Midnight Quest

by Honor Raconteur

  Jewel didn’t have much of a romantic streak, not compared to most of the women she knew, but she wistfully admitted to herself that having at least a small celebration would be nice. “Well…just nothing elaborate. We don’t have time for anything truly elaborate.” She’d heard of weddings that took months to plan. As it stood, anything that took more than three weeks would interfere with their plans to return to Veris.

  “Moving our crystal-friend is going to take some time too,” Alexandra concurred thoughtfully. “Hmmm. My architect-friend should be reporting to me sometime today about whether your idea is feasible or not. Let’s go look for the wedding oath and the official paperwork we’ll need to do this morning while we wait. Then once he gives us an idea of the work involved we can plan everything out.”

  Jewel nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Then, let’s start digging.”

  ~*~*~*~

  They spent the entire morning researching. The wedding vows themselves were (thank the gods for small favors) short and to the point. Alexandra even found them fairly quickly. The matter that distracted them completely was all of the history about the few priestesses that were married after they were called. Apparently, it hadn’t happened very often, and when it had, there had been quite the celebration. Jewel had to repeat herself several times—neither she nor Rialt wanted anything extravagant. What with moving the Jordian and Veris crystal, not to mention going back to Ramath and re-dedicating its crystal, and then charging all of them in order to put the barrier back up at full strength, they could be left without any time for the next several months to be married.

  No. Jewel put her foot down. She didn’t want to travel the width and breadth of Evard again and only be engaged to the man. That would just add complications to an already tiresome journey. And for no reason, either.

  The architect came in during lunch to announce that he believed Jewel’s plan would work. He also thought that two days would be enough time to dismantle enough of the slide to move the crystal through. Everyone met the news with open delight. But it also meant that their time here couldn’t be extended much longer before they needed to travel back to Veris.

  So for two straight days, both women planned out a quick wedding to take place the day after the crystal was moved. Alexandra insisted on having nice wedding clothes made for everyone and reserving a large dining hall for a dinner. In between all of the preparations, the days seem to fly until the day had arrived to move the crystal.

  Jewel woke up late, ate a large breakfast, and dressed warmly before heading out with everyone to the crystal’s location. No one was in a particular hurry to get there quickly as the water was still icy cold and they hoped that if they gave it a little more time it’d warm up.

  There was a heavy fog; she could smell it in the air and feel the pressure of it against her skin. At this hour of the morning, the only sounds came from the soft lap of the water against the shore and the movements of the people around her. She paused in mid-stride and turned her head slightly to listen better to the sounds behind her. She and Rialt were toward the back of the group, and yet…

  “Rialt, do you hear that?”

  “Hear what, heart?”

  “I thought for a moment I heard people behind me.” She paused, mouth searching for the words to explain. “They weren’t walking normally. It was more like they were trying to sneak.”

  Rialt let go of her arm instantly and drew the axe at his back in a smooth, gliding motion. “Sarvell, Chizeld,” he called with unnatural calm. “We have company.”

  Jewel felt a little alarmed at his actions. “Wait, I said might!”

  “No, sweet, I do no doubt your ears,” Rialt disagreed as he stepped in front of her. “You can hear things we can no hope to. There be no reason, at all, for a man to be sneaking about the lake at this hour of the morning. How many did you hear?”

  “Er…” nonplussed that her words could cause this reaction, she had to stop and force her mind to go back to that moment. “Two? But don’t take that as gospel. I can’t always hear people walk.”

  She heard Sarvell step up to flank her right side, and Chizeld came up to her left. Turning, she extended a hand, searching. “Alexandra?”

  Her fellow priestess grasped her hand tightly, hands cold and shaking slightly. Jewel, strangely enough, felt almost calm. Her heart still quivered in her chest, and she felt her nerves jitter at the thought of what might come at them, but at the same time…she had faced this threat before and lived through it. She did not think that anything could harm her, not with these three men standing so solidly between her and danger. It gave her a piece of mind that let her smile and wrap a supportive arm around Alexandra’s shoulders. “It’s fine,” she soothed. “I might be wrong. It’s just a hunch that something is out there.”

  “Oh, they be out there,” Rialt assured her, voice still unnaturally calm.

  “How can you see anything in this fog?” Sarvell grumbled. “It’s almost thick enough to slice and serve on a piece of bread!”

  “Pay attention to the shadows,” Chizeld counseled, sounding eerily like Rialt for a moment. “There are shadows that do not belong here.”

  Alexandra had an iron grip on Jewel’s hand, but she apparently did not allow fear to freeze her. She turned slightly and spoke to the two armsmen behind her. “Stiles, Trexler, do you see anything?”

  “No,” both men responded near simultaneously.

  “But do not doubt someone is there,” Stiles added. “Axheimer, think this is assassins?”

  “It crossed my mind. The two of you focus on the back and sides. We will watch from the front and bide a bit.”

  “Shouldn’t we make a break for a building?” Sarvell asked.

  “Eh, I would, if no for this fog. We have no way of knowing if we be running to or away from trouble.” Rialt blew out a breath. “Curse their hides for such good timing.”

  Several tense moments passed. Jewel had her ears strained to their limit, trying to hear what the men had trouble seeing. But that brief sound of footsteps didn’t reoccur. She started to lose all feeling in her hand from Alexandra’s tight grip but didn’t say anything to her. She could remember all too well what the first encounter of Daath assassins felt like.

  “Why the wait?” Alexandra asked, words cracking slightly.

  “We’ve realized they’re there,” Sarvell explained. “If you’re going to ambush people, you have a certain plan and you put people into position to take advantage of that surprise. But if your prey knows you’re there, then you have to change the plan, which means you have to be in a different position. They’re off-kilter now.”

  That made sense. Part of Jewel wished they had just rushed in, though. She wasn’t sure how much more of this her nerves could take.

  To Jewel’s sensitive ears, the sudden rush of the assassins sounded overly loud. The wet grass slapped against their shoes and legs as the attackers darted forward, and the slide of weapons through the fog with a sound of displaced air. She flinched in spite of herself, which threw Alexandra a little off balance as well.

  Within moments, the ring of metal striking metal sounded, like a discordant symphony. The armsmen either gave a soft grunt of effort or hissed in a breath at nearly the same time.

  “What?” Jewel asked Alexandra in alarm. “What’s going on?”

  “Six attackers all struck at once,” Alexandra responded shakily.

  Six? But they only had five armsmen… “Who took two?”

  “Rialt.”

  Of course. He probably did that deliberately too, as he had the most experience dealing with them. She listened as intently as she could but the slaps of weapons striking each other, the heavy breathing and grunts of the men, none of it told her who was winning.

  Then a sickening sound as metal struck flesh, a short scream of pain, truncated when a body fell heavily to the ground. For the first time, Jewel’s hand squeezed Alexandra’s painfully tight as she whispered past a tight throat, “
Tell me that wasn’t one of ours.”

  “No,” Alexandra hastily reassured her. “Our men are fine.”

  Thank all the gods.

  Still shaky, Alexandra whispered, “Sorry. I forgot for a moment that you couldn’t see. The armsmen are holding their ground, and the assassins are desperately trying to push forward. But it looks like they’re outmatched—” this sounded vastly reassuring until Alexandra added uncertainly, “I think.”

  Two more screams rent the air, shortly before something large and heavy hit the ground with a thud. “Both assassins,” Alexandra said quickly. “Ohh!”

  Jewel resisted the urge to throttle her. “What?”

  “They’re down.” Alexandra let out a huge rush of air and finally released the stranglehold she had on Jewel’s hand. “Stiles and Chizeld were able to help finish the others off.”

  Jewel rubbed at her hands, the blood flowing back into the appendage with a painful tingling sensation. She was glad that for once, the men hadn’t exercised any mercy against their opponents. Men sometimes had the strangest notions of fighting fairly, but to her mind, assassination attempts and ambushers didn’t deserve “fair.” Apparently, Stiles and Chizeld agreed with her.

  “Trexler, call the City Guard to deal with this,” Chizeld ordered.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Jewel listened to this in bemusement. She had thought that with the armsmen being assigned to Alexandra, they would no longer be subordinate to Chizeld. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Either that or old habits died hard…

  “Two squads this time,” Rialt observed, tone ruminative. “It be quite a compliment, that.”

  “Two might have done the job,” Sarvell observed dryly. “Thankfully they chose to attack when we were all together.”

  “Bad planning on their part,” Rialt agreed. He took two steps backwards and laid a warm hand on Jewel’s shoulder. “Heart, you look a mite pale.”

  She followed the arm and stepped in for a long hug. “I don’t think I’ve ever going to get used to being attacked like that.”

  “I would be a bad husband if you did get used to it,” Rialt pointed out dryly, which made her smile. “Now the question stands, was this too much excitement for today? If you want to retreat a day and settle your nerves, no man here will think less of you.”

  Jewel shook her head even before he could complete the offer. “Oh no. No, no, no, no. The longer those crystals are out of their proper place, the more incentive the Daath have for killing us. I want them all in the right place yesterday.”

  “I agree.” Alexandra still sounded shaken, but her tone was firm. “But…you do not think they will try again today?”

  “Today’s the safest day to work,” Chizeld assured her. Well, assured them both, really. “Will take time to realize that these teams failed and deploy new ones. Will not be able to react today.”

  It made sense. And if that were the case…Jewel stepped back from Rialt’s hold and faced the general direction that Alexandra was standing in. “Let’s move her.”

  Alexandra took in a breath and let it out again slowly. “Alright. This way, then.”

  They went to the shoreline first to see for themselves what the situation was like. Jewel could feel the coldness coming off the water, brushing against the skin of her face. She didn’t like the idea of getting in that water one little bit, but…if she could get through this quickly, she could marry Rialt tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. “Alright,” she asked of the people around her, “what does it look like?”

  “Whole sections on this side are gone,” Sarvell reported. “It looks like a more than wide enough gap to me. Assuming we can tip our crystal-friend without hitting the interior of the slide, it shouldn’t be difficult to move her.”

  Just the news she wanted to hear. “Then let’s get this done.”

  They retreated to the inside of the resort and rooms that had been set apart for their use. The Jordians had apparently realized at some point that a woman could not modestly play in the water with what fashion currently offered. So they’d created a swimming outfit that a woman could either purchase or borrow from the resort. Made from some sort of light, stretchy material, it covered her from collarbones to knees in a form-fitting skirt, with tights underneath. Jewel was very tempted to buy one just to sleep in—they were marvelously comfortable.

  Dressed for battle, she and Alexandra came back out and returned to the shoreline.

  Now if only she could dredge up the courage to wade into the water.

  “Jewel?” Rialt stepped in close, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You afraid of water?”

  She grimaced. “Cold water, yes!”

  “Ahhhh. Well, in that case…” With no warning, he hoisted her into the air.

  “Wait, w-what—?!”

  Chuckling in a terrifying and evil way, he tossed her carelessly forward. Jewel managed a panicked screech before she hit the water’s surface.

  Because of her flailing about, she hit on her right side. The feeling of cold, hard water nearly robbed her of breath. A painful tingle spread through her as the cold seeped quickly into her skin. She scrambled to put her feet under her, toes digging into the sand to find purchase. Only then was she able to put her head above water. She intended to yell at Rialt, but her body insisted on drawing in three deep, gasping breaths of air first.

  “RIALT!”

  “Revenge, lass,” he responded with mock-sweetness.

  Obviously he subscribed to the theory that revenge was best served cold.

  “Besides,” he added in that same congenial tone, “the best way to deal with cold water be to jump in.”

  “That’s a believable argument from a man still standing on shore!” She meant for her tone to be scathing, but couldn’t quite manage it through her chattering teeth.

  “Hold your breath.”

  Hold her breath? For what? No…wait…surely he wouldn’t…

  She heard as he took a heavy step forward, and then a second later a tremendous splash as something large hit the water. Once again the water washed over her head, only this time as a wave.

  The water sloshed in every direction as Rialt moved. “Phew! Mite chilly.”

  Chilly?! Indignant, she balled her fists together and splashed the water as hard as she could at him.

  Rialt, the rat fink, laughed and splashed back. Not about to let that slide, she riposted the icy spray. It went downhill from there as they splashed water as much and as fast as they could. If she hadn’t already been soaked, their water war would have done the job.

  “Will you stop?” Sarvell called out in exasperation from the safety of the shore. “How is it that as soon as you two get near water, you start acting like children?”

  “She started it,” Rialt defended himself, completely unmoved by the scolding.

  Jewel splashed him again for that.

  “Focus,” Chizeld commanded. “Shouldn’t be in water for long.”

  True. Jewel felt racked with shivers and she couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering. It would be unwise to stay in for long.

  Because she had been tossed in (she’d get Rialt for that later), Jewel had no real sense of direction. The crystal stood behind her, she could feel that clearly, but she didn’t know where the water ended or where the dock was anymore.

  “Here, lass.” Rialt’s warm hand grabbed hers, feeling like a branding iron on her chilled skin. “This way.”

  She grasped his wrist with her free hand for balance and waded after him.

  “Jewel!” Alexandra called from near the crystal’s base. “Why don’t you push and I pull?”

  Since she could actually see, that was probably the best plan. “Alright!”

  Rialt directed her more to the left, no doubt guiding her to the back of the crystal. “Is it right in front of me?”

  “You should be able to reach it.”

  She let go of his wrist and stretched out her hand. Her fingers grazed the flat surface easily. This crystal felt co
lder than the rest had, but considering it sat in ice cold water all day, well… She moved over a few feet, centering herself to the crystal. Rialt moved so that he stood behind her, out of the way. “Alexandra, ready?”

  “Ready!”

  “On three! One, two, three!” Jewel slowly pushed as Alexandra lifted, tilting the crystal at a slight angle.

  “Stop!” Alexandra commanded. “Now move forward five paces!”

  Jewel slowly pushed forward, the water moving around her in a slow roll as the crystal shifted. She counted out five paces before halting. “Good?”

  “Need to tip her a little more and then another five paces!”

  They repeated this process several times before Alexandra called, “I think she will clear! Just keep walking forward!”

  Jewel issued a silent prayer that this would work. If it didn’t, they would probably have to dismantle the slide completely, which everyone was loathe to do. The workers would need another full day or two to tear the slide free if it came to that. It would also mean getting into this freezing water again.

  “Jewel,” Rialt’s voice was deep with concern, “your lips be blue.”

  “I take it that’s bad?”

  “Very. A few more paces and the crystal should win free. After that, you be coming straight out and into a hot bath.”

  Sounded heavenly.

  Her body was so frozen that every muscle seemed to creak. Jewel found it hard to move and it came to a point where her body felt sapped of all strength. Sheer willpower kept her moving steadily forward.

  “Almost to shore,” Rialt encouraged. “A few paces more.”

  Jewel didn’t actually need him to tell her that, although she was heartened by the encouragement. The water was becoming more shallow with every step, and by now it sloshed around her thighs instead of coming up to her chest. In fact, the steady way the water retreated made things worse and better all at once. Worse, because the cold air hit her wet skin and chilled her even further so that goose bumps were covering her from head to toe. Better, because she knew that if the water was this shallow that she could stop soon and race to find that hot bath.