Nacaris and Lysha exchanged a surprised look, before Nacaris shrugged. "Ulambara it is, then. Shall we?"
With a nod, Telyn hoisted herself back into her saddle, and turned Bloodcloud's head toward the North. A new grimness gripped her as they left the city behind them. Whoever they faced in Ulambara, she already knew Sala was right about one thing -- nothing was going to be as it appeared.
*****
A week of riding and one river crossing later, they were finally within sight of Ulambara, the holiest city in the known world and the reputed home of the Aerai Majin. Telyn shifted restlessly in her saddle as sick certainty gripped her that, whatever happened here, her life was about to change forever and in a way over which she had no control. She cast a furtive glance at her two riding companions, wondering if they felt the same sense of doom closing in around them. If they did, neither of them gave any outward sign of it. They didn't even seem to feel the perpetual restlessness that gripped her, alerting her to the presence of strong Majik. Was she the only one who could feel that energy? It permeated every breath she drew with a tangy, metallic taste, raising gooseflesh along her skin. She glanced at Nacaris and Lysha again, in disbelief. How could they not feel that?
They are not Chosen.
Telyn shoved back an errant lock of sweat-streaked hair and tried her best to ignore that quiet voice in her head. It was becoming harder to do so with every day that passed, and she only wished she could blame it on Sala, but the tiny Salamandar had been strangely quiet since their last conversation. This voice was softer, yet more insistent, and it didn't argue so much as guide, flickering in the corner of her mind like a tiny candle flame. Now, it wound itself through her, heart, mind, and soul, and whispered only one thing. She'd been a fool to come here.
The Eastern region was hardly a place to conduct quests at the height of summer -- that, she knew. Near to both the Purat Mountains that separated the grasslands from the desert, and the Aruska River, this area was humid and hellishly hot during the summer months, and brutally cold during the winter. If that wasn't enough to keep all but the most fervent pilgrims away, Telyn was sure the buzz of energy in this place would be. Yet, no one else seemed bothered by, or even aware of, that energy.
They are not Chosen.
Again, that quiet voice provided the explanation, but Telyn didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to be alone in this feeling. It wasn't like she'd had a choice to come here. That voice, and the certainty that Sele's trail led here, had pulled her North from Criva, and here she was.
"Something bothering you?"
Startled out of her thoughts by the sound of another voice, Telyn nearly leapt out of her skin, and straight off of her mount. She pressed her hand to her chest as her heart tried to beat its way free and she glared at Nacaris. "Must you always scare the wits out of me?"
"Sorry," he responded with an apologetic shrug. "You looked like you were going to be ill."
Telyn sighed, then. Sala was right -- this quest was proving to be more dangerous, and pointless, with every day. Clearly, someone went out of their way to make sure no one ever found Sele, and she could no longer be sure Sele wasn't responsible for that. And, if that wasn't bad enough, the feelings Telyn struggled with every time she looked at Nacaris ate at her soul. She wanted things she couldn't have -- a normal life, at this man's side. The home, family, and love she spent so much of her life without. With Nacaris, she no longer felt so terribly alone. And yet, she knew that she couldn't hold him. Her life had a higher calling -- one in which there wasn't room for both destiny and desire. The only response she could give him was a miserable half-shrug. Her hope that he'd let the subject drop, however, wasn't to be.
"I heard what you told Mistress Llyn-Gild, back at Raiador, you know." He nudged his mount slightly closer to hers and dropped his voice to a murmur. "After we return Sele and capture Brun-Gild, what will you do?"
Spirits of my ancestors, don't ask me that, she begged him silently, even though the words hung in the air between them, the question already asked. She didn't want to answer, and she couldn't lie to him. Finally, with a deeply drawn breath, she managed to steady her voice. "I'll ride for Phoenix Hall, most likely."
"Phoenix Hall?" Nacaris sat back, reacting as if she'd slapped him, and Telyn's heart cracked a little. She knew he didn't understand. How could he? There was no place for him in her life, as long as her destiny as a Chosen remained. She already knew the terrible fate her parents had suffered for their role in her destiny. She would never consign another to that heartache and suffering.
"Aye."
"What in Helios' name could you hope to find there?"
Telyn shrugged, unwilling to tell him the complete truth, but needing him to understand. "The Phoenix Book."
"The what?"
Telyn winced. Now he sounded like he thought she'd lost her mind. She'd expected that. Most people knew about the Aerai Majin and his sacred artifacts. But most people also believed those artifacts were little more than myth. Only their guardians had seen them in nearly three hundred cycles.
"The Phoenix Book. It's one of the Aerai Majin's artifacts." She tried her best to look innocent as she glanced at him, but inside, her heart was breaking. "Have you never heard the legends?"
He glowered straight ahead, looking none-too-pleased by this conversation, and the derisive laugh that issued from him told her what she already knew -- he was more than aware of the tales. "I've heard them more often than I ever wished. But why are you looking for the Book?"
"It belonged to my father's Clan, and I suppose it's still somewhere in the family seat."
Nacaris blinked at her, and shook his head. "So you plan to cross feuding lines and invade the ruins of a deserted estate for a book you suppose is still there?"
It did sound a little mad when he said it that way, Telyn admitted grudgingly. But, her defenses on alert, she speared him with her glare. "What else would you have me do? I have to find that book."
He sighed heavily. "Telyn, if the Phoenix Book was still at Phoenix Hall, then why would Ashes have undertaken a quest to find it?"
She glowered at him through the sudden burn of tears, angry that he would throw those words back in her face -- words spoken in confidence, while she lay twined in the safety of his arms. "I don't know. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was just looking for someone to teach him how to use it."
Nacaris' expression was skeptical, before his gaze turned far away. "According to the tales I heard when I was younger, the last sworn Majin of the Phoenix Clan was expelled many cycles ago for crimes of which no one I've ever met would speak. For reasons no one knows, the Majin stole the Book when he left, and that brought about the destruction of the mighty Phoenix Clan. No one knew where he went, or where he might have hidden the Book, though generations of the Clan spent their lives searching for him. They all died in that futile quest, Telyn."
Telyn glanced away. She couldn't bear the look in his eyes as he pinned her in her saddle with that gaze and his final words. She already knew it was a fool's quest. However, she also knew that she had no choice. She'd sworn to continue her father's quest, and that she would take up her rightful place as one of the Chosen. There was already too much blood on her hands for her to walk away. She cleared her throat.
"So, no one knows where the Book is, then?"
Find the Bathron Majin, and you will find that which you seek.
Telyn gasped as that quiet voice from earlier whispered through her mind. She caught Nacaris' concerned look, and managed to pull herself together enough to ask, "If he was already a Majin when he was expelled, surely the man who stole the book isn't alive any longer. Wouldn't he have passed the location on to someone else?"
"Everyone tells a different story. Some say he no longer recalled where he hid the Book by the time he died. Others say he never actually died -- that he knew some kind of terrible Majik that kept him alive for an unnaturally long time."
Have you ever lost something you valued more than your soul? The words, a m
ere memory, tickled the edge of her mind, and Telyn sat upright in her saddle with a gasp of shock. Nausea followed, strangely devoid of the vindication she expected at having her suspicion confirmed.
"Nacaris, I know who it is!"
His brow furrowed. "What?"
"I know who kidnapped Sele, and who stole the Phoenix Book all those cycles ago!"
"Who?"
"Pel Brun-Gild."
His expression darkened. "Are you certain?"
"No, but I know how to find out." Excited now, she urged Bloodcloud toward Ulambara at a canter. "Once we get to the city, I need a room with a fire grate, and wood for a fire. I know exactly who to ask."
*****
Nacaris kept a concerned eye on Telyn as they entered Ulambara. Her comment about needing a fire to get answers still worried him. What was she up to, now?
One of his best friend's countless stories niggled at the edges of his memory, about Maji who could communicate with the Sacred Elements that made up the world. But Telyn wasn't one of them. Not the Telyn he remembered, anyway. She was an impulsive, fiery woman with a temper that could put fear into an Endland bandit, and the gentleness of a Shelliac Priestess.
And yet, the woman he met at Raiador wasn't the one he spent so many summers hunting for and fantasizing about. This woman was harder, bitterer, than he remembered. She was driven and mysterious in a way that the Telyn he remembered could never have managed. And even as he came to grips with these changes, she was already changing again, her demeanor more and more like a mystic than a warrior with every day that passed. He wasn't sure he would ever make peace with this new woman she'd become.
Outside of the nearest inn, Telyn slid from her horse's back, a reassuring grin on her face as she met his gaze. "I'll be back shortly."
And then she was gone. Nacaris heard the clop of hooves near him, and then Lysha's voice. "Where's she off ta, then?"
He shrugged, an unsettled feeling prickling along his skin. "Not sure. She said something about getting answers from a fire."
"Ah." Lysha sounded like she understood exactly what was going on, and Nacaris' gaze snapped her way.
"You know what she's doing?"
"Nah exactly. Jus' that she c'n communicate with the Fire Spirits o' Raiador."
This was news to him, and it left him disgruntled. Why hadn't Telyn seen fit to confide this piece of information in him? She seemed content to take full liberties with his body, but refused to see more than that in him. And that annoyed him more than he wanted to admit.
Clarity descended on him in that instant. It was time he and Telyn had a heart-to-heart talk. If she wanted into his past, she had to reciprocate -- except he didn't want into her past. He wanted a part of her present, and her future.
Determined now, he swung down from his own mount and, handing the reins to Lysha, stalked into the inn.
"Room for the night?"
Nacaris shook his head impatiently. "A woman with lavender eyes and an anaqueri just came in here. Where is she?"
The innkeeper's eyes widened. "I assumed she was a Gildgard, gied. I gave her a room."
Nacaris' gaze snapped to the narrow stairway leading to the upper floor. "Which one?"
"First at the top of the stairs."
With a short nod of thanks, Nacaris took the stairs two at a time, then stopped outside the door to the room in question. He didn't want to barge in on Telyn like a jealous lover. No telling how she'd react to that, and he might end up dead before he could make his point. Paused outside the door, he listened for a long moment, and his eyes widened as he heard her talking. Who in Helios' name was in there with her?
*****
Telyn sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the fireplace, her attention fixed on her diminutive friend and guide as she finished relaying her conversation with Nacaris.
Your friend is quite knowledgeable. Sala was clearly impressed by how much Nacaris knew of the legends.
"Is any of it possible? Could the Book have been taken away from Phoenix Hall?"
It is more than possible. What he calls a legend is the truth. Ashes undertook his quest originally to find the Phoenix Book stolen from his Clan. He told us, when he came to Raiador, that his quest was half completed.
"What did he mean?"
We never knew. When he died, Ashes had still not recovered the Book, and he never revealed what he knew.
Telyn suppressed the nervous flutter in her stomach as she prepared to voice her personal theory to Sala. "Could..." She chickened out at the last moment. "Could the Majin who stole the book be dead?"
Pray that is not so, Phoenix. Sala flickered somberly. If the Majin who removed the Book from its proper place no longer lives, then the world is already lost.
Telyn glanced away. "Do you know his name?"
Sala flared, and then settled into a slow spin in the air above the fire. I do not know. Ashes never spoke his name. He only ever called him Limbdigger.
"Limbdigger?"
"That's an Endlander name."
Telyn whipped around, her hand flying instantly to the grip of her anaqueri, at the sound of a male voice behind her. She relaxed only slightly as she saw Nacaris, and her eyes narrowed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Uncovering your secret." His gaze went pointedly to Sala as he addressed the tiny creature. "I assume you are one of the spirits of Raiador?"
Sala flared up proudly and spoke aloud for the first time since Telyn met her. "I am Fire."
The surprise on Nacaris' face lasted only a second, replaced by deep respect. "I meant no insult, Fiery One."
Sala giggled and spun around gleefully. "Oh, Telyn, I like this one!"
Telyn ground her teeth together. She didn't want Nacaris to be part of this -- she didn't want him to look at her any differently because of who she was. Containing her annoyance by sheer force of will, she grated out, "What do you want?"
"I want you to be honest with me. I had to find out about your friend here from Lysha. I want to help you, to have a place in what's going on."
"I see."
He rolled his eyes skyward. "Don't make it sound like you just smelled something foul, would you? I can help, if you let me."
Sala bobbed in the air, drawing Telyn's attention. "Do not let pride bring your downfall, as it did Ashes'."
This was the first Telyn ever heard Sala speak a critical word about her father.
"What do you mean?" She rasped, feeling a little ganged-up on.
"Ashes refused to let anyone help him. Even when he was dying, he refused to send for Mistress Gwneth, who could have saved his life."
That pinched Telyn's heart hard. She never knew that, but it explained the sorrow and guilt she remembered most about her mother. She didn't want that for herself. She didn't want the regrets. Finally, with a sigh, she nodded.
"Nacaris, this is Sala. She's a Salamandar, one of the Fire Elementals who guard and revere the World Forge." She looked up at him. "What did you say when you first came in?"
He crouched down next to her. "Limbdigger. It's an Endlander name."
"How do you know that?"
He suddenly looked uneasy. "I spent some time in the Endlands."
Surprise jolted Telyn. She always thought he looked familiar. Could they have crossed paths at some point in her past? She blinked away the thought. She didn't have time to figure out her own past, or this man's place in it. She had a mission to complete, and the Phoenix Book to find. "Do you know him?"
"No." Nacaris shook his head.
Excitement and dread curled together inside of Telyn. Suddenly, her theory didn't seem so strange. "What if the same Majin in possession of the Phoenix Book knew about Sele's training, and abducted her in the hopes of finding a way to perform the rites in the Book?"
"What do you mean?" Sala danced in the air.
"If Sele spent her Cloister time studying the Majik of the World Forge, then she'd know all the rituals, in theory and essence, if not in actual experience.
And the promise of being able to actually get her hands on the Book she spent her whole life obsessed with could have been enough to entice her away from her escort and turn her into as much an accomplice as victim."
No one spoke for a long moment after she finished, and the air crackled with tension. Then, in the quiet, Sala finally spoke.
"You may be correct, Telyn. If the Majin who possesses the Book was as ambitious and vindictive as the legends say, he would actually seek a way to use the Book to his own ends. And the woman you seek could easily have learned some of the Great Rites, generally speaking, through her studies. She could also, at the time of her abduction, have been both young and idealistic enough to have gone willingly with one who claimed capable of giving her the power to remake a world she sees as flawed and dangerous."
Nacaris frowned. "So, you're saying that it wasn't really an abduction. Can we safely assume that once she realizes he doesn't possess the means of remaking the world, she'll return on her own?"
Telyn shook her head. "I doubt she'll ever see it."
"Telyn is correct." Sala flared and then dimmed. "Though she may be physically pure, Sele Tora-Gild is likely to be neither as idealistic nor as innocent as she once was. She has tasted a power she was never meant to know, and she is no longer the girl she once was. The man who possesses the Phoenix Book does indeed possess the means to remake the world, as well -- he can twist it into something dark and terrible, with himself holding all the power."
Telyn frowned. This was worse than she imagined. And her memory stirred again with images from her confrontations with Brun-Gild, and the sea of young faces she always saw around the Minanx Camp at Raiador. Was age, or innocence, really so important? And that brought another uneasy feeling over Telyn.
"Don't tell me that only a virgin with a pure soul can perform the rites."
Sala giggled at that. "Most certainly not! Quite the opposite. Fire is passion, Telyn. Its Chosen must also possess that trait."
"Then I'd say you made a great choice," Nacaris interjected, his voice laced with fond humor.
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