by Lawrence, J.
Instantly Thaniel’s instincts kicked in. Something was very wrong. He couldn’t put it all together but he knew he was in trouble. He wanted off. Yet, try as he might to move, his arms and legs didn’t work right. He couldn’t even keep his arms from swaying with the motion of the man’s fast gait.
“Good morning.” Came a perfectly pitched baritone voice. The man could be a minstrel with a voice like that.
Instantly, everything came back to him in a rush of thought. He wanted to scream, to do anything, but it was like his body didn’t care what was happening to him. Ghile, a perfect Ghile, set him down on the ground and pulled out a bag of herbs. Thaniel tried to focus on the rising evergreens around them. They shot up from the ground like mammoth brown spikes threatening the blue sky. As he watched, the great pines seemed to shimmy.
“What did you give me?” Thaniel asked
“Don’t worry, that was just a temporary measure. There won’t be any need for that again.” He smiled, a perfect smile on an untwisted face. “This will help.”
Ghile poured a bitter liquid in his mouth and held his head up until he was forced to swallow or choke. Thaniel swallowed.
“Good, that’s it.” Ghile soothed as he held Thaniel’s head up straight.
A minute later he felt his body come alive. Thaniel flexed his hands and tightened them into fists. His arms and legs didn’t work yet, but he could tell that the effect of whatever Ghile drugged him with last night was wearing off rapidly.
Thaniel tried to speak but only unintelligible sounds came out of his mouth.
As whatever he’d given him started to take effect, silence stretched. Eventually Thaniel was able to hold up his own head. He stared at his swollen ankle.
“I can take care of that.”
Ghile removed Thaniel’s boot to reveal a black and blue swollen mess of an ankle. Ghile nodded appreciatively at the wound. Then, without warning, he reached down and grabbed hold of Thaniel’s ankle, sending shockwaves of pain hurtling through his body. Ghile, the twisted half wit, was the picture of concentration. His eyes were filled with the calculation of a sharp intelligence.
Slowly a soft amber glow began to emanate from Ghile’s hand. Almost immediately after that, heat spread into his ankle. Then, as Thaniel watched in awe, the swelling, as well as the pain just drained away. His head cleared a bit. Thaniel felt strength returning to his legs.
“Ghile?” Thaniel asked.
“Yes, it’s me.” Ghile answered, looking a little sheepish as he extended a hand down to him, “Can you stand?”
Thaniel stared at the man. Dumbfounded did not begin to describe how he felt right then. The Ghile he knew was a sorry wretch. The man before him stood erect and strong. There was a litheness about him that spoke of an immense well of strength and powerful muscles.
“I know I have a lot to explain to you. Right now is not the time. Wolves are tracking us.” He said, sniffing the air as if he could actually smell them on the breeze. “I can’t carry you much further. You will have to run if you want to live.”
Thaniel stared out into the trees as a howl echoed through the woods. It was daylight. Had Ghile carried him all night?
“We have to go.” He said, “How’s the leg?”
Thaniel couldn’t believe he was standing on the same leg he had twisted the night before. If anything, it felt better than the other one.
“Where are the others?”
“They’ll be fine for now.” He cut right to the heart of Thaniel’s concern, “I had to give them a scare to get you away from that wizard. Don’t worry. He won’t do anything to your friends, yet.”
Thaniel’s eyes went wide at that.
“There is a town not far from here. It’s the only way across the gorge for a hundred miles. I’m sure they’re headed there. We’ll get your friends back.”
Another howl answered the first. It came from a different direction.
“I’ll explain everything on the way. We have to go.” With that Ghile turned and started running downhill.
Chapter 40
Spooked
“The Order takes boys like you and bends them to their will.” Ghile said as he leapt over a small stream. “Once you enter the halls of the Di’Ghon Temple your life will never again be your own.” Ghile added as he waited on the other side of the small trickling brook with his hand outstretched.
Thaniel shook his head. He wasn’t going to get used to the real Ghile any time soon. Yet, that he was a member of an elite band of agents wasn’t hard to swallow. The man had been living right in the hold for decades. No one would have guessed the twisted little man was anything like the one he had been running beside for hours now. He looked a little pale, maybe from the effort of carrying him all night, but aside from that, Ghile was hardly winded. It probably wasn’t anything a good meal and a ten minute break couldn’t remedy.
“How many times did you touch the meldstone?” He asked as he continued on ahead.
“Just a couple,” Thaniel danced around a jutting stone, “Why?”
“The meldstone is poisonous magic. It’s addictive.” Ghile leapt into the air, grasped a low hanging branch and vaulted over a fallen tree. “The Order uses it to enslave you. It only takes a few times and the thing will have you like a fish on a hook. You’ll do anything for another opportunity to touch it. The Order has agents everywhere with the stuff. The moment they get wind of one of them not doing what they want, they cut off the flow of magic to the stone.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Thaniel asked.
“It would be, if you could survive without it.”
Thaniel nearly missed a step. Lars Telazno was pretty fond of that bag of meldstone. He hadn’t wasted any time in getting him to touch it either. The old man was just as persistent about Thaniel going to Di’Ghon. He had all but insisted. Come to think of it, Telazno intended to give Thaniel little choice in the matter. It was like he just expected Thaniel to do what he said.
“I can deflect the Order’s magic, but that Circle is a different problem altogether. I can’t handle both at the same time. Once they’re in town I’ve got a good chance of separating them. Once they’re taken care of, we’re home free.”
“What about…?” Thaniel was about to ask after Jorel, Elycia, and Harkanin.
“Don’t worry. The Order wants you. They’ll be fine. They still need your friends alive until the stone’s magic takes over.”
“You really think they’ll kill them once the magic… you know.”
“It’s what I would do.” He stopped and turned around, forcing Thaniel to halt lest he run right into the man. He looked Thaniel in the eyes, “If I were a member of the Order.”
“Of course.” Thaniel said as a little shiver worked its way down his spine. “Lucky the Guild found the place before they did.”
“Yes, and by the way, I could never thank you for helping me all that time.” The man smiled.
Ghile, as a twisted half wit, was the object of many a cruel prank or even beating. The first time he saw it happening Thaniel had done what anyone would do. He stopped it. He never really considered that Ghile would remember that he had fended off kids that used to torment him. The old Ghile rarely thought past his next meal. Sometime’s he’d even forget that. It turned out the man knew all along.
“No problem.” Thaniel answered, feeling a little embarrassed.
“No one treated me better than you, ever.”
Thaniel smiled at that, but as Ghile turned to go he noticed that the man’s own perfect smile never reached his eyes. That chill shivered up his spine again.
He shook it off and took after him. All this talk of evil magic had him spooked. After all, this was Ghile.
Chapter 41
Embarrassed
Elycia woke feeling much better than the past two days. Sometime in the middle of the night she’d stopped retching over the back of the wagon. Either the motion had stopped bothering her, or she’d learned to tolerate it better. Frankly sh
e didn’t care which. She was just glad it was over. She gnawed hungrily on a piece of hard bread. It was the first thing she’d eaten and kept down since they started their mad dash down the pass.
Like every other day for the past couple weeks the sky was cloudless and blue. A warm gentle breeze stirred the tops of the trees as the brightly painted wagon lurched and rocked down the pass trail. The smell of pine permeated everything. The crisp scent made it almost seem like the world around them was cleaner because of it.
Lars Telazno held the meldstone in his palm, waiting for her to try again. At his touch the little stone glowed ever so gently.
“Not again. You people really are nuts.” Jorel threw his hands up.
Elycia breathed, relaxing as Lars taught her. She stretched out her hand and touched the stone.
“You know I’m sitting right here don’t you?” Jorel asked.
The world snapped into blinding strands of azure as the stone brightened with the intensity of a hundred torches. The strands of the Jen’Ghon were everywhere, each and every one of them calling for her attention. It was like being tickled by a thousand breathy fingers. It was more beautiful than anything else she’d ever seen.
Breathe.
“Good. Don’t let it overwhelm you.” Lars soothed, “Start with the sky,” he began for the hundredth time…
“No, please…” Jorel broke in, “Let it overwhelm you. I hope it throws you out the back of the wagon.”
As instructed, she stretched out with her mind, feeling the blue skies over head. High above, she could feel the pressure bearing down on the region driving all other weather away. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, but overlooking how out of place it felt was like ignoring the nose on your face.
“Excellent, now closer.” He said, “What do you see?”
“Nothing. Not a damn thing.” Jorel, again.
Elycia let her senses sweep downward into the sky just over head. An eagle soared high to the east. He was moving in a wide circle, obviously watching a particular patch of earth for his breakfast.
“Can you make out the feathers on his wings?” Lars asked, smiling.
She nodded and he laughed.
“Closer.”
The air around them was filled with minor movement. She could feel the simplest of things. Occurrences that would normally not interest her in the least. Fifty yards off to their left, a single pine cone fell from high up in the tree tops. Tiny shards of rough bark fell as the pine cone struck a heavy limb, knocking them loose.
“Bring it in.” He said.
There were thousands of little azure strands of air just within the few feet around the wagon. Each and every one of them were separate and yet somehow connected at the same time. It was mind boggling.
“Find one.”
The air swirled around the sides of the wagon in a dance of cerulean wisps as the green and yellow bouncing box lurched forward. Air puffed like billowing mushrooms from the horse’s mouths in two competing rhythms. Wafts of air slipped through the wagon, rolling along the underside of the roof. Little waves played with her hair, moving just a little here or there.
Elycia hesitated. She swallowed back any distractions and focused one tiny strand. She willed every other detail away, letting herself focus every bit of her concentration on just that one. A snippet of energy reached out and snagged it. It was no bigger than her pinky, but she had it firmly in control. She could feel it connected to her now. It would not escape.
“Be ready.” He warned.
Even before he finished the sentence she felt it coming. Elycia gasped as a joy so complete that she was sure it was every shred of happiness she’d ever experienced all rolled up into one solitary moment. Her face rose as if in acceptance of an imparted gift from above.
Then, as if the man had just appeared out of nowhere, she could feel Lars Telazno through the meldstone. He had always been there. He hadn’t magically left the wagon and reappeared. Yet, her awareness of the man existed on a different plane now. She felt his emotions, a steady thrum of control, holding back the wave of joy that threatened to overwhelm him if he faltered for an instant.
“Steady.” He said and she knew that he saw her in the same exact way.
Her first instinct was to hide. Having someone see your feelings wasn’t something she was exactly comfortable with, but Lars had assured her in advance that he would keep her secrets private. Now that she was melded to him through the stone, she knew he was telling the truth.
There wasn’t the slightest bit of hesitation in the man’s commitment to her. She could see that now. The other thing she saw was that his commitment to Thaniel was equally as steadfast. He would die to see either of them safely to Di’Ghon, where he desperately hoped he could protect them. Something from his past was driving the man. An old memory, a regret, made him wary about the place. Yet, his heart knew it was the only way he expected her to thrive. In Thaniel’s case, live.
“Hello.” Lars Telazno said, a greeting that came as a heartfelt welcome, as if he were an old uncle that had been waiting at the door of a larger, more complete world. In a way, he did.
“Hello? You go somewhere I didn’t see?” Jorel scoffed.
“Draw my strength. See how I manage the flood of emotion. Good, now will the Jen’Ghon to you.” Lars Telazno intoned.
As Lars Telazno had showed her, using just the tiny crook of her finger to help her make the mental leap, she called it. At first, as had been the case yesterday, nothing happened. The strand wriggled as if it would slip away, twisting into the others, before it birthed into yet another strand, in an endless cycle of movement.
Elycia strengthened her resolve. The Jen’Ghon would hear her. It had to. With no will of its own, the little ghon didn’t have a choice but to submit to hers. She focused in tighter on the spinning current and called it again. It would hear her call.
The little jen twitched.
“Excellent.” Lars affirmed. Through the meldstone, she could feel him smiling inside. The man was proud of his ability to bring her along. “You know what to do next.”
Little beads of sweat popped out on Elycia’s brow. She was afraid to spare the concentration to wipe them away. Elycia watched the jen slip left and up as if it were trying to escape into the larger currents that rolled above it.
“Keep your focus.” He warned.
“You do know that this whole conversation sounds perverted, right?” Jorel waved his hands in the air. “Just sayin. It does.”
She set her chin, refusing to be ignored.
Then, time seemed to slow, allowing her mind to catalogue every sweet instant. Already she knew what was about to transpire. She filed it away in her mind, knowing that this moment would live on in perfect memory for the rest of her life. In a flurry of movement the little jen twisted back over on itself, curving back towards her in a tight arc. It spun through the rest of the air like an acrobatic piece of living cerulean silk.
“Keep your focus, but allow yourself to feel what I’m doing.”
At his command air swirled around him. He selected a single strand. He pulled it to him, forcing it to stand erect against all the buffeting forces around it. Like a blade standing on its tip.
“Call it with your will. Force the strand into your palm.” As he spoke the current of air floated to him and settled, still standing straight up in his other palm. “You are its master. It wants to obey you.” He closed his palm and in a blink it dissipated into a puff that was sucked back into the eddying swirls around it.
Elycia put an image in her mind of the strand standing up in her hand.
“That’s it.” Lars Telazno soothed. “You’re doing it.”
The little strand snapped to attention and floated obediently to her palm. Lars was giggling with delight on the inside and all business on the outside.
“Now, call more.”
She added another. Now that she’d done it once, it seemed a lot easier. Another. Before she knew it she had a whole
handful of them.
“Now, set them free,” He instructed and added, “carefully and one by one, in order.”
Surprisingly, now that she thought about it she knew every last one of the strands and which order she called them.
“You’ve done more in two days than some do in years.” He said as he gestured for her to let go of her grasp on the Jen’Ghon.
“Really?” She asked, as the cerulean world winked away. “You’re not just saying that?”
She pulled her fingertip from the meldstone and instantly the bright light that only the two of them could see waned to a gentle glow. It was almost nothing by comparison.
“No, child.” Lars went to put the stone away. He paused, stared at the barely visible glow, and sighed. When Thaniel held it the thing looked like harnessed lightning. The meldstone wasn’t nearly as bright for her as it was when Thaniel touched it, but Lars still seemed excited about it.
Lars caught her eyes as she watched him lingering with the little stone.
“You know what? Why don’t you hold on to this for a while?” He smiled with one corner of his mouth as he tossed it to her.
The moment she touched it the meldstone lit up like crazy again. Elycia felt a little sad for the man but there was no hiding the delight she knew he saw in her eyes.
“Can I?” She asked like a little child with a redcake.
“Of course, that’s what it’s for.” His eyes closed as he settled back into a pile of blankets.
That’s when she noticed Jorel had gone unusually quiet. He was sitting with his arms folded and glaring at her.
She knew what he was thinking. Suddenly embarrassed that she was smiling about what she’d ridden Thaniel so hard about, she shoved the stone in her pocket and started gnawing on the crusty bread again.
Chapter 42
Ear to Ear
“This town’s as good as any other. Why don’t you stay here?” Elycia was so used to Jorel’s sarcastic tone by now that she didn’t have to turn around to know that it was him.
