Chapter 28
Elf checked Dayna's girth one last time. Keka was eagerly awaiting his chance to take his place on Dayna's back.
"Are you certain you want to go back?" Veki asked. Elf, now sixteen, looked over her shoulder at her very pregnant cousin.
"I'm certain." Elf assured her. "I barely need my cane, except for when I over do it."
"Which is everyday." Veki pointed out.
"Silverdoe says there is little more she can teach me unless I want to join the Tayledras." Elf clasped Veki's hands in her own. "I'm not asking permission. I am saying it's time for me to leave."
"You are only sixteen, how are you going to protect yourself for months of travel?" Veki demanded. "If you had left last year I could have accompanied you."
"But last year I was still learning." Elf said with growing exasperation. "Sa'vin is coming with me, how could I be safer?"
"By staying here." Veki snapped. "They haven't found the bandits yet."
"I know." Elf swung up into Dayna's saddle. "That is why I have to go back."
"They will kill you." Veki said with growing panic.
Elf leaned down. "Veki, I am going. Do you think I will get squeamish and hesitate if they do attack? I wouldn't be looking for prisoners. If I find them, they will die. Besides, I will have Sa'vin, the eternally watchful, at my side."
"Why not send word that you are ready to go and wait for them to send a troupe to protect you?" Veki asked.
"And give the remaining bandits a chance to plot? No, it's better to surprise friends as well as foe." Elf pointed out. "You told me that, remember?"
"She's right." Sa'vin added. "It's more than her wanting to leave, sister, it is a driving need for her to get to her home."
Veki glared at Dayna. "Because of you."
:Really, Veki, you'd think you were sending off your own child, not a grown cousin. It has been more than three years that those men have wandered free, don't you think it's time for justice to catch up with them?: Dayna rolled her bright blue eyes. :Save your worry for your child, with the Lytharean penchant for mischief and magic you will be using it.:
Sa'vin, having already said farewell to his brother, trotted into the early morning light. Dayna trotted after him with the packhorse trailing after her. The warhorse, Gorgeous, and the packhorse would never be able to match her speed or endurance, but she agreed that sacrificing speed for protection was the wisest move.
"Elf wait!" E'draen called as he rode his horse at a gallop to meet her.
"E'draen? Did I forget something?" Elf asked.
E'draen guided his horse as close to Dayna as he could manage. "Won't you stay?"
Elf looked up at him in surprise.
"Please, I know you can be happy here. You can study the tower with the other mages, visit Kata'shin'a'in every summer, and be freer here than you can ever be in Valdemar." E'draen pleaded.
Elf shook her head and opened her mouth to speak.
E'draen quickly interrupted her. "I know you don't love me, but perhaps with time…"
"No E'draen." Elf said firmly. "You would be miserable. As would I."
"Then wait and I will come with you." E'draen pleaded. "I will finish my training in a year or so."
"No." Elf said firmly. "I will be on circuit all the time when I get my Whites, do you really want to live in a foreign land alone and waiting until I return after years of being away and staying for a month at most before I ride out again? You would be beyond miserable."
E'draen's mournful eyes made it clear she had reached him. "Perhaps when you have finished this business with the bandits you will return."
"Doubtful." Elf thought of her few friends in Haven, most would be out on circuit by now if they had healed up, but there she knew she was home. "That is my home."
"Haven? You are almost never going to be there!" E'draen protested.
"No, Valdemar is my home. Her roads, her towns, anywhere Dayna and I travel there will be my home." Elf explained.
E'draen finally let her continue on; watching after her like his heart was breaking.
Sa'vin said nothing until they were well out of hearing distance. "You could have told him that there is no room left in your heart for such a love."
Elf shook her head. "No, honesty is better."
Sa'vin cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? You think you may fall head over heals in love some day?"
"No, but who knows what the future will bring." Elf shrugged. "Herald Skif loves Nyara, Herald Dirk loves Talia. It is not common but such love does occur."
"You aren't going to change your mind a week down the road are you?" Sa'vin asked.
"I swear it." Elf assured him. "It's time to leave, and if I delay we will be traveling in winter."
"Wait you two!" Silverdoe shouted as her grey mare galloped to catch up, her merlin flitting above her.
"I thought you were going to stay here at the tower." Elf greeted her.
"Changed my mind." Silverdoe said with a grin. "I was never sent to study the tower, just to be a teacher. They don't need a teacher here, but we can still work together to expand your repertoire."
"Very well, but you are taking a watch every night." Sa'vin warned.
"No problem. I was a scout for my clan for years." Silverdoe assured him. "This little trip will be filled with luxuries compared to the winter patrols. Between the six of us our little Herald here will be as safe as a gold piece in a vault."
"Six?" Sa'vin asked.
"Gorgeous, my bond bird, Dayna, and us humans." Silverdoe clarified.
"If there are no more interruptions I want to get going." Elf said insistently as she and Dayna trotted ahead, her slender frame stiff with purpose.
Sa'vin frowned thoughtfully. "This urgency is definitely not natural."
"No." Silverdoe agreed. "It's a geas. Since Dayna is not concerned I think it is merely a Heraldic thing."
~*~
Elf had been almost completely silent for the fortnight since they had left the plains behind. She and Dayna had been reluctant to stop each night and the first to want to get going every morn. She had ousted the others from theirs beds early when they had given her the last watch of the night so now she had the first.
"Elf?" Silverdoe moved her mare so they were knee to knee. "Are you alright?"
Elf nodded and scanned the edge of the road. The trees were thick and dark here.
Silverdoe followed her gaze. "Do you know something I don't?"
Elf's silver eyes finally met hers. They were otherworldly and caused Silverdoe to shudder. "Someone is waiting for us."
Sa'vin heard her comment and rode up on her other side. "For good or ill?"
"Ill." Elf said firmly. "I didn't want you to come, just remember that."
Silverdoe leaned forward to meet Sa'vin's worried gaze.
"I thought you didn't have foresight." Sa'vin said as he readied his powerful bow and scanned the edges of the road.
Elf sighed. "Don't! He will know we are expecting him."
Sa'vin turned on her. "If you know of an ambush it is considered a necessary courtesy to tell your traveling mates."
"Even when you traveling mates will ruin your chance for finding the ones behind killing your family?" Elf countered.
"He's right Elf. What were you thinking to not tell us they were going to ambush us?" Silverdoe demanded. "Did you think you could handle them?
Elf and Dayna stopped stock still in the road. "Actually I was going to leave you in the next town. I didn't want Veki to worry, that is the only reason I didn't protest your joining me. There is no way you could catch us if we choose to leave you in our dust."
"Damned young idiots!" Sa'vin cursed. "Did you stop to think that perhaps we have our own oaths to keep? That perhaps we aren't along merely for the joy of traveling? I swore that I would see you safe to Haven."
"And the Clan Elders were going to fight tooth and nail against you traveling to Valdemar." Silverdoe informed her. "They see you as a lost Tayledras adept in a time we are desperate for an adept to help us correct the damage from the Mage Storms. It was only because I was accompanying you and could perhaps convince you to return to the Vales that they didn't make a huge fuss. Why do you think I have been encouraging you to head back to Valdemar now rather than waiting? They have already sent word to Valdemar that as a Tayledras descendant you should be sent to them and are hinting there could be some diplomatic problems if your Valdemar is unwilling to accommodate them."
"I know." Elf snapped. "I intercepted the message. And if you think there is anything on this earth that will convince me to bow down and live with a bunch of stiff necked idiots like Darkice. If my grandmother found it stifling I would find it a cage."
Silverdoe jerked back at the vehemence in Elf's words. "They are not all like Darkice."
"No, but they think that forcing me to go to them is a good notion without even asking my preferences so it does not say much for their characters." Elf snapped. "And you may as well go back to them. There are teachers enough in Haven to fill in any gaps in my education, including several Tayledras."
"You think I am trying to get you go join the vales?" Silverdoe asked in disbelief. "I know that you belong in Valdemar and nothing would change your mind. I am trying to get you home before they manage to arrange your future without your input."
Sa'vin sighed and rolled his eyes. "When can we expect the bandits and are any of them the same ones responsible for the death of your family? As for the Tayledras trying to maneuver our little brat here anywhere, didn't you warn them she makes a warmare look like a sweet natured palfrey?"
"I am sweet natured!" Elf protested.
"I think they see it merely as the Tayledras spirit." Silverdoe said stiffly. "They haven't dealt with her face to face."
Dayna flicked one ear and remained silent.
Elf's shoulders suddenly slumped under the silence from here dearest friend. :I screwed up, didn't I?:
:You have been so completely absorbed with catching up with those bandits you have been just what Sa'vin called you, an idiot.: Dayna informed her. :And before asking, I was letting you make your own choices, whatever they may be.:
"I'm sorry." Elf muttered. "I was being self centered and an idiot."
Her traveling companions were surprised that her sudden change in attitude.
"I only saw a chance to get my hands on one of the bandits." Elf muttered and twisted her fingers Dayna's mane.
"Right. So, when, where, and what's our plan?" Sa'vin said bluntly. "And how do you know?"
"My grandmother told me." Elf muttered after being unable to think of reasonable excuse.
Silverdoe's eyebrow quirked slightly and she nodded but she wasn't surprised. Sa'vin, however, looked as confused as Keka when he managed to get himself tangled in one of his knots.
"I heard she had foresight, among other gifts." Silverdoe said with a shrug.
"About a day's travel past the next town there is a spot where the road has been cut into a hill and it rises high on each side, they will ambush us." Elf explained. "My grandmother recognized it from her travels."
"Hmm, sounds like the kind of place I would choose to ambush." Sa'vin admitted. "So riding straight into it is a fool's move. I say we get them pinned against the cliffs and question any survivors."
"There are only three of us." Silverdoe protested.
"Six." Sa'vin corrected her with a crooked grin. "Two mages, a Companion, a war horse, a little bird, and myself. I assume that with the warning of several days you two can prepare a suitable disaster to befall our welcoming committee."
~*~
Elf and Dayna heaved a sigh in unison as she watched Silverdoe with her bow and Sa'vin with his sword ride off leaving her with Keka and Dayna for protection. "How did I get left out of this again?"
:Guilt.: Dayna answered bluntly. :You felt guilty for acting like an idiot so when they wanted you to hang back you agreed. Next time you should just give them a gift or an apology note to appease your guilt and not let them manipulate you like that.:
Elf reached back and pulled a busy Keka onto her lap. He was so large he was practically hanging off Dayna but he didn't give a damn so long as she didn't disturb his new mass of knots. This one was made from a long length of rope now twisted and woven into a disc shape.
"I hope they won't need us." Elf muttered. "We won't be able to hear a thing from back here."
Dayna chuckled. :I agree, we should move closer.:
Dayna didn't even snap a twig as she maneuvered them closer to the ridge.
Keka raised his head, peered intently through the trees before hopping from Elf's lap to the ground, and slunk forward.
Elf used her Mage Sight to watch Silverdoe and Sa'vin spring their trap on the bandits. There were no mages among the bandits or this plan wouldn't have worked. Silverdoe's arrows shot from the concealment of the trees as Sa'vin appeared from the other side dressed completely in black. Silverdoe launched a magebolt at a bandit, who went down like a stone and quickly changed trees as only someone who grew up in trees could. Gorgeous charged into the fray without a rider, her wicked hooves breaking limbs and denting armor with wicked blows. Sa'vin finished off three of the bandits in short order, the rest ran blind panic, a couple right into Silverdoe's arrows and magebolts.
Elf watched as one bandit managed to get to a horse.
:They won't be able to get that one.: Dayna observed as she charged. :He may arrange for another ambush down the road.:
Elf tightened to grip with her knees and leaned over Dayna's neck. She never bothered with reins so she wound her fingers in Dayna's mane.
The bandit was already on the road and whipping his horse into a frenzy with the flat of his blade, trying to urge more speed out of the nag.
He turned back just as Dayna burst onto the road.
:That's one of them! One of the Bandits!: Elf said in shock and sat up. The wind from their passing was almost enough to tear her from Dayna's back before she recalled where they were and crouched low again.
:Gods damn that son of a poxy strumpet!: Dayna bellowed as she trumpeted a challenge that panicked the bandit's horse into rearing.
He flailed uselessly and dropped his sword as he fell to the ground with a thud.
Dayna slid to a stop inches from him and started to dance in place, her silver hooves flashing like knives as they got closer to the fallen bandit.
He looked up at Elf and opened his mouth to scream but was cut off by a streak of gold and black then a gush of red.
Elf gaped as Keka backed away from his kill, blood stained his jaws and hands and his fur stood on end as he hissed.
The bandit gurgled as blood boiled from his throat.
"Oh…" Elf stared in shock at her pet.
:Eeewww, he's bleeding on me!: Dayna squealed and pranced back out of range.
Elf slid to the ground but kept one hand on Dayna's shoulder for support. "Do I reward him or punish him?" She asked shakily.
:Reward, definitely.: Dayna said firmly.
"But we could have discovered the other identities." Elf protested.
:I don't want him to hesitate if he is in a position to save your life again, so reward him. Give him a new ribbon and a basket of eggs. Or I will.: Dayna said firmly.
"What were you two thinking?" Silverdoe shouted as she galloped up. "They could have killed you." She hesitated when she saw the corpse of the bandit and the still irate Keka. "What happened?"
"We were just going to stop him but Keka … I swear he would never harm a human if he didn't think I was in danger." Elf said quickly, her words tripping over themselves in her rush to make certain her pet was not going to suffer.
"Obviously." Silverdoe tied her horse to a tree on the side of the road and knelt next to the bandit. "Severed two arteries. Impressive." She looked at the critter who was now grooming himself madly, trying to remove the blood.
"Everyone alright?" Sa'vin asked as he and Gorgeous approached. "Keka did that? I thought he was a bird hunter."
"He's big enough that if there was a small pack of them they could bring down deer." Silverdoe shrugged. "Well done Keka."
Keka looked up from his studious grooming and made a chirping sound.
Sa'vin hopped off Gorgeous and strode to Elf's side. "You're as pale a ghost."
"He's one of the bandits." Elf explained.
"Obviously, we saw you chase him." Sa'vin said with a note of worry.
"No, one of the bandits who killed my family. He was standing just past my mother's body." Elf tried to explain. "I think I am going to be sick." She muttered before she crumpled. Sa'vin caught her before she hit the ground.
"Good to know she's still human." He said as he picked her up and carried her to the side of the road.
~*~
When Elf came to they were entering a town and she was being cradled against Sa'vin's chest. "Wha--?"
"About time you woke up brat." Sa'vin teased her.
Dayna jostled Gorgeous as she tried to get close to Elf. :Don't you ever do that again! Although I was tempted to do the same, I mean, he bled on me, it stinks like you wouldn't believe. Silverdoe stayed back to deal with the bodies, Sa'vin didn't want to watch her light them on fire so he offered to take you to town and find some lodgings. Judging from the size of this place we are going to be lucky if we are not sleeping in the village green.:
Elf sat up, looked around, and frowned. "This is Sildon. There is an inn about a twenty minute ride past it."
"You would know." Sa'vin stopped and let her dismount then swing up on Dayna's back, after shifting the sleeping Keka. "Why don't you see to the rooms and baths for all of us and I will go help Silverdoe finish stacking the dead?"
"Alright." Elf and Dayna trotted ahead. "Thank you." She hollered over her shoulder.
At the inn Elf informed a groom she would see to her own mount before she entered in search of the innkeeper. He was wiping down the table when she limped up to him.
"I need three rooms, three baths, our laundry cleaned, good food and a paddock for our horses, and a meal tonight, another tomorrow morning and one for the road." Elf informed him.
He eyed her curiously.
"My money's good." She informed him and she put a fair price on the table. "And I need warm water for cleaning my horse and a basket of raw eggs for my pet."
"Cleaning your horse?" He repeated. "Certainly miss."
"Thank you. Now if you could have someone bring out the water I would appreciate it. I don't want the blood to dry further." Elf said as she turned and started for the door.
"Blood?" The innkeeper echoed.
Elf looked over her shoulder. "You know, the red stuff that people leak when they die? Some bandits mistook us for travelers. Only an idiot annoys a pair of Mages."
"Mages, right. I'll have the water sent right out milady." He gave her a half bow as she left.
Keka was yawning widely as she emerged and looking annoyed.
"How's my hero?" Elf cooed and scratched his chin. He made his odd chirping sound and half closed his eyes. "I promise I will find you a new rope as soon as I can."
Keka stretched and hopped to the ground allowing Elf to removed Dayna's woven saddle and head to the water trough.
:Are you alright?: Dayna asked as she sniffed the water curiously. :Good, it's fresh.:
:I'm fine.: Elf assured her. :I wish I could have questioned him but I doubt I could have gotten anything out of him while being ethical.:
:I agree.: Dayna commented.
Elf stared up at the brilliant blue sky. :One down, just two more to find.:
