“I don’t plan on doing anything stupid; I just plan to get revenge, sooner or later, however I can. I’m so sorry for getting you into this. You should have gone back a long time ago.”
“I don’t know what you think you can do,” said Larry.
“Neither do I, but I intend to figure something out. Now tell me what happened. What’s wrong with Jenny?”
Larry paced around the fire. Sean could tell by the set of his shoulders that he had asked a hard question. Sean was just about to change the subject when Larry finished his circuit of the fire and stepped up beside him to grip his arm hard. With his mouth only inches from Sean’s ear, he said, “They…” He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. His face was white in the firelight. “She had a miscarriage. They raped her. They killed my son. I want them dead.” He spoke in a whisper, but Sean had never heard such venom put into words before.
Sean looked at Jenny’s small form. Jenny had been pregnant? He hadn’t even suspected. Hell, he hadn’t even thought that she and Larry had done it yet. They were no older than he was and he had never considered having sex with someone. “Then I think their deaths should definitely be considered in the plan,” he said grimly. “What about the rest of you? What’s wrong with Errol?”
Larry looked over at that blanket-covered lump. “I’m not sure. They…uh…they did things to all of us, but I think they did something else to him. He was first; I heard him screaming, then he went real quiet. He’s been like that ever since. When we started our escape, Ferris found him first and he just turned all stone-faced and said nothing.”
We’re quite a group. We are shattered – all of us. That first village had been poor, but the people were nice enough, and as generous as they could be. The second town had been a garrison town and we had nearly all been killed. “What’s next? Where is Ferris taking us; do you know?”
“He said we’re going to someplace called Sarthe Manor. He said it belonged to someone named Clayton and that he hoped his wife would take us in for a while.” When Sean said nothing else, he added a bit more. “We’ve been heading mostly southwest ever since we cleared town.”
“I take it we weren’t followed?” asked Sean.
“I don’t think so. Manuel keeps a close watch on our back trail and Cisco does what she can to cover what trail we do make.”
Finding Sanctuary
This new knowledge wasn’t enough to keep Sean on his feet, but it was enough to disrupt any real rest. When he finally did fall asleep, he slept late into the morning. Ferris, Cisco and Manuel were gathered around the small fire drinking chamma. After he managed to get to his feet and kick his boots on, he stepped away from camp to relieve himself. He saw the new horse standing in its cruel hobbles. I’m not going to go another day without at least trying. This is such a crime. These are warhorses, and warhorses are supposed to be one-man horses to the death. Sean didn’t want to be the one to touch him and take his painful nightmare away. “Manuel,” he called just loud enough to be heard without alarming anyone.
“You’re going to try something, aren’t you?” he said, when he came up beside Sean.
“Yeah, I am. We can’t afford to be cruel just because it happens to be practical. I want you to go to him and kind of wrap yourself around his face. Basically, I want you to block his sight of me, but I want you to do it by loving on him and talking softly to him.”
“You’re going to get me killed.”
“No I’m not. I’ll be right behind you. I’m going to heal him like I did you, but I want him to think you’re doing it.” As they got closer, Sean saw something he hadn’t noticed from farther away. The horse was a blood-red bay, but his sides, below the saddle blanket, were crusted with layers of dried blood. He remembered the nasty things he had found in Prince’s tack. He pulled Manuel to a halt. “Slight change of plan. Pull his saddle off.”
“We’ll play hell getting it back on.”
“Maybe.”
As they approached, the horse let out its version of a growl, but it was unable to protest any further.
Manuel pulled the saddle off and dropped it to the side, then he began to peal the blanket away. The insidious thing had been a constant torture device and once in place, it had never been removed. It had been there so long, and had caused so many wounds, that it had almost healed there. As Manuel carefully worked it loose, Sean rested a hand on Manuel’s shoulder, and through him, he healed the damage as deeply as he could.
The horse continued its growling groan, crouching and dipping as much as his bone structure and the hobbles would allow, but by the time Manuel had the blanket half pealed away, he had stopped any other protest in favor of shimmying his skin.
With the blanket free, Manuel tossed it aside. His face was dark and his mouth was thin; he had cut himself several times on that blanket. Sean didn’t think he had any idea how bad it had been. He moved around to the horse’s head to follow Sean’s original instructions and Sean removed the sharp edges from the bit and headstall, then he fixed his lacerated mouth and broken teeth.
The horse responded by rubbing its head into Manuel’s chest as if scratching a long overdue itch.
“Go over him. Touch him everywhere. Check everything,” said Sean softly.
He did, going over every inch. Sean pulled the saddle and blanket out of reach. When he could do no more for the horse, he turned his attention to those. Now the horse would have to go through the same reeducation as Prince had, and it might take longer. Prince had still been ‘in training’. This horse had been beyond that for quite a while.
“I fixed the saddle and the blanket. You can put them back on him whenever you want,” Sean whispered to Manuel, who gave a small wave to show he’d heard.
As he walked back into camp, Sean could feel the drain of magic he had just expended, though he still felt stronger than he had yesterday, helped perhaps by the fact that he felt good about what he had just done. Now, if only my shoulders and back would untie their knots, I’d be almost as good as new.
Ferris met him before he reached the edge of their small campsite and stopped him with both hands on his shoulders.
Something’s wrong; I can see it in his face.
“You can’t do anything, so don’t try,” Ferris said. “If you do, I’ll either compel you or knock you out. Do you understand?”
“What?” Sean looked past him and saw Cisco bending over the blanket-covered lump that was Errol. He saw her pull the blanket up over Errol’s face and he knew… “No.” He struggled to get past Ferris, but Ferris held him. “No.” Ferris wrapped his arms around him and held him fast. “Noooo.” He reached, he had to, though he didn’t know what he was reaching for.”
“Stop,” said Ferris.
The word cut through to Sean’s soul and he staggered. He looked at Ferris with surprise. This was the first spell he’d ever felt and it wrapped him in a thick buffer of wool with someone else trying to pull on the puppet strings. He looked past Ferris again, and Ferris spun them so he couldn’t see Errol and Cisco anymore. “Stop – you can’t do anything. It’s too late.”
Sean saw Manuel working with his horse. I wasted time on a horse when Errol needed me. A tear slid down his face. I screwed up again.
“Listen to me, Seanad,” said Ferris close in his ear. “What was Errol died back in that torture chamber. You saw him. You know what I say is true. He’s beyond even your help now.” His voice dropped to a tight hiss. “They cut it off, Seanad. They cut it all off, then they healed it so he wouldn’t bleed to death. They’d have done the same to the rest of us if you hadn’t come when you did.”
“Why?” asked Sean. He didn’t try to pull away. The horror of Ferris’s words shook him to his core.
“The patrol. Where did you send them, the dead horses and men?”
“I piled them in front of my uncle’s throne.”
Ferris’s eyebrows shot up, then one corner of his mouth followed. “That explains a lot. They wanted to know which of us could do ma
gic. They just hadn’t gotten to me yet. Not so far as any real questioning anyway.”
“What would you have done?”
“I’m not as strong as you are. I’d have probably gotten us all killed. As it is, you and I left quite a swath of death behind us back there.”
Sean shrugged off the wool of Ferris’s spell and pulled out of his grip. Ferris let him go, but he caught his arm before he was completely out of reach. “You can’t undo death,” he said gently.
Sean nodded and went to where Cisco still knelt. She looked up at him as he knelt on the other side of Errol.
“He must have picked up a knife at supper. I didn’t notice,” she said.
Sean could see the hilt holding the blanket up in a small tent directly over his heart. Sean reached his hand out toward Errol’s body.
“You can’t…” said Cisco.
“I’m not,” he said. “Move back please.” As she moved away to stand beside Ferris, Sean used his hand like a wand to direct his last touch. Errol was cold and stiff. He’d been dead most of the night.
Sean found a place for him down deep. No one would ever bother his rest. No one would ever hurt him again. Wrapped in his blanket, he would rest peacefully. I wish I could lay him to rest beside the woman he loved. And the body vanished without a trace.
They broke camp without taking the time for breakfast. None of them were in the mood to eat. As they saddled up, Sean noticed that they were still one horse short. “What happened to the other horse?” he asked to anyone who would answer.
“The horse I rode into town took off and we didn’t have time to look for him,” said Manuel.
In an effort to lighten everyone’s mood, if only a little, Sean said, “Then I guess I’ll have to ride with Mattie again, tsk, darn.” He said it while looking directly at her and grinning. His remark won a smile, but it also won a punch in the shoulder. He over did the pain it caused and she was all worries and apologies until he magically picked her up and deposited her on Prince behind his seat, causing her to squeak.
Jenny looked better this morning, and the smile that peeked out at their antics, helped.
They reached their destination shortly after midday three days later, but it was obvious that they were way too late; the place had been abandoned. The yard was overgrown, and the stables where they put the horses were empty and dusty. Manuel stayed to tend the horses and fix the door that hung on one hinge.
The manor house was also dusty, but the door was intact, though it had been left open and windblown trash was strewn into the hall.
They spread out to see what they could find. Mattie hung close to Sean. He was curious. So this was my uncle’s house. I wonder what he was like.
Heading upstairs, Sean found three stories; the top floor must have been the private living quarters of Clayton and his wife, and at least one child had spent some time here.
The second story was either guest rooms or apartments for other family members, complete with attached rooms for their servants or perhaps their children.
The front half of the main floor was taken up by the main entry, a formal dining hall could be seen off to the right and there was an ornate door to the left likely to some private office of some sort or maybe the library. Though undamaged, the place looked to have been ransacked. Anything that wasn’t nailed down was strewn around and displaced to such a degree that it was difficult to tell if anything had been stolen. Pictures and tapestries were left mostly undisturbed on the walls, and it didn’t appear as if any had been removed.
Sean and Mattie were only just returning to the main hall from upstairs when a young man appeared at the door. “Who are you?” he asked, and before Sean could answer, he continued. “What are you doing here?
The young man was almost as tall as Sean but slighter in build, and he had curly black hair, only not nearly as curly as Sean’s. The biggest difference between the two was that the newcomer had recently bathed and was well groomed. Otherwise, other than the fact that the newcomer had dark blue eyes instead of dark brown, he could have been Sean’s little brother without much imagination.
Sean took a chance. “Well hello, cousin. Is that any way to greet family?”
The young man’s eyebrows shot up, then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I don’t have any cousins.”
At the sound of voices, Ferris and Cisco came in from the back of the house. After taking one look at the young man, Ferris said, “Are you Clayton’s son?”
At that, the newcomer became even more suspicious. How do you know that name?” he asked.
“My name is Ferris Épinal. I was a personal guard to Lady Kassandra Barleduc, then her son, Seanad Éireann Barleduc-Ruhin.” He indicated Sean. He then went on to briefly introduce the rest of them.
Through it all, the young man – Sean’s cousin – stared at Sean as if looking for something under his skin. When Ferris was finished with the introductions, he said, “My name is Clayton Ruhin the second. My mother named me after my father. You can’t stay here; nobody can. We have to get out of here fast or they’ll catch us. They always come. Come with me.”
“Who always comes?” asked Ferris.
“Come on. It only takes them an hour or so to show up. I’ll take you to my mother.”
“How many come?” asked Sean.
“Not this time, Seanad,” said Ferris. “Let’s get our horses.”
Clayton became even more agitated. “You have horses? We can’t hide horses.”
“You let us worry about hiding the horses,” said Ferris.
They went and collected the horses again just as Manuel succeeded in fixing the door. They quickly saddled up loosely and led the horses after Clayton. He led off into the trees and they spread out behind him to diminish the damage in any one spot. Cisco did what she could to cover their trail even further.
For two hours, their convoluted trek followed no path. Losing patience, Sean looked at Ferris, but he didn’t seem concerned. He looked at Larry; he was running out of patience too, then there was Manuel who never asked any questions, he just guarded their backs.
Just as Sean was about to voice his frustration, Clayton stopped and turned to face them. When they had all gathered around to hear his explanation, he said, “You will submit to me.”
He was stronger than Ferris, but not strong enough. “No, I think you will be the one submitting to me,” Sean said, throwing the compulsion back at him.
He took a step back and stood rigid. “I…submit,” he said, quite unwillingly.
“Did he just do what I think he did?” asked Ferris, as he shook himself.
“Yeah,” said Sean. “I returned the favor.”
Ferris stepped up to Clayton and looked him hard in the eyes. “Why did you just try to compel us?”
Clayton’s face contorted and his jaw clenched. “Didn’t…” Then he clamped his mouth shut.
Ferris turned to Sean. “I’m not strong enough. You try.”
Sean grabbed a fistful of Clayton’s shirt and pulled him in close. “Why did you do this? Why did you lead us off on this wild-goose chase?”
“Ugh…” Sean could feel the younger man shake in his grip, and his throat worked hard as the words were forced out. “I…didn’t…trust…you.”
Sean stopped the compel spell; once again his stomach was churning. Every time he used black magic, his stomach tried to turn itself inside out. I’m starting to really dislike black magic. He held onto Clayton until he stopped shaking, but he was unaware of how much Clayton was depending on him for support. He let him go, then had to catch his arm to keep him from falling. “Listen, I can understand that you don’t trust us. You don’t know us from Joe Blow on Fourth Avenue. What I don’t understand is, why didn’t you just leave us for the guards.”
Clayton was into his answer before all of the effects of Sean’s spell had worn off. “Mother doesn’t want…doesn’t want to draw any attention to us, so she keeps an eye on the place. She doesn’t want anyone to get caught there.�
��
“So, you lead whoever happens to find the place off out here and do what?” asked Ferris.
Clayton looked at Ferris and then back at Sean, then he just shook his head and went ahead. “I make them lie face down on the ground for an hour or so. I make sure they haven’t stolen anything and then I leave them. It’s only happened a few times; the locals know to stay away.”
“We have already crossed some ‘guards’, and as you can see, we’re all a little worse for the wear. All we’re looking for is somewhere we can rest for a while and plan our next move. We came here because my uncle’s wife was the only person we might be able to trust.”
“Are you really my cousin?” he asked.
“If you’re really who you say you are, then I’m really your cousin, or at least that’s what I’m told,” said Sean.
That remark earned him an odd look from Clayton.
“All right, all right,” said Sean. “We’ll just find someplace else. Just point us in the direction you want us to go and we’ll leave.”
Sean heard a small noise behind him and he turned to see Larry pull Jenny into his arms. Cisco went to them and was speaking softly.
“All right, I’ll take you to where we stay now. I hope I’m not making a mistake,” said Clayton.
Ferris knelt to Clayton. “We would never willingly bring harm to you or your family, my lord,” he said. “I have served the family of Barleduc all my life. Deain and your father became like brothers to me ever since Lady Kassandra married Deain.”
This declaration of loyalty surprised Clayton. “Get up. Let’s go.” He turned hastily away and started to lead off in another direction.
Treason
Larry helped Jenny back onto her horse and they followed Clayton again. Less than half an hour later, Jenny fainted and nearly fell from her horse. They stopped and lay her out on the ground.
Cisco called Sean over. “She’s bleeding again and I don’t know why. I need the white stone.”
The Making of a Mage King: Prince in Hiding Page 11