Honor, p.3
Honor, page 3
part #2 of The Avant Champion Series
When the waves near the shore grew treacherous, I transported to the dry beach. Rolling onto my back, I lay on the black sand and pebbles, breathing deeply and staring at the gray sky.
“You’ll ruin your clothes with the saltwater,” a deep voice said.
“Hello, Andi.”
After a moment, I regained my breath. I rolled onto my side and looked at the big teal and purple serpent. His iridescent scales shimmered under the beads of water dripping off him. His large head rested in the sand as his long body trailed behind him, and his short, stocky legs were barely visible in the sand beneath his bulk.
“Exercise?” he asked.
I nodded.
“If you spend as much time as I do swimming and hunting fish, you would understand how foreign a concept an activity for the sole purpose of activity is to me.”
“I understand. As far as I know, the concept is foreign to many humans, too.” Athletes—shullby players—and the Queen’s guard were the only groups I knew who made a concerted effort at exercise. Even true runners for the Queen had the purpose of transporting information.
“That you chose to come here is even more of a mystery,” Andi added.
“I conquered my fear of the ocean. I won’t shrink from this island either.”
“There are sharks in these waters you swim. They know it as a place of many shipwrecks, many meals.”
I scowled at him. “My lack of fear toward the ocean doesn’t imply we’re amiable or that I underestimate her deadliness. Besides, I took Biology of Mammals in college. Sharks are bloodhounds. I’m doused in sweat before I swim, not blood.”
Andi’s large green eyes blinked at me. “The water has grown warmer around the island, suggesting magma is climbing its way to the surface.”
I sat up abruptly. “You’re suggesting the volcano is going to erupt?”
“I’m suggesting it’s possible. However, water temperature can alter without dramatic volcanic consequence.”
“When is the last time it erupted?”
“One thousand three hundred years.”
“And the temperature has fluctuated since then without an eruption?”
“Many times,” he said.
“Can you survive an eruption?”
The scales on the side of his head moved the way a bird might ruffle its feathers. “Do not worry about me, little champion. I am reborn after death. Death is of little consequence.”
I picked up a smooth black stone and chucked it into the all-consuming wave that crested on the shore. “I’m going on another quest.”
“The Avant Champion’s fourth quest.” His tone held admiration.
“Fourth? Malos and then to Mulan to return the scepter.” This would make my third quest. Andi didn’t know about my venture to Muglik territory.
“Marriage.”
I laughed. “You’re counting my marriage to Joshua as a quest?”
The serpent smiled at me. “Marriage is an adventure, is it not? At least that is what one of the humans stranded here once explained to me.”
I considered the assertion. Marriage to Joshua had mostly been effortless. It hardly seemed like something as laborious as a quest.
“Joshua!” I jumped to my feet. “I’m late.”
I bid Andi farewell and promised to bring him coconut milk before I departed for my quest.
As I brushed at the sand on my clothes, I cursed it for clinging to the damp cotton. I patted uselessly at my wet, snarled hair.
I vanished from Mulan and appeared in the middle of Joshua’s clinic office. He sat, writing notes about his patients of the day.
He looked up at me, the soft candlelight dancing across his hand- some features—strong cheekbones, defined jaw, and warm brown eyes. His eyes twinkled in amusement. “Rough day in the chemistry lab?”
I suspected I looked like a chemistry experiment gone awry. However, Joshua knew I liked to swim after a run, so he knew precisely what my most recent activity had been.
“Don’t mix yeast and hydrogen peroxide.” I made an erupting motion with my hands.
He looked up and down at my damp clothes. “I’m certain it would never occur to me to do so.”
He closed his journal and walked over to me. After kissing my cheek, he licked his lips, presumably tasting the salty ocean water.
“Did you have a nice run?” He put his hand in mine.
“Yes.”
“Was there something about your day that made you take a run and pick up your husband late from work?”
“Something indeed.”
I transported us home.
“Please, Joshua, come with me,” I implored.
I had explained the quest imposed upon me.
“You hardly need me, Abbey. Besides, I can’t abandon the clinic.” He made meat and cheese rolls in the kitchen as I set the table.
I suppressed my flash of irritation. I wasn’t asking him to abandon anything. “I need you, Joshua. I need your keen sense of observation. You’re not abandoning the clinic. Even healers need a holiday.”
He snorted. “Because what you’re offering is a holiday?”
“I mean your patients will understand if you are absent for a week.”
He arched an eyebrow as he sliced apples. “Ah. It’s only a week then?”
I sighed. “I’ve no idea.”
We sat and ate our meal as Joshua told me about his day. I filled in the details of my encounter with Coco, Windish, and Aman.
“Four travelers?” Joshua asked.
I nodded, sipping my rice milk.
“I guess Baird can’t because he’s tied to the sanctuary,” he thought aloud.
I nodded again, thinking perhaps Joshua was more likely to go if Baird went. The two men had become friends since the battlefield. I would often courier Joshua to the sanctuary for the two of them to go fishing.
Their leisure time occupied hours and sometimes an entire day by the water’s edge catching fish. It seemed such a time-intensive way to catch a meal, but Joshua would remind me that wasn’t the point. The point, I had been told, lay in escaping the busy demands of life and to submerge in enriching conversation.
Joshua must have achieved all of this and more because he always returned in a pleasant mood.
“Allis?” he asked.
I shook my head. “He’s working on the litter of children he always wanted.”
Allis had been such an amiable person with whom to travel. He wore a never-faltering smile and seldom complained. Considering we had traveled through paltry desert to cold mountains all whilst being hunted by Malos’ soulless creatures, there were plenty of reasons to complain.
I know I did.
“What if Trad and Bellok cover your clinic?” I suggested.
Bellok was my stepfather, which still seemed a strange thing even after five years of knowing him. Up until five years ago, I had thought my parents died at sea, lost on a quest for the Queen, returning Malos’ scepter to his volcanic island of Mulan.
When I visited the island (also shipwrecked, because it is such a terrible place to attempt to reach by sea), I discovered my mother alive on an island chain north of Mulan. I also discovered the new life she had created amongst other shipwrecked persons, including Bellok. Together, they had a son, Trad.
Because they were stranded on a paradise island, and I had the Star Traveler ability, they remained on Misty Isle and Joshua and I visited often. Bellok and Trad took an interest in learning first aid from Joshua in the hope of helping anyone who happened to incur an injury while being shipwrecked in their vicinity. At their request, I brought them to Joshua’s clinic once a month to observe and learn.
Joshua had cultivated a well-known clinic made popular by his Healing Stone. With it, he could heal most any trauma and any disease of which he understood the body’s natural healing mechanism. Since the stone’s healing powers were only linked to him, as the Warrior Stone powers were only linked to me, he tried ways to heal people with other remedies before resorting to the stone. In this way, his discoveries would go on to help many more generations.
He frowned at my suggestion for my stepfather and half-brother to work the clinic in his absence but seemed to be considering the idea nonetheless.
“I built this clinic from scratch, Abbey. I can’t leave on a whim.”
And he hadn’t. In our five years together, he had never left the clinic for more than a few days. Sometimes I was envious of the way it consumed him.
“I’m asking for your help.”
“So are my patients.”
“I’m your wife.” I could feel my temper rising. Why was he making this difficult?
“Yes, my wife who didn’t consult me before accepting a quest. And now you want me to drop my responsibilities to help.”
“This quest was assigned to me. I wasn’t given an option.”
“There’s always an option.”
I threw up my hands and spread student papers before me.
He cleared the table with an infuriating calm. “You can’t have both lifestyles. You chose not to live life at court and serve the Queen. Now, you choose to do select services and at my expense.”
I pulled a bioluminescent lamp onto the table. The blue-green light spread softly across the table so I could see the test papers. “I’m caught between trying to maintain my freedom and honoring my faith that the Queen wouldn’t summon me to a quest unless she had no other options. I’m not trying to make your life harder or ruin your clinic or deprive your patients. I’ll find someone else.”
Heat burned through my cheeks, and I bit my lip to keep from un- leashing words to express my disappointment. I busied myself grading chemistry papers by the glow of the lamp.
Joshua came around and stood behind me. I pretended to ignore him as I sat, marking furiously on a student’s paper.
The chemical formula for crystalline copper sulfate is CuSO4-H2O. How do they get this wrong?
Joshua ran his hands through my dark hair and my pen froze. He tugged gently on my hair, and I rose out of my seat, a tingling anticipation coursing through me at the promise of caresses to come. I stepped around the chair closer to him, brushing against his broad chest. He stroked a hand across my cheek and down my neck to my back.
With a devious grin, he unbuttoned my dress. I gave him my own fiery look as I let it fall unabashedly to the floor. His hungry eyes roamed over me before softening as he looked into my eyes.
“You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”
When he looked at me that way, I felt attractive. His touch sent a wave of heat through me. Whatever our disagreements, they were for- gotten in moments of intimacy.
I arched an eyebrow. “We’ll have to get you out more.”
Ignoring me, he wrapped his great arms around me and pulled me to him. “Of course, I’ll follow you anywhere, Abbey.”
I ran my hands around his large torso, feeling the warm flesh with my fingertips. Standing on my toes, I stretched up to him and tilted my head back in anticipation of a sweet, tantalizing kiss.
Joshua did not disappoint.
4
I lay in bed listening to the rhythmic sound of Joshua’s breathing. I thought of our time together and how I selfishly wanted to stretch it even longer.
One year after Joshua and I wed, I began giving serious consideration to the implications of my longevity. I had consumed the Aqua Santos on my quest to be champion. How long would I outlive him? I wondered. Now that we were so close I couldn’t imagine life with- out him. Was there anything that could be done about our future together?
I had first visited Baird on the subject. We had finished sparring one day and sat by the edge of the river. I ran a hand along the grass as I watched the wind caressing a nearby wisteria tree. Purple blooms danced in the breeze.
Baird sat beside me quietly, sipping his cider.
“What are the limits on who can drink the water?”
The corners of his eyes saddened, and he drew his lips into a straight line. “You’re thinking of Joshua?”
I nodded.
“You want more than a lifetime together?”
His question instantly made me feel selfish. How dare I want more than anyone else in this world had been given?
“I want more than his lifetime. I want my lifetime with him,” I clarified.
He sucked in a small breath. “What is Joshua’s opinion on the matter?”
I frowned. “I haven’t asked him. I’m just...researching.”
Baird turned his appraising eyes from me to the river. “The Aqua Santos can only be consumed with good intentions. Unselfish intentions.”
His tone suggested mine were the selfish intentions that met the exclusion criteria.
Baird continued, “You drank the water as part of your transition to becoming the Avant Champion. The monks drink for longevity to serve mankind.”
“I understand,” I surrendered, unmasked bitterness in my words.
“My unsolicited advice is to enjoy the many years you may have with each other and not add the misery of longing for more. It will detract from the time you have together.”
I hadn’t accepted his advice immediately, though I did eventually.
The day after my talk with Baird, I had traveled to the gypsy camp high in the Karnelik mountains. I arrived outside of their camp insufficiently clad in the warmest coat I owned, which was nothing like the thick animal hides needed to combat the frigid winds.
Mercifully, they recognized me and ushered me into a small, warm tent. They offered me warm goat’s milk while announcing my arrival to their leader. I didn’t care for warm milk, but it was a delicacy to them, so I drank while I waited alone, listening to the wind howl as it struck the impassive icy peaks of the mountains.
Within the hour, gypsies escorted me to Mama Duski’s tent. The large shelter could hold two dozen people, and I had once seen it house as many, a half dozen of which had been her advisors. Today, however, it contained only the two of us. I wondered if that was because of my reputation. Had Abigail Cross—an outsider accompanied by a com- plete stranger, Joshua—been cause for reservation, whereas the Avant Champion possessed the respect and trust to be left alone with the gypsy leader?
Empty or not, the tent was still as stifling hot. I wondered if the excessive heat did something to ease the old woman’s joints. Joshua had healed her advanced arthritis when we last visited but warned his work would be temporary owing to the nature of the disease.
Still, she looked well for her age. Although she didn’t stand to greet me, she did not sit as stiffly as she once had. Her eyes flared vibrantly green as she gave me a wide, toothless smile.
“Abigail Cross,” she said in her familiar gravelly voice. She waved for me to sit in a large fur-lined chair across from her.
I gave a slight bow before sitting. “Mama Duski, thank you for allowing me a moment of your valuable time.”
She nodded.
I paced myself by drinking another sip of my goat’s milk. Although I had questions, it would have been rude of me to delve into them immediately.
“How has the camp been?” I asked.
She responded in her usual speech, somewhat slurred by her lack of teeth. “We live on, though the Muglik seem particularly tenacious this year.”
I felt my face darken as a pit of guilt opened up in my stomach. I fretted about my distant future while the gypsies tried to survive day to day.
The Muglik comprised a degenerate clan of warriors who took sport in killing the pacifist gypsies despite the fact that three mountains were large enough for all of them.
Of course, why any of them would choose to live up here in the freezing fog remained a mystery to me. Perhaps that was not entirely true. I knew the gypsies lived here in order to scavenge the mountains for Chevorik Ambria—the magical stones. I didn’t know how many dozens or hundreds had been found over the years, but I knew of only three in active use—my Warrior Stone, Joshua’s Healing Stone, and the Queen’s Leadership Stone. There had been four. Inok activated the Veil Stone, but it was quiescent now that he was gone.
I shook off my grief and guilt.
“Would I offend your people in any way if I sent a message to theMuglik to cease their assault on the gypsies?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Would the message involve violence?”
“Most certainly,” I confessed. Based on my prior interactions with them, I didn’t think the Muglik would respond to anything except a show of force.
She shook her head slowly. “We do not support violence on our behalf. So, yes, it would be offensive.”
I frowned slowly, digesting her disappointing words. I looked into her eyes, which stared back at me saturated with expectation.
What is she expecting?
Her eyes flickered briefly to an unseen spot high on my right chest.
Of course!
“Perhaps I will confront them on my behalf,” I said, leaning back in my chair.
She gave me a satisfied, toothless smile. “Now,” she said, placing one hand on her knee, “you did not come here to discuss the quarrel you have with the Muglik. What has you preoccupied?”
“Is there a stone that prolongs life?”
She peered at me, her eyes boring into mine. “You have consumed the Aqua Santos.”
I met her gaze.
She continued, thinking aloud, “Your companion, Joshua, has not. You fear his mortality.” She was quick to discern my intentions.
I looked down at my leggings and rubbed my palms against them.
“No,” she said with finality. “There is no such stone. And you must also know that using any stone takes its toll.”
My eyes flew to hers. “What toll?”
The wrinkles about her eyes and mouth drooped to a sad expression. “The energy to fuel a stone comes from its user. Each use consumes some small morsel of the user’s life force.”
I buried my face in my hands. “And, in doing so, shortens one’s life?”
