To Be Chosen (55 page)

Daniel turned to her. “No, he requested a duel, he got a duel.”

Keenan cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him. “He sparred with you enough to know about your extraordinary stamina. Be that as it is, your blade met his every time, you held off his attack, and moved in for the kill when he slowed. You are a Master-of-the-blade now and should wear the lighting bolts if not for pride, then to give fair warning to others who are considering drawing a blade against you. It might even keep you out of fights. Not many people would be foolish enough to challenge you.”

The man did make a good point, but Daniel had triumphed many times precisely because his opponents did not know what they were tangling with. Did he want to give up the advantage? Fairness had never entered into his thinking, not when survival always seemed to be at stake, for him or someone else. “I’ll think about it. For now, unless one of you has something requiring my attention, I would like to turn in early.”

Silvia touched him on the shoulder. “I know it was hard, but Cale betrayed us all. You did the right thing.”

Sergeant Keenan adjusted the bracing on his upper body. “She is correct. You did what was required, even though my mouth went dry at the thought of you dying in a duel. I saw the shields you summoned to protect us from the Aakacarn and so figured you knew what you were about and told myself not to worry. That said, I too am of a mind to turn in early,” he stated and then departed.

Daniel eyed his remaining guests. “I would think a couple of newlyweds had more interesting things to do.”

David held his lips together so tightly it was obvious he was trying not to smile. Clearly, nothing that had transpired today upset him. “You would be correct. We’re going to have some of that fish I smell frying and then find something more interesting to do. That is, if you see fit to remove our protection.”

Daniel removed t
he Da Capos from their shields.

“Thank you. Keep in mind, Cale was a traitor. Don’t lose any sleep over him,” Silvia stated in low tones and then locked elbows with her husband and led him out into the camp.

Daniel removed everything but his pants and undershirt, and then stretched out on the bedroll while men spoke in hushed voices outside. Clutch the osprey showed him the wiry young man finally catching up with Serena, who had stopped for the night. Each of the five Aakacarns made their mud huts and went inside. Hoot would take over the surveillance and so Daniel thanked Clutch, who sent back a feeling of contentment. He was free to do whatever he wanted.

Echo
the osprey, who had been sent north with Wisp, sent Daniel an image in the moonlight of a man and a woman, each wearing black silks with a golden lightning bolt on the hoods, leading a pair of horses out of a cave in one of the Foothills. The couple went about a hundred strides and then mounted up, heading north. The osprey wondered if he should follow, but Daniel encouraged the helpful raptor to stay in the area. Wisp flew in a wider circle than did his brother, and was high enough to see many spans farther. He sent a vision of ten riders, each with a spare mount, heading south with their horses running at a gallop. They were coming from the northwest and not likely to pass near the pair of Aakacarns Echo had seen. The two visions proved a Nest of the Serpent Guild was active in the area and the cave opening to the north was at least one entrance. Daniel conveyed his appreciation to the ospreys and encouraged them to get some rest and focus on the hills in the morning. Both birds agreed and he could sense them spiraling down towards a group of trees.

Daniel lay with his eyes open. Sleep eluded him, but it was not his duel with Cale that kept him awake. He was worried about Sherree being in the merciless hands of Serin Gell. And Jerremy, how was he going to save him from Condemnation? Riding on the heels of those worries was his concern for the Queen. He formed compartments in his mind and placed each worry in one. The only item he could work on presently was a Melody to cure Cleona. Sherree, poor Sherree, once told him of an operation where a team of Accomplisheds kept a person alive while another one performed the actual healing. That gave him an idea and an inspiration. Monitoring every function of a patient would be difficult for one Accomplished, but what if the patient’s bodily functions could be kept going automatically, the way they naturally do? A heart beats without the person thinking, beat, beat, beat, over and over again. We breathe without commanding our lungs, inhale, exhale, over and over again.

Notes came together in his mind and he added them to the Melody that had been taking shape over the past weeks, and somehow he knew it was complete. He added notes in harmony with the Melody line, turning the composition into a Symphonic. He gave his new masterpiece the title, Hearts Beat As One. By placing one hand on the patient’s forehead and the other on his or her abdomen, palm flat over the navel, he could extend his life force energy into the person and their system would match his. Breathe when he breathed, heart beating in rhythm with his own, all in perfect harmony. This was a crucial step. It was not a cure but it gave him a way to keep a patient alive and to work on her, the Queen, without cutting her open because his life force would not just be healing a particular area, this spell would lock their systems together. It would be just like when he had to heal himself.

“Daniel, this is Cleona,” the
Queens voice sounded in his head, carrying along with it a sense of extreme distress and making him wonder if she had special powers of her own, her contacting him at just the right time.

“I am listening, Your Majesty,” he sent in return.

“How is the mission proceeding? Is my brother well? Did you have to take the estate back from the clutches of the Serpent Guild or are you in the field pursuing them?”

Daniel was glad he had some good news to report. He could sense her weakness through the link. “Firstly, I have reclaimed the trumpet of
Tarin Conn on behalf of house Ducalin. Jonah is sleeping with it in his tent. Duke Cantor was well when we arrived,” he went on to update her concerning the casualties, the arrival of General Conner, and the executions he performed earlier in the day. She was surprised to hear that Cale Tomei was a traitor. Daniel did not tell her about the animals in his swirl or mention his suspicions concerning the possible source of Angelina’s jewelry. He informed her of Serin Gell’s involvement and the desire to track him down and make him pay for the crimes he committed in Ducaun.

“You do what you must to apprehend him. That monster keeps working his machinations in my kingdom and causing grief. Daniel, listen very carefully to me. The Lethal Growths have spread to my pancreas. I became so weak it was necessary to call on Fenton Chen to rejuvenate me. His spell is not nearly as effect
ive as yours but it is keeping me functional. Fenton estimates that I only have about a month to live. I have had no success in uncovering the person who revealed the whereabouts of the trumpet to the Serpent Guild, yet cannot worry about that now, the succession is more important. I am sending a hundred Royal Guardsmen and a thousand cavalrymen to Canter’s estate. They are going to bring Angelina to the capital. The poor dear was here not long ago. It was about the time Fenton Chen informed me a Potential by the name of Daniel Benhannon had been discovered in my kingdom.” A strong sense of pleasure came through the link.

The Queen cannot die. Daniel refused to accept Chen’s diagnosis.  “I’m getting close to a cure. I have already come up with a way to work on you without cutting you open. I’ll be bringing Serin Gell to justice in a matter of days, and then I’ll come back to Ducanton. I’m sure I’ll have the cure by then.”

A sense of amusement flowed ahead of the words. “Hope springs eternal in you. Daniel, I’ve told you before, I cannot make decisions based on an, if, I must decide right now on what, is, and right now there is no cure. Do what you can, my Knight. I have confidence in you,” she sent and then the connection ended.

As if he needed another reason to move faster. He was already fearful about Sherree and Jerremy, but Cleona dying within a month was almost more than his personal plate could hold. He had told Tim his plate was full and now it seemed to have been piled higher. Angelina was in the capital not so long ago, did that mean she was innocent or guilty? He did not want to think her capable of knowingly siding with
Tarin Conn. This was a worry that would have to wait. Daniel placed it into one of his mental compartments and went over his priorities.

The company should be near
Lake Tomlin by late afternoon tomorrow. It would be a ruff ride but he could shorten the rest breaks and refresh the horses each time. The men would be pushed to their limits, yet some of them had been wounded. He made up his mind. In the morning he would visit each one and very discretely heal their injuries. Hopefully they would not realize what he did for them, but if they do, so what? Hiding his ability to summon potential was not worth their lives. After all, he managed to place shields on Corporal Duwin, Russ Monner, and Raymond Carpenter without anyone noticing. Their bodies were stiff, but no one questioned that at the time, or touched them once they had been covered up and placed on litters, made of their tents, to be dragged behind the pack horses. Those bodies would be preserved until they received proper burials with honor.

He fell asleep thinking about Jak Taltin pissing his pants when he heard Daniel identify his ranking as a Six-bolt Accomplished. The man had to know at that point he was as good as dead. He even laughed in the face of his own execution, as if it was all a joke only he was in on. Maybe Keenan had a point about the lightning bolts and letting a man know ahead of time what he was facing. Doing so could be a good way of avoiding trouble. Not many people wanted to rile a man with lightning bolts on his hilt and scabbard, even fewer a man with six lightning bolts on his shoulders.

Evening came at the same time Rex Badger and his nine member team arrived at the gentle slopes north of the Foothills, that broad stretch of hills marking the end of the highlands in Pentrosa, from which there were nothing but flatlands all the way south into Ducaun. Each of the men and two women, who were taller than the other seven, had an extra horse, as did he, all of which were breathing hard after that last push to make it this far. None of the One-bolt Accomplisheds knew about the flute of Della Lain, not Joren Cappa, short and fat, from the mountains of Demfilia, lean Joya PenKanner, or her older sister Leea, both of whom had been recruited from Ducaun, as was Rex, although not from the same region. These three had been with him the longest, almost from the beginning of his career. The majority of his team was made up of Pentrosans. Phil Crawlin, Xaum Gipan, Kylen Tec, Byron Falton, and Ira Holis all had the thin-framed, frail look, typical of their countrymen. None of them even knew why they had been traveling at a breakneck speed, only that it had been required by their leader.

“Why don’t we just rush over there, put Gell to sleep, and steal whatever it is we came for?” Gaunt-faced Damon Jillion asked in his scratchy voice. It always sounded as if his throat was dry and he needed a drink. His skin was darker than the others, although not enough to identify him as a Serinian, and his medium frame, reddish-brown hair, and green eyes made it impossible to guess at his racial origins. He never spoke of his past and no o
ne really cared enough to ask.

Rex looked at him, just looked, and the One-bolt Accomplished clamped his mouth shut. “There is no, we, on this mission. I will go and enter Gell’s Nest at the most opportune time. You all,” his right arm swinging wide, the gesture taking in his entire team, “Will be camping here. When I return, hours or days from now, whatever it takes, we will teleport directly to Serpent North.” He knew the wait made no sense to his team after the hurry to arrive, but cared little what they thought. The priority was to determine what was going on in the Nest and if Daniel Benhannon was inside. The knowledge would give Rex the time he needed to plan ahead with an idea of how long he had to infiltrate the cave, render Serin unco
nscious, and destroy the flute.

No one dared dispute the Badger and Rex was proud of that. It took him years to build up his reputation to the point where few people questioned his methods. Jillion should have known better by now, but he was the newest member of the team and so would learn. Rex closed his eyes and
focused on what was important.

The desire to get hold of and destroy the flute of Della Lain burned in soul and yet he dared not act recklessly. The temptation was to rush ahead, even knowing extreme caution was called for. Rendering Serin Gell unconscious was going to be tricky, requiring skill and perfect timing. Rex had been present back when Balen Tamm gave a special ring to Serin, one that could detect any potential being aimed at it. This meant Rex could not even use a basic find or location spell, nor any Melody focused in a broad way, only tightly projected beams, lest he alert his
victim and ruin the objective.

He dismounted and started down the grassy slope to the sound of crickets and croaking frogs. The grass was thigh high and he knew stickers were being attached to his black silk cloak. No matter, he would launder them later. His pants were tucked into the black boots, covering his calves up to just below the knees. The leather was soft and flexible rather than stiff, giving him protection as well as freedom of movement. His predatory smile grew wider as he drew closer to the Three-bolt Accomplished, who had no idea Rex Badger was preparing to strike.