Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 (22 page)

Brian stepped forward. “Thank you.”

One by one the guardsmen stepped forward and did the same before leaving the barracks to go to their rest. Those she had healed whispered their thanks, but they didn’t rise. She was just as pleased they didn’t. Many of them slept nude. It was embarrassing enough to be caught in here without that. Talk about scandal! Jessica would have a cow!

Brian escorted her back to the women’s apartments. He left her at the door with more thanks and a gentlemanly bow. Julia watched him leave then allowed her shoulders to slump.

God, she needed a drink.

Julia stood before the window in her sitting room watching the comings and goings outside and occasionally taking a sip of her wine. The sky was slate grey. It promised to be cooler than days previous, but rain didn’t seem likely. Clouds were visible running before the wind, but they were too high to drop their much needed moisture on Athione. It hadn’t rained once in all the time she had been living in Athione. Mathius said the season was the driest for more than six years.

Julia frowned. Crops would be in danger if the drought continued too long, but no one seemed worried about the possibility. Keverin had hoarded many times the usual amount of grain and other supplies below the citadel. There was more than enough to see the fortress through this year and the next if necessary.

Julia scowled. Thoughts of Keverin she did not want, but they kept intruding whether she wanted them to or not—and it was not, definitely not!

Keverin had thanked her for her healing but he hadn’t spoken two civil words to her since that day. It was as if he blamed her for something, but Julia had no idea what it could be. He certainly hadn’t told her. Whenever they met in the corridors all Keverin did was bow and take his leave as fast as possible. No smile, no small talk—nothing.

“I’m not going to ask him,” Julia murmured. “He can go and soak his head in barrel of beer for all I care!”

Julia grinned at the image of Keverin doing that. Moriz had used the expression when he told her about Marcus. Moriz had realised that Marcus wouldn’t speak up for himself, so he had taken it upon himself to speak to her she remembered...

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Lady, but I need help.”

“You’re not disturbing me, Moriz,” Julia said then grinned. “Where’s Halbert? I’ve never seen you two apart before. I thought you were glued together!”

Moriz grinned sheepishly. “He’s sitting on—he’s busy with Captain Marcus, Lady.”

Sitting on Marcus? “I see. What can I do for you Moriz?”

Moriz mumbled something that sounded like the captain could soak his head in a barrel of beer if he thought old Moriz would stand by and do nothing.

Julia frowned; do nothing about what?

“It ain’t my place to ask this Lady, but Marcus has been limping around the citadel something fierce these last few days. He wouldn’t tell you of course. He feels bad about the tower. We’re all sorry about that, but he was in command that day you see?”

Julia certainly did see. Men! They were no better that children sometimes. Just because she had been hurt while Marcus was in command, he was punishing himself by not telling her that he was wounded. Stupid man! A small wound could become serious in a hurry here. Deva had nothing like antibiotics to prevent infection.

“Where is he?”

Moriz smiled in relief. “He’s in the armoury with Halbert Lady.”

“Give me your arm Moriz. You can escort me down there.”

“I would be honoured Lady!” Moriz said beaming in pride at her request.

Julia blushed in embarrassment, but she wouldn’t take back her words—not after seeing how much it meant to him. They made their way to the armoury and found Marcus examining pieces of armour. Halbert was pointing to something on one of the racks and Marcus was shaking his head. Halbert’s eyes widened when Julia walked in on Moriz’s arm, but Marcus had his back turned toward her and didn’t realise she was there.

“Excuse me Halbert, but I need to borrow Marcus for a moment.”

Marcus stiffened and turned slowly toward her. Halbert grinned and with an inclination of his head left the room. Moriz made to do the same, but Marcus glared at him and he hesitated a moment too long.

“
Stand still!
” Marcus roared.

Julia fought the instinctive desire to snap to attention herself. Moriz made no attempt to disobey. Before Marcus could say anything further she took matters in hand.

“I had Moriz escort me to you Marcus so that I might ask after your men. Are they all fit to do their duty now?”

“Yes lady, everyone who could has healed well.”

Julia winced at the quick stab of pain his reminder caused her. So many had died that it was hard to remember sometimes just how many she had saved. “That’s good to hear. Any still injured might fail in their duty when called upon by their lord. I am pleased there aren’t any like that,” she turned to leave. “I’ll be in the banquet hall if you need me—”

“Wait, Lady. I hesitate to ask... it’s a very slight thing you understand, but I have a wound for you to heal.” Marcus glared at Moriz to keep him silent. “It would certainly not prevent me from doing my duty, but if you have a moment?”

“Certainly. Small injuries can be quite painful I know. There’s no need to suffer when I can heal it with none the wiser. Where are you injured?”

Marcus gingerly sat on a bench. “The leg, Lady... arrow just here.” He gently touched his right thigh about three inches above the knee.

Julia frowned. The wound was in the great muscle of the thigh. It would be easy to fix—arrow wounds always were. “You should have come to me before, Marcus. You wouldn’t allow such behaviour from your men. Why should I allow it from you?”

“I’m too busy for this nonsense,” Marcus said indignant at her chiding tone. He made to stand.

“Sit still!” Julia ordered. “And take your trousers off.”

Marcus went bright red, and gave Moriz a just you wait look. Moriz rolled his eyes and grinned. Marcus grunted as he pulled the leather of his trousers down over the thick bandaging. They were tight and sweat burst upon his forehead when his struggles disturbed the wound.

Julia pulled the bandaging loose and grimaced at the smell. The wound was infected and must be very painful. Marcus pretended it was nothing of course, just as her previous patients had. She entered the healing realm and healed the wound with ease.

Marcus pulled his trousers back up so quick she hardly saw him move. “Thank you, lady,” he said with profound relief at the lack of pain.

“You don’t have to lady me all the time you know,” Julia said with a laugh. “I’m not really a noble.”

Moriz and Marcus snorted, but it was Moriz who spoke. “You be The Lady. Any be saying different will answer to me and the rest of Athione.”

Marcus nodded and both men bowed to her before Moriz escorted her to Master-crafter Deneen.

Julia shook her head at the memory. People believe what they want to believe. She had tried to tell people before that she wasn’t a noble in any sense of the word, but everyone—including Jessica—scoffed at the idea. Don’t be silly, they all said, it’s obvious by the way you move, the way you hold your head, and the way you talk that you are noble born. Julia had tried to explain about life in England, and how it was that everyone went to school and had a similar manner to hers, but the idea was alien to them. Even the guardsmen—who it seemed had claimed her as their mascot or some such thing, even they wouldn’t have it said that she was from peasant stock. All guardsmen were born of peasant families, even Senior Captain Marcus—though you would never know it to talk to him. Yet they all insisted she was noble not peasant. She had tried to tell them the truth, but they wouldn’t listen. If they wanted to treat her like a noble, she wouldn’t try to stop them. Not anymore.

Julia sighed and turned away from the window. She put her empty glass aside and wandered her rooms. She wished Deneen would hurry and finish his work. Her healing magic wasn’t needed any longer—all the injured were back on duty. Her lessons with Mathius were not enough to occupy her time. She spent most evenings with Jessica reading by firelight. Brian had his duty to perform, and Mathius had his studies. What did she have? Maybe she could walk the walls like a guardsman, or help in the kitchens. She smirked at the image of Keverin having kittens.

“No, he wouldn’t like that...” Julia’s brows lowered in discontent. “That settles it!”

Julia left her room and made her way to the west courtyard. The citadel was bustling. Invasion or no invasion the fight against dust and grime never ceased. She knew how that was from her own experience, but cleaning an eight roomed house only seemed to take forever. Cleaning Athione literally did. Men and women were mopping the floors in a line as Julia stepped out of the corridor into the west entry hall. A good idea that. Even if it did take almost two dozen people to extend the line right across the hall. They would be finished much faster. They would do it all again tomorrow of course, and every morning thereafter.

Julia watched as a couple of strong looking men lowered each of the chandeliers for the younger girls so they might clean the crystals and replace the candles. Julia hadn’t seen them do that before, but she realised why it was necessary almost immediately. The candles were burnt completely down, which was her fault. Her magic was hard to restrict to the mere trickle needed to light candles. She had wasted the wax too many times when she lit the chandeliers. She vowed to be more careful from now on. She could see that it took a lot of work to replace all those candles.

Julia continued out of the citadel and into the courtyard. How on Earth was she to climb to battlement now the towers were gone? There must be a way up there. The Founders would have built more than one way up she was sure. She glanced at the piled stone barricade then dismissed it. She had seen it before.

Julia followed the line of the wall, or rather where the wall used to be and studied her surroundings with interest. She hadn’t been all the way around the citadel before. The wreckage of the west stables had been used to build the barricade, but she could still see the remains of walls and foundations. Much of the curtain wall had been destroyed with the gate. The west stables had backed solidly against the curtain wall and had suffered the same fate because of it. Mathius had explained that when the combined might of fifty sorcerers had struck Athione, Renard’s multiple wards collapsed instantly liberating all the magic used to build them. The multi-matrix of six huge wards had contained a great deal of energy, which when released had added its own destructiveness to that of the Hasians.

Julia remembered the citadel shaking and groaning in the aftermath, it had felt like an earthquake. That was real power.

Julia took a last look at the wreckage then moved on. Whatever the sorcerers had done, it had worked marvellously from their point of view. Having such a large hole in the defences meant the legionnaires could attack with more numbers over a wider area, or they would if not for The Gap. The towers were gone now, but that didn’t matter to Keverin’s men because with no wall or battlement, the defenders no longer needed them to ascend quickly to their posts.

Julia wondered if the Hasians were waiting for reinforcements from home. That might be why they hadn’t resumed the attack. She shivered at the thought. What kind of spell were they planning to use that fifty sorcerers were not enough to accomplish it? How many new sorcerers would ride into the legion camp over the weeks ahead, and how would Keverin oppose them?

Julia scowled. Why did everything turn on what Keverin did or said? Then again, why did her thoughts keep turning to someone as ungrateful as he was? Someone who didn’t even like, or maybe worse, someone who hated her? She was sorry Kev’s friend had died to bring her here, but he had brought it on himself. When she tried to explain that to Keverin, he had become even colder toward her if that was possible.

Julia sighed. Darius sacrificed his life willingly. No one was to blame. Why couldn’t the man see? It was obvious to her and others she had spoken to that Darius knew
before
he cast the spell that he would die in the casting of it.

Julia ignored the smithy but stopped at the kennels. She watched as Hermund, the master of kennels, and his son fed the dogs. She winced at the barking and uproar that breakfast time caused, and wouldn’t go near the brutes. They were huge mastiffs and made her nervous with their size and evil-looking teeth, though they seemed affectionate with Hermund and his son. She wouldn’t take the chance of them not liking her. She moved on ignoring the entrance to the walled gardens. She had wandered through them before. Herbs and vegetable plots held no interest for her.

Julia finally found what she needed when she reached the north wall. Athione’s north and south facing walls weren’t truly walls at all, but were instead the sides of the pass. The east and west walls sealed themselves to the natural rock of the mountains providing unsurpassed defences. A stairway was hewn into the rock leading up to the North Link. It was a road linking east and west walls. In emergencies men could be rushed from the eastern battlement to reinforce the western one in a short time. There were two such link roads cut into the north and south walls. Both were ruler straight and wide. They were a long way up, and would be level with the west battlement if there had still been such a thing.

“More magic. I wonder if I could do that,” she mused as she climbed.

Julia’s long skirt was a nuisance for climbing, but she had learned the knack of negotiating steps in the citadel. Using both hands, she raised her skirts enough for safety and was soon at the top.

The road wasn’t as smooth as it looked from her window. It was patterned in wriggly lines running diagonally across the road before finishing abruptly at the edge. No one would slip in the rain on Athione’s roads and walls, but there was no other concession to safety. Julia stood close to the edge and looked down at the cobbles. A thrill of danger came over her, half fear, and half excitement. It was the same tingly feeling she felt on the bars. She liked the feeling, but she stepped back to safer ground when those below noticed her. There were guardsmen looking up and pointing at her. She sighed. Couldn’t she enjoy herself for one minute without people intruding?