Eleventh of Harvest
Sashai was finishing her morning prayers when a servant laid a hand on her shoulder. With an apologetic tone, he whispered that she had been summoned by the Prophetess. She thanked the boy – he was only her age – and quietly exited the prayer hall. All the main corridors led to the central spire, and it took only a few minutes for Sashai to reach the stairs that led to the Prophetess’ chambers. For all the training that she had been receiving in the past few days, this was the first time that she had been directly summoned. Instead of the expected fear, she felt exhilarated. The Prophetess had already taken her into confidence, now she would have some sort of secret request. It was rare to be so trusted, not something to be taken lightly. Sashai paused outside the chambers, taking a deep breath and forcing her heart to slow down. She quietly pushed the doors open and gently shut them, as always finding Siara by the window in the morning sun. She was an elegant figure, back straight as she studied the world outside the walls of her own palace. Not for the first time, Sashai found herself wondering what it felt like to be the Prophetess, what power must flow through her veins. Her heart sped up again as she took her place beside her master, eyes lowered.
“You asked for me, Milady?”
Siara looked at her and smiled. “Have you been taught how to ride, Sashai?”
The question was a surprise, but she nodded. “They say that I am advanced past my age, but they do tend to flatter.”
“Not without cause,” Siara assured her. “I have need of a messenger.”
“I would do anything you asked, Milady,” Sashai said. I’m sure you would, Siara thought. But would you comprehend?
“Take a horse, the strongest that you can handle. Head north. You will find a cave south of the Quarries, off the road to Hirton.”
Sashai hid her confusion. Was this a banishment? For all her faithfulness, was she being relegated to a cave? She pushed her doubts aside, waiting for Siara to continue.
“In time you will be met by a Lowborn named Davos,” Siara said. “He will be accompanied by two women. There is a parchment on my desk that must be delivered to him.”
“Yes, Milady.”
Siara shook her head. “You do not understand, do you?”
Sashai’s silence was the only answer that she needed. Siara sighed.
“In time, young one, you will understand that great things rely on the smallest of encounters. Davos will not seem much to you, but his heart will decide the fate of Svaleta.”
Siara turned back to the window.
“Indeed, his heart will decide all our fates.”
* * *
Davos led the trio as they made their way through the forest, avoiding the most travelled paths. He hadn’t spoken much since the encounter in the morning. While Belkai and Loranna spoke in hushed voices, his mind kept running over how easily he’d been caught. He hadn’t known what to expect when he encountered Belkai. He knew that she could handle a blade – two Aliri daggers, he now knew – and she could kill with magic. But controlling nature itself? That had been entirely unexpected. He’d heard stories of people with such power, but it had been a long time since anyone in Svaleta had shown such expertise. It took most of the day, but he finally put aside his pride and asked,
“Belkai, how did you control the vines?”
Loranna raised an eyebrow, surprised that it had taken this long for him to ask. Always the stubborn one. It would be his downfall one day, she knew.
“Plants are difficult,” Belkai admitted. “I spent most of last night learning, experimenting. I wasn’t sure that it would actually work.”
“What would you have done if it failed?”
Belkai gave him a playful smile. “You don’t want to ask that question. You may not like the answer.”
Loranna patted her hips, and Davos understood. Two daggers to the heart, he thought. Not a good way to start your morning.
“You say that our mages only play with magic,” he said. “Would they not also know your craft?”
Belkai sighed as she continued to step carefully over roots and sticks. “Most people have too narrow a view of magic. It isn’t just some force that you manipulate to your will.”
"Then what is it?” This time it was Loranna asking. Magic may not have been strictly banned in Svaleta, but knowledge of it was limited to rumours and superstition.
Belkai thought about how to explain it. “Think of it not as a tool, but as a raging river. You can dip your hand in and try to shift its course and it will only laugh at you. But if you scoop some out with a bowl, you can do with it as you wish.
“It takes years of discipline and training to learn the basics of one form of magic, let alone master it. I am still considered a novice, even after eleven years in my Order. So some learn how to heal, and they are content. Others can conjure tools and weapons. Some of us can manipulate the world around us. There are hundreds of forms of magic, but there is little ability to learn multiple forms. The process is too arduous. If you try to scoop out too much of the river, it will drag you under.”
“A novice wouldn’t be sent alone on a task,” Loranna said. Belkai managed to keep her face still as an image flashed through her mind of Saxon’s body buried in his shallow grave.
“Nothing is ever simple with mages,” she replied, but the warning was lost on her companions.
“They say that you are forbidden to speak when you join your Order,” Davos said. “Is that how you learn?”
Belkai laughed. “Only for the first year. We learn to feel the world around us, to understand things at a deeper level. Silence allows us to reach beyond physical limits. Gods, to never speak? I dread the thought.”
There was silence for a moment, then Belkai asked, “You want to ask about Milton, don’t you?”
Davos nodded, not looking back. “And the raiders.”
"Milton wanted to rob me, surrender me for a bounty that does not exist. His death was self-defence.”
“And the raiders?”
“I was too late to save the family.” Belkai’s voice softened. “No magic I know of can raise the dead.”
It wasn’t strictly true, but such magic was forbidden by the Council of Mages, which had never stopped the occasional necromantic cult from interfering with gravesites. Few of them survived the encounter; awakened spirits rarely sought wholesome conversation.
“You already knew this?” Davos asked Loranna, and she nodded.
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“There are limits to Belkai’s power,” she said. “I needed to know.”
“What limits?”
“You ask many questions, Lowborn,” Belkai warned. “Perhaps too many for someone who has just been hunting me.”
Davos felt the chill return. How could this woman lift his spirits and then fill him with terror within the same minute? What was she, really?
“Rest assured, she can handle herself,” Loranna intervened. “She has my trust. That used to be enough for you.”
“It still is,” Davos replied, eyes on the forest floor as he moved. “That has not changed.”
“Did you two have a history?” Belkai asked Loranna quietly, dropping back away from Davos.
“Now who asks too many questions?” Loranna smiled. “It was very brief. And it was a long time ago.”
“Is that why you left the militia?”
“Gods no.” Loranna laughed. “I left because I barely got paid and spent too much time hauling drunks out of taverns. I wanted to live, Belkai. I wanted to fight and get rich.”
Her smile faded. “I’m a simple girl to understand, but he never did. He never will.”
“And that is the end of it?” Belkai probed.
“There were other men,” Loranna confirmed. “I’m not lonely, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Why did you really join? Belkai wondered as she watched Davos. What is it that you truly seek? For all his professions of peace, she knew that still travelled with her hunter. She couldn’t allow herself to lose sight of that simple fact.
* * *
That night they made camp a few hours before the edge of the woods. As Davos and Loranna set up a fire, Belkai heeded the whispers in her head and moved off into the trees. When she was alone, she sat, closed her eyes, and took a breath. She felt the rush as her mind was taken, and everything went black.
“So you have friends now,” the voice hissed. Belkai had never seen the Tormentor, only heard his voice and felt his icy touch. Not a day went by that she didn’t hate herself for the deal that she had made. Was it worth this? She asked herself. Is it worth what is still to come?
“You will not touch them,” Belkai said softly, almost submissively. The sharp laugh took her by surprise.
“I will not be the one to touch them, Belkai,” it whispered. “Where you lead them is danger enough, I think. Do they know who you are? Who you really are? Deceiver, murderer, betrayer?”
“I did what you asked me to do!” Belkai yelled. “What more do you want from me? Are you to torture me for all my days?”
“Need I remind you of what you said?” She felt his hot breath on her neck, and winced. “All the knowledge that you craved, beyond what your pathetic Order could give. And what have I given you? The power to create, to destroy. I taught you all their secrets. And you swore to serve me.”
Belkai remembered the moment. He had appeared as a friend, his voice warm and inviting. Only after the deal had he revealed his true nature in all its cold cruelty.
“You lied to me,” Belkai said. “You never told me who you were.”
“I gave you my name,” he reminded her. “You deceived yourself.”
* * *
Seated at the fire, Davos looked over to where Belkai sat peacefully against a nearby tree.
“Should I wake her?”
Loranna shook her head. “Every night she meditates. Let her have her peace. Something tells me that her quest comes with a burden that we could not fathom.”
“What has she told you?” Davos asked. He crushed some seeds and beans and dropped them into the water can boiling above the fire. As he stirred, he continued, “You would not have followed for nothing.”
“The pay is good,” Loranna chuckled. “I know that she travels to Narandir. She seeks something hidden inside.”
“The Recluse?”
“She only said that she sought a secret knowledge,” Loranna said, but she nodded as she did so. “I think you may be right. What else is in there except for monsters?”
Davos grunted as he poured the can into three cups, offering one to Loranna. She took it without hesitation, lifting it and breathing in the sweet smell.
“You always made good drinks,” she said, a smile creeping onto her face. “This would always keep me awake for hours.”
“After a hard day, it always loosens my muscles,” Davos replied. He glanced back over at Belkai. She hadn’t shifted. He lowered his voice. “She killed nine people, Loranna. Some she killed with those daggers. Others…you couldn’t imagine the horrors that she inflicted on them.”
“You said that they all deserved it,” Loranna pointed out. Davos sighed.
“Regardless of what I said this morning, I must bring her in. Ukari follows a day behind, and he knows that we are headed for Narandir. By tomorrow Svaleta will have been informed.”
“You mean the King.”
Davos nodded. “I had to tell him that the Silent Order was in the Kingdom. They are not mere fortune tellers. They are a real threat.”
“Only one member of the Order, and she’s a novice,” Loranna pointed out. “That is not a crisis.”
“You haven’t seen what she can do,” Davos hissed. “I would deem her a legitimate threat to the peace. And no good comes from Narandir, not if half the stories are true. I know what orders the king would give me if he could. As soon as I know what Belkai seeks, I have to take her into custody and return her to the capital.”
Loranna watched Belkai meditate for a moment before replying. “There was a time I would have followed your every word, Davos. But this is now.” She turned back and looked him in the eye. “You look at her and see corpses. You see a job. I look at her and I see a woman in need. I may not know what that need is, but I still take my oath seriously even if I no longer wear your uniform. I will see her to Narandir and the completion of her task. No one is going to stop me.”
“Woman’s intuition?” He was serious even as he spoke in a teasing tone.
Loranna shrugged. “You can call it what you wish. She is not a simple minded killer, nor is she seeking to destroy the Kingdom.”
“And if you are wrong about her?”
Loranna gave another shrug. “Then she will try to kill me. And she will fail.”
“I would not be so sure,” Davos cautioned.
“Like her, I am stronger than I look,” Loranna promised. “You should remember that.”
Davos knew that he had lost this fight. He drank in silence, listening as the night animals emerged from their hides. Somewhere a wolf’s howl sounded through the night, soon joined by a chorus.
“Get some sleep,” he said. “I’ll take first watch.”
Loranna nodded and tipped out the last of her drink into the dirt. She was asleep in moments, leaving Davos to watch Belkai as she continued her trance. What do you hide in that head of yours? He wondered. What secrets do I need to know?
Belkai’s eyes slowly opened, and she frowned when she saw Davos watching her.
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
“Loranna said that you meditate each night,” Davos said, and held out the second drink to her. “Here. This will soothe your muscles.”
She walked over and took the offered cup, then sat cross-legged across the fire from him. Her face looked soft in the orange glow, and Davos found himself asking,
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.” She cocked her head. “Why?”
“This is a lot of violence for one so young.”
“Life gets crooked,” Belkai shrugged. “You can waste it in regret, or you can live. I have made my choice.”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“Why?” Belkai sipped her drink, surprised by its rich flavour. “Why does everything have to be complicated?”
“People are never simple,” Davos told her. “There’s always more to them than what may appear on the surface.”
“Maybe so.” Belkai savoured the next sip and asked, “Where’d you learn to make this?”
“It’s called skari. Crushed seeds and beans. It releases your muscles, eases your mind. It’ll either keep you awake or put you to sleep depending on your needs. My grandmother was a wood elf,” Davos replied. “She lived in the coastal regions before the Palians fell. She made sure to teach me their ways before she passed.”
“What did she tell you of the Palian Empire?” Belkai asked, feeling the warm liquid set to work in her body. It wasn’t half-bad, she had to admit.
“Not much,” Davos admitted. “She didn’t have many good memories of those years.”
“Few did,” Belkai grunted. “Fewer speak of what brought the Empire down.”
She studied Davos as he looked thoughtfully out into the distance. She could see the wood elf in the rougher texture of his skin and the slight narrowing of his eyes. There was a thin line of stubble on his chin, and the flames danced on his thick muscles protruding from his short sleeves. He was a powerful man despite his gentle way of speaking. Belkai would not have wanted to be in a fight with him. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
“That is a secret forever lost to time,” Davos told her. “I know many have sought to explore the coastal regions. None have ever returned. They say that the ocean unleashed an evil that cannot be defeated by natural means.”
This was one mystery that had never been revealed to Belkai. She had her theories, but had never spoken them aloud. She chose not to change that unbroken record. After a moment, she yawned and handed him her empty cup. “If you’ve got the first watch, I’m going to get some sleep.”
“Sleep well, Belkai.”
She curled up on her bedroll and closed her eyes, forcing out the fear from her encounter with the Tormentor. If only you knew, she thought, picturing Davos’ face. If only you knew who you travelled with. For her part, she travelled with a demon in her head and a hunter by her side. She would never be safe.