Chapter 11

They desperately hugged each other and cried with relief as their minds joined and embraced as fiercely as their bodies, and Talia learned what had happened.

A few minutes later a string of popping sounds made them open their eyes, and they realized that they were on the patio of their cottage on the slope of the volcano at Hilia. It was the darkest time of night here; and perhaps three hours remained before dawn. Firepits and glowspheres lit the patio.

Their advance security team was alertly in place all around them, and the Alliance force that had appeared at Winghoof Estate were rapidly Translocating in all around them. Within five minutes almost everyone who had been at Winghoof, including the ranch staff and the knights of Sming, had been Translocated in.

The last group included Yazadril, Nemia, Hilsith, and fourteen injured on stretchers, as well as a dozen human walking wounded. They appeared on the patio at the same moment that the huge flight of dragons arrived in neat formation a thousand feet in the air, announced by their thunderous sound. Hilsith immediately had her patients gently Moved inside the cottage, while Yazadril and Nemia set Talia’s sword and magic items on a nearby bench.

“Are you all right?” Nemia asked in concern as she floated up and hugged them, and Yazadril joined her in that.

“We’re okay.” Talia somberly nodded. “The bolt hit me so fast, I didn’t even have time to feel pain before I was gone. That’s the third death the curse has saved me from.”

“The curse and Mark, this time.” Yazadril said. “I was beginning to doubt that your re-integration would be successful, when he drastically accelerated it.

“Mark, did you analyze the workings of the curse’s Restoration, and then cast the same thing in parallel?”

“No. My understanding of it isn’t that complete, though it’s coming close. All I did was figure out enough of what it was doing to be able to add some of my power to it. I thought the risk of it was less than the risk of doing nothing. I saw in Merik’s memory that the bolt was incredibly powerful and concentrated, aimed at just the two of us. I knew that Talia had been scattered a lot more energetically by the bolt than by the fireball, and so I was worried that the curse’s Restoration could fail. Ria warned us that such a thing could happen.”

Then his tone changed to one of tightly controlled anger. “Does anyone have any idea who did that, or how it was done?!”

“From the evidence and the witnesses’ Readings, we know that the bolt was cast from directly above you.” Yazadril reported as he stepped back and began observing the redeployment of his force. “Our dragons found only a slight residue of the bolt’s casting over four miles up, and all we can deduce from the residue is that it was probably cast by human wizards. It must have been cast by many of them, likely hundreds, perhaps lending their power to a single wizard or a small group of them. Or perhaps focusing their power through an item. You were protected by ten powerful wizards, eight elven and two human, who were casting a hemispherical Battle Shield around you and your party, yet the bolt had enough power to punch through their Shield like a spear through paper. All ten casting the Shield were felled by the shock and backlash of having their spell so violently disrupted. They are among the most severely injured, along with Joseth Narr, who was closest to you when the bolt struck. The Readings show he turned away just before the strike, which likely saved him from death or disfigurement.

“The bolt was anti-life, causing living cells to explode, and had no other direct effects, but the energy released was formidable, causing a blast that struck those around you.

“Will everyone live?” Talia asked.

“I do not know, and I don’t dare disturb the Healers’ work to find out. For the humans especially, it may be a close thing. They are all very lucky that the bolt was so tightly focused on the two of you.

“There can be no doubt that this was a finely targeted assassination, not a military strike.”

“How is it that we were brought here to Hilia, and not home or the Hall of Justice?” Talia asked in puzzlement.

“Your advance security team wisely decided to make this your fallback position, once they’d arrived here and learned of the gift you’ve been given by the nations of The Just Alliance.” Yazadril ruefully smiled. “This is now the most heavily Shielded and Warded place on Kellaran. If you cast your awareness outward, you’ll find around the entire island a concentrated version of the Wards that The Grand Council of Xervia use around their continent, and around their council hall. Beyond those Wards lies a concentrated version of the Wards around The Nine Valleys. Beyond those, more layers of independent Wards, fifty-six in total, cast by every race and nation in The Just Alliance. Not even the Hall of The Just Alliance is nearly so well protected.”

“Which explains why they struck in Sming, rather than here.” Mark nodded, his brows furrowed. “You’re confident that a bolt like that couldn’t strike us here?”

“Quite confident, not even if it were ten thousand times as powerful.” Yazadril assured him. “I’m only sorry we never thought to provide you with equally effective protection as you traveled today. The ten who were Shielding you were four of the most capable Battle Wizards among those who’ve sworn to you, and six of the best in Sming. It was not expected that they would be so suddenly and utterly bested before help could arrive, since we were ready to respond with only a moment’s notice.

“This place only has such a hugely excessive number of Wards and shields because once the Xervians decided to gift you with Wards for Hilia, everyone else wanted to do so as well, likely to maintain their prestige as much as out of regard for you.”

“For which I am profoundly thankful.” Talia shivered. “It’s somehow far more frightening to have been killed by an assassin’s spell than it was by our own mistake.”

“And far more infuriating.” Mark growled, then his rage and frustration burst out of him. “Damn it, I’d like to kill them all!! Every single last one of the cowardly bastards, slow with a dull knife!!! Damn but I would dearly love to crush their skulls in right now!! That was a cowardly and craven attack, worthy only of scum!! Gods, I so want to smash something right now!!!”

“Indeed.” Yazadril nodded, letting some of his own anger show. “I’ve left a Company of wizards and cavalry at Winghoof to care for the place, and to set a trap for any others who attack there, but it’s likely an unnecessary precaution, since it was yourselves and not your location that were targeted.

“All of you stay here, rest and relax. I’ll be back shortly.”

“I’m coming with you.” Nemia firmly insisted as she moved to his side.

He nodded, and they were gone.

“We’re very sorry.” Dilimon stated sorrowfully, and Kalem mournfully nodded in agreement.

“A fat lot of good we did protecting you today.” she muttered under her breath.

“Don’t worry about it.” Mark assured them in a growl, still very angry, but struggling for self-control.

Balen and two other girls of The Devoted hurried out of the cottage with fresh clothes for him and Talia as he continued speaking. “We’re still alive. And it won’t happen again. I should have taken you more seriously when you tried to warn me about how much danger we were in. It’s too bad that while I believed you intellectually, it never really sank in emotionally. If I’d have gone with my brains instead of my heart, we’d have stayed home today. The tour was in no way necessary, though most of it was a great time. If you’d have asked us to stay home, we’d probably have gone anyway. I guess I didn’t really want to believe that hundreds of enemies might really try to kill us. Now I know better.”

“Uh, Mark, you’re hurt. On your legs, mostly.” Balen quietly revealed.

“Why, so I am! Ouch!” Mark chuckled as he carefully set Talia down. “I almost wish you hadn’t brought that to my attention. I really hadn’t noticed it much till then! I tell you, my heart is still thumping like galloping hooves on a wooden bridge!”

Yalla had hurried over as soon as she’d heard Mark was hurt. “I’m qualified as a Field Healer. Let me have a look.

“Ah. Your injuries are small but numerous. Grains of sand, plant matter, and threads from your clothing were driven into your skin by the concussion. A few are deep enough to be dangerous for a human.

“And my healing spells are not working on you.” Yalla concluded with a bit of frustration, wiping away blood trickles with a cool cloth.

“Let me try something.” Mark mused as he realized that the tine band had been destroyed by the bolt, and its pieces were still in Sming. “Ria gave me an extensive collection of magecraft healing spells. I think I can ... There. Did it with my own power.”

“Well done.” Yalla nodded. “All the foreign matter was pushed to the surface before the wounds closed, and there’s no sign of scarring.”

“And it’s a surprising relief as well.” Mark sighed as he sat on the nearest bench and scratched his legs. “Moreso than I expected, seeing as it didn’t really hurt that much.”

“Remind me to thank Bizyutin for her suggestion that we store a few changes of clothes at each of our homes.” Talia said as she drew a yellow sundress on over her head, then returned to the earlier subject. “So Love, you were saying that we won’t be similarly endangered again?”

“Not if we can help it. We’re safe here for now.” Mark nodded as he dressed in a white cotton vest and matching baggy pantaloons, and took a moment to enjoy the warm tropical night. When he continued he Spoke over their Link. “We’ll stay here until we’re both expert at casting my power and yours as well, especially faster and more powerful defenses. I think the tactics of our security today were fine, but our strategy was a mistake. Given how dangerous our enemies obviously are, traveling with a large group is a bad plan that unnecessarily endangers our traveling companions. This is especially true when you consider the potential of our power. With a few days’ practice, we could be more capable of protecting our security force than they are of protecting us.

“Right now I’m desperately hoping none have died on our behalf.”

“I’m pretty sure none have, at least not since the injured were brought here.” Talia assured him as she rose four feet and hugged him. “I think I’d have felt it if any had. And Father inferred that none had died at Winghoof.”

He closed his eyes and gratefully wrapped his arms around her, glorying in the reassuring warmth of her love.

“From now on until we catch the assassins, maybe even until the nexus is past, we’re going to try to avoid telling anyone where we’re going in advance.” he mused as he continued his train of thought. “We’ll just ask if we can show up immediately, and go. If we can avoid it, we won’t even ask. Actually, if we can avoid it, we won’t even decide or plan beforehand. We’ll just spontaneously travel, and try to avoid any predictable patterns. If it’s not an official occasion, we might even think about some kind of disguise.

“On the other hand. It’s probably not that smart to make too many decisions right now. That’s all spontaneous thinking, and I’m still pretty shaken, from being terrified that I was losing you a few minutes ago.”

“We’ll start with staying here for now, and go from there.” Talia mused. “We’ll have the dinner for the sworn served here; I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble for the Atoning to relocate the meal.

“At least we can check off touring our properties from our list of things to do, though we didn’t get to see much of Winghoof. And all our things have been put away, and our finances, business dealings and charitable works are settled in capable hands.

“We still need to review our magic items, weapons and armor, we need to speak to our gold neighbor, and we need to spend the four hours on physical combat skills. And we’ve added working on the curse.”

“What time is it, anyway?” Mark asked. “In First Valley, I mean.”

“Five hours, twenty-one minutes after noon. Things haven’t exactly gone as we’d planned, but at least we’re pretty much on schedule.”

“We can save the time on our magic items and such.” Mark decided. “The warriors and wizards of The Atoning are already reviewing every item in our inventory for their military utility. We can Link with them for that knowledge later.

“And I’m ready to work on spell casting now. I don’t know if Ria still thinks I should wait to do that, but I know I’m ready. And considering the magical and powerful nature of the assassination attempt, I think we should spend about half an hour on physical combat, at most, and spend the extra time practicing spell casting. We both need work on casting with my power. And when it comes to magic, I need work on everything.”

“You’re right about that!” Talia chuckled. “It seems silly to spend any time tonight on the correct form to use when thrusting with a spear, or anything like that, when we can be mastering the use of your power.”

“You know, this is so much faster and better than talking out loud, I wonder why we haven’t been doing this continuously since we first learned to do it?!” he thought with a grin.

“Well, talking out loud with you is a very natural and enjoyable experience, and of course, everyone has a certain natural reluctance to spend too much time Linked. Our survival instincts make us fear the loss of our individuality.”

“I understand that.” Mark nodded. “But I’m not worried about it. I know I’ll never have trouble figuring out which parts of us are me. And there’s a lot of things I want to do with you that can be best done by Link, like showing you combat skills, learning your wizardry, helping Ria teach you magecraft, and studying the curse. We’re a lot more skilled at Linking than we were when we first tried it. I don’t think we’ll need the wedding vow spell to protect us from Linking too deeply anymore.”

“Let’s get things in motion.” Talia suddenly decided. “Let’s tell The Atoning to serve the dinner here as soon as they can be ready, then get everyone out of our hair. I’ve had enough of being surrounded by a crowd for one day, and I need some time alone with you.”

“I’m with you in that.” he emphatically agreed.

Their psionic conversation had only taken ten seconds, but the Volunteers were already looking to him expectantly, and beginning to get restless.

“All right, Volunteers.” he called as he stood with Talia in his arms. “Talia and I will be staying here for a while. Balen, contact Sheramiv and fill her in on what’s happened. Tell her the dinner is still on, but we’ll be having it here. We’ll start dinner as soon as everyone’s here and it’s ready to be served. Tell her I’d like a report on the Atoning’s progress and planning, especially concerning the improvements and constructions here.

“You Volunteers who wish to stay on Hilia are welcome to do so, as soon as the facilities here are ready for you. Until they are, if you want to stay here beyond the next six hours, you’ll have to work with the construction crews and use their barracks. For right now, feel free to look around if you want. Not that there’s much to see until the sun comes up.”

“Yes sir.” Balen nodded.

He looked around at the patio and grounds of the cottage, where the Volunteers were mostly making themselves comfortable and conferring in groups. The few ranch hands and staff from Winghoof who had escaped injury were huddled by the door to the cottage, anxiously awaiting word on the wounded. Those who were loved ones and friends of the wounded were arriving in small groups, vetted and Translocated by the wizards of the Alliance force.

The roughly circular patio was fifty feet wide and paved with light gray flagstone. Downslope were seven oval lawns from thirty to eighty feet in their longest dimensions, terraced into the slope and joined by short flights of stairs that had been cut into the stone. All seven lawns and the patio were surrounded by decorative bushes and small flower gardens in low stone walls, from which drifted exotic scents. The entire area was illuminated by Light spells.

“Ria was disrupted somewhat, when the bolt struck us.” Talia Spoke as she buckled her sword belt around her waist. “She says she should recover fully in a few hours. These other items were unaffected, so far as I can tell. I lost three scrolls, but they were not unique, and I can replace them.”

“GrimFang seems unaffected.” Mark returned as he laid his hand on his hilt.

A moment later, Sheramiv arrived. “Talia, Mark, I’m so sorry to hear of your ordeal.” she said with a bit of a nervous bow. “We really should’ve had more wizards assigned to Shielding you in an un-warded nation, and so should the team from Sming. We won’t make that mistake again.”

“Next time we’ll catch ‘em before they can cast a bolt.” Mark assured her. “I only hope those who were hurt are going to be all right.”

“I’ll check on that. They should be stabilized by now.” Balen declared, and lightly ran into the cottage.

“As to our progress, your hotels will be open for business tomorrow, and we recommend commitment to three major charitable acts over the next year.

“With your permission, we will help build a Healers’ Hospice in Heartwood that will serve the elven lands and human kingdoms of northern Debivin. All of the kingdoms need better Healing facilities, and the lands of The People of Life are centrally located amongst them. Also, by locating it in elven lands, it’s much easier to hire sufficient wizards to allow the most urgent cases in northern Debivin to be immediately Translocated to the new hospital. It will also train human and elven Healers, as well as selected candidates from the other races, and it will be associated with the Heartwood Assembly for Advanced Study, and with the Healers’ Guild of Thon.

“As for helping the poor, according to recent figures, in three weeks there won’t be any truly poor people left on Kellaran, but we’re helping with that effort by building a charitable trades college with the trades guilds of the empires at Juncture, where the borders of the three empires of Debivin meet.

“Also, we’re co-operating with the representatives of The Just Alliance in building the facility that may be formally known as The Hilian Library of The Just Alliance. They will cover half the costs of construction, as well as contributing all of the library’s books, scrolls, artworks and learning materials. It’s a great project, since it will be the only place on Kellaran where the knowledge of every race in The Just Alliance is available in one place.

“The construction costs of the rest of the facilities here are financially out of our reach right now, though by auctioning the hotel space, and by pre-selling the lets here, also by auction, we will have enough to complete the resort here within a week. Renovations and fortifications of the rest of your properties are already paid for, including The Queen of Waves, and we have more than enough left on hand to start work here.

“As for the facilities of The Military Academy of Hilia, it is not a profit-making venture, so we felt no reservations about advertising for qualified volunteers for its construction, and asking for donations toward its costs. Response has been surprisingly universal, and the academy’s construction is already fully funded and staffed.

“The Hidden Nation of Xervia alone has paid for more than half the cost of construction of the Military Academy, and they are among many nations who have asked permission to build embassies and consulates here. I should point out that this is an incredible diplomatic triumph! Not one of their citizens has ever been known to venture beyond Xervia’s shores, and now they wish to build a consulate here! Also, since the installation of the extensive Wards here today, combined with the fact that every visitor here is bound by Osbald’s Oath, they now consider this to be the safest place in the world. Because of this assessment, millions of them have requested permissions to visit, and a few of them have apparently asked about immigrating!

“There’s room inside the crater for many diplomatic facilities, as well as for the academy, and in the future a small University of The Just Alliance might be built here, where the scholars of the world can learn and exchange knowledge. Work on the military academy has already begun, and will proceed night and day, with a likely completion date in less than two weeks.

“And dinner will be served buffet-style from the patio here in approximately twenty-five minutes.”

“Thank you. I approve of all those projects and plans, and you may proceed with them with due pace.” Mark decided, then his aspect became a bit grim.

“Most important right now is finding out who attacked us today, and bringing them to justice. Put everyone on it that has the skills to contribute to the investigation, even if they have to be re-assigned from the other projects. I’m sure Yazadril already has a formidable team of wizards and investigators working on it, so co-ordinate with them.”

“Yes sir. Right away.” Sheramiv nodded, and vanished.

Balen emerged from the cottage’s doorway. “The Healers say everyone will live!” she called to all, and a cheer went up, while many who had waited for word began weeping as emotions that had been held back were released.

Yazadril and Nemia re-appeared.

“We can find few other clues from the assassination attempt.” Yazadril reported, letting some of his frustration show. “None of our wizards have been able to recognize a signature in the spell’s residue. We believe that the assassins might have disguised their psionic imprint while casting the spell, to prevent their identification by that method. This further muddies the waters, since it throws our earlier deduction that it was cast by human wizards into doubt, since a faked human quality may have been left as a false trail.”

“I see.” Mark growled. “There’s really very little chance that we’ll be able to catch them, is there?”

“No, there’s not, until they reveal themselves through further acts, as much as I hate to come right out and face the fact.

“This was a very powerful and sophisticated attack, and expertly performed. If they’d have been up there waiting for you, they’d have struck immediately when you arrived, rather than a few moments later as they did. So they remotely detected your arrival, or were informed of the timing of your departure from Thon by someone on or near the Queen of Waves, which I consider the most likely possibility. For that reason, most of our investigators are busy in Gimoosh, interviewing everyone who was in the vicinity of your ship when you left it. All who were at Winghoof were already sworn to Justice, so it’s unlikely that the informant was one of them, but they will be Read by our investigators as a routine precaution.

“The assassins quickly Translocated into place four miles above you, above the limits of the detection spells of the wizards who were guarding you. The skill required to focus the bolt on just the two of you from such a distance is considerable. The bolt itself was a highly concentrated variant of the death spell that struck Shinosa Valley; it causes living cells to explode, but mostly passes through inanimate matter.

“Since we know that the spell at Shinosa was cast by members of the insidious conspiracy, it is reasonable to assume that they were the authors of this attack as well. From that we must assume that the conspirators are neither discouraged by the formation of The Just Alliance, nor defeated by our efforts to root them out. Nor are they willing to wait in hiding, hoping that our search will eventually be called off. The strike at you shows that there will be little pause in the struggle between the conspiracy and the Alliance.

“At any rate, you should be safe enough here. You’ll have to be more secretive when you travel from now on, until these matters are concluded.”

“We’d already decided that.” Mark agreed. “We’ll stay here for a while, at least until the parades of the leaders. If we go anywhere before then it’ll be spontaneously and without warning, most likely back to First Valley.

“And please, pass our most sincere thanks to everyone who came with you to help us today. The speed and magnitude of your response honors us.”

“Not at all.” Yazadril smiled with a dismissive gesture. “There was little we could do when we arrived, but even so, the sudden call to assemble and deploy was a valuable exercise for our fast response force. Now I’ve seen how they respond when the call is not a drill, and they did well by anyone’s standards. We arrived within six seconds of the call, and were fully deployed at Winghoof Estate within twenty seconds. If your attackers had lingered above you for even seven seconds to judge the results of their spell, we might have had them. They may have learned our response time, but we’ve only begun to improve.

“Still, you can be sure that the members of The Fast Response Force of The Just Alliance will be flattered by your gratitude. It was your idea, you know, to have a completely integrated mixed-race response unit, and I don’t mind giving you credit for it. I recognized the brilliance of it immediately. Your four comrades deployed with our dragon and unicorn units, by the way, temporarily attached for training purposes. In a few minutes we’ll return to our base in Xervia for de-briefing and review. They’ll be off duty in about an hour, barring further unforeseen events.

“But before we go, I wonder if you’d welcome a bit of advice on matters of governance?”

“Your advice is always welcome and valuable, Yazadril.” Mark grinned.

“Your plans for facilities that are designed to be usable by any race is a masterstroke. And by allowing the nations of The Just Alliance to build embassies and educational facilities here, you ensure valuable interaction between every race and nation, which can only aid the causes of unity and de-segregation.

“You should grant Hilian citizenship to those who’ve sworn to you, since your nation has little credibility until it has citizens. But here you have a wonderful opportunity. Your nation was formed just before the founding meeting of the Alliance, its land was uninhabited before then, its facilities will be accessible to any race, and it was declared to be a multiracial nation at almost the same moment as its public declaration of independence. Moreso than anywhere else on Kellaran, Hilia is racially neutral territory. Therefore; for many people, it should be the most comfortable place to visit beyond their racial homelands. If you try to keep your visitors and your citizenry racially balanced, Hilia will hold the heart of The Just Alliance, though its seat of government will remain in Xervia.

“And you should formally recognize Sheramiv’s position in your government’s administration. I picked her to speak for her group at their swearing because she’s the most capable and levelheaded among them, and one of the most experienced. Thus far she is empowered to act for you in matters of commerce, and doing a fine job from what I’ve heard. But you should give her a formal title, such as Chancellor of Hilia or something similar, so that she may more effectively represent your government in diplomatic relations.

“You should feel free to consult any of the existing military training programs in The Just Alliance for assistance and advice in establishing and operating your military academy, and to arrange to have copies of their reference works made.

“And it would be wise of you to do something formal to acknowledge the financial contribution of The Hidden Nation to your military academy, for it is unprecedented. They are very reticent about military matters; yet still wish to be seen to be making a contribution to the defense of the alliance, thus the magnitude of their endowment. Your personal and public recognition of their generosity would mean a lot to them.”

“Ah. That’s all wisdom for certain, and we’ll heed it, thank you.” Mark acknowledged with a bit of a bow.

“Excellent. Do you still plan on acting against the curse tonight?”

“Yes, in a little over three hours.” Talia answered. “I guess we’ll be doing it here. Could you tell Alilia about the change of venue?”

“I will. Give me a hug, cherished daughter, and we’ll see you then.”

After sharing an embrace with his wife and daughter, Yazadril gave a psionic command to his forces as he and Nemia stepped back, arm in arm. A moment later they all Translocated out.

“Come.” Talia said, and led Mark over to where the staff from Winghoof was gathered.

Introductions were made, and the young couple offered kind words to those who waited for more detailed word on the condition of the wounded. Talia invited them all to stay for supper. Cooks and servers of the Atoning were busy setting up buffet tables on the lawns, and it appeared that dinner would be served shortly.