Foundations Broken and Built

by Jeffrey Quyle

  The group proceeded to hike along the road, moving relentlessly towards Heathrin all afternoon and into the night.

  “We’ll stop here,” Forna decided as the moon set early, darkening the wooded foothills the group was traveling through. “I still can’t judge anything about Silas’s position, but if he hasn’t moved this afternoon, then we should be getting pretty close.”

  “And if he has moved?” asked Gereld, the captain of the Amenozume troops.

  “I’ll keep trying to track him,” Forna answered curtly. “Something has happened to him, maybe some bewitchment. There’s just no other way to explain how his being could become so clouded.”

  There was no one who saw any point in debating the unanswerable point, so the members of the group settled into the campsite and bedded down quickly.

  At the same time, the village members and the Guild stalwarts gathered inside the former Heathrin barracks to discuss strategy after an afternoon of battle losses. Without Silas to help them, they had fallen back and suffered losses while trying to defend the road into the village. Only with darkness had they managed to make a stand on the fringe of the village and stop the advance of Ivaric’s forces.

  “Where is the destroyer?” Botton demanded. “Did he run away out of fear?”

  “Are you nuts?” Lexy shouted in response, as tempers flared. “He destroyed an entire fleet by himself. A couple of squadrons of soldiers like this would be no challenge to him. He hasn’t run away because he’s afraid.”

  “No one saw him leave the campus,” one of the Guild apprentices pointed out.

  “Who could see him if he used his amazing powers to sneak out?” Botton objected.

  “We’re not here to discuss Silas; we’re here to plan our own defense,” Wither spoke sharply. “Tomorrow, those Ivaric forces are going to relaunch their attack, and we need to be ready.

  “Who knows the west side of the village best?” the Barnesnob soldier asked.

  “I’m the alderman for that side of the village,” a stout man spoke up.

  “Where are we weakest and where are we strongest?” Wither questioned him, and the man proceeded to give an explanation of where the village defenses were most and least likely to withstand assault.

  Wither made assignments and sent folks to get rest before the next day’s struggles began anew. When he, Lexy, Stash, Jimes and Ditto were left alone, they looked at one another.

  “We’ve got to find Silas tonight,” Stash said. “Ditto and I will go snooping around to try to find him.”

  The two thieves left the others and disappeared into the darkness.

  “I heard a voice, and so did one on the others, this afternoon,” Jimes said quietly. “It was someone here in Heathrin, sending a coded message to Ivaric. I didn’t like it at the time, but I didn’t know what it meant, other than it signaled that there is a traitor among the Guild members,” he said.

  “You don’t suppose they’ve taken Silas captive somehow?” he asked plaintively.

  “I don’t see how anyone could take Silas captive,” Lexy answered stoutly.

  “I don’t see it either, but he met Stash because he had to escape from captivity once before, or so I heard,” Wither pointed out. “He must have some weakness.”

  “Besides the princess,” Lexy mumbled, making Jimes snort in agreement.

  “Let’s get some sleep and hope that the two thieves manage to find some sign of him,” Wither said. He snuffed the candle in the room, and the three of them lay on the floor exhausted, then quickly fell asleep.

  Chapter 16

  Stash returned to the room where his exhausted companions lay sleeping just before dawn.

  “We found him!” the thief said excitedly as he shook Wither awake. “We found Silas! He needs help.”

  “Is he injured?” Jimes asked as he sat up.

  “In a fashion,” Stash answered. “We need help to carry him. Come along.”

  Wither, Lexy, and Jimes quickly rose and followed Stash through the village and back onto the Guild campus.

  “Was he here the whole time?” Lexy asked as they briskly walked along.

  “I think so,” Stash answered. “He’s been held as a captive.” He led his companions around a corner of a building, then behind some shrubbery to an open window. “He’s in here.”

  Stash climbed nimbly into the dark interior of the building, and after a set of shrugged shoulders, so did the others.

  “I saw him come into this building to talk to a lady earlier today, and it was the last place I saw him,” Ditto explained.

  “Who was the lady?” Lexy asked sharply.

  “I don’t know,” Ditto’s shrugged shoulders were unseen in the darkness.

  “Here’s Silas,” Stash lifted the shoulders of the unconscious man.

  “Won’t he wake up?” Wither asked as he knelt beside Silas. “What is this?” he noticed one of the jewels attached to Silas’s flesh.

  “Who are you? Thieves?” Cinda shrieked as she happened to open a door while holding a candle, casting light on the scene in her office. She surveyed the situation in a flash, recognizing some of the people there as Silas’s friends, and she tried to dissemble.

  “What have you done to him?” she asked, looking at Silas.

  “Her!” Ditto pronounced excitedly. “She’s the one I saw Silas talking to last!”

  Stash moved rapidly across the room and seized Cinda by the arm, pulling her into the room.

  “Tell us what you did to him,” the thief said in a low growl.

  “Wait!” Jimes suddenly interrupted. He cocked his head and listened to an incoming message.

  “The Ivaric forces are attacking! I just got a message from a Speaker in the village. We need to awaken Silas so that he can help fight them!” Jimes interrupted excitedly.

  “He won’t awaken; he can’t. He doesn’t have control of himself,” Cinda’s voice was suddenly more confident, and more cruel. “When the Ivaric forces get here, they’ll take him as a captive trophy back to Ivaric immediately.”

  “Not if we can help it!” Lexy shot back.

  “You can’t help it,” Cinda answered smugly. “It’s all going to happen.”

  Light was starting to filter in through the window as dawn began to break.

  “Do you hear it? You can hear the sounds of the battle already!” Cinda directed the attention of the group to the outside world. Faint noises were indeed coming in through the window.

  “Leave him with me, and I’ll do my best to make sure he’s treated humanely,” Cinda said with confidence. “Go now while you can escape.”

  “He’s in here,” a girl’s voice sounded outside the window suddenly. “I think he is, as much as I can sense anything about him.”

  “Who’s there?” Wither said sharply, drawing his sword and approaching the window.

  Two women looked in the window. “There he is!” Forna said excitedly.

  Riesta craned her neck to see through the window frame.

  “Take your hands off him!” she ordered.

  “No, these are his friends,” Forna explained. “At least, those three are,” she gestured towards the companions who had traveled from Amenozume.

  “Who are these three?” she asked Stash.

  “The woman over there is suspicious,” the thief answered. “The other two are with us. We need to get Silas out of here before the Ivaric guards arrive.”

  “They won’t arrive anytime soon,” Forna said confidently. “We just got here with a large squad of guards from Amenozume and they’re beating the bones and sinews of the Ivaric army – crashed right into them unexpectedly and had a melee that sent Ivaric running!

  “Why do we need to get Silas out? What’s wrong with him?” Forna asked.

  Cinda turned pale as she heard the report of the change in luck of the Ivaric forces. She turned and started to flee from the room, only to shriek in horror as Riesta seized the Speaker with her Mover power and lifted the suspect up against the ceilin
g.

  “Who did that? Silas?” Lexy asked in astonishment.

  “No, Riesta; she’s got the same power as Silas,” Forna indicated her companion outside the window.

  “Not the same, nowhere near as strong,” Riesta protested.

  “Silas has this thing stuck to him,” Ditto indicated the red jewel attached to Silas’s neck. “Oh, and here are others,” he found the other two crystals in the growing light. He tried plucking at each of them, without success. “They don’t move.”

  “Let me look at them,” Riesta proposed, as she scrambled over the window sill and entered the room.

  “How can you do that?” Ditto asked in astonishment as he looked up at the flailing Cinda.

  “Silas, can you hear me?” Riesta asked as she knelt next to him on the floor.

  “He hasn’t said a word or opened his eyes since we found him,” Lexy explained.

  “I’ll try to use my power to remove one of these red crystals,’ Riesta suggested, as she studied the alien objects closely. She closed her eyes and focused her energy as finely as possible upon the jewel that sat upon his chest, shaping her target with great precision to apply only to the stone itself, sharping cutting off the impact of her energy at the very edges of the glowing jewel’s facets; and then she applied the energy itself.

  Silas gave a grunt, and the stone began to rise, pulling his skin and flesh as it responded to Riesta’s power. It wavered as it resisted, moving higher and then lower, up and down, for several seconds, and then Silas screamed.

  The stone came loose, and as it did, it also screamed, with an eerie high keening noise, as it rocketed away from Silas, taking a patch of his skin and flesh with it, before it hit the wall with a crash, then slid downward, leaving a bloody skid mark above it.

  “Stop it! You’ll kill him!” Cinda wailed. “The jewels are integrating themselves into his being, so that they can control him better.”

  “Forna, go get Octavia,” Riesta immediately directed. “Someone give me a cloth!” the Mover shouted, as blood began to flow freely from the wound.

  “What have you done?!” Lexy shouted in response. Forna went dashing away.

  “Octavia? A Healer named Octavia?” Wither asked Riesta. “We dismissed one with that name. Is it the same?”

  “It’s the same. She had a change of heart. They joined the Amenozume forces on the road and were on their way here to rejoin you when I joined their group. She wants to help.”

  “Riesta, thank you,” Silas mumbled the words as his eyes fluttered. “The jewels have to be removed,” he gasped the second sentence out, then collapsed into silence.

  Ditto handed the Mover a large piece of white cloth, which she quickly pressed against Silas’s torso, her own hands sticky with his blood as she pressed down.

  “You say there’s a battle going on?” Wither asked.

  “There is,” Riesta agreed. “You can go join them; we’re going to be safe here while we wait for Octavia.”

  “What should we do with her?” Lexy asked, pointed at Cinda against the ceiling.

  “You can take her to the prison where all the others are being held,” Wither answered. “I’m pretty sure that’s where she belongs.”

  “Stash, Jimes, do you want to help me?” Lexy asked. “My lady, what’s your name?”

  “I’m Riesta,” the Mover replied.

  “Lady Riesta, would you lower the traitor to the floor so we can put her under guard?” the rebel fighter asked the Mover politely.

  Cinda dropped to the floor under slight control, and landed with a thud.

  “Get up, you,” Stash quickly grabbed the disgraced Speaker’s arm and lifted her to her feet.

  “I can’t believe you betrayed the Guild,” Jimes sneered.

  “Ivaric is going to win. They are going to rule all the lands. I can help protect the Guild from damage,” Cinda protested, as she was led out of the room.

  A minute later Forna returned, out of breath, with Octavia, Reese, Natie, and June.

  “What has happened to him?” Octavia asked as she immediately knelt beside Silas and opened her leather bag of medicines. She gently shouldered Riesta aside, then looked at the wound on Silas’s chest.

  “This is serious,” she pronounced as she immediately opened a jar of some finely ground powder and sprinkled it amply on the exposed flesh.

  “He has these jewels that are trying to control him,” Riesta explained. “They’ve sunk their teeth in his flesh, so to speak.”

  “We never covered this in Healer classes,” Octavia spoke with unintended irony, making the others chuckle, as she opened a salve and began to delicately apply it.

  “I pulled one of them off with my powers,” Riesta continued. “And I can attempt to pull a second one off,” she indicated the jewel attached to his abdomen. “But I’m not sure I’m ready to try to fight the last one,” she pointed to the jewel on Silas’s neck.

  “Maybe you can teach the other Healers about how to heal supernatural jewel wounds when you return to Barnesnob,” Stash spoke with false thoughtfulness to Octavia.

  “Stop that! I get it!” the young girl slapped at the thief.

  “I’ll be ready to treat his wounds as soon as something happens,” she spoke as she busily began to apply bandages to the wound on Silas’s chest.

  “Everyone stand back, and I’ll see if I can make the second jewel release him more easily than the first one,” Riesta commanded.

  She closed her eyes momentarily, then the others in the room saw Silas’s tunic and flesh shiver around the jewel as the Mover’s powers began to apply to the stone, causing it to cling to Silas’s flesh as Riesta’s energy pulled it upward.

  “Shall I use a knife to try to slice it free?” Lexy asked hesitantly.

  “If you can cut precisely along the contact point of the stone and his flesh, you can try,” Riesta agreed, her eyes shut as she tried to apply her energy to just the jewel.

  The rebel soldier knelt on the floor next to Silas’s straining body, and she wielded a long blade, cautiously touching the tip of the knife to the taunt skin along the boundary of the mineral, and then slowly tracing along the meeting place, pressing gently at first, but then drawing a bloody red line as she increased pressure, while continuing to work slowly so that she could match her movements to the shivering and pulsing of the jewel.

  “It’s almost done,” Lexy grunted after several seconds. “Can you pull it harder now?” she asked Riesta, then she pushed her knife suddenly beneath the jewel and slid the sharp edge of the blade across the bottom of the red stone, slicing Silas’s flesh free from the hateful influence, and letting Riesta’s power once again fling a stone against the wall of the room.

  “Move over now,” Octavia immediately slipped into place beside Lexy and began to treat the newly opened wound in Silas’s abdomen, pouring medicine onto the oozing flesh, and then placing a bandage atop it as well.

  “They’re weaker,” Silas groaned the words.

  “What did he say?” Stash asked Octavia.

  “He said ‘they’re weaker’, meaning the stones, I think,” the Healer hazarded to speculate.

  “Do you think we should try to remove the one on his neck?” Riesta asked.

  “It’s close to his jugular vein. If the jewel opens that up, he’ll die,” Octavia replied.

  “Riesta,” Silas spoke again. “Hold my hand,” he instructed. “Forna, hold my hand,” he called upon his cousin as well.

  The two women looked at one another. Silas’s eyes were closed, and he barely grunted the words out audibly.

  “I’m here, Silas,” Forna placed her hand in his, and squeezed her fingers around his momentarily; he responded by giving a mild squeeze in return.

  “This is me, friend Silas,” Riesta also granted his request as she scrambled around to his far side to reach his other hand. “It’s good to be working with you again.”

  His eyes fluttered open momentarily, and he gave a wan smile. “I need your energy;
I can fight the last jewel with your help. Will you allow me?” he closed his eyes.

  “You used me once before; of course I’ll help you,” Forna answered immediately.

  “You are such an extraordinary Mover. Do with me whatever you need to,” Riesta also acceded to his request.

  Both women felt his grip tighten, and his eyes clenched more tightly closed as he delved into the effort to repel the invasive monster that was attached to his neck.

  Silas began to call upon Forna first, using her as he had on the day of the battle against Ivaric’s fleet, when she had proven to be so compatible with his own spirit that he had been able to find energy within her and transfer it to himself. He re-established the connection, and began to call upon her power, making his own energy stronger.

  He then turned to Riesta, who had power so much like his own, but whose flesh was without relation to him. His hand sensed the warmth of her hand, the fine friction of the tiny whorls in their fingertips grazing upon each other with minute movements. They fit together well, he realized, and he hoped their powers would fit together too.

  “Riesta, I remember the first time we met,” he murmured, trying to create something more they might have in common, something that would help them link their energies with each other.

  “It was in the restaurant,” she replied with a soft whisper. She laid her head down next to his. “You surprised me with your powers.” Her cheek was against him in an intimate pose, and she raised their joined hands to place them atop the jewel that was their common foe.

  The red jewel itself formed the bridge between them. Riesta’s energy leaped into the stone and them flowed out, into Silas, adding itself to the power he already held – both his own and Forna’s. The tripartite energy mingled and flowed and churned with vitality inside Silas’s grasp, gaining greater strength as it churned. It reached a higher level of potential, and Silas knew that he was ready.

  He thought of the touch of power that Kai had lent, the divine energy that he had so brashly grasped and used against the Ivaric fleet. He would be more careful with the blended energy of three, careful to use it best, careful to avoid harm to the two donors who were linked with him in the application of the power.