Leslie Moore - Griffin's Shadow

The rest of the temple folk had returned to their duties, leaving Magnes and Wambo alone in the sunny courtyard. Magnes started toward the temple pharmacy where he kept his supply bag. Wambo fell in beside him.

“How is your friend the elf doing?” the old man asked.

“He is much better,” Magnes replied. “The elves are a tough race. I don’t know if a human could’ve survived the kind of wound Ashinji did. He is healing remarkably fast.”

“That is good to hear.” Wambo paused for a moment before continuing. “Tilo, when you first came to us, I sensed you were a young man in trouble. I have never asked you to reveal anything about yourself or your past, nor am I asking now.” He halted, and fixed Magnes with a discerning eye. “Whatever the circumstances that brought you to us, I am glad. I am glad that you became our brother.”

Magnes’ breath caught in his throat.

It sounds like Wambo is saying goodbye, as if he somehow knows I intend to leave and won’t be back. But…how could he know?

Until this very moment, in fact, Magnes himself had no idea he wanted to leave Darguinia for good, but now he realized that it had been his intention all along. He shifted nervously from foot to foot. Overhead, doves cooed and rustled in the eaves. A cloud drifted over the face of the sun, plunging the world into cool shadow. The wind began to gust and the smell of rain infused the air.

“I’d better get going,” Magnes said. Wambo nodded and turned to head back the way they’d come. Magnes watched him go, a deceptively fragile old man with a core made of the strongest steel. He would miss Wambo, and all the others at the temple who had come to mean so much to him, but something had changed. It took Wambo’s uncanny perception to bring it to the fore so Magnes would acknowledge it.

The time had come for him to return home to Amsara and face what he’d done. Thessalina deserved to know what had really happened, and Duke Teodorus’ spirit deserved the peace that the telling of the true story of his death would provide.

“Tilo, there you are!” Fadili called out, hurrying over to the pharmacy door where Magnes stood, thinking. “It’s getting late. We should go over to the de Guera yard now. The first matches are nearly over.”

“I was just getting my things,” Magnes replied. Hinges squealed as he pushed open the weathered wood door and stepped inside to retrieve his bag. Re-emerging, he smiled at the younger man and said, “Let’s go.”

“Everything’s ready, my friend,” Magnes said in a low voice.

“I’m ready as well,” Ashinji replied. Fighters, not so injured that they couldn’t walk but requiring Magnes’ services anyway, were trickling into the infirmary. “Let’s go outside,” Ashinji suggested.

Magnes nodded and called to Fadili. The young Eskleipan, who squatted over a female slave’s leg examining a nasty gash, looked up, eyebrows raised. “I’m going outside for a bit. Can you handle things?” Fadili flipped his hand dismissively, as if to say the question need not have been asked.

Magnes chuckled. “Fadili is turning out to be a fine healer. He really doesn’t need my supervision anymore.”

“I can see that,” Ashinji replied.

The two men stepped out of the infirmary into the cool of the blustery afternoon. The wind ruffled Magnes’ brown curls and sent loose tendrils of Ashinji’s blond hair whipping about his angular face.

Ashinji grew stronger with each passing day, but he was still far from total recovery. He tired easily and his wounds continued to give him a great deal of pain. The flight from Darguinia would be very hard on him and Magnes worried the effort might prove too much. Still, what choice did they have?

“Let’s walk over to the women’s barracks. Gran’s waiting,” Ashinji said, his voice catching a little as he spoke. He grimaced and rubbed his side.

“Ashi, we can wait another week if you need to,” Magnes suggested, keenly aware of the pain his friend tried to conceal.

“No, we can’t,” Ashinji replied, shaking his head. “If we wait much longer, it will be too late. Gran tells me she can feel the power of the Nameless One growing swiftly, even this far south. No, we must go now.”

They reached the shelter of the women’s barracks just as the first fat raindrops speckled the sand beneath their feet. Ashinji called out in Siri-dar, and a few moments later, Gran emerged from the dim interior of the long, low building. A frown deepened the creases at the corners of her mouth.

“Something has happened,” she announced. “I felt an unusual surge of energy from the north. It feels as though the Nameless One has broken free somehow, and yet, I still feel the main core of his energy remains below the Black Tower. I don’t understand this and it frightens me.”

“The mobile infirmary will be ready to go in two days. We can leave then,” Magnes said. He looked first at Gran, then Ashinji.

“Would that it could be today…” Gran shook her head in dismay, then sighed. “Very well. Day after tomorrow, then. I’ll inform Aruk-cho.”

“I’ll tell Seijon,” Ashinji said.

“No. Best to keep the boy in the dark until the last possible moment,” Gran advised. “His self-control is not the best.”

“Fadili and I will come with the wagon late in the day to show it to Mistress de Guera,” Magnes said. “We’ll stretch things out until it’s time for the evening meal. Since we sometimes stay and eat, no one should get suspicious. The most dangerous part is getting you,” he looked at Ashinji, “and Seijon into the secret compartment below the storage bins. If anyone sees you…”

“No need to finish those words,” Ashinji replied grimly.

“Once you two are in, Fadili and I will simply drive out of the yard.”

“What will you do, Gran?” Ashinji asked.

“Don’t worry about me,” Gran answered. Her impassive face gave away none of the secrets Magnes knew lay behind her pale eyes. “I can come and go as I please. No one will challenge me.” The rain fell steadily now, though not in torrents like it had earlier in the season; even so, the yard soon became a watery expanse across which people and the occasional goat stoically sloshed.

Magnes studied the two elves. Both stared out into the rain, their angular faces pensive. He knew the two of them shared a terrible burden-a task they must perform once they made it back to Alasiri, something neither one wanted to do, but had to, just the same. Gran had only hinted at its nature; what little she had revealed, Magnes had not fully understood, but that did not really matter. He was determined to see them safely to the border so they could return in time to accomplish what they must.

Once that’s done, I’ll go home and face Thessalina.

“I’d better get back to work,” he said. “Day after tomorrow, then.”

“Day after tomorrow,” Gran repeated.

Ashinji held out his hand and Magnes clasped it.

“Thank you, my friend,” Ashinji said. “Thank you for everything.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Ashi. We are family, after all,” Magnes replied.

Ashinji smiled. “Yes…we are.”

Two days later, Magnes stood with Fadili beside the infirmary wagon while Mistress de Guera admired what her funds had made possible.

“Why, this is wonderful!” she exclaimed. “You’ll be able to do so much good work with this infirmary.” She made another circuit of the wagon, nodding in approval. Corvin and Aruk-cho stood close by, both with crossed arms and neutral faces. A crowd of curious yard dwellers had gathered around at a respectful distance, whispering and pointing.

“It is gratifying to know my money is being put to such good use. When you first came to me with your proposal, Brother Tilo, I’ll admit I was a little reluctant, but now that I see the infirmary…”