I don't want them to get in trouble for that, I began.
Don't worry, neither Doret nor Kyri care, as long as the books are returned. Reading is learning. I recall how eager I was when Kyri taught me to read when I was young.
It's an escape, I admitted. I read every book of fiction available in my village. I wish I'd had access to Kyri's library back then.
Doret is most fortunate, to have watched you grow up and into your power, he told me. Most fortunate, indeed.
I didn't tell him that I'd grown up lonely, with Pottles being my only friend. At times, I envied Anari, Laren and Kyal. They had one another, and were so close in age and friendship, too.
"Here," Cole placed a cup of tea in my hands. "Take this to the training grounds. I think you'll need it."
"Wait," I pulled the marching draught from my pocket and looked at it for a moment before stuffing it back in my pocket. I didn't want it unless it were absolutely necessary. "I'm ready," I said, downing a few swallows of hot tea.
Armon
Sherra drank her second cup of tea while Caral and I worked with the three young ones. They built their combined shield again, while I sent blasts against it.
They held, against the most powerful blasts I was willing to send against them. Sherra finished her tea while she watched us perform.
"How did they do with their blasts yesterday?" I asked. Cole would have a report from the other instructors; I was sure of it.
"Very well," Cole said. "Anari is beginning to demonstrate her talent in that area."
"Can you show me?" I asked the teens. By their smiles, they were more than willing to show me what they could do.
"I had stones moved in for their next practice," Cole said, leading us along a sandy strip of beach moments later. I'd trained by firing blasts at brick walls; Cole trained his people using large rocks of various sizes and densities.
"You want us to destroy that pile of rocks?" Laren was daunted by the first pile we came upon.
"I do, but only when you combine your blasts," Cole told him. "Until that time, we'll work on the pile farthest away—it's sandstone, and not so difficult to blast."
"So we'll be working our way closer to the village with each successful blasting?" Caral observed. "Smart."
"It's logical," Cole said. "You'll be weariest after you finish the closest pile."
I think Cole should train the boys in Az-ca, Sherra sent mindspeak. He has much more patience and a better rapport with his students, compared to that piece of spiteful misogyny Kerok removed recently.
While I agree with you, it will take acceptance from the other instructors. Cole is an outsider, remember?
Fucking hell.
Exactly.
Too bad we can't mix common sense and tolerance into their morning tea, Sherra added.
That would be a blessing, and therefore is never likely to happen.
I'm constantly amazed at how right you are all the time, she teased.
Tell that to Levi. He thinks I'm wrong more than half the time.
You sound like an old married couple.
We are an old married couple.
I got a chuckle and a hug from her.
"Are we ready to combine blasts?" Cole asked our three eager students.
"Yes," Laren grinned.
"All right. Want to try it on your own, or do you want Sherra to connect you, first?"
Laren looked from Anari to Kyal before turning back to Cole. "We remember how to do it," he said.
"Then proceed," Cole swept a hand toward the hasty construction on the beach.
All three gripped each other's hands, with Kyal in the middle, Anari on one end and Laren on the other. Anari and Laren raised their free hands, where I could see a blast forming.
"Release," Cole commanded.
I will remember what that looked like for the rest of my life; those three, obliterating a roughly-constructed pile of rock, and blasting a wide hole in the sand beneath it. I doubted any building made of brick or stone could have held firm against them. They'd have blasted a hole in those structures, at the very least.
"Well done," Cole breathed when the young ones opened their eyes to see. Immediately they were hugging and laughing at their success. Misten's hands were over her mouth—to keep from giggling, I'm sure.
"We have two competent pods," Sherra smiled. She was right.
Kerok
"Lift it and bring it to you." Adahi's eyes were slits as he watched my feeble attempts to lift a tea mug from a tray across my study. The objective was to float the cup across the room and deposit it on my desk.
The cup lifted on one side before dropping onto the tray again, sloshing tea. "This is harder than I thought," I grumbled, frowning at the cup.
"Think of it this way," Adahi philosophized. "You step yourself. You can also step others. This is no different from that; you're merely a few feet away from it, now."
"You told me once to move a truck," I reminded him. He didn't miss the sarcasm in my words.
"You thought I was joking. I wasn't," Adahi snorted.
"Can you move a truck? Really?"
"Once I could, as could the one you were named after."
"Why can't you do it now?" I demanded, still staring at the cup.
"I have to collect energy to do the things I do," Adahi replied stiffly. "You replenish your energy through eating and sleeping. I must take what I can from suitable sources."
That made me go still for a moment. "What—do you do?" I croaked.
"I siphon energy from others," he shrugged. "I hoard what I collect, to use it when it becomes necessary."
"Who?" Much depended on his answer.
"Those in the lockup. Those sentenced to labor in the fields for wrongdoing. I take from them, rather than innocents."
I didn't realize how stiff my body had become before my shoulders sagged and a ragged breath escaped my lungs.
"I understand the logic in this now," I said, taking a seat behind my desk. "I just never thought that a—spirit would need to replenish his energy."
"That's why I needed Sherra's help in dealing with Ruarke," Adahi said. "The ah, method I used to obtain that help was from pure desperation, I assure you. Had I been alive and whole, I could have dealt with him myself—until Kaakos intervened, that is." The bitterness in his voice was palpable.
"I see I still have much to learn," I said, expressing some bitterness of my own.
"This is why I allowed venomous snakes to kill targets at times—it means I don't have to expend the energy to do it a different way."
How many times had I wondered about that? It made sense, but I'd never have figured it out on my own.
"You're saying you could pull energy from me, if you wanted?"
"I believe you could stop me, if you were aware," Adahi replied. "You're powerful enough to do it, as are Sherra and a few others, if they are so minded."
"Curious—and strange at the same time." I needed tea. Badly. Holding out my hand, I concentrated on stepping the cup to my desk. It disappeared from the tray and dropped onto my desk, with only a few drops spilled.
"Excellent," Adahi chuckled. "Perfect," he added. "Next, we move a boulder."
Sherra
"Long day?" Pottles watched me as I sat wearily on a guest chair in her office.
"Yes. I'd like to go home and go straight to bed, but Kerok wants to have a dinner meeting with me, Armon, Barth and Hunter."
"What does he want to discuss?"
"I think you have a good guess," I said, leaning back in the chair and closing my eyes for a moment.
"How long it will be before we're in a position to attack Ny-nes?"
I didn't answer verbally; I gave her a nod, then a hand-covered yawn, my jaws almost cracking with the wideness of it.
"I suggest a marching draught," Pottles slid a cup of tea in my direction.
"I have one in my pocket," I blinked my eyes open to look at her. She was worried; I could see that easily.
&nbs
p; "Then use it," she said. "You need to be alert for this. Never has a King of Az-ca considered going to the source of the problem to shut it down. The Queen must be awake and contributing to this discussion, instead of nodding and half-asleep."
"Fine." Pulling the draft from my pocket, I dumped it into the cup of tea before I could change my mind. My hand shook as I lifted the cup to my lips and drank, not stopping until it was all gone.
"There. Done. I hope I can sleep afterward."
"Then go to the palace. The sooner the meeting starts, the sooner it's over."
I took the marching draft when I went to see Pottles, I told Kerok, whose forehead was creased with concern as I sat beside him at the table. Besides Armon, Barth and Hunter, Kage had also come.
I suppose Kerok thought it time to bring his royal assassin on board with our plans, too.
"Good," Kerok replied as plates were set in front of us by servants, one of whom was Briar.
When she and the others withdrew, closing the door behind them, Kerok cleared his throat before speaking. "Eat," he urged. "While we're doing that, we can discuss the best possible ways to attack Ny-nes."
Kage's head jerked up at Kerok's words. The rest of us weren't as surprised as he, because we'd been expecting some sort of announcement. After a moment's consideration, Kage nodded his approval and lifted his wineglass to Kerok.
"I hesitate to involve those younglings in any type of battle, but they certainly can form a pod easily," Armon said when Kerok asked about it. Barth and Hunter were only now learning about our experiment, while a light had grown in Kage's eyes; he wanted to see this for himself.
As a former warrior and a Colonel who'd commanded the warrior training post in the King's City, Kage recognized the potential in our newest experiments. I imagined he wanted to participate, too, if I read the signs correctly.
"I'm hoping to receive information from Kyri, who is in Ny-nes, now," Kerok went on. "With someone on the inside, perhaps we will know better how to deal with what we'll find when we go."
"Will she cooperate?" Barth asked the obvious question.
"I hope so. She sends mindspeak to Adahi often, and Doret, too. If she won't reply to us, perhaps one of those two can carry our messages to her."
Don't forget Garkus, I sent to Kerok, who dipped his head for a moment in acknowledgment. Garkus was what Pottles called a loose cannon, and could be unpredictable.
"I will be happy to act as a messenger to Kyri, as I am somewhat familiar with Ny-nes, too," Adahi appeared inside the small dining room.
"Is it possible to send and receive images?" Kerok pointed his question at Adahi, who'd moved to an empty chair to sit.
"If the sender and receiver are talented enough," Adahi said.
"Are you?" Kerok's next question was direct.
Adahi's answer was unflinching. "Yes."
"Good. Are you skilled at drawing those images, or should we find someone who can translate your words to drawings?"
"I can give you an approximation," Adahi shrugged. "Along with the written descriptions, of course."
"What about their weapons and war machines?" Barth asked.
"I can ask Kyri about those, too," Adahi said. "I understand the importance of the information, Diviner."
"If we do this, we have to get it right the first time," Hunter said. "I doubt Kaakos will take kindly to an attack on his home soil, and he'll turn everything he has against us afterward, if our army dies in Ny-nes."
"He has no care for anyone other than himself," Adahi nodded to Hunter. "He will sacrifice all of them if necessary, just to make us pay."
"This information stays in this room," Kerok ordered.
"There is something else," Adahi said.
"What's that?" Kerok turned to the ghost.
"If Kyri is revealed before you attack, Kaakos may turn everything he has against you anyway."
"Why does he hate her so much?" My question burst from me unbidden.
"I cannot tell that story," Adahi's eyes became mere slits.
I wanted to push him further on the subject, as I felt he was holding something back. That's when the frantic mindspeak came, forcing my dreamwalker to roar to the surface. I didn't recall what came after; others had to explain it to me later.
Chapter 12
Kerok
Anyone with mindspeaking ability in the dining room heard the cry for help, but only Sherra's dreamwalker located the source of it. With a shriek of anger, her dreamwalker stepped all of us away, with no idea where we were headed.
The moment we landed in the small shack outside the far northern village of Gaull, we were too late to hold back the one Kaakos had taken.
Instead, we were forced into an immediate battle with Narvin, Willa and the two missing girls. Narvin was faster and better prepared than we were, as he'd watched the shack's inhabitant disappear while screaming for help.
He fired a blast the moment Sherra's dreamwalker set us down inside the small home; the repercussions of it were so powerful as it bounced off Sherra's shield that it blew the home apart around us, flinging burning boards and splintered furniture far into the night.
Both girls were now screaming inside Willa's shield. Narvin had only seconds to react as Armon fired a tremendous blast in return. Willa's shield broke, leaving her bleeding, weeping and writhing on what was left of the floor.
Narvin and the girls had stepped away in the tiny amount of time it had taken to break Willa's shield.
"Tell me what happened," Barth demanded, standing over Willa. "Whose house is this? Answer me, or I put my hands on you and you'll wish you'd told me everything already."
"Jubal. He screamed before he was taken," Willa wept. "I think my leg is broken."
"Bloody fuck," Adahi muttered.
"Who is Jubal?" I demanded.
"I know that name," Hunter said. "Was injured in his first battle, several years before you took over the army. His escort's shield failed. She died, as I recall. The reason I remember this is because he petitioned the King, your father, to return to the battlefield, as he had mindspeaking ability."
"And I advised against it," Barth drew away from Willa. "Because of the reading I got from him. He wanted revenge—against his escort and any woman who got in his way. The Crown still sends him a stipend as a disabled warrior, unless I am badly mistaken."
"He has gold. Plenty of it," Willa's voice sounded pitiful. "I wondered why he hated me and the girls."
"Payment from Kaakos, no doubt," Armon growled.
"Be careful of your words, he may be listening," Sherra's dreamwalker stated flatly.
"Fucking hell," I snapped.
Kill her, Barth's voice sounded in my head.
No, came from Sherra's dreamwalker. We will keep her—for a short time. Let Kaakos worry that she knows things and will tell us all. We must keep her strongly shielded, so he won't pull her away too, before we use her to our advantage.
"I will take her to the lockup," Kage said. "She can be tended for her injuries by the training camp physicians."
"Very well," I said. "Report to me when her injuries are tended. Who will take us back to the palace?"
"I will," Armon volunteered. "Kage, I'll meet you at the lockup afterward."
"Good," Kage agreed. "Perhaps we will learn something together from this one—such as where Narvin may have gone with those two girls."
Kage grasped Willa's arm and stepped her away; Armon pulled the rest of us together and stepped us to the King's garden.
Sherra
"You're back?" It was a weighted question when I stalked into our shared bedroom. Kerok's gaze was troubled as he watched me walk toward the bathroom.
"It's me," I sighed, turning toward him. "I had some thinking to do."
"Must have been serious; you've been gone four hours."
"You shouldn't have waited up," I said, guilt saturating my voice.
"I couldn't sleep," he countered. "I was worried," he added.
"I know. I don
't think she cares about things like that."
"What does she care about?"
"You. Everyone else in Az-ca—who hasn't sold themselves to the enemy. She found this," I pulled a leather pouch from my uniform pocket and tossed it to Kerok. "Jubal's gold, from Ny-nes."
"This is heavy," a frown creased his forehead as he pulled the strings loose to look inside. His eyes met mine after studying the gold in the pouch. "Enough here to make someone's life easy until they die of old age; even an old warrior." He pulled the strings to close the bag before setting it on his nightstand.
"Hunter says Jubal was in his seventies," Kerok said. "Sold himself to the devil he wanted to fight so hard against in the past."
"I imagine he thought it an easy job, providing the enemy's requests to spies and receiving their information, before sending mindspeak to his overlord," I pointed out. "I doubt he considered the actual lives involved."
"What will Kaakos do without his pet mindspeaker in Az-ca?" Kerok asked.
That question had concerned me, too, in addition to my dreamwalker. It was foremost on my mind the second I came back to myself. "There's something else, too," I confessed.
"What's that?"
"For now, only a theory," I said.
"Tell me." He rose from his chair to walk toward me.
"Every time the dreamwalker has come while I'm awake?"
"Yes?"
"It's after I've taken a marching draught."
Kerok stopped halfway between me and the bed. "That's an interesting theory," he whispered.
"So far, it has held true," I said. "Kerok, that terrifies me in ways I can't explain."
"I think we should explore this theory," he moved toward me again, until he was close enough to pull me against him. "My love, do you recall anything from your dreamwalker, whenever a marching draught was involved?"
"Not much," I confessed. "So far, I recall very little of what went on earlier. I know she ransacked what was left of Jubal's home to find that pouch. It was hidden beneath a burned floorboard in his bedroom. She may have learned other things about Jubal, but I can't say what they are."
Black Rose Queen: Black Rose Sorceress, Book 3 Page 16