Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) (26 page)

Kelvin turned his head toward Thist without taking his eyes from the crowd. “Did the wisp that ambushed you earlier touch or move you at all?” asked Kelvin.

“It bumped me a little.” said Thist. “Why?”

“Then this many could probably do something nasty,” said Kelvin, “couldn’t they?”

“Sure, but they are friendly, what is the problem?” said Thist.

“We just lit a fire in their forest, I don’t think they like that.” said Kelvin.

Thist considered the folly of their actions. One spark out of place could not only bring down the most majestic forest that they had ever beheld, but they would never outrun the inferno in the dark. “Let’s make this fire count.” said Thist. “Bring the seeds. Jem, bring a pot, we can pan roast some and maybe char some with flame. Jem! Jem!”

Jem did not respond except for a loose involuntary bowel movement.

Kelvin stood up and put a hand on Jem’s shoulder. “Jem!” it was futile, Jem was catatonic with fear.

“Thist, I have to do something radical to help Jem.” said Kelvin.

Thist was holding a small travelling pan over the fire with some seeds in, he looked up briefly and nodded, “Just hurry, I think our forest friends have lost their friendliness.”

Kelvin took Jem’s left third finger and placed it on an apple sized stone, then he slammed Jem’s finger with another flat stone.

The pain from Jem’s crushed fingernail purged his mind of every thought and emotion and filled it with the fight or flight reaction and he punched Kelvin in the eye.

Kelvin reeled backward while flailing his arms and fell, back first, into the cold stream. Thist was irritated by the display of delinquency and shouted at Jem and Kelvin. “Stop fooling around and get me a canteen of water.”

Jem, who was now fully alert and ready for action, grabbed one of the tin drinking bottles and scooped it full of stream water. Kelvin was still struggling to right himself on the slippery pebbles and found all of his profanities from earlier on and used them to describe his frustration with Jem’s insolence. Thist had taken a hand full of hot pan roasted seeds in his bare hand and was blowing onto them. His eyes were shut as he conjured up a spell on the seeds. “Get ready to plant them.” He instructed.

Jem clambered over some large boulders to where Thist was weaving spells. “What are you doing Thist?” asked Jem.

“Just adding some speed, scrape us a trench in the dirt over there.” said Thist.

The hot roasted seeds were burning Thist’s hand but he didn’t seem to feel anything. Jem held the canteen in one hand and scraped a deep groove into the rich dirt just beyond the boulders. “Come, its ready.” shouted Jem.

Thist rushed over to where Jem had tilled the soil and poured a line of seeds into the trench and then kicked over some dirt to close up the seeds as he went along. “Pour some water you moron.” ordered Thist.

Jem started to shake out some water for the newly planted seeds and sucked the injured finger on his other hand.

Kelvin came up to where the Jem and Thist stood looking at the trench of newly planted tree seeds. “Now what?”

Jem, Thist, Kelvin and a hundred thousand smoky black forest wisps looked on at the ground where the seeds were planted. Nothing happened.

Kelvin shook his head in disappointment with his one hand over his injured eye. “That’s great.” said Kelvin, “I’m cold, wet, hungry and I am lost in a haunted forest with two blindingly stupid idiots.”

Thist patted Jem on the shoulder, “Buddy, you need to wash yourself. I’m going to make a poultice for your finger and Kelvin’s eye.”

The crowd of wisps started to spread out as they found more comfortable vantage points to watch the human spectacle, but they did not dissipate. A slight breeze had started to move through the forest making an eerie sound like the whooping of ghosts. The rain, which had been a gentle drizzle at best started to fall in earnest. The pelting of large drops on the ground and on the forest fern’s leaves were punctuated by the new sound of distant rolling thunder.

“Oh no” said Jem. “Not again.”

Jem knew that rolling thunder coming over the mountains behind was like an early warning signal for a potential flood. At best it was just a torrential down pour that could last no less than a minute, unless you were in a rain forest. It was still an hour or more to sunset but as the thunderclouds rolled over the mountain to replace the lighter drizzle clouds, the forest turned from dingy to dark. The fire was extinguished by the down pour that followed and the three men hurried to find shelter and huddled together under a massive tree. It was ill advised to shelter under a tree in a thunder storm but there was no place nearby or at least visible that was not under tree cover. Jem would have protested by now if he had thought that there was any real danger, but he was convinced that it was not the type of lightning that struck the ground.

The rain was heavy and came down on them like long chains of water that soaked them through. They could not have become wetter faster if they had dived head first into a lake.

Jem found the rain relaxing, the blinding dark hid away the apparitions and he felt better for not seeing them. All three young men loved to watch a good lightning show but the incessant gushing of water on their faces made it impossible to watch anything.

Thist grabbed Jem’s arm to have his attention and shouted, “How long will this rain last?”

Thist’s words were barely loud enough above the sound of the storm for him to hear himself.

Jem glanced around for a second as if looking for clues to the answer, “If this lush and massive rainforest is anything to go by,” shouted Jem “then about five thousand years.”

Thist blew a plume of water out of his face and wiped his hair out of his eyes “I need an orb.”

Jem sat down on a large protruding root and covered his head with his cloak. It only served to keep his mouth and nostrils dry as he waited for the rain to rinse away every last bit of travel dirt. “I may as well wait while I wait.” He mumbled to himself.

Thist had moved out from under the tree and had wandered out of sight. Jem didn’t notice at first until he looked up to say something about the warm rain. “Thist! Thist!” Jem shouted as loud as he could.

Kelvin bumped his shoulder and pointed. At first Jem could see nothing until a bolt of lightning lit up the sky for a second. Thist was kneeling in the mud and stroking a potato sized pebble. “What is he doing?” shouted Jem.

Kelvin raised his finger and swirled it around his one ear while shaking his head, signalling madness.

A flickering light emanated from Thist’s face as if there was lightning coming from his eyes. The stone in his hand began to glow an arcane blue colour. Thist stood up and held it to the sky and shouted. His words were too faint in the storm. A bolt of lightning crackled from the sky in deafening anger and struck the stone, it cracked and snapped. Kelvin dove for cover behind the tree and knocked Jem over face first into a shallow puddle of mud. Kelvin knocked his face against the side of the next tree giving him a bloody nose. Jem had bitten his tongue.

“Come and get me!” shouted Thist as he approached. Thist held the thunderstruck orb high above his head. He had successfully imbued it with a magical power that made an invisible shield around him like a large dome tent. The rain drops pelted at it with force but flowed over and around as if it were an oiled jar.

The orb glowed with the light of half a candle, which was a welcome luxury.

Jem spat mud and bits of twig from the forest floor. He wiped his muddy face with a muddy hand he stood up in the bubble next to Thist and tried to clean his face. “How ironic.” he mumbled, his tongue now swollen and clumsy.

Jem stepped out of the energy bubble to let the rain flush the mud from his hands and face. Kelvin stepped into the bubble holding his nose high. He nodded to Thist and said. “Nice trick Thist, you are the lightning man. I must say; when this adventure began I had my doubts about you but now…” Kelvin let the thought trail off.

“It even sounds better in the bubble.” mumbled Jem with a fat tongue. “Do you have any of that magic eye and finger poultice left for my tongue?”

Thist had mixed the healing balm in the nearly empty hum jar that he carried in his shoulder slung bag. It was mostly made of tea and hum and he had used the last smidge to make it. “Sure, have a look,” just spare a little for my hand.”

“Me too.” Kelvin gestured at his banged up face.

Jem opened the hum jar and swabbed a bit with his finger and onto his bleeding tongue.

“What’s wrong with your hand Thist?”

“It’s stuck to the orb. My hand and the rock have melted together from the heat of the lightning bolt.”

Jem and Kelvin looked a little shocked. “Doesn’t it hurt?” asked Jem.

“Sure.” said Thist, “But it’s just pain.”

“There is something else.” said Kelvin. “You did a powerful spell without tea and without fainting, you’re not going to faint are you?”

“I feel exhausted, but not like before. Look, if I move the stone all the way to the ground then the dome stays where I want it to stay so if you guys help me to prize it off then we could make a fair shelter.

“I’ll get the knife,” said Jem.

Thist put his good hand behind his back and let Kelvin hold the hand with the orb stuck in it. Jem prized the arcane stone from Thist’s hand with forceful digging movements like he was trying to remove oysters from the sea floor.

Thist gritted his teeth in agony. “Just hurry it up will you!” he shouted. Kelvin held Thist’s hand steady for Jem to work in the poor light but he could see tears running down Thist’s cheeks. “Hurry Jem, let’s fix our man up nice and quick.” said Kelvin, “You know, Thist, we would have been fine to be wet for the night.”

“I know,” said Thist, “But I need to know that I can do it. I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

“What?” asked Jem, “Imbue a rock into a magic orb?”

“No. Yes. I mean, catch lightning and use its energy instead of mine.” said Thist.

Kelvin shook his head, “Isn’t the price of your success too high?”

Thist shook his head back at Kelvin, “Isn’t the price of all success too high?” said Thist.

“Consider the rewards of failure.” said Jem. “How do
they
measure up?”

Kelvin held the rock in his hand and patted Thist on the back, “You are a good man Thist. Let’s get your hand wrapped up with your poultice and a bandage. It should be new in the morning, just like my jaguar scars.

50

Thist looked at his hand. The wound had healed overnight like Kelvin had predicted. The rain had stopped and the dawn sounds were fresh and welcome. Jem was still curled up on a pile of damp leaves and Kelvin was off on a morning chore. There was no sign of the wisps as far as he could tell but the forest was alive with the chirping of birds and the howling of monkeys. Kelvin came sauntering up to the camping spot with two fowl in hand. “Breakfast is served, my eccentric travel companions.” he said in high spirits. “Thist, Jem you have to come and see this, it’s unbelievable.”

Jem barely stirred, Thist was on his feet in a second, “Leave him be for now.” said Thist, “What’s up?”

“Just come and see this.” Kelvin dropped the two fowl next to Jem’s head on purpose and led Thist around two big trees, back to the stream where they had made a fire the night before. “Behold! A veritable wall of trees.”

Thist was dumb struck; the seeds that they had roasted and ploughed into the ground with a stick had grown. They were not the giant timber towers from which their seeds were picked, just saplings in comparison, but there was enough lumber in the line of trees to build one house.

Jem stumbled into the small clearing where Kelvin and Thist were standing. “Mother.” said Jem. “Are those the puppies we planted last night?”

“Yes!” exclaimed Kelvin with a broad smile. “Do they look fantastic, or what?”

Jem walked up to them and put his ear to the wall of trees. They were planted so close together that they had all grown together and into each other, forming one thick tree that looked like a wall with leaves. “Listen,” He said “you can hear them growing.”

Kelvin put his ear to the trees, “I hear it.”

Thist stood and stared at the trees and then down at his open palmed hands. “What have I become?” he asked himself out loud. “Jem, you once said,
‘magic is just the manipulation of things that other people cannot understand’
but what if I can do magic that I cannot understand?”

Jem patted Thist on the back. “Some things, you do not need to understand. Some things you just have to accept.”

“Like what?” asked Thist.

“Like ‘you are awesome.’” said Jem.

“Let’s get breakfast.” said Kelvin, “After that we can follow the stream and see where it leads us.”

51

The walk down from the ancient forest was brutal. They had to negotiate uneven terrain as they blazed their own trail down to the beach. The sight that greeted them on arriving at the beach was incredible. Jem and Thist had never seen the ocean but they had heard the stories. There were no golden sands like it was described in the tales but a vast stretch of pebbles, all rolled and chaffed by the waves into egg shapes. The pebbles were of every manner of rich colour. Thist sat down on the pebble beach and dug his hands into them with childish glee. It was early morning and the sun shone through the holes in the clouds, making golden rays and lighting up patches on the ocean. The vast water was calm and stretched beyond where the eye could see. A flock of gulls flitted over the pebble beach gaining considerable speed as they glided toward and over the water.

“Have you ever seen such a spectacle?” asked Thist.

Kelvin leaned on his bow. “This sight never gets old.”

Jem was dumbstruck for a moment as he gaped at the ocean. “Who or what would want to subvert a world like this?” said Jem.

“What is a subverter anyway?” asked Thist.

“It sounds like something stupid.” said Jem. “Like the stories we used to hear about ‘the hagget,’ do you remember those?”

Thist pulled his shirt over his head, hunched his back so far down that his face touched his knees. He hobbled forward while croaking like a frog and imitating gassy bodily functions.

“Look;

I’m the hagget,

Old and weak,

I’m the hagget,

Weary and sick.”

Jem laughed as he remembered the playground ditty. Kelvin kept quiet. He stared at the ocean with a longing look on his face. He looked up at Thist as he made a silly playground joke and couldn’t help but smile at the mirth.

“I don’t know about this ‘mission’.” said Jem “I think we have jumped headlong into a few things in the past couple of weeks since the journey has started. We took on big tasks without thinking. I think it was blind luck that we succeeded in most of them. What if our luck has run out and we get juiced by the dragon?”

“We can’t hold back now.” said Kelvin. “We have to do this.”

“What makes you think that we can succeed?” insisted Jem.

“That’s easy, Jem.” chuckled Thist, still in his hagget personification. “We are very bad at failing.” 

Jem rubbed his chin as he looked back at the ancient forest. “I wonder if we can use my ant nest cutting trick on one of those trees.”

“The wisps will hate you for it.” said Kelvin. “Why would you want to cut one of those trees anyway? Firewood?”

Jem swatted Kelvin on the back of the head. “Firewood! No! I think I can build the daddy of all trebuchets and use it to deliver a message to our dragon friend.”

Kelvin looked annoyed at Jem. “You just want to start shooting at someone’s peaceful looking home? What if you hurt someone?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.” said Jem. “What do you think we should do?”

“We have to figure out what it is that we want.” said Thist. “Without that we cannot even make a decision on what to do, less even how to do it.”

“Here is what we know,” started Jem, “there is a dragon in the castle and it has something called a soul bridge, whatever that is.”

“What are we going to do with a soul bridge?” asked Kelvin as he tried to make the best of the situation.

“What I have learned on our journey from my annoying head voices,” said Thist, “is that every voice in my head is a soul that is trapped in one of the diamonds in my pouch.”

“How can you be sure?” said Kelvin. “I mean you don’t even know if they are diamonds or not, do you?”

“Look.” said Thist as he tipped the diamonds out of the pouch and into his hand. “Look at all the gemstones in the light. Can you see how they sparkle?”

Kelvin looked mesmerized by the diamonds. “You never showed them to me before. They look wonderful, but how can you say they have souls in them? How can you know that?”

“Now look at them in the shade.” said Thist. “They all sparkle except one. The voices agree that the soul from this one diamond is either lost or has crossed over for some unknown reason. They say that if we can free the soul bridge then all the souls can cross and life will be able to go on.”

Jem shook his head. “Cross over? You mean new babies could be born.”

“Yes.” said Thist.

Kelvin bit his nails in an odd display of nervousness. “That is a good reason to go after the soul bridge, I guess. Let’s build the daddy of all trebuchets and lay siege to that castle.”

“Not so fast.” said Thist as he raised one hand, “Let’s formulate a plan first.”

“I’m all ears,” said Jem as he sat down next to Thist and dug his hands into the brightly coloured pebbles.

“First we have to stick to what we are good at.” said Thist as he started to rub some pebbles together. “Pace ourselves and also be adaptable.”

Kelvin picked up a flat looking pebble and flicked it across the water, “You have just given us vague instructions. Can you be specific in terms of laying siege to the castle?”

Thist watched the stone skip over the water. “Each one of us has strengths and skills that are formidable on their own but as a team we could be invincible. Together, I think that dragon stands no chance. I can imbue items, Kelvin can shoot arrows and Jem can build contraptions.”

“We are still lacking a clear plan.” said Kelvin.

“I think I know what we can do.” said Jem, “We have a sniper, an aerial bomber and a secret weapon. Deployed strategically, we can persuade the dragon to give us his precious soul bridge.”

Kelvin looked at Jem and shook his head. “Are you sure of this?”

Jem shook his head back at Kelvin sarcastically. “You are the sniper. I can use a trebuchet to rain down hell from anywhere and far out of sight. And not even Thist knows what Thist can do. I think that the power is in our hands.”

Kelvin nodded. “Thist, what do you think?”

Thist lay down so that the pebbles on the beach could give his travel weary muscles a good massage. “I think…” he paused as he rubbed his back on the smooth beach pebbles. “…I should just walk up to the gates and ask for the soul bridge, you guys can cover me with trebuchet and bow fire.”

Jem raised his eyebrows, “That is not a bad idea. I’ll have to build a trebuchet first.”

Kelvin shook his head in disbelief, “So we are going to do this?”

“Yes.” said Thist.

“Then I should fletch some arrows.” said Kelvin with a broad smile. “And you can imbue some things for us.”

Thist jumped up in delight at Kelvin’s idea. “Tea anyone?”

“Great idea.” said Jem. “Let’s head back to the forest and set up a camp there, we can have some inspirational tea, while we plan and strategize the taking of the soul bridge.”

Kelvin and Jem were ready to hike back to their original camp site in the ancient forest. Thist lingered on the beach for a few minutes as he gathered up a few carefully selected pebbles. “Wait!” said Thist.

“What?” asked Kelvin.

“Let’s make the tea here” He looked up and noticed how the mist rolled over the mountains beyond the forest bringing fresh rain clouds. “It will rain before we get a fire going in the forest.”

Kelvin picked through a pile of drift driftwood as he selected the straight sticks for arrow fletching. Jem was digging a hole in the pebbles to start a fire in. “Good thing we have all the tools from the shed.” said Jem to himself.

Thist looked confused for a moment. “What tools?”

“Jem brought all the tools from the shed at the old tavern.” said Kelvin.

“All the tools?” asked Thist.

“Yes,” said Jem, “all the tools.”

“How?” asked Thist.

Jem grinned, “Kelvin and I dragged two extra ropes with us that were tied to large parcels on the tavern side of the canyon. They are still there. All we have to do is pull the parcels across on the four dangling ropes and we have the parcels. We don’t have to go all the way back for them.

“Two parcels?” asked Thist.

“Tools in the one and sundries in the other.” said Kelvin.

“Sundries?” asked Thist.

“The left over gold coins and berry wine.” said Jem.

“Berry wine!” exclaimed Thist. “I’m not drinking that rubbish again, that stuff nearly killed us.”

Jem nodded with a wry smile. “I’m never drinking that stuff either, but I think that if you go to negotiate for the soul bridge at the castle then you might want to go bearing gifts.”

Thist nodded. “How much berry wine did you load into your package on the bridge?”

Kelvin started to giggle. The tears streamed down his face as he tried to speak.

“What’s his problem?” asked Thist.

“He loaded all of the berry wine” said Jem. “He even made me help him.”

Thist looked shocked and pleased. “All of the berry wine? That’s at least one hundred bottles. So what is the plan then?” asked Thist, “When are we going back to fetch the wine bottles and tools?”

“I think we should make some tea and then head back.” started Jem. “Maybe we can get the stuff across by tomorrow before breakfast. In the meantime I think everyone should think hard about how we are going to complete this mission. The idea is still freaking me out a bit.”

“The three of us both.” said Kelvin.

Thist rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation of the tea. “Something good always comes from the tea.” said Thist.

“Often something bad as well.” warned Jem. “You either freak out with all your head voices or you pass out from ‘over-magic’.”

“Speaking of over-magic,” said Kelvin, “that wicked bull whip that you are carrying on your belt since you crossed the bridge…have you imbued it with something yet?”

Thist looked down at the whip on his belt, “No! I hadn’t even thought of that much, what kind of power would I imbue in it?”

Jem looked at the whip for a moment and then shook his head. “Nothing, it’s awesome just like that.”

“Can you use it properly?” asked Kelvin.

Thist flashed Kelvin a deadpan face as he unclipped the whip. He held the handle and flicked the length out to his right side, took a stance and then lashed out at a pebble on the beach twenty paces away. The whip curled around the pebble and it became airborne, flying back at Thist. Thist caught the pebble in his left hand and the entire whip neatly curled back in his right. “I used to hunt guinea fowl with a whip, you just lash the neck and you have yourself a fresh bird for dinner.”

Kelvin was impressed by the whip skill but cringed at the thought of eating guinea fowl. “Tough meat.” said Kelvin.

Thist started gathering small pieces of driftwood for the tea fire. “Don’t you know how to cook a guinea fowl?”

“Tell him” said Jem.

Thist rubbed his nose, a dead giveaway that he was starting to tell a joke. “You find a very smooth pebble or even two, then you put the cut meat into a pot of simmering water and a teaspoon of salt with the pebbles. After three days you throw away the guinea fowl meat and eat the pebbles.”

Kelvin could not contain his laughter. He had never heard the joke before.

Jem shook his head. “I’m sick of travelling with you two. I miss home, I miss Kaylah and most of all I miss my mother. I wish there was a way to communicate with them back home.”

Thist looked away as he tried to hide his own longing from the other two. “I’ll see what I can do.” said Thist.

Kelvin grabbed Thist by the arm, “Before you ‘see what you can do’ as you so lightly put it, please check with us before you do something stupid.”

Thist ripped his arm free from Kelvin’s grip and shot him an angry glare. The hair on his arms and neck started to prickle and he knew that he should contain his fury as it built up. “You led us here. You were supposed to lead us to a town called Fineburg. Now we are somewhere left of absolutely nowhere. I’m just as sick of travelling with you as Jem is. I also miss my people back home and I want to know why you led us to this stupid castle. Fineburg is far away from this deadbeat pile of ruins.”

Kelvin stuck out his hand to try to calm Thist down. “Okay my buddy, just calm down. Let’s talk it through, shall we?”

Jem came close to Kelvin and made a calming gesture with his hands “Thist, look at me, just calm down. We are going to have some nice tea and then we are going to rest a little before we make tracks back to the village of cheese makers.”

Kelvin took a step back and looked at Thist’s feet. “Please Thist, I got distracted on the way and I might have gotten us a little lost. This is not the way I remember but I only realise now how lost we are.”

Thist closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “This mission is stupid. I’m getting my things and going home, with or without you and there is nothing that you can do about it.”

Kelvin stepped closer to Thist in an effort to console him with a slap on the shoulder. Thist spun his arm around in anger and swatted Kelvin’s hand away. “Leave me alone!”

“We need you for this mission Thist,” said Kelvin, “we have to…”