by B. T. Narro
“Hide.” Basen put his back against a tree.
Watching the scene was like trying to remember an old dream. A few pieces of the image were vivid, but the rest was hazy.
Desil didn’t know how Basen had kept the memory going this long, but the headmaster’s breathing was ragged as if it was a strain on him. Or perhaps he was just afraid. Desil could no longer get any sense of Basen’s emotions as he had at the beginning.
The headmaster continued watching the other way as the sounds of snapping twigs and murmuring came from behind him.
“Here!” yelled an unknown voice. Then the same man screamed in pain.
Basen spun around, giving Desil a clear view of Alabell and Rhy sprinting toward him. Basen lifted his wand at a blur of many silhouettes.
“What do you want?” Basen demanded.
No one answered as they seemed to be chasing Alabell and the Elf. Basen let loose a ball of fire. The dirt exploded. A warning shot, no doubt, for everything went quiet.
Alabell and Rhy came to flank Basen. The blur crept forward, faces and bodies appearing just clear enough for Desil to recognize men and women. It looked as if they had bows.
“Drop your wand,” one of them ordered.
Basen let it fall from his hand. He was certainly powerful enough not to need it, however they wouldn’t know this.
“Where did you come from?” asked the same man.
“Merejic,” Basen said and pointed at the Elf.
“You have a boat?”
“It left.”
“Liar.”
The fog of the hazy memory was so dense, Desil could only make out the shapes of the trees and the enormous group edging forward.
“They’re behi—” Rhy whispered. Desil couldn’t hear the rest of the Elf’s words.
Suddenly Basen seemed to be sprinting, the gray outline of trees rushing by.
Desil came back into the clear blue forest as he was hit by a wave of dizziness. He fell to a knee and someone grabbed his arm. He looked up to find Kirnich. The others were gone.
“They ran ahead,” the warrior explained. “Leida didn’t want you to wake up from the memory in case you saw something she didn’t. Can you run?”
Desil stood and forced his legs to go. “Basen’s group might’ve been captured.”
“That’s what she said. Anything else?”
“No.”
As soon as Leida’s experience was done, she must’ve rushed toward the spot where her father’s group had encountered the Kanoans. Desil led the way for Kirnich, remembering the route Basen had taken.
Deeper in, the bark of the blue trees shifted to a beautiful aqua. This change was not clear in the memory. The color reminded Desil of transparent ocean waves on a white beach. He’d experienced the scene only once before, as it was a long trip to the shore from his old home in Kyrro City. He couldn’t have been older than seven when his parents had taken him there, yet the beauty of the water had not been lost on him.
His mind pulled him into the memory with such force that he lost sight of the forest around him. A surge of pain woke him again as Kirnich pulled him up from the ground. Fear washed over Desil, then a sense of danger. It seemed as if his body was warning him about experiencing the headmaster’s memories. Could they be so powerful as to pull him into the past and never let go? It was a concern for later.
Eventually he and Kirnich came to Leida on her knees, her back to Desil. Adriya and Beatrix stood beside her with equally worried expressions. Desil came around Leida to see blood spattered in the dirt. A wand lay a few paces away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
There wasn’t enough blood to mean anyone had died here, but there was no way to tell who it belonged to or what had happened to them. Kirnich investigated the scene as Desil and Leida walked around in hopes of finding another memory. Their search yielded nothing. Eventually Desil crouched over the blood and tried to figure out exactly when it had been spilled.
He had no experience looking at blood-stained dirt, but he did have Basen’s memories to his advantage. The sun was setting behind the Marros during the first memory of Basen and his group fleeing toward the forest. The second memory didn’t appear any darker, so it must’ve been the next day.
Which is today, Desil realized.
“Tracks run both ways,” Kirnich told them. “The Kanoans must’ve come from the south and returned that way, probably with the three of them.”
“How do you know?” Leida asked.
“Because I don’t see any other signs of a chase. It ended here.”
“But it began here,” Leida said.
“So it ended quickly.”
They all glanced down at the blood again. It seemed clear to Desil that someone had been taken down by an arrow, as that would stop the others in the group from running. But he didn’t want to tell Leida.
She seemed to figure it out on her own as she looked up at everyone with her green eyes glistening.
“We have to find them soon.”
“This happened today,” Desil told her. “And we know they’re going south, probably to their settlement. It’s likely the Kanoans don’t know about us.”
Adriya was the first to start jogging. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Beatrix called. “What time did this event take place for them?”
“There’s no way to know for sure,” Desil answered. “But it was earlier then than it is now. There was more light.”
Leida nodded.
“Then we’re walking east,” Beatrix demanded.
“You can’t be serious,” Adriya said. “They went south.”
“This forest is nearly ten miles long,” Beatrix said, “and we’ve already been walking for miles with nothing substantial to eat. I don’t care what kind of shape you think you’re in from your training at the Academy; none of us can cover the distance we need to go before nightfall. It’s already evening!”
She paused, no doubt giving everyone a chance to realize what she was saying. But only Desil seemed to understand as the rest shrugged in confusion. Adriya asked Beatrix why it mattered if they didn’t make it before nightfall.
“We can’t cross through the open land when there’s daylight, because the Marros will attack,” Desil said. “We can only leave this forest during the night. Beatrix is right. There’s no way we can make it there before then, yet the Kanoans who took the others might.”
“Which is why we’re going east a mile, where the map says there are hills to climb.” Beatrix started heading that way. “It’s the only way we can get a safe view of the settlement and the land around it so we know what’s ahead of us. Come on, Leida.”
She had been walking south with her hand out, probably searching for another memory. “Come here, Desil! I found one.”
Adriya gave Beatrix a scolding look as they all rushed over to Leida.
“This doesn’t make me wrong,” Beatrix retorted.
Desil opened himself to the memory as he came closer.
“What do you plan to do with us?” Basen was asking someone as Desil came to his senses within the memory. He could feel the dirt against his rear as Basen sat in front of Alabell. She was sucking in air through her teeth while grabbing her leg, an arrow protruding from her thigh. Desil could feel Basen’s worry and panic, though he’d heard none of it from the headmaster’s voice.
A man leaned down in front of Basen. His gray hair didn’t detract from the strength in his shoulders. He looked as if he wouldn’t mind killing Basen right then.
“I’ll shoot her above the waist this time if you lie again. Do you have a ship?”
“One is supposed to come back for us,” Basen said. “And that’s the truth.”
Even if Desil didn’t already know that was a lie, he could feel Basen’s burning worry of being caught. He would make a portal to return to Ovira. Desil didn’t know how it worked, but there was certainly no ship coming. Basen had probably promised the Elves he would go back to Merejic first to bring
Rhy and then return to Kyrro in another portal from there.
“You can wait here with us,” Basen continued. “My wife cannot walk anyway until she is treated and has time to recover.”
“She can stay here,” the man said, “while the two of you come with us.”
“That’s not going to happen. We aren’t separating.”
There seemed to be at least ten with the older man, half of them holding swords or bows up at Basen and Rhy while the other half searched through their bags.
A woman seemed to find something of interest as her eyes widened. She pulled out a vial of silver liquid and held it in front of Alabell’s face. “What is this?”
“It’s what I need right now if I’m going to walk to the settlement with the rest of you.” Alabell held out her hand.
The woman looked about a decade older than Alabell, with gray hair like the leader of this group and the same dead eyes. She undid the cork to the vial and smelled the abnormal substance. Looking like liquid steel, it didn’t appear as if it should be ingested.
“What do you do with it?” asked the woman.
Alabell grabbed it and had a gulp, then handed it back to the stunned woman.
“The clear vial, please.” Alabell calmly gestured at her bag. “And the bandages.”
The woman looked over at the man.
“If it’s going to help her walk, then do it.”
She got Alabell what was requested as the rest of the group came over to watch. Alabell gave the bandages and the vial with clear liquid to Basen to hold, then got a firm grip on the shaft of the arrow. She groaned in pain as she began to pull. The base of the head ripped out of her flesh slowly, blood trickling down her leg. The rest came out easier, though her sounds of pain intensified.
Basen acted just as calmly as he opened the vial and handed it off, though Desil could feel his alarm just as strongly as if it was his own. Alabell poured some of the substance onto her open wound. Through Basen’s nostrils, Desil could smell the scent of alcohol. She hissed as it came into contact with the hole in her leg, then immediately pressed a cloth pad onto it. She wrapped a long thread of bandage several times around it and her leg.
“I can’t walk for at least an hour,” she told the group. “Or I might bleed out.”
Another man pushed through and took the vial with the strange silver substance.
“What is it, chemist?” asked the leader.
“That’s caregelow! It has to be,” the second man insisted.
The leader grabbed Basen by his chin. “Are you with the king or are you with the Academy?”
“Neither,” Basen said. “I already told you I’m with the Elves. They have caregelow.”
The man scoffed as he let go of the headmaster. “Let’s say I believed you, which I don’t. What would you tell me you are doing here for these Elves?”
“I’ve come to investigate the explosions.”
Desil wasn’t sure why this caused the man to draw his dagger. “How do you know about the explosions?”
“Word has gotten around to all of Ovira about what happens here. I think some old sea captain made it back to Kyrro years ago.”
“Mmzaza?” The leader let out a quick laugh as he glanced toward his mob. “Could the bastard have actually made it?”
“Can’t be possible,” one said.
“I agree,” said the leader. “It must’ve been Aarin’s group.”
“Someone else left this place?” Basen asked.
“Yes. They sailed to Tenred where they wouldn’t be caught and sent back. Before they left, they spent years working on a ship under Mmzaza’s guidance, but when it was ready they forced him to stay here. There was a fight between us about who would take his spot. You see, no one wants to live in Kanoan. It wasn’t right for that child king to send any of us here. What happened to him?”
“He’s dead,” Basen replied.
“I hope he suffered.”
“Not as much as he should’ve.”
The leader squinted at Basen. His eyes fell to the headmaster’s arms. “Those are some nasty cuts and some even uglier bracelets.”
Basen looked down. On each arm he wore a bracelet with a large stone. It seemed to be made of rock rather than anything valuable like an emerald.
“Elvish bracelets,” Basen said. Desil again could feel that it was a lie.
“When I was sent away, the Elves wanted nothing to do with humans. What changed?”
“You want me to sit here and tell you the history of Ovira in the last twenty-five years?”
“You can do it while we’re walking back.” The leader pointed at Alabell. “You’ll help carry her.”
“We should wait here for the ship to return,” Basen said as he took his wife’s hand.
“This is not a kind forest. If you are telling the truth, which I still doubt, you will be safer traveling back with us.”
Alabell asked, “What about the Marros?”
“We only cross the Dead River during the night. Your leg had better work soon, because we have to cover many miles.”
Someone pulled Basen up and shoved his back, then something sharp pricked him in the rear.
“Walk,” demanded a woman.
“We’ll meet you back here, Leida,” Basen whispered. “Don’t come after us.”
“Who are you talking to?” asked the same woman.
Desil returned to the forest. The rest of his group appeared to be waiting for him or Leida to speak.
“Beatrix was right,” Desil began. “We need to figure out as much as we can about that settlement and the land leading up to it, because we’re too far behind to catch up to them.”
He looked over at Leida. She nodded in assent.
“There should be enough daylight left to climb the hills,” Beatrix said. “You can tell us the details of the memory on the way. Come on.”
*****
It turned out Beatrix was wrong. It was no hill they could climb to see over the forest. It was only the mountain Desil had seen earlier.
The psychic showed no surprise after reaching its base. She simply looked around the rocky surface for a path. There was no clear way up the mountain, Desil determined in a glance. He’d seen rock formations like this before, shelves upon shelves, most with surfaces smooth enough for walking yet without a way to get from one to another. They would be forced to climb from one shelf to the next, and some of the shelves were separated by a tall vertical face.
They were losing sun quickly, so Desil chose a spot and said, “Here’s as good a place as any to begin.”
“There’s nowhere to put your hands,” Beatrix said as she came beside him.
“There doesn’t have to be.” Desil focused on softening the rock until he could squeeze the surface like grabbing a pillow. He climbed up a moment later.
Desil heard muttered exclamations of surprise. “We don’t have much time,” he called down. “I’ll make the surface soft for the rest of you.”
But as they tried to climb, Beatrix first—and then Leida after the psychic gave up—Desil realized that it was harder than he’d expected. He’d spent years climbing before he’d had the ability to soften the rock. Then it had taken time to get used to the sensation and use it to his advantage. It was time the rest of them didn’t have.
The edge of the forest stood just behind their group. They wouldn’t have to climb for long to see over it, but Beatrix and Leida didn’t seem capable as they eventually stepped aside for Kirnich and Adriya to scramble up.
“Just wait down there,” Desil told Beatrix and Leida. “We’ll return soon.”
“Nonsense,” Beatrix said. “We’ll find another way up.”
“Beatrix, just stay there,” Kirnich said with an uncharacteristic softness in his voice. “It will only take a moment.”
“Desil, wait,” Leida said. “Give me one more chance.”
He knelt down and put his hand against the side, above where she needed to climb. It was too far for them to reac
h each other’s hands, but he’d learned how to soften the mountain to his will. It would reach all the way down in a column without him needing to exert excess energy to transform the rest of the stone beside him.
Leida squeezed her hands and tried to climb, but her fingers slipped immediately. “There must be some secret to this. It doesn’t seem possible.”
“No secret.” Desil made his hand into a claw. “Just dig your hand in as deep as possible and grip hard. Don’t expect it to be easy because it’s not. If you haven’t climbed before, it’s going to take all of your hand strength to hold on.”
“If I could get my hands deeper in, I would. Can you soften the rock more?”
My father could if he were here. “Unfortunately not.”
“Perhaps I could try with you. I feel the same connection as with the water.”
His heart skipped in his chest. If it was possible for her to manipulate the stone without the years of practice it had taken him, what would it mean? He couldn’t decide whether he should be jealous or celebrate her success.
Leida put her hands flat against the softened stone and shut her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath and then pushed from her shoulders. Even if Desil hadn’t seen her hands sink into the flat surface, he could feel the outer layer of rock softening. Together, they had weakened it to the consistency of cloth.
He tested the feeling against his own hand, worried it might not be strong enough to hold Leida’s weight. But it still clung to itself as it was designed to do, even as it bent inward and eventually pressed against the hard surface behind it.
Leida looked as if she was climbing up a thick blanket of wool as she came close enough for Desil to take her hand and pull her up the rest of the way. Beatrix was right behind her, the surface of rock stretching from the stress of the second climber. It required a few extra hands-over-feet from the psychic, but soon Kirnich was pulling her up.
“Leida,” Desil said. “Do you realize what it means that you can already do that?”
She grinned. “Like we said on the boat. This is the beginning of breaking our expectations.”
“It only means you two need stronger hands,” Kirnich said. He grabbed his thigh and dug his fingers into his flesh as an example. “Exercise when we leave this mountain. Best not to be weak.”
