inside of ye," he said. "And maybe it's not right, like some are sayin'. But Neyl and I 'ave been fightin' Basiyr for years, and regular war hasn't been doin' much good. Most we've been able to do is beat them back for a month or two from time to time." He shook his head. "So long as Thorvald and Basiyr were here, it wasn't goin' to stop. Right or wrong, ye brought us an end. We can rebuild a city and we can rebuild the lives in the city, but that was never goin' to happen with Zared breathing here every day."
"You know, you are a lot like Kile was," Nahtan shook his head.
"So I've been told."
"He had a unique gift for congratulating you on an achievement while still making it sound like he was scolding you to do better."
"Ye can always do better," Asher shrugged. "Ye wouldn't be a normal man if ye couldn't."
"I noticed there weren't any temples or cathedrals in Olorun," Nahtan said after a moment. "Why is that?" He'd been thinking a lot since waking up in the healer's tent, and things he had ignored before suddenly seemed important to him now. Things Mo'ani taught him. Services to the gods had been a regular part of their training at the Stronghold, and Mo'ani had made sure everyone had an opportunity to go.
"They were targets for Zared's followers," Asher replied. "And I was tired of them showin' up when my head was turned and killin' anyone they found there. Even when I posted guards, they'd kill as many people as they could before the guards killed 'em. So I ordered them all closed and the buildings taken down. Now the families hold private services in their homes and there are a couple of small hidden temples for marriages and such."
Nahtan nodded. That made sense, and he'd have probably made a similar decision had he been in Asher's position. "How many people did we lose?" Nahtan asked.
"About three hundred or so dead," Asher said. "Ours stopped dyin' when ye did that," he motioned to Basyr's walls. "Once ye went down, we lost some more, but overall it could 'ave been a lot worse. Most of the wounded 'ave been seen to and supplies restocked."
"I'd like to head for the temple in the morning," Nahtan said. "The scouts in last night said the army looked like the five hundred in Thorvald's plans. Once they're out of the way, the temple should be easy to take."
"Have ye decided what to do with Thorvald yet?" Asher asked.
"Take him back to Herridon and put him on trial," Nahtan said. "I'd like Aduran and Linah from the temple to stand trial, too, if possible." He hadn't told Garren about Linah yet, and wasn't sure he wanted to. He knew how important family was to his brother, remembering how the young man had even been comfortable holding an infant handed to him by a sister when Nahtan had met their father.
"Aduran's not high priest for nothin'," Asher told him. "Zared keeps him one step ahead of anyone comin' for him, so he'll probably be long gone before we can get there."
"Then I think a very large reward for his capture might be in order," Nahtan nodded
. "Though I suppose first I need to figure out how to get my crown city back."
"We'll march north with ye," Asher told him. "Ye took care of Basiyr for us here, helpin' ye get Herridon back is only fair."
"I won't be able to do that again," Nahtan motioned to the black marks on Basiyr's walls. "It'll just be a straight on battle and a lot of people will die."
"We've got lots of experience with those," Asher assured him.
Nahtan turned slightly as someone approached. He sighed when he saw Yenene making her way across to him.
"I know," he said when she reached him. "I should be resting."
"Yes," she agreed. "But I've been your healer long enough to know you aren't going to."
"I'll leave ye two," Asher bowed his head to Yenene. "We should be ready to leave in the mornin' for the temple," he finished to Nahtan.
"Gaurel's awake," Yenene said quietly in case anyone else came near them. "He wanted me to tell you Valry is safe and the Well hasn't seen that much action for eons."
Nahtan sighed with relief. "Did he say what happened?" He hadn't told Yenene what happened to him, and didn't know if Gaurel would have.
"Something about Valry used the power she'd drawn to overpower and bind Zared, and now he's trapped in the Well and being held there?" He could tell by her tone that she was just repeating back what Gaurel had told her and it had made little sense to her. "I don't understand it all, but does that mean Zared is gone from this world?"
Nahtan paused. Valry had used the power she'd taken from him to defeat Zared. That meant even that part of him that had been left in their dead world, that had driven him these last months, had taken a last hit at the fallen god, and apparently won.
"I think it means we don't have to worry about Zared anymore," he said. He turned to look down at her. "Or Daghr'il." If Valry had used what she'd taken from him to bind Zared, and he was now trapped in the Well, then that part of him that she'd taken was trapped there as well.
Yenene studied his face. "The wound," she said quietly.
He nodded. "I'm afraid I'm stuck here now," he said. "No different from the rest of you."
"I think that's better," she told him.
"Can you forgive me?"
Yenene sighed and looked at Basiyr. "I suppose that depends on how you plan to make amends."
"I've already told Asher I'll help him rebuild."
Yenene nodded. "That's a start," she said. "Now your brother wants to talk to you."
Nahtan frowned. "Did he say what about?"
"Korrie," she said, turning and walking back to the healer's tents.
Nahtan closed his eyes for a second, clenching his left fist. There was no rage this time, no burning in his chest. Only his own frustration. He turned and followed her back, changing direction to go to the camp. Renato touched his mind, letting him know he wanted to be out galloping, but Nahtan urged him to settle down and it would only be another night here.
Before going to find Garren, he went to Lady Caya's wagon to find Gaurel. He wanted to talk to him himself, especially where he'd been asleep for two days.
Gaurel was sitting on the back step, the falcon perched on his knee while Gaurel stroked his chest with the back of one finger.
Nahtan moved close enough to catch his attention, then motioned for him to come talk to him. Gaurel lifted the bird onto the step, then stood and walked over where no one could overhear them.
"Yenene said Valry was safe?" Nahtan asked him.
Gaurel nodded his head. "She's very weak, though. That part of you that she took is quite powerful, but you knew that."
Nahtan nodded. "What did she see?"
Gaurel looked at him for a long moment. "Everything," he finally said. "She saw you as you were before. She saw the power you'd wielded."
Nahtan sighed. "Thank you for staying with her at the Well the last couple of days," he said. He knew she must have been weakened quite a lot if the Well had kept her there that long to protect her.
"Oh, she returned to her body within several hours," Gaurel said. "I bridged to her link and made sure she was safe, and she is, she's with Lord Valin, Tion and a woman and large dog, but I couldn't tell where, all I could see were rocks."
"Then why were you gone so long?" Nahtan asked, concerned.
Gaurel took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "I was taking some time," he replied. "To mourn the loss of my brother." He looked at Nahtan deliberately.
Nahtan frowned. "Brother--" he paused, trying to remember. Something about it seemed familiar. There had been a bond between them, that had made Aiqho'il willing to spend centuries teaching him how to do something that he himself had been able to do within seconds.
He remembered blood, and lifting a woman's broken body, her stomach just barely showing signs of the life growing within it. Even then, he'd known she was dead, but yet somehow her blood still flowed even without her heart beating. He'd known her well, she'd once cradled him as she'd hoped to cradle this baby she carried now.
"We shared a mother," he remembered.
Gaurel bowed his head to him. "Ciah'il," he said. "Your father died in battle, as did mine. She was struck down by those seeking to hurt you, not realizing she was with child." He paused. "She pledged her soul to the Well in exchange for my life," he said. "That is why the Well fed and sustained me until my birth."
"Brothers." Nahtan looked at him, remembering more fully now. "And now that part of me is gone."
"You are still here," Gaurel told him. "But as Nahtan, with no link to Daghr'il. You are still my brother in spirit, just no longer in world. It was that part that I mourned."
Nahtan nodded. "Zared?"
"Bound and held by the Well," Gaurel replied. "It's deemed him a great threat to Valry, and will not release him so long as she's alive." He paused as if considering his own words. "Now that he's in my world, should the Well ever let him free, I do not plan to let him return here."
"You're going to keep battling a god there for the rest of time?"
Gaurel smiled. "I nearly bested him once in this world with my power limited, Nahtan," he reminded. "I am already dead, there is nothing he can do to me there, and my power is at its fullest. He will not leave there without my permission."
"You know, you aren't dead here," Nahtan pointed out.
Gaurel looked down at himself then back at Nahtan. "I create and discard bodies here as easily as you change clothing," he pointed out. "I could be Gaurel now and a gold winged hawk in ten minutes then a black maned lion in an hour. I pretend at life, but as I take each form, none of them are my own. Even Gaurel cannot be made fully in my own form, because it is so different and foreign and would not be understood."
Nahtan nodded. He did understand. He remembered how painful it had been when Aiqho'il had brought him here in a physical form that the gods could see and touch even before Zakris changed him to be born here. He knew it had been just as painful for Aiqho'il to be able to do the same thing now.
"Now," Gaurel said. "Go and find your way, Nahtan. Your daughter has opened the door for you, so you had best use it."
"Thank you again," Nahtan told him. "For being with Valry and helping her."
Gaurel bowed his head to him and turned to walk back to Lady Caya's wagon. Nahtan watched him for a second before turning to go find Garren.
He found Garren and Korrie with Brijade, Jedrik and Tabari. Jedrik was showing Garren how to use a spear while Tabari watched closely.
"So did you get the story you were hoping for at the battle?" he asked Tabari as he approached. He noticed Korrie move to Brijade's other side almost immediately.
Tabari stood and bowed before him.
"You do not disappoint, Your Majesty," he smiled. "I'll be sure the deeds of that day are well remembered."
"Actually, I'd prefer if you made sure they were forgotten," Nahtan told him. "Or just remember anyone but me."
Tabari turned his head slightly. "Do we not carry duty's weight for the past?" he asked. "Would it not b
e better for the children of years to come to know the truth? They should grow knowing that good men can be gripped by fear and anger and yet overcome to victory as they set aside the darkness that drives them."
Nahtan stared at him. Neyl had told him Tabari was chosen by one of the gods, but didn't know which one. Tabari had said he was going to watch the battle from a distance, and yet he somehow knew exactly what had gone on with Nahtan there. Where most minstrels would have told stories of a grand battle and heroic deeds, Tabari had instead focused on the very core of what had happened.
"Halona be damned, man, shut up," Jedrik said to Tabari. "I've never met a man 'at can take so many words to say so much o' nothin'."
"Oh, he said plenty," Nahtan said, still staring at Tabari. He was somewhat surprised when Tabari met his gaze easily and didn't look away. "Halona?" he asked Tabari. That made the most sense, he seemed more like the type of person that Halona would send.
Tabari pursed his lips. "I believe I have met the Lady of Fates," he nodded. "She bore fair countenance and in her grace considered none as lesser. Each played a part, and even the smallest carried weight to her call."
"I swear I'm goin' to strangle 'im," Jedrik said to Brijade.
Brijade chuckled.
Tabari turned to Jedrik. "I have paid you fair for your words, Master Jedrik," he said. "It would be most ungentlemanly to try to renegotiate our terms now." He looked back at Nahtan. "All may not be as it seems, Good King," he said. "But I am as I say. I seek only to remember and share the truth of each day so that those born of our children will know of what happened in their past."
Nahtan shook his head, giving up. It wasn't going to be worth the trouble of trying to figure out who he was. He looked at Korrie.
"Scroll?" he asked her.
"Nahtan, stop," Garren said. He walked over, putting himself between Nahtan and Korrie.
"She stole something very important, Garren. It needs to be returned."
Korrie shifted uneasily.
"I--I only did it because I was told to," she stammered. "Someone was concerned it might be in danger here and wanted it somewhere safer."
Nahtan sighed. "Who has it?" he asked her. "And right now, the only answers that aren't going to get you into trouble are one of the gods' names."
Basiyr: Chronicles of Nahtan: Book 6 (The Herridon Chronicles) Page 21
