Tests of Blood - 17. Chapter 17

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Lee asked Dalen as they watched the figure disappearing into the distance. The Companion, Radev, moved awful fast, and soon he and Blake would be far out of sight.

“He’ll be fine.” Dalen assured the officer who had wanted to send an escort with the boy.

“As I understand it, the trip back to Haven is a ritual for Heralds and their Companions.” Bard Lackley said soberly.

“It allows the bond between Herald and Companion to form and grow deep.” Dalen supplied quietly as he felt the familiar twinge of jealousy that came every time he looked at Blake and his Companion. For his part, he was just glad the locals hadn’t kicked them out after seeing to their wounds. It had been a long day, and a longer night as he wore a borrowed set of clothes. All of it was real homespun wool, and quite comfortable even with the late summer heat. He was still wearing it since his last outfit had been proclaimed ‘unsalvageable’ and the one set of spares he had were lost along with the supply horse that had been carrying them.

“I can’t believe my son is going to be a Herald.” Leo said with a shake of his head.

“He’s not an only child is he?” Lee asked quietly.

“No, we’ve got six daughters as well.” Leo replied with a shake of his head. “Still, well, I’ll be sending to my marriage father and asking if he can supply any boys to help with the harvest this year.”

“So they decided on you to lead the farm?” Lackley asked politely.

“Yes.” Leo said with a shake of his head. “I didn’t expect it, not for at least another dozen years until we’re ready to expand further south and start some new farms.”

“You will do well.” Dalen said with certainty. The land here was still unsettled by how the mage had used it, and he had figured something out about Leo. This land was even more aware than most of Valdemar because Leo had Earth-sense, and had bonded with this land. It would thrive under his stewardship in the years to come. “Just listen to your gut feelings, and you’ll do fine.”

“I hope so, my lord.” Leo said softly, but there was an edge of confidence to his voice as well. Dalen had spent part of this morning talking to the man, giving him what understanding he could of Earth-sense and how to use it as a farmer. Not that Dalen knew all that much about using it in that manner, but some of it was common sense.

“We will be getting out of your hair by mid-day.” Dalen assured the man.

“Ah, are you sure you wouldn’t want to rest, my lord?” The man asked with a nervous licking of his lips. “I mean, we wouldn’t be averse to having you and your soldiers around for a day or two more.”

“There are no more enemy soldiers out there waiting for us to leave, Leo.” Dalen said quietly.

“Still, we’d all feel safer with you around.” Leo replied.

“Ah, Prince Dalen, can I have a word with you for a moment?” Lee asked and Dalen nodded, allowing his friend to lead him a few steps away.

“What is it?” Dalen asked him when they were out of earshot of the Holderkin farmer.

“Well, I was thinking we might let a few of the troops stay here, say maybe six of them.” Lee said gently. “Lisa, Jens, and Lark are all wounded but hale enough they can make a full recovery here, and lend a hand or two with the work. Harvest time is coming close, and there’s a shortage of labor in the area. We saw that at the other farms we visited. I’ve got three more men who are all experienced farmers. It’s why they joined the Guards in the first place, to get away from their family farms.”

“Then why would they want to stay here now?” Dalen asked with confusion.

“It’s simple, my lord.” Lee replied with a smile. “They’ve spent the past four years training and seeing a lot of Valdemar and I’m thinking these three aren’t going to make the Guards their career. This is a good stretch of land, there are some pretty young ladies here that are of marriage age, and well, there’s not a lot of male competition if you get my drift.”

“If these men do stay, well they’ve all got military experience, and this farm is essentially on the border.” Dalen added after a moment of thought. “Still, they’re only three men, plus any of the other three that decide to stay.”

“Right now, but I imagine this winter there’ll be a new building going up that will be used for teaching everyone else here how to fight.” Lee said with a raised eyebrow. “If any decide to stay, they’ll be told all they have to do is send a letter with their resignation once their time’s up.”

“Fine, do it.” Dalen said with a sigh and a nod of approval. Lee gave him a sketchy salute and headed back to Leo, taking the man by his arm and talking in a low voice.

“You sure you’re up to building one of those Gates?” Lackley asked as he came over to stand next to Dalen.

“Yes, I am fully recovered.” Dalen said, lying only a little bit. Magically and physically he was fully recovered. Mentally was a different story. He’d spent a good part of the night thinking the day’s events over and wondering how he could have done things differently. Sixteen of the local men (and boys) had been killed. Five girls and three women had also been killed. About half the deaths had been in the early hours of the morning when the blood-mage had sacrificed his victims to gain the power and control over the land.

Twelve Valdemaran soldiers were dead, and another sixteen were injured to one degree or another. Four were so severely wounded they wouldn’t survive until the next day without professional Healers to tend to them.

“Why don’t I believe that?” Lackley asked.

“Look, Lackley, don’t worry about me.” Dalen fumed quietly. He couldn’t understand it, but something about the Bard always set him on edge.

“Someone has to worry about you, damn it!” Lackley fumed much more loudly than Dalen had. “Damn it, boy, you’re not inhuman! I saw you after the fight!”

“Lackley, you probably smelled me too!” Dalen roared as his cheeks blushed from the embarrassment of the memory. He’d soiled himself like some little child and then looked up at a damn Companion like it had come for him…

“Stop calling me by my last name.” Lackley said through gritted teeth. “We’ve fought together, haven’t we? My name is Carl. Lee doesn’t have a problem with using my name.”

“Lackley is your name too, Bard.” Dalen growled, and realized he was losing control of his temper. He’d thought it was just the land unsettling him yesterday, but he knew there was just something about the Bard that set his teeth on edge.

“Fine.” Lackley shouted before storming off. Apparently it wasn’t just Dalen, because the Bard seemed as temperamental as Dalen when they were in each other’s company.

“All set.” Lee said as he came back from talking with Goodman Leo. He stopped when he saw Dalen’s expression. “Oh no. Have you and Carl been fighting again.”

“I don’t know what it is about that man, but I can’t stand him.” Dalen fumed and Lee smiled at him.

“He says the same thing about you if it makes any difference.” Lee said with a gentle smile that assuaged some of Dalen’s unease. “You up for the Gate?”

“Yes.” Dalen growled and Lee held his hands up while smiling brightly.

“Don’t bite my head off, foster-cousin.” Lee said with real humor in his voice and Dalen found he was relaxing more and smiling at Lee now.

“Sorry, it’s just what he was saying…” Dalen let his voice drift off. “Oh, damn. Just drop it, Lee. I’m fine, more than ready for the Gate. How about your troops?”

“We’ll be ready in two hours.” Lee said. “I want the scouts I have out to return and maybe they’ll find that damn packhorse that ran off with your gear.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Dalen shrugged. “I have replacements for all that stuff back at the valley, and Leo said he’ll let me send some coin for these clothes.”

“You look like a farmer.” Lee laughed softly as he looked at the brown wool pants and beige loose tunic that Dalen was wearing.

“I could think of worse things to be in life.” Dalen said sourly as his gaze caught the lazy trail of smoke still filtering skyward. The bodies of the mercenaries, and the blood-mage, had burned long into the night.

“Any ideas on this Lord Farvenal the mage mentioned?” Lee asked, changing the subject as he noticed the direction of Dalen’s gaze.

“None whatsoever.” Dalen sighed. “I’ve never heard the name before, but that man we faced yesterday was most definitely the Master-level mage I saw with Paet.”

“That means that more than likely this Farvenal is even more powerful.” Lee surmised.

“Yes.” Dalen agreed. “Worse, he seems to have taken over Menmillith, deposing the old King. Whether he’s done it directly or uses this nephew as a puppet king, I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter. I have to find some way to get the message through to Haven. The Black Kings are meddling in things up here too, and we might find ourselves fighting this war on more fronts than we are now.”

“That would not be good.” Lee agreed and Dalen nodded. How to warn Haven had also been occupying his thoughts. He could not risk magic, or mind-magic, or even Teleson device. Instead he’d written everything into a packet, sealed it and given it to Blake. The boy was going to be a Herald someday, and so Dalen had no problem giving him the packet and with it, his first real duty for Valdemar.

In the old days, Heralds had been the fastest couriers and messengers in the kingdom. With the relay towers, locomotives, and Telesons, they no longer held that distinction, but in this situation, they were the best Dalen had. He hadn’t told Lee that though. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Guard officer, but some nagging little feeling inside of him held his tongue closed. Dalen also didn’t feel like he could depend on Blake getting through.

Another nagging little feeling had him thinking about a Gate to Haven. The truth was though that he doubted he could make one that far after making one to the valley camp. If he tried it from here, and failed, the wounded here would die. Plus, the officers and Heralds in the valley camp would be stuck with no news about the success or failure of his mission. They had to at least know the enemy sortie had been destroyed.

So, he would make the gate to the valley camp. The trouble was that Blake and Rad would not be taking a leisurely stroll back to Haven. They would be travelling fast and hard, which meant they would be in Haven within five to six days at the most. If Dalen’s feeling was right, they still wouldn’t make it back to Haven in time. That meant he had to get to Haven faster than five days from now.

He’d worked out a tentative plan, and that was to first Gate the wounded back to the valley camp. There was no doubt in him that he could reach that far in one setting. Then, he would rest the night there at the valley camp and make another Gate the next morning to the Vale in Burnham. That distance he could manage very easily, and there were three nodes there.

Nodes couldn’t be used in powering a Gate, but Dalen would be able to fully recharge in seconds from them. Also, there were locations in Burnham’s Vale that he had used before to Gate to Haven. It would be easier on him to use them in order to Gate all the way to Haven than to try it from here, or even from the valley camp. He would be in Haven within three days, and the nagging feeling he had told him that might be enough for whatever storm was coming.

“My lord?” Leo’s low voice came from behind him and he turned to smile at the blond haired man who had a nervous look on his face.

‘What is it, Leo?” Dalen asked in as kindly a voice as he could manage.

“I told you what the man said our future was to be, right?” Leo half-asked and half-stated. “They were going to make us farm this land for folks back in their kingdom?”

“Yes.” Dalen stated. “He said much the same to me.”

“Well, you reckon there’s going to be more coming down here?” Leo asked nervously as he tugged at the hem of his tunic. “I reckon the folks Lieutenant Mayweather is leaving will be a big help, but if there’s a whole army coming over the horizon, well, there’s nothing much between them and us, if you catch my meaning.”

“There are a lot of soldiers and Heralds between you and them, Leo.” Dalen said with a sigh. “We’ve established a base camp where the full Company that these soldiers come from is stationed. Further, the King is sending even more reinforcements that will be arriving at that camp any day now. What that means is if anything bigger than a raiding party comes up this way, we’ll be there between you and them.”

“A raiding party we can handle, as long as there’s no mage in them.” Leo said confidently.

“Let me worry about the mages.” Dalen sighed.

“I will, my lord.” Leo said with confidence. “Just, Prince Dalen, you be sure to take care of yourself.”

“I will, Leo.” Dalen promised. “Thank you for your concern for me.”

“One more thing, my lord.” Leo continued when Dalen started to move. “If your troops are still in that camp of yours come this winter, I’ll imagine you’ll appreciate some fresh supplies.”

“Hopefully we’ll be done by then.” Dalen said in a strained voice. He couldn’t imagine this mess stretching out that long.

“I hope so too, my lord.” Leo continued. “Still, as the good book says, it is best to be prepared for any eventuality. If you and your men are still stationed down here come winter, do you think us and the other farms in the area might get tax credits for keeping you full of fresh supplies?”

“Yes, Leo, that can be arranged.” Dalen assured the man, although he hoped it would never come to pass. He wanted to be back in the Vale come winter, with its hot pools and temperature-controlled climate.

“That’s good, sir.” Leo said with a nod. “You take care, please.”

“Thank you, Leo.” Dalen said and beat a hasty retreat before the man tried to tell him to take care one more time.

When the men were assembled in the main yard of the farm, Dalen prepared himself to make the Gate. This would be the easier, more traditional version using the main doors of the barn as its framework. His destination had been prepared for this sort of thing and as the tendrils of power sought out the location he held in his mind, he was confident the alarm he’d set in the cave entrance would sound when the tendrils found their destination.

It was a standard precaution for when Gates might be used in a destination area that would also see people passing through. He had set the alarms along with the plans for the triage area, and the entrance of the caves back at the valley camp would shriek their alarm that a Gate was forming. Anyone in the area would have three full minutes as Dalen held the formation of the Gate from commencing. If they weren’t clear by that time, they would die with the formation of the Gate, something he hoped to always avoid.

It would also give the Healers time to prep their response teams so that they were ready for any casualties that came through. Sometimes there would be no casualties according to protocol, but it was always better to be prepared. This time there were casualties on horse litters waiting to go through first, followed by the walking wounded and then by those who were not wounded at all.

When the waiting time had passed, Dalen let the Gate form between here and the valley camp. The barn’s doorway flashed white before settling into a misty image of the inside of the triage cave. Healer Elsa was there waiting, with several other figures in Healer greens and Dalen nodded at Lee, who issued the orders for his assembled troops to march through.

Dalen had used Gates enough in the recent weeks so that he was growing accustomed to the sensation of the Gate energy leeching all his strength out of him. Every person and horse passing through the Gate caused another little bit of power to leech out of him and into the netherworld plane that Gates used to connect points in this world. The first time it had scared him silly to feel little bits of himself leeching out like this, but now he no longer experienced near-waves of panic as the Soldiers passed through.

When he passed through the Gate, he relaxed ever so slightly. The warm glow of mage-lights that lit the cavern were familiar since he had created most of them, and even the noise of Healers and their assistants were comforting as he turned to take the Gate down.

“Would you mind turning that damn alarm down next time?” Healer Elsa asked as she came up behind Dalen. Fortunately she had waited until he had finished taking the Gate down. As always it replenished some of his own energy to take the Gate down, but he was still tired. Before he replied to the Healer he reached out to the familiar ley-lines, found them to be pretty much just as he had left them, and began to replenish his energies.

“Kind of loud, eh?” Dalen asked with a wry smile as the fresh energy flowed into him. It was nowhere near as much as the node he’d been able to access back where they had just been.

“A little too loud.” The Healer said with a slight smile as several familiar figures in white uniforms came up beside the Healer.

“How are the injured?” Dalen asked the Healer.

“They should be fine.” Elsa said with a slight frown on her face. “They are being prepped for surgery and Healing, which means I need to be going. I just wanted to welcome you back.”

“It’s good to be back.” Dalen said, and realized that he was actually feeling more comfortable here than he had been just a few minutes ago. It was odd, and not something he was really sure he understood.

“You look like you’re holding up fine.” Elsa said. “Anything you need me to look over for you?”

“No, I’m fine.” Dalen said gently and she nodded before turning away and heading back into the caverns set aside for the Healers.

“Prince Dalen, it is good to see you have returned.” Herald Nevin said as he stepped forward and held out his hand. Dalen smiled as he clasped the man’s hand.

“It’s good to see that you made it back safely.” Dalen told the man.

“Captain Helgenberger is waiting for us in the war room.” Herald Nevin said as he stepped aside and held out his arm in that direction. Dalen noticed several strange faces among the Heralds that were watching them.

“I take it the reinforcements from Haven have arrived?” Dalen asked the senior Herald as he walked towards the war room. He noticed Lieutenant Mayweather leaving the side of one of the Healers and joining the group that was forming behind Dalen and the Herald.

“Yes, they started arriving early this morning.” The Herald replied. “The mounted regiments came forward along with the Heralds. All of the infantry, and supply wagons will begin arriving tomorrow.”

“That will be good.” Dalen said with a slight nod and began mentally preparing himself for the meeting.

“Are you ready for a meeting?” The Herald asked as they entered the war room and Captain Helgenberger saluted him. She had all her officers assembled around the table in the middle of the war room, and maps out on the table.

“Yes, I feel fine.” Dalen assured the Herald and returned the salute the Captain gave him. “Captain, it is good to see you again.”

“I take it the mission was a success?” She asked him.

“Yes.” Dalen answered succinctly. “The band of raiders, and the mage with them are dead with a little more than a dozen Guard casualties and around two dozen civilian casualties. All the raiders were wiped out, to the last man.”

“A grim toll, but we’ll wait to read the after action reports you and the Lieutenant will file.” She said, reminding Dalen that paperwork always followed such things. He’d kept a running journal of the first few days, and even managed to scribble some of the basics down in the early hours of this morning. He wanted to recommend the late Corporal Talen’s family received a medal for the valor the Corporal had shown.

“We were actually beginning the planning on a raid against the enemy’s camp here in Valdemar.” Herald Nevin said as the Captain nodded at him and pulled out a large sketch of the valley Dalen had seen with Paet. He looked for his friend and was slightly worried that he didn’t see Paet amongst the assembled Heralds. “Heralds Paet and Mavren are still in that area keeping an eye on things.”

“Oh.” Dalen said with a flush as he realized the Herald must have guessed why he was looking amongst the assembled Heralds.

“The camp is occupied by at least eight hundred soldiers from three different mercenary companies.” Herald Nevin continued, pointing out the layout of the camp. “We spotted three mages among them over the two days we scouted their camp. They look like they are digging in for the long term, and using this as a forward operating base. There are work crews building a road from the camp back towards the Menmillith border. Right now they’re just clearing vegetation and packing dirt, but it looks like they have plans for a more advanced road.”

“Damn.” Dalen frowned. “That fits with what we learned taking out the raiders.”

“Do share.” Captain Helgenberger said with a frown. Dalen complied, summarizing the information gleaned from the mage he had defeated. When he was done, everyone in the room was frowning intensely.

“Haven must be warned.” Herald Nevin stated flatly. “We will have to risk long-range contact with them. I am thinking we can try Teleson.”

“I had another plan.” Dalen said firmly and all eyes in the room focused on him.

“Let’s hear it.” Captain Helgenberger stated.

“Tomorrow I can Gate from here to Burnham.” Dalen explained. “Give me a day there to recuperate and it will be far easier for me to Gate from there to Haven. I’ll be there in two days. Herald Dellinar can Gate me back here directly, I believe.”

“Three days.” Captain Helgenberger frowned. “I don’t like not having you here for that long. Even with the reinforcements we only have three Herald-Mages and none of them are of your caliber.”

“I just made Master myself.” One of the Heralds, a woman in her early twenties said with a frown. Dalen nodded at her, recalling her name after a moment of thought. He’d only seen Herald-Mage Nella once before.

“Congratulations, Herald Nella.” Dalen said with a smile for her. She smiled back at hearing her name. She had long, blond hair and a fairly attractive bosom. Dalen seemed to remember hearing her name from a few other mage students once or twice as being the prettiest Herald-Mage at the Collegium, and he agreed with that assessment as he looked at her in her Whites.

“Thank you, Prince Dalen.” She replied with a friendly smile. “I remember seeing you at lessons, and you’re a far better mage than I am.”

“Only in some areas, Herald.” Dalen replied. “Look, Haven has to know what is going on, and long-range communication from here is too risky, even with Teleson.”

“Can you maybe do something with it to put some safeguards in it?” Captain Helgenberger asked and Dalen frowned at the question. He hadn’t even thought of that as a solution.

“Some.” He said after a moment of thought. “If I adjust some of the crystal structures I can make it so that it surges and destroys the crystals before any of us can be injured by someone doing what killed Herald Landier, and what affected my scrying bowl. The Teleson will melt though, and be useless afterwards if they do attack during the transmission.”

“We will keep the transmission short.” Captain Helgenberger assured him.

“Definitely.” Herald Nevin agreed. “How long would it take for you to do the modifications?”

“A day, no more.” Dalen said with a sigh. Yes, their idea was better than his, and he knew better than to try and stick to his just because he had a feeling he should get back to Haven.

“Good, now I say we adjourn this meeting until after we’ve contacted Haven and the rest of the reinforcements arrive.” Captain Helgenberger stated. “Once we have all the senior officers from those units here, we can make some proper plans.”

“It is going to get crowded in here.” Herald Nevin said with a slight smile.

“I’ve been told the reinforcements have a proper command tent with their wagons that we can use once they are here.” Captain Helgenberger stated and one of the newer Heralds nodded. “We’ll move war room operations out to the camp at that point. No offense to the preparations you’ve made here, Prince Dalen. We’re just getting a little too big for the premises.”

“No offense taken, Captain.” Dalen said distractedly. He was already considering what he would need to do with the crystals for the Teleson.

“If you’re not going to need this area for a war room, I’d like to take it over for the Heralds, if Prince Dalen doesn’t mind.” Herald Nevin stated. “There’s enough room in here that all of us not on watch with the troops can bunk down. Those on watch will bunk in the tents we’re using now.”

“Fine by me.” Dalen admitted. “I’ve been staying in the workroom for the most part.”

“Yes, and we’ll keep all the Herald-Mages in here as well so there is easier access.” Herald Nevin agreed.

“That makes sense.” Dalen said and then he stretched a bit and looked at the Captain who was watching him. “If you’ll have someone bring the Teleson to my workroom, I’ll get started on it right away.”

To Dalen’s great surprise, it didn’t take half as long as he expected for the modifications to the Teleson device to be completed. Once he’d figured out what he was doing, it was a simple matter of changing how energy flowed through the crystals. Instead of a pattern that would cause a surge in power to explode, now it would burn out. The device would melt like his silver bowl had melted, but now it wouldn’t explode, so the Teleson couldn’t be used to ‘attack’ any of its users.

Despite the late hour when he finished that night, Herald Nevin and Captain Helgenberger rushed back to the wardroom when he summoned them. They had excited looks on their faces when he sat the device on the table that had recently held the maps, and was now bare. A few twists of knobs on the device, and a trickle of his own mage power to activate it, and the Teleson was glowing. Somewhere in Haven, a relay was chiming, waiting for someone to answer the call.

“Haven palace.” An excited young voice said moments later.

“This is Prince Dalen calling for Herald Dellinar.” Dalen said in a neutral tone, wondering who the boy was on the screen. The boy was the same age as Dalen, but he didn’t recognize him or the gray tunic he was wearing. At the sound of Dalen’s name, the boy got a nervous look on his face.

“Um, Prince Dalen, Herald Dellinar is not available.” The boy said in a voice that cracked slightly. “Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?” Dalen asked sharply as a thrill of alarm went through him.

“There was an explosion yesterday here in the palace.” The boy said in a tone that was even more nervous. “The King was killed, along with most of the Council, and Herald Dellinar was seriously injured. He’s in Healer’s Hall right now. They say he is in a coma.”

“You’re joking.” Dalen whispered, praying it was a joke as his head spun.