Gorinthians Read online

  Wonderful, Lendel thought resignedly, more surprises. Aloud he said, "Well, get on with it then. I can't wait to meet the lovely pair."

  Terrance face flashed with grief for a moment before he said anything. "I am afraid that you will not be able to meet them," he replied with a sad sigh. "They are both dead."

  ---

  Celdic walked back to the cottage feeling happier than he had in a long time. He knew that some of the ecstasy he felt was due to the strange effect that this place had on humans. It was also a relief to finally have someone who could teach him how to use the strange powers that he had exhibited from childhood. He always thought that he was a freak because he was the only person at Chasel Ri’ Aven unable to use their yar.

  Opening the front door to the cottage, Celdic entered the sitting room where Li sat with Cha'le and Selindria. Thistledown had left again without saying where he was going. Li and Cha'le were listening to Selindria with wide eyes and unbelieving looks on their faces. Celdic had not seen a bath facility, but they both looked as if they had cleaned up from their ordeal. Li was more beautiful than Celdic remembered, her long, dark hair shining in the well-lighted room. She wore a red skirt with slashes of color swirling through it and a matching blouse. Li seldom wore skirts, preferring the freedom that pants provided. Celdic could just make out a pair of slippers beneath the hem of her skirt, another change from the knee-length boots she normally wore.

  "If you are done ogling Li," Selindria said dryly, with an amused smile playing across her lips, "Perhaps you would do us the courtesy of joining us."

  Celdic felt his cheeks redden as he realized he had been staring at Li from the doorway. Li was watching him with a small smile, causing the blood to pump through his veins faster. Cha'le was grinning openly, not far from laughter. Cha'le was dressed in the traditional black pants with a black shirt buttoned to her chin that had several pockets that were made to carry the various compounds that were made in the Rajan gardens. Her honey blonde hair framed her pale face and large eyes, emphasizing the look of innocence that had deceived so many others before.

  Celdic walked over to the small cluster of chairs where they had gathered and sat down across from Selindria. She was still watching him with an amused expression, her cat-like eyes making the expression slightly different than it would on his own face.

  "What are you three talking about?" Celdic asked, staring straight at Selindria. From the corner of his eye he saw Cha'le roll her eyes and Li's smile widen slightly as he tried to change the subject.

  "Physics," Selindria replied, gesturing at the book in front of her, "by Terrance Rendrum."

  "It's really fascinating Celdic," Cha'le said excitedly, her eyes shining. "It is like an explanation for how everything we’ve been taught actually works in detail. I had no idea that we had lived before we were born."

  Celdic stared at her for a moment before opening his mouth. "Lived before we were born?" he inquired politely. "That's interesting. I was just thinking about something like that. I think I was wondering if the hen came first, or if it was the egg."

  "Don't be an idiot, Celdic," Cha'le said acidly. "I was talking about our spirits. They did not just grow on to our bodies. They existed millions of years before and may have already been in other bodies several times before our current life."

  Celdic looked at Selindria for confirmation, wondering if Cha'le had mixed things up the way that she did sometimes. As Selindria nodded, Celdic reached for the book that was in front of her. It was bound in a soft durable material that Celdic was not familiar with. It had intricate scrollwork bordering the cover page entitled: The Law of Physics. "Do you mind if I look through it?" he asked Selindria, his mind already leaving the present the way it did when he picked up a book.

  Selindria made a sound that Celdic took for assent as he began flipping through the first chapter labeled:

  Chapter 1: The Spiritual Plane

  Life is made up of two planes of which we know. The first plane is the Spiritual Plane. The life forms that inhabit the Spiritual Plane are not defined like they are in the Physical Plane, where they are classified into species ranging from single-celled organisms to complex organisms such as human beings. In the Spiritual Plane, life is classified by stages of progression. Each element eventually graduates to a higher complexity or maturity. The basest spiritual life form is known as an Element. While the Physical Plane is made up of very few elements, the Spiritual Plane is as countless as the stars in the number of raw elements that define it. As a result, the rate of base progression is much higher as elements compound together to form what are known as Intelligences. Intelligences vary from beings that have awareness akin to what a Physical Plane bug has, to an awareness much greater than that of an unoccupied human host. Only the most advanced Intelligences, known as Spirits, can occupy human hosts. Mid-stage Intelligences are known as Elementals, reaching a critical stage in their spiritual progression where they begin to grow into the ability to touch the Physical Plane.

  Throughout the Spiritual Plane, there is a substance called Shaesan, an essence that permeates throughout both Planes. It is this substance that beings from the Spiritual Plane draw their energy from, similar to the way that Physical beings use oxygen, but without the moving parts. Because the Spiritual Plane is so much more complex than the Physical Plane, describing the characteristics of the Spiritual Plane in terms that Physical beings can understand can be difficult. Spiritual beings do not move very much in terms of distance until after they reach their mid-stage level. The ability to create gateways throughout the universe, also known as wormholes, requires the ability to touch the Physical Plane. Once an Intelligence reaches this level of ability, it begins what is known as The Journey. The Journey is the stage that an Intelligence achieves after it accrues enough ability or intelligence to be more than a mid-stage. The Journey undergoes a period of travel throughout the realm of the Spiritual Plane where it encounters knew forms of Elements that become a part of it. As intelligences grow by combining the Elements throughout the Spiritual Plane with their own Intelligence, the Spiritual Plane loses more and more of its Elements until a stage of existence is achieved where all that exists are fully matured Spirits, and Elementals. There are vortexes that exist throughout the universe that appear randomly, consuming both physical and spiritual matter, causing it to break down to its base elements. When this happens, other Intelligences that have been halted in their progression due to the lack of Spiritual Elements are able to continue progressing. The caches of Spiritual element that appear throughout the universe are known as Drains, and are highly sought by Intelligences on The Journey.

  Senses as understood by physical beings are highly different in the Spiritual Plane. Intelligences do not have sight, smell, or taste. They use Shaesan as an extension of their awareness to sense objects around them. Shaesan is a type of lay matter that, as previously described, gives off energy that sustains Spiritual life forms. It also acts as a conduit through which Intelligences can in a sense, feel their surroundings in a large radius around them. Because Shaesan surrounds everything and runs through everything, this enables Intelligences to not only sense what is around them, but to understand every characteristic of the object, down to the elements of which it is formed.

  Celdic stopped reading and looked up at Selindria in amazement. "Why were we never taught any of this at the Tar Ri’ San ?" Celdic demanded, looking like a child that had just discovered a cookie jar that had previously been out of reach.

  "Because very few people know the truth," a voice said from the doorway. Thistledown had entered without making a sound, looking tired despite the ever-present laugh lines that etched the corner of his eyes. "Certainly no one in Chasel Ri’ Aven knows what you now know."

  "I don't understand," Celdic said with a perplexed look. "What did he mean when he said ‘ . . . the strange laws that govern this universe’? I thought that it was the universe, not this universe."

  "Well, as to that . . ." Thistle
down replied rubbing the tip of his nose thoughtfully. "Terrance claims that there are more universes than there are stars. I do not know where he gets his information on that statement though, because as far as anyone else has been able to determine, there is a boundary at the edge of the universe where everything ceases to exist. If you try to cross it, you cease to exist."

  Celdic shuddered slightly at the thought, noticing that Li and Cha'le also seemed to feel chilled by the idea.

  "I think that the question is, has he ever been to a different universe?" Selindria wondered aloud. "He must have some basis of comparison to call this universe's laws strange."

  Before Thistledown could reply, the front door opened, framing a dark figure shrouded in black that Celdic was sure must be Lochnar. Walking into the room slowly, the newcomer studied all of them with a force that seemed to see through them, inside and out. The only one that escaped his intense scrutiny was Selindria, whom he appeared to avoid. Celdic saw a look of recognition register on the man's strangely angular face as his dark gaze passed over him. As he studied Li and Cha’le, his eyes became thoughtful, swiveling back to Celdic calculatingly.

  From the moment the stranger entered, Celdic felt a presence that made the dark figure dominate the room. It was similar to walking into a room with a hot wood stove and feeling its warmth radiate while the candles remained unnoticed. He sat down on one of the chairs that stood between the small group of people and the door and turned to face them with a grim look. There was a fire in his dark eyes that reminded Celdic of Terrance, except this man's eyes looked like they burned with rage rather than power.

  Selindria studied the stranger as intently as he ignored her. "Well met, father," she said at last, sounding for all the world as if they had not been separated for the greater part of a century.

  Finally looking at her, the shrouded man grunted in acknowledgment. His face twisted almost to a snarl as he looked away. Reaching into his cloak, he retrieved a pipe and began to fill it with a dark leafy substance. As he stuck the pipe between his teeth, the end began smoking of its own accord. Selindria looked slightly taken aback by his reaction as he looked at her.

  "You seem to have changed since the last time I saw you." Selindria's eyes were questioning. As he remained silent, Selindria gestured to the youths. "This is Celdic and I believe you've already met Li and Cha'le. This is my father, Lochnar. As you can see, he is not much of a conversationalist."

  Celdic nodded his head politely, uncertain of how to act with this quiet shadow of a person. Something about the man was disturbing, as if he were not entirely there. Celdic was aware of Lochnar in ways that he never had been with other people. He thought that if he closed his eyes and turned around several times that he could point straight at him. He could also sense what appeared to be sections of him that did not exist in his stomach, left leg and the fingers of his gloved right hand.

  "Are you going to tell me what you are doing here?" Selindria asked Lochnar with a steely gaze that suggested he make a better attempt at conversation.

  Lochnar pulled his pipe out of his mouth long enough to spit on the floor. "The same thing as you," he growled with contempt. "Waiting for Terrance to show up and explain why he sent this odious little ferret out to fetch me."

  "Your charm is as dazzling as ever," Selindria's voice was thick with sarcasm. "Perhaps you could tell me why you were traveling to Chasel Ri’ Aven. I told you to stay away while I was there."

  Lochnar grimaced at his pipe while thick streamers floated up around his head. "I was following a client that had failed to settle up. He managed to slip past the guardians, so I didn't catch him until I was half-way up the mountain." Lochnar pulled the pipe out of his mouth and jabbed it at Selindria for emphasis, his gaze sharpening. "And it is lucky for the four of you that I did. I dispatched a Frond Lord that was following you before you went through the gateway."

  Selindria's eyes had widened in alarm when Lochnar mentioned the Frond Lord. "Are you certain that there was only one?" she demanded, leaning forward on her chair until she was sitting on the edge. Her hands gripped the chair arms in a white-knuckled grasp.

  Lochnar shrugged slightly. "It was the only one that I sensed in the area. That doesn't mean that there wasn't another one lurking around somewhere that was smart enough to keep itself hidden.” Leaning back deeply into his chair, Lochnar began puffing contentedly on his pipe again. His eyes continued to study the small group in front of him, as if he were seeing pieces of a puzzle that he alone could see.

  "What is a Frond Lord?" Celdic asked into the gap of silence that followed. He tried to meet Lochnar’s gaze as he waited for an answer, but the sheer intensity and rage that burned in it caused him to look away at one of the others.

  "The Gorinthians are not the only Enemy," Selindria replied quietly, her strange eyes suppressing some emotion that Celdic could not decipher. "Frond Lords are advanced Elementals that have sworn an oath to destroy the Derinian Order. They are the Enemy’s elite force of assassins and trackers. They appear in human form, though you cannot touch them. They have power over many of the physical elements and are capable of using wind and water to sniff out their quarry from hundreds of miles away. Their touch is a very slow, very painful death. If you see one, you run. There is no defense against them."

  "I don't understand," Li wore a puzzled frown, looking back and forth between Lochnar and Selindria. "If there is no defense against them, how did Lochnar kill one?"

  Selindria looked at Lochnar with an arched eyebrow, "Yes father, how did you kill it?"

  Lochnar slowly stood up from his chair, glaring warningly at Thistledown for some reason. Reaching to his side, he made a grasping motion as if he were drawing a sword. He swung his arm over his head and down to where a small table sat next to his chair. With a crack of splintering wood, the table split in half as if Lochnar had chopped it with an ax. With a smooth motion, he flipped his wrist and made the mime of sheathing a sword.

  "What happened?” Cha'le stared at the wood floor where the table had been standing. Between the two halves of the table was a slice that bit deeply into the floor.

  Lochnar sat back down with a satisfied look on his angular features. "A new weapon that I found a couple of decades ago. You might think of it as a very small Drain. More Gorinthians have fallen to this sword than by any other means put together." A twisted smile flickered across his bleak features. "Elementals do not stand up to it any better than the Gorinthians do."

  As Celdic stared at the remains of the splintered table, he had the sudden impression that he could feel the sword swirling and twisting at Lochnar's side. I am just imagining it because I know it is there now, Celdic tried to tell himself.

  "So you are still running the same business?" Selindria asked neutrally.

  Lochnar nodded without saying anything, puffing on his glowing pipe. He was studying the three youths once again, his eyes hooded. It was starting to make Celdic nervous, that measuring gaze that seemed to be sizing them up, revealing nothing of what he found in his intense perusal.

  Celdic began to understand what the trip down the mountain must have been like for his three friends with this silent and hostile guide clouding every step of the journey down. It still came as a shock that this man was Selindria's father. He definitely fit the picture that Celdic would have fabricated as Selindria's parent, with her deadly graceful manner. As gruff as their reunion seemed to Celdic on the outside, he could tell that they were both pleased to see the other again.

  Thistledown cleared his throat quietly. "I think some dinner is in order.” He turned away from them and started toward the kitchen.

  Selindria rose behind him, "Good, I would like to see how you prepare a meal with colored sand."

  Chapter 12

  Ferrich’s litter moved through the busy streets of Shalilayo, where swarms of street merchants hawking their wares called out to anyone and everyone they could interest in taking a moment to examine their goods. The smell in the mercha
nt district was not nearly as bad as the fish wharves, yet the stench of human odor, mixed with rotting refuse and stagnant sewage, was still enough to cause Ferrich to keep his perfumed kerchief pressed firmly to his slightly too-large nose. His eyes were set close together, giving the impression that he was always suspicious of something. He was just above average height, powerfully built and in his middle years-- evident by the gray just beginning to streak his hair above his ears. To most people, he would seem to be a very distinguished-looking noble. He wore maroon trousers made of velvet with a white silk shirt tucked in. He was shod in slippers made of soft velvet that nobles wore, though his lacked the bells that were the current fashion.

  Trying to ignore the smell that his perfumed kerchief could not keep out, Ferrich thought of the dream he had the night before. He had stood on top of the Tower of Judgment in the very center of the city where aristocrats were tried for crimes against the guilds. There had been a feeling of dark malevolence so strong that the air around him had felt oppressive. Staring over the city toward Lake Magnus, he had watched the sky darken to a blood-red haze, and the feeling of foreboding gained in intensity. Turning toward the seashore, he could just make out a small object moving across the waves far out on the ocean at terrific speed. Within a few seconds, the image had grown into a waterspout hundreds of feet high. As it drew near, Ferrich saw that it had a slash that looked like a mouth with two glowing red eyes above it. When it passed the tower to hover over Lake Magnus, Ferrich thought that he would pass out from the overpowering waves of evil that were emanating from the creature. He had never been so terrified in his life.

  Ferrich tried to think about what had made the dream so terrifying. The creature itself was not the most gruesome apparition he could have imagined and it had not threatened him in any way. Yet the entire dream had been blanketed with a sinister feeling that he could only think to describe as evil. Being raised as an aristocrat, he had been exposed to many of the more undesirable vices that men were prone to, some so disgusting and repugnant that the commoners would revolt if they could understand the half of them. He had never thought of his fellow nobles as evil, however. Stupid? Certainly. Selfish and spiteful? Without doubt. But never evil. The residue of his dream haunted him as his litter bore him to the gates of the University of Shalilayo.