Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (16 page)

I put some herb tea on to boil while Nia and I prepared supper. Everyone else surrounded the girls and peppered them with questions. Startled, whatever was in the sack squirmed out of Ryliss’s grasp and poured like an inky liquid out on the ground…a large black kitten of some sort? The hair on its back rose instinctively, and it began to hiss angrily at the group, curling itself between Ryliss’s legs for protection. The dark elf scholar bent down and picked it up, stroking it and murmuring reassurance all the while.

“A Jag’uri puma!” Mingt announced shakily, backing up a couple steps. “I hope for all our sakes you didn’t just find the kitten and decide to bring it home. The mother will never rest until the cub is returned and those who took her are dead.”

“The mother is dead,” Jules replied, motioning toward Ryliss. “She is its mother now.”

The old shaman made a sign to ward off evil and shook his head. “In all my years, I have only painted four Jag’uri symbols on young people–two boys and two girls. The boys are dead; sadly, I’ve come to believe that the Jag’uri symbol is a virtual death sentence for males. It makes them feel invincible, empowered, and reckless; they live very brief but heroic lives.

“And the girls?” Dawn queried.

“For girls, it enhances their cunning, bravery, and sense of purpose. It makes them extremely formidable opponents, loving mates and devoted mothers. Oddly, both of those girls are in this very camp, Maya and Ryliss.” The old elf shook his head and sat down on a log, saying no more.

“So what happened?” Elsa insisted.

The three girls sat down wearily and told the story throughout dinner. I noticed that Lin was strangely quiet, almost morose; and as soon as the food was cleared away, she slipped out of camp carrying a small hand axe. In the distance, I heard wood being chopped briefly and then silence. I changed out of my armor into robes and started setting out our sleeping blankets.

Maya grabbed me by the arm, and the look she gave me told me of her concern. “You need to go talk to her, Alex. I think she could use a big brother right now.” I enfolded her in my arms softly and nuzzled next to her pointed ear.

“Not to complain, but this party is comprised mostly of women. Shouldn’t the big sister talks come into play once in a while?”

Maya giggled and reached up to pat my cheek lovingly. “Oh, we do all the time, automatically under the noses of our clueless males. Just be grateful there are still a few indispensable chores we need to keep you around for.” With that, she headed back to the fire with an exaggerated swing of her lithe hips, a hysterical Nia on her shoulder. They got back just in time to join the current debate about how to feed the unweaned kitten. This was a discussion that had the effect of making the male members of the party very uncomfortable, and we all went our separate ways.

I ventured out in the direction Lin had headed; a few minutes found me standing at the edge of a small mossy patch of ground, next to a deadfall of oak. There was Lin, clumsily going through some basic quarterstaff patterns with a rough-hewed branch that she had apparently just chopped out of the wood pile.

Stepping closer, I waited until she completed her pattern and then ventured, “What’s the matter, Lin?” Looking at her, this was not the girl I knew, normally outgoing, cocky as hell and full of mischief. No this girl was silent, grieving and had a general air of defeat. “Why the sudden interest in weapons training?”

She didn’t answer, just looked back at me with dull eyes. Finally, I removed the staff from her hands and gently sat her down on a large, flat rock. I crouched down low so we were at eye level and reached out to tilt her chin back so she had to look at me. Suddenly, her blue eyes welled up, and with a desperate sob, she threw herself into my arms. Picking her up, I swiveled around and sat on the rock I had intended for her, resting her sideways on my lap, and letting her soak the lapels of my enchanter’s robe with her tears. After a few minutes, the bawling slowed down to mere sniffling and she started to speak, her voice catching, rising and falling with emotion.

“I…I couldn’t protect her, Alex. Maya was right, just because I can become a wolf doesn’t mean I can fight like one. I nearly got both of us killed. If it wasn’t for Ryliss…well, I need to learn weapons! I need to get stronger! I’m pretty much a failure as a bodyguard and a druid.” She sniffled, “Do you think your mother could make me a stronger druid? Give me more magic? I’d gladly lose a few years of life or whatever it takes.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I interrupted. “The forest fire thing was in no way your fault, and Ryliss said you took out several goblins before she got out of the tree. In fact, she said that she wouldn’t have had a sword to fight with if it wasn’t for you. Lin, you are a very good, very capable druid. You’re just comparing yourself to Jules and that isn’t fair. Someone with her power level shows up maybe once in a thousand years or more. Judging by the size of the storm she conjured, Rosa says that when Jules reaches maturity, she’ll be able to affect whole continents! She’s that strong. In a few more years, she won’t need a bodyguard, nothing will touch her. But until then, it’s Reggie’s job to keep her safe.”

“But then she won’t need me either, Alex,” she gritted painfully. “I love her so much, and I don’t know what to do!”

“Lin, she will need you. She’ll need you more than ever because you have the most important job of all,” I said, patting her on the back gently.

“What’s that?”

“To be you, and to be there for her; mother, daughter, friend, or lovers, traveling whatever road your relationship takes you down. Jules will need your strength and love to keep her human. My master, Rosa, says that powerful druids learn to love the wild shape too much, and if they don’t have a powerful reason to return, sometimes they never do. They take an eagle’s wings or a wolf’s paws and are never seen again. You are that reason for Julia to always come home, and it’s an important job, because we all love her.”

Lin hugged me fiercely, her face still buried in my robe front. “Do you really think so, Alex?”

“Lin, my mother said so at that last meal at Sky Raven, don’t you remember?”

“Yes, but I didn’t know what it really meant until now.” She sighed, burrowing in more.

“Ok, are we good then, little sister?” I whispered, kissing her gently on the top of her messy blonde head.

“Hmmm, I guess so. But you can hold me like this for a little while longer, though.” She snickered softly. “Surys back at Sky Raven is going to be so jealous when I tell her about this!” She leaned away from my chest and gave me a big leering grin.

Laughing all the way back, we returned to the group. Lin holding onto my arm possessively and leaning her head on my shoulder. This, of course, raised a few eyebrows from Maya and Julia. With one last smoldering look, an extravagant blown kiss, and an insane giggle, Lin finally let go of me and scampered back to her astonished friends.

We were all up early the next morning, anxious to finally make it back to our new home. The druids foraged out for some strange-looking purple berries, which they brought back before breakfast. But instead of making them part of our meal, they fed them to the donkeys and mules, explaining that they would have an energizing effect on the animals. This, paired with the better-maintained roads we found the closer we got to Sky Raven, made the miles fly by.

Soon we were cresting the ridge that had given us our first view of Sky Raven weeks before. Of course, we had to call a short break to wait for Elsa, Mingt and Ryliss to recover from what everyone called the ‘Sky Raven effect’; they all just stood there with their mouths open in a frozen ‘O’. Ryliss recovered first and, of course, whipped out a sketchpad and began drawing madly. Elsa was frozen solid in her tracks, and it took Darroth and a full tankard of ale to pry her free from the spot.

Moving once again, we approached until we could see sentries moving back and forth on top of the walls. Obviously, they spotted us as well and spread the word, because the huge main gates were starting to open before we even cleared the bridge.

Dropping back, I noticed Ryliss looked nervous, her eyes shifting from the heavily-armed human guards who trooped out of the gate and took up honor positions along both sides, to the fortress itself. The walls from this position looked unimaginatively high and foreboding. She clutched her kitten almost defensively.

“Sir Alex, are you sure Master Mingt and I shouldn’t stay outside until you make sure it’s ok to bring in dark elves?” she asked, her green eyes wide with apprehension.

“It will be fine, Ryliss,” I said.

“Oh, it will be better than fine,”
Rosa’s voice cackled in my mind.
“The worried young lady has a surprise in store for her.”

Urging Somnus and Kaima forward, Maya and I crossed the threshold first. Captain Higs had a second honor guard arrayed on the inside lined up along the gatehouse walls, all in full salute.

We happily slid off Somnus and Kaima, as our favorite stable boys appeared out of nowhere and led them off for a well-deserved rub down. Screeching like a mad woman all the way down from the keep, Rosa ran toward us and engulfed both of us in a huge black-robed hug. She was so excited she didn’t know who to kiss or talk to first, so she tried to do everything at once, in true Rosa fashion. I couldn’t believe how much I had missed her, and from the look on her face, Maya felt the same way; it was Rosa, and we were finally home.

We moved aside a little to allow the heavy wagon entrance as it rolled into the courtyard. Dawn and Dusk stood up, and Dusk uttered a scream of delight and vaulted over the side. “Donalt! Oh, how I’ve missed you!” Dashing up she threw her arms around Higs and brought him down for a deep passionate kiss, which brought raucous cheers of encouragement from the assembled guardsmen.

Maya and I looked at each other in profound confusion.

“Huh?”

“Donalt? By the stars, I didn’t know he had a first name!” my dark elf whispered, scandalized.

“Apparently, that’s not all we didn’t know. And she’s the restrained one,” I commented, watching in awe as they continued their unabashed reunion. Finally, Higs looked up to see us watching them in amazement and his face turned a deep crimson red. Prying Dusk off of him, he presented himself to Maya and snapped to attention.

“Sorry, Ma’am!”

“Umm, not at all, Captain. Carry on…later, that is!” Maya stammered, still shocked.

Meanwhile, our arrival had drawn the attention of most of the student body, and now they were pouring out of buildings and shops in droves to see us. Ryliss and Mingt stood up on top of the wagon and watched in complete bewilderment, their wide eyes and posture screaming that they had landed in an insane asylum, not a fortress. Almost all the younger earth wizard girls and fully half the similarly-aged healer girls were sporting curly silver locks and were wearing dusky purple blush on their faces!

“It’s called the Maya,” a familiar voice intoned from behind us as Hons came up. “It started appearing right after you guys left, pretty much as soon as the earthie girls had some excess time and set up fashion parlors. It’s all the rage right now…Maya you should be honored, you have become the epitome of earthly beauty!”

“I…I don’t know what to say,” my girl blushed, clearly fascinated. By this time, there were a dozen or more male wizards with big smiles on their faces, vying for the right to help Ryliss down out of the wagon. Lin and Julia, of course, were so far beyond the word ‘excited’ that it appeared they would explode; hugging old friends, trying to introduce Ryliss, and just basking in all the notoriety. There was loud and raucous mayhem around the wagon, and the Jag’uri was starting to squirm precariously in Ryliss’s arms.

I heard Hons snort derisively and sigh, “Well, I better break that up before it gets out of hand…say she’s really cute!” Maya and I just looked at each other in delight. With the situation apparently well in hand, we linked arms and started walking toward the keep; we had a valuable package to deliver.

“You two need to get cleaned up and out of your armor,”
Rosa said, breaking in excitedly through our link.
“The cook staff has been preparing food all day, and I have been keeping them apprised of your travel progress. Dinner will be served in the same dining room in the keep where we all met your parents. You have just enough time to bathe and change into some nice clothes. I’m sure your parents are anxious to see you, too.”

“The cooks have been working all day, Rosa? They must be getting really creative with those magic box iron rations,”
I snickered and felt Winya passing the conversation on to my dark elf as well.

“Oh, well…we have stopped using those now. Between the food we barter from Belrothe’s farmers and the new portal, we are getting supplies just like Xarparion did.”

“It’s already fully functional? How did you accomplish that so fast?”

Rosa chuckled through the link. “W
ell, in truth, it certainly helps to have built them before, but having the personification of the universe’s magic on hand as a consultant doesn’t hurt either. Oh, Alex, I can’t wait to show it to you. This one is a variable destination portal; it can go to any one of the existing portals or it can even open to places that have no portal as long as the enchanter has a firm destination fixed in his/her mind…it’s so exciting!”

“Wow, Rosa, you are amazing as always.”

“I know, and don’t you ever forget it either, apprentice,”
she cackled.
“Well, I need to get Mingt settled in his new quarters and have all your companions cleaned up and ready for supper, so see you at supper shortly!”