Across the fray, p.19
Across the Fray, page 19
part #5 of Jon Oklar Series
Garrity waved his hand, and a gust of icy wind put out Remi’s flame. “I’ve been manipulating ice since long before you were born, little girl. I wouldn’t try it unless you’re willing to fight.”
“Everyone is to calm down!” the king announced. “Garrity, I am your king. You’ve met my councilman, Barrett Edgar, when he came here a year ago to look for recruits.”
“I know who you are, Nykal.”
Byron asked, “Then why have you not created an opening for your king and his army?”
“You bring the plague with you from Rohaer, and I’d rather deal with you now than Harold later.”
“Harold was here?” Byron asked.
“He was, with that flying sorcerer.”
Alecott.
Nykal spoke a realization. “He must’ve threatened you.”
“He warned us,” Garrity corrected. “If we let you in, our whole town will be infected.”
“That is not true.” Nykal’s voice was calm. “Harold lied to you. We have with us the healer who can cure anything, including the pox you speak of. We are not infected. We are in the condition you see because we have been the sole defense against Valinox’s army after Harold made an attempt on my life and turned troops against us. He’s now running north in order to take my cities rather than keep Valinox out of our territory.”
“Harold told us you would say that. We know the truth, though. The healer is with him, and he will bring the healer here once the fighting is done. You have lost, Nykal. It is obvious looking at your meager army. You do nothing but stand in Harold’s way now, even if you don’t see it yourself. His army is far superior. Your only option is to put aside your differences as he has offered and merge your armies under his command. That is your best means of survival. You should send a messenger requesting to entreat with him as you make camp outside Salbeth. We will make sure you don’t starve, but you won’t be coming into Salbeth and infecting any of us.”
“Call Jon,” the king murmured to Reuben as he took off his callring and handed it over. “This man is not going to believe me until I can prove that Harold is a liar.”
Reuben put on the ring and began to flick it.
Michael seemed to take the pause in the conversation to jump in. “Are you insane, ice mage? Don’t you see who’s with us? Look at her eyes!” He pushed Failina forward. “This is Failina, the demigod of erto. And look!” He pulled Airinold out of the ranks by his arm. “Meet the seven-foot-tall demigod, Airinold.”
“Their presence changes nothing. Demigods have been known to use us humans to get what they want. I have my people to worry about, and that’s it.”
“What do you think is going to happen to your people when Valinox comes through?” Michael questioned.
“We’ll deal with him when the time comes.”
“Let us deal with him,” Michael replied. “All we ask is that you give us a place to rest and regroup. We have run out of supplies, but more are on the way to your city as we speak! How wrong would it be for you to receive them while barring our entrance?”
“You can stay outside the wall and your supplies will be delivered to you here.”
“Now listen to me,” Failina said as she hovered above the wall. Her wind forced most everyone to look away. “We could be days away from the battle that is going to decide the fate of Lycast. These people need a place to regain their strength, and that is not here on the path. We have lost almost everything. We no longer have enough tents to house everyone here, and we are dangerously low on food. I stand with these mortals because only they have the right intentions. Harold could’ve fought with us against Rohaer but instead has taken this as an opportunity to make a play for the crown. He needs to be taken down, not obeyed as if he was your new king. I am now demanding that you use your sorcery to break down this wall and offer these people hospitality, or we will take the city by force. That is not something anyone here wants. Trust me.”
An arrow shot into Failina’s stomach. She groaned as she tumbled through the air and hit the ground hard. It seemed to come from one of the archers behind the wall.
Airinold called out her name as he ran after her. Garrity looked shocked as his head whipped back toward his people.
“Who shot that?”
“That’s it!” Remi yelled as she unleashed a jet of fire at the wall in front of her.
“Stop!” Garrity demanded as he made a block of ice in front of her spell. She tried to step around it, but he pushed the ice barrier into her, knocking her over.
Arrows flew over the wall from both sides.
Eden was about to hurl her dagger into the unarmored body of the Icemaker, but he had already made a protective barrier at his back.
“Cease your fire!” he yelled.
The arrows from Salbeth came to an end.
“Cease!” Nykal ordered his archers. “Get down from the wall,” he told others starting to climb up. One was Reuben, who seemed a bit chagrined as he clung to the top of the wall and turned his head toward the king.
“But sire, they shot our demigod!”
A man smacked Reuben’s head with a rake, causing him to shriek as he fell off.
“I will be fine,” Failina said as she walked back toward the group, blood seeping from a wound to her abdomen.
“It was not meant to be like this,” Garrity said. “You need to stand down before this advances past our control, Nykal.”
Jon landed hard on the top of the wall, right next to Garrity. A few men came at him with their gardening tools.
“Get off!” one yelled.
“Back to your side!” said another.
Jon threw them back with dvinia. “What the hell is happening here?” he demanded.
“You will get back to your side before I make you,” Garrity threatened from right beside Jon.
“Why are there sides at all? Are you not the people of Salbeth?”
“You arrive late, dark mage,” Garrity said as he twisted his fist in Jon’s shirt. “Step down before you cause even more trouble.” He tried to push Jon off the wall, but Jon caught himself in the air and hovered.
“If you were a sorcerer, you would feel that this is dvinia, not dteria.”
“I am a sorcerer…” Garrity’s face twisted as he thrust out his hand toward Jon. “You speak the truth,” he said in shock. “Who are you?”
“The healer.”
“A second one?”
“Who was the first?” Jon asked.
“The young man with Harold’s people.”
Jon looked over at the king with confusion.
“Harold arrived before us and told many lies,” Nykal explained. “These people believe we come with the pox and will infect their town, and that you’re with Harold.”
Jon rolled back his sleeve and took out his dagger. He cut his arm deeply, blood running freely. He lifted up his arm to show everyone on Salbeth’s side of the wall. Then he put his hand over it, wiped the blood off, and showed it again.
“So you can heal a cut,” Garrity said. “That doesn’t mean you are skilled enough to stop the spread of the plague.”
“Do you have any sick here already?”
“I’m not about to let you within my city to find out.”
“I don’t need your permission. I’ll find them myself.”
Jon took off toward Salbeth. He flew over to the nearest structure, a tall building with three floors to it. He hovered in front of each floor, stopping for a beat, most likely to sense for sickness.
“Garrity?” asked one of the men.
“Hold on,” Garrity replied inquisitively.
Jon landed in the midst of a crowd of mostly women who had been watching this unfold. Their screams could be heard faintly as they fled from Jon, but he merely walked into the building and disappeared for a time.
“Garrity,” said the same man from before. “He could be killing our women back there.”
“He isn’t, and I’m starting to suspect we were tricked. Nobody here has ever seen a mortal move like that. Tell me I’m wrong.”
No one spoke against it.
Jon walked out of the building with a woman in his arms. Many within the town shrieked for him to stop, some pulling at his clothes and another smacking him with a broom, but he ignored them as he took to the air and flew over to the wall.
He landed near Garrity again. The woman in his arms was elderly and clearly sick. It seemed like she barely had the strength to keep her head up as she looked around in confusion.
“Ma!” yelled one of the men. “What do you think you’re doing with my ma?”
“It’s not the pox,” Jon said, “but it’s almost as nasty. This woman must’ve been losing herself to this illness for some time now. A blanket,” Jon requested, and the princess lay one at his feet.
“Hold on.” Garrity stuck his palm out at the man rushing for his sick mother as Jon set the elderly woman on the blanket atop the wall. “Let him work.”
Jon held his hand close to the woman’s body as he moved it up and down her torso. He closed his eyes. She groaned in pain.
“Ma!” yelled her son. “Get him away from her!”
“No, I can feel a spell I haven’t felt in a long time,” Garrity said. “Trust him.”
A few others held the woman’s son back as he tried to get to Jon.
A long moment passed, and then Jon opened his eyes. The woman stopped groaning and slowly sat up.
“Ma?” asked her son.
She looked around as if unaware of her surroundings until now.
“Help her down!” said her son.
“Nonsense, I’ve never felt better in my life.” She sat at the edge of the wall and hopped off.
The gasps from the onlookers made it obvious that no one had seen this woman move like that in quite a long time.
“I assure you,” Jon said, “that no one in our army has any infections that could spread to your people. I’ve made sure of it. Sire, there is a whole convoy of wagons coming this way with supplies. They should be here by tonight.”
“Thank fuck all, god above and below,” Eden muttered happily.
“I apologize for all of this,” Garrity told the king. “I’ll destroy the barrier, but I’ll need your word first. You will treat the city respectfully and agree to defend it if Harold comes back to punish us as he promised he would.”
“Your people will be safe and respected. I guarantee it.”
“I also want the healer to check everyone in the town for injuries and infections.”
“It will have to be when I return with the convoy,” Jon said with a glance between Garrity and the king. “Syrah is leading, and she thinks we could use at least one more sorcerer in case of attack. They already have a tracker, so we need another fighter. I was thinking Failina.”
“One of us should be with the king at all times, Jon,” she said.
“Then what about Remi?” Jon asked.
“I’m honored,” Remi replied, “but without a water mage there with us, I would be just as likely to accidentally set fire to everything that we’re trying to defend. I think Eden would be best.”
She recoiled in shock. “Me?”
“I agree,” Nykal said. “Your ability to make barriers and attack with accuracy would be best during an ambush in the thickets.”
“Let’s go, Eden,” Jon said as he approached her with the harness in hand. “I’ve already been away for a while.”
It wasn’t the fighting that worried her. In fact, she looked forward to it. It was that she figured she would be walking the rest of the day with nothing happening, when she could be in Salbeth, eating, bathing, and drinking with Michael.
She gave a sigh. “Dammit,” she muttered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Eden seemed to be in a sour mood as I helped her into the harness. I had updated the king on the situation and borrowed his tracker ring. Eden, being an enchanter, would have an easier time using the ring with ordia. I passed it to her and explained this.
The whole time we were preparing to leave, Eden did not say a word, and now we were almost ready to go.
“Is something wrong?” I asked her.
“I’ve been wearing the same undergarments for three days, Jon, if you must know. I was looking forward to a clean and warm night in Salbeth.”
“We’ll be back before nightfall,” I assured her. “The convoy isn’t too far. Now put your legs over my hips and put your arms across my collar. Try not to choke me.”
She jumped up to get her legs in position and ended up choking me with her arms. I gagged for a second, then pulled her arms down toward my chest.
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“It happens just about every time.”
Michael stepped in front of us. “Come back safe, you two.”
“Save an ale for me,” Eden said.
“Gladly. Hey, Jon.”
“Yeah?”
“Think you can help me learn to fly one of these days?”
“You can pick yourself up with wind now?”
“I sure can. It’s landing that’s the hard part.”
“That was hard for me, too. I’d be happy to help, but you should expect a lot of pain.”
Michael put his hand over his lower back. “Speaking of, can you heal this before you go?” He lifted up his shirt.
Eden and I hissed at the sight of a nasty scratch. I put my hand over his open wound and closed it with my mana.
“Much better,” he said. “Take care.”
I took off with Eden. She gasped and clutched me.
Once we were above the trees, she seemed to relax her hold. “You could’ve given me a better warning.” She spoke loudly to be heard over the wind.
“I’ve already been away from the convoy too long.”
“You mean away from Hadley.”
“We’re expecting an ambush before reaching Salbeth,” I explained. “Are you in better control of your dteria now?”
“It’s been a long time since I asked you to take away that Induct stone, Jon. You have nothing to worry about anymore.”
“That’s a relief.”
“We haven’t spoken much since then,” Eden commented.
I didn’t know what to say. “That’s true.” I wasn’t sure if she heard me mutter.
“I’m not sure if I ever thanked you for your help,” she continued. “I don’t know what would’ve become of me if you hadn’t taken the Induct stone. I certainly didn’t make that easy for you.”
“It was no trouble. I’m just glad things worked out. Are we close enough for the tracker ring to work now?”
“You’re going in the right direction. So did you and Hadley get dirty in the dim?”
“What is that?”
“It’s what you think.”
“I’m not going to answer that.”
“That’s a yes.”
Again, I didn’t know what to say.
“Where did you rub and polish?” she asked.
“You sure know a lot of phrases for it.”
“Light the candle. Clamp and cinch. Ding the drupe.”
“Now you are making up things.” My arm started to sting. I held it in front of me to find some red scratches.
“Is that from a broom?” Eden asked.
“Yeah, one of those ladies got me pretty good.”
Eden chuckled. “Wait, we must’ve passed them. Go this way.” She pointed to my left.
“Keep your head down. I’m descending into the forest.”
She ducked her head behind mine as I lowered us through the thick canopy. I used my feet to push thin branches and scratchy leaves out of the way, but there was no hope to avoid all completely.
“They must be close,” Eden said as I landed in the midst of the forest, not a clear path in sight. “I can feel it with the tracker ring.”
I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted as I navigated over burly bushes and under thick tree branches. Then I heard something ahead. I stopped in the air to listen.
Clanging of metal, shouts of aggression—I had been in enough fights by now to recognize the sounds.
“Shit, Jon! They’ve engaged!” Eden said.
“Hold on tight!”
I hurled us forward, then tugged down to avoid a branch and weaved around a tree. Eden screeched as I went through a rotted out center of a trunk. Soon we came across a beaten down trail and followed it for a little while, and the scene of the battle opened in front of us.
“What are you doing?” Eden shrieked as I hurtled toward a group of unsuspecting archers firing at our caravan, which was turned over in some places and on fire in others. “You have to get me out of the harness.”
“There’s no time,” I said, then slammed my feet into the back of an archer who had to be one of Harold’s.
I was slow to draw my weapon with Eden attached to my back, and even slower as I stabbed into the side of another archer.
“Jon, goddammit!” Eden was yelling as I took out a third. I could feel her flailing her limbs when she should’ve just clung tightly to me.
“Just stay still!” I yelled back at her.
Harold’s archers weren’t even bothering to protect themselves with cover as they fired openly at our caravan. Our people seemed to be wedged in between the wagons, using them as shields, barely managing to fire back.
But I had drawn enough attention for four of them to round on me. I was about to make a wall of dvinia when a lurch from Eden made me stumble to the side.
“Stop!” I yelled at her.
“This way, idiot!”
A large rock hurled past us. Behind where it came from stood Kataleya’s brother. Alecott put his fingers to his mouth and whistled.
“Kill the healer if he doesn’t flee.”
No less than twenty quickly closed in on me. I threw one back with dvinia and made a sudden lunge with my sword toward the next, but a blast of dteria from Eden knocked the man back and tore the sword out of my hands at the same time.
“Eden!” I yelled in anger.
“Watch out!”
My first instinct was to duck under a swordsman swinging at my head, but that would only get Eden killed. I threw us backward, but I didn’t have time to see what was behind us.
We must’ve struck a tree. Eden’s face slammed into the back of my head. I felt blood run down my neck as we hit the ground, probably from her nose.
