Kethril (31 page)

Tathan laughed for the first time in a
while. It was wonderful to hear. He wrapped his arms around her and
kissed her neck while she made half-hearted protests. “Oh, no. I
can’t do such a thing. Whatever will father say?” Then the dress
was off and she was lying in hay. “Oh!” It wasn’t as comfortable as
a bed, but she didn’t mind as he showed her the ways of
peasants.

***

Mikael woke them the next morning. “I think
you two had best leave. Mother’s not at all happy,” he said loudly
from the top of the ladder before sliding down and landing with a
thud. Anilyia looked at Tathan in shock and embarrassment. He
laughed and grabbed the peasant dress he had so expertly removed.
They dressed and climbed down the ladder.

Mikael was waiting at the bottom. “What you
did isn’t proper. Mother said it’s a crime with a death penalty if
you really are a princess,” he accused.

Instead of blushing, Anilyia took a step
forward and jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “I don’t care
what your peasant mother says. I don’t care what any peasant thinks
is proper. I’m better than all of you and I do what I want. Tell
your mother we’re leaving. Where are our horses?”

“I have your things here.” Mikael pointed at
their bags and clean clothes. “Your horses are waiting outside.
They’ve been cared for and saddled. There’s some food too. Mother
said you don’t need to go back into the house.” He turned to
leave.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Anilyia
told him. He turned around in surprise. She reiterated the
statement. “I mean it. You’ve all been very gracious to us and I
thank you for it regardless of how I feel about peasants,
especially self-righteous ones.”

He stared at her for a moment, unsure of
whether she had insulted or complimented them. Then he left the
barn without a further word. Anilyia went to put on her traveling
clothes. She looked at Tathan who was standing with his arms
folded, staring at her in disappointment. That made her even
angrier.

“I’m not the same as you. I can’t bring
myself to like them,” she said between clenched teeth. “You can be
the peasant’s best friend all you want, but I’m a princess and if
that means you don’t love me, so be it.” She turned and began
changing, hiding the tears in her eyes.

When she felt his arms slide around her from
behind, Anilyia turned and buried her face in his chest. She
squeezed him and they just held each other awhile.

Robert and Mikael were the only ones to see
them off. Robert held out a pouch to Tathan who shook his head in
denial. Anilyia spoke for him. “If you can’t take the money, give
it to the poor. They’ll take it.” Tathan nodded in agreement and
they both mounted.

Robert looked up at them. “Will you be
alright?” he asked. Anilyia looked him in the eye and answered,
“Mabibble honk to the wibble.” Tathan and Anilyia laughed as they
rode away from the confused men.

***

The rain had finally stopped and they rode
in cool sunshine for the next three days. Twice, individual cows
attacked them and a herd one other time. Bovines weren’t great
hunters though, so it was easy to escape. Only one other pair of
bounty hunters showed up, but they raced away in a different
direction when Tathan drew Lifedrinker. Anilyia was worried about
him though. More and more frequently, he would experience long
periods where his eyes were glassy and his shoulders slumped.

In moments of clarity, he would have them
change roads, always traveling south and east. Anilyia wasn’t sure
about the direction, but trusted his judgment in the matter. Near
noon on the fourth day after leaving the farm, they rounded a wide
hill to see a small village below. It was a warmer day, reminiscent
of summer, but the trees retained the colors of fall.

From their height, they could see the main
southern road. There were a couple of wagon trains traveling west
and a small group of people traveling east. Tathan pointed at the
group and kicked his horse into a run. Anilyia studied them for a
moment. Sure enough, Sir Danth was noticeable in his black armor
and red cloak even at that distance. She kicked her horse and
followed as fast as possible.

Vevin pointed to their left. “Tathan and the
princess are coming.” Liselle saw two riders running fast toward
them from a hill along a northbound road.

“Are you certain it’s them?” Sir Danth
asked.

“Of course. My sense of smell isn’t as good
as most dragons, but even I can tell when a princess is near.”

“Aren’t they supposed to be back in the
castle?” the duchess asked, frowning.

Liselle didn’t care. She kicked her horse
into a run toward her cousin. She missed him terribly and decided
that instant that she would do everything in her power to keep him
from going back to jail. The others followed.

Both cousins dismounted at the last minute
and hugged each other tightly. Tears flowed down their faces as
well as the faces of those that observed. They were startled a
moment later when silver dragonflies flitted about their heads.
Vevin was doing a happy reunion dance and two tears had fallen to
the ground. One touched Tathan’s hair and turned black. The other
touched Anilyia’s and turned platinum. The companions watched as
the two dragonflies twirled around each other in the air and flew
off to the west.

She held her cousin by the arms and looked
him up and down. “How did you escape?!” Instantly, she could tell
something was off. “Tathan, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t reply right away. Anilyia pushed
him on the shoulder. “Go on. Tell her what’s wrong.”

“What is it, Tathan?” Liselle asked, worry
filling her voice.

Tathan sighed. “Ouli bab huff.” When Liselle
stared at him blankly, Tathan elaborated. “Grum pollamagonobber
wabble dir goo.” He gestured while he explained the events. “Oble
tink fra yew grish miff. Laber chun ooga blah.”

Liselle couldn’t tell if they were playing a
joke on her or not, but got the impression something was seriously
wrong. Vevin stepped up to her and said, “I understand lots of
languages, but that’s a new one to me.” Then he stepped back.

She reached up and ran fingers along both
sides of Tathan’s head. “Did something happen to your mind,
cousin?”

Holding still so she could do her thing, he
answered, “Mabibble honk to the wibble.”

“That means yes,” Anilyia said helpfully.
“Felina the bounty hunter hit him in the back of the head with a
spell that scrambled his mind.” Restrained tears welled in her eyes
and she fought to remain in control. “He keeps getting glassy eyed
and stares blankly ahead. It’s getting worse.”

Liselle moved her fingers all over the sides
of his head, pushing hard. She had her eyes locked on his and he
couldn’t escape. It was difficult to figure out what was wrong
while they were standing, so she pushed him to the grassy ground
and sat on his chest, never letting go of his head.

The companions backed up, realizing that she
was gathering magic by the breeze ruffling her hair. It was odd to
be standing in the middle of a field near a village but Liselle
didn’t notice things like that.

She stared through his eyes, changing her
vision to look inside his head. There was a lot wrong and she could
see it getting worse. Liselle took a little while to identify where
the problem was. The good news was that it wasn’t in his mind. The
bad news was that it was in his physical brain, which was extremely
complicated.

Holding the power where it was, she sat up.
“Water please.” Vevin handed some to her. She took a couple of
drinks and sank back into his eyes.

It took a long time to sort out all the
problems. Hundreds of dark spots with miniscule strands between
them mixed everything up in his brain. To make matters worse, she
sensed the injury to the leg that had been healed, but not well
enough. Something extra was in there that she’d have to fix.

First was the brain. The dark spots were
insidious and she could tell that if she fixed one, the others
would converge to corrupt the fix, so she had to fix them all at
once. The best way would be to use fire and healing at the same
time. She created the healing fire in her mind and then hit all the
dark spots with it at once. Tathan jerked in response as the fire
ate the strands as well.

Liselle didn’t see the looks of panic in her
companion’s eyes as she lit Tathan’s head on fire. Luckily, they
didn’t do anything to stop her, realizing it could kill them
both.

Liselle got off his chest and moved to the
leg. She could see the partially healed wound beneath his pants. It
was too old not to still leave a scar unless she cut out the wound
and just remade everything, but that would take a lot of magic and
she was already tired. Holding the magic once again, she looked up
at Vevin. “More water please.”

After a few more gulps, she turned back to
the wound. A different type of dark strand was there, but it wasn’t
hurting anything. She debated leaving it, but decided to burn it
off as she finished the healing job. It screamed in her mind as she
killed it, which reassured her that she had done the right
thing.

After she was done, Liselle rubbed her face
and stood up. The world tilted and knocked her over, causing her to
fall to the ground. Vevin was at her side with cool water. As she
lost consciousness, her only thought was that she was going to have
to sleep and wake up starving again and that there wouldn’t be any
of her favorite drumsticks around.

***

The smell of drumsticks tickled and teased.
She wiggled, rubbed her nose and opened her eyes. Liselle groaned
while Vevin helped her sit up. “Ungh. Wha?”

“I flew to Puujan as fast as I could and got
you some drumsticks,” Vevin whispered to her. It was very nice of
him to be considerate of her headache. “It was the last thing you
said before losing consciousness. The cooks here heated them up for
you, so I don’t think they’re as good, but hopefully you like
them.”

Liselle wasted no time finding out. It had
been ages since having one and they tasted divine. Bread, cheese,
meats and other food were there in addition to water and fruit
juices. After eating, she fell back asleep.

***

Vevin had more food waiting the next time
she woke up, but none of the nummy drumsticks. She looked around
while eating. They were in a nicely decorated room with pink
curtains on the window, a colorful rug on the floor and scenic
paintings on the wall. There was only the one bed, a chair and the
table Vevin had set all the food on. “Where are we?” she asked.

“In the village of Biffra at the Pink Cloud
Inn. It’s a pretty name for an inn.”

“Very pretty. Where’s everyone else?”

“They’re downstairs in the common room. The
innkeeper is a nice man,” Vevin said. “Would you like to join
everyone or go back to sleep? It’s evening so you can do whatever
you like.”

“Let’s go downstairs for a bit.” She swung
her legs out of the bed and stood with Vevin’s help. She held onto
his arm, but more because she liked to be next to him than from any
weakness. The recovery times were getting faster every time she
used magic.

Everyone was sitting at a large round table
and stood to greet her when she came down the stairs. Liselle gave
each of them a hug before sitting. The innkeeper was dressed in
bright blue pants and a pink shirt that was almost blinding. His
black hair was combed back and he had a perfectly trimmed beard and
mustache. “Hello there. It’s so nice to see you pretty lady,” he
said to Liselle in a thick accent that came from somewhere other
than Kethril. “I was afraid you were going to sleep forever.
Anyway, there are so many things to do. I can’t stay and chat.” He
walked away.

“Thank you for healing me, Cousin,” Tathan
said right away.

“Of course,” she said putting her hand on
his. “What happened to you? How did you get out of jail?”

“King Cranwer released me with a pardon for
anything I had done in Kethril,” Tathan answered.

“After you escaped the prison,” Anilyia
clarified dryly. “And rescued me from kidnappers.” Tathan went on
to explain the details of their journey. If Anilyia hadn’t filled
in all the exciting details he left out, it would have been a
boring story.

While the princess was telling about the
escape from Tillg, she asked Tathan, “Do you have any idea what
that temple was? Who were the people in black?”

“Um . . . it’s not important,” he replied.
When they stared at him waiting for more, he shrugged. “They
worship a goddess that dabbles in death and other things like that.
It’s best not to say the name.”

“I see. They seemed quite impressed by you,”
Anilyia told him.

“It’s just my reputation.” He was obviously
uncomfortable with the subject.

“The church we stayed at, was that the same
goddess?”

“No . . . that was her sister. Nobody knows
much about her other than she likes crows and she’s sad. It’s her
thing.” Tathan still wasn’t comfortable with the subject. He took
up the story again to change the subject.

Then Liselle and the others told their part
of the story. Emmaoen filled in the details about the flowers when
Liselle would have passed it over. In many ways, the cousins were
alike.

Tathan looked at his cousin with even more
respect, if that was possible. She remembered that the single
flower in the field had impressed him. It seemed like ages ago.
Princess Anilyia also looked impressed. Liselle was getting tired
of everyone treating her with amazement every time she did the
slightest thing like create new life.

“After Yema, we rode to the next village and
found out nothing new,” Liselle said. “We’ve gone through two more
villages and no one has seen anything of the ship. Tomorrow
morning, I think we should keep going.” She put her hand on
Tathan’s. “I know we don’t need to get you out of jail anymore, but
I think we should keep our agreement with the king.”