Sunstone - Dishonor's Bane (Book 2) (21 page)

“Now leave!”

The two men nearly ran out of the stable. Shiro didn’t dare transport from inside the lord’s mansion. He tried to smother their magic with the cloaking spell and led Chika’s horse out of the gate. He looked back and could see tendrils of smoke reaching up from over the wall. He took another turn, not remembering how to get out of the city. He couldn’t get caught again.

“Chika!” She didn’t respond to him but collapsed on her horse as soon as they left her father’s mansion. Shiro couldn’t ride with any speed or she’d fall off the horse in her state. He wished the maid would have taken out the hair ornaments and washed her face. She looked horrid.

“Stop!”

Shiro could hear the sound of horses clopping on the cobbles getting louder. He turned into a large square and saw the road that led out of the gate. People began to run away when he reached a central well. No one was close, but soldiers began to enter from the direction of the mansion. The smoke had dwindled. There’d be no repeat of Sekkoro’s fire.

He led her out the gate and as he did so, she collapsed on the neck of the horse. She couldn’t ride out of the city draped senseless over the neck of her horse. Shiro had no choice but to jam his steed next to hers. The horses bucked a bit, but Chika stayed on. Riders surrounded them. The Sunstone blade had to stay in it’s ornate sheath, for Shiro had to hold the reins of the horse with one hand and Chika with the other.

~~~

Chapter Twenty-Nine

~

S
hiro took a deep breath and teleported Chika
and the horses along with himself to the North Isle. In his haste, he had fixed the location of the burnt out inn, but when they arrived, the inn no longer existed. All of the timbers had been removed and the ground had been cleared of debris.

While Shiro realized the inn had been demolished, Chika fell to the ground, unmoving. The horses’ eyes rolled and they nervously pranced around at the abrupt change in location. Shiro vaulted off of his mount and grabbed Chika, shooing the horses away. She didn’t say a word and acted as if she were in a deep slumber.

“Chika, can you ride?” She remained passive in his arms. Shiro winced at her lack of response and calmed both of the horses, throwing Chika over her saddle. She didn’t even complain about the rough handling while they proceeded to the valley.

Now that he had time to think, he looked over at Chika’s body, flaccidly swaying to every movement of her mount. He knew her relationship with her father had brought out odd behavior, but he never once thought that she would end up in such a state. He worried for her, but had no idea how to give her any sort of comfort. He had learned to treasure their relationship, whatever that might be at present or, hopefully, in the future.

Chika had exhibited temperament and prickliness, but she also had saved him as he rushed southward in his vain attempt to save Shiuki. He had thought they made a formidable team with the both of them possessing high expertise in magical and martial arts. And now? He shook his head. He only hoped the White Rose Society could help bring Chika out from whatever place she now resided in her mind.

He pulled up outside Tishi’s house and lifted Chika down from the horse.

Miroshi and Tishi ran out. “What happened?”

“We went one village too far and were led into a trap. Lord Udishi, who is now dead, tortured his daughter while they kept me prisoner in another part of his mansion. The lord loved to gloat and Chika snapped out of her haze just long enough to kill her father. She’s been like this ever since. I think we ran through some wards that damaged her mind. We teleported with these horses when we were surrounded by the prefecture troops.”

“So the Udishi’s prefecture is finished with us?”

Shiro managed half of a smile. “Perhaps not yet. We will be more careful, but we won’t drift as close to the capital as we did. There will be a new lord, of course. We managed to come across a village too close to the city that had already been compromised.”

Tishi nodded her head. “We can talk about it later. I recommend that all of Udishi prefecture not be visited by anyone for a while. You wash up or something. We’ll attend to Chika.”

With a feeling of utter helplessness, Shiro took the horses and sought out Ashiyo. In the few weeks they had been gone, the tent city had been moved and piles of building materials had taken their place.

Ashiyo stood in front of a cleared area talking to three men and a woman. He noticed Shiro and grinned while he sent the others on their way. He walked up to Shiro. “How was your trip?” His smile melted while he looked at Shiro’s face. “Where are the new recruits? What happened?”

“We were captured by Chika’s father. He beat her so thoroughly that her mind seems to have gone to some other place. Despite that, she killed her father giving me the ability to escape. I just arrived minutes ago.” Shiro couldn’t help shaking his head.

“You took her to Tishi?”

Shiro nodded.

“That’s probably for the best. She’s quite an administrator. She talked all of us into moving the wood from her inn to that pile over there.” Ashiyo nodded to a pile of blackened timber. “We can salvage quite a bit of lumber and stone. I didn’t know anyone could get so many people to move at once.”

“What did she do, teleport?” Shiro said.

“She didn’t teleport, she levitated one big mass of debris and walked with it all the way to that pile.” Ashiyo chuckled. “She did stagger around a bit after her amazing feat. The woman is something else. If anyone can help Chika…”

Shiro produced a weak smile, as he didn’t know if anyone could help her. “I need to wash up and rest a bit.”

“You can share my tent. It’s the big one over there,” Ashiyo said, pointing to a large brown tent with red pennants flying from two of the tent poles. “I’ve got to continue to supervise our work. Your idea to go buy materials at different places was brilliant. It makes it much easier buy a little here and a little there.” He grinned again and then moved off with a wave.

On the way to Ashiyo’s tent, Shiro passed a corral with a few horses. He put the two he had taken from Lord Udishi in with the others and put the saddles on the wooden logs of the fence.  The weight of the world seemed to bear down on him as he stepped into his friend’s tent. Why did Ashiyo need such a big place to sleep?

Shiro’s mouth dropped open as he entered and beheld basket after basket filled with books and scrolls. Piles of scrolls littered the surface of a large table set up on trestles with an upright chair. The books drew him in, but his mind and a troubled heart restrained his desire to go through Ashiyo’s library. He tore his attention away from the scene and found a bowl of water and towel that he used to wipe the sweat off of his face and traces of white powder from his hands. He didn’t even remember when he touched her face. Two cots were laid out on opposite sides of the tent. He laid down on one of them and wrapped his arm around his face to dim the waning sunlight that tried to fight its way through the tent cloth. Soon he let his mind go and surrendered to sleep.

The flickering of a bank of candles startled Shiro from his slumber. He rose up on one elbow, looking at Tishi peruse an old book. He cleared his throat and Tishi’s eyes rose to meet his.

“Ah, the hero has risen from his sleep. I wish I could say the same for your poor friend.”

Shiro shook sleep from his eyes and got up from the cot. “How is Chika?” He took a stool on the other side of the table from Tishi.

“Her father might not have been a sorcerer, but his claws went deep into her mind. She hasn’t stirred since you brought her in. You said she helped you escape?”

Shiro described the scene at her father’s ‘feast’. “At least I could lead her. She walked where I pointed her and rode out the gate. Then she just collapsed. The entire episode had finally overwhelmed her.”

“The gate you say?”

He nodded.

“Ah. My guess is that the gate had a ward that caused her condition. I suspected something of the kind when you brought her in. Despite the bruising, her condition is admirable, as it has always been.” Tishi squinted across the table at Shiro. “Physically she is fine, but her Affinity has been stripped from her. It’s much different than a shielding spell that will keep you from performing magic. You don’t lose your connection, just your ability to project your power. I’m looking for a restorative.”

Shiro furrowed his brow. “A restorative to bring back her Affinity? How will that help her?”

“She’s had too many shocks and the shock of losing Affinity has turned her into a mindless shell. The mind is still there, but in some way, it’s not connected.”

He shook his head. “I don’t understand.” Shiro’s stomach flipped and he felt a wave of nausea. He forced Chika through the warded gate and caused her condition. His attempt to dampen the magic had failed. First he destroyed his family and now Chika.

“I can see you are blaming yourself. Don’t. What was your alternative? Her father would have killed her if she hadn’t acted and you’d likely be joining her in the grave.”

Tishi spoke the truth and that helped Shiro accept the results of their escape. “What can I do to help? Do you seek a spell?”

She nodded and pointed her the book that lay open in front of her. “I’m not learned enough to know how it’s done. Ashiyo admitted—”

“Admitted what?” Ashiyo said as he entered the tent carrying a tray of food.

She gave him a rueful smile. “I was about to tell Shiro that your abilities as a sorcerer are not indicative of all this.” Tishi waved her hand towards the baskets of knowledge.”

Ashiyo shrugged and folded her arms. Shiro could see that she didn’t believe Ashiyo. “She’s right,” he said as he laid down the tray on one of the few bare spots on the table. Shiro noted that he had brought food for three. “I’ve already admitted my indifference as a student of magic to Shiro.”

The man made Shiro smile despite the guilt he still felt. “He has. So what can I help find? At least I can do that for Chika.”

Ashiyo served them bowls of rice with a strip of fish nestled in a top layer of vegetables. Shiro was more thirsty than hungry and gratefully took a cup of tea.

“Look for the severance of Affinity, would be my guess,” Ashiyo said. “I don’t remember anything in my days at the Guild that spoke of a spell that could do it.  The ward didn’t affect you on the way into the mansion…”

“I don’t know how we got in,” Shiro admitted. “They knocked me out and I woke in a warded room in the lord’s mansion.”

Tishi nodded. “The ward likely worked both ways. Udishi played with fire by not removing Affinity from you both when he first captured you. It seemed to have burned him in the end.” She smiled, a bit too evilly for Shiro’s taste. He could still picture the immolating corpse of Chika’s father.

“So perhaps an account of wards? If we can figure out the ward, then perhaps we can reverse it?” Shiro said.

Tishi sighed. “It doesn’t quite work that way, young man. Wards are not reversed; they are defeated. As I said, we are looking for a restorative spell.”

Shiro raised his finger. “But my reasoning still works. If we can find a method of severance,” he stopped Tishi as she began to contradict him, “with a spell, then we could puzzle out something to restore her Affinity.”

“Indeed,” Ashiyo commented, with his eyebrows raised. “My meager knowledge can see that.”

Shiro was in no mood to accept Ashiyo’s false modesty, but didn’t have the strength to anything other than glare at the man.

“Tishi, you can look for a restorative and Shiro, here, can seek out severance spells.”

The woman squinted at them both and waved them both off. “You’ve convinced an old woman!  Now let’s get to work.”

“No,” Ashiyo said. “Let’s get to eating. If this will take the rest of the night, then we will need to maintain our strength.

~~~

Chapter Thirty

~

S
hiro threw his eyes wide-open
to drive away a wave of drowsiness. He pushed away a stack of books and now attacked a small basket filled with scroll sticks. He ran through them and found a reference to deprivation of Affinity.

“I may have something,” he said. Ashiyo didn’t respond from his position on his cot. He had finally fallen asleep with a book open on his chest. Tishi had just finished replacing two of the candles and had yet to sit back down.

“Deprivation, you say? Does it continue?” she said.

“It does. The spell is similar to what is done to cut off the flow of a stream.”

“Why would anyone want to do that?” Ashiyo said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“As a farmer, I can see some uses for using the spell as a diversion tool like the irrigation of fields. A spell can stop the flooding.” Shiro read on. “So it’s not severance, but deprivation.”

“I, for one, don’t know the difference,” Ashiyo said as he yawned.

“I don’t see how it matters as long as we can help the poor child,” Tishi said as she walked around the table and looked over Shiro’s shoulder.

“Here,” Shiro said, pointing to the spell. “This is the adaptation and there is even a ward that will repel the water once the deprivation spell has been made.”

“That’s just the thing,” Tishi said. “And here is the release spell to get the flow going again.”

“Ashiyo,” Shiro turned his head towards the man’s cot, “do sorcerers create spells?”

He nodded. “Indeed they do, but since they are specific instructions, such a thing is frowned upon. Experimentation can produce unwanted results and dead sorcerers.”

Shiro remembered his innovations at the Guild and nodded. “Well, we are going to do some innovation. I’m going to write out a spell and wards to cut off Affinity and another to restore it.”

Tishi narrowed her eyes. “And who will test it? You won’t be experimenting on my patient,” she said.

“I’ll experiment on myself. You’ll recite the spells and I’ll be your victim,” Shiro smiled. He knew he could make it work. For the first time in endless hours, he felt enervated that he might be able do something to help Chika.

Ashiyo heated some tea on a small brazier in his tent while Shiro worked out the spells. Tishi looked over Shiro’s shoulder, which bothered Shiro a bit, but the woman did point out an error in his writing.

“All right.” Shiro took a deep breath and lay down on his cot. “If it affects me like it did Chika, I’ll be comatose. Check me out first, and then reconnect my Affinity.”

“Disconnect, then reconnect.” Tishi’s face showed a great deal of concern and anxiety. The woman’s hands shook just a bit. The unease only increased Shiro’s nerves. “You are absolutely sure you want to do this?”

“Do it,” he said.

Tishi looked into Shiro’s eyes and intoned the spell.

He did not faint. His eyes remained open and he knew just what happened. “I feel like I can’t breathe.” He took a deep breath and made Ashiyo laugh.

“It didn’t work then,” Ashiyo said.

Shiro sat up. “I am cut off from Affinity. My thinking, my perspective, everything has been dulled. It’s an effort to sit and to think, but I’m fighting it as I talk.” Shiro then felt the world close in on him and he fell back as he blacked out.

~

Shiro’s eyes opened and he took another deep breath as the world snapped back into place. “It worked!” He looked at his hands and produced a ball of flame. “Poor Chika. Let’s restore her Affinity and then it’s back to you to help her,” Shiro said, looking at Tishi.

The three of them walked out of the tent into an emerging dawn. The silhouettes of the tents and everything else appeared in shades of dark blue.

“I’ll go in first,” Tishi said. “It’s not a good thing to barge in on a house full of women,” she said in a huff and disappeared into the house. A light grew and she soon returned to the door, a ball of light floating in her hand. “Follow me.”

Women rose up from their pallets, adjusting their robes as they passed through to a small room. Chika lay silent. Shiro created a ball of light on his own and took the scroll stick with the restorative spell.

“You do it, Shiro,” Tishi said.

“Here we go.” He took a deep breath and prayed for success. He intoned the spell.

Chika coughed and opened her eyes. She looked around at her surroundings. The light revealed bruises still covering her face, but she looked from face to face, fear dominated the bruises.

“Where am I?”

Tishi took Chika’s face in her palms. “You are among friends, my child. Shiro has saved you.”

Chika frantically sought out Shiro’s face. “I…  I…” she struggled to get words out.

Shiro knelt at her side and took her hand. “Don’t talk. We escaped from your father’s mansion. A ward eliminated your Affinity and now it’s restored.”

“Who? What?…”

Tishi put her finger to Chika’s lips and let her back down. She quickly went back to sleep. Tishi glared at Shiro. “Come with me.”

Ashiyo smiled at all of the ladies with their hair undone and in thin robes as they left. Shiro barely noticed and wondered what concerned Tishi.

When they were outside the house, Tishi turned on Shiro. “Why didn’t you lose your magic when you went through the gate?  Have you been playing me false?”

Shiro backed up. His mind worked furiously to come up with an answer. “Shield spell. Although I don’t think it would be responsible since I cast it on the both of us.”  What was different between them? He knew what protected him. “I had the Sunstone on me.”

“Sunstone? The sword?”

He never had told Tishi about his sword. “I have the ancient Sunstone. I found it on the prison island that I escaped from. It is the Sunstone that the Emperors used until…” Now he knew why the sword had been discarded. It held a great deal of protection and he didn’t know how to use it, but it did prevent the ward from working at the gate. “If you don’t believe me, try the spell while I’m holding onto the sword.”

Tishi gave Shiro a hard look and grabbed him by his wrist. He felt like his mother led him to his father for punishment. “Where is it?”

Shiro retrieved it from the possessions that lay in a heap inside the entrance to Ashiyo’s tent. “I’ll lay down, holding the sword. I’ll bet I won’t lose my ability to perform magic.”

He lay back down on his cot and waited for Tishi to pronounce the separation spell. She did so and Shiro put out his hand and produced a ball of light.

“Perhaps you were shielded before?” she said.

Shiro shook his head. “The only way is for you to take my place.”

Tishi’s eyes grew wide. “Me? Never!” She must have realized that her disguise would likely come off. Her real appearance would no longer be a secret.

Ashiyo nodded. “I’ll do it.”

She ground her teeth. “Up!  First without the sword and then with, Ashiyo.”

Shiro stood over Ashiyo as he lay on his cot. He pronounced the spell and he immediately went under. He looked with alarm at Tishi. “I didn’t just faint like that, did I?” Shiro said.

“No, you didn’t, but he’s not you, lad.”

The restoration spell brought Ashiyo back to consciousness.

“Not good. Now I can understand how Chika felt. I lost all ability to think and curled up into a little ball as I dreamed. How long was I out?”

“A few moments, my dear,” Tishi said.

“Here,” Shiro gave him the sword.

Ashiyo grasped it tightly and closed his eyes.

“Make a ball of flame,” Shiro said.

“Here.” Ashiyo did so and then closed his eyes tightly. Shiro could see a sheen of sweat on his forehead. “I go willingly back to that awful place.”

Shiro intoned the separation spell.

“Are you there?”

Ashiyo’s eyes popped open. “Nothing.” He sat up, laying the sword aside and made a ball of flame.

“I apologize, Shiro. I jumped to the wrong conclusion,” Tishi said.

Shiro laughed. “Keep jumping, Tishi. It’s the time to be wary. We have enemies all around us and we must maintain our guard.” He yawned. “As much as I’d like to return to Chika’s side, I am not well rested. Get off of my bed and I’ll be over in a few hours.”

Ashiyo shivered. “I don’t know if I’ll help you with your experiments, again. Losing my Affinity was awful.”

“Now you know how Chika felt.”

~

Sleeping until mid-afternoon, Shiro blinked sleep out of his eyes and changed clothes before he made his way to Tishi’s house. The women stopped him at the door.

“How is she?”

Miroshi, looked down at him from within the entry. “She is not herself.” She put her hand to the side of her face. “Chika doesn’t even remember her name.” She motioned him inside and led him to Chika’s side.

“Chika, it’s Shiro.”

She looked up at him and furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry. I don’t know you.”

“What do you know?”

Chika rose on her elbow and rubbed the front of her forehead. “Not much. I vaguely remember that I am the daughter of an important man.”

“You were adept at martial arts. Do you remember that you could fight?”

Her eyes widened. “Me? No. I don’t know…” She made a fist. “Maybe. I’m fit, aren’t I?” She looked up at Shiro for confirmation.

Tishi closed her hands around Chika’s fist. “You are, my child. If we remove this male from the room, we will let you rise and dress.”

Miroshi ushered Shiro out and he paced outside of the house until Chika walked out of the house.

“They told me you would tell me how I ended up in this state.” She frowned, rubbing her head again. “My head hasn’t stopped hurting.”

This version of Chika lacked fire. As far as Shiro could see, the restoration spell only brought back consciousness, but not Chika. If only he had put her in front of him on the horse as they rode through the gate. He looked out at the activity of the valley and wanted to get away from these strangers who took refuge.

“Come with me.” He took her to Ashiyo’s tent and retrieved the Sunstone sword.

He grasped her hand and led Chika to the nexus outcropping. He told her all that they had done together up until the time they were captured.

Chika shook her head. “I don’t remember any of it. We did quite a lot together didn’t we?” She gave him a sideways glance along with a smile.

Shiro took it as progress. A little spirit had returned. “Indeed. Do you know where we are?”

“I can feel a tingle on my skin.”

“Do you remember how to use your power and perform magic?”

Chika frowned and walked a pace or two away from him. She shook her head with frustration. “No, but I can feel that there is something just out of my reach—especially here. That’s part of the tingle.”

“You know what a nexus is?”

She smiled. “I may have lost some memory, but I haven’t lost all of my wits. This is a nexus. That is why I can feel it. I have some Affinity.”

“Touch the orange rock.”

Chika sat on the nexus and leaned back with both hands. Her long hair swayed in the breeze. The hardness that defined an element of Chika had disappeared, leaving a woman at the peak of her femininity. She looked vulnerable and that made her incredibly attractive. Shiro had to keep his breath even. What was he doing? Did he hope that just walking to the nexus would cure her? It only made his feelings for her stronger. Like was turning into something more serious. He couldn’t let that happen.

Shiro shook his head and shut that off from his mind. Would his very proximity bring back her memory? He quickly cast that thought aside as dishonorable pride. Shiro didn’t know what to do next and felt his best course would be to just let this encounter with Chika develop without him getting all romantic with the woman.

He drew his sword. “This is what saved me from your fate. The sword contains the legendary Sunstone.” He swung the sword and began to perform a few forms for Chika. “Does my practice bring back any memories?”

Chika’s eyes glistened with tears as she shook her head. “They should, though, shouldn’t they?” She balled her hands into fists and rose from her rock seat, a look of frustration or torment covered her face. Shiro didn’t know which and realized that it didn’t matter.

All Shiro could do was nod, and then he placed the sword in her hand. “Try to do what I just did. Maybe your muscles will provide you with enough memory.”

She took the sword in her hand and put her finger to the stone. “It’s an odd place for such a jewel. I would have thought the top of the pommel.” She swung the sword and after a few clumsy passes, Shiro could see control begin to guide her swings. Chika danced around as if possessed and then brought the sword down on the rock.

At least she hit it with the flat of the sword, Shiro thought. But the blade stayed anchored to the rock. Chika’s eyes rolled up in her head and she fell senseless to the earth on top of the sword. Concerned that she might have hurt herself, Shiro hurried to her side and lifted her away from the blade and set her down a few paces away. He checked to see if she were still breathing. Her color looked fine through the bruises that still colored her face.