Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One

by Tania Johansson

  I was glad when Markai finally called us. Laskia and Wulik were with her. They rode on creatures much like horses, but bigger than any horses I had ever seen and with tails similar to Markai’s, ending in a sharp point. Their mane was not of hair, but what looked like a horn-like material. It formed rows of spikes, pointing horizontally away from their necks. They were not wearing bridles and instead Laskia and Wulik held onto the lowest of the spikes. Wulik saw me looking at his mount. “It is a riqesh. They are like battle horse… but better.” He smiled smugly before moving his riqesh along without a signal I could see.

  As we rode through and out of the camp, the Jerieghen saluted us in their strange way. I inclined my head to acknowledge them and hoped that was appropriate and not offending their sensibilities.

  I was relieved when we eventually cleared the whole camp and moved on. The riqesh fascinated me. Their bodies were muscular and stout, but they moved with as much grace as their riders.

  We travelled late into the day. At night, Markai updated us with what she heard from Beratus. It was not much however. There was still a steady stream of new arrivals at the enemy camp daily. I tried not to worry over their numbers, but it kept creeping into my mind.

  The riqesh did not seem to tire at all, looking as fresh when we made camp at night as they did before we had set out. When I passed comment on that, Laskia burst out laughing. "This is nothing. We are only walking along most of the time. Riqesh, they can fight a battle for a whole day and be ready for more." She snorted derisively while looking at the horses.

  I was starting to learn that the Jerieghen thought themselves better than most other beings and they did not hide it, in fact, sometimes it felt that they flaunted that belief.

  They were, however, good with their estimation of our travel time. On the morning of the third day of travelling, they gathered us before we set off. "In a few hours we will be in sight of Magtisanya. They will have scouts out and watchers at all times. We will therefore, not go in too close. Beratus will meet us once we draw nearer and take us to where he has been watching from. Also, we need to keep our noise as low as possible." He glanced towards the horses when he said the last part.

  The morning was much the same as the other mornings, in terms of terrain, but as we went along, the landscape was slowly changing. The tree cover started to thin out, allowing a clearer view of what was ahead. On the other hand I worried that we would be more easily spotted among the patchy trees. We kept to the most densely wooded areas, but I still felt exposed. Suddenly, I heard a faint rustle of leaves to the east of us. It was definitively something or someone approaching. My heart started racing and I focused my Navitas. This made Markai whip her attention around to me. "It is Beratus who approaches." I felt a bit foolish for so clearly showing how frayed my nerves were and I released Navitas. I could again feel an amused chortle burbling up from Markai, but I tried to simply ignore that.

  Beratus appeared from the sparse scrub only about fifteen feet away from where I stood. How he managed to disguise his bulk until he was that close, I could not fathom. He walked to Markai and they both dipped their great heads at each other. They appeared to have a silent discussion before Beratus trotted off and we followed.

  He led us up a steep hill. The horses struggled a bit with the slope and at times, we had to zigzag along the hill. The riqesh on the other hand, did not seem to take any notice. Laskia and Wulik looked at us with smug grins on their faces. It grated on my nerves, but I did my best to keep it from my face. Xain and Malion made up the rear of our progression and when I glanced back at them, they had their heads together whispering, with dark scowls clouding their faces. As we climbed higher up the hill, the trees became increasingly dense. I thought that very odd, after all, usually it was exactly the opposite, but then this was turning out to be an unusual place.

  Just when I thought I might have to call a halt to breathe the horses, we crested the hill. A dense forest covered the top. Even the plants here looked strange. The leaves on the shrubs were thick and almost sponge-like, remarkably similar to the barrier halfway across the bridge. I picked a particularly fat leaf off a shrub and looked at it a bit more closely. It had a soft layer of nearly transparent hair running across the surface, which, when I touched it, pulled away from my finger. It had a rich sweet smell. I opened my mouth, thinking to have a taste.

  I was startled when Laskia, seemingly out of nowhere, slapped the leave from my hand. It felt like I had just come out of a trance. He wore a deep frown. “Poison. You would die from first taste.”

  I looked at him wide eyed. “It smell nice, feel nice, no?” I nodded meekly. “It tricks you, because you damage it. You break it. You should not even touch, yes?” He continued.

  I gave another meek nod and he heeled his riqesh along. I became aware of faint snickering. I looked around to see Dhillion pointing at me and whispering behind his hand. He was talking to Tas and Seran. When they saw me looking at them, a whoop of laughter rose from them. I shook my head and heeled Balder on.

  I did not see the four Qupari before we were upon them. Laskia and Wulik gave them their strange salute, while the Qupari all dipped their heads in greeting. When I dismounted, I bowed to them feeling that to be the most appropriate way to greet them. We hobbled the horses, but I noticed that the Jerieghen did not bother restraining the riqesh at all. Beratus again led us further and we approached the end of the treeline. Markai and Beratus dropped down and crawled forward. We all followed suit. Crouching down, we slowly approached the clearing and I could feel my jaw drop reflexively.

  From just behind the treeline, we could see sprawled out in the valley below us, a massive war camp. I focused Navitas in order to get a better look. Row upon row of tents and huts lined the area. The camp was a hive of activity. With Navitas, I was able to pick out vague shapes moving about between the tents. There were also small groups moving in formation, which had the look of combat training. I moved a bit closer to the nearest tree in an attempt at concealing myself. It was the perfect spot from which to monitor the camp, though. With the dense forest around us, it was very unlikely that they would notice us up here.

  In the far distance, raised up on a smaller hill, was the castle. It appeared to be at least four storeys high. Constructed of some sort of pitch-black stone, it had a tall watchtower at each corner. That had to be where Rakadamon was. One part of me was eager to rush headlong into their midst, simply to finish this, but another part was shaking in my boots at the sheer expanse of the enemy’s force. We were going to have to plan very carefully how to go about destroying them.

  CHAPTER 17 – Planning

  We stood simply watching the camp in silence for quite a while. As if on cue, Markai and Beratus turned and started back. With one last look at the camp, we followed. No one said anything until we reached the rest of the Qupari. Even then, we simply went about making camp. We would only have a small campfire that night, lest the light attracted unwanted attention. The Jerieghen even went as far as digging a hole and making the fire inside it. We finally all sat down.

  “You can see that, going by numbers, we are on the small side. However, I do believe a large percentage of their force is untrained and will fight by brute force.” Markai’s sonorous voice filled the air.

  I could not help but think of my own training. Before my Hunt started back in Predaki, I had received little training. Of course, I had basic training with a sword and some more with a bow, but that hardly qualified as battle trained. Looking around at my companions, I knew that they at least had been preparing their entire lives for this possibility. For the most part their faces showed unwavering resolve, their eyes were flints of steel. Tas saw me looking at him and he gave me a grim nod as though to assure me that he was ready.

  “We will need each and every one of your Talents if we are to be victorious. We must be victorious,” she continued. “We face more than defeat, more than our own deaths. We face enslavement and the end of life, as we know it. Each of us,�
�� she looked at us each in turn, “must be willing to go to our deaths, if it is required.” She paused a moment to let that thought seep in.

  Malion’s face spoke of grim determination, no doubt he was thinking of his Karina and what he would be willing to do, to endure, to get her back. Seran looked at Trissa, a worried frown creasing his brow. I also wondered how she would cope with what was to come. Dhillion’s face was in stark contrast to everyone else’s. Eagerness and excitement burned in his eyes. He was young and he would soon come face to face with the reality of this situation.

  “You must all be tired from your long travel today. We will therefore, start our planning tomorrow. Think on what you may contribute before then.” It was clear from Markai’s tone that she had dismissed us and everyone started dispersing, but she called me to one side. “Where do you think Brant is?”

  I pursed my lips together. I had pushed my thoughts on him to the back of my mind seeing as I could not do a stitch about it. “I do not know. I suppose a part of me hopes he simply went back to Predaki.”

  She shook her head. “Stop hoping. I sent a sister to check and he has not been back. She managed to pick up his trail from his last known whereabouts, but then they vanish. That is worrying.”

  My stomach twisted. “You think he has been murdered?”

  Again, she shook her head. “No. I fear he has been brought here. He may have been turned. It is a possibility we must consider. I think it was a fool notion to keep him close to you for so long. I believe the Cha had good intentions, but he now knows a lot of crucial information. Information about your companions, about you. Things that could tip the scales to favour Rakadamon.”

  I already thought the scales had tipped against us, but she was right. He knew all our Talents. My skin crawled to think of him working against us. “I understand that, but what is done is done. We cannot do anything about that now.” I could feel her frustration and it fed my own.

  Something occurred to me. “How would he have been brought here? For that matter, how were these new… recruits, brought from our plane to here?”

  She looked away towards the enemy’s campsite as though able to see it through the dense forest. “I am not certain. There once were Walkers. People and Fae who could take others from one place to another, but that has not been known in this world since the first time the Great Threat came. Perhaps it is Rakadamon himself who does this.” A faint rumble came from her chest. “In times like these, we could expect anything to be possible.

  We were silent for a long while. “Markai, why does Rakadamon attack us? Why again? Is it simply a struggle for power, that he wants to rule?”

  She pinned me with her icy stare. “That is a good question, but one that no one knows the answer to. That is one piece of information, which he has managed to scour from memory. Personally, I think there must be some other motivation.”

  That was what my thought had been. “I have heard some talk of another object that must be destroyed in order to kill him. Do you know anything of that?”

  She blew a puff of air from her nose. “That is speculation only. I do not think he has placed such power in an object. There may be something to it. Perhaps there is only one way to kill him, but I am sorry to say that I do not know.”

  I was sorry too. I felt as though I was being sent to get rid of a weed, unaware that you could not simply cut the flowers from it, but also had to dig out the roots.

  I did not sleep well that night. I kept having nightmares of the battle to come. One particular recurring dream was of me cutting Rakadamon’s head off only for it to keep regrowing until I was too tired to even raise Sunder. I woke from that dream each time as his blade was about to bite into my neck.

  I sat up on my bedroll after yet another dream. I was drenched in sweat and my breath was coming quickly. In the dim light, I saw Alathaya pick up her bedroll and walk over to me. She laid it down right next to mine.

  With a firm hand on my chest, she said, “Lie down.”

  I did not need telling twice, I lay down and she snuggled right up to me and put an arm across my chest. My heart was hammering for entirely different reasons now and I doubted whether this was going to help me sleep, but moments later, I could hear her breathing the rhythmic breath of sleep. I closed my eyes and exhaled a long, slow breath. The next time I opened my eyes, was when dawn rays came slanting in through the canopy of branches overhead. She was still sleeping and I made sure to keep still so that I did not wake her. How could I be so happy on such a grim day?

  When she eventually did wake up, she looked up at me with bleary eyes and smiled a beatific smile. I leaned over and kissed her on her forehead. “Thank you.”

  She gave a small nod. I was loath to move, but I knew we had a long day ahead of us. It seemed as though everyone else was already up and regretfully we rose as well.

  We had a small breakfast of hard cheese, harder bread and a few overripe fruit that Malion had in his bag. Laskia and Wulik were eating some sort of porridge that smelled wonderful and made my own meal seem even blander. We cleared away the bedding and without having been called together, everyone gathered.

  Once we were all sitting down on the ground, Markai spoke. “I hope you have all thought about how you could contribute in the war to come. I have some of my own ideas, but I would like to hear what you have to say first.” She looked at us expectantly.

  Tas was first to speak. "I think my use is rather obvious. I can copy Kadin's appearance and therefore create a distraction."

  She gave a nod. "Good. Let's see it."

  He looked at her, an exasperated frown on his face. "It’s not that easy. I said I can copy him and I meant I still need to copy him." When she continued to look at him in silence, his eyebrows rose. "I cannot just look at someone and change at will; I need to first copy them." He enunciated each word carefully as though she simply did not understand what the words meant.

  This time exasperation filled her voice. "And you have not done this yet? Do it then."

  He jumped a bit at her tone, but nodded all the same. He walked over and sat down facing me.

  "Hold out your arms toward me."

  I did as he asked and he gripped my forearms with his hands.

  "This will feel... uncomfortable. Try to relax." There was a hint of distaste in his voice for what he was about to do.

  He closed his eyes. I thought this a bit strange - as he was about to try to copy me, surely he would want to have a good look? I became aware of a cold wet feeling on my arms and I looked down at his hands gripping me except, his hands did not look like hands anymore. They looked like they had melted and the fluid that was created by that started spreading across my arms, my hands and then started creeping up towards my shoulders. It felt most peculiar. Once it reached my shoulders, I was relieved when it went down across my body instead of my neck. It now looked as though his arms up to his shoulders had melted.

  My relief was short lived however, because then it started creeping up my neck. My panic rose with it. I knew I should just relax. It was not as if it was going to smother me, surely not, but knowing a thing and totally believing it can be two separate things. I felt it creeping along my cheeks and I squeezed my eyes shut. The strange substance was probing along my mouth when it found my nose; it went right up, forcing me to open my mouth to take a breath and then it plunged in. The cold spread down the inside of my throat and I did not know if I wanted to scream or choke. I could not take a breath. I tried to stand up, to move away, but found I could not move. My breath was running out, my lungs screamed for air. My head started to swim and just as I thought I would lose consciousness, it retreated. I sucked in several gasping breaths and feeling it slide down my neck, I opened my eyes. Luckily, it retreated much more quickly than it had come. Tas's face was contorted in pain. I had been so consumed, literally, by what was happening to me, I had not even considered what this had to be like for him.

  It dawned on me then how terrifying this must have been when h
e accidentally copied his grandfather. His hands took shape and solidified and the moment that happened, he let go and scrambled backwards away from me as if burned. Markai stepped up. "Is it done?"

  Tas was breathing hard and he only nodded.

  Alathaya moved over to me. "Are you okay? That looked more than just uncomfortable."

  I shook my head. "I am fine."

  Markai's attention was still focused on Tas. "Can you show us, or does it take time to settle?" I heard the impatience in her voice.

  One moment I was staring at Tas, the next moment, it looked as though I was looking in a mirror, except I was wearing different clothes in the reflection. It was a very bizarre feeling looking at a copy of oneself.

  "Do you think I will pass for Kadin?" His words were thick with sarcasm and aimed at Markai.

  She pretended not to notice though. "Most certainly Tas. Well done, but more importantly, do you have his abilities?"

  He was silent for a moment and to the casual bystander, it would have appeared that he was daydreaming. I knew that look though, he was focussing his Navitas. A slow smile crept along his face. “This is incredible. I can…”

  “Enough!” Markai’s harsh tone clearly broke his Navitas.

  He looked at her with startled eyes. “I was only seeing what it is that he can do. You told me to try it.” He said defensively.

  She had not technically told him to try it, but I did not understand what bothered her so about it. “You must not do this unless absolutely necessary.”

  “Why not?” Malion had spoken, but I had been wondering the same.

  She did not take her eyes from Tas. “Navitas is not the only Talent Kadin has. Hand-in-hand with it is Enchantment. When you focused Navitas, you were calling. Each and every Qupari would have felt the tug and perhaps one would have come only to find the call a lie. You must not allow that to happen.” He nodded slowly.