Gorinthians Read online

  "How did you do that?” Lendel asked curiously. "I didn't feel your yar at all.” Lendel looked at Lochnar in wonder, instead of anger or indignation, though Lochnar knew that he and Cha'le were courting. Humans just did not make any sense at all most of the time. Lochnar thought about ignoring him, but at the last moment decided to elaborate a little bit.

  "You have been taught how to react to matter that exists in what is known as the Light Realm or the Positive Realm,” Lochnar said finally, "everything has it's opposite. In the Light Realm, you are able to sense everything that happens around you, as if there is a light in the room that reveals it to you. In the Negative Realm, there is no light or Communion Plane. No other plane exists with which to sense objects. There is only Shaesence, lay spiritual matter, that you can use to affect objects around you."

  "I thought that Shaesence was in the Light Realm,” Celdic said with a frown.

  "Shaesence is in every Realm and in everything,” Lochnar replied shortly.

  "I don't understand,” Cha'le said, seeming to have forgotten the biting incident already. "How did you know where to use your yar if there is no way to sense other objects?"

  Putting one hand underneath the table and the other on top, Lochnar moved them until one hand’s finger was positioned above the hidden hand’s finger. "How do I know where to place the hand that is under the table so that it lines up with the one that is above, even though I can't see it?” Lochnar asked her. "I use the one that I can sense as a reference point. From there, it is guess and hope that you have it right."

  The five youths were nodding slowly in understanding. Despite his attempts to suppress it, Lochnar felt satisfaction pulse through him at the small lesson. He remembered the years spent with Riah and Morindessa. He tried to avoid anything to do with the human while Morindessa did everything in her power to win his respect. When he left with Riah in the middle of the night, she had not even known his name.

  Terrance cleared his throat at the head of the table and everyone looked at him expectantly. "I think that it is time to go. I have taken care of all of the packing and supplies.” Rising, Terrance led them out the front door of the cottage and into the yard where a small pack was set-aside for each of them. All except for Lochnar, that is, who had his own pack.

  Lochnar noticed Terrance pausing as he walked away from the cottage, looking back at it wistfully for a moment before continuing on to the portal that led out of Terrance's haven.

  ---

  The creature that had been Riah scampered around the road that led into Mill Port on the north edge of Lake Magnus. She stared up and down the road, trying to decide which way to go. She had been drawn to a familiar presence a few days previous. After fleeing from the murderous rage that had erupted from the figure, she felt him following her, studying her from a distance. Then he disappeared from all of her senses and she realized she missed him. As she wandered back and forth over the places from which she felt him watching her, she suddenly felt his presence far to the South, where the lake was. She rushed South as quickly as she could, not sure what she would do when she found him, but knowing that she needed him for something. As she had drawn closer to his presence, she had felt two other familiar presences. Every time that she tried to focus on what these sensations of attachment were, she would become more confused and pain would wrack her body until she passed out. Still, she knew that if she found the figure that had followed her, somehow he could make the pain stop.

  Chapter 18

  The morning air was still slightly brisk in what was considered late spring in the low country that Selindria and her companions were traveling through. She could smell the pollen in the air as the frost melted on the sagebrush that lined the road. The group made their way south, toward Shalilayo. A small stream wound throughout the meadows to the side of the road, enshrouded by willows. The world seemed a different place to Selindria than it had just one day ago. Everything smelled different, tasted different and even looked different. She found herself marveling at the exquisite grace of the sparrows and robins as they flew across the road and through the fields, something that had never really interested her before.

  Terrance walked beside her with a slightly bemused expression on his face. He tried to stay alert to what was around them and at the same time glance at her every few seconds. Selindria still felt like she was living in a dream after waking and seeing Terrance next to her bed with his fingers sliding through her hair. In all truth, if she would have realized that she was really awake when she found him next to her bed, she would probably have cleared her throat, turned red, and started eating the breakfast that he had brought her. Until now, love had been something that she believed she would never experience because she would outlive anyone that she had a relationship with. With Terrance, she would not have to worry about that. He was already ten times older than she was now, and she assumed that he would continue living without aging.

  Ahead of them, Lochnar squatted down by the road where it made a slight bend, studying something on the ground. She had never seen her father act the way he was behaving before. When Lendel had questioned him regarding his method of using yar without detection, she had assumed that he would insult him or ignore him completely. She wondered what had happened to him to change his attitude.

  As they approached Lochnar, she saw that he had been studying some tracks that made a large U with three points. The points could represent clawed toes, the middle one sticking into the ground much further than the others. The track was as large as her head.

  "What is it?” Celdic asked in puzzlement. He had come up from the rear where he and Li had been talking quietly. Now he was also squatting down next to the track.

  "I don't know,” Lochnar replied irritably. Selindria knew that her father prided himself on knowing just about every creature that existed on the continents. Lochnar looked up at Terrance with an eyebrow raised slightly. Selindria could not sense Lochnar's yar emanating from his left side today. It seemed to shift, though she did not understand why he would want to hide portions of himself randomly. The rest of him was swathed in his usual black.

  Terrance turned away from the tracks to share a troubled look with Thistledown. His eyes looked over at the grasslands to the sides of the road and Selindria could feel his yar pass through her as he searched the area around them. A moment later, he was striding off the road and into the thick grass that rose to his shoulders. Following closely behind, Selindria wrinkled her nose slightly as the smell of blood and death washed over her. A few more paces led them to a flattened part of the grass where the remains of a mutilated body lay covered in its own blood. The head had been crushed as if a giant had stepped on it and the meat had been torn from his legs and arms. The rest of the body was relatively unharmed, aside from scrapes and bruises from the apparent struggle.

  The rest of the party gathered around the remains in a small circle, none of them willing to break the silence. Lochnar cleared his throat as his head swiveled around to stare at a tree line about a mile distant. "They're still out there,” he murmured quietly to Terrance.

  Terrance jerked his head up in surprise and looked toward the tree line that Lochnar was staring at. "Why can't I sense them?” he asked Lochnar as he reached out with his yar once more, probing the area that Lochnar had indicated.

  "Their yar is matching the land around them, making them appear as a part of it,” Lochnar said musingly. "I can feel their impression in the Negative Realm, but I cannot sense them."

  Standing up from where he had been studying the remains of the body, Terrance peered at the tree line intently for several moments before turning back toward the road. "Very odd. I can sense the impressions that their feet are making in the ground as they move, but they are completely hidden from any other sensory."

  "Do you think that they will attack us?” Lendel asked from behind, unconsciously stroking his sword hilt.

  "No,” Lochnar answered shortly. "They can sense power when they look at us.
Most creatures avoid the unknown whenever possible."

  They continued down the road for the rest of the day without any other incidents, though Celdic, Cha'le and Li kept looking back as if they expected the strange creatures to pursue them. Selindria was confident that her father knew what he was talking about, whether his knowledge was instinctive or just another part of his past that he was unwilling to share with Terrance.

  They made camp several hundred yards away from the road. They dug the fire pit deep into the ground to hide the light from any other travelers that might be passing through, whether friend or foe. The packs they carried turned out to hold anything that could fit through the opening. Terrance pulled all of the cooking utensils out of his pack, along with the odd powder that they used to make their food. Selindria helped him prepare dinner as Celdic and Jalorm pulled the tents out of their packs and began erecting them. Cha'le and Lendel scavenged firewood from the dead sagebrush and Li pulled what appeared to be canvas foldout chairs out of her pack, peering inside curiously as she pulled chair after chair out without the weight of the pack changing. Lochnar had already begun patrolling the area, as if he expected intruders under every bush and rock. Selindria realized that Thistledown had disappeared.

  "How much can one of these packs hold?” Li asked Terrance as she crawled partway into hers.

  "There isn't a limit,” Terrance replied as he began pouring a white creamy liquid into the kettle of powder that was hanging from the fire. A moment later Selindria could smell spiced potato stew begin simmering.

  "No limit?” Jalorm exclaimed incredulously. "Then why did we all bring packs instead of just one of us?"

  "Because if something happens and any of us get separated, we will all have our own supplies,” Terrance replied matter-of-factly. "It's always good to plan for these little contingencies."

  "Oh.” Jalorm stood with a tent peg in his hand for a moment, his mind obviously elsewhere, before remembering to pound it in to the dry ground.

  They set up camp in a surprisingly short amount of time. There were two large tents: one for the men and the other for the women. Terrance informed them that when he saw them make their wedding vows he would allow them to have their own tent, but not until. Celdic and Li both looked a little crestfallen about this announcement, as did Lendel and Cha'le. Terrance sneaked a look at Selindria to see how she had taken it. Smiling at him, Selindria winked.

  "Where's Thistledown?” Cha'le asked suddenly, looking around with a frown on her childlike face.

  "He's checking on some people that we may meet up with later.” Terrance gestured southward. "He should be back in an hour or so."

  The five youths looked at each other speculatively as they realized that they would be meeting someone from the outside world. Terrance, Lochnar and Thistledown were from the outside world, but they were exceptions to what the youths considered outsiders. The rest of the party gathered around the fire in canvas foldout chairs as Terrance and Selindria passed out the dinner in wooden bowls. Lochnar did not return for dinner, but continued his circuit of the camp as the others ate. Thistledown appeared as if from thin air, plopping into a chair between Lendel and Celdic with obvious relief.

  After they finished their dinner, Thistledown began telling stories once again. He told of the places he had been and the unusual creatures he had seen. The others found it much easier to believe his stories after living through a few impossible ones themselves. He did not mention anything about the people that he had been checking on before dinner, much to the chagrin of the Avenry folk.

  As the fire began dying, Terrance announced that his ears could not take any more abuse and headed for bed, followed shortly by the others. They left Thistledown spluttering indignantly. A light breeze picked up right before Selindria climbed through the tent, making her thankful that they had tents to sleep in. She laid her blanket roll out between Li and Cha'le and lay awake for a while, remembering the look on Terrance's face that morning when she kissed him. She could feel the other two beside her laying wide awake as she drifted into a blissful dream where she and Terrance were wedded in her mother’s Zeran village.

  ---

  Terrance and Thistledown walked quietly away from the camp where they could talk without being overheard. They noiselessly slipped through the dry sagebrush under the canopy of stars with Lunitra, the larger of the two moons, shining down on them. Thistledown's concerned expression was easily discernible in the half-light of the moon.

  "I assume that you found them?” Terrance asked quietly.

  Thistledown nodded slowly. "They are almost to the upper end of the lake, riding on a very strange-looking boat.” Thistledown absently brushed a sage branch backward with his yar as they began circling the camp. "There is a war ship a few miles behind them with a few of those Shielding Squads that the Shalilayo generals were experimenting with."

  Terrance’s brows drew down in thought. "How many men are aboard that ship?"

  "Close to a hundred,” Thistledown replied grimly. "They obviously don't want to take any chances. They also have five legions combing the shore further north toward Shalilayo."

  Terrance stared at Thistledown in shock. "Five legions and a war ship for three people?"

  Thistledown shrugged. "Captain Kerns is giving the orders now. He has always tried to use a hammer where you should use a nutcracker."

  Terrance sighed in frustration. "What else can go wrong?” Clenching his fists as if they were wrapping around Kerns’ throat, Terrance looked questioningly at Thistledown. "Does Kerns know who you are?"

  Thistledown shook his head. "Only as a country noble that rarely visits court,” Thistledown said regretfully. "Are you going to talk with him?"

  "I can't leave until we meet Riah,” Terrance replied with a grimace, "and then I may be in limbo for a while anyway."

  Thistledown studied Terrance for several moments, "Do you want us to avoid Kerns’ men, then?"

  Terrance nodded, "It's best to avoid any confrontations while we still have the option. We will need every human we can lay our hands on soon enough,” Terrance finished bleakly.

  The two of them walked around the camp in silence, each deep in thought. Once or twice, Terrance felt a quick flash of Lochnar's yar when he passed close to them. Normally, Lochnar would have remained undetectable, but when he was in close proximity to Thistledown, their resonance would connect randomly, causing the outburst of yar.

  Terrance had just started toward the tent when he felt a resonance approaching slowly from the north of their camp. Pausing, he reached out with his yar to locate the source of the resonance. It was coming from the road about three miles to the north, a phenomenon that Terrance would not have believed possible. Thistledown rejoined him, looking just as amazed.

  "How is their resonance traveling this far?” Thistledown wondered aloud. "No one has had a resonance that strong since you first arrived."

  Shaking his head silently, Terrance began moving toward the person that he felt with his yar, his footsteps making no noise as he crept stealthily toward the road. The two of them sat quietly by the road, waiting for the stranger to appear, preparing several nasty surprises if it turned out to be an enemy. A moment later Terrance decided to pull out his Chasel as he felt the raw energy radiating from the figure as it came in to sight in the distance, barely visible to their eyes in the moonlight. As the figure drew near, Terrance could see that it was a young woman. She was walking slowly as if she was half-asleep, looking around her in bemusement. She had long, auburn hair that hung loosely down to mid back. She was tall for a woman, with a lithely built frame that made her seem even taller than she was.

  It was her clothes that made Terrance stare. She wore a shirt that had never been worn by any inhabitants of this planet, with a pair of what Terrance knew to be shorts and a pair of sandals. Terrance continued staring at her, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him as she continued her dreamy walk down the road. He could tell by the stiff form next to him that Thistledow
n was as unprepared for this surprise as he himself was.

  Looking questioningly at Thistledown, Terrance slowly stood up as Thistledown nodded uncertainly. The two of them stepped out into the road in front of the young woman just as she was passing their place of concealment. With a startled scream, the young woman jumped back, before suddenly calming down and giggling at herself.

  "Excuse me," she said, still giggling slightly. "You startled me."

  Terrance shared another look with Thistledown before looking back at the girl, "Who are you,” he asked softly, "and where are you from?"

  Looking the two of them up and down boldly, she waited a moment before answering. "I'm Lori West,” she replied finally, with a mock curtsy, "and I am from the third bedroom of my house.” She looked at them as curiously as she did the landscape around them. "And you are part of my dream,” she said happily. "Though I must say, I have never had a dream that felt so real before."

  "You think this is a dream?” Thistledown asked her curiously.

  "Of course it's a dream,” she replied airily. "There certainly aren't two moons on earth.” She gestured at the sky behind her, where Lunidia, the smaller of the two moons, was just beginning to make its way into the sky.

  "Earth?” Terrance questioned her sharply. "You are from Earth? How did you get here?"

  Looking at the two of them with a long-suffering look, she sighed, "I walked into my bedroom, crawled into my bed and went to sleep,” she explained patiently, "and I should be waking up soon, because dreams usually don't last this long."

  "What do you remember after getting in bed?” Thistledown asked quickly. "Do you remember anything odd happening?"

  Looking back and forth at the two of them, Lori frowned as her eyes began to cloud with suspicion. "Nothing. I went to sleep and then I was walking down this road.” She licked her lips nervously as she continued looking back and forth between Terrance and Thistledown. "This is a dream, isn't it?"