Gorinthians Read online

  Ferrich's chin came up slightly and he stared down his nose at them. "Aristocrats do not think they are better than commoners.” The effect was spoiled slightly when his lips began twitching. From her chair by the table, Jesha giggled loudly before catching herself. Her lips still quivered to fight back her mirth as she looked at Ferrich with her strange eyes.

  Ferrich winked at her slyly, causing her to giggle again. "I would make introductions, but I am not certain if we have decided on names?” He finished, looking questioningly at Morindessa. She rolled her eyes at him, sighing at the ceiling.

  "This is Ferrich and Seranova.” Morindessa gestured at the two of them. "You can call me Des."

  "Pleased to meet you,” Jesha said politely, her shyness abandoned.

  "How old are you?” Morindessa asked again.

  "I am twenty-two in human years,” she replied quietly. Seranova stared at her, wondering if all Zerans looked like children.

  Ferrich was staring at her in wonder as well. "Twenty-two? And here I thought that you weren't a day older than ten."

  "Zerans age much slower than humans,” Morindessa told them. "She is at the same maturity as a human her age, but she won't look twenty-two until she is about fifty.” Looking back at Jesha, Morindessa asked her, "How did you come to live with Derek?"

  Jesha took a deep breath, glancing at the door before answering. "I was raised in a village that was close to the border. Some humans raided our village when I was fifteen, killing all of the men and capturing all of the women and girls.” Her voice was hollow as she continued, "My mother tried to hide my sisters and me in different places around the house, but the raiders found all of my sisters. I was lying sideways on a beam by the roof, so they could not see me. They did terrible things to my mother and sisters before tying them up and taking them away.” A tear rolled down her cheek as she finished, but she blinked the other tears back. "I stayed in my hiding place for the rest of the day. I was afraid the humans might be hiding in the village, waiting for any of us who had managed to stay hidden. When I finally worked up the nerve to search the rest of our village for survivors, I found the bodies of all of our men stacked in a pile with their eyes torn out. The next day, a man with a wife and a little girl came through our village. When the man began burying the bodies, I decided I could trust him. That is how I met Derek. They were on their way back from a visit with his brother who had married a Zeran, and they let me join their small family."

  Seranova felt numb with shock at the horror Jesha had gone through. Morindessa's face was full of sympathy and she stroked Jesha's back comfortingly. Ferrich's face was white with outrage, staring at Jesha with wide eyes. "Where did those men go?” Ferrich demanded hotly.

  Jesha cleared her throat and wiped her eyes with her wrist. "I never found out. Derek would not let me search for them. He said my mother didn't sacrifice herself just so I could hand myself over to the ones who stole her."

  "It's one of the more disgusting practices that go on near the border towns,” Morindessa said, her voice thick with contempt. "Humans like Zeran women because they are more attractive than human women. There is a large market for them in Garganthon and Treola. One of these days I am going to do something about that."

  Morindessa took a deep breath, glancing at the Mood Glass on the table. On the outer edge of the Mood Glass, there were about fifty orange dots swirling around each other. "Jesha, has anything strange been happening lately?” Morindessa watched her intently, round pupils staring into cat-like pupils.

  Jesha nodded. “People have been disappearing for the last week,” she said quietly. "Mostly children, but some of the men as well."

  "Do you have any idea what is causing it?” Morindessa asked with a frown.

  "The Trapper found tracks of a large creature on the outside of the village,” she replied, holding her hands apart by about a foot to indicate the size. "One of the other men saw glowing eyes in the dark once. He said they looked like mine."

  Morindessa looked over at the Mood Glass sharply. The conglomeration of orange dots moved toward the center of the Mood Glass. "You two, get your stuff,” she commanded crisply. "It looks like we might not be staying after all."

  Chapter 20

  They all heard a loud bang, as the common room door was slammed open, which was followed by the sound of many drunken voices. Morindessa gave Ferrich and Seranova a push to start them moving back to their rooms for their packs, following closely on their heels. As she reached the door, she grabbed Jesha's arm, pulling her up from her chair where she sat wide-eyed with fear. "Stay with me,” Morindessa told her firmly. She reached out with her yar to the common room, quickly counting the number of men surrounding it. She stopped counting at thirty, cursing under her breath at the stupidity of men. Pulling Jesha close to her, she waited for Ferrich and Seranova to return.

  "They think that the monsters are coming because of me,” Jesha whispered in a frightened voice. "Indrico the Tanner said that I was one of them when he saw my eyes."

  "Indrico the Idiot, you mean,” Morindessa muttered darkly. Looking down at Jesha, Morindessa made a quick decision. She knew if Jesha somehow survived the day’s violence on her own, it would only be a matter of time before the provincial villagers found another reason to harm her. I am turning into a real sucker for hopeless cases, Morindessa sighed inwardly, knowing she could not leave Jesha to the mob waiting outside. "Jesha, I would like you to come with us."

  Jesha looked up at Morindessa, her eyes scared. "What about Derek and his family?"

  "That's one of the reasons I want you to come with us.” Morindessa gestured down the hall toward the common room where the shouting was growing in intensity. "Derek will fight these men to protect you, and probably lose his life in the process. If you come with us, the villagers will have no reason to harm him."

  Jesha's eyes grew distant as she thought it over, her delicate features thoughtful. A moment later, she focused on Morindessa, "I don't want anything to happen to Derek,” she said quietly. "Will I be able to say goodbye?"

  Morindessa nodded, gripping her shoulder comfortingly. "We need to let the men out there know you will be leaving with us anyway."

  Ferrich and Seranova hurried out of their rooms, joining them in the hall outside Morindessa's door. "What's the plan?” Ferrich asked tensely, watching the direction of the common room nervously.

  "We are going to take Jesha with us,” Morindessa replied shortly. "Follow me and let me do all of the talking.” Morindessa started toward the common room, reaching down to hold Jesha's hand. Her hand felt tiny, even in Morindessa's own slender hands.

  Rounding the corner to the common room, Morindessa paused to study the scene before them. The crowd of more than thirty men, and even some women, had Derek backed up to a corner. They filled the entire common room, with more outside the inn shouting angrily.

  A large man with a dark beard held a pitchfork up to Derek's neck, making him stretch up against the wall to avoid being impaled. "This is the last time we are going to ask you,” he snarled. "Where is the little monster?"

  Derek stared at the men coldly, his lips clamped together. The large man with the pitchfork spat on him in disgust, pulling the pitchfork back to ram it through his throat.

  "Hold!” Morindessa called out sharply from the hall opening. Everyone in the room turned their heads to stare at Morindessa and Jesha. With a wordless roar, the mob surged forward toward Jesha. Derek shouted something that was lost in the noise of the mob, his eyes stricken. A moment later, Morindessa struck out with her yar and ignited a series of sharp air concussions between her and the mob. The sound was deafening, causing those closest to the explosion of air to drop to the ground holding their ears, while the rest of them backed fearfully away.

  "All of you, leave immediately,” Morindessa said softly in the sudden silence. "If any of you are still here by the time I count to five, you will have to be carried out."

  As Morindessa began counting, everyone in the ro
om began stampeding to get out of the inn, as the crowd outside demanded to know what had happened. Morindessa looked down at Jesha, who was staring in wide-eyed astonishment at the fleeing mob. "You will need to say your goodbyes quickly, before the mob finds its courage again."

  Derek ran forward to hug Jesha once the crowd between them had cleared, squeezing her tightly in relief. Standing up, he hugged Morindessa as well, thanking her profusely while she tried to fend him off.

  "Derek, we need to talk,” Morindessa told him, pushing him away. "Jesha is not safe here. We are going to a place where she will be accepted and would like to take her with us."

  Derek nodded reluctantly, "As much as I hate to lose her, I know aashe is not safe here.” He knelt down once more, pulled her close and whispered something to her that was too low for Morindessa to hear. Nodding, Jesha pulled away, a single tear running down her cheek. Derek reached out and gently brushed it away, smiling at her through his own brimming eyes.

  Morindessa squeezed Jesha's shoulder again, and began walking toward the front door with Ferrich and Seranova behind. She could feel the mob still watching the inn from a safe distance outside. Walking through the front door, she saw a ring of men watching the inn uncertainly, gripping their crude weapons with white-knuckled fists.

  "We will be leaving now,” Morindessa called out to the men surrounding the inn. "We are taking Jesha with us. Any of you that wish to continue living would be wise to stay out of our way,” she finished in a deadly tone, while using her yar to create a deep chord of sound that was almost too low for hearing, but filled with ominous certainty. She delved into the plants that surrounded the inn, making a small set of harmonics that emanated from the miniature hairs on the stems, which created the same unsettling sensation around the inn.

  Walking toward the road that exited the south edge of the village, she intensified the pitch until the men finally began running away from an unknown doom. She felt like killing the lot of them. Trying to harm what they thought of as a child because she had strange eyes.

  "Do you think that Derek will be all right?” Ferrich asked quietly as he stepped up beside her.

  "I left a Continuance on the inn," Morindessa assured him. "As long as the plants around the inn are alive, the people will feel the same uncertainty and fear that they did when we left."

  "Is that what you were doing?” Ferrich asked curiously. "I was only able to see some of it."

  "What about customers?” Seranova asked pointedly. "Won't it scare them away as well?"

  Morindessa glanced sideways at Seranova before answering, "More than likely. The plants will only be alive for a few more weeks though, and then the feeling will leave. By then, the villagers will have forgotten the incident."

  They continued traveling into the night until they reached the village of North Fork, a considerably larger village than Fair Venning. A log palisade surrounded the town, with watchtowers on each of the four corners. It was just before midnight when they reached the gates, ringing a bell to get the sleeping guards’ attention.

  "Who goes there?” a grouchy voice called down to them from a small window in the tower above them.

  "Travelers from Fair Venning,” Morindessa called up to him. Reaching out with her yar, she scanned the inside of the tower. There were three men inside, one of them still fast asleep and all three of them inebriated. She could feel their disjointed auras floundering as their spirits tried to work through their alcohol-saturated minds. The one that was looking down at them had small barbs emanating from his aura, a sure indication that he was going to be difficult.

  "We don't open the gate at night,” he growled at them, slamming the small wooden slat back into place.

  "Charming fellow,” Ferrich observed dryly. "Whatever they are paying him, it is too much."

  Morindessa grunted her agreement. Reaching out with her yar, she felt the gate for a place that was free of iron brackets and slowly changed the yar in the wood until it was as supple as bread dough. "Follow me," she called over her shoulder, and then walked into the wooden gate. The spot that she changed gave way as she pushed into it, like a finger stuck into bread dough, until she exited on the other side of the gate. A moment later, the other three squeezed through and she changed the wood back to its normal makeup.

  "You know, the longer I am around you, the more you amaze me,” Ferrich said in admiration as he studied the gate with his own yar. "I mean, where do you come up with these ideas?"

  Morindessa felt a thrill of pleasure course through her at his praise. "From a very misguided youth.” She had spent a lot of time sneaking into people’s homes after Riah taught her how to change an object's malleability.

  The street they were on had three inns immediately inside the gate, each with small torches burning in sconces around the doors. Morindessa led them to the furthest one from the gate. It had a sign with a picture of a hawk flying below a sky full of stars. Beneath that was the inscription, The Night Hawk. The Night Hawk was much larger than The Woodsman, with two stories and at least twenty rooms. The inside had a large common room that was almost empty at the late hour, with the exception of a table with two men in uniforms that probably should have been on the night watch. Neither man looked up from their ale when Morindessa and her companions walked in. A fire pit on the far wall had burned down to coals and there were only a few oil lamps still glowing, casting shadows throughout the large room.

  Making her way to the counter, Morindessa rang a little bell. A moment later, a sleepy-looking woman appeared from a room behind the counter, yawning widely at them. She was already in her nightdress and plainly had not expected any new customers for the night.

  "We need three rooms,” Morindessa said brusquely, pulling her purse onto the counter and reaching for some coins. "One of them will need two beds."

  The woman nodded and led them down the hall and up the stairs to the second story, walking as if she were still half-asleep. She showed them to three rooms, two next to each other and one across the hall. Morindessa slipped her a silver piece, since she had obviously forgotten to ask them for money, and quietly thanked her.

  "Everyone, get some sleep," Morindessa said, opening her door and entering her room with Jesha. "We have an early start in the morning."

  When she turned around, she found Jesha studying her, a serious look on her childlike face. "Do you have magic?" the small Zeran asked, with a hopeful look in her eyes.

  "I don't know that I would call it magic," Morindessa replied with a wry smile, "but I do have a few skills that are a little out of the ordinary."

  "Could you teach me?” Jesha asked earnestly, her entire face lit up with hope.

  "Yes, if you like,” Morindessa studied her in turn, unconsciously seeing a ten-year-old rather than someone that was only a decade younger than her. "Why do you want to learn magic?"

  "If I knew magic, then I might be able to find my mother and sisters,” Jesha said determinedly. "I don't think that they are in a good place, wherever they are."

  Morindessa nodded in understanding. It seemed that the two of them were on a similar quest. "Which bed do you want?"

  Jesha walked over to the smaller of the two beds and crawled into it. Morindessa untied her pack and set it next to her bed. She lay down on top of the covers, trying to sort through all of the events of the day. When she had found Lochnar's symbol in her pocket, she had felt a sense of shock so profound that she could barely answer Seranova. She had not seen Lochnar since he and Riah had left Shalilayo all those years ago. She had no idea how he had put it in her pocket, but it had to have been after she was already on Seranova's strange vessel. She had no idea how much knowledge Lochnar had that he had not shown her, but she suspected it dwarfed her own understanding of the Spiritual Realm. Morindessa reached out with her yar and extinguished the small oil lamp on the wall, casting the room into darkness.

  "Good night, Des,” Jesha said sleepily from across the room.

  "Good night Jesha.” Morindessa
felt good about her decision to bring Jesha with them. Perhaps this was her second chance at having a family again. Third chance actually, she thought ruefully. Before she drifted off, she reached out with her yar to sense the surrounding area as far as she could reach and found nothing out of the ordinary. Something felt somewhat familiar in the inn across the street, but she could not pin down exactly what it was, so she went to sleep, wondering what Riah would think of her rescuing Ferrich and Jesha if she were still alive.

  ---

  Lieutenant Sanders stood on the southern shore of Lake Magnus, studying the strange vessel tied up in the small cove. He was dressed in an officer’s uniform of black linen trousers with knee-high boots and a black coat buttoned to the neck. Sanders had the broad shoulders of a soldier who had made his way to a position of command through a mixture of physical strength and cunning. His face was finely defined, almost like a fox, and his eyes gleamed with an intelligence that was uncommon in his line of work. He had a short sword belted to his waist, as well as a heavy dagger at his other side and two smaller throwing knives sticking from the tops of his boots.

  "Sergeant Dennel," Sanders called out, "I want you to stay behind with your company and wait for anyone that returns to this vessel. Capture, but do not kill."

  "Yes sir,” a tall, powerfully built man with a black beard that hid his scar said, saluting smartly. "You think they will come back, sir?"

  "I think they left the chance open, since they hid the vessel and tied it off,” Sanders replied curtly, turning and walking back to the troops still being ferried ashore on the long boat.

  "Sergeant Grism," Sanders called crisply, "I want you to gather the remaining troops and follow us. I will be leaving with those we have ashore immediately."

  ---

  Jesha woke with a start as a firm hand gently shook her shoulder. "It is time to go now,” Des whispered down to her.

  The room was still pitch black, but Jesha could feel where everything was with her yar. Though she had never learned to do anything with her yar as she had witnessed Des doing, she had always been able to feel everything around her: emotions as well as the physical world. Rising from her bed, she walked over to the door and waited for Des to pull her pack back on. A moment later, Des opened the door to the still dark hallway and knocked lightly on Ferrich's door before entering quietly. Ferrich was twisting around in his sleep, mumbling incoherently. Des reached out and shook him lightly and he sat up straight with a gasp, breathing heavily for several moments before calming down.