"Be quiet. Someone may hear you. I'm supposed to be here all alone."
"It's all right. I have cast a spell over our voices just as I have over my image. No one can hear me, only you."
"Still, I don't want them to think I'm crazy." Chihon shut her mouth and reached out to Lorit communicating silently using their connection. She felt safer that way. No one would hear her side of the conversation and get suspicious.
"Over this way," Lorit said. "The water enters the pool there. I can feel stronger magic where it enters. Don't worry, it's not very deep."
Chihon bounced along holding his arm tightly. She was afraid she would slip off the rocks and plunge beneath the hot surface. She tried to hold back her fear, but it threatened to overcome her. Lorit put his arm around her. It made her feel safe.
"Here," came Lorit's voice in her head. "This is it. Can't you feel it?"
To Chihon the water felt like it always had. There was nothing special about the spot. It was warmer, but the quality of it was the same as it had been by the edge. "I don't feel anything different."
"I do; it's not the same. As the water enters the pool, it diffuses. Most of the power is absorbed by the limestone. By the time it reaches the edge of the pool, much of it is diluted with something else, something emanating from the palace.
"I can use this. It's clear and fresh. It feels like the mines and the jewel in my staff. It's refreshing."
As Lorit spoke, even in hushed tones, she could hear him reviving. She reached out to his damaged leg. The injury changed from bright red to muted, then almost the color and intensity of glowing ember. Finally, it damped out and was gone. His leg was completely healed.
"Your leg," Chihon gasped.
"Yes, it's fine now. They put some sort of spell on it to keep it from healing. I've defeated it. My powers are recovering quickly."
Chihon could feel it, too, as he directed some of the magical energy at her, filling her with the power he pulled from the stream beneath his feet. She felt even stronger and more refreshed than before. It was good to have Lorit back to full strength. She had not realized just how much his infirmity had influenced her own wellbeing.
After a while, he told her he was fully charged and ready to take on the women of Rohir. He waded to the edge of the pool and boldly stepped out of the water. He shook himself and passed his hand over his body. The water vanished leaving him dry as he dressed. He looked back at her. "Coming?"
Chihon turned her finger around above her hand. "Turn around."
Lorit obligingly turned his back tapping his foot impatiently on the ground waiting for her. She replicated his spell to dry herself and was soon dressed.
They headed for the palace, careful to avoid any contact with the few late night patrons who were still about. Once back in their room, Chihon sat down on the bed. "I feel wonderful; better than I have in a long time. I didn't know how drained I was."
"So do I," Lorit said. "Let's get out of here now. We can sneak past the guards and be on our way before they know we're gone."
The door burst open and Chemwa entered. She had an arrow notched in her bow, aimed at Lorit. "Do you not think we watch the pools? Would we not see your man vanish and reappear? Do you think any woman could do such a thing?"
She turned to Lorit. "You've violated our law by leaving the palace unbroken and un-gelded. You will pay the penalty without delay."
Lorit raised his hand. A pathetic little blue flame appeared. Chihon reached out and touched his arm halting his attack. "They're shielded from our magic. I don't know how it works, but something protects them."
"Come on, you two," Chemwa said. "You have an appointment with the Queen." Chemwa stepped aside, revealing the rest of her band of warriors, all armed and ready.
Chihon followed their lead to the audience chamber where she'd first met Mayst. The Queen was seated on her throne, just as she had been at their first meeting. One of the guards dragged a large pillow before her and gestured to Chihon to sit.
Two female guards ran up to Lorit and grabbed him by the arms. They were bigger than he was and outweighed him by a considerable amount. He struggled to escape, but they dragged him to the ground and held him fast.
"Will you take responsibility for gelding your man?" Mayst asked. "Or shall I have the guards do it?" She reached for the knife at her belt. The long blade gleamed in the torchlight.
Chihon hesitated, trying to buy enough time to think of something. She reached for the magic of the pools. Since Lorit had shown her the source, she could sense it and follow his lead to draw from it. The spell on the temple was derived from the magic of the pools. It was tuned to the women of the city and specially tailored to weaken the men and strengthen the women.
She knew what she had to do. Chihon drew on the magic deep within the earth beneath the pools to build up an extra reserve. She reached out with her power and probed the Queen. She could feel the protective spells around her and how she suppressed the will of the men and defeated any foreign magic.
Chihon embraced the spells surrounding the Queen. She drew the woman's power towards her as she had seen Lorit do in his battles with the Priests. She carefully picked it apart, strand by strand, until she could see the particular spells she wanted.
The guards had Lorit on the ground, and where sitting on his arms and legs. Mayst approached Chihon, holding out the knife. "Are you going to do it?"
Chihon accepted the knife. She hefted it in her hand to get the feel of it, to judge the balance. She focused on the hole she had been carefully opening in the shields the Queen maintained.
"I will do what I must," Chihon said, hanging her head. She gave one final tug and felt the hole open in Mayst's shields. She turned and threw the knife with all her might willing it straight for the one spot where the shields were weakest. She pushed with all her magic and that of the earth beneath the pools. She drew on the Queen's own power and willed the knife home.
It struck the Queen, but veered off when it penetrated the shields. Instead of embedding itself in her heart, as Chihon had planned, it angled off and buried itself deep in her shoulder.
The guards who'd been holding Lorit jumped up and ran to the Queen, their prisoner forgotten. Mayst screamed in pain, her hand grasping for the knife, trying to remove it, but it was in too deep and it stuck fast.
Chihon felt the shielding on the palace weaken as the Queen struggled with the knife. She knew she didn't have enough magic to transport them far, but with the reserves she'd stored up to attack the Queen, she should be able to get them out of the palace.
She dropped to the floor and grabbed Lorit's arm. "Let's get out of here before she regains her powers. It won't be long, and I don't think she'll let me do that more than once."
She grasped Lorit's power and combined it with her own. She added it to what she'd borrowed from the pools. She focused her imagination on the meadow outside of the palace that she'd seen from her window, and pulled with all her might.
Camp Rohir
They appeared in the middle of the meadow as Chihon had seen it, except it was no longer empty. They had materialized just inside a campfire circle surrounded by knights in armor. Behind the knights stood a large ornate tent, almost a pavilion. It was flanked by the flag of Veldwaite.
"How did we get here?" Lorit asked, looking around them.
"This was the empty meadow I was trying for, only it's not so empty now. I knew I couldn't take us closer to Amedon, and I didn't want to take us backwards, so I brought us just outside the castle."
One of the knights noticed them and drew his sword. "Identify yourself and be quick about it."
Lorit raised his hands and gathered his power about him, ready to defend himself, should it come to that. "I am Lorit and this is Chihon. We have just escaped from the Queen's court in Rohir."
The knight looked them over. "Wizards?" He sheathed his sword. "Come with me. The Queen will want to know of you. She told us to be watchful for a Wizard."
The guard escorted them to the pavilion and motioned Lorit inside. The pavilion was sparsely decorated with the artifacts of war. Maps and drawings of the surrounding countryside were hung around the tent and spread across the makeshift table. Gathered around the table were several knights bent over the maps, debating strategy.
One of the knights broke away and turned to Lorit. "Ah, Lorit. So good to see you. We were told to expect you at some point."
Lorit just stared. How did he know who Lorit was and why was Lorit expected?
The knight removed his helmet. It was Sir Adane. "It's good to see you again, too, Sir Adane," Lorit said.
Sir Adane looked him over. "I do believe you've aged a bit since last I saw you. You are starting to look like a proper Wizard. All you need is your staff."
"My Staff!" Lorit stopped short, realizing that he had absorbed a lot of power from the pools, and there was no reason to continue without his staff. "I lost my staff in the mountains. I was too weak to do anything about it, but I can now."
He reached out his hand and focused his power, searching for the staff. He could feel it buried beneath the dirt and debris high up in the mountains, where he'd been injured. He curled his fingers and silently recited a spell that would retrieve it. With a satisfying thump, the staff landed in his hand.
"That's better." Lorit hefted the staff to get a feel for it. He was much more confident now that he had it back.
"That suits you," Sir Adane said
He stepped aside to reveal Queen Ukina.
"Princess Ukina," Lorit said.
"It's Queen Ukina now." She straightened her habitually bad posture.
Lorit looked her over. There was a very slight tinge of magic to her, but the spell he had been unable to break was gone. "I can see you are free of that last nagging spell."
"Yes, I am free."
"So you are Queen. My sympathies for your loss, Your Grace." Lorit bowed low.
"A dragon has summoned me here with my army. He says you will need my help."
"A dragon?" Lorit asked.
"Yes, a Wizard and mini dragon came to my coronation and told me to be ready to aid you when you needed me. He told me to wait here and do whatever was necessary. What have you gotten yourself into?"
"We just escaped from the palace," Lorit explained. "They don't allow men to escape."
"Perhaps this is why we were asked to come here. Don't worry, Sir Adane is here, and he's a strong fighter."
Lorit saw the Queen glance at Chihon and quickly look away. Before he could ask her what was wrong, there was a shout from outside the pavilion. Lorit ducked out the door to see a horde of Mayst's soldiers flooding out of the city gate. Lorit could see the light in a lone tower, where Mayst stood directing her troops. He could sense her standing there and feel her rage at his escape. She was out for blood, and willing to fight through the entire army to get at him.
Her archers stopped and knelt, letting fly a cloud of arrows that flashed across the face of the moon, obscuring it as they sped towards their target. The soldiers knelt down and raised their wooden shields to deflect the arrows. Lorit raised his magical shields around Chihon and Ukina to protect them, should a stray arrow penetrate the soldiers' defensive wall.
The arrows hit like hail on a stormy night. The sound of hundreds of arrows striking shields caused such a din, that Lorit couldn't hear the commands Sir Adane called out. The knights returned the volley. Arrows flew high, once again darkening the face of the moon like a cloud.
The women without the advantage of shields, fell victim to the arrows, although Lorit thought many of them deftly dodged the arrows at the last instant and passed through unscathed. He'd hoped for a larger loss on their side, but any diminishing of the Queen's army was a plus.
The women launched another volley of arrows; this time they were closer and some of the shafts made their way through the shields to penetrate armor and claim their victims. Fortunately, most of the arrows clattered to the ground without inflicting harm.
The knights were launching their next volley of arrows when the women charged. They drew their swords and ran straight for the knights, screaming as they came, heedless of the few archers who were able to get off a last shot.
The women jumped when they were within striking distance of the knights' wall of shields. They threw their feet into the shields. Some held, but most of the soldiers' shields were driven to the ground, opening a path for the women to enter the battle, swords swinging.
The battle raged on. Lorit thought it would have been over quickly with the women up against the armor of the knights, but the women fighters held their own. He could see them fend off sword thrusts and cuts with almost magical speed. He reached out with his senses to see if there was indeed magic at work here.
"There." Lorit pointed to the tower where Queen Mayst stood. He could sense a thick silver thread winding its way through the air up to the tower where it split into a thousand tiny threads that stretched from Mayst to the women fighting. There was magic at work and if he didn't do something about it, the knights were sure to be beaten in the end.
Chihon took his hand. He could feel her reaching out through his eyes and looking up at the magic. "She's drawing from the pools. She's protecting her fighters from harm, using magic."
"We have to interrupt that stream. We can't defeat her while she has magic on her side." Lorit felt the power that she channeled from the healing pools and out to her troops. He tried to grasp the thick cord that stretched between the Queen and the source behind the tower. He pulled at it, twisting it to his will, but he was unable to affect its course or diminish its strength.
He touched a thread that connected Mayst with one of her soldiers. With effort, he was able to break it and watched as the woman fell to the next sword thrust that came her way. He reached for another thread and did the same with similar results.