Winds of Torsham (The Kohrinju Tai Saga Book 2)

by J P Nelson

  “When the morning twilight arose, the horn sounded … before Mig’s army was set to strike.” He nodded to Dessi, “As you would know, responding horns and showers of bolts were hailed upon the as-yet-not-ready army of the plains. Arrogance leaned toward belief armies should fight in the open, and making battle with those of the woods gave no caution to the undefeated Mig Mjon.”

  He grinned with irony, “And when a full third of his own army gave sudden turn of the objective … shall we say, the slaughter was beyond thought. It is my understanding there are still bones there to be seen.”

  “Aye, it was left in memory of all who died there, and as warning to any army not to battle the Gohbashai Mountain Folk.

  “Eight lieutenants were found, two barely alive, and one captain, and their swords harvested. But the others, they were never found. And the tale of Mig Mjon’s finish was never secured.”

  Dessi squinted his eye and creased his brow in memory, “It was said they fled back into the Grassic Sea and … and disappeared. Some few swords, said to have been Lieutenant’s Sparkaen Broad Swords, were found to be had for much coin by a gypsy caravan. But it had never been disclosed by what means they were acquired.” An inquisitive gaze was passed to Kravieu, “Is there more of the tale for you to tell?”

  Kravieu toyed with his mug upon the table, as Seedle leaned up and settled into his seat to hear more. The elder man packed his pipe, lit it while looking into recollection with a sigh, then returning attention to his mates he continued, “There is a small outcropping west of Sunday Valley with a ravine, perhaps five or six days of fleet travel by horse. Within said ravine may still be found the bones of Mig Mjon, twenty-eight lieutenants, five captains, and several warriors.

  “My source proclaimed four men rode from the ravine laden with loot, and many fine blades, most of which were sold to a gypsy caravan. Each kept a captain’s blade, one kept a pair. However, my source professed no knowledge of the silver sword’s whereabouts.

  “Our lad then changed his name, manner of speech, and gleaned knowledge from a gypsy shaman as to the location of his sister, in Merceil. It is how we came to acquaintance.”

  Seedle said with enthusiasm, “Ah, how well. You knew her?”

  Etmond Kravieu was hesitant, “My wife.”

  They could see a growing sadness, the moment was quiet.

  “She passed with the fever a bit more than a year ago.”

  Seedle responded, “Our deepest apologies, Mister Kravieu.”

  “Ah,” he looked up seeking a positive note, “but we had many fine years, and our son is now in university. He knocked the ash from his pipe and downed the last of his mug, “I speak not to lend excuse, but the man does not understand congeniality, or tolerance. Should he speak to you at all, it is often brusque, but he is trying to communicate.” He grimaced as he stood, “But damn, he can indeed be an ass.”

  He wavered for a moment, then said, “Well, gentlemen, I have enjoyed the company. With your permission, I shall retire for the evening. May your sleep be restful and complete.”

  Bowing his head to Seedle and Dessi, Kravieu turned and stepped into the night.

  Chapter 18

  AS THEY CAST off from Heizle, their course set next for Cape Faldahlon, then to pursue the Severn Passage, I awakened in a cold sweat. My hands were shackled and a chain secured me to a wooden post. Where was I, ah, a shed with other Bloodbait slaves in a village on the Pihpikow Road. I had been rather zealous in my fight the night before, and Edgarfield was taking no chances on me trying to escape. If only he knew.

  My cell partner, Doc Lamindo, asked in alarm, “Are you okay?”

  Trembling and gasping for breath, I just shook my head, then buried it in my hands. Sometimes it takes a while for me to get my bearings, especially after a bad dream. Even though I can heal, when you get hit in the head enough in your lifetime … do I need to explain?

  Nightmares had plagued me for as long as I could remember. First it was demonic horses on fire, with riders carrying me in a sack down to Hades. I still had no idea where that came from. They began when I was an infant.

  Then there were the screams of my momma when visitors in the night would sometimes throw me outside of our dwelling, sometimes not, and violate my momma. I remember once I was held, and made to watch while I yelled and threatened to kill everyone, and me just a child. But those memories still haunted me in nightmares.

  I’ve had nightmares about Stagus grabbing me by the hair and, well, doing really bad things. Thankfully it never got that far in reality, but it still showed up in my dreams. Later it was Meidra, then the things I saw in battle during the Keoghnariu War with the Cognobins … I still can’t get that kid, Tahnus, one of my soldiers, I can’t get his dying eyes out of my mind.

  Other thoughts have plagued me in other ways, but this past night was the first time this particular nightmare occurred … only it didn’t start as a nightmare.

  I opened my eyes and could have sworn I was little again. My momma was beside me in the rock room of our dwelling, so real, so much as if the last many years had never happened. There were marks in the dirt floor, we had just been drawing letters, I think, when she suddenly looked at me in a surreal way and said, “Komain …” then everything seemed to suddenly, slowly, stop moving to a complete halt. Even the dust quit moving in the air.

  She seemed to gather herself, as if to push against some object beyond her realm of strength to move. Momma quickly looked about as if to see whether someone was watching. Then she touched me, and I felt something warm and almost vibrating course through her body into mine.

  Her eyes shone bright, as if they were twin stars, as she leaned close to me. She touched her forehead to mine and it felt as if we were floating above the floor, if only for an instant, and I heard her words, “… Listen to me carefully my son, for you are young and I may never be able to speak to you as such again. Hear me with your heart and carry my thoughts within your being, for there is much you do not understand and are not yet ready to receive, and much that I cannot say with spoken word …”

  Hadn’t she already said those words to me, or was it later? I couldn’t remember. But, wasn’t this real?

  All I could see were my momma’s eyes, those beautiful glows of golden brown, and then it was as if they engulfed me, surrounding me, and suddenly we were no longer in our quarters … we two had become one and began to float above the world, above the clouds and as far as I could see was a huge ocean of mist. Above us was the expanse of the heavens with the stars so magnificent, seemingly so close. I felt I could almost reach out and pick them with my fingers.

  Abruptly, a swirling kind of hole opened up in those heavens and sucked me, us, right in. I was terrified at first, and then I realized my momma still had my hand strong in her grip, a grip that felt as if a pair of dragons would not be able to pull us apart.

  The air was torn from around me and I couldn’t breathe, but wait, I didn’t need to breathe after all. What was happening, where was I, where were we? Images that seemed almost solid started to hurl by me, images I couldn’t quite determine. I thought I saw distorted faces of elves and humans, then ghostly trees which stretched out of proportion as they whipped by, and then it was like an ancient city of crystal wrapped around us, then it too passed us by.

  I thought I heard sounds of crying, clashing of steel, and the roar of beasts so large they might have been dragons. There were also sounds of chants, beating drums and the pounding of Elvin Tribal Dance.

  My momma pulled me close to her and I looked up into her face as she held me tighter. She, no, we were surrounded by this golden glow, and her hair sparkled with an intensity that flowed into my own body.

  A huge blue and white star loomed before us and started moving our way, fast. Suddenly I realized these things weren’t coming at us, it was momma and me flying past them. Fear left me as an excited feeling coursed through my being, and I was in awe of my momma. We hurtled into the star and into what seemed another re
alm of reality.

  There was a flash of light and a tingling sensation went all through me, and a smell like freshly crushed pine needles mixed with honeysuckle and rose blooms. Landscapes merged and overlaid one with another, faster than I could adjust to the view. One moment I felt a cold breeze as if from across the ice, then the sensation of summer grass against my feet, and next a waft of salty air.

  It was like we were here, but not here. My mind couldn’t comprehend it all. I tried to ask, “Momma, where are we?” But I found I couldn’t speak my words. I could feel my momma’s hand firmly holding my own, and I could feel the ground beneath us, sorta, but when I tried to touch a flower to pluck it up, my hands closed upon nothingness, yet the flower was right there.

  For a moment I saw a thicket of mountain laurel, and then an elvin girl came from beneath and started running to us calling out in a far away voice, “Mother, mother, look what I found …” She faded away as a large face turned our way and I saw a human in armor with a huge body of water in the background. His face became so, so big, then wrapped around and past us.

  I realized we hadn’t stopped moving, we were still flying, but it seemed so slow. I saw a deer raise its head, then we moved through a cave that seemed to be forever long. Next I saw an older elvin man look up from a camp fire, and his hair was as white as snow.

  The older man opened his mouth to speak, but the scene melded to a high-up mountain covered in ice, and I saw a warrior with a bow in one hand, high-top boots with long fringes around the top, a circle of braided leather around his forehead, and a faraway look in his eye. My breath caught, for I knew this must be Kn’Yang. His gaze seemed to look our way, and I could have sworn he looked right at me. A chill ran up my spine as he said, “I found you …” in a voice so deep that it could have lifted gravel.

  Then something grabbed me by the hair and savagely yanked me from my sound, peaceful sleep. Dragging me out of the bed, and beating me in the face with laughter. Of a sudden, I found myself naked and running through the briars with shoes of thorns upon my feet. My flesh was being torn from my body as I cried, blinded by the night and tears of immense sorrow. My momma was calling my name and I could not find her.

  Flames of black and purple reached up to sear my flesh, and I fell deep … deeper … deeper … through a lake of solid fire. Then I landed in a bone shattering pile, blood spewing from my mouth as I could not breathe. Mon’Gouchett, I was drowning in my own blood. Lifting my head, I forced my lungs to work, but shattered ribs were cutting my insides … and then I looked up and saw her.

  My momma was on a pile of refuse, several men were laughing as they held her arms and legs wide. One took a sword and cut my momma across the belly as she screamed at me to help, but I could not move, my own feet frozen in the ground.

  From her belly they pulled a child, a child with long, blonde, bloody hair, who looked at me and spit flesh and blood from his mouth. He grabbed a dagger from a man’s belt and leaped across the distance upon me as he hissed through jagged teeth, “You left me behind …” and as he stabbed me in the chest I awakened with a violent lurch.

  Where did that come from, any of it? The flying through space? A star as a doorway to another realm? There was so much there. And then, my little brother. L’Sol, wasn’t that the name Hosc---, my one-time mentor told me?

  But really … how did I know L’Sol was really the child they took from my momma? I mean, I had been told he was taken, but I never saw for sure. The child might have died right there on the spot. The Fel’Cadens were resourceful people. How did I know they hadn’t gone out and found a different child, or different woman to breed a child from to train as they wish?

  Deep down, I didn’t believe any of that, but it was what I was telling myself. He would be what, twenty or twenty-one by now? That would make him equivalent to ten or eleven in human years. If I showed up, he would have no idea who I was. If he was being raised up by Herrol, he would already be ruined, mentally, I mean. He probably didn’t even know he had a brother, or brothers, if my twin was still alive.

  Which brought me around again, what of my twin … or my sister, U’Lahna, for that matter? She probably didn’t know any of the rest of us existed. Who was the slave who escaped with her? What had happened to him, or her, or whoever? Is the slave the one who raised her? If so, did she tell U’Lahna of her momma down in Gevard? If he told her, why didn’t U’Lahna, with all her power, go find out?

  For years I hated the Itahro Elves for not coming to rescue momma. Hosc---, my former teacher said they thought my momma, the last of the Dsh’Tharr Tell Singers, Kelshinua Fhai’Tuhra, was dead. If not, they would have come to take her back. But they didn’t know, but I knew … sitting there with my head in my hands, I knew … I knew L’Sol was up there, out there, on the west side of the Sahrjiun Mountains, damn it.

  Yeah, I knew he was there. But what was I supposed to do? Me? I was a slave for gladiating. What could I do with a half-elf kid? A kid who didn’t even know me?

  My anger was rising, and I looked at the post. It was made of wood. I could warp it, make it grow old, maybe even break it. I looked at it and felt So’Yeth move within me. I could … but wait, I had chains on. And I was hungry and tired from fighting. And I would probably never get out of here anyway.

  Of course I could *Blend*, but there would still be the chains. I saw Doc Lamindo over there watching me. He would probably yell, nah. Chances were he would want me to take him along. So, what was wrong with that? I could ask him. I could ask him for advice and promise to set him free.

  Maybe I should wait a little while, until the opportunity was better. Wait until they fed me again. Maybe wait for a couple more feedings. When they took the chains off for me to fight, I could escape, then, it would be easy … no … it wouldn’t. Besides, I had broken my promise to Riana, and I had gotten all my friends killed, and the heir to the throne was dead … or so I believed at the time.

  No, I deserved where I was. I couldn’t do anything right, ANYway. I would just get caught. I glanced at my cellmate’s leg, the one with the wooden peg. No, that’s what would happen to me. Maybe just a bit farther down the road. There were forests up ahead. Maybe then.

  Yeah … I would wait a little longer. Right now I needed sleep, sleep and another meal. I lay back down and closed my eyes.

  ___________________________

  Jha’Ley’s expedition cast off for Mittugahr, taking port at Cape Faldahlon for two days. Then it was on to the Severn Passage. The Passage for the most part followed the coastline of Mittugahr and Val’Nahahl. To the north of Mittugahr lay Njord and Aegir Islands. Beyond B’Frios, north of Val’Nahahl, lay the islands of Sufuheie, Rag’Noruk, Nifleheim, Alfheim, and finally Hel’s Gate. Maps of the time show Hel’s Gate as a large island connected by glaciers all the way to the continent of Meinkutt, indicating no possible passage to the west by attempting to sail north. As I said, that’s according to modern maps of the time. We’ll come back to that, later.

  Continuing further, eventually the course leads to an archipelago Severn named Touzund Izles, because he figured there may be as many as a thousand islands in the region. South of the Izles, Severn reported a gulf, which was named after him.

  We have to remember, Captain Severn made it through to Kohnarahs Bay the first time in 4943 ED, just over two hundred years before Jha’Ley and his three ships. But Severn made this route his career, his first attempt back in 4931 ED. Over the next forty-one years, he made thirteen expeditions around these islands. He didn’t come back from the last, and his ship was never seen again. The folks from Kohnarahs reported he ventured to Torsham’s Vault, and … well.

  Severn recorded his exploration well, and Jha’Ley had a copy of those records. In fact, he had copies of every record, he could lay hands on. Severn believed Orucean was entering a worldwide meltdown.

  When he made it to Kohnarahs, they didn’t believe him about the gulf he found. The locals insisted that whole region was all glacier, and always had
been. You could dogsled through the territory, but why do so? It was a long way from the bay and there was nothing out there, no bear, no gomoth, which is a giant type of deer, nothing but ice. But how to explain Severn’s being there in the first place?

  The last report Severn turned in reflected his belief there was an underground current radiating from under B’Frios. The current was much warmer than the freezing waters of the Meinkutt Sea, although still not good to swim in, and he reported another such current was causing the Izles to thaw. He believed in a few decades more, the land would be inhabitable.

  Thus far, there were no reports of anyone attempting settlements, even on the big island, named P’Dynn after Severn’s ship. But the folks of Mittugahr insisted gods, their parents, children, friends, enemies and such dwelt the lands from Njord Island to Hel’s Gate.

  Once passing the parallels of Njord and Aegir Islands, the expedition officially entered the Severn Passage, which led all the way to the entrance of Kohnarahs Bay. Much floating ice was already being encountered, but it wasn’t long before the water was outright slushy.

  The Ubank took the lead with Jha’Ley on board. That steel nose was shaped like a plow and it came in handy on many occasions. One early concern was put to rest early on; wind conditions for the three vessels. When the wind is your power source, you don’t want one ship stealing wind from another. It can be complicated to explain, but take my word for it, there was no conflict. Sailing masters earned their coin keeping sails rigged for efficiency on this trip.

  As the ships reached the north of B’Frios, Jha’Ley was able to confirm Severn’s reports of height, width, etc. He was also able to confirm his suspicions of melting. There was a large hole in the ice here, as well. Deeper, Jha’Ley suspected, than in the south. And it was obvious the ceiling was of rock.

  S’Getti stood beside Jha’Ley, both with spy glass in hand, gazing in awe at the spectacle before them as he asked in good humor, “So then, my good commodore, do you wish to venture forth into the maw of this rock beast?”