Exiles From The Sacred Land (Book 2) (11 page)

Rennon peered into Deylia’s eyes. “I thought the malady was the ability to mindwield.”

Deylia shook her head. “I thought you were sick too. You attacked guards and me. I thought you were doing it against your will.”

The anger drained from Rennon’s body, and he felt weak. He found a rickety chair nearby to sit in.

“I will leave you two alone,” Theosus said before he turned and left the room.

“Is it true? You can cure me?”

Rennon sighed and spoke without looking at her.

“No, it’s not true. I don’t know how to do such a thing.”

“Try! There is no harm in that.” She moved directly in front of him so he would have to look her in the eye.

“No, I won’t.” He met Deylia’s glaring expression.

“The thunder, you won’t.” She punched him square in the face.

“What are you doing?” he said with alarm.

“Punching the fire out of you, you idiot.” She punched his jaw again. Tears began to stream down her face.

“This is how you plan to persuade me?”

“Either that or beat you to a pulp. You tricked me this whole time.” She raised her fist.

“Stop it!” he cried as he grabbed her right hand. She quickly caught him in the jaw with her left.

“I can fight with both hands.”

“Stop! I don’t know how to cure you. Have you gone mad?”

“Aye, I am getting there. That’s the point.”

Rennon just wanted her to stop. He grabbed her head between both hands. “Stop this madness,” he commanded. In a moment of pure instinct, he reached his mind to hers in an attempt to stop her from hitting him again. She fell to the floor, her breathing labored.

“Deylia!” Rennon went to his knees to her. “Deylia, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She caught her breath and shook her head to clear it. “Hurt me? You did it! I could kiss you.”

“Well, let’s not get hasty.” He was serious.

She laughed and embraced him in a hug and then started kissing him over and over again on both his cheeks. “I knew you could do it.”

“How do you know that I have done it?”

“I can tell. It’s gone; the madness that was taking my mind is gone. By the gods, Theosus was right.”

Rennon let the revelation sink in. He had always taken the tin of leaves Sanmir had given him; he had always thought he was cursed. His face both hurt from the beating Deylia had given him and felt good as she kissed him with those big soft lips he admired. As soon as Deylia stopped her barrage of kisses, Rennon planted one of his own on her lips. He did not expect the horrified expression on Deylia’s face as soon as he opened his eyes. “What is it?” he asked.

“Why did you do that? Why did you kiss me?”

“Hmm, is the madness back now?”

“What? No.” She pushed him back.

“I just thought since you said you could kiss me and then you did kiss me that—”

“You just took me by surprise, that’s all. I was just showing my gratitude. I was not planning on . . . well . . . on that.”

“Oh, I see. Now I feel pretty silly.”

“I am sorry, Rennon. I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I—”

“No, it’s all right. I assumed too much.” He was desperately trying to find a way out of this uncomfortable situation. “Let’s just plan out our next move.”

Deylia took Rennon’s hand. “I am sorry. I am still your friend.”

“Aye, obviously. Let’s just forget it ever happened.”

“All right.” She sat down on the bed. “Thank you, by the way.”

“What? Oh, yes, you are welcome. I don’t exactly know what I did or how I did it though.”

“It isn’t important. At least you cured me.”

Rennon nodded. He was hurting inside, and he desperately tried to hide it.
How could I be so stupid
, he thought.

Theosus entered the room and immediately investigated Deylia. “I see my faith was not misplaced.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Rennon began. “I am not sure how I did it.”

“You followed your instincts. Motivation seems to work well with you. I will have to remember that.”

“Remember it for what?” He thought he knew what Theosus was driving at.

“As I said, there are others. You will be a busy man for the next few days.”

“I told you, I am not sure what I did.”

“I am sure I can find a way to motivate you.”

“Don’t hold your breath on that.”

Theosus was amused. “Oh, I won’t. I assure you, I won’t.” He left the room.

Rennon had an uneasy feeling. “I don’t like the sound of that.” He looked around for Deylia. He looked under the bed, behind the bed, and everywhere else he could access. Deylia was not in the room. He ran to the doorway, but the spell Theosus cast repelled him. He could see Theosus walking away from him but no Deylia. He sat down on his bed in frustration.
Have I been tricked?
he thought. Deylia had vanished.

Rennon went back to the door. “I know what you are up to, Fiderea! It won’t work.” Theosus kept walking. Rennon was not even sure he could hear him from that distance.
Theosus overestimated my feelings for Deylia if he thought he could use her again to manipulate me into doing whatever he asked
, he thought.
I will not fall for it again.
He started looking for an escape. When Deylia was with him, he didn’t bother to look so fervently, but now, all he could think about was getting away.

The window was out of the question; it was too far above the ground. The fall would injure or kill him. He searched the corners of the room and found a hole in one of them. He looked around the room and managed to pull one of the bedposts loose. It wasn’t long enough to use for a club, but it worked fine as an implement to widen the hole in the wall. He dug and chipped away at the hole until it was just wide enough to slip through. He stuck his head out and looked down. A ledge several feet wide jutted out halfway between him and the next roof level of the building. He squeezed through and dropped to the wide ledge; it broke loose on the end, and Rennon scrambled to remain on the solid edge. He rested for a moment. A moment of regret made him hesitate. He realized he was about to leave Deylia in the clutches of Theosus Fiderea.
It is better this way
, he thought. Fiderea would not hurt her or use her if Rennon was out of the picture. If he stayed to rescue her, Fiderea would surely put her in harm’s way to manipulate him.
She will be all right
, he told himself.

Rennon dropped down to the next roof and ran for an open doorway. He entered a long corridor with a light at the end.
Freedom at last
, he thought. Once he left the corridor, he entered an enormous room that appeared to have once been a temple of Loracia. Among the broken stone benches and ruined alter, several people writhed on the floor moaning—women, children, and men. They tore at their clothes, and occasionally, one would stand, run to the open double doors of the temple, and discharge lightning from their bodies at the storm in the distance, uncontrollably, like someone convulsing from vomiting, and then they would collapse, moaning in pain. Rennon felt sick to his stomach. The stench of all the unwashed bodies reached his nostrils and he wanted to wretch, but he stubbornly held back.

“This is what outlawing wielding reaps!” It was Theosus. He had found Rennon. “These souls cannot help being born with the affliction of magic buried in their minds from centuries of its use. Every one of these people would have been killed in Symboria or Trigoth.”

“Look at them! They would be better off dead!”

“Then why don’t you take care of that. I will give you a sword, and you can cut down the women and children first.”

“Don’t be stupid. It isn’t my job to execute them. They need to be turned in so the Enforcers can do it.”

Theosus approached Rennon, shaking his head and making a
tsk tsk
noise. “My dear boy, would you be a party to the slaying of your own kind?”

“They are not my kind!” Rennon snapped.

“Oh, but they are.” Theosus used his dragon magic to bring one of the children up from the mass of bodies—a young girl, barely ten seasons.

“You are attempting to manipulate me.”

“Aye, and I do not hide that fact. You have the ability to help her. Only you!”

“Where is Deylia? You took her.”

“Aye, I did.”

“You are a monster.”

“Some think so, especially when I take my true form.”

“I already know you are dragonkind, so don’t bother. Deylia told me.”

“Indeed. Well?” He let the girl fall to the floor before Rennon. She convulsed and started to cry. Rennon turned away from her.

“I think you are the monster, sir. I have brought these people here in hopes of finding someone like you to help them. I kept them alive and fed as best I could while you turned away and condemned them to death at the hands of the Enforcers. You turn away from this innocent little girl now, you are the monster.”

Rennon knew it was probably a manipulation, but he was not heartless. What if he could help the girl? He took a deep breath and turned to the girl crying on the ground. He grabbed her head between his hands and the girl screamed. “Shush,” he said. She immediately went quiet. He reached his mind out to hers and thought,
Madness be gone
. The girl snapped her head out of his hands and looked at him wide-eyed. She hesitated a moment before abruptly embracing Rennon in a hug.

“It’s gone,” she whispered in his ear. “The pain in my head is gone.”

Chapter 7: A Path Revealed

Gondrial, Sanmir, Ianthill, Lady Shey, Shila, and Enowene stood at the back of the inn, awkwardly carrying the corpse of a dead Drasmyd Duil, while Dramyds and more Drasmyd Duil poised for attack. Sanmir reacted the quickest. His fine, grey, woven cloak swirled back in one fluid motion as five poisonous darts sailed through the air before Gondrial could draw his sword or Lady Shey could gather essence. The first five Dramyds crashed to the ground, clutching their eyes where Sanmir’s darts found their targets. The first Drasmyd Duil in line clawed at Gondrial, who tried to summon essence but still could not manage it. Ianthill sent a fireball cascading across the Drasmyd Duil’s face to give Gondrial time to draw his sword and remove the creature’s head. The Dramyd directly behind it tasted Gondrial’s sword as well. Enowene pushed the creatures back with a wall of essence. Lightning flashed from Shey’s fingertips, striking several of the creatures in a devastating chain of electricity.

“Sanmir, to your left!” Ianthill warned.

Sanmir twisted to see a Drasmyd Duil swoop down and claw at his face. He abruptly fell through the solid ground below him as if he had stepped in a deep pool of water. He immediately appeared out of the ground behind the creature and stabbed two long daggers into its neck. The Drasmyd Duil screeched in pain as he pulled out the daggers and fell to the ground. Sanmir stepped over it to launch one of his daggers into the eye socket of another creature.

Seeing the sand elf travel through the ground inspired Gondrial and, with the trickle of essence he could manage, he ran his sword through two Dramyds at once. “You are a showoff!” he yelled to Sanmir, who smirked before lodging the second dagger into the face of another Dramyd.

Two Dramyds landed to attack Sanmir. He knelt and touched the ground before him, and the two beasts were immediately swallowed up by the earth. Sanmir took a moment to wink triumphantly at Gondrial.

Gondrial huffed and tried to draw essence again; he strained and let loose. A Dramyd flew inbound. He struggled to draw essence once again as he held up his sword in defense. The Dramyd extended its claws for the kill. Gondrial suppressed panic and forced himself to draw essence. It felt as if something gave way in his head, and essence flooded into him. “Aha!” he shouted as he threw his sword, backed with the release of essence. It burst into flames and cut the Dramyd directly in half, catching it on fire. The sword spun around and returned to his hand as he used his abilities to control it.

“All right, we are all impressed,” Enowene barked. “Clear us a path out of here.”

Ianthill cast a few more fireballs before casting them behind Lady Shey’s lightning bolts to cut a swath through the attackers. As soon as there was a clearing, the five of them ran. They rounded the first corner and continued on to escape the flying marauders. A single Dramyd managed to fly close enough to bite Ianthill on the shoulder. Sanmir snatched it out of the air and pushed it inside the solid stone wall of the closest building and stuck it there. Limbs twitched for a few moments as it melded with the stone. Gondrial, directly behind Sanmir, dispatched the next attacking creature. He helped Ianthill to his feet and motioned for Sanmir to follow the others. Gondrial glanced behind them to see hundreds of the creatures in the sky.

“Ianthill, we need you to kill a few Dramyds,” he said with heavy sarcasm.

Ianthill glanced at the creatures circling in the sky. “Funny, Gondrial.”

“You know, kill them like you did at Vetell Fex.”

“I was frustrated.”