"Oh, but it is." Naatos set her on the table.
"Naatos." Mara put her hand to her head. "We eat there at breakfast."
Naatos picked up Leslo and moved her to the end table by the door. "Monsters are always a serious matter," he continued, speaking to Leslo. "You must be very strong to fight them."
Kelchon tapped on Naatos's arm. "Can you turn into a bog monster again?"
"No, no, turn into the brain eater." Sadyr hurried up on his other side. "You did that the last time."
"True." Naatos continued to stroke his chin. "But if you've already defeated one monster, would you not rather defeat a new one?"
"No, same one, same one, same one." Leslo bounced up and down, her impatience growing. She shoved Naatos in the chest. "Shift, Uncle Naatos. Shift now!"
"Are you sure you can withstand it?" Naatos shook his head as he looked at them. "I can't let you face a monster if you aren't strong enough. Show me your muscles."
All three children flexed their arms. He examined them soberly, then shrugged. "All right. Then everyone who thinks they're strong enough should run."
"What are you going to change into?" Sadyr asked.
"You'll see. Now go. Go hide or run or get your weapons. Just go." Once they scattered, he looked at WroOth. "You should be the brain eater this time. Come down the second hall."
"You want to be the bog monster then?" WroOth grinned.
Mara returned to the counter, set the dough into a buttered bowl, and began slicing green apples. "Whatever you do, no glowing eyes. Not the abrupt kind. Not the slow burn. Leslo had nightmares last time."
"Very well," WroOth said. "I'll read her a story afterward too."
"No. Not unless you're staying here all night." Mara pointed her knife at Naatos.
"Your room is as you left it if you want to stay," WroOth said. "We can scare the children in the middle of the night."
Mara thumped WroOth on the back of his neck.
Footsteps sounded outside the door, and a gangly youth with unruly pale-blond hair walked in. He was a little older than Sadyr from the looks of him. "Where's Sadyr and Kelchon?" he asked. His diction and tone reminded Amelia of AaQar.
"Nydas, my favorite nephew." WroOth grabbed him in a bear hug and put an apple on his head. "How goes your training?"
"I'm this close to mastering my first form." Nydas tugged free, removing the apple before it fell.
"And which form did you settle on?" Naatos asked.
"The centipede," Nydas said. He grinned a little. "Like yours, Uncle Naatos."
"Ambitious." Naatos gave an approving nod. "Be cautious of the legs. They tend to hook together if you don't give them sufficient attention. Or, worse, they won't descend, and they will puncture your vital organs and flesh, which is excruciating."
"I know." Nydas rubbed his chest. "It's the most painful thing I've ever felt."
AaQar and a tall slender woman with elegantly curled red hair entered the room. Rasha. Amelia recognized her at once. The woman did not look as she had anticipated, and the gentle look she gave AaQar as he moved away from her suggested nothing but a deep love. She crossed over to Mara and began speaking with her in hushed tones.
It was strange too to see AaQar with full color. Even the tapestry didn't do him justice. He carried himself differently. There was a life in his eyes and a contentment in his voice. Some heaviness clung to him and there remained an air of tragedy, but it was nothing like what he bore now.
"WroOth," AaQar said. "Your children are building a barricade in one of the halls. Also some traps have been set up with water and buckets. Are you playing monster again or are you under siege?"
"The bog monster and brain eater will be attacking shortly. Perhaps a salty brine serpent and a centipede might like to join us?" WroOth motioned toward the door.
"Of course," AaQar said.
"I can fight with the grown-ups this time?" Nydas's face brightened.
"Well, you heard our plans. It's either that or we'll have to kill you," Naatos said. "Rasha, are you joining us?"
"Not this time." Rasha pointed to Nydas. "Don't try to be the biggest centipede you can. Be the best."
"All right," Naatos said. "AaQar, you and Nydas take the front. WroOth, take the second hall and circle around. I'll attack from above."
Mara chuckled. She scooped up the apples and dropped them into another bowl. "Just stay out of the dining room."
"Perhaps the mothers can attack after dessert when they don't expect it." Rasha gave a sly wink.
"Perhaps." Mara avoided looking at Rasha.
"As long as the mothers don't fight, I'm happy. But remember, no secrets from me." WroOth then shifted into a bat-like creature with gaping jaws and big eyes. AaQar likewise transformed, becoming a large serpent with salt spines on its head and back, and Naatos shifted into slimy ape with three arms and a massive underbite. "Show us your shifting, Nydas," he said.
Nydas grinned. He clenched his hands together. The transformation was much less smooth. His muscles bubbled and tensed as he slowly transformed. He groaned and gritted his teeth together. After several seconds of intense focus, he snapped into the form, though the centipede only had eight legs. He clacked around on the floor, looking to his parents and aunt and uncles for approval.
Rasha smiled. She stroked his red-brown head and smiled. "Look at how gifted you are."
"Wait…" WroOth's ears pricked up. He returned to his state of rest and held up his hand. "It's too quiet now. I can't hear them." He walked to the doorway and looked out. "Children, what's going on out there?" He turned to gesture to his brothers. "I think we're about to be ambushed."
"Yes, you are." A large dragon hand reached down from the top of the arch on the other side. It seized WroOth by the back of the neck and dragged him up.
"QueQoa." Mara ran out into the hall as well. "Put my viskare down, please. Children, get off QueQoa. All of you please get off the wall. It's time for dinner anyway."
A large brown dragon clung to the wall, holding WroOth by the back of the neck with one hand while keeping all the children on his back with the other. His long, curved back claws and his forearm claws dug into the wall.
"You actually want this veskal, woman?" he shrugged and released WroOth before jumping down himself. "Off now, children. Your mother will fillet me otherwise."
Mara set her hands on her hips in mock indignation. "You think that's how I would respond? When will you grow up, QueQoa? You should know by now I'm far more dangerous than that, and I would never waste one of my knives on you."
"You are correct. My heart is aflutter with terror." QueQoa returned to his state of rest. He was a large Vawtrian with long brownish-blond hair and intense blue eyes, more cobalt than crystal. He dusted the dirt and stone dust from his dark blue tunic and bear hugged Mara. "Good to see you again though."
"It's good to see you too, but put me down." Mara smacked his shoulder, grinning. "You are setting a bad example."
WroOth groaned and sat up as Leslo pounced on him. "You children realize this is treason, don't you? Now you'll have to help me get your Uncle QueQoa back."
Sadyr ran into the kitchen and grabbed Nydas by the hand. "No, you took Nydas, so we took Uncle QueQoa. Nydas, you belong with us."
"Besides, we've got a fort," Kelchon said.
"Did no one hear me say it's dinnertime?" Mara asked.
"Please play." Leslo grabbed QueQoa's hand. She began climbing him as if he were a tree. "Really fast before dinner is ready."
"It's ready now," Mara said.
"You heard your mother," QueQoa said. "Besides, that would be five mighty children against five adults. Does that sound fair?"
Amelia looked away from the tapestry and back at WroOth. "So QueQoa is adopted. Your eyes are similar. Not exactly in color. But something else."
WroOth chuckled. He looked away, wiping the tears from his eyes. He smiled and shrugged. "He's adopted. His mother was a water Shivennan like mine. We grew up together. He's i
n and out as he chooses, but he's a part of the family. There is always a place for him where we are. You'll meet him soon. He's actually leading the Vawtrian forces." WroOth sighed and looked back at the tapestry. It continued with its depiction of the evening.
Amelia nodded. Something dreadful had happened to Mara and the children. She knew that that was coming. It was hard to turn her gaze back to the tapestry. "You have a beautiful family," she said softly. It was weak, but it was the only thing she could think to say.
"This night was the last night we were all together. Rasha and Nydas disappeared a short time later. According to the note Rasha left, she no longer wanted anything to do with AaQar. She could be cruel at times. Her perspective was not always the same as ours. But she was never cruel to AaQar. Until that letter."
"That is very strange," Amelia said. It didn't line up with what she had seen either. There had been some tension between Mara and Rasha, but not between AaQar and Rasha.
"We have yet to find an answer. AaQar…he did not take it well. We searched with all our resources for her and Nydas but found nothing. And then…circumstances required that we leave for a time. It was…" WroOth swallowed hard. Tears brimmed in his eyes. His voice caught. He wasn't telling her everything. "So we left."
Amelia could have persisted further, searched through his memories to find exactly what it was. But unlike Naatos she did not want to press into a part of WroOth's mind where he did not want her. The grief seethed within him, growing with each moment.
"We left them with a full contingent of Vawtrian warriors as well as Machat. That seemed like it should be enough. We weren't gone long. But whoever they were, they had been watching us." WroOth closed his eyes. He put his hand to his face, pressing against the bridge of his nose. "They were gone. Everyone. The Vawtrian warriors. The Machat. Mara. Sadyr. Kelchon. Leslo. Ephalon. There was one note, telling me that they had been taken and I had twelve hours to find them."
"Were they holding them for ransom?" Amelia asked.
"No." WroOth struggled to laugh, but it sounded more like a strangled sob. "Just telling us that we had twelve hours before they died."
Amelia's eyes widened. Fear and horror stabbed her, all the worse for being able to glance over and see the sweet faces of those children. "Why?"
"They could have asked for almost anything, and I would have given it to them," WroOth said. "I went to the Machat while the search parties started. Everyone was searching. But the Machat were our only hope. AaQar and QueQoa roused the entire Vawtrian army to search while Naatos prepared a task force of Neyeb trackers and skinhunters. I sent out the eagles. You'll probably recognize a familiar face." WroOth motioned to another tapestry across from them.
In the tapestry, WroOth paced in a circular stone room, similar to the one she and he were in now. A dozen Machat sat around a polished wooden table with various sketches, parchments, and art materials before them. Most were older men and women, but one was quite young. Amelia realized with surprise that it was Kepsalon. He looked so different as a young boy, his brow and cheeks no longer wrinkled, his hair far longer and braided in smooth plaits.
"Kepsalon was the youngest on the council. Approximately fifteen by your equivalent. He was on that council because of me. Onar, their leader, felt that he was too young, but I insisted. He was the most skilled Machat I had ever met." His voice was tight and strained now, as if there was far more that he wasn't saying.
The tension stung Amelia. She turned her palms in, not wanting to feel any more now. The dread that hung over her warned that it would get worse. But she looked back into the tapestry.
"We have four hours left, and still you have uncovered nothing!" the tapestry WroOth shouted. He slammed his fists against the table. "I know the odds! Let me enter the Levthro."
"Lord Para, we realize that this is the greatest of trials to bear," said Onar. He spoke with a soothing voice, motioning for WroOth to sit. "But your anger will accomplish nothing. Now, it is forbidden to use the Levthro in situations like this where there are more than ninety percent odds that the result will be death. To see any death in all of its trails and possibilities is damaging enough, but to see the death of a single loved one in all its alternatives will plant a seed of madness in even the strongest mind."
"Then plant it in mine!" WroOth bellowed. "After all I have done for you, shouldn't you do as I say? This is my family on the line. It is the only way we can find them. I accept the madness! Take my life, take my mind, but give me what I need to save my wife and children!" Seizing a chair, he slammed it against the wall. The wooden frame cracked and shattered.
"Lord Para, it gives us no joy to tell you this. But it is forbidden." Onar glanced around the table. The other Machat were all scribbling, meditating, and scratching on the parchment with quills. But all their images and sketches were abstracts without connection, many overshadowed with suggestions of a literal darkness. "We must continue with the traditional methods and pray that will be enough to push back against the darkness."
WroOth turned slowly. The veins in his neck throbbed as he clenched and unclenched his fists. "Then one of you should go in. Go into the Levthro, ask it where I will find Mara and the children. Then tell me what it reveals."
Onar held up his hands, his expression becoming stern. "To go into the Levthro in a situation such as this is dangerous beyond anything you can conceive. Particularly after the earthquake. It is more unstable now than it has ever been, and it could cause us to make devastating missteps. It will show everything without clarification of what is most likely to be." He motioned around the table. "We have four hours before the deadline—"
"No!" WroOth shouted. He grabbed another chair and slammed it against the wall. Fragments of wood splintered and fell against the floor. "Your methods have revealed nothing."
"Something is blocking us, Lord Para," Onar said. "And whatever it is will extend to the Levthro. I believe that it is possible that, whatever this is, it is trying to destroy you as well. We will not show you the Levthro. In truth, there may be nothing that we can do. If we are to succeed, it will be because the—"
WroOth lunged at him, seizing him by his ecru and brown robe and slamming him against the wall. His eyes blazed. "After everything I've done for you," he snarled. "After everything I have sacrificed to protect you and your miserable kind, you would deny me the one thing I ask: to protect my family! Either tell me where they are or take me to the Levthro. Otherwise, I will kill you where you stand. I will kill you all!"
"Wait." Kepsalon stood from the table, his eyes wide and his face pale. The parchment before him was blank except for a few streaks of ink along the corner and half the lines of a face. "I now know where they are."
WroOth released Onar and turned. The old man slumped to the floor. WroOth's eyes narrowed. "Where are they?" His voice was a deadly rumble.
"On one of the untamed worlds. Ilskarell." Kepsalon came to stand in front of WroOth, his hands clasped tight behind his back. His fingers trembled.
"Is this a vision or a guess?" WroOth demanded. He looked at the sand clock. The grains of sand ran down in a constant stream, shirring together in the bottom of the copper pan. "If we go to this world and search for them, we will have no other time. We may still yet go to the Levthro and be certain."
"It is foreknowledge," Kepsalon said. "They are there. I swear it. Have the other prophets confirm what I have seen."
Murmurs of assent rose from around the room. "It will take half an hour perhaps," Onar said.
Kepsalon nodded. "Yes, let them confirm. But I am not lying. It's what I saw. We have to hurry."
WroOth stepped closer. "Swear to me on the lives and souls of your people. Swear to me that we will find them there."
"I so swear it." Kepsalon bowed his head. "I will go with you once we have confirmed this. If it is not as I say it is, then you can kill me. May the blood of your wife and your children be on my head if I am wrong."
"It will be on your head and on the head of
every Machat in existence if you are wrong," WroOth said. He looked around the room, focusing on each of the Machat. "You have all disappointed me this day. Your reluctance to aid me when I most needed it was not one of the horrors I expected to experience. But if you have any honor, you will all tell me now whether you agree with Kepsalon's foresight. If any of you has seen differently or contradicts him, then speak now. Otherwise…you will all be judged by his words."
Silence filled the room. The Machat looked at one another. Then one by one, they spoke, saying that Kepsalon's word would bind them if WroOth would wait for them to confirm what he had seen.
WroOth's grip on Amelia's arm tightened. "Had they let me into the Levthro, I would have seen the truth. There would have been time. But I trusted them. I trusted him, and he was…" WroOth pulled her to the next tapestry. "We went to Ilskarell and searched. The entire Vawtrian army and thousands of others descended upon it to systematically cover it. And the skinhunters found where Mara and the children were. Were. All we found was a note from their abductor, mocking us, telling me where I would find them approximately. And Kepsalon…" WroOth scoffed, shaking his head. "He stayed behind to test his words with the prophets and promised to come warn me if it turned out there was something wrong with it."
"And there was…" Amelia found it harder to breathe around the heavy dread building within her.
"Yes. Apparently he learned this shortly before we found the note. The one wise thing he did was to flee when he learned his mistake. And these are the consequences of his failure." WroOth motioned to another tapestry.
Amelia forced herself to look, her palms sweating and her stomach twisting in knots. The pain and anger that radiated out of him dug into her like a thousand knives. WroOth was staring into the tapestry, his face flushed and his eyes bloodshot.
The tapestry WroOth was soaring out across a silver desert. Even his movements, rapid but jerking, indicated his terror and rage. The pale sun shone high in the sky, marking early afternoon.
"Where is everyone? Your brothers? The other Vawtrians?" Amelia asked.
Enemy Known Page 32
