Engaging Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 2)

by Cary J Lenehan

  She thought for a while and then continued in a speculative tone, “We might even be able to get Father Christopher to do something to disrupt or dispel it. The Christian religions work through the element of earth and that is opposed to air. I will try and work out how powerful the spell must be and we will see if he has enough power to do anything. Dispelling is dangerous, but if we do it right the effects are more likely going to affect them, than they will be to affect anyone here, particularly if we stand ready to counter any free magic that is released. As well, if I can work out the power of the spell, it gives us a lower limit on what power they have to work with.

  Rani smiled. It appears that my lover is not only far more powerful than I am, but she also had thought more about the theory of magic than I am accustomed to doing, even though I used to teach it. I wonder what the school she learnt in was like. “Seen enough?”

  “Yes, now it is time to sit down and make some calculations.” She said to Harald, “Can you see if you can find some chrome and amber please? I doubt if there will be any elm wood, but that would be nice as well. Father Christopher uses frankincense. I can get some of that from him when I talk to him about getting rid of this. I will need to make something for the lookout anyway and it will help me think about the problem. I will get Eleanor to help me.”

  Harald is just looking from me to her. From his face, I can see that everything that we have just said is all just gibberish to him. “Do you want to see where we get t’gems?”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, but not today,” said Rani. “I think that I need even more sturdy clothes to go further and, just as we know our business, I am sure that you know yours and are doing everything right. Let us go back now and I will go and encourage our new militia while Theodora gets to work. Tonight you can show me where the hiding place is.”

  “You won’t help her?” He nodded towards Theodora. Rani looked at her. Princess is standing there with an abstract look on her face and her eyes a little unfocussed. Her lips are moving a little. She is talking to herself and one arm holds the other by the elbow with an upright forearm and one finger tracing patterns in the air.

  “No, I am a Haven battle mage. My element is fire and I specialise in either teaching or in killing, in fire and light and in warfare. My love is an air mage. I am sure that she knows all about the mind and control and weather. This spell is all about using the mind of another and controlling it to see, or not see, what you want, and I am an amateur in that field. If I tried to help I would just distract her and get in the way.”

  Re-locking the door they started to leave the mine. After a few steps Rani slipped and saved herself from a fall, but as she did so her hand landed in the puddle of water that had caused her to lose her footing. “This water is warm,” she said in surprise.

  “Much of it is. One of t’ bandits told me t’at t’ere is a hot spring t’at enters t’rivulet from t’mountain upstream.”

  “That is interesting. I will make sure I tell Theodora that when she is thinking about other things again. I have a feeling that I know what we are going to spend some of our income on.”

  They emerged again into the sunlight and headed for the village. “Where does the path go after the mine?” asked Rani.

  “T’ere is quarry t’ere around for t’limestone t’at most of t’buildings of Mousehole are made of. Lucky for us t’ere was a lot already cut ’n’ lying around when we arrived, but we still had to cut some special pieces. Soon we’ll ha’ to cut more when we want to make repairs or if’n we want to build somet’ing new.”

  They wandering back across the meadow and past the stone walled fields. Princess is quite lost in thought. She just waved vaguely and continued on when I gave her a kiss. I will go to the butts and she can continue on her own.

  ~~~

  Valeria is still at the butts. She can go off to our room to get my padded top, bow and arrows. The sun is pale here in autumn, but it is warming. She turned her back on the men of the group, stripped off her top and quickly put the padding on. Valeria wants to stay and watch, but we need to see she can do the job. She needs to tidy up and see what needs washing…with strict instructions not to interrupt Theodora if she sees her.

  Rani then headed off to join in the practice and see if she could lend a hand and also to try out Eleanor using a long and short stick, instead of her sword and main-gauche. I am a little better than the guard…but not by much. “You use a kite shield, you must usually fight mounted,” she said.

  “Yes,” Eleanor said, “the idea is to fight to cover the traders getting away and that often means charging attackers to give the carts a breathing space and then returning quickly. If you are on foot you are trapped and static and have to defend. I am so badly out of practice…”

  Rani nodded. Eleanor is showing her ability to think tactically.

  The bowyer, Robin, is a good archer, though not as good as Thord, the only other member of our group here, so he will not be as good as Astrid, Hulagu or Ayesha, and a long way short of my Theo-dear. However, he is certainly good enough. He shamefacedly admitted that all he could do was use a bow. He had to do that to test those he made, but had been able to get no excuse to use any other weapon here and he didn’t get enough practice with a bow to get much better than he had been when he arrived. He and Thord can take on training the archers. Robin’s bow is taller than the Dwarf, who being a cavalryman, favours a horse bow.

  A lot of the villagers can throw things; everything from knives to the big double bladed axes and javelins. It was a skill they could practice secretly or that they had learnt before being caught. At least that meant we can fiercely defend the wall if someone gets inside our valley. Apart from that though, it is all fairly dismal, with few exceptions. The blacksmith is leaning on a two-handed hammer as if he knows how to use it and Giles, Bryony and Eleanor had a bit of a play with long spears that they had to use reversed to avoid injury to each other. We obviously need more practice weapons. Bryony is also competent with a bow…still she was once a hunter so you would expect that. Otherwise this session is more to be noted for the eagerness that people show rather than their levels of skill. Still it will help us to work out how to make up the watches to best effect. I can see that Stefan is taking notes on a wax tablet he has gotten from somewhere…although he does look worried.

  One aspect of training is going well. Ayesha has taken Bianca and Verily aside and is teaching them how to attack from behind and pointing at target points on the body and showing how to aim at them. The other two are rapt. They are being drilled over and over on using two daggers for attack and defence. She is driving them hard. It is a shame they are only working with daggers…oh…that is not quite right is it? I have already seen Verily throw hers to effect…and Ayesha killed several with her blades…and I suppose Bianca has already proven herself. You never know, maybe Ayesha can show the other two some of the things she has learnt in her hard school. Several other women, when they are not doing something else, are watching this session, but if any try to join in, Ayesha sends them away. This session is obviously for advanced students or those who Ayesha thinks will benefit immediately.

  Rani was watching the three women at work when they stopped and Bianca and Verily put the sticks they had been working with down and both took their jerkins and chemises off. They are comparing breasts? It would be a close contest then. Neither is a small girl in that regard, both would rival Astrid, although Bianca has a better shape to hers than Verily…am I allowed to admire their breasts now as the men no doubt do? As Bianca finished taking her top off it became obvious what they were doing. Bianca carries knives in two rows of three strapped under her breasts and two others on her back between her shoulders, and she is showing them and their harnesses and then getting Verily to try it on. It did not look to be of the most professional make, and the knives do not match in it. Bianca must have made it herself. The two are oblivious to the onlookers. The men present have been either forgotten or ignored. They were there th
ough and as Bianca turned she noticed them, but after a brief pause she is carrying on, as I am sure a tribal woman would, when she becomes aware that the priest is one of the men and, turning red, she spun around again and grabbed her top. The others are almost ignoring her, but the priest isn’t turning away…ah, on being noticed he is also turning red.

  I knew it. Now which of them will have the sense to make the first move?

  Chapter XXIII

  Father Christopher

  Tonight we have our second wedding although for a while there it looked like they wouldn’t. During the afternoon Eleanor and Robin had approached him with questions. For once Eleanor was not taking charge. “Eleanor now doth ha’ doubts about a marryin’ me and a makin’ me an honest man,” said Robin. “She saith that she be eight years older than I and that she shalt grow old afore me and that I shall not be a wantin’ her and so it be I should just have her now to bed and marry a younger woman who canst a bear me more children.” Eleanor looks close to tears.

  I don’t have to think about that one. “Do you love her and want her to be your bride and bear your children?”

  “Aye, that I doeth, Father.”

  “Do you love him and want to marry him and to bear his children?”

  “Yes Father,” she said quietly “but—”

  “There is no but. When you marry you promise to do so until death do you part. In this vale of tears there are no guarantees as to who will live and who will die. You must trust in God to look after you. If you wish I can include in the ceremony a prayer for a miracle. I can guarantee that you will become pregnant straight away…if you take the proper steps of course…You are taking the proper steps of a man and a woman who want to have children aren’t you?” My look of false seriousness had brought a smile to Eleanor and a laugh from Robin.

  “Yes, Father,” “Aye, Father,” they said together, and Robin squeezed Eleanor’s hand.

  “Then I will marry you whenever you wish.”

  They looked at each other. “Then tonight it is, please Father,” said Eleanor, regaining her composure. “I think my time is coming on.”

  “Then you had better tell Sajãh and Lãdi and get it announced properly. Everyone will be upset if we surprise them. You are not giving them much time as it is. Like our last marriage I will dispense with the banns. I have never thought that they were much needed if people knew their mind.”

  ~~~

  Now we do it. I need to get this right. He checked the symbols drawn around where the marriage would take place so that it would be easier to include his prayer for pregnancy in the ceremony. I may have sounded confident, but this is my first time doing this prayer. It is a prayer that all the novices are taught and rehearsed and automatically written in their prayer books, but even a few weeks ago I would not have been able to perform it. I am growing and changing in many ways.

  ~~~

  The feast may not have been as well prepared as the first, but it is obvious that Lãdi knows what she is doing as the food is nearly as sumptuous. This time it is more western with roast meats and vegetables, animals stuffed within each other, jellies, fools and frumenty and other delights. Eleanor must have insisted on foods from her homeland. That would have been interesting to watch, especially given the short notice. I wonder what she will produce when we give her a week to prepare. This time everyone sits at tables and benches. It looks like most of the chairs have been gathered in from rooms. They are certainly mismatched enough. The benches however are mostly new and obviously just knocked together with wedges. Come to think of it, I have been hearing hammering and sawing all day. The tables look to have been stored somewhere, perhaps only brought out on large occasions. Even with everything set up there is still plenty of room in the centre to dance. This hall was built to have far more people than this in it…at least a couple of hundred. Indeed, it may hold more than the village can be populated.

  Again we have our mages at the front, this time with Fear at their feet and Valeria looking after them. The bride and groom have pride of place with Giles and Naeve as groomsman and maid of honour. One of the other, younger, women is the flower girl. They are using the same cloth flowers. Each bunch has a couple more in it this time. It is obvious that they are not going to be wasted. None of the clothing is new, but it is all well cleaned and has obviously been worked on over the last few hours. The bride is beautiful. Usually that is just a saying, but it really isn’t possible to have it any other way among the Mice.

  ~~~

  Why am I being told that the first dance this night is a pavane with Eleanor and Robin as the first couple, Giles and Naeve as the second, and the Princesses as the third. Oh, I am to be a part of the fourth. Bianca is already being placed as my partner by Ayesha. This is awkward given this afternoon.

  They both blushed as they took each other’s hand.

  Our dance is a little stilted as Bianca has only danced it a couple of times before, and not in the men’s role. She keeps trying to head the wrong way and then laughs about it. At least everyone applauds when we finish. The entertainers are more confident about each other now. Anahita, Kãhina and Bianca again did their Khitan dance. Verily stands aside from everyone as they dance and she looks at them and is walking through the moves on her own. Perhaps at the next wedding she will be dancing it as well. Bianca is more poised doing the furious dance now. Lord, please forgive my thoughts. Please help me stay distracted. If he does not keep my thoughts busy my mind keeps drifting between what is in front of me and back to what I saw this afternoon, and imagining how her breasts would feel, and indeed she would feel, beside me. I know she does not think herself beautiful, but I think she is, partly through her inner strength. Lord I promise a night spent on my knees in prayer. Let this stand as my penance.

  ~~~

  What now? Robin is in front of me with two of the younger women and Eleanor is hovering in the background. There is an expression of concern on his face…on all their faces that is at variance with the night.

  “Father,” he said. “This doth be my sister Goditha.” He indicated the taller girl. She is the flower girl from the wedding; she has pale skin and brown hair like Robin, and for the women here, a strong and athletic build. Once you see them standing beside each other the relationship is obvious.

  She gave a bob.

  “It be because I was a tryin’ to save her from bandits that I be captured,” Robin said. “Luckily they doeth found out my trade and brought me with them instead of a killin’ me out a hand, but they made me suffer by forcin’ me to look on as she suffered. I hast always only a wanted the best for her. I ha’ known for some time now, since she were a child really, that she hath no interest in men but it seems that she hath found love anyway.

  “This be Parminder.” He indicated the second girl. She is Hindi, not all that far from childhood herself, perhaps fourteen years of age. She also bobbed up and down. “She were a brought here as a little girl and, like Verily, hath lived most of her life here. She doth love Goditha. Thou told Rani and Theodora that thou would a marry them. Please, will thou also a marry my sister?”

  I made my promise to the Princesses, but I am still unsure as to my own thoughts and feelings on this issue. Contemplate the passages on love. He took the outer hands of the two girls and drew them forward. He looked from one to the other trying to read their faces. I can only feel good in both of them, nothing of the taint of evil at all. At least that helps. “Do you love one another?” he asked seriously.

  Goditha took hold of Parminder’s left hand in her right. “Aye Father, that we do. In my arms Parminder canst sleep and she doeth not wake a screamin’ and if she be troubled in her sleep, my kisses and my voice they doth sooth her. We doeth be well used to each other’s bodies. It doeth start as a joke for them, one of us pale and the other so dark…one of us big and the other small…the bandits would ha’ us make love on the stage there, while they watched and sometimes they doeth take one or both of us while we did, but they doeth also make
us to share a room. That be how we discovered that we doeth want and need each other.”

  Christopher looked at the Hindi girl. I have not talked to her yet at all nor have I heard her story. It does not sound to be a good one. “And this is your desire as well?”

  She looked up at her lover and shyly smiled. “With all my heart… Father, and we promise that we will look after my sister as well.”

  “Your sister?” said Christopher, surprised.

  “Yes.” She waved towards the children. “Gurinder, she is the oldest of the children, if not the biggest, she is my sister. She was brought here four years after I was. I nearly did not recognise her. We wish to look after her and make sure she gets a good husband.”

  “That is good. That is the right thing for you to do and I am pleased that you wish to do so. You will give her a family again…I need to ask this question though. Do you mind being married by me, a Christian priest?”

  Parminder glanced at Goditha briefly before turning back. “We have talked about this together already. For Goditha’s sake I am willing to become a Christian…that is, if you will have me after what I have been,” she hurriedly added.

  I am elated. Of course we will have you. I cannot seem to be making demands though. “It is not as easy as that. You will need to want it yourself, not just for Goditha. I will need to instruct you in what we believe and to make sure you understand what you are doing, for it is a serious thing for your soul that you will do. I need to check on a few other things for your ceremony, and so will not be able to marry you, or even Rani and Theodora, for a while yet, but I look forward to it and my blessings are already upon you both, my children.”

  “Then,” said Goditha, “we doeth be goin’ to choose one of the empty houses tomorrow and I be goin’ to start a repairin’ it, and then …” she turned to Parminder, “thee and I will move in…I am sorry for thee my sweet, but my hands art goin’ to be a gettin’ all rough agin as I will ha’ to get stone and timber and work them…but then it be belongin’ to thee and me…not just a room, but a house of our own.” She leant down and kissed her much smaller companion and they hugged.