'The Ghria Duh raced through the sky. Then the dwarf found me where I fell,' concluded the Giant, bowing his head in shame.
'Cerni,' said Nikka. 'I am a Cerni. Call me dwarf one more time and I shall beat you bloody with the blunt end of that spear you call a sword.' Oinoir looked stunned by Nikka's dismissal of the Giant's physical presence.
Nikka turned to Wist ignoring the others, 'Tilden?' asked Nikka.
Wist nodded. 'I didn't pull the swing; he slipped somehow… bled away from me.' Nikka returned his nod with a grim, humourless smile. 'Tilden has Dregan. And he has Aviti.' Wist turned to look at Tyla, but the Lyrat watched Ionracas.
'An Intoli, impersonator or otherwise, walks into my camp just after the three of you appear,' said Ionracas, 'You bring all manner of magic and chaos with you.' He shook his head in exasperation.
'You must send them to Athadh, to see Durach,' said a small voice. 'Only he will know what to do.' Ionracas erupted with laughter at this idea.
'Send them to the King? Of all the council I may heed...' he began, but before he castigated Haumea further, the two guards re-entered the tent with a new figure – another Giant. This one looked as travel-worn as Oinoir. This Giant too had travelled fast and hard to get here.
'Glaine,' said the new arrival. Ionracas nodded. 'The Intoli move.'
'Where?' asked Ionracas
'north,' the Giant scout said. 'And they move swiftly. I fear that they have found a target. The Dearg Fola…'
Dearg Fola. Tilden had mentioned this, thought Wist through his clouded mind
Ionracas cut the Giant off before he could say any more. He ran his hands over his braided hair once more. 'Oinoir, I give these strangers into your care – it was remiss of me to trust them to Haumea. Deal with them as you see fit, but do not let them leave your sight. They come with us.'
Wist burned with the need to ask about the Dearg Fola that Tilden had mentioned, but he feared his tenuous control would be lost if he did, so he bided his time.
'Where are...' Nikka began to ask, but the Glaine was done with them and he dismissed them from his presence.
Before they left the Cerni turned to Haumea. 'Do not let this Glaine's title blind you to his mistreatment of you. Your kindness will not be forgotten.' Tyla surprised Wist by bowing to the Giantess. Then the Cerni and Lyrat turned in unison and walked from the tent once more, followed by Wist, and a few steps behind, by Oinoir.
Wist and his companions were marched through the town by Oinoir, Haumea and the two guards. This time they headed north. All the houses and fields they passed were empty, but as they moved further on through the town, they saw Ionracas' army. It was comprised of Giants and humans, but Giants made up the majority. Most of the displaced humans must have gone with their families. A winter in the hills would be enough of a challenge for Giants, never mind humans. And without their strongest men and women, they would have no hope at all.
Wist's fractured memories started to impinge on his conscious mind. Fragments and images of blood and loss tried to pierce his defences. He shook his head, trying to use the physical sensation to distract him from the past.
Then he heard Tyla grunt. If it had issued from anyone else, Wist would have guessed that the effort of the last few days was catching up with him or her, but Tyla was possessed with an immense physical prowess and could even call upon the land itself to help, in times of dire need. The Lyrat pressed his shoulder, and then he straightened. He never stopped walking. He hadn't even broken his stride.
They reached the encampment after half an hour of walking, but the smell of it assaulted them a long time before that. The conditions that they found were bad enough to explain why the humans had left. Oinoir found one of the more habitable tents and showed them inside. Nikka glared at him as he entered, but found the control to offer a bow as he passed the Giant. Wist and Tyla followed without a word.
-*-
The night was a restless one for Wist. Shouts and incongruous bursts of laughter woke him from his light sleep on several occasions. When he gave up on sleep, he rose to find that Nikka was absent. Away witnessing the sunrise, he presumed.
Tyla sat on his bedroll, motionless and unreachable. Wist shook off his vacuity and asked the Lyrat 'Was it Aviti? Yesterday when we were walking you were,' Wist paused for a second, 'in pain.'
Tyla nodded.
'Where is she? What has happened?'
The Lyrat considered Wist for an instant. 'She was in pain. She...' his voice trailed off.
'Tilden has her?' the Lyrat asked. Wist nodded, unable to bring himself to compound his friend's misery.
'He has lied before,' stated Tyla. Wist shrugged the assertion away. He hadn't considered that possibility. But there had been cruel honesty in Tilden's words.
Was she in pain now, Wist wondered, but he spared Tyla his question. Then Nikka returned and brought a lance of sunlight with him.
-*-
Just before noon, they were ejected from their tent and shortly after, the three comrades accompanied Oinoir and Haumea as the left the town. They crossed the hill that lay to the north of Creidas and they came upon Ionracas' massed army. Two hundred Giants stood in four groups each gathered around a central figure. Giant leaders stood apart from the gathered troops, beside a standard. Tribes perhaps thought Wist; or battalions.
Nikka's smile was as complex as it was broad. 'Quite a sight,' he said.
Tyla remained unmoved by the spectacle. He looked to the east again and Wist followed his gaze. After a series of low hills, his view was obscured by a ragged procession of broken rises. This Ghria Duh, this black sun, would appear there soon.
‘What is this Dearg Fola?’ Wist asked Oinoir now sure of his self-control, but the Giant refused to answer him. Nikka raised an eyebrow at Wist’s use of the foreign word, but did not ask what it might mean.
'Will you at least tell us where are we going to?' Wist asked Oinoir, but the Giant ignored them again. He took a look at Haumea and left them in her care. The Giantess straightened and only the curvature of her spine prevented her from reaching her full height.
'You spoke with great love of this place before, ' said Nikka as they walked. 'I would like to hear more, if it was your wish to tell.' Wist cared nothing for this land, but the formality in the dark Cerni words demanded respect.
Haumea's face lit up, but she subdued her enthusiasm a heartbeat later. 'What can I say that I have not already said? And I cannot help but feel that I have erred in bringing you here. I have brought my Glaine more worries to heap up the mountain that he already possesses. Is it not a wonder that he has not banished me already?'
'Banished?' said Nikka looking at her. 'If I were he, I would be more grateful of those who serve and seek to do nought but carry out his will.' The Cerni breathed deeply, his hand reaching to his shoulder for something that was not there. 'Aye, if I were he, I would count myself more fortunate for those that love the land and fight to save it, than those that are too quick to kill for it.' Haumea shied away from the Cerni's penetrating look.
Then the wind picked up and a light shower of rain began to fall. It coated them in fine mist. Like the first touch of winter, it made Wist shudder, so he pulled a cloak from the packs that the Giants had provided. No doubt, some poor soul left it behind in their desperate flight from the Intoli.
'So, aye,' continued Nikka, 'I would like to hear you talk of this land. I value your words more than those of the desperate ruler.'
And so Haumea began to talk, and for a while, Wist lost himself in her speech and the light smir of rain. He felt the Giantess' love for her land, the fear that the Ghria Duh engendered in her, and her uncertainty about the future. But after a while, Wist became detached himself from it. Unease slithered through his heart. He knew what mattered here. He had failed again when confronted by Tilden. But what lay at the core of his unease was the power that had begun to grow within him.
He had caused ships to sink. Perhaps like Aviti, he had tapped into the intrins
ic power of this world. But that did not ring true. When the disaster on the ships occurred, he hadn't 'opened' himself to anything.
And when he had swung that hammer, intending to kill Tilden, he had ended up shaking the earth. How had he managed to get so much power? And why couldn't he call upon it now? Where was it? Would it appear when he needed it? He hoped that he could learn to use it; hoped that he could temper this power trapped within him and put an end to Tilden.
'The Giants march,' said Tyla, interrupting Haumea. Wist saw the first of the Giants' flags make its way northwards, up over a hill through the thickening rain. A stream of figures followed and the other groups of Giants moved in a huge spiral, working their way up and out of the depression in the land. There were no war-drums to mark time, but close by, a few Giants sang. It had a mournful tune and the words flew away on the breeze at first. But then other Giants laughed and some joined in on the refrain.
Let me tell you a tale,
One to warm your soul,
Of the love that I met,
One that stole my soul,
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
I rambled a-night
In the bright moonlight
Gazing up at the stars
When I chanced upon her lair.
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
A faeiry queen,
with a figure lean
with fire in her heart
and sunshine in her hair
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
In that unholy place
I fell to my knees
and she summoned me
to join with her
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
And I lost myself
and became unclean
And she said to me
Was I ever pure?
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
As if time had stopped
She ascended with me
And danced in our souls and
we danced in our flesh.
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
Come the glowing morn
She left me there
Without a stitch on my body
Without a weight on my heart
And I'd drink to her
But I have no gold
For she stole all that as well
The song faded with peals of laughter and some applause and the Giants marched on.
Oinoir returned as the Ghria Duh rose. A few men in a rag-tag party passed them without a word. Their olive, sun-darkened skin was presumably the norm for this part of the land. Most of them were too old or too young for this march, never mind what lay at the end of it. Amongst them were a few men of fighting age, but they all had the same broken expression, as if there was nothing left to fight for, but they would rather die fighting than starve in the hills.
Tyla touched his own shoulder again as they began to walk.
-*-
Ionracas drove his troops hard - not that they complained. The Giants marched with a hypnotic rhythm. Wist watched them rotate the groups, changing those that lead with those that followed. They did so without stopping and without a wasted stride. They did not halt for a break until dusk approached.
Wist's legs ached and the damp cold ground in the tent did not help. So he rolled about on the ground and tried to find a comfortable position on his thin bedroll. Nikka's breathing was deep and unaffected. No doubt, Tyla sat somewhere close-by.
He let his mind empty and tried to find sleep, but his thoughts raced around the same cycles that had him all day. How had he let Tilden slip away? How could he help Aviti? Had Tilden told him the truth? Why would he, but why would he not?
It passed from his mind as the dark sun slid over the top of the tent. The gloom inside became impenetrable darkness and the chatter from the Giants was absorbed by the black shadow. Wist found a particular comfort in the silence; he could detach himself from the world in the nothingness. And in the heart of the darkness, a memory tried to push its way past his defences. He was too tired to repel it, too tired to force it back. But it wasn't a horrific vision or some ghoulish failure of the past come to punish him. It was a woman's face; beautiful and young. It coalesced from the shadowed corners of his mind. She brought with her peace and serenity and… and love. An overwhelming feeling of hope, joy and happiness rose up within him. It was enough to threaten his sanity.
She had been... she had been what? As he tried to seize the memory and grip it tight, a jagged line of light pulled him back to his senses. The moon hovered high overhead now, illuminating everything in the tent. Wist cursed it for destroying his peace, but try as he might; he couldn't regain the memory or recall the woman's face.
-*-
The sound of Nikka chatting to Haumea brought Wist out of his mood. For a while, he tried to tease the picture of the woman from his mind, but it was hopeless.
For the first time he could remember, Wist faced the day without dread or apprehension. Even his thirst for vengeance was subdued. The delicate touch of hope was there instead. Maybe that should have engendered fear in him, but it had been absent so long that he welcomed it.
He sat up and watched the Cerni and Giant packing their things, so he proceeded to do likewise. Tyla was gone from the tent, but he wouldn't be far. The blonde-haired Giant Oinoir bustled into the tent ready to berate them for holding him back. Once he realised that all that the only thing left to be done was to collapse the tent, he moved back outside with a disgruntled snort.
'He's not very happy is he?' said Wist, regretting his flippant tone as soon as the words were out of his lips.
'Neither would you be if your home had been destroyed and you'd been demoted to watching a few scraggly prisoners,' replied Nikka without rancour.
Haumea nodded. 'And he has lost Oinair,' continued the Giantess, 'Twin of his heart.'
Twin. Another Twin. Aviti's father's prophetic words about the twins being the key. Wist still was no closer to understanding them. He hadn't even thought of them in an age.
'Ionracas has done him a kindness by assigning him this task,' she proclaimed. 'I fear his grief may eat him alive, if he does naught but feed on its poison. At least now he may have a chance to reflect - to carve a new meaning from the bedrock of his life.'
For a moment, Wist felt like telling the Giantess about the vision, about the woman's face, but he stopped himself.
'Come on, move,' said Oinoir as the Giant reappeared through the tent, just behind Tyla. The Lyrat looked changed to Wist; drawn out or stretched. But Tyla went to Wist's bed roll and folded it before Wist could question the Lyrat. Then they all left as the Giant pulled down the tent.
-*-
The hills grew steeper and more defined as the day wore on. Each one exacted a greater toll than the last. This one presented them with a series of caves, which resembled blackened eye sockets.
'It doesn't tempt you to go in?' said Wist to Nikka.
'Aye,' said Nikka,' in the same way the Mountain tempts you to throw yourself off, just to see what it would be like. I have had my fill of caves. A day or a night is no trouble, but the eternity that I spent under the Rathou has limited my desire for moving far under the earth once more. Getting into Bohba was torture enough, and that took less than a day.' As the Cerni spoke, the paternal smile returned to his face.
'And under that sinister black sun? No, it does not tempt me.'
To Wist, the dark dwarf looked off balance as he walked. It was so at odds with the Cerni's normal appearance. On the slopes of the massive Rathou, Wist had watched with awe, and a
touch of jealousy, as Nikka had picked his way through the shale-covered slopes with ease. Now his stride was disjointed. It was as if he were bereft of his inner rhythm.
Or was it more straightforward than that? 'Your hammer,' said Wist. 'I never said sorry for what happened to it.' The dwarf paused and a look of concern furrowed his brow. 'I only took it to return it to you. I never meant to damage it.'
'I stole it as I escaped my imprisonment,' said Nikka. 'It should appal me; the lives I took with it, and others just like it; the damage I did after I swore to do no more.'
'And that is the thing with the past. The past has no power to touch the future, other than that with which you invest in it.' Then the Cerni took the pieces of the hammer's head from his pack and looked down upon them. 'Just like a weapon I suppose.' Then he laid the broken fragments of the hammer down upon the ground, removed the shaft from across his shoulder straps of his pack and offered it to Wist.
'Use it as a walking stick,' Nikka said. When Wist took it, the Cerni laughed, turned and began to walk, his stride losing its tension as he went. Nikka smiled up at Haumea whom had observed the exchange. Then Wist put the staff across his pack the same way that Nikka used to and followed them.
The next dip they came to contained a small lake and Wist was surprised that Oinoir allowed the party to halt at its side. Then he heard the main body of the army in the next rise where they must have made camp.
As soon as they stopped, Haumea tended to Oinoir. She presented him with rations and water, which the Giant took without comment. Wist saw the sharp aspect of annoyance in Nikka's eyes, but his attention was drawn to Tyla. He prowled around the lake the same way his twin had done at the oasis in Tapasya. He looked as disturbed as Faric had that evening when Enceladus appeared on the frozen lake.
Wist shuddered when he saw the Ghria Duh slip onto the surface of the lake. The breeze picked up and a chill coursed along his skin. He waited for the surface of the lake to solidify, for Enceladus, the solemn sentinel, to appear, but nothing happened. The image of the black disc was corrupted by the wind. The rain started to fall again and the spell was broken.
The Redemption of Wist Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3: The complete collection Page 38
