Essence of Chaos

by Marie Andreas

  “What we didn’t know was that our last battle had been felt afar. I always believed that there was something beyond our understanding in that battle. People from all three kingdoms, Strann, Khelaran, and Derawne, came in search of us. They came for a new way of life, but couldn’t seem to say how they knew to come. Over the years enough people had gathered that we began to have problems with thieves and criminals. We decided to stay and pull together a true kingdom. Besides, we’d buried Toshia in the valley and, even after ten years, Llitaan was in no condition to travel.” He slipped back into silence.

  “After ten years? What happened to her?”

  He came out of his trance with a start. “Llitaan had been...captured is the best term. By the thing we’d fought in the desert. Only briefly. And we’d hoped we’d gotten her out quick enough. But when we rescued her, all she could do was wail and eat sand.”

  Jenna didn’t say anything in the intervening silence.

  Ghortin shrugged and went on. “Kralin had taken over as leader when Toshia died and he felt at peace staying in the valley and guiding the settlers. Carabella wandered off within the first three years.”

  He shook his head. “She never could accept that she hadn’t been able to completely save Llitaan. Cuari don’t take defeat well, they aren’t used to it. But I’ll be the first to admit, none of us would have made it out if it weren’t for that old vixen. She was the only one of us able to hold her own against that thing we fought. But once we decided to stay, we realized we needed a leader. We left it up to the people to choose their royal line.” He snorted with a grin. “Wasn’t a contest. Kralin became king.”

  Jenna looked up, noticing they were heading into a broader path and, beyond that, a clearing.

  Ghortin urged his horse to speed up. “Thank the stars we’ve hit the way station. Now we can stop early for the afternoon. Well, lass, that wasn’t so bad now, was it?” He turned to her with a grin, and Jenna noticed for the first time how late in the day it was.

  She had been so caught up in Ghortin’s tales that she hadn’t realized how much time had passed. Unfortunately, as soon as that thought hit her, she realized how sore she was.

  10

  The way station was an attractive little building of wood and stone. It gave the appearance of leaning away from the road with the gangly additions in the back lording over the single story front. The front had a peaked roof with a stone chimney and smoke gently drifted up into the late afternoon sky.

  Jenna was struck by how much it reminded her of an old bed and breakfast back home. The pang of loss she felt was like an old bruise.

  Ghortin leaned over. “What is it, lass? Don’t you care for our choice in lodgings?”

  Jenna shook her head, banishing the lonely thoughts away. “No, I had a thought of home. My former home that is. I’ll be fine.”

  Ghortin reached out a huge hand, engulfing her own for a moment. Then he nodded. “You’ll feel better once we get some of Mugloon’s stew in you.”

  He nudged his horse toward the station. The big bay went forward two steps, and then froze. Jenna’s mare halted a foot behind him.

  “Ghortin.” Jenna tapped the horse’s side a few times, but the animal wouldn’t budge. “What’s wrong with—?”

  Ghortin waved her to silence, but kept his eyes on the thick clump of woods behind the way station.

  “I should have been paying attention...damn me.” He forced his horse to hold its place; it was clearly trying to bolt. Both animals now had their ears back and were shaking.

  “What’s wrong?” Jenna dropped her voice and stopped tapping the horse. If the horse bolted, she had no illusions about where she’d end up. “Do you hear anything?”

  The mage turned slightly toward her. “No, do you?”

  As he said the words, the incident with the ertin rose in her mind. And Storm saying those same words.

  “Ertin?” She kept her voice calm, ignoring the terror that filled her stomach.

  The mage shook his head. He had his eyes back on the silent scene before them. “I don’t think so. The scent is different. But something is definitely wrong.”

  Just when she thought her nerves were going to break, a strange hooting broke behind the building. She couldn’t tell if it was an echo, but the sound seemed to come from behind them as well—which explained Ghortin’s reluctance in going anywhere.

  Both horses strained to bolt, and arcs of Power flowed out of Ghortin’s hands as he forced the animals to hold their ground.

  A pointed head with huge ears rose out of the hedgerows in front of the station. There were stripes or some other markings on the dun-colored beast and its furred head was all wrong for an ertin.

  Ghortin tensed as the front door flew open and a man with a short sword stepped out. Before Ghortin could shout, the vicious animal leapt out of the hedgerows and grabbed the man’s throat. It was followed by two more of the previously hidden creatures. The man let loose a scream that ended in a sickly gurgle. Unseen hands slammed the door shut behind him.

  One of the animals rose from its gruesome feast and stared right at her.

  Its green, cat-like eyes glowed in the setting sun. The hooting began again, and the creature that had been staring at her went back to join its fellows.

  Jenna frantically turned to Ghortin who seemed in shock. He shook his head and briefly lowered his eyes. “Mugloon.” He whispered it in eulogy but didn’t look back to her. “The creatures are sciretts. Whatever you do, don’t move a muscle until I tell you.”

  Jenna felt his magic as he reached out and identified the locations of the rest of the brutal animals. The one who had killed the stationmaster was still in sight, but the others had dropped back into the cover. It was about the size of a large monkey, and had elongated forelegs, but moved like a cat. The closest comparison she could come up with was a cross between a baboon and a panther. Although the shape of its ears and the dark russet stripes made her think of a hyena.

  Ghortin drew in a huge surge of Power and flung it at the building. A faint glow settled over the station.

  “Away!” Ghortin yelled as he released the hold over the horses. “I’ve protected the station, so they’ll be after us now.”

  Ghortin’s horse burst across the clearing with Jenna’s mare right behind him. She clutched the reins, crouched down low on her horse’s back, and held on as if her life depended on it. Judging by the speed of the sciretts, it did.

  As they reached the far edge of the clearing, two sciretts leapt up and blocked their path. Ghortin muttered a spell that stunned the two monsters as the horses jumped over them. Unfortunately, the leap gave her a much closer look at the animals’ inch-long canine teeth than she wanted.

  Jenna felt Ghortin augment his horse’s strength by feeding it some of his own Power. Jenna followed suit and drew in Power from the chaos that was threatening to take over her mind.

  The sciretts stayed close behind. She shuddered and drew in still more energy to give to her horse.

  The hooting grew louder. The much shorter legged sciretts weren’t having the trouble with branches and narrowing trails that the horses and riders were. Branches whipped her arms and face.

  The hooting changed to howls after a few minutes, and Jenna took a risky look over her shoulder. One by one the animals dropped to the ground with exhaustion. From the ragged way many of them were going down, she doubted they would be getting up again. Some compulsion had forced them to run themselves to death.

  Ghortin picked up on the animals’ collapse and began slowing his horse’s wild crash through the forest. After a few minutes they were at a complete halt. Both horses shook so hard that she was certain they were going to end up like the unlamented sciretts.

  Ghortin crawled off his horse and immediately began feeling the animal’s legs for injuries. Jenna did the same, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she was searching for. It soon became apparent that aside from a myriad of scratches, all of them seemed to have come out of the
chase intact.

  “Keep moving. We’ve got a long way to go and I don’t want anybody to freeze up. Our friends back there are sprinters; I’m amazed that they held on as long as they did.” He gave the forest behind them a worried glance. “But they rarely hunt in packs either. And I know of no animal that will hunt prey past its own survival. Most of those that followed us are dead or dying.”

  Jenna couldn’t help shuddering. She’d taken Ghortin’s earlier warning to heart, but she hadn’t thought she would have to fight for her life so soon. Judging by his surprise at the sciretts, Ghortin hadn’t thought so either.

  “But won’t any that do survive go back to the way station?” She glanced back at the way they had come. “Shouldn’t we help them?” She didn’t want to ever see the sciretts again, but she couldn’t think of abandoning those trapped people.

  “I doubt they’ll make it back, or even try to. I have a bad feeling they were waiting for us.” Ghortin patted his horse as they walked. Both horses were exhausted, but they didn’t seem to mind putting as much distance between themselves and those creatures as possible.

  “And there will be help coming for them, never you fear. That spell I threw acts as a beacon as well as a shield. If you weren’t so close to the casting of it you’d feel its call.” He shook his head. “An important spell which I neglected to teach you, I now realize. I fear I shall have to remedy that before we get to Lithunane. The time is upon us for such spells.”

  Jenna couldn’t help but look over her shoulder every few seconds. “What was it?”

  There were other questions on her mind, like what were the sciretts, why weren’t they behaving normally, and why were they after them? But she couldn’t bring herself to ask those. She knew she wouldn’t be able to handle the answers. Not now, so close after the attack.

  Ghortin turned back to her with a nod. “More than likely, the best defensive spell ever created. If I do say so myself.” He gave a half bow. “It actually adjusts to the attacking force. You didn’t see it, but one of the creatures attacked the station as we took flight. The spell was triggered by that aggressive force and attuned itself to the sciretts’ biochemistry. It then began emitting a repulse signal tuned to them. Plus, and this is the crowning glory, the spell sends out physical and magical warnings. Any travelers will stay clear of that area, unless they feel up to taking on the remains of an unnatural tribe of sciretts. Soon enough mages will be by to clear up any remaining problems.”

  “Are they part of whatever is going on?” In a softer voice she added, “Of my arrival?”

  “They might be; most likely everything is related. But,” he turned and looked at her intently, “your arrival is a symptom of the disease, not the cause. We’ll nip that thought right now; you didn’t cause the recent problems, they were here before you arrived. And I can’t work with someone who’s feeling guilty about being alive. Besides,” he turned back to the darkening trail with a slight frown, “it’ll clog up your Power. Emotions have a nasty habit of doing that.”

  Jenna opened her mouth to debate whether she was a cause or a symptom, but Ghortin whirled around with a dark look. So she raised her hands in submission instead.

  “Okay. I believe you. I absolve myself for any of the strange things that have been happening in this bizarre world. Happy?”

  Ghortin stopped and folded his arms. “Do you believe your words?”

  She met his eyes, and then glanced away. “Almost.”

  He sighed and continued on. “That’s a start. And no more than I could ask for given our present circumstances.”

  He slowed down his pace, peering into the woods on either side of the trail. “We should find a place to set up camp; even I won’t be able to see much longer.”

  Jenna grimaced. She didn’t look forward to spending a night outdoors in the woods. Particularly with those creatures in them somewhere.

  “How much further to the end of the forest? Wouldn’t it be better if we waited until we were out of it?”

  “No. I doubt any of those things could have made it this far. Besides, past the forest is the Fyolden Plains, which will take a goodly portion of tomorrow to cross, and there is no coverage. And it’s not something we can cross before nightfall.” He started to lead them down a promising side trail. “Now, here’s a test for you; why would anyone, particularly a mage, prefer to camp in the woods?”

  Jenna thought about it for a minute, ignoring her mind’s demand to get the hell out of the damn trees and never mind the reasons.

  “In here,” she waved her arms at the thick trees. “You can’t see anything.” It wasn’t meant to be an answer, more of a complaint.

  Ghortin smiled; obviously he failed to pick up on the note of discontent in her voice. “Exactly. What you can’t see, they can’t see. Magecraft is a powerful tool, the strongest you’ll ever have. But it has to be helped; you have to use circumstances to let it do the best it can. A portion of your Power comes from…” He turned and looked at her pointedly.

  “From the earth itself; trees, and other natural energies. And a forest is a good place to draw from.” She sighed in resignation. “It makes sense, but I still don’t feel comfortable in here.”

  “Of course you don’t,” Ghortin said. A minute later they came out in a small hollow, surrounded by brush as well as the tall trees. “We haven’t set up camp yet.” He waved his hands to the clearing. Jenna felt a low-level probe coming from him as he magically scanned the area. Satisfied that it was clear, Ghortin nodded to her. “You’ll feel much better once we’ve gotten some food into you.”

  He glanced around the area and cleared out a smooth corner, then turned to her with a sheepish grin. “I’m afraid that first I’m going to have to break one of my rules about not using spells for luxury. I was so preoccupied with things that I failed to bring adequate emergency supplies. So, unless you feel it would be better for us to sleep in the trees and eat berries…” He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

  She was still less than happy with the camping situation, but suffering wasn’t going to make it better. “By all means, break away. I’m too tired to care at this point.”

  Ghortin started to gather Power, and then stopped. “But don’t tell Storm about this, all right? I’d never hear the end of it.”

  He went back to his work, and within minutes the formerly bare space was graced with two simple, but well-padded bedrolls, a satchel of food, and a pile of grain for the horses.

  Ghortin turned to her with a smile and a nod, as if he’d done nothing spectacular. Just from the brief studies into magecraft she’d had, Jenna knew creating things out of thin air was not as easy as her teacher made it seem.

  He smiled bigger. “Now, this moment is screaming for a lesson, I think. How would you go about anchoring these trees into a protection spell for our little camp?”

  It took her three frustrating attempts, but after half an hour Ghortin was satisfied that she’d created a blind that no outside source would be able to see.

  He studied the results and nodded. A moment later he gave a little sigh.

  She looked up from where she was laying out her roll. “Is something wrong? Are they back?”

  “Not likely. Now I already told you that, lass.” He went over and began laying out his roll. “They won’t be finding us. Not on this trip anyway. I was sighing at the way in which you are blossoming; I shall soon be in your shadow.” He performed an elaborate bow in her direction. “But don’t you let that make you cocky. You’ll be my apprentice a bit longer. Now, off to the horses with you.”

  She nodded and forced her weary body up with a pang of guilt. She’d been so ready to drop that she had almost forgotten their companions. Ghortin had already taken their saddles off, combed them, and mostly settled them in for the night while she was setting her spell. All that was left was to check their water and grain.

  Being too exhausted to look for wood, or cook anything, they didn’t bother to set a fire.

  Jenna lay
back as soon as she finished her waybread, and was asleep immediately after.

  Early the next morning, she rolled over stiffly. She was barely awake, but was already fully aware of every rock, bump, and branch she’d failed to clear out of her sleeping quarters last night.

  “Oh, shoot me now.”

  “Eh, shoot you with what? You certainly have troubles waking, don’t you? All this talk of shooting and killing is not a healthy way to start your day.”

  She twisted her head to see Ghortin; she kept her swearing to herself when she bumped a particularly nasty bruise. He had for once been merciful; he looked like he’d been up for some time and hadn’t done so much as peep to wake her up.

  She stirred a bit more and could see that not only was he fully groomed and dressed for the day’s ride, the horses were ready. At first she was grateful, and then she felt resentment that all that activity took place and her supposedly great magical Power hadn’t so much as stirred her. Grumbling to herself, she looked over to see both horses were well past the range of her spell.

  “Ghortin. The spell, it’s—”

  “Gone.” He smiled down at her. “I had to take it down to give the horses some room this morning.”

  She forced herself free of the bedroll. “But shouldn’t I have felt something when you took it down?” She tried straightening out the creases in her clothes, but soon gave up. “Isn’t that the point? I mean, what if you were one of the bad guys?” She had begun to feel like she might have a bit of control over her own safety, but if her spells wouldn’t hold she sure wouldn’t last long.