Chapter 10
Will sighed deeply and sank down on the mat by the fire. He took the cup of tea Sernan offered him and sipped on it while his thoughts wandered aimlessly.
Last night's deep and intense meditation had put his mind in a very calm state after the sudden flood of emotions the prince's reprimanding of him had caused, and ever since this morning he'd had to focus every bit of attention on the prince and the highlanders. Now when the evening neared, he suddenly felt very tired. He was glad he'd been able to escape the commander's tent and the council, leaving Aron and Piotry to deal with both prince and commanders.
Neither Thomy nor Sernan tried to make Will answer any of the questions they must've had, or involve him in their quiet conversation unless he wanted to, and for this simple courtesy he was grateful.
~You did good, Will.~ Ashiná's warm voice was a welcome sound in his mind, she had been absent ever since the day before when Will and the prince had come at odds with each other.
~Thank you,~ he sighed, relieved she was back. ~Where have you been?~
~I'm always here, you know that.~
~But you haven't spoken to me for so long.~
~You were upset. And this was one of those times when you had to deal with everything on your own.~
~I see. Still, I'm glad you're back.~
~Me too, Will.~
He crawled into his and Piotry's tent to get ready for bed and realized all his belongings were still in Kell's tent. He considered for a moment to go there and get them, but decided he was too tired. He borrowed one of Piotry's blankets instead and rolled into it. Minutes later he was fast asleep.
* * * * * * * *
The sun had barely risen over the horizon when the sound of running feet woke him up and then Thomy's curly, blond head appeared in the open tent flap. "The prince needs you at his tent, Will."
Will blinked to wake up properly and when he looked up to ask Thomy what for, he had already gone. Will sat up to search out his clothes and saw his knapsack neatly packed at his feet. Piotry must've taken it with him when he came back last night after the council.
~No, actually the prince brought it himself.~
~He did?~ That was almost… comforting. Since his grey coat and breeches had been ruined when he was shot he had no other choice but to put on the plain tunic and breeches he had worn for the past few days.
~He sat watching you sleeping for a while.~
Will stopped with a boot in his hand, his toes lined up to the bootleg. ~He did? Why didn't he wake me?~
~Because he's considerate of your health. He knows you need the rest.~
~Still, I wouldn't mind. He could've said goodnight at least.~ Will pulled on the boot and combed his fingers quickly through his hair before he scrambled out of the tent.
He hurried through camp and from a distance he could see a crowd gathering in front of the commanders' tents. Even without the grey color, Will didn't have to do more than make his presence known to the men in the outer ring of the crowd before his name passed from mouth to mouth, with guarded respect or hesitant astonishment, and they all knew he was there. Bodies moved aside to let him through.
He saw the prince standing there with a fierce look on his face and his arms tensely crossed over his chest. His whole posture spoke of annoyance and not a little bit of wariness. The sword belt was wrapped around the waist of his dark blue tunic and the fingers of a hand flexed as if he considered drawing the weapon. He saw Will approach but his expression didn't ease. The commanders and the other sorcerers stood not far away and they too were quiet and grimfaced.
Then Will understood why when his eyes fell on Roan's and Poe's crouching figures. Both highlanders were armed with tall spears and long knives in their belts. And there was a woman with them. She sat silent and still behind them with her eyes roaming restlessly across the soldiers' faces around them, as if she thought they would attack any moment. She had a shawl wrapped over her hair and pulled down deeply over her forehead as if to shield her from the strangers' gazes. She held a bundle of something in the crook of her arm, but Will couldn't see what it was for the cloak that covered her from neck to heel.
Will stopped in front of the prince and bowed respectfully. "You sent for me, my prince?"
"Yes. These highlanders refuse to speak with me unless you pass their test first." The tone of his voice suggested that he thought it absurd that of one of his summoned sorcerers had to endure a test, as if the prince would employ simple wizards and charlatans. Or perhaps it was because he wasn't the one put to the test, but rather ignored for one of his subjects. Kell gestured sharply to Roan and Poe.
Roan rose smoothly to his feet. He looked the prince straight in the eye without any of the proper respect nor any anxiety at standing in front of a royal body; he was a free man now, no longer a prisoner in the prince's camp.
"Will," Roan said and turned to him. "You were the first to show us kindness and for that we honor you. But you fooled us when you never told us you were the sorcerer who cost us so many lives."
Will suddenly felt his heart shrink and his palms grow sweaty and cold. "I'm sorry, Roan. I never meant to lie to you and I never meant to hurt you. But I acted then out of different beliefs, we did not yet know you weren't our true enemy."
Roan regarded him quietly for a moment. "Yes, everythin' changed when you found our families." He gestured for the woman and she hesitatingly stepped forward. "This is Aleeze and her son. He was born in the highlands before we were driven away from our home."
Will watched as Roan gently pulled back the woman's cloak to uncover a small child's face. Round, blinking, grey eyes peered up from the hiding place of the mother's shoulder and turned to meet Will's. It would've been the most beautiful little boy Will had ever seen if it hadn't been for the large, blossoming red mark that marred the left side of the face.
Men gasped and mumbled around them, someone even made the sign against evil.
Roan urged Aleeze a step towards Will and he saw the frightened look in her eyes.
"What do you want me to do?" he asked quietly, hoping he would be able to do it for he knew whatever trial they had in mind wouldn't be easily overcome and their trust wouldn't come cheap. The woman lowered her eyes and let Roan answer.
"We want you to show us your true intentions and prove to us that we can trust your honesty. This child is ill; we want you to heal him."
Will looked from Roan's steady gaze to Aleeze's uncertain one and the child's, wary but curious about the grownups around him, one small hand grasping the cloth of his mother's cloak. Their eyes told Will nothing he didn't already know. He turned to the prince then and saw the concern and anxiety and the hope that Will could do what the highlanders asked, or it would all be a lost cause. He turned back to Roan.
"There is another sorcerer here that holds much greater skill in healing than I–"
"You," Roan interrupted firmly. "No other."
Will wetted dry lips and looked at the child. He pulled a deep breath and nodded slowly. "Aleeze," he said gently to the woman and her eyes shot up to his face. "Are you afraid of me?"
She hesitated before she answered. "Yes."
"Why?" He dreaded the answer knowing it would hurt even if it wasn't meant to do so.
"You're a sorcerer. You killed so many men." No blame, no condemnation, just plain truth and it wounded more deeply than any word spoken in anger or tears. Will shut his eyes for a moment before he dared meet her gaze again and face the pain she kept within her.
"Will you forgive me, Aleeze?" he asked quietly, not daring to raise his voice or his hope might be heard.
She blinked and turned puzzled, questioning eyes to Roan. He put an encouraging hand on her thin shoulder. "Yes," she whispered then.
Will breathed. "I'll do what I can for your son, Aleeze. Can you put him down for me?"
Another encouraging pat from Roan and she knelt to let the boy down. He stood swaying a bit with his mother's finger in a tight grip and studied Will with open, curious eyes when the sorcerer sat down with his legs folded under him to get on eye level with the child.
Will smiled gently. "Hi. I'm Will. What's your name?"
The boy put a finger in his mouth shyly. "Peero," he said after careful consideration of the young man kneeling in front of him. "'Re you a wizard?" he asked bravely.
Will couldn't help that his smile widened. "Well, yes, I am. Does that frighten you, Peero?"
The boy regarded him for a while with the finger back in his mouth. "No. My gran'pa says wizards're kind 'cause they help the animals in the forest."
"That we do. Will you let me help you, Peero? Your mother tells me you're ill." He held out his arms for the boy.
"Okay." Happily enough the child padded over and helped himself to a seat on his lap.
Will looked more closely at the child; clear, alert eyes and a healthy color to his skin, except for the ugly mark. He wasn't warm or the joints tender when Will prodded them and the burst of shrill laughter when searching fingers came too close to his armpits was the sound of a happy child.
The little boy stilled when Will held him closer and hardly even shuddered when the searching strands of magic flowed into the small body. But Will couldn't find it. He couldn't find anything that would be a sign of illness. Not even the mark on Peero's face was anything else than a mark.
Will pulled out of Peero's innards and turned an intense gaze still vibrant with magic to the boy's mother. She bravely met his eyes for a few moments before she no longer could endure them and she ducked her head. But not before Will had seen what he was looking for.
He rose to his feet with a stern look on his face and the boy still in his arms. He turned to Roan. "I'm sorry, I cannot heal this child."
There were wordless, surprised exclamations from the crowd and a restless rustling of bodies. The prince too couldn't restrain his confusion.
"Will!" Kell's voice sounded almost frightened. He held Will in such high regard and now he had suddenly let the prince down. Will ignored the plea hidden in Kell's voice and carried on.
"I cannot heal him because he's not ill. This was truly all a test and a trick. Though I fail to see how it can tell you anything about my true intentions or honesty."
Roan stood on widely planted feet with one large hand around his spear and the other on Aleeze's shoulder, Poe looked steadily at Will with a quirk to his thin lips. Roan met Will's gaze unflinchingly and then inclined his head in respect.
"You passed the test, master sorcerer."
Will didn't have to look at the prince to know he was frowning in bewilderment. Many of the men around them had the same expression on their faces, only the sorcerers seemed unsurprised, or otherwise they hid it well.
"Any other sorcerer with intentions only to see to his own benefit would've tried to heal the boy and only harmed him instead," Roan said. "Anything to do what we asked for to gain our trust. But you sought out the truth and didn't try to deceive us."
Will could understand the highlanders' caution when it came to trust and the test with the boy had been a clever one, though they had put a lot at risk if Will hadn't been the person he was. Will looked at Peero who smiled at him from his perch on his arm, one small hand knotted in Will's tunic.
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" He knew searching strands could be an uncomfortable experience.
"No, it tickled."
"Do you want to go back to your mother now?"
Peero giggled. "No, I wanna stay wit' you, you're funny."
Will didn't quite know how to take that, but decided it to be a harmless compliment. He looked at Aleeze and she smiled softly and inclined her head at him as Roan had. Then she produced a black root from somewhere in her clothes and gave it to Peero, to the child's delight.
"Well done, Will." The prince had come up to them and he gave Will an appreciative look and a brush of fingers to his hip that Will hoped no one else saw. "Will you speak with me now?" Kell asked the highlanders, his chin raised and his look firm.
"Yes, now we set the terms for this treaty." Roan gave the prince the same unflinching look and Will had to bite his tongue not to smile at the silly expression that passed over Kell's face.
* * * * * * * *
The discussion between the commanders and the highlanders had been intense and heated from time to time, and Will had thought the prince would explode in a fit of fury more than once when not so polite words were exchanged.
Will sat on a folded cloak on the ground in the back of the large tent with the sleeping Peero in his lap. The boy had fallen asleep after listening to the grownups' bickering for almost two hours and Will wished he could do the same. His fingers brushed absently over the child's face and the red mark. He had given that some serious thought. Surely the mark could be removed or altered to look like normal skin. It was all about pigmentation, right? He made sure to remember to talk to Piotry about it.
He raised his eyes and they fell on the prince's tired face. Kell sat heavily in his tall-backed chair with thumb and forefinger pinched over the bridge of his nose and his eyes squeezed shut. He was suffering from a headache, Will could tell. Who wouldn't be with so much weighing on his shoulders.
Roan was again cursing at the commanders across the table, the candle flames flickered when his large fist stirred the air around them. Will heard Aleeze sigh deeply by the highlander's side and then she put a hand on his muscled arm. The man fell silent with a questioning look at her. After listening to the men's dark, booming voices for so long, hearing her soft, clear tone was like seeing rain fall in the desert.
"Please, Roan. You mustn't wish ill on them. They do want to help us and you must let them."
The prince looked up then. "Finally a voice of reason." He made sure his commanders all saw the reproachful look he sent their way. "Perhaps you and I shall continue this on our own, lady?"
Aleeze actually blushed and lowered her eyes shyly. "Not a lady, my prince. Just an ordinary woman. But I alone cannot decide my people's fate."
Kell nodded understanding. "Then I'll send my men outside and we'll be rid of one source of disturbance."
New protests broke out and Kell silenced them with a look that clearly said he'd had enough of this. He demanded obedience and respect, and knew he would get it, if grudgingly in this case. Rión was the first to leave, although he made it very clear what he thought of it, leaving his liege alone with the highlanders, without any support or advise in the matter.
"You keep an eye on him, sorcerer," he hissed as he passed Will. "You at least seem to have a brain in that head of yours."
Will smiled reassuringly at Rión and knew Kell had heard every word, judging by the venomous look the prince shot at the high commander's back.
Though Roan seemed to be in charge among the highlanders it was Aleeze who in the end made all the decisions. After much skillful maneuvering and reasoning, she and Kell eventually agreed on five years of savagely low taxes. The low rate for the lives lost in unwarranted battle, though the paying of taxes as a small, symbolic payment in exchange for the aid they would receive to build up their new home.
After the treaty had been written down in three copies by the prince himself – one to be kept by the highlanders, one for the prince and one to be sent to the king, signed by them all and sealed with the prince's personal seal – Aleeze and Kell sat back and talked about common things, while Roan and Poe both lighted their pipes. It was a relief to have it all over with and the tension drained from the tent with the pipe smoke drifting out the hole in the canvas ceiling.
Evening was falling and Will realized he hadn't had anything proper to eat all day, except for the fruit and bread that had been passed around a few hours ago. Peero stirred in his lap and blinked up at him.
"I want mommy," he whimpered.
"She's right over there," Will murmured gently and helped the boy on the way.
Aleeze caught the sleepy child in her arms and gave Will a grateful look from across the table. He smiled in return.
Knowing the prince could sit for hours when he had found an agreeable companion in conversations, Will decided to make a discrete exit and go find something to eat before he went to bed. According to Aron they were marching back to main camp tomorrow and Will could use all his strength then.
Kell saw him rise and gestured for him to wait. Will stood obediently at the tent flap while they all rose. Peero was again asleep in his mother's arms.
"I cannot let you go back through the woods in the dark, Roan," the prince was saying. "You'll be eaten by a bear and then who'll tell your people what we decided here today?"
"No bear eats a highlander," Roan replied and straightened to his full height. "Not without payin' for it."
"I am only concerned for your safety; you have a woman and child with you. The bears here are quite dangerous, you know."
"Yes, I've seen them," Poe broke in. "Ferocious little beasts. Knee high, right?"
Kell blinked at him for a moment and then broke out in laughter when he realized Poe was making a jest. The highlanders smiled and exchanged glances between each other.
Will was pleased with how Kell had handled the situation today. He had a way to diffuse the tension and make people do what he wanted them to, when his temper didn't get the better of him. It was the smile, Will decided; it could warm ice and dazzle even the most cunning mind. That and the eyes that just seemed to see right down to your soul if you let them.
Roan agreed to stay the night but only if it was in the sorcerers' camp where Will would be. He expressed a trust in the young sorcerer that warmed Will's heart. Kell followed them there and Will caught the prince giving him a glance from time to time, sly, inviting or down right stripping looks that made Will blush to the top of his ears. He fell back a step to save himself the trouble of having to explain to the highlanders why he looked like he had been in the sun too long.
The sorcerers were still awake and sitting by the fire. Piotry was crushing some herb in a mortar and Aron and the brothers were talking quietly while Sernan and Thomy twined a length of leather cord between them. Aron welcomed them and room was made for them around the fire. He made sure they all got a fair share of the bread and jam he had saved and passed his flask of sweet spirits around. Only Aleeze and Will declined a taste and kept to water. Will didn't notice the narrow, scrutinizing look Aron gave him out of the corner of his eye.
The prince made himself comfortable next to Will without making it look like he was trying to get too close, which he didn't have to feign, there wasn't enough room around the fire to allow much personal space.
"Your headache seems better, my prince," Will said quietly when Roan and Poe had fallen into a discussion with the sorcerers about healing herbs and mixtures, which the highlanders seemed surprisingly adept at.
"It is, Will. It only bothers me when I have a lot on my mind."
"Tell me next time and perhaps I can ease it for you."
Kell looked levelly at him and Will's heart beat faster for it. "I can think of a few other aches you can ease for me, sorcerer." Kell's voice was low and husky and his lips very close to Will's ear. If they had been alone right then Will would've thrown himself at the prince, proper or not, and the heat in those blue eyes told him Kell would've welcomed him with open arms.
Aleeze declared that it was time for her to put Peero to bed, although the boy seemed quite content sleeping in his mother's lap. Will remembered the mark then.
"Piotry, can I have a word with you?"
The redheaded sorcerer looked up from his pouch of herbs and got to his feet. They went a few steps away and Piotry was more than a little curious when Will began to explain what he had been thinking earlier.
"It's possible," Piotry said slowly as he contemplated the idea. "Not to remove it perhaps, but to alter its color." He tapped his bottom lip with the tip of a finger. "I'm willing to give it a try."
"Tomorrow, then. Before we break camp."
"Why not now?"
"You've had one too many tastes of Aron's spirits to use magic properly, Piotry," Will reminded helpfully and the other sorcerer blinked.
"I suppose you're right. I do kind of see things a bit blurry," Piotry admitted with a crooked smile.
Will smiled and steered his friend in the right direction as they went back to the others.
Thomy and Sernan had helped the highlanders to set up a temporary tent for the night, and Piotry joined Aron in his tent before Will realized what was happening. The prince had flung back the tent flap and was rummaging around among Will's blankets.
"My prince?" Will peered in. "Aren't you returning to your own tent?"
Kell chuckled quietly. "I'm too drunk to walk that far in a straight line and it's too late, the sun would probably be up by the time I got there."
Now, that was a lie and Will knew it, the prince hadn't had that much to drink. His eyebrows drew slightly in speculation, but he crawled into the tent just the same. He hadn't more than let down the flap and sat down to pull off his boots, before he felt a warm mouth against his ear.
"You shouldn't do that," he managed to say after the initial shock. "Or I'll have to turn you into a rat."
"I thought it was a toad, sorcerer?" the prince husked and moved down to kiss Will's neck as his hands pulled up the tunic and slid in under it.
"Yes, well, toads are too disgusting to kiss." Gods, Kell was searching for the lacings of Will's breeches. Instinct made him suck in his stomach when fingers drifted across his bellybutton, and a warm laugh wafted over his skin. "My prince, please. Restrain yourself."
Kell shook his head as he exhaled down the back of Will's neck and it tickled so much Will couldn't help but yelp. "I don't want to; I've 'restrained yourself' all day."
Will twined his fingers with the prince's questing ones to stop the swift undoing of his breeches and actually managed to turn around without falling head first into the prince's chest. But the change in position only made him an easier prey, and Kell seized Will's mouth with his own and pulled him down on the bedrolls to lie on top of Kell. A tongue slipped in and caressed against Will's, twined with it and then lured him to follow when it retreated. The prince's mouth was warm and moist and very hungry, and Will stopped fighting the hands that pulled at his clothes.
His own hands found the clasps of Kell's tunic and swiftly undid them to get at the bared skin underneath. He dipped his head to brush his lips and tongue along that perfect neck, and received a gasp and a shudder when he found a sensitive spot between the collarbones.
"Will," the prince whispered then. His hands had stilled on Will's back. "My head hurts."
He looked up at the prince's face, Kell's eyes were narrow, dark slits, and there was a tension around them. Will moved a hand up to put his fingertips against Kell's temple. Kell closed his eyes and sighed when the healing powers flowed into him.
"Thank you." The prince pulled him closer for a soft kiss and then fell asleep.
Will looked a bit disappointed at the sleeping man under him and sighed. He should've remembered that sleep was a common reaction when a body had been healed, especially in combination with strong drinks. But it was probably just as well. They would be marching a long way tomorrow and he and Piotry had to heal the boy before they left, and it wasn't like his fellow sorcerers and the highlanders weren't sleeping only feet away.
~There are silence wards, Will,~ Ashiná murmured.
~Oh, be quiet. You're not helping. I'm trying to talk myself out of this.~
~Why? It's clear you want it.~
~Yes, but still. We're in a war camp and men have died in the forest around us. It isn't exactly the best circumstances for intimacy.~
~He doesn't seem to mind, though.~
~He is asleep.~
~Not if you wake him. And then there's always the early morning.~
Will scowled and Ashiná chuckled.
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