Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One

by Tania Johansson

  I smiled sarcastically at her. “That sounds wonderful.” Her smile shrunk a bit and a small frown furrowed her brows.

  The food arrived not long after, including her balut. The large egg sat on her plate innocently enough. She started peeling the shell away slowly revealing what was inside. The premature, boiled chick’s eye was staring right at me with something firm and yellow next to it with what looked to me like a vein running darkly across it. My stomach made a turn and suddenly I was not feeling all that hungry. I made hurried excuses and left. I could feel her mocking smile on my back, but I did not care as long as I did not have to look at that thing anymore, much less watch her eat it.

  I walked around to the stables and nearly bumped into Tas coming the other way. “Are you ready to go?” he said with an excited smile. “The others are just finishing breakfast. I was coming to get the horses saddled and ready.”

  I gestured for him to follow. “Do you think your grandfather will be able to cope out there by himself, it did not look like he has much vision left?”

  He snorted derisively. “Are you kidding? I was more surprised about him not coming along with us, than I was about you, the Chosen Protector, standing in my living room! The man is more able bodied than most men half his age.” He barked laughter as if finding the idea of his grandfather struggling on his own most amusing.

  The stable master came scuttling out at the sound of us. I gave him instructions about the horses and he started bellowing commands at the stable boys. They scurried about and just as the rest of our party came out, we had all the horses ready to set off.

  Tas led the way as he had lived here for most of his life and knew the area well. He reckoned that it would only be about three days’ travel to reach Eranidin. We made swift progress on the first day and everyone was in high spirits. Even Trissa had seemingly put the previous night’s anguish behind her and was giggling with Alathaya.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  We woke on the third day to skies threatening rain. The whole day seemed dim and depressing. We had hoped to reach Eranidin that day, but by the time dusk settled in, there was still no sign of civilisation. At least the rain held off until the early hours of the next day. Relinquishing hope of any more sleep, we set out before dawn. That day we were all wet and cold and there was little talk between us. We were all hoping to come across a small town where we could take shelter for the night, even if it was in some farmer’s barn, but we did not find even that.

  Exhausted as I was though, I managed a fitful sleep and was only woken up by Tas to take my watch. The rain had stopped by then, but there was no hope of finding dry wood to start a fire. I gave a few futile attempts to use Navitas to drive the water from some wood, but lacking any source of heat apart from my own body, it was hopeless. I sat shivering, wishing the night away. It felt like days before the first rays of dawn broke through and dispersed the last of the remaining clouds.

  Slowly everyone rose and started to get ready to set off again. The sun seemed to lift all our spirits even though we were all still soaked to the bone. Markai appeared unexpectedly as well. As soon as she appeared, everyone went very still and quiet. Tas stepped back and had unsheathed his sword half way before I even noticed. Alathaya gasped and stood back. Confused, I looked at their faces. They were staring at Markai.

  She found it all very amusing. I decided that since these people are your followers, I might as well reveal myself to them. Let them get used to me now as opposed to when we are in a battle situation. She chuckled hoarsely and everyone took a further step back. I realised her laugh had sounded like a growl to them.

  I smiled disarmingly. “Most of you know Markai, but for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, she is my bonded partner. She is of the Fae, or more specifically of the Qupari. She will not harm you and in fact she has saved my life on several occasions.”

  Alathaya’s caution was replaced by utter amazement. “She is magnificent. Do you communicate with her?” The first half of my day was spent answering questions, mostly Alathaya’s, about Markai. She was fascinated with the bond between us.

  Not long after midday, we started seeing signs of civilisation close by. As we drew nearer though, Markai became unsettled. She could not pinpoint what was bothering her, but she said something felt wrong in the air. Brant broke his daylong silence. “Listen.”

  We drew the horses up and stopped. “I don’t hear anything.” I focused Navitas, but could still not hear anything.

  “That is exactly my point. There are no birds, I cannot hear any animals in the woods and I certainly do not hear any noise from the village. This close to it, you would expect to hear something. Maybe a smith’s hammer ringing or shouts from the market… something.” Brant explained. He was right of course; it was eerily quiet.

  We approached cautiously. It felt uncomfortably like when I approached the sacked village. We crested a hill and the village came into view. There was some smoke rising from the chimneys and a couple of people standing around at the edge of the closest line of houses. We stood looking down at it for a while, before deciding to investigate closer up. As soon as the people who we had seen standing around, saw us, they disappeared between the houses. Seran looked over at me with raised eyebrows.

  The closer we came, the more apparent the lack of normal activity was. We rode in along the main road, between slate roofed houses, many with their window shutters closed. There were a few people dotted around the streets. They looked at us with nervous eyes and as soon as we approached, they would hurry away before we could speak to any of them. One woman burst into tears and fled into her house bolting the door behind her.

  It was clear that something had happened here, but if we could not speak to anyone, it was going to be difficult to figure out what. The road led to a large open green square. Markai kept sniffing the air trying to figure out what was going on. Dark beings have been here, not long since, but something has distorted the scent somehow.

  A squat man with a thick grey beard appeared at the door of a building across the square from us. His look was steel and he gestured for us to come over to him. “I know him. It has been years since I last saw him, but I am certain that is him. He is part of the Alliance.” Tas spoke without taking his eyes from the man who now stood with his right arm hanging down by his side and the left crossed over his chest, the hand gripping the arm that was hanging down.

  I started moving towards him, but Tas grabbed my reins. “Look at his right hand.” He spoke in a low voice.

  The man’s fist was clenching and unclenching. “He looks nervous. So has every other person we have seen. What of it?”

  His lips pulled into a tight line. “He is signalling us. There is danger somewhere close and he is unable to warn us openly, which probably means that either his or his family’s lives are in danger. And looking at the behaviour of the rest of the townsfolk we have seen, I would say theirs as well.”

  Trissa was clearly as scared as the villagers. “We can just turn around and leave. Why risk walking into a trap here? Let’s just go.”

  Alathaya rolled her eyes behind her back. “It is not that simple. We turn around now, they will not let us leave. We have to find the Alliance member. We can fight.” Her voice was hard with determination. She was right. We were in too far to be able to simply go and even if we could, we could not leave without the next member. I turned and walked along the edge of the green. The rest followed. Markai was at my side, her eyes sharp, looking for attack. Seran came up behind. He kept turning around to make sure we were not being followed.

  The man across the green looked over his shoulder. He seemed to be talking, arguing really, with someone in the building behind him. When he looked back, Markai smelt fear on him. My heart was hammering in my throat as we made our way slowly around the green. Looking across to the buildings to my right I could see other people anxiously peeking out of windows.

  There was a sharp crack followed by a high squealing wail. It was a momen
t before I realised it had been Seran’s whip. I looked to my left to see men coming from the buildings on that side. No, not really men. Their skin was a strange orangey-brown, their eyes like those of a cat and their fingers each extended into a pale claw. They were all dressed in long black robes with cowls pulled over their heads. The cowl was not enough though, to hide the elongated shape of their skulls.

  The one I had been looking at saw that I had been watching it and smiled, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. He slowly lifted a pitch-black blade and pointed its tip at me. “Kadin Aken. We have been searching for you for a while. Fancy meeting you here in the middle of nowhere. When my scouts came back and reported your arrival I did not truly believe him. Yet, here you stand.” His was the voice I had heard speaking through the boy at the sacked village. It sent chills down my spine, but I kept my face blank, I refused to show this creature any fear. There were now five of them coming towards us. Seran ripped his whip free from what would have been the sixth one.

  Markai realised why she could not pinpoint what was wrong. These creatures did not actually have scent, but a very peculiar lack of scent surrounded them. Her sharp ears also picked up a very high-pitched humming noise coming from them. We backed away from them and I heeled Balder around so that I was between Alathaya and the creatures. Sunder was in my hand, yet I did not remember unsheathing it. Tas had a long curving blade out and Brant had an arrow nocked. The man who had gestured for us to come toward him was nowhere to be seen. Trissa yelped and I swung round to find us nearly surrounded by the creatures. At a quick count, there were eleven of them and more appeared by the moment.

  Suddenly they stopped. Two of them looked at each other and the high-pitched humming changed frequency several times before the second creature gave a long ear-piercing scream. All chaos broke loose. People came pouring out of their houses, followed by more Dark servants pursuing them and cutting them down one after the other. Men, women children were being slaughtered all around us. I heard a fierce roar of a scream and realised it was coming from me. Before I could think about what I was doing, I was cutting the head off the nearest creature. Seran was a blur and I had the feeling that even if I could divert all my attention to watching him fight, I still would not be able to follow of his actions.

  Dimly I was aware of people’s screams and cries all around me. Buildings were burning and thick smoke darkened the sky. I blocked it out brutally, had to block it out or risk being consumed by fear. Turning I saw one raising a pitch-black blade, preparing to attack Alathaya from behind, she did not see it. When I turned though, I felt dizzy, off-balance. I could not reach it in time, but suddenly everything in front of me slowed down. The creature was swinging its blade down in an arc, a snarl curling back its lips. Even with time seeming to have slowed for everyone apart from me, I would not be able to reach her in time. Instinctively I used Navitas to reach for the flames from the nearest burning building. I drew all the heat, all the energy I could into my blade. Once gathered I swung it as if throwing it towards the creature. Flames burst from the tip of Sunder and streamed towards it. In a heartbeat, the flames had consumed it leaving not a trace behind. My blade was glowing red-hot and cleaved through the next one’s head as if through butter. Vaguely I thanked the heavens that I had directed the heat through Sunder and not through my arm as before and that it had hit its intended target. My head swam as though I had drunk several gallons of wine.

  The creatures saw what I had done and I could see it gave them pause. A moment later though, they came at me three at a time, apparently having now learnt I was a threat. I drew on the flames repeatedly, but I started to hone my skill and could give quick short bursts of flame and so use it more effectively. In quick succession, I must have killed more than ten of them. Only four bodies lay around me though, the rest burnt to nothing. Repeatedly, the curious slowing down of all motion around me gave me a few extra vital moments to react to what was happening. Without that, I think the dizziness would have jarred my perception so much that I would likely have been dead already.

  It was all chaotic fighting one moment and deathly silence the next. I looked around and saw a few of the creatures fleeing from the green. I noticed that the motion around me seemed to speed up until it reached normal time again.

  The town around us was in ruins. Bodies lay everywhere, human and beast, but more of them human. There were only a couple of buildings in sight that were not burning, but the flames from adjacent structures were already threatening them as well. Slowly survivors came out of hiding places calling out for their loved ones. It was heart rending. Men finding their dead wives, women their husbands, mothers and fathers cradling little ones who had been killed. Wails of despair filled the air.

  I walked around in a daze, not really paying attention to where I was going, but I ended up standing where the man had been. The sound of someone crying was coming from inside the building, so I walked in. It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dimness inside. A man sat hunched over the body of the man I had seen standing outside. The moment I laid eyes on him, the heat was there, like an ember glowing and burning ever brighter. The heat was spreading and I clutched at my chest as though I could take the ember out. He was rocking back and forth and murmuring to himself, or maybe to the deceased. He did not stop or look up as I walked in.

  “Without his warning, we would all be dead. He was a brave man.” The man did not answer, but kept on with his rocking motion. As long as he did not acknowledge my presence, the burning would continue and seemingly only increase, so I turned to go, but stopped in utter confusion.

  I was not standing in the building anymore; I was deep in a forest. The whisper of a stream close by intermingled with the soft calls of birds all around. I looked around in wonder. How in the heavens did I get here? The kneeling man was still whispering to the dead. “Father, look where I have brought you. Do you remember this place? You brought me here when I was only five turnings old. You said it was so peaceful that you would not mind having this as your final resting place one day. You should not have gone Father; it was not your time. You still have so much to teach.” Racking sobs shook him. “It was not your time.”

  I felt as if I was intruding on an intimate moment, but desperate as I was to get back to Eranidin, I had no idea how. I did not even know where I was. One thing I was certain of though was that I had found who I was looking for; my chest felt as though it was on fire and I could not guess how long we had been in this place. I could get a glimmer of where the sun was above the canopy of the trees, but it did not seem to move. Eventually the man calmed down. He wiped the blood from his father’s face and sat holding his hand. After a while, he folded his hands across his chest, kissed him on the forehead and stood up.

  As abruptly as we had arrived in the forest, we were back in the dim room and he strode past me without sparing me a glance. Only when he disappeared out the door, did the heat in my chest abruptly go. I followed him out and the heat of the fire of the surrounding buildings hit me like a physical blow. Markai came up to me as soon as I walked out. Concern flowed over me. I looked in that building a moment ago, and it was empty. Where have you been? She was looking at the young man who had preceded me out while she spoke. “I do not truly know, Markai, but I think he took me somewhere for a while. I am unharmed.” She turned and loped away. No explanation was necessary. Now that she knew I was unharmed, she was going to make sure no more attacks were coming.

  I looked around for the rest of my group and found Alathaya. She sat hunched over a young boy, using a piece of her dress to make a tourniquet around his thigh. He had a deep cut and it was bleeding profusely. He did not seem to be conscious, but he made occasional groaning noises. She looked up at me and relief was clear in her face. “I need to get him to their physician. I have taken a few over already, but I need you to help me carry him.” I picked him up, cradling him in my arms. She set off at a pace and I had to hurry to keep up.

  The physician turned out to b
e working from his home as his sick room had burnt down. I set the boy down on the floor on a sheet and the physician came scurrying over, looking harried. He looked at his leg and was tutting and shaking his head. He hurried into another room and came out with a small case. He opened it and took out string and a needle. He started working on the boy without any sedation, but the boy hardly moved. The physician worked quickly, stitching him up and finished by handing Alathaya a strip of cloth and instructing her to wrap it up tightly. She worked deftly and I was taken by her calm composure.

  She secured the bandage and walked past me, pulling me along behind her. Grim determination was etched into every feature of her face. “Help me find and bring injured people here.” She did not wait for a response or look back to see if I was following. We carried in seemingly countless men, women and children. The house soon had no space left for more injured and we started using the neighbouring houses as well. The physician and his three apprentices were overwhelmed. It was only a small town, but he was only one man. Some of those we brought in, he simply shook his head over before moving on to the next patient. Alathaya had only protested the first time.

  “Child, I only have two hands. I do not have time to spend on patients that I cannot save.” He moved on.

  I could see that she bristled a bit at being called ‘child’, but she had the sense not to say anything.

  We worked late into the evening. When at last there were no more people to bring in, we helped as best we could among the injured. Bodies lined the street outside the makeshift medica. As soon as someone died inside, they were brought out to make room. Anxious people walked the road, looking at the faces of the dead, looking for loved ones. There was no joy if their lost one was not in the line, only more searching. In a town this small most people knew almost everyone else. I doubted there would be anyone who had not lost someone dear.