Aerenden: The Zeiihbu Master (Ærenden)

by Kristen Taber

  She ran a hand along the inside of the watercraft, marveling at the parchment colored wood. Even the off-gray bark lining the outside of the boat reminded her of paper, the fine dark lines ingrained within it mimicking newsprint. She shifted in her seat and sighed. While she could say a lot for the vessel's beauty, she would never brag about its comfort. Her seat has as much give as a concrete brick.

  She lifted one leg and then the other, attempting to revive her circulation, but paid for the effort with her paddle. It slipped into the water with a loud splash.

  Faillen coasted his boat alongside hers, and then leaned over the side to fish her paddle out of the water with the agility of a man who had grown up on these vessels. He handed it to her.

  “I thought you said you'd done this before,” he said.

  She frowned at him and dipped a blade into the water, lifting it to break the surface as she moved forward. “I have,” she said when he mimicked her movements, easily keeping pace alongside her. “These kayaks aren't right. They're too light.”

  “I'm not sure what a kayak is, but these are standard weight for undano.”

  “And maple leaves,” Meaghan grumbled. “I feel like a quick gust of wind would turn me over.”

  Faillen chuckled. “You'll learn your balance soon enough. Your use of the paddle is good, but you put too much work into it. Small strokes will help you keep control better. Like this.” He moved his paddle, alternating one side and then the other like she did, but instead of dipping it into the water and propelling forward with muscle strength, he glided the paddle just below the surface. The boat drifted forward with minimal effort.

  Meaghan followed his direction. The undano treaded water more smoothly than it had before. It also felt more stable.

  Faillen nodded his head in approval. “Good job. You learn quickly.”

  “At least someone thinks so,” Meaghan quipped. Faillen grinned, and then guided her closer to the shore to avoid a small island of rocks. She scanned the shoreline. Although the distant forest looked more like blotches of brown and green than individual trees, it appeared as a mirror image to the shore they had left hours before. Despite the rivalry between the tribes of Zeiihbu and the people of Ærenden, both sides of the kingdom looked the same from the river.

  She and Faillen continued to paddle. Occasionally, a fish jumped from the water, creating ripples in its wake or a bird swooped low, looking for prey. Otherwise, they remained alone.

  They had not started out that way. Mycale and Darvin had made the journey from their village with Meaghan, Faillen, and Cal the day before, setting up camp at the bank of the river before the moon had reached its apex in the sky.

  As promised, Everel appeared at first morning light. He brought fifty men and women with him, as well as a dozen undano. Faillen's eyes widened when he saw the boats.

  “How did you manage to get those?” he asked.

  “Laegoli's family makes them,” Everel said, nodding toward a man at the front of his army who looked only a few years younger than Faillen. Laegoli pulled up the sleeve of his shirt, showing a tattoo below the inside of his elbow. Two interlocking triangles framed a small hammer.

  “He came to us from Zeiihbu last year,” Everel continued. “His uncle joined the tribe after the Zeiihbu War.”

  “Ah, I see,” Faillen said. “That explains everything.”

  “Does it?” Cal asked. “I thought these boats were all over Zeiihbu.”

  Faillen chuckled. “True. Every tribe can make them, but no one makes them as well as the Lignaerius tribe. Their craftsmanship is the reason they earned the symbol of the hammer many ages ago, just as my tribe earned the eye for our ability to guide and give advice.”

  “You're from the Paecis tribe?” Laegoli asked. He inclined his head in a show of respect. Meaghan saw a half dozen other men follow his lead. “Forgive me, Faillen, son of Cadell. I didn't realize it was you.”

  “The genuflection isn't necessary,” Faillen told him, annoyance edging his voice, and Meaghan had to smile when she realized royalty did not come easily for him either. Faillen rewarded her humor with a scowl.

  The small army left soon after. Meaghan and Faillen traveled alone, despite Cal's protests. They would take the river route, while everyone else would ferry across to the opposite shore and continue on foot. By the next afternoon, they would reconvene south of Faillen's village.

  After so many weeks with someone watching over her shoulder nearly every hour of the day and night, Meaghan relished her newfound quiet. The thrill of it lasted until mid-afternoon, when she realized she also missed the companionship and the conversation.

  Bored, she turned her gaze to the river. It reflected her face back to her, overlaid with puffy clouds, and she dipped her paddle into the center of the image. Concentric circles danced away from her, then disappeared, leaving the river as calm as it had started. Beneath the surface, tall grass swayed along a silent undercurrent. Half a dozen small, silver fish danced around the grass. She watched them for a while before they gave up their play and darted further down the river.

  Sighing, she craned her neck to look behind her. The water rippled once, then twice, and a third time as something unseen disturbed the surface.

  “Look out,” Faillen's voice came from close by and she spun back around in time to see his undano directly in front of her. Too late to halt her movement, she tensed for an impact. Faillen pushed her boat to the side with his paddle, and then stopped it alongside his by gripping the back of her seat.

  “You're distracted,” he said.

  She pressed her lips together, embarrassed that she had nearly tipped them both. “I guess I'm just used to having more people around.”

  “The quiet's bothering you,” he guessed. She nodded and he smiled. “Me too. Let's fill it. I'm sure you have questions about Zeiihbu. Why don't you ask them?”

  “I was afraid I might offend you,” she confessed. “Since Zeiihbu's technically part of my kingdom, I feel like I should know everything about it already.”

  One corner of Faillen's mouth tipped up in a wry smile. “Perhaps, but many who grew up in Ærenden know nothing about my land. I wouldn't expect someone raised on a different world to know more.” He placed his hand on the side of her boat, propelling her forward again. “There's a fork up ahead. Take the left when you get to it. The right heads back into Ærenden.”

  Meaghan nodded and then thought for a moment as she paddled, trying to determine which question she wanted to ask first. She settled on one as she approached the fork and veered to the left.

  “You said Zeyed figured out a way to cross the river. Did he invent the undano?”

  “No,” Faillen answered. “Zeyed learned how to make undano from the natives in Ærenden. He taught us how to make them when he returned the first time.”

  “Then how did he cross?”

  “He wrote a spell to carry him and the other explorers across. The stories say it looked like he walked across the water, though I understand from Cal that there's a spell for an invisible bridge in Zeyed's house in Ærenden. Did you see it when you were there?”

  Meaghan shook her head. “I'm afraid not, but the walls were covered in spells. I could have been there for weeks and not read everything.”

  Faillen nodded and stopped paddling as he looked down at the river. Meaghan remained silent. She had other questions, but a month of traveling with Faillen had taught her his cues. He was thinking about what she had said, and deciding how he wanted to respond.

  Despite her curiosity regarding his feelings, she chose to keep her power muted. He would share them if he wanted. And he did, within minutes.

  “Do you think my sons will be so prolific?” he asked, looking back up at her. “Do you think their spells will be as strong and as long-lasting as Zeyed's?”

  “I do,” she answered. “Nick told me the younger a Spellmaster is when his or her power shows up, the stronger the power will become. Your boys' powers will grow stronger every year
of their lives.”

  “Which means Aldin will become stronger than Caide,” Faillen decided and dipped his paddle into the water again. “Their power worries me. I love my sons and I trust them, but power can build greed and the desire to control others.”

  “Not for everyone,” Meaghan told him. “You aren't greedy with your power. You don't use it to control people. And from what I can tell, neither does your father.”

  Faillen sighed and lifted his paddle again, laying it across his lap. “Ruling a parcel of land is far different than commanding power as strong as theirs. As a ruler, my impact can only reach so far, but my boys' powers could bring destruction in a far greater scope. A spell can cross time, touching generations for years or even centuries.”

  “Like the Mardróch spell,” Meaghan said.

  Faillen nodded and she leaned forward to lay a hand on his arm. “Your boys will touch generations hundreds of years from now. I have no doubt, but they'll be known for their good. They'll be spoken about with reverence and in tales in the same way the first Spellmaster is honored. They won't become selfish, as the last Spellmaster did.”

  Faillen looked down at her hand, and then covered it with his own. “How can you be so certain?”

  “Because I've met your boys. Because in the heart of them, they're good. They were raised that way and they won't forget what they've been taught.”

  “Their raising was Ree's doing,” Faillen whispered and looked up at Meaghan. “What will become of them now that she's gone? She was their world, the core of our family. I'm not enough for them.”

  “You are,” Meaghan assured him. Squeezing his arm, she let go. “It will take time for the three of you to adjust, but you'll soon learn to be a family again. Your love may be different than Ree's, but it belongs to your boys and they know it. You shouldn't forget it either.”

  Faillen nodded and resumed paddling. Meaghan followed and then pulled alongside him, keeping pace. She let the water glide by for a time, silent and steady, before she revisited their previous conversation.

  “Is it true my mother helped your father destroy the Mauraetus tribe?”

  Faillen's eyes slid to her and then back to the water. “Who told you that?”

  “Nick. He said they attacked villages along the border to provoke war.”

  “Destroy is a strong word,” Faillen told her. “Your mother helped bring justice to Ærenden's enemies. Not everyone in the tribe wished to wage war.”

  “So what happened to those who didn't?”

  “They surrendered. We integrated them into another tribe, one with similar values.”

  “There's another tribe like the Mauraetus?” Meaghan asked and stared at him. “Are they also violent?”

  “Violence was the tribe's tactic, not their upbringing,” Faillen told her. “They were warriors.”

  Meaghan knit her brows together. “I thought everyone in Zeiihbu was a warrior.”

  Faillen grinned, and then chuckled when she frowned at him.

  “I told you I didn't know much.”

  “Yet you learned from someone who should know more,” Faillen pointed out. “And it's him I'm finding humorous, not you. It seems Ærenden's King also needs an education.”

  Meaghan glared at Faillen, feeling the need to defend Nick, but then the corners of her mouth turned up as she understood the comedy in their situation. They were dependent on each other, forced to trust each other with their lives. Yet they still knew so little about each other. Before Faillen lived within Ærenden's boundaries, she doubted his knowledge of the main part of the kingdom had been any different from Nick's understanding of Zeiihbu.

  “It was once the same for me,” Faillen confirmed. “In Zeiihbu, we believe the people of Ærenden are lazy, using their powers to avoid work. I moved with the fear I wouldn't be able to find help defending my family.”

  “But you'd been in Ærenden before,” Meaghan pointed out. “You met Cal when you visited the castle.”

  “True.” Faillen's grin broadened. “But I thought the Queen kept her Guardians under strict control so they wouldn't become lazy like the rest of the kingdom. Once she was gone, I thought they'd all revert to their natural state.”

  Meaghan could not help but laugh at the thought of a fat, lazy Cal.

  “You see my point,” Faillen said and increased their pace as the sun painted red and orange across the water. Overhead, a few faint stars poked through the dark curtain falling over the sky.

  “So not everyone in Zeiihbu is a skilled warrior,” she said.

  “All Zeiihbuans are taught to fight, but not everyone is taught strategy. I am because I'm the son of a ruler. Everyone who was in the Mauraetus tribe also held that skill. They were taught from birth. Just like the other warrior tribe, the Baellum.”

  “So each tribe specializes in a skill they've honed over time by teaching it exclusively as their inheritance.”

  Faillen nodded. “That's a good way of putting it. There were more tribes in the past, small family groups of no more than two or three dozen people, but time eventually brought them together.”

  “It's a fascinating evolution,” Meaghan decided. “I wonder why Ærenden didn't develop tribes in the same way.”

  “Didn't they? Guardians would be considered a tribe by Zeiihbu standards. Their powers may set them apart from the rest of the kingdom, but it's their training that makes them able to fight and to defend their charges. They learn their skills from their ancestors in the same way we learn our skills from ours.”

  Meaghan remembered the intensity of the Guardian-style training Nick had put her through and realized Faillen was right.

  “How many tribes are there in Zeiihbu?” she asked.

  “Six currently. The Paecis, Lignaerius, and Baellum, of course. The other three are the Domae, the Venaetio, and the Saeto. The Domae are skilled at cooking, weaving, and organization. They helped us figure out the best ways to organize our villages. They also create recipes for celebrations and ceremonies, as well as for any animals or plants we discover. The Venaetio are best at hunting. Any new weapons or traps are usually developed by them. And the Saeto have mastered the plant areas. They manage garden planning and decide when it's time to plant and harvest. They also know what's safe to eat in the wild, which to use for medicine, and which to leave alone.”

  “That's handy,” Meaghan said. “I'm thinking we could use one of them now. I'm out of food.”

  Faillen smiled at her and pointed his undano toward the shore. “I think I know enough to find something for dinner,” he told her. “We need to head in soon anyway. It's not safe to be on the river at night.”

  Meaghan wanted to ask why, but lost the question when a flash of color distracted her. It flickered across the air as a small rainbow, similar to the crystals Vivian used to hang from their kitchen window. The flash faded, and then reappeared in a different spot. Further down the river, a dozen more rainbows appeared.

  One of the rainbows drifted closer, turning off, then on, highlighting its zigzagging direction with each pulse. It coasted within a few feet of her and then landed on her paddle. Another followed its path, landing on the front of her boat.

  The rainbow blinked off again and in its place rested a dragonfly. Or an insect similar to the ones she had known on Earth, though these creatures had crystalline wings. With each flutter, light cascaded over them, creating the rainbow she had seen.

  She drew her paddle closer to examine the insect, and then jumped when Faillen's paddle came down with a crash, flattening the dragonfly on the front of her boat. Startled by the noise, the one on her paddle flew away.

  “You killed it,” she accused. “What did you do that for?”

  “It was about to sting you,” Faillen answered, dipping his paddle back in the water. “Its poison is a hallucinogen, so unless you were interested in spending the night being chased by monsters and watching the trees melt, I thought it best. I recommend we make haste toward the shore. The river will be swarming wit
h scorpion dragonflies by the time the sun sets.”

  He pointed in front of them and she realized the urgency of his recommendation. The insects had gathered in thick, multi-colored clouds. Another dragonfly landed on her boat. It flicked its tail up, pointing it toward her like a scorpion, and she swatted it away.

  Within ten minutes of pulling their boats onto shore, Meaghan could no longer see the center of the river past a beautiful cascade of color swarming the night sky.

  “Are we safe from the dragonflies here?” she asked.

  “They stay on the water,” Faillen said. “I think we can abandon the river going forward. We're close enough to where I wanted to land.”

  She followed his lead, absentmindedly watching the ground and the back of Faillen's heels as he wove deeper into the forest. Her stomach grumbled with hunger, but she ignored it, focusing instead on the next phase of their plan—locating Faillen's tribe members. Meaghan had a hard time believing any of them could have escaped Stilgan's grasp, but Faillen had hope. The Mardróch's power might be strong, but he would not have taken the time to hypnotize every Zeiihbuan in the land. That left many with free will and the drive to break away from the hypnotized army Stilgan had created.

  Meaghan's stomach grumbled again and she pressed a hand to it. Faillen stopped in front of her.

  “How hungry are you?” he asked.

  She followed his line of sight to a bush a few yards ahead, recognizing it by its orange streaked leaves. A similar tamrin bush had yielded nuts to her power soon after her arrival in Æerenden. This one had none. She approached it and ran her fingers along one of the leaves, but understood before activating her revival power that the effort would probably be useless. She had grown the plant first in the fall, which made the current spring season too early for her power to work. Within a few minutes, she confirmed her suspicion and dropped her hand.

  “Is there something else?” she asked. “Nick said the leaves make jicab taste like candy.”

  Faillen chuckled. “He's right. I've had the displeasure on more than one occasion, but we're in luck. Tutsé berries,” he pointed to another bush a few feet away. It had deep purple leaves and bright green berries. “Do you think you can ripen them? They're nearly as bad to eat as the tamrin bush leaves when they're green.”