The Blinded Journey

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “I need to tell her thank you for the advice,” he said. “She’ll expect it,” he added in a lower voice, leaning in closer to speak confidentially.

  “Oh, she can wait until tomorrow,” Flora said casually. “Another night isn’t going to hurt. We can sit here and drink our wine, go back to our room, and stop by to kneel to her tomorrow. Here come our drinks now as a matter of fact,” the actress spotted the waiter bringing a pair of glasses of wine towards their table.

  Kendel bit his tongue. Perhaps Flora’s comments were understandable, but he knew that Shaiss would not be pleased by Flora’s cavalier attitude towards worship of the goddess. He was just beginning to consider how to soft-pedal Flora into stopping by the temple when he heard a gentle whooshing sound followed by a clatter very close by, virtually in his lap, and then an oath from the waiter followed by an oath from Flora.

  “You spilled both wines all over my blouse!” she cried. “It’s a mess.”

  “You can take the blouse off and I’ll take it back to the kitchen to have it washed,” the waiter answered in an insincere tone. “You can come with me if you like and leave your blind friend here,” he added.

  “How dare you?” Flora was outraged.

  “Flora,” Kendel wanted to calm her down. “Let it go. We might as well leave,” he suggested.

  “This clumsy guy spilled wine all over me. He tripped over nothing; he must have done it on purpose,” Flora objected loudly. “We deserve better treatment than this.”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose!” the waiter objected. “But if I’d known what a shrew you were, I would have!”

  Other noises in the tavern were dropping away as the confrontation attracted attention.

  “He probably is clumsy,” Kendel tried to appease Flora, “but I don’t think it’s his fault. This is Shaiss’s work. She’s mad that you didn’t want to go to her temple right away, and so she tripped the waiter to punish you.”

  “Really?” Flora used at least three syllables to ask the single word. “You believe that, or are you just being mister quick-thinking smooth-talker again?”

  “I wish I was a smooth-talker, but this is the kind of thing she’d do,” Kendel replied. “Remember how we got our money – she sent us to steal it from the bandits on the road,” he stated.

  “Yeah, and look what that got us into with Erdonn,” Flora pointed out belligerently.

  “She must not have known about that, and she helped rescue us from there anyway. And when I first came back here, she told me to steal clothes and money from a man so that she could punish him,” Kendel tried to keep focused on his argument.

  “What are you, a regular thief?” the waiter asked. “And here you are trying to make me look bad?”

  “Let’s go to the temple, and after that we’ll go to a different tavern and have more wine,” Kendel said. He began to stand up, hoping to motivate Flora.

  “Why don’t you go along on your own, sonny, and leave the pretty girl here with us?” a new man’s voice called.

  “Oh, for the love of Pete!” Flora swore. “Kendel, this place is full of morons. Just use your magic and burn them all in flames!”

  “Will you go with me to the temple if I will?” Kendel was both frustrated and amused by the situation. He impulsively let the blue energy engulf his body, and then the green, causing him to glow.

  The tavern turned silent, then was full of shouts and scrambling noises.

  “You’re actually quite a showman, aren’t you, especially after you’ve had a little wine and loosened your inhibitions,” Flora laughed, and Kendel felt her next to him. “Can I touch you or will I burn up?” she asked.

  Kendel withdrew the energy back within himself, and felt Flora’s arm drape over his shoulders. “Okay great sorcerer, let’s go to your temple, then go to my tavern, then go back to our room,” she proposed as she began to lead him out of the tavern in a tone that set his heart racing.

  They went to the temple, and were received by a priest. “What favor do you seek? The punishment of an unfaithful partner?” he asked with a cynical smile.

  “We’ve seen someone punished recently, and want to give thanks,” based on his previous visits to Shaiss’s temples in other cities, Kendel understood the protocols of the temple functions.

  “Go down to the second door on the left,” the priest seemed satisfied and bored by the answer as he directed them away.

  They soon were inside the temple and Flora helped Kendel kneel in front of an image.

  “You ought to really pray, and really say thank you, and just know she sees an awful lot of what goes on,” Kendel told his friend as they prepared to pray.

  “Thank you for your guidance in the fight with Erdonn, my goddess,” he began to pray quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t thank you sooner. You helped save my life with your advice. And please help us to catch up with Parker and Agata; we want to follow your directions. We know you’re leading us to do the right things to help Miriam and fight against the Dons. Please let us know if we can do more for you,” he finished.

  He knelt in silence for several seconds, waiting for any reaction from the goddess, but he heard and felt nothing until Flora elbowed him. “Can we go now?” she asked.

  “We can go,” he agreed.

  “From the temple to the tavern now, right? You promised?” Flora was still in ebullient spirits, and Kendel agreed quickly.

  They found their way to a tavern where Flora ordered a bottle of wine for the two of them.

  “So you really believe that spill was a punishment from Shaiss, or were you just being clever?” she asked. “And you do still owe me a new blouse,” she reminded him.

  “I’m starting to understand Shaiss a little better,” Kendel answered, as Flora poured the wine into the two cups on the table, then placed his hand around one of them.

  “She has a desire to be recognized,” Kendel explained. “And most people don’t recognize her, they just want to run away from her so they won’t be punished,” he said reflectively, then paused to sip on the wine. It was drier than he liked, but he knew that Flora thought the dry wines were better, so he didn’t mention the taste. “And the only time most folks do go to her is to ask her to punish someone else. She doesn’t get to hear or see the good side of people.”

  “That sounds like a crappy life,” Flora replied. “I hadn’t thought about it from her point of view. She doesn’t get many people showing up in the good times probably, does she?”

  “Excuse me, may I join you?” a woman’s lush voice sounded directly over Kendel’s head, and a hand rested warmly on his shoulder. “I overheard your conversation, and it sound so interesting. I’m sorry to barge in like this.”

  “Well,” Flora hemmed, “it’s a private conversation.”

  “I understand,” the woman answered, and her hand squeezed Kendel’s shoulder.

  “What makes it sound interesting to you?” Kendel asked.

  “I work in Shaiss’s temple, and I can’t remember the last time I heard any worshipper speak so kindly about our great goddess. I was just curious to hear what else you might have to say about her,” the priestess answered.

  Kendel wished that he could see, so that he could see Flora to detect if she would roll her eyes or give a shrug or otherwise subtly indicate her view on the woman joining them. He decided no harm would come from a brief conversation, and he slid across the bench he sat on to make room.

  “Thank you,” the woman said and she sat down beside him, her hips pressed against his.

  “Do you feel the same way about Shaiss?” Flora asked.

  “Oh yes, she is not understood by the people of the world at all,” the woman answered. “She wants to be loved and understood as much as any other god, and she really deserves it. She has to do so many things that no other god is willing to do.

  “She does all the unpleasantness that helps set boundaries and upholds principles,” the woman explained. “Where would society be if people didn’t feel puni
shment for breaking the rules?”

  “I can think of a lot of people I wish had been punished for breaking the rules; I’d feel better about it,” Flora muttered confirmation.

  “Oh, who are they?” the woman perked up. “We can certainly make some efforts on your behalf.”

  Flora shrugged. “It’s in the past, and they’re far away, and it’s better to just forget about it and move on,” she answered.

  “What about you, true believer?” the woman bumped her hip against Kendel’s. “Is there anyone you’d like to punish?”

  “The monsters, the Dons, the bad guys, how about Lord Beches?” he suggested.

  “I meant within reason,” the woman spoke tartly. “Someone your own size, who has done something personal to you.”

  “The monsters and Lord Beches certainly haven’t been fair to Kendel, directly or at least indirectly,” Flora said passionately as she took a sip of her wine. “He’s been through a lot. Look at him – blind now! He wasn’t that way when I met him.”

  Maybe he was punished for something?” the woman suggested in a tentative voice, shocking Kendel. He hadn’t considered that Shaiss might have punished him. He let the thought roll about for just a fraction of a moment in his head, then discarded it. He had made a mistake with the energies, and paid a price, but it hadn’t been a punishment.

  As the logic flew through his head, Flora raised her voice.

  “You take that back!” she said fiercely to the woman. “He hasn’t been punished by Shaiss, I’m sure. He’s a good, good boy. A little naïve and wet behind the ears even now. If Shaiss punished him then she deserved to be punished herself for making such a poor judgement!”

  Kendel felt a sudden wave of extreme warmth emerge from the woman next to him, astonishing him in its intensity.

  “You do not judge the gods!” the woman bellowed in a voice that was suddenly sonorous and imposing.

  The table shook as the woman rose, while Kendel leaned away from her and heard fearful shouts from others in the tavern room.

  “How dare you!” the woman said, and Kendel knew then that the woman was not a priestess of Shaiss, but it was Shaiss herself, disguised in human form.

  “Down on your knees and beg for forgiveness!” Shaiss thundered at the flabbergasted Flora.

  “No, stop!” Kendel tried to raise himself in the narrow space between the bench and the table where he was trapped. “My goddess, do not harm her. Leave her be! She means no harm, and she is so important to me!”

  “You!” Shaiss’s attention shifted to Kendel. “You haven’t done too much wrong tonight, so be careful what you say.”

  “But my goddess,” Kendel protested, even though he knew he was provoking Shaiss by responding. “Do not harm her, I beg you, as a favor to me. I’m doing everything I can for you,” his emotion wavered between abject loyalty, pleading subservience, and angry indignation.

  There was a pause, and complete silence for several seconds.

  “You think you’re doing everything you can for me?” Shaiss asked in a deadly quiet tone.

  Something was about to happen, Kendel knew. He let his spirit leave his body and let it slip over to Flora, to be near her, in the hopes that he could protect her somehow.

  “Then by comparison, this childish woman has done far too little; certainly not as much as you, and not enough to earn the right to ever talk back to a goddess. She shall suffer this punishment, and then I will be gone,” Kendel felt the virtually instantaneous snap of the release of power.

  But at the same moment that Shaiss released her energy in an attack on Flora, Kendel reacted instinctively by letting his awareness enter Flora’s body, He spread his energized soul around her own spirit and formed a cocoon that prevented her from feeling the impact of Shaiss’s punishment. And he felt the full impact with a horrifying, burning sensation that sent him flying back into his own body to jerk and tremble , carrying the pain with him as he tried to recover.

  “You are such a blind, love-struck idiot!” Shaiss screamed at him. “I’ll leave it at that, before I get even angrier and do something that I might regret!” and with that, a flash of lightning, and a peal of thunder, she left the tavern, eliciting another storm of screams and howls.

  “Oh Kendel, Kendel, Kendel!” Flora cried and Kendel sensed her next to him. “You shouldn’t have done that!” she chastised him as she wept. “We need to get you back to the inn. Can you walk?” she asked.

  He barely shook his head. “No. Not yet,” he answered. “Just let me rest.”

  “You are so brave, and so stupid,” she told him, and as his numbness began to fade, he felt her head resting on his chest, her body trembling. “Are you going to be able to move?”

  “I hope so,” he answered. His system was still attempting to recover. The shock of Shaiss’s attack had overwhelmed his psyche and simultaneously been transmitted back to his body, leaving him feeling pain in every possible way.

  “You saved me, didn’t you?” Flora asked. “I felt something just a split second before I saw the flash of energy from Shaiss, but then I might have known it was you, except it happened so fast, and then I knew you were in terrible pain, before I ever saw your body heave. Oh my gosh Kendel. What did you do?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” he mumbled. “I think I can walk now. Can you take me back to the inn?” he asked.

  He felt her head raise from his chest, and then she pulled him across the bench to the edge, and helped him to his feet.

  “Are you sure you’re ready?” she asked.

  “I’m feeling better,” he answered, and he put a foot forward to demonstrate his readiness.

  They had a long, slow walk back to the inn, and then sat in the lobby resting before they climbed the stairs to their room.

  Flora undressed Kendel and put him to bed, then she wept for a minute. She dipped her hands in the chilly waters of the bathing tub that still sat in the room, and splashed the water on her face, then undressed herself and snuggled against Kendel’s unconscious body, and the pair slept the night through.

  Chapter 34

  Kendel woke up with a headache, and his arm wrapped around Flora’s unclothed shoulders. He lay in a state of sleepy consciousness, not aware of any particulars until Flora moved, and jostled his mind into wakefulness.

  “Where are we?” he spoke softly, not sure if Flora was awake.

  “We’re in our room at the inn,” the girl answered. She sat up, then momentarily crossed an arm over her chest until she remembered that Kendel could not see her, and she relaxed.

  “I, um, I can see you,” he told her.

  “You what?” Flora asked in astonishment. She leaned into him for a second to study his eyes, then belatedly crossed her arms over her chest again.

  “My vision is back. I can see. Shaiss’s attack must have shocked my vision into working again,” he said.

  “Prove it,” Flora believed him, but wanted to be sure. “What color are the curtains?”

  “They are blue, and the walls are yellow, and your face is beautiful,” Kendel said.

  “Oh, this is wonderful. I’m so happy for you!” Flora bent down and kissed him. “Now, close your eyes while I put on some clothes.”

  Kendel did as asked, and Flora hastily pulled her blouse on, then sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Open your eyes,” she ordered. “I want to look at them.”

  She studied the unmatched colors of the eyes, one blue and one green, then waved a finger in front of his face, watching the eyes track its movement precisely.

  “Oh you can see! I’m so happy for you!” Flora gushed. “This is wonderful. Shaiss didn’t know this would happen, I’m sure.”

  “No, probably not,” Kendel agreed. “But it has happened, and now we can plan to move a lot faster.”

  “I already have that figured out,” Flora told him. “I was going to buy us spots on a coach and let us ride to the east. I think it’s still a good idea, even if you can see now.”

&nb
sp; Kendel sat up, and massaged his scalp trying to relieve the headache he felt. “We’ve got a lot of money. Probably more than enough to get us pretty far pretty fast,” he agreed. “It’s a good plan.”

  He looked down and confirmed that he wore no pants.

  “I undressed you. I wanted you to sleep comfortably,” Flora explained.

  “It helped,” Kendel agreed. “It’s still going to take a couple of days to shake off the way Shaiss left me, it feels like, but Then I’ll hopefully be fine.”

  “Let’s get dressed, go get some breakfast, go buy the new blouse you promised me, and then we can find a coach and be on our way,” Flora suggested brightly. She stood up and tugged on the bottom hem of her blouse to pull it into fuller coverage below her waist.

  “You left out the part about going to Shaiss’s temple,” Kendel said, wincing as he said it because he knew what reaction he would receive.

  “You are joking!” Flora predictably exploded. “You’re kidding! No way. No bloody way!” she said indignantly. “After what she did to you?”

  “We have to,” Kendel said forcefully. He stood up, then sat back down and pulled a bed sheet quickly over his nakedness.

  “It’s not easy to be bossy when you don’t have pants on, is it?” Flora asked playfully.

  “You don’t have pants on either,” Kendel pointed out.

  “Why in the world would you ever want to go to Shaiss’s temple?” Flora asked.

  “She a goddess. We’re going to need her help. At the very least, we don’t want her mad at us. Do you want a different bottle of wine getting spilled on you every night?” he asked. He bent down and found his pants on the floor, then hastily pulled them on.

  Several minutes later, a sullen Flora followed Kendel down the stairs, past the clerk who looked at them in surprise, and out onto the street.

  They went to a shop and bought three new blouses for Flora, then went to the temple, and asked to pray to Shaiss.