Miami Days and Truscan (21 page)

“She needs you,” I said. Crayton and Cretor were safe, but as Tornans who needed to run during the full moon, they had gone back out with Dalph and Dal, giving Kiera little time with them to reassure herself of their safety. “And what do you do when they ride night patrol, anyway?” I asked, before stopping to consider that sounded rather insulting. “I mean—I didn’t mean you weren’t useful, I just—”

Johnny, laid back as always, took the question in stride. “I know what you mean. Ordinary folks have to go with ’em, Tess. Somebody has to keep a guard at camp and watch the horses.”

“Oh, of course,” I said. That had been rather stupid of me.

“And I’ve done it for nigh on twenty-five years now, and I’m pretty glad to turn it over to the younger crew every chance I get.”

“You’ve earned it,” I assured him.

“Tess, the other night, you really meant it?”

“What?”

“You really meant you forgave me?”

“For setting me up? I said I did, didn’t I?”

“But do you? Really?”

“Yes, Johnny, really. It’s so obvious to me now. I can’t believe I was the last to see it. I
was
the last to see it, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah. You and Dalph, darlin’, if I could figure out how to harness electricity, I could power Trusca with the sparks you shoot off each other. Never thought to see such a couple again after Brentar and Madeline. But still, it’s an arrogant, arrogant thing to play with people’s lives, no matter how sure you are that you’re right, and it’s weighed on me. Real heavy.”

“Well, don’t let it weigh anymore. Why don’t you go be with Kiera?”

“Already dark. You coming in?”

I heard the first howls come back from the distance. Dalph. I knew it. The voice was too strong to be anyone else.

“Not for a little while, I just want to listen a bit. Do you recognize by chance, is that—”

“Oh, yeah, that’s Dalph. I’d recognize that howl anywhere. Well, don’t catch a chill, now, you hear?”

“I won’t,” I promised, and stood for a while, listening to the pack in the distance, until they moved out of my limited human hearing range, marveling over my life, so radically changed in so short a time. And when I finally went in and readied myself for bed, I discovered that Mother Nature had come to call, just as I’d known she would if I ever got myself calmed down enough, which I took as another promise of good things to come.

Chapter Twenty

I woke the next morning, focused on a decision I knew I’d made sometime during my captivity but hadn’t quite formulated yet. Apparently, it had resolved itself into a full battle plan during the night and I wanted to find Johnny as soon as I finished breakfast and dressed in fresh riding gear.

“Oh, and Kiera?” I paused on my way out the door and called back over my shoulder.

“Yes?”

“Get me some more riding clothes. A lot. Five or six more sets, all black or brown and black, something that blends with terrain, please. Like battle gear.”

“But why?!!” she wailed. “Your closet is full of such beautiful—”

“Yeah, it is, but Dalph didn’t know me real well at the time. Maybe I didn’t know me real well either, but I do now. Riding clothes. In battle colors. As soon as you can get them.”

I found Johnny on his way to the stables, preparatory to riding to Warrior Fields, which I thought rather fortuitous.

“Johnny, listen. You have to help me.”

“Sure. Not in a position to tell you no, now am I?”

“This isn’t going over too well probably. Well, maybe it will. I’m not sure how Dalph’ll take it. But it doesn’t matter, it’s happening anyway.”

“Tess, will you stop babbling and tell me what you want?”

“I’m in pretty good shape, you know. I mean, I made an effort, so many hours behind a desk, in an office. I didn’t work out every day or anything but for sure a couple of times a week. And I ran a good bit. Haven’t done much but ride since I’ve been here, but it’s not like I’m starting just from scratch.”

He stopped mid-stride and stared at me. “Your point being…?”

“I have to train. And I need one of those wooden swords Dal says the children have as toys, to learn swordplay. And a knife, and whatever the hell else is lightweight enough for me to use. And somebody to show me how to use them. I know a little basic self-defense, but I want to know a lot more. Who can teach me? Can you set this up?”

“Dalph will—”

I interrupted before he could tell me how just how unhappy this was likely to make Dalph. “I don’t care if Dalph doesn’t like it. I will
never
be helpless
again
!”

Johnny laughed. “Let me finish, Miss Impatience. Dalph is going to be so proud of you he won’t be able to see straight.”

I stared in surprise. I didn’t think Dalph would try to stop me, but I did rather think his reaction would be more amused tolerance than anything else.

“Really? You think so?”

“Really. I know so. Trusca’s first Warrior Queen.”

I smiled. Purpose was good. I’d been at something of a loose end during my first month in Trusca, with no real goal. Now I had one. I didn’t plan to ride out just on excursions Dalph deemed safe, either, and he’d probably yell about that, but I’d cross that bridge when I got there.

“So who do I see?”

“Let’s go to the Fields and I’ll get some equipment to bring back. I don’t think he’d want you training out there, at least not to begin with. You need to train where nobody can see you. Guess you’re stuck with me the next couple of days. The guys get back, we’ll work you up a schedule. Dal’s a natural swordsman, was from the first time he picked one up, he’s the one for the sword. For starters, anyway.”

“Dal?” I asked, surprised. Dal was exceptional but still—

“Oh, yeah. Dal’s been on holiday, getting to know you, good for him, and every kid needs a chance to be just a kid. But that don’t mean he’s not tough as leather. And he’s got an edge that’ll work well for you. He’s had to learn to compensate for his foot. Knows how to take a liability and turn it to an advantage. And Crayton and Cretor got some good moves, Dalph’ll want to do the hand to hand stuff himself though, I imagine. So he won’t slip up and kill somebody if they misjudge and leave a bruise on you.”

“Don’t be silly, Johnny, Dalph wouldn’t do that!”

“Uh-huh. Should have seen him when he got word you’d been taken.”

My hero. “Does Trusca have like Judo or Karate, or something?” I asked.

“Cabrote,” Johnny said.

“Cabrote?”

“Combination of stuff, got a little of everything in it. Lot of work, lot of conditioning. Fluid, smooth. Like dance moves almost. Hard to counter, an opponent’s never sure what’s coming. Ain’t gonna be easy, darlin’.”

“I will
never
be helpless
again
!” I reiterated, and so the next few days passed, full of physical activity that blessed me with the benefit of easy sleep-filled nights until the full moon waned and the Tornans rode back through the gates.

Johnny had been right; Dalph seemed very pleased by my new goals, though I don’t think it had filtered through to him yet that I fully intended to participate in adventures that he probably wouldn’t be too enthusiastic about, but as I certainly wasn’t near the level of skill that would even make such participation feasible, I didn’t worry about it. I
would
be near the level of necessary skill, and sooner rather than later, even if I died trying. Dal was flat-out delighted, and was, I was somewhat surprised to find, considering his age, an excellent teacher. Johnny’d been right; he looked for ways to turn liabilities into advantages and as such, was just what a female, late to the study of swordplay, required in the way of martial education.

The nights were heaven. Dalph, somewhat disappointed immediately upon his return to find that Mother Nature was in residence and consequently curtailing activity to a certain extent, was considerably mollified by my instigation of a few sexual activities. I didn’t think, based on his amazement at my reactions during our two first hurried encounters, he’d be familiar with them, but I was certain he’d be ecstatic.

 He was, and in fact, jokingly accused me of trying to kill him. Then Mother Nature departed and more mutual activity resumed, turning the nights even sweeter and when, finally sated, we slept, we slept so entwined with each other that it was difficult for me to tell where one of us stopped and the other began.

I’d never been happier in my life. So of course, I was only allowed a few weeks of such perfect contentment before this damned country and her damned gods raised their heads again and once more, bit me in the butt.

I woke slowly, at first uncertain as to what had roused me, and then I realized that I was almost wringing wet and so were the bedclothes, and that the arms circled around me were pouring sweat and shaking. I sat up quickly, moving out of Dalph’s arms, whose hands, although he was not awake, rose to cradle his head as he moaned.

I shook his shoulder, calling his name, my mind running through the list of possibilities. Heart attack? Stroke? Epileptic seizure? Some Truscan malady with a high fever? It wasn’t a full moon and I’d never seen the change—but was something wrong with the moon’s cycle and was he shifting? Did it hurt? I hoped not, I’d hate to think of all the Tornans going through
this
every time the moon came full.

“Dalph!” I kept shaking and finally he sat—bolted, actually—upright, still holding his head between his hands with a final cry that tore my heart.

“Dalph, talk to me! What
is
it?”

“It’s in the mountains to the south. Five, six days ride, maybe more.”

“
What
is?”

“The Power Stone. It’s calling me. I have to go.”

I didn’t say anything, could not, in fact, have said anything at that moment had I tried. I got up and grabbed some toweling, wiping down my arms and slipping into my chamber robe. I came back to the bed and started toweling Dalph’s chest and back; he looked as though he’d just emerged from a lake.

“C’mon, you have to get out of that bed, it’s drenched,” I urged, and he stood and slipped into his own chamber robe. I started pulling the covers back to get them off, and he stopped me.

“No, it’s almost morning anyway, leave it for the girls. Come, just sit with me.”

He pulled me over toward the fireplace, settled in the chair, and I settled in his lap, almost afraid to start talking. I think he was, too, so I bit the bullet.

“So Brentar the Strong told nothing more or less than the truth. The stone did help him save Trusca. And it does call when it’s needed.”

“Apparently so.”

“What was that your mother said? She wasn’t Truscan enough to find the answer?”

“Nor me. Or any of the last kings who’ve searched. So simple. Just wait. You can’t find it, it must call you.”

I didn’t want to put into words how truly frightening it was that in all this time, the stone had called no one between Brentar the Strong and Dalph, so I didn’t.

Dalph spoke again. “I’ll leave at first light. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. Promise me that you and Johnny will hold Trusca for Dal if I don’t come back.”

I sat up, stiff as a board.

“You wait just a minute, here! I’m going with you!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Absolutely so! Even if you leave me locked in the dungeon, don’t you think that Dal and Johnny wouldn’t let me out, because they
would
! The minute you ride out the gate! And I’ll start following the minute they do!” How absolutely astounding that in such a short time, one’s whole position in life could change so radically. And they would let me out no matter what Dalph’s orders would be, both because they loved me, and because they respected my intelligence enough to trust my judgment. Or at least, I
hoped
my judgment was worth trusting.

“Dal needs—”

Damn him, he was going to make me say it. “Dal does
not
need me! Not right now! Because Dalph, the stone has called
no one
in over five hundred years! If it’s calling now, then there is no hope for Trusca or Dal or any of us if you don’t get to it and find out what the hell it wants you to do!”

“You won’t be able to keep up with me.”

“I most certainly will! And besides, suppose it calls you again? To keep you on course? It almost
killed
you, I thought you were having a stroke, you’d be helpless if something happened while you’re in the middle of one of those-those-whatever the hell that is the stone does to get your attention!”

“All right,” he said quietly, which was almost as scary as the fact that the stone was calling in the first place. It was not an easy thing to convince Randalph of Trusca to change his mind.

“All right? Just like that? Are you
sure
you’re not really hurt, or—”

He shook his head. “No, I’m not hurt. Well, my head still throbs a little. I didn’t want to actually say it, but since you did—no, whatever’s about to happen, if I don’t get to the stone, nothing else matters. And I want you with me no matter what happens. It seems-maybe-maybe you’re supposed to be with me, my head stopped really pounding as soon as I agreed.”