Gorinthians Read online

  Celdic looked down at the floor in amazement and then shook his head several times. Looking down at the floor, he still saw what appeared to be a three-inch high human, except that this human had fangs and clawed hands. It was wearing a loincloth and sandals that looked homemade. Its hair was shoulder-length and looked like he had not combed it in a year. Its bare upper torso and legs were mud-stained and dirty. Sure that he must still be dreaming, Celdic went over to the washbasin on his nightstand and splashed some water onto his face. He turned around to see the odd creature blinking at him curiously.

  "Are you real?” Celdic asked, only half expecting an answer.

  "I could bite you,” the creature offered with a feral grin. "If you bleed then we can agree that I am real."

  "Wha-, I mean, who are you?” Celdic caught himself trying not to be rude.

  "What am I or who am I?” The creature asked sounding amused.

  "Either, I guess," Celdic said stupidly, "or both."

  The creature looked very amused at Celdic's reaction. "My name is Thistledown and I am a descendant of the Tree Gnomes. I seem to have changed a lot, though, from what my parents were. I suppose that you have to expect that living next to the Rajan Gardens."

  "Wait a minute,” Celdic contended. "Tree Gnomes don't look anything at all like you. They are just rodents."

  "Rodents, eh?” Thistledown said, scratching his head thoughtfully. "Well I guess that they would look like rodents if I were as big as you are. Like I said, I seem to have changed quite a bit."

  He seemed somewhat saddened about the change and Celdic wondered what it must have been like for him to be so different from all of the rest of his people. Suddenly feeling a kinship to the little man because of his own oddities, Celdic was unexpectedly pleased to have met Thistledown.

  "So, what are you doing here?” Celdic asked curiously. He was not sure what it was that Thistledown's kind did. "Are you just exploring, or is something wrong?"

  "I left my dwelling when the Dray Grass stopped growing.” Thistledown stared at the floor. "The others thought it was my fault the Dray Grass no longer grew, because I am different from them, so they told me to leave. The Dray Grass is our primary food source.”

  "Where will you go now?” Celdic pried, as an idea came into his head. If the Chasel were correct, then Celdic would be leaving soon. Perhaps the two of them could travel together.

  "Wherever my feet take me, I guess,” he replied in a carefree voice.

  "You could stay here for while,” Celdic offered tentatively, not sure how the little man might react.

  "Mmm. I suppose that might be interesting,” he mused. "I have always wondered what you humans do in your big cities."

  A knock on the bedroom door interrupted their conversation. Thistledown spun with a hiss as Cha'le opened the door and looked in.

  "Who were you talking-” she cut off with a startled exclamation when she saw Thistledown.

  "Calm down, Cha'le,” Celdic insisted, hoping to quiet her. "This is Thistledown. He used to live by the Rajan Gardens. He came to visit the city, so I thought we would give him a tour. Thistledown, this is my sister, Cha'le.” Celdic said it all in a rush, trying to overload his sister with enough information that she would not have time for surprise.

  "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Thistledown.” Cha'le replied in a bewildered tone.

  "Just Thistledown, please; no need for formality. And I am very glad to meet such a ravishing young lady, pretty Cha'le,” he replied with a florid bow that was just slightly overdone. Half way down in his bow, he winked at Celdic, who began to think of Thistledown as a very complex little fellow.

  Cha'le laughed aloud, "I am sure that we will get along just fine, Thistledown. In fact, there are a number of things that I have wanted to do for a while now that I may be able to do with your help."

  "Anything for you, pretty Cha'le," Thistledown replied with a roguish grin.

  "Don't let her get you involved in her pranks, Thistledown,” Celdic warned.

  "Pranks?” he asked with his head tilted. "I don't think that I am familiar with that term."

  "That's all right, Thistledown,” Cha'le said with a mischievous smile, "I will educate you."

  Celdic sighed. "Maybe you should stay away from him, Cha'le."

  "Uh huh, right,” Cha'le drawled noncommittally. "We should get going. We are already running behind.” She turned and left, closing his door behind her.

  Celdic stretched and then hurried out of his nightclothes and into some clean trousers and a gray shirt that he laced up. Pulling on his boots, he laced them up, grabbed his book from his nightstand and dropped it into his bag.

  "Would you like to travel in here?” Celdic asked Thistledown, indicating his bag.

  "Who could refuse such a luxurious mode of travel?” Thistledown replied with an ironic laugh. "Thank you, kind sir."

  Holding the bag down to the ground, Celdic opened the top and allowed Thistledown to climb in. He rushed out of the room and into the kitchen where his sister was eating porridge. She had changed out of her nightgown and into a pair of black linen trousers and a gray blouse. She looked up as he came to the table and then motioned her eyes questioningly toward their mother who was washing the breakfast cooking dishes in the sink. Celdic shook his head slightly. He did not want his parents to know about their new companion.

  Celdic wolfed down his porridge and then he and his sister both got up to leave. They said their goodbyes to their mother, hugging her tight, then went out the front door.

  "We are going to tell Lendel and Li about Thistledown aren't we?” Cha'le inquired as she wrapped her hair into two ponytails that she pulled over each shoulder.

  "Did someone call me?” a voice piped up and Thistledown's head popped out of the top of the bag.

  "I think so,” Celdic replied to Cha'le's question. "They would find out soon enough anyway."

  "Where are we going?” Thistledown inquired, peering down the trail.

  "To the Tar Ri’ San,” Cha'le answered as she took the lead on the path. "That is where we get our instruction in academics and combat."

  "What kind of academics do they teach you there?” Thistledown asked casually, as if he were only mildly interested.

  "Just about everything you can imagine:” Cha'le replied with a wave of her hand, "Mathematics, Language, Art, Physics and a whole range of classes on how to use Rajan compounds."

  "Rajan compounds?” Thistledown asked curiously, "What are those?"

  Cha'le glanced over her shoulder at them and then continued. "Yes, Rajan compounds. We take the plants from the Rajan gardens and learn to mix their yar with other materials in order to achieve certain effects. For example, we can make a sword that will not break or a ball that will give off light forever. The possibilities are endless, as long as the gardens keep producing plants with special yar."

  They were approaching the split in the trail where they would meet Lendel and Li. As they neared it, Celdic noticed a man half hidden in the brush at the split. Feeling a sudden foreboding, Celdic quickened his pace to catch up to Cha'le.

  With a surprising suddenness, the dark outline rushed onto the trail and reached for Cha'le's throat. Cha'le's hand shot up, her palm catching the stranger under the chin, and he flew backward several steps. Assuming a defensive stance, Cha'le waited for him to recover. Celdic moved past her swiftly and met the stranger’s advance with a solid kick to the solar plexus that put him on his back gasping for air.

  Celdic advanced on the fallen enemy with the intent to force some answers out of him.

  "Don't touch him!” Thistledown’s voice cried out urgently.

  Celdic looked down to the ground to where Thistledown had jumped, still keeping one eye on the stranger. "Why shouldn't I touch him, Thistledown?"

  "He is a Gorinthian,” Thistledown explained with an intensity that froze Celdic in his tracks. "If you touch him, he will be able to take your body."

  "What are you talking about? How could he t
ake my body?” Celdic demanded, somewhat confused.

  "It is nothing but a spirit and it can move from body to body. Kill it before it takes yours!” Thistledown shouted shrilly as the stranger began to rise again.

  Celdic looked in the attacker’s eyes, and saw a fire burning in their depths that chilled his heart. Reaching for his belt knife, Celdic jumped to the side of his attacker as his arm shot out with fingers extended for his throat. Spinning around behind it, Celdic flicked his knife around its neck and pulled, being careful not to touch it.

  The now throat-less body dropped lifelessly to the ground. Celdic felt an odd sensation, as if he were feeling a scream, rather than hearing it, a scream filled with hate and anger.

  Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Celdic stepped away from the corpse. It had already begun to decay and its stench soon filled the clearing where the trail split.

  Celdic looked up quickly to see if Cha'le was all right. She stood a few paces away, gagging at the smell.

  "Are you all right?” Celdic asked her urgently. "You touched it with your hand."

  "I am fine,” Cha'le replied, still gagging slightly as she moved away from the stinking carcass. "Are you ok?"

  "I'm fine,” Celdic assured her. "It didn't touch me."

  Celdic stared at the corpse with a slightly haunted look in his eyes. He had never killed anything more than a chicken before and now he had a killed a man.

  "You did the right thing,” Thistledown said to him from the ground, looking at him shrewdly. "You would be worse than dead if it had been successful in grabbing your throat."

  Cha'le had been staring at the lifeless form and she suddenly let out a small gasp. "That's one of the gardeners! We’ve passed him on our way to the Tar Ri’ San before.”

  Thistledown shook his head, "That may have been someone you knew once. A Gorinthian evicts the former spirit of whatever body it takes. All that you did was destroy the vehicle this Gorinthian was using. I would imagine it is already on its way back to the Rajan Gardens to steal another body."

  Cha'le was looking at Thistledown suspiciously. "You seem to know a lot about these creatures. Where did you learn so much about them?”

  Before Thistledown could answer, Lendel and Li came down the fork in the trail that led toward their house. They were both wrinkling their noses as they approached the small clearing.

  "What is that stench?” Li asked in disgust.

  "Is that you Celdic?” Lendel asked with one eyebrow raised. "Just because you have visions when you look in the wash basins doesn't mean you can stop bathing."

  Celdic did not bother to respond. He just gestured up the trail toward the rotting remains.

  Li let out a loud gasp and Lendel bit off an oath.

  "What happened?” Lendel demanded, holding his nose as he moved closer to the rotting corpse.

  "He attacked us on our way down,” Celdic explained, gesturing toward Cha'le. "Well, he attacked Cha'le actually and when I went after him, he tried to attack me."

  "Who was it?” Li's voice had a small quaver to it and her face was white.

  "It was a gardener,” Cha'le replied with revulsion. "I think that we should alert the Guardians. There may be more of them."

  "A gardener!” Lendel gasped in shock. "Why would a gardener attack you? And why would there be more?"

  "Cha'le is right,” Celdic said in a subdued voice. "Let's go let the Guardians know about them. Thistledown can tell you about them as we go.” Not waiting for Lendel to question him further, Celdic began walking down the worn path into the small forest.

  "Who is Thistledown?” Lendel asked, looking around as he caught up to Celdic.

  "I am Thistledown,” Thistledown replied from Lendel's pack, into where he had somehow managed to climb.

  Lendel gave a startled exclamation from the voice that appeared to be coming from behind his ear. Jerking around, he looked behind him. Not seeing anyone there, he turned again.

  "Up here big guy,” Thistledown called out again.

  Lendel spun again, this time so violently that he almost fell over. Cha'le snickered behind him. Li blinked uncertainly at Lendel, where the source of the voice was coming from. Thistledown patted Lendel's shoulder with his palm and Lendel spun around yet again, his eyes attaining a wild look.

  "Is he invisible?” Lendel asked, his eyes darting around the clearing.

  Cha'le doubled over and laughed and Li looked amused by Lendel's reaction, almost forgetting her own incomprehension.

  "He is a three-inch tall man sitting in your pack,” Celdic answered, rolling his eyes. "If you two are done playing, we have this other matter to attend to."

  Lendel pulled his pack around and looked into it. Thistledown sat on the top of the pack with his legs crossed.

  "Good morning,” Thistledown greeted him amiably.

  Lendel almost dropped his pack and Thistledown jumped clear of it.

  "Very clumsy,” Thistledown commented reproachfully. "Pretty Cha'le, would you mind?"

  "Why of course, my dear Thistledown,” Cha'le replied with exaggerated formality. She lowered her pack and he climbed on.

  Celdic had already started down the trail again. They continued through the small forest as Thistledown described their encounter with the Gorinthian, somehow making Cha'le out to be the grand heroine that had saved them all. Celdic began paying closer attention when he described the Gorinthian’s odd nature.

  "A long ago time they were extremely deadly.” Thistledown expounded. "They didn't need to touch you to steal your body. They could hop from body to body at will. After the Derinian Order wounded the Earth's spirit, Gorinthians were no longer able to draw the extra energy they needed to penetrate a person’s aura. I guess they get all the energy they need at the gardens."

  "What do you mean when you say the earth's spirit was wounded?” Celdic interrupted.

  Thistledown looked at him suspiciously for a minute, as if he suspected some kind of joke. When Celdic did not respond, Thistledown's expression turned from suspicion to amazement. He looked at each of them in turn and saw the same blank look of incomprehension on their faces. "Are you trying to tell me you don't know anything about your own history?” he demanded incredulously.

  "Sure we know about our history,” Lendel replied impatiently. "We have whole classes that teach us about finding this valley and building a city where no one else dared."

  Thistledown waved his hand dismissively. "I mean before that; back when there was still a civilization. Before the great war that ended civilization."

  "What are we, barbarians?” Li asked dryly.

  Thistledown looked at her for a moment before answering. "I think I will let Terrance give you your history lesson. I seem to have a gift for offending people.”

  Lendel frowned. "Terrance? That was the name of the man who founded this city."

  "Yes and now that things have returned to the state that I predicted, he has come back to use the Chasel.” Thistledown rubbed his chin musingly. "I must say, I had my doubts about setting a whole city up to guard it, but he obviously knew what he was doing."

  "Are you saying the same man who founded this city is here today?” Celdic exclaimed, his eyes widening.

  "I thought I just said that.” Thistledown shook his head resignedly. "I see that we have a long way to go with you."

  They were just leaving the edge of the forest and starting down to the city gates. Something made Celdic stop and look closer at the gates. The normal city watch was there but there were also two guardians at the gate, each on one knee with their left fist placed on the ground with their heads bowed. A man appeared, walking out of the city and between the two guardians. As he passed them, he made a curious salute with his fist to his chest and both guardians arose. He started to climb up toward the four students, but did not look up to where Celdic and his companions were winding down the trail.

  "Is that an outsider?” Li asked in wonder. "Do you think that it is the person that breached the barrier?"<
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  Celdic had started to think that Thistledown might have been the stranger that came through the barrier, but after seeing the stranger below, he knew it was not Thistledown. He had seen this man before.

  "That is the man I told you about;” Celdic whispered quietly to Lendel, "the one that I saw in the washbasin reflection."

  "Are you sure?” Lendel asked with a troubled frown.

  "I think so. I will know for sure when I see his eyes. They were like twin suns radiating power.” Celdic broke off when he saw Thistledown looking at him appraisingly from Cha'le's shoulder.

  "Twin suns radiating power?” Lendel chuckled. "How poetic."

  Celdic was not really paying attention. He was too busy watching the man that was quickly shortening the distance between them. Celdic could now make out what the stranger was wearing. He wore garb similar to what the guardians wore, in that it would fade into trees and rock easily. It was more finely made, however. He wore black boots that rose to his knees with the hilt of a dagger at the top of each one. He also wore a sword on his hip and had another dagger sheathed at his right hip. He had steel cuffs around his wrists and an odd knife strapped to each elbow. These would point outward when he bent his elbows, baring two inches of blade each. Celdic looked up at his face. He had a strong jaw with well-defined cheekbones. His hair was cropped close and his face was unlined. His eyes radiated power as Celdic remembered from his vision. He could not have said how old he was. He walked like a hunting lion, with a grace that not even the guardians could match. The only person he had seen come close to matching it was Tarya Selindria.

  Celdic stopped and waited, feeling his muscles tense like they did before combat. He breathed deeply to try to relax. He noticed that the others seemed somewhat tense as well. The way the stranger moved made one think of impending violence.

  The stranger stopped about ten paces from them, as if he were aware of the effect he had on others. Celdic stood looking at him with a look of recognition. There was no doubt this was the man he had seen. When the man saw the way that Celdic looked at him, he blinked and then surveyed the others. As his gaze swept over the others, there was an invisible ripple like wind disturbing the leaves of a tree. Finally, his gaze settled on Cha' le. Cha'le stepped back a pace as he scowled down at her, then stiffened her back and held her ground.