Page 128 of Oaths & Vengeance
She shook her head. “No need for that. I only wish I could come with you, but Father has insisted I head back to Radoumar in a few hours. He just returned from there and needs me to take over the cleanup. I only refused to leave until you woke.”
I could only imagine how much that task would annoy her, but she’d do as ordered.
Loden stepped closer to the bed. “The sebeska, Tullar, should be at the castle now.”
“Good.” That was the bird who had the strongest bond with me, which he knew. “I’ll mind link with her now.”
“Don’t use too much energy,” Faina warned, narrowing her eyes. “It’s going to take another day before you’re strong enough to go anywhere, but it will be even longer if you push yourself too hard.”
“I’ll take care,” I promised. There was no way I’d risk becoming too weak to save my wife. Even now, I could feel that I wasn’t back to full strength, but a short trip in the bird’s mind would only require a small measure of my power.
Lying back down on my large bed, I closed my eyes and focused on the sebeska. A full minute passed before I penetrated the sebeska’s mind to see through her eyes and hear through her ears. I allowed Tullar to maintain her autonomy in flight, as she was highly intelligent and understood her mission, but I would guide the bird as needed.
The Ivory Castle keep appeared below with a different range of colors than what my elf vision could discern. It always took a moment to adjust to the change. The walls appeared to have a slight yellow tinge to them through Tullar’s vision. I first searched the area near the ring, followed by the training area, and finally Aella’s walled garden.
It caught me off guard at what I found there, and shock nearly paralyzed me. Nearly a third of her plants lay in disarray across the central stone path, with some dead and already decaying. Others struggled to recover from a brutality that could only come from sharp blades. A few managed to extend a few roots into the nearby soil for much-needed nourishment, but their dull color wasn’t encouraging. Dried violet, yellow, and pink petals lay scattered everywhere with blood and shriveled meat of some sort within some of the damaged bulbs.
Upon closer inspection, I counted five elven bodies with tractvines coiled tightly around them deeper within the garden beds. Their skin was almost black from the toxins the species injected to break down their forms for easier consumption. Lord Morgunn must have chosen to leave his people there because the only way to extract someone from the powerful plant was to hack the victim and vine to pieces.
My wife had a good heart, but she clearly had a dark side, as evidenced by her choice of plants and her ruthless use of them against her own people. That combination was one of her more endearing qualities.
The sebeska I inhabited was especially sensitive to moods within nature, and she sensed the sadness, despair, and worry coming from the surviving plants. As I looked through the bird’s eyes, a story began to form.
Aella must have escaped her uncle at some point, soon after returning from the battle, and fled to the garden to make her last stand—already injured. She’d used her plants to help protect her based on the smeared blood that went down the walkway quite a distance and stopped just afterthe mess. Her guardians had put up a good fight, but they must have become overwhelmed.
If five full bodies remained and various parts of others were strewn about everywhere, how many had Lord Morgunn ordered to invade the walled garden? It could have been two dozen or more. He must have been determined and furious if he were willing to sacrifice that many soldiers to apprehend his niece.
The trail of destruction ended about halfway through the garden from the entry arch. I had to assume that was how far Aella made it before stopping, but why didn’t she use the plant distraction to reach the ring in the back? I studied all the evidence, trying to piece together the rest of the story.
Considering the smeared blood leading to a dried pool at the end, she must have been badly injured beyond the shoulder wound I knew about. Holding a portal long enough for all the Therressian soldiers to escape must have been taxing as well. Perhaps she simply didn’t have the strength to open another one so soon. Her plants obviously did their best against overwhelming odds, but they couldn’t buy her enough time to escape.
Then, it occurred to me that her curse wouldn’t have allowed her to flee anyway. She’d likely hoped her uncle wouldn’t have gone to such extremes to capture her. Maybe if she’d had more time and fewer attackers, she could have regained enough strength to fight back and even kill Lord Morgunn. Time hadn’t been on her side with an uncle who would stop at nothing to retrieve and punish her, though.
The sound of voices nearby drew my bird’s attention. I instructed Tullar to fly to a nearby tree and settle on a low branch. Lord Morgunn and Ulmar came into view. The father and son walked side by side, with the younger wearing a large bandage over his left eye. I idly wondered what had happened to him that the healer couldn’t have repaired the damage by now. The two stopped at the archway to view the massacre within, disgust on their faces.
“You know I only let her have this place so she’d stay out of the way and not get suspicious of our activities. It was an excellent distraction, but weshould destroy all of this except for the snapper berry bushes since I do love the fruit they provide,” Aella’s uncle said.
Ulmar scowled. “Not all the dangerous plants are dead, and we’ll likely lose lives going in there again. I tried tossing poison in there yesterday, but it appears she has a plant in there that can neutralize it. Since she warded against my fire and your ice, the best course of action is to deprive the garden of water and nutrients. Everything will eventually die a slow death without her being able to tend to it.”
“She still won’t tell us anything, no matter how we torture her, but even if she finally confesses, she’ll never be allowed back in here again.” Lord Morgunn shook his head. “I lost far too many soldiers, and plenty more are still recovering from their injuries to reach her. Not to mention you losing an eye to those damn vines. I cannot forgive such betrayal, especially after catching her speaking with Lord Gannon’s son openly during our battle at Radoumar.”
The sebeska and I stilled at those words. He’d seen us together, which would only make the situation worse for Aella. That cold, calculating man would see it as nothing short of treason. I wished I hadn’t had to step in to save her from the dark elf, but she would have died if I hadn't intervened. Lord Morgunn must have been hiding somewhere nearby where we couldn’t see him. If I’d known, I would have done something differently, though I couldn’t say what.
I’d tried attacking him near the portal—the one place I could count on him showing up near the end—but that had gone terribly wrong. For a madman, he was powerful and cunning. If I could have killed him then, Aella would have been safe now.
“It’s going to be at least a few hours before she wakes again after her last beating,” Ulmar said, rubbing his chin. “The lack of water and food must be wearing on her, along with all the broken bones. Perhaps this evening, she’ll rethink her silence if we taunt her about her garden.”
As my anger grew, the sebeska shifted nervously in response to my roiling emotions. I had to get a grip on myself, or I’d lose focus. I wished I could kill the two elves now for what they were doing to my wife. They would pay dearly…soon.
“Yes,” Aella’s uncle agreed. “But I will go to the dungeon to do the questioning. You cannot miss the meeting tonight.”
“No, of course not, considering it’s my…”
“Shh, we must assume there are ears everywhere. Just be there and make certain the contract is in order beforehand,” Lord Morgunn said.
They walked away, voices fading. My fury was so great that I could feel the tension coiling my body in my true form. They’d locked Aella in the dungeon and had been torturing her for all this time. The nameless ones only knew how much she had suffered so far, but the mention of broken bones alone had me seething. I’d known they must have been punishing her while I recovered from my injuries, but hearing the details made it worse. How could they do that to their own family?
I drew a deep breath and concentrated on carefully extracting my mind from Tullar. It was time to speak with my father and form a plan to save Aella before it was too late.
