[Lanen Kaelar 03] - Redeeming the Lost (52 page)

She hurried around and stood before me. I
started to go around her and she reached out and stopped me by the simple
expedient of planting her hands on my shoulders.

“Don’t touch me,” I said haughtily.

“Why not?” she asked, not moving.

“Because I said not to,” I replied, trying to
throw her off. Damn, she was strong. I couldn’t shift her, which of course made
me angrier.

“Vilkas, you must listen,” she said, but I had
come to the end of my tether.

“I don’t have to listen to anyone!” I cried. I
summoned my power and threw her off easily. She staggered back and landed with
a thump. “You have no idea what I have suffered this day,” I hissed at her. “I
have been threatened by every demon in every Hell there is. I have saved Aral
twice, by Mother Shia I have saved every living soul in the world this day, and
for thanks the only person I have ever trusted betrays me. I am sick unto death
of helping people. I don’t care if the Kantri rot.”

I should have left then, I wanted to walk off
and leave her there, but there was something about the woman that made me wait.
Or something within me that knew she spoke truth, and stayed to hear it.

“Vilkas, you live,” she said, rising to her
feet. She walked towards me slowly, her hands outstretched to me in
supplication this time, her honest face full of heartfelt pain. “Hundreds of
them do not. Hundreds of them have died—O Shikrar—” She bowed her head for a
moment, then looked full into my eyes. “Vilkas, their numbers were dwindling
before. This may be their ending as a people. I beg you, of your mercy—surely
there has been enough of death this day. You have been given power beyond
measure. Use it to heal. They are in such terrible pain.” She went down on one
knee before me. “Please. I beg you.”

It is a way to atone, my conscience said.
Traitor that it was, siding with her. You have done a terrible thing. It is a way
to redeem yourself.

I sighed. “Damn.” I looked at Lanen out of the
corner of my eye. “You sure you’re not a Mage? I had no intention of helping
you.”

“I was tested years ago,” she said, grinning
up at me. She was nearly pretty when she smiled like that. “Not a trace of
power anywhere.”

“Oh, get up,” I said, giving her a hand and
helping her back to her feet. “Very well. Where shall I start?”

“A moment,” she said. Her gaze lost focus. I
was beginning to recognise that as an indication that she was using Farspeech.

“Idai comes,” she said, even as Idai landed
heavily a hundred paces away. She hurried to meet us, despite her injuries. I
could not help myself, my power rose up in the face of pain, and I reached out
to heal.

Nothing happened.

I tapped into that fire within, now banked a
little, but there when I needed it. Nothing.

I poured my strength into her like a river,
even a creature her size should have been restored from head to foot with that
much assistance. I would have done better with a roll of bandages.

“Damn it,” I muttered. “I can’t do it.”

“Are you well, Mage Vilkas?” asked Idai. She
was concerned for me. I was beginning to feel a little ashamed.

‘Your pardon, Lady, I can do nothing for you
by myself,” I admitted. It galled me, but I couldn’t get away from the truth.
Damn, blast and damn. “I need Aral.”

Truespeech is an astounding thing. In moments
Gyrentikh was aloft—I think it was he—and a very short while after, he landed
by the lake with Aral.

She walked towards me tentatively, as though
she trod barefoot on broken glass. When she came near enough in the failing
light, I could see that her eyes were still red and swollen. She must have been
weeping again.

Or still. You are not the only one who has
lost something beyond measure this day.

She could not look at me. Aral, who had
soundly berated me any number of times for any number of reasons, whose
cheerful abuse had kept me from getting too full of myself for two years, could
not raise her eyes to meet my glance.

“Have you treated yourself for shock yet,
woman?” I asked, aiming for the tone of banter we had been used to use. It
sounded brittle and angry. Ah, well.

“Didn’t bloody well do any good,” she replied.
I could tell from her breathing that she was holding back tears. She knew I
hated seeing women cry.

I have always enjoyed surprising Aral. I
stepped up to her, took her by the shoulders, and kissed her forehead. “Vilkas,
don’t,” she began, but I immediately let her go. She stared at me,
uncomprehending.

“Now is not the time, Aral,” I said gently. “We
can address other things later. You were right. I was right. We were both very,
very wrong. Come on. There is an awful lot of suffering going on that we can
stop. I can’t do it without you.”

She nodded. We both turned to Idai, and Aral
drew out the soulgem of Loriakeris. This time, though, she said quiedy aloud, “Lady
Loriakeris, will it please you to assist us?”

For answer the soulgem blazed once, briefly,
in the darkness. Aral turned to me and grinned. I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” she
said. Holding the soulgem in one hand, calling her Healer’s strength to her,
she gingerly placed her other hand in mine. I gathered my Power about me,
allowing the stream of that inner fire to fill me, grasped Aral’s hand firmly,
and sent the focus through the soulgem.

We found out later that we made quite a
vision, Aral and Lori-akeris and I. The evening star, turned blue and come to
rest.

Idai’s physical wounds were healed in minutes.
Even I was astonished. It would take time, of course, for the new tissue to
strengthen its bonds with the old, but she was healed.

“Don’t get in any more fights for a few days,
will you, Lady?” I said, and was rewarded by a blessedly warm hiss.

We went to treat Kedra next, but he refused. “There
are others who need you more,” he said.

“Take us to the worst,” I replied. I kept hold
of Aral’s hand as we were borne through the air, in token of friendship, of
apology. Of trust. We might never be able to rebuild that which had been, that
first absolute trust, but there again, perhaps the new friendship would be
based rather more strongly on truth.

We worked through the night. At first we were
borne by Kedra or Idai to the worst injured, and we worked by the light of
bonfires hastily provided by our escorts. Despite our best efforts another three
of the Restored died, and another of the Kantri, but we saved ten who had been
on the brink. We ate what we could in between.

When those in danger of imminent death had
been seen to, when we were near dropping with hunger and weariness, Kedra
whisked us away to a level field on the northwest shore of Lake Gand. Some
blessedly practical soul had built a rough shelter, no more than a lean-to of
branches but better than nothing, with a fire before it and a little more
substantial food and drink laid out for us—fresh bread and butter, a gorgeous
collop of venison stewed in wine, with cheese and dried fruit after. And some
blessed soul had thought to send along both chelan and sweet water to wash it
down. We fell on it as though we hadn’t eaten in a hundred years.

Just as we were drinking the last of the
chelan, Lanen stepped into the firelight and went down on one knee before us. “How
fare you both?” she asked. Her voice was calm, but her eyes were filled with
concern.

“I think we’ll live, Mistress Lanen, thank
you,” said Aral. “Bless you for the food.”

“Have you strength now to continue, or do you
require rest?” she asked.

So that was it. She was afraid we had stopped
for the night.

I rose on weary legs and clapped her on the
shoulder. “Fear not, Lady. We have supped and drunk.” I looked to Aral. “Can
you go on?”

She stood slowly, brushing off crumbs, saying,
“I could sleep for a week, to tell the truth, but not until we’re finished.”
She smiled. “Come then, Lanen, call Idai and take us to the next.”

To my surprise, Lanen rose and grinned. “We
are better organised than that.” She raised her chin and called out, “Now!”

In the instant the nighttime landscape
changed. We beheld a field ringed with bonfires, set alight by the Kantri we
had healed, who then wandered around the circle lighting yet more. At last we
could see what we were doing, and I wasn’t going to complain about the warmth
either. Our next patient lay wearily in the fire-fight, Jamie beside it.

“Who has done this?” I asked, all
astonishment, as we reached the bright centre of the field.

Jamie grinned. “It was Bella’s idea. You’re
not the only ones who’ve been busy, you know. Lanen has even had the Kantri
working away, bringing enough wood and ferrying her back and forth from the
castle.”

“The castle?” said Aral in wonder. Then her
expression changed. “Bloody hellsfire! That’s where the food came from!”

Jamie’s grin grew wider. “Indeed. Seems there’s
a woman there who knew Marik as a child and can see the resemblance in bis
daughter.” He laughed. “Of course, the fact that she arrived in the courtyard
in the hands of a bloody great dragon almost certainly helped her case along.”

We treated one after another, barely stopping
save to admit the next to the circle of fire. Lanen stayed with us to
translate, for many of the Kantri had no human speech. The Dhrenagan, to my
astonishment, spoke more fluently even than had Shikrar, though their speech
was terribly archaic;—I learned later that in their day, Gedri and Kantri lived
together in peace. It struck me that their experience in this might be
desperately needed soon.

Shadowy figures kept the bonfires burning
bright, and Will and Maran, Rella and Jamie, kept us supplied with food and
drink. Towards the end of the night, when we could no longer stand, they watched
over us as we rested for the half of an hour here, a few minutes there.

I had thought, at the height of my glorious
madness, that my power was infinite. Now I began to learn the merely human
limits that surrounded it. As dawn grew pale in the east, Aral and I were
finally forced to stop. Our joined Healers strength was hardly diminished,
which was astounding, but we were entirely exhausted. We saw the last of the
dragons whose wounds might kill them and finally called a halt. I sank to my
knees and was prepared to sleep on the bare ground, but Maran lifted me in her
powerful arms as though I were a child and carried me to our lean-to. I had no
strength to protest. Goddess, but that woman is impressive!

There were two piles of heather, covered with
blankets, and a feather pillow each. I realised this when I woke, you
understand. I was asleep the instant Maran set me down.

I think Will carried Aral.

I woke in the late afternoon, groggy and
confused. It took me a moment to remember what and where this room was.

The guest chamber at Castle Gundar.

My father’s people had taken us in the night
before, given us ample food for ourselves and the Healers, and when we returned
at dawn they led us each to decent rooms and let us sleep. I don’t recall
whether Mistress Kiri really believed that I was Marik’s daughter at that point
or not, but she was kindness itself. Given the near presence of the True
Dragons of legend, and the fact that Akor spoke to the lady in so courtly a
fashion, I suppose her generosity was not surprising.

We had all danced attendance on the Mages
until daybreak. I was still weary beyond belief, but I forced myself out of
bed. I wandered down to where I thought the kitchens must be and found a
maidservant who pointed me to the bathing chamber, O blessed civilisation! A
long deep bath stood there, and two young lasses helped me fill it with
steaming water and provided soap and drying cloths. I nearly wept when I
lowered myself into clean water for the first time in what felt like years. My
hair was shocking and my clothes were worse, and it was only when I had
scrubbed off the grime that I realised just how filthy I had been. I went to
scrub my clothing in the bathwater, but the little maidservant took away my
horrible shirt, tunic, and trews and brought me a long gown. It was a good
handspan too short, but there was enough room in the shoulders. The maid
assured me that my own garments would be ready for me by morning.

Clean and warm at last, I followed my nose and
found Jamie wandering about not far ahead of me. I hailed him, and he led me
confidently towards the Great Hall.

“How fare you this morning?” I asked, yawning.

Jamie laughed. Goddess, it was good to see him
laugh again. “It lacks but an hour of sunset, my girl. Morning, indeed!” He yawned
along with me. “I am well, Lanen. Exhausted, but well. Nothing that another day
or so in a real bed won’t cure.” He stopped in the corridor and faced me. “And
before we meet the rest of them—how are you?’

“I am well enough,” I replied solemnry. I didn’t
bother to tell him that I had wakened weeping. We were none of us un-wounded. “And
all three of us will be considerably better once I get some food inside me!”

The Great Hall boasted a long oaken table and
individual chairs rather than benches. The table was well laden with food,
though by the look of things it had groaned even louder before. Maran and Rella
sat at one end, talking at speed. Jamie joined them, and I could only admire
Rellas restraint. She sat back, for the most part, and let Maran and Jamie
catch up on the last twenty-odd years. I caught her eye, and was satisfied with
the calm smile and the nod she sent my way. All was well with her, then, too.