AUTHORS NOTE
Havok22: Thank you! I was pretty confident with the battle scenes, unfortunately I foresee it being quite a while until Sharein and Shard reunite.
Slyksylva - Ooooh.. Hopefully some closure on some issues in this chapter.
Archer1Eye - Things are definitely a mess. Shard is effectively a portion of Tenebrae's power sequestered away. Is Shard all of those sequestered pieces of power or just that one? Ah! The ritual was only to link Sharein and Shard in a locational sense, it did not link Sharein and Shard's power together.
Chapter 78? Day of High Summer? 768 n.c?
I made it most of the way to the camp before my Invisibility spell ran out, but that was entirely more than sufficient. My sudden appearance did startle the guards at the outskirts however, who appeared to have been very interested in what was happening over the wall and were thus looking past me when I appeared. One went running off while the other held his spear in front of him menacingly. I was still quite a distance away however and continued walking until I got much closer. As I approached the armed guard, the other appeared with three men. Two were armed and armoured while the third was dressed in wizard's robes.
"Nardok!" I cried out as soon as I recognised him.
"Lower your weapons!" Nardok instructed the guards, "she's a wizard's apprentice!"
He strode forward and greeted me with a handshake, "well met… Sharein?"
I nodded in confirmation of my name, "thank you, I have news if you are interested?"
"Of course," he said and escorted me towards a large round tent, "this way. Please, everyone should be inside already."
The rest of the camp was mostly empty; smiths, fletchers, tradespeople and a few women washing clothes were all that remained in the open. Nardok held open the tent flap for me and inside were eight different men and three women, mostly wearing armour of one sort or another. Two of the men were priests of Mithras, dressed in their plain white robes. One old and one young. Two of the women were both wearing green dyed leather armour, one was about my age with long brown hair and the other appeared about the same age but her hair was straight and blonde. I gasped a little when I realised that the ears pointing out through her hair were pointed. She didn't look anything like Alladrial though, she looked more… human. Two of the men were dressed very richly, like the nobles that I saw around Castlemere and the other four all looked like military men of one form or another, wearing armour; some with surcoats. The last woman was very stern faced and worry worn, wearing silver trimmed purple robes.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Nardok introduced, "may I present to you Sharein, apprentice to the wizard Malkarov, Wizard of Easthaven. She has just suddenly appeared on the Easthaven side of our camp."
The purple robed woman asked, "what news of Malkarov?"
Nardok smiled to her, "I'm sure, Baroness Eastholm, that if you let Sharein tell her story; she will tell you what she knows of the Wizard Malkarov."
"Please, Sharein, tell us what you know," Nardok prompted.
I left out all references to Shard, but told them all about the attack on Easthaven and then our attempt to seal off the pass. When I mentioned casting Teleport, Nardok's sharp inhalation of breath distracted me for a moment.
"How are you?.." He asked.
"I...don't know," I answered mostly truthfully, "I woke up yesterday, maybe, in the forest near my family's farm. When I went there I discovered that I had been unconscious for all of the time since then. I then went to Malkarov's tower in Easthaven and discovered that his Elvish… friend, Alladrial had taken him to Kaz Sarion to heal. He also had been struck by crossbow bolts from the orcs, distracting him from his task of making the wall permanent. And that," I gestured back towards the wall, "I suppose is the result of our failure. In any case, I killed all of the orcs in Easthaven this morning and…"
"All?" One older man with a moustache scoffed while another I heard whisper to a person near him, "probably just one or two."
"How many orcs do you estimate were in Easthaven, Sharein?" Nardok asked in a no-nonsense sort of tone.
"At a guess, maybe around," I mentally calculated the number of crossbows in front of each house, the orcs in the camp on the Common Paddock and the number I saw around Easthaven the last night, "two hundred? Fifty came in during the night a couple at a time and then fifty left as a group. I laid exactly eighty pieces of enchanted parchment with the rune scheme for Explosive Runes on them down on the roads and covered them lightly with dirt. Then I carved and enchanted Explosive Runes onto another… umm… about forty crossbows, door handles, barrels, crates and buckets. The first explosion killed about twenty orcs and attracted the attention of all the orcs who were sleeping inside the houses. When they woke up and rushed out to grab their crossbows, or rush out onto the road they exploded as well. More explosions, more orcs rushing out. It didn't last too long and then there weren't any more orcs moving anywhere. If anyone goes into Easthaven they should be very careful what they touch and where they step, I think that there might still be some of my runes untouched."
The older moustachioed man was staring at me, wide eyed. In fact, everybody seemed to be. I blinked in surprise that nobody was saying anything.
"The point I'm making," I said, "is that Easthaven is clear and as soon as night falls then orcs will only be coming in two at a time into the town from the valley where we attempted to stop them. Now that you've managed to break through, you should be able to get clear all the way to the mountains. If you seal that off, then the orcs will stop coming through and be cut off. It looked like they were using Easthaven to store food and things as well, so that's probably all destroyed now too."
"What do you mean it's all destroyed?" Asked one of the men.
"Explosions," I repeated, "there's nothing left of Easthaven except Malkarov's tower and the church. Although the church probably needs a new front door and some windows."
The young priest made some sort of warding sign in my periphery.
"Did you have something to do with the fires?" Nardok asked.
I nodded, "I killed all of the orcs in one of the camps with Elemental Explosion spells and then set fire to the wall. When the orcs ran from the camp closest to the road to that section of the wall, I moved up to that camp and repeated the process."
Nardok asked, "how many orcs were in each camp?"
"Fifty," I answered.
"So you have a fire seeming?" He asked, but didn't wait for an answer, "how did you kill all of the orcs in the camps without attracting attention?"
I shook my head, "my seeming isn't fire. It's negative material. My Elemental Explosion spells are silent."
Nardok was staring at me again, everybody else just looked confused. Except for the older priest.
The Baroness spoke up then, "we have an opportunity and we have a target then. Thank you Sharein, apprentice to Malkarov for your report and for your service."
"Thank you," I told her, "but there's no need. I really just want to find my family."
The Baroness replied with a smile, "they will likely be in Sunhaven, that is where everyone from Easthaven evacuated to."
"Thank you," I said, "if you don't need me for anything else; I'll set off for Sunhaven then, If you don't mind?"
"Not at all," the Baroness said, then shouted out the tent flaps, "Chorney!"
A young man appeared suddenly inside the tent, "Your Grace?"
"Fetch Sharein here a horse," she commanded, "and a hot meal before she leaves, if she wants it."
"Yes, Your Grace," the young man answered and spread his arm out towards the exit, "Ma'am?"
I exited the tent and the young man directed me towards a large tent that seemed to be occupied by some sort of makeshift kitchen and many benches, "they have some hot stew in their cauldrons, if you don't mind I'll bring a horse back to you here?"
I thanked him, got myself a bowl of stew and a chunk of buttered bread and sat myself down to eat it.
The older priest from the tent joined me after a few moments.
"Sharein?" He asked, "I'm Brother Chevard, I just wanted to have a quick word with you."
"Of course, Brother," I said as I gestured to a bench seat next to me.
"I have a warning," he said seriously, "be careful of the yellow clothed Inquisitors. You were reported to them and your description sent out to all of us. A young woman with black hair, possibly in the company of another young woman with black hair. Our orders are to arrest both of them and send for the Inquisitors. I cannot think that you can possibly be so evil as they make you out to be. Although it is a sin for two women to… you know, it's not like you were in league with the orcs or sacrificing people to the Dark. So please, watch out for the Inquisitors of the Light and keep your hood up. It will probably be a good idea to be wary of my fellow priests as well, some weren't gifted by Mithras with the ability to think for themselves like we are."
He patted me on the arm and bid me a good day before ambling back towards the tent to leave me deep in thought and worry. What had been reported to the Inquisitors? Who had reported to the Inquisitors? By the way Father Mattias talked about them, anyone could have been an informant to them. One of the villagers or one of the caravan guards? Or maybe somebody just talked about me where others could hear. In any case, there weren't any Inquisitors of the Light in the camp, so I continued eating my stew and finished it just as Chorney returned with a horse.
I thanked him and was pleased to be able to ride (with my hood up) into Sunhaven in a much quicker time than I would have, had I walked. Sunhaven was much larger than it was when Malkarov and I had last read through it. With all of the refugees from Easthaven the town had almost doubled. Easthavians were mostly in tents, but some had begun building houses or had set up makeshift shacks and lean-to's as temporary accommodation.
Some looked up at me, but it was dark and I kept my hood down, so nobody recognised me. I saw a small shack at the edge of the refugee camp and just happened to be looking right when Jara pulled aside the cloth covering the doorway. I turned my horse towards that shack. Jara looked up as I got closer, expecting the horse to head somewhere else but stopped what he was doing as I got closer. When I jumped down off the horse, my hood blew back and his face lit up in a huge smile. He flew straight into my arms with tears streaming from his eyes. My own vision blurred a little in happiness and relief.
The curtain swept aside and I heard Kara yell out, "Sharein!" Before my arms were full of a second sibling as well.
"Inside, inside quickly," I heard Mother's frantic whispered order when the curtain opened again.
I was bustled inside the shack and embraced by everybody. It was a tearful reunion and I was relieved to see that everybody was there, I even double counted to make sure.
"Oh Sharein," Mother said, grasping my hands in hers, "I'm so happy to see you, but have you heard, do you know?"
"The Inquisitors?" I asked and Mother nodded seriously.
"Yes, they came here and questioned me," Mother said, "I didn't tell them anything about Shard of course, but they knew when I was lying," Mother looked around, "is Shard?"
"I don't know," I admitted tearfully, "I've tried calling out to her, but she won't or can't answer. Her… home is destroyed. I remembered you telling me about grandmother…"
"In Allarth? The other altar?" Mother said plainly and I looked at Father warily.
Mother laughed, "I told Father pretty much everything, I had to. After the farm was attacked and I killed four of them and then another ten on the way here, he knew that there was more to me than I had told him."
She fake-whispered, "I don't think he believes me about the crown though," and my siblings giggled.
"Well… the farm," I said and Father and Jocam's attention was suddenly on me.
"What about the farm?" Jocam asked.
"It was my first stop after I woke up," I told them, "the farm still stands. The barley has all died but the long grain is almost ready for harvest."
"That won't really do us much good Sharein," Father said.
"Well…" I said slowly, "the Carnian army broke through the wall the orcs had built and will hopefully be able to push right through Easthaven tonight all the way to the southern mountains!"
"That's fantastic news!" Father exclaimed, "is that how you were able to get out?"
"Sort of," I demurred, "the only problem is that Easthaven has been completely… ah… destroyed."
"The orcs destroyed everything in town?" Mother asked.
"Not really," I admitted, "they were living in the houses."
"How did it get destroyed then Shar?" Illith asked.
I hummed, and admitted guiltily, "I sort of… blew it all up? All except Malkarov's tower and the Church at least. Aside from them there isn't much left standing."
"Oh," Mother said and Father echoed.
"Wow!" exclaimed Kara, Jara and Daavid all at once.
I shrugged half heartedly, "it was the only way I could think of to kill all of the orcs. I've already reported to the Baroness and others, she's the one who gave me the horse I rode in on."
"You met the Baroness?" Illith asked excitedly.
"Yes I did," I told her, "she's very nice."
Mother patted her on the head to forestall any other questions, "you wanted to know about the other Altar? It's south of the town of Illkaraska; you walk around the lake and follow the stream that feeds it past the first waterfall to a small pool. It's somewhere near there."
I repeated the instructions to myself to memorise them and nodded once I had done so.
Mother asked, "you're planning on going there?"
I nodded and she followed with, "what about Malkarov? What happened to him? We heard stories, but nothing from after you four left."
"Malkarov was hit by a crossbow bolt after I fell," I said, "Alladrial took him to Kaz Sarion to heal, while I think Shard healed me."
I lifted up my tunic to show them the two scars on my stomach, "they shot me with crossbows, twice in the stomach, once in each leg and once in my shoulder. I only just woke up yesterday."
"You only woke up yesterday?" Kara asked.
"Uh huh," I answered and rubbed my stomach in circles, "and I was soooooo hungry! Hungry enough to eat a horse!"
The younger children giggled, while the rest smiled at us, "eat a horse?"
"I didn't though," I told them, "instead I ate some preserved cabbage… without even cooking it!"
The cloth was jerked back and I was almost knocked over by Mari's hug, "Oh Sharein!" She exclaimed, "I've missed you, but you have to go now! The Inquisitors are coming!"
Mother jumped up immediately, "quickly Sharein," and ducked out of the shack.
I followed her moments later but she seemed to have disappeared, not just into the darkness (which wouldn't have hidden her from me) but amongst the tents and lean-to's as well.
I jumped straight up into the saddle of my horse and blew a kiss through the doorway to my family inside the shack before I galloped away.
