Lost Lands (CHANGING TIMES Book 2)

by Shaun L Griffiths

  ‘The Book of Power was always thought to be too dangerous to be read by anyone who didn’t first know the history and with it, the dangers. They also needed the wisdom to know what was just and fair in its use. So, this book was always kept locked away, for the day when the Crystal came together with the three books, and a people judged worthy enough to finally bring them together, to connect again with the past and to form our future.’

  ‘But what has all this to do with you, Mom? You haven’t told us why you must hide, or what you’re afraid of,’ said Lulu.

  ‘It’s because I stole The Book of Power. I have it here.’

  There was a stunned silence around the table. Everyone sat staring at Salli in disbelief.

  Finally, she took a deep breath, ‘It’s a long story and we need to leave. The boats are ready and the people are on board. Come, I’ll explain everything when we are underway. I’ll feel a lot safer when we are moving.’

  * * *

  They stood on deck, watching the men push the remaining boats off the beach into the gently flowing current. Arms were offered to help the men into the boats. Walkway planks were drawn in and the last of the Clan looked back at the half-moon beach with the meeting place nestling behind.

  This had been the centre of their society for many summers, where they’d sat at nights discussing the Clan’s problems, agreeing on where the Clan would go, laughing and dancing, telling tales of their heroes and their legends. There was not one person on the boats that did not feel a deep sense of loss.

  Kerri stood beside Lulu at the stern of the final boat to leave. Lu reached for her hand and squeezed it tight. She turned to her and said, ‘I promise you, we’ll come back when this is all over and we’ll build a town, a place where we can settle, and learn to grow, a place the families will be proud to call home.’

  ‘I believe you, Lu. I know you’ll do it.’

  They stood and watched until the beach slowly disappeared as the river meandered its way through the southern plains on its way into the unknown.

  * * *

  Below deck, Lulu sat impatiently waiting for Salli and Sam to finish eating. Kerri returned with cups and a pitcher of water.

  ‘I’m afraid pancakes are off the menu until we arrive, Casey. Do you think you’ll survive?’

  ‘I’ll try my best,’ he laughed at her.

  When she was seated again, Lulu looked to her mother. ‘So? Are you going to tell us?’ The excitement in her voice was plain to hear.

  Salli looked around. Below deck was clear now, the others of the Clan having moved onto their chores, or resting in the afternoon sun.

  ‘Well... to understand why I stole the book, I need to go back even further,’ Salli began. ‘As I told you, my father held the keys to the Treasury for our society. He was looked upon as a very important man and, because of this, our family had “privileges” that others of a similar status did not have.

  ‘We had a house by the river, large by everyone’s standard. We had access to special food because it was understood that my mother and father would be expected to entertain visitors from around the land, so the finest meals were prepared. But most importantly, we were given an education that went far beyond what others of my age received. We had access to things that for different reasons were normally kept hidden from most of the people.

  ‘Now, as I told you, my father had arranged that when I was eighteen years old, I would be promised in marriage to a young man of the Lawgiver’s family. When we were young, he and I went to school together, we played together, our families spent lots of time together. My father thought that our match was blessed by the heavens. He and I were friends, and we did like each other when we were young.

  ‘But as we grew older, our education changed. We started to spend time with different teachers because our futures lay in different directions. We didn’t spend as much time together, and the time for play seemed to evaporate. The times between seeing each other just became longer and longer.

  ‘I was seventeen, I remember, when he and his family came to visit us at home to discuss the coming wedding. It was the first time in over a year we’d spent any time together. I was shocked by his appearance. I hardly recognised him. When he called my name, I didn’t know who he was. Even his voice had changed, from his youthful, kind and fun-loving voice to something... commanding, almost menacing.

  ‘We sat and I tried to talk of our days together, of the fun times we’d had, but he was no longer interested. It was all so trivial to him. All he wanted was to tell me of the things he’d learnt and of the power that lay within his grasp. You see, his teacher had started instructing him in the writings of The Book of Wisdom.

  ‘It was like getting to know someone for the first time. And the more that we met, the more I became concerned. Rather than becoming closer as we neared the day for our marriage, I was becoming afraid of him.

  ‘He started to talk of the power he would hold when he became Lawgiver, of how his teachers who guided him through The Book of Wisdom were wrong, and how his interpretation of the writing really meant that more power should be given to the Lawgiver. He was desperate to convince me he was right.

  ‘Then, late one afternoon, his family came to visit us. While our parents were enjoying time together down by the river, he and I were supposed to be making plans for our ceremony. But all he would talk about was the power that he would soon inherit. He was not just hungry for power. He was becoming obsessed by it. Without even thinking to discuss it with me, he told me that after we were wed, he would then be able to get hold of The Book of Power and use what he’d learnt, or re-interpreted for himself, to gain power that would be awesome to behold.

  ‘I knew from my own teachings that this was forbidden. No one was ever allowed to access The Book of Power without first reading the Histories and then studying The Book of Wisdom. One without the other was too dangerous. I reminded him of this. But he turned very cold. He said that as the wife of the Lawgiver, I would be expected to do as he... “commanded” was the word he used.

  ‘I grew very afraid. Not only for my own safety, but for what could happen to my family, our people, our whole society if this one person could gain power over all and re-interpret the laws to his own making. I had to sit and watch as he was manoeuvring and manipulating my own father to agree to his wishes.

  ‘You see, my father was enthusiastic for the marriage of his only daughter into a family of such high rank. When I tried to tell him of my concerns, he dismissed them, telling me how important it was to keep their family happy and to do nothing that would jeopardise the coming union.’

  Salli sat, looking off into the distance, as if looking back into the past, seeing herself there again, with her family in her home by the river. All in the long-lost past.

  ‘It happened a week before our wedding was due to take place. He came... not knocking, but banging on our door. When I opened it, he rushed in without invitation, telling me he had to see my father. When I asked why, he simply said that it was the book, he needed to see the book. I knew he was talking of The Book of Power. I also knew it was forbidden.

  ‘My father arrived, and they went into our guest room alone and closed the door. I was upstairs, but I could hear them talking loudly, I could also hear him insisting again and again that it was written in The Book of Wisdom that it was allowed. Eventually, I heard their footsteps in the hallway and the door closing quietly. It was late at night, but they still left together for the town.

  ‘I sat up waiting for my father. I knew where they’d gone. I was waiting for him to explain to me why he’d broken the law, why father had shown him The Book without it being discussed by the Council first. When he came in, he looked like a battered man, broken and defeated. I believe he knew the seriousness of what he’d done, but his only response was that it was important to keep the Lawgivers happy. He refused to talk any more about it.

  ‘I couldn’t sleep all that night. Very early, before dawn, I got up and I took my fathe
r’s keys to the Treasury. I let myself in and was hoping against hope that the book would be there, that my father had only shown him it, allowed him to read it. But when I came into the sacred library, I saw immediately it was gone. My father had given him the book.’

  * * *

  Salli sat at the table, her eyes filled with tears ready to roll down her cheek at any moment. She dried them before they had the chance to fall. Taking a deep breath, she continued.

  ‘I knew that once the book had been discovered missing, my father was finished in our society. He would be blamed for giving it away as it was his responsibility. I never looked upon my father as a weak man, only that he was misguided and too ready to do whatever was asked of him in order to ensure my marriage. I loved him dearly and couldn’t bear the thought of seeing him disgraced. I also knew that deep down, now that HE had the book, our marriage would be meaningless to him, that he had what he really wanted. I came up with a half-formed plan,’ Salli laughed at her own innocence at the time.

  ‘I wanted so much to protect my father and also to stop Him from taking power away from our Council and from our people. I knew the book had always stood on a pedestal in the sacred library. I lowered the pedestal to the ground very quietly, but I also left my shawl underneath it, then I dropped the keys to the floor. I wanted people to think that I had taken the keys from my father and, in my rush to steal the book, I had knocked over the pedestal.

  ‘I then ran to the home of the Lawgiver. I knew the house well. He’d recently shown off the room that had been made as a temple below ground. He was so proud of it. This was where he was studying The Book of Wisdom, so I guessed he would put The Book of Power together with it in his “sacred” place. I got into the house unseen, and made my way down the steps to his private temple.

  ‘I remember the door was very heavy, made of oak and kept locked, but I knew the key was always kept above the doorframe. I have never known any door to make so much noise! In the deathly quiet of the early morning, it was like a whole nursery of babies all screaming at once. I was sure someone would have heard the crash of the metal lock falling, or the screech of the dry hinges as I forced open the door, but miraculously, everyone in the house slept through.

  ‘Inside, the book lay open on the table. It looked like he’d made an altar for it, where he’d been studying it the night before. I took it and ran. Without closing doors, I just ran. It was only when I was out of the house that I realised I didn’t have a clue what to do next.

  ‘I hoped that once the book was discovered missing, he would never admit to having coerced my father into giving it to him. I only prayed that my father would remember that I’d tried to warn him, and say nothing to make anyone think anything other than I’d taken his keys, then stolen the book from the library. I wanted desperately to protect father and mother from the humiliation.

  ‘I decided to run for home. You see, our home on the river had a boathouse on the river’s edge. We had a small boat that no one had used for years. I think it had really been forgotten about and I hoped that it would be some time before anyone thought to look inside to see if the boat was still there. I managed to get underway as the sun rose on the new day. My last day as a part of my society.’

  ‘Mom, I never knew any of this. I never knew you were so brave,’ said Lulu.

  ‘Maybe a little brave, but also very stupid. I got in the boat without any supplies. No food or water, no warm clothing. Just me and the book!’ Salli laughed again at her own lack of preparation.

  ‘Did you know where you were going, Salli? Did you know we, the Clan, were here?’ asked Casey.

  ‘No, in our land, we lived in complete isolation. We knew of the Wanderers, the ones who’d come out of the forest and ransacked our town, and stolen The Book of Histories. But we knew nothing of any other peoples in our world. We thought it was us and them. No one had studied The Book of Histories for many lifetimes, and after it was stolen, there was no one old enough to remember what was in it.

  ‘So there I am, me and a book climbing into a boat, without a clue what I was doing. Usually the river flowing through our land ran calm and gentle through the plains. I knew it led into the delta, where it split into a maze of many smaller rivers. But I don’t believe anyone had travelled through the delta to find where it finally emerged, at least no one had returned to tell of it.’

  They watched and listened as Salli relived her journey in her mind from all those years ago. It was as if she was no longer with them at the table. Instead she was on her own boat, fleeing her own town without any idea of a future or a destination, without even knowing if she was going to survive.

  ‘I wanted to get out of the main river course as quickly as possible,’ she remembered. ‘But I wasn’t prepared for the ferocity of the current. You see, we’d had many days of rain in the highlands and the river was in full flood. I had terrible trouble trying to steer my little boat. Without any reason, I just decided to go south. Whenever the river split, I would always take the southern waterway. I had a silly dream that one day, I might find my way back, and then all I’d have to do would be to keep going north.

  ‘I’d heard of the delta, but I never could have imagined the maze it led me to. With the river in full flood, new streams were opening up even while I watched. I kept trying to steer south by watching the sun, but when three routes opened, all leading the same way, it became meaningless. With the rains and the floods, vegetation had exploded into life. The further I went into the delta, the more dense and taller became the grasses. By the end of the second day, I was completely lost. But at least I was floating steadily, outside of the faster flowing main current. I had no choice but to allow the river to take me where it would.’

  ‘So, how long were you drifting for, Mom? How did you ever find your way out?’ asked Lulu in astonishment.

  ‘I don’t know. The first night I thought I was going to freeze to death. The next day, as soon as the sun came over the tall grasses, I thought I was going to burn. I had no water and no food, nothing,’ she laughed at the memory.

  ‘By the end of the third day, lack of food and water made me delirious. By the fourth day, I was hallucinating. I think on the fifth day, I was just drifting in and out of consciousness. All I knew was the boat was still moving and I was getting further and further away from Him. I’ve no idea how long I drifted in my boat. I gave up trying to steer through the reeds many days before.’

  ‘So how did you survive without food or water?’ Kerri asked.

  ‘The only thing I had with me was an oilskin. It was used for covering the boat. I realised that it would hold water, so I spread it out and formed a funnel. It tended to rain a lot at night, so I used it to catch the rain and funnel it into a pool in the middle. It was enough to keep me alive. When it stopped raining, that’s when I started losing consciousness. The delta finally drained back into our river here. Sam tells me he was out harvesting one day alone. He saw the boat drifting by. He realised it was not built like any of the boats the Clan use. So he swam out to pull it ashore. He found me just in time. I was laying under the oilskin in the bottom of the boat, barely alive. But I’d escaped from Him.’

  ‘Who is he, Mom? What’s his name?’

  ‘I daren’t say his name aloud. I’m afraid that he’ll hear me calling.’

  * * *

  ‘Are you serious, Mom?’

  ‘Deadly serious. I know that he read The Book of Power, but I don’t know how much he remembers of it. I know that he’s learnt the Power of Calling, and possibly has the Power of Hearing. He definitely has the Power of Thunder and Lightning. That explosion in Carter’s head that you also heard, Lu, that was his doing. I don’t know if he’s aware that he can only use that once. After it’s been used on someone, the connection between his call and their hearing him is broken. You must be very careful if it’s to be used. It can be used only once.’

  ‘And the power to block him out, that you showed me, that’s also from the book?’ asked Lulu.<
br />
  ‘Yes, it is,’ said Salli.

  ‘Does that mean that you still have the book, it survived your journey, it’s here?’ asked Kerri.

  ‘Yes, I still have it. It’s here with us now.’

  There was a stunned silence as they realised the enormity of the treasure that they carried.

  ‘Will you tell us about this Power of Calling, Salli?’ ask Kerri.

  ‘Well, under the right circumstances, it’s possible to look through the distance that separates people and influence their thoughts. It’s possible to persuade people to do things, by putting your thoughts into their mind. Over time, it’s possible to influence them not just when they sleep, but also when they’re awake. But it has to be very subtle, or the other person may “hear you.” If they do, there’s the possibility they’ll believe there is someone actually talking to them and rebel against it. It’s very easy to do with anyone who has been influenced by the Crystal. But The Book of Power also teaches how to “Call” anyone, even if they’ve never been in contact with the Crystal.

  ‘When I first escaped, and Sam saved me, I’d hear Him, trying to call to me. He was young and inexperienced, and didn’t know if He was doing things correctly. I learnt very early to block out my thoughts so that He never knew if I heard, or if I was even still alive.

  ‘But I heard Him. He would try threatening me, then pleading with me, saying He wanted to marry me! He was desperate to get his hands on the book and would say anything to try to influence me. He was very clumsy. He’s now much more subtle and also stronger. But I’m also more experienced. I can hear Him without Him knowing I’m listening. Now I sense only revenge in His voice and with revenge comes loss of control. I plan to use His mistakes against Him.’