The Bonds of Blood (32 page)

“I understand,” Jovian said,
remembering the darkness he had witnessed earlier.

“After a while the power faded. That
was the same time we realized Astanel was gone.”

“So that is why you don’t think that
man did it?”

“Randal Johnston is innocent,” Maeven
said forcefully.

“I am not saying otherwise.”

“Yes, that is why we believe he is
innocent.”

“So you get a feeling when dalua are
near?” Jovian asked. “You have never seen anything?”

“I am curious why the way I can sense
agents of Chaos is so important to you.”

“I don’t care how
you
sense Chaos, Maeven,
I want to know …” Jovian sighed. “I want to know because when I saw
that figure racing up behind us earlier Angelica and I both saw a
shadow, like an inky cloud, rising up behind him, like some
malignant storm about to swallow us all.”

“Hmm,” Maeven said.

“Is that it?”

“Well, different people sense Chaos
differently. It sounds like what you saw was in fact an indication
that a dalua was near.” Maeven confirmed what Jovian had
thought.

“What kind of wyrd makes such a thing
possible?”

“Wait a second, no one ever said
anything about wyrd now did they?” Maeven held up his hands as if
to stall the thoughts going through Jovian’s mind. “I have no bit
of the Wyrding Way at all, and I can still sense dalua.”

“But you are to be a votary, so
obviously that gives you an advantage,” Jovian
protested.

“An advantage? Nah, I am just like
everyone else, only I took vows to the Goddess. This does not make
me any better, or any different. It just means that I contemplate
life and the things that happen to us more than the average person.
It also means that I see the divine in everything. Being a servant
of the Goddess does not give me powers others do not have.” Maeven
sighed and turned back to the road. Jovian noticed that the sword
strapped to his back was unhooked, ready to be drawn at a moment’s
notice.

Jovian shuffled his feet.

“I think we should get moving again
soon,” Maeven said suddenly intently studying the shadows around
their small camp.

“Do you feel something?” Jovian asked
on edge.

“I am not sure, but something does not
seem right.” Maeven started backing away and motioned for the
ladies to start packing up to get ready to move out. They all
shuffled about silently as they worked.

Jovian stood tense, ready, waiting in
case something should happen, but no matter how much he prepared
himself, he was no match for what was to come.

He froze when he heard a twig snap off
to his right, just out of sight.

“Maeven,” Jovian cautioned.

“I heard it. Hurry!” he ordered the
women.

A shiver ran up Jovian’s spine and he
was sure it had nothing to do with the damp night.

Off in the darkness a bone chillingly
familiar noise came to him. It was a strange rasping noise split
occasionally with what sounded strangely like gurgling.

Jovian shivered and took a deep breath
to calm himself. The wheezing gurgle came again. He remembered well
those noises for they were the same ones he had heard in the
courthouse. Standing there in the absolute darkness it was not hard
for Jovian Neferis to feel as though there were standing in the
middle of some great mausoleum. The thought chilled him almost as
much as the noise.

He let out the breath in a hiss and was
only able to just hear the rasping that accompanied his action.
Jovian shuddered at the thought of that creature’s inky gaze on
him, like Chaos had come to roost in the living world. Staring into
those eyes was like staring into the depths of the Otherworld’s
darkness.

Slowly, after several more breaths in
which he heard the matched noises from the deadly creature that was
stalking their camp, Jovian’s head began to fog over like mist
creeping in to clog out thought.

In he breathed with the sick gurgling,
out he breathed with the rasp.

Along with the mist something more
substantial, more solid, slipped in, penetrating the depths of his
mind.

Vertigo filled his head, giving Jovian
the strange sense that his brain was floating in endless space,
space that was not contained within his body.

His mind was seductively lured away
from the present.

“There you are,” he heard a man say,
and Jovian turned to see his father directly behind him.

The warmth of the fire that burned in
the fireplace of the parlor was both relaxing and alluring, calling
to him, welcoming him into a place of peace and comfort. It seemed
like it had been so long since Jovian had been home, able to enjoy
the parlor where they all gathered each evening for a glass of
their father’s favorite whiskey. Briefly he wondered why he felt as
though he had been away from here.

Dauin held a lit pipe in one hand, and
he offered it to Jovian with a smile.

“You have had me worried. I was looking
for you all day,” his father said as Jovian took the pipe and
raised it to his lips. Yet he felt as though something was not
right.

“You have?” Jovian said. “I
don’t understand. I have been here the entire time.”
No you haven’t.
Jovian
had most certainly been somewhere other than home … but
where?

“Eh, maybe you have; to be truthful I
have been awful busy all this time now that it is nearing harvest.”
Jovian nodded and wondered why he also had not been busy with the
preparations. It didn’t matter though; he had the company of his
father, a good pipe, and a heavy glass of whiskey waiting for him
on the stand by his favorite armchair.

“Where are the girls?” Jovian asked,
looking around as he took his spot at his father’s side, the fire
before him. He took a deep drag off the pipe and looked
around.

“They will be here shortly, I am sure
of it.” Dauin lit a pipe for himself and took a few hasty drags off
it to keep it lit.

No they won’t.
The voice in his mind was certain of this
fact.

“Something is strange here,” Jovian
said more to himself than to his father, but Dauin had a curious
look on his face nonetheless.

“What do you mean?” his father asked,
sipping his whiskey and stretching his booted feet toward the
roaring fire.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jovian
caught a glimpse of a shadow passing by the window.

“Something is off. I have a feeling
there is something out of place, but I can’t place it.” He looked
at the window where he had just seen the shadow, but now looking at
it straight on all he could see were the willow trees outside,
leaves draped over the panes like a curtain.

“Huh, well I don’t know what it could
be; everything has been the same since you left,” Dauin said
leaning forward to look around.

Jovian’s head began to swim
dizzyingly.

“What?” Jovian asked, looking at his
father who was no longer sitting forward in the chair, but again
leaning back as he had been moments before like nothing had
happened.

His father looked at him confused.
“What are you asking?”

“You said that all was as it had been
since I left.”

“I am certain I did not. You have gone
nowhere. I am sure that you have been here the whole time, though I
was looking for you all day out in the field.”

“So you said before,” Jovian frowned,
looking from one window to the next in pursuit of the shadow he had
seen moments before.

“I did?” Dauin asked looking stunned.
“I am certain I didn’t say that before.”

“What is going on?” Jovian
asked standing suddenly in alarm.
Why is
he acting so strange?

“Nothing. I told you already we are
just doing preparations for the harvest. At the moment we are
sharing a nightcap.” Dauin took a deep drag off his pipe and
smiled. “Calm down, everything is okay, Jovian. You always were the
uptight one.”

But I’m not,
Jovian thought.
I have
not been uptight a day in my life.

“There you are,” a girl said behind him
and Jovian turned to see Angelica standing there, a strange smile
plastered on her face. It was a girly smile, one he had never seen
Angelica wear before, and one he would never expect to ever see her
don.

“So it would appear,” Jovian said
quietly. Angelica laughed. A shadow flickered just out of the line
of sight above her head. Able to glimpse it better than before
Jovian realized that it was not a shadow so much as an inky
impression, as if he had something in his eye that was obscuring
his sight, and he knew that if he could only see past this spot he
might see what the matter was here.

“I have been looking for you all day,”
she said taking the offered cut crystal goblet from her father. “We
were supposed to spar earlier; you missed out on an awesome fight
between Destra and Joya.”

“What are you talking about? Joya could
not fight her way out of wet parchment.”

“What are
you
talking about?”
Angelica asked. “Joya is a great fighter, better than I am at any
rate.”

“What?” Jovian said
perplexed.

Angelica’s head jerked a little and she
smiled again. “Where have you been all day? You missed a great
fight between Joya and Destra.”

“Yeah, that is what you said. Listen,
do you think there is something strange happening? Something does
not feel right.”

Jovian’s head throbbed suddenly in such
an unstable manner that the ground itself felt as though it was
tilting. He almost lost his balance.

“Always the uptight one, isn’t he,
Angelica?” Dauin said laughing loudly.

“Yes indeed, Father. Always uptight and
silly like this.” Angelica’s laughter joined their
father’s.

“What is all this laughter about?” Joya
said walking through the door, her belly heavy with
child.

“Joya!” Jovian exclaimed. “You are
pregnant!”

“Of course I am. Alhamar and I are
getting married next month,” she said, rubbing her belly
lovingly.

“Father and I were just saying how
uptight Jovian is, Joya,” Angelica laughed handing her sister some
whiskey.

“She shouldn’t be drinking that if she
is pregnant,” Jovian said shocked.

“Yes, I see what you mean,” she said
smiling as she took the proffered glass. “Very uptight and
sometimes not all there.”

“Who is not all there?” asked another
voice, and Amber came strolling through the door.

“When did you get home?” Jovian asked,
but again the floor buckled, and Jovian felt as though he might
fall through it. Instead he braced his knees on the chair to steady
himself.

“What are you talking about?” Amber
said looking at him.

“We were just saying that Jovian is not
all there lately,” Joya said draining her goblet and motioning for
more.

“Oh yes,” Amber agreed. “Jovian is not
all there most the time, and don’t forget uptight.”

“That is what Father and I were just
saying,” Angelica snorted with laughter and bent to place her hands
on her knees as she laughed hysterically. She was joined by the
booming laughter of her father.

“I am sure that was not at all funny,”
Jovian said, an incredulous look smearing across his
face.

“Jovian,” a voice said from his
father’s laughing mouth, but it didn’t sound like his father. His
head swam again. “See, uptight,” his father pointed at him, but he
was still laughing, and his mouth did not match the
words.

“What in the Otherworld is happening?”
Jovian asked.

“Jovian!” Joya said in shock. “Don’t
talk so in front of children,” she said, motioning to the little
girl resting in her arms. She handed her daughter the goblet of
whiskey.

“Jovian,” Amber said, but it didn’t
sound like Amber.