Salindra’s mouth worked slowly before she could speak. “This man has been stealing the abilities from the Magi for uncountable centuries? How is that possible? The gods would have prevented that.”
“It is the same person, I assure you. And he has not stolen only from the Mageborn. His own life began long before your people appeared.”
“Why?” Salindra said. “How?”
“The how is an easier answer, I think.” Brohmin pointed toward her tattoos. “You have experienced it firsthand. And Jakob has seen the results.”
“The Deshmahne markings?” he asked.
Brohmin nodded.
“I thought it just gave them strength, speed,” Jakob said.
A flash of anger came to Brohmin’s eyes. “It depends on who it is stolen from. I don’t know Raime’s capacity, only that after all these years, he has become something else, and quite powerful.”
“And he is the High Priest?” Salindra asked. “How do you know?”
“Even if I doubted, his animosity toward the Urmahne, the Magi, reveals him if his face does not.”
“Why now?” Jakob asked.
“Why, indeed?” Brohmin asked. “Until now, he has been kept at bay, afraid of those who could still cause him harm.”
“The gods?” Salindra asked.
“They are not gods,” he said gently, “but yes.”
Jakob felt his head swimming. Dreams and visions coming to the forefront of his mind. Always a face, always the same one, and he knew. Suddenly, his strange visions made sense.
“She is the last,” he said, somehow knowing it was true.
Brohmin looked at him strangely. “She is.”
“The last?” Salindra interjected. “The last of the gods?” She looked between Jakob and Brohmin and did not get an answer. “Is this why they have not been seen?”
“Perhaps not by the Magi, but others know her still,” Brohmin said.
“A goddess?” Salindra asked. “You speak as if you know her!”
“I do,” he answered. “I have known her since before she was the last, when her heart was carefree. Now… she feels the weight of her burden.”
“She prepares for something, doesn’t she?” Jakob asked. “That’s why she sent the trunk north.”
Brohmin sighed. “She has known more than the rest of us. Her kind have a gift, a way of peering along what they call the fibers of time, and she has seen this to be necessary. Endric was tasked with this by the Conclave,” he nodded toward the trunk lying just at the edge of their circle. “And he felt that it should be passed on to Jakob. Perhaps he was right to trust you.”
“He didn’t intend for it to be me carrying the trunk,” Jakob said. “There were to be Denraen carrying the trunk to Avaneam.”
“Endric sits upon the Conclave for a reason. Though he may have initially been tasked with the trunk’s safety, he passed that on to you.”
“If the High Priest attacks now,” Jakob started, thinking of what he’d seen in his dreams, “there’s something he plans.”
“Destruction is what he plans. And with Alyta having limited time remaining, he knows that removing her would leave none to stop him.”
“What can we do?” Salindra asked.
Brohmin looked around, staring off toward the forest for long moments. “There was something about the trunk that she wanted protected more than it could be in the Tower. That is why she sent it to Avaneam. I am not certain why.”
“You’re on the Conclave!” Salindra said.
“I serve, but she leads. There is a difference.”
“Why couldn’t a goddess bring it herself?” Salindra asked.
Brohmin shook his head. “I don’t know if she could, or whether she thought it safer if she did not, or if there is another reason, one she saw but the rest of us do not know.”
“Then why here?” Jakob asked. “What is in the Unknown Lands?”
Brohmin’s face clouded a moment, then he nodded toward the trees. “Perhaps they can tell you.”
Both Jakob and Salindra turned to look.
Coming from the trees were two figures. They moved fluidly, with a grace he could not describe, and he knew they weren’t human.
Chapter Fourteen
Jakob stared at Brohmin, a question hanging on his lips, before turning his gaze back to the forest and the figures moving toward them. They moved quickly and approached faster than should have been possible. It was as if one moment they were far away, the next they were nearly before them.
Jakob could tell little about them. He guessed at their height, but wasn’t certain he gauged it well. They seemed to blink in and out of existence as they walked, flickering in a sense. The simple shirts and pants they wore were exotic; bright colors flowing into one another, crashing and overlapping and becoming another color so that it was hard to separate them from the forest. They carried no weapons.
“What are they?” Salindra whispered. They were almost to them now.
“They are called daneamiin,” Brohmin answered. “They will give us answers.”
The word flowed from the man’s mouth in a way that only the ancient language did. Jakob repeated the word, feeling how it slid along his tongue. Something about it sparked a memory; something about the way it felt on his lips was familiar. Then he knew.
“My sword,” he whispered, looking to his side. The sword was sheathed as usual. “Novan told me it was called Neamiin.”
“I know.” It was all that Brohmin would say.
“What kind of answers?” Salindra asked.
“The kind that will explain the reason we are here.”
Jakob turned back to the daneamiin. They were no more than ten paces away.
They were tall, much taller than he and even taller than Salindra. Both heads were bald, eyebrows and all. There was something strange about their eyes; they were set wider apart than his own, large like a curious child’s, and when they blinked, their eyelids shut sideways, toward their noses. Long eyelashes were the only hair he saw.
Jakob suddenly realized that as he stared at them, they were doing the same to him. He smiled, unsure what else to do.
“We ask shelter in your forest,” Brohmin said. “We ask for comfort among the trees.”
One of the daneamiin nodded. “Shelter is not ours to give, nor comfort. Only the trees can decide.”
The sound of their words was musical, much like those of the gods in his dreams. The quality of his voice was smooth, silky, and yet there was something indescribably more. It was hypnotic. He felt as though, if he let himself, he would drift off, his mind wandering, floating like the grass in the field.
He shook his head to clear it and realized something else about the ritual to their greeting: Brohmin had known it. None were to have ever been to the Unknown Lands, so how could he have known?
“You are welcome among us, Brohmin Ulruuy,” the other figure spoke.
With the naming, Salindra’s head spun around quickly, turning to stare at Brohmin. Her dark eyes were wide as if surprised, though Jakob did not know why. Brohmin nodded slightly, though he wasn’t sure if it was meant for her or for the daneamiin.
The figures turned toward Salindra, and she managed to stop staring at Brohmin long enough to face them. “You are welcome among us, Salindra Indrianne. You are welcome among us, Jakob Nialsen.”
Everything around them seemed to stop momentarily. The daneamiin appeared to listen, their strange heads cocked to one side, as if there was something only they could hear. Finally, they both nodded slowly. “The trees grant you shelter.”
With those words, everything seemed to resume. The daneamiin looked to Brohmin expectantly.
“Your welcome warms me,” Brohmin said.
Salindra looked at Brohmin for a moment before repeating, “Your welcome warms me.”
The daneamiin turned to Jakob and waited. He looked around and again noticed the translucent haze that covered the grass. The same haze flowed around the trees, the flowers,
and even the daneamiin. As he studied it, he saw that Brohmin and Salindra had something much like it, though theirs were both tinged with color and seemed to almost shimmer. It was as if what covered them, though similar, was weaker than what he saw everywhere else around him. To his surprise, even the trunk resting now at his feet seemed to rest in a haze.
It was the energy—the aura—that he saw around the gods in his dreams. How was it that he now saw it so clearly?
It didn’t surround everything. A bird cawing as it flew overhead wasn’t surrounded in the same haze. The few rocks he saw scattered about the ground were not surrounded by it either.
Looking to the daneamiin, seeing the pale haze surrounding them, he felt its warmth. Jakob could almost feel it pull at him, and it resonated with something of him. He looked down at himself, at his arms, and saw that he, too, had an energy surrounding him. Where the haze about Salindra and Brohmin seemed weak, shimmering in and out, what he saw about him was different. Different even from that around the daneamiin. His seemed thick, milky, and was touched by much more color than that around Brohmin and Salindra.
Was he dreaming? That had been the only time he’d detected anything like this. Hadn’t he wanted to be like Jarren Gildeun? Was this his mind providing that for him?
The daneamiin waited silently for him to answer.
“Your welcome warms me,” he finally answered.
The daneamiin nodded then, looking to him then to Salindra before one spoke. “Come then, our path unwinds before us.” With the words, they turned and headed back toward the forest.
With Brohmin leading, they started off.
Jakob followed the daneamiin in silence. It could have been moments, or it could have been days. It was difficult to keep track of. The daneamiin seemed to follow some sort of path, though Jakob could not make it out. Directly in front of him as he walked, it was obvious, but not much past that. Turning to look behind him, he saw no sign of the path or their passing. They could not have found their way without the guides.
The forest surrounding them grew thicker until sunlight no longer filtered through the trees. Moving deeper into the forest, Jakob continued to see the energy of the trees, the shrubs, everything around him, and felt it as it pulled at his own. He could almost taste the sweet smell of decay from the leaves on the forest floor that mixed with the fragrance of the flowers on the trees. It was not unpleasant.
Occasionally, he saw animals within the forest, none seeming afraid. What looked to be a deer simply stared at him as they passed, while what resembled a dog looked up from nibbling at some grasses before licking its lips and returning to its business. Huge insects that flittered by with brightly colored wings seemed annoyed by their passage.
Slowly, the familiar itch, the feeling of being watched, returned. He had not felt it since awakening in these strange lands. Jakob looked around, but saw nothing. The feeling did not leave. Readjusting the trunk slung on his back, he walked on and tried to ignore it.
After walking for a while longer, the silence and his curiosity of the daneamiin overcame him. He quickened his steps and was soon walking next to the daneamiin. Brohmin watched him as he passed, a trace of an amused smile on his face, and Salindra hurried her steps to match, and they were soon walking in a tight cluster.
“I am Jakob Nialsen,” he said, unsure what else to say.
One of the daneamiin nodded. “We know you, Jakob Nialsen.”
“And I am Salindra Indrianne, of the Magi,” Salindra said.
“We know you, Salindra Indrianne,” came the response from the second daneamiin.
“How do you know me?” she asked softly.
One of the daneamiin turned to her then. Strange eyes peered at her deeply. “The fibers spoke of your coming.”
A sour expression briefly crossed Salindra’s face. A few moments of silence passed until Salindra again spoke. “Since you know us, may we know what you are called?”
One of the daneamiin spoke. “I am Chollin om’Daysma sen’Johmi.” The words came out quickly, flowing from his mouth in the ancient language.
The other daneamiin followed suit. “I am Elin om’Yanda sen’Urin.”
Jakob tried repeating the names to himself and found the task difficult.
“I am pleased to know you, Chollin om’Daysma sen’Johmi. And you, Elin om’Yanda sen’Urin.” Salindra seemed able to repeat their names easily.
The daneamiin seemed to laugh. “You may call me Chollin.”
“Elin,” answered the other.
These names Jakob thought he could master. “Where do we travel?” he asked.
Both Chollin and Elin smiled, barely wrinkling their hairless features. “We travel to our home,” Elin answered.
“When will we arrive?” Salindra asked, excitement in her voice unrestrained.
Chollin turned and looked at her then, with an expression on his face that Jakob could only call confusion. “We have already reached its edges,” he answered.
He looked around, not sure how they could be at the edge of a city. Everything was still dense forest to his eyes. “We have?”
Brohmin laughed, and the daneamiin looked at him a moment before nodding. Their gaze swept up to the branches of the trees. Following their gaze, Jakob stared as he saw shapes in the branches that he hadn’t seen before. Structures were hidden high overhead. He almost convinced himself that he saw movement, too, though wasn’t sure of it. The trunks of a few of the larger trees had lines etched into them that looked much like doorways.
“You live in the trees?” Jakob finally asked. Salindra simply stared wordlessly.
“No,” he answered. “We live with the trees.”
“How is that different?” he asked.
“We could not live without the permission of the trees,” Elin said, nodding toward the treetops.
Jakob looked up, again catching a glimpse of movement and structures high above him. He saw the flow of the energy around him, the daneamiin, Salindra, and around the trees. It was getting easier for him to see it, requiring less concentration to come into focus, now just another part of everything he saw. Almost underlying everything he looked at, if he stared long enough. The energy pulsated slowly, and he felt the pounding in his head in sync.
“What do you call the energy that surrounds everything?” Jakob asked the question hesitatingly, unsure what he was seeing, unsure how he was seeing it, or even if it was real.
Brohmin stared at him curiously. “What do you see?” he asked.
He shook his head, uncertain how to explain.
Elin saved him from explaining. “Everything around us has an inner force,” he began. “It is what we call its ahmaean,” he said, turning to glance at Brohmin. “It is what drives everything. That which gives life and is life. If the ahmaean is bright enough, some can see it radiating from within.”
“Much in this land is bright,” Chollin offered, nodding to the trees.
Ahmaean? How is it that I can see it?
It wasn’t the first time that he had. When he’d seen the creatures—the groeliin—he’d seen it around them. And it had been there in his visions as well.
The daneamiin said that some could see it, but judging from Salindra’s expression, it seemed that she could not. Could Brohmin? His face was unreadable, and Jakob was left to wonder. How was it that he could?
What was happening to him?
The thought lingered, unanswered, and they walked a while longer in silence. Occasionally, a sound from above or the call of a bird would disturb the noise of their progress, but it was rare.
“We are not separate from the forest,” Elin continued after a while. “We are a part of it and live with it.” He looked at Jakob and then Salindra. “We do not take anything that is not offered to us, and we take only that which we need.”
“How many daneamiin are there?” Salindra asked.
Elin considered the question a moment and then looked to Chollin. “Too many to count, I suppose.”
“Too many to count throughout this land?” she questioned further.
Elin looked at her then nodded. “Yes.”
“How many live within the city?” she asked.
Chollin shrugged again. “Too many to count there, as well.”
Salindra’s face went white. Jakob suspected the Magi had never considered that what lived in these lands could rival the numbers in the known land.
“How can all of you get enough?” Salindra asked.
“The land provides,” Elin answered.
“How long have you been here?”
It was Chollin who answered. “We left the plains long ago.” Salindra watched him, as if waiting for more, but it was all the answer he would offer.
“When?” Salindra asked, and was silenced when Brohmin laid a hand on her arm. Salindra ignored him. “How did you come to these lands?”
“There was a time long ago when we lived with your people,” Elin said. “Men enjoyed fighting too much for us, enjoyed hurting each other more than we could bear to watch.”
Chollin continued for him. “Our people moved to these lands. Some followed us here, trying to bring us into their struggles, and so our lands were broken from each other.”
Questions raced through Jakob’s mind, but he didn’t get a chance to ask them. Three other daneamiin emerged from within the forest to join them as they walked. He hadn’t seen them or heard them approach. They were simply there. He looked around to see where they’d come from, but found no sign of it. Chollin and Elin slowed them to a stop.
One of the new daneamiin looked at them. “You are welcome among us, Brohmin Ulruuy.”
Brohmin nodded, and there was the same strange fleeting expression to Salindra’s eyes.
“You are welcome among us, Salindra Indrianne,” the daneamiin continued. “You are welcome among us, Jakob Nialsen.” The voice was higher than either Chollin’s or Elin’s. Her head was as bald as the others.
Giving them no time to reply, she turned and led them forward. Chollin and Elin followed. Jakob suddenly realized that he could see light through the trees overhead again and realized they must be thinning out. A clearing of the trees in the distance grew larger, and their pace increased.
The Warrior Mage (The Lost Prophecy Book 2) Page 13
