Ancient Allies (The Malvers War Book 2)

by Tora Moon

  Blazel put away the trail bar, replaced the locking bar, and grabbed Lighzel’s reins. A few moments later he was keeping pace with Jaehaas. When they reached the house, he tied Lighzel’s reins to the hitching rail and followed Jaehaas in.

  Next to the pot of porridge sat a big bowl—mostly empty—of mookti berries. Blazel dished some porridge into a bowl, took a quick look around the room to ensure everyone had had a serving, and then filled his bowl to the brim with the berries. Jaehaas grinned as he piled berries into his own dish. Blazel couldn’t help making happy sounds as he ate mookti berries and porridge. Hot spicy taevo rounded out his breakfast.

  While Blazel and Jaehaas ate, the room cleared of fighters except one young man, whose green hair had thin red streaks, washing up the breakfast dishes. A few milcrons later, Blazel heard several horses pounding out of the courtyard.

  “They be heading to the southern keeps you avoided to warn them of the problems in the crater. An additional guard will be set up at the border between the Barrens and our plains.”

  Blazel nodded and bent back to his breakfast.

  Jaehaas’s spoon clattered into his empty bowl. He pushed the bowl away and refilled both of their mugs with taevo. Blazel could feel Jaehaas’s gaze boring into him. He spooned the last bit of porridge and berries into his mouth. Pushing his own bowl away, he leaned back in his chair. The young man hurried to their table and took away their dishes. In a few milcrons only Jaehaas and Blazel remained inside. Blazel gritted his teeth against the delay.

  “Why you be in such a hurry to reach the Sanctuary?” Jaehaas asked, his forehead furrowed in confusion. “I know the Malvers monsters be behaving strange and there be a new one. The Supreme needs to know about this, but it still doesn’t explain your rush.”

  Blazel studied him for a long moment, letting the milcrons stretch. Jaehaas didn’t twitch or look away and wore a sincere expression. Blazel took a deep breath and blew it out, making a decision.

  Even though they were alone, Blazel leaned forward and in a low voice said, “My friend, Chariel, is a Gray, a powerful one. She is also an oracle and sent me to the swamps to prepare for a great evil coming to our land. I don’t know if it was this new janack or something else. She’s calling me back home.” Blazel paused, then said hurriedly, “I hear her voice in the back of my head, urging me to hurry. Tell your people when there is fire in the sky, the madness is here.” Blazel shook his head wondering why he said that—again.

  Jaehaas flicked his tail over his hindquarters and rubbed his neck with a hand while he considered what Blazel had told him. “Then, my friend,” he said at last, “we’ll have to make sure you get there quickly and safely. Our Keep be on your way. Travel with us.” He held out a hand to Blazel, and smiled encouragingly. “I’d like to get to know the rogue who isn’t a rogue.”

  Blazel laughed and with a shake of his head he gripped Jaehaas’s wrist. “In that case, I’ll ride with you. I’d like to get to know one who is man and horse.”

  Jaehaas went to where he had slept and picked up his bow, quiver, and pack. Together they left the house to find the others were all mounted. As soon as Lorstal saw Jaehaas and Blazel, she issued the order to leave. Blazel scrambled onto his horse and followed the rest as they trotted out the gate.

  Lorstal led them in a fast pace, slowing only to rest their horses once in a while. The first time they came upon a herd of horses, Blazel was surprised when the herd joined them as they ran. Kaelhaas traveled in his gold and silver stallion form and the wild stallions seemed to love racing with him, but they avoided the two centaurs. The young colts and fillies, however, would race up to a centaur, run a few paces with them, and then peel off as if on a dare. After a few measures of this, at some signal Blazel didn’t know, the herd wheeled away from the riders. A little while later, another horse herd joined them.

  Late in the afternoon Blazel could see a large stone structure on the horizon. A few octars later, the tall plains grass gave way to cultivated fields and pastures surrounded by stone walls. A crushed sheadash stone roadway cut through the fields, leading to the Keep. By the time the riders passed the fields, it was twilight and everyone, including the animals, had returned to the Keep for the night. The stone walls guarding the pastures and fields protected them from the Malvers monsters, but they didn’t stop the narhili beasts that hunted at night.

  The keep walls were twenty feet tall. The gates were open to let the fighters in. When the last person rode through the gateway, the massive gate was pushed shut, and with a boom the bar was lowered, locking them shut for the night.

  Blazel jumped at the sound. It reminded him he was stuck in the keep with over seven-hundred people. It took all of his control not to turn Lighzel around and race to the gate, demanding them to open so he could leave. He hadn’t felt like this with the Strunlair guard-pack. Jaehaas reached out and put a hand on his arm in reassurance.

  “You be with friends,” Jaehaas murmured. “I’ll tell Keep Alphas Telekhaas and Belistril about your need to hurry to the Sanctuary. I be sure they will have questions for you.” Jaehaas beckoned Dolhaas to join them and spoke quietly to him.

  Dolhaas eyed Blazel then nodded.

  “Once you get your horse settled, Dolhaas will show you around the keep. By then a bed will have been moved into my room, where it will be just the two of us. Seeing how uncomfortable you were last night, I thought you’d be at ease in a room with as few people as possible. Oldhaas will sleep elsewhere while you be here.”

  “Thank you for your kindness.” Blazel swallowed rapidly and turned his head away. He hadn’t expected such courtesy. Jaehaas patted Blazel’s arm again and then turned to the large Keep-House where he would find the keep alphas.

  “This way to the stables, Blazel,” Dolhaas said as he urged his horse forward.

  After a longing look at the Temple next to the Keep-House, Blazel followed. Before he left the keep, he would make sure to seek solace in the Temple’s sanctuary. Having grown up attending daily services with the Supreme and the White Priestesses, it was difficult for his soul to go so long without the comfort of the rituals to the Goddess and Her Consort.

  The stable wasn’t far. There were three fighting-pack houses next to the Keep-House. They turned on a roadway just past the last house to find the stable behind them, and a large fenced pasture just beyond that. A number of horses were grazing on the rich grass. Inside the stable were long lines of shelves and rails for tack but not many stalls.

  “We let the horses roam in the pasture,” Dolhaas said. “They’ll come when we need them.” He stopped at a mostly empty line of rails near the entrance. Each station had a number. “You can put your horse’s tack here; it be a guest station. Remember your number.” Dolhaas then took his horse to a tacking station deeper into the stable.

  Dolhaas was much quicker than Blazel in taking off his horse’s gear and helped Blazel finish rubbing down Lighzel. A halter was exchanged for her bridle, and Blazel led her out the stable’s back door and into the pasture. Paddocks, where the horses could get under shelter during bad weather, were near the stables, and a small grove of tall trees lined the fence to the east. Lighzel whinnied in delight when Blazel unhooked the lead rope. She trotted several feet away and dropped to roll on the ground.

  “Well, she likes it here,” Blazel laughed.

  “’Course she does. She came from our herds.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Her stripes. The patterns they form and their size tells us which herd and stallion each horse belongs to.” Dolhaas looked at Blazel and then laughed. “Besides, I was in the group that took her and several others to Strunlair Keep several years ago. It be one reason I, and several others, knew you were telling the truth. There be no way you could steal a plains-bred horse. They’d find a way to get loose and return to their true master. Lighzel chose you for her partner, didn’t she?”

  Blazel remembered the horse putting her head on his shoulder. “Yes, she did. The horse-ma
ster at the crater brought out several horses and she picked me. I’d never owned a horse before then.”

  “We don’t own them,” Dolhaas said, frowning with indignation. “We be partners. Without them we couldn’t survive.”

  “My apologies.”

  Dolhaas harrumphed and turned away from the pasture. Blazel stepped quickly to catch up to him and together they walked to the fighting-pack house nearest the stable. Inside, Dolhaas followed the wide hallway that led to the back of the house. At the end, it opened onto a wall with two doors, each wider than normal.

  Dolhaas pointed to a door on the corridor’s opposite wall. “That be the necessary room. Because the centaurs can’t go to the bathing rooms below, it has tubs and such in it. I can show you to the bathing room or you can use this one. And this be the room you’ll share with Jaehaas.”

  Dolhaas opened the left-hand door to reveal a large room with shelves holding clothing, books, and other personal items on either wall. Between the shelves was a plank with writing materials laid out on it. The wall opposite the door had a thick pallet with blankets and next to it a cot. A small table with a lantern sat next to the cot, and nearby was a small trunk. The cold stone floor wasn’t relieved by any rugs or other comforts.

  “A bell will sound announcing dinner,” Dolhaas said. “If Jaehaas hasn’t returned by then, I’ll come and escort you to the dining hall.”

  Blazel nodded as he entered the room. He dropped his well-worn leather bag on the trunk and sat down on the cot. He heard the door close softly as Dolhaas left. Blazel took a deep breath and started coughing. Crone’s fires, I stink. He thought about the delicious hot water in the bathing room at the crater. He dug in his bag for a clean shirt, and trousers, then looked down at his red leathers, which he’d worn constantly since leaving the crater.

  “Someone around here has to know how to clean these. Maybe they’ll teach me.” He put his bags in the trunk and then went to the necessary room for a luxurious bath.

  Chapter 6

  Blazel climbed out of the deep tub and tugged on the clothes given to him by the Strunland guard-pack: a turquoise-blue shirt, and dark blue trousers. Other than the set of red leathers, they were now the only clothes he owned. When he pulled out the clean clothes out of his bag he’d found a blue and yellow leather thong which he used to tie his thick ropes of hair behind his neck.

  He looked in the mirror and scowled at his long, bushy, scraggly beard that reached to his chest. Now that he was back in civilization, it made him look wild and unkempt. Stroking the damp strands, he wondered if he even had a razor. He carried his dirty clothes back into the room, set them on the floor next to the trunk, and rummaged in his bag, where he found his razor buried in the bottom. Going back into the necessary room, he sharpened the razor and set to work cleaning up his beard.

  He returned to the room and was just stamping into his boots when he heard the unmistakable clip-clop of Jaehaas’s gait.

  “Good, you be cleaned up,” Jaehaas said as he entered the room. “The keep alphas want to see you, but not until after dinner.”

  Blazel was surprised they hadn’t called for him immediately. A deep bell reverberated throughout the house.

  “The dinner bell,” Jaehaas said. “Let me wash up and we’ll go eat. Our Green and Brown Talents be quite good and so our meals be excellent. I even heard rumors there’d be mookti berries for dessert.” He waggled his eyebrows at Blazel as he crossed the hall to the necessary room. In a few milcrons he came back with his hair brushed and his own beard trimmed close to his face. Jaehaas wore just a thin line of facial hair along his jawline and around his mouth, which showed off his square jaw. He’d removed his tunic while washing up and now examined a stack of folded clothes on a shelf on his side of the room. He pulled out a dark brown tunic with yellow and blue designs embroidered around the neck, sleeves, and hem.

  Jaehaas smoothed the shirt over his chest and said, “Let’s go.”

  Blazel stopped at the dining hall door and stared at the long tables with benches for seating. There were already five or six-hundred people in the room. He’d only seen so many people at the biannual Alpha Gatherings. How do they stand to be around each other all the time?

  Jaehaas gently took hold of Blazel’s arm and led him along the wall to a large, high table where a few tall chairs replaced the benches. Seven centaurs stood at the table. Blazel recognized Oldhaas, leaning forward in deep conversation with the man across the table from him. Jaehaas took an empty place next to Oldhaas and motioned Blazel to the empty chair situated on the other side of him.

  Not long after Blazel sat down, young people—a mix of Talents, even a Red or two—came into the dining hall loaded down with platters of food. Blazel was unused to seeing so many different Talents. In the Sanctuary, the majority were Whites or Grays, priestesses of the Goddess and the Posairs’ spiritual and soul workers. A few Greens and Browns came and went from the Sanctuary, serving as cooks, gardeners, stone workers, carpenters, and other help needed to keep the Sanctuary working. Rarely, a Yellow or Blue Talent would come and stay for a short time. But the only time Reds came was during the Clan Alpha competitions or for the biannual gatherings. Blazel scanned the room, looking for the white or gray hair of Whites and Grays, then remembered the priestesses would eat in the Temple along with their acolytes.

  The others at the table soon included Blazel in their conversation as they ate. Everyone was curious about how he had become a lone wolf and had survived as long as he had alone. He regaled them with a few tales, including how he’d received the scars on his face and back from the sabertiger. He learned the eight centaurs sitting with him were the only ones in this keep.

  “It be difficult to manage the shift to split your form,” Oldhaas explained. “Not many of us can accomplish it. You will not see any young centaurs. It takes great discipline and long practice before it can be done.”

  “And,” Jaehaas added, “most do not want to live our lifestyle. It has its own challenges—”

  “—like not ever having sex again,” Oldhaas said. “We usually try to get it out of our systems before trying the shift. Obviously, we can’t have sex with humans.” He gestured to his hindquarters. “And sex with a horse be just wrong, sick even. And since women don’t shapeshift, there be no female centaurs.” Oldhaas leaned his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands with a huge sigh. “I didn’t think I’d miss female company so much.”

  “So why do you do it?” Blazel asked, leaning forward and stirring his taevo. “Why become a centaur?”

  “We be stronger and can run longer distances,” Oldhaas said.

  “We have the best of both worlds,” Jaehaas added.

  “Well, except for the sex.” Oldhaas sighed again.

  A girl, about thirteen, with pale red hair ran up to their table. Her eyes were wide as she stared at Blazel. “Jaehaas, sir, the alphas have decided to meet with you and your guest tomorrow after breakfast.” She gave Blazel a tentative smile and then raced away.

  Blazel breathed out a sigh of relief. He would rather meet with the keep alphas after a good night’s sleep. Soon after, Jaehaas nodded to Blazel and they returned to their room. The walls proved to be thick, and the only sound to disturb Blazel was Jaehaas’s quiet breathing.

  The next morning, Blazel joined Jaehaas, Oldhaas, and the other house residents in the dining room. The congenial gathering made Blazel relax. Surprisingly, more than one Red flirted with him over fried tubers, eggs, and steaming mugs of dark taevo. He’d never been flirted with before. He smiled shyly at a pretty woman, and dipped his head flustered when she smiled seductively back. He was still blushing and was grateful when Jaehaas backed away from the table. Together they walked to the Keep-House, down a long hall to the alpha’s office.

  Inside, the room was dominated by a large desk where the keep alphas sat. The woman’s dark red hair was pulled back from her oval face and brown eyes. She didn’t smile, but she still seemed open and friendly to Bl
azel.

  The man, on the other hand, wore a scowl. His thick red-brown eyebrows were dotted with green and he had emerald-green eyes. He wore his hair cut short and sported a thick, bushy mustache that drooped past his chin.

  “Telekhaas, Belistril,” Jaehaas said, “this be my friend Blazel. He has an important message he carries to the Supreme.”

  “Blazel, welcome to Haasneh Keep,” Belistril said. She gestured to a chair in front of the desk. “Sit. We have questions for you.”

  As soon as Blazel was seated, Telekhaas grumbled, “The first thing I want to know be, why you not be in a pack? It just not be right for a man to be alone and without the company of a pack.”

  “As you may know, I was born and raised in the Sanctuary. There were no packs—”

  “But we came every two years,” Telekhaas interrupted. “You could have been given to one of us to raise.”

  “I’m told Histrun tried several times to talk the Supreme into letting me go with him. But she wouldn’t hear of it. For some reason—and I don’t know why—” Blazel pursed his lips and folded his arms over his chest, “—she decided I had to stay. There hasn’t been a boy raised in the Sanctuary before or since. I left when I was seventeen. I didn’t travel south into the provinces but north into the Deep Mountains. By the time I returned five years later, it was too late for me to join a pack. I believed no one would have me because I had been alone for too long.”

  Telekhaas stared at him for several milcrons until he grunted and sat back in his chair. “Histrun told me the same. No one could understand why she would handicap a young boy like that. It be why he stayed to train you whenever he went to the Sanctuary. He went there when you turned eighteen to take you to the Strunland Clan, but you had disappeared.”

  Blazel turned his head away. He had never known. The Supreme had never told him someone like Histrun wanted him. Would I have gone with him? He didn’t know.

  “Jaehaas has told us what you learned at Shandir’s Crater,” Belistril said. “We too have been having trouble with the Malvers monsters not behaving as they have done in the past. The new janack be difficult to kill. We need to know if the other provinces also be having this trouble or if it be localized here in the south. We also want to know if the Supreme has any direction for us on how to kill the monsters.”