“Only when the body and the quintessential being are reunited. One of you must take the vessel to Almiralyn. Tell her what it contains. Tell her the Oracle Stone infused with ConDra’s Fire is within. She will know what must be done.”
Paisley folded his arms across his chest. “I can’t leave you alone, CheeTrann.”
Stee picked up the jar. “We can travel through the Intersect and be there and back before the moon rises.”
CheeTrann began to grow faint. “Go. I will guard Evolsefil.”
Paisley pressed full lips together and led the way to the Intersect entrance. At the bottom of the steps, he spoke the Key.
Stee grinned as they shot through starlit sky. When they reached the Dojanack entrance to Meos, he glanced back. The stars in the intersect had disappeared. Like a current of cold water, foreboding skimmed the surface of his emerald scales.
26
Master’s Reach
DerTah
N omed and TheLise arrived in Atkis at middle-night. They assumed their Human forms and hiked through the woods to the small church on the outskirts of the village. From there they made their way to the only inn. Their arrival caused a flurry of activity that would have resulted in the eviction of a less important guest from the best rooms had TheLise not interfered.
At her behest, the innkeeper bowed them into a shabby suite, consisting of a cramped salon and sleeping space. “How,” he asked, “could the Dreelas not send word ahead?”
Her assurance that she was not unhappy with him for the delay in finding accommodations or the rustic condition of the rooms only slightly assuaged his concern. Nomed noted the impatience beginning to creep into TheLise’s expression. With a polite smile, he ushered the man into the hall and asked a few searching questions about strangers or strange happenings in the village. When nothing was forthcoming, he slipped him a gold voreign, gave instructions for a meal and wine, and sent him scurrying down the hall.
TheLise met his return with a baleful expression.
He collapsed onto the chair next to hers. “Don’t look daggers at me, Dreelas. I told you to stay home and take care of Roween.”
The corner of her mouth twitched, but the vexation she was feeling kept it from manifesting into a smile. “I’m tired; Esán and friends aren’t anywhere in the village; and I would love a glass of good Trinugian wine.”
He looked at her with a you-poor-thing expression and relaxed back in his chair.
She bit her bottom lip. “Oh, Seyes, stop looking at me that way. You know me far too well. Did you order that ghastly man to bring food and drink?”
“Actually, I asked him rather nicely, in the hopes that he would provide us his best of each.” He moved to the door. “We shall see if it worked.”
Without waiting for the man to knock, Nomed pulled it wide. The innkeeper followed by two young men entered, one with a food laden tray, the other with a decanter of claret and two glasses.
A small table was laid and the young men bowed themselves from the room. The innkeeper hovered only long enough to ask if anything else was desired prior to slipping into the hall and shutting the door.
Nomed poured wine, inhaled its aroma, and handed TheLise a glass. “This should improve your mood, my dear.”
She sniffed, sipped, and sighed. “Divine. Who would have thought a place of this ilk would have my favorite wine?”
“There isn’t an inn in Trinuge that does not crave your patronage. I imagine the innkeeper stocked this in the unlikely event of your arrival on his doorstep.” He held up his glass. “To you, my dear.”
The food proved to be almost as good as the wine. TheLise relaxed and smiled. “Now all I need is a good night’s sleep, and I’ll be ready to go.” She studied the room. “Can you stand another night on a sofa?”
“Long years of hiding and exploring, have given me the gift of sleep almost anywhere. You take the bed. I am happy to—”
A timid knock raised his eyebrow. A young boy waited in the hall twisting the corner of his jacket and looking as though he would like to bolt.
Nomed assumed a pleasant expression. “Yes?”
“I’m here to tell the Dreelas what I saw today.”
“Come in.” TheLise bathed the boy in a radiant smile. “What is your name, young man?”
“Tymn, my lady.”
She set her glass on the table. “What is it you wish to share, Tymn?”
A frightened gaze flicked to the window. “This afternoon I saw a black dog lead Gregos Senndi into the alley. Didn’t know the dog, so I followed. He met three boys a bit older ’an me. The dog sniffed my scent so I took myself off. Later, I saw a very scary creature prowling through town.” He balled his hands in to fists and swallowed.
TheLise leaned closer. “Can you describe what you saw?”
He wiped his palms on the seat of his breeches. “Face was mostly in shadow, but it had the looked o’ them baby angels ya see in church books. When I sneaked out back to get a better look…” A shiver shook his sturdy frame.
Nomed put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s alright, Tymn. We won’t let it hurt you. Go on.”
“It sniffed the air and ran for the trees. It was big and had wings and smelled like a struck match tip. I hid fast and didn’t tell anyone until the ‘Keep’ asked for you, my lady.”
After several questions that netted little, Nomed said, almost as an afterthought, “Did it say anything?”
The boy’s eye grew round. “Yes, sir. ‘Abarax will return.’ Does that mean it will come back to Atkis.”
TheLise pressed a silver verlis into his hand. “Perhaps. If it does, hide and don’t come out until it is gone. Understood?”
Tymn nodded and shoved the verlis in his pocket. “Thank you, Dreelas. Sir.”
Nomed held the door ajar. The boy sidled through, trotted down the hallway, and clomped down the back stairs. Nomed returned to his seat and raised his eyebrow. “Astican?”
“Yes. I wonder where the Mindeco was?”
“Can’t imagine. Hiding in the woods perhaps. You know the Astican were created from the burned flesh of a Human. Did you know water is their nemesis?”
“I didn’t. And Abarax? Its or his name?”
“Most definitely its name. Astican are androgynous.” Nomed grinned. “As so often is the case, knowing the proper name gives us a small amount of power over it.”
TheLise yawned. “I can’t think.” She crossed to the tiny sleeping space off the salon and returned with a pillow and a tattered blanket. “Sleep well, Seyes. I feel sure tomorrow will be another adventure.”
Nomed made a quiet circuit of the room, locking the door and one window. Tomorrow we need to find Gregos Senndi and his brother . Tymn had told them the brothers carried cargo throughout the Sea of Trinuge. Find them, and we’ll find Esán and his friends. The Unfolding escalates. Mindeco and Astican … He shook his head. Hopefully the water will slow them down.
Plopping onto the couch, he sneezed as the dust resettled, spread the blanket over his tired body, and fell asleep almost before his head touched the lumpy pillow.
Henri lay in the quiet of Nesune Ruins listening to the sound of water and the soft snores of her companions. Corvus sat across from her, his chest rising and falling with the rhythm of his slow, even breathing. Beneath closed lids, his eyes jerked from side to side. His capture and healing had left their mark. Time to understand their impact would have to wait. His skills and the sacred knife and Remembering Stone were needed at Eissua. She doubted that he and the twins would be together in one place for much longer.
Grumbling to herself about the pains of aging, she used a bench to stabilize her ascent to standing. With a wave of her hand, the sleeping mat vanished. She smoothed her hair and looked at the twins, who even in sleep, radiated their delight at being together. Too soon, Ari would have to assume the form of Ira. They continued to be safer with her in that guise.
WoNa stirred. Tesi uncoiled its length from around her heart and slithered
to her shoulder as she sat up and stretched.
“Good morning, Henri. I hope you slept well.”
“Old bones don’t appreciate stone floors but—”
WoNa put a finger to her lips. “Wake the girls and Corvus. We have company approaching.”
Corvus shook the girls awake and hurried them to an alcove hidden behind the statues. Henri grabbed WoNa’s sleeping mat and her hand. A glance back showed her an archway forming at the far end of the walkway.
“Blank your minds.” WoNa’s message was clear. Silence but for the faint trickle of water settled over the ruins
Corvus eyed the tall, lanky man striding along the white stone walkway. In his left hand, he held a rowan walking stick, the top of which glowed. Behind him the archway shrunk to the size of a small coin and squeezed into nothing.
“You can come out, Protector of Almiralyn,” he called. “I won’t harm you or your charges.”
Corvus stepped from behind the statue Ceeconni and circumvented the HeLew od Metis.
The man smiled. “It is good to see you Corvus Karrew Castilym. You had me worried.”
“I had me worried. It is good to be in your presence, Relevart, Doyen of Time. What brings you to Nesune?”
The older man, straightened the slight stoop of his shoulders and rubbed his low back. “The time has come to raise the dead. We must be quick. The MasTer amasses his Mocendi from throughout the Inner Universe. It will take the combined powers of many to blunt their attack.”
Henri and WoNa joined them. Ari and Brie held back, arms linked and identical faces questioning.
Relevart greeted the women with a charming smile. “Miss Henrietta, WoNadahem Mardree, the gift of you both in the same place is breathtaking.”
Henri, placed her spectacles on her nose and looked him up and down. A laugh glinted in her magnified eyes. “It is a delight to be in the presence of the VarTerel.”
WoNa offered her hand. “Thank goodness you have come.”
He squeezed it and turned his attention to the twins.
“Come here, young ladies, and let me get a better look at you.”
Ari, hands on her hips, stared up at him. “You’re Wolloh’s teacher. I’ve wanted to meet you.”
“You’re Ari, and I’m very happy to meet you. Hello, Brielle.” His eyes gleamed. “Wolloh told me he had awakened your talents. They grow stronger. Do you notice anything different?”
Longing crept into Brie’s expression. “I feel as though every cell in my body is changing to accommodate a person I don’t know. Sometimes I’m so clear it leaves me breathless, others I am dazed and…” She bit her lip. “I know I can do things, but I’m afraid to try for fear I won’t have the understanding to control the power.”
Relevart placed a hand on her shoulder. “Patience, my dear. You are wise to move with caution. Your instincts are good. Let them guide you. Now, we must be gone from here. Join me in a circle.”
Corvus stepped in between the twins. A picture flashed in his mind. The next instant they stood in the deep caverns of Eissua Oasis. Oil lamps placed around the space caught their shadows and tossed them up the walls. At the center, so close to death that it seemed to enshroud him, Wolloh reclined on a cot. A kcalo the color of the moon Calegri draped his still body. His blue-gray face showed no signs of life.
WoNa knelt by his head and rested a hand on his heart. Her startling eyes lifted to Relevart’s face. He knelt opposite and placed a hand over hers.
“We are in time, WoNa, but we must work faster than either you or I would like.” He became all business. “Brielle, at his head with the Stone of Remembering. Ari, please give Efillaeh to Corvus. His bloodline combined with the magic of Raven makes him the only one who can safely wield it.”
Ari handed it hilt first and seemed at a loss.
Relevart smiled. “Your personal power is strong, young woman. Kneel at Wolloh’s feet. Twin energy will balance his field as we work. Corvus, opposite Henrietta. Ari, hold his ankles. Brie place the stone upon his brow. Corvus, your role is clear. Begin.”
In the far distance, thunder rumbled. Flashes of purple light jumped from the knife to the reclining man. His back arched. His mouth rounded, emitting a deep gurgling groan. He hit the cot with a resounding smack. Corvus touched Efillaeh’s tip to his forehead just below the Remembering Stone and drew it downward, outlining his aristocratic nose, the distorted curve of his mouth, his chin and neck. He traced a line from his breast bone and heart to his navel. Without lifting the tip of the knife, he continued its journey over the abdomen down the length of Wolloh’s right leg, tapped the sole of his foot, transferred the knife to his left hand, tapped the left foot, and traced the leg to just below his navel.
The memory of Torgin kneeling beside Yaro, this same knife clutched in his hand, formed and dissolved. Corvus knelt and placed the tip of the knife between the two ribs.
“Efillaeh, the sacred blade,
Pierce into the hidden glade
Of time, no time, of in between
Repair the life behind the screen.
Open veins and open heart
Open mind and all restart
Refill the shell that has been hollow
Return to life this man called Wolloh.”
With the final word, he drove the knife into the High DiMensioner’s heart.
Time as Wolloh Espyro understood it ceased the moment Relevart touched his forehead and ushered him to this place. Constant twilight wrapped the world in which he wandered, a sole occupant stranded between now and then—life and death. In rare moments, he thought he sensed the presence of another. So fleeting were they that he filed them away in a mental folder labeled imagination, a folder packed with odd things like color and sound and taste and touch.
Concrete thought in this dimension felt like a diaphanous piece of silk tumbling in the wind. He would have found it almost impossible and immeasurably exhausting to describe the endless terrain through which he roamed. He stopped his treadmill pacing and gazed ahead. A vague memory took shape. Wolloh the Wanderer. Have I always prowled the inner expanses of my psyche? An irrevocable aspect of who he had once been whispered, “Not so.”
The endless, silent trek continued—passing no time, arriving no place, losing more and more of himself with each step. One small spot in his heart refused to give in, refused to let go of the final threads that held him to time. So absorbed had he become in holding them firmly in hand, he almost missed the subtle changes occurring around him: cobalt blue creeping into his mind, purple washing over the surface of his skin, a tingling sensation trembling through his limbs. Again, he stopped.
Pressure on his brow opened a spigot of memories that poured into his mind with such force he fell to the ground, rolled onto his back, and immersed himself in each and every one—his mother’s gentle face, his father’s sadness when he, Laurent Davead Zuill DeLongeer, was banned from Roahymn, his escape on the planet of Persow, Stebben, Shu Chenaro, his mentor and training, and WoNa—memories of a lifetime encapsulated in an instant.
The vague and far off sound of chanting enlivened his belief that he had not ceased to be. A name filtered by distance floated through the expanse of in-between. Pain sliced through his heart. Pain beyond anything he had ever experienced opened veins and arteries, pounded through his body, and ended with his first deep, lung expanding breath since Relevart’s touch.
Lead-heavy lids fought his need to see. When at last he won the battle, tears flowed down his cheeks. She knelt beside him, her lovely face too thin from worry, her exquisite blind eyes overflowing with love. Slender fingers cradled his crippled hand.
Words refused to form. She touched his lips and whispered, “Rest. We will be here when you wake.”
Relevart laid a hand on his forehead. “Sleep, Wolloh.”
His gaze trailed from the VarTerel to the group at his feet. Red-haired twins, one on either side of Corvus, watched him with expectant smiles. He let his eyelids win. With a sigh, he slipped into a
gentle, dreamless sleep.
Esán stood on Melback’s deck beside Tamosh, inhaling sea air and grinning. This is where I belong. He almost laughed out loud from the sheer joy of water and moonlight and the cool wind ruffling his short hair. The first glimpse of the sea had left him speechless. His heart still sang with the delight of it. A yearning rooted deep and long hidden burst open like a blossoming rose. He had spent his life land-locked. Never had he expected to feel this level of love, wonder, and fascination for the sea.
He leaned on the aft railing and watched moonlight dance in the sailboat’s wake. Atkis had long since passed from sight below the horizon. The boat skimmed Eschems Strait toward an anchorage on the far side of Bockettle Island. Tamosh told him they would spend at least a turning there, resting and training for the next leg.
He returned to the helm. Tamosh smiled down at him. “You look as though you have come home.”
“I feel like the sea is part of me. I don’t know why. I was raised in a mountain village on Thera.”
Tamosh shot him an interested look. “You don’t feel Theran to me.”
Esán stared up at the moons and wondered where in the vastness of the Inner Universe his true home was. “My father and mother are from Tao Spirian, but I have never been there.” The wind sprinkled the words over the sea.
“Ahhhhh. Now that would explain it. You have the sea in your veins. Tao Spirian is a world composed mostly of water. Myriads of islands cover its surface. The population is small and growing smaller. It is said that a man bearing dual Seeds of Carsilem will save the planet and its folk.”
Esán’s heartbeat quickened. “How do you know so much about Tao Spirian?”
“I love to learn. I spent the greater part of my life traveling from one library to another, here and abroad. Gregos thinks I am addled, but…” He shrugged. “I met a man in the library in TiCeed in the province of Geran who suggested I read up on Tao Spirian.”
The UnFolding Collection Three Page 28
