Redemption (21 page)

"But the Talent can do so much good," protested Winona. "How can you say such a thing?"

"The evil it does far outweighs the good," replied Jared. "I know that wispers are taught that the Talent remains neutral and that the good equals the bad, but what is the measure used to determine that? Is the good about knowing the gender of your unborn child truly equal to the death of another person? Is healing a flesh wound really equal to the stealing of a man's identity? Good and evil are relative terms, and I do not think that most men would agree with what the Talent considers a true balance. I would be willing to give up the good Talent if the bad Talent would also perish."

"I don't know," Winona frowned with disagreement. "Orro would not still live without the Talent. That alone must outweigh a tremendous amount of evil."

"I respect Orro," Jared replied. "He has taught me a great deal over the last few months. He has shown me that I must perform the duty required of me, and he has filled me with the knowledge I need to complete my task. Still, the Talent murdered my mother and father. I would easily trade all of the knowledge given to me by Orro to have them still alive. That may make me appear selfish to you, but it only reinforces my statements about good and evil being relative."

"It does make you appear selfish," frowned Winona. "All of the people of Harangar are dependent upon Orro's wisdom and guidance. Are you so willing to destroy those people for your own needs?"

"My own needs?" balked Jared as he stopped preparing the meal and stared at the woman. "My mother was murdered on the day I was born. I have never seen her smiling face, not even in my dreams. My whole life has revolved around my father who spent my entire life running from the Borundans in an attempt to keep me alive. The Talent murdered him. And now I am expected to use the Talent to murder my only brother, a man who I have never met in my entire life. My whole family and bloodline will be destroyed by this Talent you praise so highly."

Winona's brow creased heavily as the normally timid Jared verbally lashed out.

"Look around you, Winona," Jared continued. "Three of the finest princes in the Land of the Nine Kingdoms will be dead before this is all over. Their nations will weep for generations at the loss of these fine men. Talot, Monte, and Sandar will also die. Their only crime is their devotion to the Arin prince who has dedicated his life to keeping me alive. Do not talk to me of the greatness of the Talent. If it were within my power, I would banish the Talent for all time. It is the one thing in this world that I could easily bring myself to destroy."

Jared's voice had risen sharply, and everyone stopped and turned to see what the problem was. Jared's face flushed a brilliant red, and he rose and stormed off into the woods. Winona glanced around at the inquiring stares and then made herself busy completing the meal. The group ate in silence with no one wanting to bring up the question of Jared's emotional outburst. After the meal was over, people wandered off to settle in for the night. Prince Antion sat near the fire and stripped off his furs. He had begun sewing the cut that he received in the morning's fight when Winona appeared and sat down next to him. The prince looked up momentarily and then returned to his chore.

"Everyone seems to think that my views are wrong," she said softly. "Perhaps it is time for me to be asking why I am along on this journey."

"That is a question that we all ask ourselves daily," Prince Antion smiled tautly. "Orro has a plan in place for you, or he would not have decreed our acceptance of you. I would have thought that he would have explained your purpose to you."

"He did," confessed Winona, "but I am thinking beyond the words of the ancient one. Why is Orro what he is? Why has the Talent allowed him to continue to be a force in the world after so many generations?"

"Those are daunting questions," the prince replied softly as he continued sewing. "There is so much that we do not understand about ourselves and the world we live in. Sometimes we just have to accept the fact that we will never have all of the answers."

"Yet you act so self-assured all of the time," Winona pointed out. "How do you know that you are doing the right thing?"

"There is no question in my mind about that," answered the Arin prince. "I have seen both brothers, both sides of the Talent. One is the perfect face of pureness and the other is the darkest evil that the world has seen in many generations. It is no task at all to choose which side I want to stand on."

"But why stand at all?" asked Winona. "You said that the Talent would inhabit another if you died. Would it not also do so if you refused to get involved? You could just walk away from all of this. You could return to Anatar and play a prince as you were born to do."

"Play a prince?" echoed Antion. "You have strange ideas of what royalty is supposed to do. My father brought me up as a servant, a servant of the people of Arin. I am well educated and well trained, but that was done to enable me to serve the people better. A good king is like a shepherd, and the people are his flock. As king, one must see to the cares of his people. He is responsible for more than just keeping the borders safe. He is duty bound to aid the poor, and heal the sick. He has to feed the hungry and stand up for the abused."

"That does not match the stories that I have heard about the kingdoms," frowned Winona. "I hear more about the splendor in which the kings indulge themselves at the expense of their subjects, but let us not get involved in a discussion about kingdoms. My point was, you could walk away from all of this. Why don't you?"

"I could not walk away," Prince Antion shook his head. "While the Talent might be willing to manifest itself within another host, I could not live with myself if I walked away from this challenge. Evil has thrown down the gauntlet and threatened to rule over all of the peoples of the Land of the Nine Kingdoms. If the Talent suddenly decided to depart from within me and inhabit someone else, I would still stand at Jared's side. I will not run from it. Whatever must be done, Jared and I will see it through to the end. We will vanquish the evil from our land."

"I think I am beginning to understand why the Talent chose to inhabit you," Winona smiled thinly. "Perhaps your optimistic courage is just what I needed to hear to sort out my own feelings."

"You are having misgivings?" asked Prince Antion.

"I did not choose to accompany you," Winona declared. "That decision was made for me by Orro. Jared's words earlier this evening caused me to question why Orro has the right to demand my life."

"He does not have the right," asserted Prince Antion. "Everyone here is involved because they chose to be. If your heart is not in this mission, I implore you to return home."

"Talot said those very words yesterday," Winona noted. "I thought they were to be taken lightly, but I now believe that they were said in earnest."

"What did you do to me this morning?" the prince asked after a short lull in the conversation. "I know your fainting was caused by draining the Talent out of yourself. Orro taught me that much. I also felt the touch of the Talent upon my skin, and I asked Jared if he had done anything. He said he had not."

Winona had been looking into the prince's eyes. She lowered her gaze to the fire before answering.

"I can use the Talent," she admitted. "I have been sent along to protect Jared where your swords might fail. Orro feared that we might run into a situation where Zinan uses other wispers to halt your advance. I am to make sure that Jared is not harmed in such encounters. This morning I saw that you would be killed. Jared was not in danger, so I used the Talent to strengthen your skin. I hoped that it would be enough to allow you to survive. I believe that it did."

"It did indeed," smiled Prince Antion. "The blow might not have killed me directly, but the wound would have been very serious. I am indebted to you."

"You have incurred no debt," countered Winona. "I was merely performing as one of the group."

"You must have pressed close to your personal limit," frowned the Arin prince. "Orro taught me that one can burn the Talent right out of themselves if they are not careful. You could have done that to yourself."

"Orro taught me as well," replied Winona. "I stopped before the danger point."

"I wish he had taught you how to draw it out of me," stated Prince Antion. "You would have been able to protect me without endangering yourself."

"He did teach me," smiled Winona. "The last dozen times you felt the Talent being drawn out of your body during the sessions, it was me doing the drawing, not Orro. He was insistent that I become able to tap into your well, but he also warned me not to do so when we got close to Zinan. It takes time for the Talent to regenerate within you, as it does in any wielder of the Talent. If I were to draw too much out of you, you would become weak and disoriented as I did this morning."

"How much Talent do I hold?" asked the prince. "Could you draw enough out of me to protect me and still have me function as a warrior?"

"Easily," nodded Winona. "The amount of Talent inside you is impressive. It is easily ten times the amount within me. Maybe more. It is hard for me to imagine Jared using all of that to combat his brother, but Orro insists that he will need it all when the time comes. What are you thinking?"

"Such protection might come in handy long before we reach Zinan," mused Prince Antion. "If it could be applied without weakening either of us, it just might give us the edge we need to protect Jared."

The servant picked up King Zinan's pack and departed from the king's chamber. Zinan gave one last glance around the room to see if he had forgotten to pack anything. Satisfied that he was ready to depart, he entered the queen's chamber. Queen Tamil rose from her chair with a broad smile on her face. She hurried across the floor and embraced her husband.

"Must you leave?" she asked.

"We have been through this already," King Zinan replied softly. "There are some things that only I can do. We will meet in a few weeks in the Castle of Capri. I can no longer stand the horrible masses of Tarent."

"My father said that you vetoed my plan for a festival," frowned Queen Tamil. "Perhaps if the people here had more to look forward to than just paying taxes, they would be friendlier towards you."

"I do not need their friendship," scowled King Zinan. "I am the king. They must do what I want them to do."

"Of course," sighed the queen, "but there are more pleasant ways of getting things done. It would not cost much to hold a festival and the people would see that you care for them."

"I do not care for them," retorted the king. "They live by my sufferance. I do not need their permission for anything."

"Zinan," pleaded the queen, "you are a strong ruler and you can keep the people in line, but what about your son? If you turn the people of Borunda against you, they will seek revenge upon your son when you are gone. Is it asking too much to throw a bone to the dogs once in a while to keep peace within your kingdom? Will you conquer the world only to leave it to your son who will be hated by all? Let me handle the people of Tarent. I will turn their black hearts away from hatred and make them happy. I am sure that I can do it. Let me help you build a future for our son. Please?"

King Zinan sighed and stared into his wife's face. Her large brown eyes and elfish smile brought a smile to his stubborn lips, and he began laughing.

"Sometimes I wonder who truly rules this palace," he chuckled. "If your father is not trying to bend my will in the meeting room, you are twisting it in the bedroom. You may have your festival, Tamil, but be gentle with my purse. The wars are not over just yet, and I shall have great need of the gold in the next few months."

"Couldn't you stay home for a few weeks and enjoy the festival?" pushed the queen. "Surely whatever task is dragging you from Tarent can wait a while?"

"Actually," frowned the king, "it can not wait at all. The timing of my trip is incredibly important. I have waited all winter for this precise moment to arrive. I must leave immediately."

The king kissed his wife goodbye and hurried through the palace to join his waiting escort.

* * *

The huge Oasis was packed with Odessian warriors and their beauties. Thousands of men milled about waiting for the call that would send them over the river and into Vineland to foil the attack on Caxon. They had been waiting for over a month and were growing very restless.

Inside a large yurt the King of Odessia and his advisors were just as restless. King Rihad sat and stared at the map spread out before him. While his eyes focused on the features of the map, his thoughts were elsewhere. Kanior paced the floor of the yurt, the impatience of his youth demanding a physical release of his pent up energy. The other advisors were detached from the crisis. Some sat near the wall of the yurt discussing mundane thoughts, while others slept upon the beds lining the walls of the yurt. Finally Kanior halted in front of the table with the map on it.

"The witch was lying," he said accusingly. "If the Vinelanders had any thoughts of using the frozen river to cross into Caroom, they should have begun their march already. The spring melt is upon us and soon the Vine River will be flooding its banks. She has lured your armies to the far eastern section of Odessia to lay bare Oran for a Borundan attack."

"That is a possibility," King Rihad nodded calmly, "but her voice was one of reason. I could have ignored her warnings and let Caxon fall, but I chose not to. We will wait another week to see what the Vinelanders do. If there is no move to the north as we suspect, we will head back to Natura and make alternate plans, but I still believe that Naveena was speaking the truth as she knew it."

"As she knew it," echoed Kanior. "I suspect that she was fed worthless information to draw us away from Oran. Our city lies unprotected and our armies are a world away from helping to defend it."

"Understood," sighed King Rihad. "Odessian warriors are not city defenders, Kanior. Our strength lies on the sands and the swiftness of our mounts. Would you truly want to see your brothers standing on the ramparts trying to defend a city? That is not the legacy of our civilization. Even in the olden times, Odessians were the attacker of cities, not the defenders. Let the Borundans seize Oran and then we shall see how long they keep it."

The Odessian king revealed nothing about his knowledge of his neighboring allies, but he knew that the Salacian army sat poised on their eastern frontier ready to ride through Oran and attack Capri. If the Borundans were foolish enough to attack Oran, they would be facing the armies of two great nations, not one. The Odessian and Salacian armies would easily overwhelm the Borundans.

The king and his advisors were distracted by the sounds from outside the yurt. As a rider raced towards the door and dismounted in a hurry, the advisors dropped their quiet conversations and stared at the flap of the yurt. Those who had been resting on beds sat up and waited expectantly. The flap was drawn back and a warrior swiftly entered the yurt. He bowed to King Rihad and hurried to the table to report.

"The Vinelanders are cracking the ice in the Vine River," the warrior reported. "It is as if they know what we are planning."

"What area of the river are they removing the ice from?" asked the king.

"All of it," answered the warrior. "They must have been working on it for weeks, but no one thought it was important enough to report as it was not in the area where we planned to cross. I sent scouts all the way down to the mouth of the river. The river flows free everywhere south of the upper bend. If they complete this last section, we will not be able to cross the river unless we use the bridges down by Laborg."

"Did your scouts check those bridges?' asked Kanior.

"They did," nodded the warrior. "Both bridges are heavily guarded. There are also engineers camped nearby each of them in case they have to be dismantled."

"So there is truth in the witch's words," the king declared as he glanced at Kanior. "Can the Vinelanders be stopped from breaking the ice cover completely?"

"I don't think so," the warrior shook his head. "We would have to fire upon the Vinelanders to dissuade them from continuing and that would be an act of war. Even if we chose that path, the flow is free below the bend. They need only crack the ice enough to separate it. The flow of the river will take care of the rest."

"Have their armies started moving northward?" asked Kanior.

"Not yet," the warrior shook his head.

"Then to attack the river workers would be an unprovoked act of war indeed," frowned the king. "We would be giving Borunda a valid excuse to attack us."

"And our attack would be insufficient to halt the destruction of the ice," added Kanior. "They have outsmarted us."

"I do not understand their timing," mused the king. "In another week the river ice would break up on its own. If they intended to use the ice to cross into Caroom, why wait until the very last minute to do so? Was the timing such that they needed the thaw to halt our advance across the Vine River, or is there a more important reason for cutting things so closely?"

"If we hurried," interjected the warrior, "we could get our armies across by going through Lom. None of the Vinelanders appeared to be working around our boundary with Lom."

"The Lomites would not let us ride through their country," Kanior shook his head. "There are still memories of the ancient wars between our two peoples. The only way we can aid Caroom now is to ride around Lom and join forces with those defending Caxon."

"I will not take our armies so far from home," declared King Rihad. "Besides, by the time we got there, the battle would be over. Send a runner to Caxon, Kanior. Tell King Justin that the Odessians will be unable to help in the upcoming battle. Make sure that he understands that we desire to help, but are incapable of crossing the river. If his family needs to flee, Natura stands ready to welcome them."

* * *

As Prince Derri reached the crest of the hill, he slowed his pace to view the trail behind him. He had intended to search for the Borundans tracking him, but his eyes fell on Winona who was only half way up the hill.

"Winona is in trouble," the Salacian prince said as Prince Antion reached the summit. "I think her horse has gone lame."

The Arin prince turned and looked down the hill. Winona had dismounted and was walking her horse up the hill. Prince Antion turned his horse around and rode down to help her.

"What is the problem?" the prince called as he neared her.

"She cannot keep up with the Odessian beauties," replied Winona. "She will die if I continue at your pace."

Prince Antion halted and dismounted as the rest of the group came down the hill to help.

"We need to rest a bit," declared Winona.

"We can't," replied Prince Derri. "The Borundans are only an hour behind us."

"You saw them?" Prince Antion asked with alarm.

"You can see them from the summit," nodded the Salacian prince. "They are moving at a decent pace. Within an hour they will be here."

"We do not have far to go," offered Monte. "The next big hill after this one is the last before Caxon. We can be in the city by nightfall. Surely the Borundans would not dare to chase us into Caxon."

"They have followed us doggedly for days," mentioned Sandar. "I would not put it past them to try to kill us in Caxon."

"My brother is in the army," retorted Monte. "I will alert him to the presence of the Borundans. No Caroomite soldier will stand for a foreign army in his land."

Prince Antion looked at Monte and nodded his agreement. "I will stay with Winona," he declared. "The rest of you must get Jared to Caxon. We will meet you there tomorrow."

"I think not," frowned Prince Umal. "We are not going to leave you to the Borundans. Derri can escort Jared to the city while the rest of us plan a defense."

"No," Prince Antion replied strongly. "I have no intentions of fighting the Borundans if we can help it. They are an hour behind us. That is sufficient time for all of you to get into the city and alert the Caroom army. Winona and I will hide in the woods until the Borundans have passed. By then my horse will have had sufficient rest to carry both of us on to Caxon."

"His plan makes sense," offered Talot. "There is a rock-strewn path at the summit of this hill. Winona and Prince Antion can veer off the trail without their trackers taking notice of it. They will pass by quickly to try to capture us before we reach the city. It can work."

"If it must be done this way," nodded Prince Derri, "let us do it and stop wasting time with arguments."

Prince Umal reluctantly agreed and the six men turned and raced for the summit, leaving Prince Antion and Winona to climb the hill on foot leading their horses behind them.

"Why did you demand to stay with me?" asked Winona. "I could just as easily have hidden in the woods alone."

"Your horse is exhausted," replied the prince. "It will take much more than an hour's rest for it to recuperate. We will abandon her as soon as we are well away from this trail. My Odessian beauty, however, will be ready when we are. It made sense that one of us had to stay with you, and I could not assign that to someone else."

"Because you fear that we might have to fight after all?" questioned Winona. "That is the truth of the matter, isn't it?"

"Prince Umal chose the very best horse in Harangar for you to ride," replied the Arin prince. "She has done well, but not well enough. How do you think the Borundan horses are holding up under the pace that Prince Derri has set?"

"They must be equally exhausted," frowned Winona. "Do you fear that the Borundans will give up the chase near the summit of this hill?"

"The thought crossed my mind," nodded the prince. "If they do halt near the summit, we will be in great danger. I could not ask one of the others to assume a risk that they might not be aware of."

"You are a strange man for a prince," Winona smiled thinly. "I could almost believe that your parents disowned you."

"Your people have been gone from the Land of the Nine Kingdoms for too long," chuckled the prince. "Your views on the character of royal families are antiquated. Someday I will introduce you to my father so you can see how a true Arin king behaves. You will find him refreshing."

Although Winona was sure that the prince had meant his invitation as a joke, her reply was sincere. "I would truly enjoy meeting your father," she smiled. "Perhaps Harangar has been isolated for too many generations."

They reached the summit of the hill and immediately turned off. Prince Antion led the way into the forest with Winona following closely. There was no trail to follow, but there was a strip of broken and weathered stones that appeared to have been part of an ancient wall. They chose their steps carefully and moved slowly to avoid leaving any imprints for the Borundans to follow. The pace was agonizingly slow, but they finally came to a clearing where it was safe to move off of the old wall.

"Let me protect you with the Talent," Winona suggested. "If it comes to battle, at least you will be better equipped to deal with it."

"Can you protect yourself as well?" asked the prince.

"I cannot," Winona shook her head. "I only have the capacity to protect one of us."

"Draw from me," suggested Prince Antion. "I want both of us protected, and I cannot afford for you to faint. Orro has taught me how to cut off the flow of Talent should I ever need to."

Winona drew the Talent from the prince's body and when she was done she asked, "Did you need to cut off the flow?"