First Comes The One Who Wanders

by Lynette S. Jones

  ~~~

  Joshuas held his hand out to keep Leilas from stepping into the hallway until he was sure the way was clear. Leilas could hear the fighting in the chambers below. There had been very little resistance against the advancing soldiers as they descended on the Manor. It hadn’t taken them long to reach the King’s stronghold and the doors to the School of Sky. Yet, even when her father had known that Darryl was at their door, he hadn’t come to see to the safety of his family. He hadn’t even sent an emissary to check on them. If she had any doubt that she was doing right by taking her mother and brother away from this place, or any thought that she should stay and fight with her father, his callousness had driven it from her mind.

  She’d never been to Menas, but she knew where it was and a little about the people. It had surprised her to discover her mother was Menas. No one had ever said her mother came from a people who were renowned for their uncanny ability to know what they had no way of knowing. There wasn’t really a name for it. People called it Menas, –named for the people who possessed it.

  If it had been left to her, she’d have taken her mother to Magnus Crog, but maybe her walk in the mists had been warning her against that idea. They could have been telling her Magnus Crog was no longer friendly to her or her family. That suspicion had kept her from protesting when Master Joshuas had suggested Menas as a destination.

  “Let’s go quickly. I hear soldiers on the stair, although I don’t see anyone yet.” Joshuas stepped aside and let Leilas take the lead. Brenth followed her with his mother by his side. Joshuas brought up the rear. He took a few minutes to mend the spell of binding on the door. When the crafters came looking for them, the diversion of a spell-bound room would give them a little more time to put distance between themselves and Dirth.

  Leilas moved quickly and quietly toward a tapestry hanging at the end of the hall. Pushing the hanging aside, she stepped into the alcove behind it and ran her hand along the wall until she found the latch that sprang the door. The door swung open with a soft groan and Leilas stepped inside. Instinctively, she knew that Joshuas would keep his position in the rear and ward off any danger from that direction. Her job was to ward off the danger that awaited them in the darkness ahead. In her mind, she told herself she would contemplate Joshuas and his mysterious entrance into her life and why she was so willing to accept him when she had more time. Now, she needed to concentrate on getting her family to safety.

  As far as she knew, no one knew about this passageway. But many crafters had been alive since the days of Greyan and had wandered these halls when there was freer access to the School of Sky. It was possible that some of the crafters of Land knew about this escape from the city.

  “There’s a flight of stairs,” she spoke softly over her shoulder to Brenth and her mother as she began descending. “Then if you keep your hand on the right wall you’ll feel a doorway. Go through that door.”

  Brenth conveyed her message to Joshuas as he closed the door behind them. Leilas turned into the passageway and barely raised her hands in time to ward off the spell thrown in her direction. The fire flared up against her shield of magic and faded. Before she even thought, she spoke the spell of unshaping that she and Master Frey had practiced a thousand times and threw it in the direction of the attack. Shrieks rose up in the hallway, bouncing eerily off the walls and slowly fading as they moved along the corridor. Leilas almost gagged as she stepped over the pile of bones and skin. It was all that was left of her attackers. In their practice sessions, they’d never used living targets. For the first time in her life, Leilas had killed other human beings. All her life, she’d believed that not crossing that line made her different from her father, different from the Dredracians she fought against in the streets of Dirth. The death of the crafters had left a reverberation in the fabric of magic that enveloped Preterlandis. It wasn’t a feeling she liked and wasn’t one she wanted to repeat any time soon. It compounded the darkness that was threatening to overwhelm her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the luxury of avoiding further confrontation. She had to think about the safety of her family. Later, when the danger was passed, she could think about what’d happened here and its repercussions.

  Focusing her senses as best she could through the darkness pushing in on her, she continued down the dark hall. Brenth stepped gingerly over the dead crafters. Queen Daina murmured a quiet blessing on what was left of the men on the floor. Joshuas conjured a small ball of light and studied the remains.

  “They were scouts.” Leilas heard him speak in her mind. It was the first time he had used this method of communication. His voice seemed deeper, more musical in her head. It helped calm her strained nerves. “That means there will be more magiks and soldiers ahead. Is there another way?”

  “Through the Echoes,” replied Leilas reluctantly. “It takes much longer and is far more dangerous.” She didn’t bother to explain that she wasn’t sure she could force herself to enter the Echoes again. She was having enough trouble holding the fear and panic at being in such an enclosed space at bay.

  “I’m not sure anything is more dangerous than an attack by half a dozen evil crafters intent on killing magiks. We’ll take our chances in the Echoes.”

  Leilas opened her mouth to argue then closed it again, her mother and her brother’s safety was more important than any fears or dreads she might have concerning the Echoes. Trying to gather her shaken resolve, she reached out with her mind as she traversed the hall. It was a delicate balance to probe forward with her senses and not be discovered before she recognized the danger of the enemy approaching. She was tiring quickly from the unaccustomed effort, along with warding off the darkness swirling around her.

  When they reached an intersection in the hallway, Leilas turned left instead of continuing straight. She hesitated only a second before she plunged into the darkness that led to the Echoes.

  Within a hundred feet the hallway began to narrow. Leilas considered creating some light to help ease the feeling of being crushed, but it took energy to keep the light going and she was going to need all she had left to get them through the dangers ahead. Besides, she didn’t need to face the danger a light might attract.

  As the hallway began to narrow, it also began a steep decline. It would continue down deep into the depths of the catacombs beneath the castle.

  “She’s leading us to the Echoes,” Brenth whispered to his mother. Queen Daina raised startled eyes to her son and then her expression changed to concern as her gaze drifted up toward her daughter. Dropping back, she joined Joshuas as they followed Leilas.

  “Leilas can’t go into the Echoes,” she told the crafter in a soft voice. “She won’t survive the journey this time. They know who she is and will be intent on stopping her.”

  “There is no other way,” returned Joshuas in an equally quiet voice, “at least not an easy way.”

  “Leilas barely made it through the first time. It took months for her to return to some semblance of normal, and she never was the same. Gidron shouldn’t have taken her there.”

  “Why did he take her there? Joshuas frowned in the darkness as he peered forward toward Leilas. “It’s forbidden by the Council.”

  “I’m not sure,” mused Queen Daina quietly. “He was intent on taking her there. He was often insistent on her stretching her powers and introducing her to situations I felt she wasn’t ready to tackle. But I didn’t interfere because I didn’t feel it was my place to interfere with her training.”

  “I knew the day she was born that she was destined to be a crafter,” continued Queen Daina, after a thoughtful pause. “That’s why I didn’t say anything when the masters came and took her to the school and why I didn’t involve myself in her training, why I didn’t involve myself much with her life at all. She’s very different from Brenth.” She turned to Joshuas looking for understanding. “Brenth is like me, Menas, but Leilas,” Daina shook her head in bewilderment. “I’m only glad that she chose to pursue the good side of the magic and
not the evil.”

  Urging the queen to walk a bit faster, Joshuas hastened to catch up with Leilas, who was slipping out of his sight. He needed to stop her before she reached the Echoes. If what the queen was saying was true, he didn’t want Leilas in the Echoes, either. They weren’t for beginners who’d already given the spirits who resided there an opportunity to find out their weaknesses.

  “Do you believe she could have gone toward the evil?” asked Joshuas. He’d only met his new ward, but he hadn’t felt any evil in her, darkness, but no evil.

  “Her father is a very evil man,” Queen Daina shrugged. “She is part of him.”

  “So is Brenth, do you have the same fears about him?”

  “As I said, I understand Brenth. Leilas is, –different.”

  Joshuas nodded and kept his thoughts to himself.

  “Leilas,” he called to her. “Is there another way out?”

  Leilas stopped walking and turned toward Joshuas. Brenth almost walked into her before he realized she’d come to a halt. “Besides the way we abandoned, all the other hallways come out somewhere in the Manor or inside the walls,” answered Leilas, in a loud whisper so her mother and Brenth could hear the conversation. “Through the Echoes is the only way that leads to an opening outside the walls.”

  “There is a hallway down here that leads to the stables,” Brenth offered. “We may be able to find some horses there, and perhaps some food.”

  “There would almost certainly be soldiers there,” argued Leilas.

  “Perhaps in this instance, it might be better to fight an enemy we know rather than one we don’t know,” replied Joshuas. “Food and mounts would be a plus.”

  Leilas attempted to understand the abrupt about face. Joshuas hadn’t wanted to run into soldiers or magiks. She had agreed because she didn’t want to subject her mother or brother to unnecessary danger. As far as she knew, nothing had changed. They still had to consider her mother and brother.

  “Even if we had horses, we couldn’t just ride out of the city. They’ll be looking for Mother and Brenth.”

  “And you,” added Joshuas, quietly reminding her she was a princess as well as a crafter. “We might be able to stack the odds in our favor. I have a few tricks up my sleeves.”

  “Just a few minutes ago, you didn’t want to take the chance.” Leilas blurted out what was on her mind. “What’s different now? I won’t put my mother and brother in danger for no good reason.”

  “And we won’t put you in danger unnecessarily,” replied Queen Daina. “The Echoes are too dangerous. We’ll find another way.”

  “I can make it through the Echoes, Mother. You don’t have to worry about me,” retorted Leilas with more bravado than she felt.

  “Can you?” Queen Daina didn’t wait for her answer. “Show us this passage to the stables, Brenth.”

  Brenth took the lead, leaving Leilas nonplussed behind him. His mother followed behind him and Joshuas put his hand under Leilas’ elbow and pulled her forward as he passed.

  “You should pay attention to what your mother has to say,” Joshuas spoke conversationally as they moved through the passageway, swords at the ready. “She’s one of the most powerful seers alive, even if she hasn’t used her powers in a very long time. She swore she’d never use them to help your father and as far as I know, she never has.”

  “But she does use them.”

  Joshuas shrugged. “I’ve lost touch with her since her marriage. She didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone from Menas or with anyone who was friendly with the people of Menas. But I’d imagine she does. It’s almost like breathing to a Menas, –seeing.”

  “I don’t blame her for not helping father. I don’t blame the people for not helping him.”

  “King Dane should have never forced your mother to marry Leyhan,” Joshuas continued as if they weren’t walking down corridors that could hold danger around every turn. “It seems everyone knew it was treachery on your father’s part, but him. And in the end, sacrificing his daughter didn’t keep Menas from falling to your father, despite the treaty. The Menas banished King Dane from his own kingdom after it fell and put his brother Mildas in his place.”

  “Will the Menas accept Brenth into their community? Or were you just saying that to convince my mother to come?”

  “I almost never say what I don’t mean. You might keep that in mind. Menas will gladly accept Brenth. He’s almost as powerful a seer as your mother. As far as you thinking you might be able to stay in Menas, you won’t stay there. Your destiny isn’t in Menas.”

  “I thought it was mine to choose.”

  “It’s a funny thing that. It’s yours to choose, but the mists speak to the way you’ll choose. There are those who’ve been interested in you since the day you were born. You’re part of a prophecy of Master Greyan’s, or at least those who’re interested in the prophecy believe you are.”

  “And my mother knows about this prophecy?”

  “I believe she does. She’s always known that you were chosen to a special destiny.”

  Leilas nodded. “Perhaps that explains her attitude toward me.”

  “Perhaps,” agreed Joshuas. “But it doesn’t excuse it.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Leilas shrugged off the pain that Joshuas had probed. She’d always hoped it wasn’t quite so obvious how much it mattered that her mother had rejected her.

  “Not so obvious, unless you know all the facts,” said Joshuas. Leilas cursed silently and strengthened her defenses against mind probing. “That’s probably a good idea.” Joshuas responded to her action. “You don’t want to give any of these magiks an advantage and they are waiting for us. I can feel them.”

  Leilas tightened her grip on her sword. “I don’t feel anything.”

  “When you’re as old as I am, you begin to develop a sense for knowing when other crafters are about, especially evil ones.”

  “How old are you?”

  “I’m old enough to know better than to take on an apprentice.”

  Leilas looked sideways at him as she turned the corner behind her mother and started up the stairway where Brenth had led them. “I’m practically a master and no one asked you to take me under your wing.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Now get ready, there are crafters on the other side of the door.”

  Leilas stepped past her mother and brother and stood before the door. It had been easier to react to the crafters who’d surprised her in the passageway than it was to prepare herself to surprise them with an attack. When Joshuas joined her on the landing, she threw the latch and opened the door. Six crafters were waiting for them on the other side of the opening.

  Their attack was swift and it was strong. Leilas reeled as the attack of unbinding swept over her, but her defenses held. Summoning her strength, she returned the attack with a spell of fire. The crafters facing her threw it aside as if it was nothing. Leilas found herself facing a crafter with blue eyes and blonde hair. His eyes appeared dead as she stared into his soul. Using his lack of spirit, she intensified the emotion until he began to turn to stone. Leaving him to metamorphosize, she turned to face the next attacker. Joshuas had already disabled two of their enemies using his sword rather than magic and was facing a third. Flicking aside a spell of despair, Leilas returned the attack with a spell of apathy. The man in front of her let his sword drop to his side and didn’t return her attack. Leilas ran her sword through him before she could think about it and change her mind.

  Turning swiftly, she thrust at the remaining crafter. He parried her attack and spoke a spell of confusion. Leilas felt it make its way through defenses that’d been weakened by the feelings of revulsion and confusion that swept over her as she’d pulled her sword from the limp body of her attacker. Before she succumbed to the swirl of disorientation, she thrust at the man in front of her again. This time, she felt her sword meet flesh. She wasn’t sure why she was attacking him, but she had the impression it was important that she stop him.
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  She thrust her sword at the man who was grabbing her. Joshuas parried it and grabbed her wrist. Looking into her eyes, he murmured some words of magic. Leilas blinked her eyes several times and looked around. She didn’t remember how she came to be in the stables or why there were half a dozen dead crafters around her.

  “Are you okay?” Joshuas studied her face and again murmured softly.

  “It’s clearer now.” Leilas looked around again and this time knew why she was here. She was lucky Joshuas was with her. “Thank you.” If he hadn’t been accompanying them, she would be dead now. She hadn’t done very well in her first battle against crafters.

  “You’re welcome. Now let’s find that food and get out of here.”

  Brenth went to the horses and began to saddle them, speaking softly in their ears as they whinnied nervously. Leilas went to the cabinet where the messengers kept rations, and began filling bags with the dried food stored there. It wouldn’t be very tasty but it would fill their stomachs.

  When the horses were ready, Leilas threw the bags on two of them and mounted a large paint. These were not the thoroughbreds she was used to riding. These were working horses used to being ridden hard, better suited to the task ahead of them. Leilas had no idea how Joshuas was planning on getting them out of Dirth. But since she had no ideas of her own, she was willing to follow him. Bidding a silent goodbye to the School of Sky and her dreams, she offered a silent prayer for the safety of the magiks who were battling above them and urged her mount out into the courtyard.

  Joshuas took the lead, muttering under his breath as he led them through the streets. Leilas was too far behind him to hear his incantation, but she could see its results. Soldiers and crafter’s alike looked through them as if they weren’t there. They rode through the skirmishes raging on all sides as if they weren’t taking place.

  When they reached the main street of Dirth, Joshuas urged the horses into a gallop. Racing through town, Joshuas fell silent and Leilas could hear the cries of detection from the soldiers as they passed. Sword at the ready, she hacked at the hands reaching out to stop her mount as she raced past them. She had no idea how many she had wounded or killed. But her hand was covered in the slime of blood and tissue. Her ears rang with the screams of pain. They ran the horses until they passed the outer walls surrounding Dirth and crossed the open field that led to the city. When they reached the shelter of a birch grove Joshuas slowed them to a walk. They had a long way to go and no fresh mounts waiting for them. Leilas turned and looked behind her, expecting to see a cadre of soldiers pursuing them. But they were alone.