Of Wind and Waves - Chronicles of the First Age, Book One

by Nathan Quiring

  Most of Alec’s days were spent learning all the giant had to teach him about war and domination. This education was mostly through practical examples. It almost felt as if the man was intentionally solidifying Alec’s hatred and disgust.

  “These were caught deserting.” He said in a detached manner, gesturing indifferently at two young women and a man barely old enough to shave. “It appears that the one of them is the soldier’s sister. Normally we are able to break these useless familial bonds, but occasionally one completes his training defective, still weakened by affection.”

  “What will you do with them?” Alec asked, stomach beginning to turn as he contemplated the answer, forcing himself to stare at the bruised and bloodied trio as they shook with fear and hopelessness.

  “I? I will do nothing!” Gerard said in a deep chuckle that sent a barely subdued shiver down Alec’s spine. “You are in charge here. You will make an example of them. They are of no use to us now. You will strip them, humiliate them, and hang them, as is fitting for traitors to the new humanity.” So Alec gave the command, without a hint of waiver or hesitation in his voice. He could have done nothing; though he could not compromise his position in any case if he would have any chance at the madman.

  The naked, flayed bodies hung from ropes in the center of the fortress until they were bloated and rank, at which point they were discarded along with the rest of the excrement and waste, out to sea, to ‘feed the fishes’ as so many had before them. It was the only escape attempt of which Alec ever knew.

  This ‘new humanity’ was how Gerard referred to his vision of the future. In his mind, all people belonged to his society; some just didn’t know it yet. And those who refused? They were simply weak, unfit and easily discarded in the cause of progress toward Gerard’s ideal.

  It all made sense, in a distorted, psychotic way. Everything was thought of, everything had its place. Gerard was a god among men, a god who saw what he wanted and would make it reality, whether the men he was molding shared his desire or not. That was the worst part, so many of them followed willingly. The children were taught to worship him and many of them did so wholeheartedly. The women were so broken that they didn’t seem to care anymore. Alec had to act soon, before there was nothing left to do.

  He had yet to leave the fortress, though he was allowed access to the top of the wall, which provided a considerable view of the surrounding countryside. It was mostly rocky grey and swaying tan grass, though a few unique landmarks distinguished the location. A small forest, thin and stunted, approached the southern wall and ascended the mountain, and just to the north rushed a mighty river that flowed some distance west to the sea. The river was both water source and waste disposal. A few times he found Grey, blending in with the tall grass, though he was sure no one else could see him. The cat was lean, but not skinny, so he was finding enough to eat at least.

  As much as he enjoyed the freedom, it seemed only to remind him of his confinement. His life up till then had been completely free, he did as he pleased, went where he willed, and enjoyed life to the fullest. His soul anguished for that life. The only consolation was that his brother had not abandoned him; Grey still waited. Perhaps he could help, if only Alec could think of a way.

  Ria

  The black cloth was far more comfortable than that pathetic rag she had been using. It fell to her feet and trailed behind her, the long sleeves falling past her hands. Golden had mentioned food, but she had yet to see any, instead he was kneeling on the ground, playing with some dead sticks and a rock. To her complete surprise, a dull orange flame, shiny as Golden’s hair, grew from the wood as the man blew on it. The light was the same stuff she had seen men carry or sit around many times before, but she never knew where it came from. Perhaps it came from his breath, maybe that was why his hair was so bright. Then her stomach grumbled, reminding her of her priorities.

  “Golden said food. Why make that? That not food!” She said, frustrated with not being able to find the right words. She knew she was missing some but it had been so long since she’d spoken that she couldn’t remember very well. He didn’t seem to mind.

  “I know, but we need fire to cook the food.” The man’s voice was pretty. It was smooth like water, much deeper than hers, and made all the words flow together like a running stream. “Why did you call me Golden just now?”

  She blushed, realizing she had used her secret name for him out loud. “Your hair is like sunlight.” She said, thinking out the words and carefully saying them together to sound the way he did, her face heating up even more with the confession.

  He laughed his rich, clear, surprised laugh and said, “Well, thank you, I guess it is kind of like gold.” She liked it when he laughed.

  “Well,” he continued, still building the fire, “my name is Leif, but if you really want to call me Golden, that’s fine too.”

  “Leif good too.” She blurted out excitedly before she could remember all the words. They both laughed.

  The fire was big now and Leif opened up his sack again, pulling out a bundle of leather. Then he unwrapped it and the gorgeous slab of red meat made her mouth water.

  “Wait!” He said, laughing again as she tried to grab it,”we have to cook it first! Humans don’t eat raw meat like wolves do!”

  “Why not?” She asked indignantly, still hungrily eyeing the deer steak as he skewered it on a sharp stick.

  He frowned and stared at the fire for a moment. “I don’t know why.” He said finally. Then he smiled again. “I like it better that way anyway.”

  When they finished eating she spread out on the soft grass; warmed by the fire and satisfied by the meat she could almost forget she was human. She could be just back from the hunt, tired but full and snug in her naturally warm fur. She sighed. Then Leif stood, breaking the illusion, and picked up his staff.

  “I need to go back inside.”

  “What?” She asked, startled by the ridiculous notion. “No! Stay here! We go away, not back!” That place scared her, when she finally dragged his limp body out of the dark, cold walls, a great weight had lifted from her shoulders and untwisted her stomach. That was a bad place.

  “I have to.” He said, sounding somewhat apprehensive about it himself. “We need the food in father’s pack. And…” His voice became cold and distant so quickly it frightened Ria, reminding her of his face when River died. “I need to know who they were.”

  She didn’t respond. She understood that need; she had felt something similar for weeks. They had been laughing a lot, but she saw the same raw, rough look around Golden’s eyes that she knew must mirror her own. The laughter was genuine, it was necessary. They laughed because they had to; life was too serious not to enjoy the little things.

  “I want you to stay here, I’ll be back really soon... I had a special name for you too,” he said, shifting his gaze away from the unnatural metal behemoth back to her face, “my Shadow.”

  She watched him, flickering torch held high, become tiny in the quickly growing shadow of the colossus as the sun began setting in earnest. She hoped, for his sake, that he would find some fragment of peace in that darkness.

  Alec

  Of the twenty scouting parties, fourteen had returned. The influx of over two hundred soldiers to the fortress was beginning to make trouble and Alec was starting to wonder if Gerard was waiting for him to deal with it, he had been giving more responsibility to Alec recently. Then, early one morning, Alec followed the giant out onto the hall roof where a soldier began banging a thick, warped piece of metal that made a loud gonging sound. A crowd quickly formed in the large dirt clearing in front of the hall.

  When everyone had gathered together; some from the mess hall with food on plates, some still pulling on pants, others not even bothering with pants at all, Gerard began speaking. Alec had known the fortress held many people, but seeing them all there at once gave him a new respect for how massive the place truly was. The quieting throng must have been close to two thousand people.
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  “Greetings, my humble subjects.” He began; deep, melodic voice carrying to all ends of the gathering. “As you may have noticed, our kingdom has grown considerably in recent months.” Some nodding heads, some cheers from the dark clad soldiers. “In view of this, I have decided to expand our fortress. We will need more housing and more walls.” At this many groaned, though not loudly enough to be picked out. “Some of the needed materials returned with the scouting parties, but much of the wood will need to be cut fresh.” More groans. “Winter is coming. You will need to work hard to finish before the snow comes. I trust in your commitment to our cause and look forward to the rewards of our hard work.”

  Gerard made as if to leave, but then turned back. “Ah yes, and tonight, we will have some sport!” His final word was almost drowned out by the cheers and woops of the men.

  Just as Alec turned to follow Gerard back across the rooftop, he caught the eyes someone who was staring right at him from the outer edge of the crowd. It was her. His stomach turned over, thinking how horrible he must look, standing next to the monster that had ruined her life. He would have to try to catch her alone, explain what he was really doing. No, he was being foolish, it didn’t matter what she thought now, as long as he found her after he had proven his innocence by killing the madman. But what if he failed? Would she see him as a monster for the rest of her life?

  They descended the stairs and went back into the giant’s study, far back under the mountain.

  “Sir,” he began, the troubling question of his legacy was still clouding his mind, but he forced it down and thought back to what had puzzled him just before. “What do you mean by ‘sport’?”

  Just then Taylor came in. He was what Gerard called a ‘lieutenant’ which meant he was next in command under Alec.

  “My Lord.” He said, shooting the words out like lightning, “should I prepare the matches?” He darted a sharp, condescending glance toward Alec, as if to ask, “or do you want Him doing it?"

  “Yes, I think so.” Gerard responded, not shifting his heavy gaze from Alec. “My second will observe.”

  “But, wha-” Alec began before Gerard cut him with a glare, quickly shifting to a fatherly smile.

  “Do not worry mon fils, Taylor will explain it all to you.”

  With that the conversation was over and Alec was following the thin man back outside.

  The rest of the day was spent preparing for the coming entertainment. Taylor explained the details in random bursts of indifferent grunts. They first gathered a group of soldiers to construct a large ring of simple fencing, using the concave gouge in the side of the mountain Alec had helped widen as part of the enclosure. Outside this wall an odd wooden stair was raised, surrounding as much of the circle as possible, save for two small sections at either edge of the rock.

  “They’re called stands. People sit in ‘em.” Was all Taylor had to say about the matter.

  At the two edges where the wood met rock, the wall was designed to swing inward, a sort of mini gate. He gathered that the contestants were to enter at these two points and fight in the middle, everyone else watching the display from the stands. It seemed harmless enough, supposing someone was there to interfere before it got too bloody. That would probably be him.

  The next step was to create a list of contestants. Taylor, seemingly at random, selected soldiers as they passed by, telling them what fight they would be in and what weapons to bring, the men’s reactions were varied, but most seemed excited. What happened next was a bit more unexpected.

  Another lieutenant had been tasked by Gerard with organizing a work crew to begin gathering trees for the expansion, so Alec and Taylor went out to grab some of them for the competitions. Instead of returning back to the fortress, Taylor led him to another area he had never seen before. Hidden within the small forest that lay on the southern slopes of the mountain was a building similar to those within the fortress, and right next to it yawned a huge opening in the rock. As they approached, an older man with a long, grey beard and considerable gut opened the door and came out to meet them.

  “Hello there, my friends!” he bellowed in an abrasive, crackly voice, “Taylor, you boring twig, tell me who this young pup is?”

  “Alec. Our liege named him second.”

  “S’that so?” The short man rumbled, bushy eyebrows rising comically.

  “We need animals for the games tonight.” Alec could tell that Taylor despised this man even more that he did Alec, probably because the two were complete opposites.

  “Riiight, right. Well we got some new ones recently, so let’s have a look and you can just let me know which you want. I’ll have to get ‘em ready and that takes time.”

  They had begun walking toward the opening and Alec saw that it opened up a short way inside into an expansive, low ceilinged cavern. Torch light flickered off walls and innumerable cages that appeared very similar to the one he had occupied. The fat man kept talking the whole while.

  “‘Course, with the concoctions Gerar-” Taylor cleared his throat loudly. “-our liege discovered, s’much easier to handle the wild ones, puts ‘em right to sleep, like magic. The boys can even dip their arrows in the stuff and knock ‘em out just like that.” He said, snapping his meaty fingers. “We even got a big brown cat a few nights ago, fought like a devil though, took three sleeping arrows to take him down. I don’t think he’ll be ready for tonight.”

  Alec didn’t alter his stride; he didn’t even change his features. He didn’t show a single sign of the cold snap that had engulfed his heart and lungs.

  The babbling man walked them past cage after cage. Some held wolves snapping at the bars, some were empty, some held strange animals unknown to Alec. He was in a kind of trance, though, and didn’t really see anything around him, except for one larger cage toward the back of the low, square room. In it lay a sleeping form, resting on dry grass. It lifted its head and slowly opened its heavily drugged eyes and Alec saw what he had feared. The grey eyes were no longer bright with intelligence; they didn’t even seem to recognize Alec.

  “No, definitely not ready.” Taylor snapped out, his sharp voice distorting as it echoed off the rock walls. “We do need the bear though.” He finished, bringing Alec somewhat out of his stupor as he looked over where the thin man was indicating.

  “Ah, haha, so it’s goina be that kind of sport, is it?” The fat man said, chuckling and winking in a strangely sinister way. Alec was too confounded to catch the meaning, but Taylor seemed unaffected anyway, so he dismissed the odd tinge of foreboding the man’s words had instilled.

  The entire walk back was unreal for Alec. He spent the whole trip trying to figure out how to free Grey, and when they arrived back at the arena circle it took Taylor three tries to get his attention.

  “That’s it.” He said, completely expressionless. “We’re done.” Then he walked off.

  Leif

  Darkness was quickly engulfing the twisted mess of ruin, but he wouldn’t take long; he knew exactly where they lay, it was burned into his memory like a scar.

  He quickly picked his way through the rubble; broken glass and dull metal reflecting the torchlight crazily as he ran past. The square opened up like a graveyard full of dead memories, the radiation he hadn’t noticed the day before was pounding at him, and it took much of his will to resist the urge to accept the energy that surrounded him and vanish into the breeze. He still knew nothing about the change and felt sure if he shifted now he would never return.

  He quickly located his father’s pack and slung it over one shoulder and then carefully took a small trinket from his stiff hand, though he avoided looking directly at Cal’s corpse. Instead, he walked around to the first unknown body and began searching. Three bodies later he found what he had been looking for; a map. In the unsteady light of the dying torch he could make out little, but it was enough. He stowed it, along with some hard cakes he had also found, into his father’s pack and hurried back out, tripping a few times in the rapidly dimm
ing firelight.

  Something in his throat had hardened at the closeness of his father’s body. His reaction the night before had been instinctual, but with the return to the scene had come also a return of the incomprehensible knot of emotion tied around the man who had guided him all his life. With the loss came a distant grief he could only just glimpse through the chaos of everything else that was going on as well as a loss of direction. The second was strange and frightening, Cal had always known what to do, where to go, and now that fell to Leif. The new weight of responsibility for his own life was alien, but the sudden thought that he might become the same thing to Ria that Cal had been for him was overwhelming.

  He was panting when he finally made it back to the steady blaze where he had left the wolf-girl.

  “Find it?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

  “Find what?” He responded, not really paying attention. He was still recovering from the radiation barrage, among other things, and decided to focus on unpacking and sorting the contents of his father’s, no, his pack, while he tried to settle down.

  “Dunno, whatever you look for.” She said it like he had shouted at her, like she was trying to apologize. She sounded so much like a little kid that he couldn’t help but smile and feel bad at the same time.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, looking up at her bright green eyes, sparkling in the firelight, “I’m just really tired. Ya, I found it.”

  “Really!” she said, cheering up immediately. “Can I see?”

  He picked up the map and moved over to her, holding it so the fire illuminated it, revealing quite a bit of detail.

  “What’s that?” She asked, looking puzzled.