Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) (11 page)

I had only learned the basics from
Vatrale. Enough to channel, but not much more. She helped to fill in
the missing knowledge.

Each day she would change something in
my room. My job was to spot it. At first she moved big things, like
pushing the bed against a different wall, but as I got better at it
the changes became more subtle and harder to find.

Once I could find the differences
easily, the training changed again. Next I was only allowed to look
through the door for a minute, then the door was closed and I had to
tell her what was out of place. I could open the door as many times
as I wanted, but each time it could only be open for a minute. When I
could do it on the first try, my training changed again.

In the third phase she would stand in
the room and throw balls at me while the door was open. I was
supposed to catch the balls and also spot the difference.

We trained my mind. My memory improved.
I became more observant, and I was able to remain focused even when
distracted. Shira claimed it was a benefit of being able to channel,
and that as long as I practiced I would continue to improve.

I still wore the bracelet which
prevented me from using my powers. At least normally.

Thanks to the training with Shira, I
was able to charge the nerafpan spheres faster. At her urging, I took
a small piece of nerafpan with me into the pit and found that while
there I was able to shape it. It wasn’t easy, but it was
possible.

It was a start.

-o-

Talia planted a garden and got everyone
who was released from the pit to work on it. Hahns made sure they all
had shovels, picks and hoes to break up the ground.

In the evening, Garit showed them how
to use the tools to fight. They would practice with sticks inside the
barracks, out of sight of the few guards.

It was slow going. Most of them were
sickly from being in the pit. Working in the garden, and Talia’s
cooking, helped them regain their strength and health.

When I wasn’t working with Shira
I tried to practice sword fighting with Garit. I didn’t know if
I would be able to use my power and it seemed like a good backup
plan. The only problem was that Garit wasn’t really a
swordsman. Sure he had a sword but he seldom used it. He tended to be
more of a brawler.

I got used to holding a sword and
swinging it. He also showed me how to fight with a knife. Well, to be
exact he taught me how to stab someone before anyone realized that I
had a knife. He also taught me how to trip, bite, spit and run. He
stressed running.

“You don’t have to beat the
other guy to win the fight,” he said to me one day, “Just
don’t die and you’ll be a winner.”

The more time I spent with the big guy,
the more I liked him

-o-

“We are going to need to cut it
off,” said Garit.

“For the last time, Garit, I’m
not letting you cut off my hand. There has to be another way to get
the bracelet off.” I liked the guy, but he could be pig headed.
He got it in his mind that the only way we could be free was to cut
off my hand so that the bracelet drops off.

“That is what you said last week.
What other way is there? You can’t slide it off, and we can’t
cut it.”

I crossed my arms, tucking the left arm
underneath, and glared at him. I swear the next time we were
training, I was going to hit him in the head.

It was hard to be mad at the guy
though. I had no doubt that if our roles were reversed, he would have
already cut off his hand for the good of the others.

Shira must have been reading my
thoughts. She stepped up behind Garit and smacked him in the back of
the head, “Even if you cut off his hand, he won’t be able
to help us escape. He’ll be in too much pain and we won’t
have the time to wait. We don’t know how close Vatrale is or
how quickly he’ll return when the connection is broken.”

Garit hardly seemed to notice the blow.

“I may have an idea,” Hahns
offered.

“I swear Hahns, it better not
involve maiming me.”

“Devin, you must realize that it
may come to that, but I think there may be another way. Can we block
it?” Hahns asked.

Shira returned to her seat next to the
blacksmith, “Block it? How do you mean?”

“Well, Devin described it as a
stream flowing from him to Vatrale. If it is a stream, then we could
dam it. What would happen if we wrapped it in nerafpan?”

“Crap! That might work.”
Finally someone had a plan that allowed me to keep my fingers.

“Do we have enough raw nerafpan
to do it?” I asked.

Hahns and Shira exchanged looks and
they both shook their head.

“We could have everyone start
looking for it,” Shira suggested. “We won’t need
much and there should be enough small pieces laying around to get
what we need.”

Garit asked, “How are we going to
get it around the bracelet?”

“With the bracelet on, the only
time I’ve been able to shape the nerafpan has been when I’m
hooked up to one of the spheres. We’ll have to gather enough
that I can carry it down there.

Talia spoke up, “That won’t
work. You’ll be guarded and you’ll be alone.”

“Sure, but if I can block the
bracelet, I’ll be able to use my power. I should be able to
take care of one guard.”

“I think it is our best chance,”
said Shira. “It may be our only chance.”

“Once I’m free, I’ll
get topside and we’ll all make it out of here. If I can’t
block the bracelet, then I’ll just fill the sphere like I
normally would. No one will know.”

Great! In a few days we would be able
to make a break for it.

-o-

The next day the supply wagon arrived.
It was two wagons and only six people. They unloaded the wagons and
handed the goods to the guards who carried them through the gate.

I was standing around watching it when
I recognized one of the workers. His hair was longer and pulled down
over his face, but I would have picked him out anywhere.

Tavi.

What the heck was he doing here?

He carried a box to the gate and passed
it off to a guard. Instead of turning and leaving, he followed the
guard through the gate. He only took a few steps before Balruc
charged him. The guard smacked Tavi across the face with the back of
his hand.

Tavi collapsed to the ground. His arms
flew up to cover his head. Balruc pulled back his leg for a kick, but
Tavi rolled away. He sprung to his feet and scurried back through the
gate.

The wagon master rushed to the boy’s
side.

I vaguely heard something about the boy
being deaf and not knowing any better before he grabbed Tavi and
dragged him back to the wagon with a few smacks of his own for good
measure.

Balruc chased after them. Once he
caught up with them, he grabbed the boy and threw him to the ground.
Tavi landed hard. This time he didn’t move.

Balruc then lashed out at the wagon
master. Spit flew as he berated the man, “You know the rules!
No one enters the gate!”

He gave the man a push, then another.
“Do you have a problem! He’s mine now! Mine!”

The wagon master crumbled in the face
of Balruc’s rage. “Of... Of course... Take him.... He
means nothing to...”

The man’s stammered reply was cut
short as Balruc smashed his fist into the wagon master’s
stomach. He doubled over as the air exploded from his lungs, only to
have Balruc slam his knee into the man’s face. Balruc kept
hammering him even after he collapsed and stopped moving.

I sprinted forward. Two guards grabbed
me, stopping me before I reached the gate. “You don’t
want to get mixed up in this,” said one of the men. I struggled
against their grip, but it did no good as they pulled me back inside.

Over their shoulders I could still see
Balruc. He had stopped beating the man and was now climbing back to
his feet. He glared at the other wagoners daring.

“Anyone else want to get in my
way?”

None of the men could meet his eyes.

“Good! Then get back to work!”

Balruc stomped back through the gate.
He stopped when he reached us. “What is going on here?”

The guard on my right answered, “He
got a little excited. Tried to run for the gate.”

“Did he? Confine him to his
quarters. We’ll let Lord Vatrale deal with him.” Balruc
then pointed back to the path in front of the gate. “Bring
those two in and lock them in the warehouse. I’ll take care of
them later.”

I struggled in the grasp of the guards
but couldn’t pull free, “Balruc, you’re a fat pig.”

That did it. His eyes flared open and
he grabbed me by the shirt, pulling me away from the guards. As soon
as my arms were free, I took a swing at his chin.

He blocked it and trapped my fist under
his armpit. He wrapped his arm around mine and pushed up on my elbow
forcing me to stand on the tip of my toes. There was no tapping out
of this. Balruc smiled as I tried to wiggle free.

Garit appeared before Balruc could
throw the punch he had cocked back by his ear. “If you harm
him, Master Vatrale will not be happy.”

Balruc’s smile vanished. He
glared at Garit before pushing me away. Garit caught me as I stumbled
backwards.

“Lock him up. I don’t want
to see him again.”

The overseer turned to the other two
guards and started yelling at them, “What are you two doing?
Didn’t I tell you to do something? Get moving!”

The guards ran for the gate in a rush.
Neither looked back or paused to question their orders until they
reach the sprawled forms.

“Sir. The old man is dead. Should
we take him anyway?”

“Don’t be an idiot!”
shouted Balruc. “Leave him and bring the other. If he is alive.
I don’t have any use for the dead.”

Garit lead me away by the arm as Balruc
continued to yell at his men.

“What were you thinking?”
he whispered.

I twisted back to watch them carry Tavi
inside, “I know that boy. We have to help him.”

Garit didn’t answer. He just kept
leading me away.

After a few seconds I asked, “Well?
How are we going to get him free?”

“I don’t know. Balruc won’t
check on him until after the sun goes down. We’ll have a few
hours to think of something.”

-o-

Garit, Shira and I knelt behind the
crumbling wall that encircled the entrance to the mine. The wagons
had left and most of the guards were helping with the supplies. They
left one man to watch the mine entrance.

We never gave the guards any problems,
and no one had ever tried to sneak into the mine before. It wasn’t
like we could escape through it. The guards normally didn’t
have to deal with trouble from us. In short, the guards were bored
and complacent.

We waited.

Hahns emerged from the smithy and made
his way across the grounds. He paused to take a long pull from his
wineskin when he got close to the guard. Like a bee to honey, the
guard approached Hahns and struck up a conversation. Hahns being a
decent guy offered him some of the wine.

So far, so good. The guard had moved
away from the mine entrance and his back was to us. It was now or
never.

We scurried like mice around the wall
toward the edge of the shaft. We had already decided we wouldn’t
be able to use the lift. It would draw too much attention. Instead we
planned on using the ladder. It would be a long climb, but once we
cleared the lip we would be out of sight of any of the guards.

I went down first. Shira followed me,
and Garit came down last. The tunnel grew dark quickly. The only
light came from the mouth of the shaft overhead, and with the lift
still in place most of that was blocked. It wouldn’t be safe to
light a torch until we reached the bottom.

The plan was fairly simple. We had
planned on trying to block the bracelet during a normal trip down to
charge the sphere. With Tavi’s capture, I wasn’t willing
to wait, and it didn’t take much to convince the others that we
couldn’t leave the boy to Balruc.

We planned to sneak into the pit, then
I would link to one of the spheres and shape every scrap of nerafpan
that we scrounged into a shell over the bracelet. It shouldn’t
take more than half an hour. Talia and Hahns just had to keep the
guards occupied until we returned.

I reached the bottom of the ladder and
slipped into the side tunnel to make room for the others. It wasn’t
long before Shira and Garit joined me. Garit lit the torches and
passed one to each of us.

Shira’s hand shook as she took a
torch.

“Are you okay?” I asked
her.

“I thought I was going to die
here,” she said. “When I got out I swore I would never
let them take me back.”

I reached out to take her hand, “I
need you. You understand this stuff better than me. If it doesn’t
work like we expect, we’ll need to work together to come up
with another plan.”

Garit stepped to the front and offered
us a reassuring smile. “The plan is going to work, and no one
is going to be left behind. We do need to get moving if we want to
get finished in time to help the boy.”

Without another word, he proceeded down
the tunnel, looking for any sign of an unexpected guard. We fell into
step right behind him.

“Garit,” I asked. “I’ve
always been meaning to ask. How did you end up working for Vatrale?
You don’t seem like the others.”

“They weren’t always like
this. They changed after the mine closed and Balruc took over. Those
who didn’t fall into line with him didn’t last long. It
wasn’t like they could up and leave either. A few tried. They
never made it though. We would find their severed heads in front of
the gate. No one knows who brought them back. We were just as afraid
as everyone else here. There wasn’t much keeping us separate
from those in the pit. Eventually you just stop seeing it. I was just
like the rest of them. I didn’t talk much and kept my head
down. I just wanted to make it through each day.”