Aerenden: The Zeiihbu Master (Ærenden)

by Kristen Taber

  A growl escaped the Mardróch's throat, and Caide could not erase the image of a rabid dog from his mind. Caide quickened his words. Stilgan's growl deepened and Caide lowered his head. Stilgan grinned, showing jagged teeth through the webbing that covered his mouth, taking pleasure from Caide's submissive movement, but Caide had used the trick to avoid looking into Stilgan's red eyes. Heat boiled inside him. His power surged in a way he had never felt before, and he continued to focus everything into it.

  Stilgan approached Caide's side, and then his hand shot forward. The knife bit into Caide's shoulder. He cried out in pain, lost focus on his power for a moment, and then ignored the throbbing in his flesh and the warm blood streaking down his arm. He found his power again, continued reciting, and then gritted his teeth when the knife nicked his left hand.

  By the time Stilgan's blade glanced along Caide's side, the smell of smoke filled the air. Stilgan missed the acrid scent, but Caide could see heads turning in the crowd, seeking out the source of the fire.

  Stilgan's knife traced a small slit through Caide's pants, but only grazed the skin underneath. Caide finished the fire spell, adding the last two lines he had written the night before to make the flames tower into the clouds. He had had no way to practice them to ensure they worked, but when a woman in the crowd gasped and then screamed, he knew they had done exactly as he intended. Stilgan turned on the crowd, his knife poised high as he sought the person who had dared interrupt his fun, but when he realized every set of eyes had focused on the edge of the village, he turned to find out what captured their attention.

  It did not take him long to see the flames shooting high into the air from the kitchen hut, a beacon noticeable from miles away. Thick black smoke funneled into the sky, disappearing among the rain clouds. Caide smiled as the hut's roof collapsed inward. There were two people inside, and that thought would soon occur to Stilgan.

  As if on cue, the Mardróch leader turned to one of his guards. “Who's on duty?” he demanded.

  The guard's eyes flicked to the hut, to the walls now consumed by flames. “One of them is the brunette woman who makes the muffins you like.” He licked his lips. “Caryn.”

  “And the other?”

  The guard's eyes trailed from the hut to Caide and Stilgan understood. He wheeled on Caide.

  “You did this!”

  Caide's smile only broadened in response.

  Stilgan's hand sought his neck. “You'll pay for this,” he snarled. “Someone put out that fire. Make sure there are two bodies in there.”

  “There are,” Caide pushed the words past Stilgan's grip. “I made sure to adapt the spell so it covered the exits. There's no way she could have escaped. She's dead.”

  “I don't believe you,” Stilgan said, though his fingers relaxed with his surprise. “Why would you kill the girl? You cared for her.”

  Caide's smile did not falter. “I did. And now there's no way you can take her from me.”

  Stilgan hissed out a breath in anger. His fingers tightened again and darkness descended over Caide's vision, though he found light in the truth.

  Two bodies lay in the hut, as Stilgan would soon discover, though he would not be able to identify them as anything more than black bones and ash among the twisted remains of the furniture once filling the kitchen hut.

  The bodies were human, but death had found them weeks ago. His mother's best friend, Caryn, had dug them up from a makeshift cemetery last night. This morning, a guard had placed them in the hut before helping Caryn and Emma escape—the same guard who stood in front of Caide's hut every night over the past week. He had once been a loyal protector for Caide's grandfather, and now served that role for Caide.

  It had taken Caide almost a month, but he had finally mastered the spell to break Stilgan's power. Soon the Mardróch would learn who really commanded Zeiihbu.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  NICK URGED his horse onward, pushing her to her limits and then begged her for more speed. She seemed to enjoy the challenge of charging through the forest, her hooves in flight as she wove through an obstacle course of branches and logs. Ambler had been right to say Equus had supernatural speed and she relaxed into the freedom of her power whenever Nick allowed her to use it. More than that, she understood Nick's need to get back to the caves and met his need with the same desire.

  Their journey had begun at the first glimmer of day. The gildonae had returned the day before, bearing a message, though his mother could not tell him what the note said. None of the Elders had seen the language before. As an expert in ancient dialects, Sam had been trying to translate it, but Nick's mother warned him it could take some time.

  She had told him to stay in the village until she knew something more, but he found her request impossible. He refused to hear the news secondhand. He had to know if Meaghan still lived.

  Dark had descended over the woods when he finally spotted the entrance to the caves. Although a large maw in the terrain, only those with permission could see it. The strongest magic the Elders could provide guarded this section of the forest. Once invited inside the protected area, the invisible entrance appeared, but only a few people could leave and return at their own discretion.

  Nick dismounted from his horse. Taking her reins, he walked with her toward the entrance. The cave structure was vast. It wound deep into the ground for miles, perhaps longer, providing plenty of room for the hundreds of people who sought refuge from Garon's destruction. Many of them had lost loved ones. All of them had lost their villages. They did the best they could to turn the caves into a home. Smaller caverns served as gathering rooms, play areas, and schoolrooms. Larger spaces held sleeping and cooking areas. But nothing would serve well as a stable. He only hoped Equus would find the entrance suitable, once Nick located a blanket to keep her warm, and perhaps some hay to make her comfortable.

  As if reading his thoughts, she halted. He tugged on her reins, but she resisted his command with a shake of her head.

  “It's not so bad, Equus,” he told her. “I know it won't be as nice as the stables, but you'll have plenty of company. The children will love you.”

  She whinnied and jerked her head up and back, yanking the reins from his hands. He recaptured them, twisting them around one fist before raising his other hand up to her muzzle. Before Ambler's lessons, Equus's behavior had frustrated Nick, but now that he had learned her nature, he understood her insolence always held purpose. He may not be able to communicate with her in the same way Ambler had, but that did not mean he could not figure out what she wanted to tell him.

  “It's all right,” he assured her. “There's no danger around. I would have sensed it.”

  She whinnied again and lowered her head, calming.

  “That's it,” he said, stroking her with a light touch. “We're safe.”

  Her eyes darted to the left and he drew his hand to her mane.

  “What do you see?” He turned his head in the direction she had indicated and scanned the shadows, looking for movement. He saw nothing, but when Equus snorted and stamped the ground in impatience, he felt certain he had missed something.

  “Shhhh,” he told her and closed his eyes, sensing for magic. He caught only the faintest hint of it—a strong, dormant magic held inactive by its owner. When the horse stilled, he heard sniffling and understood why the power had come across that way. It had not fully developed yet. It belonged to a child.

  Nick looped the reins around a tree limb, and then left Equus behind as he followed the sniffling further into the woods. He stopped at the base of a tall oak tree when the sound moved from in front of him to over his head. Peering into the branches, he tried to locate the child, but he could only see dark tree limbs blending into the darker sky.

  “Who's up there?” he asked. The sniffling stopped, but no answer came. “I won't hurt you,” Nick continued. “I only want to help.”

  At first, he heard rustling as the child moved, and then a soft voice spoke. “Nick? Is that you?”
>
  “It is,” Nick answered, recognizing Faillen's youngest son. “Can you climb down safely, Aldin?”

  “I think so,” the boy responded. Louder rustling came from above, and then Aldin dangled from a large limb by his hands like a monkey. Nick held up his arms, and Aldin dropped into them.

  The boy sniffled again and ran the back of his hand across his nose, wiping snot down his sleeve. His face appeared ruddy and his eyes were red, like he had been crying for a while. Nick frowned at a dark shadow circling his right eye.

  “Did someone hit you?” he asked.

  Aldin did not answer. Instead, his lip trembled and his eyes overflowed with tears. The boy sobbed on Nick's shoulder for several minutes before calming. Nick moved to put Aldin down, but when the boy circled his arms around Nick's neck, clinging to him, he held on for a while longer.

  A breeze danced its way through the forest, kicking up leaves and tickling Nick's skin. Aldin shivered in his arms and Nick set the boy down on his feet to examine him. He wore no more than a pair of cotton pants and a short-sleeved shirt. Nick ran his hands down the boy's arms and felt goose bumps dotting his skin.

  “You're freezing,” Nick said. “What are you doing out here without a cloak?”

  “The older boys chased me.” Aldin whimpered and wiped his eyes with his palms. “I ran outside to get away but then I couldn't get back in.”

  Nick draped his cloak around the boy's shoulders. It dragged on the ground, so Nick sat and collected the boy into his lap. “Which boys were chasing you?”

  “Tibi and Noel and, um,” he pinched his eyebrows together. “Their cousin. The one with the spikey hair.”

  “Ezer,” Nick muttered and frowned. He knew all three boys, but more importantly, he knew their parents. “Which one of them gave you the black eye?”

  “Tibi,” Aldin answered and his eyes filled with tears again. “He said I wasn't allowed to play with his sister.”

  “Why did he say that?”

  “Because of my mark.” Aldin sobbed and drew his fists to his eyes. “Because I'm from Zeiihbu.”

  Nick sighed and held the boy close again. Aldin rarely wore short sleeves, mostly because his mother had trained him to cover his arms while they lived in Ærenden. The animosity shared between Zeiihbu and the rest of the kingdom made it unsafe for the young boy to show the mark of his tribe. But the caves often grew hot, and the young boy's mother was no longer around to protect him. Although Nick had no doubt Neiszhe took good care of Aldin, she would think more about his comfort than hiding his heritage.

  Nick traced his hand along the boy's left forearm, drawing it down so he could examine the mark that had brought the other boys' animosity. The plum-sized tattoo painted two black triangles on the boy's olive skin about an inch below the inside of his elbow. One triangle represented the past, the present, and the future, a reminder to all Zeiihbuans that their years on this world remained integrated with those who came before them, those who lived with them, and those who would follow them. The other triangle represented the three tenets they lived to protect: nature, family, and honor. Inside the interlocking triangles, an open eye designated Aldin's tribe. Each tribe had a different symbol representing the tribe's greatest strength. The eye represented wisdom.

  Nick traced his thumb over it and smiled. “They don't understand it, that's all,” he told Aldin. “It frightens them.”

  “They frightened me,” Aldin said and crossed his arms over his chest. “They were mean.”

  “And I'll make sure they're punished for it,” Nick promised. “But next time something happens, you should go to Neiszhe for help. It's not safe for you to leave the cave.”

  “She doesn't want me,” Aldin whispered.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “She told May she didn't know what to do with me. She said I was being bad. I don't mean to be. I try hard, but I don't like it here. I want to go home.”

  “This is your home,” Nick told him. He drew a hand up Aldin's back, stroking to comfort him. “I'm sure Neiszhe didn't mean it. I'm sure she's worried about you right now.”

  Aldin shook his head. “She isn't. She's glad I'm gone. Nobody wants me.”

  “That's not true,” Nick said and tensed his arms when Aldin tried to push back from him.

  “It is!” the boy yelled. “It is! Dat left me. He sent Scree back, but he didn't come. He rescued Caide and they're going to stay in Zeiihbu without me. They don't want me 'cause it's my fault Mata's dead.”

  Aldin's little body shook with racking sobs and Nick held him tight. He understood the boy's pain. He had lived it once, too, and he knew no amount of denial would convince the boy he had nothing to do with his mother's death. Nick pressed a kiss to the top of Aldin's head and tried anyway.

  “Why do you think it's your fault she's dead?”

  “Because I left,” he sobbed. “Because I left the boundary and,” he sobbed again, then pushed the last of his sentence out. “Because I left the boundary of the huts and the Mardróch found me. I gave away our hiding place.”

  “You mean the time Meaghan saved you?” Nick asked. Aldin nodded against Nick's chest and Nick drew his hand to Aldin's shoulder, settling him backward so he could look at the boy's tear-streaked face. “You turned those Mardróch to stone, remember? They didn't have time to report your location.”

  “They did. The monsters found us. They took Caide and sent the fire.”

  “They found you because they saw your father and your brother hunting.” Nick lifted the boy's chin. “It's not your fault, and it's not your brother's or your father's either. The monsters are bad. They do bad things.”

  “I'm a monster,” Aldin said and his lip trembled again. “I'm bad.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because Dat didn't come back for me. He's gone.”

  “He's not,” Nick reassured him. “He's not back because he hasn't rescued Caide yet.”

  “You don't know that.”

  “I do. Meaghan and Cal aren't back, either. They left with your father to rescue your brother.”

  Aldin stared at him, confusion wrinkling his brow. “But you left too,” he said.

  “Your father asked me to do him a favor. I didn't go with him. I went somewhere else in Ærenden.”

  “You didn't leave because of me?”

  “I would never do that. You're a good boy, Aldin. I know you feel bad right now, but that will pass in time.”

  “It hurts,” Aldin confessed and pressed his hand to his chest. “I miss her.”

  “I know.” Nick covered Aldin's hand with his own. “I know exactly how you feel. My father was killed by a Mardróch when I wasn't much older than you.

  Aldin's eyes grew wide. “He was?”

  “He was. I thought it was my fault, too. I went outside the boundary of my village and my father came to look for me. He saved my life, but he died. I thought I was bad. I thought everyone would hate me if they found out I caused my father's death.”

  “Did they?” Aldin asked.

  “No one else knows but Meaghan and she doesn't hate me, does she?”

  Aldin shook his head.

  “Do you?”

  Aldin shook his head again. “You're not bad,” he said. “You're nice to me.”

  “And you're nice to me,” Nick told him. “You're my friend.”

  Aldin chased the last of his tears away with his fists. “Will you really make sure the boys are punished for hurting me?”

  Nick grinned. “You bet. No one messes with my friends.”

  Aldin giggled and Nick stood, lifting the young boy with him.

  “Are you ready to head back into the caves?”

  “Yeah,” Aldin said. “Do you really think Dat still wants me?”

  “I know he does. But if you want to be certain, why don't you ask him when he gets home?”

  “Okay,” Aldin agreed and draped an arm over Nick's shoulder.

  Nick returned to Equus and Aldin squealed with
excitement when he saw the horse. Nick placed him in the saddle and held him steady as they made their way through the woods. He paused a step before the boundary line of the protection spell and lifted Aldin from the saddle.

  “You are welcome here,” he said, and then moved to set the boy down, changing his mind when Aldin rested his head on Nick's shoulder.

  They led Equus through the entrance into the first cavern. Nick brought her to the back wall, away from the draft funneling in from outside, but could not find a place to tie her reins. He thought about bringing her deeper into the caves, but before he had the chance to attempt it, the sound of shuffling alerted him that he and Aldin were not alone.

  Nick turned to view a woman at the passageway leading to the next cave. Her red hair fell to her shoulders in a practical cut, and her familiar green eyes welcomed him with warmth. He smiled at his mother and then glanced at the teenage boy who stood at her side. In his arms, he clutched a blanket and he stared not at Nick, but at Equus.

  “You've run her too long,” the boy accused Nick when he tore his eyes from the animal. “She doesn't mind, but I do.”

  “Agatone,” May said, her voice low in warning, but Nick held up his hand to keep her from saying any more. He grinned.

  “Don't worry, Mom. I'm accustomed to dealing with Equine Masters.”

  “I'm not,” she muttered, then sighed when the boy bumped her as he brushed past to go to the horse. “He and his family have only been here a week. They have terrible manners.”

  “It seems to be a side-effect of their power,” Nick told her. He reached out to pat Equus on the muzzle, and then smiled when the horse nudged him away. Agatone had pulled a brush from inside the blanket and she realized the reward she would get for her day's labor.

  Nick set Aldin down, removing his cloak from around the young boy's shoulders before taking hold of his hand.

  “Where did you find him?” she asked.

  “In a tree. It seems some of the other boys chased him out of the caves.”