Wayne Batson - The Final Storm

“I am not sure,” Oswyn replied. He opened a large leather satchel. Long gray, feathery weeds spilled out. He snapped them again and again until they fit in his mortar. Then he ground them rapidly with a pestle. The air around him filled with a sharp odor. Sir Oswyn took all the contents of the mortar and poured them into the urn with the Golden Tear. He covered the urn with his hands and shook it.

“King Ravelle, Nock, lift Aelic so that I can make him drink this.”

The King and Mallik carefully sat Aelic up, and Oswyn slowly poured sips of the mixture into Aelic’s mouth. Aelic groaned a little, and he coughed the first mouthful back out, but Oswyn kept pouring. Then Aelic began to swallow.

Suddenly, Aelic’s eyes popped open. “Os?” he whispered.

“Shhh,” Oswyn said. “Drink this. All of it if you can.” Aelic did as he was told, and he drank until the urn was empty. Then they laid him back down.

Aelic’s eyelids fluttered, but they remained open. He looked around. “Father!” he cried. And King Ravelle took his hand. “Father, I am sorry… I-”

“You have nothing to be sorry for, my son,” Ravelle said, brushing the damp hair from Aelic’s forehead. “I have heard the tale of how you fought. Valiant, I call you, one who seeks glory for King Eliam the Everlasting.” Aelic smiled.

“Enough talk for now,” Oswyn said, then gently added, “Leave me with my patient.”

There was a spring in Oswyn’s step as he walked into the chamber where King Ravelle, Kaliam, and the others awaited word on Aelic’s condition.

“You may all see him now, but only briefly. He needs his rest,” Oswyn said.

Quietly, they followed Oswyn to Aelic’s bedside.

“Look, his skin is better, nearly restored!” Mallik exclaimed. And behold, Aelic’s skin had lost the gray cast, though it still lacked the vitality of a healthy Glimpse.

“What was that you gave him?” Trenna asked.

“It is an herb called yarrow, or staunchweed in the common tongue,” Oswyn said. “Then I remembered how quickly the Golden Tear restores a knight’s energy, and I thought perhaps it would speed this healing herb to unknown wounds within Aelic.”

“You are brilliant!” Thrivenbard exclaimed.

“We have great need of such wisdom in this room,” Queen Illaria said, and she looked kindly upon Oswyn.

“Do not lavish accolades upon me,” Oswyn replied. “Aelic is improving, and for that we have King Eliam to thank.”

Oswyn went to Kaliam, leaned toward him, and whispered, “The next few hours will tell us much, but I still do not know if I caught it in time.”

“Aelic, lad, you are made of sterner stuff than those trees in Nock’s forest!” Mallik laughed. “To tangle with a Sleeper, and then last for days at the bottom of a pit? I agree with your pa, that was valiant!”

Aelic smiled at Mallik, but then he coughed and winced in pain. “The wolvin was far beyond my skill,” Aelic said. “It brushed me aside like an insect.”

“And if I ever find that wolvin,” Mallik said, “he will pay ten-fold what he did to you, and I will collect with my hammer!”

“Well, it should be easy to recognize it,” Aelic said, closing his eyes. “Before I fell, I saw Gabby take a chunk out of the back of the Sleeper’s neck.”

“I will remember that,” Mallik said.

“Kaliam,” Aelic called. His voice sounded weaker than before. “Kearn took her. He took Antoinette. He said he would take her beyond the Gate of Despair-that she would be tortured.”

Kaliam knelt by Aelic. “Aelic, do not fear,” he said.

“Kaliam, I know she wrongfully left our company, but we cannot abandon her to that dark place and-”

“We will not abandon her, Sir Aelic,” Kaliam assured him. “King Eliam has a plan for her rescue, of this I am certain. And even in that place, she is not alone.”

Aelic turned to look at his father. “What about Mother?” he asked.

“She was in Acacia for a time,” King Ravelle said. And in his voice there dwelled an ancient sorrow. “I have searched there many times, but in vain. I dispatched messengers there before we left Alleble to come here.”

“You were in Alleble?”

“Yes, all of Mithegard dwells there now-safer than being a close neighbor to the enemy!”

“It makes me glad,” Aelic said with a soft chuckle, “… even in such a time as this. For the Glimpses who serve the everlasting King should be together. Does it not seem so?”

“Yes, it does, my son. It is now as it always should have been.” King Ravelle looked up at Queen Illaria and shook his head slowly. “How so many, including myself, distanced ourselves from Alleble… abandoned Alleble… it was folly.”

Aelic nodded, coughed again, and then suddenly clutched at his stomach. He yelled and fell backward. Oswyn was there in a flash. He delicately pressed his fingers at various places on Aelic’s stomach. At one place he paused, felt again, and then he looked up grimly.

“Oswyn?” King Ravelle cried. “What is happening?”

“Mallik, Kaliam, please take King Ravelle outside,” Oswyn said gently, but urgency ran through his words like a current. Kaliam and Mallik firmly escorted King Ravelle from the room.

Some time later, Sir Oswyn and Queen Illaria emerged from the chamber and found Kaliam, Mallik, and King Ravelle sitting along a wide hearth.

“Oswyn!” King Ravelle exclaimed, and they all stood. “How is my son?”

“He is resting,” Os replied. “Aelic had worked himself up, and jostled his wounds before they were healed. A little more yarrow and Golden Tear I gave him, and now he rests.”

“Will he survive this?” King Ravelle asked plaintively.

“I cannot say,” Os replied. “But I suspect that those wounds which remain will-” A shrill scream followed by the breaking of glass cut Oswyn’s words, and they all raced into the house of healing. They found one of the nursemaids standing over Aelic’s empty cot. She wore a horrified expression and turned to Oswyn.

“My lords!” she cried. “Sir Aelic sat up and asked me for a flask of water. I was away just a moment. When I returned… he was gone!”

They gazed down at the cot, empty except for Fury in its sheath and the bloodstains on the sheets. Aelic was gone.

A ntoinette woke to the eerie sounds of war horns echoing off the dark mountains of the Prince’s Crown. Startled, she rose to look out her cell’s single window. It was just barely dawn, and a sickly red haze enveloped the Grimwalk far below. Antoinette saw a dark line of knights snake slowly out from the Prince’s fortress. Antoinette had never seen so many soldiers-some on foot, some mounted-row upon row upon row. And now visible flying above them were huge black dragons. They were thick-limbed and had impossibly wide wings. Each dragon carried beneath it, dangling from a web of cables, what looked like a carriage filled with yet more troops.

There were waves of these dragon-transports, and they soon outpaced the soldiers on horseback and on foot below. But they all went to the northeast.

“Behold the power of Paragor’s hand!” Kearn said from behind her.

Antoinette jumped and spun around. “Kearn!” She sighed forcefully. “How long have you been here?”

“Oh, for some time,” he replied, walking casually to the bars of her cell. He ran a long, pale finger up one of the bars. “You seemed so anxious for news, and that, among other reasons, is why I am here.”

“And what news do you have?” Antoinette asked, suspicious of Kearn’s motives.

“Why, good news, m’lady,” Kearn said. “Today is a momentous occasion, for Paragor has unleashed the first wave of his final campaign. A force four times that of the one we spent on Mithegard and double that of the army we used to lay waste to Yewland. In a day’s time, the stubborn Glimpses of the Blue Mountain Provinces will be dealt such a blow that they will be unable to supply the help that your precious Alleble requires!”