Ways of Power 1: Power Rises (13 page)

              "Very well," she said as she stood to look out the window. The sun had reached its zenith in the sky. The day was already half over. "Please, join me for the mid-day meal, and we will discuss our plans for departure."

              "That is very gracious of you. We would be delighted to enjoy a meal together before we start out." Rancoth said.

Dorbin only grunted.

20

              After an awkward, silent lunch, the three companions left the blue crystalline mansion and headed out after retrieving Rancoth and Dorbin’s belongings.  Making their way through the courtyard, Rancoth studied the dragon fountain, searching for any remnants of the weapon it was made from.

Breckliy had truly been a gifted transformer. Rancoth wondered if the man had ever served on the High Council--yet another question he had for Grecrum when they returned with the necklace.

              As they went out the gate, Patrina waved the guard off. "A big escort will not be necessary,” she told Alinea. “You and Hirum over there can take the rest of your watch off.  I’ll take Lokijem with me, and probably won’t return until late this evening." With that the three of them headed for the western border of the city.

              Once they reached the border guards, Patrina called out for the one named Lokijem. Rancoth was a little unnerved to learn that it was the white-eyed guard that had greeted them when they first arrived at the city. The dark man smiled at him before turning to Patrina.

              "Yes Mistress, what do you need?" He said eagerly.

              "Lokijem, I need you to take the three of us to the barbarian camp. These two here are on an errand for the Arch Mage, and we must seek an audience with the giant. I will require you to stay close to me, in case an expeditious retreat is in order," Patrina said.

              Lokijem bowed. "Of course My Lady. I am not exactly sure where the camp is, but I think I can get us relatively close."

              "That will be fine. In fact it would be best if we arrive a little outside of the camp, no need to frighten the simple minded people. Besides I would like to observe them briefly before we make our presence known. Gentlemen, if you please," she said.

Lokijem nodded. "I think the place I have envisioned will put us far enough from the camp not to be noticed, but not so far that we will have a long trek in."

              Rancoth and Dorbin each placed a hand on the man, and all four vanished in a puff of white smoke.

              After what seemed like ages in the warm comforting place between realms, the four of them appeared with a crack on top of the large rock in the middle of McRoy's camp. As usual, most of the men in camp were huddled in the shade of the rock, talking and gambling.

              From atop the rock, they were provided a view far superior to any Rancoth could have hoped for. What they saw was disparaging to them all. Even though Rancoth and Dorbin had already been in the camp, the new perspective allowed them to see it as a whole.

              While the men were loud and boisterous, Rancoth could not help noting their hollow skeletal figures, not to mention the shame in their expressions whenever they glanced up to see their families.

              Like the men, the women were nothing more than bones wrapped in desiccated flesh, holding their painfully thin children. They were all filthy, and rotting with malnutrition.

One child no more than three or four years old crawled a few inches from a broken tent quietly calling for her mother. The girl collapsed from the effort in an anguished heap. Her lips cracked and bled in the dry heat as a fly landed to feast on the bright red nourishment. With no strength left to protest, the girl let the insect feed.

A passing boy looked up, and screamed at the sight of them on the rock.

              "It's alright child, we're not here to harm you," Patrina called down in a reassuring voice, tears already building behind her glowing hazel eyes.

With their position betrayed, Rancoth gave voice to his disgust. "Here is your fearsome horde of barbarians that keeps you up at night in terror. See how mighty and powerful they are? They haven't even the strength to swat a fly." He shook his head and whispered in Patrina's ear, "How righteous you must feel." He climbed down from the rock and headed for McRoy's tent. He needed some answers from the giant.

              Behind him, he could hear Patrina repeating over and over, "I didn't know. It shouldn't be this way. I didn't know…I didn't know…"

Rancoth stopped and looked back as tears began to pour down the woman's face.

              Dorbin shook his head, "Sometimes, the evil brrought on by those who are ignorrante and indifferrente is farr worrse than the evil that comes frrom those who arre cold and calculating."

              Patrina stopped talking but the tears continued to flow. 

              "Now, let's go join Rran with McRroy so we can starrt to make things rright," Dorbin said.

Rancoth smiled and nodded to Dorbin as the little man climbed down the rock and started toward him. They turned together and made their way to the giant man already outside his tent.

              "Rancoth my young friend, I didn't expect you back so soon! I hope you bring good news," the giant man bellowed.

              "We need to talk," Rancoth said tersely.

              "Of course, what's the matter? Did the meeting with Breckliy not go as we hoped? Do we need to return to our first plan after all?" McRoy inquired.

              "Breckliy is no longer presiding over the city folk of Illineas.” Rancoth pointed. “That woman up there is Patrina, Mistress of the Crystal City...and also the daughter of Shoutan."

              McRoy blanched. "I should have told you about that. I'm sorry," he said. "I just couldn't risk you turning me down, my people are desperate, we're dying and I'm responsible. Not only for their well being, but also for the state they find themselves in. Do you understand what that means? I did this to them, me. I’m the one who is supposed to watch out for them, to guide and help them."

              Rancoth shook his head in frustration. "I realize that your experiences with my people have left you broken and suspicious, but did you really think the
whole
truth would have prevented me from acting on your behalf? Do you think me so cold, that I could see the state of your people and not act? I want the truth. Now! All of it."

              Just then Patrina approached, followed closely by Lokijem. "Perrhaps we should all go inside and discuss this togetherr," Dorbin suggested.

They piled into McRoy’s tent. The giant pushed his massive table off to the side to make room. Once the space was cleared, there was nothing left to do but sit on the well packed dirt floor. McRoy then burst into a thunderous laugh, frightening the four smaller people.

              "What's so funny?" Rancoth asked, not sure why the giant was laughing at the beginning of such a serious meeting. He looked at Dorbin and shrugged, and the little man silently mouthed the word "Later".

              "Ahem--well nevermind," McRoy said. He cleared his throat, "So, you wanted the whole story Rancoth--"

              "Before you get started," Patrina interrupted,"I would just like to say that I am sorry--I didn't know things were this bad. I was just doing what I thought was best for
my
people. I never meant for yours to suffer in this manner."

              McRoy nodded his head. "I can appreciate doing that. I try to do the same. I too must apologize, I am sorry for the death of your father. I blamed him for the loss of my wife, and I wasn't in my right mind. It should have never gotten that far."

              This of course was striking at the heart of the matter for Rancoth, so he asked the one real question that had been burning in his mind since that morning. "Why exactly did you think that Shoutan was responsible for the death of Adri's mother?"

              McRoy placed his massive hands on his boulder-like knees. He took a deep breath and his one dark green eye took on a distant look. "Adri's birth wasn't going well. My wife, who was also named Adri, was suffering. She had been in labor for almost twenty hours. Pushing and sweating, screaming and crying. I sat by her side, holding her hand the whole time, trying my best to soothe her.

              "Unlike you magic types who can whisk away pain and suffering with a wave of your hand, our healers have to rely on plant lore and ingenuity."

Rancoth wished that were true, while magic could help in nearly miracoulas ways Rancoth was all too familiar with its limitations. Nothing just takes the pain away. He would have to help the giant man to understand that he thought as McRoy continued with his story.

"The medicine woman had already applied a poultice to my wife's bulging stomach that was supposed to both ease her discomfort and entice the baby to come. But something was wrong. The medicine woman said that my child hadn't turned and was stuck.

              "Shortly after that, either by word of mouth or through his power, Shoutan learned of the problem and came to my farmhouse. He offered to send for a healer, but my wife, brave foolish woman that she was didn't want any magical remidies. She wouldn't let some strange Magi use their hocus pocus to cheapen the act for her.

              "As Shoutan turned to leave, I grabbed his arm. I asked him if his healers could ease her suffering and help the baby come without using magic. He told me that he wasn't sure, but he would go to his Chief Healer and ask.  I thanked him and he left.

              "While he was gone, something inside my wife tore. I fell to my knees by my wife's side, stroking her head while she bled and bled. The medicine woman reassured me that blood was not totally unexpected and that I needn't worry--but there was so much of it. A short time later Shoutan returned with a potion his healer had made. He promised me that it would ease my wife's pain, and help the baby come, and most importantly to my wife, it was made completely from the herbs of the earth."

              That must be it Rancoth thought, McRoy was blaming his wife's death on the potion too anguised to see that his wife had bled to death. What a horrible misunderstanding that led to so much conflict and pain on both sides.

              "The effect was almost instant," McRoy Continued. "The anguish on her face relaxed, in fact her whole body did, and my daughter just slipped out. It was a miracle! I thanked Shoutan and he left. The medicine woman cleaned off my beautiful child and handed her to me. My wife had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and I held the child close to me while the medicine woman cleaned my wife.

              "As she slept, my wife's breathing became shallower and shallower, and within an hour after our daughter's birth, the love of my life stopped breathing completely. I was heartbroken. Early the next morning, I buried her. Every Hulden in the area came and helped me with the ceremony. I had never completely trusted your father," McRoy said, looking directly at Patrina. "So I left Adri with Celeste, and I went to the only two Magi I had ever really trusted. They were your parents, Rancoth, and I asked them if Shoutan had poisoned my wife with his 'magic' concoction."

              Patrina's head whipped around to stare at the young green-eyed man. Rancoth looked back at her with confidence, not sure if this new knowledge would have any effect on the woman, and not really caring.

McRoy continued, "But when I arrived at your home there was no answer. I did my best to get in, to try and find my friends. But the house was abandoned, and barred from entry by some magic spell. My sorrow and suspicion turned to rage. You of course all know what happened from that point. What you don't know is that for the few days that I was a tree, I was still very much aware of what was going on around me."

Rancoth couldn't help but wonder what a strange sensation being a tree must be, with the breeze blowing through your—leaves, or hair rahter.

"An old man came and sat under my shade," McRoy said.

"It turned out to be Shoutan's healer. He talked about how sad and sorry he was for my loss, that if he had known how much blood my wife had lost he would have used different herbs. 

"Once aware of my mistake, I was all too willing to go along with whatever Breckliy said when he came to me with his proposal. I did my best to live up to my end of things, as did Breckliy.

"As time progressed Breckliey's demands begame harder on us, his regulations more strickt and as things became worse and worse, some started to steal and raid the city. They thought it was better than watching their children go hungry. I remained true to the agreement, and Breckliy came to me about a year ago, and said he was being pressured to enact harsher restrictions. I agreed to get control over the raiders, and Breckliy told me he had a plan to balance things out.

"A few days later, the city guard arrived. They herded us to this area and left. Around six months ago, I approached the city with a small group of men to gain an audience with Breckliy. But we were met with fierce opposition, our pleas fell on deaf ears, and we fell back. And this brings us to the present. I wasn’t aware that Shoutan had a daughter, nor that she had taken over for Breckliy." With his story finished, McRoy looked around at everyone.

"Well," Rancoth said. "It seems to me that mistakes were made on both sides. Perhaps it’s time to let the past rest where it belongs, and for the two of you to work together to do what is best for
both
of your peoples."

"I agree, and the first thing we shall do is get food and clean clothing for everyone. Then--"

"No," McRoy interrupted. "I'm sorry but it's not charity that we want. Give us our farms back, at least some of them, allow us to irrigate again from the underground river that feeds your precious fountain, so that we can take care of ourselves. That is all we ask."