by B. T. Narro
Desil stopped fighting, putting out his arms and holding still. He couldn’t breathe with such weight on his back, but he forced himself not to struggle or the Krepp might start pounding on the back of his head until he stopped moving.
A great relief came when the creature got off. Desil stayed put as he caught his breath, feeling as if he’d played dead in a battle against a bear. He flinched as a claw grabbed him by the shoulder and flipped him over.
Thankfully the creature had his hand out as if to help Desil up. Desil reached up and took it. The Krepp yanked him to his feet as easily as if he were a little boy.
“Free jek,” the Krepp said. Good fight.
“Free jek,” Desil repeated. He checked his injuries, prodding the two gashes on his face, then the small cut on his neck. It would heal in a day, but his face would take a few. He hoped there wouldn’t be a scar. The Krepp had torn the collar of Desil’s shirt and left grass stains on his chest and probably his back. But that was it.
It could’ve been much worse. The crowd soon lost interest and started heading back to the encampment. Soon there was only one left, the Krepp responsible for Desil’s injuries. The creature gestured for Desil to follow him as he walked toward the encampment at the back of the group.
What Desil remembered most from the last time he was here with his father were the embarrassed Krepps tending to the gardens and the animals of the farms. It had seemed as if their jobs were punishment, the creatures keeping their heads low with shifting eyes. Desil was glad to see Kreppen gardeners and farmers working with pride now. If this encampment was to survive, these creatures would have to let go of some of their sensitivities, and it was in the best interest of all humans for these Krepps to remain here and thrive. Otherwise they might go back to hunting, and men were not exempt from their list of quarries.
Thick trees blocked Desil’s view in every direction. They dwarfed the houses and made the small huts seem even more diminutive. It was strange that so many Krepps chose to live in half-built homes and didn’t care about improving their living conditions. All worked with their hands on other tasks as they bustled about the encampment, though Desil did catch sight of a group of male Krepps enjoying some leisure time with cards unfamiliar to him. They played on a tree stump, one sitting in a half rotten chair and the rest on rocks.
What sounded to be a fight broke out in the distance. The Krepp leading Desil ran over, forcing Desil to follow. It wasn’t a fight, he soon realized, but a duel for sport. The two Krepps stopped mid-fight to say something to each other and then reset their positions. As the budding audience realized what they were watching, some of them spat on the ground while the rest grumbled. Desil’s Krepp soon resumed leading him to Nebre.
Desil wanted to take the note and get out of there as soon as he could. He didn’t appreciate the threatening glances he got from many of the males and even some of the females.
His Krepp brought him to one of the many similar homes, though this might’ve been the only one that didn’t have so much as a chip of paint.
“Nebre!” shouted the Krepp.
It would’ve been easier to knock.
The familiar Krepp came out with his usually kind face twisted in anger. He looked much older as well, his skin looser around the eyes and chin. Or perhaps he was just tired. He scolded the other Krepp in a whisper. From what Desil could understand of the Kreppen, it was something about the noise waking someone. Then he heard multiple cries like that of a baby, only with grunts and growls mixed in.
Nebre’s scolding intensified before he went back inside. Desil’s Krepp turned to him and said something with a slight shrug that Desil didn’t understand. Then he walked off.
It didn’t seem as if Nebre had even noticed the human standing beside the Krepp he’d chided.
Desil didn’t see any way around it. He was going to have to knock. The Kreppen babies inside were still crying, so he hoped there wouldn’t be harm in making noise at that moment. He knocked loudly enough to be heard over the wails. Inside, Nebre said something in a seething tone.
Desil dared not knock again as he waited. Eventually, the door came open to reveal Nebre holding one infant in each arm, his foot letting go of the handle of the door. The Krepp’s incensed face softened a bit.
“What are you doing here, human?” His common tongue was refreshing to hear. Nebre lifted his chin in the direction of Desil’s bleeding cheek. “Looks as if you had quite a duel to get to me. Do you need treatment?”
“I’m all right. I realize you were expecting Cleve or Leida, but I’m here in their stead to collect the note Basen left with you. My name is Desil Fogg. We met a few years ago when I came with my father, Wade.”
“Desil, yes I remember you and your father!” The Krepp’s excitement made both infants form the same expression of interest, open mouths and wide yellow eyes. At least they’d stopped crying.
Nebre cooed at them. They each had only a couple of teeth and were as bald as a rock. For a brief moment, Desil thought about how cute they were, but then he pictured them growing up to be bigger than him and spitting on his feet, and the notion went away.
Desil glanced around the Krepp for a glimpse at the interior. There weren’t many other homes that equaled its size. The only room Desil could see into contained a desk with papers and a quill atop it. Nebre came all the way out, turned around, then reached back with his foot to shut the door softly.
“Are these your children?” Desil asked.
“Grandchildren. My son is out with his grandfather. His seshar died. Mine is sleeping inside.”
Desil was never supposed to apologize to Krepps, or he would lose their respect, but Nebre was different. He understood human customs.
“I’m sorry about your son’s seshar.”
“It was difficult for all of us, but these two keep us busy.” He waved one claw in front of a little one. Tiny fingers came up to grab it, but Nebre bent his finger to offer his knuckle instead so the infant wouldn’t injure itself.
Suddenly Nebre stepped toward Desil. “Here, take them.”
Desil stepped away. “Why?”
“Just for a moment, silly human!” He chuckled as he passed off one infant at a time.
As Desil cradled one in the nook of each arm, the sudden fear came over him that he wouldn’t make it out of here alive if he dropped either of them. They looked like gray lizards mixed with human babies, a tiny triangle of tail sprouting out from their rear and two little holes at the end of budding snouts. They squirmed to stare curiously up at his face. One reached up and grabbed the collar of his shirt, then pulled with surprising strength. It ripped farther. Desil tried to lean away, but he couldn’t get enough distance. The baby Krepp giggled as it kept pulling, extending the rip all the way to Desil’s blue cape before its little hand could go no farther.
Nebre fished the note out of his pocket and looked up. “I’m sorry.” He let the note fall in his hurry to take back his grandchildren. One wouldn’t let go of Desil’s shirt until Desil pried its little fingers off.
He picked up the note as soon as he could and brushed off the dirt. “Thank you.” Desil turned to leave.
“Wait,” Nebre said. “Are you helping Basen?”
“I’m trying.”
“Good. He didn’t say so when he came, but I could tell he and his wife need it. They are smart humans, strong and caring.”
“Did they tell you what they’re doing?”
“Not specifically. They didn’t want me giving details to anyone who might come looking for them. All they would say was they were trying to stop a war.”
“I figured.”
Desil didn’t know how Basen and Alabell hoped to prevent a war that seemed inevitable, but the king certainly didn’t approve of their method or their goal.
He opened the note.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Desil was late. It was already night by the time he made it back to Kayvol. He could imagine Leida and Adriya in the tavern wondering
when he would show up. They would ask his mother if it was really possible for him to make it to the Kreppen encampment and back in one day, but his mother knew him well. She would ease their worries and feed them.
Soon he arrived at the tavern. The small town was quieter than the light wind playing with the lake. He stopped outside to gather his composure. He could hear his mother inside speaking to someone. Knowing all the patrons would’ve gone home by now, he was relieved that at least Leida had not. It didn’t matter to him whether she’d brought Adriya. They could always tell the strident young woman what they’d learned at a later time, when they needed her help. Desil figured it would be soon, yet he couldn’t determine if that excited or worried him.
He entered the tavern, thankful he could hide his injuries in the dim lighting. He knew he looked like he’d lost a fight with a Krepp, but he didn’t want to deal with his mother’s fears at the moment. Unfortunately, she cast light upon him as soon as he closed the door behind him.
“Bastial hell, what happened?” his mother cried.
“They didn’t want me entering their space, so I had to prove myself.” He put his hand in front of his eyes. “Mother, please. The light.”
She lowered her wand. “Those damn Krepps. I’ll get the ointment for your cuts.”
At least she hadn’t seemed to notice his ripped shirt. “I’ll be back in a moment,” he told Adriya and Leida, who hadn’t stopped staring at him with shock since he’d entered. He left the note on their table between their empty plates and hurried to his room. He changed as quickly as he could and made it back before his mother returned with water, cloth, and the ointment. By then, Leida and Adriya looked dejected. Must’ve read the note.
Desil’s mother caught sight of it in Leida’s hands. “So that’s it?”
Leida nodded.
“We have to go as soon as we can,” Desil told them all as he took the cloth from his mother’s hands and thanked her.
“Where could you be going tonight?” Effie asked. “It’s late.”
Desil started to clean his stinging wound on his cheek using the rag and small bucket of water. “We can’t tell you. I’m sorry.” He looked at Leida, who put the note in her pocket.
“He’s right, Ms. Elegin,” Leida confirmed. “I’m sorry as well. No one else should know where we’re going in case he or she is questioned.”
When Desil was done with his cheek, he cleaned the shallower scrape on his neck. Then he put the ointment on.
“I should be back before morning,” he told his mother. Leida and Adriya stood.
Effie’s scolding look showed her disapproval, but she didn’t say anything else. He kissed her cheek and gave her his thanks before turning to the door.
*****
The message on the note was simple: “Go to the tree that reminds you of your grandfather and search around in front of it.” Desil hadn’t been sure he could get to this tree, wherever it was, and return to the tavern in the morning, as he’d told his mother. But it didn’t seem likely for the headmaster to send his daughter far away. It was even less likely for Leida to remember a tree from a location far from the Academy, where she grew up.
“Where is it?” Desil asked her as they started west toward the campus.
“About a mile past the school, in a small forest. I should’ve thought to go earlier. My parents used to take me there to meditate with them when I was a child. As I got older, they gave me the option to stay behind, which I always took. They kept going there a few times a year. At first I wondered why they would walk a mile and back just to meditate, but it seemed to make them happy so I eventually let it go. Now I believe they were up to something.”
Adriya asked Desil, “What did the Krepp say when he gave you the note?”
“Tell us everything that happened,” Leida added, squinting at the slash down his cheek. “Start with how you got there so fast.”
“My father calls it cycling bastial energy.”
“I knew it,” Adriya interrupted. “It was the only way to run such a distance unless you were lying.”
“Adriya can cycle as well,” Leida said. “She’s a battle mage like you. I didn’t think there were any outside of the Academy.”
Desil knew what a battle mage was from his mother and father. It meant Adriya trained equally in melee combat and the manipulation of bastial energy. Many battle mages could cast fireballs as well as they could fight, while others who had no skill over sartious energy trained instead by using bastial energy to improve their speed and strength, like Desil.
Not once had he thought himself to be one, though, and there was a good reason for that. “I don’t know what to call myself, but I’m no battle mage. I do know how to cycle, but I have only a little training in combat.”
Leida looked at Adriya. “He’s not that different from us; he just never got a chance to go to the Academy. They probably would’ve put him in your group if he had.” It sounded as if she was trying to get Adriya to trust him. They’d probably had arguments about him. Good thing at least Leida was on his side.
“If you’re not a battle mage,” Adriya told Desil, “and you can’t cast fire, then you’re just an amateur swordsman with a knack for bastial energy.” She glanced ahead with a bored look as if she’d lost interest in him. “There’s no room for someone like that at the Academy anyway.”
Desil didn’t know what it was about him that Adriya didn’t trust. He found himself thinking of what he could say to prove himself until he realized that he didn’t need her trust, only Leida’s. So he let it go.
They walked in silence for a while. Eventually Leida asked for the rest of the details of Desil’s day. He started with general descriptions about the experience, but her specific questions made it clear she was interested in every detail.
By the time he was done, they’d gone around the southern side of the Academy and were close to a small forest Desil assumed to be the one with the grandfather tree. He shifted to walk behind Leida and Adriya when they came to the trees, as there was often not enough room for the three of them to walk abreast. They spoke softly among themselves as he glanced behind him to check for followers. It seemed unlikely for Beatrix or Kirnich to have chased the two women all the way from the Academy to Kayvol and back again, but part of the plan had been for them to leave the Academy before everyone was questioned. Someone could’ve been sent out to look for them.
“This is it,” Leida said as she pointed at the thickest tree around. It was gray with sturdy roots wrapped around its base and burrowed into the ground. Many limbs sprouted out, but none were as big as the massive branch shooting out from its side and bending upward. One arm came out from this branch and crossed back in front of another arm to give the grumpy tree the illusion of someone folding his arms in disapproval.
“Your grandfather is a stern man?” Desil assumed.
“He was when I was a child,” Leida said softly. “He and my father often argued about how to lead the Academy, but before he died he told my father how proud he was of all he’d accomplished.”
They began to walk around in front of the tree, as instructed by the note. Desil expected to feel a memory any moment. The search reminded him how every day used to be an adventure like this when he was a child. He’d always thought he’d be involved in something larger than himself, working toward a goal with his two best friends—his parents.
It was no surprise when Desil found himself alone while Leida and Adriya searched together. He didn’t mind, though it was something to note. If the three of them ever did encounter danger while tracking down the headmaster, he’d better keep in mind that Leida and Adriya weren’t likely to risk injury to help him.
In the brief moment he searched beside them, he heard Leida telling Adriya how it had been at least five years since she was here.
“What have my parents been up to in all that time?” Leida wondered aloud, though in a scornful tone as if betrayed.
“I thought they were working with mine,�
�� Adriya said. “But only to improve the Academy. I’m beginning to believe Basen wanted my mother and father involved in whatever this is, but they didn’t join.”
“I’m sure it’s dangerous,” Desil told them. “Leida, your parents probably didn’t get you involved in hopes of protecting you.”
He felt something hard and smooth like wood beneath his feet. He bent down and cleared away the leaves to reveal a square door in the forest floor, just wide enough for him to fit through. It was framed by stone, with two half rings of brass sticking out beside it to act as handles.
He let out a quick hum of curiosity. “That’s not what I had expected.”
“Let’s have a look,” Leida said as she bent down and turned the handle.
She pulled, opening the door up and over until it rested face down on the dirt.
There was a long ladder extending down a square hole a little narrower than Desil would’ve liked. He was about to make light with bastial energy for a look when both women did so first.
“My stars,” Leida whispered.
Adriya cursed.
When they moved to let Desil have a look, he saw no end to the ladder. Then he adjusted the direction of his light and strained his eyes. There did seem to be a bottom, but it was so far away it was difficult to tell whether he was looking at ground or a hazy image of the continuing ladder, which shot down at a diagonal to make it slightly easier to descend.
“I’ll go first,” he volunteered, seeing as how the others had moved away as if fearful of falling in.
“It must be safe, otherwise my father wouldn’t have sent us here,” Leida reasoned. It sounded as if she was trying to convince herself. She sucked in a few short breaths as Desil moved around to get himself into position.
“Wait,” she said. “I should go first. This is between me and my family.”
“All right.” Desil moved aside.
She took her time edging toward the opening, stepping around to look at it from all angles. “I don’t see how to start.”
