Warrior: The War Chronicles I

by Sean Golden

  “Why didn’t you shoot it?” Jerok asked, his voice revealing a hint of anger.

  “Shoot it?” Lirak was incredulous. “I didn’t even think about shooting it.”

  “Why not? Did you forget your bow?” Jerok asked.

  “Probably would have just lost an arrow,” Toldek muttered.

  Lirak touched the bow that was obviously slung across his shoulder. “No, you can see that I didn’t. I didn’t want to shoot it. It … wasn’t right,” he ended lamely.

  Jerok looked hard at Lirak. “This is why you’re a stone-chipper Lirak,” he snapped.

  Gawn intervened “Hey Jerok, that’s not fair. I’ve seen you pass up shots before, and so have I. You know how it is; sometimes it’s just not there. Take it easy.”

  Jerok nodded slowly “Yes, that’s true. But this drives me crazy; that was a big animal! Big enough to feed the village for days.” He paused and turned to Lirak. “I’m sorry Lirak; I know you’re still a boy. When you’re a man you’ll understand what it is to have a duty to the village. One elk is like three deer.” The smile on Jerok’s face seemed insincere to Lirak.

  Gawn looked at Jerok “You’re being too hard on him Jerok, besides he’s not even a hunter, and he makes excellent arrowheads, you use them yourself. He already does his share and he won’t be a man until next summer. We’re Luh-Yi hunters, not Lirak. Let’s go do our job and bring back this giant elk and we can all tell the village how Lirak found it, and then we stalked it and killed it with Lirak’s arrowheads. It will be a good story.” Gawn grinned, already forming in his head the tale he would spin at the evening fire.

  With that they started to follow the tracks.

  “You won’t find it,” Lirak said, immediately wishing he hadn’t spoken.

  Jerok jerked to a stop, turned and began to speak, but Gawn reached out a hand and put it on his shoulder. “Come on Jerok, let’s go do our job, you’re the one who brought up duty.”

  “Yeah, but that’s the kind of thing he says that drives me crazy! Like he knows something. I hate it.” Jerok sent one final blistering look at Lirak and then turning, the three hunters faded into the forest.

  Lirak no longer wanted to hunt. He returned to the village, saying nothing to anyone about the incident yet, although he knew he had to see Kodul about the vision. Instead he went to Bok’s hut and sat on his stool outside the hut, working on his knife blade. His thoughts were soon lost to the monotonous repetition of flaking tiny chips off the edge of the stone, slowly and carefully turning the shiny black stone into a sharp, deadly blade. As the sun was finally setting directly above The Gap, Lirak saw Gawn and Jerok come into the green, each carrying a deer carcass across their broad shoulders, and both laughing and strutting with their trophies. Lirak smiled and returned to his blade chipping.

  Sampt Speaks

  The Seven were once as one, in harmony with one another. But there was conflict even in heaven. Vurl’s rule was challenged and war reigned. Rysdun at first sided with the unNamed one, but in the end it was Rysdun whose trickery allowed Vurl to imprison the evil one. But Vurl did not escape unscathed.

  – Dwon oral tradition

  Standing in the center of the elders hut, Lirak told them about the great white beast and the vision of the man in the stone room.

  “The beast you saw is known to us,” Kodul said. “There are two such beasts which belong to Kathoias. This is important news. There can be no more doubt but that Kathoias has chosen you for something.”

  “What if the man I saw was my father?” Lirak said.

  “Vorik has been gone a long time.” Kodul looked at Lirak with sympathy. “Visions such as this are difficult to understand. Sometimes they can show the past from long ago. Sometimes they show a future that may yet come to pass. I don’t think it would be good to tell Soonya about this.” He paused, stroking the skin of his chin with long fingers. “Have you told anyone of your journey?”

  “No.” Lirak looked down. “You told me to wait until my Ko’Teraka.”

  “Tell me what you remember of your task,” Kodul said.

  “I must travel to the edge of the forest, climb over The Gap to the west and locate the firestones you need.” Lirak paused. “The journey will take most of a moon cycle to complete.”

  “Lirak, this is the dream I had, and it is the same test I once had to pass. The need for firestones is real; we must not run out of them, they protect the village in more ways than you know.” Kodul took a deep breath, “But there is more to this journey than the stones. Kathoias, the goddess of the wild, will test you.” Kodul slipped off his leather shirt and Lirak saw deep scars running down his chest to his navel, four parallel white lines standing out from the pale flesh. “You must be careful, the test nearly killed me. Kathoias marks her chosen.”

  Lirak had never thought of Kodul as a young man, but the shock of seeing the scars sent a sudden vision in his mind. Kodul, young, powerful and confident, strode through an oddly different forest where the tree trunks were small and white. A huge form of muscle, claw and teeth appeared from nowhere, knocking Kodul to the ground and pouncing on top of him while Kodul slashed out with his stone knife. The vision vanished from Lirak’s mind.

  “Lirak, dreams can be the way the gods speak to us.” Kodul hesitated. “I have had troubling dreams of my own. The great bear that you killed isn’t normally found in our forest, but it is found far to the east in large numbers. We have seen birds flying overhead that are also from the east. Something is happening that is disturbing the forest.” Kodul’s voice dropped and grew quiet. “A dark cloud is in the east, and I fear it is coming this way.”

  “So do you want me to head to the east to find out?” Lirak asked, although he knew the answer.

  “No. We have sent others to the east. You must go west as we planned.”

  There was a long pause in the hut as Lirak waited for more explanation, but Kodul seemed lost in thought and said no more. After a while Lirak raised an eyebrow toward Traze and Chutan.

  “When do I go?” Lirak asked.

  “You will leave as soon as the snows melt from the Gap and the way is clear,” Chutan replied.

  “Snow?” Lirak asked confused, “There is no snow yet, and even if there was, snow is nothing to slow a man on a journey.”

  “In the mountains the snow falls early and it piles high. If you left today you would not be able to get to the firestones and back before the Gap was filled with snow so deep you could not move through it,” Kodul said.

  Lirak’s mind didn’t fully grasp this, but he knew not to question the elders.

  “So, until then, I wait?”

  “Yes,” Kodul said. “And grow some more, and hone your hunting skills, although I hear you probably don’t need much honing there.”

  Again there was a long pause as Lirak waited for more information. Kodul seemed unwilling to talk, but neither did he dismiss Lirak. After some time the silence became uncomfortable.

  “Is there more you need to tell me?” Lirak finally asked.

  Kodul nodded. “We told you that something was disturbing the forest to the east.”

  Lirak nodded. “You said you had sent someone to find out.” He said.

  “Yes. More than once,” Chutan paused. “The first we sent last year after Asok noticed the seabirds flying overhead. Glost, Asok’s son, was sent to discover the cause. He has not returned.”

  Lirak glanced quickly at Asok, whose eyes seemed to glisten with unshed tears.

  “Twice more we have sent a scout, neither has returned.” Chutan leaned back in his chair.

  “So we know nothing?” Lirak said.

  “Not quite,” Traze replied. “Though our own scouts have not returned, we have received warnings from Dwon villages to the east.” He paused. There was a moment of silence in the hut as Lirak’s eyes swept from one elder to another. To his surprise Sampt was staring at Traze with something like shock, as if he too were hearing this for the first time.

  “There is g
reat danger and evil to the east.” Asok’s thin voice pierced the silence.

  “If so then he brings it to us!” Sampt pointed at Lirak.

  The sheer hatred in Sampt’s voice stunned Lirak.

  “How could I be the cause of this?” Lirak said.

  “He knows.” Sampt crooked a finger at Chutan. He waved at the other elders. “They all know.”

  Lirak looked at Kodul, confused and worried by the venom in Sampt’s words. “You know?” he asked. “What do you know?”

  Kodul looked at Sampt. “I am disappointed, Sampt,” he said. “You dishonor your duty as an elder.”

  Sampt sneered. “Deny it then!” he glared around the hut. “Or do I have to tell him myself?”

  “Tell me what?” Lirak asked, his mind whirling in confusion.

  Kodul pointed at Sampt. “You will not speak of this.” He looked quickly at the other elders, who nodded briefly. “You will leave now and let us continue.”

  Sampt’s eyes widened in shock. “You can’t do that!” he said, licking his lips as he looked around the hut, but he found no sympathy from the other elders.

  “I can and do,” Kodul said. “Leave now. We will speak about your responsibilities later.”

  Sampt’s one-eyed gaze desperately searched for an ally. “Asok! You are my cousin! You can’t let this happen!”

  “You disgrace this family, cousin,” was all Asok said in reply.

  There was a long silence. Finally Sampt rose from his chair and taking a wide arc around Lirak, headed for the door.

  “You bring the evil on us all.” Sampt hissed as he left the hut.

  There was a long silence in the hut. Kodul returned to his chair. Lirak stood quietly, his mind racing. The world seemed to have gone insane.

  “This didn’t start with the bear,” Lirak finally said. “There is something else.”

  “Yes,” Chutan said. “There is something else.”

  Kodul took a long breath and looked around the room, his gaze lingering on the empty salmon chair.

  Finally he looked at Lirak. “There are those who believe your family is cursed.”

  “Cursed?” Lirak asked. “How?”

  “What do you know about your mother?” Kodul asked

  Lirak’s mind was almost unable to process the question.

  “My mother? She’s my mother! She is a good woman who has lost her husband as I have lost my father!”

  “What has she told you of her past?” Even Traze’s gentle voice could not calm Lirak’s racing heart.

  “What? Her past?” Lirak paused, “She came from a faraway land where she met my father…”

  “How far away?” Chutan asked.

  “How far?” Lirak was confused and lost. “I don’t know, from beyond the forest, isn’t that far enough?”

  “Beyond the forest there are lands and there are lands,” Kodul said.

  “What do you mean?” Lirak said, as he felt a coldness inside his chest.

  “Vorik told the elders that she was a princess from a land beyond the sea,” Kodul said.

  “Beyond the sea?” Lirak had never even thought of what might lie beyond the sea. “What lands lie beyond the sea?”

  Kodul looked down, as if he could not bear to look into Lirak’s eyes. “There is only evil beyond the Dragon Sea,” he finally said.

  “So Sampt, and the others, they think Mother, Soonya, is evil?” Even as the words left his lips, something clicked in Lirak’s mind, as a cold hand grabbed his heart. “No… they think I am evil. They think Vorik brought back an evil seed and it took root in me.”

  There was no need for the elders to confirm his statement; its truth was evident in their faces.

  “But not Jerok…” he finished.

  “Jerok does not dream,” Asok said.

  “Jerok looks like them is what you mean,” Lirak said. “But I don’t. I look like my mother.”

  “What you look like does not matter now,” Kodul said with a sad sigh. “What matters is that Sampt may even now be sowing more hatred in the village.”

  “How many villagers believe as Sampt does?” Lirak asked.

  “Not many,” Asok said. “But their number is growing.”

  “And will grow faster now that Sampt is no longer an elder,” Traze said.

  “Yes, that’s true,” Kodul said.

  Again comprehension dawned on Lirak. “That’s why Sampt was an elder in the first place, isn’t it?” He asked. “You picked him to try to protect me, so that he would not spread his hatred.”

  And again the silence of the elders was all the confirmation Lirak needed.

  “So now what?” Lirak asked.

  “Now we must deal with Sampt. We were fools to think we could change him, but perhaps it did help, for a while.” Kodul’s voice sounded old.

  Lirak had a disquieting thought. “Is the real reason of my task that you hope I don’t return?”

  Kodul stood and walked over to Lirak, placed a gnarled hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. “No Lirak. The task is Kathoias’ command, not ours. We don’t wish to see you die.” He paused for a moment. “I should not tell you this Lirak, but my heart bids me to do so. Kathoias does not choose unwisely. Your destiny is tied to the Gods. Kathoias has her own plans for you. I trust in Kathoias, and as I trust in her, I trust in her choices, as do the other elders.” Traze, Asok and Chutan nodded their heads. “Kathoias does not choose evil men to do her bidding.”

  Lirak nodded, blinking back tears. “Thank you Kodul. I am glad to hear that the elders do not fear me.”

  “We will talk again before you leave,” Kodul finally said.

  “Thank you,” Lirak said, and turned to leave.

  “Enjoy your days in the village until you seek the firestones,” Kodul said, his face and eyes radiating sincerity and concern. “Until then, come to me if you have any more dreams.”

  Rivals

  Rysdun is clever and is the master of magics. Rysdun took the living words of prophecy and carved them in stone to be forever cold and unchanging.

  – Dwon oral tradition

  Those autumn days passed in a haze for Lirak. He could not avoid Mayrie, and eventually he stopped trying. The strange barrier remained between them most days, but some days were almost like the days Lirak remembered before the dreams came. He treasured those days, even as they caused him pain. One night, as the seasons moved from autumn to the first winter chills, Lirak woke from a deep sleep, his mind fuzzy in the darkness. Something had awakened him, but though he strained his ears and lay as quiet as he could, no sound or movement betrayed itself. His body told him that it was deep in the middle of the night, long after any of the villagers would normally be awake. He tried to close his eyes, but instead of falling back into sleep, his mind grew more clear and wakeful until he finally decided that he couldn’t sleep.

  Soonya’s light snoring was the only sound as he quietly located his clothes in the dark and dressed. Quietness was second nature to Lirak after his years of practice in the forest, so Soonya’s sleep was not disturbed as Lirak moved out into the darkness of the village green.

  The moon’s thin crescent was low in the sky, telling him that he had time yet before dawn. His hand reflexively touched the hilt of his stone knife for reassurance as he moved toward the path leading to the forest. The autumn night air was crisp and Lirak fought a sudden chill as a light breeze carried cool moisture from the steaming Fedon River into the forest. The moistness of the air made the forest smells more intense and Lirak breathed deeply, enjoying the earthy richness of the air.

  As he reached the edge of the village, he paused briefly, staring into the intense blackness where the weak light of a waning moon could not reach. As much as he loved the forest, he knew its dangers, and it was most dangerous at night. But he stepped forward anyway, melting into the darkness.

  Gradually his eyes adjusted to the deeper darkness. Small glowing fungi grew on decaying logs, and glowbugs swarmed to and fro like mad sparks
from hidden fires. He knew this part of the forest like he knew his own mind, and he moved silently and surely through the trees.

  This way, his inner voice seemed to tease him, drawing him off the trail and into the forest depths. Even Lirak’s immense knowledge of the forest was not enough to navigate the underbrush quickly, so he moved by feel and smell, following the tickling urge of the impulse within his mind.

  Near, it whispered, and he felt a surge of caution as he crept forward. Something large moved ahead of him. He came to the edge of a small moonlit clearing. To his dark-adjusted eyes the moonlight seemed bright after so long in the darkness of the deep forest. The movement was from the other side. Slowly a shapeless patch of lighter gray became a brilliant white as the one-horned beast he had seen before moved into the clearing where it stamped and shook its impossibly white mane.

  Now, go.

  Lirak felt himself move forward into the clearing across from the great white horned beast. He felt a sense of tremendous power and energy flowing from the beast. Great plumes of steam rose from its nostrils as it breathed. Lirak moved into the center of the clearing and stopped, waiting.

  The beast suddenly stopped and turned to look directly at Lirak. Lirak’s mind was overwhelmed by the sense of the power of the beast and a strange sense of urgency. Unknowingly he sank to his knees in the wet grass as the beast approached him. Unable to move Lirak looked up at the beast as its horn came down quickly and surely; stopping the same instant that it touched the top of Lirak’s head.

  Lirak found himself in blackness; there was no sense of place, no smells, no wind, and no wet grass. He floated in a great black nothingness.

  “What is this?” He tried to speak, but no sound came forth.

  Is this a dream?

  As if in answer the blackness was penetrated by a green light that seemed to be coming directly toward Lirak. The light swelled until it enveloped Lirak, revealing a scene of such strangeness that Lirak at first could not grasp what he was seeing. Then he realized he was looking down on the forest from above, as if he were an eagle. The forest stretched out in all directions, but ahead he could see the familiar mountains in the distance. To his right he was amazed to see the green of the trees changed in the distance into a stark redness. To his left the forest continued on until at the very edge of his vision he thought he could see a lighter green, with strange bright white specks. He turned and looked behind him and there he saw the green end suddenly to be replaced by a deep blue. But there was more. Far beyond the horizon, so far beyond the blue water that his mind balked at the thought of the distance, a great black cloud was rising. Studying the cloud Lirak could see flashes of light like lightning. Below the cloud an ominous red light like that of a great forest fire was burning, and with a sudden shock he realized the great cloud was rolling inexorably toward him. The thought came unbidden to his mind: They are coming.