Mortals & Deities (27 page)

After the incident with the Niyoka, Charver Vimith stayed closer to the wagons when they struck camp each eve. This made Klain’s job much easier. The Asgarthian Plains stretched on for what seemed like an eternity. Only the occasional pond, never fed by any river or stream that Klain could see, broke the monotony. Some he could see only once he was right on top of them. He had been correct about his time spent in that bottomless hole of water—his nightmares were filled with them. Klain avoided the ponds, not even going near them to fill a water skin. He left that job to others.

A cool breeze from the Glonlore Bay chased them as they headed south and east. Always south and east. The twenty odd wagons in the train made good time. The terrain, though rolling, lay barren of anything save grass and the occasional silhouette of a gnarled tree, and thus was easy to traverse. The only trouble so far—other than his run-in with the giant snake—had been when a wagon driver slipped and broke his ankle. It did not affect his duties while he drove, so after they bandaged him, he continued to do his job.

The only thing Klain found to complain about other than the biting insects was Timms. The further they traveled, the more agitated the man became. Often, once they stopped for the eve, Klain would overhear him arguing with Rohann.

This eve was no exception. With lastmeal underway, Klain held both his plate as well as one for Charver in a paw as he walked back to the tent they shared. He stopped when he heard angry words being passed in a hushed exchange. Setting down the plates, he stepped past a row of tents and saw Timms and Rohann whispering loudly at each other. By the looks on their faces, it would not be long before they no longer whispered.

As Klain approached, Rohann threw up his hands. “If you are so concerned, leave. A strong man like you should have no problems making it back to Mocley. Just do not be at my villa when I return!” With that, he stormed off into the night.

Turning at the sound of Klain’s approach, Timms frowned. “You mark my words, Kith.” The man spit onto the ground before pointing after Rohann. “That man has no map nor any idea where we are headed. This expedition is a sham!”

“We are heading somewhere. Even I can see that!” This man tried Klain’s patience at every turn. Why would he not stop his incessant complaining?

For that matter, why did he even choose to come along?

“Any fool who has heard the story knows the lost city of Sar’Xanthia is somewhere in the jungles east of the Morlis Mountains! That is where we are headed. Once we arrive there, I fear we will simply wander around until we run out of food or are killed by one of the foul creatures that live there. We follow a madman!”

With a growl, Klain grabbed Timms by the scruff of his collar and lifted him from his feet. “Then why are you still here? You have a horse.” Shoving him to the ground, he stepped over him, extending his claws. “As our master has said, go back to Mocley if you are a coward!”

Timms scrambled out from under Klain and regained his feet. “You furry beast! You are as much of a fool as Rohann!” Spinning, the man stormed away in the opposite direction Rohann had gone.

Klain watched Timms go until he passed between two tents. He really did not understand why the man stayed. He half believed it was out of duty. Still, Timms did not act as if that was his reason. Looking out after Rohann—Klain knew Humans were practically blind in the darkness, yet to his eyes, the man was almost as visible as if he stood in the sun—he watched his master top a rise on the hill, then glance around as if worried about being followed.

His curiosity peaked, he hurried back to his tent, retrieving his plates of food as he went. Entering, he handed one plate to Charver and set the other down. “I must go out. I will return later. Do not stay awake too long. Eat and put out the candle. You need your sleep.”

Charver, who attacked the food, nodded. Klain knew the boy would not heed his words.

Throwing back the tent flap, he retraced his steps to where he had held his discussion with Timms. Following after Rohann, Klain stepped out into the wild grasslands of the Asgarthian Plains. He did not find Rohann over the first hill, though in the tall grass it was not difficult to follow the man’s trail.

After several more hills, he came upon a large pond. Unlike any of the others he had seen, a small stream fed this one, or at least the start of a stream. It looked as if the ground had caved in over one of the underground rivers, creating a small gorge that ran for a short distance before disappearing into the side of a hill.

Klain was not certain, yet he thought he heard voices. Dropping to all fours, he followed the top of the gorge until it made an abrupt curve. He dropped flat at the sound of Rohann’s voice.

“I know, yet he grows more and more suspicious each day. Surely with all your power you could provide me with a map that I could use to appease him?” Rohann spoke to someone, and by the tone in his voice, someone he respected greatly.

“I
have
provided you with a map, Rohann. It is in your
mind
.” Klain shrank back at hearing a woman’s voice answer, for there were no women traveling with the expedition! “Draw it out if you must.”

“He would recognize my hand. That would cause even more trouble with him.”

“Surely you can handle one man. You are about to gain all that your heart desires, and more!” There was a pause and Klain moved forward to gain a better vantage point that would allow him to see this woman. “You have the Ju’kagi. The others follow in your wake. You are growing nearer with each passing day. Stay your course. You will be at my side soon.”

“Aye. Still—”

“Silence! Someone is near.”

Knowing he was found, Klain rose to his full height and slid down the outcrop. Rohann stood in a small cleft made by the stream before it vanished back underground. Other than the ever-present scrub grass, the man stood alone. Glancing around, Klain crept cautiously forward.

“Aye, Master Klain?” As the man stepped closer, Klain noticed an intensity in his master’s eyes he had not seen before. “Were you looking for me?”

With a last glance at the surrounding area, Klain decided it would not be wise to confront the man for speaking to himself. He did not understand all Human customs, yet he was certain accusing your master of insanity would not be a good thing. “Aye. Your son has asked for you to tell him a story before he goes to sleep.” It was the truth, though not this eve. Still, the boy had asked for it often and the man had never complied.

A wide grin split the Human’s face and he visibly relaxed. “Aye. With the preparations and then the trip, I have been negligent in my fatherly duties.” Holding up a hand, he indicated for Klain to move. “Lead the way, Master Klain. Charver needs all the sleep he can get.”

Looking past the man into the surrounding darkness, Klain knew they were alone. How the man had produced the female voice, he did not know. Still, had someone else been here, he would have picked up their scent. With a grunt, he turned and headed back to camp.

Mayhaps Timms is correct. Rohann no longer seems in control of his mind.

“Wait. Are you telling me that one moment you were in this Chi’utlan chamber and the next you woke up outside the walls of home?” Arderi Cor shuddered at the memory of using the Sending Stone underneath Mocley that took him in an instant to Bin’Satsu. “It sounds very similar to a Quay’ka’gana.”

In the fading light of dusk, his brother, Alant, looked over at him. “I have never heard of a Quay’ka’gana.” After four days in the saddle, both were beginning to get the hang of riding. Well, other than the sore backsides they both complained of every time they dismounted. “Yet, Quay is Old Tongue for travel and ka’gana is either into or of the Essence, so it makes sense.”

“There is one in the Undercity of Mocley. It is this big red crystal, and once I stepped under it, I Traveled to a mountain range in northron Silaway…like that.” Snapping his fingers to demonstrate, he half expected his brother to laugh.

Alant did not laugh. “Did it…Well, was it painful?”

“Painful! Are you joking! It felt as if my entire body had been crushed.”

“Aye, then. It does sound the same as what happened to me.” Alant adjusted himself in his saddle.

Arderi cut his eyes at Elith. The strange gray-skinned girl rode along as if not paying attention, though he knew it was a ruse. He turned back to his brother. “I wonder if the Chi’utlan acts like a Quay’ka’gana somehow.” Looking back at Elith, he once again tried to pull her into their conversation. “What do you think, Elith? Have you ever heard of such a device?”

“No, she has not.” That is all he ever got from her. A simple answer. After the girl had bolted from the Vimith villa, it had taken Arderi and his brother the better part of an aurn to catch her up. She was a skilled rider. Though why she ran off remained as much a mystery to him as why she had agreed to accompany them.

Now that he thought on it, everything about the girl was a mystery. Arderi did not understand why she traveled with them, where she was from, or even what
race
she was! The only thing he had been able to get out of her so far was that she had been ordered to find and capture his brother for some strange organization of priests. She spoke little—none unless talked to directly. If it were not for her beauty—

I do not need to take that path of thought. She is not even Human!

Still, he could not deny that she was pretty. Her lithe form moved with a grace he had never before seen in anything that lived. Even her silver eyes, like those of a cat, intrigued him. Of course, each time he thought this way about her, he remembered Rinear. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the red ribbon she had given him before he left Bin’Satsu. The two were as different as snow and sand. Where Rinear was soft and gentle, Elith was hard and forceful. Rinear had curves both above and below the waist. Elith had the shape of a young man, with no hips and little chest. Though, Elith stood much taller than Rinear, almost as tall as Arderi.

Trying to pry his mind from the girl’s body, Arderi shoved the ribbon back into his pocket and looked over at his brother. “Did you really stand up to a Shaper back home?”

“Did you really draw your sword on a giant lion-man?”

After a moments pause, both broke out laughing.

It feels so good to have my brother back!

He could not believe how much pain he had bottled up when his parents told him his brother had died. Now that they were together, it seemed as if nothing could stop them. Though, one thing had been bothering him since he had spoken with Ragnor. “What do you hope to accomplish once we get to this lost city?”

Putting a hand into his saddlebag, Alant pulled out a piece of dried meat. “I just want answers. What has happened to me? Why are so many people all of a sudden after me?” He chuckled. “I am sure I will come up with a few more questions before we arrive.”

“And how to fix it, of course?”

“Fix what?” Alant turned and glared at Arderi. “I am not broken! Is that what you think I am doing? Is that why
you
came?”

“I did not mean it that way.” Though he knew the words for a lie as soon as they left his lips. A pang of guilt struck him with the realization that he no longer saw his brother the same way.

Shaking his head, Alant pointed his dried meat at Arderi like a knife. “How else could you have meant it? You think I have something wrong with me!”

Arderi shrugged. He knew he had opened his mouth when he should not have. However, he had hoped, at least deep down, that whoever they found in this lost city would know how to reverse whatever had happened to his brother. “Alant, you said yourself you did not ask for this. I thought that mayhaps you would want to be normal again.”

Reining in his horse, Alant forced his brother to do the same. “Is that how you see me? As a freak?” He sat there glaring at Arderi. “You have not complained about me starting our fires at night. You did not complain when I healed you.”

Arderi raised a hand and shook his finger. “Now wait right there! No one would have needed to heal me if you had not tried to cook me with your newfound powers to begin with!”

“Well, mayhaps I would not have tried to cook you had you not tried to shove your newfound sword through my back!”

“It has gotten dark.” Elith’s words ripped them from their argument. “This looks like an adequate site to stop for the eve.”

Looking around, the road appeared no different to Arderi than it had for the past four days. The wide gravel road separated the Glonlore Bay on his right from the vast emptiness of the Asgarthian Plains to his left. They had passed no other travelers since the first day. It was as if all life had vanished and they were the last three to exist on all of Talic’Nauth.

Slipping from his mount, he began rubbing his buttocks and inner thighs. The pain felt somewhat less than it had last eve. He pulled his saddlebags and bedroll from his horse with a bit more force than was necessary. Elith had disappeared into the darkening countryside to gather wood for the fire. Arderi carried his things off the road and set them down in the place he would sleep. He then busied himself by tamping down the grass around the area to add a little padding under his blankets. His brother did the same a few paces away. Neither looked at each other. Once they finished, Arderi gathered the horses and went looking for a suitable spot to hobble them for the night. Somewhere they would be free to graze, yet not wander too far. He also busied himself with removing their saddles and brushing them down. Though Ragnor had not taught him to ride before he left, the large black man had made sure Arderi spent plenty of time caring for the animals. Ragnor said you had to learn to care for them before you could learn to ride them.

Thoughts of his instructor gave him pause. He looked out, trying to catch a glimpse of the strange gray-skinned girl.

I hope she did not hurt Ragnor before we left. Or worse, kill him.

She said she had left the large black man tied up, though Arderi still did not trust her in full. Her attitude, so distant even from herself with the way she never said
I
or
me
, left a lot of room for doubt. A gust of wind hit him in the back, pushing his long hair into his face. Turning, he watched Alant standing in the center of the camp with his arms out to his side and his eyes glowing in that haunting red that indicated he held the Sight of the Essence.

A small whirlwind spun around him, uprooting the grass for a pace in each direction. It then blew the grass away into the darkness, leaving only bare ground where Alant intended to make this eve’s fire. Moments later, Elith came walking into the circle and dumped an armload of dried wood into a pile. His brother stepped back just before the wood burst into flames, casting the area in a warm orange glow. Thinking back to their argument, he had to admit that Alant was right—Arderi did not have an issue with his brother’s newfound abilities. It was everything else that Master Larith Rine had told him that made him uneasy. Alant had not sought out the power, as Larith said a Mah’Sukai would, and his brother seemed fine.

Still, what if the power itself drives him mad? What if a common man is not meant to hold such power?

Many of the things his brother could do Arderi was certain he had read about in the Book of the Twelve. Alant now held powers only the gods should! And knowing his brother’s disbelief in the gods—not to mention Elith’s warped view of their teachings with her
“your Book is not as complete as the Book she has read”
garbage—kept Arderi quiet about his fears.

“I am sorry.”

Arderi jumped. So lost in thought, he had not heard Alant come up behind him. Turning, he watched as the last traces of red faded from his brother’s eyes. Once gone, he appeared every bit the older brother Arderi had always loved. A good, kind-hearted brother who always helped by lending a hand or giving a shoulder to cry on. The brother who never stopped trying to talk him out of following Siln or Riln on one of their reckless schemes that always ended up with their Papa spanking everyone involved with a leather strap. The brother he felt so much pride for as he stood with his parents watching him at the head of the procession that took him to Mocley to train as a Shaper. How could Arderi doubt someone who had grown up watching over him? What did he really know of this Tat’Sujen Order anyway?

Between my brother and Larith, Larith is by far the less sane!

Stepping forward, Arderi wrapped his arms around his brother and hugged him tight. “Nix. It is I who should be sorry.” Tears streamed down his face and for the first time, he realized he never fully grasped the fact that his brother was not dead. He did not even think he had thought of this man as Alant, his eldest brother, until this very moment. Pulling away to arms length, he looked into his brother’s eyes. “You are alive, Alant. You are well and alive. That is all that matters to me.”

Alant flexed his eyelids and Arderi knew he fought back his own tears. “And you have grown up more than I thought. I am very proud of you, Arderi. All that you have done since you left home. It is amazing!”

Footsteps announced the return of Elith and the two broke their hold. Arderi turned to dry his eyes on his sleeve, then busied himself with finishing his bed.

After a silent meal of hardrolls and dried meat, Arderi announced he would take first watch. Alant seemed only too eager to comply, and soon he snored away in his blankets.

Walking just out of the range of the firelight, Arderi found a large stone block that had been discarded during the building of the road and sat on it to gaze out over the endless waters of the Glonlore bay. Salt hung heavy in the air and the stars in the sky went on forever.

As he did while on watch, he practiced taking hold of the Sight of Sujen. Rarely did he fail to seize it now. He had also become more skilled at reaching out and grabbing the Strands that floated around him. Less than half the time would they slip from him. Once he took hold of the Strands, he would use them to move small rocks or bend the tall grass that grew so abundant. It still felt odd.

It also made him feel a bit guilty for not sharing any of this with his brother. It was not as if he feared what Alant would think. It was just that now, after so long together, he could not figure out a way to tell him without breaking his brother’s trust. This just added to the guilt he felt for thinking as he did about Alant’s new powers. How could he sit in judgment of his brother having strange new powers when he, himself, did as well?

Footsteps brought him back to his surroundings. He knew it was Elith, for it had her graceful step. He knew, as well, that she did not have to make noise if she chose not to. A cloud floating in the sky made more sound than she did when she wished. Still, it spoke well of her that she would alert him to her presence. Letting the Sight of Sujen slip from him, he turned and looked in the direction she approached. “Hello, Elith. Care to join me?”

Her slim form materialized out of the darkness, and she glided over to him. Pulling her hood off, her snow-white hair glowed in the silver light of the moon almost as much as her eyes did. “If you do not mind, Arderi Cor. She would enjoy sitting with you.” It was the first time she had ever stated she would enjoy anything.

The two sat for a long time staring out over the rippling waves and listening to them lap against the rocky shore a few paces away. Though the weather grew steadily colder as the days headed into winter, it still felt pleasant enough to be out without a jacket. Reaching over, Arderi plucked up a small flat stone he had been pushing around with Sujen. Wrapping his index finger around its edge, he whipped his arm to the side and sent it skipping out into the water.

“You have the power to make rocks float?”

“Um…no. I just…Have you never skipped rocks before?” Glancing at her, he noticed the thin grin sitting on her face. “Oh, ha ha!” He did not think he had ever seen her smile. It enhanced her beauty and he wished she would smile more often.

Twisting to face him, she reached up and brushed a strand of hair from his face. In doing so, her fingers grazed the side of his temple, sending tingles down his neck and spine. As if ashamed of her action, she dropped her hand and resumed looking out over the bay.