Bacorium Legacy (38 page)

“So you're saying that you have to subject yourself to this dangerous magick because otherwise he would run off and die?” Brand asked. “That's very noble of you, even though I don't necessarily feel it's the right thing to do.”

“I didn't save his life in Forga just for him to go off and get killed anyway,” she said. “He's gotten too confident after he survived Dreevius stabbing him. He knows he can't die, so he hasn't been trying to avoid it. He even told me after it that he could fight the entire Acarian army if he had to. And if left on his own, he would do that. I have to protect him from himself, and from all the ways he can get himself killed.”

“You just said a minute ago that you can't let yourself get dependent on each other,” Brand said. “But from what you've just said, that's already happened.”

“That's - not the same thing. I was talking about being obsessed due to the emotional draw...”

“I came to ask if you were alright after what happened back at the Acarian camp. Instead of answering that, you've talked about Luca the whole time.”

“You're just manipulating what I said!” Emila insisted.

“What's the real reason why you can't sleep?”

Emila hesitated. He knew. He'd backed her into a corner. She bowed her head in shame. “It's because Luca isn't with me.”

“Ah,” Brand said. “I thought it might be something like that.”

“Please don't tell him,” she pleaded. “Don't tell him any of this. I don't want him burdened with the knowledge. I don't want him to feel guilty for me keeping him alive.”

“It's not my place to say anything,” Brand assured her. “That's for you to decide. But you should still rethink things nonetheless. This situation - things like this never end well.”

Emila sighed. He was right, and she knew it. But there was nothing she could do. She would not abandon Luca, not after everything she had done to save him, and especially not with what she was risking to keep him alive. To throw that all away for her own sake would be selfish. And yet she couldn't rely on the magick of the tether to protect him - both from Zinoro and his forces, and himself - it was simply a bandage covering a larger wound. Brand's points were valid, yet the situation was simply too complex to just do what one felt was right. Things in real life rarely were.

Luca seemed to have difficulty understanding that concept. That was partly why he continued to make mistakes that would have killed anyone else.

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Luca opened his eyes, finding that his head ached sorely and the bright morning light streaming in from outside did nothing to ease the pain. His head was resting on something warm and soft, which he realised with a bit of a start was the hand of a young girl sleeping beside him.

The events of the night before came back to him, and his momentary bit of panic died away, as he was sure nothing had happened that he would have regretted. Still, things were awkward enough for him, waking this close to a girl he had only known for two days, and would only get more so when Wiosna woke, so he quietly gathered his things and stepped out in the cold air. The empty wine bottle sat forgotten in the corner.

The Allmans were waking gradually. The large fire from the night before had died out, and some of the students still trying to cling to sleep were wrapping themselves tightly with their sleeping bags in denial.

There was something he wanted to do, which he had wanted to do the night before, but had been too tired to. He spotted his brother Ash, sitting alone against a tree at the fringe of the camp, and he stared towards him. Ash made no attempt to escape.

“I need to talk to you about yesterday,” Luca said to him.

“Go ahead,” Ash said, his voice and expression level and guiltless.

“Back at the inn, you left very suddenly,” Luca said. “You said that you were going to go find Selphie and the others. But they were on their way back already, and they never met you. You really left because you figured out that the Tranom we were talking to was not really him.”

“That's correct,” Ash replied. “Anyone who has known Brand and Tranom long enough would realise what Dreevius' mistake was. I'm surprised you didn't notice it.”

“But you left Emila and I there. You didn't tell us, or give us any sign of what was going on. You completely abandoned us to him. We could have been killed.”

“Any way I could have alerted you would have done the same for Dreevius,” Ash explained. “There were Acarians in the town, and Selphie needed to be warned. Her safety took priority. As for Dreevius killing you, I believe he tried it once already without success.”

Ignoring that last part, Luca continued. “You say you went to Selphie to warn her, but she told me you never showed up.”

“I wasn't familiar with the town, and I didn't know where to look for them. By the time I found them, the Acarians had already made their move.”

“But you didn't try to help.”

“There were a dozen of them, and I was still unarmed. All that would have accomplished was that I would have been caught myself.”

Luca stared at his brother. There was no hesitation in his eyes. If he was lying about any of this, he was a damn good liar.

But most of that was plausible anyway. So far, his story checked out. The next part, Luca both dreaded and anticipated to ask.

“Very well. After Selphie, Brand, and Jared were captured, what did you do next? Did you already know that the Allman survivors were around and you had not told us? Or were you fleeing from the town, abandoning us and saving your own skin, when you came across them by accident?”

There was no simple explanation to this one. Either he had deceived them, or he had abandoned them.

“You're so certain I've wrong you, aren't you, brother?” Ash said with a faint smile of wry amusement. “I knew that coming to your rescue on my own would be a futile effort. Those Acarian soldiers are machine-like in their efficiency. No prisoner escapes from them, and nobody sneaks past them. So, no. I was not going to simply take up a sword and fight my way in to save you.”

“So you were-!”

“Let me finish. Even with the Acarians, there is room for error. Dreevius was a foolish leader. My plan was to watch his camp from afar and wait for him to make a mistake. Sooner or later he would get confident he had won, and would let his guard down. Then I would make my attempt to rescue you. It wasn't the best plan, but it was all I could do at the time. However, while I was buying the weapons and supplies I would need, the shopkeeper mentioned that several people wearing the same white robes as I had come through and bought weapons and supplies of their own. I managed to get him to tell me where they were, and then I set aside my previous plan and went to them for help.”

Luca frowned. The story has some holes in it, but it was believable. While he did want to believe that Ash would have tried to save them despite the futility of it, his inner cynicism told him that Ash would not have, and he would have left them behind. There was really no way to know for sure, as all he had to trust Ash on was his word.

“You freed me when Allma had me locked up,” Ash continued. “Why would you suspect that I would not do the same for you? I did come back and free you all, so why are you coming to me with this suspicion? Just accept that I helped you and move on.”

With that, Ash rose and walked away, leaving his brother behind by that tree.

“Perhaps I should trust him more...” Luca said quietly to himself.

Back in the caves, when Luca had fallen into the lake, Ash had thrown the rope down and pulled him to safety. If he wanted Luca dead, he could have just let him drown there. Ash was certainly quiet and secretive, but that didn't mean that he was untrustworthy.

Still, Luca couldn't help but feel that there was a period, however brief it may have been, where his brother had considered leaving them all to die.

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By midday, everything was packed up and the group was on their way.

The three people who were ostensibly in charge - Selphie, Tranom, and Wiosna - sat together that morning to discuss what should be done. It was agreed that the princess needed to return to T'Saw, and meet with the king to discuss what had happened. She had sent her letters earlier while in town, one to T'Saw, and another to Tellador, informing both kings of her safety, the treachery of Allma, and urging them not to act against Acaria. There was no worry of Sono declaring war, but what King Edmund of Torachi would do was still to be determined.

Selphie told everyone that the king of Saeticia, Marcus, would grant them passage in Serenite if they needed it, and as it was right in the path to T'Saw, it would be wise to stop there and seek his aid.

Tranom met with the fifty or so survivors of the attack, and told them that he needed them to accompany the princess as far as Serenite, at which point they were free to go back to their homes or wherever they wished. This was their final debt to the temple. As for Tranom himself, he swore to see Selphie safely back in Sono.

So then everything was decided. Tranom, Wiosna, and the Allmans would go with Selphie first to Serenite, and then to T'Saw. The original plan - of Selphie taking her team into Acaria to reach a peaceful agreement with Zinoro - was still more or less in action. She had back all the original members she wanted - Luca, Brand, and Wiosna. The attack on the temple and the efforts to abduct her may have put the possibility of resolving the conflict peacefully in serious doubt, but until King Zaow himself told them otherwise, they were not to give up on the possibility of avoiding war with Acaria.

But first she had to get back to T'Saw. She now had fifty Allmans to protect her, so the Acarians were less of a threat than before. Caution would still be needed, however.

Luca himself had little hope in this pipe dream actually coming true. Zinoro clearly was not the kind of man who would accept a peaceful solution if he did not want it. His actual motivations for wanting war with Sono was still a mystery, but it seemed he was out to fulfil his father's original vision.

During the rule of Manorith, Acaria had been deep in poverty and plague. Sono, their eastern neighbour, had been wealthy and prosperous, and a land of dream in contrast to their near-dead home. Manorith promised that dream to his people, and set out to take Sono for himself. He had failed miserably, and now Zinoro seemed to want to finish his work.

Regardless, Zinoro would not be swayed by Selphie's words. And whatever it was she planned to do with Luca, he himself was not going to enter Acaria with peaceful intentions. Luca could not rest until Zinoro was gone from the world.

Luca almost felt guilty for planning to sabotage Selphie's mission, but he had already convinced himself that it was doomed to fail anyway.

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As they walked, Luca tried his best not to look at Wiosna.

She had some interest in him, and he could not be sure if it was of an intimate kind, but she had still invited him into her tent in the middle of the night. She had given him wine and they had spoke of vulnerable aspects of their lives. When morning came, he had left before she had awoken. All that was really missing from the situation was actual intimate contact.

At the same time, he was also trying not to look over at Emila. She had been rather distant and quiet all morning. He wasn't sure if she knew where he had been, and was upset at that, or if what had happened the night before was bothering her. He wasn't sure, but he made a promise to himself that when they made camp for the night he would go and talk to her.

Luca himself was confused. He had only known Wiosna for three days now, yet he found the girl very easy to talk and relate to. His time spent in her tent, while awkward, had been enjoyable. Speaking with her had taken his mind off of Dreevius and Zinoro and all the dark little things that usually clouded his mind. Compared to Emila, who he cared for very much but found difficult to understand and relate to, Wiosna was a breath of fresh air. She was a warrior, a student of literature, and there were no magick complications like there were with Emila.

He felt guilty for enjoying it so much, because he felt like he was betraying Emila by going to her.

He wondered if Emila felt the same.

Chapter XII

Altair

“Of course it hurt,” Emila said, her fingers unconsciously brushing over her heart. “It wasn't as bad as it looked, really. I just wasn't expecting to be awoken in such a way.”

Selphie absently poked at the fire with a stick. “You look tired. Are you getting enough sleep?”

“I am, I am,” Emila said, waving her hand. “Really, you don't have to worry about me. Your concern is touching - everyone's is. But I'm fine. Really.”

Selphie frowned. She didn't quite looked convinced. Behind her, the sun was beginning to disappear behind the horizon, casting an orange glow over the camp. It was the third day of their journey, which so far had been quiet and uneventful. Serenite was still well more than a week's travel away, and while they were certainly not taking their time to get there, the group was not filled with any desperation to travel quickly. The group of nearly sixty was slow to travel.

“I get the impression that you're the kind of person who doesn't want to burden others with your troubles, Emila,” Selphie said to her. “And I want you to know that if that's the case, you don't have anything to fear. I'm always here if you need someone to talk to.”

Emila smiled faintly. “Thank you. You're so kind. I never imagined a princess would be so...” She trailed off, realising that perhaps she might have just said something offencive.

Selphie raised an eyebrow, her smile gone. “Oh? What were you going to say?”

“Um - humble?” Emila said, suddenly looking worried.

“I'm teasing you,” Selphie said with a mischievous laugh. “I understand what you mean. Royalty isn't know for such things - I've met plenty of lords who outright hated commoners. The attitude always made me sick. People are people, regardless of what status they were born to.”

“Y-yeah,” Emila said.

“I've never thought of myself as being above anyone else.” Selphie then frowned again, casting her eyes into the fire. “If only everyone in my family had the same attitude...”