Between Darkness and Light Trilogy (27 page)

“I thought you would like that, open your
eyes.”

I do, and, it can't be! There is indeed a
plant much like broccoli on a nearby tray, but the dip… I see the
squeezed out corpse of some strange creature. It twitches
feebly.

“It was alive!”

“Barely. The only thing a Garbanzo beast can
discern is light from darkness – they are as close to plants as
mobile life gets. Here.” He hands me another drink and I upend it
without hesitation.

After that it works out pretty well, and
each time I open my eyes I’m shocked to see what I have just eaten.
After each trial he gives me another sip of courage from my goblet,
and the game continues to get easier. William tries each dish that
I like, and neither of us comes to any harm. Everyone else seems to
think we have lost our minds.

Eventually Darius says it is time for
dessert. Again he has me close my eyes, but he needn’t have, I know
chocolate when I taste it! I open my eyes and wish I hadn’t… he
holds the back half of a brown frog. Laughter dances in his eyes
and freely escapes his lips.

“No, Shi'ahn, it’s just chocolate! We have
very realistic molds.” I hate to think of how they made the molds,
but I enjoy the chocolates nonetheless.

Dominar Ultor clears his throat. “I think
the best way to end this evening would be to go out on a nice
little hunt. I’m informed that there is a small pack of Manticore
not too far out into the woods tonight. Appropriate clothing will
be sent to your rooms momentarily, and you will be escorted to the
armory in… half an hour.” Half an hour? Our hosts excuse
themselves, and we are again escorted to our rooms. Half an hour,
and then a drunken hunting party? I need a blood cleaning spell,
that’s what I need. When I enter my room the first thing I see is a
tray with yet another goblet upon it, and a note.

***

I recommend you drink this if you don’t wish to fall
off your mount.

Darius.

***

I don’t even pause, I drink it all, and
almost immediately the fuzz in my mind begins to clear. I hope he
provided some to William and the others. Then again, I don’t think
they drank nearly as much as I did. The fog clears; my memory
becomes sharp; did I really do all of that? My stomach still feels
full, so I must have eaten all those strange things. He kept his
promise at least; I remain unharmed. Speaking of promises, I look
around for the new clothing that was to be delivered, but don’t see
any, just my own riding gear laid out conspicuously where I had not
left it. As I finish changing, I hear the first knock, presumably
on Gwenllian’s door. Again, I am the last to be collected.

When we reach the armory we are each asked
if we truly are interested in hunting. Gwenllian, Nero, Alma and
William are all quite enthusiastic about it, and are given spears
and short blades. Celeste, Casanova and I are not particularly
interested in the hunt, so we are given crossbows to be used in
long range self defense. And what crossbows they are! They each
have two figures where a bolt would usually be, and these figures
trail a nearly invisible filament that entangles and then slices to
pieces whatever you shoot them at. It is demonstrated to us on a
suit of armor, which falls into several neatly sliced pieces. The
only drawback to the weapon is that we get only one shot. We are
all then given large reddish black mounts that do not resemble
anything I have ever seen before, and we ride out to meet our
hosts, who have been joined by several individuals that had not
been at the dinner table. Huntsmen.

As we approach a great forest, Dominar Ultor
calls forward Lydia. She casts a spell, and we ride forward into
the dense wood. With us also are a number of the hounds we traveled
with earlier. A falcon-like creature is loosed, and in not long it
returns, flying from Ultor straight for a short while, then
circling back to him and flying in the same direction as far as it
can stay in sight again. Dominar Ultor signals us to follow him.
When we reach a good-sized clearing, the hounds go nearly wild at
the sight of four incredible beasts. Each has the body of a red
lion, a humanoid head with far too many teeth, a spiked tail, and
taloned feet and wings that somewhat resemble those of dragons.

Ultor states proudly, “Manticores.”

Two of the beasts startle and head into the
woods. Everyone but Celeste, Casanova and I run to attack the
remaining two. Some of the huntsmen are injured, but the beasts are
eventually killed.

The dying act of the second Manticore to
fall is to impale one of our dinner companions with its tail.
Dominar Ultor immediately goes to his aid, and almost as if they
had been waiting for this moment, the other two manticores return,
airborne. One begins to dive for Dominar Ultor and the injured one,
and I shoot my crossbow at it. It does partially disable the beast,
but it still is heading for the distracted two, although now in
more of a plummeting manner. My mind goes into overdrive. I know I
have overly protective instincts, but now I have to think. Should I
cast a shield spell around them? Would it work properly if I did?
Would they appreciate being encased in the spell of a Luminarian?
They may well not, and I know that Lydia is a powerful sorceress;
she should be able to protect them better than I can. At the last
possible moment, just as I’m about to cast my spell anyway, she
acts, and the beast crumples against her protective wall.

I turn to look for William; he is being
attacked by the remaining Manticore! It kills his mount, yet he
manages to wound it several times with his spear. It rears up
looking as though it is going to swipe at him with one taloned arm
that William moves to block, but it was a feint, it uses the other
to tear into his leg. “William!” He and that Manticore become my
world, I jump off my mount and run toward them as fast as I can,
much faster than my mount has moved as yet, and vault into the air
at the proper time to fly over the beast, hitting it with a sonic
blast. It stumbles back a little, and I land in front of it with
enough clearance to cast a shield spell around William and I. It
tries to reach us, swiping at the shield several times, then turns
away and takes flight. Casanova shoots it with his crossbow,
shredding it. William’s leg is deeply gouged just below Puff’s
gift. I cast a modified cleaning spell on it, removing any matter
that does not properly belong to my little brother, then bandage it
with material torn from his shirt. Finally I cast a hastening upon
the wound, to speed the healing.

When I’m done I see Lydia take the wounded
one and her father directly back to the castle, leaving Darius to
lead us back. I pull William up to share my mount. The spell I had
cast on his wound seems to help, his color improves steadily as we
make our way back to the castle. I can’t help but notice Gwenllian
gazing at me, a calculating look behind her eyes.

When we reach the castle, Darius says, “I
believe it is time to call it a night. Rest well, everyone.”

~~~

Back in my room, I put the very nice bath to
good use, then try to settle down to sleep, but I fail. Instead, I
try an experiment. Stretching my consciousness out through my new
ring, I call out, 'Computer?'

It takes a moment, but then I hear it, 'Yes,
Shi'ahn?'

'You can hear me!'

'Yes, but you seem quite far away.'

'I am in Chaos.'

'That is… impressive, I believe is the right
word.'

'Computer, you sound, different.'

'I have been learning a lot from your
Gaea.'

'Like what?'

'Mostly about the perspective of living
entities.'

'We should discuss that when I return.' I
hear a knock on someone’s door – probably Gwenllian’s. 'But now I
should return my attention to my surroundings. Be careful in your
interactions with Gaea, do not do anything to allow her to come to
harm!'

'I most certainly would not - I have come to
value our interactions.'

Although that last comment intrigues me a
great deal, I break the contact and concentrate on the conversation
in the hall.

“Are you certain you would not care for my
company this evening? You are under the protection of this house –
you would come to no harm.”

“No, thank you. I am not interested in such
attentions from a stranger.”

Gwenllian’s door closes, and fairly heavy
footsteps continue a short while, until there is another knock, and
Celeste also declines the visitation. This time while the footsteps
continue they change gate, become the ta-tap of very high heels.
After another knock I hear Nero’s voice.

“Well hello, beautiful! You wouldn’t happen
to be interested in showing me how it’s done on the wild side,
would you?” His door closes, and there are no more footsteps. At
least the rooms are somewhat soundproofed, what is still audible
isn’t too hard to filter out of my thoughts. More footsteps
approach from a distance, male, I believe. A knock, and Alma
answers.

“Are you serious?”

A deep voice answers, “You have seen the
worst we have to offer, I’m here to show you the best. Remember,
this household is sworn to keep you safe – this is a very rare
opportunity, if you think of it.”

“Hmm. And you are?”

“Whomever and whatever you would like me to
be.”

“Then come into my parlor, Jean-Luc.” After
a pause, yet another set of footsteps approaches from the distance,
decidedly female sounding, but not so bold as those that went to
Nero. Casanova opens his door.

“Oh my.”

“Lord, I noticed earlier that you seem…
lonely. Let me ease your cares this night.”

“There is only one woman for me now, lass,
and you are not her.”

“But she is out of your reach, while I am
not.”

“Time will tell, and I am willing to wait.”
His door closes and the footsteps continue on to William’s door. I
can almost see his face as he answers.

“Wow. I mean… yes?”

“May I come in and… entertain you, my
lord?”

“Ah… I’m terribly sorry - really, I am! But,
no. I prefer to be alone tonight.” His door closes gently and I
await the sounds of more footsteps, but instead of approaching,
they recede. Rats! Why would they ignore me - it’s not as if my
continued innocence means anything to them… and though Cailli
doesn’t want Casanova to pursue me, she didn’t outright say that no
one could. Unless that’s what she meant by not living too much. Why
would she care? Sigh. Aside from those sounds that I try to ignore,
all is quiet for a very long time, and then instead of a knock, I
hear quiet breathing in the corner of my room.

“Who is it - who is there?”

A whisper, “Shh, it is I, Shi'ahn, Lydia. I
wished to speak with you in private.”

“And so you sneak into my room
uninvited?”

“I wished to avoid interruption. Casanova
and William have been paying very close attention to your door
since they declined their visitors. Yours may be the best-guarded
room in this castle! But seriously, Shi'ahn, you and I need to
speak, and we cannot do so around the others.” I say nothing,
waiting for her to explain. “Shi'ahn, you and I have issues that we
must discuss.”

“Lydia, please understand, I bear you no ill
will… I never have. Well… for a short time maybe… but not after the
pain of your attack had passed and I came to realize how much I
deserved it.”

I see the first real smile I have ever seen
on her face, “You are delightfully honest, Shi'ahn. Know that I no
longer bear you ill will either. That is why we must speak.
Shi'ahn, when I released you from my revenge, I lied as to why. You
see, the last memory I tore from you was of your mother, and… she
reminded me of someone I used to know.”

“She did? How? She wasn’t…”

“No, Shi'ahn, that would be impossible.
Besides, the woman I knew is dead, your mother was just similar to
her, like an echo. You don’t have experience with echoes of people
yet, do you? It is not at all unusual for people, especially
powerful people, to cast echoes of themselves throughout the
universe. Those echoes can either be almost exactly like the
original, or only superficially similar. In your last memory I saw
your mother teaching you a dance that I had seen another woman
teach, and it made me stop and think on what I was doing. I
realized then how light your touch had been, how you had actually
healed my mind as best you could. Much as the woman I had known
would have done, she was a great healer. Shi'ahn, I am not your
enemy. None of my Household is. Please forgive me for what I did to
you.”

“You are already forgiven, Lydia. I hadn’t
understood the magnitude of what I was doing to you; your attack
was completely justified. I would ask you to forgive me, if you
will.”

“Done. Shi'ahn, there is something else I
must discuss with you – tomorrow’s trial. You must be careful – do
not let anyone hear you projecting music; it would lead some to
start asking dangerous questions. And Shi'ahn, you will be
questioned in the trial, I am certain of it. You must not discuss
your mother. I know she was only an echo, but the woman I knew was
murdered because of what she was, and I do not know if the killer’s
wrath would extend to echoes; it does sometimes. Be careful, and
yet you must also be sure to tell only the truth. They will know if
you speak any lies.”

“That will not be a problem, for I know only
that my people called her ‘Beautiful Lady’.”

“Do not offer any information about her that
is not asked for, the less is known, the better. And Shi'ahn, do
not mention such information to your own people as well; your
safety lies in anonymity.” A common theme in my life lately.

“Will wearing my dragon-scale dress give
away too much about me?” She pauses for a moment, thinking.

“It will raise questions, certainly, but it
will also serve as a distraction. I think, considering your rather
unique condition – being of Lumina but not strengthened by
‘enlightenment’ as your kind call it, you may be wise to take
advantage of its protective properties. I’m surprised that it is so
low cut, though, considering that it was intended, I should think,
as a way of protecting you physically.”