Realm Of Blood And Fire (Book 3) (26 page)

Chapter 24

Calinsar
had sent word ahead, so by the time they reached the gates of Zemphos, Xv2 Gregor waited with twenty of his best soldiers and Zim and Warrimonious. The bare-chested men wore short pants that finished above the knee—something that Arie and Agmunsten had never seen.

“Wow. Look at those muscles.” Arie nodded. “I hope I look like that one day.”

Agmunsten glared at the soldiers and sucked in his slightly rounded belly. “Nonsense. It takes a lot of work to look like that, and what for?”

“I’ve heard the girls like it.” Arie grinned.

“Don’t listen to Agmunsten, Arie. We girls don’t mind a bit of muscle, although I think brains are even better.” Astra smiled before taking a closer look at the men standing at attention. Was that her brother?

“Well met,
Zemphos Company.” The soldiers bowed to Calinsar before turning as one and marching into the city, making the way clear for the army from Tranquility.

Astra frowned. Was it her brother? How come he didn’t acknowledge her? Maybe things were stricter around here
than she thought, or maybe he didn’t recognize her.

The city was built on flat land, a small river skirting the northern boundary—they had crossed its bridge before reaching the gates. The buildings closest to the city walls were six-stories high. As one moved
farther into the city, the buildings reduced in height until the very center, where a sprawling two-level structure rested like a nonplussed dragon in the sun, within its own, separate walls.

Calinsar
flourished a hand and stood up in his stirrups. “Behold, my home in Zemphos. It also doubles as the city administration center.” He dismounted and handed the reins to a waiting boy, who was dressed in shorts similar to the soldiers’.

When the high chancellor was safely inside the grounds of his home,
Gregor approached the realmists. He stared at Astra with familiar blue eyes. “Astra?”

Her large smile hid her shock at seeing the gray in his shoulder-length black curls. His body could have passed for a man in his twenties, yet his face showed the truth of his fifty-five years. “Yes,
Gregor. How I’ve missed you.” She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

Pulling away from their embrace, he frowned. “But you hardly look a day older than I remember. Is this some foul magic?”

“No. I’m a realmist. I teach at the Academy for Superior Learning. Don’t worry; it’s perfectly safe. I made it home, didn’t I?”

He tilted his head, considering his answer. “Has it blackened your heart? Do you ever do evil?”

“What sort of a question is that? Of course not. What have they been teaching everyone here? I’m your sister—a little wiser than the girl you knew, but essentially the same.”

Gregor
stepped back and gave a short bow. “I have many things to see to, if we are to leave in the morning. We’ll talk more on the road, Astra.” He turned and left, the realmists staring after him.

You idiot
, she thought,
I can’t believe you thought everything would go smoothly. You’re lucky your mother was okay.
She tried to tell herself his reaction didn’t matter, but it did. Despite the comfortable bed that night, she had trouble sleeping.

In the morning, after a hasty, pre-dawn breakfast, they mounted and rode three abreast through streets that were quiet except for the sound of
jooka birds announcing the impending sunrise, and farmers transporting their fruit and vegetables to market in the coolest part of the day. The dragons would fly and meet them at the port city in a few days.

As they filed out of the southern gate, Astra turned her body to see the hazy outline of mounted soldiers disappearing into the distance. The mounted men were not cavalry but foot soldiers. Speed was of the essence, and it seemed that once High Chancellor
Calinsar decided to support the realmists, he was prompt in his execution.

Arie and Agmunsten rode next to her. Her brother was up ahead, riding with the chancellor. She wanted to talk to him, but now was not the time.
Maybe at the next meal stop . . . or maybe dinner
. She even considered that tomorrow might be better timing. Focused as she was on her dilemma, she didn’t see the hulking, dark shape until it was almost upon her brother and the high chancellor.

The nightmare that had lurked in the
dense trees and bushes beside the road had followed them from Tranquility. He had waited and waited for the right opportunity. Grinning and showing his rows of teeth to full effect, he closed the space between himself and the high chancellor in seconds.

Just as he breathed out lethal flames, Agmunsten called down a lightning bolt. The gormon’s flames consumed three mounted soldiers to the left of
Gregor and Calinsar. The men and their horses cried out briefly—at least death by gormon flame was swift. Some of the inferno licked through as Arcon’s lightning bolt struck the top of Churex’s massive head.

The flames had touched the edge of the high chancellor’s white robe, which was now alight, the man frantically jumping off his horse and trying to undress. Astra’s brother was not as lucky. His leg had been scorched, the flesh smoldering and melting. His bay mare had been hit on her side, next to
Gregor’s leg. She reared, both of them screaming as the acid dissolved their flesh.

Churex had been knocked over and stunned by the lightning strike. He was on his back, arms and legs flailing as he tried to rise—he reminded Agmunsten of a dying cockroach. Knowing fire was the final solution, Agmunsten threw a fireball at the wriggling horror. The flames hissed as they flared, fed by the oily gormon hide.

Astra ran to her brother, calling Second-Realm power to her. He had fallen off his horse and was moaning on the dirt road, nearly unconscious. The realmist formed a scalding-hot blade from the power and sliced his leg off just above the knee. Gregor fainted.

Placing a hand on her brother’s brow, she delved, searching for further injury. She had saved him, but without a leg, he would lose his place in the army. Would he hate her more now?

The realmist turned her attention to the horse. The mare panted and snorted, half of her side eaten away. There was nothing Astra could do for the animal except end its suffering. She placed a hand on the horse’s chest and sent her awareness to her heart. With a small shock of power, she stopped her heart. The mare’s whinnying quieted, and her head dropped to the ground. Astra kneeled next to the dead animal, head bowed.

High Chancellor
Calinsar had managed to tear off his robe. He stood naked from the waist up. Horses had scattered in the brief melee, their riders gradually calming their beasts and returning to stand in formation. The chancellor surveyed the carnage. Seeing his men were able to organize themselves, he approached Gregor, who had regained consciousness and sat, leaning, against the back of his deceased mount.

The xv2 stared at his stump, disbelieving. Astra looked at him across the still-warm horse. “I’m sorry,
Gregor. But I had to amputate to save your life.”

Her brother kept his eyes on his injury.

“Astra, remount and wait over there.” Calinsar pointed to where Agmunsten headed the line of riders, holding her horse’s reins.

She reluctantly obeyed, glancing over her shoulder at her brother as she walked.

Calinsar bent over and spoke quietly to the soldier before offering his hand. Gregor gripped it and stood. The chancellor had a few more words with him before helping him to Astra’s horse. “Your brother’s going to share your mount.” He helped Gregor sit behind the realmist and then climbed aboard his own horse. The chancellor led them on.

***

On the third day of sitting behind his sister, Gregor finally spoke. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“That’s all right. I’m sorry about your leg.”

“So am I.”

That was the extent of
their conversation until the next day, when he sat with her at breakfast. Agmunsten had created a walking stick out of a branch and Second-Realm power. Gregor now had a means of getting around without having to ask for help—something that had pained him; he was a leader, not an invalid . . . at least, he used to be.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Of course not. I would be very happy if you did.” Astra looked up at her brother. Even with the missing leg, he looked like a warrior. His hard eyes, and harder body, spoke of a man who would endure no matter what.

Gregor
eased himself down, to sit next to Astra on a rotting log. “I just wanted you to know that I don’t blame you for what happened. I was angry at first, because I would rather that you’d let me die, but then I realized how stupid that was. I’m a soldier, a fighter; it’s what I’m trained for. My body is just a tool to be used for the protection of Zamahl and the high chancellor.”

Astra took a sip of tea. “I’m glad High Chancellor
Calinsar decided to let you keep your post.”

The soldier shrugged his muscular, brown shoulders. “I may not be able to fight as I once did, but my troops respect me, and I’m tactically very astute.”

“If you do say so yourself.” Astra smiled, and Gregor laughed.

Gregor
fidgeted with the top of his cane. “I’m also sorry about saying what you do is evil. We’ve heard so much about how wrong realmistry is—you remember, don’t you?”

“Yes, but, for some reason, I never believed the propaganda. When you become a realmist, you must vow to do no harm, unless it is in self-defense or in the best interests of Talia. Most realmists are good people, but it’s like anything—there’s always the bad egg.”

“And do you know any of these ‘bad eggs’?”

Astra smiled. “Not so far, thank goodness.”

Tack jingled and cups clinked as the soldiers around them readied to leave. Agmunsten, Arie with him, stepped in front of Astra. “Ready to go?”

“Not quite, but I won’t be long.”

“Can you ask Gregor if the cane is okay?”

Astra spoke to her brother in their native tongue. “He says yes, and that he really appreciates what you’ve done.”

“Tell him, it was my pleasure.” Agmunsten smiled. “Come on, Arie, we have a bit more packing to do.”

The rest of the journey to the port city passed without incident. The last leg took them up a gradual incline, a wide hill blocking the city from view. This far south, the jungle turned to forest. Vines disappeared
, and wide-trunked trees with needle-shaped leaves predominated.

Lamure
sprawled on the far side of the rise, her high walls painted a dusky turquoise to match the bay beyond. The homes, painted bright shades of red, blue and green, were unlike the rest of Zamahl: one–and-two-level homes stood apart from one another. Low bushes and hedging bordered the yards. Sand blew across the paved streets in the onshore breeze.

T
hey passed through the main thoroughfare to the docks. The street sloped gradually down until they reached the water. Five timber wharfs stretched like a giant hand into the bay, and there was enough space between each one that the two-hundred-foot-long ships could berth. Arie counted fifteen ships docked, with ten more anchored in the bay. “Wow. That’s the biggest fleet ever!”

“We’re going to be squeezing to fit, young Arie. We’ll have to leave half the horses behind,” High Chancellor
Calinsar commented, marching with Gregor to the dock master to confirm everything was in order.

Astra dismounted. “That’s really going to slow us down when we get to Brenland. I think we should sail the extra day to get as close as we can to Vellonia.”

Agmunsten jumped to the ground and rubbed his back. “And there aren’t any ports. We’re going to have to row ashore.”

It was then
that Arie noticed the two large shapes sitting at the edge of the docks. “Look—it’s Zim and Warrimonious.” Arie ran to the dragons and hugged each one. “Are you coming on the ships or flying?”

Zim glanced at the sleek transport tied to the wharf. “I prefer to fly, although I may rest midway—we won’t be stopping at any islands this time. When do we leave?”

Agmunsten had reached the trio. “We leave tonight, on high tide. Things are working out nicely.”

“Nicely?” Astra raised one eyebrow. “I don’t think there’s anything nice about that gormon attacking my brother.”

“You know what I mean.” Agmunsten narrowed his eyes, and Astra thought he was angry. After an uncomfortable minute where everyone waited for him to yell, he spoke. “My creatura has just contacted me. The whirlpool is getting bigger, and another has started just offshore of the last island we visited. She said hundreds of fish have just vanished after being sucked into it.”

Arie grabbed his mentor’s shirt. “Tell her to be careful.”

After a few moments, he replied, “Done. In the future, you know you can tell her yourself.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.” Arie gave a sheepish grin.

Warrimonius, ever the war master, brought up something that Agmunsten had been worried about. “We’re going to be sailing close to Aspurle and Carpus. The gormons know we’re coming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they leave a contingent there, ready to attack when we’re near. We’d better work out a way to protect all those boats.”