by Sean Golden
“We have to learn what we can of our enemies,” he said, and ignoring Jerok’s disapproving grunt, he lay down and tried to go back to sleep. Eventually his racing mind slowed and he slept soundly, and for the first time in many days, he remembered no dreams when he awoke in the morning.
The trip back to Luh-Yi took five days. Each day was torture to Lirak, who felt like he was abandoning his oath. Mayrie spent more and more time with him as they walked, eventually spending most of each day walking with him. At night they slept beside each other, but without touching. Jerok turned his back on them each night, but said nothing.
By the end of the first day they made it back to the trail. Jerok and Lirak soon saw that the trail had seen heavy traffic since they had left it. Tracks of the beasts that carried men were everywhere, and other tracks, smaller, with cloven hooves. This puzzle was beyond their skill to solve though.
On the third day Patrik came back from scouting ahead and urged them to get off the trail and hide. They did so. Soon they heard the sounds of many beasts, and the voices of men speaking in the strange tongue of the invaders. As they watched a strange procession went by. First were six men on the strange powerful beasts. Then there were smaller but stouter beasts all tied together, pulling large wooden boxes that moved down the trail on large round wooden disks. Several of these went by, and the rolling boxes were full of strange items, most of which were covered, but even the ones they could see were strange to them. Finally another group of the mounted men came behind. The Dwon group left the trail then and moved well to the west to stay out of the path of any such processions.
Near the end of the fourth day, just to the south and east of Luh-Yi, they met Gawn.
“Jerok! Lirak!” Gawn shouted. “You’re back! Where’s Baxi?” Gawn asked.
“Baxi is gone,” Lirak said. “The demons killed him. It’s a long story.”
Gawn’s face fell, but he nodded. “Baxi was a good man,” he said. Lirak nodded.
“What is happening in Luh-Yi?” Lirak asked.
Gawn’s smile disappeared. “There’s not much left,” he said. “We haven’t moved back there, it’s too sad and dangerous. We’re mostly living in lean-tos and small caves. Sampt has vanished,” he paused. “The invaders are merciless and kill any of us they find.”
“I have no tears for Sampt,” Lirak said. “He was an evil man.”
“Chutan is our elder again,” Gawn said. “You will not be turned away again.”
“How many are with you now?” Lirak asked.
“Not many still,” Gawn said. “Our last count was twenty-three, fifteen men and eight women. When you get there we’ll have twenty-one men and nine women.”
“We need to talk about our plans. We can’t hunt them, there are too many. But we still intend to fight them,” Lirak said.
“Well, if you want to find invaders, I think you may not have to travel so far. They move up and down the river. They bring goods that they load onto strange moving boxes that are pulled by beasts.
“Yes, we saw some of them on the trail,” Lirak said.
“I think they bring supplies to the invaders who destroyed Luh-Yi,” Gawn said.
“You are probably right,” Lirak said, absently stroking Thorn’s head.
“We killed ten of them,” Mayrie said, her voice fierce with anger and pride.
Gawn’s eyes widened. “You killed ten of them?”
Lirak held forth one of the blades, in its sheath with the belt wrapped around it. Gawn took it, pulled the blade out and examined it critically.
“This is a strange sort of rock,” he said.
“It’s no rock, I don’t know what it is, but they use it for many things,” Lirak said. He pulled out the pouch with the round things.
Gawn looked at the round items and shook his head.
“Arrows bounce off a garment made of tiny rings of something very much like this,” Lirak said.
“Yes, we have seen that too,” Gawn said.
“Well, let’s get back to the others, and we can each hear the others’ stories.” Gawn slapped Jerok on the back and wrapped a huge arm around Mayrie’s shoulders. “It is good to see you. Many had given up on you.”
Gawn led them through the forest until they reached a thick grove of fir trees, just as the sun was setting. Pushing the branches aside the group found themselves in a small clearing between the trees and a large shelf of rock. There were a number of lean-tos or other primitive shelters, and a large crevice in the rock that provided shelter enough for about six or eight people to sit and talk. Lirak and his party entered with Gawn, soon others started gathering around the front.
Lirak looked hopefully for any other friendly faces, but saw only those he had casually known. They all looked haggard, worried and grief-stricken. His heart broke just looking at them. There were no children at all. Inside the cave he was happy to see Chutan.
After seating them around a small fire, Gawn brought them food and drink.
Lirak sat with Mayrie very close to his right. Thorn curled up on his left. He could feel the heat from Mayrie’s body. She reached out quietly and took his hand in both of hers, squeezing it tightly. He leaned toward her and squeezed her hand back, and she relaxed slightly, but rested her shoulder on his. Lirak noticed that Gawn watched this interaction with obvious interest, and when he caught Gawn’s eyes, Gawn winked at him and smiled his lopsided smile. In spite of himself, Lirak smiled back as he finished his simple meal of smoked meat and forest nuts.
“I see you’ve returned from your hunt Lirak,” Chutan said.
“We came back. Hunting them this way is not working,” Lirak said.
“Lirak, we have not yet had a Ko’Dimen ceremony, but let all here know that your Ko’Dimen is complete,” Chutan said.
Lirak felt warm inside, and Mayrie reached around and pulled him closer to her, her eyes bright and a small smile on her lips. “It’s about time,” she said. Gawn laughed out loud.
Jerok reached across and took Lirak’s right hand in the traditional Dwon greeting of respect. “Welcome to manhood brother,” he said. “Mother would be proud.”
Gawn also took his arm, palm to elbow and then Chutan did the same.
Lirak looked around, then rose to his feet. He pulled his Dwon stone knife, which flashed brightly, reflecting the fire. “I will be a man from this day forward” he said, intoning the traditional words, and then he drew the blade lightly down his forearm. He fought the pain and held his forearm over the fire, where blood dripped and hissed as it hit the embers.
Without a word, Chutan, Gawn and Jerok stood and did the same. Their blood dripped together into the fire.
Chutan’s ancient face was lit from below, his deep eyes black pools and his face thrown into sharp relief by the flames. “His blood and our blood have been joined! Our blood brought him into this world, and by his blood he becomes a man.”
Then they all sat back down. Soon someone brought strips of leather to each of them and they tied up their wounds to stop the flow of blood.
Chutan spoke again. “Welcome back Lirak. Welcome back to all of you. I had despaired of seeing you again, as I have despaired over so many,” he paused. “We would like to hear your story.”
Lirak began speaking. Gawn seemed greatly amused by the vision of Lirak and Dedrik eating seedcakes and tea during a thunderstorm. There were many questions and clarifications. He spoke of the river crossings in the valley and the waterfall with the writing on the wall. Finally he came to the part of the story where he had returned to Luh-Yi.
He paused as he reached the part where he found the first body.
“I can’t speak of what I found then.” His voice broke. Mayrie’s hand tightened on his. “It’s too awful. I did what I could, I hope it was right.” He squeezed Mayrie’s hand and looked into first her eyes, and then Jerok’s. “Mayrie and Jerok found me there in the green.” He didn’t mention Mayrie’s wounds, or that she had shot an arrow at him. “We swore an oath to take rev
enge on the invaders.”
“Then you are bound by it, as are we all,” Chutan said, and as he said it, he extended his arms, palms down, toward the fire.
There was a short silence. Finally Gawn spoke. “Tell us about the invaders you fought.”
Lirak looked to Jerok, and Jerok told the story of their following the invaders down the southern trail, their encounter with the mounted man, which Lirak had killed, and then their midnight attack on the invader’s camp. Many eyes dropped heavy tears when Jerok spoke of Baxi’s death. When Jerok finished there was a complete silence in the camp.
“It is fortunate that you killed these men so far south of here,” Chutan said. “They’re not likely to look for you here. You’re as safe here as any of us are.”
“And none of us are safe so long as they are in the forest,” Lirak said. Mayrie nodded forcefully. “I will follow my oath,” Lirak said, his voice hard and resolute. His gray eyes flashed in the fire’s flickering light. “I won’t stop until they’ve been defeated.”
That night Lirak, Patrik, Jerok, Hetyl and Gawn slept in the cave. Mayrie had been bundled off and was sleeping with the other women, Lirak assumed. He tossed and turned on his pelt with Thorn, unable to sleep. He felt that something important was missing and that he couldn’t relax. After a while he admitted to himself that he felt incomplete without Mayrie sleeping beside him. Her smell and the sound of her breathing had been part of his nights for several days, and he missed them. He felt an itch to examine the strange stick again, but realized that the other Dwon would not accept such a thing and so he resisted the urge. Eventually exhaustion overcame his feeling of emptiness and he fell into a restless sleep.
Lirak dreamed. His eagle view of the world showed him the Dwon forest in bright sunlight. In the center of his view was the dim outline of the southern trail from Luh-Yi. Far to the south his perfect vision could see the wall between the forest and Hanoria. The great battle raged on. He spun around and looked to his north. Almost below him was the Fedon River. On the river he saw many of the strange floating huts of the invaders, some moving toward him, some moving away. Men worked there, moving items from the huts and onto the shore. On the shore they were loaded onto the rolling boxes and sent down the trail. He looked again at the trail, and he perceived a steady stream of beasts and men moving the items to the south. From the south up the road the beasts were returning, but unburdened.
It became night, as suddenly as a curtain falling down. In the night the river reflected the moonlight. As he watched, figures moved out of the forest and into the river near one of the floating huts. Soon he saw those figures moving in the water, around the floating hut. Suddenly it and two other floating huts began to burn, first with a blinding blue flame, then with red and yellow flames. Men and beasts leapt into the river, many aflame.
“Wake up!” Lirak’s shoulder was being violently shaken.
“What?” he mumbled as his mind tried to shake off the wooziness of sleep.
“Are you OK?” Gawn’s voice came to him out of the dark.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Lirak managed to say.
“Well, you gave us quite a scare, yelling ‘fire!’ like that,” Gawn said, a tone of irritation in his voice.
“It was a dream,” Lirak said.
“Was it like your dream of the wall?” Jerok asked.
“Yes, it was,” Lirak replied.
“I think it’s a vision.” Patrik’s voice came out of the darkness. “Sent by the gods.”
Lirak said nothing. His mind was swimming with the images of the dream; the great battle at the wall, the moving beasts and men, the many floating huts… the fires.
“Well, go back to sleep. If it’s a vision, Chutan will know what to do,” Gawn said. “But do us a favor Lirak, if you’re going to have visions from the gods, can you ask them to send you quiet ones?” With that Gawn noisily rolled onto his mattress of leaves and fronds and soon the sound of his snoring filled the air.
Again Lirak felt the loneliness of Mayrie’s absence. Finally he fell asleep and slept until morning.
Dreams
The defeater of death will dream while waking and wake while dreaming.
– The Prophecies
Lirak again woke to the feeling of someone shaking his shoulder.
“Get up; Chutan wants to talk to you,” Jerok said with a tone of worry.
“What? Why?” Lirak said.
“He wants to hear about your dreams,” Jerok said.
The rest of the cave was empty.
Lirak rolled out of his bedding, dressed and took a drink from his nearly empty water skin. Then he headed to the open area outside of the cave. Jerok followed him, pointing to the left. They found Chutan sitting on a wooden stump in the sun. Beside him was the sack full of firestones, and some other pouches. He was alone. Jerok patted Lirak on the back and whispered “good luck,” and turned and left as well. Lirak assumed that the surviving villagers were off doing chores.
“Sit down.” Chutan gestured toward the grass beside him. Lirak did so.
“Gawn told me a story this morning” he began. “He said that last night you woke him up because you were having a dream.”
“That’s true,” Lirak said.
“Tell me,” Chutan urged.
Lirak nodded, and looked down at his feet, trying to find the right words. “I was an eagle,” he began, and Chutan’s eyes narrowed. “Many times in my dreams I am an eagle,” he continued. He described the dream in as much detail as he could, up to the floating huts and the burning men and beasts. Chutan listened carefully, prodding Lirak with probing questions.
“You said the floating huts burned with a blue fire?” he asked, “Are you certain?”
“Yes, it was blue, then turned to red and yellow flames,” Lirak answered.
Chutan reached down and picked up the pouch with the firestones. “And the men in the river started the fires?”
“I can’t be sure, but that’s what seemed to happen,” Lirak said. “Why is that important?”
Chutan looked at Lirak. He looked at the pouch in his hands.
“Lirak, I need to teach someone the secrets of the firestones. I’m not going to be around much longer, and the secret can’t die with me. This dream of yours worries me because when the firestones are used to make fire, the flames are blue. This dream of yours can be true Lirak. Using the firestones we can set fire to the floating huts.”
“How?” Lirak asked.
“There is a way to crush the firestones into a powder. The powder is mixed with crushed charcoal and with the rock known as bitterstone. Using sap from the oozing trees we can make the stone powder stick to the floating huts. Then it will burn with a hot blue flame that will set any wood afire. This is one of the secrets of the firestone.”
“What if it gets wet?” Lirak asked.
“It should be kept from the water, but once it begins to burn, the water won’t put it out,” Chutan replied.
“If we can do this, we can stop the invaders from sending men and supplies down to the battle.” Lirak was mostly thinking aloud.
Chutan’s face hardened. “I too have taken a sacred oath Lirak. My oath is to protect the villagers we have left and to try to rebuild Luh-Yi. But I see now that your oath and my oath are at odds with each other.”
Chutan looked down and didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he spoke in a sad, quiet voice. “I am old Lirak, and my people have been killed or scattered to the winds,” he sighed. “I don’t know how to fight these invaders. They are too powerful and too many. Even if I were a young man I don’t know if I could take the oath that you have taken. You have a rare kind of courage Lirak, Kodul used to speak of you with praise. You were not like the other young men even before the attack. The eagle totem sits clearly on you and everyone sees it. Kodul knew this. He knew things he didn’t tell us, but he told us to watch you. Now you bring this dream and this oath to me, and my head tells me you are crazy, that you will bring ruin to us all.
But my heart tells me otherwise. This is a difficult thing for me to deal with. I wish Kodul were here, he always knew the right path.”
Lirak nodded at Chutan. “I understand,” he said. “Chutan, Kathoias has spoken to me. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. She called me her ‘blade’ and spoke of a coming war that she intended to win. I can’t stop, even if I had not taken the vow I took, I can’t walk away from this fight.”
“I will teach you how to crush the firestones and make the sacred powder, but I do so with great concern for your own, and our people’s safety.” With those words Chutan stood and walked into the fir trees, pushing the branches away, and vanished into the forest.
Lirak looked at the sack full of firestones that Chutan had left behind. He reached in and pulled one out, examining its red and yellow veins in the gray crystal. He felt a strange sense of urging in the back of his head, and even in the daylight he could see colors faintly swirling in the sky. But there was a difference between the firestones and the stick. The stick had seemed to connect Lirak some way to the colors, but with the firestone there was no connection, only a bare awareness.
Kodul had told him the stones were used in certain rituals, so he had already decided that they had somehow been used to generate the great flashes of fire in celebrations like the rite of manhood. But for some reason he had not put that together with his dream until Chutan’s words. Now he looked at the stone and his mind started to race with possibilities. He knew the bitterstone, and where to find some. Charcoal was easy to come by. If he could make the dust Chutan spoke of, the dream just might come true. He turned to look for Patrik and Jerok.
“There you are.” Mayrie had come up behind him as he stared at the stone.
“What are you doing with that?” an accusing tone was in her voice.
Lirak looked at Mayrie and saw that she had obviously taken the morning to clean herself up. She looked like he remembered her from the morning he left on his quest for the firestones. She stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing, her red hair flowing behind her in a light breeze. For some reason the memory of her kiss suddenly filled his mind.
