Midnight Quest (45 page)

“Why the wait?” Alexandra asked, words cracking slightly.

“We’ve realized they’re there,” Sarvell explained. “If you’re going to ambush people, you have a certain plan and you put people into position to take advantage of that surprise. But if your prey knows you’re there, then you have to change the plan, which means you have to be in a different position. They’re off-kilter now.”

That made sense. Part of Jewel wished they had just rushed in, though. She wasn’t sure how much more of this her nerves could take.

To Jewel’s sensitive ears, the sudden rush of the assassins sounded overly loud. The wet grass slapped against their shoes and legs as the attackers darted forward, and the slide of weapons through the fog with a sound of displaced air. She flinched in spite of herself, which threw Alexandra a little off balance as well.

Within moments, the ring of metal striking metal sounded, like a discordant symphony. The armsmen either gave a soft grunt of effort or hissed in a breath at nearly the same time.

“What?” Jewel asked Alexandra in alarm. “What’s going on?”

“Six attackers all struck at once,” Alexandra responded shakily.

Six? But they only had five armsmen… “Who took two?”

“Rialt.”

Of course. He probably did that deliberately too, as he had the most experience dealing with them. She listened as intently as she could but the slaps of weapons striking each other, the heavy breathing and grunts of the men, none of it told her who was winning.

Then a sickening sound as metal struck flesh, a short scream of pain, truncated when a body fell heavily to the ground. For the first time, Jewel’s hand squeezed Alexandra’s painfully tight as she whispered past a tight throat, “Tell me that wasn’t one of ours.”

“No,” Alexandra hastily reassured her. “Our men are fine.”

Thank all the gods.

Still shaky, Alexandra whispered, “Sorry. I forgot for a moment that you couldn’t see. The armsmen are holding their ground, and the assassins are desperately trying to push forward. But it looks like they’re outmatched—” this sounded vastly reassuring until Alexandra added uncertainly, “I think.”

Two more screams rent the air, shortly before something large and heavy hit the ground with a
thud
. “Both assassins,” Alexandra said quickly. “
Ohh!”

Jewel resisted the urge to throttle her. “
What?”

“They’re down.” Alexandra let out a huge rush of air and finally released the stranglehold she had on Jewel’s hand. “Stiles and Chizeld were able to help finish the others off.”

Jewel rubbed at her hands, the blood flowing back into the appendage with a painful tingling sensation. She was glad that for once, the men hadn’t exercised any mercy against their opponents. Men sometimes had the strangest notions of fighting fairly, but to her mind, assassination attempts and ambushers didn’t deserve “fair.” Apparently, Stiles and Chizeld agreed with her.

“Trexler, call the City Guard to deal with this,” Chizeld ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Jewel listened to this in bemusement. She had thought that with the armsmen being assigned to Alexandra, they would no longer be subordinate to Chizeld. Apparently that wasn’t the case. Either that or old habits died hard…

“Two squads this time,” Rialt observed, tone ruminative. “It be quite a compliment, that.”

“Two might have done the job,” Sarvell observed dryly. “Thankfully they chose to attack when we were all together.”

“Bad planning on their part,” Rialt agreed. He took two steps backwards and laid a warm hand on Jewel’s shoulder. “Heart, you look a mite pale.”

She followed the arm and stepped in for a long hug. “I don’t think I’ve ever going to get used to being attacked like that.”

“I would be a bad husband if you
did
get used to it,” Rialt pointed out dryly, which made her smile. “Now the question stands, was this too much excitement for today? If you want to retreat a day and settle your nerves, no man here will think less of you.”

Jewel shook her head even before he could complete the offer. “Oh no. No, no, no, no. The longer those crystals are out of their proper place, the more incentive the Daath have for killing us. I want them all in the right place
yesterday
.”

“I agree.” Alexandra still sounded shaken, but her tone was firm. “But…you do not think they will try again today?”

“Today’s the safest day to work,” Chizeld assured her. Well, assured them both, really. “Will take time to realize that these teams failed and deploy new ones. Will not be able to react today.”

It made sense. And if that were the case…Jewel stepped back from Rialt’s hold and faced the general direction that Alexandra was standing in. “Let’s move her.”

Alexandra took in a breath and let it out again slowly. “Alright. This way, then.”

They went to the shoreline first to see for themselves what the situation was like. Jewel could feel the coldness coming off the water, brushing against the skin of her face. She didn’t like the idea of getting in that water one little bit, but…if she could get through this quickly, she could marry Rialt tomorrow. Decisions, decisions. “Alright,” she asked of the people around her, “what does it look like?”

“Whole sections on this side are gone,” Sarvell reported. “It looks like a more than wide enough gap to me. Assuming we can tip our crystal-friend without hitting the interior of the slide, it shouldn’t be difficult to move her.”

Just the news she wanted to hear. “Then let’s get this done.”

They retreated to the inside of the resort and rooms that had been set apart for their use. The Jordians had apparently realized at some point that a woman could not modestly play in the water with what fashion currently offered. So they’d created a swimming outfit that a woman could either purchase or borrow from the resort. Made from some sort of light, stretchy material, it covered her from collarbones to knees in a form-fitting skirt, with tights underneath. Jewel was very tempted to buy one just to sleep in—they were
marvelously
comfortable.

Dressed for battle, she and Alexandra came back out and returned to the shoreline.

Now if only she could dredge up the courage to wade into the water.

“Jewel?” Rialt stepped in close, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You afraid of water?”

She grimaced. “Cold water, yes!”

“Ahhhh. Well, in that case…” With no warning, he hoisted her into the air.

“Wait, w-what—?!”

Chuckling in a terrifying and evil way, he tossed her carelessly forward. Jewel managed a panicked screech before she hit the water’s surface.

Because of her flailing about, she hit on her right side. The feeling of cold, hard water nearly robbed her of breath. A painful tingle spread through her as the cold seeped quickly into her skin. She scrambled to put her feet under her, toes digging into the sand to find purchase. Only then was she able to put her head above water. She intended to yell at Rialt, but her body insisted on drawing in three deep, gasping breaths of air first.

“
RIALT!”

“Revenge, lass,” he responded with mock-sweetness.

Obviously he subscribed to the theory that revenge was best served cold.

“Besides,” he added in that same congenial tone, “the best way to deal with cold water be to jump in.”

“That’s a believable argument from a man still standing on shore!” She meant for her tone to be scathing, but couldn’t quite manage it through her chattering teeth.

“Hold your breath.”

Hold her breath? For what? No…wait…surely he wouldn’t…

She heard as he took a heavy step forward, and then a second later a tremendous
splash
as something large hit the water. Once again the water washed over her head, only this time as a wave.

The water sloshed in every direction as Rialt moved. “Phew! Mite chilly.”

Chilly?!
Indignant, she balled her fists together and splashed the water as hard as she could at him.

Rialt, the rat fink, laughed and splashed back. Not about to let that slide, she riposted the icy spray. It went downhill from there as they splashed water as much and as fast as they could. If she hadn’t already been soaked, their water war would have done the job.

“Will you stop?” Sarvell called out in exasperation from the safety of the shore. “How is it that as soon as you two get near water, you start acting like children?”

“She started it,” Rialt defended himself, completely unmoved by the scolding.

Jewel splashed him again for that.

“Focus,” Chizeld commanded. “Shouldn’t be in water for long.”

True. Jewel felt racked with shivers and she couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering. It would be unwise to stay in for long.

Because she had been tossed in (she’d get Rialt for that later), Jewel had no real sense of direction. The crystal stood behind her, she could feel that clearly, but she didn’t know where the water ended or where the dock was anymore.

“Here, lass.” Rialt’s warm hand grabbed hers, feeling like a branding iron on her chilled skin. “This way.”

She grasped his wrist with her free hand for balance and waded after him.

“Jewel!” Alexandra called from near the crystal’s base. “Why don’t you push and I pull?”

Since she could actually
see
, that was probably the best plan. “Alright!”

Rialt directed her more to the left, no doubt guiding her to the back of the crystal. “Is it right in front of me?”

“You should be able to reach it.”

She let go of his wrist and stretched out her hand. Her fingers grazed the flat surface easily. This crystal felt colder than the rest had, but considering it sat in ice cold water all day, well… She moved over a few feet, centering herself to the crystal. Rialt moved so that he stood behind her, out of the way. “Alexandra, ready?”

“Ready!”

“On three! One, two, three!” Jewel slowly pushed as Alexandra lifted, tilting the crystal at a slight angle.

“Stop!” Alexandra commanded. “Now move forward five paces!”

Jewel slowly pushed forward, the water moving around her in a slow roll as the crystal shifted. She counted out five paces before halting. “Good?”

“Need to tip her a little more and then another five paces!”

They repeated this process several times before Alexandra called, “I think she will clear! Just keep walking forward!”

Jewel issued a silent prayer that this would work. If it didn’t, they would probably have to dismantle the slide completely, which everyone was loathe to do. The workers would need another full day or two to tear the slide free if it came to that. It would also mean getting into this freezing water again.

“Jewel,” Rialt’s voice was deep with concern, “your lips be blue.”

“I take it that’s bad?”

“Very. A few more paces and the crystal should win free. After that, you be coming straight out and into a hot bath.”

Sounded heavenly.

Her body was so frozen that every muscle seemed to creak. Jewel found it hard to move and it came to a point where her body felt sapped of all strength. Sheer willpower kept her moving steadily forward.

“Almost to shore,” Rialt encouraged. “A few paces more.”

Jewel didn’t actually need him to tell her that, although she was heartened by the encouragement. The water was becoming more shallow with every step, and by now it sloshed around her thighs instead of coming up to her chest. In fact, the steady way the water retreated made things worse and better all at once. Worse, because the cold air hit her wet skin and chilled her even further so that goose bumps were covering her from head to toe. Better, because she knew that if the water was
this
shallow that she could stop soon and race to find that hot bath.

When the water barely covered her ankles, Alexandra called out, “Stop! We can move her properly in place tomorrow.”

Jewel couldn’t agree more.

Someone threw a blanket around her and snugged it in tight under her chin. “This way,” Chizeld encouraged her with an arm around her waist. “Resort Manager has ordered bath drawn for everyone.”

Shivering hard, she followed him mindlessly up the slight slope and to the resort. They thumped up the wooden stairs to the deck and then inside. The warmth of the air inside the building washed over her and sent another shiver racing over her skin.

Jewel had never had a chance to memorize this place and so the quick steps and turns meant little to her and only further disoriented her sense of direction. So it wasn’t until Chizeld spoke that she realized they were anywhere near the baths.

“Rialt,” her armsman said patiently, “Men’s baths are
that
way.”

Rialt made an inarticulate growl of protest. “You would no argue about me going in with her if we were married!”

“Not married,” Chizeld pointed out ruthlessly.

“It be only two days off, man!”

“
Not
married,” Chizeld repeated with more emphasis. “Unless being struck by lightning by an angry goddess isn’t scary?”

“Errr…”

“Thought so. Jewel and Alexandra can help each other. Go.”

Rialt stalked off, muttering under his breath about chaperones and prudish goddesses. Jewel was too frozen to appreciate the moment fully, but she knew she’d be giggling about this later. In fact, that was obvious as Alexandra was choking on a laugh even now.

“Go on,” Chizeld encouraged them. “Priestess Alexandra, if Jewel’s arm is taken like so…yes, exactly right. Easy to lead that way.”

Jewel switched guides and followed Alexandra into another room where the heavenly feel of hot water permeated the air. She decided right then and there that she didn’t care if anyone wound up waiting for her—she was going to soak in that tub until she was a wrinkled prune.

Chapter Thirty-one

The day of the wedding dawned bright and sunny, although with a slight nip of cold to the breeze. Sarvell had never seen a calmer couple going to the altar than those two. Of course, they had nothing to worry about. All of the usual planning that a bride did Jewel had had little hand in—in fact, Alexandra and the resort manager’s wife had done most of the planning. Jewel had given her opinion when it was asked for, but really, she couldn’t decide between this shade of red and
that
shade or whether the overall scheme coordinated well with the interior, or any of the other decorating details that brides seemed to get hung up on. Sarvell felt that it was for the best. Jewel didn’t have that half-crazed look to her like most brides, trying to dash around seeing to a thousand last minute details.