JOURNEY OF THE SACRED KING BOOK I: MY SISTER'S KEEPER
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"We can mend the mortal wounds now enough to keep her alive," the ghost said, "but nothing more. Be grateful the death gift was not taken..."
The ghosts sank their insubstantial hands into Aejys' body. Josh watched the wounds close, aging months before his eyes, leaving just another ugly scar among the rest. When he looked up the ghosts were gone. Aejys lay warm in his arms, incredibly weak and still in pain from the rest of her wounds, but alive. Tears of gratitude and relief streamed down the sot's weathered face. The fading magic of the ghosts of the blade had restored the woman he loved to him and for this single moment the damaged man could dare to hold her: the woman whose love he knew he would never win.
Aejys' lips moved. He bent his ear close to hear her. "Take. Me. Home."
Blue light swelled around them and they vanished from Rowanslea.
EPILOGUE
Dawn had come again before Sonden could return to the great hall. Most of the fighting had ended in the castle, although a few knots of Margren's people still fought to win free and escape. It continued to rage in the city as both the citizenry and soldiers hunted traitors through its streets. Servants dragged the bodies of Margren's slain retainers into the castle yard, stripping and throwing them into a pile for burning. The loyal dead were laid out in a lower hall while the wounded were tended in upper rooms that had been given over to the healers.
Eliahu and Clemmerick walked beside the High Priest with four bradae following. Guards that Sonden had set swung the doors to the great hall open for them. The High Priest had ordered that no one enter and disturb the room until he, himself, could take care of it. At least three of the bodies, including Margren, had been sa'necari, which meant that Sonden would need to take their heads and hearts to prevent their rising as undead in two more nights. He intended to hang Margren's head atop the castle gate, and then burn the rest of her. His bradae would remove Aejys and Kaethreyn's bodies to a place where they would be cared for and prepared to lie in state before burial. He would have to remove Aejys' head and heart to prevent her rising undead and the thought of mutilating her body further sickened him. But he had no choice. It had to be done and, to his mind, should be done with love in full knowledge that he thereby freed her soul.
The table where Aejys' body had lain was empty, the two bloodstained cloaks, which they had covered her with, lay discarded on the floor. Sonden glanced about the chamber. "Josiah! Josiah, where are you?" Worry creased Sonden's face.
The bradae spread out through the chamber, weapons ready. "The traitor's body is gone also," one of them said.
Clemmerick reached the table ahead of him. "Josh took Aejys' body," he said, stabbing a thick index finger at the wood. Two words were burned into the surface:
GONE HOME
The big ogre turned to Sonden. "She wanted to be buried next to Brendorn. Josh knew that."
"Then he's done her spirit a kindness. It's a far emptier world without Aejys in it."
"What about Margren?" asked Eliahu.
"Well," Clemmerick said. "Josh had nothing to do with that one."
Sonden joined his bradae, standing on the blood stained floor where now only Kaethreyn lay. "One of her retainers must have escaped with her body. She'll rise soon. Necari are not usually as dangerous as their living counterpart, but still a force to be reckoned with. Margren will be back."
* * * *
The catkins nestled around Juldrid and Hah'nah, burrowed deep into the thick straw of a Dynannan hermit's barn, their bodies like a sea of brown and black and white and gray. Hah'nah cradled Juldrid in her arms, kissing and licking her unconscious face trying vainly to rouse her. Lo'ah, the small gray, white-pawed, catkin healer had gotten the barbs out of Juldrid's back with help from the hermit, nothing vital had been hit, yet clearly the minstrel was dying. Hah'nah and the healer both had thoroughly sniffed and licked the wounds, yet could find no sign of poison or drugs, furthermore she knew well that the Valdren did not use such things and it was Valdren arrows they had dug from her body. "My minstrel is so sweet and sensitive, so delicate and profound ... these few months have been so hard on her..." Hah'nah's face jerked up. "Lo'ah," she said suddenly. "She's wishing herself to death. She doesn't want to live. Mephistis and Margren wounded her spirit. She does not realize how deeply we love her."
Lo'ah stopped licking his paw. "If you would keep your minstrel, My Lady," the healer said, "Then you must bring her over. Make her one of us. Transitioning will shake her out of it."
"And her unborn children? What will that do to them?"
The healer shook his brown whiskered face, rubbing a white paw idly across his pink nose. "I don't think it's ever been tried. However, if you do not act, all three will die."
"Prepare her."
Lo'ah anointed Juldrid with fragrant oils, writing mystic signs on her forehead, palms, and hands. When he finished, the catkins shoved the straw aside, scratching a pentacle and circle on the bare earth around the unconscious minstrel. Hah'nah, in a form midway between cat and human, bent over Juldrid. She flexed her claws, and then raked them deep into Juldrid's left arm. A yowl went up as the tribe began to dance around the circle chanting loudly. They danced long into the night, dropping one by one around the circle in exhausted slumber as morning neared.
Sunlight stole across them from a crack in the door. In the middle of the circle curled a lovely calico cat, nursing a pair of tiny male kittens, one black, one white, and both with a flame-shaped patch of orange hair on their chests.
* * * *
Tagalong left Rowanslea three days after Aejys died, moving her troops to winter quarters in Iarwind. Geoa Odaren remained behind to help Sonden maintain order until Zaren Asharen could formally appoint one of her nobles to rule since there were no Rowans left alive. Tagalong and Geoa discretely neglected to inform anyone that Tamlestari carried Aejys' children. Better that no one knew any members of the lineage of Rowan survived. As soon as it could be safely managed they both intended to get Tamlestari and the children as far from Shaurone as they could.
Snow fell softly on the windless morning that Tagalong's troops drew rein in the courtyard of Castle Iarwind. Tamlestari stood with her small compliment of Valdren rangers waiting for them. She started forward as Tagalong dismounted, glancing about for Aejys. When she did not see her, she turned to Tagalong. The moment their eyes met, Tamlestari knew that Aejys was dead. She dropped to her knees, weeping, hugging her stomach protectively, feeling the twins move beneath her breasts. Tagalong wrapped her arms around the youth's shoulders, unable to find words, mourning with her.
THE END