Gorinthians Read online

  Gorinthians

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 1: The Spiritual Plane

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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  Gorinthians

  Copyright © 2010 by Justin Lee Mitchell.

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Marlaine Mitchell

  Book design by Justin Lee Mitchell

  Smashwords Edition

  Chapter 1

  It was a cold spring morning in the mountain city of Chasel Ri’ Aven. The leaves were just beginning to bud on the trees that lined the wide streets of the large city. Large granite buildings that towered three stories into the air surrounded the trees. The mountain city had the appearance of a city that had been planned before the construction began, with small gardens scattered throughout the streets that intersected regularly to form a large grid.

  The city itself was alive and bustling with activity as gardeners made their way to the Rajan Gardens outside of the large granite walls that enclosed the city. Throughout the centuries, the gardeners had learned that the garden was much more submissive in the early morning hours.

  In a small meadow outside of the city walls, a young man of medium height was idly leaning against a lone, dead pine tree as he read from a large leather-bound book. He had the lean build of an energetic person. He wore black trousers with a grey shirt laced up to his chin and soft leather boots that ended halfway up his calves, both of which were adorned with a large dagger. His blue eyes had an intelligent light burning in them, giving his well-defined features an aura of intensity. His short, brown hair was slightly curly with just a hint of blonde scattered throughout the top.

  The sound of approaching voices drifted down one of the many paths that led to the small clearing. Celdic sighed, placing a bookmark on the page that he had been reading and regretfully closed the book. Given half the chance, Celdic would spend the rest of his life studying every book that he could lay his hands on.

  Celdic watched the well-traveled dirt path that descended from the mountainside to the east expectantly as the voices grew louder. He could recognize his sister's tone, and guessed that Cha'le was arguing with Lendel. From the time that he had learned to walk, he and Lendel had done everything together, half of the time accompanied by their sisters. When all four of them were together, the neighboring farms usually kept a sharp eye out for the mischief that was sure to come. Cha'le was perhaps the most compulsive mischief-maker that the mountain people had ever seen, finding the most creative and unexpected opportunities for trouble. Lendel's sister, Li, was the only one that had any control over her when she was at her worst.

  As the three figures rounded a corner in the path, Celdic saw Cha'le and Lendel walking next to each other, with Li following closely behind. Cha'le had the face of an angel, both beautiful and completely without guile, a feature she used to her utmost advantage. She was slightly taller than Celdic, a fact she loved to point out. Her slender build gave her an almost fragile look, though no one who knew her would describe her as delicate. Her long honey-blonde hair flowed down the front of each shoulder. She wore the same clothes as Celdic, as well as Li and Lendel. She had spent the night at Li's house, claiming she needed extra practice quieting her yar, something Li had developed to a science. Celdic knew it was only an excuse to spend more time with Lendel. The two of them had grown very close throughout the past year, to the point they were almost inseparable. Lendel was almost Celdic's opposite, standing a head taller with broad shoulders that were at least an axe-handle across. He had light-colored hair that reached mid-back and blue eyes that were already wrinkled with laugh lines. Though he affected not to notice, most of the girls their age were completely besotted with him. He had a strong chin framed by high cheekbones. His cheekbones accentuated a broad smile that was almost always on his face. He was without peer on the combat field, with the exception of Celdic. The two of them had spent their youth dreaming of being Guardians and they had learned everything they thought would help them be selected when the time came.

  "I'll tell you what," Lendel was still facing Cha'le, with a cunning look on his handsome features, "If I can beat Celdic on the combat field today, you can cut my hair. If I can't, then you have to tell Celdic what Li said about him last night."

  "No!" Li cried out in mortification. "Cha'le, don't you dare!"

  Li was as different from Cha'le as Lendel was to Celdic. She was shaped perfectly, as if someone came up with the ultimate idea of what women should look like and Li was the outcome. Where Cha'le looked innocent, Li was ripe and inviting. Where Cha'le was slender and seemingly delicate, Li was full-figured like a rose in bloom. Cha'le's voice was soft and mellow, while Li's voice was rich and vibrant. Her entire form seemed to embody the term appealing.

  He had been having an increasingly difficult time when Li was around. When he felt her eyes on him, his words would tumble out of his mouth in disjointed stutters as his ears burned in embarrassment. He still did not understand how a few years could change so much. It seemed only a few months ago that he and Lendel had left their sisters behind as they made camp at the Altar of Gaurdia. Now, he found himself looking forward to the classes that he shared with Li with a sense of painful anticipation. Cha'le found his sudden interest in her friend extremely entertaining, often asking him if he thought it would be a good idea to have Li stay the night at their house, or help him with some of his exercises.

  Cha'le was watching Lendel with a small smile on her plump lips, "I'll think about it." She said at last, looking at Celdic with the gleam of mischief in her large eyes.

  Celdic cleared his throat loudly, "I think that we had better get going or we will be late," he said, glaring at Cha'le. "Tarya Selindria is really good at helping us remember why it is in our best interest to be on time."

  Cha'le made an indelicate sound in her throat, turning to follow him as he began walking down the trail to the city. "A sound beating isn't a scratch on what Tarya Plato did last time I was late," Cha'le said with a shudder.

  "Oh?" Lendel asked curiously, "What did he do?"

  "Do you know that cabinet in the storage room behind his class?" At Lendel's nod, Cha'le continued. "He told me I could make up for lost time by testing the third year student's defense elixirs. The first one made me see things that were not there, like giant spiders and creatures that I don't even have a name for. I passed out when a scorpion larger than you, bit my
head off."

  "They're teaching third years how to make elixirs that do that?" Lendel asked incredulously.

  "No," Cha'le shook her head, "He was giving me the ones that he thought were made wrong. He shook me awake and poured another vial down my throat before I was even coherent, and I spent the next five minutes puking up my shoes." Cha'le shuddered again, looking sick at the memory. "Suffice it to say, I am never late to his class anymore."

  "I can imagine," Lendel said fervently. "Tarya Heckel is too out of phase with reality to notice when we are late to Defensive Compounds." Lendel barked a laugh. "I heard that he was hit by a Transient Wave in one of the Gardens and he never really found his way back to the Physical Realm."

  "That's not funny!" Li snapped at Lendel angrily, her large eyes flashing. "He could have died!"

  "Yeah, but he didn't," Lendel said pointedly, "So we can laugh about it all we want."

  Li rolled her eyes despairingly, "Why did all of the brains have to come to me?" Li asked the sky above her. "I could have spared some for Lendel."

  They wound their way through the thick evergreen forest that surrounded the city of Chasel Ri’ Aven, squinting as the sun began peaking above the western horizon. The trees had been cleared away from the city walls for five hundred meters in every direction, giving the city watch that patrolled the towering walls a clear view. Lendel caught up to Celdic as they broke free of the trees. He glanced back to where Cha'le had fallen behind to hold a whispered conference with Li.

  "Have you had any more dreams?" Lendel asked quietly, glancing sideways at Celdic.

  Shaking his head, Celdic stared straight ahead, "I haven't had any dreams for a month now." Celdic reached down and plucked the head off the waist high wheat that surrounded the walls. He heard Lendel grunt with satisfaction. "I had a vision."

  Lendel stopped in his tracks, staring at Celdic oddly. "A vision?" Celdic heard the doubt in his voice, and wondered if he should go on. Motioning Lendel to keep following, Celdic glanced back to make sure his sister and Li were still behind them.

  "I was washing my face in the wash basin last night, before I went to bed," Celdic explained quietly. "I was looking at my reflection in the basin by the candlelight, when my reflection suddenly disappeared and I saw a man dressed all in black walking toward me. It was as if I was one of the Guardians, and I went to apprehend him. When I came closer, I could see raw power radiating in his eyes. I moved toward him to disable him and then everything went black," Celdic finished hoarsely. He had described the details of what happened, but he could not convey the feeling of helplessness that had filled him as he watched the figure walk toward him, radiating like a sun blazing in the night.

  Celdic glanced at Lendel expressionlessly as he felt a tingling sensation pass through his body. The tingling sensation stopped when Lendel saw Celdic staring at him stonily.

  "I just wanted to check your system for anything unusual," Lendel explained defensively. "It's altogether possible that Cha'le just slipped something in your food yesterday."

  Celdic looked away sourly. "It wasn't a hallucination." Cha'le never took advantage of his inability to use yar. He could feel what other people did with their yar, but he could not use his own for anything. Cha'le thought of exploiting his handicap no more than she would a person born without a leg, which only made him feel worse.

  Unfortunately, most of the subjects they were learning this year at the Tar Ri' San required practical application. Celdic was forced to sit in class and observe the other students practice their technique without ever being able to practice himself. His only real joy this year was Combat Training with Tarya Selindria, where she alone could defeat him.

  Celdic waved absently as several other students from the outlying farms began filtering toward the city gate. Celdic had not really made any new friends at the Tar Ri’ San, just acquaintances and a few enemies. Lendel, Li, Cha'le and Celdic were friends with each other and no one else. The other students did not seem to be very interested in their friendship either, at least until this year. Cha'le and Li, as well as Lendel seemed to acquire a flock of admirers. Celdic was somewhat of an odd duck; he was always reading books or practicing combat, and was unable to use his yar.

  During his first three years, many of the instructors and Elders had spent a lot of time trying to discover why he was unable to use his yar. Their efforts came to an abrupt halt after he spent three months with Tarya Kidel trying to reach out with his yar. Tarya Kidel had been an ancient man that had more wrinkles than one of Celdic's shirts on a bad day. Tarya Kidel had given him a tincture from a Jo plant, which he said would open the gateway in his mind, allowing him to use his yar. No one discovered exactly what went wrong. Within moments of drinking a small spoonful of the Jo tincture, Tarya Kidel had instantly died, everyone within a mile had passed out and the entire city complained of headaches for a week.

  The Elders had decided that it was too dangerous to continue experimenting and told the instructors to allow him to merely observe the exercises without participating.

  They waved at the gate guards as they walked under the enormous granite wall. Celdic recognized one of the guards as a girl who finished her training at the Tar Ri’ San the previous year. The guards wore lightweight fabric made from Chen Shrubs, a fabric that the sharpest knife could never cut. They wore short swords belted at their waists and two long bows leaned against the wall behind them.

  Celdic smelled the familiar scent of crushed Tally Flower as Li joined them. "I was wondering if you could help me with the bow staves after class," Li asked in her rich voice that seemed to stroke the skin behind his neck.

  "Of course," Celdic replied, staring at the ground. He knew that if he looked into her eyes, he would begin blushing.

  "Thank you, Celdic." Li brushed his arm lightly, causing his ears to burn as he stared at the ground.

  They continued walking along the inner perimeter of the wall, toward the large green lawns where the Tar Ri’ San gleamed in the morning sunlight. The Tar Ri’ San consisted of eight smaller buildings, each the size of a large barn, and three buildings that were the size of three barns together. A large field of grass surrounded the entire mass of structures, filled with racks of weapons and other training equipment. Celdic had spent more time on this field than any other one place since he had come to the Tar Ri’ San at the age of eight.

  A gravel path led them away from the road and toward the Tar Ri’ San. Students from the city as well as the outlying farms clogged the path. As they reached the first building, Cha'le and Li waived and split off toward one of the larger buildings. Li looked back over her shoulder at Celdic, and he hurriedly looked up from where he had been looking to meet her dark brown eyes that sparkled knowingly.

  "Were you just checking out my sister?” Lendel asked in mock astonishment.

  "Shut up, Lendel." Celdic said as his ears began turning red again. Lendel chuckled, looking at him sideways, and Celdic felt his cheeks heat up as well. "So what did Li say about me that Cha'le mentioned earlier?"

  "I'm not at liberty to say." Lendel said airily, "You will have to fight me for the answer later."

  Celdic sighed in exasperation, shaking his head. They both knew Celdic would win. Celdic could tell Lendel was up to something, though he probably would not find out what until Lendel wanted him to.

  They walked through the large wooden doors to the building and turned in to the classroom on their first left. Odd symbols that no one understood covered the walls and a large glass display case held a sword unlike any other sword Celdic had ever seen. Its blade was dark blue, and it shined even when there was no light hitting it. More of the strange symbols that surrounded the room also adorned the hilt and the pommel stone was the same deep blue as the blade. Tarya Selindria had told them that the person that bested her on the combat field would be the new owner of that magnificent blade. She had taught the oldest Elder in Chasel Ri’ Aven when he was just a boy, but all of the older folk claimed that she looked
the same as she had when they were students. Most of them passed her longevity off as a by-product of her proximity to the Rajan Gardens, as well as the fact that the elongated pupils of her eyes resembled those of a cat.

  As Celdic sat down, the door at the front of the class opened, and Tarya Selindria glided into the room with a grace unequaled throughout the entire Mountain City.

  Chapter 2

  Tarya Selindria looked over her class with large, lavender, cat-like eyes that seemed far older than the youthful face that framed them. She was very tall for a woman, taller than most of the men in Chasel Ri’ Aven. She had a graceful way of gliding that made her almost seem to float across the ground. Her long black hair reached her slim waist, cascading over what most would call an overly large bosom, though few thought of Tarya Selindria in that manner. She had been teaching longer than most of the other teachers had been alive. She wore her customary garb of close-fitting black pants with a tight, black shirt that strained over her large bosom, and soft black boots that rose to her ankles. Her features were almost fox-like, with her high cheekbones creating a fine line that pointed down to her almost delicate chin. Many of the students secretly called her The Panther, due to her elongated pupils that were set into lavender eyes, as well as her customary garb of black. The students did not think that she knew of their secret name for her, but there was very little of which Tarya Selindria was not aware. Most people thought her oddities were a result of living so close to the Rajan Gardens, but that was not the case. She had a secret that she had kept from the people of Chasel Ri’ Aven that she had no intention of revealing.

  As she surveyed the classroom with her youthful face, her gaze rested on Celdic, who sat on the back row staring into space. She pondered the unnatural occurrences that had plagued his adolescent life, idly wondering if he could ever become a Guardian. The talent was definitely there, but without learning how to use his yar, he would never have a chance of becoming one of the elite protectors of Chasel Ri’ Aven.