Wysper - Return to Bukhara

I was tired... so very... very... tired.

The four of us were squeezed aboard Rocky, Hypam on the saddle in front with Paulus, myself, and Greywolf behind, and had ridden for hours. At least the rain had stopped. Yet even with the cloak, and the two warm bodies before and behind me, I could not stop shivering.

I had been keeping Paulus alive ever since Rocky took off toward Bukhara at a brisk trot, and between his growing lethargy and own shivering, I knew the poison is overwhelming him again. He needed more Blood magic, but I just had nothing left to give him.

At least I finally understood why Asena drank like she did. I wanted a cup of wine… no, I need a cup... several cups, actually. A flagon would be better... yes, a flagon of wine and then a fire, and a warm bed. I wanted to sleep so badly I could have cried.

Greywolf's hands slid onto my bare belly with his fingers splayed out. Once again, he pushed his mana into me, the feeling of warmth spreading through my body as the shivering stopped, waking me up again as if I had just drunk a mug of Kaffe.

Too soon, he stopped the flow and gave me a gentle squeeze. "Wysp," he said in my ear, "I know you're tired. But we're almost there." He motioned towards a light not far off in the distance. "That's Bukhara up ahead." I nodded once as he added, "How's Paulus?"

Paulus! At once, I put my hands underneath the boy's tunic and onto his belly, pushing blood magic into him the same way Greywolf pushed mana into me. Paulus began to stir. "Mama? I am cold, mama."

Some leagues back he had forgotten who I was. "Hang on just a little bit longer," I told him as I kept pushing in blood magic, the feeling of warmth inside me already ebbing away. "We are almost home."

He perked up some more as Greywolf's body behind me went rigid. "Hypam, I'm hearing the sound of hoof beats and getting the smell of Warghorse coming towards us... maybe the search party?" He added in a hopeful voice.

"Probably," Hypam said, "but we need to make sure. Rocky, stop." The Daemo mount slowed to a halt and Hypam threw her leg around and slid off, retrieving her bow and quiver of arrows. "Greywolf, I'm going to light up the sky above them, so I need you to hold my bow and give it to me when I ask."

Greywolf slid off and took the weapon from her hand as a spinning ball of fire and witchlight formed in the other. Hypam pulled an arrow from her quiver, attached the spinning ball to the shaft near the point, then took back her bow and nocked the arrow. "Let's hope they're friendly, because we'll never outrun them." Hypam drew back the bowstring and released.

The arrow reached its zenith and exploded. Then it formed a ball of greenish-red light which hovered in the air overhead, revealing a troop of warriors riding Warghorses coming straight at us. "We're okay," Greywolf said. "I can see Az and Dancer... ah shite," he added in disgust. "Timur's with them."

"Greywolf," Hypam said, "help Wysper and Paulus get down while I put away the bow and make sure all the vials survived the trip." Greywolf took Paulus from my arms and set him down, then helped me off Rocky as Hypam secured her bow. She checked the saddlebags before strapping the sword belt to her waist.

Rocky moved behind us as I knelt beside Paulus, propping him up with the back of his head against my shoulder before watching the approaching riders. One of them took off at a gallop, and several others spurred their mounts after the rider, churning the wet ground underneath their hoofs. Amazonia reined in her Warghorse and awkwardly slid off. "Paulus, did you save little Paulus?"

"He's alive," Hypam replied in a sharp voice, "but poisoned with the same foul substance your Nomads received." Amazonia, wearing full Artifact armor with her Rune sword in a baldric at her back, rushed over as Hypam added, "Greywolf and Wysper have been keeping him alive."

Amazonia knelt down as Paulus opened his arms, and she took him from me as Greywolf said, "We need to find Titan. The antidote's in the saddlebags, along with a couple dozen other identical green glass vials, and all the labels are written in Babylonian."

"I can offer you a better solution," a woman's voice called out. I looked up as a rider reined in her mount and got down. The priestess Akbal was dressed in dark robes, her face still looking hollow-eyed and diseased as she walked towards us. "If the boy is poisoned, I know a way of neutralizing it." I gazed past her at the Warghorse and gasped.

There was crusted blood at the beast's muzzle, and horrible gaping wounds along its side and across its face. There were also crude stitches around its neck as if the head had been reattached. "Akbal, your mount..."

My words trailed off as she glanced back. "An experiment that proved more successful than I had hoped. It obeys my commands without question, and requires no maintenance besides regular infusions of Shadow magic." Her gaze shifted towards the rest of the troop riding towards us. "The prince is not happy with me right now, but that will soon pass."

Amazonia glared up at her. "Considering you reanimated the dead Khan's Warghorse, you're lucky he didn't chop off your head as well."

Hypam gave a start. "Which khan? Surely not Khingla?"

Dancer, who had gotten off his own Warghorse, came striding up in armor with his Artifact spear in one hand. "The Great Khan's dead."

He set himself between the priestess Akbal and Amazonia as Greywolf and I shared a horrified look. Hypam snarled, "Khingla's dead? What in Tengri's name happened?"

"We can discuss what happened later," Akbal said as Prince Timur and his other two Bloodguards dismounted and strode towards us. "Titan is at least an hour away, with no guarantee that the boy will make it there or that the antidote is in the saddlebags."

Akbal touched upon my darkest fear, that we would exhaust ourselves getting here, only to discover that the antidote was not among the bottles. "However," she went on, "I know a spell which will gather the poison in Paulus' body, then transmute it into a substance he will expel."

"Balthazar claimed the knowledge of that spell was lost when Carthago fell," Greywolf said in a sharp voice. Then his expression became uncertain. "But he also claimed there wasn't an antidote, and the Daemo that Troll killed proved to me it had one, and that the antidote worked."

"The Etruscans believed they destroyed all of Tanit's lore when they razed the city," Akbal said. "Yet, long before they attacked, Tanit shared her knowledge with a select few other Celestials, including the 'goddess', I had served before Inanna."

Amazonia, who looked as tired as I felt, gave me back Paulus and climbed to her feet. "None of you priestesses do anything for free. What do you want in return?"

Despite my exhaustion, I placed my hands upon the cooling flesh of Paulus' belly, and pushed in as much blood magic as I could while Akbal said, "Nothing you have not already done. I want you to become Inanna returned on a permanent basis."

"Hold up," Prince Timur growled as he and his Bloodguards came to a halt nearby. "Amazonia's my Reaver Knight, not yours or anyone else's."

"Of course not," Akbal replied as Paulus' flesh grew warm again. "All I ask is that, when Amazonia becomes a Shadow Knight to lead your Shamblers into battle, she does so under the guise of Inanna. My prince, on the night of your raid, the people responded to Inanna in a way that they will never respond to Ishtar. The people want vengeance against the Sasnayams, and if I establish the cult of: 'Inanna returned from the Underworld to help us', people from all over the satrapies will join us. I want Amazonia to pretend to be possessed by Inanna's ghost when Inanna's corpse fights alongside her."

Prince Timur frowned. "Wouldn't it be more logical for Inanna to possess her own body?"

Akbal gave him a sly look. "If you had to make a choice between possessing a corpse or a living person, which would you choose?"

Prince Timur raised his eyebrows before stroking his beard in a thoughtful manner. "I see your point."

She inclined her head. "Knowing their goddess is with them, soldiers will flock to your infantry, while outcasts and undesirables can be recruited to give your Shamblers logistical support on the march."

One of the Bloodguards remarked, "Ishtar's not going to tolerate a rival."

"Ishtar can have Bukhara and the other loyal cities," Akbal sniffed. "My temple will march with the army."

Akbal continued speaking, but a wave of exhaustion hit me and I took my hands away from Paulus. Greywolf knelt down to support me as I fell back. "Apologies,” I gasped, “but I cannot do this anymore, even if you give me more mana." I wanted to be strong; needed to be, but I was so tired that I could not stop the tears rolling down my cheeks.

Amazonia knelt down again as Paulus opened his eyes and whispered, "Mama?"

"Mama's here," she whispered back, taking Paulus in her arms as she gave us a fierce look. Greywolf must have understood, for he touched a finger to his own lips and then to mine, as if telling her we would say nothing. Amazonia's face softened as she gently squeezed my shoulder. "Apologies will never be needed from either one of you," she said, letting go as she looked up at the prince and the priestess. They were ignoring us as they continued talking. "My prince," Amazonia said, raising her voice, "will this deception help us?"

Prince Timur hesitated before speaking. "I believe it will. Akbal wants the Shadow Knight to take a more active role in the worship, but anything she wants you to do will have to be cleared with me or Lys first, and we will not make you do anything you don't want to."

"As the Shadow Knight," Akbal said, "you should see my requests as beneficial to the cause."

"Then I'll play your game." Amazonia placed Paulus' back against me again before rising to her feet. "However, if you do anything to Paulus except remove the poison from his body, laying any kind of other spell or geas upon him, I'll chop off your head and burn your body. That's not an idle threat."

Akbal inclined her head. "I believe you. Now, permission?" She moved Dancer's spear aside with a bony hand and walked up to me, kneeling down in front of Paulus while Amazonia stepped to one side. "Paulus, my hands will feel cold to you, but that means the spell is working. Permission?" Paulus nodded, and Akbal moved her hands under his tunic.

Paulus gasped. A black color began moving outward through his blood vessels, and Paulus moved his arm to watch the color move down towards his hand. "Is that the poison in my blood?"

"That is my spell traveling through your body in search of poison," Akbal replied. "We will give it a few more moments... there. Now, I shall gather everything collected, and then transmute it." She glanced up at Amazonia. "You may want to step back a pace."

Amazonia stood her ground as the black color retreated from Paulus' blood vessels. "This feels really weird." He grimaced. "I think I'm getting a tummy ache."

"A very good sign," Akbal said as the black color disappeared. "All the poison is gathered in your stomach. Now, to transmute it." Paulus gasped again as his face took on a stricken look.

Then he flung himself off me and threw up on the wet ground at Amazonia's feet. She skipped back a step as Akbal said, "Does anyone carry a skin of well-watered wine I can give him?" Fenris strode over with a wineskin in his furry hand, and Akbal motioned towards Paulus. "Let him drink some to wash out his stomach, then give him small sips to replace some of the water he has lost." She turned towards Amazonia. "He should be no worse for wear in the morning."

Amazonia took the skin from Fenris and knelt down next to Paulus, getting him to drink some of the watered wine which he promptly threw back up. Greywolf helped me to my feet as Fenris looked around. "Where Castor?"

As Amazonia started giving Paulus small sips, which he seemed to be keeping down. Hypam motioned in the direction we had traveled. "Right now he's back with the rest of my company, who I left Avitohol in charge of."

"Meaning Avitohol will not return before dawn?" Hypam gave Prince Timur a wary nod, and he stroked his beard as he smiled. "What a shame, considering my father's body will be burned with the rising sun."

Hypam snarled, "You can't do that," the woman striding over to the prince with her hands clenched into fists. His two Bloodguards drew their scimitars, but Prince Timur motioned for them to remain still as Hypam put her face a hand-span from his. "The Crown Prince is traditionally the one who lights the funeral pyre."

Prince Timur shrugged. "If Avitohol reaches the city by dawn, he can claim that right."

"But-"

"There is no reason to delay," he snapped back at her. "The traditional betrothal has been consummated," the prince motioning towards Greywolf, who was holding me up, "and the funeral games are over. Tradition demands the body be released to Tengri by fire, and that's what will happen come the dawn."

Greywolf's hands tightened on my arms. "Avitohol doesn't even know his father's dead."

Stroking his beard, Prince Timur smiled like the cat with a mouse under his paw. "And isn't that a shame."