The Chronicles of Lumineia: Book 02 - The Gathering (34 page)

Taryn blew out
the breath he'd been holding, dumbfounded at another glimpse into his parents’
lives. Once again he found more about his parents, yet for some reason he felt
irked. Why hadn't they left more for him? A letter, or a journal perhaps?

“She says
there is a cavern not far from here that we can take shelter in.” Siarra said,
and the great cat purred at her words. Siarra looked at Taryn and opened her
mouth, but hesitated, glancing at the others before closing her mouth without
voicing the thought. After a final pat from Siarra, Tigraes stood and padded
past them, but stopped twenty feet away and looked back.

 “
Of course
she would be friends with deadly animals, and to think I was worried about . .
.” Jack grumbled, but the rest of his words were lost as he stalked away and
headed north.

Trin growled.
“Well, I guess our new guide is a cat.”

“You don’t
like cats?” Mae asked, sheathing her short sword and picking up her pack.

“I’m more of a
dog person myself,” Trin snorted. “Dog's have uses.”

Siarra
interrupted whatever sarcastic comment Jack was about to say. “We have to get
moving. The storm is getting worse and I don’t want to drain my energy
unnecessarily.”

“Getting tired
already?” Jack said, his tone sardonic.

 Taryn missed
Siarra’s scathing response, his body moving to collect his pack. Woodenly he
fell into line behind his friends as they trudged into the drifts of snow.
Although Siarra turned the wind to sweep the air clear, they still had to hike
through the effects.

How much
did my mother know?
Taryn asked himself, feeling a shiver run down his
spine.
Did she know everything about me?
The questions about his parents
seemed to be compounding faster than answers were appearing. His mother must
have known about their quest, or at least enough to know what they would need
to complete it. A sudden pang of regret stabbed his heart.
I guess everyone
knew my mother better than I do
.

His thoughts
were cut short as Siarra’s magic revealed a low cave. Slipping into the recess,
the huge cat padded into the entrance and reclined near the opening. Despite
Siarra’s assurances that Tigraes meant them no harm, Taryn wasn’t the only one
to give the striped cat a wide berth as he entered the gloomy cave. Kell
unloaded some of the wood that he’d been carrying in his pack and placed it in
front of Siarra, who lit a fire. Within minutes the icy walls of the small space
radiated the heat back, taking the edge off the chill.

Throughout
their dinner, Taryn’s mind buzzed, and he said little to questions directed at
him. Volunteering for the watch, he moved towards the cave entrance and took a
seat inside a small alcove. Situated across from the white tigron, the spot
provided a good view without letting the arctic wind reach him.

As comfortable
as the situation allowed, his friends spoke little and one by one fell asleep. Soon
after, he heard light footfalls and turned to see Liri striding towards him. He
smiled as she sat down next to him.

"Blasted
snow," she muttered.

"I don't
think it's so bad," Taryn said, extending his cloak to include her.
"It's . . . peaceful."

She snuggled
closer to him, and he tightened his arm around her shoulders. "Perhaps,
but my toes disagree."

He grinned but
didn't respond. The warmth he felt repelled the chill, and he watched the snow
curl and twist as it fell. After a few minutes, Liri said, "Your parents
obviously knew much about this quest. Why do you think they didn't leave you
more?"

He shrugged,
troubled by the question yet grateful she had voiced it. "I wish I
knew."

"They
could have written you a letter, or even left you a memory orb," she said,
her tone becoming indignant.

He gave a slow
sigh. "They prepared so much for our journey, but couldn't find the time
to tell me why?"

"It's
because she was the Oracle," Siarra answered, sliding into a seat next to
Liri. "We tend to hold information longer than we should."

"Why?"
Taryn asked. "When does guarding the truth ever help?"

She sparked a
flame in her hand and played with it for a moment, and then replied with a
sigh, "We see so much about people, their lives and their problems, their
dreams and their fears. If we shared everything we saw . . . it would rob them
of choice."

"Even in
the face of something like Draeken?" Liri asked. "Isn't the price
worth it?"

"Even
then," Siarra said, extinguishing the fire in her hand. "The ability
to choose is mankind's greatest gift, and it is not right to take it from
them."

The sadness in
Siarra's eyes was bitter, causing Taryn to ask, "What have you been
keeping from us?"

She swallowed
and looked away. When she looked back, her eyes were bleak. "I am losing
my
sight
."

"Is that
possible?" Liri spoke at the same time as Taryn.

"What do
you mean?" Taryn asked.

"It's
becoming clouded," Siarra said, her voice small. "The presence of so
many fiends is limiting my ability to see. It hasn't impacted anything nearby .
. . but my longer range senses are almost gone."

Fear flooded
Liri's face. "Did something happen?"

The shrill
wind gave a chilling backdrop to Siarra's answer. "Talinor has been
destroyed."

"Is there
nothing left?" Liri asked, her body rigid against Taryn.

Siarra
shrugged and wrapped her arms around her knees. "It was invaded before we
talked to the gnomes. Most evacuated in time, but the ones who remained . . .
didn't survive. The darkness is thick enough now that I can't
see
there
anymore."

"What
about our future?" Liri asked, her eyes flicking to Taryn's. "Can we
do it?"

She shook her
head and wouldn't look at them. "I don't know. Before I could sense some
things . . . but now I can't
see
anything beyond a few days."

The tremor in
her voice caused Liri to frown. "What's the last thing you saw?" Siarra's
silence hit her hard, so she spoke again, anger creeping into her voice.
"Who dies?"

Siarra
gestured to herself, and then hesitated. Then she jerked her head towards
Taryn.

Liri discarded
Taryn's cloak and rose to her feet. "I don't believe it," She said.
"You are wrong."

Spinning on
her heels she stalked to the fire. Climbing into her blankets, she pointedly
rolled away from them.

Siarra blew
out her breath. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier, Taryn, but I didn't
realize the extent of my blindness until recently. If it's any consolation, I
don't really know what is going to happen to us. An oracle's
sight
is
rarely exact."

The faint
howling of the wind was the only sound for several seconds until Siarra said,
"There's more."

"What
else is there?" he asked, feeling betrayed, and not caring if his sister
heard it in his voice.

"Tigraes
knows where Israke is, and can take you to him."

Taryn looked
at the great cat, and she raised her head in response. “How far away?” he
asked.

Siarra
hesitated before saying, “A few hours.”

 “A few hours
for who?”

Siarra grunted
and leaned back. “For you and Tigraes.”

“What do you
mean?”

“She says the
terrain is . . . rough, but by her tone I gather it to be more like deadly—and
steep. I might be able to keep up with you if I use magic, but I will tire and
it will slow us down. The others will just get fatigued, and we are running out
of time. Even Jack and Kell wouldn’t make it as quickly as you will have
to—especially with this storm, and Trin needs to find out about his father.
While you are gone, I can search for evidence that his family survived.” Her
voice became small. "You will have to do this alone Taryn. The choice is
yours."

“When would I
go?” Taryn asked, trying to contain his mixture of emotions. The information he
could learn might be crucial in defeating Draeken. Siarra’s news had made him feel
 . . . mortal. Would the white dragon be able to tell him the fate of Lakonus?
Would he know what Taryn would have to face?

Siarra touched
his arm. "Please don't go, Taryn. I don’t want to lose my only family.”

For the first time
he saw her as a person, as his sister, and not as the Oracle of the world. Since
he'd found her, she had been strong, confident, and sure of herself. Now as she
sat beside him in the icy cave, she looked vulnerable and weak. It felt
unsettling to see her like this.

What if
she
wasn't strong enough to survive this war
?

The idea made him
hesitate. Then he placed his hand on hers. "And I don’t want to lose my
sister, so promise me when we get to Draeken that you will find a way to
survive.”

“But I can’t
see
that,” she protested, but he cut her off with a jerk of his head.

“I don’t want
you to promise me as the Oracle, I want you to promise me as my
sister
.
Find a way to live, and I will do the same.”

She gave him a
sad smile. "So are you going?"

"I have to,"
he replied. "Defeating Draeken is everything now. If I fail in that . . .
Liri dies anyway—and so do the rest of you."

“You had
better go then. The storm is going to slow you down, and the longer you wait
the deeper the snow is going to get.”

Taryn rose to
his feet. Careful to not disturb Liri, he grabbed his pack. Ready, he embraced
his sister and followed Tigraes into the driving snow. Striding into the storm
he looked back to see Siarra standing in the cave entrance. Then the snow
obscured her from view.

“I guess it’s
just you and me, right girl?” he said to the white tigron at his side. Tigraes
swiveled her huge head to look at him and he got the feeling she was smiling.
Lengthening his stride he broke into a trot that would absorb the distance without
tiring him and would keep him warm. “Let’s go find ourselves a dragon.”

The huge cat
bounded forward, and Taryn grinned to himself. He wasn’t the only one feeling
eager.

It was time to
get some answers.

Chapter
27: The White Dragon

In Taryn’s
life he could recall few times that he had felt tested. Among the short list he
would place the Acabi ceremony, climbing the Giant’s Shelf, fighting Death, and
battling Tryton. Each had forced him to draw from deep within to overcome something
impossible—and now he would add climbing the ice cliffs of Israke’s lair during
a blizzard.

By the time Taryn
had reached the mountain range, the cold had penetrated to his bones. Shifting
his feet to stay warm, he blinked through the flurries of snow and peered at
the towering peaks. Strung together like links in a chain, each mountain
pierced the clouds on their way to the heavens. Shorter than the rest, but no
less broad, the one he faced lay shrouded in snow and ice.

Shivering,
Taryn followed Tigraes around its base to the northern side, where the storm
slammed into the mountain as if it had the power to crush the stone. Rounding
snow-topped boulders the size of houses, the huge white cat came to a halt in
front of an icy wall that stretched upward into the dark. Because the cliff
faced north, layer upon layer of ice and snow had crusted the face as each
storm added to it. Driving winds had smoothed the ice in patches of treacherous
ledges, cracks, and dangerously deceptive handholds.

Soon into the
climb, Taryn took a short break on one of the wider shelves. Easing his cold
muscles, he had to admit that without the cat the ascent would have been
impossible. Tigraes, possessing enormous strength, would leap from one ledge to
the next, and somehow seemed to know which ledges were safe. Taryn would then
do his best to climb to the higher position, using smooth cracks and tiny holds.
Ten seconds was too long to stay in one place, or he risked plunging to his
death.

Taryn had
learned the hard way to follow the tigron. Only twenty feet off the ground,
Taryn had chosen a different route than the one she had taken. Grabbing onto
what had looked to be a strong section of ice jutting out from the cliff, he’d
felt an unseen crack give way. Then the whole shelf snapped, sending him tumbling
back to the base. Fortunately he’d landed in a snowdrift, but the lesson had been
a chilling reminder that this was not his territory, a lesson reinforced by the
irritated growl emanating from Tigraes as she returned to the base to find him.

After that,
he’d followed her without hesitation, even onto sections of the cliff that he
would have sworn were too frail to carry his weight. The very piece on which he
now sat had looked to be a thin film of ice from below, but had proved to be
solid enough to support Taryn as well as the far heavier cat. Shaking his head,
Taryn nodded at Tigraes and stood, once again ready to continue.

Although his
face burned from the unrelenting wind, and his whole body felt numb, he forced
himself to continue. Sliding out onto a forked section protruding from the
cliff, he reached up for a crack and found a grip. As he climbed, he thought of
Liri, Siarra, and the rest of his friends. Attempting such a dangerous feat with
millions of lives riding on his success was too much to bear. In the end, the
ones he cared about were the ones he was doing this for, and Liri’s face held a
prominent place in his thoughts.

After what
seemed like an eternity, Taryn rolled onto a broad ledge that turned out to be an
enormous opening in the cliff. Looking upward, he could barely discern the top
of the cave a few hundred feet above. Next to him he heard a throaty cough from
Tigraes that he hoped he understood. Whatever the cat feared, he should fear as
well.