The Chosen (The Compendium of Raath, Book 1)

by Michael Mood

  “Aw, poor Tellurian,” his brother said. “Shackled by freedom.”

  “I knew you'd understand.” He patted Tellurian on the shoulders.

  Halimaldie had traveled much more when he was younger, but lately he had become accustomed to people coming to him, not him going to them. Tellurian was right: Halimaldie had done these sort of operational check-ins before. Trance had said the journey would be significantly shorter than it should have been and Halimaldie wasn't looking forward to whatever magics might be worked on him. Although, Yarrow worked magic on me . . .

  Halimaldie started to move about his office, making sure everything was organized as well as it could be for Tellurian in his absence. He picked up his most prized possession from his desk and handed it to Tellurian “You have to wind it twice a day,” Halimaldie explained.

  “What kind of thing is this?” Tellurian asked, turning the object around in his hands.

  “It's a clock.”

  “But it's so tiny.”

  Halimaldie walked over to Tellurian again. “It's technolurgy from Trirene,” he explained, tracing the filigree lines on its face. “I don't know the inner workings of it, but it cost me a fortune to get it over here. Those Trirenese bastards deal hard.”

  “What are all the numbers on it? They're different from the ones on the water clock along the northern wall.”

  “It divides the day into ten separate segments. Each of those segments is divided into a hundred other segments called decands.”

  “You can look at the sundial in the nearest town square and tell what time it is, Hal. You've got a sundial on your own property! Besides that, the numbers are all wrong on this thing! You got taken, brother.”

  Halimaldie sighed. “Look how small it is! It's portable! Sundials don't work at night and you can't lug them around with you. It would be a lot more practical if everyone used this kind of thing. Look, Tell, I don't have time to get into the ins and outs of clocks and life and papers and business. I'm late meeting these Kingsguardians as it is.”

  His brother walked over to him and grabbed his upper arm in a surprisingly strong grip. “I mean this when I say this, Hal: I want to see you return. Whatever you've gotten yourself wrapped up in here, well . . . Yarrow wasn't sure what to do about your hand.”

  “It's stopped spreading, at least for now,” Halimaldie said.

  “And the Kingsguardians draw trouble to themselves like a dead squirrel draws flies,” Tellurian continued. “I won't lose you like I lost father, Hal, so either come back alive or . . . well, there is no 'or'.” Tellurian embraced him.

  “I'm abandoning everything I've built,” Halimaldie said. “And I'm abandoning Yarrow.”

  “Oh, Hal,” his brother said. He pulled back from the embrace. “You're already putting her on the same pedestal as your empire? Honestly I've never seen you so smitten. Aren't you afraid she charmed you with a spell? Maybe she'll get you alone and turn you into a boar.”

  “I deserved that. But I think . . . maybe I'm different now. Will you put in a good word for me? If she asks after me, that is.”

  “You'll be back from this,” Tellurian said. Then he thought for a moment, as if trying to reassure himself. “Probably sooner than you think. These grand quests have a way of falling apart. And when you come back . . . we'll talk.”

  “Sounds good.” Halimaldie turned and started to go. “Oh. If you have to deal with someone named Polk, it's alright to want to punch him in the face. There will be a shipment of spices waiting at the docks in less than an hour, Tell. Take weapons.”

  He glanced over his shoulder one last time before he left. Tellurian appeared so small in the large room.

  -2-

  The city gates were crowded with people and Halimaldie prayed he wouldn't be recognized as he walked through them. He nodded his head to the guards and they gave him faint recognition. He wasn't sure why he was nervous about being recognized. He had, after all, publicly announced this trip, although not the inconvenient details of it.

  The roads leading from Haroma were wide, but they narrowed as he walked away from his beloved city. He was altogether shocked that he was about to travel by land. Not only did that make the journey twice as long – since they would have to ride around Haroma Bay instead of over it - but by sea they wouldn't have to travel briefly in Shailand territory. If Halimaldie's maps were correct (and he certainly paid enough for them to be) he and the Kingsguardians would pass directly across the border between the kingdoms. The war hadn't been over for that long, and the old tensions were still rather high. He would let the men with swords deal with that when the time came.

  He wore a white shirt with long sleeves that he now wished were short, and a leather vest with malachite buttons. He wore short gloves as well, one having bandages under it. He'd tried to tie the bandages elegantly as Yarrow had and ended up just kind of wadding them inside. His daggers hung at his sides, always more symbolic than practical. He had tied back his hair with a leather cord, and kept his face shaved close.

  A letter from Trance had informed him not to bring his own horse or supplies, and that the Kingsguard would take care of him. So Halimaldie had done exactly that. The letter had also given him an odd place to meet with very specific, odd instructions. About an hour into his walk he took the letter out and unfolded it.

  “Stand at the point where the sycamores meet and face the setting sun,” he muttered to himself. The traffic had lightened significantly here, but Halimaldie still felt kind of like an idiot following these ridiculous directions. He looked around and saw two trees that he thought might have been sycamores and they were sort of leaning over each other. He turned west and started walking.

  The road gave way to tangled underbrush and rather quickly Halimaldie was walking through the woods, with nothing but his letter to guide him. “Left at the brook and cross at the log,” he read. “This journey is starting off just fantastically.”

  He came to a small stream and turned left, following along the bank, stumbling every now and then. He came to a log that spanned it. The water wasn't deep, but he didn't want to get his boots wet and so, like a child, he walked carefully across the rotting log that seemed to be serving as a bridge, nearly falling three times and having to wheel his arms to catch his balance.

  Once on the other side he consulted his letter and continued on. He went up hills and down, around strange trees and through the brush until he came to a road. He recognized it as one of the main ones that led to Haroma. He turned and stopped dead in his tracks.

  There, standing in front of him, were three Kingsguardians: Telin, Trance, and another man who looked almost exactly like Telin. All three wore the silver and purple of the Kingsguard and each one had provisions and held the reins of a mount. A fourth horse was grazing nearby.

  “What the hell?” Halimaldie said. "I could have just kept walking on the road I was on and gotten here."

  Trance was laughing so hard that he barely made a sound, his face red. He was doubled over with his hands on his knees.

  “This is why we usually don't leave him in charge of things like this,” Telin said.

  “His boots,” Trance managed to get out between gasps of laughter. “His boots are dry. He went over the log!” He was pointing a shaking finger at Halimaldie's feet.

  “Oh, we'll be hearing about this until sunset at least,” Telin said, grimacing. “I apologize, D'Arvenant. It wasn't until recently that Trance told me he'd done the ol' treasure map. He gets a kick out of the most juvenile things. This horse is for you, D'Arvenant.” He indicated the grazer. “For the next thing we have to do, it would be best if we moved off the road.”

  “Move off the road and into the woods?” Halimaldie said, looking at Trance. “But I've already spent so much time there today.”

  Trance fell over laughing.

  -3-

  They gathered a little ways off the main road, Halimaldie falling in quickly with his three escorts. He wasn't much of a rider, but he'd gotten
up on the back of his horse, Bishop, with no embarrassing slip-ups.

  “We have to be ready ta move once it's initiated,” said the man who was nearly identical to Telin. Even his voice was similar to Telin's.

  That's gotta be Kelin. Aren't they twins? I should have paid more attention to the membership of the Kingsguard.

  “I can navigate it well enough,” Trance said. “Stars and navigation have always been my thing, younger Lightbearer. Don't ya remember during the Battle of Kingdom Point? You were runnin' around wettin' yerself. 'Where am I? Where am I?'” Trance laughed.

  “It wasn't exactly like that,” Kelin said, seeming to be explaining it to Halimaldie as much as Trance. “I was trying to Force arrows out of my face at the time, ya ken.”

  Halimaldie didn't know what battle they were talking about and didn't know what 'Forcing' was, but he nodded all the same.

  “Remember that time on Fenner's Wagon Trail when you tripped and fell over that naked woman?” Kelin said to Trance. “I mean, what the hell was she doin' out there?”

  Trance laughed. “What did I say to her? Somethin' like 'I've never seen a slut in such a rut!' No, maybe that's not right. Well, whatever it was, it was clever!”

  “I need you two to concentrate,” Telin snapped. “I can't summon this much power alone.”

  Trance and Kelin stopped talking, obeying Telin swiftly. Telin's clearly in charge here.

  The three Kingsguardians turned towards each other then and closed their eyes, placing their hands on their swords in eerie simultaneity. Halimaldie sat silently upon his mount waiting for something to happen, but the only thing he noticed was that all three men had broken out into a strange sweat.

  A few minutes passed.

  “I hear it feels a bit weird the first time,” Telin said to Halimaldie, his voice pinched.

  “That's what I said to that naked woman!” Trance yelled gleefully.

  And then everything shifted.

  Halimaldie almost fell off of Bishop, such was the twisting of the world. He felt his eyes were lying to him. He looked around at the trees and there was something wrong with them. The leaves that normally flapped quickly in the wind now moved as if underwater. The ones close to the gathering of men still moved normally, though. Halimaldie could almost see the sphere the four of them were in, but he didn't want to believe it was true.

  The Kingsguardians are somehow . . . bending time?

  “Lock it,” Telin grunted.

  The three men shifted ever so slightly in their saddles. Then they opened their eyes and removed their hands from their swords.

  Magic had been hitting Halimaldie in waves lately. It was odd to be so immersed in such a world, when he never had been before. First Yarrow's Healing and now this. There was so much power in the world and his brain surged already with different plans on how it could be used.

  But even in the depth of Halimaldie's business-mind he knew there were things that even he should not take advantage of. Things that were too sacred to be harnessed. It was this acumen that had kept him on top for so long. It meant knowing how far you could push things before they fell apart. This magic seemed like one of those things that might be better left untouched.

  “Now what?” Halimaldie asked Telin.

  “Now,” the Kingsguardian replied, “we ride.”

  -4-

  “For the world, time is passing normally,” Trance explained as they rode. “But for us it goes much faster. Kelin here'll argue with ya that it's the other way. That time goes slower for them and normal fer us. I'm not sure it matters.”

  “It does matter,” Kelin interjected.

  “It doesn't. If we spent fifteen days in this bubble, only one will have passed on the outside.”

  “That's incredible!” Halimaldie said, shocked.

  “Hard as hell, though,” said Trance. “We're the only three that can do this and sometimes we don't have enough power to even consider it as an option. Fucks with yer bowels, too.”

  “That's too much knowledge,” Telin said.

  “It does, though,” Trance said. “I'll be in the privy for a week straight after we get back from this whole thing.”

  “How did you learn to do these things?” Halimaldie asked. “That is, I'm assuming there are more . . . things you can do.”

  “You can feel the magic inside of ya sometimes,” Trance said. “Urgin' ya on, telling ya how to use it and what to do, but usually that's almost impossible to interpret. It makes a lot of sense once you know what it's trying to tell ya, but in the meantime it's just confusing. Mostly we train ourselves, stumbling blindly through the magical dark.”

  “Don't let him too far into our confidence, Trance,” Telin warned. “I know how friendly you get.”

  “Are there are other . . . what did you call yourselves . . . other Servitors out there?” Halimaldie asked, undaunted by Telin's words.

  “There are untrained stragglers,” Trance said. “Where do you think we draw replacements from? There's a tournament held when we need it. Anyone can possess the magic of course, but to bring it out . . . now that's where the trick lies. Even you could have the magic, Hal! Do ya mind if I call ya Hal?”

  “You can.”

  “He'd more likely be a Benefactor than a Servitor,” Kelin said.

  “And I'd bet ya a thousand crown notes yer right,” agreed Trance, “but it's not necessarily true and ya know it. Hal, magic is born of purity and truth. Ya gotta bring it out with a true act that corresponds to the magic you're trying to kindle.”

  “I'm . . . not sure I follow.”

  “There are five types right? Right. Us Servitors derive power from lending our time and strength to others. Lots of soldiers have the spark to become Servitors, but it's a rare man that does. Then you got yer Protectors. They work with animals and the like. Devotees, Monks, and Benefactors fill out the ranks. I'm actually surprised this isn't more common knowledge.”

  “And I don't know why you endeavor to make it so,” Telin said. “We've had this argument before, Trance. The less people that know of the powers the better.”

  “Why?” Halimaldie asked. “They're . . . they're powerful.”

  “It's like this,” Telin continued, taking over for Trance. “If I tell you not to think the word 'crab' while you ride, you are invariably going to think it. If you tell someone how they can become a Servitor, or a Devotee or whatever, they're going to try to do it. Makes their acts untrue. They are instead driven by the desire to gain power. By informing them of the possibilities you are actually making it much harder for them to achieve the goal.”

  “Hog-swill,” said Trance. “They'll forget about it if a true need arises. I knew about it from rumors during my days as a soldier, but when I saved that man's life I wasn't thinking about it and bam, I felt the magic swell within me.”

  “Not everyone's as brilliant as you are, Trance,” Telin said. “And, not to cut this conversation short, but I think it's time we enacted the second part of our travel plan.” He glanced around. “We're far enough out and I'm well enough recovered. Who wants to start?”

  “Who wants to start what?” Halimaldie asked nervously.

  “Ya see,” said Trance, “time is distorted and slowed outside this bubble, but we're not actually moving any faster. At this rate it'll still take us the same amount of time to reach the mines, which would get incredibly boring. So we're going to speed things up a little. I'll start. Hal, you'll find a long, coiled rope attached to your horse. Hand me the end of it, please.”

  Halimaldie did as he was asked and he saw the other two Kingsguardians doing the same.

  “Alright,” Trance said, once he held the ends of the ropes in one hand. He closed his eyes and breathed out.

  The world began to speed by, the horses flying across the ground. If Halimaldie had thought he was disoriented before, now was much worse. Trees whizzed by on each side and Halimaldie wondered how the animals didn't crash into anything. He held on for dear life.

  �
��This is expending so much of my stored power,” Trance complained.

  “This's what we store it for, Trance,” Telin said. “Lead on, and let's ride.”

  The party whipped across the landscape, Halimaldie unable to believe what was happening.

  -5-

  “Sorry about earlier with the treasure map gag,” Trance whispered. “Oh but you shoulda seen the look on yer fuckin' face.”

  He clinked his bottle quietly with Halimaldie's. They were sitting around the embers of their dying fire sharing a few drinks which Trance had smuggled against Telin's wishes. Kelin and Telin were asleep in their bedrolls a few spans away.

  “It's fine,” Halimaldie said, taking a sip of whatever alcohol it was that Trance had brought. It had a very strange flavor to it, but he wasn't about to turn it down. “I kind of had fun on my little hunt. I'm just glad we stopped that time bubble fast business.”

  “Takes some gettin' used to. Useful as hell. But we're using up massive quantities of power for this mission. King Maxton seems to think this is top priority.”

  “What do you think we'll find down in the south?” Halimaldie asked.

  “Hopefully nothing. Yes, it would be best if we found nothing. That way we could go back to business as usual.”

  “I thought this sort of thing was business as usual for you,” Halimaldie said, taking another swig.

  “Aye. A lot of people do,” Trance replied. “Foglins aren't something anyone wants to deal with, though. Except them who are bat-shit crazy enough to go right down to the Vapor. If Foglins are somehow breaking their lines and infiltrating our kingdom then business will be very much unusual for a shit of a long time. But me? I'm a simple guy.” Trance ticked the list off on his fingers. “I like to kill Shailanders. I like to purchase whores. I like to drink. But, I'm sworn to the King. And this is what he wants.”

  “How far'd we get today?”

  Trance looked up at the stars. “Probably not as far as any of us would like. But a hell of a lot farther than anyone else could've!” He held up his palm and Halimaldie slapped it with his gloved hand. “You gonna sleep in those gloves?”