They met back at the room for lunch. At this point the others packed. They wrote a note to Kaliea. It thanked her for her hospitality and noted that the information they had found led them to look in another library, one they specifically did not name, and Maya wanted to get there as soon as possible so the information was still fresh in her mind. It almost seemed plausible. They left the note in their room, went to the horses, saddled them, and rode out of the city. It was surprisingly easy and thus unsettling.
Maya led them north. When asked what city she was leading them to, she said she hadn’t decided yet. They traveled north because it was the quickest way out of the jungle. Considering how much fun the journey in had been, she opted for the shortest distance to travel and decided they could choose a direction once they were out again.
It didn’t take them long to lose the breeze off the water, and the oppressive air hung about them again. Justin periodically got a far off expression on his face. Lucy didn’t feel like talking so she tried to puzzle out the reason instead. Finally she surmised that he was sending out his thoughts and searching to see if anyone was following them. It seemed like a good idea. They had left in a hurry without officially saying goodbye to their hostess. People were starting to ask questions, and this gave them more questions to ask. Lucy hoped that they were less inclined to pursuit and more inclined to move on to the next momentary interest.
That night they slept in the tent again. Despite the fact that it was less comfortable than the beds they had slept on in Kennemt, Lucy was glad to be back in the tent. Kennemt had made her feel constantly apprehensive.
It was midday on the second day of their travels that Justin announced that someone was following them. He couldn’t tell them who, but he was sure there was at least one person on their trail.
“Couldn’t it be someone else leaving Kennemt?” asked Gavin.
“That was my first thought, but they seem to be gaining on us, and I don’t think any casual traveler would be inclined to hurry through a jungle. Also, they stopped to rest last night, but long after it got dark. That implies someone familiar enough with the area not to worry about traveling at night,” replied Justin.
None of them looked forward to finding out who was following them and why. Gavin suggested setting a trap, but Maya thought it was a waste of time. They decided to continue on and deal with whoever was behind them when they caught up. Justin knew there was someone back there and could monitor their approach so they wouldn’t be surprised.
The person following them caught up with them that night. It was Kaliea’s cousin.
“You left in a hurry,” Kyphen said casually, stepping out of the trees and into their camp.
“Not in a hurry, simply when we were ready,” replied Gavin in an equally casual voice, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
“Where are you off to?” he asked.
“What business is it of yours?” asked Maya.
“I thought we could travel together if we were going the same way.”
“Where are you going?” asked Justin.
“North,” he replied.
“You may join us as long as we are going north,” said Maya.
“Actually, I’m looking for Kleth. You wouldn’t have any idea where that is would you?” Kyphen said, dropping the pretense and getting straight to the point.
“Many, but that doesn’t mean any of them are accurate,” said Justin with a shrug. He didn’t like this man. Maya was right about him.
“Kaliea is sorry you left without saying goodbye.”
“It was time to leave, and we didn’t know where she was. We left her a note,” said Gavin.
“We’d like for you to come back. You could tell us what you know, and we would be glad to help you on your journey provided we can go with you.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but we are not interested in help or company,” said Maya.
“What if I were to insist?”
“You might find that to be the last thing you insist upon,” responded Gavin lightly, as though killing him would be a minor inconvenience, but nothing more.
Lucy decided she didn’t like where this was going. She took a deep breath, concentrated, and watched as the man closed his eyes and fell asleep. Justin gave her an inquiring look.
“I decided we might like a chance to decide what to do before he left us no choice in what we had to do,” she said somewhat defensively.
Justin shrugged. They laid the man in a more comfortable position and examined his pockets. They found a number of small weapons hidden upon his body, which they removed. It was uncertain what his intentions were. How did he hope to keep all four of them under control? After much discussion, Lucy and Justin worked some magic. They set a spell in his mind to forget this meeting. Then, they set one that would make him sleep for two days. They put wards around him so that he would not be disturbed by wildlife and also made him invisible for the duration of his nap. They didn’t want him to come to harm, but they did want him to stop following them. Hopefully, he would wake up and think he overslept, but wouldn’t know by how much. He might still pursue them, but it would give them a greater head start, and a chance to cover their tracks better. It was worth a try.
They continued on through the jungle. Justin scanned the roads around them and reported back that no one was following them. Maya was giving thought to the direction they should head when they got out of the jungle. They needed to stop and purchase supplies at the next available town. They were running low on food. The journey out of the jungle was better than the journey in because they knew it was going to end soon rather than wondering how long until they reached the city. Also, they had learned a few things in Kennemt and knowledge gave them something to think about on the way out besides how humid it was.
The next few days passed without incident and without much conversation. Gavin wanted Lucy to try finding Kleth. Lucy wanted to wait until they were out of the jungle. No one wanted to spend more time than they had to among the oppressive suffocation the jungle provided so there wasn’t much disagreement about that. There also was not much talking. The traveling wasn’t difficult, but the environment was. There was no break from it when you rested. At least in a desert, it cooled down at night or you might be able to find some shade. In a colder climate, a fire for the night was comforting. Here, it was uncomfortable and humid no matter what you did and stopping only made things worse, because it was a lack of progress out of the jungle. Thus another reason Kennemt was safe from invaders. Who would ever want to bring an army through this?
Finally, they made it to the edge of the dense jungle and were able to catch a breeze. Maya pulled out a map and figured they would probably be able to reach a town sometime the following day. They would be able to travel faster without the dense jungle underbrush and low hanging vines. They sat outside their tent enjoying the breeze and watching the stars for awhile before going to sleep.
They hadn’t been asleep for very long before Justin sat up in bed.
“Everyone wake up and get ready for a fight!” he whispered firmly; then his face went blank.
Everyone reacted rather than question. Lucy quickly put on clothes, wishing for a minute that she had lots of armor, stuffed daggers everywhere she could, grabbed her staff, and went to stand outside the tent with Gavin. Gavin had pulled on leggings and boots; he hadn’t bothered with a shirt. Maya and Justin arrived shortly thereafter. Lucy gave Justin a questioning look.
“I always set wards. One of them went off. After waking you I searched, and there are about fifteen people surrounding us and closing in.”
“What about arrows?” asked Lucy.
“Put up a shield until they’re closer,” suggested Justin.
She did. Then, they waited. There wasn’t much else they could do. When Justin felt they were easily within hearing range he spoke.
“We know you are there. We know there are about fifteen of you and that we are surrounded. Is there anything you’d like
to discuss, or should we skip ahead to the fighting?”
“How very diplomatic of you to ask,” drawled a familiar voice.
“Didn’t we leave him asleep by a tree?” Maya whispered to Lucy.
Lucy shrugged, not taking her eyes off the forest around her.
“Unless you wish to surrender, I think we’ll save talking for after we capture you,” Kyphen responded.
No arrows came. Instead there was the loud noise of crunching underbrush as men rushed at them from all sides. Gavin smiled and began to fight. Three men lay motionless at his feet before others decided to surround him and try to work their numbers to their advantage. Obviously a direct assault was not going to go well for them where Gavin was concerned.
Lucy had fought in practice and in the competition at school, but all the training in the world can only partially prepare you for the real thing. These men were fierce, their weapons were real, and there were a lot of them. She found herself fighting three of them at once. They were not highly skilled fighters, but they were experienced, and Lucy did her best to not get killed. She blocked one hit and turned barely in time to duck under the club of another. She was fighting purely defensively with no chance to attempt an offense at all. As she came up from rolling out of the way of a sword thrust, she stumbled. It was the advantage they needed to knock her staff out of her hands. They closed in on her, grinning, holding their weapons ready.
Briefly, Lucy panicked. Briefly, she was scared. She was outnumbered and weaponless. She couldn’t depend on the others to help her because they were fighting their own fights. Lucy began to feel sick. She could feel the bile rising in the back of her throat. Briefly, Lucy worried that she was going to die. Then, the panic gave way to anger. This was ridiculous, she was better than this. This was not how she was going to die. How pathetic! As for being weaponless? She was trained to use magic; she was far from weaponless! The one closest to her leered at her.
“I wonder how this one tastes,” he said with a laugh to his cohorts.
How dare he! Lucy felt anger and magic course through her. She smiled back at the man and threw a fireball at him. He screamed as the fireball hit him burning a hole through his stomach, and he fell to the ground, his face frozen in a mixture of surprise and pain. Take that! She was not going to let these unwashed miscreants intimidate her. They were not going to hurt her or her friends. She was stronger than that! Another fireball appeared in Lucy’s hand, and she launched that at one of the other men she had been fighting. He was too busy staring at his companion on the ground and joined him before he could even react. The clothing on both bodies started ablaze. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.
The third man started towards Lucy with a knife held ready. He intended to reach her and kill her before she threw a fireball at him. He was fast, but not fast enough. Lucy conjured a third fireball and shoved it in the man’s face. He screamed in agony, fell to the ground, and rolled around trying to put the fire out. Lucy considered him out of the battle and ignored him as she focused her attention on the others. She threw and aimed with her mind, guiding the fire straight to her intended targets. Kyphen, sneaking up behind Maya, fell over dead. The man on the ground starting to throw a knife at Gavin became a ball of flame before the knife left his hand.
A few of them noticed that their companions were burning and started to run for it but Lucy wasn’t done. These people had had the audacity to attack her friends! She was not going to give them a chance to come back and try again. She threw fireball after fireball not once missing her mark. Suddenly, there was no one left standing but her friends. It was over. She stood gasping for breath, holding a ball of fire in her hand, her face wild with anger, while her companions looked at her with a mixture of surprise, shock, and fear.
“You can relax. I think you got them all,” said Gavin tentatively.
None of them moved. Everyone wanted to make sure she was done throwing fireballs before they made any sudden moves. Lucy continued to breathe hard. She let the fireball she held in her hand fizzle out. Slowly her anger faded, her mind took in the carnage around her, the carnage she had caused, and the smell of burning flesh. She swayed, then dropped to her knees and retched. What had she done? She retched again and began to cry.
Justin dug a hole for what was left of the bodies with a wave of his hand. Normally, they would have stripped the bodies of anything valuable, but no one wanted to touch the charred messes. Justin levitated the bodies to the grave and dumped dirt on top of them. When they were done, Maya and Gavin cleaned their weapons and did their best to wash up. Justin turned his attention to Lucy. She hadn’t moved.
“Come on,” he said, trying to pick her up and get her away from her vomit. Nothing makes you want to vomit again like the smell of vomit.
Lucy stood up and was able to wobble a few steps towards the tent before her knees gave out and she sagged to the ground. She was exhausted. This must be what Taran had been talking about; the price of using magic here. She was both physically and emotionally drained. She wasn’t sure that she had ever been this tired. Or, felt this wretched. Justin offered her a canteen, and she took a sip and a deep breath.
“I killed them,” she said, repulsed by what she had done.
“Yes,” replied Justin.
“Violently.”
“Unless you die in your sleep, death is violent.”
“I’ve never killed anyone before.”
“I know.”
“You’re not being very helpful,” she accused.
“What do you want me to say? You threw fireballs and killed fifteen people. Well, twelve is more accurate, Gavin killed three before you started on a fire rampage. No matter what I say or what comfort I might offer or how rational it sounds that it was either them or you, it doesn’t change that one fact. You killed them. You have to learn to accept what you did and live with that. In fact, you will most likely have to kill someone else at some point in time. Gavin had to face this, I had to face it, and one day Maya will have to face it. Today is your day.”
“At least Gavin killed his men in fair fights. There wasn’t anything they could do to defend themselves from me.”
“They had no problems continuing an attack on what they saw as an unarmed, outnumbered woman. Why should you feel bad about successfully defending yourself? You do know the kinds of things they planned to do to you.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t make it right.”
“Perhaps not, but not defending yourself wouldn’t have been right either.” Justin sighed. “We can keep going back and forth like this for hours if you want, but it won’t change what happened.”
“I know. I also know that I saw the looks on your faces when I was done. You’re scared of me.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely true. We’re partially intimidated by the power you have and your ability to wield it, but you are still you. We know you. We’re not afraid of you.”
“Am I? Still me, I mean. I think I’m scared of me. Of what I can do,” said Lucy forlornly.
“Let me ask you this then. Are you afraid of Gavin?”
“No, but I still somehow think it’s different.”
“It’s not,” insisted Justin.
“Either way, I think I’m afraid to have to kill again.”
“That’s something else you have to get over too. I don’t want you to like killing, but you do have to accept that you might have to kill again. Being afraid could cost you or one of us our lives. Also, we are going to need your power to find Kleth. Look, most of those men would have died tonight. We are good enough fighters for that. You made it happen before any of us could get hurt. Next time though, it might be good to leave one alive for questioning,” he said this last with a mock smile. “I’ve said my piece, now come here.”
Justin held out his arms, and Lucy leaned into them. She was all out of tears, but it felt good to feel safe and comforted. Part of her wanted him to say reassuring things. She wanted to hear that everything would be all r
ight. But she was not a child; she had to accept what she had done. When all was said and done, she would rather have Justin treat her as an equal.
“At least your reflexes have improved,” he joked, and she gave him a weak smile.
“I don’t need any details, but how did you kill your first?”
“I froze him, and Taran shattered him with a blow from his staff. I know how you feel. People do all sorts of things and tell themselves what they need to hear to live with and balance out the bad things they’ve done in their lives. I think acceptance is a good place to start.”
Chapter 48
After that, no one wanted to try to go back to sleep.
“I’ve got too much adrenaline rushing through my veins. About the time I finally settle down enough to sleep, it will be time to get up,” said Gavin.
“I think if I sleep now, I’ll feel worse when I get up,” added Maya. “Besides, I think I need to get away from the stench of burnt flesh. I think we should pack up and move out. It doesn’t look good for us to be camping next to a fresh mass grave if anyone else were to come along. I suggest that we travel to town, get rooms in an inn, have a bath, buy supplies, get a good night’s sleep, and be ready to travel tomorrow.”
Everyone agreed to this plan. Gavin got the horses ready while Justin and Maya packed up. Lucy didn’t want to go to sleep. She was afraid of what she might dream, but she was too physically exhausted to move so she picked a piece of grass to stare at and waited for everyone else to be ready to go. They were ready before the sun began to rise, but the sky had lightened enough to see where to ride without hurting the horses. Lucy tried to get to her feet and collapsed. Gavin picked her up and sat her in the saddle ahead of Justin. They were worried that she was too tired to hold herself in her own saddle. Lucy didn’t have the energy to object. She leaned back against the comfort of his body and stared straight ahead not taking in her surroundings.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 37