The Destroyer (13 page)

“Oh, okay.” She hesitated and looked at the cup. After a few more moments she took a small sip and set it down on the table closer to me. Her cheeks were now a dark red and she looked at the ground. I finished the last bite and took the cup, draining all the water from it in a quick gulp. As soon as I set the cup down she filled it up again.

“Can I take your bowl to the kitchen? Are you done?” her voice was eager. I nodded and sat back in my chair. My eyelids were starting to become heavy. I closed them for a second and I heard her move to the kitchen and set the bowl somewhere.

“You are going to like meeting my father. He is a great man. I am delighted that you will come back to my home.” I opened my eyes and smiled at her in contentment. “You look tired!” she said with concern.

“The food makes me sleepy. I’ve been hungry.”

“You are rather skinny. You need to eat a lot!” she giggled, then realized she had spoken louder than a whisper, and she covered her pretty mouth with a delicate hand.

We were both silent for a moment.

“I’ve never actually been alone with a man,” she whispered. She looked to her side at the fire on the hearth.

“I don’t understand.”

"My brother, father, and Greykin don’t really count. I’ve never been alone with any other man.” She looked over to me and then back at the fire. I still didn’t understand what she meant, even though I understood the words.

“Alone like no other man or woman around, or alone like . . .” I realized I didn’t know the word for sex or mating. I opened my hands and slid them together, fingers entwining. Her eyes opened wide.

“Oh no! I haven’t . . . I mean neither alone nor that! I’ve never done that!” Her face was bright red and I could hear her heart beating quickly through her chest. I smiled at her and then leaned forward. My hand reached across the table and stroked the top of her hand that had absently played with the cup.

“Do you want to, with me?” I asked. My body needed some release and she seemed quite stressed all of a sudden. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open.

“I can’t believe you. Did you really say that?” She looked shocked and her small body shook a little. I frowned. Maybe I had said it wrong?

“You,” I pointed to her, “me,” I pointed at my chest, “alone.” I rubbed the top of her hand with mine and smiled at her. She moved her hand away and laughed.

“Oh yes. We are alone.” She looked relieved.

“No no. Alone.” I made the movement with my hands where the palms came together and the fingers entwined. This would have been easier if I knew the word for sex. The language barrier was frustrating, but I didn’t feel the same amount of angst I had experienced in my memory when the silver-haired Elven skewered me.

“I don’t know what you mean. I don’t think you know what you are saying. Do you understand what you are saying? People don’t say that.” She spoke quickly and glanced behind her at the hallway.

“I understand what I said. Yes or no?” I drank another swallow of water. The thought of running my hands and mouth over her body was appealing, but if I couldn't have her now, I wanted to go to bed. Sleep seemed almost the perfect lover right now.

“No! I mean. We aren’t joined and there isn’t a bed and my father doesn’t know and Greykin is in the next room!” she whispered. She turned her head back to the kitchen with her chin in the air. I could see she still looked at me through her heavy blonde eyelashes out of the corner of her eyes. “Wait. Where are you going?” she asked as I got up out of the chair and walked around the table.

“Bed. I am tired,” I said, a yawn escaped.

“We were talking,” she said, the words laced with disappointment.

“Alone?” I turned and asked her with an eyebrow raised.

Behind her shoulder I saw a shadow move against the window. When the door to the inn shattered inward, I had already pushed her out of the way into the corner of the room near the kitchen.

There were two men dressed in dark gray clothes and dark brown cloaks. One carried a small crossbow that he shot at me from the doorway with practiced ease. I knocked the bolt aside with the palm of my left hand and then rushed two steps toward them.

My right foot caught him in the ribs and two of them broke like wet wood. The force of the blow shoved him back into his partner, and they both went down in a cloud of dirt and dust. The one in the back let out a curse of panic. I planned to charge out after them, but then I began to puzzle through the motives of the attacking men. They must have been after Jessmei, and there might be more than two of them.

I looked back into the kitchen and saw another two coming through the back door that led to the stables. These two both carried slender daggers, but were still fifty feet from the startled princess. I didn’t relish the idea of being cut, so I grabbed the table next to me and yelled at Jessmei to get on the ground. She reacted instantly, collapsing downward in her gown like she had fallen in a hole. I supposed living her entire life as a hunted, valuable pawn had taught her to be alert to danger and quick to respond to her guardians.

The table flew through the air with a tiny spin. It hit the first man in the kitchen against his shoulders and head. The sound was like thunder fucking a mountain. The attacker didn't make any noise as his body flew into the dark-garbed man standing behind him.

I closed the door to the front of the inn and jumped the counter into the kitchen. The first man bled profusely from the gaping hole the side of the table had left in his skull. The assassin behind him was trying to crawl out from under the weight of the wooden slab and his friend’s corpse. I didn’t really want to kill him, but his neck snapped when my bare foot made contact with the side of his face.

I grabbed one of the daggers on the ground and sprinted the few steps back to the front door. As I did, Greykin emerged from the hallway, axe and shield in hand. Nadea followed right behind him along with Iarin. They were all in various stages of undress. I tried not to focus on Nadea’s half-naked body. There was killing to be done, after all.

“Two dead in the kitchen and two out front,” I said while I began to open the door.

The man I previously kicked in the ribs struggled to get to his feet, but coughed up a thick splatter of blood that drenched the dirt. Its sound swished around his chest, and I guessed that one of the parts of his rib tore through his lungs.

The other man was thirty yards away and was sprinting through the center of the town plaza in an effort to escape. I opened the door all the way and stepped into the dirt street. The moons shone painfully bright, and I had to squint my eyes to see people emerging from the small homes that flanked the inn.

Iarin’s bow string tightened and then the pitched twang echoed through the center of town. A white shaft of feathers appeared between the fleeing assassin’s shoulder blades and he flew forward.

Then it was over.

“What the hell happened?” Greykin demanded. Giant rifts of worry split his aged face.

“Two men came through the front door. I kicked them back. Two more came from the back door and I threw a table at them. Then you all came out. You have no pants.” He looked down at his undergarments and realized I spoke correctly. Iarin laughed and Greykin turned to scowl at him. The tall man shut up as if he had just received a punch to the throat.

“Was the princess out with you?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came out to get some water,” Jessmei apologized from the doorway.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” Greykin demanded.

“You were snoring so loud that I didn’t think you would want to be woken. I didn’t think I would be gone for more than a few moments. Kaiyer was out in the room already so we talked for a bit. When these men showed up, he protected me.”

“You were talking?” Nadea looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes. I was eating stew. I was hungry. Now I am tired.” I looked at Greykin. “I’m going back to bed. You take care of the bodies.” He nodded but didn’t meet my eyes.

I looked at Nadea and Iarin, smiled, and walked back to my room.

“Thank you,” Jessmei whispered to me when I walked past her. She still looked frightened.

I nodded at her and continued down the short, dusty hallway. Paug still slept in peaceful oblivion underneath the covers of his bed. Greykin had made him drink four flagons of beer with dinner and he would have a horrible hangover tomorrow.

I took off my shirt and climbed back into bed. Soon Paug and his friends would tell me why they woke me. I guessed they needed my help with these Ancients, but in what capacity? My only memories so far were of fear and failure.

And the islands.

When I had faced the eight soldiers outside of the tunnel, I was certain I would die. One man could not stand against eight crossbow-carrying warriors. It seemed that I didn't need to worry about humans, since my fighting skills were superior to most of the men living today. The thought was somewhat comforting, but my memories troubled me. I was obviously a slave of these Elvens, not their vanquisher.

The thoughts fought and twisted in my brain until sleep eventually took hold of my tired body.

“It is amazing,” Kaiyer said to us as we traveled down the side of the road toward the capital city of Brilla. This city was nicknamed Sapphire because of its placement on the water and the myriad shades of blue paint used on all the buildings. They sparkled in the bright coastal light, reflecting a wave pattern that danced on the walls; some were a pale, powdery periwinkle, others bright azure and cobalt, or deep, inky indigo. The range in color and the shimmer of the reflected light gave the buildings the faceted look of a gemstone.

It was a large city, not quite as populated as Nia’s capital, but it certainly possessed a unique style. Record books estimated that over eighty thousand citizens lived within four miles of the capital. We saw plenty of people and animals streaming through the city’s decorative gates, like ants going into their hill.

“It’s huge. Humans built this? We built this?” It was the first time I recalled Kaiyer looking surprised. For the last hour, as soon as we saw the city in the distance, he had asked question after question about it. When he learned that Nia’s city was larger, he grew even more amazed.

“How do they all live so close together? Why is everything blue? How do they get water and food?” I did my best to explain how it all worked, and sometimes we switched to his language so I could get the correct meaning across. He had been especially interested in how water was distributed, and I explained basic plumbing systems to him. This had sparked another conversation that had taken us the last few miles to the gates. It made me happy to share my knowledge with him, to seem an expert to someone so much older and more skilled than I.

Brilla and Nia held a long truce and trade agreements, so we would be relatively safe here. Greykin expected a party of Nia guards to meet and escort us the rest of the way through our journey. He didn’t really want the Brilla Kingdom to know that Jessmei was here, or what had happened. It would draw attention to us, and to the embarrassing fact that Jessmei left Nia without her father’s permission. Also, it would require a royal greeting and banquet if she was to be properly received. Nadea wanted nothing to do with frivolous parties that would keep her from delivering the O’Baarni. She and Greykin were both in agreement. We would get in and out of Sapphire as quickly as possible.

“What is the line for?” Kaiyer asked me in reference to the snaking queue of people waiting at the gates. Everyone heard his questions, but I was the only one with the responsibility of answering them. His eager requests almost reminded me of my small students.

“It’s just to examine the goods people are bringing into the city. The guards make sure no one is smuggling weapons or illegal items.”

“We can’t bring weapons into the city?”

“I believe we can, just not a large quantity without some sort of written form from the government.”

“Oh.” He looked up in the sky and sniffed. His beard was growing back and he absently scratched it as he examined the gates again. “That fortress in the back is called a castle?” I nodded. “The king of Brilla lives there and directs the military?”

“He makes the laws and handles trade agreements and ensures the country is being managed.”

“Seems like a large amount of work for one man.”

“He has advisors and people to whom he delegates responsibility.”

“Why doesn’t Jessmei’s father rule Nia and Brilla, or Vanlourn for that matter?”

“Nia and Brilla have been friendly with each other for the last few dozen years. Vanlourn and Nia aren’t on friendly terms, of course, but the current king of Brilla married one of his sons to a princess from Vanlourn, so they have an alliance." Kaiyer nodded but I wondered if he actually understood. I wasn’t very educated in the politics of the countries but I knew enough to give him a general idea.

We approached the front gates and met with a guard dressed in polished chain mail and a blue tunic. He asked us if we were here for business or traveling. We said traveling and he directed us to a shorter line of inspection. We led our horses to the back of that line.