Mind Forged: Book One of the Enchanters of Xarparion (17 page)

“
Where did you learn to do that?”

I looked at Rosa in confusion
. “Um, you taught me to do that a few weeks ago?”

“
I don’t know how to do that,” Rosa said flatly.

I was
really confused now. “I could have sworn you taught me. Oh well, it’s a nice trick, I used it on you already.”

“
If I couldn’t read your mind, I would say that you were lying. But no matter, for now we need to worry about Maya. Is she truly going to be alright?”

“
She should be as far as I know. She is in no danger anymore of dying from the poison.”

She was shocked for a second
. “I thought you said that dark elves don’t die from red nightshade poison?”

“
No, I said
she
wouldn’t die from it. About one in four dark elves who are untreated die from most natural poisons, red nightshade included.”

“
But how did you know she wouldn’t?”

I smiled down at the
sleeping dark elf in my arms. “Because I won’t let her.”

Rosa accepted that and even looked a bit proud of my response
. “You should try and get some sleep as well.”

“
I can’t. She still needs as much medicine as I can keep down her, and I still need to keep the fire going and her head cool. No, I won’t be sleeping much tonight, but I can’t think of a place I would rather be right now.”

She
smiled and patted me softly on the head. “Well, in that case, I’ll get you something to help keep you awake. And in the mean time, I’ll start cleaning up the spare bedroom.”

“
Wow, Rosa cleaning!”

“
Hey, watch it. Just because Maya is sick doesn’t mean that you are free from a future beating. Now be a good boy and take care of your true love.”

“
I will.”

“
At least you will have someone to talk to…where is that sprite anyway?”

“
Yeah, you may want to rethink that last part.” I motioned over to where Nia was sitting on the table. She was wrapped up in her blanket and was using an unlit candle as a pillow. It was really cute and I had no desire to wake her from her sleep. She worked hard tonight and she earned it.

We both
chuckled as Rosa headed upstairs. A few minutes later, she returned with a hot mug of something that tasted a lot like dirt, but oddly, I kind of liked it. Once she was gone, I finally had a few moments of quiet to reflect on the past night. There were still some things from the story Rosa told about the elders that didn’t add up. Then there was a fire wizard using red nightshade poison in the first place. The only ones at the school who should even know how to make it would be the earth wizards and I don’t see any of them giving any to a fire wizard.

My thoughts were interrupted by Maya
stirring again in my arms. She wasn’t shaking like the last time she woke up, so I counted that as a good sign. Her green eyes opened and she looked up at me.

“
How are you feeling?”

“
Well, I hurt all over, my head is killing me, my stomach is tied in three knots, and I keep bouncing from feeling like I’m on fire to freezing to death. Oh, and worst of all, the man who I most want to appear beautiful for gets to see me as a ragged, puke doll all night. So very romantic.”

“
I’m so sorry.”

“
Don’t be.” She reached up with an overly warm hand and caressed the side of my face. “Winya has been talking to me in my sleep and told me everything that happened. I owe her and you my life.”

“
No, you don’t. You will never owe me anything. And I hate to have to put you through this, but it’s time for you to drink your medicine.”

I reached over and picked up the bowl and held it so she could drink without having to hold it herself.

“What is in it?”

“
If I told you, you wouldn’t drink it.”

“
Great, that’s the part that scares me.”

She brought her lips to the bowl and took a quick sip
. Once the mixture touched her tongue, she tried her best to spit it out. But I could see that coming, so I quickly covered her mouth with my free hand so she couldn’t.

“
Swallow.” After a hurtful look, she finally did. “Good girl.” And I removed my hand.

She looked like she just
tasted something extremely sour. From the look on her face, it must have been the worst thing she had ever tasted.

“
Alex, if you are determined to kill me, at least have the decency to use a sword,” she coughed. “What in the world is in that awful stuff?”

“
Well, most of it you would have no trouble with, but the part you hate so much would be the black ginger root.”

Her eyes shot wide
in alarm. “You know I was kidding about the determined-to-kill-me part, right? So your idea of curing one poison is to feed me another?”

I shook my head
. “Unlike what you have been told, black ginger is not poisonous to dark elves. In fact, it’s very good for you and will help cure many of your ills. The reason you were told it’s poisonous is because the adults didn’t want their kids to eat it unsupervised. I’m not sure why that is an issue; as you can tell, most dark elves find the taste of black ginger to be extremely repulsive.”

“
It is repulsive! Almost as bad as the noxious potions my grandfather concocted to give me dream-free sleep, and they didn’t work. That was another reason I took up the sword and ran away to the forest.”

“
Remind me to thank him when I see him someday. At least you being lost in the forest all the time kept the handsome elf-boy suitors away. Well, now you have two choices, you can impress the hell out of me and drink the rest voluntarily, or I do it the hard way. But either way you’re drinking all of it.”

She
scowled at me. I was taking a chance with that challenge, but if I knew her like I think I did, then this should be easy.

“
I hate you so much right now,” she growled and grabbed the bowl from my hand, gulping down the rest of the medicine in a few large draughts. I would have liked to have administered it in small sips, but hey, she drank it.

“
That stuff is incredibly foul! I never want to get sick again. But if I get to sleep like this all night, it might not be so bad. As long as you never feed me ginger again, that is; and no, I don’t care that it’s good for me.”

I smiled
. “Glad to see that you’re feeling better.” Some of the color had returned to her face and she didn’t feel so feverish.

“
A little, yeah. Oddly, that stuff made my stomach stop hurting.”

“
That would be the milk.”

She looked at me with a puzzled look
. “How do you know so much about dark elf medicine?”

“
That’s a story for another time.”

“
No, that’s a quick way to brush away the question.”

I chuckled and brushed the sweaty damp hair away from her eyes
. “Well either way, you’re not getting that one just yet. For now, you need to get some more sleep.”

She yaw
ned and snuggled down into a more comfortable position. “Fine, but I’ll get that story out of you one day. And you are staying right where you are; I have no desire to give up my best pillow.”

I
wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “Wouldn’t even dream of moving.”

“
Good.”

In
less than a minute, she was sleeping peacefully.

Alex

I stayed up all night; whatever it was that Rosa gave me definitely worked. Maya was very cooperative in the night and never tried to roll over in her sleep, not that she had control over something like that. But never once did I want to be anywhere else. I was very content to sit there and hold her for as long as she needed. The smell of her hair alone was enough to relax me.

Nia
finally woke from her slumber and stretched, looking as though she had forgotten the night before.

“
Um, Alex, why was I sleeping on a candle?”

“
You tell me, I didn’t put you there.”

She must have remembered w
here she was then. “Oh no! I must have fallen asleep when I was supposed to help you take care of the warrior princess!”

“
Don’t worry about it, Nia; you were exhausted and only one of us needed to go without sleep. Besides, when this potion of Rosa’s wears off, I’m going to fall asleep and then it will be your turn to watch the warrior princess.”

She
thought it over for a second and then smiled. “I can do that.”

“
Do what?” I turned to see Rosa coming down the stairs. She looked like she was up all night as well, bags under her eyes, messed up hair, the works.

“
Couldn’t sleep?”

“
Of course not! I couldn’t stop worrying about you two! All I could do was lay there and think about the assassins and what life would be like if she had died!”

“
Yeah, I did some of that, too,” I said grimly.

“
How is she?”

I smiled
the best I could. “She is doing great. Winya and I have been pumping her body full of magic all night; she should feel much better when she wakes up.”

Most of the
tension in her posture was released, and she looked a lot better. “Well that’s a relief.”

“
Just to warn you, she is going to be wildly hungry, almost feral, when she wakes up, so we need to get some food going, actually a lot of food going,” I corrected. “But if I move, I’ll wake her and I don’t want that to happen until we are entirely ready.”

Rosa was horrified
. “You want me to cook? I can’t cook!”

I
smiled. “I know you can’t, that’s why Nia is in charge. Just follow her lead.”

Nia was beaming as she
led the still protesting Rosa into the kitchen to start getting the food ready. It wasn’t long before the smell of eggs made it over to us, and my stomach reminded me all about what a night of enchanting does for the appetite. Much to my surprise, Maya didn’t seem to notice the smell at all. Normally, if you bring food anywhere near her or Rosa, you would be in danger of losing a finger or two.

Over the course of the night, Winya and I had a lot of time to talk
after recent events. She will freely talk with me now, even about unimportant things. But the main thing we did was to help her get more control over the new abilities that she has as a magic user. She has grown a lot in one night; I would easily say that she had doubled in strength due to this past evening.

I thought about waking Maya, but Winya
volunteered
“She is in a deep healing sleep, Alex. I know you are familiar with many dark elf foibles having lived among them; however, I doubt you know just how very rare it is for any dark elf to really relax anywhere but their forest clan home. That is why solitary or isolated dark elves rarely thrive and usually sleep literally with one eye open and a dagger in their hand. Yet even injured and totally vulnerable, Maya feels safe enough to sleep here without any concern, and her dreams are always good ones when you are nearby.”

“
I’m sure she knows that you are here guarding her and it makes a world of difference, Winya.”

“
As much as I would like that to be true, Alex, it’s your presence that eases her mind and heart, not mine. Would you like me to start bringing her awake?

“
Yes, please do, Winya. I would like her to have some time to adjust before we feed her.”

“
I understand.”

It only took a few seconds for her eyes to
flutter open. Even seeing her at her worst, she was still able to take my breath away with those green eyes.

“
Hello, Magic Boy,” she whispered dryly, her voice still not back to its normal melodious tones. She struggled to sit up straighter, as I gave her a sip of water.

“
Hello, warrior princess.”

Maya
smirked up at me. “You are going to pay for that one!”

“
Oh, I think after last night, I’m enough points ahead to poke a little fun.”

“
Hmmm...maybe,” she purred. “But from what Winya just told me, you were stroking my ears again.”

Guilty or not, I could feel
my face turn a bright red.

“
Ha, caught you! So you were touching my ears! You see, I asked her but she avoided the question, the steely minx! Apparently, the two of you bonded when I was asleep?”

“
But how did you know to ask?”

“
Because you don’t have dreams like the ones she had without help,” Rosa supplied. She and Nia had returned from the kitchen with a large platter of food.

“
Rosa, I told you never to look into my dreams again!” Maya was blushing from ear to ear. She covered her head in a blanket to keep me from seeing her face. “I swear, Alex, it’s not what you think.”

I looked over at Rosa and she mouthed
‘yes it is’ to me. It took all I had to keep from laughing. I had the feeling that I might get hurt if this conversation went on any longer. I slid the food tray closer to us.  Even from under her blanket, she should be able to smell the food.

“
Alex,” Maya whispered, “please, could you take Nia and Rosa with you out into the hall while I eat? I am hungrier than I have ever been before and it’s taking all the strength I have to maintain control…now, please!”

Grabbing Rosa by the arm
, I motioned for Nia to follow and we retreated to the kitchen. I leaned up against the wall and faced them.

“
Once, when I was twelve or thirteen, I was with my mother working with the village healer at our old home, and there was a villager there that had been bitten by a venomous lizard. They had no choice but to put him into a coma of sorts, to slow the spread of the venom before it reached his heart. For three days we fed him potions and the local shaman put healing spell after healing spell on him. By the end of the third day, the effects of fighting the poison and all the magic had caused him to lose a quarter of his body weight. He was literally skin and bone, and when he did wake up, he was like a ravenous wild dog. He snapped and fought with the people trying to feed him, his own wife among them, totally oblivious to everyone trying to help. He only knew the pain and the hunger and defending his food against everyone he imagined was trying to take it away. The funny thing is, he was one of the kindest, nicest people you could ever meet normally. Finally, after devouring enough food to feed a family of ten, he settled down enough for the healer to go back into the hut where he had to immediately stitch up a large wound on the fellow’s arm. He had gotten so out of control that he had bitten himself.

“
Are you saying that Maya would have been like that?” Nia asked in disbelief, looking between Rosa and me.”

“
No, Maya isn’t in as bad a shape as the villager in the story, but her first instinct is still self preservation, and she might say or do something that she would regret later. At the very least, we would make her very uncomfortable while she was eating, and we need her to eat in order to recover.

As if on cue, Maya glided into the kitchen carrying the tray of empty dishes, and set them gently down next to the wash basin
. Sighing she grabbed me by the arm and rested her head against my shoulder. “Thank you, Alex, you always know how to make me feel better.”

Nia buzzed around us a bit, paying special attention to Maya
’s arms, and finally landed back on my shoulder with an all clear sign. Rosa smiled and hugged us all gently.

“
Now that you’re feeling better, Maya, I think we should all have a nice chat. But first, you need to go and take a quick bath! And then we are going to get comfortable, as we are all having a nice long talk.”

Maya scampered
stiffly off to the bath house and returned in a short while wearing one of my white robes and smelling fresh and amazing. She smiled shyly at me and curled up in a chair with her legs under her.

We all sat down in
our own overstuffed chairs, well, all but Nia. She made her way to a half burnt candle that melted away into a perfect chair for her. She even stitched some fabric onto it somehow.

“
Before you start your thing, Rosa, I would like to ask an important question of you, Alex,” Maya said levelly. Uh-oh, I don’t like where this is going. “Winya keeps saying that she is getting more used to her new form. My question is, what was she? I asked her several times, but she keeps saying that she doesn’t remember.”

Crap
! That was that last question that I ever wanted to hear. I knew that this would come up at some point but I was hoping that I would have a few years to really learn about what I did. But what I really dreaded was that Winya made me promise to never to tell them who she was.

“
I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that.”

“
So you won’t tell me?”

I sighed
, “No, Maya, I will tell you. I never want there to be secrets between us, but you may not like it or, for that matter, me after I tell you.”

“
I need to know, Alex; Winya is a part of me now!”

I hung my head and
stared at the floor. This was the one time that I didn’t want to look at her. “I’ll try to explain the best I can, to make things simple. Winya was not her first name. It’s her real name, but not her first, if that makes any sense. She died some time ago and her spirit was set adrift to wander until her task was done. I could feel her and bonded her to the metal to forge your blade.”

I
didn’t have to look up to know she was reeling with anger as she digested my words, but I also promised Winya that I would keep her past a secret. And I would suffer any punishment as long as Winya was always there to keep Maya safe.

Maya launched herself out of the chair and confronted me
. “How could you do such a thing? You robbed her of her afterlife; you literally are using her soul! You’re no better than that filthy necromancer! I thought I knew you, Alex!”

I didn
’t know what to say, there wasn’t anything to say. “I’m sorry.” She slapped me hard across my face, holding nothing back and raced for the outside door.

“
Maya, stop!”
She froze in place halfway out the door, tears in her eyes
. “Please return to your seat, Alex has done nothing wrong.”

“
But you heard what he did to you!”

“
That’s not what happened. I asked him to leave my past out of his story, but as you can see, without it, Alex is portrayed as an evil man when he is really my savior.”

She slowly made he
r way back to her chair, pulling her legs up to her chin defensively; she still wouldn’t look my way.

“
Now I will tell you my entire story. I cannot tell you my old name for I cast it off long ago. I died about four hundred years ago. Rosa, you may remember my death. I was the leader of the royal guard with the task of protecting our queen and princess, but I failed them and our kingdom died with them.”

Rosa gasped and covered her mouth
. “The battle of Sky Raven Fortress?”

“
Yes, our queen’s favorite place, it really was once a beautiful place. Now, it’s just a haunted shell of its former glory. But to this day, the walls still stand strong.”

“
But if you were the captain of the guards, then you must have been the leader of the Steel Maidens!”

“
Yes, I was. We were an all-female force that had the best training and weapons of the time. We were also the only completely female fighting force as well. The queen had never liked the idea of so many men too close to her and her daughter so she asked us to be her royal guard. At first I refused her; we were only fifty strong, hardly a guard force for a queen. But she insisted, next thing we knew, we were in the mountains at her fortress. Many years passed and things were going very well. There were only a few small skirmishes in the area to deal with and we even had time to train a few new girls. But then that changed.”

“
Without warning, our neighboring kingdom attacked the fortress. Our army was not mobilized and was too far away to make it in time. To this day, I still don’t know how such a large force got so close without us noticing, but assumedly foul magics were involved. But that doesn’t matter anymore. There were less than eighty of us to defend her majesty and the princess. I knew we had no chance against the fighting force on our doorstep. I sent the queen and her daughter out an underground tunnel with ten of my best girls and told them to join up with our army. The rest of us were to stay behind and buy them time. I still remember the queen begging me to go with them, but I couldn’t leave the rest of my girls to die alone and without a leader.”