Chương 38: Altercation (due to discoveries)

Lareny has already reached the boulders she was talking about. They're at the end of a line of smaller trees, just before the wooded area starts. That forest leads all the way back to the Korrien roads. It's dense and vast, and a complete and utter ally. We don't need to speak once we've all met, but follow Lareny's hand movements, visible in the light of the moon. As one, we move toward the tree line. Where we're stopped almost as soon as we enter. I can practically feel the arrows targeted on my face.

"Identify yourself." The voice is light and cold as steal.

"Lareny of Korrien."

"Lareny?" There's surprise in the tone.

"Mithris of Korrien."

"Seriously." I can hear all the levels of relief cascade through those four syllables.

"Follow me. You need to get out of sight." Despite the fact that we're all in black and blending about as well as one can with the night, I have the distinct feeling, he's right. I can sense the camp not too far from the edge of the woods. If what I'm seeing is right, a cave is the main dwelling. It's deep and large, and opens up from a small hill that extends back and underground. The only light comes from luminescent soaked rags, or painted sticks.

There are more people scattered around than I thought in their makeshift tents and beds. It's still difficult to get an exact reading through the pain that echoes back through to me.

"Why are you hiding?" I ask, keeping my voice low. I'll know if he's lying. I'm confident in that skill now.

"Short version is that I should have acted against Dendrak when I first suspected him. Instead, I allowed him to break my ranks down by recruiting people into that awful Sect with him, and then their will was his own." Cedrik shrugs.

"It's my fault. But that doesn't mean I don't want to make it right."

"The man's too clumsy to be orchestrating this." Mithris mutters, like he's read my mind again. Cedrik and Lareny murmur agreement.

"No bribes, right?" Xan asks suddenly from next to me. Cedrik shakes his head emphatically.

"No. Never. I might take money for killing someone, but I do have my own honor and pride." Ellir chuckles and Mithris sends a glare his way.

"Is Sevrin with you?" I ask, worried for the Journeyman I haven't seen in a while. Cedrik tenses.

"He's here, but he's not doing well. Dendrak tried to get his claws into him, but Sevrin has never been one to go quietly. He chose to be as noisy as possible." I smile and pull out one of my healing potions. Extra strength all the way.

"Let me see him."" You must be Taria," Cedrik says as he leads the way.

"My reputation precedes me," I comment drolly. Cedrik smiles, but it looks almost ghoulish in the light of the sticks.

"We're going to need more than reputation to pull one over on Dendrak."

"Just how long as he been a member of the Blood Sect?" I ask, looking directly at Cedrik. The older man stops in his tracks.

"You can tell?" I shrug, secretly relieved that this man isn't lying. He's not hiding anything and he doesn't smell like bloody betrayal and death.

"I can tell a lot of things about a lot of people."

"Perhaps you can then." Cedrik smiles and begins to move again.

"The truth is, I don't know how long he's been a member. I just know I noticed it a couple of months ago." We make our way to the back end of the cave. It's nice and earthy back here, where the painful echo of the ground beneath me has dulled somewhat. Mithris takes a swig from his water and turns to the group.

"You're stuck out here while he stays in the keep, mustering our recruits and members for his own damned blood army?" There's such anger in Mithris that I take a step back. Cedrik sighs.

"I thought I had more time to confront him. He even built his Blood Ties under our noses. None of us realized until it was too late. He moved like an insidious snake."

"We can see that." Lareny chides gently.

"You left it almost too late; you should have contacted us long before now."

"I know. It all happened when Sevrin came down to stay with the Enclave while looking into some information Korrien was after." Cedrik finally stops and I realize Sevrin is ensconced in the bundle of blankets at my feet. Bending down, I keep listening to their conversation while I check on Sevrin. He has a fever, and he's clammy. His eyes aren't responding properly. Healing potions are relatively harmless regardless whatever else is going on with the body. But it feels like he's having withdrawals of some sort.

Close to how Opium addiction withdrawal presents itself. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Pesky little red flowers.

"It happened so suddenly. Dendrak met with him, and then Sevrin was down for the count. They tapped into him, leeched him, and I only barely got him out in time. We brought him here. Where we've been keeping everyone affected but not tied down." I tap Cedrik on the foot, while I'm still administering Sevrin's medicines. Only waiting for a pause in his speaking to indicate he noticed me, I ask.

"Leeched?"

"Like a leech. Drained blood or energy forcefully." He keeps his eyes on me for another moment before looking back up at Lareny, while I continue administering medicine.

"I mean, we might kill for a living, but we're not barbarous. While I'm responsible for the Nightshade members, I know he's also been leeching lay people. Members of other orders. Even young adults." He's blaming himself, and it's brutally obvious.

"But in bringing him here, I left the Enclave. Stupid of me in hindsight, and yet I never thought the majority would turn on me once I left. But they did." He runs a hand through his hair.

"Pretty sure they didn't have a chance though."

"Of course they didn't. They're his Blood Ties," I say out loud. It's so silly to dance around this topic. Part of the reasons I believe they're so capable of being able to hide in secret is because so many people ignore their existence. Blood ties feed like a pyramid. Many into fewer, into fewer still, into one. Making them the all powerful summit. Dendrak reeked of blood power, but I don't think he was much stronger than I am.

"True." Cedrik says.

"Of course that's it. I believe he was trying to hijack Sevrin too."

"He let you take proof out with him. That's why he's hijacked this to make it a you problem." Mithris has been talking more than I've ever heard him before while on this trip.

"He didn't want us to come out here until dawn."

"He what?" Suddenly Cedrik moves away, catching the eye of a few of those petering around in the dark. Then he's back.

"You said he specifically told you that you'd come and confront me at dawn, right?"

"Yes." Mithris has his eyes narrowed. It's like it all clicks into place for him.

"He wouldn't, would he?" But Cedrik ignores the question.

"Where?"

"At the boulders a little farther south in the field." I can't tell exactly, but I'm quite certain Cedrik pales.

"We still have a few hours before dawn. We can prepare." But his voice is shaking now.

"What is it?" I ask, standing up from where I've finally gotten Sevrin's fever and shakes under control. He'll be fine. He just has to weather this withdrawal. If this is the result of a very short period of exposure, I'd hate to see how people who have been exposed for days, or weeks or even years might react. I think it would kill them.

"He's coming before dawn. Probably meant to surprise us before you got here." I can see that Sevrin is thinking fast, trying to figure out how to survive. Lareny puts a hand on his arm. She has this calmness about her, always has. It soothes him immediately.

"Let us help. There are six of us here. We're not injured. We are rested and fully capable." The tension in Sevrin's shoulders abates slightly.

"I know. I've just had so much trouble lately knowing who I can depend on. It's not going to be easy." Lareny smiles, and the overtones of the blue luminescence lend the expression a sinister look.

"Oh, I don't know. I think you'll be surprised. We might have a secret weapon." Cedrik raises an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Who." Lareny says, and points at me.

"I know she's got a reputation with poisons and blow darts, but I don't think that's going to cut it here." It's not malicious or mean, just statement of fact, and I can't blame him. But Lareny chuckles.

"That's not her secret." But she doesn't tell him anything else. Instead, she continues to exude this pure sense of calm as she dives into the preparations. Over the next few hours, I see to those who've been leeched as Cedrik calls it. They're suffering mild fevers, clamminess, and this strange sort of trance that takes them in and out of sleep. All the while I make sure to keep myself replenished. I'm going to need all the energy I can store and harness by the time this is over.

From what I can tell about the injured's connection to nature around them, they don't appear to have that same infectious sensation as Dendrak does. But some of their lifeforce, their energy is just drained. It's a good thing my Recovery Acclimation is second nature now. Healing people is a strange juxtaposition to the killing I'm used to. It's just the reverse though. I could kill just as easily with this.

While I see to the patients, and there are about a dozen of them, the rest of our contingent builds defenses, and strategizes with the fully capable members of Sorrishen. Cedril is certain Dendrak and the rest of the Enclave will arrive before dawn. I've kept my senses alert, spread out my ability so it can tell when we're being approached. Even still, it's barely noticeable through the amount of agony the land around me is going through. The first footfall is questionable and could easily be a deer.

But then there is another, and another. And before I know it, they've entered my threshold.

"Lareny. They're here," I say, quietly. I can feel the way those around me tense. How the air shifts, the water moves in their bodies, and the earth reverberates beneath their feet. The way their breath gasps. Just like I can tell those approaching us aren't even bothering to hide. They want to strike fear into those in this camp. Surely, they expected us to be here. I can't see how they wouldn't. They can't be that dim. The Blood Sect is easy to differentiate from us.

There's a desperation that bleeds through them into the earth. It sets them apart. The way they are in complete discord to the world around them, and only similar to each other. I feel the nature around me as it fills me, hears me, heeds me. There's something out there, calling to me. I move toward it. The music in my head changes now. Urgent, worried, and yet holds an underlying calm that soothes through me, making me consider each and every move I make. What is it that it wants from me?

I still can't quite grasp it. And then I feel Dendrak. He's larger now, and he's connected to the other twenty odd people around him in a way I didn't previously understand. There are strands that reach each of them, out toward him. It's a one-way flow. He can pull from them, but they can only give. And give. Until he sucks them dry. This isn't natural—it's ritual, and it's dangerous. Their life force diminishes with each pull he makes. And each stride of his own is met with a fierce expenditure of power.

Almost explosive. If they get drained while he uses their lifeforce, that's it. They die. What a waste of life. When we've always been taught to be as efficient as possible dependent on what the situation asks of us. Just like each step I take leads me closer to where I need to be. Everything has purpose. Every. Single. Movement. A sudden rush of air fills my lungs, letting me taste the air around me, transporting my mind to where they're all rushing toward the camp. Weapons, arrows, poisons, gasses…

and the miasma that sneaks in with them, through the air. Air. With some concentration, I can feel the air, the wind, the way it moves, and the way it consumes and exudes us all. There's a sudden clarity around what I can feel, what I experience. And I know what I have to do. Reaching out, I nudge the plant life around us all, as far back as that damned set of boulders we were supposed to meet them at. Do you think? It's the roots asking me if this plan is the way to go.

I nod, and even though I know it can't really see me, I know it understands the sentiment. We will do as you ask. Payment already received. Underneath our unsuspecting attackers, I feel the roots begin to move within the earth. Getting ready to grow, to emerge.

"Now." I speak it softly, and yet the word resonates from me, through the air, down into the ground. Roots snap up, grabbing the legs of each and every one of Dendrak's Blood Ties, stopping their forward movement, and slamming them into the ground.