The Golden Vial

by Thomas Locke

  Dally curtsied and held the position until Shona said, “Rise, my friend. Join us.”

  As Dally approached, she watched Shona return to her conversation. The young woman’s countenance would have better suited a ruler three times her age. Shona was not just somber. She listened with a burning intensity. She spoke with a soft voice that carried the eminent force of command. Dally wondered if the young queen ever smiled.

  Shona motioned for all but Edlyn to step away. She then said to Dally, “It is good to finally greet you in person, Dally. You are as fair as I envisioned.”

  “Thank you, my lady.”

  “Edlyn tells me you have the gift of far-seeing. I must ask, Dally, that you never seek me out unless there is an urgent need. A leader can never be seen to show too much favor.” Shona must have detected Dally’s disappointment, for she added, “I am doing you a service. Word will soon spread, if it has not already, of our secret bond. I’m surprised the village elders have not already come seeking to use this bond to their advantage.”

  Dally heard a tone of discreet bitterness in the words. “If they did, Norvin or his wife must have denied them access.”

  “His wife, yes. I have heard of this one. She is no longer your concern. But if others think you can provide access to power, they will show themselves soon enough.”

  Dally had the impression this woman carried the stain of great sorrow. And was as lonely as she herself had been. “My lady, might I offer you a gift of greeting?”

  Edlyn said, “It is, in fact, a common courtesy when first meeting a royal.”

  Shona was clearly displeased with the title. But all she said was, “Very well.”

  Dally shut her eyes and reached out. In that instant, she knew which of her friends it must be. In fact, it seemed as though the bond was already being forged.

  A few moments later, the runt of Dally’s litter entered the tent. She trotted forward and halted by Dally’s hand. “This is the smallest and the most sensitive of my friends.”

  “You’re giving . . .” Shona’s taut expression melted. “She’s mine?”

  Edlyn said, “You bought them all, my lady.”

  “That was merely to keep them as Dally’s. The dogs are hers.”

  “And now this one is yours, if you’ll have her.” Dally motioned the dog forward. To her vast relief, she felt neither sorrow nor loss, only an immense rightness. She spoke the words she had often heard Norvin use. “Let her have a good sniff. Feed her a bit of meat. For the first few days, let her stay close. When you’re ready, you name her. Short and sharp is best. My lady, may she serve you well.”

  14

  Half an hour later, Shona seated herself upon the dais and told the guard to summon the elders. They entered the assembly hall in an uncertain cluster. There were several dozen altogether, perhaps as many as fifty, a third of them women. Some wore their finest garb, others looked like they had come straight from their fields. Which, of course, was their way of saying that they did not acknowledge this young woman as queen of anything.

  And she certainly did look young. Shona’s youth was accentuated by the two women who stood to either side of her high-backed throne. Edlyn was slightly stooped, and her face was creased by lines that Dally had not noticed before. Meda wore an unadorned uniform, a short sword attached to her belt and a well-used hilt of a war blade rising above her left shoulder. Shona herself wore the tunic of a battle mage. Her only adornment was the jeweled scabbard holding her wand and the robe’s crest sewn in gold thread. She watched the elders approach and waited.

  Dally understood these Three Valleys leaders so very well. Many were not familiar, of course. But the set of their expressions told her all she needed to know. They had been somewhat cowed by their procession beneath the beasts they had spent years claiming did not exist. But they were also angry. Their little world had been shaken to its core. Their foolish claims and their haughty attitudes and their blindness had been both challenged and mocked. They could no longer lie to themselves and the other villagers that they were in control.

  The greybeard who had complained over not hearing the tinker’s news was a cantankerous sort who loathed change of any kind. He was, Dally knew, the worst possible choice as the elders’ spokesman. But he had no doubt demanded that he be heard, whether they selected him or not. His beard jutted like an accusing finger as he said, “It’s high time we know what’s the meaning of your disturbing our peace with your coming!”

  Meda’s features drew back in a battle-hardened scowl, but Shona silenced the officer’s retort with an upraised hand.

  The elder took courage from the lack of response. His voice rose to the level he might use in scolding a grandchild. “Aye, and when are our farmers to be paid, that’s what we want to know! A month we’ve supplied all your needs, without a by-your-leave for our troubles!”

  Alembord shifted, standing alongside Dally by the left-hand wall. Shona glanced over, freezing him into position. She did not address the guards captain because she did not need to.

  “And what’s to be the purpose of your coming?” The elder’s stubby beard quivered in indignation. “We want safe trails to market, that’s what we want. We want our borders pushed back to their proper station! We want—”

  “What you want? You dare speak to me about your wants?”

  The frigid fury in Shona’s voice stunned them all, none more so than Dally. The queen rose slowly to her feet and stood glaring down at the elders. Her eyes blazed with a dark green fire.

  It was then, in that frozen moment, Dally realized that for the very first time she thought of Shona as a queen.

  “Do you think I wanted to be crowned at the onset of a battle for mankind’s survival? This meeting has nothing to do with your wants!”

  Dally watched the greybeard cringe away, like a cur fearing a blow. His beard quivered and jutted, but no sound emerged.

  “We have come to your region precisely because the fiends have chosen this as their first point of attack. They too know you are isolated and unprotected. They sought to use this to their advantage. So we rushed here, intent upon rescuing you.” Shona stabbed the air leading toward the exit. “Get out! The lot of you are dismissed!”

  One of the women said, “But, Majesty—”

  “Go! We will depart this region soon enough. And when the feral beasts of dread assault you next, when they drag away your children and set fire to your homes, you will rue this day!” When the elders remained clutching one another at the center of her audience hall, Shona snarled, “Alembord, you will escort this rabble from my sight.”

  “My lady.” He motioned to the guards, who moved forward. “Outside and away, the lot of you.”

  But as they stumbled, shocked and terrified, toward the exit, one lone village elder turned back. “Your Majesty, I wish to offer my fealty.”

  “Hold, Alembord.” The Lady Shona stood glaring down at the man who now stepped forward, separating himself from the others. “Your name?”

  “Norvin, if it please my lady.”

  “Your village?”

  “Honor, Majesty. I am its mayor.”

  Meda said, “You will address her as ‘my lady.’”

  “Honor,” Shona said. “So you were my aide’s guardian. Will your wife follow your lead?”

  “My wife . . .” Norvin glanced at Dally. “She’s had a hard go of it, my lady. She’s not made for such times as these, and all the fears I’ve had to shoulder in my position.”

  “She had best learn to adapt, and swiftly,” Shona replied, but without her former ire.

  “Aye, my lady. She will.” Norvin glanced at Dally a second time. “I promise you that.”

  Shona’s gaze tracked with Norvin’s. “What say you, Dally?”

  “Norvin is a man of his word, my lady.”

  “And his wife? Colonel Meda and Mistress Edlyn did not think highly of her.”

  Dally remained silent.

  Norvin broke in with, “My offer of fealty, my l
ady, it’s for all the village. And we’ll gladly give you these fields or any others for your use. If you’ll stay. And protect us . . . from what’s coming.”

  Shona studied him with a merciless intensity. Finally she said, “Go and speak with your clansmen. I will accept your offer of fealty, but on one condition.”

  “My lady?”

  “It must be unanimous. Your entire village must attend me. Now go.”

  Dally ate that evening with the other acolytes. She only spoke when a young mage asked about village life. But that one question led to many others, about the elders and their spokesman and why the Lady Shona was so hard on the mayor’s wife. Dally tried to be both frank and fair in her answers. But by the time she finished describing her former existence, she could see many of the acolytes now shared their leader’s opinion. As she rose from the table, Myron nodded to her, an acknowledgment that she had succeeded in becoming one of their company.

  As she prepared for bed, Dally recalled the Lady Shona in her audience hall, and the manner in which she had handled these self-important elders. She shut her eyes to the realization that in truth Shona’s age held no meaning whatsoever. Here was a woman destined to rule. Mankind’s survival, Dally decided, rested well upon Shona’s slender shoulders.

  That next dawn, Dally slipped once more from normal slumber into that nether state. When a figure appeared before her, she first thought Shona had gone against her better judgment and come to visit once more. Then Dally realized this was a different person entirely.

  The woman was surrounded by a most remarkable light. She seemed cloaked by a pale illumination, like a lantern seen through morning mist. Then she approached and spoke to Dally in an alien tongue.

  Dally replied, “I don’t understand you.”

  The woman was clearly shocked. “You are human?”

  “I am.”

  “How can this be?”

  Dally didn’t know what to say, so she remained silent. She was surrounded by a fog that blocked her view of everything save this woman. They stood together on an unseen patch of solid earth, like an island suspended in the region beyond time.

  The woman asked, “How do you come to walk the unseen realm?”

  “I . . . have no idea. Until this moment, the only other time I did this was with Shona.”

  “And yet you are here. You are a mage?”

  “Mistress Edlyn says I am gifted.”

  “So you are untrained. You serve the Lady Shona?”

  “I do.”

  “Wait here.”

  As the woman turned away, Dally resisted the urge to ask where “here” was. The light that surrounded the woman dimmed slightly, but only for a moment. Then the woman said, “I am Bryna, the Seer in the settlement you know as Eagle’s Claw. You will pass on a message from my leaders to Lady Shona?”

  “Of course.”

  “Tell her that Joelle’s procession will pass her camp tomorrow at noon. Also the enemy prepares another attack. This one will come at the valley’s farthest boundary, on the village of Elmtree.”

  Dally wasn’t sure how she found the courage to speak, but a question seemed to hover in the air between them. “You belong to our region. Which means sooner or later your people will be as threatened as us. Why will you not help fight this enemy?”

  The words created a vibration that distorted Dally’s vision. She knew this to be a ripple of discord, a challenge to the harmony that bound this vision together. Even so, she was certain she had been right to speak.

  The woman said, “One moment.” The pause was longer this time, but finally Bryna turned back and replied, “There is a disagreement among our leaders. To enter into this conflict breaks treaties that have been in place for over a thousand years.”

  “As does having an enemy use magic to attack our region,” Dally replied. “Or Mistress Edlyn leaving the Long Hall. Or—”

  Bryna stepped closer. “I agree. On all of this, I agree. But I have only just been appointed Seer, and there are many among us who, well . . .”

  “Seek to remain secure within your borders,” Dally said, and did not try to hide her bitterness. “Wish to stay blind to the threat these fiends truly represent.”

  Bryna took her time replying. “Your words carry a great force.”

  “The fiends burned down my home and killed my family.”

  “So you have as little patience with these elders as I.” Once more Bryna turned away. When she returned, it was to say, “Tell the Lady Shona that I and my allies wish for you to accompany the procession.”

  Dally had no interest in going anywhere. She had not felt this secure or so bonded with others since losing her family. She said, “I serve the lady.”

  But Bryna was already gone.

  15

  To his credit, Norvin arrived early that morning along with every citizen of Honor. He was also accompanied by all the elders who had met Shona the previous day, including the greybeard who had addressed the regent with caustic disrespect. Four of the oldest villagers and three youngsters were down with a summer fever. Pallets had been fashioned, and the strongest among Honor’s citizens took turns carrying them. At Shona’s direction, an honor guard was formed up, both to greet the arrivals and to keep them from entering the camp proper. Instead, they were garrisoned in the meadow fronting the passage leading into Shona’s hold.

  Dally was counted among the guards, as were several others who had taken part in the battle. She could identify them from the way fatigue stained their features. She knew she probably looked the same way, but there was nothing she could do about that.

  She had waited until well after sunrise to approach Shona’s guard and ask for an audience. When she finished passing on her message, Shona and Meda both rebuked her for the delay. The next time she received a nighttime communication, Shona ordered, Dally was to immediately raise the alarm.

  At a sign from Norvin, all the villagers knelt upon the earth, meek as little March lambs. They faced the guards and the camp, which meant they had a good long look at the double line of black pelts strung along the lane. The halberds’ dark-stained blades glinted a silent warning in the sunlight.

  As instructed, Dally was again dressed in Shona’s finery. All the guards wore their dress uniforms. They waited there in the hot sun. Silent. The villagers grew increasingly nervous. A child fretted and was quickly silenced. From her position kneeling beside her husband, Krim met Dally’s gaze and looked away.

  Shona emerged from her tent, flanked by Meda and Alembord. Behind them marched an honor guard, and farther back came her small contingent of warrior mages led by Edlyn and Myron. For the first time Dally saw the lady’s crown, a slender thread of intricately woven gold with a single gemstone positioned directly over her forehead.

  Shona halted directly in front of Norvin. And waited.

  Norvin fumbled his words. “Majesty . . . That is, Lady Shona, we wish to offer fealty.”

  Meda was the one who responded. She pitched her voice at a level just below a battlefield bark, intending to be heard by all. “Fealty in a time of conflict is a powerful oath. It binds both ruler and subject in a solemn pact. The Lady Shona vows to do her best to protect you and your region, even if it brings her and her army into harm’s way. In return, you accept that her call to service, in whatever form she deems necessary, must be answered swiftly and without dissent.” Meda gave a long pause, then demanded, “Is that understood?”

  “Aye, ma’am, it is.”

  Alembord said, “You shall address her as Colonel.”

  Meda went on, “The oath of fealty is for life. There is no option for withdrawing. Disobedience or opposition will be treated as rebellion. Is that clear?”

  “Aye, Colonel.”

  “And you still wish to make this offer?”

  “Aye, we do.”

  Shona’s voice was a soft counterpoint to Meda’s verbal punches. “Do you speak for all gathered?”

  “We are here with one mind, my lady. We answer with
one voice.”

  “Well said, Master Norvin. You and your company may rise.” And with that, Shona smiled. The warmth revealed in that silent gesture was enough to dispel all the previous day’s ire. She bathed them with her pleasure. “Welcome to our ranks.”

  Norvin’s face struggled to maintain composure, his relief was so intense. “Thank you, my lady.”

  Shona lifted her voice. “Good people of Three Valleys, I offer you two immediate gifts in return for your fealty. Dally, come here.”

  She stepped forward and curtsied. “My lady.”

  “Thanks to Dally’s remarkable gifts, we have received warning of a second attack by the dark fiends. What was the name of the village that is their target?”

  “Elmtree, my lady.”

  Cries of alarm rose from one of the women and the greybeard.

  “My stable master will equip those of you from this village with horses and a troop to see you home. Captain Alembord and the wizard Myron and four squads of advance troops will accompany you. Draw in all townspeople from your fields. Form barricades. I will shortly join you with the rest of my force.”

  The woman cried, “How much time do we have?”

  “A few days at most. Not enough. Hurry.” She raised her voice as they hastened away. “The rest of you are invited to remain. Water and sustenance will be brought. Our healers will see to those of you who ail. Colonel Meda.”

  “My lady.”

  “Present the mayor with payment.”

  Meda walked forward and handed Norvin a sack that clinked softly. Norvin opened it and gasped. “It’s too much.”

  “You will dispense payment among all the villagers. The rest you will draw from in return for what you supply in the future. You will keep accounts and present them upon request.”

  Norvin fumbled in his attempt to reseal the pouch and bow at the same time. “My lady, it will be done as you say.”

  Shona addressed the gathering. “When the sun reaches its zenith, you must be prepared to kneel once more. Ashes of Hyam’s slain wife will pass by, en route to her final resting place.”