The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 (5 page)

“
Magic killed my
father,” Lady Sandra said, crossing her arms. The guardsmen went
deathly silent at the mention of her father. “You can try and
defend it all you want, but the fact still remains. If Davenport
didn’t have magic, my father would still be alive.”

She turned around and left towards her
section of the camp. Ser Wilson started walking backwards to follow
her. “I’ve fought a Mage before,” he said. “I wasn’t hiding behind
a rock to protect myself from his fists.”

“
Don’t blame the
sword because the soldier can’t handle it,” I said.

He smiled slightly after a moment.
“Well said.”

He turned away and I motioned to the
guardsmen as I finished my cold soup. “Grab some sleep. I’ll take
first watch.”

“
You sure?” Bill
asked.

“
I’m the only one
here that has had a decent night’s sleep recently,” I answered.
“I’ll be fine, if you trust me.”

“
We’re men of duty
ourselves,” Bill said. “If what we heard of magic is true, you
could have killed us a hundred times by now, but instead you lived
up to your word and even tried to help Doc. I know a good man when
I see one.”

The guardsmen nodded their approvals
and I stood up. “Thanks,” I said.

The guardsmen started
preparing their area around the fire and I headed off towards the
edge of the camp facing the Archanion Field. We were far enough
away from the distortion that the corruption shouldn’t have
affected the animals here, but I didn’t want to risk it. The foxes
had been surprising enough. If an army of corrupted field mice were
descending on our position, I wanted to sense them as soon as
possible.

Field mice,
really?
Cathy asked.

Vicious little things on the best of
days.

We should probably
protect ourselves in case the flowers come alive too,
Cathy teased.
A bunch of
poesies could be deadly.

Oh, be serious.

I am serious,
Cathy said.
There’s
nothing to worry about. Field mice have always been corrupt.
Disease carrying, little freaks.

I chuckled softly and
looked out over the dark field. In my scanning mind, the only life
forms were small insects. Not exactly an army of evil, but an
annoying one nevertheless.

The peaceful evening passed by slowly
and I thought about how easy the trip had been. The group had made
it to the base of Ghanlar in a day and tomorrow we would have the
support of the Evenawks for our search.

The thought of seeing some old friends
was also exciting. I had been so busy with my forest duties that I
had never been to visit since they defeated the Mages. Warlord
Narrilok and Chieftain Harkis were going to give me an earful. I
smiled at the thought.

I felt a life form moving towards me
from behind and turned to see the shape of Lady Sandra approaching.
“You’ve been relieved,” she whispered, not looking at me.

I stood up and faced her. “We should
talk about your father,” I whispered.

“
There is nothing to
talk about,” she whispered in a deadpanned tone. She sat on the
ground and stared out over the field. The conversation was
over.

I shook my head and headed for the
fire. It was hard to be angry at her for her attitude. We all
grieve differently for our lost loved ones.

Yes, but it seems
like she isn’t even trying to move on,
Cathy said.

It would depend on how close she was to
her father. And what happened in that castle.

I set up my bag as a pillow and lay
down next to the fire. Pushing a little power through my hands, I
helped the dying fire grow stronger. There was a chill in the night
and I covered my skin in my extra clothes from my pack.

I looked at the shape of Lady Sandra
before closing my eyes.

*****

The sun looked painted in the sky as
gentle breezes made the leaves on the trees sing their light tune.
The clearing was a peaceful sanctuary from the world outside the
forest. Only a lone path trailed off towards the small town on the
hill. A rabbit darted out from...

I grabbed my head and
shook it, snapping the spell the dream had on my mind. I have
developed the skill of turning dreams lucid due to the erratic
nature of them. It was mostly caused by Cathy, but when I looked
around the colourful dream world again, I had no idea what to
say.

On the rare nights I
dreamt, it was either a ‘normal’ weird dream or one of Cathy’s old
memories. We had learnt a long time ago that Cathy doesn’t actually
dream. Her subconscious transfer memories into mine and my
subconscious will build them as dreams. Some of them have been
tame, but some have been pure nightmares. Turning the dream lucid
and finding each other was our best option.

I scanned the clearing again. The
rabbit winked at me before darting away as a girl came running
along the path in my direction. She was between 16 and 18 cycles
old and had long blonde hair, a tattered dress and a look of worry
on her face.

“
Sir, I need your
help,” she said in a panicked tone.

She was cute, but she
wasn’t what I was searching for. Cathy always seems to turn up
looking the same; if she is in human form.

“
Sir, are you
listening to me?” the girl asked. “My father is in danger. You need
to save him.”

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah, in
a minute,” I said dismissively, wandering around the
clearing.

I noticed a black cat chasing a
butterfly. When it saw me, it stopped and recognition shot into its
eyes. “Andy?” Cathy asked. “What the Void is happening? Why do I
want to catch this butterfly?”

“
Because you are a
cat,” I answered, walking over and scooping her up.

“
Hey, hey, put me
down or I will claw you something fierce,” she
complained.

I placed her on a nearby log and she
started to lick her paw. “I just got myself groomed too,” she
whined, rubbing her paw behind her eyes.

“
Sir, we have to
hurry,” the blonde girl said, startling me.

“
Who’s the chick?”
Cathy asked, tilting her head sideways.

“
AH!” the girl
screamed. “Demon cat!”

“
Well, she got it
half right,” I said to Cathy. I turned to Blondie. “What is your
name?”

“
Sandra,” she
answered. “Will you help my father now?”

“
HA!” Cathy
exclaimed.

“
Don’t say it,” I
said, pointing to the little fuzz ball.

“
A blonde girl named
Sandra who needs help with her father,” Cathy said excitedly. “Is
this a crush or a hero complex?”

I sighed and turned to Sandra. “I’ll
help you with your father after I take care of the demon cat.”

She nodded and hurried off to the path
and towards the village. I turned back to face Cathy who had
returned to human form with the cat theme still present. Fake cat
ears sat on top of her head, poking out from her brown hair. Her
nose was painted black, with painted whiskers on her face and a
black bikini outfit covering her pale body. A fake tail poked out
from behind her and rested on the log.

“
Rawr,” she said,
scratching the air in front of her. She looked down at her body and
nodded. “Damn, I’m hot.”

“
Shall we end this
dream?” I asked.

“
In a moment,” she
said, standing up. She walked seductively towards me and wrapped
her arms around my neck, pressing her body against mine. Her blue
eyes stared longingly into mine. “Don’t you want to play with the
kitty first?”

I chuckled awkwardly. “W-what are you
doing?”

“
Hmm?” she said,
looking innocent. “Maybe I’m just jealous that you have a crush on
the new girl and want you all for myself.”

I looked at her sceptically and she
laughed and backed up. “You’re no fun sometimes, Andy. So, did you
want to continue with the dream and save the girl’s father?”

“
No time,” I said,
motioning to the grey fog that was slowly creeping over the
trees.

“
Restless night
tonight,” Cathy said, studying the fog. “A shame, we could have had
some fun.”

“
Your idea of fun
sometimes scares me,” I said, charging up a Dispel. “Shall
we?”

She sighed and nodded as I launched the
Dispel into the ground. The dream simmered and dissolved in a bare
field with a single tree in the middle of it. The Tree of my
Subconscious - our haven from bad dreams.

Cathy’s outfit
changed back into the plain housewife clothes from the last dream
we shared before she became trapped within me. It was the
appearance she chose in her attempt to possess me, but instead
ended up stuck in my subconscious. After the failed exorcism, I
thought her appearance would change to whatever she wanted, but she
always returned to the same body in the end. She never explained
why.

The fog was starting to quickly gain
ground as we became surrounded. Before the fog overtook us, I
thought I saw Cathy looking at me sadly. I couldn’t see clearly but
the feeling was there.

Chapter
5

I opened my eyes and sat up in bed,
shaking my head. The guardsmen were awake and already packing their
belongings. The sun had just started to rise, casting a dark orange
light on the horizon and the field. The chill of the night still
lingered. It was mornings like this that made me wish I still had
my robe.

“
Are you okay there,
Kairu?” Jeff asked.

I chuckled. “Just a weird dream.”

“
Well come on, it is
time to go,” he said, leaving to help the guards pack.

I quickly packed up my clothing and
walked over to where the Sentry Stick lay untouched and dispelled
it. I pocketed it to place at the top of the path should Davenport
try to sneak around us after we left for the Evenawk capital of
Scert’chak.

We were getting close now. An
electricity of excitement was settling into the guards as I led
them up the winding path of the mountain. If I remembered
correctly, we would be approaching the ravine with the worst bridge
in history. After two cycles of not being used, I dreaded the
condition it would be in now.

Probably no
difference,
Cathy said.
It has stood since the first war against the
Evenawks and will stand until the next age for sure. The magical
bridge however...let’s hope Davenport made sure it was working
correctly.

Good point.

We arrived at the ravine and the creaky
wooden bridge swayed back and forth in the wind. The ropes looked
worn and on the verge of breaking and several wooden planks were
missing, including a large section in the middle.

Did it always look like this?

I felt Cathy search
through my memories.
Yes. In fact it
hasn’t changed.

Why don’t I feel relieved?

Cathy
chuckled.
Because when you put the stick
in your pocket you missed and got it stuck up your-

“
So here we are,” I
said to the group. “Just hop on across and we’ll be on our
way.”

The group stared at the bridge with an
uneasy look and I laughed. Reaching out with my power, I found the
magical bridge that overlapped the wooden one and created a bond
with my power. Slowly, power flowed through the bond and the
magical bridge glowed with a pale light. The group looked at the
magical bridge with the same look of mistrust. I crossed the bridge
confidently, ignoring the urge to skip...

But it would be so
funny,
Cathy said.

...and arriving on the other side
without incident.

I waved at the group with my free hand.
“You have to hurry, it is hard to maintain this connection for
long,” I called out.

Lady Sandra boldly walked across the
bridge without fear and the guards slowly followed behind her with
Ser Wilson being the last on the bridge. Each member of the group
stepped carefully over the gap, untrusting of the magical
bridge.

My strength started to waver as the
guards finished crossing. Ser Wilson’s heavy boots broke through
the wooden plank during a moment of weakness and Jeff turned around
to reach out for him as more planks gave way.

Lend me your magic!

Really?
Cathy asked.
For
him?

YES!

Ser Wilson fell through the bridge with
Lady Sandra being stopped by her guards as she dashed towards him.
A surge of power ripped through me as Cathy’s magic merged with
mine. The world slowed down as I searched for something to help the
falling knight. The life force of small trees growing out from the
side of the ravine buzzed with energy. Joining my energy to the
tree, I gained command of the tree’s branches and snared the knight
by his foot, dangling him upside down a metre away from the
edge.

“
GEORGE!” Lady Sandra
called out, breaking free and running to the ledge.

“
I’m okay,” Ser
Wilson called back.

“
Quickly, help him
up,” Lady Sandra ordered the guardsmen.

The guardsmen dropped their weapons and
formed a chain by locking hands and dangling Vincent over the edge.
I commanded the branch to try and lift Ser Wilson towards Vincent.
Slowly, Vincent grabbed Ser Wilson’s hand and the team pulled him
back onto flat ground.