The Greater Challenge Beyond (The Southern Continent Series Book 3) (30 page)

“No!” Jenniline screamed.  She dove down onto the table in front of Grange, blocking his view of what was happening.  She gave a sudden gasp, and her body jerked, then jerked again.  She rolled onto her back, and Grange saw a pair of arrows embedded in her chest.

“Jenniline!” he bellowed in shocked anger.

“Energy heal me and protect me!  Energy, protect Jenniline – remove the arrows, heal her body, and keep her safely quiet!” he snapped off the commands as he raised himself up.

He felt the pain in his back abruptly stop, and an aura of blue power surrounded him as he rose to his feet and looked around the hall.

The knot of men he had noticed when he entered had spread apart, and three of the men held bows.  The fourth member of the group, Brady, stood in the direction from which Grange had heard the orders given to shoot the arrows.

“Energy, press these four against the wall over there,” he pointed to a blank portion of the stone structure above a bank of windows, “And hold them there until I return.”

The men all shouted as they were suddenly whisked off their feet and slammed against the wall, several feet above the floor.

Grange didn’t even bother to watch the men fly through the air; as soon as he had given the order he looked down at Jenniline, then gathered her up in his arms, holding her in a tight hug held against his chest.  She was pale and still, under the control of the energy he had directed to quiet her.

Voices came into the hall, calling questions, and Grange was aware of new arrivals in the room, a small flood of people brought by the outburst of shouting, first from the victims and then from the assailants.

“She’s been hit,” Grange said, looking up at the curious people, “these men shot arrows at her and me.

“I’ll take her to my tower so that she can heal, then I’ll be back here to deal with them,” he spoke grimly, still glowing with the energy shield he had erected around himself.  Without waiting for any reaction, he began walking towards the doors of the hall.  “Energy, open the doors,” he commanded, and the double doors flew open, so that he could walk out unimpeded, protected from the rain.

“Lift me to the roof,” he commanded when he reached the tower, and he felt air beneath his feet as he flew upward to the roof, taking the quickest route he could think of to reach the safety and comfort of his quarters.

“Listrid!” he called as he touched down on the roof, and began to carry Jenniline downstairs.  “Listrid, you need to attend to the princess!” he shouted.

The serving woman met him as he came down the steps to the floor that she and Jenniline occupied.  When she saw him aglow with the energy shield she gave a gasp and stepped away from him.

Grange dismissed the power.  “Your mistress was attacked; I’ve healed her and put her to sleep,” Grange said.  “Undress her and put her to bed, so that she can rest, then come tell me when you’re done, so that I can see her.

“Tell me where to place her,” he commanded.

“This way,” Listrid directed, going to a door and opening it.

Inside the room was a bed, and Grange carefully laid Jenniline atop the mattress after pulling the cover back.

“I’ll take care of her for you, my lord.  I won’t let your lady down,” the servant said tenderly, giving Grange a pat on the arm as he left the room.

He paced back and forth in the main room on the floor, the room where he had stood when he had created the stairs within his quarters upon first arriving there.  He looked down and saw that his hand held the crumpled mass of papers that had played a role in the disastrous recent minutes.  He angrily threw them to the floor, then pointed a finger at them.  “Burn them, energy!” he commanded, and watched as a bright flare of flame incinerated them in a pair of seconds, leaving only a fine gray dust.

“She’s in bed properly now, my lord,” Listrid spoke from the doorway.

Grange thanked the woman, then passed her and entered the bedroom, where Jenniline still looked extremely pale as she seemed to blend into the white cotton bedding.  He had grown so use to the pale skin tones of Southgar that her usual white skin had come to seem normal to him, he realized, while this grayish pallor looked ghastly by comparison.

“Energy, allow her to awaken; give her strength,” he commanded gently, then knelt on the floor next to her, and watched.

Her skin changed shades before his eyes, leaving the gray shades and returning to the slightly pinkish white he expected to see.  Her eye lids fluttered, and then opened.

“Where are we?  What happened?” she asked.

“We were in the dining hall, and Brady and his cronies fired arrows at us,” Grange explained.  “I brought you back here.”

“How did I get undressed?  Did you do this?” her eyes narrowed as she looked at him.

“Now I remember – you were accusing me of sleeping with Brady!” she spoke heatedly.

“That’s not what I said!” Grange denied.

“Wait!” he exclaimed.  “Are you saying that Brady was the one who wrote those letters to you?  You were in love with him?”

“I was, or I thought I was.  I was young, and virtually an outcast, and he showed an interest in me when no one else would hardly talk to me besides Trensen,” Jenniline told him, her head on her pillow, and turned to the side to look at him as he still knelt beside her mattress.

“I’m sorry about what happened,” Grange began to apologize.

“It was all Brady!” she said.  “He broke into my room and stole those letters, then tried to give them to you to make you jealous, then ambushed us when you came to the dining hall to fight with me!”

“I didn’t go there to fight,” Grange said.  “I just wanted to, ask,” he said lamely.

“But I can go take care of Brady and his henchmen right now,” he added.

“I am a virgin, Grange,” Jenniline blurted out.  “Don’t doubt me.”

“I won’t; I’m sorry about questioning you,” he said.  He stood up, then leaned down and kissed her forehead.  It was something the nuns at the orphanage had done on rare occasions when he had been a little boy growing up in Fortune, and he remembered how special it had felt.

“I’ll be back,” he told her.  “I’m going to go take care of the problem down in the hall.”

“Don’t go overboard Grange,” Jenniline said as he walked out the door.

He ran down the stairs of the tower, two at a time, to reach the ground level, then grimly stalked across the grounds once again.  When he reached the dining hall he saw that the doors were still open, as he had commanded the energy to arrange, and they glowed with a faint residue of power that continued to hold them open.

The dining hall was packed with people, all abuzz at the sight of the men who remained pinned to the wall, but upon his entry, the murmurs and conversation abated, and the people grew silent.

“Bows, arise,” Grange spoke into the silence, and the power lifted the bows that the assassins had used in their attempt to kill him.   They rose up and floated from the floor and hovered in place in a line, even with Grange below them and the men on the wall in front of them.

“Arrows, arise,” Grange was acting purely out of emotion, letting his unchecked feeling dictate his actions and his use of the energy.

“Arrows,” he called, as they floated next to the bows, “take positions; strings, draw; bows aim as I wish.”

The crowd began to murmur as Grange’s intentions became obvious.

“Someone stop him!” Brady shouted.  “This is murder!”

“And what did you try to do?” Grange asked in a harsh tone.

“Arrows, fire!” he shouted.

The men on the wall screamed, and the crowd shouted in fear as the power that invisibly held the bowstrings released them, and they propelled their arrows towards the targets in front of them.

Grange watched with a grim smile as the arrows were launched, and flew relentlessly towards the nearby wall.  They forcefully flew in deadly, straight lines, then struck the wall, each of them just two inches to the side of the heads of each of the captive men, striking small flurries of stone chips that pelted the faces of the men, as the arrows tumbled down to the ground, sliding along the wall.

“Next arrows, take positions,” Grange called aloud, and a new set of arrows notched themselves onto the strings as the bows were pulled back.

“Lord Champion!” a man’s voice called.

“Grange!” he heard Hope’s voice call as well.

“Fire!” Grange called loudly, and the second volley of shafts flew at the men and struck the wall on the opposite of each man’s head.  Two of the men visibly emptied their bladders while the arrows landed on the floor.

Halsten and Hope broke out of the once more silent crowd and stepped forward to Grange.

“What causes you to be so cruel?” Halsten asked.

“Grange, don’t do this, please.  We rescued you from torture; don’t you torture these men,” Hope landed a blow to his conscious.

“These men shot arrows at me without provocation, less than an hour ago,” Grange said.

“You look unharmed,” Halsten observed.

“I was struck, but healed myself.  My counselor was struck as well, with two arrows.  I’ve healed her and put her to rest in a safe place,” Grange replied heatedly.

“Your reasons seem understandable, but there are courts that will provide justice, my lord,” Halsten replied.  “It would be more civilized than this display.”

Grange bit off a reply, as Hope reached out a hand to him.

“I know how much Jenniline means to you, but do not let the court see you act this way,” she said gently.

Grange took a deep breath.

“Let them down,” he commanded the power, and the four men slid along the wall before they landed.

“Close the doors too,” he snapped at the energy, and the double doors swung shut.

“I’ll go attend to my counselor,” Grange said to Halsten.  “You’ll see that they’re attended to?”

“I shall,” the prince assured him.  “This is the proper way,” he added.  “You are doing the right thing.”

“Thank you Grange,” Hope added.  “Jenniline will agree that this is better, I’m sure.  I’m glad you saved her, and yourself.”

“I will see you tomorrow for our interview,” Grange managed to smile.

“I will be there if you wish, but if you and Jenniline are committed to one another already, you don’t have to waste our time with a pointless meeting,” Hope said in a low voice.

“There is no plan by Jenniline and me to be a couple,” he replied in return.  “Believe me.”

Yet even as he said it, and knew that he had believed it up to that moment, he recollected kissing the elder princess on the forehead.  He wondered if he was telling the truth or not.

“I’ll leave you now,” he cut the conversation off from any further exchange, and as he walked out, there was a smattering of applause for him.

When he returned to the tower he found that the rain had stopped.  Up on the first floor of his home he was told by Listrid that Jenniline was sleeping, so he went up to the roof, then sat down and closed his eyes.

The rain had stopped falling.  He felt his body go limp as the stress from the morning’s battle seeped away.  He was relieved that Jenniline was alive.  He was glad that he was alive.  And, he realized, he was astonished at what he had done with the power.  In his haste and in his state of emotional angst, he had commanded the energy to take steps and carry out actions he never would have considered before.  Bu they had all come easily and naturally, as the things he needed accomplished under the circumstances he had faced.

The sun was starting to shine upon his face.  Although his eyes were closed, he could feel its warmth.  The clouds were disappearing, but unfortunately, the moon was not in the sky at midmorning; he would have to wait until the early evening to see the moon, and to try to resume contact with Brieed in Palmland.  He hoped that Brieed could tell him if his interaction with the power was an out-of-the-ordinary event, or if it was something better – or worse.

He decided not to go to the armory; there would be too many stories and comments and questions.  He wished he could just call upon Brielle or Ariana to appear and practice weapons with him, giving him the workouts and challenges they had in the days before the demon lord had destroyed them at the tin mine in the wilderness.

They had been a threat to the demons, he realized, such a threat that the demon had targeted them for destruction when it had seized the chance by seizing his wand.

They were the weapon, along with his sword, that could defeat demons.   His eyes flew open, as he suddenly comprehended what Miriam had told him during their conversation at her temple the previous evening.  The goddess had referred to “the strength he had” in the past tense, but suggested he would have the ability to recreate that strength, once he had his wand fully prepared.

Grange stood and started pacing the rooftop, trying to decide if he was pulling wild fantasies out of the air, or if he was truly stumbling towards the answer to the riddle the goddess had given him.  Was it possible that he would be able to recreate the jewels, and rely upon them as allies in the upcoming war?

Chapter 23

Grange paced the tower roof anxiously, trying to force himself to calm down.  It seemed preposterous for him to believe that he could bring the elemental jewels, the great forces of energy, back into existence somehow.  Yet if he interpreted the words of Miriam correctly, that was precisely what she had indicated.

He was filled with hope at the thought of the jewels returning, and he was filled with doubt as to his ability to truly reconstitute them.  It was another matter he urgently wished to consult with Brieed about.  He walked in circles on the rooftop, suddenly wondering how hopeful his case might be in the battle with the demons.  Miriam had told him there were two weapons available, two that could be recreated and replicated.  Recreated and replicated.  The jewels and the sword.  He seemed to be considering the recreation of the jewels, which implied he must be able to replicate the sword.

If it could be done, what would it achieve, he wondered.  Would he arm every man and woman in Southgar with a sword that could destroy demons?