The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (58 page)

The girl mumbled something that his ear couldn't quite catch. Toman noted the pupils of the guard open slightly before returning to normal. "Open," the wizard ordered once more and to his surprise the soldiers moved quickly to throw open the doors. "Hurry, guard the lord and his wife," Quela added quickly.

Power seemed to flow into Toman as the woman tugged at his hand again. As they moved into the dark living quarters of the nobles, the darkness seemed to fade away. The world seemed to be tinted blue, but the details of the room were strangely vivid for him. His hearing also seemed to grow more sensitive. He could hear the breathing of those around him, each scuff of the soldiers' boots, even the light pat of Quela's bare feet on the stone.

A faint rustling came from his right before a dull whistle sounded. He pulled the two guards back just as a knife drove into the left door.

Following the path of the blade towards the one who threw it, Toman spied a man dressed in black with a black cloth wrapped around his head. Only his eyes were visible, but he didn't bother to look on them for long as he noticed more movement in front of a door cracked open.

The sound of the lord and lady's breathing could be heard coming from beyond the door and the two assassins who suddenly turned at the sound of the knife hitting the wood. Probably surprised by the act of their comrade, the men in black turned with their knives drawn.

Toman didn't know why he did it, but he charged into the room heading for the men by Itan's door.

A strong wind swept through the room moving furniture and papers on a table in front of a couch as it moved inexorably towards the assassin who had thrown the knife. Quela's spell disrupted the man in black, but he was too slippery to be caught so easily even by a wizard's spell.

One of the assassins threw one of his knives at the large guardsman as he closed the distance too slowly. His hand whipped up managing to swat the throwing knife aside catching the handle of the knife making it flip and spin towards the wall. It was a move that should have been virtually impossible at such a close distance, he thought somewhere in the back of his mind; but Toman had to get closer before luck no longer protected him.

The two guards recovered enough to surge towards the first assassin with their swords ready. A spear thrown by the first guard was in the air even as his sword cleared its sheath. It went wide, but it was enough to make the shrouded man run to the open window, the entry that the assassins had used to enter the lord's chamber most likely.

A rope caught his flying form and the assassin dropped below the window in an instant.

"You," Quela ordered tapping the closer guard, "don't let him escape."

The man ran forward and slashed at the taut rope. His blade was sharp and his attack strong. The rope split easily and Toman could even hear the sound of the assassin striking the ground forty feet below, though his attention remained on the two men in front of him.

The knives of the closer man slashed at Toman from either hand, but the big guard managed to dodge them as he struck with a flat palm to the assassin's chest. He thought that he heard bones break and the man's breath left him even as he left his feet. The force of the blow was greater than Toman had realized. His adrenaline must have pushed him to use his full strength in the strike without him realizing it; but it didn't matter as he closed on the last assassin.

Again the man moved his blades and hands swiftly. A short dance ensued as Toman fenced barehanded with the assassin. Knives tried to cut him; but despite being a large target, the guardsman found himself elusive. When he caught the man's right wrist, he twisted hard enough to break the man's arm. The pain caused him to gasp in pain.

As the knife fell from a numbed hand, Toman grabbed the left arm squeezing hard enough to make the other knife drop as well. He pulled the man in black away from the doorway tossing him towards the second soldier. The assassin was forced to the ground while Toman glanced to see the other assassin slumped against the wall wheezing as he tried to regain his breath.

Toman could hear the sounds of whispers and movement coming from Itan's room. He stepped into the doorway making certain that there were no other attackers within.

"Are you alright, my lord?" Toman questioned immediately as he would if Xerese had been so close to harm.

"We are fine. Who are you?"

A lamp was lit by Rianne. They were hardly dressed to receive visitors, but modesty was a small thing when there were assassins nearby.

"Toman?" the lord answered his own question as he blinked in the light of the lamp. "What are you doing here? Where are my guards?"

"We are here, my lord!" the first guardsman answered moving into view beside the larger Toman.

Still trying to wake from his sleep fully, Itan asked a more important question, "What happened? Who were you fighting?"

"It looks like assassins, my lord," Toman stated looking at the two men in varied states of capture. He pointed at the fallen assassin and the first guard moved to restrain the man as if there was any fight left in him.

"Assassins, here, why would an assassin target me?" the lord questioned fearfully. "Wait, why are you here anyway?"

"Quela somehow sensed that there were men moving in the castle. She brought me here just in time," he answered as accurately as he could when Toman still hadn't figured out how the woman could possibly have known that assassins were about to attack the marq and marquess.

He looked back at the dark haired girl looking so vulnerable in clothing no more appropriate for the public than what Rianne wore in her bed beside her husband. She held her hands in an odd position while closing her eyes a moment. Noticing that the conversation had moved to her, Quela walked towards Toman and the door.

"It seems safe now, though the assassin who fell isn't dead. Someone should send guards to make sure that he can't escape. He probably has broken legs, but we should make certain so everyone is safe," the wizard answered.

Itan looked at the woman and asked, "How did you know?"

Toman noted a few feelings flit across her face. He was pretty sure that the wizard didn't really want to answer the lord's question, but in the end Itan was a lord and she his guest.

"I've always had instincts that the masters couldn't quite explain. They have questioned whether I have the gift of foresight, yet I never have visions like I hear the fortune tellers speak about; so I can't say that is true.

"My air spell let me feel the castle and look for motions that would be unusual. By day, there would be too many people moving to use it; but at night I could sense where movement was strange. The assassin's climbed in from outside, which drew me here.

"I had to use my gift for suggestion on your guards to get them to enter, so please don't punish them for entering without being called, my lord. They didn't give us permission of their own accord."

Shaking his head, Itan walked towards the two by his door. "I wasn't planning on punishing the men who just saved my life or the wizard who led them to do it."

He appraised the pretty wizard in front of him and stated, "I guess that I am lucky that Xerese brought you with her when she did. Perhaps I should hire you away from her to help protect this castle?" Itan chuckled at the idea, though Toman thought maybe it was more than just a joke after seeing what Quela could do.

The petite wizard smiled and shook her head before saying, "I go where Toman goes and he follows Lady Xerese. I am sorry, my lord, but I would be glad to teach your wizards the spell I used to monitor the castle; if they don't already know something similar."

Toman realized that being from Tseult, Quela might know magic spells that no one in Malaiy would know. Their schools of magic didn't share knowledge with each other the way Eirdhen and the wizards' school there did. Offering to show the spell might get her in trouble with her king, if it ever got out that she was teaching their spells to Malaiy.

A bell rang outside, a warning bell. Voices rose at the sight of the fallen assassin. They may have snuck past the guards, but the men had seen the man in black quickly enough once he fell, Toman thought.

"Well, if you are sure that it is safe, you may take your leave. I think my guards have these two in hand. The bell will bring more here and the lady might wish to be more covered up with so many men around," Itan said letting Toman know that the lord hadn't missed the fact that Quela was underdressed for a walk in public. The guard, however, noticed Marquess Rianne frown at her husband's attention to the detail in turn. "I will send someone to gather you after breakfast. You should at least try to get some sleep before then.

"You two can explain more after I've slept, if I can even get back to sleep myself," the lord finished with a chuckle that belied the worry in his eyes.

Toman realized that Xerese was essentially unprotected in her room and walked at a slightly accelerated paced forcing Quela to nearly run to keep up.

"She is safe, Toman. There were only the three assassins. Besides I doubt anyone outside of the castle knows that she is here," the woman stated as she reached for his hand again.

Frowning at her touch because she proceeded to slow his step a bit for her convenience, the guard was ready to rebuke her for it; but looking at the woman's face made him sigh. Her eyes held confidence in her words.

"How do you know? If there were assassins outside the castle, it might make it easy to sense them climbing the wall. What if there are more inside the castle already?"

"I left a protection spell in the room just in case, but my intuition tells me that was it also. Marq Itan might have to worry more in the future, but for tonight the assassins have failed," the wizard assured him. "You know that I will protect her, because I serve whoever you serve."

Her final words made the big man frown again and he stopped. "Why do you say that?"

Mild confusion crossed her face and she answered, "Because it's true."

"But why? Why do you serve me and why did you force the link in the first place?" he demanded without raising his voice.

A look of chagrin replaced the confusion and Quela took a deep breath. "Losing Fethwer hurt, but I didn't just take you because you killed him. Like I told the lord, part of my magic is instinctive. It wasn't trainable. It just is.

"When I saw you attack him, something told me that you would win before your swords even crossed. I felt Oywen place her magic in you temporarily to make things even between you two and you won."

"That still doesn't explain why you did that."

"Intuition," she replied with a wince at the thin excuse. "I felt that you and I were supposed to become bonded and... more."

Realizing that he was unlikely to get a better excuse from the woman, Toman led the way back to Xerese's suite. Lamps were on in the common room. Nico stood ready in the middle of the room with his sword belted to his hip and fully dressed. His sister wore a simple robe, but remained barefoot. Her look at her protector said that she thought that he was overreacting.

Xerese lay on the sofa with her head on a pillow. As if she hadn't a care in the world, the girl had been nearly asleep again until Toman opened the door to the room.

"What is happening?" Nico questioned before they had even made it through the door.

"Quela sensed assassins going after Marq Itan and his wife," the guardsman stated succinctly. He had debated on saying nothing, but the word would spread through the castle by the time daylight had come, the guardsman thought hearing the bells would make others ask the same question.

Xerese sat up completely alert from his quick summation of the night's excitement. Wearing a lightweight night dress that looked more like a slip one would wear underneath a dress, Toman guessed that the lady had become less shy than she had been before having to spend weeks wearing clothing that didn't fit properly and was often less than adequate by court standards.

"Are Itan and Rianne alright?" she asked worriedly.

He nodded. "We got to his room just in time."

His eyes strayed to the wizard beside him still holding his hand as well, he realized belatedly.

"How did you know?" was Xerese's follow up question which led to a brief discussion of how Quela's magic worked. Even Oywen looked surprised to hear of her rare magic.

With a few hours to go before sunrise and even more before Xerese had been getting up since arriving to enjoy the luxury and hospitality that her cousins provided, they soon returned to their rooms; but Toman lingered while Quela had moved to sit in a chair. He had watched the woman with her bare legs crossed daintily. The more he watched her, the more the man realized how pretty she was and how attractive, which were not always the same thing.

Her green eyes would glance to him occasionally as she explained to the others what she could of the discovery and defeat of the assassins. Now she only looked at the man waiting on what he might say or do.

When the others disappeared into their rooms, Toman didn't say anything as he moved towards his room. The dark haired wizard followed him and closed the door behind her as she watched him looking at her seeming slightly confused at her brazen action.

"You also have suggestion magic, don't you? Mind magic of some sort," the guardsman questioned the wizard after catching more than one spell used. He had become sensitive to magic, at least when Quela used hers anyway.