Night Calls the Raven (Book 2 of The Master of the Tane)

by Thomas Rath

  She quickly moved away to a position across the fire where she waited patiently for him to do whatever it was he was going to do.

  He looked at her one last time. “If I pass out or lose my memory or something will you…?”

  She cut him off with a snort. “It is but a small piece. We already decided that the energy it requires from you is relative to size. You should feel hardly any loss of strength at all.”

  He nodded. She was right—again. But he still felt a little uneasy. Looking back at the TanIs he slowly extended his arm and took a deep breath. He paused for a brief moment and then spoke. “Shonosh.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Thane stepped back as the TanIs suddenly flashed, giving off a brief wave of intense heat while engulfing the skin and devouring it in blue flames and then leaving nothing but a small pile of ash. Looking up at Jne and then back at the charred mark on the ground, he leaned forward to get a closer look. He was relieved that he had not lost consciousness and that he still remembered who he was. In fact, he hardly felt a loss of energy at all. He could tell that something had gone out of him but it was nothing more than a slight drain.

  Staring at the ashes for a moment, he shrugged and then looked back at her. “I guess that’s it, then. I don’t know what I was expecting but….” His last words were cut off as a sudden fury of wind rushed past, pulling air from all sides and concentrating their force into a point at the spot where the ashes had been, lifting them skyward in a roaring funnel. Thane was certain that he and Jne would be sucked up as well but instead both were knocked back with surprising force. They watched from their backs as the funnel climbed high into the night sky gathering tremendous strength and power before suddenly just snuffing out.

  He looked over at Jne, an expression of excitement and surprise on his face but found his view was blocked. A tall figure stood just feet from him, shadowed by the backlighting fire that seemed unaffected by the powerful wind that passed mere moments before. The figure was tall and lean and appeared to be that of a man. Long hair flowed out behind him caught in the gentle breeze that had replaced the mighty gusts. Thane sat frozen, unsure of from where the personage had come or what his intensions were. Jne suddenly appeared at the figure’s side, one of her blades held firmly underneath his neck.

  “Who are you,” she demanded, her voice cold as ice, “and where did you come from?”

  The figure didn’t answer but instead leaned forward, Jne’s sword easily slicing through his neck as he fell to the ground prostrate at Thane’s feet. Thane backed up quickly expecting the man’s head to roll from his shoulders and his blood to spill out on the ground but instead a low moan escaped from his lips. Jne seemed startled, inspecting her weapon but finding no evidence of a recently severed head on it—it was clean.

  “What are you?” Thane whispered, the hair at the back of his neck rising in alarm.

  “May the name of Thane be shouted in hallowed glory forever!” the dark figure said with an eerie, hollow voice that chilled him with its lack of warmth or life. “I am Gelfin, keeper of the Tane. You have freed me.”

  Thane swallowed hard, the terror that had gripped him slowly melting away into threads of excitement. “Are you the one that lost his TanIs?”

  “The very same,” came the hollow voice. “You have released me from my torment, may the name of Thane be forever spoken in reverence and awe.”

  Jne moved around the apparition giving it a great amount of room as she stepped over to Thane’s side and offered him her hand to help him up. Though obviously ineffective, she kept her sword held tightly in her hand, possibly as a connection to reality in the face of something so otherworldly.

  “How do you know my name?” Thane asked.

  “I have watched a hundred life times pass as I remained a forced prisoner around Zadok’s neck. I was with him, and you, when you were in his lair of hatred and evil.”

  So he did know what was happening around him while still attached to his TanIs. But of whom was he talking? “Who is Zadok?”

  Gelfin moaned within himself, a sound that shook Thane to the core. It was such a disparaging sound that it seemed to sap any feelings of light or joy from his soul. “He is the one who took my TanIs,” Gelfin answered. “He is the one who has held me captive the past millennia. He is the one who wanted to turn you and use you as his pawn.”

  Thane was still confused. He had never been in contact with anyone named Zadok. How then was he to be turned by and used by him? “How then did Bedler get your TanIs?”

  “He is not Bedler,” Gelfin hissed, “but Zadok. He has taken Bedler’s form and cast off the old husk that was once his own body. But he is still Zadok. He is my twin brother.”

  Thane gasped with surprise. His twin brother? It could not be. How could a brother do such a thing to his own kin? “Your twin brother?”

  Gelfin wailed an eerie sound of anguish that filled their souls with pain and sorrow. Both felt almost suffocated by grief. “He betrayed our people and then he took my life, cutting the TanIs from my body and shutting me in an eternal cell of suffering.”

  Thane remembered the teaching he had received from the five kinpa and the story they told of the evil one who betrayed their people. Zadok must have been the one of whom they spoke. He had been the great one. “He was the great one?”

  “No, he was never great. Though I tried to help him and protect him, he made himself an outcast. I was the one they called ‘the great one’, but as events played out I was of no great value at all. I failed my people and therefore have probably deserved the suffering I have endured all this time.”

  Thane was even more shocked by Gelfin’s revelation. How could he have done what he had to betray his own people over to the HuMans? He suddenly felt a twinge of regret at having released him from his TanIs. One who would betray his people so deserved the suffering he had gone through. “You are the great one? But why? Why would you betray our people?”

  “It was not I, but Zadok. He practiced the forbidden craft of magic that is unnatural and shunned by our people. When he was caught using his magic he was cast out. He grew angry and vengeful. It was at that time that the HuMans started to war against us. Zadok went to their side and made a pact with their king. And with his sorcery he destroyed the Chufeiran forest that was our home and our protection. Without the safety and strength of the trees we were powerless against the hordes that attacked us.

  “Even I, with the power and added ability of all the Tane was unable to protect our people. Zadok betrayed us. But in the end he received some justice when he was betrayed himself by King Bedler and was almost killed. Only through the use of his dark magic was he able to escape death. For many years he kept hidden, growing in health and strength, and hatred, while he held me captive around his neck unable to escape and join our people on the other side.”

  Thane was awestruck. They had had it all wrong. All these years the Chufa had blamed Gelfin without ever realizing that it was Zadok, his brother, who had betrayed them. So hated was the ‘great one’ of old that his name had even been forgotten. The injustice that Gelfin had suffered by not only his brother but the whole Chufa race crashed down with tremendous force upon Thane’s heart. Only the simultaneous anger that was rising in his breast at Zadok kept him from breaking into great sobs of anguish. Great tears ran freely and without shame down Jne’s cheeks.

  “But how did Zadok become Bedler?”

  “After recovering from his wounds and gaining enough strength, he returned to Bedler’s keep from where the king ruled and on a moonless night he used his dark magic to steal the king’s body, forcing the king’s soul into his own flesh. It almost killed him in the process. Since his magic is unnatural, it requires a greater amount of strength and stamina to wield. For long months he lay on the edge of death while the king’s people waited on him and nursed him back to good health.”

  “And what happened to the king?”

  “Not understanding what had come to pass, he cal
led the guards. Unlike Zadok, he was not affected by the transfer other than losing his body. When the guards found a Chufa in the king’s bedchamber they immediately threw him into the dungeons thinking he had tried to kill the king. He tried in vain to convince them of his real identity but to no avail. As soon as he could speak, Zadok had him executed.”

  “So the old man at Raven’s Eye is actually the body of Bedler possessed by Zadok?”

  Gelfin nodded.

  “But that was a thousand years ago. How is it that his body still has life? Even for a Chufa, a thousand years is multiple life times.”

  “It is his magic. But it has not come without cost. Zadok is no longer completely Zadok. He still remembers much from his life as himself but now thinks he is actually Bedler.”

  “But if they thought him king, why then is he not still sitting on the throne at Bedler’s Keep?”

  “He did rule for many years but his hatred for the people and his desire for revenge quickly threw the kingdom into chaos and darkness. In those dark days, many died at Zadok’s hand in secret and in the open. The kingdom was cast in a shadow of terror that almost engulfed it completely. He almost accomplished his plans to destroy it then but was overthrown by Bedler’s grandnephew, the only one in the royal line who was left who had not been put under Zadok’s knife. Zadok was almost destroyed that day but through an act of stupidity and mercy, he was allowed to leave. Banished forever. That is when he took up residence at Raven’s Eye Peak. It is there he has been brooding his long unnatural life, plotting his revenge. And, I’m afraid, this time he may have it.”

  A shiver shot up Thane’s back. “If he was your twin then he also would have all five Tane.”

  “No. We are twins in the sense that we were born the same day from the same mother, but while I was born with the five Tane, Zadok was born with none—he has no Tane. He has no connection to the natural world.”

  No Tane? The shiver that had gone up his back only moments before came back down. How would one survive without the connection of the Tane to the world around them? Thane suddenly felt almost sorry for Zadok. As the holder of all five Tane, he had always felt as an outcast because of his gifts. What would someone without a Tane feel? Yet, Gelfin too had been like him and he had grown to be called the ‘great one’ among his people. Thane, though rejected, had never gone against his people or used his growing abilities to do anything but try and help. It was his choice. Zadok, no matter what had happened to him, had also always had a choice. Zadok chose evil; it was not placed unwanted upon him.

  Thane felt Jne’s elbow against his ribs. He had been so caught up in his conversation with Gelfin that he had practically forgotten she was there. No tears marred her face now as she leaned down to whisper in his ear, though one sword was still clutched in her hand. “Here is your opportunity to learn of your Tane and you waste it on stories of history.”

  She was right—he was beginning to get used to that fact. He had a teacher all to himself and he was wasting his time on talk of evil days and wicked deeds. If he was going to be any help in fighting against Zadok and his malice he needed to find out more about his Tane. And who better to teach him than the ‘great one’ himself?

  “What can you tell me of the powers I possess and how to use them?” It was a very direct way to ask for help but Thane knew of no other way to get the answers he needed. He needed to glean as much from Gelfin while he could.

  “You are Eynahney LanCho Terra Mae, an earth child. All of nature is yours to guide and direct. All you need do is merely ask.”

  Thane was not pleased with such a vague answer. All he had to do was ask? “That tells me nothing.”

  “Oh, but it does,” countered Gelfin. “Look around you. All you see is living and breathing. All of nature possesses a soul that lives and communes with the things around it. All you need do is get in touch with that soul and you will find that all things will answer to your call. But, I give you this warning, without an anchor to the source of life your own life force will be drawn upon, which can, if you’re not careful, destroy you like it almost did when you faced the dragon.”

  His eyes grew in surprise. “You saw that?”

  Gelfin sighed, the sound of which was more like a hiss. “I have seen all things from my prison. I have been forced to witness terrible deeds in my existence. But of late, until you found me, I have been stuck in Zadok’s room much of the time. Yes, I saw all that happened that day and since.”

  He had seen him. He saw him with the dragon. Saw him pull fire from it. “How do I control the amount of fire I draw from something living?”

  “You can’t,” Gelfin answered. “It is as you expected. It is determined by size. You must be very powerful indeed to have survived such a large draw as that required by the dragon. Without the anchor, your power is limited to your own strength. Some things, like pulling fire from the living, require greater amounts of energy than others, like riding the winds.”

  Thane nodded. Riding the wind required no energy at all. It just happened. Speaking with animals or sending his senses out to his surroundings were all very easy and natural. The only time he had ever really felt drained was when he used fire. He wondered why that was. “What is this anchor you speak of?”

  Gelfin wailed, the sound of it like a howling wind rushing through a long tunnel. “The forest,” he wailed, the pain he was feeling transferring to Jne and Thane so intensely that Jne felt tears welling again in her eyes. “But alas, they are gone. Destroyed by my brother. The Chufeiran trees. They were the anchors to the source of all life. They were what gave us the power to live and work our Tane to the benefit of all. They were what gave us the strength to fight off the HuMans in the beginning. They were the most pure of all creations and we were their keepers. We failed them.”

  “So with these trees,” Thane almost whispered, his eyes half glazed as if seeing them for himself, “you had unlimited power with your Tane?”

  “They were the anchor. They provided the power.”

  “Are there none left to be found?”

  Gelfin wailed again. “Zadok made them all disappear. They once filled the area that is now the Underwoods Forest. But once Zadok destroyed them, the Underwoods replaced them with their choking growth, creating an unwholesome home for all things evil.”

  “Could there still be a chance that some have survived?”

  Gelfin half shrugged. “It is possible that somewhere deep in that suffocating mass one may still cling to life. If it is so I do not know it though. Had Zadok ever caught ear of one still living he would have choked away its life like he did the others.”

  Thane felt a great sense of loss suddenly overwhelming him. His people had lost a major part of themselves and now lived without the slightest memory of it. They were a lost and fallen people. “How is it, if Zadok has no Tane, he rides the wind and wields other powers of the earth?”

  “He does not ask. He forces his will and bends the elements to his evil design. That is why his strength fails him when he works his unnatural magic. The elements fight him but are often subdued to his use.”

  Gelfin looked up into the dark sky. “My time grows short. I can feel the pull of the world beyond finally calling me home. Long have I waited for this moment thinking I was doomed for eternity to suffer in the presence of my brother. Nothing I could ever do or say would be thanks enough to you, Thane.”

  “Is there nothing else you can tell me to help me understand my Tane? Anything at all?”

  “All you need do is ask, and all things natural will answer your call. There is one thing I can tell you though that may be of some help. It is always easier to pull water from something than to pull fire.”

  Thane gave him a quizzical look and was about to ask him what he meant but Gelfin cut him off.

  “You are the hope for us now, Thane. You have come at a time when all is poised on the edge of fire and darkness just waiting to be consumed. You must use your gift to make things right. You have been chosen by
Terra Mae to be her guardian now. You must not fail.”

  Gelfin’s form began to rise slowly into the air. Thane wished to hold him back; he had so many unanswered questions. “Will I ever see you again?” he shouted as Gelfin’s spirit continued to rise.

  “Probably not in this realm, but I will prepare a place for you in the world to come, my friend. One final thing before I go.”

  Thane looked up intently, eager for anything he might be given.

  “There are others like me. Others Zadok destroyed in his lust for power and revenge. They also must be saved. Look for them at the keep. They suffer as I have and beg to be set free. You are the only one who can help them.” And with that, Gelfin’s spirit vanished, his last words drifting softly on the wind, “I’m coming home.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Inspecting his work, Teek couldn’t help the small smile that played across his lips. He was finished. Holding it up in front of him he ran his eyes along the smooth narrow shaft inspecting it with a master’s eye. It was probably the best blowgun he’d ever made. From the cradle, Waseeni learned to make and shoot a blowgun. Life in the Teague swamps insisted on it if one expected to survive. Putting it to his lips, he gave it a quick, hard blow. The air rushed through the narrow space and out the other end with great speed and force.

  Picking up a small pebble, Teek positioned it just inside the opening and again placed the blowgun against his lips. Looking around, he quickly focused on the back of Helgar’s head. With a quick puff, the rock shot out fast and true, ricocheting off the dwarf prince’s neck. Helgar’s hand shot up to smack the spot before cursing about the “durned bugs.” Teek covered his mouth with a hand, trying to stifle the laugh that was trying to erupt past his lips. Sighting another small rock next to his foot, he reached for it, willing to risk another shot when he locked eyes with Soren, one of the royal guards, who was sitting on the far side of the fire watching him. The dwarf said nothing, but merely shook his head slightly from side to side, his face as expressionless as smooth stone.