A/N: I took some creative license here, by switching the time of day
certain events happen, because it just worked better that way, and by
making Liam from Maren - I really have no idea where he was from, Maren
seemed as good of place as any. But I hope that you'll ignore the
discrepancies between the book and my story, and enjoy the chapters that
answers the most important of your questions - why was Liam afraid of
magic?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I rose slowly, letting my sword drop. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a young girl aiming a crossbow at a very disgruntled Alanna. I could hear Coram swearing off in the distance. No doubt he had been stopped by one of them too.
The girl, who I saw was K'miri, forced us to walk to where the group of refugees was hiding. Children of all ages stood clustered around the heavily laden donkey. Coram soon joined them, guarded by a young woman. Her proud hazel eyes glared at us from over her arched nose and determined mouth and chin. Not even her simple clothing and the crossbow in her hand could hide her beauty, or her air of royalty. I had never seen her before, but I had no doubt as to whom she was.
"Your Royal Highness." I bowed to Thayet jian Wilima, daughter of Adigun jin Wilima, the current warlord of Sarain.
Alanna, who had been watching Thayet with a mix of awe and jealousy, grinned slightly. Her guard saw that, and poked her with her bow.
"Her Highness isn't someone to laugh at." She snapped.
"Don't, Buri." Thayet said quickly. "These people aren't enemies."
"We don't know they're friends." Buri retorted.
"Believe me, K'mir, if I wanted to turn the tables on you, I would." I interrupted. Unsure of what I felt the need to prove here, other than the fact that I wasn't normally unarmed by two young girls, I lunged forward, and in two quick motions, Buri sat in the dirt and I held her crossbow. I offered it back to her, to show I meant no harm, and she took it silently, her eyes respectful.
Turning to Thayet, I introduced the three of us. I left Alanna until last, and as soon as I had said her titles, Buri whispered, "A full knight is a woman - a noblewoman?"
"I think it's wonderful," Thayet said. "It's time we nobles showed we aren't delicate flowers, instead of leaving all the glory to our Shang and K'miri sisters." She paused, before asking, "Where are you three bound?"
Coram explained our journey, while avoiding the exact reason why we were heading to the Roof of the World, and I glanced around. The children were exhausted and it showed on their faces and the way they stood. No doubt Thayet and Buri were just as tired, but trying to keep their spirits up for the children's sake. I wondered where they were going, and why Thayet's father had let her travel this way without a guard.
As if he could read my mind, Coram asked, "Where're ye and the young ones bound?"
"The Mother of Waters in Rachia." Buri replied. "All of us but Thayet and the baby and me were students in the convent Mother of Mountains. The baby, Thayet.found."
"Rachia's four days' ride south." Alanna exclaimed. "Except you're afoot - those of you who can walk."
"We had no choice." Thayet explained. "Zhir Anduo's army was coming." She named the man who was responsible for the current mess in Sarain because he wanted to take over the position of warlord.
"Doesn't the warlord have men to protect you?" I asked.
"They ran." Buri snapped scornfully.
I glanced at the group of them. They would slow us down, and no doubt with Thayet there we would meet up with trouble, but there was no way we could leave them here to struggle, when they so clearly needed help. Not that Thayet or Buri would ever admit to needing help.
"You need us." I said finally. "We'll get you to the Mother of Waters."
"We don't need them!" Buri cried, just as I knew she would. Thayet glared at her friend.
"Don't be silly, Buri." She replied. "I haven't heard Alanna's name before, but I know about Liam Ironarm. People like this don't prey in people like us."
"There's a first time for everything." Buri muttered, but I could see she was going to do whatever Thayet wanted. And if Thayet wanted her help, she would just have to put up with it.
Buri glanced at Alanna sullenly, and Alanna met her gaze calmly. "If that's the way it has to be." she sighed.
"It is." Thayet snapped.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
With Thayet, Buri and the children, traveling certainly changed. For one thing, we had to go a lot slower now that so many of us were walking. And the children couldn't travel very far without needing to stop. By the following evening, we had only gone about as far as it would have taken Alanna, Coram and I in half a day.
Yet when I watched the scared and lonely children struggling along without complaining, and noticed how Thayet and Buri spent so much of their time and energy making sure everyone was all right, I felt selfish for wishing we could go a little faster. These people had no one, and they were attempting to make their way across a war torn country. Not many could do so much and remain so strong. And they needed us; of that there was no doubt.
At yet another stop in the late afternoon, we left the children to sleep, and sat down by the stream, discussing the situation. Though everyone tried to maintain a happy face for the children's sake, there was a definite sense of worry in the air - for safety, for survival, and also because there were probably troops on the lookout for Thayet.
"They need rest," I said, watching the children. "They won't make it to sundown, otherwise. We're used to the road - they aren't."
"Thayet tells me they've no supplies." Coram murmured, concerned. "Even the food we've brought won't last."
"We tried to forage." Thayet explained. "The farms in these valleys were rich, and there was game - but not anymore. The land's picked clean. We ran out of food last night, and Buri and the older girls have been stinting themselves for days. They can't keep up."
Her eyes were worried, and her own body was far too thin, from lack of food. Though the princess was too proud and strong to admit it, she too was weary of traveling and going so long without food.
"We have t'find humans, then." Coram said, his calm straightforward manner oddly comforting. "If the land's picked over, let's find the pickers and clean them out."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That evening, after Alanna had gone hunting and brought back two squirrels for our dinner, Buri, Alanna, and I sat around the fire.
"Why is Thayet roaming the mountains?" Alanna broke the silence. "Why isn't she with her father?"
"It's because of Kalasin." Buri replied
"Her mother?"
"The most beautiful woman in the world." Buri nodded. "She was.amazing. Kalasin asked the Warlord to deal fairly with the K'mir, because we're her people. Jin Wilima hates us. So he signed laws forbidding us to meet in groups of more than five people at a time. There's more than thirty in the Hau Ma clan, and they're our smallest! How can we honor the dead or a marriage or a birth if the clan is forbidden to meet?" she paused, and took a breath to calm down. "I'm sorry. What Kalasin did was a great thing, but it hurts to remember. She tried to make the warlord stop, but he signed the law.
"Kalasin knew what she had to do. My mother and brother, who served her, kept the guards from breaking into her tower room. Kalasin stood at her window and sang her death chant, about her shame at jin Wilima's laws. A crowd was there to witness it. My mother and brother were killed, but they held the door until it was too late for the Warlord's men to stop her from jumping. Mother and Pathom are buried at Kalasin's right and left hands. The Warlord will lie in his tomb alone."
"I'm sorry." Alanna said quietly.
Buri shook her head. "They had the best deaths any K'mir could have. My people did what was right, and so did Kalasin."
"But they're gone." Alanna retorted. "Being dead doesn't help anybody."
"That depends on the kind of death." I spoke for the first time. "If your death's wasted, that's one thing. By her example, Kalasin woke up a lot of folk who thought it was all right to abuse the K'mir. Buri's mother and her brother made it possible for Kalasin to tell why she killed herself."
"Dead is dead." Alanna snapped. "You can't do anything from the grave."
I exchanged a look with Buri, but decided not to continue the argument any longer. Alanna seemed like the kind of person who would rather be doing something while she alive, and would feel weak if she couldn't do something to help. I agreed with her, but I knew that a noble death could be the best way to achieve something. My Shang masters had drilled that into me for many years. Shang warriors generally died while fighting to protect someone or something. And I would far rather die that way than in my bed as an old man.
Besides, dying to protect someone would mean saving someone else's life. And I would gladly die if it gave someone else the chance to live. Just like I would have fought, and died, to protect my family, if I had been any older than eight when they were killed.
Just thinking about death, especially wasted ones, brought back so many memories. Since that dreadful day, I had been terrified of being helpless, horrified by the very thought of magic, and petrified of dying a wasted death. Yet wasted deaths were one thing - but a wasted life? A life that was cut short before it could make any impact of the world and achieve something? That was true waste. And that was how my brothers and sisters lives had been wasted.
And I had lived, while they had died. It was then that my own life was given a purpose - to have the ability protect others so that never again would so many innocent people be massacred in front of my eyes, with me helpless to do anything to save them. And with my abilities as a Shang warrior, I had begun to make up for the lives I had helped to destroy so long ago.
True, none of it had been my fault. I was just a child at the time, having spent only four years learning Shang, and still naïve and susceptible to trickery. Though I had been taught that the Gift was crutch, I secretly found the idea of magic wonderful, if somewhat mysterious. So when a powerful sorcerer came to visit my Shang masters, I had insisted on meeting him, and seeing his skills. He had been kind to me, and instead of ignoring me he had taken the time to explain his Gift to me. I had only been too happy to tell him all about my family, working on their farm in Maren. And when he had wanted to come home with me on my yearly visit, I had been proud and honored.
I didn't noticed the worried glances of my masters as we prepared to leave, or the many questions this man asked about a certain sacred area of the forest that was on our property. This place was often said to be the haunt of the Gods, or a place containing great magic, or where a powerful and important secret was hidden. But even I, at eight years old, knew they were just tales and nothing more.
The sorcerer was polite to my family, and my family was pleased to have such an important noble in their household. But within a few hours of arrival he had convinced my eldest brother to take him the sacred place. It was late in the evening when they returned. My brother ran ahead, obviously terrified. He was trying to explain something to my worried parents, when our guest burst in the door.
He didn't bother to explain what he had wanted with us, or what he had done that night that had scared my brother so. When my father opened his mouth to challenge him, the sorcerer threw him down. I didn't remember what he said or did exactly after that, but I did remember the screaming and crying and pleading from my family, and the house and farm going up in a flash of orange light, bright flames eating up everything I had called home.
And he had spared me, because I was the one who had brought him there. He had left me alive, and allowed me to wander back to my school, where nightmares would haunt me for years. I kept my silence, but I vowed vengeance on that man.
Even over twenty years later, I still cried as I remembered that day. As night settled over the camp and everyone else slowly drifted off to a peaceful sleep, I sat and stared at the fire, tears glistening in my eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I had never let myself dwell on the past for too long, and I wasn't about to then. The next day, I was up before dawn, ready for the long day ahead of us.
We hadn't gone anywhere when Faithful appeared, so covered in dust I barely recognized the once black cat.
'Bandits,' I heard him say, 'A large camp of them east of here.'
Even though a cat informing me of danger scared me more than the danger itself, I, like everyone else, didn't hesitate to believe him. Immediately the camp flew into action, albeit slowly and quietly. With Faithful leading Coram, Alanna, Buri and I, and Thayet remaining behind with the children, we silently made our way through the woods. In a canyon, quite a walk from our camp, we could see the many men, and their women, resting down there.
"Faithful says there's about fifty people down there," Alanna whispered. "We can't take on those odds."
"I'm not a good enough thief to get in there and take what we need," I replied softly. Buri and Coram nodded, while Alanna considered something.
"I'll have to use magic." She said finally, trying to meet my eyes. When I said nothing, she touched my arm. I flinched at the very thought of her using her Gift to harm these people. "I'm sorry. I know you don't like it. Can you think of something better?"
I knew I couldn't, and she knew I couldn't. Yet it was still nice of her to think of my feelings, even if she didn't understand the reason behind them.
"Magic's dishonorable." Buri muttered. "It's cheating."
"Do ye prefer ten-to-one odds?" Coram asked quietly.
"I don't like this." She replied, sighing. "I supposed you have a point."
"Do your magic then." My voice came out angry, to hide my fear. "If you feel like it when you're done, maybe you can lend a hand with the real work."
I moved away before I could see her face. I knew what I had just said was unfair, and that she would be helping us all by doing this. And I knew it wasn't easy for her to do. But I didn't know if I could watch her do it, and realize I'd just stood there and watched.
I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going, and a sentry hiding in the bushes spotted me. He jumped up, calling out to the bandits near by. I pushed Alanna and her magic out of my head as I entered the battle, followed by Coram and Buri. Within a few minutes I could feel something in the air around us, something that was holding the bandits down and preventing them from stopping us as we emptied their supplies, and let their horses go.
But the sense of that something made me feel uncomfortable. Buri was right - it was cheating. Even if the bandits weren't being hurt in anyway, it was still cheating to take what we wanted to help ourselves. And just the fact that I could feel whatever Alanna was doing made me want to leave immediately.
A little while later we found Alanna on the edge of the canyon, with Faithful, panting from exhaustion and effort. The bandits were still held by the magical net, and clearly it had cost her a lot.
Coram looked over at me, plainly expecting her to ride with me. I looked away, trying to keep my expression blank. Right then, I had no wish to be so close to her, when she was still radiating magic. Coram must have seen that, for he pulled her up onto his horse, and we headed back to camp.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was two days before Alanna was able to walk around again, and it took all of those two days for me to control myself enough to stop being angry and disgusted with her, and to be able to approach her again without sensing the magic that sent fear running through me.
We traveled faster, now that we had the bandits' horses and everyone could ride. It was a good thing, because no one wanted to stop at the abandoned and ruined houses and farms we passed. We were all only to glad to arrive in Rachia, which the desolate feeling of the countryside had not yet penetrated, thankfully.
I had dismounted and was leading Drifter, when I heard Alanna yell behind me, "Thayet!"
I turned around, in time to catch a glimpse of a dark shape on the roof above us. A perplexed Thayet, holding the baby as she rode along behind me, glanced around at Alanna, as an arrow flew through the air, straight towards her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Queen's Own: thank you, and I hope this tells you a little bit more about Roger.
BlueMageChild*89: Thank you for your advice, I love it when people tell me what I could do better. I hope this meets your standards of how I should be showing Liam's personality.
Anya In Darkness: I'm glad you think I've done a good job of capturing Liam.
QueenofConnaught, Lady-kitty, PsychoLioness13: Thank you so very much!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I rose slowly, letting my sword drop. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a young girl aiming a crossbow at a very disgruntled Alanna. I could hear Coram swearing off in the distance. No doubt he had been stopped by one of them too.
The girl, who I saw was K'miri, forced us to walk to where the group of refugees was hiding. Children of all ages stood clustered around the heavily laden donkey. Coram soon joined them, guarded by a young woman. Her proud hazel eyes glared at us from over her arched nose and determined mouth and chin. Not even her simple clothing and the crossbow in her hand could hide her beauty, or her air of royalty. I had never seen her before, but I had no doubt as to whom she was.
"Your Royal Highness." I bowed to Thayet jian Wilima, daughter of Adigun jin Wilima, the current warlord of Sarain.
Alanna, who had been watching Thayet with a mix of awe and jealousy, grinned slightly. Her guard saw that, and poked her with her bow.
"Her Highness isn't someone to laugh at." She snapped.
"Don't, Buri." Thayet said quickly. "These people aren't enemies."
"We don't know they're friends." Buri retorted.
"Believe me, K'mir, if I wanted to turn the tables on you, I would." I interrupted. Unsure of what I felt the need to prove here, other than the fact that I wasn't normally unarmed by two young girls, I lunged forward, and in two quick motions, Buri sat in the dirt and I held her crossbow. I offered it back to her, to show I meant no harm, and she took it silently, her eyes respectful.
Turning to Thayet, I introduced the three of us. I left Alanna until last, and as soon as I had said her titles, Buri whispered, "A full knight is a woman - a noblewoman?"
"I think it's wonderful," Thayet said. "It's time we nobles showed we aren't delicate flowers, instead of leaving all the glory to our Shang and K'miri sisters." She paused, before asking, "Where are you three bound?"
Coram explained our journey, while avoiding the exact reason why we were heading to the Roof of the World, and I glanced around. The children were exhausted and it showed on their faces and the way they stood. No doubt Thayet and Buri were just as tired, but trying to keep their spirits up for the children's sake. I wondered where they were going, and why Thayet's father had let her travel this way without a guard.
As if he could read my mind, Coram asked, "Where're ye and the young ones bound?"
"The Mother of Waters in Rachia." Buri replied. "All of us but Thayet and the baby and me were students in the convent Mother of Mountains. The baby, Thayet.found."
"Rachia's four days' ride south." Alanna exclaimed. "Except you're afoot - those of you who can walk."
"We had no choice." Thayet explained. "Zhir Anduo's army was coming." She named the man who was responsible for the current mess in Sarain because he wanted to take over the position of warlord.
"Doesn't the warlord have men to protect you?" I asked.
"They ran." Buri snapped scornfully.
I glanced at the group of them. They would slow us down, and no doubt with Thayet there we would meet up with trouble, but there was no way we could leave them here to struggle, when they so clearly needed help. Not that Thayet or Buri would ever admit to needing help.
"You need us." I said finally. "We'll get you to the Mother of Waters."
"We don't need them!" Buri cried, just as I knew she would. Thayet glared at her friend.
"Don't be silly, Buri." She replied. "I haven't heard Alanna's name before, but I know about Liam Ironarm. People like this don't prey in people like us."
"There's a first time for everything." Buri muttered, but I could see she was going to do whatever Thayet wanted. And if Thayet wanted her help, she would just have to put up with it.
Buri glanced at Alanna sullenly, and Alanna met her gaze calmly. "If that's the way it has to be." she sighed.
"It is." Thayet snapped.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
With Thayet, Buri and the children, traveling certainly changed. For one thing, we had to go a lot slower now that so many of us were walking. And the children couldn't travel very far without needing to stop. By the following evening, we had only gone about as far as it would have taken Alanna, Coram and I in half a day.
Yet when I watched the scared and lonely children struggling along without complaining, and noticed how Thayet and Buri spent so much of their time and energy making sure everyone was all right, I felt selfish for wishing we could go a little faster. These people had no one, and they were attempting to make their way across a war torn country. Not many could do so much and remain so strong. And they needed us; of that there was no doubt.
At yet another stop in the late afternoon, we left the children to sleep, and sat down by the stream, discussing the situation. Though everyone tried to maintain a happy face for the children's sake, there was a definite sense of worry in the air - for safety, for survival, and also because there were probably troops on the lookout for Thayet.
"They need rest," I said, watching the children. "They won't make it to sundown, otherwise. We're used to the road - they aren't."
"Thayet tells me they've no supplies." Coram murmured, concerned. "Even the food we've brought won't last."
"We tried to forage." Thayet explained. "The farms in these valleys were rich, and there was game - but not anymore. The land's picked clean. We ran out of food last night, and Buri and the older girls have been stinting themselves for days. They can't keep up."
Her eyes were worried, and her own body was far too thin, from lack of food. Though the princess was too proud and strong to admit it, she too was weary of traveling and going so long without food.
"We have t'find humans, then." Coram said, his calm straightforward manner oddly comforting. "If the land's picked over, let's find the pickers and clean them out."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
That evening, after Alanna had gone hunting and brought back two squirrels for our dinner, Buri, Alanna, and I sat around the fire.
"Why is Thayet roaming the mountains?" Alanna broke the silence. "Why isn't she with her father?"
"It's because of Kalasin." Buri replied
"Her mother?"
"The most beautiful woman in the world." Buri nodded. "She was.amazing. Kalasin asked the Warlord to deal fairly with the K'mir, because we're her people. Jin Wilima hates us. So he signed laws forbidding us to meet in groups of more than five people at a time. There's more than thirty in the Hau Ma clan, and they're our smallest! How can we honor the dead or a marriage or a birth if the clan is forbidden to meet?" she paused, and took a breath to calm down. "I'm sorry. What Kalasin did was a great thing, but it hurts to remember. She tried to make the warlord stop, but he signed the law.
"Kalasin knew what she had to do. My mother and brother, who served her, kept the guards from breaking into her tower room. Kalasin stood at her window and sang her death chant, about her shame at jin Wilima's laws. A crowd was there to witness it. My mother and brother were killed, but they held the door until it was too late for the Warlord's men to stop her from jumping. Mother and Pathom are buried at Kalasin's right and left hands. The Warlord will lie in his tomb alone."
"I'm sorry." Alanna said quietly.
Buri shook her head. "They had the best deaths any K'mir could have. My people did what was right, and so did Kalasin."
"But they're gone." Alanna retorted. "Being dead doesn't help anybody."
"That depends on the kind of death." I spoke for the first time. "If your death's wasted, that's one thing. By her example, Kalasin woke up a lot of folk who thought it was all right to abuse the K'mir. Buri's mother and her brother made it possible for Kalasin to tell why she killed herself."
"Dead is dead." Alanna snapped. "You can't do anything from the grave."
I exchanged a look with Buri, but decided not to continue the argument any longer. Alanna seemed like the kind of person who would rather be doing something while she alive, and would feel weak if she couldn't do something to help. I agreed with her, but I knew that a noble death could be the best way to achieve something. My Shang masters had drilled that into me for many years. Shang warriors generally died while fighting to protect someone or something. And I would far rather die that way than in my bed as an old man.
Besides, dying to protect someone would mean saving someone else's life. And I would gladly die if it gave someone else the chance to live. Just like I would have fought, and died, to protect my family, if I had been any older than eight when they were killed.
Just thinking about death, especially wasted ones, brought back so many memories. Since that dreadful day, I had been terrified of being helpless, horrified by the very thought of magic, and petrified of dying a wasted death. Yet wasted deaths were one thing - but a wasted life? A life that was cut short before it could make any impact of the world and achieve something? That was true waste. And that was how my brothers and sisters lives had been wasted.
And I had lived, while they had died. It was then that my own life was given a purpose - to have the ability protect others so that never again would so many innocent people be massacred in front of my eyes, with me helpless to do anything to save them. And with my abilities as a Shang warrior, I had begun to make up for the lives I had helped to destroy so long ago.
True, none of it had been my fault. I was just a child at the time, having spent only four years learning Shang, and still naïve and susceptible to trickery. Though I had been taught that the Gift was crutch, I secretly found the idea of magic wonderful, if somewhat mysterious. So when a powerful sorcerer came to visit my Shang masters, I had insisted on meeting him, and seeing his skills. He had been kind to me, and instead of ignoring me he had taken the time to explain his Gift to me. I had only been too happy to tell him all about my family, working on their farm in Maren. And when he had wanted to come home with me on my yearly visit, I had been proud and honored.
I didn't noticed the worried glances of my masters as we prepared to leave, or the many questions this man asked about a certain sacred area of the forest that was on our property. This place was often said to be the haunt of the Gods, or a place containing great magic, or where a powerful and important secret was hidden. But even I, at eight years old, knew they were just tales and nothing more.
The sorcerer was polite to my family, and my family was pleased to have such an important noble in their household. But within a few hours of arrival he had convinced my eldest brother to take him the sacred place. It was late in the evening when they returned. My brother ran ahead, obviously terrified. He was trying to explain something to my worried parents, when our guest burst in the door.
He didn't bother to explain what he had wanted with us, or what he had done that night that had scared my brother so. When my father opened his mouth to challenge him, the sorcerer threw him down. I didn't remember what he said or did exactly after that, but I did remember the screaming and crying and pleading from my family, and the house and farm going up in a flash of orange light, bright flames eating up everything I had called home.
And he had spared me, because I was the one who had brought him there. He had left me alive, and allowed me to wander back to my school, where nightmares would haunt me for years. I kept my silence, but I vowed vengeance on that man.
Even over twenty years later, I still cried as I remembered that day. As night settled over the camp and everyone else slowly drifted off to a peaceful sleep, I sat and stared at the fire, tears glistening in my eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I had never let myself dwell on the past for too long, and I wasn't about to then. The next day, I was up before dawn, ready for the long day ahead of us.
We hadn't gone anywhere when Faithful appeared, so covered in dust I barely recognized the once black cat.
'Bandits,' I heard him say, 'A large camp of them east of here.'
Even though a cat informing me of danger scared me more than the danger itself, I, like everyone else, didn't hesitate to believe him. Immediately the camp flew into action, albeit slowly and quietly. With Faithful leading Coram, Alanna, Buri and I, and Thayet remaining behind with the children, we silently made our way through the woods. In a canyon, quite a walk from our camp, we could see the many men, and their women, resting down there.
"Faithful says there's about fifty people down there," Alanna whispered. "We can't take on those odds."
"I'm not a good enough thief to get in there and take what we need," I replied softly. Buri and Coram nodded, while Alanna considered something.
"I'll have to use magic." She said finally, trying to meet my eyes. When I said nothing, she touched my arm. I flinched at the very thought of her using her Gift to harm these people. "I'm sorry. I know you don't like it. Can you think of something better?"
I knew I couldn't, and she knew I couldn't. Yet it was still nice of her to think of my feelings, even if she didn't understand the reason behind them.
"Magic's dishonorable." Buri muttered. "It's cheating."
"Do ye prefer ten-to-one odds?" Coram asked quietly.
"I don't like this." She replied, sighing. "I supposed you have a point."
"Do your magic then." My voice came out angry, to hide my fear. "If you feel like it when you're done, maybe you can lend a hand with the real work."
I moved away before I could see her face. I knew what I had just said was unfair, and that she would be helping us all by doing this. And I knew it wasn't easy for her to do. But I didn't know if I could watch her do it, and realize I'd just stood there and watched.
I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going, and a sentry hiding in the bushes spotted me. He jumped up, calling out to the bandits near by. I pushed Alanna and her magic out of my head as I entered the battle, followed by Coram and Buri. Within a few minutes I could feel something in the air around us, something that was holding the bandits down and preventing them from stopping us as we emptied their supplies, and let their horses go.
But the sense of that something made me feel uncomfortable. Buri was right - it was cheating. Even if the bandits weren't being hurt in anyway, it was still cheating to take what we wanted to help ourselves. And just the fact that I could feel whatever Alanna was doing made me want to leave immediately.
A little while later we found Alanna on the edge of the canyon, with Faithful, panting from exhaustion and effort. The bandits were still held by the magical net, and clearly it had cost her a lot.
Coram looked over at me, plainly expecting her to ride with me. I looked away, trying to keep my expression blank. Right then, I had no wish to be so close to her, when she was still radiating magic. Coram must have seen that, for he pulled her up onto his horse, and we headed back to camp.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was two days before Alanna was able to walk around again, and it took all of those two days for me to control myself enough to stop being angry and disgusted with her, and to be able to approach her again without sensing the magic that sent fear running through me.
We traveled faster, now that we had the bandits' horses and everyone could ride. It was a good thing, because no one wanted to stop at the abandoned and ruined houses and farms we passed. We were all only to glad to arrive in Rachia, which the desolate feeling of the countryside had not yet penetrated, thankfully.
I had dismounted and was leading Drifter, when I heard Alanna yell behind me, "Thayet!"
I turned around, in time to catch a glimpse of a dark shape on the roof above us. A perplexed Thayet, holding the baby as she rode along behind me, glanced around at Alanna, as an arrow flew through the air, straight towards her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Queen's Own: thank you, and I hope this tells you a little bit more about Roger.
BlueMageChild*89: Thank you for your advice, I love it when people tell me what I could do better. I hope this meets your standards of how I should be showing Liam's personality.
Anya In Darkness: I'm glad you think I've done a good job of capturing Liam.
QueenofConnaught, Lady-kitty, PsychoLioness13: Thank you so very much!