"I would appreciate that," she said.
* * *
Merrin
Some of my allies were beginning to see me in a different light. I didn't care-they were just as dead as I'd be if Wulf or Kerok found us.
We'd stayed in or near the caves I'd used after escaping judgment the first time. The stored rations Drenn had sent to those caves had finally run out after seven months. This forced us to search for other sources of food and necessities. That's why we'd come to an isolated farm-to take what we needed.
"They're villagers," I waved a hand to quell protests from three former warriors, who'd come to help me take food back to the others.
A family of four lay dead outside the pitiful cabin we'd come to pilfer, when they should have been out mucking in the dirt to raise more vegetables. This way, we wouldn't have to worry about the two goats and a scattering of chickens they'd kept for milk and eggs-we could kill those things here and cook them if we wanted, and sleep off the gluttony inside the house afterward, before moving on. In all likelihood, nobody would look for the missing family for days, their location was so remote from the nearest village.
"One of you step back to the caves and bring the others. We'll have our feast here," I ordered. One of the three disappeared quickly.
I had fourteen disciples, six of those with their escorts, for a total of twenty to help me wage war against the new Crown Prince and take over the palace-and the kingship. I was an heir, too, after Thorn and my traitorous uncle, Hunter.
King Wulf was dying; Barth could be disposed of along with the others, and I'd have a clear path to rule Az-ca.
I wasn't discounting the army-but I'd already had plenty of success in that area. Many were willing to follow me, especially if they believed the lies and misdirection I was ready to spread among them.
Much of it was information they already knew-that the enemy had developed flying machines. Once I was in charge, I only had to tell them that the solution was to go on the offensive and destroy the enemy, down to the last child.
I doubted the enemy was capable of creating more such weapons-they'd leveled everything they'd had against us and lost, thanks to Thorn's escort and her willingness to sacrifice herself for him and the rest of the army.
I'd visited the enemy camp afterward-there was nothing left, man or machine, in that gaping hole. In my estimation, it would take years for Ny-nes to recover from what happened on the battlefield seven months ago.
Once I was in charge of Az-ca, I'd send the army on a secret mission, one that involved their absence for a few days. When they returned, I'd start the new rumor that the enemy was defeated and Az-ca was now safe.
After that, I intended to see that my friends and allies profited by my leadership. Anyone who thought to oppose me would be outcast or killed, depending on their level of treason.
All it would take was a few well-placed rumors among the population, regarding recent events involving the enemy. That would bring all of them in line and convince them to support me. Wulf shouldn't have allowed Drenn's favorites on the Council to live after stripping them of their titles.
Even if I allowed Thorn to survive the takeover, he'd have no sympathy and nowhere to go, because the army and the population would be mine to command.
"I think goat for supper; keep the chickens until we have eggs for breakfast and then kill them for the midday meal," Querl, my most trusted sycophant, suggested.
"Sounds good," I agreed. "Begin the preparations; we'll eat very well tonight."
* * *
King's City
Kerok
"We're still not sure how many Merrin took with him, or whether they're still alive," Armon handed me a copy of his and Levi's most recent muster roll. "We have as many unattached warriors as we can spare hunting for Merrin, but as usual, there's nothing to find. Querl is one of Merrin's fools, you can count on that, though. Eventually, I think we'll find solid evidence of that."
"We have that testimony from a few who turned themselves in," I agreed and took the papers from Armon's hands. "Father's physician is now treating Linel, too. Says the outlook for both is-grim."
"Not good news for even your worst enemy," Armon shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear it about both."
"Father's losing his will to live," I admitted, my words bitter. "Drenn's attempt on our lives and subsequent death, followed by the enemy attack while we're fighting our own, made things much worse."
"And the loss of," Armon breathed a heavy sigh.
"Yes."
"We'd all be dead, my Prince," Armon said softly.
"I know."
"We all miss her."
I hadn't told Armon or anyone else in the army about Kyri's mysterious appearance; more and more, I considered it a hallucination. Hunter and Barth were the only ones I'd told, because Hunter had been locked out of my office during the strange event.
We suspected Sherra was dead, and life stretched out before us with an empty, cavernous hole in it to plague our existence.
This time, there were no ashes to bury; no place to stand, reflect and remember. My rose, I sent mindspeak. I miss you.
As expected, there was no reply.
"Thorn?" Hunter knocked on my study door.
"Come in, Hunt," I called out. He walked in, wearing a frown. "Bad news," he announced. "Merrin and his horde have finally made their presence known. They attacked a remote farm, killed what they thought was the entire family and then feasted on their animals. Two older sons saw them from a distance. Rather than approaching, they ran back to the nearest village and alerted the messenger we placed there. The information just came to us."
"Armon, get troops together and go after them," I stood quickly. "Hunter, tell Armon where to step." I clenched my fists-I wanted to go with them. The fucking law forbade it.
"Are you familiar with the village of Pa-sen?" Hunter asked Armon.
"Well enough. We'll get there, my Prince." Armon nodded to me and left my study at a run.
Chapter 2
Armon
Strongest shield, Caral, I sent mindspeak as we dropped low onto a patch of dry grass not far from the cabin.
It's up, Colonel.
It was probably up the moment we'd landed-Caral was no fool and more than dependable. My words were spoken out of habit, I think. "Good. Stay down," I whispered the order. "They can't see us from here." It was true-there was no window on this side of the cabin and Merrin, foolishly, hadn't posted guards outside the small shack.
Levi, Misten, Wend, Marc and six unattached warriors were with us. The scent of cooking meat floated past on the breeze-Merrin and his deserters were having a meal after killing four of the cabin's inhabitants.
Those bodies, two of them small children, lay in the yard-they hadn't bothered to burn them, yet. I could have told Merrin that Querl was as lazy as they came, but neglecting that chore had alerted absent family members to their presence.
"Prepare to level blasts," I spoke softly.
The warriors readied themselves.
"Now," I shouted. I and seven others rose and fired our strongest blasts at the cabin, only to be met halfway by fierce blasts from the cabin itself.
The resulting fireball exploded in between with a terrible roar, almost deafening us and shaking the ground so hard it leveled the cabin and knocked several of my men off their feet. If Caral's shield hadn't held, we'd have died where we stood-on remote ground outside the tiny village of Pa-sen.
When the smoke cleared, burning remnants of the cabin lay everywhere, while three scorched bodies burned with them. Merrin and the others had escaped, leaving three warriors behind to cover for him and the others while they fled.
* * *
Kerok
"He knew we were there," Armon shrugged. "I don't know how, but he did, and they were ready for us. I'm grateful Caral's shield held, or we'd be dead."
Armon carried the report to me himself, rather than going through Hunter first. Hunter occupied a second chair in m
y study, as I worked to quell my anger. How did Merrin know? This illustrated blatantly what concerned me most-that Merrin had developed hidden talents, which enabled him to stay one or two steps ahead of our best troops and their efforts to find and destroy him.
"There were no windows on that side, or guards placed outside the cabin," Armon explained. "He left three behind to sacrifice themselves, while he ran like the coward he is."
"I worry we'll see more incidents like this one," Hunter interjected. "They have to eat, and it's now evident that they'll kill to do it, rather than settling for theft only."
"I'll entertain any and all suggestions on how to combat this new twist in Merrin's plans, whatever those may be," I growled.
"He wants your place, that's simple enough," Armon said. "His eye is on Az-ca, now, since Drenn eliminated himself from the equation. Instead of being second-in-command as he'd hoped, he now wants everything."
"Merrin probably blames us for Drenn's death, when he put that blasted weapon in his hands to begin with," Hunter snapped. "It's the same as placing something dangerous within reach of an infant, who doesn't realize the thing is dangerous to him, too."
"You knew him better than I, but I agree with your assessment," Armon nodded at Hunter. "You don't start trainees on fireblasts the first day. They have to work up to it."
"Weren says the same thing," I sighed.
"Has he made the decision to take Linel's place?" Armon turned back to me. "I like Weren, so I hope you've been able to convince him."
"I think he'll do it-he has to tie up loose ends and convince his wife that you and the others will keep him protected at the front-when the enemy returns."
Weren, as a warrior instructor, was allowed to marry, once he'd moved permanently into that position. Father had granted permission himself. Weren's worries weren't only for himself, but for the woman he loved, too. Sadly, they'd never had children, as Weren's talents on the battlefield were formidable in the past. A child with Weren's talents would be a welcome addition to the warriors or escorts.
"It's a shame that, well," Armon shrugged.
"That Sherra isn't still here to allay Marta's fears?" I finished Armon's thought. "Every day, I feel the bite of that absence more."
"We've offered Weren a promotion to General, and the option of taking Marta with him, if she wants to go," Hunter said. "I'm not sure about her response, however, because living in a tent after having a permanent, comfortable home in the King's City could be a deciding factor."
"It's certainly not the most comfortable," Armon agreed. "Living in a tent, that is. Even with spare conditions at training camps, having a bed surrounded by walls that don't move with the wind feels like a luxury."
"Noted, Colonel," I said. "Weren promised to let me know tomorrow, and I'll pass the information to you when I hear from him."
"I'd like permission to place a warrior and escort trained in the new method in the larger villages-for protection," Armon said.
"That's a good idea," I said. "Hunter, do you have those village lists from the last census?"
"Yes, but you know how old that information is," Hunter began.
"It's about to be updated," I said. "Armon, I'd like two or three warriors and their escorts for the most-populated areas. Send two to the lesser populated-if we have sufficient troops. I expect new counts from them while they protect the King's citizens."
"I'll put a list of warriors and escorts together, and have it ready for you tomorrow."
"Good. Be here for the midday meal, then-that's when Weren will meet with us."
"I'll have my information ready, too," Hunter confirmed. "Thank you, my Prince. It's far past time that we had new counts taken."
* * *
Sherra
"We call it a mirror shield," Kyri nodded approval as she walked around the shield I'd built. "I can't see you at all."
She'd just taught me how to project the garden where I stood onto the outside of a bubble shield, which surrounded me. "You can let others walk through it, as long as you don't allow them to bump into you. They'll never realize you're there, spying on them."
"I'm more concerned about a group of them walking through at the same time," I responded. "Wait. I have an idea."
"What idea is that?"
"Come inside the shield," I invited. She walked through, so she could see as well as hear me.
"What are you thinking?" Kyri had a small glint of mischief in her eyes.
"What if I form a smaller mirror shield around myself, and attach it to the wall of the first one?"
I demonstrated as I spoke, making the shield and connecting it to the back side of the bubble shield.
"Then what?"
"Well, I roll the shield, of course." I had a swift, giddy feeling as I was lifted up by my own shield and rotated, until I hung suspended over Kyri's head. "You can walk through all you want, now, and you'll never see me or run into me."
"That's amazing-I see only sky above me," Kyri laughed. "It's perfect."
"You're the one who wants to spy on people," I said and rolled myself down again before releasing the second shield.
"Trust me, you'll want to as well, to discover what their plans are," Kyri became serious in a blink. Shoving long, dark hair over a shoulder, her forehead wrinkled as she considered my new talents.
"Perhaps we should plan a trip to Ny-nes," she said after a few moments. "Just to look around. I want to know how extensive their manufacturing facilities are, and what they plan to build in the future. We'll ask Cole for images of a safe place to step."
"But I thought you'd been there already-to take the children away," I floundered.
"I didn't go to collect children-not after a while, anyway," Kyri confessed. "The last time I was there, I went to observe the enemy," her voice had gone soft. "The ones I choose now are invited, but they must transport themselves. Cole was the youngest to make the trip. They step to the tiled red rose Doret and I showed you. All of them made that journey."
"I barely have that memory-of stepping here after the bomb exploded," I confessed, while allowing the mirror shield to dissipate about us.
"We are grateful you had enough energy left to do it," Kyri admitted. "Doret and I thought you were dead."
"I thought I was dead, too. The blast destroyed everything else."
"And caused earthquakes and some of the land mass to drop into the sea to the west," Kyri said, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Come, let's go inside-Doret informs me that our evening meal is ready."
Inside consisted of a rounded, concrete structure with only half the top portion peeking above ground; the rest was underground, and even the top was covered mostly with soil and flowering plants.
Half-moon shaped windows were spaced regularly around the top level, to allow natural light into Kyri's home. Nearby, other buildings stood, but all of them were squarely-built and above ground, or mostly so.
One of those buildings, with many windows, held a library. Most of the books there I couldn't read, because in Kyri's words, the written language had evolved and my reading skills couldn't adjust to the differences.
"Letters were reduced to only a line or two, and words to only a few letters, rather than their original, longer forms," Kyri explained to me on my first visit to the library months earlier.
She'd lifted an ancient, leather-bound volume from a table and opened it for me. An image on one page accompanied text covering the opposite page, but the image presented was also of writing-on a document even more complicated than the other.
"What does this say?" I'd pointed at the larger writing at the top of the image, which I had no hope of deciphering.
"I'll tell you sometime-it involves ancient history, after all."
Kyri cleared her throat to draw me back from my memory. "I believe we have fish and fresh vegetables waiting," she said.
Fish. I'd seldom eaten that rare delicacy while living in Az-ca. Fish were scarce in lakes and streams, and what was caught would be so
ld quickly to those with more money than most villagers would ever see.
This fish came from a large lake nearby, which also supplied some of the water for Kyri's small city.
Within the city, a system was set up to collect rainwater and purify it, using wind or solar power, before pumping it to each building. Kyri said there was no sense throwing away what was given by nature.
"We have a new trick to add to the mirror shield," Kyri told Pottles the moment we walked into the kitchen after washing our hands.
Yes, she was still Pottles to me, and always would be. Doret was just something other people called her.
"Sounds intriguing; tell me," Pottles grinned before motioning for us to sit at the table.
"The food smells wonderful," I told Pottles, before explaining the mirror shield trick I'd developed.
Soon enough, Pottles set plates of fish, carrots and green vegetables down. Kyri and I waited until Pottles was seated before lifting our forks.
"I have information that Merrin escaped by the hair of his ears," Pottles said while we ate. "He and his band of deserters killed a family living in a remote cabin outside Pa-sen."
"Filth," Kyri mumbled. I persuaded chunks of flaky, moist fish to stay on my fork as I raised the food to my mouth. I didn't have to speak-Kyri knew how I felt about Merrin.
I'd seen Merrin's handiwork already.
What I wanted to know was how Kerok was dealing with Merrin's threat. The biggest drawback to living in Kyri's City, albeit temporarily, was that nobody could send or receive mindspeak while there, or in Kyri's presence. So far, I'd been in one or the other situation constantly.
I missed Kerok. I had no idea whether he missed me, or was eventually grateful that I'd disappeared and was likely dead. As he was now the Crown Prince of Az-ca, he wouldn't be forced to look for another escort.
He could, though, if he wanted, look for a wife.
"Who almost took Merrin?" I asked. "Before he escaped?"
"Your friends," Pottles said. "Armon, Levi, Caral and several others. They almost had him, but Merrin put his new-found talents to use and managed to get away. Three of Merrin's decoys died when he left them behind to cover his ass."
Rose and Thorn: Black Rose Sorceress, Book 2 Page 2