For Whom the Bell Trolls: Hands of the Highmage, Book 1

by D. H. Aire

  The women of the city watched the procession in silence as what had been the House of Ryff marched to the harbor. Once there a Mother Shaman said to De’ohr, “This is your last chance to reconsider this madness.”

  De’ohr sighed, “The madness is yours, not ours. Prophecy demands what it will, we accept our fate… as you one day, all shall.”

  “Then, stubborn woman, know that all of you must be searched before being allowed to board.”

  “Such is not unexpected,” De’ohr announced as the captain of the nearest ship strode over as her bag was taken to a table, opened and its contents rifled.

  “Lady Mother,” the man said with a bow.

  “Captain.”

  “My ship has come a long way and will be happy to have you and your kin as passengers.”

  “I understand all is arranged,” she replied as the Mother Shaman glared at her, as if wanting to order her physically patted down. De’ohr smiled, and opened her robe to the woman. “That better?”

  “Never set foot here again.”

  De’ohr shook her head, “You will remember this day and regret you part in this, that I promise you.”

  The captain cleared his throat, addressing the other Mother Shaman. “Excuse me, but I’ve a bit of cargo to deliver and would appreciate your sending for its recipient.”

  “We are rather busy today, Captain,” the Mother Shaman replied in a frosty voice.

  De’ohr simply smiled, “I appear to have a little time. Perhaps, I might be of assistance.”

  The captain gestured and a chest of Imperial make was carried down from the deck. “If you would be so kind, this is for one Lord Vyss, Secondson.”

  There was a stunned silence as De’ohr grinned. “Hmm, I can’t say I’ve any idea where Lord Vyss might be found. Who sent this by the way?”

  “A merchant in the Empire, Milady.”

  “That looked rather heavy,” she said.

  “Very,” the captain admitted. “It is also spelled shut. None but Lord Vyss will ever be able to open it or so the mage who spelled it said.”

  De’ohr’s gaze danced, “Your crew did not try, you mean?”

  “Of course, not, Milady. They are honorable sailors, one and all.”

  “What’s this about some merchant sending this chest here?” the Mother Shaman demanded.

  “It is my understanding that the merchant seeks to create trading ties here. I believe such a gift as this is intended to make Lord Vyss accept a role as his sole trading partner in Cathart.”

  De’ohr glanced at her gaping Sisters. “I think Lord Vyss is going to be very pleased by such an offer, having a trading partner in the Empire will likely be quite lucrative.”

  There was laughter and not just from De’ohr’s waiting Sisters.

  Mother Shaman glared and the laughter quieted but whispers did not as laughter seemed to echo down the lane.

  De’ohr sighed, seeing the captain looking a bit bemused. “Captain, I think it best you leave the chest right here on the docks. Doubtless when Lord Vyss claims his rights in the city, he’s considered a bit young yet, you must understand, he’ll come for it.”

  “De’ohr, you’ve done this,” the Mother Shaman protested.

  “Hmm, sadly, no. This is nothing of our doing. Though, I hope it gives the gossips joy and the other lords none,” she replied. “Now, good Captain, I and mine would like to begin boarding.”

  “The ships are at your service, Milady.”

  “Ships?” the Mother Shaman said, frowning. “Just how many ships have been paid for their passage?”

  De’ohr deigned ignore her as she strode up the gangplank and saw in her mind’s eye, the captain frown and reply, “Why, I believe, all of them, Milady.”

  #

  “Eve’lyn!” Lord Myff shouted from the balcony as the Shattered House’s sister moved on to the next ship and the next as their meager possessions were quickly searched. “It looks like…”

  She stared as in the distance one of her Mother Shaman allies signed. “They’ve booked passage on all the ships!”

  “This is intolerable!” he yelled.

  “Still there will barely be enough room for all of them, Milord… and the daughters are yours. Not a one walks with them as you can plainly see.”

  He frowned, “Curse it, our Sisters should be at the manse by now. I should be there now, claiming my kin!”

  “No, Milord! De’ohr, curse her, would have foreseen that and laid a trap for you. She wants you dead.”

  He shivered. “Bah, this is not how I planned!”

  The Mother Shaman made no answer to that, merely frowned, staring out at the ship’s deck that De’ohr now stood upon. De’ohr returned her gaze in the distance. Eve’lyn grimaced; certain De’ohr was smiling at her as the remnant of the House of Ryff continued boarding ship after ship, more ships than the Port of Catha had seen in years.

  Eve’lyn blinked, “She’s foreseen all of this. Arranged it all.”

  “What?”

  That’s when they heard the sound of racing hooves, running pell-mell toward their harbor lodgings. The rider was shouting what sounded like, “It’s empty! It’s empty!” A young Mother Shaman rode at her back, echoing, “It’s empty!”

  Her husband’s face flushed in anger, “She’s tricked us!”

  She gasped, going pale, ignoring her husband she ran from the room and shouted to the Sisters, “I want those girls found! Send out birds, offer a bounty on every one of their heads! Our lord will not be trifled with!”

  Rushing outside, she met the rider and the Mother Shaman, taking the younger woman aside as the rider stammered a report.

  “It’s all gone, Lady Mother. The Holy Vessels are gone.”

  De’ohr’s smile haunted her, telling her she would never find them. The true inheritance of Sire Ryff, the ancient vessels that meant a House’s survival, were lost to her. “Damn that woman!”

  Chapter 12 – Badlands

  The wagon jostled and the little girl she had carried on her aching back for so long would not stop sobbing. “Shut up, please,” Mahr whispered, practically begging.

  “It’ll be all right,” Za’an said, sitting opposite her, cradling her charge in her lap, an arm around one of the slightly older girls on her left. Their year-mates riding along with them did their best to soothe the far too many little girls in their charge, in the too crowded wagons.

  Mahr looked back at Za’an. “We’re out of arrows, aren’t we?”

  “We’ve driven off those becursed Hellcats,” Za’an replied.

  Her year-mate on her right glared at Mahr, “You want to go back for any of those arrows?”

  Shaking her head, no, Mahr almost responded, “They’ll be back,” but she had enough sense to bite down on her lip instead. She also feared admitting to herself that Nessa was not on any of the wagons trailing along with them.

  Brigands and a pack of at least nine more Hellcats, Mahr thought, shutting her eyes… What’s happened to us all? she wondered, knowing this was no trial. Crossing the badlands had to me things had gone terribly wrong. She prayed being spared having to explain to Mother if anything had happened to Nessa. Her sister just had to be in one of the other wagons behind them.

  Za’an sighed, seeing Mahr actually hugged the frightened little girls around her.

  #

  The wind shifted. Greth halted, looked back, thinking it would be so much easier if he only had Lawson to worry about. “Lawson! Get them to into the gully!”

  Eyes wide, Lawson began running, pulling the reins hard. Nessa and Yel’ane suddenly spurred their mounts. As soon as they reached the gully, Lawson halted, helping girl after girl down into the gully as Yel’ane and Nessa tossed down all their provisions.

  Greth slapped the rump of the first freed up mount, sending it racing away, followed soon by the other three. He leaped down and gestured the girls to silence just as they heard a Hellcat’s hunting cry, echoed by more of them.

  The sound sent
shivers down the girls’ spines as many whimpered.

  They heard first one horse cry out in agony. Moments later another shrieked as it was brought down.

  Drawing his broadsword, Greth looked at Lawson, who seemed about to protest.

  “Keep… safe,” Greth ordered, then leaped from cover and charged.

  #

  Five of the Hellcats were tearing at what remained of two of the horses, the other cats circling, seeking their own chance. One sniffed the air in search of its own prey. Greth ran toward it while the others were distracted, when Greth’s reach helped bring down his broadsword in a death stroke.

  The Hellcat barely realized its peril too late, then Greth was continuing past. The Hellcats before him turned. The spiked goblin wrought collars they were coated in dried blood. A Hellcat turned and faced him, standing nearly five feet tall. The jeweled charm hanging from its neck glowed a sickly green, matching its bespelled gaze.

  Greg swung his blade as it twisted, trying to keep the edge from its neck.

  The tip of the sword and jeweled charm met. Sparks flew and the spiked collar went flying. The creature dropped to the ground stunned, then the other Hellcats were suddenly upon him and he was in for the fight of his life.

  #

  There were roars and animal cries so fierce that the girls trembled and sobbed. Lawson searched his bag and pulled out what looked like several smooth obsidian-like rocks.

  Vi’ya saw dirt drop past her face and looked up, eyes going wide, as an extremely large feline head, two long fangs dripping blood, stood atop the edge of the gully. It glared down at her. She screamed.

  Lawson turned and threw one of the rocks with all his might, praying he wouldn’t miss.

  The Hellcat roared in pain as the rock struck the jeweled charm hanging from its collar. The rock held fast. The charm broke in half as its magery pulsed and was subsumed into the rock which grew and glowed. The Hellcat’s gaze went wild before it crumpled, shrinking in size, its fangs retracting. Moments later, when the beast rose, the collar fell loosely from its sleek neck. Wide-eyed, the girls gaped as it leaped, crossing to the other side of the gully and running off as if for dear life.

  “What was that?” Ani’ya cried.

  “Um, cougar, I think…” Yel’ane muttered.

  “Bespelled into a Hellcat,” Nessa replied, bemused, staring at Lawson, who seemed quite pleased with himself.

  Another cougar leaped across the gully.

  Lawson rose to carefully peer—

  A Hellcat was thrown into the earthen wall of the gully. Stunned, Lawson cast another rock, which adhered to the charm it wore, pulsing. There was an audible snap as the charm sundered. Wild eyed, the Hellcat grew smaller, turned more feline in appearance, then shaking free its collar, clambered out of the gully as if its tail were afire.

  A shadow passed over the girls, who stared up at the other edge of the gully. A blood covered Greth stood, swayed, then collapsed, falling in their midst as the girls scrambled. “That’s… the last of them,” Greth muttered.

  “Greth, are you all right?” Lawson said, rushing to his side.

  “Of…” he muttered before fainting.

  “Girls, keep back,” Nessa ordered as Lawson drew for his back a piece of robe to use as a tourniquet as Yel’ane hurried to his side, saying something that he thought was an offer of help. Lawson nodded, showing her he wanted her to hold Greth’s arm steady as he took out a vial and poured it on the wound, where his friend’s flesh was clearly torn by one of the creature’s teeth.

  Greth’s arm was suddenly covered in what Yel’ane would later think of as a white fog. Flesh, muscle, even bone re-knit. Lawson tore away Greth’s sleeve at the shoulder, where claws had raked him. The fog moved up Greth’s arm and healed the marks, continued along his flank to where his jerkin was torn and bloody, slowly changing to a dark rust color, before fading away.

  “He… be… good,” Lawson said to Yel’ane, then looking past her at the others who were staring.

  “He’s a mage,” Ani’ya half-whispered.

  “He turned those Hellcats into cougars,” En’sta said, nodding.

  Vi’ya gave her a look, “He blew off that goblin’s head back there, saving your life, Ani’ya! Of course, he’s a mage.”

  “Greth’s going to be all right, isn’t he?” Thri’la asked.

  “Of course, he is,” Yel’ane replied, hoping she wasn’t lying. “Between him being a troll and Lawson’s magic, how couldn’t he be?”

  En’sta climbed up and peered over the edge of the gully and stared, first at the dead cougar with its smashed face, then past it and blinked. “Greth cut them to bits.”

  “What?” the other girls chorused.

  “Get down from there!” Nessa ordered.

  Lawson drew En’sta back down, then peered over the edge and hissed between his teeth.

  “He really did!” En’sta shouted, smiling in wonder as her year-mates gaped.

  Ani’ya swallowed hard, tried climbing up and looking for herself as Lawson gently pushed her pack. She wasn’t the only one as Nessa and Yel’ane grabbed back the others and Lawson did his best not to hurt the others he held back, while the less intrepid thought it best not to look as Nessa and Yel’ane berated those girls who had tried.

  “Uh, looked to me like at least one of the horses got away,” Vi’ya said.

  “How many did he take on?” En’sta asked.

  Vi’ya grinned, “He must have taken on seven of them.”

  Lawson shook his head, then retrieved the two glowing, now bigger, rocks as the girls quieted and watched. Frowning, he looked back, saw them staring; unstoppered his almost empty vial and dropped one of the rocks into it, quickly stoppering it again. There was a sparkling at the bottom of the vial and the glowing rock began to shrink and the vial to refill with the white smoke.

  “How did he do that?”

  He put the other rock in his bag, gestured for them to leave Greth sleep, then climbed out of the gully.

  “Ani’ya! What do you think you’re doing?” Nessa cried as the girl clambered back up to the edge.

  “Seeing what… Oh, he’s using one of those rocks on the dead Hellcat collars. Hmm, he must be stealing their magic for future need,” she replied, delighted.

  “That’s ridiculous,” Nessa said. “Come down from there this instant, young lady!”

  Ani’ya slid back down, “Never heard of such a thing.”

  “Definitely a mage,” another girl said.

  Lawson returned to find all the young girls smiling at him. He frowned, when Greth moaned a little later Lawson hastily retrieved a water skin and dripped some water into his mouth. “He… be… hungry… wakes.”

  Yel’ane swallowed, “Uh, he can eat my share, I’m not going to be hungry any time soon.”

  “Mine, too!” most of the girls chorused before turning away to throw up.

  Nessa glared at Yel’ane, who clasped her hands around her mouth, gagging as Lawson frowned and muttered, “Humans.”

  #

  Greth woke with a start, stars overhead. “What?”

  “How are you feeling?” Lawson asked.

  “Like a cavern collapsed on me… and I’m hungry.”

  “There’s bread beside you and the container of nutraebutter Mendra gave me.”

  Sitting up, he blinked, shook her head, “Uh, Lawson, what’s going on?”

  “They’re sleeping as you can well see.”

  “Since when did you become a pillow?”

  “Since Ani’ya thought it safer sleep with me, which made almost all of them join in,” he replied.

  “And if there were another Hellsnake?”

  “They would be feasting on all the cougar you so nicely carved up from them.”

  “There is that,” he muttered as he slavered the nutraebutter on the hunk of bread he tore. “Lawson, this isn’t the same part of the gully we were before.”

  “No, we needed to move further away.”

 
; “And why was that?”

  “The smell was rather strong.”

  “You could have considered cooking the cougar.”

  “Uh, that wasn’t the smell at issue, my friend… also, the cougars reminded them of the old legends, I think, about cats.”

  “Cats, weren’t they some sort of cuddly magical creatures?”

  “That’s what Mendra told me…”

  “Cougars are definitely not cuddly.”

  “No.”

  “What’s in the packs, here?”

  “If you’re still hungry, their dinner offerings for you are in there.”

  “Offerings?”

  “They want to thank you.”

  He bent his arm, “What elixir did you use on me?”

  “Mother called it ‘Nanomeds.’”

  “And it worked?”

  “Not as the manuals said it would, but it certainly healed you as it was intended.”

  Greth nodded, “You will thank Mother for me when you next speak to her.”

  “Um, about that.”

  “What?”

  “I think I broke a component or three.”

  “Lawson.”

  “Well, there’s a chance I’ll be able to fix it with George’s help.”

  Shaking his head, Greth said, “We have to cross the human lands first, which I hope are not as bad as these.”

  “I’ve still Mother’s map in my head.”

  “I guess, we better make sure nothing happens to your head then.”

  Lawson nodded, “I heartily agree. Feel up to standing watch?”

  “Yes, go to sleep and try not to think of this lot like legendary cats.”

  Lawson blinked, then closed his eyes, thinking it was likely already too late for that.

  #

  Nessa woke to the sound of a horse nickering. She blinked in the sunlight and saw Greth standing at the gully’s edge, the horse’s reins in his hand. “We… go.”

  The girls stirred and Lawson blinked, “Morning.”

  “Morn…ing,” Greth replied.