“Well then,” Tevvy said, rising to his feet, “you’ll have to send me to her when we get back to the tomb.”
Thal shook his head, but did not speak.
“First,” Blakstar said, “we have to get out of here.” He put one hand on his forehead and scanned the horizon. They stood on the edge of a flat, white plain, with the dirty, white mountains behind them. The kortexi turned to the left, then all the way to the right, then back to center. “I think,” he said hesitantly, pointing, “there is something in that direction.”
“What?” Thal asked.
“A rise in an otherwise completely flat plain,” he replied. “We need some way to lead him,” he noted softly, pointing at Tevvy.
The tekson looked at each other for a moment, then Thal held out his rod and whispered, “kresko.” The rod started to grow longer, stopping at a dozen feet when Thal waved his hand. He held it out for Klaybear. “You take that end, and we’ll place him between us.”
The green kailu nodded, taking the end of the rod in his right hand and holding the rod behind him. Blakstar took Tevvy’s arm and steered him next to Thal’s lengthened rod.
“Hold onto Thal’s rod,” Blakstar said after placing the awemi’s hand upon it.
“Where are the others?” Tevvy asked.
“I’m in front of you,” Klaybear said.
“And I’m behind,” Thal added.
“I’ll be in front,” Blakstar said, moving in front of Klaybear, the hard packed snow crunching under his boots, although his feet made hardly any impression. “Distance is hard to judge in the brightness, but I’d guess the rise is several miles away, maybe more.”
On their first steps forward, first a breeze, then a wind, and finally, a blast of frigid air, blew straight at them; their movement dragged, so Tevvy had no trouble keeping up.
“I think we’re going the right way,” Thal shouted.
“What makes you say that?” Blakstar shouted back.
“The wind,” Thal replied.
Blakstar nodded, trudging forward into the teeth of the gale.
How much time passed, Blakstar could not tell; the light never changed; the wind never varied, and like the fire realm, they trudged forward until Blakstar felt Klaybear’s warming orthek run out. Then they would huddle around Tevvy, and Klaybear would pull off one mitten so he could touch each of them and renew the orthek. And it was only blind Tevvy’s awemi sense of direction that kept them from veering off and walking in an endless circle: the wind, they discovered, moved with them.
“Left a bit,” Tevvy would shout to Klaybear, who then shouted to Blakstar. “There,” Tevvy would shout, and they trudged on until Tevvy shouted again. “Right, now. That’s good.” And so it went on for what could have been minutes, or hours, or days, or centuries; none could tell. Blakstar kept going forward until, after more than a dozen renewals of the warming orthek, Tevvy stumbled, and Blakstar hoisted him onto his back; then Thal stumbled, and Klaybear helped him to his feet and supported him as they walked; then Klaybear and Thal stumbled and fell. Blakstar turned and saw they had fallen, staggering back to where they were. He had to drop Tevvy onto the ground, then he tried to pull Thal up, failed, and tried to lift Klaybear to his feet, but the attempt only drove him to his knees. He looked around and the wind stopped howling at them; his vision cleared, and he saw that they were near the top of the rise he had seen. Crawling to the top, he scraped away the snow and found a black stone, covered with runes, glowing softly with green light. He took out his sword and touched the golden glowing pommel stone to the symbol that would lead them back to the tomb of Shigmar. The light folded around him and the hilltop, and all went dark, but the air he breathed was now warm. Lifting his visor, he saw that they were all sprawled on the floor of the room in Shigmar’s tomb. He pulled off his hood, mittens, and coat, tossing them aside; he paused, for he heard a new sound in the room: the sound of water falling. Turning, he saw that the crates were no longer stacked against the wall of the tomb, but there was a simple fountain, and he felt that familiar sensation tickling the bridge of his nose. He crawled across the stone floor to the fountain, put his mouth under the stream of falling water, and drank the Waters of Life. He felt both warmth and energy surging from the center of his stomach out to the tips of his fingers and toes; his feet and legs felt suddenly hot, so he turned, and with his back against the stone rim of the fountain, stripped off his furry pants and boots. He stood and went to the cot where he had left the rest of his gear to retrieve the special container. He filled it at the fountain, went to Thal, pulled open the face flap of his hood, and lifted his head and poured the Waters into his mouth. The white maghi drank eagerly for a moment, then his eyes flew open and he sat up.
“What happened?” Thal asked, looking around. “Last thing I remember was falling to the ground.”
Blakstar nodded. “We made it to the hill I saw,” he said, “and I found a portal stone, activated it, and we came back here.”
“Extraordinary!” Thal exclaimed.
Blakstar moved to Klaybear. “You’ll want to get out of those furs before you roast,” he said, lifting the kailu’s head and pouring the Waters into his mouth.
As Klaybear drank, Thal stripped off his furs, folded them and placed them on his cot. “The crates are gone,” he noted.
Blakstar nodded again as Klaybear’s eyes opened and the green kailu sat up. “Yes,” Blakstar agreed, “and they were replaced by a fountain of the Waters of Life.”
“Convenient,” Klaybear noted, after looking around. “I’m quite warm now,” he added, pulling off the hood and mittens.
Blakstar smiled and went to Tevvy. “What do we do about him?” he asked, pointing down.
“Try giving him the Waters,” Klaybear said, pulling off the rest of his furs and piling them on his cot. “Maybe pour some on his eyes to see if that helps.”
Blakstar squatted next to Tevvy; Klaybear crawled over to his other side, helping the kortexi remove the furs, then he held the awemi’s eyes open while Blakstar dripped some of the Waters into each of his white eyes. Klaybear cradled Tevvy’s head and opened his mouth, so the kortexi could pour the Waters in and drink. Like the others, Tevvy drank eagerly and kept drinking until the bottle was nearly drained. Blakstar raised an eyebrow at this, but Klaybear merely waited. When Tevvy’s eyes fluttered open, both could see that some of their former color had returned, but not all.
“Where are we?” Tevvy asked.
“Back in the tomb,” Klaybear said. “How are your eyes?”
“I think I can . . . ,” Tevvy started to say and sit up, more color returning to them, but then he fell back and his eyes went white again, “no, I cannot see.”
“What happened?” Klaybear asked.
“When I woke up,” Tevvy said, hesitantly, “I thought I could see your face, but then it all went black.”
Blakstar looked at Klaybear who nodded to the fountain. “What do you think?” he asked.
Blakstar looked at the fountain then shrugged. “It might work.”
“Tevvy,” Klaybear said, “let’s get you to your feet and take you to the fountain.”
“What fountain?” Tevvy asked.
“When we were returned to the tomb,” Blakstar said, “the crates of supplies were gone and replaced by a fountain of the Waters of Life.”
Tevvy stopped and grabbed both. “My gear?” he asked.
“On the cot where you left it.” Klaybear replied, after looking that direction.
Tevvy relaxed his grip on both arms and let out a sigh. “For a moment,” he said as they lead him to the fountain, “I feared we were in a different room.”
“Here,” Klaybear said, taking Tevvy’s hands and placing them on the rim of the fountain. “I’ll help you guide your face into the basin; put it in and open your eyes to see if direct contact with the Waters helps.”
Tevvy knelt by the rim and with Klaybear’s help, put his face into the Waters, holding his breath. After several moment
s, Tevvy threw his head back and looked into Klaybear’s eyes. For a moment, Klaybear saw that their normal color had returned, but as soon as the Waters ran out of his eyes, they turned white again.
“For a moment,” Tevvy said, “I could see, but now . . . ,” he left his sentence unfinished.
Blakstar looked at Klaybear, puzzled. “Why?” the kortexi asked.
Klaybear shook his head. “This is not normal snow blindness,” he noted. “Something else has happened.” He turned to Thal, who had just finished reloading the pouches on his belt. “I think you should check his mind,” he said to the white maghi.
Thal replaced his rod, and moved to the fountain. His eyes went distant. “Put your face in again and open your eyes,” he said after a moment.
The awemi stuck his face in again, then lifted it up, his eyes clearing again for a moment.
Thal spoke again. “I see nothing unusual; everything looks right; I don’t see any changes,” he finished, his eyes refocusing.
“The Waters start to heal him,” Klaybear said softly, shaking his head, “but fail. There is something else going on here,” he finished to himself.
“What should we do with him?” Blakstar asked. “I don’t think it would be safe to take him with us.”
“I do not think we can leave him behind,” Klaybear said.
“You said you thought Klare could heal me,” Tevvy put in, “why don’t you send me to her?”
“How do I know where to send him?” Blakstar asked.
“I’m not sure you can,” Thal said.
“Why not?” Tevvy asked.
“I think the teka of this place will prevent you from opening a door,” Thal said.
“You won’t know until you try,” Tevvy said.
“Again, how do I know where?” Blakstar repeated.
Thal shrugged. “Try focusing on Klare,” he suggested, “maybe that will work.”
Blakstar nodded and drew his sword, all his mind focused on Klare. He started to draw the circle on the floor.
“Don’t forget to draw energy from the sword,” Thal added needlessly.
The kortexi raised the sword and inscribed the gray shimmering arch in the air. The space shimmered once and they saw Klare kneeling next to her mother and sister; Rokwolf appeared to be frozen in the act of nocking an arrow. Thal reached out to put his hand through the arch but was stopped by something and could only touch the surface of the arch without passing into it. The three stood silently for a few moments, examining the arch, until Blakstar lifted his sword and the arch winked out.
“How peculiar,” Thal noted.
“What?” Tevvy asked. “Tell me what you see!”
“Blakstar opened the archway,” Klaybear replied, “and we saw Klare and Rokwolf, watching over Klare’s mother and sister, but we could not enter the archway. It looked like they were frozen in place, with Rokwolf trying to nock an arrow.”
“Of course!” Thal exclaimed. “This is like our chamber beneath Shigmar!”
“What do you mean?” Blakstar asked. Klaybear still stared at the space where he had seen Klare through the doorway.
“That this tomb moves in a different time than the world outside,” Thal replied.
“Which is why,” Klaybear said, at last looking up, “the supplies in the crates appeared to be new, even though more than three millennia have passed since the time of Shigmar.”
“Yes,” Thal said, broadly, “time, in the tomb, has moved very little since the beginning, and I would bet that time here only moves when someone is present, so we will find, when we leave, that seemingly no time has passed outside.”
Blakstar was shaking his head. “That cannot be right,” he said.
Thal looked puzzled. “Why not?”
“The color of the sun,” Blakstar replied.
“What?” Thal asked.
“We entered at sunset,” Blakstar said, “and it looked like it was right before dawn where Klare is.”
Thal opened his mouth, then closed it suddenly. “I don’t know why that would be,” he said after a time.
Blakstar shook his head again. “It does not matter,” he said, then added, “right now. Right now we only need to decide on what to do with him,” he finished, pointing at Tevvy.
“I think we have to take him with us,” Thal said. “I do not think the teka of this place will allow us to go forward without him. Besides,” he added, “we have only one more elemental realm to pass through; we should be nearing the end.”
“And when we are attacked?” Blakstar objected. “What then?”
“We will do as we have done,” Klaybear said, “meet it and defeat it, whatever it is. Thal is right, the teka of this place requires us to take him along.”
Blakstar nodded. “Where next?”
“Air,” Thal replied, “the only realm we have not visited.”
Blakstar turned toward the archway to see if Thal was right.
“Open, fortified high places made from mist,” Thal translated and read, “evil threats their favorite prey, tearing bodies, hearts, and lives,” he finished.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Tevvy noted.
“We are not evil,” Blakstar said.
“Oh, right,” Tevvy said. “Does that mean we won’t be attacked?”
“Are you sure it’s air?” Blakstar asked.
“Pretty sure,” Thal replied, “the fortified high places.”
“Aeries,” Klaybear said. “Those are all words used when speaking of birds of prey.”
“Or pirates,” Thal added, “but since it seems to be about birds, I chose words that related to them rather than pirates.”
“No one answered my question,” Tevvy noted.
“It does not sound like we will,” Thal replied, “although Gar has corrupted many air creatures, like the aperum, and employed them in his service.”
“But there are good aperum,” Blakstar put in, surprising the others, “I met some of them on the Mountain of Vision; they rescued me when I fell, and carried me to the top.”
Thal smiled. “All of Gar’s creatures are corruptions of the One’s creatures, so there are ‘good’ versions of them.”
“However,” Klaybear put in, “this is a test, so I’m reluctant to claim that we will not be attacked.”
“True,” Thal retorted, “but ‘test’ is not the right word, since its ultimate purpose is to prevent anyone but us,” he pointed at all of them, “from reaching the staff, so we might not be attacked.”
Blakstar shook his head, slamming his sword into its sheath. “Again,” he said, “this discussion is a waste of time, since all we need to do is move forward,” he finished, pointing to the arch.
Thal laughed; Klaybear smiled. The white maghi turned and bowed with a flourish to Blakstar. “You, my friend,” he laughed, “are quite correct. Let’s gather up the rest of our equipment, weapons, and armor.” Once they had replaced their supplies and strapped their armor back on, Tevvy making a fuss about where all his tiny bottles went in his pouches, Thal touched the symbol for air and followed Blakstar through the arch; Klaybear took Tevvy by the arm and stepped through.
As with the other elemental realms, Blakstar landed on a stone circle, much smaller than all those others, surrounded by bright blue sky, both above and below the stone circle, which did not have any visible support. Thin, wispy clouds floated lazily by. As his feet touched the stone, a gong sounded from somewhere beneath them; in the far distance all around them, he could just make out tiny specks moving. Birds of all sizes fluttered past; the sounds of their singing filled his ears. The air smelled fresh and clean, like the air after a violent summer storm. A dark speck, straight ahead of where he stood, came racing toward him, growing larger by the second, looking like a great, winged creature. The front of it was like an eagle only much larger; its forefeet were the talons of the eagle; the back half of its body looked like the back half of some large, feline creature, with a long tail that appeared to be spiked.
/> Thal gasped, his eyes wide.
“What is it?” Blakstar asked.
“A . . . a myth,” the maghi stuttered.
The creature pulled up just in front of the companions, backpedaling in the air, huge wings wafting a breeze toward them that stirred their cloaks and hair, taloned and clawed feet grasping at the air. It made a sound between a croak and a scream, wheeled over onto its back, righted itself, and flew swiftly back the way it had come.
“What was that?” Klaybear asked.
“Was that a word it croaked?” Blakstar asked at the same time.
“It’s named . . . ,” Thal went on, but then said, “what? A word?” His brow wrinkled. “What word?”
The kortexi thought for a moment. “It sounded like, ‘gu-sum.’”
Tevvy’s brow wrinkled, his white eyes wide and staring. “No,” he corrected, “it was ‘gheusum.’”
Klaybear and Thal exchanged a look.
“Are you sure?” Thal asked.
Tevvy nodded. “Pretty sure,” he said. “Is that a word in the orthek language?”
Thal looked puzzled. “Orthek language?”
“The old language you both use to cast ortheks,” he said.
“Oh,” Thal said, still looking at Klaybear, “you mean ancient? Yes, it is a word in ancient, which means, chosen.”
“So,” Blakstar began, “why did you call it a myth?”
“He is named Felorno,” Thal said, “and, according to legend, he is the messenger of the Lord of Air, Wethkuro.”
As they spoke, other creatures of this realm flew or floated past, all croaking or piping the same word they had heard from Felorno, “gheusum.” They heard it repeated over and over, although the voices varied greatly. Most resembled the flying creatures with which they were familiar: from small starlings and finches to large hawks, eagles, and the lonely albatross. Some resembled horses, although their hooves never touched the ground: the white and silver kerono with a single long horn in their foreheads; the markornem with their wings and colors like great hawks or eagles, and the ekludem, larger than the kerono, with a pair of horns and shining golden coats and long manes, flashing brilliantly golden in the bright light. There were also huge, wethi-like creatures: the moroskum, white and wispy, made from the clouds, with voices that whispered like the gentle breeze, and the potiethro, largest of all the giant wethi-like creatures, made from dark storm clouds, with voices that rattled like thunder. Three aperum, a gold, a silver, and a copper, flew straight toward them from dead ahead, flying over their heads and diving behind and beneath the stone circle. The three hissed as they passed overhead. “Gwemo! Gheusum de Eli!” When the three emerged from beneath and in front of the circle, they were attached to huge harnesses, the gold in the center and out front, the silver just behind and right, the copper just behind the silver and left. The stone circle moved smoothly forward, pulled by the three aperum.
The Redemption, Volume 1 Page 57