Chapter 16

Queen Geleeda, Monarch of Calastia steps away from the silver bowl and its images, and then in rage slaps the vessel against the fine Keldar marble wall. Water fans across the polished floor, the distorted image of the dead Sister echoing through the liquid from Shelzar, fades.

"What, in Moromo's name were you thinking!" She growls at the three Sisters standing in her hidden chamber.

"Take care child, and remember to whom you speak." one replies stepping forward.

"Oh I do remember well who you are. Do you forget who I am? What I am? Does this human exterior cloud your mind?" She steps forward, growing in height and power, "Do you see what these fools see when you say that to me!"

Power glows in her eyes, blazing red flames glow in her throat, as she stalks forward, "More than that Sister." she spits, rancor and malice saturate the word 'Sister', "More than that, do you remember where you are? You are not in your grove, you are in MINE!" The thunder clap hammers the Sister against the marble wall, the impact sends cracks through the panel.

The three Sisters hiss, calling power, but Geleeda sees all of the threads are defensive magic. They can not hurt her here and they know it. She turns her back on them and steps to the chamber's throne.

She sits, her form returns to the recognizable form of Geleeda the Fair. The face and form most citizens of Calastia expect to see when they are confronted with the Queen. The face and form her husband is enchanted by. She sighs, relaxing, pulling back her rage, and her hidden nature. They were Sisters after all, She could not kill them like errant servants.

"You sent to me." She says, once her voice is calm, "at great danger to myself and you, a message. A command. Get the girl." She stands up again, and paces to the far wall. "It was a simple command and a simple task. And yet, you summoned me to this task. Me!"

She turns on the three, their vile faces glowing with red hate. "And then you send one of your own to fetch her. Not only a Sister, but demons! In all honesty have you finally lost your minds? Once this is known, once others who perhaps only had a political stake in her well being and existence hear of this, do you not think that they will begin to wonder what other possibilities exist in possessing and controlling this girl?"

She paces back to her throne, "I know I do. It doesn't take an intelligence to know that control of this girl has value." Her voice is sweet now, cunning. "I don't know why you want her and I don't care, but I know that possessing her puts me in a position over you far greater than you fully understand." She sits down, and looks at them, "And I would never have to know. I could just take her, and put her in this chamber, beyond your powers, in full protection of mine, and wait for her to blossom into what ever it is you fear."

The three sisters look at each other, venom drips from yellow fangs as they gnash out words in their own language.

"I see that I am right." Geleeda says, interrupting them. "I am glad that you now see what it is you have done. You have left your grove, and anyone who knows anything about you in Shelzar, will think exactly what I just stated. Anyone. Including that assassin who killed our Sister. And her primary. And as soon as that wench returns with her report; the Cult of Ancients themselves. The favorite children of Belsameth the Slayer. Not to mention the Walkers of Drendari."

She sits back, her eyes lost in thought, trying to wrap around the whole scope of this blunder. "I don't need an answer." She says after a time. "You finally have lost your minds. Whatever it is you feared from this girl is on its way ten fold now."

Geleeda's eyes shine like sapphire, "I see her. Years from now. She is tainted, darkened, but not by you, and not by any that control her. I see her, in full power. She is ..." her voice trails for a moment. "by the hells of the planes..." she whispers, her eyes glowing too bright to look at now. Geleeda screams, clawing at her eyes! Tearing at her hair. Her mouth gnashes at the vision, as if to sever the bound by biting through the magic. Blood drips down her face as she tries to tear the vision from her mind.

The light fades. She falls to the floor, catching herself on hands and knees. The hags step forward to help her up. She slaps them away, her breathing heavy, exhausted. "Fools." she spits. "All of you." she curses between heavy gasps. "You can not control that. You can only hope to survive it!"

Blood oozes from the wounds around her eyes, her blonde hair matted down with the heavy sweat of exertion, and saturations of blood. "Get out. All of you, and never return. I'll have nothing to do with you now. Once you were a power, but now you are foolish, and overconfident. If you come here again I will destroy you."

The three Sisters back way from the Queen, and look at one another. With agreeing nods they exit the chamber, into the darkness of night and vanish in swirls of midnight winds, blowing North to their grove. The prophecy is fulfilled.

Naill catches up with Elaine and the beggar. She heard the roar behind her, and is sure most of Shelzar heard that roar. Mac Anu is dead. She can't believe it. Tears well in her eyes. She knew that the oath was set, that each of them would die this night, getting Elaine to the safety of dawn, but she still can't believe he ended that way. She didn't know him well. They were not lovers, only partners of the moment, but she could have been his lover. He was a man that she could have loved, if she wasn't so tired of what always came of love.

She knew so little about him, and it hurt to know that. That he was brave, she knew. That he would sacrifice himself to save someone else, or for a purpose greater than himself, she knew. That he was sad, and lost, she knew. But she knew nothing of the whys behind those aspects.

When she caught up with the other two, she passed them, leading the way, indicating that she would take rear guard again. The beggar watched her pass, but said nothing. Asked nothing. He knew the fates had taken Mac Anu as well.

They made their way through the sprawl; leaping fences, winding through passages and gardens. No one was following. Mac Anu had succeeded in giving them the space they needed to loose the hounds on their trail, and they made the best of those precious moments purchased with his life.

She watched Elaine run. Energy poured out of her, and her eyes were hard and glistening. "She's starting to suspect." Naill thought to herself. "Starting to figure out that Mac Anu is not catching up."

They completed their circuit through the sprawl. The trail wound up to the North, then circled back down, to the main streets. Here they stopped for a moment to catch their breath and drink some water. The Red Lady was only blocks away. They said nothing to each other, as they passed the water skin and looked into the shadows and darkness around them.

Just as they are ready to leave, Elaine leans over to her and asks, "How?"

Naill pauses, and looks deeply into her eyes. "Bravely." She answers, and takes off, leading them the final distance to the Red Lady.

As they approach the Red Lady, a voice says from the darkness above them. "Took you three long enough." and Mac Anu falls down from the shop roof beside them.

She rushes forward, before she can think and embraces her partner. Tears pour from her eyes. He returns the embrace after a moment, and then gently presses her back. "It's not over yet Naill." He says. "Let's get going. I'll tell you everything when we are safe in the tunnel."

She nods, unable to speak, and takes up rear guard, as they approach the Red Lady. From behind him she can see the torn leather, and the blood seeping from his wounds. His right shoulder is ripped open. But he's alive and with them now, and safety is just across the street.

Heilan watches the four of them cross the street to the Red Lady. He sizes up the group. One of them is torn up pretty bad. The leather jacket is shreds on the right side, and bloody. The young blonde girl is Elaine, he suspects, by her shape and the way the other three guard her. It looks like she is in good health, and in good spirits, though wary of the danger around her.

"What do you think did that to him?" Ashi asks from his side.

"No idea." He answers, truthfully. What ever it was, it was strong. Leather wasn't easy to rip through like that. "At least our information was good."

Ashi nods her head, and watches as Heilan takes a silver tube from the inside of his jacket, and a small pouch.

"What is that?" she asks.

"Mate Moth dust." he answers, taking a small bead from the pouch and putting it in the tube. Leaning forward, he puts the end of the tube to his lips, takes aim and blows. The small bead is shot across the street, hitting Elaine in the back of her leather jacket and turns to dust on impact. She doesn't notice the marking.

"What does that do?" Ashi asks, her eyes a little wide with the question.

"Back where I come from there are moths we call Mate Moths, because they mate for life. They live for three or four years sometimes. The male can find the scent of his female over long distances. The bead is made from the dust of her wings, and this little man," he says, pulling a small wooden box from his jacket and opening it enough for her to see, "will find Elaine no matter where she goes now, and lead us to her."

"Unless she takes off that jacket." Ashi says, looking back at the group as they walk in the door of the Red Lady.

"Yes." Heilan agrees.

"So we aren't going to follow them inside?"

"No, we'll never make it through the door without them being alerted, and the less they move now, the better. I suspect that their plan is to hole up there for a few days and then try to get her out of the city through the tunnels. Unless they have to move, they'll stay where they are, and rest up."

"So when do we get her?"

"In the morning. Once they are rested, fed and had some sleep, we can approach and talk more reasonably to them. Right now, they'll just run again." Heilan leans back against the wall and closes his eyes. "You take first watch, I'm going to relax for a while."

"Heilan?"

"Yes," he says, without opening his eyes.

"What's to become of me once this is over?"

Opening his eyes he looks at her. He could never have completed this mission without her help, but he had no place for her in his life either. "I have a friend in the North, in Darakeene, who needs a body guard. How would you like to try the trade?" He asks.

She thinks about it for a while, her heart breaking. She knew that he wouldn't keep her, but hearing him say it, makes it real. "Is he like you?" She asks.

"A bit nicer, though I'll warn you now, he's married. I suspect that he'll have a child on the way soon, and you'll be the child's guardian." He answers.

"It sounds like a new life." Ashi says, looking away. "What's his name?"

"Prince Galahad."

Ashi snaps her head around, eyes wide. "Prince Galahad? As in the man that married the King of Darakeene's daughter?"

"One and the same. Strong, and kind, and he acts like he's not too bright, but don't let him fool you. He's much smarter than he lets on."

"Well, if I can't serve you, I guess a prince will do." Ashi says, smiling and returns to watching the Red Lady.

Heilan leans back and closes his eyes again. The trees of his family fill his mind and he drifts across the music of their song.

"Do you have everything you need your highness?"

The man is tall, and if Elaine was ever going to use the term rakish or debonair to describe someone, they were certainly options now. She had heard the terms from stories, but had never seen a man who might be considered debonair. He bent and kissed her hand, his left hand made a small flourishing gesture.

And he called her 'highness'.

She wasn't a 'highness', she was a bar maid, an orphan, an escaped slave, a friend of rogues.

A sorceress.

Yes, she was a sorceress, and in this land she had already gleaned from the stories Helen's children told her, that sorceresses were not only accepted, but held in high esteem. And yes, her father was a Prince, or so she was told, but this man was human, so what did it matter to him?

She looked around, averting her eyes from his deep gaze, and hiding the color rising in her cheeks. The basement was dark, filled with caskets and boxes. Shelves of plates, stacks of cups, baskets of silverware, lined the walls. The restaurant upstairs was elaborate. She had never seen such a place in her life. But down here was clean, and safe. Food was laid out for them. Mac Anu and Naill were already sampling the pastries and rolled spice meats.

"Yes," she said, unable to form words to disagree with the title he gave her. "yes, I think everything is just fine. Mac Anu? Do you think we need anything else?" She asks, hoping he will break this spell, and get rid of this man who made her feel... what was it exactly that he made her feel? She didn't know, but she didn't like it.

Mac Anu put a grape in his mouth and then turned to her as if apologetic, "No my princess," He said with a formal bow. His features stone, and ... professional? As if he were her servant, and the title 'your highness' was an everyday affair for him. What the heck was he doing? Where was the jibe, the sarcasm? She looked at his shoulder.

"Yes, yes there is. Send someone down to look at his shoulder and tend the wound." She pulls back her hand. The sight of his wound and the reason for its existence putting steel in her voice. "Now." she finishes.

"Certainly your highness, I will see to it right away." he bows, takes three steps backwards and heads up the stairs.

Elaine looks at the beggar, her eyebrow lifted.

"He knows who you are Elaine, he is one of us. A Gray. He's just trying to be polite." He answers her unvoiced question. "You can play along or not as you wish, its not part of a cover or anything. I'm going to get changed out of these beggar rags and get comfortable. We have some fine food and a tale to hear from Mac Anu." He pauses and bows, his right hand flourishing just as the servant had just done, "If you will excuse me your highness."

She sees the smile on his lips, and is suddenly comfortable. "No." she says, facing him, straightening her shoulders and turning her chin slightly, standing as she always imagined a royal queen might stand.

"Excuse me?" the beggar asks.

"You are not excused. You will first tell me your name, or some name that I can call you. I will not continue to think of you as simply "beggar". You risk too much for me to think of you that way."

He bows again, "As you wish my Ladyship, you can call me Ranter, as everyone else does in this city." he steps back three paces and turns to fetch a bag from the back wall.

She catches the expression on Naill's face, and says, "What?"

"Nothing." Naill says, still looking at Ranter for a moment and then turns to Elaine, performing a perfect curtsey, "Your highness" as she completes the gesture. She could be in high court, and performs the movement with ease and grace. Elaine laughs. The sight of Naill in full leather armor, daggers on her thighs, and arms, her hair pulled back and tied with a wire garrote, performing the eloquent curtsey is too much for her. Her laugh is loud and very unladylike.

Naill joins her and offers her a handful of grapes. She takes them and plops down beside her, still giggling. The tension of the last few days drains from Elaine's face, she is sixteen again, laughing with friends, safe from the world outside. No demons, no stalking nightmares, no reason to die for her.

Soon an older gentleman returns with the servant and looks at Mac Anu's arm and shoulder. He removes the leather jacket, the thin padding underneath, and then his linen shirt. Elaine gasps.

The wounds are terrible. She can see bone in his shoulder, and they are filled with some green stuff. Moss she sees when she steps closer. He packed the wounds with moss. The doctor is pulling out the clumps, and Mac Anu winces with each pull. "Good work here son." the doctor says, and then looks at the rest of his back. "But I see wounds aren't a new thing to you."

Elaine looks at Mac Anu's back. It is striped with cuts. Deep scars from slashes. They are old wounds, but they stripe every inch of his back. She backs away, hands to her lips. She looks at Naill, but the question won't come out.

Naill pulls her away, and whispers, "Mac Anu was an orphan, and then a slave in the mines." She explains, "He tried to escape several times, and they whipped him for it."

"Oh goddess." Elaine sighs, "how old was he?"

Naill shrugs, "Nine or ten, I'm not sure. I know he found two men running a side show who took him in when he was fourteen, but I think he wandered for a while before that happened."

Elaine looks into Naill's strange eyes. Seeking something there, some explanation to this horror. Some way to face him again.

Naill gives her nothing, she looks away, back to Mac Anu. "Some of these humans, they toss their young away as if they are meaningless. As if they can always have more. As if they don't matter." She walks to the small table of food and picks out cheese and fruits. Fills a wine glass and takes it to Mac Anu.

Elaine thinks of her village. The men and women. The anger in their voices, the stones they threw at her. The threats of death. "Yes." she whispers. "yes they do."

The doctor finishes removing the moss from the deeper wounds. Elaine walks over to Mac Anu, puts a hand on his left shoulder and kisses him on the cheek. "Thank you." She says.

He turns, and smiles. Pain is still etched in his eyes. "I lived. You lived. Don't worry over it."

She nods her head, and steps back, to watch the doctor work. No longer horrified by the blood and torn muscles and white bones. She wants to know how to heal this, what to do. She expects this will not be the last time she sees people around her wounded. The world had cruel creatures in it, and good people that will stand their ground against them. She wants to know how to save those good people, or at least ease their pain.

"We can do this one of two ways." The doctor says to Mac Anu. "I can stitch you up, and you'll recover in a few weeks. Nothing is broken. Not sure how you managed that, but there it is. You'll be weak and not able to use the arm for much, but the healing will be better, and you'll be stronger afterwards. Or I can pour some healing draft in there."

The doctor assess the wounds again. "With as deep as these are, the pain is going to be incredible, and you probably won't be able to move for an hour or so. If something comes after you during that time, it won't be good for you."

Mac Anu looks over to Naill. She shrugs. "What about after that hour?" he asks.

"You'll be fine. A little weak, but you'll be good enough to move and run if you have to."

"Ranter?" He asks, into the darker area of the cellar.

Ranter steps out of the shadows. He's not a beggar now. The leather he wears is dark black, silver daggers are at his side and an amulet of silver hangs from his neck. His gray hair is brushed and pulled back, his beard is trimmed. Elaine's eyes go wide, and she feels herself blush. Old enough to be her grandfather, but still... wow.

"I would take the potion. If we have to move before you are ready, that's just bad luck, but we can't stay here for weeks waiting for you to be ready to fight again." He says, buckling on a heavy sword, and then tying a small gray silk sash around its hilt. "Of course, come dawn, your task is complete. You could go back to Helen's house, and recover fully there. I can get someone else to fill in. You've done more than your part this night. No one will think less of you."

Mac Anu appears to think about this for a while, "No." he finally says, "I'm in to the end." He looks at the doctor, "Use the potion."

The doctor takes out a heavy stick wrapped in leather from his bag. Ranter walks over to them and takes Mac Anu's left arm, bends his left leg up to the edge of the table and starts strapping his arm to his lower leg with leather straps. He then pulls off his sword belt and straps the arm to his chest, as the doctor prepares his liquids.

Elaine watches, gathering everything in, "Why are you doing this Ranter?"

"The wound is deep, and has ripped much of the muscle. See here?" He points to deeper areas of the wounds. "If he moves around while the potion is working they won't graph back properly and he'll loose a lot of strength, and some agility. He'll be stiff. If he moves too much he could loose feeling in the arm all together. It will be healed, as in not bleeding, but he might as well not have the thing afterwards. Strapping him up like this is the best way."

"Can I help?" She asks.

"You can hold his head, make sure he doesn't spit out the stick. He could bite off his tongue if that happens." Ranter says.

She climbs on the table and cradles his head in her arms, brushing his hair with her fingers. Ranter looks at her, and sighs.

"No dear, he's not sick with fever, he's going to be thrashing about in pain. Here." he jumps up on the table and puts her hands on each end of the stick, and pulls his head back between her breasts. "Hold him like this and don't let go. He's strong, so get a good hold and brace yourself. Naill, get over here and help her."

Naill drops her piece of cheese and jumps up on the table. "Keep your chin away from the top of his head." She tells her, and adjusts her position a little. "Get down like this, keep your center here in your hips."

Elaine looks down into Mac Anu's gray eyes. He winks at her. He feels relaxed against her, as if he's been through this a hundred times. She looks at the scars on his chest, and arms, and thinks maybe he has. "I guess we'll have to wait for your tale." She says to him. He blinks his eyes twice.

She looks over to the Doctor who has finished mixing his draft. The servant that came back down with him helps to strap his right arm into position, using his own belt. Ranter over sees the process, adjusting things occasionally. He looks at Elaine again, with Naill behind her. Nods his head. "We are ready for you doctor."

The doctor comes over with a cup filled with a deep blue liquid. He checks over Ranter's work and nods approvingly. "Fine job. Arm is in a perfect position. Just make sure he doesn't move it."

"He won't." Ranter says and takes hold of the arm. Mac Anu screams behind the stick and his head comes forward. Elaine pulls back hard, but his neck is stronger than her arms, and getting stronger.

"Hold him girl!" Ranter snaps, "He hasn't even started with the potion yet. This is no time to be gentle!"

Elaine closes her eyes and feels the magic around her. The power glyph forms, silver, with flames. "I will hold you." She whispers. Strength pours out of the base of her spine and into her arms and legs. Mac Anu's head slams back into her chest. She looks down into his eyes. "I have you." she says. "You will be fine. I won't leave you. I won't let you go." her voice is calm, loving.

His eyes are sharp, the pupils dilated until they look like eclipsed moons. The doctor begins pouring the liquid into the wound. Elaine feels an electric shock go through his body. His eyes go wide, his body thrashes, trying to pull away, trying to escape. She holds his head against her, unmoving, and talks softly to him. He isn't hearing her, she knows that, but she keeps his eyes, and doesn't look away, even through the terror in them, the horrible pleads gurgling through the leather gag, screams deafen her, and tear apart her heart. "I have you. I won't let you go."

She wants to see how the potion works, but she doesn't dare take her eyes from him. Something tells her that he needs her eyes, needs her to see him, and not leave. She doesn't leave, doesn't abandon him. "I will always be here." she says, "I won't leave you."

The leather strap on his left leg snaps, Mac Anu's foot shoots out catching the servant in the chest and sending him across the room. Naill jumps down from the table and with three quick strikes to his thigh the leg falls dead.

Soon after, the tremors in Mac Anu begin to subside. His eyes go from horror to pain, and then drain to exhaustion. Elaine eases off the pressure from the leather gag and takes it from his mouth. Mac Anu looses consciousness. She pulls him back and nestles him against her breast, running her fingers through his drenched hair. Singing and old song she doesn't understand. Something she learned very long ago. The words are elven, but the meaning is lost to her.

The rest of them unstrap his body in silence. Listening to Elaine sing. Naill checks on the servant, who is a little embarrassed but unharmed. Elaine hears him whisper, "She really is a princess, isn't she?" Naill looks at him, and then nods her head. "Really is." She says. Then walks over and begins to massage Mac Anu's left thigh.

Elaine watches her with interest. "What did you do to him?"

"Something I learned a while back, but you aren't suppose to do it with your fists." Naill says, grinning. "In fact it is suppose to be done with very thin needles."

"Can you teach me?" Elaine asks.

Naill looks at her, and realizes that she really is, a princess of the elves. Despite the fact that she is half human, she is royalty. That's why she can't leave her in danger, that's why her blood boils when she sees Elaine helpless. Race memory. She shakes her head a little, and sees the sixteen year old girl again, and smiles. "If you would like, sure. I can show you, though I don't know much about it. Just enough to stop Mac Anu's leg with my fist."

Elaine smiles, and caresses his forehead. "Do you love him?" She asks suddenly.

Naill looks at her, and then at Mac Anu. "He's a good man." she answers.

"I didn't ask that." Elaine says, her eyes bold. "I asked if you loved him. I know he is a good man. No man I have ever met in my life would have done what he did tonight for a girl he didn't know. And I know you are a good woman, and Ranter is ... well he's a good liar, but a great man as well."

"You are asking a harder question than you know." Naill answers and walks to the doctor's table, gets a few towels, wets them down, and brings them back to Elaine. She begins to wash his chest and hands Elaine a cool wet towel for his head. She takes it, and begins to wash his face. Mac Anu doesn't move, blissfully in uncharted lands of dream.

"We all have our wounds." Naill says suddenly, her voice a little sad. "Mac Anu has his scars, you have your village, and I have mine. You know of the forsaken?"

"The forsaken? No."

Naill searches her eyes, but sees only openness, "Back in the war, the war between Titans and Gods, our god was slain by Chern, the Titan of disease. My people went mad and killed that beast. It is said that with his last breaths he cursed us."

"Your eyes." Elaine gasps.

Naill nods, "That's part of it, but it was much more than that. Much more. Most of our women can not bare children, and the ones we do bare are deformed, and weak. Most newborns don't last but a few years. Without our god we lack healers, who might have helped."

"Never the less, children are important to us, the survival of our race is important. We have to survive. But also, as a race, we went a little mad as well. Some of our clans do horrible things to insure that we, as a race, survive." She looks around, Ranter is across the room, talking to the doctor and the servant. "I guess my clan was no different really."

"It was decided that it was more important to bare children than to have families. That any child born would be taken care of by the clan, no matter who bore the child, or who was the father. Then it was decided that women must bare children, no matter who the father was, or how many men it took to impregnate her. If there was a chance that she would become with child, then she must try."

She pauses, and looks up at Elaine, not seeing understanding. But Elaine recognizes pain when she sees it, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, it's okay."

"No, it is good that you don't understand, that your life has not been like mine. But it doesn't make it okay." Naill says. "Since the time I was your age, every man in my village took me during the night. For years. Until I escaped."

"They hunted me down many times, taking me back to the village. I never became pregnant, and after a while they quit coming after me."

Elaine is silent, she never heard of such an atrocity. How could such a thing be thought of as 'okay', and even, 'right'?

"So, when you ask if I love him." Naill continues. "I can say I care about him, that if I could say the word 'love' and not equal it with my village, I would say yes. But I can't. I look at him, and I know he is the best man I have ever met, and sometimes I think that he would like to be with me. But, I can't. If ever I could, he is the only man I have met who I believe I would love."

"He would never leave me, and never force me." She continues, gently washing his healed arm. "He would always be there for me, and I for him. I would die for him. And when I thought he was dead, I knew that I was as well."

Elaine reaches out and takes Naill's head in her hand, kissing her forehead. Naill smiles up at her, and gently pulls away. "Of course, if you tell him any of this I'll have to tear out your tongue." a smile on her lips, "Your highness."

They sit in silence for a while, and then Elaine lays his head down in Naill's lap and goes to the food table. She is hungry, but also she wants to leave Naill with her love, for a while. How many times will she be able to just hold him, and feel safe? She couldn't take that from her. He would be awake soon, and then they would be back to their game.

Secrets. Secret loves, secret needs, secret pasts. A goddess of secrets watching over them. Secrets born from pain, from shame. Loyalty and honor born from empathy. She is beginning to understand them, to understand why they risked their lives for her, a girl they didn't know. They would not throw her away because they were thrown away. They would not abuse her because of the abuse they had to bare, and the heartache they still endured.

Everyday Naill looked at Mac Anu and was reminded why life, love and family were so important. Everyday Mac Anu looked at Naill and knew why freedom was so dear. And when they looked at her, enslaved and kept from her father, they simply could not bare the pain in themselves.

It wasn't guilt. She knew that. They did not feel like it was their fault, or that they had to do something. It was more than that, it was more personal. The fact that it was happening to her, made it happen to them. The fact that it was happening at all; that anyone, anywhere had to suffer under someone else's righteousness or heel of power, meant that they too suffered. That they were not free. Not because they were special, but because they were not special. That they were common.

She looked at the shadows, and wondered about them. A mixture of darkness and light. Flashes of the shadow world filled her head. It wasn't a good place. It was odd and twisted, but there was power there. Power that felt very much like her own power. She sipped the wine, and found it stronger than she was use to, so she mixed it with water. Being drunk now would not be a good thing.

She tested the strength in her hands and found that the magic was spent. It didn't last very long, but it was amazing. She thought about the way she got it to come. She was sure she could do it again. But could she do it when she needed it? How often, and for how long? She set down her cup and focused on her rune of power. When she called it before it was wreathed in flames, so she focused on the flames, "I will hold you." she whispered, just as before, and felt the strength return to her arms and legs.

Now, with her mind focused on the strength and not on Mac Anu, the feeling was overwhelming. She felt powerful, strong, and even fearless. She picked up her cup again, drank the draft in a gulp and crushed the metal cup in her hand.

She dropped it and stepped back, shocked. She hadn't meant to do that, didn't even think she could. She looked around quickly, and saw that no one had noticed her. She quickly bent, picked up the cup and set it on the table. Mixed water and wine in another and walked away.

It was good though, she smiled. Hopefully it would last until Mac Anu was on his feet. If she had to defend him, she knew she could right now. She wondered how strong she really was? She thought about how easy she held him during the worst of his pain. Could she give him this strength?

The thought opened a world of possibilities to her. If she could, that would be the best defense she could give any of them. They knew how to fight, how to run, how to hide. But if she could give them strength, speed, or even silence ...

What about the darkness? The darkness she saw the demons in. Could she do that? Could she make that happen? She had cast a colored rainbow in her room. It would be something like that, only all black, and it would have to stay too. The rainbow just shot out of her and kept going, but the darkness was something that was stationary, and ... on something. Like her strength was. She pulled the magic into her, but put it on her as well. She shaped it first, and then told it where to go.

Maybe she could cast on something outside of herself. The rainbow was outside of her. Why couldn't she cast strength outside of her?

For the first time in her life she was excited about the power inside of her, this magic, for which she lost home and family. Maybe it was not a curse after all. Maybe she could help these new friends of hers with it some day.

Mac Anu woke up after about half and hour. Naill put his head down on her rolled up leather jacket and gave him a light punch in the arm. "About time." She said, and walked away. Mac Anu smiled weakly and closed his eyes again, but she could tell he was awake, just resting. His body had not fully recovered yet.

"He'll need food soon." Ranter tells her as he walks in with a new leather jacket and a shirt for Mac Anu. "Healing takes quite a bit out of the body. Magic doesn't make things, it just moves them around."

She thought about that. Penbrook told her much the same thing. It was called transmutation. Something that was not here, is here, something that was here, is now changed. So where did the thing that was not here, come from? If magic can not make things, and only moves them around?

It steals them.

She jumped, startled, and looked around. The voice in her head was as clear as her own, but it wasn't her. The voice was female, soft, and she had heard it before. When? Where?

She looked at Ranter, "Did you hear that?"

"No, and neither can they." He said, and walked away.

He's lying. She thought. He did hear something. She searches the room, but no one seems to be aware of the voice.

I told you we would talk again child.

"Who are you?" she asks.

Come to me again, we will talk. It is safe, for a while, we have time. Look around outside again if you want to make sure.

Suddenly she remembers where she heard this voice. She tried to reach Penbrook, but found Her instead.

Okay, she thinks at the voice. I'll come. But only for a short time.

As you wish.

She sets down her cup, walks over to the wall, and sits down. Bringing up her rune of power, she gathers in all the magic she can. She doesn't know why, but she may need it to get back.

Magic fills her, she can feel it crackle across the hairs of her neck and arms. Then she sends her mind outside.

It is still dark outside, and late. Very late. The Red Lady is still full, people are laughing, and new patrons still arrive at the door. Lights are still on up and down the street, but there is no sign of danger anywhere. No areas of total darkness. She looks up at the night sky. She sees the moon, but something inside of her says not to go that way. Not like this, never like this.

Looking along the ground she sees shadows everywhere. That's where she wants to go, into the shadows. She stretches her mind, and reaches into them. They pass through her, and her mind passes through them, but all she does is enter into the building where the shadow was outside. She leaves the room and looks at the shadow again.

"Feel it happen" she tells herself. "Remember what happened when Ranter did it."

She remembers the feeling, the opening, the acceptance. Reaching into the shadow again, she feels the change, and the opening. She is in shadow.

"Very good." Says a voice behind her.

She turns and sees a beautiful woman. She is exquisite. The kind of woman Mac Anu would love. "The only woman I ever loved" She hears him say.

"You are Drendari" She says.

"Smart too." Drendari answers. "yes, I am Drendari, Goddess of Shadows, and Secrets. And you are Elaine, daughter of Edrin Northstar."

Elaine looks around the world that she is in. It is fascinating, wild, dangerous. "Why do you know me?"

"Because you are important to me." Drendari answers.

"Important to you? You are a goddess."

"Yes, yes I am. Do you think that goddesses do not feel that people are important?"

"No miss." She says, and bows her head.

"Now, enough of that. I'm not much into the bowing and scrapping thing." Drendari says and walks up to her, taking her hand.

"Your father is important to me. He's working for me, you see. I did him a favor, a long time ago, and in return, he promised to his service to me for five years. Not very long for an elf. Five years. For a human it might have been a huge price to pay, but for him, a man that will probably live to be six hundred, five years is a very small payment."

"What did you do for him?"

"He will have to tell you that himself, if he chooses to. It was a very personal thing, and something he is not proud of. In fact it causes him great pain to think about it." She answers. They sit down. On what, Elaine has no clue.

"Now, I want you to listen to me, very carefully. Your father loves you, and wants to meet you. I know you have heard different, but the fact is he would do anything to see you safe." She looks deeply into her eyes. "And I want you to meet him too. He is a fine man, a real Prince. But remember that he is a Prince, and can not make decisions like most people do."

"What do you mean?"

"When he makes decisions, he is not making them just for himself, or for just a few people, but for an entire race of people. He is very good at it, but you have to understand that his will is not always his own. He knows this, and takes his life and position very seriously."

"He has been with me now for over two years. And I did not understand him for a long time. In fact, I almost let him out of his agreement, because I thought he was more trouble than he was worth. But then I started to see, and to understand him. He is a great man."

"But I am little afraid for you."

"Afraid for me? Am I still in danger?"

"Oh yes, definitely. They will be coming again for you soon, but that's not what concerns me. That's not to say that those coming for you can not succeed in capturing you or killing you. That is out of my hands. I am not afraid of what will happen if you fail, but what will happen if you succeed."

What?

I can not tell you more. Just think on what I've said. Remember it, if you succeed and find your father.

The world begins to change, to shift. Colors stream back into view. She has been expelled from the Shadow world. Around her the lights of Shelzar blast through the night. Below the Red Lady burns her eyes with crimson paint and magics.

I want to go back, I need to go back. She knows she can't though. She was invited in and then shown the way out. Drifting down, she passes through the ceiling, and then the floors. Falling like a heavy fog, back to her body. She opens her eyes. Ranter is looking at her. He turns away, and takes a bite of meat.

She gets up and walks over to him. "They will be coming for us soon." she says.

He nods his head, and then makes his way to the back of the cellar, where a stack of boxes reaches the ceiling. He pulls them back, and touches the stone. A door slides away, exposing a tunnel.

Mac Anu is eating like he hasn't eaten in days. She watches him for a moment, and glances at Naill, who is standing behind him, smiling where he can't see. "She is his wife." She thinks. "She will never say it, and she will never stand in his way if he chooses another, but for now, she is his wife."

"How are you feeling?" She asks as she comes up to him with glass of wine. He takes the wine without asking, and gulps it down. "Better." he says, sets the glass down, and continues to eat.

"Can you run?" she asks.

He looks at her, searching her face. "Is someone coming?"

"Someone. I don't know who or when, but they will be here soon."

"The hag is dead, and so are her demons." Mac Anu says between bites of meat and bread. He can't seem to get it in his mouth fast enough.

"Hag?" Naill says, her eyes alarmed.

"That's what attacked me. A hag." He takes another bite. Elaine gets him another glass of wine. He takes a swallow "her and four demons."

"Mother of Shadows." Naill whispers.

"You didn't know Naill and you did the right thing. It didn't matter what was out there, and you know that."

She straightens her shoulders, and hardens her eyes. "You are right."

"Anyway, so it isn't the hag or demons. Must be something else." Mac Anu says, finishing his wine and handing the glass back to Elaine. She returns with the bottle.

"Can you run?" Elaine asks.

"I can try. Still feel weak." He says, "But it is starting to clear." He stretches out his arm, and makes a fist. "Not fully yet. I couldn't fight."

"What if you were stronger." Elaine asks.

"What?" Mac Anu asks. "I'm pretty strong your highness."

"No Elaine, it doesn't work that way." Ranter says from behind her. "You can not replace what he needs. His body must do that on its own. It will work, but not like you expect it too."

"So what do we do?" She asks, turning on him.

"We do what we always do." he says. "We use our heads."

Ranter calls down the servant from before. After a brief discussion, he sends him back up, and returns to the group. "Okay, anyone coming down now to warn us is a traitor, or a spy." Ranter tells them. "So we need to fix the stairs, and the room, and the entrance to the tunnel. We'll load up on some of this food, and pack anything else we think we might need. I'll carry Mac Anu into the tunnel."

"Don't look at me like that kid, use as little energy between now and when you need it as possible. Eat, drink and sit. We'll take care of the rest."

Naill nods her head and walks to the stairs. She studies them for a while and then picks up her pack and starts making changes. Ranter carries Mac Anu to the tunnel and sets him inside, Elaine follows with trays of meats, breads and fruits."

"Eat the fruits kid. They will do you the most good right now, and switch over to water. The wine isn't going to help you." Elaine takes back the bottle before he can protest, and brings him a picture of water. He gives her a betrayed look for a moment and then chugs down long draws of the cold water.

While Ranter and Naill prep the room for attack, Elaine sits down with Mac Anu in the tunnel. It appears he is finally sated. She takes the rest of the food and begins wrapping it in linen napkins and putting the bundles into his pack.

"Thanks for helping me." He says to her.

"You are thanking me for helping the man who saved my life?" She asks.

"Yes." he says.

"That tells me a great deal about you Mac Anu." she says.

"Yeah, what's that?"

She stops and looks at him. Her voice is low, soft, and filled with earnest. "I'll never leave you to die again. Naill may have your love, but you have my admiration, and my loyalty. We live together from this point on, or we die together. Deal?"

After a long pause, "Okay, deal."

He's lying, she thinks with a smile. He'll knock me over the head if he has to, but he'll never let me live up to our deal on the dieing side. No way to talk him out of it either. At least he knows I care about him, and that I'm serious. That's what is really important. If he dies now, he knows he is loved. Truly loved. Not like before. Not alone like before.

Mac Anu helps her pack up the rest of the food. "Wish we knew who or what was coming."

"I can take care of that." She says.

"You are a sorceress aren't you."

Her heart aches for a moment, the old fear grips her throat, but she sees no judgment in his eyes. "Yes."

"How long?"

"Only a short time now, and I just started to learn how to use the power a few days ago at the house."

"Be careful then."

"I will." she says.

And that was the end of it. He really didn't care about her ability at all. He accepted her completely for who she was. As far as he was concerned she was still Elaine, she was just a sorceress as well. She thought about the judgments she put on him when she learned he was a thief and felt a pang of shame.

"Do you know my father?" her voice soft, tentative.

"I know about him. I think every Gray out there knows who he is."

"What do you think of him?"

"I don't know him myself."

"But from what you have heard?"

"You can't base people on what you hear Elaine." he started, "But, if you are asking what would I do if he came down those stairs right now, I would probably throw knives as fast as I could and be very afraid that this door isn't thick enough."

She looks at the tunnel door, it is nearly a foot thick, and made of stone. "So he's a monster then."

"I didn't say that Elaine. Listen to what is said, not what you hear."

"What did you say then."

"I said he was powerful, and I don't think I could protect you from him. That doesn't mean I would have too, or that I would need to, or that he is good, or bad. It doesn't mean that I am right, or wrong. With what I know at the present time, that's what I would have to do, if he came down those stairs right now. In five minutes I could learn something that changes everything I just said."

She thinks about what Drendari told her. That he loves her, and wants to see her. "If we see him, don't attack. I'm going with him."

Mac Anu says nothing. He looks down the tunnel, then out into the room. After a while he says, "Wouldn't know him if I saw him anyway."

Preparations complete, the four of them sit in the tunnel and talk about past jobs. Elaine listens to them, they are happy, and the tales are exciting. She discovers that Ranter has been every where in the world, even near her home. That he knows Penbrooke, and his rabbit. That he once saved the wizard's life, though Penbrooke saved his many times after that. "Haven't thought about him in years. I should look up the old fool."

"I think it's about time to take a look outside Elaine, if you are up to it." Ranter says.

"Okay."

"Can you tell us what you see while you are out there?"

"Maybe, I don't really know."

"Give it a try. But if not, be careful."

She nods her head, focuses and her mind shoots into the night sky above the Red Lady. For a moment she looks at the shadows, a yearning calls her to them, but she knows that it is just her. Drendari is not waiting for her. She pulls her eyes from them and circles the building.

"I see an elf. He's wearing thick armor. He has a huge sword. There is a woman with him. She has a dagger. She's scarred. Her arms and legs, and across her chest."

"What's he doing?" Ranter asks.

She hears his voice, far away, and remembers when he called her back from seeing the demons. "He's sleeping."

"Elves don't sleep." It's Naill this time.

"But you meditate right?" Ranter says.

"Yes." Naill replies.

"Looks like he's sleeping to me." She says.

"Don't get too close, he might sense you." Ranter warns her. "See anything else?"

Elaine drifts back away from the two hidden guards and drifts up into the night again. "No, it looks like it is quieting down out here. Less people. Wait."

Behind the building, on the main street, she sees rows of lanterns. She tries to count, and comes up with more than fifty. She flows down to the main street and out to meet the coming crowd. She sees the uniforms and flies back to herself fast.

Her eyes pop open. "They are coming."

"Who." Ranter asks.

"Calastians." She whispers.

"How many?"

"All of them I think."

Scarn.com : Created and Maintained by Glenn Hefley

Copyright © 2005