Indomitus Est (The Fovean Chronicles) (43 page)

    
Maybe you could survive love after all?

Chapter Twenty

The Aschire

    
The scribe wrote:

11/2

My Dear Aileen,

It is with heavy heart that I write to tell you that I will not, after all, be returning to Volkhydro – at least not in the foreseeable future.  I have joined with a group called the Free Legion, and we are bound for other lands, on journeys that will take years.

I wanted to let you know that your brother died a hero’s death defending us against what I now know were Confluni National Guard.  If not for him, the Confluni would have raided us unawares and I would no longer be alive.  In his honor, I killed more than thirty of them; not counting the ones that fought with us that night.  I laid waste to their southern guard and, with these friends, exacted a heavy price for their evildoings.

I beg you to find the happiness that I could never have given you, Aileen.  It has been months since we parted.  This is the first chance that I have had to write.  You deserve better, please find it for yourself.

Sincerely

    
I sent this letter to Talen, where a paid messenger would carry it to Aileen.  You never expect to see a letter again.  They are emissions that, like in sex, we trust to another.  But just as those emissions can come back to haunt you, so can a letter.

     Standing in the lowest floor of our tower, there were two decisions to be made, one regarding Genna, and one regarding Shela.  I tried not to be the only one to make either one of them.

    
We needed to travel, and Genna wouldn’t survive it.  However, the Fire Bond didn’t bind her, and no one of us wanted her to be alone with our gold and the knowledge that she possessed.  The house staff for the tower had been bound with what D’gattis called a
fealty
.  If they stole from us then something terrible would happen to them.  Genna didn’t have enough strength even for that.

    
Shela had strength to travel and then some.  However Thorn, Nantar and Ancenon had wives, and those wives stayed at home while their men went out and did the things that men do.  Tradition spoke for it.  Arath had some secret commitment and Drekk wanted no woman, at least not that I knew of.  All of them believed that the best place for Shela was right here where she could look after our gold and be out of the way, bound by the same
fealty
.

    
Shela did not agree.  I didn’t like it, either, and D’gattis didn’t seem able to bind her with anything.

    
“It is
the way
,” Thorn told her cryptically.

    
“Not
my
way,” Shela argued.

    
“Shela will encumber us, she will draw on our resources, and she will bring trouble,” D’gattis informed us all.  He stood resolute in his white robes, with his arms crossed over his chest.

    
“You have not yet begun to see trouble,” Shela fumed.

    
“Genna is a professional killer and can take care of herself,” Arath said.  “Even ill, she could defend herself in the back of an ox cart.”

    
Although no one said it, they saw Shela as a plains girl in a halter-top.  Of course, she had also just happened to walk through one of D’gattis strongest wards like it didn’t exist.

    
“Which is more than your camp whore could do,” Genna mumbled.  The circles under her eyes were darker than the day before, her eyes red.

    
Shela turned on her.  “Camp whore?”

    
“Enough,” Ancenon told us, sensing as I did that things were about to get worse fast.  D’gattis felt too confident and, I believed, liked his position as our most dangerous Wizard.  Shela challenged that, and he wanted to remove that challenge.

    
Genna just wanted to spread misery, as Shela had pointed out.  Even she tired of it.

    
“Shela is Lupus’ property, this is his decision,” the prince continued.  “He alone answers for her, and he alone supports her and safeguards her should the need arise.”

    
“Gee, thanks,” I said.  “So I suppose if it is up to her to save your bacon, she should come ask me first?”

    
“Why would she be saving me bacon?” Ancenon asked, seriously.  Slang, slang – would I ever escape?

    
“I think we can cook for ourselves,” Nantar added

    
“White Wolf, if your whole purpose in bringing me is as some servant -” Shela began, probably thinking that I had forgotten already what she had done for me.

    
But I had not, and I raised my hand for quiet from her.  I had watched this young girl stand down a god, walk through a Cheyak ward, outride Thorn and outmaneuver me when she had decided that she wanted me.

    
She would be the ultimate gate guard for our gold, and for the portal that D’gattis had created between Outpost X and here.  Already she had walked those musty tunnels with me and seen our wards.  She knew our secrets and our goals and had said nothing, throwing her lot in with mine.

    
She was in the most important relationship of her life.  She deserved more than a week of it, at least in my opinion, and I said so.

    
“If the decision is mine then she comes with me,” I said.  “She can look out for herself or, if not, then I am there.”

    
“There is a surprise,” Drekk said.

    
Thorn put his hand on my upper arm.  “Lupus, consider this,” he asked me – actually asked me.  This is the man who wanted to kill me the moment we met.  Funny how a woman changes things, which is what I think he meant.

    
This outing was for the boys.

    
“I have considered this,” I told him, looking into his brown eyes.  “Your opinion of her and her own abilities decided me.”

    
“This is intolerable,” D’gattis insisted.  “I will have none of this.”

    
I turned my attention from Thorn to D’gattis.  “OK, then,” I told him.  “You make her stay.”

    
D’gattis’ ambiguous eyes may or may not have moved to meet Shela’s, or mine, but it didn’t matter.  He straightened, and she straightened also, smiling.  He crossed his arms over his breast, and she put her hands on her hips.

    
He opened his mouth but she interrupted him.  “You are unable to heal this one?” she asked, indicating Genna.

    
Genna straightened.  D’gattis’ face stayed straight, but to me it looked like his eyes might have flickered.

    
Drekk actually spoke up.  “She’s been poisoned and spelled at the same time,” he said.  “I have never seen the poison before, and they have never seen the spell.”

    
“Then it is beyond your power to heal her,” Shela said.

    
“She must fight it on her own,” Ancenon said.  D’gattis remained silent, regarding Shela with that same hard expression on his face.

    
Shela stepped to where Genna sat, and looked down at her.  Genna looked back up with an expression between disgust and hatred. 

    
“You wish to be well?” Shela asked her.

    
“You don’t want to see me well,” Genna said.

    
“You wish to be well?” Shela asked again.

    
“The moment I am healed, your life starts getting much worse, little girl,” Genna said.

    
“
Do you wish to be well or no
?” Shela hissed at her. 

    
Genna’s head snapped back.  She swallowed, and she nodded.

    
Shela made a fist over her head and started humming.  From a soft sound building louder she intoned, looking intently down at Genna.

    
Thorn nudged me.  I leaned my ear next to his mouth and he whispered, “Now you’ll see the difference between a Sorceress and a Wizard.”

    
White sparks flew around Shela’s hand.  The two Uman-Chi stepped back from her reflexively.  The humming grew louder than what I thought a human voice could generate.  Genna cringed back into her pillows, Shela almost snarled over her, her look so intent.

    
Then with a noise like a bark, she dropped that sparking fist on Genna’s forehead.  I saw a blinding flash and a sound like an eagle’s hunting scream that came from Genna.

    
When my sight cleared, Genna lay unconscious on the floor, the wall behind her scorched.  Shela stood triumphant over her, her hands back on her hips.  Ancenon knelt at Genna’s side.

    
The others in the room stayed silent, myself included.  D’gattis’ face returned to being stony.

    
“She lives,” Ancenon said.  “She is free of the poison.”

    
“It would have killed her, you know,” Shela said.  The look on her face showed her satisfaction.

    
“Enough, Shela,” I said.  I don’t think any of us doubted, in the back of our minds, that Genna fought a losing battle.

    
Shela took a step toward me, pressing her body against mine.

    
“Regardless, I think that healing power like this can defend itself,” Ancenon said, his smug grin telling rest of us how the battle had gone. 

    
The younger of the Uman-Chi went up into our tower, mumbling, “Tell your
slave
that we will use her spare horses for pack animals.”

      The Aschire live in loose bands in their own land, much as the Andarans.  Unlike my slave girl’s people, however, they are not considered a sovereign realm, but a part of the Eldadorian nation, represented by them at the High Council.

    
The Eldadorian delegates to the Fovean High Council, however, have never included an Aschire.

    
We were on our horses later that day, heading for Talen.  Shela offered one of her mares to Genna, and Genna turned on her heel and went out of the front door of the tower.  She returned hours later with a gelding she had bought from a trader in town.

    
I never heard a word of thanks between them; neither did Genna withdraw her threat.

    
We only stayed a day in Talen.  Of course, we spent that day in the best hotel that city had to offer.  It surprised me how important that seemed to D’gattis and to Ancenon.  For myself, I preferred a lower profile, but instead we dined with a local magistrate and invested with the local shipwright in a huge wharf being put to shame by the Royal Trenboni shipyards.  Amazing what a king’s ransom can do to invigorate business, the next day they were negotiating to set the keels for a new Eldadorian fleet.

    
From Talen it is less than a day’s ride to the Aschire Woods, the only place to cross the Steel Mountains, except by way of the Great Mid River.  Most people considered the river horribly unsafe, as separate tribes of man-beasts guarded both sides of the mountains.  They were of two races and both hated each other, and passing one insinuated alliance against the other.  The Swamp Devils on the East were especially adept at human suffering, according to rumor, and the Western Slee ate human flesh.

    
Once in the woods, Genna leapt from her horse and returned to flying recon.  Thorn took the point, with Nantar after him.  I had the rear with Arath behind me. Shela rode just ahead of me and she handled the extra horses.  Drekk, Ancenon and D’gattis were interchangeable in the middle of us. 

    
In the few days since being healed, Genna had returned more and more to her old self.  Now she did what she loved, hunting through the woods, finding our enemies before they could locate us.

    
Shela had admitted that she felt as lost in the woods as I did.  I wondered if the Aschire knew their woods as well as the Confluni.

    
I got my answer when a dozen men with long, purple hair and tight leather armor dropped around us from the trees.  We were all taken by surprise.  I had the Sword of War out but I already knew we weren’t going to win a fight.