“Silas, it’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you so much,” Lumene let unvarnished words flow as the pair of them hugged tightly. “I’m glad you’re back. Are you well? Can you stay? Where have you been?” she asked.
“I was with the imps,” he decided to tell the princess. She had seen Stillwater, and knew the truth of their existence. She had been healed in the waters of the healing spring.
“Imps?” Lumene asked, not understanding.
“The imps are a race that are much like the sprites. The two are easy to mix up. They took me to the healing spring to recover from the damage the storm did to me,” he told her. “It took a long time to recover.
“But I’m back here now,” he added.
“I don’t understand,” she sighed, “but I don’t suppose I need to right now. I’m just glad you’re here and alive. And you’re healthy now?” she confirmed.
“As healthy as I can be, I think,” he smiled back.
“Good,” Lumene said. “I confess, I sent some blustery messages to Ivaric, and I much prefer to have you here with me to defend us from their potential revenge.”
“Are they still causing problems?” Silas asked. “Do we need to find their soldiers on the island? How many are left?”
“No, there are none left; they surrendered, and we shipped them all back to the mainland. Amenozume is ruled by my mother once again,” the princess announced triumphantly. “But our new Speaker has told us that Ivaric was blustering after they got word that their fleet had failed. So, I blustered back at them. And now you’re here to put teeth to my bluster.”
Silas paused. He needed to tell the princess that he wouldn’t be staying in Amenozume forever; he knew that he had to take the battle against Ivaric back to the mainland, to fight them in Avaleen, so that he could set the Wind Word academy free, and set the whole nation free, as the next step to take before quite possibly fighting Ivaric and L’Anvien directly, on their own homeland soil.
“I’ll stay here for a while, but I have to return to the mainland; the gods want me to keep fighting Ivaric. But we can talk about all of that later,” he tried to end the conversation as he saw the expression of disappointment creep over her face.
“I’m hungry. Could we go to the kitchen and find something to eat? What time is it here, anyway?” he asked.
“Gwen, you and Forna go find something in the pantry while I talk to Silas,” Lumene directed her bodyguard.
“As your majesty commands,” Gwen replied with a hint of formality, a sign of her displeasure at leaving the princess.
There was a moment of silence until the two departed, then Lumene spoke.
“Silas, stay here and recover for a while. Let the city see that you’re here. It’ll cheer everyone – the whole country has heard from the people who saw you standing on the top of the tower, creating the storm. It’s a legend! Let people know that you’re here and healthy, and the nation will feel safer. And when Ivaric gets word of your presence from their spies, they’ll feel less safe,” the princess spoke in tones that alternated between matter-of-fact and passionate.
“And it will be so good just to see you again, just to have you with me. I haven’t felt nearly as safe these past few days in the palace without you as I did when we were climbing through the mountains together,” she still held him loosely, but tightened her grip on him again to emphasize her feelings.
“I will always be ready to come to your aid,” Silas answered, seduced by the vulnerability that Lumene spoke of, her dependence on him. He could feel the curves of her flesh pressed against his own body.
There was a knock on the door, and a rush of footsteps, as Jimes and Sloeleen came into the room. “Is it true?” Jimes asked.
“Our pardons, majesty,” Sloeleen skidded to a stop, and grabbed Jimes to pull him back as well. “We heard that Silas was alive and returned, and we had to see for ourselves! The guard said that we could enter.”
Lumene was still wearing only the gown she had worn in bed, and traces of lotions still streaked along the edges of her face. And they had their arms wrapped around one another as Silas stood next to the bed while the princess was positioned on its very edge.
“Silas will come out and see you in a minute,” Lumene spoke with dignity. “Wait in the hall and he’ll join you.”
“Yes, your highness,” the two speakers bowed and curtsied together, then backed out of the room.
“You go now, and we’ll talk in the morning,” Lumene said. “Don’t go far though!” she insisted, then she impetuously placed her hands on his temples and pulled his face to hers, as she gave him a kiss. “Good night, my champion,” she said smugly.
Chapter 5
Silas smiled dreamily for a moment as he left the princess and walked out of her room, back out into the hall where Sloeleen and Jimes stood huddled together, apart from the guard as they talked among themselves. Upon Silas’s appearance in the hallway, they waved him over, and began to speak excitedly to him, telling him how pleased they were to see him once again.
“You won’t believe how much chatter we hear among the Speakers,” Sloeleen said. “The destruction of an entire Ivaric fleet has stunned the whole continent. Ivaric tried to keep it secret, and denied it, but there were so many reports of bodies washing up on shores, and so many garrisons that are short-handed now because they lent their soldiers to the invasion, that everyone from Barnesnob and Avaleen knows something about what happened.”
“And they know that you did it!” Jimes said excitedly. “Well, they say that the Abomination did it, because that’s the official Ivaric name for you now.”
“Who is talking to you?” Silas asked.
“They’re all talking to me,” Sloeleen replied. “They think Jimes is dead.”
“But I hear most of the comments that are sent in the direction of Amenozume palace anyway,” Jimes explained.
“Is Ivaric in trouble? Did losing the fleet damage their army?” Silas asked. Though he hadn’t intended to destroy the fleet – he only had meant to scatter it – the thought of striking a fatal blow against the dictatorship was appealing. It might make his next steps easier to carry out, if there was less will by Ivaric to fight to retain its conquered lands.
“They’re in trouble, and they’re angry, and they’re even more dangerous now,” Sloeleen said. “When the invasion first failed, before Ivaric’s leaders really understood the depth of their loss, they made threats against Amenozume and tried to bluster their way to victory, but the princess was having none of it.
“She sent some strongly worded replies back, and we’ve heard nothing directly since,” the new palace speaker reported.
Forna and Gwen appeared at the end of the hall, each carrying a tray of food and drinks.
“Shall we go to Silas’s room for this party?” Forna asked.
“Our star guest can carry his own blessed tray down to his room; I’m going back in to stay with the princess,” Gwen grumpily answered as she handed her tray to Silas. “And you better still be here in the morning; I don’t need you running off again so soon.”
Silas nodded. “I have no plans to go anywhere tomorrow,” he pledged.
“Good,” Gwen spoke the single word, then slipped past the guard and back into the princess’s suite, leaving the Speakers and Forna to return to Silas’s suite with their refreshments.
Silas asked questions and learned about the outcome of the battle in Amenozume after he had fallen unconscious.
“The rebels took the city, and the Amenozume occupants were so devastated by the loss of the fleet they didn’t put up a fight. They were all shipped out as fast as the princess could find ships to carry them,” Jimes explained.
“She kept Prince Derith in the Koch prison,” Forna added.
Silas ate as he listened, until the flow of information slowed.
“Where’s Mata?” he finally asked. She weighed on his mind, though he felt a sense of guilt as he recollected his visit to Princess Lumene.
“She’s being taken care of? Jade is with her?” Silas asked.
“Jade is, but Tagg is with her too, a lot,” Forna told her cousin in a flat voice.
Her tone made Silas study her, then look to Sloeleen, who looked away, and then to Jimes, whose eyes looked full of sympathy.
“What is it?” he asked. He tried not to anticipate or imagine unhappy stories.
There was silence among his three friends, friends he had known before he had become the possessor of great powers.
Jimes spoke at last. “She is not happy about how long you’ve been gone from her,” he offered.
“I know that, but she knows there really wasn’t any other choice,” Silas quickly replied.
“Saying – and knowing – there was no choice doesn’t make it any less difficult for her,” Forna spoke. “She’s had morning sickness, and she’s had to travel around living in camps while she’s pregnant and been alone much of the time.”
“You make it sound like I’ve done something wrong to her,” Silas said defensively.
“You haven’t done anything wrong – we might all be dead or in prison if you hadn’t done what you did!” Jimes hastily assured Silas. “We’re just telling you how the world seemed to her.”
“Your friend Tagg has spent a lot of time with her,” Sloeleen joined the conversation. “A lot. He takes care of everything for her now, from sunup to sundown.”
“Does she care for him?” Silas felt his stomach tighten as he blurted out the question.
“you need to ask her yourself,” Forna sought to put an end to the unhappy conversation. “You can see her in the morning when the sun is up, and everything is light, and we’ll all see things differently, and she’ll be happy to know you’re alive.
“She came by your room to see you once, after you disappeared. And you’re going to explain that now, aren’t you? More than that story you told the princess about imps and a magical spring?” Forna tried to pry the story out of him, and to more importantly, change the conversation.
“I really can’t say much about it. I was unconscious almost the whole time I was gone from here; I think the gods took steps to heal my body,” he squirmed slightly as he tried to avoid speaking about his small, blue-skinned friends.
There was another awkward silence.
“You’re going to go back to the mainland soon, right?” Jimes asked.
Silas shrugged. “Sometime soon. I don’t know exactly when, but yes, I have to go there to carry on the fight.”
“I want to go with you. I’ve been speaking to some of our friends who are still in Heathrin, and they say we could defeat the Ivaric officers who control things there. We could set the Guild free!” Jimes exclaimed.
“You mean you could,” Silas clarified. “I don’t expect I’ll go there for my battles.”
“No, I don’t expect you to. But if you start beating their armies in other places, and if they’ve already lost all those forces in the invasion, there isn’t going to be much available to prevent an over-throw of the Ivaric overseers at the Guild. They’ve got a couple of Speaker toadies who do their dirty work, but not much else to help them.
“And if we set the Speakers free again, people will be able to report even more about how Ivaric is losing,” he added.
“Alright, the two of us will set the world free and beat Ivaric!” Silas smiled.
“No, you’ll set the world free and beat Ivaric; I just want to set the Guild free,” Jimes corrected his friend.
Forna yawned loudly, despite the hand she hastily raised to cover her wide-open mouth. “It’s going to be dawn soon, and I’d like to get some sleep, before all the excitement of tomorrow begins. If you’ll excuse me.”
“You’re kicking us out?” Jimes asked as he started to rise to his feet as well, then offered a hand to help Sloeleen stand.
“Silas,” the female Speaker called unexpectedly. “A quick word?” she asked.
Silas’s eyebrows raised, but he rose and followed her to a corner of the room away from the others, curious about the topic.
“I want to apologize for the way I treated you in school,” she told him quietly. “I thought about that with shame for a long time afterwards. I know I put you in a tight spot when Botton was trying to cause you grief. I hope you’ll forgive me,” she stated.
Silas gave a pair of out loud laughs. “Those times were a life time ago. I remember them, but there aren’t any hard feelings,” he told her sincerely. “And you know, if Botton hadn’t tried so hard to kick me out of the school, I never would have become this,” his hand gestured to his colored eyes, “for better or for worse.”
“It seems to be for the better,” Sloeleen spoke sincerely. She gave a soft smile and placed her fingertips on his hand for a moment. Thank you,” she said.
“Jimes, let’s go find our ways back to our own beds and try to get our own fair share of sleep,” she said robustly as the tete-a-tete with Silas came to a quick end.
A minute later only Forna and Silas were left in the room.
“What did your speaker-girl had to tell you?” Forna asked curiously.
“Nothing serious. She just remembered something from our school days,” Silas passed the topic off, and Forna snuffed the candle. She quickly fell asleep, while Silas lay awake in bed for many long minutes, his mind full of speculation and turmoil as he thought about all he had to face.
Chapter 6
Silas woke later than Forna and the others.
When he awoke, he found Lexy standing at the foot of his bed, staring at him.
“It’s about time you woke up,” she said. “I hear you’re going to go to the mainland and fight against Ivaric; I want to come with you, and so does Card.
“When are we going to go?” she asked matter-of-factly.
Silas rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he blearily looked at the eager fighter.
“Did you fight in the battle against Ivaric here in the city?” he asked her as he sat up.
“Yes, some, but not a lot. They surrendered pretty fast once you destroyed their fleet. You should have taken more time,” Lexy grinned to show that she spoke humorously, though Silas wasn’t sure that there wasn’t a serious intent behind her words.
“Well, I don’t know when I’m going to go to the mainland yet,” he hesitated to give any answer that might affirm his intention to take the girl with him. He couldn’t imagine any benefit to his campaign to have the two rebels tagging along with him, becoming his responsibility.
“I’ll talk to the princess and find out what remains to be done here in Amenozume first before I leave,” he said. And he would want to find Mata and settle his situation with her, if the two of them could find a way to talk about and resolve their relationship, he silently told himself.
He heard the door open, and a woman’s voice called. “Hello?”
“Come in,” Silas invited, wondering who was next to see him.
It was Mata, who came around the corner, and then stopped, startled to find Lexy already in Silas’s room.
“I can come back later,” Mata immediately offered.
“No, Lexy was about to leave,” Silas pressed the issue. “I’ll talk to you when there’s a decision,” he told the rebel, “now let us talk.”
“Here, come have a seat,” Silas moved to the side of the bed and stood up as he patted the mattress, while he studied Mata during Lexy’s departure. Her pregnancy showed much more clearly now, and her stride seemed different as she walked, but a moment of insight told him that the hesitation in her steps towards him was not because of her condition.
They hugged when she reached his side, and suddenly, everything began to feel better.
Mata started to cry, and Silas felt uncertain once more.
“I thought you were gone or dead, or I was never going to see you again,” Mata told him as her hea
d lay against his shoulder. “What happened to you?” she asked.
He could at least tell her the truth, the whole truth. She had been with him in Faralag; she had seen the sprites and knew they were real.
“After I made the storm, I passed out. I used too much energy. I even used some of Kai’s energy that she gave to me, and it’s more than a mortal should try to do,” Silas explained. “Somehow, Faralag learned about me, about me being unconscious, and they used the treaty to ask Dewberry to take me to the healing spring in the elven lands. I was there for several days I guess, more than a fortnight.
“But now I’m healed and I’m back here in Amenozume,” he paused before he asked. “How are you?”
“Oh Silas,” She sobbed, “I’m a mess. I feel uncomfortable and I’m sick every day and I don’t know what I think or feel any more.
“I heard you were back, and I told myself I’d wait for you to come to me, but then I walked up here this morning, and you’ve got that Lexy in your bedroom at the start of the day,” Mata stopped crying, but sighed deeply.
“I didn’t invite Lexy. She just came here to tell me that she wants to fight Ivaric more; she wants me to take her to the mainland, so she can keep fighting,” Silas hastily sought to correct the mistaken appearance of Lexy’s presence in his room.
They sat down next to one another on the bed and looked into each other’s eyes.
“I miss you Mata,” Silas spoke first. “I miss how we used to be with one another and be friends all the time,” he said.
“I miss that too,” Mata said. “But we weren’t together forever. We were together when you rescued me, and we traveled to Faralag, but since then, you’ve always been somewhere else, practicing with the Movers, or fighting, or being captive, or spending time with some other woman, like Lexy or Princess Lumene. Our time together – really together with one another – ended almost as soon as it began.”
There was a knock on the door.
“Silas, the princess would like for you to come join her for breakfast,” Gwen’s voice entered the room before she did. She stopped when she saw Mata sitting on the bed.
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