The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH THE MAZONI WARRIORS

They looked at each other, Stacy nodded. “You told the Huntsman that the lighthouse keeper who rescued you, Vinterfleur of the House of Valent, was not the woman he was looking for, that is a start. All the women in my house, the House of Valent, are sword-trained warriors going back for many generations. He knows this and should turn his attention elsewhere. Fleur has a false history in the databases that makes it look like she grew up with our family.”

Stacy laid an enchanted dagger bearing a ruby scarab on the table. “If you had not answered as you did, I would have finished what the brigands started and removed your head. I’m sorry, Rieth, but it has been my duty to protect Fleur since my grandmother passed away.”

Rieth stared at her wide-eyed, his surprise was real as he realized who and what Stacy was. He gasped out, “You’re a Amazois warrior woman!”

"We are just called the Mazoni now." Stacy smugly smiled at him with a shrug, “My grandmother Meara was the last Mazoni born on Terrearth, she was a descendant of the four Amazois from the Azoni Mountains on Xelusia, who traveled with High Lord Adamos on the Tear of Heaven’s Hope before the Cataclysm. Though she was mostly human, she still carried a trace of the genetics of our ancestry. Captain Vole of the Southern Fleet is my grandfather, together he and Meara rebuilt the Mazoni traditions. After Meara became feeble, I was chosen to take her place. My grandfather’s cousin Vela is also a Mazoni, Meara trained her as well. Vela was very concerned about your intentions and identity because of your resemblance to the Huntsman, but after seeing the life you are building in Lumberton and having your background checked, she and Nevin decided to let you live because Fleur and Yuli seem fond of you. Finn was watching from a distance and saw how rudely the Huntsman treated you earlier today. Reading what you wrote under the influence of truth potion, I think it was the right decision to let you live.”

Rieth rubbed his forehead, he realized he had gotten lax as he recovered from his boat journey, but in a strange way, that was probably what had saved him from finding himself forever dead. He had relaxed into his life as a woodsmith, kept a predictable routine, and fostered attachments to people in the community, things he never did as a Huntsman. He reached for the tablet and wrote, ‘Thank you for letting me keep my head because my heart belongs to her. She gives me hope.’

“You’re welcome, Rieth.” Stacy grinned, “Let me get you some soup that isn’t dosed and we can finish our meal now that such dark tidings are passed.”

As she took his half-eaten bowl away, Rieth gave Banth a questioning look. The old veteran answered grumpily, “What? I’ve dosed you as well, and I won’t apologize. Fleur is like a daughter to me. Stacy, just bring the pot, I’ll have another bowl too.”

Rieth shook his head and penned, ‘I hold nothing against you. Any of you. Thank you for your trust.’

Finn read aloud and then said to Rieth, “You handled being told we would have killed you very well.”

Rieth shrugged and scribbled, ‘You’re not the first person today to threaten my life and that first person was much more intimidating...’ His words made them laugh, then he added, ‘What now? Fleur may be at sea with Vole, but Yuli can’t sail, where is he?’

Banth chuckled. “Nothing gets past you, woodsmith... Yuli is having his magic tested by the Headmaster of the School for Healing and Magery.”

Rieth raised an eyebrow and picked up his pen. ‘But Yuli has forestry magic like his father, he might even be a huntsman.’

Stacy glanced as his tablet as she set a steaming bowl of fish stew in front of him, the first taste told him it had no potion in it.

She patted his shoulder, as Finn explained, “Yuli can’t go to the Huntsmen’s Academy or it would lead Lord Yurieth straight back here and to Fleur. And there is something you should know; Yuli is like all the other children born and raised in the Isles, his magic will be stronger than his father’s.”

Rieth stopped moving with his spoon halfway to his mouth.

Banth nodded, and chuckled. “The healing plants and colored trees aren’t the only special secret of the Southern Star Archipelago's Arbor Isle. Our children are too. But then you have spent enough time with Yuli and Nick, did you not realize they are both too young to have their magic yet? Both have been using their magic since before they were fifty years old.”

“How?” Rieth whispered.

“Even the healers don’t know, but Nevin says the rock that forms the isle is not native to this planet or even this system. He thinks something hit Oceania. Did anyone live here during the old kingdom? Or on any of the other worlds in our system?” Stacy asked, she had a curious expression.

One Rieth suddenly recognized and he wondered how he did not realize that she looked like a fairer version of Meara’s dark-haired sister Fianna.

Rieth wrote what he had learned in childhood. ‘Only priest and mages lived on Trios, or Arborea. Bina, now called Havilah, was occasionally mined for rare ores but no one lived there. Oceania was called Penta Aquarea, the place of the sacred waters. It was said Atlasea, the first city of the ancients was here, and lost to a great flood after a star fell from the sky. After the flood, the ancients moved to Quantia and changed the name to Aetheria . Trespassing on Aquarea was punishable by death of one’s entire house to those twice removed.’

“Wow.” Finn breathed out, as Banth and Stacy stared at him. “That’s harsh.”

Rieth shrugged and wrote, ‘The High Houses decreed whatever they wished. Entire families were wiped out for less. I thought this time would be different, but the royals are the same.’

“It is different.” Stacy snapped, then she took a slow breath, “King Karstien has made things better for everyone. It is only a few like the Huntsman who hold to the old ways; things like owning other beings and women can’t be warriors; who make things hard.” Her words made Rieth regret every time that he, as the Huntsman, had taunted her grandmother Meara about being a real warrior.

He realized Meara Garrett had taken those things to heart, seen them as antiquated beliefs instead of his defense against dealing with how different the world he revived into was from what he expected. It was just another thing that made it that much easier for Shadz to gather allies against him. He wondered if he would ever stop making such short-sighted mistakes.

He finished his soup and stretched, then wrote, ‘It has been many long days without rest, is there anything else I should know before we go to the boarding house and I lay down and not sleep?’

Banth chuckled. “We’ll find more for you to worry about tomorrow.”

“Have you really not rested?” Stacy asked concerned.

‘Not since the royals found me celebrating with my family and sent back me here.’ He wrote honestly. ‘I hope I can go back to my shop soon, I have commissions to finish.’

“Fleur has enough rooms, we can all stay here tonight,” Banth offered, “No reason to go out into the pouring rain again.”

A week went by then two weeks, before the curfew was lifted, and Rieth could say goodbye to his friends in Soldiers Cove. Bolton had leased him a workspace so he was able to do some of his commission work with lumber stored in the village’s communal warehouse, but he needed the special wood from the Southern Sun Mill. Returning to his shop was a short-lived pleasure, because the third day he was back, he was visited by the Guardian Kalen and the false Huntsman Lord Yurieth. The two warriors spent hours closed in with the woodsmith, then they left.

The young Guardian handed off the package he was carrying to the hooded Huntsman who went ahead of him when Corbin tried to catch up with them after calling out. “My Lords.”

“Aren’t you going to deal with him?” Corbin demanded, “Or take him back to wherever he came from?”

Kalen snorted as though he were frustrated. “Protector Corbin, it is not the duty of the Royal Guardsmen to remove your romantic rivals based on frivolous charges.”

“But... but he isn’t... I mean, he’s...” Corbin stammered in outrage.

“After interviewing Woodsmith Rieth, my uncle and I are certain he is not involved with the brigands who have terrorized Arbor and Golden Isles. You are to cease surveilling and harassing him. I have heard many accounts of your infatuation with the Soldiers Cove lighthouse keeper and how she prefers the woodsmith over you.” Kalen stepped very close to Corbin, letting himself tower over the shorter man. “Captain Vole is an old family friend, I have known him since I was a child. He taught me how to swim and how to sail. I consider his family, my family, even the ones I haven’t met.” Kalen let his magic shine in his eyes.

“Wh-what are you saying?” Corbin stuttered, stepping back from the menacing warrior.

“I am saying leave Vole’s cousin alone.” The Guardian then turned and walked away, calling out over his shoulder. “You will have the result of your peer review by the First Protector in a month. I suggest you find another line of income.”

Corbin seethed as he watched the youth walk away. The Protector of Brightwater had already relinquished his post voluntarily to a Guardsmen Corps officer, something Corbin refused to do. There were now a half-platoon of guardsmen stationed in the main port with access to skimmer boats and flyers to respond to any criminal activity. If he captured and killed his band of brigands now, the guardsmen would just take the credit, but he already knew he needed to get rid of them all. His mind raced as he sought a way to resolve things back into his favor. If only he had magic like the royals, then he could make all his dreams come true.

When Vole’s ship stopped in Brightwater Port to offload its catch, no one noticed that two more people got back on before it left port than had gotten off when it arrived. It made a wide arc around the islands before coming into Soldiers Cove late in the evening. Captain Vole carried an ill Yuli up to their house as Fleur and Healer Cassie walked together, pretending to talk happily.

Banth was waiting and hugged Fleur in greeting, while Vole and Cassie put Yuli in bed. Fleur blurted out, “By the Light, Banth, even with the sea-sickness tablets, Yuli was ill again in an hour. I have never seen anyone so... so sick. He vomited on the beach just like... like...” She stopped suddenly with a faraway look, her breath caught. Her eyes rolled back, and she was convulsing before she hit the floor. Through clenched teeth, she hissed out, “Its... its attacking th-them... from th-the s-sky.”

“Cassie!” Banth roared as he put a leather bite-plate in Fleur’s mouth, and held her gently to stop her thrashing. “Don’t try to talk, Fleur. Don’t try to remember, just relax. CASSIE!”

The tinkling of breaking glass was the last sound he heard before he passed out.

Banth woke with Vole sitting across from him. “Sorry about that old man. Asha has us using splash potions of sleep to stop Fleur’s memory episodes. The memory magic is failing too fast and they can’t increase her medicines.”

Banth sat up slowly, “How bad is it, lad?”

Vole clenched his fists, looking down at them for a few minutes, when he looked up he had tears in his silver eyes. “No more than five years before it fails. Asha... Asha hopes that maybe... If Fleur is in love and sealed to another that she might survive remembering, but Shadz isn’t sure even that will work. We’re running out of time with her.”

Banth wiped the wetness from his cheeks. “I need you to go to Lumberton, to the Whispering Woods shop on Forge street. Bring Rieth back with you. He loves her, we told him the story of her being a former concubine and hiding from the Huntsman. He thinks her memory loss is from a war injury.”

Vole glared at him and angrily demanded, “Why would you tell him that?”

“Fleur herself told him she used to belong to a high house. He is from the old kingdom, he knows how they owned people. The Huntsman interrogated him for days after he contacted your ship by comm, dragged him back here and away from his family. Rieth told us how the Huntsman showed him many different pictures of her from before, but Rieth told Lord Yurieth the pictures weren’t the woman who saved him. That act alone may buy us safety for her. Mazoni Monastaci made the decision, we told him the history Meara made to fit Fleur’s memories, and he responded by saying he loved her and asking how could he help protect her. Stacy let him live.” Banth revealed.

He held up his hand to forestall the younger man's protests. “I know it angers you that she thinks that of herself, it angers me too, but Lord Adamos’ own words convinced her of it. As Karstien told me when he asked me to come, she had all the facts and none of the truth. Her hope and her heart were shattered as she tried to save our future with nothing but the darkness and her own despair to give her the strength to do it.”

Vole stood up and stared out the window at the rain. “So, you think he’ll stay now that he knows the truth, that the woman he loves is being hunted by the most dangerous warrior in the kingdom?”

Banth swung his false leg over the side of the bed and stood carefully. “I think he is the best person to take my place.”

Vole looked at him in denial but Banth held up his hand, “Vole, I am already past my time. I have been ready to go into the light for years. I stay for her, to protect the person my lord loved most in the realms. I don’t know if I will make it through another winter, I was surprised to make it through the last one.”

“I’ll go to Lumberton as soon as it’s day.” Vole responded tightly, he swallowed several times but said nothing more as Banth left the room.

Vole stayed staring out into rainy night, thinking about all he owed the oracle who slept in the next room, completely unaware of who she really was. It grieved Vole that she didn’t remember her own great love story or her role in his. He and Meara had eleven children, forty-two grandchildren, and seventy-six great-grandchildren all raised in the ways of the Mazoni warriors. His heart ached every day since Meara passed away. He hoped that Fleur could love again, if she could then, just maybe, so could he.

Vole jogged to Lumberton at first light. He missed running through the forest, but he loved being at sea more. He arrived at the Whispering Woods and was surprised to see Nick unlocking the door.

“Hello, cousin Vole,” Nick greeted him happily.

“Hey Nick, where’s Rieth?” Vole asked casually as if he already knew the woodsmith.

“Oh, he had to go to Aetheria for some commission. I’m running his shop like a real shopkeeper on commission for all I sell. He left a message to be delivered to Banth and Staci if they came. Are you going back to Soldiers Cove or Brightwater?” Nick asked, he sounded so excited to be working like an adult.

“I just came from the Cove. I can take the message back with me. Do you know if he has any sea creatures? Yuli went on and on about his carvings, I came to get one.” Vole was amazed at the intricately detailed carvings Nick showed him and picked out a carving of two seahorses and coral made of orange wood.

He headed over to see Vela. His cousin hugged him sadly when he showed her his purchase. “You’re still collecting corals for Meara?”

Vole shrugged, “I can’t help it, I did it for so long.” He drank the cup of tea she offered. “So, tell me about this woodsmith, I tried to meet him but he’s gone again.”

She turned the sculpture in her hand then wrapped it carefully and put it back in its waterproof box. “Rieth is very talented, as you can see. We’ve never had a first-year crafter do so well.”

“And as a Mazoni, what do you think of him?”

Vela inhaled slowly, “At first, I suspected he was Lord Yurieth himself, the resemblance is uncanny, and he does have some forester magic but then there were sighting of the Huntsman on three other worlds while Rieth was here with no way to leave. He isn’t aloof or cold like Lord Yurieth was during the war. As for the resemblance, Rieth told me his father did not know who his father was when I asked about where his magic came from. His grandmother had been a servant in the House of Adamos until Lord Adamos was joined to Lady Yllumina when Riles was an infant. Considering what we know of that time, it was very possible that Riles was a son of one of the Lords of Adamos, and Rieth and his brother Brie’s genetics prove it true. Asha illegally checked their genetics against the heritage database, they both have recessive trait markers of a high house of Adamos and are cousins.”

Vole raised an eyebrow to his cousin, who confessed, “Yes, I carried their used cutlery and cups to the master healer through the portals after feeding them one night so Asha could run their genetics without proper court paperwork. Nevin wanted to kill them both, but I believe in verifying guilt before I murder someone. Now, you can ship out without worry because we already did the dirty work.”

“Well, since you’ll be the one in the King’s prison, I’ll just sail into the sunset.”

“You are no longer my family.”

Vole laughed at her tart statement. As they had a pleasant brunch, Vela told him about his nieces.

After Vole left to return to Soldiers Cove, Vela went to the public comm station and sent a message to the Master Healer’s private address.

’My lady,

Hoping for hope begins as you instructed.

The captain has been diverted.

M V’