Disclaimer: Since this is a new fic I am rewording the disclaimer but it's still here 'cause unfortunately I still don't own any of the below ideas that can be found in the 'real' Valdemar *sigh*.
A/N well I just had the most amazing break… I thought I would be awakened at 5:00 but when I got up at the late hour of 7:00 I found out that I was not in fact working and then I found out that I have tomorrow of as well, granted I have to mow lawns but that's much easier. Thus I am able to write yet another chappy for y'all.
The next day I woke up in the companion's stable. Savannah was sleeping in the back corner of her loose box. I was too late to do anything more than grab a piece of bread before my first class.
By lunch time I was absolutely ravenous, but a messenger from Benson intercepted me on the way to lunch and I ended up bolting a sandwich and gulping down a glass of water before rushing over to healer's hall.
Benson was waiting for me with a disgustingly cheerful grin.
"What?" I half-growled, not impressed at being called away from my lunch for nothing.
"Well, I think that what we did yesterday helped, so I think we should repeat it until she gets better or it stops working."
"Oh," I said flatly. There was no way I wanted to see more of Azori's memories, even to leach them away as the trainee seemed to intend.
"I think that yesterday was the worst of it …" Benson tried to assure me, apparently he knew of my reservations. I grimaced and thought back to watching Savannah sick with worry. I doubted whether there was much that could drive a companion to such an assortment of bad habits, next I knew she would likely be pacing and kicking too.
"I'll do it, but I have classes so it better be quick!"
"Of course, we'll do a short session now and one after dinner, depending on how this one goes…"
"Let's just get it over with," I grumped.
As it turned out I was late for classes, not that it really mattered. I was in mo state to learn with the latest batch of memories floating through my brain. I tried to forget about the whole ordeal, but I wasn't having much success.
As usual my instructors picked up on my distraction and took the opportunity to call on me mercilessly. To make matters worse, I discovered that my mathematics work was incomplete; I had neglected to finish it before packing it away on the previous afternoon. Thus I had double math work for the evening. That wouldn't have mattered if I hadn't also learned that I would need to add an arms class to my studies. By the second class after lunch I longed to just take a nap, but I still had two classes left.
I leapt up at dismissal and I would have gone straight to my rooms for that nap had it not been for the ambush that awaited me in the hall. Tatty had two harp cases under her arms and a slightly irritated look on her face when I nearly collided with her in my hurry to leave.
"I am not impressed!" she barked at me.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Your harp, one of the stable hands in companion's field had to bring it up… it was laying there in the straw, as if it were a toy that some spoilt child had tired of!"
"Huh?" I asked dumbly.
Tatty stared flatly at me for a moment, anger flashed in her eyes, "Take your harp and follow me," she hissed shoving the harp into my arms and grabbing my arm to drag me along behind her, as if she didn't trust me to follow on my own. I might not have actually…
"Where are we going?" I asked, not really caring about the answer.
"We are going to practice. Eben told me that they are adding weapons to your schedule, already! How in the world are you ever going to learn harp with some brute smashing you with sticks all day?"
"Sticks?" I repeated.
Tatty ignored me and I followed her helplessly to some unknown destination. When we finally stopped it was in a secluded part of the gardens. The scent of flowers perfumed the air.
"Look, Cye, what's up with you?"
"Nothing," I said slowly.
"Are you feeling okay?" concern crept into her voice, replacing her stern anger.
"Yeah," I said weakly.
"Are you sure?"
"No," I heard myself say, I didn't mind the answer though; I was too busy watching Tatty spin and double.
"Cye?" she asked with a touch of fear. I didn't respond I just forced myself to focus on the central image of her and blinked hard.
"I feel sick," I managed to croak before I was doubled over vomiting.
:Cye?: Savannah queried in concern.
:Uh,: I grunted acknowledgment.
I felt much better after I had emptied the contents of my stomach on the ground.
"Cymon, maybe you should go to bed?"
"Yeah, I don't feel too good."
"We'll have to practice tomorrow then, but take better care of your harp please?"
"Yeah, I had a lot on my mind last night, sorry."
"Get some rest," Tatty said patting my shoulder and giving me a tight-lipped smile.
"Yeah," I agreed and started back toward my room. I somehow managed to get into my nightclothes before collapsing into bed. Immediately after closing my eyes I felt the room spinning around me. I snuggled into the sheets and ignored the room's attempts to fling me out of bed. I soon dropped off to sleep.
I had vivid dreams of the slavers. Azori's memories once more came to life around me and I was powerless to change anything, just as she had been powerless to help her family, or even herself. At some point my dreams became less reality based and more feverish.
My eyes opened blearily to flickering candle light. Eben was sitting by my bed; he was holding a book that he wasn't reading.
"You're up," Eben said forcing a grin, "You feeling better roomy?" he didn't let me respond, which was just as well because my mouth was dry and sticky, "Tatiana told me what happened and I came as soon as I could, that trainee healer came by earlier looking for you. When he saw that you were sick he started cursing ordered some broth for your supper and sent for some medicine or other. Then he went back to healer's collegium."
I tried to sit up but was unable to muster the strength, I settled for rolling onto my side, "dinner?" I croaked lethargically.
"Yup, do you want me to feed you?"
"Yeah," I said, knowing I would only embarrass myself more by trying and failing at the task than by letting him do it for me.
"You know, living with you is very eventful!" Eben said taking up a bowl and spoon and starting to feed me. The soup tasted good, and I was glad for the extra warmth it brought me. I realized as I warmed up that I had been shivering.
I must have stayed up long enough to finish the food and take my medicine but then I was back to drifting through nightmarish fever dreams. I woke up again later that night, but Eben was already asleep. I couldn't begrudge him the rest. It was too hot in the oppressive darkness so I kicked off my sheets and lay against the cool stone wall beside my bed. I stared at the ceiling opposite me until my eyes unfocused. I tried to pull my attention back it in vain. Once more I drifted into nightmares.
This time I was in the middle of the camp. Scared. The other prisoners were either sleeping or doing fair imitations of it. I shivered in the cold. Wind-tousled wisps of my brown hair fluttered into my eyes. That was odd because my hair was red not brown, but it was definitely my hair… I tried to concentrate on the strands, but they irritated my eyes and I blinked them away. Then the odd feeling that this wasn't me disappeared of course it was me! Who else could I be?
My identity settled I went back to being mindlessly terrified of everyone who wasn't trussed up like a roasting pig. That included the majority of the people around me. At least a score of the gruff bandits were in the encampment. Somehow I knew that there wasn't any hope of escape, beyond that there was no point to it. My family was dead and our farm burned to nothing. I should have been angry, but I was too scared to leave room for any other emotion, even grief.
I had grown accustomed to the dreams whirling me about wildly, so I clung to that comparatively lucid moment as if it were a lifeline. I concentrated on every detail of Azori's memory. I succeeded quite well and soon my dream-self was totally immersed in the memory, no longer suffering the feverish nightmares. Bumps and bruises that had been peripheral when I first experienced the memory became real concerns now though.
I realized the full extent of the wounds inflicted by the bandits, and winced painfully as I gingerly tried to maneuver so that I wasn't sitting atop any particularly pointy rocks. No one paid attention to me. The other captives were too worried with their own problems and the captors were more concerned with enjoying the time before their night watch to bother with us. Then the one who seemed to be in charge came over to where we were being held.
"I want the girls separated from the boys over here!" he had barked, "And be quick about it. If the boys are to join us they need to start their training."
There was a rush to obey the orders. They pushed and shoved us none too gently to separate areas. By the time things were arranged to the leader's liking I had acquired a new set of bruises and even a sluggishly bleeding cut on my lower arm. I watched the blood trickle into my hand fascinated by it. In the commotion our dinner was overlooked. I did my best to curl up for warmth and sleep, but my cut arm ached and my head throbbed. I whimpered at the pain, but somehow managed to sleep.
More fever dreams came then as an interlude to the memory triggered dreams. I had vague memories of waking and then falling back into the fever dreams. Then the memories sucked me back in.
It wasn't yet time to break camp when one of the bandits shook me awake rather roughly.
"Come wi' me!" the large unwashed man said hauling my roughly to my feet. I had no choice but to follow, although it was more a matter of being dragged along limply than actively following him.
He dumped me unceremoniously at the feet of the leader.
"Leave us," the leader said curtly to the man who had brought me. The bandit dipped his head in salute and went back to his campfire. Leader glared after him for a moment, as if he had forgotten my presence, "How old are you?" He asked without bothering to look at me.
I lay where I had been dropped, my binding making it nearly impossible for me to even attempt a sitting position from where I lay on my back. I wanted to answer, but my mouth was glued shut by fear.
He still didn't deign it worth his while to look at me, "Well girl speak up … I only bite when I am irritated, which you are fast making me."
"Nine," I barely managed to choke out through vocal chords strained from screaming for my family and then prolonged disuse.
He made no response to that, "And are you aware that you are mage-gifted?"
I looked up at him fearfully.
"I thought not, you are far too powerful to remain untrained, but of course I can help you with that… would you like to be trained?"
I was too afraid to answer. If this was a trick either answer could be wrong.
"Of course, if I were to train you then I wouldn't be able to sell you with the others, no you would be far too valuable for that. A mage could be very useful to us. You want to be useful don't you?"
"No," I managed in a hoarse whisper.
"No? I thought as much … actually if truth be told I hoped for this," a slow malicious grin spread to fill his face, "It will be much more interesting to break you than to teach you, much more interesting indeed."
I looked up at him, now his full attention was focused on me and I trembled in abject terror. He didn't speak again, he simply lifted me to my feet by the hair and … I drifted back to fever dreams.
The memories didn't come back, and by that point I preferred the craziness of the dreams to the insane reality of the nightmares.
When I woke again a wide stream of daylight fell across the room. It was at least midday. My covers were piled on the floor beside me and a cup of cold broth sat on the table by my head. I managed to muster the strength to gulp a bit of the liquid down.
I shuddered as wisps of Azori's memories chased through my mind. In my dreams I had felt everything that the memories had previously shown me. The mage that had 'trained' her had been anything but kind, but then that was evidenced by his pastime as a slave trader. A fatal pastime it had turned out to be.
The lingering chill of what had happened was driven off by what I knew had happened. A company of the elite Skybolts had chanced upon the slavers in a routine patrol. The slavers, within sight of the border and thus safe-haven had been overconfident. When the Bolts struck the camp was taken off guard and their leader, the mage was too preoccupied with his pupil to come to their aid until it was too late.
Azori had been with them for almost a year. She had been found with him, in the only tent the bandits possessed. Along with the other captives she was brought back to the nearest Skybolt garrison. The mage had been slain.
Since the rescue though Azori had been incoherent. The other children slowly acclimated to their surroundings and became a part of the garrison town; the townsfolk adopted them for all practical purposes, except Azori. She would just sit and stare for hours on end. Thus it was a surprise to all when Savannah had marched into the little settlement and refused to be comforted until she had the dazed little girl securely in her saddle.
My happiness was of a grim sort at that memory, the nightmare was over, for me and for Azori, but the memory of it would always be there. I wished that it hadn't been shared with me, yet at the same time I treasured the place of trust that it put me into.
I drifted back into sleep, but this time it was a blessedly restful one unvisited by memories or nightmares. When I woke up Eben was there again.
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah, has the healer been back?"
"Benson? Yes, he told me to send you to him as soon as you were able to go," Eben's voice was thick with disapproval.
"I should go then," I said feebly trying to get up. I wanted urgently to go and talk to Azori. I wanted to help her almost desperately.
"You don't have the strength of a newborn kitten, you aren't going anywhere!"
"Isn't the healer's collegium I could go if I'm sick?" I countered stubbornly.
"I'll help you there then, you sure as anything aren't going alone!" Eben's anger was directed and the healer not me, for which I was thankful.
He helped me out of bed and by the time we reached Azori's sick-room his help had proved invaluable. I plopped down on the chair at the head of Azori's bed and Eben took up a post directly behind me, as if he were my bodyguard or something.
I stared at the slowly healing wounds that peppered the girl's face and arms. Sure enough a thin half-healed cut snaked across her arm exactly as it had in my dream. I winced as the rest of the memories crowded at me.
"She's going to need a really powerful mind healer," I remarked to the air.
"That is why I have sent for a Tayledras mage," Benson said from the doorway.
"Just like in a tale," I said, I would have been gleeful at the proposition had it not been for the reason it was necessary.
:You're feeling better Cye?: Savannah asked me anxiously. It struck me that with my illness in addition to Azori's current state she had been effectively cut off from all of her closest ties.
:I feel fine Sav, just tired …: for a moment I wanted to lay all the burdens of those painful memories on her shoulders, but she would be better to hear what had happened to her chosen from her chosen, after the girl was at least marginally better.
:I know what's been done to her Cye, I wish I had gone after her sooner… if I had only left …:
:It isn't your fault Sav!: I said forcefully.
:You don't resent her do you Cye?: she asked avoiding my comment.
:How could I? I know exactly what happened with that mage … Which wasn't your fault in the least, the mage will never hurt anyone again, all is well.:
:Except Azori.:
:Except her,: I agreed reluctantly.
"Cymon?" Benson asked jolting me out of my conversation with Savannah.
"I'm fine," I said quickly, "Did the Tayledras respond yet?"
"They sent a missive, they need all the strength they have at the border right now, but they sent some tips along and referenced a few of the chronicles for use."
"And you've read them?"
"Yes, and I must apologize to you. What I tried with you was rather, well, umm … reckless. I stumbled across some rather strong admonitions against it in my reading, which would explain the backlash you experienced…"
I had assumed as much and said so.
"Right, well I am ever so sorry …" the trainee hearer repeated, "An honest mistake and all."
"I know," I replied blandly, "I don't mind," I lied, "Can we help her now?"
"Well, the thing of it is, I'm not quite exactly sure what's been done to her so I don't exactly know what's wrong …"
"So that's a no?" I asked simply.
"Yes, a no," he replied.
"What do you need to know about her condition?"
"What brought it on, under what circumstances it manifested …" he trailed off with a shrug, "things that only she could tell me."
"I can tell you that, your dangerous little trick gave me that information."
"Oh," he said hollowly.
I took a deep breath and then looked back at Eben, "maybe you should leave Roomy," I said gently. Eben looked reluctant, but he nodded and sent a hateful glare at Benson.
"I will be waiting outside, and if Cye isn't finished here at a reasonable time there will be a price to pay!" He announced to the room at large, but targeting Benson with his glare.
"I'll be fine Eben, honest," I assured the older boy and he stalked out without a backward glance. I waited until the door was firmly shut and his departing footsteps were a mere echo out in the corridor before launching into the tale.
Benson sat passively through most of the telling.
"She is mage-talented?" he said surprised at the end.
"Yes, the mage started training her …"
"Huh," the trainee grunted, "if that's training then I am Herald Vanyel and you are my companion!"
"That's what he called it," I replied defensively.
"He would, haven't you read about bloodpath mages?"
"Who said he was a bloodpath mage?" I asked.
"The Skybolt contingent that found him is who, they got him by purest luck!"
"Oh," I said greatly subdued by the knowledge, it had been fairly obvious from the context, but still, such dark powers made everything that had transpired seem all the more sinister.
"So that solves one problem, I have to untangle her mage-gift from whatever he did to control it. He must have tried to burn her out when he realized they had been caught. Well, we'll do that first then I can worry about her mind or whatever is left of it …" he trailed off.
"How can I help?"
Benson squinted at me for a moment, "You're bardic right, well I suppose that means you can spin a tune … I came across some interesting things about bards in my reading, just a second," he left the room for a moment and returned with a much worn bit of parchment, "See what sense you can make of that."
I took the paper, it reminded me very much of the evenings I had spent helping Eben with composition. I set about puzzling out the tunes and rhythms as Benson went into a trance in what I assumed was an attempt to sort out the tangled mess that was left of Azori's mage-gift.
A/N okay not only did I get Friday off, but Saturday there was no digging thus I also had it off and then Sunday was free as well, but I really am starting to work tomorrow. In other news I got the entire Mage Winds trilogy from a friend on Thursday for my birthday (which is incidentally in June, but I still haven't gotten n/e thing for hers which is in May so I guess that's cool) and I am half-way through the second book so I am going to read more of it and probably post this tomorrow… please review!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and thanx to Stee, for the lovely review Azori will get better ( I think) soon! Right then, I need my sleep (or at least time to read about Nyara (she's totally my favorite character in this trilogy excepting Skiff))…Right, so g'night y'all. Right, I did work today so no new chap too soon after this one… (has anyone here ever seen a rotten potato? I saw about 1500 bushels of 'em today and they are absolutely horrid!;-) Right the A/N is really gonna end now…)