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Need.
"What in - " Brendell's arms pinwheeled madly as he fought to regain his footing. "Blood and fire! Where are we?"
Mai caught herself on the rough truck of a tree to avoid tumbling down the uneven slope. The forest covered the hill they seemed to have arrived on. "You didn't want to come here? I thought you were good at this!"
"And I thought the Paladin wouldn't be a whiner," he grumbled. "I'm still pretty new at this."
"I'm not a whiner." Mai extended her hand. "Here. I didn't mean to get angry."
"It's okay. Besides," he added as he pulled himself up. "I think I've got the hang of it now." He stared around the mountainous vista, worry wrinkling his brow. "Well, this isn't my parents' hut. That's for sure."
"I'd almost say it was North Manthrin, but I've never heard of mountains with glass pebbles." Mai planted her hand on her hip and glared at the strange landscape as if it could provide answers. "Now that we're here, we may as well figure out what came after me."
"Mai?!"
She spun around, nearly sending herself spilling onto her rear end. "Wat?! What in the Light are you doing here?"
The sun-haired shepherd smirked. "I wanted to find you, so I did." He eyed Brendell distrustfully. "Who's he?"
"A friend." Mai hugged Wat as best her wound allowed. "You shouldn't have tried this. You could've gotten yourself killed."
"Tamla didn't want me to, but..." His shrug made it clear what he thought of Tamla's opinion. "Come on. Maybe I can get you out of here."
She shook her head. Wat still did not understand. He could not shield her anymore. "I'm not leaving. Not until I stop whatever brought me here." She saw the protest in his eyes and kept on before he could say otherwise. "If we can come to this place, so can other people. I won't let them get hurt because of me."
"But - "
"She's right." Brendell sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it. You know your way around the Dreaming?" he asked Wat.
"It's easy to figure out." Wat stepped forward as if to place himself between Mai and Brendell, but she planted herself between them. She did not want to hurt her friend. Truly she did not. But how was she supposed to face the Dark One if she needed others to hide behind?
Maybe that was why she had been taken here. Maybe that was the lesson she was supposed to learn. "Where do you want him to take us?" she asked.
"Where the creature is," Brendell answered simply.
"No. Not until we have a plan." She settled herself on a bulging tree root and dug a glassy pebble out of the dirt. "Don't look at me like that. If we don't know where we are, then this creature probably doesn't, either. We're safer here than we would be if we rushed in."
There is no safety. Not while you breath.
I was wondering where you got to. Mai shoved the Warrior back with practiced ease and concentrated on the task at hand. "All three of us can channel. Two of us will Link and destroy this thing. The third will be backup."
"We're men. We can't Link to each other," Brendell pointed out with a nod to Wat. "And you're wounded, Mai."
"I'm also the Paladin." Mai smiled tightly. "It's time to make that count for something."
***
"You rescued the Paladin." Elza shook her head. "Is there a B on your face too? For Bloody Crazy?"
Per glared at her. "The Paladin is alive, girl. She is a female channeler, just like the Queen Pretender said she would be. That crazy fool did more than save your life. She was the only one who really understood what all the prophecies and rantings meant." He gave her a hard look. "How many Pretenders have there been since the last Age?"
"Six," Elza answered automatically. "Five men and Morgaen Dalor. That's why she's called the Queen Pretender." She emphasized the word carefully, just to make it clear that she understood what he was saying. "So Dalor was right. What's that have to do with anything?"
"The A'sh'man hunted her down brutally. They murdered her father and her brothers and sisters - everyone but her mother, I think, and then only because the poor woman took refuge with the Order. They didn't do that to any of the male Pretenders - and don't tell me it was a different time. Kristof Vokdur lived only ten years before Dalor."
"The A'sh'man knew the Paladin would be a woman?" The very idea chilled Elza to the bone. "But their oath - "
"Everyone knows what happened when the Worldbreaker revealed himself. The A'sh'man knew what the Paladin would be - or the M'Hael did, anyway. Why tell the world their savior was a female channeler? Why undermine what sway the Black Tower held over the Order and its Sisters?"
"And here I thought the Black Tower was pure," Elza said bitterly. "You were telling me about the real Paladin. And those brands."
"Yes. I was." Per sighed and stared off into the distance. "I was a Brother once - a channeler working for the Order in Karfel. A noblewoman came to me about fifteen years ago, begging for help. She said she had been warned in a dream that her two daughters would be killed before their fifth birthdays unless they were hidden. One of them was about two years old; the other was no older than an infant. And the oldest had the Worldbreaker's mark on her cheek." He tapped the mark drawn in the dirt. "I gave the older girl to a former Brother named DeShellay. I don't think he wanted to take her, but I bribed him until he agreed to watch her. The younger girl I gave to a trader friend and her husband."
"And then the demons came after you?"
Per laughed hoarsely. "No. The girls' brother was a new member of the Order. He wanted his sisters back and when I refused, he denounced me as a Shadowed and a heretic. I lost everything and was forced to work as a guard so all would know of my humiliation. But as I said, I can channel. The wards I put on the girls were to hide them until they began to touch idar. As far as I know, their brother never found them."
Elza smiled. "You're nicer than you let on, Per Connley. And I'll give you your revenge. Hand me quill and parchment and I'll write a treatise on him for the entire world to see."
"You already did."
She blinked. "What are you - "
And suddenly the pieces fell into place. "Imperion is the Paladin's brother?!"
Per nodded woodenly. "Elador, Mayrelle, and Lenora Imperion. One is a wicked man, one is the Light's champion, and one is dead for all I know." He looked at her and she found herself shrinking back from the light in his eyes. "You thought you were the enemy of the Order before? Now Imperion will see you rot on the slopes of Shagul."
Light and Creation. Elza hugged her knees to her chin and stared down at Brendell - at the boy who claimed to see the Paladin in his dreams. Mayrelle Imperion. Mayrelle DeShellay, perhaps. Guard her, 'cousin'. Guard her from her own flesh and blood.
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