Weaponforger (Guardian's Prophecy Book 3)

by D A Godwin

  Yes. They’re even larger than the mountain hares I tried to trap when I was younger.

  He tired of staring at the uniformly grey clouds and shifted his gaze to the nearby ridgeline.

  I do not recognize where you are.

  I’m probably farther south than you normally come.

  Edward is at that end of the valley, somewhere.

  I know. I saw their camp last night.

  You did go far. Be careful. More than just goblins inhabit the lower valley. The north, closer to the falls, would be—

  I remember what that part was like.

  His stomach twisted around itself insistently, but he ignored its protests.

  Are you well?

  I’m just hungry.

  I envy your freedom to wander, as my duties dictate my movements once more. Do not be gone all day or you will miss the evening meal again.

  I won’t.

  Only when her attention shifted away did he look down at the freshly strangled deer still clenched in his hands. Confident that she would not see it, he tore a steaming chunk of flesh from the carcass and consumed it eagerly, hoping that it would help, but knowing that it would not.

  * * *

  Edward’s patrol, twenty men strong on horseback, returned to the island the next day just as a light rain began to fall. Tormjere went with Shalindra as she hurried from the keep to greet them, more out of habit than from any need.

  Upon catching sight of them Edward turned and said something to the closest rider. With a salute, the soldier led the column on towards the stables, and Edward wheeled about and trotted towards Shalindra.

  “My lady,” Edward said, dismounting. “Ranger, we thought you dead.”

  “I’m pleased to prove you wrong,” Tormjere replied.

  “What did you discover?” Shalindra asked.

  Edward removed his helm and wiped the water from his face. “Clawfoot’s tribe had as bad a winter as we did. Their fields are a mess and the fruits are late blooming, so they were more irritable than normal.”

  “Are all of our men accounted for?”

  Edward shook his head sadly. “They are not, my lady. We were ambushed three times. Alexi and Habernath were lost.”

  As if to punctuate his statement, a wail sounded from the crowd. They turned to see Marie comforting a distraught woman as the soldier who had delivered the news stood stoically beside her.

  “We will see that she is taken care of,” Shalindra said.

  It seemed a needless loss when at least three accomplished healers were present in the town.

  You don’t send any clerics with the patrols?

  I have offered, but Birion and Edward always refuse. Only Enna, Marie, and I are experienced enough to not be a burden. The few others we have are not made for a life outside the temple.

  “There are some minor injuries, as well,” Edward added. “If we could impose upon you to set them straight.”

  “I will tend to them at once, as you are no doubt eager to escape the weather.”

  “After a week, a few moments more are no trouble, but I thank you. I will see to the horses and meet you inside.”

  Tormjere’s stomach churned uncomfortably.

  You are always hungry.

  Unfortunately.

  Go to the kitchen and get something.

  Tormjere did not argue. As she had reminded him almost every day since his arrival, there was little danger here. He made his way to the rear of the keep where a small stone cookhouse was set against the wall. The fire was out and there was no sign of movement. He slipped inside and pulled the door shut. Satisfied that he was alone, he cast about for any meat he could find.

  He had just pulled down a leg of mutton when he heard the small click of a latch being opened. He spun towards the door, tossing the mutton away. The door opened with a bang, revealing a young woman with a rolling pin held threateningly before her. She relaxed as soon as she saw him.

  “Oh, it’s you, my lord,” she said, lowering her makeshift weapon. “If you’re hungry enough it can’t wait for the meal then have a seat, and I’ll fix you something proper.”

  Tormjere sat on a stool beside the table as directed. “You look familiar.”

  She blushed. “Corolin, my lord. From the keep at Tiridon. We’ve a fair stock of cheese, and I made the bread fresh just yesterday, but we won’t be having much meat until they slaughter the next pig, my lord.”

  His hands clenched beneath the table, but he kept a smile on his face. “Cheese and bread are fine, and I’m not a lord, just Tormjere.”

  “You’re kind to say that, my lord.”

  “You weren’t with us when we left the city.”

  “No, my lord. When our knights rode out after you, rumor was that they were never coming back. Well, Lord Poloni was in a foul mood about it, and Lady Dirensi even fouler. She’d looked at me sideways more than once since I’d hurt myself on Lady Shalindra’s weapon, and I knew there’d be suffering if I stayed. But where was I to go?”

  She looked at Tormjere, but the question seemed rhetorical as she proceeded to answer it herself.

  “I had to follow Lady Shalindra, of course. She made my hand better, and did it so that foul Lady Dirensi wouldn’t find out and punish me again. So I slipped out when the temples were being burned, but Lady Shalindra was hard to find. Some said she’d gone north, others said south. I was in Kirchmont, living in one of those shelters run by the monks of Toush and begging for my food when I heard she’d set roots near the Forge. It scared me more than a little to go over the mountains, what with all the stories I’d heard, but I was alone and at wits end and didn’t care to fall into anything disreputable. One of the monks set me up as a cook with a merchant making the trip out here.”

  “I’m glad you made it safely,” Tormjere said, hoping to forestall a detailed accounting of her entire journey.

  “I think Lady Shalindra’s glad you’re back, as well, my lord. I can tell. She’s as kind a ruler as I’ve ever heard tell of, but I’ve not seen her so happy since I came here.”

  She set a plate with cheese and thick slices of bread before him. “There we are. Is there anything else I can do for you, my lord?”

  “This is plenty, thank you.”

  “Then I’ll be seeing myself back to the other work. Just leave the plate there on the table when you’re done and I’ll clean it later.”

  Tormjere chewed on a piece of bread as she departed. He knew Shalindra was unhappy. No matter how her blue eyes sparkled it was there, just below the surface. Even the cook saw it, but none of those closest to her could see because none of them looked. She couldn’t stay here forever. Eventually, she would have to accept that, whether the world came to her or she returned to it. Either way, he would be ready.

  He finished clearing his plate. Unfulfilled, he cast about for the mutton, finding it wedged behind a sack of potatoes. With a sigh he retrieved it and hung it back where belonged.

  It would not help either.

  The Problem with Secrets

  Shalindra awoke with a start, grasping desperately for Shining Moon in a vain attempt to defend herself, but there was nothing except the sounds of her own rapid breathing to break the silence of her small room.

  Another dream.

  Two weeks had passed since Tormjere’s reappearance, but the normalcy she longed for had not returned with him. Her headaches continued to be a distraction, and the nightmares were becoming more vivid and much worse.

  From the faint moonlight piercing the almost-drawn curtains, she knew it to be well past midnight. She set the hammer back on the bedside table with a sigh. Her dreams had not been this troubled since… since the first time she and Tormjere had been forced to run from demons. Were the creatures seeking her again? She waited for the familiar touch of Tormjere’s mind to reassure her, as he always had. Eventually, she settled back into the pillows. The absence of his thoughts worried her more than any nighttime terror. Where was he?

  She closed her
eyes and sought to place him, but there was nothing—not even a flicker of his presence. That caused a stab of panic, and she forced herself to take a deep breath. He was harder to read now, though whether it was due to his long absence or some other factor, she did not know. She had always been able to gain a sense of where he was from what he was seeing, but since his return that connection had been intermittent.

  Sometimes, when he was close, it was almost as it had been before. His thoughts and hers mingled to the point that it was often difficult to tell whose they were. At other times, he might as well be… wherever he had gone.

  Enna and the others thought that he was avoiding their questions because he was hiding something, and though such sentiments had yet to turn to accusations, they were increasingly more vocal. Even she, who wanted to give him every benefit of the doubt, was finding it difficult to ignore the mystery of his past. His silence on the matter was likely an attempt to protect them from something rather than to obscure some terrible secret, but whispers had begun to follow him everywhere he went.

  She wrapped an evening robe around herself and hurried from her room, padding silently from the temple and towards the house Tormjere had been given. Marie would have a fit if she saw her walking about in this condition, but Shalindra felt an urgency that pushed her caution aside.

  Upon reaching his house she raised a hand to knock, then paused. What if she was being foolish, and he was sound asleep? She disregarded the thought almost as soon as she had it. Rather than turn away she tried the door handle, and was surprised to find it unlocked. Without thinking, she opened the door and slipped inside.

  The small room was dark. The bed in the corner lay empty, and the fireplace cold.

  He had to be close, but why was she having so much trouble finding him? A vague sensation of pine needles and rocks at her back was all that came to her, but it was enough to give her direction. She stepped back into the night and moved cautiously into the darkened forest behind the house. Something scurried away from her path, and an owl hooted its mistrust of her presence in its domain. She crept forward as her eyes adjusted to the dim light.

  When she finally came upon him, her heart sank.

  Tormjere was huddled against a tree, as motionless as the rock he sat upon. Though she could make out the dark shadow of his outline, he seemed wrapped in a veil that obscured and distorted everything about him. As she took a step closer, his eyes snapped open and he tensed as if he were a wild animal suddenly denied its only avenue of escape.

  She froze, frightened by the lack of recognition in his eyes.

  Tormjere?

  He blinked, and whatever barrier enveloped him dissipated as quickly as melting snow. Gently, she let her thoughts brush against his before he could seal them away. Torment and pain tumbled through his mind like water across stones. Just as in her dream. But no ordinary nightmare would send him running into the woods.

  She took another cautious step forward and knelt in front of him. “You dream this each night?”

  “I live this each night.”

  “You are free from such evil here.”

  “Not forever. They will find you, and they will find me. They never stopped looking.”

  “We have made no secret of our location.”

  “They’ve been preoccupied, and so you’ve been safe.”

  “And what did this safety cost?”

  His jaw tightened. “A fair bargain.”

  Shalindra felt hollow inside. “What has happened to you?”

  “I’m the same person I was.”

  “And yet, I think you are something more. I can feel the changes in you, no matter how much you try to shield me from them.”

  “But you don’t know if it’s for the better.”

  She sat back on her heels. He was close to telling her. She could feel those memories welling inside him, demanding release. But he shied away at the last moment, his mind still aswirl with thoughts that he struggled to keep from her.

  Rather than pursue them, she let her mind guide him to happier memories. The stories of an old sailor. The joy of a dog’s greeting. Sunrise over the mountains.

  Many were the times that he had watched over her as she battled her own demons. Tonight, she would do no less for him.

  * * *

  Enna was less than pleased when she finally found them emerging from the woods the following morning. There was already enough talk about the two of them going around the village, and this would not help at all. She leveled a frosty glare at Tormjere, certain that the situation was his fault.

  Shalindra gave her an understanding smile. “I am going to put clothes on now, Enna. Do not fret.”

  “We were worried when you missed the morning prayer,” Enna responded. ‘Worried’ did not accurately reflect the general level of panic, given that Shining Moon had been left abandoned in her room while Shalindra was nowhere to be found, but it was the most tactful term she could use.

  She hurried them along to the temple as quickly as possible, hoping that no one would notice their nominal ruler traipsing about in her nightclothes. When they finally arrived Shalindra entered the building, but Enna came to a stop so that Tormjere would have no excuse to follow her inside.

  He slouched against one of the columns and fixed his eyes on her, but she purposefully ignored the invitation to converse. He seemed amused by that, which did nothing to help her mood.

  “So she hasn’t been blessed as the Guardian yet?” he eventually asked.

  “No.”

  She turned her back to him and faced the Three Sisters, praying that Shalindra finished before she decided to ask Elurithlia for the strength to harm him somehow.

  “Why not?”

  She breathed in and out several times. What was taking Shalindra so long? “The armor remains in Ildalarial.”

  “And you can’t go get it?”

  Enna spun to face him. “Had you been here, you would know that tensions are high along the border between Ildalarial and Actondel. We do not want to wander into another war.”

  He looked like he was going to ask something else, but she did not allow him the opportunity. “Regardless, we have been so busy surviving that there has been little time for such thoughts of leaving.”

  With that, she returned her attention to the mountains. Shalindra finally emerged from the temple, properly attired in the white robes of Elurithlia, although Enna would never understand why humans liked covering their arms all the time. Some silent communication seemed to pass between Shalindra and Tormjere, then he shrugged as if none of it mattered.

  Together, they began their morning trek towards the castle.

  “I promised you a better answer to why we came here,” Shalindra said to Tormjere. It was true that she had, but it was oddly timed and Enna felt she was joining a conversation already in progress.

  “It was not simply to escape the Ceringions. Honarch had mentioned this valley in passing, even before we sought it as a place to call home. It was far away and mysterious, but once Enna had given me a proper understanding of the significance of the Three Sisters, I took it as a sign. We initially planned on coming here ourselves, just a handful of us, but with the problems the first settlement was having, almost everyone wanted to follow.”

  She was glossing over their struggles at Evermen’s Forge. Enna remembered that time all too well, mostly as being cold, wet, and afraid. She had hoped to finally escape the senseless war that had disrupted Shining Moon’s journey to Ildalarial, but the refugees who had followed Shalindra had very nearly come to blows with the inhabitants of Evermen’s Forge. When Shalindra’s intentions were revealed, most had refused to abandon her, and Shalindra, in turn, had felt responsible for their continued safety. Both Shalindra and Shining Moon belonged in Ildalarial, but as time passed, the urgency for such a journey faded to the point that Enna could not even convince herself of the proper opportunity to attempt it.

  “I knew there was a reason—some purpose for us here—the moment
I saw the Three Sisters,” Shalindra said. “There is something special about this place. I have sought to understand what it could be and have prayed to Eluria every day hoping for some revelation, but to no avail.”

  “I gathered the mountains were important since they’re inscribed on your symbols,” Tormjere said, “but what’s special about them?”

  Shalindra looked at Enna, and so she begrudgingly obliged. “The mountains are the manifestation of the women who lifted Elurithlia to Her place in the heavens. Their depiction on the base of our symbols is a reminder of their sacrifice and devotion.”

  “Interesting history, but it doesn’t explain what you could gain from them today.”

  His observations were as infuriating as they were sound, but she clenched her teeth and answered anyway. “The mountains stand where the sisters lifted Elurithlia back to Her place in the sky, and it is said that their peaks can still be observed holding the moon aloft at special times, if you know where and when to observe them. They allow—”

  Tormjere’s pace slowed so abruptly that she almost ran into him. Her sharp words of annoyance died on her lips as a look of dismay flashed in his eyes. It was gone so quickly that she was unsure if it was real or only imagined.

  Shalindra stopped as well and turned to him in surprise. “You have seen the alignment? You know where the site of the ceremony is?”

  Enna stood speechless as he slowly nodded.

  “And it is close? Somewhere in the valley?”

  The sweep of his arm encompassed the northern end of the valley. “It’s up there. I can show you today, if you want.”

  He seemed less than eager for some reason, but Shalindra turned towards the bridge without hesitation.

  “But… the council meeting,” Enna protested.

  “For this they can wait,” Shalindra answered. “Enna, if it is true…”

  “It’s a long walk,” Tormjere warned, “but we should be able to reach it and return before dark.”

  “Then we should be off.”

  At risk of being left behind, Enna hurried to follow. She was not about to let the two of them wander off alone again.