The Bearer's Burden (Phantom Pact Book 1)

by Chad Queen

Ashlyn picked up the ring. It seemed familiar, but she could not place why she felt that way.

  Jace noticed her looking at the ring. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Please be careful with it, though, it is one of a kind.”

  Ashlyn was intrigued. “There was only one ever made? Why?”

  Jace shrugged. “From what we know about the Ancients that mined here, Rynthium was the most important ore. It is exceedingly rare; a single grain of the stuff can fetch a handsome price on the open market. They took the secrets of how to mine the metal with them when they left. Most of the mines the Ancients left behind are completely tapped out. When we do try to mine what few deposits we find, the drill sparks a chain reaction, turning the entire vein to dust. How the Ancients manipulated it is still a mystery to us.”

  Ashlyn had seen artifacts left behind by the Ancients that had small amounts of Rynthium embedded in them. But an entire ring’s worth? She had never seen anything like it.

  Jace continued, “I’d imagine we could buy our own kingdom with that ring.”

  Ashlyn’s eyes grew wide, and the ring slipped from her fingers to the floor.

  Jace scrambled to catch it and placed it out of her reach, giving her a disapproving look.

  “It’s worth that much?”

  Jace nodded. “At least. Between you and I, I believe it is a key to help us fight the Wraiths.”

  “It’s a weapon?”

  Jace shrugged. “Maybe. I did find references in the Book of the Traveler that talk about the Bearers and the rings that they wore. Already we have discovered the eight prime Bearer metals mentioned throughout the book. It is said in the book, however, that the Traveler himself wore a ring that was unlike the other Bearers’.”

  “Do you really think the ring was worn by the Traveler himself?”

  He patted a large leather-bound book bursting with loose pages beside him. “That’s what my research says. Now if it would only contain a reference to Eos, we’d be getting somewhere.”

  Ashlyn noticed a thin but colorful book on the table. It read Tales from the Forgotten Hells. She grinned as she picked up the book, its cover depicting a group of small children running from a shadowy figure. “Are you hoping to find Eos in old fairy tales?”

  Jace shrugged. “I know it’s a long shot, but if there is one thing I have learned from my research, it is that you can never dismiss a story outright.”

  Ashlyn furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

  “Every story has a truth to it. Even something as fantastical as folklore has a history lurking within.”

  Ashlyn giggled. “You’re saying the Forgotten Hells are real?”

  Jace was undeterred. “What I’m saying is that maybe there is more truth to them than we give them credit for. Do you know when these tales were first recorded?”

  Ashlyn shook her head.

  “They were carried and adapted from a tale that originated in the cradle of civilization itself, long before explorers even knew the land of Chalice existed. Nobody knows who even wrote the tale.”

  “Really?” Ashlyn asked, cocking her head to the side.

  “Yes!” Jace exclaimed. He seemed to grow more animated whenever she showed interest, gesticulating with his eyes growing wider. “Now bear with me, but what if we were to suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine that the Forgotten Hells were a message from the Ancients? What if they were trying to tell us something?”

  “That’s ridiculous. Why would they make up stories about things like the Nine Doors of Hell?”

  Jace’s shoulders slumped, and he let out a slow sigh. “I don’t know. Cade seems convinced we must find this Eos, whoever or whatever it is. I’m just trying to find any lead I can.”

  Ashlyn noticed his expression soften when he mentioned Cade. “You said you both came from Gallance. Did you and Cade grow up together?”

  Jace, who had already buried his nose back into his notes, looked up. “Yes, he and I have known each other since childhood. Why do you ask?”

  “Can you…” She hesitated. She didn’t feel she could ask Cade directly, and since they were going to all be working together, she felt she had to know. “Can you tell me what happened to Cade?”

  Jace paused and then sighed. “Of course, you don’t know. Cade is not really a talkative one, at least not as much as he used to be. Here, let me fetch us something to drink.”

  Ashlyn took a seat, and Jace put two small glasses on the table and removed the cork from a small decanter of golden brown liquid. He poured a little into each glass, looked at his glass again, and then poured double the original amount.

  “The side of the story everyone hears is the happy side: Cade charges into battle against an army led by a Wraith, kills said Wraith, prompting the signing of the Accord that ends the war. Cade is named the ‘Protector of the Realm’ and everyone lives happily ever after.”

  Jace downed the entire glass.

  “Here’s the part no one talks about. Cade, after his service in our good King’s Army, headed home. It should have been a hero’s welcome. And it would have been, too; the banners were up, the bandstands built, and a huge feast lay prepared and ready. Instead, he was greeted by an empty village.”

  Just like Barnage. “It was taken.”

  He nodded. “It was the first time a town had been taken. He went to his house to look for his wife and two children, but they were not there.”

  Ashlyn reached for her glass and swallowed the contents. It burned her throat, but she kept herself from coughing.

  Jace poured more into the glasses. “He formed pacts that day with the phantoms of his children. Ever since then, his sole purpose for living has been to avenge them.”

  “What about his wife?”

  “Serafina? Her phantom did not remain. But even with two phantoms, it is too much for one mind to bear. I just hope the madness doesn’t take him.”

  “Madness? You mean from having too many phantoms?” Ashlyn said as she remembered Karessa and her breakdown during the Taction.

  “It’s sometimes referred to as ‘Bearer’s Burden.’ Even carrying one pact takes a huge toll on one’s mind. The Bearer becomes unable to tell the difference between their thoughts and the thoughts of the phantom. In a way, they begin to lose their identity, and they no longer understand who they really are. The only way to prevent ‘Bearer’s Burden’ is with Nocturne. It became hugely popular among Bearers during the Wraith War, because they could form multiple Pacts that would allow them to perform additional encodings in the field, which meant staying alive. Now that Bearers are all but shunned, there is virtually no market for it anymore. Pretty soon it will be gone.”

  Ashlyn broke in, “What…what will happen to him?”

  “Nothing good. He’s addicted, no question, and he needs a lot of it for it to be effective. From what I’ve heard, some users don’t wake up after a dose.”

  Ashlyn grew quiet for a second. “Jace…back in Barnage, I saw Cade shoot an unarmed man who had surrendered to him.”

  Jace sighed, taking a sip before speaking again. “Cade is a fiercely protective person—always has been. His entire life has been defined by that one quality. When he was unable to protect his own family, well, he stopped taking any chances with those in his care.”

  They were both silent for a moment when they heard the bedroom door creak open.

  “Well, good morning, sunshine!” Jace said as he gathered up the glasses and put them away, as if the conversation never happened. “Are you sure you should be up so soon?”

  Cade nodded. “Good as new. Any luck?”

  Jace shook his head.

  A knock sounded at the door. A moment later, two short knocks followed. Jace hurried to open the door, but no one was there. As if it were a normal course of his day, Jace grabbed the note that had been pinned to the door and began reading. “Uh-oh.”

  “What does it say?” asked Cade.

  Jace snatched the large leather book he had been reading and stuffed more papers into it
. “It says we’re leaving right now. Damn. I wish we had more time. I’m going to miss this place.” He picked up a length of thin rope, which he began tying around the large grain sacks that littered the great room.

  Ashlyn, who stood next to one of the sacks, looked at Cade, but he seemed just as clueless as her. She leaned over and sniffed and stepped away from the bag. She knew that odor well from the game hunts she had attended back at the castle. Gunpowder. “You wired this place to explode? I was sitting next to a bag of gunpowder?”

  All Jace managed was a sheepish grin. “Sorry. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting you.” He fastened a spring-loaded fire starter to the door and tied the rope to it. “I hope they don’t come looking for me here. It’d be a shame to lose all this.” He looked at Cade and Ashlyn. “I suggest we take the back door.”

  14

  The Bluewash

  A Rynth man, Vanter Badgens, after visiting the Bluewash, was arrested for disturbing the peace today. He was observed forcibly grabbing and detaining passersby and raving about the existence of a large, moving island. When asked for a statement about his actions, the man continued his rant. “It’s real, I tell you. A floating island! I was there! Why won’t you spoony bastards—” He has been incarcerated at the Rynth jail until his hearing next month.

  —From the Rynth Security Force Weekly Blotter

  “We’re lost,” Cade said, looking at the map. They had managed to bribe a local railbus operator in Rynth to drop them just short of their destination. Jace’s route had led them to the rocky shores of the Bluewash, one of the Ancient-created lakes just south of Rynth.

  “Nonsense,” Jace said, snatching the map from Cade.

  Ashlyn crouched over the water’s edge, peering into its depths. “Look at this!”

  Cade looked over and saw the water of the lake was perfectly clear, allowing a full view all the way to the bottom. “It’s not very blue.”

  Ashlyn stood up and scowled at him.

  “You really have never been to the Foundation before?”

  Jace tapped his chin as he looked at the map. “No, I only recently had the location revealed to me. The Foundation is very secretive. Hmmm, this is where the coordinates say to go. I’m absolutely positive.” He pulled out a paper with the translation he had made. “From the looks of it, we should be near the town of…Krek.”

  “There wasn’t any town on the map,” said Cade, seeing no sign of a town. A thick fog that hung like a heavy wool blanket over the lake was not helping with visibility.

  “It wouldn’t be, now would it? It’s a secret,” Jace offered, undeterred. Cade just shook his head.

  A fishing boat broke free from the fog and eased its way to the small dock nearby.

  “Let’s go ask that fisherman,” Jace said as he marched forward.

  The fisherman was tying up the boat when they approached.

  “Hello, there!” Jace said, walking up to the man. “We’re looking for a town that should be near here.” The man eyed them for a moment and shook his head.

  Cade could tell the man was not native to Chalice and had some trouble understanding them. By the man’s dark olive skin, Cade guessed he was from Hakken.

  Jace persisted. “Gentle sir, I have it on good authority—”

  “Are you Krek?” Ashlyn cut in.

  The man hesitated, looking at the party, and nodded.

  “See? Krek is a person, not a town. Simple clerical error,” said Jace, turning to Cade. “Not lost.”

  Cade didn’t get a good feeling from the silent man, who refused to look Cade in the eye. He wasn’t sure if the years had made him too paranoid, or if he was finally paranoid enough. But for a secret organization trying to stay hidden, who better to use as a guide than someone who most people would never bother to ask? After some crude pantomiming and repetition, the man nodded again and motioned for them to board his vessel.

  The ship reeked of fish, but the ride was smooth. Jace and Ashlyn retreated below deck, but Cade needed some air and chose to remain on deck. He still didn’t quite feel himself after encoding with the ring. He should have taken more time to recover, but with towns on the interior of the Pathways being taken, time was not on their side.

  There was no telling how long it would take for them to arrive, so Cade turned his thoughts to the ring. A ring worth an entire kingdom. He could not believe the ring that had been passed down through the Coda Grandmasters was really the ring worn by the Traveler himself. But how else could you explain a ring made entirely of Rynthium?

  The thought of how he had slipped into the Firmere when he put the ring on unsettled him. It was difficult to encode with a new material, yet he had encoded with Rynthium without even thinking about it. If they were going to use the ring to their advantage, he would have to learn how to control it. He slipped on the ring and focused on the material. As he began encoding, the material pressed tight against his hand. The first stage of encoding called the object to the Bearer. The second stage required physical contact, which would allow the Bearer to assume the inherent essence of the material. Every material had an essence. Some were dangerous, like sandstone, which would make the bearer brittle. Others could be very useful, like aluminum, which would make the Bearer lighter. Not every material could be encoded, and some only with great skill, which could exhaust the Bearer’s phantom before anything meaningful could be done. Although they weren’t sure why, the easiest materials to encode were metals.

  This metal, however, was already second nature to him. Cade held back from encoding to the second stage. If he could master that, he could wear the ring on his hand without endangering himself. Cade couldn’t help but feel excited about encoding with a new material. He remembered back to when he first learned the core materials from his father at the Coda temple. He could hear his father’s voice:

  “Good. I can see you focusing on the element. Do you feel the metal pushing on your hand? Remember—you cannot force an encoding. You must know it, understand it. Everything has a purpose. You have a purpose, though you do not know it yet. So does a tree, so does the wind, and so does this ring. You need to understand what that purpose is. Only then will it let you borrow its power.”

  Cade smiled at the memory. The older he got, the more his memory betrayed him, but some memories were too strong to be smoothed away by the rapids of time.

  He turned back to the task at hand. What was the purpose of Rynthium? He, like the rest of the world, knew very little about it. The Ancients didn’t leave a lot of it behind, much less any clues about it. Cade thought back to the Book of the Traveler. The ring was mentioned only once. Why was the Traveler the only one with a ring like this? What did he use it for?

  He couldn’t help but think it was linked to the Wraiths. Why else would the Traveler possess it? He had taught the Ancients how to fight the Wraiths, so perhaps it helped provide a tactical advantage. It had to be a weapon. All the more reason to master its usage.

  Cade soon found he could keep himself from fully encoding the ring while wearing it. Maybe the last time was a fluke?

  “How are you feeling?” Jace said. He was leaning against the railing of the ship, looking at Cade, eyes wide with interest. “I saw you wearing the ring again. I told you to tell me next time you did so I can take notes. You realize this is a clear disregard of the scientific process.”

  Cade smiled.

  “I’m serious! I think…” He stopped in mid-sentence and raised his hand, pointing to land. “Is that…?” Cade would have missed it if Jace hadn’t pointed it out. The island itself was very flat…too flat, and was only a few feet above the water line.

  Ashlyn, who had emerged from the cabin, hurried to the railing. “Vanter Island!”

  The mysterious floating island of the Bluewash was the subject of many heated debates about whether it existed it all.

  “That answers that,” Jace said, transfixed as he studied the floating myth.

  They thanked the quiet fisherman after he brought them ash
ore. As Cade disembarked, he was surprised to find that his first step onto the surface of the island was rock solid. With both feet on the island, he didn’t feel any rocking or movement of any kind. If he didn’t know any better, he would have guessed it wasn’t floating at all. The earth felt hard underfoot, and the foliage gave the illusion that it was land like any other.

  A narrow path led from the dock and into a large forest of towering trees, which was in stark contrast to the scrubbier plants on the edge of the island. Jace led the way, beaming, even though he had never been here before. Jace had always carried within him the undying spark of an adventurer. Cade couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy that something like this could bring the man so much joy. Cade had felt that way too, once.

  They came to a clearing within the forest and found themselves at the entrance of what looked to be a small village. There were a handful of buildings, and Cade was surprised to see they were in the modern architectural style one might find in a city like Solak or Toltaire.

  There were people hurrying between buildings; they didn’t seem to notice the new arrivals. Cade looked at Jace, who shrugged. He noticed two women talking in the street near the entrance, and upon noticing them, they waved enthusiastically. A young, athletic woman with long blond hair, who looked to be in her early twenties, bid farewell to the person she was talking with and approached their group.

  She offered a hand bearing gold-painted fingernails that shone like polished gems. She seemed genuinely excited to see them, her face beaming with exuberant energy. “Hello! You must be Jace Exile. I have heard so much about you. I’m so excited to finally have a face to put to the name.” She turned to Ashlyn. “And you must be the lovely benefactor of the Order, Princess Ashlyn Winshire. It is truly an honor for you to visit our humble city.” Seeing Cade, her voice went up another octave. “And you are the Cade Elegy of legend, but everyone knows that. It seems I am meeting the forgers of history itself today! We’ve been expecting you.”

  They were all caught off guard by how much the woman already knew. They had sent no notice of their arrival. And they should have just been expecting Jace. We were sloppy, Cade thought. He was still not paranoid enough.