The Focus Stone (The Tome of Law Book 1)

by Matthew W. Harrill

  It was a whisper, nothing more yet Erilee was totally unprepared for it. The voice had come from nowhere, searing her to the very core of her being. She tried to listen for more, but none came. Maolsechlan and Maolmordha just stood there, staring at each other for what seemed an eternity, until Maolsechlan turned and started in the direction he had stated. They quickly left the river behind, crossing it at a point of relative shallowness, which meant Erilee was only half swamped by the cool mountain water. She dried off quickly enough as she jogged on though, the breeze, taking the moisture as well as the heat from her clothing. Erilee had always been at the centre of things. She enjoyed the attention of people, and had tried at first to get attention from this most elusive of couples.

  She had welcomed the occasional tirade from Maolsechlan because at least she was getting some sort of attention, even if it was not the type she had hoped for. She had eventually tired of this; it was just not worth the effort. Instead, she started picking up their ways and mannerisms, and from that day on, everything had become less of an effort. The exercise, from which Erilee had repulsed while with the caravan, was now enjoyable. She was pleased that it was no longer difficult to keep pace with the others. Where they had previously left her alone with veiled threats and sore feet, she was now itching to continue when they stopped. Where the clothes they had made her wear were too tight and chafed, the plain dark garments now fitted her perfectly. So here she was, a girl about to become a woman, running at a fair pace across rock-strewn wasteland towards mountains she had never wanted to see again, and she was enjoying the feeling.

  Maolmordha had come alongside her then, and placed a small, opaque stone in her hand, and then dropped back. She stared at the stone – it was nearly black, with the slightest of silvery webs tracing across it. “What am I to do with this?” she asked, expecting more of an answer from the rocks and the wind than anybody else.

  “Hold it, do nothing for now. Just keep it in your hand is all,” came the reply from Maolsechlan, with not a trace of his normal irritation. She realised that she had not been given a command for once, but merely a suggestion. Erilee held on to the stone, tightly at first for fear of dropping it. As they crested a low ridge, she forgot about it quickly though, admiring instead the splendid vista. The mountains stood there in all their splendour. White-peaked craggy grey giants asleep across the entire view as far North and South as she could see. The cloud that covered their upper slopes reminded her of the fleeces her mother used to wear. Warm and cosy, they protected the mountains from cold, or so it seemed. The sudden recollection struck her. Why should she be thinking about her mother? She had not thought about her mother in what seemed an age. Maybe one day she would seek her out, and show her what she had learned. Erilee was sure that her mother would be proud to see that her daughter had become so independent, and could do so much. She knew that she would never trade what she was feeling now for such a sedate life ever again.

  They ran, effortlessly, tirelessly. Erilee found she could look about as she was running, as if the ground in front yielded to her presence becoming flat and even. She never seemed to step on any of the sharp grey rocks that seemed to be everywhere. It was as if her feet were barely touching the ground. They ran into the night, for which Erilee was pleased. When they did stop, she slept. When she awoke, she ate the food that Maolsechlan had prepared, and they set off again. The mountains loomed ever closer as they ran. The lower slopes seemed within touching distance, as if one could but reach out and grasp the iron-grey of the walled peaks ahead. Erilee looked back, realising that she could no longer see any trace of the river. None of the arrow-thin line of trees stuck out from their oasis any more. She should have felt thirsty, but she did not. There was the merest hint of a smudge on the Western horizon and Erilee knew those they sought were there. She saw Maolsechlan looking the same way, and once, even the veiled Maolmordha stole a glance.

  Wherever they may have looked, they continued towards the mountains. The ridge had never been named she realised, and wondered at why this was. They were simply called 'the mountains'. She felt the hairs rise on her arms, noticing that the air had grown suddenly cold. It was odd, though she did not mind the cold at all. In times only recently gone by, she had huddled underneath blankets and furs as they had passed the other way through the mountains. Now, the cold air flowed around her as she ran, and it felt as if she were encased in a bubble of warmth.

  The bubble burst rapidly though when Erilee slipped in a patch of undergrowth and was sent sprawling as if some unseen force had bashed her. She landed face first, the impact knocking the wind out of her. When she looked up and her vision cleared, the first thing she saw was that the other two had not stopped; had not even looked back. It spoke volumes to her. She realised in no uncertain terms that this was a place where the weak had no place. Everybody was expected to keep up, or die. The cold suddenly hit her – a bitter cold borne by a polar breeze out of the north and channelled down the side of the mountain ridge that towered to her right. Panic started to add its little mischief to the numbing cold when Erilee understood what she must do.

  The thought became clearer than the mountain air. She found the stone that had gone flying when she landed and gripped it hard, and then started running. Her dark companions were mere dots on the landscape far to the North by the time she realised that panic and worrying would get her nowhere. She knew where they were headed, and there was nowhere else to go, and besides, they had left tracks in the dusty ground. Gaining confidence as she ran, feelings of elation and warmth began to reappear from within. Before long she felt as she had before, passing through a shallow valley that paralleled the mountain ridge to the East. Unlike the sparse ground above the valley line, this was full of small, blue flowers, and there was a fragrance in the air that made her feel stronger yet. The figures in the distance grew as she closed upon them, the dark shroud of Maolmordha large against the more normal clothes of Maolsechlan. They were matching each other stride for stride, and when Erilee eventually caught them up, she did the very same. There was a sort of balance between the three of them as they ran. Words were not needed, and it was as if she got all the nourishment she required from being part of that trio. Once a mere younger daughter of a tinker family, Erilee closed her eyes and felt that she was so much more.

  It had been only a few months since she had met this strange pair, but she knew that following them was the best option she could ever have taken. Keeping her eyes closed, she could feel the pair of them to each side of her, living their every stride as she matched them. As long as she kept with them she was in one way their equal, and the energy she felt from the experience was boundless. Opening her eyes, she found herself right at the foot of one of the mountains. She looked around in shock. The mountains had been close before she closed her eyes, but not that close.

  The valley they had entered was nowhere to be seen. Maolmordha was sitting, as was his way when they were not running, and Maolsechlan was standing, looking North. The mountains, large and looming for so long from a distance were now immense sentinels under whose feet Erilee was afraid to get caught napping. Even from this nearer distance, the tops still seemed so far away above their cloak of cloud, but the enormity of the giants that made up the ridge brought everything into perspective. She shuddered inwardly when she thought how small and insignificant they were compared to the masses of rock upon which they rested. She voiced her opinion, bringing a grunt of a reply form Maolsechlan.

  “They are mountains, girl. They separate one bit of land from another. They are useful for fortifying towns, but they are a pain when you cross them. Nothing more. But why talk about that? Do you not wish to know how you came to be here?” Erilee nodded silently.

  “What you experienced, girl is called the Khol-sharr. It is a state of unity between three people, where the equilibrium each feels with the other can be used as a source to perform great feats. When you joined us the second time and we found our equilibrium, Maolmordha used our stren
gth to transport us.”

  “You mean we just went straight from one place to another?”

  Maolsechlan shook his head. “Not really. We were still running, but somewhat faster than normal. Did you not see how fast the land blurred by?”

  Erilee shook her head. “I closed my eyes for a moment and then we were here.” “Lucky the balance was maintained. You should have been concentrating more, girl. If you had let it slip, you would have found yourself strewn over many leagues, and now you have no idea of the distance we covered.”

  Erilee looked back from whence they came. “I saw a valley with flowers in it and that was all.”

  Maolsechlan snorted, his way of deriding those who did not understand him. “Girl, it would take you several months to reach that place again. We are on the northern edge of the great mountain chain, the other side of the ridge from the great city of Raessa. Therein awaits our master. We will continue up the chain and then pass through the mountains to the great city, but we will not resume now. We must rest.”

  And rest they did, waiting for a couple of days by Erilee's reckoning, though she was never sure any more, having been through the experience of what Maolsechlan called the Khol-sharr. When they did start, it was only after a cooked meal, produced from the Gods only knew where. They never ran, just trudged along. It was a mind-numbing experience for Erilee, who over the months had grown to enjoy the running. She stared at the mountains to her right day after day. When they eventually passed one, the next grey giant with his cape of pristine white came into view, ignoring them, as something of that size would naturally seem to do.

  It felt to Erilee that something was always watching her. She could never see anything though. It was almost as if the feeling permeated from the very rock of the mountains. She told herself that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, and that Maolsechlan was correct in his assumption that the rock was there to serve their purposes only, though she never wholly convinced herself of that.

  In fact, she was in the process of becoming very bored with the whole episode, a result of the lack of change in scenery, when Maolsechlan turned suddenly to the right and started climbing the slope of the mountain they were passing. Seeing Maolmordha follow him, Erilee kept pace. The slate grey of the scree slopes became intermixed with increasingly frequent patches of snow. These were easily avoided at first, but later, the majority of her effort was expended in trying not to slip back down the slope, a problem not faced by her two companions. A cleft came into view as they passed over an area of the slope, which seemed to be made of pure ice. She stole a look back the way she had come whilst slipping on the ice.

  The path they had taken was not obvious to the naked eye, but she was sure it was the only path that did not lead to death via a slippery plummet down the side of this resting giant. This was not a random path taken by her companions, she deduced, but a very carefully hidden path right down to the footsteps. She was sure that was the reason she had been slipping so much. Sure enough, when she walked in the footsteps of her two companions, the footing was stable. Nobody would find this path by mistake, it was too cunningly hidden.

  Concentrating as she looked down at the ice, Erilee was not aware of what was happening around her. She nearly jumped when she felt the merest whisper of cold touch her face. Looking up, she discovered that it had begun to snow. The flakes fluttered wherever the breeze around the mountain deemed that they should go. There was no cloud immediately above them, but the grey, scuddy cloud that often accompanies snow was visible nearby. The taste of the air had a certain bite to it that spoke of more to come, but for now, it was pleasant enough.

  It reminded her of when she had crossed the mountains previously; the initial delight of feeling the tiny pricks of cold touching her skin a new sensation, and a delightful one at that. She had revelled in it, remaining outside longer than anyone. Unfortunately, her eagerness to feel winter's touch resulted in her being bed ridden with a stinking cold for several days, and also resulted in the mistress banning her from straying from the van until they had passed through. She had been upset at the time, but appreciated it now.

  The cleft opened up to become a small narrow ravine in the side of the mountain, for which Erilee was grateful. By the time they entered the ravine, the snow was falling heavily enough to be an annoyance. When the walls of the ravine towered above them, the snow was falling as a full-scale blizzard. The narrow path through the rock provided sufficient shelter from the strength of the storm however, and only a few flakes made it to the floor. The dim light was accentuated by the white from the storm above; the cold air still, disturbed only by their movements, and the occasional flake of snow. There was a feeling of protection in the narrow ravine, as if the rock, which stuck out in shards and lumps, was driving the storm away.

  Once or twice, Erilee had to duck to avoid low hanging juts of rock, and she was constantly aware that some of the rock was extremely loose and liable to fall, She pressed ahead regardless, wondering what danger she would find herself in next. The light of the storm above receded into the gloom as the walls of the ravine became higher and more imposing. Only at rare times did the actual surface light shine through – more often it was reflected down by some glittering substance within the rocks. The gloom receded into the murk of a would-be night as the light grew more and more distant.

  Just as Erilee lost all sense of where she was going, mainly thanks to the wall she kept hitting, a spark flashed up ahead as Maolsechlan lit one of three brands he had picked up from somewhere. Handing it to Erilee, he proceeded to pick at the lock of a door that had been built into the end of the ravine. The door had the appearance of a long-forgotten rusted gate, but the lock yielded easily enough to Maolsechlan's skills, and the door opened silently on hinges that had been well oiled.

  They entered a tunnel that reflected the torchlight incredibly, as if the walls had been polished to a not quite mirror-like surface. Erilee peered into the wall, hoping to see a reflection of herself, but found instead that she became intensely dizzy. As she tried to concentrate on the walls, she could never quite see her reflection, as if it were somehow eluding her. She felt a hand on her shoulder; the hand of Maolmordha. “Don't stare at the walls, they are enchanted. The only reflection they allow is of these brands. Anything else will lead to darkness or madness. Perhaps both.” Maolsechlan looked ahead into the gloom as he talked.

  “How did this come about?” asked Erilee, once again curious. “Who would do such a thing?”

  Maolsechlan pressed ahead, almost eager to get to the end of the tunnel. “Girl, we are in the very roots of Raessa, at its furthest boundaries. There are feats of magic here that make this tunnel pale into insignificance. This is a trap to catch the unwary. There are things here that will make you wish you had never left your sorry band of tinkers. But you will face them all because you did. That is part of the choice you made. Everything here is of the will of our master. Every magic is of his creation, every being within Raessa's walls is here by his leave alone.”

  Maolsechlan almost crowed in rapture as he spoke. Something within him was being rapidly satisfied, like a man who had gone without water for too long, he drank it all in. Erilee knew that if you drank too much, you would be ill and lose it all. Layric taught her that. She wondered if the same would happen to Maolsechlan. He was enjoying being here, she could see that much. It was also obvious this was something to do with the voice that had frightened her so much out on the steppes. She wondered what the fire was that the voice had talked about, and had a feeling that she would know all the answers, and more, by the time she finished here.

  It was in this dark shiny tunnel that Erilee suddenly came to understand why Zya S'Vedai liked learning so much. It was things like this that Zya sought, but was glad in a selfish way that Zya had not come. The girl and her tribe would never see such wonders. The tunnel eventually became dark again as the torch burnt out.

  “Hold your hands out to the side,” instructed Maolsechlan. “Tha
t should be enough to see you safe. The tunnel is completely flat.”

  Erilee did as instructed, feeling the tips of her fingers brush the tunnel. She adjusted herself so that she was in the middle, and concentrated on making her way in the pitch black. As she had nothing else to do, Erilee stretched out to feel the wall. At first touch, it was cold and smooth, but as she walked, she began to notice more. There were ripples in the surface, and they seemed to follow her fingers wherever they trailed. Also, patches of the wall were colder than others, and some areas were damp. She reached out to poke at the wall, and it was almost as if it recoiled from the point.

  “Just use your fingers to guide you girl, and stop being so inquisitive.” Maolsechlan's voice drifted from somewhere in front. It could have been right in front of here, or half a league away, but she could not tell. One thing she did know was that his voice had lost all of its authority. He sounded nervous, almost frightened. Nevertheless, Erilee did as bidden, leaving the touch of the wall to mere guidance. They continued in silence for a long while, until the left wall disappeared. As nobody spoke, Erilee continued forward, keeping in solid contact with the wall she could feel. Something had definitely changed though. Before, Erilee had been sure that Maolsechlan and Maolmordha were somewhere near her. Now she was not so sure. What she did know was that something was walking near her, something huge. It was as quiet as a mouse but there were movements that gave its location away to her. Almost minuscule rumblings caused by movement, and of things rubbing against each other.

  There was something more though. The air around her was still, but it appeared to vibrate violently, as if something was thrashing with no effect. The sensation was strange. Erilee strained to see anything in the dark, but the pitch black of the tunnel denied her even the slightest light. It was more like an absence of illumination than the fact that it was dark. She reached out with her free hand, grabbing at what she thought was a movement, but she found nothing. The queer feeling moved off to the left, and with it the so nearly silent noises. Concentrating on trying to follow the echoes of the whispering sound, she turned her head, and proceeded to bump into something, or someone, right in front of her.