Crystal Throne (Book 1) (9 page)

“Good point lad,” Humanius said as the god turned around and started heading back the way they had come. “The council building is at the northeast corner of town. I don’t know why, but the people of the past never like to place government buildings too close together unless they belonged to the same group. If they had half a brain, they would have kept everything in the same area so that you didn’t have to spend most your day traveling just to speak with more than one of them.”

“Then you must hate our world,” Thad said laughing. “We don’t even keep them in the same part of the country. If you need the queen’s justice, you have to go to the capital, everything else is in its own duchy or county. Honestly I think even my wife gets confused about who she needs to talk to about some of the country’s affairs.”

“Mother would get a bit edgy when she had to work out who was responsible for what,” Bren said, laughing for the first time in days. “Most of the time, the lines were so cloudy she would just decide who it should have been, then she would tell them. Though until she decided, she was a bear to live with.”

“At least that hasn’t changed about her,” Thad said with a smile.

They walked until the sun set, then picked a nice spot to camp. It had been a long day, but Thad knew that many more were ahead of him, so he took no time to ponder and quickly lay down for what sleep could be afforded him.

CHAPTER IX

As Thad dreamt, he found himself floating in the darkness he knew so well and for one of the few times in his life he welcomed it. Most of the time Maria had searched him out in his dreams, he had been on the wrong side of her anger, though in all honestly, he was sure that she was not that pleased with him.

As the darkness began to clear, Thad found himself in the Farlan palace gardens among the moon lilies. The moon was high in the sky and the lilies were in full bloom and glowing lightly.

“You always loved the moon lilies,” Thad said as he bent down and took a whiff of their fragrant bouquet.

“I remember when we were younger and sat playing cards in the balcony overlooking this garden,” Maria said in a lighthearted voice.

“Is that when you decided you would leash me for the rest of my life,” Thad said turning around to see his wife.

Maria wrapped her arms around Thad. “Don’t be silly,” she said a smile creping across her face. “I decided the day I first saw you that you would be mine.”

“I don’t think telling your husband that you decided to chain him to you when he was being sold as a slave is the best way to show your affection,” Thad said with a mock frown.

“I had mother pay for you then, and while you tried to run, in the end you were still mine bought and paid for,” She said pulling him down into a deep kiss. “You might not always listen to my commands, but in the end your still mine and mine alone.”

“I missed you,” Thad said after a few moments of silence.

“As I have you,” Maria replied. “That is why you need to hurry home, and bring our foolish son along with you. He has been showing too many of your less than desirable traits over the past few years.”

“I will,” Thad promised. “As soon as we have saved the world.”

“I could care less about the world,” Maria said angrily. “I would gladly watch the world burn around me as long as I knew that my family was safe.”

“I could easily agree with you,” Thad said as a tear rolled down his face. “The problem is our son doesn’t see it the same way and if I have any hope of bringing him back home then I will have to watch over him though I don’t really know what I can do.”

“You will do everything you have to, Thaddeus Torin, and more,” Maria declared.

“I am surprised that you haven’t visited me before this. I thought that after our first nightly visit I would be seeing you every night.”

Maria let out a soft sigh. “I wish that I could, but it is hard to reach you. I don’t know where you are, but each night I search for you and I must fight through a fog to even get a hint of you. When I do find you it leaves me tired and I wake as if I had not slept for a week.”

“Don’t push yourself,” Thad said as the darkness started to close back in on him. “This place is dangerous and I don’t know how it might affect you and your gift.”

“I will, but I won’t stop searching for you every night,” Maria said as the darkness claimed him.

When Thad woke, he looked around to see that everyone else was already preparing for the coming day. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier,” Thad said, and he rose from his pallet on the hard ground.

“We don’t need as much sleep as you,” Humanius said. “We do need to get going soon though, more of the scions are already on their way. We might be able to stay ahead of them if we move fast and keep moving.”

“Then we better get going,” Thad said as he quickly put away his blanket and pulled a few loafs of bread from his pack. As he broke off a piece and stuffed it in his mouth he was happy that he had made the pack when he was younger. It was one of the few things that seemed to be there each time he needed it.

Instead of heading back into the plains, they took an offshoot that skirted the edge of the town. They kept the buildings to their right as they followed the road. At first Thad thought it was because it was the easiest route, but the more he thought about it the more he understood the real reason. The scions were following them and at least this way they would be able to see them more easily than if they were completely surrounded by buildings. It would do them little good if they found themselves wandering into a mist of a large group of scions.

Thad couldn’t help himself from looking over his shoulder every now and then. Humanius said that more scions were already on their trail and Thad couldn’t help but feel as if something was watching him, though he wasn’t sure if it was the scions or the voice the scions had spoken of.

“What was the voice?” Thad asked himself as he walked slowly behind the others.

I believe it is the voice of the ether. The consciousness of the magical energy that has been gathered here. It is the same voice that called to you and nearly pulled you out of your own skin not that long ago.

“Can you hear it?” Thad asked Thuraman. The staff had been oddly silent as of late. Most of the time Thuraman hounded him every step of the way; telling him his every mistake, real and imagined. Thad berated himself for not noticing the staff’s silence earlier. He had learned long ago that nothing out of place that happened was without cause and he knew better than to ignore those signs.

Yes I can hear the voice, though I block it as best as I can.

“What does it say?” Thad asked, his mind whirling with possibilities.

I do not know…I don’t want to know. I am afraid that if I listen to the words…Really listen then it will take me like a thief in the night. I might not be able to lose my body to the crystal, but as I told you many times before, I can just as easily lose myself to the call of the magic as you can.

Thad cursed to himself. “Can you tell me anything of the voice…Can you tell me how it tracks us, how it works, how it sees?”

It doesn’t see…Not the way you do. It sees much the same way I do, much the same way you do when you use your senses instead of your natural eye. It feels the flows of magic, as magic is as part of it as your arms are part of you. It can tell where the magic touches and is received and where it is not.

“That’s it,” That exclaimed out loud, making everyone’s head turn toward him.

“Did something happen?” Bren asked a slight trace of worry crossing over his face.

“I think I know how the voice sees us,” Thad explained. “Now I just have to find a way to block it, though knowing makes it that much easier to do.”

“You didn’t even know how it saw us?” Belaroan nearly shouted. “If I had known you were so ill prepared for the task I would have never went along with this fool’s errand.”

“Quiet sister,” Humanius said raising his hand. “You know as well as I do that without something to hide us we will not last to reach our goal. It is a chance we must take and Thad we must put our faith in. Now let us continue; the scions are getting closer with each passing second and I would not like then to reach us before we are ready. Not to mention that if we wish to reach the council building on the marrow we also need not delay more than is necessary.”

The scions came into view just as night began to fall. Thad couldn’t help but think the way the failing light glittered over their crystal bodies was enchanting in its own way. Without the godlings, it was Bren and Humanius that stood at the front of the group to defend them. Thad didn’t like the idea of standing back while his son was in danger, but he also knew that if he stood next to him in battle all that he would accomplish would be putting himself in danger that he was not equipped to handle, and that would most likely endanger Bren as well.

There were only two scions approaching this time. One was human and the other reminded Thad of a horse, though its head was slightly larger than those back home. It seemed that the scions, no matter their kind, could work easily with each other.

When the scions neared, Bren took on the man while the god challenged the horse. Just as before, Bren’s sword cleaved though the scion as if the crystal was made flesh, though after the first strike, that took the creatures hand from its wrist, it kept a weary distance from the obsidian blade, trying instead to strike at Bren’s left side.

As Bren fought the human, Humanius struck at the horse. The gods fighting style reminded Thad of a mixture of a bar room brawler and an acrobat. The god used no weapon other than his fists, but those were put to deadly use. Each strike shattered crystal as easily as if the god was striking paper. The scion reared and kicked, but the god danced about, always gone before any attack could even touch a strand of his hair.

Humanius was the first to finish with his foe as the creature had made an ill-fated attack, leaving its flank open and Humanius had charged in, shattering the horse, leaving it in two pieces that was hardly a challenge for the god. Once finished, Humanius did not go to Bren’s aid as Thad expected, but instead stepped back and gave the other man plenty of room to work, the god’s hand resting calmly on his chin as he watched the younger god fight.

Bren worked cautiously, striking only when the scion presented an opening. As Thad watched the battle, he found himself watching the scion more than his son. The creature moved with the grace of a human and one accustomed to fighting. Thad didn’t know if it was due to the voice that he moved such a way, but he doubted it as the three before had not moved with such distinction. When the scion made a lumbering grab for Bren, Bren easily sidestepped and struck the scion at the neck, severing its head.

“Fool,” Thad yelled as Bren turned around giving no more heed to the scion. Hearing his father’s voice, Bren turned around just as the scion jumped atop him, its impossibly strong arm griping at his throat. Before Thad could think of helping his son, Humanius calmly kicked the creature in the side, shattering what was left of it to fine dust.

Bren quickly rose to his feet and dusted the fine shards of crystal from his clothes and hair. Humanius said nothing to him surprising Thad. When the god looked to him, Thad nearly nodded as unspoken words passed between the two. “There are more scions stalking us, but they are too far away to be of any real worry. The more we face them the easier it is for me to judge the distance and number, though it still requires a lot of guess work. I would suggest we push on a bit farther then make camp in a sturdy building.”

They continued down the winding roads for the better part of an hour before stopping at a small house, though one made solidly with just a few windows and only one way in or out. It wasn’t perfect as far as buildings went, but it was far better than anything else they had found thus far and with darkness creeping on them they had little choice in the matter unless they wanted to risk stumbling through the streets in total darkness.

Thad waited until Bren had chosen a place to sleep and then placed his blanket next to his son’s. Thad tried to think of how to talk to Bren as he smoothed out the folds of his blanket and set his pack where it could be used as a makeshift pillow.

“Son,” Thad said nervously as he worked up the words that hung at the tip of his tongue.

“Yes father?” Bren said looking over to where Thad sat.

“You almost got yourself killed today,” Thad said awkwardly. “The scions are not human, just taking their heads does little to them. You must break the core and even then I would not let down my guard.”

“I know that father,” Bren said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. “I made a mistake, and yes I know it could have been a costly one, but I have learned from it. I am not a child that needs you to slap my hand and tell me the fire is hot, I can learn that on my own.”

“I did not mean to suggest that you were anything less than a grown man,” Thad said fumbling for the right words and cursing himself for not knowing what to say. “I just worry and so does your mother. If I don’t bring you back in one piece she will have my hide.”

“You have been talking to mother?” Bren asked his face slightly clouded.

“She visits my dreams when she can,” Thad replied.

“I haven’t felt her touch, but I have talked to my sister in such a way the other night. She tried to reach you as well, but since she does not know you she cannot touch your dreams,” Bren said with a hesitant smile. “Unlike me, she doesn’t even have the smallest memory of you. I have tried to show you some while in the dream world, but she says it is not the same.”

“My daughter,” Thad said almost dreamily. “She was just a babe when…When I left.”

“I am sure that you will see her…Hopefully soon,” Bren said.

“I came here to comfort you not the other way around,” Thad said with a weak laugh. “It is hard to tell who the father is, even people looking at us would think we more akin to brothers.”

“Don’t blame me that time hasn’t changed you,” Bren said joining in the laughter. “Honestly, you look the same as I remember not a hair of gray. I think mother would look like a cradle robber should you stand next to her on the throne now.”

“That she might,” Thad said as they both broke down laughing. “It has been too long since I enjoyed myself. I know you have spent years without me, but for me it feels as if only a span of days have passed. I don’t think I can simply pick up where I left off so how about we start anew…As friends.”

“I think that would work,” Bren said holding out his hand to his father, which Thad gladly took.