“Do you need to collect anything else before we go?” he asked Eiren.
“I travel light,” she answered. “I’m ready.”
“Let’s go then,” Theus told her. He hugged his mother and his sister. “Good luck settling the city. I’ll be back when we’ve carried out the tasks Lord Limber has assigned,” he told them, as his mother held him for a long time.
“You be careful Theus. I love you,” she told him with great emotion.
“Come here and hold on tight,” Theus told Eiren, who approached him, then tentatively placed her hands on his shoulders.
“Tighter,” he told her, then wrapped his own arms around her, pulled her into an intimate hug, winked at his sister and Vanline, then used a magical step to disappear from the palace.
“Great heavens!” Eiren said in astonishment, as they suddenly were transported to a spot on the empty new granitine highway through the mountains. Theus gathered in another share of the sunlight’s powers, and advanced his foot between Eiren’s two legs again, and they moved once again, arriving at an untamed spot in a shady valley between two peaks.
“Theus!” Eiren exclaimed.
He took a breath; with two traveling together, even using the sunlight he captured was still a slight strain. He paused and recovered, then sought more energy, and they took another step.
They were in a sunny location once again.
“You’re astonishing!” Eiren told him. She stared directly into his eyes as she spoke. Her eyes were wide with wonder. “How far have we come?” she asked.
He swallowed and breathed.
“Each step is about the same as one day’s worth of walking,” he told her.
“So you’re telling me that in the past few minutes we’ve traveled as far as three days’ worth of walking?” she asked skeptically.
Theus took another step, and Eiren gave a soft shriek, as she tightened her grip on him while she buried her face in his shoulder.
“I wasn’t expecting that one,” she explained as she raised her head.
“We’re done,” Theus told her.
She released her hold on him and stepped away. A quick survey of their surroundings showed that they were on a hillside, not far above a wide road, where a few people walked, and a pair of horses pulled a small wagon.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Probably not too far outside Greenfalls. I suggest we walk the rest of the way,” Theus answered.
“Okay. You can’t just carry us right into the city?” Eiren asked.
“It gets complicated to try to be too precise,” Theus recollected the time he had arrived on a roof in Greenfalls. “Maybe someday I’ll be better, but it won’t hurt us to walk.”
As they began to walk, Eiren began to ask Theus questions about his family, and he answered with stories about growing up on the farm. Within an hour they reached the city gate, and passed inside, back into Greenfalls.
“So, what exactly are we going to do here?” Eiren asked as they began to walk the broad main boulevard.
“Limber told me we’d fight a battle here,” Theus revealed. “And after this, we have to go fight a battle in Great Forks.”
“Limber told you we’d win this battle? He can guarantee that?” Eiren asked.
“No,” Theus answered slowly, as he tried to recollect the god’s words to him. “He didn’t guarantee it, but he made it sound like it would happen.
“He told me we’d help friends fight corruption here,” Theus began to explain.
“There’s plenty of that,” Eiren snorted. “We’ll be here for the next ten years trying to clear that out. It starts with that governor and trickles down. Why try to tackle it now?”
“I don’t know,” Theus felt mildly annoyed. He was merely repeating the words of a god, not making decisions himself. He hadn’t asked such questions when Limber had given him orders. Perhaps, he admitted to himself, he should have asked questions to have more information.
“It’s not important now,” he tried to brush away his own ignorance. “We can ask some questions around the city. You know a lot of folks here. You go ask them, and I’ll go to Currense’s temple and ask Alsman,” he said.
“Shall we meet at the Blue Coach?” Eiren suggested.
They agreed to meet at the tavern for dinner, then went separate ways.
Theus walked down towards the river as the sun began to fall in the western sky. It would be falling in Great Forks as well, Theus thought to himself. Coriae would see a setting sun. And soon, according to Limber’s prophecy, Great Forks would see an invasion by Donal and the forces of Southsand. It seemed audacious and improbable for the southern nation to attempt to travel so far to invade such a large and prosperous city, and to risk waging war upon the great kingdom of Stoke. Donal and the evil god of Ind’Petro seemed to have no limit to their hunger for conquest, death, and destruction; and they seemed to have the power to succeed. Which made the future scenario of Theus being sent to battle against Donal seem all the more daunting.
With such apprehensive thoughts, Theus arrived at the front of the temple of Currense, and went inside, recollecting the extraordinary attention the goddess herself had given him on his last visit. He entered without any attention paid to him, just one of the steady stream of worshippers who came to the temple. He walked through to the sanctuary, then knelt at the railing, and began a brief prayer.
“You are here to help my true believers. I thank Limber, and I thank you,” a melodic woman’s voice sounded in his ears. “Alsman is held captive in the lowest levels of the temple. You must go and set him free; he is scheduled to be executed at daybreak tomorrow,” Currense spoke to him.
“My goddess!” Theus exclaimed in a low voice, as he remembered to keep his head bowed so as not to look different from the other worshippers. “Why? He is a true believer of you.”
“He is, but the head priest is much less so, and Alsman has asked many questions and raised suspicions lately,” she answered.
“How can I find the way to his prison cell?” Theus asked.
“Go out to the temple front, and look for a priest wearing a blue and red cassock, then follow him. He will take you to Alsman’s cell. You must set him free, and help him to cleanse my temple of the troubles that have grown here; it is further evidence of the evil that Ind’Petro has infected the world with,” Currense growled.
“Yes, my lady,” Theus accepted the command. He started to rise.
“And Prometheus,” Currense spoke again.
Theus returned to his knees and bowed his head.
“Yes, my lady?” he asked.
“Limber has made a wise choice in selecting you to be his marshal as he returns to strength. I know that you will do well, my young friend,” she soothingly heartened him.
Theus felt uplifted by the words of encouragement from the goddess.
“Go now, and let this duty be carried to its complete fulfillment,” the deity spoke.
“Yes, my lady,” Theus answered. He remained on his knees, head bowed, waiting to hear any further instructions from the goddess. After a minute, he concluded the interview was finished, and he rose, he turned and left the sanctuary, then stood in the front of the temple, and observed the flow of traffic as people walked in all directions.
“You were certainly at the altar for an extended time. I hope the goddess will answer your prayers,” a young priest in an ankle-length robe of deep blue, with red stitching at the cuffs spoke to him in passing.
Theus immediately fell into step a few paces behind the man, and followed him through a doorway that went into spaces not open to the public. They went through a hall, down steps, into a dim room, and then down a steep, dark set of steps which ended at an iron-bound door.
“Your goal is on the opposite side of this door,” the priest said to Theus. Without hesitation, he immediately began to climb back up the stairs, leaving Theus alone in the dim light.
Theus pressed his ear to the door and listened for so
und from the other side, but detected only silence.
He was in darkness, and would have only his own energy to use if he practiced any of his white magic powers, but they seemed prudent to exercise. He turned himself invisible, then slowly opened the door in front of him.
“Who’s there? Trank, is that you?” an unrecognized voice asked.
Theus stepped through the open door into a room where a lantern on a wall and one on a desk provided the illumination for a room that was a wide, long hall with several closed doors on each side. A pair of men sat at desks at either end – one quite close to the door Theus had opened, and the other at the far end of the hall.
The man nearest to him stood, looking at the door, looking through the invisible Theus. He stepped over and pushed the door shut.
“The hinges must be loosening. We’ll have to have them tightened,” the man said as he pushed the door shut. Theus stood off to the side and examined the scene. The multiple doors could be cells where prisoners were held, and if so, Alsman was in one.
Theus moved to the center of the room, then prepared to throw his voice to the far end, where the guard with the lantern on his desk sat.
“Alsman,” He called loudly, “where are you? It’s Theus,” he called.
The guard sitting next to the spot where Theus’s voice sounded jumped up in alarm.
“What are you doing down there?” the other guard called.
“Theus?” Alsman’s voice sounded from a cell on the opposite side of the hall. “What are you doing here? Have they caught you too?”
Theus redirected his voice to come from the guard near the exit door.
“No, I’m not caught. I’ve come to help release you,” he called out.
The second guard jumped up as well. Theus felt amusement at the way he was frightening the guards, as well as some sympathy that he resolved to ignore.
“Alsman, what are you doing?” one of the guards called out angrily.
Theus closed his eyes and further focused his attention on his white magical powers. He caused his energy to produce a glowing white ball of light that began to float through the air in the dungeon.
The guard at the far end of the prison left his desk and began to edge down the hallway towards the door.
“Which of you have the keys to the cells?” Theus spoke from where he stood. “Throw them on the floor and you may leave alive.”
A clanking clash of metal on stone followed immediately, and both guards fled through the door to the stairs. Theus released his invisibility use of the energy, while leaving the ball of floating light to continue to illuminate the hallway as he retrieved the keys and stepped over to Alsman’s cell.
“I was told to come rescue you,” Theus said.
“I could kiss whoever told you to do that!” the priest said enthusiastically as he stood at the door and stared out. “How did you manage to get here?”
“The goddess provided a guide, and I used some white magic,” Theus answered as he began to slip keys in and out of the door lock, looking for the correct match to turn the locking mechanism in the door. He felt and heard a click with his fourth key, and the door opened.
“We should escape quickly,” Theus suggested as Alsman embraced him. “Those guards will bring others soon.”
The pair pelted up the stairs to the level above, and when a squad of guards came into view, Theus once again used his energy to become invisible, then wrapped his arm around Alsman’s shoulder, enveloping the priest in his protection as the approaching guards exclaimed in wonder at the disappearance of the pair. They stepped aside in a doorway while the squad passed by, then they worked their way out of the temple and into the dark evening of the city.
Theus released his white magic, glad to no longer feel the strain that providing invisibility had imposed on him.
“We’ll go to the Blue Coach and meet Eiren there,” Theus told Alsman when they were out of sight of the temple.
“Who’s that?” the priest asked. “And thank you again for saving my life.”
“Eiren and I met in a caravan. She came back with me to Greenfalls to help me carry out my duties,” Theus explained.
Theus provided a long explanation to his friend as they walked to the tavern, astonishing the priest even further with his tale, as he talked of Limber, the god and the city, and explained the metal cuffs that he wore on his arms, their edges visible as they stuck out beneath his sleeves.
“Theus! Where have you been?” Eiren demanded indignantly when the pair arrived and joined her at the table she kept. “I’ve had four men try to get friendly with me while I’ve been waiting here.” She examined Alsman curiously.
Theus introduced the pair, and they all sat down to eat and talk.
“You’re traveling with a remarkable friend,” Alsman told Eiren. “The goddess Currense has spoken about and spoken to him.”
“So has the god Limber,” Eiren responded in kind.
“Theus tried to explain to me that Limber is real?” Alsman questioned. “In our theology classes we were told that Limber had been the leader in the fight of the gods against great evil, but he had vanished from the earth, as his city and his temples had vanished.”
“He came back to life,” Theus said simply. “We have begun to re-populate his city, and to worship at his temples. He knows that great evil is alive and spreading. He is going to fight against it.
“The evil god Ind’Petro is driving the black magician Donal to lead Southsand in invasions of the other lands and cities of the world. Ind’Petro and Donal have spread their influence into other cities, even into Stoke, and Limber tells me that they will invade Great Forks soon,” Theus explained. “I’m supposed to lead an army from here to Great Forks to help fight the invasion.”
“And you are supposed to fight corruption here in Greenfalls too, right?” Eiren prodded. “I hope so,” she said, “because I’ve heard an awful lot about how much worse the corruption is getting – worse by the week.”
“It is – it must be cleansed away. I spoke out against it, and was thrown in the dark cells,” Alsman declared. “There are many people ready and waiting for a sign that they should rise up and fight.”
“What kind of sign do they need?” Eiren asked.
The man serving the food placed their plates in front of them and they paused.
“What they really need are leaders,” Alsman said thoughtfully, picking up a piece of fried meat to eat, as he looked off into the distance thoughtfully.
“I think you’re right,” Eiren agreed. “The people I talked to, they all said they would fight if there was someone worth fighting for.”
“I’m ready to fight too,” Theus added. “I’ll fight for Alsman.”
“My friends would fight for him too,” Eiren said shrewdly, studying the priest closely through slitted eyes.
“I don’t need anyone to fight for me; Theus already set me free,” the priest pointed out.
“I have something different in mind,” Eiren said. “What did I tell you once that made such an impression on you, Theus?” she asked.
“You said not to stand by, but to stand up for the right thing,” he told her.
“And getting rid of the governor is the right thing now in Greenfalls, my friends say. If we can give them Alsman as a replacement for the governor, they’ll all help in the fight,” she placed her hand on Theus’s arm on the table and squeezed it to hold his attention.
“Wait a minute,” Alsman protested. “I’m just a priest. I’m not someone who can run a government.”
“You will be a symbol,” Eiren had an answer ready as Theus listened. “I heard about a priest who was arrested for being too honest and good while I talked to people. They know about you.
“Just let Theus do his impossible tricks to put you on the governor’s throne, and you can make life better for everyone in the city,” she said.
“I’ll fight for you,” Theus agreed. “And people will trust you. You can make the corruption go a
way, and you can make the city feel like a better place for the people who live here.”
“That’s a big commitment,” Alsman remained unconvinced.
“The goddess wants this to happen,” Theus pointed out.
“That’s important, very important,” the priest conceded.
“The people of the city would be better off if they didn’t have to pay bribes or suffer extortion from the governor’s people,” Eiren pointed out. “They all tell me about how common those problems are growing to be.
“And the governor lies about everything. It’s like the truth isn’t important. He just makes things up to justify whatever he wants to do or take,” she added.
“I understand the fear and frustration in the city; we have felt it in the temple as well,” Alsman conceded.
“Then you should do this,” Eiren urged him.
“Even if I did it, even if I said I would be the leader, I’d just be a symbol. I don’t know how to run a city and assign duties and provide the leadership the city needs,” Alsman continued to resist.
“What if Eiren was your aide? She knows how to organize and plan and carry out complicated activities. She can practically run an entire caravan by herself,” Theus contributed to the conversation.
Eiren’s eyes grew large at the unexpected turn of conversation.
“She certainly is passionate, and she seems to understand the needs of the city,” Alsman agreed.
He turned to look at the girl, who altered her facial expression to stare back at him with a look of confidence.
“You could help me?” Alsman asked doubtfully. “You’re not much more than a child yourself.”
“I’m older than Theus, and look what he’s done,” Eiren answered quickly, with some warmth in her voice. “I’ve been trained and trusted to set up contracts and operations for a caravan that would pick up and drop off freight, wagons, drovers, and passengers in five cities. I can help you pick up the reins of this city and make it run right. It ran pretty well for a long time before this governor came; it’s just a matter of putting the right people and the right expectations back in control.”
Alsman seemed taken aback by the strength of the girl’s spirit. Theus bit his tongue at the use of him as a comparison; he was special, he reminded himself, endowed with skills and powers.
Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3) Page 24
