The Lore Mother’s luminous gaze swung her direction. “What black creatures?”
“Beside the trail, they dart into bushes or behind rocks.”
The old woman frowned, deepening the furrows there. “I have not noticed anything, though my diligence in keeping watch beyond the road immediately ahead has been lax. My mind has been engrossed with…other things.”
Crystalyn dredged up a few phrases from her psychology module, adapting it to the situation, though she doubted it would work. The woman was proving to be harder than steel when it came to giving direct answers. “Let’s talk about what’s troubling you. Perhaps I can provide a different perspective.”
The Lore Mother hesitated, her luminous eyes unreadable. Was the old woman considering how much to reveal? Crystalyn couldn’t tell. The Lore Mother and Lore Rayna would make an unbeatable duo in a game of D-cards where reading your opponents’ eyes for a hint of what cards they held was a major part of the game. “I’ve been meaning to speak with you at some length about our Astura. I believe you have many questions. Atoi can be…reticent in those matters. Regrettably, this war has preoccupied me. From the reports I have received, it is not going as hoped.”
“You say that like there’s been several.”
“Sadly, yes. This one is the youngest in a long line of them, dating back as far as the Ruination, possibly even further. The Surbon Codex begins with the appearance of the flying beasts and land wraiths and their rise to dominant the world. It had succeeded until something happened we do not—”
“Hold it! What is the Surbon Codex? The Ruination?”
“The codex is a set of ancient scrolls prophesying events throughout many ages, written by a man who−as far as we can determine−had no history here. About all we have is a name and vague description. He went by the name of Jornas Surbo, though no one knows if it is a real designation or not. Much of his early work consisted of indecipherable ramblings, but almost all of what is decoded so far has come to pass. We are only now touching on some of his earlier writings, which relate to our present time. In his madness—or incomprehensible foresight—he wrote the future from forward to backward. The Ruination is as far back as our records go. About all we can gather is something alien to this world nearly destroyed Astura and humankind. It has been an epic struggle to repopulate and get to where we are now.”
Crystalyn was fascinated. “Please, continue.” There was no such thing as prophecy as the Lore Mother spoke of in the codex, but as long as she related history, Crystalyn wanted to hear it, prophecy or not. She was happy to hear some of Astura’s history. What could possibly be strong enough to all but wipe out a whole planet? History always provided an invaluable and fascinating insight into the way things worked now. Wait. Jonas Surbo wrote the future? Surely, she’d meant Jornas Surbo had jotted down the events of history. How could he write history forward to backward when tomorrow hadn’t happened yet?
“For instance, Jornas predicted the present war and the races involved. Sadly, it has been among Dark and Light Users, once allies against the great terror and the wraiths of long ago—or so it reads in the codex. This war has dragged on for too long. Suffice to say, a century has passed.”
Crystalyn gasped. “You’ve been fighting for a century? How can you live like that? How could anyone? Undoubtedly one side or the other would’ve gained dominance by now.”
“Perhaps, if it had only been between Users it would have finished some time ago,” the Lore Mother mused. “But too many who don’t Use are involved after all these years. At least, everyone follows the Aftermath Edicts—or the AM edicts for short—which states that the losing side, the one with the most casualties, has to reforest the area but are not obligated to rebuilt the cities. To each their own on that issue.”
“Isn’t one side good, the other evil? You know the age-old battle of light against dark?”
The Lore Mother laughed without mirth. “There is not much distinction between good and evil these days. All races have committed their share of atrocities. With so many sects warring, it has been too much for those of us in the Vibrant Vale to restore peace, though we will not give up on it yet. Those are just the ones who war openly. I am aware of three other sects slinking around the outskirts, content to bide their time while their numbers grow. Some allies change almost seasonally.”
Though the early evening sun cast its warm light full upon her, Crystalyn shivered. With five races and three slinkers struggling against each other, the chance of staying away from warfare altogether must be slim to nonexistent. The odds were, Jade had already stumbled into one…but she mustn’t think that way. Jade was safe. She would find her sister, even if it meant wading through the entrails of every bloody army and every blasted sect on this war-mongering world. It was enough to make her want to send her symbols flying in all directions.
Whoa! The last thing she needed was to make herself mad…even a small argument could easily lead to actions, at least, for her, it could. Now that she had powerful symbols to hurl around, she couldn’t afford a tantrum. Augmented by the black crystal candle and driven by her mind affliction anger, her symbols made for an unstable, though powerful force. One she’d better keep in check, for at the back of her mind—waiting for her will to slacken but a moment—her anxieties roamed, stronger than ever. She could sense them now in the way she’d terra-screwed everything up this time, trapping her and Jade on a violent world with no path home. Jade may have already paid for that mistake if the sapphire obelisks had deposited her near an army. No, please!
The absence of motion brought Crystalyn out of her thoughts. Drumn stood tall and immobile in a clearing covered in grass, his beautiful bronze head held high. The Lore Mother stood taller still, her feet splayed on the top rung of the wagon’s dismount ladder. Her luminous eyes, slightly sunken into her wizened face, looked down at Crystalyn. “We’ll make camp beside this stream. Come, there is little time for slack. Help the others with the setup.”
Crystalyn bristled a little at the command but said nothing. Doing something besides sitting on a hard bench would help ease her mind. Besides, it would help exercise her muscles far better than arguing with the old woman. Of course, the time to broach the subject of who would command whom was fast approaching.
Once her feet hit the ground, she went to the stunted tree where Hastel was tying the palomino. “I’ll take care of this one. Drumn would be a handful as big as he is, until he gets used to someone like me grooming him.”
Planting an affectionate pat on the tan horse’s neck, Hastel eyed her with his one good eye. “His name is Ferral. He’s been with me longer than Drumn, but he’s every bit as temperamental as the shire. I can groom them both, soon enough. Are you sure you want the job?”
“Yes, I do. I need to move around. You know, work the cramps out.”
Hastel eyed her in silence for a long moment. “You’re in charge,” he finally said. Giving the Ferral another affectionate pat, he walked away, leaving an admonishment behind. “Let me know if he gets too feisty; I’ll lend a hand. Don’t try and handle him yourself.”
Crystalyn waited until the innkeeper was far enough away to be no influence to the horse then gripped Ferral’s halter under his chin. Pulling his head close to hers, she gazed into his huge, almond eyes. “I won’t need your master’s help will I, Ferral? You and I are going to get along fine, aren’t we?”
Ferral’s unblinking gaze matched hers for a short while before pulling away.
“So that’s how it’s going to be for now,” she said smiling. “I can live with it.” Releasing the halter, Crystalyn unbuckled the front shoulder strap. The strap under Ferral’s belly was next, allowing her to roll the saddle into her arms. The saddle was heavy, but she managed to straddle it over a decayed log. Rummaging through a saddlebag, she found a rub cloth and brush.
Ferral stood placid during her brisk rub down, only sidestepping a couple of times when she brushed his coat dry. The summers spent gallivanting about the A
dministration’s farm on horseback—the Farm, as named by the King’s Administration—was paying off big now.
“I was going to say I would take it from here, except you didn’t leave me much to do,” Hastel said from behind her.
Crystalyn spun to find him holding a partial bag of oats. “You’ve already seen to Drumn? You’re much faster than I am.”
“Hitched to the wagon, the big brute didn’t need for much except a brief rub. All he wanted was some oats and a drink from the stream.”
The mention of water caught Crystalyn’s attention, drawing her eyes to it. Splashing along its small banks, the brisk stream looked inviting after many hours traveling in the hot sun. “A trip upstream wouldn’t hurt me either. I could stand a brief wash.”
“As could I,” Atoi said. Strolling around the wagon, she carried a brown washcloth clasped in one hand.
Hastel folded the oat bag’s edges down, and then hung it on Ferral’s neck. “You two go ahead; I can finish up here.”
Spotting a well-used animal trail, Crystalyn headed for it, nodding for Atoi to follow. From the start, the trail followed the tiny stream as it wound around bushes, boulders, aspen tree clumps, and under many enormous trees. They looked like evergreens but weren’t. Their leaves resembled ferns, something she couldn’t recall the big trees in the holographic at school or at the Farm having, though it didn’t mean much. The holograms only trained them on what the Administration wanted them to learn.
She’d never traveled to the Lower Realm, though dad was originally from there. Her home on Mid Realm was the farthest they’d gone, and it was still relatively high on the Mountain. She wasn’t certain a tree could survive in Low Realm, or even in the lower part of Mid Realm with all the pollution. Dad had promised to mask them with breathing cylinders and give them a brief tour outside a hover of the place where he grew up, but that was before losing his service indenture as head of the Admin’s security.
Now everyone was missing—her mother, her father, and her little sister, all of them separated, as if a family digiportrait was stuck on one frame without them all in it. Crystalyn’s stomach burned thinking of it.
The trail ended at a tiny clearing nestled at the foot of a steep ravine. Overrun with deadfall and choking grasses on three sides, several flat rocks ringed a clear pool glistening at the mouth. “This looks perfect,” Crystalyn said. Stripping down to her undergarments, she waded into the pool, rinsing off her dusty clothes first, the water cold, but refreshing.
Wringing her jeans and tee dry as best she could, she left them on a rock to dry, while she scrubbed the dust caked on her arms. It refused to budge. She missed her synthetic body scrub; one drop would restore and moisturize her body.
Stringing her wet dress on a branch, Atoi waded into the pool. “Here, use this.” Somewhere along the way, the little girl had picked a fern leaf from one of the huge trees.
Taking the fern and the washrag from Atoi, she looked at her young companion, raising an eyebrow.
Atoi demonstrated with a leaf of her own. “First, get it wet. Then rub it fast in your palms.”
Crystalyn rubbed the leaf briskly between her palms, breaking open the stalk. A clear gel bled onto one palm. Discarding the unused fiber, Crystalyn brought the gel to her nose. Lavender tinged with a faint pine scent caressed her nostrils. “This is wonderful!” Lathering it on the sweat-stained parts of her body, she reveled in the cleanliness, but she hesitated when she got to her head. “Will it damage my hair?”
“The Falun trees properties are particularly good for hair. Nothing else need be used.”
Atoi’s shiny black hair added weight to the firm statement. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” Crystalyn dunked her head. The frigid water stole her breath. Shaking her head, she cleared the water from her eyes, gasping.
Atoi was frowning. “I don’t understand. Why would you require a second telling?”
“Never mind, I’m not even going to try and explain.” Smiling, she kneaded the gel through her auburn hair from the roots to the ends as fast as she could. Bracing herself, she took a second, longer plunge, submerging to rinse her long hair in a flurry of splashes.
Once finished, she hurried from the pool, making a conscious effort not to shiver as she stepped into the clearing’s center where the sun was the brightest. As she raked her fingers through her hair, the only drawback to the bath besides the cold water was the fact she’d left her brush in her pack back at the wagon. The falun tree gel felt better than the synthetic on her skin.
The sun and a slight breeze soon dried her skin, taking the pond’s icy bite away. Her hair and undergarments dried to a pleasant dampness; she needed a few additional minutes to dress, but sunlight was receding fast. “As much as I’d like to stay here, we should start back. I imagine it may get cold in these trees when the sun goes down.”
Twisting her jet-black hair tight against her scalp, Atoi surged from the pool. “It will. The temperature will fall with the sun. Methinks I shouldn’t have wet my hair.”
“We needed it, I can’t stand the dust. We’ll just have to carry our clothes until we get closer to camp, they’ll be almost dry by then.” Gathering her jeans and shirt, Crystalyn slung them over a shoulder, and then squeezed the excess water from her socks. Satisfied she’d had the best wash possible under the circumstances; she slipped on her boots and started for camp.
At the clearing’s edge, a small shape bolted into a thick copse next to the trail. This time she sprinted after it, hoping to get a good look.
Atoi’s call echoed through the trees behind her. “Where are you going?”
Crystalyn didn’t answer. The small woodland creature darted in spurts through thick underbrush. She didn’t want to frighten it away or lose sight of it. Moving through the thicket proved difficult, but she managed to break through to another opening running parallel to the stream.
She froze. A man stood next to a black horse not far from where she’d emerged. Someone she recognized from town.
Confused, Crystalyn sorted through the names in her mind. “Darwin Darkwind, what are you doing here?”
Darwin smiled. “Why looking for you, of course. You’re a hard one to entice away from your companions. I nearly depleted my reserves casting my Lure Creation so many times.”
“I don’t understand.”
Darwin frowned. “Surely you’ve cast a medium creation in some form, by now. You’d have to be a fairly strong to knock someone unconscious like you did in the alley.” His tanned face relaxed. “It does not matter. There’s aspects to you to find each time we meet. You are as intriguing as you are beautiful.”
Crystalyn ignored the compliment, if it was one. She’d best not dwell on them. The first shards of cold had begun to seep in raising her anxiety level, when that happened, her ire rose with it. “You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you here?”
Darwin’s face clouded. “As I mentioned when first we met, our side could use someone such as you. I hoped to discuss this at length.”
“So you followed me up the mountain? I find it hard to believe.”
Darwin’s frown cleared. “So you’re not native to Four Bridges, as I suspected. You wouldn’t know then. The wagon trail you’re on is one of only two ways to cross Wannabe Pass. The other is a horse trail that only a goat would be comfortable traversing in some places. From time to time, the trails intersect from past travelers avoiding the worst spots. I was making my way on such a place when you passed in the wagon. Acting on the chance to entice you away from your companions, I sent the lure out when opportunities allowed.”
Crystalyn felt a twinge of remorse. Perhaps she was being too hard on him, but she couldn’t shake her wariness. Too much had happened. “Why not ride into our camp and ask for me?”
Darwin looked pained. “There are some in your party who would not want me anywhere close to you. In fact, there is a strong possibility they’d attack before I could speak your name.”
Crystalyn g
aped. Was he trying to make her wary? “Who would want to attack you?”
Darwin grinned, lighting up his deep blue eyes. “There are three in the company you keep who harbor no love for me. The old woman, the plant woman, and the red beast are sworn enemies to the Greater Power, though I know not why they are against it so. As for your other two, the axe man will do whatever the Dark Child commands, which may or may not be to my benefit. I don’t believe the child has met me in the past, so she harbors no ill will.”
“You lost me, I’m afraid. What Dark Child?”
Atoi stepped out of the thicket to stand beside her. “You are mistaken. I am not a Dark Child.” Atoi had put her dress on. Crystalyn’s face heated. She’d been conversing with Darwin the whole time in her undergarments.
Crystalyn slipped her shirt over her head. “What does he mean by it, Atoi? What is a Dark Child?”
Darwin interrupted. “Let me ask you this: have you ever seen her sleep?”
Crystalyn glanced at Atoi while struggling into her damp pants. The girl’s too-white face remained impassive, gazing unblinking at Darwin. Holding herself erect, she said nothing. Crystalyn turned to Darwin. “I don’t understand, am I supposed to know if she sleeps?”
Darwin climbed upon his mare. “The Dark Child may confide in you, in time. For now, I must go. The path ahead is too steep for a horse in the dark. I must take to the trail ahead of your party. We will meet again. Farewell.” He slapped the reins and the mare leapt forward, trotting for the clearing’s far end.
“Wait!” Crystalyn called. “Why do you keep calling her a ‘Dark Child?’” For an answer, Darwin spurred his dark horse into a gallop, vanishing around an outcropping of aspen trees. Rounding on Atoi, Crystalyn frowned. “What did he mean by that? Is there something I should know about you?”
Beyond the Sapphire Gate: Epic Fantasy-Some Magic Should Remain Untouched (The Flow of Power Book 1) Page 13
