The Godlost Land (57 page)

“Recently there have been reports of a break in the enemy's ranks. The wizards and the soldiers have broken away from the dark priests and the creatures and headed back to the Kingdom of the Lion. The enemy has been weakened by this. And now we have three new reports of these two forces, fighting with one another. They have begun destroying themselves, and we must and we should take advantage of that.”

Three reports? Nyma hadn't known that. But it made sense. After all, what were the chances that the attack she had come across should be the only one? The humans had a goddess – Tyche the Blind, Mistress of Fortune. She would have had to have been working very hard to have brought that coincidence about.

“First we will remove these invaders from our realm completely. And then we will advance into the Enteria Regency.”

That drew a collective gasp from the audience. He was talking about invading another realm, and that was something the dryads had never done. It was also not something they would ever have wanted to do. Even Nyma was caught by surprise. But again she knew it was the right thing to do. They had been attacked most grievously. Their towns had been destroyed. Many of their people were dead. And the enemy they now knew to be an army of demon bonded thralls as well as a usurper of their faith. They needed to be fought. They needed to be brought down. They needed to be killed. Demons and their thralls could not be allowed to live in the world.

Of course she realised as she stood there listening to the assemblyman, this meant she wasn't going back to the Rainbow Mountains for a while. Her time there had been permitted as part of her duties while she was acting as an envoy to her sister. And before that while she had been acting as a scout. Now that war had been declared, that would end. Every soldier, every guard and every custodian would be expected to stand and fight for their people. It was just the way it was. To add to that, soon the Enteria Regency was going to be a battleground. Crossing it would become much harder.

She sighed quietly. Though it was what had to be, Harl was not going to be happy.

Chapter Forty Nine

Her family home was exactly the same as it had always been, and that came as a relief after all she'd witnessed. In fact it made Nyma smile. But she'd known it would be all right. Reason had said as much when the town was the same and the fields were still covered with vines, though of course there were no grapes because of the season. If the enemy had been here the town would have been burnt to the ground, there would be blackened bodies everywhere, and the sky would have been filled with carrion crows. She would have been told if that had happened as well. So, long before she'd arrived she'd known it would be fine.

But there was a difference between knowing something was so and seeing it with her own eyes. A big difference. And seeing the home standing there proudly was a blessing from the Father and the Mother both.

It also appeared unharmed. The split log walls still retained the colour of the wood without a sign of charring. The slate roof tiles were even and straight. The glass in the windows was unbroken. And the gardens were untrampled. Her mother would have been very upset if they'd been harmed.

It was a good home. A well built one with plenty of room for a family of six, though of course these days only her parents lived there. The rest of her brothers and sisters had homes of their own. She was the youngest of the four, save of course for Erislee. Her little sister though would be welcome there. Even Erislee's mother would have been if she still lived. Father's mistake as Nyma's mother called it, had long been forgiven.

Nyma cantered up to the front yard and then dismounted, tying her horse to the railing before heading inside. It was the middle of the day and no one had known she was coming, so she knew that her father would be at work. But her mother would be inside doing the chores as she always did before she went out for the afternoon to help with the school. So it came as no surprise to walk in through the front door and find her on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor. It was little more of a surprise to feel tears trickling down her cheeks when she was holding her tight once again. But a welcome one.

Unfortunately it didn't come as much of a surprise either when her mother burst into tears. But then she knew as did everyone else, that war had come to their lands, and that Nyma was going to war. All the custodians were. Nyma was only there for an hour or so before she joined her fellow custodians at the lodge and they prepared to ride.

Her mother had never been happy with her choice of career. The family were vintners as she had told her again and again. They made wine. They didn't go out to fight. But she had accepted her decision eventually, something that was made easier by the fact that at that time they hadn't been at war. In fact war was all but unknown to them. Custodians mostly protected the people from a few brigands who wandered into their lands and wild beasts. It could sometimes be dangerous, but not often.

She'd been less happy when the five kingdoms had descended into chaos and Erislee had been taken. When Nyma had been out riding the five kingdoms searching for her. But in time she'd accepted that Nyma was capable at what she did. She could stay hidden and out of trouble even in lands that had turned violent.

But this – riding into war – was different. It was her mother's greatest nightmare. And Nyma felt terrible for having to cause her that pain. But there was nothing to be done. As she sat there at the table, a cup of hot saffron tea in her hand, and watched her mother's tears fall, she still knew it was out of her hands. She was a custodian. She had taken the oath and sworn to ride by her brothers and sisters no matter what. This was a part of that. But even if she had been given another choice she knew she would still have ridden. It was who she was.

Others could grow grapes and tend the fields. They could teach the children and care for the ill. She was a custodian. She fought for those who needed to be protected.

Harl understood that she thought. He respected it. Though he wasn't a custodian and his heart was never that of a soldier, he understood that some people had to stand and fight. It was that failure that had torn him apart. That he had not been able to stand. He had tried, she knew that. But in the end one man could not be an army. So he would understand this. He wouldn't be happy about it but he would understand it.

Thinking of Harl reminded her of another matter. The reason she'd known she had to come. And it was also the reason she was so nervous. Going to war was far less frightening than having to tell her mother this. Dying was far less frightening. Especially when all her older brothers and sisters were happily married and raising families and all of them kept wondering when she'd do the same. And though they didn't actually say it, they disapproved of her choice to remain a custodian free from family ties.

“Mother.” Nyma had to wait for her mother's tears to dry and then repeat herself a few times before she could listen. But when she did she took a deep breath and told her mother the other news of her life.

“Harl and I have agreed property rights.”

Maybe she thought, once the crying started in earnest, she could have chosen a better time. But at least she hadn't yet told her the rest. That she might be with child. Then the tears would not stop.

Chapter Fifty

Harl sat on the rough bark of a fallen log he used as a bench in front of his house and brooded. He'd been sitting there for hours like that, doing nothing more than feeling sorry for himself. It wasn't something he normally did and he hated the fact that he was doing it now. Which was why he'd got up and brewed a small pot of tea for himself at one point. Anything to convince himself that he wasn't doing this. He wasn't the sort given to moping like a forlorn moon calf. Especially of late.

But it seemed that he was that sort after all. He'd known that when he'd taken the cup of tea and returned to his seat to sip at it, and slowly let the bleakness settle over him once more. Something had changed within him. And that change had been caused by a certain dryad.

Nyma wasn't coming back! That was the only part of the message that Harl had been able to read from her letter. The rest of it was sitting in his pocket, and he would read it when he was able to concentrate more carefully. But not yet. It seemed that the sages were right. You only really knew what mattered when it was gone.

At least he knew that it wasn't forever. That she didn't intend to stay in Inel Ison for long. That she was coming back. It was simply that events had overtaken her and there was now a war raging between Inel Ison and the Regency and that she couldn't cross a battlefield to return to him. Still, the only words he could hear in his head were that she wasn't coming back.

It had been like a body blow when he'd read them written on the tiny scrap of tissue paper that had been secured around a pigeon's leg and eventually brought to him by the soldier. The words had brought back so much pain from his past. Pain and fear. And deep in his soul he believed he was never going to see Nyma again. Just as he would never see his family again. His friends. His old home. The why didn't matter. None of them had intended to leave him, or to be taken from him. But still, they were gone. It was only the pain of the loss that mattered.

Of course he could never show that. He had little left in his life, but he still had some pride. And men did not show their pain to others. So he'd helped the soldier who had brought the note to him to load up the saddle bags of his pack horse, and said nothing of what was in his heart. And he'd pretended to be his normal – if not happy then at least calm – self as he sent the man back on his way. But after he'd gone, Harl couldn't help but let a little of the pain show. Enough that even as he sat on the fallen log and sipped at his tea, even the cat knew better than to come near him. Cats weren't stupid.

Maybe, he told himself, it was for the best. Or at least he tried to convince himself of it. This was a war. A conflict that had been going on for five long years. A civil war that had already taken everything from him. And even though there was suddenly some hope on the horizon, it had still been a gamble to let anything into his heart. Not hope. Not a home. And not a lover. Because sooner or later they would all be taken from him. It was best to end things before they became too painful to lose.

There was only one problem with that of course. They already were.

As he sat on his makeshift bench and the bark cut into his skin, and as he sipped at his already cold tea he knew that He was in love with Nyma. And he didn't know quite how it had become that way so quickly. In only a few short months. But he knew it was true. The birds chirping in the weak afternoon sun knew it. The orange blob of fur hiding out on the roof of his cottage as he waited for dinner knew it. Probably the griffins roaring away quietly somewhere in the distance knew it. The entire forest knew it. And they also knew like him, that there was nothing that could be done.

Why? That was what he didn't understand. Why had this new war broken out just now? He knew it had to have something to do with the wizards who were apparently fleeing the realms. But why had the dryads chosen now to launch an all out invasion of the Enteria Regency? Couldn't they have waited just a week or two? Long enough for Nyma to return. No doubt there was some strategic reason for it. Something he naturally hadn't been told. After all, he was only a smith living out in the middle of nowhere. He made weapons. He didn't plan battles. Still, it seemed bitterly unfair.

And no doubt Nyma would be placing herself in harm's way. He knew that, just as he knew her. She was a custodian. And she was proud of her position. Proud to ride the realms of her people and keep them safe from brigands and whatever else might be out there. This would undoubtedly just be an extension of that. He could see her out there in her armour, riding hard, sword raised high as she cut down the chimera. A glorious sight in the armour he had crafted for her.

But he could also see her getting herself killed. She was too brave for her own good and war was dangerous. Even if the wizards were fleeing as the criers kept proclaiming, there were still plenty of chimera and false priests left to fight. And if she wasn't riding with her sister, then she wasn't being backed up by griffins and unicorns. The most powerful of Artemis's defenders.

He also had no idea how effective the dryads were at battle. They were a peaceful people. He'd never heard of them going to war before. They could be completely incapable no matter how many soldiers they could field. And they might not have that many soldiers to start with. They simply weren't a warlike people.

In the end though, there was nothing he could do. He couldn't reach her. He couldn't destroy an entire army – not even to be with her. He was once more helpless in the face of his enemies. His loved ones were in danger. And once more he was nowhere near them. He couldn't save her.

That last would haunt him until the end of his days.