Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) (5 page)

Except that she knew she was really the least
qualified. She had seen Gryffon practicing his swordsmanship and
even if he hadn’t normally worn a sword around, she had seen them
strapped on during ceremonial purposes and he looked very
comfortable with it. And Katya…she wasn’t sure why she got the
feeling, but Layna was sure that this woman was no wallflower lady.
The way she moved was very deliberate, each move calculated and
planned like she was ready for anything. The fluid motion reminded
Layna very much of a snake.

-
You may not have experience,
but you have the talent and the will to use it
,- Kai’s deep
rumbling baritone sounded in her head. -
Do you
remember the little girl whittling sticks into swords and
practicing in the fields when she was supposed to be darning
socks?
-

Layna laughed and was rewarded with odd looks
from both Katya and Gryffon who had been contemplating her
question. A gust of wind blew up suddenly and whipped her hair into
her face. She brushed it off hurriedly and watched Gryffon’s
expression which seemed to be a mixture of confusion and something
bordering on fear. He didn’t seem entirely comfortable with her
talking to the Three in her head and she cleared her throat.
“Sorry, um, so is there?”

“Yes,” he answered after a short pause, “I
was trying to remember exactly where the large library and museum
are, we have smaller ones in Endlyfta for training, but the Hall of
Histories that the scholars who have devoted their lives to history
is located somewhere else. Why do you ask?”

“They think that maybe someone there or some
reference there might give us a clue as to where the sword came
from or know more about it. We’re also going to have to figure out
how to get to Nuko’s prison. It’s somewhere past the Ferryn Plains
surrounded by chaotic magic and other perils. Just think of all the
stories we’ve heard about the things coming from in from Plains
into the North Woods. And that’s on the very edge of the cleansed
world. Nuko will be in the heart of chaos.”

“I think our most pressing matter at the
moment has to be going back to Endlyfta and informing them about
the army and the bracers that Katya told us about.” Gryffon stated.
Layna had been filled in on the situation, and was torn - as were
her three guests. It did seem imperative to get this information to
the authorities and also important to stay and help should the
fighting come sooner than expected as Katya’s information
suggested, but was it better to spend time and energy fighting the
war or would that time be better spent looking at the bigger
picture and ridding the world of an evil that had already once
caused great bloodshed and was no doubt instrumental in starting
the war in the first place.

Katya rolled her eyes and sighed, “They’ll
figure it out themselves soon enough won’t they?”

Gryffon seemed to be struggling to control
his response so Layna cut in, “I agree with Gryffon,” she said and
he sent her a grateful look. “They need to know what they have to
be prepared for or else they’ll be slaughtered. What’s the good in
saving the world if half of it has been killed off? Plus, let’s not
forget that we still need to find the Bloodstone too, and since
Aileen said it was in Treymayne until recently and she suspects it
may now be in Gelendan, it would be prudent to have a presence
here.” She suddenly got an idea, it was one of those thoughts that
she couldn’t tell if it had come from herself, if it was a
suggestion from one of the Three, or if it was one of their
thoughts rubbing off on her. Sometimes that happened, that she
would feel a bit of their emotions or thoughts even when they
weren’t ‘with’ her. The problem they were dealing with had them all
a bit distracted, and not a little unhappy. This thought, however,
could potentially be very useful. “I think,” she started slowly,
piecing it together, “that we might be able to come up with a
compromise, but it does require splitting up.”

“Is that a smart idea?” asked Gryffon.

“Split up and do what?” asked Katya.

Layna took a deep breath. “Well, we know that
there’s a way to travel by magic over long distances, right? We
heard that that’s how Jezebel got transported here. So maybe we
could use that to get to Nuko quickly.”

Katya interrupted her, “Sure, but I don’t
think it would be a good idea to transport directly into a mass of
chaotic magic, and there’s the tiny problem of having no idea where
he is to transport to.”

“That’s where the splitting up part comes in.
What if one of us, or two of us even, travel by regular means to
find him and cleanse the area enough to perform the magic that
would be needed to transport us all there.”

“Why not just take care of him without
bothering to bring the others if they’ve already gone through the
trouble of getting there?” asked Katya. “Just saying…”

“No,” Layna answered, unfazed by Katya’s
tone, “whatever it is that we’re going to need to do involves all
of us. It’s definitely important that we’re all present, he’s much
too powerful. But that way, while one group is traveling to find
where he is, the other can be researching information about the
Bloodstone and the sword and helping prepare Treymayne for
war.”

“Well, I guess I’m the one going then,” Katya
said.

“Why’s that?” Gryffon asked.

“Well for one, I’m the most qualified to keep
myself alive,” Layna noticed Gryffon’s face turning a shade darker
and his fists clenched at his sides. “And I highly doubt that
anyone is going to listen to me from your little council there. I’m
not exactly well-known.”

“That’s true,” Layna agreed and turned to
Gryffon, “You’re really the one that needs to give this information
to the council, coming from either of us,” she pointed to Katya and
then herself, “they wouldn’t be as ready to believe it.”

“I’m not really sure they put much stock into
my words anymore either,” he said, “but I see your point. Layna and
I also already have relationships with Aileen and Echo who can also
help to convince them and may even have more information for
us.”

“Good,” Katya stated matter-of-factly, “it’s
settled then. I’ll start out in the morning.”

That night when Gryffon went out to collect
more firewood, Katya came over and sat next to Layna. She sat there
a moment staring at the fire and Layna wondered what was on her
mind. She was fingering a small package in her hand.

“Are you regretting agreeing to join our
little group?” Layna asked after a moment when she still hadn’t
said anything.

“No. Apparently it’s my destiny,” Katya
answered cynically, and then added slowly, “but there’s something I
have to tell you.” She paused for another long moment and Layna
waited patiently. When she spoke again it all came out in a rush.
“Your parents are dead. I was being held captive by one of the
collars that I told you about under the control of Karl, Jezebel’s
father, but I escaped. When I did, I accidentally touched Karl’s
mind and from it got an image of two people who are somehow
connected to my past. It was your parents. I tracked them down in
Elbridge and introduced myself to them. And that’s when the
assassin came and killed them.”

Layna was stunned. Her parents were dead?
Tears sprung to her eyes. “What do you mean Elbridge? They live in
Rockham, maybe you have the wrong people…”

Katya shook her head, “I don’t think so…their
names were Gerald and Evelyn.”

Layna’s tears were flowing freely now and she
put her hands to her face. She felt Katya’s hand rest tentatively
on her shoulder and fought the urge to shrug her off. If she hadn’t
visited them, if it hadn’t been for her, maybe…Layna could suddenly
feel the Three inside her, calming her and she stopped her mind
from placing blame. Katya obviously didn’t know that it would
happen. But why would someone assassinate her parents? After a few
minutes, Layna sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. Crying
over it wouldn’t bring them back.

Katya was staring down at the package in her
hands.

“What’s that?”

“Before he died your father gave this to me
to give to you. I don’t know why, he didn’t…” she trailed off and
unfolded the fabric around the package revealing a small box
inside. “Does it mean anything to you?”

Layna smiled affectionately, fighting back
the tears what were welling up once more. “It’s a puzzle box, my
father used to make them for me as a little girl.”

Katya picked it up and handed it to her and
she deftly turned it so that it revealed its opening. Katya raised
her eyebrows as she lifted out a beautiful silver necklace. A jewel
was encrusted in the center of the pendant, surrounded by the
images of a dragon and a phoenix.

“It’s beautiful.”

Katya spoke, “Do you recognize it?”

Layna shook her head negatively as she
reverently placed it around her neck.

“Your father said something about you
deserving to know who you are…” She looked at Layna expectantly as
though this would mean something to her, but it didn’t. Layna knew
who she was. She shrugged and Katya continued, “Your mother also
insisted that it wasn’t my presence that had brought about their
deaths, that they had been expecting the day…”

“Why would they have been expecting it?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Katya
answered unhelpfully. “I went to see them in hopes that they could
give me some clue as to my past, but before I could ask them…it
happened.”

“Why would just an image of them cause you to
track them down?”

“My memories of my childhood were completely
erased from my mind, the images of your parents are the first I’ve
ever had…finding out who I really am, who I used to be, is very
important to me,” she paused, unable to put into words what she
wanted to say, “I thought maybe they could help me find out who I
was before…or that they, or you, might have recognized me.”

Layna looked harder at the woman, trying to
imagine her as a little girl, and scouring her own memories for any
other children she’d come across. As she did so, she felt something
strange about her, and Layna shifted her focus to look within the
girl with her magesight. Inside her mind was the taint of another,
and Layna wrinkled her nose. The Three helped her understand what
it was. “I think that someone may have implanted the memory of
their faces into your mind,” she regretfully told Katya who looked
taken aback. “They may not have had anything to do with you at all.
I’m sorry.”

“Who did it? And why?” Katya asked.

Layna just shrugged, having reached the
extent of the information that she could pass along to the girl,
and the shock of her parent’s death weighed down on her. Katya’s
eyes grew full of concern, and she looked down awkwardly.

Gryffon stepped back into their campsite just
then and looked down at the two of them. “What’s going on?” he
asked, setting the wood down next to the fire.

“Katya just told me that my parents are
dead,” Layna said, her voice cracking.

Katya hastily stood and excused herself,
disappearing into the woods.

“Are you okay?” Gryffon asked softly, coming
to sit down beside her. A light rain sprinkled down on them and
when she nodded but seemed content to say nothing, he got up and
put canvases over their bags and tied one up over their heads
before sitting next to her once more.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Gryffon said
and she was only slightly surprised by his words, “she traveled all
this way to give you the news and the package that your father had
asked her to give you, I figured it was right to have her be the
one to do it…”

She looked at him and gave him a small smile
and nodded, “She was.”

“There’s something about her though,” Gryffon
said, thoughtful. “Like she’s not being entirely honest with us.
I’m not completely convinced that we can trust her to find
Nuko.”

Layna’s sad smile grew. “I think we can,” she
said, letting out a short breath of air, “she wants to find out who
she is, and she can only do that by helping us. I think she was
abused in a lot of ways, and used for other people’s purposes most
of her life. She is just now figuring out that she can make a
difference. She seems to want to do the right thing.”

Gryffon looked thoughtful a moment before
changing the subject. “What did your father give you?”

Layna held up the necklace for him to see.
“Katya said something about my deserving to know who I was, but
that makes no sense. I think maybe she was confused and he meant it
about her. Someone implanted the images of my parents in her head,
Gryffon, and then they died. That’s a bit strange don’t you
think?”

He was still examining the necklace, “It’s
almost as if it’s,” he tilted his head and then shook it slightly,
“Never mind.” His attention turned to her words. “That is strange.
I thought maybe their deaths was a result of someone finding out
about your talent…or their ominous foretelling of their demise was
a result of them knowing about it,” he put in quickly as her lip
started quivering, “not that it’s your fault at all, but the whole
assassin part and now the implanted memories…”

Layna sighed. “Strange events seem to be a
common theme in our lives lately…”

CHAPTER 3

Nathair slammed his fist into the table. “I
want to attack NOW!” he shouted at his advisor, aware that the man
was a scant hair away from wetting himself.

“I understand, Sire,” he stammered, obviously
wanting to console him, “but it would be most impractical to do so
at this junction.”

Nathair had to admire the man’s strength of
will to disagree with him and he took a deep breath, forcing
himself to calm down. If he kept eating people there’d be no one
left to serve him. “And why do you think we need to wait?”

The man fidgeted. “Due to your recent changes
in our own governmental situation and the suddenly drastically
different view that the people have of you…it would be prudent to
gauge their reactions and solidify our home-front before turning
our attention outwards.”