Her quick reversal irritated me. A few days ago she had thought I was going insane, yet she would have followed me down that road without a second thought. Now I was supposedly ‘cured’ and she was my Anath’Meridum, yet she worried more about ‘his’ opinion than mine. Perhaps I was being irrational, but I couldn’t help the feeling.
“Tell you what,” I said, “Since I’m certain to survive I’ll go alone. I’ll come back for you ladies when I’ve made sure it’s safe.” Yeah it was a stupid thing to say, but I was starting to get seriously annoyed with two of my companions.
“If you travel more than a couple hundred yards or so from Penelope here you’ll both die from the strain on your bond,” Cyhan replied.
“What?!” Penny and I said in unison. No one had told either of us about that little drawback before we took the plunge.
“That’s ridiculous! Let’s undo this... we can’t live like this,” I said, raising my voice.
“Mort...” Penny said quietly.
“It’s possible Penny. We just have to both agree to it and it’s over,” I told her.
“No Mort. I won’t let you. I meant that oath... all of it. It’s important,” she said and I could see her blue eyes were glistening with incipient tears.
“Besides...” Cyhan started.
I was tired of his constant interruptions. He had already turned my future wife against me, “Kyrtos!” I barked at him. It was a spell to silence speech.
“That won’t work on me either,” he continued. Reaching into his pouch he pulled out the still glowing stone from our bonding ceremony. “As long as I carry this your magic cannot touch me.”
Today was just full of surprises. “Anything else I should know?” I bit out. I was angry beyond reason now. He had deliberately kept the consequences of our bond from me. Before he could respond Penny spoke up.
“Yes,” she said. “The gem is a keystone, a crucial part of the bond. It will glow for as long as the bond is in effect, but...”
“But what?!”
“She’s trying to tell you that if I decide you’re a threat I can destroy the gem. It’s an extra bit of insurance in case both of you desert your better senses,” Cyhan finished for her.
“What happens then?” I asked.
“We die Mort.” Penny said, she really was upset now.
“And you knew about this?” I was outraged.
“Yes. It was the only way Mort. You were losing your mind. I couldn’t bear to watch it,” she said plaintively. “I did it for your own good.”
“No need to bother giving me any say in the matter eh?”
Marcus stepped closer, “It isn’t as bad as it sounds, you...”
“Like hell it isn’t!” I shouted him down.
“Mort, I love you. That’s the only reason I would do something like this,” Penny added, as if that would make it all better.
“You can take your love and go to hell!” I snapped. I regretted it the moment I said it but I was too angry to let that stop me. “And you can forget about the marriage as well,” I pulled a small pouch from my belt. It contained the ring I had ordered over a month gone by. Rose had slipped it to me when she first visited us at the royal palace.
“Here, keep it. Sell it, I don’t give a damn. We’re done,” I tossed it at her feet.
She knelt to pick up the small pouch... her trembling fingers quickly told her what was inside. “Mordecai! No, you don’t understand! This doesn’t make any sense. I love you!”
“My father and I have one thing in common Penelope. Neither one of us can stand a damn liar,” my voice was colder than ice now. “Now unless you lied about your oath as well, you have a duty to perform. I’m going down that road, you’ll be coming with me... understand?”
“Don’t think your anger will change my mind boy or did you forget something?” Cyhan was holding the gem up between his fingers.
Cold rage swept over me like a freezing wind. Without using words I focused a blast of air at his hand and the gem went flying. “Grabol ni’targoth. Forzen!” I said immediately afterward. A hole formed in the ground beneath him and Cyhan fell into a shallow pit, the earth closed around him before he could react. I walked over to casually retrieve the gem.
“What the hell are you doing Mort?” Marcus exclaimed.
“You stay here and watch him. Make sure no one comes and cuts his fool head off before we come back,” I said, ignoring his question.
“Mordecai this is insane. Calm down, we can talk this out,” Penny tried to calm me.
I walked past her without caring, “I don’t recall asking for your opinion. Come with me. It’s time to take care of business.”
She looked at me blankly, unable to decide what the correct course of action would be. I kept walking. I paused for a moment, “What was it you said the other day? ‘My life is yours, to use as you wish’, I think that’s what you said wasn’t it? Time to start your job… unless you’ve decided that it’s time to end my life.” I started walking again, not bothering mount up. The horses might be a hindrance if it really was an ambush ahead.
She didn’t move to follow for several long minutes, till I was almost a hundred yards down the road. Finally she started running, and quickly caught up to me. “You’re an asshole,” she said when she was within a few feet of me.
“And you’re the asshole’s bodyguard and executioner,” I replied sarcastically.
We continued until we had reached the place in the road where I had sensed the men earlier. As we drew close to the spot I could feel them hidden near the sides of the road another hundred yards or so further on. A rough count told me there were nearly twenty of them. “Stop!” I barked at Penny.
She growled and turned to face me, gritting her teeth, “If you think...”
“Shut up. There’s a trap under the road ahead of us, a pit I think.” The road ahead was plain dirt, but I could sense a large cavity beneath it. I focused my mind for a second... I could feel the wood and canvas beneath the dirt at the surface. They had done a good job; even knowing it was there my eyes could detect little difference between where the road was solid and where the pit lay.
Feeling contrary, I created a flat shield across the area where the trap was hidden, and then I walked over it, confident it would hold my weight.
“You said there was a trap?” Penny asked uncertainly.
“There is, but we’ll see how they feel when they see we can walk across it without trouble. Come on, it’s safe,” I turned away and kept walking. Penny rushed to catch up.
“What are you going to do if we find them?”
“Talk to them, see if I can change their minds,” I replied. I hadn’t bothered to mention that they were only fifty yards away now. I used a quick phrase in Lycian to put a shield around Penny. Her mail would protect her from arrows but a lucky shot might still kill her if it struck an unprotected area.
“I think I hear them,” she whispered to me. Her ears must be better than mine now; I could hear nothing, though I knew they were less than twenty yards away now, on either side of the road.
“Yep... they’re...” I started to tell her they were on either side of us but the thieves didn’t wait for me to finish. Arrows struck us from several directions at once, bouncing harmlessly from our shields. Penny had her sword out before I could blink. She was so fast she almost cut one of the shafts from the air, but her timing was off.
“You’ll need to practice that later,” I remarked, pulling my small bag of stones out. I reached in and pulled out a rock the size of my thumb, rolling it between my fingers. “Who’s your leader? I’d like to offer you a deal!” I shouted at the trees on one side of the road. None of the bandits had shown themselves yet.
The only reply was another shower of arrows. “Very well,” I said, “Tielen striltos!” I blew upon the stone in my hand and it shot away as if it had been fired from a sling. The stone curved as it flew, following an invisible line I held in my mind, till it struck the head of one of the ar
chers hidden in the trees. I heard a sickening wet thump and with my extra senses I saw the man’s body slump to the ground where he was hidden.
The arrows kept coming, so I repeated the process with three more stones. More bodies collapsed in the leafy darkness. “I really think we should talk! It doesn’t have to be like this!” I shouted again. Penny was watching me carefully, uncertain what was happening. She probably didn’t realize how effective the rocks were.
A few more arrows zipped out, I made note of their origins and tried to aim specifically for the men who had fired these. Three stones... four... five... I couldn’t be sure but I thought I had hit the ones firing. “I’m not going to make this offer again! Lay down your weapons and come out so we can talk!”
I could hear cursing as they began to realize how many of their comrades were already incapacitated. They began running away through the heavy brush. “Shit,” I said.
“What’s happening?” Penny asked, “Are they running, from stones?”
“It appears so. I didn’t want to injure all of them but I can’t let them get away. There may be more.” The fleeing men were still very close, as far as my magical senses were concerned. Even at a full run it would take them a minute or two to get beyond my range. I carefully sent stones after each of them, one by one, till at last they were all still.
“I think that’s all of them,” I said, putting the rest of my stones back in the pouch. “Let’s go see what they look like, maybe we can find out who hired them.”
“At once your grace!” she replied acerbically.
“That should be ‘your excellency.’ I’m a count not a duke,” I answered. There was no humor in my tone. Inwardly I felt my heart clench painfully, but I refused to give in to it.
Penny didn’t reply, but I could feel her flinch at my cold words. We began searching the roadside. She got to the first of our ambushers before I did. “Here’s one Mort... oh! Oh gods!” she turned away, a look of disgust on her face.
As soon as I reached her side I understood why. It was a gruesome sight. The man’s head looked like an exploded melon, blood and brains were everywhere. I had put more force behind the rocks than I had known. We searched for the others but it was soon apparent that the results were all the same. Each of them looked as though he had been struck by a slaughterhouse hammer.
At some point it overwhelmed me, and I began retching. I had seen death before, just a year ago in fact, but this was different. The last time I had been struggling just to survive, and I passed out as soon as the battle was over. The bodies had been removed before I saw them. This time they were fresh before me, and their deaths had been particularly brutal. There’s nothing quite like seeing a man’s brains on the ground to drive the point home.
Even worse, I had done it without being in any real danger myself. Sure I hadn’t realized how lethally effective my stones were, but I had picked them off calmly, one by one. They hadn’t had a chance. Eventually my stomach was empty and I realized Penny was stroking my back sympathetically.
“It’s not your fault,” she said softly.
Like hell it wasn’t. I knew what I had done, and now I realized even better what I had done a year before. I had killed over a hundred men then and hardly given it a second thought. If her vision was true I would do so again, many times over in all likelihood. I straightened up, spitting to clear my mouth. “It’s a good thing I’ve got you.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you Mort. I thought you were losing your mind. I would have done anything to stop it,” her face was full of concern.
More than anything I wanted to accept her apology, to make up. I needed her love more than ever, but I was full of self-loathing at what I had done. It would have been so easy to let go of it. But I also knew death was coming for me, and I would do worse things before the end. I had the beginnings of a plan... to get rid of the bond before the end came, to save her. I would be doing her no favor by reinforcing her love for me, not when she would be left behind.
“That’s not what I mean,” I pushed her hand away. The hurt expression on her face was almost more than I could bear, so I looked away and then walked back to the road leaving her standing there. Once my back was to her I spoke again, “I mean it’s a good thing I’ve got you to finish me off... if I turn into a monster.” I headed back to our camp without waiting to see if she was following. I didn’t trust myself to speak again.
Chapter 17
Back at the remains of our campsite Marc was chatting amiably with Cyhan. The large fighter was still buried almost to his neck, so he didn’t have much choice in the matter. I might have felt sorry for him but Marc was an excellent storyteller. I doubted he had been bored.
“How was it? Is the road clear?” asked Marc.
“It is now,” I said bluntly. I didn’t bother asking Cyhan if he would behave, with a few words I opened the earth up around him so he could climb out. I figured he was pragmatic enough to let bygones be bygones, now that the situation was resolved. “Let’s get moving. We have a long day ahead of us.”
The large man looked me over carefully as he came up out of the hole. A tense moment followed as I waited to see what he would do. “You sure it’s wise letting me out after that?” he asked calmly.
“I did what I needed to do,” I answered. “I don’t see the need to make an issue of it. Would you prefer to go back in the hole?” Despite my bravado I was working hard to keep my voice even.
“At least you’re learning,” he answered me.
“Learning what?”
“Not to waste your time attacking me with your fists. You didn’t hesitate, and you effectively neutralized my ability to threaten you with a minimum of effort,” he dusted some of the dirt from his clothing. “If you were my student I would be pleased.”
“And since I’m not your student?”
“I’ll make sure you don’t get the chance next time,” he gave me a wicked grin. A smile on the big man was unusual and sight of his teeth made me uneasy, bringing to mind images of a dangerous animal.
A short while later we were riding down the road, mules in tow. When we got to the site of the slaughter Cyhan insisted on stopping to examine the bodies. I didn’t bother arguing. They should know what sort of man they were traveling with anyway. Marc joined him but Penny stayed on her horse, she had seen enough already. Neither of us spoke.
When the two of them returned I could see the shock on Marc’s face but Cyhan was more reserved. “I’ve never seen anything quite like that,” the veteran commented. “What did you use?”
“Rocks,” I pulled one out of my pouch and flipped it in his direction. He caught it deftly.
“Where did you get that idea?” he asked.
“I have an active imagination.” Sarcasm is one of my strong suits.
“Some of them looked like they were running.”
“I thought they might have friends,” I said simply. I wasn’t about to show him any of my self-doubt.
“Maybe,” he said. “Some of them definitely had families; by their gear and clothing I could tell a few of them were guardsmen from the city.”
Guilt shot through me, thinking of their wives and children, but I fought it down. “They should have picked a better way to make extra money.” He grunted but didn’t say anything else.
We rode in silence after that. Marc tried to start up a conversation a few times but even he couldn’t overcome the dark cloud that hung over us. Penelope refused to even acknowledge his questions. Cyhan was less reticent but he wouldn’t respond with anything more than one syllable answers. Marc didn’t bother trying to engage me.
That evening we made camp without having encountered any more people on the road. Penny sparred with her teacher and even I could see she was starting to improve. She had a serious intensity about her now. After we had eaten Cyhan suggested she take watch with me. In his own way I suppose he was trying to give us an opportunity to make up.
“I’d rather not,” she said simply,
and that was that.
Once my turn at watch was done I slept restlessly. I woke often, dreaming of the men I had slain. At one point I even dreamt of the stone lady. She was looking down on the bodies of the men I had killed. Slowly she moved from one to the next, leaning down to put her hand on their chests. As she touched each one the earth drew them down, until they were no longer visible. When she finished she looked at me and I could see tears in her eyes, glimmering crystals that fell endlessly to the still earth. She opened her mouth to speak to me but I couldn’t hear her words. She was at once both beautiful and sorrowful. Though I couldn’t hear her it seemed she was pleading with me, asking for something, but whatever it was I knew it was no longer in my power to give.
I woke suddenly, sweating. Glancing around the camp I saw Penny sitting next to Cyhan. They were talking softly, and he had his arm around her shoulder. He was probably trying to make her feel better but the sight kindled a dark fire in my belly. I closed my eyes to shut out the sight. It wasn’t my concern anymore anyway. She would need someone after I was gone. Assuming I could manage to find a way to get rid of our accursed bond.
Dawn came early, as it usually did. We broke camp quickly and set off down the road. Birds were singing and there was a mild breeze, which carried the pleasant smells of flowers and growing things to my nose. In short it was a miserable day. I’ve never understood why Mother Nature was so clueless with regard to my moods. Women were supposed to have excellent intuition after all. Then again I had long suspected Mother Nature was a bitch by choice.
Penny seemed to have recovered from our fight the day before. She was chatting amiably with Marc, a relief for him I’m sure. It had never been easy for him to be silent. Even Cyhan seemed more sociable, today he had increased the length of his responses from one syllable to several words. Sometimes he even put forth the effort to use whole sentences.
All in all, the lively atmosphere served to highlight my antisocial behavior. At one point Marc rose closer and after a moment I realized he was speaking to me.