Gorinthians

by Justin Mitchell

  Captain Jorbran followed Dedran, wondering how many other inventions were lurking around without names.

  Chapter 28

  Captain Jorbran studied the garden around him as he followed Dedran. He had not been to the Rajan Gardens since leaving the Tar Ri’ San. Gardeners only took students to the outer edge of the Gardens, where it was safe for them to view it. Captain Jorbran was not quite sure of what to expect in the inner garden, where only the Gardeners ventured. The part of the garden they were currently traveling through did not look very different from what lay outside of the garden: evergreens interspersed with small clearings surrounded them and thick undergrowth crowded around the towering pines. Captain Jorbran recognized the ferns, red berry bushes and maisen scrub.

  “How far is it?” Captain Jorbran inquired. He was looking for something that indicated a defining line between the normal plants and the wild plants that grew in the inner gardens.

  “Another hour,” Dedran replied without looking back.

  After another quarter hour, Captain Jorbran began to notice a few new plants that he had never seen. Giant trees that dwarfed the evergreens slowly replaced them. Eerie, silver light began emanating beneath the large canopy of giant trees. Peering up into the giant branches, Captain Jorbran realized that the leaves were a metallic silver color, reflecting sunlight down into the undergrowth.

  “Are these the silver leaf trees?” Captain Jorbran asked in awe.

  “Yes,” Dedran answered without looking up at the glittering leaves.

  Captain Jorbran thought that he detected a note of wry amusement in Dedran’s tone. Of course they were the silver leaf trees, Jorbran thought to himself with a silent chuckle. Some of his men had nicknamed him Captain Obvious, though they did not think he knew that.

  The leaves from the silver leaf tree were used to make armor for the Guardians. Silver leafs were stronger than the best steel they could make, and much lighter. Captain Jorbran noticed that all of the remaining evergreens were dying. “What is killing the evergreens?”

  “Insidiuons,” Dedran replied in disgust. “The evergreens have no protection from them.”

  “What are insidiuons?” Ornico asked curiously. He had been staring at the enormous silver leaf trees with the same awe as Captain Jorbran.

  “It’s a small thorn that preys on other hosts,” Dedran answered, his eyes constantly searching the forest around them. “It burrows inside of trees, shrubs, flowers and even some animals. Once inside, it begins draining the host of nutrients. It usually takes several years before the effects begin to show. By the time you discover it is inside of you, it has already begun imitating your resonance, so it is almost impossible to find.” Dedran gestured at the evergreens. “The Rajan Garden has grown larger in the last century. As the garden expanded, the insidiuons found their way to the evergreens.”

  “They don’t appear to affect the silver leafs,” Captain Jorbran observed. All of the silver leaf trees seemed healthy.

  “There is a fungus called the morlan tor that grows on silver leafs,” Dedran replied. “Once it covers the tree, it hardens until it is almost as hard as the silver leafs. The insidiuons cannot penetrate the morlan tor.”

  Captain Jorbran began to revise his opinion of the Gardeners. Obviously, the garden was as dangerous as they said it was. As they continued moving deeper into the forest, the evergreens disappeared altogether, and other strange shrubs appeared. Thick brambles surrounded many of the clearings, some of them filled with the desiccated corpses of animals. Captain Jorbran moved closer to the bramble, trying to determine what kind of creature it had snared.

  “You will be joining that carcass if you get any closer to the morning gory,” Dedran commented almost conversationally.

  Captain Jorbran stopped, noticing the way the branches on the brambles began quivering as he came closer. Studying the animal corpse with his yar, he could feel the three-inch long spikes sticking into it. The rest of the branches on the bramble were bare of thorns, appearing harmless.

  “The thorns only come out in the morning when an animal is snared,” Dedran explained. “Most of the animals that end up in there are chased in by other predators.”

  Captain Jorbran felt a slight shiver run down his spine. It would be suicide to enter this garden in ignorance. The more he learned about the Rajan Gardens, the less he liked them. Falling in behind Dedran again, they continued deeper into the deadly garden. He began seeing flickers in the thick foliage beyond his vision. Reaching out with his yar, he sensed the presence of several creatures that appeared to be following them in a broad circle. He had spent many years in the forests surrounding Chasel Ri’ Aven as a Guardian. As he studied the resonance of the creatures following them, he could not match them to any of the creatures he was familiar with. A few of the animals resembled the resonance of wolves, though these creatures seemed to be more intelligent. He could sense the creatures using their yar to communicate with each other in a crude language, similar to what Guardians used to coordinate searches with scouts. These creatures were at least twice the size of a wolf as well.

  “Are these animals dangerous?” Ornico asked, nervously fingering his sword.

  “They shouldn’t be, with me here,” Dedran said frowning slightly. “You can never tell with strangers though. Hectres are extremely intelligent. Most packs consider humans too much trouble to attack, but if they think you are helpless, they usually become more interested. They know that the two of you are not helpless, so my guess would be that they are just curious.”

  Captain Jorbran watched Dedran suspiciously. He could feel Dedran's yar responding to the Hectres in the same manner of communication the Hectres were using. He had a feeling that some of the local wildlife following them were there at Dedran’s request. Dedran had always had a tendency toward the melodramatic. When they were in the Tar Ri’ San, he would pretend to know less than he really did. When the time came for the monthly skill test, he would miraculously transform into one of the most knowledgeable and adept students. Pulling the carpet out from under people's feet was a talent Dedran had honed to a razor edge.

  Ornico was several years younger than Dedran. His face was taut with alertness as he searched the surroundings with his eyes, as well as his yar. Captain Jorbran caught his eye. He rolled his eyes to the sky. Ornico grinned sheepishly back at him, relaxing slightly. Ornico would make a good officer someday. He had a quick mind and a solid discipline that the Guardian Council prized so highly.

  They continued for another half hour before reaching a twenty-foot high wall of green hedges. The wall of hedges curved slightly to either side. Captain Jorbran realized the wall made a giant circle around the stump. Dedran led them along the outer perimeter of the wall until they reached an opening.

  There were no trees within the inner circle of the hedge wall. The ground was a soft loam that gave the impression of being alive. Stone benches made a dotted ring around what must have been the stump. If he had not expected to see a stump, he would not have recognized it as such. It was easily fifty feet across. It looked like a large platform adorned with bark on the sides for decoration, rather than the remains of what had been the world’s largest tree. Sunlight shown down through the open sky above and lit the entire clearing. Floating motionless in the center of the Stump was the image of a portly, old man with wispy shoulder-length brown hair. He wore a tattered brown robe of homespun wool and leather sandals. As Captain Jorbran moved closer, he could see the man’s penetrating brown eyes staring into the distance.

  “Ornico, I want you to soul-bind him if anything goes wrong,” Captain Jorbran instructed the young Guardian. “I am going to inspect him.”

  “I will come with you,” Dedran announced, reaching up to the chest-high stump and pulling himself up.

  Captain Jorbran hurriedly pulled himself up and the two of them slowly closed the distance on the intruder. Reaching out with his yar, Captain Jorbran began studying the image in front of him. There was no resonance emanat
ing from the man. It was as if he were a reflection. In the center of the apparition, there was a hard knot of Spirit. Feeling it gave him the sensation of a whirlpool.

  Coming to a stop a pace in front of the old man, Captain Jorbran reached out to tap him on the shoulder, but his hand fell through the man's shoulder as if it were air. Pursing his lips, Captain Jorbran reached down to where the man's navel would have been. The hardened knot of Spirit seemed to be located there.

  He felt a moment of shock as his hand felt something solid. Before he had a chance to recover from his shock, he felt a sudden pull, as if someone had roped him and was trying to pull him in. A sense of panic began rising from his stomach as he realized that it was his Spirit that was being pulled, not his body.

  “Ornico, soul-bind Captain Jorbran, now!” Dedran shouted urgently from where he stood behind the old man.

  Captain Jorbran gasped as the force of the spell-binding wrapped around his Spirit. It was never a pleasant sensation. His Tramnel no longer felt like it was being ripped from his body, but he could still feel a connection to whatever it was that had snared him. Once again, he felt the sense of a whirlpool. This time, a Spirit seemed to be swirling toward him through the vortex. Captain Jorbran tried to remove his hand from contact with the knot of Spirit on the apparition; however, his arm did not seem to want to obey the command.

  A moment later, Captain Jorbran felt the Spirit merge with the image in front of him. There was a deafening detonation that shook the ground and Captain Jorbran found himself flying through the air. He hurriedly expelled the wind from his lungs before he landed, trying to minimize the delay of having his wind knocked out of him. With a loud thump, he landed on the soft loam with a grunt. A sharp pain in his right arm and chest bespoke broken bones. Ignoring the damage, he hurriedly stood up and whipped his sword out of its scabbard, gasping at the sharp pain in his ribs. Dedran was nowhere to be seen. The soul-binding had broken at the time of the explosion. The backlash from breaking his soul-binding had knocked Ornico out.

  The intruder was still in the middle of the stump, but he was no longer floating. He stood gazing at his hands in wonder. Captain Jorbran thought he heard him say, “Well I’ll be damned, it worked.”

  Pulling himself back onto the stump was not really on option with his damaged limbs. A throwing knife would not be any use at fifty feet. Captain Jorbran hunched over so that the edge of the Stump hid him and he began making his way toward Ornico. If he could wake the young Guardian, he might be able to distract the intruder long enough for Ornico to kill him.

  He had only moved a few feet before the intruder called out to him.

  “I say, that was an awfully decent thing you did there,” the man said in a polished voice. “I must apologize for the broken bones, but you weren’t supposed to grab my spirit-anchor with your hands. You could have killed us all.”

  Straightening, Captain Jorbran watched the strange man cautiously as he walked toward the edge of the Stump. He had not felt the robed man's yar reach out, yet the man had known he was there. “Who are you?”

  “There is always time for formality later,” he replied briskly. “First, we should see to fixing those bones of yours.”

  The portly man grunted slightly as he jumped down from the Stump. “I must say, I have gotten out of shape. Let’s see that arm first.”

  Captain Jorbran hesitated, unsure of what to do. The man did not seem to pose a threat and there was an air of command surrounding him that made Captain Jorbran instinctively want to obey. Before he could make up his mind whether to submit his arm, the robed man reached out and grabbed his wrist. His arm went completely limp; he could not feel it at all. Trying to back away, he almost tripped over a small mound.

  “Now hold still,” the robed man commanded sharply. “You don’t really want to feel what I am going to do to your arm.”

  Captain Jorbran still had not felt the other man's yar, but he could feel the effects of what he was doing with his own yar. The clean snap in his arm closed together and the crack disappeared. A moment later, the feeling returned to his arm.

  “Now then, let’s see about your ribs,” he muttered under his breath. “Two of them it looks like.”

  Captain Jorbran felt his chest go numb. He watched in amazement as the process repeated and his ribs mended themselves as if of their own accord. Once again, feeling returned to his chest. “How did you do that?” Captain Jorbran demanded.

  “You're welcome,” the robed man said with a tight smile. “Tell your friend to settle down.”

  Captain Jorbran blinked. Dedran was slowly creeping up behind the robed man. Shaking his head at Dedran, Captain Jorbran turned back to the strange man. “Why are you here? How did you get here?”

  “I see that you are a very curious person,” he replied pointedly. “You have addressed me four times, and each time with a question. Most people start conversations by introducing themselves, offering refreshments and sometimes flattering the guest.”

  Captain Jorbran shared a look with Dedran. Did the old fool think he was a guest?

  “Listen, we really don’t have time to discuss my manners,” Captain Jorbran said curtly. “I have a city to defend. I need you to come with us to the Council of Elders.”

  “Councill of Elders?” He seemed to taste the words. “Yes, I do believe they will need some help if they wish to survive the pending war.”

  Tiring of the robed man's game, Captain Jorbran walked over to Ornico and shook him awake. “It’s time to go. Can you walk?”

  Ornico’s eyes popped open. He blinked several times before nodding. “Who is that?” he asked pointing at the brown-robed man.

  “A good question that I don’t have the answer for,” Captain Jorbran replied sourly. “I will let the Council deal with him.”

  Dedran was still frowning at the brown-robed man suspiciously. His whole stance radiated disapproval. “I am not sure we should take him to the council. At least, not until we are sure he is safe.”

  Before they could discuss it further, the old man began walking toward the opening in the hedge wall. He was not hurrying, but he was not moving slowly either. Shrugging his shoulders in resignation, Captain Jorbran began to follow. If the old man had wanted to harm them, he would not have healed him earlier. Dedran followed behind them, scowling darkly.

  The old man began walking in a parallel path to the trail Dedran had led them to the Stump. He walked with his shoulders straight, preceded by his portly stomach. He carried a calm authority with him that rivaled the Elders. Captain Jorbran looked forward to the impending confrontation with a certain satisfaction. The Council of Elders had a strong belief in humility, though they did not seem as apt to apply the belief to themselves. They were very good at teaching it to others, though. The old man wore arrogance like a second skin.

  They continued following the old man as he moved toward the edge of the garden. As far as Captain Jorbran could tell, they were staying parallel to the same path had used before. Somehow, the old man must have been able to sense the path they used earlier, though Captain Jorbran still had not sensed the other man reach out with his yar.

  The old man stopped in front of them, staring down at something on the ground. Captain Jorbran moved forward to join their self-appointed guest. Several paces in front of him, there was a small pool of what looked like stagnant, black water. Reaching out with his yar, Captain Jorbran tried to discover what had caught the old man's interest. As his yar settled into the pool, Captain Jorbran let out a gasp. It was not water. The thing had a resonance. It had a patient, intelligence that surprised him. The old man moved forward slowly, with his hand outstretched to the black pool of water.

  “Stop!” Dedran warned sharply. “Back up, now!”

  Captain Jorbran tensed at the deadly warning in Dedran’s voice, moving backward slowly. Either the old man did not hear him, or he chose not to listen. He continued moving forward slowly with his hand outstretched.

  “Maybe we won’t be in
troducing him to the council after all,” Dedran muttered quietly to Captain Jorbran. “This might get very ugly in a moment.”

  As the old man moved closer to the jet-black pool, Captain Jorbran felt its resonance quiver slightly in expectation. A moment later, the dark liquid came to life, flying toward the old man so fast that Captain Jorbran stumbled back in shock. Just before the thing wrapped itself around the portly old man, it came to a sudden stop a mere fingers breadth from his face. The old man walked around the large body of liquid darkness, studying every side of it, as if there were not a danger in the world.

  Captain Jorbran shared a look with Dedran and Ornico. How had the old man halted the liquid mass in mid air? There was still no indication that the old man in his tattered, brown robe had used his yar.

  “What is that thing?” Ornico asked Dedran with a kind of morbid curiosity.

  “It is a mireman,” Dedran answered quietly, his attention on the old man. “They are extremely acidic. If they wrap around you, your skin will melt off. They feed off their victim’s blood, once they have dissolved the skin.”

  Ornico blanched slightly at the description. It sounded like a gruesome way to die. It seemed fashionable to die a macabre death in the Rajan Gardens.

  The old man was muttering to himself as he studied the mireman. His forehead was creased into a scowl. Captain Jorbran wondered if he might be slightly senile. As the old man passed close to him on his examination, Captain Jorbran thought that he heard him mutter, “Damn elementals.”

  “What’s an elemental?” Ornico asked the old man. He must have heard him too.

  The old man’s head swiveled around to stare at Ornico, his eyebrows slightly raised. He looked even quirkier with his long, bushy eyebrows trying to touch his shaggy grey hair. “What do you mean?” he demanded sharply. “Are you saying you do not know what an elemental is?”

  “No sir,” Ornico replied slowly. “Should I?”