“Yours is not the only life at stake, nor the one most at risk,” replied Leilas. “Perhaps you should let those with more to lose make that decision.”
“It would be the same,” replied Joshuas as he plunged after the others. “Like it or not, you’re stuck with us.” Joshuas tightened his hold on his passenger as they followed the queen and her son into the depths of the forest.
They plunged into a small clearing, encircled by trees with a large rock outcropping on the far side that rose up from the forest. Before they were halfway through the clearing, a large boulder in the side of the outcropping seem to break in two with a loud crack and dark, ugly creatures began to pour out of the opening. Werecats, goblins, and even a few orcs moved like a blur and soon had them surrounded. The queen’s horse reared in fear and she barely held her seat as she was abruptly forced to a stop, a group of dark soldiers not more than three lengths in front of her. The chattering noise coming from the mob in front of them was as unnerving as it was loud. Joshuas quickly considered his options and began a chant, but Leilas put an end to it with a quiet command to stop. Joshuas was surprised at the intensity of the command and his immediate obedience, as if he had no other choice. Brenth, who’d begun to pull his sword, let it fall back into his sheath. Queen Daina seemed less surprised at her daughter for taking command, and began to talk comfortingly to her horse, which was skittering all around in reaction to the presence of these dark creatures.
As if in response to Leilas’ words, a short catlike man stepped lithely from the mob of dark creatures and moved to Joshuas’ mount. Though he was clearly one of Brenth’s cat people, he wore the maroon robes and the insignia of the School of Fire. He spoke only to Leilas, as if he didn’t even see Joshuas holding her bound in his arms, and in a language that Joshuas hadn’t heard for nearly a century and had never mastered. It just sounded like chittering to him, like rats in the drainage canals. Joshuas would have made a move to fight again if Leilas hadn’t imperceptibly shaken her head.
“You must speak my language, so my companions can understand what you’re saying to me.” Leilas spoke to the creature standing in front of them. Of the four in their group, she seemed the most collected.
Which was about right for this trip, thought Joshuas. The crazy one was the one who was giving orders and taking charge. Still, her order had been compelling and she seemed lucid and clearly able to handle this situation, for now.
The creature hissed at her request and his eyes narrowed with displeasure, but his next words were somewhat recognizable by Joshuas. Not that he liked what he heard any better. “The master would like to speak with you. You’ll come with me.”
“Is that an invitation or an order?” asked Leilas. “What happens if I refuse?”
“The madness will probably overtake you.” The cat man shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him. But Joshuas suspicioned it was important to bring Leilas to his master while she was still somewhat sane. “I’ll come take you when you aren’t able to resist.”
“And who is this master who wishes me to come?” Leilas squirmed trying to sit more upright. Joshuas wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to a more comfortable position. Then, while Leilas was talking, he began to unobtrusively untie the thongs that bound her. He could feel the tension in her every muscle as she struggled to stay in control as she faced this enemy. This magik had spoken the truth. If Leilas didn’t get to a healer soon, the madness would probably overtake her.
“He’ll tell you what he wants you to know, when he talks to you,” said the dark crafter imperiously.
“He expects me to come, just because you tell me some master, name unknown, wants to talk to me. There’s very little incentive here to entice me to go with you.”
The cat man paused to consider her words, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he struggled with the foreign language. He shrugged his shoulders again as he began to speak. “If you come willingly, he’ll let your companions live and he’ll help you with the madness. There’s no one else. Diedra isn’t in Menas and hasn’t been seen for many years.”
“There are other healers who can help,” said Joshuas, knowing even as he said it that they probably couldn’t do much for Leilas. Diedra was their best hope; even this dark magik knew that.
“Your friend will try to persuade you, with this false hope, not to come.” This was the dark magik’s only concession that Joshuas had even spoken. “Centuries of dark madness are a sad fate for a crafter.”
“One you would gladly inflict on me in other circumstances,” chided Leilas.
The magik smiled darkly, purring softly in his throat at the thought. “Your people have killed many of my family with as little conscience.”
Leilas felt the thongs on her hands give way but did not move them. Joshuas smiled to himself. Perhaps she wasn’t as poorly trained as he’d thought. She might make a warrior yet.
“When we kill, it’s cleanly, a quick death. It isn’t without conscience. Sometimes it’s just a necessity of life and war. I find none of your warriors in this darkness I wander.”
“Exactly what I’d expect a crafter of the Light to say. Do you come willingly or not?”
“I want to see my companions safely to Menas before I go with you. Otherwise we might as well begin the battle now.”
“I’m not going to let you walk off with this cat by yourself,” whispered Joshuas fiercely in her ear.
“You do have a problem with letting others choose their own course,” Leilas whispered back. “This is my decision. You can’t make it for me. And if you choose to defy my decision and fight these creatures, you’ll almost certainly seal the deaths of my mother and brother. I’ll stop you before I let you condemn them.”
“My people will ensure your companions reach Menas safely,” the dark crafter dismissed her request with a wave of his hand. “We have no time to waste riding to Menas and back. The master is waiting.”
“Then I guess we begin battle, now,” replied Leilas, dropping her hand to the hilt of her sword at her side. “I’ll not go with you until I’m sure they’re safe.” Leilas looked around at the evil faces staring at them. “They don’t look as though they have our best intentions at heart and a day or two more won’t make any difference. The madness has already taken hold. It will come and go. I may not be coherent when we reach your master, no matter how soon we arrive.”
“Then why don’t I simply wait until you succumb to it, kill your companions and save myself some time.”
“Because I’ll fight the madness as I do now, and I’ll fight you until I die. I wonder what will happen to you when you bring me dead to your master’s door.”
The magik turned and began chittering commands to his fellow warriors. All but a dozen returned to the rock and disappeared within its depths. The remaining soldiers lined up on either side of Queen Daina’s horse and waited.
When the dark creatures were ready the magik turned back to Leilas and hissed. “We’ll ensure your companions safe passage. I’m not anxious to discover what my fate would be at the hands of the master. Like the elders, the master is old and very powerful. We can make the edge of the forest by nightfall if we hurry. My men wait for you.”
Joshuas let the dark magik move away before he began his angry tirade in Leilas’ ear. “You should have informed our furry friend there that you weren’t getting rid of me that easily.”
“What you do once we reach Menas is your business, Master Joshuas. I gave this crafter my assurance that I’d go with him. I will go with him. Alone.” After a short pause, in which Joshuas could see her measuring what she wanted to say, she continued. “I was hoping you’d watch over my mother and Brenth until they’re settled.”
“This is madness. Give me one good reason why I should let you do this?”
“Because I’ve asked you to let me do this. You can’t go where I need to go right now. It’s not your destiny.”
“But it’s yours to go willingly into the stronghold of some
master of Fire?”
“Furry face’s master isn’t from the School of Fire,” commented Leilas, looking back over her shoulder and smiling at the man who was scowling at her. “And if I’m not mistaken, you were one of the masters convinced I was the Chidra. So, yes, perhaps this is my destiny.”
“You don’t even know what being the Chidra means. So how could you know this is your destiny?”
Leilas leaned back against his chest and closed her eyes. Joshuas could feel her body relax as it lay against him. “I just do. Keep your eye on him.” She nodded her head in the general direction of the dark magik. “He’s given us his word, but neither one of us knows how much that’s worth.” With that, Leilas slumped against him and Joshuas knew she had succumbed to the poison flowing in her veins once more.
~~~
It didn’t feel like madness. It wasn’t really madness. No more than suddenly waking up to find yourself thrust into the foreign regions of Zandi beyond the Black Forest might make you feel as if you had lost your mind. Looking around Leilas recognized that she’d been in this strange, savage land before. She wasn’t sure how many times before, just that she’d been here. She wondered if the fact that she remembered was an indication that the poison was beginning to wear off. In many ways this poison was like the drugs the Zandies used in their rituals. The same drugs Master Frey had used to expose her to some alternate forms of knowledge seeking when he’d deemed her ready to expand her mind. The reality the drugs exposed was definitely not the reality of Preterlandis. But she wasn’t sure that being in an alternate reality made it any less valid simply because it was on a different level of perception.
This place she found herself thrust into each time she was overtaken by the effects of the dark crafter’s poison was barren and jagged, all browns and grays, broken up only by the white of desert sand. The sky was an orangish brown, colored with dust that was blown by a constant dry, hot wind. If the heat, wind and thirst didn’t make you hate the place, the many dangers and pitfalls would soon seal your bad opinion. One wrong move found you falling over a cliff to your death or dying of thirst in the desert, only to come to life again in the same nightmare, still reeling from the emotional reaction to each life-changing disaster.
Leilas shivered as memories and feelings flashed in her mind of the worst of these experiences. Every victory had a price. Now that she could remember this place, she’d be cursed with these memories as well. There were years and years of experiences, more years than she could count.
But the physical dangers weren’t the worst torment this place offered. Meeting the souls who’d lost their minds in this forsaken place was the worst. They looked through you as if you didn’t exist. For them, there was only the darkness. For some, it had driven them to become as evil as the poison that had brought them here. It was hard to remember that all the people who were trapped in this place had been Light crafters. There were others here, who like her were still lucid and able to make their lives here, though unlike her, once they arrived, they never left, not unless someone outside of Neothera healed them. They were doomed to this existence until they died.
She wondered if all the people trapped here were beyond hope. If the people spent their lives going from one disaster to another, never finding the answer, perhaps not knowing there was an answer, never finding their way home. So, finding themselves with no other alternative, they simply moved from one moment to the next in despair.
Hope. Leilas latched onto the word. She must remember not to give up hope. She didn’t want to end up being one of the wandering souls forever locked in this prison. She knew she would continue to be drawn back to this world, despite being wrenched back into Preterlandis on occasion, until she found what it was she was drawn here to find. The drug opened the door to this world, but it wasn’t what held people captive here.
“Not a prison,” said the man who mysteriously appeared by her side. “More like a puzzle to be solved. It could be interesting to someone with the right attitude.”
Leilas stared at the man in amazement. He was an older man, lines beginning to show around his blue eyes. His blonde hair hung to his shoulders and touched his blue robe, the robe of a Sky scholar. But Leilas knew she’d never met this man before.
“I’m not used to anyone here using their powers to read minds. Nor am I used to anyone here seeing this place as anything but a torment.”
“For most of the people here it is nothing but torment. But it’s not the same for you. You aren’t lost, simply on a journey. A journey you’ve survived before. You’ll survive this time. Remember that when you feel as though you want to give up.”
Leilas felt him push a feeling of comfort toward her and gladly let it encompass her. “You’ll be here to remind me. That will make it easier.”
The man shrugged and tucked his hands into the sleeves of his robe. “I’m here now. I can’t stay with you always.”
Leilas felt some of her hope ebb. “Why? If you’re lost here as well, why can’t we work together?”
“I can’t stay because I’m not lost here. I’m only here to help you.”
“Then how did you get here?”
“I came through the portal, the same as you.”
“You were poisoned with dark crafter’s poison?”
“There are other ways to get here besides using the dark crafter’s drug. I used one of them. Eventually, I’m sure you’ll discover other means to return here.”
“Why would I want to return here? I want nothing more than to leave.”
“And I have every confidence you will. You’ve made it out before, although you remember very little of it.”
“You know about the Echoes? How can you know about that?”
“There are those of us who’re very interested in what happens to the Chidra, who’ve taken on the responsibility of training you.”
“So, you’re here to teach me.”
“I would have said, lead you to greater knowledge. We must each find our own way.” Leilas smiled at the familiar phrase.
“There’s a reason for everything that happens to us. There’s a reason you’re here and that you’ve been here before. Master Frey had the right idea in trying to open your mind to new ideas and concepts, but you were too young. He was lucky you were so strong, or you wouldn’t be here today. You’d be stuck in the Echoes with all the other poor souls who weren’t strong enough to get out.”
“You know Master Frey and you know me, but I’ve never met you before, have I?”
“You have, Chidra, but you probably don’t remember. Forgive my oversight in not reintroducing myself. I am Solein, Master of the Sky Power.” He bowed slightly with the introduction.
“Princess Leilas of Dirth. I was hoping to have the distinction of Master of the Sky Guild, but it seems it wasn’t my destiny.” Leilas returned the courtesy, bowing slightly in return.
“You belong to something far greater than a guild. You weren’t destined for the mediocrity of the life of an indentured servant.”
Leilas had heard something like that before. Where had she heard it? She tried to remember but it was too elusive, something about having the power–. “To what do I belong? And what is my destiny?” asked Leilas. “Everyone says I’m the Chidra, but what does that mean? What makes people think I’m this person? I don’t feel like the Chidra. Now there’s little chance that I can become the Chidra. The Chidra is a master crafter, but I have no future as a master in the Sky Guild, the school has been destroyed.”
“You don’t need the school to become a master, my child. You’ve learned all you need to know here, if you would but remember. As far as being the Chidra, it’s always been your destiny.” He tilted his head as if listening before continuing. “There’s another who is trying to find you. He’s crafty and thinks only of himself. That’s why I came to find you, to warn you to take care in your dealings with him.”
“You aren’t leaving?” asked Leilas, grabbing his arm.
“I’m not l
eaving,” replied Solein gently. “You are. You must to keep your friends safe until they reach Menas. Then you’ve promised to go to the dark master. He’ll do his best to keep you out of this place. He doesn’t wish you to continue this journey and learn the final lessons you need to learn. But I’ll be here waiting in case he doesn’t succeed.”
“What happens if he does?”
“I’m not a prophet, Chidra. The Dark Lord will do his best to convince you to join his side in this battle.”
“What battle?” Leilas was doing her best to try and follow the conversation, but the only part she’d understood was the part about being pulled back to protect Brenth and her mother. “The battle between the School of Sky and the School of Land that Jayram began yesterday?”
“No,” Solein frowned at the barren landscape. “This battle began long ago. Jayram is but a minor player, though he has visions of greatness. There’s not time to tell you, and I’m not certain what I should explain and what you must learn on your own. Rengailai may tell you of it, but beware his explanation.”
“I’ll try to remember your admonitions, but I fear that once I’m pulled back into reality I won’t.” Leilas could feel the pull of Preterlandis stronger now, a pull that could only happen because her mother and brother had warded her against the evil so well. Her companions did need her, although she wasn’t sure what she could do to help them that Joshuas couldn’t do better.
“You must try to remember. Perhaps I can help in that regard.” Solein took a band of three twisted strands of silver and placed it on her finger. Then he touched her head and murmured a spell of power. “When you touch this, it will help you remember me.”
~~~
Leilas woke in Joshuas’ arms to find their small party surrounded by a dozen dark soldiers, seated around a small campfire. It was raining just enough to make it miserable. Runnels were being etched in the dirt making their way to where they were sitting and creating a mud puddle of their camp. Brenth and her mother were huddled deep within their cloaks. The dark soldiers were chittering around the fire. The sound of their voices bounced eerily off the trees of the forest, giving the forbidding presence of the dark forest a more sinister cast.
First Comes The One Who Wanders Page 11