The mass of healers that were coming through the portkey behind her group—Eaudne, Thadd, Phaenna, plus others that she knew, had insisted on accompanying her—the Chief Healer of the new healer city. Phaenna kept insisting that it be called Dekimos City after the lost son of Eaudne who had been the first Dardaptoan healer. Bronwen thought that was a fitting tribute, now that that once unnamed healer was identified. He would be honored forever.
“Come, Bronwen of Sebastos, you cannot stop there. We have a five mile hike this day.” Phaenna was at her side, tugging at her vestis. “Come, come, come.”
“She walks as fast as she can.” Her brother Thadd was there, his voice rebuking. Bronwen wrapped her fingers around his sleeve.
“I’m all right, Thadd. Just disoriented. This city we go to, Phaenna, what is the history?” She needed something to take her mind off what waited at the end of that five mile hike. “Tell me about it, please?”
“It’s a beautiful place, Dekimos City. I have always thought so.”
“Who built it?” Thadd asked, after taking one of Bronwen’s bags from her hands. She thought about protesting, but Thadd was a true Dardaptoan male, for all that he was a healer. It was a matter of his honor that he take care of her.
Perhaps that was part of her problem? She had let the older—and somewhat archaic—members of her family, namely her brothers, take care of her for too long? Had she somehow lost her own ability to care for herself since Koios had taken her so many months ago?
That had to change, didn’t it? And quickly. What was the human saying? ‘If you can’t make it, fake it?’
Was that what she was going to have to do? Pretend to know what she was doing here?
“No one knows who built this city. It’s been here for thousands of years. No one has lived in it for almost that long. Just there one day, gone the next. Some think it’s cursed.”
“You’re teasing them, Phaenna. That is not well done of you.” Eaudne walked at Bronwen’s other side, but though she was obviously limping she was not slowing them down at all. “Bronwen, I came here while you slept those two days, though I saw it only from the top of the cliffs. It is a beautiful place. And will suit our needs well, I think.”
It was to be a city for the injured and ill, wasn’t it? What would they need to make it fit that purpose? “How many people are coming today?”
“We lead in three thousand four hundred and eighty-seven healers, their mates, and a few children.”
“We have children?” She didn’t like that at all. What if this city was targeted somehow? How would they protect children? How was she supposed to care for them? The weight of her new responsibility threatened to choke her.
“A few. Less than one hundred, too young to be away from their parents.”
“Why did they come? They could have stayed behind in Relaklonos; wouldn’t have been safer there?”
“Some are counting on the idea that this is in a protected world, that the healers will be able to keep everyone who comes here safe,” Thadd said. But she could tell her brother was worried.
“It was their destinies to come here, just as it was ours.” Phaenna sounded so cheerful. Bronwen wondered again if the woman was as crazy as Laquazzeana were rumored to be.
Was she Laquazzeana? It was not something she had really given herself time to think about. That was something she would deal with in the quiet of her own room—if she was to have one in Dekimos City—when the needs of more than three thousand healers weren’t weighing on her.
Three thousand. And she was supposed to lead them. Not just help someone else lead them, she was supposed to make the decisions, all of it. How was she supposed to do that?
“How are we supposed to keep everyone safe? Three thousand healers, many many wounded, and who else?” She couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Dardanos, the city she’d always called home, had only had fourteen thousand people. How many lives will Dekimos hold?
“Well, that determined warrior king arrived yesterday with more than six thousand big strapping warrior demons. Oh, they are going to be fun to play with.” Phaenna was starting to scare Bronwen. The woman was so... odd ... at times. “You’re man, Bronwen of Sebastos, is a very determined king. You will have interesting babies. If you don’t both die soon.”
“Phaenna! That’s enough. Bronwen, child...do not listen to the words of a half mad fool. She likes the results. Koios brought with him a force of six thousand to protect the city. We have three thousand or more healers to house. After that the city can hold another nine to eleven thousand wounded. We will take no refugees in—Phaenna has identified another city for that purpose, and it will be there that she heads. Probably as soon as possible—I will send her there myself, if need be. But we will keep every bed in this city available for injured that we can. Perhaps, through our efforts, we can keep some of the Kinds from being erased from the worlds when the fires come.”
“And I am the one you call mad?” Phaenna asked. “All this talk about fire. You think that fire will stop all that is good? We are doing something great here—we’re uniting most of the nineteen worlds. It is only those that are too stupid to realize what they face that are not joining our quest. Stupid, stupid. Still, those of us who are more enlightened will prevail.”
Was this other woman actually looking forward to a war? Maybe she was completely mad.
“Whatever happens, now we have to keep walking,” Eaudne said. “We have much to do once we get there.”
“Like what? Tell me about this city. What kind of condition is it in?” Would they be stuck in tents?
“We don’t know. Unless the Lothicano king has been able to move the boulders in the entrance. It was a bit difficult to get inside.” Phaenna giggled again.
Bronwen actually felt the urge to hit the other woman.
“Pay her no mind, Bronwen. The city gate was walled off apparently centuries ago. The boulders were having to be moved. Phaenna couldn’t do it because we weren’t sure of the structure of the area behind it. We didn’t want a power surge to weaken the wall further. It may be necessary for defense that we keep it in working order. Koios had his men working with the boulders to see what they could do.”
Koios again.
She would not be escaping him. She’d come to that realization late in the night when she was supposed to be resting. Was that what her original thought had been? To return to Relaklonos all those months ago, and then to Colorado? To stay as far from her mate as possible?
That hadn’t worked out too well for Aureliana when she had been in a similar position, had it?
But that didn’t mean she had to just give in because he decided he wanted her. Wasn’t that part of the problem? She’d let far too many people roll right over her? Wasn’t that one of the reasons she was hiking five miles to a city she’d never heard of before? Because other people assumed she would?
But she also trusted those other people, especially Auri and Nalik. They wouldn’t lie to her; not them. They, two of the people most responsible for her life, believed this was what she was supposed to do.
And like it or not, she was apparently supposed to do it with Koios at her side.
At her side did not necessarily mean within her heart. Or her bed, even.
“Koios would be good at the defenses, wouldn’t he?” She asked the question as a sense of purpose and determination began to well within her. “That’s why he’s going, isn’t it?
“Tell yourself that,” Phaenna said. “We all know it’s because of you. Or maybe the two of you were fated together because this was your destiny. Who knows? I doubt the Four Destinies even get the truth sometimes.”
The Four Destinies, again. Bronwen knew of them. It was one of the bedtime stories her brother Theo would tell her as a child though they weren’t a specifically Dardaptoan fairy tale.
Four creatures, neither male nor female, who decided everything between them. One handled family and friends, one occupation, one romantic love, and one...the one no one knew much ab
out at all handled death.
Sometimes the four fought over the answers and the poor individual involved was screwed over in ways too unimaginable to think about.
“I don’t think we’re fated together at all. I think he’s just delusional.”
“I think you think wrong!” Phaenna sing-songed. “I think the handsome king sees you for exactly what you are—to him, and to his world, to all of those delicious Lothicano warriors he brought with him.”
“Phaenna! Really!” Eaudne’s irritation echoed Bronwen’s. She was starting to get the impression that Eaudne didn’t care much for Phaenna.
Bronwen was starting to feel the same way.
Chapter 19
KOIOS was stripped down to the waist like many of his men, sweat pouring down his back. This unnamed world was far hotter than he had expected—or was used to. His Relaklonos’ average temperature was a much more temperate climate.
The boulders that blocked the city gate were slowly getting removed. They were chipping them down one by one. The resulting smaller rocks would be used in defense in some way.
They were demons, and they were of modern times, but sometimes the best defense were those that were earthen made. Stone, water, men.
He would use all to fight to protect, if that was what was called of him.
He knew not what type of magics or powers this world could support. He suspected it was far greater than Relaklonos—why else would the Laquazzeana have favored it so?
Phaenna had told him that she had resided in this world for centuries—and it had yet to suffer from her presence. That was evident for him to see. Trees unlike any he’d ever seen on his world were everywhere. Vegetation was thick and in a variety of colors—green and red and orange dominated everything.
They’d arrived in the world near a huge river that rivaled any he had ever seen, and some of the men reported man-sized fish swimming abundantly.
It was as close to a paradise as he had ever seen.
He’d spent most of the morning at the front of his men, overseeing the opening of the gates.
He planned to be the first one through the wall. His warriors needed to see him taking that first step.
And he wanted time to view the city and evaluate before his people rushed in.
Before Bronwen arrived.
He would not allow her into a city he deemed unsafe. There could be anything living behind the wall. Behind the cliffs.
The city was located behind enormous cliff faces, with only a gap between the cliffs. A gap big enough for maybe thirty warriors walking shoulder to shoulder to enter at one time.
He understood that—a smaller door was more easily defended. He’d tried to flash himself into the city, but it hadn’t worked.
He’d gotten a knock on the head for his efforts, when he’d reached some sort of invisible barrier.
A shout went up a short distance from where he was. The last boulder had cracked, and they were about to break through.
Koios stepped over.
“I shall take the first step.”
His top man Callan protested. Koios held up a hand. Callan was the closest he could call to friend after his twin. But in this, Koios was determined. “It is needed. You and one other may follow. The rest of you, Dell, Portrick, you are to wait for the Queen and the Healers to arrive. Give my gamata, the Dardaptoan Laquazzeana Bronwen, a message for me. She is to wait by the river until I come for her.”
Dell bowed to him. “Will do, my King. I will guard her well in your stead.”
“See that you do.”
Koios slipped through the warrior-sized hole and into the city, now Dekimos, City of the Healers.
Chapter 21
BRONWEN’s feet were burning. She wasn’t sure about her legs—she couldn’t quite feel them. A five mile hike hadn’t been something she was used to.
“Keep your head up, and your words strong, kitten. The people are expecting something from you, our leader.” Nalik was there.
When had he come?
“I will close the portkey after everyone is through. I will rest easier knowing all are where they need to be tonight.”
“Cass?” She had been resting for the last several days. She was midway through her pregnancy, and had been one of the first attacked in Thrun.
“Jushua stays at her side. He will do until I can return to her. And Aureliana and Ren.”
“Nal, what do I say?” She was so full of questions anymore. Full of questions, weaknesses, uncertainties.
“That’s what it’s like anymore, kiddo. For all of us. The older I get the more those things grow within me. Especially in the last thirty years.”
“How did you do it?” Nalik had suffered so horribly in those thirty years. Everyone knew it. He’d gone through far more than Bronwen could even imagine. Far more even than she had.
That had her walking a little straighter. It was true, wasn’t it? Even though she couldn’t see anymore, even though Ramorakin had hurt her and terrified her—and basically killed her if what Auri had suspected was true, and she was a Laquazzeana—there were others out there who had suffered far more than she.
Wasn’t it time she stopped dishonoring that fact, and how was it Auri had put it?—look past what had happened?
“I did it because even when things were at their darkest after Erastine died there was always that hope. And the fear; I won’t lie to you, little sister of my heart, there was always fear. Mainly that my Rajni was out there somewhere and would need me. And that was exactly what the fates had in store for me. Cass needed me, needed me to be the thing Taniss had changed me into.” Bronwen knew the story. She’d read the files that had been found in that monster Leo Taniss’s things. She’d memorized the details, what had been done to Nalik’s younger sister, her best playmate Erastine. Era had been killed by the man who had tortured Nalik.
Who had killed Nalik and turned him into a Laquazzeana, too.
“Do all Laquazzeana have to die to become what they are?”
Had she died that day in the slave keeper’s prison? Was that what had happened?
“No. I don’t think so. I don’t think Eaudne died, I think hers was through suffering alone. And I know Cass didn’t.”
“So how was she changed?”
“She was changed through me, I believe. We can talk about it more at another time. But one thing I do want you to know—for whatever reason, you are a Laquazzeana, and stronger than you ever could have imagined before. Stop thinking that you are not. Learn what you are capable of and how to control it. You’ve been given this whatever for a good reason. You can do it, Bronie, I have no doubt about it.”
She thought on his words for the rest of the hike. She didn’t believe him; not really. How was she so changed?
Was it merely the fact that she was still alive when the poison Ramorakin gave her should have killed her? Was that all it had taken?
Someone’s hand on her shoulder had her stopping walking. “We’re here, Bronwen. We can stop, rest now. Koios’ man Dell has brought word that you are to wait for him to come for you.” Eaudne sounded so tired. Was she physically well? Bron shot out a healing touch, to see.
What she got back was a totally blocked path. Eaudne had shut her out.
“I do not allow anyone in.” Eaudne touched her cheek briefly. “Especially my children. Especially you.”
“Why?”
“Because my pain is the same that my Keryana would have felt as she died. I do not want your soul to go through that again. There is no need for it. I would protect you.”
“Maybe that has been part of my problem.” She did not know where the whispered words came from. But today was a day for answers, for revelations, and going forward.
How could she go forward if she did not know what was in the past? “I have been protected too much. If I am to lead, I need to be the one to do the protecting. Of everyone.”
“Perhaps. But perhaps a wiser leader is one who has learned what it is like to be the
humbled and pitied.” The woman hugged her, and Bronwen felt it then. The small connection that she had only ever felt with Aureliana. A mother’s love, maybe? She didn’t know. How could she ever? “Listen to me, Bronwen...You have the heart of a queen, and the soul you carry is one that was born to royalty. This is your calling and no one else’s. You will rise to this soon. How soon is only up to you.”
***
Koios walked around the city, and felt some of the tension in his heart lessen a bit. It was a damned good place to be as old as it was. Whomever had built it before had ensured it was a sound place. The bricks used to construct most of the buildings were of a size to not be easily destroyed, and were easily as wide and long as he. They had weathered well, too.
The entire city was surrounded by sheer cliffs that were as razor sharp as any blade he had ever seen. Anyone attempting to scale the face would be cut beyond healing. Add that to the enormous height of the cliffs, and it was daunting even to look at.
The city lay in the heart of the original mountain, was nearly rectangular in shape, and had only three entrances—the main gate in the wall, and two remote back passes that only one man could enter comfortably.
Or only one man could defend, if needed.
The only weakness he could see in the entire design was at the rear of the city, where the river trisected the back cliff and wound under the mountain. It was the most wondrous geological phenomenon he had ever seen, and one that would require some great strategy to defend.
The ancient residents had used more of the orange bricks and walled up all but the very bottom of the canyons to allow for passage of water, but nothing else.
After an hour or so, he returned to his men. They had widened the opening in the front gate enough that carts and supply vehicles could be brought in.
The warriors looked at him when he stepped through the opening again.
“The city has fared well, and has been awaiting us. Callen, Phan, and Teile, you will take your companies within. Identify places for barracks for us, and explore the outer city. There are two great halls. One, the larger, is to be used as the Hall of Healers. See that it is structurally safe, and set your men to preparing it. There is little time to waste in this. The rest of us will meet the Queen and her people at the waters. The second hall is to be the seat of the city, and she—we—will reside there, as well. Conmor, you take two score warriors and search out the lands within. Find something suitable to set up for food production. Whatever you think this climate will support. We do not know how long we will be here, nor how long our supplies will last in this air.” He had been through many ages in his twelve hundred years, and had lived through much more primitive conditions.
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