The general moved to the chair by Aetria's bed and sat down, taking the Sorceress’ hand in her own rough one and massaging it gently. Aetria's eyes fluttered open, seeing, but not seeing.
"Welcome back, Captain."
"What? Where ... where am I?” Aetria whispered, her voice hoarse and weak.
Sonja squeezed Aetria's hand, giving physical presence to help the Sorceress’ senses locate her in the confused world of Aetria's mind. “You are in the Healer's ward of Chalinee's lodge. You have broken ribs, numerous cuts and bruises, your hair is the shortest it has ever been, but most importantly, you are alive."
"My hair?” Aetria raised her right hand to her head and felt the stubble of hair that remained.
"Singed off by the explosion's fireball. Do you remember the explosion?"
"Coleni! A knife stuck in Coleni's heart. I tried to save her, but..."
The distress in Aetria's voice hurt even the hardened Sonja. Loreana moved up beside the general and cast a calming spell on Aetria. The Sorceress’ breathing slowed; her grief-contorted facial muscles relaxed.
"Peace, Aetria, peace,” the Healer crooned. Her spell could not stop the tears that flowed from Aetria's eyes, and Loreana thought about putting her patient into a deeper coma to keep the young woman from sinking into the same kind of misery her sister Coleni had suffered so many months ago. The general acted before she could.
"Captain Aetria, I need your report of what happened right now! You are well enough to talk, and I have been waiting patiently, but time is running out."
Harsh words, thought Loreana, but she seems to be responding.
Aetria struggled to sit up. Sonja adjusted the pillows to assist her chief advisor, hoping the call to duty she had challenged Aetria with would snap the scrappy young woman out of her mourning.
"Yes, Ma'am, the explosion.” Aetria's mind did not want to think of the explosion. It was fixed on Coleni lying there with that horrid knife in her chest. She blinked her eyes, as if shutting out the daylight from the room would change the inner vision in her mind.
"The explosion, Captain. What caused the explosion?"
"Alicia's source. If you inject a spell into a student source, it explodes. I threw the source at Corerilla, Fernonia caught it in mid-air, and Coleni hit it with a lightning bolt."
"I thought Illusionists could not do Aggressor spells,” Sonja said, looking at Loreana.
Before the Healer could answer, Aetria's strengthening voice said, “They can't, but Coleni was a wild sorceress like me. She learned the spell from Lornes. Pleates? And the others?"
"Very dead, for certain. Their charred and broken bodies were the first things Lieutenant Maneles found when he entered the mine. Adept Loreana confirmed their deaths after she had taken care of you."
"But why was she there? Why are you here? What—"
"My, we are full of questions, aren't we, Sorceress? Loreana was there because she was taking care of me. I was there because I wanted to capture that witch myself and bring her to justice. Lieutenant Maneles was there because the Council ordered the Sorcerer Guard to assist me. Now, let's make sense of what I just said. Are you listening?"
"Yes, Ma'am.” Aetria focused her wandering mind on the general, trying to banish Coleni's unseeing eyes from her mind.
"The morning you ‘escaped,’ I awoke to find my command in complete turmoil. I had to fight off Adept Loreana's attempts to keep me stationary and managed to get Council Leader Meldoran admitted to my quarters. The Royal Guards were not allowing any sorcerers but Loreana near me. I told him what happened at Trelana's—who is doing well and sends her love—and ordered the arrest of Corerilla. He was very embarrassed by his Counselor's actions and had the unfortunate task of telling me she was ‘absent’ from Inhestia. I would still be yelling at him if the pain in my head had not stopped me.
"I suspect Corerilla knew no one would really believe you tried to kill me once I awoke and was able to tell my story. She made her exit as fast as she could. I believe she would have loved to have finished Trelana and me off after killing you, thus making her story believable. And it would have gained her a lot of time to complete her plans. As it was, it took more time than I cared for to organize the pursuit, part of which the Sorcerer Guard spent figuring out their loyalties."
"Since he is here in command, then Corerilla's threat to take over Inhestia is past?” Aetria asked.
"Not quite. I sent Lieutenant Maneles and his men after you as soon as I could, hoping they would catch up with you and assist in running down Corerilla. The rest of us followed as fast as I could convince Loreana to let me travel. I must have trained you too well because you managed to get here before they could catch up with you. They were in the midst of capturing Pleates’ band of Assassins when you blew up the mine."
Aetria frowned, asking, “Pleates’ band of Assassins?"
"Obviously, Pleates did not die at the tavern. He would have, but one of the Assassins was a failed Novice Healer who took more pleasure in taking lives than saving them. You have heard his name, Sergeant Graner. Graner was smart enough to save Pleates’ life, and Pleates recruited him to join Corerilla's plot to take over Delmathia, or as I suspect, the known world. They evaded the search parties I sent after them and traveled to the mine valley. Pleates sent Ventler back to Chalinee to spy for him and keep track of what the Hermanians were doing. He later carried the ‘condemning’ letter to Corerilla and was to lead her to Pleates, but we all know what happened to that plan."
Loreana could see Aetria was tiring from the conversation. Awakening from such a traumatic experience as she had had, and finding her world in chaos, was draining on her patient. She caught Sonja's eye and signaled the need to stop.
The general nodded in response. Aetria caught the interplay between the two women and quickly asked another question.
"You answered ‘not quite’ to my question about Corerilla's threat to take over Inhestia. Is there still a threat?"
"Yes. We have learned from a relative of yours that Corerilla has a small army of sorcerers that has to be disbanded, and a number of co-conspirators to find. Her tendrils of dissatisfaction have reached deeply into your Order, and there are non-sorcerers willing to aid the ambitious sorcerer who would step into her now-vacant place. There is a lot of work to be done."
Is my father telling the general this? How involved is he in the affairs of Delmathia? “A relative of mine?” she asked.
Loreana walked to the side of the bed opposite Sonja and sat down on its edge. Aetria looked at her in confusion, for Loreana was smiling in reassurance, but crying at the same time.
"Aetria, after what you have seen, and been through, this is going to be hard to tell you, but—"
"Coleni is dead. Is that what you are trying to tell me? You have avoided saying anything about her. Rajii said the path was gone. Is that why?"
"No, I don't know why."
Aetria looked toward the foot of her bed where the voice had come from and saw Coleni standing there, propped up by Chalinee's arm around her waist.
My sister—alive! But how?
The general stood and helped Chalinee move Coleni to the vacant chair. Coleni refused to sit until she had held her sister, and the two women collapsed into each other's arms with sobs and cries of joy. Sonja and Chalinee waited until the sisters had expended the emotion of their reunion before settling Coleni into the waiting chair.
Beaming radiantly, the pain and sorrow erased from her face, Aetria looked at Loreana and started to ask the question the Healer knew now was foremost in the young sorceress’ mind.
"I told you I was reluctant to teach you a healing spell, for with your lack of control, you would turn a toothache cure into a resurrection spell. And you did."
* * * *
She watched the cavalry squadron trotting briskly up to the crest of the hill, and the lone figure at its head pull off the trail and face back towards Inhestia. The sun glinted off the armor of the figure, making it easy to sp
ot the final farewell wave of the rider. She responded, but it was unlikely Coleni would see her; sitting in the shade of the trees by her grassy knoll, she would blend too well into the background of the mountain. The rider wheeled and galloped after the squadron as it went over the crest.
Aetria wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, then dried her fingers on her robe. It had been a short six months for Aetria. As she watched the dust cloud kicked up by the departing squadron drift with the wind into the tree line on the crest of the hill, Aetria's mind raced back to the time she had spent recovering from her wounds at Wendelia.
With Loreana's and the Hermanian Healers’ care, she was ready to travel within two weeks. After a week she was able to limp around on a quick tour of Coleni's training lodge. The bareness of the lodge and its severe austerity made her appreciate Inhestia even more. The coldness of the reception Coleni got from her former teachers made Aetria very concerned for her sister. Coleni's status at Wendelia was one of guest only.
When it came time to leave, Chalinee was very reluctant to let Coleni return with them to Inhestia. She insisted Coleni was a Hermanian subject and still a member of her Order. Sonja countered that Coleni was still a lieutenant of the calvary in her army, and her aide-de-camp. It became a test of the wills of these very determined women, but Sonja had the upper hand if she chose to evoke the peace treaty. She did not.
In private conversation with Chalinee, the general got the Magess to admit she could not guarantee the Hermanian Order would not punish Coleni for her wild magic. Chalinee, for all her hardness, liked and respected Coleni and knew the probable outcome if the Novice went to trial. When presented with the choice of staying or going, Coleni chose the one path that offered the least risk to her: to remain with Sonja. Chalinee gave in and let Coleni leave, but not before stripping her of her Novice status. Coleni was heartbroken.
Aetria sighed as she remembered the days of unhappiness that followed their return to Inhestia. The first few weeks were spent recuperating from their physical injuries and Coleni's depression over being banned from practicing magic. Aetria told her sister that being banned in Hermania did not mean she couldn't use Power in Delmathia, but it was a question the Council would have to take up.
The Council's judgment was still not pronounced as the general, with support from the Council, was busy rounding up Corerilla's small army of neo-Aggressors. The majority of them surrendered very quickly when they found out the fate of their leader, but several dozen took to the wilderness with their unpowered weapons. Several more weeks went by before the general returned to Inhestia, having chased the neo-Aggressors, but failing to catch them.
The Council met, with Mage Kelristo acting as Counselor. Trelana and the general gave testimony to that fateful night's events, and Coleni told of Corerilla's boasted plans. The fact Corerilla had recruited failed applicants was very disturbing to the Council. The hearing would have been bogged down in trying to figure out how to deal with the problem of the neo-Aggressors, but Sonja cut short the discussion by pointing out the threat to the king's rule. The problem was now one the king must solve.
This led to a very lively discussion about who had jurisdiction over the neo-Aggressors. Kelristo saved the general from a protracted argument with the Council by reminding everyone of their purpose that day—to decide what to do with their wild Sorceress.
Aetria smiled, feeling again the relief in her heart when Magess Trelana stood before the Council and stated the judgment she thought fitting. It was so outlandish, considering the Council's normal way of thinking, that several members sputtered and gasped in astonishment. Then they agreed. Advance Aetria to Adept. Trelana told them that, no matter how one tried to state what Aetria had done, she had, in fact, advanced the use of Power. That she broke a few rules was also true, but she saved the Order in doing so. Her actions had given the Council enough research topics to last most of their lifetimes. Kelristo alone had enough to study that he would have to double his staff and he needed to get started immediately because the solution to the neo-Aggressors’ problems lay within his area of expertise.
While the Council was thinking over what she had said, Trelana brought Coleni into the picture by pointing out that she also had been instrumental in advancing their knowledge and proven herself worthy of praise. Trelana then proposed that the Council grant Coleni status as a Sorceress. The Council balked at her proposal. Aetria remembered feeling hurt, then angry that they would refuse her sister.
Sonja spoke from her chair, as if talking to herself, saying that there were only two people in Delmathia who could find the new energy. What a shame one of them was a Hermanian who had been banned from her homeland. Perhaps Saphradea or another country might find her services useful? The Council reconsidered. Coleni was offered a place in the Order as Sorceress.
With the onset of winter, and the frigid cold one expected to have in a mountain valley, Inhestia nestled down into a warm building-bound community. The next five months were a blur of activity for Aetria and Coleni.
Loreana was released from the army to assist Kelristo in a study of grid burnout and the mental paths Aetria and Coleni had developed.
Brusilla was asked to return to Inhestia to assist them, and she came willingly, turning over her village healing duties to Verdilan. The two sisters became the focal point of the Healer community.
When the snows melted and the first hints of spring weather arrived, it became time for Coleni to leave. The general had promoted her to fill Aetria's place as chief advisor with the rank of Captain of Cavalry, then ordered she spend the winter at Inhestia and participate in Kelristo's study. When spring arrived and it was possible to travel in the mountains, Coleni was to lead an exploration party for any yet undiscovered source deposits.
Sonja believed the heavily guarded mines were safe from the neo-Aggressors’ attack at present, but if they could find new sources of the red core material, they could become a very serious problem very quickly. Coleni agreed. Now she was gone with her cavalry escort.
"Adept?"
Looking around at the Healer Novice, Aetria smiled and said, “Is it time for the experiment?"
"Yes, Ma'am, it is,” Carleena said, stepping aside as the Adept walked past her to take the path back to Inhestia.
"Then let us begin, for the fate of the world lies in its success."
Margaret L. Carter
Marked for life by reading Dracula at the age of twelve, Margaret L. Carter specializes in the literature of fantasy and the supernatural, particularly vampires. She received degrees in English from the College of William and Mary, the University of Hawaii, and the University of California, with her dissertation published as Specter or Delusion? The Supernatural in Gothic Fiction. Her other works include Dracula: The Vampire and the Critics, The Vampire In Literature: A Critical Bibliography, and Different Blood: The Vampire As Alien. She is also the author of a werewolf novel, Shadow Of The Beast, and four vampire novels, Dark Changeling (2000 Eppie Award winner in Horror), Child Of Twilight, Sealed In Blood, and Crimson Dreams, along with a fantasy novel, Wild Sorceress, co-written by her husband Les Carter, and a horror novel, From The Dark Places.
Margaret and Les, a retired Navy Captain, have four sons and several grandchildren. For fans of “Vamp Tales,” please do not hesitate to visit her website:
The Vampire's Crypt at:
members.aol.com/MLCVamp/vampcrpt.htm
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