Vision of Light [The Renegades 1] (16 page)

Soon, the day would arrive when the Royal Guard would find and drag him back to the palace. If not for Daman's death, Lucien would have been able to force a fair trial for Aislan and request time to gather information in her defense. If they surrendered now, with nothing to go on, she would be as good as dead. Lucien had to find other means to dig up information. If he armed Aislan with enough knowledge, she could demand her own trial. In all fairness, King Julian Caliburne would grant her that—but only if she survived long enough to make the journey to Court.

Lucien glanced at Aislan who rode beside him on her horse as they made their way back into the forest. He needed time to find out information about Aislan, but he needed to hide her. Lucien could find her easily, and any Tracker sorcerer could do the same. He had to make it next to impossible for anyone to track her down. Only one man could help him, his cousin Traver Calvacade.

He wanted to ride quickly to Danier, but by late afternoon, Aislan looked exhausted and hungry. No matter his need to hurry, she needed to eat properly, so he stopped by the riverbank and set out a meal of bread, cheese, and wine.

"I almost forgot.” It was only an expression. He never forgot anything. Lucien pulled a small bag out of the pocket of his tunic and handed it to her.

"What is this?” She took it gingerly.

"Your womanly remedy I requested from Madam Isabel."

"Oh."

He poured her a cup of wine and watered it down before he handed it to her, watching her mix the potion carefully before she drank it. She looked at him tentatively while she did so. Why would she think it would bother him that she took precautions not to become with child? He had no wish to sire a bastard. Lucien knew all too well the bitterness of being born as one.

"So, kind sir, where are we going?” she asked after a while.

"Visit someone who may be able to help you."

"Me? Who would help me? I know no one."

She would know soon enough, so he saw no reason to be secretive about it. “My kinsman."

"What could he do for me?"

"He would provide us sanctuary and help keep you safe."

"Safe from what? Not the king again! I am no traitor!"

"'Tis not that simple, Aislan."

"I'll not be helpless if you train me."

Lucien could not believe his ears. He thought they had straightened out all of this yesterday. He had thought she understood, but apparently, she had not understood a goddamn thing.

"Never!” He glared at her.

The impudent vixen had the gall to look upset. “Why not? You are the best one to train me. My other choices would be to run off and find a sorcery clan or—or find Narisse herself."

"Do not threaten me."

"Why would you not help me develop my power so I could defend myself?"

How could she be so ignorant?

"Because you would become my apprentice. ‘Tis forbidden for the sorcery master and the apprentice to have sex. The line defining the relationship between teacher and student is very clear. Society sees that no different than incest."

Aislan looked beside herself with disbelief as she gaped at him. She truly had been ignorant, Lucien thought in fury. Where the hell had she been living?

"How could you not have known this basic fact? You had sex with me to sweeten me up so I would train you? You think I am your fool?"

She stared at him and shook her head. “You thought I—"

He finished coldly, “—bartered your body as payment for training."

Her lower lip quivered. “You are cruel! ‘Twas not why—oh, you are not the only sorcerer in this world.” She took a calming breath, shrugged in an infuriating manner, and turned up her nose. “I can go find a clan that will take me as an apprentice."

"You are too old to start apprenticing,” he needled. “You should have been trained when you were younger. Your father could have sent you to a sorcery clan at no cost to him. You would have been allowed to serve the clan in exchange for training."

She opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it. “No cost to him? My father would have lost a manor!"

In a fit of rage, she threw herself face down on the ground and bawled.

Aislan tried to stop her crying, but all the years of helpless anger surfaced and poured from her. She pounded the earth in her rage. When Lucien took her by the shoulders to sit her up, she turned and swung her hand at his face. He evaded her attempt with almost no effort by leaning away, then caught her hands and pulled her into his arms. Pressing her face into his neck, she cried it all out. His chin brushed against the side of her head, his hand smoothing her hair. He even swayed a little as if rocking a child until she quieted in his arms.

"Do you want to tell me more?” he asked quietly.

Looking away, she did not answer.

He remained quiet for a while, and then he said, “Tell me about Narisse."

His different approach reached her. She had longed for so long to have someone listen who did not regard her as insane. When she did not answer immediately, he kissed her cheek and settled back, waiting. Aislan sighed and capitulated.

"Even when I was only five or six, I wandered outside the village into the forest all the time. With five girls, no one paid me any heed. I was eight when I stumbled across Narisse. I had never seen a sorceress before. She sat there quietly in the middle of the forest.” Aislan met Lucien's gaze. “She was—now, I know—regenerating. She sat like a stone statue, her white hair covering most of her face. Her skin was pale, without any blood. I thought she was dead. I ran and ran for a long time, trying to get back home, but I was lost. I was never lost before. She must have cast a spell on me. Before I knew it, she swooped out of nowhere and grabbed me. She hit me on the head, and I passed out. When I came to, she had brought me to the riverbank. She regenerated again. I tried to get up, but she grabbed me by the head and pushed my face onto the ground. She regenerated for a very long time. Could she have been injured?"

"Either seriously injured—or developing new sorcery skills. What happened next?"

"I cried. I screamed. She slapped my face until I could cry no more. Then she picked me up and went into the water. Her fingers felt like claws clamping into my skull, and she went underwater with me. She would surface, and then she would go under again. Then I started bleeding. I could not tell where my blood came from at first. The water was red. When I surfaced, blood came out of my nose and my mouth. I nearly passed out, but she kept pinching some nerves to keep me conscious.” Aislan touched the cords along her neck under her ears. “Then her mouth—she used her mouth to suck the blood out of my nose. I thought she tried to suck out my brain from the force of it. She went back under water with me. I tried to breathe, and sometimes, while under, she would blow into my nose. When we surfaced, she would suck me dry. She was truly insane.” Aislan shuddered, remembering all too well the horror of that night.

Lucien rubbed her cold arms, and she leaned against his chest. He explained, “She was trying to either replenish or develop her power more quickly beyond using her own energy. Through your blood and your own human energy, she received the sustenance needed to quicken the process."

"But why the water ritual?"

"'Twas her own method. She devised sacrifices that would best quicken her strength. I have only heard about Narisse. I gathered information on her, but she left very few traces. No one had ever found her. How did you escape? She would have never let you go."

"Someone stumbled upon us. A boy, about thirteen, mayhap fourteen. I remembered thinking how brave he was because he jumped on the witch, and she lost hold of me and attacked him."

Aislan could no longer remember the features of the boy's face, but her memories of a mane of golden hair and amber eyes remained. She named him the Lion Boy in her mind. At first, she thought of him often, but overtime, his face faded from her memory. The Lion Boy had saved her life, yet he did not haunt her dreams. Instead, she dreamed about Lucien, the devil who hunted her like a prey before she had overcome her fear by romanticizing about him. Sighing again, she pressed her cheek against his chest and continued.

"She was so strong. She sent him flying backwards, and she went after him. I sunk into the water. I came awake on the bank of the river in another part far away. At the time, I could not remember what happened. I just knew how to go home, so I—I crawled my way home. My father whipped me for wandering off. Eventually, after several months, I remembered everything that happened, but no one believed me. My father thought I was lying. I suppose I told many fanciful tales at that age, and so no one believed me.” Aislan studied Lucien. “Tell me—who is Narisse? Why are you tasked to find her?"

He did not hesitate to help her understand. “Narisse is a renegade in the Sorcery Circle. More than fifteen years ago, she stole the Circle's Sacred Scroll. It contained the secret incantations of the
Sorsverein
and the Four Lords of the Realms. When the
Sorsverein
compiled the manuscript, he meant for him and the Four Lords to study and coordinate their strengths with each other before they destroyed the manuscript. Narisse got her hands on it and disappeared. Unfortunately, Narisse is a Predator sorceress, someone with the ability to absorb energy from living beings to enhance her power. Not many sorcerers can siphon off others, but she could."

Lucien gave Aislan a blank look she could not interpret. He continued, “She practices human sacrifice, which is forbidden, but ‘tis a means to hone skills quickly rather than going through the requisite training, which takes as long as fourteen years to build the foundation. Narisse is also a Fluid element. She needs to drown her victims as she draws energy from them.” He smoothed her hair gently. “You were lucky. If she had not lost you, you would have died a painful death, and not just by drowning."

"How?"

"She would have opened you up and eaten your innards."

"That cannot be true! I do not believe that."

"Aislan, why are you defending Narisse? Are you trying to convince yourself she is misunderstood somehow, so you can justify your reason to seek her for apprenticeship? You experienced how she would have drowned you. How could you not be afraid of her? She would kill you as soon as she saw you."

After such a reprimand, how could Aislan dare to convince him anything more about Narisse? Lucien himself originated as the devil in her dreams and entered her life in bloodbath violence. Common sense dictated that she should have run as fast and as far away as she could from him. Instead, she welcomed him and took him as her lover. She obsessed over Lucien and Narisse almost equally, both of them dark and deeply troubled, inexplicably drawing her to them. How could she explain all this to him without sounding utterly mad?

No one had ever understood her visions, and so when even she could not make sense of them, Aislan learned to keep everything to herself as she tried to unscramble these images.

"Narisse could be dead now,” Lucien continued. “The Sorcery Circle hunted her all these years, but no one could find her, not even her body. My
sorsverein
recently assigned four of us to find Narisse again. I did not realize until recently the other three in the group were contenders to become the new Lords of the Realms also, to protect the Crown Prince once he ascends the throne.” He paused long enough, and Aislan considered what he had said. She did not understand the last part about the Realms or the new reign.

"Tell me more about how you came into sorcery power,” he pursued before she could ask him to elaborate on the intrigue surrounding the Crown and the Circle.

"For a long time after Narisse, I remained delirious. Not many people believed me.” Aislan debated on what she could tell Lucien. As a sorcerer, perhaps he could help her understand her strangeness. She started with the most obvious. “I think I acquired some sorcery power from her. I can stay underwater a long time without drowning.” She stopped.

"I suspected that.” Lucien nodded. “Fortunately, my
sorsvasus
brothers did not know too much about Narisse and did not suspect this ability you have.” He regarded her thoughtfully. “What else?"

Aislan tried the next best thing. “I have certain visions that sometimes come true. I initially thought I dreamed them, but sometimes I see all these images while I am awake. Most of the time, they are just jumbles, and out of a myriad of visions, one image happens.” She chose her words carefully. “Sometimes, I can move things, little things, barely shifting something about, very insignificant and useless. I can move things a finger span distance if I concentrated hard enough."

He kept looking at her, but in a prompting way for her to continue.

"Not many believed about Narisse, of course. They thought I was touched in the head. Stand me next to a window, and they expected me to fall out of it. Put me near a tree, and they expected me to climb it and then dive off a limb.” She stole a surreptitious glance but found Lucien attentive. “I can climb walls, clinging to a slightly rough surface by digging in my fingertips, but I can only climb up or down so far before it hurts. I always fall and can do nothing to stop the fall."

Most of her falls had to do with climbing up and down trees or out the windows trying to escape, first at her father's home, then later at Templeton Castle. After a few falls, Hayton barred the window to prevent Aislan from falling out. No one in their right mind would scale down a flat wall from several stories above without a rope or even a tied-up bed sheet.

"So ‘tis why some parts of your body are scarred, your muscles pulled or torn. You have a couple of bones not quite healed properly.” Lucien sighed. “Your father should have sent you to a sorcery clan. You could trade servitude for training. You would spend the first fourteen years tending to the clan while learning at the same time, but at least you would have acquired training."

Lucien's words made tears of self-pity flow down her cheeks. “When my father refused to school me, I kept trying to run away, but he always caught me and locked me up. I thought ‘twas unnecessarily harsh of him. He kept me imprisoned for a good reason. I was not even sixteen when my father sold me into marriage to a disgusting old man."