by Cindy Dees
* * *
Will ducked an incoming gas globe as Rosana hit Kerryl with a healing spell. They had to close in fast on the caster, Berengar, neutralize his advantage of distance, and pound through his light mage armor before they all died.
He was acutely aware of Raina not being at his back, able to pour massive healing into him for as long as any fight could hope to last. He felt naked without her on his heels. With her behind them, they could fight indefinitely, which made them nigh unto unbeatable. He’d never realized how completely she dominated battlefields until this exact moment. The pacifist White Heart healer was the ultimate combat weapon.
A dark shape leaped out behind Berengar. Sha’Li. She swung hard with the flat of her claw at the back of his head. Startled, the hydesmyn turned around to face this new threat, and that was when Will and the others charged from all sides. Surrounded by five attacking warriors swinging weapons in a devastating flurry, Berengar cast one last magic spell, this time upon himself, and abruptly popped out of sight.
Will cursed under his breath and fetched up his staff hard, barely missing clocking Rynn in the head without Berengar in front of him to catch the blow.
“He spirit formed,” Rosana declared in disgust. “And I don’t know the spell to anchor spirits. He’ll be able to flee from here invisibly, and we’ll never find him.”
Sha’Li added, “I cannot yet track a spirit either. Rosana is right. We’ll never find him.”
Will turned sharply to face Kerryl. The nature guardian was backing up, brandishing a fistful of evil-looking poisons. “Who are you?” he demanded. “Get back! I’ll kill you all!”
“They’re friends! They mean you no harm!” Kendrick yelled.
Kerryl lifted his arm and threw a gas globe at Rynn, who batted the globe down with his hand even as a golden sparkle across the paxan’s body indicated that a magical shield of some kind had been blown by the incoming alchemy.
Rynn dropped into a fighting stance, and Will stepped up beside him, brandishing his staff. Kerryl might not be their enemy, but Will had no problem with taking down the nature guardian if the fellow wanted a fight.
Eben stepped forward, mace in hand. “Let me have him. I’ve wanted this for a long time.”
“No!” Kendrick shouted from behind Kerryl.
Kerryl threw another globe, but it came in high enough that Eben and Will were able to duck under it. It passed behind them and crashed into a tree. Eben charged, and Will and Rynn followed closely behind. As always, the key to defeating a ranged attack with hand weapons was to close in as fast as possible on the caster.
Will heard the bellow before he saw the boar charging at them. Kendrick had transformed. Not good.
Eben raised his mace and was mid-shout and mid-swing of his deadly weapon when Kendrick smashed into him, head down, with one heavy, bristled shoulder. Eben went flying, and Rynn dived left as Will dived right out of the path of Kendrick’s charge. Kendrick altered course just enough to graze Kerryl with his right shoulder and sent him to the ground, as well.
The great, chest-high boar skidded to a stop on his short, powerful haunches and shook his giant, tusked head, sending spittle and foam flying in wide arcs. His eyes glowed brilliant red as he glared at all of them sprawled on the ground, his huge body physically blocking them from reaching Kerryl and vice versa.
Will braced to leap aside should Kendrick charge again, but instead, the great were-beast went down to his knees and then to his belly with a grunt. And then, in arguably the most revolting sight Will had ever witnessed, he transformed from boar to human. Bones and hide melted away, and for a moment, the innards of the beast were visible. But then they morphed and melted, the goo re-forming into a vaguely human shape. Skin, hair, and human features formed, and where the great boar had lain but moments before now lay a naked, trembling human.
In truth, the whole transformation had taken maybe a second or two, but Will would never forget the sight of it.
Eben rushed forward, doffing his cloak and wrapping it around his brother. “Gads, that looked like it hurt,” the jann declared.
“It did,” Kendrick ground out. He climbed unsteadily to his feet. “It’s always hard to get the hang of balance on two legs again, even if I’m in boar form for only a few seconds.”
Will shuddered. And he thought it was hard to have a tree spirit inside him. It was nothing compared to what Kendrick lived with. Behind their friend, Kerryl was swaying, clinging to a tree for support. He didn’t look too good.
Will murmured, “Uh, Rosie, any chance you could give Kerryl a little healing? He looks ready to fall over.”
“I’ve got a potion, but I’m out of mana.” She moved forward hesitantly and offered a small bottle to the nature guardian. He took it with equal caution, giving it a long sniff before drinking it down. Kerryl carefully turned the tree loose. He wavered a little but could stand upright on his own.
Will asked him, “Can you track Berengar in his current spirit form?”
“Possibly,” the nature guardian replied thinly, “but I’m in no condition to run around in the woods tracking a foe I cannot defeat when I’m half-dead myself. Thanks be for your assistance, young lady.”
Rosana nodded.
Sha’Li spoke up. “Why did that man attack you, Guardian Moonrunner?”
“Ah, Sha’Li. Well met. It has been a long time since our paths ran together, my young friend. As for Berengar, that’s a long story.”
Will responded, “We’ve got time.” He noticed that Eben was speaking to his foster brother in low tones. Kendrick’s human eyes were glowing less brightly now, becoming more hazel than scarlet.
Sha’Li asked Kerryl, “Where do you sleep this night?”
Rosana answered for him, saying tartly, “He’s sleeping right here with us, by a nice, warm fire. I was able to heal him a little, but he’s nowhere near full strength. He needs to rest.”
Will and Rynn traded alarmed glances. This man was only marginally not their enemy, and a formidable one, even badly injured.
They set about making camp, and using a bit of magic, Will soon had Rosana’s nice, warm fire going. The mood was cautious as they eyed Kerryl and he eyed them back. Only Kendrick seemed at ease as they settled around the fire to eat.
It was almost like old times when they’d traveled the Forest of Thorns in search of a clue to the whereabouts of the Sleeping King. Will found it hard to believe how much more they knew now, how much closer they were to the end goal. And, he added to himself wryly, how much more worrisome and numerous their enemies were. It was amazing to realize that Kerryl no longer ranked as even a serious threat in their world. How much had changed in the span of less than two years.
As Kerryl looked down at the tied napkin of dried food Sha’Li passed to him, he fingered the black silk and smiled a little. “I gather you’ve been to see the Bride of Quetaryn. How does the Black Widow fare these days?”
When no one else spoke up, Will answered, “Fine, as far as I can tell, but how would I know, given how she, um, looks?”
Kerryl grinned. “She does tend to look rather more preserved than alive, does she not?”
Rosana asked curiously, “How did she join the spirits of her husband and the spider scion to her own spirit? Was it ritual magic?”
Kerryl nodded. “A ritual of her own invention. It’s a miracle she did not kill them all.”
Indeed. From his studies of ritual magics, Will knew a single ritual could take scholars centuries to perfect. Speaking of centuries, he asked, “What can you tell us of the war that broke the Great Circle?”
Kerryl’s entire body twitched, like Will had poked an incredibly painful nerve. The nature guardian stared into the fire for a long time as if reliving memories triggered by the question. He continued to twitch from time to time.
Will was on the verge of prodding him for an answer when Kerryl looked up, his gaze on Will but his stare fixed on the distant past. The nature guardian muttered, “And the great d
estroyer came, annihilating all in his path. His army stripped the land … stripped the people … made them hollow. Starving shells of people … took everything … no memories … no hope.”
Will glanced at the others, and they looked as confused as he. Rynn, however, seemed to be concentrating fiercely on Kerryl. Will sincerely hoped the paxan was reading the nature guardian’s mind and stealing all his secrets.
“Who was this great destroyer?” Will asked.
“And they shall come as babes in the woods. One to save, one to destroy. That’s what she said, my dear wife. And she was right. By the Lady, she was right…”
Will frowned, lost. That almost sounded like a seer’s prophecy. And everybody knew how inaccurate those were. All mumbo jumbo and dire warnings that added up to nothing.
Rosana said gently, “Tell us of your wi—”
“No!” Kendrick said sharply. “Do not ask that. He will not be sane for days if you do.”
This twitching man mumbling nonsense was the sane version of Kerryl? And Sha’Li insisted he was not mad? Hah!
Will glanced over at Kendrick, who’d been mostly silent as they’d set up camp and eaten. In a bid to give Kerryl a moment to recover from whatever grief-induced madness encroached upon his mind, Will asked Kendrick, “How do you fare these days, my friend?”
“Well enough. Kerryl and I have made our peace. He does not often do as he did today and use the Band of Beasts to give me orders.”
“So he did order you to stay out of the fight with Berengar?”
Kendrick scowled. “Aye. Worse, he ordered me not to change to help him against Berengar. He forced me to stay human.”
“How is it you changed to attack us, then?” Will demanded.
“I did not attack you,” Kendrick answered quietly, “else you would be dead now and not eating your supper. I was given no orders regarding protecting you from him or him from you. Hence, I was free to change.”
Rynn asked, “Why didn’t you attack us? You showed excellent self-control while you were in your other form.”
Kendrick shrugged modestly. “I’ve been working on it. Kerryl has been helping me gain control of my were-form.”
“Why wouldn’t Kerryl let you help him in his fight?” Eben asked. “You’re a formidable foe in … your other form.”
“He said it was between him and the Bear hunter.”
Will interjected, “The way we hear it, others who look out for nature aren’t fond of your mentor.”
Said mentor was fiddling with his fingers now, staring down at them as he twined and untwined them, muttering disjointed words under his breath, things about mad armies, pink, mind-sucking monsters; nightmares made real; and who knew what other nonsense.
Kendrick shook his head. “The others do not understand. Threats loom on the horizon bigger than anything they can imagine.”
“What threats?” Will asked urgently.
Kendrick shook his head, but a haunted look entered his hazel eyes. He knew something of the threats Kerryl so feared, and they frightened Kendrick, too. Either that, or their friend had been affected by the same madness that gripped Kerryl.
Will reached out to grip Kendrick’s forearm. “Please. We need to know. Help us to believe you and trust him.”
Kendrick murmured low, “Wake he whom you seek, Will. Wake him soon. He needs time to build an army, consolidate his forces before…”
“Before what?” Will asked in supreme frustration. “Why are we doing all this, risking our lives, risking more than our lives? Of all people, we have a right to know.”
Rynn, who was staring intently at Kerryl, burst out, “Do not answer that, Kendrick.”
Will turned in fury on the paxan. “How dare you. We’ve been out here for nigh unto two years under constant threat of death, trying to save the cursed world. We’ve earned the right to know exactly what threats we face!”
Rynn said evenly, without any hint of anger, “I understand your anger and impatience, but trust me, there are things … monsters … in this world that it is best you know nothing of. Look at what the knowing of them has done to Kerryl Moonrunner. He is a powerful magician, a nature guardian, closely linked to the Great Wolf, and still the knowledge was too much for his mind to grasp. It broke him.”
Will subsided, but not happily. Rynn’s logic was sound, but it did nothing to lessen Will’s burning need to know.
Kendrick chimed in. “You are doing what needs to be done. It is vital that Gawaine be raised up and Koth defeated before the real danger arrives.”
Will’s jaw actually sagged. “There’s something worse in this world than the Kothites?”
Kendrick’s entire being tightened, the skin across his forehead, his shoulders, even his knees pressed more tightly together. He did not answer Will’s horrified question, but every bit of his body language shouted that Kothites were far from the worst there was. What could possibly be worse than an empire that crushed the hope, the breath, the very life out of every living thing?
Kerryl said without warning, “Gawaine? The Mythar? Is he nigh? Where? I must speak with him urgently. The Circle is broken. We need him to restore it. Bloodroot gone. Destroyed. The Beasts attacked. No idea how many dead. The Totems in disarray, torn from their realm…” He descended into incoherent mumblings once more.
Will leaned forward. “If the two of you would restore the Great Circle, come with us. Help us wake Gawaine.”
Kendrick frowned, glancing over at Kerryl doubtfully.
Eben chimed in. “There is safety in numbers. Travel with us a while. Have you any specific destination you go to?”
“Kerryl’s looking for a spider scion and someone whom he can bond to it. Since the Sorrow Wold is home to the Great Spider, he thought this would be the best place to look.”
Will frowned. “How can you support Kerryl’s efforts to do to another what was done to you?”
“Sometimes the ends justify the means,” Kendrick answered defensively.
“He took your life from you. Your freedom,” Rosana objected.
“His ends justify his means,” Kendrick repeated stubbornly.
Will wished their friend would elaborate. Share the details of what Kerryl planned. But instead, Kendrick had become as stubbornly silent as his mentor. Rynn glanced up, caught Will’s stare, and gave him a hollow, horrifying parody of a smile. Stars above, what had Rynn seen in Kerryl’s mind to put that ravaged expression in the paxan’s eyes?
Kendrick murmured, “There is something else Kerryl seeks. Mayhap you’ve run across it or heard of it.”
“What’s that?” Will asked suspiciously.
“A gate of some kind. It’s said to lead to the dream plane.”
They all lurched at that, but it was Eben who collected himself first to demand, “Where is it? What does Kerryl know of it? Is it open? Do creatures pass through it?”
Kendrick looked taken aback. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Kerryl when he’s in a more lucid state. My impression is that the gate is broken and its operating mechanism destroyed and scattered.”
Will exhaled the breath he’d been holding. Thanks be to the Lady. They didn’t need to face more armies of elemental phantasms anytime soon. “Any idea when he’ll be able to answer questions?”
Kendrick glanced over at Kerryl and shrugged. “Mayhap in the morning, after he sleeps.”
To that end, Rosana and Sha’Li led the mumbling nature guardian to the bedroll Kendrick had spread for him and coaxed him into lying down. Eventually, the two girls returned to the circle around the fire.
Kendrick took an appreciative puff from the pipe Rynn passed him. “Last I heard, you were on the hunt for the Sleeping King’s regalia. How goes the search?”
Will shrugged. “Raina’s gone off to visit some mages she’s tangled up with. Without her, we’re without many trails to follow.” He didn’t trust Kerryl and, by extension, wasn’t willing to give up their secrets to Kendrick, friend or no.
Kendrick as
ked, “Does anybody know how the Sleeping King went to sleep, anyway?”
“Yes,” Sha’Li responded, to Will’s surprise.
Everyone stared at her, but it was Will who finally asked, “How do you know?”
“A while back,” she said carefully, “when we visited the cave of the Bronze … do you remember it?”
Will responded, “You mean the bronze lizardman in the cliffs above the Estarran Sea?”
“The Bronze I refer to is the bronze dragon, but yes, that is the cave I meant.”
“Dragon?” Will echoed in shock. “That was a dragon’s cave?”
Sha’Li frowned. “Where did you think all the nullstone lining it came from? Dragon’s breath is what forms nullstone.”
“Okay, then,” Will responded in minor shock. He’d sat in a dragon’s lair?
“At any rate,” Sha’Li continued impatiently, “the old bronze lizardman told me a story. Mayhap you remember seeing a carving upon the wall there of an elf wielding a bow and arrows in battle against a great boar. Sorry, Kendrick.”
“No apologies required. Continue,” Kendrick murmured.
“Let me see if I can remember it in full.” She paused, gathering her thoughts, and then continued, “When Gawaine and Rudath battled, they traded blows for a long time, shredding each other’s armor and bodies. Eventually, Gawaine used his bow to fire an arrow imbued with killing power from the path of light magics at Rudath, mortally wounding the troll king. Rudath, knowing he was dying, charged Gawaine and let down his defenses to swing one final, mighty blow. Gawaine finished the job of his arrow by nearly severing Rudath’s head from his neck with his sword, Lightbringer. But Rudath cleaved Gawaine from shoulder to opposite hip with his battle-ax.
“After Gawaine and Rudath felled one another, Rudath’s Night Reavers took his body away for burial, and Hemlocke took Gawaine’s body away from the battlefield to put him to rest.”
Will remembered well his own dream about that sad battle and its aftermath when he first joined spirits with Bloodroot. It had not been a pretty sight.