“You'll have to ask him, assuming he would give you the truth.” Taylin shrugged. “I'd never even heard of the Rune Breaker before I met him. To be honest, I don't even know any of the stories.”
“Contractors from the Historical Society hear dozens of them.” said Brin in a hushed tone as if she were relating a story over a campfire. “They all boil down to the Rune Breaker being a weapon, usually a magic sword or a scythe created by a phenomenally evil king or queen.
“They poured their own darkness into it, made sacrifices of innocents to give it power and performed any other dark rituals you might think of as well. The result was a vile blade of unmatched destructive power. With the Rune Breaker in hand, the wielder was unstoppable.”
“That's essentially what Ru says about himself.” Taylin nodded.
“Did he also tell you that only the most evil of souls can wield it?”
“He says that pretty much every one of his previous...” Taylin stumbled over the word 'master', “...people who had control over the link were complete bastards, yes. He still doesn't completely believe me when I say I don't want to control him like that.”
Brin's eyes grew softer, more concerned. “And did he tell you that the Rune Breaker almost inevitably betrays the one who commands it to their death?”
Gently placing the box with the Hessan sunburst back on the pile, Taylin shook her head. “He hasn't. Though I told him I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”
“You told him that?” Brin gasped, “Why?”
Taylin folded her arms, hugging herself until her hinged ribs creaked. “Because I don't want to have a slave, Brin. I know what slavers do to people. I lived it under the hailene and I don't want to do that to Ru, no matter what he's done in the past and what a cold, rude...” she searched for the proper word and upon finding it, couldn't help but laugh a little in saying it, “...brat he is in the here and now. In all honesty, if he did kill them, I'm glad of it.”
Brin cocked an eyebrow. “So you believe him when he says he's the Rune Breaker?”
“I don't know.” Taylin shrugged, “It never seemed important before. As far as I'm concerned, he can call himself King of Novrom; it doesn't matter to me. Kaiel seems to accept it, though he might be humoring him.”
She pulled her wings in close to her back and looked at the door. “What I do know is that the link is real, and that he's powerful; more powerful than any other caster I've met. And I believe him when he says he's old. I've seen glimpses of his memory and nothing in them matches up to any of the histories I read in Daire City. If he isn't the Rune Breaker, I think he's probably the closest thing we're likely to see in our lifetime.”
After a moment of quiet contemplation, she turned back to Brin. “But I don't think he's a danger to us. As violent and self-centered as he is, he isn't mindless about it like some...” She searched for the term, “...penny dreadful villain. He has his goals and he'll work with us toward them. No matter how much of a monster he says he is, I don't believe he'll hurt any of us without a reason.”
“I wonder if his mistrust of me is a good enough reason for him.” Brin suggested darkly.
Taylin shook her head. “He doesn't trust anyone. If that was good enough reason, everyone would be dead.”
The two women stared at each other for a time, an unspoken question passing between them. Brin shifted on the balls of her feet, unable to stand comfortably any longer. “My secret isn't anything that would endanger you or Motsey, I swear on Reflair's reliquary.”
Her hand went to the piece of jewelry as she said so. “It's just... uncomfortable to talk about.”
Very slowly, Taylin lowered her eyes back to the pile, fixating randomly on a roll of canvas. “I understand that perfectly. You don't want to answer the questions we'll have, or hear what kind of worries it might cause us. Maybe you even think you're not able to give good answers to start with.”
She didn't look up, but she could feel Brin's eyes on her for a long moment. There was a soft rustle and the thud of the Barratta's butt striking the ground as Brin walked. All too suddenly, Brin was beside her, leaning up to speak quietly in her ear.
“Maybe I shouldn't though.” she said, “After all, everyone here knows that I am Brin. The same Brin you met in Daire, and who had the same secret as she's holding right now. And, when the time is right, I really will explain what I can. Until then, I know that the others will give me all the time I need.”
It was the way she said 'Brin' and 'I' that made Taylin's shoulders relax and her wings unclench. What Brin wasn't saying and the fact that she was kind enough not to say it made all the difference. And it was true: they were traveling with understanding people who wouldn't think less of them based on secret or revelation.
A dark shape appeared in the doorway of the House.
Brin saw and caught Taylin's gaze long enough to roll her eyes. “Except for Ru. He'll have his hackles raised the entire trip to Rivenport.”
A small laugh escaped Taylin's lips. “That wouldn't have changed no matter what.” She regarded the dark mage thoughtfully as he floated out the door and turned, presenting the artifact that controlled the doorway to the open space.
There was a ripple that started in the center of the air in the aperture and expanded outward until the structure of the door was shimmering. A thrumming noise emanated from inside just as the door seemed to collapse in on itself, looking like water being sucked down a drain until it was gone.
“You know what's strange?” She asked Brin as Ru tucked the artifact away and floated over to see to Gaddigan.
“Hmm?”
“Ru seemed completely unsurprised by what I said last night. I know he doesn't care, but he's been surprised by things he doesn't care about before. The only feeling I got in the link was... banality. As if I was telling him something he already knew by rote.”
Brin eyed the wizard with a scowl. “You did say that you were able to see his memories... maybe he's seen some of yours?”
“I'm not sure that would help him.” said Taylin. “After all, I have my memories and I don't know any more than I said last night.” After some thought, she shrugged expansively, fluffing out her wings.
“It's Ru.” she concluded. “As much as I've tried understanding why he is the way he is, it's like mapping a storm cloud's surface. What's most annoying is that he keeps it that way on purpose.”
***
The link made Ru instantly aware of it the instant Taylin's attention strayed toward him. That was a remnant of a previous master who felt it too strenuous to mentally summon him and instead demanded that he attend whenever her thoughts settled on him.
Several others had made use of that feature, including Taylin's immediate predecessor. It made him smirk inwardly to ignore that attention without fear of retribution and go about his work.
It occurred to him that his arrangement with Taylin was advantageous even with Immurai removed from the equation. After all, she really and truly loathed giving him orders. The worse she did voluntarily was to scold him like he was a misbehaving child when he went too far in his antagonism of allies.
For some reason, the word 'brat' drifted across his consciousness.
He blinked it away and went to check Gaddigan's pack. The saddlebags had been replaced by a new, sleek set made of gray, pebbled cerato-leather. He stopped to admire the craftsmanship.
Artistry was something he'd always respected even after five thousand years of having his respect and care for most other things ground out of him. Gand taught him that magic was a craft, not a power or brutish tool; that there was an art and a beauty in constructing arrays and formulae.
Applying that artistry in creating new rooms and fixtures in the House was a major contributing factor to his good mood that morning.
There was beauty and form in combat too, along with creativity. As a shapeshifting master, he knew this better than most. That was something he shared in common with Taylin, and the first thing he'd come to respect in her.
When she made war, it was with the calculated yet graceful flow of dance; the boldness and mastery of painting and the unsurpassed majesty of sculpture.
…Except for those few chaotic moments the night before when things had changed.
When that other voice; hers and yet not, had shouted at him. At that point all the artistry had been torn away and replaced by savagery, survival instinct, and an all-consuming rage even the Rune Breaker could rarely muster.
Even knowing and understanding what Taylin was, just the memory of it made Ru give her a sidelong look across the camp as she spoke with Brin.
That voice, or the qualities in that voice, took him back a long, long time ago; to a teenaged boy shivering as he climbed down a rough hemp rope into a dank cavern. It recalled a shadowy thing there in the darkness, its vast body dragging on the stone.
In the darkness, a green eye larger than his head had opened, bathing him in verdant illumination as it examined him. A powerful, rough voice spoke to him: “And what is it you think you can learn from me, Gand's whelp? Do you truly believe that one such as you can become a shapeshifting master?”
Ru shook off the line of thought. It was too close to true memory and that was the last thing he needed or wanted. Instead, he looked around for Kaiel to let the chronicler know he was ready to depart.
Chapter 12 – Following Flames
'The artificial divinity spark is expressing in sixty percent of the test animals, but seems inert. Analysis of discarnate energy fluctuations shows that they are miniature conduits to the power of the Well of Souls, but they are incapable of using it.
I expected this. A sapient mind is needed to control such awesome power. The Emperor seems to agree. Experimentation on sapient subjects has been approved. To minimize damage to more valuable beings, the initial tests will be conducted on ang'hailene.'
~ excerpt from the journal of Lena Hiddakko.
***
As a final token of thanks to Taylin and her companions, the battlemagi of Solgrum's army conjured a causeway of ice across the river so that they could continue their journey to Rivenport.
It was a sturdy enough, and the skilled spellcrafting of akua shaped the ice so it wasn't slick in the least, but it creaked under the weight of the heavily laden Gaddigan and none of the animals was particularly happy to travel on it.
Kaiel dismounted and spoke in soothing tones to each, weaving discarnate power into his words until his own horse, Raiteria's pony, and Miser were all cautiously willing to cross. That left Gaddigan, who seemed to understand what he was trying to do and refused to make eye contact; responding instead with laid back ears, a tossing mane, and several attempts to bite the chronicler.
All the while, Ru floated nearby with an amused look on his face, clearly pleased that his mount was as belligerent and aggressive as he was.
Taylin was neither amused nor pleased, and after the third bite attempt, she stepped in. Grasping the warhorse's reins in one hand, she effortlessly swung his head around to put them nose to nose.
She was not the first to blink.
Gaddigan, for all his surly behavior and wild spirit, recalled Taylin as the one who threw him over like a child overturning a toy wagon and he wasn't so sure he could emerge from another conflict with her victorious. Or alive. After a half-hearted attempt at biting her, he trundled after the other mounts across the bridge, occasionally casting a hateful look back at her until they were halfway across the river and going back out of spite was worse than useless.
The rest of the day passed without incident, and by nightfall, they had left the unclaimed wilds between Torm Dondaire and its neighbors, and entered Khish proper. Along the way, the hills that had until then characterized Novrom for Taylin started sporting more and more trees and shrubbery until they were traversing scrub forest.
As Ola began to sink beneath the horizon, they crested a hill that descended on the other side into a sea of tall, straight trees that stretched on until it began to climb the foothills and mountains in the far distance.
Kaiel suggested camping inside the House, which Ru agreed with on the condition that the animals remained outside. And so the night was spent secure and warm inside the extra-dimensional space.
***
At midday on their second day out, Taylin and Raiteria were scouting ahead of the others. The later was on ground level, blazing the trail for the others while Taylin flew above, both keeping watch for anything that might try to ambush her sister, and for any Khishan settlements they would need to avoid.
Riding the air currents, her bright wings stretched wide beneath the warm rays of Ola, Taylin felt many of her earlier anxieties melt away.
None of the others had brought up what happened during the battle, nor had they started treating her any differently.
With her more relaxed mood, the constant itch of her scales (which seemed to have been lying in wait to spring up and protect her) finally ceased. This made her more relaxed still and allowed her to think on other things.
Things like the mysterious Soul Battery.
It bothered her that Immurai would set a one month deadline to bring it to him, and then not tell them what it was. Moreover, the trip to Rivenport and the sea voyage would eat much of the time allotted to them. If the demon wanted the Soul Battery, whatever it was, he wasn't doing a very good job of making certain he got it.
Unless that was the point; that the Soul Battery wasn't what he wanted and instead, the whole thing was a charade or decoy. They had slain his previous pawn: the King of Flame and Steel. Perhaps taking Motsey and issuing a vague quest was his way of taking them out of the picture for his next plot in Taunaun.
That would also explain why Bashurra seemed perfectly willing to kill them.
Below, she saw Raiteria appearing and disappearing through breaks in the tree cover.
Nir-lumos scouts were adept at moving quickly over all sorts of terrain, leaving as little trace of their passing as possible. Rai was making a study of it by nimbly hopping from branch to branch, occasionally using her chain to lash a tree too far to jump to so she could swing across.
Taylin decided to swallow her doubts about Immurai's intentions then and there. For if the search for the Soul Battery and trip to the Kimean Isles was all a diversion, then there was no reason for him to keep Motsey alive.
One thing Raiteria didn't need was to have her hope taken away. For that matter, Taylin didn't either. In only a short time, she'd come to adore the boy and the thought of Immurai and his ilk harming him... Ruminating on it was enough to make that part of her that she'd been trying to ignore rumble with the fury of a mother bear seeing her cubs disturbed.
The scent of something burning tingled in her nose and for a moment, she thought she was bringing up more burning gel. But then something flashed in her vision: Raiteria's signal mirror.
Lost in her thoughts, Taylin had also lost track of Raiteria and the forest below. Looking down now, she found her adoptive sister standing on a fallen log, mirror held high. Not far from her, some of the trees sported heat-withered leaves and scorched branches. The fire had not come from her.
Taylin leaned back and flapped her wings to halt her forward progress, pumping slightly harder to check her fall. Most hailene could do so easily. Serving on the foraging crews of ships, she'd seen them. They would flutter down with the greatest of ease and light on tree branches, because while they were taller than humans, hailene had hollow bones and less dense muscle, causing them to weight significantly less.
Not matter what her hailene instincts told her, there was nothing hollow about Taylin. She was as solid as a brick, and fell exactly like one if she tried to follow those instincts while trying to land. Instead, she had to fight against generations of hailene to replace the traditional fluttering with slow, powerful strokes of the wings to bring her down safely.
Even then, she hit the ground with a thud and had to drop into a crouch to absorb the last of the fall.
“Sorry if you were trying
to signal me for long.” She said, trying to maintain some dignity as she straightened herself, “My head was else...”
She trailed off, because beyond Raiteria, she could see the damage in its entirety.
The undergrowth in the area was gone, burned to the dirt so there was nothing but a coating of soot. Smaller saplings were blackened staves of char that still smoldered, and the larger trees had their bark scorched or blistered off. In the midst of it was the skeleton of... something.
Whatever it had been, it was only a bit larger than Gaddigan, with a low-slung body. Most of it had burned down to a skeleton, but here and there, matted hair survived along with quills. Massive quills. The smallest were three feet long, while some were nearly five. All of them were nastily barbed.
“What was that thing?” Taylin asked, awed in spite of herself at the ruined body. Without meaning to, she started to walk slowly toward it.
Rai slipped the mirror back into its pocket on her leather scout's vest and hopped off the log to investigate with Taylin. “The caravan's passed by more than enough for me to know that much: It's an erethizon; a kind of spirit beast porcupine.”
She frowned at the charred corpse. “This was unnecessary. Erethizon are peaceful as spirit beasts go. They only attack if they're spooked and even then, they do enough false charges to give you the idea to run before they launch those quills.”
Taylin looked around slowly, then asked, “You talk like you think someone did this on purpose. Couldn't it have been something that breathes fire? The fire burned this whole area in a cone shape.”
“No,” Rai tapped her nose, “You smell that? The chemical twinge?”
Now that she was being asked, the answer was 'no'. All Taylin could smell at that point was burnt flesh. She shook her head to that effect.
Rai shrugged as if to concede that maybe Taylin didn't have the proper nasal training that a nir-lumos scout did. “It's lamp oil. A lot of it burned at incredible heat. Someone doused the erethizon and lit it on fire.”
“Or sprayed it.” Taylin said, keeping in mind the shape of the burn pattern. She really wanted to venture that it could have been a dragon that did this; a fire-breathing one. After all, the burning substance she spat two nights ago had been some sort of chemical rather than the billowing gout of flames depicted in Brin's dime novels, so it stood to reason that real dragons did something similar.
The Path of Destruction (Rune Breaker) Page 16