Aster Wood series Box Set

by J B Cantwell

  “Child, my body may have left my village, but my spirit remains there. It is not the way of my people to give out information so blindly.”

  “But you said, ‘I see what you are.’ What did you mean?”

  He stopped walking and sighed heavily, turning to me.

  “It means that I trust you,” he said. “But it won’t serve me to break the laws of my people on the very same day I seek to rejoin them. You will have your answers. I will see to that.” He turned and continued walking down the trail. “But not this morning.”

  The path from the mountain descended steeply into a rock-strewn valley. Ruggedness was undoubtedly a personality trait necessary to survive in a place like this. After we reached the end of the path and started across the lowlands, each step I took jostled my body in some way or another. The terrain was jagged and uneven from the rock outcroppings, and soon my legs were throbbing from the effort. While Erod’s tall frame made travel for him easier, I was quickly winded.

  I wondered if I would have an easier time running across the open field. Sometimes, when I got going really fast, running felt more like flying than anything, and my feet seemed not to care how uneven the ground was. But this stepping up and down over and over was wearing me out.

  “Hey, Erod,” I said after a few minutes. “You ever run?”

  “What do you mean?” he answered.

  “I mean, you’re a pretty big guy. You ever just take off running? I bet you’re pretty fast with those long legs.”

  He looked over at me, a disapproving look on his face.

  “Yes, I can run. But you could never keep up,” he said. That same smirk played on his face again.

  I stopped walking and turned to face him.

  “I’ll bet you I can.”

  He raised his thick eyebrows.

  “Ok,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Let’s run. Get there faster, anyways.” He turned and broke into a lumbering jog.

  I watched him as he bounced away from me, his awkward frame practically rolling down the hill. He’d never see me coming.

  I stumbled with the first few strides I took; it had been ages since I had been free to run out in the open. But soon, just as I had hoped, the uneven rocks beneath my feet no longer mattered. With my speed came imperviousness to the difficulty of the terrain.

  Erod’s hair blew slightly in the breeze my racing form created as I blew by him. I ran for only a minute or so, not wanting to lose him entirely. I was surprised when I turned and saw that he was only a few paces behind me. I slowed.

  “Where did you learn how to do that?” he demanded as he caught up with me.

  “Where did you?” I asked, surprised. “I’ve never seen someone come close to being able to catch me.”

  He smiled. “Years of practice against my brother,” he said. “Speed is a gift most of us have. But when my powers got too great, everybody stopped racing me.”

  “Your powers?” I asked. He looked at me wryly.

  So that was why his family didn’t seem to want him around.

  “What else can you do?” I asked.

  “Now, if you think I’m going to spill all my secrets, you’re a fool.”

  “No, no,” I said. “That’s not what I meant. I’m just surprised you haven’t shown anything until now.”

  “Where I come from, powers aren’t something you go flashing around.” He turned his gaze back in the direction of our travel and started walking again.

  “What about your powers?” he asked. “You go around showin’ off to all the girls in your town?”

  My cheeks flushed.

  “I don’t really have any powers,” I said. “Running is the only thing that I can do that’s…not normal.”

  He grunted.

  “But why not stay?” I asked, catching up to him and trying to change the subject. “Why not try to help them?”

  “When I left they weren’t in trouble,” he said.

  “But they are now?” I asked.

  “I expect, yes.”

  “How do you know?”

  “How do I know?” He glanced in my direction. “Didn’t you see that madman up in the tower? They’re in trouble, alright. He’s like a beacon up there, the idiot. I’m guessing he’s called more attention to this place with his Torrensai than my people ever could in a thousand years.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Don’t know yet,” he grunted. “I suppose I’ll just wait and see what needs doing. But first I’ve got to get us in the door.”

  “Do you expect that to be difficult to do?” I asked.

  “You ask too many questions,” he said with a glance over at me. Then he picked up his feet and ran flat-out.

  I smiled for what seemed like the first time in many days, even with the heavy news of Almara’s insanity hanging over me like a thunderhead. The feeling of my uplifted cheeks on my face felt good. I picked up my own feet and took off after him.

  We raced each other for a while, making short work of the distance between the castle and the range of hills that surrounded Erod’s village. For most of the time we were neck in neck, but in the end my speed won out. We both sat on the large boulder that had been our most recent target, panting and laughing.

  The first arrow whizzed by my ear and stuck in the ground ten feet in front of me. Before I knew what was happening, Erod had pulled me to the ground behind the boulder.

  “Stop, Brother,” he called out. “It is I, Erod, come home to bring news of the Triaden.”

  Another arrow flew across the top of the boulder. No voice answered his call.

  “Brother, did you not hear me?” he yelled. “Hold your weapons and let me come out to you. I have a tale to tell.”

  For a moment there was no further sound, but then we heard a single voice.

  “Show yourself, then, Erod,” it said. “Prove your loyalty.”

  Erod stood and walked around the edge of the rock.

  “Erod!” I whispered. But he ignored me and kept his gaze ahead of him. His thick fingers unbuttoned his overshirt, and when he stretched it open what I saw there made me gasp.

  Almara’s symbol.

  It wasn’t carved into the flesh like it had been on the arms of the prisoners below Stonemore. This symbol glowed gold, shimmering against his brown skin.

  Who was this guy?

  I slowly stood up from behind the boulder, anxious to see our attacker.

  Erod held out his hand to the hunter, who had raised his bow and aimed his arrow at me.

  “No, Brother,” Erod said. “He is my friend.”

  From around the boulder came a tall, thick man, taller even than Erod. His arrow still pointed at my chest, and I raised my hands up so he could see I was unarmed.

  “I don’t care whose friend he is,” snarled the man. “He ain’t welcome.” The man spit into the grass near Erod’s feet.

  “That is unfortunate, for my news is intertwined with this boy as completely as the Jared’s Mark is with my flesh. Let us pass.”

  The man looked back and forth between the two of us. Then, after his stern gaze had rested on my face for several long moments, he looked back to Erod and his face broke into a crooked smile.

  “You’ll have me whipped, you know,” he said.

  “Oh, they won’t whip you. Not with what I have to share.”

  The man dropped his bow to his side and approached Erod, arms outstretched.

  “I ain’t sorry to see you,” he said, and he and Erod hugged one another. “But you know the way of it. I hope you got news worthy enough to spare my life.”

  “Tell them I hit you,” Erod said. “Shall I?”

  The man nodded. Erod pulled back his arm as if cocking a crossbow and smashed the man across the side of his face.

  “Argh! Erod!” he yelled, angry over the force of the blow.

  Erod smiled, but not for long. The man’s fist punched upward from where he crouched and caught Erod squarely in the jaw, knocking him to the ground a
s he yelped in pain. They both lay sprawled out on the stubby grass. They were even.

  “There’s no need to act as a fool,” Erod said, panting. Then his anger melted away and he laughed.

  The man stood and walked over to Erod, offering him his hand, a wide grin stretched across his face. A thin trickle of blood ran down the side of his cheek.

  “Your ma won’t be happy.“

  “Yes, I know,” Erod said, accepting the man’s hand and hauling himself upright. “And what of Egon and Nirsio?”

  “Good as can be expected,” said the man.

  The two turned and walked away from me, leaving me standing with my hands still raised foolishly in the air. It was unsettling to me that our first greeting by a member of his village had come to such forceful blows. I made a mental note to stay light on my feet, ready to run if any of the enormous villagers came after me.

  I followed the two giant men up the steep hills that lay before us.

  “Is there news, then?” Erod asked the man between giant strides.

  “Course there is,” he said. “But I ain’t about to talk about it while you got a shadow followin’ ya.” He inclined his head back in my direction and shot me a glance.

  Erod snorted.

  “He is a child, for one thing,” he said. “But that fact aside, we have seen a fair amount of trouble together already. He has shown himself to be trustworthy, and do we really have time to play such a game at this late hour? What is the news?”

  The man huffed his disapproval, but he spoke anyways.

  “Druce and the elders speak of the darkness. They say it’s comin’, faster than ever before. End is nearly upon us now, I expect. They say that we got only months. Maybe a year.”

  Erod stayed silent, studying his feet as he took each step.

  “No matter what Druce or any of the ‘em say, we need ya here,” said the man. He stopped and faced Erod, who looked up hesitantly to meet his gaze. “You know they can’t protect us. Not all are gonna take kindly to your return. But you been long whispered about. Many’ll be glad.”

  “I know not what power I may yet have,” Erod said. “I may be of no use at all.” He stared hard into the other man’s face, at once concerned and confident.

  The man put one hand heavily onto Erod’s shoulder.

  “Yes,” he said. “Your power may or may not be enough. But you’ll be with us now instead of out on the wild sea. You’ll be home.” He gave his head a curt nod, and Erod’s face broke into a wide smile.

  “Ah, I have missed you, Miros,” Erod said. The two started walking again.

  “Shouldn’t have left, then,” Miros said.

  “You know I had little choice in that matter. Druce would have flayed me alive had I stayed.”

  “Maybe.” Miros nodded, snickering. “Though that ain’t got nothing to do with your magic, if I remember right. If you had kept your eyes off his daughter, he might’ve let you stay.”

  So quickly, and without warning, Erod’s hand shot out and shoved Miros to the side. He nearly fell, but then caught his balance just before his hands hit the dirt. He was chortling now, and Erod walked on as if he had done nothing more important than swat at a fly.

  We crested the top of the hill, and as we took the first steps down the other side, I saw our destination waiting for us. In the basin of the small, hidden valley, a scattering of thatched roof dwellings dotted the landscape.

  The village of the Solitaries.

  A tall boy greeted us as we descended the hillside.

  “Go tell Grete,” said Miros to him, and the boy bounded away towards one of the little houses.

  Erod smiled and looked back at me.

  “Hope you’re ready for this,” he said.

  Ready for what?

  As we approached the small house, several dogs gathered around us, sniffing and baying to let the whole place know we had arrived.

  “I leave you here, Brother,” Miros said, and he clapped him roughly on the back. Erod stumbled.

  “Thanks,” he said. And then to himself, “I’ll need it.”

  He ducked through the small doorway into the cottage, and I followed him inside. Standing over a tiny stove that held an enormous pot was the largest woman I had ever seen. Erod was big, but she was huge. She stayed focused on the stove as she spoke.

  “Brann came with the news,” she said. “I suppose you think I’ll be feeding you up.”

  “Hi Mum,” Erod said.

  She turned on the spot, her eyes flashing with anger.

  “Don’t you ‘Hi Mum’ me,” she spat. Then she walked across the small room and whacked him, hard, across the face. Beneath the submissive look he wore on his face, I could just barely see a smile peeking through.

  What was it with these people? I shifted uncomfortably where I stood, hoping that they wouldn’t beat me with their welcomes.

  He stood upright again and held his arms out to her, smirking. She stood, arms folded across her broad chest, and glared at him. But after a few moments of trying to avoid his gaze, she finally relented, opening her arms and accepting his embrace.

  “You’re no good, you know that, Erod?” she said to the top of his head. “I should’ve thrown you in the river when you was a baby. So scrawny anyways.”

  He laughed.

  She released the hug but kept her hands on his shoulders, staring him straight in the face.

  “If you ever take off like that again, I’ll hunt you down and beat you bloody. You understand?”

  “Yes, Mum.” Erod smiled.

  She shoved him away from her and turned back her cooking.

  “Who’s this bug you’ve brought in?” she asked.

  “Just someone I picked up along the way,” he said, his eyes smiling in my direction. “Actually, Mum, we need to call the clan together.”

  “What for?”

  “We’ve come across some things that Aster here needs to find answers to.”

  “He needs answers? What about our answers?” Her fist sunk into a lump of dough the size of a basketball that had been resting on the counter. The air that had gathered between the fibers of wheat puffed out in a whoosh, like the air being let out of a balloon. Her massive arms kneaded the flattened mass, expertly working the dough and folding it over and over as she went.

  “We have some of them, too. And,” he looked at me for approval for what he was about to say, but he didn’t wait for it before he spoke, “he’s got gold.”

  Her hands froze atop the mountain of dough, and the room went silent.

  “What?” She turned around and fixed her hard gaze on me.

  “It’s true, Mum,” he said.

  “How’s this?” she asked me.

  I opened my mouth, to say what, I didn’t know, but Erod saved me.

  “It’s a story for the elders and the clan to hear together,” he said.

  “Seein’ as he’s sittin’ in my house, I think it’s a story I’m ready to hear right now.”

  “No, Mum,” he said firmly. “Tonight he will tell his story, and I mine.” Erod stifled a yawn. The warm cottage combined with our lack of sleep over the past couple of days was catching up with us, but my eyes remained open and alert.

  “We need rest, Mum.”

  She glared at him for a moment, her eyes flitting angrily back and forth between us. But then her stern face changed from anger to understanding. The hard edges remained, as if a moment ago she had been talking to a boy, and now a man.

  “Go on then,” she said, removing the long apron from her front. She hung it next to the stove and headed for the door. “I’ll be back.” She left the mound of dough, unfinished and forgotten, on the counter, and closed the front door firmly behind her.

  Erod lay back on a couch of sorts that sat up off the floor and groaned loudly at the relief of resting his muscles. That left me with the lumpy mattress in the corner.

  “Will we be safe?” I said as I sat down. I pulled a wadded blanket from the floor over my legs. It smelled l
ike a barn.

  “Safe enough,” he said, his eyes drooping. “I told you, they’re afraid of magic.”

  “And you ain’t no ordinary man,” I said. He smiled.

  “Nope.”

  But as he drifted off to sleep I wondered how this clan was going to react to our arrival here. I dug my hand into my pocket and felt the smooth outline of the gold medallion. Before I first traveled into the Fold, I never would have thought a piece of gold could be worth so much. I would have to hold onto it tight.

  But just how tight, at that moment, I never would have guessed.

  Chapter 8

  Hours later, the front door to the tiny hut banged open, and my eyes flew wide. A freshly killed deer dangled from the shoulder of a man at least eight feet tall. Its blank, black eyes cast an empty stare around the room as he turned to close the door behind him. He dropped the carcass to the floor like nothing more important than a bundle of soiled rags, and in two strides was at the foot of the couch where Erod lay, snoring loudly.

  The man lifted his foot and shoved Erod roughly. His only response was a snorting sound as his slumber was temporarily disturbed. He shoved him again, harder this time, and Erod’s eyes squinted in the dying light of the day. He raised his hands to his face, rubbing it blearily as the man came into focus before him, and then he smiled.

  “Pa,” he said.

  “Hmph,” the man said. “Get your arse up off that sofa and go clean the deer. You got a lot of work to make up after what you pulled.”

  I backed myself up against the wall, trying to stay invisible, not knowing what to do. If these two came to blows inside this tiny hut, I was sure to be squashed flat.

  Erod stared at him blankly for a moment, and the slightest hint of disappointment crossed his face for just an instant. Then he laughed.

  “Yeah, alright,” he said. He motioned for me to follow him, and as I did so the man settled himself heavily into one of the wooden chairs around the small kitchen table. I may have been fast, but the more time I spent around Erod, the smaller I felt. With the introduction of his father, a man I felt sure could have broken me into two with no more effort than snapping a piece of kindling, I was filled with the intense desire to disappear entirely.