Kestrel stared up at the ceiling, large and lost in shadows far above, then looked incredulously over at Morph.
“Go on, you can do this now. There are a few serious caveats we can discuss in a minute, but why don’t you go ahead and demonstrate your new ability?” his father urged.
“You really mean it? You think I have the power to remove the ceiling?” Kestrel asked. He could ask about something objective like moving the roof off the building, but he couldn’t even force his tongue to ask the question of whether he was a god or not.
“I know that you do; you are shining with a luminosity greater than some purely divine beings I’ve known,” Morph said. He suddenly circled around the room in a split second. “That feels so refreshing!” he laughed as he returned to his spot near Kestrel. “Now do your task. Brighten this dismal place up.”
Kestrel looked up at the ceiling, studying it wishfully, knowing that such a test was far beyond anything he had ever done. As he looked, he was suddenly aware of the construction of the roof, the beams that held it up, the attachments to the supporting wall, the weak spots and the other elements of design. He saw the easiest way to lift it, and he suddenly knew that above the roof, the wind was blowing with moderate speed. He could lift one side, and let the wind flow under it and into it with force, aiding the removal of the structure.
He felt his arms over his head, and realized that he had unknowingly raised them, and that his glowing fingers were pointing at the roof. He closed his eyes. Please Kai and Kere, make this possible, he momentarily let his heart pray, and then he released the energy within himself.
The power flared up in his hands, and a series of bolts of his blue light sprayed around the ceiling, brilliantly illuminating the high reaches of the structure as each bolt struck a portion of the ceiling’s attachments to the walls, creating explosive noises that caused his friends to clap their hands over their ears. And then he altered the energy flow, and he began to raise one side of the newly detached ceiling. The structure was heavy, incredibly heavy, causing him to sink to his knees as he directed all the attention and force he had straight up.
The chamber was filled with the sounds of wood and stone moving, adjusting to the new stresses, or the release of stress, as the ceiling began to twist and rise. The room sudden grew bright, as a crescent of light grew along the rising edge of the roof, while Kestrel felt a breeze blow into the chamber, taking away the stench of death and burnt flesh.
The roof caught a stronger wind and it started to rise rapidly. Seeing his opportunity, Kestrel shifted his power and increased it further, to push the downward edge of the roof structure upwards into the wind as well, and then the breeze caught it fully, and made it all slide downwind. The sky above was unimaginably bright and blue, and the roof began to disappear, rising and sliding as Kestrel pressed his hands upward, palms open to the sky, and completed the impossible task his father had given him.
He released his power, and heard the sound of chaotic destruction, as the flying roof crashed down onto the wings of the temple somewhere down wind. Kestrel let his hands fall, and he head drooped forward as well. He was exhausted. He was pleased and astonished, but moreso he was tired and ready to rest.
“Did you give the boy some assistance?” he heard Krusima ask. It was an unfair question, Kestrel thought. Whether Morph had or hadn’t given him help, Kestrel knew that the vast majority of the achievement was through his efforts alone.
“Help him? Why would I help him? Here he is standing right next to us, and who does he pray to for help? Kai and Kere! They can’t even hear him, or reach him,” Morph said indignantly. “No, he did that all on his own.”
“Impressive for a first effort,” Krusima grudgingly acknow-ledged. “Now, how do we find our way back home?”
Chapter 17
Stuart came over and placed a hand on Kestrel’s arm, lifting him to his feet.
“You really were the Destroyer, and more,” Stuart said as Kestrel rose to his feet. “You’ve not only finished the job, but become a god as well!”
“Don’t make him think you’re going to build a temple to him!” Wren cautioned. “He already thinks he knows everything there is to know about temples himself!”
“Is that right, Krusima?” Morph took a sly dig at his fellow god, making the god of the earth and stone scowl.
“There will be no purpose for temples to the elven boy; tell them Morph,” Krusima grumbled.
“Kestrel’s absorption of the divine energy is unique; he will only retain his divinity if he remains in this land where he acquired it,” Morph said, looking squarely at Kestrel as he spoke. “If he leaves this place to return to the Inner Seas, or to go to any other land, his divinity will wither away, because it is not a part of his permanent being. It has only been superimposed over his own level of power here. So you will not worship Kestrel in the lands of the Inner Seas, ever.”
Krusima smirked.
“You mean I am really a god?” Kestrel asked, so shocked by the further revelation of limitations that he finally admitted to the audacious claim of divinity. “But only here with the Skyes?
“I can’t go home with you?”
“You can come home, but not as a divine being. Not as an immortal. Not with the greater powers and abilities that you have now,” Morph replied.
“I’d just return to having the same powers I had when I started?” Kestrel asked.
“Perhaps – we do not know. This is unusual and unpredictable,” Morph told him. “Don’t fret over this right now. There are days ahead to think about it and understand it.”
“And so, let’s be on our way to find the way home,” Krusima said again. He began to lead the way out of the dismal chamber, heading out the door that Tullamore and the Skyes had already exited through.
“Come along my lord, won’t you?” Lark asked Kestrel, as she started to follow Gates, who was behind Krusima. Kestrel was still standing in place, trying to comprehend the astonishment that enveloped him.
“And turn down the glow,” Wren added as she walked by.
Kestrel laughed softly, then looked at Lark. “Will this make my cousin happier?” he asked, then he focused on the energy that was streaming through him, ingrained within his flesh; he pulled it inward and gathered it together, creating an internal well of energetic gravity that gradually drained the light away, and returned him to his normal appearance.
“Oh Kestrel god, how extraordinary!” Lark said worshipfully.
Kestrel reached out and grabbed both shoulders of the girl, then gave her a sudden shake, shocking her.
“Don’t you start thinking of me any differently than you did before!” he said angrily. “I am still the very same boy you’ve known for all these days we’ve been together. This goes away when we get back to the Inner Seas.”
“No, it’s different now, my lord,” Lark said, wide-eyed. “The gods have acknowledged that you are a god as well.” She spun out of his grasp and walked up to take a position by Gates, as they left the room.
Stillwater and Woven had trailed behind, and joined with Kestrel. “The imps always thought you were special anyway, god-Kestrel, so this is no great change. I’m not sure you’ll be treated any better actually – I think we rely on you and treat you as well as we treat our own god anyway,” he told Kestrel as they floated towards the door. “Especially if you continue to deliver the mushroom market!”
The two laughed as they left the room, and saw the others walking down a dim, high-ceilinged hallway. Five minutes later, the whole party assembled in an open courtyard in front of the main gate of the temple. They looked down a dusty road that led away from the temple, out into the untamed wilderness of the countryside, and they saw a distance procession of Viathins, fleeing helter-skelter from the temple, raising a cloud of dust as they ran.
“There is no place for them to find shelter,” Tullamore spoke. He had dropped down into the posture of his people, a large table-sized circular being who nonetheless stood near
ly as tall as Kestrel’s waist. “They will go out into the wilderness and die soon enough.”
“And Kestrel killed the ones in our land as well,” Stuart said. “So there should be no more left to worry about?”
“Where is the way back to our world?” Krusima asked. “I have trouble sensing the path.”
“Kestrel destroyed that when we were being chased,” Wren spoke up. “The cavern entrance is covered in a rockslide.”
“There is another way,” Tullamore replied. “The journey there will take a little time, a couple of days at most.”
“Let us be on our way,” Krusima said. “I am anxious to return to my land and my worshippers.”
“Allow me to arrange for a feast along the way to feed your people,” Tullamore answered.
He turned to the Skyes and began to speak. With his new abilities and divine powers, Kestrel found that he understood the conversation of clacks and clicks and subtle sounds.
“At the large rock with the spire, I will order a meal that the friends can eat. We will make it food of soft, fresh plants. Tell others of our race to bring your own food stuff for those of you who will accompany them. I will rejoin you on the journey,” Tullamore told one of the Skyes. “Start leading them now towards Valley of Two Rivers.”
“We will not feed them our finest delicacies?” the Skye asked.
“Their tastes are different. They will appreciate the food I request,” Tullamore assured his follower. “Now make it happen,” the god said, and he disappeared.
“My god has directed me to lead you,” the Skye said to Wren. “Tell your legs to follow me,” he instructed. “Let us begin the steps,” he added to the other Skyes, and then promptly turned and began walking along the same road the Viathins had used.
“Stillwater,” Kestrel called the imp, “would you share the water skin with us all? I’m thirsty, and I imagine the others are as well,” he said.
“Here, Kestrel divine,” Stillwater tossed the water skin with the enchanted water to him, and Kestrel passed it to Woven after he took his own drink.
The travelers shared the water as they started walking, refreshing them all, and easing some of the residual terror they had all felt from the confrontation in the temple.
Kestrel walked along silently, alternatively exploring his power and then considering its ramifications. He thought about the fleeing Viathins and magically heard their distant words echoing on the wind, as they cursed their fallen god and one another as well.
He felt the rays of the hot blue sun falling on the baked soil, and he felt the pain of the land, injured by the rapacious appetite of the Viathins. The land cried for relief and moisture, and he wondered how such a damaged environment could support its people.
Poor Skyes, he thought to himself. Poor Tullamore, facing so many needs among his people.
Kestrel momentarily considered what he might do for the god and his newly liberated people, liberated from slaughter by the Viathins, but now subject to the aftermath of the monsters’ deliberate misrule.
His thoughts wandered as Tullamore rejoined the group, and he wondered what he would do among his own people, how he would exercise divine powers among the people of Oaktown and the Marches if he were somehow able to take his new power with him. Would he make the trees grow taller, and the sun shine at day, while the rains came at night? Could he make mushrooms grow year-round?
Could he make the plants here among the Skyes grow, he wondered, and as they walked along he focused on the bushes that lined the road, and began to cause many of them to grow prodigiously, sending their roots deep into the soil to find hidden pockets of nutrients.
“Is that you doing that?” Lark asked accusingly, and Kestrel belated realized that the others were studying the plants that shivered and sprouted upward as they walked past.
He nodded yes.
“They aren’t going to last if they get too big,” Lark scolded him. “There isn’t enough water for them.”
“Kestrel is causing no harm; we’ll produce more water soon to take care of all the plants in the land,” Tullamore spoke up in Kestrel’s defense. Kestrel remained quiet, but smiled beatifically at Lark, who responded by sticking her tongue out at him, then turning to walk with Stuart.
Her gesture brought a smile to Kestrel’s face; it was a sign that the girl was not so intimidated by his new powers that she feared or worshipped him after all.
They walked on through the rest of the afternoon while Kestrel allowed his mind to wander about among reality and possibility. At points, some Skyes left the group to walk off in various directions, and as evening started to fall, they came to a spot where a number of Skyes had arrived and arranged the meal for the guests.
A collection of leaves and berries were laid upon a cloth, and the travelers were invited to eat and relax. As they did, the sky turned green overhead while the blue sun began to set. All the travelers sat or lay peacefully, relaxing in individual solitude. Kestrel grew restless, and stood up, to walk around and explore the surrounding landscape.
They were at a flat spot not far below the peak of a small hill, at the apex of which a stone obelisk rose straight upward. Kestrel hiked around to the far side of the hill to find a trail up to the top, and as he passed the darkening landscape he decided to restore his powerful glow in order to see the trail features.
His light flickered into existence instantly, showing him the way to walk onward. Around a corner of the trail he found a smooth round deep depression in the stone by the path, and signs that a spring had once filled the small pool with water that had then flowed out and down in a streambed that dropped down the side of the hill in what Kestrel imagined had once been a pleasantly babbling brook.
“Stillwater,” he called, struck by an idea. “Stillwater, Stillwater,” he repeated his request, and he bent his energy towards the imp, to give him the energy needed to transport through space.
The imp appeared moments later. “This is like the way the world should be!” the small blue figure said with a smile. “I heard your call and I traveled!”
“Did you bring the water skin?” Kestrel asked.
“It is here,” Stillwater answered, handing the skin to Kestrel.
“Thank you,” Kestrel said absent-mindedly as he took the skin, then stepped across the rocky hillside boulders and positioned the water skin above the pothole in the stone below. He opened the plug, and a steady flow of water began to immediately fall into the large tub.
“What does this do?” Stillwater asked as he watched Kestrel observe with satisfaction the water splash about in the bottom of the catchment, collecting and rising in depth.
“This lets us walk up to the top of the hill, then walk back to the camp site and tell the ladies that we have a bath tub they can use to wash and cleanse themselves. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a bath tub, and I’m sure they won’t mind a chance to soak and relax,” Kestrel explained. He turned and continued his climb, accompanied by the imp.
“Does it feel different to be a god, Kestrel divine?” Stillwater asked after just a few steps.
“I’m not a god, Stillwater,” Kestrel answered. “I have more power than before, but I don’t think I’m really a god,” he announced the conclusion he had arrived at during his long afternoon of walking and thinking. “I don’t have worshippers, and I don’t have a special thing I do better than anything else, like speed or stones or water or sounds,” he explained.
“Perhaps you are correct,” the imp said doubtfully, and then said no more as they reached the top of the hill, and looked out at the panorama that spread in all directions. Kestrel saw a glow down on one side of the hill, the location of their camp, he was sure. The travelers had built no fire, and so he presumed the light came from a glowing god.
As he watched, the light started moving rapidly, and it began to climb up the side of the hill, rising towards the top. He watched for only moments, before the light reached the summit and was revealed to be Tullamore.
>
“You’ll excuse us for a moment’s conversation, small friend,” the Skye god suggested to Stillwater.
“Certainly great lord,” the imp replied.
“Go tell the girls about the bathtub we’re filling for them, and accompany them to the water if they so choose,” Kestrel suggested.
Tullamore waited until Stillwater was gone.
“How may I help you, my lord?” Kestrel asked.
“I come to ask a favor,” the native god of the land replied. “I ask that you stay here with us when your friends leave tomorrow evening.”
“What? Me stay here?” Kestrel felt dumbfounded by the request.
“Your powers are what I need to revive my land, to save my people. If you will help me and work with me, for a short time only, we can keep this land from dying. Hundreds of thousands of my people will live on, but only if you will be my partner. And when our work is done, I will gladly show you the way to return to your land. And you will be a god here in the meantime, in every way,” Tullamore told Kestrel.
“I want to go home,” Kestrel replied slowly. “I want to see a yellow sun and see Putienne, and my other friends too,” he added. “I want to see my own home again; and I don’t need to be a god to be happy.”
“I understand,” Tullamore answered in words that were spoken just as slowly and thoughtfully. “You are already a hero here for helping to lead this mighty expedition that has ended the Viathin occupation in our land.
“Without your help, we will die out slowly, but we will be free when we pass into history. I thank you for giving my people their freedom back,” Tullamore said in a voice filled with dignity and sadness. The god turned, and strolled away from Kestrel, heading back down the sloping path that Kestrel had climbed to reach the top of the hill.
Kestrel felt his eyes begin to tear up. He had admired the bravery of the Skyes who had been partners in the quest to battle the Viathins, and he wanted them to enjoy and flourish during their regained freedom. He wanted to help them, but he also wanted to return home. He had been gone from Oaktown for months, and he missed the place that was growing to be home. Even more, he missed Putienne; the enchantment-driven bond of friendship he shared with the yeti-turned-girl continued to reside in his soul, making him restless, with a longing to be close to the girl once again.
An Unexpected Deity (Book 7) Page 25
