I found the brothers all together as usual. Jench and Jamber were sitting across each other at a table intently busy with an arm wrestling match. This was apparently not the first round as sweat stood out on both their brows. Brak jumped up on me wagging his tail furiously before running off again.
Jench managed to pin Jamber’s hand to the table and leapt at jubilantly pronouncing his victory until I was sure that every person in the square must have heard. Jamber stood up laughing and shaking his head.
Jench jostled me. “Come on Kadin. It is only you standing in my way now to be crowned ultimate strong arm of Predaki.” He sat down at the table, elbow down and arm up clenching and unclenching his fist. I sat down and gripped his hand.
Prea piped up. “Right, gentleman, I want a clean fair match. Ready….Set…..Go!” We were quite evenly matched. Our hands crept one way and then the other. Jench’s face was as red as a tomato and a large vein was bulging out in the middle of his forehead. I started to gain, pushing his hand just a little further than before.
Suddenly I heard a screeching howl in the distance. Within a heartbeat, I had focused my Navitas. I do not know how, but I was certain that that howl was not from a wolf, but from a Dyrrendrel. I found myself standing in flying eagle, a form of the Shea-Rin, with Sunder in my hand. Markai was next to me, deep snarling and ripping noises coming from her throat. Brak froze in place for a moment looking at her and then with a yelp ran away as fast as his short legs could carry him. This all happened in the space of two breaths, but all had gone quiet around me.
Everyone in the vicinity was staring at me in shock. They were looking at me as though I had lost my mind. My brothers were standing back, well clear of Sunder. I realised that I had also thrown over the table and chair where I had been sitting. Even the music had stopped and people further away were looking around in confusion wondering what had caused the commotion.
To my horror, I saw Aliana looking at me from the back of the crowd. The look on her face told me she was trying to decide whether I was crazy or perhaps just drunk on mulled wine. I hoped she assumed the latter. After all, all young men have some lapse of judgement with drink on occasion. With a huge relief though, I realised that no one was looking at Markai.
I forced out a laugh while sheathing Sunder. I released Navitas and with it Markai. I walked over to Jench still with a grin on my face. I punched him playfully on the shoulder and I winked at him conspiratorially, hoping that he would go along with it. “I told you they would fall for it. Scared them half to death.” I forced out another bark of laughter and was relieved to see Jench smiling and nodding, albeit a bit nervously.
Slowly people returned to whatever they had been doing. I noticed, though that they were not joining in laughing the incident off. Jamber was looking at me thoughtfully, a frown pulling his brows down. Prea’s face did not reveal much, but I saw questions floating behind his dark eyes.
Prea looked around making sure no one was paying us any more attention. I furtively glanced about to see whether Aliana was still looking, but I could not see her. He looked from me to Jench and back. “Do you mind telling us what that was really about, because I don’t believe that was some half cooked stunt?”
To his credit, Jench simply shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. Jamber looked around and then back at me. “I know Brak isn’t the biggest dog, but he does not scare easily. Something petrified him to make him run off yelping like that.” All four of them were looking at me expectantly. I sighed. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my brothers, but I didn’t know how much I was permitted to tell them. I gestured with my head for them to follow me.
I led them away from the busy throng of the square and some distance away still. While I was walking, I tried to decide what I should tell them. I turned and faced them. “There is something that I haven’t told you. In fact, I have not told anyone apart from the Cha and that was unavoidable since I had to report to him today. If I tell you this, you must swear that it remains between us.”
I waited for a nod of agreement from each of them before I continued. “When I focus my Navitas, I call forth a creature of the Fae.” Jamber and Wilm gasped.
I heard a muttered, “Impossible.” from Jench.
Prea looked at me searchingly. His eyes intent. “What do you mean of the Fae?”
I shook my head. “Look, I don’t even understand it all myself. Markai just came to me. I inherited this ability from my mother. I do not know how I do it. All I know is she comes every time.”
Jamber spoke up. “Show us then. Call her forth.” There was a note of mockery in his voice that I would not have expected.
I breathed deeply to avoid snapping at him. “It does not work that way. No one has actually seen her apart from me.” And Quiniewa of course, but that may be revealing too much.
Jamber had an ugly sneer on his face. “Humour us. Try.” I looked at the others and shrugged.
Clearing my mind, I focused my Navitas. A moment later Markai came walking towards us. They were all facing me with their backs to her. I pointed past them at her. Slowly they turned and looked. One and all they cried out in shock and ran past me away from her. I did not know who was more surprised, them or me.
They stopped some distance away and looked back, disbelief written all over their faces. I sensed from Markai that it had been her deliberate decision to reveal herself to them. She strode up to me. I took in her massive size, muscles rippling as she walked. No wonder she scared them.
She sat down next to me and regarded my brothers with cool blue eyes. Even sitting down she was more than a head higher than me. I put my hand on her back and the now familiar ice and fire covered me, ran in my very veins. “She won’t harm you!” I had to raise my voice to carry to where they were standing.
Prea started walking cautiously toward us and the rest followed him. His eyes never left Markai. “How? What? Why have we never seen her before?”
A few minutes before I had not known, and yet Markai was….telling me. “As my strength in the Navitas grew so did my Enchantment bond with her. My strength flowed into her and now we are so strongly bonded that we are connected on a deeper level. She is almost at her full strength and she chose to reveal herself to you today.”
Jench chortled nervously. “So, she is like your guard, um, dog?” The idea of her being compared to a guard dog was comical.
I snorted. “No. Markai is not a mere animal. She is as intelligent as any human and more so than most. She is more like my partner. We are a team.” I could feel approval rolling out at me from her.
Prea looked at me. “You still haven’t really explained what happened back there. That wasn’t her howl we heard, otherwise you would not have reacted in that way. So what did happen?”
I shuffled my feet and ran my hands through my hair. I was toeing the line a bit of what I was permitted to tell. “No, that howl was from a creature called a Dyrrendrel.”
Jench interrupted. “Dyrrendrel. What is a Dyrrendrel?” I frowned at his interruption and the note of disbelieve in his voice.
I sighed and continued. “I cannot say much at this time, but suffice to say that they are distant cousins to the wolf. They are extremely dangerous and they do not always work alone. I encountered some during my Seeking and would rather not confront them again anytime soon.”
Wilm’s eyebrows were raised so high they were in danger of being lost behind his hairline. “That must have been some meeting if that is the way you react when you hear one howl in the distance.”
I merely nodded my agreement. Jamber was scowling angrily. I looked at him. “Do you have something to add Jamber?”
His lip curled in a sneer. “You kept this from us? This, uh, ability of yours. Why?” I swallowed my own anger in an exasperated sigh. “Apart from Moma and Lilana, being with you four has been the only place where I have fitted in; where I belonged. I guess I thought I might ruin that by admitting to being different.”
Jench smiled and punched me
on the shoulder. “Fool, we are your brothers. For life. You should know that.” I smiled at him gratefully and the others nodded their agreement. All except Jamber. He was keeping his face carefully blank, but his eyes were thunderstorms.
Wilm saw that we were looking at each other. I opened my mouth to say something, but he interjected quickly. “I think we’d better head back. We can’t allow Kadin here to miss his own announcement.” A murmur of agreement went through the group.
We started off, but Wilm put a hand on my shoulder and walked slowly so that we fell behind the others. “Don’t let his reaction upset you. You know he does not much like surprises and he is even less fond of change. He will come around soon enough and things will go back to the way they were. Jench had the right of it.” I smiled appreciatively and nodded.
My thoughts went back to the Book of Remembrance. I was eager to look through it. To study my enemies. To know what may await me, but at the same time, I was quietly petrified for all the same reasons. I had the feeling that once I looked at that Book my childhood was truly over.
Not long after arriving back at the square the Kichwa stood on the central dais and called for quiet. He cleared his throat loudly. “As you are all aware, Kadin Aken has returned from his Seeking. The Cha has taken his report and he will now announce his decision.”
He gestured to the Cha who stood up and walked onto the central dais. There was deathly quiet and I could feel the tension in the air. Failure was less common than success, but not rare by any means. The Cha’s face was carefully blank.
“Young Kadin has completed his Seeking. We must rejoice in his success for it is ours as well!” His voice boomed out over the square and was met with rapturous applause and whistles chirping shrilly in between. The Cha was smiling broadly. When the noise died down, he spoke again. “Kadin, please join me on the dais.”
I walked proudly trying to ignore the few disapproving looks I got. I heard a few whispers about my sword. Not even the Kichwa’s Sword of the Navitas was a match for the glory of Sunder. I caught him peering at it as well with his mouth drawn in a tight disapproving line and thunder brewing in his eyes.
Moma walked up to the Cha and handed him a small package wrapped in fine blue silk. The Cha shook my hand warmly. “Congratulations.” Louder, he said, “I present to you the Denouement gift.”
He handed the silk package to me with a bow. All successful Seekers receive a Denouement gift, but no two gifts were alike. The Cha chose it based on what you reported on your return. Some people never revealed what they were given, but that was your choice.
Quietly he whispered to me, “It is called a sentinel. May it serve you well. Use it only in your most desperate hour of need, because you can only use it once.” He flourished a nimble bow to the crowd and I mimicked him. The crowd once again erupted in cheers.
The celebrations went on into the early morning and as I was still exhausted from my long ride home, it continued well after I had given in to exhaustion and gone home. I lighted my oil lamp and placed the still silk wrapped package in my chest before taking the Book of Remembrance out.
Kicking my boots off, I lay down and started reading the introductory page written in the same neat script I had seen at the bottom of the picture of the Dyrrendrel. ‘Reader beware: power lies in names. Naming awakes the slumbering. Do not name those you do not wish to summon.’ My lids were heavy and my eyes burning and I closed them to rest a moment.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Morning rays slanting in through my window woke me. I started awake; the Book, but it was still lying on my chest open to the introductory page. I wished I could sleep a little longer, but the Shea-Rin called. I stretched out, picked up Sunder and managed to complete it with only the merest sheen of sweat.
I washed with the cold water in my room before taking out my sketchpad and charcoal. I started with the Dyrrendrel, but by the time I was done, I had sketched my mother and father as I had seen them during the Cha’s telling, King Vlearian standing with Sunder, Quiniewa, Grer, Master Boryka, even the young boy from the burned village. It felt like it released some of the tension I had been carrying around. I inspected each sketch critically and was satisfied with what I had done. My stomach rumbled loudly and I set off to the town dining hall.
I found Prea, Jench and Wilm at our usual table. With some annoyance, I noted Jamber’s absence, but I tried to convince myself it had nothing to do with what happened the night before.
Jench waved a greeting. “Kadin, we were just speculating on your denouement gift. Prea here thinks it is some herbal cure all remedy, Wilm is guessing some sort of small, but deadly weapon I am inclined to think it is something to do with your father or your mother. So put them out of their misery and tell them I am right.”
With a start, I realised I had not even looked at the gift yet. I had intended on looking at it last night. I frowned. “I do not actually know.”
Prea grinned. “I told you he would keep it to himself. I think I would as well. Especially if my gift was so small!” This brought a round of laughter from all of them.
I laughed with them. “Yes, very funny, but no. I have not opened it yet and therefore I cannot tell you what is inside. I fell asleep so quickly last night that I did not get a chance and this morning it completely slipped my mind. I am going to get my breakfast.”
Now that I remembered, I couldn’t stop thinking about the little blue silk package. “So is Jamber not joining us today then?” Prea and Jench exchanged a meaningful look.
Prea answered. “We saw him before we came in. He said he’s already had breakfast.” The way in which he said that told me that he had not believed him. Wilm said nothing, but he was shaking his head. I decided to shrug it off, sure that he would get over whatever was bothering him soon enough. I wolfed down my breakfast, only stopping to give quick responses to their talk of small things. As soon as I cleared my plate, I made my excuses and left.
As I walked away from the dining hall, I turned a corner and froze in my steps. A short distance away, Jamber was talking quietly with Brant. Brant! They hated each other even more than Brant and I!
I ducked back around the corner so that they could not see me. Without even realising that I was doing it, I reached for Navitas. It felt as though I might as well have been deaf a minute before in comparison to the noise that rushed over me. I could just catch what they were saying.
Brant was speaking. “...mist was all there was to it. That it did not actually even do anything.”
“That is what I thought! I didn’t know about anything else.” The exasperation in Jamber’s voice made it sound as if he was repeating something that he had said several times before.
Brant snorted. “You better hope I don’t find out you have been keeping information from me. For your and your father’s sake.” I peeked around the corner and released Navitas. Brant stormed off and Jamber walked away in the opposite direction. His shoulders were slumped and he was scowling at the ground.
Surely, Jamber had not revealed what had happened during my Hunt. Surely! He would not. He was my brother. My heart was racing. He would not have told him about Markai. Would he? No, no, I was sure he would not do that to me. He would not betray my confidence.
I tried to convince myself that I was being foolish. I was misinterpreting a half-heard conversation, which made me feel a bit guilty for eavesdropping. Putting all thought on it away, I hurried home and removed the package from my chest. Carefully, I untied the strings and removed the silk. It revealed a small dark wooden box. Suddenly curiosity burnt any stray thoughts about Jamber’s odd conversation away.
The box had symbols engraved on it. I found myself trying to puzzle out what they meant for it was clear it was some sort of script. One looked like a gnarled tree with thorns instead of leaves, another looked almost human, but with too large ears and three eyes. The box creaked as I slowly opened the lid. Inside was a gold disc.
It was surprisingly heavy. It too was engraved with
some of those same symbols. I turned it over. On the other side, it had a symbol that looked very familiar, although for the life of me I could not remember where I had seen it before. It was wings inside a diamond shape. The wings were so intricately carved that it looked as though they could take flight. Above the wings in the corner of the diamond was an x, but it was rounded at the top and bottom, which made it look like a spider with four legs. Underneath the symbol was carved; ‘We come when summoned, but bearer be aware, we come but once.’
Looking at it, I did not see an obvious way of using it. There was no hinge, no demarcation line on it whatsoever. It seemed essentially to be a simple, if beautiful, gold disc. I carefully packed and stored it away again in my chest. The diamond and wing symbol kept intruding on my thoughts. I knew I had seen it before, but where? I decided to ask Master Haer, Wilm’s father. He had travelled so much that perhaps he had come across it.
I found him behind the bar of the inn. He smiled warmly when he saw me. “Kadin, I never got a chance to congratulate you last night. Very well done. Here have a cider on the house.”
I returned his smile. Master Haer had always been kind to me. “Much appreciated, sir. I actually came here seeking your worldly knowledge.”
His smiled turned amused. “Oh?”
I took out a copy I had made of the symbol, as I did not particularly want to show the disc. “Do you recognise this? Only, I cannot place where I had seen it, but it seems very familiar.”
He frowned at it. “It looks vaguely, no, I think I may be mixin’ it up with something else. No, cannot say that I do. Wings are used in many symbols so I do not think they even narrow it down. The cross at the top, I think that has something to do with danger, but I may be wrong about that. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help to you.”
I smiled. “No matter, I knew there was small chance you would know it.” We talked on small things while I drank my cider. Eventually I bid him farewell and headed back home. I knew I had to start looking through the Book of Remembrance before we left Predaki and time was getting short.
Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One Page 8
