The Eighth Warden Bk. 03 Ch. 35-36

"You seemed surprised to see humans in the ... the fortress, you called it?" Treya said. "Were there no humans here when you went to sleep?"

"Some in the outer city who prefer life in Tir Yadar rather than among the human tribes, and, of course, many in the refugee camps. But few humans live in the inner city, and even fewer work in the fortress. Only Zachal is allowed into Fortress Central without authorization."

"Zachal?"

"The human warden," Ariadne said. Leena had mentioned that the woman knew about wardens.

Treya said, "I know that Ellerie would really like to talk to you about your people and Tir Yadar. And the wardens. She might be able to help you learn what happened here."

"She talks and she talks and she talks. Her and the fat man. Sometimes I understand what they say, sometimes I don't, but I won't put myself on display for their amusement. Let them pose their questions to someone else."

"I don't think there is anyone else," Treya pointed out.

Ariadne ignored that, changing the subject. "I require assistance," she said. "I must lay the other Mage Knights to rest."

"We were reluctant to disturb them," Treya said. "Are you sure?"

"I cannot leave them in the stasis pods. It isn't right. They should be buried beneath the earth."

"If that's what you'd like to do, we'll help. I'm sorry about your friends."

Ariadne tilted her head to the side. "Friends? They were the heroes who won the war, but I had only just met most of them. I wasn't truly one of them yet—I was the newest recruit, earning the armor when the previous bearer was chosen to become a warden."

"Oh."

"I will also need help in recovering and transporting their blades and armor. I must safeguard them until I can find my people."

"Oh!" Treya said, surprised. "You don't wish to bury them with their belongings?"

"The blade and panoply belong to The People, not to the knight who bears them. I'm not blind—I know what you are doing here. I cannot bury the weapons and armor, but I won't allow your people to take them either."

Treya nodded. "We'll help you. We'll figure out a way to haul them back to Aencyr." Corec had already started talking about taking some of the wagons back with them so they could carry the contents of the armory. Now that they knew the route, they wouldn't have to cross the swamp. They could follow the passes through the mountains instead.

"Aencyr is where you are from?"

"No, but it's the nearest large city. We came from across the sea in Aravor. I'm from a city called Tyrsall."

Ariadne drew in a sharp breath. "Tir Sal still stands?" The pronunciation wasn't quite the same.

"There's a city called Tyrsall on the northeast coast of Aravor," Treya said. "I don't know if it's the one you're talking about."

"Aravadora, we call it. Yes. But there are no Chosar there?"

"No, I'm sorry. It's a human city, mostly."

"That was the agreement. Two hundred years ago, the human tribes were given a Tir of their own in exchange for sending farmers, miners, and fishermen to the continent to aid in colonization efforts. But if Tir Sal still exists, The People should have a presence there."

"I'm sorry," Treya said.

The other woman looked down, silent for a moment before speaking again. "Much of Aravor was destroyed during the war. Only a few of the great cities still stand. Still stood. What about Tir Navis? Does it yet remain? Tir Illia?"

"Tir Navis is in the Storm Height Mountains, but it's been abandoned. The mountains belong to the stormborn now. Tir Illia ... do you mean Terrillia? The dorvasta city?"

Ariadne frowned. "I do not know these words, stormborn and dorvasta, and the necklace does not translate, but vasta is the elves' name for themselves, and Tir Illia was granted to them in the same way Tir Sal was granted to the humans. The vasta had to flee Cordaea ..." She paused, her brow furrowing in concentration. "They had to flee Van Kiradaea when the demons attacked their forest homes. A new forest had already been grown for them in Aravadora, so they went there."

Treya wasn't sure what to say. The woman's story raised so many new questions, it was hard to keep track of them all.

"I really think you should talk to Ellerie and Bobo about this. If you tell them what you know, they may be able to help you learn what happened."

Ariadne didn't reply at first, just staring off into the night. Finally, she said, "I will consider it."

#

"Five hundred gold?" Ellerie exclaimed.

"Five hundred twenty-two all told, though a lot of that's in silver," Corec said. "Half of it was in a lockbox in one of their supply carts. I suppose they must have been using it to pay the mercenaries. The cultists weren't carrying much in the way of coin."

"How many of Leena's people did she say were here?" The expedition's charter specified that spoils of war were divided evenly between participants rather than becoming part of the expedition's profit.

"Fourteen, I think, not counting her or the man they took prisoner. But I want to offer the wagon drivers something for putting them in danger. I imagine we'll want to stay on good terms with Livadi if you ever plan to return here."

Ellerie nodded. "What were you thinking?"

"Five gold each, and give them their pick of the mercenaries' weapons. There are a few suits of armor worth salvaging, but I don't want to bother with the weapons. They're just not worth as much as the stuff from the armory."

"I don't think anyone will object to that," Ellerie said, calculating the numbers in her head. "So, subtract twenty-five, and divide by twenty-eight."

"Twenty-eight? I counted twenty-seven."

She lowered her voice. "I think we should include Marco. I don't want to single him out as not helping in the fight. I don't want him to think he's not part of the group."

Corec nodded. "That makes sense. There are some things I want to do, and I'm going to need him in a good mood."

"So will I," Ellerie said. "You're thinking about Ariadne?" Treya had told the two of them about the Chosar woman's request for help in retrieving her comrades' weapons and armor.

"To start with, yes," Corec said. "I don't know which nation's laws apply here, but I think scavenging rights get complicated when a resident is still around to make a claim. We need to make sure she's taken care of. She's claimed her friends' weapons and armor, and she took that necklace. Let's say those are hers by right, and if she takes something else, I'm not going to complain. But I think we should grant her two shares on top of it."

Ellerie nodded. She'd been considering the same idea. "That seems fair. When we return to Aencyr, we'll look up whatever laws we can find about it. And there are some other ideas I want to convince Senshall to agree to. So, we'll include Marco in the spoils. Sort of ... a bribe we can all politely pretend isn't a bribe. That brings it to, what, seventeen gold and some silver per person? I guess it's not that much after it's split up."

"It still seems like a lot to me," Corec said with a wry grin.

"I'll ask Leena to take the Travelers' shares back to Sanvar the next time she visits home. How's everything else going?"

"Bobo's still unconscious and Razai's still missing," he said, "but we managed to clear the streets and haul all the bodies to the plaza. I'm not sure what else to do with them. We can't bury them all, and we don't have any wood for a pyre. We may just have to leave them, but if so, we'll need to move the camp farther away. And upwind."

"How much wood do we need?"

"More than Leena can bring, and more than we can realistically transport in the wagons. And, honestly, by the time they got here, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near that plaza."

Ellerie sighed. "I guess we don't have a choice, then. We'll have to leave them where they are. We can move the camp tomorrow."

Corec nodded. "We also went through their supplies. We've got plenty of food now, but only for ourselves, not the animals. And these carts of theirs will be useful for hauling stuff up from the armory."

"Then let's plan on heading back inside the mountain tomorrow."

#

Bobo opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by endless mists. Was this some sort of dream? The last thing he could remember was the fighting. There'd been a sense of hopelessness, and then a sense of hope. And a sudden realization—but of what?

He sat up abruptly as the memories returned. Magic. Not from his friends or from the enemy priests, but from himself.

You weren't supposed to suffer from drain shock, a voice said, echoing in his mind.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked.

A blessing is meant to control the amount of power a priest can use, preventing drain shock, but I'm new to this and you didn't have years to spend learning to master your abilities. You'll have to be more cautious than other priests.

Bobo couldn't see anyone talking. He couldn't see anyone at all. "Who are you?" he said.

You already know, but keep your suspicions to yourself. It's too soon to let the others realize I've joined the game.

If this was really who Bobo thought it was, there was so much he needed to ask ...

"You saved my friends, didn't you?"

Did I? Or did you?

"I wasn't afraid."

That wasn't my doing.

Bobo opened his mouth, then closed it, not sure how to respond. Finally, he said, "Why me?"

Why not? But my time here grows short. The laws they imposed upon themselves, to prevent interference, have somehow affected the actual strictures governing the ascended. Now I understand why they only send visions. Ask the question to which you actually need to know the answer.

"What do you want me to do?"

Nothing you wouldn't have done on your own. I learned that much from watching the others. Be yourself. Perhaps someday you and I will speak again.

Bobo woke up with a startled gasp.

###

Chapter 36

"So are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?" Corec asked Bobo the day after the battle, as the two men loaded weapons from the armory into the hand-drawn carts their attackers had used for carrying supplies.

It had been a busy morning. They'd moved their camp again at first light, farther away from the bodies, and then Razai had shown up a short time later saying she'd tracked eleven of the mercenaries east before scaring them off. Then, Boktar, Sarette, and Josip had left to accompany the wagon drivers on their trip back to Livadi, along with one of the group's own wagons. They planned to meet up with the smaller caravan on the way. Boktar and Sarette would lead the small group to Tir Yadar while Josip and Lufton took the five original drivers, and the extra wagon, back to the village to resupply for another trip.

Bobo had regained consciousness just before noon. He'd seemed mostly recovered, so Corec had recruited him to help with the armory.

"It was wonderful!" the man replied. "For a short time, I knew exactly what to do and I wasn't afraid to do it. I don't remember everything—it's starting to fade—but I think I could do it again if I had to. Some of it, anyway. Maybe."

"But what was it? Razai thinks you're a priest." Corec had already used his warden senses to confirm that Bobo was indeed a mage now.

"I always told you I was a priest of the Fox."

"You were a fake priest—" Corec stopped talking when he saw Bobo's wide grin. "You're just saying that to annoy me, aren't you?"

Bobo laughed. "Of course I am. But whatever happened, it was a divine blessing. I'm certain of that, though I couldn't tell you how I know."

"Then one of the gods did choose you as a priest?"

"It appears so," Bobo said. Then he chuckled. "I guess whoever it was doesn't have very good judgement. Or maybe I was the only one available."

"You don't know which god it was?"

"Who can say? Treya never did find out which god chose her. I tried to get her to talk about her own experience, but she was reluctant."

"You don't seem surprised by any of this," Corec said.

"Oh, I was and I am. But yesterday, there was a moment of ... I guess I'd call it clarity. For that brief bit of time, everything felt right, like the world was exactly how it was supposed to be. It hasn't quite worn off yet. Later, I'm certain I'll go over the battle in my mind and realize how insanely stupid I acted, but for now, I'm able to put that to the side."

Corec nodded. "So, you can heal people, like Treya does?"

"Sadly, healing isn't one of my blessings. I only received what I needed in that precise moment. I could fight and defend myself, and banish the priests' spells. It's more complicated than that, but I've forgotten a lot of it already. I hope I'll remember it if I ever need it again."

"Well, from what Boktar and Razai told me, if it wasn't for you, they couldn't have held the line against those priests. Those other priests. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Bobo said, giving Corec a contented smile before continuing his work of loading up the carts.

Corec returned to the job too. He had a lot of thinking to do. His warden senses could identify a mage if he concentrated, but he had another sense that he wasn't sure how to explain—that strange sense of familiarity he'd experienced when meeting Razai, Sarette, and Leena. He suspected it had begun before that, but he hadn't been experienced enough to distinguish it until he'd met Razai. It didn't always happen. Some mages, like the enemy Seeker or Leena's fellow Travelers, didn't trigger the feeling at all.

He believed it had something to do with choosing mages for the warden binding spell, even though Yelena and Hildra hadn't mentioned anything like it.

Now, he was experiencing the same sensation again, with Bobo.

And with Ariadne.

#

The next day, Corec and Ellerie headed to the palace to retrieve the armor and weapons from the room where they'd found the two spell books. They were both carrying lanterns, and Corec was holding a stack of blankets under one arm.

"How long do you think you'll stay here in the barrens?" he asked her.

"You're worried about another attack?"

"Yes. We got lucky this time, but the snake cult knows where to find us now. Taking away their Seeker won't help if we stay in the same spot."

"Boktar and Sarette will be back in five days with the small caravan. The big caravan will take ten or twelve days, I think. Nine wagons total. How much time will that give us?"

"Maybe twenty days, including what we have on hand," Corec said. "The small caravan's only bringing enough to stretch our supplies until the big caravan arrives, and if you're thinking of leaving soon, we'll need to keep those wagons here, which means we'll have to keep feeding all those mules." Once they set aside space for enough hay and oats to feed over sixty horses and mules, it would only leave them with, at most, three empty wagons—two of which would be needed just to transport the equipment from the armory.

"Twenty days, and it'll take seven to return to Livadi," Ellerie said. "Let's wait for the big caravan to return, then head back. That should leave us an extra day or two in case there's a problem."

"Will that give you enough time here?"

She sighed. "I could stay for months and not discover everything there is to know. Or Ariadne might tell me more in five minutes than I could ever have hoped to learn on my own."

Treya had passed along several revelations from her conversation with the Chosar woman. Ellerie and Bobo hadn't seemed too shocked about Tyrsall being one of the Ancient cities, saying the idea had already been theorized by some historians, if only because of the name. They'd been more surprised about Terrillia, and about the fact that Ariadne had never seen a dwarf before.

"Has she spoken to you at all?" Corec asked.

"No. I looked for her yesterday, but she was never around."

"I ran into her near the barracks, and then I saw her again when I escorted Marco to the northern colonnade. She'd turned on the lights on the third level. We really need to find out how she does that."

"Did she tell anyone where she was going?"

"Not that I know of, but it's not like we can stop her. This was her home."

Ellerie nodded. "Hopefully she'll come with us and answer some questions. In the meantime, ten days will give me enough time to finish mapping out the southern section. I'd like to explore the city in more depth, but I'll just have to hope I can come back someday to continue the work."

They'd reached the royal quarters, so Corec passed his lantern to Ellerie and summoned two mage lights, lighting up the chambers.

As they made their way to the formerly locked alcove, they passed a small oval table surrounded by ceramic shards. The table itself was empty.

"Did someone take the fox and the owl figurines?" Corec asked.

"Marco wanted them so I brought them out last night, but I convinced him to leave the two sets of big statues alone—and what's left of the furniture. It's not like we could have hauled that stuff anyway. He's willing to negotiate on some of the other artwork he's found."

"So you told him about your plan?" Corec said, stopping near the alcove. He added another mage light, illuminating the suit of armor on its stand, and the weapons that still hung from the wall.

"I'm not sure it's really a plan yet, but yes," Ellerie said. "He was willing to listen."

"Do you think Varsin and Burton will agree to it?"

"I don't know. They'll receive a nice profit from the expedition, but they're already wealthy. The money may not mean that much to them, and Varsin really wants to push the Senshall name as being responsible for the discovery of the city. He won't be able to do that if he can't provide the location." She hesitated before continuing. "I may have something that'll convince him, though."

"Oh?"

"Don't tell Marco yet, but those spell books I found, I think they might be worth more than I thought. One of them in particular."

"Enough to change Varsin's mind? I didn't realize spell books were so expensive."

"It's not so much the spells but the other information. Bobo thinks it gives instructions on how to create the metals the Ancients used. The Chosar, I suppose I should say."

"The ones from their weapons and armor?"

"Maybe. The descriptions seem to match."

"A light-weight metal that's stronger than steel? You're right, that'd be worth a lot."

"Not as much as it sounds—the part we've translated so far seems rather complicated, and it requires a wizard—but it's got to be worth something. It might be enough. But we want to make sure it works before we say anything about it."

"Hildra might be able to help," Corec suggested.

Ellerie frowned, but nodded. "If she's a mage and a smith, I suppose she might have some ideas. We'll have to be careful, though—the book won't be worth anything if we give away the information for free."

"Ahh, you're worried that if she sees the book, she could create the metal herself?"

"Maybe. I'm still trying to figure out how we'd actually sell something like this. How much is the book worth? And is it worth more if we sell it just one time, or if we make copies?"

"Senshall buys and sells iron and copper. They have contracts with the mines and the forges."

Ellerie appeared deep in thought. "Sell it to Senshall? Or sell our share of it, I mean? That might work. Let's not say anything yet, though. Not until we know more."

Corec nodded, then turned his attention back to the alcove, dropping the blankets to the floor and unrolling them. He lifted the maul from the weapon rack first. It started humming, and yellow sparks of light swirled around it.

"I think it's lighter than before," he said, setting it to the side. The hammer's hum and glow faded while he took the two longswords from the rack. One of the swords was ornate, still in its metallic scabbard. The other was plain, with no scabbard, though the two metal bands ringing the blade suggested there had been one originally. Corec slid the bands off, then laid the two weapons on one of the blankets and rolled them up into a bundle.