I'm done running away...
When I get back.
When I get back.
When I get back...
46
Well I'll be thrice-blessed, the blighted demon was right, there is a Griffins nest, and it looks like no ones home.
Still...
I am not my body.
My body is as clay.
I am not my soul.
My soul is an empty vessel.
I am as nothing, ready to be remade.
I move through the undergrowth. Your eyes catch me yet I wriggle free. They lie. To you I am as mirrored bronze, my light scatters in all directions.
Zultricks, I'm counting on you old friend.
47
Don't worry Seeker, just take an egg and be on your way.
Don't mind that it's half your weight, no problem, just take one and ... roll it down the blighted hill, I don't know!
Maybe I can just chip a piece off -- with my finger nails, with my teeth!
OK, the sun will be down any minute... You're running out of time, break the egg!
Come on break!
By Ashkent's Bloody Blade... just break!
I'm not going to die here because I can't make a blighted omelet, now break!
Break!
Break!
Brea...oh, no...
I think mommy might be coming home, and it looks like she can smell me.
48
Alright.
I know this must be strange, and you probably can't see or understand me but...
OK listen, I'm dying, I didn't mean...
You know what, kill me...I owe your kind from a while back, might as well start evening the score.
Sorry. I didn't mean that, just getting used to feeling sorry for myself. My teacher would be proud.
I want to live, I need to get to Loch Irwin, and I need one of your eggs to do that Mum -- need to make a poultice from its shell. You know what that is, right?
Of course not... you're a cat with wings.
OK. Be a Monk Seeker, try to help it Understand.
Little Red...yea, you know her, yes you do! You're right to be afraid of her Mum! Well, Little Red poisoned me. I know you have no reason to help, but if you don't...gods! I'm still invisible.
There, you can see me now. Look, I'm barely holding myself together. I need to find the Wraith, I need to get to Loch Irwin.
Wait. Did you understand that? The Wraith? The Wraith of the Woods?
You do understand, don't you?
OK...the Wraith is at Loch Irwin, I need to get there, but if I don't...if you don't...I'm going to die!
Gods... what am I doing?
I'm standing here wanting to kill one of your children to save what's left of my skin, and you're standing there listening, wanting to help.
When did I become the monster?
I'm sorry.
I'm going to go now, this was a mistake...
What are you doing?
I said I was going to leave.
Please, I didn't mean...please I'm...
Uh... yea, it's getting a little hard to see.
Don't ... don't come any closer.
It's OK, I'm just, I'm just a bit tired...need to sit.
I'll be...
Please...
Not now, not like this.
I'm so close...
So ... close...
“WRYMSDAY, 13TH MOONFALL, MORNING”
49
I'm alive...
Which can mean one of two things -- either Havner himself flew from the God's Isle to my side, and drew the poison from my veins, or the demon lied to me.
In either case, I'm still breathing, which I can't help but feel grateful for.
I also seem to be several hundred strides in the air.
You know, I should be terrified, but what's the point?
Had this Griffin wanted to kill me, she had more than enough time to -- if the light is any witness -- it is only a few heartbeats from Sunrise.
I have to believe she understands where I'm going, what I need to do. I have to believe that's why she saved me.
I have to believe, because if I don't, it means that when the sun finally breaks, I could find myself half-way back to Valhullen.
50
You never forget what it's like to fly, because flying is like nothing else in this Isle Cursed world.
The nip of cold on your skin, the rush of air, the rich musk of life and bird and your own fear sweat.
If I have to die, I guess there are worse ways to go.
I owe you a Reflection, don't I stone?
Well then I die a debtor, but you'll be glad to hear that for the first time since you dragged me through the Hollow Gates, gave me a hot meal and warm bed -- for the first time -- my soul is truly empty.
Well, there is that one thing...cursed demon.
But I'll...but I'll...
51
Light, red as a butcher's blade.
They say that when the sky bleeds at dawn, it portends the death of a King.
A fish tale that one, for true, but perhaps the sky wishes to raise me above my station on this morning, the morning I should have been given into the hands of the Pale Lady?
If so, you can keep your boon dear Nihm! I am done with titles, I wish to pass from this place with nought to my name but borrowed frock and half-filled water skin.
What more does a man need, I say!
What more could you give me?
52
I know a secret... Oh Griffin, dear Mum, I know a secret.
I can trust you with it, I think. I can trust you!
I have to trust you, I owe you four lives, five now, and this is all I have to give. This secret.
Listen closely dear bird, listen close.
In the Courts of Sky and Raven, there is a Knight that stands above all. They call her, Fino Tir -- The Last Knight.
You know this though, all know this, but what you may not know is that this Knight is bound to the Court, raised in it, with the King and Queen's own sons and daughters.
This weapon, this blade, is honed from swaddling, taught to fight and fly -- taught to love the Court's children as friends and family, and those children are taught to love her.
What could be more noble?
What could be more right for the King's eyes and the Queen's scale?
I'll tell you what, Mum.
You see, after a lifetime of fighting, of bleeding, of never knowing your own soul, you will hear word that the King fell from his bird, or was cut down in war, or died peaceful in his bed.
There will be the usual tears of Sky, strength of Raven, the Queen's fiery eyes and calm words to bring us through, but then... but then a new King will need to be crowned.
They have another word for the Last Knight -- Ri Halmud. It means, "Crown of Kings."
You hear it on occasion in Bard song, but there are only a handful who truly know what it means, and most of them are on a throne or in the ground.
That or riding on your illustrious back.
Is that the lake I spy?
Oh dear Mum, it seems I have a touch more luck left in me after all.
53
I wish there was something more that I could offer you, but I guess the last dregs of my ignoble soul will have to do.
Fly on now dear thing, the Blood Dawn is here and I have a Ghost to meet.
54
Each step, each one...I can feel my heart grinding against guts -- pumping steam and wood's dirt, pumping air and spit.
Where are you Wraith?
I'm here!
This is where the Dread One's own skin led me, this is where the demon said I'd set eyes on you.
Shall I transform?
Shall I fill my soul with the Hunter's fury? Is that what you're waiting for? Shall we fight on this Blood Dawn across this lake of tears? Shall we rip each other apart, and find out what lives within our souls?
Is that the Understanding my Brothers and S
isters wish? Is that the quest they set me upon? Will you squeezing the breath from my lungs as you would have in that Witch's cabin fufill my promise to them?
I suppose not.
I need your blessing, you are to sing to me the secrets of my soul. We are to speak you and I, but I fear I did not bring tea or bread.
You will have to forgive me!
You will have to come out and forgive me!
Please...
55
What is that sound?
Is that you -- whistling, growling, wheezing...is that you?
Where are you, dark one?
I can hear you...monster.
You want something from me, do you?
Well, I have nothing to give. I traded my final possession to a Griffin for a morning flight over the Loch. It was worth it.
You're not really speaking, are you?
That's my voice inside my own head.
Another trick of the hunger, the hunger that even the demon saw, even Little Red. I met her, you know...she said I was Fate-touched. She said I had a destiny. Though she also said I was poisoned, so grains of salt all around.
You know, if you don't come soon, you'll have to drag my corpse away from your beautiful Loch, so much trouble for an obstinate Ghost. Is it worth it?
Was this ... worth it?
I'm a coward, you know? Always have been a coward. The only reason I'm calling out to you is that I'm more afraid of starving to death than being torn apart by your bony fingers.
This Fast, this pilgrimage, I would have eaten a thousand times, but I'm more afraid of exile even than death.
I've already lost two families, and even if I tried to hide it, this thing around my neck would know. Even in death, it would tell them. What a joke.
No, I'm not going to give up Aspirant. I am going to die here for the cause, for the Order, for Understanding.
I am going to die so that perhaps some Monk, someday will discover whatever Truth I'm missing here...
I'm so tired Wraith...
I'm so tired Aspirant...
I'm so tired soul...
I'm going to get a drink.
56
Oh ... this is some final joke.
The Witch knew.
The demon knew.
The Dread Queen knew, that's why she gave me the skin.
I would have known if there had been a drop of water, or even a piece of polished bronze between the Fel and this thrice-cursed lake.
Empty your belly Seeker, empty your soul. Walk across half the wood and wear a Dread One's skin -- caked in blood and sick and filth and earth you will roam the deep.
The deep where not a human will set eyes on you for nearly a Moon, for if they saw...
If they saw...
I Understand Aspirant...
I Understand, and I am here to be blessed.
Tell me oh Wraith of the Woods, tell me dear fool reflection, tell me the secrets of my soul.
"So I will..."
“WRYMSDAY, 13TH MOONFALL, MORNING”
REFLECTION
Once upon a time a child was born, too small and too weak to be anything but a coward.
His parents, who he never knew -- not really -- gave him a name that he lost like almost every name he has ever been given.
One day, not long after, a great bird landed at their door, and a woman like moonbeams, like blue steel, all leather and purpose told those parents that their boy was special -- that he had been chosen to be a Knight in the Courts of Sky and Raven.
They were patriots, and they were poor, so they let him go with this woman, whose name was Issak Ni Inion, Issak Sky Daughter, she who would become his true mother.
When he arrived at Court, he learned that he was not the only child who had been torn from breast, brought to live among the children of Kings and Queens. All around were future Knights, Ni Mac and Ni Inion, a family brought together by will rather than blood.
But Issak did not lie when she said he was special. You see, of all these new Knights -- he was the last chosen, and so he would one day take Issak's place as Ri Halmud -- Crown of the King.
The boy, who Issak named Aoren, was so proud.
The boy was a fool.
57
Three Seasons passed and transformed babes who could barely crawl into young warriors who had already been taught to run and swim -- to speak the Common Tongue and many beside -- who knew above all, that their sacred duty was to love and protect their Cousins, those who would one day become Kings and Queens.
As soon as they were old enough to hold a blade, the the young Knights of Sky were taught to wield one -- they were made to master the arts of steel and bow, the theory of flight, and Craft enough to survive on birds whose very nature was to tear apart human flesh.
Each was assigned a teacher, chosen among the older Knights, and because Aoren was special -- he was given to Issak -- who they all loved more than their own souls.
Training was hard -- Moons turned to Seasons and Aoren Ni Mac grew stronger, grew closer to his family -- his brotherhood of bruises.
Of all his siblings, the one he cherished most was Minna Ni Inion, his Second, the one who was to become Last Knight should Aoren meet Indriel before his time.
When Aoren snuck out to the High Market to watch the mummers and the acrobats, it was Minna who made sure the older Knights were too deep in their cups to notice, and it was her who when Issak inevitably discovered the ruse, ran with him naked around the barracks, carrying the fetid buckets of pig slop that their teacher called punishment...
"Stop this..."
Oh, but I'm just getting to the good part.
58
It was not long after this day, in fact, that Aoren took his first flight, the one where he hunted those Griffins. That story has already been told. What you don't know is that the night before, Issak had sat the boy warrior down and revealed to him a secret. A secret so secret that not even the future King of Sky and Queen of Raven could know.
She told him what it meant to be Ri Halmud, she told him that one day she would die at the hands of a new King -- die in order to teach him about true sacrifice -- she told him that he would be expected to do the same.
On that night, Aoren understood that if he stayed, his whole life would be one, long journey towards a begger's death in a cold, musty crypt.
On that night, he understood that he had to escape.
He knew that if he left, his curse would be passed on to Minna, that by running he was signing her death writ, but still he never thought to bring her with him, or even to tell her the truth.
Remember that he was a coward, and he knew that while he might be able to slip away as he had done once before, he couldn't without Minna as his shield.
So when he asked her for help, it was not to run, but to disappear to the High Market, for just a few heartbeats, just long enough to buy some of the sweets the Akkarbani Traders had brought in. As payment, she made him promise to bring her back a fistful.
To this day, she is still waiting.
"Enough!"
No, Seeker, there is still a bit more.
59
You see, that boy has been running ever since, all the way to Valhullen, all the way to you my Brothers and Sisters.
He has run so far, hid so well, even given up his name so that his secret -- his shame -- would never see the light. But now, its etched in stone, slung around his neck like a noose.
The Wraith of the Woods: A Gods Isle Story (The Seeker Book 1) Page 5
