"What do you want from me?" Niani asked, her voice harsh. Good, I thought, keep him talking. I'll think of a plan.
The man grinned. "Our ship has sprung a leak. You're a constructionist—you fix that, and anything else wrong with the ship, and we let you go."
"Done."
"Niani, no!" I snapped. "They'll kill us both anyway."
"Oh, she doubts my word." The man walked toward us, his archers staying behind to cover him.
I kept my sword up. "You're a criminal."
He drew his sword as he approached. I braced myself. A bolt of pain shot up my side from the arrow in my thigh, and I couldn't hold back a wince.
"Wait!" Niani stepped out from behind me with her hands up, placating. "I told you I would do it. Don't hurt her."
The man settled into a competent fighting stance. My heart sank. "She hasn't agreed yet," he said. "Come along, swordswoman, your mistress is being smart."
I shook my head, ignoring the beads of sweat that dripped down my forehead.
He lunged forward and I parried, stepping around to his side. My leg couldn't take the strain and collapsed beneath me. I turned aside another blow from the ground before he swatted the sword out of my hand. He hit my head with the pommel of his sword, and my world blurred.
"That's taken care of. Mistress mage, don't try anything. Your bodyguard is alive, and will stay that way as long as you cooperate."
I felt myself being lifted. I thrashed, then stilled and groaned when something tore in my thigh. Pale blue sky and yellow grass reversed, swirling and swimming as my vision blackened.
* * * *
A pounding headache welcomed me back to consciousness. I tried to relax and stay limp; tensing up would only hurt more. The weight of my upper body leaned heavily on my shoulders, two points of pain that throbbed in counterpoint to the headache. My hands felt numb from the rope that chafed my wrists. Rough wood pressed against my forearms, promising splinters if I moved.
Slowly, the pain ebbed into the background and I became aware of other sensations: a cool wind on my face, shouts and hollow footsteps, rank sweat, laughter and the press of the sun against my skin. I didn't guess where I was until I realized the ground wasn't ground at all, but the gently bobbing deck of a ship.
I felt lightheaded. Tied to a pole on the deck of a raider's ship, unarmed—my sword belt felt far too light—no idea where I was or where my charge had been taken, and there still seemed to be an arrow sticking out of my thigh. The only situation I could think of worse than this was Niani's death.
A good bodyguard neither panics nor reacts, she acts. I repeated the mantra in my head a few times to calm myself. Guardmaster Suliam would be displeased with me if my first assignment ended in my own or my charge's death. I'd be pretty annoyed if I died at the start of my career, too.
I guess Niani needed a bodyguard after all.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved the pain farther away and opened my eyes. Blinking in the mid-afternoon sun, my eyes adjusted and took in the little ship. Not much to look at: a river boat, two crew that I could see. I didn't know anything about ships but I could see why they needed to steal Niani. The wood looked old, cracked and weathered. Neither Niani nor the man who had knocked me out was in sight. One of the crew, a stocky woman whose robes were in slightly better shape than the rest, fenced invisible enemies across the deck with my sword. My dagger glinted on the other crewman's belt.
No one seemed to be watching me. I tested the ropes that held me to a tall, upright pole. Then again, maybe no one needed to. At least I wasn't standing, and the wound in my thigh had stopped bleeding. I flexed my fingers through their numbness and grunted at the tingling pain.
"Hey hey, Jhasa's most useless bodyguard's awake!" The man with my dagger in his belt swaggered over. He knelt down in front of me, and I realized he was the male archer. "You gonna get whipped when you get back to the university. Well, if Captain don't kill you."
No gag, but also no reason to talk back. I didn't need them more interested in me than necessary. Escaping from my ropes would be difficult if they didn't return to strenuously ignoring me. I had to get free and find Niani.
"Captain promised to let them go once the mage is finished fixing the ship," the swordswoman said. She pointed my sword at the male archer. "We don't need to go on trial for murdering a Jhasa mage."
The man glared at the swordswoman. He replied, but I didn't hear it—Niani had emerged from beneath the deck, sans rope or escort. Her eyes went wide when she saw the bickering crew. Hope rose in my chest; Niani appeared unhurt, and looked like she had a plan. Neither of the crew members on deck saw her, but that wouldn't last.
"Where's Niani?" I shouted. My body jerked with the shout, sending reminders of pain through my limbs and bursting in my head, but the pain was worth it when they both turned to look at me. Niani grinned at me from behind them and stole across to the other side of the deck, ducking into some kind of cabin.
The archer in front of me gave a nasty, gap-toothed smile, and I flinched when the rot on his breath wafted across my face. "Your precious mage is in good hands. She'll fix the ship, and then we'll see."
Sheathing my sword, the swordswoman walked closer and let a smirk play across her face.
"You're an awful bodyguard," she said.
I reigned in my anger and gave her the same bland smile I always gave Niani. These two were a pair of bullies; I didn't think they'd let me alone until they got a rise out of me.
Her smirk turned into a frown. She kicked me just below where the arrow emerged from my leg. Fresh pain forced a scream out of me before I bit it off.
"I wonder what the penalty is for letting your charge get killed?" the swordswoman wondered, tapping her finger against her chin. Fear shivered up my spine. I hadn't pegged her as the dangerous crewmember, but her calm sadism and cultured language suddenly felt more worrying than the archer's crude taunts.
The archer chuckled. "Yeah, that's almost like murder. Maybe we should spare Jhasa the trouble of an execution."
Sweat trickled down my back beneath clothing and armor. I needed to keep their focus on me to give Niani time; I hated drawing attention to myself, but if that was the only way to keep my charge safe, I would do it.
Behind my tormentors, Niani stood just inside the cabin door, her eyes closed, one hand on the doorframe and the other held out in front of her, palm up in supplication. Her lips moved, and decay spread from her hand as I watched. Not in an all-encompassing arc, but rather in a specific path: toward me.
"I'll be rewarded," I spat. The archer and swordswoman laughed.
"For what? Is your mage despised?"
The wood beneath the laughing crew grayed and warped. The pole behind me fell slightly out of true, pressing against my back, and I sucked in a breath. Getting crushed to death by Niani instead of beheaded by raiders still ended with me dead.
"For stopping you," I said, frantically pulling at the ropes around my wrists and smiling at the raiders. The ropes slackened and grew slippery as Niani's magic caused them to decompose.
The archer chuckled again and patted my dagger on his hip. "I really don't think so."
Almost, almost... I tugged and could almost get my hands free. The swordswoman's eyes narrowed at me, and I went limp again, my heart pounding. My cheeks started to ache from my smile.
"You're injured and tied to our mast. You honestly think you can kill us?" she asked, feet braced apart and arms crossed over her chest.
I took a chance and stared at her, hard, instead of replying. She scowled and nudged my leg. I hissed, holding back a shout.
The archer stood and half-turned to the swordswoman. "You just like making her screech. And after she gave you that pretty blade, too."
"We had the strength to take from a Jhasa mage and her bodyguard. We deserve to keep our prizes, even if we can't kill them."
"I'm still not onboard with not killing them," said the archer.
Niani's magic increased, turning whol
e swaths of deck pale gray. I didn't dare tug on my ropes, or I might already be free. Mage or not, Niani would need my help once these two realized what was going on. Niani might be good at building and taking apart, but physical fighting didn't figure into her lifestyle. I took a deep breath to steady myself, then had to take another, and another. My immediate future looked like lots of pain with a slim chance of reward in the form of escape.
"Hey..." The archer looked down at the much-changed deck. A puzzled frown creased his forehead. "What's going—?"
"There!" The swordswoman pointed, and then drew my sword and started toward Niani, whose eyes were closed. The mage was lost in her magic.
I redoubled my frantic struggle against the ropes. I couldn't let her reach Niani. This was exactly the reason mages had bodyguards, and I was about to fail in the worst way a bodyguard can fail. My first assignment looked more and more like it would be my last, one way or another.
Suddenly my wrists slipped through the ropes and I tumbled forward. A cacophony of pain played in my body: thigh, shoulders, head, hands. White sparks lit my vision when my forehead slammed into the deck.
"The bodyguard!" The archer jumped away from me, scrambling back over the deck. I blinked and noticed he didn't wear his quiver or bow. That would make this quick.
Stand, step, wrap my numb, shaking fingers in his robe and throw him, headfirst, into the deck. The crack of his skull meeting the wood helped settle me in my skin.
The swordswoman hadn't quite turned away from Niani to see what the fuss was about when I grasped her hand and elbow, then brought her forearm down on my knee. Her shriek buried the wet snap of bone breaking. Not so scary when her target isn't tied up. Still holding her hand, I hauled back and punched her. She hit the deck and my sword rolled away. Cursing, she struggled to stand, broken arm clutched to her chest. I reclaimed my sword and turned to face her when a shudder wracked the boat.
Niani blinked her eyes open and gaped at the downed raiders. "Did you—?"
I nodded. "The boat?"
"Going down. The Captain and his minion, Fazima, are in the hold. They had an unfortunate encounter with some wood that forgot it wasn't still a growing tree."
I grinned.
The swordswoman looked from one to the other of us, and then turned and ran. The boat heaved under her. She cursed again, grabbing at the rail with her good hand.
"I don't think so," Niani said. The mage pointed, and the wooden rail beneath the swordswoman's hand writhed and engulfed her fingers. She yelled, trying to pull away, but the wood had grown too tightly around her.
Still running on the fight's adrenaline, I went over to the opposite side of the boat. The Hani wasn't a small river, but she got thin and shallow this far north. Niani and I might be able to get back to dry land before I collapsed.
"This way, Darmura," Niani called. I looked ahead and saw that the boat was headed for the Dwenna docks, even as it fell apart. Surprised, I glanced over the swordswoman and saw buildings going by on the bank.
I didn't think getting kidnapped by raiders, shot in the leg, tied up and kicked around was worth cutting a few hours off our journey, but I welcomed the sight of the city.
Niani watched my leg as I stumbled back against the cabin and slid down onto the deck, trusting her bring us in. I reached out and snaked my dagger out of the archer's belt and returned it to its place on mine. Clutching my sword, since the trapped swordswoman still had my sheath, I tipped my head back and waited for Niani to meet my eyes.
"We'll find you a proper doctor or a healing mage in Dwenna," she said. "Bringing in the raiders must give us some kind of clout, we can use that."
The world spun around me, blurry like air on a hot day. Niani was safe. Relief made me giddy. Niani bent over me, a worried line creasing her brow.
"You're not glaring at me," I said. Apparently head wounds turned off my internal filter.
Niani coughed, startled. "I... no, I'm not."
My mind was going hazy, but since the raiders were disabled I didn't need to stay alert anymore. Between the adrenaline crash and blood loss, I figured consciousness and I would part ways soon.
"Worst timing," I said. "I don't have to put up with you anymore, and now you stop?"
Niani coughed again, wincing in embarrassment this time. "Well. I could request you, the next time I need a bodyguard."
Surprise welled up through my dazed thoughts. Working with Niani again, this time without the constant glares, sounded unexpectedly good. Somewhere between getting shot and reclaiming my sword, I'd become fond of the older woman. She could certainly handle herself in a crisis.
"But I..." The words wouldn't come, so I flung out an arm at the bloody mess on deck. My failure.
"I'm alive," Niani said. She reached out with one callused hand and squeezed my shoulder. "You did well enough."
Well enough would do for my first assignment. I lay back under the savanna's pale blue sky until a healing mage sent me to sleep.
The Lost and Found Talisman
Josepha Sherman
Tallain and her partner Serein were looking for a magical talisman that had been used to commit a murder. But when she found the talisman, Tallain was promptly lost with it in another dimension, and she had no idea how to get home again.
Josepha Sherman is a fantasy and SF writer, folklorist, editor, and storyteller. She owns Sherman Editorial Services, http://www.shermaneditorial.biz, is a fan of the Mets, and has had a new foal fall asleep on her foot!
Tallain was a slender, wiry, dark-haired woman, and Serein was a tall, lanky, blond-haired man. Together, the two Secret Agents rode into what they both realized with some disappointment could only be called a truly dusty town. There were no sidewalks, no paving stones, nothing much to see but, well, dusty, paint-faded houses. Surrounded by, of course, more dust blown in from the surrounding wasteland, plus a few pathetic patches of farmland glinting green against all the barrenness.
Both agents had to carry ID, of course, even if they were undercover—and even if Tallain and Serein weren't their real names, but code names for Secret Agents. Acting across boundaries and authorized to use all necessary force, the Organization of Magical Sovereignties, their boss, hunted down illegal spell-casters, eliminated demons, and in short, worked to keep the everyday world safe from the Dark—at the same time, without letting the everyday world know what they did.
"Not exactly my favorite place to stop," Tallain said wryly.
"Not mine, either. But this is the place, all right. I feel it."
"So do I." Tallain glanced around in the saddle. "You, uh, don't suppose there's anything like a hotel or an inn here?"
"Somehow I really doubt it," Serein said. "This is one really lifeless town."
Tallain sighed, and then murmured the proper spell-code over the gem in her ring, and said into the gem, "Code 545. Special Agents Tallain and Serein reporting—HQ? Come in, HQ."
The reply was so faint that she could hardly hear it. "It seems," she said to Serein, "that there's a lost talisman somewhere in this town, a talisman of potentially great power. And there was a magical murder using that talisman as well."
"And we're the ones to find it, eh? And solve the murder as well?"
"So it would seem. How, of course," Tallain added wryly, "is another matter."
Just then, though, a middle-aged woman, hair flying loose from her braids and clothing in disarray, rushed out to them, startling their horses. "Please, please, can you help me?"
"What's wrong, Madame?" Serein asked charmingly, soothing his horse at the same time.
"My son! My poor son! He never hurt anyone, but they're accusing him of murder!"
"Murder!" Tallain asked, also gentling her horse. "Of whom?"
"A banker. The man was killed by magic. Please, my son did nothing wrong, he knows nothing about magic. I swear to it!"
The two agents exchanged quick glances. "Hush, please," Tallain said. "We'll look into this."
Invisible, the two
agents visited the jail. There was the boy, looking scared and alone—and utterly innocent of any murder.
Serein sighed. "I can see where this is leading."
"Yes, my fellow agent," Tallain murmured. "So can I."
"So be it." He shifted shape, and became a perfect copy of the boy. Meanwhile, Tallain murmured over the lock, which opened.
"Come on out," she whispered.
Serein took his place. "Go on," he whispered. "I won't be here too long, either."
Tallain wrapped the boy in shadow, and brought him to his mother, who wept over him while the boy hugged her. Then Tallain stole back to the side of the prison, where there was a narrow, barred window, Serein's clothing in her arms.
"Serein?" she whispered.
"Here. Wait a minute. Here we go."
He became a large snake and slithered through the bars. Tallain, who had no aversion to snakes, said, "That's a really nice pattern you took."
"Thanks." He was back into human form, slipping into the clothing she'd brought with her. "Now what?"
"Now you go into hiding," Tallain said. "Or else go around in shape-shifted disguise. They're going to really wonder at the mysterious disappearance of the boy. Me, I'm going to search the town."
She changed shape into that of a dancing girl. The two agents were so comfortable with each other after working together for so long that they could joke around and mean nothing by it, and so Serein gave her a slap on the rump.
"I'll get you for that!" she said with a laugh.
"Not if I see you first," he returned with a broad grin.
"All right," Tallain said in mock severity, "enough of this silliness. How many suspects do you think there may be?"
Serein sighed. "I'd say the saloon keeper. If there's a brothel, the owner. If there are any stores around, the owners of those. And, of course, the new banker."
"I'll check out the saloon and the banker. You want to change shape and see if there's a brothel or any stores around?"
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress XXV Page 25