Foundations Broken and Built

by Jeffrey Quyle

The trip had been grueling, and Erick and Petre had tragically died near the end, but it had delivered the two refugees to the surprising society of Faralag, where so much had been revealed and shared with them, and between them.

  Impulsively, Silas looked at the sun’s position, then faced to the southwest, towards where he hoped Mata was located in Amenozume.

  “Mata, I’m traveling today in the Avaleen countryside, not far from where you and I traveled when we were running away from Ivaric’s invasion. I thought of that journey, and I thought of you,” he spoke with a wistful smile. “I hope you’re doing well, and I hope the baby is growing stronger and treating you well. Take care of yourself,” he stopped, and was suddenly out of things he wanted to tell his estranged lover. He dropped into silence and felt regret over the impulsive message, especially knowing that he hadn’t sent a message to Lumene, as Forna had suggested.

  That evening they set up camp in a small meadow beside a brook that had a low flow of water. Ditto complained when he was assigned the chore of bringing buckets of water to the camp site.

  “It takes forever to fill each bucket, and then I have to walk back and forth,” he complained. “Over and over again.”

  “But you’ll get to eat dinner when we have water to cook with,” Wither answered complacently.

  Silas watched the boy carry his water, and grew amused. When there was only one bucket load left to carry, Silas made a stream of water rise from the stream and loop in the air, up overhead and then down into the cooking pot as Ditto stood beside it.

  “You could have been doing that all along?” the boy asked in an injured tone.

  “I just thought of it,” Silas replied.

  “But it’s good for him to not waste his powers,” Stash commented to the indignant younger thief.

  They ate dinner and assigned teams to stand watch. Silas and Riesta were assigned the middle shift together and walked around the perimeter of the camp in the darkness.

  “How is Faralag?” Silas asked.

  “The city is fine, of course,” his fellow Mover answered with a shrug. “Why wouldn’t it be?

  “We sent ten new apprentices to the cave of Mount Inegalee, and four of them had already returned before I left the city,” she boasted with satisfaction. “We may have a very nice increase in the number of Movers. Now, if only we could get a particularly strong Mover to return to the city,” her voice trailed off.

  “Maybe someday,” Silas answered wistfully.

  “Really?” Riesta looked at him with surprise. “Cover would do back flips with delight if you returned and gave him an opportunity to keep testing your strength with new challenges.

  “And Queen Preeanne would be pleased with your return, of course,” she added as an afterthought.

  “Yeah, of course, the Queen is probably thinking about me even as we speak,” Silas laughed in amusement at Riesta’s exaggeration.

  “It was Preeanne who asked that I come to join you,” the Mover startled Silas by pointing out.

  “The queen? Really?” he recollected his last visit with the queen a breakfast meeting that had been brief. She had mentioned him taking up residence in Faralag, but he had explained that he and Mata would leave to help Jade on Amenozume. The queen had surprised him with her knowledge of the magic mirror that he had possessed, a mirror that he no longer possessed.

  If he had the mirror, he momentarily allowed himself to imagine. He could see Mata or Jade. Or the princess herself, Lumene. They might trade notes.

  He would be scolded, he told himself with a slight shake of his head.

  “What?” Riesta misinterpreted his shaking head. “Is there something you dislike about the queen?” she asked.

  “No, oh no, not at all,” he hastily replied. “I was thinking of something else.

  “I’m surprised the queen would know about my journey and anticipate the need to send you – I’m glad she did, obviously,” he hastened to add.

  “She knows a great deal about the world outside Faralag,” Riesta answered reverently. “She is a great leader. Faralag is fortunate to have her.”

  “And fortunate to have people like you,” Silas added. “It’s a wonderful city,” he repeated his admiration, and they fell into conversing about people in the city who Silas asked about.

  The next morning, once they were walking in Keen’s wake, Forna came up to him. “I woke up briefly last night and you and Riesta were chatting away very companionably. What do you and the Mover lady share, besides the obvious?” she asked.

  “I met her in, a city,” Silas said. “We talked about people and places.”

  “And that’s all you’re going to say?” Forna asked after a silent pause.

  “That’s all I can say,” Silas spoke with finality.

  They walked on, and spoke of other things. The next day, Keen warned that they were approaching the capital city. “We should stop here tonight and move into the city in the morning,” he advised where they reached a village near the capital. “We’re getting close enough to start running into patrols.”

  That night, Silas had a dream that Krusima spoke to him.

  “You can do more, move more,” the god spoke to him in a temple settling that Silas suddenly found himself dreaming about. “Stretch yourself and apply your powers to the foundations underneath people.”

  “I try as hard as I can,” Silas tried to assert, but the god was already gone. “I really do try. I can’t help it if it’s easier to move things above instead of below,” he rationalized.

  He awoke from the dream, remembering it vividly, and lay on his back, thinking about the message. Krusima was the god of stones, and Silas recollected Krusima’s assistance in destroying the first Amenozume temple of L’Anvien by undermining the foundation of its tower structure. It has worked decisively. But Silas had gone on to rely on the air and activities above ground far more often, and usually with success. The storm that had destroyed the Ivaric fleet proved that it worked.

  But it would be good for him to expand his targets, and to consider ways to launch unexpected attacks against opponents by directing his powers below as well as above. The god was right, he decided, and he resolved to become more unpredictable with his use of energy.

  He took a long time to fall back asleep, and when he awoke in the morning, he found himself listening to a conversation between Lexy and Keen.

  “We haven’t seen any patrols during the whole journey here,” Lexy commented. “Have you really brought us to the capital? Why aren’t there patrols?” She asked.

  Most of the soldiers needed to carry out patrols are gone. The whole empire was stripped of guards to send the invasion to Amenozume, and then they were all destroyed. So now the soldiers that are left have to stay in the cities and towns and keep control of them. The barracks still have men in them, but not enough to send many patrols into the countryside,” the former Ivaric mercenary commented. “The Abomination’s destruction of the fleet changed everything for Ivaric.

  “The Abomination!” Keen suddenly gasped. “He is the Abomination, isn’t he? The very one who destroyed the fleet! Oh gods, I’ve been walking with and talking to the very Abomination himself!” realization dawned, and the man’s face turned pale.

  “You called me?” Silas sat up.

  “No, my lord, forgive me,” Keen replied in a strangled voice.

  “That name is something Ivaric uses. I don’t call myself an Abomination,” Silas tried to calm his companion.

  “And most of the time, the rest of us don’t call him that either,” Lexy added impishly, making Keen smile at last when he saw her smile.

  “I’d like to go into the city and look around today,” Silas spoke up.

  “We’re supposed to wait here for Forna’s reinforcements, aren’t we?” Stash asked cautiously.

  “No, we never said we’d wait for them,” Silas quickly replied. “But I don’t intent to fight today; I just want to explore the city and learn what we’ll face.”

 
“You can’t believe that you’ll be able to walk around the city with those eyes and not be recognized,” Lexy protested.

  “I plan to do the same thing I did in Amenozume – wrap a rag around my eyes and pretend to be a blind beggar,” Silas answered. “You can accompany me,” he offered.

  “And the rest of us will scout around the city as well,” Wither added. “More eyes to see more,” he explained.

  “All except me, begging your pardon,” Keen piped up. “I’d rather not be caught and charged with desertion.”

  “Stay here and protect the camp,” Silas agreed.

  “I want to go to a market and buy some healing items,” Octavia spoke up.

  “I’ll go with you,” Ditto volunteered.

  “I’ll go walk around to visit this city,” Riesta spoke up. “I am interested in seeing a city from another society; Silas had made me realize that not all cities function in the same ways.”

  “I’ll go with Jimes,” Stash added. “I can find things, and he can tell you about them. I know my way around the city, after all.”

  “Who’s the Speaker at the palace here in Avaleen?” Silas asked Jimes.

  “One of the much older Speakers; he’s cautious and a survivor. Greylone is his name. I’ve never really exchanged messages with him,” Jimes answered.

  Silas knew nothing of the Speaker either, but the name sent his thoughts careening off on a tangent; Greylone sounded similar to Greywold, the nobleman merchant of Avaleen who Silas had seen in Amenozume. He was the nobleman who Sareen had chased after, had left Prima’s caravan in pursuit of. Silas had last seen Greywold and Sareen in Amenozume when the nobleman had tried to making trading arrangements on the island while following the Ivaric forces.

  Silas felt confident that Greywold and his sister and Sareen had been expelled from Amenozume, as all the Ivaric forces and followers had been, which would mean that they would be back in the Avaleen residence of the family, in all likelihood.

  “Lexy, let’s walk all the way across town, then work out way back,” Silas suggested, interested in taking a look at the Greywold estate. “We can see more of the city and get a better picture of what we face, and where we might face Maze.”

  The rebel guard shrugged her agreement, and the members of the small group split apart. Lexy tore strips of cloth to create the bandages that would hide Silas’s eyes. “I can’t do anything about that purple and yellow scar on the side of your neck where Riesta removed the red jewel,” she commented.

  “I don’t think anyone’s search includes a description of my scars,” Silas told her. “But we will need to find some different cloth material, more like a gauze; this is so thick I can’t really see through it.”

  Lexy grunted her agreement, then took him by the hand and began to lead him along the country road, in the direction of the city of Avaleen, keeping within sight of the others from the group who had departed the camp before them.

  In half an hour’s time they reached the gates of the city, and stood in line to enter Avaleen, under the studious eyes of Ivaric guards.

  “Who are you and why are you visiting?” one of the guards asked Lexy as the couple’s turn in line brought them to the check point.

  “We’re here to see if there’s a doctor who can treat my husband’s eyes,” Lexy explained as she pulled Silas closer to her.

  “Doctors are expensive,” the guard answered dismissively. “You’d be saving your money by going back to your home in the country.”

  “We have to try; he says he wants to see my smile again,” Lexy spoke in a very atypical manner, sweet and shy with a smile that was warm and charming.

  “I’d like to see you smile too,” the guard agreed, making Lexy uneasy with his leering smile.

  “Honey, shall we move on?” she asked Silas, turning to give him a kiss on the lips to demonstrate to the guard that she was part of a happily-married couple.

  “Hmm,” he responded. “You have a nice taste today.”

  They moved forward, Lexy ushering them quickly out of range of the guards.

  “I’m sorry to pull that ruse,” she said. “I didn’t like the way the guard was looking at me, and I didn’t want to make a scene.”

  “No, we didn’t want to be noticed,” Silas agreed, and they walked forward several steps in silence.

  “Did you mean it?” Lexy blurted the question.

  “Mean what?” Silas asked, uncertain about what the girl meant.

  “My kiss – you said it tasted nice. Was that true, or were you just thinking fast on your feet to fool the guard?” Lexy explained and asked cautiously.

  “I, um, couldn’t even see the guard,” Silas spoke in slow confusion, then stumbled over a curb in the road as if to prove his point. “Your kiss, well, it did taste nice, like honey, a little bit.” He offered. “That was all I was saying.” He felt confused. His heart was set on revisiting the Greywold estate, on the off chance that Sareen might have returned. But the hint of Lexy’s kiss still lingered in his mind, making him think of the rebel fighter in a way he never had before.

  Lexy waited silently for Silas to add more, but he remained silent as well.

  “Is there someplace in particular you want to start on the far side of the city? A garrison you want to examine?” she asked to break the silence between them.

  “There’s a nobleman’s home on the other side of the city. I know the family a little bit,” Silas vaguely provided a half-truth. “We might hear or see something there.

  “Have you seen any place where we can get some gauze to replace this blindfold?” he abruptly asked.

  “No, but I’ll start looking,” Lexy answered apologetically.

  Five minutes later, she stopped on the city sidewalk they had trod.

  “What’s happening? Why have we stopped?” Silas asked.

  “Here’s a millinery shop. We can get some gauzy material,” Lexy replied. “Keep your eyes closed and don’t peek at the women trying on dresses,” she added impishly, just before she opened a door and led Silas inside.

  The store smelled different from the city street, Silas noticed immediately. The flowery, fabricy, feminine atmosphere was a clear change of environment, one that his senses detected was accompanied by the soft sounds of swishing cloth and whispered conversations among the clientele and staff of the store.

  “I’d like a small swath of cloth, something thin like,” Lexy paused as she tried to remember the fabric Silas requested.

  “Gauze,” he helpfully supplied the example. “Or linen.”

  There was a loud, muffled crashing sound outside the shop.

  “We have gauze over here,” the sales clerk replied cheerfully. “What color would you like?” she asked as Lexy began to lead Silas in the wake of the clerk’s movement.

  “Ouch!” he grunted as his thigh banged against the sharp corner of a counter.

  “What’s better?” Lexy asked. “Green or blue or yellow?”

  “Is there any white?” Silas replied.

  And so, they soon left the shop with a small swath of white gauze, disappointing and pleasing the sales clerk, who was pleased to see the ill-dressed pair – especially the blind man – leave the shop, but disappointed that they had bought so little.

  “Let’s change the strips across my eyes now,” Silas urged ten seconds after the pair was out the door. Another crashing sound, followed by shouts, was audible as soon as he finished speaking.

  “Right here? On the sidewalk?” Lexy asked.

  “I’ll shut my eyes and you can make the quick change,” Silas suggested, eager to be able to see his surroundings once again.

  “I didn’t know the Abomination was a woman,” a passerby commented to a companion as the pair strolled quickly past Lexy and Silas.

  “And I expected her to be more powerful than she appears. She’s barely keeping Maze at bay,” the woman’s male companion replied. “But we’re still smarter to be getting out of the way of the battle,” were the last words Silas overh
eard as the pair hurried along.

  “What’s going on?” he asked rhetorically, as he reached up and began to remove his bandages himself.

  “What’s going on is that you’re getting in my way!” Lexy replied with exasperation. “Put your hands down and let me do this!”

  “What was that talk about the Abomination?” Silas asked.

  “I don’t know any more than you do; just let me finish this. Close your eyes,” Lexy was focused on the task at hand.

  “We ought to go see what’s happening,” Silas urged. He felt the last of the original blindfold leave his head, and then the new, lighter gauze was wrapped around.

  “Is two layers enough?” Lexy asked.

  “That’s plenty,” Silas snapped. He opened his eyes as he felt Lexy tie the bandage in place. “Now, let’s go find out what’s happening,” he grabbed Lexy’s hand and placed his other hand on her shoulder to propel her forward through the street traffic.

  They heard a continual rumble of loud voices, punctuated by occasional crashes. Silas felt driven to hurry, to find out what was happening, convinced that it was an opportunity to see Maze, the L’Anvien priest who had come from Rolemica continent to support Ivaric’s unsavory operations.

  Around a corner they finally found the source of the noise, and they paused for just a second.

  “It’s Riesta!” Lexy cried.

  Riesta was present, frighteningly trapped by several men wearing the uniform of the Ivaric guards, led by a man whose outstretched hands glowed with a frightening red light.

  Riesta was backed into a doorway, with a knife clearly embedded in one of her shoulders, a red stain spread and descending from the frightful injury. More knives hung in the air around Riesta, just feet away from her and pointed at her.

  “Your energies are weakening, and soon you’ll feel all my points,” the man with the glowing hands shouted at Riesta. “Surrender and I’ll make this much more civilized, more in keeping with what you deserve.”

  “Here,” Silas pulled the bandages off his eyes and handed them to Lexy. “You step back and stay out of this,” he instructed the girl without looking at her.

  Silas wished he had been given time to study Maze and observe his strength, but the dire circumstances confronting Riesta didn’t provide time. He stepped forward away from Lexy and gathered his own energy as he focused on his actions.