Description: Broad Foot leaves Daine and Numair to restrain one of the Three Sorrows. The mages find their way to the stone maze where Numair is carried off and Daine is lost over a cliff.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. Everything belongs to Tamora Pierce.
Author's Note: Yay! In this chapter I get to cover their first kiss. Another of the scene's which everyone has their own interpretation of what's going on with Numair. This is my favourite moment in the entire book.
Chapter 11
At noon the group stopped for lunch when the ground shook violently followed by two loud noises. The first sounded like an iron door being slammed shut and the second was that of a drawbridge being lowered. The humans tried to cover their ears while the darkings quivered in fear, but it made no difference.
Broad Foot took the mages to a nearby stream and showed them the image of an enormous spotted hyena gnawing on a tower at Port Legann. The water shimmered and they were looking at a wheat field where a mangy, skeletal, yellow mongrel was taking bites from everything, including the livestock. As he bit the food shrivelled and died. The water rippled again, and they were looking at Corus marketplace where a ghostly rat crept through the streets. It licked people as it passed by, and they began to cough spreading the sickness as ghostly rats teemed from their mouths.
These were the Three Sorrows: Slaughter, Starvation and Malady. Slaughter had been out since May, the duckmole informed the mages, but Malady and Starvation had only just been unleashed which explained the sounds they'd heard. Daine and Numair beseeched the animal god to halt the Sorrows, but Broad Foot could stop only one. After some deliberation they decided Malady was the worst of three and would cause the most devastation. The duckmole wished them well on their journey and vanished in a flash of silver light.
The mages continued to climb the path, stopping often to rest from the blazing sun. By mid-afternoon they stopped by a spring, too hot to walk any further. They shared a meal of bread and fruit with the darkings, then Daine unpacked their blankets while Numair set the wards around their camp. When he had finished, the mage noticed the blankets lay side by side rather than across from each other. They hadn't lit a fire as the day was too warm but that usually separated the pair while they slept. He raised an eyebrow in a silent question while he removed his boots.
"You don't mind, do you?" Daine bit her lip. "It's just…" she averted her eyes looking nervous.
"You're used to company while you sleep," Numair said gently.
The Wildmage nodded to him from where she lay on her blanket and blushed. "I thought if we slept a bit closer, I wouldn't feel quite so alone."
He smiled in understanding and patted her shoulder, rolling so his back was to the young woman. Numair squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to any god who was listening that he didn't roll over in the night and cuddle up to Daine. This was not one of his fantasies and she wasn't going to ask for or want more than this.
The mage woke hearing Carthaki rebels had attacked the Imperial palace. Kaddar's forces had managed to kill all the would-be assassins, but the newly appointed emperor was furious they had managed to get so far into palace grounds before they were discovered. Numair worried Ozorne may have placed darking spies with Kaddar and hoped the badger god and Gold-streak would be able to warn the young man soon.
He opened his eyes more than a little relieved to find he wasn't wrapped around his friend. In fact, she wasn't even lying beside him, and her boots were gone.
Sitting up, the mage looked around and spotted the young woman by the spring. "Daine?"
She turned and started stuffing her blanket into her pack crossly. "The Copper Isles is sending ten ships – they're flying battle flags – north. I think they're making for Legann."
Numair told her of the attempt on Kaddar's life while he packed his own bag. As jealous as he was, the mage knew Daine cared for the young emperor and wrote to him occasionally.
"I heard the enemy again when I woke," the young woman said. "Ozorne isn't receiving reports from the darkings. I heard him talking to General Valmar and a Scanran who I'm guessing was that Inar Hadensra. The general was worried about a Yamani fleet attacking from the north, and then the Scanran threatened to burn his ships if he betrayed them."
"That sounds like the sort of allies Ozorne would attract," the mage grimaced.
"They've got merfolk fighting on their side." Daine stood still for a moment rage burning in her stormy eyes. When she spoke again her voice was quiet. "Ozorne is forcing centaurs to fight for him. He has a hair from every single tail and threatened to scorch one if they tried to leave his side."
Numair stood and put an arm around his friend seeing unshed tears in her eyes. He didn't offer words of comfort. There was little he could say when he knew Ozorne was capable of far worse than just scorching a centaur.
Daine shook herself and grabbed her bow. "We should get moving."
Leaf reached out its tentacle arms to the young woman who picked up the creature so it could wind around her neck. Jelly, however, tilted its head and looked up at the mage.
"Would you like to ride with me, Jelly?" he asked lowering himself to one knee.
The darking nodded its head and rolled onto the man's hand.
"Where would you like to ride?" Numair asked.
Jelly tiled its head and then pointed one tentacle to indicate his shoulder which the mage obligingly transferred the creature to. Daine grinned at them as they made ready to leave.
The sun had set when the land changed to desert in the west. The air was hot and dry as the path sloped down through rock formations shaped by the elements. Daine grabbed at Numair's arm and pointed at a bird spiralling in the distance just as it opened its wings piercing the night sky with an explosion of silver, blue and gold light from its feathers. The mages stopped to admire the spectacle as more of the unknown birds leapt into the sky to join in the dance.
Daine sighed beside him, "Beautiful."
"I wish I could stay," Numair whispered stroking Jelly absently with a finger. "Or come back. So many wonders."
He reached out without thinking and took her hand lacing their fingers together as they stood transfixed. They watched in silence as the birds slowly drifted away until the mage became aware he was still holding Daine's hand. Releasing it, he turned to go without offering an explanation and hoped his friend wouldn't say anything.
The path got steeper as they climbed. Yellow and blue glowing lizards darted across their path which wound between cracking pillars of stone. Numair lit the opal in his staff and held it high to light their way. The shadows were deep and eerie despite his Gift telling him there was nothing but stone around them. The mage kept to a steady pace as if he were trying to avoid startling an animal into attacking. He was so focussed on the path and the shadows that he wasn't aware he was walking by himself until Jelly spoke.
"Daine stopped."
Numair whirled around and spotted the young woman halfway down the path, hypnotised by one of the rock pillars. He raced back down and put his hands on her shoulders steering her away.
"I feel it, too. I don't know if this place is dangerous, but I will be happy to get out of here all the same."
For the next two miles, the path cut through a narrow gap between sheer rock cliffs. Numair increased the illumination from his staff attempting to banish the shadows while ensuring Daine stayed close.
"Can you – put the staff out?" she said sounding frightened. "I – I think it makes things worse."
The mage nodded and let her take the lead. The moon was bright enough for him to see by, and Daine's night vision was excellent plus she could shapeshift her eyes to a nocturnal animal if necessary. A fresh breeze hit their faces as they rounded a corner to see a boulder that had been cut into a question mark by the elements.
"Well, that's fitting" Numair remarked. He'd always suspected the gods had a sense of humour.
Daine grinned at him as the path widened onto the side of a mountain with open ground in front of them. To the right was a steep drop while the mountain towered above them to the left. Across the path a Chaos vent had overflowed forming a pool that was too wide to jump. The only way around it was a narrow walkway between the Chaos spill and the sheer drop. On the other side of the vent lay a pile of unusual-looking stones that did not belong in this environment.
"Now that's curious. The indigenous stone is lava rock of the brown variety. These are different. They could be granite," the mage approached the edge of the pool trying to get a closer at the rocks.
Daine strung her bow and notched an arrow before approaching. "Indi-what?"
"Indigenous. Local," he clarified quietly.
"Why couldn't you just say local…?" his friend complained.
Numair chuckled sending out his Gift to examine the stones. "I'm sorry. I'd meant to do better than my university friends, and not upset people by talking in that abstruse fashion. Then my father complained. He asked how did he know that I even went to those expensive teachers when I spoke just as I always had?"
Daine grinned at him. "You never told me that. I s'pose once you get used to doing it at home, you forget the rest of the time."
He returned the smile and retrieved his magic. "Those rocks seem all right."
It was difficult for the mage to be sure as the stones behind them had seemed safe, but neither of them had been able to dispel the feeling of being watched. Numair looked down at his magelet to ask if she felt confident to walk around the spill, but one look at her face had him wrapping an arm around her. Daine was frozen in place, her hands covering her mouth while tears rolled down her cheeks.
"What happened?" he asked as he struggled to pull out a handkerchief. "You're white, you're –"
"They're touched with Chaos, those stones," she said wiping her eyes. "If I try to use my wild magic to look at something like that, it – it pulls me in."
"You shouldn't generalise from one experience –" the mage chided.
"But it wasn't just one." Daine interrupted. "This made me remember the last time!" she wiped her face and mouth with the handkerchief. "When I was flying over the Skinners, I touched them with my magic. It was like a – a hole tore open inside me. I lost control of my magic and fell out of the sky," she continued quickly seeing the outrage on Numair's face. "My connection to them broke when I lost eagle-shape. I was able to shift into a crow before I hit the ground."
He wanted to be angry with her for not mentioning this sooner, but the mage was just too afraid for his friend. "Then how did you break free this time?" he demanded.
"Leaf, you bit me, didn't you?" she touched her right ear, and it came away with a tiny spot of blood on her finger.
"Sorry," the darking squeaked.
"Don't apologise," the young woman said. "Do that whenever you think it's needful. You just saved me from maybe walking off a cliff."
Leaf rubbed its head against her finger.
"For now, we shall delay the question of where it got teeth," he said although his curiosity was already peaked. "Let's get away from here. Can you walk by those rocks, Daine?"
"Chaos mostly gets me through my magic. I just won't use it," she swallowed. "And it's not likely they're alive, after all." Numair could feel her tremble as she surveyed the narrow path. "You go – I'll come after."
The mage removed his arm and resettled his pack seriously considering floating Daine over the Chaos spill. He knew she'd argue it was a waste of his Gift, but she looked so shaken he wanted to hug her senseless. Taking a deep breath, Numair made his way along the edge, drawing on his player skills to portray an air of confidence he did not feel. The mage kept his eyes focussed ahead and not on the steep drop only inches from his feet as he passed the curious stones and lost sight of his friend.
He'd only taken a few steps when a stone arm grabbed him causing the mage to cry out in surprise. Calling on his Gift, Numair created a shield around himself as he felt the arm squeeze. The stones rearranged themselves giving the creature two arms, two legs and a head. It had the appearance of a stone ogre, being of a similar height as the tallest of the Immortals, standing at ten feet. Another of the creatures cracked and crumbled as it pulled itself off the mountainside. The first creature carried the mage away as he heard Daine scream, and Numair struggled uselessly against the stone ogre's grip.
This must have been what Weiryn had meant by 'harm no rocks.' Why were god's warning always so cryptic? Why couldn't Daine's father have mentioned that there were sentient beings made of stone within the maze?
The first creature carried Numair out of sight of the vent to a corrie with a tarn at its centre. The second creature followed close behind and swiped at the mage with a stone hand bouncing off his shield. The first creature formed a fist and pounded on the mage, confused when its hand ricocheted off the shield. There was no sign of Daine, and Numair was starting to worry and get irritated by these stone ogres. The mage expanded his shield forcing the stone ogre's hand to open then interlaced the shield with lightning. As the two creatures struck his barrier, they both received shocks causing them to recoil. They pounded at his shield several more times before they finally comprehended it was the source of their pain and fled the corrie. Numair lowered his shield and checked on Jelly who was quivering on his shoulder.
"Are you hurt?" the mage asked.
The darking formed a head and shook it. "Big. Scary."
He gently stroked Jelly's head. "Let's hope they're gone now."
Numair's long legs carried him as he raced back down the path to the chaos vent, but the Wildmage was nowhere to be found.
"Daine?" he called hoping she hadn't been carried off elsewhere by a stone creature.
"Cliff." Jelly pointed a tentacle to the strip beside the spill.
Where once there had been a narrow path around the Chaos pool, a section of the path had crumbled away, and the spill was starting to ooze down the mountainside. The mage ran to the edge dropping to his knees as he squinted down at the sheer drop. Broken tree branches seemed to suggest something had fallen but that could have been caused by the rocks.
"Stick bag." Jelly pointed down the cliff where Daine's quiver lay snagged on a branch.
"No!" Nuamir whispered in horror.
His heart stopped for an instant fearing she'd plummeted to her death. The mage prayed to any god who might be listening that his magelet had thought to shapeshift into a bird as he opened the locket on his left wrist. Daine had to be alive! Numair couldn't accept any other possibility otherwise he'd never survive. He touched the smoky curl with his right thumb gazing into the portrait as the mage sent out his Gift. Most mages required an image and a possession to perform focus magic, but Numair could have done this with the curl alone. He knew Daine's face so well he could have formed a perfect image in his mind. The mage gasped in relief as his magic connected with her lifeforce.
"Hold on tight," he said to Jelly. "We're going for a trip."
Drawing on the magic in his staff and the black opal pendant around his neck, Numair created an arcane gateway. His magic had been drained in the fight with the stone ogres, but he had enough to create the gateway and a little more besides. The arcane gateway opened into a canyon with a fast-flowing river beside it and a rocky shore. He stepped through and the physical drain hit instantly, staggering the mage. In front of him he saw three large spidrens surrounding something trapped in their webbing.
"Remember Ozorne's reward!" the female spidren cried as Nuamir approached stealthily.
Fury overwhelmed him as he heard the name 'Ozorne' mentioned. The mage used the last of his Gift to explode one of the males. Black blood splattered over the other two as the female kicked the lifeless webbed body of his friend behind her. Rage surged through him as Numair raised his staff at the same time the female reared, pointing her spinneret at him. He had no magic left to defend himself unless he tapped into his lifeforce.
Jelly leapt off his shoulder racing over the ground and covered the spinneret while Leaf leapt unseen from a boulder to cover the female's face. With the Immortal distracted by the darkings, the mage charged after the last male spidren swinging his staff taking out its legs. The Immortal crashed to the ground as Numair swung his staff down on its head. He hit again and again and again, pouring his fury out until the head caved in with a sickening crunch.
The mage clutched his staff, leaning heavily on it as he gulped air staring at the bloody smear on the ground. Ozorne would suffer for taking Daine from him. Consequences be damned! Numair swore an oath there and then that he would return to the Mortal Realms and hunt his former friend down using all his knowledge and power to wipe the Stormwing from existence.
"Numair?"
He didn't care who he went through or how many words of power it took, Ozorne would pay for this. The tortures and execution the former emperor had tried to inflict on him, he would return threefold.
"Please…are you all right?"
The female voice finally registered in his mind as Numair turned to see Daine staggering towards him. Her clothes were torn, and she was covered in bloody scratches from head to toe.
"You – you're alive," he gaped. "I thought…"
"I hurt too much to be dead."
The mage dropped his staff and closed the distance between them, sweeping her into his arms. She felt so solid under his hands as her arms went around his neck, her fingers burying into his hair. Numair stroked his hands over her back tightening his grip when she tried to pull away. Their eyes met and all thought of consequences fled his mind as he kissed her. His senses came alive at the taste and feel of her mouth against his. Numair had dreamed of this moment so many times, but the reality was so much better than he'd imagined. He kissed her with the passion of a drowning man and forgot how to breathe. Somewhere at the back of his mind a part of him was screaming, but he silenced the voice continuing to savour the feel of the young woman pressed tightly against him. Eventually the need for air forced him to separate from her.
"No," she whispered and pulled him back into the kiss.
Numair's brain completely shut off in shock, and for a few moments all he could do was react until his mind caught up and registered Daine was kissing him. He pulled away briefly before covering her lips with his, caressing them gently, checking for the response. Numair pulled away again and returned several times until he fully accepted, she was willing returning each kiss. He pulled away with a strangled laugh and would have spun her around in circles if he'd had any strength left. Instead, the mage scooped the young woman into his arms and carried her over to a large rock, cradling her in his lap as he sat.
"Goddess bless," Numair breathed smoothing the wayward curls off her beautiful face. "Magelet, I thought I'd lost you."
Daine barely met his eyes before she buried her face in his shirt and started crying. He wrapped his arms tightly around her body content to just hold her. Numair kissed the top of her head and buried his nose in her hair breathing in the smell that was uniquely Daine. She was alive and reasonably in one piece, and most importantly, in his arms. The mage thanked every god he could name that his love had been returned to him. When Daine stopped crying and lay peacefully snuggled up against him, Numair became aware of the two inky darkings watching them. The mage blushed and came to his senses.
"We need to rest and eat. It'll soon be too hot to travel, and there is the path to relocate as well," he said gently. "If I remember correctly, this river is on the map. It parallels our route and emerges from the canyon near the path. Once you feel better, perhaps you could fly up and locate it. What do you think?" When she didn't answer, he leaned around trying to see her face. "Sweet?"
Daine had fallen asleep in his arms and looked so peaceful Numair didn't have the heart to wake her. Sighing, he struggled to stand, feeling his beloved magelet snuggle closer to his chest and addressed the darkings.
"Let's find some shelter."
"Get stick," Jelly squeaked.
The mage looked to where he had dropped his staff feeling his stomach roll as he saw the gore covering the pommel. Numair bent down and retrieved the staff resettling the young woman in his arms, kissing her forehead tenderly.
Jelly and Leaf led the way as the mage followed the two darkings downstream for about a mile until they found a hollow under a rocky overhang. The heat was almost unbearable as Numair lay his friend gently on the floor and folded his cloak under her head. Searching in his own pack, the mage was relieved to find Sarra had packed her healing ointment in both bags. He gently examined Daine's visible cuts ensuring they were clean before rubbing the ointment over the ones on her face and arms, deciding he'd have to tend the rest later.
Leaf and Jelly had collected several sticks while Numair used flint and his belt dagger to light the fire, having drained his Gift entirely.
"We'll need more sticks if you could gather them?" he asked the darkings.
The mage retrieved his staff and carried it to the river before vomiting violently onto the rocks. When his stomach was empty, he cleaned the staff and rinsed his mouth out before staggering back to their camp to retrieve a pan and collected some water. Hunting through his pack, Numair found a cloth ball containing the ingredients for soup. He put a pot on for tea feeling exhaustion hit him. Jelly rolled towards the pan of soup and extended a tentacle to the long-handled spoon to begin stirring. Leaf oozed up next to its friend as the two darkings watched the soup.
"Would you two mind if I closed my eyes for a few moments?" the mage asked.
Leaf and Jelly shook their heads and continued to watch the soup.
"Don't let it boil – that's when the liquid starts to bubble. The soup only needs to heat through," he explained.
"We cook. You sleep." Leaf said.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Numair knew he needed to process what had just happened, but his tired mind wouldn't comply. He closed his eyes and dosed lightly promising himself time to think before Daine woke and asked some uncomfortable questions.