by Lawrence, J.
“Irkhir, find the Caller and bring him back. We need another dra.”
A spatter of blood trickled down one side of Irkhir’s face as he glanced back at Patr, who already knew the task would fall to him. Of course it would be him. The man grew up in the wilds. He was an uncanny tracker, able to read more from a blade of grass than most men could from a book.
“Take Garan and Keriim with you,” Irkhir instructed Patr, who nodded approvingly at the two men beside him, “and take three more men of your choice.”
“We’ll find him.” Patr said, sounding as though he already had Thaniel in his pocket.
Garan and Keriim stepped forward, joining Patr. The three of them knelt before her. They intoned in unison.
“Mistress.”
“Let me explain how important this is. If you don’t find him, find some widow’s breath and drink it yourself.” She wiped the dagger clean and received three quick shakes of their heads for answers. “Good, why are you still standing here?”
Properly motivated, they were eager to please. Even Keriim, the grimmest bastard she’d ever laid eyes on turned to go with a snap of muscle. She had sliced him across the forehead just before the first offering. The man had actually smiled at the sight of the child being brought out for sacrifice. Now here he was all business.
Luckily, she had decided to just wound him and not kill one of Irkhir’s best trackers.
Chapter 32
Monster Tears
“It needs pepper.” Harkanin shook a piece of meat at the old man called Lars Telazno.
“He always says that.” Jorel smirked at Gabril.
Gabril sat near the door. Lars Telazno called the man his protector. He obviously was some kind of soldier, although he dressed more like a woodsman, in browns and greens, than the soldiers Thaniel was accustomed to. Yet, there was no mistaking the two swords he carried. Both of the gleaming blades were propped up beside him as he ate hungrily. Thaniel would never forget how relieved he was when Gabril’s huge black horse thundered in and killed a few wolves right off in a flurry of vicious hoof strikes. Yet it was nothing compared to the whirlwind of steel Gabril set loose in their midst with those swords. When the man was done there were steaming pieces of wolves everywhere. Even in the flickering torchlight it was easy to see that the forest floor around the wagon was red with blood.
If they hadn’t come when they did Thaniel knew he would have been in the belly of the pack right now instead of sitting next to Elycia in a nice warm keep. But the sight of those two swords covered in gore gave him enough pause to be too comfortable around them, even if they were all cleaned up now and shining like a piece of noble’s dinner silver. Suddenly Thaniel noticed Gabril smiling at him. Gabril must think him an ogling idiot, staring at the weapons like it was the first time he’d seen a couple swords. He felt his face flush.
“Pepper? Really?” The old man rubbed at his chin. “I wonder…”
“Nonsense. It’s delicious Lord Telazno.” Elycia closed her eyes as she savored another spoonful. “What is that spice again?”
Thaniel was mesmerized by how her eyes lit up with every bite. He nearly giggled when she scooted closer to him on the bench, their legs just barely touching. The warmth of her shot through Thaniel like a ray of sunshine.
“Mustard. And it isn’t Lord Telazno. It’s Lars.”
“Sorry, Lord Lars.”
“Just, Lars.” He insisted.
“But, I thought…” Elycia glanced at Gabril seated across from them.
“Gabril isn’t my servant. He is my friend.”
“That’s a matter of opinion.” Gabril smiled as he sliced off a piece of meat and pointed the dagger blade at Lars playfully.
“Friends like him, I pity your enemies.” Harkanin nodded at his meat appreciatively. He was already sprinkling pepper all over it.
“I don’t.” Gabril chuckled. The sight of the man smiling and laughing like any other normal human being was a little unsettling. Gabril had danced through a pack of timber wolves like he was playing Foxes and Hens. “They taste great.” He glanced at Harkanin. “Do you mind?”
Samial Harkanin smiled from one side of his face to the other as he sprinkled a hefty amount of pepper across the leg Gabril was gnawing on. Gabril grinned at Lars and nodded.
“Really? Now don’t hold out on an old man.”
“I never thought I would like the taste of wolf meat.” Jorel smacked his lips.
“I’d rather be eating them than… well the other way around.” Thaniel swallowed at the thought of how close he had come. Those teeth had been inches away. How the wolf had gotten itself killed right before it ripped his throat was a complete mystery. He wondered if one of the oxen might have kicked it. Whatever happened, it was pretty timely. Another instant and…
Unfinished. The word echoed through his head.
Lars Telazno nodded affirmatively toward Harkanin as he took another bite.
“So, what brings you up the pass all alone?” Harkanin asked casually.
“I think, him.” Lars Telazno pointed in Thaniel’s direction.
Thaniel twisted around as if there was someone else he must be talking about. The old man just smiled and nodded still savoring the pepper and mustard covered meat. Conversation vanished. Only the sound of fire crackling the wolf flesh could be heard in the small quarters of the stone keep.
“Me?” Thaniel’s voice cracked.
“We have come a long way.” Lars Telazno stood. “You must come with us.”
In the background something about Gabril shifted. He hadn’t moved a muscle but danger seemed to emanate from the man like heat from the hearth. At least those two longswords were still propped up against the wall, although Thaniel didn’t have any doubt the man probably didn’t need them for the likes of the four of them. A fat old trader, two messengers, and a girl.
“Thank you for saving me and all, but I don’t have any business with you.” Thaniel spoke slowly, pronouncing every word while the hackles started creeping up his neck.
“He’s just a boy.” Samial Harkanin said, glaring at Lars Telazno.
“It is easier to show you.” Lars Telazno fished in his robes and produced a small bag. His commanding gaze never wavered, holding Thaniel’s eyes by their power alone. There was something both hard and soft about the man. A mix of raptor like intensity and the reassuring manner of an old uncle. A much older and wiser uncle. One that definitely should be listened to, and obeyed.
Thaniel looked down between his feet at the stones the old man had tossed and giggled. He was about to tell this Lars Telazno he wasn’t going to be going anywhere with him when he heard a sound. A familiar keening pierced the near silence. It was coming from one of the rocks. A small blue one.
“Show us what?” Jorel bit off a chunk from a wolf rib, juices flowing down his chin. “Smooth rocks?”
“What is that?” Thaniel pointed to the small blue stone.
“Rocks you idiot!” Jorel laughed.
“What is what, Thaniel?” Lars Telazno sat back on the bench, a perplexed look on his face as he dug into a tobacco pouch. The man fingered out a tiny pinch of tobacco and stared into the bowl. He frowned. Then he carefully tapped whatever was left in the pouch into the bowl, not spilling even the tiniest bit of leaf. Seeming to forget everything else around him he lit the long stemmed pipe with exaggerated pulls. Thaniel stirred. He sensed the old man doing something else at the same time. He couldn’t tell what or even how he knew. Only that he was.
Thaniel flinched in astonishment as the sound coming from that stone exploded. Thaniel clutched at his ears, nearly falling off the bench. If he could stick his head inside a thousand bells at once, and each of them was the size of one of the guard towers of Ontar Hold, while men ten times the size of Gabril’s horse bore down on them with blacksmith hammers, it would not be as loud as the piercing wail coming from that little stone. The sound wasn’t just bothering him. It swallowed his head. It was beyond deafening. The screech env
eloped him so fully Thaniel thought he could hear it with his toes. It felt like it was ripping his head apart.
Thaniel was filled with need as everything faded away around him. The world consisted of him and the stone. It had to stop. He had to make it stop. Thaniel slid off the bench and clutched at the small blue rock with shaking hands.
The instant he did the sound ceased.
The little blue stone burst into azure life. Dread flooded his soul as he recognized the dazzling cerulean glow.
Then, just as the chamber had done, the space inside the small ramshackle keep ignited into swirls of blue. They danced around him in never ending motion.
Thaniel’s breath caught at the sight.
He laughed uncontrollably as tiny wisps of air curled around his fingers. He had tried so hard not to think of what else happened in that chamber that he forgot how good it felt. Like a part of him came alive for the first time. Thaniel wanted to see the wind race like it had before. Swirls of current launched forward at his urging. He watched them blast through the door when…
Heavy ropes of blue lightning encircled him in blinding speed, cinching his arms to his sides. The airy ropes dragged him flat on the ground.
Then everything just winked away.
It was all gone.
The sense of loss that filled the space was palpable. Thaniel sucked in air in gasps as Lars Telazno, pipe still clenched in his teeth, straddled over him. He had the small blue stone in his hand.
“If you can’t learn some control, you are going to live to regret it.” The old man blew blasts of bluish smoke from his pipe. The old uncle was gone, leaving only the raptor in its place.
“Never seen anything like that before.” Samial Harkanin slammed the door shut laughing. “Damn wind blew the fire out!” He paused to point at Thaniel. “Frightened him so bad he fell right off his seat!”
“One.. second…he is… then… he…” Jorel grabbed his gut. He was laughing so hard he was tearing up.
“They don’t see what you do.” Lars Telazno explained. “They can’t sense or see the Jen’Ghon in any way. They aren’t inborn. All they saw was the door fly open, you fall down, and the fire blow out, and of course, you screaming like a child.”
“Thaniel, how many of you were in Ontar Hold, the last time you wielded the Jen’Ghon?”
“Jen who?”
“Drop the act boy.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lars Telazno’s eyebrows dropped and he studied him for one of the longest moments of Thaniel’s life, taking short puffs on his pipe. When the old man finally grunted in a self assured way there was a ring of smoke in the air above his head.
“Pay attention.” Lars Telazno raised his hand and opened his palm, revealing swirling blue air. The air separated into strands and tied into a hovering knot. “You see that don’t you. That is the Jen’Ghon.”
Thaniel looked away from the floating knot and glanced up at Elycia instead. His throat constricted. The lump he hoped he would never feel again returned as he watched her slide down the bench away from him and not stop until she reached the far corner.
He saw less white in her eyes when the wolves came.
“I see it. It’s a sheepherder knot. And the answer is still the same. It was just me.” Thaniel croaked as hot tears streamed down his cheeks. Elycia.
“Are you telling me you did this by yourself?” The old man studied him again with eyes seeming to dive into Thaniel’s very soul.
A look passed between Lars and Gabril when Thaniel shook his head, unable to speak. Lars Telazno slumped down on the bench, dumbfounded, and began muttering to himself about how old he was for this kind of thing. Thaniel also thought he heard something about rotten tobacco but that couldn’t have been right.
“You must come with me to Di’Ghon. You must join the Order.”
“I am not going to Di’Ghon. I am going to Navillus.”
Elycia didn’t look like she was going anywhere he was.
“Navillus? Do you have any idea what lies between you and Navillus after what you did?” The old man seethed, “Have you not noticed the heat? How long have you been walking in ankle deep slush instead of waist deep snow? What do you think happens when an entire mountain range of snow melts in a few days? Where do you think all this water is going? In a week any stream down there is likely to be the size of a river. Rivers will overflow their banks by miles. Houses, towns, even cities in her path will be reduced to driftwood. Livestock and crops will wash away. If people don’t drown they’ll die of starvation or disease. If the Three Sisters are caught up in this, may the Creator help us all.”
“I didn’t do anything.” Thaniel backed away until his back hit the cold hard stone.
“Do you remember air rushing up into the sky and racing away?”
Thaniel cringed.
He faintly recalled laughing as the mighty currents of cerulean air slammed into the sky over the chamber, like a giant fist of power. He remembered urging it on somehow, although he had no idea what he did. He remembered the feel of the air as it obeyed his every whim. His whim.
He stared at Elycia, whose eyes were as wide as his must have been.
Elycia’s face darkened. She flew at him, fists pounding on his chest. Her eyes were filled with rage, disgust, and tears. Thaniel just stood letting her hit him, helpless to stop her lest he hurt her. Besides, if the old man was right, maybe he deserved it all. He didn’t know exactly what he did that day in the chamber, but it was obviously something only a monster was capable of.
His tears fell off his cheeks onto the floor, where they would eventually join with all the melting snow. Tears that would join the torrent of death he unleashed. Monster tears.
That was the word she kept screaming at him.
“Monster!”
Chapter 33
Capability
“We have a problem.” Lars opened his hand, revealing the Jen’Ghon meldstone. He stared at it as a pale blue light barely illuminated his palm.
Gabril, like all others not inborn, wouldn’t be able to see the light of any of the ten strands of creation, the Di’Ghon. To him it would be just another rock, like any of the rocks you could find for the taking in the vast wilderness they were travelling through.
“Where?” Gabril’s eyes flitted back and forth. He had already stepped out in front of Lars instinctively. His dark eyes scanned the gloom of the forest with deadly intent.
Lars Telazno, a member of the Order, Guild of Jen’Ghon, one of the strongest living inborns the Order had seen in centuries, stood dumbfounded. All of his life he had been so proud of how much the stone lit for him. Few could make the stone do much more than flicker. After years of practice, working under the tutelage of the greatest the Order had to offer, he could finally use his ability to keep the stone lit for minutes at his touch. He still recalled how many of his brothers came to see how the young initiate could keep the meldstone lit so long with a steady soft hum of pale blue light.
Yet, when Thaniel touched it, the same stone lit up like harnessed blue lightning. Without training or even trying… His raw strength was beyond unimaginable. It was frightening. With power like that the boy could…
“Lars, what is it? I don’t see anything.”
“He’s telling the truth about being the only one.”
“Damn it wizard. I thought those wolves were back.”
“I wish it were only that.” Lars Telazno rubbed at his chin.
“Out with it.”
“The boy’s ability is…” Lars fumbled for words as he stared at the stone. It had already gone dark in his palm. “…beyond equal. He has more raw ability than my stone can measure.”
“Impossible.”
“I know and yet the meldstone doesn’t lie.”
Gabril searched the trees, swords still reflecting points of starlight as the razor sharp blades ebbed with deadly grace.
“So he is the one that changed the weather then?”
“No one could wield the Jen’Ghon like that and live. Not even him. It should have ripped him apart and burned him into oblivion. But he did it. I can feel the echoes of it in him right now.”
“Nine hells.” Gabril spat and looked at the stars barely peeking through the canopy of pine. His swords spun with a binding whistle as they sank back into his scabbards with a single metallic click.
The stars rarely showed themselves this time of year in the Anwarian Range. The pass was constantly shrouded with snow filled clouds. Yet, somehow the boy had swept them away. Lars couldn’t imagine how much power it would take to alter the strongest trade winds on all of Arth. For the life of him he couldn’t dream of every living inborn all melded together being able to accomplish it. Not that they would. The Creator himself had set the patterns of weather. Who was man that he should think himself great enough to change it? And doing it without setting it right after… Lars stomach clenched.
“We’ve got to get him to the temple.”
“You won’t get that boy to Di’Ghon unless it’s by way of Navillus.”
“Navillus will be in ruin by the time we get there. We can’t go to Navillus.”
“Good luck, wizard. If you think he’ll trade that pretty little girl for a nice long stay on that frigid island, you’re cracked.”
Lars grunted and bristled at the insult. A wizard practiced the blood arts, unlawfully taking power that wasn’t his, while Lars was inborn with the ability to wield the strands of creation. The very fact that he was born with it proved that he had been licensed by the Creator to use his power here on Arth.
“Look, he’s not going to just leave her here. He’s smitten. ” Gabril’s eyes were still scanning the forest as he spoke.
“I think you may be right about that. But she’s from Navillus. We can’t just go dancing down the streets again. We’ll end up a set of pin cushions.”
“They can’t possibly still be upset about that.” Gabril snickered and spat out into the dark. “Besides, I’ll bring my toys.” He gestured up at the hilts protruding up behind his neck at angles.
