A Warden's Purpose (Wardens of Issalia Book 1)

by Jeffrey L. Kohanek

  “In Chaos Theory, we were told that an incorrectly drawn rune is dangerous and could be deadly.” Jonah thumbed toward the direction they had come. “Let’s go up to the rim of the quarry and I’ll try to charge it from there. I think it’ll work as long as I can see the rune.”

  Jonah and Donnell climbed to the top of the hill, where they waited patiently as Everson inched his way up the scattered steps and the rocky incline. When they were all out of the bowl, Jonah closed his eyes.

  A cool breeze gave Everson a chill again, and he held his elbows against his torso to try and warm himself. He looked down at the rock, now a hundred paces away, yet with the rune still visible. Beyond the quarry, was a view of beauty – a view that had transformed over recent weeks.

  Dark green pines stood out among the reds, oranges, and yellows of the leaf trees. With gray rock and a white snowcap above the trees combined with the purple mountains in the distance, it appeared as if Issal had gone wild and had created a pallete of color to test Everson’s ability to concentrate. Regardless, he found the view incredible.

  Another gust teased Everson’s hair and sent an involuntary shiver down his spine. He turned toward Jonah, who still had his eyes closed. Everson frowned, wondering how long it might take his friend to tap into this magic. Other questions began to stir within his mind. What if he needed to use this magic during battle? Would he have time? What deaths might result from such a delay? Does it come faster with practice?

  Jonah’s eyes flashed open and red sparks sizzled within them. Shocked by the sight, Everson backed up and almost fell, catching himself with his cane just in time.

  As the red energy faded from Jonah’s eyes, Everson turned to find the rune pulsing red on the distant rock. The glow of the rune faded, and he wondered if something had gone wrong. Suddenly, the rock burst into flames, flaring bright and hot and angry. A thump of warm air hit the boys, sending them back a step.

  Even at a hundred paces, Everson felt the warmth of the burning stone. If he had closed his eyes, he would think that he was sitting before a warm fire…or his father’s forge. To feel such heat from this distance was incredible. He had never seen stone burn before and would have doubted it possible without the use of magic.

  Donnell’s eyes were wide, his face filled with fear. “That is…horrible.”

  Everson’s brow furrowed. “Horrible? It’s a bit dangerous, but it’s hardly horrible.”

  “How…how long will it last?” Donnell asked.

  Jonah scratched his chin. “Based on what I know, the rock will burn like this for about an hour and then slowly die out.”

  Everson’s mind struggled to balance the facts between what he witnessed before him and how the academy ovens functioned. “This kind of heat would turn metal to liquid. How did they make the oven plates perpetually hot, yet not so hot that they melt?”

  Jonah shook his head. “I don’t get it either. The plates inside the ovens have numerous runes, yet they’re not nearly as hot as this single rune.”

  “In addition, their effect lasts far longer.”

  Jonah nodded. “There’s a secret to enchanting that we haven’t learned yet.”

  Everson’s gaze fell on the burning rock. “Yes. I wonder when we will learn that secret. I have some ideas of how I might use it.”

  22

  Causing Trouble

  A fountain of sparks shot into the air as Everson pressed the gear tooth against the grinding wheel. He concentrated through the narrow view of the lens strapped to his head, careful to remove only the unwanted glob of metal. He pulled it back and gave it close inspection before nodding in satisfaction.

  “You can stop pumping now,” he said, grunting as he slid the massive gear on the bench beside him. He then lifted the goggles to his forehead and turned toward his companions. Donnell wiped the sweat from his brow. Ivy appeared oblivious as she filed a rounded end to a metal rod.

  “Good.” Donnell sighed. “My leg was getting sore anyway.”

  Motion of someone approaching drew Everson’s attention. He turned to find Jonah heading toward him. “What are you doing here?”

  “It’s late.” Jonah replied. “The sun will drop behind the mountains within the hour.”

  Everson grinned. “I’m touched that you’re concerned about me. Did you think I would skip dinner?”

  Jonah snorted. “It wouldn’t be the first time you missed dinner because your head was buried in the Foundry.”

  “You’re right,” Everson sighed. “We only have two weeks left before the competition. The parts are almost finished. However, we still have to assemble it and test it. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have nothing to show.”

  “Don’t say that,” Donnell chided. “After all the work we’ve put into this thing, it had better work.”

  “It will work just fine, Donnell.” Ivy’s voice carried a fierce edge to it, an unspoken threat. “Everson knows what he’s doing.”

  Everson bit his lip as a wave of guilt washed over him. She had placed her faith in him…faith he hadn’t yet earned.

  “Enough of your crazy inventions for today.” Jonah gestured toward the door. “Let’s go. I have something to show you.”

  Donnell’s head shot up with an expectant look on his face. “Should I come as well?”

  Jonah shook his head. “Not this time. This particular surprise is only for Everson.”

  Donnell appeared crestfallen but said nothing. Ivy remained quiet as usual while Everson grabbed his canes and stood.

  “Our break starts tomorrow. I may go to Fallbrandt for a day or two.” Everson dreaded leaving the Foundry with his project unfinished, but the next break was another fifteen weeks away.

  Donnell turned toward Everson. “I may do the same. I have an uncle who lives there.”

  “Don’t worry, Ev.” Ivy shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere, so I’ll keep working on it.”

  Everson glanced toward their cart of completed components. Images of them assembling into something useful danced in his head.

  “I’ll see you guys soon…a couple days at most,” Everson said, his mind distant.

  As he and Jonah headed toward the door, Everson thought of the work that he, Donnell, and Ivy had accomplished – of the hours and effort expended on an idea he had conceived. The concept was sound and the benefit great, but it remained untried, untested, and the results unknown. He prayed for it to function when they assembled it. Even beyond the satisfaction he would gain, he didn’t want to let his companions down.

  Jonah held the door open, and Everson shuffled into the hallway, dark and empty save for the periodic glowing floor tiles. As they headed toward the heart of the school, they sporadically encountered students and faculty members, some passing by while others headed in the same direction.

  When Jonah walked past the dining hall, Everson stopped.

  “Aren’t we going to eat?”

  Jonah shook his head. “No. There’s something else I need to show you…in our room.”

  Curiosity, combined with a touch of confusion, kept Everson quiet as he followed along.

  Upon reaching the room, Jonah put his hand on the knob and grinned.

  “You didn’t lock it?” Everson asked.

  Jonah shook his head. “No need.”

  When the door opened, Jonah moved aside to give Everson a clear view.

  With the curtains pushed open to allow light from the low sun to filter in, Everson spotted yellowed fields outside and the colored mountainside in the distance. Eclipsing the window was the silhouette of a girl, the edges of her golden hair illuminated by the bright view beyond her. The girl turned toward the door and smiled. Everson’s heart leapt. He hadn’t realized how much he missed her.

  “Quinn!”

  He hurried into the room, and she wrapped her arms about him in a hug. With his head buried in her hair, he was hit by the recognizable scent, smelling faintly of flowers – the fragrance contained a hint of sweetness, yet airy and confident, like her pe
rsonality. Unbidden, a tear slid down his face. When she released him, he rubbed it away with the shoulder of his coat and blinked his eye dry.

  “It’s good to see you are well.” She gave him a smile.

  “Me? Of course, I’m well. I’m not the one who’s fighting others on a daily basis.”

  Her smile widened. “And to think, this time, you aren’t even the cause.”

  Everson laughed.

  “This is touching,” Jonah said from the doorway.

  Everson turned toward Jonah and rolled his eyes. “Are you going to give me a hard time about this?”

  Jonah chuckled as he closed the door. “It seems like too good an opportunity to pass on.”

  In a flash, Quinn lunged forward and drove her fist into Jonah’s stomach. An oof burst out as Jonah doubled-over. Quinn wrapped her arm about his head and squeezed.

  “I suggest you leave my brother alone.” Quinn grimaced as Jonah’s face reddened, his eyes bulging.

  “Quinn! What are you doing?” Everson cried out. “He’s my friend!”

  She looked at Everson, and the steel in her eyes cooled…softening. When she let go, Jonah coughed and gasped for air.

  “Um…I’m sorry.” Quinn patted Jonah on the shoulder and he flinched. “I sometimes can be…over protective. Especially when it comes to my brother.”

  Everson rolled his eyes. “I can take care of myself, Quinn. You can’t go around assaulting people because of things they say.” The volume of his voice lowered, his tone earnest. “Yes, words can be sharp as knives, but I’ve developed some armor against them and the wounds inflicted are quick to recover. Each becomes a hardened scab, more difficult to penetrate than before.”

  “You’re right.” Quinn turned toward Jonah. “Again, I’m sorry, Jonah. Everson says that you’ve been a good friend. I should respect that and trust that you’ll treat him as such.”

  Jonah chuckled. “Apology accepted…so long as you don’t tell anyone that I was beat up by a girl.”

  Quinn’s face clouded. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Jonah held his hands up in surrender. “Nothing. I was joking.”

  Everson decided to save his roommate by changing the subject. “Quinn, I assume you are here for reasons other than to accost my friends.”

  She turned toward him. “Yes. In your letter, you suggested that we visit Mother and Father. You have tomorrow off, as do I. If we leave now, we might reach Fallbrandt by dusk.”

  Everson smiled. “Perfect. I’ll pack my stuff and we can leave.”

  The sun had dipped beyond the peaks to the west, its waning light painting the clouds above in red and purple hues. Shadows covered the gaps in the trees to either side of the road, leaving the forest dark and foreboding. A blast of wind shook branches and coaxed dying leaves from their host. The leaves drifted toward the ground until another gust sent them scurrying across the road. One crunched beneath Everson’s boot as he planted his feet and stretched his canes forward for the next step. The whistle of the wind was accompanied by another sound – that of Everson’s laughter at Quinn’s story.

  “You hit her there?” he asked, incredulous.

  Quinn grinned. “Yeah. Hard. I’m sure it hurt like nobody’s business.”

  Everson chuckled. “Is that even allowed?”

  “Darnya didn’t think so, but Master Jasmine thought otherwise.”

  “So what happened?”

  “I was able to pull Darnya forward, and she fell outside the circle. Master Jasmine declared me the winner and then an ecclesiast came out to heal me.” Quinn shook her head. “It’s a good thing, too because it felt like daggers just to breathe.”

  “So what of Darnya? She doesn’t sound like someone who’s used to losing.”

  “Oh, she was upset. Outraged, even.” Quinn frowned. “She already had it out for me before the match, and I suspect that beating her in front of everyone won’t sit well.”

  Quinn fell silent, likely occupied by her thoughts. Everson had been glad to hear her tale, if just to give him something to think on beside what might lurk in the surrounding forest. The banshee wail they had heard in the Kardis Forest replayed in his mind. An edge of fear had him searching the ominous surroundings.

  Darkness obscured the forest beyond the trees nearest to the road, and apparitions moved within the gloom, lurking without emerging. When Everson blinked, they faded away. Realizing that his imagination was getting the better of him, his gaze shifted toward the darkening sky and found that the purple within the clouds had eaten away at the red, the latter now nearly absent as both chased the setting sun.

  The duo then rounded a bend in the road, and the forest’s dark embrace relaxed, opening to a wider view. Beyond that opening, the first buildings appeared, lit by islands of blue light from nearby glowlamps. A sigh of relief slipped out when Everson realized that they had made it to town before nightfall.

  Deep into autumn, the days were growing shorter, the air cooler. Despite the darkness, the streets of Fallbrandt were busy.

  Horse-drawn carts passed by, followed by two soldiers on horseback as they circled to the back of The Quiet Woman. Four ladies, busily chatting, crossed the road and headed toward the entrance of the inn. Everson thought of his time there, of the amazing food prepared by Saul, the inn’s cook. Having not yet eaten dinner, his stomach rumbled. The rumble grew louder, and Everson turned when he realized it was not coming from him.

  Black smoke poured from the vent atop an approaching steam carriage. Quinn and Everson moved aside before the steam carriage passed by, its wheels rumbling noisily on the hard road. Puffs of white steam trailed from the machine’s exhaust and mixed with the cloud of dust from the stirred gravel. Those on foot gave a wide berth to the carriage as it continued through town until it turned a corner and disappeared from view.

  “I wonder how those things work.”

  “Steam carriages?” Everson shrugged. “It’s quite simple, actually. You start with a boiler filled with water and you heat it with a fire until the water turns to steam. The steam creates pressure, which, in turn, moves a piston inside a cylinder and…”

  “Enough.” Quinn rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry I asked.”

  “But you…”

  She shook her head. “I know what I said. In truth, I don’t really want to know.”

  The disappointment on Everson’s face must have shown because Quinn stopped and put her hand on his shoulder while sharing a sympathetic expression.

  “I’m glad you understand how it works and that’s good enough for me.” She gave him a caring smile. “Knowing how things work is your thing. You keep doing that, because you’re good at it. I’ll do my own thing.”

  “Which is…”

  Her grin widened, her eyes alight. “Causing trouble.”

  He laughed. “Oh, you’re good at that, for sure.”

  They resumed walking, passing by two men carrying hand tools as they discussed meeting at a local alehouse. At the next intersection, the siblings turned and trailed behind a woman who was dragging a crying girl by the hand. The woman entered the second house on the left, slammed the door closed, and shouts arose from inside.

  Quinn chuckled. “Someone’s in trouble.”

  “It’s not even you, this time.”

  They both laughed as they angled toward the next house on the right. Quinn knocked and then hurriedly put her back to the wall.

  “What are you doing?” Everson asked in a hushed voice.

  “Remember my old trick.”

  He sighed and waited for the door to open.

  “Coming.” He heard a deep voice from inside.

  Moments later, the door opened. A male figure eclipsed the pale light coming from inside. “Everson?”

  “Hello, Father. I came home to see you…and perhaps to eat a bit of Mother’s cooking. That is, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  The man burst forward and hugged Everson, squeezing the air from him as he hoisted him in the air. “W
elcome home, Son.”

  Evers set Everson down and stepped back, grinning.

  Quinn jumped out and shrieked, “Ha!”

  The man stumbled back and put his hand to his chest. “Quinn! Are you trying to scare an old man to death?”

  Laughing, she replied, “You’re not that old.”

  She held her arms out as Evers hugged her. After a moment, she stepped back and looked up at him. “Did I really scare you?”

  He chuckled. “A bit. I suspected you might be around, so my heart was spared the brunt of your attack. Your mother will be home any minute with dinner. Let’s go inside, and you both can tell me of your time at school.” With his arm still about Quinn’s shoulder, he led them both inside.

  23

  Soldiers Left Behind

  Quinn heard whispers from the shadows beyond the bright light, but she ignored them and continued the telling of her story, reciting the events that led to her current situation.

  “I knew the late autumn break spent with Everson and my family would be the last I’d see of them until spring. That reunion refilled my heart and hardened my resolve, something I would need for what occurred during the winter session.

  “When I returned to the academy, I settled in for another fifteen weeks of hard training. In addition to my normal schedule, I began training in private with Chuli. After dinner, we would sneak into one of the private training rooms near the Coliseum.” Quinn’s focus shifted from her shadowy inquisitors to the floor as the recalled the past. “On the third night of sparring, we found that doing so without a healer was a bad idea.”

  Vi counted out loud as she walked past Quinn, the crunch of her boots in the dirt fading as the distance increased.

  Tears clouded Quinn’s eyes as she pushed herself up. Her breaths came in shallow gasps, each feeling like a thousand knives in her ribs. Despite the attempt to hide her injury, performing pushups with cracked ribs made it impossible as her pace lagged behind the called count.