Eira looked up at Elias, who shrugged. “She has a point,” he said. “If we're just going to hold on to her, there's no reason for it.”
Eira shook her head. “No. We're not cold-blooded killers, and I did give my word, after all.”
“Then why make idle threats?” Arula snapped. “Do what you will. I've told you what I know.”
“You've answered my questions, yes, but I'm not finished.” Eira lifted a goblet of water to her lips and took a sip. “How did your forces get as close to Valtheim as they did without our scouts alerting us?”
Arula looked down, anxiety crossing her features. “I am not the only mage that Carloman and Gerulf have among them.”
Quartz nodded. “You mean Drakhus.”
Arula's skin crawled almost visibly. “Yes. The dark one. He can hide men from view as long as they try to avoid being seen. That's how we were able to kill your scouts. That's why they didn't alert you to our approach. Once they attacked, the illusion fell, but it let us get close.”
Elias shook his head. “There were thousands upon thousands of men!”
Arula looked up at him, her eyes wide. “He is very powerful.”
Eira gestured to the girl. “Cut her loose. I have heard enough.”
Jonas stepped forward, drawing a knife from his belt. Arula flinched and sank back into the chair as he approached, her breath coming fast. Jonas held up a hand. “Calm yourself. This knife isn't meant for your throat, unless you do something stupid. So don't be stupid.”
He cut the ropes binding Arula's legs, then the one around her waist. Finally, he cut the ropes that bound her arms to the chair, and stepped back. Arula didn't move a muscle while he stood over her, and waited for him to make space for her before she slowly, deliberately stood up.
“Remove her robes,” Eira commanded.
Again, Elias hesitated. He didn't feel right about this, and the look on Arula's face made him even more uncomfortable.
Eira sighed in exasperation. “Quartz, Jenna, you do it. It seems our men have lost their spines.”
Quartz stepped toward Arula, and Arula stepped back. Quartz lifted one hand, purple light flickering to life between her fingers. She gave Arula a meaningful stare, and stepped forward again. This time, Arula stood still, letting Quartz step behind her. Eira followed Quartz, standing behind the young fire mage.
When Quartz pulled the torn, dirty crimson robe from Arula's shoulder, the young woman cringed, her arms moving to cover herself as much as she could. Underneath her robe, she wore simple linen undergarments, threadbare and frayed. A white skirt around her hips hung to her knees, and around her chest was a simple chemise, of the same worn, rough linen that her skirt was made of, which covered her small breasts and hung to just above her navel. Her body was very skinny, as if she had lived most of her life hungry, and the ghost of her ribs could be seen through the contour of the thin fabric.
Eira stood behind the young woman, and drew a small knife from a sheath on the table. Stepping towards her, she cut through the back of the chemise, causing it to drop forward. Arula caught the garment before it fell away, keeping herself covered, though her face went even more pale than usual. Elias averted his eyes.
“What are you doing?” Arula said, barely above a whisper.
Eira set the knife down on the table, and stepped back, looking the young woman over. “We need our hands to work, and to live. Without hands, we cannot survive in this world without begging, and for you, I think, that would not go so well. I am not without compassion, but I cannot have you loose in the world with both a vendetta and a power as great as your magic within you at the same time.” She lifted her right hand, and the white-blue light crackled forth, forming a long, thin wand made of ice. She looked up to Elias, Jonas, and Jenna. “Step to the side, if you will.”
Elias and his companion obliged, moving out of line with Eira and Arula. Eira held the wand out towards Arula's back, and traced a pattern with the tip. Arula flinched at the cold, and squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to be still, but shivered as the ice moved across her skin.
Shortly, Eira finished her work, and gestured with her left hand. A blast of white fog struck Arula, nearly bowling her over, pushing her forward a step. She cried out, hugging her chest and hunching her back, but Eira did not let up. She followed Arula, white and blue bolts of electric energy snapping forth, searing the young woman's flesh, until Arula fell to one hand and her knees, her right arms still trying to clutch her slashed chemise to her chest. After a few more seconds, Eira snapped, and the wand, fog, and energy disappeared, leaving the room so cold that Elias once again saw his breath in front of him. Jonas and Jenna were pressed back against the wall, and even Quartz's eyes were wide.
Arula knelt on the floor, one hand still clutching her ruined garment to her chest, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Across her back, seared into her flesh, was an intricate diagram, a circle with runes around the inside edge, and a large sigil in the middle, swollen up as if she had been branded. Eira picked up the young woman's robe, and walked around to her front. Kneeling down in front of her, she lifted the woman's face to look at her.
“I have spared your life, Arula of the Burning Sands, but my conditions will be met. You will no longer be able to practice magic. When you try, you will find that your connection to the element of fire has been severed. No more will you bring the wrath of flames to bear against my people or any others. No more will you be able to pressed into service for the gain of this lord or that. As long as that sigil remains burned into your flesh, you will be as mundane as the rest of the world. This is the price you pay for your deeds, and it is also the key to your freedom from those who would misuse you.”
She held out the robe to the young woman, who let go of her chemise, letting it fall to the ground, and took the cloth out of Eira's hand. Arula sat back on her feet, covering herself with the crimson material. “What have you done?” she whispered, her voice trembling. “I am nothing now. I will be hunted down, and I cannot defend myself!”
Eira stood, looking down at the woman as tears rolled down Arula's cheeks. “You will go south now, out of the North. Make of yourself what you will. You are no longer a threat to the Northlands.” She turned to Jenna. “Ensure that she is properly dressed, and given enough food to keep her alive until she reaches Rockhill. See her out of the city discreetly, lest she be lynched by my subjects.” She looked back down at Arula. “I hereby banish you from the Northlands. If you are in this city by sundown, I will have you executed. This is your second chance. I strongly suggest you take it.”
The queen turned on her heel and walked out of the room, leaving Arula to sob into her robes.
Chapter Sixteen
3rd Waning Frost Moon, Year 4369
The day was cool, overcast, with an occasional cold breeze from the north. The western wall, where Arula had destroyed it, had been rebuilt by Amethyst with large sheets of stone pulled from the ground. The rubble was strewn about the field next to Valtheim as if it had been carelessly thrown out by a haphazard giant; stone blocks, gravel, and dirt that had filled the structure before its collapse were spread out from the base of the new wall. In its place, smooth, thick bedrock jutted out of the ground, roughly level with the top of the battlements on either end, with a broad walking surface on the city side of the wall, just as the previous barrier had.
Quartz stood to the south of the new section of stone, examining her handiwork. She walked along the raised section, and reached out her hand, sculpting the stone as if it were soft clay. When her hands became full of hardened rock, she casually tossed it to the ground, where it shattered against the solid platform, scattering chunks of rock along the surface. With her bare hands, she scraped out portions of the wall to create the space between the taller sections; these were called the crenel. She rounded the edges of the high parts, which were called the merlons, using a cupped hand to smooth the sharp corners into rounded, sweeping curves.
Quartz glanced over, noti
cing Elias looking at her.
“It's so that the grappling hooks have nowhere to grapple. If they try to put weight on these, the hooks will hopefully just slide right off.”
Elias nodded. “That is definitely preferable to letting them scale the walls.”
Quartz worked along the wall, forming the stone. There were about fifty yards of the wall that had needed to be repaired, and she was about a third of the way done. “What's on your mind?” she asked as she worked.
Elias ran his hand over the stone she had just finished shaping. It was cold, hard, as if it had been there for centuries. “Why did you come back to Valtheim? Another task from your Master?”
Quartz didn't respond immediately, shaping the battlements in silence.
“Not quite.”
Elias furrowed his brow. “Is something the matter?”
Quartz paused in her work, shaking the stone off of her hands as if it were so much dust. She rested her elbow against the wall and leaned against it. She looked up at Elias and huffed a sigh.
“The affairs of wizards ought to stay amongst wizards. Suffice it to say that I have received more training, and I chose to accompany Eira back to Valtheim. My Master did not protest.”
Elias frowned. More secrecy. While he knew that she wasn't obliged to tell him anything, the fact that she was withholding information irritated him and struck a nerve.
“Alright,” he said, evenly, “that is fair enough. As you say, a wizard's matters belong to the wizard. I do want to thank you for coming to our aid. I meant it when I said that you are welcome among us.”
Quartz looked down, her eyes resting on the shattered bits of stone littering the slab of bedrock at their feet. “I appreciate that, thank you. I will be here until the walls are repaired. After that, I must depart for a time, but I will return.” She looked along the length of the city walls. “I think most of these walls could use some reinforcement. Not as severe as this section, of course, but this stone should be able to withstand any assault like Arula gave us yesterday.”
Elias leaned over the wall, looking down to the ground. It was a single sheet of stone, perhaps two feet thick, dark gray and flecked with black and white. “Why not just pull steel from the ground and plate the walls in that?”
Quartz chuckled. “I meant what I said before; stone is easiest, metal is harder. I could, with enough time, skill, and experience, pull metal from ore, but honestly, it's faster and easier just to let the smiths do it.”
Elias was mildly disappointed but did his best not to show it.
Quartz peered over the wall next to him, inspecting where the new stone section butted up against the aged blocks of the original wall. She frowned, looking at the junction from different angles, then reached out her hand as if gripping something. The ground trembled as she lifted her hand, turning her palm up like she was scooping water out of a stream. There had been minor tremors for most of the day as she worked on the wall; while earthquakes were not unknown in this part of the world, they did not occur with this sort of frequency.
At the base of the wall, the soil bulged, then broke open as another sheet of the same flecked gray stone surged slowly upward. It slid along the wall, causing the ground to vibrate. Elias stepped back as it grew closer, and Quartz lifted her hand more slowly, guiding the slab to the correct height. When the top of the sheet of stone was level with the bottom of the battlements, she stopped, and the new wall settled into place. Now, the blocks of the wall were covered entirely, hidden behind the sheet of stone.
Elias looked over at Quartz, impressed. She was busy studying her handiwork, holding her black hair back from her face as she looked over the wall, bent at the waist between two of the merlons. He paused for a moment, his eyes lingering on the curves of her hips and backside, before he looked away, another surge of guilt nearly taking the wind out of him and making him angry with himself.
Coral's face came to his mind, her emerald eyes clear and vibrant against her blue skin, like the islands of Greenreef in the sea. Bright and full of life, he could remember every curve of her face, the shape of her nose, her soft cheekbones, her mischievous smile. He could almost smell the sea salt on her skin. He looked out to the field, and the forest beyond, and closed his eyes. Sometimes, he could imagine he was back on Greenreef with her, but here in the north, with the wind growing colder, the days growing shorter and the nights growing longer, it was getting harder.
When he opened his eyes again, Quartz was looking at him, a curious expression on her face. She was about the same age as Coral was, but her features weren't as soft. Her high cheekbones were well defined and slender, as was her nose. Her large eyes had a harder shape to them; though their depth rivaled Coral's, the color was different. A different gem, amethyst instead of emerald. Her fair skin bordered on pale, nearly alabaster white, but smooth, with slender pink lips, whereas Coral's had been ample and almost purple. Her figure wasn't quite as full, though she was not skinny, and Coral had not been overweight.
He looked away again. He had been staring at Quartz and hadn't meant to.
Quartz stood next to him, looking out over the wall. “You sometimes turn sad when you look at me. Why?”
Elias sighed, looking down at the stone in front of him. “You remind me of someone, and I don't know why.”
“A wife?”
Elias shook his head. “No. Not really. Well, not technically. She and I were promised to each other. A sea elf girl, on Greenreef. About your age, a bit younger than me. Beautiful girl. Black hair that curled in the sun, eyes as green as the jungle, skin like the sky.”
“You miss her.”
Elias nodded.
“Does she wait for you?”
Elias shook his head. “Not in this world. She was killed by the Felle, along with our child. The knight I chased back to the mainland did the deed himself. It's why I returned.”
Quartz was quiet for a moment. “I see.”
They stood side by side for a moment, the wind from the north growing stronger, scattering the dust and smallest chips of stone around their feet. She reached out and lay her hand on his, gripping his massive knuckle gently.
“I am sorry, Elias.”
Elias didn't say anything, but softly squeezed her hand back.
“Do you think you can kill him?”
Elias shrugged slightly, his voice threatening to choke in his chest. “I have to.”
Quartz nodded. “Then you will.”
~ ~ ~
The sun was warm on his shoulders as he walked along the beach. To his left, the waves crashed on the shore, the spray cool and salty in his nose. To his right, the sand transitioned gradually from beach to grassland to jungle, rising up the slopes of the volcano that formed the island.
Coral held his massive hand with her tiny one, gripping his index finger. She looked up at him, a soft smile on her lips. He smiled back, but sadness still filled him.
“I'm dreaming again, aren't I?”
She nodded. “Yes. Though it pains me to say it, my love, all we have left is dreams. We can't be together in the world again.”
He looked down, his throat tightening. “I know.”
She stepped in front of him, putting a hand on his chest. “I know it's a waste of time to tell you not to be sad. I know you will be sad, and that's okay. I am sad too. But my love is stronger than my sadness.”
He held both of her hands in his. “There's so much that I want to tell you. So many things I should have said. I was stupid and arrogant and blind-”
Coral pulled her hand out of his, held a finger to his lips, and then brought his lips down to hers. “You were none of those things, Elias.” She giggled. “Well, maybe a little arrogant.”
Elias smiled, holding back his tears. “I love you so much, Coral. I want to stay with you here forever.”
She sighed, and gently set her forehead against his. “I know, my love. But that can't happen. There is so much for you to do. You will be great, Elias, but you cannot stay
here.”
Elias shook his head. “I don't want to be great. I want to be with you. There is no greatness in a world without love.”
Coral sighed and pulled him along the beach. “You will find love, Elias. In this world, there is not only one for each of us. There are many that each of us can love. You found me, and I found you. But there is room in your heart for more than one.” She looked back at him, smiling. “If there were not, how would one love one's children?”
Elias frowned. “That's different.”
“Is it? Love is love. It can take many forms. The love one has for one's parents, the love one has for one's friends, the love between a man and a woman, or two men, or two women, it is all love.” She stopped, turning to face him again. “Don't let your love die with me, Elias. You have so much of it in you that the gods granted you a ferocity rivaled by no other to defend it.” She smiled sadly, looking into his eyes. “Don't let that ferocity kill it.”
A cold wind blew at his back, and he felt the dream begin to fade. He panicked and took Coral in his arms. “No! I don't want to go yet!”
Coral clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders. “I know. I am so sorry that you hurt, my love, but you have to wake up. You have to let me go.”
The sky grew dark, and the white sands turned gray. To his left, the seas became stormy, the waves topped with white foam, crashing violently against the sand. The jungle swayed and blew in the growing wind, the broad leaves of the coconut palms whipping about under the onslaught.
“Please don't make me leave,” he begged, tears streaming down his cheeks. He felt Coral slipping from his grasp, and no matter how hard he tried, no matter how strong he was, his arms gave way. The sand and sea spray stung his skin, pelting him under the gale force winds.
“Elias, you have to wake up. Wake up, Elias!”
Thunderbolt (Dynasty of Storms Book 2) Page 27