Thinblade (Sovereign of the Seven Isles: Book One)

by David A. Wells

Chapter 39

  They were up and on their way just after dawn. Alexander was again feeling the urgency to get to New Ruatha and then to Blackstone Keep. He had so much to do and couldn’t help worrying that time was running out. Phane was in Karth and had clearly taken command of the Reishi Army Regency. He appeared to be intent on taking command of the entire Isle of Karth. Once he had that secure, he would be able to consolidate his forces and have a good-sized army of battle-tested soldiers at his disposal. Alexander didn’t know what Phane’s next target would be, but he did know that eventually Phane would come to Ruatha and he wanted to be as ready as possible when that day came.

  They moved more quickly than they had for the past few days. The encounter with the gorledons, coupled with Alexander’s sense of urgency, made for a fast pace through the forest. It was midmorning when Isabel guided them up a rise and stopped to look out over the little valley below. She smiled broadly and motioned for Alexander to hurry.

  He was speechless at the sight. The entire valley was filled with an ocean of trees covered with soft pink blossoms. After the greens and browns of the forest they’d been traveling through, it was a surprising sight. But more than that, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Alexander could only stare into the ocean of vibrant fluffy pink trees stretching out into the distance.

  “It’s called the Pink Forest. It blooms in late winter or early spring and then only for about three weeks. We just happen to be here at the right time.” Isabel took in a deep breath and released it with a wistful sigh. “I remember this place from my childhood. I figured we might get lucky, so I took us this way.”

  Everyone else was standing in a row along the top of the bluff looking out over the pristine little valley. Alexander didn’t say a word but instead simply took Isabel’s hand and marveled at the stunning majesty of so many trees in full bloom.

  They slowed their pace under the low canopy of the Pink Forest. The light that filtered through was shaded pink and the ground was littered with a spotty, almost polka-dotted covering of pink petals. Alexander didn’t even really like pink as far as colors went but he couldn’t help feeling his mood lift as he walked, hand in hand with Isabel, through the stand of trees in bloom. They came to a little hillock that jutted up forty feet out of the middle of the ocean of pink, like a lone island in a sea of color, and made their way to the top to stop for lunch. It was sheer rock on three sides with a steep little grassy patch on the fourth side that made for an easy path to the top. It stood just a few feet higher than the tops of the trees all around them.

  “I never even imagined a place could be so pretty,” Abigail said with a little bit of giddiness in her voice.

  The stand of trees was three miles long and two miles wide at the widest point. A variety of evergreen trees stood all around it but within the borders of the Pink Forest there were only fluffy, pastel pink, blooming trees packed in close together but not so close that each tree couldn’t get ample light.

  “I must say, while the forest is not my favorite place, I believe I could just sit here and look out over this particular patch of trees all afternoon,” Jack said with a smile as he sat on his pack next to Abigail.

  They spent the next hour preparing and eating lunch. As much as Alexander felt a sense of urgency, he didn’t really want to leave this place. It was so soft and peaceful, calm and serene. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath of the fragrant air. He released it slowly and felt a sense of calm soak into him. He took another breath and within moments he felt as if he were drifting on an ocean of infinity. He was no longer inside the limited confines of his body. He felt his essence extend to the farthest corners of the world and beyond.

  With a start that nearly brought him out of his detached state, he realized that he’d felt this before. Twice in fact, once at the end of the mana fast and again when he’d seen Phane. He started to feel his awareness draw back into his physical body and with an odd kind of effort he let go of his thoughts, cleared his mind, and simply allowed the experience to happen for a few moments while formulating his real intent in the quiet recesses of his mind. It was a strange way of thinking. He had to keep his consciousness calm and undisturbed like the surface of a pond while carefully forming an image of his intent in the depths without causing so much as a ripple.

  When he knew what he wanted to see, he simply willed his awareness to coalesce at the location of his chosen target rather than within his own body. Time and space didn’t seem to matter here. There was no substance. All things for all time sprang from the singular, infinite nature of this place, and Alexander found that he could be where he wanted to be simply by willing himself to be there.

  Sitting on his pack with his eyes closed, Alexander could see clearly, but his awareness was no longer in the Pink Forest. He was floating thirty feet above the road that ran through the Great Forest. On both sides he saw armed men hidden behind trees. Then he saw his target. Wizard Rangle was standing on a giant log near the road. Beside the log were three other men. Alexander recognized Truss immediately. The little rodent had apparently escaped intact and managed to join forces with Rangle and his men. The next man he saw made him uneasy. He had to be seven feet tall and easily weighed over three hundred pounds. His head was bald, his face was clean-shaven, and he wore a heavy metal breastplate. On his back was an oversized quiver filled with javelins and he was leaning against a giant war hammer with its spiked butt jammed into the ground. He looked bored.

  The third man was even more unsettling but for different reasons. He was short and almost pudgy, but not quite. He wore all black and didn’t appear to be carrying a weapon. The thing that most caught Alexander’s attention was his aura. He could see in a glance that this man was a wizard of great and terrible power. Alexander had never seen a wizard such as this before. He had the color of focused and coiled power just waiting to be unleashed. Alexander had looked at wizards’ auras before and he could always tell that they had a special connection to reality. He could see their relationship to the firmament but it was always tenuous, even with Mason who was a Master Wizard of significant power. All the wizards he’d ever looked at with his second sight had given him the sense that they could tap into the firmament but they were also guarded against it, as if they feared to stare openly into the vast infinity of possibility for fear of losing themselves to it.

  The man in black had no such restraint about him. His colors told Alexander that he had looked fully into the firmament and retained his sense of self. He was dangerous. Alexander suddenly wondered about Phane’s aura but when he started to draw on his memories, he found his vision of the scene before him start to fade. He quickly let go of his thoughts again and simply allowed himself to float above the road, taking in his surroundings. It was a strange feeling to have his awareness separate from his body.

  Then he heard horses coming up the road. He swung his point of view away from Rangle and his friends and looked down the road to see a company of Rangers riding fast. Erik was in the lead and he and his men were charging right into an ambush.

  At the realization of what was happening, Alexander felt his awareness slam back into his body. He stood so fast that his feet came an inch or so off the ground. A dreadful, helpless fear for Erik and his men washed through him and left him with his knees trembling. He wanted to use his clairvoyance to go back and see the outcome of the ambush but didn’t think he would be able to make it happen again. He stood there trying to breathe through the tightness in his chest.

  Anatoly was up with his axe at the ready, looking around for the threat. “What is it?” he asked quietly but intently as he surveyed their surroundings for any possible enemy.

  Alexander started pacing. He put his hand to his forehead and ran his fingers through his hair. By this time everyone was up and looking worried. It was Isabel that pulled Alexander to a stop and took him by the forearms to make him look at her.

  “What is it, Alexander? What’s wrong?”

  He felt a wave of mise
ry flood through him when he looked into her worried eyes. He could hardly make himself say the words. “It’s Erik. He’s riding into an ambush.” His voice broke from guilt and helplessness.

  He shut his eyes against the stricken look of desperate fear that filled her face. When she let go, he opened his eyes again. She stumbled back a step or two with a look of pure anguish. Alexander would have given anything in that moment to have not seen what he’d seen.

  Then Lucky was there alongside him as Isabel sat down hard on her pack and put her face in her hands. “What did you see? Was it like the experience with Phane? Tell me everything, Alexander; the details are important.”

  He nodded while he fought back the sick feeling welling up in the pit of his gut. How could he be the one to send others to their deaths? Who was he to decide? How would Isabel ever forgive him if Erik was killed on his order?

  “I was feeling a deep sense of peace.” He snorted bitterly at the thought of how the beauty all around him had been the catalyst for his clairvoyance. “Then I felt myself adrift like I did at the end of the mana fast. I wasn’t here anymore, I was everywhere at once and yet nowhere at the same time. For a few moments I just floated, trying to get a feeling for it. After a bit of a struggle, I decided I wanted to see Wizard Rangle. Everything came into sharp focus in an instant. I was floating over a road with men to either side waiting in the trees. Rangle was there and so was Truss.” Isabel looked up at that. “There was another man who looked like a giant and then there was the one who scared me. He wasn’t very big, but his colors were like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

  “How do you mean?” Lucky broke in.

  “He was a wizard who was comfortable looking into the firmament without fear or restraint. The power pent up in that man was unnerving. Then I heard horses and I turned to look up the road. That’s when I saw Erik and his company of Rangers riding hard right into the ambush. Then I was back here.”

  He looked at Isabel and saw the fear in her beautiful green eyes, and his blood started to boil at the thought of the pain she would endure if her brother fell. He knew the ongoing anguish it would bring her all too well. The thought of it kindled a rage within him that he’d never felt before.

  Before anyone could speak again Jack called out, “There!” and pointed off in the distance.

  Far to the east, across the Pink Forest and many miles farther, a plume of smoke rose into the sky. Alexander felt his heart sink.

  Isabel looked toward the slowly rising smoke, then tipped her head back and closed her eyes. A moment later, Alexander heard the shrill call of a forest hawk as Slyder took to wing.

  He wanted to go to her, to take her in his arms but he was responsible for the danger to her brother. He’d sent him into harm’s way. He stood struggling with his rage, fear, and despair when Anatoly cried out in warning.