SoJourner

by Voigt, Janalyn

  “Is it unthinkable? I’ve discovered I have a soul.”

  “One I’ll soon part from your body.” Draeg whipped his sword through the air and ended with it pointing at Rand “Stand ready.”

  Kai charged.

  Draeg brought his sword around in time to deflect the blow.

  Kai danced in again, sword flashing. Their blades locked.

  In a show of strength, Draeg forced Kai back. He moved into place for a deceptive maneuver Rand knew well.

  “Careful!” Rand warned Kai. He rushed into the fray.

  Draeg shifted to counter Rand’s blow, then spun as if to thrust at Kai.

  Kai wasn’t fooled, but stopped the real strike when it came.

  Draeg grunted in surprise or annoyance, possibly both. He fell back.

  Kai followed, allowing him no rest.

  Rand took up Draeg’s other side, preventing him from sidestepping. Together, he and Kai drove their opponent backward. Behind Draeg, a body sprawled. Elcon lay still and white with blood oozing from his side.

  Kai let out a moan and came at Draeg, raining blows. Draeg met him with seeming ease. Kai’s strikes slowed, and he retreated.

  Draeg pursued.

  Rand stepped forward to intervene

  Draeg swiveled to confront him..

  Rand leaped aside, barely in time to avoid the tip of his half-brother’s sword.

  Kai moved in again.

  Draeg feinted, and this time Kai took the bait.

  Rand couldn’t let this happen. He sucked in a breath and lunged, acting from instinct more than plan. His blade slid through Draeg’s surcoat and found its way between the coat-of-plates beneath it. He pulled the blade free, his stomach twisting as if he, and not Draeg, had taken the wound.

  Draeg dropped his sword and caught at his side, Blood flowed between his fingers. “Well done…little brother.”

  “You were about to stab Kai.”

  “Why explain?” Draeg went to his knees. A fit of coughing doubled him over.

  Rand knelt beside him. “Lie quiet.” He tore a strip from his sleeve and wadded it to press against the wound.

  Draeg clutched his arm. “You have killed me. Will you now…show me kindness?”

  “You are my brother.” Tears slid down Rand’s cheeks.

  Draeg pulled him down and murmured beside his ear. “I’d not grieve you.”

  Rand jerked back. “You can’t make me hate you.”

  “No?” Draeg’s laugh turned into a wheezing cough. His mouth worked, and Rand bent over him again. “Father gave me the honor…of torturing your witless mother to her…last breath.”

  “You lie to torment me.” He jerked back, but his half-brother tightened his grip.

  “Father…called for her blood…” Draeg’s smile gave way to a grimace. “…before you left Pilaer.” He gasped out the last words and fell back with staring eyes.

  Rand closed his half-brother’s eyes and dashed away tears from his own.

  The faces of Pilaer’s best warriors shifted into focus.

  Rand turned his head to find Kai crouched beside Elcon, pressing a cloth to his wound. He seemed to have forgotten the fight at hand.

  A solid wall of muscle clad in armor rushed at them.

  Rand scrabbled for his fallen sword and lurched to his feet. “Kai!”

  The warriors pressed in, their faces fierce. The stench of sweat and smoke clogged the air.

  Kai came up beside Rand, his face a mask of fury. A sword flashed, and Rand brought his blade up to deflect it. Kai moved to fight behind him.

  Three blades came at Rand, but he deflected each one. Clashing metal behind him testified that Kai remained at his back.

  An arrow zinged, and a warrior toppled. The others halted in obvious confusion.

  The battle cry of Faeraven roared through the keep. Warriors charged down the corridor to meet the guardians of Rivenn. A few hurried past the fire, now subdued, and continued past the turning for the allerstaed. They either had lost their way or didn’t know of the passageway in the allerstaed. Only a remnant still challenged Rand and Kai. As Torindan’s forces approached amid the clangor of battle, these broke and ran.

  Kai bent again over Elcon “He’s alive, but I fear moving him.”

  “He may die in the fighting unless we move him, but we must first stop his bleeding.” Rand ripped ripped a strip from the bottom of his jerken, and as Kai lifted Elcon, wound the makeshift bandage around him.

  Elcon’s head lolled sideways, and he opened his eyes. “I can walk on my own.”

  “Lof Shraen, you are not strong enough.” Kai protested.

  “I will stand.” Elcon clenched his jaw and with sweat glistening on his forehead propelled himself upright. “I must go to the allerstaed. I must…make certain that my wife and daughter escape.”

  “Allow me to assist you.” Kai moved in to support him.

  “If I may, Lof Shraen.” Rand took Elcon’s other side.

  Elcon threw his arms over their shoulders and swayed between them.

  They started down the corridor to the allerstaed.

  Rand gulped air before walking into the suffocating heat. Flames flicked toward him, biting like welkes hungering for flesh. His lungs burned for air that did not come. The need to breathe pressed him harder with every heartbeat, and he knew an urge to drop his burden and run. The scorching heat lessened beyond the flames, but the thick air choked Rand.

  Despite Elcon’s brave words, he sagged and would have fallen without them. They emerged from the worst of the smoke in front of the carved double doors that gave onto the allerstaed.

  “Wait.” Kai halted. “Someone’s lying there.”

  “Syl Marinda!” Elcon cried in a faint voice.

  Mara, her face smeared with grime, lay on the stone floor with her eyes closed and one hand reaching toward the allerstaed.

  Rand shifted Elcon’s weight fully to Kai and flung himself down beside her. Her pulse still beat. He lifted her into his arms. Breathing came more easily inside the allerstaed. He carried Mara across the nave, moving from light to shadow and back again, and laid her beneath the altar. How frail she looked. Wrenching his gaze from her, he went to help Kai.

  They lowered Elcon onto the dais beside his daughter. With their lashes fanning over pale cheeks, their faces looked much alike.

  “Lof Shraen?” Kai called.

  Elcon made no answer.

  Kai checked his pulse. “He’s only fainted. That might be just as well, for it will spare him the pain of the journey.”

  Mara moaned, and Rand shook her with a gentle hand. “Wake up, Lof Raena.”

  Her eyelashes twitched, then fluttered open. A spasm of coughing gripped her.

  Rand propped her against him, raising her shoulders to ease her breathing.

  Kai felt along the side of the altar, a look of concentration on his face. “Ah, here it is.” Behind the altar a trap door levered open. Kai leaned into the hole now exposed. “Come up at once.” He reached down.

  Arillia appeared, her hair tumbling in a golden curtain about her shoulders.

  Anders came next, carrying an unlit lanthorn and a tinder box.

  Mara’s coughing bout ended, and Rand turned her in his arms. Her eyes widened, and she pushed away from him.

  “What’s happened to Elcon?” Arillia’s question rang out.

  Rand caught the sound of Mara’s indrawn breath. He ached to comfort her, but she’d made it clear she wouldn’t welcome his embrace. Besides, he’d promised her father to keep his distance. Pressed by circumstance, he’d forgotten that.

  Arillia rushed toward her husband’s prostrate form, but then held back as if fearful of harming him with her touch.

  “He lives.” Kai assured her.

  Tears glazed her eyes. “Who did this to him?”

  Rand waited with sadness for Kai’s answer. Once Mara knew his half-brother had wounded her father, she would despise him all the more.

  “Lof Raelein.” Kai he
ld out a hand to her. “For your safety, we must leave at once.”

  She arched a brow. “And Elcon?”

  Kai squared his shoulders. “We must take him to safety.”

  “Let me carry him.” Anders went to Elcon.

  Footsteps echoed behind the double doors. Rand couldn’t guess at their owners. Had Torindan’s forces won through, or might some of Pilaer’s warriors have found their way here?

  Kai closed the trap door to the priest’s hole and took up the lanthorn and tinder box Anders had abandoned.

  Rand stood and offered a hand of assistance to Mara. She glared at him, but after trying to rise on her own, took it. She swayed, and he reached out to steady her. This time she didn’t pull away from his touch, but he didn’t delude himself it could be from anything other than need.

  Kai gestured that they should follow and led them to the rear wall. He fumbled behind a tapestry, and a secret door in the paneling gaped ajar. Musty air exhaled into the chamber. Kai placed the lanthorn and tinder box just inside the aperture and hurried to assist Anders with Elcon.

  Rand escorted Mara into the dank passageway.

  Voices sounded in the corridor, whether of friend or foe, Rand could not tell.

  Arillia refused to go into the opening until Anders had carried her husband through.

  The outer doors crashed just as the secret panel clicked behind Kai. Darkness shut them in, so heavy it pressed Rand’s eyes.

  From behind the thin membrane of wood concealing them from the allerstaed came thumpings, then a mighty crash could only be the altar overturning. That the newcomers came from Pilaer now seemed certain. No guardian of Rivenn would treat the place of prayer with such disrespect.

  But the warriors’ actions made no sense. From what Rand could tell, Torindan’s forces outnumbered Pilaer’s. Unless the odds had somehow changed, why would these warriors take time to destroy the allerstaed instead of fleeing?

  A chilling certainty came over him. They knew about the secret passageway. They either sought to escape or meant to carry out Draeg’s loathsome mission.

  A hand gripped his arm. “The lanthorn.” Kai whispered.

  He must be standing where Kai had placed it. He shifted to allow Kai past. Stone scraped and a spark flew, bright in the darkness. More scraping, and Kai’s face flickered in and out of the light from a tiny flame. Part of the flame moved upward, and the lanthorn’s wick hissed as light flared.

  They stood in a womb of rough stone with dampness glistening about them.

  Kai brought down the horn cover, so thin as to be transparent, to shield the flame.

  Knocking sounds vibrated along the paneling.

  They stared at one another.

  Arillia took the lanthorn from Kai, freeing him to help Anders carry Elcon. As one, they started down the hewn steps.

  

  Mara moved through a haze of pain, her stomach churning. Her throat ached, and a headache jarred her. The stone stairs went on endlessly through darkness that shifted whenever the lanthorn swayed in Kai’s hand. Water dripped from an unknown source. A precipice plummeted on one side of the stairs, while a natural cave wall enclosed the other. Where the ceiling might be, she couldn’t say.

  No sounds of pursuit came from behind.

  Her steps slowed despite her will as weariness dogged her. Coughing overtook her, and she halted, forcing them all to pause.

  Rand turned to her. “Pray allow me assist you.”

  Whatever her feelings, she needed help. She turned to Rand in tacit agreement, and he swung her into his arms. Surrendering her last shreds of pride, she rested her head against his chest. He started off, and she closed her eyes as she swayed in his arms. They moved faster now, but it seemed an eternity before Rand carried her out of the darkness.

  He put her down on the hillside and steadied her to stand alone.

  Arillia and Anders watched over her father in the lee of an outcropping.

  Below them, a walled path connected a watergate giving onto the river with two defensive platforms built of wood farther up the hillside behind the stronghold. A flock of tiny birds winged above the river, chirruping.

  How strange that the sun warmed a perfect spring day. Night should cloak evil deeds in darkness, but today battle cries blighted the air, and from beyond the curtain walls a burning pyre sent smoke and ash into a clear sky.

  Something moved at the edge of sight. A wingabeast with a saddle but no rider climbed into the sky. As she watched, more of the graceful creatures flew out from the hold, only four bearing riders. “What does it mean?” She spoke her thought aloud.

  Kai, standing on the path, squinted upward. “The battle goes against Torindan. Guaron would only free the wingabeasts to keep them out of other hands.” His whistle sounded loud from so near but would be lost beneath the clangor of battle. A silver wingabeast must have heard it, however, for it changed course to land on a wooden platform.

  The four riders directed their mounts to follow, and one of them whistled down several more of the creatures. Gathering the reins of the riderless wingabeasts, the riders led them after the Silver along the path toward Kai. As they neared, Mara recognized the features of Guaron, keeper of the wingabeasts. Another was Eathnor, the tracker she had met in her father’s meeting chamber. The other two were unknown to her. From the bow he carried, one was an archer. The other wore rough garb and a bandage on his head.

  Kai started out to greet them, and Rand pulled her into the lee of an outcropping beside the path where Arillia and Anders watched over her father.. “Remain here.”

  He seemed to think she had the energy to do anything else. Not to be ordered about, she stepped from behind the outcropping to watch as he moved off after Kai.

  “Lof Raena, you should remain hidden.” Anders cautioned her.

  The echo of footsteps from the cave stilled her protest.

  A cry went out along the battlements.

  33

  The ground reverberated with the thud of hooves, and now two wingabeasts writhed on the path, shrilling in obvious agony. The rest of the small herd descended toward Mara, huffing and snorting, wings unfurling in anticipation of flight.

  Warriors burst from the mouth of the cave but stood blinking in the light.

  Arillia threw herself over her husband.

  Anders stood forth, holding a dagger that looked pathetically inadequate against their swords.

  The wingabeasts thundered by before Mara could muster the wit to pull back.

  An arm caught her around the waist. Her feet left the ground. A scream forced past her throat. Whoever held her captive rode the wingabeast from its side. “Stop fighting Mara.” Rand’s voice carried above the thud of hooves.

  “But my father—“

  “Would prefer not to watch you die. Now be still. I’d hate to drop you.”

  “That…might be better…than crashing into that gate.”

  “Hold on.” He pushed her up, and she climbed into the saddle.

  He swung up behind her as their mount launched upward. The watergate passed below, so close it seemed she could touch it. Dizziness swept over her in a wave, making her instantly regret looking down.

  “Stop leaning.” Kai’s arm tightened around her.

  She opened her mouth to complain about his bossiness but speech fled as the sky tilted. The wingabeast climbed in a spiral that leveled out above the water.

  Rand’s arm squeezed her waist. “What were you doing back there, anyway?”

  “I was about to help Anders. He needs help.”

  “Not from you.”

  “Why won’t you go back and fight?”

  “I’m a little busy keeping you alive, if you hadn’t noticed. Your father wouldn’t want you anywhere near those warriors. Don’t worry. Neither Eathnor nor Kai will leave them.”

  “ The others caught up with them, and Rand’s prediction thankfully proved true. . Kai rode the silver wingabeast which had answered his whistle. Eathnor carried Arillia. Her
father sagged before Anders. The archer and injured tracker rode alone. Where was the wingabeast keeper?

  She had no time to inquire, for shadows rippled over the ground. Two black birds of such enormous size they had to be welkes flapped toward them, carrying riders with swords gleaming in the sunlight.

  “Scatter!” Kai shouted.

  

  Rand had never ridden a wingabeast before. However, he’d learned a few riding tricks in his warrior training. He pointed the Black they rode westward, reveling in the power of its wing strokes. A glance behind revealed one of the welke riders had split off and now closed the distance between them. “Hold tight, Lof Raena.”

  Necessity had always served an excellent teacher, one that didn’t desert him now. He guided his mount lower until they flew just above the forest canopy. Diving still lower hid them below the tree line. Under the forest cover, he backtracked along the serpentine path cut by Weild Aenor and brought the wingabeast down on a rocky ledge veiled by shadow.

  The welke rider passed within view, soaring westward and out of sight.

  He headed eastward with the water flowing beneath them and scanned for a better hiding place. When the welke rider figured out his ruse‒and Rand had no doubt he would‒the ledge would become a death trap.

  He rejected a cave as too obvious, almost missing an overgrown track in the bluff above it. Overgrown and reposing in heavy shade, the path led away from the edge and disappeared into thick forest.

  He swerved the wingabeast, shearing close to the cliff. Mara trembled but thankfully didn't scream. He’d allowed too little time to slow their flight, and now branches whipped them. They landed farther along the path than he’d intended.

  The glance Mara sent him gave her opinion of his riding. Without thinking he covered a welt on her cheek with his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  The wingabeast beneath them snorted and stomped, reclaiming his attention. He patted the creature’s sweating neck. A welke’s screech shook the air, and a long shudder ran down the wingabeast’s flank. Rand guided the wingabeast forward, and it responded at once.

  A green tunnel closed over them, shutting out the roar of the weild. They hadn’t gone far when he had to dismount to clear underbrush from the track, but afterwards the forest canopy thickened, its shadow keeping the ground clear of growth. The shade and a refreshing breeze brought a welcome coolness. Birds scolded them in passing. In the springtime, the tiny creatures guarded nests.