David Drake: Godess of the Ice Realm

"Mistress, if Beard goes to your world, he becomes a lump of iron," the axe said. "There She won't have awakened him. Would you do that to one whom you've fed so well in the past, when there's so much more for him here to eat?"

The Blood Eagle captain shouted an order over the creak of the ice. His company came to attention. There was already a gap between them and the end of the shuffling column of regulars.

"Sharina?" called Garric. "Time to go."

Without looking up, she waved a hand to indicate that she'd heard. She opened her mouth to object to the axe, then said instead, "Neal and all the rest of you?"

She glanced from Scoggin to Franca, adding, "Both of you as well. You can come to my world where you'll have some sort of jobs. Or you can let Beard lead you to a place in your world where you're needed and you can make a difference. Which? Quickly!"

"Will you come with us to Ornifal, mistress?" Franca asked. They'd of course been listening to what she and the axe said, deciding their future for them.

"No, she won't come with you," said Beard in a rising, sneering tone. "And you'll never see her again if you come to the mistress's world either. She's a fine lady, you fools! You'll have your farms and your shops, and you can bore people who'll think you're lying when you say you helped Princess Sharina save your world-which you then abandoned!"

"But you'll besafe," Sharina said.

Garric waited; Attaper spoke in his ear, but Garric gestured him back curtly. Both men's eyes were on Sharina.

"Mistress," said Neal. "If we go to this place in Ornifal-"

"The place with the women," Layson amplified.

"-who would carry your axe?"

"Here," said Sharina, turning Beard to offer the grip to Neal.

The big man shied as if the helve were a snake. "Mistress!" he said, his hands trembling despite their grip on his spear shaft. "Not me, mistress, please!"

The rest of the band had backed away also. They'd seen a great deal of wizardry when they followed Alfdan. That had made them more, not less, afraid of it.

"I'll take Beard," Franca said. He looked down at the axe and added, "If he'll have me?"

"I'll serve you, young master," said the axe. "Oh, wolves' blood first and then who knows what we'll drink?"

In a voice like an alarm bell, Beard went on, "Quickly, though! Quickly!"

Franca grasped the axe. He hesitated a moment, then offered his hunting spear, bloody now, to Sharina.

I don't need this! she thought, but she took it.

"Let's go!" Garric ordered with a peremptory gesture. He started off at a trot to join the end of the column.

Sharina touched Cashel's arm; he nodded and they followed Garric. Behind them a screamed order brought the bodyguard company off to a crashing double time.

Franca's band jogged toward another of the arched corridors. Sharina could hear Beard calling directions in a voice that pierced like an awl. They'd be in darkness most of the way, she supposed; but she also supposed they'd be all right. Beard had never failedher, after all.

She reached out with her left hand and squeezed Cashel's forearm as they ran, just for the companionship. Her eyes stung. She was angry at herself for being so silly, but she couldn't stop the tears.

"Go on ahead," Cashel said to Sharina as the last of the regular soldiers walked through the lens of light. Their forms shrank faster than their strides justified. "I'll stay with Tenoctris."

He squeezed her hand as she stepped into the light, her head high and her spear glinting.

Garric hesitated also. Attaper gripped him by the elbow. "Your highness, nobody doubts your courage. Now let's get back to our world so that you can take charge!"

Garric met Cashel's eyes; grinned in embarrassment, and obeyed. He and Attaper vanished into the lens, still arm in arm. The company of Blood Eagles followed, man by man across each rank, from the front to the rear.

"You can go too," Cashel said to the soldier who knelt with a supporting arm around Tenoctris' shoulders. The old wizard looked pale as a wraith, but she continued to mumble a chant as she tapped the corners of her triangle in sequence. A line of light lifted from the center of the marking and split-one arm blue and brilliant stretching back down the corridor, the other faint and red where it entered the lens.

The soldier glared. His right leg stuck out straight; splints made from broken spear shafts were bound above and below the knee.

"I been with her this long," he snapped. "Guess I'll take her the rest of the way. Beat it, farm boy!"

Cashel nodded. "Are you going to carry her back?" he asked calmly. "Because I guess you know she won't be able to walk."

The soldier gaped in sudden horror. Cashel gave him a warm smile. "Go on through, friend," he said. "I'll be along with Tenoctris. You've done a great job, but for this I'll do better."

He squatted to Tenoctris' other side and placed his arm below the soldier's. The man sucked in his lips, then nodded. "Right," he said. "I'll wait for you on the other end."

He staggered to his feet. The last of the bodyguards were entering the lens. A pair of them took the injured soldier's arms over their shoulders and walked in, holding him upright.

Cashel looked up. Nobody was left but him, the old wizard, and the fellow who commanded Garric's army-Lord Waldron. "Go on, sir," Cashel said to the old man. "I'll bring Tenoctris."

"Get out of here, boy!" Waldron snarled. "I obeyed orders to stay while the others went on to fight, but the Sister eat my kidneys if Ileave before everybody else is gone!"

"Right," said Cashel. "I can see that."

He slid his arm under Tenoctris' haunches. "It's time for us to go, Tenoctris," he said calmly and lifted her, still chanting. The guiding line vanished, but they didn't need it now.

Cradling the old woman to his chest, the quarterstaff upright in his other hand, Cashel walked into the disk that became a corkscrew tunnel as soon as he entered. He could see the miniature figures of the soldiers ahead of him, but even without them he wouldn't have gotten lost.

He glanced over his shoulder. Lord Waldron was following, as stiffly upright as Cashel's staff-though he seemed to be walking on his side because of what this place did to eyesight.

Tenoctris mumbled something. "We'll be out of this in a moment, Tenoctris," Cashel said. "You can get a proper rest, then. You did a wonderful job. You saved everybody."

That was pretty much true, but it was true for a lot of people. Cashel included, he guessed.

Shortly Cashel would step out into sunlight again. Sharina'd be there waiting for him, and likely Garric and Ilna besides. They'd done a good job, all of them. They could relax for a time, he hoped.

And if something else happened, as it probably would… well, Cashel had been a shepherd. He'd gone out every day with his flock, because they might need him. That was what Garric was doing now, only instead of sheep he had the whole Isles to watch over. That was how it was supposed to be.

And Garric had friends to help him watch. That was how it was supposed to be too.

Cashel stepped into the sunlit palace garden, onto the altar and then down to the ground where he handed Tenoctris to the soldier who'd been helping her in the tunnel. There was a lot of shouting, but it was happy shouting. Sharina threw her arms around Cashel and he kissed her, right there in public with ever so many people looking on.

At least for now, things were the way they were supposed to be.