“Okay,” Sam said, settling into a comfortable position.
“There was once a baby ahu bird, newly hatched. From the start, the tiny creature, as well as his parents and all the neighboring birds, thought him to be rather clever and skillful. The tiny bundle of soft baby feathers studied the world intently with intelligent eyes, taking in all the information he could. He often tilted his head to the side while looking at things, obviously figuring out the world and all that was within it.
“As expected, the bird learned quickly and grew out of his baby feathers in a remarkably short time. He began to experiment with his wings, flapping them, stopping to think, and then flapping them in a slightly different manner. He had watched his parents and the other birds take to the skies and he was determined to do so himself.
“The baby bird became obsessed with flying. He spent his days watching the other birds, noticing how they flapped their wings, what their tail feathers did, and the little adjustments they all made with their bodies during takeoff, flight, and landing. All the while, he practiced with his own wings, becoming accustomed to moving them in the manner he chose. He dreamed of flying, knowing that if he could only take flight, he would be an adult, a master of his own destiny.
“As the days went on, the little ahu bird got closer and closer to actually flying. He flapped and flapped, running to gain speed, and on several hops, he seemed to be airborne for longer than a jump would account for. Still, he did not fly. He redoubled his efforts, determined.
“Then, one day, after trying to take off for perhaps the thousandth time, or maybe the ten thousandth, he stayed aloft for several seconds. That was it! He had flown. There was no doubt. Now all he had to do was to practice more and get stronger and he could fly for greater distances and longer times.
“Within two more days, he was able to fly for long stretches. He was jubilant, knowing that he had conquered life and was an adult now, master of all he could see. He hopped into the air and started flying in circles around his family’s home. As he passed by a particularly thick patch of grass, a young pantor leapt out and snatched the ahu bird from the air, eating him in one bite.”
Rindu sat silent, watching Sam for his reaction. Sam just sat there, dumbfounded.
“Close your mouth, Sam,” Rindu said. “Do you not know that if you sit with your mouth open like that a beetle may fly into it?”
“You…he…the baby…the pantor ate him,” Sam finally got out. “That’s a horrible story. Why would you tell me something like that?”
“As with all the stories I tell you, it has a lesson. You must think and find the value in it. Do you understand nothing of the tale?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Is it something about arrogance? The bird thought quite a bit of himself, though I hardly think it was worth him dying over.”
“No,” Rindu said. “It was not about arrogance. It was about the ahu’s nature, but also about human nature.” He lifted an eyebrow at Sam and waited.
“He thought that he had all the world’s problems solved, but then he ran into something he didn’t count on?” Sam answered. He hoped Rindu didn’t give him a hard time for making is sound like a question instead of stating it forcefully.
“Ah, yes,” Rindu said while holding one finger up, “that is much closer to the lesson. You see, Sam, it is not an uncommon thing for humans, or for birds apparently,”—the Zouy chuckled at that—“for the attainment of one goal to crowd out thoughts that there are many other goals out there.
“It is typical for one who trains hard and attains a certain level of skill to think himself as a master, as an ‘adult.’ We very often see this in disciples when they have become skilled. They seem to convince themselves that they have learned all that they must and from then on they will simply need to practice to progress. They are wrong. When one attains a high level of skill, it is not the end of learning, but the beginning. Do you understand what I am saying?”
Sam looked at the ground. “Yes. I’ve fallen into the ‘new black belt’ frame of mind.”
“The what?” Rindu said, his voice betraying his confusion.
“Oh,” Sam said, “it’s a reference to how people learn martial arts in my world. Many schools indicate how far a student has progressed by awarding them belts of different colors. As they go through the ranks, the belt they wear changes color. A student eventually earns a black belt, the highest belt rank for most schools.
“There is a common problem with new black belts. They become arrogant and think they know more than they do, that they are more skilled than they truly are. Any master will tell you that a student’s learning and training doesn’t end when he gets a black belt. It’s then that it really begins.”
Sam raised his eyes to meet Rindu’s. “So, I guess I’ve been acting like an arrogant new black belt because I’m on some kind of high from the battles I’ve managed to survive and all the training I’ve had with you and Nalia. I’m sorry.”
“Do not be sorry, Sam,” Rindu said as he patted his shoulder. “You are not nearly so insufferable as many disciples become. However, it has been holding you back from seeing that true power and true skill comes not from isolating oneself from others, but from acting in unity with them. Once you understand that you are more powerful as a part of a whole than as a whole unto yourself, you will be on the path of learning.”
“On the wireh?” Sam asked.
“The wireh includes the path of learning, but the two are not the same thing. Let us work on understanding harmonious action with others and it will help us move toward understanding and applying the wireh. Does this sound reasonable to you?”
“Definitely,” Sam said. “Thank you, Master Rindu. I guess maybe there were times when I thought I knew more than I actually did. I’m glad I have you around to tell me that I still know little. You and Nalia.”
“It is our job and happy privilege to aid and train you, Sam. You are capable of much more than you know. We will show you how to reach your potential, or at least set you on the correct path so you can find it yourself. Come, it is time to continue our journey. Emerius looks as if he has discovered something important. Let us go ask him about it.”
The Zouy turned toward the hunter and Sam followed, thinking about an ahu bird and a man and wondering what would jump out of the grass to eat him.
Chapter 33
Emerius paused in his reading of the prints on the roadway to look at Sam and Rindu. What were they doing over there? It looked like the Zouy was telling a story, moving his hands in descriptive gestures. Didn’t they understand the urgency of what they were doing? Every moment they did not catch up to Tingai’s forces would be one more moment he could be conducting his experiments on his captives.
He understood the need to pace the rakkeben. Even Oro was getting tired. Still, they should be doing more. He should be doing more.
Inoria had gone off into the trees looking to replenish some of her herbs. The wolves and Oro had eaten and were resting for a few minutes before heading out again. Emerius looked toward the other two in time to see them heading for him. Where were Nalia and the hapaki?
“Have you found something?” Rindu asked.
“Yes,” Emerius said. “I found several sets of prints mixed in with the others that may be of interest. There are some hapaki prints and there is a set of prints that I believe belong to my brother. They have him walking along with the troops. That’s good news. It means he is not so injured that he can’t walk by himself. I would like to catch up to them before that condition changes.”
“I agree,” Rindu said. “As soon as the others return, we will be off. The rakkeben could use more rest, but we must move while there is still daylight to do so.”
Soon, Nalia came from one direction while Skitter bounded out of the foliage from another. The Sapsyr looked as if she had washed off, while the hapaki was carrying some onekai he had found somewhere. Inoria arrived a few minutes later, arms full of herbs. They mounted the rakkeben a
nd Oro and headed out.
An hour later, they came across the first of the outriders.
Emerius had been scouting ahead and saw three men ranging on either side of the path, looking for game while searching for anyone who may have been following the main force. He saw them long before they would have seen him, so he was able to swing wide and go back toward the others.
“There are men looking for anyone following Tingai’s forces,” Emerius told them as he returned. “We have a choice. Either we hide and hope they don’t see any sign of us following them, or we eliminate them to make sure they don’t report our presence. We don’t have long to decide.”
All the others looked at Sam.
“Well?” Emerius said, impatient. “Decide.”
“What are the chances they will miss seeing us and the evidence that we were here?” Sam asked.
“Not very good. We haven’t been hiding our trail. If they are half as competent as they seem, they’ll see someone was here and they’ll start looking. At least one will probably head back to report it while the other two track us.”
Sam seemed to hesitate. He bit his bottom lip and looked toward Rindu and Nalia. He opened his mouth, probably to ask them what they thought, but then he closed it again. He thought for another moment before he spoke. “I don’t believe in ambushing people and killing them,” he said. “Let’s try to hide and hope they don’t see our tracks mixed in with all the others on the road.”
Emerius gritted his teeth. This boy had an overdeveloped sense of honor and fairness. It would get him killed. “Fine. Inoria, keep your bow handy. If they break for it back toward the main force, put an arrow in them. Stop them at all costs.”
Inoria nodded and nocked an arrow.
They split up and found hiding places far enough away so as not to be in the immediate area, but close enough to observe the men. Ten minutes later, Emerius saw them, one by one, moving through the trees beside the road. They were very good They hardly made a sound. He watched their eyes from his vantage point, saw how they scanned the area methodically. He found himself holding his breath as he waited in the space between two rock formations.
Suddenly, one of the men snapped his head up. Emerius swore that the man actually sniffed the air as if catching a scent. He started looking around, scanning, searching. His head swiveled and then went back to where it had just looked. A shrill bird whistle came from his mouth and Emerius saw the other two spread out and start heading back toward where they had come from. The man had spotted one of the party, or their tracks.
Cursing under his breath, Emerius drew an arrow to his cheek, exhaled, calculated mentally where the closest man would be by the time the arrow reached him, and let loose. A twang and a zipping sound broke the silence and one of the men dropped out of sight. The fall was noiseless. Less than a second later, there was a flash of movement and the man who had whistled seemed to sprout an arrow out of the front of his face, angled as it came through the base of the skull from behind.
The third man was running through the trees in a zigzag pattern, trying to foil Emerius’s aim. Nevertheless, the hunter let fly with another arrow. The man tripped just as the shaft was about to strike and the arrow went through his shoulder instead of his neck. Emerius was already hopping out of his hiding place, drawing an arrow from the quiver on his back, nocking it, and shooting as he jumped over a log in front of him. This one took the man in the left eye as he was searching for where the arrow had come from.
When they checked, all three men were dead, as Emerius knew they would be. He knew his business well enough to know when he had delivered a killing shot. So did Inoria. They looked for possessions that may aid them in their quest, but found nothing but their weapons. The quality of their arrows weren’t nearly what he Emerius was used to—he and In made their own—but they took them anyway. They left the bodies to the forest. Sam wasn’t happy about having to kill all three of them, but he finally agreed that they had done their best and had done the only thing they could.
Over the course of the next few days, Emerius and Inoria made a game of hunting Tingai’s outriders. The terrain became mountainous and even more wild, which Emerius loved. He felt at home in wild places such as this.
Emerius looked over at his sister. They were, as normal, out in front of the rest of their party, scouting and searching for trackers.
“That Sam,” he said to her, “has no stomach for what needs to be done. He’s okay in a fight, but he’s too hesitant to take a life when it’s necessary.”
“I don’t know, Em,” Inoria said. “I think he’s made of tougher stuff than you give him credit for.” She thought for a moment, her face going pensive as she took a bite of the dried meat in her hand. “Still, he does have a certain innocence. It makes me wonder if we’re just jaded and have lost sight of who we truly are.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” he felt something stir in his belly. He didn’t know why he felt so defensive.
“Just that maybe we’re a little too quick to kill, a little too slow to look for other ways.” She patted his forearm. “I don’t know. It just all makes me think that there may be other options sometimes, other means for succeeding without killing everything in sight.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he huffed. “Are you ready?”
She stood and dusted off her pants. “Yep. Let’s get moving. We only have a couple of hours of daylight left.”
Each evening, Sam, Nalia, Rindu, and Skitter transported back to Whitehall. Sam always offered to have the twins come with them, but Emerius always “stubbornly” refused—that was how Inoria described it. “We’ll just stay here and camp,” he would tell them.
He had to admit that he was curious to feel the sensation of teleporting to another location more than a thousand miles away, just as he was curious to see this Whitehall he had heard so much about. He couldn’t bring himself to agree, though. Maybe after they rescued the captives he’d go. Maybe then. Ancha would like to see the fortress, he reckoned.
“There’s no doubt,” he told Sam and the others on the seventh day since they had infiltrated Agago, “Tingai is headed for Gromarisa.”
The land had flattened out again, but the trees had become even thicker. In the afternoon of the day before, they had made their way up a high hill and were able to see through the trees. In front of them, maybe twenty miles away, they saw the land drop off. Magnificent, obviously water-carved, formations poked through a massive scar that stretched on as far as they could see. They all just stood there, taking it in. It was the most spectacular thing Emerius had ever seen
“It’s the Grand Canyon,” Sam said under his breath. Of course it was grand, Emerius thought. It was silly for the boy to even say it.
Now, with a whole day of travel ahead of them, Emerius thought that they would probably reach the canyon itself. Then they would have to try to catch Tingai. He wasn’t sure what the scientist was going there for—Sam hadn’t really been clear about that—but he knew he didn’t want to wait until Tingai met up with his boss. What was her name? Rashad or something?
“Let’s go,” he said impatiently. “We need to catch them before they go down into the canyon.”
There were no arguments. Everyone was probably feeling the same as he was: tired of the chase and excited to finally be at the end of it. The odd mix of anxiety and fatigue gave things a dream-like quality, making it seem almost unreal.
As they started off, it began to snow.
Chapter 34
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Chisin Ling asked Nicole as she handed her some tea.
“Yes, I am. Thank you. And thank you for saving me. I thought I was dead.”
“I’m sorry it was so close. I should have been guarding you the whole time, not trying to engage the intruders like that.”
“You saved me,” Nicole said. “That’s all that matters to me.”
She looked around at the shambles that had been their camp. It would be daylight soon and she would be
able to see better, but they had built the fire up so that it was very bright, allowing her to see more than she felt she wanted to. All told, six of the soldiers had been killed, four men and two women. There had been over twenty of the attackers, though they would probably never know the exact number because some had escaped. They were the same men who had made the fire Marr had scouted earlier, she was sure.
The only reason their losses weren’t greater was that the soldiers were more experienced. They had been trained and were simply better warriors compared to the bandits. Pirates, she should probably call them, since they traveled by boat. Of those left in Nicole’s party, probably half of them were injured. Thankfully, none of the injuries were life-threatening, though traveling through the forest with no medicine or modern technology might make them so.
“The fire was a ruse,” Marr said, limping up toward where Nicole was talking to the captain. “They used it to lure me there and then tracked me back here. It’s my fault that we were attacked. I’m sorry, Captain.”
“Hant Marr,” Chisin snapped. “Don’t act like one of your children. It was not your fault. I don’t want to hear another word. Is that clear?”
“Yes ma’am,” Marr said, snapping to attention.
“Good. Do you have a total for me yet?”
“Twenty-two dead, Captain. I think there were probably five or six more that escaped. Do you want us to hunt them down?”
Chisin Ling pondered the question for a moment and then shook her head. “No. They won’t bother us again. We’ll have to try to find their boats when it’s light out. We may be able to use them to reduce our travel time. See to it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Hant Marr said again. He saluted, fist to heart, turned, and walked off, favoring his left leg.
As it turned out, they found only one of the boats. The survivors had taken the other one and apparently didn’t have enough men to take both. The party found the burned-out husk of the second boat, useless for anything other than using the pieces to make charcoal drawings on rocks. It looked as if they would be continuing their trek on land.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 77
