Midnight Quest (20 page)

“Alright, keep in mind that I’m very new and Elahandra didn’t tell me much.
Why
must they be moved?”

Rialt did no pay much attention to the explanation that followed, as Jewel and Chizeld caught their newest member up on the basics. He had already heard all of this afore after all. Instead he watched Jewel from the corner of his eye, his mind fixated on a mental picture. Is that what she had looked like when she had faced down the Thornock ministers? In that moment, she had radiated calmness and authority like a queen facing down her errant subjects.

There were too many facets to this woman: blind, but not helpless. Young, but not powerless. Kind, but not weak. When he compared himself to her, he could no help but feel that just perhaps Elahandra had no been as choosy as she should have been.

“What are you saying, Rialt?”
Elahandra’s voice suddenly appeared in his mind, gently chiding. “
You are exactly what she needs.”

Think of the goddess, and she apparently would appear.
Lady, I be a warrior with blood on my hands. She be…well, she deserves better than the likes of me.

“Rialt, you have only killed in the line of duty. In our eyes, there is no sin in that.”

And the rest of my bad habits?
he inquired dryly.

“
If you feel guilty about them, why don’t you redeem yourself?”
she suggested mock-sweetly. “
You can begin now, in fact.”

He snorted.

“
I chose you because you are a good man, Rialt Axheimer. But I also chose you because I’d hoped that you’d be fond enough of Jewel that you would forever protect her.”

The idea took such strong root in his mind that his stride actually faltered for a moment.
As Chizeld will?

“Or even more. I cannot call you to the position because you are Juven’s.”

He finished the thought without trouble.
But if I volunteer, her hands are tied?

“I didn’t say that,”
Elahandra retorted primly, a soft echo of laughter in the background.

Did he really want to tie himself to her like that? True, he had dreaded the future day where he would be forced to separate from her and return home. Leaving her with just Chizeld as protection had no set well with him. But…to be forever at the call of another person’s needs, constantly on watch for danger from any side, could he agree to that?
Although,
he reflected to himself wryly,
it be no different than the life I have led so far.
In fact, the only difference he could see was that instead of answering to a whole chain of command for marching orders, he would be following just one woman. He had no cavil to serving Jewel instead.

He stole another glance at the woman so calmly walking at his side, heading for the center of town. He simply could no leave her safety and future happiness in the hands of another person. His very soul rebelled at the idea. So to the goddess, he said,
Eh, Elahandra, I will volunteer. But only,
he hastily added,
if you make a way for her to live in Ramath. She be no safe in Thornock.

“You stubborn child
,” Elahandra sighed, but he sensed she was no upset but simply resigned. “
Oh, very well. I will make a way for that to happen.”

A feeling, no unlike pure light, flooded through him. He stopped in his tracks as his heart and soul rang like a bell, a joy so strong that it threatened to sweep him under, flooding every fiber of his being. The feeling was so immense that it brought tears to his eyes and he had to blink hard, several times, to keep them from spilling over.

“Welcome, my child,”
the goddess whispered just inside his ear.

“Thank you,” he whispered back.

Jewel’s hand abruptly grabbed his arm, holding fast. “Rialt,
what did you just do?!”

He blinked again, to clear away the tears, and looked down at her. She appeared stunned, like someone had just slapped her on the back of the head. “You can feel it, then?”

“Feel it?” Clari parroted in disbelief, her green eyes wide in her face. “I can see it! A mantle of power just settled around your shoulders. It’s so blinding white, a blind person couldn’t miss it!”

“True, because even I can tell it’s there,” Jewel reinforced with several adamant nods. “What did you just do?”

“I struck a bargain, I did,” he informed her with a crooked smile.

“Struck a bargain,” Clari repeated in a tone that indicated she was waiting for the punch line of a joke. “Struck a bargain with a
god?
”

Jewel heaved a resigned sigh. “That’s nothing. I was actually there when he argued with a goddess in person. And he
won
. I don’t put bargaining past him. Alright, Rialt. What were the terms?”

He did no answer immediately, but instead reached out to cradle her face in his palm. She startled a little at the unexpected touch, but a slight smile tugged at her mouth as she leaned into the caress. “I will serve as your armsman all the days of your life,” he answered simply, “but in return, you will be able to live in Ramath.”

Everyone stared at Rialt as if he had either grown another head or they were afraid lightning would strike him at any moment. A startled, half-laugh tumbled from Jewel’s lips. “I know you didn’t want me to return to Thornock, but…”

“Herself agreed,” Rialt assured her with immense satisfaction.

Chizeld was the first to get past his surprise and laughed outright, nearly doubling over with the force of it. “Always heard Ramathans more stubborn than mountains,” he choked out after a minute. “But Rialt can teach mountains a few tricks.” Managing to get hold of his mirth, he added more seriously, “Rialt, only way for Jewel to not return to Thornock is if recalled as Priestess of Ramath.”

Jewel brightened instantly. “That’s true. Oh, thank all of the gods! I don’t have to go back and deal with those thrice-cursed ministers.” She let go of Rialt’s arm only to fling herself at him and hug him tightly. “Thank you, thank you,
thank you.
”

Rialt hugged her back with a silly smile teasing his lips up. (Fortunately for his reputation as a tough warrior, the beard mostly camouflaged this.) 

“Um.” Clari held up a finger to get their attention. “I have the feeling that, once again, I’ve missed something.”

“You certainly have,” Sarvell agreed with a dark look in the direction of faraway Thornock. “You know how Belthain likes to dictate edicts to the rest of Evard and use the barrier as leverage to make everyone else comply? Well, the way they managed that is—”

Rialt only listened with a half an ear as they continued for the town center once again. This time, however, Jewel wrapped an arm through his and fell into step with him, beaming so brightly as to appear a second sun. Bortonor trotted along at her other side, eyeing Rialt suspiciously. But since Jewel had reached out first, the dog did no protest his mistress’s wish.

By the time that Clari had been caught up on recent events they had reached the town center. At high noon, the town square had quite a bit of traffic going in every possible direction. Of course, most of the traffic had business with the selection of stores on all sides—bookstore, general store, clothing, grocery, etc. At least half of the traffic, however, came from the Town Hall that sat squarely in the middle of the square.

“Clari,” Jewel turned to the right, where the other priestess walked. “You said that you grew up here?”

“Well, generally. Very generally. My childhood home is here, but ever since I could run, my father has been taking me on hunting trips. I’ve spent most of my life wandering around Woodmanse Forest, really.” She gave an unconcerned shrug. “Why do you ask?”

“Is there a particular procedure you follow to put an issue before the town?” Jewel lowered her voice to a more conspiratorial tone. “Despite what I said back there, I have no idea how to do that.”

Clari’s eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle laugh. “So it
was
a bluff. Oh my. And you looked so innocent saying all of that.”

“She be a chicane,” Rialt agreed readily.

Without pause, Clari slipped into a Ramathan accent. “Eh, she be that.” When Rialt choked at the precise mimicry, she flashed him a quick smile before dropping the accent. “There is a way to put forth an issue and it’s actually quite easy. All we need to do is go inside the Hall. There is a table there, just inside the door, that has a record book on it. We’ll write down what issue we want to discuss, who’s putting it forth, and that’s that. All we have to do then is wait until 6 o’clock. That’s when all town business is discussed.”

“Easy enough,” Chizeld approved. “But doing so will undo hard work earlier to evade the attention of the watchers.”

“Mayhap no,” Rialt ventured slowly, thinking everything through. “If Clari is the one to write the issue down and address it, it should no catch their attention.”

“I give it fair odds of working,” Sarvell seconded with a wry shrug. “Those two seem particularly lazy. If it doesn’t directly involve Jewel, I don’t think they’re going to pay any attention.”

When they started actually moving the crystal, they were bound to take notice, and everything they did now was only buying them a little time. If they moved fast enough, they could leave the area before Thornock could send people after them. Everyone recognized this but no one said it aloud.

“Priestess Hahn will go write down issue?” Chizeld asked. “The rest go to good restaurant for lunch.”

Sarvell clapped an approving hand onto his shoulder. “Sound plan. Clari, is that little café across the street a good place?”

“I like it well enough,” she answered easily.

“Then we’ll meet you there.”

~*~*~*~

When the party arrived at the Hall for the appointed time it seemed to be filled almost to the rafters with people. Jewel could hear the murmur of many voices overlapping as they approached the building, but she didn’t realize how packed the place had become until they actually tried to clear the doors. It took Rialt, Sarvell and Chizeld acting as a vanguard to break a trail inside that didn’t end in the first two feet. Bortonor let out little warning growls here and there as people got too close to Jewel, which won her some space as well, but still—the press of bodies was amazing. The smell inside overwhelmed her, too. Her nose kept picking up little wafts of sun, dirt, dust, metal, smoke, and food that indicated every possible profession had a representative here tonight.

“Clari.” Jewel had to raise her voice just to be heard. “Is it normally like this?”

“I’ve
never
seen it like this,” the other girl responded, sounding flabbergasted. “Word must have gotten out, somehow, about what we wanted to say.”

Jewel couldn’t decide if this response from the town was a positive or negative sign. She
really
hoped that Thornock’s spies hadn’t picked up on this and were hiding somewhere in the crowd.  

“WOULD CLARION HAHN COME FORWARD!” a deep, male voice boomed out. The voice had a recognized ring of authority to it—the entire room fell silent almost instantly.

“Well, Judge, I would!” Clari called back. “But I can’t get up there!”

“Clari,” the Judge’s voice called back, “We know you got elbows. Use ‘em!”

Several people chuckled at this, but the banter between the two apparently worked, as Jewel could hear people shuffling and moving good-naturedly aside to give them room to pass.

Clari grabbed Jewel’s hand and pulled her closer. “Jewel, do I dare introduce you or not? I mean…I wasn’t expecting this…”

Jewel hadn’t either, but perhaps she should have. Regardless, there were so many people in this crowd that had already taken note of a blind woman with a dog that even if the spies
weren’t
in this crowd, they’d hear about it. Their time of avoiding trouble would come to an end by early morning, at the latest. So she reached up and patted Clari on the shoulder. “It’s pointless to keep hiding. I’ll speak with you.”

“Alright.” Clari turned and led her forward and up on a slightly raised dais. “Can you all hear me?” Muttered consents came from the crowd. “Good! The woman next to me is Jewel Jomadd, the High Priestess of Thornock. She’s come here on very specific orders from Elahandra—to find every missing crystal and put it back in place.”

“Why?” a voice from the distant back wanted to know. “Past few months, the barrier’s been up!”

“The barrier will fail in the near future,” Jewel answered in the loudest voice she could muster. Her throat felt stretched from the novel experience of yelling. “You must understand, the crystal in Thornock just doesn’t have the
energy
to keep going. It must be charged with its sister crystals, and to do that, we must find all of the crystals and put them back in place.”

A wave of muttered comments and muted questions flowed through the room. Jewel strained her ears, but she couldn’t pick up enough specific commentary to understand what was being said. All she heard were tones of concern and unease.

“What this woman isn’t telling you,” Braun’s voice came from the door, growing in power as he forced his way to the front, “is that this crystal of theirs is buried in my vineyard! And that in order to get it out, they’ll be cutting down the sweetest patch of my grapes.
Our
grapes!”

The responsive wave this time came like a roar of noise. Jewel instinctively flinched from it, feeling oppressive force closing in on all sides.

From beside her, Clari growled, “
Oh for the love of—
MASTER BRAUN! I’ve told you again and again that we will do everything in our power to not trample on those grapes. Anything covering the crystal is going to have to be cut away, that’s unavoidable. But we
have
to move that crystal!”

“And lose all of those grapes?” someone in front of Jewel demanded incredulously. “Those are the best producing vines in the area!”

“Which would you rather do, forfeit a couple of cases of wine or your lives?” Clari snapped back, the wooden floor creaking as she shifted back and forth. “Don’t you understand me?
The barrier is failing
. There is nothing we can do to prevent it unless that crystal,
all of the crystals
, are in their proper places!”