She patted her daughter lovingly on the neck and gave her a
kiss.
“Of course, mother,” Kimira replied.
“Besides,” She continued, “You say the boy vanished without
really saying much of anything. It must mean his message is not completed, he
must appear again to finish it.”
They nodded in agreement.
“May the Exalted bless me with his visit too, when that time
comes, then,” She looked up at the top of the tent, though her eyes were
looking far away, as if piercing the heavens themselves.
She returned her attention to the two girls, searching their
eyes lovingly, hopefully.
They looked back, both shrugging.
“What was it that he said again?” She asked.
“He said that others had seen him in a dream as well, but he
did not seem to know who the Exalted were.”
“It is strange,” Kaelynn said, “strange and wonderful.”
She looked both girls in the eyes, “I am proud of you both.
I have a feeling a great destiny lies ahead for you two, and that this boy will
play a great part in it.”
She paused.
“As for other matters,” she continued, “Doyenne Carlata
informed me today that she desired that Laura accompany her on her special
assignment to Sulendald,”
“
What
?” Kimira and Laura said in unison.
“But she already has plenty of Aides under her care to
choose from,” Laura began to protest.
It was not strange for a Doyenne to ask for other Doyenne’s
Aides to shadow them, it was always a good opportunity to learn new things from
a different mentor, but it was usually only the best performing students who
got picked for such things. Kimira was the ready one. Everyone knew she was
going to be the first Aide to become an Adept at so young an age.
“Why was I not chosen?” Kimira said at the same time.
“I cannot say as to
why
she chose Laura,” Kaelynn
lifted up her hands defensively, “I can only say that Carlata has already
received the Circle’s approval, there is nothing I can say more on the matter.”
“But what about
me?
” Kimira protested, “I have been
receiving top marks for
cycles
at a chance on shadowing during an
assignment.”
“Be calm, my child,” Kaelynn said, “I am also participating
in the assignment, and I will have you shadow me, of course.”
Kimira smiled excitedly and hugged Kaelynn tightly, “Thank
you mother!”
“Now go wash up you two, our company leaves early tomorrow
morning, the rest of the Order will continue its business here until our
return.”
Laura nodded, but her mind was already off somewhere else,
imagining the boy.
She wanted to see him again.
And soon.
The bright morning sunshine lit a
forest clearing in vivid hues of gold and yellow. A slight breeze swept across
the land and the morning air was chilly.
It was silent but for the chirp of birds.
Suddenly a young woman burst through the undergrowth,
running frantically.
Her long smooth silky auburn hair flew behind her, held back
from her face in a ponytail, as she raced through the open woodland. A pair of
bangs which had fallen out of the ponytail swept across her face and she shook
her head, clearing her vision.
Her features and countenance were graceful and pretty. Her
deep hazel eyes would have been lovely but they were filled with fear at the
moment. Her body was slender but she had the distinct and attractive form of a
girl who had already begun transform into a woman. She looked to be in her late
teens, early twenties.
She wore a simple traveling dress of dark brown with light
embroidery that accentuated her female features. Her feet were clad in matching
dark boots.
A necklace bobbed around her neck. It was a thin silver
chain and at the end, hung a pendant. A silver diamond background engraved with
small symmetrical symbols pointed towards the center of the pendant, where lay,
embedded into the metal, a small piece of dark crystal. The crystal was smooth
on a single surface, but rough and uneven on the other surfaces, as if it were
merely a piece broken from a larger rock.
The young woman’s name was Aliyana.
Her eyes were silver in color.
Tears streamed down her face.
Suddenly a shout from behind broke her thoughts, making her
glance over her shoulder.
“There!” A man suited in shiny breastplate armor burst
through the trees and shouted, “I see her! Over here men!” The man turned his
attention to the fleeing girl.
She yelped at the appearance of the men and forced her legs
to continue pumping. Her lungs hurt and she gasped for breath. Her heart
hammered under her breasts. Sweat trickled down her back and off her nose. She
was not the best runner but she figured she could outrun most men, especially
if they were suited in armor. She wasn’t running short distance this time
however, she was set on escape for good.
“She is getting away, hurry!” The man behind her shouted,
his voice was becoming more distant. Other figures in breastplate armor broke
through the trees, but the sounds they made were all so far away.
That was good, maybe she had a chance after all, but another
shout made her almost stop and turn in shock.
“FIRE!” The man screamed, and the air was filled with
whistling at his order.
NO!
her heart leapt into her throat.
Aliyana did not need to look back to know the men were
notching arrows in their composite bows.
One of the deadly missiles hit the dirt in front of her and
her heart almost leapt out of her chest in fright. Three more hit the ground
behind and around her with soft thumps, but she jumped over the feathers of the
arrow and continued on, her boots slapping the dirt in quick succession.
“You cannot escape fool girl! We will find you Aliyana! We
will fin—”
But the man’s voice finally faded in the distance and was
gone.
Aliyana continued running. She had to be sure her pursuers
were far away,
very
far away. She wanted to keep crying but she needed
the energy to run so she chose to run and forced the tears down.
Some time passed and as her energy drained she slowed to a
trot but always she brought herself back to a run or at least a light jog. Her
dress was stifling hot and as she continued forward she ripped the sleeves off
and carried them in her hand.
Finally, after she thought she could run no more, she took a
break behind a large rock, leaning against the stone, and taking in her
surroundings. She was gasping for air. It took her a long break to regain her
breath.
“RUN!” her mother had cried, “Aliyana run! Free yourself!
Get back to your father and brother, go!”
Fear began to creep up in her and she let the tears fall
down her face. She could not believe it. They were on the road back from the
Shyden monastery having just visited Tristen, and then one night on the road
her and her mother had been taken, dragged in the darkness to a wagon train of
Terragurion soldiers. After several days of abuse and travel, the opportunity
struck, and they had tried to escape.
Her mother had made the sacrifice to distract the guards and
let Aliyana escape.
Her throat was beginning to dry and she was thirsty,
realizing that the last time she had gotten a drink was back at the caravan.
She did not recognize the landscape around her. Back at the road the trees were
sparse and the rolling hills green with grass but here she found herself going
deeper and deeper into thick forest growth. Where had they been taken? She closed
her eyes to focus, leaning against the large boulder at her back, breathing
heavily. She wiped the sweat from her face and arms with one of the ripped off
sleeves.
She tried to recall the lay of the land from what she knew
about Biarlin. If her assumptions of where the caravan had been when she
escaped were correct and her run had not been too sporadic a rate of travel,
she was somewhere near Jurhal River.
With the imaginary maps drawn up in her mind she decided
upon what her course of action would be. She needed to get back to Essoril. Her
wilderness survival knowledge was basic, but she knew it would have to be
enough to get her home. She knew a number of plants, berries and things that
were edible in several different regions of land, so hunger was covered for the
most part, and if she found a stream, thirst would not be too much of a
problem.
A twig cracking nearby made her snap to attention despite
her weariness.
A large furry creature shot out of the underbrush and ran
past her feet.
“Ahhhh!” She yelped and jumped backward, tripping over some
roots and falling backwards into thick underbrush. She didn’t notice as a part
of her dress ripped and stuck to the brush.
After a moment of thinking in which she had time to process
what just happened she let out a sigh of relief. She shook her head and stood
up, brushing herself off. She took a deep breath and let it out. She had to
continue on before it got dark.
Time passed and the forest around her was becoming thicker
and darker despite the sun’s position directly overhead. She paused frequently,
tired from the effort she had exerted in her flight away from danger. She had
come across many animals, some dangerous, which she avoided with wide berths,
and some not, which she had tried to coax to come near her for her to pet but
with no success. Her mouth ached for something cool to quench her parched lips
and she searched for water.
With the thick green forest leaves overhead the sunlight was
filtered, casting a green glow over everything and it was simply breathtaking.
If not for the threat that pursued her, the pressing need to satisfy her hunger
and thirst, and the ache of leaving her mother behind, she would spend the time
enjoying the beautiful growth, rich green moss, colorful plants, towering trees.
Eventually she heard the trickle of water, a stream. Water
was good for two reasons, the first, to satisfy her thirst, and second, she
could follow its path downstream. Surely it fed to a larger source, which fed
to the Jurhal River. Finding the river meant a way to navigate her way home.
She quickly made her way to the promise of something to
drink, parting thick green leaves and moving vines to reveal the source of the
sound.
It was a large brook as she had hoped.
Grateful at the sight, thought of her pursuers far behind
her, she knelt down and began to drink eagerly.
She froze then. She saw the large part of her sleeve missing
and knew it must have torn off and most surly have been used by her pursuers to
track her. The water dripped out of her now frozen hands, caught halfway
between the rivulet and her face.
A voice behind her and the cold touch of steel to the back
of her neck made her heart pound with fear.
“Missing something?”
They had found her.
Since she was unable to raise her head because his sword was
held to the back of her neck the soldier lowered the part of her sleeve, which
had ripped off, into her line of vision.
She gulped. Despite all the water
she had just drank, her throat was suddenly dry.
“Grab her!” The man ordered.
Two muscular biceps engulfed her small arms and pinned them
behind her back. The blade was removed from her neck and the two guards yanked
her around forcefully.
“You insolent little wretch,” The man said furiously.
She noticed he was not wearing his
armor, neither were the other guards. A dark sweat line covered their upper
torsos, staining their shirts. They must have stripped down for a lighter
chase. Four or more soldiers stood behind the man, making eight of them against
her. She was hopelessly caught. Her mother’s sacrifice had been for nothing.
She struggled to pull herself free, but she was sincerely
exhausted and her captors too strong.
“Give it up. We have prevailed.” The man, clearly the leader
of the guard, captain or some such, spoke, “You have been quite the hassle
today, did you know that? Made me chase you all up and down this ridiculously
overgrown forest. Got me all sweaty and agitated. Worked me up an appetite you
see.”
He drew nearer to Aliyana, slowly circling her, touching her
hair and sliding his fingers down her shoulders. She struggled against the two
men, turning her head away from the man’s touch.
“I am sure my men are hungry as well. I do not think Rylen
would mind if we took a few nibbles out of her. It would certainly make up for
all this running she had us do here, what do you think boys?”
They shouted their approval.
The captain clicked his teeth at her, imitating little
bites.
He grabbed the front of her dress, fondling her.
She yelped and wrenched back with all her might.
There was a ripping sound and the neck of her dress tore,
revealing some of her cleavage, as well as the necklace and crystal pendant.
“Oh, ho ho!” The captain said, “What have we here?”
He reached for it.
“NO!” Aliyana cried.
The captain snarled and backhanded her.
“Bite your tongue whelp, or I will bite it for you!”
He grinned and clutched the end of the necklace, the
crystal, in his fist. He lifted the necklace off of Aliyana and put it around
his own neck.
He stared at the crystal. The light glinted off its dark
surface.
“What a pretty little thing,” He muttered to himself.
She stared defiantly at them, her grey eyes gleamed. Inside
she was terrified. She did not want this to happen. She tried to think of her
mother, but it only made her feel worse she had left without her. She stifled a
fit of tears.
The sound brought the captain back from his stupor with the
crystal.
“Well then, let us get to the main event!”
His men roared again their excitement.
The captain unloosened his sword belt, throwing it to the
ground, “I’m going to enjoy this!” he began to untie the leather bindings to
his breeches.
Aliyana felt sick to her stomach. She tried to fight, but
she was tired. She thought she was going to puke, she gagged.
He laughed as he undid the last of his leather binding.
There was a whoosh of wind and leaves from above followed by
a soft thump that happened in a flash.
A long slightly curved sword suddenly ripped through the
captain’s chest, spattering Aliyana and the two guards with blood. The captain
lifted his hands for a brief moment, then his eyes rolled up into his head and
he fell to his knees, and then onto his face, pressing the sword back up
slightly.
Everyone stood frozen in astonishment.
A young man arose from where he had landed behind the
captain. He slowly withdrew his sword from the corpse. He appeared very young,
about fourteen, medium length dark brown hair. He was dressed in traveling
clothes and steel armor decorated with dragons. The long, slightly curved,
blade in his hand matched his armor.
It was Drake.
“Leave this young woman alone,” He said, wiping the blood
from his blade onto his leather breeches
“He just murdered captain Krojak! Kill him!” One of the
guards yelled.
The two soldiers holding Aliyana threw her behind them. She
fell with a splash into the creek. They all drew their swords and rushed the
young man.
Aliyana tried to stand up in the
water but slipped on several moss covered stones at the creek bottom and fell
face first. Underneath the water she heard the muted sounds of steel against
steel, shouts and screams and the crash of large bodies thudding against the
ground.
Her rescuer must surely have met his fate already. Seven
armed men to a single boy in his late teens, he would be slaughtered in
moments. Sure he had taken out the captain in a single swift strike, but he had
had the element of surprise. Now he was surrounded, outmanned and out-sworded.
She pushed herself out of the water, flinging her hair out
of her face. Water blurred her vision but now that she was out of the creek her
ears were assaulted by the sounds of battle, this time clear and undistorted.
Blade against flesh, a scream. A large figure, towering over her, abruptly fell
on top of her. She had no time to react and was knocked back into the stream, a
dead soldier weighing her down.
She choked, struggled for breath. Forcing the literally dead
weight off of her she pulled herself above water once more, spitting and
gasping for breath. She finally found solid footing and stood up, wiping her
vision clear. She was ready to run. The boy was a fierce warrior to be sure but
the larger force would have overpowered him already. The remainder of the
soldiers, furious over their dead captain, would surely be ready to take their
anger out on her.