The Labyrinth of Destiny (11 page)

L’iam rode up to her side, staring
at Falcon, which now glinted harmlessly in the sunlight. “I have never seen
anything like that,” he declared. “Is it because you are a Serraf?”

Adesina slowly shook her head. “No,
it happened before I crossed over the Threshold. I think it is because this
sword was forged with some of my blood in it.”

L’iam’s eyes brightened with
understanding. “Yes, that makes sense. It became a talisman through blood
magic. I wonder what else it is capable of doing.”

Adesina shrugged uncomfortably. “I
am certain we shall find out before this is over.”

L’iam noticed his wife’s discomfort
and reached over to squeeze her hand. “Let us go see to the refugees.”

They dismounted and approached the
group of frightened travelers on foot, wishing to seem as unthreatening as
possible. As they drew nearer, the refugees raised their farming tools and
tried to appear menacing.

“Do not come any closer,
magic-users,” warned a man in the front. “We have nothing of value for you to
take. Please leave us be.”

Adesina frowned. The man looked
strangely familiar.

“We do not wish to take anything
from you,” soothed L’iam. “We just wish to be certain that no one is injured.
You are free to leave at any time.”

“Why did you help us?” asked the
man, lowering his pitchfork slightly.

L’iam pointed toward the forest.
“We have a camp on the other side of those woods. We offer protection to any
who might wish it. We have helped others who are fleeing the Scepter of
Cha-sak, and we ask for little in return—only that you do your part in caring
for the camp and others. Those who wish to lend their skills to our endeavor
are appreciated, but it is not a requirement for those who join us.”

Adesina suddenly realized where she
had seen the man before. “Your name is Ston,” she blurted out.

Several of the men behind Ston
murmured, and he paled slightly. “Do not use your magic on me. My mind is my
own.”

The young queen shook her head. “I
am not reading your mind. We have met before, seven or so years ago. I came to
the High City and asked for admittance.”

Ston straightened slowly. “I was
indeed in charge of such matters,” he said with a trace of pride.

“Are you all from the High City?”
Adesina asked eagerly.

Ston’s expression became wary.
“Some.”

“There are other former citizens of
the High City in our camp,” said L’iam. “They are led by a man named Quinlan.”

“The blacksmith?” asked Ston in
stunned delight.

The other refugees began talking
all at once, asking if specific people were among the other group of survivors
and encouraging Ston to lead them to the camp.

A young woman pushed her way to the
front of the crowd. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a simple bun and her
clothing was worn and patched. Even so, her blue eyes sparkled with joy.

“Adrie? Is that you?”

Adesina felt a lump form in her
throat. “Gainor!”

The L’avan queen’s former High City
companion turned and called to the back of the group. “See, Rina? I
told
you it was her.”

Adesina laughed and embraced her
old friend. “There is someone in the camp who will be especially glad to see
you.”

There were many tears as the two
groups of High City survivors reunited. Deasa, Gainor, and Rina were all
overjoyed to find their girlhood friends alive. They embraced, laughing and
crying.

They pulled Adesina into their arms
as well, and she felt tears running down her face. A weight was lifted from her
heart now that she knew that all of her friends had survived the terrible
massacre in the High City.

Breathless introductions were made
on all sides, beginning the lengthy process of catching up with one another.

Rina’s husband, Degan, was still as
slender and quiet as Adesina remembered him, but his eyes were infinitely older
and more wary. Three small children with their father’s red hair huddled around
Rina’s skirts. The two little boys were called Cavell and Ardley, and the
little girl was named Faryl.

Adesina had forgotten that Degan’s
family had befriended the outcast apothecary, and Adesina made a mental note to
tell Degan that Faryl was alive and in the L’avan camp.

Deasa’s smile faltered when she
said she had no children, but she was happy to tell them of her marriage to
Nordin. Adesina’s eyes flitted to Gainor, curious of her reaction. In their
youth, Gainor had been quite infatuated with Nordin. However, Gainor was
genuinely delighted for her friend, and no jealously marred the reunion.

Gainor was married to a young
farmer she had met after escaping the High City. He was humble and plain, not
at all like what Gainor had proclaimed to have wanted when she was sixteen. It
was clear that they adored one another, and Adesina was happy for them. They
had a baby boy who was less than a year old, and stared up at his admirers with
clear blue eyes and a shy smile.

Adesina’s High City friends were
both eager and awed when she introduced them to L’iam. They had never met a
king before, let alone the king of the magic-users. Ravi’s introduction brought
even more shock to their faces, especially when Ravi spoke in response to their
greetings.

L’iam stayed long enough to get the
newest refugees settled and to greet his wife’s friends, but then he was off to
see to his daily duties. Adesina stayed to continue talking with the others.

“Where did you go after the attack
on the High City?” asked Adesina.

Gainor frowned. “My mother awoke me
and told me to run. There was so much screaming, and the whole city seemed to
be on fire. I thought that my family was right behind me, but when I looked
back I was alone.”

Rina reached over and gave Gainor’s
hand a squeeze.

Gainor smiled at her friend and
went on. “I wanted to find them, but there was too much chaos. I ran into Rina
and Degan, and we escaped the city together.”

“We headed north,” supplied Rina,
stroking the hair of little Faryl, who was resting on her lap. “We found a
large group of refugees, and we assumed we were the only survivors.”

“There were more than a thousand of
us,” asserted Gainor. “Governor Wadell took charge and said we would build
another city for ourselves.”

Adesina and Deasa both stared in
shock. “A thousand?”

Gainor nodded. “At first our group
was much smaller, but more and more survivors kept coming to our camp over the
course of a month.”

The High City refugees that had
lived in Emerald Harbor had not quite numbered at two hundred, and Adesina had
thought that a miraculously large group of survivors. The rest of those who had
escaped the massacre in the High City must have gathered to the north.

“Why are there so few of you now?”
asked Adesina.

Gainor and Rina exchanged a
sorrowful glance. “Well,” started Rina, “none of us had ever lived anywhere
except for our homes in the High City. We did not know how to properly set up a
camp or how to care for ourselves in those circumstances.”

“People started getting sick,”
continued Gainor, “more and more every day.”

“It was terrible,” whispered Rina.

“The sanitation was horrible and
illness spread like wildfire,” Gainor said with a shudder. “People were dying
by the hundreds, and none of the local villages were willing to send help.”

“They said we had brought the
plague upon ourselves with our devil-worshipping and intolerant lifestyles,”
Rina added.

Deasa nodded sadly. She had told
Adesina that her group of refugees had met with similar distrust and isolation
from other Seharans.

“Governor Wadell was among the
sick. When he died Ston took over as our leader. He said we had to leave the
camp and burn it to eliminate the sickness there. He said there were too many
dead to bury.”

Rina’s voice faded as she struggled
with tears, and Gainor put her arm around her friend.

“We stayed on the move after that,”
Gainor resumed. “We wandered for a long time. Sometimes we met with Northern
Tribes that were willing to help us or teach us how to take better care of
ourselves. Every winter was very difficult, and many more of us died from cold
or hunger. We moved eastward, and eventually we came to a farming community
that was willing to let us settle near them. We would not have survived much
longer if it had not been for their kindness.”

Gainor turned her loving eyes on
her husband, and Adesina assumed that it was in that farming community that she
had met the young farmer she would wed.

Adesina’s heart ached for her
friends. They had suffered so many hardships, and all because of the mindless
violence and selfish schemes of the Shimat.

Deasa took her turn in telling of
her escape from the High City and the slow journey that ended in Emerald
Harbor. Gainor and Rina nodded as she spoke, all sharing empathy for the great
suffering that they had experienced. Adesina could see that these three women
were infinitely closer now than they had ever been as girls.

“What about you, Adrie?” asked
Gainor when Deasa had finished her tale. “Tell us what happened to you. You
disappeared from the city one day, and now we find you have married a king!”

Adesina had explained her past once
before, when she had found Deasa and the others in Emerald Harbor. She now did
it again, telling the absolute truth about who she was and why she had come to
the High City.

It was clear that Gainor and Rina
were stunned, but there was no judgment on their faces. Instead, their
expressions showed pity when she spoke of the decisions she had been forced to
make and the hardships she had experienced.

Adesina wanted to hug each of her
friends fiercely. They had been through so much more than her, but their sorrow
for her suffering was clear on their faces.

When Adesina’s tale moved past
Emerald Harbor, Deasa joined the others in leaning forward with interest. The
story of L’iam’s rescue was not one she had heard first-hand.

Adesina left out many details, such
as her Dreams and the struggle with her
vyala
. Magic was a strange and
incomprehensible thing to her High City friends, and Adesina didn’t have time
at the moment to try and help them to understand something so complex. Even
without the magical aspects of the journey, Adesina’s tale was a fantastic one.
Her friends’ eyes were filled with a mixture of wonder and disbelief.

Ravi helped out with her narrative
occasionally, but for the most part he simply sat and listened. Adesina could
tell through their Joining that his mind was more focused on something apart
from where they were sitting. Almost as if he was monitoring the actions of
someone far away.

When Adesina reached the part of
her story that dealt with the Threshold her friends shared horrified glances.

“A demon?” gasped Rina.

“Do such things really exist?”
asked Deasa with an expression that said she wished to doubt it, but didn’t.

“I am sorry to say that they do,”
affirmed Adesina. “Cha-sak escaped his prison before I could stop him, and now—”

“Wait,” interrupted Gainor.
“Cha-sak…as in, the Scepter of Cha-sak?”

Adesina nodded. “That is what the
Shimat have begun to call themselves. The demon is using them to take over
Sehar. Once he has control of this nation, he will continue until he has conquered
the world.”

Adesina’s High City friends looked
around the L’avan camp with new understanding in their eyes. They could see all
of the preparations taking place, and they knew that battle was coming.

“You are going to oppose him,”
stated Rina quietly. “The magic-users are going to fight, while the rest of
Sehar merely flees.”

“Some of the refugees here have
volunteered to fight as well,” Adesina said. “We also have the support of many
of the Northern Tribes.”

“The Northern Tribes?” asked Gainor
in surprise. “They never get involved in other people’s affairs.”

“Rarely,” agreed Adesina. “But this
time they are.”

“You certainly inspire others to
take action,” said Rina with admiration.

The L’avan queen laughed. “It comes
with the title.”

“Queen Adrie,” mused Gainor with a
hint of envy. “Who would have guessed?”

“Queen Adesina,” corrected Deasa
with a smile.

“It is more than the title,
though,” insisted Rina. “Even before you became queen, back when we knew you in
the High City, you made us want to be better. You were born to be a leader,
Adesina.”

Adesina’s tone was grave. “I hope
that is true. This is going to be a terrible battle, and Cha-sak will not be
defeated without much sacrifice. It will take many good leaders to see us
through this.”

“I am going to talk to Ston about
the High City men joining the fight,” Gainor said resolutely. “Deasa said that
there are volunteers from her camp of survivors and they are being trained by
your soldiers.”

Deasa nodded in support of her
friend’s words.

“And we can help, too,” added
Gainor enthusiastically. “We can make clothing for the soldiers and help keep
the camp in order. We know how to do that now,” she laughed.

Rina also agreed. “We cannot stand
by any longer. We should have fought for our homes before; we should have
prepared ourselves to do so. Now we can take the action that should have been
taken when the High City was standing.”

Adesina’s eyes filled with tears
and she struggled to control her emotions. “Thank you,” she whispered softly.
“Thank you for everything.”

Adesina’s afternoon with her High
City friends came to an end, and she knew she had to resume her duties as
queen. She and Ravi walked back to the tent where all of the war planning took
place and found L’iam with all of his advisors.

The king gave his wife a smile that
lit up his entire face. “Welcome back to the present,” he joked. “How was your
visit with your past?”

“It was lovely,” she answered
earnestly.

There were several familiar faces
gathered around the table in the center of the tent. Her father, uncle, and
brother were there, as well as Than’os and Mar’sal. Rajan was seated next to
L’iam and K’eb stood on his other side. Sitara and Ruon were also there, but
they stood separate from the group gathered around the table. Adesina greeted
her friends and family briefly and then got down to business. “What have I
missed?”

Me’shan was the one to answer his
daughter’s question. “We are discussing our need for allies.”

“The Shimat have recalled their
entire force from abroad and they have been hiring mercenaries to swell their
numbers,” reported K’eb. “We are terribly outmatched.”

“We just received word that the
Shimat army began moving two days ago. They will be here in no more than three
months, which is not much time to send for help,” said Adesina’s uncle, Ri’sel.

E’nes gestured to the maps on the
table. “Knowing the pattern of the Scepter of Cha-sak, the army will most
likely destroy everything in its path. That will send thousands of refugees in
our direction. It will take time to prepare for their arrival.”

“That also creates the problem of
our supplies,” added Mar’sal. “The Shimat will cut off our lines, and the crops
we have planted will not be enough.”

Adesina raised her hands. “One
problem at a time, please.”

They all looked at her expectantly,
and she frowned at the maps as she considered their position.

She had never been a senior member
of the Shimat organization, so she had no idea what kind of numbers the
Sharifal commanded. It could be merely hundreds, or it could be thousands.
Based off of the size of Adesina’s own graduating Shimat class, it seemed
likely that there would be no more than a few hundred full Shimat warriors. As
for mercenaries, those had never been hard to find.

“Do we have an estimate for the
size of their army?” Adesina asked.

K’eb nodded. “Savir’s most recent
report says that they number close to ten thousand.”

Adesina’s chest tightened. They
were outnumbered three to one. “We need allies,” she murmured to herself.

Her eyes roved the maps of Sehar
and came to rest on Charan.

Charan was a city on the far west
of Sehar and was called the Gateway City. Sehar was connected to another nation
called Etan, but only through a narrow pass of land. Mountains obstructed the
majority of the small stretch, and Charan occupied an area between the
mountains and the ocean. Charan was part of the nation of Etan, and one could
not travel from Sehar into Etan without going through that city.

“The Scepter has blockaded Sehar’s
harbors, but what of the Gateway City? Is it still open?”

Mar’sal’s expression was uncertain.
“We have not sent scouts in that direction, but we have heard rumors. They say
that there is a Shimat fort guarding the pass from Etan, barring any from
entering Sehar from Charan.”

Adesina looked at her husband. “Do
you think Etan would send help if we asked for it?”

L’iam let out his breath slowly.
“Perhaps, if they understood the danger that Cha-sak posed to them.”

“Who is this Etan?” demanded Ruon
from the side of the tent.

Adesina explained as she continued
to stare at the maps. “It is not a person. Etan is a portion of the former
nation of Lam. After the Plague Years, Lam had a violent civil war that split
the kingdom in two—Etan and Ghaith.”

“They would send soldiers to our
aid?” asked Sitara.

“It is possible, but not certain,”
answered L’iam.

“We need to try,” said Adesina
decisively. “Etan is the only nation that could send help without using ships.
The Shimat have too many ships of their own, and we would run the risk of
losing our reinforcements before they even arrive.”

“Charan is also close enough that
help would arrive at the same time as our enemies, or soon thereafter,” pointed
out Me’shan.

“Could one city muster enough force
to send us significant aid?” asked Ruon in a doubtful tone.

“Etan is not Sehar,” explained
L’iam. “Sehar is underpopulated and has no unified government. No one comes to
Sehar unless it is necessary—which it rarely is. That is what makes Sehar such
a convenient base for an organization like the Shimat. Etan, on the other hand,
is a thriving nation with a strong government and military. A city like Charan
would have its own dedicated force of thousands.”

“It would take so little for them
to help us, and they would be stopping an incredible evil from spreading to the
rest of the world,” E’nes exclaimed passionately.

Adesina’s mouth twitched with the
hint of a smile as she looked at her older brother. “If only we had a volunteer
to act as an emissary to the Gateway City—someone who was both eloquent and
enthusiastic.”

E’nes shot his sister a sarcastic
glance. “You want me to go and leave all of you to fight here? No, thank you. I
will not save my own life while others risk theirs.”

Adesina’s expression grew somber.
“It is a dangerous mission, E’nes. I do not suggest it lightly. The Shimat are
certainly watching us, and they will try and stop us from obtaining outside
help. You would be running from Shimat assassins for weeks, and even your
arrival in Charan would offer no guarantee of safety. I need someone I can trust
to go, but I do not harbor any belief that this mission will be easy.”

E’nes’s eyes became thoughtful. “I
do not like the idea of leaving all of you.”

L’iam gestured with his hand. “If
you leave today there is an excellent chance that you can return with
reinforcements before our enemies even arrive.”

E’nes turned to his brother-in-law.
“Is this what you wish of me, my king?”

L’iam nodded. “Yes.”

“Then I shall obey,” promised
E’nes, but his face was filled with dissatisfaction.

Adesina wanted to shake her fist at
her brother. He was more likely to argue with her decisions than agree with
her, yet L’iam always received unquestioning obedience. It did not seem to
matter to him that she was the queen. He still treated her like a child that
needed guidance and protection. It drove her mad.

Instead of giving in to the urge to
box her brother’s ears, Adesina turned her thoughts back to the problems at
hand.

“Next, refugees. Entire villages
will be fleeing to the north away from the Scepter of Cha-sak. Not all of them
will come to us, but there will be many who do. We need to prepare for their
arrival.”

“What of the refugees that are
already here?” suggested Sitara. “Most of them have declined joining in the
fight, but they can still be of use to us. Put them in charge of settling all
of the newcomers.”

L’iam rubbed his chin. “Yes, I
think that would work well.”

“We need to be careful of Shimat
spies,” warned Adesina. “I would be surprised if they did not try to hide
assassins among the refugees.”

L’iam pointed to Ri’sel. “Gather a
committee of Readers to screen all of the newcomers, and find some soldiers who
are able to restrain anyone suspicious. If there are any with ill intentions,
they will not be allowed to enter our camps.”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

The king of the L’avan glanced at
his wife. “That leaves only the problem of supplies.”

“I think we can solve that,” said
Ravi.

Adesina sensed through their
Joining that his thoughts were once more far away. This time she followed his
mind to see what he was seeing.

At the northern tip of the ocean,
beyond Pevothem’s protective cliffs, a presence both strange and familiar was
approaching. Adesina could sense traces of her own
vyala
, like wisps of
smoke coming off of embers.

It took her a moment to recognize
the creature swimming through the water, but Adesina smiled as soon as she did.

“Kai.”

L’iam frowned in confusion. “Kai?”

Adesina gave him a playful grin.
“Would you like to take a small trip with me?”

“I would like to come as well,”
interjected Ruon unexpectedly.

L’iam looked at the two of them,
still bewildered. “I suppose…”

“Can you carry both of them while
flying?” asked Sitara.

Adesina assented after a moment of
thought. “I believe so.”

“Trust your
vyala
,” advised
the experienced Serraf. “You are more powerful than you know.”

The L’avan king looked around at
his advisors. “Well, it looks as though we all have much work to do. We will
meet again this evening to discuss what needs to be done. Until then, let us
make all of the preparations we can.”

He took his wife’s hand and allowed
her to lead him outside of the tent.

“Where are we going?”

“North,” Adesina answered vaguely.

She beckoned her
vyala
and
let it flow freely, wrapping it around L’iam and Ruon. Then she lifted them and
herself into the air, speeding toward the cliffs on the northern shores of
Pevothem.

Adesina found that Sitara was
correct. Her
vyala
held all of them easily now that she knew what she
was doing. Adesina felt a though she could do anything she wanted, and the
feeling was exhilarating.

Ravi watched their progress through
Adesina’s eyes, and when they landed he transported himself to join them. L’iam
watched him appear with an expression of shock on his face.

“How…?”

“It is one of the benefits of our
Joining,” Ravi explained briefly. “A Rashad can transport to any location they
can see, and I can see what Adesina sees.”

Ruon ignored this exchange and
walked to the edge of the cliff, gazing down into the water.

Adesina had brought them to the
lowest portion of the cliffs, but they were still a good distance from the
surface of the ocean. The water looked black and still from where they stood.

“There,” Ruon pointed to a white
line of disturbed water heading in their direction.

How does she know where we are?
wondered Adesina.

Just as I was able to track her
progress here,
Ravi thought back.
She recognizes your
vyala,
even
from a distance.

As Kai approached, her great head
rose from beneath the water. L’iam gasped next to Adesina, and she smiled as
she guessed what he must be thinking.

Kai was an awe-inspiring sight,
even to those who knew she was no longer dangerous. Her scales glinted a deep
metallic blue in the sunlight and the spiny fins that surrounded her
arrow-shaped head gave her a menacing appearance.

“What is that?” whispered L’iam.

“
She
is an Aekuor,” snapped
Ruon as he began climbing down the cliff’s edge.

Adesina and L’iam followed his
lead. There was a narrow ledge several feet down, which brought them closer to
Kai’s enormous head. The Aekuor had lifted herself as far as she could out of
the water, but they could still not quite see eye to eye.

“Lady Adesina, Lord Ruon, I am glad
to see you again,” said Kai in a gentle voice.

“We are glad to see you, too, Kai,”
said Adesina. She gestured to L’iam. “This is my husband, King L’iam of the L’avan.”

L’iam stammered a greeting and Kai
inclined her head toward him.

“I am pleased to meet you, honored
consort of Lady Adesina.”

Adesina hid a smile and turned back
to the Aekuor. “I thought you were going to stay with the
Zephyr
. Why
have you come this way?”

“Your friends made it safely to
their destination, but the waters were dangerous for me. There are too many
humans throwing nets into the sea. There was great risk that I would be
discovered, so I decided to come find you. I hope this decision does not anger
you.”

Adesina shook her head. “On the
contrary, I am glad you are here. You can be of great help to us.”

Kai’s face was difficult to read,
but she appeared pleased at the prospect of helping Adesina. “I would be
honored, Lady Adesina.”

The young queen reached into a
pouch on her belt and pulled out a necklace with a thin silver chain and an
oval pendant. It had been a gift from Captain Zulimar as part of a pledge that
he owed her a great debt.

The time had come to call for
repayment.

“I need you to deliver a message
for me, Kai.”