by Jasmine Walt
“Where are the Aeta? The survivors?” Tan asked.
Roine shook his head. The sad look in his eyes spoke volumes. “I don’t think there were any survivors. This kind of attack isn’t meant for anything other than destruction.”
“Why the Aeta? Why would Incendin shapers attack the Aeta?”
“This type of attack hasn’t been seen in…” Roine shook his head. “The barrier has prevented this for years. A dark power is needed for this.”
“And they’re still here?” The idea of shapers powerful enough to destroy an entire caravan made him fear for Nor.
Roine shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“But there must be tracks we can use to find them.”
Cobin guided his horse over to him. “I don’t think you wish to find shapers this powerful.”
“So what? We let them roam Galen? I thought you served the king!”
“They will not remain behind. If this is what I fear, then this was a targeted attack. I suspect they returned to Incendin now.”
A crack of lightning split the sky, lighting the growing darkness overhead. A deafening roar of thunder followed. In the flash of light, the clouds overhead had been revealed as thick, dark smears in the sky, heavy and floating low, as if barely skimming the treetops. The lightning had come from behind them. Tan wondered how the worst of the storm had passed them so quickly.
“This is an unusual storm,” Roine said.
“We get heavy rains in Galen,” Cobin said. “Especially this time of year.”
Roine looked at him for a moment. “I think this is strange even for Galen.”
There was another crack of lightning, followed by another in rapid succession. The trailing thunder exploded around them, growing farther in the distance each time. Rain pelted down more urgently. Thankfully, the strange odors lingering on the air began to fade.
Tan listened to the forest. A few birds perched in the trees but otherwise it was silent. Wind whipped around him, tearing at his cloak. His horse danced beneath him.
An edge of frustration crawled through him. Had the rain not come, he could’ve tracked the hounds as he had before. And if he could track them, he could hunt them. Maybe chase them from Galen. But the rain would wash away any tracks, especially as heavy as it fell.
Something caught his eye off the road. Several of the low tree branches had snapped free. Such breaks could have been random—the heavy winds of the storm could easily have caused that damage—but there seemed a pattern to it. Leaves and weeds covered the rest of the forest, leaving no other evidence that anything else passed through here.
Tan jumped from his saddle to investigate, studying the broken branches while letting his eyes follow the disturbance, his focus wandering as he struggled to find meaning to what he saw.
“Tan?” Cobin called.
Tan ignored him. Another strangely twisted branch caught his attention. He followed it, picking his way forward. The bent undergrowth and random changes to the forest guided him farther from the road. Tan was not sure what it was that he followed, but it pulled on him, demanding he do so.
He came to an area of the forest where the ground sloped quickly upward in a jagged rocky climb. There were no branches here, no undergrowth to follow, just the rocks. As he nearly turned back, he saw scratches on the stone. The scratches were spaced evenly and regularly.
Higher up, long prints with a dimple near the heel seemed burned into the stone. The ground was drier here, protected by a rocky overhang. The heavy rain had not washed out the markings. Tan studied them; they were the same tracks he had followed the other day.
What kind of creature could scratch the stone like that? Was this the Incendin shaper Roine mentioned?
“Tan?”
Cobin watched him strangely, relieved to have found him. Roine followed, flickering his eyes as he looked at everything around him.
Tan pointed to the scratches in the rock.
Roine frowned and climbed from his saddle. He knelt next to one of the marks, following them the same way Tan had.
“How did you find these?” he asked softly.
“I followed marks left in the forest,” he said, though knew that wasn’t quite right. Subtle disturbances along the forest led him to the rocky incline.
“You tracked this?”
Tan shrugged. “Sensed it, probably. I’m not as skilled a senser as my father. Mostly a good tracker.”
Cobin smiled at him.
“Your mother said you had some skill. This is—”
He didn’t finish. “You recognize this?” Cobin asked.
Roine glanced at Cobin before nodding. “I haven’t seen these marks in years. Since before the barrier.” He looked down at the prints. “This wasn’t a simple Incendin shaper. Those are bad enough. Even the weakest of them knows shapings our fire shapers do not. But this…” He shook his head. “This is worse. Much worse.”
“What is this, Roine?” Cobin asked.
“I should have suspected when you told me of the Incendin hounds. But why would I? We haven’t seen them in so long.”
“Roine?”
Roine nodded. “To understand, you need to understand Incendin. Hounds are bad enough. They are dark creatures with strange gifts that have never been well understood. When I say you’re lucky to have faced hounds and lived, know that I don’t exaggerate. Once they have your scent, they don’t lose it. They will track you until cornered, and then they slowly tear you apart. That is the nature of the hounds.”
“Can they be killed?” Tan asked.
Roine nodded. “Not easily. It takes shapers usually. A few skilled with the bow or just plain lucky.” He met Tan’s eyes. “Remember when I asked about shapers in Nor?” Tan nodded. “Hounds can cross the barrier, but do so rarely, and at great cost. Most towns are protected by their shapers.”
Had his mother protected Nor? He didn’t think so, especially since she said she had abandoned her ability since settling in Nor. Then who? His father and Cobin often hunted in the woods, but he never heard anything about hounds. And Cobin hadn’t seemed to recognize the prints. “And if there are no shapers?”
“You pray they lose interest.” Roine looked up the rocky slope. “The hounds roam freely throughout Incendin, no different than the wolves of this area. But occasionally they’re directed.”
“Directed?”
Cobin’s eyes went wide. “Lisincend?”
Roine looked over to him and they shared a look. He nodded.
“You lost me. What are the lisincend?” Tan asked. What kind of creature could direct these hounds? How terrible must they be?
“They were men, once,” Roine answered. Cobin raised his eyebrows at the comment. “Long ago, the lisincend were men, fire shapers all, and powerful.” He paused, collecting his thoughts before going on. “Some have said they were all related to the Incendin throne. It’s not known how, but they performed a shaping upon themselves, using fire to alter themselves. Now they serve fire directly, twisted by their own shaping and empowered by it in a way none of our scholars have ever understood. They are powerful shapers, made more powerful by what they have become.” He voice grew more withdrawn as he spoke, and his eyes closed, almost as if remembering. “Even the hounds fear and obey them.”
“And they are here?” Tan asked.
Roine pointed to the tracks and nodded grimly. “It appears so, but I should have felt them.”
“How do you mean?” Cobin asked.
“The lisincend can’t move undetected. Their shaping has turned them into a manifestation of the fire they serve. They radiate heat as they move. This can be felt. This is one of their few weaknesses.”
“You think that a weakness?” Cobin asked.
Roine stared at him. “When you know where your enemy moves, you can either move to attack. Or avoid.”
Cobin grunted but said nothing else.
“Why are they here? Is it the same thing you’re after?”
Roine glanced
to the sky. “I hadn’t considered the lisincend would be sent. The barrier should have prevented them. That they’re here…” He looked down at the tracks again before turning to Tan. “Can you follow these? Can you tell me where they went?”
Tan thought he could. Not just following the tracks, but if he focused hard enough he could sense the disturbance in the forest they made as they moved through. “The tracks start here.” He walked over to the rocks and pointed down at the prints evident in the dirt. “They climbed down the rock and jumped down here.” Enough of an indentation remained for him to almost envision the foot that left it.
“How many?” Roine asked.
Tan shrugged. “I can’t tell. It might only be one.”
Roine looked at the rock again, considering. “One is probably more than we can handle. Pray there aren’t others.”
“If it’s the lisincend, where’d it go?” Cobin asked.
He was answered by a series of lightning strikes in quick succession, far in the distance. Heavy waves of thunder followed. Roine turned, looking back down the slope and saying nothing.
Toward Nor, Tan realized.
13
Return to Nor
Roine squeezed the hilt of his sword, his eyes going distant for a moment, and then took off without saying another word. He rode through the forest and back toward Nor.
Cobin looked back at Tan. “Tan…” He trailed off, as if unable to say anything more.
Tan nodded. “I know.” If the lisincend had attacked Nor, what would they find? Would his mother have been able to defend the city or had the wind not answered when she called? Tan knew so little about shaping. Had she told him about what she could do sooner…it wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Would they find Nor looking like the Aeta caravan?
A nauseated knot rose in his stomach and he struggled to swallow against it. He’d already lost his father. Nor was home. His mother was there. Everything he knew was there. And there wasn’t any reason for Incendin to attack Nor. The mines weren’t even really active anymore. It was just a mountain town like so many others.
Cobin watched the struggle play out over his face. “Did your ma tell you what he searches for?”
He grabbed the reigns of his horse from Cobin and shook his head. “Nothing. I’m not sure she knew.”
“Or that she’d tell you if she did?”
Tan sighed. “Or that.”
The rain picked up again when they reached the road, sluicing down, heavy and painful. Gusts of wind from high in the mountains blew at their backs, suddenly cold and biting. The sky crackled with lightning coming in rapid succession. Sharp explosions of thunder split the air. Ripples of rumbling followed, finally fading. Tan felt the silence as much as he heard it.
Roine rode far ahead of them. Tan and Cobin chased after as quickly as possible. No one spoke. The horses seemed to sense their unease and pushed forward. Relief flooded him as the packed path began to widen.
Roine and Cobin pulled up suddenly.
Tan stopped alongside them. “What is it?”
And then he looked past them. His heart seemed to stop.
Nor was no more.
A blackened crater spread out where the town had been. He saw no sign of the low wall that surrounded the town, none of the shops or homes within the town, and nothing of the manor house. The crater steamed like the charred fragments of wood where the Aeta caravan had been destroyed.
The scent of ash and soot filled the air. The stink of sulfur hung overtop everything.
Tan hadn’t known what to expect, but not this.
He looked at Cobin. A pained look pulled at the corners of Cobin’s eyes and mouth. Nor had been his home, too.
“I don’t—” Cobin started. “Bal?” Her name came out as a pained cry.
Tan jumped from his saddle and started forward. Roine held him back with a firm grip. “I need to go see—” Tears welled in his eyes.
Roine shook his head. “Not yet.”
Tan forced back the emotion threatening him. “Why? Why Nor? We’re no threat to Incendin. There’s nothing here…”
“I don’t know,” Roine answered.
“What could do this?” Cobin asked. His voice had gone high and shaky.
Roine sighed. “This…this is the lisincend.”
“But the caravan…”
Roine shook his head. “That was probably a single lisincend. This is what happens when the lisincend work together.” He closed his eyes. “I have seen this only a few times. The last was long ago.”
“Did anyone…survive?” Cobin asked.
“This isn’t meant for surviving. They cover their tracks, obliterating any evidence of anyone who might have seen them pass.” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”
When he had first seen the remains of the Aeta caravan, he had thought it a terrible fate for the peaceful people. This was worse. These were people he knew, had loved, and had lived with. People he’d called friends. His mother. Bal. So many others. All gone.
Tan turned away. He could no longer look.
“Is this because of you?” Cobin asked. Something in his voice had changed. A hard edge had come to it. “Did they do this because of what you seek?” Cobin worked to choke back a sob, staring at the emptiness around them.
“I don’t know.”
Anger and rage flashed across Cobin’s face. “You don’t know? You come to Galen…our home…and bring death with you! This,” he started, sweeping his arm around him, “was your fault. You’re the reason my Bal died!” He jabbed his finger at Roine with each word.
To Roine’s credit, he didn’t move, just shook his head. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. It’s possible they came here searching for me.”
“And King Althem? What will he do?” Cobin asked.
Roine frowned.
“You’re the Athan. What will the king do to Incendin?”
“You’re asking if the king plans to resume the war?” Cobin didn’t answer. “If I don’t manage to reach the passes first, it might not matter. If Incendin manages to get this item first…” He shook his head. “Other places within the kingdoms will face the same fate.”
“What is it? What does Incendin think to find that would let them enter the kingdoms so easily?”
Roine inhaled deeply. “There is an item, an artifact…”
Tan barely listened. Since his father’s death, he’d argued with his mother about leaving Nor. She feared he would settle, never experience the world around him, never understanding that he loved the forests and mountains around his home. But now? Now there was nothing left for him. Even if he wanted to stay, he couldn’t.
He could go to one of the neighboring towns. Velminth. Delth. Maybe as far to the north as Galesh. Towns similar to Nor. But they wouldn’t be the same.
Tears streamed down his face and he didn’t bother to wipe them away. Would his mother finally get what she wanted? Now that she was gone, would he finally have to leave?
A hand on his shoulder startled him. He looked over and saw Roine standing alongside him. “Tan—”
Tan swallowed, understanding the question in Roine’s tone. What would he do?
“I’ll still see you through the mountain pass.”
Relief washed over Roine’s face. “And then what?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. My mother…” He couldn’t finish.
“She said that she wished you would go to Ethea.”
Tan sighed. Ethea. The capital. The university. Going meant he’d owe the king service. Like his father. Seeing the crater that had been Nor, Tan knew he wouldn’t serve, not willingly. What was he in the face of such destruction? A weak senser, nothing more. No…Ethea wasn’t the answer.
Only, he didn’t know what he’d do.
“When this is over, I will bring you there if you choose.”
Cobin watched him. Tan didn’t want to meet his eyes. What would Cobin do? He was as homeless now as Tan. And without Bal, Cobin had nothin
g left.
“I’ll see you through the pass.”
Beyond that…Cobin needed him now. Tan wouldn’t commit to anything more.
14
Footprints and a Friend
Tan walked into the forest, wanting to look out at Nor one last time before he left. Nor was completely leveled. The earth curved downward in a slope, as if a huge boulder had been dropped onto the town. Everything around it was blackened and covered with ash. Low-lying smoke still hung like a fog over the land. Nothing moved.
Tan didn’t want to go near the crater—something about it just struck him as wrong—and let his feet carry him along the once familiar woods. He paused, listening as his father had long ago taught him. Everything was silent.
He circled the remains of the town before stopping near what had once been Cobin’s farm. The pens had been destroyed. Some of the wooden fencing remained, blackened and charred. There was no sign of the sheep.
Cobin stood in the center of what had been his land, looking around as if in a daze. Tan considered going over to him, but decided to give him space. He mourned just the same as Tan. Tears coursed down his cheeks and Tan turned away.
As he did, marks in the dirt caught his attention. Tan paused, staring for a long while before realizing what it was about the prints that seemed out of place. There was nothing unusual about these tracks; it wasn’t the type of print or the size that caught his attention. Rather it was the direction in which the tracks traveled.
They headed away from Nor.
The ground had been dry for weeks before this recent rain, so he knew these were new tracks, but with the rain, they should be heading toward the safety and shelter of town, not away.
His heart skipped. Could there have been survivors?
He followed the footprints as they led away from Nor, away from the crater of ash and smoke and into the forest. Farther from town, he found another set of tracks.
“Tan?” Roine called.
Tan waved his hand so they knew where he was.
Roine came up behind him. “We should go. I’d like to get as far as we can before night falls.”