OKAY WE'RE BACK…finally I know. Sorry for the delay in everything. Both of us have just started high school, blch, and we're , or at least I, am overwhelmed by the homework and amount of stuff to do. sorry again, I'll try to get the next chapter up a.s.a.p. if any of you are still interested. Haha…
I don't know if it has just been m,e but I have gotten emails concerning the fact that people are being punished? For replying to reviews.
Please tell me if that's true or not, because I really enjoy doing so.
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"At least they're safe?" exclaimed Alanna, mouth hanging open, "Is that you're definition of safe? Cavorting off to Death? Yes, I suppose so! And why don't we have a picnic while we're there! I'm sure the Black God would be happy to join them! He might even supply them with dessert!"
"Incidentally, would the Black God eat dessert?" Raoul added thoughtfully.
Everyone stared at him as if his head had just sprouted wings out his ears.
"Well, I mean, would he eat? Or is he dead? But he's a god so I suppose he could if he wanted to..."
"Basically you're asking if we know what gods do or don't do. Bake him a cake and see what he says." Thayat answered scathingly.
Alanna had her head in her hands, "Somebody get me my sword!" she called out.
"What we're getting at is it's better that they're going as a threesome instead of just Daine alone," Henry pointed out.
This did make more sense.
Alanna stomped off.
"Where're you going?" Jon called out.
"I'm going to bake a bloody cake!" she snarled.
The trio had been following the "flash light" for nearly two weeks. The full moon was fast approaching. Each new phase taunting them, whispering that they wouldn't make it. Each day they grew more and more testy and stressed.
Maura and Lasku's relationship, however, was growing more intense. Whether it was because they were nervous or just were glad that they finally had admitted their true feelings, Daine was still getting worried.
Horse Lords, they're all over each other she thought one day, It's like...like...she tried to come up with a likeness to her friends' romance and was startled when she found one, like Numair and me...
She came back from watering the horses one night to find them at it again sucking each others faces off.
She noticed that they were particularly intimate tonight. Maura's shirt was sliding down her arm and Lasku's breeches were undone...
"Will you wait until you're married?" Daine exclaimed, sufficiently scaring the two apart, "I don't want to play midwife on this trip!"
The pair looked horrified,
"Blast it, Daine! Could you even try to take a little longer before you come back?" Lasku asked indignantly.
The wild mage gave a wicked smile,
"Think of it this way," she said wickedly, "Better me walking in now than, say, thirty seconds from now, if you catch my drift." They certainly caught her drift and their mortification only intensified.
The next night Lasku's limp started acting up again. It was aggravating. Sometimes he would go months at a time without even a twinge. Some days he couldn't even walk. But he was always a little angry that this had to happen so early in his life.
As he sat down and lay looking at the stars Maura asked, "Why do you limp sometimes, Lasku? You've never told me."
"Yeah, I'd like to know myself," Daine admitted.
Lasku grew tense. They could very soon be treading dangerous water, "I was attacked," he answered finally.
"By who?"
He winced.
He muttered something that neither woman could understand.
They asked him to repeat himself, "Numair did it,"
"What!" They both exclaimed. Neither could believe it.
"I figured Daine at least would know,"
"Apparently not," she answered dryly, "How did it happen?"
Lasku laughed a bit,
"We were at Dunlath and Aeejah had just sent me with that phony letter from Corus for Numair. Then you were captured...by me, incidentally,...I felt guilty...I had never liked Damien...Never felt loyal to the country...It had never been my country...So I decided to help. I went to get Numair but he figured it out far too quickly.
We met on the road and before I could say any thing he was squeezing the life out of me. I was trying to tell him what happened but he wouldn't listen. He's quite terrifying really-"
Daine made a noise that sounded somewhat like laughter.
"He would have killed me except for his horse that bit him to make him stop."
"Clever Spots," The wild mage murmured.
The others agreed.
"I was pretty cut up but I was healed extremely quickly-" Daine had a feeling that Numair had used her mother's ointment, "-everything but my leg," he finished rather bitterly.
"Mmmmm..." Daine murmured thoughtfully.
"I don't blame him Daine, I would have done the same,"
"Then why so bitter?"
Lasku was silent for a moment,
"I'm looking at the bigger picture I guess,"
"What's the bigger picture?" Maura inquired.
"I don't think I want to talk about that just now," he answered before rolling over so he could not see either of them. As she tried to fall asleep, her mind dwelling once more on Numair, she thought she heard a small sniff coming from Lasku's direction.
The next morning Daine woke in a state of panic. They had five days left for them to get Numair back and kill Tristan, and they had no idea how far they had to go.
She woke the others and they were off thundering along, the panic building with every mile they went.
Daine found it highly unfair that the gods should torment her like this. They went on only stopping to rest the horses and to grab an hour or so of sleep for themselves.
The excuse that it was too dark to go on was eliminated with the appearance of the "flash light". The magical light also made it hard to sleep when they were forced to stop.
They spoke only when there was need and the stress and he exhaustion made them snappish. So they were totally unprepared when they suddenly were faced with a town that had an eerie look to it. Almost as if a haze of some translucency had settled over it.
Daine only guessed it was Barad when the mysterious guiding light of theirs gave on more bright flash toward the town and then disappeared toward the heavens, never seen again.
"This is it?" asked Lasku.
"I believe so. Looks strange and ghostly, almost as if no one would be here. Or is here, at the very least," Daine said with a slight shudder at the breeze.
"So after this, what's happening? I mean, all that the scroll said was that we needed to kill Tristan by the full moon. That is, you, Daine, needed to kill him. And who knows how long it will take to travel in the realm of Death?" mused Maura and Daine winced at these theoretical questions that she had wondered herself.
"I know Maura. These questions have been in my mind since I opened the scroll. Also, on top of that, Goddess knows where Tristan himself is. We don't know, so therefore, we have to move fast. We must arrive at Barad today and perform the rites no matter what happens. Even though I do not really know how long they will take or the process."
The other two nodded their agreement as they hardened their gazes to the several miles between them and the town and prepared for the hardest and most mystifying part of the journey that lay ahead.
Not too much later, the worn travelers and horses arrived at the main entrance to the once thriving town of Barad.
Daine felt a slight foreboding of danger as she looked around the ominous absence of people or any living thing besides themselves.
All that could be heard were the clippety-clop of the horses and the bumps of their packs. It was all too silent for Daine to bear; she tried to reach her wild magic for any signs of nature near this town. There were a few mice here and there, but quite some ways away.
The threesome even didn't feel like talking, didn't want to disrupt the silence that surrounded them.
They kept going until they reached the center of the town, marked by a fountain that had been much loved in its day.
Daine dismounted from Cloud, thanking her silently and promising her a good rubdown.
She walked around the perimeter cautiously until, just ten feet away to the west, she felt a strange sensation from the ground. Daine looked down and motioned Lasku and Maura to come over.
They saw a dark splotch on the ground, made up of something Daine did not want to know.
"I think this is the spot where Tristan performed his dark magic. Don't you think so too? Yes, me too. I have the scroll here, but first, Lasku could you do me a favor and get me the water bottle?" asked Daine quietly.
After she had drunk from the water a few drops, she cleared her throat and unrolled the scroll. The strange words seemed unfamiliar, and she sounded them out in her head, so as not to make a mistake.
Maura urged her on with her eyes, giving her confidence.
Daine started to speak, feeling more secure as the words rolled off her tongue effortlessly, almost as if they want to be undone, thought Daine spontaneously.
The wild mage counted the words in her mind, encouraging herself with the fact that there were only ten more words to go.
Maura and Lasku held hands, while the Lady of Dunlath had her eyes screwed shut in preparation, or fear, for the next step. Lasku kept his eyes trained on Daine, making sure that she did not falter or did not need a helping hand.
5 more words, you can do it, Daine. Simple reading…
Suddenly, Lasku whipped his head around, his spy's instincts taking over him. He felt a chill run up and down his spine and he looked eastward, seeing nothing.
Just three more…
And then, it all happened.
A cry was heard, chaos was broken out. A rush of soldiers came rushing at the three near the fountain. Soldiers and soldiers and soldiers…
Daine looked up from her scroll in dismay seeing the armed forces, thinking that this was all a trap and useless but forced herself to keep reading.
My final last word, long but just sound it out and then take it from there. Keep it up, come on. For Maura and Lasku. And Numair…
Her train of thought was broken when the sound of a man in excruciating pain made her stop what she was saying. Assuming it was a soldier, she looked quickly and then took in a sharp breath.
Next to Maura stood many wounded soldiers but also Lasku with blood staining his shirt from his stomach as he staggered back a few steps, trying to rid himself from the shock and the pain.
Daine saw Maura go down as Lasku did, and she rushed over, scroll and all not paying attention to the soldiers, a friend's intuition taking over.
She saw the look of horror on Maura's face as Lasku slowly began to fade and then disappeared altogether. The soldiers then, leering, began to encircle them and close in on the two women.
Daine searched for animals that would help her and Cloud began to kick the men around her, avoiding their sharp cutlasses and swords.
Then, Maura whispered urgently, "Daine! The scroll! The spell! Finish it, now! Before they kill us, please!"
This brought the world back to Daine from her wild magic and she took one look at the final word as she took a look at Maura's tear-stained face.
Daine thanked all the gods as she said the word swiftly and saw the looks of surprise and astonishment on the soldiers now less than a foot away from her and Maura.
She wondered why and discovered the reason when she looked at herself, slowly fading away.
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