Medice Ceres

Chapter 20

Jenn slid off the bed and pointed a finger at Adelia. "Guard! Seize her!"

Before the guard took his second step, Adelia flung a blazing fireball at him with a flick of her wrist. He let out a hollow gasp as it burned a hole into his chest, creating a sickening sizzle sound. Foul-smelling threads of smoke rose from his body as the guard slumped to the floor.

Ceres jumped to her feet, pushing Eira back behind her. She lifted her hands. Lyr, the Elemental Spirit of water, flashed into presence above her head, pulsing a blue light that challenged the Fire Spirit across the room. Streams of water spiraled around Ceres as she drew them through an open window from a nearby pond.

Ceres' voice cracked as she challenged Adelia. "Why? You are sworn to do no harm!"

Adelia's fireballs burned brighter as she replied. "The will of the Spirits! It is time for the Order to assert itself and bring stability to the Realm. You, Ceres! You betrayed your duty to the Order. Reverend Quar foresaw this!"

Waithe cast Jenn a glance. She returned a knowing nod to him. He drew a knife from his boot and circled into Adelia's view, pointing it at her.

"Back, man! Or... or you will burn." Her words seemed tentative, more desperation than threat. "I said back!"

Adelia hesitated, then cast a fireball at Waithe. He dove out of the way and felt the heat of it singe the hairs on his arm as it whooshed by. The fireball struck an upholstered wooden chair in the corner of the room and set it afire.

With Adelia's attention on Waithe, Jenn came up behind her and swung a wooden staff. It contacted the side of Adelia's head with a loud smack. She slumped to the floor and moaned. Jenn stood over her, pulling seething breaths of air in and out.

Ceres called out to the red light above Adelia. "Pyr, be gone!"

The fire Spirit disappeared. Ceres directed a portion of the water that circled her to the burning chair, extinguishing the fire. The rest of the water retreated out of the window from whence it came and the water Spirit Lyr disappeared.

Waithe stood up. "Well done, my Lady Jenn." He bowed his head toward Girald. "It seems, my Lord, that your wife still possesses the heart of a warrior."

Girald smiled as he sat up in bed. "Indeed she does. As do you, my friend."

Jenn shook her head as she sat down on the bed next to her husband. "I could not bear another word of her foul diatribe. Why must villains babble on so?"

Waithe smiled. "A great mystery, my dear Jenn."

Ceres approached Girald. "How do you feel, my Lord?"

"Better by a league, thanks to you, Lady Ceres. I think I might join you all for dinner."

"The poison still be within you, my Lord."

"Can you remove it?"

"Aye. It shall be done."

*****

"I must say, I am a bit disappointed." Lord Girald tipped back his tankard and drank deep of it.

Ceres, who stood with the others in an uneven circle, lifted her eyebrows. "My Lord?"

He smiled as he wiped ale froth from his red beard. "I had hoped to witness a grand Shaman duel of the Elements. But as it was, my dear wife cut it short."

Ceres nodded toward Jenn. "For which I am grateful. Never have I done such a thing, victory was not at all assured. I am ashamed though, my Lord, that a fellow woman of the Order would do such an evil thing."