CHAPTER NINE
Wendy looked over the battlefield. The other army had stopped before them. They were a lot smaller in numbers than she had thought but they still outnumbered her own army. Everyone was quiet waiting for the other to make the first move. One person on the other army got off his horse and started to walk towards them. He walked slowly deliberately showing his hands. She did not take her eye off of him as she asked Henry, “What is he doing?”
“He wants to talk about surrender.”
“Why come all this way just to surrender?”
Henry chuckled, “Not his, yours. He expects you to be intimidated with their numbers or something. I can’t tell from here.”
“Tell? You mean read his mind?”
“No one can do what Max does and I don’t mean read his mind. I mean see it in his eyes. After you meet a lot of opponents you tend to get the hang of it.”
“So, what should I do?”
“Terms of conduct state that you have to at least hear what he has to say. He might make you a good enough deal you’ll see no point in fighting this battle.”
“Not likely,” she said as she jumped down from her horse. She walked towards the other man similarly showing her hands.
“Is it safe to let her do this?” Jared asked.
“She’ll be fine.” Henry said staring straight ahead.
They met in the middle but kept their distance while being close enough that they could appraise each other. The man smirked. “So you are the new queen?”
“I’m afraid I have no idea who you are.”
The smirk on his face disappeared. He became angry all of a sudden, “How can you go to war not knowing anything about your opponent?”
“Knowing about you isn’t going to change the fact that I’m still going to win this war.”
The man frowned, “I’m here to talk about surrender.”
“And I’ll happily accept it from you assuming you have the power to make such a declaration.”
The man gave a dry laughed, “I see what you are doing. The wizards told me you’d try and make me lose my cool for an excuse to kill me here.”
“I don’t need an excuse. I am going to kill you anyway.”
He didn’t justify that with an answer. “You talk as if you are assured of victory. You have less soldiers than we do and even less wizards and we have the Mantegna stone.”
“The Mantegna stone?”
“You don’t know what that is?”
“Do you?” she countered folding her hands over her chest defensively.
He huffed, “You know nothing about war and yet they brought you all this way.” “The Mategna is supposed to win you this war?”
“Mantegna and yes it will. It gives power to my men.”
Wendy took a step back as if in fear, “What did the wizards promise you for whatever kind of power they are offering through this stone?”
“Fire and they asked me for nothing. What did they promise you?” “Nothing.”
“Nothing? I suppose having them between your legs is enough for you.” He laughed out loud as if he’d made the funniest joke.
“I suppose it does seem like that. Unfortunately, I can’t be blamed for finding them a lot more interesting.” She sighed in frustration. “You were saying something about surrendering.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” he shouted
“About the Mantegna stone? Yes I heard. The thing is that I have two of them.” “Impossible!”
“What? Did you think yours was the only one which existed or that the wizards lied to you?”
“The Mantegna is one of a kind.”
“Of course it is unique but so are mine. Each Mantegna stone is different. You have the one for fire and I have wind and earth.” Wendy smiled. “So how about it? Are you ready to surrender?”
*
Gorham moved his horse to stand next to Henry’s as he watched the conversation between Wendy and King Elias take place. This had never happened before. Usually Diane used to just lead her army through and slaughter the enemy without such talks taking place. But it provided an option that if they could settle this among themselves then the war could be avoided and the lives would be saved.
Henry turned to him, “You are not supposed to be here.” “Where else would I be?”
“Back at camp. You have no fighting skills…” “I know how to fight!”
“No you don’t. Perhaps you know how to defend yourself but not to attack and fighting wizards is not you specialty. Leave this fight for your wife. If you stay here, you’ll be a target.”
“Not everyone knows who I am.”
“But our army does. Don’t you think that they will try to protect you and when the others see this they will know that you are important and you will become their main focus?”
“Fine, I understand what you mean. I’ll go back to camp. I just need to see if we are going to go to war.”
Henry shook his head despondently. “None of you, not Wendy nor you understand war at all. It’s probably best, I suppose. You should go now. We’ll send you word on the progress of the war.”
“I’m going. Besides Sidney is looking at me as if she wants to cast something at me.”
“You’ll probably find yourself in your tent with no idea how you got there.” After another moment of staring at the field where the battle was to take place, Gorham turned his horse and headed back to camp.
*
Wendy closed her eyes for a moment as she tried to gather all her patience not to attack the man right there. He kept talking and talking and yet they both knew he wasn’t going to surrender and neither was she. If she didn’t know any better, she would have assumed that he was trying to distract her from something.
“What is it that you want?” she asked giving up her hold on her patience. “I want you to surrender.”
“We both know I won’t do that. How about we just get to it. The winner takes all.” “What?” King Elias asked in surprise.
“That is the whole point of this war, isn’t it? Or was it simply because Alice said something your country men didn’t like?”
“That was not the point of this war.”
“Then what was it? You can’t tell me that you just felt like it. You want to conquer us and prove to the rest of the world that you are mightier than all of them.” She put her hand on her sword which was on her side. “If that is the case then it stands to reason that if we win then we are coming to conquer your kingdom.”
She started to walk back to the side when he called her back. “Wait! Tyrone has never conquered another kingdom. It is against your nature.”
“What do you think that Queen Diane was doing?”
“Restructuring. You have never actually settled in the kingdom you defeated in war.”
Wendy smiled victoriously. The other king was already thinking in terms of being defeated. This was the first step to victory. “There is a first time for everything.” Then she went back to her own army and straddled her horse.
Henry waited until she was comfortable then said, “I take it that we are at war.”
“We already were,” she said then raised her sword high up. “Sound the horn!” she shouted, “We are at war.”
*
Gorham looked up when the horn sounded. The fight was about to begin. He looked at Nathan, “You think we’ll win?”
“Why you here if you think we won’t?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust Wendy to win the war…”
“This is the only chance you’ll get to have some action in your life.”
“I’m not that desperate to take a risk like throw myself into the fighting just because I want to feel excited.”
“You keep forgetting that I know you inside and out.” “No you don’t.”
“I used to be your brother.”
“Is this about you being the reincarnation of Cognoscenti?”
“Yes. I came to some knowledge a few days back that stated that this was going to be our last reincarnation and I need to straighten out something between us.”
“Now?”
“When is a better time to sort this out? After this war is won, you are going to go back to trying bring your family back together and rule the kingdom.”
“Let me guess, you were not as bad as the stories tell you were.” “On the contrary, I was merciless and I hated you.”
“Why?”
“Because you were king and I was not. The stories have it right to the point that we were brothers. But were more than that. Were twins. The difference is that you were born minutes before me and named heir to the throne. From then you had everything you ever wanted and I was jealous of that even though I tried not to be. After some time, when I was old enough I decide to travel the world and see what else was there. I couldn’t just leave without your permission but then you didn’t have anything against me. I was granted the leave. I went traveled saw the world and that is when I met Jansenist. Fell in love with her the moment I saw her and so did she. Unfortunately I lied to her.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I was heir to a throne and that I was traveling the world because it still wasn’t time to inherit my kingdom and that my parents were still young and I just could stay there waiting for them to die. She bought it and we saw each other for a while then you called me back. You needed my help thwarting a neighboring kingdom’s attempt to conquer us. I came back and went to handle the battle. Jansenist followed me to our kingdom. I had talked about it in detail and finding it was easy enough for her. Then she met you.”
“Then I stole her from you.”
“Yes but not quite. It’s a bit more than simply stealing her. You see, you looked just like me. We were twins. She confused you for me first then just decided to choose you. After all, you were the better version of me. You were king whereas I was not. You were not scarred whereas I was and you could give her whatever she wanted and I could not.”
“You were scarred? When?”
“When you sent me to win your war. I came back scarred and only to discover that the woman I loved was seeing you with the intention of marrying you. Of course I got mad and I hated you even more.”
“How did we end up being reincarnated?”
“I have searched for that answer myself but I’ve never found an answer.” “Have you always tried to kill Sidney?”
Nathan looked at Gorham, “Yes. She was not the woman I thought she was.” “Why? Because she chose me instead of you.”
“No. Because she ruined you.” He stood up and started to pace. How soon do you think you ruled before you were overthrown? Before our clan became outcasts? I had to come rescue you from your imprisonment but you did not know how to survive in the world where you’d actually have to work for what you ate.” He stopped pacing and turned to look at Gorham. “You died about three years later.”
“How did I die?”
“Killed yourself. You were a coward then.” “So, I never remarried?”
“No. I took your name and intended to make things right. Won back my kingdom and led it to prosperity. I changed the history to see you in the best light it could. Not a saint but not a bastard either.”
“And the Izanami bloodline?”
“Mine. I had a witch cast a spell on me to enable me to sense the wizards around me. Unfortunately I lacked the empathy needed to make the spell take root. On the plus side, I already had a daughter as my first born. The spell was cast on her. I hated wizards then, still do actually.”
“I’m not sure what to say about that.”
“I don’t expect you to say anything.”
“If all this is true then why did you kiss Sidney by the pond? You claim to hate her.”
“Never said that. Just said that I tried to kill her in every reincarnation. I hated you though and I hate the rest of the wizards.”
“Then you’ve been lying to yourself. You hate wizards because of what they represent. Her. It stands to reason that these confused feelings you have for Sidney is what has been resulting in the reincarnations. You need to figure this out once and for all.”
“Perhaps it was because you didn’t actually know who she is. You have never known the truth about who you used to be.”
“I don’t think so. I know and yet I’m still sure that I love Sidney and I’m pretty sure that she loves me. That’s not it.” They stared at each other for a moment then they burst out in laughter.
“This conversation needs a strong drink to bare it,” Nathan said and headed out of the tent to bring back a flask of wine.
*
Wendy looked around at the fallen soldiers. They were winning. As strange as it was, her strategy was working. She searched around for Martin but her eyes caught sight of Henry and the other wizards as they fought. It was magnificent. They moved so fast and their movements were so fluid and quick. It was no wonder that even the units prepared to deal with the wizards had stepped aside and left the wizards to handle the others. Several were already down.
She continued to look around for Martin. There connection had been cut so she couldn’t locate him immediately. She spotted him beyond the enemy lines hacking away at anyone who approached him. He was good but he was injured in several places. He would not maintain his strength much longer if he did not take a break and stop the bleeding. She dodged an attack and started to make her way to Martin. She managed to convince him to take a break and bandage his injuries.
A moment later she was back into the fray until she faced off with one of the wizards. He came up to her quite confidently as one would only expect from a wizard. He pulled out his sword. It was the same orange red tinted sword that had cut her when she was rescuing Sidney from the ambush. “I’ve seen that before.”
“Yes, it was among the wizards who ambushed Sidney.”
“What is it?” she asked knowing that the moment it had cut her than she had blacked out. On that note she figured she had to stop blacking out so frequently. It would be construed as weakness. Cause really, how many times could one do so in a span of three months?
Instead of answering though, the wizard simply attacked. They fought for a while before they paused for a moment to catch their breaths. “You’ve been trying so hard not to let the sword touch you, but the point is mute. The sword already cut you once.”
“So?”
“It doesn’t need to cut you again to do what it was meant to.” He said then pointed the sword to her. And it glowed. “Sever her spirits.” Wendy took a step back but that didn’t stop the hurt that she felt right through to her hurt. It’s like the sword cut right through heart. She clutched her heart and she stumbled back and fell to her knees. She looked at him and saw the satisfied smile on his face. “I had handed the sword over to be used to kill Sidney but it can kill anyone whose spirits are an intricate part of them. Just lay there. It won’t be long now but it will be painful.” Then he laughed out loudly. “Killing you will turn this war to our side and having Henry distracted, will ensure that we win. Once he’s out, the council is free for the taking.”
Wendy fell on her side willing herself not to pass out. So she just stared as people around her continued to fight. Then she saw him coming to her and only hoped she wasn’t dying after coming so far.
*
Henry turned just as Wendy clutched her heart. He looked from her to the wizard standing in front of her and saw the sword. “No!” he murmured to himself.
“Henry! Watch out!” Ella screamed. He turned just in time to avoid the killing blow but the sword cut right across his cheek. He thrust his sword and got his opponent right through the heart. He turned back to see where Wendy had gone down. She was right in the mist of the opposing army and one of them had noticed. He was lifting his sword up to give the killing blow.
“No!” he said as he lifted hand as if to stop the other from bring down the sword, but he was too far. A darkness rose from his other soldier’s shadow and thrust his shadowy sword through his back. Henry fisted his hand in surprise then just stared at it. Perhaps he had been wrong and his power had increased. This war had to stop. He had to find a way keep Wendy spirits here and he won’t have that opportunity if the fighting is going on around him. He spread his hands out and focused on the enemy army. Slowly one by one started to fall. Either through being stabbed or strangled. They dropped dead one by one in an outward motion from the position of his body. Everybody simply stopped and stared at him then there was pandemonium throughout the field as everyone ran away scared of what was going on. Even their own army disappeared either into the woods or back to camp. Eventually the only ones remaining were his wizards. He stopped what he was doing and went to Wendy.
She was just lying there still with her eyes open and no other signs of life whatever. He turned her face gently to look at him. “Wendy?”
“Can’t… breath.”
“Just hold on. You to make it through to live.” “Can’t… breath.”
“I know.” He pulled her to him and hugged her close. “I know.”
*
Wendy stared at her spirits. One by one they were manifesting outside her body and as they did so, she knew she was dying. One of them leaned down and whispered in her ear. “You are not dying,” she smiled. “You are simply changing.” Wendy recognized her as Esther of earth. “Yes you are right and I want to tell you that this would have happened in time. Of course you’d not have felt like you were dying. You only feel like that because it’s happening faster than usual.” She looked around at the rest of them and realized that there were six of them. “Oh yeah, new development. Turns out you were bonded with the spirit of air.” She didn’t understand what Esther was talking about she the latter clarified. “We thought you were the spirit of air or wind as you prefer to call it. Turns out we were wrong. Ariana there is the spirit of air.”
“Can’t… breathe.”
“Hey Ariana, a little air in these lungs.”
“Sure thing.” She came skidding to a halt next to her. “Say ah!” she waited. When Wendy didn’t do anything she stated, “We can only help to a point. You have to open your mouth and keep your heart beating. I will circulate the air through your lungs. It won’t be long now. It is almost done.”
“Yes, almost done now.” Esther agreed.
“What is going to happen to me?” she managed to ask.
Henry thought she was talking to him and answered, “I don’t know.”
At the same time Esther answered, “You will continue to live as usual. Even though we will be separate from your body, we are still a part of you. Spirits usually chose who to meld with before they are born and the bonding continues until birth. By then we have melded into one being and even as separate as we are right now, you and the rest of us think alike. We will always make the same decisions and choices. So you don’t have to worry that we will run amok and spread chaos everywhere…” she paused for a moment. “And yes we know what you are thinking as you will know what we are thinking. And finally, you’ll still have your powers.”
Ariana smiled, “It ending. Do you feel it?”
Wendy took a deep breathe. “I’m not dying anymore.”
“Henry pulled her away from him and looked at her in shock. “What?” Wendy smiled through her cracked lips. “I’m not dying.”
“Your hair…”
“What’s with my hair?” she reached out behind her and pulled her hair. It was back to black. The white was completely gone. “What…”
Esther shrugged. “The hair signified the strength of the spirits within you. We are no longer within you.”
“And my powers?”
“Why don’t you try them?”
“Wendy who are you talking to?” Henry asked curiously.
Before she could answers, Martin came running, “Something happened to King Gorham. You have to come now.” he came to a complete stop when he saw Wendy with her black hair. “What happened to you?”
“Forget what happened to me.”
At the same time, Sidney asked, “What has happened to Gorham?”
He looked sorrowfully at Sidney. “Gorham was attacked in his tent…” Sidney took off before he finished the sentence.
Wendy stood up. “What exactly happened?” Martin explained everything as they headed back to the camp. They barely made it back before they heard the anguished scream then a shout. Wendy and the others ran into the tent only to find Sidney leaning over Nathan crying. Nathan’s eyes were glazing over as life started fading out of them. “Oh no! What have you done?”
“We can’t let anyone see this. We have to get her out of…” Henry started.
“What?” Wendy turned to him in shock. “How in the world do you expect us to cover this up? She just killed Nathan! Our king! Not to mention that Gorham is dead. How in the world are you going to cover up the death of two kings?”
Just then Jared walked in, clearly having heard the last bit of statement from Wendy. He looked accusingly at her then looked around taking note that it was indeed true. Bothe Gorham and Nathan were dead. Sidney was leaning over Nathan clearly having killed him but he could not be sure who had killed Gorham. “You cannot cover this up even if you wanted,” he stated blandly at Wendy.
“I didn’t suggest that we cover this up.”
“Not from what I heard. The people have to know that their Kings are dead and that their queen was a traitor.”
“What?” Wendy gasped.
“I supported you. I told them that they should make you queen. Crown you against their wishes. Then you try to cover up their deaths? For these wizards?”
“I wasn’t trying to cover anything up…”
“She would face better judgment from the council.” Henry said as he moved to head towards Sidney.
Jared blocked his path. “No!”
“You cannot possibly imagine that you can hold her long enough to prosecute her!”
“We will manage. But we are going to see justice done.” He turned to the outside and shouted for the guards before turning to Wendy. “You will relinquish your throne…”
“She won’t. You need a…” Henry interrupted again.
“Damn it Henry! You are making this worse.” Wendy burst out as her patience wore thin. “You need to go. Sidney will face prosecution here for the murder of Nathan…”
“But you still need…”
“…your help? Perhaps. But it is time to leave me to fumble through this on my own. I appreciate everything you are trying to do but understand that with this act, Sidney has condemned you to the public. You will no longer be seen as allies but threats and all of you will be judged guilty. And how do you think that would reflect on my reign?
Leave now,” she paused as she looked at him in sadness. “I hereby ban all wizards from this dimension. If any of you cross over you will be hunted and killed on the spot.”
The other wizards gasped in shock. Henry just stared at her and then walked over and kissed her forehead. Then he gathered her up in a hug and whispered in her ear. “Always know that you have a place at home always open to you and your child.” Wendy chocked on a sob and hugged him tightly once then pulled away. Henry looked at Jared. “The decree has been heard and acknowledged and as it is,” he looked down at Sidney. “Wizards are allowed to fight for their lives as well if the find themselves in this dimension.”
“Don’t forget the professor. He should be stuck in his own world. Not here.” She said not looking at him. He left and the other wizards followed him out. Wendy looked up at Jared who was now surrounded by guards who seemed to be in shock at seeing the dead kings on the ground. She addressed them instead, “Take Sidney into holding at the Castle and inform the council of what has happened and that we are to convene to discuss the way forward from this. Also inform Felicia on her husband’s dead. She can come to my castle and I’ll tell her more on what has happened but tell her that I insist she join us at the council chambers. Take the bodies back to the city and have them prepared for a state funeral. Cover them during transportation. The kingdom will know of this after we know more and have discussed things with the council.” She started to walk out then paused and looked back at them. “And Jared, I will expect you to ensure that the bodies are treated with care and dignity that befits royalty. They were your kings after all regardless of what they put you through.”
She left Jared with a frown on his face. Martin followed her to her own tent. “That wasn’t very nice of you.”
“You think he’s going to drop it?” Wendy turned on him. “He’s never going to drop this but as Henry said, we need a leader now and I’ve already been crowned. We have won this war but we have not recovered yet. In some opportunist’s mind they would see that we are at our weakest. Our resources are depleted. A good number of our army is dead or is dying another good portion is hurt. We cannot survive another war whether it is outside or within our kingdom.”
“So you are just going to belittle him and layer accusation on him?”
“Whatever it takes to protect this kingdom. Jared was loyal to Gorham and even loyalty has to be countered with good sense. Look at what Sidney just did. Do we even know who killed Gorham yet? Was it Nathan?”
“We have people looking into that.”
Wendy sighed and took off her armor and put on her crown. “Do inform me of the progress of the investigation and tell them they will report their progress to me this evening.” She walked out of the tent.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to the city. I realized that Felicia would want to hear the new straight from me and not some anonymous guard. And I need to ensure that the ambassadors are contained so that they don’t send any message home before we know what we will do. I also have to ensure that neither Gorham no Nathan left anything overdue and …”
“I get it.” Martin interrupted. “You have to lead the kingdom.”
“Find Hudson and Annie and send them back,” she considered something for a moment after she had saddled her horse. She looked down at Martin a moment latter. “At such times, we need to surround ourselves with people we can trust. Remember that.” Then she rode of towards the city
*