Author: Jason Halstead

Chapter 1

	Darkness.  Darkness and pain, my first memories.  Hiding in the closet of the room my mother and I shared while she conducted her business.  I was to young to know what she was.  A whore.  To young to know much of anything, really.  I was only a few years old, perhaps five, I do not know.
	The pain?  Well, the pain came from time to time when one of the men visiting her would discover me.  Some were kind, some were not.  Most were not.  The worst time was also the last.  That was the time when a merchant with a fondness for abuse visited my mother.  She had seen him before, but he was never so violent.  That time, he beat her to within an inch of her life while he rode her, and then he hit her again.  Again and again, the man pounded himself into her while his fists pounded on her.  When he was done, he must have heard my sobs.
	Yanking the sheet that hid me aside, he stared down at me.  A wisp of a girl, with dirty blond hair and big eyes.  Big green eyes with trails of tears running down my cheeks.  I have since learned that many people, indeed most, would be moved by such a sight.  Well, in the town of Ossulmere, ruled by a corrupt council and powered by its deals with creatures and beings whose origins and powers are cloaked in dark secrecy, kindness and compassion had little place.  It was a lesson hard learned, but his renewed virility and violent beating taught me well as he left me for dead alongside my mother.
	My mother and I were both dumped out with the garbage in the alley behind the brothel.  They knew I lived, but being so young and freshly violated I was not worth the effort necessary to help me live.  Cradling cracked ribs and swollen skin, I hid amongst the garbage, making no noise lest the equally corrupt city watch should discover me, or worse yet, any of the beggars, thieves, or other unspeakable things that roamed the night streets of Ossulmere.  In the end, I managed to heal and survive, eating what scraps of food I could discover and remaining hidden.
	So many times I had seen my mother beaten or abused by her customers.  I saw her cry and plead for mercy from them.  I saw what little it had gotten her most of the time.  I vowed then and there that I would not be weak.  I would not rely upon the kindness and actions of others for my own well being.  I also vowed, as I sat there huddled amongst stinking refuse to scared and alone to cry, that I would not miss her.  I have almost never cried from grief again.
	As soon as I had healed enough, I moved out, heading for the markets.  There I learned to beg and to steal.  Always poor, I spent several months living like that, always hungry and cold, but growing smarter and more wily by the day.  My skills grew rapidly, and soon I attracted the attention of the Ornithrym, my hand caught in the wrong man’s grasp as I tried to nick his purse.
	In Ossulmere the thieves guild and the Ornithrym are closely related.  Some say they are one and the same, though they are not.  Most children in my position, if they managed to survive, would end up in the thieves guild, though perhaps 1 in 10 of those would make it to adulthood, and 1 in 10 of those die of natural causes years later.  Such was not my case, by pure twist of fate.
	I remember well the man looking at me, sizing me up.  Then he stared into my eyes, an amused smile on his face.  Then he said to me, “You’re no thief, girl, you’re a different kind of animal.  Come to the Temple of Melnar and put this in the offering plate if you want a warm meal and a place to sleep.”
	He was gone then, but in my hand I held the sheathed dagger he had pressed into it.  My mouth fell open as I beheld it, then I quickly remembered my position and hid it beneath my clothes.  I did not take it out to look again until darkness fell and I was safely hidden amongst my garbage.
	It looked big and powerful and so full of potential to me.  A simple dagger, with no special work about its hilt or pommel save for an ornate O engraved into the crosspiece.  Yet to me it was filled with hope.  With that dagger, there was so much I could do.  I could finally put an end to the older and larger beggars that sent me running every time they saw me, with unwholesome things upon their mind no doubt.
	Even at that young age, I was no maiden.  One man that visited my mother once discovered me and offered her a great price to have me.  My mother refused at first, but as the price raised, her resolve wavered.  In the end, I came to know the touch of a man far to young for any girl to know, and my mother was racked with sobs as she looked away.  My pain and misery was such at that memory that I feared it would always be so, so when the older boys found me, I always managed to slip away.  And now that I had a weapon, I could show them up again, for none of them had something so fine as forged and crafted steel.
	Then reality set in, and I realized that no matter how fine a weapon it was, I had no idea how to use it.  My excitement at the day’s catch had sent me to my hole so quickly that it was a long and cold night filled with hunger pains.  Winter was nearly upon me.
	No, I did not go the Temple of Melnar that night, or for many nights thereafter.  I kept the dagger hidden about my person and continued my life as I knew it.  As much as the promise of a warm meal and safe place to sleep appealed to me, I refused to entrust my safety to the words of someone else.  And even more so, the Temple of Melnar was a place to be feared by most.  Halador, the world upon which I was born, has many Gods, and each has their own worshippers.  Melnar is the God of Strife.  He is an evil God, and why some men worship him is beyond me.  But I suppose all manner of Gods are needed to keep a world balanced.  Needed by who, I did not know, for I knew I did not need them.  No God had helped me at any time.  No, religion was not for me.  I had heard of the great powers that clerics and priests wielded in the name of their Gods, but that was only for those with the means to pay for such services, and even then, to be a servant of such a being was just that, a life of servitude.  I would live for myself.
	A month later, nearly frozen to the bone by the harsh winds and cold weather that gripped the Storres Sea that Ossulmere had a harbor on, I finally relented and visited the Temple of Melnar.  The guards at the doors eyed me with contempt.  Inside there was no mass going on, but acolytes moved about, doing whatever holy (or unholy) things they had been assigned.  I moved to the offering plate and pulled the dagger out from where I had hidden it close to my stomach.  I looked at it for a moment, I remember, with hesitation and indecision weighing heavily on me.  A cold gust of wind from the doors as someone else entered helped me make up my mind, and the dagger fell into the plate.  I turned and walked to a seat in the cathedral, sitting down and looking around.  I felt scared again, there was an energy in the very air around me and it seemed to push against me.  I could taste it, and it tasted foul.
	Then it was gone.  I realized some time had passed, but I did not know how long.   I heard footsteps, and glancing behind me I saw an acolyte approach.  He stopped beside me expectantly.  Not knowing what to do, I feared I was in trouble.  I got up from the pew and stood before him, staring up at him, trying to pierce the darkness of his hood.  He turned and walked away, and after a moment of hesitation, I followed.
	Into the back of the temple we went, beyond many rooms given over to a variety of purposes, from storage to sleeping chambers to offices to even smaller, private chapels.  Finally he opened a thick door made of bronzed wood and led me down a set of lighted stairs.  Now we were in a cellar of sorts, and I soon came to discover, a small dungeon as well.  Another flight of stairs down and another reinforced door and I was in a large room with tables and several people in it.  Many of them looked at me as I entered, and I was struck by how they all appeared to be the sort of people I would expect to find in a location such as this, yet without exception, they all appeared to be healthy and in good condition, both their persons and equipment.
	The acolyte led me through the room down a hallway to a door.  Knocking upon it, he turned and left.  I knew not to follow him, though inside my chest my heart beat so loudly and quickly that I feared whoever was behind the door would hear it.  When it opened, I saw the man from the marketplace sitting behind a desk.  Another man was sitting at a chair opposite him.  I stepped into the room then, perhaps the hardest step I had taken up to that point in my life.
	I looked behind me as the door shut.  Nobody was there to shut it, which made the hairs on my arms stand up in concern.  The only thing I knew of wizardry I had heard muttered in the brothel or amongst commoners, and it was always curses and whispers of fear and loathing.  I had no place for sorcery in my life either, I had my wits and my body, and from them I would make the most of myself.
	“She’s a bit young,” The visiting man said, studying me with his eyes.  “And poorly fed, I doubt she’s got the strength to survive a day, let alone the testing.”
	“She is, but look in her eyes, there’s power in there, I think she’s just what we need,” The other man said, idly toying with the dagger I had possessed for several weeks.
	“Did you like having this, girl?” He addressed me.
	I glanced at him and the other man, seeing both of them watching me curiously.  I had made my decision when I entered the room, there was no going back now.  “Yes,” I admitted.
	“Would you like to have it again?” He asked me.
	I shrugged, determined not to give them anything to use over me.  In spite of how being armed felt, I knew that without the knowledge to use it, having the dagger did me little good.
	“What is your name?” The other man asked.
	“Yamara Blackcloak.” My voice betrayed nothing, or so I like to think.
	“Take your clothes off, girl,” He said, though his voice was one of curiosity, not lechery.
	I glanced at the man behind the desk, but he gave no sign to me, instead merely looking on with his own interest while he continued to toy with the dagger.  I did as he asked then, having no other bargaining chip.  Off came the rags that had become my clothing, from the overlarge bag I had gnawed and torn holes in and fashioned into a tunic, to the threadbare pants that my mother had patched time and again for me, which now showed new holes and tears in them.  Nonetheless, they ended up on the floor beside me, for that was all I owned.
	Both men showed surprise then, for while I was only 5 or 6 years old, my body already had a story to tell.  Flat chested and hairless, what stood out about me was not my physical immaturity nor how skinny I was, but the scars that showed on my pale skin.  Without a word from them, I turned slowly, arms stretched out, so they could see everything.  My back and buttocks were much the same as my front, lightly scarred from serious injuries mostly long past.  When I had completed my turn, the men looked at one another.
	“Wounds that look as though they would have killed a full grown man on that slip of a girl!” The visiting man said.
	“Aye, I told you she has hidden strength,” My possible benefactor replied.
	“But does she have a mind to match it?” The other man wondered rhetorically.  “Come here girl,” he ordered.
	Already in the lion’s den, I moved closer to him until I stood directly before him.  He held up his hand and spit on his finger, then reached down.  His hand forced my legs aside and I clenched my teeth against the invasion that I knew was coming.  His finger slid down my hairless slit until he found my opening, and then it roughly pushed up and into me.  I fought to keep my breathing regular, in spite of the unpleasant tickling inside of me.  Still, it was nothing like the pain I had felt before.  And in a moment, it was gone.
	“How old are you?” He asked, taking a cloth from his pocket and wiping his hand on it.
	“I don’t know,” I admitted.  Not only did I not know how old I was, but I had no idea then how to count.
	“5 years old?” Said the man behind the desk.  The other grunted agreement.
“Had I a daughter your age, I would kill the man that took from you what has been taken.”  To the other man he said, “She is no maiden, though at her age I trust that be no fault of her own.”
The man behind the desk grinned and said, “Excellent, that will keep the Melnarians upstairs from wanting her for any of their unholy rites.  They require virgins for their sacrifices.”
Again the man grunted.  Then he looked at me and said, “Girl – Yamara – you have the opportunity to join with the Ornithrym.  All that lies ahead of you is a test.  Pass it and you become one of us, to be educated and trained as well as even ourselves, should you prove worthy.  Fail and you will die.  Are you ready?”
“What of your promise of warm food and a bed?” I asked, staring at the man behind the desk to gauge his reaction.
“It is yours if you pass the test,” He responded.
I nodded then and waited for what was to happen next.  “Take this,” The man said, offering me the dagger.  “You will have need of it.”
I stepped closer to the desk and reached out, my hand closing over the hilt of the dagger.  I gasped then, for a sudden surge of energy flowed through me.  Blinking, I opened my eyes to see I was elsewhere.  Above me I heard cheering.  Looking up I saw several men and woman sitting in seats around the pit I was in.  It was a gladiatorial arena with walls easily 12 feet high.  I quickly located the two men I had been speaking to only moments before, they sat quietly, watching me intently.  I scrambled to my feet then, realizing that I had been laying on the sandy floor of the arena.  Glancing at myself, I saw that I was still naked, but that in my hand I still held the dagger.
I saw no opponent in the arena for me, only a pile of bones where someone had long ago fought and died.  The catcalls and jeering of the crowd died then, and the man who had given me the dagger twice now stood up.  “As is the custom, the new recruit will fight the last recruit who failed, may Melnar favor you.”
I cursed under my breath then, for the man began chanting and moving his hands in a funny way.  If I had known he was a wizard, I never would have tried to pick his pocket in the first place.  As for cursing, well, I had never really tried it to much before, but I had heard the men that visited my mother use those words many times, and now seemed as good a time as any for me to use them too.  The words failed me when he finished his spell though, for the pile of bones I had noticed now began to animate.  With grinding noises that made my spine ache, they shifted around and slowly stood up, resembling once again the human that they had once been.
It stumbled towards me, propelled by arcane means I had no hope of fighting against.  I scrambled away from it, desperately looking for a place to run and hide from it.  The arena was not that big, however, and there were no visible ways in or out.  It almost cornered me once, its bony fingers scratching along my shoulderblade as I ducked away from it.  I could feel the burn of torn skin and new I would have some fresh scars if I survived this thing.
Survival was always my main goal, and knowing that escape was not an option, my mind turned to figuring out how else I could survive.  Hearing the cheering and jeering, I knew that I was expected to destroy this skeleton.  I had no idea how, especially since I was armed with only a dagger and it was an unholy creation powered by powerful sorcery.  What had once seemed like a big and powerful weapon now felt small and puny in my hands.
I studied it carefully as it approached me.  I was much more agile and quicker then it was, but I already knew it was stronger and more powerful.  I waited and waited until I had an opening, the I darted in.  Striking out as best I could with the dagger, I felt it scrape along the femur of the skeleton, then I was away before its swing could connect with me.  I felt my fear melt away then.  It turned to despair.  I had no idea how I was going to defeat this thing when the weapon I had was all but ineffective against it.
I glanced up again and saw the wizard was concentrating heavily on the skeleton, apparently his spell required him to keep focused on keeping it moving.  The other man sat beside him, talking rather animatedly about what was going on as though the wizard could not see it himself.  I lost some hair then, the skeletons fingers taking a handful of it with it.  I gritted my teeth in pain and dove through its legs before it could do more damage.
Now I was closer to the wizard and his companion.  I turned to face them and, taking a desperate chance, threw the dagger at him.  As I said, I had no idea how to use a dagger, either in my hand or when thrown, but perhaps Melnar really was favoring that day, for it flew straight and true.  The pommel of it hit the wizard in the chest hard enough to make him gasp in surprise and pain.  His concentration was broken, that was the important thing.
Less then a foot behind me the skeleton collapsed back into the pile of bones it had begun as.  I wasted no time.  Turning back to it, I snatched up the pelvic bone and threw it as hard as I could into the stone wall of the arena.  I grinned as I heard it crack and saw it fall into several pieces.  I scooped up some more of the larger bones, legs, arms, hips, and such, and raced to the other end of the arena.  The wizard had recovered and was quickly recasting the spell.  I began to feel energy grow in the bones in my hands, but I had reached the wall by then.  I began smashing the bones into the wall, feeling them crack and break apart in my hands.  Looking back, I saw what remained of the skeleton sitting on the ground, missing a rib or two, as well as its legs and the bottom half of one arm.  I looked at the femur in my hand and felt the magical pull on it.  Grinning, I walked towards the skeleton, the femur in my hand.  I approached it on the side where it had no real arm, and easily dodged the slashing movements made by the stump.
I stepped in behind it and, using both my hands to grip it, swung the femur as hard as I could.  It connected solidly with the skeletons skull, which smashed the femur into two pieces and sent the cracked skull flying.  It slammed into the arena wall and fell to the sandy floor in pieces.  The skeleton in front of me shuddered and collapsed, never to rise again.
The crowd was silent, stunned by what I had done.  Then slowly they began making noise.  It grew quickly, with some calling out loudly saying that I had cheated, while others cheered my innovation.  The man sitting beside the wizard was stunned at first, but then began smiling.  The wizard held up the dagger and then began laughing.
The air shimmered in the middle of the arena, and then the wizard and his companion stepped through.  “Well done, Yamara, you are now a member of the Ornithrym.  Put these on.”
I took the bundle the wizard offered me and unwrapped it.  I slipped the robe over my head first, grinning in spite of myself.  While simple and a plain gray color, it was easily the finest garment I had ever owned.  Next I put on the sandals.  They felt odd, for I had never worn any before, but I knew them to be an improvement of my station in life, if nothing else was.  Finally I took back the dagger I had thrown at him.  I smiled a bit sheepishly when accepting that, but he just chuckled and said, “As long as you never try that again, I’m willing to forget it happened.”
“We welcome this girl, Yamara Blackcloak, into the ranks of the Ornithrym as a trainee.  Let it be known to all that she is one of us!” The other man said, addressing the crowd.
It was a moment of great pride to me.  A time of the weak accomplishing something great.  I rose above my station then, and I knew it was only the first of many such moves for me.  Soon after that, I learned a great many things.  I learned numbers, to read and to write, to fight, and a great many other things.  From courtly etiquette to tracking an animal (or a man) through the wilderness, it seemed my training was to include anything and everything.  I even learned the basics of both sorcery and priestly magic, though only as a means of defending myself against them, for I had not the talent nor the inclination to use such powers.  In time I was counted quite adept at dueling with a dagger or short sword.  I also took it upon myself to learn better how to throw daggers, just in case.
After my first several months, the Ornithrym called upon me to repay what I had learned.  My first task came to me.  I suspect it was something to familiarize me as much as anything.  I was to be a lookout for an Ornithrym raid against a merchant that felt he could slight the city of Ossulmere on the taxes he paid while he sold his wares.  The merchant had many guards, but those were no match for the trained assassins the Ornithrym employed.  As I said, I was the lookout on that mission, but I suspect I was to look on more then anything.
I took the images of what I had seen to bed with me.  The cruelties that men had inflicted upon my mother and myself over the years were not the only cruelties I was to witness in life, apparently.  Indeed, such cruelties had a place in the grand scheme of things, it appeared, and that was what I was to learn.  I went out on many other missions, always seeking to learn and be of use.  While those around and above me found me a reliable companion, none suspected my true motives were to learn as much as I could so I could make certain that none of the tactics and techniques the Ornithrym used could be used against me.
Having lost my virginity so young served two purposes.  On one hand, it kept me safe from the Melnarians, those who worshipped Melnar.  They did indeed often take young women to use in their rituals, but those young woman needed were primarily virgins.  Secondly, it made me available for special intelligence gathering missions.  I learned that a taste for young bed partners was not an uncommon thing among the rich or the nobility.  As skilled as I became as a thief, a duelist, or a spy, my true weapon was knowledge.  The more I came to know, the better I felt about myself.
I never forgave my mother for her choice of a profession, but I came to understand how she let herself become trapped in it.  Many times, not yet 10 years of age, I whored myself out to some rich passing merchant or minor noble with a desire for a rose whose flower had not been plucked.  Oddly enough, they never seemed to notice I was no maiden, but the things I learned from them was the key to me.  Never doomed to a life of prostitution, I used sex as a manipulative weapon.  Indeed, later on in my life, once my body matured, I also came to know the pleasures of other women.  It was never for my need alone, or at least, never for the passion alone that I did it, always there was an ulterior motive.  I became fearful, however, when my time came and my body began to mature.
My balance was off and my skills in the arena began to suffer as my body grew in spurts.  My hips widened and my breasts became fuller, further off balancing me.  I struggled as best I could, exercising and sparring relentlessly.  Eventually I became used to my new body and recovered my lost skills, but it took 3 years.  By then I was counted 15 years old and easily one of the most talented in the Ornithrym’s lower ranks.  My body had matured such that I ended up being 5 and a half feet tall with a wiry and athletic build.  My constant exercising kept my breasts very firm a nicely rounded, though not large and cumbersome.  While my hips had widened with puberty, they had not done so unpleasantly.  I like to think my well toned thighs and butt complimented me nicely.
Such were the improvements to my body that the Ornithrym chose me for promotion.  Elevated from the ranks of street toughs, I was further educated on the arts of courtly intrigue and etiquette.  Never having acquired a taste for magic, I was nevertheless visited repeatedly by wizards skilled in the arts of body manipulation.  Over time and the repeated casting of many spells, my comeliness grew under their ministrations.  When finished, I was as I am now, a pleasant sight to see I like to think.  Still athletic, my breasts had filled out even more, though still average sized, they were full and cried out to be admired and fondled.  My scars were dulled out and smoothed over, leaving many of them still visible, but only after a few moments of searching, for they seemed to blend in to my skin and escape attention.  I had broken my nose a few times in my youth and it was straightened and smoothed as well.  Even my teeth, which had shown a few signs of some minor gaps and twists here and there, were magically straightened and strengthened.  In the end, I was a very dangerous tool for the Ornithrym.
I do not claim to be a siren so beautiful that I can lure men to their deaths.  Far from it.  I believe the intent was to make me attractive and desirable, but not so much so that my beauty drew attention and singled me out.  Whatever the case, it worked well, for my training as a spy grew.  Indeed, it grew from merely being a spy to even becoming an occasional assassin.  My conscience knew no limits, for as much as I had taken from those willing to teach me, I knew my fellow men and women well.  Under the appropriate circumstances, they would turn on me to further their own positions.  I gave them no chance to do so.
It was at the age of 16 summers I learned quite accidentally of the merchant who had slain my mother and nearly myself.  After several weeks of research, I sneaked past his guards and into his estate house.  I paralyzed him with an injected poison and then, once I knew he was paying attention, I whispered quietly into his ear who I was and why I was doing it to him.  Then I slit his throat.  His wife never knew until the very next morning when she awoke next to a bloody mess on her sheets.  I told him I was going to slaughter his wife and children as well, and he went to Hell thinking that.  I never did touch them though, for my quarrel was with him alone, not them.
Shortly after that I became a member of a regular group of people.  A special unit, there were several such groups that the Ornithrym employed to journey into the world and adventure for them.  This took place for two more years, until one of the men in my group, a demented priest of the God of Disease, upset one of the higher ranking Ornithrym leaders.
We were sent on a special mission then, not so different from the rest of them actually.  We were to infiltrate a village not far from Ossulmere called Shallowglen and use our priests magic to poison the town’s water supply while another group served as a distraction.  It turned out that we were betrayed.  Our group ended up serving as the distraction, and I only escaped with my life because I happened to know a wealthy farmer in Shallowglen that would bring his goods to Ossulmere to sell from time to time.  I managed to escape the guards that chased me long enough to pick the lock on his door and slip into bed beside him.  I silenced his suspicions as best I could, taking him to the height of passion several times that night.  My companions were killed trying to escape that night, and the next morning before the farmer could awaken, I had slipped away and headed for a city along the Storres Sea named Ironmouth Bay.
Ironmouth Bay was less then 10 days ride from Ossulmere, however, so I knew I was not safe there.  I chartered passage on a boat and set sail across the Storres Sea, heading south towards the Carissian Empire.  It took some time, over a month in fact, but eventually I reached a far away city named Euwon.  From there, I planned to head by ship through the Storres Sea to Westdeep Port.  However, pirates intercepted our ship, and as soon as it became apparent to me who would win, I joined the pirates side.
I became the captain’s consort quickly, and headed back to the Pirate Isles with them.  Being a band of cutthroats and thieves, eventually word somehow reached the Ornithrym of my continued existence.  While I had done nothing wrong in my eyes, apparently my ability to breathe upset somebody, for someone was dispatched to stop me from enjoying that particular liberty.  It was a wizard, of course, and wizards, I am not afraid to say, bother me.  They do not fight like normal people, they hide and skulk about and then pop up long enough to zap you with some nasty magical power before sneaking away again.  Nothing as legitimate as a knife in the back.
It turned out I got lucky, this wizard upset some of the locals in the Pirate Isles and I got the drop on him before He knew where to find me.  Push came to shove though, and before I knew it he had summoned up what appeared to be a particularly nasty spell to deal with me.  Not much liking that idea, I used my refined dagger throwing skills.  Dagger got him right in the throat, point first this time.  One thing about wizards, all that time spent studying tends to make them a rather weak and anemic lot.  Well, his spell was so close to being finished that it could not just drain away and be a good little spell.  It had to turn into some wild magic.  When the dust settled, I looked around and realized I was no longer on some nameless isle amongst the Pirate Isles.  I was laying on the ground in a small rocky gully with a convulsing wizard drowning in his own blood a few feet away from me.

Chapter 2

	Then I noticed two things.  The first was how hot it was.  Unbearably hot, in fact.  The sun beat down mercilessly on us, and a quick glance around me showed no vegetation or even shade in which to hide from its harsh effects.  The second was that I felt burdened.  It took me a moment to figure it out, and when I did I was left speechless.  I felt as though I weighed more then I had before, though my body and equipment was unchanged.
The wizard had died by now, of course, and I crawled over to him and pulled my dagger out of his throat.  He did not seem to mind when I went through his pouches and robbed him of everything of possible value.
	Not certain what I would do with all the strange things I had found on his body, I nevertheless was concerned that I might have somehow ended up in a location so remote from anything I was used to that anything I could use to barter for my continued well being might come in handy.  More of that survival instinct I had learned at a young age.  It did not help me when I heard a faint raspy noise, like something hard sliding along rock.
	I looked around myself quickly and saw nothing, then I glanced up at the narrow walls of the gully.  I hate to admit it, but I was caught off guard then.  Surprised even, by the large reptilian head rapidly descending towards me.  Before I could draw my sword to strike at it, its fangs sunk into my shoulder.  I staggered back from it, and it let go easily.  I prepared myself for a fight and was again caught off guard when it did not advance on me.  In fact, it seemed to almost be ignoring me, turning its attention instead towards the dead wizard.
	I backed away from it slowly, thinking that perhaps I could find a more favorable position to fight it from, or better yet, that I could just outrun it.  Now that it was down in the gully with me, I could see it was a big insect of some sort.  More of a cross between a lizard and a spider then anything.  Easily 10 feet from head to the back of its abdomen, it was covered in some sort of hard chitin shell or plating that did not seem to limit its multi-legged movements in the least.
	The spider thing examined the wound in the wizard’s throat and then stuck out its forked tongue quickly to lick it.  Satisfied with what it found, it continued to lap away at the congealing blood.  When it had taken care of that, it worried at the wizards neck with its teeth, trying to force more blood out.  Well, without a living heart to pump the blood, the critter was mostly unsuccessful.  I stumbled then, trying to back away further.  The creature had changed tactics and was now contenting itself with slowly eating the wizard.
	I tried to regain my feet but had trouble doing so, my legs did not want to obey me.  I tried to raise my arm to brace myself against the rocky wall of the gully but it too, betrayed me by hanging limply at my side.  I knew then why the spizzard (part spider, part lizard - a drugged mind seldom thinks rationally) had ignored me after biting me.  I had been poisoned.  I tried desperately to fight off its effects, but only managed to lose what little position I had and ended up rolling myself over onto my belly.  I could smell the hard baked ground and feel the heat radiating off of it onto my cheek.  Desperate to escape, my heart thundered in my chest and my breathing quickened rapidly.  I realized I was helping the poison spread even further by doing this, but I was understandably a little bit upset at my inability to defend or protect myself.
	Imagine my delight, or lack thereof, when I felt the spider try to bite me again in the back after several minutes.  I considered myself lucky when I realized it had missed my skin and instead had only managed to bite into the soft leather armor.  Then I realized it did not matter, for it had picked me up and was dragging me off somewhere to be its next meal.
	A quick death, as it turned out, might have been preferable.  Instead, I was ensheathed in a silk cocoon.  On one hand, at least I was out of the sun.  But on the other, the silk cocoon acted like a blanket and I was kept miserably hot.  I do not know how long I was kept like that, but I know a few days passed before I began to feel that I could move again.  Unfortunately, the cocoon was a prison from which I was not going to be able to escape on my own.  Then the foul creature stuck his head back inside and bit me again, this time almost gently, and in addition to injecting fresh poison into my system, he stuck around and drank all of the blood from the wound.  I was not looking forward to my fate.
	No food and no water had already begun to take their toll on me, but from that point on, I began to lose my sense of reality quickly.  During my increasingly rare moments of lucidity, I still struggled to try and free myself, but my conscious mind had mostly given up, it was the dark self centered bitch within me that would not die.
	That was a good thing too, I think, because the next time I became aware of my surroundings I head the sounds of conflict.  Eventually the sounds died out, and I wondered if the spider had won or if I had found something new intent on eating me.  My hopes grew when I heard the sound, muffled and indistinguishable through the silk cocoon, of voices.  What could be worse then hanging upside down in a cocoon for several days paralyzed from a poison while an incredibly hot climate took its toll on me?  Nothing.  Well, that is what I thought until my would be rescuers cut the silk holding the cocoon hanging from the rocky overhang above me.  It was perhaps a 20 foot fall onto hard rocks below.  The silk cushioned me quite a bit, I suppose, or otherwise I would have ended up more then just bruised and battered.
	It took them literally hours to cut me out of the thing, apparently the silk was not the same as I was used to, for it was incredibly strong and resilient to cutting.  When I finally emerged, I was still groggy from my ordeal and partially suffering from the effects of the poison.  One of them, a very tall woman dressed in an outlandish outfit, gave me some water, which was warm and not particularly tasty, but very welcome nonetheless.  I tried to look around and recover my wits, but instead I overloaded my senses and passed out again.
	When next I awoke it seemed to be dusk.  A small campfire burned nearby and I was wrapped in my cloak and laying close to it.  The others were huddled around it too.  First I saw the woman that had given me water, she smiled oddly at me and I noticed that she had distinctly elven features.  Pointy ears, high cheekbones, anemically thin… definitely a elf.  She had blond hair cropped close to her head, pale blue eyes, and was quite beautiful, in an outlandish sort of way.  What surprised me was her clothing, she had a cloak pulled loosely about her body to protect her from the chill of the evening and a pair of comfortable looking boots on.  The rest I filled in from my memory, which consisted of a loose skirt that fell only partway down her legs, several water skins, and a few weapons that I could not remember.
	Sitting next to her was a giant of a man.  Sort of.  He was 9 feet tall if he was an inch.  Black eyes and scaly mottled green skin on a distinctly reptilian face.  Even considering his size, I could tell that he was incredibly strong from the breadth of his shoulders and the look of his hands.  He too, had a large cloak wrapped about him, but occasionally he would reach out and turn the spit over the fire and I could see that he wore some sort of scale mail that was made from the scales of a creature I was unfamiliar with instead of steel.
	Two others sat around the fire, next to the giant iguana was a 6 foot tall man with coal black skin and deep blue eyes the color of sapphires.  His cloak was thrown over his shoulders and he was ignoring those around him as he sharpened a weathered steel battle axe.  The way he handled it I knew he was not only an expert with weapons, but that he was taking extreme care with it.  He had a bastard sword at his side, a two handed sword laying on the ground beside him, obviously next to be sharpened and maintained, and a heavy crossbow across his back.  He wore a set of scale armor similar to the giants.
	The last one of my rescuers was undeniably a human woman.  Golden hair with reddish highlights framed her brown eyes and delicate face.  She looked far too innocent and beautiful to be amongst such a group, but then she looked at me and our eyes met.  I could instantly tell there were hidden strengths and secrets within her.  She wore a cape wrapped around herself as well, but it was open in front to allow her to reach out and help the giant cook the meal.  Her arms were bare, as was much of the rest of her body when I finally caught a glimpse of it.  She wore a strange looking one piece light tan colored outfit consisting of a bustier that was open at the sides below her breasts and in front, revealing the top of her well defined stomach.  The two pieces of fabric that covered her ample breasts connected just below her navel.  From there it turned into a loin cloth.  Two additional straps rode high on her hips and joined her outfit where her loin cloth began for additional support and also to support the saber at her side and several daggers concealed about her person.  Like all the rest, she had several waterskins close at hand.
	“How are you feeling?” The human girl asked me, her accent so strange she had to repeat herself before I could understand it.
	I tried to speak but found my voice was not ready yet.  After coughing against the scratch in my throat, I opened my cloak and pulled out one of my own two waterskins and took a drink out of it.  Somewhat relieved, I was finally able to answer.  “I’ve been better.  Where am I?”
	I glanced at the food cooking, thinking some food would do me good, even though I was still very light headed and nauseous from my ordeal.  I was surprised to finally recognize it as my former captor, or at least a section of him.
	“We are five days east and north of Neewon, on the eastern edge of the badlands there,” The girl said to me.  I call her a girl because while I was only 19 years old myself, she seemed a few years younger then I.
	The names meant nothing to me.  My blank look was noted.
	“Where are you from?” The elf asked me, studying me carefully.
	I took another pull on my waterskin and pulled my cloak back about me, hot as it had been during the day, it was cold at night.  “Ossulmere, originally.  Am I in the southern parts of Halador now?”
	“Halador?” The human asked me, equally confused about the name as I was about Neewon.  “Ossulmere?  Where are these places?”
	“How did you get here?” The elf asked again.  The lizard-man paid little attention to the conversation, focusing mostly on the meal.  The human man seemed oblivious as well, instead concentrating on his weapons.
	I considered my situation as best I could, which was not saying much.  Hungry, tired, sick, and dehydrated, I had little choice but to hope my rescuers continued to treat me well.  “A wizard attacked me in the Pirate Isles, I had apparently upset someone or other at one point and they decided they did not want me to continue living.  Well, as the wizard tried to cast a spell on me, I managed to stick him in the throat with a dagger.  The spell apparently went wild and both of us ended up here, although he was dead in a matter of minutes from the wound.  Then that giant spider attacked me, the rest you know.”  I left out my involvement with the Ornithrym, I figured it was better to keep quiet about that for now, just in case.
	“Pirate Isles?  I’ve never heard of them, are they in the Sea of Lost Souls?” The girl asked me.  “Oh, and that wasn’t a spider, that was a silk crawler.”
	The elf seemed to be on to something, however, for she spoke up before I could ask what in the nine hells the Sea of Lost Souls was.  “Magic?  What is that?  Do you mean psionics?  Does none of the areas we speak of sound familiar to you?”
	I shook my head, a little surprised by the possibility, but not to badly, since I already knew I was not in the same place I had been.  I glanced up at the night sky, looking for the familiar constellations of Halador.  My mouth fell open then, and I can admit to being totally caught off guard.  “Farther…”
	“What do you mean?  You’re farther from your home then you thought?  Is it on the other side of the Sea of Lost Souls?” I had to give the girl credit, she really was trying to understand and help.
	“Look,” I snapped at her, “I have no idea what a Sea of Lost Souls is!  I’ve never heard of any of these places you mention, and I’m really very lost here!  And why in the nine hells is that sun so damned small?”
	That got their attention.  The jolly green giant stopped turning the spit and instead stared at me.  The man stopped sharpening his great sword and did likewise.  The elf’s eyes widened as she figured out what I was about to discover.  The girl was on the same pace as me though, she looked up and looked back at me in surprise.  “That is Kurth, the smaller sun that is always in the sky.  Yorinn has only just set an hour or so past.”
	Kurth?  Yorinn?  I had no idea what those names were.  “This isn’t Halador, is it?” I asked, my voice dropping to a whisper.
	“This world is called Acathia,” the elf responded gently, ahead of me and realizing what a shock I was beginning to go through.
	“Oh wow,” The girl said, playing catch up.  “You’re from another world!  The soothsayers were right!  Did you come from the sky too?”
	“My name is Sandala, you are welcome to come with us if you like,” the elf woman said to me, indicating I should try and ignore the girl.
	“Yeah, my name is Brina, please come with us, I’ll tell you all about Acathia if you tell me about your world!”
	I was a bit annoyed by the girls enthusiasm.  I caught the man scowling, and decided that the more I looked at him, the more he reminded me of a dwarf, even though he had no beard.  Or any hair at all, from the looks of him.  The giant / lizard / man just looked on with interest, but at least he was turning the spit again.
	“I will travel with you, my name is Yamara,” I said to them, trying to keep my mental balance.
	Brina opened her mouth to say more but Sandala stopped her by leaning over and laying her hand on her arm.  “Brina, Yamara needs to eat, drink, and rest some more, save your questions for later.”
	Brina appeared annoyed, but nodded and smiled at me again.  I took another drink of water and found myself suddenly numb.  I drank more and found that I had nearly emptied one of my waterskins already.  I nodded thankfully to Sandala and laid back down to rest a bit.
	“She’s not having any of my water,” I heard the man mutter as he went back to working on his weapons.
	“Kryl, shut up you witless Acathian!  Can’t you see she needs our help?” Brina snapped at him, favoring him with a blistering look.
	“Is that what humans are called here?” I asked, sitting up too quickly.
	Kryl shot me a dark look before he got up and put his weapons back about his person and stomped off into the cold night.
	“Nay, Yamara,” Sandala explained to me.  “Acathians may have once been related to humans, but for countless generations they have been bred for fighting, either in armies or for gladiators.  Very tough, very strong, and very powerful, but as you can see, they can be rather difficult too.  Kryl is a hard worker and a very reliable man to have at your back, but he’s as stubborn as a nezmir.”
	Before I could ask my next question, Sandala laughed lightly and said, “Sorry, a nezmir is a giant lizard used to pull wagons and caravans.  Very unreliable though, it’s not uncommon for them to eat their handlers.”
	I nodded my thanks to her, then shook my head at all the new information.  I finished off my first waterskin and laid my head back down.
	“Don’t worry about Kryl, he just doesn’t like changes much.  He’s happiest when he has some hard work set out for him and nothing to slow him down.” Brina said, smiling at me again and trying to make me feel at ease.
	I nodded again, to caught up in my own thoughts to appreciate her good intentions.  I glanced at the giant and said, “Alright, then what are you?”
	“Arktan,” The giant said, pointing with his thumb towards his chest.  “I am Faradwim.”
	I nodded.  Of course he was, it made perfect sense.  I stared up at the night sky, wondering if one of the tiny dots above me was Halador and how I would ever get back there.
	The silk crawler was cooked fully soon.  I was hesitant to try it, but I had to admit that it tasted pretty good.  The meat was rather juicy, which made my mouth water more.  I was well on the road to recovery after my second helping of it.  By the time we were done with it, I was ready to sleep some more.  I still had so many questions, but my body demanded that I follow its orders first.
I never saw Kryl come back to the camp and stare long and hard at me.  I never heard the four of them have a conversation about including me in their group, or at least Sandala and Brina arguing with Kryl about including me while Arktan just sat quietly and listened unless someone specifically addressed him.  I had no idea of the decision they reached until I awoke the next morning to Brina’s gentle touch on my shoulder.

Chapter 3

	More shocks kept coming my way.  First of all was our method of transportation.  I rode with Brina in a large covered wagon.  What was unique about it was not the wagon, though it was an odd design, but the mounts that pulled it called rasteers.  Four large four legged insects were harnessed to the wagon, each roughly four feet high and eight feet long.
	Arktan and Kryl both had leashes attached to immense lizards that were 16 feet long.  The lizard, called an larassu, had a thick turtle-like shell on its back and belly, and a scaly and tough skin elsewhere.  A large carriage was on the back of the larassu, called a howdah.  Both Arktan and Kryl rode on their own respective mounts.
	The larger sun, Yorinn, was just rising as I saw this, and already the day was getting so warm the sweat was beading up on my skin.  For the time being I did not mind, for that meant that I had enough water in my body to sweat.  In spite of the growing heat, Sandala had no mount.  She carried her equipment, including several full waterskins, on her person.  When we moved out she easily matched the pace of the mounts with her long legged stride.  She made running look so effortless and easy I wondered at just how incredible a world this Acathia was.
	Several hours later, amidst incredible amounts of sweat, I finally spoke to Brina, who had been chattering away at me incessantly the entire time.  “How big is this desert?” I asked her.
	She turned and looked at me, an amused look on her face.  “Well, the badlands we’re in now we’ll be out of in another hour or two I think, which is good because that means we’ll be entering the scrub beyond them and our mounts can forage for food, instead of relying on the stores we brought.  Those larassues eat a lot of food too!  My rasteers aren’t that bad, they don’t eat that much.”
	I filed away the information about the mounts for later use.  She had not explained to me what I really wanted to know.  “No, I mean, when does the desert end?  You know, grass?  Trees?  Water… that kind of stuff.”
	“Well, um, we’re heading towards the ruins of the ancient city called Guthmoor, we’re hoping to find metal treasures there.  We should be there in two more days if everything goes right, is that what you mean?” Brina said to me.  “I mean, there’s an oasis a few days southeast of Guthmoor, there might be some grass and trees there.  And water, definitely some water.”
	I shook my head, “Wait a minute, you’ve been chattering about the city-states run by cruel tyrants, how slavery is commonplace, how Sandala is the descendent countless generations removed from some hero of her people named Jethallin, and how supposedly the last time visitors came from another world they came from the skies and it is only a legend spoken by the ancients.  But you can’t tell me when summer will end or how big this desert is?”
	“What’s summer?” Brina asked, glancing at me while she was busy guiding the rasteers.  “It’s always like this here.  Always hot and dry.  I have heard stories of great forests far to the north and the south and supposedly there is water aplenty there.  But between you and me, I don’t believe it.  Just like all the rumored lost cities of gold and steel.  But if you’re from another world, then maybe those aren’t rumors either!”
	I had explained to Brina that magic had brought me here.  A ruined wizards spell.  I had not fallen from the sky as the mysterious legends she recounted.  Apparently great ships had come from the sky, bearing her ancestors.  There had been great battles and an eventual peace.  She was kind of vague about it all, but I suspect that these legends were vague as well.  Thousands of years is a considerable amount of time to keep a story straight, after all.
Brina paused a minute, considering something.  I waited patiently for her to continue before I digested all of what she had told me.  Finally she said to me in a tone that sounded like she was confiding a great secret to me, “My saber is metal!  My father passed it on to me.  Kryl has all those metal weapons too.  He says he won his freedom in Borik as a gladiator, and continued to fight and won those weapons.  Arktan has that steel two handed sword at his side too, but hit battle axe is just obsidian edged.  And Sandala, she has a steel hand and a half sword that she once told me she got from her tribe before she left it.  She was pretty drunk when she told me though, so she might have made it up.  She uses it and that obsidian edged longsword, which looks more like a weapon made by elves to me.”
“What about you?” Brina asked, suddenly eyeing my weapons with curiosity, not envy, “Do you have steel and metals where you came from?”
I had to laugh then, but I tried not to do so condescendingly.  “Aye, we have metals aplenty.”  To show her I drew my shortsword and dagger, which reflected the sunlight from outside off their magically sharp blades.  I also pulled my two throwing daggers out for her to see, surprising her I think because she did not know I had them hidden inside the cuffs of my sleeves.  I also showed her my ring, though I did not take it off because I was afraid I might lose something so small easily, and it was very valuable to me as it afforded me magical protection.  Finally I decided if metal was as rare as she made it sound, I might be a very wealthy woman.  I opened the pouch at my side and let her look in it.  I had 100 gold pieces in it, a small fortune on Halador, and apparently a vast treasure on Acathia, by the look of her eyes.
“Is that real gold?” She asked, shocked to see it.  I nodded and her eyes grew somehow bigger.  “You’re rich!  All that gold and steel, you could probably buy enough men to take over a city!”
I chuckled at that, and took care of my gear before asking, “I have several rare gems and jewels too, are those worth anything here?”
Brina laughed lightly, “Yes, they are, but depending on what you have, you’re gold may be worth more.  There’s enough gold in your pouch to let you live the rest of your life in pampered comfort.”
I opened another pouch and showed her the gems and jewels within it.  A small part of me enjoyed showing off my apparent wealth, though another part marked her well and I knew if any of it was missing who I would confront first.  My pouch had several agates in it, a few aquamarines, some black pearls, 2 opals, and my most valuable gems were 2 sapphires worth 5,000 gold each on Halador.
“Oh wow, that is incredible!” Brina said after she remembered to close her mouth at my pearls.  She had never seen there like before.  “I never thought I’d see that much wealth in one place!”
I chuckled and took care of it.  Brina seemed lost in thought as she realized all that I had and how much it was worth on Acathia.  I let myself reflect on the things she had told me then, and began to wonder if I would ever get used to the incredible heat of what appeared to be my new home.  I was not even out in the sun and it was this hot, I dreaded getting out of her wagon.
“How do you survive this heat?” I asked after several long minutes had passed and I was finally growing tired of the sweat running down the valley between my breasts.
“You’ll get used to it, really,” Brina said, amused at my discomfort.  “You’re wearing a lot of clothes too, and dark colors, that’s rare and, well, kind of stupid.  Good gear at night I guess, but during the day, the darker your clothing, the hotter it is.”
I nodded and considered my appearance.  Tanned nicely from my time spent on ships, both pirate and merchant, I nevertheless wore a full suit of toughened leather armor, from my grieves to my tunic and long sleeves.  And of course, it was a very dark brown in color, given to it from the time spent in boiling vats of oil that toughen and harden the armor.  Further, my black boots came nearly to my knee, and the cloak that hung from my shoulders was made of black fur from a rare arctic beast as well.
I eyed Brina’s outfit, the same that she had worn the day before, and considered my options.  In my belongings I had a softer and lower pair of black boots called footpads boots, obviously not much of an improvement.  I also had my black silk bodysuit I would often use for missions of stealth at night which was again, not an option.
“Look, I’m a few inches taller then you, but not too much, our bodies look pretty much the same, I have a bunch of spare clothes in that sack over there,” Brina said to me after noticing my troubled look.  I glanced at the bag she pointed to and after a moment of thought, walked over to it.  I rummaged through it, examining the different things she had to offer.  “Pick whatever you want, when we get back to Neewon, or wherever we end up, you can buy some clothes there, you sure can afford them!  I have lots of clothes myself, I have a tendency to get myself into all sorts of different things.”
I nodded at that, noticing she had all manner of clothing, from simple peasant clothing to rags I remembered well from my childhood to courtly dresses.  Nothing as elaborate as what I had seen on Halador, but I attributed that to the inescapable heat of the world.  I glanced at Brina again and remembered Sandala, both had outfits so revealing that in Halador they would be shunned for indecency in many places.  Here I could appreciate the simplicity of it though, for I was near to passing out from the heat.
I stripped off my clothing quickly, marveling at how damp it was from my sweat.  Brina glanced back at me and I saw her eyes take in my body.  At first she simply admired my form, something I noted but did not pay much attention to, then I heard her gasp slightly.  “What happened to you?  Were you a slave on your world?”
Ah, that explained it, she had glimpsed past the magic and seen my scars.  She had the ability to look beyond the forest to see the trees within it that few people possessed.  I admired Brina’s ability to focus, and reconsidered her admiration of my body from lust to simple curiosity and respect.
“A slave of sorts, perhaps, but I did not think it so.  Most of these are from the ungentle hands of men who abused me when I was younger.” I said, leaving my past professions out of it.
“Ah,” Brina said, thinking she understood me.  I let her believe as she wanted to, for I did not wish to discuss my past with her without knowing her better.  “Be careful to cover yourself when you leave the wagon, you are clearly not from Acathia, your skin is pale and the sun will burn you quickly.”
I had always considered myself fairly well tanned, especially of late, but when I considered the skin I normally covered in comparison to the dark tan on Brina’s body, I realized that she was right.  I nodded to her and smiled, then proceeded to don some new clothing.  I slipped on a halter top made of some type of cloth similar to cotton.  It hung loosely on me, for while Brina was taller then me, she was also slightly skinnier.  However, her breasts were larger then mine and that was what made the halter top loose.  I did not mind, for it let the air flow between my breasts better, and perhaps any opponent I had would make the mistake of becoming distracted by my cleavage.
I went without boots or sandals, for mine were too large and hot, and she had nothing to spare.  I eyed mine carefully, and decided that I could modify mine with a dagger and some needle and thread, which I had in my pack.  I kept my belt with my weapons and pouches, refastening that about my waist.  To add to it, I slipped on a loin cloth that reminded me of the outfit of a sultan’s harem girl.  I briefly considered doing a bit of a belly dance, then realized I was behaving oddly.  I took a drink of water and moved to rejoin Brina.  
“Those look good on you,” she said when I had moved back to sit near her at the front of the wagon.  I glanced at myself and smiled.  Having my background, I had never been concerned with modesty.  Indeed, I often used it, or a lack of it, to my advantage.  Still, I felt oddly exposed on this strange new world, but given the alternative, I decided it would have to do.
Later that day, during which I passed the time by learning of Acathia from Brina or alternatively trying to doze in the dry heat, Sandala led us to a small oasis.  The oasis seemed to mark the end of the badlands and the beginning of the scrub Brina had told me about.  As we moved to leave the wagon, Brina held out a light brown cape to me and said, “Put this on, it will keep your skin from burning as quickly.”  I noted that she had said, ‘as quickly’.  I smiled grimly.  In the days ahead, I knew I was in for some serious sunburns.
The water was hot and tasted of dirt, but I drank of it deeply.  We refilled our waterskins and Arktan pulled a large barrel out of his howdah and also filled it.  I guessed it to hold well over 100 gallons of water, and was amazed to see him sling a rope over it and his howdah then pull on the rope and lift it back into the howdah.  It must have weighed over 900 pounds, and regardless of the rudimentary winch and pulley he had designed, to lift that much weight made me reassess how strong the faradwim must be.  The mounts were led to the oasis next, which had begun to show signs of not being bottomless after we were finished with it.  By the time the rasteers and the larassues were finished, the oasis was nothing but some muddy water less then an inch thick.
I eyed the oasis thoughtfully, realizing that if it could be drained so easily, then Acathia must truly be a world plagued by perpetual drought.  The scraggly trees surrounding the hole provided some measure of shade, but already my face, arms, and lower legs were burning with the heat of the indirect sunlight.  Overhead the smaller sun burned an angry red, instead of the warm and gentle whitish-yellow of the larger sun that I was accustomed to.
“The oasis will refill in a day or so,” Sandala said, coming next to me and noticing my stare was directed at the muddy hole in the ground.
I started, realizing I was not adapting as quickly as I would like to.  I was very vulnerable then, and it was good fortune for me that I found people with no wish to do me any harm.  “That’s good,” I said, letting her think that was my concern.  “I am still trying to learn about this world.  This is a harsh lesson on how truly dry it is here, and how valuable water is.”
Sandala smiled lightly.  “Brina tells me you have enough gold and steel on you to buy a city.  Is it so common where you come from?”
Sighing, I nodded, “Steel is easy to come by, we have smiths in every town able to produce the simplest things with it.  Gold is not so common, but it is the currency with which most things are bought.  Silver and copper is used as well, but gold is worth more, so I carry it instead of the lesser coins.”
“Yes, we have silver coins here as well, and it is worth less then gold coins.  But less then that are ceramic pieces, which can be split into 10 bits.  The bit is the most common currency here, but a single gold coin is worth 1000 bits.”
My eyes widened.  I stumbled over the math in my head and quickly realized that in gold alone, I had a fortune if that was the case.  “Then it appears I am indeed a wealthy woman,” I said to her, my voice low.  “But wealth can be a prison, for those who have it are plagued by those who want it.”
Sandala smiled again, “You are wise, that will serve you well.  None of us will trouble you for it, but you can be certain that others will not be so friendly.”
“Where I come from, the company I often find myself in would as soon put a dagger in my back for a few silver.  My thanks to you for your kindness, it is a rarity to find in any world, and from what I have heard, even more so here.”
The elf nodded to me.  “Brina probably didn’t tell you, but our last adventure netted us quite a bit of gold as well, more then anyone should expect to see in a lifetime.”
I chuckled, Brina was gaining more respect in my mind the longer I knew her.  “Brina’s not the excited little girl she acts like, is she?” I asked wryly.
Sandala laughed at that.  “Nay, far from it.  Our Brina is a rather exceptional thief.  She’s not bad in a fight I suppose, but she really earns her keep whenever we need to visit a town.”
I nodded, that had been my assumption from the beginning, but it was nice to hear it confirmed.  “And what of you and the others?  I can’t imagine Arktan being a thief, he’s to big.  Kryl seems to surly and reluctant to part with his weapons.  Where I come from, most elves live in forests and wield magic as well as more common weapons of war.”
Sandala raised an eyebrow at hearing that.  “What is an elf?  If you mean me, I am a pudarin.  My lineage can be traced all the way back to the great Jethallin herself.  My people are nomads, herders, and raiders.  We wander the wastelands making our living as best we can in tribes usually numbering over a hundred.  I am a warrior and a tracker myself, with an affinity for the wilderness.”
 “And what of your friends?” I asked, changing the topic to something less personal for her lest I say or do something she might misinterpret.
Sandala smiled, she obviously knew what I was doing as well.  “Arktan is a warrior, if that’s not obvious.  He spent some time as a mercenary lending out his strength and skill before we met up with him.  Being a caravan guard is a lousy job, and when his caravan was overrun by an pudarin tribe raiding it, he switched sides with us and gladly helped us escape.  He looks and acts different and simple, but be warned, he’s far smarter then you might think.  Brina used to try and pull tricks on him, but the joke usually ended up being on her when he turned them around on her.”
	I nodded and took that information to heart.  “The Acathian?”
	“Kryl?  He’s a gladiator.  A priest in Borik saw him when he was a young child and took him from his parents.  Ever since, he was trained to fight in the pits for the amusement of the nobles, priests, and even the sorcerer king of Borik himself.  He was one of the slaves in the caravan with Arktan and I when it was overrun by pudarin.” Sandala said.
	“Okay, so why were you a slave?” I asked, trying to learn as much as I could about them in case I needed it later.
	“I was an pudarin in Borik at the wrong place at the wrong time,” She replied, sneering slightly.  “A thief had just stolen something from a priest and I happened to be nearby.  Given the distrust of pudarin most people have, it was only logical that I be accused of it.  Never mind that I didn’t have what was stolen, I was captured and sold into slavery to line the priest's pockets.”
	Not really interested, but trying to keep the story going, I asked, “Did they ever catch the thief?”
	She laughed at that.  “No, they didn’t.  But Kryl, Arktan and I did after we’d escaped the caravan and returned to Borik to provision ourselves.”
	“Rather foolish to return to the same city you had just been captured in, wasn’t it?” I asked, surprised that someone who seemed as intelligent and quick witted as Sandala did would attempt something like that.
	“Our moment of fame was over before it began, fortunately,” she explained.  “Thievery and corruption is so common here that nobody remembered me, less then a week after it had begun.  Kryl was a different story, for he was a favored gladiator, but my contacts within the city allowed us to remain hidden while we supplied ourselves.”
	“You said you caught the thief, did you turn him in to prove your innocence or just kill him to avenge yourself?” I asked, surprised at the chaotic nature of things that I was learning.
	“Neither,” She said mysteriously.
	“Then what did you do?” My curiosity, I had to admit, was growing.
	“Asked her to join us.”
	I made the connection quickly and started laughing.  I glanced over at where the campsite for the night was being set up by Kryl and Brina while Arktan was caring for the animals.  Brina was where my gaze ended up.  I was learning all sorts of surprising things about her.
	It was more cooked silk crawler for dinner, then some mild conversation as we tried to get a feel for one another a bit more.  I showed them my weapons and saw Kryl appraise them expertly.  When he handed them back to me, I saw respect in his eyes, perhaps not for me, but for the smiths of Halador. We doubled up on taking watch that night.  I spent the first watch with Kryl, to his apparent disgust, then Brina and Arktan spent the next one together.  Sandala picked up the third one on her own.  The next day saw us in the same riding arrangement as the day before.  I was no more used to the heat, but I was used to feeling it at least, so it came as less of a shock to me.

Chapter 4

	True to Brina’s word, we reached the ruins of the ancient city of Guthmoor two days later.  I had gotten to know all of them a little better, though I was far from placing my trust in them.  Brina continued to treat me as a legendary hero that she idolized, though as our familiarity grew, she tempered it down a bit so that I felt that she considered me a treasured companion more important then the others.  Trusting my own instincts about her, I kept my reservations about her, but responded to her warmly on the surface.
	Arktan struck me as truly the strong but silent type.  He possessed strength unlike anything I had ever seen before, and went about his tasks silently.  I studied him carefully as best I could and came to learn that as Sandala had told me, he was not a dullard.  The way in which he did things and even his lack of conversation at times showed signs of a keen mind.  Occasionally I would catch him looking back at me, but when I caught him he would make an expression that reminded me of a snake trying to smile and then quickly move to do something else.
	Kryl appeared exactly as he had been from the beginning.  Arrogant, surly, and unpleasant.  He reminded me of the dwarves I had met on Halador, always something to complain about.  Unlike them, however, he showed no signs of ever enjoying life unless he had a task ahead of him that required all of his concentration.  In fact, the longer we went the more unpleasant he became.  Brina confided in me at one point that Kryl gets ornery when he doesn’t have anything to fight for a long time.  I did not consider 4 days a long time, but I was not from the same world as them, so what did I know?
	I had learned about priests as well when I asked about the Gods of the world.  There were no known Gods, but instead the priests of Acathia worshipped either one of the four elements or, in some cases, the sorcerer king of a city.  That surprised me, to learn that the tyrants that controlled the cities were so powerful that beings could worship them and be granted spells.  There was another type of priest on Acathia, a nature priest.  They were called druids and reminded me much of the druids of Halador, save that these druids worshipped the nature spirit of a place and were granted their powers from that spirit, whom they were sworn to protect.  Magic was non-existent in Acathia, from the looks I received when I asked of it.  Sorcerer kings were not the sorcerers I was used to, instead they were powerful psionicists.
	A psionicist, I learned, was someone with a powerful mind.  Someone that could use their mind to affect others and in some instances, even the very world around them.  Sounded like magic to me, just by a different name.
	My head was abuzz with all the information I had learned in the past several days.  I had begun to get accustomed to the heat, though by no means did that mean that I was able to claim immunity to it, simply that I could endure the 150 degree weather in silent misery.  It was a moment of this misery that had me squinting through the shimmering heated air that rose off the ground when we reached Guthmoor.
	I caught my first glimpse of the Sea of Lost Souls then too.  Brina had finally explained to me what is was.  It was sand, rock, and other bits of the world ground so finely as to be individually no larger then a spec of dust.  The winds had blown these specks together in depressions across Acathia, leaving behind lakes and seas of this dust that was so fine that anything foolish enough to walk in it quickly was sucked under.  Apparently at a depth of around 15 to 20 feet it was compressed enough by the weight of the dust that it became solid enough to walk on.  However, only giants could reach that depth, and apparently Acathia did not possess any of them.  To be sucked into the silt, I was told, is a painful and quick death of suffocation.  Now that I saw it, I likened it to quicksand, for it looked harmless enough on the surface.
	“So this is a city of the ancients?” I asked Brina of Guthmoor as we approached it.
	She grinned and said, “Yeah, isn’t it exciting?  I’ve seen ruins before but never any this big.  Look at how they fit the stones together, can you imagine how much skill that would have taken?”
	I chuckled and surveyed the city.  It was a good size one, I had to admit, but the walls were scarred and broken by the harsh climate.  Many of the buildings we could see were equally broken down, and in many places the sand had been blown by the wind and covered up entire sections of it.  If I had any doubt to the nature of the Sea of Lost Souls, it was erased when I saw the crumbling walls descending into the dust where once they had stood on solid ground.
	The wagon stopped and I hopped out of it.  Immediately the sun attacked my already burnt skin, making me grit my teeth against the pain.  I knew that eventually I would tan down, but it felt like the sun would just burn me to the bone before that happened.  I glanced about, squinting even more now that I had no cover, and noticed an occasional eddy of wind would blow up the fine silt and carry it far into the air before letting it drop so slowly I was further convinced of its dangerous nature.
	“What now?” I asked, not sure of how they planned on exploring the ancient ruins.  I knew how I would go about it, but they had their mounts and Brina’s wagon to be concerned with.
	“Well, usually Sandala and I head in to do a little scouting because we aren’t as big and noisy as Arktan and Kryl are.  Hey, do you want to come with us?” Brina asked me, a smile on her face as the idea hit her.
	I knew damn well why she wanted me to go with them, she wanted to see if I was any good at what I did.  Still, without a reason to stay behind, and with my own curiosity to see these ruins, I felt I might as well go along.
	The others joined us in a few moments and Brina happily opened her mouth and said, “Yamara wants to come with us when we scout it, Sandala!  Can she?”
	Sandala looked at me with an amused expression, to which I rolled my eyes slightly.  She hid a chuckle behind her hand and said, “Certainly, Yamara.  From what we’ve heard, this place is abandoned mostly, so there should be little risk.”
	“Then let us be off,” I said, loosening my sword in its scabbard and turning towards the ruins.  A little surprised, the other two women quickly fell into step beside me.
	We approached the ruins straight on, me angling towards the closest breach in the wall.  The closer we got, the quieter we became.  I noticed that we all slowed down a bit and began to choose our steps more carefully.  By the time we reached the hole in the wall, I would not have known we were there if I had not seen us, so silent were we.
	It was then that I felt something tickling the back of my head.  I glanced behind me quickly, wondering what was happening.  Nothing was back there save my two companions, and they only looked at me curiously.  Shrugging it off, I stepped through the breach and glanced around as the tickle turned into a buzz.  Several feet away from the wall were buildings, or at least the remnants of buildings.  Broken down and in many places missing entire fronts, they nevertheless stretched away for several hundred feet.
	Finally the buzzing resolved itself into a voice in my head that said, “Go back, you are in danger!”  Then the feeling of something contacting my mind vanished, leaving me confused and wondering what had happened.
	I spun around quickly and stared at Sandala suspiciously.  I suspected her to be one of these psionicists I had learned of and I knew of no other way to speak in someone’s mind then through magic, though they claimed no such thing existed.  She looked back at me, wondering why I would stop in the middle of what was once an ancient road.  I opened my mouth to say something when I heard a faint noise behind me, towards the ruined buildings.
	I spun around in time to catch a small rock in the shoulder.  It knocked me off balance it flew so quickly.  It hurt as well, but it was not life threatening.  Other rocks came flying at us too, seeming to jump from the very ground and attack us without anyone throwing them.  Brina and Sandala both grunted as well as they were struck.   More wary now, I dodged the others that came at me and looked for the source of the unnatural attack.
	I found it a moment later.  10 spindly legged creatures came charging at us suddenly, emerging from behind broken walls and ruined buildings.  Gaunt and lanky, they appeared to be the height of a man and ran on two legs, but they were bent over and grotesque looking.  They wielded spears with heads made of sharpened obsidian, and had what looked like plates of larassu shell strapped on them for armor.  I quickly drew my shortsword and my dagger, preparing for combat.  Brina did likewise, but Sandala took enough time to knock an arrow and turn and fire it back towards where Arktan and Kryl waited outside the city.   Unseen to all of us, it arced high into the air and fell only a few inches from Kryl’s foot, sticking into the ground.
	Battle was joined then, and I found that while the larassu shell armor the creatures wore was too thick and tough to easily penetrate, their skin was not.  I had one disabled with a slash of my sword and thrust of my dagger, his blood being soaked up by the dry ground as quickly as it pumped out of his wounds.  Nearby Brina had produced two throwing daggers and had thrown both to good effect, wounding one of the creatures rushing her badly enough so that when it reached her she could slip inside the swing of its spear and dispatch it with her saber.  I was concerned about Sandala for she had no time to draw her bastard sword before 4 of the creatures were on her.
	My fears were unfounded, however.  I caught a glimpse of her briefly and saw her moving in a fluid dance like motion, her arms and feet striking out at the creatures to drive them back and give her room enough to draw her weapon.  By the time she had acquired that room, one of them lay on the ground struggling to breath from a crushed windpipe and one of the others was cradling a broken arm.
	Confident my companions could take care of themselves, I returned my attention fully to the other ones attacking me.  More were emerging from the buildings to advance on us, and I quickly grew worried that there would be no end to them.  My dagger took another of the things in the throat after my sword had parried its spear, but another took its place and then I faced two of them.
	Fortunately for me, these creatures were not trained to fight together, and after a few blocks and parries, I managed to trick one of them into thrusting his spear at me while the other slashed with his.  They ended up tangling each other up, and my shortsword thrust into the side of the one on the right, parting his ribs and cutting through his lungs and heart.  I shoved him off my blade into the other creature, giving myself a moment to recover from the strike.
	A roar from behind me somewhere distracted me though, and I did not move quickly enough to dodge another approaching creature.  I expected them to use their spears as piercing weapons, but the large obsidian head they had on them they apparently felt was designed more for slashing.  I barely managed to lean out of the way of the slash, and even then my success was not complete.  The tip of the spear cut and tore the skin under my left breast, my ribs keeping it from sinking deeper.  It came up and across, tearing the halter top I had borrowed from Brina into a useless rag and cutting a groove between my breasts and across my upper right one.  It stung like hell too, but I had long since learned to ignore pain.
	The roar, it turned out, was Kryl charging into combat.  He swung a bastard sword around as though it weighed as much as my short sword.  His strength and skill was impressive, I had to admit, for with each swing it seemed an adversary fell.
	Arktan was a demon of battle as well, using his great size to benefit.  Wielding a two handed sword, he literally cut his first opponent in half.  In spite of the number of creatures growing to 23, I was certain they were going to deal with them now that Arktan and Kryl had arrived.
	That required me to beat the things attacking me though, at least as far as I was concerned.  After the spear slashed across my chest, I jumped forward inside the reach of it and plunged my dagger into the soft underside of the creatures chin, killing it instantly.  The other one that I had managed to keep off balance and tied up so far was now ready to deal with me.  He came at me with deadly intent, slashing overhead with his spear at me.  I jumped to the side, pushing off the dying creature I had just stabbed, and felt the spear head snag on my borrowed cloak, but otherwise miss me.  That tripped me up though and caused me to fall.  With the wind knocked out of me, I saw the creature recover from his attack and turn to come at me again.
	Behind me, Sandala was nursing a wounded arm and used her bastard sword in her other good arm.  She had already claimed three of the humanoids that attacked us, and had wounded the remaining one that faced her.  Brina had slain two herself, but two others had her slowly retreating as she tried desperately to keep them from wounding her any worse then the scratch on her thigh she had already taken.  Kryl had slain four of them himself and, as I was busy raising my dagger and throwing it at the creature stalking me, he dispatched a fifth one.  Arktan had a similar number of dead or dying humanoids around him, though it was hard to tell the exact number as his great strength meant that quite often only pieces remained.
	My thrown dagger missed, but it caused the creature to dodge to the side.  That gave me the time I needed to jump to my feet and sprint over on its flank.  It spun to try and attack me, but my shortsword cut across its upper arm, causing it to draw back in pain.  My next swing took the spear out of its hand, leaving it defenseless.  I approached it again, sword held ready to strike, and the creature looked at me with fear in its eyes.  It fell to its knees and raised its hands in a supplicating gesture, begging for mercy.  I gave it the only mercy I knew… and its head fell beside its body.
	I snatched up my dagger then and turned to see how my companions fared.  Sandala was pulling her bastard sword out of the rib cage of the last of her adversaries, though she bled freely from her arm and her side.  Kryl and Arktan were both finished with their foes, but were to far from the rest of us to offer much help.  Brina was still retreating from the last two, her strikes becoming more and more desperate as the creatures got a feel for fighting with each other against her.  I decided to even things up a bit and sheathed my sword and dagger.  I pulled the two throwing daggers I always carry close by and threw both of them, one after another.
	Brina saw the flash of steel and jumped forward, ramming her saber into the bowels of one of the creatures.  The other one turned to strike her down but stumbled and fell to its knees instead.  My daggers stuck out of its back, one spearing a kidney and another a lung.  Wrenching her saber free in a disemboweling move, Brina turned and lopped the head of the kneeling creature to finish them both off.  She smiled at me and winked, then looked around.
	I reclaimed my throwing daggers and looked down at the scraps of the halter top hanging from my shoulders.  I pulled it off my shoulders and winced as I stretched and the gash across my chest opened further.  Chuckling ironically, I figured I had some fresh scars coming.  The blood ran down my chest and across my belly.  I opened a pouch at my side and reached into it, my hand sinking deeper in it then should have been possible.  I saw Brina watching me out of the corner of her eye and I smiled to myself.  She definitely had potential.  I did not see Sandala also keeping her eye on me, however.
	I pulled a vial of pale blue liquid out of my magical pouch of accessibility, so named for its extra-dimensional space inside that could hold far many times what it should be able to, as well as its ability to let whatever the user wants to find (if it is inside the pouch) be found simply by willing it to be so, instead of rooting around needlessly for the correct thing.  I took the cork out of the end of the vial and carefully took a sip of it, making certain I drank no more then a third of it.  The liquid ran down my throat and felt cool and soothing, tempting me to drink more of it simply to fight off the effects of the exertion in the heat.
	Brina gasped when I turned around and faced them.  While the blood on my chest and belly was still there, the wound itself had rapidly began to close and knit together.  In a matter of moments a pink scar was all that remained, though it was still tender to the touch.  An added benefit I had not considered would happen from taking a drink of my healing potion was that my skin, already a bright red from the suns harmful touch, tanned down quickly.  Inadvertently, I had just saved myself several days or more of painful sunburn and peeling.  I popped the cork back into the vial and placed it back in my magical pouch.
	“What did you just drink?” Sandala asked, coming closer to me.  Brina approached also, her hand reaching out subconsciously to touch my chest where the slash had been.
	“It was a potion of healing,” I said, watching Brina as her fingers lightly traced the new scar then pulled back as she realized that she had just practically fondled my breasts.
	“A potion?  I have never heard of such a thing,” Sandala said, a hint of awe in her voice.
	“They are common where I come from,” I told her.  “Or at least common among magical items.”
	“We have something similar here, though none of us have any,” Sandala said, considering what she had learned.  “To us such healing can take place by consuming kuwami fruits.”
	I tilted my head and considered what she said.  “You okay?” Kryl said as he came up on the three of us.  He had already gone through several of the dead creatures belongings, and Arktan was finishing up with the others.  Arktan had a slight gash on one of his cheeks, and Kryl was unwounded.
	“Aye, we’ll live,” Sandala said, smiling at the Acathian.
He grunted and studied me for a few moments, not paying any attention to my exposed chest any more then he did the rest of me.  Finally he met my gaze for a moment and nodded.  “You fought well,” was all he said to me before he turned away went to check on more of the creatures.
“I think he likes you,” Brina said conspiratorially to me with a grin.  I could not help but laugh at that, in spite of myself.
“He’s in a good mood,” Sandala explained, “he got to fight.”
I chuckled and turned to look at the slain beings.  “What were they?  I’ve never seen their like before.”
“Shissar's,” Sandala said.  “A small group of them, usually there are many more.  And usually they are lead by a more skilled and powerful leader with psionic powers.”
Something clicked in my head at that.  “Then there must be one about!  When we approached I felt something contact my mind, I thought it was magic at the time.  It warned me to retreat because we were in danger.  Then those rocks all came flying at us, remember?”
Sandala, Brina, and Arktan all looked around suspiciously then, remembering the rocks themselves.  “I don’t think that the shissar leader would warn you before attacking,” she said doubtfully.  “But the rocks are proof enough of a powerful psionicist being here.”
“He was here, and he has been dealt with.”
I spun at the sound, seeing a man wearing a light brown robe floating slowly down from the exposed upper story of a ruined building.  He held out his hands to show that he had no immediate ill intentions toward us, but my hands rested on the hilts of my weapons regardless.
“Who are you?” Sandala asked.  Kryl had seen what was happening and rejoined us quickly, scowling at the man but clearly excited at the prospect of more battle.
“My name is Keeden,” He said, finally reaching the ground and approaching us with a smile on his face.  “I have been hiding from those Shissar for many days now, always a step ahead of them.  I and my companion have been troubled by them, but they were to many for us to deal with.  I thank you for your intervention, and in return I dealt with their leader so he would not harm you.”
He turned and looked at me then, a strange look in his eye.  “It was me that contacted and tried to warn you.  You have a strange mind, not like your companions or any I have ever touched before.  I think there is a hidden potential in you.”
I bristled at that.  “I thank you for your warning and help, but I warn you once and once only, stay out of my mind.”
He held up his hands apologetically.  “I’m sorry to upset you, I was not ‘in your mind’, as you put it, I merely touched it to warn you and sensed the unharnessed power within you.  I could help you find it, if you would like.”
	I refused to believe that he was willing to help me without some sort of personal gain, it went against everything I had come to know and trust.  “And what do you get out of it?”
	He appeared surprised at that question, but I knew it had to be a ploy.  “Well, um, I suppose you could pay me if you wanted, but I don’t really need it.  Consider it another sign of my thanks for helping me stop the Shissar that were plaguing me and my friend.”
	I snorted slightly and turned at the sound of someone approaching.  From between two buildings emerged a woman using a walking staff that I was certain could double as a weapon in a moments notice.  She wore a revealingly low cut tunic made of some tanned animal hide I did not recognize that also exposed her sides through wide leather laces.   She also had a shield on her left arm, boots and a sand colored cloak to complete her outfit.  A moment later a female lion slipped out behind her.  Both came to stop next to the man, the lion sitting down and panting in the heat as she leaned affectionately against the woman’s leg.  I studied her carefully, noting faint elven – oops, make that Pudarin - features in her face and tall but skinny frame.
	“Allow me to introduce my traveling partner, Sarya.  We came here several weeks ago because I have heard there is some psychic disturbance in this area and I wished to investigate it for my own curiosity,” Keeden said.
	“Hoping to find some long lost treasure?” I asked cynically.
	He laughed and responded, “Well, of course… aren’t you?”
	He had me there, so I did not respond.  Sandala looked around at the scene we stood in the middle of.  A small tribe of dead shissar with an as yet undiscovered psionic leader, and an admitted psionicist in front of us.  Apparently my suspicions were not the only ones to be raised.
	“Where is the shissar leader?” She asked.
	“Check that building over there, he should be on the first floor in the back near what was once a window,” Keeden responded.
	Sandala nodded to Kryl to go and check it out.  He scowled but headed towards the building.  I glanced at Arktan and then the building and felt a brief moment of pity.  Standing 9 feet tall, he would have a hard time fitting in almost any human sized establishment.
	Kryl came out a moment later and tossed the body of another shissar onto the ground in front of us.  Dried blood had run from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and there was bruising apparent around his temples.  I shuddered slightly to think of the power of a man that could kill with his mind alone, and vowed that I needed to learn as much about psionics as I could.
	“You are wounded, please, Sarya is a priestess, she can tend your wounds,” Keeden said, noticing the blood on us and how Brina and Sandala seemed to be not faring as well because of it.  Sarya looked at him questioningly, but he just smiled and nodded towards us.
	“What sort of priest is she?” I asked cautiously.  After all the talk of corrupt priests serving evil sorcerer-kings, I was not about to let one of them touch me.
	“I worship the elemental powers of water,” Sarya said defensively, looking at me challengingly.  I could tell right there that the two of us were not going to get along.
	“A water priestess?  You travel in good company, Keeden,” Sandala said, nodding her assent to Sarya to treat her.
	Sarya came forward and examined Sandala’s wounds.  She studied them for a few moments before chanting low arcane words that I sensed were little more then nonsense.  She grabbed the waterskin at her side and pulled the stopper from it.  She let a few drops of water fall into the palm of her hand and mixed a strange powder from one of her pouches with it.  When she applied the mud to Sandala’s injuries the wound quickly healed, leaving streaks of clean skin amidst all the dust and dirt of several days travel.  She moved to Brina next and repeated her process.  The lion yawned in the heat and moved over to a spot of shade next to the wall.  She laid down and waited patiently for Sarya to finish.
	She left Brina and approached Arktan next, motioning for him to bend over so she could heal the scratch on his head.  He smiled at her and thanked her quietly, offering her some of the ceramic coins he had taken off of the dead shissar.  She smiled at him and shook her head, pushing his hand away.  She moved to me next, and I could tell that if it were up to her, she would leave me to die rather then heal me.  I smiled at her sweetly, knowing how much she must be irritated and enjoying it for some dark reason.  She looked at my wounds carefully though, spending as little time staring at my exposed chest as possible, before deciding there was nothing she could do for me.
	I had been healed many times by clerics in the past and I knew damn well that she saw no open wounds or life threatening injuries so she did not want to waste her time on me, but I was still sore and could have used a little bit of help.  Rather then add any fuel to the situation, I just smiled at her and said, “Thanks anyhow.”  She returned to Keeden’s side, refusing to look at me.
	“The day grows long and now that at least this part of Guthmoor appears safe, will you share a camp with us?” Keeden asked us.  I glanced at my newfound companions and shrugged.  It appeared the others had similar feelings.
	“Our thanks again, Keeden and Sarya, we would be glad to share your fire,” Sandala said.
	Being the individualistic person that I am, I would have figured that Sandala and I would rub each other the wrong way, since she appeared to be the leader of the group.  However, we got along quite well thus far, and I was surprised by it.  I admired her keen intellect and ability to react to situations as they unfolded with the group in mind.  I had to admit, she did a good job of it, probably even better then I would be able to, since I would keep my own well being as a priority over anyone else.  Then again, we had not butted heads over anything yet either, so perhaps our comradely nature would dissolve as soon as it was tested.
	Nonetheless, we gathered what things we needed from the mounts and moved them within the city walls several streets away where Keeden and Sarya had already set up a camp.  I grabbed another shirt from Brina’s sack of clothing, with her permission, and realized that by the time we reached a tailor, I would probably owe her a fortune in clothing alone.  Picking a sharp rock out of my bare foot I realized that I would gladly pay a fortune for a decent pair of boots.
	Night, or the perpetual dusk that Acathia called night, came quickly after that, and we split up the watch amongst all of us in pairs again.  This time Keeden got stuck with me on the second watch, and the jealous looks from Sarya told me far more then I suspect she wanted me to know about their relationship.  I filed it away for future use, and spent my time speaking with Keeden about psionics, wanting to learn as much as I could about them.
	By the time our watch was over, Keeden had showed me some of his psionic abilities.  Igniting the torn and useless top I had worn before the fight with his mind alone, as well as weakening a piece of rock so that I could snap it in two with my fingers.  The powers of the mind, he explained to me, were limited only by the mind.  Pretty existential.  By the end of my watch with him, I was seriously considering his offer to help me unlock the hidden potential he claimed I had.  My questions remained as to how far I could trust him to tamper with my mind.  He insisted that he would not look into my thoughts, but if he could do all the things I had seen him do, and I was sure countless more beyond that, then how could I trust him?  He had pointed out that my companions would be there to protect me in case anything happened, but that made me wonder just how much I trusted my companions.
	I felt as though I had the potential to open up a great new world for exploration, but my fear was that perhaps instead of a door to a new world, I might instead find a fake door with a poisonous trap instead.  Worse then that was the thought that I might become dependant upon people, even if only for a short time.  Even worse yet, what if I could not let myself depend upon them?

Chapter 5

	And so, after a night to sleep on it, I decided the very next day to let Keeden help me try to unlock my psychic potential.  Having glimpsed the power I might have, I could not deny myself the opportunity to reach for it, whatever the cost.
	I might have been better off had I not approached Keeden while he was with Sarya, but that would have stolen some of my fun.  In a bleak world such as Acathia, I wanted as much enjoyment as I could get.  “After our talk last night, I think I’m willing to enlist your help,” was what I said.
	It was not anything bad or misleading, but the look on Sarya’s face showed that it did not need to be.  She glared hard at me for a moment, then turned when Keeden responded.  “Alright, let us try it tonight, when Yorinn sets.  It will take me some time to prepare myself for it, and you would do well to relax and calm your mind beforehand as well, for it can be an exhaustive process.”
	Sarya’s mouth opened and shut silently like a fish gasping for air.  I fought down the chuckle and nodded, then turned and walked away.  I could hear her start in on him as soon as I was out of earshot, and I could no longer resist the smile that found its way onto my face.  Jealousy is such a foolish emotion.
	For that day, Sarya and Keeden spent most of it by themselves, him preparing for the nights ordeal, and her waiting hand and foot on him.  Kryl, Arktan, and Brina did some exploring of the ruins nearby.  I waited and tried to spend the day resting and preparing myself, but that merely made the day last longer.  Sandala was nearby at all times, doing this or that, and always ready to talk whenever a question made its way through my thoughts.  Even preoccupied as I was, I appreciated her kindness and wondered at the type of person that could show such a thing without any need or want for recompense.  Somewhat bitterly I decided that I would owe her a favor later on, and that was surely why she was trying so hard to befriend me.  More subtle then Brina, by far, but a similar bait to catch the Yamara fish.
	So it was that when the time finally approached, I was more then ready to be done with it.
	Keeden and I sat facing each other on the sandy ground, the campfire beside us casting flickering shadows across our faces.  He threw some powder into the campfire which burned brightly and sent a pleasant smell into the air.  I recognized it as simple incense, but suspected that he used it as a cheap parlor trick to try and increase the authenticity of his act.  Then I had to admit, his act needed little convincing.
	Taking his lead, I closed my eyes and let myself be lulled by the crackling fire and the smell of the incense into a meditative pose.  Then I felt something brush up against the back of my head.  It was like before, gently making contact with me so subtly that I barely knew it was there.  Then the contact was fully established and our minds opened to each other.
	I reveled in the sensation at first.  It was so new and so wondrous, to be able to feel and see and read whatever thoughts were on the surface of his mind.  Then I realized that he could do the same to me, and I took care to shield my thoughts by thinking about nothing.  I felt his humor then, and heard him tell me to relax and to open myself up or else we would be unable to continue.  Hesitantly, I relaxed my guard.
	What came next stunned me.  Our minds were already linked on the surface, but the convergence that took place left me feeling … inadequate.  It was as if our minds were working together, our memories were shared, our skills were shared, our ability to think and to reason was shared.  To a limited extent, even our consciousness was shared.  It was quite overwhelming for me, and so I sat there stunned and more then a little frightened.
	Keeden spoke to me in my mind, trying to reassure me.  Slowly I regained my composure, and he proceeded, sifting through my mind like a healer trying to remove an arrowhead from a wound and causing as little damage as possible with his knife.  I was unaware of how long it was taking, for it seemed as though all of eternity could pass in a moment.
	I reached out then myself, exploring his mind as stealthily as I could.  I think he had not anticipated this, for he left no wards or guards up to protect himself.  I discovered his memories and quickly plunged into them, experiencing his life as much as he had experienced it.  That finished, I continued on, searching out his knowledge, trying to learn as much as I could both about Acathia and about him and what he could do.  I was quite impressed by the time I had finished, for I realized that here was a man who’s mental discipline was very powerful.  Through his memories, I had witnessed him crushing creatures with the power of his mind alone.  It was rather humbling for me.
	Then I realized that he could do the same thing to me, and I quickly stopped searching through his mind and returned to my own.  I sensed his consciousness and realized he had been so intent upon what he was doing that he had no idea what I had done.  Slightly comforted, I wondered what could fascinate him so much to make him oblivious to my actions.  I linked up with him and realized that in spite of his proclamations of good will, he was rifling through my own memory.  Enraged, I demanded that he relent.  He fought against me, striking out like a starving beast denied food.  I refused to let him run rampant in my thoughts, however.
	Our minds linked as they were, I drew upon not only what I had learned by sifting through his mind, but also his mental strength.  Stealing it from him surprised him, for he suddenly found himself floundering and my own rage was magnified.  I lashed out at him, a poorly harnessed blast of psionic energy that drove him from my mind and severed our link.
	With the link severed, I suddenly felt weak.  Gone was the power I had tapped into.  Gone was the warmth of a shared mind.  I still had what I took from him, in terms or his memories and knowledge, but I felt empty otherwise.  Fighting back the depression that threatened to overwhelm me, I realized there was more.  I could feel my own mind was somehow stronger.  More powerful.  I realized that the procedure had been a success then, and that while I had not the range of talent that Keeden had, I was a psionic threat.   The extent of my powers had yet to be determined, for at the moment I knew that I might be in danger.
	Rousing myself from my trance, I saw Keeden laying on his back with Sarya crouched over him chanting healing mumbo-jumbo.  Sandala and Brina were near me, one to either side.  Everyone was uncertain of what had happened, except for Keeden and myself, and neither of us was talking about it.  Keeden was unconscious and I was not going to share until I had to.
	Finished with her chant, Sarya turned and glared at me.  “What did you do to him?” She snapped angrily at me, her tone conveying a threat.
	Before I could answer, Keeden groaned and tried to sit up.  He shook his head lightly, then winced at the mistake of doing so.  He looked around blankly for a moment, then his eyes settled on me and understanding rushed into them.
	“I’m sorry,” He muttered after taking a deep breath and pondering a course of action.  “I was stunned by what I saw is all.   This woman came from another world!  A world with more water in a desert then we will ever see in our lifetimes!”
	Sarya gasped, turning to glare at me again as though I was personally responsible for denying her access to a place that had so much water.  Brina and Sandala seemed surprised as well, more so then they were at my explanation of how common steel was on my home world.
	“He rifled through my thoughts and would not relent when I asked him to do so,” I said through grated teeth.  “The agreement was that he would do no such thing, yet he did it in spite of that.”
	“Don’t feign such innocence,” he angrily retorted.  From apologetic, his expression had turned.  He had seen to much in my mind, and I knew that the next few moments would be dangerous.
	Before he could continue, I crudely thrust out with my mind at him.  Still greatly weakened from the link we had, I established full contact with his mind easily and instantly, in spite of my fumbling about.  Taking what I had experienced – through his memories – and changing it about, I then dominated him.
	“She knows how to get water!” Keeden growled.  In spite of his weakness, he thrust himself up from the ground then and came at me.  Easily escaping Sarya’s protective grasp, he rushed towards me before anyone could react.  In less then a moment, he was on me, growling like an animal and muttering, “Water!” over and over.
	His thoughts did not appear to be on water, however, for he thrust me back to the ground and ripped at my clothes.  My latest halter top was gone quickly, the flimsy material easily shredding under his strong fingers.  The loin cloth tore off next, and I have to admit, that stung a bit as the fabric dug into the flesh of my more sensitive areas.  Before he could go any further he was stopped.  Kryl’s gauntlet crashed into the side of his head, knocking him off of me and shredding any traces of consciousness from him.
	Sarya howled then, and leapt at Kryl’s back.  She sounded like a wounded animal herself, trying to bite and claw at Kryl from where she clung to his back.  I shook my head, now that my thoughts were free to control my own body and not the unconscious Keeden.  Just in time, for Kryl had managed to throw her free from his back and she landed in front of me, still facing the Acathian.
	Kryl spun about to face her, ready with a cocked fist to send her to dreamland as well.  He was to late thought, for her coiled up body slumped to the ground then, and I pulled my shortsword out from between her ribs.  I wiped her blood off of it and sheathed it quietly.
	Forgotten until now, the lion that had been Sarya’s pet jumped towards us.  I stumbled back barely dodging its pounce.  It landed and turned to face me, intent upon protecting its master.  An arrow slammed into its flank though, making it take a step sideways in surprise.  Another thudded home before it could assess its new threat, which happened to be Sandala.  It prepared to jump at her then, but the arrow in its thigh prevented it from doing more then limping along on three legs.  It roared angrily and still tried for her, but the next arrow she sent into its chest silenced it.
	I rose up from where I had fallen on my now naked butt.  I stalked over to where Keeden lay comatose and before anyone could stop me, I dropped to one knee beside him and slit his throat with a dagger.  Rising back up, I spit on his corpse and cleaned the blood off my blade before sheathing it.
	I glanced at my companions to see their reactions.  All of them had drawn weapons and adopted a ready pose, and only now were they relaxing.  Brina and Arktan showed the most surprise, having been taken completely off guard by the events.  Kryl looked at where Keeden lay and then looked at me.  He nodded once, briefly, and began the grisly task of going through his belongings for anything of use.	
	“Did you have to kill him?” Brina asked, a little surprised at my ruthlessness.
	I knew then that the moment of danger for me was not over, it had merely changed forms.  I looked back at Keeden’s body and then to my own.  I had red scratches on my thigh and chest where his fingernails had scraped while tearing off my clothing.  It had been under my control of his body, and carefully orchestrated as well, but I did not want them learning what he had discovered about me.
	I let myself shudder then briefly, and adopted the look of trying to fight back tears.  Brina saw the anguish in my face and came to me, hugging me tightly.  “Of course you did,” She justified.  “He was a psionicist, and clearly an evil man.  Even unarmed he would be dangerous, and more so if he had it in for you.”
	I nodded and hugged her back thankfully, pressing my nude body up against hers in a way that communicated my need to be close to her.  Inside I was congratulating myself on another job well done.  It would not be until later that night, after Brina had fallen asleep from the powerful lovemaking that I had showed her that I wondered if I really needed to go to the extreme measures to protect myself.  Later I would wonder if perhaps these new companions I had made would actually have accepted me into their midst anyhow, regardless of the spying, whoring, thieving, and even murdering I had done in the past.  Then, a few moments later I decided to stop second guessing myself.  What was done was done.

Chapter 6

	None of my companions brought up the incident on the following morning.  They acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary, though I did catch Sandala studying me a few times.  Brina seemed more friendly then before, but I attributed that to the prior nights intimacy.  I had to admit to myself, she was pretty good in the sack.  From my own past, I knew a night with me left an impression not soon to be forgotten – or at least, that’s what virtually all of my partners expressed in one fashion or another.
	I caught myself then, realizing that Brina was not as simple as she seemed.  I was amazed that I kept falling for her act, and reminded myself yet again that the beautiful girl was perhaps the most dangerous of all my companions.  At least to me.
	While we were resting from the hottest rays of the suns at midday the question was finally broached.  “What now?” Sandala asked, looking at everyone but me.
	“What do you mean?  We look for treasure like we always do,” Brina said from fairly close beside me.
	The others had surely heard our passion in the night, but they pretended to ignore it.  For the time being, at least.
	“She means more then that,” I guessed, glimpsing at the hidden undertone of Sandala’s question.
	“Aye,” She admitted, catching my eyes and staring at me for a moment before breaking away.  “I mean both that and more.  Treasure we always seek, that much is true.  But there is more here then we thought, I think.”
	“What?” Kryl huffed, anxious to be on with things.
	“Yeah, what?” Brina seconded.
	“Keeden,” I said, barely loud enough to be heard by them all.  
	Sandala smiled warmly at me.  “Yes, Keeden.  He was here for a treasure we knew nothing about, but I think that perhaps we should search for it nonetheless.”
	“What kind of treasure?” Brina asked, the thought of plunder overcoming everything else for her.
	“Yamara?” Sandala asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
	I nodded and took a deep breath and let it out before speaking.  “He told us all of some psionic presence he sought out here, but he didn’t elaborate.  When our minds merged, I saw a lot of things in his, most of them confusing or strange.  Some were more clear then others though.  I suspect his obsessive madness is what caused many of those visions and memories to be disjointed and confusing.
	“One in particular stood out though.  It was of him descending into the silt to find a strange building made entirely of something that looked like steel.  He saw a sealed doorway with a glowing light next to it that looked like a release for the door.” I paused a moment, struggling to remember it properly before continuing.
	“He wasn’t actually there though, just his mind, so he could not open the door.  Instead he walked through it in his dream traveling.  Inside were strangely designed and lit passages through the building, all of them looked the same.  Still, he somehow knew where he was going, because in his memory he moved with a purpose and never faltered at any intersections.  He came to a great open pit in the floor and floated down it.  There were no ladders or stairs or anything, so we will need to bring rope if we try to find this place.  Descending forever it seemed, past many other openings into other passages, he finally reached the bottom.  A tunnel there took him to a room with another sealed door.  Inside of it was a great many strange things.  Machines, I think, yet made so intricately and serving what purpose I have no idea.  No smith I know of could have fashioned the things down there, but it is there that the treasure he sought rests.”
	“What treasure is it?” Brina asked, caught up in the thrill of it.
	“I don’t know,” I admitted.  “And neither did he, I don’t think.  But it’s down there, a glowing nimbus of some sort of energy or power or magic or something, hidden in that room.”
	“Down there?  Any idea where or how deep in the silt?” Kryl asked, clearly intrigued at the prospect of a difficult task but trying not to show any interest in it.
	I thought for a moment, sifting through what remained of Keeden’s memories in my head before responding.  “Yes, I think I could figure out where if I walked along the edge of it.  I’m not sure how deep it is, but I don’t think it was too far down.”
	Kryl snorted derisively but held his comments back.  Sandala looked lost in thought as she pondered what I had said.  Arktan looked on calmly, ready to support whatever decision was made.  Brina appeared excited at the prospect of a new treasure.  But then again, she always acted that way.
	“Well, what do you say?  I can tell Brina wants to try for it, but what of the rest of you?”
	“How are we supposed to get under the silt without suffocating?” Kryl asked.  “Especially when you don’t know how deep it is!”
	“It’s simple, my friend, we just go and find out,” I said to him, smiling encouragingly.
	“Yeah, and if we can’t find it, then we give up!  No harm done, right?” Brina said, sounding excited.
	He grunted after a moment and threw up his hands.  “Alright, fine.  But if I die under the dust, it’d damn well better be a quick death!”
	Arktan chuckled, his voice as deep as I remembered it being.  “Arktan will help,” he said, and I saw the humorous look in his eyes that made me wonder if he meant he would help us find the treasure, or if he would help make sure Kryl died quickly if it came to it.  I appreciated the dry sense of humor, and cracked a faint smile.
	“Good!  It’s settled!  Let’s go find it,” Brina said, grinning widely.
	Sandala chuckled and stood up.  She brushed the sand off of the back of her legs and put her cloak around her shoulders.  “Yamara, do you think you can find it from here?” She asked me.
	I thought for a moment before responding.  “Yes, I think I can.  Any ideas on how we make it through the silt if it’s buried?”
	She smiled at me and replied, “Do you really need to ask?”
	I did, since I had no idea what she had in mind.  Then it dawned on me from her calm behavior.  “You’re a psionicist too!”
	“The blood of my ancestors runs strong in me,” she said, as though that explained it.  “I can do some things with my mind, though I am no match for Keeden nor, I suspect, even you now that you have found yourself.”
	I hate surprises.  Always have, always will.  “I’m certainly not much of a threat right now, I barely know anything about this mental magic.”
	She raised an eyebrow curiously and said, “I wonder if Keeden would have agreed with your self-assessment.”
	Did she know more then she let on?  I found myself forgetting to breathe for a brief moment.  The pudarin wench had caught me off guard.  I came out of my corner quickly though, and tried to change the subject while I tried to figure out what, if anything, was going on with her and I.  “So how can you protect us from the dust?”
	“It is a trick that many of the more gifted members of my tribe possess.  During sandstorms those of us with the power can create a bubble of air around us that repels the blowing sand.  I have never tried it in a dustbowl before, but I think it might work, though not as well.” She replied without missing a beat.  Maybe I was being paranoid.  Then again, when wasn’t I being paranoid?
	I nodded, glad to have that cleared up.  I rose as well and put my own cloak on.  The added warmth was unwelcome, but the protection from the sun would be.  In spite of a few days spent under it, as well as the magical healing I had undergone, my skin was still nowhere near as darkly or deeply tanned as my companions.  I could not imagine what it would be like to wear only a loin cloth as Sandala did.  My breasts and nipples were always sensitive, in spite of childhood abuses and their subsequent toughening as I grew up.  A sunburn on them did not sound like my idea of a good time.
	Brina hopped up beside me, and a glowering Kryl and still ambivalent looking Arktan followed.  I waited a moment while everyone prepared themselves to leave the shelter the ruined building we had found provided us, then closed my eyes and tried to remember what I had stolen from Keeden’s mind.  Relatively sure of my path, I set out then, weary of any other aggressive inhabitants of the ruins.
	It took nearly two hours of winding through the ruins and backtracking through rubble before I managed to lead them to the shore of the Sea of Lost Souls.  No sign of any other indigenous life showed itself to us, which pleased all of us except for Kryl.  Once there, it was another half an hour before I found what I believed to be the correct place along the shore.
	“From Keeden’s mind, it lies out there some 100 feet and then down into the silt,” I said, pointing directly out from the shore.  “Now I’m guessing here, but this reminds me of a dried up ocean where I’m from, filled with dust and sand instead of water.  If that’s the case, then this building we’re looking for must be some type of a ship.  If it’s a ship, then I’m willing to wager there’s a dock nearby that would take us out into the silt without risking falling into it.”
	They looked at me blankly.  I sighed and said, “Ship… that’s a large vessel that floats on water and carries people.  Kind of a like a wagon built for water.  A dock is what the ship is tied up to so that people can get on and off of it, or load or unload cargo from it.”
	“If there is water enough to float wagons that carry people on them where you are from, then truly it must be a wondrous thing to behold,” Sandala said, grasping the concept the quickest.
	“I hope we can find a way to get to your world, Yamara,” Brina said earnestly.  “I want to go there too!”
	Kryl just huffed rather quietly, unimpressed.  Arktan did what he always seemed to do, which was stand there and wait for something better to do.
	“Arktan, can I borrow your great sword?” I asked the faradwim after studying the strange shoreline for a moment.  He looked at me blankly for a moment, head tilted thoughtfully.  Finally he shrugged and grinned a very toothy grin.  I was reminded of an alligator I had once seen kept as a pet by one of the Ornithrym’s senior members.  I smiled thankfully to him as he handed it to me.
	I very carefully walked along the edge of the shore, dragging the tip of the two handed sword in the dust to see how deep it was.  My suspicions were all but confirmed as I noticed that it sloped gradually away from the shore, just as a lake or sea filled with water would.  With each pass along the shore I stepped a little deeper into the silt, until it was up to my knees and walking became quite difficult.  It was not unlike wading through snow.  I chuckled at the thought of explaining snow to my companions.
	Finally, I found what I had been searching for.  Unfortunately, it was much deeper then I thought it would be, up past my waist in fact.  Nevertheless, I then proceeded out on it, walking very carefully and testing each step before taking it.  I glanced back and saw my companions staring at me with a mixture of shock and wonder.  Here I was, nearly a hundred feet out from them in the silt and still above it.
	“Follow me out!” I called to them.  The air was still and my voice carried louder then I’d intended to them.  I wondered how I was ever going to get the dust out of my clothing.  Then I snorted and realized I virtually had no clothing.  A groan followed, for that meant I would spend some serious time trying to get it out of places I really did not want it getting in.
	Probably because I was thinking about it, by the time my companions had begun venturing out single file towards me, my womanly areas were itching furiously.  I vowed right then that I would stop at nothing to get off of this hot and barren world.  My vow actually contained quite a few other choice expletives, but since I am the one telling the story, I have chosen to try and preserve what small amount of good taste that I can.
	“It’s right here,” I said when they finally reached me.  My nether regions still felt quite chafed and irritated, but I knew that trying to do anything about it right now would only compound matters.  See, more good taste.  I could have referred to it as a broad selection of less then gentile terms, but I chose to go with something a little less vulgar.  Just because I can make a sailor blush does not mean I have too.  That is what being – or at least knowing how to be pretend to be – a lady is like.
	“Um, there’s nothing here,” Brina said, looking around us carefully.
	“How deep?” Sandala asked, glancing around us with barely hidden fear.
	“Well, if we are standing on the dock, then it used to be at our level.  Then the water dried up, so it must be on the bottom now.  I’d say very deep if it were a ship from my world, because in order for something to sink deep enough to hide the masts and sails, it would have to go at least 20 or 30 feet under, perhaps more.  But here, who knows.”
	Arktan took a coil of rope off his shoulder and passed it out, making sure each of us tied it around our waist and left a few feet of room between us.  He did this wordlessly, trying not to interrupt Sandala as she began to quietly focus her thoughts.  I could a strange sensation gathering around me, and it felt very much like a wizards spell did on my homeland.
	Then she was finished, but the feeling of magic about me did not waver.  The dust we were standing in had been moving, slowly at first and then faster.  Now it was finished moving, but only because it had been banished from a sphere around Sandala roughly 10 foot in diameter.  “There, a bubble of air surrounds us, we can descend into the dust and still breathe freely.  If we go too far though, the dust will cover the bubble around us and we will eventually suffocate.”
	The dock was visible beneath our feet now, which drew surprised gasps from my companions.  It was made of some sort of metal none of us had not seen before.  Metal at all, in such a quantity was a kings ransom to them, let alone a strange and unknown alloy.  Regardless, it was mere proof that our adopted quest was worthy.
	I nodded and closed my eyes to try and remember as exactly as I could.  Reasonably sure of myself, I nodded again and began to walk off to the side of the dock.  In three steps my foot encountered nothing but dust, and I found myself falling.  The dust rushed at my face as I fell into it, and I felt panic closing in on me.  Then I noticed it stayed roughly a foot away from my face, parted by some unseen force when my fall was halted by the rope around my waist.  Sandala lowered herself off the edge of the dock and came next, the envelope of air she sustained pushing the dust back in front of me.  Anxious to explore, Brina quickly followed us.  Kryl and Arktan stood firm, easily anchoring the rope and keeping us from descending further.
	I could sense something then, as I hung suspended from my lifeline.  It weakly penetrated the silt and the psychic bubble surrounding me, a familiar pulling.  It reminded me of Keeden at first, then I realized it was not him that it reminded me of, but rather the psionic powers he had shared with me.
	“It’s here, below me… I can sense it!” I said to them.  “Lower me further, we must be close!”
	I faintly heard Kryl grumbling up above, but could not make out which words he had chosen to mutter about me.  A few moments later I descended further by several feet.  The light dimmed as the extent of Sandala’s bubble began to be covered over with dust.  Almost perfectly, I saw a dark shape materialize in front of me out of the silt.  The poor lighting made it hard to make out details, but I could tell that it was a solid surface of something.  I reached out and ran my hands along it, deciding it must be the hull of ship I was searching for.
	“I found it!” I called up excitedly.  “Now we need to find a way in,” I muttered to myself.
	Making a rather rash decision, I untied the rope from my waist quickly and dropped down.  I fell only a couple of feet, my body crashing into the hull of the ship before I could get my feet beneath me.  I heard Brina curse quietly behind me and a moment later, she thudded onto the ship beside me. I was already on my feet though, wondering how well Sandala’s concentration would hold up if I began to search around.
	“Be careful you do not separate to far or you will leave the bubble of air,” Sandala said almost as though she was reading my mind.  I almost stopped and stared back at her suspiciously.  Maybe she was.  I grew suddenly afraid then, and closed my eyes and called upon what little I had of my recent psionic powers.  I felt no intrusion or other presence save that of what was in the ship, and that was not invasive but simply a beacon of psionic energy.  Satisfied, I relaxed and opened my eyes.
	Brina was staring at me, concern evident on her face.  I smiled at her to show her I was okay and saw the instant relief cover her features.  It was becoming obvious that what I was sure had once been a ploy to win my trust and confidence was becoming real.
	Sandala dropped lightly behind us, saving me for the time being by ruining the moment.  Her fall was a boon to us in more ways then that, for when the dust was parted around her it revealed a structure that rose off of what we were standing on and had a door placed in it.  I revised my thinking and decided we must be standing on a metal deck instead of a hull.  For the life of me though, I could not fathom why anyone would make a ship out of steel instead of wood.  It would surely sink.
	Just as in Keeden’s dream, a small button that glowed with an internal yellow light was placed beside it.  Pushing caution away, I pushed the button and waited.  My wait was unnecessary though, for instantly the door hissed and began to slide open.  It was unlike any door I had ever seen, but as soon as it opened magical lights along the ceiling came to life, some flickering at first but eventually growing strong enough to show a passage.
	“We found a way in!” Brina called up to Kryl and Arktan.  A few moments later Kryl landed on the deck with surprising agility and came to stand with us.  He had another coil of rope around his shoulder, and the rope that Arktan held remained behind us, hanging into the telekinetically made pit.
	There was no sand inside.  Only some dust on the surface of everything.  The lighting above, entirely unnatural, did a good job of lighting up the passages for us. The air inside the ship was very stale.  Dead for countless years, I was surprised that we could even breathe it.  Following Keeden’s memory, I led the way down the passage.  Kryl was next behind me, with Brina shadowing him.  Sandala brought up the rear of our company.
	In what seemed like no time, I had found the pit that Keeden remembered.  Glancing into it, I laughed.  In his memory it had seemed like it was quite deep, but in reality, it was a fall of less then 20 feet.  I nimbly jumped down, landing softly and looking about.  Kryl was there in an instant, scowling at me even before his legs absorbed the fall.  I smiled sweetly and took off again.  I could practically feel Kryl’s eyes glaring at me as he hurriedly tossed the rope up to Sandala to tie off on something so that we had a means of getting back out.  By then Brina had already leapt down herself and followed after me.
	Our passage through the tunnels was easy to track, given the thick dust on the floor.  With that in mind, I had no trouble in heading towards our goal.  Brina was beside me quickly, and she flashed me an excited grin as we explored the abandoned ship.  A few more turns, courtesy of the mental map from Keeden, and we found the steel door guarding shut the treasure we sought.
	“Brrr,” Brina said, clutching her cloak about herself.  I had not noticed myself, but under the dust and out of the sunlight, it was almost chilly.  I enjoyed it though, knowing how miserably hot it was outside.  I remembered then the problem I had outside, and wondered at how I had so easily forgotten it in light of the discoveries we had made.
	“This had better be worth it,” I muttered.
	“Worth what?” Brina asked.
	“Worth all the sand and silt that I’ve got crammed in places that nobody but me has seen in quite some time,” I griped.  “It’s going to take me a long time to clean all that out of there, especially in a world without much water!”
	Brina grinned, “I’ll be happy to help you with that.”
	I chuckled, unable to stop myself.  “Okay, well maybe there’s been one more person then me that’s seen them recently.”
	Brina seemed to glow at the praise, but we quickly got back to our goal, which was discovering what lay behind the door.  I could hear Kryl stomping through the passages after us, which meant he was getting close to catching up.  I held my breath and reached for the buttons beside the door.  A red light was above the strange pad, and I was certain it was an intricate lock.  Studying it carefully, I realized quickly that, while different and strange, the diagrams on the buttons were actually numbers ranging from zero to nine.
	“You can read?” Brina asked in awe.
	“Aye, it’s uncommon on my homeland, but not as rare as it is here.” I replied.
	“What does it say?” She asked me.
	“There are a bunch of numbers on it, one through three across the top, then four to six in the next row, then seven, eight, and nine, and finally on the bottom a zero.”
	“Wow,” was all she said, suitably impressed.
	I smiled faintly but studied the pad of buttons and tried to remember what Keeden had seen.  In his memory, he had just passed through the door, not even noticing the buttons.  I struggled to focus on them though, and finally I thought I remembered him seeing four of them lit up out of the corner of his eye.
	I pushed them carefully, one at a time.  One.  Two.  Three.  Six.  The light above them changed from red to green and the door opened with a hiss.  More stale air rushed out at us, but what awaited inside was no fearsome monster ready to feast upon our flesh.
	We stepped inside then, with still no sign of Kryl or Sandala catching up to us.  I glanced back, curious but saw nothing.  “I might have confused our tracks up a bit back there to give us some time alone,” Brina said, glancing about nervously at the admission.
	I grinned then.  I had to admit, it was hard not to like the girl.  Instead of saying anything I grabbed her face and turned it toward mine.  Without warning, I kissed her, our soft lips mashing almost roughly against each other.  My tongue slipped into her mouth as she gasped in surprise at the assault, but she responded quickly.  After a brief moment of the passionate kiss I released her and stepped back.  She nearly stumbled then, so caught unaware was she.  I winked at her and said, “There’s nothing like a girl after my own heart.”
	I moved further in then, and only barely managed to hear her whisper to herself, “Yes, yes I am.”
	“What do you mean?” I asked her.
	Her breath caught in her throat and her face showed that she was scared.  “Nothing,” she quickly stammered out.  I stepped closer to her, raising my eyebrow to show that I did not believe her.
	She took a few quick deep breaths and dropped her face shamefully.  I let her for a moment, then I gently raised her face up with my hand until our eyes met.  “Brina, what did you mean by that?”
	“I mean I am after your heart!”  The words gushed out quickly from her.  “You’re so exotic and different and beautiful!  You’re weak but that doesn’t stop you, you make up for it and turn it to your advantage.  I’m after your heart because somewhere, along the way, probably last night, I gave you mine.”
	Inwardly, I groaned.  This was not a good time or place for this discussion.  In my opinion, there was never a good time or place for that discussion.  “Brina,” I said, trying to come up with something.  “You’re a sweet girl and I trust and value you as a companion more then I have perhaps any other.  In time who knows what can happen.  For now, let us worry about the present and let everything else come to us as it will.”
	She nodded, unshed tears threatening to spill from her eyes.  She blinked them away rapidly, trying to hide them.  “Yeah, I know, sorry, I just got caught up in things.”
	I smiled and leaned towards her, catching her by surprise with another deep and passionate kiss.  This one lasted longer, but I knew our time was growing short.  She was not as surprised when I ended that kiss, and I saw her smile at me.  I knew that, for the time being, I had made things alright with her.
	We moved through the room then, looking for the treasure I had seen in Keeden’s memory.  It seemed empty and lifeless, however.  The machinery and design was the same as Keeden’s memory had been, even the very spot where I had seen the glowing magic.  It too was empty though, only a strange pad of some sort of metal on the floor gave sign to any difference other then the rest of the floor.
	I stood on the pad and glanced around, trying to remember some clue from Keeden’s dream.  Nothing to me though.  I glanced around and moved about the room, studying the machines.  Translating the archaic written language into something I could figure out was slow, but I soon found one that was labeled in something I could understand.  It said, “ON”.  I pushed the button and instantly the machines lit up.  I snatched my hand back quickly, wondering at what strange magic was at work.
	“What did you do?” Brina asked, staring at a machine in front of her that had seemingly come to life with the rest of them.
	“I think I woke them up,” I said.  I looked at the machine again and saw a lit up display that showed a needle hovering in the red at the left end of things.  Other displays showed other things, but I could make little sense of them.
	Suddenly the room glowed a little brighter.  Glancing up, I saw the swirling ball of magic I had seen in Keeden’s dream had appeared.  I heard Brina gasp from the side and knew she had seen it too.
	“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, stepping towards it without realizing it.
	“Stop!” I said, glancing at the needle I had seen and noting that it was moving deeper into the red at the left end of the dial.  “We have to be quick about this, I think that whatever is keeping it alive is about to run out.  If one of us goes, it might not work for the other.”  I cursed the fact that she was closer.  Had it been me, I would have simply jumped into it and taken my chances.  Knowing she was closer made me try to convince her that we could share it.  Perhaps we could, I supposed, and that might not have been a bad thing really.
	“Okay, then hurry,” she said, reaching out her hand towards me.
	I approached her and took her hand in mine then, and together we walked towards it.  Before we stepped into it, she said to me, “Are you sure about this?” The slight tremor in her voice I could understand, I felt no small amount of trepidation myself.
	“We’ve got nothing to lose,” I said, as much to convince myself as her.  I looked calm and confident on the outside, but inside I was not so certain.  “I have a question though.”
	“What?” Brina asked me, both of us staring into the energy instead of at each other.
	“What did you mean when you said I was weak?”
	Brina laughed a little at that and turned to look at me.  “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound bad, I meant you’re not as strong as any of us are.  It’s kind of nice knowing there is somebody weaker then me in the group though, so I’m not complaining!”
	I chuckled at that.  It was true, she did not look to be very strong herself, but I had learned the night before that looks were often deceiving.  There seemed to be something about this world, it may be dying of dehydration, but the people on it very much alive.
	Before Brina could return her attention to the magical energy in front of us, I pulled her to me again for a very quick kiss and said, “I’ll show you strength.”
	Before she could respond, I threw both of us into the shimmering lights, entirely uncertain at the wisdom of my course of action.

Chapter 7

	Given my recent history, I suppose I should not have been surprised by what occurred.  Nonetheless, it was not everyday that I mysteriously appeared in the middle of a street wearing clothing modest only to the basest of whores with a similarly dressed woman in my arms.  Fortunately for Brina and I, what seemed like a torrential downpour was in the process.
	The shock of the strange surroundings was not my first concern, by any means.  First it was base and raw joy at being inundated by the rainfall.  Brina was speechless, and a little frightened, having never seen so much water in her entire life, let alone in a single place.  Our clothing, what little we wore, was quickly plastered to our skin.  It was night out, of that much I was certain, but the tempest that raged around us kept me from gauging a more accurate time.  What was important to me was that it was a real night, with no extra suns in the sky.
	Gathering my senses before Brina had even begun to do so, I snatched her hand and pulled her quickly after me, dodging towards a building from which I could see light leaking through the windows.
	We drew stares from the few patrons of the tavern almost instantly.  Conversation faltered, though it did not come to a stop.  Glancing about the room, we both saw that there were eight customers, with a single serving girl and an older man with no hair and a patch over one eye behind the bar.  After the initial shock of two young woman dressed like harem girls stumbling in from what seemed a monsoon wore off, the customers returned to their own business.  More or less.  We both knew that every eye in the place was still on us, even if not directly.  From snatches of conversation I overheard I felt a wave of relief wash over me, the people here spoke the same common tongue Brina and I knew, though the dialect was once again something I would need time to become accustom to.
	“Where are we, Yamara?” Brina asked quietly.
	“I’m not sure,” I said, moving towards the barkeep and hugging my arms about myself as though I were a lost waif seeking help.
	“Please sir, could you help us?” I asked, my voice adopting the same tone that my manner showed.  Brina fell in beside me, using her youthful looks to her advantage to appear as my younger sister or similar ward.
	The barkeeps eyes roamed freely over both of us before he put the mug he was wiping with an already dirty rag down and leaned towards us.  “What sort of help are you needing?”  His voice was gruff and in character with what I expected from his appearance.
	Ignoring the obvious connotations his leer put into his question, I said, “My sister and I are lost, could you please tell us where we are?”
	“Aye, very lost I say!” He laughed roughly, and then nodded towards our appearance.  “Where ya from, dressed and tanned as ya are?”
	Cursing mentally, I struggled to figure out a safe answer.  Finally, so as to not hesitate to long before responding, I said, “From the south, good barkeep, we were on our way to the city of Belleville when bandits beset us and captured my sister and I.”  His expression was not as bad as I expected at my blatant lie, so I pushed on with the tale.  “We were kept bound and blindfolded for weeks and forced to dress like this.  Every night at least one of the brigands would force other things upon us as well.”
	The barkeep now wore a guarded and suspicious expression, but I could see that he was also on the verge of believing me.  “We don’t know how long we were forced to continue as we were, but finally they put us into a wagon a few days ago and did not allow us to leave it for anything.  At least we had the privilege of a chamber pot!”
	I paused then, acting overcome at the recollection of our fictitious ordeal.  The bartender leaned forward in interest, and I knew the hook had caught.  “If you’re slaves, then how’re ya here an having weapons at your sides?”
	I hid the smile within myself.  He was still suspicious, but now he wanted to believe me.  “They left us guarded by only two men in a nearby building and one of them decided to have his way with me,” Brina said, speaking up in the perfect voice and tone of a young girl who was trying to be brave and strong in spite of the terrible tragedies that had befallen her.  “My sister’s chains were long enough to wrap them around his throat when he lay between my legs.”
	I forced away the false emotion that had threatened to overwhelm me and nodded.  Clearing my throat quickly, I added, “She snatched up his keys then and unlocked us before the other man could come into the room and discover what had happened.  I stole the dead bandits sword and killed the other one, and now it rests on my hip.  We grabbed up the other weapons then, and rushed out blindly into the storm, running without thought or direction until we found this place.”
	The barkeep leaned back then, one hand stroking his chin thoughtfully.  “Well it’s a good tale, you’ve earned a meal if naught else, though I’ve ne’er heard of Belleville and I served with the Royal Elendarian Pathfinders for 12 years along the southern reaches near The Great Forest.”
	“’Tis true, good sir,” Brina said, coming forward quickly like a good little lost waif desperate for a handout.  It was partially true, I figured, since she had left all of her gold in her wagon on Acathia.
	“We can pay for a meal and a place to stay,” I said, letting a little coldness slip into my manner to show I did not approve of charity.  “We need to know where we are, are we in Elendar?” The last was an example of me grasping for straws, hoping that the veteran barkeep would not wish to leave the land he once defended.
	“Aye, lass, that you are,” He said, grinning.  “Brought straight away to Standopolis, home of King Avercrombie.
	“If you’re just away from thieves, then how’re ya goin to buy a meal?” He asked, thinking he was calling my bluff.
	Sure I was a woman, but where I grew up, that meant I had to be an even better card player.  I grabbed my pouch of coins and dug a few gold coins out of it and slapped them on the bar.  He eyed them suspiciously and reached for them.  Before his hand got there, I snatched them back in my own hand and glared at him.
	“If ya don’t let me see them then I don’t know that they be real, girl,” he said, his voice dropping to betray a touch of a growl.  I was back in his territory now, and I had to relent.
	He picked up a single coin from where I left the four on the bar and looked at it closely.  Finally he bit into it, putting a dent in it that apparently satisfied him.  He grunted and swept up the other coins in his meaty palm.
	“I don’t know where these be from, but gold is gold, I says.  Have to charge ya more cuz these aren’t Elendarian coins, but you’ve bought you and your sister a meal, drinks, and a room for the night.”
	I nodded, knowing that I had plenty more to spare and quite certain I could get more if I needed it.  I led Brina to a nearby table halfway between the bar and the entrance.  We sat and waited patiently while the barmaid, not much younger then Brina, brought us each a mug of ale and a bowl made of bread and filled with steaming stew.   Neither of us wasted any time in digging into what was a feast to us.
	It had been months since I had tasted such fare, and I am not ashamed to admit I probably made a bit of a spectacle.  Any scene I could have caused was far outshone by Brina, however.  Being raised on a parched world, food such as stew was an unthinkable waste of water.  Seeing me tear a small piece of bread off the bowl and dip it into the beefy mix was all the encouragement she needed.  With her first taste, she was hooked, stopping only to drink when the entire bread bowl had been consumed.
	“What was that?” She asked me, speaking in a hushed voice to not betray her wonder to the people nearby.
	“Bread bowl stew,” I explained, trying to hide my amusement.  “A cheap and simple meal, but filling.”
	Brina nodded, looking around the tavern’s common room in wonder.  For the first time she noticed the metal about the room.  The hinges on the door, the bands around our wooden mugs, the well cared for horsemen’s axe that hung over the fireplace, the metal sconces in the walls holding torches, and various other common items.  “Is this your world?” She finally asked, her eyes filled with wonder.
	I frowned and glanced around the room myself.  “No, it’s not,” I confessed finally.  “Similar though I think, if the weather is any indication.”
	By mentioning the weather I opened another floodgate for Brina.  Her arms were already hugging her arms as we dried off.  To me the tavern room was fairly warm and pleasant, allowing us to dry off nicely.  I was a bit chilly from the drying water and how I’d begun to grow accustom to the harsh climate of Acathia.  Brina, on the other hand, had spent all of her life on Acathia and the temperature where we now found ourselves was much cooler then she was used to.
	“Does it get warmer during the day?” She asked first.  I glanced at her and noticed that she had started shivering now that she was thinking about it.  Not only that, but through the flimsy material her halter top was made of it looked as though her nipples could have cut glass.
	“If it’s similar to Halador, it will get warmer, but not as warm as Acathia,” I responded.  I was fairly certain of what would come next because she reached up and ran her hands through her hair and brought them away dripping water.
	“Will there be this much water all the time?” She asked, her voice trailing off and proving my hunch right.
	I could hold my smile back no longer.  Chuckling softly I said, “I hope not, the world would be flooded with storms like this all the time.  The barkeep spoke of The Great Forest to the south, so that means it is probably a temperate climate with frequent rainfall.  Most of the buildings and our mugs are made of wood, more proof of enough water to support a thriving lumber business.”
	Brina fell silent, easily in awe as she tried to imagine what the world must be like.  “I want to see it all,” she finally said, her excitement overcoming her fear.
	“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow,” I said, noticing a group of six people at one table playing dice wrapping things up and getting ready to leave.  “It grows late here and we should get some sleep.”
	The serving girl returned then and gathered up our empty mugs.  She asked us if we would like another, but I turned her down.  “You look to be close to the same size as my sister and I, would you have any clothes that we might buy from you?”
	The girl looked surprised at the request, but then glanced at us more carefully and saw how foolishly we were dressed.  “I might have some things, you can come with me if you like.”
	The offer made, I stood up and motioned for Brina to do the same.  We followed her back through a doorway next to the bar and down a short hallway beyond a stairway that led to a cellar.  Opposing doorways at the end of the hall were open to show two bedrooms, and a third door at the end of the hall was closed.  The waitress led us into the one on the left.  It was of a modest size and was clearly her bedroom.
	She opened up a chest filled with a few items of clothing and pulled them out and showed them to us.  Unfortunately, all she had was dresses and robes, nothing that would allows Brina or I the freedom of movement we desired.  I thanked her for the effort and paid her a silver for her troubles before returning to the common room to see about getting a key to our room from the owner.
	The barkeep was busy talking to a man that I noticed had been sitting at a corner table talking to a few other men earlier.  Now the other men were gone and only he remained.  He had an average build, a few inches under six feet in height, and had a reddish brown hair that was stylishly cut at a modest length. He had a scar along his left jawbone, but it only strove to make him look more distinguished.  I noticed the sword at his side and the dagger at his other hip next, and they looked to be of some value, but also quite practical.  I judged the man shrewd, and wondered at what business he might have with the owner.
	A few moments longer and the man turned and left the bar.  He flashed both of us a smile as he passed and headed towards the exit.  I judged the smile harmless enough, but there was something about the man that put me ill at ease.  Brina had already blown him off and was waiting for me to do something.
	“Our key?” I asked the bartender, stepping up to the barkeep.  He put the mug he was cleaning with the same dirty rag down and reached beneath the bar.  A moment later he laid the key to a room on the bar for us.
	“Third door on the right up the stairs,” he said motioning with his head towards the stairs.
	“Who was that?” I said as the barkeep turned away.  He turned back slowly and looked at me.
	“An old friend from the Pathfinders, if it’s any of your worries,” He said, an edge to his voice that indicated he wanted no more discussion on it.  I nodded and turned towards the stairs to our room.  Brina hesitated a moment, then followed me.
	Upstairs in our room Brina immediately when to the shuttered window and opened it up.  Instantly the wind grabbed the shutters, pulling them from her hands.  Rain swept into the room, but she reveled in it.  She looked at me, a childish grin of pure joy on her face.  I scowled as I saw the water gathering in a puddle already on the floor.  Her grin disappeared and she reached out and wrestled the shutters away from the storms grip to close them again.  Mostly dried from our earlier appearance, she was now drenched anew and shivering.
	“What do we do now, Yamara?” She asked me, rubbing her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to hasten the drying and return of warmth.
	“Take your clothes off,” I said to her, concerned about the shock to her system of the drastic climate change.  I was concerned about my own health as well, but I was at least accustomed to the weather far better then she.
	Thinking I had something special in mind, she grinned again and momentarily forgot that she was shivering and her teeth were chattering.  She stripped off her soaked cloak, loin cloth, and halter top after removing her weapons.  All of that was done with a quickness that surprised me.  As soon as she stood before me nude, goose bumps on her skin and nipples the size of small daggers, I took off my cloak and handed it to her.  There was a hint of a smile on my face, of course.  Whether it was from the joke at her expense or simply out of appreciation of her beautiful young body I was not sure.  Accepting the cloak without comment, I could nevertheless see the disappointment in her eyes.
	“I can think of a way to help me warm up much faster,” Brina said, not giving up her hopes.
	I shook my head with a grin and replied, “Not tonight, Brina.  I don’t like the looks of that man in the tavern from earlier.  If he’s a friend of the barkeep from his time in the Pathfinders, he must have been a babe at the time.”
	Her mind quickly slipping into the challenge of following mine, she all but forgot about her lust.  “How do you know that?   Maybe the owner just got out of the army a short time ago?”
	I shook my head again.  “The axe over the fireplace was surely his chosen weapon, it showed signs of wear and use, though still in good shape.  More importantly, it hasn’t been used in years.  Besides, that barkeep had the look of a grizzled veteran, yes, but his body had gone to slack.  He’d still be a tough opponent, but he showed signs of slowed reactions not enough work to keep him in shape.”
	Brina was silent for a moment, remembering our encounter in the common room.  After a few moments she nodded and said, “What do you expect?”
	“I have no idea, but I want to be ready for it.  I’ll take the first watch”
	Brina nodded again, glancing at the spartan accommodations of the room.  The single bed had room for two if the occupants did not mind a little intimacy, which we surely would not have under other circumstances, but was filled with straw.  She slipped under the coarse canvas blanket, wrapped in my cloak, and lay there for a long time thinking.  Sleep was slow in coming to her, but she was so caught up in her own thoughts that she never once spoke aloud.  Finally she fell asleep, leaving her with only a few hours of sleep before I roused her to take my spot.
	Unfortunately for both of us, we never got the chance to swap.  An unnatural breeze slipped into the room and blew out the candle in our room, plunging it into darkness.  I cursed myself, wishing I would have had the common sense to extinguish it hours earlier so that my eyes would be accustomed to the dark.  Regardless, I quickly moved to my feet and had my sword in one hand and dagger in the other.
	I backed up to where the wall was so that the window was on my left and directly across from me was the bed with Brina in it.  In spite of the latch on it, the shutters suddenly opened from without, letting a bare amount of light in.  My eyes adjust quickly normally, and the faint light only helped me.  I hefted my dagger and prepared to use it.  Whether a faint scraping noise alerted me, a hint of movement from the corner of my eye, or just a sixth sense, I turned and threw my dagger instead at the now open door of our room.  It caught the man entering the room just above the elbow, luckily for him he had reacted on the same instinct I had or else the point of the dirk would have found his throat.  He stumbled back out of the way but was replaced quickly by another two men entering.
	I scrambled for another dagger and turned back as a man slipped in through the window in a graceful fall that took him out of my range before my swing could connect with him.  He rolled and stood in the middle of the room, facing me and separating me from Brina.  For her part, Brina had come awake at the first sign of a scuffle and was getting out of bed quickly, reaching for her weapons at the side of it.  Before she could reach them one of the two men from the door had closed on her and held his sword at her throat.
	“You can do this the easy or the hard way,” The man facing me said, his voice youthful and full of himself.
	“What do you want?” I spat out, ready to launch myself at him.
	“I’d like to see more of you two naked,” He said with a lecherous grin I could barely make out in the dim light.   “But it’s not my wants that count.  The boss wants to talk to you, and where things go from there are up to you two.”
	“Who’s the boss?” I asked, increasingly unhappy with the situation.
	“I am,” said the man I had hit with the dagger.  He glared at me with undisguised animosity.  “Put that away before I have to hurt you.”
	I bristled at his talk and decided that, given the opportunity, I would have to kill him.  A moment to late, I heard the other man muttering something under his breath.  I spat out a curse that never finished as his spell overtook me.  My muscles tightened at first, forcing me into an unnatural posture of rigidity.  I stood there frozen, mouth partially open and body balanced low and ready for a good fight.
	The ‘boss’ walked up to me then, and I fought desperately for the strength to break free of the magical paralysis and strike at him with my sword.  For naught.  He stepped in front of me and smiled wickedly.  I braced myself then, for he brought his fist back and drove it hard into my face, splitting my lip and jarring a few teeth loose.  While I couldn’t control my muscles, apparently he could because my jaw clamped shut, biting my tongue hard enough to make it bleed.  That was a secondary concern to me though, for the force of the blow had knocked me off balance and sent me crashing to the floor face first.
	“That’s for the dagger,” He said from behind me.  I changed my vow then.  Instead of just killing him, I planned on making him suffer first.  Any further plotting was halted as the mage cast another spell on Brina and I, dropping both of us into the blackness of sleep.

Chapter 8

	The younger man leaned against the wall waiting for his boss to close the door behind him.  The boss did so and nodded to the guards waiting on either side of the door, who in turn locked the door securely behind him.  He then turned and headed off down the hall with the younger man following him.
	“What do you think, James?” The younger man queried.
	“I’m not sure, Paul,” he responded, genuinely uncertain.  Via Paul, James had responded quickly to the message from his agent at the Grinning Dragon Inn.  The two suspected spies he had watched carefully long enough to determine that they were truly an enigma to him.  Enigma enough that he had decided to blow his cover and pull them in after he had spoken with Berk at the Grinning Dragon.
	“If they’re spies, they must be from the south by their tans.  No Gneissian would be so dark,” James said, thinking aloud.  Paul nodded, following his train of thought.
	“Did Dagrazt send them?” He said quietly, wondering it aloud.
	“Shh!” James hissed, stopping and turning on him.  “You know better then to say that name aloud, it draws his attention!”
	Paul mumbled an apology and had the good grace to look humbled.  James turned and continued walking, heading up some stairs and back into more populated areas of the palace.  They fell into silence, each lost in their own thoughts, scarcely noticing the pages and servants that worked at the late hour.  Finally they reached James’ office and headed inside, shutting the door behind them.  James spent a few moments going over his office, checking to make sure nothing had been disturbed, then sat down and relaxed as much as the opportunity could.
	“Has anybody ever seen him?” Paul asked after he had fallen into a chair facing James’ desk.
	“Who?” James asked, his mind already assembling a list of possible answers to the question.
	“The evil one,” Paul said, knowing better then to utter the name again.
	“I never have,” James admitted.  “Nor do I know anyone who has.”
	“Then how do we know he exists?” Paul said, leaning forward anxiously.  The subject was something that had troubled him quite a bit, and finally he had a chance to express his thoughts.
	No stranger to doubt himself, James grinned at his protégé’s line of thought.  “I’ve little use for Gods myself, and I’ve never seen one,” he said.  “Does that mean that perhaps the God Ban-Dayid does not exist?”
	Paul cocked his head to the side for a moment thoughtfully at James’ challenge of the existence of the God of Healing.  Finally he cracked a smirk himself.  “Point.  I can only assume he must exist because his priests have used their powers granted by him to heal me and others I know in the past.”
	“So if Ban-Dayid exists because his priests have healed you, then perhaps the Dark One exists because his priests have tried to harm you?”
	Paul shrugged.  “Tried and failed, mostly.  But I yield.  He has a mighty nation and is served by armies of fey beings, as well as a gathering of worshippers that wield powers clearly granted of a divine origin.”
	“Not to mention he was said to be old before the great wars plunged the world into chaos,” James added, gazing thoughtfully towards the ceiling.
	“Bah, that’s clearly a rumor,” Paul said, sneering.  “To think that the tales told of the mighty feats even men without magic could do have any truth to them is a fairy tale at best.”
	“It was over a thousand years ago, Paul,” James said, snapping out of his reverie and returning his mind to the present.  “There’s no telling what could have happened.  From what I’ve learned, many survivors of the Great Wars cast down their sciences, magic, and knowledge in light of the damage and destruction they had caused, choosing instead to live a simpler life.  Thus was found the empire of Gneiss to the west.
“Only those that clung to the destructive knowledge flocked to the Dark Ones banner many leagues to the south and west, carving out their fell kingdom there.
	“Others sought a balance between the old and the new ways.  Science and technology were cast aside, and our forefathers in Elendar turned to the Gods and the powers of magic to make their way in life.”
	Paul chuckled, “Spoken as well as any tutor to a bored child.  But do you believe it?  That the world was once filled with machines that served mankind and allowed him to cheat the very laws of nature that we live by?”
	James shrugged the matter aside for the time being.  “Sometimes I do.  But right now, it’s far more important that we bend our mind to figuring out what these two women are doing in Standopolis.  Oh, and get in touch with Belwyr and see if any of his scouts have ever heard of a city to the south called Belleville.”
	Paul nodded, hopping to his feet.  He tossed a sloppy salute James’ way more as a friendly jest then a proper show of respect.  Then he was out the door.  James watched the door that he had gone through for a moment longer, pondering the young assistant.  He showed much promise, though he had far to go if he was ever to be worthy of replacing James as head of the Elendarian Intelligence Agency.  Shaking the thoughts from his head, he glanced at his arm and saw that the bandage on it had finally stopped the bleeding from the dagger the older of the two women had hit him with.  He sighed and decided that before he did anything else, he needed to get his wound taken care of by a priest.

	I woke up from my magically induced slumber and heard the sound of keys jingling in a lock.  I fought the urge to stretch and groan at the pain that assaulted me.  My body had been frozen from the paralysis spell, causing my joints and muscles to ache.  More immediately of concern to me was the fiery pain in my face from my swollen lips and bruised jaw.  All of those inconveniences I bore silently, however, for the guard opened the door then and crept in as quietly as a man wearing a chain jerkin can be said to creep.
	Peering through narrow slits, I saw Brina lying near me, partially wrapped in only my cloak, as she had been when we were captured.  Part of me was glad to see her; another part wished she would have been taken elsewhere so that I would be able to escape more easily on my own.  Then the shadow of the guard fell over me, blocking what little light filtered in through the open doorway.
	He stopped before us, and based upon the lack of anybody other then the single guard in our cell, I knew that he was up to no good.
	“You want the young one?” The guard closest to me called out softly.
	“Bah, you’re daft man!” The other one called back as quietly, but with a warning tone in his voice.  “I’m not for laying a hand on them until Earl James says so, and if you’ve half a wit about you, neither will you!”
	The guard near me snorted in derision.  “You’re a coward ‘tis all.  They’ll be off for the block after he’s done with them, the Earl won’t let abide any spies that isn’t his own here.  Besides, you’re the half-wit ta think we’ll have another chance at two beauties like this again ere they be swinging from the gibbet!”
	I risked a glance to see how things were laid out.  The one guard was only a couple of feet between Brina and I, while the other one remained outside of the room at the door, refusing to look into the room so worried was he that they would be discovered.  The guard discovered my movement though, and before I could do a thing about it, he had his sword drawn and pointing at me.
	“Methinks I’ll try this one out, she looks like she could use a man’s touch.”
	I tried to scowl, but it hurt my face too much, so instead I just lay there limply.  At least I could open my eyes fully and take in our new surroundings.  “Off with your clothes, wench.”
	Fighting the urge to utter a nasty retort, I reached down and pulled my skimpy top off of my body, letting my breasts be displayed for the guard’s perverse pleasure.  From the lewd grin of the one near me, I knew that he was taking pleasure indeed.
	“And the rest,” he said, nodding over the point of his sword at my skimpy loincloth.  My belt with my scabbards, weapons, and pouches had already been removed, leaving me effectively naked already.  Shrugging at what I would have to endure, I reached down and untied it and let it fall to the course rock floor of the room.  I lay there fully revealed before my would-be ravager, expecting the worse.
	“Get in here and keep an eye on the other one,” he said to the far guard as he sheathed his sword.  He began fumbling with his armor then, struggling to undo his hardened leather breeches under his chain shirt so that he could unsheathe his other sword.  Grumbling something under his breath, the other guard moved into the room and drew his own blade.
	I braced myself when the man kicked my legs apart with his boot and then fell to his knees between my outstretched limbs.  I noticed that he had not been smart enough to take his weapons off, and that was where my hope rested.  He got closer to me, his hand wrapped around his chubby little soldier to guide it.  I braced myself, preparing for his inevitable invasion.  My plan was simple, as soon as he was in me and started to lose control of himself, I would pretend to enjoy it and wrap my legs and arms about him, stealing his dagger and plunging it into his back.
	My plan was shattered though.  Seconds before the guard could begin his rape of me, the other guard hissed out a warning, “Beren, get up!  Baron Paul comes!”
	The guard in front of me, Beren, scrambled to his feet.  His hands flew to his breeches, stuffing his package back inside and quickly tying the laces.  I smirked as he backed up quickly so that he was next to the other guard.  While my bid for freedom had disappeared, the haste and disappointment of the guard nearly made it worth it to me.
	“What goes on here?  Earl James left orders that the door was not to be opened unless he or I was present!” Paul snapped at the guards.
	“Sorry Milord,” Beren stammered.  “One of them made some noises like she was sick or something, we came in to see what was afoot an there she lays like a whore, trying to win our favor.”
	Paul raised an eyebrow and looked at me.  By now I had drawn my legs back together and had shifted to my side so that I appeared to be trying for some sort of modesty by making my blond curls hidden in a shadow and my breasts partially concealed by my arms which were wrapped in front of them.  I cursed myself for not being quicker though, for my pose was lax enough to convey that modesty was not a serious concern of mine.  He glanced back at the guards and nodded, though I thought he probably did not believe them, but did not consider the matter worth debating.
	“Leave me, and lock the door behind me,” He ordered.  At once the guards obeyed, stepping out of the cell and shutting and barring the door from without.
	“Well, well, looks like I get my wish after all,” Paul mused, stepping close to me but keeping far enough away that I could not launch any sort of attack at him.  I tried to scowl again, and again winced at the pain.  Abandoning all modesty, I let my arms fall to my sides and I slowly rose from the floor, stretching as best I could to loosen up the kinks in my muscles.
	Paul’s eyes moved over my body hungrily, devouring what he saw.  While far from aroused, the belowground prison was cool enough that my nipples were quite firmly erect, fueling whatever fantasies he might have had.
	“Both of you naked and unable to resist me, how poetic.”
	I heard Brina’s sharp intake of breath and knew that she had been only pretending to sleep.  From the way that Paul’s eyes darted to her, I knew that he had heard it as well.
	“Why don’t you try to find out just how much resistance we have left?” I said defiantly.  I was angry with myself for getting captured so easily, and though I had checked and was missing no teeth, my jaw hurt like hell.  All in all, it was not the beginning of a good day for me.
	“Perhaps later,” he said with a lecherous grin.  “But first, we need to figure out what to do with you two.  You see, Earl James and I think you are spies for the dark one.  Our priests and wizards can find no magic about you, though some of your equipment possessed some minor dweomers.  Nonetheless, you are surely not as innocent as you would have poor Berk believe.”
	The fingers on his right hand tapped absently on the hilt of a shortsword at his side.  A shortsword that I recognized instantly.  My anger grew.  Not only had they taken us hostage without warrant, but now they had stolen from us as well.
	“What’s the matter, see something familiar?” He taunted me.  I fought back the urge to lunge at him, but my headache and general low tolerance level was beginning to tell on me.
	“I bet you’d like it back, wouldn’t you?” He asked, tapping the pommel of my sword.
	He was goading me and he knew it, but I do not think he was ready for me to act on it so quickly.  “You talk to much,” I growled at him as I lunged.  His reflexes were good, I had to give him that.  He jumped to the side away from and had my – now his – sword drawn quickly.  What he had forgotten about was Brina.
	Using more of the strange unarmed fighting style that I had seen her and Sandala use, she exploded into action as soon as he came within range.  She pivoted quickly on the ground, her legs sweeping out and catching Paul in the back of the knees.  He fell forward, surprised by her attack but having the presence of mind to try and throw himself away from her.
	I was on him then, stepping on the back of his hand where it was wrapped around the hilt of the sword.  He tried to throw me off but before he could do so my fist came down, connecting high on the side of his face, ensuring a black eye and a throbbing headache.  It also ensured that I would have a sore hand and bruised knuckles too, but that was a concern for later.
	He rolled away from me then, using the force of my blow to aid his momentum.  I was off balance from the punch, allowing him to pull his hand holding the sword out from under my bare foot.  He lurched back to his feet and stood on the defensive, sword leveled at Brina before she could finish her charge she was about to begin.
	Distraction reared its ugly head then, as the door was opened and Earl James along with both guards entered the cell.  Paul glanced over at them, his position requiring him to turn his head slightly to see them.  That was all that we needed.  I feinted in towards him, drawing his attention back to me.  Brina also lunged in.  Paul was fast, as I said, and he reacted accordingly, drawing the light weight shortsword back across in a swing aimed at her neck.
	What happened next made me revise my opinion of Brina again, for it was a maneuver that nearly took my breath away.  She dropped under the swing of the blade and launched a strike straight up with the palm of her fist leading the way.  She hit the sword hilt as it crossed her head, striking it with enough force to knock it out of Paul’s hand.
	He was more stunned by it then I was, which allowed me to charge at him again with little threat of any lethal defense.  He took a quick step back and turned to face me, throwing a haymaker at my face, which I easily avoided.  Brina slipped behind him quickly and had her arms around his neck in a hold guaranteed to require his submission.
	I glanced at James and saw him open his mouth, but the word, “Enough!” came to slow, for by the time the first syllable was uttered, there was a loud pop in the room that indicated Brina had finished Paul off with a forceful twist of his head.  I forgot how strong she was, in spite of her size.
	Both guards looked on in shock as Paul’s limp body collapsed to the ground.  James had a stunned look on his face too, but it quickly changed to disbelief at the thought of two unarmed and naked girls defeating his protégé.  From there it turned to anger, and from anger to rage.  He drew his own longsword and advanced on us, deadly intent in his eyes.
	I scooped up my fallen shortsword and settled into a defensive position, wishing I had a dagger in my left hand.  Brina slipped into a relaxed crouch as well with Paul’s body at her feet.  I realized yet again what a strange and dangerous young woman she was.  James came on, and now the guards advanced behind him, their own longswords drawn.
	“Even after killing the three of you, we can’t escape,” I said, multiple courses of action flashing through my mind in a heartbeat.  I glanced at Brina and directed my eyes to the dirk on Paul’s belt.  In a quick and fluid motion, Brina reached down and pulled it free then tossed it to me.  I caught it easily and turned my attention back just in time to deflect Beren’s clumsy lunge at me.
	With his sword out of the way, I took my newly acquired dagger and plunged it hilt deep into the side of his neck, twisting it when it hit bottom.  He fell to the ground, trying to scoot away from me, one hand clutching at the gaping holes in his throat from which his lifeblood gurgled out.
	My real concern was for Brina.  James advanced on her and his movements matched every stance or shift in balance she adopted.  Finally he lunged in at her, causing her to dodge to the side.  He kept his distance and his balance, preventing her from launching any counter attacks.
	The other guard advanced on me then.  He had been waiting near the door to prevent us from making a break for it, but with his partner down, he had no choice but to come at me.  He approached more carefully, having seen what I did to Beren.  My concern for Brina was growing, so I threw caution to the wind and took the offensive against the guard.
	Brina used my cloak to good effect then, whipping it around on her arm to foul up James’ sword, slowing it enough so that she could land a solid kick to his stomach.  He grunted and had his balance shifted back so that he had to take a half step back.  He recovered quickly, yanking his sword free of the cloak and scoring a shallow cut along the outside of her left arm.
	I tossed my dagger at the guard from an underhanded position, making him dodge to the side to avoid it.  While distracted, I launched an overhand swing at him, drawing his longsword up high to keep his head from being split in two.  Left with only my knee for a weapon, I drove it up and into his crotch, knocking the wind out of him in a small squeal.  He doubled over briefly, the danger of his situation already overriding the impulse to curl into a fetal position.  However, briefly was long enough, since my shortsword was no longer tangled up in his longsword.  The point descended rapidly, sinking into his back just below his neck as he tried to stand back up.  He shuddered and fell to his knees after a paralyzing moment of agony.  I withdrew my blade and turned away from him to let him collapse to the ground and die.
	I saw Brina try another foot sweep, but James deftly avoided it by jumping over her feet.  Before he could launch a counter-attack she continued her sweep into another revolution, her leg aimed higher and driving out at the point of impact this time.  He stumbled back and fell to one knee as her heel impacted directly with the front of his knee.
	I slipped up behind him and laid my shortsword on his shoulder, the razor edge of it resting lightly against his neck.  Brina sprung back to her feet and grinned triumphantly.  I saw she had another minor wound on the inside of her right thigh as well, but she did not appear inconvenienced by it in spite of the trickle of blood that ran down the inside of her leg.
	James, sensing defeat, dropped his sword and glared at Brina with undisguised hatred.  “Everyone’s life will last much longer if you don’t make me kill you,” I said, reaching down and grabbing the back of his tunic to indicate I wanted him to stand up.  He did so slowly and raised his hands away from him.  Brina moved closer and searched him carefully, removing a few throwing daggers and a dirk from his person, in addition to the longsword on the ground.
	“Who are you?” He asked, his voice hard with anger.
	“You’re hardly in a position to ask questions,” I responded, pressing lightly against his neck with my sword.  “But since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you anyhow.  I’m Yamara and she is Brina, and most recently, we’re from Acathia.”
	“Where is that, somewhere in the Dark One’s land?” He spat out.
	“Don’t know any Dark Ones, do you, Brina?” I said, enjoying the twist of fate.
	“Could he mean a priest or a city-state King?” She asked.
	“You know who I mean, don’t taunt me!” He seethed.  “The Dark One is far greater then any petty tyrant ruling any of the city-states to the south!”
	“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” I said rhetorically.  “Acathia is, I believe, another world.  Two suns there and only one here, you know.  Before that I came from a world known as Halador.  I tend to get myself involved with magical events that go awry.”
	“Yamara, what are we going to do now?” Brina asked me after a moment of thoughtful silence.  I glanced at her, briefly surprised at how lost and small and almost innocent she looked in spite of the guard with the broken neck she had killed only a few minutes earlier.
	“Yes, what are you going to do now?” James asked, trying to conceal the venom in his voice.  “Everybody knows me well here, you’ll not be able to escape.”
	I chafed at his words and his tone.  We were in the position we were in entirely because of him.  Left to our own devices, we would have moved on as best we could and not bothered him or his city.  I was reminded of my desire to kill him then, and very nearly acted on it.  I stayed my hand though, certain of a better way to do things.  If only I could figure out what that way was.  Perhaps my greatest mistake I ever made was in not acting on my instincts then and there.
	“Tell us of this place,” I said after a moment of thought, uncertain of what we would do, but knowing that we needed more information before we could do much of anything.
	“Tell you of what place?  This dungeon?  The palace?  Elendar?  Malatoria?” His tone mocked me.
	“We’ll need to learn about this hole in the ground, but we can start with Malatoria.”
	James spoke of Malatoria then, haltingly and grudgingly at first, but gathering speed as he was questioned and prodded on.  In what seemed a short order, Brina and I learned of the warlike and monotheistic Gneissian Empire to the west first.  Gneiss was led by a man known as the Speaker of Symbos, the ageless high priest of the Gneissian God, Symbos.  The preachings of Symbos were such that all citizens of the mighty empire were taught to believe only in what they were told.  All creatures and things of magic not of a divine origin was false, in their eyes.  That included any non-human race.  No elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, lizardfolk, gnomes, creatures of fairy (fey or benign in nature) were allowed within the great wall surrounding the empire.  Soldiers serving along the wall or even further out, in border patrols or special missions, were reeducated before being allowed to return to the general public to maintain the falsehood of their existence.
	I was fascinated that a con of such a magnitude could work successfully.  James looked at me wearily, his long winded lesson broken up.  Briefly, I saw a calculating look come into his eyes.  He glanced around briefly, and then began to tell us more.
	Gneissians could not completely disbelieve in magic, for whenever a war arose with Elendar or any of the other smaller nations of Malatoria, or something happened within the empire that could not be explained away in a normal way, magic was blamed.  Magic was the tool of lesser, evil Gods.  Not even Gods, according to the teachings of Symbos, but demons really.
	“Sounds like Gneiss is ruled by a Sorcerer-King,” Brina commented dryly, clearly not impressed.
	James looked at her blankly, uncertain of what she was saying.  “Where we are from, Acathia, the world is hot and lifeless.  Where life does prosper is around oasises and fertile ground.  Cities spring up there, and they are generally led by a powerful man or woman wielding a unique type of power to lead great armies of men.  They then title themselves as Sorcerer-Kings, and do whatever they can to run as corrupt a government as possible to break the backs of the slaves and freemen forced to eek out a living within their realm.”
	James looked thoughtfully at Brina, nodding as he compared the similarities before he caught himself and scowled slightly.  “I have been to Gneiss many times, it is a beautiful land and the citizens are treated fairly.  Poverty is all but unknown, but it’s citizens are prisoners of their own realm, for it is forbidden for them to leave the borders… for their own safety, of course.”
	“How have you been there, if there are as xenophobic as they sound?” I asked, thinking I had found a hole in James’ explanation.
	“I do a great many things I’m not supposed to do,” he said, giving me a cold smile.
	I shivered then, as the damp and the cold of our cell suddenly set into me.  I looked down at my body and realized that I was still naked and chilled.  Glancing around our cell, I saw the bodies of the three dead men.  I walked over to Paul’s corpse since his clothing was in the best condition, and proceeded to strip him.  Brina kept an eye on James while I quickly slipped into his breeches and shirt.  They were large on me, but given the alternative, I made do using his belt.  The belt was also handy for it allowed me to secure James’ throwing daggers in it, as well as the dirk I had taken from Paul.  My sword remained in my hand.
I took over watching James while Brina eyed the two remaining clothed corpses.  In a manner of minutes, she had slipped the best of their clothing on as well, which consisted of a tunic tied about her waist and a pair of tough leather pants.  She took James’ long sword as her own, though she preferred a short sword like me.  Seeing that he had no use for it, she liberated the scabbard from James as well.  She finished off her arsenal with a dagger from each of the guards corpses tucked into her belt.
	With both of us paying attention to James again, I motioned for him to continue our education.  I had to hand it to him though, he did not show any disappointment at the two of us clothing ourselves.  Then again, it could have been due to his apparent – and deserved – hatred of us.  Nonetheless, he continued.
	Next we learned of the lands to the north, which were wild and untamed and home to fierce creatures.  A large clan of giants lived in mountains to the north, but they kept to themselves mostly, especially since a rather notorious merchant by the name of Marius had managed to negotiate some trading with them.  They raised sheep the size of horses, with wool that was far finer and tougher then anything to be found elsewhere.
	Further north was a frozen land inhabited by occasional barbarian tribes, as well as other creatures accustomed to such environments.  All in all, it was avoided by nearly any sane person, though every few years barbarian nomads might wander far enough south to cause some mischief along Elendar’s northern borders.
	South were a great many free cities, as well as The Great Forest, which housed the greatest concentration of elves in Malatoria.  South of Gneiss and Southwest of Elendar was a small dwarven kingdom led by King Mordrim.  Another barony of humans existed between the elves and dwarves, by the name of the Barony of Tyusk, under the rule of Baron Tyusk himself.
	Further south of the elves were the free cities, largest and closest of them was Peltarch.  Peltarch was a large shipping port as well, for many mines were found in the southern reaches of Elendar and Peltarch sat along the eastern shores of the Dragon Waters, a great ocean to which no end had been found that lay to the east of Elendar.
	Beyond Peltarch and other free cities were more occasional settlements of people and demi-humans, and other, less savory humanoids.  As well as many ruins of ancient civilizations.  And to the south and east in a dark and evil land lay the realm of the Dark One.  We could not get James to tell us the name of the Dark One, he vehemently insisted that doing so would draw it’s attention, and that it had the powers of a God.  Having seen similar fears and powers among my years on Halador, I did not push him.  That and I was convinced that the more we tried to get him to tell us, the more convinced he would become that we were agents of the Dark One trying to draw it’s attention and power.
	By the time James had finished telling us several hours had passed.  Neither Brina nor I had noticed, for we were fascinated by the world of Malatoria.  But now that I had become aware of it, I realized that we had fallen into James’ ploy.  He had went along with us so readily because he was trying to lull us into wasting the hours away until a change of guards arrived.  Time was against us, but we were not lost yet.
	“Brina!” I hissed, getting her attention.  She looked at me, snapping out of her near trance listening to James had caused.  “We have to get going, more guards will arrive soon.”
	Her eyes opened as she realized what had nearly happened.  She looked back at James accusingly, and saw his eyes harden.  I knew that under his breath and in his mind, he was cursing at me for realizing it.
	“How do we get out?” Brina asked, worry creeping into her voice.
	I thought for a moment before responding, “The sewers!”
	“What are those?” She asked me, puzzled at what was, to her, a strange word.
	“Any city of size usually has them,” I said, pausing to look at James until he reluctantly nodded.  “They’re for removing the cities waste, they run under the city, like caves or mines, but with water running through them.  It’s not pleasant, but we should be able to get out.”
	“So how do we get to them?” Brina asked me, hugging her cloak about her body more closely.  I looked at James expectantly.  He met my stare challengingly for a long moment before he finally nodded.
	“I know how to get to them, but you’ll never make it from here.  You’d have to leave the palace and there are far to many guards along the way.”
	Brina looked at me, worry clear on her face.  Gone was the crafty and calculating girl I had met on Acathia, in her place was the young and innocent girl that Brina should have been.  I smiled at her quickly to reassure her then turned and glared at James.
	“No, I don’t think so,” I stated.  “I know your type, even if I just met you.  You have an secret entrance hidden somewhere nearby, or I’m a man.”
	Brina laughed softly at my statement.  If nothing else, she had firsthand knowledge that I was no man!
	“So you’ll take us there, or end up dying right here and now,” I finished, stepping closer to him and gesturing with the point of my sword.
	He laughed sharply.  “Instead I help you escape so I can die later?”
	I hated to admit it but he had a point there.  We really had no choice but to kill him at some point or he would be after us, either personally or by sending countless soldiers.  Fortunately, Brina came to my rescue the second she realized I had no witty response.
	She moved over to him, letting her cloak fall away from where she had it gathered in front of her.  Her tunic covered her from the front, but it was open on the sides to show her darkly tanned sides and the barely hidden swell of her young breasts under the tunic.  She slipped around behind him, her fingers lightly tracing up James’ arm as she did so.
	Speaking softly, her lips nearly touching his ear, she said, “The longer you live, the better the chance you have to escape from us and bring about our capture.  Two women alone on a strange world, how far and how long can we really go?”
	Watching carefully, I hid my smirk at the girls ploy.  Here was the Brina I was used to.  She was definitely a dangerous creature, but fortunately, she was my creature.  I liked to think that made me even more dangerous.
	James did his best to ignore the intimacy with which she delivered her statement.  Regardless, he was a man, and Brina was a beautiful young woman able to inspire fantasies in the most devout of priests.  Still, I think James performed admirably.  What got to him was what she said.  No doubt he had been thinking it already, of this I was sure, but to be reminded of it in such a way hardened his resolve – or weakened it, depending upon how one looked at it.
	“Very well, I will lead you out.  But be on your toes, for every step of the way you’ll have to be worried that I might be leading you into a trap or a trick of some sort that will allow the tables to be turned,” He said, trying to recapture some momentum.  He was speaking to me more then Brina, for he had identified me as the leader of our partnership.
	“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Brina breathed into his ear before I could respond.  She even went so far as to reach out with her tongue and gently lick the inside rim of his ear.  Then she was away, back at my side in only a moment.  I glanced at her with a touch of pride, some of it even displayed on my face.  Then again, maybe James was right, maybe we were agents of darkness.  I could definitely see Brina making a very successful succubus!
	I grabbed up a key ring from one of the guards and led the way out of the cell.  James was next, and Brina came last.  Following James’ directions, I led the way through the poorly lit dungeon corridors.
“Haven’t been to busy lately, have you?” I asked James in reference to all the empty cells.
“This is a special part of the dungeon,” he confided, seeing nothing to be gained by not answering me.  He did not volunteer any more information though about it though.
Luck was with us, for the hidden entrance to the sewers was hidden in the back of the furthest cell along the passage.  Rather clever, I thought, to hide an escape route in what is traditionally considered a place that escape is impossible.
Only by shutting the door to the cell with which we found ourselves in and then prying a loose rock from a wall out and setting it on a pressure sensitive area of the floor near the door where we able to release the catch to the concealed doorway.  Pushing the well oiled and counterbalanced section of the floor away from where it seamlessly blended into the rest of the floor revealed a seemingly endless drop into darkness.
“We need a light,” I said, thinking where I could find a torch.  There were sconces in the walls of the passage we had come down, but most of them were unlit and those that were not were secured far to well for us to try and take.
“There is a lantern, flint, and steel hidden below,” James said, a trace of a smile on his face.
I scowled at him, knowing how much he was enjoying this.  “We drop together,” I told him.  “How far is it?”
“Six feet down, then a ledge heading away from here for a few feet more, then it drops another two feet.  A niche on the right is where the lantern is,” He responded casually.
I nodded and repeated,  “We drop together.  You hold on to my shirt, both hands.  If, at any time, I feel one of your hands not on me, you die.”
“Wait,” Brina said, stopping me.  “Let me do it, you drop down first and secure the area, I’ll drop with James.”  I thought about it quickly and nodded, she had a good point.
I slipped to the edge of the pit and peered into the inky blackness.  Taking a deep breath, I let myself slip into it.  Sure enough, after a few feet my feet hit the ground.  In spite of the darkness, I landed gracefully.  I moved off carefully, searching for the edge.  Finding it, I slipped down to the next landing and called back softly to Brina to let her know I was out of the way.
“Turn and face me,” Brina said, standing close to James.  She held a dagger in her hand a few inches from his midsection.  He glanced down and smiled at her.
“Careful with that, I’m cooperating rather nicely and I’d hate for us to slip and fall and have an accident.”
Brina smiled right back at him, “Then I guess we’d better hope we don’t slip.”  From where I could hear them, I smirked in the dark.  Then I remembered the lantern and started searching about blindly for the niche that James said it was hidden in.
“Two hands on me, like Yamara said,” Brina ordered him.  He placed his hands on her sides directly on her skin, just above her hips.  “Now on three, we jump.”
Brina counted to three while I continued to search for the lantern.  As she reached three, they both stepped into the pit.  James’ hands slid up as they descended, sliding under her tunic and halter top so that they rested gently over Brina’s breasts.  Her sudden intake of breath was not from the fall alone, though they landed safely.
“Keep your hands on her until I get the lantern lit,” I ordered, unaware of their specific placement.  Unknown in the dark, James grinned.  His grin turned to a grimace when Brina’s dagger pushed against his belly, cutting through the cloth with the point and just barely breaking the skin.  In spite of the promise of pain, he kept his hands where they were, knowing that she was trying to get him to remove them so she could finish the thrust.
A few moments later, I found the lantern hidden cleverly in a niche, just as he had described.  Reaching around inside of it, I pulled out the flint and steel as well.  All the while the dagger pushed a little harder, but not enough to cause any serious damage.
A few more moments and I had the lantern lit.  I shuttered it mostly and glanced back at James and Brina and saw him standing there with his hands dutifully on her sides again.  I pride myself on my perception, and because of that I noticed that her cheeks looked redder then they had before, as though she was angry or embarrassed or otherwise flushed.  I shrugged it away though, not knowing the real reason for it.  I also noticed the faint red stain on James’ shirt and the small hole the tip of Brina’s dagger had caused.
“He give you any trouble?” I asked her, more concerned about it then I liked to admit.
She glared at him for a brief moment.  “No, when we landed it was awkward and my arm went forward a little bit to balance myself.”  She looked back at him, a portion of the glare returning, “Take your hands off me now.”
I raised my eyebrow curiously.  I knew Brina was every bit as graceful as I was, and based upon the glare she sent him I suspected something else might have been at play too, but I figured Brina could take care of herself.  Hell, I had seen her do some amazing things, I knew she could take of herself!
Turning about, we looked at the new tunnel we found ourselves in and headed down it, the pungent smell of the cities sewers growing rapidly stronger with each step.

Chapter 9

	The trip through the sewers was an adventure by itself.  Brina was astonished at the apparent waste of water necessary to float the distinctly unpleasant things through the underground passages and away from the city.  According to James, the sewers drained into an underground river, downstream from the same river where the cities water source was obtained from.
	Something James neglected to tell us was that every 3 hours the dams on the pipes leading from the sophisticated water tank in the city to the sewers were opened to flush the refuse and waste for 15 minutes.  Then they were closed so that the water levels would be replenished by the prisoners forced to operate the water pumping mechanism.  All in all, when we finally got him to describe it to us, I had to admit I was very impressed by the level of engineering that went into it.
	What happened to alert us to this regular flushing was a slowly building roaring noise.  Brina was the first to notice it.  It grew quickly once she asked what it was.  We turned to look at James to ask him what it was and saw the smirk on his face.  He was behind me still, so I had to turn around to look at him.  It was at that moment that I noticed the raising water level.  The rapidly raising water level.
	“Brina!” I called out, lunging forward and grabbing onto James’ arm.  I grabbed him just in time, for the leading edge of the frothing sewage filled water overcame us.  We were swept off our feet instantly and sent down the passage, buffeted mercilessly by the walls of the passage and unrecognizable objects that were in the water with us.  Somehow, I managed to keep hold of James.
	I hate to think of the water that got in my mouth, up my nose and in my ears, or in any of my other more sensitive places.  It was a rough ride, and James did his best to try and get away from me.  I let go of the lantern I had in my hand almost instantly and did my best to wrap myself around him.  In particular, I worked my way around behind him and kept one hand wrapped around his lower arm and my other arm managed a safe hold around his neck.
	The crushing wave we were trapped in petered out before too long, though it seemed an eternity to me.  I could only imagine what Brina was feeling like.  As the water level receded and slowed somewhat, I managed to get my feet under me.  James was all but limp in my arms – I guess I had gripped him a bit to tightly.  I stood up in the water and dragged him over to the side of the tunnel with me to lean against the wall.  I turned about to look for Brina then, knowing that James was no immediate threat.
	Brina was nowhere to be seen though.  I hoped that was because we had no light and our visibility was practically nothing.  Some faint ambient light filtered in from somewhere though, but I had no idea where it came from at that point.
	“Yamara!” A girlish shout, albeit waterlogged, sounded from somewhere further down the sewer tunnel.  It was followed quickly by a groan, decidedly masculine in nature, then the sounds of someone thrashing in the water.  Finally things grew quiet again.
	A very uncharacteristic fear rose in me.  I quelled it quickly, but grabbed James up all the same.  “If you’re people hurt her, death won’t come quick enough for you!” I hissed to him.  He had regained some of his strength, enough to stand on his own and whisper in response to me, “None of my people come down here.”
	He stopped and listened carefully to the echoing of the passage for a moment before saying, “The sounds came from up ahead, let’s go.”
	I ached to go forward, which surprised me, but my suspicion overrode my foolish concerns.  “Why are you suddenly helpful?”
	“This is my city,” He said, his tone quite insistent.  “Whatever’s down here with us shouldn’t be here, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it get away, even if that means allying myself with an agent of Dagrazt!”
	There it was, the name Brina and I had been hoping to learn.  I had to admit, for some reason simply hearing it sent a chill down my spine and made our surroundings suddenly that much more somber.  “Is that the Dark One?” I asked to confirm my guess.
	“Aye,” he muttered, his tone showing he was irritated with something, most likely himself for having said the name.
	“Then let’s go, If Brina is dead, there’ll be hell to pay!”
	We moved forward through the sewer, almost blindly.  We followed one wall carefully, but moving with as much haste as was prudent.  The wall fell away from us on our left then, indicating a branch in the passage.  It was here that the earlier scuffle had taken place.  Ten disembodied pairs of red eyes was what we noticed first, but there was enough extra light here to see those eyes belonging to six bodies.  Six of them were in the water with us, while the  additional figures stood nearby, up higher where the rocky floor rose up some six inches out of the water to form a shelf.  Of the four not near us already, one was crouched over the prone form of what could only be Brina.
	“Orcs!” James hissed, reaching for the sword that was no longer at his side.  I nodded, having instantly recognized the eyes of the creatures as belonging to orcs.  Their infravision caused them to glow softly in the dark as they saw through the darkness by detecting the shades of heat.  Their unnatural advantage of night-sight was lost to them when one of the other figures unhooded their lantern from which a small amount of light had leaked.
Light flooded through the passage, causing everyone to blink and squint suddenly.  Call me lucky, but I had just glanced away when this happened, so I reacted first.  I tossed the dagger I had taken from Paul to James, who caught it out of the air in spite of his impaired vision.  Then I drew my shortsword and charged towards the closest orc, who was struggling to adapt to the sudden light messing up his low light vision.
Many creatures possessed the ability to see in the dark – goblins, orcs, elves, dwarves, and many others.  For some reason I had never learned and none of them had ever explained to me, their low light vision only worked in near or total darkness.  Even light such as a torch or lantern was to bright to allow it to function.  Unwittingly, the forces arrayed against us had worked in our favor by flooding the tunnel with light.
The orc was pulling out a crude but lethal looking broadsword when I ran him through.  I yanked my shortsword out and left him on his knees cradling the blood and gore that spilled over his fingers from the gaping wound in his upper abdomen.  I ducked  under a slash from another orc that had managed to make a half blind attack at me, and cut deeply into the inside of his thigh, hamstringing him and cutting through his femoral artery.
That orc fell into the water, thrashing in pain as the muscles in his leg twisted up and contracted.  By the time he had come to terms with the pain, I knew he would be unable to fight due to blood loss.
James rushed forward beside me a heartbeat later, not as disadvantaged as the confused orcs.  He kicked an orcs sword out to the side as the orc tried to raise it.  His dagger plunged up into the underside of the orcs chin then, going straight into its brain.  His other hand grabbed the broadsword out of the dead orcs hand as it twitched in death spasms.
The remaining 3 orcs had adjusted enough by then that they came at us a bit more organized.  Still, they were just orcs.  Where I had come from, orcs were generally threatening only in great numbers.  Brutal and vicious, nevertheless they relied more on brute strength and numbers then grace, finesse, or skill.  Now that these orcs had recovered somewhat from the sudden light, they approached us carefully enough that I knew them to be different then the orcs I was used to.
Still, the orcs made a mistake in assuming James was more dangerous then I was.  Well, at least in my mind they did.  Two of them went after him while only one came at me.  He attacked carefully, thrusting his broadsword at me experimentally.  I swatted it off to the left and turned my blade over to return a thrust in his direction.  I was surprised by his speed and skill, for he altered the momentum of his deflected broadsword and brought it across in a swipe at my neck.  I ducked low, ruining my thrust at him, but saving my own neck in the process.
I gathered my legs under me and raised my sword instinctively.  Sure enough, I blocked the next swing from the broadsword, tremors running down my arms from the strike.  I stood up quickly as the orc tried to recover and drove my foot into his crotch.  Had the orc somehow survived or evaded my following attack with my shortsword, he would surely have been permanently unable to father any little orclings.  Too bad for him, he would never reach that point in his life.
James was hard pressed against the two orcs he faced.  Normally, when two opponents attack one target, they stand a greater chance of fouling each other up then actually causing the target injury.  That was a normal situation.  The alternative to that was when warriors had been trained in such tactics and knew how to fight alongside another.  These orcs, surprisingly (to me) had been trained in those very tactics.  It was everything he could do with dagger and broadsword to block attack after attack levied on him.
I was torn, I wanted desperately to go and battle the people that stood near Brina, but I knew if I left enemies behind me and James was overcome, my rescue effort would be short lived, at best.  Cursing, I turned and moved behind one of the two orcs James faced.  One of the figures on the landing spat out something in orcish, which I interpreted to be a warning.  Before the orc could respond to it I grabbed it’s head and used my shortsword to lay open it’s throat from one ear to the other.
Facing only one orc suddenly, James took the offensive.  The other orc was still in two on one combat mode, so he was totally unprepared for James to ignore the coming assault from the now dead attacker.  James thrust his dagger deep into the side of the remaining orc and held his captured broadsword out to deflect the return attack by the orc.  The stood locked like that for a moment while the orc tried to overpower James with the last of its strength.  The pain of its wound overcame it quickly though and it staggered back away from him.  James liberated the orc’s head from its body before it had taken more then two steps back from him.
Together, we approached the four figures guarding Brina.  I studied them more closely now, and saw that while they were more human then the orcs, they were still decidedly ugly.  I had never seen them before, but I remembered learning about their kind back on Halador in my training with the Ornithrym.  Half-Orcs.  One part human, one part orc, and about twelve parts ugly.  Half-orcs were more dangerous on average then a true orc, for they were considered to be more intelligent then their pure blooded cousins (the orc part, not the human part… although any human willing to mate with an orc could be considered considerably stupid as well).
I grabbed one of the throwing daggers from my belt and threw it with my left hand, distracting the orc hovering over Brina.  He flinched and tried to dodge it, succeeding to the point where the pommel glanced off his elbow as it flew past.  James, I am sure, would have preferred to draw the orcs to us, but I was concerned about Brina and did not want her used as a hostage.  I heard James groan in dismay as I rushed forward, but he quickly followed after.  The going was rough for the first several steps as we forced our feet through the brackish water.  But then we cleared the water and picked up speed on the rocky shelf.
I was a few steps ahead of James due to my head start, so the half-orcs had moved forward to block my way.  All except the one that stood over Brina.  He moved a few steps away from her, then stopped and looked back at her, thinking my worst fears, that she might make a good bargaining piece.  Behind me James used me as a screen and threw the dagger I had given him.  The half-orc never saw it coming, only that it had suddenly appeared in his studded leather covered stomach.
I had run out of room to run, what with only a matter of some ten feet of shelf from the water to where they were waiting.  The half-orc James had wounded was staring down in surprise at the dagger in his belly.  I threw a high attack at the half-orc beside him, forcing him to defend and take a step back, then I grabbed the dagger out of the first ones stomach before his hands could reach it.  I reversed the motion and plunged it back in, this time higher.  It slid off one of the studs on his leather armor, then ricocheted off of one of the half-orcs ribs, but the end result was still a dagger buried in his chest poking a sizeable hole in one of his lungs.
The third orc swung at me from my right flank where he had come around.  Acting more on instinct then from actually seeing him, I ducked down.  Not quite fast enough, his longsword caught some of my hair and tore it out, but not until after it glanced off the top of my head.  I was stunned by the blow, unable to think clearly.  I knew I needed to get away though, so I fell backwards and scrambled away quickly.
James, I hate to admit, came to my rescue.  He stepped in above me and blocked a downwards slash aimed at me.  His intervention caught the half-orcs by surprise, but outnumbering him two to one, he was on the defensive for himself quickly.  I managed to get my feet under me again and shake my head to clear it.  That hurt even worse.  The pain helped focus me though.  I realized I still had a hold on both the dagger and the sword, a testimony to my training.
I left James to handle the two half-orcs, though he looked hard pressed.  The third remaining half-orc had started forward again, confident in defeating us.  Then he saw me coming after him.  He started backing up quickly, and from the way he held his longsword, I knew that Brina was in danger if I did not do something.  At a distance of 8 feet, I threw my dagger.  He had to dodge to his left to avoid being hit by it, but that worked in my favor because Brina was to his right.  I leapt at him after another two steps, throwing my sword at him as well.
The half-orc had to use his own blade to parry my shortsword, allowing my flying body to slam into him around the waist.  He grunted and fell back, falling to the ground on his back.  I scrambled up his body quickly, before he could bring his sword down on me.  Sure, at that range he would have a hard time using the blade, but that would not stop him from smashing the pommel into me if I gave him half a chance.
James found himself pushed back further and further from me by the two half-orcs.  Like their now deceased cousins, the half-orcs knew how to fight together.  James stayed on the defensive, breathing hard from the exertion of the fight.  He had begun to see a pattern to their attacks, but the amount of energy he was expending was going to make it a close fight.  He managed to hold on until the proper moment though, and then lashed out.  His parry sent one of the half-orc’s sword wide, making it break their rhythm as the other half-orc had to parry his own partner’s weapon.  James seized upon the opening and plunged his captured broadsword into the second half-orc’s chest, tearing it out the left just as quickly.  The half-orc fell away, clutching in agony at the mortal wound in its chest.
My knee found the half-orcs scrotum twice while we wrestled, drawing a painful grunt the first time, and more of an explosion of soundless air the second.  The half-orc was clearly in pain, but he struggled against me in spite of it.  His strength must have been a benefit from the orcish side of his family, for as I said long ago, I am quite strong myself and he was holding his own against me.  I managed to get a hand free and sent it in, smashing against the side of his face.  His head was rocked back, bouncing off the rock shelf, but he seemed unfazed by it.  I delivered another jab before he got an arm up to block me.
With only one half-orc remaining, James was able to breathe a bit easier and conserve his strength while the two studied each others movements.  James had to credit the half-orc with skill and cunning, but he was sure in time he would win.  He had been trained by the King’s weapons master, after all.  His chance came after a furious bout of attacks and parries by both of them.  He deflected the half-orcs sword down and to the left.  The point hit the ground and bounced back a bit.  James snapped his left foot out, catching the flat underside of the sword with his toes and lifting it up high before the half-orc could think to stabilize his sword.  With the sword up high, James drove his fist into the orcs throat, bruising its windpipe and making it cough.  It stumbled away from him, one arm going to its throat.  James advanced, giving it no quarter.
	The half-orc parried the next several swings from James sword, but each one was stronger and took more of its will to fight out of it.  Finally, the half-orcs sword was knocked down and James’ next swing, gripped in both hands, took its head from its shoulders.
	A sharp lance of fire entered my hip then, and I realized that the half-orc’s right arm that had gotten somewhat free had drawn a weapon that was now sticking in my left hip.  The pain only drove me further though.  My arm let go of his in a gamble and snapped up, catching him under the chin and driving his jaws together.  The sound of his teeth crashing together nearly echoed in the sewers, but was muffled somewhat by his tongue that had gotten caught between his teeth.  The bloody morsel of flesh fell back into his mouth as he opened it to scream in pain.  Too bad for him, the tip of his tongue fell straight into his throat and he started to choke on it.
	I felt the pain lessen in my hip as his hand fell away from my side, but I could feel the warmth and the wetness of blood running down my leg.  I reached down and grabbed up the dagger that he had just used on me.  It was a bit crude, but nonetheless, it served its purpose well.  I stood up gingerly, testing my hip carefully.  The orc twitched a few times, the dagger sunk into its ruined eye socket almost to the hilt.
	I glanced over and saw that James had just finished off his opponents.  I was impressed, but I did not waste the time to show it.  Even my own concern for my injury paled in comparison to the concern I felt for Brina.  Briefly, I pondered the strangeness that was overcoming me, then I shelved the thoughts for a later time.
	I fell to my knees beside Brina, checking her over carefully before touching her.  She looked a little pale in the feeble lantern light, but I could see no visible wounds on her.  I looked at James, who approached me slowly, breathing heavily.  I noticed he held the longsword uncertainly in his hands as he drew closer, as though he was not sure what to do with it.  I motioned towards the lantern, figuring that we would sort things out later.  James apparently agreed with me, because after a thoughtful moment, he walked over and got it.
	With better light I could see some blood in Brina’s hair, though it wasn’t much.  It was near the back of her head, near where my own head had been hit.  Realizing that set off a wave of nausea in me as I remembered my own head wound.  My vision grew dizzy for a moment then passed, but an impressive pounding began in my head.  All in all, I felt like taking a nap was not such a bad idea after all.  I shook the feeling off, which only served to make me dizzy again.
	I gently felt through her hair, searching for anything truly dangerous.  All I found was a bruised area that was wet with her blood, no serious injuries.  In the better light, I could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed peacefully.  I reached up then to my own head wound and gently probed at it.  It was puffy and numb, and my hand came away with some blood on it, though not as much as I would have expected.  I had gotten lucky and the edge of the sword had not caught my scalp, only the hair that had been torn out caused the blood.
	“She’s unconscious, they must have hit her in the head with something,” I said, relaxing a little.  “Now what do we do about you?”
	I turned and stood up, a little unsteady on my feet.  I felt the warmth of a trickle of blood running down my leg and it made me wonder how bad the wound was, but James did not need to know that.  He studied me carefully, his sword held between us but in a relaxed position.  I had no doubts that he could have it up and ready in a moments notice if need be.  He turned and walked over to where my shortsword had fallen.  He leaned over carefully and picked it up, keeping one eye on me the entire time.  He casually glanced at it then tossed it my way.
	“We can worry about that later,” was all he said.  He walked over to where some spare equipment was piled up on the ledge and pulled the longsword off the top of the pile that Brina had taken from him.  He glanced at the belt and scabbard Brina still wore around her waste longingly.  “When she wakes up remind her to return that to me.”
	I nodded and smiled faintly.  In spite of my headache, he had amused me, though I clearly did not trust him yet.  I turned back to Brina and wondered if I should try waking her up or let her sleep some more.  Before I could make a decision, I felt myself stumble.  I found myself sitting on the floor, with a growing numbness in my hip.
	“Are you hurt?” James asked, stopping from where he had headed to search through the corpses of the half-orcs.
	“Got bumped in the head,” I mumbled, still determined to hide my weakness from him.  He nodded, stared at me for a long moment, then turned and resumed rifling through the half-orcs equipment.
	I squirmed around a bit so that my wounded side was facing away from him, toward Brina.  I fished around with the breeches I had taken from Paul and found a rather large tear in them where the half-orcs dagger had cut through.  Using that as a point of entry, I spread the tear enough to get a decent look at my hip.  Blood leaked out of the gash in it, soaking the pants and running down my body to wherever gravity took it.  The flow was not mortal, but it definitely had caused me to lose enough blood to be concerned.
I pulled my shirt out of where I had tucked it into my pants and, using my short sword, cut off a couple of strips and a large patch.  My newly tailored shirt was to short to tuck back in to my pants, and it even displayed a small portion of my belly.  Given that it had little to no protective value in the first place, I was not concerned.  The patch of cloth I folded up and placed over the wound, which was roughly two inches long on the surface and I suspected went rather deep into my upper hip.  Had his blade been angled up instead of down, the half-orc probably would have been able to shove several inches of steel into my lower intestine.
For my next bit of self medication I had to get a little more involved.  I glanced over at James and saw him quite engrossed in searching for clues as to what the task of humanoids was doing in the sewers.  Satisfied, I slipped my pants down to my mid thigh.  I was not the least concerned about modesty, but rather making certain James was as unaware of my injuries as possible until I trusted him.  Considering the amount of trust I had to go around, I expected to be dead and buried and still not want him to know about it.
I slipped the shorter strip of cloth as high up on my leg as I could go without having it in my womb.  I tied it almost tight enough to cut off circulation, securing the makeshift bandage in place.  The longer strip went around my waste, only barely being long enough to wrap around the shorter strap and further secure the compress once tied.  As soon as I had the straps in place, I slipped my breeches back up over my hips and tied them as tightly as I could.
I checked the bandage and noticed that while it was serving its purpose, blood was already beginning to soak through it.  I scowled but decided that it would have to do.  My next task was to make myself as comfortable as possible.  I slipped onto my side to elevate my injured hip and looked over Brina to watch James as he pilfered the corpses.
In several more minutes, he had finished and came over to sit next to us, on the other side of Brina.  He glanced at my blood soaked pants but said nothing to me.  Instead he held out several brooches with the same design on them, a dark lightning bolt through a skull, made out of a dark silvery metal that I did not recognize.
“Can you tell me what these are?” He asked suspiciously.
“Bad fashion statements,” I deadpanned.
He frowned at me and stared at me for a moment.  Finally I shrugged.  “I have no idea what they are.  I’d guess they are too well crafted to be made by orcs though, if that’s what you are getting at.  What are they made out of?”
“The elves call it starsilver, the dwarves call it mithril,” he said, glancing back at them.  “They are badges worn by operatives of the dark one to help them recognize one another.  They are specially enchanted so that those that can see in the dark can recognize one another instantly.”
I nodded.  It sounded like a good idea, provided the only people with low light vision were the ones that wore the brooches.  “If he is so far away from here, what in the nine hells are these orcs doing here?”
“Probably planning on raiding the city, the Dark One considers Elendar his greatest threat.  Gneiss has a larger army, but they only have priests whereas we have an academy of mages and warrior mages.  Further, the Gneissian’s do not believe in the foul powers of the Dark One’s army, so he does not consider them a danger.”
“How could 6 orcs and 4 half-orcs constitute a threat to Elendar’s largest city?” I asked, almost noticing how warm I was beginning to get.
“My guess is that they have several of these bands scattered throughout the sewers.  I have to get back up and warn the city,” James glanced around, an uncertain look on his face.  “I believe there is a way to the surface nearby.”
I looked at him as he glanced around.  James appeared so concerned that he had forgotten about Brina and I.  His eyes found mine and we locked gazes for a moment.  Finally he nodded and said, “I still do not know nor trust you and your friend, but I do not think you are agents of the Dark One.  If you follow the passage we were on for some distance, you will come to a branch.  To the left it the tunnel flows down and returns to the original underground river this once was.  To the right it will branch up, leaving the water behind and emerge in the cellar of a tanner’s shop.  Say to him, ‘Fisherman’s Allure’, and from there you can reach the gate of the city and be on your way.”
“Why the change of heart?” I asked him, my vision becoming a bit fuzzy around the edges, though I struggled against the pain in my head and the growing warmth in my body that threatened to envelop me.
“I can not forgive you the murder of my assistant and the guards, but I believe you have proven yourself to be no enemy of Elendar,” He explained.
“It is the nature of evil to do whatever is necessary to succeed,” I mumbled, having trouble enunciating.  My next words I was sure were impossible to understand, but James nodded thoughtfully in spite of it.  “Perhaps I slew them to win your trust and affect my escape.”
“You think deviously, I applaud that,” James said.  “But I think that, like it or not, you will enjoy my hospitality again, though this time I promise your treatment will not be as harsh.”
I tried to deny him, but did not have the energy to do so.  For that matter, I struggled desperately to rouse myself, but my injuries were to severe.  In a few more moments, my head drooped to the stone and I passed out.

Chapter 10

“Yamara, please wake up!”
	Brina’s voice, hushed but filled with urgency, roused me from my slumber.  No easy feat, considering the concussion I had suffered coupled with the blood loss due to the wound in my hip.  I opened my eyes and looked up at her.  My vision was blurry at first, but it focused within a few moments.
	James was nearby, his sword drawn as he waited facing away from us looking up the side passage from which we had come down to find Brina.  By his pose alone I could tell that something was amiss, even if the expression on Brina’s face was not enough.  I tried to sit up but pain and dizziness filled my head, making me settle back down and catch my breath.
	“Are you okay?” Brina asked me, worry in her voice.
	I cleared my throat first, then spoke.  “Aye, just took a good whack in the head from a half-orc.  I’m better now, just needed a nap.  Still a little unsteady though, help me up, would you?”
	Brina looked at me strangely, her expression telling me she knew I was lying and that it was foolish of me to do so.  “What about your hip?” She asked me.
	I smiled fiercely, “Just a scratch, I already took care of it, another scar to add to the rest of them.”
	She shook her head and reached down towards my hip.  She gently pulled my pants down over the wound and pulled the makeshift bandage off of it, which was soaked through with blood, though it appeared to be mostly dried by now.  “Have a look,” she offered.
	I glanced down at it and saw that it had changed.  It was red and puffy, already clearly showing signs of infection.  What impressed me more was the crude stitches in it, holding the wound closed so that it had finally stopped bleeding.  “How long have I been sleeping?” I asked, surprised.
	“James said about six hours, though how he can tell the time in this darkness is beyond me!” Brina said, glancing up at him where he kept watch.  “I only awoke a couple of hours ago myself, one of those things smacked me in the back of the head with something after I nearly suffocated under the water.  I never realized how deadly it could be!”
	Six hours!  I could not believe I had slept so long.  Very irresponsible of me.  Then again, considering the amount of blood that had stained my pants, I guessed that I had lost a lot more then I first thought.  My hip burned and itched at the same time, no doubt reacting to the pain of the wound, the pain of the stitching, and the growing infection in it.  I hated to admit it, but I knew that without a priest or a healer, I would be in dire trouble soon.
	“Did you do this?” I clearly meant the doctoring up of my hip.  She shook her head and glanced at James again.
	“James did it.  He had a sewing kit, of all things, tucked away in a container in one of his boots.  Or at least, that’s what he told me, I was still sleeping when he did it.”  Brina looked around for a moment before looking back at me.  Her face was one of worry and fear.  “Why didn’t he leave us or kill us?  And what are we going to do?”
	I smiled wearily and put my hand on hers where it rested on my side.  “He knows we’re not agents of his enemy.  We may not be friends, but I think he’s curious enough now that he’s more interested in learning from us.”  I thought for a moment as to what James’ motivation could be before remembering our talk earlier, before I had passed out.  “We may be in more trouble down here then we know of too, so perhaps he needs our help.  He needs to get back up to the city, and we have no idea how to get out of here.”
	Brina nodded, fighting back the urge to throw her arms around me and hug me.  She got control of herself and said, “So just like that, everything’s okay?  I thought you wanted to kill him?  You certainly did act like it.”
	I smiled fiercely again.  “I’m just getting started, Brina, I’m not done yet.  As for us, well, he said he’s not happy about Paul or the guards, but those are apparently lesser offenses in his eyes.”  I paused and slowly raised myself up some to test and see how I was feeling.  The nausea was better this time around, though my throat was very dry and I felt quite weak.  Suddenly I realized something that seemed amiss.  “Wait a minute, if I’ve been sleeping for six hours, then why haven’t the sewers flooded again and carried us away or drowned us?”
“James said we’re far enough in them that the water has spread enough to not run over the ledge we’re on.”
I nodded, that made sense to me at least.  The nodding motion made me feel a little sick, causing me to instantly regret it.  Sighing softly, I decided that I had been lazy long enough.  “Help me up girl, we need to get moving.”
	She looked ready to protest, but seeing the look in my face she bit back her words.  She stood up and took my hands, helping me stand up.  I was more then a little shaky, and a fresh spear of agony shot through my from my hip, but I managed to remain standing through grim determination if nothing else.
	James glanced over at us, watching silently for a moment.  Then he made his way quietly back to us.  Seeing me swaying back and forth a bit, even with Brina’s constant support, he reached down to his left boot and twisted the heel off of it.  He pulled out a small flask less then half an inch in diameter and only two inches long.  It was filled with a pale blue liquid.  After replacing the heel of his boot, he handed it to me and said, “Drink this, it will give you strength.”
	I nodded and took it from him.  I nearly lost my balance when my hands left Brina, but she held me up while I twisted the cork out of it and sniffed it carefully.  The smile reminded me of own potions that had long since been lost in the palace while we were imprisoned.  I swallowed it in one gulp, grateful of the cool soothing liquid that worked its way down my throat.  The healing coolness spread out from my belly, renewing the strength in my body and reducing the pain in my hip to more of a dull ache.
	“That won’t last, it only serves to dull pain and provides little actual healing, besides its general invigorating effects,” James explained with an almost apologetic shrug.
	I nodded, knowing that I was far from out of trouble.  “My thanks then.  Let us use this borrowed time to get far from here then.”
	James nodded and looked back down the sewer tunnel he had been watching.  “A few hours ago a couple of orcs, messengers I think, came down there and I had to kill them.  I haven’t seen any since, but I expect there are more where they came from.”
	“So how do we get out?” I asked, noticing that he sported some minor cuts himself that I had not seen before.
	James grinned.  “I tried scouting out the passage I told you would take you two up and out of her to the tanner’s shop, but it’s already been staked out by an even larger band of orcs.  The next closest one is up that tunnel, where the orcs came from that I slew.”
	I nodded, expecting no less.  “Let’s get going then.”
	I took a few careful steps away from Brina, making sure I did not look at her because I knew she would be terribly worried about me.  I felt fine, if a bit stiff.  My hip was especially stiff, as was my blood encrusted clothing, but the anesthetic affects of the potion allowed me to function as I would not have otherwise been able to.  I picked up my short sword and dagger and sheathed them, ready to move out.  Brina readied herself as well, down to only daggers now that James had reclaimed his longsword from her.
	I motioned to one of the broadswords the orcs had used, but Brina shook her head and said, “I’m better with a dagger or knife then I am a sword anyhow.”
	I nodded and followed after James.  Brina came behind me, walking very close in case I needed her support.  The magic of the potion was working fine in me, but I suspected that with each step my hip was getting worse.  The tightness in it surely meant I was pulling and tearing the stitches, but time was more important then that.  That, combined with the infection from the dirty water we had been wallowing through reminded me of my mortality.
	We moved slowly through the water, trying to make as little noise as possible.  Given the training Brina and I both had in stealth, it was a simple task.  Living up to my growing expectations of him, James moved almost as silently as we did.  It took us close to thirty minutes to reach a point where James shuttered the lantern he had been carrying.  Now we crept even more silently, our visibility limited to only a few feet.  We could hear the orcs muttering to each other from further up the tunnel.  Now I could understand Orcish, if spoken slowly and clearly (which rarely ever happened), but this was to far away and too quiet for me to understand.
	James stopped and motioned for us to close to him.  Once we were there, he began whispering.  “How do you feel?” he asked me first.  I pondered my leg and general condition for a brief moment before I responded by nodding that I was ready.
	“Good,” he said.  “We need to take them quickly, the way out is above them.  There is no place for them to rest here, only the water.  I suspect that this is a small group guarding this entrance while the rest of them were waiting for the order to join them and attack the city.”
	“The rest of them?” Brina asked quietly, glancing around nervously.
	He grinned evilly, “Aye, the ones we already dealt with.”  Her mouth opened in surprise and then shut just as quickly, smiling as she glanced at me.  James continued.  “I counted 8 eight of them ahead a few hours back, counting the two I dispatched.  They are straight down the tunnel then to the right when it branches off.  Yamara, you take the lantern, you’re a good fighter, but wounded like that is going to slow you down, whether you feel like it or not.”
	I nodded, annoyed at his knowledge of my condition, but forced to admit that he was right.  “Can you handle a couple of orcs?” I asked Brina, knowing she’d have to do some serious fighting if we were outnumbered almost 3 to 1, nearly 4 to 1 considering my limited ability.
	Brina gritted her teeth and nodded.  She had both her hands on the hilt of the two daggers tucked into her makeshift belt.  James had reclaimed his scabbard and belt from her, forcing her to make do with a piece of cloth torn from one of the orcs studded leather jerkins.  James turned around and started forward quietly.  I began to follow but Brina put her hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention.  I turned back to face her and she leaned in suddenly, surprising me.  Her lips touched mine and I felt the need in her.  I returned her kiss with a surprising amount of passion from myself, then was against surprised by the sense of loss I felt at our parting.
	“Just in case,” she whispered, then was after James before I could say anything.  I stood there for a few moments, uncertain of myself.  That girl kept surprising me more and more.  On top of that, I was surprising myself as well.  I was not sure if I liked my behavior, but I had to acknowledge the part of me that liked her, even if it annoyed me to admit it.
	I followed as quickly as I could and still remain silent.  I noticed that in spite of the numbness surrounding my hip, I had begun to develop a limp.  Looking forward, I strained to make out my companions in the darkness.  I had always had better then average night vision, or at least as long as I could remember.  I suspect it was another benefit of my special treatment among the Ornithrym.  Regardless, while I could make out James ahead of me, I could not find Brina, and I knew she was much closer.  I forced myself to not be concerned for her.  She had proven time and again her ability to take care of herself.	I remembered then of one of those times on Acathia, when we fought the Shissars and what had happened after.  In particular, my encounter with Keeden.  I had forgotten all about the latent psychic potential he had introduced me too (or that I had stolen from him).  I wondered if it would still work, now that I was no longer on Acathia.
I reached out with my own mind for Brina and felt myself contact her.  From what I had learned, such a thing was normally not possible unless I could see my intended target, but the level of familiarity and intimacy that Brina and I had shared made the link quite easy.  I felt reassured, strangely, to know that she was indeed nearby and that I could contact her as easily.  I knew she sensed that I had linked with her mind, so I sent her a simple feeling of contentment and warmth before breaking the link.  She was pleased, I knew that much before I lost contact with her.
	James came to the corner and stopped, and a few moments later I was there too.  I reached out and touched Brina, not realizing that she was there until my hand actually rested on her shoulder.  I was amazed at her ability to blend in.  Normally rogues were skilled at hiding and moving about with stealth – and I was no exception to that - but her talent allowed made it seem more an art then a skill.  James glanced back to make sure we were there.  He did a double-take at how well Brina had blended into the wall beside her, but was able to find her from my hand that was on her arm.  I nodded to indicate we were ready and he nodded back.
	James stepped around the corner and rushed forward, splashing noisily through the water.  We followed after, with me opening the shutter on the lantern as soon as I cleared the corner.  I had already lost track of Brina, even with the full light streaming into the passage.  I did see, however, the eight orcs that James had promised us.  They were squinting furiously as they turned to face us and draw their broadswords.
	Not all of them had broadswords though, two of them carried loaded crossbows.  They struggled to pull the locking mechanism back and succeeded just as James reached them.  He lashed out with his sword, cutting one orc down quickly.  The first crossbow bolt was fired wildly, glancing off the stone ceiling of the tunnel and shooting harmless passed us into the water.  The second quarrel was aimed a little more carefully, but James ducked to the side and evaded it.  My wound prevented me from moving as quickly though.
	The orc with the second crossbow grunted and fell to his knees shortly thereafter, before he could aim and fire his reloaded crossbow.  Brina stood behind him, clearly visible now, a bloody dagger in each hand.  The other crossbowman had reloaded and took more careful aim, firing again.  James was distracted by the three orcs rushing towards him, and was then distracted anew by the barbed bolt suddenly sticking out of his chest, high up on his left side just below his collarbone.
	The magical potion was still working good in me, I hardly even noticed the quarrel impaling my left thigh.  It had hit high and towards the outside of my leg, perhaps six inches below the wound in my hip.  I would have smiled at the irony of receiving another injury so close to my prior one, had I not know the potential severity of the wound.  Nonetheless, I realized the potion was blocking the worst of the pain, so I used it to my short term advantage and set the lantern down roughly on the narrow ledge that ran along the side of the tunnel and drew my shortsword.
	Brina cut the other crossbowmen down from behind, her daggers plunging simultaneously into his back.  The other orcs became aware of her presence then, causing two of them to head towards her.  Two of the three pressing James broke off and came at me then, for James appeared grievously wounded.  James defended himself as best he could, trying to recover from the shock of the impact.
	I had my dagger in my left hand and shortsword in my right by the time the orcs reached me.  I feigned weakness and injury in my left leg, which was not really faking so much as pretending that I could actually feel how badly it was injured.  The orcs came at me, trying to take advantage of my slower left side.  To their surprise, I used my left leg and jumped towards them.  My dagger blocked a surprise attack from the orc on my left, and my short sword took the orc on my right in the throat.
	Brina threw one of her daggers at one of the orcs trying to reach her.  It stuck in its side as it tried to dodge it.  The wound was not serious, but it caused it more then a little pain and discomfort.  The orc slowed to pull the dagger out and let it fall into the water.  The other orc came on, launching an powerful swing at Brina with its broadsword.  Brina deflected the horizontal swipe high, ignoring the jarring vibration in her arm from the parry, and sent her other hand straight out in a punch that hit the orc less then an inch below his sternum.
	Gasping to recapture it’s breath, the orc stumbled backwards, stumbling into its other companion as it tried to join the fight.  Brina followed in closely, slicing across the orcs wrist of its sword arm and laying it open to the bone.  The broadsword fell into the water and the orc continued to try and retreat from her as it rolled off its annoyed partner.  Brina lashed out with her foot, connecting with the side of the orcs knee and hearing a satisfying pop.  The orc crashed into the water, clutching its ruined wrist on the way down.
	James had recovered enough of his wits to move from the defense to more of an offensive move.  He kept his body twisted so that his right side was facing the orc in a duelist stance.  The orc hammered repeatedly at him, using brute strength to try and overpower James in his weakened condition.  Gritting his teeth, James forced himself to block each attack that came at him, not trusting himself to dodge or evade the assaults.  Finally he ducked under a horizontal swing from the orc and lunged forward, driving his longsword deep into the bowels of the orc.
	I stumbled back away from the remaining orc facing me.  My leg, still feeling okay in spite of the serious injuries to it, chose that moment to go out on me.  I fell into the water, my elbow connecting with the rocky floor under the water.  Again, I was spared the majority of the pain, but the numbness that shot through my left arm told me I had just done some more damage to myself.  The orc advanced on me quickly, certain that I was in trouble.  He was more right then wrong.
	Brina spun inside of the swing of the orc that attacked her.  With her back to the orc she was unable to launch much of an attack, she stabbed downward with her dagger.  It plunged deeply into the inside of the orcs thigh.  She twisted her wrist, causing the dagger to twist inside the orcs leg.  The orc dropped his sword and tried to wrap its rough hands around Brina’s neck.  Brina seemed to convulse as she bent over, sending the orc sailing over her head and onto the ground.  She straightened up and dropped onto the orcs chest with her knee before he could rise up.  Her dagger plunged into the orcs chest, finishing the fight.
	I swung my sword across hard, knocking the orcs descending sword wide.  It grated against the rocky floor, sparing me for a few more minutes.  I scooted away and tried to get up.  The water worked against me, making it very difficult for me.  The orc had recovered by then, and prepared to skewer me with his sword.  My back was turned to him as I struggled to get my knees on the floor so I could get up from there.
	The sound of a crossbow firing and meaty thud behind me caused me to look back.  The orc dropped his broadsword, which fell onto my back and then bounced into the water.  My luck must have turned, for the sword managed to not cut me.  The orc fell back away from me, his hands grabbing the crossbow bolt in his chest.
	I glanced around and saw all the orcs dead or dying.  James reached up to the bolt in his chest and gently pulled at it, wincing in pain as he did so.  Realizing it was beyond his ability to deal with, he left it where it was.  Brina ran over to me, sloshing through the water along the way.  She helped me to my feet and looked at my impaled leg with the blood draining from her face.  I smiled weakly and shrugged.  My arm, at least, appeared to just have been stricken numb momentarily from the impact, because I could move it without any problems.
	“Let’s go,” James said, his voice gruff with the pain of his injury.  Blood had already soaked through most of his shirt from the wound, showing that it was serious.  Crossbows were dangerous weapons, packing enough power at short range to punch all the way through a man’s body.  In James’ case, his shoulderblade stopped the bolt from passing all the way through him.  My leg, on the other hand, had the tip of the bolt sticking the back of it, and the feathers still poking out the front of it.
	“Brina, hold on to me a second,” I said to her, reaching down to the wooden bolt in my leg.  I gritted my teeth and twisted my hand quickly, snapping the feathered end off just outside of my leg.  In spite of the numbing potion, or perhaps it was wearing off, dull waves of pain emanated out from it through my body.  Brina’s held on to me from behind, bracing her body against mine.  She held me up as I grabbed the barbed point and yanked it quickly out.  My leg trembled as the muscles protested the abuse and I remained upright only because of Brina’s support.
	“Are you done yet?” James hissed, clearly irritated, though I suspected more from his wound then at me.  I nodded, blinking back the tears from the pain overriding the magic of the potion.
	James led the way up the ladder, having trouble using more then just his right arm.  I followed, having trouble moving my left leg.  Brina moved up directly behind me, helping me up the rungs in the wall.  James managed to push a heavy iron grate off the top of the shaft, grunting at the effort.  He pulled himself out of the sewer and collapsed on the ground of the alley.  I came next, pulling myself slowly out and falling on the other side of the hole.  Brina came last, the only one able to move freely of her own volition.
	She helped me up first, and by the time I was standing – more then a little shakily – James had gotten to his feet as well.  He led us through the pre-dawn city, getting out on the major thoroughfares of the city as quickly as possible to avoid the possibility of a early morning mugging.  It took us close to an hour to reach the palace, and by that time I was in full agony of my injuries.  Only my stubbornness kept me up, that and constant support from Brina.
	The guards helped us into the palace. They intended to take us to the temple of Ban-Dayid located within the palace proper.  James would have none of it though, instead demanding that we see King Avercrombie.  I was not in the mood to agree, considering the severity of my injuries, but I lacked the strength to speak out.  Brina was a bit overwhelmed by the situation, and did her best to keep me up and moving.  We followed James and the guards into the King’s office, separate from the throne room due to the early hour.
	We sat down and rested as best we could.  Sleep threatened the edges of my consciousness again, but I fought it desperately, uncertain of my ability to recover from the darkness should I succumb again.  In a few more minutes, the King stepped through a doorway opened by his page.  We tried to get to our feet to stand at attention, but the king waves us back, in light of our obvious injuries.  James still stood, refusing to succumb to his wounds.
	“Sire, I was exploring the sewers and came across several bands of the Dark One’s agents, I believe they mean to attack any time now!” James said, once the King sat down.  King Avercrombie raised an eyebrow at James and then looked at us.
	“And who are these two?” He asked, his casual manner showing that the King and James had a relationship more familiar then lord and vassal.
	James glanced at us, his eyes narrowing for a brief moment.  “SET agents of mine, my lord, they went with me into the sewers and as you can see, we encountered opposition.”
	The King turned to his page then.  “Squire, fetch General Andres immediately.”
	“Thank you Sire,” James said, sagging visibly in relief.  “I’ll lead his men into the sewers immediately.”
	“No,” King Avercrombie said, causing James to stiffen in surprise.  “Jim, you’ve got a crossbow bolt halfway through your chest, most men would be dead or unconscious by now.  Father Justin will be here in moments to take care of you.  Andres can take care of this, he has enough men to thoroughly search the sewers and discover how the got in there in the first place.”
	“Not to mention,” the King added, looking at us with a mock scowl, “you’ve managed to bleed all over my chairs.  Those were a gift from the late elven King Thessanril, you know.”
	James smiled weakly in spite of himself.  “My apologies, Sire.  I’ll see to their restoration myself when this is taken care of.”
	Further banter was cut short as Father Justin entered the office.  He took a look at James and his face whitened.  He hurried over to him and knelt in front of him to examine the wound.
	“Father, please, check on her first, her injuries are more severe and longer lasting,” James said, blocking the priests attempts to remove his shirt.
	Father Justin glanced over at me, studying me carefully.  I had to admit, I certainly did not look my best.  My skin had a waxy pallor to it and my eyes were surely somewhat dull and glazed over in pain.  Nonetheless, I did not think a couple of relatively minor flesh wounds could make up for the quarrel in James’ chest.
	“Father,” I said through with a thick tongue.  “Next time I’ll tell the orcs to aim better, maybe they’ll hit his lung and keep him from spouting nonsense.”
	I noticed Brina looking at me out of the corner of my eye.  Her look was a mixture of worry, concern, and anger.  She was angry with me for making light of my condition, I could tell.
	The priest looked me over carefully, noticing the bloodstained state of my breeches.  James had an impressive red splotch on his shirt as well, but simply due to the duration of my wounds, I had him beat in the category of gore and carnage.
	“Don’t listen to her, Father,” James said.  “She’s had a potion of invigoration to keep her going.”
	If I did not know any better, I would have sworn the words the priest muttered under his breath were a most unpriestly oath.  I had to chalk it up to delusions induced by my injuries though, for later nobody seemed to remember the specifics.  Even though I have always believed that a priest should be considered guilty until proven innocent.
	Things began to grow muffled and fuzzy again for me.  Though this time the blackness clawing at the edges of my vision was not as warm and inviting as it had been before.  It was cold and spoke of dark things hidden just beyond my vision waiting for me to let go my tenuous grip so they could pull me into the darkness with them.  More of an overactive imagination, I am sure, but it sure did seem real at the time.
	I think that the priest enlisted Brina to help him by shifting me to the side in the chair.  He then tore away at the gash in my pants to get a better look at my wounds.  He pulled away the makeshift bandage and made a face at the sight of my hip.  I saw the look on Brina’s face as well, and it was anything but good.  It had only been a total of just over 6 hours since I received the injury, but apparently getting fresh sewer water in an open wound is not recommended by those in the know.
	I remember him chanting and sprinkling something on my leg, but that was near the end of my recollection.  Things got even fuzzier then, and the blackness nearly claimed me.  I struggled against it though, and in the end, I managed to fight it off.  A bit of clearness returned to my eyes, and I found myself resting in the chair a little easier.  Neither Brina nor the priest was near me, but instead were watching over James.  I heard a low groan that I wondered if it might have been me until I let my head roll over to the side facing where James sat.
	Father Justin had his hands on either side of the quarrel in James’ now bare chest, chanting with an unnaturally deep voice.  Unlike the charlatan water priestess Sarya, Father Justin’s chant had the resonation of true divinity and power to it.  Meanwhile Brina had herself braced against James’ chair and had both hands on the end of the bolt, steadying it or, I wondered with detached amusement, ready to pull it out.  I ended up being right, for with a nod, Father Justin signaled Brina.  She gritted her teeth and yanked on it, her strength surprising everyone present but me.  The bolt was yanked free of the wound, the barbs on the tip tearing flesh on the way out.  James’ mouth opened and closed silently, like a fish gasping for air.   Blood gushed out of the wound, spurting evenly in a way that told me he was not long for this world.
	Father Justin’s hands closed over the wound though, and his chanting continued.  James passed out shortly, and I figured that he was on his way to those very same dark shapes that had just been after me.  To my surprise, when Father Justin pulled his hands away, blood no longer pumped from James chest.  Not only that, but the wound was closed.  Still angry, red, and swollen, it was nonetheless closed and partially healed.  I had heard of priest using their powers to heal, and had even seen a few lesser experiences of it in my time.  Yet most of the priests I had known were devoted to fey Gods and prayers of healing and soothing were not quick to come to their lips.
	“They will rest for many hours, for each has suffered grievous wounds,” Father Justin said, turning to face King Avercrombie.  His own face seemed drawn and tired, no doubt from channeling the powerful divine magic through him necessary to keep us going.  “And this girl, her wounds are far lesser, but if My Lord wishes, I can have one of my acolytes sent to tend to her.”
	The King looked at Brina, who suddenly seemed quite small and anxious.  “I’m okay,” she said in a small voice.  “Just a few scratches and a bump on the head.”
	“As you wish, milady,” Father Justin said, bowing towards her.
	“Guards!” the King called, gaining the attention of the guardsmen waiting in front of his office.  “Fetch some stretchers, and have two guest rooms made ready immediately.”
	“Is that appropriate, young lady, or do you and the other have quarters nearby?” The King asked Brina softly.  She blushed, out of her element to be in front of someone as powerful as the King was.
“You are most gracious, Highness,” I said, forcing some energy into my weary body.  “We would be most honored to accept lodging from you.”
	Father Justin’s breath hissed in through his mouth.  “How are you awake?” He stammered.
	I shrugged weakly.  “It’s a bad habit,” I confessed.  “Insomnia.”
	“You must sleep and gather your strength, you were all but a corpse a few moments ago, lass,” He lectured me gently, in a grandfatherly manner that did not seem to fit him for he appeared to have seen no more then 30 years.
	“I look forward to seeing the three of you after you’ve recovered,” The King said to us – or at least those of us still conscious to hear him.  “Especially to learn about your interesting choices in clothing.  But for now, I must bid you a goodbye, for your stretchers have arrived and so has my general.”
	I saw that he was right on both account, though General Andres hardly looked the part of a general clad in his nightshirt and boots, with his sword hastily buckled about him.  Shorter then I, the general nevertheless appeared fully awake and alert.  More then I could say about myself.
	With Brina’s help, I stood up and was prepared to walk to my room, but Father Justin would have nothing of the sort.  Verbally lashing me in a way that only priests can, he reminded me that my leg was all but useless not twenty minutes earlier.  Normally, I do not allow people to talk thusly to me, but given my condition, I relented and let Brina help me to lay down on the stretcher that the guards had fetched some pages to bring.  James was likewise scooped up, but where he went was not the same direction that we were led (or carried, in my case).
	I lapsed in and out of consciousness a few times during the trek, but always I came back awake quickly, fearing the dark creatures of my imagination would return for me.  Finally, Brina and one of the pages helped put me in a bed.  Brina shooed them away and undressed me.  I tried to help as best I could but I think I hindered more then helped.  In spite of my floundering, she succeeded finally and covered me up.  It was easily the most noble and comfortable bed I had ever slept in, but I was several hours away from realizing that.
	She watched me fight off sleep for several long minutes, a look of uncertainty on her face.  Finally she turned to leave and head for her own room, which the pages had told her was next to mine.  I dimly saw her leaving and was seized with an inexplicable fear.  Somewhere deep inside of me, in spite of my condition, a part of me loathed myself for my sudden near panic.
	“Brina,” I managed to call out, though I suspect it was more of a croak.  She was at my side in an instant, kneeling on the floor to put her face close to mine.  “Stay with me,” I whispered, already losing my fight with sleep.
	She smiled in relief and in a matter of less then two seconds had her clothing stripped off.  She took a little longer getting into bed, but that was out of consideration for me.  She curled up next to me and happily wrapped her arms around me as best she could.  Again a part of me hated myself, but another part of me reveled in the comfort and security.  Another part of me enjoyed the raw sensuality of feeling her surprisingly soft skin against mine.  Suddenly, the creatures of darkness that were waiting to pull me with them into a pit of eternal damnation lost some of their reality.  They did not seem so frightening or so real anymore.  Armored with Brina’s care, I was able to at last lapse into a healing sleep, unafraid to do battle with them should they gain the strength to come for me.

Chapter 11

	A week had passed, during which I recovered my strength more rapidly then I would have thought possible.  Due in large part to the efforts of the clergy of the God of Healing, Ban-Dayid, my thigh wound had recovered completely.  A faint scar remained both in the front and the rear of my leg, but like all of my other scars, only by focusing carefully on it could I notice it.
My hip had not recovered as well, but that had to do with the infection that had set into it.  A mere six hour injury did not, to me, seem possible to grow into such a mess. James had visited us late the next day, handing me a dagger.  It was the same one that the orc had jammed into my hip.  Some careful examination of it showed that it was no ordinary dagger.
A channel ran along the length of the blade, normally referred to as a blood groove to make it more easily withdrawn from a wound.  In this case, it was for the delivery of more vile substances.  A hidden release in the pommel allowed me to unscrew it.  Looking inside I could see a opening where liquid could be stored in it.  Not just liquid, but typically poison.  Just from sniffing it, I could tell it had some poison in it recently.
“Odd poison,” I had commented.  “It worked more on the wound then a poison designed to interfere with my heart, breathing, or mind.”
James nodded, eyeing me carefully.  “All of the half-orcs had one.  The rest were disposed of, but I figured you might want to see why you had such a hard time.  Deep wound, infection from the filthy water, and poison.”  James left the dagger with me.  I, of course, saw a use for such a dangerous weapon, and decided to keep it.
That was five days ago.  With equal amounts of hard work and rest, my hip was still sore, but I could walk short distances without limping.  In the privacy of my own room I studied the wound daily, noticing how oddly it healed.  It seemed resistant to the healing magic the priests used, and closed slowly because of it.  Still, it never bled beyond that first time, but that made the wound all the more disturbing because of it.
Brina thought it odd herself, but truth be told, she had not been around me as much the past few days.  More ambulatory then I was, James had enlisted her to answer a few more questions.  Her responses had apparently been successful, for she had then began accompanying him on his trips into the sewers, trying to piece together how Dagrazt’s minions had been able to intrude so closely.  General Andres’ soldiers had rooted them out with few losses themselves, but they had been unable to determine where they had come from in the first place.
James had provided both Brina and I with some new clothing, which was good considering mine were a bloody mess and Brina’s never even came close to fitting her.  I did have to show her how to dress in some of them, however.  Brina had never seen so many clothes at one time, and laughed outright when I told her that some of them comprised a single outfit, in the case of some of the more formal dresses.  Coming from a world where it reached 120 degrees in the shade led to a decided lack in minimum clothing standards, after all.
It was in a nicely tailored set of clothes that I had chosen to wear for our official meeting with King Avercrombie.  Brina and myself were being presented to him officially, or so James had told me.  She returned from her room next to mine with her new garments on.  Like me, she had opted for a shirt tucked into a pair of man’s breeches.  My newly acquired dagger rested in a sheath on my right hip, while my trusty short sword was on my left hip.  Brina had a new dagger at each of her hips, but had not had a chance to acquire another sword yet for herself.  Our most prized possession, or at least mine, was the very comfortable and durable set of boots that James had given me.  Brina wore a pair as well, but she was having more trouble becoming used to the enclosed footwear.  All I knew was that my feet were very thankful to the protection, given that our barefoot adventure in the sewers was considerably less then pleasant.
I followed her out of the room, allowing that Brina was more familiar with the layout of the palace due to her increased mobility over the past week.  She had been chatting quite a bit throughout the week about the world on which we found ourselves.  She had shared virtually everything she could to James in their time spent together, telling him all about Acathia and what little she knew of me that she felt free to discuss.  I had to applaud her for that, she kept enough of her wits about her in her excitement to leave it up to me what I would be willing to discuss of myself.
	She prattled on again on our trip to meet up with James, discussing things she had seen.  How things were different here then Acathia.  I had to admit, things seemed much different here, other then how tolerable the weather was compared to Acathia’ harsh environment.  It seemed much more like Halador to me.  She spoke of seeing beings called elves that bore a passing resemblance to the pudarin of Acathia and of stunted men called dwarves.  James said he had never heard of a Faradwym, the lizard-man of Acathia.  Though perhaps they were similar to the evil lizard men found in swamps and marshes on Malatoria.  The thought saddened Brina somewhat, since she had fond memories of her former companion.
	Her musings were cut short when we reached James’ office.  I was grateful, not only for the ceasing of her excited chatter, but also because my hip had begun to throb with each step I took.  She knocked on the door and we heard a muffled voice bid us to enter.  She opened it and let me walk in ahead of her.
	James rose from behind his desk to greet us.  “Good to see you up and about, Yamara,” he said cordially.  He favored Brina with a small smile, and she returned it.  I had been quite irritable lately, being nearly bedridden for several days, and my irritability increased at seeing the familiarity that James and Brina seemed to share.  This, of course, caused my annoyance to grow as I realized the sparks of jealousy within me.
	“What happens now, Earl James?” I said, reminding everyone of our relative stations in life.
	The smiles vanished instantly.  James cleared his throat and met my challenging gaze without flinching.  “I see the potential for trouble in your eyes, Yamara.  Do you hate me still for our meeting?”
	“I made myself a promise a while back, James.  I vowed that I would kill you for the way you treated Brina and I.”  I paused and glanced at Brina, who had a worried look on her face.  “I hate to break a vow.”
	“But have things not changed since then,” James countered, speaking casually with me.  “I’d like to think we set aside our differences in the sewers.  After all, I managed to put aside my dislike of the two of you over the death of Paul and my guards.”
	I was further irritated at him for pointing that out to me.  I glanced at Brina again, hoping to draw some strength or resolve from her.  What I saw there drained me of my fight, however, for she nearly had a pleading look about her.
	“And after we escaped the orcs, while we both lay near death we argued with Father Justin over who should be healed first, claiming the other was in worse condition,” He pointed out.
	“I wanted your death to be my responsibility,” I said, though everyone could tell the fight was taken out of me.  I glanced behind me and saw a chair.  I collapsed into it gracefully, though my hip reminded me it was not fully healed yet as I did so.
	“Well enough, let me know when you feel ready for the challenge,” James said, grinning at me to let me know he had figured it out.  “Until that time, I would like to employ the two of you.”
	“The King already believes you are agents of mine, and given my relationship with him, I have considerable leeway.”  James said thoughtfully.  “I’ve given it much consideration, and I believe that based upon your performance, you would make good agents, much as I told him on a whim when we first interviewed out of the sewers.”
	Brina seemed more then a little interested in the job offer, but I was instantly concerned.  “I worked for a large organization once, employing my special skills.  I rose far and fast, given my origins as the daughter of a murdered whore cast out into the garbage behind the brothel.  With my successes and favor came many benefits, but it eventually faded and sent me running for my life.  The long and short of it is how I ended up here.”
	James looked at me without surprise or compassion in his eyes.  Brina had not heard so much of my very early days and looked at me with a bit of sadness in her eyes.  Sadness not of me, but for me.  My own gaze was hard as steel as I did my best to ignore Brina and continue to stare at James.  A bit of fight had come back into me.
	“I have found that running my own life is by far more enjoyable.  I like to be in charge of my fate,” I finished up, waiting for his response.
	“There is no organized thieves guild in this city, I won’t allow one to form,” James said matter-of-factly.  “But individual thieves do try their best to make a living, it’s hard to stop every one of them.”
	I was not sure where he was going with that, other then to let me know that he suspected I was quite proficient at thievery.  I remained silent until he continued.  “Where will you go?  I have come to believe, from talking to Brina, that neither of you have any previous knowledge of Malatoria.  It is a dangerous world to those who know nothing of it.”
	I shrugged.  “I have no idea where we will go, but seldom has that been a concern of mine.”
	Brina’s mouth opened and closed silently, unnoticed by James and only barely by me.  James turned to face her then.  “She said we, does that mean you go with her, Brina?  I had hoped at least you would see the benefit of working within the security and safety of a large nation such as Elendar.”
	She looked from me to James, trying and failing to hide the confusion and worry on her face.  “I… um, I’m not sure.  I’ll need to figure that out,” she finally said, frustrated and hurt.
	James nodded.  “Let me know what the two of you decide.  First though, we must be on our way to meet the King.  He has taken a break from his court sessions to meet with us in his office.  Based upon the positions I had hoped the two of you would accept, I wanted your induction and commendation to be as private as possible to prevent your faces from becoming known.”
	I nodded and stood back up, my hip rested enough to not complain to much.  Before we could leave James glimpsed the dagger on my hip.  “You might not want to wear that around here, it has the Dark One’s sigil on it.”
	I had the good grace to blush, at least.  I untied the sheath from my belt and slipped it into my right boot, hiding the hilt inside the leg of my pants.  I stood back up and shrugged my shoulders before heading towards the door.  James followed us out of the room and then took the lead, leading us to the office where we had met the King before.  Brina’s face remained clouded with worry.  She kept glancing at me and then glancing away quickly when I tried to meet her gaze.  I felt more then a little resistant.  I had no desire to handicap myself by getting stuck in another organization that would cause my freedoms to be limited.
	Brina and I stood at attention when we entered the room and faced King Avercrombie.  Or as close to attention as two thieves knew how to stand.  He smiled warmly at them.
	“Earl James has told me about you two.  I am honored to have people with your dedication and abilities in my service,” The King said.  “Given the nature of your service, I granted his request that we hold this little ceremony in private.  Hardly a ceremony, really, and for that I am grateful.  Too many damned ceremonies, running a kingdom.  Hard to get anything accomplished.”
	I fought off the urge to smirk as the king rambled for a moment.  I had no doubts that life as a king was not perfect, but given the other vocations I had seen, it certainly had its perks.
	“Sire,” James said once the King had stopped his rhetoric.  “They are undecided, but may be wishing to leave service of the crown.  Their tenure has been most honorable, in spite of their youth, and if they decide to leave, they have my blessings.”
	The King nodded and raised an eyebrow.  “Pity that, it is hard to find good help.  But given James’ praise, should you choose to leave, I wish you nothing but the best of times in life.”
	He motioned to the page behind him to summon him.  The young man came forward and held out a sword to him.  The king took the sword from him and turned back around.  “Brina, We present this sword to you to replace that which you lost in the sewers.  It is Our privilege to honor you for your service to all of Elendar.  You have Our thanks and earnest hope that you continue your service to the Crown.”
	Blushing furiously, Brina hesitantly took the shortsword from King Avercrombie, then tried to curtsy, a procedure she had glimpsed a few times in the palace.  She did a halfway decent job, I had to admit, especially for someone who had never seen the maneuver prior to a few days past.
	She stepped back from a smiling King, all the more embarrassed for it.  The king then took the other item the page held out for him.  It was a dagger.  Finely made, I figured it would be useless in practicality, though I could probably sell it for a decent amount.  I took it from him and curtsied myself, though my training allowed me to perform the unbalancing move with grace.
	“Well, the royal patrons of Elendar await their King, I must return to them, I suppose.  James, should they decide to go their own ways, see to it that they receive an extra months pay as thanks from the Crown.”
	“Yes, My Lord,” James said dutifully.  He bowed and Brina and I curtsied again before following James back out.
	In the palace halls James stopped and turned to us.  “Well ladies, I leave things to your discretion.  You may stay here as long as you feel welcome, and my offer stands as well.  Should you decide to leave, then I shall make good upon the King’s offer.  You will receive 200 gold, a months worth of wages.”
	He turned then and left us alone.  I was stunned.  That was a lot of money for a months worth of work.  Far more then I made working for the Ornithrym.  For that matter, it was more then I would make in a year in the Ornithrym.  Well, more then what they would pay me.  Plunder along the way served to pad my income quite nicely back then, and I was certain it worked similarly here.
	Brina looked at me, near to tears.  I smiled at her and headed back towards our rooms.  She followed me, saying nothing when I began to limp.  Finally we reached my room and filed into it.  I sat down heavily in a chair and took the dagger the King had given me out to examine it.
	It was very finely crafted, there was no doubt about that.  The crossguard had a design carved into it of unknown origin, but set within the center was a sizeable sapphire, worth a kings fortune by itself, I wagered.  The warp around the hilt was made of a fine leather as well.  What impressed me the most about it was the blade though.  Always a woman of practicality, I started with the blade and ended with it.  It was forged of the same special metal that the orcs brooches had been made of, mithril.  Though in the case of the dagger, it was a much finer job.  The edge was what impressed me the most, for my initial doubt of it’s usefulness caused my thumb to receive a cut.  I viewed the dagger with more respect after that!
	Brina cried out as she saw the blood well up on my thumb.  She knelt down beside me and grabbed up my hand, handling it gently and sucking it into her mouth to try and stop the bleeding or something.  I was not really sure, other then I knew she had done it out of concern for me.  Misplaced concern, perhaps, I was not sure anymore now that I had recovered from my debilitating injuries.
	She looked up at me then, anguish in her eyes.  Something sparked in me, some of it good and some of it not.  Yet again I was surprised at my own dualities.  A part of me felt disgusted by the depth of her need, and another part of me cried out at me to give in to it.  I pulled my thumb out of her mouth and noticed that some of my blood had fell on her lips.  I leaned over towards her and she leaned up at me, as though drawn together by a loadstone.  We kissed then, and I could taste the coppery taste of my blood on her tongue and lips.
	I felt something explode within me, my frustrations and rages vented and gave me a fierce energy.  I stood up, breaking the kiss, and pulled her with me towards the bed.  We fell on to it, my wounds forgotten altogether.  Our clothes were quickly strewn about the bed and the floor so that we could more properly get at one another’s body.  On Acathia, when we had made love, it had been a session of gentle kisses and softly probing touches.  This had none of that.  Rather it was fevered, passionate, and almost violent at times until it was over in a sweaty and exhaustive finale.  
	Brina crawled out from under me and cuddled up on top of me, helping me reposition my legs.  She embraced me in a loving gesture that I was too tired to properly respond to.  I just lay there, reveling in the after-shocks that washed over me, making my limbs jerk and my stomach clench and unclench.  Brina placed small kisses on my neck, shoulders, face, lips, and anywhere else she could reach.  Finally I reached up and placed my hand on her back to comfort her.  My lustful rage was spent, my frustrations having been drained out of me by the encounter.
	“That was so much better then before,” Brina finally said, breaking the thought provoking silence we had endured for many long moments.  “I thought it was incredible before when we did it, but it was nothing compared to feeling your…. To when you…”
	She trailed off, embarrassed to finish her sentence.  I chuckled softly.  “Aye, it was a world of difference.”
	She nodded and smiled, her face red from embarrassment and the flush of sex.  “Is it always so rough between women?” She asked, drawing another chuckle from me.
	“No, Brina, that was something between us.  It’s not always like that, in fact, it’s probably not usually like that.  We had a lot of emotions built up within us that needed to be worked out, and I think, at least for me, that I got some of them out,” I told her, talking to let myself hear my thoughts as much as for her.
	“What do you mean?” She asked, a touch of worry slipping back into her voice.
	“I’m a strange person, Brina,” I admitted, trying to wrestle with my feelings on the subject.  “And you’re a danger to me… or at least my way of doing things and viewing myself.”
	The worry and anxiety were plain to see on her face.  The girl could be devious and dangerous when the time arose, but I could see she was still young and had a long ways to go before reaching the level I had attained.  A part of me hoped she would never reach my level – for her own good.
	“All my life, Brina, I have cared for no one but myself.  I learned at a young age that caring for others was a disadvantage.  A weakness.”  I paused to check her reaction, she nodded in understanding to me, but I thought I saw the beginning of a glimmer of tears in her eyes.  “When I first met you, I thought you a younger version of me.  Different in training and history, but similar in spirit.  I still think that, I guess, but not in the same way.  I think that you possess a great potential to turn into a very powerful and dangerous woman, both physically and in all other ways.  But realizing that potential would perhaps ruin you.”
	Brina shook her head, denying what I had said.  Still no tears fell, but they were definitely threatening to grow in her eyes.  “I won’t let you leave me,” she said, determined to keep what she felt the inevitable outcome of our talk would be.
	“I have no intention of leaving you, you beautiful thing,” I said, surprised by the words even as I said them.  “I just need you to know how I am and what I am capable of.  Your infatuation with me has clearly gone from a simple crush and hero worship to a full fledged love, or at least what you consider it to be.”
	Brina nodded, the first tear spilling down her cheek.  I reached over and wiped it off her cheek with my finger.
	“I left the path of innocence at an age far younger then you are now, and you still have some within you.  I have killed innocents, old and young alike.  It is true that I took no pleasure in it, but neither did it upset me.  It was merely a matter of business.  Can you know that you are helping to poison an entire village and feel no remorse over it, Brina?”
	The question was rhetorical, but she opened her mouth to answer it anyway.  Then she closed it and thought more carefully.  Finally she nodded and said, “I think if I had to do it, I could.  But you are right, I would try to avoid it if they did not deserve it or at the very least, I would regret it greatly.”
	“Keep that conscious about you, Brina,” I said more quietly.  “I am no agent of this Dark One James speaks of, but under different circumstances I could have easily been one.”
	Brina snorted.  “And under different circumstances I could be one of those orcs we fought!”
	I chuckled at her words, knowing that she was true but also because I suspected she was in for a shock.  
	“So anyhow,” I brought us back around to our original topic, “I’m trying to teach myself some new things, and you are helping me learn.  I know you like the idea of this Kingdom of Elendar, and you appreciate the offer James has extended us.  I am hesitant from my own past.  I will join it with you, but under the understanding that we watch our own backs and each others.  King Avercrombie may be a good and kind man, but remember that he is not the only man, there are many others and many of those are more concerned with their own petty concerns then the greater spirit of Elendar.”
	“James seems a unique man, genuinely concerned with the welfare of Elendar.  I think we are safe with him, but keep in mind that with people whose beliefs are so strong in something as his or King Avercrombie’s, another danger exists.  This danger is for the little people, like you and I.  The good of the many outweighing the good of the few.  Politics often will cause noble men to make sacrifices they might not otherwise make.”
	Brina nodded, listening to me closely because to her mind, I had never lead her wrong.  Indeed, I had not, and by warning her of this, I might be saving her life down the road, though she could not understand what it was I was saying to her without experiencing the betrayal of a leader to further their own ends.  The ends being good or evil did not seem to matter, it was the common people along the way that suffered the worst.  I was determined to never be one of those common people again.
	“Now enough of this talk, let us concern ourselves with James and Elendar and our new jobs tomorrow, for now we have more pressing concerns,” I said to her, smiling mischievously.
	“What concerns?” Brina asked, her own expression brightening to see that I was not trying to separate the two of us.  Her further words were muffled by my lips as they descended lightly upon her, seeking an equally passionate but less forceful embrace.
	“Concerns such as teaching you how to properly make love to a woman,” I said when I broke the kiss.
	“I do love you, you were right,” Brina admitted, another tear threatening to spill, though this one a good tear.
	I nodded, “I know I was, Brina.  You’ll have to bear with me, it will be a long time before I can let myself go that far, though I do grow increasingly annoyed at myself for being concerned more and more about you.”  I smiled warmly at the last, letting her know I had good intentions for her.  She nodded and fell into each others arms again, exploring one another’s bodies in a more intimate and gentle fashion.

	Unknown to Brina and I, James shook his head and slipped quietly away from where he had silently watched us.  I would later discover the spyholes myself in the ceiling where he had listened to Brina and I and watched our frenzied activities.  Once James had moved far enough away from my room to feel safe, he adjusted the hardness in his pants and cursed us under his breath.  The curse was good natured, at least.  He set off again, slipping out of the secret passages that catacombed the palace and heading towards his office.  After a moment of thought, he changed his mind and headed out of the palace, intent upon finding a whore to help him with the problem we had inadvertently given him.

Chapter 12

	My first mission for the Special Elendarian Task force was by and large a failure.  Out of personal pride, I would have simply neglected to mention it at all, but I suppose some consideration must be given.
	Firstly my partner.  A raving idiot with no limitations as to his lunacy.  Perhaps I speak to kindly of him.  To this day I do not know why I rescued him.  Oh wait, yes I do.  Had I not rescued him, he might have be tortured into revealing some secrets to the Gneissians.  The real question is, after rescuing him, why did I not kill him?  Too much time with Brina I suppose, she warmed my heart a little.
	Regardless, it started out with a miserable two weeks spent riding in the wagon with the buffoon, an elven wizard named Summerbloom Happytree.  I still develop a nervous tic when I even think of the name, let alone the person.  Incessantly talkative and equally moronic in his ability to converse, I would have been doing Malatoria a favor by dispatching him.  Let me not forget to mention his incredible lackadaisical nature and happy-go-lucky attitude towards life.
Mind you, I have known a few elves in my time, and while some of them did tend towards a more care-free existence, Summerbloom (cringe) was above and beyond the call of elfdom.
So it came that when we arrived at the gates from Elendar to Gneiss, I anticipated the worst.  As expected, they were border keeps with guards searching every person and wagon that passed through, at both keeps.  They were separated by perhaps a mile of what could only be described as a no mans land.  Little grew save some short grass and the occasional sapling or scrub brush.  Though not recently, it had seen battle more then once there.
I hid myself well though, seizing the perfect opportunity to slip away when the Gneissian guards questioned my companion and drew their interest with his pathetic attempts at trickery.  With their attention on him, it seemed simple for me to slip away from our wagon and conceal myself amongst the wagon in front of us that had been cleared to pass through.
Now the plan as I told him was for me to slip away thusly and set up a further diversion so that he could get through as well.  In reality my plan was to slip away from him and leave him to rot.
Inside the gate, I slipped away to get lost within the maze of passages that made up the border keep.  Avoiding discovery, I managed to find a servants section and found some garments that would allow me to properly make the next stage of my plan the most effective.  Disguised as a simple serving wench, I did my best to mingle throughout the keep, pretending to be a busy mindless servant while I listened carefully and noted what transpired around me.
I came to find out that the news spread quickly, an evil demon had been captured at the gate, and that after right and proper torture he would be purified two days hence by pain and then his soul would be set free to be redeemed by Symbos, the only God Gneissians believed in, if he was worthy.
This actually bothered me.  Yes, Summerbloom (cringe) had tortured me nonstop for the two weeks I had been forced to endure his company, but the torture the Gneissians would perform, followed by the purification of his soul by pain were more then I felt most people deserved.  Perhaps not everyone, but most.  Thus my plans changed, and I knew that most likely our mission was for naught.
I managed to make my way then about the keep some more, learning more of it.  In time I discovered that which I sought, the keep commanders quarters.  As it was growing late by that time, he was in them.  Continuing my act as a serving girl, I gained access to his quarters easily enough and, with the aid of my psionic ability to enhance the attraction of those I wish to me, managed to seduce him.
He was enthusiastic in his lovemaking. I’ll give him that, but little else.  Unnecessarily rough and domineering, it was nothing but a turn off to me.  Nonetheless, I acted as weak and polite and as honored to be ravaged by him as possible, as he clearly expected me to be.  His only spout of imagination that altered the dreary incident was when he decided to finish things with me on my knees before him after nearly an hour of mundane boredom.  Kneeling in front of him as he prepared to show for once and for all his obvious superiority presented me with the opening I needed.  My hand had already located a dagger I had concealed earlier with a touch of minor sleight of hand.  As he reached his peak of distraction I stood up quickly and slipped my dagger into his back, finding easily the area between his ribs and just under his shoulder blade.
I angled the thrust so that it would pierce his lung as well as his heart, ensuring his death in a timely manner and preventing him from calling out.  See, I told you I had done this sort of thing before.  The crowning touch for me though was seeing his mouth open in a painfully surprised gasp.  I smiled and spat into his face.  I jerked the dagger out as he coughed on my gift to him, then stepped back away from him.
He tried to reach behind his back, but only succeeded in falling to his knees.  I could hear a faint wet gurgling noise every time he tried to breath, which was becoming more and more rapid with every passing moment as he tried to catch the wind that I had stolen from him forever.  Finally realizing he was doomed, he remembered his duty and tried to come after me and take me with him into death.  I stepped out of his reach though, and before he had taken more then two steps from what had been his kneeling position, he fell again to the floor, succumbing finally to the blackness of unconsciousness.  I waited a few more minutes to make sure he was done, and knew it was over when his body jerked three times then lay still.  Blood no longer bubbled out of the thin gash on his back.
Contrary to popular belief, people do not die quickly.  It is a gruesome thing and only the most dedicated and hardened person can watch a person die.  More then merely watch it happen, it must be studied to be certain.  Add to that someone willing to cause such a condition to come about in the first place and you have someone well trained and dangerous.  I am a professional.
I took a few swallows of wine to further clear my palate, murder is thirsty work, especially when it involves a prolonged bit of invasive discomfort as this one had.  That accomplished, I moved the commander into his bed and posed him as though he was asleep.  Spare clothes of his I used to mop up the bloody mess that he had spilled both on the floor and on me, and hid them in one of his chests.
Then I went through his belongings as quickly as I could, rummaging for things that I thought might be of interest to James.  My chief concern, however, was in finding the commanders keys.  It was easy to find, a ring filled with iron keys lay upon his desk in plain sight.  What documents I could find that seemed of interest I rolled up and placed in a scroll case carved out of the bone of some large creature.  I also found some gold, and that slipped away into my purse.  Sure, service to the King paid well, but that was no reason not to supplement my income.
From there I made my way to the dungeon.  I had to move far more carefully down there, for servants were, I presumed, not readily allowed into such a secured area.  I came to the guardroom before to long and saw two soldiers sitting at a table.  One was sopping up some stew with a chunk of bread while another was leaning back and sharpening his dagger.
I knocked timidly on the door, adopting a similar personality to the one I had used on the keeps commander.  The guards were surprised and suspicious to see me, but I explained at first a strong interest in seeing the ‘demon’ that had been captured.  That was to be denied to me, of course, for they were good soldiers and wanted no trouble.  However, a comely young lass with a loosely tied bodice alone with them?  Suffice to say they were in no hurry to be rid of me.  What they did not know was my ace in the hole, my psionic talent that allowed me to make myself all the more alluring in their minds.
So it was that before long I was pining away about my lost love, a soldier who was slain cruelly by Elendarians, and how I missed him so dearly and how long it had been since I had been with him.  Being men, they took my meaning correctly and that merely set the stage further.  It was a fairly short order before I had them eating of my hand, though at a similar cost to me as what I had paid to the commander.
These soldiers were a bit more creative, thankfully, and though they did not at first want to share me, I helped them overcome their inhibitions.  Not only that, but I convinced them that I would be fulfilled best only if they shared me at the same time, instead of one after another.  I do my best work at the spur of the moment.
One of them, an older guard by the name of Jasgar, was the first to be done with me.  I was entertaining his younger companion, Therrin, with my mouth when Jasgar emptied himself into me from behind.  He staggered back, a smile on his face, and sat down heavily at the table.  His eyes were glazed with the release, but he watched with interest while I continued to pleasure Therrin.
Therrin was young and virile.  With Jasgar finished he decided to follow in his comrades footsteps.  He repositioned me then and took the same stance that Jasgar had occupied earlier, plowing into me from behind.  I was more then a little surprised when he changed tactics though.  He suddenly pulled himself free of me and relocated.  Caught off guard as I was, I hissed in pain at the sudden intrusion.  I was quite angry, to be honest, but I caught hold of myself and focused on my training, forcing myself to relax and to welcome the pressure.
Therrin was spent quickly, as most men are when it comes to engaging in that particular act.  It makes me wonder how men who love other men can have long or satisfying sex if they finish within five or ten minutes of starting.
Therrin slunk away then, thoroughly sated and equally exhausted.  He collapsed on the bench next to Jasgar at the table and fought the inevitable drowsiness that was overcoming him.  I smiled, knowing that my job was nearly ready to be performed.  They mistook my smile to be appreciation at the favors they had granted me.  I let them, their time was about to end.
Men have no sense of things.  First of all, never invade a woman’s more sensitive holes unless invited – or at the very least, warn her first.  And second, could a man breathe if he had a six inch link of sausage caught in their throat?  I think not, so do not expect a woman to either.
I crawled towards them, still properly craven and wanton and unsatisfied.  I had removed my clothing earlier at the foot of where Jasgar now lounged at the guard table.  He could not have positioned himself better.  I kissed his naked legs and let my mouth slowly rise up them.  My hand, unseen, pulled my dagger free from my loose pile of clothing.
At the moment when Jasgar expected me to engulf him and arouse him anew, I drove my dagger in to the hilt directly between his legs and impaling those male organs that he had been using to think with.  His mouth fell open in a soundless gasp at the same time his body spasmed and then collapsed, falling directly on top of me.
I had shielded my actions with my body and Jasgar’s legs, so Therrin thought Jasgar simply overcome with renewed vigor.  But still concern roused him from his letharsis.  To keep the stunned Jasgar from crying out, I yanked my dagger free and plunged it into his throat, now that he had crumpled on top of me and was within reach.
I whimpered and slunk away quickly, hiding my dagger beneath me and out of sight from Therrin.  My eyes had the look of a young girl crazed in fear at the sight of the blood. Therrin was caught off guard, looking from me to Jasgar, who was bleeding profusely now from both wounds.  Therrin crouched beside the older guard, who was grabbing at his throat.  He looked up at me with fear and pain in his eyes and reached out towards me.  I rose up quickly behind Therrin and acted just as the young guard figured out what happened.
A few minutes later I had my clothes back on and both guards lay dead on the floor, one with his throat slit from ear to ear, the other from two mortal wounds.  I grabbed up the cell keys and made my way down the passage.  All of the cells were empty save for one, and in that one was Summerbloom (cringe).  He was quite pleased to see me, of course.
No time for any nonsense, especially considering the elf’s demonstrated nature.  I directed him out, stopping only long enough as we slipped unseen through the halls to pick up my shortsword that I had hidden after first arriving.  Say what you will about elves – and leave it to me to say most of it – but they can be quiet when they want to.  Out of professional interest, I prefer to think I am more adept at stealth when need be, but my companion was no slouch himself.  Skulking about carefully, moving only when we were certain it was safe to do so, we finally made it out of the building of the keep and had only the gates or the walls to choose from for our egress.
Fate was kind to us then, for a cry went up.  Either the dead guards or the dead commander had been discovered, I never learned which.  Nor, for that matter, did I care.  For the distraction allowed us to take the wooden stairs up to the thirty foot high stone wall of the keep without anyone noticing us, for all eyes were drawn to the front of the building.  Peering over the edge, I made the decision then and there that our mission was a failure.  We were on the Elendarian side of the keep, and more then that, even should we attempt a further penetration of Gneiss Summerbloom’s description would race ahead of us and make us thoroughly hunted.
With that decision made, I glanced down and saw that the wall was very nearly a straight drop to the ground, though a very slight incline favored us.  I prepared myself for a painful landing and prepared to jump.  It was then that the elf made himself useful for the first, last, and only time.  He grabbed my arm and pulled me back ere I could jump.  Smiling at me, he held up a feather that had somehow gotten caught in my stolen bodice from my bedding the commander.  I had not noticed it, and I chided myself for my lack of attention.  It was in our favor though, for the elf muttered a few words quietly in the arcane language of magic.  I felt a tingle pass over me briefly, then it was gone.
Without another word, he hopped over the crenellations and was gone.  I glanced down and saw him floating slowly to the ground.  Grinning, I followed his lead (also the first, last, and only time).  We settled onto the ground gently a few moments later, and like a fully drawn arrow released, we were off.
My stamina is not what I would like it to be, but I do not think I had ever run so fast in my life.  We made the Elendarian keep in under five minutes.  Glancing back I noticed that the elf mage’s spell had allowed us to run so lightly that we left no tracks on the ground.  A moment of use amidst two weeks of irritation and antagonism, I still wish I would have killed him.
The Elendarian guards gave us a bit of trouble, but once I showed the Special Elendarian Task force badge to the watch commander, they let us through.  Just in time too, for riders from the Gneissian fort came within hailing distance shortly thereafter.  A brief and unfriendly, if not politically correct, shouting match ensued.  They riders rode off, and we were safe.  My only remaining complaint was the following two weeks, in which I had to deal with that annoying elf on the ride back to the capital.

	I paused, letting James absorb all of it.  He had nodded thoughtfully at several times, and now he seemed lost in thought.  “You really do let nothing stop you from accomplishing your goals, do you?”  He finally said.
	I smiled thinly, I knew what he was referring to.  “When something needs to be done, there are several ways to do it.  Being a woman in a world dominated by men, I take the one that works the best.  I suspect you would do the same if the roles were reversed.”
	James smiled faintly, he knew I had him there.  “Summerbloom won’t work with you again, I can promise you.  He’s busy doing other things now, so don’t worry about him.”
	I nodded, grateful for that at least.
	“As for the mission, you made it a little further then some of the other groups did, but not as far as I would have liked,” James admitted.
	“You sent more then one of us out on this?” I asked, remembering my betrayal at the hands of the Ornithrym long ago poignantly.
	James saw the tightening around my eyes and held up his hands.  “Don’t worry, none of you were to be considered sacrificial.  I was simply hedging my bets and hoping that at least one of you would make it.”
	I nodded, realizing I would have done the same thing.  I let my building anger go then.  “Did any of them make it?”
	James shrugged, smiling ambiguously.  “Maybe.  I haven’t heard from a couple yet, I’m hoping for the best.”
	“Get out of here and go relax.  I’ve got something else in mind for you, but I don’t have all the details I need yet,” James said, motioning towards the door.  “Oh, and by the way, good job.”
	I caught the pouch of gold he tossed at me as I rose.  It was a decent amount, enough to keep me fed and clothed and rested well for at least a month.  I turned and left, heading towards where he had told me Brina’s quarters had be reassigned to.

	Sure enough, she had missed me.  She flew into my arms with an excited yelp of joy when she answered my knock at her door.  I hated to admit it, but I had missed her too.  Not so much when I was busy, but during the four weeks of travel time with the elf, I’d have given anything to be in Brina’s arms instead.  Weakness on my part, I realized, but I had developed a definite soft spot for the girl.
	She pulled me in and I sat down with her, listening to her tell me all about life at the castle.  She had been training as a servant to the royal family, but James kept assuring her that she was far, far more then that.  He took a personal role in her training, teaching her extra things whenever possible that had little to do with being a servant and everything to do with being observant and intelligent.  I approved.  Soon though it began to get tiring.  After all, I had lived in cities like the one we were in for most of my life, and I knew very well the etiquette and procedures of court, I had been trained to know them.  Thus I found myself growing distracted.
	Brina noticed finally, and asked me about it.  I waved it off, saying I was merely tired from my journey.  Inside I felt a small hollowness in my stomach, her infatuation with her position and even more so with her instructor, James, had me concerned.  I shrugged it off mentally and assured myself it was nothing though.
	Brina asked me then about my own adventures, which I had to shrug off as well as I could.   “You know I’m not supposed to talk about them, especially if James has been training you in anything regarding intelligence.”
	Brina blushed.  “Yeah, you’re right.  Still, I’m curious.  I won’t ask again, sorry.”
	She took it better then I expected.  But my real surprise was at her next statement.  “James had rooms set up next door to mine, if you’re tired you can go rest there and we can catch up some more tomorrow.  It is getting late, after all.”
	I nodded mutely, the hollow spot growing again.  I smiled at her though, for there was no way I was going to betray my feelings in such a silly matter.  She walked me to my room and there was an uncomfortable moment at my door before she leaned in and gave me a chaste peck on the lips.  I smiled at her in spite of her odd behavior and let myself get acquainted to the room.  For the time being, I put my thoughts of Brina out of my mind and focused instead on relaxing by doing some exercises I had learned from her earlier that focused the senses and helped in the mental discipline necessary to perform the fighting style she had begun to teach me before I left.
	That finished, I still was not willing to focus on Brina’s behavior.  I knew that she had been spending a lot of time with James, and he was an attractive enough fellow, in a roguish sort of way.  But… bah, I would deal with it later.  For now I had more important things to do.
Using my nearly forgotten talents I had learned on Acathia in the Gneissian keep had sharpened in me my desire to learn more about them.  I calmed myself and sat naked in the middle of my bed, legs drawn up and crossed over one another in a meditative pose.  I let myself slip into a trance and focused on exploring them as thoroughly as possible, as well as trying to recall more of what I had learned from the destructive mind meld.
It was several hours before I came out of my trance and realized that night had settled in.  My candles had burned down and I was alone in the dark room.  I did what came naturally then.  I went to sleep.

Chapter 13

It had not been a good week.  James and I stood facing one another with drawn steel and Brina’s captive body separating us.

It had begun with me dealing with the increasing alienation I felt from Brina.  At first merely a suspicion I tried not to dwell upon, it quickly became clear that something had arisen between James and her.  That was okay with me, I suppose.  I was a bit bitter, but it was probably for the best for her.  Best for me as well, I had to keep reminding myself, because it kept me free of any ties that could be used against me.
We spent time together still when she was not working, of course, but that made it all the more difficult.  She continued to instruct me in her unarmed fighting style and we spent time together much as any two women who are close can, though not as close as it had been.  Now we were more as sisters then as lovers.
Then James had summoned me again with a new assignment.  Considering my abilities and viewpoints, he actually wanted to set me up as an agent far a field, spying upon the movements of Dagrazt’s minions.  Better yet, he had said, perhaps I could even insinuate myself within the Dark Ones organization and spy from within.
All well and good, it was a very dangerous assignment, but I had lived in similar conditions all of my youth, so I knew how to handle it.  It was what came next that really raised my wrath.  He had suggested next that I should take care to avoid getting enmeshed too deeply, for it could only bring evil back upon Elendar.  And if evil came in force to Elendar, then it also would fall upon Brina.
The insinuation was clear enough to me, and from the way our eyes met, I knew I was correct.  He knew the relationship between Brina and I was deeper then we let on and he was counting on that and using Brina as a hostage.  More bet hedging on his part.  What he did not know was the special relationship Brina and I had shared was perilously close to being broken apart.  His words clarified it for me, sundering it for good.
I left later that day, telling Brina only that James had set another task for me and that I might be gone for quite a while this time.  She took it well, though with some sadness.  At the same time I think she felt relief for no more was her loyalties torn between her past and present.
I sneaked back into the city that night, by way of the sewers that I had been secretly mapping whenever I had a chance to do so.  That and my skills at disguise and stealth allowed me to reenter the castle with no one the wiser.  Just another faceless servant.  I easily picked the lock on Brina’s door and slipped into her quarters.  Somewhat to my cynical surprise, I found her alone.
A moment of doubt overcame me then.  Steeling myself for the decision I had made, I quietly woke her and quickly explained myself.  I told her of James threat against her and of my own decision to leave the surface of Elendar because of it.  I offered her the choice to come with me, once and only.  She looked troubled.
Things took a turn for the worse then.  A secret door in the wall slide aside and James emerged from it, a dark look upon his face.  I nearly recanted my decision to return and offer her the chance to escape then.
“You misread my words, Yamara,” James said sternly.  “I knew of no one you cared for in this place save Brina, thus I merely thought to remind you that innocents would suffer should you draw undue attention to Elendar.”
“What are you doing, spying on me?” Brina asked, shocked at everything that had occurred so far.
“I suspected she might return and try to steal you from me, this was my final test for her, and she has failed.  I suspected she might hasten to join with the Dark One if given the chance, for his means and hers seem much the same.” James pointed his finger accusingly at me.
Words were fine, in their place, but I was past them.  He had driven me beyond mere anger.  How was he to know who I was and what I was like?  Yes, I had decided to be done with Elendar because he was as able to deal with people duplicitously as any I had served under in Ossulmere, but I planned to avoid having anything to do with this Dagrazt.  I was not the same women as before.  I no longer sought to better myself at the expense of others who were of innocent nature or who had done me no wrong.
James had done me wrong though, and I would have no more of it.  My sword and dagger was in my hand as I stepped towards him.  James reacted as well, drawing his longsword and dirk.  “See, she draws steel against me, already she seeks to sow discord at His bidding!”
I scowled and lunged forward.  Steel rang as he blocked and dodged my nearly frenzied attacks.  Brina called out for us to stop, begging and pleading from where she sat twisted up in the sheets of her bed.
We stopped our duel after several long minutes, both of us breathing hard and sweating.  The time was past for words.  All we shared now was an mutually agreed upon look of hatred.  In wordless agreement, our hostilities renewed.  The longer reach of his sword availed him at first, but once I got within its range my shorter blades worked to my advantage, pressing him back.  To no avail though, for soon we broke apart again.  Brina had tears running down her cheeks and a lost look upon her face.  She was more torn then ever.
I noticed out of the corner of my eye one of the pillows of the bed on the floor then.  I edged towards it while engaging James again after a very short respite.  He seemed not to notice it, or at least paid it no attention.  Having reached it, I drove my attacks high upon him, drawing his attention upwards.  My foot flicked out then, from underneath the pillow.  It sailed up between us, heading for his face.
Pillows by themselves are no threat, save to the smallest of babes perhaps.  The movement caught him unawares, however, and his longsword arced across and down to clear it out of his way.  I followed his movement, slamming my sword on top of his with force enough to jar it out of his hand and send it clattering to the stone floor.  Before he could try and stoop to reclaim it I advanced, stabbing out and scoring a hit on his shoulder with my dagger.
James recoiled, drawing nearer to Brina.  He grasped at the only chance he could and reached out for her.  Grabbing her hair, grown slightly longer since our time together no Acathia, he pulled her from the bed so that she was between us, and his dagger rested against the dark and soft skin of her throat.  I remembered that skin all to well, and grew angered that it was threatened by his naked steel.

“Leave now, Yamara, and you can escape,” James panted, trying diplomacy where skill at arms had availed him not.  “I will hunt you down, of course, but if you leave now Brina comes to no harm and I will give you until the morning ere I send out my men.”
Brina’s breath caught in her throat.  The sudden events had taken her even more by surprise.  She was specialized at close in fighting, but with a dagger rasping against her throat, she took no chance.  She was prepared to come over to my side now though, I think.  Until James spoke out, that was.
It was barely more then a whisper, and I still am not sure if I have heard it correctly to this day, yet I think I am in the right about it.  “Don’t worry, love, she will do you no harm and will only leave us in peace now,” was what he whispered to her.
I searched into James’ eyes and saw the truth.  He would need an excuse and no witnesses, personal friend of the King or no.  Brina would die as well as I, should I relent to him.  My decision made, I looked at Brina and allowed her brief apologetic smile, then tried to forever close the doors within me upon her.
“I can’t let him use you against me, Brina.” Were my final words to her.
Shortsword in my right hand, I lunged forward, letting the magical blade slide through her belly and into his.  As soon as I began to move James tried to draw his dagger across her throat.  She smashed her head back into his face, crushing his nose and partially freeing herself.  His dagger still struck partially true, cutting a grievous wound on one side of her throat, marring forever the virginal skin.  My own dagger I thrust into his chest as they fell to the floor.
I let go of my blades so I was not pulled down with them.  Brina’s hands had come to her throat, but the blood welled over her fingers and left them dark and red in spite of the pressure.  James did likewise, pulling the dagger out of his throat painfully and gasping air through the ruinous hole there.  I stared at him darkly, a figure of fey vengeance.  I felt nothing for Brina in that moment, and only grim satisfaction as James departing lifeblood left him.  His last vision was of me standing victorious above him, then darkness as he passed out.  What came next for him I knew not.
Brina’s free hand stretched up towards me, beseeching me in a silent cry for help.  I forced myself to remain impassive, calling upon my training from years past.  I knelt beside her and took her hand in mine.  Unbidden, a sole tear made its way down my face.  I knew that I could not get help in time for her, and even if I could, my life would then be forfeit at the discovery.
She pulled me closer to her and tried to open her mouth and speak.  Blood was in her mouth and spilled across her lips and cheek.  She closed her mouth and tried to swallow.  She started crying then, and I felt perhaps the lowest I had ever felt in my life.  This sweet, young, innocent girl was dying.  Dying because of me as well as because of James, but really because of me.  Had I not brought her with me to Malatoria she would be alive and well on Acathia.  Had I not come back for her, she would be alive and well in James’ arms.  Within me the dam broke.  I hated myself for what I had done, even though later I would finally accept that there was nothing else I could have done.
“I’m sorry Brina,” I mouthed the words instead of speaking them, for my voice would not work.  Then I admitted to what she had done to me.  What she had caused me to feel.  What had brought about this ruinous situation.  And this time, though it was ruined with emotion, my voice worked.  “I loved you.”
Her arm went limp at that statement, her hand sliding free from mine to fall to the floor.  I did not even know if she heard my last words.  My vision was blurred from the tears that fell shamefully from my eyes.
I made my way out then, pausing only long enough to take the money purse on James’ belt.  My hands reeked of murder, but only in Brina’s case.  James, I feel, had deserved it.  Nonetheless, Elendar was closed to me henceforth and forever.  Returning to the sewers through distorted and blurry vision, I found my way in had been blocked thanks to a rather untimely cave in of mud and sewage.  My only recourse was to discover another way out, one that took me far beneath the surface of Elendar and many miles and days before I would see the light of day again.  What is most important is that I had survived to draw another breath another day.  Brina was gone, but I would always remember her, and petty and shallow as that was, it had to be enough for me.  I was young still, though I did not feel it, and I had more life to live.  More gold to amass.  More relationships to form. More relationships to sunder.  And many more mistakes to make.

Chapter 14

	James found himself floating, alone, in a room filled with darkness and emptiness.  Not a room, he realized, but an entire world.  It was as though all of his existence had suddenly ceased to be, with the sole exception of his mind.
	“So it’s over and I’m dead at the hands of that bitch,” James said.  Or at least he thought he said it.  He realized he felt totally disembodied, was he speaking of merely thinking?
	It need not be finished, the words came out of nowhere and everywhere at once, surrounding James in a cold blanket of fear.  Still, the hope it offered he leapt at.
	“What do you mean?  Show yourself, be you friend or foe?” He challenged.
	You could not behold me and survive, Earl James, the ethereal voice responded.  The air surrounding James seemed to press in on him more, though he still felt as though he had no body for he was unable to move.
	“Dagrazt?” James whispered, filled with fear.
	There was no response save that around him it seemed he heard a rustling and a chattering of creatures.  Hundreds and thousands of beings whispering and moving. Laughing.  At him.
	“What do you mean, it need not be over?” James asked in spite of himself.  Terror gripped at him and he strove desperately to hold onto the one thing that promised refuge from the horde of creatures that would at any moment tear him apart.  The one thing that seemed a pinprick of light in the insufferable darkness.  The one that was hope.
	The voice was amused when it returned.  Join with me, James, and I shall grant thee more station and power than that of a puny Earl.  You can be a Lord in true form and power, answerable only to me, with minions to control and treat as you wish.
	“At what price?” James asked, the strength of his voice dropping as he felt himself slowly growing weaker.
	There is no price.  Serve me and you shall live, deny me and you shall die.  But choose, Earl, the voice made the title sound puny and insignificant, and choose quickly, ere you depart forever the realm of the living and pass beyond my powers to return you.
	“Brina!” James gasped, realizing the voice was right, he was fading rapidly now, losing even his fear of the gibbering demons he imagined were surrounding him in the darkness.
	I will give her to you, and she will serve you, but remember well your own parting from her.
	“Vengeance,” James said next.  He felt himself slipping away almost to the point of no return, but he knew he would have no other chance to barter terms for his soul.
	The voice seemed amused, though it made no sound of laughter.  So long as you do not interfere with my realm or my plans, you may have it!
	James had heard enough.  He grabbed onto the receding pinprick of light with all his consciousness and ignored everything else.  Hope was all he had left to him.  “I accept!  Return me to life… My Lord.”
	The last thing James remembered was a sense of satisfaction and amusement.  Around him, the unseen but felt horde seemed disappointed.  Then he knew no more as the nearly non-existent spot of light expanded so rapidly that it overwhelmed him and sent him into unconsciousness for the last time.

	With the upset woman out of the room, the shadow hiding under the bed crawled out and leaned over the spent form on the floor.  There was still faint traces of life in the girl, though it was fading as it pondered the situation.  The man, the shadows new Lord, stood behind her, surveying the situation and waiting impatiently for the shadow to obey his orders.  It took form then, the shadow gathering and merging until a figure of dark feminine beauty stood towering over the dying mortal girl.  Scraps of clothing the color of shadow revealed more of her curvaceous and shapely figure then they concealed.  She stood easily 7 feet tall, with skin the color of blood and fire merged together.  Black reptilians wings stretched from her back, expanding to their full span of nearly 12 feet from the tip of one to the other before folding back in and resting behind the demonic woman.  Two small black horns graced her flawless forehead, one above each smoldering eye.  Her tail, a single sinuous length, curled suggestively around her leg and ended in a sharp fork that seethed with deadly intent.
	The demoness knelt next to Brina and opened her full and sultry lips to reveal sharp white teeth, with enlarged canines that spoke of the ability to pierce and rend anything placed with them.  Her tongue slipped out from between them, red and flexible and impossibly long.  The demoness licked at the wound in Brina’s throat, which had all but stopped bleeding by then.  Brina’s body shuddered then, convulsing and seizing at the fire that spread from the contact and threatened to consume her.  When she demoness retreated Brina’s throat was whole and unmarred.
	The demoness bit into her own wrist then, letting blood that sizzled when it hit the floor drip down her chin and her arm.  The wound was placed over Brina’s mouth.  With the first drops of blood into Brina’s mouth her body responded, though her consciousness had already tried to depart the dying shell of her body.  She latched onto the wound in the she-demons wrist and drank from it, infusing her body with an unnatural and unholy warmth that chased away the chill of death that had been creeping into it.
	Elsewhere, Brina realized she was returning.  She had been prepared to sleep for a long time, she was so weary.  With her return to wakefulness she remembered what had happened.  Grief and terror overcame her and she tried to hide from it, tried to let go.  Unable to do so she tried to fight at whatever it was that was pulling her back from the release she now sought.
	Brina’s eyes opened then, and she stared up at the demoness that held her while she suckled from its wrist.  Fury overtook her when she saw James standing behind the creature, staring down at her with trepidation.  James had changed though, he looked different.  Paler, yet more substantial and daunting.  His eyes were different too, they burned with an inner light she could not understand.  She felt rage at seeing him, and felt her strength growing with every swallow of the life giving nectar she was drinking.
	The demoness misjudged how much of her life she had given Brina, and further misjudged the strength of the Acathian woman.  She tried to pull away from Brina then, to separate from the drain that she put on the demoness.  Brina would not let go, however, and sucked more fiercely at the wound.  She bit at it, trying to increase the flow of the blood into her mouth.
	James smiled, realizing how strong his bride would be if she succeeded.  Always full of surprises, that Brina.  He hoped she would not hold anything against him for his earlier actions, but everything had been perfectly planned and orchestrated until Yamara returned.  If only she had been captured and killed when he sent her to Gneiss with that foolish fop of an elf!
	A few minutes later the demoness lost the last of her substance and faded back into the realm of shadow, trying in vain to escape the pull of the budding powers of Brina.  Brina would not let her escape, and continued to inhale, sucking in the shadow essence of her now.  The lamps and candles in the room flickered once as Brina was finished and the demoness was now contained within her, then they burned more brightly with its unholy presence dispatched.
	“Come my love, this is no longer the place for us,” James said, his voice darker and deeper now.
	Brina nearly floated up off the floor.  Her own skin was flushed with life, stolen from the demon.  She glared at James and meant to leap at him and tear him apart with her own hands, which she was sure were now easily capable of the task.  Her will was thwarted.  She simply stood there, staring at him in open hatred.
	“Hate not me, Brina, for I am not the one who plunged the sword into you,” James said, seeing her look.  “We are to be together for eternity, my bride, let yourself love me as you once wanted too.  Yamara we will deal with when the time is ripe for us to do so.”
	Brina knew then some of what was happening.  By accepting the demoness’ gift, she had bound herself to James and whatever dark power he served.  More, she had bound herself to a dark and unnatural existence from which death could not release her.