Victim of Fate (33 page)

"He might live, but we must sear the wound.
He'll lose the leg," she declared.

Karthor swore and lurched to his feet,
surprising them all. "What sort of priestess are you to declare
such a thing!" he blurted out.

"I'm a healer," she snapped back at him. Her
eyes fell to the symbol on his chest and her eyes widened. "You're
a priest?"

"I am."

"Then why don't you heal him?"

"We've been on the run for near two days,
maybe more," Patrina explained. "I doubt any of us can remember the
last time we've slept. We've been fighting in caves in the
mountains most of that time and Karthor here has saved all of us
with Leander's blessing. So much so that he's got nothing left to
give. I don't know how he stays on his feet."

"Seems I don't have a choice," Karthor
muttered. He walked around the table, brushing against Ayerl and
clearing his throat until the Kelgryn healer stepped back. He
grabbed his holy symbol and knelt down on one knee beside
Namitus.

"Karthor, stop, you can do no more," Tristam
said. "You've given it your all."

"I'm still breathing," Karthor whispered
without looking up. "I've still got something left to give."

Patrina gasped and reached for him but
Garrick caught her arm and stopped her. She looked up at him, fresh
moisture in her eyes. "This is beyond my knowing," Garrick
admitted, "but he's a man that has made a decision. Let him
be."

"But what if he dies?" she whispered.

"Then that is his wish and it's not your
right to take that from him."

Patrina turned back to Karthor, who was
chanting softly as he bent his head in prayer. They all watched
quietly and paid no heed to the man who brought in leftover bread
from the evening meal and left it on the table next to several
empty cups.

Karthor's holy symbol flared with a bright
light for a moment, forcing their eyes closed from the brilliance.
When they opened them again, it was to see Karthor fall to the
ground beside the bench.

Patrina went to him and rolled him onto his
back. She called to him and gently patted his cheeks. He looked
relaxed and peaceful. She looked around, tears finally running down
her cheeks. Garrick stared at the fallen priest thoughtfully, and
then he nodded in respect for his actions.

The healer knelt next to Patrina and tried to
pull her away so she could tend to her wounds. The lady pushed her
away and lowered her forehead to Karthor's chest while she wept
unashamedly.

"Look!" Tristam cried out, point at Namitus.
The rogue's leg was far from whole but the shredded muscles had
knit back together and the dark tinge around the wound was a
healthy pink.

"He did it," Garrick observed. He chuckled
and shook his head.

"My lady, the priest!"

Patrina lifted her head up and stared at
Namitus through tear-blurred eyes. "I know, he gave his life for
Namitus."

"No, my lady, he lives!"

"What?" She spun and stared at Karthor.

"When you were on his chest, I saw his breath
flutter your hair," the healing lady said.

Patrina closed her eyes from where she knelt
and raised her clasped hands in a silent prayer to the saints.
"There's been too much death and hurt this day," she said a moment
later when she opened them.

"There'll be more before this is done,"
Tristam reminded her. "We need to be off as soon as we can to
collect...uh, more men and let them know what's going on."

Patrina rose on unsteady feet and turned to
Ayerl. "Lord Ayerl, I need a horse. We all will, I think. Your
fastest that can carry us."

"My lady, this is unusual. What troubles
you?"

"Many things, but you must send riders out
warning of the monsters and men that make ready to wage war from
the mountains," she told him. "My father went that way and fought
them; if the jarl survived, he will know of it. You can sound the
horns of war and summon the other Kelgryn, though."

"So what do you need the horses for?" he
tilted his head and asked.

"We've lost a dear companion. A friend to the
Kingdom and to the Kelgryn. He was my champion and I will deliver
the news to his family personally. I trust his companions and
friends will accompany me."

Tristam opened his mouth but shut it when he
saw the others looking at him. He nodded, the muscles in his jaw
flexing as he did so.

"We leave as soon as we can in the morning.
If my friends can travel with me, they will. If they are not ready,
I trust I can count on your hospitality?"

"Of course," Ayerl said.

Patrina nodded. "Then we'll rest here
tonight. I see most of my companions have already found places to
bed down."

"My lady, the hall is hardly a fitting place
for you to—"

"I can see no finer place than beside the
bravest and strongest men I've had the honor of knowing. There is
no place safer in all of the northern reaches. Now if you'll excuse
me, Lord Ayerl, I think I've found a fine-looking place to lay down
under that table over there.”

* * * *

"Namitus is in no condition to be riding,"
Tristam announced as soon as Patrina returned to the hall from her
morning errands.

Patrina glanced over at her longtime friend
as he was having his bandage changed by the local healer. She’d let
Ayerl force her into changing her clothes to something more
presentable, but then he’d been dismayed when she’d insisted on
soldier’s garb instead of a dress.

"How’s Karthor?"

"He’s spending his morning praying," Kar
shared as he joined Patrina and Tristam near the door. He turned
his hard gaze on her and said, "And I’ll thank you to never ask him
to put his life at risk like that again!"

Patrina bristled. "I didn’t ask him to do any
such thing. I tried to stop him!"

"That much is true," Tristam admitted. "It
was Garrick that held her back."

Kar turned to the barbarian who sat eating a
breakfast of eggs and mutton. Garrick’s attention was focused on
his meal, allowing him to ignore even the dwarf who sat opposite
him at the table. Mordrim was eating with equal gusto.

Kar scowled and muttered. "Savages have no
understanding of the dangers of such things!"

"No, but without Alto, had it not been for
the savage, we might not have made it out of there," Tristam
said.

Kar harrumphed and wandered away to a table
near where Karthor was performing his morning rituals. A woman
stopped by with a plate of food for him, which he accepted without
his usual smile.

"So, about Namitus?"

"Yes, what about Namitus?" the rogue asked
from where he sat. The healer gathered her things and stood up, and
then nodded in deference to Lady Patrina before slipping out of the
building. She’d already seen to the cuts and bruises the rest of
them had endured.

"Karthor and Tristam say you’re weak,"
Patrina told him.

Namitus shrugged. "They’re upset that I can
still beat them three out of five hands at cards."

Patrina forced her smirk off her face before
asking, "I mean to set out to tell Alto’s family of his heroism.
Will you ride with me?"

Namitus put his hands on the table behind him
and used them to help him rise to his feet. He gently put pressure
on his leg until he was standing on it. He chanced a step and, with
a limp, was able to keep his balance. "I don’t see why not. I’ll be
sitting on a horse anyhow."

"Karthor said you shouldn’t be moving!"
Tristam reminded them.

"Of course he did; he wants me to get better
as fast as I can," Namitus said with a shrug. "No reason I can’t
recover on the road nearly as well."

"What of you, Mordrim?" Patrina called out
loud enough for the dwarf to hear her over the clink of his
silverware.

He looked up and around, and then settled his
eyes on her. "What’s that?"

"You were sound asleep last night. Will you
come with me?" Patrina asked him.

Mordrim reached up and picked a piece of
sinew out of his teeth and then flicked it on his plate. He grinned
at Patrina. "My lady, I’ve done what I came to do here. I found my
ancestral halls and they was overrun with vermin. Someday I’d like
to reclaim them, but that day’s a long ways off, I think. Until
then, I’d be honored to put my hammer at your side."

Tristam snorted beside Patrina.

Patrina nodded. "I’m glad to have your
service as long as you offer it," she said, accepting his
fealty.

"Eat up; when you’re finished, we’ll head
out. Lord Ayerl is arranging rides for us."

"Um, about that," Mordrim said. "I’m not so
good with horses, see."

Patrina smiled. "I think they’ve a few
ponies, if you prefer?"

He nodded and returned his attention to the
last of his breakfast. His beard hid most of the redness in his
cheeks.

"Garrick?" Patrina asked.

"I’ll go," Garrick said. He tossed the mutton
bone he’d been chewing the meat off back on his plate and leaned
back to belch. "I’m ready now."

Patrina raised her eyebrow. "So I see. And
hear." She was prevented from saying more by a commotion outside
the door that preceded it opening and Lord Ayerl stepping in so
quickly he nearly ran into her.

"Lady Patrina!" he snapped. "There’s, uh,
there’s something outside."

Patrina frowned and pushed past him. Her hand
dropped to the sword at her side she’d been given in the caves, but
it fell away as soon as she saw the source of the disturbance.
"Winter!"

The unicorn snorted and pawed the ground, and
then trotted over to her and pushed his head against her to nuzzle.
She reached up and patted the magical beast and visibly relaxed as
she stroked his neck. "How did you find me?"

He whickered and shook his head, and then
pawed the ground. Patrina watched him carefully and nodded. A smile
slipped onto her face. "You know where I am, don’t you? And as soon
as you knew I was out of the mines, you came to find me."

Winter nodded.

Patrina’s smile faded. "Alto’s still down
there. He…he gave himself to give us a chance to escape."

Winter stomped the ground and whinnied. He
back up a step and reared up on his legs, crying out even louder.
Other horses in the village took up the cry.

"He was a good man," Patrina agreed. "I need
to go and tell his family. Are you tired or can you make the
journey?"

Winter snorted and lowered himself to allow
her to mount him.

Patrina laughed and rubbed his side. "Soon.
My friends are finishing breakfast and they will come along with
me."

Winter shook his head and pawed at the ground
with his hoof.

"You can go faster than they can, can’t
you?"

The unicorn nodded.

Patrina grabbed one of her braids and twisted
it in her hand. It only took a moment for her to decide. "You and I
then, we’ll go now. They can follow or not, I don’t care."

Winter lowered himself to make it easier for
her to mount him again. She sprung onto his back and looked down at
Tristam and Ayerl, who stood in the doorway. She was about to say
more when Winter stepped back and looked at the ground. A distant
rumble, almost like the sound of thunder, reached them from the
north.

"What was that?" Patrina asked.

"No, what is that?" Ayerl pointed to the
north.

Above the trees, they saw a thick and dark
smoke rising from the mountain. A few moments later, a second plume
appeared and then a third and a fourth. The ground shook again,
hard enough to cause Tristam and Ayerl to grab the hall and for
Winter to spread his legs for balance. The rumble that followed
rolled across them and left an eerie silence in its passing.

"The mountain’s changed," Ayerl announced a
moment later. "The eastern end has fallen."

Patrina twisted to stare at it and saw what
Ayerl meant. From their distance, she could see how the thickest
smoke rose from that portion of the mountain. The smoke quickly
obscured their vision, but it seemed to her the forest had been
cleared in that area by the earthquake.

"What happened?" Tristam asked.

Patrina stared and felt a fire light in her
heart. "Do you think Alto did it?" she asked.

Tristam stared at her and then at the
mountainside. Before he could answer, others pushed out of the hall
and from houses, staring around and turning eventually to see the
smoke rising into the sky.

"Volcano?" Kar asked, putting a possible
explanation to the incident.

"Alto," Patrina stated.

Kar’s laugh died abruptly on his lips. "How
could that boy blow up a mountain? Even the most powerful of spells
can’t accomplish such a thing!"

"The mountain’s not blown up," Patrina said.
"It just shifted a little."

"A quake like that will kill everything under
it," Mordrim announced. Several people looked at him, earning a
shrug from his thick shoulders. "I’m a dwarf. I know how the earth
moves and what happens to the poor fools mining it when it
happens."

"I’ll be damned," Tristam muttered.

Patrina nodded, a smile on her face. She
turned to Mordrim. "Are you sure that no one could survive?"

He barked out a laugh. "Not a one, on my
mother’s beard."

"Your mother has a beard?" Garrick asked.

Mordrim turned and scowled at him.

The flicker of hope in Patrina’s chest faded,
leaving an icy pit in its wake. She sighed and then said, "He’s
done an impossible thing yet again."

Namitus, Karthor, and even Kar bowed their
heads at her words.

"Tristam, catch me up if you wish, or meet me
at Holgasford. I will have work for you there."

"My lady?" Mordrim asked.

Patrina glanced down at the dwarf and then
offered her hand. "Ride with me, Mordrim."

"My armor!"

"There’s not a man nor boy in all of these
lands that could hope to wear it. Lord Ayerl, can you see to it
that it’s sent to Holgasford and given to my mother for
safekeeping?"