Arakim's Legacy(#Wattys2015)

Chapter 22

Arakim began the tedious task of healing the soldiers with a little help from Edum to push bones back into their joints. When he finished, the soldiers looked much better than they did before he started, drifting into a more restful slumber. Arakim stood up and swayed a bit on his feet.

"Woo!'' said Mena, lending him support when he tottered with a hand on his elbows. "Food, wizard. You need to eat. Come on, let's go join the others at the shelter they found,'' while handing him a big piece of dried meat and steering him towards the shelter.

Arakim became aware that the sun had gone down and the night brought with it cool breeze. He wondered how long he spent healing those soldiers. Next he wondered how Gaddoni was faring.

"How is Gaddoni?'' he asked Mena, in between bites, grateful for the meat because he was starving. "The boy, that's his name, Gaddoni,'' he answered the question in her eyes and wished they were alone.

"Oh, he's fine,'' giving him more meat while pretending not to see the flare of lust in those black eyes. "I think Adani used magic to heal him because most of his cuts had already closed. But since nobody can understand him, he hasn't said much, just watching.''

The Nasarai Desert was a beautiful place to see at night, as the rocks and dunes and the lone trees were cast in shadows from the distant moon and the sky bathed in golden colours tinged with red. There was barely enough illumination to light their way to the shelter but their shifter's eyes had no problem picking out the trails.

"Did you talk to Tyr again?'' asked Arakim, drinking thirstily from the pigskin.

"Nay, haven't had the time yet,'' answered Mena, shaking her head. "Do we leave those men there?''

Arakim shrugged. "They will sleep till morning so unless someone is ready to hurl them to the shelter.'' Not really concerned about their fate.

He was more concerned about the people of Nasarai and the trouble he brought to them. He hoped they were not badly hurt by those soldiers, especially the women who were not warriors and were mostly sheltered. He knew how rowdy soldiers that were given orders to torture women might go about it. Before he could broach the subject, he saw the flickering lights from a pit fire.

The shelter was exactly that. It was a shelter provided by big rocks shielding them from the occasional sand breeze that was common here. The young ones were already sleeping leaving only the men awake. Myra wasn't there, probably on guard duty. Arakim felt bone tired and hoped he wouldn't keep watch this night.

Barely acknowledging the three men, sitting around the small fire, talking quietly to one another, Arakim took a spot beside Gaddoni, who now looked like the boy he knew, only bigger, now he was all cleaned up and healed. The surprise was seeing Izumi on his other side, black eyes scanning her surroundings. His last thought was if only all these problems were resolved, then he could show Mena around his favourite spots in the kingdom and found himself dreaming.

The past several hours had been hopping with excitement and I had fully enjoyed it. Because ever since I watched The Master feeding off that poor boy and listening to them talk about the prince, I realised that the prince was innocent. And since I re-pledged my allegiance to him, I could now think clearly and saw the Master and his acolytes for the evil beings they were and not the benevolent ones they claimed to be. But I had been unable to do anything about it being stuck at Master's side.

And that was where I was, pretending to be as ignorant as I used to be when one of the blue robed acolytes rushed into the royal office where The Master was at the desk, forgetting to knock in his excitement. He hailed for the master to come into the throne room. I followed behind them and saw several acolytes talking in hushed voices gathered around the sceptre which was glowing.