Arillia by Illuminati Architect

Chapter Fourteen, The Shaman

Sunday morning, 29th Jinua, I sent Polly to pack our lunches while I went with Rebecka and Elizabeth to prepare our horses.

When we entered the stables, Amelia moved to embrace me, but I waved her off. “No time. Just get our horses ready and then return to jousting your fake dragon. In five days time you will win or die.”

She nodded and helped us prepare Elizabeth’s gelding Tuton, and our two mares, Rebecka’s Sharon (still without a bit, but at least properly saddled) and my Emberstep.

Polly was waiting with our backpacks at the gatehouse. Rebecka had a normal-sized backpack and Elizabeth had our lunches in her oversized (well not for her) pack.

I reached out my hand to Polly. “Come, we must be off.”

She stood and looked at my sword.

“This again? How will you get there in time if you won’t ride with me?”

Sharon stepped forward and nuzzled her head against Polly’s. Polly reached up to pet the horse behind the ear.

“Fine, Elizabeth, take Polly with you.”

“As you wish.” Elizabeth picked up Polly and put her in front of herself on Tuton, while Sharon glared at me.

We made good time to the village of Notyad, but did not stop there and went straight to Notyad Cavern.

The other horses just browsed as we had lunch, but Sharon stepped up to nuzzle against Polly again and accept treats from her hand.

We left Rebecka to watch over the horses while Elizabeth, Polly, and I went into the cavern, with a casting of reverse Holddoor to open the gate. I held up my wand with a Light spell, as this took very little mana to last an entire day for a lantern’s level of illumination. I was well practiced in other more fatiguing uses of the Light spell such as blinding flashes, but these wouldn’t be of use today. The light was for the convenience of the other two, for with Lord Sparot at my hip, I could see clearly in total darkness.

“Um.” Polly stopped and looked back at a large stone we had just passed. “I think there’s something here.”

Yeah, that matches to the graphic from the game.

“Elizabeth, when we’re ready, you will push the rock to the side and keep going until you feel the far wall and stop there. Koching will emerge and attempt to stab me in the right eye with his obsidian tipped javelin staff. I’ll try and knock this away with my haunted saber. Then Koching will attempt an illusion with his jewel, and I’ll try to counter that. Polly is to remain back twenty feet and only intervene if she is immune to the illusion, but is to stay out of reach of that javelin.”

“How can Your Highness predict some things exactly and others not?”

“Polly, as I have explained and demonstrated to you, my mortal life can’t contain the full truth of the Power Beyond. Your limitations are especially mysterious to me as your abilities spring from the same stream.”

I shifted the wand to my left hand and drew the Sword of Wraith with my right. “Are you ready, Lord Sparot?”

Aye, Lass. I shall protect thine fine features with all my might.

“Elizabeth, roll that stone!”

Elizabeth shoved with all her might, and then the stone and herself flew past me.

I stepped up and swatted aside with Sparot’s strength the javelin the Elvin skeleton thrust up at my face. Then I saw the red glow of the jewel embedded in his right eye socket, and the world fell away from me.

I was standing on a small forested hill as elf tribesmen rushed down towards a carriage and stabbed the horses and driver with thrown javelins. At this point a woman in a rustic noble dress emerged from the carriage, and fire shot out of the large red stone on her wand.

Lass! Quickly grant me control!

I obliged and felt my body jerk around to swing an unseen sword at an unknown target.

Something shattered, and I was back in the cave.

For a moment, my undead-enhanced vision followed the mystic jewel as it flew away from Koching’s shattered skull. I glanced down and saw that the rest of his skeleton had collapsed into a scattering of bones at my feet. I looked around for his javelin and found it pinning Polly’s apparently lifeless body against the cavern wall.

I stepped up and could see with Lord Sparot’s senses the faint blue glow of her power around the wound in her gut. I resheathed the sword and called out. “Elizabeth, hold her up!”

“Your Highness, what happened?” Elizabeth grabbed Polly’s shoulders. “Is she dead?”

“Not quite.” Knowing full well the dangers of touching another wizard’s wand, I yanked the javelin out of the wall and Polly, who collapsed in Elizabeth’s arms. Her wound gushed blood for a moment, and there was a brief flash of the blue glow as the wound closed up, and then I could just barely sense any of Polly’s power at work.

“Carry her gently.”

“Is there anything Your Highness can do to help her with your magics?”

“No, I dare not fight against her power when she is so weak. All I can do is gather what we came here for.” As I bent down to pick up the jewel, I spotted another glimmer of magic in the corner and picked up an earring in the elvish tribal style. “The Queen will want to see this.”

As we emerged from the cavern, Rebecka froze, but Sharon bawled out, ran up to sniff at Polly, and then gave me a reproachful glare.

“She’s not dead! Well, not entirely dead. It’s a Blessed Girl thing. She’ll be better. What do you care, you dumb animal? You just met her today. What if I had died in that cave?”

Sharon shrugged and returned to grazing with one eye on Polly.

We loaded our packs onto the horses and walked into Notyad Village. The mayor lent us his guest room, and I spent the afternoon watching Polly lie still as a corpse in the bed.

At sunset, I felt a familiar tingle in my head and pulled out my wand.

What is it, Carnel?

Why aren’t you back yet? Is Elizabeth okay?

Elizabeth is fine. I kept her safe. We’ll be back tomorrow.

I cut the link, and joined my warrior women and the mayor’s family for dinner.

“Why is the blue-haired woman hurt?” The mayor’s younger, preteen son asked. “Aren’t wizards able to heal anything?”

“That would be really nice, wouldn’t it?”

The boy jerked back at this and did not speak around me again.

I fell asleep in the chair sometime at night and awoke stiffly the next morning.

The mayor lent us some blankets to wrap Polly, who was now cool to the touch, a wagon to carry her in, and his eldest son to drive it back to Kristophoro.

We rode slowly and arrived back at the castle that evening.

My family was waiting when we entered the main keep, and Carnel jumped up into Elizabeth’s arms, looked over the larger woman’s shoulder, and then saw that I carried Polly in my undead assisted arms.

Carnel pushed away from Elizabeth, was lowered to the ground, and ran up to me. “What killed her?”

“She’s not dead. Well, not all dead. You can’t kill a Blessed Girl with a single stab. Mother, follow me.”

I carried Polly up the stairs to put her in my bed, where Mother and Mary examined her.

“Shall I try casting Heal?” Mother asked me.

“Do not interfere with her innate abilities. Just keep her warm, and perhaps you or Carnel can cast Magescan once daily to check on her.”

“You won’t delay your trip?”

“I must not. If I do not ride tomorrow, then hundreds of our subjects shall die in a few days, to be followed by many thousands more later.” I took off my swordbelt and discovered that I had, in my worry, expended every last bit of my own fatigue. I fainted away to darkness as Mother and Mary caught me.

Tuesday, 31st Jinua, I awoke around noon, and it took me a minute to realize that I was in the room that Alice and Rebecka shared. I jumped out of their bed, cut through the shared bathroom, and rushed to Polly’s side.

“Your Highness.” The maid sitting in a chair beside my bed rose and bowed to me.

I saw that my jacket had been hung on the wall and extracted my wand to cast Magescan. I bent down to examine Polly and managed to see the faint trace of her own magics at work, and the scar on her gut seemed to be a tiny bit less prominent than the day before.

I turned to the maid, “Go tell Dame Elizabeth, Lady Rebecka, and Miss Amadev that we ride within the hour and pack their best dresses, in addition to their field gear.”

After she left I went back to the bathroom to wash up, then changed into fresh underwear, and shirt, put on my field pants and jacket, and packed clean clothes and a reasonable dress into a side bag.

As I inspected my belt pouch for things to carry, I noticed the Elvin earring I had found in the cave, and I took this to the Queen.

“Mother, may I have the other earring that matches this?”

“Now, Arillia, you know we’ve only had that one.”

“Show me.” I handed it to her.

“Very well.”

I followed her to her room, where she opened her jewelry cabinet. “Arillia, how did you retrieve this without dispelling my Holddoor?”

“Where does that earring go, Mother?”

“Right here.” She opened the drawer and pulled out the exact match to the earring she held in her other hand. She held these up and examined them. “Did you have a copy made?”

“No, these are both the originals. Koching had this one, and I bet that Kateri handed the other one down the generations to us. I’ll need both for a long time, so it’s best to gift the one we inherited to me now.”

“As you wish. Did you ever determine what the enchantment on them is?”

“Promise not to tell Carnel, but it’s Telepathy, but only between the two. Hence, when we only had one we couldn’t tell what it did.”

“I can see why Carnel would want the pair, but who will you share these with?”

“Lady Rebecka.”

“To take advantage of your near twin appearances?”

“Mostly to assist her in being the lady she wasn’t raised to be.”

“Keep safe on your ride, Dear. And be more careful this time.”

“I will, Mother.”

The rest of the afternoon was eaten up just getting reasonable dresses for Rebecka and Elizabeth. Still, at least Sir Amadev had purchased a dress for his daughter for the visit to her future inlaws. We set out late that day and managed to get to the village of Mingo in the early evening, whose mayor was awoken to provide us lodging for the night.

We set out from Mingo early Wednesday, 1st Befur, and continued to follow the road to the northwest. We made good time that day and I could see that we would reach Letodo the next afternoon. We set camp off the road; Amelia prepared dinner, then I took her into the tent we shared and began undressing her.

“Arillia?”

“I just want to ensure that you don’t die a virgin, Amalia. Don’t worry; I won’t leave a mark, so you’ll still be marriageable. Your husband need never know.”

“I don’t want a man. I want you.” She kissed me.

We divested ourselves of our clothes, and I showed her what I had learned about womanly love. She proved a willing and apt pupil.

Later, as we snuggled under the blanket in each other’s arms, I felt the familiar tingle in my head and reached for the wand in my jacket.

“Arillia?”

“It’s my sister. Excuse me for a moment.”

Hello, Carnel.

Arillia! Polly woke up.

How is she?

The first thing she asked was what happened to you.

Tell her I’m doing great. I reached around with my left hand to toy with Amalia’s nipple. It’s late, so I’ll talk with you later.

I cut the link, put the wand away, and put both hands and my entire body back to exploring all the benefits of my childhood friend.