Rojuun (12 page)

She nodded. “Probably the Kingdom of
Morhain. Maybe we can ask Sir Danth about it.”

“If he’s done beating his head against a
wall,” he nodded in agreement.

“Tathan!” Liselle whacked his chest with the
back of her hand. “That’s not nice.” It was hard for her to glare
past the amused grin she had. “Let’s go back and see how our
friends are doing.”

He followed her, still chuckling. It was
nice to chuckle and smile again. A long time had passed since he
had done so. Tathan looked around at the trees and stream as they
walked. It was a rich forest with varied trees and wildflowers.
Moss grew on rocks and fallen trunks. Insects and small critters
went about their business with no regard to the two humans in their
midst.

Tathan’s sword suddenly swung in a great
twisting arc as he leapt into the air. He jumped down the hill to
avoid the attack he sensed and then rolled to lunge back at his
attacker.

***

Liselle saw Tathan attack, so she tumbled to
avoid the danger. Her bow was off her shoulder and she had an arrow
nocked immediately.

There was no one there. Her cousin was
crouched, with a wild look on his face. His eyes looked strange,
even dark. It was worse than when he had drawn the sword on her
mother back home. “Tathan? I don’t see anybody . . . Are they
invisible?”

Tathan stood straight and shook his head to
clear it. “No one’s there.” He sheathed his sword. “Just . . .
Let’s go back to the tunnel.”

As he tried to walk by, she placed a firm
hand on his shoulder. “What happened to you, Cousin? Why do you
jump at shadows?”

“I . . . I can’t explain . . .” he said
lamely. He saw the worry in her face and gave her a weak smile.
“I’ll be fine. Since we’ve traveled together, I’ve done much
better.” He tried to move ahead, but she held his shoulder. Tathan
could see that she wanted more of an explanation. “Peace, Cousin.”
He took her hand off his shoulder, kissed it as one would a lady,
and then released it.

Liselle watched him walk to the tunnel
before looking back in the direction they had come. She wondered
what could cause a man capable of killing thirty warriors to be so
afraid. Then she thought that perhaps she didn’t
want
to
know. Back home, he had mentioned something wanting his sword. His
voice had an otherworldly quality to it at the time. With a shiver,
she followed Tathan to the tunnel. Liselle didn’t put away the bow
and arrow until they were inside.

Sir Danth was still banging his head against
the wall when they returned. There was a sizeable hole in the wall,
but not even a scratch on the helmet. Tathan motioned that they
should continue back into the cave.

Vevin was nowhere to be seen, but the doors
that he had mentioned were opened. They went over to them. The
large chamber beyond was empty like all the others they had seen,
but there were niches in the walls.

“It will be perfect for treasure!” Vevin
exclaimed behind them, making them jump.

“Vevin!” Liselle yelled, turning around.
“Please don’t scare us like that!” She had a hand on her chest to
catch her breath after the shock.

“Oh! I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise
you,” he apologized. “Once I explored here, I went to check your
horses.” He held their packs up in either hand. “I also brought
your gear. I thought we could camp near the stream tonight.”

“That’s a good idea,” Tathan agreed. “Are
you sure the horses are safe? I’m worried about a forest creature
attacking them.”

“Oh yes!” Vevin nodded enthusiastically.
“They are very safe. I put a ward over them.”

“Thank you, Vevin. That’s very nice of you.”
Liselle smiled at him.

“Oh! You’re very welcome, Lady Liselle,” he
said. “I didn’t know you were a lady, by the way. You should have
told me!”

“A lady? I’m not a lady. I’m just a . . .”
she trailed off, turning to Tathan. “What am I, Cousin?”

He shrugged. “You don’t have a title.
‘Farmer’s daughter’ or ‘Free woman’ would be the most likely
phrases if you were to need one.”

“But Sir Danth called her ‘Milady’,” Vevin
protested.

“Sir Danth will probably call any woman
‘Milady’,” Tathan said. “It’s a thing knights do.”

“I think it suits her.” Vevin smiled and
bowed to Liselle, “Lady Liselle! Oh yes! I like it.” He proceeded
to do his happy dance.

He headed up the ramp. “Let’s set up our
camp then.”

“What about Sir Danth?” Liselle asked as she
followed.

“We’ll get him in the morning if he’s still
banging his head.”

Chapter
12

The next morning, the cousins awoke to the
smell of breakfast. Vevin brought them plates of food when they sat
up. “I hope this is good. I’ve never cooked before.”

They looked dubiously at each other as Vevin
watched for their reactions. Liselle took the first bite. Tathan
waited for her reaction and was surprised to see a positive
response. “Mmm!” she nodded behind a mouthful. As she finished
chewing, she said, “This is good, Vevin.”

Tathan took a bite of his. It
was
good. “Thank you, Vevin. It tastes excellent.”

“Oh good! I’m glad you like it,” Vevin said.
Liselle noticed he wasn’t dancing. Vevin lightly touched his cheek
next to the wound, wincing as he did so. The gash looked
particularly angry.

Liselle set her food down to climb out of
her sleeping roll. Vevin watched as she moved toward him. When she
put out a hand to touch his cheek, he shied away. “Shh,” she
whispered to calm him. He began trembling as she touched the skin
near the gash. The skin felt firmer and more textured than human
skin. It was hot near the wound but cool elsewhere.

“Shh.” Liselle calmed him again. She placed
her other hand to his right cheek in order to hold his head still.
“I think I can ease some of the pain for you, Vevin.”

Even as a child, Liselle could ease pain in
animals and people. It was something she hadn’t told Tathan,
thinking it would seem frivolous to him.

“It’s alright, Lady Liselle. It will get
better.” Vevin tried moving away, but she held him firmly.

“Shh. It’s alright. I’ll be gentle. Shh.”
Liselle moved her hand to the top of the wound. Invisible energy
ran from her fingertips to the wound and the redness began to ease.
Liselle wouldn’t be able to heal it completely. Something magical
had caused the gash. Her eyes were able to see inside of an injury
and determine how to mend it, but this did not look natural at all.
It didn’t help that Vevin’s skull was made of something different
from bone. Added to that was the fact that his skin was much denser
than human skin.

She could take away the infection developing
in it though. Her fingers moved lightly down the length of the
gash, mending as much as possible while removing the infection.
Vevin’s breathing came easier as she healed him. By the time
Liselle was done, much of the redness was gone and the skin around
it was cooler.

Vevin looked at her in awe. The swirling of
his eyes was calmer. “Thank you, Lady Liselle. It feels much
better.”

“You’re welcome, Vevin,” she said with a
smile. “I wasn’t able to do much, but hopefully that helped.”

“Oh yes,” he assured her. “It helped a lot.
Your hands are very soft. They feel good.” Vevin did a slow version
of his happy dance.

Liselle blushed at the compliment. “Thank
you, Vevin.” She sat down, grabbing her plate of food to finish
eating. Tathan was staring at her with an eyebrow raised, but she
didn’t want to answer any questions. “Vevin, have you seen Sir
Danth this morning?”

“Oh yes! He’s still banging his head against
the wall. He’ll make a nice new cave in a few weeks at the rate
he’s going!”

She turned to Tathan with an arched eyebrow.
“Now may I go get him?”

“I’ll go with you,” he said getting up. He
led the way, taking his plate of food with.

Liselle took her plate as well, but Vevin
was empty-handed. Tathan looked back at the creature. “Did you eat,
Vevin?”

“Oh yes!” The first time I tried to cook
breakfast, it wasn’t good, so I ate that. Then I made this and it
tasted good.”

“Why did you eat the first breakfast if it
wasn’t good, Vevin?” Liselle asked.

“Well, we didn’t want it to go to waste, did
we? Never waste food,” he admonished.

“Alright then,” she agreed with a bemused
look. They headed down the ramp into the lower cave. From the open
doors of the vault, they could hear the sound of metal hitting
stone.

They walked up behind Sir Danth. Tathan
tapped the knight on the shoulder. “Sir Danth. Please stop banging
your head against the wall.” Then he turned to the other two.
“There, I asked nicely.”

Vevin nodded. “Oh yes! You asked very
nicely!” Sir Danth, however, did not stop.

Liselle glared at them. She placed a hand on
the knight’s back. “Please, Sir Danth. Come talk to us,” she
pleaded softly.

The knight suddenly stopped and turned to
face her. “Of course, Milady. I apologize. It was not my intention
to upset you. It does not hurt if that’s any consolation.”

“Well that’s good. We have a camp in the
cave above with food if you would come with us.” Liselle showed him
the food.

“Actually, since I no longer have doors to
guard, I would like very much to go outside,” he suggested.

“Yes, of course we can do that.” Liselle set
her plate on a rock to take the arm Sir Danth offered. Then the two
walked down the tunnel. Tathan and Vevin looked at each other,
shrugged, linked their arms and followed.

Once outside, Sir Danth took a deep breath
of air. He looked at the stream burbling along its merry path. “How
very different from before,” the knight remarked. “I believe this
is the Prolly Stream, which once ran through Aaltdiin,” he
explained.

“Aaltdiin?” she asked him.

“Yes, Aaltdiin is the name of the city we
are in.” He looked around at the peaceful forest. Flowers were
everywhere, butterflies flittering about between them. “Or at least
the city that used to be here.” He pointed toward where the stream
went off the ledge of the cliff. “Prolly Stream used to be the same
height as the rest of the city. It fell to the forest below. The
stream must have worn this modest canyon in the centuries
since.”

“I imagine it was a beautiful city at one
time, though I find the forest that’s taken its place delightful as
well,” Liselle said with a smile to her knight.

“It truly was, Milady. Tens of thousands of
people lived here. There were smaller towns and villages throughout
the forest.” He gestured grandly toward the cliffs. “And beyond was
the rest of the Kingdom of Morhain.”

“What happened to the Kingdom?” Liselle
asked.

“Everyone disappeared,” he said.

Liselle’s brow furrowed in puzzlement.
“Disappeared?”

“Yes. Everyone just started disappearing.”
He shrugged. “Wizards and scholars tried to figure out how or what
happened, but they never succeeded.”

“People don’t just disappear from an entire
kingdom, Sir Danth,” Tathan protested. “Something must have
happened to them. Surely there was a disease, or they left, or
something.”

“I would agree with you my good man.
However, that is exactly what happened. Poof!” the knight said
dramatically, gesturing with his hands. “More and more people
disappeared. Over the course of six years, nine out of every ten
people disappeared and no one ever figured out where.”

“Poof!” Vevin said with a giggle. “Poof,
poof.” Liselle smiled at their purple friend who seemed to enjoy
the word.

Sir Danth ignored Vevin. “It was decided
that all who didn’t disappear should leave. As one of the last
Knights of Morhain, I agreed to stand watch over the Crown of
Morhain to protect what the king considered the last and most
important symbol of the kingdom.”

“I’ve never heard of people just
disappearing though. It doesn’t make any sense,” Tathan
insisted.

Sir Danth spread his arms.

Liselle became thoughtful. “So . . . What
will you do now that there’s no crown to guard? Do you intend to
search for it?”

“Go after it? Heavens no. There is no reason
to do so.” A hollow chuckle emanated from within the armor.
“Besides, I might find myself honor-bound to protect it again if I
did. I
don’t
want to stand around for another
millennium.”

They laughed at that. Tathan asked, “So what
will you do, Sir Knight?”

Sir Danth was silent for a moment. Then he
held his arms out helplessly.

“Travel with us, Sir Danth,” Liselle said
with a smile. “We could use the company.”

Tathan turned to her. “We could?”

“Yes, Cousin. We could,” she insisted, her
arms crossed as though daring him to disagree.

“Alright,” he said. “But next time you
decide to invite someone to travel with us, don’t you think you
should be considerate enough to discuss it with me first?”

Liselle’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
“I’m sorry, Cousin. I should have talked to you first.”

“Thank you.” He put a hand on her shoulder
and smiled to let her know he wasn’t upset. Then he turned to the
knight. “Sir Danth, I agree with Liselle. Will you join us in our
travels?”

“I would know where you are traveling to and
what you intend to accomplish before I agree,” the knight said.

Liselle and Tathan looked at each other and
shrugged. “We don’t know,” Tathan admitted. “Our home . . .” Tears
welled in his eyes. “Warriors killed our parents. Liselle and I
were the only ones to survive and we’ve been traveling without
knowing where we’re going or what to do.” The loss stung Liselle,
drawing moisture to her eyes as well.

“Would you go back to seek vengeance then?”
Sir Danth asked.