Alora: The Wander-Jewel (Alora Series Book 1) (25 page)

“Okay. Can you give us some space?”

When Charles was ready, Alora transported to him with Morvaen and Raelene. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. But that still makes me feel creepy. It’s almost weirder to see you appear and disappear than it was to move from one place to another. I keep feeling like I’m in some sort of bad dream.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Raelene smiled and patted him on the arm.

“Can you sense them?” Nordamen asked Alora. “Are we close?”

“I feel them, but it’s not very strong yet.”

“We can go faster if we have you to guide us. The scouts won’t be able to find them unless they’re right by the road. I’ve called them back to join us. You and I will go ahead, and I can shroud us in silence. Did you convince him you would go to him?”

“I told him I had to ask my uncle, just like you suggested, and I think he believed I’d come. But he pretty much threatened to kill Kaevin if I didn’t come to him.” Alora swallowed, as a bad taste arose in her throat.

“I’m sorry to say he’ll most likely do that even if you do go to him.”

“Do we even have a chance of getting him out of there? It might be better if only Kaevin and I die, rather than getting all of us killed.”

“If we let him do this without repercussion, he’ll eventually kill everyone who protects the innocents. Stone Clan council and warriors are all that stands between Vindrake and total annihilation. No one else has the power to withstand him. The lesser clans would soon fall.”

“But does everybody know how dangerous this is? Are they all willing to risk their lives? Or are they just obeying orders?”

“Every warrior is proud to risk their lives to fight against Vindrake’s evil.”

She squeezed her eyes shut, holding her breath. When she opened them, she was resolved. “I’ve just gotta believe it’s gonna work. After all, ‘It’s not over ’til the fat lady sings.’” She noticed Nordamen’s puzzled face. “Never mind. Let’s just go.”

*****

A splash of cold water on his face startled Kaevin awake.

“Sit up!” Abaddon demanded. “We have more questions.” Kaevin blinked to clear his eyes and obediently struggled to a sitting position, a difficult process without the use of his hands. His left hand was throbbing with every heartbeat, a sharp stabbing pain in every finger. Would Vindrake break his thumb next, or move to the other hand? Perhaps he would be in a better mood since he now believed Alora was coming to him.

“How many warriors were present during the assault? Or more importantly, how many are left alive now?”

“I know my father started with a group of twenty-one, and I don’t know how many were lost during your attack. I saw at least four go down.”

“Including your father, correct?” Vindrake seemed to derive pleasure from his reminder.

“I saw him wounded, but that doesn’t mean he’s dead.”

“By my view in the sightstone, Graely appeared to have been gutted. Such a shame. Very unlikely to survive such a wound for long.” He leaned in close to Kaevin with a mocking smile. “On the bright side, you won’t be alive for long to suffer with grief.”

“You’re too much of a coward to face him yourself!” Kaevin spat into his face.

Vindrake straightened and wiped his face on his sleeve. “I see I must teach you to control that nasty temper.” With a quick motion of Vindrake’s hand, Kaevin felt an agonizing crunch and he had his answer. His right hand suffered its first broken finger.

“Very nicely done,” said Morvaen, as he bound and gagged the Water Clan warrior Alora transported into the circle Nordamen had shrouded in silence. “Wesley will simply walk back into the edge of the camp. Their numbers are down significantly. It will be worth the risk to replace a few more of their men before you confront Vindrake.”

Alora peered around the small clearing where Morvaen had tied the horses and gathered his warriors. With the full moon, she could see almost as clearly as if it were daylight. Nordamen came back to the circle. “I haven’t seen Abaddon, Vindrake, or Kaevin yet, so I assume they are beyond those trees near the other campfire.” He looked at Alora and Charles. “Ready to go take out another?”

Alora turned pleading eyes to her uncle. “Uncle Charles, I’m really afraid for you to do this. You could get hurt.”

“Alora, I’m a Marine. I’ve been in tougher spots than this, and I’m not afraid to kill a man to protect the ones I love.”

“Quickly,” urged Nordamen. “We don’t want them to have time to recognize our replacements before the chaos begins.”

Nordamen kept a protective silence on them as they crossed through the underbrush toward a man standing close to the outside of the camp, looking outward. His head cocked toward them, as if he had seen or heard something.

“Now!” said Nordamen. Alora transported to the man, touched his arm and moved him back to Morvaen. Nordamen and Charles waited to be sure no one had seen the disappearance, before Charles walked calmly back into the clearing, with his hood pulled low over his head.

They repeated the process one more time, but the remaining men were sitting together, near the campfire. It seemed no more enemy warriors could be replaced without arousing the entire camp.

“Nordamen, are you certain you’ll be able to maintain Arista’s illusion?” Morvaen shuffled from one foot to the other, rather than risk pacing outside Nordamen’s protective circle of silence.

“No, it’s too much. I’ll have to drop the silent shroud while protecting Arista. Get everyone in place and ready to begin. Alora, you know what to do. If Arista unlocks the belt, take him straight to Laegenshire. Don’t try to come back for the rest of us.”

Alora felt her insides quivering and her hand flew to her mouth as a surge of nausea hit. He touched her arm gently. “Can you do this?”

She gave him a stiff nod, swallowing repeatedly, as her salivary glands worked overtime.

“And remember what I said. If you get Kaevin to safety, don’t come back.”

“I’ll remember.”

Kaevin’shand
s
throbbed, and his head pounded as well. Was this simply because he’d been separated from Alora, or had she been doing something to drain energy from their bond? The pain created a fog in his mind, causing his thoughts to jumble. Evidently, Abaddon and Vindrake were out of questions. He couldn’t decide if this was good or bad. If they didn’t question him, he might not break any more fingers. But if they felt they’d learned everything they could learn from him, they might not consider him valuable enough to keep alive.

Kaevin blinked, trying to focus his bleary eyes. Was that Alora standing between him and Vindrake?

“Hello, Father.” Alora kept her back toward Kaevin.

“Lena... Daughter, I’m so glad you decided to come.”

“Stop!” she warned. “Don’t come any closer. Both of you, stay right there, or I’ll leave.”

“But Lena,” said Vindrake, edging closer.

She vanished.

“Fool!” said Abaddon. “You can’t frighten her. She’ll be able to escape until you gain her trust enough to touch her with the stone.”

Vindrake turned his furious glare on Abaddon. “What did you call me?” He stretched out his hand and began to squeeze. Abaddon clutched his neck, struggling against invisible hands, dropping to his knees. Alora reappeared and Vindrake pulled his arm back. Abaddon fell to the ground, thrashing and gasping for air.

“Father, I just want to talk to you. I’m not used to violence—it frightens me.” This time Alora was positioned where Kaevin could see her face. He tried to catch her eye, to warn her away from Vindrake, but she never looked in his direction.

“Yes, Daughter. I understand. I’ve had a propensity for violence in the past, but I’m trying to change. I’m just so alone.” His face drooped, and his eyes were downcast. “I have no family—no one at all. No one but you.”

Her chin quivered as a small smile appeared. “That’s what I thought, Father. I thought if I could help you, you could find a way to live in peace with others.”

“Yes. Yes, I think I could. I have enough wealth, enough power. But my entire kingdom is nothing to me without family. I love you, Lena.” He took a step toward her. “May I?” he asked softly, holding out his hand. “May I hold my daughter’s hand for a moment?”

“No!” Kaevin croaked, from his parched throat. He had to stop Vindrake from touching her with the stone. He thrashed about and felt the belt shift on his hips.

But Alora didn’t hear him, or she ignored him. How could she be so foolish? Hadn’t she learned anything about Vindrake? She took a step toward him and held out her own hand. He clasped her hand in both of his and spoke.

“Lena.”

He stepped back with a relaxed smile. “You will come with me to my kingdom, Lena. When you see all the glory awaiting you, you will learn the value of strength. You will soon progress to despise the weakness born out of sentiment and emotion.”

“I’ll come with you, if I know you’ll leave Kaevin unharmed.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Kaevin croaked. “He only wants to use you.”

“Shut up!” said Vindrake. “No spawn of Graely will speak against me to my own daughter.” His arm moved in a blur and another finger snapped.

Kaevin couldn’t help but scream in pain. But this time, Alora screamed with him.

“No! Don’t hurt him!” She stepped closer to Kaevin.

“Get away from him, Lena,” said Vindrake. “Tonight will be your first lesson. You will learn not to be soft.” He stretched out his hand toward her.

Even though Kaevin longed for her touch, he tried to send her to safety. “Go! Please! He’ll only hurt you!”

But she knelt down and placed her hands on his face, and they were gone.

Alora sobbed even as she kissed Kaevin’s blood-caked lips. “He hurt you. He hurt you. I’m so sorry.”

Someone cut the ties off Kaevin’s hands, and he screamed at their touch. “What’s wrong? Where are you hurt?” demanded Arista.

Laethan was examining his hands. “Glare it! How many fingers are broken, Kaevin?”

“Four on the left, and two on the right. But he didn’t hurt my thumbs.”

“I can brace them, but they’ll probably never heal correctly,” said Laethan.

“How did you transport me? I was chained in iron.”

“I opened your lock,” declared Arista. “Nordamen put some cloaking on me that made it really hard for anyone to focus on me. He said it was almost as good as being invisible.”

Alora felt her pain receding as her lips touched Kaevin’s again. The relief was so incredible, she managed to ignore Laethan’s condemning stare.

“I think I need to go back and help. Right, Kaevin? Nordamen told me not to come back. But I can’t leave them there when I could help.”

“You’re not going without me.” Kaevin struggled to his feet.

“Wait a minute. You’re injured, and I haven’t even treated you yet.” Laethan’s scowl deepened.

“Take me with you.” Arista grabbed Alora’s arm.

Alora heard Laethan’s words just before she transported. “Wait! You can’t go anywhere.”

She moved them to the small clearing near the camp. Beth exclaimed with joy when they appeared. “You’re safe! I’m so glad you’re here. They told me to wait here with the horses until the battle was over. Then I get to do first aid. Or, if we lose, I guess I’m supposed to just run for my life. Why are you here, though? I thought you were supposed to be in Laegenshire.”

“I came back to help. Can you stay with Kaevin? He’s here so I can recharge if I need to.”

“Awesome,” said Beth. “Kaevin can defend me if someone comes. I got this sword from that unconscious guy over there—one of Vindrake’s men.”

“You keep the sword,” said Kaevin. “Vindrake broke most of my fingers.”

Loud shouts and clashing metal reverberated from nearby. “I’m going to see what’s happening,” declared Arista, disappearing toward the battle sounds.

“Alora, you should grab that guy’s bow and arrows. Someone could use them—someone like Wesley or Arista.” Beth was using her bossy voice, but Alora was glad of it. She was too tired to think creatively.

“Kaevin, will you be okay here?” asked Alora. “I can pop over if I need a kiss. Okay?” He nodded as she gave him one last fervent kiss, grabbed the bow and quiver, and hurried after Arista.

She stopped out of sight and took in the scene before her. Vindrake’s men had been outnumbered—Morvaen’s men should have been winning. But some of Stone Clan seemed to be missing. Where were they? She saw Morvaen in the middle of the fray, but she couldn’t find Wesley or her Uncle Charles. Fearing they were lying wounded and dying somewhere, she transported them both to her.

Immediately, they were standing in front of her looking quite dazed and confused. “Where were you? Are you okay? Were you injured?”

“I feel like I did after I got my wisdom teeth out—my head is all crazy.” Wesley shook his head vigorously.

“I think we were drugged or something,” said Charles. “There were others... and we were waiting... for something...”

“Yeah,” Wesley agreed. “We were supposed to wait for someone’s orders, I think.”

“Where were you? Where are the others?” asked Alora.

“I don’t know,” Charles said, scratching his head. “Raelene was there, I think.”

Alora pulled her lip into her mouth to chew on it. What should she do? “Wesley, can you take these arrows and use them? You both lost your other weapons when I transported you.”

“I’ve still got two ceramic knives,” corrected Charles.

“Okay, Uncle Charles. You and I can look for Raelene.”

She reached out to take her uncle’s hand when Wesley called out, “Wait! If you go to Raelene, you might come under the same effect. It could be some kind of gas or something.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Alora said. “Okay, I’ll jump to her and straight back here.”

During the short time Alora was standing in front of Raelene in the middle of the small group of warriors, she could hear the sounds of fighting close by. She returned immediately and felt no ill effects.

“I saw an open space close by,” she said. “I’m gonna take you with me this time, Uncle Charles, and then bounce away from the group. And we’ll figure out what to do.”

She saw Wesley had already nocked an arrow and was kneeling just outside of the clearing, waiting for an opportunity to shoot without injuring one of Morvaen’s men or women.

She grabbed her uncle’s hand, moved to Raelene, and quickly moved into the small clearing close by. They observed Raelene and ten other Stone Clan warriors who were standing clumped together, holding their weapons, gazing intently toward... nothing. But all of them were looking in the same direction. There simply wasn’t anything there.

“I’m going to bring Raelene here. Okay?”

“Go ahead,” said Charles. “I don’t know what they’re doing, but I guess I was doing the same thing a few minutes ago.”

Alora moved her grandmother to the clearing beside her uncle. They watched as Realene blinked hard a few times, rubbing her eyes. “Where are we?”

“We just took you away from that group over there, Grandmother. What’s wrong? Can we run over there and wake everyone up? Or is it some kind of gas or something? Will we all go into a trance if we run over there?”

Raelene gasped as she looked behind her at the frozen group. “This is something of Abaddon’s dark magick. I’m certain we would have all stood still while someone came to slit our throats. We’ve seen scenes of slaughter like this, but never suspected the cause.” Her face reflected her horror. “I don’t believe it’s anything in the air, but we can tell easily enough. I’ll simply attempt to wake them up, and if I go still like the rest of them, transport me out of there.” Without waiting for agreement, Raelene ran into the midst of the statue-like warriors, shaking them and yelling, with no response.

When Raelene didn’t return to her trance condition, Alora and Charles went to help her, but their efforts were also in vain. So Alora transported each of them a few feet away, two by two, holding their hands. The transport seemed to break the spell. As the warriors came out of their dream state, they hurried to retrieve their weapons and return to the battle.

Alora moved with Charles and Raelene back to her observation site, near Wesley. She saw the first of the formerly frozen warriors returning to the fight, and she hoped they were not too late.

“Look, Alora!” Raelene pointed shaky fingers toward a rocky rise where Nordamen was in a standoff with the shaman he called Abaddon. Both their hands were raised toward each other, smoke and fire flying from their fingertips.

“What should I do Grandmother?”

“Can you move Abaddon a short distance away? It might break his concentration and give Nordamen the advantage he needs.

I can do better than that
. With all the strength of her emotions, she grabbed Abaddon and wished him to the same high canyon wall where she’d sent Graely’s attacker. She felt jubilant when he disappeared.

Nordamen slumped to the ground, obviously exhausted.
Should I transport him to me? No, he might lose an important tool or weapon if he has something made of metal.

“Grandmother, should I transport him over here?”

“It’s too late!” Raelene cried, her hands over her mouth.

“What? What happened?” She turned back to find Vindrake pulling Nordamen to his feet with a knife to his neck. Vindrake shouted for attention and Morvaen whistled to stop the Stone Clan warriors.

Alora felt tears stinging her eyes. Why hadn’t she brought Nordamen to safety while she had the opportunity? She thought of sending Vindrake to the cliff face, as she had Abaddon, but his contact with Nordamen ensured they would go together. What could she do? Even if he let go of Nordamen, he probably still had on protective iron as he had earlier in the day, so she couldn’t transport him, anyway.

Alora thought she noticed Arista edging forward, but then she disappeared next to Morvaen. Perhaps Nordamen was shielding her so she could slip behind Vindrake.

“I think the trees are hiding us from Vindrake’s view,” whispered Raelene. “But I hope he cannot sense your presence. If he does, he will demand a trade. And you must not take that chance even if Nordamen’s life is forfeit. If Vindrake notices you are here, you must take Kaevin and flee. Then bring your uncle and Beth and Wesley to you as well.”

Alora nodded her head, but her mind was racing. Surely there was something she could do besides running away to safety.

“I’m afraid we’re at an impasse,” announced Vindrake. “I intend to return to my kingdom for now, and I will take my remaining men with me. Nordamen has kindly agreed to accompany me.” He pressed the tip of the knife against Nordamen’s throat until he drew a drop of blood. “I will return him to you when you return my daughter to me.” A merciless smile bloomed on his face. “Unless, Morvaen, you wish to return her to me now?”

“She left,” Morvaen called out, speaking the truth. “And she knows not to come back.”

“Pity,” said Vindrake. “I’ll simply continue with my original plan. But Lena can come to me when I’m back in my kingdom. He suddenly flinched and reached behind him to grab a squirming Arista by the arm and pull her to the front, still holding the knife securely against Nordamen’s throat. “This impudent little mouse has removed my irons.” He kicked at the belt that lay at his feet and laughed. “But you see, that doesn’t matter any more. Lena is not here to transport me, so I do not need the protection. In fact, I am stronger without its limitations.”