Gorinthians Read online

  Celdic idly wondered what Lendel was doing right then. The two of them had planned to explore the passes near the Chasel this very night. Inevitably, thinking of Lendel meant thinking of Li, the one person that he had been unable to keep from his thoughts since he had left. The part he felt missing from him when he left grew until he now felt like he was missing a whole section of his middle. I hope that I can see her again, he thought wistfully.

  As if to grant his wish, Thistledown came strolling around the bend in the path with Li, Cha’le and Lendel following. As he looked at them, he felt his heart leap into his throat. His sister and two friends looked half-dead from fatigue. They stumbled behind Thistledown and almost fell with each step. Celdic hurried forward to support Li as they made their way to the cottage.

  “What happened to them?” Celdic asked Thistledown in shock.

  Thistledown looked a little out-of-sorts for the first time since Celdic had met him. His eyes were tight with concern and his ever-present smile had been replaced by a worried frown. “They are just exhausted and hungry,” he replied, leading them up to the cottage door and holding it open for them.

  Celdic half-carried Li in as she leaned heavily on him. Selindria and Terrance stood up from their small conference in the sitting room as the small band of disparate youths trudged in. Selindria rushed forward to help Cha’le and Terrance moved forward to help Lendel, who shrugged off Terrance’s offer of assistance.

  “What happened?” Terrance demanded of Thistledown as he entered the room, closing the door behind him.

  “I am not entirely certain,” Thistledown replied with a troubled look at the three exhausted youths. “Lochnar met them in the mountains and accompanied them down to the pick-up point that you saw. I only arrived a few moments before he went back to scouting their camp. He sensed an intruder of some kind.” Thistledown lowered his voice slightly. “He warned me to take the children away immediately, so I awoke them and brought them here.”

  Selindria led Cha’le to the room that she slept in and Celdic took Li to his room. He tucked her in the bed he had slept in the night before. She was too tired to make a coherent response to his concerned inquiries and was soon asleep. Celdic stared at her for a moment, watching the strain loosen around her eyes as she fell into the deep sleep this place seemed to encourage. Even in her haggard state, she was beautiful enough to take his breath away.

  Eventually, the voices he could hear outside the door drew him back out to the sitting room where Thistledown was shaking his head slightly to a question that Terrance had asked him. Selindria was just entering the sitting room as well, with a purposeful look on her finely featured face. She walked up to Thistledown, staring down at him from her superior height.

  “Did you say they met a man named Lochnar?” she asked coolly. Her left eyebrow was arched and her hands were on her hips. Celdic was glad that Thistledown, and not he, was the object of her attention.

  Thistledown winced at the name as she planted herself firmly in front of him. He shared a look with Terrance, sighing resignedly.

  “I might have said that name, though I have heard him use others,” Thistledown replied evasively. “I think the name he usually goes by is Rachnan. He probably just heard the other name somewhere and decided that he liked it more.”

  “Is that a fact?” Selindria asked him sweetly. “And would you say that this Lochnar fellow has a sunny disposition by any existing standards of the word?”

  “Well, as to that, who can say what is sunny?” Thistledown answered philosophically, his expression bland.

  “Would you like to tell me what my father is doing here?” Selindria asked Terrance curtly. “Is he involved in this scheme of yours?”

  Terrance shook his head. “I honestly do not know what Lochnar is doing here,” he said watching her closely. “I knew that Celdic’s friends would be joining us, but I did not see Lochnar involved at all.” He paused a moment. “I also did not know that Lochnar was your father.” The last came slowly, as if he did not like to admit his own ignorance.

  “Didn’t see him?” Selindria asked, her eyes narrowing. “Are you saying that you can see the future?”

  Celdic stared at Terrance. He knew that the Chasel was used to help make choices when the Elders raised new leaders because it could see dimly into the future, but he thought the ability was unique with the artifact in the mountain peak at Chasel Ri’ Aven.

  “Merely a path of probability that, once known, can be influenced to varying degrees,” Terrance replied cryptically. “Lochnar seems to be able to avoid the eye of probability as well as everything else.” He finished the last in a mutter.

  “That’s as may be,” Selindria continued doggedly, “but how is it you know my father?”

  “That is a long story that we really don’t have time for right now,” Terrance replied firmly. “There are other, more important matters that need to be covered before we leave. To sum up, Lochnar was in a little more trouble than he could handle and I happened to be in the vicinity, so I helped him out. We have had a semi-cordial acquaintance since then.”

  Celdic watched Selindria roll this around in her mind, deciding whether to press him for more information. Before she could question him further, Terrance turned to Celdic. His eyes looked into Celdic’s soul, appearing to know secrets about him.

  “We have things to discuss before we leave,” Terrance said, his eyes locked on Celdic intently. “Come with me Celdic,” he said, making his way to the door.

  Celdic glanced at Selindria questioningly. She possessed a slightly sympathetic expression that made the hackles on Celdic’s neck erect stiffly. Squaring his shoulders, Celdic followed Terrance out the front door and onto the path that led them to the cottage.

  Terrance slowed down so that Celdic was walking beside him. Celdic looked at him sideways, sensing he was at a loss for words. It made Celdic uncomfortable to see him so uncertain.

  They continued walking in silence for a while. Terrance had his hands tucked in his trouser pockets and his forehead creased in thought while Celdic had his head cocked uncertainly, wondering what it was Terrance was going to tell him. As they rounded the bend in the path, Celdic realized the trail he had followed so many times that morning no longer looked the same. This path led into a forest that staggered the imagination with the immensity of the trees within it. Just one of the trees was easily as large as the house he had grown up in. The branches on these titans began at over a hundred feet high and spread a canopy that shaded entire acres.

  As Celdic gazed in awe at the towering giants surrounding them, Terrance cleared his throat. “I have quite a bit to tell you, some of it probably very shocking,” he said, glancing at Celdic with his piercing eyes.

  Celdic nodded without saying anything. Terrance’s behavior had somewhat prepared him for an unsettling conversation.

  “I am not sure if Selindria already told you or not, but you were not born in Chasel Ri’ Aven,” Terrance said, bracing for the next part. “You were born where that tree is standing,” he finished, pointing at a tree that was as tall as three of him.

  Celdic gaped at where Terrance was pointing. He had been ready to hear that he was not from Chasel Ri’ Aven, but to be brought to the place of his birth, a place that as far as he could tell, did not exist in the real world, shook him to his core. “What?” Celdic exclaimed. “Here? Why not the moon or maybe on the bottom of the sea? At least they exist!”

  Celdic thought that he saw the corner of Terrance mouth quirk toward a smile, but a second later he was all business again. “When your mother and I decided to have a child, we were not sure what would happen,” Terrance said seriously. “There were some complications involved in my ancestral origins that cast doubt on the chances of your survival if we had stayed in the physical realm that you know.”

  Celdic stopped, his jaw working but no sound coming out. Terrance just watched him silently, waiting for the questions that he knew would come. Celdic felt the world around him
heave as his mind tried to comprehend all of the revelations that were bombarding him. Finally, shaking his head slightly to clear it, he focused on Terrance.

  “You are saying that you are my father?” Celdic asked doubtfully.

  Terrance nodded, still not saying anything. Celdic studied Terrance’s face again and noticed all of the resemblances he shared with this man, resemblances he had never shared with the parents that raised him.

  “What about Cha’le?” Celdic asked suddenly. “Selindria said that none of us were from Chasel Ri’ Aven.”

  “She is the daughter of a dear friend and companion who I had until quite recently,” Terrance said sadly. “He was one of the last living members of the Derinian order. We knew that Cha’le would be a target from the day she was born, as well as you, Lendel and Li. The only place that you would be able to grow up with a semi-normal life was Chasel Ri’ Aven.”

  Celdic was having trouble sorting out his feelings. He stood at the place of his birth, a place of beauty beyond anything that he had dreamed, with the person claiming to be his real father and all that he felt was a sense of disorientation. The compass that had guided his life seemed to be spinning like a top. He sat down on the ground, closed his eyes and tried to find the calm that Selindria taught them was necessary. Slowly, calm returned to his mind as he forced the chaotically swirling thoughts to slow down. Opening his eyes, he looked at Terrance who had lowered himself to a crouch next to Celdic.

  “What of Li and Lendel?” Celdic inquired calmly, “Who are their parents?”

  “They were twins of another member of the Derinian order,” Terrance replied, looking relieved that Celdic was recovering his wits. “You see, as yara was lost after the cataclysm, people’s ability to use it gradually dissipated. Now, only Zerans and Talons can even sense it, and then only slightly.” Terrance pointed at Celdic. “You and your three friends are direct descendants from a generation that existed before the cataclysm, which means that all of you will be able to use yara to one degree or another. That makes you a direct threat to the Gorinthians, as well as numerous others throughout the world. The only thing that kept us from being overwhelmed to date is that there are enough factions fighting among themselves as there are against us.”

  “Are you going to tell Li and the others?” Celdic asked quietly. “About their parents, I mean.”

  Terrance nodded. “They’ve a right to know and there really isn’t anyone else to tell them,” he said with a sigh. “It’s been a long time since I have felt this alone in the world.”

  Celdic impulsively patted him on the shoulder. Even through all of the turmoil he felt, he realized the pain that must come of seeing all of those that you love pass on. “You’re not alone anymore,” Celdic reassured him with a tight grin. “We’re family, right?”

  Terrance grinned back, the laugh lines around his eyes creasing. “So we are,” he replied warmly, embracing Celdic. “It was a hard choice, giving you up to someone else to raise, but it was the only way I could be sure that you would be safe.”

  Celdic nodded in understanding, feeling that he had finally found at least one buttress that could support him in the deep currents that had risen around him and his friends. Celdic glanced down at the earth that made curious patterns around them. There were small mounds of earth shaped like half moons while others made arches out of soft dirt that should have collapsed, all covered in lush green foliage adorned with multi-colored flowers. “What is this place?” Celdic wondered aloud.

  “This is paradise,” Terrance said looking around fondly. “My paradise anyway. In the old world every merchant, noble and even some commoners had their own paradise. This is just one of the things that you can do with yara. This place exists at the boundary between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. Like all matter, everything is made up of opposites. For every opposite, there is a middle ground where the two opposites meet. This is a kind of neutral plane where both sides exist, but neither holds dominance. When you add a third element to that equation, such as an entity like us that has the ability to act for itself, we have dominance over the elements that exist on this plane.”

  Celdic could barely contain his excitement as the possibilities unfolded before him. He could hardly wait to start learning about yara. Terrance had been watching him and had noticed the eager look in his eyes. He laughed softly before continuing.

  “As with every good thing that exists, there is always a downside.” Terrance frowned slightly as he gathered his thoughts. “Just as I told you that we hold the power over the elements in this realm, we, as the third element in this equation, have our own opposites. Other people that are not content with ruling their own paradise, or living a normal life with a normal family. I don’t know that I would call these people evil, so much as selfish and seriously lacking in foresight.” Terrance gestured around them at the towering trees. “If one of these trees grows too closely to another, it will consume most of the sunlight, diminishing the amount that the tree next to it can obtain. In the grand scheme of existence, we are not so different. We encroach on another person’s space, diminishing them, making them less in one manner or another, yet we do not see it as evil. In the end, it is just stupidity.”

  Celdic laughed at Terrance’s final definition of what the world regarded as evil: stupidity. He wondered what Tarya Ellis, the teacher of morals and ethics, would have to say about Terrance’s logic.

  “Unfortunately, there are a few exceptions to the rule,” Terrance continued when Celdic’s mirth subsided. “There are individuals out there who have an understanding of what most people would regard as a person’s right to happiness within their sphere of existence, but intentionally fight to dismantle this self-evident right and supplant it with cruelty, coercion and destruction. The ones that fall into this category are what those of the Derinian Order termed as The Enemies of Life.”

  “Gorinthians,” Celdic guessed quietly.

  “Gorinthians,” Terrance agreed. “They are one of the most dangerous Enemies because they do not die. They can only be destroyed.”

  “Who is the most dangerous?” Celdic asked curiously, wondering what could be worse than something that possessed your body and corrupted your spirit.

  “A being that once was a man,” Terrance said and for the first time Celdic saw hate in his eyes. “He forsook his flesh claiming it was weakness that begged for death. I am not sure what he is anymore. He is more than just a spirit, but much less than human. It was he who created the Gorinthians and marshaled the armies of Elementals that assaulted the living before the cataclysm. The world was woefully unprepared for such an onslaught. Hundreds of millions died, or worse, before any kind of resistance was formed. People were more civilized at that time than any other time in history, even now. They created wonders that make this paradise a pale shade in comparison. Scholars studied yara as a science instead of a despised art as it is in the Great Cities today. Yara could create light, weather, transportation, food and so many other things that I cannot even start to describe them all. Within a century, ruins held the only fragments of history relating to how the people once lived. Even the rulers that fought the invasion fought each other for the right to lead as much as they did the enemy. The world was on the verge of becoming a living nightmare when the Derinian Order struck the planet’s spine, cutting off the ability for yara to reach the surface. The armies of Elementals and Gorinthians drew most of their power from yara. Once it was no longer available, they had no power over the physical realm.”

  “And now the planet is healing itself,” Celdic finished hollowly, feeling an ominous chill run down his spine as Terrance nodded grimly.

  The two of them walked through the lush landscape quietly, allowing Celdic to absorb the new information. Celdic suddenly felt as if time itself was one of their enemies as the planet healed itself, enabling the Enemies of Life to return with a vengeance.

  “Is there a way to keep the planet from healing itself?” Celdic asked, the very
idea of keeping the planet wounded making him nauseous.

  Terrance shook his head firmly. “The first time was a desperate act where we knew that there was a very real possibility that all life would simply cease to exist,” Terrance replied with a pained look. “We dare not try it again, especially when we have had some time to prepare for their return.”

  Celdic glanced at him curiously, “Who is included in we?”

  “The leaders of several nations and the entire Zeran race are aware of the imminent danger,” Terrance replied. “We have sent a few emissaries to the Talons, but we are not sure what they will decide. Most humans do not even know the Talons exist.”

  “But without yara, how is anyone going to fight against these creatures?” Celdic asked worriedly.

  “They will have four very gifted leaders to fight with them,” Terrance assured him, winking slyly.

  For the second time that day, Celdic’s mouth worked while no sound came out.

  “First, we need to teach you how to use your yar.” Terrance said, rubbing his hands together.

  Celdic blinked. “What, now?”

  “Yes, now.” Terrance replied with a grin. “What better place to learn about your abilities?”

  Celdic nodded, feeling a sense of eager anticipation. “Where do we start?”

  Terrance reached up and touched Celdic’s head. “In here. I am going to begin a series of tests that will give me a better idea of where your block is located.”

  Celdic frowned worriedly, “One of the teachers at the Tar Ri’ San tried this once, and it killed him.”

  Terrance nodded unconcernedly, “I do not doubt that it did. He did not know how to control something as powerful as yara, so when he released the flow through you, it just ran wildly.”