Grishel's Feather

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Grishel's Feather Page 9

by Guy Antibes


  Ferrio shook his head. “I don’t know what those rings are, but the zones are separated by class.”

  “And the eagle sect is in the poorer part of Fassira?” Jack figured he knew the answer.

  “It is,” Ferrio said. “Actually there are three zones where the eagle sect is more numerous than us.”

  “You are the hawk sect?” Helen asked.

  “No, we are the true Grishelian. There is no hawk sect.”

  Jack would beg to differ if he wasn’t sitting across from a hawk-sect priest. “Do we have to be careful moving from zone to zone?”

  The priest shook his head. “No, but people will ask you what zones you live in.”

  “Did you grow up in a higher-class zone?” Penny asked.

  Ferrio’s face blushed. “No. Even among the priests in Virora, I am at a disadvantage. Meria allowed me to accompany you so I could gain more status.”

  “Meria?” Helen asked.

  “The archpriestess’s name. She and I are from the same zone. Her ascension to archpriestess came with much effort.”

  “She looks like she would put forth the energy to succeed,” Helen said. “How should we proceed in Fassira? Are their rules for you to follow?”

  The question seemed to take some of the strain from Ferrio’s face. “There are, and that is one reason I am here to help. We will go to the Fassira cathedral first and let them know what you seek and that you have the support of the archpriesthood in Virora. At that point, we can seek out the eagles and arrange for permission to enter one of their monasteries.”

  “That sounds simple enough,” Penny said.

  Ferrio chuckled. “Nothing is simple in Passoran. We can be blocked at any point.”

  “But we know the way to the Ullori monastery,” she said.

  “We shall see,” Ferrio said. He smiled at Penny. “Let’s talk of Corand. Tell me more about Raker Falls and what you do serving your master.”

  Jack let the two talk. He glanced at Helen, who watched the pair of them talk with an emotionless face. Her eyes met his, and Jack noticed her momentary grimace. She probably thought that Ferrio might be an amiable roadblock, just as Jack did.

  ~

  The farms were behind them. The landscape changed drastically when the four riders approached the jumbles. The land began to roll as farmland turned to pasture. Rocks jutted from the earth and the trees that were mostly lacking on the farmland stretch returned. They passed a guard compound that looked like a small fort as the road began to take them upward.

  The rocks became larger with pockets of trees and brush between them. Jack could see why the Passoranians would want the road patrolled. There were ambush points all along the way, to his mind.

  “Isn’t it pretty?” Ferrio said. “I like it anyway. I always love riding through here between Fassira and Virora. The priest looked up. “Look, two hawks.” He pointed at the birds gliding far above them. “Grishel’s birds.”

  Jack followed Ferrio’s gaze. He squinted his eyes. “If I’m not mistaken, those are eagles.”

  Helen finally looked. “I think Jack is right. Maybe they are hawks that belong to the eagle sect,” she said.

  Ferrio frowned, but then he laughed. “Sometimes, Grishel is a bit of a trickster. I’m sure those are Grishel’s hawks taking on the aspect of eagles as a joke.”

  “Are you serious?” Penny said.

  Jack knew Penny well enough to know she didn’t say it as a joke, but as a reproof. He smiled at her directness.

  Ferrio looked flustered. “It is a point of doctrine.”

  “What position does the eagle sect take on such an occurrence?” Helen asked.

  “They take it as a positive omen, as do we,” Ferrio said.

  “Does it only need to be a bird for it to be an omen?” Jack said, piling on along with Helen. “I imagine Grishel could send any bird, couldn’t he?”

  “It would have to be a bird of prey,” Ferrio said.

  Jack suspected the priest of making up that last interpretation.

  “Well we don’t have an issue, then do we?” Jack said. “I like good omens.”

  “So do we all,” Helen said.

  “Exactly,” Ferrio nodded and sat up a little straighter in the saddle.

  The birds came closer. They began gliding above them. All four of them stopped and looked up at the birds. They were definitely eagles.

  Ferrio shaded his eyes with his hand. “It is divine,” he said.

  It nearly sounded like a chant to Jack, but then he heard a splat and a yell. Ferrio began to shake something off his hand. Jack’s eyes turned upwards again to see both birds screeching. One swooped down and landed on the back of Jack’s horse and called out once before taking off in a long low glide before flapping its huge wings and taking to the air. Jack heard them squawk before heading across the jumbles to the northeast.

  “I don’t believe what I just saw,” Ferrio said. He dismounted and used his waterskin to rinse off his own personal omen. “You are blessed by Grishel.”

  “It is just my personal magnetism. Gods like lovable rogues.”

  “Rogue is right,” Penny said almost inaudibly.

  “The pair of birds charged me half my purse to do that,” Jack said, laughing, but Ferrio stared at him. He smiled, but Jack was actually as astonished as Ferrio looked, but Jack wasn’t about to show it. He would rather be an obscure lovable rogue. He had no idea what the omen meant, but it was unmistakably a message sent to him.

  “Here we go again,” Helen said. “The same thing happened in Tesoria.”

  “You mean that claptrap about Eldora was true?” Penny asked.

  Helen nodded.

  “What claptrap?” Ferrio said.

  “Eldora gave me an errand to do not long ago.”

  “You mean you really were involved in the rebellion in Tesoria?”

  “In the thick of it,” Helen said. “Instrumental in effecting the rise of King Larkin, as a matter of fact.”

  “That is the gist of your story?” Ferrio asked. He looked at Jack’s wrist guards. “Those are objects of power from Eldora?”

  Jack took one of them off and pulled back his shirt, revealing Eldora’s kiss. “From the goddess herself. The mark doesn’t come off, no matter what I try. I use to have one on each cheek, but Eldora saw fit to remove them.”

  “You are god-touched!” Penny said.

  “Don’t spread it around,” Jack grinned. “It tends to scare away the ladies.”

  Jack thought of Ralinn, now Aralinn, Archpriestess of Gameton. The kiss marks hadn’t helped him at all there.

  “I can attest he didn’t change from when he left Raker Falls to when he returned from Tesoria,” Penny said. “That stupid tattoo doesn’t scare me. All it tells me is that I should stay away from him.”

  Helen looked at Penny. Her expression was one of astonishment. “Then you didn’t look at him hard enough,” the mercenary said. “But then, why would you?”

  Jack enjoyed the expression on Penny’s blushing face. She stammered, “Why should I? He’s just Fasher’s servant. I’m the apprentice.”

  “You sure are,” Helen said.

  Jack could see the girl was not taking the ribbing very well. “I’m sure Fasher is training us for different tasks. We’ve already decided that it is true.”

  Penny grunted. “Jack certainly is beneath me.” She snapped the reins of her horse and moved out without waiting for Ferrio to mount up.

  “Is she always so prickly?” Ferrio asked.

  “This is one of her good days,” Jack said with a smile on his face. Penny was learning too much about his errands, and that wasn’t a good thing for their rivalry. He would rather have her thinking of him as a servant. He had to admit that he really was Fasher’s servant, but not in the way Penny had been thinking of him, and a change in her perspective of him did not bode well when they returned to Raker Falls. Actually, Jack had to amend that thought; it didn’t bode well for the rest of their errand.
<
br />   The only good thing about Penny’s outburst was it deflected any further discussion about the omens that had happened only moments ago. They all headed in Penny’s direction. She was already out of sight.

  “I’d better catch up,” Helen said, immediately galloping ahead.

  That left Ferrio and Jack riding together. “We need to pick up the pace,” Jack said, moving into a canter.

  Ferrio followed, but cantering didn’t lend itself to talking, something Jack depended on. Eventually, they caught up to Penny and Helen, but that was because they had been stopped by a six-person, uniformed patrol.

  Chapter Eleven

  ~

  T he Passoranian patrol wore orange uniforms with blue piping. Their flat caps sported a red, circular, brush-like decoration sticking up from the symbol of a bird in the front band of their caps. Jack looked a little closer. The symbol could just as well look like a hawk or an eagle, he thought with a smile.

  “You are the two men escorting these two women to Fassira?”

  Helen gave Jack a wink. He had no idea what that meant, but he guessed he shouldn’t tell the truth.

  “We are,” Jack said. “I am Jack Winder of Corand, and this is Ferrio Lorina, our guide in Passoran.”

  Jack noticed the barest of nods from Helen. Evidently, he had performed successfully with the barest hint of instruction. Penny looked scared, but Helen looked wary.

  “See here, Officer. I am a priest of Grishel in Virora. We are heading to the cathedral in Fassira to get directions to our true destination to the south.”

  “You are a Hawk priest?” the officer said.

  Jack could see Ferrio’s arrogance crumble. “I am,” he admitted.

  “I’m not eagle or hawk,” Jack said. “I’m just a traveler on an errand. I am here to protect the two women, especially Penneta Ephram, the girl. She is the apprentice of a powerful wizard in Corand.”

  “What is your errand?” the officer asked.

  Jack had said too much. He didn’t look at Helen, but he was sure she was wincing, at least inside.

  “We are to contact a monk at the monastery at Ullori. I think it is an eagle monastery if I have been informed correctly,” Penny said.

  One of the guards poked the officer. “I know of the monastery. My cousins live close enough. Ullori is definitely run by eagle priests.”

  “Then why are you being led by this hawk?” the guard leader said.

  “As a favor,” Helen said. “We aren’t Passoranians and weren’t familiar with the sects in your country. When we asked about the monastery at the cathedral in Virora, one of the archpriests assigned Ferrio to guide us to Fassira. We don’t know if his superiors will permit him to accompany us to the monastery, but he knows his way around the capital.”

  The officer grunted. “I doubt if anyone would make up a story as lame as yours. I will let you pass.”

  They proceeded, but one of the guards called them back.

  Jack wondered what would happen to them, being caught in the jumbles by the patrol. His eyes met Helen’s. She shrugged and pulled on her reins to stop her horse.

  “I will give you the address of my cousins. They live in the town of Maltina.” The guard scribbled something on a wrinkled paper and handed it to Jack. “They might be able to guide you.” The man eyed Ferrio. “Hawks aren’t as accepted where my cousins live.”

  Jack folded the paper and tucked it into a pocket. A question popped into his head. “You haven’t stopped a woman, a wizardess as it happens, and two Corandian men accompanying her? She stole my great-grandfather’s weapons. They were made in Lajia and are sentimentally very dear to me. She is about your age,” Jack said to the officer, “with graying hair.”

  “She is a bit dumpy,” Helen said.

  Penny described the two henchmen.

  “You know them that well?”

  “Myra, if that is her real name, tricked us into letting her join our group. She might be a former priestess, but I wouldn’t know which sect,” Jack said. “They stole my belongings.”

  “You look like you have enough possessions to me,” the officer said.

  “I carried an heirloom sword and knife,” Jack said. “However, I wasn’t in a position to catch them since they also stole all my clothes.”

  The officer conferred with his men out of Jack’s hearing. “She did come through here. The woman’s name would be recorded at the eastern patrol compound on the other side of the jumbles. She wore the robes of a priestess, but the two Corandian bodyguards were strange enough to earn an escort to the east side. They are far enough ahead that you won’t be able to catch them before they reach Fassira.”

  Jack thanked them and led the other three riders east with the patrol heading west.

  “I was about ready to throttle you and your loose tongue,” Helen said.

  Jack glanced at the smug face Penny wore.

  “But,” Helen continued, “I wouldn’t have thought to ask them about Myra.”

  “He lied to the officer about what they stole,” Penny said.

  “So?” Helen said. “When in hostile territory, the truth may get you into trouble. Jack couldn’t very well have described his weapons as objects of power, could he?”

  “Objects of power?” Ferrio stared at Jack. “You have more?”

  “I spoke the truth about them stealing my sword and knife. The one I wear, I had to buy in Virora.”

  “Liar,” Penny said quietly.

  “You are so good at insulting me that I can barely hear it,” Jack said.

  “You don’t expect me to believe your fancy sword is an object of power? Fasher never imbued it. That much he told me, although I am learning he hasn’t told me very much at all,” she said, “but I’m convinced you are still lying.”

  “I’ve seen him use the spells he imbued into the sword,” Helen said. “Does that make me a liar too?”

  Penny looked from Jack to Helen and back. “Maybe.”

  “What about my bracers?”

  “You got those in Tesoria. I admit they are objects of power.”

  Jack shook his head. “All my talk during our journey from Raker Falls has been one big lie?”

  “Not all,” Penny said. “I’m not blind or particularly insensitive to magic, you know.”

  “You don’t believe I’m a helper?” Jack said.

  “You help Fasher,” she said.

  How could the woman close her eyes and ears to what they had talked about during the journey? Did she ignore what her senses told her because she hated him that much?

  “Take my hand,” Jack said, riding closer to her.

  “Why should I?” Penny said, the defensiveness plain in her voice.

  “I want to give you some magical power. That will prove to you that I am a helper in the wizardly sense.”

  Penny looked ahead but kept turning her head to look suspiciously at Jack.

  “You really don’t know what a helper is?” Ferrio said. “They are rare wizards who can give power to other wizards. Just take his hand and see if you can feel power transfer into you. I’ve felt him do that.”

  “He isn’t going to spell me so he can take advantage of me?”

  “No,” Helen said. “It’s time to put aside this foolishness, Penny. Just touch his hand to the count of ten or something.”

  “Ten counts it is,” she said, extending her hand to Jack.

  “I’ve touched you often enough,” Jack said.

  “I beg your pardon!” Penny said.

  “In the office. Our hands have touched before.”

  “Oh.”

  Jack grabbed her hand and concentrated on putting power into her hand. She counted to four and then withdrew her hand. “What was that?” she asked.

  “Power. It went from me to you. You felt the magic, and it took less than four counts,” Jack said.

  She glared at Jack. “What kind of spell was that?”

  Jack raised his eyebrows. “Now you know what it feels to have a helper gi
ve you power. Should you need power again, I am here to help.”

  “When will I ever need to do that?” Penny said scoffing.

  “The offer stands,” Jack said. “It may never happen, but if you really need my help, know that I am here to give you power.”

  Penny looked at the road again. “If I ever do.”

  That was as good a yes as Jack thought he’d ever get from the young woman. Jack sighed. He had shown a few people in Penny’s presence that he was a helper, and she still was reluctant to admit it. He pinched his thigh to keep from saying anything he would regret, but he was put out at the moment with Penny Ephram. He took a deep breath again and vowed that he couldn’t let his negative feelings for Fasher’s assistant get in the way of helping her or anyone else should the need arise.

  They passed a small inn cut out of the jumbles. Jack was surprised to see the horses, wagons, and a carriage in front. It was too early to stop, and Jack was eager to grind out the distance to Fassira now that his prized weapons were ahead of him in the capital of Passoran.

  ~

  The guard compound was identical to the small fort they had passed before entering the jumbles. They had passed another patrol along the way and stopped for another to pass through the compound’s gates before entering.

  They tied their horses at a hitching post in front of the administration building. The four of them walked into the large room. It looked identical to the guard station in Raker Falls, only larger.

  “What can I help you with?” a uniformed woman said when Jack and Helen walked up. “We encountered one of your patrols as we entered the jumbles,” Jack told the woman their story. “I’d like to know if she goes by another name and if she wrote down her destination.”

  “We don’t record destinations, just names, descriptions and when they passed through,” the clerk said. She looked down at a thick ledger and flipped back a page.

  “Myra Pulini,” Jack said.

  “She is here, a priestess of the eagle sect. It does note she is headed for their mother church in Fassira. If she were a hawk, she would have entered a cathedral.”

  Jack looked at Helen. “She is headed where we are going,” he said.

  “And I will take you to Fassira and leave you at the mother church. I won’t enter such a place,” Ferrio said.

 

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