Sword of the Gods: A Bridge and Sword Novella by JC Andrijeski

Author:JC Andrijeski [Andrijeski, JC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: White Sun Press
Published: 2024-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Do You Not Believe?

Novotny surprised Balidor by not bringing his entourage this time.

Only three figures emerged from the truck that parked by the front door of the large stone and wood house by the lake.

Balidor, Vash, and Tarsi were alone in the chalet when they arrived.

Vash had insisted upon it.

The only others in the house consisted of a small human crew that cooked for them and dealt with clean towels and clothes and sheets, as well as supply trips to the nearby village. Balidor made sure they were paid extremely well for that work, in part because he strongly suspected he would need to erase them later.

Vash had not come out and said it, but Balidor understood why the circle of those who knew the young seer remained alive, if in a stasis, must remain very, very small––at least until his final fate had been decided.

Likely, it would need to remain secret for much longer than that.

Honestly, Balidor questioned why they’d told Novotny the truth, regardless of whatever agreement they’d made with the humans.

He knew it was likely a Code thing for Vash, that damned monk honesty that both made him who he was and made him vulnerable to beings with less honor or good intention.

But Vash also seemed to think Novotny had his own type of integrity, even if Balidor neither liked the man nor trusted the things he felt on his light. He supposed it didn’t matter whether he liked him or not, if, like Vash intimated, the human could be trusted to keep his word.

Vash seemed to think he could be trusted… in that, at least.

Balidor watched Novotny ascend the stone stairs leading to the chalet’s front door.

A small-statured, gray-haired woman clung to his arm as he approached, one who looked older than either Tarsi or Vash. Balidor didn’t recognize her, but from the extensive shielding on her light, she must be seer.

He hung back while Vash played the host.

After perfunctory introductions, Balidor found himself standing side by side with Tarsi, his old mentor and boss, who also hung back to watch Novotny and Vash interact. As if to make the symmetry complete, the old woman Novotny brought with him, along with a male seer introduced only as “her assistant” hung back on the opposite side of the room, as well.

Novotny introduced the old woman as Xarethe.

The name basically confirmed her race as seer.

Now that they were indoors and he could watch her light interact with the constructs, Balidor would have known that without a single doubt anyway. Still, it was a sobering thought, as that put her age at close to the seven hundred year mark.

The shields around her stank of Dreng filth and reminded him of the shielding he’d seen around the Rebel bases, both in the mountains and elsewhere. Perhaps he was looking at the skilled engineer he’d theorized about, the one who designed the constructs that protected the Rebel bases. Perhaps she’d been one of them, at least.

Whoever she was, her light made him sick.

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