Relm reported calmly to Jenhiro, “I have done it.”
Jenhiro’s tense muscles finally relaxed as Avrimae’s shoulders and head fell limply into his arms. Relm had been right about her fighting. He hadn’t known the worn woman had so much energy left. His left forearm still throbbed with pain where she bit him hard in an effort to escape from Relm’s shifting silver eyes.
For two days between Relm’s obligations to the council and the First Councilor directly, she repeatedly entered Avrimae’s mind and tried to coax and calm down the tortured woman. Each time Avrimae would fight, kick, scream, and try to attack anything in sight. It was a grueling experience.
Jenhiro carefully set the human back down on the chaise, while he watched an exhausted Relm move toward the other chair. Once more, her hands were shaking.
“Are you alright?” he asked as he moved next to her.
When Relm looked up, her eyes were glistening when she whispered, “I had no idea.”
Jenhiro sat down with her, and held her hands in his.
“I had to dive deep into her fears and agonies. I had to assuage a pain that runs through her soul. Her mind, it’s so fragile now. Her cage wasn’t bars of iron, but more like a cube of glass. It was like trying to cross a frozen river of thin ice. Even now, with all I’ve helped, her mind is still ready to run back into that small box and shatter,” Relm told him. “I didn’t realize the magnitude of what they’ve done to her.” Her voice a whisper, she added, “And of what you did to them.”
Jenhiro nodded quietly.
Relm sniffled and looked to Avrimae who now appeared to be sleeping. “It is truly terrible what we are capable of doing as a species.”
He reminded her softly, “All species are capable of such acts.”
“But we are supposed to be above this!” she argued fervently. “It is why we have the cause! Why we are maintainers of the balance of nature!”
Again, Jenhiro opted not to answer, letting her vent.
“What I have just seen has solidified my desire to help people, now more than ever before. Though it hurts my heart to even say this, I am glad.”
Jenhiro was perplexed, “Glad?”
She nodded with firm resolve. “Glad you made your choice and issued their fate.”
Jenhiro clenched his jaw tightly and nodded. Though it felt good to have someone approve of his decision, it still burned him deeply that he was directly responsible for the deaths of two of his people.
Relm read this in his eyes, and she reached up and touched the side of his face. “I am sorry, that was extremely inconsiderate of me.”
Jenhiro took her delicate fingers into his own. “It’s okay.” He looked over to the sleeping form of Avrimae. “What can we do to help?”
Relm also looked at the still woman. “A great deal actually. I have helped her, but outside of my constantly entering her mind, I have no way of communicating with her, neither of us does. Ashyn is our only link; he’s the only one who can speak both of our languages, outside of Brodea.”
“And Whísper,” Jenhiro added.
Relm nodded. “Yes, she has learned from her mother well.”
Jenhiro thought he detected bitterness in her voice at the comment. Was it resentment toward Whísper, or against Brodea? He wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was both.
He remembered Relm’s memory. Until she had seen Whísper bathed in blood, she had looked up to the Ferhym huntress. Maybe that was it, the loss of a role model.
Stressing the point of “we,” Jenhiro asked, “How do we communicate with her in the mean time? How can we help her now? She needs to be ready to go and soon.”
Relm blinked for a moment before her eyes focused on Jenhiro. “We need to give her a reason to trust us. To do that, I have promised her something.”
“And what is that?”
Relm looked at him with all seriousness. “We have to rescue another person, someone dear to her.”
“Well that shouldn’t be too hard,” he answered, “They are in the Water Pens I assume?”
Relm shook her head no. “The mines.”
Jenhiro swore to the Spirits under his breath. “That’s completely on the other end of the hunters’ living quarters. It’s taking us exactly where we don’t want to go! We don’t have time to save all the cells. We discussed this. Helping Avrimae has already taken considerably longer than we thought.”
Relm nodded as she looked empathetically towards Avrimae. “She needs a friend right now, Jenhiro. Someone she feels she can trust. I can’t let her down. We’ll just need to modify the plan.”
He hated to be the negative one, but he had to remain objective. “You have said that Ashyn is already aware of his part of the plan. He has somehow swayed the bull miraculously to his side, but if we change now, you have to reach out to him. As far as I can tell, and I am no expert, but it looks like you both have to be asleep to do this.”
Jenhiro watched her head subtly bob in agreement. “Something likes that, yes.”
“Unless one of us risks informing him in person, can we really afford to sacrifice anymore time? And if we made a move to liberate this friend of Avrimae’s tonight, with little planning I might add, what if we are seen? This could jeopardize everything, and we only have one real shot at this, Relm.”
Jenhiro saw her thinking so he pressed, “What if Brodea moves early? They might move Julietta sooner. There’s too many what-ifs and not enough whens. We have to act, before she does. Otherwise, we lose our only opportunity to save Ashyn and all those in the Water Pens as well.”
Relm stood firm. “If we cannot do it beforehand, then we have to do it at the same time. We can split up. You go to the cells, and I’ll take Avrimae.”
Jenhiro shook his head. “No, that’s a terrible idea! It is too dangerous for you. What if Avrimae loses control?”
“Well we can’t leave her here,” Relm argued. “The moment we move, we are committed, Jenhiro.”
Jenhiro grunted and turned away from the Voïre dui Ceremeia. Whether intentional or not, when she got emotional, her natural abilities leaked through, and that meant falling in a trance when he looked into her eyes. It was so easy when the Voïre were children and their abilities didn’t affect their own kind.
“There has to be common ground we can reach,” Relm said.
And it hit Jenhiro. It was so simple. “Prisoner transfer.”
“What?”
Jenhiro turned back around excited as a plan formed in his head. He didn’t look in her eyes, though. He fell back to the safety of tradition. He had an idea and didn’t want to lose it by the distraction her magic would cause him. “I know a way to get this friend out of the mines for Avrimae. We transfer them to the Water Pens instead.”
“Why would you want to do that? It’s worse than the mines right now. I am trying to get Avrimae to trust us; putting her friend in the pens would only intensify that distrust.”
Jenhiro tapped the side of his head fiercely, “Think about it, Relm. They would be in position already for our escape. They only need endure two days of no food. It’s terrible, I know, but it’s the safest way. Put this friend in the Water Pens. It will work, and we don’t need to separate come time.”
Jenhiro saw Relm’s face light up, as she understood his reasoning. But then a curious look fell about her expression. “And yet a moment ago you were afraid of being caught?”
“That is the real problem, I agree. But it can be greatly mitigated if no one is looking for an escapee. Avrimae was a special circumstance. They are trying to kill her. So they want to keep it as quiet as possible.
“If we try and free this companion from the mines, then we will draw a lot of attention. However, if there is no break out, there is no hiding another skewer in this home or anywhere else. They are simply transferred from one cell to another. Accountability is still there, and since the council doesn’t convene until we are planning the true escape…”
“…the skewers manifest and mining notes won’t be seen by them until then either! The First Councilor won’t know what’s happened until it’s too late.” Relm beamed now. “I’m impressed Jenhiro.”
“Thanks,” came the snarky reply. “Now to do this before I convince myself how bad of an idea it really is.”
~ ~ ~
Long after Jenhiro settled down to sleep on the floor of the main room, Relm grazed her fingers gently over the leather tome. Briefly she closed her eyes and reached out to him. He was there, waiting. Relm smiled.
She whispered to Ashyn, “I’ve never tried anything like this before.”
“Talk to people in their dreams, often?” Ashyn asked a trace of humor in his voice.
It was good to hear that humor. She knew he had hope, that he trusted her. “You were right, Ashyn, Brodea gave me the tome. I think she suspects our connection. She wants me to read it to see if I can remember it.”
“Then we better get started. We don’t want to let the First Councilor down now, do we?” he said mirthlessly.
“It doesn’t bother you that she knows?” Relm asked him.
“I’m more concerned about your well-being. You are the one in danger. There’s little more that Brodea can do to me than what she is about to do in a few days.”
Relm nodded, it was true. “You don’t have to worry about me now, Ashyn, not yet. The danger is yet to come.”
“Then let’s get started.” As simple as that.
“My mind will forget it, as soon as I utter the words, Ashyn.” she reminded him.
“Well, let’s find out if mine does not.”
Relm opened her eyes and stared at the words on the page, she never attempted to make a connection with him in a waking state before. She hadn’t thought it could even be done, not until Whísper commented on it in their fight. Perhaps she should thank her.
Relm pushed the thoughts of Whísper aside. “Are you ready?” she asked. She knew it was going to take all night.
“I hope so.”
Relm read from the tome. As she feared, the words were lost to her even as she read them. But Ashyn…
She could feel Ashyn begin to learn.
~ ~ ~
An hour before the dawn light first cast its golden rays into the swallet that was Feydras’ Anula, Jenhiro found himself standing face to face with the druid who was about to lift up the miners for another day of hard labor.
Two hunters, now guards, stood on either side of the druid, poignantly reminding the branch commander of Eigron and his lackeys, Mehris and Hengrit. Lackeys that were now successfully balanced. That thought gave Jenhiro a small measure of resolve as he stood before the druid.
“I’ve heard of no such transfer,” the druid baulked.
“Consult with Genrus Eigron, if you’d like. Waste his time when right now he is preparing for the Blood Wizard,” Jenhiro returned swiftly. “In fact, I am certain that right now he is with the First Councilor, you could ask her too, if you’d like.” While he wasn’t lying, he wasn’t telling the truth either.
Jenhiro only hoped the druid would be distracted by the mention of Eigron. Judging by the druid’s blanches, he clearly did not agree with the young druid’s meteoric rise to power either. “That is not necessary.”
Quickly, the druid turned around and moved his fingers in elaborate patterns in the air. As he did, the vines holding the cell below pulled themselves upwards. Within minutes, the wooden cell was at eye level.
Forlorn, hard-worked faces stared at him with depressed and hopeless eyes. For many it was time to work again. Not for one of them, though.
Jenhiro looked through the throng of foul smelling bodies until he spotted who he was looking for. Near the back of the gaggle of humans he could see a man sitting down with his back against the bars of the cell. Like the others he was filthy and in tattered and worn garments, but he fit the description Relm gave him.
His hair was coal black and long, tied behind his head in a greasy ponytail. His face was round, almost comically fat compared to his button nose. Yet his cheeks appeared gaunt and hollow. Jenhiro knew this one missed too many meals in recent months. His eyes were a darker shade of brown, but like his nose, they appeared small and beady to his oversized face.
Jenhiro pointed. “That one.”
The druid chittered to the two hunters guarding the cell. The duo nodded, stepped into the cell and went straight for the dark-haired human.
Many of the humans squealed and got out of the elves’ way. Some who were not so fast were pushed away. The man made no effort to move at all. Once on top of him, they forced him roughly to his feet. The man spoke harshly and aggressively to the elves, but none, including Jenhiro knew what he was saying.
Still the smaller Ferhym overpowered the tired and emaciated human and brought him forward. Jenhiro could see that at one time he was a very large, possibly imposing, form of a man. Now, his tattered clothing hung limply on an emaciated frame.
He tried to use that bulk now to appear intimidating, but Jenhiro had gone up against much larger, far more deadly opponents. This human did not scare him, nor apparently did he threaten his captors in any way. They forced him to stand before Jenhiro at spear point.
“Will you need assistance with this escort?” the druid asked?
Jenhiro drew his own spear. “No, brother. I have this skewer, thank you,” he answered with a polite nod of his head.
Jenhiro then leveled his spear right at his chest and motioned it slightly to the east. Luckily for him, the human was not completely stupid. He looked down his nose at Jenhiro, snorted, hocked a wad of phlegm at the druid, and then walked in the direction the hunter motioned.
The druid wrinkled his nose in disgust. Jenhiro commented, “His right to reclamation is revoked.” He said with as much conviction as he could, “He shall now meet his balancing at the Water Pens.”
The druid nodded and smiled at him, contented with the fate that awaited this man. Jenhiro did not let it affect his judgment. He knew, as did Relm, that their people believed in the cause, just as he did, but were misguided. It would take time to set things right and put his people on their righteous path once more.
Over the course of the next several minutes, the large human asked countless questions, but Jenhiro had no way of answering him, so the Ferhym remained silent. The man hesitated, and relentlessly continued to speak loudly to Jenhiro. How Avrimae considered this one a trusted ally was beyond him. Then again, he truly knew very little about the woman either.
He thought of her for the next hour as he guided the human through town on an escort, much as Ashyn had taken. And just like that escort weeks past, many of the morning-going Ferhym quickly moved away from the hunter and the large human who was bound for the pens. They had seen it before.
No hunter stopped him. No one questioned him. He looked exactly as he should, a hunter, confident in his own skin. The woad upon his body was fitting, as he was Willowfallen. Should any report the escort, it would send ripples of confusion among the lower hunters until it was time to leave. By then, it would be too late for them.
He reported to the druid on the eastern end of the water pens and gave the same spiel he fed the other druid. There was no difficulty in the task, and that worried him. Everything was going too smoothly. At least, until he heard the druid whisper to another, “If Eigron thinks that by giving the spear to Lady Windsong, it grants him some supreme authority over his peers, he’s sadly mistaken.”
Jenhiro took the comment in stride. He followed the druid and the extra hunter around to far eastern side of the pens, right near the base of the tree. He knew the steps leading to the Council of Elm were only twenty paces away. This was the most dangerous part. At any moment Whísper, Vooken, Eigron, or even Brodea could come down those stairs and the ruse would be up. They all knew his face. He tried to stay nonchalant, but he couldn’t help looking back to those stairs.
“She won’t be coming down,” the druid remarked, apparently detecting his apprehension.
“Excuse me?” Jenhiro said, rather alarmed that even after so many seasons in the field he could still seem so green that a druid could read him like a tome.
“Our First Councilor went up there only a few moments before you arrived. Stone’s throw really. You just missed her, and the Voïre dui Ceremeia.”
Jenhiro startled at this. Relm was with her? Who was watching Avrimae? He looked to the two hunters that stood guard at the stairs. They looked everywhere but at him. Seeing and hearing everything, but also ignoring everyone.
“A shame,” Jenhiro lied covering up his rising alarm. “I’ve only had the pleasure of ever talking with her once.”
The druid raised an eyebrow at Jenhiro as he held out his hand, warping and manipulating the bars. “She’s a damn fine hym. Blessed by the Spirits really. Three child-bearing daughters. Only hym to ever successfully balance a wizard, alone, and a right good First Councilor.”
Jenhiro absorbed his words, wondering if the druid had ever heard the words come from Lady Windsong’s mouth as he had. Or if he heard the duplicity, knew of the rape she allowed, or witnessed the atrocities of torture that she committed on Ashyn. “And yet, you slandered her moments before?” He said, before he could think better of it.
The druid gave him a dark eyed glare, “Not the First Councilor. Young Genrus Eigron,” he corrected. “I do not fault the Lady Windsong for her attraction to young, firm flesh, so recently turned full adult. I think we all secretly have such lustings within us. I blame our little Genrus who thinks he can use that twig between his legs to manipulate our beloved First Councilor and make her sing for him.”
The cage opened and he nodded. Jenhiro, still forced to maintain his act slammed the shaft of his spear against Avrimae’s friend causing him to shout and tumble into the pens. The druid laughed and quickly animated the poles shut. He then turned to Jenhiro. “She’ll come to her senses soon enough, and our little Genrus will come tumbling down to the ground, just like that skewer. We are supposed to be a humble people. I am not jealous of Eigron; I am annoyed that he is not humble like we, and it is permitted. I am not angry at Lady Windsong, but disheartened, because I feel she is being used for her desires to mate.”
Jenhiro bowed his head. “I understand, I meant no offense, brother.”
The druid clasped his shoulder. “None taken, brother,” he replied kindly. “I spoke out of kind, and you heard it, nothing to be apologetic for.”
Jenhiro clasped the druid’s shoulder in return, and they both nodded. Jenhiro stepped happily away from those stairs, eager to be back at Relm’s. He had some choice words for why she chose to leave Avrimae alone.
Jenhiro barely made it a half a dozen feet when he heard a scream of rage coming from the cage he just placed the skewer into. He quickly turned his head in surprise to see Avrimae’s friend charging another person in the cell. The one Ashyn conversed with. The one Relm called Macky. Jenhiro recognized the look in the skewer’s eyes. It was murder.