by Thomas Rath
“You don’t know that,” Dor’s father insisted, his voice tinted with anger at his son’s threatening words and tone.
“But I do, Father,” he returned, his own words heating with his ire. “I did not tell you all about our time away because I didn’t want to worry you, but both Tam and I were prisoners to the trolls. They have tunnels and caves dug all throughout the mountains and their numbers far surpass our own. It is only through their own hatred toward all things, including themselves, that they never joined up to battle against us as one. If they remain united and conquer those on the other side, you will be next.”
“Wait,” Tam’s mother interjected. “Don’t you mean, we?”
Tam and Dor looked at each other and then Dor turned back to their parents. “We are not staying.”
“What is this talk?” TaqSagn demanded while their mothers gasped in disbelief, tears instantly coming to their eyes. “You have a wife now to think about. How is it that you, if what you say is true, are so carelessly willing to drag her off to her doom in the company of HuMans?”
“He drags me nowhere,” Tam huffed. “I go willingly. I would go even if he decided to stay, in fact.” She earned a quick look of surprise from Dor but she didn’t stop to even acknowledge it. “You don’t know what those things are capable of,” she insisted, her eyes quickly filling with tears. But she refused to lose herself over to the emotions of the past. Bracing herself, she forced her them back and continued boldly. “I will not sit here and wait to see whether or not they will eventually be coming for us. I will not sit by idly while others fight for me, risking their lives so that I might live without fear. I choose to fight, and fight I will until the last breath escapes me and my spirit is set free by the fires of the SaiEeDu.”
“Please,” her mother begged, “don’t do this. Don’t throw your lives away when they are just starting.”
“It is this people that throw their lives away,” Dor insisted, not cushioning his words in the least. “You had the chance to stand with us in this fight, but instead you denied us the one thing that could have made a difference, the one thing that would have given a greater assurance of our safe return. Think of that after we are gone, when you wonder if you will ever again see us in this life.” Grabbing Tam’s hand, he turned away from their parents and they both disappeared into the crowd as their parents called after them, their mothers reduced to sobs.
“You didn’t have to speak so harshly to them,” Tam said, though her voice held no accusing tone.
“I did,” he rebuffed. “I could not stand it any longer to be lectured by them and feel the love and respect I have always held for my parents chipped away by their careless words. We will return to them again some day. I feel that to be the truth, but that doesn’t mean I will want to come back to stay. It is different here now. Maybe it is I who am different.” He stopped and held both of her hands looking deep into her eyes. “I will not hold you to your choice if you hold any doubts.”
Tam was suddenly flabbergasted. “Though I am not totally certain that I want to spend my life in hiding in the HuMan world, never think that I wouldn’t do so in the enemy’s own lair itself if it meant being with you. I have made my choice, DorMar, and it will take more than this war, more than death itself to break that bond.”
* * *
Thane and Jne sat motionless as they waited, keeping their own council in silence. It had been easy to sneak in since with Jne’s appearance, all of the night patrols had been called in should there be a sudden HuMan invasion and all their forces were needed.
The bile of the evening’s events still soured Thane’s mouth as he replayed it over and over in his mind trying to discover something he had done wrong or something else he should have done to win over his people. But he knew it was senseless. What he had said about them was more than the truth and he, most of all, could see it clearly.
Jne had said nothing, remaining, as always, his quiet strength in the storms that seemed to twist about him wherever he went. He looked at her in the dark knowing that without his night vision she would not be able to see him. She seemed unaffected by all that had occurred as if seeing a village of Chufa and the strange activities that made up their culture was the most natural thing. He was constantly amazed by the inner calm and self awareness that seemed to cover her like a coating of armor. He thought of Dor and Tam and their recent espousal and was surprised to find that he wasn’t jealous in the least. He pictured Tam in his mind, the one he had secretly held a light for his whole life and it now seemed the most natural thing to place Dor next to her. He tried picturing himself with her instead, but it felt wrong. Not only as a match, but his heart no longer seemed to cling to the idea or yearn that it be so. Now when he thought of being with someone it was Jne that filled his thoughts. He stared at her. What sort of life awaited them when this was all over?
Suddenly, the sound of cracking leaves invaded his thoughts and announced the arrival of the person he’d been waiting for. He didn’t pull a weapon, certain there would not be any physical violence, though his blood ran hot with disdain. The covering over the hut was pulled back and a man stepped through the threshold.
“What are you doing here?” the man almost immediately asked, easily seeing them with his night vision. “And why have you brought that thing with you?”
Thane shot Jne a quick glance, having warned her beforehand that their host would not be a gracious one and that she should take nothing he said as a personal insult but instead as the ramblings of a broken man. Jne had only nodded. Though he couldn’t be certain about what she thought, he was content in knowing he had no fear when it came to her word—be that spoken or merely gestured.
“Where is she?” Thane shot back, not relishing time spent with his father but knowing it was necessary after he’d shown up to his family hut, looking for his mother, but finding it empty. “Did you send her out?” he spat.
DelVen glanced at Jne briefly as if trying to determine her motives but she remained completely still where she stood. “She’s dead,” he finally answered, the words falling out with disdain. “Died not long after you left.”
Thane stared at his father for a long moment as if trying to determine if what he spoke was true.
“If you don’t believe me,” DelVen offered as if sensing his doubts, “then you are welcome to hide out like a thief in someone else’s home and ask them.”
“Then she is finally free of you,” he answered, his face and voice expressing no emotion other than contempt for his father. The announcement that his precious mother was dead was like an arrows barb to his heart, but he would show no emotion in front of his father.
“I should have killed you when you were first born,” DelVen suddenly spat with venom.
Thane sniffed and then smiled shaking his head slightly in disbelief at the sad creature standing before him. “You are welcome to try now,” he offered.
DelVen paused as if he might consider it but quickly set the challenge aside, revealing once more his cowardice. “If we are done here then get out.”
“Gladly,” Thane answered. “And know this,” he added as he stepped past, Jne already out of the hut, “we will never lay eyes on each other again, for if we do, it will be the last time you see anything.”
DelVen opened his mouth as if to say something in retort, but Thane and Jne were already gone.
* * *
“Hold,” Dor called causing both Thane and Jne to reach for their swords before recognizing him and Tam as they approached. Dor had feared that they would not be able to find their friends before they left but took a chance that they may have returned to where the birds had dropped them in the slight chance that their carriers might still be about. They were alone. It appeared that Thane and Jne were weighing their options before taking to the mountains and going at it on foot.
“We hoped you would be here,” Tam called out. “Is there no sign of the birds?”
“Why are you two here?” Thane asked, his
question sounding more accusatory than he meant it to be.
“We are here to go back with you, of course,” Dor countered.
Thane sighed. “I am sorry. I did not mean for it to sound that way, I just figured that now that you two are espoused that you would opt for the safety of home.”
“And you think that it is safer here than out there?” Tam huffed, pointing toward the mountains. “Do you think us as low as those who call themselves our people?”
Thane was taken aback by the venom suddenly dripping from Tam’s voice. “I meant no offense,” he stammered. “I only thought…”
She cut him off. “No, you didn’t think and that has been your problem since you were a child.”
He looked to Jne for help but she merely smiled as if she found some great humor in the exchange. Looking to Dor, all he got was a blank stare back and he knew that, once again, he was all alone. “I’m sorry,” he finally offered. “Yes, I would do all I could to get you both to stay, but I see that to do so would only incur your greater wrath.”
Tam huffed. “Then you had better clear all such thoughts from your head, Thane of the Five Tane!”
At that, he also smiled. For the first time in his life, his true full name did not cause him to cringe in contempt or embarrassment. “I am glad,” he offered, “to see that you are finally back in form and to the person you once were.”
Tam smiled. “Just don’t forget with whom you are speaking.”
“And what will we do now that we have failed?” Jne asked, pulling them all back to the reality of the situation.
“First we have to get away from here,” Dor said. “I have no desire to stay any longer than is necessary.”
Thane looked at his friend, sadness filling his eyes. He had reason to never want to return but it troubled him to see that same sentiment in his friend. “I hope that someday that desire will change,” he said to no one in particular.
“And what of you?” Tam asked.
He looked at the ground, steeling his emotions, still not wanting to think of his mother and the pain he knew she must have passed through when he disappeared. “I will never return,” he said.
“And what of your mother?” Tam continued to press.
He raised his head and locked his eyes on hers. “She is no more. And so passes my reason to ever return.”
Tam placed a hand on her mouth. “Oh, Thane,” she began, but he turned away and cut her off.
“I might be able to find and contact the birds,” he said, “by using the ArVen Tane, though I am uncertain as to whether I will be able to communicate with them should I find them.”
“That reminds me,” Dor interjected. “Thane, I touched the water!”
He gave his friend a quizzical look. “That moment,” Dor continued, “when I had PocMar by the throat. I touched his water. I felt it coursing through his veins and filling his skin. I touched it and I knew that should I have so desired, I could have called it all right out of him.”
Thane smiled but his joy seemed to be more calculated. “That is good news indeed, my friend,” he said. “If we can just teach the Healers to do the same, we will have a mighty weapon indeed against our enemies.”
Dor looked at him as if he’d never considered that that was why Thane had tried to get him to learn but, to his surprise, the idea didn’t bother him. Thane was right. “And should we ever get close enough to a dragon…” Dor let his thought trail off. Thane had already killed one of the great serpents by calling the water out of it.
“Maybe our trip has not been a total failure after all,” Jne finished as the two rocs suddenly appeared setting down next to them.
Chapter Sixteen
Jack shot up from his bed reaching for his throat as the trailing mists of a nightmare melted away in the early morning dawn. He had not slept well that night, his mind filled with terrible dreams that seemed to chase him into the recesses of darkness terrorizing him with their horror. He pulled back his hand expecting to see it wet with blood as if he’d taken a cut to his jugular but it was dry and empty. Touching his throat again, he tried to remember what it was that had haunted him so but all memory of his evening of terror had passed.
The feeling of dread stuck with him as he swung his feet around and began to dress. Erl looked up briefly from his comfortable spot beneath the brazier but quickly dropped his head back down falling almost instantly back into quiet slumber. Jack regarded him jealously for a moment and then stood up, passing through the inner tent door to the outer area where Domis and Teek slept comfortably. He eyed the empty bed that had been made for Tryg but ignored it knowing that the young Waseeni boy never had once slept there, claiming he preferred the openness of the great night sky.
Passing through yet another opening he entered the relatively large room that was for greeting and discussing court matters. A guard snapped smartly to attention as he entered. Another “benefit” of being king was the constant pestering of having a guard at your back and a number of others close by should someone try to attack the royal body. Jack harrumphed but waved to the young man politely knowing he was only doing the duty for which he’d been charged. It had been such a long time since he had been in court that he’d forgotten about all of the formality and precautions made on his behalf.
Finally outside, two more guards offered a quick solute but this time he ignored them as he walked out into the camp. He needed to clear his head. So much had suddenly fallen upon him as the king that he barely had a moment to breathe. The guards stationed in front of the tent broke away and followed after him. Though they kept a decent distance he was still very aware of them. He had received quite the reprimand from the captain of the house guard the day he’d gone off out into the plains area alone. Since then it was a minimum of two guards at all times.
He wasn’t sure what he was looking for or even why he felt the need to be out in the camp. It was still too early for most of the people to be awake and taking care of the morning meals and chores before the long trek onward toward Bedler’s Keep. They were still some days away and still not as far from Calandra as he would like, but moving such a large camp of people was snail slow in the best of conditions. They did all that they could to hurry them along but the immediate danger they were in had yet to settle into their minds. Most had fled the city merely because they had been order to, not because they understood the dread of an approaching army that few could even comprehend in their most frightful night terrors.
He paused, sending a greeting to an older man who was just returning with some firewood for his morning cook fire. It wouldn’t be long now until the horns were blown to awaken the camp and once again get them moving. Suddenly, a voice cried out bringing him back around to find Domis, Teek and a young courier rushing through the maze of carts and gear to catch him. “Milord,” Domis cried again, “milord, there is news!”
Jack waited patiently for the three to approach, sighing to himself that once again the day’s business would be piling in; every little thing an emergency in the mind of someone. He wondered what it would be this time; a lost pig? Another merchant angry that a peasant had the gall to bed down in a spot that was nicer than the place where his grand tent had to be erected? Or possibly another call to return to the city or demands that better facilities be erected for those with a gentler constitution to relieve themselves. The list was never ending.
“Milord,” the courier spoke after bowing in a grand manner. “Your immediate attention is requested on the eastern side of the camp about a quarter of a mile back.”
Jack pulled at his beard. “What is the problem?” he asked, his voice steady though a slight coloring of frustration dyed his words.
“Trouble,” the courier said, seeming rather anxious to be on their way. “I was not told exactly what the trouble is, your highness, but only that you were needed posthaste.” Again he bowed and then threw out his arm in gesture for the king to move ahead in the direction indicated.
Jack sighed, audibly this t
ime, and then directed the courier forward. “Lead the way,” he said.
The courier bowed once more and then rushed off into the camp. “Quickly, milord,” he called over his shoulder.
Luckily, they reached the area to where he’d been summoned before the morning horn or the pandemonium that accompanied the waking camp would have made it almost impossible for them to reach their destination before midmorning. A large contingency of guards were gathered about two huge tents, merchant’s tents by the looks of them, keeping all curious onlookers away. Jack absentmindedly reached for his throat as he approached, the slight whisper of his early morning dream suddenly calling back to his memory. Wess was there to greet him.
“Your highness,” he said, bowing gracefully.
Though Jack hated the formality, Ranse had convinced him that it was necessary for the comfort of the people. They needed someone to worship and follow no matter, like in the previous king’s case, how ruthless and terrible the person might be. It gave them a sense of belonging to something that mattered. Something that was bigger than themselves that made them feel taken care of and protected. At first he had resisted, but he recognized the wisdom in what Ranse had said and decided that for the time being it was necessary to go along with it. After all, he could manage it until the war was past. Then he would either be dead or he could merely disappear into the mountains again to live out the rest of his life searching for his lost son.
“What is the problem, Wess?” he asked, almost impatiently.
Wess gave him a grave look and motioned him toward one of the tents. “You had better come and see for yourself, milord,” he said quietly.
Jack’s look turned to one of slight surprise and sudden concern to see one of his oldest and most battle hardened friends act in such a strange manner. Again, his hand reached for his throat, but this time he caught himself and grabbed at his beard instead.
Moving to the first tent’s entrance, Domis and Teek followed right behind as if they would follow him in but Wess held them up. “Best you boys wait out here for now.” With Jack’s eyebrow raised in a questioning look, Wess added, “It’s a little crowded for so many.”
