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Forest

Chapter 20:Ged's God

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Daine didn't wake up. For days she slept like the dead, hardly breathing, barely alive. She slept through the trial, as the Yamani people heard all the evidence against The Rancune. His slaves, freed, were more than happy to condemn their old master for his insanity, cruelty and treachery against the Yamani people and the Gods. The court case lasted for less than a morning, as no-one came forward to defend him against each claim.

His army was disbanded, most of them more than happy to ally with the true Yamani army. His bloodless corpse was thrown without ceremony into the sea, and was crushed to dust by its remorseless embrace. His belongings were burned to ashes, his wealth given to the crown.

She slept through his condemnation, through the priest's chanting as they banished his spirit to the Dark Lord's Hell. Kavan found the freedom he had been willing to kill for in the depths of eternal torment.

She slept through her own trial, as the same priests who damned the mage pardoned her. She would have been touched at how warmly Ilane and Piers spoke of her, and even blushed at how fervent Ged was in his relief that the Hunter God had lifted his rage against her from his eyes.

She never heard Numair's explanation of the events, given to the court in written notes as he refused to leave her side, and read out before the court. The court ladies, great lovers of stories, wept at his heartfelt, loving and logical defence and sent flowers and trinkets to the sleeping girl, dressing in their most dour robes to show their sympathy.

She slept, and never heard the stories of the Gods that were told by the priests. She didn't hear how the statue of the Lord Hunter had been seen crying tears of pity and sorrow while the burned sacrifices refused to turn to ashes in his temple. This, claimed the priests, was surely a sign of his regretting his harsh condemnation of her in the court. Besides, they said, hadn't she suffered enough?

The court agreed, the emperor declaring her innocent of all charges. By exposing the true traitor, he said, she had proved her worth a hundred times over. She had acted with honour, and was officially pardoned.

"And if she ever wakes up, we can tell her this." He added, seeing the expressions on some of the courtier's faces as they pitied the girl who (as they all privately believed) would not wake up, not after suffering such a powerful magical attack.

And so the court waited.

Piers and Ilane had welcomed the two Tortallans back into their house even before they were pardoned, summoning doctors and wise-women to examine the sleeping girl. When these failed to wake her up, they summoned priests, who had the same results.

Court ladies swept by the house unexpectedly, bringing useless herbal remedies they swore would work, and asking to see the "Little Wolf Girl". Ilane refused as politely as she knew how, but they obstinately remained in the house, chattering excitedly to each other in the garden and disturbing the entire household.

Eventually, Numair spoke to Piers, asking him to stop people coming in- it was a nice gesture, but useless. As he said- he doubted even the best healers in the world could do anything. Piers shook his head, but stopped the flow of visitors.

Numair was as nearly as socially oblivious as Daine, staying at her side, sleepless and watchful for any signs of life. He thought about trying to enter her mind magically and waking her up that way, but decided against it- even when the best healers in Tortall tried that, it often led to severe shock. And that was when the person's spirit was simply asleep.

He dreaded to think where Daine's spirit had gone. In desperation, he severed his own spirit several times and searched the spirit plain, but couldn't see her. She had gone somewhere else, where he couldn't follow her. Groaning, he opened his eyes.

"Any luck?"

Numair jumped and glared at Ged Shurin, who was sitting near the doorway. The Wolf spread his hands in apology. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you jump. I thought you knew I was here."

"No." Numair croaked, pouring himself a glass of water. "How long have you been there?"

"About an hour." Ged hesitated, then folded his arms again and relaxed into the chair. "And what am I doing here, you ask?"

Numair drained the glass and glanced at Daine, still and oblivious, one hand folded under her head as if she were simply asleep. "I don't care. Get out."

"You know that Lord and Lady Mindelan are scared of you?" Ged asked quietly, his voice serious. Numair blinked at him. "And now I have your full attention, I wanted to talk to you about Lord Hunter."

Numair's expression darkened. "You mean that floating firework?"

"I sympathise with your plight, but insult my God again and you will suffer." Ged snapped, standing up. Numair bowed his head in weary apology, soothing the warrior slightly. The Wolf walked over to the bed and looked down at Daine, pity on his face.

"I told her she was beautiful, and she didn't believe me." He said quietly, "But I guess... she would believe you if you told her the moon was green."

Numair smiled slightly in self-mockery, his eyes warning the other man away. "She might, if she could hear me, but I can't find her. I've looked everywhere, and she just isn't there. The moon might very well be green by the time she comes back." He stood up, wincing as his legs cramped after the long time of stillness. "What was this message about Lord Hunter?"

"I don't know. He came to me in my dream, and told me to come and speak to you, but I don't know..." Ged's voice suddenly tailed off. A soft golden light surrounded his body, completely different from the violent glare that had filled the hall before. Numair gaped as the shadow within the light changed again, becoming taller and more pronounced. Strange, branchlike horns grew from his head, and a drawn bow appeared in his right hand. Seeing the weapon, remembering the God's attitude from before, he pushed himself between Daine and the Hunter, holding out his arms to shield her.

"What good do you think that will do?" The God asked, amusement in his voice. Numair tentatively put his arms down and made a gesture of respect.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I won't let you kill her." He said, his voice a lot stronger than he felt. The god scratched his head in apparent perplexity, his features still shrouded by the glare of light.

"You think you could face down a God, puny mage who does not sleep? It's lucky for you that I did not come here to fight, isn't it? You're so...very...tired."

Numair caught himself yawning- not surprising, he hadn't really slept in days, but shook off the weariness. The God watched him, the amusement fading in his face as his features became more clear. Numair forced himself to look directly into the God's face.

"Why are you here, then?" He asked, not moving. The God made an awkward gesture and broke the stillness himself, sitting down cross-legged on the floor as if he wasn't used to being indoors.

"Sometimes... not often, mark you, but sometimes... Gods make mistakes." He growled, his voice sounding strangely henpecked. "I came to apologise, and to try and make up for my mistake.

"She found the true traitor, after all. I was angry when I found out what she had done, because I didn't understand why she had done it. So I reacted rather..."

"You tried to kill her." Numair said bluntly, not liking the God's reminding of him of his own emotions- they were so similar. "I was angry with her too, but I didn't try to..."

"I reacted rather extremely, yes." The God acquiesced, giving the mage a warning glance. "I also happen to know that she would be safer in the Dark God's realms than she is now. I do think about such things, you know." He added grandly.

"You know where she is?" Numair gasped. The God stood up and glared at him, the universe dancing in his glowing eyes.

"I AM A GOD!" he roared. "How long is it going to take you to work that out?"

Numair gulped and bowed, trying to hide the impatience in his voice as he asked again, "So, where is she, your Lordship?"

The God ignored him sulkily and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed, next to the sleeping girl. Despite his anger, his hand was surprisingly careful as he brushed a stray strand of hair away from her forehead, resting the tips of his fingers lightly on her temples. His eyes closed as if he read images from inside his own eyelids. When he opened his eyes and looked at Numair, his expression was worried.

"She's very sick. The demons are angry." He said slowly, not taking his hand from her forehead. "She won't be able to find the way back on her own. She's lost, and alone, and tired, and frightened." His eyes were sorrowful as he looked back down at Daine. "She's trapped in Chaos."

"Can't you bring her back?" Numair asked, and then wished he hadn't. The God's expression became even more unhappy.

"She won't recognise me. She won't trust me."

"But... aren't you her patron God, or something?" Numair replied, perplexed. Usually the Gods wouldn't take an interest in any but their own chosen few. The God shook his head impatiently, more like a deer than an irritated human.

"No. I'm her father." He stood up and brushed off his hands, seemingly unaware of the enormity of what he'd just said. "Right, there's nothing for it, I'll have to send you after her."

Numair was choking on the thousand and one questions he still hadn't asked when the God placed a velveteen hand on his head, sending a wave of overpowering sleep through him.

He passed into the world of the dreamers.

And...

-We are running.-

He opened his eyes into darkness, the true black of sleep and death, as comforting as it was frightening. He walked through the realm as strange shapes swirled around him, flying, running, singing...

-The darkness has no air, but streams of night that glide past as we run. They tangle in our hair, dragging us back, but it doesn't matter. We aren't trying to reach anywhere, we're just running.-

"You're the runners?" He asked them, stopping in his tracks. The grey forms swirled peacefully around his head, myriads of expressionless eyes watching him. As one, they nodded, then span away.

"Wait!"

They stopped, then sped back in the blink of an eye.

"Is this...the realm of chaos?" He asked hesitantly. Again, they nodded. He smiled grimly. "Is Daine here?"

-We do not know.-

"What do you mean by that?" He yelled as they sped away again.

-We are searching for the traitor host. We have lost our eyes and are blind. She may be here, she may not. We are still searching.-

Eyes... they must mean the necklace. Or maybe the Rancune. The mage thought, then checked himself. It doesn't matter, as long as they haven't found her yet.

He picked a direction at random and began running along it, not surprised when his feet barely touched the ground. Years of magical training had given him greater understanding of the realms than his student- even so, he had no real way of searching. He trusted in the God's confidence that he could find her, trusted his instincts, and ran.

He ran for what seemed like years through a landscape that never changed. The smooth dark ground turned from stone to sand, each as black and featureless as the sky, only discernable by their texture. The sand turned to dust.

And suddenly... there she was. A shape, lit by a sun that wasn't there, lying on the ground. She looked like she was asleep. Hardly breathing, he ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder, trying to wake up this Daine when he couldn't reach the one in the mortal realms.

For a moment she didn't stir, then her eyes flew open. Recognition flooded her features as she looked up into his eyes, followed by horror.

"No, no! Get away from me!" She screamed, climbing to her feet and backing away. He raised his hands in what he hoped was a calming way and walked towards her shade.

"Daine, it's me!"

"No, you mustn't! It isn't fair!" She kept backing away, on the verge of running. "It's Kavan you want! He isn't here! Leave me alone!"

"Kavan's dead, Daine... you killed him, remember?" Numair said, perplexed. Daine swallowed and stopped, shaking her head.

"I didn't mean to... he was trying to kill me." She held out her hands in a gesture of helpless apology. "Why are you angry at me? He betrayed you! Why didn't you do something?"

"I tried. I was too late. I'm so sorry..." He started, confused at her choice of words, but she was shaking her head again.

"I don't believe anything you say." She whispered, and ran away into the darkness. Numair cursed and ran after her.

"Wait! Who on earth do you think I am?" He yelled after her. She stopped after a few hundred metres, not at his yell, but as if she'd seen something else to run from. She tried to run back in the other direction, and then stopped uncertainly, looking from side to side.

Numair looked up at what else she was running from, and froze. The most horrible being he had ever seen was creeping rapidly towards them on a mixture of claws, paws and pincers, a horrible gurgling noise emerging from it's throat. Despite it's size and speed it was obviously unwell, stopping every few yard to shiver or recover it's breath.

Daine stood to one side, trying to take both Numair and Scul in without having to turn her head, her hands clenched at her sides. Terror filled her eyes- not for herself, Numair realised, but for something else...

"You want to know something funny, trespassing mage?" The creature asked Numair, slithering closer and ignoring the girl. "She doesn't know which one of us is which." It gurgled a death rattle of a laugh and inched closer. "It adds an element of...chaos to this showdown, don't you think?"

"You mean I look like you?" The mage asked in disgust. The creature's claws clicked loudly as it laughed again.

"No! We both look like you." The creature shivered until it was half the size, a human reflection of the man in front of it. Numair took a step back, horror on his face.

"It's a disgusting form, don't you agree? So prohibitive." Scul grimaced at a hand as he flexed his fist. Seeing Numair's expression, he looked askance at Daine and smirked, the emotion warped on his new face. "But it's so strangely compelling, when used on the right people."

"You're dying. Your host is dead." Numair said bluntly, ignoring the jibe. "All I have to do is wait for you to die."

Scul shrugged and turned away. "Fair enough. You might want to know that I'm about as ill as your friend, here. In fact, you might say our condition's exactly the same. If you're prepared to let me die like that, then you must be prepared to let her die with me. Good for you."

Numair clenched his fists, rage filling his heart. Without a warning, he struck out at his clone with a burst of magic- pure energy that lit a blinding streak in the darkness. Scul laughed as he dodged and responded with an identical attack, then blocked the counter.

Daine ran forward, forcing her legs to take her near the magic. The two identical Numairs battled with identical rage, identical expressions on their faces, with their words completely silent to her ears. Helplessly, she looked from one to the other. They were evenly matched. They would wipe each other out before she could decide which was which. Neither seemed to see her.

Scul's voice rang mockingly in her ears. You'll have to make a choice sooner or later. I'm quite happy to let this carry on for all eternity.

One of the Numairs charged up an attack. For the first time, Daine thought to look at the magic. The attacking mage's magic dripped from his hands like liquid, each drop oily, while the other battled with shining light. As the attack was released, she screwed up her courage and dove straight at one of the Numairs, knocking him to the ground and sending the attack awry. The man looked sorrowfully at her, the love in his eyes breaking her heart.

What if I'm wrong?

She hesitated, wanting him to say something, anything, to prove who he was.

"You betrayed me, Daine." He murmured obligingly, pain in his dark eyes. She pressed her hand against his throat and looked straight into his gaze.

"I was never loyal to you, Scul." She whispered, and crushed his windpipe. The man shifted under her as he died, shifting back into one of the many monster forms he had used in his chaotic existence and finally shuddering to death.

Crying with relief, she climbed off the corpse and staggered blindly into the darkness. The real Numair caught her and hugged her, letting her cry against his shoulder as she sobbed the horror of the last few months away.

"No wonder you didn't wake up, if that bastard was keeping you down here." He said angrily, half to himself, as she began to calm down. "I should have thought of that before."

"I'm sorry, I didn't tell you..."

"What could you have told me, sweet? I would have been too angry, I wouldn't have thought straight... I didn't think straight, and it almost got you killed." He kissed the top of her head.

"But I tried... he said he'd kill so many people. He said he'd tell you..." she pulled away from him and wiped her eyes. "I've killed so many people. More than you know about. I didn't want to be responsible for killing even more."

Numair glared at the dead demon and shrugged. "You don't have to explain anything to me. I should have trusted you from the beginning. I can't have made it any easier on you. Whatever they said to you to make you take that necklace, they're dead now. They can't kill anyone else."

"Wait..." she pulled further away, her eyes narrowing. "You've forgiven me? Just like that?"

"Just like that?" He mimicked, "Don't you know you've been asleep nearly two weeks?"

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I kind of thought I was dead."

He smiled, drinking in the sight of her living, breathing, awake. "So many things I wanted to say to you... and they've all completely escaped my mind." He kissed her rapidly, almost expecting her to fade away. "You're not dead, you..."

"You talk too much," she whispered, and returned the kiss, pouring all her love and life into the embrace, gasping as he kissed her back just as passionately. The freezing cold of the realm was chased away by the fire pouring from his hands, from the kiss, until all that mattered was the other.

Numair eventually broke the kiss, captivated by her grey eyes as she gazed lovingly into his, her cheeks flushed, her voice breathless,

"How did you find me?"

He was deciding whether to tell her or kiss her again when the realm seemed to shimmer, becoming less solid under their feet as gold light surrounded them. Daine clung to Numair as the light exploded outwards, carrying them away from Chaos...

...and suddenly they were back in the guest room, the gold light dying around them. Numair found himself sitting beside the bed, his hands clasped in Daine's as she slipped into dreamless, natural sleep. The God stood next to the headboard, watching his daughter as she returned to the mortal realm. Abruptly he locked eyes with the mage and smiled.

"Thank you, mage." He rumbled, the glow beginning to fade away. Numair stood up, careful not to disturb Daine, and bowed.

"Thank you, Lord Hunter."

The god made an awkward gesture again, "Don't tell her about me, not yet. She wouldn't believe you."The God shrank back into a mortal. Ged blinked at the bowing mage.

"Eh? What did you say?" He muttered, holding a hand to his head as if it hurt. Numair grinned at him, then turned and kissed the sleeping girl's forehead.

"I said: she's back!"

Ged's eyes brightened perceptibly as he glanced at Daine, then caught sight of the warning expression on the other man's face. Almost absentmindedly he shrugged, a lazy smile appearing on his face.

"You'll have to get used to having me around, you know, I'm on the same ship as you are, going to Tortall. You can't play the grumpy, jealous, superior mage for all the months it's going to take to get there, you know." His smile became slightly more serious. "And I promise I won't flirt with your lady too much."

"Just as long as you two don't decide to have a rematch." Numair returned quickly, relief mixing with exasperated amusement on his face. The two men left the room, leaving Daine to sleep.

"I could do with a drink." The Wolf muttered, absently shaking his head again. "My head's buzzing. Would you like a drink? Maybe you can tell me if I really disappeared for half an hour back there."

"You wouldn't believe..."

"Ah, you'd be surprised how much I believe when there's a drink in front of me." The wolf grinned and bowed, mockingly. "Especially if you're buying."

"Dream on."

For the first time in weeks, laughter filled the house. Daine half-heard it in the fog of sleep, and smiled.

"Dream on," she heard her love say.

And for the first time in months, Daine... didn't.

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A/N: That's all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it!

The sequel is called "Tundra", and should start being uploaded this week.

PLEASE review and give critique on this because I want to reformat it- tell me what's wrong with it so I can make it better!