Warriormage: Book Three of the 'Riothamus' trilogy

by Rosemary Fryth

  Sage Beech nodded, “I will fetch the others. Now is as good a time as any.”

  *

  After the young woman had gone, Aran excused himself from the group, and wandered off to fully explore the confines of the Guest House. Built high on wooden posts, the building was large and circular in structure, and constructed of an unusual dark yellow timber that had been heavily carved with similar forms to those he had seen on the Warding pole. Around the outside of the Guest House was constructed the shaded wooden verandah, whilst centred inside was a large circular common room with glass skylights to let in air and sunlight. Around the perimeter of the common room were grouped twenty small cubicles, with room only for a bed, table and stool, and also a chest for personal belongings. Each room had a window opening to the outside verandah, and a skylight in the ceiling. Aran looked, but could not see a food preparation area, and he reasoned that there must a communal kitchen elsewhere in the village. Down the flight of steep, wooden stairs that led from the very centre of the common room, was the underneath shaded area of the Guest House. Paved with stones bleached white from generations of scrubbing, the downstairs area boasted several carved wooden benches, and long wooden tables worn smooth from years of use. To one side was a small but immaculately kept latrine, which supposedly emptied out into an earth pit below. Behind the Guest House and facing a grouping of other smaller, residential homes, was a communal kitchen garden, with its rows of herbs, vegetables and small fruit trees. All in all the village was very well planned and constructed, and the high-set, open-plan houses spoke of an architectural style that was vastly different to any other town or village in the province.

  “These are the very homes of the Ancients, my lord King” said Sage Oak suddenly, interrupting Aran’s musings.

  Aran looked around and saw that the other Sages had appeared, and that they were bearing large wooden platters of bread, nuts and fruit.

  “Forgive me my wool-gathering,” he apologised. “It’s just that I’ve never seen anything like Glade before. Are the other forest villages like this one?”

  Sage Oak shook his head, “The other settlements have permanent roads which link them to the world outside the forest. We are isolated here from the world without, and thus the beneficial energies of the forest are not diluted and polluted with outside change.” He gazed in easy familiarity at the pole-houses, “If you were to go to Elm and East Glade, you would find them like any other small village in the province. True, they do have a palisade like ours, but that is only in defence against the wolves and snakes.”

  “So what makes Glade special? Is it because you are wholly cut-off and have no permanent road linking you to the outside?” Aran asked.

  Oak nodded towards the stairs, “My lord king, let us rejoin the others. We will soon speak of these matters, and as it is a lengthy tale, I’d prefer not to repeat myself.”

  Aran frowned at the other’s high-handed manner, but not wanting to make an issue of such a small thing, decided instead to let it lie, and mutely followed the Sages up the stairs and back into the upper level of the Guest house.

  *

  It did not take long for the group to slake their hunger on the fresh baked bread, and sweet tasting fruits, cheeses and nuts offered to them by the Sages. Finally, after all had eaten, and the group was quiet and attentive, did Sage Oak compose himself to speak.

  “I know that you all have seen the many wonders of the forest, and have many questions that you’d like to ask us, but in order to answer your questions I must first take you all back into the most distant past.”

  He paused and surveyed the group, noting the aura of expectation that was evident over all the listeners.

  “We know very little about the Ancient sea-raiders that originally discovered, and settled the province,” he began. “Only that they arrived in eight great pioneer ships from a far distant land. We have surmised that their first settlement was at Haulgard on the banks of the Titan River, and from there we assume they sent out groups of men and women to discover, and map the boundaries and features of this land. After many months, and when the groups finally returned, they found that the place they had come to was mostly fertile grassland, although uninhabited with little native wildlife. Luckily these Ancients had brought with them stocks of seed and grain, and breeding pairs of animals taken from their own country, and they then embarked upon a great project of bringing life into this new place.” He smiled fondly, “They knew that their population would soon grow, and that they would need to expand out beyond the small colony of Haulgard. In order to accomplish this, they looked at their maps and planned which of the province would be suitable for farmland, into which places they would build their towns, and studied which soils would most suit the great forests they intended to grow. For the forest, they finally settled on the area around where the Trident River flowed out of the mountains to Lake Coromere. Here, near Glade itself, they started to seed the beginnings of the now vast forest that you see around us today.”

  The listeners were expectant, fascinated by this unravelling of their ancient past.

  The Sage, who was Foremost Keeper, moistened his lips before continuing on.

  “What the Ancients had not realised, was that in the land they had come to was a Power, almost a Consciousness. Since there was little life here before the arrival of the Ancients, the Land Awareness was dormant, sleeping…” he paused to gather breath.

  “Somehow, in the bringing of life to the land, and the growing of the new forest, the Land Awareness was woken, and the sleeping, dormant Powers stirred to gentle life. The Ancients of course were at first unaware of the Earthpower; however during the following generations, individuals were born that possessed unique gifts and talents, abilities that had never before been seen in the race of the Ancients.”

  “The first mages,” breathed Trenny. “This I had not known before! Where have you learnt this?” he demanded.

  The Sage ignored the Weathermage and continued on.

  “The existence of the Earthpower was then officially ‘discovered’, and its discovery led to the formation of a new creed or religion amongst the Ancients—the ‘Goddess’ Cult that we all know so well today. The ‘Goddess’ was the Earthpower, and the Earthpower was the Land Awareness.”

  The Sage sighed, “So the Ancients planted their farmlands, grew the seeds of the forest, and built their towns in the places they had chosen.” He looked up and his eyes met Aran’s.

  “For some reason they chose to site one of their more remote villages in this place near the infant forest.”

  He paused, as if what he was about to say was difficult to explain to non-Sages.

  “The place they inadvertently chose for Glade was near the location of a Node of Power, a well-spring of Earthpower naturally bubbling up into the land itself. Of course, they had unwittingly planted the forest itself over the Node, thus ensuring that the forest grew faster and denser than any other normal woodland, so fast indeed that in a matter of months Glade itself was completely overtaken by the encroaching trees.”

  He drew breath and then continued on.

  “The early mages were troubled by this unnatural growth, and devised physical wards and protections that would prevent the forest from swallowing Glade entirely. These wards kept the forest at bay, whilst they built their defensive palisade, and they soon learnt that they would gain extra protection by carving the wards directly onto their buildings and homes.”

  He smiled, “The other villages bordering the now swiftly growing forest soon found themselves part of the forest, but being so far from the Node, they did not have need to carve protective wards against the Energies of the Earthpower. They found however, that the introduced wolves, and the native grey snakes took well to the new forests, and were a danger and a nuisance to the inhabitants of the woodland villages. They too had to erect defensive palisades, but unlike Glade, were able to keep a road open through the forest. The inhabitants of Glade tried for many generations to clear a
road to the other settlements, and the plains beyond, but since they were so close to the Node, the road would soon disappear under a flood of swiftly growing saplings.” He smiled again, “Eventually they gave up, deciding that the Earthpower was best left untroubled and retired to remote Glade.”

  “And the Entity?” asked Aran.

  “Ah, the Entity…” replied the Sage musing to himself. “How can I explain the Entity?”

  “Isn’t the Entity an aspect of the Earthpower,” said Alissa suddenly.

  Sage Oak nodded, “True, it is an Aspect, yet without the mages it wouldn’t have sentient life.”

  Aran frowned, trying to understand, “Is it a creation of the mages?”

  The Sage looked up, “Yes, and no. Remember that the Earthpower itself fuelled the beginnings of the Abilities, and the first mages. Well, in some way the early Earthmages living here at Glade unconsciously brought the sentient Aspect into being. Their magepowers enabled the Entity to assume a shape and form that could communicate with the newcomers to the land.”

  “So we gave it intelligence,” Aran mused.

  “Of a rudimentary sort,” Sage Oak added. “It has little consciousness of its own, and owes its current level of awareness largely to the number of Earthmages who have found their way to Glade over the years. In fact, it is from the Entity itself that we have discovered the truths about our most early history. It has told us what it can remember of our distant ancestors, however even its memory is incomplete. It does not remember the coming of the Ancient sea-raiders in their great pioneer ships, nor does it recall the earliest years of the founding of the new settlements.”

  Darven was puzzled, “Why not? If its memory stretches back that far, how is it that it cannot remember a little bit further back to the first arrivals?”

  “Because it did not then have sentience,” explained the Sage. “It was a Power only, the Ancients and the life they introduced into the land inadvertently gave the Power a Consciousness; and an awareness of the passing of time beyond the seasons alone.”

  There was silence at that whilst the group digested the information.

  “So I still do not understand how this forest can affect the weather” frowned Hela, at last breaking the silence.

  The Sage shook his head, “You have not listened, young Weathermage. Please try and understand that it is not so much the forest which moderates the seasons here, but the Node of Power itself.”

  “Are there other Nodes?” asked Genn, his tanned face intent.

  “We suspect so,” answered Sage Oak guardedly. “The Entity we believe is aware of others, but it will not speak of them openly, or give us exact details to their locations. However it alludes to one in the Trident Range, there seems to be one on Glaive Island itself, another somewhere in the north of the province, and one also in the deep oceans.”

  “Glaive Island,” Trenny mused, his face creased in thought. “It would hardly be at Glaive College for I am certain the mages would have been long aware of it…”

  “Rapier!” said Aran abruptly, his Warriormage Ability suddenly triggering deep and distant memories. “Wasn’t that the original settlement on Glaive Island?”

  He turned to Sage Oak, “Would the mages have been aware of the existence of the forest Node of Power when they settled on Glaive?”

  The other man nodded, “For certain, Glaive Island, or Njord’s Finger as it was originally known, was settled many generations after the original colonists first came to this land. The mages looked for a place that was away from the main population, a place where they could study and research and hone their Abilities. Njord’s Finger would have been eminently suitable.”

  “Wouldn’t they have also looked for a Node of Power, for wouldn’t such a Node have enhanced their own Abilities,” argued Aran confidently.

  “And wouldn’t that Node be at Rapier, at the first settlement?” added Darven excitedly.

  Aran looked around, and saw the other latent Warriormages nodding in implicit agreement.

  The Sages exchanged glances, and Sage Oak finally nodded, “You may be correct in your assumption. How it that you have guessed that the Nodes enhance the natural Ability? We have determined this fact only through countless generations of living so close to such a Node.”

  “King Arantur and a few others in this group are Warriormages, Sage Oak,” explained Drayden dryly. “Part of their latent Ability seems being able to access the stored memories of their ancient brethren.”

  The Sages glanced at each other again in some consternation. Finally Sage Oak spoke again.

  “Awhile back, indeed years ago to my recollection, we were told by the Entity that the old lost Abilities were once again being born into the land. We have long suspected that Metalmages were about, but never did we realise that Warriormages again walked the land.” He stared at Aran intently, “How many Warriormages are in your group?”

  “Two with demonstrated power,” replied Drayden immediately, “Two more with the spark latent within them. The king himself is also a Metalmage, and of the three Warriormages here, he has the strongest Ability. There is little now he cannot do with his Ability.”

  The Sage swallowed nervously, “This is yet more proof of the rising Earthpower. I see the Goddess’s hand in this matter.”

  Drayden nodded, “We on Glaive have thought so too.”

  Wrenching his gaze away from Aran and Darven, the Sage finally continued with the thread of the story.

  “There is only a little more I can tell you about Glade and our early history. You have now all seen the Entity, and felt the Node’s energies at work within the forest. Glade’s purpose has turned from originally being a small provincial village, into now an almost permanent enclave of Earthmages studying the energies of the forest and the Node itself.”

  “And the Sages are…” queried Trevan quietly.

  “Earthmages who are most Attuned to the forest and its energies,” replied Sage Oak simply and matter-of-factly.

  He turned to the still frowning Hela and Trenny, “You are both Weathermages,” he said shortly. “In all truth you may only partially understand some of the concepts that have been discussed here, but it is really only the Earthmages who have the certain degree of Awareness necessary to study this particular Node. If the Weathermages are so interested in the Node and wish to study one, then I would recommend that you find the one that is located on Glaive Island itself. From my limited understanding of climate, I know that most weather is born from the mixing and meeting of land, sea and air itself. The Node on Glaive Island may be receptive to any cautious forays by Weathermages into discovering its secrets.”

  “And where is the Node in the forest?” asked Aran.

  The Sage glanced up, “Not far, my lord. In fact we will all be going there tomorrow!”

  *

  “Phew!” said Darven, getting up from where he had been seated on the floor. “My head feels ready to burst. I would never have believed all this talk of Nodes of Power if I was not already witness to its proof.”

  “For once I am in agreement with the Weathermages,” Aran added. “The Sages understanding of our early history, and the existence of the Entity, and the Nodes of Power were meant for all mages. Not just those of the Earthmage discipline.”

  Alissa smiled and took Aran’s hand, “What would they have done with the knowledge, my love? You have heard for yourself that only Earthmages can Attune to the Entity, and this particular Node. Surely with the knowledge of Nodes being generally available, it would have sparked a rush to find other such places which might be exploited by men with less honourable intentions.”

  Aran slowly nodded, “Yet I utterly believe Rapier sat on or very near a Node of Power. Why was that knowledge lost?”

  Darven shrugged, “We have all heard that Rapier was utterly destroyed by the grieving Metalmages. It is not so inconceivable that the memories of the Node were lost in the intervening five hundred years since that devastation.”

  “Perha
ps some things are better meant to be lost,” said Bini abruptly. “Are any of us so certain of the rightness of our ways and beliefs, that we would use a Node utterly for the benefit of all? I must agree with Lady Alissa in that these Sages have managed not to corrupt, or exploit the power that is so obviously flowing here…”

  He paused, “And yet I am certain there is one such Node which has been corrupted.”

  Aran turned, “Where? Aside from the supposed location of one at Rapier, there is no other Node that has been certainly determined.”

  “One was mentioned as being in the Trident Range,” answered Bini unhappily. “What is the chance that particular Node has not already been interfered with by the Thakurian Warleader?”

  Aran face turned ashen grey, “Hell! I had not even thought of that possibility. The existence of such a Node may go long ways to explain how this leader of theirs has managed to acquire so much power. In all likelihood she is renewing herself at one of the natural fonts of the Earthpower.”

  “And corrupting it in the process,” added Darven gravely. “It is no wonder that we feel physically so sick when we touch her mind link. She has blighted the very Earthpower itself.”

  The small group looked distinctly uncomfortable at that piece of news.

  *

  Aran looked around, “I’ve only just noticed that we are quite alone. Where have the others gone?”

  “The guardsmen have gone to check on the horses,” replied Darven, “I also heard the word ‘tavern’ being mentioned. “

  “And the Weathermages are mooching around somewhere,” Alissa said. “I think the way the Node in the forest affects the seasons offends their idea of a tidy world. The Healermages too have gone off to see if there are any people needing their aid, and Drayden and Theaua have left with the Sages to meet with the other Earthmages staying here.”

  “Then we are quite alone,” yawned Aran. “I don’t know about you all, but I could do with a bit of shut-eye.”