Chapter 17

A Pale Horse

Once more Lynn faced the circle of men and once more she went down to defeat. She was able to fell five of her opponents before she was struck down, but that was the same number that she had felled the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that. She wasn't getting any better, and she wondered if she was as good as she would ever be. Lynn didn't feel that it was going to be good enough.

She had excuses. Abraham, her instructor, had been making her do her sword drills holding a heavy iron rod instead of her wooden practice sword. It wore her out so fast that she felt too weak to spar, which Abe also made her do, but it also made her wooden katana feel lighter and quicker in her hands. She liked the feeling and she could tell that she was getting stronger.

And Abe was always telling her not to do the things she was good at and to do the things that she wasn't. That made sense. That made her get better at the stuff that she was bad at. But whenever she got good at those things Abe would tell her to try something else. After a few weeks she was so good at so many things that when she sparred she ended up having to try all these crazy moves that she would think up on the spur of the moment. Most of the time she ended up paying for those moves with a firm blow to her ribs or shoulders. But every once in a while she discovered something new that worked.

And then there were the bruises. Each night she took home a fresh set of bruises and each night Eliza would just shake her head and make her well again. But as Lynn progressed, Abe instructed the other students to hit her harder when they were able to. And even though they were using wooden swords, the stronger students could really hurt her when they landed their blows. Lynn found it harder to fight through all the pain, but she did it. She did it for Eliza.

"You've reached a point where you can do no better than five.", Abe said as Lynn rested on the ground, her body aching from the final blow.

Lynn nodded. She knew what he was going to say next, that he could teach her no more and that her training was over.

"Your perceptions, your instincts, are amazing.", Abe said. He was always so free with the compliments, which made up for how hard he was working her. "But what I'm seeing is that you are reacting to what occurs around you, and that makes you slower than your opponents."

Lynn nodded again. But she was confused. She had to react when the others came after her. What else was she supposed to do?

"You must learn to anticipate.", Abe continued, anticipating Lynn's question. "To see the blow before your opponent raises his sword. To know which way your opponent will dodge before he himself has decided. To feel the flow of the melee and change it with your very will."

Abe smiled at Lynn, sounding more like a priest than a warrior. "You must see into the future and become the master of your own fate.", he added.

Lynn sat confused. She didn't understand what Abe meant. But she rose to her feet and decided to do what he said. After all, Abe was the best teacher in the four countries of the alliance and he'd always been right before. Lynn went into her fighting stance and one of the other students attacked her. A few awkward blows later Lynn went down. She got up and tried again with the same result.

"I don't understand.", Lynn pleaded.

"You don't have to.", Abe replied. Once again he let his mystical side through. "You've parried, dodged, lunged, and slashed hundreds of times. Your body knows what to do, trust it. Don't think about where your feet should go or what your hands should do or when to duck your head. Let your hands move your sword and your feet move your body. Then set your mind free to discover the path to victory."

Lynn stood up once more and closed her eyes. She saw the battlefield in her mind but this time she forgot about keeping her form correct. She forgot about parrying and thrusting and she forgot about all the pain that wracked her body. She let it all go. Then something strange happened, she felt as though she was rising up into the air. Soon she found herself looking down on the battlefield as if she were floating above it, and saw herself surrounded by screaming men. But instead of feeling scared she felt calm. She felt at peace.

The first man charged in and Lynn watched herself move with lightning speed, stripping the ax out of his hands and rapping her sword across his back. Did she do that? At first she wondered. It all seemed so surreal. The next two men moved towards her and from above she saw where she needed to go to stop them from surrounding her. She moved quickly around one of them and then knocked both of the men down, one after the other. Lynn grew excited and decided to take on three men at once. She almost succeeded, taking two of them down before falling herself.

Usually when Lynn fell she would ask Abe what she did wrong, but from her vantage point above the battle she could see all the mistakes that she had made. Lynn was filled with a strong urge to correct those mistakes and so she jumped to her feet and told the men that she was ready to try again. Again, they obliged.

Abe smiled broadly as he watched his star student. No longer was she fighting like someone who was desperately trying to survive. Now she was fighting with poise and confidence. Lynn's moves were long and graceful and looked as if she'd planned them all in advance. And now his men were the ones who looked desperate, trying to avoid the vengeful blade of the dancing swordswoman. The frustration of the past days evaporated like morning dew as Lynn embraced her newfound style. She fell and fell and fell, but each time she took more men down with her, and by the time she was too tired to go on, no less than ten of her fellow students had been vanquished by her hand.

That evening Lynn couldn't wait to tell Eliza what she'd accomplished. Painfully sore and limping from the beatings she had taken Lynn had a smile on her face nonetheless. She found Eliza at their usual table, staring off into space.

"I was wonderful today.", Lynn began, bubbling with excitement.

Eliza smiled back, but her smile lacked emotion. Something big was on her mind. Lynn knew better than to try to snap Eliza out of it. So she calmed herself and decided that her news could wait.

"You found something.", Lynn said softly.

Eliza nodded. Her face went back to being expressionless.

"Was it bad?", Lynn asked, sensing only deep confusion in her soul mate.

"I don't know.", Eliza replied.

Eliza had come to the end of her search that afternoon, but she hadn't found what she was looking for. She wanted proof, proof that she could show to anyone that revealed that the Canon of the Virtues had been added to the first edition after it had already been written. She wanted proof that the church elders were changing the doctrine to fit their personal views. But the books that would have supplied that proof had either been rewritten, or removed from the library completely, and so she had to give up.

She had also poured through books on Ezran morality, hoping to find something that condoned her relationship with Lynn, but all that she found was that up until the second edition the church's position was ambiguous. The scholars were divided. And her search to discover what had happened during the Drow war had been even more fruitless. It seemed as though every book written at that time was missing. All except for the accounting records, and those were the only ones that remained for her to read that day. So that's what she did, as boring as they were.

Reading the accounting records had made Eliza's mind wander. She wondered what had happened to the missing books. She wondered if they were all stored somewhere in the library of the church at Levkarest. In all her time as an anchorite she had never seen a first edition of the Book of Ezra. She wondered if the banned books were locked away in some secret room. That thought filled her with the desire to find that room and read all of those books. Then she had a disturbing thought. What if all of the banned books had simply been destroyed? Then there would be no evidence left to show what the church elders had done. The truth would be lost forever. Eliza drove that thought from her mind. She didn't approve when the church burned the books of heretics, and the thought of the church burning its own books made her sick.

Bored by the dry material, but determined nonetheless, Eliza had looked through every page of the accounting records between the founding of the church and the war with the Drow. That's when she found it. She had found something that she never would have expected and which completely changed her view of the world. In the years before the Drow war Eliza saw a series of entries that showed funding going to a certain "Sentire Kendra of Toyalis" for her school of Ezran wizardry. The entries stopped right before the time the Drow war started. Eliza couldn't believe her eyes.

"Kendra once worshipped Ezra.", Eliza whispered to Lynn. "She was part of the church."

Lynn gasped. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"That's why she had the First Book of Ezra.", Eliza explained. "That's why she could quote from it. She used to be an anchorite."

Lynn's mind reeled. "But…", she said.

"I remember her first words to me.", Eliza continued, her mind reflecting back on the breakfast that she had on the morning that she awoke in Kendra's castle. "'The goddess is strong inside you', she said. She could tell. She knew. She knew because she used to be a Sentire."

"Maybe…", Lynn said, but Eliza had already gone through the questions in her mind a hundred times.

"I know. I know.", Eliza said quietly, trying to contain herself. "Maybe that's just what she wants me to think. Maybe she lied. Maybe the book she gave me is just a big lie. That's what I believed until I found that book in the church library. It mentions her, by name. She was Sentire of the church of Toyalis. She was a sorceress and a priestess. It's easy to believe that she would lie, but did she plant those accounting books, knowing that I'd find them?"

Lynn shook her head.

"So maybe the Kendra in the book was a different Kendra.", Eliza continued. "Maybe she was an elf, or a human sorceress. And maybe the reason the entries stop is because the church was destroyed during the Drow war. Yes, there's a million explanations, but they all seem so…contrived."

Eliza struggled to keep her voice down, but she had been silent all day and it was hard to hold back. "But it doesn't really matter. What matters is that Kendra is right.", Eliza concluded. "The church can't go on doing what it's doing. It can't go around excommunicating its members because they fell in love. And they can't go around silencing its members if they don't agree with what the church elders say."

Lynn felt so proud of her lover. It had been more than a year since Eliza had been excommunicated, but the priestess hadn't really gotten over it, until now. Lynn reached under the table and took Eliza's hand.

"And I saw her, Ezra, in the Mists. I saw that she didn't protect every anchorite, and I saw that she didn't protect only anchorites. The church is straying from her true teachings. It's leading its followers, innocent people who believe and who do what they're told, and throwing them into the Mists without the hand of Ezra to guide them. It's leading them into the hands of the Legions of the Night.", Eliza whispered almost frantically.

Then Eliza stared into space as she thought about her uncle Michael and wondered if Ezra had taken his hand when he passed away. The thought disturbed her deeply and she knew that she had to do something.

Eliza turned to Lynn, smiled, and squeezed her hand. "Kendra was right. Ezra kept me alive for a reason. And now I know why."


"It's me.", Damon said as he knocked on Tshaya's door.

Tshaya opened the door. "It is early yet.", she replied in her usual dismissive style.

"Yes, I need to talk to you.", Damon said as his discomfort returned.

Tshaya let him in and closed the door behind him.

"Do you still wish to travel with me?", Damon asked.

Tshaya crossed her arms and looked him over. "Yes, the sooner the better.", she replied. "I have had my fill of this place."

"Then we agree on something.", Damon said, hoping that this conversation would end up going well, unlike all the others it seemed. "We leave tomorrow, Jayeis will be coming with us."

Tshaya looked a little surprised. "She is leaving Silas?", she replied. "Why?"

"You would have to ask her that question.", Damon answered.

Tshaya waved her hand. "I don't care that much.", she said, turning away from the bard. "Let us finish this show, cheat that pig, and be gone."

"I don't want you doing to Csain whatever it was you did to him this morning. We don't need you getting arrested just before we leave the country.", Damon said firmly. "We'll be making for Verbrek and we need to move fast and light. There's some kind of military operation heating up and that whole region is going to turn into a war zone very soon. We need to get through quickly."

Tshaya waved her hand again. Not bothering to turn back around she replied, "I have been cheating gaje since I could walk. I won't get arrested. Even if I do, I can get out of it."

The girl's unwavering confidence and arrogance was getting under Damon's skin. "Then consider it a favor in exchange for a promise of repayment in kind.", he asked, hoping that this new approach would work. "You do this and I'll do something for you."

It didn't, Tshaya just laughed. "What could you do for me that I can't do for myself?", she asked.

Damon shook his head. "You still don't understand. I just hope you do before it's too late.", Damon replied as he headed to the door. "I'll see you at the stage."

Damon shut the door roughly behind him and Tshaya wondered for a moment if she'd burnt her bridge to the bard but decided that she hadn't. She knew that he was still stuck on her and that was something that she could use.


The crowd applauded as Damon and Tshaya took the stage. Tshaya seemed to have an angry determination as she began to dance. Damon was playing the lute like a man possessed and Tshaya was feeding off his energy, dancing and spinning in a way that excited the crowd much more than last night. Everything was going wonderfully and the crowd was into the show. Tshaya could feel that tonight they would be the stars and Ghizlaine would be beside herself with jealousy.

Then Damon looked out across the crowded club and saw some commotion near the entrance. A short squat man, flanked by four tough-looking taller men, were being led towards the empty table. The short man, a feral looking dwarf, wore an angry expression, scowling at everyone and looking as if he were about to fly into a rage. Three of the four men around him, two humans and a half-elf, were powerfully built and wore heavy armor and carried weapons. The fourth was an elf dressed all in black. The men were scanning the crowd as if looking for someone but not finding them.

The dwarf, the elf, and the half-elf, took seats at the table and the other two men stood behind them. Once they were settled Damon noticed that some of the other patrons in the club were discreetly moving towards the exit, leaving their meals half eaten. He also saw that Silas had a horrified look on his face and the merchant dared not look at the newcomers.

The dwarf smelled the food in front of him, cursed, and pitched it away. More food was quickly brought out to him and the nervous waiters trembled as they set out an array of fine dishes on the table. The dwarf grunted at the man in black who passed his hand over the food and then nodded. The dwarf then grabbed handfuls of the food and shoveled it into his mouth. The other men watched the crowd and kept and eye on the performers.

Damon tensed slightly and glanced at Tshaya. He continued playing but kept an eye on the dwarf's table. Tshaya also noticed what was going on, but her determination to put on an exceptional show was going against her better judgment. She continued to dance wilder and wilder.

After a disgusting display of poor table manners the dwarf ordered more food for his men. As the waiters obeyed the dwarf's eyes locked onto the spinning figure of Tshaya. His anger turned briefly to fascination and he couldn't take his eyes off of her. More people slunk away from the dining hall and Tshaya continued to dance for the people who remained, most of whom were sitting at the tables near the stage and hadn't noticed Azrael.

Damon watched as a feeling of dread filled him. He remembered the rumors about Azrael, and realized that he was far too close to the dwarf than he ever wanted to be. He'd heard stories about the dwarf's rages, his paranoia, and the pleasure he took in killing, stories about how Azrael roamed through Sithicus in his chariot made from the bones of elves, stories of how he saw everyone as plotting against him, and stories about how he harshly put down rebellions against his rule, even in towns where there were no rebels.

As the bard watched the dwarf staring at Tshaya he remembered in particular one of the stories about the dwarven Lord. Years ago, Azrael had made a deal with a Vistani woman and they had hatched a plot to overthrow the Lord Soth, the knight he served who ruled Sithicus with an iron hand. They succeeded, on the Night of the Screaming Shadows, but the Vistani woman had been discovered by her kumpania and had to escape their wrath by throwing herself into the Great Rift of Sithicus. Rumor had it that the Vistani woman did not die, but instead now lay within the Great Rift, holding onto the power that the Lord Soth once had which made him invulnerable. It was that power that Azrael had desired most of all and now that he did not have it he was constantly angry as well as afraid to the point to where he saw everyone as an enemy.

Damon saw Azrael's expression changing as the dwarf watched Tshaya dance. Rage was filling his eyes once more and he signaled to the three armored men who then moved to block the exits. Damon knew that trouble was brewing but Tshaya did not. She just kept dancing. She thought that the dwarf was just another typical gaje who couldn't control his lust for her and that she could handle him just as easily as she had handled all the others.

Damon began to slow his tune fractionally, hoping that Tshaya would notice and run back to the stage, but his change only made her dance slowly and seductively. Damon began to draw the song to a close, which to his relief brought Tshaya back closer to the stage. But as the dancer tried to climb back up the stairs, one of Azrael's soldiers cut her off. Tshaya looked annoyed and attempted to dance around him, trying to preserve the show, but the soldier moved with her and did not let her pass. Tshaya realized that the show was over and that there was no way to save it. She stopped dancing and put her hands on her hips.

"Do you think this is funny?", Tshaya asked.

Then Tshaya tried to cast a spell on him that would have made him laugh uncontrollably. She said the magic words but halfway through they came out all garbled. Someone had stopped her magic from working.

While all the attention was on Tshaya, Damon quietly slipped off backstage. He ducked out the door and soon was in the street. He looked for a way to make a fast exit and spied a number of horses. The two that were the most impressive were a pale one and a black one, but they were attached to Azrael's chariot and there were two men guarding it. But instead of watching the horses, the men were standing on the chariot, looking over the hedge around the Old Oak and trying to see what was going on inside.

Azrael rose to his feet and with one motion threw the heavy table in front of him across the room. Tshaya, and everyone else in the Old Oak, turned around to see what was going on. What they saw was something that they wished that they had not. The angry dwarf drew his massive ax and stepped toward Tshaya, cleaving one poor elf nearly in two who had gotten in his way. The other soldiers drew their weapons as well. For a moment the crowd was too stunned to do anything.

Tshaya decided to try another spell. She looked at the guard standing close to her and tried to say, "I suggest you stop him before he kills everyone."

But again, Tshaya's words came out garbled as the elf dressed in black worked his magic on Azrael's behalf. The soldier then tried to grab Tshaya but she deftly dodged out of the way, running past him to the back of the stage. The guard chased after her as she turned the corner and made a dash for her room. At that moment it seemed like all hell was breaking loose. Everyone had risen out of their chairs and were running around, trying to avoid the dwarf and his guards who were now killing anyone who came near them.

"Stop her!", the dwarf screamed as he cleaved another member of the panicking crowd.

Tshaya barely made it into her room, slamming and locking the door, but the soldier was right behind her and threw his body against the door, nearly knocking it off its hinges. It wasn't going to hold for very long.

Damon heard the screams inside and knew that he had to act fast. A year ago he would have just run away, but he'd learned a few things while he was in Falkovnian resistance and he saw an opportunity to put that knowledge to good use. He quickly moved between the two horses attached to Azrael's chariot and placed his hand on either one. The black one pulled away but the Pale one remained calm. Wasting no time he quickly unhooked the pale horse from the chariot.

Tshaya grabbed her backpack, ran over to the window, and quickly began to unlock it, but she wasn't fast enough. The door to her room gave way and two of Azrael's soldiers burst into the small room. Tshaya was halfway out the window when the two soldiers grabbed her and hauled her back inside. She fought back as hard as she could but her struggles were in vain against the two veteran warriors. They dragged her, backpack and all, kicking and screaming towards a scene of horrid carnage and destruction. The dwarf, Azrael, was standing in the middle of sea mangled corpses with a bloody ax in his hands.

"Inza you traitorous whore!", the Dwarf screamed at Tshaya. The rage in his eyes was pure insanity.

Tshaya screamed back at the Dwarf, "Who the hell is Inza, you maniac?"

The dwarf's eyes narrowed and he lifted his ax to strike. "Torment me no more devil Vistani!", he screamed.

As she watched the axe rising, Tshaya screamed back him, "My blood will haunt and curse you for all your days!"

Tshaya's curse went into the dwarf's soul where it joined the many others which constantly tormented him.

Then there was a crash behind the dwarf. Tshaya and the soldiers looked up to see a pale horse leaping over the hedge and crashing down on a table with Damon holding onto the horse's mane for dear life. Damon glanced around for any sign of Jayeis but he couldn't tell if she was one of the many victims or not. Quickly recovering he urged the horse towards the men holding Tshaya. The soldiers both let go of the dancer and drew their weapons but Damon was moving too fast. As the soldiers released her Tshaya bolted clear from them and leaped up onto the stage.

"Tshaya!", Damon shouted as he reached his hand towards the Vistani.

Tshaya looked back and saw Damon riding towards her with his hand out. Without thinking she turned to grab his arm and then jumped onto the back of his horse.

Damon spun the horse around as Azrael and his men approached, but the mare was too quick and lunged towards the hedge-wall once more. The horse was strong and powerful and cleared the tall hedge easily with two riders aboard. Damon and Tshaya barely held on as they landed hard on the firm ground.

Damon shouted to Tshaya without looking back. "Are you hurt?", he asked.

Tshaya clutched to Damon tightly. "Not yet.", she replied. She still hadn't lost her sarcasm.

The horse shook a few times but then resigned itself to having two riders. She whinnied angrily, and wanted to run. Damon held her back, but only for a moment.

"Did you see Jayeis?", Damon shouted back. "Where is she?"

"I haven't seen her since this afternoon in the market.", Tshaya replied.

Damon went silent and gave the horse a kick. The horse bolted for the street. Behind them they heard shouting and screaming coming from the Old Oak, but soon it was far behind them. On the inside Damon was being torn in two. He knew there was a chance that Jayeis was still alive and that if Azrael interrogated Silas that there would a chance Jayeis would be caught up in it. He wanted to go back and save her as well. But Damon also knew that if Azrael believed Tshaya was his most hated enemy, he wouldn't stop until he'd found her. He couldn't go back with Tshaya, he knew that for sure.

Damon rode the powerful mare as hard as he could. With the speed of a lightning bolt he headed out of town to the north and followed the Arden up into Verbrek. Tshaya hung on for the ride. With the moonlight to guide him Damon followed a well worn trail and soon found himself deep in the forests of Verbrek. Remembering the tales of werewolves he looked for the nearest town or village to stop for the night. After just over an hour at breakneck speed they came upon the town of Fylfot and found the Arden inn.