Wils appeared in the doorway carrying a large pan of steaming water. “Are you going to need any help, Bran?”
“I have Nathan, but could always use another pair of hands,” Bran replied. “If you have the stomach for it.”
Wils nodded grimly. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“I’m ready. Help Nathan move him over here.”
Bhaldavin moaned as the two men moved him to another bed. Wils tied him down again; then with quick, deft movements, he tied a piece of cord around Bhaldavin’s upper arm.
Bhaldavin cried out as the cord bit into tender swollen flesh. Pain-sharpened awareness gave him strength, and he began to struggle.
“Hold him, Wils!” Braun ordered. “Nathan, over here on my other side. You’ll have to keep him still.”
Bhaldavin turned his head and saw the knife in Bran’s hand; then suddenly Bran was Bran no longer. Kion stood there, frowning down at him.
The last thing Bhaldavin heard was his own scream as a grim-faced Kion stepped close and began cutting away at the rotten flesh that had once been Bhaldavin’s arm.
Chapter 13
NE! NE, ADDA! NO, FATHER!” BHALDAVIN SCREAMED. Theon, Gringers, and Hallon threw themselves on top of Bhaldavin as he began to thrash around, his anguished cries filling the night air.
Suddenly he arched his back and let loose with a bloodcurdling cry that reverberated in the skulls of the men who held him down. There was agony, terror, and rage in the cry, and it filled them all with dread.
Once, twice, three times that agonized scream was repeated and out from the depths of the lake it was answered. Within seconds the air was filled with the roaring of angry draak. They hissed and flailed with their heads and tails, churning through the water in their confusion, challenging anything that got in their way.
Then the high-pitched trilling notes of a draak singer rose over the din. First one voice was heard, then another as the draak singers joined forces to try to calm the great water creatures.
Hallon stood up when he saw a flash of light from the Ardenol Homeraft. An answering flash of light came from the Draper Homeraft on the other side of the inlet.
“Seevan is asking what happened,” he reported to the others. “Draper answers he doesn’t know. I think we are in for some trouble.”
Theon, who had scrambled to his feet at Bhaldavin’s first scream, stood beside Diak swearing softly to himself. Gringers was still on top of Bhaldavin, but all the fight seemed to have gone out of the Ni, who lay quietly, eyes welling tears.
Gringers sat up and saw a strange greenish glow out of the corner of one eye. “Diak!” he hissed, pointing to the crystal cradled in Bhaldavin’s hand.
Diak knelt and used a fold of his tunic to pluck the crystal from its resting place. “Bring the lantern,” he said to Theon as he headed for the cabin door. “We’ve got to make this and the box disappear.”
The return of pain-filled memories released a floodgate of tears that Bhaldavin couldn’t control; soon his body shook with his weeping. Gringers reached out and drew Bhaldavin close. This time the Ni didn’t flinch away.
“Everything will be all right, Bhaldavin,” Gringers said softly. “It’s just the crystal that made you feel this way. It affects everyone differently. I passed out completely. It put Hallon into a trance. Come on, it’s all over with now. I just wish you hadn’t touched it. What were you going to do with it, huh?”
Bhaldavin heard Gringers and tried to stop crying, but the tears, bottled up in him so long, would not be denied.
Diak and Theon returned. “He’ll make himself sick doing that,” Theon said. “Can’t you make him stop?”
“And how do I do that?” Gringers asked darkly. “Twist his arm maybe?”
Minutes passed. The voices of the draak singers could be heard across the water even though the draak had all disappeared.
Hallon stood watching the lights along the inlet. He stiffened. “Company coming!”
Three boats bumped the raft a few minutes later. Seevan, along with several other men, climbed aboard. The scowl on his face made Theon finger the knife at his belt.
“What in the name of Brogan’s draak is going on over here?” Seevan yelled, advancing on Gringers, who still sat cradling Bhaldavin in his arms.
Lil-el appeared from one of the other boats and came to kneel beside Gringers. “Bhaldavin? Bhaldavin, where are you hurt?”
“What did you do to him?” Seevan demanded.
“We did nothing to him!” Gringers answered defiantly. He glanced at Lil-el. “On my word, Lil-el, not one of us touched him.”
Lil-el stared at Gringers, the set of her lips saying that she didn’t believe him. “Let me have him!” she commanded.
Gringers frowned, but moved aside as Lil-el’s arms closed protectively around Bhaldavin. He stood and faced his uncle. “I swear! We did nothing to him!”
“Then what happened?” Seevan growled fiercely.
Gringers licked dry lips. “We were—were showing Theon the picture box. We thought Bhaldavin was outside. He wasn’t. He came to the door and—”
“And went mad when he saw those damned visions,” Seevan finished for him. “That’s what happened, isn’t it?”
Gringers cast a quick glance at Theon, then turned back to his uncle. “Well, yes, I guess so.”
Seevan held out his hand. “I want it. Now!”
Gringers frowned. “Want what?”
“You know damned well what. Go get me that box— and Diak! He and his plaything have caused all the trouble they are going to.”
“You have no right to—”
“Right?” Seevan’s voice rose. “I have every right after what happened just a short time ago. I’m responsible for our clan and for all its people, including such spine-heads as you. The other clans won’t stand idly by while you create havoc among the lake draak. If the draak singers had been a little slower to respond, there would have been great damage among the rafts, and all because you and that doddering old fool won’t let the past die! Now get him out here!”
“No.”
Seevan signaled to two of his men. Gringers stepped in front of one, but the other man slid by and headed for the cabin door. Theon took a step in the direction of the cabin, then stopped when he felt the prick of something sharp in the middle of his back.
“Stand quietly, fisherman,” Ysal crooned softly.
Seevan’s man went into the cabin and returned a few moments later. “No one in there, Seevan.”
Seevan glared at Gringers. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” Gringers replied evenly.
“Oh, you know. But I would have Brogan’s own time getting you to tell me, wouldn’t I?” Seevan snapped his fingers and pointed to two of his men. “Pick up the Ni and put him in my boat.”
“What? Where are you taking him?” Gringers cried.
“To the Homeraft! It’s plain that you can’t be trusted with him. His kind are too valuable to throw away on such as you. If I left him here another day, you would ruin him for any kind of work.”
“He belongs here!”
“He belongs where I say he belongs!”
“You have no rightful claim to him!”
“No more do you!”
Gringers looked at the men standing by his uncle and realized the stupidity of physical violence. Throwing the men off the raft would prove nothing. He faced Seevan as Ysal and another man loaded Bhaldavin into a boat. Lil-el went into the boat after Bhaldavin. She spared Gringers one venomous look, then turned to her charge.
Bhaldavin was aware of those around him, but still his tears flowed, and though he tried to be quiet, small hurting animal sounds continued to escape his lips.
Seevan signaled his men back into their boats, then turned and stepped down into his own boat. As he took his place in the stern, he left Gringers one last piece of advice.
“Get rid of Diak, Gringers; then come back to the Homeraft. This is the last time I’ll ask.”
<
br /> “And if I don’t?”
Seevan pushed the boat away from the raft and pointed it down the tunnellike exit made by the overhanging tree limbs. “Then you will be free to form your own clan, Nephew, but don’t look for help from any of the Arden Lake clans.”
Bhaldavin saw Theon and Gringers through tear-blurred eyes. They stood side by side as the boats slipped past. He tried to sit up, but hands caught his shoulders and pressed him back down.
“Relax, Bhaldavin,” Lil-el said softly. “Everything is going to be all right. You are safe now.”
Exhausted by the emotional upheaval caused by his contact with the fire stone, Bhaldavin had no strength to resist Lil-el’s voice and calming touch. He felt himself slide into darkness. His last awareness was of something soft brushing his forehead.
Bhaldavin woke to voices. He opened his eyes and saw Lil-el standing in the doorway confronting Gringers. Her arm barred his passage.
One quick glance around the room told him that he was in Nara and Di-nel’s cabin. Neither of them were present.
“… is the third time I’ve come. Isn’t he awake yet?”
“No. He isn’t,” Lil-el responded firmly.
“I must see him, Lil-el. I must!”
“Has Seevan given his permission?”
“Would I be here if he hadn’t?”
“Knowing you, yes.”
Gringers glanced away, then looked back at Lil-el. “Please, let me come in,” he pleaded softly.
Curious, Bhaldavin rolled to his side and leaned over, looking past Lil-el. He saw one of Seevan’s men standing guard at the door, which explained why Gringers didn’t try to force his way into the room.
Lil-el studied Gringers a moment, then relented. “Wait here. I’ll see if he’s awake yet.” She closed the door and crossed to Bhaldavin’s pallet. She smiled when she saw that his eyes were open.
“Welcome back,” she said. “You have a visitor. It’s Gringers, but you don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. I can send him away.”
Bhaldavin needed a moment to think it over. “How long have I been here?”
“Two days. You’ve been sleeping most of the time. How are you feeling?”
Bhaldavin leaned back against his pillow. “Empty,” he said, and it was true. He felt nothing inside, not fear, not anger, not loss. He just felt empty. The fire stone had not only taken his memories, it had purged him of all emotion. “Shall I let Gringers in?” she asked, concern in her eyes. “He says he must talk to you.”
He nodded, not caring. “I’ll talk with him.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Let him in.”
Lil-el went to the door and ushered Gringers inside, then moved to the other side of the room and began preparing a small fire in the brazier. A clay hood over the brazier carried the smoke upward through a hole in the roof.
Gringers sat down next to Bhaldavin’s pallet and laid a hand on his arm. “I came to tell you that I’m sorry, Bhaldavin, for what happened the other night.” He shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure what did happen, but I would never knowingly cause you such pain.”
Bhaldavin met Gringers’s glance and tried to revive the inner anger he had always felt when Theon, Gringers, or any man touched him, but that too was gone.
Numbed physically and emotionally, he forced his thoughts to center on the cause of his strange lethargy. “What happened to the crystal? Did I—throw it away?”
“Is that what you were trying to do?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The fire stones belong to the Ni. Men should not have them.”
“Fire stone,” Gringers repeated. “Is that the name of the green crystal in Diak’s box?”
“Yes.”
Gringers frowned. “Why should Ni have them and not men?”
“Their power can be dangerous in the wrong hands. My father once told me that one must be atuned to the fire stones in order to handle them safely.”
The frown lines on Gringers’s face softened. “It’s too bad you didn’t think about that the other night.”
“I was sure it wouldn’t hurt me. I’ve held one in my hands before. It was in a ring that belonged to my father. But this stone was different. It—hungered. It seemed to absorb my every thought and memory as if it couldn’t help itself. The pain didn’t come from touching the crystal—it came from remembering.”
He looked into Gringers’s eyes. “I didn’t throw the crystal away, then?”
“No. Diak has it. He slipped off the raft before anyone could stop him. He’ll hide out for a few days, then come back.”
“And you? I heard Seevan ask you to return to the Homeraft.”
Gringers shook his head. “I can’t. Diak and Theon could never make it alone in the swamps, and I doubt any of the other Homerafts would have them, because Theon isn’t a rafter and Diak has been named renegade.”
“And Hallon?”
Gringers hesitated. “He’s decided to accept Seevan’s offer and return to the Homeraft. It’s probably for the best.”
Lil-el approached carrying a tray with cups of hot tea. Gringers helped Bhaldavin sit up and asked Lil-el to join them.
“Thank you, I think I will,” she said.
Gringers waited until she had made herself comfortable, then caught her glance. “Has Bhaldavin told you what happened the other night?”
Lil-el shook her head. “I told you before, he’s slept most of the last two days, but perhaps you didn’t believe me.”
Gringers looked down at the cup in his hands. “Don’t be angry with me, Lil-el,” he said contritely. “I believe you—and what happened the other night was unforeseen.” He looked up, his dark eyes expressive. “You know that I wouldn’t do anything to harm Bhaldavin.”
“I’ll believe you, if you will tell me what happened.” She glanced at Bhaldavin. “Unless you would like to tell it?”
Bhaldavin’s hand was unsteady as he raised his cup to his lips. How could he explain, he thought, when he himself wasn’t sure what happened? From the moment he had touched the crystal, the present world had dissolved into a maelstrom of long-forgotten memories, and after he had disgorged all the pain he had suffered, the crystal had released him and he had cried all the tears that had been so long denied him.
“Bhaldavin?”
Lil-el’s voice brought him back to the present. He looked at Gringers. “You tell it,” he said softly.
Gringers nodded and told the story, not once straying from the truth, up to and including Bhaldavin’s theft of the crystal. He then looked at Bhaldavin. “The rest of the story is yours because, in all honesty, I don’t know why you screamed.”
“It was the crystal. It made me remember things from my past. I remembered my parents’ deaths; I remembered how I lost my arm. I even remembered some of the time I spent with Garv. The crystal woke those memories and fed upon them. It hungered for knowledge and for contact with life.”
“Hungered?” Gringers frowned. “Are you saying the crystal is somehow alive?”
“Yes, in its own way, and it craves learning and knowledge that it can’t get while you hold it prisoner in Diak’s box. Please, give it to Di-nel or Nara, or anyone of the Ni among the rafters. They’ll know what to do with it. It isn’t meant for men, Gringers. Only the Ni can be atuned to the lifeforce within the fire stones.”
Gringers traced the top of his empty cup with a finger. “We may not be atuned to it, Bhaldavin, but we have found a use for it. Without the crystal, Diak’s box won’t work.”
“To use it so is wrong. You value the crystal only as a tool. We value it for its spiritual essence and its ability to Gift the Tamorlee, parent crystal to all fire stones.”
Lil-el’s face was lighted with excitement. “You’re talking about one of the Seeker stones, aren’t you?”
Bhaldavin nodded.
“Where is it now?”
“Diak has it—and he’s gone,” Gringers answered.
&nb
sp; “Oh.” There was disappointment on Lil-el’s face. “I’ve heard my father speak about the Seeker stones, but I’ve never seen one. When will Diak return?”
“I don’t know.” Gringers abruptly changed the subject, as if uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “I understand that Di-nel is to take over Bhaldavin’s training.”
Lil-el nodded. “So I have been told.”
“Why not let you continue?”
“My father is the best draak singer on Lake Arden. He should’ve taught Bhaldavin from the beginning.”
“You don’t feel slighted?”
“No.”
Gringers studied Lil-el’s face a moment. “Now I think it’s you who are lying,” he said, smiling faintly. “You liked teaching Bhaldavin, and you would like to continue.”
Lil-el stood up. “I think it’s time you go now, before Seevan returns. You’ve had your visit.”
Gringers stood and handed her his cup. “Thank you for your hospitality. Bhaldavin, my best to you. May I come again?” he asked as he followed Lil-el to the door.
“That will depend upon Bhaldavin,” Lil-el replied primly.
“One more thing before I go. I would like to ask you not to say anything to Seevan about the fire stone. You may tell your parents if you like, but not Seevan. If he realized the value of the crystal Diak holds, he would think it his duty to appropriate it for the good of the clan.” Gringers’s eyebrows raised in question. “Will you keep it our secret?”
Lil-el considered it a moment, then nodded. “Yes, if I can tell my parents about it, and if someday I can see this picture box for myself.”
Gringers tipped his head. “Agreed.”
Chapter 14
THE RAFTS LEFT LAKE ARDEN AND MOVED UPRIVER, stringing out in a ribbonlike formation that wound around small islands of trees and upthrusting patches of waist-high grass that signaled water levels too shallow for the large rafts to pass over. Everyone old enough to use a pole helped move the rafts along. When the water became too deep for poling, boats were brought into position and the rafts were towed along until poles could be used again.
Beyond the Draak’s Teeth Page 13
