Aurora's Heart

by V C Sanford

  “Will Rheaaz heal him,” Alex asked. I won’t leave him, and our food won’t last more than a few days.”

  “I don’t know. She may feel she’s done enough, that I don’t appreciate the blessings I’ve been given.” Why hadn’t she taken more time to thank Rheaaz? The goddess had already been more than generous with her blessings, what if next time I prayed for her benediction she didn’t answer? Someone might die!”

  “Don’t think like that. You’re the most faithful, the most pious person I know. Rheaaz will have to recognize that! Maxx is depending on you.” We’re all depending on you!

  Rhianwen still looked hesitant, but she nodded. Taking a deep breath, she moved to more comfortable position at Maxx’s side, settled back on her heels and laid her hands upon his damaged shoulder, imploring Rheaaz to heal his injury…. and Rheaaz answered. The warm glow of the earth goddess’s grace spread rapidly down Rhianwen’s arms and into Maxx’s torn muscles, knitting the torn tissue and removing the swelling and irritation. Tears flowed down her cheeks as the pain vanished from her friends’ eyes. But she knew Maxx was still far from whole. Praying that Rheaaz would continue favoring her petition, she moved on to his foot and ankle. She allowed a slight smile as the stubborn Duaar started twisting his ankle, unconsciously verifying the healing had worked. And then she screamed.

  ********

  Opening his eyes after the world around him had once more become solid, Maxx let his vision return to normal before dragging himself into a sitting position. His back no longer hurt, and his arm felt better than it did before he injured it. In fact, his entire body felt invigorated, all feeling of fatigue had vanished. Though his recent pain was now a fading memory, the sound of Rhianwen’s scream haunted him. He’d have to find out more about Shii healing from Nikiva.

  “You always did have a way of making an entrance, Alex taunted. Why’d you leave your ax in the ceiling? Afraid you couldn’t find the spot again?”

  Maxx ignored his comments as he eased his body into a more comfortable position, turning so that he could look up at the tiny opening high above. Light streamed through the small hole his ax had created in the thin layer of rock. It was an easy climb to the narrow ledge located below the new opening. A few more blows and the hole would have been large enough for them to exit the cave… hopefully without the dire warrgs knowledge. “I think we should get out of here before the warrgs figure out our new escape route.”

  Alex frowned. “They’re probably sitting outside the exit waiting. Nothing else has gone right. It’s taken fourteen days to reach this point, on a trip that was supposed to take ten at the most. We underestimated everything, supplies, water, especially travel time. I thought we’d be back in Cabrell by now, we haven’t even made it halfway to the hold.”

  “Poor, poor Alex, nothing is going his way. Maxx retorted. Everyone realizes the trip hasn’t gone according to expectations. But it’s time to stop moaning about it and get back on track. We’ve hit a few bumps in the road, and our great adventure has turned into a series of tragedies. We survived. End of discussion.”

  ********

  Izabal stepped away from the window, allowing the heavy drapery to fall back into its usual position. Her expression, when she stepped forward into the dim light radiating from the fireplace was intense, so much so that it startled the unprepared man into taking two reflexive steps backward.

  Castillo struggled to remain calm, to reason away the uncharacteristic apprehension he was experiencing. He was unsuccessful. The list of things he feared was very short, the sorceress Izabal topped the list. The diminutive mages small stature was inversely proportionate to her power, power now radiating base condemnation his way.

  “Tell me everything, leave out no details. Make me understand----or at least give me a reasonable excuse for their escape. Not that I can imagine one.” Her icy eyes were fixed on his, cold and featureless orbs that drew him deep inside without offering an opportunity to escape.

  For a moment Castillo was tempted to run as he realized he had no explanation for the failed raid. He stood frozen, unable to utter even the smallest of sounds as he desperately searched for something…anything…any response that might soothe her rage. Nothing came to mind. What could he say that would make the slightest difference? He wisely chose to remain silent, realizing after many similar experiences it was better to allow the mage to rant, and simply not comment. He chewed at the side of his mouth, biting back the bitter acid that surged upward from his rolling stomach. His eyes turned even colder, and fear appeared for the first time on his face. He was an experienced fighter, leader of one of the largest bands of raiders in the territory. And this tiny woman scared the hells out of him. Why Samsara chose to work with her was beyond his comprehension. Everyone knew of her alignment with that upstart Lord Baldric. It would be better for all if Samsara stuck to what he knew best. He might not ever get rich from smuggling, but he didn’t risk being turned into a toad for his troubles either.

  There was nothing he could add to the earlier conversation that would change the situation, the damage was already done. He’d been given one simple objective, eliminate all members of the pack train. Despite overwhelming numbers, his men had failed. Now, the survivors of the canyon massacre were nearing Cabrell, and at least five men could identify Castillo as the leader of the raiding party. One eyewitness could be removed, five were impossible to contain. No, his time in Cabrell, as well as his value to Izabal was rapidly diminishing. And once it was gone…he did not want to think about his chances of surviving the mages wrath.

  “So, two half-grown boys and a pair of schoolgirls got away from Castillo, the famous brigand chief,” Izabal scoffed, openly sarcastically. “Why did I bother giving Samsara my gold? I could have visited the docks and hired the first drunken sailors I came across. The result would have been the same.”

  “You didn’t mention the mage girls’ magic.” Castillo snarled, then flinched as he realized the rashness of his action. Tired as he was, he was smart enough to realize this might not be the right moment to nitpick.

  “A mage? She’s little more than a child, merely a first-year student of that half-wit Stolinn at Rosemont. Inexperienced, but she does show potential,” she stated flatly, a predatory curl of her lips showing her displeasure at his excuse. “The boy might be a strapping fellow, but he is barely seventeen, and blind in one eye. The Duaar can’t have been out of his hold for more than a few years himself. And the other girl is a seamstress, a Shii-Lakka half breed friend who tagged along for a lark. If I’d not witnessed your attack, I’d think you made up the entire story.” Her fingers trembling against the stem of her crystal wine glass was the only sign of how angry she was.

  Castillo’s temper made him careless. Usually cowed and deferential in the presence of the imperious sorceress, he realized he’d little to lose by meekly accepting her chastisement, deciding instead to argue back, fully expecting it to be his last defensive diatribe.

  “You dare blame me? The information you provided was incorrect. There were three times as many soldiers guarding the supplies than you stated, as well as several families with their own mercenary guards. We arranged the ambush exactly as you planned, started the landslide and attacked during the chaos. Your plan failed… and my men died.”

  The diminutive woman was silent for a moment, and then her laugh rang out, bringing with it a familiar tinge of bitter disdain. Castillo flushed, his aggressive nature vying with his instinct to stay alive at any cost. Instinct won, he gritted his teeth and held his tongue as the enraged sorceress swept across the room coming to a halt directly before him. “I’ll drink their torment like I drink this wine,” she said. She downed the remaining burgundy, the ruby liquid staining her lips the rich color of blood. “This fiasco ends now, she declared, this is what you shall do…”

  Castillo listened in silence, nodding occasionally as she talked. After she finished, for a long moment he stood there, eyes closed. At last, he whispered, “It shall be d
one.”

  Chapter 14

  The climb proved to be trickier than Rhianwen expected. Muttering a silent plea that she’d be able to hold on, she swung out and up, somehow managing to grasp the edge of the overhand with three fingers. Her arm throbbing, she gritted her teeth against the pain and then slowly, one foot at a time, she pulled herself up through the opening. Then she collapsed on the canyon rim, out of breath and shaky, until her breathing returned to normal.

  “We need to keep moving,” Nikiva said after Rhianwen caught her breath. “Maxx thinks we’ve deceived the warrgs for now. But they’re smart, and we know they scout along this rim. They won’t stay fooled for long.” She grinned at Alex as his head popped through the narrow opening. He made it all look so easy. Of course, he was too pigheaded to admit anything as simple as climbing a rope could ever be challenging. They’d already decided to follow the path back toward the old bridge. It was clear the warrgs had developed a system of herding potential targets entering the blind canyon. They would have posted scouts near the entrance. Heading away from it would offer the best possibility of remaining undetected for the longest time. A silence settled over the group as they walked along the rim of the canyon, each alone with their own thoughts. Everyone knew it’d only be a matter of time before the warrgs discovered they were no longer trapped inside the cave. Once the pack realized where they were, it would turn into a race, a race they had little chance of winning.

  The early winter wind had favored them, blowing from the west to the east, it had prevented their scent from being carried to the pack. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t matter for long. Directly east of them, the pale light of Omission’s second sun was rapidly fading. Once they lost the light it would be harder to move without noise. Dire warrgs were not strictly nocturnal, they hunted whenever the pack was hungry. The horses were long since devoured by the ravenous pack elders and there was little chance the younger members of the pack had managed to find sufficient game for all within the last few hours. Scouts would be out, it would be wishful thinking to expect their escape to go unnoticed. The path paralleled the ravine, gradually descending toward the bottom of the ridge, the game trail meeting the old road in an area thick with brush that they had overlooked earlier.

  Alex tensed, he’d noticed Maxx turn once or twice for a quick scan of the rim of the canyon behind them. Maxx had heard something. He listened, and he could hear it too, the faint sound of nails against the stone, carried to them by the natural acoustics of the canyon.

  “Which way are they moving?” he whispered.

  “The wrong way. And they’re coming faster than we can run,” Maxx replied.

  Alex swallowed, took a second to settle his overwrought nerves, and then made his decision to tell the girls the truth.

  “The warrgs have found our trail. It’ll only be a matter of minutes before they find us. We need to keep moving, ---and fast.

  “But that’s a dead end,” Nikiva replied. Shouldn’t we look for another place to hide?”

  “No time”, Alex responded, he tightened his belt and drew his sword. “If they surround us before we get to cover, we don’t stand a chance, run!” They’d been lucky to escape the hungry pack once, they couldn’t count on their luck holding again. With the rope bridge out, they had one option. And the girls weren’t going to like it.

  Maxx had been carrying Rhianwens pack, now he began stripping it, throwing anything non-essential to the side. He tossed a length of rope to Alex who tied one end around his waist, the other end to the pack, leaving about twenty feet of rope between them.

  “Are we going to let them think we jumped into the river to get away?”

  “Something like that,” Alex answered. Sometimes Nikiva asked too many questions.

  “What do you mean?” she questioned. There were no obvious places to hide and the warrgs were getting closer. The old bridge didn’t look like it would support the weight of one, much less all four of them. And there were at least twenty feet missing from the center. Did Alex think they could get across? Is that why he tied the rope to the pack?

  “We’re going to jump into the river to get away,” he replied.

  “You are crazy! It too far, we won’t survive the fall. Forget it! We need to hide!”

  “It’s the river or the warrgs. Unless we go now it won’t matter, we’ll all be dinner. Now hold my hand…. Maxx, Rhianwen’s with you. When I count three, we jump.”

  “No Alex, wait… Rhianwen …”

  “One ----.”

  “Wait. You must listen to me. Rhii…”

  “Two---.”

  “But Alex, It’s important!”

  “Maxx will take care of Rhianwen. Just trust me.”

  “Maxx wait! She can’t sw--…”

  Alex stepped forward, pulling the reluctant girl with him. He could hear Rhianwen’s scream echoing Nikiva’s as Maxx mimicked his movements, dragging the protesting Shii maiden with him.

  *********

  “…aiiiee!!!!” Rhianwen screamed as she fell toward the river below. She managed to gulp in a large mouthful of air before striking the frigid surface, barely remembering to hold it in as she slid beneath the icy water into the murky darkness. It seemed like forever before her feet struck the bottom of the river. She thought she could make out Maxx in the dim light that filtered down from above, close enough to reach out and squeeze his hand. Bracing her feet against the bottom of the river, she pushed upwards kicking her feet frantically as she struggled to reach the surface. Frantically she inhaled great gulps of air before the weight of her water-soaked robes dragged her beneath the turbulent surface once again. The turbulent river tossed her like a bit of driftwood, flipping her body through the water as she flailed helplessly against the current. She was thrown against a large rock, the sharp pain forcing an involuntary cry that released the last of her air in a stream of tiny bubbles. Panic edged into her thoughts, her straining chest screaming out for air. All she could think of was how long it had been since her last breath. She closed her eyes, praying that the goddess grants her a calm acceptance of her circumstances. The cold water sapped her strength, numbing her body and making her impending death much less uncomfortable then she’d expected. She vaguely remembered spotting something shiny flashing by, then pain exploded in her head and everything went dark.

  Maxx surfaced and looked around, but there was no sign of the diminutive Shii girl. Nikiva and Alex were already at rocky shoreline. Alex was encouraging her to get out of the frigid water, but she was arguing, a look of devastation showing on her face.

  Rhianwen had screamed something about not being able to swim. I thought she was joking. The waters like ice! It’s my fault. Where is she? There! That shadow might be her. Before he knew it, he was swimming toward the shattered tree half submerged in the water. Nikiva watched, her heart pounding as Maxx struggled to drag the unconscious girl against the flow of the surging water. Her eyes flooded with tears as she watched Maxx dive again and again beneath the foaming water in a futile attempt to free her from whatever was pulling her down. Once, she thought she caught a glint of steel in his hand, and then he was gone, beneath the surface once again. Alex pulled her close and held her but instead of making her feel better, it only made things worse. His eyes were soft and full of compassion, but she didn’t want to be held. She wanted Rhianwen.

  “Let me go,” she gasped. She threw her weight against his arms, breaking free and running toward the rushing water. And that was when she saw Maxx rising out of the water, carrying a limp girl dressed in a torn white shift in his arms. He somehow managed to bring her the last few feet before collapsing beside her on the rocky shore.

  Chapter 15

  The way-station was empty and from the look of the blacked stones, the building hadn’t been used in ages, possibly since before the waterway dried up. It was disappointing, everyone had hoped for a chance to bathe and clean their clothes after so many days on the trail. With the way-station closed, they’d been faced with another
choice, continue to follow the old creek bed or turn off onto the overgrown path that horses had at one time used to draw the ferry along the water.

  Alex insisted his mother had emphasized following the creek. The dried wash continued through a rugged ravine that looked as if a giant’s axe had cut into the steep, brush entangled hillside leaving an uneven gouge. At one time the creek had been a tributary of the Parma River, flowing out of a lake in the valley below the keep, now a quick search upstream had revealed an impassable cul-de-sac.

  “At least it’s not another canyon,” Nikiva stated wryly.

  “Ha. Funny. Give me a minute to think.” Alex said as the others sat despondently staring at the back wall of the ravine. There wasn’t much to see, the dried creek ended in a sand-covered basin at the base of a jagged stone outcropping. The face of several rocks was scored by small abrasions, indications of the waters erosions over the centuries. “I seem to remember something my mother told. I wish I’d paid more attention to her stories. Wait here, I want to try something.”

  Alex walked directly up the path to the back of the ravine, paused for a moment, looked back at the others, waved and then disappeared from the view of his friends.

  “What the…, Maxx said, a confused look on his face. “That sly devil,” he added as Tweet flew after Alex, only to vanish from sight as well. Seconds later Alex reappeared and called for the others to come ahead. It was a great illusion, the path turned sharply into a shadowed cleft in the rocks, veering off at an angle. It was impossible to see the entrance unless you were standing directly in front of it. Nature had provided its own deterrent from unwanted visitors.

  The passage through the cleft opened into a breathtaking valley of trees, streams and thick grass nestled beneath a light dusting of snow. Jagged amethyst peaks tipped with white-crowned the valley, while a tranquil lake of cerulean blue sparkled in the distance. The remains of a once well-traveled lane meandered westward through the verdant meadow, continuing for almost a mile to the base of a mountain, before winding its way upward to their destination, the remains of a once proud keep.