Aster Wood and the Lost Maps of Almara (Book 1)

by Cantwell, J. B.

  “Empty field just down the hill,” he said. “Nothin’ to destroy out there but dry grass and wildflowers. We’ll jump to Larissa’s first and then take Almara’s link from there.”

  “Larissa, is that your sister?”

  “Hmph.”

  I retrieved my boots from just outside the front door. As I pulled them on I took a long look at the cozy farm and wondered if I would ever see it again. I realized with a certain amount of sadness that the silence of the farm had meant the slaughtering of the birds.

  “You ready?”

  Kiron helped me with the bulky backpack, which was awkward at first, but quite light. He nestled the knife I had used in practice into the side pocket, even though I was useless with it. As soon as the pack was on my back, I commanded it, “Obscure!” and it collapsed and disappeared, though I could still feel the straps resting on my shoulders.

  “Got the link?” he asked.

  I pulled it out of my pocket and showed it to him.

  He hoisted the ax from the table by the door and handed it to me. He had fashioned a sort of sling for it, and he helped me secure it around my waist. The ax hung heavy and secure at my side.

  “I think the sword would call too much attention,” he said. “But this will do. If anyone asks you about it, just tell ‘em you’re a woodcutter’s son. You’re better with it than the other weapons anyways.”

  It was true. Days and days of practice with the heavy weapon left me feeling confident when it was in my hands. Its weight comforted me.

  We walked away from the little house, and then Kiron stopped and turned. He regarded it for a long moment. It was only then that I realized the sadness on his face.

  “Aren’t you coming back?” I asked.

  “Doubt it,” he said gruffly, turning away from his home. He walked resolutely away, and he didn’t look back again. I felt like I should say something, but I couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t sound trite. The truth was that I was very, very thankful he was coming with me. I followed in his wake.

  The morning air was cold, and a stiff wind blew across us. Crane bounded down the path up ahead.

  As we walked, Kiron started rattling off instructions. “The plan was that Almara was to leave links in each place he and the eight traveled through. If we can find ‘em in each place, I expect, they’ll lead us to him, eventually.”

  The gravelly rocks crunched under our feet as we made our way to the top edge of a hill. Below, a big basin of empty field rolled out in front of us. Kiron started down the slope without a backward glance. His footsteps were sure and strong, well versed along this precarious path. I stumbled down behind him, trying to keep from kicking the rocks I loosened with my clumsy steps. After a few minutes, he began to speak.

  “When I was a boy, I wanted more than anything to see a Pegasus, a winged horse. I was just fifteen when I set out, not a whole lot older than you. My Ma and Pa weren’t too happy about it, so I snuck out on a moonless night and made my way towards the edge of this land, to a place I knew I’d be able to jump to the other side of the ocean.”

  We were at the base of the hill now. He reached out his hand to me to help me down from the last big rock, and continued.

  “It took a few days before I started to regret my decision to leave home, but by that point I was already two jumps away from here and well on my way. I figured I could give up and go back home, or I could suck it up and continue on. I ain’t no quitter, but the draw of home comforts swam through my mind plenty as I went along. Even though I figured Pa’s belt would be meeting with my backside on my return.” He smiled to himself. I wondered why such a horrible thought would make him do anything of the sort.

  “Two weeks in, I was getting closer to the valleys where the Pegasus fly. I was cold, hungry, and covered in the dirt of travelin’ from head to foot. But as I stepped down into the first of the valleys, I sped up despite bein’ so tired. I knew they were close. And they were. Two days later I stepped round a corner of rock and there they stood!” He beamed. “Four of ‘em grazin’ in the green grass between two steep cliffs of rock. As they saw me round the turn, they raised their heads, and their great wings rose, too.”

  “What were they like?” I asked.

  He paused as he remembered, and then he stopped walking and faced me.

  “They were like nothin’, nothin’ I’d ever seen, nor seen since. Best thing I ever done.” His eyes stared out across the grass over my head as he saw the memories in his mind. Then he looked at me severely. “Don’t you give up cause you’re cold or hungry or miss your mama. Seems to me you’re here for a reason. Could be that you’ll find somethin’ you’re lookin’ for, too. Sometimes, you just gotta take what you’re handed.”

  “But I’m not looking for anything,” I said.

  “Ain’t ya? Everybody’s lookin’ for something. Think on it, boy.”

  As I followed along, I tried to think of something to look for, some reason for continuing on this quest other than a desire to get back home. Adventure? I had wanted adventure, but I hadn’t needed to look for it. It had simply landed in my lap. A Pegasus? A Dragon? Sure, seeing fantastical beasts would be wonderful and terrifying, but since I had only known of their existence for a couple weeks, I didn’t really have a lifelong desire to fuel an entire journey to find them.

  A thought popped into my head then, and it pulled me up short. My eyes glazed over as I stared into space, trying to pinpoint what I was feeling. There was a difference between my world and this one. Aside from the obvious, vibrant nature springing up all around, monsters and magical creatures, disappearing backpacks, there was a difference in the way I felt. I remembered the pounding of my heart as I had run from the faylons. The steady, strong pounding of my heart. In all the days since that one, hadn’t I worked my body to the limits of its endurance? I had not only remained healthy, but I’d enjoyed every minute of it. I still hadn’t told Kiron about just how fast I had run that night. Maybe I hadn’t even really believed it myself until this moment.

  I made the decision quickly, and before Kiron had a chance to even open his mouth to call out to me, I was blowing past him, well on my way to being out of earshot. I ran as fast as I could across the field in the direction we were already traveling. Crane’s alarmed barking soon fell behind me. My feet, unlike their descent down the slope of the hill, found their footing easily here. Each step crunched the dry grass and pushed me faster to take the next and the next. I breathed deeply and pushed harder. The grass began to blur past my vision as I rocketed forward. The blood poured through my veins, pumped by what I recognized now as a continually strengthening heart. Then I gradually slowed as I reached the center of the field, gasping for breath.

  This was my reason to continue along my current path, to continue with this quest. As Kiron trudged towards me from a thousand yards away, I rose my face to the sky, sucking in air. I would follow Almara’s breadcrumbs and fly through these worlds. I might not get another chance, not ever in my life, to be so free and strong as I was here. My newfound health didn’t give me something to look for, but it gave me something to stay for.

  I would enjoy it while I could. And when the time came to return home, I would go.

  As Kiron came within shouting distance, I could hear him mumbling between hoarse breaths. “Stupid,” huff, “boy,” huff, “kids,” huff, “don’t,” huff, “listen,” he growled. Crane reached me first, still barking in protest, and jumped up on me, putting one paw on each of my shoulders. I prepared for a cranky lecture as Kiron neared, but when he got close he simply stopped and put his hands on his hips, breathing hard. He stared at me for several moments.

  “You’ve got some things up your sleeve, boy,” he said finally after catching his breath. I smiled. “Alright,” he said, “this is as good a place as any.”

  He released the first two buttons of his shirt and opened it. Beneath the rough fabric a long chain necklace rested against his chest. It reminded me of the charm bracelets some of
the girls wore at school, only instead of the little beads and trinkets that hung from theirs, this had a variety of stones fastened around its edges.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “Our transportation.”

  “Is it a link?”

  “They are links. Each one will take you a different distance in the direction you point it. Most ain’t interplanetary, like Almara’s, but handy. I told ya I ain’t never seen gold, and I ain’t. But deep within this one,” he fingered a slim, black rock fastened to the chain, “a tiny piece of gold lives. Pa made this one for me before he died, so I could always get back here to the farm. Back home. But when he forged it, the gold disappeared inside.” He held the rock up to the sun, trying to see through the opaque stone to the secret power it held within it. But it revealed nothing.

  “No matter,” he said. “Now, listen.” He paused and looked me in the eye. “About Larissa. She’s a slippery one. Don’t believe what she tells ya. You follow my lead and keep your mouth shut. She fancies herself as powerful as Almara or any of the eight, and if you press her she’ll claim to be able to send you back to Earth. But there ain’t no way. She’s a trickster, and there’s nothing more amusing to her than pretending she can do things she can’t…just long enough to get what she wants from folks. Truth is, the only way you’re getting home is to find Almara. You understand?”

  “Yeah, ok.”

  He reached behind his neck and unfastened the necklace. He chose a thin, black stone and gripped it tightly in one hand, the rest of the links dangling from the chain.

  “Now get over here and grab onto Crane.” I did as he said and reached for a tuft of hair behind Crane’s head as Kiron wrapped his free hand around my arm. “This’ll be awkward with the two of us and a stinkin’ mutt to boot,” he grumbled.

  “Crane doesn’t stink,” I protested. He ignored me and thrust his hand out in front of us, pointing the link in his intended direction. Kiron spoke softly at first and then more loudly as his arm made tiny adjustments in the cool breeze.

  “Karashasho,” he commanded in a low, humming voice.

  The dry grass around where we stood flattened to the ground, and at the same time my insides squeezed tightly. This was a different feeling than Almara’s link. I wriggled in pain as the ground disappeared and we spun into the jump. Kiron’s hand tightened around my arm, a warning to stop squirming, but I couldn’t breathe and fought his grip. A second later we all slammed into the ground in a great, yelping pile of dog and human.

  I lay on my back until I caught my breath, and then sat up and looked around. We were high in the mountains, splayed out on a large, flat precipice of rock. I gaped at the precision of our landing and wondered how Kiron had directed us to this exact location. We easily could have landed on the side of the mountain, or in the valley below. I was just opening my mouth to ask when I saw her.

  On the far side of the plateau I could make out an ancient woman angrily slamming the door to a tiny wooden house, yelling furiously in our direction as she stomped across the rock. The brisk wind seemed to follow her as she closed the gap between us, and I felt goose bumps rise on the flesh of my arms.

  “I thought I told you never to show your stinking face here again!” she shouted over what was quickly becoming a gale. As she approached us she bent to pick up rocks from the mountaintop. A moment later they were raining down on us as she heaved them at Kiron.

  One of them, about the size of a golf ball, met with the side of his head and he shouted, “Quit it, you old witch!” He was on his feet now and approaching her. Crane disentangled himself with my legs and quickly ran to his master’s defense, barking and snarling at the shriveled woman.

  Kiron closed the space between the two swiftly, before another rock could make contact with his skull, and held her arms down at her sides. She struggled and shouted, “Let go of me, you dirty louse!” With her arms held she used the only weapon she had left and kicked him hard in the shin.

  “Argh! You stupid bat! Just listen, Larissa! I brought the book!”

  She stopped struggling and looked up at him.

  “Is this a trick?” she spat.

  “No,” he said, “no trick. I need your help, and I brought you the book. You can keep it this time.” She seemed to relax slightly at his words and he released her arms. She took the opportunity and landed a kick to his other shin before she turned to walk away.

  “Argh!”

  “If you came here for help then you came to the wrong place,” she shouted over her shoulder.

  “Larissa, wait!” Kiron hobbled after her, Crane circling the two on their way to the shack. Kiron managed to catch the door before she was able to slam it in his face, and followed her into the small dwelling.

  I sat, left alone, on the mountaintop.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I waited for the shouting to stop before I approached the front door of the little house. The wind had died down, but my goose bumps remained from the cold mountain air.

  The vista was spectacular. As far as I could see in every direction mountain peaks kissed the sky. I could understand why Larissa would want to live here, but as I looked around at the barren precipice, I wondered what she ate. Unlike Kiron’s farm, no animals or garden surrounded her home to support her.

  I knocked softly on the door and heard the smart clicking of boots on a wood floor. She wrenched the door open and glared down at me.

  “So you’re him, are ya?” she demanded.

  “Um, what?”

  “Yeah,” she said sarcastically, “he sure does seem like destiny’s choice for such a quest. You’ve only been waitin’ a hundred years and this is the one you choose?” She shot Kiron a superior look and walked away from the open doorway. I stood there for a moment, unsure of whether or not that meant I was invited to come in, but the cold outside made me shiver involuntarily, and I stepped into the tiny space and shut the door behind me.

  The house was almost a perfect square, and just large enough to fit a small wood table and two chairs. I didn’t see a bed, but a crackling fire flickered in the grate. Crane whined and circled the small room, unnerved by the conflict between the two. I stood still by the door and soaked up the warmth from the fire.

  “I told you,” Kiron said, “I didn’t choose him. I couldn’t possibly choose the one meant to follow the links. He’s Brendan’s descendant.” Kiron sat in one of the chairs, his back to the fire, his hands on the table. Larissa bustled around the room, now packed to bursting where it had been all hers just minutes before.

  “Well, I ain’t taking that stinking dog,” she snarled.

  “You gotta take the dog, Lissa. What am I supposed to do with him? I can’t bring him with us. Not with what might be out there.”

  Her eyes softened slightly at these words, but then quickly hardened again.

  “Not my problem,” she grunted. She flopped down into the other chair and stared at me.

  “Well, sit,” she commanded. Before I could open my mouth to remind her that there were only two chairs, a third caught my eye in the corner of the room. I shook my head. Had I just missed it when I walked in?

  She glared across the table at Kiron. Their resemblance was remarkable. Like him, Larissa had silver, kinked hair, that grew almost to her knees. Though she lacked the full beard of her brother, a few stubborn whiskers poked out from her chin. Her knobby fingers drummed against the tabletop as she glowered at him.

  “You can have the book, Lissa,” he pleaded. “No tricks this time.” Kiron dug through the pack he had placed at his feet and unearthed the large book I had seen him studying back at the cottage. Despite her anger, her eyes poured over the cover hungrily. He pushed it across the table to her. She opened the cover and leafed through the thin pages, then slammed it shut.

  “Why should I?” she said.

  Kiron sighed. “Because you’re my sister and I need your help. Besides, you’ve always wanted this and now I’m giving it to you. Isn’t that payment enough for a
few months of making sure he doesn’t starve?” Crane had seated himself the floor, and his head turned back and forth between the two as they talked. Larissa looked down at the dog, and he licked his lips submissively.

  After several long moments of looking back and forth between the book, and then the dog, and then the book again, she finally closed her eyes and nodded.

  Kiron sat back in his chair and smiled. “Good girl.”

  “It’s mine, anyways,” she said.

  He couldn’t resist the bait.

  “That’s a lie and you know it,” he said.

  “Pa left it to me,” she said.

  “He left it to me,” he said. “Why would he leave the book to you? First, you don’t need it, and second I was the one he set to wait for Brendan, not you.”

  “Oh, I’ve needed that book plenty,” she argued. “A poor old lady living up here all on her own with barely a magic spell to keep her safe.”

  Kiron snorted.

  “Sister, you got so much magic in you that you talkin’ of wanting more is just mad. Seems like you might consider helping those of us who’ve needed it to get along instead of trying to steal it.”

  “I never stole that book from you!” Her eyes flashed angrily.

  “That’s just cause you tried and failed so many times,” he said.

  She scowled, and then turned to me.

  “You. You know what you’re gettin’ into?” she asked.

  “Well, I guess so,” I said. But I was starting to wonder if I did.

  “HA!” she boomed in characteristic Kiron fashion. “Very convincing. Well, I better feed you up then.” She rose from the table and swiped the book, quickly hiding it in a cupboard in the corner of the room.

  “We ate not so long ago,” Kiron said.

  “Tea then?” she asked.

  “Yes, please, dear sister.”

  She grimaced, then glanced my way.

  “What’s your name, son?”

  “Aster Wood,” I said.

  “Well, Aster Wood,” she gathered three mugs from a shelf and they clinked together in her hands, “seems you’re about to set out on quite an adventure with my brother, here. You think you’re up for it, do ya?”