Lochnar grunted sourly, walking over to the window. More than likely, the fool girl would wake the Gorinthian and it would be up to Lochnar to save her fool neck. Even so, he did not insist that she back away from Morindessa. He could feel the warmth from Morindessa’s Spirit, a thick flow that carried love and fondness in it.
Lochnar felt Thistledown’s presence moving closer, now somewhere near the town gates. Riah’s resonance seemed more pronounced than it had before she had disappeared, with a kind of purity in its core that burned brighter than the sun. Lochnar wondered how giving a piece of his own core had caused such a drastic effect. That was, however, a question for another day. The strange girl from the other world must have learned to control her resonance to some degree, because it was no louder than the other people around her now.
The torches that lit the wide road cast flickering shadows on the buildings that lined the street. Human eyes would have had trouble seeing through the poor light, but Lochnar’s Talon heritage had given him the same ability to see well at night that Zerans possessed. After several minutes of waiting, Thistledown came into sight with the rest of their group. Riah, Li and Lori were riding three of the horses that Morindessa had brought with her, with Lendel leading the packhorse by the lead rope. Li seemed to be wincing at every step her horse took, and Lendel kept eyeing the packhorse that he was leading distrustfully. Riah was an accomplished rider, but Lochnar was surprised to see Lori handling her reigns with a confidence that came from years of experience riding horses. She must have been from a wealthy family, wherever she was from.
As Thistledown’s companions reigned in at the front of the building, an armored soldier walked toward him purposefully. “This inn is sold out for the night.” The soldier waved impatiently for them to move on. “You will need to find another place to sleep.”
Thistledown ignored him, tying Riah’s reigns to a post at the front of the building. The soldier shouted something angrily, but before he could utter a complete word, he slid limply to the ground. Lochnar felt Thistledown’s yar expand into the inn with a wavelength with which Lochnar was not familiar. A moment later, the inn was silent as the drunken laughter below him cut off. Frowning, Lochnar tried to puzzle out what Thistledown had done. The wavelength that Thistledown had saturated the rest of the inn with had been too weak to forcefully knock a person out, barely more than a trickle.
“Thistledown is here,” Jesha said suddenly, her cat-like eyes widening in surprise. “How did he know where to find us?”
Lochnar ignored her, turning to watch Morindessa as Thistledown walked up the stairs. Just before Thistledown reached the door, Lochnar felt a small flash of another Spirit’s presence in the building, and then it was gone, but not before Lochnar recognized it. Feeling the molten fire rage fill his blood once more, he jerked his sword out at the same time that he pulled his yar back through the link that he shared with Thistledown, until his entire Spirit was hidden in the realm of negatives. Pulling his body back into the realm of negatives was always a painful process, requiring him to sustain his body’s functions with his Spiritual energy. Jerard had caught him by surprise the last time they met, leaving him less alive than a garden slug. He had also left Lochnar a changed person, inadvertently giving him the keys to a world that he alone understood.
The door banged open and Thistledown rushed in, looking at the spot where he knew Lochnar was standing, though his physical eyes could not see it. “What’s going on?” he demanded, looking around the room for a threat.
“We have company coming,” Lochnar said, almost a purr. “And now that Terrance is gone, I think he will be brave enough to come out in the open.”
Chapter 25
Thistledown stood over Morindessa, studying her with his feral eyes narrowed. Reaching out with his yar, he felt his awareness merge with the smallest particles that surrounded them, spreading his Spirit’s energy through the coarse matter that made up the Physical Realm. As his awareness enveloped Morindessa’s still form, he felt her yar pulsing inside with a frantic hope, almost on the edge of desperation. At the same time, he could also feel the subdued yar of the Gorinthian that had dominated her body. The Gorinthian’s link to her physical body would have caused its senses to shut down with the body that it was attached to when the body was unconscious, causing the subdued yar.
Riah came into the room and knelt down on the other side of Morindessa, reaching out to brush a lock of dark hair out of Morindessa’s face. The rest of their growing group of companions stood in the hallway, trying to peer in the door to see what was happening.
Frowning in puzzlement, Thistledown studied the few remaining contact points that Morindessa’s Spirit still had with her body. There were only a few million at the most, with the greater part of them centering on her brain and spine. Shaking his head slightly, Thistledown wondered how Morindessa had managed to hang on to her body at all. Gorinthians never left a Spirit connected to their host.
Thistledown looked up toward the door where Seranova and Ferrich watched anxiously. “Seranova, I need to borrow your Chasel,” Thistledown said crisply, hoping that he was not mistaken in what it would do to Morindessa.
Seranova stared at him in shock. “How did you know I have a Chasel?”
“That’s not important,” Thistledown said impatiently. “If you want to help Morindessa, then please just hand it over.”
Seranova flushed slightly, pulling her pack off her back and setting it on the floor in front of her. Thistledown felt his eyebrows rise slightly in surprise as she plunged the first half of her body into her pack, rummaging around while she muttered to herself. Where had she come by a traveler sack? Terrance and he were among the only remaining people alive who knew how to make traveler sacks. She must have found it somewhere, though how it had stayed intact for several thousand years was a mystery.
Seranova emerged from her traveler sack with a leather pouch, holding it carefully by the drawstrings as she handed it to Thistledown. Untying the drawstrings, Thistledown quickly hardened a layer of elements on the Spiritual plane that would block the Chasel from affecting anything beyond himself and Morindessa. Taking a deep breath, Thistledown dropped the small statue of a winged man into his palm. It immediately began glowing with an incandescent light that banished all of the shadows from the room. Thistledown felt the Gorinthian’s Trenchants burn off in a flash, and he hurriedly dropped the Chasel back into the leather bag.
As soon as Thistledown felt the Gorinthian awake, its Spirit losing its hold of Morindessa’s body, he wrapped thick layers of hardened Spiritual elements around the evicted Spirit. It thrashed around, trying to break free of the tight cocoon, still writhing in pain from the searing of its Trenchants. Pushing down the sense of pity that arose from his stomach, Thistledown aligned the dense, negative elements that he carried in his Virtual Scrip until they formed a swirling drain. The communion plane emitted a scream that made no sound as Thistledown tore the Gorinthian's spirit to pieces, until all that remained were the base Spiritual elements that had made up its being. Thistledown pulled his store of negative elements back into his Virtual Scrip, along with the new Spiritual elements he had dissolved from the Gorinthian. Thistledown and Terrance used the Spiritual elements to barter with some of the Elementals who had not chosen sides. They were always eager to grow, now that most of the Spiritual elements in the universe were used up.
Thistledown felt waves of intense relief emanate from Morindessa as the Gorinthian Spirit disappeared from her body. Looking up at Riah, Thistledown took another deep breath, “So far so good.”
She smiled at him encouragingly, her exquisite face shining with confidence. Reaching into his Virtual Scrip with his yar, he pulled out several varieties of Tramnel, comparing them to the few remaining traces of Tramnel that were still on Morindessa’s body. Tramnel was similar to blood, in that a person’s body would only work with Tramnel of the same class. There were also hundreds of different kinds of Tramnel. He sighed in relief as he found
a web of Tramnel that matched the remaining contact points on Morindessa’s body. Carefully, he began grafting the rough textured substance that was a mix of both Spiritual and Physical matter to Morindessa’s skeletal structure. Her body convulsed wildly as the foreign material merged itself to her body. Thistledown winced in sympathy, knowing too well the pain he was causing her by grafting Tramnel to her body. It took several minutes to complete the process and her body writhed on the ground the entire time while Riah stroked her hair comfortingly.
“I am going to need you to do the rest, Morindessa,” Thistledown coaxed her gently. “You need to attach yourself to your body again. Try to flex your muscles. That seems to help sometimes.”
Morindessa continued writhing on the ground for several moments, before jerking into an upright sitting position with a loud gasp, her eyes flying open. She let out a long, shuttering breath and fell into Riah’s arms, sobbing quietly.
Thistledown stood up, looking at the place he could feel Lochnar. “Do you think Jerard will attack us here?”
“No,” Lochnar replied grimly. “He knows we are expecting him now. He will wait until he thinks we have forgotten the incident, or passed it off as a trick of the imagination. Then he will strike.”
Thistledown nodded his agreement. Jerard had always been a patient person, and was nothing if not cautious. He would want to make sure he held all of the cards before attacking. “We need to get to Shalilayo as quickly as possible.”
Looking into the hall at the silent youths, Thistledown handed the Chasel back to Seranova with a nod of thanks. She was studying his alien features in fascination, instead of the wary caution that most people regarded his wild appearance.
“Riah, why don’t you stay here with Morindessa?” Thistledown suggested. “The rest of you come with me. We need to purchase some horses.”
Ferrich cleared his throat, “Do you mind if I stay here?” he asked, glancing at Morindessa in concern, “I already have a horse.”
Thistledown nodded in acquiescence, walking back down the hall with the others following behind. The common room was filled with sleeping soldiers, many of them snoring loudly. Lori caught up to him as he exited the inn, walking silently next to him. She looked as if she were unsure of where to start, so Thistledown made it easy for her, “What’s on your mind, Lori?”
Looking up at Thistledown with a small crease on her forehead, Lori absently rubbed one of her temples, “Do you know anything about the world that Terrance and I are from?” she asked at last.
“I do,” Thistledown replied quietly, looking back at the other youths. They were talking among themselves, with Seranova listening to their conversation with interest.
“I was wondering why Terrance didn’t use electricity, or create guns, or any of the other things that we have on Earth?” Lori looked up at Thistledown expectantly, her young face showing a sharp intelligence. “He was a scientist after all.”
Thistledown rubbed his chin musingly as he pondered her questions. “As for electricity, it won’t work on this world. It exists, but this planet has such a strong electro-magnetic field that it interferes with electronic devices. When Terrance first arrived, he did try to make several electric components that were similar to what you use on Earth. Even using vacuum tubes instead of transistors didn’t work.” Lori was looking at him strangely, probably wondering how he was familiar with the foreign technology. “Terrance thinks the raw Spiritual energy that radiates throughout this universe creates too much instability in the conductive elements electricity travels through. As you learn to use your yar, you will see the same phenomenon when you are near a fire. It changes its yar as quickly as its molecular structure changes so that it causes a chain reaction with the Spiritual energy around it.”
“Are you from Earth?” Lori asked curiously, studying his face doubtfully. “I don’t even know what some of what you just said meant, but I am familiar with the words.”
“That’s a difficult question to answer,” Thistledown replied evasively. “The most direct answer would be no, I am not from Earth. Terrance has shared a lot of his knowledge with me however.” It was not exactly a lie. Terrance had shared a lot of his knowledge with him. Just not in the manner that he had implied.
“All right,” Lori said after a moment of thoughtful silence, “what about the language? I would think it stretched coincidence a little too far to arrive on a planet in another universe, only to find that everyone speaks English.”
Thistledown chuckled softly, “Very astute. If you asked anyone on this planet if they spoke another language, they would not even know what you were talking about. When Terrance and Jerard first arrived on this planet, the people here spoke many languages. Once the two of them had organized the different primitive tribes of humans into a civilized society, they insisted that everyone learn English. There are variations and differing accents throughout the continents, but everyone but the Zerans still speaks English, though they don’t know that it is called English.”
“And the guns,” Lori prompted. “Or do they have guns?”
“No guns,” Thistledown said firmly. “Jerard has no interest in guns, because he has weapons of much greater destructive power. He also does not want to kill everyone. He has plans for them that they have to be alive for.”
Lori frowned, glancing up at Thistledown, “So why don’t you use guns?”
“A gun is just another tool for killing, except that it does it more efficiently than a sword or a knife,” Thistledown said quietly. “Our goal is to save lives, not empower people to kill more efficiently. Before the end of the last civilization, people used yara as a weapon. With a gun, you can kill everyone in a room, or on a street. Using yara, I could stop every heart in this town from beating. But as I said, we want people to live.”
Lori nodded slowly, the doubt fading from her young face. “What about cars?” She gestured at a wagon cart next to a food stand that a farmer was loading as he closed for the night. “Do they all travel by horse and foot?”
“They do now,” Thistledown looked at the farmer loading the cart, causing the scrawny man to do a double take as he saw Thistledown’s feral eyes and alien features. “Before civilization ended, we had created large highway systems that traveled through the air, powered by yara. Society didn’t depend on the basic needs of survival the way it does in primitive cultures, because they could create their own food with yara, and pull castles and manor houses out of the very ground in a matter of hours. People spent most of their time on recreational activities and studying yara. For a short time, it was the happiest society to ever exist.” Thistledown was lost in his memories of a different life, where sadness and misery were strangers. For a short period of time, it seemed that the darkest mysteries of the universe would be brought to surface in the light of discovery that had spread across the globe.”
“Do you miss it?” Lori asked gently, bringing Thistledown back to the present with a start.
“Miss it?” Thistledown asked with a laugh. “It’s hard to say. Memories are always grander than reality. If I am still around in a thousand years, I will probably look back on this period of my life fondly. I have always believed that people do not achieve happiness; they must exercise it. The more you exercise it, the easier it comes back to you.”
Thistledown broke off their conversation as they arrived at the stables on the outskirts of the town. Reaching out with his yar, Thistledown’s awareness expanded into the large house next to the barn. Everyone was still awake, but Thistledown could tell from the mellowness of the residents’ resonances that they were close to settling in for the night. Before he arrived at the front door, a couple of dogs ran out from behind the house, barking and snarling viciously at Thistledown. For some reason, domestic animals like dogs and cats went berserk when Thistledown was near. It must have had something to do with his original heritage, but he had never discovered how cats and dogs could sense him coming before they saw him. He knew they could not feel his resonan
ce or his yar, and he was fairly certain it was not his scent.
A young man with pimples covering his face came out the front door, shouting at the dogs to stop barking. It was an exercise in futility. He finally walked down the short steps, grabbed both dogs by the scruff of the neck, and began dragging them back toward a shed at the back of the house. It seemed that the dogs might win the tug of war with the pimply lad, until a short, chubby, bald man exited the house and helped him wrestle the dogs to the shed. He returned a moment later, brushing his hands together.
“I apologize about the dogs,” he said with a patronizing smile. “I don’t know what’s got into them.”
“Not a problem, good master,” Thistledown assured him with a smile, careful to keep his lips closed to conceal his serrated teeth. “We apologize for the late hour, but we are in urgent need of some good horses.”
“I don’t know about good horses,” the chubby stable master replied, rubbing a hand over his baldpate. “Some of the king’s soldiers showed up this morning and garnished my finest horse flesh.”
“We will be glad to take what you have left, good master,” Thistledown replied brusquely. “We will need seven.”
Yawning, the stable master absently ran his hand over his baldpate one more time. “Let me fetch a lantern and I will show you the stables.”
He disappeared into the house, reappearing a moment later with a lantern. “If you will just follow me please.” He walked past without looking at them, almost as if he were afraid he would recognize them if he saw them. Thistledown wondered what Lieutenant Sanders had said to him that morning regarding strangers.
Jalorm quietly moved up so that he was walking next to Thistledown. “There is something wrong in the stables,” he murmured quietly, leaning down so that his mouth was close to Thistledown’s ear. “I can smell blood.”
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