《Elam》


 Chapter 1

    Carmine


    The fire descended around me and cooled my hickory skin into deep cedar, for the one-hundredth time. Once the encircling symbols blinked and the crippling burn in my bones faded, I stepped out of the glittering sheen.


    I hated traveling hundreds of miles through spectral gates.


    The glow of the moon reflected its glare over the hills it scorned as much as my knees. My slate-colored armor deflected much of its hatred.


    Gabby cried out as the heat lifted off her purple coat. She shivered as she sat in the shallow notch of my sword frog that was snuggly connected to the baldric around my bosom. Gabby''s humongous eyes brightened me up, for she was such a gentle soul even if most people consider her a pest.


    She was a mijaor, a small animal with a dark purple coat of skin with soft spikes curling over her rotund body and those amphibian hind-legs. I didn''t consider her a pest, I loved her, especially since I could find a place for her by my side.


    That was what I was good at.


    My metal boots clanked against dirt and the resounding steps of my guards rolled in behind me with the resolute determination to not see me dead.


    Valor handpicked them himself.


    Hopefully, they held their own, because if I lift a finger, I am rising them from the dead and killing them myself for being terrible fighting men.


    Still, to think I would be looking up at this dusty old keep again, but I had to come back here. I left behind a piece of me in this place. There was a chance to put myself back together and move forward, so I was taking it.


    At the foot of the keep, I saw the large door was ripped off its hinges, and slanted to the side. Contrast that with this uneasy emotion traversing through me and I knew something bad happened.


    Rionala, Beckburt, and Hangor, where were they?


    I walked into the darkened parlor. My boot creaked and snapped into something sharp, yet fragile. They cracked under the weight of my advance.


    One guard moved quickly to light their lantern. "My Lady, let me lead the way."


    For a brief moment, I missed that Mother title I used to get, for a moment, then I remembered why I did away with it.


    Valor never wanted me to come here, worst when I told him I wanted the letters my father sent to me. He hated the idea of me risking my life for letters. I hated a lot more things than that, like my incessant hunger that could not be sated by the food of the earth.


    We needed better food in the camp and potatoes too which would be in loving memory of Rionala.


    The lantern blazed a bright light and I saw scratches along the wall. Banners were thrown and sliced, then I saw the broken barks of the torch and glass littered on the ground. That was what I stepped in.


    One guard said, "This place was attacked."


    The others shivered and tried to hide it, but I could read weakness like I saw my face in the mirror.


    I light up my lantern. "Be calm. Walk confidently."


    They led me through the keep and the destination was my room. The air got suffocating as time dragged on, but worst because I wore this infuriating protection. On the outside, I saw smeared blood on the door, a lot of it. Droplets splattered on the ground.


    We stepped inside the room and it was an utter mess. On the floor of it were the decrepit bones of someone, but based on the armor, I guessed it was Hangor.


    I looked away, breathed in and out for comfort. They had not left yet, damnation. I waved the lantern around and checked the bookshelves.


    The books that kept me company were ripped into shreds, the bed turned over, the cupboards ripped out and the table was in pieces. What kind of violence was this?


    I looked in the one place I hid them. They were not there. My father''s letters were not there. The one possible source of truth I had was not there. Granted, it seemed unlikely my father knew.


    The Erridon coven that served my father in secret and pledged their loyalty to me never told me anything.


    Valor said it was possible, but he could not be sure. I always wondered why I was held here for so long. Did it have something to do with this fate I was yet to accomplish?


    I motioned at one of the guards and we kept walking around. The other two haven''t been found, maybe they escaped. That was what I hoped, but alas, I was disappointed.


    In a dark decrepit cellar, large, the walls never seemed to have an end in there, on the brick tile, I found mangled bloodied bodies. One of the guards lit up one of the candles on the wall bringing more prominence to their resting place. That single candle settled within the metal cage, but its fire whipped in the rancid odor.


    There was not much in the room other than a few books, a large table on a raised platform, and strange rounded-end pillars behind it.


    I shielded my eyes from the sight and my chest shuddered with the danger of bile escaping.


    The lead guard passed their bodies with little regard. I tried my best not to inscribe the perceived faces of their skulls in my mind.


    The guard looked down at the platform he stepped next to, while I reached under the candle to search the wooden shelf near the desert of a floor.


    A bunch of empty metal cups was the only thing and that made me frown.


    "A seal was here, it is broken," the guard said.


    I turned. "Seal? You found one here?"


    A seal was a zone crafted by an Inker. Similar to the spatial bound I was trapped in back in Tiam, but this was less of a room and more of a climate to an area.


    A spatial bound afforded special effects to anyone or anything within the space of that seal.


    If the seal was made to protect something then the effects would be negative. My guess was it was negative, because this was a room that was probably guarding something that Rionala and the others were determined to protect.


    Did they already take everything?


    He overlooked the pillars. I came over, avoiding the bodies as much as I could. Passing them slithered fear into my bones and I hated shuddering on the thought of them. Their deaths were not in vain was what I told myself, for I was still living.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    It was a selfish thing to say, but it was what drove me. There were four of them, the design was elaborate. Gems lined it in rows, and the color shifted from top to bottom, with the bottom being a cold black and tapering into a web-like metal fastening.


    Glass balls stood on top of them. All those balls were broken or cracked, and what liquid there seeped out from their fissures and dried on their cold surface.


    It was a seal. An intricate one at that. It was probably used to lock and enclose places and objects within an aura of protection, most times it was intertwined with the world. If the person was skilled enough, it would be separated from our world, but that was a whole other kettle of fish.


    Whoever came here had to have broken it. I said, "With the protection gone, they were not safe here."


    My heart raced as much as my thoughts, so I pushed down the evil thoughts and tried to bleed light. The guard looked behind him. "This sister was trying to repair the seal. So it was too late."


    "Who?" I asked, turning to follow his eyes to Rionala.


    "Her hand."


    I fidgeted as my eyes touched her bony hand, but I focused less on the dried blood causing my throat to fill with saliva, and on the instrument in her thin white grasp.


    A wooden handle and a metal shaft that bent at a tight angle. The metal shaft was a Lightning rod, and it was used for infusing. She was trying to repair it.


    Someone cracked it and probably disrupted the flow of the seal''s power.


    Rionala was likely responsible for protecting this place. This looked like her private den. A feeling of revulsion came over me. All this time, a witch was protecting me?


    Was she an Erridon? I needed to talk to Ariel about this.


    "Yes, this whole place was." The guard pulled off his gauntlet and twirled his tattoed hand over the broken seals. "But they were in a hurry, for they did not break all the seals."


    Sparks of light fizzled around his hand and pushed into the darkness. His face lit up a frightening still expression until something touched my skin. This armor was either useless or it was a greater power than anything we assumed.


    It was greater.


    The guard was wrapped in a surging might of white light that crackled at his joints and shook his body with a ferocity that sickened me.


    That guard stepped and tumbled back until he slammed into the floor. I froze as the other guards went to his aid, but it was too late.


    Gabby whimpered, for she knew an ally died. She could pick up on my anger, but such a thing showing on my face for everyone else was a luxury.


    Energy raised from the platform and soon sent out wild arcs of yellow, blue, and orange.


    Gabby cried for my attention. Noise raised from the gutless as they ran. A boot came beside me. The hand passed over their chest, stomach, hip, sword handle on the hip, but grasped the strap of the shield on their back.


    I blinked and glanced away, but not too far, for It was so beautiful that I forgot how dangerous it would have been if those hit me.


    As pretty as they were, they would stike a soul from its husk within a second, and that wonderous sight was blocked by a shield.


    A guard took some initiative to shield me and the thought of whether he was stupid or determined to prove his worth was destabilized by the shouts of the other guards that begged me to fall back from this situation.


    I did not come here to run away, because a seal leaked the dark energies of the universe hidden behind the night sky sprinkled with a gorgeous brush.


    If they left seals unbroken, then whoever killed my three unrequested guardians did not discover everything in this keep.


    There had to be something left here, if Rionala had her last stand here, there must have been something.


    "He was right about one thing before he died they were definitely in a hurry," I said. "You, move, release him from his plates."


    Using the shield as a wall, we shifted over to the other side of the room where the dead guard laid, while the fireworks tried to burn us to black ash.


    The guard removed the plate over his chest and I pulled out my glasses with the fractured rainbow shade surface. Slotting it over mine, a glow of blue passed over my sight before everything returned to its original hue.


    That''s when the whipping flames of each person''s soul steamed around each guard''s stocky frame to my viewing pleasure. Every person had this flame, even me, but my flame was unlike theirs, and was rife with charges of white light.


    Reading those flames was not my specialty, that was more San Rosa''s skill, so I only used these glasses to peer through the limitations of the physical world, walls, trees, and even skin.


    It gave me a view of his body, and the internal organs were frozen like dead black leaves on a windless hillside. His insides were a mess thanks to the trap he tripped.


    No fire burned from him, so he was truly dead.


    I couldn''t resuscitate him and even if I did, my resources were limited. "What''s his name?" My hand motioned at the metal slab across the back of his gauntlet.


    The guard ripped it off and gave it to me. Ergo, that''s a nice name. He would be remembered. I pointed back at the retreated guards ducking and weaving the sparks of the malignant seal. "You ones stripe and suit him up."


    My eyes traveled up the platform to the table and all I could envision was the funes of the seal growing from a hidden spot, yet it was everywhere.


    A wild distortion of energy rolled out from the platform. I couldn''t identify where the energy was coming from. Which seal was it? The pillars were inactive, so where was the last seal?


    "Are you under the ink?" I asked.


    "Yes, my Lady," he said.


    "Lend me your hand."


    The guard crouched beside me and took off his gauntlet. His tattoo glinted in the low radiance of the light, but soon glowed as his fingers touched the fabric of the seal''s wall of energy.


    "So hot." He pulled his hand back and the light whiskered away when he pushed his hand behind the shield.


    "Touch it again," I said.


    He glanced in my direction and though I could not see his face thanks to his bevor, I knew the emotion. That emotion was well-known to me.


    Anything terrifying was known to me.


    "Trust me," was all I said.


    He stared ahead and with a lower of his shield, he pushed his hand forward and the light grasped his hand. His hand shivered as my eyes followed the flow of the light, where it intersected and where the flames of power raised off the arcing rage.


    That''s when I saw the light fluctuating behind a leg of the table with a much more natural glow than its production.


    There!


    I pulled his arm back and with a swing of my arming gauntlet, that leg was cracked. My arm shuddered from the energy that swept up its bone and froze my shoulder.


    The liquid flowed down the cracked leg, but the guard stood up and kicked into it. Shattered, the table slammed into the ground and unsettled the coat of dust.


    That was a lot of dust. It was too much dust. My coughs left me strained as I glanced around at the leaked dust from the invisible holes in the wall we didn''t witness.


    This bevor was going to kill me. I pulled it down and coughed as I stepped back. The guard moved in front of me and grabbed the handle of his sword. I laid my arming gauntlet and smeared the dust on his plate when I pushed him behind me.


    My eyes caught sight of the varifying colors of the rising surge breaking into the invisible air, yet fading into mere whispers. Regardless the light dissipated and the darkness held us dearly as if it missed us.


    There was no danger, for it was only a reveal. The dust was being held up by the seal and now, the guard lifted the glow of the light in this now refined clean room.


    A prettier room was good, but that''s not what I came here for. Why was that last seal trying to hide?


    The pillars were thinner.


    My eyes moved down and noticed the drawn lines in the root of the pillars. Were those openings? I stepped pass the guard and with my knife cracked inside the opening, I snapped and pulled out the block from the pillar.


    It was a drawer and within it were papers. "I think this was what I''m looking for."


    I took the letters out of the draw. All of them were bunched up together. The guard opened the other drawers, some papers, and a few more books, I even saw sealing instruments. Rionala was definitely a sealing expect, probably in Inkmetry mostly.


    What concerned me were the letters, all of them were taken out and laid on the floor. Wrapped with a thick white thread, they had a paper attached indicating the start date and end date.


    Yes, they were all arranged and labeled. The ones in my room were taken, but they must have kept those here. These were the ones I rejected for so many years after the first ones.


    I narrowed my eyes at them. If I never rejected to read these letters I would not have them now. I grabbed my forehead and swallowed to push down the raging river of emotions that tried to drown me.


    I grabbed one pile and made sure to get a good grip. "Help me with this."


    "Yes, my Lady," the guard replied.


    The guards gathered up the letters and followed me out of the room with the body of the dead guard in tow. We went to the parlor where we set up the spectral gate. The heat raised and swept around us. It consumed us in a flurry of whipping waves that pulled me closer to the center vortex.


    In a blink, the pressure hits and broke us into dust. My life was lifted into the ether and deposited into the numerous cracks of the universe, but I was happy to feel the warmth of its tug, for it was time to go home.

 Chapter 2

    The tinge was akin to my bones stretching to the sky. My legs tightened as I tipped my toes against the arid ground of our camp.


    A pounding emotion ripped through my chest down to my thighs. The heat of the ensuring flames melted away and left my skin tingling as it darkened from the fading sparks. I groaned at that annoying weight that came with that transfer.


    Spatial gates, I hated them.


    I shook my limbs and the metal joints clinked as I steadied my stance. My guards walked forward and I followed them into the slew of horses and large wolves.


    The twenty-foot dirt brown hairy spiders slumbered next to the thin peach-knitted linen tents of the Elamnites. They were scattered remnants of what was left of Elam, which wasn''t much to boast about.


    Those were not the other tents here. There existed the free-minded shyia nomads from the desolate lands East of Amoth and Lunia, while the rebels from Baska joined my ranks since I was actively fighting the Elams.


    I was, sort of.


    The guard detail moved with me through the crowded campgrounds filled with sheep that grazed happily. Horses hung off of wooden planks pierced into the ground.


    It was good that the house leaders followed my direction and kept the camp tight in its circle. The last time we were surprised attacked, the bastards cut through our camp and broke our formations with relative ease.


    Yes, I understood that many of them didn''t like each other, but they better get used to each other, because this was going to be a long odyssey together in trying to destroy my mother and her lovely friends.


    That didn''t include other covens.


    We reached the obelisk the size of a large boulder perched in the center of the camp. Black as the sin of men, but soft as the water when I pulled my mallet and lightning rod out to cast within its surface the names of Ergo, Beckburt, Hangor, and Rionala.


    My rod cracked the stone''s surface thanks to the mallet and allowed the metal on the end to burn into it.


    The draining sound of the molten stone became a deep rumble as I went to work.


    Their names were etched within the fissures I created and smoothened with the sweet flow of my hand as if I wrote poetry. Those names were a part of my history and were now immortalized in time. I couldn''t be the only one that was immortal.


    Once that was done, I finally raised and followed my guards back on the path to a safe rest.


    "Lady Carmine!" A woman shouted.


    I shivered from the volume of the voice and when I turned, some people were waving at me.


    "Bless you!"


    "May your future be great!"


    I waved back at these residents. They pledged their loyalty to me, for I offered something other Lords would never offer, a chance to make their own destiny. That and lower taxes when I became a true land-owned ruler.


    It was a risky proposition for them and the weight was on my shoulders to make their dreams a reality. If I couldn''t beat my fate, could I pull off such miracles? I believed I could, but my fate was solely mine, not anyone else''s.


    The clamor of the cymbals greeted me as I passed the dancers and performers that did our theater shows when we passed through the different towns of Asmoth and Baska. They wore colorful dresses and dust raised their thin shawls as much as their wary spirits. A smile painted my face to know that I could at least offer more than misery and war.


    I was still trying to deal with being the center of attention and having all these people heap all this praise and admiration on me. My achievements weren''t that exceptional to warrant all of this, but I guessed when their prior masters were monsters, even average was extraordinary.


    That were the ones I knew since birth, so what about the monsters hidden in the shadows? I sent a request to meet with the Gods and Goddesses of the old Elam Crest. They declined and told me to refrain from thinking myself within their class.


    My mother hadn''t responded to my summons either.


    I thought she would at least send back a message. It''s been a long while since I saw her. What was my mother, the target of my cruel fate doing?


    I nodded my head at the shepherds as I passed them, for they were important to our people. They were necessary for tending to our animals, both the ones that we grew and created. We had over one hundred horses, eighty donkeys, fifty wolves, and ten spiders. It was enough to move our nomadic selves and gear across the landscape.


    There was enough grass to go around in the mountainous areas of south Elam, Amoth, and Baska for our animals.


    "Exalted Lady Carmine!"


    The guards tensed as D''Neil approached me. He was a popular captain of the Baska rebels and in my opinion, acted too familiar to me.


    It wasn''t the time to think myself better than anybody, but I learned as a Princess in training, that I should never allow peasants or people below me to become comfortable around me lest they think they have influence or prestige they assume I gave them.


    Valor, Janilla, Five, and Sandream were my confidants, so I didn''t need any new ones. That made me think of my favorite enemy, Corona. If she stopped being a mental case, she could be at my side, because I understood her more than anyone else, but I would leave Corona to time, a lot of it.


    I said, "What do you need?"


    He smiled and bowed immediately, showing reverence, but I wasn''t going to get drunk off that.


    When he came up, he said, "I was wondering what are your plans considering we are near the coast?"


    I haven''t told anyone anything yet, but there was a good reason for that and it''s because I didn''t have a plan. That was most of my life, so that wasn''t odd.


    "Walk with me." I turned away and expected him to follow.


    He did and made it clear his questioning didn''t stop there. "The men are struggling to grapple with your decision to be attacking these random targets."


    Some time ago, I told Baska''s house to attack any brigands or thieves in our vicinity. Our serious engagements with Elam were few and there needed to be a continuous stream of violence to not only keep these men occupied, but also their hands-free of other evils.


    "You act like you''re aren''t excited to dispossess thieves of their gold?" I smiled.


    "I would be more excited if we were in our land. It feels like we are giving the lazy Asmoth a gift."


    True, we weren''t in their homeland Baska, but were in Asmoth right now.  "Think of yourself."


    "Anything to keep their penniless satchels filled. If you really wanted to keep the men motivated we should go further than that and attack the ones with real gold. The fat Lords of these towns and miser merchants of these hole-infested savannahs."


    "Then the people that live in those towns, then the fat farmers and cheese makers too, right? Bakers? Tailors? Temples with their precious ornaments too? Nah, Dogoddybui Neil. You know where my line is crossed, so don''t get greedy."


    D''Neil shrugged and looked away. "Just a suggestion."


    This wasn''t the first time he gave me that idea, so it wasn''t a suggestion. It was an agenda for him.


    "Just keep up your duty."


    "We try our best, Lady Carmine, but I keep losing men."


    More men.


    Again.


    This conversation irritated me.


    "If you''re losing men to a bunch of untrained criminals, then you''re fighting force isn''t good enough, if I dare say so myself."


    D''Neil chuckled. "Scorched earth with that remark. Fair and maybe you''re right."


    I was? Here, I assumed D''Neil would take offense to such a remark for it was the pride of his command and men that was being called into question, after all. If anyone said anything about Valor or Five, they would have gotten a great raze from me.


    I guessed, I was different than D''Neil. A man that was awarded command of the Baskas ever since his late commander Walron''s death.


    As I would find out a lot of the old dogs were losing their fangs.


    "I had to remove Kelshillsbeud Aron from the ranks. Great man, the young men look up to him. He has many great exploits from the Battle of Riverbed to his deeds accomplished for us against the Elams. He''s broken. I literally saw the man broke," he said.


    "Broke?" I asked.


    "On our last excursion, he shivered like a scared animal and started crying. You can''t leave him like that and none of the men want to see that, so I had to make the call. I had to remove the old man. What they call a coward, I say he fought too much war."


    Could someone fight too much war? My fist clenched tight in restrained fury. Maybe that was going to happen to me soon if I didn''t finish this quarrel between mother and myself.


    My boots dipped into the sandy dirt leading up to the crowded marquee with the sages positioned over the tables holding inked parchments and encoded objects.


    I looked around for a specific sage and noted D''Neil kept a safe distance from the marquee. He was the least of my worries.


    That sage was aptly named Ariel Erridon, and once, I found her I waved. She looked up with those red-dyed lips and raised my spirits with a delicate smile that shined her radiance better than her cold eyes.


    "My moth¡ª"


    "Call me that and I''ll smack you," I said with a smile.


    A lot of the runaway Elamnites with us are so used to those honored titles hammered into them by their former masters. That didn''t include the odd customs some of them had. Valor and I tried our best to remind them that we were not the old guard.


    We were the new empire on the rise.


    Ariel''s eyes drifted as her lips parted in hesitation. "My apologies, my Lady Carmine."Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    My eyes caught sight of the lizards walking across the inked cloths held down by wooden blocks surrounding them. "What are you doing again?"


    She straightened up like a giddy child. "Oh, yes, my Lady! Ah, yes, so I am trying to use the exceptional hard skin and survivability of lizards to make them a combatant we can utilize later. In time, I think we can give them wings."


    My eyebrows raised. "Why would you want to give wings to a lizard?"


    Ariel wagged her head in contemplation. "A neat idea."


    This woman was weird, but everyone from the Erridon coven was odd. I said, "Good luck with that. How many persons can die now?"


    She flicked her finger up and that smile brightened. "From what Ulyessia told me, Two."


    That''s not a lot, but that was better than most. I needed to build up my resources for my people. As much as they were just a group of people that joined me for their own selfish reasons, they were under my command and responsibility. As far as I was concerned, they were my people.


    I spoke, "Beckburt." Ariel kept up her gaze. "Hangor." Ariel didn''t lose her kindness. "Rionala." That smile cracked and Ariel''s eyes drifted, so I pressed. "Who is Rionala? Because I know Hangor and Beckburt are my father''s finest, but Rionala¡ª"


    "Was one of us, yes, my Lady." Ariel''s smile took on a natural gloom to its form.


    "When were you going to mention this to me?"


    Ariel shook her head and smiled wider. "Such things are irrelevant¡ª"


    "I decide what''s relevant. What was her directive?" My fist balled up.


    "She like many others were sent to maintain the protections at the keep and secure your mother from finding you. Your father wished to protect you."


    My father was an idiot, a terrible father, and to emphasize, a fool. That power could not be contained.


    He only delayed my nightmare.


    "Why were the girls changed constantly? That you?"


    Ariel was in rank, the leader of the Erridon coven, so she was called their mother at over three hundred and twenty-four years old. Everybody else was younger. Her coven was an inexperienced and young one.


    The old Elam Crest of Erot, Omson, Benedict, Palisades, Amishcor, Ashfire, and Fallen, plus their direct subordinates have been around for nearly ten thousand years.


    They never regarded covens such as Erridon, for seniority rules Elam''s prestige and everybody else that came after was a pretender.


    She shook her head, and surprisingly that fake smile never dropped off her face. "The King. A lot of them were shifted around, sometimes planned, sometimes not."


    "I don''t see them."


    Her eyebrows furrowed as she nodded her head. "Different shells."


    "Tell them to say hi to me and stop acting as if I would hate them."


    It looked like she was about to laugh, but she suppressed it. "Yes, I will tell them, my Lady."


    "Rionala''s name is on the obelisk. Pay your respects when you''re ready."


    Ariel fidgeted, but her smile didn''t falter. "Yes, my Lady."


    I stared at her for a moment, but I left her to her duties and continued through the marquee.


    Ariel wasn''t being honest with me. She could have told me this a long time ago. If she withheld information, she either feared my anger or carried shame I couldn''t fathom.


    Once we reached my gazebo, I pushed aside the tied-up white curtain to see a mongoose runoff from the round wooden table.


    "Get!" I bellowed.


    The mongoose flew over my throne and slipped under the tent''s flimsy wall.  That was when I noted the basket of fruits this mongoose tried to pry into.


    I stared through the curtain and saw the outline of the mongoose diving into the river next to our camp never to be seen again.


    That animal was a torment to any unguarded food. They never got caught and always got their belly filled before running. They were an efficient nuisance.


    I laid Gabby down on the map. She hopped and screeched her excitement to be back home. The guards separated to stand outside and so did the brave one. My dirty handprint on his chest plate revealed him.


    I smacked his armor. "Follow." He did and came to stand at attention inside the gazebo.


    My gazebo was complimented with long blue fabrics curving into the top of each column. Round cushions of many different colors formed into a big pile over a thick carpet. White curtains led down from the gazebo''s roof and into the edge of the border.


    D''Neil stepped to the side and smiled. "So, my Lady."


    I sat on a cushion and took up the book of notes Janilla left for me. "Carry on."


    "I thought you would be talking if you don''t mind me saying, Exalted one."


    I flipped through the book. "Right, my plans, ah, let''s see¡­" Damnation to me that I have to make this up, right now. I had a goal and it was to not kill my mother, even though, that was what I''m supposed to do, but there must have been some way for me to stop my fate without some of the stupid ideas I got.


    It seemed like an easy enough thing to do and it wasn''t like my mother and me had much of a relationship. There was no emotional attachment between us.


    And that''s why I was not going to do it. She was the only living remnant of myself I had left. I couldn''t kill her. Besides, I had no reason to.


    I said, "They haven''t responded to me, so might as well make our move, yes?"


    D''Neil nodded his head. "I think that would be in our best interest. She will be striving to kill you. The sooner we move the better."


    My mother wasn''t looking to kill me, because the Baskas didn''t know the history of what happened in Tiam and Eathen. They only knew the rumors and my version of the truth.


    I stopped on the last page of the book. "Then let''s attack her where it hurts. Taking her out would be suicide, so we''re going to take out her most important ally, my sister, Billasoia." My eyes went over the edge of the book.


    "Good plan."


    His eyes lit up with something akin to joy. Why was he so happy? I asked, "I assume you are ready to go the long haul for this task we have decided upon?"


    D''Neil stepped forward as a figure walked into the gazebo and around him. The figure was a young Shyia woman in thin brown garbs and she laid down a cup of tea.


    I never asked for tea, but as that woman turned and walked out, my eyes followed the small of her back then glared at the guard she sidestepped.


    Keep her in sight.


    The guard''s head dropped and after the woman got several feet away, the guard followed behind her, slowly.


    "We will do our best to assist you." D''Neil snapped his shoes and clasped his hands behind his back.


    "I hope you are. Elams are harder than your regular adversary."


    "We have battled them."


    "You fought their scraps, you haven''t even scratched the surface."


    "Yes, I understand. You have seen it all for you are her daughter. Your tea is getting cold."


    My fist almost clenched, but I swiftly fought the anxiety and forced my fingers to remain loose. "I know. Aye, you know, thanks for reminding me. I actually love this tea, it''s cured from the lemongrass leaf. Its taste is exquisite. Try it."


    D''Neil smiled with shuttered eyes. "No thanks."


    "D''Neil, I don''t ask too much of you. Guard, come here. D''Neil, I insist." I glared at D''Neil. "Drink."


    The guard bowed and took up the cup of tea as the thin walls of the gazebo shivered from the cold northern air. He removed his bevor to reveal his square jaw as he sipped the tea.


    I asked, "Good ain''t it?"


    The guard''s jaw flexed and his cheeks rolled as he considered his answer. He nodded in approval. "Fantastic, my Lady."


    I said, "Come, old D''Neil, take a taste."


    "I refuse."


    I blinked and tilted my head at D''Neil.


    D''Neil cleared his throat. "Respectfully, I don''t want to¡­ I don''t want to try it."


    The smile on my face probably got too wide. My hand grasped my young guard''s chin and lifted it. His eyes became diluted through the metal grill and his body started shaking.


    D''Neil was right, but he failed the test.


    "D''Neil, do you recognize that woman?" I asked.


    He hesitated and his eyes drifted to the ground as his shoulders tightened. "No, I do not."


    After letting that answer simmer for several seconds, I said, "Let me remind you if people come in here wearing your colors, especially since I gave your people responsibility over the kitchens, because according to your sub-commander, you don''t trust the hands of those people of the North. You better know who she is."


    D''Neil''s lips parted and stalled in disorientation.


    I have her my Lady, but she is unresponsive.


    Of course, she was. I snapped my finger. "I expect better from you or I will strip you of that responsibility. You may go."


    D''Neil nodded his reddened face and bowed in reverence. "Yes, my Exalted Lady. May Asulin rain." He spun and left my sight faster than he came.


    What was he running from? His crime?


    The guard''s face was so tight now, he must have been constipated with pain.


    I sighed, for I didn''t know why D''Neil was scared for. Everyone knew I couldn''t be killed. So, if D''Neil was smart, this tea was going to do something worse than death. After all, I wasn''t immune to being sick, only my soul leaving this body until my mother died.


    As soon as I was born, I got connected to my mother by a bond deeper than blood.


    I pushed myself up and leaned forward. Our faces were separated by the length of a falling leaf, yet my branch was above his in the treeline.


    "How are you feeling about working for me?" I asked.


    He didn''t move, but he didn''t answer immediately as the pain wrecked his body. "I am honored, Exalted Carmine."


    I nodded my head and touched his cheek. "I appreciate the lie. Go to Ulyessia and tell her to check you for poison. What''s your name in case you die?"


    His lips twisted as sweat washed down his face. "Doblo Can-Bain."


    That ''Doblo'' name was common from Sefrala, Palisade''s territory.


    I held up his chin. "I will remember that. Go."


    He got up and straightened his back. Pride ran through his blood, because he walked with an unshakable strut as he marched out of the gazebo and into the camp.


    At least one of the guards Valor picked was okay.