and a hard cheese or two. Someone should grab it.” The innkeeper then stepped out the door.
Marc and Pantros gathered the food sacks and headed out to the carriage. The prince’s drivers had headed back towards Fork with the Inn’s staff, but David had claimed he could handle the team of horses and teach some of the others to do so as well. Moments later they were headed southwest on the Abvian Highway,
CHAPTER 21: KEHET
The pond reflected the stars and the occasional fiery explosion. Heather sat beside Kehet in his human form. She was concentrating, trying to manipulate the shapes of the blasts of flame. Jonah had produced a book from somewhere in the camp that contained spells for Wizards. According to Heather, the spells could be used verbatim for specific effects, but by taking bits and pieces from each of them, she could produce far more variations of effects.
She had spent the morning practicing throwing balls of fire that would hit a target and splash like they were made of liquid. The afternoon had been spent causing explosions at a distance. She’d managed to get the explosions to radiate in three prongs from the center, but, so far, could only do three equally spaced prongs of flame.
“It’s unfair that I can’t ride you in your other form,” she said, idly bouncing a tiny ball of flame in her palm. “I was a virgin when I first met you, which should count for something. You really don’t understand how much I wish I could ride a Unicorn, specifically you.”
Kehet didn’t want to go into the same argument again, especially not when she was wielding her magic. It’s not like they hadn’t tried. She’d just slipped right off every time. “I wish the same thing,” he said. A few of the times he’d tried explaining how he couldn’t control the rules, but he was unable to say why because he didn’t know. It became more difficult when she brought up that he was a god. This time he chose to simply be sympathetic.
He still didn’t feel like a god. He’d become comfortable with being the ruler of a species that didn’t really insist on recognizing any formalities regarding his position. He didn’t seem to have a whole lot of day to day responsibilities as Prince of the Unicorns. Among the Gypsies the bows had devolved to dignified nods as he approached people. The nods make him far less uncomfortable.
A sharp whistle and thud startled Kehet and Heather. A thick arrow had struck the ground just inches from Heather. The ball of fire in her hand fell to the ground, burning a thin trail as it rolled down the hill into the pond. Kehet picked up his sword and stood, looking for the source of the attack. Heather ran for the trees, back towards camp.
Three extremely ugly people emerged from the forest, blocking her. Two carried oddly curved swords and steel shields. One held a two handed axe. They were Vulak, surmised Kehet. He charged over to intercept the three before they could get to Heather. He swung wildly trying to cause them to step away. It worked on the Vulak with the axe and one of those with the shields, but the other stepped towards him, catching Kehet in the shoulder. Kehet was able to roll with the hit, but not enough to stop it from biting deep.
Kehet grabbed that Vulak’s sword arm and yanked him off balance. With a twist of his blade and a tug, Kehet pulled the attacker onto his sword then used both hands to swing the Vulak away, off the blade. Kehet then attacked the Vulak with the axe, cutting furiously, forcing the Vulak to block constantly. A splash of flame to Kehet’s left told him Heather was throwing fire at the other Vulak. Kehet knocked the axe free of one of the Vulak’s hands, leaving an opening for his next strike which cut deep into the Vulak’s chest. It fell to the ground gasping and spitting blood.
The last Vulak was retreating towards the forest with his shield between himself and Heather’s continuous onslaught of fiery balls. Its shield glowed bright yellow and was bending around his arm with each ball that bounced from it. The Vulak screamed and threw his shield to the ground and sprinted back into the forest. Heather stopped her attack when the Vulak turned away.
“We should get back to camp,” Kehet said.
“Your arm!” Heather said, “Are you okay?”
“Well, it hurts like hell,” Kehet said. “I can move it. It hurts to move it, but I can do it. We should get back and then worry about the wound.”
“I could cauterize it,” Heather said, her voice lilting with humor.
Kehet laughed. “I’ll heal, possibly before we reach camp.”
“Now would be one of those times it would be really handy if I could ride you,” Heather said.
Kehet agreed. “I wish I understood enough about this to know if and how to change such silly rules.” It was more of a fact than a rule. Earlier they’d even tried to tie her on but it didn’t help. The ropes either came untied or slid off as well. She could sit on him as long as he didn’t move, but riding was impossible.
They jogged back to the camp of the Wandering Rose to find the camp already under attack. Only the Gypsies were not fighting back. All of the Gypsies simply sat in the dining clearing as a couple dozen Vulak ran around them. The Vulak ignored the sitting Gypsies and crowded around a person by the fire pit. Kehet couldn’t tell who.
A Vulak noticed them and screamed, pointing their direction. Several others joined that one and headed towards them.
As soon as they did, Heather said, “I’m going to try something different. I hope this works.” She said a brief chant and her forearms became covered in flame. She pointed her arm towards a Vulak a dozen paces away and the flames arced outward, spraying the oncoming attacker. The Vulak dropped. Heather picked new targets and three others fell in a similar manner. The rest of the Vulak stopped, keeping their distance from Heather. Several rushed to join the others by the fire pit.
Diten stood from where she’d been sitting and approached Kehet and Heather. The Vulak stepped out of her way, but made no action to stop or harm her.
“There are archers among them,” she said when she got close. “And Jonah is among the best in the world with his sword, but he won’t last forever against this many.” She nodded towards the fire pit.
“Then we should go help him,” Kehet said.
“You and Heather, yes.” Diten said. “I don’t participate in combat and combat doesn’t participate with me. It’s a restriction and benefit of my role with my goddess. I should be able to heal minor injuries after the fight, so don’t get hurt too badly.”
Heather’s toe nudged Kehet’s boot and she said, “Jonah?”
“Let’s go!” Kehet said then ran towards the fire pit.
“Archers!” Heather said. She pointed to several Vulak around the clearing who were readying bows. “They’re too far for this spell.”
“I’ll get them,” Kehet said. He touched his ring and imagined changing to his Unicorn form mid-stride. It worked. He charged the closest archer and impaled it on his horn. He hadn’t thought it through and it took a bit of effort to shake the Vulak off.
Across the clearing another had an arrow nocked and began drawing back his bow. With his speed, Kehet was able to get there before the Vulak finished the draw-back. This time he just knocked the Vulak aside with his shoulder then kicked him with a hind leg as he passed.
The other archers were on the ground, dead or dying within seconds. By the time Kehet was back at Heather’s side, the Vulak were all screaming the same word. By their scurrying, Kehet guessed the word meant ‘retreat’.
They rushed over to where Jonah stood alone by the fire pit. From Diten’s explanation and the time that had passed, Kehet had expected to find him bleeding from several wounds and surrounded by Vulak bodies. Jonah was unhurt and there were no bodies near him
“You don’t kill either?” Kehet asked after reassuming his human form.
“I have no qualms with killing,” Jonah said. “But, that wouldn’t have been the prudent course for that situation.”
“You were surrounded,” Kehet said. “Shouldn’t you have been thinning their numbers?”
“I’d challenged one of their champions to single-combat,” Jonah said. “I wasn’t going to win a fight against
