by B. T. Narro
KRenn headed toward the crowd of people in his way as they parted for him. He looked back over his shoulder and seemed irritated that Leo and Andar were far behind. They hurried to catch up as the princess said something to her father and then hurried over to join them.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” Siki told KRenn.
He didn’t appear very enthusiastic as he shook her hand quickly and asked her, “How long will we be in the palace before rift stones start arriving?”
Siki looked back at a large group of Analytes in common clothing rushing after her. She said something in Analyse to one man who replied in the same language, then ran off.
“Should be—”
KRenn interrupted her, “An hour before the first rift stones arrive. I heard.”
“Leo, Andar!” called out a familiar voice.
Leo saw Edward Fola come through the crowd. He was older than Andar by a few years, though the summoner had signed the forty-month contract with the army at the same time as Leo and Andar after they had all ridden to the capital together from Jatn.
“Were you ever going to tell me the truth about who you are?” he asked with lowered eyebrows.
“Our history doesn’t change anything,” Andar rightly said. “Just because we are Quims doesn’t make us any different. We are still friends.”
Leo was still getting used to thinking of himself as a Quim. He’d been Leo Litxer his whole life, born that way even according to his real identification papers. Unlike his brother, Leo was actually born in Jatn, where he had grown up in a neighboring house to his closest friend, Rygen. Even now he thought of her. In his next letter, he looked forward to telling her the rift was destroyed. He could sign it as Leo Quim.
It was quiet for a moment as Edward looked hurt.
“Eh, the truth is we wanted to tell you,” Andar said, “but you tell your lady everything!”
Edward chuckled. “I suppose that’s true. At least promise me some stories when we finish this.”
“We promise,” Andar answered.
KRenn wasn’t waiting for them, so they rushed to catch up with him and Siki. Leo looked back. Edward waved to him and Andar, and so did their father. Leo waved back to both as he smiled with pride.
But as he walked beside a mumbling and distracted KRenn, the weight of responsibility took away Leo’s smile.
CHAPTER THREE
Andar had many questions for KRenn, but the mage seemed to be busy having a mumbled conversation with himself. Besides Andar, Leo, KRenn, and Siki, there was a group of servants riding out of the capital behind the princess. But that was it; everyone else stayed in the capital to prepare for battle. Andar was relieved he wouldn’t have to fight the kasigerr again, though he feared KRenn’s plan to destroy the rift could be even more dangerous.
It was a few miles to the palace, and eventually the sight of the princess on her horse distracted Andar from his worries. He despised how beautiful she was, with her lustrous violet hair and her large eyes that could still his heart when he looked directly into them. She had a mouth that made her often appear curious and smart, but most of the words that actually came out of it just put a spike in Andar’s chest. Her disrespect for him was palpable every time she spoke of him, or even when she glanced over.
Andar knew himself to be handsome, but apparently his chiseled features and broad shoulders did nothing to soften this Analyte woman’s hatred of him. No matter, he wanted her to leave him alone.
They rode in silence for the better part of an hour. KRenn talked only to himself, never loud enough for Andar to make out a word until KRenn eventually announced, “I need a moment.”
KRenn stopped his horse and hopped off. He vomited, to Andar’s surprise, then coughed and fell to his knees.
Andar was so shocked that he hadn’t thought to do anything to help, until he noticed Leo getting off his horse. Andar’s younger brother put his hand on KRenn’s back.
“Are you all right?”
Andar soon stood beside his brother as KRenn motioned to vomit again, only nothing came out.
“Anything we can do?” Andar asked.
“No.”
Siki was the last one there, calling out in Analyse behind her. Her servants rushed over.
“We have bread and water,” she told him.
“No.”
Everyone stood in silence as KRenn gathered himself and walked over to his horse. He stopped before getting on. Looking back, he told them, “I ate something in the capital that disagreed with me. My stomach became accustomed to a certain food in the dark realm. Now I must adjust to digesting meat and bread in this realm. I will be fine.”
Could he really have eaten something in the capital before everyone saw him?
Andar shared a look of concern with his brother. He glanced over at Siki next, for she already had her gaze on him. They both looked away yet back at each other again as Leo offered to help KRenn on his horse, only for KRenn to refuse it.
Soon they were all riding again, the palace near. Andar noticed Siki looking at him once more, but he couldn’t figure out why.
Eventually she slowed her horse to maneuver behind everyone. A moment later, she sped up to come up on Andar’s side.
“Why do you keep staring at me?” Her tone was of a rich woman angry with a servant.
“Why do you keep staring at me?” he countered.
“Because I can feel you looking at me.”
“I only look because I notice you looking at me!”
She said something in Analyse he assumed was an insult. “You will ride in front of me from now on,” she demanded.
“Fine. I don’t care.”
She slowed to join her servants. Andar took the opportunity to talk to KRenn.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes.”
Good, because I have many questions. “Can you tell us what the other realm is like?”
Leo edged his horse closer, clearly to listen. Andar even noticed Siki coming up close behind them.
KRenn looked over at Andar as if trying to determine something. Andar tried not to look like the seventeen-year-old man he was but someone older and wiser. He put on his most serious face.
All KRenn said was, “It’s a dangerous world. It is not a place I wish to visit again.”
Leo asked, “Did you see many creatures?”
Andar was relieved for his brother’s curiosity. Leo could get away with asking questions better than Andar. Leo was younger, fourteen, and cuter than Andar. He had an innocent face that matched his kind heart. Andar had rarely seen anyone be mean to him.
KRenn answered, “Yes, there were many creatures that were familiar to me, but most were not.”
By familiar, Andar assumed KRenn meant that he’d shared a summoner’s connection with them while he was in the light realm. It was the same way Rygen Nexi was familiar with her foxlike creature that she’d named Jin. Andar wondered how she and his aunt were faring in Jatn without him and Leo. Leo had gone to visit Rygen recently. He’d come back gushing about her beauty and how smart and strong-willed she was, so Andar figured she was fine. When Andar had asked about their aunt, however, Leo had only said he didn’t understand her wasting coin staying at an inn.
KRenn seemed as if he didn’t want to speak, but Andar had to hear more about the dark realm. This was the first time someone had entered a rift to the other realm and come back to tell the tale. There had been others, it was written, but all died soon after returning.
“What were the creatures like there?”
“More vicious than here,” KRenn answered. “To survive, they all must be dangerous in their own way.”
Andar hoped for an example of one creature, but KRenn already looked tired of speaking.
Andar had a more important question, anyway, but Leo asked this very question before his brother could begin.
“What did you do to survive?”
Andar grinned at his brother to show he had the same question.
Leo nodded back. It was still a marvel to Andar that he and his brother could share certain emotions and sometimes even thoughts. They knew it had to do with the stalwart link between them, but no one had been able to tell them how it worked.
If anyone in this world knows, it’s KRenn. Andar would have to ask soon.
“I couldn’t do much,” KRenn said. “I had a broken leg during most of my time there.”
“What? And you lived?” Andar blurted before realizing how stupid he sounded in front of possibly the most intelligent man he’d ever met.
“Solely because of the Esitren,” KRenn said.
“Did you say Esitren?” Siki asked as she rode behind everyone. Andar looked back and held in a laugh as she leaned forward as far as she could to hear.
KRenn ignored her question or perhaps didn’t even hear it, which was strange, but the man did seem to be focused on the palace just ahead of them.
“Ask him,” Siki demanded of Andar in a raspy tone.
He obliged only because he also wanted to know.
“Esitren, sir?” Andar prompted.
“The creatures that have a connection with Esitry. I used the energy to communicate with them as any good summoner would do. I found it easier in their realm, able to communicate complex ideas that would fail to enter their minds if we’d met here.”
He spoke of the accomplishment as if it was nothing.
Rather than ask more about this unheard of use of Esitry, Siki, the fool, asked, “How did you break your leg?”
“I had to jump off a precipice to escape the kasigerr. I would’ve died if gravity in the dark realm was as strong as it is here.”
“It’s not?” Andar asked in disbelief. He really regretted how foolish he sounded as KRenn glanced over at him with irritation, looking as if he might vomit again...and Andar’s questions were not helping.
KRenn looked ahead at the palace as he had a few breaths. He appeared a little less pale when he was done. “Everything is different there. The faint pull of the earth. The acrid smell of the air. The red sun in the morning. The black moon in the evening.” He grimaced slightly as he seemed to relive a memory. “It is a different world. The only similarity I found was the sole wisdom tree that I encountered. Its translucent azure was just like the wisdom trees of this world.”
Siki rode up on Leo’s side. “Our people have always thought wisdom trees have power of some kind. Perhaps they connect our worlds together?”
Finally she asks a good question. Andar had heard of wisdom trees before. They grew larger than any other tree. Their bark was blue and clear, allowing partial sight inside of them. Andar had wanted to see one in person ever since he’d heard about them, but none were close to Jatn. It was said that the largest one of all was in the royal garden of Mavrim’s castle.
“That is one of many questions I must answer soon if we hope…” KRenn put out his hand as if to steady himself. “I’m nauseous again.”
Everyone leaned away from him.
“Damn,” he muttered and hopped off his horse to wretch once more.
When his stomach seemed settled enough for him to ride again, he said, “I can’t answer any other questions today unless they pertain to our task. There is too much to do. I must save my strength.”
“Of course, KRenn Trange,” Siki said. “If there is anything my servants can do for you, let me know.”
“Thank you.”
KRenn sped up to ride alone, ahead of everyone. Siki slowed to ride alongside her servants.
Andar shared a look of what he thought would be concern between him and his brother, but Leo had an eyebrow raised.
“What is it?” Andar asked.
“Do you feel it yet?”
“This other energy?”
“Yes.”
“No I don’t,” Andar admitted.
“I can tell now that it’s definitely coming from him. He said it was a bonded form of Artistry and Esitry, but Farns never said anything about that.”
“I’m realizing there’s a lot our trainer never taught us.”
For the last forty months before their trip here, to Analyte territory, Andar and Leo had lived in the human capital, training as Ascendants. Their days followed the same routine, with instruction being a small part of it. Practicing with Artistry and sword was how they passed the majority of their time, which included duels against their peers. When it came time for them to sit and learn something, Farns spent most of the time asking Andar and Leo questions rather than instructing them. He wanted to learn how the stalwart link was formed between them and how it might be used. But after months without success, Farns had given up.
Andar had thought they would finally hear some answers when they started talking with the king, Mavrim, a true master of Artistry. But even he had little to offer about the link. He did mention things like links of the land, however, and other topics that intrigued Andar.
Before that, Andar had thought himself to be among the best of all mages, for Andar had outmatched all the others in training except for Leo, who remained close in skill. But now it was clear that Andar still had loads to learn. He would’ve been more excited to spend this day with KRenn Trange, the legendary mage who had disappeared long ago, but KRenn was clearly not himself. Andar had heard enough about the kind and brilliant mage to know this was not the same man.
KRenn started to sway as he rode ahead. Andar kicked his horse to speed up. KRenn tilted, surely about to fall.
Andar jumped off his horse at too high a speed for him to land on his feet. He rolled head over knees and slid the rest of the way as KRenn was coming down over him, head first. Andar got up just enough to get his arms out in front of KRenn, catching the man by his torso and limp legs.
Andar checked to ensure KRenn’s head hadn’t hit the ground, for the impact of his unconscious body had caused Andar to nearly collapse. Thankfully, Andar had gotten there in time. KRenn’s head and arms dangled as Andar balanced the man on his shoulder.
He still might be dead. Andar quickly laid the mage on his back. Leo, Siki, and her servants surrounded them. KRenn’s eyes were shut. Andar at least heard him breathing. He put his ear to the man’s chest. The heartbeat sounded strong.
“He’s definitely still alive,” Andar informed the others.
“KRenn, can you hear us?” Siki asked.
KRenn opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He didn’t seem to see anyone as his gaze drifted about. Finally, it settled on Andar.
“What happened?”
“You fell off your horse. Are you all right?”
KRenn sat up. “I think so. I’m lucky I didn’t fall on my head.”
“Andar caught you,” Leo said.
“Thank you for that, young man. Help me up now. We have a lot to do.”
Andar helped him to his feet. KRenn looked at his horse.
“Let’s walk the rest of the way,” Andar suggested.
“I agree, but give me a moment to myself.”
KRenn ignored the horse he’d been given and started up the long hill toward the palace. Andar and Leo stayed back to give him some space as Siki’s servants took care of the horses.
“How did you know he was going to fall?” Siki asked Andar. It might be the first question she’d asked him that didn’t reflect annoyance.
“He didn’t seem steady on his horse.”
“Your arm,” Leo said as he pointed at Andar.
Andar noticed blood. “Damn, my last good shirt.” He rolled up the sleeve to find a surprisingly long and painful cut that he hadn’t felt until then. “Must’ve been from when I rolled.” Luckily, he didn’t seem to have one on his legs.
“You will be treated in the palace,” Siki assured him.
“I’m more worried about him.” Andar pointed ahead at KRenn, who was holding his head as he walked. Siki ran to him.
“I’m fine,” he assured her before she got there. “I just need time to adjust. Perhaps something to eat and drink once my stomach settles.”
“I will have fresh bread prepared right after I arrange water for you and the others.” She looked back at her group of servants and called out in Analyse. They all ran ahead of her into the palace.
Andar was somewhat surprised he and Leo would be accommodated as well, but perhaps he could enjoy the princess giving him what he needed now that he was involved with KRenn.
Siki led them through the palace. Andar had been here before, but it was too large a place to see everything on the first visit. Siki took them through the grand entrance room and down a short hallway that came to a split. Neither the right nor left routes were straight, curved slightly instead. The curved walkways seemed to be common in the palace, which Andar assumed made odd shapes out of the rooms. But the room he’d been given with his brother the other night had straight walls, so that was just another mystery of these foreigners.
The small sealed room they entered with KRenn at least made sense to Andar. It was common to have such a room wherever mages wished to practice, for it allowed Artistry to be gathered in high concentration by an Ascendant before sealing the room. This one was bare, just a small room with a wooden floor and four white walls.
Andar and Leo had entered a similar room when they’d first arrived at the training grounds in the human capital. Some of the less-skilled mages had to return later to that same room in order to practice, but Andar and Leo were too skilled to need it. KRenn, however, clearly had something different in mind than practicing with Artistry.
“How long until the first rift stones arrive?” KRenn asked Siki.
She seemed confused, probably because he had already overheard her talking with her servants on the way here to find out it would take an hour.
“Oh, that’s right,” KRenn said. “An hour. The brothers and I can begin our work as we wait. Come in with bread and water as soon it’s ready. Wait!” he said as she started to leave. “Your name. All of your names, remind me.”
The princess went first, then Leo and Andar.
Siki stayed as if expecting a reply, but KRenn motioned for her to go. “Shut the door,” he said. “Ensure it’s sealed.”