Knights: Book 01 - The Eye of Divinity (21 page)

At last they crept from their chamber and headed downstairs. They went down two floors and then encountered a Red Squire--his sash well decorated with gold ribbons--standing outside his quarters in the hallway. He was an Olrog, about eighteen years old, and already his beard was as wide as his chest. They had seen this Squire before many times, but didn't know his name. (They barely knew any of the older Squires in the East Tower, though they had lived so near to them for almost a year.) He regarded them with suspicion in his grey eyes.

"What are you boys up to?" he said. "Shouldn't you be in bed? If Taris catches you wandering about it will spell bad business for you."

"We heard a noise outside the tower," Vorden said quickly. "It sounded like a crash or something."

"You sure it wasn't ice breaking off from the ledges?" said the Grey Dwarf. "I hear that a lot. Sometimes it wakes me up in the night."

"Could have been," said Vorden, "now that you mention it. Why didn't we think of that? Well, I guess we'll get back to sleep."

"Alright," the Olrog said. "Just watch yourselves. I don't know what you're up to, but Taris knows everything that goes on in this tower. Nothing escapes his eye. He has spies that lurk in the shadows. You can't see them, but they can see you. They're always watching. He won't always act right away, either, if he catches you breaking the rules. Sometimes he’ll wait for a while and see what you're up to. He knows you're down here, Squires. Make no mistake about that!"

"Then I guess we better hurry back to bed," said Vorden. With that, he started back towards the stairs. The others followed.

Glancing back, they saw the Olrog enter his quarters and close the door. Vorden stopped them with a motion of his hand.

"It's okay," he said. "He's gone to bed."

"I wonder what he was up to," said Lannon.

"I'm also wondering that," said Vorden. "He questioned us, but maybe we should have questioned him. Of course, he was well decorated--almost a Knight by the looks of him. I guess we handled it well."

"His hands were dirty," said Timlin.

The other two stared at him for a moment.

"What do you mean?" said Vorden.

"Black dirt," said Timlin. "Like he'd been digging. It was under his nails. And his weapon was missing. He was wearing his sheath, but no sword. Oh, and one of his boots didn't match the other one--it was old and cracked and didn't have any laces. And the name on his sash was Golath Stonesplitter."

"You noticed all that?" said Vorden.

Timlin smiled, nodding. "I just looked him over the way we were trained to. Remember how Master Garrin said never to ignore anyone's appearance, to always study them carefully?"

Vorden nodded. "You make a good Blue, Timlin. Well, let's get moving. That Squire was obviously up to no good. He won't tell on us. I think he was just hoping we wouldn't tell on him."

"Right," said Lannon. "But do you think it's true what he said about Taris knowing all that goes on here?"

"If it was," said Vorden, "do you think that Golath fellow would have been out sneaking around? I don't think so. He just told us that to scare us, so we'd forget to question what he was doing running around with dirty hands and a missing boot. I think that if Taris knew what we were doing, he'd stop us."

As Vorden spoke those words, deep feelings of guilt swelled within Lannon. He remembered Taris' kindness during their journey to Dremlock. He thought of his father. What would the old man think of this? This was not Knightly behavior. But then he remembered his dream and his fears returned, along with his overwhelming need to visit the Divine Essence. Shutting his guilt away, he started back down the hallway with the others.

They made it to the library without encountering anyone else. Yet Aldreya was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe she went with the other two," whispered Vorden, and the look in his dark eyes said he wasn't happy about that.

"I guess we should just keep going," said Lannon. "We can't afford to go looking about the tower for her. It's too risky."

They continued down to the first floor. Lannon (again having to swallow his guilt) swiped a Birlote torch from the wall, which--because it generated only light and no heat--he hid under his cloak. As they started towards the door, a form materialized out of the shadows.

The Squires' hearts lurched, and Timlin nearly cried out, clamping his hand over his mouth at the last instant.

"Leaving without me?" said Aldreya, her green eyes twinkling.

"We wouldn't dream of it," said Vorden, smiling.

When they stepped outside, the snows were blowing fiercely. The night sky was black with storm clouds, and the wind howled down the mountainside, chilling the Squires to the bone. The snow was drifting up around the tower.

"Great!" said Lannon, practically yelling to be heard over the wind. "I can't see a thing in this storm. I'm going to have to use the torch. I just hope no one's out and about tonight."

"Not likely," said Vorden. "Who'd be out in this? Except us and those other two fools, that is."

Vorden's words did not inspire confidence in Lannon.

The torch provided enough glow to see a few feet around them, but it was hardly adequate. As they headed towards the forest, they struggled to stay on the path, which was swiftly disappearing beneath the snows.

"What about Jerret and Clayith?" said Vorden. "You think they could find their way to the Temple in this blizzard? Did they even have a torch?"

"Who knows?" said Lannon. "If they're not at the Temple, I guess we go on without them. We can't wait all night."

Aldreya pressed her hand against her forehead, struggling to keep her silver curls from getting in her eyes. "I don't know about this," she said. "Maybe we should try this some other time."

No one replied, and as they entered the forest, the wind continued to whip snow into their faces, with the Knightwood trees offering only a little protection against its wrath. The treetops swayed back and forth, creaking giants. They paused behind one of the cabin-sized tree trunks to get out of the wind and driving snow for a moment and catch their breath, brushing melting flakes from their faces.

"I've never seen it this bad!" Vorden said.

The others could only shake their heads, and they started moving again. At some point, they strayed from the trail and didn't realize it, as the snow had become too thick. Suddenly they were wandering randomly through the Knightwood pines, going in circles for all they knew, until at last they came up against an iron fence.

"What is this?" said Lannon. "Where in the world are we?"

Vorden shook his head disgustedly. "This could be the Cemetery fence. If it is, we have to find the main trail, which is somewhere by this fence, and follow it straight to the Temple."

"It's no good," said Lannon. "We can't see anything, Vorden. We can't stick to any trail. We need to try to get back to the tower, before they find out we're missing. What do you think, Timlin?"

Timlin wiped snow from his eyes. "I can't see where to go. I'm sorry." The lad hung his head, as if he expected the others to be upset with him.

"I can't do anything, either," said Aldreya. She took out her stone dagger and made it burn with green fire, but its light was too small to make any difference in the raging snowstorm. She put it away again. "See, it's no use."

Lannon struggled hard to think. All he could see was the dark and the swirling snow. Yet he could feel the Divine Essence calling to him.

"I can use the Eye," he said, suddenly inspired. His words were smashed apart by the howling wind.

"What did you say?" said Vorden.

"The Eye!" Lannon yelled. "Help me unlock it."

Aldreya leaned close to him. "What is the Eye, Lannon? I still have no idea what you're talking about! Taris has never taught me any sorcery like that, and when I asked him about it, he smiled and said I shouldn't concern myself with it. So I really don't know..." Her words slipped away in the storm.

The two Squires flanked Lannon, and spoke their opposing words directly into his ears while tapping his shoulders. It took many tries this time, for the storm was distracting to Lannon. But at last, when he began to doubt it was going to work, his mind suddenly split, and the power surged forth.

The Eye of Divinity reached into the storm, and Lannon could feel a strange and hidden strength there. He probed deeper, and the Eye showed him glimpses of things he would have never pondered on his own. He saw that the storm struck fear in the hearts of the living, causing people to huddle away beneath blankets and sit next to comforting flames. But it also removed the pettiness from the world and made all things equal. Beneath the storm's fury, social status became insignificant, and people strove simply to weather it out--until the sun's warmth came again, exposing flaws and dividing humankind. Inside the storm was a hidden power, a freedom from the chains of life that could allow one to open doorways ordinarily never glimpsed.

Lannon turned the Eye away from that vision, for he did not understand its true meaning and it did nothing to help his current situation. He directed the Eye on finding a path, and it passed beyond the iron fence and into Dremlock Cemetery, touching lightly upon the tombs of the dead. Lannon kept the Eye moving, for he did not like the bits and pieces of mortality he was shown there. The tombs were built not out of respect for the dead--but out of fear. Fear of death ruled this place. Yet something frightful lurked amid the tombs as well, something that had succumbed to its fear and had crafted its own reality--its own prison. It watched Lannon with a deep hunger, desiring his existence while disbelieving its own. Piece by piece the centuries had worn its prison away, until the illusion itself had become thin and lacking in substance. Yet still it stubbornly remained.

"Go away," Lannon whispered, as he directed the Eye past that wretched being. "You must know by now there's nothing for you here!" He shuddered, shocked by his own unexpected words and overflowing with dark anxieties.

For an instant, the Eye touched on something even more horrible--a smug, vain thing that believed itself superior to all others. This monstrosity could reach forth and crush Lannon into pudding--a massively powerful hand that was hunched beneath the soil, bearing a tension like a coiled spring.

For a moment Lannon faltered at that last hideous image, and the Eye wandered this way and that, displaying confused sights. Then he managed to steady himself and bring it under control. He knew one thing for sure, now. The Cemetery was a place he would never go--not in daylight or darkness.

He located the path beyond the Cemetery. He motioned to the others and they followed, keeping close to him, as he wandered the fence line. When they reached the trail, he sent the Eye out farther, seeking to know what had become of Jerret and Clayith. But the Eye could reveal nothing about their whereabouts. And so, from that point on, he kept it focused on the trail. (He carefully avoided turning it on the others, not wanting to see their deeper truths after what he'd been shown the last time.)

As they left the Cemetery behind, the Eye suddenly lurched off to one side on its own, revealing a figure wandering through the woods. It was Jerret.

The Eye probed the Red Squire, showing an honorable, courageous heart that could be easily corrupted. Jerret Dragonsbane would follow the lead of whoever got to him first, whoever pleased him the most. He walked the knife edge between light and dark. But right now he was trustworthy, and that was all that mattered.

"Jerret!" Lannon called out over the wind.

"Lannon?" came the reply. A moment later Jerret lurched out of the drifting snow and bumped into them. He looked half frozen.

"Am I glad to see you people!" Jerret said. "I got separated from Clayith, and I don't know where he went. I've just been feeling my way around, trying to get back to the West Tower. It was bad enough earlier, when there was still a little daylight. But now that it's dark out, you can't see anything at all!"

"We've noticed," said Vorden. "Lannon's leading the way. He knows how to get there. Just stay close to us and follow along."

"We're still doing this?" said Jerret. "Well, okay. But I don't see how we're going to find our way there. This storm is crazy."

Huddling around Lannon, they trudged straight to the Temple. When they finally stood before it, unable to see it save for the front entrance, which was barely visible in the torchlight, the Eye of Divinity probed the structure. This Temple was erected in honor of the Divine Essence, and it had been built with tremendous care. Each stone had been placed flawlessly and purposefully. But it was an uncertain structure nonetheless--because the god of Dremlock was an uncertain deity. This god did not exist in the heavens in a shimmering palace--instead it lay underground in a cavern--and the Temple reflected that. It was a sacred place, yet something was wrong here. It had been built for a god that had known great suffering.