Storm Phase Series: Books 1-3

by Hayden, David Alastair

  “They are very different, but I’m guessing from the saddle most things will be the same.”

  Turesobei climbed into the saddle, which was comfortable, though a little big for him, even in all his thick clothing. He took up the reins and learned all the spoken orders, rein flicks, and sidekicks that Iyei would respond to. While the commands were strange, it wasn’t all that different from riding a denekon. Riding was riding, he supposed.

  After he recited all the commands a third time without error, Narbenu said, “You’re a fast learner.”

  “To cast spells you have to be able to memorize a lot of phrases and commands. I’ve been working at that sort of thing all my life.”

  “You have supplies in the pack behind your saddle, enough food to survive at least a week out in the wilderness. Your spear is hooked into the side of the saddle. There’s a place you can hang your axe, as well.”

  A mount edged up next to his. The goronku who rode it was young, probably not much older than Turesobei. He would’ve thought the young goronku was handsome, with his refined facial features and bright blue eyes, but he had no idea what standards the goronku held. The goronku boy wore a copper collar around his neck that was locked into place. None of the other goronku wore anything like it, including two others who looked roughly the same age as this one.

  “I’m Kemsu,” the young man said in a deep voice. “If you need anything along the way, I’d be happy to help you.”

  “Excuse me if I’m impolite, but I don’t know anything about your customs. What does the collar represent?”

  “I’m a slave,” Kemsu replied, almost proudly.

  “Kemsu belongs to me,” Narbenu said. “That is a story for another time. Are you ready to ride?”

  Turesobei nodded. He decided to withhold judging Narbenu for owning a slave. He didn’t know their customs, and he hadn’t seen any other slaves. Of course, slavery wasn’t all that much worse than how most baojendari treated zaboko, with indenture and segregation, practices that were thankfully less extreme amongst the Chonda. And Kemsu didn’t seem disagreeable about it.

  War Chief Sudorga barked an order, and the group set out. The sonoke slithered along the ice like snakes, moving and sliding with ease. The sensation of riding was strange as he urged his mount to go. Turesobei could feel constant tugs side-to-side, even though the beast kept an even, straight-ahead course. With denekon, the motion was an up-and-down bounce. This was going to take some getting used to.

  To help Turesobei get a feel for what the sonoke were capable of, they went slow and then sped up to the beasts’ full speed, which was even faster than a denekon sprint, though the sonoke couldn’t maintain that pace for even half as long.

  As they slowed back down into the natural pace for traveling over distances, Turesobei asked Narbenu, “How far is it to the village?”

  “A day and a half. We’ll have to stop during the night. But with a party this large, we’ll be spared most of the dangers.”

  “Most?”

  “This is a harsh world,” Kemsu answered. “And there are many things that even a group of heavily armed goronku can’t scare off.”

  “Like the yomon?”

  “The yomon are the worst things here,” Narbenu said. “But even the yomon don’t wander out alone.”

  Chapter Five

  Once Aikora, the goronku village, fell out of sight, Turesobei was officially lost. Endless fields of ice stretched in every direction. No trees. No villages, farms, or rock formations. No mountains in the distance.

  “How do you navigate?” he asked Narbenu.

  “By sighting the stars when we can,” Narbenu replied. “The stars come out in late afternoon and stay till mid-morning, if your eyes are sharp enough to discern them.”

  Turesobei craned his head back. Only a deep, purplish blue sky hung above. “Too close to noon now?”

  Narbenu nodded.

  “Our stars do not come out until darkness falls.”

  “Your sun is bright? It is said that our sun was once bright.”

  “And yellow.” Zhura, the Dark Moon, was a faint, waning smudge in the sky; Turesobei could barely see it. “Even our moons are brighter. I can barely see Zhura today.”

  “When sight fails us, we rely on our sense of smell.”

  “That wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

  Narbenu tapped his large, bearlike nose. “That’s why we have these. Out here, you need them. Of course, not all of the Ancient Cold and Deep is as barren as the plain we live on.”

  “You promised to tell me what we’re facing. Why are you so afraid that my friends are in danger?”

  “The village you described …” Narbenu sighed. “If you’re right, and your friends made it there … the inhabitants, the reitsu, they aren’t friendly. They’re wraiths … vampires.”

  Turesobei thought about Aikonshi, whom he’d left behind, whom Chonda Lu had created to be a monster hunter. “I’m familiar with vampires. We have them in our world.”

  “I doubt yours are like ours,” said Kemsu, riding alongside them. “The reitsu steal the warmth from your body.”

  “They drain away body heat?” Turesobei said, puzzled. “Ours drink blood, though a few drain life force instead.”

  “To survive in these elder days, some people evolved thick fur.” Narbenu patted his belly. “And blubber. Others developed more cold resistant skin and learned how to survive wearing thick clothes. But the reitsu were a magical people. A lot like you. Tall and pale-skinned. According to legend, when the cold swept suddenly across the world, the reitsu tried to protect their bodies using magic.

  “But it didn’t go the way they hoped. The magic warped them. They became immortal and resistant to the cold, but they couldn’t bear children any longer, and to maintain their warmth, they had to steal it from others. The reitsu turned on one another, and many were wiped out. Those that remained fed on other races. The warmth of one goronku will keep a reitsu toasty for decades. But most wanted more than what they needed; their hunger was insatiable. Those that remain now are the ones who learned to control the hunger. The rest fed and fought until they were slain by those they hunted, except a few who trade their services as assassins. The reitsu of today, when they begin to lack warmth, go into hibernation until someone comes near.”

  “They can’t feed on animals?” Turesobei asked.

  “It’s a poor solution. When they feed on animals, they begin to take on the animals’ traits and lose their humanity, such that it is. Turns them into mindless creatures. Most of the reitsu are jaded and prefer to hibernate, actively dreaming of days long gone when there was yet warmth, days they still remember.”

  “Have your people fought them? You seem to know them well.”

  “We goronku know far too much about the reitsu. We warred with the wraiths for centuries. We outnumbered them, but they are incredible warriors. Fighting nearly ruined both our races. We have a truce now, a truce that has lasted well over a century. They don’t feed on us; we don’t make war on them. It’s easy because there’s so few of both our races now, and we have plenty of other enemies.”

  Turesobei furrowed his brow. “But you will help me retrieve my friends from them, right? If that’s necessary.”

  Narbenu glanced at War Chief Sudorga. “We shall see, my young friend. You present an unusual circumstance. Our world is in a careful balance, which you have already thrown off by stirring up the yomon.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Well, no one likes the yomon. They terrorize all of us now and then. Your killing a few of them was a good thing. Look, your companions … I don’t want you to get your hopes up. You should know that if they wandered into the wraith village, they’re already dead.”

  “A few of my friends are amazing warriors, one of them is supernatural — more magic and machine than man.”

  “He would have to be incredible to fight off the reitsu,” Narbenu said. “The reitsu are lightning fast and deadly with their claws. And it take
s only one good grasp for them to drain warmth from you. Your best hope is if they kept your companions for sport. That’s not likely, and I can’t tell you we’ll be able to get them away even if they have.”

  At noon, they stopped for a quick lunch. The goronku dismounted and walked around, circling their arms as they did so. Figuring it was to maintain circulation out in the cold, Turesobei did the same. He had noticed his body temperature dropping as they went. Lu Bei refused to come out. Either he needed rest, or the cold affected him more than he wanted to admit. As the goronku began to eat, Turesobei opened his pack and fumbled through the rations and gear, not certain what the purpose of most of it was. He thought of how clueless Awasa had been with the trail rations at first, and now sympathized with her.

  Kemsu helped him. “Your food rations.” He lifted the largest pack. “Sonoke cheese. Do you have cheese in your world?”

  “From goats and sheep.”

  “Don’t know what a goat is, but sheep cheese is good. Mild compared to this.”

  “You have sheep?”

  “The Westerners do. They’re the ones that look a bit like you, but are kind of fat and hairy. They always gift us a small amount of cheese when we trade with them.”

  Kemsu took a block out of the pack and unwrapped it. “Butter. Eat it straight or melt it onto any game you kill, if you have access to a star stone. Out here, you need to eat a lot of fat to keep warm. Cheese is your basic ration. Butter for extra energy; it’s dense and worth a fortune if you’re starving.”

  “A star stone? Like the ones on the walls in the village?”

  “The same, though we carry smaller ones with us.” Kemsu lifted a dimly glowing crystal from Turesobei’s pack. “Always good to have with you at night and for a little extra warmth. Better than burning blubber, which poorer people are forced to do. When you tap on the star stone, the surface heats up. Tap a lot, quickly, to get it hot enough to melt butter. Tap just a few times to make it warm and give a bit of light. It will slowly cool. The more you make it hot, the faster it will burn out. The one you’ve been given is new. It can provide light like it does now for many years.”

  “The one in my room was brighter in the day than at night.”

  “Yeah, that’s a bit of a disadvantage. Works best when you need it least. It’ll grow brighter at night if you tap it. Otherwise, it seems to somehow reflect sunlight, even through ice and earth. No one understands why. At maximum heat, a star stone will last several weeks, so only do that for emergencies. Six taps just to take the chill out of a room. Using it that way, it’ll last maybe a year. Night use drains it more.”

  Kemsu wrapped the star stone back up, and lifted out another food pack. “Dried sonoke strips. Stringy, bitter. Made from old sonoke or wild ones. Better if you melt some butter on it. And then this last pack is seal fat. Tastes pretty good, gives lots of energy. Eat the sonoke first, though. Course, you’ll want to hunt as much as possible while traveling, to keep your supplies up. Someone as scrawny as you, you’ll be eating all the time to stay warm out here.”

  Turesobei took out a strip of dried sonoke and chewed on it. Tasted like old goat, or what he imagined old goat would taste like, and it took him a long time to chew it up. He got it down, and drank from the small canteen they’d given him.

  “Sure you don’t want more?” Kemsu asked with a crooked smile.

  “I had a large breakfast. I’ll eat more tonight. Or if I get cold.”

  “You get cold enough,” Narbenu said, joining them, “and anything will taste good. You’ll see.”

  War Chief Sudorga barked out a command, and everyone returned to their mounts and rode. Turesobei stayed beside Narbenu and asked him questions. He needed to learn everything he could about this place, and fast, if he was going to have any chance of finding a way back home. And it was easier to talk than to worry about Iniru and Shoma.

  “How far out does the continent extend?” he asked. “You mentioned the Westerners and the Fire Mountain — how far away are those places?”

  “Both are many weeks of travel away from here,” Narbenu answered. “The continent extends out to the edge of the world, to the Boundary.”

  “The edge of the world?”

  “If you travel too far, you step out of the Ancient Cold and Deep and into … nothing. Looks like the world keeps going on in the distance. Ice and hills or whatever, like normal. Except you cross over, and then you disappear.”

  “You can’t see the person who crossed the barrier on the other side?”

  Narbenu shook his head. “Nothing looks any different, the person just vanishes.”

  “But how can you step into nothing?”

  Narbenu shrugged. “You take a step past the Boundary, and then you’re gone from this world. Those who go past the Boundary never return.”

  “So there might be something on the other side?”

  “Perhaps. We have no way of actually knowing. But every tale we have says that going past the Boundary means you cease to exist. It’s worse than death.” Narbenu gave him an inquisitive look. “So you don’t have a Boundary in your world?”

  “The continent extends out to the ocean, and if you sail across the ocean, you will find other lands.”

  Narbenu nodded. “Just as the legends tell us. And is it true that your world’s seas are melted ice?”

  “Yep, just water.”

  “Amazing,” Narbenu said. “I can’t even begin to imagine such a thing.”

  Lu Bei popped out of the pack and fluttered ahead. While flying backward, he patted the sonoke on the nose. The beast grunted, and then Lu Bei landed on the back of its head. The sonoke didn’t mind; animals always liked Lu Bei. The other warriors in the party stared at Lu Bei with wide eyes. They muttered amongst themselves. Lu Bei waved at them. A few waved back. A few, including Kemsu, rode a little farther away.

  “Hello, fetch,” Narbenu said.

  “Hello, big furry man. Thought I’d stretch my wings.”

  “Do you want your hat and scarf?” Turesobei asked.

  Lu Bei tilted his head back. “I do not need them. Now, what’s this about a Boundary? If it looks like the world keeps going beyond it, how would you know that you’ve reached it?”

  “You wouldn’t necessarily,” Narbenu said. “You have to be careful. There are giant stone pillars in a lot of places to warn you you’re getting close. And some people who live near the Boundary have built walls in front of it. If you think you’re getting close, best to move away.”

  “How close are we to the Boundary?” Turesobei asked.

  “Sixty leagues to the south and nearly the same to the east. Three hundred fifty to the north and two hundred forty to the west.”

  “Where is the gate?” Lu Bei asked. “North and east of here?”

  “Indeed. The gate is only a few hundred paces from the Eastern Boundary. The Northern Boundary lies beyond the coast of what we call the Glass Sea. An expanse of smooth ice that extends over a hundred leagues beyond the land.”

  Lu Bei stroked his chin. “Master, this world sounds like it’s about the same size as —”

  “Zangaiden?” Zangaiden was a nation in Central Okoro.

  “Indeed, and in our world, the gate was on the Zangaiden side of the Orichomo Mountains. Plus, the distance from the gate to the coast here sounds about the same. I wonder if, under all this ice, the rest of the geography would match as well.”

  “So you think this world is somehow an ice-covered copy of our Zangaiden?”

  “Maybe.” Lu Bei scratched his head. “Although if it’s true, I don’t see how the knowledge does us any good.”

  Narbenu looked at them blankly. None of that would have made any sense to him.

  Turesobei shrugged. “What about the yomon?”

  “The yomon live at the Fire Mountain due north of the Winter Gate. Sometimes the yomon indiscriminately raid other lands and people. We goronku have suffered them many times over the years. Thankfully, the yomon mostly sleep, like the wrait
hs do. Don’t know why they aren’t content at the Fire Mountain, where they live in luxury. What could be so much better in your world that makes them so desperate to go there?”

  “Beyond the plentiful food and forests?” Turesobei said. “That’s simple. Revenge.”

  “We heard about the yomon moving nearer to the gate a few weeks ago. Figured they sensed something was going to happen. No offense to your world, but everyone here hoped they’d move on if the gate ever opened.”

  “I can understand why,” Turesobei said. “What’s in the middle of your land?”

  “The Barrens,” Narbenu said. “It is coldest there, very few hot springs, not much life, not many people. A few caravan routes cross that area, but that’s about it.”

  “No cities or towns?” Turesobei asked.

  “You mean big villages? There are a few big villages in the West. That’s rare, though. Mostly it’s like our region everywhere, with tiny villages based around hot springs. A bit different here, in that the goronku villages are interspersed with reitsu villages which aren’t built at hot springs.”

  “No giant temples or anything like that?”

  Narbenu shook his head. “No temples. There is the Forbidden Library, though. It’s on an island that lies on the Glass Sea.”

  Lu Bei batted his wings, his eyes wide. “That sounds promising.”

  “If there was information anywhere about returning to my world,” said Turesobei, “it would probably be there, right?”

  “I’d guess so,” Narbenu replied. “But it’d be nearly impossible for you to reach it. The trek would be incredibly dangerous, not to mention the important part about its accessibility.”

  “You mean the forbidden part?” Lu Bei said.

  “Legend says that no one is permitted to enter the library,” said Narbenu.

  “Then why have one?” said Lu Bei.

  Narbenu shrugged. “I’ve no idea. From what I’ve heard, demons guard it.”

  The wind kicked up. The color of the sun deepened from rose to crimson to blood as it began to set. The temperature dropped rapidly. Turesobei shivered.