by Ruby Duvall
Chapter Twenty-Two
When she woke again, it was to see a branch coming steadily at her face before the arm of a man pushed it up and out of the way. She took in a deep breath of air, bringing herself upright.
“Where are we? How long have I been asleep?” she asked, her voice a bit slurred and scratchy.
“A few hours. We’re not very far from our destination,” Vallen answered. His voice was a wondrous sound close to her ears. She felt her skin goose-bump and the resultant shiver made him tighten his arms around her.
“Which is?”
“My estate. I have been preparing for such an occasion and there are a few clean rooms for us, but most of the main building is a bit dusty or in disrepair. I’ll ask you to please be careful where you walk.”
“What’s that up ahead?” she asked, inclining her head. She could see a break in the road that led off to the east. It looked like a thin path, through which only a horse could fit, or perhaps two people walking abreast.
“What’s what?” Oka asked, his head swiveling in all directions.
“You can see that?” Vallen questioned, pointing at the break in the lines of trees along their debris-cluttered road.
“Of course. It’s as obvious as day,” she answered, a bit puzzled. “It’s right there, Oka. To the left?”
“What’s right there?” he said, his eyes following her outstretched arm.
“A path, Oka. Can’t you see it?”
“But they’re just trees,” he persisted. His shoulders slumped in confusion.
“Don’t worry, young Oka. You weren’t meant to see it. The path is hidden by old magic, and though I’m surprised that Shumei can see through the spell, I shouldn’t be. She has powerful magic herself.” He turned the horse to follow the path.
“You can use magic to do that?” she asked, looking around at the trees she knew were there as if they held the secret.
“Whoa! I didn’t see this?!” Oka exclaimed, looking around.
“One of the old empresses once said that there was no limit to what magic could do, but that it was the will of the Divine One as to how much we knew of magic.”
“Empress?” Oka asked, his head turning back a bit to look at the two adults behind him.
“I’ll explain it all later, Oka,” she assured him. She saw her little brother pout before his face was turned away again and felt a small smile on her lips.
Their journey continued relatively well, though Oka did show quite a bit of reluctance to pass over a bridge that only he couldn’t see. Once the horse set foot on the first plank of wood, though, the rest of the bridge became visible to the boy and he quieted.
Finally, they came upon a tall, imposing wall, more than twice her height. Her jaw dropped at the enormous size of the structure and as far as she could see, it went on for quite a long way in either direction.
“Nice wall,” she remarked. Hearing a slight puff of air behind her, she knew that cocky grin of amusement was on his face, and she felt warm inside to know that she had made him laugh.
The wall was truly amazing work though. It was built just under the forest canopy and wound around, or sometimes through, the trees. It was covered with vines and foliage, as if it had stood there for at least a few centuries, if not more. She had spotted the wall like she had spotted the path and the bridge, but this time, she had this incredible urge to look away and forget that she had seen it.
“Why do I feel this way?” she asked Vallen. Oka was looking around for this wall that the other two were talking about.
“It’s a spell similar to what hid the path and the bridge, but it’s much stronger. The spell tells the mind to be reluctant to look at whatever it is cast on. It makes the object seem unimportant and trivial, like how one would ignore an ant on the ground. Even for a powerful magic-user, this version of the spell is quite potent,” he explained.
“I see,” she said.
“The longer you stare at it, the lesser the feeling becomes. We’ll find the gate soon,” he continued, nudging the horse into a canter that followed the line of the wall.
“I’m assuming this wall guards the border of your estate?”
“What wall?!” Oka huffed, throwing his arms up. She patted her brother’s shoulder, shushing him. She had the feeling that he was tired and taking in too much at once.
“You’ll see it soon,” Vallen assured the boy. “Just keep looking to our right and it’ll slowly appear, only as long as you don’t look away.” Shumei watched with amusement as Oka glared at the wall slowly passing them by, making small noises as he resisted the urge to take his eyes from that direction. “And yes, it does guard the estate. Besides the forgetful spell, there are other nasty traps laid on the surfaces of the wall and even on some of the trees that ‘look’ climbable.”
“Magical traps?” she asked.
“Of course,” he whispered in her ear, and she felt a full-body shiver travel over her. Her shoulder felt stiff with injury, but the rest of her wanted to melt back into the man holding her.
“So how do we get in?” Oka asked, his voice sounding excited. It was obvious that the wall was finally visible to him since he was looking up to gauge its height. She felt another smile on her face. It had been a long time since she had heard that kind of excitement in his voice.
“The door should be along in just a few short seconds. I know young Oka won’t be able to spot it, but I’m curious to see if Shumei can.” Feeling pressure at his comment, she tried to remain calm as more and more wall passed them by, but as the seconds ticked by and the door did not appear, she wondered if he had passed it on purpose to see if she had really missed it.
Then there it was.
It was as tall as the wall, made of a wood she recognized—Stone Oak. It was also covered with vines but she could tell it had been used several times recently. The door was covered with what must be magical markings carved directly into the wood. She didn’t recognize any of them, but she could feel something extremely powerful on the gate. Her eyes watered as she tried to maintain eye contact with it, and she almost looked away, but she forced herself to keep looking.
“Very good,” he said, close to her ear again, something only meant for her. She shivered again.
He dismounted and she immediately missed the warmth of his body against her back. Oka watched with excitement as Vallen approached the gate and Shumei admitted to herself that she also felt excited. She expected something grand, like the wave of his hand and a flash of light, and, like her brother, she waited with bated breath.
However, he merely leaned into the gate, pushing with what looked like a minimal amount of effort, and the gate swung open almost silently.
“That’s it?” Oka’s shoulders drooped. The same two words had popped into her head too.
“Well, for a normal man, this gate would be much more difficult to push open, but yes, that’s it,” he said with a smile. He casually struck a pose as the edge of the house became visible when the gate swung fully open. “My father cast all the spells protecting this estate in the time before I was cursed. I can open this gate because my father made it so when he cast the spell. If you had tried to even touch the door, there would have been a great clanging noise right before you were punched away from the gate.”
“I’m certainly glad then that you were the one to open it,” she replied with raised eyebrows. Hissing and jerking slightly as a jolt of pain in her shoulder stole her attention, she reached up and touched the bandage that Vallen had wrapped around her shoulder, along with the hastily applied medicine meant to numb the area. Apparently, the numbness was wearing off.
“Are you okay, sister?” Oka asked with obvious concern, trying to twist in his seat to look at her. Vallen was quickly walking back to them.
“I think I need a new bandage and probably some rest. I still feel exhausted for some reason,” she sighed.
“Then let us not delay.” Vallen took the horse by the reins and it obediently followed him into t
he compound. Wincing a bit at the jarring motion, she took in the massive structure before her.
It wasn’t massive in height but in width and length. Just like the wall surrounding it, the main structure and all of its secondary buildings were constructed according to the layout of the forest. Perhaps some trees had been removed, but the largest ones were still in place, growing around and inside the estate’s buildings. The canopy of the forest threw a heavy shadow over the estate, blocking the midday sun and making it cooler underneath, but it also cast a gloom about the place, especially since it was run-down and most certainly deserted.
The architectural style was not one that she recognized, though obviously, she had not seen more than a couple of styles in her village anyway, and the buildings were rather old. The entire main building was lifted above the ground about three feet, standing on a complex-looking array of stilts and braces, but that she had seen before in a couple other houses, such as Ikuro’s. What she had never seen before were the doors and walls, which looked thin, some of them broken like paper. It seemed that the doors actually slid open, rather than opened on a hinge. Granted, her own meager hut only had a hanging door rather than any door that opened at all, but this new style intrigued her.
“I’m going to take us around to the side with the bedrooms and drop you off at one of the sitting rooms that I cleaned earlier. The horse must be taken care of before I forget things in our haste, but it won’t take much time,” Vallen explained, guiding them around the nearest corner of the main building.
There was a porch that wrapped around the entire outer wall of the main building, and though she could see inside a couple of rooms through holes punched into the paper doors, the rest of the expansive building was a mystery to her. The porch, it seemed, had not been cleaned in a while, though it had been swept recently.
“It’s pretty dirty,” Oka commented.
“Hush. No one has been here to clean for at least fifteen years. Maybe that’ll be your job soon,” she warned, stiffly holding her shoulder as the movement of the horse jolted her wound. Oka quieted quickly.
“I just hope there are no spiders,” she said softly.
“You dislike spiders?” Vallen called over his shoulder. He had pretty good hearing, it seemed.
“She hates them, ever since I can remember,” Oka answered for her.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Vallen said thoughtfully.
It was only a couple of minutes before they arrived at the back of the main building, and Vallen hopped up to the porch to slide open one of the doors. The paper panels on that particular set of doors had obviously been replaced because they looked white and fresh, heralding one of the recently cleaned rooms that he had referred to earlier. She felt a small smile on her face at the thought of him cleaning.
The room inside did seem incredibly clean though. The floors were different from anything she had ever seen, and the walls were clean and bright. She glanced at Vallen when he made a clicking sound with his mouth, and stiffened with surprise as the horse slowly sidestepped toward the porch, bringing them flush to the edge with only a tiny drop from where they sat.
He helped Oka off first, who quickly made his way inside to inspect the room without even wiping his feet.
“This must be an expensive table,” he called out to the porch. She looked to Vallen with an apology on her face, but he was actually chuckling with amusement.
“Your turn,” he whispered, standing close and leaning forward to help her off the horse. One arm around her back and one hand under her opposite thigh was enough to pluck her off the horse, as fast and easy as taking a bag off a shelf. She found her footing quickly, but he held her in a hug long enough for her to feel the erection confined within his pants and hidden behind the long, traditional shirt. Of course, she had already known it was there before she had even got off the horse.
“If you weren’t injured, and if there were privacy now…” he whispered.
“Me too,” she smiled softly.
“Whoa! This shelf thing is huge!” Oka exclaimed from inside.
“That’s a cabinet, young Oka,” Vallen called back, turning away from Shumei but guiding her inside the room.
There was more furniture in the sitting room than in a dozen houses in her village combined, but then again, the sitting room was much more expansive than she had believed from the porch. It was six times the size of her hut. Small tables sat in the middle of several groupings of legless chairs, all of it made of the same gleaming black wood, and there were a half-dozen cabinets all around the room. The floor was some strange mosaic of straw mats, firm but not overly hard against the soles of her sock-covered feet.
Oka was currently testing the seat cushion of one of the legless chairs, his fingers gently stroking the smooth black wood of the chair’s arms.
“What kind of wood is that? It looks as black as night,” she commented, gingerly sitting down in the chair next to Oka’s. She gratefully leaned on her right elbow, slowly relaxing her left shoulder.
“It’s a type of tree found in the Dead Swamps. The Coal Tree is leafless and crooked, but it’s the most alive thing you’ll find there. One of the previous empresses greatly liked black, so the entire court copied her when she requested that all of her palace furnishings be made with Coal wood,” Vallen explained. Oka looked confused.
“I’ll be back within an hour with food, water and some medicinal supplies. Try to sit still while you wait,” he instructed. “You’ll look after her, won’t you?” he directed at Oka. The boy nodded jerkily. Vallen curtly nodded in return before turning and sliding the door shut behind him.
“Dead Swamps?” Oka asked, turning his head to his sister. She smiled. The next hour was spent talking about their continent and of the old empire once ruled by black-haired magic-users, preordained by the Divine One to battle the minions of the Dark One. She had never seen Oka listen to her so raptly before.
“How were empresses chosen?” he asked. She opened her mouth to speak but paused, her eyes blinking with confusion.
“I don’t know. I never asked,” she simply replied. That was a good question. She wondered why she had never thought of it before. Oka’s mouth was open to ask another question when the steady crescendo of footsteps met their ears.
“He’s back!” Oka whispered loudly. He stood and ran to the door to slide it open. She felt her heartbeat pick up and enjoyed the rush of adrenaline as her lover appeared in the door, his arms full.
“Do you need any help?” she asked.
“Yes, actually. Young Oka, if you could take the two jugs on top, I can manage the rest.” Vallen leaned down a bit so that the boy could grab the jug handles and Oka brought them to the table sitting in the middle of the grouping of chairs where he and his sister had been sitting.
“What’s in these?” she asked, leaning forward. The two jugs were made of what looked to be a white material, glassy and hard.
“One is water and one is wine. Forgive me for forgetting which one is which, but it will be obvious when a cup is poured. I’m sorry, Oka, but you cannot have any wine,” he joked.
“I know that,” Oka pouted. Vallen set down the rest of the supplies on the table, which included a pile of very expensive-looking bandages, too many really, on top of which sat a plate of apple slices. In his hand, he also held a bag that clinked when his arm moved.
“Sorry that there’s nothing more than apples right now, and they’re not even quite ripe. An apple grove sits on the other side of the house, but we have no other food supplies since, obviously, no one lives here anymore.”
“It’s fine,” she smiled. “I haven’t eaten an apple since…since before father died, I believe.” Oka’s eyes had lit up and he immediately grabbed for an apple slice.
“What’s in the other bag?” she asked, watching her little brother devour his second slice. Vallen sat down in the chair on the other side of her from Oka.
“Some empty bottles from the medicine room. I thought we could
use the herbs you brought with you to make a salve. You know that I specialized in defensive magic, and a requirement to earning a certain status was learning how to make medicines, though most of the old recipes have a touch of magic in them. The ones you make are…all natural, so to speak.” He set the bag on the table gently and opened it, pulling out small, very serviceable bottles that looked more expensive than her shoes.
She thought of her own bag of medicines, probably not nearly as effective as the medicines Vallen was capable of making, when she suddenly remembered the extremely important item sitting against her hip.
Her loud gasp made both males look at her. Oka’s mouth was open, revealing bits of apple on his tongue, and Vallen quickly leaned toward her, his face full of concern.
“What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”
“N-no, I just remembered! Oh by the gods, how could I have forgotten?!” Using her good arm, she hauled her medicine bag onto her lap and pulled at the knot holding the top flap closed. Then hurriedly shoving her hand inside, she grasped the chalky, black surface of the book and hauled it out.
“I got it! I got Majo’s spell book!” she boasted triumphantly. The shock on Vallen’s face was almost comical. Then his face hardened.
“You…that’s how you got injured…isn’t it?” he said, his tone a bit too accusatory for her liking. Her defenses immediately went up.
“She attacked me, yes, but I was able to get a confession out of her about what happened to the girl whose death was pinned on you. She had sacrificed the miller’s daughter to some sort of summoned demon in exchange for power, among other things,” she summarized.
“So you went there to interrogate her. Was that your only reason?” he asked, his eyes on the book. She knew just by looking at him that his heart was pounding and that it was difficult for him to get a good breath.
“Well, after all the talk about demon raids in the plains…I felt this need to hurry and—” she said, trying to excuse her rash behavior.
“Shumei, you didn’t answer my question. Was your only reason for going there to interrogate the witch?” Vallen asked with a much firmer voice, obviously not deterred by her roundabout answer.