Shadow of the Knight (The Orb Book 3)

by Matt Heppe

  “There are singers in every imperial army unit. And there are entire choruses in the larger armies, but we don’t have elementars. Music itself is our weapon.”

  “You’ve sung in battle?” Escalan asked.

  “I was there when the Imperial Chorus was destroyed by the summoners at the Battle of Choir’s Fall, but I wasn’t in the chorus. I’m a healer. I use the power of song and chant to heal.”

  “Speaking of that, we must see to your own healing,” Sulentis said. Telea and Sulentis untied the bandage around her arm while Escalan fetched a healing kit. He had fine needles and clean sinew.

  “I know what I’m doing,” Escalan said to her as he threaded a needle. “I’ve done it before.”

  “I trust you. I’m just usually on the other side of the needle.” She flinched as Sulentis washed her wound.

  “Ready?” Escalan asked. His hands shook slightly as the needle approached her arm, and Telea gave him a quizzical look.

  “You’ve really done this before?” she asked.

  “A few times.”

  “Twice,” Sulentis said. “And once was to his horse.”

  Escalan glared at him. “And I’ve had it done to me on several occasions.”

  “Let me help,” Telea said. Before they could question her, she quietly sang The Song of Peace, letting the music touch both Escalan and herself.

  “That’s better,” Escalan said. He took a deep breath. “Here we go.”

  It hurt, but the song helped. She held herself steady as he worked. “You stitch well,” Telea said as he finished.

  “My best work. Your music helped.”

  “I want to know more of your music,” Sulentis said as he spread honey over the stitches. He wrapped the wound with clean cloth. “But for now we must ride.”

  They mounted and rode into the darkness, cross country now, and much slower than before. Much later they left the forest for open fields and rode faster. They were all tired, but the short rest and her song had helped.

  Deep in the night, when they had slowed to a walk, Telea sang again. The Song of Hope had many verses, and she sang four new ones to them. When she was done, Escalan said, “That’s it. They’ll never be able to catch us. You just need to sing all the way to Landomere.”

  Telea laughed. “I wish I could, but my voice can only take so much.”

  “But you could,” Escalan said, “If you had enough singers. You could take turns supporting one another and march non-stop.”

  “Yes,” she said. “If you had enough water singers.”

  “What does each part do?” Sulentis asked.

  “Earth is the voice of physical force. An earth singer can put up a barrier no one can pass. It can knock people down, stop arrows and spears, and even kill.”

  “Your friend did that, didn’t he? The one who fought the inquisitors.”

  Telea nodded. “He was a great singer. A famous earth singer.”

  “Tell me of the other parts,” Sulentis said. “And then we’ll ride harder for a time.”

  “Your curiosity will get us captured,” Escalan said.

  “Shhh. Go on.” Sulentis leaned closer to her, eager for her answer.

  “Fire singers send fear into the hearts of your enemies. Their powerful songs intimidate their foes and in the higher registers, bring courage to friends.”

  “Amazing!”

  “I’m a water singer. We give hope and encouragement to our allies, as you have seen. We restore their bodies and spirits.”

  Sulentis nodded. “Is that it?”

  “No, there are air singers. Their songs banish demons.”

  “Can you sing air music as well? Or only water?”

  “I can sing the air as well.”

  “There’s so much more I want to know,” Sulentis said. “We’ll have time later, but let’s get clear of the East Teren first. Are you ready for a harder ride?”

  “As opposed to getting captured and tortured by madmen again?” Telea gave him a wry smile. “Yes, I’m ready to ride.”

  They rode hard for a long time, buoyed by Telea’s song. The longer they rode the more wild the terrain became. They passed small villages, but so late at night there was no sign that anyone knew they were there. To Telea it seemed they had outrun the news of what had happened at Del-Oras.

  Telea lost all sense of time. Her only thoughts were of the agony of riding horseback so long. They dismounted and switched horses. Telea sang again, restoring them, but her voice wasn’t as strong as before. She saw the flaws in her music as she cast it out to man and horse, but she wasn’t so tired that she couldn’t fix her errors.

  Not forever, though. At some point she’d need to rest or she wouldn’t be able to sing at all. “How much longer?” she asked.

  “Days to go,” Sulentis said. “But I think you’ve saved us. We’ll be in the wilds soon, beyond civilization. Our pursuers won’t be able to keep pace.”

  “There are some who hunt the wilds,” Escalan said. “There are certain inquisitors who would like to find us.”

  “I’m not hiding anymore,” Sulentis said. “Let them find me.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ayja awoke with bright sunlight on her face. She blinked her eyes open and looked around. The room was a shambles. One window was blocked by the broken frame of a bed, and more broken furniture lay stacked in corners. The other two windows were open, letting the light stream in. Cam and Yevin each stood by a window. She shifted on the torn remains of the straw mattress.

  Cam turned at the movement and rushed to her side. “How do you feel?” he asked.

  “I’m sore and tired,” she said. She sat up. “And thirsty.”

  Cam offered her a water skin. “Drink up,” he said. She lifted the half full skin to her lips and squeezed a stream of water into her mouth.

  “Drink sparingly,” Yevin said. “It’s all we have.”

  “All we have?” Ayja frowned. “What happened to the rest of it?”

  “You blew it out the front of the house.” Yevin nodded in the direction of the front yard.

  “What do you mean? I blew it out?”

  “All of our supplies are strewn across the yard,” Yevin said.

  “You’re welcome to get them,” Cam said, his face darkening. “Those are our supplies, and you are our guest. You’d be dead now, or one of them if not for Ayja’s magic.” Cam turned away from the inquisitor. “Drink up,” he said to Ayja. “You need your strength.”

  Ayja drank, feeling guilty for every drop. “What happened last night? And where are the ghuls?”

  “How much do you remember?” Cam asked.

  Ayja shook her head. “I was in my room when they attacked. I remember fighting in the hall.”

  “You killed a dozen of them, maybe more. You drove them from the door and then, when they came in the front window, you did… something. You knocked out the front of our house. That was enough for them. They lost their stomach for the fight.”

  Ayja glanced at the door. A few stout poles jammed it closed. “You’ve blocked the door.”

  “There are too many entrances to defend. We only hold this room.”

  “And the ghuls?” She struggled to rise and Cam helped her to her feet. She squinted as she peered out the side window. Sheep carcasses lay scattered near the barn entrance. Nothing moved. It was eerily quiet outside.

  “They’re gone,” Yevin said.

  “At least they’re out of sight,” Cam added.

  “I think they’ve given up,” Yevin said. “They don’t want to take more losses.”

  “They never attacked again?”

  Cam shook his head. “After your display, they retreated out of sight. We never saw them again.”

  “You think they gave up?” She went to the front window where Yevin stood. He backed away from her as if she bore the plague. Her jaw dropped at what she saw. The front yard was strewn with charred wood and the contorted bodies of ghuls. Cam hadn’t been exaggerating when he said that she h
ad taken out the front of the house.

  She leaned forward to see the damage. The middle third of the house was gone—all the way from the roof to the top of the first floor. I did that? She couldn’t imagine wielding such elemental power.

  “What did I do? Was it fire? Or air? How did I do that to the house?”

  “It was something else,” Cam said. “I wasn’t there to see, but there was a flash of white light and then an explosion.”

  “And what did I do then?”

  “You collapsed and I brought you in.” Cam proffered her a piece of hard sausage on the end of a knife. “It’s all the food we have left.”

  “I can’t—”

  “You must. You need strength.”

  Ayja took the knife and bit off a piece of sausage. She was famished. “I’ll go out to the well,” she said as she chewed. “And maybe I can scavenge some of our supplies from the yard or even go into the kitchen.”

  Cam shook his head. “It isn’t safe.”

  “I can outrun them. I can even jump back up here if I have to.”

  “You aren’t strong enough, Ayja. You just woke up. I don’t like it.”

  “I do,” Yevin said. “My thirst is unbearable, and I need food as well. Look, there’s no one out there. And every attack has happened at night. Maybe the ghuls hate the light of the sun.”

  “Let me rest a little more,” Ayja said. “I’ll go out.”

  Cam nodded. “It’ll do no good to try and fight another night without food or drink.”

  Ayja sat and ate and finished most of the water. She was tired, as tired as she could ever remember being, but the more time passed the better she felt. “Sleep for a while, Cam,” she said. “You need your strength as well.”

  “You first, Yevin,” Cam said, nodding at the inquisitor. Yevin grunted his assent and lay down on the mattress. In moments he was fast asleep.

  “Will we get out of here, Cam?” Ayja asked. She kept her voice low even though she was certain Yevin was asleep.

  “You must,” he said. “You can use your magic to escape.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Go to Landomere. You have family there. Maybe I should’ve taken you there years ago, but I always feared the inquisitors would have eyes there. Foolish of me to wait so long.”

  “We’ll go there when this is done. When we fight our way free.”

  “Our friend,” Cam nodded to the inquisitor, “knows about you now. They’ll scour the world looking for you now that they know you’re alive.”

  Ayja looked at the sleeping Yevin. He breathed heavily, clearly deep asleep. “We’ll ask him not to tell. We saved his life.”

  “He’s an inquisitor. It’s his mission to find you. And to kill you.”

  “Not anymore, right? He wouldn’t do that now that he’s met us and fought alongside us.”

  “First is first. We have to survive.”

  “It’s afternoon now,” Ayja said, looking outside. “I’ll run for the well and see if I can get some food.”

  “Have you recovered enough? Should I go?”

  “We both know that I’m the one to do this.” She smiled at him. He would do anything for her. He had done everything for her. Almost sixteen years of his life devoted to keeping her safe. “I feel good,” she said. “Much better than I felt when I woke up.”

  Cam came to her window. “Maybe Yevin was right, and the ghuls don’t like the sun.”

  “Maybe there are twenty of them waiting downstairs for someone to go out.”

  Cam shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I guess I’ll find out.”

  “Let me buckle your aketon. I loosened it while you slept.” He cinched her tight and then belted her sword around her waist. “Wear your helm as well,” he said, taking it up and putting it on her head.

  “Yes, uncle.”

  “Just bring the entire bucket back with you. Don’t take time to fill up the water skin. And look over there—do you see the apple bag?”

  “I’ll get it. Water first.”

  “I hope they haven’t poisoned it.”

  “I’m an elementar, Cam. I’ll know if the water’s bad.”

  “Right. Good luck, then.”

  Ayja climbed onto the sill, and with one last look at the surrounding woods, leaped out. She cushioned her landing with a breath of wind. She was tired. The previous night still weighed on her.

  Drawing her sword, Ayja ran across the yard to the well. She kept alert for any sign of movement, but all was still. The well cover was on, which bode well. She pulled it open and dropped the bucket into it.

  She glanced up as the bucket fell. Still no movement. The woods were completely silent, which wasn’t what she expected. She saw no birds or even squirrels. Had the stench of fire and dead ghuls driven them off? Or were the ghuls hiding, waiting for their chance to spring out?

  Ayja cranked the bucket up. It seemed to take forever, but finally it reached the top. She cut the bucket from its rope and lugged it back to the house. It was unwieldy but not very heavy.

  Their house was a ruins. The front door and every window shutter had been smashed in. There were signs of fire damage, but she had doused the flames pretty quickly. The real damage was the gaping hole she’d put in the front of the house. She couldn’t even remember doing it.

  Ayja reached the house and then realized she hadn’t made a plan for how to get the bucket up. Cam put a hand up for her to wait, and then he lowered his boar spear. She put the bucket handle over the cross lugs and Cam lifted it to the window.

  “I’m going to look for food,” she said. She didn’t wait for a reply but went to the yard. The apple bag was much abused, but the apples were still edible. It was all she could find. She could go into the house, but should she risk it? There was food in the larder, but much of it required cooking. She went back to the window and tossed the apple bag up to Cam.

  “Come on up,” he said.

  “No, I’m going to look around.”

  “No need for that,” he said, glancing out across the yard.

  “Just a quick look.” Ayja walked around the side of the house, looking towards the barn. Dead animals littered the yard, but nothing moved inside. She went behind the house and scanned the hills above but saw nothing more than pine boughs swaying in the warm breeze.

  One last place. She jogged across the yard to the place where the lych and pyren tended to stand while the ghuls attacked. The ground was trampled there, but there was no sign of them. She went a little further and looked down the path that led to town. Empty as well. Have they truly given up?

  Ayja ran back to the house, but didn’t pause this time. When she got near she reached into the aether as she leapt for the window. The wind lifted her to the sill. She balanced there for a moment before dropping into the room.

  “Anything?” Cam asked.

  She shook her head. “They may be gone.”

  “Or it may be a trap.”

  “How long do we wait to be sure?” She glanced over at Yevin. He still slept.

  “Tomorrow. If they don’t attack tonight, we’ll make our way to town and leave this place.”

  “And if he doesn’t agree?” She nodded at the inquisitor.

  “He will.”

  They both ate an apple, and then Ayja told Cam to get some rest. He found a place on the floor and was asleep in moments. Ayja went from window to window, keeping watch. It was a hot, sunny summer day. The air in the room was heavy and still. Wearing her aketon didn’t help. She didn’t dare take it off, though. She didn’t entirely trust the idea that the ghuls were gone.

  Yevin woke and joined her. “I see your mission was successful.” He took a long drink from the refilled water skin.

  “There are apples too,” Ayja said.

  “What did you see out there?”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  “I want to get out of here,” he said, leaning out the window for a better view.

  “Don’t we all?” She gave him
a sidelong glance. “What will you do when we are free?”

  “I’ll let you get a head start.”

  Ayja shook her head. “That’s not good enough. You have to promise not to tell of us. Salador has more important things to worry about. The queen, the prince, everyone needs to know about these lyches and their pyren and ghuls. They are the threat. Not me.”

  Yevin stared at her for a moment and then looked away. “All of my training has taught me that you are the enemy.”

  “Don’t you see now that Cam and I just want to live in peace?”

  “You are well armed for people who want to live in peace.”

  “We are well armed because of people like you!” She glanced at Cam to make sure the she hadn’t awakened him.

  “I’m the only person who knows the truth about you. If the ghuls don’t kill me, you will.”

  “I swear we won’t. I just need to hear you swear to keep silent about us.”

  Yevin took a deep breath and his face clouded over. “I swear it. I break my oath as an inquisitor and swear to you that I will keep your secret.”

  “Thank you.”

  He held out his hand for her to clasp wrists, but when she took his, he yanked her forward. Something struck her in the right side and searing pain ran through her body. He pulled his dagger out of her side and thrust again.

  Ayja twisted hard, but he still held her arm. His second thrust bit into her flesh, sliding along her ribs. The pain in her side was terrible. She tried to find her secret strength—the silver rage that made her so powerful, but it wasn’t there. The pain stopped her from touching it.

  “Cam!” she called out, but her voice sounded weak.

  Yevin pulled his dagger back, but instead of thrusting, yanked her to the floor.

  “Ayja!” Cam shouted from somewhere behind her. Yevin ran for the window, stepped on the sill, and jumped out.

  Cam was with her. “Where? Where did he stab you?”

  “Side,” she said, motioning with her hand.

  Cam tore at the aketon buckles and pulled her armor off her. “Damn him! Dromost take his black soul!” He ripped her shirt open at the side and probed her wound.