Way Walkers: Tangled Paths (The Tazu Saga)

by Leigh, J.

  Table of Contents

  MAP

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE: HOME

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  PART TWO: JOURNEY

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  PART THREE: REPUBLIC

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  PART FOUR: NORTH

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  ABOUT J. LEIGH

  AUTHOR’S NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  GLOSSARY: TERMS, RACES, PEOPLE, CHILDREN, AND WAYS

  Way Walkers: Tangled Paths

  The Tazu Saga™

  A Red Adept Publishing Book

  Red Adept Publishing, LLC

  104 Bugenfield Court

  Garner, NC 27529

  http://RedAdeptPublishing.com/

  Thank you for downloading this Red Adept Publishing eBook

  Join our mailing list and get our monthly newsletter filled with upcoming releases, sales, contests, and other information from Red Adept Publishing.

  Click here to sign up

  Or visit us online to sign up at

  http://redadeptpublishing.com/subscribe-to-our-monthly-newsletter/

  Copyright © 2013 by J. Leigh. All rights reserved.

  First Kindle Edition: April 2014

  Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

  This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the original purchaser only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Dedicated in loving memory to my cousin Chris, my first fan and friend. I know you’re smiling at us all from the near side of the Veil.

  Miss you always, cuz.

  MAP

  PROLOGUE

  The egg rocked.

  “Oh, oh! It’s moving!” Rhodonith crept closer to the swaying oblong shape, her wedge-shaped snout not quite bumping it. The movement of her back feet mimicked the fluttering of her heart. “Are you coming?” She snorted, and the warm mist of her breath left behind a thin layer of sparkling dew.

  “I can see that. Don’t crowd it too much, Rhod.” Petalith watched from the far side of the hatchery, just before the sand line. Sitting with scaled knees tucked casually under her folded arms, she toyed with the hot granules with her toes. Petalith’s emerald-green robes matched her medical bag, which lay beside her.

  Craning her neck to peer out from under the translucent pink of her spread wing, Rhodonith gave Petalith a sheepish look. “I’m sorry, Pet! It’s my first egg!”

  “But it’s not mine,” the healer called. “Stop fussing and don’t crowd it so!”

  While lacking wings and a tail in bipedal form, Petalith was still an intimidating six heads and five scales, making her taller than Rhod’s shoulders even when Rhodonith was in full dragon form. When she shifted, Petalith, even longer and taller, carried herself with a beautiful elegance that left Rhod feeling stumpy and childish. Rhod also envied the unique pearled jade of Pet’s scales, even while secretly feeling her stark black stripes were superior. As a Way Walker and a Daughter of Desmoulein, Petalith had been present at more hatchings than Rhodonith could even count—including her own some twenty years ago—so it was hard to dispute her.

  “All right, all right.” Rhod took a half step back from the egg, but she couldn’t resist curling her pink body and tail into a circle encompassing her unborn. She heard Pet giggle. “Oh, shush. You know how important this egg is! Leave me be!”

  Raising her head, Rhod inhaled the dry air and let the heat filling her lungs calm her. The hatchery’s ceiling stood a good twenty heads above her snout. From the end of her nose to the tip of her tail, Rhod measured exactly one length—or twelve heads—a respectable height, but she wasn’t quite sleek enough to be considered a beauty by Tazu standards. She tried to quell her petty insecurities; she was going to be a mother soon. Montage, Gold Dragon of the Way of All Ways, calm my heart and keep my child. The simple entreaty made her feel better.

  Beside her feet, she felt a flutter. Opening her golden eyes, she crouched again, eager and worried in equal measure. She awaited another wiggle, a crack, anything.

  The egg lay still.

  “Oh! Pet, it’s not rocking!”

  “Give it time, Rhod.” The healer laughed again. “Hatching is hard work.”

  A terrible thought leapt into Rhod’s mind. “What if it can’t get out?”

  “You conceived it in tyrn-form,” Pet replied. “That means the little one’s got claws and wings and a tail in there. It knows what to do!”

  Another uncomfortable feeling rumbled in Rhodonith’s stomach. She recalled all the rumors in the Tazu royal court, saying she was too young to be a mother. Yet the need called for it. The terrible earthquake ten years ago had shown no bias in what lives it took. Thousands had died, the royal family being no exception, as they were deprived of both their future king in Rhod’s uncle and future queen in her mother. With her grandmother, the current queen, too old to bear children, the Tazu Nation had been left with her great-uncle as king and a ten-year-old Rhod. As soon as she came of age, Rhodonith had embraced her duty to give her country both a male and a female heir. She nervously thrashed her tail, her confidence in accomplishing the task wavering more with each wobble of her little egg.

  “Calm down, Rhod!”

  Inching even closer, Rhod sensed a tiny wobble of panic from her unborn child. “Pet, I think it’s in trouble! I can feel the upset!”

  “That’s just you, silly! You might be a Talent, but you’re all worked up! You can’t trust your empathic Ability right now. The egg’s fine. Give it some more time.”

  From behind her, Rhod heard the groan of the hatchery door. A gust of cooler air wafted in from the hall. She coiled her tail and wings around the egg to protect it from the crisp air.

  “His Highness wants to know if there’s any word.” The page’s voice made R
hod’s ears prick, but she kept her attention on the wiggling, blue-white shell.

  “We’ve some rocking,” Pet told him. “But it will be a bit yet.” The healer’s voice carried a slight patronizing tone. “The mother, on the other hand, is going to worry herself into a frenzy if she doesn’t let nature take its course.”

  More anxiety radiated from her child’s blue-white prison. Rhodonith kneaded the white sand, the warm granules shifting fluidly around her black claws. “Pet.” She pitched her voice to a rational but anxious level. “I know you don’t believe me, but I’m telling you I can feel its emotions, and it’s not happy.”

  “Would you be feeling calm if you woke up one day, and there was no more room for you to move in the only warm place you’ve known? And the only instinct you have is to break past that world, but you hear and feel some unknown creature pawing around outside? Give the babe some room, young highness, or it will never feel safe enough to punch through!”

  Rhod complied, though she did not like how Petalith’s logic kept altering to fit her beliefs, despite evidence to the contrary. She swept her long, black-striped tail across the sand, leaving half-moon gullies. Her golden Monortith eyes stayed fixed, however. Swaying again with more rhythm, she heard a little thump from within the egg, and then her empathic mind erupted in a tight whirl of fear and pain.

  Her baby was stuck.

  “No, no, no. Petalith, something is wrong!”

  The egg teetered and fell over. Soft sand cradled it, preventing a crack. From within its depths came a suffocated cry that could only be a piercing call for help. Rhodonith turned and focused her pleading on the healer.

  “Very well, child. Give it a tap to help it out!” Petalith turned her blue eyes to the waiting human page. “It was an early egg. Sometimes the shell hardens before the babe’s claws. It might need a little crack to get it going.” Her tone turned shrill as she warned Rhod, “But not too hard!” She shook her blond head. “You don’t want to pierce a wing membrane or an eye because you couldn’t wait!”

  “Well, what’s the best way?” Rhod asked. “You’re the expert, so help!”

  “Light pressure at the very top of the egg, and use the side of your claw! There you go. It just needs a start, dragonfly!”

  Tiny black cracks zigzagged down from the crown of the egg, leaving Rhodonith with a sense of accomplishment. “There you go, little heir,” she murmured. “Mommy helped, but now you can do it.” The egg no longer rocked, but she still heard frightened cries growing louder and more desperate. “Petalith, it’s not breaking the shell. It’s just crying!”

  “All right,” Petalith said in a calm voice, belying the sliver of concern in her eyes. “You’ll need to wedge the tip of your claw under one of the cracks and then pull the shell open. But carefully! Remember, there’s a babe in there. Pry and lift, but don’t pierce.”

  “Right.” Rhodonith gently clasped the egg. “Mommy’s here. Mommy will get you out safe.”

  With utmost care, she wiggled the needle-sharp tip of her pinky claw slowly into the largest crack. With a creaking sound, the shell lifted, spilling light into the egg for the first time. Rhod roared in triumph, only to have her heart skip a beat when she peered inside. Something’s wrong.

  “There you go!” Pet called. “Now let it do the rest on its own.”

  “No.” Rhod pulled up more shell. “It can’t be.”

  “What are you doing? You’ll hurt it, Rhod!”

  Rhod barely heard as she pulled at the shell in a frenzy to free the child.

  “Rhod!”

  “It can’t get out,” she tried to explain, and then the shell cleaved oddly and split straight down the middle, dumping a far-too-tiny babe into the world.

  In the light of the hatchery, she saw her son for the first time, and she knew. He had no wings, no tail, no scales—only two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, and the indisputable evidence that he was a boy. Petalith and the page gasped, but whether in surprise or horror, she did not know. All she saw was her newborn in danger. Maternal instinct overrode all rational thought as the babe’s soft skin came into contact with the ground.

  “Oh, Pet, the sand!” Terror consumed her. With her needle-sharp claws, Rhod could not scoop him up directly, and the sand was so hot she did not want to get more of it on him, either. For all her care, she still scraped his little side, and a horrible welt of blood bloomed on his fragile newborn body.

  “Get His Highness,” Petalith ordered the page before coming over, medical bag in hand. Her feet thundered over the tiny dunes. “Don’t shift, don’t shift. You’ll drop him!” Halting beside Rhod, she dropped her bag and held out her hands, her smaller, claw-tipped fingers a safer home for the babe. “Pass him here, Rhod, but gently.”

  Cupped claws shaking, Rhod managed to pass her wailing son to the healer, but not until he was safely planted in Pet’s hands did she dare breathe.

  “I’ve got to get him off the sand, dragonfly. Shift and bring my bag.” Pet turned and walked delicately back to the edge of the sand.

  Rhodonith shifted into her shorter, compact Tazu form and snatched the bright green bag without skipping a beat. She trotted after the healer, holding her reformed golden dress up at the hem. “Will he be all right?” she asked, looking in horror at the babe’s wounds.

  “I’ve got to get a good look at him.” Pointing with her chin, Pet added, “Go ahead and get the silver-lined blanket out of the black case. It’s sterile and will protect against heat and infection. Spread it out on the bench next to the sand line.”

  Rhod knelt and opened the medical bag. Pet was beside her the moment she had laid the blanket on the stone bench, and her son was placed upon it, still wailing.

  “Well, his lungs are fine,” the healer murmured, digging through her bag. She poured sterilized water from a bottle then softly dabbed the red welt with gauze. “Very shallow.” Smearing some cream across it, she remained mindful all the while of her claw-tipped fingers. “I doubt it will even scar. Probably stings something awful, though.”

  “What of the burn? The sand?”

  “First degree, it might blister a bit, but he’ll live.” She bound the welt but not the burn. “We’ll take these off tonight, even.” Picking him up, she scrutinized him some more, checking for any other obvious injuries. Then she put him back down and laid her palm over his little chest, closing her eyes.

  Rhod felt the slight shiver of energy in the air as the Way Walker used her Ability and training under the Way of Desmoulein to scan the child’s entire system, physical and spiritual.

  “He’s fine, if a bit hungry and uncomfortable.”

  Rhod’s throbbing worry eased considerably.

  After fetching a new blanket from her bag, the healer sheathed the little prince in gold-colored cotton and presented him to Rhod. “The newest Monortith, born this twenty-sixth day of the first month, year 939 of the eighth millennium.”

  Rhodonith scooped up her baby. Holding him properly for the first time, she did her best to ignore the pity that had flickered in Pet’s eyes. She bounced the boy, trying to quell his crying, but she knew the issue could not be ignored. Rhod found she could not say the words and was left gaping, her forked tongue pressed against her bottom teeth.

  “He’ll nurse the same as a Tazu-born babe,” Petalith offered, leading her over to the bench. “You’re just going to have to help him get started until his teeth come in.” Pulling the top of Rhod’s dress down, Pet pinched a nipple to get milk flowing. Once he smelled the meal, the newborn found the source and grew quiet as he suckled.

  “There, he’s got it.” Pet smiled. “He might need help now and again; Tazu-in-full have claws to knead milk out. If he’s not getting enough, help him like this.” She showed Rhod how to balance him in one arm and use her other hand to apply some light pressure to her brea
st.

  The baby cooed as he got a headier flow of milk, and Rhod smiled at the sound. She sighed as she stared down at her very human-looking baby. “He’s a moot.”

  “Looks that way, dragonfly.”

  Kyanith’s voice sounded from the doorway. “A what?”

  His tone pierced Rhodonith in the gut, but she peered around Petalith anyway, brave faced as she always was with him. “Hello, Uncle.”

  Kyanith Monortith was actually her great-uncle, and at an aging three hundred seventy-two, he had been king of the Tazu Nation for almost two hundred fifty years before Rhod had even been born. In his prime, he had been a gorgeous silver blue, towering over most Tazu at an alarming seven heads, two scales while bipedal. Though age had robbed him of his shine by turning his scales a duller gray, he still retained the height, looming over them with a blank expression. Recognition bloomed in his piercing golden eyes, and his white-clawed hands rolled into fists.

  Rhodonith unlatched her son from his meal, ignoring his soft protests, and handed him to Petalith. Righting her dress, she rose and faced the monarch. “Uncle, despite a difficult hatching, the Monortith line has a very healthy and strong-willed boy, who also happens to show the characteristics of a moot.” She did her best to ignore the deep furrowing of his steel brow and swallowed hard as their matching eyes met.

  “A moot!” He gnashed his sharp white teeth as he beheld the babe. “What did you do, Rhodonith? Did you take a mate out of season? You claimed eggs sometimes come early, but I suspected anyway!” He grabbed her, his claws pressing into her upper arm. “Who was he? Some lower bloodline? Some human?”

  “No!” Rhodonith squawked, twisting away. The crackle of heated anger rose in her chest. “I would not compromise the lineage when there are so few heirs! But even if I had felt such a foolish inclination, it would still have been my right to choose, as a woman, as a Tazu, and as a follower of Montage! Do not scathe me with your narrow-minded accusations!”