by Dave Skinner
“Can you add anything, Bray?”
“No, Ran saw more than I did. I was up there when Afra was killed.” He pointed to the top of the nearby cliff. “By the time I was down and into the open the wizard was already headed for Ran and Nefty was dead. I did feel something when he made that motion at me, but it was insignificant.”
“Mearisdeana, did you see anything?”
“I saw the whole thing as if I was falling out of the sky. My recollection agrees with Ran’s”
Waycan walked around the design again. “Okay, we can return to the village.”
“Do you know how to undo the spell and send me home?” Mearisdeana asked before they were back under the canopy of the trees.
“No, I am not a wizard. I could never undo the spell. It is complicated magic.”
“Then you were gathering information. Is that correct?”
“Yes. I can now describe the design and how it was used. There is a wizard in Waysley on Pointer Island who I believe will be able to help if anyone can. I hope he will be able to read the parchment. He is the best I have heard of, and he owes me a favour. You and Bray will have to travel there.
“You will leave in two days, Bray. That will give you time to say goodbye to Kat and Lee.”
Chapter 29
Ran barged out of his parent’s house. The door swung violently and crashed against the wall. Behind him his mother’s tears fell on the unconscious body of his father as she knelt beside him where he lay on the floor.
“You are going along to kill them both, right?” his father had stated. “That is a good plan. Make it look like an accident while travelling.”
“No father. I will not kill them. I will protect them. I owe Bray a life-debt.”
“You owe him nothing. Do I have to remind you that a life-debt can only be between two Tawshe? He is not one of us. He should have been killed years ago when he arrived on our land.”
“Yes father. I have heard your opinion many times, but I will not stab anyone in the back. It is not my way.”
“Are you saying it is my way? Answer carefully, boy. You don’t want to anger me.”
The old man was never one to hold anger in check. As big and chunky as he was he had always been able to move quickly. Ran had learned much about reading an opponent’s next move by his need to duck his father’s fists.
“I am saying that I am not going along with Bray to kill him, no matter what you say or think.”
“Do what I say, boy,” his father had screamed as he swung a massive fist at Ran’s head. Many a time in his earlier life his father’s surprise blows had left Ran sprawled on the floor, but the old man was getting slow. Ran easily blocked that blow and the next. The anger from his father’s abuse, smoldering for years, exploded. He drove his left fist into the drink-blotched face, followed by a right cross that had laid the old man out on the floor.
Ran walked away from his parents place without looking back. Some of the anger he felt was because his father had been partially right. He did not owe Bray a life-debt. Bray had tried to save Shawn, not him. Saving Ran’s life had only been done to destroy the person who had killed Shawn. Ran knew that, and accepted it. There was no life-debt. Going with Bray was his way of trying to escape the unease he was feeling.
All his life Ran had believed the Tawshe to be superior, the consummate warriors, the ultimate nation. It was a truth he never doubted—until now. Bray saved his life, but at the same time Ran lost something. There was a part of him missing now. A hole he was desperate to fill.
Chapter 30
Char brought Waycan a glass of apple cider from the root cellar. “Are our guests settled for the night?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then that will be all, Char. Thank you.” Char hesitated. “Is there something else on your mind?”
“The creature can change her skin. I was delivering some bedding to her room today. I thought she was with Bray, so I did not knock. I surprised her. She was examining her arm. I only saw it for a moment, but I am positive there were no scales on it at first.”
“Could you be mistaken?”
“Possibly, it was only a moment’s glance, but by the way she reacted I am sure she tried to hide it.”
“Thank you, Char. I will look into it.”
Waycan reflected as he drank his cider. He should confront Mearisdeana, if only to confirm his feeling that the incident was meaningless. He would do it now. Perhaps catching her as she awoke would be helpful. He finished his drink and made his way to her door where he knocked and waited.
“Who is it?”
“Waycan.”
“Come in. Is something wrong?” she asked when he approached the bed.
“I am sorry to disturb your rest, but I wanted to speak with you for a moment. Char suggested that you are hiding something.”
“So she did see. I thought she had. I did not mean to deceive. You have been kind to me and treated me well. I am grateful for that, but when I arrived I did not know what to expect, so I maintained my dayskin. Later it was awkward to change.”
“Your dayskin?”
“On my world our sun is much stronger than here. Clothing does not offer enough protection, so we have a second skin, the one I have been using here. It protected me when I travelled through the void so I left it activated, but I am thankful that you now know the truth.”
As she spoke, those parts of her body he could see, her face, arms and hands changed. Her scales had been like pieces of gray slate, but now her skin was a smooth lustrous white. He thought she was hairless until he noticed the white eyelashes and eyebrows. Devoid of her scales, she appeared thinner and more proportionate. She would turn any man’s head. Waycan was taken by how milky white her skin was. It was as if it had never been touched by a ray of sunlight. He realized suddenly that it probably never had been.
“We call this our nightskin.”
“Your nightskin is lovely, Mearisdeana,” Waycan said, “but I must caution you. Our sun may be weak compared to yours, but we still have to be careful. It will burn bare skin, especially skin that has not been exposed to sunshine for some time. Stay protected.”
“Thank you, I will.” As he rose to leave she spoke again. “Waycan, do you think the wizard will be able to help me?”
“I believe so, but only time will answer your question. Be assured that his magic is powerful. I have not seen him for many years, but even back then he was one of the best. If anyone can help, he can and will. He owes me a debt.
Chapter 31
“Are you telling me those baubles you had us give to all the women are useless, just junk to make you look competent?”
“Adamtay, show respect to your uncle, and try to get your emotions under control. You are not listening to what is being said.”
Adamtay took a deep breath and then another. His father was right, his emotions were out of control, and had been since Mearisdeana was taken.
“I apologize, Uncle. Please forgive me, but I must get her back.”
“I know, Nephew, and I have been working on a solution. I did not say it was impossible, only that it will not be easy. As long as she wears the pendant we can locate her. The problem is opening a gateway to where she is.”
“The amount of difficulty isn’t important to me. I’ll do whatever is necessary to get her back, and I will kill the one responsible for taking her. Believe me, whatever is required and death to the one who holds her.” Adamtay stormed out of the room.
***
Neventay, wizard to the court of Tay and brother to the king, put down the book he had been studying and called for wine. He rubbed his temples in an attempt to ease the pain that afflicted his head. He had been digging through old records for five days. A solution to the problem had presented itself on the second day, but he had continued looking for an alternative because the first solution was not something he wanted to offer his nephew.
He loved Adamtay as mu
ch as he loved his own children, and he did not want him undertaking this quest when the odds of success were so slim.
A servant brought him a glass of chilled white wine which he sipped with appreciation. It did nothing for his headache, but it did ease some of his tension. He stood to begin gathering the items he required. The room spun dizzily and he had to grab the back of his chair to stop from falling. Only then did he realize how exhausted he was. He added a common pick-me-up to the wine and took another drink. By the time he had his notes together he was feeling strong enough to face the task ahead.
He went in search of his brother, and found him with his family at breakfast. “Come, Neventay, join us,” his sister-in-law offered. Neventay realized he was hungry. When he had last eaten was a mystery. He helped himself to the buffet set out on the sideboard. The way he ravished the food probably accounted for the fact that no one asked him the question. Even when he finished eating they just sat and waited.
“I have the answer,” he announced. “I am not happy with it, but it appears to be the only solution. He shuffled through the papers he had brought. “You have to acquire the Crystals of Blood and Light in order to open a pathway to Mearisdeana.”
“I have never heard of these crystals.”
“Neither had I until a few days ago. Let me read you what I have in my notes.” He pulled a sheet from the top of the papers he had brought. “The crystals can be used to open an inter-dimensional rift when blood and sunlight are applied to them at the same time. They were procured approximately one thousand years ago by a famous wizard, as a means of acquiring wealth. He amassed a huge fortune and great power through their use, but he feared that someone would steel them and use them against him, so he enclosed them in an infrangible magic cage. Eventually his paranoia caused him to expand the cage to enclose his complete castle and effectively sealed him away from the rest of the world. The keep still stands, and although many have tried, no one has been able to gain entrance to it.”
“So I have to gain entrance to an enchanted castle that no one has been able to enter for one thousand years? Do we at least know where this castle is?”
“Yes. It is beyond the Arkland Mountain range and luckily that is the direction you have to travel to obtain the other item you need.”
“What other item?”
“The Sword of Sacrifice.”
“Again, never heard of it.”
The Court Wizard took a drink of watered wine before he picked up the other papers from his pile. “Many centuries ago, a king made a terrible mistake that took the life of an innocent child. The child was the only son of a master swordsman who swore he would avenge his son’s death. The king was desperate for a way to stop the swordsman, so he consulted a wise man who informed him that the swordsman belonged to the Guild of Champions, and that their sworn oath included a condition that they never kill someone who is sacrificing their life to save another. After long and careful deliberation, the king came up with a scheme of using this information to foil the swordsman.
“He hired four peasants who agreed to sacrifice their lives for him. He had his wizard cast a spell on each man to make them all look exactly like the king. He kept these men with him at all times. They all slept in the same bedroom, dined at the same table, attended the same functions, and all spoke as the king. It was said that even his wife couldn’t tell them apart.”
The queen made as if to say something, but must have had a change of mind. She motioned Neventay to continue.
“When the swordsman made his way into the castle one night to extract his revenge, he was stymied. All the men rose up to fight him. He was unable to identify the imposters who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the king. He was unable to fulfill his vow.
“The king assumed he was safe as long as he kept his four duplicates around, which he did. He was happy with the arrangement, and the four peasants were overjoyed that they got to live like a king without fear of having to fight the swordsman who seemed to have disappeared.
“The arrangement went on for a few years without any word of the swordsman reaching the king’s ears. Most people assumed that he had gone away in disgrace, or perhaps the disgrace had caused him to kill himself, but one of the king’s councillors, who understood the ways of the Guild of Champions, advised the king that suicide was seen as self-sacrifice and was therefore against the guild’s laws. The king was feeling very pleased with himself until the swordsman appeared in his garden one night where he and all the imposters were walking. He carried a magnificent jewelled scimitar with which he attacked all the men. The men tried to fight back, but they say he was like a whirlwind passing among them, as he slashed and stabbed. Within a few seconds the king lay dead at their feet, but the other four were unharmed, although they all claimed to have received blows that should have killed them. They also claimed that the swordsman called his scimitar the Sword of Sacrifice and told them that it would cut anything except someone making a sacrifice for another. He demonstrated the blade’s cutting ability by slicing through the metal gate that secured the garden and then made his escape.”
Adamtay’s father was the first to understand. “You believe the sword will help Adamtay to enter the castle.”
“Yes, brother.”
“Do you know where it is, Uncle?”
“Yes. I have located it.”
“It sounds too easy, what are you not telling us?”
“The sword is in the possession of a cave worm. I have been searching for days to find you an alternative to the sword, but in that I have failed. You are going to have to defeat an immature dragon.”
Chapter 32
Bray was at the door when Kat answered the knock. Beyond the porch she saw Ran, Waycan, and a smaller figure in a hunting cloak with the hood up. The mysterious creature she had been hearing mutterings about.
“I came to say goodbye,” Bray informed Kat, “and to say again how sorry I am that I failed to save Shawn. He was my brother … my friend. He stood up for me the same way you did. I wish it could have been me, Kat, instead of him. He had so much to live for. I feel terrible about his death, and I would take his place in a moment if I could. You have to understand that.”
Kat could hear the anguish in his voice. She stepped out onto the porch and took him in her arms. It did her heart good to hold him. He felt so much like her Shawn. He even sounded like Shawn as he whispered, “Can you ever forgive me?”
Kat stepped away even though it hurt to let him go. She had a feeling that she would never see Bray again. They were on their way to Waysley, but she was unsure if Bray would return. He had not completed his trueone challenge, but she also knew that Bray did not consider himself to be Tawshe. They had spoken of the future often enough that Kat felt she knew the truth in his heart. He had always intended to return to Nadia.
“I know you did everything you could to save him, Bray. I have no doubt about that. There is nothing to forgive, and I hope you will believe the same one day.”
“Thank you. Is Lee home?”
“Yes, let me tell her you are here.” Kat entered the house and crossed the room to Lee’s bedroom door. She knocked and entered. Her daughter was stretched out on the bed. Her eyes were puffy and red. “Bray is here, Lee. Will you talk with him?”
“No, I already told him, I never want to see him again!” She was screaming by the time she finished.
Kat shook her head and made her way back to the porch. “You probably heard that. She needs more time, Bray, perhaps when you return.”
“If she ever asks, tell her I did everything I could,” he stated flatly. “Thanks for everything, Kat. I love you.”
He stepped down off the porch to join the others. Waycan led them off following the path to the lake. Only the small hooded stranger looked back. Kat re-entered her house.
“I am making tea,” she said. “I will call you when it is ready.” The tea had steeped for quite a while before Lee joined her.
> “Did you forgive him?” Lee asked. “That is why he came, right?”
“Yes, I forgave him. He tried to save Shawn. According to Waycan, no one could have tried harder. He made it from the top of T’Han Bluff to the valley floor in the time it took the wizard to walk the length of this room.”
“That is impossible. No one can run that fast. He has to be lying.”
“Bray does not lie, you know that, and he did not run, he jumped into a tree.”
Lee’s eyes opened in amazement as she pictured what Bray had done. “Why?”
“He was trying to save Shawn.”
“But he saved Ran instead.”
“Yes, according to Waycan, when the wizard realized that his spell had not stopped Bray, he killed Shawn because Bray was running towards him. Bray saved Ran as a last attempt to stop the wizard from completing his spell.”
“I should have known he would try his best to save Shawn, but I cannot find the space in my heart to forgive him. It hurts too much. Maybe if I could see Shawn’s smile again I could do it.” Tears were rolling down her face anew. “But that is impossible, Shawn is gone, and I will never see him again.”
“So you choose to lose your other brother as well?”
“Oh, Mother, help me. I love Bray as much as I love Shawn, but I am unable to face him right now. The pain is too great. Maybe, probably … I suppose eventually I will forgive him, but not now, later, when the hurt is not so fresh. I just cannot look upon him now.”
“Well, you do not have to worry about that. Bray has left, Lee. He stopped to say goodbye.”
“Good, it gives me time to heal. When he comes back I will be better.”
“He may not return.”
“No, he has to return to complete his trueone challenge.”
“Does he?”
Kat watched as Lee realized what she meant. The girl sprang to her feet and rushed outside. Kat could hear her calling, but there was no answer. Bray was gone.
