-The cast crowds around Shade's laptop, peering anxiously at the screen. Shade is curled up in a chair, snoring peacefully-
Dart: C'mon, who's up this time?
Zion: Why should you care? You're the main character! You know that you'll at least get in every other chapter or so!
Dart: -Sticks his tongue out- Bah. Do not! Ayrel's gotten more POV than I have, lately!
Solana: Well, how do you think the rest of us feel? It's been about five chapters since I last got any time in! And Cai hasn't done much better!
Garren: -crying forgotten in the corner-
Bleh. It's starting to get difficult to keep the different characters on a regular rotation so that they each get a POV every few chapters or so. Sometimes I don't have much choice in the matter- some scenes absolutely have to feature so-and-so, while I have a bit more choice with the others, but still… I feel like I'm leaving them out of the fun. I'm not kidding when I say that Ayrel has had more POV rounds over the past few chapters than any of the other characters. Dart's running a close second, but that's understandable. But then you get characters like poor Garren, who haven't come out to play in… ah, I've lost track. I guess when you're dealing with eleven or twelve possible perspectives, it's gonna be a pain in the butt to arrange it so that they all get their time in. I'm covering Ark, Amaya, Cai, Asalla, and Dart for this chapter, but it looks like the others will have to wait for a bit, considering the next chapter's already a bit cut-and-dried as to who gets what.
Like almost every other chapter, I didn't get a chance to do much proof reading before I went ahead and posted it- it was either that, or risk having to wait another week or so delay. I'll go back through and proof it once I have the opportunity.
Brutal2003: Yes, to the other dragoons, and essentially anyone else who does not already know who he is, Dart remains 'Ry'.
FiredancerAtrea: Whoops. I seem to have caused a wee bit of confusion here. Slone Trebara (or Captain Trebara) was in fact the man at the temple in the final scene of the last chapter. There was a lapse of several hours between Dart's POV and Ayrel's (Ayrel's happening at probably around two in the morning), so he had time to meander his way into town.
Ragnarok's POV:
The first cold light of morning stole softly into the room, lighting a narrow path that crept between the heavy curtains, inching across the floor and stretching up the far wall. Tiny motes of dust swirled in the weak light, drifting in and out of the shadows as they spiraled gently down to the thick carpet. The rest of the room was still sunk in a dim half-light; chairs and tables, drab and colorless in the gloom, were pushed back in clusters against the far wall, half-covered by pale sheets. A set of chests stood in shadow beside the window, Dart's heavy coat draped over the edge of one open drawer. There was an air of studious neglect about the place; the room was rarely used, so it had been carefully cleaned, brushed, and arranged before being left to gather dust. Only the bed, neatly turned and covered with fresh sheets, had shown any sign of continued care when we had settled in the night before. Which had been more than enough to satisfy Dart, who would have gladly slept on the floor after spending the last few nights tossing on a straw pallet.
Dart himself was still asleep, though I had eased him aside and now lay awake, staring at the ceiling while the room around me gradually brightened. Through the gap between the window curtains I could just see a thin sliver of overcast sky, the bellies of the clouds tinted orange-gold by the rising sun. Yawning, I cocked one arm back behind my head and rested against it with some relief. It hadn't been an enjoyable night. Dart hadn't slept badly, but troubling dreams had kept intruding on his rest. Or at least, they had tried. It isn't really all that difficult to divert dreams, but our troubles had been weighing on his mind heavily of late, and keeping them away had been like swatting flies all night long. It wasn't something I had to do, precisely, but the last thing that I needed right now was for him to be distracted at a critical moment by memories of a bad dream. Still, it was bothersome. Normally I use the nights to think, but with the constant interruptions I hadn't really been able to focus on my own problem. And while I thought that I might have found an answer, I was still no closer to a decision than I had been when Dart had finally dropped off late last night.
I rubbed my eyes. My main headaches stemmed from the fact that no matter how I looked at it, Ayrel was going to have the upper hand the next time we would meet. She would decide the time and the place, and I knew it would cause her no pain to set us at the greatest disadvantage she could devise. Even greater a concern was that she would have her magic. If it were to be one or the other, we might be able to overcome the disadvantage. With both combined, the odds were stacked against us. And as Dart had pointed out yesterday, the Divine Armor alone wouldn't be able to make up the difference. If the other dragoons would fight that might give us the flexibility, but I knew that to be wishful thinking. They were willing to fight the temples to save themselves, but I doubted that any of them would dare to face off against Ayrel. Even if they would, none of them was even close to the level of strength they'd need to be in order to stand a chance against her. Not yet, at any rate.
So what options were left? Kicking back the covers, I stretched and got to my feet, shaking the stiffness out of my limbs. Dart would be awake soon, so there wasn't much point in lying around in bed any longer. Retrieving his clothes from the back of a chair I dressed and went to the window, pushing back the heavy drapes. The sun had just risen over the tree line and was kissing the grey underbellies of the clouds, casting a watery light over the frosted rooftops surrounding the courtyard below. Resting one elbow against the side of the window frame, I watched a crow skimming low over the treetops while my breath misted the glass.
Ayrel had weighed heavily on my thoughts ever since we had left Tiberoa, and I had turned the problem over in my mind a hundred times since. But no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't find any way to twist the circumstances to our favor. Without knowing where Garren was, there was no one to whom I was willing to turn for help, and without knowing where Ayrel was for certain or where the fight would take place, there was no way I could plan against that either. Dart had hit the nail on the head yesterday when he had said that we would have to work with what we had.
Outdoors, the crow soared over the rooftops and spiraled tightly, gliding down into the courtyard below. What we had. And just what did we have? The dragoon powers, Dart's own strength, and the broken down remnants of my own abilities. In short, the only things that we had ever been armed with. Until now, that had always been enough: between Dart's overwhelming prowess with the sword and the amplified strength of the Divine Armor, we had never had a need for anything else. But Ayrel had proven before that she could hold her own against Dart's sword, and her magic, if the way she had mimicked the cannon blast back in Tiberoa was any indication, seemed only to be limited by what she could imagine. And as deep as her wingly powers ran, there were depths to which I was sure she had yet to delve- if she even knew they existed. So far, it seemed, she had only used her powers as the Moon Child to bolster her own prodigious ability. I doubted she had much control over it beyond that, or if she even knew what she might be capable of if she could access them. If she did by some chance stumble upon a way to break them open completely, well…
I shook my head. We had enough problems as it was without adding to them with my nervous speculation. For the moment our greatest concern ought to be how to counter Ayrel's magic- what she had now, not what she might someday obtain.
So what was there? Against magic Dart's sword was useless, and the powerful weapons of the dragoon armor were still only limited to blasting holes, however creatively Dart might do so. Aside from these, the only thing left was my own power as the Divine Dragon- and that had corroded so much, I wasn't sure what exactly could be done with it. Not to say that it was useless- I still used it from time to time, though I needed Dart to act as a channel- but between myself being forced into the dragoon spirit and then undergoing a semi-extraction to forge the connection with Dart, the nature of it had changed significantly. Once it had been a weapon, with defined limits and form. Now it was closer akin to an ocean, a massive amount of power raging uselessly against the walls that enclosed it. Without my own body, my chances of being able to form anything beyond a simple spell were about the same as Zion flying to the moon and back. I could channel it through Dart without any real problem, but once I drew it out I would essentially be fighting with raw energy. Against Ayrel, there would be no spells, no finesse. Just an out and out brawl, with our success dependant on smothering her power with my own before she could manage to retaliate.
Using my own power wouldn't make for a clean fight, but given what we had to work with, it might give us the best chance at fighting her on level ground or better. This depended, of course, on how much power I would be able to channel through Dart. On my own, I had enough strength to overwhelm her, but using it through Dart would seriously curtail the amount that I would be able to use. Dart's body was human, and as a result he could only safely deal with a limited amount of that power flowing through him at any one time. Too great an amount was unsafe. Total exposure had the potential to kill him. His body had no natural safeguards against the damage that might result from handling that much power at once: a limited mental resistance was the only defense that he had. If I could find a way to break that resistance, the path would be open, but I would have to use my own mind as a buffer to try to protect him as I did so. Even then, our time would be limited. One minute, maybe two. After that, the exposure would become too great and his body would begin to damage itself, unable to cope with the flow.
I sighed, taking a step back from the window. It offered some possibilities, but I was reluctant to condone it as the best course of action. There was too much risk involved for the both of us, though it endangered Dart far more than it did me. Even if I did manage to buffer the power properly, his body would still suffer. His mind too, if I wasn't careful. And in order to avoid the resistance his mind always set against me, I would have to have absolute control- which meant, more than likely, that he would have to be unconscious. But what alternatives did we have? I could pump my power into the Divine Armor, but even though it would pose less of a risk to Dart, it would only be a slight improvement on our previous circumstances. It would increase the destructive capabilities, but the armor would still lack the flexibility that we needed. Maybe with the other dragoons acting as support, but once again…
The sun, now clear of the trees, had disappeared into the clouds hanging low and heavy in the eastern sky. A stiff wind was picking up off of the ocean, rattling the skeletal limbs of the hardwoods and sending the last of their dead leaves swirling over the yellowed fields beyond the manor, framing them against the shiftless grey sky. Even behind the frosted panes, I could feel the promise of snow carried in the air clear morning air. One week, maybe less, and the evergreens would be bowing beneath the weight of the first snowfall. After that, travel on foot would become difficult.
I sank down into a half-covered chair, still watching the clouds morosely. I needed more time to think it through, to better weigh the risk against the need. But soon Ayrel would make her move. No matter how I twisted to avoid it, there could be no ignoring that simple fact. That invisible deadline hung over me like a cloud, curdling behind my thoughts as I tried to find another way out of this mess. What we needed was time.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what we were being denied.
Amaya's POV:
The gelding snorted softly, whiskers tickling my skin as he snuffled my palm hopefully. He'd already cleaned my pockets of the rolls I'd brought along for my breakfast, but when he discovered that my hand was finally empty he lifted his head back over the door and began to nose around in his bedding for any dropped tidbits. Wiping my hand on my thigh, I looked around for something else to feed him, without much luck. I'd always had a soft spot for horses, but the little gelding had been the center of my attention ever since I'd wandered into the barn an hour ago. Now that I had run out of food, however, his interest had slackened off rather quickly. A little disappointed, I reached over the door to pat his shaggy bronze shoulder and then left him to rifle through the contents of his bedding without an audience.
"Have you had about enough, Mariko?"
Across the aisle, Mariko glanced back at me over her shoulder from where she knelt on a trunk watching a yearling in another stall. Shaking her head, she got up and hitched her cloak higher up over her shoulders, frowning a bit as the fir trim tickled her face. Shane had provided us all with warmer garments this morning, after Cai had commented on the chill. Mariko had been as grateful as any of us for the gift, though she didn't seem too fond of the fur. I had taken a heavy felt coat for myself, the inside quilted for extra warmth. I was born in the Broken Islands, and though I had spent most of my life in Bale, I still felt the cold very acutely. It was mostly because of this that we had come into the stable instead of wandering around outdoors; the stable wasn't heated in the same way that the house was, but a score of horses generated enough body heat to keep the building warm enough not to be freezing.
We'd left the mansion shortly after breakfast. In spite of the chance for a rest, no one seemed to be able to relax. Tension filled the quiet halls; a feeling helped in no way by Kaelin, who had taken to skulking around the guest wing in hopes of avoiding her family. None of us knew exactly what had passed between her and her father last night, but after an initial period of waspishness early this morning, her mood had subsided into a sort of perpetual disgruntledness that hung over her like a cloud of gloom. Mariko, who seemed quite conscious of this, had rather insistently dragged me out of the warm house and out into the cold, anxious to get away for a little while at least. Kaelin was a good sort, and had even gone so far as to make an effort to get to know us better during the voyage, but her mood could have soured milk.
Still fussing with her cloak, Mariko wandered down the row to inspect Lord Alphine's stallion, leaving me to sit on a hay bale and wait for her to finish. I didn't really have to stay with her, but even though we were well clear of Fletz and the Moon Child, I still felt as though she was my responsibility. Since she couldn't speak, Mariko had trouble communicating with anyone who had no clear idea what she wanted. It was easier, both for her and for my conscience, if I stayed with her to try to keep an eye on her. I had discovered early on that even if she couldn't speak verbally, her eyes and movements spoke volumes. I've always been quite good at reading people's faces, so it wasn't too difficult to tell what she wanted or was feeling- most of the time. But even when my eyes failed me, intuition usually kept me from getting too off track. In either case, it was easier for everyone involved if I stayed nearby. Besides, for the first time in years, she was one of the few people I could really call a friend.
There was a rattle at the near end of the barn, and a puff of cold air stirred against my cheek. I looked up as Shane pulled the door closed behind him with a slam, startling several of the horses out of their collective doze. Ry, who had come into the barn with him, stood blinking as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Dressed as always in his fading black coat, it hung open and unbuttoned; the cold didn't seem to bother him as badly as the rest of us, who were mostly from warmer climates. Not for the first time, I wondered about him. When I had still been with the Dread Knights the information that we had been given regarding him had been brief and to the point, consisting of a detailed description, a list of charges leveled against him, and an order to kill on sight if at all possible. Oddly, no name had ever been included in the description, nor who he was or where he was from. What exactly he had ever done to earn the impressive list of charges had never been fully explained either, and for all the warnings and fuss, until recently it had been a rare thing for any reports of him to come in at all.
And yet…
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather take one of the carriages into the city?" Shane asked, peering into the stalls as he walked down the aisle. "It would be much more comfortable, and you wouldn't have to worry about being seen."
"Wouldn't the crests on the doors attract some attention?"
"Not as much as you'd think. But if you feel that way, we've got an unmarked hack in the carriage house that we use for errands. It's only partially covered, so you won't be completely out of sight, but since you can drive it yourself it's probably your best bet."
Ry scratched his head, thinking it over. He really had quite a mild face, when he wasn't tense or brooding. "All right. Do you need any help bringing it out?"
"Not really." Shane turned to go. "I'll go fetch some stable boys to bring the cart around outside. I'll keep them out of here, so just take any horse that suits you. The harnesses are in the room at the far end."
When Shane had gone, Ry turned to me. "Would you mind helping? I'm not much good at harnessing up horses."
I got to my feet, dusting hay off of the seat of my pants. By the time I had brought back a harness from the tack room, he had already taken a horse out of its stall and held it in the center of the row, scratching its forehead with one hand. When I got a bit closer, I recognized it as the gelding I had been doting on earlier. Mariko had left off examining the stallion and now sat on the hale bale I had just vacated, watching Ry silently. From what I could tell, she still had yet to form a definite opinion about the man, though she by no means actively disliked him. Dumping the harness on the floor next to her, I began to sort through the pile of leather.
"You're heading into the port?" I asked after a moment, shaking the bridle free from the tangle and handing it to him.
"Yes." Slipping the halter off over the gelding's head, he popped the bit into the animal's mouth and pulled the bridle up over its ears. "There're some things I want to check out before we decide what to do next. If the temples are going to give us any trouble moving around, we might have to intrude on Shane to lend us a hand again."
I set another piece of tack over the animal's back, and bent to fasten the straps passing underneath its belly. "Then you're going alone?"
"I don't think more than one person is needed. I've already tracked down Kaelin and told her what I'm doing." He made a face. "She spent a good five minutes trying to convince me to let her come along. She really wants to get away from her family. But I'm asking you all to keep your heads down and stay out of trouble when I'm gone, okay? The last thing I need is to get back here and find out you kids have made another mess for me to clean up."
"We'll do our best." I patted the gelding on his flank. "Be careful if you're going to go near the temple though, yes? The Dread Knights in this country are concentrated in this city, and they keep a very close eye on the ports. The Grand Commander himself spends much of his time in the temple with the high priest."
Ry gave me a strange look, but said nothing. Together we finished harnessing the gelding in silence, helped from time to time by Mariko, who had begun to grow restless. When he was ready to leave, however, he hesitated, and then groped around at his belt for a moment.
"Here." Reaching out, he deposited something small and hard into my outstretched hand. "Give this to Zion to hold on to, and for the Goddess' sake, do not let that spook-eyed captain know that he has it. Ordinarily I'd take it with me, but I won't have my coat to cover it once I'm in the city, and the last thing I want is to attract any extra attention because of it."
I nodded and pocketed the violet spirit. At the far end of the barn, the main door creaked open and Shane poked his head in. "Are you guys done? The twins want their horses saddled for their hunt, so you should hurry up and clear out."
"We're just about ready," Ry called over his shoulder and then turned back, looking between Mariko and I. "Try to make sure Kaelin doesn't go and do anything stupid, okay? I'm not too worried about the rest of you, but she and Zion tend to egg each other on sometimes, and I really, really don't want to have to deal with anything they cook up unless its absolutely necessary."
Mariko and I followed him out of the barn, narrowly avoiding the two harried looking grooms that rushed in after us. Two children, perhaps thirteen or fourteen, followed slowly at a distance. Accompanying them were a few members of the house guard, their armor-plated jackets gleaming dully as they walked. Heading the group was Captain Trebara, his sallow complexion and sunken eyes even more sickly than usual under the overcast sky. He faced straight ahead as he passed us, but for an instant his eyes flickered in our direction, looking past us to where Ry and Shane were hitching the gelding to the cart. And then he was past, gone into the stable with the others.
Mariko pulled her cloak higher over her shoulders, craning her head to look through the doors. Then she pulled back, catching my eye and shaking her head with a troubled expression on her face. There had been nothing friendly in the look that man had given Ry. No good, she seemed to say. No good.
In the yard, Ry had climbed into the cart and was sorting out the reins while Shane checked the traces, talking all the while. Once they seemed satisfied that everything was in order Shane stood back from the cart and Ry drove off, the little cart rattling down the hill toward the gate. Shane watched him go, then rubbed his hands on his pant legs and came back over to us.
"What do you say we head inside? It's really quite chilly, and I don't think any of us wants to be out here when the weather really decides to turn foul." He shivered, and then offered his arm to Mariko. "Does that sound okay to you ladies?"
I shrugged, falling in step beside him as we began to make our way back up to the manor. "Who were the children who just went into the barn just now?" I asked.
Shane glanced back over his shoulder. "The twins? Aska and Peolin. They've got an absolute fascination with foxhunting. Nasty hobby, but I think they're more interested in chasing the poor things than actually killing them."
"And they take guards with them?"
"It's the only way Father will let them leave the grounds. The forest is home to all sorts of unsavory things."
"The animals?"
He looked at me, surprised. "I was more thinking trappers and bandits, but I suppose that there's those too. Father's more concerned with what might happen if they were taken in for ransom or blackmail. Problems for the business, you understand," he added, his lips twisting with disgust. "Otherwise, they'd be free to roam as they pleased."
On the other side of Shane, Mariko nodded her head back over her shoulder, and then sucked in her cheeks and rubbed her fingers beneath her eyes. Trebara? "What about Captain Trebara?" I asked, watching Mariko to make sure I'd gotten her question right. When she bobbed her head, I continued. "How long has he been in service to your family?"
"Slone? I'm not sure, actually. He's been around since Maylin was born, so seven years at least. Maybe longer." He scratched his head. "I don't know very much about him. He's a bit of a recluse. Why do you ask?"
"No real reason. He just struck us as a bit strange, that's all."
o
The rest of the day was spent lying around the guest wing of the manor. After I delivered the thunder spirit to Zion, there was really little else to do. Lunch was brought up to our rooms around midday, and so I spent most of the day lying around on my bed, browsing through a book I had found lying on a table. The afternoon passed in a sleepy doze; it wasn't until nearly evening that anything happened at all.
Finally growing bored of the book, I left my room and headed downstairs, wondering when the kitchens would be ready to serve supper. As I passed one of the windows in the lower hall, I happened to glance out. Two riders were cantering up the hill from the gate, their dark mounts lathered with sweat. I started to walk past, then hesitated, looking out the window again. The horses were so close together they must have almost been touching, and was something unnatural about the way one the riders sat in the saddle. It wasn't until they reached the courtyard that I realized that the other rider was literally holding him in the saddle. As I watched, the hairs on the back of my neck began to rise.
The other rider was Captain Trebara.
By the time I reached the courtyard, Trebara had dismounted and was trying to slide the other rider out of his saddle. Cai, who must have been in the stables, helped him while a stable hand took away the other mount. Together they laid the wounded man out on the flagstones, trying their best not to jolt him. A dark stain had spread across his abdomen; someone had tried to stop the bleeding by stuffing a scarf into the wound, but it didn't look to have done much good. His skin was pale from blood loss, and at some point he had lost conscious.
"Where's Mariko?" Cai demanded as I crouched next to him, reaching out to touch the bloody fabric.
"With your wife." I peeled back the cloth, studying the gash. "But I don't think-"
"What's going on?"
We turned. Shane and Kaelin were hurrying across the yard, looking alarmed and concerned at the same time. As the second horse was taken away, Shane grabbed the stable hand's shoulder and muttered to him something about bringing healing supplies. Then he knelt next to Kaelin opposite us. "Captain? What happened?"
"Bandits." Trebara's thin face was bruised, and a deep cut ran high across his forehead. He looked worn and tired, but there was a life in his eyes that hadn't been there when he'd ridden out this morning. "One of the hounds got its leg caught, and they ambushed us while Peolin was trying to get it loose." He shook his head. "There were too many of them for us to beat off. I tried to follow them, but…"
Shane rocked back on his heels, stricken. "Then they have the twins."
Trebara hung his head. Behind him, a stable hand came hurrying over and gave Kaelin a jar of foul-smelling liquid. Wordlessly, she passed it to Cai, who pulled the scarf away from the wound completely and began to apply it. For a long moment the five of us sat in awkward silence, Shane with his head in his hands while Kaelin stared fixedly at the ground, her face unreadable. Behind us, the front doors of the manor banged open and the air was filled with the sound of rushing footsteps.
"What is going on here?" Lord Alphine demanded, his voice hoarse and slightly out of breath as he was aided down the last of the stairs by a servant. Running down the stairs behind him, Solana, Mariko, and Zion dodged around Kaelin's father and joined us. Mariko had her spirit halfway out before I grabbed her arm, stopping her. The potion was doing the job well enough, and bringing a dragoon spirit out into the open right now could be dangerous.
"Shane!" Alphine barked. "I am not going to repeat myself. What has happened?"
Still stunned, Shane repeated to Lord Alphine what Captain Trebara had just told him. A particular breathless silence settled over the courtyard as he spoke, and even the wind seemed to take pause, leaving his words sounding alone and somehow very small in the vast hush. Overhead the heavy grey clouds continued to roll, determinedly smothering the afternoon sunlight with their weightless bulk. Through all of this a crowd had somehow developed; stable hands and servants, slipping away from their duties, stood in a wide semi-circle around us, watching and listening with sober expressions on their faces.
Throughout it all Lord Alphine's expression remained coldly composed, but the skin around his eyes tightened slightly as his son finished. "I see," he said, taking his hand from the shoulder of the servant who had been supporting him. Though he stood on his own, for an instant he seemed horribly frail and tired. "Captain Trebara. I was under the impression that my children were safe so long as they were in your company. It seems, however, that I was mistaken." His eyes flashed, and the sense of weariness gave way to one of carefully contained anger. "I don't suppose that you would be able to give a reason for this?"
Trebara averted his eyes.
Lord Alphine's expression grew grim. "Is that so. You disappoint me, Captain." He gathered his robes about him and turned away, his shoulders rigid. "You have two hours. If you cannot find a way to rectify your mistake by then, I suggest that you give some serious thought to the state of your mortality. I do not take the failure of those in the service to this family lightly."
Shane looked at his father incredulously as Slone got to his feet, his eyes still on the ground. "This is idiocy!" Shane exploded, his open, honest face flushed with anger. "One man can't take on a dozen! You're sending him to his death, father!"
"If that's what he chooses to make of it, then so be it!" Lord Alphine glared back over his shoulder at his fuming son. "He allowed his charges to be abducted! Death is the very least he deserves."
"Give him a fighting chance! At least send some men with him so that he at least has a hope of bringing them back! Don't you even care what happens to Aska and Peolin?"
"That's enough Shane!" Alphine's voice crackled.
"He needs more men!"
"Shane!"
"He's right, you know," another voice said suddenly.
All eyes fixed on Kaelin. Slowly, she got to her feet, dusting her hands off on her knees. Looking over at one of the stable boys, she nodded her head in the direction of the barn. "Better go get the horses ready."
Shane looked up, suddenly hopeful, but at the same moment her father commanded sharply, "I forbid it!"
Kaelin pretended not to have heard. She motioned to Zion, then glanced back down at the stable boy, who seemed confused as to whom to obey. "Well?" she barked, "Get going! I don't have time to tack up all of those horses by myself!"
The stable boy jumped, and then ran off to the stables closely followed by Zion. The rest of us got to our feet, exchanging grim looks. Ry wasn't going to like this.
"Kaelin!" Lord Alphine grabbed her shoulder tightly, spinning her around to face him. "You will not-"
"I will not what?" She snapped, knocking away his hand. "I won't go help them? You think I'll just sit here while you pull your strings and send others to try and worm a way out of this mess for you? What are you going to do anyway, huh? Bribe those damn bandits to give Peolin and Aska back? Send someone to stab them in their backs later on so you don't have to get your own hands dirty?" She glared at him, her face flushed with anger. "That's half the problem with this stupid family. You won't even stick out your neck to help your own children if you think even for a moment that there's a risk of loosing it!"
Lord Alphine stared at her, his face white and his nose pinched with fury. I doubted whether anyone had ever dared to speak that way to him before. Father and daughter glared at one another, staring each other down like stray dogs over a scrap of meat.
Kaelin's gaze never left her father's. "Cai? Solana? Go back up to our rooms and get our weapons and anything else you think we might need. If anyone tries to stop you, push them down the stairs or something. We're leaving the moment you get back." Her father tried to interrupt, but she continued on talking, raising her voice to drown out his. "Captain Trebara? Patch yourself up and then go help Zion with the horses. We're going to need you to guide us to where you lost the twins." Her mouth twisted slightly, but her fixed glare never wavered. "And you, Lord Nicholas Alphine, had better not even think about sticking your nose into this. I'd thought that maybe you still had some brains left, but you've obviously become so cowardly and senile that any sense you must've had probably turned to water and leaked out your ears years ago. Go back to bed and leave this one to us. At least nothing we can do could match the disgrace you've already tried to make of it." And with one final, withering glance she turned and stormed away, leaving her father standing speechless in the center of the courtyard.
o
We caught up with Kaelin in the stables, where she sat leaning against the side of a stall taking deep breaths of air. I shut the door quietly while Shane went to crouch next to her. Mariko glanced over at me, made a face, then went down the aisle to help Zion and Trebara prepare the horses at the other end. The barn by now was starting to look rather vacant.
"You haven't lost your touch at all, have you Kaelin? Father looked like you hit him in the face." Shane's smooth face was creased with worry, but at the same time he seemed subtly impressed.
Kaelin exhaled slowly, pushing her hair back from her face with both hands. "I'm surprised that he didn't hit me for saying stuff like that," she admitted, "but he makes me so mad, I probably would've just smacked him back. That old man needs a kick in the arse."
"I'll hold his arms for you," Shane said with a small grin. "But seriously Kaelin, what are you going to do? From what Slone… Captain Trebara said, there must've been at least a score of bandits when the twins were taken. And even with Trebara along… seven against twenty isn't good odds."
"That dragoon spirits will fix that. But I'm sending Trebara back once we find that bandit's trail. I don't want to go waving the spirits around in front of his face."
"If you're sure…" he said a bit dubiously. "Do you want me to come to? Fighting isn't really my thing, but I'm not a bad hand with a rapier."
Kaelin shook her head. "Nah, Don't bother. One of us has to stay in the family's good graces, and seeing as I'm all ready neck deep in this crap, it'll have to be you. I do have a favor I need to ask you, though."
"Ask away."
Kaelin looked up at me. "Amaya, did Ry say how long he was planning on staying in Furni today?"
I shook my head. "Not specifically. I got the impression that he would be gone awhile."
"I should have known," she grumbled. "Stupid ass."
"Do you want me to find him?" Shane asked.
"Yeah. Tell him what's going on; talk to Trebara before you can go so that you can give him a rough idea of where we're headed. He's followed us through some pretty crazy places before, so I wouldn't worry too much about him being able to find us. Just make sure you tell him everything, otherwise he'll probably blame the whole thing on me and bite my head off for it later."
"Gotchya."
As Shane left us to go talk to Trebara, I sunk down next to Kaelin. "Do you think he'll be able to find Ry in time?" I asked.
"I hope so. Even with the spirits, if Trebara's wrong about the number of bandits, we might need him. Ry, he… he's a really good guy to have on your side in a fight."
I glanced sideways at her out of the corner of my eye. She was looking at the floor pensively, her eyes hazy and her expression downcast. She wanted him around for the fight? Well, yes obviously, but at the same time…
Overcome by a sudden suspicion, I looked away, keeping my face studiously blank. There was no real reason for it, but… in my mind, several things had come together with a satisfying click. I rested one cheek in my hand, hiding the little smile that was twitching at the corners of my mouth. A good man in a fight indeed.
We left the estate shortly afterwards, Shane riding with us until we reached the main road. From there we cut across a flat field and rode into the forest, following an old woodcutter's track that ran inland into the hills, curving around boulders and rocky outcroppings. Slone rode in the lead, followed by Zion with Cai taking up the rear, the rest of us strung out between. The track twisted and turned deeper and deeper into the forest, forking and almost disappearing, but Trebara led the way without hesitation. As the land rose the trees grew increasingly dense, and soon the road trailed off, depositing us on the banks of a shallow old riverbed. Leaving the path, we followed it north, until the trees grew so close that we were forced to leave the bank and ride along the dried out bottom. This continued for perhaps a half-mile or so before ending abruptly at the foot of a steep hill that seemed to announce the beginning of the ascent into the rolling foothills that made up much of the country's forest. Here the riverbed became a ravine that was gouged deeply into the hillside, a steep scar cluttered with natural debris and boulders. A stream bounced back and forth over the rocks, pooling and spilling over the boulders until it reached the bottom where it disappeared beneath a gravel bar. Evergreens loomed high overhead, lining the upper lip of the ravine. Several of them had fallen; they hung over the gap like rotten bridges, patches of moss clinging to their flaking trunks. A little light filtered through the evergreen canopy, but what little of it reached the forest floor only dappled the shadows; here, the woodland was dark and cool.
Silent.
Kaelin glanced back over her shoulder at Trebara uneasily. "I've been here before. There's an old dam further uphill, isn't there? What were you doing letting the twins come back here?"
"They can't control where the fox runs any more than I can." Trebara nodded toward the side of the riverbank where the trees were the thinnest. "This is as far as I can take you. The horses won't be able to make it up the ravine, so I'll tend them while you go up. The ambushers got us up at the top, just past the dam."
Hobbling our horses, we left them at the foot of the ravine, up on the banks of the dry riverbed. Trebara stayed with his own horse, letting her pick at the scanty grass between the tree roots as he watched us start up the rift.
The first few feet were easy, but the climb quickly became more difficult. Leaving Mariko behind with Zion, I hurried as best I could to catch up with Kaelin, who was scrabbling rapidly over the rocks some distance ahead. Something had been nagging at me ever since we had come in sight of the ravine, though it was difficult to say what. There had been no change in the forest, nothing threatening or out of the ordinary, unless you counted the silence. So what was it?
Up ahead, just over halfway up the ravine, Kaelin had stopped for a breather. Climbing over a fallen trunk, I paused for a moment to look back down at the riverbed, some fifty or sixty feet below. The sense of unease increased; frowning, I looked closer. I would never call myself clairvoyant, but years of experience had taught me to trust intuition and instincts over anything else. But even from up here, nothing seemed wrong. Nothing was out of place.
Nothing…
I jerked as though breaking out of a dream, realization hitting me like a thunderbolt. Of course nothing was out of place; nothing had happened here. The only hoof prints in the riverbed belonged to our own mounts; there was no sign that anyone else had come through in ages. If the hunt had come through here, even with the riders on foot, the dogs would have left a trail of some sort. But to not notice it until now… I whirled around, angry with myself for being so blind. Calling Kaelin's name I started towards her, leaping down from the boulder on which I stood.
It happened suddenly, without warning. The air became heavy and thick, prickling like a sheet of needles against my skin. Beneath me my foot slipped as I landed and I dropped my staff, the blackened wood clattering between the rocks. The prickling lessened slightly as I stooped to retrieve it, but the pressure remained, squeezing against my temples like a headache. Reaching up, I touched the side of my head gingerly, and then froze as a sense of familiarity set in. The same sense of weight lingered in the temples for days after the Moon Child had stayed in them for any amount of time. But to feel it here…
"Kaelin!" I repeated her name, louder this time. Getting my feet under me, I bounded over the last few rocks and caught her wrist, pulling her back. "We have to get out of here!"
"Amaya? What…" she trailed off as air was filled with a sullen rumbling, punctuated by a sharp crack that echoed off of the trees for miles in either direction. The rumbling became a roar; beneath our feet, the stones began to tremble.
"Run! The dam's split!"
Cai's POV:
Amaya's words echoed off of the sheer rock walls of the ravine, reinforced by the sounds of the unleashed river surging past the barrier that had restrained it until now. It took a stunned moment for the meaning to register; then as one we lunged for the walls, Zion and Mariko diving to the left, while Solana and I went to the right.
Grabbing a hold of a root, Solana threw her trident over the lip of the ravine and began to haul herself up. At the top of the ravine, a wall of white water smashed around the bend, pulverizing rocks and tree trunks with earth shattering force as it swept down the old riverbed. Cursing, I ducked down and grabbed her around the knees, ignoring her cry of protest.
"Up you go, Lass!" Gritting my teeth, I heaved her upward, boosting her up and over the edge of the ravine before finding a handhold and dragging myself up after her. Glancing back over my shoulder, I saw Zion pulling himself up the side to join Mariko, he himself tall enough to climb out unaided. No sooner had his feet cleared the gap than the river swept past, a foaming, roaring monster that pounded itself against the rocks and clawed at the banks, tearing away chunks of earth and stone. Automatically I backed up into the brush, pulling Solana after me. It wouldn't take long for the river to undermine the banks, and once that happened it would be dangerous to venture too close to the edge.
"You guys all right?" Zion called from the other side. The ravine wasn't really that wide, but his voice was almost lost in the thunder of the river. He and Mariko, I noticed, had also moved back until they were among the trees.
"We're fine." Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Kaelin and Amaya making their way down the hillside toward us. "Barely. What happened?"
He shrugged. "Dam busted," he replied, stating the obvious.
"Dams don't just break open because they feel like it." I took another step back as the rim of the ravine in front of us shuddered and dropped into the deluge. Behind me, a branch cracked; Kaelin and Amaya pushed their way out of the bushes, neither of them looking too pleased.
"Where's Captain Trebara?" Kaelin asked immediately, tugging the sheath of her saber free of an entrapping branch.
I looked around sharply. At the bottom of the ravine the river had overflowed the old bed and was flowing in a broad flood through the low forest, swirling knee-deep around trees and mossy hummocks. Neither Trebara nor the horses were anywhere to be seen.
"Do you think he was caught in the surge?" Solana asked.
Amaya shook her head. "I don't think so, somehow." Her grey eyes narrowed, searching the swamped woods. If she expected to find anything, however, she seemed to be disappointed.
"What caused the dam to break?" I asked Kaelin.
She shook her head. "No clue. I've seen it a couple times before. It's as old as the hills, but whoever made it knew what they were doing. They built it about thirty feet thick and made almost entirely out of granite and oak slabs. There's no reason why it should have given way as suddenly as it did."
On the other side, Mariko and Zion were struggling to keep up with the conversation over the volume of the rushing water. "Do you think the bandits broke it?" Zion asked, apparently having heard that much.
"Assuming that there were even any bandits to begin with," Amaya said quietly. "It seems to me that Captain Trebara might not have been as honest with us as we had hoped."
Zion raised one eyebrow, having missed her remark, but she just waved it off with one hand. He shrugged, then looked at Kaelin. "So what now? Go check it out? I don't know about you, but I don't think we should just hang around here."
Everyone looked around, exchanging glances. "Will you two be okay?" I asked. "If we run into trouble up at the top, the river's going to keep us cut off from each other. We might not be able to help you out."
Mariko shook her head, and Zion shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Worse come to worse, we can always use our spirits. Rivers don't matter much once you're in the air."
Right. The spirits. I kept forgetting about those, for some reason. Next to me, Solana waved her hand. "Be careful, then. We'll meet you up at the top."
Even allowing for the dense undergrowth, it wasn't difficult to find a path up the side of the hill. The woodland gradually thinned toward the crest, until the bushes had disappeared almost entirely and the trees became somewhat more spaced out. As we neared the top we grew cautious, spacing ourselves out and moving quietly. Though no one said anything, Amaya's offhand remark had made us all wary, and the uncertainty of the situation weighed heavily on our thoughts as we climbed.
At the top the hill crested briefly before dipping into a shallow, muddy basin that had until recently been a lake, but was now steadily draining the last of its water out into the ravine. What still remained of the lake was fed by a shallow river coming out of the mountains at the north end of the basin, filtering into the ankle-deep mud that surrounded the steadily shrinking body of water at its center. At the very mouth of the ravine stood the remains of the dam, a solid, wood-and-stone construction that had at one time been a good thirty feet thick at its base. The middle of the dam looked as though it had been blown away, and timbers stood out on angles from its face like broken bones while the water continued to gush through the gap like a fountain. Whatever had been used to cause the break was nowhere to be seen, and the area was deserted; the only sounds were the rush of the river and the wind sighing through the trees.
Feeling the hairs start to rise on the back of my neck, I left the others and crept out onto the exposed edge of the dam to examine the break. I wasn't sure what it was that I was looking for, but what I found was even more unsettling than the desertion. The core of the dam had simply been torn away: there were no gouges, no cracks in the stone to suggest that someone had ever taken tools to the thing in attempt to weaken it. Just a clean hole with the wooden timbers pushed outward, as though some giant, invincible fist had punched through.
I took a step back off of the edge onto the solid bank, easing my hatchets in their loops on my belt. In the west, the edges of the clouds had begun to brighten; it was getting close to sunset, if it wasn't already.
"Cai!"
I turned around. Solana clambered up the side of the bank to join me, using her trident like a walking stick. "This feels wrong," she said quietly, turning to look over the diminishing lake. "It's like no one's been here in years. I think Amaya was right about Captain Trebara."
"It certainly seems that way." I frowned, squinting into the forest. "He went through a lot of trouble to get us here, but beyond the dam, there's nothing here. It's ridiculous!"
"Mmmm…" Solana looked around suddenly. "Where's Zion and Mariko? I thought that they said that they'd meet us up here?"
I started to reply, but as if on cue there was a sudden commotion in the woods to our left on the opposite shore, the sound of steel on steel ringing out clearly in the chill air. Cursing, I reached for my hatchet, searching for a way across, but there was no need; a moment later Zion ran out of the woods with his blade drawn, pulling Mariko along behind him. Pushing her toward the dam, he turned around and lifted his sword, calling back to me as he did so, "The woods are full of Dread Knights! Get ready!"
Behind us, the woods were suddenly alive with the rustle of leaves and snapping branches; both hatchets in hand, I turned around in time to see eight Dread Knights emerge from the forest. Their black-enameled armor gleamed dully in the filtered sunlight as they spread out in a broad semi-circle, pinning us between themselves and the lakeshore. Then, with a menacing, deliberate slowness, they began to advance.
Amaya and Kaelin backed up until the four of us stood in a broken line where the dam met the lakeshore, readying their weapons. "The joints in the armor," Amaya murmured softly. "They're strong across the shoulders, but if you can get your blade into the joints between the lower curve of the breastplate and the slats over the abdomen and twist it, you can break them open. It's been a flaw in the standard issue armor for years now."
I nodded, keeping that fact fixed firmly in mind. The question as to why we were in the middle of the woods facing off against temple soldiers seemed largely irrelevant, for some reason. There would be enough time to sort out the how and why of this later.
The Dread Knights began to close in, almost shoulder to shoulder as they advanced. Tensing, we braced ourselves, grimly measuring the odds.
A hairsbreadth before the Knights came within range to attack, the ground in front of us suddenly erupted in flames, sweeping forward hungrily over them in a crackling, smoking wall. Automatically I leapt after it, swinging both axes wide as the first Dread Knight emerged coughing from the firewall.
All sense of order dissolved at that point. As the flames died away both sides clashed with maddened ferocity, and the air was suddenly filled with the sound of steel. Out of the corner of my eye, I dimly registered two flashes of light, green and blue, as Solana and Kaelin joined Zion in the air. For an instant I found myself fighting back to back with Amaya, and then she too was gone, diving down with brutal intensity on one Knight who had managed to corner Mariko as she reverted from her dragoon form.
Locking my axes around the sword of a Knight wearing a bull-faced helm, I tried to sweep his legs out from beneath him, all the while wrestling with his blade. He was marginally smaller than I was, but stronger; step-by-step I was forced back up the slope, until my heels scuffed on the stone at narrow walkway on the top edge of the dam. The ravine yawned on my left; to the right, the dam sloped down into the swirling dark water backed up behind the barrier. Inch by inch, I was forced out onto the edge.
Jerking his sword free of my axes, the bull-face swung low at my knees, trying to cut my legs out from beneath me. I skipped backwards, father out along the dam. Somewhere behind me was the gap; I could hear the water rushing out through the hole, the strength of the flow undiminished from when it had first broke through. Parrying another stroke, I gave ground again, my feet slipping slightly on the moss covering the rocks. As the Dread Knight drew back for one final strike, I risked a glance over my shoulder. I stood almost on the rim of the gap; another six inches, and my heel would be on the edge.
Leveling his sword with my chest, the Knight thrust. Unable to dodge completely, I could only twist to avoid as best I could as his sword drove forward, slitting open my side to the bone. I gasped with pain, flinching from the blade, but the extension of the thrust gave me the opening I needed. Swinging overhand with both hatchets at once, I caught the crosstree of the sword hilt under their down curving blades and hauled back with all of my strength. The Dread Knight, caught unprepared and off balance, was dragged forward; sidestepping onto the slope of the dam, I pulled my axes free and swung again, the blow ringing off of the back of his helm as he stumbled past. Unable to stop himself, the Knight went over the edge into the ravine.
My feet slipped again, this time on the blood slicking the stone from the gash in my side. Gritting my teeth, I clasped one hand to the split and scrambled back along the edge onto the bank, pausing for a heartbeat to assess the fight before plunging in again. Zion's transformation had long since ended; backed into the mud, his feet skidded beneath him as he fought, hard pressed to hold off two men at once with his oversized sword. A third lay unmoving in the mud nearby, still holding the remains of a shattered sword in a death grip. Nearby, Kaelin fought back to back with Solana, her slim blade a blur as she menaced another Knight, blood streaming freely over one ear. Solana was in slightly better shape; she didn't seem to be too badly wounded, but her face was flushed, and she gasped for air as she thrust at a wounded opponent with her trident. Mariko and Amaya were on the edge of the woods, both in dragoon form as they cornered the final two Dread Knights. Both of them seemed to be wounded, but it was difficult to say where or how badly: blood stained the ivory surface of Mariko's armor, and the same leaked from a crevice in Amaya's breastplate.
Leaping down from the edge of the bank, I helped Solana finish her opponent before the two of us joined Kaelin in her fight. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zion go down to one knee, still fighting hard. He only faced one man now; the other lay curled up in the mud, moaning and clutching his leg. I hesitated, wondering whether or not to help Zion out when at the edge of the woods, another fighter entered the fray.
Wielding a long-bladed spear, Trebara leapt out from the brush, thrusting hard at Mariko as she dove at a fallen Knight. Unable to stop, the spear lanced through her abdomen, the tip arching out her lower back as it pierced her clear through. Screaming, she fell, her armor disappearing as she ploughed hard into the ground. The Dread Knight she had been fighting rolled over, whipping out a long bladed knife to finish her, but was stopped short by an infuriated Amaya. As she dropped to her knees next to Mariko Trebara bolted past, racing toward the battle on the lakeshore.
In the mud, the Dread Knight stepped in close, reversing his grip on his sword and smashing Zion in the face with the twisted pommel. Zion reeled back, blood streaming freely from his broken nose. As he stumbled, Trebara tackled him, driving him roughly to the ground. He flung his spear to one side; grinding Zion into the mud, he tore at his clothing furiously, his hand coming away at last with something small and round, glowing faintly violet in the fading light.
I'd already been moving when he'd started toward Zion, but had been too far away; now, smashing my axes down on the helm of the remaining Dread Knight, I cut him off, my feet sliding in the mud as I swung at him wildly, my arms by now burning with fatigue. He dodged, diving into the muck to retrieve his discarded spear. Rolling, he came to his feet in time to catch my second swing on the long haft, bracing his weapon against his shoulder as he supported it with his left hand.
Our weapons were still locked when I caught the telltale flicker in his right hand as the violet spirit activated, filling the air with the angry crackle of lightning. With an oath I freed my hatchets and stumbled back, one hand diving into the leather pouch at my belt where I had stored my own spirit. I had never had the opportunity to use it before- but neither had Trebara. Activating it in a hurry, I was taken aback by the sudden flow of power that rushed from the spirit into my body as the air around me was swallowed up in a brilliant golden glow. I wasn't sure what I had expected, exactly, but it hadn't been this. The fatigue I had felt before vanished, replaced by a strength that seemed as solid and unyielding as the stones themselves. And then the transformation ended, leaving me standing ankle deep in the mud, encased in the formidable armor of the golden dragoon.
Trebara was already above me; I could feel it without looking. Fanning my wings, I kicked off hard, veering to the left almost immediately as he swooped at me, swinging an almost grossly elaborate version of the spear he had been using before. It ricocheted off of my shoulder guard, and I aimed a counter attack at him as he passed. Too slow; he shot past and banked hard to the right, circling around wide for another attack.
The first transformation didn't last long; this much I remembered very clearly. Trebara and I were both running on the same time limit, but once the armor wore off we would be back in our original bodies, and unwounded and fresh, he would be in a much better position to fight than I would. But even now, in terms of attacks, I couldn't match his speed physically, which left one option.
Trebara wheeled around, coming in for his final attack. Extending his spear, he drove at me in a maneuver similar to what the first Dread Knight had tried on the dam. At the last instant I discarded both of my axes, hurling them down into the sopping mud of the lakeshore and spread my arms wide, twisting slightly to avoid his spear and then clamping my arms tightly around him, pinning his arms and wings to his body in a crushing embrace.
Below, where my axes had driven into the mud, the earth began to tremble in response to the call from the spirit. Beneath the mud something moved, thrusting up in a mucky hummock that quivered and shuddered like a trapped beast. Abruptly it burst, sending a shower of splintered stone skyward in a deadly fountain.
Protected by my armor, the shards had no effect on me- but Trebara had no such advantage. The splintered stone dug into his armor and ripped across his exposed skin, digging angry, livid cuts in his face and arms. He stiffened, arching his back in my grip, struggling to break my hold even as both our spirits suddenly flared and dimmed, taking our armor and dropping us both into the mud.
I landed on top of him, driving him hard into the muck. Breathing raggedly, I grabbed the front of his jacket, twisting it tightly in my grip as I pulled back my other arm, preparing to hit him with everything I had left.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!"
A woman's voice, amplified beyond all meaning of the word echoed off of the trees, rattling my teeth and numbing my brain. Almost immediately a shock ran through me, rippling up my spine and thrilling through my nerves. My limbs seized up; paralyzed by some unseen force, I was as unable to move as though I were locked into place by invisible chains. Straining my eyes upward, I could just make out a small crowd of people coming out of the forest on the near side of the lake, led by a platinum-haired young woman wearing a boy's shirt and breeches.
Asalla's POV:
The plan was quite simple.
I had honestly expected something more complicated, for all the research and planning that Mathis had insisted that we do, but in its execution, it was beautifully straightforward. We would capture Dart's dragoons, take them to Denningrad, and then wait for him to come and try to retrieve them. When he did, Ayrel would be waiting- with the dragon block staff we had so painstakingly recreated from the journal of the Serdian king. Even the incidental details that had arisen along the way were easily solved. The deal with the Alphine's guard had provided us with the key that we had needed to lure the dragoons away from the Alphine manor. The dam had been Ayrel's idea- a prop to push them to react rather than think the situation over. The ambush hadn't gone so smoothly, but in the end, the main goal was achieved; too tired to put up a resistance, the spell of paralysis neatly snared them all without incident. The only real issue had been Captain Trebara's interference. His stunt had nearly killed the white-silver, and in turn, he had nearly got him self killed when the golden dragoon had turned on him. I had interfered in time to prevent that, thankfully, but I was annoyed at having to do so. Ayrel had gone through a lot of trouble to repair that man's mind, and already he was trying to get himself killed.
Still, the expressions on their stiffened faces were gratifying as we came out of the wood, trailing behind us, under the watchful eyes of two Dread Knight Sergeants, the two children whom they had gone through this trouble for in the first place.
"Some of them are going to need healing, Mother." Ayrel scanned the shore critically, sizing up the situation. "And it's going to be difficult to take them all back to Deningrad at once. We'll have to break it down into two or three jumps."
"As you say," I replied placidly. "Would you like to explain things, or should I? I don't think we'll have too much more time before he arrives."
"I'll take care of it," Mathis said. "Asalla, you go heal the half-breed. She won't make it very far in the condition she's in."
Ayrel shot her father an annoyed look. Mathis had a tendency to try to take charge of the situation when he thought he knew what should be going on, something that had been happening more and more frequently of late. "Never mind, mother," she said loudly, with a significant look at her father, "I can handle it."
She murmured something beneath her breath, and twitched her fingers. I felt a filament of her thought reach out, flickering toward the fallen dragoon. There was a surge, and suddenly the woman lurched into a sitting position, able to move once more. Hastily, I extended the spell of paralysis to cover her as well; she froze in the act of pushing herself to her feet, unable to twitch so much as a muscle.
"All right, everybody," Mathis announced, striding forward along the edge of the mud. "Let's try to make this as easy as possible. In a moment, this lovely creature behind me is going to let you move again- slowly, of course. You will drop your weapons and get to your feet, and do exactly as we say. There will not be any foolishness trying to escape, and if any of us feel even so much as a whisper from those spirits you're carrying, well…" he looked back over his shoulder, motioning to the Dread Knights to bring their struggling charges forward. "I'm sure you understand what would happen next. I'm not normally an aggressive man, but it would be a shame for something to happen to these two children after you went through all of this trouble to find them again."
"Aska! Peolin!" One of the dragoons, a dark-haired young woman with dirt and blood caking one side of her face, began to struggle against the bond. Frowning, I tightened the restraint, feeling the others trying to react as well. Maintaining the spell was beginning to become tiring; looking back over my shoulder, I shot a desperate look at the Dread Knights. In unison, they drew their short-bladed knives meaningfully, tightening their grip on the arms of the gagged twins.
The resistance stopped almost immediately.
"That's better," Mathis said approvingly. "You see? It's not so hard after all. Now, throw down your weapons and get to your feet."
With a bit of relief, I relaxed the spell. As the feeling returned to their limbs they slowly got up, an assortment of weapons splattering into the mud and onto the leaves. The white-silver, I quickly saw, hadn't been the only one in hard shape. I looked at Ayrel, but she made no move to use her healing spell again.
"What do you want with us?" The man nearest to us demanded, still straddling Trebara's half-conscious body. "We're not going to be your slaves!"
Ayrel and I exchanged looks. "Slaves?" She repeated in a measured tone. "Where did you get a ridiculous idea like that?"
"That's what you did in Tiberoa!"
"Oh, that." Ayrel waved a hand dismissively. "Sorry to disappoint you, mister… Anlade, was it? Cai Anlade. That whole business in that arid dustbowl was for the benefit of your brainless Queen, not me. Besides, I think that you'd find that there's very little any of you lot could actually do for me."
"Liar."
Ayrel turned to face the woman who had spoken. "You would be his wife Solana, right? Fine. Tell me exactly why I want the lot of you. Go ahead; we're all listening."
The Anlade woman opened her mouth, and then hesitated. Ayrel smiled, though there was little friendliness in the gesture. "You see? Nothing."
"Then why are you doing this!" She almost exploded.
"Like I said, I want nothing with you. Except… to open your eyes to a certain truth." Ayrel spread her hands wide.
A sudden hush settled over the group. Then the dark-haired woman who I assumed must be the Alphine girl spoke quietly.
"You're after Ry, aren't you."
"Is that what he's calling himself nowadays?" Ayrel raised an eyebrow. "He goes through so many names, its difficult for me to keep up. But if you know that much, then I suppose you must have some idea as to why I want him."
"He has… he had the spirits." The tallest one, his face scarred and haggard, spoke from behind the hand he was using to cover his broken nose.
"Really? If that were all I wanted from him, why would I need him now? I have all the spirits that I could need right here in front of me. Besides, there's nothing that the lot of you could do that I couldn't possibly do for my self." Her expression turned frosty. "No, that's not the reason at all. You really have no idea, do you?"
Something brushed against the edge of my mind as she spoke; like a tug at a distant alarm. "Ayrel," I said suddenly, "he's coming."
"Already?" She looked over at me sharply. "How much time?"
I sent out the thought, tagging the faint energy signature, judging. "Five minutes. He's on horseback."
"He doesn't know that we're here." She bit her cheek, deciding. "All right, everybody. I'd hoped to have a little more time for chitchat, but it looks as though that will have to wait for later. Come over here; we're going to go for a little trip. Mother, I want to know the instant he's close enough for that dragon to sense us."
"Yes dear."
"Why are you after him?" The Alphine woman demanded, acting as though she hadn't heard a word. "Stop screwing around!"
"Screwing around?" Ayrel paused, studying her through frigid eyes. "That man, if he's even that, has been trying to kill me since the day I was born. He's hounded my family's steps, slaughtered countless people, and you say I'm screwing around?" She glared at her, then turned away. "Not that I expect you to believe me. Get over here, all of you. I'll take you to Deningrad, and then you can see the truth for yourselves. After all the effort he's gone through to shelter you from the fact, it'll be the least I can do to dispel those illusions before he can fog your minds any more."
"How do you know that he'll even bother to come?" Cai grumbled sullenly, still rooted firmly to the spot. "Any idiot could see that it's a trap."
My daughter laughed. "He'll come, don't you worry. I could lure him through the gates of hell, using you lot as bait. Now get over here. Remember, I still have the twins."
Slowly, grudgingly, they came, clustering together in front of us as Mathis directed them. Together, Ayrel and I created a teleportation spell, carefully extending it to cover the entire group.
"We're going to have to make this trip in several jumps," Mathis warned them. "We have a few more… friends of yours waiting for us in the palace, and it would be shame if something were to happen to them because one of you tried to escape while we set down in the Evergreen Forest."
The alarm went off in my mind. I pushed all of my power into the spell, preparing to warp. "Ayrel! He knows!"
"Slone Trebara!" She barked, also feeding more energy into the warp. "Give him my message, and I'll consider your dept repaid."
Trebara, still lying on his back in the mud, flicked one hand to show that he had understood. Satisfied, Ayrel pulled back into the circle.
"Now!"
The world flickered once, then disappeared.
Dart's POV:
Shane had caught up with me in the marketplace, just as I had been preparing to leave the city. We had found no trace of Ayrel, though one of the priests had confirmed to me that she had been there only that morning. When Shane told me what had happened at the manor, however, my stomach had tightened as though someone had clamped it in a vice. She was involved, somehow. After getting a rough description of the route they had taken from Shane, I swapped horses with him and left him with the cart, already sending out my thought after the trails of the spirits even as I kicked my new mount into a gallop, scattering squawking street venders as we barreled through the crowded streets.
Once out of the city I cut into the forest, following the mental pull of the dragoon spirits. Wherever they were, they had stayed close together. As to whether this was a good sign or not, it was impossible to say. Gritting my teeth, I set my heels harder to the horse's sides, urging it for more speed as we plunged at an already breakneck speed through the overgrown forest.
We had come perhaps five miles or so when I pulled the exhausted animal to a halt. Coming down into a hollow, the entire forest floor sat beneath a foot of water, leaves and sticks swirling on its surface to collect against the hillside. Drawing rein, I backed up a few steps, looking around. Through the trees I could catch glimpses of more water; no matter where I looked, the forest seemed to have flooded.
"What in the name…" nudging my horse forward, we carefully waded into the soup. The spirits were close by, somewhere on the other side of this mess.
(Dart!) Ark barked suddenly. (She's here!)
The horse lunged forward, stumbling through the water in great, leaping strides. The flooding fell away; with solid ground underfoot once more, it moved back into a heavy gallop, laboring up the steep hill.
And then, as suddenly as Ark had noticed it, Ayrel's presence disappeared, taking the trail of the spirits along with it. Driving the horse up the last few feet we crested the top of the hill and slid to a stop; swinging down out of the saddle, I looked around in dismay, already knowing what I would find.
The hill had leveled off into a plateau with a muddy looking lake at the center, but I wasn't interested in the geography. The ground was bloodstained; here and there the body of a Dread Knight lay crumpled in the mud. Weapons had been scattered across the ground, lying as though discarded. But beyond that the place was bare, empty except for the bodies of the Dread Knights. Dismayed, I took a step away from my horse, letting the reins fall to the ground.
"Heh… heh…"
I jerked my head around. Someone was laughing; a wretched, gurgling sound that sounded as though it was being pulled from someone's throat. Scanning the shore, my eyes fixed on a familiar form lying face up spread-eagled in the mud. Ark snarled wordlessly; feeling much the same I went to stand over the pathetic figure, glaring down at him through the black muck coating his face and clothing.
"Trebara."
The captain, beaten and bloody, opened his eyes. "The Child sends you her regards," he grinned, "and cordially invites you to come and join your friends. Though I wouldn't count on either party living long enough to see the other." Still lying on his back in the mud, he began to laugh uproariously.
Gritting my teeth, I grabbed the man by the collar and hauled him halfway to his feet. He made no move to resist; still snickering, he hung from my fists with his legs twisted limply beneath him. "Where did she take them?" I demanded, jerking him a little higher. "Where are they going?"
The laughter trailed off, and Slone rolled his head to regard me with one swollen eye. "To Denningrad. But what do you care? Even if you by some miracle got there in time, you'd never be able to stop her."
Deep in my chest the divine spirit flared with sudden warmth. "We'll see," I told him coldly. Taking a firmer hold, I dragged him roughly through the muck away from the lake, until my feet were on solid earth and there was nothing separating us from the cloud-steeped skies overhead. A sudden gust of wind rattled the bare tree limbs, sweeping across the bloodstained earth with a howl. It picked at the hem of my coat, snapping it angrily as I let Slone slump back down again, though I kept a firm hold on his collar with one hand as I bent down and put my face close to his.
"I hope you don't enjoy heights," I told him grimly, embracing the heat that the spirit was spreading slowly through my body. "In fact, I hope you bloody well freeze to death before we get there. You said that it would take a miracle, Captain Trebara?" I straightened, glowering down at him as the spirit burst into joyous flame, the searing light blazing through flesh and bone in a brilliant nimbus that burned away the murky shadows cast by the settling twilight.
"Let me show you that miracle."
Base response to this chapter? My gosh, Cai is a vicious fighter. The mental image of him driving Slone into the mud was rather vivid, for some reason. Didn't know that the old boy had it in him until now.–waves a little flag that read "Go Cai" in neon pink letters-