The Blinded Journey Read online

  He turned to the left, then slowed down, so that he’d be in plain view when the guards reached the darkened crossroads. He could hear the clatter of their boots, a clatter that grew louder as they grew closer, and then he suddenly realized there was a second noise, a solitary clatter of someone running towards him from a different direction, someone who was very close to his location.

  Kendel grew tense, wondering if a soldier had cut him off through some unknown shortcut. He was only jogging, catching his wind, ready to sprint if he needed to.

  “Stop there! You are ordered by the Guard of the Palace to await being taken into custody for questioning,” a guard was suddenly ahead of him somehow, and he heard the rabble of the rest of the group reach the crossroads behind him. They spotted him, shouted, and began running towards him.

  Kendel ran towards the lone guard ahead, his eyes closed as he tried to reach the power within him once more. He was going to need it; it was sooner than he expected, but there wasn’t much time left.

  The man in front of him squatted down, reminding Kendel of a football defensive player preparing to make a tackle, and suddenly Kendel was inspired. Just as he reach the man he pivoted to his right, pushed hard with a juke that left the guard grabbing at empty air, and then Kendel went running off to the left down the shortcut the guard had used to cut him off.

  Kendel momentarily wished someone who knew football had seen his evasive maneuver. It was a flawless spin and it had worked. He was safely out of the guard’s reach and putting space between the two of them, as well as the other guards in pursuit.

  His staff suddenly came alive with a blue glow as the power within him flared outwardly. He was ready now to exercise his power. He looked backward and dimly saw the pack that was behind him, and he commanded the green power to serve him.

  “Create the wall!” he thought and ordered as he held the staff above his head, its top pointed slightly backwards. A great green flare of light lit up the neighborhood in response, and he looked over his shoulder again to see a bolt of his energy spread across the street and become a barrier, just like the barrier he had create in Fordham Falls to hold back the army of Mormos that had threatened to overwhelm Flora, Genniae, their companions and he. Creation of the wal had happened easily, without any trouble, despite all the failures to produce the wall when he’d practiced on his journey through Shoreline. Shaiss must be helping, he decided.

  There were shouts of amazement and dismay as the guards reached the translucent wall and stopped, stymied in their pursuit.

  Kendel laughed aloud and slowed his pace to catch his breath as he continued to try to find his way back to the plaza outside the gate. He worked his way through the pattern of streets and suddenly and unexpectedly found himself bursting out into the plaza just a minute later.

  He didn’t see Elline and Waxen, but he saw the half dozen guards who stood by the gate, and he knew he needed to focus on them,

  One of them shouted as soon as Kendel arrived. In response, Kendel swerved to the left, hoping that he was going away from his two companions, misdirecting the guards so that Elline and Waxen could get to the gate. Kendel moved further to the left, hugging the fronts of the buildings facing the gates, and then when he judged he was in a safe spot, he slowed to a walk, keeping his eye on the pair of guards who held bows, their arrows not yet placed on the strings.

  All the guards were looking at him, and he was ready. There was an unseen movement behind the guards, which Kendel was sure was Elline and Waxen. It was time for Kendel to adhere to the plan that had been devised and use the power to protect himself as well as Elline and Waxen. He raised the glowing staff and focused on the guards between he and the gate, then released another bolt of energy, one that became a defensive shield between the two palace refugees and the gate on one side, and the half dozen guards who were suddenly cut off from them.

  The guards turned around at the sudden burst of light behind them and spotted both the two men near the gate as well as the glowing shield that was nearer the guards. A pair of the guards approached the new defensive wall cautiously, but the others ran from the scene, scattering in all directions as they sought safety from the unexpected forces in play.

  Kendel edged along the border of the plaza and then circled around the end of the defensive wall, to rejoin Elline and Waxen, as the two remaining guards stood dumbfounded just feet away on the other side of the transparent barrier.

  “There it is,” Waxen grunted as he finished turning the bar that opened the gate.

  “Let’s go,” Elline urged. “They’ll come after us soon enough,” he nodded at the pair of guards who had begun to walk towards the open end of Kendel’s glowing barrier.

  “Not as soon as they think,” Kendel answered, pleased with himself. He raised his staff and waved it from right to left as he focused on the green energy within once more, and added to the protective barrier by closing it off at either end, so that the gate was beyond the reach of those inside the city.

  “Brilliantly done!” Elline said enthusiastically. “How long will it last?”

  “I’m not sure,” Kendel answered as the plaza was suddenly filled with the sounds of the other guards returning from their fruitless hunt of Kendel.

  “Then we better be off,” Waxen said. “It’s best to be going while you can be going.”

  The three left the city through the re-opened gate and jogged up the road, anxious to reunite with their fellow companions.

  All the others were gathered together a quarter of a mile down the road, on the edge of an empty lot.

  “You all made it! Past those guards!” Sheenda exclaimed. “I was just telling the others that you had a thick pile of dough to knead.”

  “It took you a bit of time though, didn’t it?” Weber commented. He was still standing beside the nurse, who in turn was kneeling on the ground next to the King in his rickshaw. Gayl had immediately stepped next to her husband and hugged him upon their reunion.

  “We’ll talk about it as we walk. We don’t know how much time we’ve got before they come looking for us,” Elline directed.

  The others responded and began to shuffle onto the dusty road.

  “I’ll pull his majesty,” Weber offered, freeing Sheenda of the burden.

  Elline assigned Kendel to take the lead, and to keep his staff glowing to show the way. Weber pulled the rickshaw right behind Kendel, and the others followed, with Elline and Waxen bringing up the rear.

  They walked at a slow pace, as Kendel was conscious of the difficulty of pulling the rickshaw, as well as Sheenda’s advanced age.

  Elline called him to stop three hours after they began the trip, and the group settled into a small dell next to the road, where Kendel was assigned the first shift of the watch.

  Sheenda used the light from his staff to distribute a bite of food to all the travelers, then they all settled down without complaint into spots on the dim ground and rested from their trying evening.

  Kendel at last dowsed the light of his staff, and the campsite became pitch black.

  “Sir sorcerer?” Kendel heard himself paged ten minutes later, and a rustling sound nearby morphed into Lady Grace, she took a seat on the fallen tree where Kendel sat.

  “You should sleep, my lady,” Kendel said politely. “We’ll be walking all day tomorrow.”

  “I just want to tell you thank you for saving our lives,” Grace replied.

  Kendel could barely see the outline of her face in the forest darkness. He remembered though; more from his previous time in Sunob than from his present visit. He remembered being Parker, and looking at the girl, noting her flawless complexion. She had the delicate manners of her place in society, but had sometimes shown a slight boldness, a willingness to step outside of her expected limits. He remembered when she had run to fetch Parker’s bow for him when he’d gone to enter the squire’s tournament, and how she’d slowed her return with her last few steps at a stately pace to maintain her appearance of dignity.

>   “You did not deserve to receive any blame for Princess Agata’s escape,” Kendel answered her. “There would have been no justice in delivering any punishment to you or your friends. I’m glad I was able to bring some justice back into your lives.

  “You’re all good people; you deserve better,” he added.

  “You speak as if you know us, Sir Sorcerer,” Grace spoke pleasantly.

  “You can call me Kendel,” he interrupted.

  “That name is the same that Goddess Miriam used when she spoke to Parker, I am told,” Grace observed. “Are you a disciple of the goddess?” she asked.

  Kendel paused before answering. They had wandered into dangerous territory. He didn’t want to have to explain that he had been Parker, that he had possessed the body of her boyfriend. That would be complicated, and it would raise suspicion and mistrust. And he didn’t know if he should be considered a disciple of a goddess. He probably could be, he realized. But that too was complicated by the fact that Miriam was not presently available, while Shaiss was – he might be considered a disciple of Shaiss under the circumstances, and he didn’t think he wanted that affiliation attached to his name.

  He paused, expecting a rumble of thunder from the goddess to express her displeasure at his disassociation from her, but the skies stayed silent.

  “I think,” he finally began to carefully answer, “I think that the goddess does expect me to do things, and I want to please her and satisfy her. Maybe I am a disciple,” he acknowledged.

  “It is a noble title to carry, Kendel, disciple of Miriam,” Grace said. She rose to her feet, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you again, and good night,” her fingers left his shoulder, and he heard the sounds of her stepping across the forest floor to return to where Vivian and Sophie were already bedded down.

  Chapter 13

  The odd collection traveled for four days on their way traveling southeastward, playing cat and mouse with patrols of soldiers that appeared regularly along the roads. They traveled more slowly than Kendel had traveled on his first journey with Genniae and Flora; the rickshaw slowed them down as they had to frequently lift and carry it over the rough spots and obstacles in the country lanes they followed in the general direction of Four Borders.

  Kendel found that there seemed to be no animosity between the former palace guards and the former palace prisoners. As he listened to them all speak, it became clear to him that there was no one who enjoyed being in the palace under Beches’s control, as the nobleman had become more tyrannical and vicious in his rule of the kingdom. Everyone in the fleeing group of refugees was glad to be free of the palace atmosphere.

  The dynamics of the group were unpredictable. He remembered how Genniae had come to assume leadership when just she and Flora and he had fled from the palace in his previous adventure. In the case of the larger group’s flight, with so many personalities, coming from such a variety of social levels, Kendel was interested to see that a duo of Sheenda and Elline seemed to become the working leadership. He was also consulted frequently by the two leaders, but he deferred to their judgement the majority of the time due to his lack of knowledge of anything relevant.

  The guards Weber and Waxen, and Waxen’s wife, listened to Elline because he was a knight. But they also listened to Sheenda because as ordinary guardsmen, they had a status no higher than a castle servant.

  The ladies of the court listened to Elline because he was a knight, and because he had been the knight whose squire had socialized with the ladies so much. The three pleasant souls did not disrespect anyone else in the group, but their eyes turned first to Elline whenever a question was asked. Rachel the nurse seemed to hold herself outside the conversations, as her only purpose in joining the group was to look after King Ardur, a job that she found puzzling.

  “What exactly did your magical power do to the King back in the palace?” she asked Kendel on their first day of walking along a country lane.

  He doesn’t seem to need any care at the moment,” she explained.

  “It should help keep him healthy,” Kendel agreed, not truly sure of what his energy had done to the frail ruler.

  “Is the blue power your good power, and the green power your bad power?” Sophie asked him later the same day, after hearing stories about the things Kendel had done in the confrontation at the gate.

  “That’s,” Kendel began to respond by saying her idea was wrong, then caught himself as he reflected.

  “The blue energy is a good power,” he answered. “It comes from Miriam. It helps me control the green energy. I don’t think the green energy is bad,” he squinted and looked up at the sky, where a growing sliver of the green sun had peeked out from behind the larger yellow orb, though the green was invisible at the moment in the glare of the bright yellow light. “The green energy is just wilder. I don’t think I know how to control it by myself, and that’s why Miriam gave me some of her energy – to bring it under control.”

  “Shouldn’t you learn to control it yourself?” Sophie asked.

  It was a frank question.

  “Um, yes, I should, but it’s not that easy,” Kendel answered.

  “Have you tried?” the girl insisted in asking more hard questions.

  “Maybe not, not very seriously,” he admitted. “But I will start to,” he offered, hoping to end the line of questions.

  That night, when the group was settled into camp in a forest clearing in the hills, not too far from where Kendel had encountered the second sun witch, he decided to try to practice his use of the green energy. The power felt weak, a result of the green sun’s limited exposure both because of its orbit and because of the nighttime darkness; Kendel hoped that the weakened energy would be easier for him to control on his own.

  He stood alone in the darkness when it was his turn to stand watch. Elline and Sheenda had allowed the group to have a campfire in the isolated forest region, but by the time of Kendel’s shift the fire was only a bed of dully glowing coals.

  He stood with his staff, at a spot off to the side, and he closed his eyes to the darkness under the trees’ canopy, while he focused his attention internally. He quickly found the place where the two energies resided within his soul. The two intermixed powers were calm and almost tranquil as they rested.

  Kendel focused his attention upon the green energy, studying how it was contained within the blue, subject to the containment by the blue energy. He realized for the first time that both energies were truly independent entities inside him; they each had insubstantial connections that led to place outside of him, places that might have been physical sources of the energy, but also were more metaphysical in nature. He didn’t have a vocabulary that could describe what he felt the nature of those connections were, but the word spiritual seemed to come closest.

  The filaments that left the blue energy came to an end, cut off and left to dangle. The blue energy that existed within him was self-sufficient, able to maintain itself independently through some sense of self-determination and self-regeneration. The string that trailed away from the green energy was different; it was not cut off, but it stretched off into a distance that was beyond his ability to sense. The unknown distant connection seemed to be a source of energy for the green entity that resided within him though, it seemed.

  The two energies were fascinating, he realized. They were virtually alive. They were within him, then had no bodies of their own, and yet they seemed to be alive. It was astounding.

  The study of the energy had been informative but hadn’t precisely taught him anything useful regarding how he might control the green energy without needed to use the blue energy as a harness. He would still have to test that on his own.

  He shaped his will as best he could to make it like a cone – larger at the end towards the energies, and smaller but open at the other end. He would use the cone to constrict the flow of green energy so that not too much emerged at once.

  He followed that by focusing on the green energy and the
blue energy, reciting a silent prayer to Miriam asking that the blue energy allow him to test his ability to control the green energy.

  And then suddenly the green energy was erupting freely out of its blue confinement and roaring through his soul. He felt the cone he had constructed become instantly shredded as a burst of green energy exploded, too strong for him to contain . Kendel threw his arms up towards the sky instinctively, as a vast amount of hot green power shot from his fingers and created towering, shining beacons of fiery hot green energy that soared up into the sky, illuminating the forest area for miles around with an intense light.

  Kendel felt extreme heat radiating from the green energy that was blasting its way out from his hands. It was like being in front of a roaring fire, becoming another piece of roasted meat along with any piece of food one might have been preparing to broil.

  You aren’t ready Kendel, a voice seemed to say, perhaps Miriam, though he couldn’t tell in his state of panicked shock.

  Before he could even realize that he had no chance to control the green energy, the blue power rose up and quenched the emerald blaze. The blue power of Miriam wrapped itself around the green power and cut off its display, pulling it down and re-containing it once more within the blue power’s clutches, so that the forest was no longer bright, and Kendel was no longer suffering burns. As soon as the power disappeared, Kendel’s senses overloaded, and he fell to the ground unconscious.

  Chapter 14

  “I think he’s awakening,” were the first words Kendel remembered hearing.

  He opened his eyes. They weren’t easy to open, he vaguely realized. Overhead he had a momentary vision of a bright blue sky, with the blueness hemmed in by a collar of leafy green. Then the head of Rachel the nurse filled his field of vision, and he blinked.

  “Keep your eyes closed,” she said. He did as directed and felt a dribble of cool water upon his face around his eyes and his cheeks. A soft hand slipped behind his head and began to lift him. He sat upright, and Rachel gently wiped a cloth across his eyes.