 
Sanctuary's Assassin

Book 1 of The Healer's Creed Series

The Complete Part 1: Chapters 1-21

Loren Elias

Copyright Loren Elias 2015

Published @ Smashwords

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CHAPTER 1

He could not say why it caught his eye---The shimmer of the golden stalks rising up from the mural of fertile fields, one yellow sun tripping nourishing light past an eastern horizon. It was not his first visit. He should have just walked right by it. He knew his purpose, their purpose. They had not been called to this place to take in the sights and smells of the Palace Habenhold as convincing a temptress as she might be.

Yet, as he entered the room, the Altar of Ceres greeted him. He could not avoid her abundance. Every manner of flower and grain and fruit and nut, bushels of melon, baskets of barley, the first fruits of the land, Ceres' bounty flowing down her steps across the marble floor. He pulled up a slipping hood, tried to look away, reminding himself of his purpose.

He hastened from the entry way, past a dozen high windows, half a dozen white stone columns toward the carved wooden table where strategy was laid, alliances forged and in many cases the very fate of Nine Worlds decided.

Darkness crept in through the windows as Lesser Sun melted into the land. The shadows might have reached them had it not been for the torches lining unblemished walls. They surrendered the most welcoming glow as the he rounded the table to find his seat.

He shook though the room lay pleasantly agreeable; for the Palace Habenhold, as magnificently as it caressed the senses, bore a certain eerie chill. And it brought him no wonder; for no less than a mirage encased him, a beautifully rendered image upon a crumbling ruin. He tried to forget it even for a moment, make himself believe what dark eyes beheld, but anytime Builder Magic littered the air, little could be said to be as it seemed.

Weighted eyes peered out from beneath a heavy forest hood, worn from weeks of travel both, to see familiar faces. First that of Olev, a wise old dragon, no less than his brother, no greater friend. Olev lifted his jaw to one side and narrowed an eye in subtle greeting. "Healer, good to see you, My Friend"

"Olev." The Healer replied as he dredged a crooked smile before turning to the man in the chair next to him.

Sajjan spared not a glance as his face held only weight of a human face bearing the grief that called them to this place.

The Healer sighed, lifting his chin to allow a coarse hood to slide from his face, revealing a head of straight black hair and a gently weathered face.

Dirwan swooshed past him as she straightened pink frilly skirts to taut and took her seat. A mound of soft brown curls framed fair, rouged cheeks. She looked as if she were attending a ball of the royal court not an important meeting such as this, but The Healer thought it nothing out of the ordinary. After all, as he bore the blood of the Healer Line, so was she of the Builders. Throughout history Builders had been known for their infatuation with extravagance. No greater proof of the fact existed. Were these rooms not of her imaginings alone?

Of no compare, Dirwan's dress was, to the attire of Hapaku following close behind her in a simple smock. Two long, thin braids grey but not with age capped her shoulders. A scarf wrapped her head tightly, lest she suffer the dishonor of a revealed ear. Her appearance fell quite in keeping with the traditional vestments of her people, the Brocacians a land across the great waters far removed from the Healer's home. Hapaku, of the race Broiack was born of the line called Harvester.

As Hapaku approached them Olev only lifted a smooth-scaled head. A slender tail flicked from one side to the other and then came to rest again. A nimble back arched a bit and then he just lay there, with eyes as big as Hapaku's head following her as she reached the table and pulled a chair at Jabari's right side. Dirwan had settled at his left down the long side of the table. Sajjan sat across from them next to an empty chair--- a bitter reminder of the events that had summoned them here.

Finally, Sophrena of the Seer line entered with a scurry of dark plump, spindly legged attendants circling around her. Her eight hollow eyes shot out across the room and seeing everyone there at last, she swooshed her attendants away as her body transformed from that of a spider one and a half as tall as a man to a gaunt woman with piercing grey eyes and flowing black hair.

Actually, she took the form of a gavi. But few at that table had ever seen a gavi, so they could only think of her as a very tall, thin human woman with long pointed ears. Nothing else made sense in their minds. She took her place at the foot of the table.

Only then, did Olev expend the energy to slink his scaly head. The old dragon's body again rested just behind Sajjan. Olev's head curled around and up at the front of the table.

Dirwan, who sat closest to him, elongated a narrow neck, up-tilting a pointed chin to look him in the eye.

Two massive claws stood so nearly the height of the table. Talons dragged across stone.

Dirwan pressed delegate hands into her ears to block the sound.

Olev spoke in a roar of a voice, quite characteristic of a dragon his size. Despite quite concerted efforts to adjust his volume, as far as those around were concerned he spoke in a voice so nearly unbearable, a booming roar. "Builder?"

"Present." Dirwan answered as the Balancer spoke her line.

"Healer?"

"Present." A low voice rumbled from beneath Jabari's weighted face.

"Harvester?"

Hapaku raised her head. "Present, Dear."

"Artist?"

Sajjan sighed at the unspoken void left by Olev's failure to call for the Historian line prior to his own "Present." He looked toward the empty seat at his side then away.

Jabari's heart ached.

Olev paused, with the calling of each line more painful than the last.

Sophrena spared him the misery. "The Seer is present and who stands among us to represent the Line of Balance?"

"I do." Olev spoke, blinking once then twice the two massive orbs that were his knowing eyes. "I call this meeting to order. Let it be written that on the day which has seen fifteen Haerfests of the rule of Ruric that the Order of E'epa doth convene. As it was in that day that our father's father's father's father were called upon the mount E' epa to uphold the Five Virtues as we guide our peoples." He turned keen sight if not his head to Jabari. "Will you do the honors?" Ju's glance fell upon an ancient text tightly woven yet fraying with age as it lay folded into Jabari's guarding grasp.

Jabari nodded, rolling a thumb across crumbling pages, that without a spot of magic would most certainly have long since returned to the land that beget them. With a shifting eye he found that place, those words no one wanted to hear. He knew they had heard it a hundred times. Undoubtedly they knew the words by heart. As if bringing the word to the air yet again would somehow increase their understanding, he spoke. "Here it is. I know we have all heard these words spoken to us from our earliest Haerfest. A foreboding, a warning of a day to come. I have brought with me on this long journey a book which has been with us since near the beginning. A book of prophecy. This book holds that warning that all of us have been raised to heed." He was stalling and he knew it. He just did not want to say the words written nearly a thousand Haerfests past that now seemed finally to be becoming their reality. Finally he freed the words into the air. "When the final light is cut, darkness reigns."

Dirwan gasped a shrill cry, again covering her ears as if puffy, pink sleeves could protect her, could make it not be so if she just blocked it out.

Sophrena's dark, hollow eyes surveyed her surroundings before returning to them. Thin, pale lips cracked as she spoke. "The Final Light." Sophrena repeated those solemn words. "Through the generations, there has been speculation as to what this means. But now, now, in this time, it is clear as the day is long that the Historian Lucius was the 'final light.'" Sophrena folded her gavi arms and then unfolded them and then folded them again as if she did not know what to do with such worthless appendages. "Cut down as he was without an heir for the E'epans by a wretched human, an evil king of the land Aletheia that many of us call home. Now comes the Darkness. When his mother died like she did of the sickness we should have known, we should have locked that boy up, bred him until we got our heir, but now, now the Historian line is gone forever." An unseen force threw Lucius' chair back away from the table. It cracked against the far wall, unable to stand the force, shattering into a million little splinters.

Dirwan wept.

Jabari drew trembling hands to rest against dry lips. "But we didn't know. No one knew what the prophecy meant. Not until now." Hands fell hard to the heavy wooden table. "What's done is done. But still we move forward, as we must." Jabari knew they should have figured it out but they had not and now all they could do was move forward, plan for the future, brace themselves for the looming darkness ahead.

Dirwan shook her head, with eyes so barely parted as if she might be brought again to tears. "We need to prepare. We must help the people through this. Ruric's reign thus far has been a thing greater than the conjurings of the night, but now that the last light it cut."

Jabari could not believe he lived to see this time, a time spoken through the ages as being some distant future, some tragic fate for mankind used to spurn young E'epans to stay focused on their purpose. Now here they were actually facing it. It frightened him beyond words. But he knew he had to be strong. Greater strength had never been needed in his lifetime. But if it were strength that these times demanded, strength he could not say he had.

Sajjan sank thick fingers into a head of thicker hair of deepest brown. "We have to do something. We can't just allow this to happen. Stay in the background, cleaning up the slaughter that lies ahead." His tone lay cool but growing apprehension rang apparent. Again he ran his fingers across straight brown strands, pushing them away from the frame of his face, then allowing them to fall again around cheeks of wind-brushed red.

Sophrena, with dark hair flowing down knobby shoulders of the fairest complexion could not hide her contempt. "We'll not do what you are thinking. You know that the E'epan must never interfere in the rule of our peoples. We have been called up out of respective peoples to stand apart from such things." She swept a wayward black curl away from her vision and glanced toward the darkening windows beyond then back to them.

Sajjan leaned forward with posture fierce, eyes intent. "But they are not your people who must endure this. You would stand by if the land of Brocacia were prophesied to befall such a fate? Wouldn't you try to change it?" He looked to Jabari and Dirwan for affirmation. "Jabari, Dirwan and I must think of Aletheia our land, our home, our people."

Jabari's eyes rounded the table, making note of each expression he found there. The greatest weaver could not have woven a strand tighter than the purpose that held them there. He knew them all well, had spent many a day in that very hall discussing matters of the world. But the matters of debate had always centered on a drought in the Ganda Region. How do we get water to them? A battle between lands. How could the conflict be resolved? Nothing---nothing like this---of such grave concern where the fate of humanity itself now found a new dwelling upon their shoulders.

Olev lifted a scaly head higher, looked around to all of the E'epans there, each line represented save one. "Such a plague will not stay in Aletheia." When he saw Dirwan reach for tender human ears he lowered that resounding voice yet again. "Brocacia's fate is in the same basket as are all regions of Nine Worlds. Broiack and Brim, Gavi and Spider. Human and Qaan'u. None will be spared."

"Then maybe. Maybe there is something we can do." Hapaku's eyes were insistent, her tone firm. "We could depose Ruric."

Olev released a hardy laugh. "Have you any idea what that would mean? Who in Aletheia could take his place? Between this King and the last, every Qi, every High Councilor, every General who opposed him has been killed. Even their heirs were wiped out. They risked no rivals. Not a highborn still lives who could rule the land. You cannot just hand off the mantle to a peasant and say 'Here, rule Aletheia. You are King now.' Utter Nonsense."

Jabari could hear a hint of distain in the Balancer's voice but he knew that Olev spoke the truth.

"One of the Kanas of Brocacia could lead the land out of this dark time until a suitable human can be found." Hapaku spoke between the biting of her lower lip. One scaled cheek rose higher as an upward ridged brow sank to meet it.

Jabari pondered the suggestion, before thoughtfully selecting next words. "No Offense, Hapaku," Jabari lifted a hand to the fiercely shaking shoulder of his dear friend. "But that could very easily be turned against us. As much respect as we all have have for the Brocacian people, a High Lord from a foreign land taking Ruric's place could be twisted by loyalists into a Brocacian invasion. That's the last thing we want. The tie between Brocacia and Aletheia must stay strong if we are to survive this." Jabari stood for a moment, re-positioning protesting robes. He closed the book, its purpose met.

When he had again taken his seat, Hapaku made her reply. "It was just an idea."

"Duly noted as an option." Olev interjected with a voice echoing through the great hall. "We are wasting our time talking about replacements. We must keep our focus. With one line gone, are the others safe?" The old dragon closed heavy eyes in weary display and then opened them again with some effort. "We are already hunted by Ruric. But in the fifteen Haerfests he has held rule none of us have ever seen our strands cut by him, sent across the river. Now that he has made it past that mark, will it not embolden him to double his efforts, to take out the E'epans who he has professed have no place in the modern world. The hunt will be on and before you know it we will have Ruric pressing forward on the caves of the Jagged."

"A fool's errand." Dirwan eyes dove as she straightened a bit of lace upon her pink sleeve. "They would be consumed by the swamp." Her eyes again rose into a slipping glance.She had never been to the Jabari's home, the Jagged as he affectionally called it, but all E'epans knew of it.

Teeth peered through cracking lips as Olev spoke. "How many men do you think the swamp can eat? A thousand. Ten Thousand. A Hundred thousand. Ruric will keep going until the swamp has had its fill and then the Jagged will be his."

"All the more reason to stop him now." Sajjan sat back in the ornate, wooden chair and pulled large hands into clasp upon the edge of the table.

"We must do something." Dirwan looked as if she might be brought to tears should the mood in the room not quickly shift to calm.

Sophrena kept her poise. "All the more reason we should not waste our efforts on talking about replacements and focus on keeping the lines safe from harm." Her hands discreetly folded in her lap as she spoke through thin, pale gavi lips. "We're talking nonsense. Deposing kings. That's not what E'epans do. It's not our Charge. When the last god called our ancestors forth on the Mount called E'epa, he bestowed upon each line a great gift. And with those gifts came a Charge. We do not just change our Charge when the mood so carries us."

Jabari's vision floated away from Sophrena to Hapaku sitting near her.

From the look in Hapaku's eyes, Jabari could see that she pondered all sides on the conversation with some consideration. She spoke. "Maybe these times call on us to be more than we have ever needed to be."

"Maybe it is not our Charge." Jabari spoke up, turning to Sophrena then back to Hapaku. "But maybe, in these modern times, we must be something more." He could not believe that such blasphemy had crossed his lips. He wanted to take it back, but could not.

Dirwan continued his sentiment. "Ruric says we don't matter in modern times. Maybe it is because we cling to the old ways. We do not accept that things are changing. Maybe we have to change too."

"Yes." Sophrena cleared her gavi throat. "Why don't we all rush in on the castle and end all of our lines now." Sophrena had had enough. It was going nowhere. The human E'epans were mad to think such a thing and Hapaku, of the broiack race, their fellow Brocacian, of whom she would expect better, just encouraged them.

Sophrena slunk from her chair, a waifly body transforming as she went back to the plump black body with eight delicate legs that revealed her true self.Humans who spoke nonsense, understood nothing.

She turned her head back, catching glimpse of the three humans and Hapaku sitting at the table and Olev sitting beside it. She could see in aging eyes, he felt just as defeated as she. She could see in their eyes that they considered doing the things of which they spoke. Sophrena spoke from a voice that sounded like it came from a distant place. "I'm going to freshen up before dinner. When we reconvene I hope we'll be ready to talk real solutions not foolhardy ones." She exited the room with a huff. Ten attendants met her at the door, squeaking about in their own language, trying to calm her apparent rage as they came up around her, escorted her out.

Olev rose, stretching a massive form, whipping his tail up, creating a coil of air that blew Dirwan's hair back from her face. "We're all tired and hungry. We've journeyed far to meet here. Maybe we possessed err in judgement, trying to discuss this on an empty stomach. I'll see you all for dinner." Scales popped and cracked as he stood. "It's nap time." He turned from them, ducking low through the high doorway. Olev had no escort nor did he need one.
CHAPTER 2

Sajjan placed hefty hands behind a narrow neck and leaned back in his chair. He might have toppled, had he not kept thick leather boots of freshly shined black firmly planted under the table's gold-inlaid edge. "Well, now that we have the negativity out of the room, maybe decisions can be made."

Jabari swiped cold sweat from a rising cheek. Commitment to Five Virtues and his calling, the calling they all shared so tore at him, so cried out that he follow Sophrena and Olev, just walk out. But he could not. As much as he might not like the options that his brethren obviously felt left them, he could not walk away from them. "They make good argument. We would really have to be certain that this is the thing to do. In a thousand Haerfests, never has an E'epan thought to interfere in this way." Jabari shared their fears of what lay ahead but he could not allow that fear to drive them to destruction. "How would we do it?"

"Before we could even think of how, we would have to think of who. Who could we choose to take his place? What Olev says is true." He had left the room but a Balancer's ageless wisdom could not be overlooked. Hapaku wrung plump hands in thought. "There is no one left in humanity who could rule, noone alive who could begin to understand the complexities of such a task."

"Why not one of us?" Dirwan spoke lightly, tossing loosened curls off one shoulder and swiping her brow.

Jabari could not believe she had spoken those words. But he knew well she had not been the only one at the table for whom this thought had grazed the mind. Somehow it felt good to have it out into the room as contrary to the Charge as it might be. Someone had to be brave enough to say the words that no one at that table dared speak, but he could not entertain the thought for a moment. That was simply not what they had been called to do.

After a pause, Dirwan continued. "We know this land. We know these people" Her voice hung in the air. Not immediately shot down, she continued. "We understand law and rule. More than most Kings and Queens, Councilors and Qi's I might add. It is part of our training."

Silence held them.

Jabari swiped a heavy hand across shining brow and released a puff of air from his cheeks. "I understand what you are saying, Builder. But it gives me a very bad feeling. This is absolutely against the Charge given to us upon the Mount. It's like mixing Sho-sho and Scuntiweed." The Healer Jabari pondered the thought. "Both very useful instruments of healing but put them together; you'll make a man go blind. Ruling is not something we should do." Jabari shifted in his seat, preparing to follow Olev and Sophrena's lead. Maybe he had staid too long. He just did not want to be a part of a discussion that included making an E'epan a King.

Dirwan's eyes lay in pensive thought. Curls crept upon her cheeks like a pit of serpents. Her smile beamed through the maze. "What if only for a time? A Regent of sorts. Just until one could be found."

Sajjan did not immediately dismiss the idea. "With Ruric gone, we could move about freely, without fear. We could really find that one who could lead us in the modern world." He returned all four feet of his chair to the ground. "Imagine, Jabari, you could set up schools of the healing arts rather than instruct from the shadows. Dirwan could design great cities to protect and help the poor. Hapaku could freely visit the human land, share her knowledge and wisdom cultivating the land and bringing forth a good Haerfest. All can prosper."

Hapaku apparently liked the thought of it. "It is not right the way E'epans are treated in Aletheia. You deserve honor and respect but since the rule of Ruric has begun, you fear for your very lives. Honor and Respect for the E'epans of Aletheia, I say. Back to your rightful place. As myself, Olev and Sophrena are honored in Brocacia, so should you four be," Hapaku stopped as a lump came to her throat. Her gubazo ridge flared across one plated cheek. She scraped away a tear. "Three." She corrected her misspeaking, Lucius no longer among them. "We'll bring honor to Lucius by returning the E'epans of Aletheia to their rightful place."

Joy filled Dirwan's face. "Walking about freely is something I've not done in a very long while." The Builder played the soft lace upon her wrist across her cheek. "Healer, is it wrong that I covet the freedom that such an act might promise. It will only take one of us ruling for a short time. I could have a proper escort of pretty maidens and dashing young gentlemen, not a small army with me at every moment. I could live in a palace with beauty around me, not a dark tower in the forbidding Angharad Forest where the only thing of beauty I might see is of my own conjuring and will always fade in time."

"A vote then?" Sajjan spoke with some conviction. The Artist appeared ready to do this. "We have hidden in the shadows for too long."

Jabari did not like the haste with which they moved to this decision. "Should we not wait for Sophrena and Olev to...?"

Hapaku cut in. "They would never take part in this. But like you said, Sajjan, it's not our land that is of immediate concern. If you three are of one mind I will support it and I cast my lot with the humans. Many Haerfests have brought us together to this place. I would think any of you a capable leader for the land for a time."

"A vote." Dirwan laid her left hand upon the table with open palm and fingers curled slightly, signaling that she wished a vote to begin.

"A vote." Sajjan did the same.

Healer Jabari suddenly felt queasy. The three looked to him. What was he to do? He could not say that the prospect of again being held in a place of esteem in the land did not have appeal, but at what risk. Doing something that their father's father's fathers going back to that day on the Mount had been forbidden to do. He knew what he had to do and he would do it. He extended his left hand and placed a firm palm down on the table.

Hapaku sighed. Jabari could not say if it arose from relief that she did not have to be the nay-sayer or purely exhaustion.

Dirwan smiled an understanding smile, patting Jabari on the shoulder as she rose. "I guess it's dinner time. I'm going to wash up." She wiped a cold sweat from her brow.

Sajjan pushed himself and chair from the table. As the chair shifted out past the rug, it raked across the floor.

Dirwan grabbed her ears as it echoed through the room.

Sajjan surrendered a look of apology for the offense and stood up, arms out and up, stretching. As the Artist extended a narrow neck back, dark hair flew out as if by a great wind, hung in the air for a moment and then dropped into place as he regained his poise. He walked toward the door. "Call me for dinner."

Dirwan nodded, before looking back to the table that the three humans had just left, chairs all in disarray. Dirwan shook her head in disapproval. She shifted her hand in their direction and they all lifted and moved forward into place.

Hapaku, still seated let out a little squeal as her chair rattled beneath her. She stood and moved toward the door and her chair became one with the table.

Only Lucius' chair remained. No need existed. It lay shattered on the stone. Dirwan sighed under her breath. "We will avenge you, my brother, we will avenge." She turned, smiling to Jabari as she swayed across the marble with windows to her left and a row of intricately carved columns to her right.

Finally, he stood alone, in that vast place where plans had been laid for generations past. They were all such a small part of the E'epan legacy. Yet what they thought to do could change the course of modern existence. Change their role in society forever. He hoped they could make the right decision whatever that might be.

His mind wandered to the image of his impetuous, young First Guard, Ren'ai. How many times had she sought revenge for what had happened to her family at the hand of the one who had now been named Lucius' murderer? How many times had Jabari swayed her from such thought? Warned her of the dangers of a vengeful spirit? Disparaged her fanciful thoughts of the E'epans removing King Ruric from power, naming another?

And yet, here he found himself among the descendants of those called upon the Mount named E'epa nearly one thousand Haerfests past, those upon whom great gifts had been bestowed, those who had been called by the last god departed to be teachers and protectors, those who were said to uphold the Five Virtues, contemplating such an act. Throwing away everything that they stood for. Everything they had been called to be to avenge their fallen brother, to avert a prophecy long feared by their kind, to name one among them Ruler of Aletheia.

They had endured so much at the hand of King Ruric, but had the Healer not told Ren'ai from the time she was just a young apprentice, _"_ Revenge. It seems a thing to right a wrong, but destroys the avenger no less than the focus of her wrath. It is a path I would advise you not to follow." He could not say why then he now considered breaking, this, his most valued creed. He could not say, but the fact remained, he had not immediately purged the thought from a turmoil- ridden mind as he had insisted time and again his apprentice must do. And for that he could call himself a hypocrite, but when during Ruric's reign had life not been a contradiction, fighting to teach, killing to heal. The times defined him. Maybe the times needed a new kind of E'epan. Maybe these times called to them, shaped all of them, as rigid as they might be, into something more.
CHAPTER 3

(Seven Haerfests Past)

She could not have held more pride, dancing around to this side and to that, watching the frills and lace rippling about her knees as Jourdan Creek after a big rain. The looking glass before her shared her glee as it twinkled with the fading of Lesser Sun just beyond a bedroom window, a perfect square positioned low over the sturdy wooden frame of a bed from which a quilt dusted the plank floors.

Another little dance overtook the little girl with hands on her hips swinging her top to the right and to the left, extending this leg and that. She surrendered to herself an extra big smile, corners turned up wide and eyes squinted tight lest they burst with joy. "It's perfect, Mama."

"Glad you like it, My Darling, but it looks no different than it did two nights past when you tried it on." Mother pulled the girl's shoulder up and back, before curling around to pinch the waist to assure its proper fit.

"Oh, no. That was before you added the lace along the bottom. Before, it might have been mistaken for a work dress. Now it's fit for royalty." She darted a little head around her mother as if unbearable the moment in which she could not see herself. Ren'ai did not profess to know much about royalty but she could not imagine a princess could wear a dress much finer. Green, it was, like the buds on a sapling, tight to her shapeless chest, flaring out at the hip before cascading down to bony knees.

"I'm glad you like it." Mother laid a tender hand upon her daughter's arm. As Ren'ai's hand came up to meet her affection, Mother started at the coarseness of the girl's touch. She hoped Ren'ai had not noticed the shock.

Since Ren'ai could walk she had been apprentice to her father's trade. From the time her tiny hands could wrap around twinlin pole, she had been coiling twine. From the time she could lift a hammer she had laid the spikes home. And no sooner had she raised her first water pitcher than she wielded her father's axe against the mighty oak and cedar. From the time her eyes held light she did not see a tree but the chair, table or wagon she and her father might build from it.

Such labor spared not a girl the callused palm and splintered finger. Having seen but eleven Haerfests she held the strength rivaling any boy five Haerfests her elder. And she dared one to test her. Her arms held firm curves even if her chest and hips yet lacked.

She was her father's greatest pride and she knew it. Though he be the finest craftsman in the Four Cities, his greatest joy was that his daughter so shared the same passionate love and proven skill of the axe and the hammer and a job well done. After all, he had to protect his family name at all cost. He would bring honor to the Name of Ren and see that honor carried into the next generation.

She remembered the first piece she had built from start to finish. Having seen only eight Haerfests at the time, she had never thought she could do it: felling the tree, quartering the timber, shaping the legs even, weaving the seat strand by strand to completion. She remembered the first sit of her father, testing the integrity, judging her work, then the smile, oh, the smile, on that worn and determined face as he rose, scooping her up to sit upon one broad shoulder, then dancing in circles as he sung her praises.

And when he showed it to Big Sister and Mother how they put on their smiles and told her what a fine job she had done, but she could hear in their voices that they had no idea if the work be good or be bad. A chair stood before them. Ren'ai curtsied to their praises anyhow.

What they thought mattered little. To her and her father not a chair but a work of art they had created and their buyers deserved no less than their best and they would sooner fall upon their blades than to allow a piece not perfect to leave the shop.

Yes, Big Sister Ren'iv could never understand. Her mind lay elsewhere. She would cook a glorious meal of roasted squirrel and steamed shalon greens but never would she think to take a piece of wood, whittle it to form and build something that would provide use for Haerfests hence. But Ren'ai could only be grateful. Better Ren'iv to tend to household duties with Mother and leave Ren'ai to help her father increase their household purse.

Ren'ai loved her sister despite their differences. Not only was a meal prepared by her sister beyond compare but Ren'ai thought Ren'iv had to be the most beautiful person in all of Aletheia. She was tall with long perfectly proportioned thighs, not too skinny like some of the girls in town. She held elegant poise, a lovely dress of her own design creeping down to her ankles to swish with each soft stride, no sleeves to hide shoulders narrow and firm. Her neck reached up to her chin slightly pointed out. Rosy cheeks met the edges of her lips in a perpetual smile. Plump were her pink lips and always scented with lavi oil which brought a slight shimmer. Full lashes shadowed sapphire eyes balancing deep brown, almost black hair, always pulled back, not a strand to stray, into a tight braid which sailed down to the back of her knees.

Quite a contrast, it was, to little Ren'ai with her dirty brown hair cut a thumb's length from her scalp. She had chopped it herself. She could not have it getting in her way. A dress once new, always stained with wood dyes and sap. Avoiding this outcome she found an insurmountable task. She did not share her sister's height, at least not yet. Her shoulders were broad and defined from the swinging of an axe and her eyes a dull grey like granite at twilight. Quite unspectacular they were. Upon her face always the contemplation of what the next task would be.

But here she stood in her new green dress. She swore this one she would treat better. Never would it see a hammer in her hand, never hear the thud of a great spruce, never snag on a prickly vine or find her wading into Glenrock River to redirect a straying log. This would be her special, special dress, the one she would wear to Haerfest Balls and someday her sister's wedding.

It would not be long now, seventeen Haerfests and one could never call Sister lacking in wooing suitors. But as many as had made the offer, she could never accept. There was always something wrong with each. Something no amount of money or charm could overcome. This one had a big nose. That one had bad teeth. She did not like the color of this one's hair. Ren'ai hoped she would be wise though, choose one who would treat her well, provide for her as she deserved, and make many beautiful children. But that is why towns host Haerfest ball. Maybe tonight she would find the one.

Ren'ai straightened her dress down shapeless hips as she bounded down the stairs as if tumbling down a valley wall to get to the prized blue spruce.

A man met her at the base, dressed in a finely weaved suit with hair combed back and slicked. Upon his balding head a high-brimmed hat. She held back laughter as she looked up into those familiar eyes, before throwing her arms up around a thick neck. "You look funny, Papa." He smelled a sickening sweet smell of carrot water, not of the pine sap which would have wafted across her nose as a scent recognizable. She could not think of the last time he had been home for Haerfest Ball. Always away he found himself at market two or three towns over.

"I could say the same to you. But I'm too much of a Gentleman." He took a step back, pulling that high hat down to puffed chest. "You look beautiful, Ren'ai."

Beautiful. A word quite unfamiliar, it fell upon her ears. Good with a hammer, yes. Good with an axe, absolutely, there could be no doubt, but Ren'iv was beautiful. Ren'ai was strong and skilled in wood craft. "Oh, it's just the dress. Mama and Niv'Niv made it for me. See the lace." She threw her leg up to rest in on the banister to show him.

No sooner had her ankle tapped the wood, than large hands met her waist, pulling her up, holding her out until her feet dangled again to the ground. "Nai, Ladies don't go around kicking their legs up in the air. Keep your feet on the ground."

"I'm not a lady, Papa. I'm a master craftsman; at least I aspire to be."

"Great ambition." Father's mouth cracked into a stern but caring smile. "We all wear many faces, Nai. You must learn which face meets the occasion." The father scooped her up into thick arms and took a hard seat in a simple yet sturdy chair by the front door. Frenzied feet swung at his side. Grey eyes looked down upon her. "I don't wear a fine suit to chop wood."

"It simply would not be practical. You can't move as you must to complete the task."

"Right." Father nodded. "But to Haerfest Ball, I'd look simply a mess if I wore my work clothes."

"So have to be a lady sometimes?" She looked down at the lace around her knees, then to the black slippers upon her feet.

Father reached around her tiny form before scratching at at a sun-thrashed arm in apparent discomfort. "I guess I'm saying that you are good with your hands, but there are going to be times when other things will be demanded of you and you must be able to adapt. One of our clan elders, Ren, uh..." Father scratched his head. He just could not remember the name. He cursed himself under escaping breath for having forgotten a thing of such importance, but many Haerfests had pasted since that great man crossed the river. "Well, he always said, 'a man can have many faces. Choose the right face for the task.'"

Father reached into an expertly-woven pocket and pulled out what at first appeared to be a block of wood. As it grew closer, Ren'ai's face lit up. She eyed the intricate carving upon each of six sides. Different Faces: The Hunter and the Cook. The Craftsman and the Proper Lady. The Demanding and the Forgiving. The detail astounded her. With the rises and shadows, the corners and rounds, it could only have been crafted by hands so skilled.

"It's wonderful." Ren'ai could not contain the edges of her mouth as they burst out the sides.

"Happy Haerfest Day, Nai'Nai. How many have you seen now, six?"

The girl laughed a small and delicate laugh to show him she could be a lady. "I've seen eleven, Papa. As the land consumes Lesser Sun this night, it will be twelve. And Niv, eighteen."

"Twelve Haerfests. Nearly a woman, Nai."

"Not a woman, Papa. A lady. One face at a time, please. But promise upon promise, I'll be a lady tonight, just for you."

He ran a leather thong through one corner and strung it around her neck. Then he smiled as he rose, planting her feet again on the floor as his wife and eldest daughter entered, lovely as always. He bent down and spoke in little more than a whisper. "No, not for me. It must be for you."

She nodded, before turning to face the other women of the household. "Time to go?"

Big Sister extended a gentle hand to Ren'ai's shoulder. She smelled of rose pedals and jonquil. Ren'iv smiled down to Little Sister with cheeks lightly rouged and a twinkle in her lips.

Outside, two horses waited. Ren'ai watched as Father lifted Ren'iv and then Mother to sit upon them ankles crossed down the horses' sides.

Ren'ai took up the reins of Sister's and Father the reins of Mother's horse as they set into steady pace toward town.

Ren'iv and Mother bantered back and forth about this suitor and that, goings on in the town, who made the best apple pie and what color shawls the ladies would be wearing through the Renatus, the coldest months of the year when white held the land captive until Auctus when the first sprigs of green again greeted blue skies.

Ren'ai mostly tuned it out, watching shintflies dancing in formation before scattering as they approached only to return to their game once the crew had passed. The suns, Greater and Lesser, hung low in the sky, casting golden light through the shadows of the great branches far above them. Wind whipped across the travelers' faces and backs as if trying to pull them off the trail and into the depths of the forest. On occasion a hawk or jay swooped across their path, setting the mounted ladies into a momentary panic before Father calmed them with a song, pleasant and serene.

Never, if she lived a thousand Haerfests could she hope to hear such a voice in another. Ren'ai named it a gift from the gods bestowed upon a man to bring some joy to a world of pain. He often hummed and sang in the workshop as he whittled and shaped. It always made her smile.

As town rose before them Ren'ai shook the dust from her hem. Her slippers now clacked against cobble. The torches upon each post drowned out the last remnants of Lesser's fading glory upon their backs.

All around them people strolled the streets and alleys in their finest clothing as if on display. Ren'ai imagined that they had been walking about the square since mid-day, strutting their fineries as they had not a care in the world. But she knew what Father would say; they were just as she having finished her daily tasks, sliding out of her work clothes, combing her hair, showing a different face.

Ren'ai handed the reins over to an attendant as Father stirred her from thought. She handed them, happy to have use of her hands again. The attendant tied them securely as he smiled up at Ren'iv coyly as she glanced away from him and into the crowd.

Ren'ai knew him in that moment. Big Nose. She laughed inside as he reached up awkwardly, taking Ren'iv's waist and helping her down to her feet. She curtsied politely before brushing past him to make her entrance. Father caught Ren'ai's look of amusement and punched her arm in gentle correction.

"Ow!" Stunned by the blow Ren'ai looked to Father who already had his attention focused elsewhere.

He threw Big Nose two akiki and gave him a firm pat on the back.
CHAPTER 4

Ren'ai walked through the high doorway with Father and Mother just behind. She felt like a princess. Her step portrayed only confidence. Her smile beamed wildly. She looked around at all of the men and women, boys and girls dressed in lace and frills as she. And the smile snapped from her face as if lassoed from it.

She suddenly felt very silly in her lacy green dress. A laughing stock. A fake. Look at Ren'ai. She could hear the whispers. Who does she think she is? Ren'iv?

Her head flew about in a panic. She wondered if perhaps she should run. Change back into her work dress and throw an axe over her shoulder and return. At least that way she would feel like Ren'ai and not something else entirely. Her white gloves were itchy anyway.

"Dance with me, Ren'ai." A stocky little boy she knew from school waltzed up to her with round cheeks puffing with pride likely over the new satin suit he wore. He turned around once to show her before extending an eager hand.

He looked silly. When had she ever seen him in anything but cut off shorts with a fishing pole in one hand and a bucket in the other or up to his elbows in mud from when they caught frogs together for his mother's stew? She would have turned him away, but Father pushed her toward him, giving her no choice. He took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor, pulling her through the crowd like a stubborn cross-stitch needle.

He could actually dance. She hoped that she hid the surprise well. She set her feet moving to the music, imagining that the strums of minstrel's fingers upon the mandolin strings were the strikes of a hammer upon a spike. It helped her keep her pace.

She caught the sight of Mother and Father dancing just across the room. She could become accustom to his clothing if she gave it a chance. He actually looked quite handsome in that high hat and long jacket.

Mother looked happy. Large crowds always broadened her rosy cheeks. Her yellow dress flowed down to her ankles rivaling the flow of brown hair down to her waist with yellow ribbons woven through.

Big Sister stood but dared not lean at the far wall, batting her eyes and refusing invitations. A girl like Ren'iv could be choosy with her dance partners but often it meant she stood on the side for quite a while.

Ren'ai's eyes shifted again to her schoolmate. A contented grin strung out from one ear the other as leather shoes just missed her feet while she kept one step ahead of him as he held with a firm grip upon her white glove. As the song ended, Ren'ai politely declined a second dance. The boy just smiled in thanks before moving on to the next.

The girl worked her way through the crowd to the place she had last seen Big Sister. Ren'iv must have found a worthy partner because grey eyes did not behold her. No matter though, Ren'ai would take her place, just to see how many men she could bat away with her long dark lashes

As expected, none approached.

Mother could be found dancing with the Baker now. This must mean that she would find Father dancing with Madam Etell, the town Teacher who was also the Baker's wife. Ren'ai glanced around many moving bodies to find him. They swept around like bound grain upon a dirt floor. She found Madam Etell dancing with the tanner's brother.

Grey eyes continued surveying the crowd. Nowhere. Many a high hat at the ball, but Father, nowhere. She saw her sturdy dance partner darting across the room toward her and decided to head for the doorway. The room was stuffy and loud.

As she found the door, she glanced back softly over her shoulder. He had not followed. A sigh left her plump, pink lips. She straightened her dress at the hip, before scratching at her neck. The lace she adored was in reality quite itchy. She took in the cool night air, a calm breeze now blowing. Twin Sisters Moon, both as big as her hand from arm outstretched now hung low above the trees; One Sister trailed behind the other as if chasing after her. Not a soul moved about except the horses tied to their posts, patiently waiting. Everyone in town, everyone that upon the Fates did not hold sharpness to the strand would be at Haerfest Ball this night.

Whispers broke the silence. With an occasional burst of volume they seared through the darkness and the calm. She knew the voices.

She crept along the front of CenterHouse to the alley way, peeked her head around a half filled hay cart to see Father with his high hat now hanging loosely between two fingers. She knew the other man too. It was Crooked Step as she and Ren'iv had so affectionately named him. He met with Father on occasion to discuss business. Many did. So odd that she should remember this gentleman, but for good reason. Whenever Father saw him coming up the dusty path dragging one foot slightly behind the other before throwing it forward with a bony arm only to let it fall behind again, he would scoop his daughter up from whatever woodwork she might be completing, kiss her forehead gently and set her down with instruction to go see if Mother needed any help.

"I told you, there are too many people here. We shouldn't be seen together." Anxiety ridged Father's brow.

Ren'ai wondered what it could be. Maybe the last order he had delivered had been defective and Crooked wanted his silver returned. Oh, how she hoped not to hear it a piece formed by her hand. Oh, the shame she had brought on Father.

"What are you afraid of? Everyone knows what you are. You can't keep something like that a secret in a town this size." The man stuck a knowing finger into Father's shoulder.

Ren'ai knew very well what he was. The best craftsman in Four Cities. She dared this man to say any differently.

"But you're getting reckless, my friend." Father returned the gesture. Crooked Step took a step back from the pressure of it. Father glared down upon him. "The lot of you are."

Father did not like reckless work. He hated nothing more. Simply would not tolerate it from himself, from others.

"Acceptable casualties of the cause, Ren'o."

"Acceptable?!" Father looked as if he wished he had his trusty axe so he could chop Crooked where he stood. "Women and Children. A whole town wiped out. You call that acceptable?"

"They knew the risk. A noble sacrifice. This makes our cause that much stronger. A thousand will step in to fill the place of four hundred dead seeing the injustices intolerable."

"But none of them had to die. Will you sacrifice that thousand to gain two?"

"If it means victory. They knew the risk and they believed what we stand for." Crooked gave a sideways glance out into the street. Ren'ai ducked behind the cart. "I just don't think you believe anymore." He looked back to Father.

The girl shook as she heard the pound upon tin. If they had hoped this encounter to be a secret, it would not be now. Two grey eyes peeked over the hay cart to see Crooked hanging several steps from the ground, with neck held against CenterHouse in Father's large hand and one leg dangling lifeless beneath him, the other trying to gain leverage for a kick.

"Don't you ever question my loyalties."

Ren'ai stood there, hunched over, frozen. What was he doing? He would kill the man. She could think of nothing of which she could be more certain. He would be taken from her forever. She could not let that happen. "Papa, Stop."

Crooked dropped to the ground in a lump as Father released him just in time to see Ren'ai running toward them, lace petty-coat flowing behind her. Crooked held a throbbing throat while drawing in deep gasps for air.

Ren'ai took Father's arm, wrapping around it as if to contain its wrath.

"Nai, what are you...?" He ran working man's fingers through thinning hair and returned his high hat to his head as if to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Little Nai. You have no idea who you cling to so." Crooked's lips curled into a half smile of pity. He shook his head and with it what little greasy hair remained. "Your father is a bad man, Nai. He's killed many, many children...." Crooked pointed out an accusing finger.

A quick boot to the gut silenced him.

Ren'ai took Father's hand as he extended it. Even through her white glove she could feel the moisture upon it. They rounded the hay cart and left the alley. Their horses neighed as they past. He reached out to give the speckled mare a reassuring rub down the neck. "Not yet, Genevieve. I think the women would be mighty angry if we dragged them home this early."

"Papa, what was he talkin 'bout?"

He looked away from the mare to an inquiring daughter. "We'll talk about it when we're home. For now, put on the correct face for the occasion and we'll be returning to the Ball." He picked up the carved cube around her neck and then let it rest, before curling fingers up under her chin as if to say smile.

She did. She put on her Lady face and took one broad arm as they walked back into the crowd.

Immediately Mother saw their smiling faces and left her partner, sailing across the dance floor toward them. "Where have you two been? Looks like you have been up to something." Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Ren'ai spoke up first. "I needed encouragement. I feel so funny here." She looked up at Father, who nodded in agreement.

"Oh, Nai. I know it's strange to be among everyone in their finest dresses. You're just too old to play with the children in the school across the way." Mother placed a comforting hand on her head.

"I'm fine now, Mama."

"Fine, then." The mother smiled at her little daughter before turning to her husband. "You may get the hang of this parenting thing yet, My Darling, but for now dance with me." She reached out to take a massive hand. He followed her lead.

Ren'ai stood there, alone again, thinking about what Crooked had said. Strong words from such a frail little man. What in Nine Worlds could cause him to think such things about Father?

Ren'ai found a home leaning her behind against the wall, resting one foot then the other for the long walk home that she knew lay before them. Her eye caught Ren'iv, dancing, as she was, with a fine looking fellow, tall with strong, broad shoulders like Father's, bright green eyes that matched her dress. Upon his head fell hair blonde and bright, shoulder length, pulled back and tied leaving a little tuft behind his head. He did not dress like the rest, though; he wore a uniform. He was of the King's army with strips across firm shoulders, a Sergeant maybe. Father would be so proud. What would Ren'iv find wrong with this one? She could only imagine.

She watched them dancing, entranced by the way they moved with each other, anticipated each other as if one being where possessing the two. Ren'iv laughed a gentle laugh on occasion as she batted her eyes calling him closer. "He must be funny too," thought Ren'ai, and not in a silly way like Big Nose. Still she would wait to see what fault she would see in him.

Two dances and then three, and her interest remained piqued. Ren'ai just wished for the night to be over so she could get a good night's sleep before leaving for the pine forest with Father. Quite a trek awaited them. She knew Ren'iv wished it would never end.

Father joined her two dances later as the minstrel's tunes became slow and hypnotic. He had never been one for the slow dances. "Let me see that smile, Nai."

She realized that her face must have been in an awful frown. "Sorry, Papa."

"No worries, Princess. It's been a long night, hasn't it?"

Ren'ai could only manage a nod.

"Well, it will be over soon. We'll be able to return home, get some sleep and be up before the rise of Greater Sun." He ran broad fingers through her short hair.

She smiled up at him, a true smile. Ren'ai could not wait. She took Father's hand, gripping it tightly; amazed by the way his hand so devoured hers. As she looked back toward the crowd, she caught sapphire eyes nearly upon her.

"Father, this is Charles." The young man who previously held quite a nice tone to fairer-hued skin suddenly went white. Ren'iv did not notice and carried on. "He's just returned from Caerwyn where he led the army in search of survivors."

Ren'ai let out a squeak as the pressure of Father's hand upon hers became nearly unbearable. Father must have realized his show of strength had been aimed at the wrong person, because he released her.

"Pleased to meet you, Sir." The young man stammered but held cultivated composure.

"Yes, Likewise, Lieutenant." Father extended his high hat in pleasantry.

So a Lieutenant he was, even better.

"Just terrible what happened up there, burned to the ground and the walls built to protect the city, like an oven cooking a pork roast." Ren'iv seemed quite proud of herself recounting something that did not include a new bread recipe or bonnet style but still Ren'ai mused that her comparison hinged upon a thing she knew, like cooking.

"You find any Survivors?" Ren'ai could not imagine such an awful thing.

"Not a woman or child left alive, Dear One. Those not taken by the flame leapt from the walls down into the valley. We found many there, but there was nothing we could do but haul the remains out for proper burial."

Ren'iv tightened her grip on the Lieutenant's arm. "Such a good thing Charles and his men did for those people. Giving them a proper burial."

Ren'ai stirred Father from cascading thoughts with a nudge and he spoke with confidence. "Yes, a very good thing."

Ren'ai pulled on Big Sister's skirt to get her attention. Big Sister lowered her ear to hear what she had to say.

"So what's wrong with this one? Tell me it is the tuft behind his head. Isn't it atrocious?" Ren'ai smiled, waiting to see what name Big Sister would give this one.

Ren'iv placed her lips on Little Sister's ear. "Oh, that's the style in Capital City, where he lives. It will become all the rage out here as well by Auctus' first sprigs I'm certain. We countryfolk are always a little behind when it comes to these things."

"It still looks funny to me." Ren'ai crossed her arms in all certainty.

"Oh, it won't, dear, by the time you're my age and ready for courtship." A glance ran up and down the young girl's body as if the older sister doubted the truth of that statement.

"So what then shall we call him." The sisters stepped away allowing the men to speak.

"We will call him Charles."

"But that's his name." It did not make any sense to call him by his name. Ren'iv never called anyone by their given name.

"Then we can call him, the one for me."

"Niv, but he lives so far away." Displeasure shaped her face. "And you don't even know him. And he won't be here long enough to..."

"Don't worry, Little Sis. I'm not leaving tomorrow. A proper courtship must be at least two seasons. We've agreed to exchange letters. That's all. By then, who knows, he could be retired and we could settle down in one of the Four Cities. That's not far, now is it?"

Relief washed over Ren'ai's face. She did not wish Big Sister to leave ever.

"We must return to Papa and Charles. I'm certain Papa is boring him to tears. Charles is quite an educated man and Papa, well; we know how Papa can be."

Little Sister did not respond. She only followed as Ren'iv attached herself again to Charles' arm, smiling, batting thick, dark lashes in his direction.

Father put an arm around Ren'ai's shoulder. "Well, I guess it is time we collect your mother."

Ren'ai nodded her agreement. At last, it was over. Relief tingled through her body.

As they made their way onto the forest path, Ren'ai felt a relief to be with only her family again. The bustle of the crowd made her head spin and her stomach knot. She only wanted to be home again, just her and Papa and Mama and Niv.
CHAPTER 5

Father did not stop to light a torch to find their way. Two glowing orbs hung high above them. As they set out onto the forest path, Ren'ai watched the glowing sisters. They slid across high branches like pearls from a strand. Though she took many steps it seemed an eternity for the pearl to make it from one side of the strand to the other.

As hoofs clopped across the packed soil, Mother looked as if she might lose her firm seat and fall off backwards from exhaustion. Father, stepped back to pat her knee on occasion to make sure she did not. She gave him a gentle squeeze with her free hand each time reassuring him, she was alright.

Ren'iv on the other hand seemed wide awake, eyes staring dreamily into the bushes, undoubtedly thinking about Bunny Head as Ren'ai had resolved to name him if Big Sister would not.

Ren'iv might never have noticed the five men that called them to halt had one not been Bunny Head, himself. One of the others Ren'ai recognized as well, Crooked Step. She could not imagine how he had kept pace with the rest of them, all decorated soldiers in the peak of health.

"Charles, Come to escort us home. How very thoughtful." She slid from her saddle. "Mother, did I not tell you what a thoughtful man my Charles is?"

Seeing him again so soon brought brightness to her face. Mother had nearly had to tear her arms off to pull her away from him outside CenterHouse. Ren'iv's smile beamed with her voice as she curled up around one firm arm as she had at Haerfest Ball.

He flung her to the ground as soiled clothing discarded.

Ren'iv, although surprised, did not remain on the ground long. Being the Ren that she was, she raised herself up, dusted herself off and walked back up to him with heated stride. "Charles, what is this?"

"I'm Sorry, Niv." His voice held a tone of society's required pleasantry. No feeling dwelt there. "REN'iv, I never would have asked you to dance, had I known who your father was." He paused, looking over her to Father, meeting a knowing glare, then he spat on her. It missed her face and hit her neck rolling down her chest leaving a slug trail behind. "Whore." He raised a hand, smacking her sharply with colorless knuckles, knocking her again to the ground.

"Leave them out of this. It is obviously me you want." Father called across the night in a voice that Ren'ai had never known him to possess. He then softened his speech as he called to his eldest. "Niv'niv, come to me."

She obeyed, scooting across the ground in safety's direction. He had not called her that since maybe a dozen Haerfests she had seen. The endearment foreboded danger in Ren'ai's mind, like Big Sister had so nearly stumbled into a beehive or any moment might disturb a bear. At firmly-planted feet, Ren'iv raced the backs of fingers across her cheek. Blood trickled down a narrow chin, onto a slender neck.

This enraged Ren'ai. "You, you, Bunny Head." Ren'ai placed a fist on each hip.

Big Sister cracked a smile as she staggered to her feet to hold Ren'ai close, to protect her.

"Now, Gentlemen. What is the charge for which you interrupt our perfect night?" He stepped toward them slowly, arms out as if welcoming them into his home.

Two men stepped in front of Charles, releasing their weapons. The sound of iron rang across the hills. Charles pushed them aside. "Relax. He's unarmed. There should be no rush to a job well done."Charles stood closer as Father looked down upon him. "Wouldn't you say so, Woodworker?"

"I live by it." Father spoke with a low roar of a voice. "No job worth doing if you can't take the time to do it right." He glanced over at Crooked, who obviously thought quite well of himself and the coin they had added to his embroidered purse, but he stood as no more than a pawn in their game. Father should have broken that slimy neck when he had the chance, but young Ren'ai she should not have had to see that. A world much more wicked than those grey eyes could know she would soon see. He could not be the one to show her. Shatter her innocence. Bring her out of her vision of the perfect life he had strived to build for his family.

"Your Charge. Let me see. How can I put this is a way not to harm the tender ears of those listening? Where were you three nights past?"

Father knew lying gave no advantage; they would only take the lies as proof that any defense he might have for himself was a lie as well. "Caerwyn Ridge."

Ren'ai gasped.

Crooked turned to look at her as if to say he had told her so.

"And what?" Charles pointed a finger into Father's chest. "What business could you have had there?"

Father looked to his youngest. Their grey eyes met. Father held something just behind pressed lips. Who was he trying to protect? What?

Mother spoke up, a quiet observer thus far. "You told us you were going to Genu to discuss contracts for wares. The Ridge is clear on the other side of the River."

Ren'ai thought she saw the master woodworker's cheek glisten in the moonlight as he stood there looking back at his wife.

Then that sadness-stricken face hardened in an instant to a visage Ren'ai could only find unfamiliar, odd. He drew a short knife from a thin leather belt and twisted it around.

Charles stepped back, anticipating his advance, and the man just behind him not so quick became the one to take the blade across the throat.

He dropped. A puddle formed beneath him as he gasped for wet air.

Ren'iv lit the night air with a scream as Mother dismounted, running to her husband's side. "What are you doing?" She grabbed his armed hand, pulling it back as Charles unsheathed his sword, burying it in her husband's belly and stringing it out.

She stood there a moment as if she did not know what had happened. Father fell to the ground at her side.

Mother looked to the soldiers all around her. Their eyes upon her, taking her in in glances that Ren'ai did not understand. Mother took a hard step back. Crooked came up behind Charles and ran her through.

Charles just looked at him for a moment in disbelief. He knelt, touching Mother's nose, feeling only weakened breath then turned. "You don't throw fine meat to the wolves." He raised a thick arm up and elbowed the man in the jaw. Crooked's head flew back with a snap.

Ren'ai took Big Sister's hand, pulling her away, backing away slowly at first and then into full run as she pulled Ren'iv behind her.

It did not take long for the pursuit to start. She could hear them stumbling through the brush like a wounded deer. But even with their awkward advance they quickly shortened the expanse between them with great haste. She knew she would be much faster if it were not for Ren'iv but she would not leave her behind.

Thorns ripped at the lace of her dress, pulling her back a few steps with every ten paces. Her heart beat faster and faster as she leapt across chasms and ducked under fallen trees. Ren'ai could hear their breath almost upon them and still she held her only sister's hand as the grasp of death.

As the grip broke she knew it was over. Grey eyes stared forward, unmoving. She waited as Big Sister's scream melted into the night. Then she felt the hands upon her, tackling her to the ground. Leaves, red and yellow moved in a blur up to meet her head as it crashed into the forest floor.

Then nothing.

She woke a moment later with a great pounding in her head and hands bound behind her, doubled over a man's shoulder who had a squirming hand upon her back. Her head bobbed in and out against a solid belly as she watched his shoes moving across the uneven terrain. She would have laughed at the uncertainty of wobbling step--would have--could she have drawn a full breath. Her eyes felt as if they might burst from the pressure in her head. The swing to the left and then the right and left again dizzied her. She thought she might lose the fine dinner that Ren'iv had made them earlier that evening. As she watched each shifting step he took she hoped she would.

As they stepped back up onto the trail, she watched the feet moving forward. Her world danced in a blur. When he stepped over Crooked's lifeless arm, it barely registered. Who was that and why was he lying on the ground like a corpse? Then she saw Father's face, cold, staring off at nothing; his high hat to the side, and she remembered.

Father and Mother were dead. Bunny Head had killed them. Little black slippers kicked wildly as her captor struggled to hold her tight. The squeal of Big Sister met her ear as a hammer upon her thumb. She lit the night with all of the scream she could muster.

Then a new set of boots met her line of sight, as Charles jerked her head up by what little hair she had. Her neck ached terribly, felt as if it might snap under the pressure. She had never known such pain in her life. Her skull felt as if it were growing and shrinking. A sharp ringing pounded in her ears. She could barely hear the words he spoke to her. "Little Nai. Knew you'd be trouble from the moment I saw you."

Her eyes met his. Her tongue hung dry.

"But some children are. 'Til after a few blows."He threw a heavy fist into her jaw, sparing no strength for the girl before him. Her head arched to the side sending what felt to be an oak splinter straight up the side of her neck and into her ear. "They changed their tune."

"How many, Little Sister." Another hit her squarely. She fell to the side as the man holding her lost a previously sure grip. Charles pulled her back into place. "Let's count them. You learn to count in school. That's one, two. How many more do you want? "

"None." She whispered in a voice passing from her pure agony.

He lowered a blonde head while pulling hers higher.

She spoke again, warm breath shifting sprigs of blonde. "I've had enough."

"Glad to hear it, My Darling." Her head slammed against a leather-covered chest as if no strength could hold it.

Ren'ai remained still for the rest of the journey, watching boots and listening to Big Sister moan in discomfort.
CHAPTER 6

Deeper and deeper into the woods they traveled, tripping across roots disguised by a rainbow in decay. She could not imagine where they could be going but it did not seem that they would arrive at a destination this night.

When they found a clearing and pitched tents she found it odd. A fine night nuzzled them, no rain from which to cower. She thought of the nights she and Father spent out in a high oak forest with only a thin blanket and crooked baring branching between them and a thousand stars.

As they tossed her to the ground, Ren'iv wriggled to her side, resting her head on Little Sister's shoulder, soaking her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Nai. You know Papa said I was a poor judge of character." She choked back tears. "I'll take care of you, Nai'Nai. You'll never want for nothing. Still find myself a husband and we'll care for you 'til you're grown."

Ren'ai did not speak, looking ever forward at the men moving around her making camp.

One, a toe headed fellow with a ragged beard and broad shoulders brushed down the horses. With every swipe bulging muscles moved, rising and falling, gaining and losing form. The sweat upon white hairs across thick forearms shimmered in the moonlight.

Another, scraped hooves. He wore a frightfully austere expression as if a word spoken in his direction might cause an eruption of pent up rage. A tumultuous sea of curly red tufts rolled across rather wide head. A discarded shirt after the brisk journey revealed a landscape of scars across battered flesh, up on broad shoulder and whipping across his neck and back. No doubt grazed her mind that his opponents held worse.

The third remaining of Bunny Head's crew she saw nowhere. Likely gathering fire wood, Ren'ai reasoned. He had carried her quite a ways and she had come to know him primarily for his shoes, thick brown boots with symbols painted across the leather.

Charles sat to the side upon a fallen tree with one knee curled up to a squared chin and the other leg dangling loosely to the ground. A near frown caressed contemplating features. Eyes of green held fast to the ground until Symbol Shoes stepped back into the blue light shifting through the forest floor.

Charles looked up as firewood tumbled from Symbol Shoe's arms, but Charles made no attempt to assist as his subordinate arranged the wood. Symbol Shoes spoke over his shoulder. "I'll not carry them another day so we had best make use of them tonight."

Charles hopped down, only confirming Ren'ai's name for him. He picked up a stick and began swinging it about in mock battle as if Symbol Shoes had said nothing. He walked over to a pack hanging on a low branch and pulled a wedge of cheese from it. Nibbling it, he looked to Toe Head and Curly still busy at their task. The speckled mare, Genevieve taking in the affection, no matter who the giver be, moved to Toe Head's touch.

As yellow flame shot upward, Charles turned to warm his hands, but not before tossing the last chunk of cheese between parted lips. It puffed one cheek as he took slow, heavy bites until he could swallow. He looked more and more like a bunny all of the time. He still worked with the bite when he spoke. "What do you say we get to that part now? Dinner can always wait until after play." He swallowed hard.

Ren'ai hoped he would choke. But he did not.

Symbol Shoes' dark eyes looked over to Ren'iv but she did not see him as she kept her own ever low. A single braid ran down one shoulder, the last look of perfection that remained about her.

Her sight shot up as he stood before her with his feet apart, fists on shallow sides. He reached a hand under her aching arm and pulled her up. The bindings at her wrists gave little. "I agree."

Charles sauntered forward, selecting carefully each step. He turned, flicking the stick to the fire. He pulled Ren'iv from Symbol Shoes' grasp. "Like I said, you don't throw fine meat to the wolves." He cradled Ren'iv up under a strong arm, as he spoke.

She looked up to him as if her savior had arrived.

Charles wiped a bit of blood from her cheek, and then looked back to Toe Head. "You don't even know the girl."

"And you do?" Toe Head stepped forward.

Charles pulled his blade free, holding it firmly toward an advance that did not come. "Of Course. We write letters." He twisted the girl up to face him with one hand still holding firm to his sword. "Don't we, My Darling?"

Ren'iv could only nod.

"Two Seasons at least, we are to write letters. A proper courtship, you said. Didn't you?"

"It's only proper." Ren'iv lifted sapphire eyes to meet green, searching for intention. "I'm a proper Lady."

Charles looked over to Curly and Toe Head while holding her narrow shoulders in a firm grasp. "Didn't I tell you, you don't throw fine meat to wolves till after you've licked bones clean?"

"Just hurry it up." Curly pulled Toe Head back. "We all deserve a taste after carrying the whores all this way."

"And you'll have it." He released her a moment, re-sheltering his weapon, then drew her up into strong arms, kicked the tent flap open and tossed her inside. He took a moment to look back at Ren'ai, curling his brow and releasing a helpless grin.

"Have her out here, Charles." Symbol Shoes spoke. "If we have to wait, at least we should get to watch."

"Got something to hide, Charles. Don't worry, Lady. If he can't do it right, I've something for you." Toe Head stood, releasing a gesture to Bunny Head that Ren'ai did not quite understand.

A look of fury enveloped Bunny Head as he let the tent flap close and walked up to Toe Head. They were about the same height, but at that moment Bunny Head seemed quite a bit taller. He threw a hard fist into Toe Head's gut, and the heckler fell to the ground. "She told you. She's a proper lady. Proper Lady's require." He paused. "Let's say they require accommodations."

Charles turned, opening the flap again. Ren'ai saw the terror in Big Sister's face. She tried to reach out to her, to tell her it would be alright, but she could not.

The camp fell silent as Charles' men sat around the fire, listening for first sounds of struggle. When the first muffled scream sailed out to them, they punched one another, signaling and laughing, casting lots before the flame to determine who would be the next to have her. As Ren'ai tried to stand, tried to make it stop, Curly held her in a tight grasp. They seemed to enjoy watching Ren'ai fight to get to Big Sister no less than imagining what now transpired just beyond thick canvas.

Ren'ai could not make it stop, not even hold her ears. She could not block it out. Big Sister's screams, the pleasured groans, the pounding of Big Sister's feet against the ground in struggle. The ripping of garments, the slaps across her face again and again and the moans of pain.

Ren'ai fought Curly's hold with everything in her, smacking her face against a rugged belly. Her shoulders ached; she had no feeling in her hands; her wrist felt as if they might pop free from her finger bones. But the bindings grew looser with every pull.

Charles stepped out, the look of exhaustion dropping youthful features. If he looked this bad, she did not want to see Ren'iv. He ran fingers through moon-splashed hair and re-secured that bunny tail that must have swung loose.

Curly stood with risen scars catching the orange light of the campfire. "My turn."

Ren'ai now free of him fell to the ground with a thump.

Charles thumbed a last brass button on his fitted jacket, again looking like a proper officer. "Be my guest. I softened her up for you." He extended an inviting hand toward the tent.

Ren'ai could hear a low whimper through the fabric.

"I guess I will." He stepped past the other soldiers, unfastening a button then two as he went.

"Are none of you man enough for two women?"

Curly looked back at Ren'ai still lying on the ground near the fire. Annoyance defined his face.

Charles spoke up, now resuming normal breath. "I see no other women to be had, Nai or believe me we'd take 'em. To put in the way Niv might. Your screams are the appetizer. Hers are the meal."

Curly turned back to his destination, reaching out to the flap.

"I see no one here man enough for two."

Curly pulled his hand, placing it on a hard side as if in thought. "Don't worry, Lieutenant. I'll shut her up for you." He walked back the fireside, dragged her up by a throbbing shoulder, and carried her in that way toward the tent. Her feet dug across the rocky ground.

Once inside, Ren'ai found Big Sister, balled up in the corner, staring forward but seeing nothing. Her leg lay exposed with dress torn up the side. Her chest lay open to the air. Pulling her body forward Little Sister laid her head on Ren'iv's thigh. She started from the touch.

Curly knelt down, crawling in behind her. Ren'ai threw a kick toward a chiseled chin, but he caught her foot, sharply twisting it to the side. He flipped her over onto her tummy. As immense hands moved up her sides, she swung her feet wildly, fighting a solid grasp.

Ren'iv screamed as if the only strength she had left.

Curly rolled Little Sister to the side and jumped on Ren'iv. He pulled up her braid, wrapping it around her throat once and again and pulled in tight to silence her. She gasped for breath as her face turned red then white then blue. Curly spoke. "Now you stay quiet, or I'll kill her."

Ren'ai, still bound, rose, throwing her shoulder into him. An elbow met her chin, knocking her back senseless. He did not look back to see how she fell, he knew the strength of that blow. She would no longer be a bother.

He pulled a wide belt free, set his sheath aside and freed himself to the air. Relaxing his hold on Ren'iv he pushed her back. Placing a knee by her side he straddled her hips, placing warmness upon her belly.

Ren'ai shook the lights from her head at last pulling her hands from bondage. She looked at them a moment. The skin peeled away from her wrists, blood drying on her arms. She wriggled a finger. They worked.

She pulled up the sheathed sword as his attention remained elsewhere. The blade met the cool night between moans and screams.

What was she to do with this? Watching the sweat roll down a striped back, she knelt behind him. She had never thought to hold a sword, much heavier indeed than it had looked, but still no measure for Father's axe.

Grunts and weeping seared through her. The rage swelled within her, blurring her vision, clouding her mind and setting within her all clarity. A tree stood before her. A Maple perhaps. Speckled, seeping bark. Narrow build. What an easy slice for her ax. What a fine, fine table the wood would make.

She watched it for a moment transfixed on the way it swayed toward her and away as if by strong wind. She felt no wind, only rolling sweat down her cheeks, or did a tear fall. A tear, why a tear with a great maple before her, a prize for her taking. She drew up the blade.

She could hear Father echoing in her ear. _"_ With every chop you must see your blade clearing to the other side. Every strike as if it were your last. _"_ Two tiny hands gripped the hilt. The leather wrap softened to her touch.

She pulled the blade to her left. The sound of Big Sister crying only a distant hum in her ear, she sliced the maple clean and true. The crying stopped as silence sheltered them.

Only Ren'iv could see his face as she threw him from her. The look of panic twisting Ren'iv's features, Ren'ai had never thought to see upon Big Sister's face. Then the scream. Not like the scream of pain with a man upon her, but a surreal call as if to the wild, tearing through Ren'ai and putting her back together.

The flap flew to the side as Toe Head stepped inside.

Ren'ai turned without thought, driving the blade through a defenseless belly before turning the blade and pulling it, allowing him to flop to the ground. Darkness pooled beneath him. Drawing the blade to the ground she lifted herself up to standing, seeing the faces of Bunny Head and Symbol Shoes, grins of amusement quickly turning as she stood before them, with her green dress now dripping blood and matter.

Symbol Shoes came forward with a blade of his own drawn against her. She stepped to the side with a low cut, taking the maple at its roots, sending it sprawling. A clean sever at the knee, he fell to the ground pulling flowing wounds to him before falling back dead.

Now Bunny Head stood before her with shaking blade held close in defense. "Clavras" A look of horror shadowed youthful features.

Gray eyes flickered up at him as a serpent's tongue. A new light dwelt within them.

He turned, shielding a feeble human mind from her stare as if she might possess him. As he stepped past her he dropped his sword, unable to support the extra weight upon his flight from her. She did not feel as if she had changed into a fleshy winged woman with fangs that legends said had been on the battlefield when casualties were great but it was just as well if that is what he saw. She would be what the moment demanded.

The chase began. She dodged low branches, hacking through underbrush. She would not let him escape.

She stopped. She saw him nowhere. So the Bunny could run too. "Charles." She called out to him with voice hoarse, not her own.

Ren'ai looked back through the trees to the camp. She had not imagined that she had covered that much terrain in the chase. She could only see billows of smoke at that distance and knew Ren'iv waited there in the tent, in the darkness, fear raping her face. Little Sister sighed, pulling the blade to her side and drawing a hard breath. She had to get Big Sister away from this place. Somewhere safe. "Charles, I will come back for you. Don't you forget it." She spoke with her voice cracking from the long night.

Stepping back through the severed underbrush, she reached Ren'iv. She peered to her left. Low branches fluttered in a warm evening breeze. And to the right. More of the same.

"Niv'Niv, you alright?" The flap flew open as she met the top of her head, hair strung loose.

Ren'iv held her silence. She did not look up.

"Niv?" Little Sister reached out to her, stepping over Toe Head and taking her hand. The hand surrendered no strength. It clunked to Ren'iv's side as the hand of a corpse.

"Ren'iv Luel, up." Ren'ai spoke firmly, calling her full proper name. "We must go. Take my hand."

Big Sister reached up, taking the girl's hand. Big Sister's eyes shifted around to the battlefield around her as if bearing a glimmer of recognition.

"It's alright. They're gone." Ren'ai strapped Curly's belt to her waist, it slipped down before she pulled it up, tightening the loops.

Genevieve neighed. Ren'ai darted out of the tent certain of Charles return. Grey eyes shot around, and then she pulled Ren'iv out into the air.

The horses waited for them.

Ren'ai gave the stallion, Genner a reassuring rub down the neck and signaled to Ren'iv to get on.

She just stood there.

"Niv'Niv. More bad men will come to collect the Dead. We must away ourselves from here and fast."

Ren'iv stepped up beside the stallion but did not mount.

Ren'ai finally understood. "If you are waiting for me to lift you, forget it. Just put your foot in the stirrup and swing your leg around."

A blank stare met the instructions.

"Fine, Have it your way." Ren'ai detached the reins. "We walk." She handed Genner's reins to her. "The trail is that way, but we are not going home. They know Papa. They most certainly know where we live. We take the fork to Hiron; avoid the towns until we can find a safe place. The rations left for us will last five or six days. I'm certain we'll find a place by then. Agreed?"

Ren'iv gave no answer.

Ren'ai lifted a hand to caress her face. "It will be alright now. We'll take care of each other. You'll find a husband who will be good to you and we'll live in a cottage in a glen."

Ren'iv stood staring, her eyes focusing on nothing.

Little Sister sighed, taking up the reins of the speckled mare and pulling her forward into the darkness and the unknown.
CHAPTER 7

"She doesn't look like a Clavras to me, Grenal. Where are her wings?" The man stood there a moment watching her, tilting a head of straight black hair to one side, then the other. A long forest cloak hung loosely across firm arms. He was a small man, if her father be the comparison, but he stood before her as a man of great strength even if his height seemed lacking.

Still wearing that green dress seemingly dipped in a river of blood, Ren'ai met his curious stare with eyes equally intent. Who were these people who would just invade her camp like this? Sit down at the fire she had built and act like they were old friends?

From the side a man poked her with a stick, testing, perhaps, whether she be apparition or flesh and blood.

She shrieked at him, readying her strike.

"There. There. Clavras." The voice of the dark-haired man calmed her. "Grenal is my most trusted protector. We call him 'First Guard.' He means you no harm."

"I'm not a Clavras." She raised the sword higher, daring their advance.

"My, My. Not a Clavras then. You certainly had Ruric's men believing it so. That Lieutenant of theirs ranting in the tavern of the last town we passed about some evil spirit attacking their camp and he being the only survivor."

The rolling wind whispered cool through the thickness of painted branches, across the moonlit hillside, in and among the scattering leaves, yet fire again rose upon her cheeks. "You know, Charles? Where is he? I've unfinished business with him. I'll take out the lot o' you if you don't tell me where he is."

The man with the straight black hair lowered his chin in thought. "Needless slaughter, I'm afraid. He's not one of us and couldn't tell you if we wanted to. Probably about doing whatever it is that soldiers do."

Ren'ai had an idea about what soldiers did. It gave her all the more reason to dispatch him.

The dark-haired man bore the look of wonder upon dry lips. "Did you really kill three of King Ruric's men while they slept?"

"They wasn't sleeping 'til after."

A grin stretched the man's youthful yet weathered face. "That's what I thought."

"What do you want from us?" Fear ravaged her mind though she fought with an obstinate face not to show it. Fear that the battle would start anew and the horror would continue for Big Sister.

"We're here to join you."

Ren'ai released a bewildered look, tipping her head to the side, dropping one brow and curling one side of her mouth up to meet it. She did not know what to make of that answer. Her features softened to a calm yet firm expression. "We need no company."

"But it appears we could use yours."

"Master." Grenal, with scruffy grey-specked hair, protested. "She's a child."

"A child?" Ren'ai at last released her rage at Grenal who raised a broadsword to counter. With the strength of her blow unanticipated, the protector took a step back.

Grenal held her blade there for a moment. Amazement streaked gruff features. Muscles tensed as he prepared an advance.

A calming hand rose to him, begging his patience.

The protector's eyes stayed fixed on the girl before him, just reaching his mid-chest in height. The blades remained locked.

The kind man with the dark straight hair glanced over his shoulder to his four traveling companions sitting around the fire. One began to rise to his feet, before the kind man extended a hand to him, calming his fears. He turned back to her.

Ire rose in her brow.

"Before you strike us down, I suppose we should introduce ourselves, being that the first tenet of Pin Hi is _'_ know your enemy.' This is Grenal." The kind man extended a hand to his shoulder, the knots in his muscles apparent and his anticipation of battle great.

Ren'ai held her blade firmly upon his.

"And this is Ivar." A man who looked to have never seen the light of day rose from his place by the fire, a bo in hand. And Nakali." A woman rose beside him with skin dark like cavernous depths, a shimmering skirt flowing to her ankles, a mighty gilded bow in her grasp with a gold flecked arrow notched and ready. "Kerr, here is Ivar's brother and this is Lieten" Another man stood, one with a scraggly blonde beard. The one he called Lieten, on the other hand, did not rise, rather he threw her a sideward glance beneath a weighted brow that in that moment, despite her bearing weight hard upon the one the kind man had called Grenal, made her feel insignificantly small.

"And, I, Madam, am Healer Jabari."

A quick breath caught in her chest. "The E'epan?" Ren'ai curled a lip. Could she believe him?

"Yes." He lifted a hand to her forehead. She could feel warm light upon her.

Ren'ai knew now who this was. The Healer. She knew who those around him had to be. The fiercest warriors in all of Aletheia stood around her, known for their skill and relentless focus on the protection of their master, the E'epan, Jabari. These would be only a few, maybe his most trusted. It was said he had no need to travel with more than five. They could dispatch a force ten times their size and should the force be greater, three would stay, fight to the death to hold the enemy at bay and two would get the master back to the safety of the Jagged, a safe place only for them, safe for those who knew how to survive living among the monsters and perils that dwelt there.

This was the training grounds for the most formidable men and women in Nine Worlds and their job, to protect one man, a very important man. Not a King who ruled, but a Healer.

At least those were the stories the bards imparted in between their songs of praise for the King. She had listened to them on occasion as her father took her into town to display his wares. Had the mood come upon her differently she might have hummed one of the unforgettable tunes. Such a mood did not strike her. Uncertainty caressed sweat-drenched features. She had never thought to meet a man important enough to have his name on the lips of a bard.

Ren'ai dropped to shaking knees, lowering a reverent head. Such a man could strike her dead with a glance and here she stood, throwing her words around like building blocks she had played with as a small child. "I'm Ren'ai, Master." She could not even be sure she wanted this man to know her name, but she feared that had she not told him he could wriggle it out with some method of magic or another.

"Ren? Ren'o? You are his daughters? The craftsman Ren'o?"

Ren'ai dared not raise her head. "Yes." She had heard the accusations thrown. She knew what they said her father had done, but she could not deny it.

"Then it is true. We heard whispers in the village but we hoped them only that. Ren'o has crossed the River." A strange sadness held his voice as he spoke of her father, a man he could not possibly know.

Ren'ai lifted her head to catch sight of a somber shadows sweeping his face. "Yes." Tears welled in squinting eyes. She had promised that she would not cry.

"Stand. This Clavras bows to no one. Join us, Nai, daughter of Ren. Train with us. Help us provide some solace to the many that have been left for dead at Ruric's command."

"He sent them to kill my Papa."

"I know."

"His men did this to Niv." She turned to Big Sister, standing by the tree watching them blankly. "Can you heal her?"

The Healer stepped past the girl by the tree and pulled up Ren'iv's chin. She did not fight him. "They hurt you, didn't they?" He touched a hand to her lip and brow, closing her wounds. He touched her cheek and neck. A caring hand moved across and the bruising disappeared. He slid gentle hands down her arms, taking to himself the black and the blue. He lifted her wrists, raw scarring flesh and took the marks away. He touched her belly and warm light filled the night.

Ren'ai could feel the glow on her face, for a moment blocking the chill of the wind. It brought her joy. A feeling that she had not felt in many days, the feeling of chopping with her father, building something new, working with her hands to a job's completion. Her joy abandoned her in a crashing moment.

"I can't heal her."

"What do you mean? She is of the living; you can heal her." Grenal's features held no less puzzlement that Ren'ai. Feeling her sorrow, he coaxed a comforting hand to her shoulder more than carefully.

She did not fight it. The enemy did not stand before her.

"I have healed her body." Master Jabari searched her eyes, hoping for a glimmer of recognition, a sign of feeling, of knowing. Her eyes saw him but her mind could not. "But your sister is not here."

"Where is she?" She knew that men of magic had understanding far beyond her own, but this made no sense. Ren'iv stood next to her. She knew her own sister.

The Healer left Ren'iv to stand there, eyes casting glances out toward sputtering fire. He tossed an arm around the younger sister's shoulders, pulling her tight to him. "Sometimes, when something awful is happening to us, our mind escapes our body so our body can live and endure. Most of the time, the mind returns when the ordeal is done, but for Ren'iv, it didn't come back. "

"But it will, right. She'll be Niv again. Right?"

"Come, Ren'ai, sit with us by the fire." At Master Jabari's urging Nakali moved down the log seat. Kerr fell off the edge and found a new seat on the ground. "Ivar and Kerr, here are brothers."

The two men with scraggly blonde hair perked when they heard their names. "That's right." Ivar reached out to knock Kerr on the head.

Master Jabari gave them a look Ren'ai hoped never to be directed at her.

The two melted back into place.

Ren'ai dared not speak.

"Both their families slaughtered by the Tyrant Ruric." Master Jabari continued. "Nakali."

She gave a simple nod before swooshing one of two plump braids back behind her shoulder.

"She is from the island. Her town totally destroyed and her people enslaved because Ruric did not like he price they charged for g'nafruit." Master Jabari turned to the woman with them.

She spoke. "The Haerfesting is quite tedious. It only grows in the top most parts of the g'na tree, far, far off the forest floor, very dangerous and many have died in the pursuit. We might have left the temptation be, but Ruric discovered the delight of its sweetness and at first offered us a price. But the price was too low and we said we simply could not do it for that price." Nakali clenched her bow as she spoke. "So he swept in with his armies, killed my people and left just a hand full of us to Haerfest his fruit."

The Healer Jabari cut her short, satisfied with her telling. "Nakali escaped." As an ember popped out of the fire, Jabari pulled his cloak away. "Lieten was a merchant. Had built up a small fortune from the buying and selling of well made goods."

Ren'ai smiled with the thought of well made goods then images of seeing her father's face on the forest path struck the expression quickly from her.

"Traveled into the countryside and purchased goods at a low but fair price. Wheeled them into Capital City where necessity demanded them and sold them for profit. But there were men who despised Lieten's success. They set about on a campaign and in the end Ruric decreed that to sell something for more than you paid for it be called swindle. And Lieten became a criminal. Lost his shop. His Bride to be. Everything. Got away with only the clothes on his back when they burned everything to the ground."

"You are saying that you have all lost something under the reign of Ruric?"

Master Jabari held a somber expression. "Yes."

Ren'ai suddenly felt hope that she would see her family avenged. These people could help her do that. They had lost as much as she. "So you people fight then. Fight against a King who would order such things done?"

"We have another calling."

Ren'ai's hope suddenly faded away.

"I'm a Healer as my father before me back to that time on the mount when the last god called forth the E'epans to be Teachers and Protectors."

"Doesn't look like yir doin' much protectin'"

"Oh, it is not the place of an E'epan to depose a king. We can only be there to heal the wounds left behind."

"Then why the small army?"

The dark skinned woman spoke. "Even a Healer needs protection. Kill the Healer and you take a thousand men with him."

"But what's the point? You might as well be walking after Ruric, wiping his behind." Ren'ai had never been one to not speak her mind.

"There is great point." Confidence defined the Healer's voice. "The people must rise up."

"I don't care if the whole of Nine Worlds opposes me. I will avenge my family. See Ruric and that Lieutenant brought to justice." Ren'ai held her fists to her hips, daring him to tell her differently.

Jabari did not dare release a smile. "A lofty goal." Jabari chose his words. "And not one unachievable be that your life's quest. But Revenge. It seems a thing to right a wrong, but destroys the avenger no less than the focus of her wrath. It is a path I would advise you not to follow."
CHAPTER 8

Jabari had only ever known the life of an E'epan. He understood nothing else. From his wooden crib, he would hear say his mother; his father would teach him the skills he would need when he would finally take on his place in the E'epan line. His first memories as a tot were of learning to mix herbs, grind root, steep tea. An injured dog on the street became a golden opportunity for Jabari to learn to mend bone both in the traditional sense with a stick and cloth and in the more E'epan way.

Jabari had often wondered why his father always showed him two ways to heal an ailment. One always seemed to work much better than the other and should you not just do something in the most effective way first.

"Bari," his father would explain as he displayed a method of healing, "The most important thing you must do as an E'epan is not to heal but to impart that knowledge to others. Those you will teach will not be able to do things the E'epan way so you must meet them where they are. You must learn to heal the way they do."

Growing up, Jabari did not care for any way but the E'epan way. Patience, one of the Five Virtues of the E'epan Creed, was the Virtue his father said he lacked. Jabari had worked every day while his father still lived to prove to him that he had learned the lesson well. That lesson being that the true value in what he was what he could teach others. That "Patience," above all else, he must strive for.

But how long? How long would he have to wait to see a day when E'epans could walk about freely in the land of Aletheia? How many had to die by Ruric's command? How many, until the people would rise up? Would he see it in his lifetime? How many had to die while trying to stop the Healer from doing what it was a Healer must do, Teach and Heal?

Why? Why should a Healer have to surround himself with trained killers? In what twisted reality would a Healer have to make the choice that Jabari hated most? Choosing one life over another. Killing those who, by order of King Ruric, would seek to stop his E'epan mission, to kill him if they could, so that he might not continue is his quest to teach and heal an embattled land. All life is sacred. Is that not what he learned as a young apprentice? It seemed such an easy value to uphold unlike Patience, a Virtue he feared would eventually run out.

"We mustn't worry over things we cannot change." A tender voice woke him from restless thoughts.

He looked down the dark Jagged corridor with the light of Greater Sun upon his back as he ducked past the cave entrance. Down, as the familiar flicker of torches greeted him at last, replacing the brilliance of a late day sky. Down, down he strode before lifting weary eyes to see her face and he knew he was home.

He smiled as she approached him, dressed in her usual elaborate vestment, a long full dress swiping her ankles, brown hair pulled up perfectly away from her neck and shoulders to hide away so seductively beneath a large hat, tilted so slightly to one side giving her face an asymmetry he had never been able to resist. "Gwen." The feelings he had for her snaked through the contours of a cracking voice. An uncontrollable smile widened weathered cheeks.

Rising up upon the toes of her fine slippers, she threw her arms around his neck. "Welcome home, My Darling." She nuzzled a cheek to his, releasing a gentle coo before pulling away from him to look into dark eyes.

A million Haerfests could have passed them by as he gazed upon her soft features: the rouge of her cheeks, the arch of her brow, the curve of pink, silken lips; the line of her neck arcing up to her chin that her eyes might meet his in a look that told him that glimmer in her pale blue eyes she held for him alone. In a moment spent with her he could forget the peril that embraced the world outside; he could just live in the now.

She broke the stare. "And where might your five minstrels be?"

Jabari turned, looking back toward the cave opening, toward the abusive rays of light sailing in. He turned back to her with a chuckle in rising cheeks. "They took the round-about entrance. Closer to the dining hall. I do believe my minstrels came back famished. Making sweet music can empty a belly faster than any task I know."

A gentle laugh spun from her parted lips.

He did not find it odd that she should refer to his guards as minstrels as if their swords and spears be lyres and lutes. An easier thought it had become than knowing at any moment one of his Guard might return to the Jagged, accompanied only by the word of his demise. He had never known Gwendoline to revel in delusion, but this one fantasy which they beheld only one to the other he knew the gods could forgive. He could not see her thoughts but he knew well her greatest fear. The joy with which she welcomed him after a journey beyond the safety of the Jagged's cavernous depths bared her thoughts. He could no more bear the thought of losing her, but at least if he had to venture out, he could hold as truth that his bride most cherished remained safe in the Jagged.

He extended an arm to his wife.

She wrapped her own in his as they started forward, down the hallway of rock and more rock, past the hundreds of torches that lined it.

Soon the smell of simmering spice met his nose and Jabari realized his own state of hunger that had previously been concealed by that undeniable desire to see Gwendoline upon first returning to the Jagged. The scent wafted across the great dining hall, past rows and rows of wooden tables at which there were seated nearly six hundred hungry faces already eagerly spooning soup.

There were among them four hundred guards and fighters who aspired to one day be guards. Among the remaining two hundred, the hunters and trappers, gardeners and gatherers, cooks and seamstresses, chambermaids and weavers, butchers and tanners, forgers and fletchers, apothecaries and potters and nannies and young children. An underground city of which the Healer and his wife might as well have been King and Queen.

Bowls rattled and tables shook as they stood to welcome the new arrivals, the Healer and his wife. An unnecessary formality for the Healer, but he knew Gwendoline delighted in the recognition having spent her childhood in the court of her High Councilor uncle before she had to be hidden away so he bowed to them in return as he pulled Gwendoline along at his side.

Gwendoline stopped, pulling him a step back. Blue eyes went wide as a sudden realization shifted her expression.

He knew why before she spoke. How could he forget something so important?

"Someone new has joined us." Pale blue eyes met his then her glance fell away.

In a crowd of six hundred he knew she could not know of the new one's location. Could he even find her? "Would you like to meet her?" Jabari scanned the room until he saw Nakali's golden ribbons. Ren'ai and her sister sat to her right. "I'll take you to her." He started forward.

"No." She grabbed his firm arm tighter, pulling him back. "After dinner. You're hungry." She loosened her grip and gave his arm a reassuring pat. A tranquil smile caressed her lips as she started forward again.

Dinner in the Jagged Dining Hall after a long journey fell upon the tongue beyond compare. As Jabari drew a sip to his mouth, he watched the many around them. He listened to the low drone of conversation, the clattering of spoons, the squeaking of chairs to and from the table. Clammer and merriment echoed up to the ceiling far above them. He turned to his wife. Calm embraced pink cheeks as she took a delicate bite. Home. He could take each bite and relax. He was back in the cool, the safety, the comfort of the Jagged.

As servers carried the last dishes from the table Jabari rose into a long stretch. Only then did the exhaustion overtake him. Turning in early sounded like a great idea but he still had work to do. Gwendoline had to meet someone. He could only lay blame upon a momentary bout of madness. Only such a spell could have caused him to let someone into their safe haven without first introducing her to his wife.

"Welcome to our home, Ren'ai." Gwendoline met the newcomer with a smile as Jabari introduced them. Pale blue eyes scanned the girl's features from the tip of her unruly hair down to her heels. She looked her over once and again as if painting a masterpiece in her mind that she might call upon later should she need to recall the position of a wrinkle in the child's sleeve or a freckle on her cheek.

"I'm very glad to be here." An awkward curtsy curved her knees. What else could she do?

Gwendoline responded in turn with a bit more grace. "I hear you want to train with us? Serve the Healer?"

Ren'ai stood for a moment as if in thought.

Jabari watched his lovely wife lift her left hand to grasp her right wrist and an already pummeling heart rose into his throat. He held back a gasp.

Gwendoline turned to face him, calming his fears with only a look.

Finally Ren'ai spoke. "I wish to serve the Healer."

"That is good very, very good." Gwendoline pat the young girl on the shoulder and took a step back. "Well, My Dear. I suppose you are all tired after your journey. Nakali will take you to the sleeping chambers."

Nakali pulled Ren'ai's hand up tenderly to one gold-clad side and led her away.

Jabari sighed a relief. "What do you think?"

Gwendoline waited until Nakali's golden ribbons were well out of view. "We should go somewhere to talk." With the tone of her voice Gwendoline answered question both spoken and quite concealed. The quickness of her step past the many chambers further suggested the urgency of what she must say. Delicate slippers traipsed across hay-strewn stone as a flowing gown sailed behind her ankles as if to coax her back, away from the purpose that drove her steps. Those who walked the halls stepped to the right and to the left, making way for her next forward step as Jabari stepped close beside her.

As Gwendoline rushed past the threshold where lay a sleeping quarters for two, Jabari pulled a heavy wooden door closed. How he hated to defile their bedroom with discussion of such dire importance but it seemed the only place in the Jagged that they might find a moment alone.

Gwendoline found a seat upon their plush bed dragging perfectly shaped nails across a soft quilt. Jabari sat down beside her. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to hold but he knew her mind lay elsewhere. "Well, she lives." He said suddenly as if nothing more needed to be said.

Gwendoline's left hand met her right wrist and she pulled free the knife so well hidden there beneath the frill of lace. "So she does." She leaned forward and to the side, setting it upon a near table.

"But you don't sound so sure about your decision." He reached up to her narrow shoulder, massaging out the tension he found there.

"I'm concerned. That's all." She kept her eyes from him as if they might reveal too much. "She is blinded by thoughts of revenge. She is here to learn to fight to get that revenge. She is not here for the right reasons."

"She just lost her family by order of Ruric. Give her time. Time will heal."

"Time can heal, yes. Or time can solidify the bond that such an emotion can have upon the spirit."

"But let me try to help her."

"What you do is up to you. You know I never judge you." Blue eyes met dark in a shapeless stare. "The role of an E'epan is one of difficult decisions. Often right can be pitted against right, but one must prevail. If you believe that she can abandon this destructive force she carries with her, then by all means, work with her. But you know the longer she remains in the Jagged, the harder it will be to do what we must if the time comes. Each choice we make lays the framework for future choices we must make."

"But can you see any good in her?"

"It's there."

"That's good enough for me." Jabari crossed firm arms and leaned back so slightly to one side.

Gwendoline wrinkled her chin and raised one cheek up to a narrowed eye, smiling that little smile that told him she had surrendered. He would do what he would do and not even the words of a Seer could change his mind. In him, she admired this most. He would always find a way. He would not disappoint her.

He kissed her gently on the cheek before rising from the bed. "I'll be back soon." A sudden smile danced across contented cheeks before he lured it away. He had already been away too long and another moment away from her seemed more than he could bear.

She replied in a tone simple and direct. "I know."

With that Jabari pulled the wooden door open again with a long creak and slid a hesitant head out into the hallway then he stepped out as a cold subtle draft bellowed past him through the long corridor. He pulled a burgundy cloak tighter before twisting a bit of dried meat up from a long pocket and chewing it with some ferocity. He turned to his right as he continued to chew, then began in hastened step down the long corridor with rock rising up on each side and hanging torches casting shapes and shadows across sharp features and a rather straight and orderly gifting of thick black hair.

He listened to the sound of his leather soles clacking against hay-strewn stone soon joined by the rustle of movement as he strolled quickly past several sleeping areas as many bid the day farewell with a mixture of devout meditation, discussion of the day's happenings and a bit of gossip he had no desire to overhear let alone consider whether it be truth, lie or something in between. On more than one occasion he could add the low sound of a FlameChaser diverted to the bustle and rumble of the night.

Farther down, he passed one of many training rooms as it was not uncommon to find many of his loyal fighters and guards continuing to hone their speed and skill in mock battles with straw men and each other long into the night. The sounds of yells and taunts, running and tumbling, leaping and falling, losing and winning accosted his ears.

But despite the many people moving about in the night, to his delight few passed him on his journey down the long corridor. And, of those who did, perhaps they could see that his mind lay elsewhere as none dared more than a quick half bow in greeting. Only to Ivar did he speak as the guard came down the hallway in a half skip half run.

"Have you seen Lieten?" Jabari asked in calm, quiet tone.

The question caught Ivar mid-bow. He stood again to full height, before lifting his arms into a stretch. His long torso lanky yet firm twisted to this side and that beneath a loose brown shirt as he answered. "Have not seen him since dinner. But based upon the time, I'd imagine he's depriving some poor soul of his will to live in the arena, Or..." He put some emphasis and pause on the 'or'.

Jabari could not let him finish. He released a quick clearing of the throat as he cut Ivar short. "Fine then. Find him, will you? Tell him to meet me in the Study before he turns in for the night."

The yellow bouncing light of many torches accentuated a splattering of dark freckles across clean shaven, pale cheeks as Ivar surrendered a playful half smile. "That might be a while." He spoke with perhaps an edge of double meaning in his voice.

"I'm in no hurry." Jabari did not smile.

Ivar straightened his cheeks before nodding and then bowed again.

Jabari returned the gesture then turned from him as his journey began again. He turned another bend and stepped into the study. His stride then fell silent across plush woven rugs and he drew a low sigh as he pulled closed a heavy door, finally alone with his thoughts. He had much to consider. He pulled a heavy bound book down from an upper shelf, riding a strong finger down a frayed edge and sliding it to an intricately carved desk with a thump. He then collapsed into a big wooden chair and pulled himself forward squeaking chair legs across smooth rock before opening the book and flipping through a few hundred neatly transcribed pages. Dark curls and loops of fading ink floated across a bright white background. Finally, his eyes rested on one page before he released another long sigh.
CHAPTER 9

Dark eyes shot up with a start. A knock pummeled upon the door. Dust rose as the Healer slammed the heavy book closed. What words had he just read? He could not even say. He had been so lost in thought. Who knew what hour greeted him? He could only gauge it by use of his exhaustion coupled with a wide-eyed inability to think of sleep. "Enter." He said as the door's abuse began again.

As Lieten entered, the Healer rose, drawing a bit of dried turkey to his teeth and pulling away with some ferocity a tough bit.

Torchlight danced across Lieten's sharp features which seemed to mimic the unyielding outcroppings of solid rock that formed the caves of the Jagged. Only long, hanging tapestries dared to cover them, to block the chill as far below the surface, the cool glistened upon both rounds and angles. He did not speak. A loose shirt revealed the presence of scars whipping a solid chest, as he surrendered a low bow.

Jabari returned the gesture, followed by a hard swallow. "Thoughts?"

Disinterest demarcated Lieten's face as he lifted dark eyes to meet the Healer's steady yet gentle stare. He spoke. "She is young." The guard's face remained firm with brow low, lips uncurled. He spoke simply, concisely. One could expect no more.

Jabari thought a moment on the statement, as simple yet meaningful as it was. He offered a bit of dried meat to his guard.

Lieten waved a foregoing hand and closed dark eyes before speaking. "We can mold her into anything we desire."

"It seems an easy task, doesn't it?"

"I didn't say it would be easy." Lieten's cheek rose into what might have been, by some, considered to be the burgeoning of a smile. But Jabari knew his guard better than that.

"Yes, Vengeance holds her tight like a suckling babe. That soldier pronounced all over town that he'd seen a Clavras. She'd be one for sure had they taken her life. Vengeance like that doesn't let go, even in death."

"At least this way you have time to save her. We can show her a better way."

Jabari sighed, meeting Lieten's glare. "No one is truly saved, who does not save himself. A better way cannot be shown; it must be learned, internalized. It must become a part of her as it has all of us. I fear..."

"Don't say that." Lieten stepped a hard left back leaving the right foot forward and crossed tight arms at a solid chest. "We've faced greater challenges than an impetuous child bent on revenge."

"Indeed. But I've feared from the moment I looked into the eyes of the daughters of Ren'o, one is no more gone from this place than the other." Jabari thought on that look in the child's grey eyes. A frightening stare. A cynical sideward glance. He knew she would stop at nothing to see her family avenged. Had she not the right? How could he explain to a child who lost everything the destruction that awaited her should she choose the path of blind vengeance? How could he make her understand, when he himself could not put the thought from his unsettled mind? An evil tyrant he knew Ruric to be. He would not deny it.

"It troubles you." Lieten pulled the Healer from vexing thought. "Why then? Why bring her here into our refuge. We have never been of a mind to welcome destruction. I'll drag the both of them to the swamp. There is no reason that we should prolong it. Let it worry you so."

"No, I'd do it myself if I thought she'd bring us harm. We owe it to Ren'o to try to reach her."

"We owe it to ourselves to keep our haven a safe one." Lieten leaned forward, placing wide hands upon Jabari's great desk.

"Indeed, we do. But we can't stay hidden away from the world in our impenetrable fortress, not when there is so much suffering in Aletheia." Jabari's mind sailed across images of the things he had seen, they had seen, over the Haerfests past. The fighting, the slaughter, the deception. When he had seen so few Haerfests, training at his father's feet, learning the power of the leaves and roots of the land, he never could have imagined that fulfilling the charge an E'epan, a Healer, Teaching and Healing would mean being accompanied at all times by a small army, fighting their way through those who would perpetuate the loss of life, the loss of hope. "We cannot turn our backs on our people. A truth more apparent with each passing day. No more can we turn our backs on this child. We will provide her full guard training."

"No." Disbelief shaped Lieten's face.

"Yes. She will one day be of our Guard. I have already decided." Jabari crossed fatigued arms in resolve.

"You would put your life in her hands? I would have to advise you otherwise."

"We must give her focus. She must have a goal."

"Then put her in charge of gardening, or cooking, or mending. There are many tasks in the Jagged for her. Many valued tasks that do not include making that one a guard."

"Many, yes. But this one will be of the Healer's Guard. The strongest, the fastest, the most trusted. Those in whose hands I lay my life."

"I don't know what you see in her. What did Lady Gwendoline say?"

Jabari thought a moment on the words of his wife. "It is not important."

"Master, it's very important. The Lady saw something, didn't she? When have you not heeded her warning? One does not keep a Dreamer at arm's reach, only to go his own way at her forbidding."

Jabari knew that Lieten spoke the truth. Only a handful of times had he so shunned her advisement. This would be one of those times. Gwendoline had not pulled her knife upon first meeting the newcomer. In that, he found hope. "She will become a guard and You will be her trainer."

"Master. I am not a trainer. I've no patience for..."

"Then maybe you will have something to teach each other." Jabari spoke with some force. "You must give her focus. The spirit of our art, Pin Hi, must become a part of her. Help her abandon her vengeful spirit. Help her learn our ways. A life without purpose will quickly crumble. A life driven by vengeance will be consumed. Death by Swamp would be a gentler fate."

"When has the Healer been known to take the easy way out?"

"Precisely. I expect you and Nakali will do a fine job with her. You and Nakali are to train her body and spirit and when the time comes Gwen and I will take on that mind of hers. Believe me that will be the hard part."

"Kali know about this?"

"Of course. Ren'ai's training has already begun." Jabari opened his book and took hard seat.

Torchlight met Lieten's back as he turned and left Jabari there.

Jabari knew that Lieten could never imagine the reckless child becoming a guard some day, but then again Jabari could not say that he could truly believe it. Could she break the hold that King Ruric had on her life by her thoughts of vengeance. With all that they had seen, could any of them break that hold. And sadly he knew that she had experienced thus far only a fragment of the wrong perpetrated upon Aletheia day after day. He could not shield her from it. He could only assure that by his imperfect hands and the hands of his most trusted guards this frightened yet determined little girl, the daughter of Ren'o would be shaped into a woman who could face the reality of the world they lived in.

~~~

Nakali said she would get used to the smell, but she could not see how. The ever present odor, a mixture of mildew and sweat lingered upon her like a wet blanket. She said eventually she would find comfort in the depths of the Jagged, but for now she found herself in a deep cavern splattered with a million inter-connecting hallways leading to living quarters, training rooms and places she could never hope to explore in a lifetime.

The sunlight far, far from her, hanging high over the surface with her far below, surrounded by flickering orange light. It made her dizzy. Upon every wall in the rooms great and small, in the hallways and the training arenas, in the kitchen and the study, in the waste chambers and living quarters only fifty paces between, torch after torch burned but never went out.

"Do you know why there are so many torches?" Nakali tucked sandaled feet under her as she sat down on one of five high-posted beds in the center of the sleep quarters. The head of each bed touched the head of the one beside it. The feet pointed outward like petals on a star flower. Only bare rock lay beneath them, not a rug in the whole area.

As Nakali patted the place beside her, Ren'ai took a seat, melting into the cushion, dangling cold bare feet off the edge not quite touching frigid stone below her. She looked up at Nakali whose eyes beamed with knowledge and experience. "I guess the same reason our beds are all pointed outward."

Nakali released a gentle laugh. She loved having an apprentice. She could not hide it.

Ren'ai released a nervous laugh. This place smelled. She sensed danger all around her.

"Good Girl. Someone always has to keep watch in the Jagged. There are dangers about. Even our bedchamber is no safe harbor." The woman slid slender hands up and down her arms for a moment fighting back a chill. "Tonight is my watch. So shall be yours as well."

"What are we watching for?"

Nakali's eyes narrowed as her cheeks lifted. "You'll see."

Ren'ai's eyes scanned across the room. She saw no threat, only rock and more rock and that dancing orange light. Flame popped and cracked into the air as the silence of the sleepers in three of the four beds met her ears.

The silence lulled her. As the girl's eyes fogged, Nakali jostled her to attention. "Watch." A dark hand went up and a finger out. "Over there." A golden band snaked up her wrist to mid-arm.

Ren'ai's eyes shot out across the floor to the wall, against it two well-made chests, one with a secured lock to other with latch hanging free and lid cracked open by the slightest. To the left hung a tall mirror, likely her height. Nothing. A smile replaced her look of apprehension.

She turned again to see Nakali's face. Her visage had not changed. Enormous dark eyes watched with bitter intent toward the south wall. To the right of the chests. The girl's eyes sailed back, trying her best to see. Shadows whipped across her features. Torchlight bounced from cheek to cheek.

Scratching met her ears. The wall livened into a twinkling as perspiration upon an expended chest.

Nakali leapt to the floor, nearly knocking Ren'ai from her place as she moved past in one swift motion. The woman drew a torch from the wall, held it close. The wall continued to shimmer. Light and shadow danced across the hills and valleys of a surface uneven. The scratching grew louder. Nakali looked back to her pupil to be certain her eyes had not strayed.

Ren'ai could not move her eyes from her.

As the woman's chin turned outward, white claws long as a thigh bone pierced through the rock surface as if only a kerchief separated them.

Ren'ai jumped to her feet. Her heart pounded in her throat. Eyes grew wide with fear. Try as she might she could not bring a word to her lips.

Nakali gave a knowing smile, holding the torch tight in her fist, waiting, waiting.

What was she waiting for? A face followed the claw out past the surface as yellow eyes squinted to the light. Moisture slicked back its long snout as its mouth opened slowly revealing teeth, long and curved.

Nakali waited. Still, Silent. Shoulders flexed in anticipation. Dress tight to the flesh. Back arched. Chest flung forward. Only shear fabric preventing the toppling out of ample breasts. Hair now unbraided lay across her shoulders and down her back in huge soft curls. She remained poised for attack. The smile remained on her face as she listened. Waiting. "He can't see you until you move." She called out to the girl still frozen steps in front of her.

Ren'ai stood still. Warm breath curled up her nose, settled on the surface,torturously tickling her but she dared not seek relief.

As the yellow eyes adjusted they grew wider, moving slowly from one side to the other, searching.

Nakali turned her head slowly. Their eyes met. Recognition flashed across the beast's features.

In a straight motion the flame plunged into the beast's nose. It released a wail. The pain overwhelming. The shock of it crushing. In retreat the beast melted back into the wall. In a moment no sign that it had been there.

Suddenly, Ren'ai realized her mouth fell agape. She closed it as Nakali turned back to her.

"Kali, do you have to let them get so close?" A head of blonde pig tails peeked up over the edge of the bed. With sleep weighting blue eyes, her voice met the room weak, almost disinterested.

"She had to see one to know why she must not let them come through." Nakali spoke in an even tone.

"It will be back?" Ren'ai scooted back up onto the bed and curled her feet up to her side protectively.

Nakali replaced the torch on the wall and returned to her place on the bed. "Maybe a hundred times before the night is done. So you must watch. When you see the shimmer on the wall, hear the scratching, you must burn them before they get into the room."

"Like that one?"

"Oh, that one did not get into the room. You'd have been a goner had he broken free from the wall. They're faster than you can imagine." Nakali rushed her hands to Ren'ai's shoulders. It gave her a start. "Just don't let one out."

The girl shook her head hard to the left and right lest there be doubt in her trainer's mind.

"They could come from any wall, so watch all of them. We take turns. This room has never seen a time when all were sleeping save once." A grim expression reached out across Nakali's features. "We're not going to let that happen again, are we?"

"Not on my watch." Ren'ai spoke confidently. She would not let them down.

"Good."The woman patted her on the back. "Nai, over there. This one's yours. Don't let him get through."

Ren'ai leapt with force and determination to the rock floor. Seeing the glistening spot on the cave wall she stretched up to pull a torch free. Thrusting it into the wall, she heard only a low moan and knew she had forbidden the creature's entry.

"Over there, Nai. Another one." The pupil's eyes shot around until she saw the spot. Thudding across the room, past the beds to the other side, she laid the flame upon the shine and again a low moan released into the air.

"There, Nai."

The girl swept around to catch another with bare feet slapping cold rock, arms swinging to thwart the next enemy advance. Sweat rolled down a cold chin as she stood waiting, eyes shifting about seeking out signs. It never ended. How could one ever do this all night long?

Nakali watched her, still perched upon the bed with feet tucked beneath her. A look of pride upon her face, she whisked a dark strand from her cheek. "The faster you move, the faster they will come. Remember they don't see you until you move. You must take one out and then stand perfectly still while you look around for the next one. If you dance around after each defeated, the next will arrive that much sooner. Slow, measured movement not reckless jabs defeats the FlameChaser."

Ren'ai moved slowly as another shimmer appeared on the far wall. Moving across as if no movement at all, she waited before laying the flame upon him.

"Here, come sit with me, Nai."

Ren'ai started toward her with heavy step.

"Slowly."

The girl crept forward, eyes moving about seeking the shimmer. She slid up onto the bed next to her trainer.

Nakali pat her firmly on the back. It comforted her, eased her fears. Somewhat. Strangeness defined this place. Dangers ever present. She wanted to cry now, but tears would not fall.
CHAPTER 10

She woke the next morning, to the sight of gold shimmers beneath her cheek and realized her head rested in Nakali's lap. A hand cupped across her ear. A thumb played circles across her cheek. She could not remember how long she had been there, but she the fact the Nakali let her sleep even a little must have meant the night had departed.

As a grip grew tight upon her ankles, she knew it was so. Her body flew back as a discarded rag. Hands meeting the ground, she braced. She felt as if her wrists would shatter from the force, but as she picked herself up, to face her attacker she found everything still worked as it should.

Lieten stood before her, looking down upon half awakened features, eyes still closed to the light. Ren'ai brought a weary body to attention, knowing well his reason for being there.

"Ready?" Austerity edged Lieten's voice. "The SlipSwamp awaits us."

Ren'ai's head swung up and down in an eager nod.

Nakali pushed herself up to stand beside her, placing a hand upon the girl's neck, rubbing it gently as if to bring her body to wakening, to prepare her for the day. "Lieten, don't take her to the Swamp. You should start her in training rooms where a mistake is not so, so." Nakali slinked herself past him to find her reflection in the mirror. "Deadly." She pulled her hair up and combed under it with a golden brush. Nakali did not wish to lose her pupil one day into training.

"She's a good waste of training time if she can't survive the Swamp." Lieten pointed to the door, signaling that Ren'ai move out to the hallway. "Nakali's training ended at sunrise."

Ren'ai wondered how he knew if the sun were up or not. No warm yellow glow hit her cheek, only cold darkness and dizzying torchlight.

Lieten continued. "Mine began at dawn and I'll train her as I see fit."

"But I do believe that Jabari wants a new guard when our time is through."

"And that, Nakali, is what I intend to make."

Nakali did not turn to see him as she continued in long strokes, before twisting her fingers in between strands and laying one upon the other."Do as you will, Lieten. You always do."

Ren'ai stood there waiting just beyond the rock entry way, with voices echoing out, deciding her fate. Her toes pattered against the chilled ground as she anticipated Lieten's exit through the doorway. She considered it an honor that she had already proven herself worthy to train in the way the best of them did. A great honor indeed and she would prove herself again. This place scared her to death.

He threw her a pair of shoes at her as he brushed past. "Let's go." He did not give so much as a glance.

She caught them in front of her face. Hopping along behind him, she struggled to snug one then the other into place. As he rounded a corner, she set herself into full dash. She knew that losing sight of him could mean wandering about for days in the unfamiliar caves.

As she saw sunlight peeking around his form, she grew joyous. The rays danced around a full head of dark curly hair interspersed with sprigs of white, playing in the folds and curves, sparing the contours. The light arched around a narrow yet defined neck meeting shoulders as one arm flew up to block the bombarding light. Scars, old and new, crisscrossed his biceps.

With some trepidation she reached up to touch his arm, to feel the rise of the stripes she saw there.

He grabbed her hand, pressing two fingers into the side of her wrist, and a thumb to the opposite side. She could not say where the hand had come from. Only that she knew it must be attached to the body in front of her. He did not turn.

Her head swam and her knees went weak. She took a hard step back as he released her. She drew her hand to her chest, rubbing the offended wrist, seeking relief.

"What are you doing?" He growled, without sparing a moment to face her.

Ren'ai mustered what little strength she felt she might have in that moment. "Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?"

"To have that many scars?"

"Why would it hurt? A scar is a sign of one healed. The Healer's touch is not one of pain."

"Oh." Ren'ai looked at the ground then back to the scars across a firm shoulder. "Why do you have scars? You are my teacher which means you must be a good fighter, but the stripes across your body tell a different story. Suggests you messed up." Ren'ai braced, unsure, unsteady, waiting for the knock to the head that she knew would be hers should he become one offended.

A low growl chuckled from deep inside him. Still he kept dark eyes forward into the light, sparing her no glance. "Outside the Jagged maybe. But here a scar has different meaning. It means going beyond what you are to realize what you can become. Taking chances in the safety of the training rooms where the Healer's touch can be quickly upon you that you would not dare take on the battlefield."

Ren'ai found her voice. "Letting the FlameChaser out in the caves so that you can be stronger when you protect the Healer?"

Finally he turned to her and she saw a glimmer of hope veil hardened eyes if only for an instant.

She smiled.

A returning glare wiped it from her cheeks. He turned dark eyes back to the sight of Lesser Sun capping the horizon. "The Healer has a saying. 'Sometimes we must carry more than we can bear. It is how we grow stronger.' It is how we train. What we live by."

Ren'ai stumbled up into the light, "So scars mean that you take chances in the cave, push yourself to be better. I did not see any scars on Nakali. Does that mean she is not a great fighter like you?"

Again the growling chuckle burst low from his gut. "You wouldn't hear me say it. I don't care to invoke that wrath." He wiped gathering dew from bushy brows. "Some choose to keep their scars when the Healer's hand has been upon them and so do not. When the time comes, you will have to choose."

"I shall keep every scar I earn."

"Then we best get started. We learn nothing from hearing. We learn from doing."

Ren'ai nodded a firm agreement.

Out of the darkness and into the day, she found her place beside him, eyes barely level with a hairy pit. He pulled a strong arm down around her shoulders. She twisted in discomfort.

He laughed an unfriendly laugh. "The only thing you need to know about the SlipSwamp is don't stop." They stood just beyond the caves looking out across a field of mud, low hanging trees, and swible brush that stretched out their crooked arms to a grey yet luminous sky. Ren'ai drew what she hoped to be a breath of sweet morning air. It smelled like death.

Ren'ai liked his explanations simple and straightforward, but she wanted to know more. "Why's it called the SlipSwamp?"

Lieten moved to the side, drew up a stone the size of his fist and held it out to her. "Touch it."

She complied.

Satisfied, he cast it out, far enough to put strength on display, close enough that she could see.

She turned to him. "What?"

He grabbed her face, smooshing her cheeks, turning her back. A moment later a popping sound and the stone vanished. Pulled into the land. Stolen from sight.

Her questioning eyes turned again to him.

"Don't slip either. The warmer the object the faster it is taken. How warm was that stone?"

"Not very."

"Then how much time do you think you'll have?"

"I won't slip." Ren'ai resolved.

"Good. Ready?"

Ren'ai drew a deep breath as if preparing to dive into the river for a swim.

"Follow me."

Lieten leapt from the rock and onto the swamp. Ren'ai followed close behind him. The mud felt thick and sticky and it sucked to her feet, trying to stop her. Popping and moaning with her every step.

"Faster, Nai. Light steps. Quick and light. Try not to leave a footprint."

Not leave a footprint. What absurdity? She looked back but for a moment, seeing the trail of deep steps behind her. She looked ahead, seeing none. No marking at all to say he had been there as if no less than an apparition guided her steps.

"This way, Nai." He rounded a tree, using its trunk to speed his sharp turn.

She watched his high quick steps, trying to match her pace to his. She reached out to the tree he had just past.

It bit her.

She endured the pain without hesitation, but she wondered. "Why aren't the trees taken under?"

Lieten looked back to his little apprentice, never losing speed. "Because Nai, the trees are the ones who take you under. We are their food. Don't let them get a taste for you. They'll pull you under that much faster."

The girl quickened her pace, pain of the effort gnawing at her calves. Her thighs felt as if they might burst from exhaustion. "How far across?" She called out to Lieten, now a few paces ahead of her.

"We've only just entered. Don't tell me you are ready to quit already. Although, I'm sure the trees would be grateful for the nourishment."

"I'm fine." She quickened her pace yet again, leveling herself with her teacher, she could do this. Her whole body burned. On more than one occasion, she had fully resolved to just stop, let it take her under to meet Father and Mother across the river, but Ren'iv needed her.

"If you feel you can't take it anymore step on the light mud. It's less sensitive and takes the roots longer to find you."

Ren'ai found a smooth light patch and stopped, placing her hands on her knees, drawing deep breaths.

"But only a moment longer." He pulled her up by the shoulder as the light mud became dark beneath her and a root snapped from the surface just missing her ankle. He set her back on her feet and reached for her hand. Holding it tightly, he pulled her through a maze of low trees. Their branches swayed as if in the wind longing for a taste of her. They found another light patch and he stopped for a cherished moment all too brief. As the mud grew dark, he urged her on, through another field of trees to a rocky ledge.

He threw her up with great haste and then climbed up behind her.

Ren'ai stood at the top, looking to see the place from which they had come. She could not even see the mouth of the cave where they had begun. She peered across to the other side, with a hand over her eyes, blocking the light of Greater Sun. Her heart sank.

"This is the half waypoint. Rest up. Then we'll be off again. Don't want to be out here after dark. That's a whole other day of training." He pulled a traveling pack he wore across his back to the side and slid out some dried berries and a jar of rice water. He offered her both.

She gladly took them, gobbling the berries and taking long sips of the water, before lying back to watch the clouds as they rolled across. Thoughts drifted from that place to home. A place that she could no longer call a safe place for her or her sister. Now the Jagged would be their home. A safe place she could not see here. How many dangers yet to be seen hid behind the Jagged walls? What more would her ruthless trainer ask of her body? Did she have any more to give?
CHAPTER 11

"Wasted breath, hastened death."

Ren'ai stood before him, gulping hard breath, trying to slow it. Cheeks red from effort, her body shook in short jerks from her shoulders down to bare feet. She did not know how Lieten could ask much more of her.

He watched her and said nothing.

She listened to the clack of his staff upon the arena's cold rock, echoing through the vast cavern where he had brought her to train. He stepped around her, behind her. She dared not turn to face him. The clacking fell in rhythm, calming, hypnotic. It scared her to death.

The clacking stopped. The wood thrashed across her back. "Again."

Ren'ai moved into a deep stance. Her hands shifted, first toward her then away in measured sway. She stepped forward, hip turned, kick up.

Lieten nabbed her ankle mid-kick, nearly sent her body spinning, but she held firm. "Higher." He released her.

She curled in her leg and landed a foot back on the ground. She twisted to the side, throwing out a flat hand.

He blocked her strike. Her hand hit a firm arm. "Higher. The knife goes to the throat not the rib." He pushed her hand to her side and pulled it out with a swiftness not her own. She could only release her own control, let him move her. "Here." He scraped her soft fingertips across a rugged throat. Fingers burned across flesh and stubble, felt as if the skin had left them. Placing a hand upon her waist, he shifted her hip, forcing backward steps. "Attack and back. Lay your sure blow, and then let them come to you." Lieten released her, took a backward step then another. "Again."

Ren'ai moved into a deep stance. Her hands shifted, first toward her then away in measured sway. She stepped forward, hip turned, kick up.

Lieten thrust a hand forward as if he might grab her. He did not. The kick fell higher into the air.

Ren'ai held it, waiting to hear. Had she done better? Had she done well?

"Faster," He smacked her leg with a quick whack of his staff.

She dared not flinch. She curled her leg in, twisting to the side; she threw her knife hand out.

"Back. Back." He stepped toward her.

Ren'ai took one step back, another, holding her left hand just at her chest and the other out.

"Again. Faster. Higher."

She started again. Moving faster at his command. Kicking up and coming back into stance. Knife out, back, back.

"Faster."

She started again.

"Get that kick up. Start over."

Ren'ai began again, moving faster.

"Reckless. Do it right." The staff whipped across her back.

Ren'ai did not like reckless. She would not cut a timber all crooked and splintered. She tightened her strikes as she started again.

"Faster. Light steps. Don't touch the ground."

Ren'ai moved her body faster.

"Higher. Harder."

Ren'ai fought through the motions again and again with a body beseeching her for rest. But she did not speak it. She moved faster. She struck hard as he called her to move.

"Wasted breath, hastened death."

She slowed her breathing, moving her body on at his bidding.

"Back, back."

Ren'ai stepped back, pulling her hands up.

"Block." A staff hit her arm. The sound of wood against bone cracked through the arena. The pain of it shook her senses. Then again as he twisted the staff down hit her thigh.

She released an unintentional cry.

"Tighten up." He took a step back. "Start again."

She moved into her deep stance, kicked, twisted, knife, back, back.

He smacked her again. She braced and held firm once then twice. "Attack and back. They come to you. If your strike is true, an enemy offended will quickly lash out. This is the time to defeat him." He took a step back. "Again." He watched her, putting her every movement to the test. Weighing her efforts, scrutinizing the motions under a look she could not understand.

"Get that kick higher. Should have let the swamp have you. You're worthless. You and your good for nothing sister."

Rage filled her, but she held her tongue. She added it to her strength. She thought of her father and mother, cut down as they were. She knew her purpose. Why she endured. She had to be strong, stronger. It was the only way. The only way she might hope to one day punish him for taking everything from her. Ordering her father's death. Sending those, dare she call them, soldiers to dispatch them. Ren'ai moved through the motions again ever buried in her thoughts. He stopped her kick. Drug her leg over to the side, with her other hopping with the motion to keep up.

He released her and she fell. He looked down to her little more than a wounded animal. "What were you thinking just then? What drove your action? What steadied your strike?"

No shame framed her face. "Revenge."

Lieten lifted firm shoulders, threw his hands out, and then walked away from her.

She curled her legs up beneath her, feeling the raising welts across her body, praying for no more pain.

"Over here." He called out to her.

She fought with her aching spirit to rise. Walking forward, she stood before him, a child looking up into those unforgiving eyes.

"Have a seat."

Joy rose within her. It was over. She knew it. Rest at last. She sat upon the rock, pulling her knees to her chin.

Lieten dragged a large grain sack from the shadows. "Legs apart."

She looked at him.

"Now." His voice hung in the arena, bounced across the walls.

She complied as she had quickly learned to be the best course of action.

He reached into the sack, pulling one wooden block and then another. And another. Placing one at the inside one ankle and lining them across until he met the other. Her back against the wall, she moaned as he started pushing blocks into the middle, pushing her ankles further apart.

Her hips ached, pain sharp and sure, as she forced in yet another block when she thought certainly she bear no more. She cried out. "I can't take it." Tears welling in her eyes, raced down her cheeks though she tried to stop them.

He leaned over her, taking her face into his hands, smashing her cheeks between them. "Sometimes we must carry more than we can bear. It is how we grow stronger. This is not my way. I am only a part of it. Nakali, Kerr, Ivar, Grenal, all of those who fight for him. It is Pin Hi. A way of shifting motions. You must learn it if you are to protect the Healer. Become his guard."

Ren'ai choked back a tear. "Guard?"

"Yes. It is Jabari's wish that we train you to this end. This must drive you. You will live it every day. Pin Hi will become a part of you and you a part of Pin Hi. But Pin Hi and vengeance cannot dwell in one abode. You must choose. We cannot choose for you. We train guards to protect the Healer, not assassins as you might aspire to be." He pressed harder into her cheeks. "Understand, Nai?"

She watched dark eyes as they looked down upon her. She could see relentless austerity there but she could see that he cared. In that moment she vowed that she would never cry again. She nodded.

"Good." Lieten stepped back from her, judging for a moment as if deciding whether to add another brick. "Stay here until I come back for you. If you move I will drag you out to the swamp and be done with it, I swear it by the gods departed. Don't you move."

"I won't move, Lieten." She held back a sob.

He left her there, and she could only hope to find herself soon with Nakali. Diverting FlameChasers she found a much less trying task. Deep in the Jagged Caverns, she could not say if it were late morning or dusk had begun to pour out darkness upon the land. She could only hope for the latter. Along with a scrap of food in her belly, and a long night of sleep.

~~~

"Close them."

She could not say how Nakali knew her eyes were open with her own so firmly shut. As Nakali sat before her with legs crossed in, back straight, hands upon her knees, Ren'ai could not imagine she held and awareness. Ren'ai squeezed obstinate eyes tight.

"Good."

"How long do we do this?" Ren'ai could not stand it, sitting in one place for what seemed hours, drawing in slow, deep breath, thinking about nothing. She just wanted to hop into bed. Exhaustion overwhelmed her.

"As long as it takes, Nai." Nakali's tone entered the room steady, calm but annoyance edged her voice.

Ren'ai drew another breath. She tried to focus on nothing as Nakali had taught her, but thoughts kept flooding in. She thought of chopping wood with her father, carting it back and making things. She thought of her father's commitment to perfection. How every piece that left the shop he worked and reworked until it met his exacting standards. She thought about the night he and Mother died. Caerwyn. Why was he there? He did not do those things, she knew it. But how did she know?

"You're thinking again, Nai."

How did she know? Did a hearer of thoughts sit before her? Ren'ai cleared her mind, slowed her breath, balanced the rhythm.

"Better."

"Can we stop now?"

"No, and we shall do this every day for your time here. This is where we draw our strength. Our speed. Everything starts here and everything ends here. Every day will start here and every day will end here. How long it takes is up to you."

Ren'ai wanted to huff her displeasure, but she dared not for Nakali's strength and her resolve had quickly become apparent. Ren'ai closed her eyes tighter and tried to obscure the thoughts with slow, deep breath. She held her back straight as Nakali had shown her. An open hand pointed up toward the ceiling as one rested on each knee.

A low scratching met her ear. Ren'ai's eyes popped open.

"Ignore them, Nai." Nakali's eyes remained closed, face forward. "Leave them to your sisters."

Ren'ai heard the patter of feet across the rock, a torch lifted free and then the low howl of a FlameChaser diverted. She sighed, focusing again on slow breath.

After several more breaths Nakali rose, reaching to Ren'ai's arm, signaling for her to do the same. Ren'ai hopped into bed. She hoped that sleep would quickly find her. She could only imagine what Lieten had planned for her on the next day. Hope filled her as thoughts of what he might teach her. Her body shook with fear of his methods.
CHAPTER 12

She knew that not a dream had found her as she felt the tight grip around her ankles. Her hands met the cold rock, with face just above it as her body flew back from the bed. Her blanket still hung in mid air as if confused by her sudden departure. She looked up to see a bed post then Nakali's feet. "The girl goes nowhere before morning meditation."

"Kali, you are wasting my training time." Lieten bent at the waist, placing a hand around the little girl's arm just below her shoulder and jerked her up to standing in one quick jolt. Ren'ai stood there looking up at him, waiting for orders with a hand throbbing from the pressure he laid upon her upper arm.

"And you are wasting mine." Nakali grabbed the other arm and Ren'ai could only surrender all will. "You may join us if you would like." Ren'ai swung to the other side, suddenly facing the other trainer. Her hair fell into place one step behind her. "Have a seat, Nai."

Ren'ai did not know what to do. As they both held her, her knees wobbled but she stayed to her feet. Their faces hovered above hers. She could feel their hot breath in the cold depths of the Jagged. Nakali held him in her stare, but Lieten did not yield.

His grip grew tighter then he released her. He fell into a seated pose with legs crossed. "Let's get it over with."

Ren'ai looked up as Nakali held back a smile before meeting Lieten on the rock. The apprentice followed.

Nakali began in a smooth low tone. "Deep breath. Feel the air coming into your body, filling you. Count. One, two, three four, five, six seven, eight. Release. Slow. With the air goes all manner of evil. It is expelled from you. Gone forever. Wait. Let it float away. Wait."

Ren'ai could hear Lieten beside her, releasing the air. She hoped that all impatience and anger would float away from him. Maybe he would be nice to her, even say, "Good Job."

"Nai, you're thinking again. Focus only on breath. And again. Deep breath. Each breath is a gift. We are given a sparing few." Nakali drew in her own slow breath.

Ren'ai drew her own, holding it, allowing it to draw up the evil inside her as Nakali had spoken. She counted to herself and released. Waiting.

"And again we welcome the new air and a new day. Yesterday's sorrow and strife we leave behind. Tomorrow will serve itself."

Ren'ai called the new breath to her. Waited and released.

They continued on drawing breath and releasing until Nakali spoke again. "And we are done." Nakali stood into a stretch. Her body seemed to go on forever as it elongated upward before her.

Ren'ai followed, raising her hands up over her head and arching her neck back.

Lieten grabbed her arm, as she sought to bring it down to her side. "Time to go."

Ren'ai did not fight his grip as she followed him out of the sleeping chambers and into the hallway. He led her past the other sleeping chambers where she could see others just waking for the day with sleep weighted faces a contrast to Lieten's wide-eyed determination to get started with her training.

The glow of torches zagged across their faces. Ren'ai continued in measured breath preparing her mind for the day. As she stood in the training room they called the arena, she looked up through the one place in the Jagged that she could at times see the sun. The sky melted across wispy clouds cold and dark. Not even a hint of Greater Sun peeked over the mountains.

Lieten brought her to attention with a hard slap on the back. She fell a bit forward but stayed to her feet.

"Attack and Back." Lieten spoke to her in a clear calm voice this lifted his voice. "Defensive stance." He pulled one hand up in front of his face and the other at his chest, fingers loosely curled.

Ren'ai followed.

"Ready?"

Ren'ai knew she could never be ready. Never truly prepared to take the blows he had laid to her the day before. She drew a slow measured breath and called to herself endurance. "Ready." She spoke through clinched teeth. She wanted to close her eyes as her arms went hard. If she did not see the hit coming maybe it would not hurt so badly. But she could not; through watching his movement she would learn to take his strikes, eventually avoid them. Afterall, he never hit her with joy filling loose cheeks, only with great duty thrust upon them. She understood it. She knew why she was here.

But Lieten did not strike her. "Why do we fight?"

"To protect the Healer."

"Do you believe it, Nai?" Lieten's glance showed uncertainty.

"I do."

"What does vengeance bring?"

"Destruction."

"To whom?"

Ren'ai fought to contain an escaping smile. She reeled it in, but captured it too late as Lieten's staff came down upon her back. She released a whimper.

"To whom?"

"To me. To the avenger." The girl cried out. "To me."

He cast his staff aside.

Ren'ai sighed a relief before Lieten welcomed a metallic clang into the air.

Ren'ai stared for a moment at the new aggressor that had entered the room. Not a staff but a sword rose before her. "Do I get a weapon?" Ren'ai thought it a good question to ask as he swung the weapon low as if preparing a strike.

"When you earn one."

"I can't fight against a sword with bare hands."

"A sword is only an extension of your hand, an extension of foot. You must understand how to move your body, before you can make a weapon part of you. Block it." Lieten swung hard upon her.

She took a step back as the weapon shifted past her nose.

"Block." The blade came up.

She hopped to the side, and curled around to the left of him.

He swung straight across and she ducked, the blade nipping at her already closely cut hair. Snips drifted to the ground.

"Block." He swooped around and came down on her as she took two steps back.

Had he gone mad? What would she block with, her head? She watched dark eyes, seeking answers. Finding none.

"Block." He brought the blade up between her legs. She leapt before falling back on her behind as the blade continued in its path without slowing.

"What do you have against a sword?" Lieten pulled the blade to his side.

"Nothing."

"Everything that is important." He swung down on her as she stood to her feet.

"Except a sword or axe or something."

"Everything. Speed. Agility. Timing. Now block." The blade moved past her face as she leaned back, then she leapt as he swiped hard past her legs. A foot came down on the flat of the blade. Lieten could not hold it. It clanged to the ground.

Lieten bent, reaching for the hilt of his sword. Ren'ai kicked him squarely in the chin. His head swung back from the strength of it. He stepped back, twisting his jaw between thumb and two fingers. He smiled with blood racing down his chin.

Ren'ai pulled up the sword. Now she had the weapon. She swung at him.

He took a step back, and then his foot came up, kicking her hand behind the blade. The metal banged across the rock, flipping and singing until it came to a stop.

They ran for it, with bare feet pounding against the rock. He drew it up and again she found herself in a position to move and roll and dodge his strikes. He thrust forward as the girl shifted to the side. She curled her tummy in as the blade licked her skin, ripping through her shirt. Again he thrust it out. She hesitated as she anticipated the direction of his strike. The blade sunk into her belly.

Ren'ai stood there a moment, watching dark eyes as they went from narrow to wide. She wondered why he had stopped his advance. In a swift jerk, he pulled the blade free. She released a long gasp then bent forward as the pain deluged her being. She looked up at him.

He called over his shoulder in a thunderous roar. "Healer." It echoed through the caverns. It made her mind shake. He turned to her. Pulling his shirt up over his head, he reached his hands around her, urging her to sit as he tied it around her. "Healer." He called again, holding his hand to the wound, lending to it pressure.

Many faces rose around her, spinning and dancing as they were. Some she knew, and some she did not. At that moment they were all strangers.

"Out of my way." She heard the Healer's voice.

The sea of onlookers parted as he came forward, ripping Lieten's well placed tourniquet from her, laying his hand to the wound. She felt the warmth of his presence as the spinning room came to a halt around her. Her insides felt as yarn upon a weaver's rack taking shape strand by strand. Finally, she was whole. Jabari pulled her to her feet. She threw her arms around him and then released as he stood.

She peered through the tear in her garment at the scar left behind and she smiled before looking up to Lieten who met her questioning glare with the signal of a hand. "You may go."

Ren'ai spared no time in making her way through the sea on onlookers. She leapt past them as one with no blood lost though her garment told a different tale. She left the training room, meeting the cold cavern hallway. Her hand caressed cool rock and she ran, down the torch licked corridor, past the several sleeping quarters and waste chambers. Finally, she stopped.

"I have my first scar, Niv." Ren'ai bounded out of the dreary Jagged hallway and into Ren'iv's sleeping quarters bathed in cool light, draped in delicate pink tapestries. A large bed lay against the wall, on the left a sturdy table, on the right a simple chair, upon it a strikingly content Ren'iv.

Only silence made her reply. Ren'iv stared forward; not a glimmer of recognition pierced her eyes.

Ren'ai pulled up her shirt, calling Ren'iv to see that she spoke the truth. Across her belly lay a beautifully straight line of raised flesh, all that remained to bear witness to having had Lieten's sword pierced through her. She jerked her garment down again into place. "Not very lady like, I know." Ren'ai spoke the chastisement that she knew Big Sister could not. Ren'ai took a hard seat upon the soft bed. She sighed. "It's only my first. But will be many more. Whatever it takes. I'll do it. Whatever it takes."

Ren'ai pulled a lifeless hand from Ren'iv's lap. She moved as Little Sister moved her, no thought of her own. "I'll learn what I need to know." Ren'ai pulled Ren'iv's hand to her cheek, took in the cool of her fingertips. "And then, Niv, they will pay for what they did to you. Mother and Father. We will bring their murderers to justice. Don't you doubt it. Ruric will pay for his orders to have our father killed, destroy our family. And his Lieutenant no less for carrying out those orders."

Little Sister returned Ren'iv's hand to her lap and smiled a bright and caring smile. "You're all I have left now, Niv. Nothing matters more than seeing them brought to justice. This." Ren'ai pointed again to the stripe across her belly. "If this is what it takes to make that happen, so be it." Little Sister waited for Big Sister's ever reassuring smile. Only a blank stare met Ren'ai's welling tears.

"Nai." Ren'ai heard a calm voice calling to her. "It's time for our midday meal, Nai." Nakali's golden ribbons appeared through the doorway.

Ren'ai turned to Big Sister. "Time to eat, Niv." Little Sister pulled her up with a guiding hand.

Nakali joined her in her efforts, steadying Ren'iv's stance, helping her as she took a step forward and then another. She looked across to Ren'ai. "You have no idea how fortunate you are. The Fates must have been distracted."

Ren'ai released a puzzled look.

"Within a few days the Healer will leave again. This time his journey will take him far to the south. We in the Jagged have learned the herbs and remedies of our master. We can treat most injuries even when he is away and that which we cannot, with what we know we can keep our Jagged Brother alive awaiting the Healer's return, but a wound like that would have had you within a few days. Had the Healer not been here, the Fates certainly would have laid sharpness to your strand."

"Are you telling me to be more careful?"

"I'm telling you that Lieten will not, so it must be you. Don't be reckless. Pin Hi is not an art of random advances. It is measured. It is strong. It is swift. It is true."

Ren'ai nodded her understanding.

"And above all, you must never expose your neck in battle."

"But the Healer?"

Nakali cut her thought short. "It's the mortal blow from which the quickness of it gives futility to the Healer's touch. The gesture of a ridged hand across the throat is the highest insult in the Jagged." Nakali held her hand to her side. She would not so much as display the gesture. "Not only does it suggest your wish of a cut strand upon another but it suggests that the person to whom you might gesture such is a traitor, an assassin, a wolf in sheep's clothing."

"Ok, protect my neck. Don't insult others. I've got it." What could be simpler? Ren'ai knew she would heed it.

"It's serious, Nai. Do you really understand?" As Ren'iv stopped moving forward, Nakali lifted her weight upon one shoulder and urged her on.

"I understand."

"I do hope so. I plan to see you as a guard one day not a puddle of blood we bucket up off the arena floor." Nakali spoke will all seriousness in her voice before shuffling the hair of her little apprentice between slender fingers.

Ren'ai stopped for a moment as Ren'iv needed rest. She allowed her to sit on a rock to regain her strength before they continued on toward the dining hall. She ached to change the subject. "I do hope to find a fine portion of boar on my midday platter. Chicken and fish and every manner of vegetable, nut and fruit, that's all I've eaten since I've been here."

Nakali shook her head. Ren'ai knew so little. "You'll never see boar step foot in the Jagged. Neither 'live nor dead."

"Why? Niv can make a fine roasted boar." Ren'ai turned to Big Sister still sitting on the rock. "Can't you, Niv?" She turned back to Nakali when Ren'iv did not answer.

Nakali drew a breath. "That was your old life, Nai. You'll have a new life in the Jagged. And to answer why, Jabari says the pig is a filthy animal, riddled with illness and worm and other manner of refuse one desiring to live a life in health would not desire to bring into the body."

"He forbids it?"

"You will find, Nai, that our will is our own. The Healer only wishes the best for all of us, but what we do is entirely up to us. But we respect our master, so we do not bring that beast into his sanctuary. Whether you partake when you leave the Jagged walls is your choice not mine or his or anyone else's. But we must hurry to the dining hall now." Nakali drew Ren'iv up into her arms. "I'll not have my portion taken because I was one called late to the table."
CHAPTER 13

Despite Renatus' now distant departure, the chill of the early morning gusts drove Jabari's burgundy forest cloak yet tighter. He shifted his weight beneath a heavy traveling pack as he surrendered a backward glance beneath a weighted brow. The ragged outcroppings of stone lay behind him reaching upward toward the almost perpetually gloomy grey sky. The swamp crept out from the rugged mountain in every direction, spilled out from it, held it safely as a mother's ever-shielding embrace.

Longing shaped his face; regret narrowed his cheeks as he left his home yet again, ventured out beyond its safety, its promise, its unyielding determination to protect him and the many he so relied upon to help him fulfill his duty. Alas, the Jagged could only protect them if they stayed within her sanctuary walls, but such an option did not exist.

Deep brown eyes came forward again beneath dark, heavy strands before he looked up to the man at his side. Grenal, his First Guard, the guard who remained ever at his side while out of the Jagged as he had been to his father before him stood there beside him, an ever present fixture in his life. How long ago would the Fates have seen fit to sever his strand, were it not for this man's ever watchful eye, swift reaction? Jabari watched a moment as Grenal's dark blonde hair, well layered with grey whipped around carefree as his otherwise solid body shifted rigidly at Jabari's side. The man's beard full and scruffily hacked remained the perfect shade of blonde that matched the color that Jabari remembered to be once upon the protector's head. Grenal had once told him that he was greying on top and not on his chin because he used his head more than his mouth. Jabari had laughed at the assessment. Despite the protector's unyielding face, he could only imagine it a joke.

Jabari glanced ahead to see the brothers Kerr and Ivar walking casually in front of him taking in the fresh morning air. They had been with him in the Jagged much less time. He could still see the joy in their pale freckled faces, as they shifted them about to catch sight of a bird or a fox or a deer. He had seen many go through this phase. Many who had lost everything and then came to join them in Jagged. The time in which the Jagged, despite its promise of protection, seemed a bit of prison from which one might seek escape. Of course, Jabari could not share their despair in remaining deep beneath the surface, nor their joy in finally breathing warm dry surface air. The Jagged had always been his home and leaving it was almost as unbearable as leaving his beloved bride behind.

As always two other guards traveled with them, Meghan and Clarice. They completed the five. Five of the bravest, strongest, most skilled. Five who would be with him, protect him, help him as he did what he was called to do. Teach and Heal.

Dawn departed as they walked down the wide forest path. Soon the midday suns rose to their respective thrones and beat down upon them without relent, reminding them that Auctus was upon them. New bud and new life rose up all around them in the form of chirping fledglings, racing rabbits and the occasional bobcat resting peacefully with her young in suckle in the shadows of a great bush or jutting rock

As the trees consumed Lesser Sun, dusk dropped a hazy veil across the travelers' shoulders, growing darker and darker until only the light of a single torch led their way through the new moon night.

Only then did Jabari call a full day's journey complete. Kerr and Ivar, without command disappeared into the forest only to return a moment later with armfuls of wood and a bit of dry brush for kindling. Jabari watched as they arranged their find into a sturdy formation before Grenal drug lit kindling beneath the base until it caught. Yellow flame rose upward as a thin stream of smoke curled up toward the low hanging branches which sheltered the weary. Kerr reached out to warm chapped hands.

Jabari unlatched the belt beneath his forest cloak and set his short sword to the side before taking a seat upon the cold bare ground. Grenal sat beside him in full armor with sheath flipped out to the side but quite secured. An appendage it could only be considered; he would not think to free himself from it until he had Jabari again in the safety of the Jagged.

Jabari waited for all to be seated before he pulled a cloth pack off his tired back. He lifted the stubborn flap and reached inside, then revealed several handfuls of dried meat and then a bag of biscuits. He handed the morsels to many waiting hands. When he was certain that his guards had sufficient sustenance he started chewing on one of two pieces of dried meat he had kept for himself. He chewed and chewed as he listened to bits and pieces of various conversations as they sprung up around the campfire. They talked mostly of fighting and friendships. And when Kerr and Ivar thought they could get away with it they talked of one or more of the woman in the Jagged, they would like to get to know better. Jabari saw Meghan with hair a most perfect red roll dark green eyes on more than one occasion as she continued a conversation with Clarice that must have been more to her liking. Kerr and Ivar never once mentioned a guard or soon to be guard among the ladies they might choose to get to know better.

Jabari mused that such a thing was a challenge even his strongest protectors might shy away from; not only because of the fact that they fought so closely at their sides but because it took a particular kind of man or woman to be part of the Guard, strong and fiercely independent. But Jabari knew that Meghan would no more think of seeking to be joined with a male guard with whom she had trained her mind and body to be so attuned. Most often relationships of that kind occurred between guards and the Healer's other Jagged staff. He imagined that a guard joined with a baker or a potter instead of another guard created a sense of balance in the relationship. And was that not what we all should seek?

Grenal remained silent at his side, never a word more than a simple "thank you" when Jabari handed him and the others a handful of dried blueberries to complete the spread. Grenal rarely said anything. His actions always spoke louder than any possible words.

They spent many nights like this on their way far down to Southern Aletheia, past Harpyroost. The trip took three and a half weeks on foot to be exact. Jabari did not travel past Harpyroost as much as he would have liked because of the distance, but he made sure at least every four to five Haerfests that he made the effort to visit those to the far south. Along the way, they stopped in towns from time to time, purchasing supplies and healing the townsfolk as needed. Some towns welcomed them with open arms. Some gave them what they needed and then shooed them away hoping their presence did not draw any undue attention.

Aside from his First Guard, Grenal, each time Jabari traveled he chose different guards to accompany him. He thought long and hard as he made the selections. Each grouping created its own varying dynamic. Some groupings were completely homogenous as if all five guards thought and acted as one, others were a bit more segmented as this one in which Kerr and Ivar, being brothers worked as a unit and Meghan and Clarice having met in the Jagged as a separate but equally lethal unit. But if it came to a fight, Jabari never lost his amazement at seeing how those separate units came together with one purpose, protect the Healer.

He got to see these units work together with some frequency on a long journey such as this. Spies and assassins abounded in Aletheia. As soon as Ruric got word that Jabari had left the Jagged, he always sent messengers out to his waiting armies along the anticipated path so that they could lie in wait for Jabari and his Guard to cross their path.

These confrontations never ended well, or at least not the way that Jabari would have liked. Despite his eternal focus on diplomacy, armies given specific order to annihilate the Healer and his band of "thugs" as he often heard them referenced by Ruric's forces, could not be swayed to think for themselves, to see reason. Such meetings only ever ended in battle and what Jabari always considered needless death, almost always the death of Ruric's soldiers rather than Jabari's guards. Jabari could only pity them, called to their duty as he was to his, unable to escape it. For them it was the duty to follow the orders of their commanders which all led back to King Ruric's decision that Aletheia must be cleansed of all E'epans. But for him it was the duty to heal his broken land and teach his people to heal themselves with herbs and remedies. Two totally unrectifiable callings, a total impasse. And it seemed at least up to this point the only answer had been to stand against those who would seek to destroy him, to prevent his calling being fulfilled. He had to choose one life over another. A thing a Healer must never be called to do.

At precisely the four week mark the town of Harpyroost came into view. Four weeks was a bit longer than it should have taken but the armies of Ruric had crossed them a few more times than was usual, he surmised. And many of them had really presented them with a significant challenge. Ruric was getting bolder, smarter and it showed in the changing techniques of his armies.

Their first major stop in southern Aletheia would be Hyacinth. It lay cradled in a valley, nestled snuggly between two great mountains. One he knew as Harpyroost. The other he could not really say had a name. The people of Hyacinth just called it Great Brother's Mountain. This name tied to the legend that the people of Hyacinth clung to that this was the home of Great Brother who had formed them out of the sweat upon his cheeks. Jabari had other ideas about how humans came to be in this world, but it never stopped Jabari from visiting them, sharing with them, communing with their Elders and their people.

Jabari had seen at least five Haerfests since he had last stepped foot in this town. He tried to remember what it looked like. He remembered the sturdy wooden houses painted in bright, boisterous colors, rivaled only by the great fields of flowers, purple and pink and yellow that surrounded the town. He remembered the many children running about in play, chasing one another, tackling one another and laughing all the while, jabbering on in one of the languages of the ancients.

Most of the ancient languages had died out long ago as the clans and provinces of what was that day called Aletheia came together in trade slowly developing over a few thousand Haerfests a unified language. But Hyacinth had held on to the language of their ancestors. They spoke it in their homes and taught it to their children who spoke it as well. The newer language that united the land of Aletheia was but a second language to them. Jabari wondered at this community's ability to hold onto a language no one else in Nine Worlds still spoke. He supposed it was their location, secluded in between two great mountains, their great focus on their legends, dared he call them that, and the strength of their families. He always enjoyed his stay in Hyacinth, or as the townsfolk called it It-ikt'bac-ti. Any map would show a town named Hyacinth because of the bountiful flowers that surrounded the town, but that name remained quite foreign to those who actually lived there.

Jabari cleared his throat as he rounded the last bend along the base of Harpyroost. Then he released a low cough. The distinct scent of wildflowers lingered in the air, but with the hint of something else.

Grenal turned to him. Concern shaped a bearded face.

"I'm fine." The Healer said simply moving ever forward.

The scent became stronger until it was not a scent at all but a billowing blanket. Wisps of grey smoke trailed across gentle breezes. Jabari looked up to the middays suns still reigning high above them. Jabari had found himself in Hyacinth on occasion during a great festival. He knew well the scent of their massive bon fires lifting great pillows of smoke up past the flames and into the night sky. He looked up at the suns again then away. Barely midday. The grey smoke whipped around the mountain and assailed them, stronger than ever.

Through the corner of his eye, Jabari caught Grenal looking at him with bright blues eyes wide with concern. "No," the Healer spoke calmly in answer to the First Guard's unspoken assumption. "It's something else."

Grenal, who seemed to save his words for the times when action and expression just would not suffice spoke, slowly shook his bowed head. "No, Master. It could be nothing else."

Jabari looked to the blue southern sky obscured as it was with floating grey and finally the reality of it hit him like he had just leaped from Great Brother Mountain itself to meet the hard ground below. "No, Not Hyacinth." He could not even think of its proper name at the moment.

"No town deserves this." Grenal said simply.

Jabari burst into a run. Grenal would not allow much distance before he was up by Jabari's side with the remaining guards not far behind.

They raced down the valley. They could see Hyacinth now in a pillar of flames. Grey smoke danced across the fields of flowers.

They reached the edge of town. With an inferno upon their skin, sharpness driving deeper and deeper into their lungs, they simply could get no closer. Jabari fell to his knees. He could do nothing for them. The army had long since left, the damage done, a whole town destroyed. He coughed away the assailing darkness. From beneath his weighted face he spoke the words of the ancients as he lifted shaking hands, calling moisture into the air, raining it down upon the raging flames, the very air cracked and whistled at his command, but he was nothing against this. Such a massive blaze could only make him feel very small and weak. With each fingering flame squelched a new spawn arose to finish the task. He could only wait for the flames to burn out, for the embers to cool, then they would seek out the survivors.

Rising to his feet, Jabari composed himself, drawing to himself the strength that he needed. "Kerr, Ivar, comb the base of Harpyroost. Start at the far end. Clarice, Meghan, take Great Brother and do the same." He pointed to the mountain opposite Harpyroost when he realized that did not know it by that name. "If there are any survivors they would have fled to the mountains." No one could have survived in the town. Dark brown eyes again fell upon the village. When this blaze finally ceased he knew the devastation would be total. He sighed. "Come Grenal, We'll start at this side of Harpy and meet the brothers in the middle.

Grenal nodded a firm agreement before the two took the base of the mountain. It did not take long. It was as he had suspected. They found a group of eight huddled in one of the low caves. Five men, two women and a little girl. They had no advance warning; he knew it. Otherwise he would have expected to find mostly women and children here huddled in the dark. Their frightened faces told a story, as blanketed as they were in thick soot with red festering blisters across their arms and legs. Yes, no advance warning, no time to run away and hide. They had been in the town when it happened, likely until no hope remained to save what little they had left.

Jabari reached out to them instinctively, cautiously. They had been through so much. He did not know if they would remember his face, and know that he was not with the attacking horde.

"Healer." One of the women finally exclaimed in her native tongue.

"I'm here, Child. You are safe." Jabari choked back tears as he approached her, swifting a long dark braid away from her shoulder before taking her blistered arm into caring hands. She grimaced at his touch then her pain subsided as the Healer swept careful fingers across red and black ravaged skin, leaving behind only her smooth natural brown.

When she was whole he reached out to the next one. The little girl, lying across cold rock with a man trembling frailly just above her, perhaps her father, agonizing over the fact that he could do nothing for her. Jabari could only make out a faint rise to her chest as she took another torturous breath. To her the flame had not been so kind. It had licked up her left shoulder and onto one side of her face, leaving behind a trail of completely charred and drooping skin and muscle and an eye burned shut with no hope of regaining sight. He laid his hand upon that disfigured face as the man gave the Healer room. In less than an instant the girl opened her eyes and she saw the man before her. She threw her arms around him, only to be followed by an overpowering hug from the man who had watched over her. Tears now flowed down the man's cheeks.

Jabari managed to free himself from their grateful embraces as he tended to remaining injuries.

Finally, they stepped out of the little cave and into the sunlight. Jabari could only watch their faces as they looked across the fields of flowers to their now smoldering village beyond.

Kerr and Ivar came up beside him a moment later. "No one." They proclaimed.

Clarice and Meghan swept up to his other side after some time had passed. "No one." They echoed.

Eight. Five men. Two women and a little girl. All that was left of Hyacinth. All that was left of a people who believed that Great Brother had breathed life into them so many millennia ago. All that was left of the people who spoke that ancient language that had long ago died out in Nine Worlds.

Jabari's knees suddenly buckled. The thought of it overtook his wearied soul. As he fell, he felt his weight lifted by his First Guard, who held him to his feet. Kerr came up to his other side, helping Grenal walk him away from the overwhelming sight of It-ikt'bac-ti leveled to the ground. They had done what they could; they could only walk away.

Exhaustion overtook him now as he left the valley with one arm across the back of Kerr and another across the back Grenal as both of them pulled him along. He did not even hear the soft footsteps approaching at hastened pace. He did not even notice. It was Clarice who turned around to face the advancing foe before her scowl went blank.

Grenal helped Jabari turn around to see them.

"I'm Gid." the man stammered as if he was not certain if he should address the Healer directly or through his many guards. If this was his reaction then the forcefulness of the hug in the cave must have been a momentary bout of madness. "This is my daughter, Shyam." He spoke with a bit more confidence, as he pulled his arm up and around the little girl, maybe having seen seven Haerfests, a beautiful girl by anyone's standards. A curtain of shoulder length straight black hair fluttered in the wind then fell back perfectly across the edge of her face and neck. Her newly restored soft brown cheeks flushed red as her father spoke her name.

Jabari tried not to think about what that left cheek had looked like only hours before.

Gid extended a shaking hand to them. Kerr reached out to take the man's hand in his as if to reassure him.

"We've nothing left here." Gid spoke the obvious as he pushed a long dark strand away from his cheek. The man spoke in a human language to which Jabari was most familiar yet a heavy accent weighted the man's voice, a slight uncertainty.

Grenal let out what was likely an unintentional huff, which sounded quite uncaring but Jabari knew him only to be in thought, then Grenal spoke the words that he knew Jabari would just say anyway. "You would like to join us?"

"Yes." Gid spoke with all confidence streaming his voice. "I can fight Healer. I will fight for you." The man looked to his daughter. "And my daughter, she can sew and weave. She will serve you well. Let me fight with you, Healer. If we must die. Let it be for something. Not like this. Like my people. For nothing."

"Don't say that, Gid. Please." Jabari spoke with labored breath thinking on the colorful streets and cheerful people of the now destroyed town.

"Everyone stood up against them. Everyone fought. Not a single person ran away, not until there was nothing left. But it did not matter. We were nothing against a force that great. But if I stand with you I know we can take them..." Gid lifted his voice. Shyam buried her face in her father's arm.

"That is not my calling, My Son. I can only be there to console and heal. It is not an E'epan's place to depose a king."

Gid withdrew in thought for a moment then spoke without hesitation. "Then let me protect you. I could not protect the village. There were just too many, but I can get stronger. I can learn the ways of your people. We owe you our lives." He pulled Shyam from his arm and placed a hand on her cheek. "You gave my daughter her face back. You gave her sight."

"And the others?" Jabari could not help but wonder just how many he would be taking back with him this day.

"Just us, Healer. They have decided to go their own way. But I now know the only way is with you."

"You may join us, Gid. You and your Shyam. You will be welcomed to our home, our safe place, the Jagged."

"Thank you, Master. Thank you."

Jabari smiled through his exhaustion and his despair as he had learned to do. As his legs remained weak, it was all he could manage at the time though. They had two more towns in the south they had planned to visit. He would put this from his mind in whatever manner he could so that he could continue in his mission. Then they would return home again until his E'epan duty again called him to venture out to help his wounded people. Yes, he would leave Hyacinth behind as a mere memory possessed by so few. But what could he do, really? Just one man. It was not his place to interfere. He could not escape the bounds of his calling. He had been called by the last god departed to teach and heal. He could be nothing more.
CHAPTER 14

The abuse of the crashing rays of midday suns could not dampen his spirits as he looked ever forward toward the horizon, knowing well that soon the outline of jagged rock would appear before them signaling that after a long journey that home awaited heavy steps. The high trees on either side of the forest path imparted to them little shelter as they moved onward. He listened to the sounds of casual banter as his five guards conversed with the newcomers.

Three they were, two men of fighting age and one a little girl having barely seen nine Haerfests he had come to find out though she appeared closer to seven.

The father and daughter he had found far into southern Aletheia, in a small town just past Harpyroost.

The other man they had met a bit closer in Oikj'il after his farm and family had been burned to the ground upon his insistence that providing quarters to the king's soldiers as they passed through his town did not include the free taking of his wife.

Soon the crooked outcropping of the mountain could be seen and Jabari could almost feel the coolness on his flesh. Nearly a season it had been since he felt that frigid embrace. Like a lover bitterly lost he longed for her touch. He would see Gwendoline soon, a touch bit less cold but no less invited. He hoped her face to be his first sight upon his return.

Soon only the swamp separated him and his traveling troupe from home. His voice hung low on the air as he lulled the swamp to sleep that they might find safe passage.

He hoped he would find Ren'ai alive and well. He knew well her fate had they departed for their journey earlier than planned. She never would have survived Lieten's sword. He could only hope that her teacher had lightened his strike upon her knowing that at moment's need he could not call out to the Healer. What had she learned in the time he had been away? Was her mind turning to her new focus? Was Pin Hi becoming a part of her as it must be to all who wished to protect the Healer?

"I suppose I cannot fault you for caring about your Jagged family as you do." Gwendoline woke him from his thoughts.

As he ducked in past the Jagged entryway, dark eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting of the Jagged and he could see her at last. "Nor can you change it."

"I know it well, My Husband. I have no desire to. They are my family no less than yours." Gwendoline smiled. "But if love for one's family were measured in time spent with them, it seems that it is I who love them more."

"I know. I'm sorry. I've just so many who I promised to visit, to teach herbs and remedies before Renatus' first chill. Aletheia needs me. It is what I have been called to do."

Gwendoline shook her head in reluctant understanding. "I know. You never have been able to tell anyone 'no.'"

Jabari turned to the entry way. "Someone new has joined us." He would not make that mistake twice. Despite her cool demeanor he knew well the anxiety it brought her to have one in the Jagged who had not met her first. That strain he wished never again to see on her brow.

The new arrivals ducked in from the sunlight. Their eyes danced about as they adjusted to the dimness of Jagged torches.

Gwendoline looked to Jabari with what might have appeared to others as a gentle smile, within that peaceful glance he knew she already weighed their intent. Her first thoughts spilled out upon her tongue. "They are getting younger and younger, My Darling."

Jabari released a boyish smile. He could not deny it, but when the little one's father had asked to come with him and he had said yes, he could not well have him leave his only surviving daughter behind.

Gwendoline gave him that look that told him she understood, before stepping past him to welcome the newcomers, whatever that welcome might entail. Her left hand rested firmly on her right wrist. Lace shadowed the firmness of her grip. To any who did not know her it might seem merely a sign of highborn upbringing, a ladylike grace it might appear, not the posture of one prepared to make first strike should the need arise.

The men bowed as they entered, eyes now adjusted, seeing the lady there. She curtsied in return, before approaching the young one first.

"And what is your name, Child?"

Gwendoline watched the girl's eyes struggling to hold hers. The little one appeared as if her body might shake apart should she not bring her fear in check. The girl made no reply. Gwendoline moved on, apparently sensing no harm.

She stood before the girl's father.

He spoke before she could ask. "Her name is Shyam, Lady. I am Gid."

A smile crept across Gwendoline's features. "It is very nice to meet you both. Welcome to the Jagged." She turned to Kerr standing at the ready should he be needed. "Please take our guests to the dinner hall. I'm certain they're famished." Gwendoline lowered herself with a deep bend of the knees and ran a soft hand across the little one's cheek, wiping away the fear she found there. "Do you like Rabbit stew, Shyam?"

"Yes, Lady." The girl spoke at last.

"Very good." Gwendoline's cheeks held a beaming glow. "And I'll check with the cook. He may just have some blackberry pie left from our midday meal. I'll bet you like blackberry pie."

Finally the little girl smiled. "Very much, Lady."

"Off with you then. I'll be right behind you."

Gwendoline stood again as Kerr led Shyam and her father from the entrance. She turned to the remaining man, then back to see that Kerr and the new arrivals could be seen no more. She spun back, sparing but a bat of an eye to the one left standing, then she swooped around to the side of him, faster than Jabari's fastest guard. Jabari did not have time to sigh his regret, as his wife pulled metal to the man's neck and across. She stepped aside allowing not a drop of red to disgrace her fine dress as the man dropped to the ground.

Ivar stood next to the man with mouth agape. Gwendoline glanced across to him, prompting a quick closing of the jaw, and then to her husband as a look of relief mingled with sadness across her features. "You had better be glad your guards never left your side on your journey home. He had been waiting for a moment alone with you and his strike would have been quick."

"I take it he is not the peasant farmer he appeared to be?"

"No. One of Ruric's assassins."

Jabari's eyes sank with his spirits. He only wished to find the best in those he met. He could be glad his wife could see through them. "Ivar." Jabari looked up to his guard still standing there staring. "Fetch someone to clean this up. Drag the body to the swamp while it's still warm." He turned to Grenal who stood there waiting, stoic. Jabari knew he had seen this sight far too many times. "First, please go to our guests. Let them know that John..." Jabari paused looking again to the lifeless lump on the floor. How sad it was, to have the assassins now taking on the names of beloved E'epans past. Jabari sighed then continued. "John has decided not to join us after all."

"Yes, Master Healer."

Jabari spun to his wife, extending an arm to her.

Gwendoline smiled, her duty now done. She took her husband's arm as he offered it and they continued on to find their seat at the dining table.

A hero's welcome, Jabari did not encounter as he entered the dining hall, but rather the sight of Shyam pulling chairs out from the table, tripping across them, laying obstacles as if to escape a terrible monster. Jabari knew well that a FlameChaser would not last a second in the dining hall. His fighters and guards may have been settled for an evening meal, but they would be no less armed than any time in the Jagged.

Jabari watched as Gid reached his daughter, drawing her into his arms.

"What's going on here?" Jabari could not imagine what had given the girl such a fright.

No less fear dwelt in the eyes of the father. "Keep her away."

Jabari spoke again. Force filled his voice where kindness before had found her home. "By the gods departed, someone tell me what is going on here?"

"Keep her away." The father spoke again.

Was this man mad? He could not understand.

Ren'ai stepped forward past a fallen chair.

"I said keep her away." The man said again yet louder.

Jabari darted across, pulling Ren'ai up by the shoulder, but released her in an instant. Only confusion radiated from her grey, grey eyes. He spoke in a tone bearing only concern. "What did you say to her?"

He could see in Ren'ai's eyes that she did not know what to say. She could only speak the truth. "I introduced myself. Nakali told me it was the polite thing to do." Ren'ai looked back to her trainer. Nakali could only shrug.

Maybe the tales of the Clavras had reached a greater audience than he had originally presumed.

Finally the father spoke in a more reasonable tone. "The daughter of Ren'o breaks bread at your table, Healer?" The man's eyes had turned in an instant from those of gladness to be in his presence to those of deep suspicion.

The Healer could only state the fact. "She does." He turned to the still puzzled Ren'ai. "Did you tell them who your father is?"

"No."

The man spoke again. "She does not have to. She is a Ren. She has the same eyes. Those grey, hollow eyes. The eyes of an evil man." He held Shyam close as she started to cry.

Jabari reached Ren'ai's arm before she could leap at him, possibly gouge his eyes for speaking so unkindly. She fought his grasp. "Have a seat, Ren'ai."

Ren'ai had to protest. "But."

Jabari raised his voice. "Now."

"Fine." Ren'ai's feet protested each backward step before she took a seat with arms woven tighter than Calethian armor.

Jabari looked back to the man and his daughter. "Please, Sir. Have a seat. Tell us what you have heard of Ren'o."

Ren'ai knew what he would say before he said it. Clarity reached her before he could speak it. When she heard him name that Ridgetop town all of the memories of the night of Haerfest Ball flooded again into her consciousness.

"The Massacre at Caerwyn Ridge. Ren'o led his followers to destroy that defenseless town, burned it to the ground." Gid spoke in a manner in which one only spoke fact, without hesitation, speculation or wavering as to the truth to which he spoke.

"It's not true." Ren'ai dared him to say it again. Not even the strong hand of Jabari would be able to hold her back.

Jabari could see no good end to this standoff. "Nakali, please take Ren'ai to the training rooms."

Nakali did not say a word. She only complied, pulling her squirming apprentice away from any potential altercation.

Jabari twisted the skin above his nose between a thumb and center finger before he walked away as guards stepped in to straighten their chairs and resume their meal.

Jabari met Ren'ai there in the place he had spoken within the hour. He found Nakali and Ren'ai practicing low strikes upon a straw dummy. Ren'ai's strikes in particular demonstrated that the incident from dinner still resided in her mind.

She swung around as he entered with her awareness of movement on the air growing stronger with each passing week. "How can he say things like that? My father was a good man. He did not kill those people." Ren'ai ran a thumb across the faces upon the carved cube her father had given her the night he died. None in the Jagged had ever seen a moment that she did not wear it on a tight leather strap tied securely around her neck.

"I know that." Jabari approached her, drawing his sleeve across her brow, sopping pooling sweat. "But it does not matter what I know. You will find, Ren'ai, that sometimes it does not matter what is true only what people believe. It will be upon you to convince them that You are not your father."

"But my father did not do those things. I am proud to be his daughter."

"As you should be. But the lies that have now permeated the land, the tales that grow and spread, they are a thing you cannot change. As long as they believe it, they will judge your every action by it. You must convince a man first that your heart is in the right. Then and only then can you work toward changing a false belief. Do you understand, Ren'ai?"

Ren'ai signaled her understanding with a quick nod.

"Good. Don't worry. They'll come around. Eventually they'll see what I see in you."

"What is that?"

"One, I know, that one day I will be able to proudly call my guard."

"I hope to one day be that guard you can be proud of."

"I've no doubt." Jabari could speak it only as truth. She would be a guard one day. Her training, he knew, was going as planned. Nakali and Lieten would not let him down. "The two of you must be starving after your battle with the straw man. The cook has saved each of you a bowl of rabbit stew. Please hurry before it gets cold."

Ren'ai did not hesitate. She bounded out of the training room and back into the hallway. Nakali slinked along not far behind.

"Do you think she really understands?" A voice rose from over Jabari's shoulder. He turned with a start.

Gwendoline stood there, eyes wide, watching him.

"She wants to understand. I think that is the first step."

Gwendoline joined him at the far side of the training room, but a sparring partner she would not be. "She does want to understand what you teach her. But she is still so afraid. I don't know if that fear will ever leave her."

"What does she have to be afraid of?" Jabari turned as without provocation, he slammed a knife hand into the temple of the waiting straw dummy.

Gwendoline waited. "She is afraid of betraying their memory. If she does not hold onto the vengeance in her heart she is afraid she will have failed them. But she wants to serve you. More and more so, it is why she trains. I've been watching her while you've been away. More and more each day, she loosens the grip that her past has upon her."

"I knew I could count on you to be my eyes while I was away. You know I would never leave the Jagged, had I that choice."

"I know, My Love. You cannot hide away in your fortress while our people suffer."

"It's getting bad out there, Gwen. Getting worse."

"I know, Bari, I can see it in your eyes. It would not take a Dreamer to see that it pains you. Just as Ren'ai fears that she will fail her family, you fear that you will fail our people. But you will not. You do everything you can for them."

"Do I?" Straw littered the air as he threw a side kick into the dummy head nearly knocking the binding free.

Gwendoline swooped up beside him, pulling him close. "Don't you doubt it. Ever. You are doing what an E'epan is called to do. No more can be asked of you."

He rested her head upon his chest. His heart beat against her ear. "He sent his soldiers out to find us again."

"Oh, My." Gwendoline could only draw a deep breath as he held her.

"We killed them, Gwen. All of them. We killed Ruric's men."

Gwendoline spoke through straying strands. "Because they wanted to kill you."

"If I stayed in the Jagged, I would not have to kill anyone."

"If you stayed in the Jagged more would die. You would not be able to heal the people. Console them in their misery. Teach them to heal themselves."

"I know it with my mind, Gwen. But my heart tells me that a Healer should never have to choose one life over another."

"I wish I had answers for you, Bari." She pulled from his embrace to look into dark eyes. "I really do. But in one area I think I can be of assistance. I think it is time that Ren'ai begins to learn the Old Stories."

"I cannot dismiss the idea. But she will not love the old tales as do you and I. It may take some time before she understands their significance."

"All the more reason, she should begin that training now. Please let me work with her. The Old Stories will give her perspective on the world you are trying to show her that is greater than herself, what has happened to her."

"You are right. But you can ask Nakali, getting that one to sit still for even a moment takes everything from you."

"If you want this one to be a guard, Jabari, It is a battle I am willing to fight."
CHAPTER 15

Fingertips pressed together hard beneath steady lips, as Ren'ai drew the moist air deep into her chest. Her eyes drifted up the column of light jutting down from the opening far above onto the arena floor. Mid-day fell upon the Jagged. The only time and place when she could stand there in the safety of the Jagged and still see sunlight, feel its warmth. It enlivened her, brought her strength.

Her hands slipped out before her as her palms melted outward, her hands side by side forming a spear tip with fingers and thumbs. She exhaled. Her weight fell back as a leg went smoothly forward, knees bent slightly, forming a deep stance. Her hands flew up before her, one near her chest, the other, out over her forward knee.

With fingers curled in, she waited but a flick before shifting her back leg forward and around, moving her hands as daggers drawn across the abdomen of some unseen foe then up across the throat. She took a hard step as she shifted back and to the side.

She could almost feel Lieten's staff upon her back as her heel met the rock though he had left her today to train without him. Across her arms as they swung forward. _"_ Faster, Nai. Faster. _"_ She could hear his voice clear as the echoes of each step swallowed by the vast emptiness of the place where they trained. _"_ Light steps. Don't touch the ground. _"_

Lieten always said what might seem like the most absurd things. She was no bird. She could not fly. She could only be one quite grounded in her movement.

But soon enough she had come to see what he meant. If she moved fast enough. If she used her weight to advance each movement that much faster, sometimes she felt like she would go on and on and never touch the ground.

She drew up the air faster and faster as her pace quickened until she slowed it with a thought, with no loss of speed. A breath wasted could never be recovered. _"_ Wasted breath, hastened death, _"_ Lieten always told her.

Standing in that column of light, her mind emptied of thought now as all of her focus lay on the motion. She hardly noticed when the shadow rose before her. She laid her blows into it, strike upon strike. Flinging the darkness forward across her leg and down on its back, she pulled her foot up to drop down upon it. Her foot hit rock as it wriggled up behind her laying hand upon her neck, giving the unmistakable sensation of angry bees.

The shadow flung her back. She skid across the stone. A hand flew back to slow her motion until the column of light only touched her feet. As she shifted her upper body forward to land upright, her jaw flew back with a cut underneath from an unseen force.

With the column of light now two body lengths from her, her eyes refocused on the darkness. But she knew them a useless tool against the shadow. She was in his arena now. She rolled to the side as she heard a forceful swoosh near her ear. Standing to her feet, she readied her body for an unseen blow. It came as she expected. And she was ready. Her body curled with a blow to the gut. As her hand met its arm, she again felt the stinging pain. She leapt around feeling out its body position, and twisting it up behind. She dragged the shadow back under the pillar washing down upon them, until its form lay revealed with the brush of light.

"Surrender." The shadow squirmed, but her grip endured. A man's arm would have been pulled from joint at the position she held it. She knew it well for it would not have been the first time she had sought surrender with this move. Sometimes, they gave up and sometimes they did not.

When she heard no reply, she pushed harder with the strength of her grip driving the piercing pain through her hand, into her arm. She had to block it from her mind. It was the only way. Dots danced in her mind as she pushed harder. "Surrender."

An unhindered voice met her ears from across the room. "I surrender."

A smile ripped across Ren'ai's features. The shadow faded away and the pain with it. Ren'ai scanned the darkness until her eyes shot around to her left.

Master Jabari stepped into the light.

Ren'ai fell into a deep bow. "Master."

He returned the gesture, bowing deeper still as if she were the one to be honored.

"How goes the training, Nai?"

"Great." The word spilled from her lips. She could muster no more with stringy brown hair hiding her eyes, two round ears poking up through it. Sweat trickling down her neck and back, evidence of a battle fought and won.

"Lieten's not being too hard on you, is he?" Master Jabari's eyes met hers.

The girl thought on it a moment. She knew the beating her teacher would lay to her, if he thought she had disparaged his methods. "Not at all. Lieten is the best Teacher in the Jagged."

"That's good to hear. I know his techniques can be harsh at times, but I trust him. He will get results." Jabari possessed no doubt.

"And that's what I want. I want to be the best. I want to be a guard someday, like Nakali and Lieten and Kerr and all of the others."

"I have no doubt you will be. Are you impatient to become a guard because you feel you will be ready to avenge your family?"

She did not know what to say. Timidly she spoke. "No, well yes...Maybe a little. I know what you are going to say. It is a path I should not follow."

"Well, you've only been with us a season now. You've a good many Haerfests yet to train with us before a guard you can be."

"But I can be a guard now. You saw me with the shadow. I am strong, and I am fast. It is why you chose me."

"Yes. I chose you and you chose me, but this is only the beginning, Nai. The beginning of your understanding of our way of Pin Hi. You have taken one shadow, but what will you do with ten. That is the foe we face when we travel. I know it feels that you can do so much that you could not do before. But you are not a guard now. You are an apprentice. Don't rush it. Nai. Nothing worth doing, unless you can to take the time to do it right."

"Father always said that."

"I know."

"You knew him well, then?" Ren'ai could not imagine how that would be possible.

"More than some less than others."

"You know he did not do the things they say then?"

"It does not matter if I know it. You must know it. Do you?"

"Yes."

"Good." His lips curled, and cheeks rose. He gave her a strong pat on the shoulder. "Then I believe that it is time to begin the next element of a guard's training."
CHAPTER 16

She had not had Lieten's staff upon her for weeks. Arms of purple and blue had been replaced by smooth skin graced by an occasional scar. Yet as she looked at the pile of books that her teacher had planned for her how she wished for his strike.

A cold dark stare framed Gwendoline's features as the pupil looked up into blue eyes. No mercy to be found there. Ren'ai looked back to the page before he then up to the Gwendoline whose eyes went wide as if she could not contain her joy.

The look scared Ren'ai to the core. She did not wait for the command; she opened the cover and began.

Shana, The Historian, to the truth of these accounts I do attest, for I have seen in my lifetime out of the clans of the north and the south and the east and the west the formation of one human nation, that is called Aletheia.

It was in the days before King Tobias, that we lived each in our own nation and with our own people, our clan. And the clans in that day spotted the land as grass upon the meadow and each clan had a leader, we called Qi. And each clan did belong with other clans to a province. Each province had a leader called the High Councilor, who was considered to the people the most high but the loyalty of the people for the most part did rest with the Qi for it was the Qi who did speak on their behalf before the High Councilor that he might rule in their favor.

And there rose in the Province called Raskiny a High Councilor. And he was beloved by his people, and they called him Tobias the Good. And Raskiny sat upon the fertile lowlands and their wealth in the fields and the orchards was great.

During the famines of fourth era they did send by the caravan grains and potatoes and all manner of fresh fruit to their less fortunate neighboring provinces. And the people called him Blessed Savior.

And when the Goat Clan of the eastern province, Thenau, did lose favor in the sight of their fellow clans, High CouncilorTobias said, _"_ Come unto us undesired ones that Raskiny should be your home. _"_

And the people called him Most Generous Lord.

And the High Councilor Tobias sent by way of messengers to the Qi of the lands a proclamation, _"_ Send us your poor, your weak and undesired that we may give them shelter and food. _"_ And the poor did go to Raskiny. And the people called him Compassionate One.

And the High Councilor and his most trusted General Ruric did meet with the many Qi of the land in secret, receiving and giving favor in turn. And they called him Supreme Councilor.

And in this time the clans of a province did fight among themselves, seeking to add to their lands and their purses. And Tobias sent peacekeepers to them, saying that together we all could prosper.

"This Tobias sounds like a kind fellow. So good of him to help all of those people." As Ren'ai spoke, she could feel Gwendoline studying her with light, piercing eyes as if she were weighing her soul upon scales.

"You must learn to look deeper, Nai, if you are to protect the Healer. You must ask yourself why Tobias would do these things. Are these the acts of a compassionate man or a man with a plan for something more? Read on."

And when Tobias by the hand of his most trusted General, Ruric did seize the Province called Thenau, many welcomed his arrival and their defeat was swift. And so Raskiny and Thenau became one land under one leader, Tobias.

And the poor and the weak and the unwanted became Tobias' most loyal subjects. They joined his army and became his most trusted advisors, having an understanding of the culture and politics of their respective clans and provinces. And with their guidance, quickly all provinces fell into Tobias's grasp. Some fought, but many welcomed his arrival.

And Tobias raised up the Qi who had allied with him into places of power, calling them the new High Councilors of the land, with only himself above them. The High Councilors who reigned before them were put to death with their families in public execution and the people sang his praises.

And Tobias named the land Aletheia after his eldest daughter Aleth and he called Aletheia his child and swore to nurture and guide it as he would his own daughter. And he called himself King of Aletheia.

And the fields of Raskiny went unsowed as the people of Raskiny became more reliant on the resources of the provinces that Tobias had conquered. And their lives grew into a thing of extravagance, wanting for nothing and working little.

"So Tobias and Ruric did these things to make their conquest of the land a swift one."

"It would appear so." Gwendoline smiled, swiping a lace sleeve across the girl's back. It was not Lieten's staff, but a comforting touch. "Strategy, that is the key to any win. Not speed or strength or even numbers. Tobias had the numbers, he had the resources to send out an overwhelming force, yet he waited, sowed the seeds among the population, he and Ruric."

"But whose idea was it to curry such favor of the people? Tobias or Ruric?"

"That is not something we can ever really know. There is History and then there is interpretation. Shana can only write History as it is, interpretation must be left to the reader."

Ren'ai thought for a moment. "But I don't remember a Tobias. Only Ruric. When did this happen?"

"I guess you would have seen about three when Ruric became King of Aletheia. I would not expect you to remember. That is why the Historian, Shana's writings are so important. Continue."

Ever at his side was General Ruric. To many Ruric was the face of King Tobias, for it was he who had accompanied the caravans and met with the Qi and led the armies of Tobias to the peoples' aid. And they called him Ruric the Kind.

And Ruric was to Tobias his most trusted and he did give to Ruric his daughter most beloved, Aleth who had been named his heir.

But it is spoken of Ruric that patience be a quality he lacks. It is said that from the moment he took her to bedchamber that the plot was laid to be rid of Tobias that the Throne of Aletheia should fall to Ruric, and it was done with a knife across the throat and the guards of Tobias bearing as much loyalty to their General as their King did not lift a hand to stop him. But rather they called him, Your Majesty.

So began the reign of Ruric. He removed the Qi from their places of power with his mighty sword and placed in their stead his generals.

And Ruric gave them this directive, _"_ Quash any uprising from the first word of dissent with a brutal hand for delay could allow such treachery to grow. _"_

The Builder of our time who is called John, requested audience with King Ruric. The E'epan John as representative of the decisions of Habenhold pleaded with the King to spare the people such wrath. But Ruric sent him back to us disgraced, stating that there was no place in the modern world for E'epans and we should allow ourselves to die out so that the world could enter new times of hope and peace in which all clans would work together for the good of Aletheia no more to fight among themselves. Prosperity for all. All resources gathered through Raskiny to be dispersed among the masses. Peace under his guiding hand.

It was this day that Ruric declared war upon any E'epan that might think to stand in his way, stating that he would be the one to rid Nine Worlds of the E'epan race and bring it into a new era.

"Why do people write these things?" Ren'ai asked, scraping her eyes from the page. "What does it matter what happened yesterday? It doesn't change what I do today."

"They write it because people forget. As long as we have the Old Stories, people will know the truth." Again, Gwendoline stared into the girl as if she were weighing her soul.

Truth. She had gone her young life without knowing about how Ruric came to power. Why now? What did it matter? It did not help her grow stronger. No one took the time to write down what happened in Caerwyn. She would learn it because Master Jabari told her it was part of her training, but love talking shapes like Gwendoline and Jabari, she could not do it.

As Gwendoline released her, she ran in bounds toward the training rooms to find someone to fight. She knew that she still had a couple of hours of daylight even though the sun rested far above the surface and she below. The rhythms of day and night had slowly begun to take shape within her.

A fight would take her thoughts off of her family and that town she had never seen called Caerwyn Ridge which had followed her like a vengeful spirit since that night, haunting her, ever whispering in her ear the horrific deeds of her father, telling her that she held no less blame. Yes, a fight would expend her wrath and remove from her mind images of the pale blue eyes of the Healer's wife looking into her, staring as if to see something concealed, something Ren'ai wanted desperately to hide.

~~~

"I don't like her eyes." Ren'ai did not restrain herself as she brushed past Nakali and hopped into bed.

"Well I don't like yours." Nakali sat down beside her. "They look like a lake frozen thin." She pulled her thick braid over one shoulder and began uncoiling it strand from strand.

"Why does she look at people like that? It's a cold, dark stare."

"The Healer's wife is a kind and caring person. Cold and dark are not words I would use to describe her. You just don't like her lessons. But we all had to endure them."

"I don't like the way she looks at me."

Nakali looked down at cold rock, pulling a comb through heavy strands as if choosing her words beneath slow breath. "Nai, Gwen sees things we don't see. When she looks at you she does not see you like I see you. She sees more. She sees both sides, action and intent, reality and illusion" Nakali looked back to her apprentice.

Ren'ai had to look away from her trainer's glare. "Intent?" Her eyes met the trunks against the far wall just as one of her sisters startled an advancing FlameChaser with a bursting flame. Intent, she thought, if it be true, I'm not fooling anyone.

"Gwendoline tests all new arrivals, weighs their loyalty to root out would be traitors, the assassins, the wolves in sheep's clothing. That is any Dreamer's birthright."

"If that's really what she's doing, you would not tell me; then I would know..."

Nakali interrupted. "It does not matter if you know, Nai. You cannot keep her from seeing both sides of you. Besides, you would be dead by now if she had seen anything. She keeps a blade in her sleeve and she's quick with it. She is like any of us in the Jagged. She does not take chances with the life of the Healer."

"If she already knows I am not an assassin, then why does she keep looking into me?"

"Because, Nai, She is trying to figure out how to reach you. That is what Teachers do."

"If she thinks she is going to make me enjoy reading about dead kings."

"You don't have to enjoy it, Nai. You just have to know it. Gwen wants you to enjoy reading about these things because it will make it more meaningful but if you kick and scream she will still make you do it."

"I will do it for Jabari, but I won't like it."

"I'm sure you'll see the purpose in time. That's all any of us want. But I think you forgot something."

Ren'ai yawned. "Not tonight, Kali. I'm ready for bed."

"Yes. Our day starts with it and it ends with it."

Ren'ai thumped her feet to the floor and found her place there, sitting legs crossed in, hands upon her knees, drawing slow deep breath.

Nakali did the same.

And so another day met its perfect end in meditation; tomorrow the cycle would begin again. As one day of many, ran together now into the next, she became stronger, increased her understanding and her skill. As the lands beyond brought forth great Haerfests and those lacking in turn that broken little girl that the Healer had found in the woods that night learned her lessons well. One day soon now, one of Jabari's guards she would be, but that would only be the beginning for her life quest of avenging her family and bringing justice to an embattled land.
CHAPTER 17

(Planting Season, The 12th Haerfest of the Rule of Ruric, Three Haerfests Past)

"Nai, I swear if you make me come out into the SlipSwamp one more time to find you."

Ren'ai did not shift her eyes. An annoyance had just disturbed her solitude but she would be gone soon enough if Ren'ai just ignored her.

"You are the only person I know who actually goes to death's grip to relax. Wish Lieten had never shown you this rock. Four Haerfests have we seen since you joined and still no less an impetuous nature I behold." Nakali twisted legs slender yet firm out and to the side, before resting a hand upon the rock. She pulled back in an instant, the heat of the midday's suns having left their warmth there. She curled her legs under and took a seat.

"You're still here." Ren'ai sat up, leaning back on her palms. The hot rock shot pain up flexed forearms but she did not care.

"Our Master has returned from Kikynjil and Tibón. He's requested your presence."Flowing locks down her back nearly caressed the rock. Golden ribbons woven through danced with the breeze. Despite their surroundings she smelled of almond butter and mint.

"Tell him I'll be back before sunset." Ren'ai turned away from her, flipping her hair from her eyes, folding her hands under head as if to take a quick nap.

"I told him I would not return without you. You know I keep my promises."

"Hey, so do I." Thoughts moved wildly across the past few days trying to discern to what Nakali could be referring. Her eyes shot wide as she turned around to face the dark-skinned beauty that was Nakali. "Master Jabari will have to wait." She pulled up her back and stretched her legs, and then down into the muck she leapt, Nakali nipping at yet swifter heels.

Greater Sun still held its place high as Ren'ai ducked down into the cave. Then she darted down a corridor, leaving Nakali still shaking mud from golden fabric.

She rounded a bend and descended down three carved steps, nearly trampling another of Lieten's apprentice's as she went. "Stay out of my way, Shyam." She called back to the startled girl.

Shyam, so nearly having seen thirteen Haerfests, looked away as their eyes met. Shyam could not hide the fear she held in Ren'ai's presence but despite Jabari's imploring, Ren'ai had made no effort to change it.

She darted around a hard corner to the right as the way forked before her. She unsuccessfully attempted to hide her peeking smile.

Kerr saw Ren'ai coming down the hallway and called to her as she approached. "You're going the wrong way. The Master is in the study."

"Tell him, I'm on my way. I've something important I must tend to first."

"You shouldn't keep him waiting." He reached out as she passed, trying to stop her.

She anticipated his move, back stepping up and across the cavern wall and back onto the path once she had passed him. One more turn and her destination rose into view. She stopped a moment, sucking in deep breaths, regaining her composure. She did not want her to see her in a frantic state.

"I'm sorry, Ren'iv. I told you I'd be back in the morning to redo your braid. I tried, I did, but you know, training." As Ren'ai stepped into the doorway, she scanned across the room to find her. "Niv, whatever are you doing over there?" Darkness swept the room uninviting, Ren'iv's room being one of the only places the Jagged on which Jabari had put a barrier to keep the FlameChasers out. Ren'ai stepped inside. "How long have you been sitting in the dark?" Ren'ai lit a waiting lamp, before curling around the side of a large bed. She laid a hand on Big Sister's shoulder. No movement met her caress. Kneeling down in front of her, Ren'ai pushed a stray hair behind her ear.

Lifeless sapphires blinked once then twice. Ren'ai sighed and then smiled hoping Ren'iv could see her. "My, Sister, but don't you look a mess. Here move next to the bed and I'll fix it for you." Ren'ai pulled the chair up from behind so gently calling her to stand. As she found her feet an ankle gave.

Ren'ai reached out, taking her arm, holding her steady as with the other arm she dragged the chair in front of the bed. As the back of her knees hit hard wood Big Sister took a seat.

Little Sister gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before walking across to the other side of the bed, and pulling from a drawer of her own making a comb.

She returned and sat on the bed, pulling up the braid and releasing it into subtle curls. She ran the comb gently down the length from scalp to tip. "Guess what I did yesterday." Ren'ai waited a moment as if expecting a response. "I ran the FallinFlo from breakfast until dinner. And fast. Took five people to pull the crank. Lieten says I'm really progressing. I might even make Guard before the days grow short. Wouldn't that be something?"

She pulled a strand up to work from the ends.

Ren'iv's eyes remained focused forward as she tilted her head back with the tug. An expression of one seeing everything and nothing all at once shaped her face.

Ren'ai began just behind Big Sister's ears, pulling strand upon strand, forming the braid. She stopped when she reached the end, well down Ren'iv's back. Tying a blue ribbon to hold it in place, she called her work complete. Ren'ai studied the craftsmanship, the symmetry, the texture. She knew what great importance Ren'iv placed upon her perfect look. She would not permit a flaw in her handiwork, nor could Ren'ai. She pulled the bow loose in one big swipe and undid the braid. Pulling the comb up again, she began again from scalp to tip.
CHAPTER 18

Magnificence greeted Ren'ai as she entered the study. Upon the floors lay hundreds of expertly woven rugs. Each stitch upon them told a story of the world from the arrival of the gods to the E'epan journeys, to the rise of Ruric. Books rose up to the ceiling certainly telling the same stories but Ren'ai preferred the rugs.

Her eye shifted across to Jabari, sitting in the back at a desk too big for any one man. Next to him, his wife looked over his shoulder pointing at something on the desk then Master Jabari nodded his agreement.

"Nai, Dear." Gwendoline looked up from whatever business now captured them.

"Oh, Nai." The Healer stood, closing the book they were viewing as the girl approached. "So good of you to honor us with your presence, at last."

His tone scolded even as kindness swept his features.

"I promised Niv I'd re-do her braid today. You know she simply can't stand to look a mess."

"Gwen, My Darling, do you mind too terribly stepping outside for a moment."

"Not at all." She pulled up the book to her chest with delicate hands hiding the cover before stepping past the waiting girl of no nearly sixteen Haerfests, standing before Jabari, awaiting her judgment.

"Lieten says you can run the FallinFlo from Breakfast til Dinner with no rest."

"On a good day."

"And he's never seen better use of an axe to dispatch a foe."

"I was raised with an axe in my hand. It's second nature to me."

"And I'll be damned if I'm going to lose Nakali to the SlipSwamp just to find your wayward ass."

"It's the only place I can go to think."

"So you're going with us when we go to Aryg'ril next month."

It took a moment for Ren'ai to realize what he had said.

"Will give her a bit of break from the chore. At least until we're back, I'm sure."

Ren'ai's face swelled up as if it might burst with smile seemingly escaping the confines of her face then the joy seeped away. "But who am I replacing? You seldom add someone new to the rotation 'less we lost one."

Jabari swooped up beside her now seeing eye to eye. "No." He put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "Nothing like that. We all made it back alive." His black eyes met her grey as relief washed over them. "It's just that Grenal's getting older."

"Don't tell him that."

"And well he is a wealth of knowledge and experience. I just can't risk losing him in some petty battle. He's too important to us. So I'm replacing him as First Guard."

She could imagine Grenal's furiousness with the demotion. "I'm sure he's not happy about it."

"No, he's not. Always imagined himself dying to save my life." Jabari's features were a swirl of mixed feelings. He wished somehow that Grenal had been granted his only wish in life but having such a wish granted would have meant losing his closest friend. He stepped back across the rugs toward his desk, pulling a bit of dried meat from a plate there. He took a hard sinewy bite before speaking. "But he understands. We need him here to train and to teach and to insure that for generations to come our force remains strong for the cause."

"I'm sure Kerr will make a fine First Guard. He has proven his loyalty and his strength over these many Haerfests. But you know Ivar will say it should have been him. They never could be happy about one another's accomplishments. Me, I'm just happy to go along. I will not let you down. Being a guard is all I've ever wanted." In that moment it seemed that she had longed for nothing more. Every time The Healer returned with his Guard. Every time, they would have stories of battle and people and far off places. They echoed through the halls for weeks after. She loved the stories, but for once, she wanted to be the teller. Once would be enough, though she hoped he would not find fault in her and send her back to the caves.

"I'm glad to hear that. Because you'll be "going along" quite a bit from now on."

"I wouldn't expect to go any more frequently than the next guard."

"Of course not, but as First Guard, you'll go everywhere I go."

Ren'ai's eyes went wide. She did not know how to feel. Had she heard him right? She thought she best hold the feeling back lest the joy overtake her and send her plummeting to insanity. "Me, First Guard?" She spoke matter-of-factly; just to be sure that is what he had said.

"Why not, you're the best here."Another bite met his teeth. He chewed and chewed but could not seem to tackle it.

"I hardly think that could be." Ren'ai appreciated such a compliment, mostly because she knew he spoke only truth, but she also knew he had tried unsuccessfully to teach her humility. "You choose us well, I guess."

"Well, best of what I have to choose from. Lieten and Nakali would make fine First Guards, but like Grenal they simply cannot be in two places at once. I need them here to train our future guards as much as I need them with me. Kerr and Ivar, well I will not go into why they were not chosen. Grenal had seen but seventeen Haerfests when he became First to my father. 'Inexperience breeds a certain strength when coupled with raw skill' he always said. I tend to agree. You're no more than an infant in Pin Hi, but as First Guard you'll learn quickly." He twisted a bit of fluff from his cloak. "Or you'll be dead."

Ren'ai fell hard from her pedestal. The Healer knew how to build her up and knew how to bring her down to proper size.

He continued. "But I simply can't have my First Guard looking like a street urchin." He lifted her tattered sleeve. "Here you train. Out there, you represent me."

Ren'ai looked down at her clothing. What fault did he find? It was functional.

"Nakali will help you acquire some more appropriate attire."

"I don't want to look like Nakali."

"You don't have to, but I simply can't take you out of the cave until you look presentable."

Ren'ai released a protesting huff but hoped he did not notice. She would have worn a Haerfest Dress if it meant accompanying Master Jabari on his Journeys. She released a simple smile as she departed to find Nakali's golden ribbons flying about somewhere.

"So what will it be?" Nakali's eyes widened as a child at first Haerfest as she leapt up beside Ren'ai leaving the study. Ren'ai knew it would be a dream come true as Nakali would finally be able to do something about what she considered Ren'ai's terrible clothes. Her teacher fingered the fabric. It was thick like a potato bag and just as itchy. She moved down the hallway past the training rooms with a shimmering skirt teasing her ankles. She turned a corner and they were in the room that they shared with three others. She stopped next to one the five simple beds and pulled a box from beneath the hanging quilt and began thumbing through it.

"I'm not a designer, Kali. That was Ren'iv."

She pulled out a measuring cord. "We can go ask her opinion if you want."

"No, No."Ren'ai decided she had better play along if she wanted something that she could live with.

"Must be functional. I must be able to move freely."

"Of Course."Nakali reached around her waist and pulled the cord tight. Her eyes looked up to the rock ceiling as she blinked a couple times as if making note of the measure.

"And none of this hanging out." Ren'ai reached up, grabbing one of Nakali's rather ample breasts which were only minimally concealed in her sleek fabric. "I'm not traveling to pick a mate."

"Nai, you have nothing to hang out." Nakali returned the favor, squeezing the girl gently, before pulling back in shock. With the touch she realized the tight wrappings Ren'ai had secured to her chest. "Well, we can manage that."

Ren'ai answered her unasked question. "They get in the way."

Nakali picked up her bow from the wall where it rested. "You know in the place we came from, there were women who cut off one breast so that their bows would fit properly to their chest."

"Not a bad idea. They really do that on the islands."

"Not the islands. Where we all came from." Nakali added emphasis to the word "all." She twisted the bow string between a finger and thumb. "The humans at least. The Land before." She met Ren'ai's blank stare. "The gods departed. The place the gods found us to bring us here." Nakali rolled her eyes.

Ren'ai scratched her head. "Of course, the gods departed. Guess I never thought much about where we came from, only that we are here."

"There was a whole time before the time before. A whole history that is our own. Before we came to this place. Gwen has not made you read about it yet?"

"I'm certain she will." Ren'ai's eyes glassed over and her leg began twitching. She did not really care about any time before the present. It had no relevance to the now. She moved past Nakali to pick up her ax, pulling it to her chest, contemplating a quick swipe the blade against her flesh, before turning back to Nakali.

"Anyway. Look. I can wear my bow just fine." She slid it across her shoulder and over her head. "Whatever you have, you just learn to make best use of it. I hope you will learn to work with and maybe even value what you have as you value your strength and your speed."

Ignoring the archer's imploring, Ren'ai returned her thoughts to clothing design. "And make it blue like Niv's eyes."

Nakali smiled. "I can do that."
CHAPTER 19

"They all look dead to me."She had the tip of her axe in soft flesh to prove it. As the great northerly surrendered smooth gales across the hillside, stringy brown hair flipped this way and that. Ren'ai made no effort to tame it.

"You're so disrespectful." Nakali slinked up beside her. A golden skirt sailed across her legs, splits up her thighs allowing great movement in the fabric and in her deadly kick. In her hand a gilded bow, ready and waiting to be called swiftly to action. Two leather straps held tightly against the lean curving muscle of upper arms where she held long golden sheaths concealing two curved golden daggers.

Ren'ai spoke the truth. Body after body lay out in the street as if everyone had just fallen asleep while going about their daily tasks. With men in brimmed hats hanging across hay carts one with slain horses, women face down with their daily loaves stringing out from their fingertips, if not children; merchants slumping across turned tables, their wares reaching across the blighted ground; barely could she find a place to set foot upon that hamlet's cobbled way that did not offend the departed. Red flowed from the upper alleyways and crisped away in the wind. The stench creased her nose---unbearable.

Nakali pulled a dark hand across her nose, speaking through parted fingers. "What do you say, Master, two days." Her voice fell deep and calm. She cast a sideward glance to a man in a long burgundy cloak with hood back, revealing deep, knowing eyes under a heavy brow and a head of straight black hair just reaching his narrow neck.

Securing a strand that flapped into his face, he walked past her without word. The Healer knelt with a stick in hand, poking and prodding a dead man. A reprehensible act.

Silence held them.

Then the Healer spoke. "Sounds about right." The skin squirmed as he wiggled into loose flesh. "Maybe three. We have larva, second molt."

Nakali nodded her understanding.

Ren'ai's brow furrowed in bewilderment. Throwing her axe back over her shoulder, she stepped over one body and then another. "We didn't come here for the dead. So what is our purpose?"

The Healer's eyes met the eastern sky, red and orange as Lesser Sun sank beneath the trees. He stood again, straightening a wayward cloak as he rose, before pointing out toward the houses beyond. "You three, search." He looked to the three male guards who accompanied him. "Find the survivors." He turned to his right. "Nakali, Keep watch down the valley." His voice commanded attention and obedience complete. No longer he held the voice and pace of a teacher, but that of a General. No time for learning, only doing.

It may have been Ren'ai's first time out of the caves since he found her that night, asked her to join them, but she understood.

"First Guard, you're with me."

Ren'ai looked around a moment, waiting for her orders to be called. As much as she liked to be referred to as First Guard, she could not get used to the fact that it was she to whom he spoke.

Recognition tripped across her features. "I'm with you, Master." Pulling her axe from her shoulder she stumbled past the dead, meeting his stride; ever at the ready should any think to harm him.

"Over here." Barely a moment had departed before one of the three guards with them found what they sought.

Jabari, as quick and agile as the company he kept, leapt over a flipped grain barrel and through a maze of decay with his First Guard close behind.

The guard pointed into a building. A sign swung above the door. Bakery. No sweet scent of warming dough met their senses.Jabari stood in the entrance. Darkness crept across the silent walls as the wind taunted their efforts. "First Guard, search and report."

"Yes, Healer." Ren'ai entered. The smell of death attacked with a bite no less vicious within. Stepping across an overturned chair and spoiled lamps she made her way across a well-swept floor.

As she rounded a series of wood stoves cooled for the day, low whimpering met her ear. She turned, preparing for attack. A floral print blanket hung before her, ripped in places, tattered by use, a glint of light behind it. She pulled it free, coughing away dust and soot.

A man, a woman and two small boys cowered just behind, shelves of flour and oil up to the ceiling behind them. The man lay so nearly lifeless with his head in the woman's lap. One of the boys, dirty hair down to his shoulders, no more than six, stood up in front of his mother as Ren'ai neared them.

She clanged her axe to the dirt floor, showing she meant no harm. She could see that neither the woman nor her boy believed her.

Ren'ai wondered if it were the gray, grey eyes she shared with her father. It would not have been the first time they had struck fear into those who had known him.

Or it could have been her deep blue dress, fitting tight to her hips but open at the side to allow for needed movement, collar up to her chin to cover her. Healer Jabari had told her that she would not accompany him in the potato sack training garb she preferred. Nakali had been all too excited to take on the task. Ren'ai thought her more comfortable training garb would be much less frightening.

Ren'ai could not say what made the child stand as a cougar guarding her cubs. It could have been the horror he had seen just three days past. She smiled, leaning forward; trying to show them they had no reason to fear.

Still, they did not appear to believe her.

Ren'ai spared them the sight of her eyes as she looked away. "Healer, All Clear. One Man. One Woman. Two Children. Nonhostile." She called back to the doorway, before stepping away from them, wishing them no more fear.

Jabari pushed Ren'ai from his path as he knelt down beside the man before seeking out the man's wounds and judging his condition.

"We did as you said, Healer."The woman stroked the man's brow, drawing his heat to her. "Used the comfrey ointments and propolis liniment you showed us how to prepare, but." She gulped back a tear.

"It's alright, Child. They can only do so much. Did you give him boneset tea for the fever? How long has the heat had him?" Jabari whisked a hand to his brow, stroking a sweaty strand from it.

"Yes as you taught us and it's been nearly two days. But it won't break. I'm afraid it's too late."

"There, there, Child. You've done well in keeping him with the living this long. And now we are here." He took the man's cheeks in his hands. Moisture beaded between his fingers. "First, get these pants off of him." He held fast to the man's face as Ren'ai untied his pants and moved them slowly down.

The man groaned in pain.

"That's a good sign." Master Jabari smiled up at the woman with whatever value a smile held at that moment. With Ren'ai's task complete he moved to inspecting the leg, gashed agape, barely attached to the rest of him. "The Mort's trying to set in but we caught it just in time. He placed his hand on the leg, moved near and away as if strengthening some unseen tack.

Ren'ai watched as the leg mended. Inside fibers moved together, becoming one again until only the outer scar remained. It amazed her every time.

"And his belly, Healer. They got him twice." The woman spoke up with a voice of lingering fear more than appreciation.

"It seems they couldn't take him down with one mortal wound. A brave husband you have indeed."

"He's my brother. My husband is dead."

Master Jabari ignored her correction, only interested in completing the task.

Ren'ai captured the woman's eyes in her own, showing only genuine sorrow just as the Healer had taught her. "I'm sorry for your loss."

The woman looked away from her, finding no consolation there. She turned back to the Healer as he put his hand over the man's belly and held it until wholeness again defined him.

"Master. We've found another one."

Master Jabari wasted no time in rising. A moment spent with the healed one's gratitude could mean the death of another. He had learned that lesson long ago.

Ren'ai helped the healed man to his feet.

He thanked her with a strengthening grasp.

She kept her eyes from him. "I only wish some of this could have been prevented. It just seems so unnecessary."

The man smiled an awkward smile though she could not see it.

A guard called in after her. "Nai, you stay with Master Jabari no matter what. Who's First Guard here anyway, you or me?"

"I am." She placed a hand on the young one's head, reassuring him that it would be alright then pulled her axe back up onto her shoulder and leapt back out into the light.

Master Jabari waited at the entry way. "First Guard, Search and Report."

"Yes, Master."
CHAPTER 20

Lesser had long departed, devoured by the land hours before and night had dropped a wind fluttered veil upon the waking forest. A day of healing in the streets and alleyways of Aryg'ril lay behind him, as Jabari recovered his strength sitting with two of his guards, Nakali and Ren'ai, close around a crackling flame, attending to a less trying task, the preparation of remedies. A very simple thing it was but often he found it an impossible task.

"You can't just mix scuntiweed with sho-sho." Jabari could only shake his head.

Ren'ai's body froze with correction pouring from the Healer's tongue. "Why not?" Her cheek curled upward in suspicion. "You said Scunti prevents vision loss. Sho-Sho helps night vision. The two together should be extra powerful." Ren'ai folded her arms with pestle in hand, daring the Healer to tell her differently.

Jabari softened his tone as he staid her hand with a gentle yet firm touch. She would learn in time. "Both very valuable herbs, indeed. But if you mix them into one big concoction; you'll make a man go blind." Jabari released to her a smile. "Not to mention the pain it would inflict." Pulling up her bowl, he tossed the crumbled mixture into fingers of rising yellow flame. "Please, Start over, First Guard." He stretched his shoulders back a bit as he surrendered the smooth stone bowl into waiting hands.

She thrust the bowl into the fire as he had shown her to be certain all remnants of the two herbs were no more.

The sounds of the forest met his ears between the crackle of their campfire and the sound of slow, rhythmic scraping as splinters parted with Nakali's newly formed arrow shaft. Up in the trees all around their fortunately found clearing, birds called in at least twenty varying voices from one to the other as if telling stories of their great warriors past understood only to them.

Darkness fingered in from the forest floor. Tree trunks stood as bare columns rising up to outstretching branches. The trunks lay hidden in spots by sparse underbrush which during the day might be fighting to find the sunlight, but now in the calm of dusk just past, their leaves curled and folded into soft slumber. A rising chill lashed his back as his hands opened and closed in the warmth of the fire.

Ren'ai pulled the bowl out hot with a stick and set it on the ground beside her to cool.

Jabari continued. "Ten days with the Scunti and ten with the Sho-sho but not the same ten days. I'd give it at least ten days between." Jabari pulled out another handful of Sho-Sho and handed it to his student. "When the bowl is cool again, grind these up with a spit of oil and mix it up to a good paste."

She took the handful of leaves that they had been collecting from the meadow all afternoon, twisted one in nimble fingers. "But, Master, that's so much work when you can just lift a hand and make it so."

Jabari pondered the thought moving the leaves across the mortar. How many times had he told his father the same thing, but even if he never understood back then, he knew the answer now. "You didn't master the SlipSwamp or the FallinFlo in a day. What if I could have lifted my hand and made all of the guards into masters of the perils of the Jagged."

"It would take much less time to train us. You could build a force in a day; crush all who stood against you."

"Yes, wouldn't that be something."Jabari smiled in fanciful thought. "But I want you to really think about it."

"I don't suppose it would mean so much. I couldn't really say that I had accomplished anything."

"And." Master Jabari mused to himself for a moment as his smile widened. He wiped a dark strand from his cheek, and pulled one hand up to the base of his neck, rubbing away the tension there. Yes, the day had been a long one. They had healed many but many they could do nothing for. He always had a toll to pay when he sought to use his skill to heal so many. Sometimes the travis demanded little and sometimes, as he had found the case today, his Guard had to carry him back to camp. He again turned to Ren'ai as he heard her speak.

"And the knowledge, experience, willingness to endure all manner of pain for the final result, it would not be there."

Master Jabari gave her a look that told her to reach just a bit further.

"It would be strength and agility with no heart."

He nodded an affirmation. "Teaching the people to heal themselves is of more value than the movement of my hand. But when it is not enough, that is where my hands come in." Jabari lifted his palms from his task to show her. Ordinary hands in all appearance, but they were not.

The Healer rose, going the one place that Ren'ai did not follow.

Ren'ai took the opportunity to abandon her mortar and pestle and pull up her axe. She would now ask the question her heart had held so tight all day. "When do we get to battle?" Ren'ai tossed another log on the fire turning to Nakali, having set her knife aside to pull from leaves the center spine before tossing them to a bowl next to Ren'ai. Ren'ai knew that they had entered the town, the blood stained ground a testament to Ruric's relentless slaughter of any who thought to oppose him. She could still see the look on the face of the baker's sister, the fear in that little boy's eyes. She had tried to comfort them but there could be no comfort in found in pale, grey eyes. What did it matter; she was not a comforter but a fighter; Ren'ai knew there had to be more to being a guard, and First Guard at that, than grinding herbs and watching the Healer.

Nakali sat across from her. The archer's legs curled to the side, tossing another leaf into the bowl "We don't wish for battle, Nai. We are protectors of the Healer. We are not Ruric's Soldiers looking for helpless victims."

"I know, but how can the E'epans let this happen? We are four hundred. The weakest of us standing equal to ten men."

"It is not our place to intervene." Master Jabari stepped back into the camp, straightening his robe. "The people choose their leaders."

"They did not choose this." Ren'ai looked over her shoulder to him, twisting her axe between parted feet, tapping the front of the blade against her booted toes and then the back against a heel.

"A Ruler ushered in with great hope is rarely what he seems. But they made their choice in Tobias and Ruric. They were two men of the same mind. Conquest and control by a vengeful hand."

"Are you saying that people must suffer the consequences for their actions?"

"Exactly." Skewering a lizard with a stick, he thrust it into the fire. "We can only hope they will choose better next time."

Confusion rounded out Ren'ai's youthful features. "What if people don't know any better? Shouldn't we help them?" Such great power she knew their force to possess and for what purpose. To go into villages after the threat had past.

"Absolutely not." Master Jabari pulled his dinner from the fire, blew on it, and took a careful bite. His teeth crunched into charred flesh "When a ruler starts saying I'm going against the will of the people because they don't know any better, we are in for dark times, indeed."

"I guess it's a good thing that I'm not ruler. I think the people showed very unsound reason the way they welcomed Tobias and Ruric conquering their homelands. Were it in my power, I would certainly have Ruric removed."

Jabari surrendered a hardy laugh. The flame danced with his glee. "And who would you put in his place?"

"You."

"Me? I don't want to rule Aletheia. An E'epan wear the crown? Whether myself or another. It is a thing that I pray I shall never live to see."

"Lieten, then." Ren'ai could think of many who would be better than Ruric.

"The gods departed help us. He's a demanding man of business. A good Trainer. But his inability to accept failure in others, for that he could never be a leader." Master Jabari gnawed the meat from a lizard leg and offered some to Nakali sitting at his side.

She declined, having had her fill on foraged berries and a handful of nuts she had purchased from a healed merchant in Aryg'ril.

Ren'ai looked to Nakali.

"Don't look at me." Nakali shook her head. "A much too demanding task."

Ren'ai turned back to the Healer.

"It's hard, isn't it, to choose a leader? That's why an E'epan should not just step in and remove a Ruler chosen by the people. As bad as it is right now, it would cause more harm than good. Besides, I sense a more selfish reason that you would like to see him displaced."

Ren'ai felt as if she were looking into the eyes of a Dreamer but she realized that Jabari just knew her too well.

"Revenge. It seems a thing to right a wrong, but destroys the avenger no less than the focus of her wrath. It is a path I would advise you not to follow." Jabari slid a leg out, straightening a knee, revealing crossing stripes. The marks across his flesh were no fewer than any of the fighters in the Jagged.

"As you have told me one thousand times. But when does an evil man pay for his crimes?"

"An evil man should pay for his crimes; Please do not misunderstand me. It's not what we do to an evil man; it's what a vengeful spirit does to us. I would have him put away no sooner than any in the Jagged. But for revenge it must not be. You will understand in time."

Ren'ai could not imagine she would ever understand, but it did not change the loyalty she felt to Jabari, for her fellow guards and guards to be in the Jagged. They were the family she had lost and nothing would take that away from her. "Don't you suppose they should be back from hunting bilberries by now?"

Nakali laughed. "You don't "hunt" bilberries, Nai; you pick them and bring them back so that the Healer can make his drink."

"You have to search for them though, don't you? I call that hunting." Ren'ai would do anything to make Haerfesting flowers, leaves, roots, fungus and bark for Jabari's potions more interesting. How quickly she had learned that traveling with the Healer included this as well.

"Call it what you like." Nakali did not spare her apprentice even a glance as she continued in her task.

Jabari's eyes widened. "Bil are all around these parts. And the townsfolk let them rot on the bush. Even overlooking the health benefits, really, who passes up bilberry pie? And imagine how strong their sight would be if they drank a few glasses a day. Imagine the hunting they could do then, Nai."Jabari met Ren'ai's disinterested stare, catching a glimmer of curiosity. "People just don't understand the gifts that the land gives us."

"That is why we have you to teach us, Healer." Nakali gave him a smile.

"I can teach, but when do people learn?"Jabari looked to the north sky. Soft grey clouds skirted across Sisters Moon.

"Master," A male guard bounded from the wood with sword low in hand. Jabari turned. Nakali drew up her bow. Ren'ai, slow to respond, not yet realizing the threat, pulled her axe up from between her feet.

Jabari approached his guard, seeing him as one injured with blood dripping from his side though the man tried to stand tall. "Let me get that taken care of for you."

"No. I'll be fine. I'll wrap it well and stop the bleeding, just like you showed me. Go to them, by the river. The force is great, but nothing we have not defeated before. You don't need me. They were only fifty strong, that is after I took out fifteen before they got me."The man smiled, even that causing apparent pain.

Jabari lifted a finger to him, asked him to squeeze, testing his strength, then watched his eyes follow his finger back and forth in front of his face. He then turned from the man. "We'll be back soon."

Nakali had already disappeared in the direction the man had come from. Ren'ai could not even see her golden garment flapping in the wind.

"Ready for your battle, First Guard?" Jabari whipped open his cloak and pulled two short swords from scabbards, one upon each hip. Ren'ai never would have known they were there.

Ren'ai pulled her axe from her shoulder, held it out and to the ready.

"Good." Master Jabari's eyes sparkled in the firelight. "This is really the best part."

He leapt out into the darkness. Ren'ai struggled to keep up, never imagining that sort of fastness to overtake him. His crimson robes sailed behind him a memory of where he once drifted, footprints in a dusting of an early snow the only sign he had been there.
CHAPTER 21

Ren'ai barely stayed to her feet as she stumbled across a body lying face down in fallen leaves. An arrow with flakes of gold palmed across the shaft protruded from his back. Regaining her footing if not her dignity, she aimed for the nearest attacker. Laying her axe into his shoulder at an angle, and pulling it free. Twisting around to catch a man in the belly who had been quickly advancing behind her, she slung him to the ground like spider's web to the forest floor. "Didn't leave many for us." Ren'ai called out to the two guards who had stood alone for some time, their brows wet with exhaustion but their strength no more lacking than those freshly drawn into battle.

A gold flecked arrow whisked past her head, entering the throat of a man behind her as he had raised his blade to her. Ren'ai stepped to the side, allowing the blade to fall to the ground with wielder behind it.

Ren'ai's hand went up in thanks, before she refocused her energy on a man taunting Jabari with short strikes. Master Jabari, no stranger to battle, took hard steps back while countering with his short sword and likely a sharp tongue if Ren'ai knew him at all.

Metal clanged. Ren'ai pulled her axe up between them, into his gut, throwing him back.

The river rushed below them, echoing every metallic contact, every groan of pain, every yell of advance. Backing a man up to the ledge, she swung a light blow at his cheek forcing him back until he tumbled down. No splash, only a crack as he hit the rocks below.

She turned to see a man just behind her, certainly intending the crack of her back upon the rocks in turn. Ren'ai flexed to bring up the weight of her weapon. He downed it, before swiping at her a strong blow. She stepped back. Heels meeting open air. Toes within thin boots gripping at crumbling ground as water rushed behind her.

No one within blade's reach to assist her, she wondered if she might not have a better chance in taking a backward leap, but she simply did not know what might dwell there or precisely how far. Only darkness and echoes met her senses. Her heart thumped at her chest a frightful throbbing in her head. Moist palms gripped the axe handle, not a hill or valley of the grain escaping her perception. A useless weapon she grasped in that moment. She knew lifting the blade would shift her weight into a certain tumble.

Then she heard a whistle. Thinking only of Nakali's sure aim, she set her sight about for a golden arrow streaking through the branches to her rescue, but found Nakali, with empty quiver had joined the battle, her taste for spray upon her face great. When Nakali entered the battle, she could only watch. Unlike Ren'ai's vengeful blows, Nakali spun about in a dangerous dance. Ren'ai always imagined she should have her own minstrel strumming away with her every move, striking the strings violently when Nakali made contact. Her strikes were quick and precise. They had to be, wielding two golden daggers against advancing swords. Kicking the flat of a man's blade to remove the obstacle, in one smooth movement she circled round to slit his throat.

Ren'ai had never actually seen her in real battle before. Amazement streaked Ren'ai's face as blood strung across her Teacher's gown as tiger stripes.

When Ren'ai saw an attacker reach around Nakali's knife to grab her wrist and jerk the finely proportioned woman forward as if in play, the First Guard knew that he had made a highly regrettable mistake. Dropping her weapon, the gold clad archer twisted his grip and snaked her own slender fingers around his wrist as in one swift movement, she pulled him forward and swung his arm out and around. His body could only follow as he did full spin in the air, landing on his belly. Nakali whipped around to the side of him and laid a hip into his elbow and knee to his shoulder. Three cracks met Ren'ai's ear as one before his scream gurgled to silence by a blade across the throat like the lingering strum of a fiddler's final cord.

Ren'ai refocused on the man before her as his head arched to the heavens and his sword went out to the side. Had Ren'ai some traction she might have kicked his chest, but in such a position she certainly would have given herself the final push to her death.

She grabbed him, using his body as leverage, to give herself footing. Noticing thin shards of ice lodged in his back, she realized what the whistling had been. She pulled around him as he fell forward into the riverbed below. She raised a thankful palm toward Jabari, but realized he had no time to see it. He had problems of his own, a man hard upon him with heavy strikes, his short blades only a defense against the man's aggression. Ren'ai stepped past a fallen foe, then another and another as her pace quickened. Raising her axe up over her head and left shoulder, she called upon her strength. Spray rose upon her as she laid the blade into the aggressor's back pulling his body back to see Jabari wiping his brow.

He smiled with teeth white against a red specked chin.

"I think we're done here." Nakali sheathed her daggers, one upon each arm. Blood oozed out from the casings as each came to rest. "Did they say what they wanted?" She directed the question toward the two male guards, one lying on the ground calling in deep breaths.

The other, with hands on his knees, looked up to answer. "Same thing they always say. Someone told them we were about and Ruric sent soldiers to find and capture the Healer." He spoke between labored breaths. "There are likely other troops about. We had best keep a look out tonight. And make our way back toward the Jagged at first light. Who cares about bilberries?"

"We'll do no such thing." Master Jabari looked across the sixty or so dead and dying. A wisp of remorse across his face as if he fought with himself not to heal them. "I promised the people of Glyndwr I'd show them how to make calendula and arnica ointments before Renatus' chill. This is the last chance we'll have to do it.

"Master, I must protest. It is not safe here." Nakali straightened her skirt before untying and retying the ribbon holding hair from her face.

"Nonsense. I might as well be dead if I'm neither healing nor teaching."

Nakali's voice persisted. "Master."

"Nakali, you stay here, make sure every last one of them is dead then meet us up at the camp for first watch."

"Yes, Master." She turned her head from him.

It had been but four Haerfests since that night when the Healer called Ren'ai to join him. As far as she could remember life began in the training rooms of the Jagged. Nothing existed before protecting the Healer.

Only Big Sister, Ren'iv, held her to the time before, those dead eyes looking but seeing nothing, a remnant of proof of the injustice done to her family. For not the briefest moment that did she cease thinking about righting that wrong. No waking hour that she did not consider how she would make Ruric stand before her judgment and no amount of training in the arena with Lieten, meditating with Nakali, no wise words from the Healer could alter that path many Haerfests before chosen. Not even days with the Healer's wife spent reading the old stories of her people could help her understand why justice should not be served, but that did not mean that they would not continue to try.

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