by H. M. Clarke
‘She is our Cearc. She deserves respect. And she should not be hounded by people who know nothing about her and what she has done for her people.’
Hauga’s voice could be heard by anyone with Talent and Dearen caught a glimpse in the sky above them of Adhamh and Trar pulling an abrupt turn and returning back to them.
Though Tayme could not hear Hauga’s words, he must have guessed the meaning behind Hauga’s stance.
“I’ve known Kalena for longer than you have furball and I know exactly what she has given to defend her friends and family.” As he spoke, Tayme moved in closer to Hauga.
Hauga took a step closer to him at the same time, the hackles on his neck raised and bristling.
Tayme straightened and held his hands out, ready to attack.
The sight of the two would look comical if not for its seriousness, Dearen thought as she noted that Tayme’s head barely came up to Hauga’s shoulders.
‘The Cearc deserves respect no matter how well you know her. And Dearen has told you that she has only known you for a few days. Stop trying to force her to be who you want her to be.’
Dearen felt her emotions tremble at Hauga’s words. She now realized just how much anxiety and fear he had been hiding from her about losing her to her past. She raised a hand and placed it gently on his back.
‘Hauga...’
The Dymarki did not move, but she felt the muscles in his back relax slightly.
At that moment Adhamh and Trar landed on the path beside them and the black Hatar moved to push his head quickly between Tayme and Hauga.
‘Trar, tell Kral this,’ Dearen overheard Adhamh say quickly before either person could react.
‘Leave it be, no good will come of this if you and Hauga fight this out. And you shouldn’t be fighting at all. The fact is that Hauga is right. Kalena does not remember us and because of that has no reason to trust us. Actions like this do not help our cause.’
Tayme glared at Adhamh as Trar finished talking before giving him a nod.
“You’re right as always Adhamh. I think it best I ride with Trar for the rest of the day.”
‘I think that’s best Kral.’ Adhamh replied.
The Flyer quickly turned on his heel and stalked over to Trar who lowered herself to the ground to let him climb into the saddle.
Adhamh turned his flashing blue eye back to Hauga.
‘Let me talk to Kral Tayme. You have to understand that this is hard for him and myself. He also cannot hear you and therefore cannot understand your own pain.’
The Dymarki slowly relaxed his stance and the raised hackles on his neck disappeared.
‘Yes Adhamh, but if he tries to push her again I will not be more lenient.’
‘I understand Hauga. Kalena is my wingmate and she and Kral are, were, best friends. You need to give him some leeway.’
‘What leeway he had owing was given to him today. Talk to him if you must, but he must not upset the Cearc.’
Adhamh nodded to the Dymarki and then moved away towards Trar. Once the two Hatar had enough clearance, they both leapt up into the air and disappeared into the trees to reach the sky.
CHAPTER NINE
“ADHAMH, WHY DID YOU interfere? I might have made her remember.”
Adhamh turned a sapphire eye on Trar and Tayme as they flew together. He felt Trar open her mind and Adhamh used it to talk to her rider.
‘Forcing her to remember is not the way to go Kral. You run the risk of your aggressive tactics backfiring on you.’
“I was not aggressive. Any confrontation was started by the Ice Tiger.”
Adhamh snorted.
‘That Ice Tiger was defending his Cearc.’
“That Ice Tiger was butting in on a conversation that did not concern him.”
‘Did you not hear me, Kral?’
“What? That the Ice Tiger was just defending Kalena? What is a Cearc anyway?”
‘Now you are starting to ask the right questions. The Cearc is the leader of the Dymarki – The Ice Tigers.’
“The leader...Kalena is the leader?”
‘Not just a leader Kral. Hauga called her the Cearc. The Cearc Kral, if my memory serves me correctly from my hatchling history lessons, is the leader of the Dymarki. She is their Queen.’
“Their Queen? Are you having a joke with me Adhamh?”
‘Adhamh does not do jokes Kral,’ Trar interjected before Adhamh could reply.
“So. You’re telling me that somehow Kalena has managed to make herself Queen of the Dymarki in the few months she’s been away?”
‘Yes.’
“Then, why is she traveling without a bigger retinue? Why does she only have one warrior with her? The Emperor doesn’t go anywhere without at least a hundred warriors protecting him.”
‘That I cannot tell you, Kral. The Dymarki are not humans or Hatar’le’margarten. Their culture is a little different to yours and mine.’
“Well, if she is who you say she is, then that gives us even more reason to try and have her remember who she was. Having an Alliance with the Ice Tigers will end this war footing that the Empire is on because of them.”
‘Maybe.’
“And speaking of Kalena’s memory, why aren’t you trying to have her remember you? Her not being able to remember you must hurt.”
Adhamh took a moment to reply. A moment to sort his emotions into coherent layers. A moment to determine how best to tell Kral what he had discovered.
‘It does hurt. More than you could ever know or imagine. But pushing her with Talent at this moment would be more dangerous than you know. She has some sort of psychic barrier built around that part of her mind, locking all her memories in.’
“A barrier? What do you mean?”
‘Just as I said. There is a barrier placed around her memories that is stopping them from being accessed. There is a lot of skill involved with creating them and unless you know what you are doing, there is a lot of danger in using them as well.’
“So, the Ice Tigers have placed a block over her mind to stop her remembering who she is.”
‘I don’t think that the Dymarki did this Kral. In fact, the build of the block looks a lot like Pydarki training to me.’
“Pydarki? The Pydarki wouldn’t do anything like this Adhamh. You have to be mistaken.”
‘Maybe I am. But to me, the work still looks like it was Pydarki craftsmanship.’
“And is this why Kalena can’t remember anything about her past?”
‘Yes. Unless the block is broken or brought down, she will not remember anything.’
“We need to find out who, or what, placed this block and then get them to take it down.”
‘Yes. And aggravating the Dymarki will not help us. They were the ones with Kalena when she woke. They may well be able to tell us in whose care she was in before them. But they will not want to talk to us about it if you keep on being belligerent.’
“I see your point now Adhamh. Hauga might be able to tell us what happened to Kalena before she woke up.”
Adhamh nodded and then swung his head to look down towards the column of men wending its way along the mountain path through the spares mountain trees.
“What’s the matter?” Tayme asked as Trar’s attention was caught by something at ground level as well.
‘There is something happening down below. There is a commotion at the head of the line,’ Trar reported.
“Are they being attacked?” Before the words even left his mouth Tayme knew that couldn’t be it otherwise the Hatar would already be winging their way back to help.
‘No. Someone has just approached the head of the column. And they are being taken back. Probably to the lieutenant.’
“I have to get down there.”
‘You go back down. I’ll stay up here and keep an eye out to see if any more strangers turn up,’ Adhamh said quickly before banking away to the right in a steady turn.
He then turned into a spiral that brought him in closer to the t
ree tops and to the group of men below. Trar and Tayme landed in a small clearing not far off from the path and Adhamh watched Tayme leap from Trar’s saddle and rush over to where the newcomer was being taken.
Adhamh glided slowly over the column, saw Hauga and Kalena join the Lieutenant and some of the other men to wait for the new arrival. His sapphire eyes travelled further along the column and spotted the small group back along the line of men.
In their midst was a figure dressed in white suede with long plaited hair decorated with bells and trinkets. A Pydarki. As Adhamh looked closer he recognized a man that he had not seen in a long time.
It was Asnar.
CHAPTER TEN
ADHAMH LANDED NEXT to Trar at the back of the group. Kral Tayme was still near and Adhamh had Trar call him back to them.
‘You need to stay here with us Kral,’ he had Trar relay as Tayme came into sight walking back towards them.
“Stay? Why?” How can we know what is happening from way back here?” Kral stopped next to Trar and insolently leaned back against her chest while reaching back to scratch her shoulder.
‘I saw who had just arrived and I recognized him. It was the Pydarki, Asnar.’
“Asnar? Who is Asnar?”
Adhamh tried not to sigh. At least not so Kral could hear it.
‘Asnar was one of the Pydarki Mystics that placed the Krytal Crystals in myself and Kalena. He was also the Pydarki we rescued from Captain Jerant’s clutches. You remember? The Pydarki who fell asleep most of the way back to Darkon.”
“Ah, yes, I remember him now. But what is he doing here?”
‘We are on Pydarki lands, Kral.’
“And the Pydarki territories are part of the Suene Empire. We have a right to travel through here.”
‘That is true. What you should be asking is what is a Pydarki Mystic Master doing out here in the Wilderness.’
That grabbed Kral’s attention. Adhamh raised his head as far as his neck would allow looking over the men to what was happening at the front of the column. He could see Lieutenant Peana along with Kalena and Hauga standing at the head of the rear group with Asnar walking up towards them.
To Adhamh, the Pydarki looked surprised at seeing Kalena among the Suenese. The man quickly masked the emotion, though Adhamh still saw it.
The Pydarki came forward and gave Hauga a welcoming pat on the arm and then drew Kalena into a fierce hug. This made Adhamh’s uneasiness grow. To his knowledge, the two had met briefly before, but to be on such friendly terms they must have met again after Kalena went missing. They had not seen the Pydarki since rescuing him and the fact that they now seemed to be so familiar with each other bought worrisome ideas into Adhamh’s mind.
Asnar then turned and dropped into conversation with Peana.
It was then that Adhamh felt a touch on his mind. It was not the Pydarki but something more familiar, and his Krytal Crystal began to hum in response.
Kalena’s Krytal Crystal was trying to reconnect with his. Something had happened to bring it out of the influence of the memory mind block. Something was still impeding it from connecting though, something was still holding it back. It was like a dog on a leash trying to jump for a bone that was just out of its reach.
“We need to go and talk to him. He may know where Captain Vosloo is or if he’s been sighted at all in Pydarki territory. He might also be able to help Kalena get rid of that mind block and get her memories back.”
‘No Kral. Let the man come to us. How he does it will tell us everything we need to know about whether the Pydarki were involved in shooting me down and taking Kalena.’ Adhamh replied by way of Trar.
“What do you mean?” Tayme asked as he pushed himself away from Trar’s chest and stepped forward between them.
‘I just witnessed something that makes me think that Asnar is more involved in what happened to me than just finding us here. And I don’t like what I’ve just seen. I recommend that we do not put our trust in this man until we know more.’
As Adhamh spoke to Tayme, he kept his eyes on the Pydarki newcomer. The man did not take his eyes from the Hatar as he spoke to the lieutenant.
“You really think that the Pydarki has something to do with knocking you and Kalena from the sky? But they are Suenese? They are on our side.”
‘They may be on our side, but that will not stop them doing things for their own end. Look at Jerant. Look at the Justicars. They are supposedly on our side, yet they are either working for their own ends against the States Interest or working against the emperor to mould the State into what they think it should be.’
“But the Pydarki...They are the guardians of the Krytal Crystals. They monitor the health of the land.”
‘That does not mean that a Pydarki splinter group might be working for their own interests. Anyway, this is all speculation until we get some proof either way.’
“But you just have a feeling...Generally, your feelings come out on the side of truth.”
Adhamh said nothing in reply.
‘Do you really think the Pydarki used the mind bolt on you Adhamh?’ Trar’s voice popped quietly into the conversation.
‘It’s a possibility. The block on Kalena’s mind does have the look and feel of Pydarki craftsmanship. But that may be coincidental.’
Trar directed her gaze to the head of the group and watched the men talk. Adhamh noted that Kalena and Hauga stood off to one side. On the edge of his mind, Adhamh could feel the whisperings of Kalena and Hauga’s talk. He could not hear it but could tell from the emotional feel of it that it was a heated discussion. Hauga did not seem to be happy.
Kalena then stepped forward and spoke briefly to Asnar and then pointed to the back of the group towards them. Adhamh watched as Asnar’s eyes followed Kalena’s finger and widen at the sight of the two Hatar staring back at him. Asnar then gave Kalena a few curt words and then stormed towards them.
‘He’s coming,’ Adhamh heard Trar tell Tayme. ‘And he does not look happy.’
Adhamh remained on his feet instead of crouching down and he noted that Trar followed suit. He had a gut feeling that he did not want to talk to Asnar on his level.
‘Tayme, you need to handle this, just relay what we tell you. This does not look good.’
“Will do Wing Commander.”
“What business do the Suenese have on Pydarki lands?” Asnar shouted as he came up to Tayme, but his eyes stayed focused on Adhamh. Kalena and Hauga were close behind him but halted a good two feet away from the Pydarki.
Tayme took a step forward and suddenly transformed himself into a congenial and seemingly naïve man.
“Surely the Lieutenant would have told you that. But if you might have misheard him I will tell you. We are here looking for our missing Wing Commander, Kalena, who is now standing behind you. And Lieutenant Peana is searching for his missing Captain, who might be on his way to Daegourouf.”
Asnar’s face looked to be carved from stone but Adhamh’s astute vision could see the slight muscle tick that started just below his left eye.
“You have found her. Now you can go,” the Pydarki said with a hard edge to his voice.
“Asnar!” Kalena’s voice held a warning but the Pydarki ignored it. Adhamh heard something else in her voice. A hint of a feeling betrayed.
Then a realization hit Adhamh. Asnar had just accidently admitted that he had known who she was and had not told Kalena.
“Yes. We have found her,” Tayme continued as if Kalena had not spoken. “And we plan on convincing her to come back with us.”
“Your Kalena is now Cearc of the Dymarki. A ruler in her own right. You cannot take her back to Suenese servitude.”
“Cearc? That’s the second time I’ve heard that title today.”
‘Kral, don’t play the idiot,’ Adhamh heard Trar say.
“The Cearc is the Dymarki leader, and she is needed here to help force the Arranians and the Suenese out from Pydarki and Dymarki lands. She stays.”
“I go
where I please Asnar, I am not under your control and I am not under Kral Tayme’s control.” Kalena’s outburst drew all eyes onto her with Hauga towering menacingly beside her.
Adhamh’s gaze moved quickly back to Asnar and the Hatar saw the quick look of desperation pass across his face before it solidified again into its stony countenance.
“I did not say you were under my control Dearen.”
“According to you and my new friends, my name should be Kalena, not Dearen.”
The pain in her voice struck a sore nerve in Adhamh and he could feel the anger and betrayal grow quickly within him. He now knew for certain that if Asnar did not throw that mind bolt, that he knew who did.
Adhamh took a step forward and made his mind voice open to any who could hear it.
‘I demand to have our case heard before the High Council of the Pydarki in Daegourouf. We have the right to pass through Suenese held territory and we have the right to stay with our friends. Kalena is our friend and she has not sent us away as yet. You, Asnar, do not have the authority to tell members of the Suenese Defense Force to leave anywhere. And you do not have the authority to drag the Dymarki into helping the Pydarki to defend their territory. That is the Cearc’s prerogative and she will want to discuss it with the Dymarki Elders before making a decision either way.’
Adhamh turned his gaze back to Kalena and Hauga and saw by their stance that they agreed with him.
‘If you want the Dymarki to fight for this land, then the Pydarki should fight with them.’
‘He’s got a point Dearen.’ Adhamh heard Hauga say. ‘Asnar has so far avoided this question whenever it has been asked.’
“Yes he has Hauga,” Kalena replied aloud. She turned grey eyes now turned the color of flint on the Pydarki.
“I think we do all need to go to Daegourouf once I have rejoined my people and talked to the Council of Elders. If they agree, we will form a small delegation and then we go to meet the Pydarki High Council to present our case for mutual defense. The Suenese can come with us if they wish to present their case as well.”
