IF YOU HAVE PREVIOUSLY READ CHAPTER 47, PLEASE RE-READ BEFORE CONTINUING WITH CHAPTER 48. My apologies for the past three chapters as I struggle for a smooth and clear story line. My thanks for your patience and the valuable input of commenters.
"My lady, I…" Jaek's voice was washed with ecstatic fervour at the words.
Kyminn never saw the white shapes that appeared from the surrounding night. There was a distant shriek and something slashed across his soul, severing the force that threatened to tear him apart. He collapsed, aware only of the darkness coiled in his mind, a sluggish bleeding that drained everything – pain, fear, love…it trickled away while he watched impassively from a distance as his self bled to death.
::CHOSEN!:: Derris's cry was despairing as he vaulted the fire and pivoted to place himself between the agent and his victim. ::He's dying!::
A second white form reared, forelegs unerringly smashing the lens. A howl of rage erupted from Jaek's throat and the agent flung himself at the unburdened Companion, knife flashing in the flickering light.
With a squeal of rage, the Companion pivoted, easily avoiding the lancing blade. Bones crunched as her forefoot came down, pinning the knife – and hand – to the earth. Jaek screamed again, this time in pain as his free hand batted at the white pillar of leg. He might as easily have tried to move a marble statue.
The Companion shifted and her other foot came down, this time with less force, the bones of the forearm breaking cleanly as she pinned the other arm down. Equine teeth snapped a bare hair's breadth from the agent's face and his screams shrank to a whimper as he saw the fury in the sapphire eyes.
Randen was on the ground beside Kyminn, his gorge rising as he catalogued the Healer's wounds. "Derris?" Randen felt for a pulse and gave a prayer of thanks when he found one, sluggish and faint.
::The rope around his neck. It's…gods, brother it's vile. It's doing something to him. He's dying, brother.:: Derris's voice as frantic with worry.
Randen tugged at the cord, flinching away at the burning cold. He pulled out his belt knife, trying to saw at the thing embedded in Kyminn's neck. "I can't get it! It's like it's protected somehow!" His attempts to cut the cord were futile, the blade skidding off the binding.
Derris's head came up and his head swung around to the other Companion. The two conferred for a long moment before Derris turned back to Randen.
::Amlee thinks that if we link with him, we might be inside the shield. If we're inside, it might let you cut that…thing.::
"How are we going to do that? Kyminn doesn't have Mindspeech. And he can't Hear Companions with his Animal Mindspeech." Randen pressed his fingers to Kyminn's neck, reassured at the pulse that fluttered beneath his touch. Was it weaker or was that his fear speaking?
::We can't trigger Foresight and Empathy won't create the kind of link we need. This needs to be something that creates a channel. It has to be Healing.::
Randen looked from Kyminn to Derris. "He hasn't got any strength left to Heal!" The protest burst from the Herald.
::He won't have to.:: Derris sounded certain. ::All we need is a link. We – the three of us – will provide the strength.::
"How…?" The pulse was definitely weaker this time. "We have to trigger his Healing Gift, don't we?" It was bleak.
::Yes, but not by much. You don't need to maim me.:: Derris folded his legs and settled beside Kyminn. Randen cut the ropes binding Kyminn's limbs and did his best to straighten them. Kyminn's moans of pain were reassuring – the Healer was still capable of responding.
::Amlee will anchor me.:: The other Companion nodded firmly. ::We're not sure how this…thing will react. It's possible it may come after you – or me – through the link. Amlee will anchor and shield me. I will shield you and hold the link open. Once it's established, you should be inside and able to cut that thing off him.::
Randen nodded and opened himself up to the bond between himself and Derris. In his mind's eye, it always appeared as a glowing blue cord, stretching between them. He grasped the cord with a mental hand, opening himself to the bottomless reservoir of love and strength that was the Companion.
::It's alright brother, nothing you could ever do would hurt me.::
Open as he was, there was no doubting the surety of those words. His hand didn't hesitate and Randen slashed down, driving the blade deep into Derris's shoulder. With his other hand, he gently took Kyminn's broken hand, placing it on the wound, praying that something in the Healer would respond.
Something flickered in Kyminn's consciousness. The narrowed flash of Foresight. Immediate and present. A warning. Blood on white.
Pain! Kyminn could Feel it beneath his fingertips. Knew there was something there. Something he should do… He was an empty vessel, dry and scraped raw. Oh, he could reach, could feel the pain there, but he could do nothing. He could only lie there, adrift while he bled into the darkness. Two channels – one pulling him into nothingness and another, one that should have had light and life flowing through it, lying empty and open.
"I can feel it." Randen's voice was thick with horror. "It's…blood and pain. It's unspeakable."
Derris seemed to glow and the sense of wrongness retreated a bit, pushed back by a white brightness that seemed to cleanse as it advanced.
This time, the knife blade bit into the cord, although the strands seemed to slide and twist to evade the cut. A dark mist oozed from the cord, tangling and burning Randen's fingers as he sawed. Finally, with a stuttering wail in his mind, the cord parted, dropping of its own volition from around Kyminn's neck.
Randen's fingers flew back to the pulse. Stronger? Yes, definitely stronger now but still so weak! As he pressed, the glow from Derris and Amlee brightened. At the wordless question from Derris, Randen threw open his own strength, feeling the pulse strengthen and steady in response.
::Enough. He will live now.:: There was a troubled undertone to the relief in Derris's mindvoice as the Companion gratefully released the link.
::Derris?:: The question was silent, shared between the two of them.
::Later. He will be well enough for now, but…there was damage done. It can wait. For now.::
"Randen?" It was a bare whisper. "That's twice now you've saved my life."
"And three times you've saved us," Randen's voice was rough. Kyminn could see the Herald's rage and concern in his friend's eyes.
"Jaek?"
Randen glanced at the agent, still pinned by the Companion. "Alive. Why?"
"She controls him. His neck." The words, forced out from behind the Healer's broken jaw, left Kyminn exhausted.
A wordless question to Derris and the Companion's response was grim.
::He has one too. I can feel it from here. His is different though. Much more powerful.::
Randen climbed into Derris's saddle and the Companion smoothly rose to his feet. Kyminn watched as the pair moved the few paces to where Jaek lay.
Jaek was glaring at the Companion that held him, his face twisted hate. "You lying…" whether the string of vitriol that followed was directed that Kyminn or the Companion was hard to tell. "I should have killed you when I had the chance!"
Randen slid out of Derris's saddle, one arm hooked on a loop of leather to help maintain his balance as he stared down at the agent. At a nod from Randen, the Companion stepped aside. Jaek curled up, wrapping himself around his broken arms and groaning with pain.
"You're going to answer some questions." The Herald's voice was cold.
Jaek's response was an unimaginative suggestion that Randen do something anatomically impossible.
::Derris? Can you do anything about that rope around his neck?::
::No. Even if we could create a link – and I'm not sure it's wise to try – he is bound by choice. Even assuming we could get it off, it would probably kill him to do so.::
Randen grimaced, although Derris's answer wasn't a surprise. Whatever these things were, they were far outside his experience and the closest he'd come to pure evil. It had already come close to killing Kyminn and Randen could only guess at what else it might be capable of.
"Since you have declined to be questioned…" Randen concentrated on invoking the second stage Truth Spell, the one which would compel answers.
As the spell settled around the prisoner, Jaek twisted where he sat, eyes blazing with glee. "She knows you're here." The laugh was almost maniacal. "The Lady is…Is mise searbhanta na mnà anns gach nì." His face began to turn purple and Jaek's feet kicked as his body began to writhe.
Randen shouted and leapt, fingers scrabbling at the prisoner's neck. The woven cord continued to draw tighter, digging deep into Jaek's flesh. Randen pulled out his belt knife, but already the cord was too deep. As the Herald watched, the prisoner spasmed and died.
Randen stared down at the body, shocked by the suddenness of it all. ::Derris? Was that Hardornen? Something about a lady?::
Derris twitched his tail with distress. ::It was. He said 'I am the lady's servant in all things.'::
Randen shuddered. "What has Kyminn found?" It was rhetorical and he was surprised when Derris answered.
::Something very old and very evil.::
# # #
Kyminn simply lay where Jaek had placed him, covered with a blanket while Randen brewed the draught which would relieve the pain.
"Randen? Who is she?" A faint nod at the Companion. She was quartering the camp along with Derris, retrieving anything that might prove needed. They had already found the remains of the last horse, strangled by its binding at the same time as Jaek.
"That's Amlee. She and her Herald, Lev, are doing their Internship with me. Lev broke his collarbone a "few days ago and can't ride. Amlee insisted on coming with us."
Lev? Why was that name familiar? Kyminn had a sudden image of a young page who had helped an uncertain Kyminn navigate his first few days at Haven.
"Evin…"
"Yes. Evin's nephew. Down to the hair." A faint smile.
"How…"
"Did we find you? Kyminn, there's probably half a dozen Heralds and Guard posts out searching for you. Well, not you in particular, but someone with very powerful Animal Mindspeech who was in desperate trouble. Draw a circle on a map and there's a zone where every bird has just disappeared, like ripples from a pond. Our Companions could only tell us that 'someone sent them', so all we could do was back track and try to find the source."
Kyminn gave a tiny nod of understanding as the world dimmed again. Randen held the cup so that Kyminn could sip the herb and poppy mixture. With a relief he didn't dare show, Randen saw the lines of pain ease a bit as Kyminn's eyes began to lose focus.
Randen straightened Kyminn's mangled hands as much as he dared, padding them well with cloth and binding the whole to splints. As he worked, he conferred with Derris. ::I don't think it's worth it to send Amlee back for help, do you?::
Derris concurred. ::By the time she got back, and got the Guard back here, it would take too long. It's faster if we put him on a litter.:: Derris paused to look over at Randen. ::Don't worry. I can carry you and the litter. And Amlee and I are a lot smoother than any horse or wagon. Fortunately, Amlee and Lev have good mindspeech together. As soon as we're close enough, she'll let him know.::
Randen nodded, his face paling as he removed the last of Kyminn's shirt and saw the wounds. ::Will he…::
Derris placed his soft nose against Randen's shoulder. : : Live? Work as a Healer again if he does survive? I don't know. I'm no Healer. He's strong, brother.::
Randen did his best to clean the grotesque burns on his friend's chest. Strong enough?
# # #
Quiet voices and clattering pulled him out of the nightmare and back into the daylight. A thickness to his thoughts told him that he was still under the influence of potent painkillers. He cleared his throat and tried to speak. It took a few tries before sound emerged.
"Healer Danner? Please don't speak sir." The earnest voice was unfamiliar, and the face that followed it belonged to a young Guardsman. "We've been on watch and watch with you sir, on Healer's orders. We've been told to let them know if you woke. Just you rest there sir."
Kyminn merely offered a vague nod, his thoughts drifting once again. He couldn't have said how long it was before a new face loomed over his bed. A hand protruding from a green sleeve rested gently on his forehead and his thoughts sharpened as the pain and fog was pushed back.
"Good afternoon," the Healer had the expression used for the most gravely ill patients. "How are you?"
Kyminn ignored the question. "How bad?" His voice was harsh from the days of screaming.
"Herald Randen brought you to the Guard outpost at Trevale West. You were kept there for two days before he and Herald Lev accompanied you here to the main Trevale garrison. You have been here for six days. I'm Chaddick, by the way. Herald Randen arrived yesterday with another Healer to assist me."
"How bad?" Kyminn pinned the other Healer with his gaze. Chaddick seemed unruffled.
"Bad." It was quiet and frank. "You'll recover, but not quickly, not easily and not without some permanent injury."
"Leg?" Kyminn cleared his throat, trying to ease the rasp. His tongue worked around in his mouth, prodding at the missing teeth. He noted absently that his jaw, while tender, seemed at least partly healed.
Chaddick gave a small shrug. "You will have the use of the leg, although it will be weaker than it was before. Your captor settled for breaking the leg and kneecap, injuries that didn't add much to the previous damage."
"What else?"
"Do you want the entire list?" When Kyminn nodded, the Healer began the clinical recitation, beginning with the two missing toes from Kyminn's right foot and moving upwards.
As Chaddick talked, Kyminn's mind wandered. Jaek hadn't been an effective torturer, merely a brutal one. He wouldn't miss the toes, particularly, but he was relieved to learn that – with time and attention – Chaddick expected that Kyminn's hands would largely recover. "Although you may see some impairment of nerves for very fine work."
Burns. Cuts. Pieces torn from flesh. A shattered shoulder and other bones.
Finally, Chaddick wound down the gruesome litany. "We're not sure about your voice. Between the strain from the extreme overuse and the choking, the damage to your vocal cords is severe. I'm doing my best, but…"
"S'okay." The painkillers made Kyminn's smile sloppy. "I'm a terrible singer anyway."
Chaddick cocked his head, his expression gentle. "Kyminn, I'm going to arrange for you to spend some time with a Mindhealer when you return to Haven. I don't think I have to tell you that I've only listed the visible wounds."
A feeling of sundering, of darkness tearing his mind apart. Kyminn's body shuddered at the memory as sleep reclaimed him.
# # #
The next time he woke, the chair was occupied by Randen. The Herald looked weary, his whites covered by a film of road dust. Kyminn smiled faintly. One seldom saw a less-than-pristine Herald.
"Randen?"
Relief bloomed on Randen's face. "You look better, old friend."
"Where's Derris?" The harsh rasp made his voice strange to his own ears.
"Asleep after a well deserved mash. We delivered a preliminary report to a Herald Courier after we brought the second Healer."
"Jaek?"
Randen furrowed his brow. "Dead. Did you forget?"
Kyminn cast his memory back. Darkness. Pain. Hot daylight and thirst. Something oily in his mind. It was difficult to find meaning in the fragments. A faint shrug.
"Jaek – if that's his real name – died. The cord around his neck strangled him." Randen leaned forward. "Tell me." Gentle. An invitation, not a command.
Kyminn nodded and, after a sip of water, began. He started with following the amulets from Haven, along the trade road. He wasn't sure how much of the tale Randen knew, so he started from the beginning.
"The agent called himself Jaek Jacobi. I don't know if that was his real name. He thought he'd caught a Herald."
Randen blanched.
"I'm not sure who – or what he was. He could do things…strange things. He had some way of controlling animals, like the cord he used on me. He had four crows – at least at first. He used them to be his eyes, his spies. I think that's how he found my own crow was following him. During the day, he would set the birds out as sentries, but at night he couldn't. I think he could only make them act against their nature if he was directly controlling them.
"That's all he could do – give them orders to do things that were more or less natural behaviours like watching for intruders – or directly controlling them, like taking images from their minds or torturing them."
Kyminn paused, his eyes dark. "All he had to do to bind – control that is – the animals was have one of his cords touch them. Then he fastened the cords tight later. He got my horses and Jet," the Healer's voice was heavy with grief. "Then he got me. Randen, Jaek Jacobi was… a very damaged mind. Either not sane, or something worse.
"The only other time I've seen someone take that much pleasure in the pain of others was the Tedrels. The Tedrels hurt people because, well, I never did understand why. But Jaek Jacobi and this 'Lady' of his, they liked pain. It almost seemed to…feed them…somehow. I know that sounds crazy, but that's what it seemed like."
Randen got the listening expression that told Kyminn the Herald was conferring with Derris and Kyminn paused. The conversation went on for a long time before Randen's attention returned.
"Derris says you're right. That there are some people who can…draw energy from…the pain and death of others. Similar in principle to how Healers can pass energy to a patient or link with each other to share strength, but not through Gifts as we know them. Derris says this…ability…is not something seen in Valdemar."
Kyminn nodded slowly. "That makes as much sense as anything else does."
"What can you tell me about this 'Lady' of his?"
"Not much. He never suggested a name for her. I can tell you that he was very much her servant. She was able to punish – and reward him – from a distance. She didn't require a device to do it, either. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to have any…power or skill of his own. I got the impression that everything – the cords, the lens device, the amulets – all came from her."
Randen's attention sharpened. "The amulets? You're sure?"
"Very. They spoke of them often and Jaek asked me about them many times. She wanted him to find out if we knew where they came from, how they were made. How we found them." Kyminn spasmed. "She was…unhappy…with my answers."
A warm hand on Kyminn's uninjured shoulder, a wordless offer of strength and compassion.
Randen waited until Kyminn regathered himself.
"I got the impression," Kyminn said slowly, "that she was a long way away. Something about Jaek himself made it possible for her to be present. She called him something…I can't remember what. But it seemed like he had no Gift or ability of his own, just something in him she could use. She promised to give him that ability somehow."
The Herald's brow furrowed. "You can't give a person Gifts." He paused, listening. Then, "You're right." It wasn't directed at Kyminn.
"Derris reminds me that all Gifts start as potential. Some emerge, some never do. I suspect she promised him she could force his Gifts to emerge. I'm not sure how, it usually takes significant psychic trauma. Although," it was grim, "inflicting trauma was clearly not something she shirked."
Something clarified in Kyminn's memory. "She was going to use a Companion."
"What?!"
"She…her binding…she could…feed…draw off…a person's…I don't know how to describe it." Tears leaked unheeded from the prone Healer's eyes. "Like sucking out all your feelings, your life, your very self... She wanted to do that to a Companion. Said it would give her enough strength to do what she was planning."
Kyminn's splinted hands were held immobile by wraps and bandages. Randen took a square of clean linen and gently wiped Kyminn's cheeks, the Herald's face set with anger and distress. "Kyminn…" His jaw worked, struggling to regain his equilibrium.
"Not your fault I'm not a Herald." The smile was watery. "I always said I never wanted to be one. Jaek was sure at first that I was one. He was trying to draw out my Companion."
Randen closed his eyes. ::Derris?:: Suddenly he craved that reminder of his Companion's love and support.
::I'm here. Always here.:: Warmth reverberated through the bond.
::Could she have? Used that…abomination…on a Companion?::
Derris's answer was slow. ::Perhaps. Not in the way she would have expected – not like she would bind an animal. As for the rest…under certain conditions, yes. If she were strong enough, she could exert a kind of binding on one of us.::
::What do you mean, a 'kind of binding'?::
Randen could feel the anger in Derris's answer. ::Were she – or someone of her ilk – powerful enough, then yes, they could create a binding that would impair our physical bodies. Not control – but confine. As for drawing off what we are for her own purposes, for her own use…no. We are…incompatible with evil. It would be like someone trying to drink lightning.::
::And?::
::And they would die.:: His tone was grimly satisfied. ::So, in all likelihood, would the Companion.:: This last was quieter, accepting of the price.
Randen sighed at the expected response. He allowed himself to savour a moment of relief that that sacrifice had not been required, a moment quickly overshadowed with regret at the steep cost that Kyminn had paid.
"Kyminn, I'm not sure if anyone in the Circle will ever remember to say this, but...gods we're sorry."
That wobbly smile again. "Not entirely the Circle's fault. There's plenty of blame to spread around. In hindsight, it was not a particularly well conceived plan. I'm not a Herald, nor am I well equipped to defend myself. At the time, it seemed so simple; 'Follow and watch'. We were all so dreadfully wrong."
"And with little to show for it, while nearly costing you everything."
"Not so little," Kyminn reminded him. "The amulets are finished. Now that she knows we're aware of them, she can't use them any more. That's something."
"Yesss…" the drawn out response was reluctant, "but what else does she have up her sleeve?"
Kyminn frowned. "You know, I don't know for sure, but I think," he emphasized the word, "That she is limited in what she can do. I don't think she can work directly, something prevents her. She has to work through local agents and I think we just cost her a significant asset."
The Herald grimaced. "And we don't know who her local agents are."
"No…" a memory resurfaced. "But she did say something about the Privy Council."
Randen stiffened. "She WHAT?!"
"Something she said…'What the Privy Council knows, the Heralds know' – or something like that."
Randen's face matched his whites. "So close to the crown…"
"And the heir." Kyminn's voice was bleak. "She said something about the heir – 'There's still the heir'."
Randen's attention turned inwards for a moment, then "I'll be right back. Then you're going to tell me everything you remember about what you heard while I write it down. First thing in the morning, Derris and I will be leaving to find the closest Herald Courier."
# # #
True to his word, Randen and Derris disappeared the next morning. Lev took Randen's place with Kyminn, keeping a careful record of Kyminn's recollections. For the next several days, Kyminn's world consisted of sessions with the Healers, sessions with Lev and sleep.
Only the fact that it was sleep forced on his body by the Healing gave him rest. Left alone, to doze off from simple tiredness, that sleep was a series of nightmares – snakes that ate his mind and every food he tried to taste was poison. From that sleep, he woke crying and choking, shuddering in the dark.
Always at these times, one of the Healers would come, a gentle touch or cool draught to push away the fear. They took to leaving a lantern half-open in his room – not for their sake, but for his.
He couldn't hide the nightmares and, after his experience with Zayle's death, knew better than to try. It did not, however, prevent the arguments between Healers and patient as Kyminn fought the very notion of sleep.
They were still battling a fortnight later when Randen returned.
