The Path Of Peace (The Cremelino Prophecy Book 3) (20 page)

Tali looked at him and smiled.
“There is hope for the young, arrogant noble.”

Sean snorted but smiled anyway.

The quiet moment was shattered by
a loud wail coming around the other side of the building. Kelln heard his and
Tali’s names being called. In an instant, they were all on alert. Kelln pulled
his sword, Sean ran to where Alessandra and her mother were visiting, and
Taliana moved over closer to her Cremelino.

With shouts and yelling, Rapp
came stumbling around the corner, dirty and out of breath. He ran up to the
group and tried to talk, but he was breathing too hard.

“Rapp, what’s wrong?” Tali tried
to get it out of him.

“He’s going to kill you,” Rapp
finally said.

“Who is going to kill who?” Kelln
put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. Rapp was clearly afraid.

“He’s going to kill Tali.”

“Who Rapp? Who is trying to kill
me?” Taliana looked around the square with nervous glances.

At that instant, another man came
around the corner. Tall and broad, calm, overbearing with short red hair. A red
cape swirled around him.

“I am,” the man said.

“Father?” Alessandra whispered.

“Dominic?” Alessandra’s mother
said.

“Dominic?” Sean echoed with a
slight smile.

Kelln gave Sean a look that said
to be quiet and guard the girls. Sean moved between Taliana and Alessandra.
Rapp backed up behind the Cremelino.

“Ah,” the Preacher continued,
“everyone in one place it seems. The little urchin was easy to follow.”

Another man came around the
corner, flanked by two guards. “Not everyone, Mr. El’Han. What is the meaning
of this meeting?” It was the guildmaster.

“Father!” Berlain shouted.

Alessandra’s face drained white.
“The Guild of Thieves’ guildmaster is your father?”

“And your grandfather,” Berlain
finished. “I told you it was complicated.”

The guildmaster walked with
intent toward the Preacher. “I told you to stay away from my daughter fifteen
years ago.” His guards pulled out swords and walked with him.

“I had nothing to do with this
meeting.” The Preacher’s neck pulsed with anger. “I tried to keep my daughter
away from this side of the family. It would only bring her pain and suffering.
This is the doing of our beloved ambassador, Kelln El’Lan, who has meddled in
my affairs for the last time.”

“Father,” Alessandra said. “You
told me you wouldn’t hurt him.”

“I lied,” the Preacher said. “He
has interfered too much. You were better off never seeing your mother again.
She is the daughter of a thief and will always be living in the underground
with them, their guild never sanctioned. I wanted glory for you Alessandra. I
told you I would give you a city to rule.”

“I don’t want a city to rule,
Father. I just wanted to see my mother again. You don’t understand the bond I
had with her as a little girl. I would do anything to see her again.”

The Preacher smirked and turned
toward Sean. “Nice to see you here, Mr. San Ghant. I trust you have been
following my plan?”

Sean nodded noncommittally to the
Preacher and smiled. Kelln’s face grew red. He shouldn’t have trusted Sean.

“Sean, what did you do?’ he
yelled and ran toward him.

The Preacher lifted his hands in
the air. Blue, green, and white fire and lightning circled his hands, crackling
in the air. He hurled a hot white fireball toward Kelln as he ran for Sean.
“Now you will die once and for all!”

The fire raced from the
Preacher’s outstretched hand, but Alessandra ran to intervene. As the bolt of
flames reached them, Alessandra threw herself in front of Kelln, offering
herself in a final moment of redemption. She took the brunt of the magical
force and crumbled to the ground as Kelln skidded into Sean.

“What have you done?” Berlain
yelled to her former husband. “You would kill your own daughter?”

The Preacher did indeed look
shocked as he tried to comprehend what he had done. His eyes glazed over in
madness, and he brought another bolt to bear; however, Taliana sent a wave of
wind crashing into the Preacher, taking him to the ground before he could
launch the fire.

Tali jumped on her Cremelino and,
with a few swift strides, rode over to the Preacher to finish the job.

Rapp yelled at her from across
the courtyard. “No, Tali. He wants to kill you and take your Cremelino. Stay
away!”

Tali paused and looked back at
Rapp. It was enough time for the Preacher to stand again. He reached out his
hands toward the young wizard and shot blue lightning from his fingers.

“Tali, jump,” Sean yelled.

She dove off the horse, the bolt
of lightning only hitting her right arm. A scream followed as a burn raced up
her forearm.

Kelln sat down next to Alessandra
on the ground. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air. A large gap in her
clothes showed inflamed and burnt skin across half her middle. Her leg was
badly scorched. Hurt eyes pleaded with Kelln to help, and then she passed out.

Kelln looked up, trying to figure
out what to do. The two guards with the guildmaster were hanging back and tried
to circle around the Preacher. Kelln needed to distract him.

“You are ruined, Preacher. There
are more of us here.”

“Worthless. All of you!” the
Preacher shouted, his voice amplified by his power. Energies of various colors
began to circle around him, and Kelln stepped back.

The two guards rushed the
Preacher from behind. The first ran a blade toward the Preacher's back, but he,
along with the second man, were killed instantly with fire from the Preacher’s
hand as he turned to face the attack.

When he turned back around, Tali,
though untrained, lifted a barrage of pebbles from the ground and threw them at
blinding speed toward the evil wizard. They pelted his body, but still the man
stood.

Grinning with eyes blazing, the
Preacher stomped his foot on the ground, and the ground rose up in bubbles,
knocking everyone down. He took an inhuman leap and landed a dozen yards away
directly in front of Tali. Reaching out his hand toward her throat, he squeezed
in the air, and she began to choke. Her Cremelino made an awful shrieking
noise, filling the air around them.

“Stop that, you monster!”
Berlain, who had been standing in shock, drew a small knife and threw it at the
Preacher’s chest. It hit low and stuck in his gut, his power on Tali weakening
momentarily.

The Preacher pushed his other
hand toward his ex-wife and tossed her like a rag doll into the air, throwing
her into the old tile fountain in the courtyard. Her body stayed still. The
savage act snapped the guildmaster back to action, and he jumped on the back of
the Preacher trying to gouge his eyes from behind.

The distraction enabled Tali to
break free from the Preacher’s magical hold. She lay on the ground, gasping for
breath.

Sean, surprisingly, reached down
and pulled Kelln from the ground where he still sat trying to protect
Alessandra. “We’ve got to do something!”

“Haven’t you done enough Sean?”

“You mistake me, Kelln. This was
not my plan. I have remained loyal since I arrived here.” Sean pleaded his
case. “I can tell he’s a monster. He will kill us all. Now get up and fight.”

Kelln stood and grabbed his
sword. The Preacher was still busy with the guildmaster, having just thrown him
down again. The wizard was relentless. Blood poured from his back and gut; his
eyes were bloodshot and crazed. Dirt and pelts of rock covered him, but still
he pushed on. Sending a killing burst of fire on the guildmaster, he turned to
face his final standing opponents.

Rapp yelled for Sean to come and
help Tali, leaving Kelln alone facing the Preacher. His mind raced back in time
and covered in mere seconds all the pain and harm this man had caused in his
life. His family had been misled by the Preacher’s evil dreams, resulting
eventually in Kelln’s father’s death. Kelln himself had been imprisoned and
tortured by him on multiple occasions., and Darius had been held under his
power for a time. He spared a lingering look at Alessandra lying crumpled on
the ground, her chest rising and falling slowly. She was unconscious, which was
a blessing in her badly burned state.

Kelln, raised a sword maker’s
son, now made a stance. He had learned as a toddler how to hold a sword with
perfect balance in his hand. He thought of Darius’s sword, his relic of power,
and wished for that golden sword at this time. Looking around at the carnage,
wishes obviously were not being granted that day.

“Fight me!” he yelled at the top
of his lungs. “Man to man. Fight me without your powers.”

The Preacher stiffened and
smiled. He hadn’t touched his sword yet, but now with a ring to the air, he
drew it from his side and settled into position.

Kelln attacked first, going on
the offensive. Back and forth they dueled, clashing swords in the midmorning
air. Kelln tasted the salty sea in his mouth. His wild red hair was plastered
to his forehead, drenched in sweat. Kelln sliced the Preacher’s arm just above
the bicep and jumped in to take advantage of the pain; however, the Preacher
cut low and caught Kelln across the thigh. Screaming in pain, he limped
backward.

Both approached more cautiously
this time. Kelln’s energy was dwindling; the Preacher was more powerful than
him, even without his magic. With the affairs of the ambassador’s office, Kelln
hadn’t trained like he should have recently. He stopped thinking and instinct
took over.

Kelln bumped into an old stone
bench. He hadn’t realized that the Preacher had been pushing him backward a
step at a time. Now he was pinned against it, and when the Preacher lunged into
a full assault, Kelln’s legs couldn’t move; all he could do was bend backward
at the waist. He would break or fall soon.

Without warning, Kelln felt his
legs sweep out from under him by the Preacher’s foot, and he fell backward,
laying unprotected across the bench. The Preacher smacked the sword out of
Kelln’s hands and looked down in mad glee at his young opponent.

Kelln looked up at the Preacher,
and everything stopped in his mind. This was how it felt to die. He had done
his best. He didn’t want to die, but he wasn’t afraid. The things Alastair,
ironically the Preacher’s father, had taught him in the cave last year came
back to him now. He could leave this world knowing he had done his best. No one
could ask for more. May God protect him.

“I will kill you,” the Preacher
grunted through clenched teeth. With sweat dripping down his face, his eyes
shifted momentarily over to Taliana and Rapp. “Then I will destroy you, young
girl wizard, and take your bonded Cremelino from you.” The mad wizard brought
his sword up in the air.

Falling limp to accept his fate,
Kelln heard Tali scream at Sean to stop, then a rush of brilliant white blurred
the air to his right side. It was accompanied by a loud wailing, deep and
painful. Both he and the Preacher turned their heads.

Sean was riding Radiance, and he
spurred the speeding horse toward the Preacher. Agony contorted his face in
obvious pain from riding a Cremelino he was not invited to ride on or bonded
to. In unmeasured speed and in radiant, blinding light, he waylaid into the
Preacher.

The man fell on top of Kelln, his
weight barely allowing the ambassador to breathe. After a moment of scrambling,
the Preacher slowly pulled himself off. Kelln instinctually rolled to the side
and grabbed his sword from the ground once again.

Sean, still on top of the
Cremelino, was in apparent physical and mental anguish from not being bonded.
The usually docile Cremelino reared up in the air and came down with her front
legs toward the Preacher’s skull. At the last possible moment, the wizard
turned his body and tried to run away, but Kelln stood behind him now, holding
his sword out in front of him. As the Cremelino’s muscular legs crashed into
the Preacher from the back, Kelln’s sword impaled him from the front. The man
died in one brief moment.

Sean dove off the horse, flying
through the air. He hit the ground and lay there for a moment catching his
breath.

Rapp sat on the ground next to
Taliana, wide-eyed. The young girl wizard was breathing better now and gaped,
with newfound affection, at Sean. Kelln stood and stumbled over to the man who
surprisingly had saved his life. He helped Sean sit up.

“That was either very brave or
very stupid,” was all Kelln could find to say.

“Couldn’t think of anything else
to do.” Sean hunched his shoulders up and rubbed his head with his hands. “I
thought the pain would kill me, though. Those horses can destroy your mind.”

Radiance reared upon her legs
again, emitting a loud wailing neigh, permeating the minds of all those
present.
“Evil will not take us again! We will prevail!”

ESCAPE

M
ezar returned from staking out the
building where Christine was being held prisoner. While waiting for the rest of
his men and Leandra to join with him, he took up watching the movement of
people and detecting patterns. Originally his father was still in the building,
so he had to be careful. Now two weeks later, his father had left to ride to
the border with his special forces. From informants, he had gathered that the
battle on the border would begin in the next few days, so the time to act was
dangerously soon. Darius awaited word on the rescue of his wife before taking
any further action against the general’s army.

In an inn owned by a man loyal to
Mezar and the Emperor, Mezar and his companions sat around a dining table,
discussing plans to free the queen. Lowell, William, Allon, and Gregor stared
expectantly at Leandra. She blushed from the attention, but nodded. Mezar
brought forward a plan utilizing Leandra at the center of it. Since the rest
were known to some degree in the capital city, it was best for a stranger to
infiltrate the building. If something went wrong, it would be easier to get her
out without being noticed.

The amulet that Mezar gave to
Leandra before leaving Anikari earlier that year had been infused with a new
spell. With a hand touching the amulet and her other hand in contact with
another person, she would take on the form of that other person. In fact, they
would immediately switch outward appearances with each other. It was only a
simple physical transference, the person’s personality and thinking remaining
intact, and it would only last for a brief time.

“Leandra,” Mezar said, “with the
small size of the amulet, the spell will only work three different times for
Christine after you give it to her. Also the simple illusion seems to work best
on someone the same size and sex; otherwise strange shadows and reflections
could be seen around both people.”

Through Mezar’s contact in the
building where Christine was being held, they would sneak Leandra inside as
part of the kitchen help. It wasn’t unheard of for people of other countries to
work as servants in Gildan. When the opportunity arose, she would change places
with the person bringing food to Christine and then pass the amulet to her with
instructions on how to work the spell. The rest of the group would be waiting
outside a back gate to take her away.

Leandra stood up. “I’m ready.”
She wore typical Gildanian servant attire. A serviceable but attractive pale
blue dress hung across her slender body, a lacey apron tied around her middle.
Her short brown hair hung almost to her shoulders now and included a lace
ribbon on top.

“Be careful, Leandra.” Mezar
worried for her. “If there was another way I could think of to do it, I would.”

“You could blast into the mansion
with your and Gregor’s powers,” she said, though he knew she was only joking.
They had discussed it already. They didn’t know how many other wizards were
inside. Most trained wizards could sense the power from another wizard, so they
could be detected.

“Just blend in. Don’t say a lot.
We are certain it is a woman who takes the food each day and removes the
chamber pot. A guard will probably be stationed outside the door, but you
should have a brief moment to pass on the amulet,” Mezar instructed.

Before leaving, Mezar leaned in
and gave Leandra a quick brush of his lips on her soft cheek. The others bade
her luck, and she left with Lowell and William. The two friends of Mezar’s
would escort her safely to the back gate of the building where their contact
would be later that night to let her in.

Mezar himself had one last place
to go. He meant to visit his grandfather, the Emperor.

* * *

Christine sat alone in her room.
She had not been treated badly but was definitely a prisoner. Her only contacts
with others were the three meals a day that were dropped off and the changing of
the chamber pot each morning. The servants came in and left without a word. The
third day of her confinement, one of the servants left some books for her to
read along with her meal. This and gazing out of the window at the city below
were her only companions. Two days ago, she watched as a column of soldiers on
foot and horse left the city with General Alrishitar in the lead. She spent her
time looking for a way to escape, but in all that she did, she had to be
protective of the new life growing inside of her.

The architecture and colored
lights around the city below gave her some notion of internal calmness, but her
mind wandered into a realm of nothingness more often. The beginning of winter
lengthened the shadows over the city. Thoughts of missing Darius and what he
must be going through brought her to tears, so she tried to push those negative
thoughts to the back of her mind.

Every once in a while, Christine
felt a faint tugging on her mind. It must have been Lightning trying to reach
out to her. The missing one left a gaping hole inside her. It was like a part
of her was missing, and she still did not understand why it wasn’t working. She
went deep inside herself, trying to concentrate on the bond, but to no avail.
It always just unraveled like something blocked it.

One of the happier parts of her
life was the baby that she carried inside. More often recently, she felt a
small kick and beginnings of a slight stirring. Amazed at the size her stomach
had grown, Christine would sit with her hand on her belly and talk to her
little one. She told the baby about her life growing up, meeting Darius, and
the new Diamond Palace that was being built in the Field of Diamonds, where the
baby would live part time, growing up surrounded by the beauties of the farmlands.
She thought back to the times she had started feeling nauseous and then how
long she had traveled and been held prisoner since then. She surmised that she
must be around five months pregnant by now; however, she was growing much
larger than she would have thought.

Twice today a woman entered her
room and brought food to her. Due to a lack of exercise and the baby pushing on
her stomach, she hadn’t finished either meal yet. She reached over and picked
up an apple and absently bit into the fruit. It was a little too ripe, leftover
from the fall harvest, but it still tasted good.

The door handle turned. Christine
was surprised it was already time for another meal. She didn’t even turn around
to look at the servant. What use was there? There would be no recognition or
talk.

“Christine,” the servant
whispered.

Christine whipped around,
suddenly knocking the food on the floor. Never had they spoken to her.

The guard stuck his head in the
room.

“Just an accident, sir,” the
nervous servant said. “It will just take me a minute to clean up.”

Christine gaped hard at the woman
as the servant bent down to pick up the food.

“It’s me. Leandra.”

Christine looked but stayed
silent. She had only spoken to Leandra a few times, and although the voice was
familiar, the face was someone else’s.

“I only have a moment while we
clean this up.” She handed Christine the amulet. “Take this. Hold one hand on
it while you touch another person. The two of you will exchange physical looks.
It will not change who you are, just your appearance.”

The guard walked in. “What is
taking so long? Orders are that no one is allowed in the room.”

Leandra picked up the last
remaining bowl and stood up. The guard turned around to resume his post at the
outside of the door.

“The change doesn’t last long.
Help will be waiting outside the back of the stables whenever you can leave. It
won’t last long, but you can use it three different times..” With that, Leandra
left the room and closed the door.

Christine heard the guard and
Leandra arguing outside of the door, but her heart leapt with joy. She fingered
the golden amulet, wondering how it worked but accepting the gift happily.
Finally a way out. She planned her escape for the next meal.

She didn’t sleep that night, her
mind fresh and new again with thoughts of seeing Darius. He still didn’t know
about the pregnancy. Examining her belly, she laughed for the first time in
weeks. Once he saw her, he would surely know. All of a sudden, she felt fat and
wondered if she would still be attractive to him. She took a brush from the
nightstand and brushed her hair out.

The morning sun woke the queen of
the Realm earlier than expected. She used the cloth and pail of water they left
for her each night to wash herself. They supplied her with a few changes of
clothes, mostly to accommodate her slight change in size due to the pregnancy.
None were made to run in. She chose the plainest dress and readied herself for
the servant. She had nothing else to take with her.

It seemed like hours, but a short
time later, the door clicked and a maid stepped in. She was the usual morning
servant, a few years older than Christine, with shorter black hair, a small
mouth, and slightly tilted eyes. Her plain attire made her appear younger than
she was.

Using the same unplanned
distraction that worked the previous evening, Christine knocked into the girl,
spilling the contents of the food on the ground. As they both bent to pick it
up, Christine held the amulet in one hand and touched the arm of the servant
with the other. She didn’t know what to expect, but she gasped as she saw a
mirror image of herself appear on the form of the servant. They had instantly
switched identities.

Not knowing if she had changed or
not but assuming so, Christine picked herself up off the floor, grabbed the dishes,
and started walking out of the room.

“Wait. You can’t go out there,”
the servant wailed, but as she looked at Christine, she gasped and panicked
without saying anything for a moment. That moment was all it took for Christine
to swiftly leave the room.

The guard came to the door to
find out what was going on. Seeing what looked like Christine still in the room
he went to shut the door.

“No, no,” the servant yelled.
“It’s me. It’s Sarah. She tricked me somehow.” Christine could understand
enough Gildan to make out what was going on.

The guard’s eyes followed
Christine in the hallway, seeing her as the servant. A questioning expression
flickered across his face. Not wanting to speak and give herself away, she just
shrugged and rolled her eyes like the lady in the room was crazy. The guard
laughed, and Christine, being careful, walked back down the hall.

Not really knowing where she was
in the large compound or how long the deception would last, Christine found
some stairs and ran down with long strides. On her way down, she encountered
two other servants coming up and started to panic. One of the servants turned
to her and said something that Christine couldn’t understand. She assumed it
was in the language of Gildan, which she didn’t speak. To keep from getting
caught she forced herself into a coughing fit. Signaling that she couldn’t
speak and needed water, the two servants left her on her own.

Finding herself in a large marble
hallway, she looked up and down its length. The walls were all a creamy plaster
with large displays of weapons, art, and tapestries covering its length. She
heard a noise and saw a younger boy walk around the corner holding a large
plate of food. That gave her the directions to the kitchen. Approaching the
boy, she saw her reflection in a nearby mirror on the wall and noticed the
deceptive spell had begun failing.

The boy almost dropped his food
as right in front of his eyes, a short dark-haired Gildanian changed into a
taller, blonde Anikarian. He opened his mouth to scream.

Christine, still holding the
amulet, touched him on the arm, and her appearance changed once again, now into
the form of a young page. On the other hand, the boy started screaming
hysterically. Christine actually smiled at his antics but knew she had to leave.

Up on the higher floor, the
maid’s deception had obviously also worn off, and lots of yelling meant they
were searching for Christine. Running into the kitchens, she almost bowled over
the cook.

“Look here. What are you doing
back?” the lady said to her. “I just gave you food. What have you done with it
now? You couldn’t have eaten that much.”

Christine didn’t dare talk to
her. She was having a hard time moving around with the illusion of the boy. Her
belly still stuck out, even though others couldn’t see it. She found herself
bumping into a few counters.

“Now what has got into you, boy?”
the cook continued. “You haven’t gotten into the master’s wine have you?”

Christine gave a sick guise as if
she was going to throw up. The cook raised her hands in the air and started
yelling while pointing the way to the back door. Obviously she didn’t want a
mess in her kitchen. Finding the door, Christine opened it and ran outside.  

The morning air felt cool, but
she drank the freedom in and ran as far away from the buildings as she could.
Hearing a fervent increase of drama in the household, Christine ran toward
where she thought the stables would be. Halfway across the large expanse of
yard, she had the feeling that her own form was back once again. She only had
one more spell to work with. She skirted behind trees to stay away from any
prying eyes but still ran toward her destination.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” A
groomsman reached out for her as she walked into the stables. She was about to
touch him and put the illusion on again when someone hit the man from behind.
The groomsman crinkled to the ground. The attacker then proceeded to grab
Christine by the arm.

“Come on. We have to hurry. Mezar
is waiting for you.” The attacker was young, only a few years older than
Christine, though since he had grabbed Christine while she was still holding
the amulet, they suddenly switched appearances. It was strange to see herself
beside her.