Griffin's Daughter (44 page)

Just as she thought she could no longer endure the pain, Amara withdrew, ending the scan, and Jelena collapsed.  The bitter taste of bile burned her mouth as her stomach churned and her vision swam alarmingly. She felt something cool and hard force itself between her lips—the rim of a goblet, filled with watered wine. She swallowed twice, then pushed the cup away and sagged backward onto the couch, breathing in great gulps.

Somewhere out on the frontier of Jelena’s distressed awareness, she felt Amara waiting, strong as a rock, lending her support. Gradually, the nausea subsided, the dizziness abated, and Jelena dared to open her watering eyes.

“
Gods,” she muttered weakly, in Soldaran.

Amara gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Believe it or not, Jelena, you did well. A scan is not an easy thing to endure, even a surface one, especially if it’s the first one experienced. Your mind is naturally strong, and you have much more Talent than even I’d guessed. You were actually throwing up a rudimentary shield against me, without knowing what it was you were doing, which is why it hurt so much. I’m quite impressed. As you gain experience, you’ll be able to tolerate even a deep scan without too much discomfort. ”

“
I hope so,” Jelena replied. She pressed shaking hands to her head, which felt like an anvil on the business end of a hammer.

“
Here, let me ease your head,” Amara offered.

“
Thank you, my lady.” Jelena dropped her hands and let Amara rest her palms on either side of her face. Remarkably, the throbbing in her skull began to subside. By the time Amara released her grip, Jelena’s headache was gone.

“
A simple pain banishment,” Amara explained in response to the questioning look in Jelena’s eyes. “One of the easiest spells to learn. Now, I think you’ve had quite enough for today. Tomorrow, we’ll begin in earnest.”

Jelena tried to stifle a shiver of apprehension, but couldn’t. It seemed that getting to the truth of the blue fire might prove as difficult in its own way as getting to Alasiri had been.

“
When shall I return?” Jelena asked.

“
Come with my son to breakfast tomorrow. We’ll start immediately afterward.”

Jelena stood up, a little unsteadily, and turned toward the door.

“
And, one more thing.” Jelena halted and looked back at Lady Amara. “From now on, you are considered a member of my family, but until you and my son are officially married, you can’t share his bed.” Jelena blushed furiously and found an especially interesting spot on the floor to study. Amara laughed, but Jelena heard no mockery in it. “Come now, I know it’ll be hard, but it’s tradition, and there’s nothing that says you and Ashinji can’t do other things.”

“
Yes, my lady,” Jelena murmured.

Cheeks still aflame, Jelena beat a hasty retreat, but despite her embarrassment, her heart began singing. She hurried downstairs and out of the castle into the full heat of the summer day. The upper yard lay empty, and the whitewashed walls of the castle shimmered in the glare of a sun that rode high and bright in a cloudless sky.

Ashi and I will be married soon,
she thought, and the intensity of her joy swelled so overwhelmingly that she threw her arms out and spun like a top, stopping only when her legs threatened to buckle beneath her.

Abruptly remembering that she stood out in the open, Jelena glanced surreptitiously around her, checking to see if anyone had observed her burst of exuberance. The yard was still deserted, and no curious eyes stared at her from any of the castle windows, at least none that she could see. She headed off in the direction of the barracks.

~~~

Back in the room she shared with Aneko and Kami, Jelena sat on her bed, staring at the ring bequeathed to her by her mother. She held the heavy signet on her palm, trying to imagine the man whose finger it had encircled.

Is he dark like me or fair like Ashinji?
she wondered.

Until she had come to Alasiri, Jelena had nothing to base an image of her father on, save her own face, and Claudia had always remarked on how much she resembled her mother Drucilla.

Surely, there must be something of my father in me.

She examined the white gold griffin inlaid in the ring’s black stone surface. A signet was a symbol, usually of a person’s family or of a society he or she belonged to. Why did she have the distinct feeling that Lord Sen knew her father’s identity but chose to withhold the knowledge from her?

Maybe you’re just imagining things that aren’t there,
she thought.

She decided to trust Lord Sen to tell her what she needed to know when the time was right.

After all, I’m to be his daughter-in-law, and a man like Lord Sen would never lie to a member of his family.

Jelena slipped the ring back into the leather pouch that she had taken to keeping it in and put it back in her storage chest. The barracks were quiet; all of the guards were still on duty. Aneko and Kami wouldn’t return until sunset, so Jelena had to wait before she could share her good news. She lay back on the bed and folded her arms behind her head.

My life is changing so rapidly,
she thought. It seemed like just yesterday that she had been a kitchen drudge, destined only for the life of a concubine, to be used and discarded when her master had tired of her. Now, she would soon become part of a noble elven House, a full member, with all of the concurrent rights and privileges.

Maybe Ashinji is right. Perhaps the One Goddess of the elves did put me on that riverbank so he would find me.

Or, perhaps the Soldaran gods had at last taken pity on her and had released her from their cruel dominion. Whatever the reasons, Jelena would not commit the sin of ingratitude. She vowed to visit the chapel of the One each day to offer up prayers of thanks for her reversal of fortune.

The air felt hot and close in the confines of the bunk room. A horse whinnied in the stableyard below. Jelena could feel sleep stalking her, weighing down her eyelids with pebbles and infusing her muscles with lassitude. She fought for a while—half-heartedly—but soon gave in.

She awoke with a start, the beginnings of a scream tearing at her throat. She sat up and wrapped her arms around her body, shivering despite the lingering warmth in the room. Vague images of something huge and unspeakably evil, trailing tatters of shadow in its wake as it swooped down to envelop her swirled in her mind. Jelena had no idea of the nature of the
thing
, but she had felt its burning hunger, its frantic
need
for…for what? Then it hit her with chilling certainty.

The blue fire!

It wanted the energy that smoldered like banked coals deep within the essence of her being, and she sensed that, though it might not now have strength enough to take what it wanted, its power waxed with each passing day, and soon, it would come for her in earnest.

Jelena scrambled to her feet, swaying a little in reaction to the aftereffects of the nightmare.

I must tell Lady Amara! She’ll know what to do!

The True Measure Of Friendship

Do not worry, child. The seeds of this nightmare come from your own fears about your Talent, nothing more.

Jelena turned Lady Amara’s words over and over in her mind as she slowly walked back to the barracks, but no matter how hard she tried to banish it, the feeling that her future mother-in-law hid something important continued to nag at her.

It’s just like with Lord Sen,
she thought.
Why do I feel Ashinji’s parents know things about me they are trying to keep secret? What could there possibly be to know about me that’s worth hiding?

She shook her head, completely baffled.

As she mounted the stairs up to the common room, she heard Gendan’s voice drifting from the doorway. “We’ve got to send for the doctor!”

Jelena paused, frowning.
What’s got Gendan so upset?
she wondered.

“
Gendan’s right!” Aneko’s voice sounded just as distressed. “For once in your life, Kami, please don’t argue!”

Jelena hastened to the top of the stairs, heart racing. She rushed through the half-open door and spotted Gendan, kneeling, his back to her. “What has happened?” she cried.

Aneko, who stood beside the captain, looked up and around at Jelena as she approached. The stark look of fear on the older woman’s face froze Jelena in her tracks.

“
Kami collapsed a few moments ago, Jelena. She’s very sick. We need you to go fetch the doctor,” Aneko said tensely. Jelena could see now that Kami lay sprawled upon the floor, her head resting in Gendan’s lap, still dressed in her dusty armor, as though she’d just come in from guard duty.

“
I…don’t need a doctor,” Kami murmured. Jelena drew in a sharp breath, shocked and terrified at the sight of her friend’s bloodless face.

“
I told you not to go to work today. I asked you to stay in and rest! Why didn’t you listen to me?” Gendan scolded gently, tears streaking his weathered cheeks.

“
Jelena, please hurry!” Aneko urged.

Jelena turned and ran for the door. She pounded down the stairs and sprinted across the lower yard. Up the path and through the lower gates she ran, ignoring the shouts of the guards, slowing down only when she had crossed the upper yard and had to think a moment to remember which way to go.

The infirmary lay at the back of the main wing of the castle. By the time Jelena arrived, she was thoroughly winded. Breathlessly, she pounded on the thick, wood door.

The doctor’s assistant, a gangly young man, answered the door, listened closely while Jelena gasped out her request for help, snapped, “Wait here!” then slammed the door shut, leaving Jelena alone in the warm darkness.

Anxiously, she waited.

Terrifying thoughts tumbled over themselves in her mind, each new one more horrible than the last.

What if Kami is losing her baby? What if she’s dying? What if she dies before I can bring the doctor? Will Gendan blame me?   

Just when she thought she would go mad with fear, the door flew open and the doctor stepped through. Jelena immediately recognized her as the woman who had tended the injuries she’d received on the day Ashinji had rescued her from the bandits.

“
Lead on, girl!” the doctor commanded, handing her bag off to her assistant. Wordlessly, Jelena turned on her heel and started back the way she’d come, the doctor and her assistant following closely behind.

By the time they arrived at the barracks, Gendan and Aneko had stripped off Kami’s armor and clothing, and had put her into bed. Gendan had pulled up a stool and now sat beside his stricken lover, her small hand clutched tightly in his.

“
Doctor Metai, please, you must help my girl!” the captain begged, his voice ragged with fear. The doctor crossed the small room in two strides and bent over Kami, peering into the girl’s half-lidded, restless eyes. She pressed her first two fingers to the large vein in Kami’s pale throat, then after a few heartbeats, clicked her tongue in dismay. “What exactly happened, Captain?” Doctor Metai asked.

Gendan shook his head. “I don’t rightly know,” he replied. “I wasn’t there, but Aneko, here, was. She came and fetched me just after the bell sounded the hour—said my girl had taken ill.”

“
We’d just come in from our shift,” Aneko explained. “Kami’d been complaining since dawn that she didn’t feel well. She insisted it was just the morning sickness and that she’d be all right. She refused to stay in the bunk house to rest, even though Gendan asked her to.”

“
She’s such a hard-headed girl, sometimes!” Gendan added, sniffing hard and wiping his eyes on his sleeve. Kami moaned softly and began to shiver. Gendan stroked her tousled blonde hair. “Can you do anything for her, Doctor?” he asked.

“
I’ll not lie to you, Captain,” Doctor Metai stated. “Kami has fallen ill with a very serious malady. I’ve seen it most often in young women during the early weeks of a first pregnancy. Sometimes, the girl miscarries. Sometimes, she dies.”

“
No!” Jelena whispered, her hand flying to her mouth.

“
But Kami is strong and healthy,” the doctor continued. “With luck and good nursing, she has a decent chance of survival.”

“
What about our child?” Gendan asked quietly, resting one hand on top of the blanket covering Kami’s belly.

The doctor paused a heartbeat before answering. “If the mother survives, usually the child does as well.” She motioned for her assistant to bring her bag. “Kami will need constant tending through the crisis,” she added, reaching into the bag’s depths to withdraw several vials.

“
I will watch her,” Jelena volunteered. Both Aneko and Gendan looked sharply at her.

“
You don’t have to do this,” Aneko said. “Gendan can find a nurse…”

“
No, I will nurse Kami,” Jelena insisted. “Captain Miri must work. You must work also, Aneko. I need not work…I mean, there is other messenger…Taba. He can carry all Lord Sen’s messages for a short time. I will stay with Kami as long as she needs me.” She paused, then added, “Kami is my friend.”

Gendan noisily cleared his throat and scrubbed at his eyes with his fists. When he looked again at Jelena, his face shone with relief…and gratitude. “Thank you, Jelena,” he murmured.