132 – Which way do we go

  They hiked the canyon for two full days, descending in altitude as the mountain walls gave way to foothills. To no one’s surprise, the group of bandits that had tried to ambush them on the way up was long gone. Those who had been there did not mention the event to those who were not. Steven was not certain where the skirmish had happened to point it out, and the other three adults did not want to notice it.

  Alex did ask why there was no snow if it was winter; also the temperature felt like late fall or early spring, though it was colder than in the caves. They were not yet where they could see the tops of the mountains they were hiking out of; to see whether there was any snow up there. Karen was bundled against the seasonal cold as she had been the whole trip. Rox and her kids were more inured to the cold than the not-hybrids. Steven used layers as well, but kept moving well enough to want ventilation. As for the lack of snow, Karen explained that this area got maybe two real snow storms a winter, and then it was very wet, and gone in days. The rest of the winter was just cold and wet when it stormed. When the cold did stay around, everything froze.

  They stopped at the intersection with the ring road, and pulled aside into the forest to set up camp. It was cooler, and smelled of a storm; winter was going to try to make a real effort at a storm. They set up camp. Caspian and Steven demonstrated their practice from up north and made a real lean-to everyone could camp under, and used the tarp to help line it. For warmth, the six of them would line up next to each other; Steven and Rox at one end, the kids in the middle and Karen and Caspian at the other. Rox and Diana made dinner, while Alex and Karen finished with the horse, ponies and cart. A second rude covering of leaf lined branches was made for the ponies and horse to stand under.

  That night, Karen took advantage of the proximity to psionically implant information in to Diana and Alex, before going to sleep. Caspian’s presence on one side and Diana’s on the other was a little distracting, but neither of them was inclined to snuggle.

  Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 154

  Another winter storm. The ones up north were light powder blizzards. Here its heavy, wet and then icy. But we are prepared to deal with it.

  The kids slow us down from the pace we traveled without them. Maybe put them on the ponies when they get tired of walking?

  Rox and Karen both want to go get us into a fight. I just want to take the kids home. They want to confront the bully and end the situation. I just want to go home and leave the bully to self destruct. Problem is bullies often follow their targets around continuing to harass them.

  In the morning, it was self evident that the lean-too had been set up correctly regarding the direction of the storm. There were crusty patches of snow on the ground and things were wet, except for right in front of the lean-to’s open side. The animals were fidgeting to keep warm, as they huddled together under their shelter. Each one had little icicles in its mane. Everyone could see each others breath for the cold. Yet under the lean-to itself, was comfortably warm and dry. This wave of the storm was already blown over, but this had the effect of removing the insulating layer of clouds and so all the comparative warmth that they had previously enjoyed was gone. This morning they had a warm breakfast and bundled up before heading out.

  The road was frozen and crispy rather than muddy. As the sun brought the day’s warmth, the ice diminished, but the trees of the forest kept the air still and cold, with a hint of more storm. Everyone’s breath was visible as they walked.

  Karen again drilled Alex in his swordsmanship. He was less hostile to her, but still did not really like her. She asked Diana how she might fight, and got kicked in her shins for it. Diana did not kick hard, but it was enough to startle the assassin. Caspian had been watching and laughed a bit for it. Karen turned on him, and drew her sais and went half a round on him.

  Cyrril leapt clear, and Caspian energized some magic as Karen approached. The whole time Caspian smirked. Staff versus Sais had him using the staff as a bo, though he was careful of the carved figure. She got past his defenses and tried to hit him physically, but her senses warned her of the shields he had up, and just probed them more than trying to inflict damage. She did stun his left arm with a strike from her sai, numbing the arm and taking it out of service for a while. She finished by trapping his right arm with his staff between the center rods of her crossed sai’s while he had some kind of magic charged to go off.

  He was breathing about as hard as her, which was not very, but they were close enough to smell each other. She looked at his eyes for a moment.

  “Satisfied?” Caspian asked, looking at her curiously.

  Karen released his arm, and stepped back, sensing his magic relaxing. “Yes.”

  She turned seeing that Diana had stopped as soon as Karen had turned away from her. The cart and the other Caplan’s were further up the road, and had stopped with everyone watching. Her horse was glad to stop and rest; the ponies looked ready to keep going, with steam floating off the three animals.

  As they walked along, Caspian took a rare moment to actually walk with her, rather than near her. “I’m curious. I have never spared with a talent that I am aware of. Were you using your psionics, or just your physical talents?”

  Karen told him the truth. “That was just my native talents. I suspect that like you may be capable of, were I to come at you with my full capabilities, particularly to surprise you, you would not have time to stop me. “

  Seeing that the Caplan’s were ahead and out of earshot, Caspian broached the forbidden subject. “So, what happens next in this plan of yours? Cyrril told me something that leads me to believe that you probably did to the kids what you already did to their parents. Yet you have never bothered to do so with me. Do you know how much the elves in Shalaia told Rox and Steven?”

  Karen shook her head. “I only put information in. I didn’t read any or take any out.”

  Caspian pressed a little father. “So when are you going to kill me?”

  Karen looked around at the forest they were walking though. Diana ahead between them and the rest of the Caplan’s and their cart.

  “Not here. There is nowhere to hide the body.”

  This struck both of them as funny, but neither was sure enough of the other to let down enough guard to react to it.

  Steven and Rox walked a bit ahead of Alex leading the cart. Diana was still behind them somewhere, with Caspian and Karen on rear guard. Rox’s mind buzzed. There had not been time to discuss this without Karen in earshot, until now.

  “Steven, do you remember what I suggested we do, back in Shalaia?”

  “You mean that these locals will probably come after the kids again, as soon as they know we have them?  You wanted to go face them and force the issue somehow.”

  “Right. You remember what Karen told us, in the coach? That our kids would kill these monarchs.”

  Steven had also though along theses lines, but did not want to address them yet. He let his wife continue.

  “Last week, she asked how I would deal with a demon. Now she has given me the tool according to her suggestion. In a sense I am a loaded and cocked weapon ready to go off, just needing a target.” Rox looked a bit shaken by this idea.

  Now Rox got to a bit of information that disturbed her. “Last night I had another dream. I don’t remember the details, but the point was that I need to know who I am, and be ready to do some incredible magic by the seat of my pants. I don’t know what this means, Steven.”

  Steven had again dreamed about being in the fight. This time it was not the full dream, more like an abridged version. This left him a little worried. He coupled this with Karen, and her behavior. That line of thought was not hard, but she had warned him off of it. Its conclusions led to the same ones Rox’s train of though did.

  “This line of thought concludes with our kids killing someone. I know we have both done that while on planet, but I would rather they not. What do you want to do? Turn left and head back to Skarg, and knock on the palace doors, and challenge them to a winner-take all fight? Wait for something to happen? For our friendly neighborhood assassin to act?” Steven thumbed over his shoulder as he said the last.

  Rox picked up the line of thought. “She’s reviewing the kid’s abilities to fight. Frankly, Alex unnerves me with that sword of his. He does not have experience with something like that that I know of. Yet he got enough somewhere to handle the thing respectably. As for Diana, she used magic to light the fire last night. I haven’t bothered to do that, or teach it. I have taken some time to try to tell her about some of the rules I’ve had drilled into me. But I don’t know what may have stuck, and how much she can or does understand yet.”

  Steven almost asked what bothered Rox more, that Diana had potentially the same abilities as Rox, or that Diana was innocent enough to try to use what she had seen in the assorted cartoons she enjoyed watching, or books she had read, to cast magic.

  Steven paused at the next cross road, holding Rox back. Alex stopped when he got to them, and the ponies did as well. They were not steaming anymore, having dried off, but they looked very tired. Karen’s horse also stopped. It shook the last of the ice from its mane, and looked around, and nuzzled at the tarp, to see what might be under it. Diana walked around the cart and up to her parents.

  “Why are we stopping? Is it lunch time?” Diana looked around, and took the lead for the ponies as Alex handed it to her.

  Alex then stepped off the road and behind a bush.

  Caspian and Karen walked up then.

  Steven threw down a proverbial gauntlet, and frightened Karen. “You told us that our kids have a destiny in Skarg. Do we turn left here and go back now, or do we keep going north and come back later?”

  Karen had been enjoying walking with Caspian. She rarely walked with any of the local men for social reasons, as she had long ago discounted their social interests as prurient and not really in her best interest. Now walking with Caspian was a new and interesting experience, though neither said much. Observing him and herself with all her senses they were comfortable together, so far as their current relationship went. Then Steven shattered it with his question. She could see that both adult Caplan’s dispositions had altered. Her façade reasserted itself by reflex.

  “We go north to the next town, and get some fresh food,” Karen answered. “There is a crossroad there; you can decide what to do then. Particularly as Diana and Alex have not been told what you have, regarding why they are here. Whatever happens, these ponies need a rest, preferably in a barn, as this cold is wearing them out. ”

  Karen walked on, lightly touching Caspian’s hand to draw him along. The Caplan’s all watched them go past.

  Alex returned from his side trip. He looked at the rest. “So, what’s happening?”

  “We are going to town, you little twit.” Diana stepped out, pulling the ponies and cart with, causing everyone else to hop out of the way and start moving.

  Steven and Rox watched the mage and assassin walk ahead of them. They looked at each other. Steven smiled and laughed a bit. Rox likewise smirked. They held hands as they walked ahead of Diana and Alex; the siblings got back into their ongoing low level squabble.

133 – Karen Conspires

  The road rolled a little and finally the forest opened up to farm land, with a town ahead. The locals were out doing the usual winter maintenance on things as the group went past. Alex and Diana had been put on Karen’s horse, but its lead was still attached to the cart. Karen and Caspian still walked together ahead of the Caplan’s.

  As with most of the towns they had passed through, the main market was centered on the intersection of the north-south highway section of the Ring Road they traveled, and the spoke road that that eventually went into Skarg, and out to whatever was beyond. Karen immediately inquired for a livery stable to let the ponies rest. The little company then went off the main road into a stable on a side road. The hands were quick to help unhitch the ponies and get them under warm cover where they could rest and eat. Karen’s horse was put in a stall next to the ponies. The cart as put aside, with its tarp still secured.

  Steven got the money out of the cart, and took his family shopping. Alex and Diana stayed close to their parents, being a little jumpy concerning strangers. Karen and Caspian followed. They talked a little as they went. Then Karen excused herself to find an out house.

  Rox and Steven inspected the available vegetables and cured meats. Steven also looked for a little flour and other ingredients to make bread. As they purchased food, Steven also asked about tents, only to receive a general negative answer, but he could find more blankets.

  Karen’s senses told her that her contact out here in the field was in town. He had previously visited her in the meadow. She had been alone, and was able to give him a timeline of about when she expected the family to surface, and where they would go after that, if she had anything to say about it. They further worked out a set of basic signals from her to him, and the men with him. So far she had not really sensed them in proximity as they had traveled to this town.

  The Caplan’s and Caspian were in the north part of the market. The Scout was in the south west quadrant of the town. Karen finished her immediate personal business. Sensing that no one else was watching, most importantly Cyrril, she leapt to the top of the closest house and went to where the Scout was. Along the way she put her hood up, and pulled her scarf around her mouth and nose.

  The Scout was on the balcony of a house that faced out of town, when she alerted him to her presence by climbing down onto it from the roof. The Scout was a guild alumnus that had gone into the military. Also he was a norm, lacking magic or talents. The house was among a row of medium size houses, with smaller ones beyond it for a few streets, before the land gave way to farms and ranches.

  “Hello. Where are you men?” Karen did not worry about any preamble.

  “South west of here. You can maybe see the smoke from camp over the trees.”

  “Are they ready, and trustworthy?”

  “A few are a bit more reckless, but most of them are loyal. The ones that aren’t are still good men. Are things ready on your end?”

  “Almost. The parents are ready to head into Skarg and have it out; to stop this at its source. I just need one more session with the kids. Then they will be ready. There is still an awful lot that can go wrong.”

  He looked around as Karen spoke. “You know we could be put to death just for talking this way.”

  Karen scanned around. “Treason is just and excuse for the winners to hang the losers. Is anybody else in town, besides you?”

  “A few. They should be off the main roads though. They aren’t looking for you yet.”

  Karen nodded. “It’s too early to take them, and in town is a bit too public.”

  “That’s alright. Do you want any of us to put in an appearance, for you to put on an exhibition?”

  Karen shook her head. “No. I don’t think that will be necessary. Keep a watch, beware of the dragon. I think we will head in to Skarg on this highway. Remember to wait for us to all be having dinner and me to signal that things are ready.”

  “Yes ma’am.” He did not turn to see her leave.

  Karen chinned up and flipped over onto the roof above her, sticking to it with her psionics and then noiselessly made her way back toward the Caplan’s.

  Karen decided to meet them on the spoke side of the market. She walked out of a side street and started browsing the vendors. She had a bag of produce when Rox and Diana came up to join her. Cyrril was on Diana’s shoulder, curled up and purring. Karen could not remember the last time if ever, Cyrril purred for Caspian.

  Karen did not wait to hear what Rox might have to say. “I think we ought to spend the night in town. All of us could use a good sleep out of the elements. Especially those ponies of yours.”

  “I was going to bring that up over lunch,” Rox said as she looked over the produce on the stand. “Steven and Alex are around the corner and up a ways at a saloon. Caspian has wondered off. We came to find you, and here you are.”

  “And here I am.” Karen decided to take the direct approach and switched to English. “Roxanne, it appears you are determined to head into town, and have it out. If you are going to do that, I need one more session with both kids, and at least you.”

  Cyrril was evidently asleep and did not take notice as Rox changed mental gears. Diana had hers stripped, as she was not sure what Karen might be talking about, but recognized her mother going to very serious in her attitude.

  “How long will it take and what do you need to tell them?” Rox answered in English.

  “This is not for open discussion. I just want you to know how serious this is.” Karen started toward where she sensed Steven and Alex. Caspian was elsewhere attending to personal business.

  Rox and Diana followed Karen.

  “Does Caspian need to be involved?”

  “No.” Karen closed the discussion with that final statement.

  Karen mentioned this subject to Steven while waiting for Caspian to find them. The conversation was held quietly sitting around a side table, in English. Karen sat to Steven’s right, with Rox on the other side, Alex next to Rox and opposite Karen. Diana sat opposite her dad, and next to Alex. An open seat was between Diana and Karen, opposite Rox.

  Steven was a little leery of Karen doing to the kids what she had done to Rox and him, insofar as what information she might put in. On the other hand it would be faster than trying to retell it.

  “My main question is what do the kids need to learn?” Steven had held this card to this point, in a bid the get Karen to simply come clean.

  Karen recognized this, and it went against everything she was professionally and personally.

  “I’m not going to play power games with you, Steven. If you want I can put the same information in to you as them. Same manor of input. Same triggers for recall.”

  “All I want is for you to tell all, Karen.”

  “After the job is done, Steven. I’ve already told you most of it anyway. That is why you want to turn here back into Skarg.”

  Steven was about to say more when Karen put her hand on his shoulder and psionically dope-slapped him. This was the equivalent of giving him a sudden onset hangover.

  Alex started to get up for Karen. “Don’t touch my daddy.”

  Karen turned to Rox, who put her hand on Alex to push him back into his chair.

  Karen looked across the table at Alex, and back to Steven in deadly seriousness. “Settle down, both of you. The town sheriff and one of his deputies are at the bar, as are two Krogg militia men. If they really understood what we are discussing, they would take the lot of us out to the corner and hang us without a second thought. So just settle down.”

  Diana broke the temporary tableau. “So what is going on?”

  Rox answered. “We are probably going back to the city, and fight the king and queen there, so that they don’t try to kidnap you again. Karen needs to tell us how to do that. She is going to use her mind powers to talk directly to your mind, kind of like the spell that put the language into your minds. You won’t be able to remember all of it until you need it. Now as she said, settle down and eat your lunch. Especially you, Steven.”

  Sitting between two vehement women, and with his head pounding like he had been on an all-night-bender, Steven backed off, and returned to eating his lunch.

  “Fight them, like Gohan against Cell?”

  Karen did not begin to understand the reference. Rox understood it, having introduced Diana to the manga, after the anime had begun overtaking all Diana’s attention. Since then Diana had gone through a quarter of the county library’s manga, and assorted other books, many above her grade level.

  “Yes, Diana. Similar to that. But that is not something to discuss here and now.”

  Alex changed gears. “Similar to Cable, and his adventures?”

  Rox nodded, as she took a bite.

  Alex seamed happy this. “Cool.”

  Rox and Steven shared a look about the innocence of their son, and what he thought was cool.

  Before too much longer Caspian arrived and first ordered some food from the bar, then brought it over to the table to join in, taking the open seat between Karen and Diana more or less opposite from Rox. He could immediately sense that there was some stress between the people here, but could not place it. As he settled he noticed that Cyrril was still curled up asleep on Diana’s shoulders, and purring.

  “No wonder it was so hard to sense him. Did you put him to sleep?” Caspian spoke in the local language, and looked at the girl with amused curiosity.

  “Maybe. I’m not sure. I just wanted him to stop moving around.” Diana answered in the same language, but did not answer more as she ate her food.

  Outside the last wave of the storm moved over and started to rain.

  Rox did not look up from her meal. “We are staying the night here in town. We will head out to Skarg in the morning. Once we are done here, Karen and I will go get our loggings.”

  As they finished, Karen touched Steven, soothing the psionic slap she had given him, relaxing the headache. It dissipated quickly. After taking their dishes to the bar, the two women went out into the rain, and back to the livery stable taking the groceries with. These were put in the cart once they arrived.

  The two women checked the ponies, and horse. They then inquired about staying in the stable. The Stable Master had a small bunkhouse attached to the stable. It smelled of animals, from proximity, but was warm with a few stoves, clean, and had more than enough space.

  Shortly Caspian, Steven and the kids showed up, and were put to work unloading the wagon and taking the gear to the bunkhouse where as much as possible was set out to dry out and warm up.

134 – Set the trap

  Caspian joined Karen in bringing her horse tack in. “Steven says you have to do to the kids what you did to Rox and him.”

  “Yes, and he’s not happy about it.” Karen picked up the saddle and its related things.

  “I think he just wants to get home.” Caspian got the bridle and saddle bags.

  “I can sympathize. On the other hand, Rox wants to prevent this from ever happening again. That means charging into a fight. That is why I need the time with the kids and Rox.”

  They went into the bunkhouse, and Karen turned to the tack area and an open saddle horse.

  “And where will I be in all this?” Caspian hung the bridle and related stuff on the end of the saddle horse.

  Karen put the saddle down, then the blanket over top of it. Caspian handed her the saddle bags. “With me. Wherever that ends up being.”

  Caspian stopped, realizing that Karen had just offered information in opposition to her previous reticence. Karen also realized that she had said more than she wanted to.

  “I never said that. Don’t say anything to the Caplan’s.” Karen’s demeanor showed its sharp edges.

  Caspian cocked his head slightly. “Does that have to do with my dying?”

  “Yeah. Drop it, or you will.” Karen turned and walked away.

  Caspian almost reached out to swat her attractive fanny as she went.

  As the afternoon progressed, curtains were located to divide the sleeping areas, and hung from curtain rods that gridded the room overhead. Karen designated her own bunk on the right hand, with Caspian a little down from her. Steven and Rox designated a pair for themselves on the left, with Diana and Alex taking the next two separating their own areas.

  The bunk house also had a bath house attached at the far end. The hot water was limited in supply, but replenished quickly from a pump on a well. There were only three tubs, but everyone was able to wash up with a few awkward moments as people changed out. Afterword they were able to do some laundry, which was hung across some hooks and lines strung for the purpose.

  The storm began to intensify as night fell. A small caravan arrived just before dark, and filled the stable with their animals. One of the stallions in the group took notice of Karen’s horse, but they were separated before trouble of any kind could start.

  Dinner was a hardy cafeteria meal shared by the livery stable and all the people who both worked and lodged there. The caravan also shared the meal, before seeking lodging elsewhere. The trader’s dialect was the most common language at the table, and it took Diana and Alex a few moments to get it rolling off their tongues.

  After dinner while Steven and Caspian talked with others, Karen took Rod and the kids back to the bath house for privacy. Rox paused with Diana paying attention, and put up a magic privacy barrier sealing the room.

  Karen sat down on the floor with the others following in a loose circle. Diana and Alex sat on either side of their mother.

  “Now, Diana, Alex, do you know why you were kidnapped to begin with?”

  Diana shook her head.

  “No,” Alex said emphatically.

  Karen looked at Rox, and then continued. “You were kidnapped because the king and queen of this land are afraid of you. At some point in their lives, you will kill them. I have done some research about this, and need to put that information into your minds, so that you can recall it when you need it but not until then.”

  Alex scoffed. “Like those people did to me, to put their language into my head.”

  Karen nodded. “Right. Did it hurt?”

  “No, but I had some strange dreams, and they were all in their language. It took two days before I could speak it properly.”

  Rox picked up the explanations. “I want to take care of this now. I am afraid that if we try to leave and go north now, they will discover that you are gone and come back to get you. Then neither I nor your Father may be able to come get you.”

  “Dad wants to go home right now.” Diana interjected.

  “I know he does. But he also does not want to have to come back.” Rox rubbed Diana’s back. “He has agreed to do this. So Karen is going to share with us what she has, then tomorrow we start for Skarg, and see where things go from there.”

  Karen took control of the gathering. “Roxanne, I will do you first, so that the kids can see what happens.”

  Rox nodded. “Diana, can you sense the magic shell on the room? Warn us if it changes. Do I need to lie down?”

  “So you don’t risk falling down, yes.”

  Rox lay with her head before Karen’s lap, and Karen put her hands onto Rox’s face.

  “The Vulcan mind meld,” Alex quipped.

  “Hush, Alex,” Rox answered.

  Soon Alex got up, and Rox talked Diana through dropping the shell on the room. They went back out into the main room of the bunkhouse.

  Steven looked up from lying on a bunk. “What were you doing in there?”

  “Just this.” Karen stepped up to him and put her hand on his head. She touched his mind and flooded it with all the information she had learned on how to defeat the king, his mannerisms and habits, and how she expected the meeting to go.

  Steven passed out from the force of Karen’s actions. She had to buttress herself by her psionics to not appear weakened, as she crossed the room to her curtained off bunk where she quickly went to sleep. Rox pulled Steven’s blanked over him, and saw that the kids were also getting ready for bed.

  Caspian watched sitting on his bunk. “So, what did you learn?”

  “That Karen is a remarkable woman. And Steven can sometimes be as stubborn as I am. We set out in the morning, for Skarg.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Caspian got up and doused the candles that lit the bunkhouse in a circuit of the room

  “See what happens.” Rox closed the curtain for her and Steven’s area and lay down on the bunk next to Steven, wishing the bed frames were large enough to accommodate two people.

  Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 155

  Karen and Rox both demonstrate what happens when two women get an idea going on between them. Rox respects my wishes to just get out of here, but has the bit in her teeth to go get in a fight, rather than quietly slip away. Karen has more going on that she will not talk about. In another story she might be called the Spook haunting the operation.

  Yet I can’t shake the feeling that I should keep my attitudes to myself, and just go along and let things happen. That everything will somehow work out.

  I’m being railroaded here!

  After the storm blew over, the temperature dipped again, and everything froze. But having spent the afternoon and evening in a warm shelter, the ponies and horse were refreshed and ready to go. Karen arranged that the other caravan went first, but they sent south instead of toward Skarg.

  The sky was cloudless and bitter cold, but slowly the forest began to warm up with a slight east-going breeze. As things thawed, they went from frozen to dry, skipping being muddy. The moons were coming up later each day and each in their time advancing through their cycles, and all three advancing toward a vertical conjunction.

  As they walked Alex was less leery of Karen, and Diana began asking Caspian questions about magic that surprised him. Cyrril stayed away from Diana, not being unfriendly, just stand-offish. Steven was surly, but went with things. Soon he was holding his wife’s hand as they walked. Karen set a slightly faster pace, and soon the kids were riding the ponies as the rest quick walked.

  The Caplan’s and their guides stopped for the day a bit early in the mid afternoon, and Karen led them off the road and aside into an unused meadow that might have once been a way station. Steven and Rox gave each others knowing looks as they evaluated the place.

  The kids quickly set to gathering firewood. Roxanne and Caspian put the fire ring and camp together. Steven followed the kids to the nearby stream and after some investigation picked a spot to fill all the water bags. Karen disappeared for a bit then returned with three freshly killed critters to add to the groceries for dinner.

  Steven had become proficient in skinning and cleaning critters, of necessity. They still reminded him of rabbits, but were a bit larger in body and more skittish, with smaller ears and larger noses. Alex was curious to watch Steven slaughter the critters. Diana just wanted to get them cooking; they did not begin to look like food until over the fire. Shortly they were gathered around a fire, with three carcasses cooking on makeshift spits. After washing his hands, Steven got one dutch oven going with a loaf of bread. Rox got the other going with vegetables slow roasting.

  Alex saw them first at the same moment that Cyrril heard them.

  “Look, a biker gang.” Alex pointed across the fire and into the trees.

  The adults turned to look where he was pointing.

  “Shut up, you little freak. They’re new wave.” Diana pushed Alex over to hide behind the log.

  Over twenty light infantry men charged at them from the woods coming into the meadow.

  Caspian spoke and waved his hand across the approaching line. The closest three ran into an invisible field of force, and staggered as they kept coming. Caspian stood, and spoke more forcefully, tossed a bit of stuff from his pocket, and waved back across the line. A vaguely amber field of light appeared at half the distance to the charging foe.

  Caspian stood where he was, brandishing his staff in one hand and his hand-crossbow in the other, and readying another spell.

  A feeling of déjà vu passed over Steven as he rolled to his right, grabbed his sword from its sheath, and stood as he turned. His mood lightened as he paused to survey the situation, and charged at the left side of the line.

  Roxanne lunged to her left and got her staff. She activated the ends, and was a step ahead of Steven going to the right.

  Karen stood, and grabbed the kids as they went over the log, and pulled them to the ground. “Stay down. We can handle this.”

  Karen watched Roxanne get to Caspian’s barrier, which two troopers had hit going full bore and were now sprawled out beside. Roxanne swung one end of the staff into the barrier, nullifying that part of it, and in a continued motion with the other end she batted a trooper fifteen feet through the air. Steven swung his sword through the barrier, collapsing his section and smashed into the shield of the closest trooper, knocking him down. The battle was well joined, as Karen had choreographed the night before in her last psionic lessons to the Caplan’s.

135 – Spring the trap

  Karen put a hand on each child’s shoulder, and gave them a mild psionic shock stunning their motor functions. She then stood up, pulled her hood over her head and her scarf over her nose, and stepped directly behind Caspian. He cut loose with a lightening bolt that ripped into another trooper, split into two forks and continued to split through more troopers and several trees. Karen quickly reached around and cupped Caspian’s chin with her left hand, and tipped his head back into her right hand. With him off guard, she stunned him and quickly entered his mind. With practiced swiftness she shut off all his voluntary motor functions. To the world he would look dead. She then shut down his mind. To any cursory examination, he would appear dead, until she turned his mind back on. He was out cold before he could flinch. His heart and breathing became very slow. To anybody looking, it looked like she broke his neck.

  Karen dropped Caspian, careful that he did not fall in the fire, and pulled her sai’s from their sheaths. Diana weakly spoke as Karen stepped away.

  “You killed him. I thought you were a friend.”

  The pathos in Diana’s voice hurt more than any wound Karen had received to her body. More than Karen could afford to reveal. Jobs weren’t supposed to get this personal.

  “I’m an assassin, kid. It’s what I do.”

  Karen the blocked the sword of an over zealous trooper with her left sai, and broke his sword arm with a strike from her right. She then proceeded to keep the kids and Caspian from further harm, while Roxanne and Steven were overwhelmed and captured.

  Steven turned to see Caspian fall from Karen’s hands, and then had to worry about his own fight. Quickly he was surrounded by six uniformed and armored pike men, their pikes pointed at him. He put his hands out, and dropped his sword and knife, while looking around. Roxanne was being similarly contained. He kept his hands open and away from his sides. Two other men took his arms and restrained them as they bound his arms behind his back. They escorted him back toward the camp. One of the men stopped to pick up his sword and knife. They stopped ten paces from the camp.

  Karen was more or less where she had always stood, with her hood throwing her face into deep shadows. Caspian was on the ground at her feet. The kids were being carried around the fire circle by some more of the troop. Steven and Rox were knelt down near each other, but the pike-men still surrounded them. Alex and Diana looked dazed, as they were put on the ground between their parents, and told to sit quietly. Steven noticed that four of the guards were cradling hurt arms, and one a bad limp, as they came or were helped away from Karen. And two others were picking up weapons from the ground near her.

  Déjà vu hit like a ton of bricks as Steven recognized was what going on. With it came the realization that everything would work out for the best in the end, though things would be uncomfortable for a while first. He leaned over to Rox, and spoke quietly in English.

  “It’s that time. The time of my dream. Everything will work out.”

  “Wonderful,” Rox deadpanned. “Any idea how or how soon?”

  “Nope. But it can’t be too long.” Steven was full of ambivalence as he answered.

  “Well, you said this was Karen’s trap. Now we have sprung it. So, are we the first mouse or the second?”

  The 50 or so troopers mulled about as a wagon was brought in from the woods. The Captain of the troop riding on horseback came in at the same time as a cart, and took charge. Some grouped off, and began pulling some stuff from the cart, and began putting something together. Quickly they assembled four cages. The severely wounded were attended to and loaded onto the wagon, the walking wounded arranged behind it. The dead were lined up on the other side of the cart from the Caplan’s. Also the troop kept themselves between the Caplan’s and Karen as much as possible. Cyrril was found and placed on Caspian, who was laid next to the several dead troopers.

  Steven noticed Karen doing something with her horse and their cart, but could not see what.

  Once the cages were finished, they were brought over behind the Caplan’s. They looked like wood crates with two of three slats removed on all six sides. One side was not yet attached. Carry handles were attached to the tops of the boxes.

  The Captain stopped his horse in front of them. “You are now prisoners of the King. By his orders: to render you compliant you are to be stripped and carried to his audience for further disposition. Behave well, and you will be honorably treated. There are blankets for you to wrap in against the weather. Now, strip.”

  The pike men did not withdraw, as two men lifted each Caplan to his or her feet. Steven felt his bonds on his wrists loosed, and watched the men stand back. He then looked at Roxanne, up at the horseman, and back at Roxanne, and each child.

  Steven looked back up. “On your word of honor.” He turned to his family. “Do as he says. Take off your clothes.”

  Steven started with his girdle, then his leather coat, and proceeded from there. A man came forward and took his stuff as he took it off. The same was done for each of his family. Steven noticed that his sword had been wiped clean and was sheathed, as was his knife. Shortly he stood naked. Very cold manacles were put around his ankles, and wrists, and the leads from these hooked through a collar at his throat. He was then given a blanket with a hole in the middle to wear as a poncho. Steven noticed that the troopers appeared to be acting with as much respect and courtesy as they could. They even got the Caplan’s extra blankets to wrap in.

  They were then led over to the cages, and each put in one. Diana and Alex were still dazed, and so were manhandled a bit to do this. Diana was obviously crying. Alex trying to hold strong. Roxanne, while frustrated, looked resigned. But Steven could see fire smoldering behind her eyes. They were put into the cages, and the sides secured on. Steven found he had enough room to sit, or crouch a bit. But not enough to unbend his legs. And the boards on the bottom were far enough apart that he could not sit on two comfortably. Most of the blanket ended up wadded up as a cushion. Poles were fixed to the carry handles on the top.

  The Captain then assigned two troopers to stay and attend to the dead, and then several other bearers for the cages and a marching order. Steven is carried in front, with Alex next, then Roxanne and Diana. Eventually Diana is placed beside Steven in the marching order with Rox behind her and next to Alex. All their things are put onto a common litter, and that carried behind them on their cart, with it put into line behind the cages. The trooper’s wagon is at the back, with the walking wounded in ranks or behind the wagon. A second wagon appeared from the forest, with more of the trooper’s cargo on board. It was placed at the rear of the line when it finally moved out.

  “Anyone who molests, or touches these prisoners in any untoward manor will have that part of his body cut off. Their majesties want them intact.”

  Karen tied her horse aside and put her things she had pulled off the cart down on top of Caspian’s pack and things, as though they were her own. She then did her best to stand aside from the troopers.

  As the party departed the Captain sat on his horse and watched. The two he detailed to stay behind mulled about lining up the dead, and generally cleaning up. He watched as the party left and then nudged his horse over to where the assassin was watching all this from across the fire. He untied four sacks from his saddle horn, and tossed them across the fire ring to her. They landed with the heavy sound of coins. She picked the sacks up, finding the total near thirty pounds. Opening them in turn, she sifted through a mixture of coins and precious stones. The rest of the Queen’s five pounds, and the Viceroy’s twenty five plus.

  “Is that satisfactory?”

  She looked up. “Yes. Treat them well.”

  At that he reined his horse around and rode out after the party and joined the rear guard.

  The caravan headed out to the road and went along toward Skarg for an hour, before stopping in the road, and setting up camp. The food in the Caplan’s cart was added to the food from the troopers. However the dutch ovens had been left behind.

  It rained that night, and the Caplan’s were allowed to sleep under their cart, being given their underwear back.

  The caravan carried the Caplan’s for several days, giving only enough food and water to keep hunger and thirst bearable. They were told that when they have to relieve themselves, to let their bearers know, and they will leave the trail. They are not allowed to speak. In all of this, Steven felt no despair, only a sense of waiting. Roxanne finally seemed to pick up on this, and tried to join him. Alex and Diana were the most upset. On the second day they are all allowed, one at a time to get out and walk for a few moments. This was repeated every so often there after, as they were carried through the forest back to Skarg.

  Journal of Steven Caplan: Day 156-161 (retrospective)

  We traveled a different road from the one we went out on. Further, we turned onto a side road and went south to a different spoke road to go into Skarg. The wounded were separated from the company at this time. I never learned what happened to them. This took us maybe two extra days. We wondered why, but none of the guards were willing to talk; no surprise there. Diana and Alex got over things quick. We were generally treated well

  The weather warmed back up very slowly. Otherwise it was cold and damp.

  In the end we were on out sixth day in custody when we finally passed through the gates of Skarg.

  The company came into Skarg by a different gate than Steven or Rox, or the kids had been through after six days of cold damp travel. Just before the gates the cages were opened, and the chains and collars were put back on. These had been left off when the Caplan’s were in the cages, for the last week. The road they were on wound a little through the usual markets and warehouses before passing through some residential areas. They passed through four districts, and three city walls that defined these districts. As they made their way through some of the locals jeered them and threw garbage and filth at them. Most locals just got out of the way. The troop then arrived at the center districts of the city and crossed a bridge to the Fortress.

  Upon entering the outer fortress walls, the troop divided by into smaller troops.  Steven and Alex and their litter of their things are taken into the fortress. Rox and Diana are carried through a different entrance. The remainder and the Caplan’s cart are taken in a third direction.

136 – Meet the Queen

  Rox and Diana watched the troops break up and Steven and Alex taken in a different direction. Rox had quietly placed a spell on her things and Diana’s things during the week, which allowed her to sense their location, regardless of the intervening space. Something told her not to worry about doing likewise with Steven or Alex’s things. Now as they entered the fortress, she started gathering mana to herself. The two of them were in just underwear and blankets and still chained in their cages, and taken through a series of arches and passages between the buildings of the fortress. At a certain point, the troopers were met by a cadre of palace guards, who replaced them, and the troopers left.

  These guards/porters bore them through the fortress to its heart, and a large grove of fruit trees dominated by one huge tree in the middle. This tree was tall enough to probably be taller than the buildings around it, and quite large around with several large branches reaching out from the central trunk. As they passed the smaller trees, Rox wished she could shield Diana from the sight. Men and women were hanging from the trees, crucified naked even in the cold. It looked like there were people crucified all over the higher branches of the big tree, and the group was heading right for it.

  The group stopped in a clearing at the base of the tree. Its foliage dominated the clearing, and stretched up as high as the fortress around it starting about two heights of a person above the ground. Bodies of assorted people were not just impaled to it as with the other trees. On this one, it looked like branches were growing through the bodies attached to it. Branches engulfing the bodies, and growing out through them. And the people were somehow kept alive as this tree transmuted their substance into its own.

  The guards set the cages on the ground, and then prostrated themselves.

  Rox watched as the bottom of the tree began to shift around. Diana shrieked in surprise and disgust. A new shape was exposed and broke away from the base of the tree. Humanoid female, but only just; she stepped away from the tree as it withdrew from around her.

  Roxanne has learned some little of the following from the Elves, and now heard Karen’s voice in her mind telling her that the Queen is pure evil, and given her soul over to corrupting power. A creature from the infernal regions looking vaguely like a tree has been magically produced, and she merges her body into it. In return, it draws her seed out of her and mixes it with the seed of the men it feeds on; it will eventually bear fruit after its own kind, but only in the abyss. She and the King were once lovers. Now they are incompatible, to his disgruntlement.

  The Queen is the only person who can detach from the tree. The other men and women are being slowly consumed by the creature. As it draws energy and matter from the trapped bodies of its victims through its roots and branches, it transfers some of the energy to sustain the woman. She is also a magic user. She draws and channels mana right through this creature. To defeat her will require killing it.

  At seeing the Queen, Rox wondered why some of the women in this world couldn’t be bothered to wear enough to keep warm at the beach; particularly in the winter.

  She was taller than most men were. Because of the transformation worked on her, her body was covered by brownish thorny bark. Segmented plates of bark covered her head. She had six limbs at her shoulders. Two normal arms, two longer arms with small wings that ended with two-foot long claws, and two larger visually impressive but otherwise impractical wings. She also had a tail that swished back and forth as she walked, balancing against the upper body mass. Her feet were digitigrades such that she walked on the balls, and had spurs on her heals resembling a bird. She reminded Rox of Kali, but more malevolent.

  Taking no notice of the group, she stepped away from the tree's embrace and crossed the clearing, to a man attached to another tree. She took hold of the man as a mother would a baby, and pulled him off the tree that held him, using the clawed arms to cut the cords that bound him. He collapsed into her arms. She carried him to the large tree and held him against it. He weekly tried to fight as she held him there. Then he seamed to levitate as the tree took hold of him with multitudes of tiny tentacles, and carried him up into its heights. Then he stopped, and was held fast to the tree as tentacles like roots wrapped around his arms and legs. More tentacles clumped together to form a kind of seat and covered him to part way up his belly. The larger roots split to smaller roots that then dug into his body and limbs, connecting him to the tree.

  Rox knew right then that neither she nor Diana would be allowed to live to become part of that tree.

  The woman watched as the man was placed and wrapped up. She then turned to the guards.

  “Rise. Have them stand forth.” An unexpectedly rich voice issued forth.

  The guards stood, and opened the cages and dragged Rox and Diana out of them. The blankets were taken and put back into the cages. Both were a bit wobbly after having sat or crouched for most of a week. Hunger had them sufficiently week as not to resist. Diana wanted to move to her mother, but two guards held her still by her ankle chains. Two guards flanked Rox, and the rest carried the wooden cages away.

  For a moment Rox just concentrated on staying upright on cramping legs. She quietly continued gathering mana to her, to be ready for whatever happened.

  The Queen approached, wings folding to her back. As she moved about, Rox could see that she had several tubes that seamed to project from her back, and wrap around to enter her chest, and moved as breathing tubes. Two over the woman’s shoulders and across the top of her breasts then in past her sternum. The next set came around under her arms and then under her breasts. The last two followed the lower curve of her ribcage before going in. Strangling her was out of the question.

  She looked Rox over, but gave most of her scrutiny to Diana, going to one knee to look her over. As the Queen’s attention shifted, Rox felt some magical pressure diminish.

  “So. This is the one chosen by fate to kill me, whom I can not kill. And how is that, little half breed?”

  Diana said nothing. She just tried to look away, at anything that was not profanely offensive to look at. She ended up looking at the ground.

  The Queen stood and then looked Rox over. The magic pressure increased.

  “Prudence says I should kill you now. Surely you know something of the various prophecies by now. Your daughter and son will be great leaders in whatever cause they espouse. It would be a shame to deny that. The prophecy about me gives me a choice. If I kill you, I can send her back to the witch. Let you live, and you will always seek her back under your wing until she is able to defend herself. It’s entirely personal. For the cause and all.”

  At that she turned away.

  “Bind the child to that tree. Bind the adult to the rings on the floor.”

  She stepped back and turned away, as the guards moved Rox to the center of the clearing and carried Diana to a tree. She continued thinking aloud.

  “After all I must give the child cause to hate me enough to counter me.”

  Rox was halted in the middle. The chains attached to rings on the ground, shortened to only let her to kneel. Her guards then backed away, waiting for their next commands. Rox turned as best she could to look at Diana, but the way she was bound would not let her turn far enough to see her.

  Rox turned away, and fought to clear her mind. This was the moment her feelings had been leading her to, when she must either take control of her life, or have it taken from her. Slowly her thoughts stilled as she drew on the mana she was accumulating, and her perception of the world changed.

  The chains still hung from her body, but did not restrain it. Her arms were still in bonds, but no longer restrained. She was still unclothed, but only bereaved of covering against the weather. She was still in the fortress, but no longer a prisoner. She was a still a woman, but so much more, Wife and mother, fighter and mage. She carried no weapon, but those were only tools, she was what made them dangerous. Rox felt a subtle shift in things around her, as her senses cleared and expanded.

  Suddenly she knew what the tree really was. And how to destroy it was obvious. She focused on maintaining her perceptions, and focused on existence. On what is, what was about to happen, and what she would need to accomplish the next task.

  The Queen felt the resonance of what Rox was doing and realized she had to move fast. She turned and charged, spreading her wings free of her stabbing arms, and centered these on Rox’s chest, to pierce the heart, beside the left breast. She was a moment too late.

  Rox twisted as the Queen came, and let the woman stab through the chain that secured her left arm. As this snapped free, the woman’s wing caught Rox across her shoulders, and they both went down, Rox wrenching her legs a bit. Rox smashed her closed fist against the back of the woman’s head, stunning her. The guards moved to act, as Rox spoke a word of power.

  This time she spoke it in English, her native tongue. “Bulldozer Torus.”

  Suddenly an irresistible force was pushing anything not tied down except for Diana away from her in a circle. The guards that had the misfortune to be between a tree and the wall of force were crushed to goo, while those attached to the trees were unharmed. The Queen was pushed against another tree, and pined there, for several seconds. The remaining guards once they could, decided that center stage of a magic fight was not where they wanted to be, and fled.

  Rox then tested the rings, and found them solid. She spoke another word, and the ground around the rings liquefied, and she pulled them free as she stood. But her right arm was still restrained behind her back.

  Then there was a focus of attention on her and a flood of pain as a foot of organic blade was protruding from her chest. Rox could not speak to form anything, as she gasped for air. Then she was lifting into the air, and thrown at the huge tree.

  Rox crashed into it, bleeding to death. She had scant seconds. But it may as well have been an eternity. For Rox knew who she was. Death was not an obstacle. Just an inconvenience, to be avoided until her work was done. And it was not yet done.

  Then her body stopped working.