The First Life of Tanan (7 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Tanan was feeling better when he woke up, but still emotionally drained.

Soama was in the room, opening curtains and letting sunlight flood into the room.  It was well past morning.

“Please stay in bed for a moment,” Soama said and then left the room.

Anin came in a minute later with his mortar and a flat wooden stick.  “I’m going to treat your blisters so they’ll heal more quickly.”  He began to smear smelly ointment on what Tanan suddenly realized were painful blisters from his new boots.

“The good news,” said Anin with a slight smile, “is that you’ve broken in your new boots.  Let that dry for a few minutes and then you can come out and have something to eat.”  He left the room.

Tanan thought about what had happened the day before.  He hadn’t meant to kill the Constable.  He would never even really want to hurt Grapf, he’d just lost his temper.  He’d been chanting the spell and thinking about the rune when Grapf hit him with the rock.  Grandfather was right; it was an accident.  But knowing that didn’t make him feel any better about it.

He got up and went to the kitchen.  There was a bowl of soup and a chunk of bread waiting on the table for him.  Soama and his father were sitting at the table.

“Good morning, Tanan,” said Soama. “Sit down and have something to eat.”

Tanan sat at the table and started eating the soup without really tasting it.

“Your father told me some of what happened,” began Soama.  “I need you to tell me the whole story.”

Tanan told Soama, leaving out nothing and finishing with his theory about the protection incantation.  Soama listened without interrupting.

When Tanan had finished, Soama said, “Can you tell me the words of the spell?”

Tanan didn’t want to say them, but didn’t argue.  Softly, he chanted the words of the spell, using the melody he had set them to.

Soama repeated the words back, without the melody.  “Those are the words?” he asked.

Tanan nodded.  He fought back the urge to cry.

Soama described the symbol that went along with the spell and Tanan nodded again.

“You shouldn’t be able to perform that spell.  No novice should be able to make that spell work.”

Tanan finished his soup and, by force of habit, cleaned his dish and put it away, and then sat back down.  Soama was staring into the distance, deep in thought.

“Here’s what I think happened,” Soama said. “And I think that I have underestimated your abilities.”

Tanan studied the pattern of the wood on the tabletop and wished he were someone else.

“Tanan!” said Soama, sharply.

Tanan’s head whipped up and he looked at Soama.

More gently, Soama said, “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t change what happened.  Please listen to what I am saying to you.”

Tanan nodded, “Sorry, Soama.”

Soama continued, “It is rare for a person to be able to harness and use magic.  There are five known branches of the magical arts.  For someone to be able to do more than one kind of magic with any proficiency is extremely rare.”

“The first is what we call Environmental Manipulation, which is the ability to manipulate the elements.  The hot and cold tricks that you learned fall under this category.”

“Then there is Healing Magic, which is what your father, grandfather and I can do to varying degrees.  When you were working in the garden, you learned a chant that eased the pain in your back, proving that you are able to  perform healing magic.”

“The third kind of magic is Protective Magic.  What you did yesterday, without fully understanding it, was Protective Magic.”

“The fourth kind of magic is Temporal Manipulation, or the ability to effect the flow of time.  I know very little about that kind of magic, but I have a suspicion that you might have some ability in that one as well.”

“The final branch is, of course, Offensive Magic.  Throughout history there have been very few Abbots who had any talent with it.  I don’t think it should be considered a proper branch of magic.”

“Tanan, you have shown that you have the ability to perform three kinds of magic.  If my suspicion about your ability to perform temporal manipulation is correct, you will be the first person that we know of who has shown talent in all four of the main branches.”

Tanan stood up from the table.  “I don’t think I want to be able to do any of it if it means I’m going to hurt people.”

“You have no choice in the matter.  You can’t wish it away any more than you can wish away the color of your eyes. What you can do, is learn to understand your abilities and control them so that what happened yesterday never happens again.”

“But why me?” asked Tanan.  “Why me?”

“I don’t know, Tanan.  The Brotherhood of Abbots have studied magic for a thousand years and we still know very little about why anyone has the gift.  Magical ability can be passed from parent to child, but not always.  Sometimes, parents with no magical ability have a child with extraordinary abilities.  Like many things in life, it is a mystery.”

Tanan crossed his arms in front of him.  “The King’s men are going to kill me when they find me.  I killed the Constable, and I’m a Lataki anyway.  Maybe that’s why I killed him.”

Soama sighed, “Sit down, Tanan.”

Tanan sat.

“Despite what you’ve heard about the Lataki, they are not mindless killers.  The difference between the Komisani and the Lataki is that the Lataki live a nomadic life and the Komisani have developed a somewhat more advanced civilization.  The truth of the matter is that the Komisani have killed many Lataki to prevent them from coming too close to Komisan.  The Lataki fight amongst themselves, but even if they had the desire to come to Komisan, they have no organization, and inferior weapons.  They would stand no chance against the King’s Legion.”

“How do you know that?” asked Tanan.

“The island of Komisan is part of a much larger world.  The Brotherhood of Abbots is part of that larger world, as you will soon see.  You were right to say that the King’s men will kill you if they find you.  But we’re not going to let them find you.  When your grandfather arrives, we will leave Komisan and travel to a place where you will be able to learn to use your magic properly.”

A fluffy grey cat walked into the kitchen and jumped up onto the table in front of Soama.  The Abbot removed a narrow leather collar from the animal, who meowed once, jumped down from the table and walked back out of the door it had come in.

“Was that the cat that’s always sitting on Jelak’s bench?” asked Tanan.

Soama ignored the question, focusing instead on removing a tiny scroll from the tube attached to the collar.  He pulled a silver ring from his finger and held it to his lips, whispering a few words.  Then he looked at the scroll through the ring, reading the words that were otherwise invisible.

Soama looked at Anin.  “Lindelin says Jelak is acting Constable.  He wrote a report and sent it to Panna.  We will meet him in two days and take our leave from Komisan.”

“And,” he looked at Tanan, “he says to tell you everything will be okay.”

Soama turned back to Tanan.  “Go lie down for an hour and use the chant I taught you when we were working in the garden.  It will help with the blisters.”

Once Tanan had left, Soama turned to Anin.  “Jelak sent a runner to the capitol this morning.  It will be an urgent message.  Once the runner reaches Yants Bay I expect the message will be carried on horseback.  I’m not sure if two days will be soon enough.”

Anin nodded his agreement.  “Let’s leave for our rendezvous point this morning.  I’ll slip into Port Billen after dark and speak with my father.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Soama spent the rest of his morning sending a series of messages to fellow Abbots telling them that he was leaving and asking for an Abbot to be sent to the Abbey as soon as possible.  Then he packed his things.  Anin went to Tanan’s room to work more healing magic on the boy’s feet.  An hour later the three departed Soama’s Abbey.

Late in the evening, they arrived at a narrow beach about five miles north of Port Billen.  Anin left Soama and Tanan on the beach and set off for the village to retrieve Lindelin and a boat.  Tanan and Soama climbed onto a large rock and sat looking out over the water.

“How are you feeling?” Soama asked.

“My feet feel better,” replied Tanan.

“And how do you feel about what happened with the Constable?”

“I know it was an accident, but I still feel like a terrible person.”

“That’s because you have a conscience and a good heart,” said Soama, putting his arm around the boy’s shoulder and giving it an affectionate squeeze.

“I want you to know about the man that died.  He was more than an ordinary Constable, he was a soldier in the King’s Legion. He was in Port Billen because he suspected you of being Lataki.  If he’d had enough evidence to prove it, he would have killed you.”

“Just for being born a Lataki?” asked Tanan.

“The Komisani have hundreds of years of fear and prejudice when it comes to the Lataki.  The Lataki aren’t bad people.  I have met Lataki and I can tell you that they fear the Komisani more than the Komisani fear them.  For hundreds of years the King’s Legion has been patrolling the mainland and they kill any Lataki that they find, just to keep them away from Komisan.  The Komisani live in fear of their Lataki cousins, but they are the ones who do the killing.”

“That’s horrible,” said Tanan. “Why haven’t the Abbots told people about this?”

“We have tried, but beliefs are hard to change.  And the Kings of Komisan have used the fear of the Lataki to rally and control people for many generations.  It is a complex situation.”

The two sat in silence and watched the stars come out as the sky grew darker.

“Soama,” said Tanan.  “Thank you for telling me this.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

It was nearly midnight when they spotted Anin rowing his boat along the shoreline.  They ran down to the water and helped him pull the boat up onto the beach.

“We need to hurry,” said Anin as he climbed out of the boat.  “Where are your packs?”

The urgency in his voice spurred them to action.  They ran and grabbed their gear from the rock they had been sitting on and dumped it into the boat.  Tanan and Soama climbed in, then Anin pushed the boat into the water and jumped in.

Anin grabbed the oars and started pulling hard out to sea.  He looked haggard.

Soama, who was sitting in the back of the boat gave Anin a questioning look and received a small head shake in return.  They would talk about it later.

As they got farther out into the sea, Anin began to chant his spell of rejuvenation.  Soama told Tanan, who was sitting in the bow of the small craft, to stow the gear and then get down low and try to get some sleep.

Soama slipped down onto the floor of the boat and sat cross legged in front of Anin.  He closed his eyes and began a rhythmic chant in his head.  After a short time, he rested one hand on Anin’s knee and sent a steady trickle of energy to the younger man.

They arrived on the mainland shore at dawn.  Anin, with the help of Soama’s magic, had made the trip across the sea in half the time it normally took.  Even with the replenishment chant he’d been using and the extra energy from Soama, Anin was dead tired and needed to sleep.

“Let’s hide it,” he said as he started pulling gear out of the boat and carrying it up into a wooded area beyond the beach.  The three of them had the boat unloaded quickly and then pulled it across the beach and into the woods where they flipped it over next to a large bunch of bushes.

“Don’t eat any of these berries,” said Anin, “They’re poisonous.”

“Get some sleep, Anin,” said Soama.  “Tanan and I will keep watch.”

Anin nodded and slid under the boat, stretched out, and fell asleep almost immediately.

While Anin slept, Soama and Tanan kicked sand around on the beach to hide the evidence that a boat had been dragged across it.  Soama walked knee-deep out into the water and then back and forth, looking at where the boat was hidden in the bushes.  Satisfied that it was hidden well enough, they went back to the boat and sat with their backs against it.

“Tanan,” said Soama after a few minutes.  “I am very tired.  I need you to keep watch.  If you see any boat on the water, let me know right away.  And stay hidden.”

“I will,” said Tanan and crawled through the bushes nearest the beach where he could watch without being seen.

Soama closed his eyes and quickly fell into a light sleep.

•        •        •

Anin stirred at midday, and woke Soama.  They sat  on the ground and ate some of the bread and dried strips of meat that Soama had brought from the Abbey.  Anin was ravenous after pushing his body so hard to get them across the sea.

When they were finished with their meal, they double checked their gear to make sure they weren’t leaving anything behind that they would need and stuffed everything else under the boat.

“Before we leave this place,” Anin said to them, “there is something that I would like you to see.”

They walked south along the beach for about a mile before Anin beckoned for the others to follow him into the tree line.  A short distance in he stopped and stood in front of two neat rectangles of rocks.

“This is where your mother and father are buried,” he said to Tanan.  “Every time I come to the mainland, I come here and straighten up the rocks and try to keep it neat.  I was planning to bring you along on one of my trips when you were older so I could tell you the truth about where you were born.”

Soama decided to give the father and son some privacy, and walked down to the water to scan the horizon.  He was watching for any sign that the King’s legion might be following them.  He didn’t know what had happened in Port Billen, but he knew that it was something bad.

Tanan stood at the foot of the graves.  Looking at them gave him a strange feeling.  He knew that his father wasn’t his “real” father.  But standing in front of the graves of his real parents made it feel real for the first time in his life.  Like it was more than just a story.

“Soama told me about the Lataki,” Tanan said to his father.  “He told me what the King’s Legion does to Lataki.  Did they kill my parents?”

“I think your mother died after you were born, and your father was bitten by a snake.  I arrived after your mother had died, and your father was too far gone for me to save him.”

Anin gestured for Tanan to follow him.  He pointed to a place on the beach.  “This is where I found you.  Your father was holding you.  All I could do was ease his suffering.”

“Thank you for burying my parents.”

Anin had his arm around Tanan, and pulled him close for a moment.  “We’d better go.”

They called Soama up from the water and the three of them walked into the woods.  Within half an hour they were farther inland than Anin had ever gone on his foraging trips. 

Soama pointed out a distinctive mountain peak.  “We’re heading just to the left of that peak.  It’s been years since I made this trip, but I remember the landmarks.”

“Father,” said Tanan, “what happened in our village?  Why didn’t grandfather come with us?”

Soama looked over at Anin.  He had been wondering the same thing, but could tell that Anin wasn’t ready to talk about it.

Anin stopped walking and leaned against a tree.  He had not been looking forward to this moment.  “The King’s Legion got to Port Billen faster than we expected.  They must have come from Yants Bay without waiting for instructions from the capitol.  I got to the Abbey without being seen.  Sweelin told me...”

He looked at the ground.  “The King’s Legion…”  Anin steeled himself and looked back up into Tanan’s eyes.  “They killed him.  They killed grandfather, and they killed Jelak.”