Hand of Fire: Book 1 of the Master of the Tane

by Thomas Rath

  CHAPTER SIX

  Holding a tray in one hand, Resdin reached up and knocked on the large oak door. He was an average looking man just under six feet tall with a slender look that masked great physical strength. Long brown hair glided down his back and steel gray eyes pierced the darkness around him. He wore a goatee that he often pulled into a point giving him a villainous look that he relished. He always wore black. From his loose fitting long sleeved shirt down to his tight leather pants and boots, it was always black.

  A faint sound from behind the door answered and Resdin pushed his way in. He entered a very large bedroom shrouded in gloomy darkness. The only light to break through the shadows came from the few candles that dotted the walls and a tiny streak of sunlight that snuck through the thick, velvet drapes covering the only window at the far side of the room next to the bed. The bed was an extravagant piece of art constructed of sturdy oak posts that had been carved to depict different ways of torture and death, making it beautiful and hideous all at once. The other furnishings were few and simple including a small desk and chair on the left wall, a bedside table and a chest at the foot of the bed.

  Resdin quickly made his way to the left side of the bed where lay an old, feeble looking man swallowed up in large down coverings and pillows. His hair was long and white and sat in a knotted mass giving the appearance of so many tangled spider webs. His eyes were black as tar and burned with a power that would be unexpected in a man of his physical decline. The only other distinguishing feature about him was the unusual, out of place tightness and smoothness of his skin, which seemed to be pulled around mere bone.

  “I brought your tea master,” Resdin said as he set the tray on the bedside table.

  “Well hurry up!” the old man snapped with a voice that sounded of crinkling parchment. Resdin quickly poured a cup and handed it to the old man who, in between sips, asked, “Have you done as I have commanded?”

  “Yes master. All will be set into motion when you are ready.”

  “Good. Soon my strength will return and all will occur as I have willed it.” Setting the cup back on the tray the old man moved as if to sit up. “Come, help me to the window.”

  Immediately, Resdin grasped the man’s frail arm and helped him move slowly from the bed. Pulling back the drapes, he and the old man were greeted by the stark bareness of a land long deprived of life giving necessities. Here and there old, dead trees dotted the barren landscape in a knotted mass of bent and twisted limbs as if their deaths had come about by some horrible torment. The land itself appeared to have choked on some awful venom bent on pure and ultimate destruction. Not even a weed survived the destructive force that plagued the ground.

  The old man peered through the clear glass and stared long at the far off mountains. With satisfaction and a look of distant foresight he caught Resdin’s arm and muttered, “They will come soon and I will be their god.” He chuckled to himself before collapsing into a coughing fit that forced Resdin to carry him back to his bed.

  * * *

  The tiny canoe pitched dangerously as the Waseeni boy anxiously yanked at the rope trying to pull it from the water. Finally, a small cage emerged from the murky depths crammed with three giant crayfish clawing each other in desperation as they tried to escape their doom. The boy smiled as he dumped his catch into the wooden box that sat in the center of his craft adding to the two others he had retrieved earlier from another trap.

  “Mother will be happy to see these,” he said cheerfully letting the cage drop with a splash back into the water before moving on.

  Teek was a typical Waseeni boy with medium length, blond hair contrasted sharply against sun-darkened skin and dark, brown eyes. He was very thin and wiry making him extremely agile and quick when circumstances required. The only clothes he wore was a simple cloth that covered his loins and a headband of braided Teague leaves to keep his hair from falling into his eyes. The swamp was not as hot this time of year, which lent relief from the swarms of bugs and the blistering heat that was typical in the summer time. In the winter, the temperature was almost pleasant—almost.

  Teek pushed his canoe quickly through the swamp and around the trees that jutted from the waters like giant sentinels guarding the area from intruders. He was anxious to get home and finish his chores so he could reach his old friend’s hut before dark. He had passed many nights at the feet of old Father Twee as he told of his great adventures in the outside world. He never tired of hearing those stories and the strange things that were found outside the swampland that was his home.

  It wasn’t long before he reached the foot of the tree that held his family’s hut. The hut was built like all Waseeni dwellings, nestled in the lower branches of a Teague tree. The Teague, which also lent their name to the region, were the only trees that survived in the swamplands. They were extremely large and tall with trunk widths so immense that it took twenty Waseeni clasped hand in hand to completely surround one. The lower branches that stuck out from the trunk approximately thirty feet from the water, afforded the Waseeni ample protection from what lurked in the swamp’s depths.

  Tying off his canoe, Teek emptied the box of crayfish into a bucket that hung from a trap door under their home, and then quickly ascended the rope ladder that dangled loosely just above the water. As he entered the hut he was greeted by shrieks of laughter from his two younger sisters and his baby brother who rushed him in delight and knocked him to the ground.

  “Hi Teek, we missed you,” Eeni, the youngest of the girls, said as she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed with all her strength.

  “Did you catch anything today?” his other sister, Jina, asked from her seat on his stomach while his brother, the youngest, knelt by his head.

  “Yes I did you little monkeys and if you’ll get off of me I’ll pull them up so we can eat.”

  The girls quickly scrambled off jumping up and down with excitement as Teek began to lift himself from the floor before being stopped by two small hands that grasped his arm. He looked down into his little brother’s dark brown eyes, which stared up at him with a frightened look. “Did you see any monsters out there?”

  Teek looked over at his mother sitting by the window weaving a reed mat and shrugged. “No, Bink, I didn’t see any monsters,” he said with a smile while rubbing the boys blond hair. “And don’t you worry about anything because your big brother Teek is here to protect you. Now, how about some dinner?”

  Bink’s face brightened immediately and he joined in with his jumping sisters. “All right you three,” Rani said putting down her mat and rising to her feet. “Go wash yourselves and leave Teek alone so he can bring up our dinner and we can eat.” The little ones rushed to the corner of the hut where a small bucket held some fresh water while Teek opened the trap door in the center of the floor.

  “I wish you would stop telling your brother those stories you hear from Twee,” Rani whispered to Teek while helping him pull up the bucket of crayfish. “You know how they scare him.”

  “I’m sorry mother,” Teek answered bringing the container through the trap door. “I won’t tell him any more, I promise.”

  “Please don’t. It’s bad enough having you running all over the place worrying your poor mother to death.” Teek smiled at her as she put her arm around him and gave him a quick squeeze. “Now let’s see what you brought us today.”

  The small feast was prepared in quick order and all sat down around the open trap door and dug in noisily, throwing the empty shells through the hole in the floor. Teek ate quickly, anxious to be done and then on his way to see his friend, Father Twee, and listen to the wondrous adventures the old man shared from his youth.

  Finishing his last bit of crayfish, Teek tossed it through the trap door. Rushing to the window, he emptied the water bucket that hung outside into the drinking barrel that sat on the floor and then replaced the bucket to collect any rain or dew that dripped from the gutters during the night.

  After lighting the sap candle his
mother made to illuminate the hut at night, Teek grabbed his blowgun and was starting with his good-byes when his mother stopped him. “Where do you think you are going?”

  “To Father Twee’s,” Teek replied standing impatiently by the door. “He promised to tell me more of his adventures the next time I came by.”

  “Not tonight, Teek,” Rani said with an almost disappointed look. “I’d like you to stay home tonight, with us.”

  “But mother,” Teek protested.

  “Please, Teek,” Rani cut in with a sigh. “I would prefer it if you stayed in tonight with your family. You’ve been gone all day and I know your sisters and brother would like to spend some time with you. Tomorrow you can visit with Twee after you’ve checked and moved the traps.”

  Teek studied the floor intently. “All right,” he finally muttered and then sat down heavily on his mat by the door.

  Immediately, he was assailed with flying arms and legs as his siblings jumped on him with giggles of delight. Teek tried to ignore them for as long as he could not wanting to let go of his disappointment at being kept home, but was finally overcome when Jina and Eeni decided they needed to cheer him up by tickling. It wasn’t long before they were all rolling around on the ground in fits of hysterical laughter.

  “All right now, that’s enough,” Rani said trying to control her own giggles. “You rascals leave your brother alone and come finish your meals. It’s not often we eat this well.” They all raced back to their crayfish and began to devour the last remaining morsels trying unsuccessfully not to laugh.

  Teek picked himself up off the floor and moved to the window by the candle where he peered out, searching the dark waters of the swamp below. A slight puff of wind brushed his face bringing with it a moth that fluttered around the candle’s flame in a dance of delight. Teek watched it with envy. To be free like a moth, he thought, and fly where the wind would take you. That is the life for me, not this dull existence we carve out in the swamps, but real life and adventure. What tales would you tell me, little moth? What have you seen? What is out there to be discovered?

  The moth landed on the candle near the flame and was instantly charred. Teek stared sadly at the dying insect as the flame consumed its body.

  “What are you staring at?” Teek jumped almost knocking the candle out the window. “I’m sorry,” Rani said stifling a laugh. “What are you so involved in over here?”

  Teek smiled with a quickly reddening face as he placed the candle back in its place on the window ledge. “Just thinking.”

  “Well, it must be something pretty important for me to have startled you so,” Rani chuckled.

  “No, not really,” Teek sighed, suddenly becoming serious. “What was it like when you went on your journey, mother?”

  “Oh Teek, is that what you’ve been pondering about over here? I’ve told you that story a hundred times. You could probably tell it to me better than I to you.”

  “I know mother but maybe you forgot something that you’ll remember this time.” Teek stared at her hopefully, begging with his eyes for her to tell him the story again. Rani hesitated for a moment not wanting to encourage her son’s craving for adventure but she was no match against his pleading eyes that so often won her over. She could remember a time not so long ago when wanderlust had filled her with the same excitement and wonder, but the hard realities of life had soon snuffed out any thoughts of the outside world from her mind. Her whole life was wrapped up in her children now. No longer did she have time for the dreams of her youth and she realized that Teek would be forced into the same doldrums of life sooner than he realized. Let him have the thrilling fantasies and adventures while the day still shown brightly on his childhood.

  “All right Teek,” she said, caving in once again. “Since I made you stay in tonight I guess it’s only fair, but you’ll have to wait until the others are asleep.”

  Teek smiled brightly nodding his head in quick agreement. “Yes mother.” He knew too well the power that his brown eyes and smile had on his mother.

  Teek’s sisters and brother soon finished with their meals and he sat down with them to play a game, to their utter delight. They sat in a circle each having a stick and then while they sang a song they passed their stick to the person next to them. In certain parts of the song the movement of the sticks would be reversed and then sent back again the same way. The song and the game would get faster and faster until someone messed up the rotation and then would be declared out. Of course, because of his age, Bink was allowed an extra chance or two.

  It didn’t take long for Teek to be eliminated since his mind was on the story his mother would retell of her journey up the Belfar River and her experience with the dwarves. He did know the tale by heart but he never tired of hearing it even though he knew it was a story brought on by family tragedy. Hearing it always fed his longing to find an adventure of his own some day.

  After losing three or four more times, Teek finally excused himself from the game, to the objections of his brother and sisters, and went out onto the landing to await his mother. The night air felt unusually comfortable during the dry months of winter. Most of the swamp’s rain and moisture came in the unbearable months of spring and summer when the temperatures rose and the air became thick with water.

  He listened to the music of a nearby cricket as it called for its mate and knew, by its tone, that the weather would change soon giving them the much needed rain to fill their water barrels. The moon above was nearly full, filling the swamp in muted light and shadows. Teek stared at the dark shapes around him imagining they were monsters with whom he was locked in desperate battle.

  “Take that,” he cried wielding a thin reed that had suddenly become his sword. Moving forward, he thrust with all his might piercing the heart of a foe and then turned quickly to dispatch another. The shadow monsters kept coming and for a moment he felt pressed, but with a magnificent show of skill and instinct he sliced his way through the danger while littering the ground with his enemies. One tried sneaking up from behind but he was all too aware of its presence. With a leap and a twist he brought his sword around to remove its head. Rani ducked just in time to miss being whipped in the face.

  “What in the name of all the ancestors do you think you are doing, Teek!” she cried while grabbing the reed from his hand. “You could have knocked me into the swamp with that thing!”

  Teek watched his feet in hopes they would sprout wings and fly him away. When they didn’t he looked up at his mother regretfully and with a soft voice said, “I’m sorry, Mother, I was fighting shadow monsters. I didn’t know you were there.”

  “Well, I hope you didn’t,” Rani half smiled. “I would hope you have more care for your mother than to knock her into the swamp on purpose.”

  Teek smiled back. “Well, you know you would make a nice splash.”

  “What?” Rani grabbed him in a bear hug and commenced tickling him into hysterics. “Now, what was that you said?”

  “Nothing, nothing,” Teek cried trying to catch a breath. “I meant that I would never think of it.”

  Rani gave him a few more tickles before she stopped. “That’s what I thought you meant,” she said brushing the tangle of hair that was hanging down in her face. “Now, you sit down while I go get something.”

  Teek plopped down onto the landing floor wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes while Rani disappeared back into the hut. In a moment she returned with a weed mat wrapped around some kind of object that she placed next to her as she sat down by her son.

  “Now, we have to keep our voices down so your brother and sisters can sleep.”

  “What is that, Mother?” Teek asked quietly while pointing to the weed roll.

  “It’s a present.”

  Teek’s face brightened. “A present? Is it for me?”

  “Maybe,” Rani answered trying to hide a smile. “But don’t you want to hear the story of the dwarves?”

  Teek fidgeted, repeatedly glancing down at the r
eed-covered bundle and then back up at his mother. “Uh, well yeah, I guess.”

  “Then you’ll have to wait until I am done to see what it is,” Rani said quickly, a broad and contented smile creasing her face. She looked like a cat that had just gotten away with eating the family bird.

  At first, as his mother began her narrative, Teek was restless, his eyes continually falling back to the mat and its hidden treasure, but as Rani continued on with her story he became more engrossed in what she was saying and soon the tale washed over him like a piece of his own past. He even corrected her once when she had forgotten a part and started to skip over it.

  Finally, when Rani came to the end, Teek’s mind returned to the present that lay untouched by his mother’s side. “Now can I see what is hidden in the mat?”

  Rani regarded her oldest son for a long moment and then smiled. “I’m not finished with the story yet.”

  Teek gave her a quizzical look. “What? Of course you are. Helgar gave you the gems for your sacrifice and then you came home and dropped them into the swamp at the base of the tree and the ancestors were appeased. Remember, I almost know the story better than you do.”

  “Is that right?” Rani asked, unable to contain a broad smile. “Well then, I guess there is no need to show you what is in the mat then.”

  Teek’s face twisted into lines of puzzlement causing his mother to laugh merrily. “Why?”

  “Just hold your teeth for a moment my son and I will explain. There’s a small part to this story that you don’t know because I’ve never told you.”

  Teek’s eyes bulged and he suddenly became very attentive and still. “What?”

  “Helgar gave me more than just the two gems before I left the bridge that day,” she announced. “He also gave me this.” Rani lifted the mat producing a dagger that shinned like it had just been forged that day.

  Teek’s eyes widened while his mouth moved, as if he was trying to say something, but nothing came out. Never in his life had he seen anything more beautiful then the blade his mother held in her hand. It was not the most fancy or decorated dagger ever made but to the eyes of young Teek, it was fit for a king. The hilt was wrapped with a thin, black leather cord ending with a polished onyx stone inlaid with a silver battle-ax. The hand guard was also silver and extended outward, each end capped with another tiny, onyx stone. The blade itself was straight and narrowed from the hilt in a triangular fashion ending in a deadly sharp point.