The Wilds of Askavi to Outside the Village of Agio, Wednesday Morning (Fandom Time)
Lucivar lay on his back in the young grass, his hands behind his head, his wings spread out to dry after the quick dip in the spring-fed pool. Jaenelle and Karla were still splashing about in the cold water, washing the sweat and dirt out of their long hair. He closed his eyes and groaned contentedly as the sun slowly warmed and loosened tight muscles.
Yesterday, they'd awakened just before dawn to find Jaenelle busily rummaging through the food pack. He'd put together a hasty meal while Karla had broken down the camp before the physical tension produced by the drugs forced Jaenelle to move.
It hadn't been the unrelenting drive of the previous days, and, as the day'd worn on, physical tension gave way to emotional storms. Anger would flood her suddenly, then turn to tears. He'd given her space as she raged and swore. Karla had held her while she cried. When the storm passed, she'd been fine for a little while, perhaps as long as twenty minutes. They'd walked at an easy pace, stopping to pick wild berries or rest near a stream. Karla'd kept them entertained with stories of her crazy school and the friends who were like no Blood males or females they'd ever met. Then the cycle would start over, each time with a little less intensity.
It had still been grueling, mind. The first outburst of emotion had hit around noon, the second, a little before three. In between them, there was still the constant movement, the difficult trek made even moreso by the unforgiving pace Jaenelle had set. The intervals had shortened as Jaenelle's body tired, but even their last stretch before making camp for the night had been an hour-long hike, most of it uphill.
Which made today's late start, with the chance to sleep in past sunrise and even bathe a bit, something akin to paradisaical. Smoke was off doing a bit of hunting; the wolf had scented a herd of elk and had gone off to explore. When he came back, Lucivar was thinking of sending him back to the Keep to tell Saetan that they were all right, that Karla was with them, and that they'd be coming home from Askavi in a few more days.
Not that he was going to say anything, but he was proud of Karla. The pace was wearing on her, but she refused to complain and did her best to keep up. She wouldn't know it, but Jaenelle was slowing down a bit for her, making sure Karla didn't get outdistanced. Lucivar was grateful for anything that made Jaenelle take it a little easier. Though the next time the little witch cheated him out of the last mug of coffee, he was going to dunk her into the nearest lake.
Karla
*Lucivar!* Karla's mental shout broke him from his reverie. He shot to his feet, turning to see her scrambling out of the water after Jaenelle, whose dripping clothing couldn’t hide her sudden tenseness and taut muscles.
Jaenelle
"Something is wrong," Jaenelle said in her midnight voice.
Lucivar
He immediately probed the area. "Where? I don't sense anything."
Jaenelle
"Not right here. To the east." The only thing east of them was a landen village called Agio, under the protection of a nearby Blood village at the northern end of Ebon Rih.
"There's something wrong there, but it's elusive," Jaenelle said, her eyes narrowed as she stared eastward. "And it feels twisted somehow, like a snare filled with poison bait. But it slips away from me every time I try to focus on it." She snarled, frustrated. "Maybe the safframate is messing with my ability to sense things."
Karla
Karla peered eastward as well, straining her senses. "I can't sense anything, either." Though, given the difference in their power levels, that didn't necessarily mean much.
Lucivar
Lucivar thought about a story he had heard recently, about a Queen that had been trapping males with the Ring of Obedience to try to force them to serve her. She'd been killed by an enraged Warlord Prince after she'd managed to ensnare eleven out of the twelve males she'd needed to set up a Court, but bad feelings still lingered. "Maybe you're just the wrong gender for the bait." Keeping his inner barriers tightly shielded, he sent a delicate psychic probe eastward. A minute later, swearing viciously, he snapped the link and clung to Jaenelle, letting her clean, dark strength wash away the foulness he'd brushed against.
He pressed his forehead against hers. "It's bad, Cat. A lot of desperation and pain surrounded by..." Shuddering, he searched for some way to describe what he'd felt.
Karla
"Carrion," Karla murmured. Both Jaenelle and Lucivar looked at her and Karla shrugged. "I had a dream last night about carrion, vultures circling and diving down. Rotted meat still attached to living bone. A Black Widow dream."
Lucivar
"And you didn't think to say?" Lucivar rumbled.
Karla
"Little distracted here!" Karla pointed out, rolling her eyes. "I kind of assumed it had something to do with what was already going on!"
Lucivar
Lucivar huffed, flaring his wings. "I can fly over the village and take a quick look. If the landens are fighting off a Jhinka raiding party, I'm strong enough to give them whatever help they need. If it's one of those autumnal fevers that can run through a village, we'll need to know to get messages out to nearby Healers."
His main concern was finding a safe place for--
Jaenelle
"Don't even think about it, Lucivar," Jaenelle warned softly.
Karla
"We're going with you," Karla said, wearing a stubborn expression almost identical to Jaenelle's. "We are then nearby Healers, for one."
Lucivar
Lucivar eyed them, trying to judge how far he could push them this time. "You know, the Ring of Honor you made for me won't stop me the way the Restraining Ring would have," he said with a grim smile.
Jaenelle muttered an Eyrien curse that was quite explicit. Karla looked like she was filing that away for future use. Mother Night.
The answer to how far he could push was 'not very.' He looked towards the east again. "All right, you're going with me. But we'll do this my way." He glared at both of them until they nodded their consent.
Karla
"You're the one with the fighting experience," Karla conceded. "I'll follow orders."
Jaenelle
Jaenelle stepped forward and pressed her right palm against the Ebon-gray Jewel resting on his chest, the first time she'd voluntarily touched him since being dosed with safframate. She still recoiled slightly from the contact, but did not draw her hand away. "Spread your wings."
Lucivar
As he opened his wings to their full span, he felt a hot-cold tingle from the Ring of Honor around his cock.
Jaenelle
She stepped back, satisfied. "This shield is braided into the protective shield already contained in the Ring. You could drain your Jewels to the breaking point, and it will still hold around you. It's fixed about a foot out from your body and will mesh with mine so we can stay tight without endangering each other. Make sure you keep clear of anything else you don't want to damage."
Karla
"Elegant," Karla said, studying her Sister's Craft. "Quite neatly done."
Jaenelle
"Thank you," Jaenelle said with the faintest trace of a smile. She called in a small ring with a Black chip and handed it to Karla. "Put this on. It does the same thing."
Lucivar
Lucivar waited until Karla had slid the ring on then took charge again. "All right. We'll run on this White radial thread until we're past the village, then drop from the Winds and come in fast from the other side. If this is a Jhinka raid, I'll handle it."
The Jhinka were a fierce, winged people made up of patriarchal clans loosely joined together by a dozen tribal chiefs. Like the Eyriens, they were native to Askavi, but they were smaller and had a fraction of the lifespan of the long-lived Eyriens. The two races had hated each other for as long as either of them could remember.
While Eyriens had the advantage of Craft, the Jhinka had the advantage of numbers. Once drained of his psychic power and the reserves in the Jewels, an Eyrien warrior was as vulnerable as any other male when fighting against overwhelming odds. So, accepting the slaughter required to bring down an enemy, the Jhinka had always been willing to meet an Eyrien in battle.
With two exceptions. One walked among the dead, the other among the living. Both wore Ebon-gray Jewels.
Karla
"And if it isn't Jhinka?" Karla pressed.
Lucivar
Lucivar shrugged. "We'll figure it out then. Come on, ladies. Let's give whoever is messing with our valley a reason to regret it."
Karla
Dropping in from the White Wind, they glided towards the peaceful-looking village still a mile away. *You said we'd go in fast,* Karla sent on an open psychic thread.
Lucivar
*I also said we'd do this my way,* Lucivar replied sharply.
Jaenelle
*There's pain and need down there, Lucivar.* Jaenelle's eyes were dark, something new driving at her in a way that safframate never could.
Lucivar
*There's also that foulness,* he reminded, though it was eluding him now. It was still there. Had to be. That he could no longer sense it, would never have sensed it if he'd simply come to check on the village, made him uneasy. He would have stumbled into whatever trap was waiting down there.
Karla
Karla felt the predator wake in Jaenelle at the same moment she began a hawk-dive, dropping towards the village at full speed. So much for Lucivar's way, she thought as she folded her wings and dove after her. Lucivar did the same, cursing the entire way.
Well, crap
Just then, a few dozen Jhinka appeared out of nowhere, screeching their battle cries as they tried to surround them and pull them all down.
Lucivar
Using Craft to enhance his speed, Lucivar dove through the Jhinka swarm, relishing the screams when they hit his protective shield. Roaring an Eyrien war cry, he unleashed his power in short, controlled bursts.
Jhinka bodies exploded into a bloody mist full of severed limbs.
Karla
Karla took the opportunity to dart through, following Jaenelle while Lucivar finished off their attackers. She burst through the bottom of the swarm, coming out of her dive a wing-length from the ground, thanking the Darkness for the hours spent flying with Warren. *Jaenelle!*
*Come down the main street, but hurry. The tunnel won't hold for long.* A shielded column of Black power sprang up before Karla's eyes, running the length of the street. She appreciated its opacity; from what little she'd glimpsed in her dive and through the shield only convinced her she didn't want a closer look.
Jaenelle
*Avoid the side streets,* Jaenelle continued, speaking to both Karla and Lucivar. *They're...fouled. There's a shielded building at the other end of the village.*
Lucivar
Flying low, Lucivar swung towards the main street, hit the village boundary at top speed, and swore every curse he knew as his shield brushed against the psychic witchstorm engulfing the peaceful-looking village. It crackled with malignant power and sent out tendrils towards him, but could not pierce the shield. Pushing hard, he flew through the already-contracting tunnel Jaenelle had created as she passed through the witchstorm and finally caught up with them both a block away from the shielded building. A fast psychic probe showed him the parameters of the domed, oval-shaped shield that protected the two-story stone building and ten yards of ground around it.
Landen Female
A landen woman, one arm bleeding and tucked against her side came running towards them, waving her uninjured arm. Rather than gesturing them in, she began waving them away. "Go back! Get away from here! Fly while you still can!"
Jhinka Hordes
From behind her, thousands of Jhinka rose from the low hills beyond the village, filling the sky until they blotted out the sun.
Karla
Jaenelle passed through the building's shield as easily as if it were a thin layer of water. Distracted by the female and the onrushing tide of Jhinka, Karla felt like she was passing through a wall of warm taffy. As soon as they were inside the building's shield, she landed by the injured woman. The protective shield Jaenelle had created for her contracted to a skintight sheath, tingled her skin slightly where the ring was, then vanished completely. "You're wounded," Karla said, holding out her hand. "Let me Heal that."
Landen Female
"No, no," she said, stepping backwards. "Don't worry about me. Look to Khevin, please!"
Lucivar
"Who?" Lucivar demanded, landing softly behind them both.
Jaenelle
"Him," Jaenelle said quietly, pointing to the male slumped over in the doorway. He was hard to notice at first, hidden in the shadow of wall. At least until one got close enough to see the bright smears of crimson on his torso.
Lucivar started forward, but Jaenelle grabbed onto his arm. "We'll take care of this," she said firmly. "I need you to shield the building. He's the one holding this one and I don't think he can for much longer."
Lucivar
With his nod, an Ebon-gray shield appeared around the building, under the shield that was there already. Khevin’s shield, no stronger than the White, surely, flickered and died a minute later.
The Jhinka
As soon as they saw the outer shield drop, the Jhinka attacked. They slammed against the invisible barrier, their bodies piling up as they clawed at the shield. Some of the Jhinka, pressed between the shield and the rest of the swarm, were smothered and crushed by the mass of writhing bodies. Dead, hate-filled eyes stared at the people in the courtyard.
Landen Female (Who really does have a name)
"Mercy be," the landen female whispered. "Even during the worst of the attack, they didn't come like this."
Lucivar
Lucivar studied the female for a moment before returning his attention to the Jhinka. Maybe they hadn't trapped what they'd wanted until now, he thought.
He could feel the pressure of all those bodies piling up on the shield, could feel the Ebon-gray Jewels release drop after drop of his reserve strength. He vanished his Ebon-gray ring and called in his Birthright Red. The Ebon-gray around his neck would feel the shield. The Red...
Smiling his lazy, arrogant smile, he raised his right hands and triggered the spell he'd spent years perfecting. Seven thin psychic 'wires' show out of the Red Jewel in his ring. Keeping his arm straight, he made leisurely sweeps, back and forth, always careful he didn't stray too close to the building. Back and forth. Up and down.
The Jhinka
Jhinka blood ran down the shield. Jhinka bodies slithered and slid as the ones who could se the danger tried to push themselves out of the pile before that sweeping arm returned.
Lucivar
"Get tight to the building," he ordered. "It's time to even up the odds a bit."
Satisfied with the panicked scramble on that side of the shield, he walked around the building, his hand always aimed at the shield.
And the Jhinka died.
He was starting a third circuit when the Jhinka who were still trying to pile onto the shield finally caught the panic of the ones trying to get away from it. Chittering and screeching, they rose off the shield and headed for the low hills, thousands still alive for the few hundreds he had killed.
Lucivar drew the psychic 'wires' back into his ring, ended the spell and slowly lowered his arms.
Karla
Karla spared no thought to the carnage raining down above her head. Under normal circumstances, she would have thought that the male in the doorway--Khevin--was another landen, but Jaenelle had claimed he'd been holding the shield. Getting closer, she finally sensed him; a weak psychic scent, barely strong enough to rate a Jewel.
Dropping to one knee, she examined him with a wisp of Healing Craft and swore silently. The gut wounds were bad. Men had died from less. Her eyes traveled from the wounds to the still, pain-tight face and back again. The wounds weren't beyond their ability to Heal, but she had to wonder if even Jaenelle could rebuild the parts that were no longer there.
Jaenelle
"We should bring him in," Jaenelle murmured, lifting him gently with Craft. She waved the landen female over. "How many wounded, Mari?"
Mari
"Sommat close to five hundred, Lady." Mari said quietly.
Karla
It didn't surprise Karla that Jaenelle knew the people of this tiny village.
"How many healers?" she asked.
Mari
"Just me, Lady," Mari said, her eyes filling with tears. She caught Karla's confused expression. "The village had two physicians and a wisewoman could do a bit of herb healing. All are dead. The wisewoman is--was--my grandmother."
Karla
"Hell's fire, I'm so sorry," Karla said, opening the door for Jaenelle to bring Khevin through. "I--" She stopped and stared, appalled at the sight within. There were hundreds of people, every single one of them wounded to one extent or another. It smelled like a slaughterhouse or a tannery; like filth and blood and less unsavory smells. "When you said there are five hundred wounded, you meant everyone who managed to get to the shelter of the building."
Mari
Mari nodded. "All of a sudden, the sky was filled with Jhinka screaming like they do. Khevin told me to come to the community hall. We...the Lady says that sometimes a link is formed when people like us are...close."
Karla glanced at her left hand. No marriage ring. Lovers then. At least Khevin had known, and given, that pleasure.
"I was at the other end of the village, delivering some of Gran's herb medicines. The adults wouldn't listen to me, so I just grabbed a little girl who was playing outside and yelled at the other children to come with me. I--I think I made some of them come with me."
Jaenelle
"Mari's grandmother was half-Blood," Jaenelle supplied, gliding through the room, still carrying Khevin. "Mari takes after her that way. And Khevin is the son of the District Queen's old Consort." She pointed up the stairs. "I'm bringing Khevin up to the second floor. Karla, can you bind Mari's wounds? No Healing." Her sapphire gaze swept across the room. "I don't think we'll have the Craft to spare."
Karla
Karla nodded, calling her supplies in. "Keep talking," she urged. "I need to know what happened." Moreover, she thought that Mari needed to talk about it.
Mari
Mari gasped a little as Karla cut away the cloth of her sleeve and the nasty gash was revealed. It was a deep knife wound that went from her elbow to her wrist. It had started to dry and Karla needed to pick stray threads and things from her arm. "When we got to the community building, Khevin had a shield around it. He was sweating. It looked like it was hurting him."
Karla
Karla was sure that it had. For Khevin to create a shield of that size and then continue to hold it, the strain must have been almost unbearable. Karla had never heard of a half-Blood with that kind of psychic reserve before. Even if he survived his wounds, it was possible he had burned out whatever Craft he'd had.
Mari
"He said he'd tried to send a message to the Blood village on a psychic thread, but that he wasn't sure anyone would hear it. Then he told me someone had to stay inside the shield in order to reach through it to bring another person in. He brought me though just as one of the Jhinka flew at us. The Jhinka hit the shield so hard he knocked himself out. Khevin got his axe--he'd been chopping wood when the attack started. He went through the shield and k-killed the Jhinka. By then, all the men in the village were in the streets, fighting. Khevin stayed outside to protect people while I pulled them through the shield." Tears were streaming down Mari's face as she spoke, the knuckles of her good hand white from where she was gripping the pump.
"By then, the Jhinka were all around us. A lot of the women who tried to reach the building didn't make it, or were badly wounded by the time I pulled them through the shield. Gran...Gran was almost within reach when one of the Jhinka swooped down and....He laughed. He looked at me and laughed while he killed her."
Karla
Karla poured warmed water over Mari's arm and began binding it with clean bandages. "Mother Night, I am so sorry," she murmured. "So, so sorry."
Mari
"Khevin couldn't keep fighting and hold the shield, too," Mari said, sniffling. She groped in her apron pocket for a clean handkerchief to mop her face. "Even I could see that. He had a-arrows in his legs. He couldn't move very fast. They caught him before he could get through the shield and they did that to him. They were toying and playing. They w-wanted to make him suffer. F-Finally the other men in the village saw what was happening and tried to fight them off. His whole life, Khevin's been unwanted by both sides, landens and Blood both. He w-was a shame on both sides, too weak to be Blood and too powerful to be trusted. But, finally, the men in our village saw that he was a g-good man, one who cared about Agio, the same as all of them. They looked at him like he was finally worth something. They fought of the Jhinka and I pulled him through. A Jhinka slashed at my arm, but I got him inside in time. I h-hope." Mari tried to go on, but she couldn't. She burst into tears instead.
Karla
Karla slipped Mari's arm into a makeshift sling, then stood up and cradled Mari gently, just letting her cry. "I can't promise it will be all right," she whispered into Mari's hair. "But I can promise that we'll do everything we can to make it so."
Mari
After a minute or so, Mari nodded, pulling away and wiping her eyes. "What can I do to help?"
Karla
Karla gave Mari another brief hug. Exhausted, heartsore, in pain and weak from bloodloss, Mari's first thoughts were to give whatever assistance she could. "You learned herb-witchery from your Gran, yes?" she asked. "Then help me brew up some healing teas, okay?"
After a bit of cupboard hunting, Karla found two large metal serving trays and many different cups. "You should be able to ladle the brews into these cups one-handed, right?" At Mari's nod, Karla brushed a bit of Craft over the trays, causing them to float at waist height. "Once your brews are done, bring the cups out to the people in there. Don't try to carry the trays, they're far too heavy for that arm. Just steer." Karla gently pushed one of the trays and it bobbed forward a little. "The Craft will do the rest." Then she leaned forward and impulsively kissed Mari's cheek. "You keep working with those teas. I'll run upstairs and check on Khevin, okay?"
Mari
Mari hesitated, biting her lip, obviously torn between her desire to go to her lover and her duties as an assistant Healer. Karla gave her shoulder a quick, encouraging squeeze. "Tell him I love him?" she quavered.
Karla
"I will," Karla promised. "But I bet he'll be happier when he can hear you say it."
She dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time to find Jaenelle just finishing construction of a giant web. It took up the entirety of one wall, threads crisscrossing and spanning one another that even Karla found it impossible to follow.
Jaenelle
"We'll have to bring the most badly wounded up here," Jaenelle said quietly, crossing over to where Khevin lay. She'd found him a blanket to cover him as she'd spun her Healing web and he lay there, face pale and pinched, eyes closed. As Jaenelle started to lift the sheet, his eyes opened. With effort, he grabbed her hand.
She stared at the young male, her eyes blank. It was as if she had gone so deep within herself that the windows of the soul could no longer reveal the person who lived within. "Do you fear me?" she asked in a midnight whisper.
Khevin
"No, Lady." Khevin licked dried lips. "But the friends you brought to train me--they taught me the Old Ways, the Blood code, even as they taught me Craft. It is a Warlord's privilege to protect his people. Take care of them, first."
Karla
Karla tried to reach her with a psychic thread, but Jaenelle had shut her out. *Please, Jaenelle. Let him have his pride. He's earned it.*
Jaenelle
Jaenelle reached under the blanket. Khevin moaned a wordless protest.
"I'll do as you asked because you asked," she said. "But I'm going to tie some of the threads from the Healing web I've built now so that you'll stay with me." She smoothed the blanket and rested one long-nailed finger on the base of his throat. "And I warn you, Khevin, you had better stay with me."
Karla
Karla felt the quiver in Jaenelle's emotions, swiftly leashed, and locked her own emotions up tight. Hell's fire, even if the drugs were out of her system enough for her to do the Healings, Jaenelle's emotions weren't stable and they both knew it. Anger had no place in the sick room. Neither did fear or pain or grief.
But what other choice did they have? Karla couldn't Heal everyone, not by herself. So rather than worry about what they could not change, Karla knelt and whispered Mari's message in Khevin's ear.
Khevin
The boy--no, man; anyone with those kinds of battle wounds didn't deserve to be called a boy--smiled at her and closed his eyes. Karla bowed her head for a moment, but only one. There was far too much to do, and people's lives ebbed away with every passing moment.
[NFI, NFB, OOC is delicious. Warning for violence. Text adapted from Chapter Thirteen of Anne Bishop's Heir to the Shadows. All of her narrative is awesome and I never said anything to the contrary. Really. Part 5 of plot (Parts one, two, three, and four). Up early because I have a problem I AM REALLY BUSY TOMORROW, OKAY?]
Yesterday, they'd awakened just before dawn to find Jaenelle busily rummaging through the food pack. He'd put together a hasty meal while Karla had broken down the camp before the physical tension produced by the drugs forced Jaenelle to move.
It hadn't been the unrelenting drive of the previous days, and, as the day'd worn on, physical tension gave way to emotional storms. Anger would flood her suddenly, then turn to tears. He'd given her space as she raged and swore. Karla had held her while she cried. When the storm passed, she'd been fine for a little while, perhaps as long as twenty minutes. They'd walked at an easy pace, stopping to pick wild berries or rest near a stream. Karla'd kept them entertained with stories of her crazy school and the friends who were like no Blood males or females they'd ever met. Then the cycle would start over, each time with a little less intensity.
It had still been grueling, mind. The first outburst of emotion had hit around noon, the second, a little before three. In between them, there was still the constant movement, the difficult trek made even moreso by the unforgiving pace Jaenelle had set. The intervals had shortened as Jaenelle's body tired, but even their last stretch before making camp for the night had been an hour-long hike, most of it uphill.
Which made today's late start, with the chance to sleep in past sunrise and even bathe a bit, something akin to paradisaical. Smoke was off doing a bit of hunting; the wolf had scented a herd of elk and had gone off to explore. When he came back, Lucivar was thinking of sending him back to the Keep to tell Saetan that they were all right, that Karla was with them, and that they'd be coming home from Askavi in a few more days.
Not that he was going to say anything, but he was proud of Karla. The pace was wearing on her, but she refused to complain and did her best to keep up. She wouldn't know it, but Jaenelle was slowing down a bit for her, making sure Karla didn't get outdistanced. Lucivar was grateful for anything that made Jaenelle take it a little easier. Though the next time the little witch cheated him out of the last mug of coffee, he was going to dunk her into the nearest lake.
Karla
*Lucivar!* Karla's mental shout broke him from his reverie. He shot to his feet, turning to see her scrambling out of the water after Jaenelle, whose dripping clothing couldn’t hide her sudden tenseness and taut muscles.
Jaenelle
"Something is wrong," Jaenelle said in her midnight voice.
Lucivar
He immediately probed the area. "Where? I don't sense anything."
Jaenelle
"Not right here. To the east." The only thing east of them was a landen village called Agio, under the protection of a nearby Blood village at the northern end of Ebon Rih.
"There's something wrong there, but it's elusive," Jaenelle said, her eyes narrowed as she stared eastward. "And it feels twisted somehow, like a snare filled with poison bait. But it slips away from me every time I try to focus on it." She snarled, frustrated. "Maybe the safframate is messing with my ability to sense things."
Karla
Karla peered eastward as well, straining her senses. "I can't sense anything, either." Though, given the difference in their power levels, that didn't necessarily mean much.
Lucivar
Lucivar thought about a story he had heard recently, about a Queen that had been trapping males with the Ring of Obedience to try to force them to serve her. She'd been killed by an enraged Warlord Prince after she'd managed to ensnare eleven out of the twelve males she'd needed to set up a Court, but bad feelings still lingered. "Maybe you're just the wrong gender for the bait." Keeping his inner barriers tightly shielded, he sent a delicate psychic probe eastward. A minute later, swearing viciously, he snapped the link and clung to Jaenelle, letting her clean, dark strength wash away the foulness he'd brushed against.
He pressed his forehead against hers. "It's bad, Cat. A lot of desperation and pain surrounded by..." Shuddering, he searched for some way to describe what he'd felt.
Karla
"Carrion," Karla murmured. Both Jaenelle and Lucivar looked at her and Karla shrugged. "I had a dream last night about carrion, vultures circling and diving down. Rotted meat still attached to living bone. A Black Widow dream."
Lucivar
"And you didn't think to say?" Lucivar rumbled.
Karla
"Little distracted here!" Karla pointed out, rolling her eyes. "I kind of assumed it had something to do with what was already going on!"
Lucivar
Lucivar huffed, flaring his wings. "I can fly over the village and take a quick look. If the landens are fighting off a Jhinka raiding party, I'm strong enough to give them whatever help they need. If it's one of those autumnal fevers that can run through a village, we'll need to know to get messages out to nearby Healers."
His main concern was finding a safe place for--
Jaenelle
"Don't even think about it, Lucivar," Jaenelle warned softly.
Karla
"We're going with you," Karla said, wearing a stubborn expression almost identical to Jaenelle's. "We are then nearby Healers, for one."
Lucivar
Lucivar eyed them, trying to judge how far he could push them this time. "You know, the Ring of Honor you made for me won't stop me the way the Restraining Ring would have," he said with a grim smile.
Jaenelle muttered an Eyrien curse that was quite explicit. Karla looked like she was filing that away for future use. Mother Night.
The answer to how far he could push was 'not very.' He looked towards the east again. "All right, you're going with me. But we'll do this my way." He glared at both of them until they nodded their consent.
Karla
"You're the one with the fighting experience," Karla conceded. "I'll follow orders."
Jaenelle
Jaenelle stepped forward and pressed her right palm against the Ebon-gray Jewel resting on his chest, the first time she'd voluntarily touched him since being dosed with safframate. She still recoiled slightly from the contact, but did not draw her hand away. "Spread your wings."
Lucivar
As he opened his wings to their full span, he felt a hot-cold tingle from the Ring of Honor around his cock.
Jaenelle
She stepped back, satisfied. "This shield is braided into the protective shield already contained in the Ring. You could drain your Jewels to the breaking point, and it will still hold around you. It's fixed about a foot out from your body and will mesh with mine so we can stay tight without endangering each other. Make sure you keep clear of anything else you don't want to damage."
Karla
"Elegant," Karla said, studying her Sister's Craft. "Quite neatly done."
Jaenelle
"Thank you," Jaenelle said with the faintest trace of a smile. She called in a small ring with a Black chip and handed it to Karla. "Put this on. It does the same thing."
Lucivar
Lucivar waited until Karla had slid the ring on then took charge again. "All right. We'll run on this White radial thread until we're past the village, then drop from the Winds and come in fast from the other side. If this is a Jhinka raid, I'll handle it."
The Jhinka were a fierce, winged people made up of patriarchal clans loosely joined together by a dozen tribal chiefs. Like the Eyriens, they were native to Askavi, but they were smaller and had a fraction of the lifespan of the long-lived Eyriens. The two races had hated each other for as long as either of them could remember.
While Eyriens had the advantage of Craft, the Jhinka had the advantage of numbers. Once drained of his psychic power and the reserves in the Jewels, an Eyrien warrior was as vulnerable as any other male when fighting against overwhelming odds. So, accepting the slaughter required to bring down an enemy, the Jhinka had always been willing to meet an Eyrien in battle.
With two exceptions. One walked among the dead, the other among the living. Both wore Ebon-gray Jewels.
Karla
"And if it isn't Jhinka?" Karla pressed.
Lucivar
Lucivar shrugged. "We'll figure it out then. Come on, ladies. Let's give whoever is messing with our valley a reason to regret it."
Karla
Dropping in from the White Wind, they glided towards the peaceful-looking village still a mile away. *You said we'd go in fast,* Karla sent on an open psychic thread.
Lucivar
*I also said we'd do this my way,* Lucivar replied sharply.
Jaenelle
*There's pain and need down there, Lucivar.* Jaenelle's eyes were dark, something new driving at her in a way that safframate never could.
Lucivar
*There's also that foulness,* he reminded, though it was eluding him now. It was still there. Had to be. That he could no longer sense it, would never have sensed it if he'd simply come to check on the village, made him uneasy. He would have stumbled into whatever trap was waiting down there.
Karla
Karla felt the predator wake in Jaenelle at the same moment she began a hawk-dive, dropping towards the village at full speed. So much for Lucivar's way, she thought as she folded her wings and dove after her. Lucivar did the same, cursing the entire way.
Well, crap
Just then, a few dozen Jhinka appeared out of nowhere, screeching their battle cries as they tried to surround them and pull them all down.
Lucivar
Using Craft to enhance his speed, Lucivar dove through the Jhinka swarm, relishing the screams when they hit his protective shield. Roaring an Eyrien war cry, he unleashed his power in short, controlled bursts.
Jhinka bodies exploded into a bloody mist full of severed limbs.
Karla
Karla took the opportunity to dart through, following Jaenelle while Lucivar finished off their attackers. She burst through the bottom of the swarm, coming out of her dive a wing-length from the ground, thanking the Darkness for the hours spent flying with Warren. *Jaenelle!*
*Come down the main street, but hurry. The tunnel won't hold for long.* A shielded column of Black power sprang up before Karla's eyes, running the length of the street. She appreciated its opacity; from what little she'd glimpsed in her dive and through the shield only convinced her she didn't want a closer look.
Jaenelle
*Avoid the side streets,* Jaenelle continued, speaking to both Karla and Lucivar. *They're...fouled. There's a shielded building at the other end of the village.*
Lucivar
Flying low, Lucivar swung towards the main street, hit the village boundary at top speed, and swore every curse he knew as his shield brushed against the psychic witchstorm engulfing the peaceful-looking village. It crackled with malignant power and sent out tendrils towards him, but could not pierce the shield. Pushing hard, he flew through the already-contracting tunnel Jaenelle had created as she passed through the witchstorm and finally caught up with them both a block away from the shielded building. A fast psychic probe showed him the parameters of the domed, oval-shaped shield that protected the two-story stone building and ten yards of ground around it.
Landen Female
A landen woman, one arm bleeding and tucked against her side came running towards them, waving her uninjured arm. Rather than gesturing them in, she began waving them away. "Go back! Get away from here! Fly while you still can!"
Jhinka Hordes
From behind her, thousands of Jhinka rose from the low hills beyond the village, filling the sky until they blotted out the sun.
Karla
Jaenelle passed through the building's shield as easily as if it were a thin layer of water. Distracted by the female and the onrushing tide of Jhinka, Karla felt like she was passing through a wall of warm taffy. As soon as they were inside the building's shield, she landed by the injured woman. The protective shield Jaenelle had created for her contracted to a skintight sheath, tingled her skin slightly where the ring was, then vanished completely. "You're wounded," Karla said, holding out her hand. "Let me Heal that."
Landen Female
"No, no," she said, stepping backwards. "Don't worry about me. Look to Khevin, please!"
Lucivar
"Who?" Lucivar demanded, landing softly behind them both.
Jaenelle
"Him," Jaenelle said quietly, pointing to the male slumped over in the doorway. He was hard to notice at first, hidden in the shadow of wall. At least until one got close enough to see the bright smears of crimson on his torso.
Lucivar started forward, but Jaenelle grabbed onto his arm. "We'll take care of this," she said firmly. "I need you to shield the building. He's the one holding this one and I don't think he can for much longer."
Lucivar
With his nod, an Ebon-gray shield appeared around the building, under the shield that was there already. Khevin’s shield, no stronger than the White, surely, flickered and died a minute later.
The Jhinka
As soon as they saw the outer shield drop, the Jhinka attacked. They slammed against the invisible barrier, their bodies piling up as they clawed at the shield. Some of the Jhinka, pressed between the shield and the rest of the swarm, were smothered and crushed by the mass of writhing bodies. Dead, hate-filled eyes stared at the people in the courtyard.
Landen Female (Who really does have a name)
"Mercy be," the landen female whispered. "Even during the worst of the attack, they didn't come like this."
Lucivar
Lucivar studied the female for a moment before returning his attention to the Jhinka. Maybe they hadn't trapped what they'd wanted until now, he thought.
He could feel the pressure of all those bodies piling up on the shield, could feel the Ebon-gray Jewels release drop after drop of his reserve strength. He vanished his Ebon-gray ring and called in his Birthright Red. The Ebon-gray around his neck would feel the shield. The Red...
Smiling his lazy, arrogant smile, he raised his right hands and triggered the spell he'd spent years perfecting. Seven thin psychic 'wires' show out of the Red Jewel in his ring. Keeping his arm straight, he made leisurely sweeps, back and forth, always careful he didn't stray too close to the building. Back and forth. Up and down.
The Jhinka
Jhinka blood ran down the shield. Jhinka bodies slithered and slid as the ones who could se the danger tried to push themselves out of the pile before that sweeping arm returned.
Lucivar
"Get tight to the building," he ordered. "It's time to even up the odds a bit."
Satisfied with the panicked scramble on that side of the shield, he walked around the building, his hand always aimed at the shield.
And the Jhinka died.
He was starting a third circuit when the Jhinka who were still trying to pile onto the shield finally caught the panic of the ones trying to get away from it. Chittering and screeching, they rose off the shield and headed for the low hills, thousands still alive for the few hundreds he had killed.
Lucivar drew the psychic 'wires' back into his ring, ended the spell and slowly lowered his arms.
Karla
Karla spared no thought to the carnage raining down above her head. Under normal circumstances, she would have thought that the male in the doorway--Khevin--was another landen, but Jaenelle had claimed he'd been holding the shield. Getting closer, she finally sensed him; a weak psychic scent, barely strong enough to rate a Jewel.
Dropping to one knee, she examined him with a wisp of Healing Craft and swore silently. The gut wounds were bad. Men had died from less. Her eyes traveled from the wounds to the still, pain-tight face and back again. The wounds weren't beyond their ability to Heal, but she had to wonder if even Jaenelle could rebuild the parts that were no longer there.
Jaenelle
"We should bring him in," Jaenelle murmured, lifting him gently with Craft. She waved the landen female over. "How many wounded, Mari?"
Mari
"Sommat close to five hundred, Lady." Mari said quietly.
Karla
It didn't surprise Karla that Jaenelle knew the people of this tiny village.
"How many healers?" she asked.
Mari
"Just me, Lady," Mari said, her eyes filling with tears. She caught Karla's confused expression. "The village had two physicians and a wisewoman could do a bit of herb healing. All are dead. The wisewoman is--was--my grandmother."
Karla
"Hell's fire, I'm so sorry," Karla said, opening the door for Jaenelle to bring Khevin through. "I--" She stopped and stared, appalled at the sight within. There were hundreds of people, every single one of them wounded to one extent or another. It smelled like a slaughterhouse or a tannery; like filth and blood and less unsavory smells. "When you said there are five hundred wounded, you meant everyone who managed to get to the shelter of the building."
Mari
Mari nodded. "All of a sudden, the sky was filled with Jhinka screaming like they do. Khevin told me to come to the community hall. We...the Lady says that sometimes a link is formed when people like us are...close."
Karla glanced at her left hand. No marriage ring. Lovers then. At least Khevin had known, and given, that pleasure.
"I was at the other end of the village, delivering some of Gran's herb medicines. The adults wouldn't listen to me, so I just grabbed a little girl who was playing outside and yelled at the other children to come with me. I--I think I made some of them come with me."
Jaenelle
"Mari's grandmother was half-Blood," Jaenelle supplied, gliding through the room, still carrying Khevin. "Mari takes after her that way. And Khevin is the son of the District Queen's old Consort." She pointed up the stairs. "I'm bringing Khevin up to the second floor. Karla, can you bind Mari's wounds? No Healing." Her sapphire gaze swept across the room. "I don't think we'll have the Craft to spare."
Karla
Karla nodded, calling her supplies in. "Keep talking," she urged. "I need to know what happened." Moreover, she thought that Mari needed to talk about it.
Mari
Mari gasped a little as Karla cut away the cloth of her sleeve and the nasty gash was revealed. It was a deep knife wound that went from her elbow to her wrist. It had started to dry and Karla needed to pick stray threads and things from her arm. "When we got to the community building, Khevin had a shield around it. He was sweating. It looked like it was hurting him."
Karla
Karla was sure that it had. For Khevin to create a shield of that size and then continue to hold it, the strain must have been almost unbearable. Karla had never heard of a half-Blood with that kind of psychic reserve before. Even if he survived his wounds, it was possible he had burned out whatever Craft he'd had.
Mari
"He said he'd tried to send a message to the Blood village on a psychic thread, but that he wasn't sure anyone would hear it. Then he told me someone had to stay inside the shield in order to reach through it to bring another person in. He brought me though just as one of the Jhinka flew at us. The Jhinka hit the shield so hard he knocked himself out. Khevin got his axe--he'd been chopping wood when the attack started. He went through the shield and k-killed the Jhinka. By then, all the men in the village were in the streets, fighting. Khevin stayed outside to protect people while I pulled them through the shield." Tears were streaming down Mari's face as she spoke, the knuckles of her good hand white from where she was gripping the pump.
"By then, the Jhinka were all around us. A lot of the women who tried to reach the building didn't make it, or were badly wounded by the time I pulled them through the shield. Gran...Gran was almost within reach when one of the Jhinka swooped down and....He laughed. He looked at me and laughed while he killed her."
Karla
Karla poured warmed water over Mari's arm and began binding it with clean bandages. "Mother Night, I am so sorry," she murmured. "So, so sorry."
Mari
"Khevin couldn't keep fighting and hold the shield, too," Mari said, sniffling. She groped in her apron pocket for a clean handkerchief to mop her face. "Even I could see that. He had a-arrows in his legs. He couldn't move very fast. They caught him before he could get through the shield and they did that to him. They were toying and playing. They w-wanted to make him suffer. F-Finally the other men in the village saw what was happening and tried to fight them off. His whole life, Khevin's been unwanted by both sides, landens and Blood both. He w-was a shame on both sides, too weak to be Blood and too powerful to be trusted. But, finally, the men in our village saw that he was a g-good man, one who cared about Agio, the same as all of them. They looked at him like he was finally worth something. They fought of the Jhinka and I pulled him through. A Jhinka slashed at my arm, but I got him inside in time. I h-hope." Mari tried to go on, but she couldn't. She burst into tears instead.
Karla
Karla slipped Mari's arm into a makeshift sling, then stood up and cradled Mari gently, just letting her cry. "I can't promise it will be all right," she whispered into Mari's hair. "But I can promise that we'll do everything we can to make it so."
Mari
After a minute or so, Mari nodded, pulling away and wiping her eyes. "What can I do to help?"
Karla
Karla gave Mari another brief hug. Exhausted, heartsore, in pain and weak from bloodloss, Mari's first thoughts were to give whatever assistance she could. "You learned herb-witchery from your Gran, yes?" she asked. "Then help me brew up some healing teas, okay?"
After a bit of cupboard hunting, Karla found two large metal serving trays and many different cups. "You should be able to ladle the brews into these cups one-handed, right?" At Mari's nod, Karla brushed a bit of Craft over the trays, causing them to float at waist height. "Once your brews are done, bring the cups out to the people in there. Don't try to carry the trays, they're far too heavy for that arm. Just steer." Karla gently pushed one of the trays and it bobbed forward a little. "The Craft will do the rest." Then she leaned forward and impulsively kissed Mari's cheek. "You keep working with those teas. I'll run upstairs and check on Khevin, okay?"
Mari
Mari hesitated, biting her lip, obviously torn between her desire to go to her lover and her duties as an assistant Healer. Karla gave her shoulder a quick, encouraging squeeze. "Tell him I love him?" she quavered.
Karla
"I will," Karla promised. "But I bet he'll be happier when he can hear you say it."
She dashed up the stairs, taking them two at a time to find Jaenelle just finishing construction of a giant web. It took up the entirety of one wall, threads crisscrossing and spanning one another that even Karla found it impossible to follow.
Jaenelle
"We'll have to bring the most badly wounded up here," Jaenelle said quietly, crossing over to where Khevin lay. She'd found him a blanket to cover him as she'd spun her Healing web and he lay there, face pale and pinched, eyes closed. As Jaenelle started to lift the sheet, his eyes opened. With effort, he grabbed her hand.
She stared at the young male, her eyes blank. It was as if she had gone so deep within herself that the windows of the soul could no longer reveal the person who lived within. "Do you fear me?" she asked in a midnight whisper.
Khevin
"No, Lady." Khevin licked dried lips. "But the friends you brought to train me--they taught me the Old Ways, the Blood code, even as they taught me Craft. It is a Warlord's privilege to protect his people. Take care of them, first."
Karla
Karla tried to reach her with a psychic thread, but Jaenelle had shut her out. *Please, Jaenelle. Let him have his pride. He's earned it.*
Jaenelle
Jaenelle reached under the blanket. Khevin moaned a wordless protest.
"I'll do as you asked because you asked," she said. "But I'm going to tie some of the threads from the Healing web I've built now so that you'll stay with me." She smoothed the blanket and rested one long-nailed finger on the base of his throat. "And I warn you, Khevin, you had better stay with me."
Karla
Karla felt the quiver in Jaenelle's emotions, swiftly leashed, and locked her own emotions up tight. Hell's fire, even if the drugs were out of her system enough for her to do the Healings, Jaenelle's emotions weren't stable and they both knew it. Anger had no place in the sick room. Neither did fear or pain or grief.
But what other choice did they have? Karla couldn't Heal everyone, not by herself. So rather than worry about what they could not change, Karla knelt and whispered Mari's message in Khevin's ear.
Khevin
The boy--no, man; anyone with those kinds of battle wounds didn't deserve to be called a boy--smiled at her and closed his eyes. Karla bowed her head for a moment, but only one. There was far too much to do, and people's lives ebbed away with every passing moment.
[NFI, NFB, OOC is delicious. Warning for violence. Text adapted from Chapter Thirteen of Anne Bishop's Heir to the Shadows. All of her narrative is awesome and I never said anything to the contrary. Really. Part 5 of plot (Parts one, two, three, and four). Up early because I have a problem I AM REALLY BUSY TOMORROW, OKAY?]