The Raiden
Page 17
“Dalin?” Noal groaned faintly, and my head shot up as my heart seemed to constrict.
“Noal?” I cried in disbelief, pitching forward and skidding across the kitchen floor to his side.
Noal’s eyes were open and everyone had sprung to their feet, rousing from their own misery as I clasped his cold hand tightly.
“Brother of mine you gave me a scare,” I admonished him shakily.
The colour was still gone from his skin and it looked as if he was fighting to stay awake.
He tried to say something, then coughed dryly and tried again.
“Agrudek,” he rasped.
I tried not to seem surprised. “He’s not here, Noal,” I said. “But Kiana and everyone else is. Asha nearly started a war on your behalf.”
Noal shook his head. “No.”
“No?” I repeated, puzzled. I didn’t think he was referring to the Nymph war being averted.
He forced each word out as if every single one pained him. “It was Agrudek.”
For a moment I sat in stunned silence. The entire kitchen was still as everyone else absorbed what they’d heard.
And the words echoed horribly in my head, etching their way into my comprehension.
It. Was. Agrudek.
Anger began to throb in my chest. “Can you tell us about it?” I asked softly, my voice low.
He drew a deep breath. “Came here … found him in Kiana’s room, looking for something. Said … was waiting for her.” He stopped and licked his lips, his skin looking as if it had been stretched across his face.
“Made me tea …” Noal grimaced. “Felt sorry for him … But it was horrible … and I felt great pain.” He sighed. “Then Agrudek went back … into Kiana’s room … took Darziates’ globe … and left.”
He seemed to sink into himself when he’d finished. He’d said all he had to and had exhausted himself.
“It’s alright brother,” I told him. “Rest easy now. You’ve done well to tell us.”
Noal nodded gratefully, his eyes already closing as I stared into his face for a moment, but he was now peacefully sleeping.
Then my eyes flashed up to Kiana’s.
Her face was drawn with shock.
“Agrudek took the communication globe I stole from your General,” she said to Thorin and Thale. “And he nearly killed Noal for it.”
“He’s gone to talk to Darziates …” Thale breathed in horror.
“We did so much for that man,” I said through gritted teeth. I carefully laid Noal’s hand down next to him and slowly stood.
“Vidar, will you please help take Noal to my bed and make him comfortable?” Kiana asked the Elf, who immediately moved to oblige.
But I was smouldering inside, and hardly noticed. Outwardly, I felt a mask of calm covering my features. Yet hatred in its purest form was spreading throughout my body and my mind.
I moved to the steps and quietly started to descend them.
“Dalin,” Kiana said in a warning voice from behind me.
All of the eyes of the men in the room below swept to me.
I noted that the room was dark, though none of them slept. They were all fully clothed and sitting about the room, and they’d heard everything. They were as stunned as those in the room above.
“Dalin!” Kiana repeated, this time more forcefully.
My sword was still leaning against the opposite wall where I’d left it what seemed like an age ago.
I was halfway across the full, silent room when I heard footsteps down the stairs, following me.
“Where do you think you are going?” Kiana asked icily.
My eyes were fixed on my sword. Just half a room away.
Once it was in my hands it would help me to remove Agrudek’s traitorous head.
“After we saved his life, he nearly robbed Noal of his,” I said quietly, trying to force the fury from my voice. “He will try to tell Darziates that his men are here. That there are hundreds of Nymphs and Elves helping us. That the Lady is vulnerable,” I couldn’t help it. My voice was full of seething heat. “He will try.”
“You are in no condition to do anything about it,” Kiana said. “You are still recovering yourself.”
“The time for that has passed.” My hands were bunching into fists as I thought about what Agrudek had done. I could feel my stitched muscles and skin throbbing, but it simply didn’t matter. No amount of pain would hold me back. “He left Noal to die. I am going to return the favour.”
The room was tense and I felt every eye upon me as I began towards my sword again.
“Phobos,” I heard Kiana say.
I could hardly believe it when one of the massive warriors nearest me slowly stood up, blocking my way.
I glowered at him darkly. “Step aside.”
Phobos swallowed, and looked nervously over my shoulder at Kiana.
“Raiden,” a new calm voice came from behind me.
I clenched my teeth.
“You would die of infection before you ever found him,” it was Ailill’s voice.
Phobos stood a little more resolutely, and I glared.
“And it is not a good idea to pick up that sword just days after I have put those stitches in,” Ailill continued. “Because if you were even to break just one of those stitches, I would send you to sleep before you even left this tower myself.”
I turned slowly, to Phobos’ relief, and faced Kiana, Thorin and Ailill – now all on the stairs.
“The man that tried to murder Noal,” I began in a low, controlled voice. “Can betray us further. Information costs lives as much as poison does.”
Nobody spoke for a moment.
Then a deep voice spoke from my left. “We will find him,” a large man said resolutely.
I regarded the soldier in surprise.
“It is plain that Agrudek took the poison from one of us. We shall be the ones to bring him back for you.” I recognised him as the one they called Vulcan.
I frowned, taken aback.
“Noal needs you by his side now. He is fortunate to have survived,” Thale said from the steps now too. “Agrudek will not have got far. A party of us will leave before the hour is out.”
I felt a light hand on my good arm and I looked to see Kiana there. “Please,” she said.
And I regarded the men in the room about me, struggling to process their kindness – and to trust their words.
“Leave it to us,” the man called Phobos reassured me, and there were nods of affirmation around the room.
I drew in a very long breath.
“For doing this, I thank you. My friends.”
Chapter Thirty Five
Agrudek had been ready when they came for him. He hadn't even tried to go very far. Just far enough that he would have time to use the scryer globe.
He had taken the smooth, cool stone from its case and held it in his palm. “Engrark.”
He hadn't had to wait very long – the Sorcerer had probably been focusing on this scryer, hoping for it to become active again.
Blood red light had illuminated from the globe within moments and it had stung his palm and sent jarring waves of energy along his arm. Then he’d felt the foul and cruel chill of his master’s magic seeping out into the surrounding beauty of the Forest so that he’d been wracked with shudders. And as the unnatural light had touched his skin he had at once felt as if he was filthy. All of the misery that flooded people who were touched by the power of Darziates had come rushing back.
“Agrudek. You’ve kept me waiting,” a soft voice that sent shivers throughout his body had said, echoing within his head.
Agrudek’s mind had been at once completely captured by the mesmerising voice from the globe.
“I wasn’t sure how long I’d have to torture you with glimpses of your family,” the Sorcerer had said impassively. “… Before you would be ready to contact me.”
“They live?” Agrudek had murmured pitifully.
“For now,” the voice had told hi
m, void of all feeling. “You still hold some use.”
“What can I do? How can I get them back?” Agrudek had whispered, inwardly sinking into bitter sorrow.
“You will be my spy,” Darziates had instructed simply. “You will say I enchanted you. Made you do this. They will pity you.”
Agrudek closed his eyes sadly. “They will take the scryer away when they come. How will I contact you?”
Agrudek knew that Darziates’ magic was weak in the Forest. The Lady weakened it. But the red light around him had swelled for a moment, and he’d felt something cold and heavy grow against his chest.
A necklace now hung about his neck. It had a stone, smaller, but of the same appearance as the scryer globe.
“Do not fail me this time,” the voice had said coldly. “Contact me any time you have something of interest to report on the one called Kiana. And I will make sure your family is fed.”
The red light had begun to fade, eventually dulling until the scryer was just a dark globe again, and Agrudek had let it slide from his fingers.
He’d loathed himself for having allowed his mind to have been teased. But it had driven him insane. He’d been unable to stand seeing flashes of his daughters’ little faces all bloodied and sunken any longer. He’d been unable to bear to hear his wife’s screams.
So, disgusted by his treachery, but once again devoted completely to being the Sorcerer’s slave, Agrudek had sat quietly and waited for the soldiers to come.
These men of Krall had also found joy and love, but were free to keep it. For Darziates did not know – or have interest in which men out of the ambush party had lived to be converted, thus their families were safely anonymous.
Agrudek had looked at the hard faces of the soldiers as they’d come, and he’d slumped down in misery.
One had grimly come forward to take the scryer from where it laid at Agrudek’s feet, and had snapped its case closed around it.
Then without a word, but with hard eyes and hands, Agrudek had been dragged back towards the City.
Where he would have to play his new part.
Chapter Thirty Six
Dalin
“Noal will be well recovered after his long sleep,” Frey reassured me as he finished checking my brother over. “Krarx does not scorch a victim’s insides like most poisons. It numbs the body and one’s consciousness before doing anything else. I believe the Lady may have used her magic to slow time for Noal, keeping him in that stage. For normally the second stage would have shut his organs down. He was fortunate not to get to that.”
I nodded with gratitude, blinking my heavy, or in one case swollen, eyes tiredly.
I’d been unable to find rest even after news of Agrudek’s capture and admission of guilt over taking the Krarx leaves. He’d apparently been entranced into thieving them from Thorin, who shared his tower. And now we knew that he was easily susceptible to being used against us.
“Noal has already slept peacefully for the whole night and well into today, and the One has allowed herself to rest,” Frey said as he moved towards the steps. “It would be best for you to sleep also.”
I sighed as he left, looking to Kiana, who was squashed beside me in the same armchair I’d sat in during her illness. Her arm was linked comfortingly around my good one, and her fingers entwined in mine as she slept, and I was loath to move from my companions.
But I needed to get out of the claustrophobic room, so I wordlessly shifted from the chair without waking Kiana, and ran my fingers through my hair as I walked to the steps, not bothering to test my arm by trying to cover my shirt with a tunic.
As I descended through the kitchen I stopped in surprise at the sound of many murmuring voices still in the room below, and realised that the soldiers must have stayed in Kiana’s tower for all of that time out of care for Noal.
Listening, I heard lazy conversation about weaponry and women, and a couple of others occasionally calling ‘strike’ in a gambling game. Though I also heard Thale talking to Thorin closer to the stairs.
“At least some good came out of all of this,” I heard Thorin say. “We know to watch out for each other should Darziates try to get control again. And we now know there’s a cure for Krarx poisoning.”
I could imagine Thale shaking his head. “I tried so many things to wake Noal that I don’t know which was the actual cure that worked. And I am certain that I felt magic around him – as Ace and Frey said, the Lady and every Forest dweller in the City were bending their will towards helping Noal to recover.”
I continued down the steps to descend into the room where the soldiers were lounging casually. They were spread across the floor, sprawled in chairs, leaning on furniture, sharpening knives, tossing coins into piles of gambling wins, eating fruits, and one was even smoking comfortably in an armchair. But they stilled when I entered, their faces unsure as they regarded me, and I realised they thought I had come with news of Noal.
“All is well,” I told them – reassuring men who had once been my enemies. “I’m going to get some air.”
I saw one of the warriors share a look with his friend and then they both glanced at where my sword still leaned.
I waved a dismissive hand. “I’m not going to take revenge upon Agrudek. I’m just getting out.”
“Do you need company?” one I’d heard called Tane asked, eyeing me as though I were about to fall over.
“I’ll be fine,” I answered the curly haired soldier. “Thank you.” I tried to ignore the oddity of thanking a man of Krall.
I wearily turned and continued down the steps, moving out and through the City until I found a water pool that was quiet and deserted.
With my good arm I pulled my shirt over my head and kicked off my boots.
Under the bandages my bicep throbbed and burned, feeling like it had swollen around the stitches beyond what my skin could contain. But ignoring the searing sensation, I walked out from the trees to the grassy bank and stepped calmly into the water.
Slowly I made my way in deeper, letting the serene surroundings wash over me as much as the cleansing water was, and noticing that the City still seemed oddly subdued after the events of the previous night.
I was careful not to wet my bandaged arm, but I poured the water over my head and let it run down my face so that the cool droplets soothed the aches along my cheekbone. And from the glimmering water I watched the sun begin to lower and set.
At last, feeling reflective, I made my way back to the bank and sat upon the lush green grass to let my trousers dry and watch the sky turn a fiery orange – my mind wandering over all of the trials the three of us had faced on our Quest, and all of the way back to the hurt image of my father’s face the last time I’d seen him.
Gods how Glaidin would have condemned me for leading Noal on a Quest that had put him in such danger, when he could have stayed within the Palace. Yet we now knew that my own mother was besieged within that very Palace.
Was my father and King to die on the frontlines himself?
“You look to be turning over some hefty thoughts,” a voice said, disintegrating the silence. And I didn’t need to turn to know it was the bearded leader of the Krall men, Thale.
I inclined my head in agreement, gazing out at the spectacular colours reflecting on the pool’s surface.
Thale seemed to take that as an invitation, lowering himself down to the grass beside me with a grunt.
Another man sat down by my side and four others, one who I remembered to be Nikon, came around from behind me to sit on the grass as well.
I recognised them, and even remembered their names after having overheard them talking. Cadell, Phobos, Ferron and Phrixus.
“Bad day?” Ferron asked.
I regarded him. “Rough year,” I said, letting a dry smile touch my sore lips.
They were quiet for a moment, unsure of how to approach me.
“I thank you all for what you did for Noal,” I said quietly, staring back out to the water. “I actually ca
nnot thank you enough.”
I felt the tension and uncertainty in the men ease a little.
“We thought we owed it to you after the ambush and capture business,” Cadell answered.
“Also for trying to kill you to snatch Kiana that time,” Phrixus added.
“And for the injuries,” Nikon indicated my arm, but his eyes observed the older scarred marks from the beasts on my back, and the bruises down my side. “Though it looks like you already had some good injury stories. Perhaps they explain why our King was after you in the first place?” he hinted with interest.
“A few good stories,” I agreed, and they waited expectantly. “Tales to tell some other time.”
“Perhaps the next time the Nymphs concoct another party,” Ferron suggested. “I was having fun until everything else started.”
“All of the Nymphs are almost back to normal today,” Cadell grimaced. “As if they hadn't been about to spill into an uprising just yesterday.”
“You look exhausted,” Thale told me then, reminding me of how I still ached all over from the fight days ago, and how my head throbbed from the broken nose I’d received just before that.
I shook my head with the first real smile I’d been able to give to these men.
“I never would have thought that I would have men of Krall, meant to be killing me, mothering me instead,” I said wryly.
“We never thought we’d appreciate an Awyalknian enough to care,” Ferron shrugged.
I let out a big breath, wincing, but feeling more at ease now. “I am fortunate then.”
A moment later we heard calls in the distance, and I turned gingerly to see more soldiers – men that I thought to be named Tane, Wolf, Vulcan, Purdor … and Thorin coming towards us.
“Good news!” Tane announced as they drew closer.
“Noal is awake,” Purdor said.
And immediately the last ounce of tension in my body relaxed.
“He’s definitely recovered,” agreed Wolf. “He was eating a feast with Kiana watching in disbelief when we left.”
I laughed softly.
“Kiana and Noal sent us with a message though,” Vulcan said then, and I glanced at him with the smile still on my lips.