by Lawrence, J.
“How many did you see?” Gabril appeared out of the dark like he was a living shadow himself. He had both of those swords out. With all the noise, Jorel hadn’t even heard the man coming. Jorel had to admit it was good to see the man and his blades with wolves around. When the beasts had them surrounded Gabril just leapt into the fray and started slicing them up like dinner cheese.
“I didn’t see any.” Harkanin answered and gestured at Elycia.
“What did you see?” Gabril asked Elycia.
Elycia didn’t answer. She just kept shaking her head and muttering something about monsters everywhere. Gabril sheathed one of his swords, took a step closer to her, and touched her shoulder. She flinched like he’d poked her with a hot iron, letting out a little screech for emphasis. She acted like she hadn’t seen the huge man standing right in front of her before he actually touched her. She just pointed out into the dark. Girls.
Seeing that was a losing battle the big warrior ignored her and went to check over the oxen. The man took one long look at the hole in its side. Then his head tilted and he stood up just as Lars Telazno broke from the dark just a few feet away. The man was breathing like he’d just won the gate race.
“Look at this.” Gabril said to the old man.
Lars Telazno grabbed the torch right out of Harkanin’s hand and held it over the scene. A half second later the two of them just stared at each other in that way two people do when they’ve been friends for a long time and know what the other’s thinking.
“Get inside. Bar the door. If only one of us comes back, whatever you do, don’t open it. If you do, you’ll all be dead.” Lars Telazno’s tone didn’t sound like he was crazy, but that was a silly thing to say.
The old man and Gabril turned to go without another word. Before the pair of them disappeared into the dark, Jorel suddenly remembered why they had gone off into the woods in the first place.
“Hey, where’s Thaniel?”
Jorel felt himself clench inside a bit when Lars Telazno turned around with a worried look in his eyes. He and Gabril shared a momentary glance.
“Remember, only if we both come back, open the door.” Gabril answered. The big warrior gripped both blades at the ready, his eyes searching the dark constantly, as if he expected something to pounce on them at any moment. There was something about the idea that Gabril, a man that seemed more like a weapon than a human being, was concerned about whatever they were heading for, that sent a little queasy flutter through Jorel’s insides.
The pair of men, moving with the unmistakable slyness of predators, blended into the shadows. They were moving fast. He would have expected it on Gabril, but the old man… Now that was a surprise.
Jorel scraped the heavy bolt in place and took a step back away from the door before he realized two things. They didn’t answer his question and that queasy little flutter was getting bigger.
Chapter 37
One Chance
Jorel dry washed his hands as he waited for the three of them to return. He had no idea how long he stood there motionless, ears straining. A pounding on the door made him flinch so hard that, if it wasn’t for Harkanin’s bulk, he would have fallen backwards. Jorel hadn’t even heard the fat trader come up behind him.
Lars voice came from the other side of the heavy oak door.
“Hey, he said if only one of them came back don’t open it, right?” Jorel looked over his shoulder at Harkanin.
“The Order definitely turns out some strange ones.” He nodded.
“Open the door.” Gabril’s voice as well.
Jorel slid the bolt open and both Lars Telazno and Gabril came rushing in. Thaniel didn’t.
“Thaniel?” Jorel held the door open and called out into the night. There wasn’t an answer. “Thaniel.” Jorel repeated.
“We’re leaving.” Gabril boomed behind him.
“Are you serious?” Harkanin growled, “In the middle of the night, with those wolves out there?”
“Those wolves are the least of our worries.” Lars Telazno said.
“Where’s Thaniel?” Jorel turned around wanting an answer from somebody who knew where Thaniel was. Nobody was saying anything so he repeated himself a little louder. Elycia started crying again. He didn’t see why she had any right to be worried about him with the way she was carrying on about him being some kind of monster and hitting him until the poor kid took off crying in the night. If it wasn’t for her…
“Thaniel was taken.” Gabril said.
Jorel fought back the lump that was threatening to choke off his air.
“The wolves got him?” Harkanin asked grimacing at the answer he seemed to know was coming.
“No.” Lars Telazno started to explain.
Jorel looked up, expecting it was all some lousy practical joke. Thaniel would come walking through the door and punch him in the arm for falling for it any moment… But neither the old man nor the warrior looked like they were joking.
“It got him, didn’t it?” Elycia said. “The thing that got the ox…”
Lars Telazno looked at her, holding her gaze before he nodded.
She started to cry all over again.
“What are you talking about?” Jorel stared into the man’s eyes. There was more.
“You don’t understand. Thaniel is alive.” Lars began.
Elycia looked up, sniffling. For half a second she looked like she was happy about it. You could hardly tell she had just screamed at him. Jorel glared at her like she deserved. If it wasn’t for her Thaniel wouldn’t have gotten himself into… whatever he had.
“Where is he?” Jorel glanced at the door. “Did you just leave him out there somewhere?”
“Listen to me very carefully.” Lars Telazno began, “I am going to tell you all something very few people in all of Arth know is true.”
Five minutes later, Harkanin’s fancy wagon was stripped of almost everything but blankets and food in favor of speed. The much slower oxen were left at the keep with the pen gate open and the two horses were hitched in their place. The moment they had all climbed inside, Harkanin shook the reins and the wagon leapt forward.
They had one chance to save Thaniel.
Chapter 38
Nope
In the wagon, as it bounced down the pass, Elycia sat wrapped in a blanket against the chill of the night wondering how her life could have spiraled out of control so fast. Less than two weeks ago all she had to worry about was whether or not to wear a blossom in her hair. Within that span of time she’d seen Thaniel call a dra, been chased by wolves, and found out that the boy she’d been named eternal kiss to was the prey of an ancient evil band of magical killers called ramphyr.
Elycia shrugged into the blanket a little further, trying to work some warmth into her arms by rubbing the backs of them with her palms. Just yesterday it was Thaniel that had kept her warm. A single tear slid down her cheek, announcing the presence of the lump she hadn’t been able to swallow away since the moment Lars told them the whole story. She glanced up at Jorel, who was riding across from her in the wagon. One sharp look from him sent another quake of guilt shuddering through her belly all over again.
They’d been riding down the pass for less than an hour or so and she’d already lost track of how many times she relived the nightmare in her mind. No matter what she did though, every time she recalled how she treated Thaniel and drove him into the clutches of the beast, it replayed.
Surrendering, she leaned her head back and watched it unfold again.
A little while after Thaniel took off into the woods Harkanin and Jorel both started glaring at her, sharp accusatory looks that pulled no punches about how they felt she’d treated Thaniel. Elycia decided to go check on the old oxen Bella sent to pull their cart. That was when she saw the creature with his hands buried in the oxen’s flank. At first, she was afraid she’d lost her mind and was seeing things. It looked like it was drinking the poor oxen through glowing amber arms. Its head was thrown back like it was enjoying
every horrid second of it. All of that would have been enough to cause her to question her sanity. Yet, when he turned toward her, his face fully illuminated in the light of the torch she held in her shaking grip, it was the fact that she recognized the man that shocked her to her core.
It was Ghile. Ghile with his glowing arms thrust into the oxen. He pulled a gore covered hand out and actually waved. He looked like he was enjoying her confusion almost as much as he did the oxen’s death. Elycia felt herself preparing to scream in response. She sucked in a lungful of air but nothing would come out. It was like she’d gone mute.
As if he was putting on a show for her eyes only, he pulled his other hand free and twisted himself back into the poor little man she knew. If she had any doubts as to whether or not it was really Ghile, that moment erased them. When he addressed her by name and thanked her before he disappeared into the dark, she remembered how to scream.
It didn’t take Lars Telazno and Gabril long to figure out they’d been had. It turned out that the scream that finally ripped from her soul and brought them all running to her aid was just what Ghile was after all along.
When they returned to say that Thaniel had been taken, at first she didn’t know what to think. After all the man had said that it was Thaniel that had been responsible for a cataclysmic flood that would destroy her homeland. How do you choose between one monster and the next? Then Lars Telazno explained what Ghile was and who his masters were. He left no doubt as to what needed to be done. Yet, now that they were headed down the mountain as fast as they could, Elycia was beginning to wonder. She’d seen them both use magic. Elycia knew it would be a long time before she stopped seeing Ghile’s crafty smile whenever she looked out into the night. She’d also seen Thaniel call a dra and, according to Lars, he could already be the murderer of thousands.
The thing that bothered her now was that it was well known that Thaniel was fond of Ghile. She would need both hands to count up the people Thaniel had personally thumped up for mistreating the castle’s misfortunate resident. The fact that he was now supposedly kidnapped by the creature didn’t quite ring true. The simple explanation might be that Thaniel knew what Ghile was and had meant to rendezvous with him once they were free of Ontar all along. Was it possible that everything else was some elaborate ruse?
Yet, something about that just didn’t feel right either. Watching Thaniel trying to do the right thing even under the worst circumstance didn’t fit with the idea that he knew about Ghile being a ramphyr. The ramphyr were creatures pledged in service to an evil older than memory. They could steal the very life force from anything with skin. The more she thought about things, it appeared as if the entire last couple of weeks had just been thrown in Thaniel’s lap. Like a test no one was meant to pass, it was one impossible situation after the next. Yet, she’d seen him respond much the same way every time. Always looking out for others no matter the risk to himself. Herself included.
He couldn’t possibly be involved in something like that.
Either way, Elycia wasn’t about to tell anyone about the ramphyr being Ghile. It was bad enough that Jorel blamed Thaniel’s disappearance on her already. If she suggested that the monster that had him was actually Ghile, someone that Thaniel not only knew, but had been defending for years… it wouldn’t turn out good. It would seem like she was suggesting Thaniel might be in league with the creature. After all, even after all he’d done for her, the thought still crossed her mind. She would definitely keep her mouth shut. It would sound like a fancifully concocted story a girl would use to try and deflect the blame off of her.
Elycia glanced up at Harkanin’s back after the wagon bounced over a peculiarly nasty spot. When he wasn’t glaring at her, Jorel was grinning with delight at her discomfort. She was sure she remembered that he and the trader had their heads together before they left. Now it seemed like Harkanin was finding every single bump in the pass. The wagon rocked and bounced, all the while lurching forward and sideways in and endless sway of perpetual motion. They hadn’t been riding an hour and already she felt herself going green.
Harkanin and Gabril were strapped in on the driver’s bench. Lars Telazno sat leaning against the wagon’s back rail, lost in thought. The man had been staring at his little bag of rocks and mumbling to himself about the number six for about an hour now.
Jorel sat straight across from her. Every once in a while he would look over the side of the wagon or smile when she felt the sickest, but most of the time he sat there with flaring nostrils and his lips pressed into a thin straight line.
“It’s not my fault.” Elycia offered.
“No? Whose fault is it then?”
“You heard Lord Lars. He flooded the lowlands. What was I supposed to think?”
“So he says.” Jorel glanced across at Lars Telazno. The man still seemed lost in thought over his bag of stones. He wasn’t paying attention to either of them.
“What do you know?”
“I know Thaniel.”
“You weren’t there.”
Jorel sat in silence. The look that passed between them told her he knew what she was talking about. Neither she nor Thaniel had spoken to anyone else about what happened in that chamber. At first it was by command of Irkhir, but even after they left Ontar the subject just seemed too uncomfortable to bring up. Thaniel definitely didn’t want to talk about it.
“What happened in there?” A bit of the fire drained out of him. His eyes kind of misted over a bit as if that was really the place he’d lost his friend. In a way she guessed it was about right. A twinge of guilt wrinkled her nose and she let out a breath loudly. She’d been so concerned about how everything affected her that she never really gave a thought about Thaniel’s sarcastic best friend.
“When Thaniel was in the chamber they made him kneel on a dais.”
Jorel just looked at her waiting for more. She blinked away the image of the blue scaled dra Thaniel called. She definitely wasn’t going to talk about any more real live monsters she’d seen. Not tonight. If she said anything at all that sounded negative about his friend right then, she expected Jorel to jump across the wagon and strangle her. No, there wouldn’t be any talk of what really happened in there. Besides, maybe that was something that Thaniel should tell him. If they ever found him…
“The moment he touched it the thing lit up brighter than lightning.” She swallowed. Recalling how every surface in the chamber had been carved with a pattern that made you feel like the room was spinning wasn’t helping her fight the lurching, rolling motion of the wagon. “Then something happened that I can’t get out of my mind. The most beautiful blue wind filled the place. It came from the arches.”
Jorel grinned unbelievingly.
“You don’t have to believe me, but I was there. I saw everything. That dais was so bright it was hard to look at.”
“Did you say it was blue?” That was the first thing Lars Telazno said to anyone other than himself since the wagon rocked into motion. He had a weird look in his eyes. His bushy eyebrows seemed alive with nervous movement.
“Yes.” She tilted her head, wondering why the color was so important.
“You mean…” He fished through his little bag of rocks. “Like this?” The old man held up one of the rocks between his forefinger and thumb. A steady soft glow barely illuminated his hand.
“No, brighter.” She said. “It glowed a lot brighter than that.”
“I know, I’ve seen it.” The man’s face darkened a bit. “I’m getting old.” He said shaking his head. “Too old for this sort of thing. Back in my youth I wouldn’t have missed it.”
“What glow?” Jorel just sat there looking perplexed. “Whatever you two are up to I’m not falling for it.”
“Right there, you idiot.” She pointed at the radiating stone in Lars’ hand.
“He can’t see it.” The old man laughed.
“See what?” Jorel waved them off with a perturbed hand. “Whatever.”
“Why?” Elycia stud
ied Lars Telazno’s face. “Why can’t he see it?” The man had a twinkle in his eye like he was enjoying a private joke.
Lars Telazno tossed the stone across the wagon and she caught it in her hand. The moment she touched it the thing flared to life in a brilliant shade of glowing azure.
“Only an inborn can.” Lars Telazno smiled. “Of course, you have a different name for it. I believe the term you used, was…” He twisted his lips in recollection, “Monster?”
The truth hit her. It sank into her chest like an arrow. She knew he was right. Knew all along somehow… She’d seen a dra. It wasn’t a drawing in a child’s story book. It was real. She’d seen Thaniel call the wind. Watched it roar into the heavens and part the skies like a hot knife through butter. She’d seen Thaniel giggle while he did it. She’d seen Ghile with the oxen’s insides dripping from his hands. She’d seen monsters. She could see them, because she was one.
Elycia felt the wagon spin. She thought she might throw up on the spot. Riding a wave of light-headedness, darkness encroached in on her vision as she stared at the bright cerulean stone in her hand. The ring of unconsciousness shrunk until only a pinprick of light remained.
“Oh no. Look. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head and everything.” She heard Jorel say excitedly.
“She’s fainting. Quick, catch her.” Lars Telazno ordered.
“Nope.” Jorel answered.
Then she fainted.
Chapter 39
We
Thaniel woke to pain needling every one of his joints. He was watching the ground fly by beneath him. Someone was carrying him over their shoulder and running at a pretty good clip. His head felt like it was bobbing on a sea of nausea. The swaying motion his arms made didn’t help. He could taste vomit and something else awful. Something familiar…
