To Be Grand Maestro (Book 5) (5 page)

“I am aware of that, young man,” Jennel replied and continued down the hall in the direction of wardroom two.

Jaim Cutler kept pace with her when he should have taken the speed of her gait and abrupt response as a hint to bring the news to people who did not share his awareness of the Maestro. She was about to tell him so when he held up the communication amulet given to him by Daniel Benhannon.

“This device is dead. It was one of the few things he made that were not tied to a crescendo,” Jaim told her, speaking of things non-Aakacarns generally knew little of.

“How do you know this?” Jennel asked, careful to speak in an even tone.

She had been an Accomplished of Aakadon for so long it was sometimes difficult to smother the prejudice developed towards those who were not born with ever replenishing and increasing life force energy, to see them as equals rather than inferiors. As a member of the Atlantan Guild, she had to put those feelings aside and treat what she used to think of as commoners the way she would a fellow Aakacarn. All of the Chosen’s Sentinels were commoners who had been restored from Condemnation, even as she had been, and all were likewise in perfect physical condition. None of them were Aakacarns but they all seemed to have extraordinary stamina, leading her to believe the Maestro may have infused some of his life force energy into their recipe strands. When she thought of it that way, relating to anyone who had been Condemned and then restored was not so hard after all.

“I was often in his office when he created things like this,” Jaim explained while touching the handle of his dagger, a weapon with a blade that shined like a mirror, and had a black handle and grip. Touching the ruby in the gold setting in the handle would launch a blue lance of light from the point and skewer whatever it was aimed at. He also pointed at the black copper-capped club the Maestro called a nightstick, aim the thicker black end at someone and touch the sapphire set into the copper and the spell, Sleep Time, would render the person unconscious for a day. “My weapons still work, I tried these moments ago but this amulet doesn’t.” The Sentinel held out the amulet again as if for emphasis. “He only made a few hundred of these communication gems and gave them to most of us who were the first to volunteer our services.”

She knew exactly what the young man was getting at. “The Da Capos on the spells powering all of the devices created by the Maestro are tied to one of his crescendos but the Da Capos on the communication amulets were tied to his life force.”

Jaim nodded his head. “Yes, it is as if he died, and yet I can feel him alive, only different.”

She could see the confusion in his brown eyes. “I too sense something has changed, yet he is alive, and I assure you we will help him in whatever way we can,” Jennel took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I need to be sure all of the wards are functioning properly. If you learn more about the Maestro’s condition I would appreciate it if you keep me informed.”

A harmonic wave washed through the world, coming from north-northeast, the direction of Mount Kelgotha. Jaim smiled. “The dark one seems to be still trapped.”

“Hold on to that thought,” Jennel said and then made her way between a group of Talenteds and several members of the Benhannon Guard, each of the soldiers wearing blue helmets with the symbol of house Benhannon at the front, and the topaz blue uniforms with dark blue stripes. The color of their stripes was not the only difference between them and the Sentinels, none of the guards had ever been Condemneds. The fact did not make the members of the Guard less trustworthy or any less dedicated, it is just that they did not share the same bond with the Maestro and therefore had no idea how close they just came to losing him.

Talented Bonny Tell bolted through the hall, sand-colored hair flying loose from her fallen hood, weaving through the crowd with a wounded Sentinel in tow on a solidified cushion of air. Most of the man’s uniform had been ripped away and what was left had been positioned in such a manner as to preserve modesty. Enough of the tatters had fallen aside in the mad rush for Jennel to see some of the injuries. She raised her hand, bringing the round-faced young woman to a halt. A quick sweep of the hand was all it took to expose the wounds. His private parts, other than being coated in blood, were undamaged. His right leg and arm were missing and he was pale, due the loss of blood. The right side of his pelvic bone was exposed and the skin on the right side of his abdomen was ripped to the point of exposing the musculature. His wounds should have been closed up long before now.

“This is unacceptable,” Jennel declared, and summoned the potential for, Heal Wounds. The fuchsia glow of her life force energy surrounded her body and she touched the patient’s shoulder, caressing the shredded flesh until new skin formed, and then rubbed her hand down his side, healing the epidermis. She then rubbed his hip and the area where his leg would have been, leaving unblemished skin when she finished. She could do no more for him.

Jaim dashed over and took the bloody remains of the uniform and covered the young man while Bonny fidgeted where she stood. “I didn’t try to close the wounds, except the arteries, because I thought if I did you would not be able to give him a new arm and leg,” she began her feeble excuse. “So I covered him as decently as I could and rushed him here.”

Jennel refrained from rolling her eyes. “So you thought letting him bleed to death from these other wounds a better alternative to living with a few appendages missing? Or, perhaps, the unconscious man would die happier knowing that at least his modesty had been preserved?”

Bonny’s peaches and cream complexion reddened and her eyes suddenly found something on the floor to focus on. “I wasn’t there long and he was the first wounded person I saw upon arriving. I just acted without giving the rest much thought,” she replied and then looked up with a defiant spark in her eyes. “I think he would be dead if I waited for one of the Accomplished to convey him and especially if you hadn’t been here in the hall.”

That much was probably true, but this had been a very close call between life and death. “For future reference, the Maestro is the only one who knows the spells necessary to grow new body parts. He gave Accomplished Cresh a new right hand several months after it had been lost and flesh had grown over the stump. It is therefore safe to say our Maestro can restore this Sentinel’s limbs and those of any other individuals with similar losses.”

“Wait,” Jaim interrupted. “You said if you had waited for one of the Accomplished, where did you find this Man? It could not have been at the general assembly area. None of the Accomplisheds would have sent him here in this condition.”

The young Sentinel raised a good point. Jennel had been thinking as a healer and so had paid no attention to the less important matter. Now that she had a moment, she also wondered how the Talented had gotten involved in the first place. “How did you manage to convey to a place you have never been before?”

“We weren’t told not to,” Bonny began her explanation and then went on after flinching under Jennel’s hazel-eyed stare. “I wanted to see what was happening and so I touched one of the Accomplisheds just as she cast the spell, Conveyance. We arrived and I eventually noticed the wounded Sentinel, I acted, and since I know this holding quite well, it wasn’t difficult to picture it in my mind and cast, Conveyance. It only took one lightning bolt of power to get back and I used my standard issue baton with four bolts of amplification.” She touched the topaz silver-capped crescendo attached to her belt as if Jennel might have missed seeing the power enhancer that was identical to her own.

“Is Sir Daniel alright?” Jaim asked, no doubt eager to hear from someone who had been on Shantear.

“I wasn’t there very long but I did hear one of the Accomplisheds mentioning something about Third Strike Commander Treena speaking to the Maestro,” Bonny replied and smiled at him. She had been an Aakademned for six years, starting out a nine year-old child Aakacarn discovered by the Serpents in Battencay, had never been to Aakadon, and so inherited none of the prejudices fostered in the city. She apparently had no problem seeing Jaim as an equal, and possibly being two years younger than he also helped. “I paid particular attention because the Maestro’s presence vanished for a little while and so I was interested to hear anything relating to him. One of the Accomplisheds talked about him collapsing after placing a shield on Tarin Conn. The First Lady did what she could for her husband but it is said he is terribly weak.”

Out of wardroom two exited a male Talented and behind him, floating on a cushion of air, was Jerrian Tobermin, the Vice-Maestro of the Eagle Guild, a Five-bolt Accomplished, fully healed of whatever wounds had been taken in battle. The Lead Investigator’s eyes were closed and each snore caused his brown mustache to twitch. One person out of the seven guild teams from Aakadon escaped injury, Talmon Reese. Jennel had personally healed a good many of them. She and her associates had done the best they could to save lives, but could do nothing for people who died on the battlefield.

She focused on the Talented. “Felix, prepare this patient for transportation to the staging area at Shantear.”

“It will be as you say, Accomplished,” the tall middle-aged man replied. He also had been transformed into an Aakademned at an early age and spent decades in that condition. Light from the sphere floating above shined off the top of his head. The male-pattern baldness had to be hereditary or the Maestro’s spell-casting would have given the man a full head of hair. Felix hurried away with his charge.

“Bonny, go to wardroom one. Beta should be finished preparing Rondara Kapes for transportation. You take the patient to our staging area. An Accomplished will take her to Shantear, not you,” Jennel wanted to make that point perfectly clear, “and inform Beta I want her to join me in wardroom two.”

“It will be as you say, Accomplished,” Bonny replied and dashed off to carry out the assignment.

“I am glad the First Lady is a former member of the Aloe Guild,” Jaim commented. “She was no doubt trained to respond instantly to health emergencies the way you do.”

“She was an Intern, but evidently a skilled one,” Jennel replied. The girl probably did keep her head while everyone else stood around in shock when the Maestro collapsed.

There was a great deal to respect about the Maestro, his skill in composing and casting spells, the incredible seven lightning bolts of Potential he commanded, his being the Chosen Vessel, and his having restored thousands of victims stricken by the spell, Condemnation, an accomplishment once thought to be impossible. Even so, no man was perfect and this one was no exception, yet Jennel had a difficult time accepting this particular flaw.

The very idea of a First Lady of the Atlantan Guild, wife of the Maestro, went against one of the strongest taboos in Aakadon. Aakacarns do not marry at all, especially not to each other. Aakacarns consider themselves all one family, brothers and sisters, and it was therefore hard to view marriage between them as being anything other than morally repugnant. Not even the members of the Serpent Guild practice such a thing. The vast majority of Accomplisheds and Talenteds in the Atlantan Guild had been Aakademneds from their youth and never set foot in Aakadon, and they see nothing wrong with the marriage and actually seemed pleased for the couple.

If Leah Barryn and Jeremiah Lassiter, former Senior Soarers of the Eagle Guild, can adjust to the changes the Chosen Vessel was making, Jennel determined to do so as well. This did not mean it would be easy. She knew it would take time for her to get used to some of the alterations, especially spell-casters marrying each other.

Chas Herling, Commander of the Chosen’s Sentinels, entered the Health Wing. The top of his head only came to Jaim’s shoulder, yet the older man dominated by shear presence. His thin clean-shaven face was paler than that of an average Ducaunan, and yet was typical for a man of Pentrosan birth. He too was in perfect physical condition, having been restored by the Maestro. “Sentinel Cutler, with me,” he said and quickly departed with the young man following half a step behind.

Jennel suspected the former Major of Pentrosa’s Sutton Guard was preparing for the Maestro’s eventual arrival. Chas had been on Shantear when the fighting was heaviest and so probably had a better idea of what was happening. The fact that he did not acknowledge her meant he had a great deal on his mind and no doubt many things requiring his attention. She glanced at the entrance to the wardroom. “I can relate,” she spoke softly while stepping briskly into the room.

Hundreds of people were in the process of being healed. Accomplisheds glowing with potential were tending to patients on solidified beds of air. Dorian Cyan, former Aloe Guild Practitioner, ran the ward well. The swarthy man’s Potential had been discovered at birth, about a hundred years ago, when a Fledging of the Eagle Guild was searching for an older boy who lived nearby. The young Eagle was surprised when his spell caused not one but two people to glow. Dorian was one of the few individuals who were raised in Aakadon from infancy. The Three-bolt Accomplished had spent the last twenty years as an Aakademned and, like many, had needed to be counseled by the Maestro in order to adjust to being human again.

Beta entered the ward and Jennel went to work performing healings, encouraging everyone to keep up with the flow of patients, and then continued on to the other wards. She and her teams kept up the pace until Bali healed Cherin Colegus, a Two-bolt Accomplished of Ducaunan descent. Her eyes were frozen solid. His glowing hands touched the icy orbs and moments later came away, revealing a pair of beautiful brown eyes that were completely restored.