Freamhaigh

by Donald D. Allan

  I took the combined power of the draoi and drove it into the amulet. I felt it join with whatever power it contained and felt a momentary emotion from it. It felt like relief. I had no time to wonder and drove my combined power through the symbol of the draoi on the amulet.

  A pure white beam of energy burst from the symbol of the Church of the New Order and struck Erebus. It enveloped him and then tore through his very fabric. Light burst from him in cracks in his skin. The cracks widened, and Erebus cried out. The light grew brighter and then in a single flash of light, he disappeared. Grey powder exploded out and drifted with the ocean breeze.

  Erebus was gone.

  Twenty-Two

  The Chamber below Munsten, April 902 A.C.

  I COLLAPSED TO the floor, drained, and sat with my head lowered. Nadine sunk down beside me and leaned into me. We remained that way for a time and I reached out to the draoi and found them well but drained of power. The land was still shuddering in the aftershocks of the pain it had experienced. I had never felt anything like it and hoped never to feel it again. I encouraged the land to recover and soothed it as best I could. The land was grateful, and I felt a surge of respect toward me. I let the land know it was the draoi across the land who were responsible, and the land responded with a promise I wasn’t sure I understood.

  Before I could query the land more, I felt a hand on my forehead and I lifted my head to see Katherine kneeling before me. Dog licked my face and Katherine pushed his snout away. “Stop it, Dog. How are you, Will? Will you recover?”

  I nodded. “You’re alive.”

  Katherine laughed. “Yes. Yes, we are. I’ll explain in detail later, but Gaea severed Dog and I. We survived and here we are. Together again. I missed you, Freamhaigh.”

  “I missed you too, Katherine, more than you can know. We buried you. That was unusually cruel, even for Gaea, to keep you hidden from us and think you dead.” I glanced at the staff she carried. I recognised the material it was made from. “That’s an interesting staff you have there.”

  “Ha, yes, it is,” she brought it forward so I could see what remained of my mother’s sickle on top. The glass of the sickle covered the staff from top to bottom and ended in a dagger. It was seamless and pure. It was a work of art and I said so. “Thanks,” she said. “It came to me one night to make it and so I did.”

  I nodded, not really caring that the sickle was now a quarterstaff with a dagger at the end. I asked the question that burned within me and watched her eyes. “Are you still draoi?”

  Katherine hesitated and looked away, and Dog whined a little. “Yes. No. Maybe? I’m not certain?” She shrugged and looked back at me. “I’m… we are something else, I suppose.”

  Nadine lifted a hand and grasped Katherine’s. “It’s good to see you, Katherine. We thought you dead. We felt you go. We were certain you had died. And Dog, too. We gave you a funeral. We placed markers beside the graves of your mom and dad.”

  “I’m sorry, Nadine. I never meant to cause you pain,” she said. Katherine looked over at her father and Martin lying prone on the floor and I saw a frown crease her forehead. “One moment, let me check on those two.”

  Katherine moved over to Steve and Martin and touched their foreheads. They stirred and opened their eyes. Steve looked in shock at Katherine for a long moment and then his face lit with joy. He reached up and pulled her down to him and held her, stroking her hair. I closed my eyes at the sight and smiled.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw Martin struggling to sit up. He smoothed his hair back down and stared about the room. “Good God that hurt. Is it gone? What happened?”

  Nadine pushed herself up off of me and straightened herself. She smoothed down her clothes and pulled her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ears. “We won. Erebus is gone.”

  Katherine stirred and pulled back from her father. “No, we aren’t done. He is still everywhere. For now, he is severely weakened. We took out his central form. His motes are throughout the land. We need to destroy him still.”

  “Truly?” I asked. I had thought we were done and her words gave me a fright. I reached out to the draoi and let them know and to be careful. Many were up on their feet and starting to administer to nature around them. They woke people and animals and tended to injuries. I looked around the cavern at all the shattered crystal and stood up. “What more can we do?”

  Katherine bit her lip in thought. “I’m not sure. Dog and I have been practising with Gaea. Learning how to determine Erebus from Gaea. Their motes I mean. Even with our strength, I haven’t been able to sort the wheat from the chaff. We are not strong enough. We had hoped that attacking Erebus here would allow us to reach across the land and strike him everywhere. We were wrong.”

  “You and Dog? What do you mean?”

  Dog wagged his tail and stood beside Katherine.

  “Dog and I are bonded. Like the draoi bond. It kept us sane when we were severed. Our thoughts joined for a time. We each took away something of the other. It’s hard to tell sometimes where Dog ends and I start. Truly it’s been difficult. He speaks now. And getting better. Speaks in my head, I mean. He still barks. Ha ha!”

  Dog looked up at Katherine for a moment and she looked at him.

  “He says he’s very pleased to see you all again. He missed your smells.”

  I looked at Dog and very human looking eyes gazed back at me. “I missed you too, Dog.”

  “What is this place?” asked Martin. He was looking around and moved to the central stone altar. He picked up a shackle and then laid it down.

  Steve joined him and looked down at the top of the altar. “This is a torture device of some kind.”

  Katherine nodded. “Yes, this is where the draoi and others were tortured for information during the Purge. The stone separates the draoi from their power. Shackled here they were at the mercy of the Sect.”

  Martin raised his eyebrows. “The Sect of the Church? They did this?”

  Nadine stepped up to Martin and stroked his arm. “Yes, Martin. The Sect hunted down every draoi in the land. They brought them here and forced information from them. We felt each one as they died. We felt their pain and shame when words were torn from them. The Church did this.”

  Martin hung his head in shame. “Yes, they did, didn’t they? We must atone for these sins. We must find the Sect and deal with them.”

  Katherine laughed. “Done. I struck them all down already.”

  I stared at Katherine in shock.

  “Don’t look so shocked at me, Freamhaigh. I am not who I once was. They came at me in the night, intending to drag me here to this very stone altar. They found out I was not a simple draoi anymore and paid the price. Worry no more about the Sect. Vicar Martin, you are free to make the Church what you want it to be.”

  A look of wonder crossed Martin’s face.

  Steve was looking around the cavern. “This is a strange place. Look at all these tables and equipment. They have been working from here for a long time. I wonder what we’ll find here.” He pulled out a book from the small bookcase and flipped through the pages. “This is a wonder. I’ve never seen a book like this. The pictures are so real.” He looked up at us. “We should search this place. Maybe something here will help us.”

  We searched the cavern. Inside the wooden building was a strange device on a table that we couldn’t understand. We shuddered at the quantities of blood we found in jars and questioned what it was for. I suspected it was connected to the bloodstones and the black shoes we had recovered from the Sect members and said as much. Katherine confirmed the Sect had been working with blood magic, and Martin made the sign of the Church.

  Martin laid a hand on the device. “It’s warm like it is alive.”

  I laid a hand on the device and felt the warmth. “It is. What is this, do you think?”

  Nadine’s eyes unfocused and then she gasped. “It’s not alive. But I sense the motes of Erebus infused within it. What is this thing?”

  Mart
in knelt down and examined the device at eye level. He made a noise and then lifted the top of the device. It separated in two like a chest opening. The bottom had rows of small square buttons with strange symbols marked on them. Collectively we gasped as the underneath of the lid flashed with an internal light and an image appeared on a white background. We knew the image. It was the image of the Simon Thorne Ink symbol we had seen on the Life Salt motes.

  Steve pulled us back from the device. “Stay clear. We don’t know what this will do.”

  We waited and watched, but the image remained the same.

  Martin knelt down again and looked closely at the image. “Look here, there are little symbols on the left side. What is this? It looks drawn, but so perfectly done.”

  I turned my head to look around the inside of the shack. The smell of blood lay thick in the air and a sense of foreboding filled me. Whatever magic was in this room, it was a magic I wanted nothing to do with. Seth Farlow and the sect had used this room to create horrible destructive objects. I wondered what Daukyns would have made of all this.

  “Close the lid, Martin,” Nadine ordered. “We will need to examine this with caution, but later.”

  Steve nodded at her words and looked at me. “Agreed. If we can return the Realm to normalcy, we can determine what to do with this. I don’t like it. For now, we leave it.”

  Martin closed the lid and whispered a short prayer. We left the shack and closed the door.

  Steve latched the door and turned to us. “We need to search this place. See what else is here. This place gives me the jitters, so be careful. Don’t touch anything. It could be trapped. Use your eyes only.”

  We moved out and searched the chamber. It was Martin who found the hidden opening in the cavern wall. The shattering of the crystals had exposed it. Steve insisted he go first, and he ducked down and went inside. In a moment, he stuck his head out. “Come in. You’ll want to see this.”

  We entered and found chests stacked in a large natural cave. We counted at least twenty of them. We opened the closest one and found it filled with rings and necklaces and other jewellery. The next one had rich clothing with mothballs thrown in. Others contained weaponry of excellent quality. We had found the stash of the Sect.

  “I think you could use this, Martin. To get the Church going again,” said Steve.

  “Hmm. Yes, it could go a long way to helping the people of the land. I’ve no doubt.”

  Katherine opened a chest and then cried out and moved backwards, covering her mouth. Dog growled and put himself between her and the chest. Steve rushed over and looked in the chest. He looked at Katherine with a questioning look and then reached in and pulled out a cloth sack. I recognised it at once. It was the same sack the Finnow Mine store used in Belger. It would contain salts from the Finnow Mine. I watched as Steve opened the sack and with my sight I watched bright sparks rise up into the air.

  Katherine gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth. She shuffled backwards and away from the salt. Dog moved in front of her and growled at the chest.

  “Katherine,” said Nadine as she moved over to her and turned her away from the salt. “What’s wrong?”

  “The salt. I’m addicted to it. I was captured for a time by men loyal to Erebus. They kept me sedated with Life Salt. I crave it all the time.”

  “Life Salt? It’s not addictive. It’s used for cooking, and Will uses it for unguents and the like. It has miraculous properties.”

  “And when consumed in large quantities it overwhelms your powers. Trust me. It’s horrible.”

  I had examined Life Salt many times while making unguents and salves. I had always admired the beauty of it. When I had last looked at it, I found it was more than what we all thought. It was tied somehow to Gaea and Erebus. I went over to Steve and took the bag from him. I glanced in the chest and saw it was full of Life Salt. The value was beyond ken. I used my sight and examined the salt. I dove into the structure of it and confirmed what I already knew. I pulled back and looked at Nadine. She came over and did the same. She stared at me and nodded.

  “The same,” she said.

  “Yes. This is a pure form of the motes. Like the motes of Gaea and Erebus. Except they are not active.”

  I explained to Katherine what we had found out about Life Salt: that it was manufactured, we believed, a time long ago by someone called Simon Thorn. We described what we had seen: little cubes with a maker’s mark etched on them. The same image we saw on the device. Katherine was shocked.

  “And why would it affect me the way it did?”

  “I have no idea,” I said. A thought occurred to me. “Can I examine you, Katherine? I would like to determine what makes you so different from the rest of us.”

  “Yes, I suppose. Go ahead.”

  I used my sight and looked into Katherine. I found her bloodstream filled with motes. I could see right away that they were neither the motes of Gaea or Erebus. She was filled with Life Salt except the motes were active. As I watched the motes danced before me. They were aware of me and moved in front of me in complex patterns I could not figure out. I pulled back and reported what I had seen.

  “I’m full of them? How about Dog?”

  I checked out Dog and found the same motes.

  Katherine laughed. “That’s why Gaea and Erebus couldn’t feel us anymore. We had joined a different team. What are they? Why are they different?”

  I had an idea and asked Martin if I could examine him. I did and reported that he had the same motes as Katherine, only in much less quantity. “These motes, they are the key, I think. We know that the draoi have an overabundance of Gaea motes. The Erebus motes are everywhere except in the draoi and in you, Martin, and Dog. Katherine, I want to try something if you’ll let me.”

  Katherine shrugged and looked at Dog for a moment. “Dog says go ahead.”

  I looked at the Life Salt in Steve’s bag and then used my power to examine it again. I used my power to try to waken the motes and knew at once my power could not be used that way.

  “I can’t waken it. Katherine, you try.”

  She shook her head. “No, it overwhelms me. I can’t.”

  “Don’t eat it. Examine it with your power. Try to waken it.”

  Katherine looked doubtful. Dog barked at her and she looked at him for a long time. I could see they were conversing and wondered at the ability. The draoi could communicate with animals, but it was pictures at best, and never clear and often confusing. Katherine and Dog talked like old friends by the look of it.

  “Dog says I should try it. He cured me once and is certain he could do it again if he had to. All right. Let me try.”

  Katherine went quiet in the way draoi do when using their power. In a moment the Life Salt held by Steve erupted into light. The motes burst forth from the sack and I watched them swirl in the air. Steve and Martin probably only saw a fine powder moving with an unnatural purpose. Nadine and I saw life swirling through the air. It continued to spin and then shot at Martin and his amulet, Katherine and Dog. Most struck their exposed skin, but some targeted the amulet and merged.

  Martin cried out and swatted at his face and hands where the salt had struck him. He looked at us in fright. “What just happened?”

  “Nothing horrible, I think, Martin. You have an affinity for these motes. Katherine and Dog, how are you?”

  Katherine was smiling, and she knelt by Dog and hugged him. “I see now.”

  “What do you see?” I asked.

  Katherine smiled at me and then moved over to the chest and drew out a large bag of Life Salt. She emptied the bag on the floor and then concentrated on it for a moment. The Life Salt erupted into motion but this time it dove directly at Katherine and merged with her skin and disappeared. Katherine sucked in a large breath and then reached in and grabbed another bag and emptied it. She said something to Dog and Dog repeated what Katherine had done. The salt leapt up and dove into Dog.

  She stood and turned to Martin. “Martin, hold up
the amulet please?”

  Martin complied and frowned at Katherine. “What are you going to… dear God!”

  The amulet lit up brighter than ever. The white light spread out across the cave and lit up our faces. Martin murmured a prayer and a look of joy and wonder filled his face.

  “I can feel it!” he said.

  Katherine smiled and relaxed and the light dimmed and went out. “Dog and I can control the motes. So can Martin if he wanted to and knew how. They are… different from Gaea and Erebus. I see what they are now. So elegant.”

  “Explain,” said Nadine and looked stern. “What is going on here?”

  Katherine closed the lid to the chest and sat on it. “There are three motes: Gaea, Erebus and the Simon Thorn motes. The Gaea and Erebus motes are from a long time ago in this world. The Simon Thorn motes are ours. We made them a long time ago, but they are recent compared to the Gaea motes.

  “I think at one time the Gaea and Erebus motes were the same. Then Gaea sided with us. Erebus chose not to. Whatever their purpose, Gaea has opposed Erebus all these years. The Simon Thorn motes are new and for whatever reason are not doing anything.”

  “That’s not exactly true,” said a new voice, and we turned to see Gaea standing at the entrance. “Simon Thorn created his own motes for another purpose. This happened much later after we thought we had defeated Erebus. Simon saw what impact the motes had on the world and chose not to use his design. We stored his motes at the place you call Finnow Mines. The company broke through the storage room while mining for regular salt and found crates of Life Salt. They have been selling it thinking it nothing more than salt.