The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3) (25 page)

“Are you coming in?” he asked.

“No,” she said tartly.   “I’m apparently going to go get a chaperone from his or her death bed.  I’ll be back when that’s done.  You just keep practicing.”

Grange went in intent on practicing staff work instead of swords, and found that moments after he went to the practice staves, he faced a number of prospective challengers.  He won every match, surprising himself with the quickness of his reactions, until he started facing two opponents at the same time, and the victory streak ended.  No one taunted him about being a Bloomingian or thief, he noted with satisfaction.

Jenniline came to join in the practices after two hours, spending time working on her sword work before she joined a partner to battle Grange to a draw with the staves.

“I’ve got a pair of servants waiting for you to heal them,” she told him as they both stood on the practice pad, breathing heavily.

“Let’s go take care of them, after we clean up,” Grange suggested.

Several minutes later they were in an infirmary, and Grange thought about the hospitals he had visited with Grace in Palmland and Kilau, when they had healed the sick and infirm with their musical talent.  The lines of beds in the ward were the same, and the sense of pain and suffering was similar.

“Energy, I ask you to please come and descend upon all the people here, to heal them of their wounds and pain,” he asked as he stood at the entry to the ward.  Grange immediately felt the power comply, and he felt it test his control with the volume of energy that began to flow.

He watched as the energy that he alone could see began to gather around the patients in their beds, sometime settling upon a person’s entire body, other times only surrounding a particular limb.  Some of the treatments glowed with great brightness, while others were gentler, and some were simple, quick flashes, while others were lingering glows that pulsed and seemed to move about on the patients’ bodies.  Calling upon so much of the energy at one time felt taxing

The room filled with startled cries, and whoops of joy, as well as shouted prayers of thanks.

“Did you heal everyone?” Jenniline asked in astonishment.  People were sitting up, or rising from their beds.

“I did,” Grange answered.  “It seemed like the easiest thing to do.”

“When we were in the wilderness, on our way back from Yellow Springs, when the demons made Burr and Athel go mad, could you have used your powers to save Trensen’s life?” she asked him, looking at him intently.

“I don’t know,” he faltered, as healthy patients began to approach him, patting his shoulder and shaking his hand while he talked to the princess.  “I think so,” he equivocated, thinking of how he had healed Jadie in the Kilau Melee, though he had had the jewels with him at that time to help suggest the action.

“I wasn’t as strong in the power then as I am now, since Acton healed me,” he tried to ease the pain he saw in her eyes as she remembered her lost guard.  “And I didn’t know; I just didn’t know who I was or what I could do,” he pointed out.

“I know,” she sighed sorrowfully.   She shook her head to dismiss the memories of the guard she had lost.  “Let’s find a more cheerful topic to discuss; let’s go meet our new companions.”

Chapter 18

Jenniline and Grange walked halfway down the aisle between the rows of beds, and stopped next to a bed where an elderly woman was sitting up, bright-eyed.

“I don’t know how you did that, but you made me feel twenty years younger!” she laughed.  “When the princess offered healing for service, I thought it was surely some type of joke.”

“This is Listrid,” Jenniline introduced.  “And this is Grange,” she also introduced.  “You’ll be serving in his household.”

“We need to go meet the other member of our staff,” she stepped down the aisle and indicated that the others should follow her.

They stopped in front of another bed, where a burly man with a bright pink path of skin on his arm was gently prodding it with a finger.  “Just like that, the burns are gone and there’s new skin,” he said in wonder.  “I never saw the like of it.

“You did this?” he looked at Grange as he asked.

“I did,” Grange agreed.  “You look very,” he paused, searching for a word, “muscular.”

“I worked in a blacksmith’s shop for ten years,” the man answered.  “Until a red hot horse shoe slipped from the tongs and landed on my arm while I was holding the bellows.

“My flesh was blackened to the bone, and I thought it was going to have to come off; I never thought I’d be able to use the limb again. 

I answered the pretty young princess politely when she asked if I’d serve the man who could heal me, but I never expected anyone would really heal me,” the smith admitted.

“I’ll follow you anywhere and do anything you ask,” the man pledged, his eyes shining with gratitude.

“Will you hold Jenniline back when she’s mad at me, so she doesn’t punish me?” Grange asked impishly.

“Ouch!” he exclaimed a moment later as the princess obligingly punched his shoulder.

“I won’t do stupid things, however,” the man admitted.

“Such a smart man, our Geric.  Maybe with three of us with common sense, we can keep you out of trouble.  Especially if you stop provoking the gods,” Jenniline told Grange.   “And everyone else,” she added.

“I didn’t make Inge mad last night,” Grange protested.

“Do either of you have any belongings we can carry for you?” he asked the two new members of his household.

When they both shook their heads, Jenniline led the way out of the now-deserted ward, and they walked back towards the tower where the two were about to take up residence.

"This is our home," Jenniline told the two new members of the household, as they stood at the base of the tower.

"All of this?" Listrid asked between gasps.

"Really just the top two floors," Grange answered.

"But no one else lives here," Jenniline address.

They entered and climbed the stairs.

"If no one else lives in the tower, why don't you take chambers closer to the ground?" Listrid asked when they reached the top of the steps.

"Our Champion wants to be close to the roof," Jenniline said in a neutral tone.

"What's so important about the roof?" Geric asked.

"It's hard to explain, but you'll see," Grange replied.  “I like to see the open sky.”

"Listrid, this will be your room," Jenniline motioned when they entered the suite and began to walk about.

And where do you and the master sleep?" the new servant asked pleasantly.

"Separately," Jenniline answered crisply.  "I sleep over there," she pointed to her door, "and the Champion sleeps upstairs."

Grange studiously avoided making eye contact with anyone.

"Let’s go up and take a look up above," Jenniline moved them along.

"We'll have to get some more furniture sent up for everyone," she observed as they entered an empty room on the top floor.

It was difficult to imagine that the princess had been overlooked and ignored in her father’s court, Grange thought as he listened to her lead the brief tour, and thought about all that he had seen her accomplish.  She was competent and able; she had an out-sized personality; she fought well; and she was attractive.  King Magnus had made a mistake by setting her aside in organizing his court, Grange thought.

She would make a good, strong queen, he thought, then realized with a shock where his mind was wandering.

"No," he told himself, not realizing that he spoke aloud.

All eyes turned to him.

"No, what, my Champion?" Jenniline asked politely.

"Nothing," he muttered, feeling himself blush for the first time in a long time.   He looked at Jenniline for a pair of moments, then quickly broke eye contact.

"Let’s go see the roof," he suggested.

"It's a wonderful view," Listrid said enthusiastically when they stood atop the tower and looked out over the palace grounds.

"It'd be a pleasure to serve the two of you just for helping two good, young people in a lovely home," she commented, "let alone because of the great magical healing you gave us."

"Amen to that," Geric agreed fervently.

"What services do you want provided?" he asked.  "I've been a blacksmith since I was a young lad, so I don't know a lot about serving a gentleman of the court, but I'll learn as best I can."

"I don't know that I have a great need for service," Grange admitted.  "If you want to work at the blacksmith shop some hours in the day, I'd have no objection," he offered.

"I just want to make sure that the. Princess and I have others who spend the evenings here with us," he explained.

"That's wise, my lord," Listrid immediately grasped the need for chaperones to be known to be present.  "But we'll be in your service too, and you'll find the household runs better for it," she proudly asserted.

"We have no doubt of that," Jenniline graciously agreed.

"Now, let's go get some furniture sent here so that you two will have beds to sleep in tonight," she suggested.

They started back down the stairs from the roof, though Grange stayed behind, as he started working on his wand, trying to fill it with energy.   He sat alone for a long time, watching the glow of the power as it flowed into his slender instrument.

He was startled when he heard a noise behind him and saw Geric coming up the steps.

"Did you succeed in finding furniture?" Grange asked.

"Finding it, yes.  Getting the buggers from the shop to deliver at the end of the day, no," Geric said in exasperation.  "I suppose I can't blame them though," he said ruefully.

Grange looked at his wand, only partially filled with power, then sighed.  Working on the wand could wait, while having beds for his new retinue of servants was necessary.

"Can the two of us carry the furniture here?" he asked as he stood up.

"My lord, it's not work for the likes of you," Geric seemed scandalized by the thought of Grange carrying goods.

"No one here has high expectations for me," Grange laughed.  "They all like to remember that I was pickpocket on the streets before I came here.  Let's go see this furniture we need."

Geric obediently took Grange across the palace campus to a furniture warehouse, where Jenniline and Listrid waited.

"Are you going to rouse out some of the lazy scoundrels who aren't helping us?" Listrid asked.

"I was going to help carry the beds myself," Grange replied thoughtfully, "but I just had another idea."

He looked at the stack of furniture set aside for his household.  He could perhaps move it easily, and exercise his wand as well.

"We can try this," he said softly. "Wand, let your energy lift this furniture, and follow me to our tower."  He pointed the wand at the pile, and watched as a stream of energy emerged.  The individual pieces rose off the stack and floated idly in the air, awaiting his movement.

"I suppose if you can heal injuries like mine, you can do other impossible things," Geric said as he gaped upward at the cluster of items in the air.

Jenniline led the way, and the furniture obediently floated behind Grange, drawing stares from everyone they encountered along the way.  When they reached the tower, Grange lowered the furniture to the ground.

"Now do we carry it up the stairs?" Geric asked.

"I think I can raise it to the top," Grange judged, sensing that the incomplete energy in his wand was depleting quickly from the furniture transport.   He had stored the energy, expecting to call upon it to discharge as another evening light display, hoping to impress the city once again.  Altering its use to carry the furniture had drained it faster than expected.  But energy remained, enough to lift everything, he was sure.

He walked up to the top of the tower with Geric.  "Let’s see how this works," he said, aware that an audience was watching.  He pointed his wand down over the edge of the tower, and commanded the wand to lift the first bed.

It floated calmly upward, and then was deposited softly atop the tower.   The second bed followed it up, as Jenniline and Listrid stood below and looked up.   A table came next, leaving only a chest of drawers on the ground.  Grange used the wand to lift the chest as well, but when it was three quarters of the way towards the top, Grange felt his wand give a peculiar hiccup, as the last of the energy within it drained away.

The chest hovered momentarily, before gravity exerted its hold, and the heavy piece began to plummet.  Listrid screamed as the chest seemed to head towards her.

Grange dropped his wand and extended his right hand down. "Energy, lift that chest to me!" he shouted.  The wooden box of drawers halted abruptly, just twenty feet above Listrid's head, as Jenniline dove at the woman to push her from the dangerous path.

The chest rose rapidly, then landed on the roof along with the other furniture, as Jenniline's voice rose from below.  "That wasn't funny, you mangy son of a mule!"

"What are we to do now?" Geric asked.

"We probably ought to stay out of the princess’s sight," Grange answered, “and let's carry these down the stairs," he added, eyeing Geric's brawny build.

They carried the two beds down into place before Jenniline arrived.   "Listrid is down stairs waiting for us to go to dinner," she said as she eyed Grange frostily. "So come along if you want to eat."

They all silently went downstairs, and started to stroll towards the dining hall,  when Listrid and Geric abruptly turned.

"The dining hall is this way," Grange commented.

"For nobles and great wizards, but not for servants," Listrid explained.  "Our food is served over this way in our quarter of the palace."

Grange looked at Jenniline, who nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"Could we go eat in their hall with them?" he asked her.

"It's not to be done!" Listrid said in a scandalized voice.

"Is the food good?" Grange asked.

"I've been told we get better food there," Geric said softly.

Jenniline's eyebrows rose.