Medice Ceres

Chapter 37

Waithe narrowed his eyes and spat his words. "It would appear, Lieutenant, that the concept of honor be far beyond your simple mind."

The Lieutenant drew his sword as his horse pawed the ground. The soldiers who flanked them raised blades and crossbows, awaiting orders to charge. Waithe held his long knife aloft as he stepped back closer to Ceres and Alden. They were trapped with a dozen soldiers on horseback before them and a wall of black volcanic rock behind them. Ceres hugged a trembling Eira as Alden stepped in front of them, a resolute expression on his face.

The Lieutenant sneered. "The words of a dead man mean nothing. The only honor be that Lord Scias would have his prize." He pointed at Ceres.

Waithe steeled himself for the attack, but then two spherical objects twice the size of a fist rolled across the ground, settling at the hooves of the soldiers' horses, one to each side of him. Flames sputtered and sizzled on the wicks. Waithe lifted an eyebrow in confusion. These devices came from Alden, so something new was bound to happen. The soldiers seemed even more confused as they looked at each other, some shrugging.

Alden shouted, "Waithe, secure your horse!"

As Waithe took up the reins of his horse, a bright flash and a sharp sound of thunder erupted from each of the devices in quick succession. The soldiers' horses bucked and reared, disrupting the orderly line and tossing most of the men to the ground. Clouds of dust kicked up by the stomping horses mixed with the sulfurous smoke from the blasts. Waithe held tight to his horse as Alden did so to his and Ceres' horses.

Ceres lifted her chin and pressed her lips together in a look of determination as she raised her arms. The Spirit Phy's green light brightened and pulsed above her. Patches of vines that matted the ground began to twist and grow, reaching out to the soldiers in the chaos. The rustling of the vines gave way to shouts of fear as they entrapped the men in their twirling growth. Those soldiers still on their feet or horseback hacked at the attacking plants with swords and knives, but the vines were much too relentless to stop. Soon all were pulled to the ground and ensnared in botanical prisons as surely as in dungeon chains. Ceres lowered her hands and took a deep breath.

Waithe grasped tightly the long knife in his hand as he glared at the Lieutenant on the ground below him. "What think you now of honor?"

The officer whimpered as his face paled in wide-eyed fear as Waithe bent over and pressed his knife against his neck. Waithe cast his eyes at Ceres who shook her head. He sighed, pulling the knife back.

"If it were to me, your blood would have spoiled this ground. To the one you called 'witch', you owe your life."

Waithe sheathed his long knife and walked over to the giant he defeated earlier and knelt. The vines trapped Yorg as well, his eyes seemed unfocused as his breathing became rapid and shallow. Ceres also knelt next to her father.

Waithe turned to her. "Ceres, would you..?"

She smiled and nodded, placing a hand on the giant's shoulder and closing her eyes. An amber light, the Spirit Dal, joined Phy's green light above her and circled slowly around. The vines slowly retreated from the injured giant, releasing him from their grip. A sparkling shimmer of Magic came down and encased him. Yorg's eyes grew wide and focused as the healing progressed.

As before, a vision of the past came to Waithe, this one of Ceres as a young teenager.

She sat on a granite boulder under the old apple tree, one tucked in a far corner of the Medice estate, a favorite place to escape the stresses of training and the taunts of the other girls. Her face laid bent over in her hands. Phy slowly circled above her, shining a muted green light.