by D. H. Dunn
“I will search the right passage,” Merin said. Drew gave her a look of surprise, but the woman was already moving, headed off into the shadows.
Taking Upala’s hand, Drew ran down the left corridor, completely unsure of what to expect next.
The hallway was dark, lit only with the occasional torch, most of which were burning low. Before long, they came to another intersection, this time with three options in front of them.
Drew looked at Upala, and she stared at him for a moment before realizing what he was waiting for.
“Hmm,” Upala said, looking at the three options then pointing at the one straight ahead. “If I were here to take something, it would be this way. The other two passages lead to areas we are still excavating.”
Taking the lead, Upala raced down the stone hall with Drew close behind. As the hall grew dimmer behind him and new light grew ahead, Drew realized they had all reacted so quickly no one had thought to grab any weapons or discuss strategy.
Drew was unable to voice his concern before he and Upala burst into a room together.
Three bodies lay on the ground near the entrance, all men dressed in clothes like Trillip’s and all dead by clean cuts to the throat.
A fourth dead man was sprawled on the floor in the center of the room, this one charred to a cinder.
The chamber itself was large, relatively square though the walls had been left in their natural cavern condition. Many of the walls were covered in dark ovals. Inert portals.
As his eyes adjusted to the light, Drew saw a desk in one corner covered in papers and scrolls.
Sitting at the desk with his feet up, several scraps of parchment in his hands, was one of the biggest men Drew had ever seen. He was massive in height well as girth. The man’s skin was dark olive, reminiscent to Drew of Upala’s, though it lacked her soft glow. He was clad in simple leather clothes all of which appeared handmade and were stitched and patched in several areas. His round face was framed with a dark, braided beard and he had similar intricate braids in his hair. Across his forehead were several striking tattoos, animal shapes in brilliant blue and red.
He laughed, a booming sound which filled the room.
“Finally, Upala! Finally! I knew you were back among us, but I wondered how long it would take for you to come here. I do have so much to ask you.”
“Who are you?” Drew asked. “Did you kill these men?”
The man took his feet off the desk and put the papers on his lap. He looked over at the three guards with slit throats by the door and shook his head, the expression on his face one of boredom.
“No, I did not. Those insects were dead when I got here.” He pointed to a far corner of the room where the fourth body lay, the blackened corpse nearly burned beyond recognition. “I only killed that one. He got in my way. The other three? I would say you have another problem.”
He burned him? Drew stood frozen as Upala stepped forward. Another Manad Vhan? Merin had said Upala and Kater were the only ones anyone had ever seen.
Flame burst from Upala’s fingers, surrounding her hands in brilliant orange potency. “We leave that question for now! One man dead or four, it does not matter. Who are you?”
“Such concern for Rakhum? Strange and interesting, indeed. My name is Sinar. Our people would call me Palketh Sinar, but I suspect that is a language you barely understand from looking at your writings.” He tossed the papers to the ground. “Disappointing that I finally find you and your notes, and there is so little you have learned that I did not already know.”
“Palketh,” Upala sounded the word out, flames still trickling from her fingers.
Drew picked up a nearby sword from one of the fallen guards, the action bringing a chuckle from Sinar but no other response.
“Palketh,” Upala whispered. “Expelled one?”
“Better than I expected. Yes, I am an outcast amongst my people, your people as well, Upala. In all the world since leaving the City of Sands so many years ago, finally I find another Manad Vhan such as myself.”
“Another Manad Vhan?” Drew said. “I thought you and Kater were the only ones here.”
“So did I,” Upala said, her voice cracking.
“Precisely, so you might as well put that silly piece of metal away, insect. Douse those flames too, dear Upala. I mean you no harm, and, sadly, you know you can do none to me.”
Drew kept the weapon tight in his hand. The fire in Upala’s fingers diminished to small embers, but she kept them lit.
“The guard, you didn’t need to kill him,” Drew said.
“I don’t kill out of sport, quicklife. He attacked me, a fruitless gesture, but he also barred me from reading these materials. When a door is closed, I open it. When an obstacle refuses to move, I remove it. His choice, I did warn him.”
Upala took a step forward, Drew advancing with her. He felt as useless as he had with Kater.
Four more people dead, for papers?
Drew saw an intensity in Upala’s eyes that he had not seen before, the softness he found so appealing washing away.
“You come here, you claim to be Manad Vhan. After all these years, after all these millennia of just my brother and me, now you come? Why? How could you know we were here? What do the Manad Vhan want?”
Sinar laughed, a deep sound that shook the braids in his beard.
“The Manad Vhan? They want nothing, at least nothing to do with you and your brother. No, I am Palketh, much like your parents. Cast out for beliefs that did not sit well with the others in the City of Sands. For centuries I have wandered this world, through jungle and ocean and cave that no Manad Vhan had ever seen other than I. Searching for lore that you have here, you and your brother. Centuries of research I hoped for, already done for me.”
“So, you seek the truth of the Hero, as Kater and I do?”
As Kater did, Drew corrected Upala to himself. Perhaps she felt it wasn’t a good idea to let Sinar know Kater was gone, or she was still processing her brother’s death.
“I seek a truth, there are many truths to Orami Feram after all. A Hero to some, he was. I have seen enough here to see you seek a means to escape the dragons. Feram knew he couldn’t keep the Fears locked away forever after all.”
“Yes, as much as my brother seeks the Hero’s ability to combat the Dragons. What is it you are seeking then, that it would be worth all this to you?”
“All this?” Sinar laughed again and stood from the desk. Once on his feet, he was even bigger and more imposing than Drew had thought, Drew only coming to the man’s shoulder.
The room seemed to shrink from his mass. “’All this’ is simply one dead Rakhum, one of thousands I’m sure I’ve killed in my time. Not that much.”
“Do all your people talk incessantly?” Drew asked, stepping closer to the man. He had to look up to glare at Sinar, willing his eyes to hide the fear he was feeling. Even without magic, Sinar was big enough to tear him apart. “What do you want?”
Sinar put a large hand on Drew’s shoulder, his smile wide and friendly.
“I like this one, Upala. I can see what you see in him. What I want, quicklife, is something you possess and take for granted.” The man leaned in close to Drew, his weight pressing down on his shoulder and his eyes locking into Drew’s own.
“I want death.”
“Death?” Upala asked, brows furrowing. “You wish to die?”
“If I could, I would consider arranging it for you,” Drew said, forcefully removing Sinar’s hand from his shoulder.
“If you could, small man, I would take it. As it happens though, you are the key to getting me what I need. I have been following you for some time, knowledge of your upcoming arrival has brought me to this region. These notes here,” Sinar threw Upala’s papers back onto the table, “are merely a happy accident. But you, my friend, you and you alone are the greatest prize of all.”
“Me?” Drew said. “Me? How could you know I would be here? How would I even matter?”
�
��Your world, my friend! This wonderful cold and hot place you come from. I have spent centuries looking for a path to it, much as dear Upala here seeks Sirapothi I seek your legendary Earth. An amazing place where our Manad Vhan abilities have no strength, where the endless wandering and breathing and existing can be over and I can finally experience something truly new.”
“You want me to guide you to my world, to Earth? So you can die?”
Sinar bent down farther, leaning in to Drew’s ear as if he were telling him a secret. “No need to guide me, the path is right inside you. Within your essence lies all the clues I need to find a direct portal to your lovely world. I just have to reach in and grab it.”
“Drew!” Upala’s shout came just as a new warmth and explosion of pain erupted in Drew’s chest. Looking down, he could see Sinar’s beefy arm embedded into his ribcage up to the wrist. He could hear a rushing sound, as if a river were rising around him. It drove out the sounds of Sinar’s laugh and Upala’s scream. His vision began to lose color, the world turning gray as the stone floor rushed up to meet him.
Chapter 6
As Val walked through the forest, the surging tide in his mind refused to calm. He needed to focus, to find his center, yet all around him were problems and distractions, emotions and fears.
Only one day earlier he had walked out of Caenola, intending never to return. Anger and frustration drove him, just as they had driven his father. Now his father was gone, and he found himself just as compelled to return, to get answers for what had happened.
Where would the tides take him now, without his father? He was adrift, the road forward uncharted. His own people seemed to be on a course other than his, and he had lost the only other person embraced the possibility of change.
Now he sailed alone, the winds and seas of his future filled with uncertainty and doubt.
Not completely alone, he reminded himself.
Just slightly ahead of him walked Nima, one of two strange women he had met from another land. The existence of other worlds was taught in the elder’s teachings, the waves of life were known to land upon many shores. Though neither woman was like what he would have expected an alien to be, Nima was the stranger of the pair.
Tanira was easier to understand. She walked behind him, tall and imposing, with her blades drawn. She had shown a fiery personality bubbling on the surface, but Val expected there were deeper tides underneath. There was more to this woman, much that she held back. He wished his father could have seen her. Adda had been a good judge of character.
Tanira was what Val was used to. People had layers, they had what they showed you and what was underneath. Father learned that lesson, never imagining that his own people might exile him for his views. For all her strange talk of a Line and her odd customs, Tanira felt familiar. She wanted more than she said, she had goals that were unrevealed.
Nima seemed to be exactly what she appeared. As odd as her smooth skin might be, the woman’s face was alive with joy and excitement. She seemed completely honest in her desire to accompany Val back to his people, and to help him however she might. Val felt certain if he asked her to climb a tree or chase a darkeel, Nima was likely to do so out of a desire to experience something new.
It was endearing, but it made him nervous. Only the Thartark were so transparent. How could he depend on her?
A few steps ahead, she continued to walk just as his crystal’s energies intensified inside his mind. He could see the red glow turning amber in his thoughts, knowing it was echoed visually on his face. Something big was moving through the forest and it was nearby. He ceased walking and focused.
He stopped suddenly enough that Tanira might have bumped into him, but she didn’t. He whistled softly at Nima, and she stopped in her tracks as well.
“Something is coming,” he said. With the size he could detect, it was one of two beasts. One would be trouble, and the second was worse. The ground trembled with its footsteps as he recognized its aura. The lesser of the two threats. If they were careful, they would be all right.
“Grun,” he whispered. “Get into the brush, off the path. Crouch down and cover your head with your arms.” He knew the pair had no idea what a grun was, but they both followed his instructions with precision. Tanira knelt next to him, her hands closed over her weapons.
Nima looked around, eyes wide. “What is it?” she whispered. “Does it eat people?” Still crouched, Nima bounced from one foot to the other, head whipping around as she sought to get a view of the beast.
Val had never seen someone so anxious to see danger.
By now each footstep was a thunder, the leaves falling from the trees like rain.
“No, it does not eat meat. It is a large grazing beast.” Val said. “The biggest creature in the forest, and the most dangerous save for the darkeel. The grun panic easily, the danger is in being trampled. If we stay still and quiet, it will eventually pass by.”
“Stay here and wait? How tough is their hide? Can we defeat it?” Tanira asked from his side, now lying prone on the floor of leaves and twigs, both weapons in her hands as her eyes darted about.
The question was so ludicrous Val was uncertain of how to answer. You did not combat the grun, you hid from them.
“I have no idea,” Val said. “Look, it comes now.”
Through the dense trees and brush, he could see the great shaggy fur of the Grun as it pushed two legs through the nearest bushes and crushed them. Another pair of legs, and finally the third set. The shaggy creature stood four times as high as Val as its long snout reached out to pull at the top leaves of a tree, bringing them into its maw.
“It is amazing!” Nima said, her eyes having grown even wider. “It looks like a giant yak, except for that long nose!”
Val could see Nima’s hands and knees twitching, she was getting ready to move. His nervousness rose. They did not understand.
“No, we must stay here,” he said. The excitement in Nima’s eyes was obvious, if confusing. “We must wait until it passes.” He pointed to the ground for emphasis.
“What will happen if we rouse it?” Tanira asked.
Val looked between the pair of women, now both tensed and ready to move. He could feel his crystal’s intensity rising with his tension. What were these two thinking? They needed to stay down, stay here.
“I--I do not know,” he said. He began wringing his hands. “I have never fought a grun, nor have I disturbed one. It is not what you do with a grun. You wait. You wait until they are done eating.” He took a breath, bringing his voice back to a whisper. “That is what you do.”
“No, like I said it looks like a yak,” Nima said. “A really big yak with more legs. Yaks are stupid and they mostly just stand there eating. I don’t want to stand here and watch a giant yak chew while the bugs bite my backside. Do you Tanira?”
“I do not,” Tanira said.
Val could now see what was coming. It was like a wave approaching the shore and he was powerless to stop it.
Nima stood first, Val saying silent thanks to the sea that at least she stood slowly. He kept kneeling, poised and ready to move if the beast reacted. He waited for the roar and the pounding of the grun’s hooves, but they never came.
Val peeked through the bush to see the grun had done nothing beyond stretch its trunk to pull more leaves down. As Tanira slowly stood to join Nima, the grun just chewed, giving no notice of them. It may not have seen them, Val supposed.
A new thought entered his mind. Perhaps it did not care? Could the teachings of the Elders be wrong about this too, or perhaps exaggerated? With a steady, slow motion he allowed one knee to unbend, then the other.
Suddenly he was standing, feeling like he had awoken from a dream. He was standing in the great forest while a grun ate, just paces away from him. Doing nothing but eat.
A smile crept onto his face. He could see the beast now, see it in a way he never had before. It was just an animal, it was no storm or Tempest to hide from. It simply wanted food just as
he did, it was no great threat.
He could see its blue eyes as they looked around the forest, he had never known they had blue eyes. He wondered if they all did. He noticed that its fur was not just gray, but there were some white streaks in some areas. The trunk of the creature had small spikes near the tip, which looked like barbed pieces of bone. He had never known those were there, and the drawings of them by the Elders did not show them.
The grun was beautiful.
Val supposed he might be the first Caenolan to ever to stand in front of a grun and simply see it, rather than tremble from it. With Nima and Tanira by his side doing the same, Val marveled at the majesty of the huge beast. Fear had held him back, but these two strangers had helped him see. The joy of this discovery built up inside him, and he could not contain it.
“Wooo-ha!” he shouted, his voice a cry of freedom and jubilation. Tears were in his eyes as the sound of his triumph echoed through the forest.
His cry was met with a second sound, a reply in the form of a snort from the grun. It was now staring directly down at Val, the blue eyes fixed on his own. It was no longer chewing, its head now moving slightly from side to side while it dragged one foot back and forth.
It snorted a second time, taking a step toward them.
“I think--” Nima said.
“--we should run,” Tanira finished.
Val raced into the trees, Nima already ahead of him with Tanira at her side. Behind him he could hear the beast crash into the brush after him. Even as the branches and leaves whipped past him, he was surprised to find he was still smiling.
The sun was just beginning to set as they emerged from the boundaries of the forest. Nima was unsure which of them was laughing hardest. They were each covered in mud, their clothes were ripped and torn and Nima was still pulling brambles out of her hair. She noticed she had also scraped her arm at some point, but it did not hurt much.