Kinshield's Redemption (Book 4) (43 page)

When he returned to the captives, people were crying, begging to be taken next. Again, hands grasped at him, pulling and tugging. He was too weary to be angry. He simply opened the vortex to the blue realm and stepped through, bringing with him whoever was hanging on the tightest.

Four people stepped with him.

“Four?” He was sure Carthis had told him he could bring two. If he could bring four, perhaps he could bring however many touched him as he went through the portal. He could save everyone much faster that way. “The dizziness’ll pass,” he told them. “Stay here until I get everyone back. We’ll find a port city and I’ll pay your passage home.”

He brought six people back with him next time, and seven after that. The seventh claimed that she’d taken the hand of a man who’d been touching Gavin, but he didn’t truly believe that. On the third return trip, he asked people to try it, and it worked. The chaining stopped there, he discovered on the next trip. People holding the hand of someone holding the hand of someone touching Gavin didn’t make it through, but bringing twelve at a time beat six.

The holding cell was emptying quickly, but after five back-to-back trips from one realm to the other, the dizziness had gotten so severe, he fell to his hands and knees, unable to stand upright, and puked into the grass while sweat poured from his brow.

“Get him some water,” someone said.

He felt someone tug at the water skin tied to his knapsack, and he turned violently and struck the hand away. “Not that water. It’s poison. No one drinks this water.”

The woman he struck held her forearm to her chest, tears brimming in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was only trying to help you.”

Another woman shot him a glare, put an arm around her, and led her away. He felt like a cad. A worthless cad at that. “Sorry,” he called after her. “Sorry for striking you.”
Sorry for making such a horrid king. Sorry for letting so many people die.
He would gladly trade places with his son. Gavin should be the dead one.

Someone squatted in front of him. “King, there are others who need saving.” It was Tokpah the Cyprindian. “Only you can help them, and the wizards and warriors will return.” He stood and offered a hand to help Gavin up.

Gavin nodded and took the offered hand. “Yeh, I know.” Edan, Calinor, and Tennara were still there, guarding the rest. When he rose, a wave of dizziness rocked him back, but Tokpah held him upright.

“It’s almost done. Finish this,” Tokpah said. “Then you can rest.”

He stepped into the yellow vortex.

Aldras Gar.

Tennara, Calinor, and Edan, once again unarmed, faced a half dozen Clout, each swinging a weapon, driving the battlers back into the crowd they tried to protect. Three Callers floated behind the Clout, one carrying a pair of swords and another Edan’s bow. They started to turn around. Gavin drew Aldras Gar and rushed them.

Though his steps were off-balance, his swing was wide enough to take the heads off the two on the left. He shifted his feet, spun around, and drove his blade into the last Caller before it had time to raise its bony arm. He picked up the bow and swords and tossed them over the Clouts’ heads to his friends. The Clout swung their weapons more frantically now.

Tennara screamed, her face a mask of agony. A sword clattered to the ground. The scent of blood overpowered the smell of sweat. Gasps and cries of horror came from the corner where the remaining prisoners were huddled.

Two of the Clout turned to fight Gavin, and one took an arrow in the back and Aldras Gar in the chest. Another fell to Calinor’s sword.

Calinor and Gavin fought harder. Arrows continued to pierce flesh, and the remaining three fell quickly.

Tennara’s sword arm still lay where it had fallen. Gavin picked it up. “Tennara!” he shouted.

She was sitting against the wall, shivering. Blood spurted in regular pulses from the wound.

Gavin fell to his knees in front of her, curling his lip at the blood hitting him in the chest and soaking into knees of his trousers but not letting it stop him. He didn’t know if he could heal the arm back on, but he would be damned if he didn’t try. “You’ll be awright,” he said under his breath as he pressed the top of her arm to the bleeding stump below her shoulder. “Hold it here. Tennara, listen. I need you to hold it in place.” Tennara’s gaze glided languidly to his as if she were drunk. The arm was slippery with blood. He wouldn’t be able to hold it while he healed her.

Edan knelt to his left and held her arm in place. “I’ve got it.”

Gavin wrapped both hands around the arm and stump, covering the wound. Immediately they burned, ignited by the severity of her injury. He grasped the connection with Daia and pulled hard, drawing strength from her. He didn’t have time to warn her with an ever-increasing draw. Battlers died from wounds such as this.

The burning in his hands and wrists was excruciating. He held on as long as he could, gritting his teeth through the agony, thinking he might have to let go this time and begin again once the pain faded. Tennara would probably be healed enough by then to survive. When he started to loosen his grip on her arm, the idyllic white fluttering overtook him. He floated in it, relieved and comforted by the ecstasy it brought. If this was what dying was like, he would welcome death. Every bit of him felt immense pleasure—his body, his mind, even his wretched soul. It occurred to him that instead of being king, he could become a healer. Then he would live in this heaven every day and stop making mistakes that killed people.

It didn’t last. He felt the fluttering drift away, and with it his relief from the guilt that all his wrong choices had caused. His vision returned, and the sniffles and whispers and sounds of breathing seeped into his consciousness. When he opened his eyes, Tennara was looking at him with clarity in her face.

“My thanks, King Gavin,” she whispered. “I was sure this would be my last battle.”

He removed his hands and inspected her arm. The scar was thick and dark pink, but it was healed. The lower portion of her sleeve that still covered her arm was soaked through with dark red blood, and he pulled it off and flung it aside. “Can you move it?”

She stared at her hand for a long moment, but it lay still on her thigh. She thumped it a few times with flicks of her left forefinger and thumb. The skin reddened, but she shook her head. “I don’t feel it.”

“At all?”

“No, but I’m still grateful for your efforts.”

“Maybe the feeling will return in time,” Edan said. “It reddens, so blood is flowing to it.”

Gavin rose slowly to his feet, trembling with exhaustion and cursing the ache in his knees and ankles. His joints popped. “Let’s get the rest o’these people home.”

Chapter 58

The other eighty-some people stood around them looking relieved and anxious at the same time. Though they were back in the blue realm, they weren’t home yet. They’d been abducted from all over the world, and getting them to their homes was going to take some effort. And some assistance. “I’ve got an idea.” Gavin outlined his plan.

“I don’t know about this, Gav,” Edan said.

“Trust me. This’ll work.” With that, he took one of the two summoning runes from his knapsack and clutched it in his fist. With the name of his subject in mind, he whispered the name of the rune.

A black hole opened in the air before him, and Baron Hexx Gnorglsht of Tapfss stepped out of it. He was dressed in only a towel wrapped around his torso, and his white hair was wet. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked, clutching the towel tightly. When he caught sight of the battlers, their weapons aimed at him, he froze. “Sir King?”

“Baron Hexx,” Gavin said jovially. He put a friendly arm around the Baron’s hairy, naked shoulders. “I got a favor to ask, though I’m going to have to insist on your cooperation.”

“You wouldn’t kill me. Would you?” he asked, eyeing the swords pointed at him.

“Not if I don’t have to. I was near my home when I entered your realm, but when I left, I was here, many miles away. The same is true for everyone here. All these people need to get back to their homes. You’re going to grant safe passage through your realm, and with the aid of your Callers, return everyone to where they should be.”

The Baron’s eyes widened. “All these people?”

“All o’them.”

A slyness crept over the Baron’s face. “Of course, King. I’ll be glad to aid you and your friends. Release me and enter my realm. We’ll have you back in no time at all.”

“I don’t trust you any more than I like you,” Gavin said. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll release you first. You’ll have five minutes to talk to your Callers and the Baron Flisk’s Callers and instruct everyone what to do. Then, I’ll summon you back here, where you’ll stay with my armed friends until the rest o’these people are safely back home in our own realm. When my wife and I are home, I’ll release you, and you can get back to your business. If anything goes wrong—anything—I’ll take you to the red realm, where you’ll die the most terrible death you can imagine. Guardians, would you show him what awaits in the red realm?”

“We are pleased to help you, Emtor.”

Baron Hexx’s eyes widened, and his throat bobbed, but he straightened defiantly. “Your zhi nature prevents you from doing such a thing to another living being.”

Gavin shrugged. “I might feel bad for a few days, but I’ll get over it.”

“That isn’t fair. What do I get in return?”

“You get to live the rest o’your life.”

“But for your interference, I would already live the rest of my life.”

“Yeh, but I interfered, didn’t I? Your choice. Help us and live, or die screaming.”

The Baron smiled again, but this time it was with resignation. “I’ll help you, but in return, you must agree never to summon me to this despicable realm again.”

He’d already used the Baron to restore Hennah’s khozhi balance and wouldn’t need him again except for this task. “Agreed.”

Gavin released Baron Hexx to return to his own realm and waited a few minutes to give him time to make arrangements with his Callers. While they waited, Gavin asked everyone to group up by their home countries. The two Farthans stood by a large rock, the twelve Osgani huddled together near a sapling, sixteen Thendylathians behind Gavin, eight Nilmarions gathered together, and the citizens of five other countries created their own respective groups.

The Baron was putting on a shirt when Gavin summoned him back. Everything was arranged. “I’ll take the Osgani home first.” With his arms out to his sides, the dozen Osgani gathered close, and together they went into the yellow realm.

They were back where they started—in the holding cell, surrounded by ten Callers. Three more appeared.

Gavin thought the Baron had crossed him, tricked him into imprisonment once again. Each Caller in turn pointed at one of the Osgani, and then the two of them vanished. A Caller raised his bony finger and pointed at Gavin, and in an instant, he found himself surrounded by the nervous Osgani people. Before long, all twelve were together again, clutching each other as they staggered from dizziness.

“Awright, back to our own realm. Let’s hope this works.”

He created a portal to the blue realm and took the Osgani people home.

They were surrounded by squat buildings with deeply sloping roofs and glazed windows. Passersby stopped to point and stare, no doubt wondering about the thirteen people who appeared so suddenly in the road. The landscape was unfamiliar to Gavin, but several of his fellow travelers cheered. They marveled at their surroundings, at their dizziness, and at the wonder of the frightening experience they’d shared. But it was over now, and they smiled and laughed and embraced each other.

“We thank you for returning us to our home, King,” one man said. He offered his hand, which Gavin shook. The others shook his hand as well and several of them ran off, eager to reunite with family members. Two of the Osgani looked around warily.

“This isn’t my home city,” one of them said.

“Nor mine,” said the other.

The first fellow who’d shaken Gavin’s hand put his arms around them both. “I’ve got horses and a wagon. I’ll see you safely to your homes.”

They lifted their hands to wave at Gavin, and he returned to the Yellow realm, ready to be whisked back to where the others awaited.