by Murray, Dean
Va'del saw Si'mon reach down and take a key ring from one of the bodies, and then the younger man was out the door and headed up the stairs to the main floor of the castle.
The heavy footsteps behind him could only belong to Javin, so Va'del ignored them and plunged into the first knot of soldiers he found.
Once again bodies tumbled away from Va'del, but he was starting to slow now. It was only Javin's arrival that saved him from taking several serious wounds. Vi'en was tiring out. Va'del was tiring too, but it wasn't just the normal fatigue of muscles worked too hard, something deeper inside of him was stretched to the point of failure.
The two men discarded their clubs and armed themselves with the weapons of their fallen opponents, before pressing on into a group of servants who attacked them with kitchen knives and cleavers.
Instead of completely dropping out of link like he'd expected, Vi'en stayed with him, augmenting him at a much reduced level. Va'del only moved slightly faster than his opponents now, but the link was still just enough of an edge for him and Javin to continue rampaging through the castle. Va'del took no joy in killing the overmatched guardsmen singly or in pairs, but knew it was imperative to kill them now, before they could congeal into a stronger force.
Va'del led the way around a corner, and then some half-seen motion made him pull back just in time to avoid being skewered by a trio of wickedly barbed arrows that hissed through the air and then ricocheted off the corridor wall. Their efforts hadn't been equal to the task. The Baron's men were grouping up too quickly. Possibly Va'del and Javin could have still carried the day but for the archers ahead of them. Even assuming they were able to cut down the bowmen, they'd be in no shape to continue their rout of the guards.
Heavy footsteps behind them brought Va'del and Javin around with their swords raised, but instead of more enemies, Va'ma came running around the corner, leading a dozen reinforcements.
We have a chance still. If we can get past the archers.
There wasn't any more time for thought. With a nod to Javin, Va'del exploded into motion, turning the corner and charging the archers with all of his augmented speed.
For all that his time sense wasn't nearly as augmented as it had been a few minutes before, things were still moving slowly enough for Va'del to see the closest archer's eyebrows shoot up in surprise as he saw Va'del. They hadn't expected an attack and paused for the barest moment, but it wasn't enough of a pause to allow Va'del to cover more than a step or two.
Almost as one, the three men released their arrows, which sped towards Va'del in a blur.
Va'del tried to judge their flight, bringing his sword around in an attempt to parry the first as his dagger came up to intercept the second. It wasn't until the third arrow pierced his stomach that he realized despite incredible odds, he'd been successful parrying the first two missiles.
##
It was so cold when Va'del woke up that it took him several minutes to remember that he was in the lowlands rather than the mountains. The fact that he was alive seemed to indicate that the remaining Guadel and guardsmen must have been successful in storming the castle, but he found it hard to care very much.
Va'del tried to ask for food and water, but the noise that finally slipped out of his mouth didn't even sound human let alone recognizable.
A guardsman appeared a second later with an odd expression on his face. Va'del thought that he should try and reason out what the expression was, but the other man held Va'del's head up and poured something cool into his mouth, and as the blackness reclaimed him, he found that he didn't care.
##
The next time Va'del woke up, the temperature had returned to something more like what he expected. A new, older guard had replaced the first one, and although he seemed to be taking care to school his face into calm indifference, Va'del thought he detected relief combined with a respect that bordered on reverence.
"I'm Peters. Guadel Vi'en said that you'd be thirsty, and hungry."
Va'del managed a nod, and then waited while Peters retrieved a bowl of soup and patiently fed it to Va'del a spoonful at a time.
"Are the women all okay?"
Peters paused for a second, as if not sure how to answer the question. "Sir, I was instructed to get one of the Guadel when you woke. I think maybe it would be best if we just wait until they arrive."
Va'del's world seemed to be spinning. It was hard to breathe, and he didn't understand what was happening. Even the youngest of the full guardsmen had been treating him as little more than a jumped-up candidate for the whole trip. Peters should be lording his knowledge over Va'del rather than leaving to get the others.
All of the unanswered questions pulled at Va'del, but Peters had already left. The sub-Guadel knew it was stupid to try and get up, that in moments someone would be back to tell him what was happening, but the near-panic rising inside him wouldn't allow such thoughts to gain a proper foothold. Instead, Va'del tried to pull himself out of bed, somehow sure that if he didn't get up in time, he'd never see Jain again.
Si'mon came into the room just in time to catch Va'del before he fell. Peters, just visible behind the caravan master, looked amazed that Va'del had managed to even move.
Si'mon thanked the guardsman and then gently pushed Va'del back down onto the bed.
"Don't move. You're going to get your fill of moving before we're through, but for now you need to conserve your strength."
"What happened, what didn't he want to tell me?"
Si'mon took a deep breath. "We succeeded in taking the castle. Mostly due to the fact that Vladir left only a token force here, and those poor souls were nearly all cut down by you and Javin when the two of you tore through the place like a pack of starving snow wolves."
The information registered, but it was unimportant because it couldn't be the source of Peters' unease. "We found the women upstairs in one of the towers. They'd been drugged from the time they were captured, and they're in a bad way."
"What do you mean? Take them off of the drugs and they'll be fine."
Si'mon shook his head, and for the first time that Va'del had ever seen, the caravan master looked like he was about to cry. "It's not that simple. Whatever they were using to make sure the women couldn't touch the power was addicting. Much more so than anything we have up in the mountains. We lost Bernice before Vi'en realized what was going on."
"Withdrawal?"
"Yeah. We got the rest of them back on the stuff quickly enough to avoid any more deaths, but some of the women aren't in very good shape. Vi'en tried to cushion the withdrawal for one of the women, but it was just too much for her."
Va'del's mind spun with the implications of what he'd just been told. "If we can get them back up to the Capital there are enough healers there to bring them out one at a time."
"If we could get there. Our gear is all still here, but there isn't any way we could carry that many women all the way up the mountain, and even if we could do that, Vladir's army is between here and there."
The thought of Jain lying in a drugged stupor pulled at Va'del's heart, and he looked up at Si'mon with disbelief. "Isn't there anything we can do?"
Si'mon nodded reluctantly. "Jain and the other Daughters weren't drugged, at least not enough to become dependent. Vi'en saw them leave with Vladir's army, and they were walking under their own power."
"So we rescue them, and they provide the assistance that Vi'en needs to keep the rest of the women alive while they come off the drug. Let's organize a party and do it now."
Va'del waited while the wiry old man looked for words.
"There are complications. I can't really do it justice, how bad everything is right now. Most of the male Guadel aren't really completely sane right now. We've always been more or less at peace with the idea that our wives might die in battle, but the odds were heavily on the side of us being cut down first. To watch them go slowly like this is more than most can handle."
"You're here." The words came out more accusato
ry than Va'del meant them to, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to really care.
"Sophie's always been a strong one, she's better off than most, and she isn't my first wife. Not to say that I don't love her, but I watched my first wife Margie die from a wasting disease years ago. I told myself then I would have done whatever was necessary to heal her. I won't sit at the bedside of another wife and just watch her die over the course of weeks. I'll be with you, as will as many of the Guard as we can spare."
Why is he deferring to me...I'm the only one with a wife able to link right now. That essentially makes me the ranking member of the party.
Va'del shook his head. "You stay here and send another guardsman instead. There is no need to tear you away from your wife, and your worry for her might distract you at a key time."
Si'mon might have argued, but Vi'en arrived and shooed him out.
"He's convinced you to go through with his insane plan?"
Va'del nodded, suddenly more uncomfortable than ever with his wife's knowing looks. "It isn't insane, it's the only way to save our sisters."
Vi'en shrugged. "That may be the case, but it's still crazy. You're not up to making that kind of trip, let alone fighting once you arrive, and then turning and running all the way back here. Even if you were, the Baron will be hot on your tail. How long do you really think it will take him to break into this keep? We don't have enough people to successfully man the walls, and it's almost certain that he has some secret way inside."
Va'del shut out the tiny voice inside him that agreed with what his wife was saying. "All of those things are concerns, but this is our only option. I'll have to trust you to get me back on my feet in time to do what needs to be done, and in Si'mon and the Goddess to come up with solutions to the other problem."
Vi'en snorted. "There is only so much I can do, which you should know by now after being busted up so many times. You had a low-grade infection, so I raised your temperature to help your body fight it. I've accelerated the healing process slightly, but if I'm going to be any good to you on this rescue, that's all the patching up I can do."
Silence reigned for a moment as Va'del processed the fact that Vi'en was planning on coming along and linking with him. Somehow he'd thought it would be easier to contemplate linking with her after having done it once, but the actuality of the link had been worse than he'd expected. He wasn't sure he was capable of going through that again, but if they were going to rescue Jain and the others it appeared he once again had no other choice.
Va'del finally nodded. "Well then, I suppose I'd better try and get some more sleep. Tomorrow is going to come all too soon and I'd rather not face it strapped to the back of a gurra again."
Chapter 22
When morning came, Va'del found out he wasn't to be strapped to a gurra, but rather to a horse. Not all of the residents of the castle had fought the Guadel. One of the more sympathetic of those who'd chosen to help was the Baron's stable master. As soon as the man had learned that there was some kind of trip in the works, he'd offered the use of his charges.
The stable master had taken one look at the young man limping down the steps of the keep, supported on either side by a guardsman, and refused to put him on a horse. Vi'en had argued with the tiny, gnarled man, but he'd remained unmoved. In far more pain than he'd expected, Va'del had listened for as long as he could stand it, and then, suppressing a surge of anger at the delay, ordered the man on his left to get him astride one of the beasts even if they had to saddle it without the stable master's help.
The argument had stuttered to an immediate halt despite Vi'en's best efforts to keep it going, and the stable master looked at Va'del with surprise. "You lead this group?"
Ignoring the spluttering outrage of his wife, Va'del nodded past his pain.
"In that case, we'll have a horse saddled and ready in a quarter glass."
Sitting propped up against a saddle, Va'del had a few moments to wonder at the man's change of heart. It seemed too abrupt to account for any of the logical explanations Va'del had been able to muster.
As his assistants finished preparing the last of the horses, the stable master knelt down next to Va'del and offered him his hand.
"I've had my fill of seeing man and beast used ill at the whim of Vladir and his ilk, but if a man wants to use himself up in the pursuit of something important to him, he deserves nothing but respect. I'm Mark."
Va'del grasped the man's hand weakly as he wondered what horrors Mark had seen during his service to the Baron.
"I know only rumors about your purpose, but it seems that you all aren't experienced with horseflesh. Might be I could provide some sound advice if you were to fill me in."
It was a given that Vi'en would say that they couldn't afford to trust the man, that there was too much risk he'd betray them to Vladir, but looking into Mark's eyes, Va'del thought he could see a kindred spirit, someone who wanted to do the right thing because he finally had the chance to do so.
##
Vi'en must have spent the whole day fuming, but Va'del was in so much agony he hardly noticed, and most definitely didn't care. Mark had promised to give him the horse with the smoothest stride in the stable, but every time the beast moved, Va'del worried that his stomach wound was about to break open.
After the second break in a two-cycle period, Va'del waved Peters over and gave him whispered instructions to tie him to the saddle, and then bring over some of the drug that Vladir had used on the female Guadel.
Peters had looked at Va'del for several seconds, and then nodded and did as he was instructed. Va'del purposely took a much smaller dose than what had been given the women, but even so after drinking the foul-tasting concoction that Peters pressed into his hands, found himself quickly spinning away towards unconsciousness.
The drug never actually brought a complete loss of awareness, but mercifully interposed a barrier between him and the pain. Va'del still knew he was in pain, that he was risking further damage to his body, but those two facts lost their significance, quickly ceasing to concern him as much as the interesting rhythm of his horse's breathing, or the way the shadows bounced across the ground, keeping time to the wind.
Just before dusk, the drug began to wear off, and Va'del started to find himself able to string together complete thoughts. The pain quickly became excruciating, and he called out to Peters for more of the drug, but it was Vi'en who drew up alongside his horse.
"You're not getting any more of that. We're stopping soon and you'll need to be able to eat. The resources from your healing are coming as much from your own body as they are from me, and after missing lunch, your body is starting to consume itself."
The pain beat at him, and Va'del wanted to protest, but he knew Vi'en was expecting him to, that after being inside his mind she thought he was too weak to do what needed to be done. Unwilling to give her the satisfaction of seeing her prejudices confirmed; Va'del swallowed his argument, clenched his teeth, and nodded.
When they finally made camp for the night, Va'del slid down off of his horse and managed to make it to a large, flat rock before his legs gave out, so his collapse looked at least somewhat intentional.
There was still so much that needed done to set up camp, and Va'del knew that good leaders mingled with their men during exactly these kinds of mundane tasks. He needed to get up and set the proper tone.
Appearing as if he'd been conjured there, Peters was suddenly at Va'del's elbow, and he had a stubborn set to his face that seemed to say he'd taken it upon himself to ensure that his new commander didn't move.
Va'del felt a momentary flash of irritation, bordering on anger, and then mentally shrugged as Si'mon's parting comment finally made sense. Apparently Si'mon hadn't been kidding when he'd said that savvy old men like Peters were really the ones running the Guard despite what the officers might think. I suppose it might be less than ideal for me to confirm my weakness before all of the men by collapsing while I'm trying to help someone set up a tent.
By the Powers, what can he possibly want? Does he honestly think the Guard will let him get away with heckling me now like he used to?
Se'ath sat in silence for several seconds, long enough for Va'del to realize that the candidate looked different than he remembered, almost as if he'd subtly changed since Va'del had last really examined him.
The silence grew to the point of ridiculousness, and Va'del's exhaustion made him speak when he otherwise would have been content to wait the other young man out. "Did you need something, candidate?"
"Yes, Guadel. I've come to request reassignment back to Vladir's castle. I shouldn't be here." There wasn't anything Se'ath could have possibly said that would have surprised Va'del more than that simple statement. It had always seemed that Se'ath would die before allowing anyone to believe him a coward.
"Before I approve or deny your request, would you like to tell me why you feel justified in deserting your brothers when they are engaged in one of the most important conflicts of our history?"
The words seemed to come out of Va'del of their own accord, the things he would have expected Va'ma or Garth to say, not the kinds of things he was capable of thinking of.
Peters reappeared with a bowl of steaming food while Se'ath seemed to be considering how best to respond.
"Guadel Vi'en said I was to stay and ensure that you finished the bowl, sir."
The anger that Va'del would have otherwise felt at his wife's high-handed ways was short-circuited by his returning hunger, so rather than saying something biting that Peters didn't deserve, Va'del merely nodded his thanks, waiting until the guardsman had backed far enough away to give illusion of privacy before turning back to Se'ath.