Crystal Throne (Book 1) (7 page)

CHAPTER VII

As they came closer to the old capital city that housed their target, Thad spent more and more time alone. It was not that he wanted to separate himself from the others, but as time passed he found it harder and harder to talk to them. His son also spent a lot of time alone at the beginning of the trip, but as the days had passed he had started talking with Belaroan and Humanius. Bren’s drive for knowledge was envious and many of the conversations he overheard interested him, but Thad found himself holding back. The last time he had talked to Bren was to ask his son if he had a spare set of gloves. Bren had quickly given him a pair, and Thad had tried to think of more to talk about, but no matter how he tried, nothing came to mind.

As he walked at the back of the group, Thad tugged at the gloves that now adorned his hands, covering the small flakes of crystal that had started to appear. The way the crystals spread reminded Thad of how blood poison moved through the body. He had seen it a few time during the war with the Brotherhood. Often time when someone took an injury, it turned bad and their feet and hands started to turn and rot. The longer that it went untreated the more of the body that was lost to the disease, but unlike blood poisoning Thad knew of no way to cure the disease that currently plagued him.

Lifting up the cuff of one of the gloves, Thad looked at one of the light pink crystals that glittered on his palm. He could feel the magic stored in the crystal, but he could hear no voice coming from it. Thad wanted to reach out and touch the crystals that have begun to cover him, but after what had happened last time, he was afraid of losing himself to the magic.

Pulling himself from the depths of his own thoughts, Thad began to look around. Off in the distance, Thad could see what he believed could only be the palace Humanius had spoken of. It was massive, even from this distance Thad could tell that it was larger than any other building he had ever seen before. The top of the palace looked like a spiral reaching to the sky and past, so that you couldn’t even see the top of it through the clouds, it was like a manmade mountain.

Though Thad was sure they were still a full day’s travel from the palace, they began to pass more and more buildings. Not only were they passing more buildings, the buildings began to get larger with each passing mile until Thad’s neck began to cramp from looking up in an effort to see the tops of them.

It was not only the buildings that had changed, but the roads on which they traveled had as well. The roads stretched and rose from the ground in odd formations. Thad found himself looking at them wondering how and why they needed so many roads.

“They were built thousands of years before I was born,” Humanius answered the unasked question, startling Thad as he had not noticed the god’s presence. “My father told me that long ago our people made things that seemed wondrous, even when compared to magic and they did so with only their knowledge of the world around them, but as magic took over the world those things began to fail and were lost to the passing of the ages. Though the roads serve no real purpose, my people kept them to remind of what happens when people reach too far past themselves.”

“Not every place in this world must be like this,” Thad said as he looked around and marveled at the crystalline beauty of the world around him.

“I wouldn’t know what the rest of the world looks like,” Humanius said looking off in the distance. “We live on an island, a large one, but ever since the war that nearly destroyed our world, it was taboo to leave our own land. It was believed that the rest of the world had perished and in all the years we flourished not once had an outsider ever arrived to our land, so it is more than possible that nothing lies beyond our own shores. Even if there had been people beyond they would be long gone thanks to the cancer that has turned everything to crystal.”

“Brother, I think we will soon have guests,” Belaroan called from the front of the group.

“I had expected them far sooner, but I can’t help but wishing that they left us alone until we had reached my father’s house,” Humanius said sighing deeply.

“How can you tell that anything is out there?” Thad asked slightly curious.

“I and my sister have been keeping our senses aware. We have not really been reaching out to the magic, only leaving ourselves open to it. However, even that is dangerous, so we have been taking turns.

Thad followed behind Humanius as they moved to join the rest of the group. “How long until they reach us?” Bren asked looking over his shoulder toward the large palace looming in the distance.

“It’s hard to say, but they don’t seem to be moving as fast as the last group,” Belaroan said. “I would suggest we find a good defensible position and wait for them.”

Thad remained silent and quietly followed Humanius and his sister’s lead. He would have preferred to push forward and try to move around the enemy, but these were not humans they were fighting, but some odd creatures and he doubted they could be as easily fooled. Belaroan picked a large building covered in windows for them to make their stand.

As the others began to take up positions within the building, Thad made his way over to where Humanius stood looking out one of the windows at the road outside. “Humanius, don’t you think all these windows will make it easier for the scions to attack us from multiple directions at once?” Thad asked.

“There is the chance of that, but there are few buildings that are large enough for us to move about without feeling crowded. If they had been noticed earlier, we would have had many choices, but we are now in the common district and most the houses are only meant for families of two or three people.”

Looking around, Thad noticed a number of shelves holding what he believed once were books. Knowing that nothing he could say would make the gods chance their mind he wandered off down the rows. After some time, he picked one of the crystal books at random and pulled it from its shelf. As soon as his gloved hand touched the book something flashed through his mind.

Thad was no longer standing in a world of crystal, but in a brightly lit place of books where numerous people gathered to read at their leisure. “I wish mother wouldn’t force me to read these boring books,” a voice echoed in Thad’s mind. Shortly after the voice had spoken, Thad found himself walking toward the door of the building and out into the daylight. What he saw was unlike what he expected. The landscape was no longer made of crystal, but brick, stone, and metal. The road was made of a dark black stone that seemed as if it was one piece instead of individual stones.

Thad tried to turn around to move in any direction, but nothing he did made a difference. Outside, he mounted a horse and after a short ride reached a small house. As the door to the house opened, Thad’s eyes began to cloud and as everything cleared, Thad found himself once again standing in the crystal building. After a quick look around, Thad noticed that the others still stood where he had last seen them. After replacing the book where he had gotten it, Thad moved off to another section of the building.

Thad found an open section of the building with numerous large crystal chairs. His mind still muddled, Thad sat down and took a number of deep breaths. “What was that?” Thad asked himself, his voice carrying in the quiet building.

If I had to make a guess, I would say that it was a memory.

“A memory,” Thad said silently. Thinking about it, there was little else it could be. The real question was whose memory was it and why had he seen it.

Is it that hard to understand? If I chose, I could show you my memories. In the end that is all I am…An assortment of memories.

“That doesn’t explain why I saw it,” Thad said a slight trace of worry evident in his voice.

Don’t think I know any more about it then you do. I could feel odd magic from the moment that we crossed though the barrier into this world.

For the first time, Thad took a good look at Thuraman. It was then that he noticed that small lines of crystal stared to show on the staff’s smooth wooden body. Thad didn’t know why he was surprised, everything in this world was made of crystal, so why would Thuraman be immune from its effects. “Did you know?” Thad asked Thuraman worriedly.

Yes, though I am not bothered by it. Unlike you, it only affects me slightly. I don’t need my body to move, and as a creature of magic all it has done is increase my capacity. There is the slight murmurs of the magic’s pull, but it is easy enough for me to block it. I am made of gems and crystal so it cannot change what or who I truly am.

“At least that is one of us who doesn’t have to worry about losing himself,” Thad said with a meek laugh.

You might escape if you don’t linger in this place too long. It is hard to say what will happen to you in the end.

“That doesn’t really seem to help,” Thad said slightly irritated. After rubbing his brow, Thad laid his hands down on the crystal chair and once again his eyes clouded and he once again found himself sitting in the building long before it had been turned to crystal.

Thad found his eyes focused on a book that now sat in his hands. Unable to control himself, Thad read the words printed on the cream colored paper. It was a story about a young man who was sailing through the stars in the vast darkness of the abyss of the land beyond the worlds. At first, Thad thought that it might have been a true story about someone from this world, but it didn’t take him long to learn the truth. The story was nothing more than a fanciful story like his wife loved to read. It was meant to ensnare the mind and entertain. Thad didn’t know why, but he hated those kind of stories. Why read for leisure when one could better themselves by reading something that could better themselves.

His own memories clouded those he had been forced into. He had said those words to his wife many times as she had lay in the bed next to him reading. She had always protested that even books meant to entertain had lessons and things one could learn from. No matter what she said, Thad never could see what she meant, but he had learned that bringing it up only brought trouble, so he had stopped bringing it up.

As Thad’s eyes cleared, he was surprised that his own memories were as clear as the one that had overtaken him. With nothing else but time to wait, Thad tried to think about the memories. It wasn’t hard for him to notice that they came over him each time his hand touched something made of crystal. The gloves he wore were made of tanned deer hide and were so thin that it barely interfered with one’s touch.

Pulling off the glove to his right hand, Thad noticed that the crystal scale on his palm had grown much bigger, near the size of a small coin. It didn’t hurt, nor affect the movement of his hand. However Thad was sure that even if his whole hand was made of crystal he could still move it. That was what the enchanted stone he had made was supposed to do, but it seemed that it wasn’t slowing the effects quickly enough… it was still spreading too fast.

Shaking the depressing thoughts from his mind, Thad pushed himself from where he sat and moved back to where the others waited. He found Humanius still looking out the same window he had been moments before. “How does it look?” Thad asked, moving up behind his friend.

“They are moving slowly,” Humanius replied.

“How can you tell?” Thad asked taking a peek out the window himself.

“The scions have much more strength then the rest of the world. They are like a lighthouse to the captain of a ship. Though we can’t exactly tell how far away that beacon is, we can tell how fast it is approaching,” Humanius explained.

“How long do you think we have?” Thad asked as he moved back from the window and cut his eyes over to where his son stood leaning against the door.

“It is hard to say. If I knew how strong the scions were and how many of them there were, then I could better judge, but the truth is I don’t,” Humanius replied. “My best guess is that they will reach us between nightfall and morning, but I could be wrong and they could be here in the matter of moments.”

“I think I will trust you and have a rest,” Thad said turning to move away when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning his head slightly, Thad looked at the knowing face of Humanius looking at him.

“Is something wrong?” The god asked.

“Nothing really,” Thad replied. “Just a bit tired is all.” Humanius let go of Thad’s shoulder and let him go, but Thad knew that Humanius didn’t believe what he had said, but didn’t want to push the issue and that was something Thad was grateful of. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide what was happening, but he wanted time to adjust before he tried explaining it…At least that is what he told himself as he moved off back toward the open area of the building to lay down his pack and spread out his blanket so that he could lay down for a few hours and find some solace in his own company.

It might be best to talk to the god. He has lived a long time and I am sure that he knows far more than either of us about what is happening to you.

“I know,” Thad replied to Thuraman, a bit more bite in his reply than he had intended. “I just need to clear my mind first,” Thad replied in a calmer tone after taking a few moments to sort out his anger.

Time is one thing you might not have. You might not be able to tell, but more is changing than your body. I have seen you mad, confused, and calm. I have spent my life watching yours and you are not yourself now.

“I know, but right now there is little that he could do about it,” Thad said as he covered his eyes with this arm and after a few hours drifted off to sleep.