10.

Kyara joins the Halfling merchants in their attempt to help the injured Luke Penrook.

10.

 

For two long days, Kyara rode with the Halflings up the muddy, rutted dirt road toward Copper Gate.    The terrain grew more rugged and mountainous and it was slightly uphill all the way, which, combined with the thick mud and occasional drizzle, made the two days a nightmare for her.

Luke rode in the back of the caravan wagon, semi-conscious from time to time, and very weak.   She managed to get him to eat a few pieces of bread after they had stopped for the night of the first day, but he was halfway out of his mind as he ate.

They all slept together in the back of the wagon, which was surprisingly comfortable as the Halflings had an abundance of bedding and pillows.    Deep in the night as a gentle fall rain fell, Luke came fully awake (more or less) and groaned slightly in agony, not knowing where he was.    Kyara had bedded down next to him, in case he needed her in the night and she quickly tried to reassure him as he thrashed about.

“Where am I?”  Luke asked in such a terrified voice that he seemed almost to be a scared child asking it.   He trembled violently and was bathed in sweat.

“You’re safe, Luke, calm down!”   She said softly, hoping to not wake the Halflings which were all snoring so loud that she had not been able to get to sleep.

“Who’s there?”  He asked her.

“It’s Kyara, you’re safe, relax,”   She said soothingly.

“Where are we?   It’s dark… I was… I think I was… dreaming about…. Oh…Oh God…now I remember!    It wasn’t a dream!   Oh…” He sank back down on the pillow weakly and she filled him in on the details of what had happened since he’d attacked the bandits.

Luke laid there and listened to her, trembling and curled up almost into a ball.

“A witch?”  He asked after she finished telling the details.

“More likely just an alchemist - in the backwoods they label any magic user as a witch or warlock.”

“I don’t want to have anything to do with a witch, Princess!”

“Luke, we’ve got to try something or you’ll…”  She trailed off, not wanting to tell him.

“I’ll die; yes I know that.   I welcome it!    Right now I’m more-or-less just a zombie.   But I don’t need a witch, Princess; I am fit enough to complete my mission for you.”

“Luke, you’re too weak to even sit up!     This witch… or alchemist… may have a potion to heal you and help you regain your strength.”

“I doubt that, Princess… I think I’ve been hexed… or poisoned… by that potion that Reddric’s men gave me.”

“Then she might be able to remove that hex or neutralize the poison, Luke!”

“But then I wouldn’t die right away.”

“Damnit, Luke, what in the world is wrong with you?   Why would you want to die if you can get healed?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Princess.”

“Then make me understand!”

Luke just shook his head, “I’ll go and see this lady  -- but only so I can better serve you and finish my obligation.”

“Then you can die!”  She snapped sarcastically, but to her infuriation, he nodded in agreement with it, not offended.

“Yesh, give me strength!”  Kyara growled, then turning to him said, “By God, if I have any say in it, I am going to make sure you live whether you like it or not!    Only a diseased mind would desire death!”

“Mine has been diseased for months, Yara,”  He replied, only now recalling his decision not to address her by her title or full name.

“Well, you’re going to clean it up, mister, do you understand me?”  

She glared at him, trying to look threatening, but her fierce expression only made him faintly smile; a sad, broken shadow of a true smile.    He sighed deeply, nodded slightly as he closed his eyes and a moment later he had drifted off to sleep.

 

***

 

They reached Copper Gate late in the afternoon the following day, just as the drizzle increased in tempo to a cool, steady rain.     The mining community was nowhere to be seen in the foggy, grey air and Kyara thought she had never seen a more dismal, ugly city.

‘City’ was being more than a bit generous, for none of the streets were paved and the buildings were spaced apart and had a rustic, backwoods look to them.    

“Well, we’ve arrived,”   She said, riding up to the wagon and glancing down at Theo, “I want you to take me to the witch immediately!”

“That’s not a good idea!”   Cass interrupted, but Kyara’s tired, cross glare shut up any further argument.

“I’ll take you there, ma’am,”  Theo replied, “But I’m pretty sure she’ll need to see your friend in person, so he’ll have to come with us.”

“We’ll all go,”  Cass announced, glaring as defiantly at Kyara as he dared, “She’s less likely to try something underhanded if there are a number of us around her.   But she may not even agree to see us.”

“Oh, she’ll see us, I assure you of that,”   The Princess replied, her hand resting lightly on the pommel of her sword.

 

The witch lived at the other end of the town, on a gentle hill covered with thick thorny dwarf trees and prickly bushes that prevented anyone from approaching except for a narrow winding path.

The house seemed as if it had been constructed of driftwood and various sized grey stones, with only a window and a door acting as portals to whatever waited inside.     The yard was littered with junk and an abundance of small and medium sized rocks.   Near the stairs leading up to a long porch was an ancient copper pot that could have served as a bathtub due to its size.    A crackling fire had been kindled underneath it and it hissed and sputtered in the rain.  

On the porch, a trio of somewhat sinister appearing goats were tethered, and the three stared at them banefully with amber eyes featuring the species’ eerie horizontal slitted pupils.   

In unison, the goats bleated loudly as Kyara tethered her horse at the hitching post and Cass set the caravan’s brake with a hand lever.

She expected a grizzled old woman to come charging out of the hut screeching curses and threats, but there was nothing except the taunt of the goats as she and the Halflings helped Luke climb out of the wagon.

“Not a good place for a godly person to visit,”  He said softly as he walked on wobbling, trembling legs, between Kyara and the Halflings.

“Trust me, Luke… please,”  Kyara mumbled, as they mounted the creaking steps and crossed the porch.    The goats gave way to them but kept bleating as they approached the door.

“Come in, come in, but close the door behind you,”  There came an elderly woman’s voice from within the cabin.    Without hesitation, Kyara swung the door open and held it open for Luke and the three Halflings to enter, and then she closed it behind her.

It was candle-lit inside and smelled of smoke and a mixture of flowers and vegetables that was quite pleasant.     Seated at a table that was covered with a wild assortment of plants, most of them partially diced up, sat a shriveled up old lady with a bushy head of grey hair.    She looked as if she could be a hundred years old, but her piercing blue eyes were clear and sparkled in good humor as they entered.    Smiling a toothless grin, she suddenly stood up and gave a stiff bow.

“Your Royal Highness; I am honored to have an elven princess and her tragic knight in my humble home.   You are most welcome as are the wee folk; especially Theo Balderbuss, whom I have not seen for several months.    Welcome, all of you!    I have no chairs free of foliage to offer you, but I will vacate my own chair for this tortured soul.    Take my seat, Sir Knight.”

“I am fit enough to stand, ma’am.”

“Poppycocks!   You are dead on your feet!   Be seated, young man… and you can call me Mother Jeen or simply Jeen, but I know that you are suspicious of me.”

“You’re a witch,”   He flatly said, taking the chair she offered.

“That’s what some people say that I am.   Others have higher opinions of me, but it means nothing to me what they think.    I offer them what I can to help them, but I don’t lie to them.    Nor will I lie to you!    You come here at the bidding of your Princess, who wants you healed.     I have watched you from a far for several days.”

“Can you help him?”   Kyara asked.

“He has been tortured and castrated, then given the root of the bleeding gum tree mixed with Thantolicix venom.    There is no magic that I have, nor potion that I can give, that can neutralize the effects within your knight’s body.   Centuries ago, there was magic that could restore him, but it has been lost long ago,”   She turned to Luke and touched his shoulder in sympathy, “I tell you frankly, Sir Knight, that the poison will kill you in a week, perhaps as long as two weeks.”

Kyara groaned slightly, “There’s nothing you can do?”

“To keep him from dying?   No, there is nothing I can do to stop that.   However, there is a potion that I can give him that will stimulate his strength and keep him from feeling any pain.    It consumes the body, though.    For a week, he will feel free of any discomfort and will not need to sleep.   He will have the energy of a man in the prime of his life, but only for seven days.    At the end of that time, the stimulant will consume all of his strength and he will die.   But his last week will be lived as one free from what is poisoning him.”

For a long moment everyone was silent, then Luke sighed and said, “How much will this potion cost?”

“Luke, no!   We’ll find another way; it was foolish to come here!”  Kyara blurted out, but both the knight and the old witch ignored her comments.

“It is not expensive - two silver coins, but you must understand that there is no potion, nor any of the remaining healing magic that I know of, that can stop either the poison given to you or the effects of my potion once it is drank.    You will have a week free from suffering, but use it wisely, because at the end of it, you will definitely die.”

“Luke!”  Kyara exclaimed, suddenly very frightened of the witch and sickened that she had brought him here.

“What choice do I have, Yara?”   He replied as he opened his coin pouch and with shaking hands, pulled out two silver coins, “I am going to die either way; it would be better to be useful in the time that I have left.     Here is my payment, Mother Jeen; give me the potion that you spoke of.”

The witch patted him softly on the shoulder, and then hobbled off to a shelf in one corner of the hut, where several dozen potion bottles waited.   

Kyara knelt down and took Luke’s hands in her own.      Tears streamed down her cheeks as she rubbed his cold fingers, “Luke, it’s not too late!    There must be another way!”

“I doubt that, Princess.    I don’t have time to search for it anyway, but we will have time to get you to the Yehsaelie forest before I die.”

“To hell with all of that!”  She yelled, “I don’t want to sacrifice you for that!”

“I told you from the start that I didn’t plan on living long.”

“That was just talk, Luke!   You may have given up, but I haven’t!”

“Sometimes you just have to accept harsh reality.   I have a week either way, Yara, and I want to live that last week to the best of my ability.    If I don’t take the potion, I won’t be any help to you at all.   We can’t take the wagon cross country and that is how we’re going to have to ride to get to the forest in a week’s time.”

“We’ll postpone going to the forest until we find you a healer!”

“You heard Mother Jeen - I can’t be healed by magic.”

“But, I can’t let you do this!”

“It’s the only way -forget about me, Yara and stay focused on your original plan.   If you can find some of our soldiers still alive in the Yehsaelie forest, then they can give you better help than I can.”

Kyara just tightly clutched his hand and wept in frustration.

“I’ll be okay, Yara; I’m not afraid of dying.”

“But I’m afraid of watching you die!”

At that moment, Mother Jeen approached with the potion, which she gave to Luke with reverence.

“I think you are making the wisest choice, young man, in the situation that you are facing.    It isn’t easy, but it is wise.”

Luke nodded and popped the cork in the mouth of the bottle.   Upon hearing the sound, Kyara jumped to her feet and ran out of the hut, still weeping.    Cass and Sirpo went after her, leaving Theo to stand by gravely witnessing Luke draining the potion without any hesitation.

“It doesn’t taste bad,”  He told the witch after he’d finished.

“Sometimes the most potent ones don’t have a bad taste.    It will take about half of an hour for you to feel the effects.    Use your time wisely, young knight!”

Luke nodded, glancing toward the door of the shack, “Kyara is not liking this at all.   She always hangs on to a sliver of hope and this time that sliver is gone.”

Jeen nodded, but smiled slightly, “While there is life, there is hope, Sir Knight.     I am old and I know many things, but greater are the things that I do not know.    Your fate is not sealed until you breathe your final breath.   Always keep your eyes open, young man, for sometimes fate takes unexpected turns.”