The duelist 3, p.10
The Duelist 3, page 10
“Not here, wait until you are someplace with privacy behind Ithaca’s walls,” he said cryptically.
“Will do,” I said and stashed the rectangular package in the back of my armored belt for safekeeping, and then I adjusted Prosper’s reins to prepare for takeoff.
“And one more thing, Alex,” the ram-lord said with a broad smile. “Good work tonight.”
He then reached into his vest pocket for something too small for me to see, gazed down at it for a moment, and tossed it to me with a flick of his thumb.
I caught it and gasped when I realized what it was.
Chapter 7
The bottle-green gem glinted under the firelight, and I stared down at the herald core resting in the center of my palm.
The rain lashed against Ithaca’s library window, and it dawned on me I might still be recovering from the shock of the ram-lord’s unexpected gift.
When I’d urged him to take it back, he shook his head with a fond smile and looked me in the eye.
“Alex, I would stake my Sixth-Rank status on the fact you probably spent the entire Hunt helping other people,” the Asher Lord had said. “You probably weren’t even thinking about reaping the spoils of victory. Am I right?”
“Welllll…” I’d rubbed the back of my neck, but Mec wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Now, I had two herald cores.
And one of them was green.
I sat up from the comfortable oversized chair, pulled the orange herald core Redburn also gifted me from my pocket, and set both gems side-by-side on the low table in front of me.
Then I pulled out the mysterious package still wrapped in its tattered cloth cover and placed it next to the glittering gemstones so I could contemplate the items again like I had been for the last hour since I’d arrived home.
“There you are,” Zoie purred from the library entrance, and she strolled across the plush royal-blue rug on her bare kitten feet. She was freshly bathed so her complexion was rosy with a pleasing flush, and her ocean eyes were half-lidded in relaxation. “When did you get back, my love?”
I leaned back in the armchair to make room so Zoie could cuddle up on my lap.
“Not too long ago,” I said as I pulled her close and buried my nose in her damp hair that smelled of violets. “Jenner told me you all needed to scrub up.”
“We had to stop and hide a lot, and we even had to take a detour across the stream on foot,” Zoie explained as her ears went back in irritation. “Vel-Rala did not make it easy, and at one point she lost her footing, so I had to dive in after her.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as I slipped the silky jade robe she was wearing off one shoulder so I could swirl idle patterns into her skin, and I hid a fond smile into her hair when I realized the robe she was wearing was actually Shay’s. “Thank you for trusting me. I knew you would get everyone home safely.”
“We are a team. The burden of protecting them does not lie with you alone.” She butted her head under my chin, and I cupped her thigh with one hand so we could cuddle even closer for a moment. Finally, she lifted her head again and gestured to the small table. “Tell me: how did you get two herald cores?”
“Gavlain gave me the green core, and Asher Redburn gave me the orange one,” I said.
“No doubt because instead of trying to improve your status, you were probably running around and trying to help everyone around you,” she said.
“That’s basically what Gavlain said,” I snorted. “I’m starting to think that means I’m doing this Asher thing all wrong.”
“Actually, I think you are doing ‘this Asher thing’ right for once,” she murmured, nosed behind my ear, and then took a big sniff.
“That tickles,” I giggled as she then buried her face in my neck. “What are you doing, kitten?”
“I’m scenting you,” she said, and I shivered at the feeling of her tongue laving lightly over my clavicle. “Your natural aroma is most pleasing to me, and I want to smell like you before you wash it all off.”
“Well, that’s just fine,” I croaked as arousal simmered low in my belly.
“Mmm,” she hummed and kneaded my shoulders with both hands. “Your smell changed just now. Thinking pleasurable thoughts?”
“Thinking about how beautiful you are,” I said and kissed her gently on the lips.
“Are you two up to it again without me?” Shay’s teasing musical voice interrupted, which caused both Zoie and I to break apart with a guilty chuckle.
“There’s room for you, too, sweetheart,” I said and patted my right leg.
“Isn’t this nice?” she cooed and joined our cuddle puddle.
“Very nice,” I agreed as I combed my hand through her crimson hair now that it was returned to its normal down state.
Shay was dressed in her night clothes, a pair of satiny pants, and a flowy blouse that looked as comfortable as it was sheer. In her hand, she held a small glass vial, which she uncorked with her teeth.
“What were we all discussing?” my phoenix-wife asked as she draped my right arm over her lap, poured out some sort of oil from the vial that smelled like sandalwood, and began to massage it into my scar.
“We were waiting for you before we got… got too deep into… into… gahhh,” I groaned as my eyes rolled back in bliss, and I lost my train of thought.
Ever since I grabbed that bolt with my bare hands, a tight ache had started up right where the curse burned me and caused my fingers to tremble with fatigue, but the feeling of Shay’s massaging, along with the warming tingle of the oil, turned my brain into mush in seconds.
I thudded my head back against the cushioned chair-back. “Zoie. Help. Words…”
“I think what our husband is trying to say is we’d only just started debriefing each other before you walked in.” Zoie took pity on me and completed what I was trying to say. “You didn’t miss much. I was telling him about Vel-Rala.”
“Oh, yes, she did not handle things well, did she?” Shay commented absently as she continued to work her sharp little fingers into the meat of my tense arm.
It was heaven.
“How is she settling in?” I asked as I managed to pull together some coherent thoughts. “Is she inside the walls?”
“For now, I have set her up on the second floor next to Horus’ room, but when she feels more settled, she expressed interest in moving to one of the farmhouses,” Zoie said.
“Vel-Rala suggested she herself live in one of the farmhouses?” Shay eyed Zoie with an arched eyebrow. “Doesn’t seem like her. What with her ‘high standards,’ and all.”
“That does seem odd,” I remarked as I wiggled my fingers. The tremors had disappeared, and I squeezed Shay’s hand in silent thanks. “Maybe she’s turned around.”
“The threat of returning to the Traders might have been enough…” the cat-woman murmured, and her eyes took on that far-away look again.
“None of that, darling,” Shay cooed and reached across so she could lace her fingers with Zoie’s. “Stay here with us.”
The cat-woman blinked a few times and then gripped Shay’s hand followed by mine as she smiled.
“I, for one, am glad we all made it back safe and sound,” I said and kissed both my wives on their temples.
“Husband, you were just explaining to me about how you were gifted not one, but two herald cores,” Zoie said.
“He was gifted both of them?” Shay gasped and glanced at the gems still sitting on the table. “Even the green one? Aren’t the green ones supposed to be more powerful than the common red and orange ones? At least, that’s what I remember Horus saying.”
“Why exactly did Lord Mec give you the green one, by the way?” Zoie suddenly turned to me.
“Oh, um, I might have saved the Sacred Waters from being poisoned, or something like that,” I said with an offhanded shrug.
“Wait, what?” Shay practically squawked. “The Ancient Tithe Pool was attacked?”
“There was this really gross fat demon with wings that wanted to drool into the water, and Mec told me to take it out, so I did,” I explained. “But don’t worry, the Pool is fine. However, the Ceremony has been moved to Gella Vane’s estate in Gatetown.”
“Why there?” Zoie asked.
“There was some damage done to the revolving staircase.” I left my answer deliberately vague seeing as how Mec requested silence about the possible sabotage of the Sacred Stair. “Vane was the one who suggested the Ceremony be relocated, but I’m not sure why he insisted on having it at his estate. Isn’t there another place like a lake or something that Dawn could bless?”
“The only lake big enough is the one in Gatetown, but it is tainted simply because of the people who fish from the waters,” Shay said. “Even if the entire Alemic Order came to do the honors, it wouldn’t be enough to make it pure. Vane’s estate is the second largest aside from the Asher Lord’s Palace and wholly untouched.”
“How convenient,” I grumbled under my breath.
Oh, yeah. That guy definitely had something up his sleeves.
“How did you fell the beast?” Zoie asked.
“The crossbow,” I answered.
“How did you ever get that ancient thing to fire properly?” Her blue eyes widened.
“I almost didn’t,” I said, and then because I had both of their captive attention, I jumped into recounting my daring battle on the back of my trusty steed while I took down the beast.
When I got to the part where I was forced to course-correct the last bolt after the crossbow broke, I had them eating out of the palm of my hand.
“You managed a time-stop,” Zoie breathed in awe when I was finished, and I grinned as a proud smile unfurled on her face.
“Yeah.” I squeezed her thigh.
“It is quite impressive, husband, but forgive me,” Shay started and wiggled a little in my lap. “I just may die of curiosity if you don’t tell me what’s in that package.”
I barked out a laugh and rubbed my nose against hers. “Me, too! Mec gave it to me, but he told me to wait to open it until I was in private. The anticipation is killing me. but I wanted to wait for you two.”
“No time like the present,” Shay said and leaned over so she could grab the package and handed it to me. “Open!”
“Okay!” I wiggled my fingers into her ribs, and she shoved at me while giggling madly.
“Alright, do it already, I’m dying to know,” my phoenix-wife said breathlessly, and I conceded only because I was just as eager.
“It’s a book,” Zoie remarked when I removed the cloth. “Or half of one, anyway.”
She was right. Mec had gifted me with an ancient tome with only the front half of the book intact. The cover was weathered and cracked at the corners, and the image of the sun and the moon on the spine was faded.
In the center of the cover was an odd shape that looked like an upside-down omega symbol with a dot in the middle, and when I flipped the book open, I saw the whole thing was written in the same style.
And totally unreadable.
“This is an Alchemical Text,” Shay said after we all spent a moment flipping through the pages. There were a few pictures drawn on some of the pages that looked interesting, but without a way to understand the language it was written in, they were mysteries.
“Can you read what it says?” Zoie asked her.
“No, only an Alchemist can read the Runes,” the phoenix-woman replied as she traced one finger along the encrypted words. “Oh, Brother, how I wish you were here right now. Why did the Asher Lord give you this?”
“He said he knew I wanted to experiment with herald cores and thought this might help,” I explained and wrapped the book back up in its cloth for a modicum of protection. “Now, all we need is our Alchemist back.”
“However long that will be,” Shay sighed.
“Not too much longer, remember?” I reminded her. “Mec’s sisters will be arriving shortly, and according to him, they’ll help us sort everything out. You’ll see, we’ll have Horus back in no time.”
“Yes, but until then, you must get prepared to pass the trials of the Ceremony,” Zoie said with an expression that meant she was going to take it upon herself to be my personal trainer for the next several days.
“Yes, dear.” I smiled. “But take pity on me tonight and stay with me a little longer.”
The next few days panned out pretty much the way I thought they would.
I would wake up early before the sun thanks to my taskmaster wives who alternated depending on need.
Shay would help me wake up because she was one of those freaks of nature who automatically woke up before the sun every day, and then I would climb up to the terrace in the north courtyard so I could get some meditation in.
Of course, there was no change there.
In my subconscious mind, my dreams always took me to the same scene: Miles and miles of endless ocean stretched out in front of me, a race against a behemoth fish with chrome-colored eyes, a tempest, and it always ended with me following a voice down into the inky depths…
It was frustrating, but I kept my nose to the grindstone and kept meditating even with that heavy shield above my head.
After that was over, Zoie would then take over by forcing me to eat a quick but filling breakfast while she dragged me toward the ballroom-turned-home-gym she decorated for me for this express purpose.
She set a rigorous but measured pace that strengthened my muscles but didn’t exhaust me, and every time I felt my stamina pushed to the limit, she backed off and let me catch my breath.
I’d never had such an intuitive trainer, and I could feel myself improving bit by bit.
When we’d both worked up an appetite, we would break for lunch where Rylan inevitably talked my ear off about all the awesome things the raccoon-brothers were teaching him as we sat around the kitchen table.
Then I would do some chores if there were any, check up on our new resident Vel-Rala who was apparently suffering from a cold, practice with that heavy shield yet again, have dinner, and then collapse face first and let my gorgeous wives massage my aching body before I made love to both of them.
It was a comfortable routine we’d all fallen into, and even though the very real and very daunting task of the Tithing Ceremony was bearing down on me, I had Ithaca as my True North, and my wives as my steadfast anchors.
This particular afternoon, Rylan convinced me to go with him after lunch because he wanted to show me something in the green house.
“Is that heavy?” Rylan asked as he led us to the upper field by walking backwards.
I blew a stream of air up my face so my hair wouldn’t be in my eyes, and I hefted the shield higher.
“What do you think?” I grumbled as my muscles strained. Since the ceremony was two days away, I’d taken to carrying the shield with me everywhere.
“I couldn’t do it,” the stable-boy said as he deftly stepped over a tree root without looking.
“I couldn’t do what you’re doing, make sure you don’t trip over something, kid,” I snorted as he basically cartwheeled backwards over a smattering of boulders.
Rylan laughed and twirled around to face forward.
When we finally approached the humble yet elaborate doors to the greenhouse, I let myself take a break from the shield and set it against the wall of the structure.
“Okay, are you ready?” Rylan asked as he tried to contain his thousand-watt enthusiasm.
“Lead on, my good sir,” I commanded, and he giggled at the weird voice I was using.
Then Rylan tugged my wrist as he opened the doors, and my jaw nearly hit the ground at what I saw inside.
“See?” he enthused and gestured to the rows of green sprouts pushing through the dark earth. “They’re growing.”
“Those are the kolee seeds we planted?” I gasped as I crouched down to get a better look. Each sprout was a feathery green thing that reminded me of a bromeliad, each with the smallest white forget-me-not type blossom at the very top. “But we just planted them!”
“The kolee is a fast-growing plant,” Mel said from above us where he was hanging the last of the hand-woven hives all of us made out of ash-root vines. “The blossoms are at the perfect stage to start pollinating.”
“Good thing we have our beautiful bumblebirds,” Shay said as she breezed into the greenhouse with a cylindrical cage covered with a cloth. When she removed it, the creatures inside the metal cage looked like a combination of a hummingbird and an oversized fuzzy moth with four dragonfly wings, and when they flapped them, a chiming hum could be heard as if their wings were actually made of crystal. “They have been eager to move in to their new home ever since they adopted their new queen, Lula.”
“Can I see the queen?” Rylan asked as his boundless curiosity shone through his brown eyes.
“Yes,” Shay said as she came closer so she could set the cage on the ground. “In fact, I was hoping you would do the honors of carrying her up to her nest in the middle up there.”
The phoenix-woman pointed upward at the hive hanging down from the middle rafter.
“What do I do?” he asked eagerly as Shay and I exchanged fond looks over his head.
Shay then knelt down on one knee, opened the cage, and gently gathered the largest of the bumblebirds into the palm of her hand.
“Come here,” she murmured to the stable-boy and gestured for him to hold out one of his own hands. “Now, you must hold Lula securely but gently. She is missing three of her four wings.”
“What happened to her?” Rylan asked with a devastated expression on his young face.
“Some people who collect bumblebirds just for the aesthetic value like to remove all their wings except one,” she explained and placed the bumblebird in the center of Rylan’s hand.
Lula wiggled her tiny body, looked up at the stable-boy with her big magenta eyes, and batted her long lashes.
“Why would anyone ever do that?” he gasped in a horrified tone as he carefully clutched the queen bumblebird closer to his chest.
“I guess some people find the noise they make annoying,” Shay said with a sneer.
“That’s terrible,” Rylan choked out in a suspiciously wet voice, and he petted the pretty little creature on the top of its arrow-shaped head.
