Gorinthians Read online

  “You haven’t said how you plan to get past the Guardians on the border,” Cha’le’s voice whispered out of the darkness.

  “Just trust me,” Lendel whispered patiently, as though he had already been through this discussion.

  Cha’le glanced at Li, who rolled her eyes despairingly toward the heavens. “I wouldn’t trust you if I had you tied in a sack,” Li said dryly.

  They had stolen some of the Everlight vapor that was in the Guardian storehouse before they left, so they would be able to find their way in the dark. It was not the first time Cha'le had sneaked into the Guardian's private stores, so she was fairly good at it. They made good time as they crossed the summit up to the Alter of Guardia and then down the steep slopes that led down into the lowlands. Lendel would stop them from time to time as they made their way down the mountain to make sure they were still following Celdic's tracks.

  Cha’le collided into Lendel’s back, almost knocking him over as he came to a halt in front of her. “Why have we stopped?” she asked impatiently.

  Lendel gestured toward the ground in front of him, “There is another set of tracks that joined the others; another Guardian from the looks of it.”

  Li walked closer and crouched down to study the tracks. “It looks like he joined them,” she said slowly. “Some of Celdic’s tracks are stepping into his, so he must have joined their party.”

  “Who was on duty tonight?” Lendel asked as he began down the trail again.

  “Jalorm, Silneresti and Gresty were covering this section.” Cha’le replied absently. She had overheard Captain Jorbran passing the information on to Elder Gibbons earlier that night. Cha’le seemed to be lost in another world for the moment.

  “What is it?” Lendel asked curiously.

  “I think that it might have been Jalorm,” she replied uncertainly. “I overheard him talking with Tarya Selindria once when they were doing his private training.” She paused again, “I think that he has the Jen De’ La.”

  Lendel let out a loud guffaw. Cha’le and Li both made shushing noises at him, but he just ignored them. “The Jen De’ La? Jalorm? He is the most ordinary person I know! There is no way that he could have the Jen de’ le. Everyone would have known by now.”

  “If you would close your mouth and let me finish,“ Cha’le said dryly, “I heard her giving him instruction on how to control his emotions so that he could use Jen whenever he wanted to, instead of whenever instinct took over. I am assuming that she meant Jen de’ le."

  “Even so, I don’t--” Lendel cut off and stopped walking again, studying the ground. “Another set of tracks,” he said in surprise.

  “These don’t belong to a Guardian,” Li stated emphatically. “These tracks weren’t made by anyone from Chasel Ri’ Aven. We don’t make soles like this on any of our boots.”

  Cha’le looked at her in consternation. “A Gorinthian from one of the towns?” she whispered worriedly.

  “Maybe,” Lendel returned doubtfully. “It could be anyone. Let’s see if the prints keep following Celdic’s.” Lendel stood up and continued down the trail as the other two followed. They did not go very far before they saw all of the tracks veer off the main path and into the thick foliage to the left.

  “Where were they going?” Lendel wondered aloud.

  Li pushed passed him, “Well, let’s find out, shall we?” She glanced back at him to make sure that he was coming and then continued on with Cha’le bringing up the rear.

  They traveled for another quarter hour before all but one set of tracks dead-ended in the side of a small hill. Cha’le walked around the perimeter of the small hill looking for some sign of where they went.

  “Where did they go?” Li asked in confusion.

  “Indeed where?” a voice responded behind them. The three youths spun around, instinctively pulling their weapons from their sheathes. A man of middle years stood before them, wearing unrelieved black trousers, shirt and coat with gleaming black boots that rose to just below his knee. His hands were empty and, as far as Cha’le could see, he had no weapons on him. He gazed at them with eyes as black as the night around them, towering over even Lendel by a hand or more. His face was so alien to anything that Cha’le had ever seen that she wondered if he were even human. The differences were very subtle, but there were so many of them that it gave the overall appearance of a non-human. His eyes were angular, set inside of deep sockets, with a nose that did not miss being too large and pointed ears.

  “Who are you?” Lendel asked roughly, “and why are you following my friends?”

  “I might ask the same of you,” he replied, his voice hard and coarse. Cha’le wondered if that were his normal voice. “Shouldn’t you children be preparing for school tomorrow?”

  Lendel reddened slightly. “You haven’t answered my question stranger,” he said in a deadly quiet voice. “Don’t make me ask again.”

  “Or what?” the stranger asked contemptuously. “Are you going to skewer me?” he gestured scornfully at Lendel’s sword.

  Cha’le’s thoughts swirled furiously. The man did not have a weapon but he seemed completely oblivious to any personal danger. Even if he were a trained warrior, he would have to pause against an armed swordsman. He must have some kind of weapon, she thought warily, even if we cannot see it. Cautiously, she scanned him with her yar, looking for the presence of an object that was not in harmony with his yar. Beside her, she felt Li checking him as well.

  Cha’le heard Li gasped in astonishment, just as she felt her own eyes widen in shock. She could feel his yar, but it seemed to exist only in certain parts of his body, as if there were gaping holes through him. Anything could be hidden in what she could not sense.

  “Be careful, Lendel,” she warned in a low voice. “He is more than what he seems.” She began dipping her hand into her coat pocket where she carried rootsnare, a powder that was made from a root that would ensnare a person’s spirit rather than their physical body, trapping them until their spirit adapted to the change and overcame it. As far as anyone knew, the root only grew in the mountains of Chasel Ri’ Aven.

  Slowly, Cha’le pulled a pinch of the powder out of her pocket and concentrated her yar on the air around it, ready to blow it in his face if he appeared to attack.

  “What in the two moons are you?” Li asked in puzzlement. She did not look at Cha’le, but she knew that Li was drawing his attention to her so that Cha’le would have the opportunity to blow the powder on to him. The stranger’s face darkened at Li’s question and abruptly he was no longer there. He appeared behind Cha’le with a vice like grip around her wrist that held the powder and a small knife held to the back of her ribs. It was impossible that he could have moved that fast. Cha’le inhaled deeply as the tip of the blade brushed her back rib. The way that he was holding her meant a sure death if she tried to move at all.

  “Now,” he said in a quite growl, “you are going to tell me why you are following Terrance or I will have to kill you, which I may do anyway depending on your answer.”

  Lendel dropped his sword and raised his hands in front of him submissively. “Let her go,” he said, barely keeping the anxiety out of his voice. “Kill me if you do not like our answers, but let them go.”

  “You have to the count of three to tell me why you are following Terrance and then I am going to kill your friend.” He repeated the warning in his soft, growling voice.

  “He and a gnome came to our city and left with one of our friends and a teacher,” Li said hurriedly. “We were going to join them. That is all. I swear it on the Day of First Dawn.”

  The stranger grunted slightly without changing expression and shoved Cha’le away. The oath that she had given could not be broken. No one knew why, but everyone knew the oath the day they learned to talk. A person trying to break the oath would begin having sporadic convulsions that lasted for a week. “Did he ask you to follow him?” the stranger demanded with a piercing look. “Or, was this your own idea?”

  Li op
ened her mouth, the lie plain on her face, and Cha’le broke in, “He didn’t ask us to.” She watched him closely to see what his reaction would be. She had a feeling that he could hear a lie.

  The stranger sighed, “Why does he always have to complicate things?” he muttered resignedly. He stepped back looking at them each in turn, his eyes appraising. His face gave no indication of what he thought, as closed to them as the rest of him was to the outer world. After a moment of quiet study, he turned away from them and began walking back toward the main trail.

  “Follow me, ask no questions and do as I tell you to do when I tell you to,” he demanded over his shoulder. “All you need to know is that I can take you to where Terrance went, something that you will never be able to do on your own.”

  The three Avenry folk stood looking at each other uncertainly for a few moments before Lendel shrugged uncomfortably. “At least this way he will be under our eye instead of sneaking around behind our backs.

  Li nodded slowly and turned toward the main trail. Cha’le grunted sourly without voicing the obvious fact that having him under their eye had availed them nothing the first time that he had attacked, but she also began walking back toward the main trail. The stranger had disappeared from sight, but Cha’le could feel his disjointed yar ahead of them on the trail.

  They continued down the trail into the morning without any discussion, the three youths keeping a slight distance between the black-swathed man and themselves. Cha’le knew that the others probably had the same questions running through their minds that she did: Is he trying to harm this Terrance, or is he a friend? Cha’le’s initial impression was that he wanted to harm them, but he did not kill them when he had the chance. There was so much that she did not know about the outside world that she could not make any educated guesses on what his intentions might be.

  As the sun began climbing high into the sky and bringing them eventually into the afternoon, the three youths were beginning to wear out. Cha’le wondered if the black-clothed stranger intended to walk the entire way without rest. He certainly showed no signs of fatigue that she could see. He would glance back at them about once every hour, expressionless and cold, and then continue without looking back until the next hour came.

  After what seemed like ages, he stopped and told them that they would make camp in a small clearing that was about fifty feet to the side of the trail. Cha’le’s legs were shaking with exhaustion and Li looked ready to fall over. Lendel looked a little better than the two of them, but not much. They had planned to take turns at the watch throughout the night, but Cha’le was not sure any of them had enough energy to stay awake. They had been unable to acquire any weary bane from the Guardian storehouse. Cha’le wished she had tried harder now.

  The three Avenry did not bother with a campfire and the dark stranger did not seem interested in lighting one either. The three of them pulled some dried goat from their packs and began to eat ravenously. When they were finished, Lendel stood up with a weary sigh.

  “I’ll take the first watch,” he murmured quietly to them, making a discreet glance at the black-clad stranger. He stood about twenty paces away with his back to them as he studied the trees at the eastern edge of the clearing.

  “You will all go to sleep right now,” the stranger commanded without turning around. “I won’t have you slowing me down any more than you already are by falling over from exhaustion.”

  Lendel scowled at his back, but said nothing in return. Cha’le’s lips turned down in a small frown. Does he have the ears of a cat? she thought irritably. She would have to remember that anything that she said aloud would probably be overheard. I will bet that Celdic does not have to put up with this kind of nonsense.

  Li already had her pack off and lay asleep on the ground. Shrugging her pack off, Cha’le stretched down on the ground beside her. She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep almost immediately, with Lendel settling in on the other side of her.

  ---

  The black-clad stranger stood over the slumbering youths from Chasel Ri’ Aven, studying them once again. He had no need of rest. He shook his head slowly as he studied them, marveling at the thought that existence itself rested on the shoulders of four youths from this isolated province. Standing up, he began to make a circuit around the camp, watching as much with his yar as he did with his eyes and ears. Thinking of the look on Terrance's face when he saw him with these three almost made him smile. Happiness was not an emotion that his race was capable of, but he felt a twisted satisfaction at what fate had brought him.

  Chapter 8

  Selindria awoke in the bedroom she had stayed in at the cottage and stared out the window at the foot of her bed where dawn was just beginning to stain the Eastern horizon. What will today bring? she thought ruefully as she recalled the previous day's adventure. She felt her cheeks redden slightly as she recalled the fool that she had made of herself. I must have looked like a complete idiot, she thought with a shake of her head. Not that I care what he thinks of me.

  Rising out of bed, she went over to the washstand and splashed some water over her face. She stared into her own cat-like eyes, wondering what Terrance would think if he knew the truth. He thought that she was just a Zeran, that her eyes marked her as one for true. What he does not know will not bother him. That was what she always told students when they started asking her why her eyes were abnormal.

  Drying her face with a towel, Selindria looked at her reflection in the mirror. Picking up her brush, she began stroking her waist-length hair in long, even strokes. She noticed there was a large wardrobe next to the door that had not been there when she went to sleep. Rising slowly, she moved over to the wardrobe and explored the contents. Her eyes went immediately to the white skirt with a tight fitting white blouse. When she first arrived at Chasel Ri’ Aven, the Elders had tried to talk her out of wearing her tight-fitting blouses that accentuated her large breasts. They tried to convince her that it was unseemly. The memory of the Elder’s faces when she asked them how she was to fight in a loose blouse that allowed her breasts to bounce around every time she moved still brought a smile to her face. She pulled the white skirt and blouse from the wardrobe and dressed quickly, examining herself in the mirror when she was done. For the last century, she had worn nothing but unrelieved black, mourning the sister she had lost. She almost did not recognize herself in the bright color, which contrasted nicely with her midnight-black hair. Slipping her feet into the soft brown sandals next to the door, she walked out into the common room.

  Celdic was already up, sitting in a chair next to Jalorm talking animatedly. Jalorm had a faintly amused expression on a face that just missed being handsome. His broad chin always seemed to be stabbing at you as he emphasized his arguments with sharp nods. The two of them stood up as she walked into the room, staring at her with their mouths hanging open.

  “Good morning, gentleman,” she greeted them with a smile. “How did you sleep?”

  She had to repeat the question before they finally gave themselves a shake. They assured her that they slept wonderfully, better than they ever had before. That certainly did not surprise her. As soon as they had crossed over the boundary to wherever this place was, she could sense the web that Terrance spun around this place, bringing a sense of wellbeing and happiness to those receptive to it. Selindria was immune to such manipulations, an inheritance from her father’s side. Had she been human, she would not even have been able to detect the layers of the cocoon that Terrance wrapped around this place. She had to admit that he was really quite good.

  “Where is our host?” she inquired, looking around the kitchen. “Or rather, shall I say hosts?”

  “We haven’t seen either of them yet,” Celdic answered as he ran his fingers through his dark hair, the way he did when he was anxious about something.

  “Well I suppose that I will start making breakfast, since the two of you are so busy,” she said pointedly, walking into the kitchen. She looked around in puzzlement for the neces
sary utensils. She moved the dishes onto the counter with Terrance after the dinner the previous night, but they were nowhere to be found. The cupboards were full of canisters labeled in an alien script that she did not recognize. Opening the lid on one of them, she peered into the contents, which was a dark orange powder. Replacing it and opening up another one revealed a yellow powder. She sniffed at it and smelled nothing. She put the canister back in the cupboard and walked back into the sitting room.

  “Never mind about breakfast,” she said in annoyance. “Our glorious hosts seem to live off colored sand.”

  Celdic and Jalorm nodded their agreement, and Selindria realized that they had already attempted to make breakfast. So much for a better start today, she thought ruefully. “Has either of you been outside yet?” she asked, more to change the subject than out of any real curiosity.

  “I went for a walk earlier,” Celdic replied looking uncomfortable.

  “What’s the matter?” Selindria asked curiously.

  Celdic ran his hand through his hair again. “Every time I walked further than a quarter mile, I ended up walking into this clearing again.” He grimaced slightly with the memory. “It doesn’t seem to make a difference which direction I go, I always end up walking down the path that leads to the front door.”

  Selindria just nodded calmly. She could see the layers that made up their cocoon even in the cottage. Distance was relative in this place. For instance, she knew that from the outside, this cottage looked big enough to house one person but on the inside, it was large enough to house a family.

  “Do you know why we were brought here, Selindria?” Celdic asked her, watching her intently. She had never noticed how sharp his eyes were before.

  “I am not entirely sure,” she admitted as she sat down across from them. “If I had to guess, I would say that he wants to teach you something. Remember, he is the one that formed the Derinian Order. He may have it in his head to do something similar now that the planet is healing.” She did not tell him the other reason, which she had learned as soon as she saw him next to Terrance. If Terrance wanted him to know, then he could tell him.