The Hands of Ruin: Book One

by Peters, Dylan Lee

  She had been right in taking that course, and Ah’Rhea remembered the moment Reego had finally come forward, the rain pounding her tiny little hut tucked into the humid mountains. She had recited the incantation over and over, whispering it so softly she could barely hear her own words. She had finally discovered the catalyst that had led her to the idea of becoming a zul master, that spark that had lit her mind when she first learned of the jawhars. It had been knowledge, the pursuit of knowing all things, that had brightened Ah’Rhea’s soul. But it was more than that. It was also the desire to have her knowledge carried forward through time so it may shape the future world and all within it. Her knowledge would be like a metaphysical entity rolling infinitely through time and space, gathering and increasing as it traveled, becoming capable of all possibility, capable of stimulating genesis.

  “Come now, my jawhar,” she had said.

  Her eyes had opened to the sound of something faintly sniffing the air. She had sat motionless as he stood before her, evaluating her, cautiously surveying all she was, with his back straight and his head low. In that moment, Ah’Rhea knew so much about him. She could feel it within like the beating of her very heart. His name was Reego, and he was the manifestation of Ah’Rhea’s soul. He was the piece of her that would live forever.

  Reego had moved forward, keeping his bright gaze fixed on her as she sat motionless, kneeling on the floor of the green hut. When he was so close that she could feel the gentle draft of his breath, she nodded at him slowly, and then he placed his head on her shoulder. Her jawhar had accepted her. Ah’Rhea Eneoh, zul master of Ferrenglyn, had bonded with her jawhar, and he would carry her soul forward into eternity.

  Now, sitting on the porch at the Serendipity, Ah’Rhea kissed Reego on his forehead and then let the jawhar go back to eating his fruit. She refilled her cup, lifted it to her lips, and sat back in her chair. Ah’Rhea couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so content.

  As Ah’Rhea enjoyed the warm breeze, blue sky, and silence, the last of those things was suddenly broken by two voices coming from an unknown location. She sat up in her chair and looked around, trying to find the source of the conversation. She scanned right and then left yet saw no one. Dell and Mitt were still inside, and no one else had been let out onto the porch. It suddenly occurred to Ah’Rhea there were two roads, one on either side of the Serendipity, that led down to the chasm and the voices might be coming from travelers along one of those byways. Ah’Rhea stood from her chair and walked left, to the edge of the porch. Reego lifted his head and watched her as she went. She stopped at the railing and looked down to the road below. Sure enough, there were two men in fine embroidered tunics, walking along the road in conversation with each other. The men were unaware of Ah’Rhea’s presence above and spoke freely enough for her to clearly hear what they had to say.

  “I’m amazed you haven’t heard what happened in Brinvarda, Leopold. I suppose your sources are suddenly failing you, hmm? You’re always telling me how my stories are yesterday’s news.”

  “Your stories always are yesterday’s news, Trevor. Don’t get catty just because you finally have a story I haven’t heard already.”

  “Me, catty? You’re practically baring claws.”

  “Oh, Trevor.”

  Ah’Rhea lifted her gaze from the scene below and rolled her eyes. She found the prattling conversation of the two men to be annoying, but she knew they would continue down the road and be out of earshot soon enough. Then she could go back to her peace and quiet. She turned around to walk back to her table, but just then one of the men said something that piqued her interest.

  “Well, you’ll be interested to hear what I have to say nonetheless,” Trevor continued. “Something has happened that is sure to reach the ears of the four tribe chiefs and have them electing a master in no time. Trust me, something like this cannot be ignored for long.”

  The tribe chiefs electing a master? Ah’Rhea wondered.

  She turned back to the railing and looked down at the men. Alas, she had been too correct about their progress taking them out of earshot. She was able to hear only a few more unimportant words before the sound of the men was nothing more than a whisper on the breeze. Ah’Rhea briefly considered following them but knew if the men saw her, they might recognize her and would most likely stop their conversation. Then a wonderful idea struck her, and she rushed back to her table.

  “I have a favor to ask of you, Reego,” she said slyly.

  The jawhar looked up from lapping at his bowl of water and turned his head to the side.

  “I want you to follow those two men down on the road,” Ah’Rhea continued. “But don’t let them see you. I want to hear their conversation. I think something might be going on with the tribe chiefs.”

  Reego stared at Ah’Rhea for a brief moment, as if weighing her words. Then he sniffed the air, turned away, and returned his attention to his water bowl.

  “Oh, Reego,” Ah’Rhea begged. “It might be important. The men said the chiefs might be electing a master to address something that has happened.”

  Reego lifted his head from his water again and looked at Ah’Rhea. Then the jawhar looked over to Ah’Rhea’s bottle of wine and then back to the zul master.

  “The wine?” Ah’Rhea balked. “You shouldn’t be drinking that.”

  The comment caused Reego to tilt his head to the side, as if perplexed by her answer.

  Ah’Rhea shook her head and sighed. Even still, she sometimes forgot Reego wasn’t actually a dog. If a jawhar wanted to drink wine, that was the jawhar’s business. “Fine,” the woman said. “I’ll have them bring you your own bottle. Just go now. I don’t want to miss what they’re saying.”

  Reego seemed to smile at Ah’Rhea’s answer, his pink tongue falling out of his open mouth. Then he shook his fur out as if he had just come out of the water. As the jawhar shook, he faded away, becoming transparent, and soon Ah’Rhea couldn’t see him at all. She sat down at the table, placed her fingers to her temples, and closed her eyes. A moment passed, and suddenly she could see again. Her eyes were still closed, but her bond with Reego was allowing her to see everything the jawhar could see and hear everything the jawhar could hear. In fact, he was currently looking at her as she sat at the table with her eyes closed.

  Then the view turned to the railing at the edge of the porch, and Reego was off. As if she were dreaming, Ah’Rhea’s vision moved across the wooden porch, down onto a ledge overlooking the road, onto the awning of a small shop, and then down onto the sandy yellow road. Reego was stealthy and quick, aided by his invisibility, and sooner than Ah’Rhea would have thought possible, her jawhar was directly behind the two men. She could hear their conversation perfectly now, though it was obvious she had missed some crucial piece of information.

  Leopold looked ghostly white as the men continued along their path, and had an open palm against the side of his face.

  “Goodness, that is terrible, Trevor. It’s hard to believe things like that can happen in this world. It sounds like zul gone wrong, if you ask me. This is exactly what happens when people go using zulis without proper training. The masters should be forced to take on apprentices, as many as they can handle. I don’t care how taxing it is for them.”

  “Well, no one knows whether improper zulis use is to blame,” Trevor said, waving his hands as he spoke. His blue eyes looked tired and full of worry. “Frankly, I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

  “What has Chief Redcroft said?” Leopold asked. “I mean, he has to know about it already. This happened within his domain.”

  “Fordrick Redcroft knows about it,” Trevor confirmed. “But you know how slow Whiteclaw tribe is to act. They are always the last tribe to move on any decision regarding the whole of Ferren. I can’t imagine this will be any different.”

  Leopold grabbed Trevor’s arm. “He has to act. He has to. That poor little girl.”

  Ah’Rhea could tell something tragic had happened, just by the react
ions of the two men. They were now nearing the end of the road and seemed intent on continuing across the valley floor toward the chasm. The zul master silently indicated to Reego that she wanted him to continue to follow.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much,” Trevor said sympathetically. “If I know about it, then news is spreading fast throughout all the tribes. In fact, I heard about it from Kelvin Maggio.”

  “Kelvin?” Leopold said incredulously, his brow furrowed in scorn. “I thought you weren’t talking to him anymore.”

  “Well, I’m not,” Trevor said and scratched at his amply freckled cheek. “Not really. He was visiting Ferrenglyn, and we bumped into each other.” Leopold shot a nasty look at Trevor. “Oh, it’s not like that, Leo. Have a little more faith. We both happened to be at North End Café, and he wanted to know whether I had heard anything he hadn’t. He figured if he had heard about Brinvarda all the way on the west coast of Tiber tribe, then surely news had hit Ferrenglyn.”

  “So if Tiber tribe knows,” Leopold reasoned, “then it’s pretty safe to say all the chiefs know.”

  “It’s probably safe to assume that,” Trevor agreed. “I think the next step in all this is for the four chiefs to elect a zul master to address the issue. Even though Whiteclaw tribe is traditionally slow to act, Redcroft’s hand will be forced once the other three chiefs have made their selections.”

  “Whom do you think they’ll choose?” Leopold wondered.

  “Well, there’s no doubt in my mind Chief Zelo will choose Master Guillermo Ado. He was raised in Andor tribe, and Bruno Zelo has never been objective in his decision making. He’ll want the southern tribe’s greatest master to be the hero of this ordeal. I’d wager my life on that.”

  “All the chiefs will probably vote with their own personal interests in mind,” Leopold added with a wry smile that bent his pencil-thin moustache. “I mean, please, a tribe chief thinking of the people over his own political gains? That’s a joke if I ever heard one.”

  Trevor raised his eyebrows and nodded in agreement. “And this will certainly be another political endeavor. Redcroft is not liked among the other tribe chiefs, from the little whispers I hear. If he bungles this, the others may push to have him replaced.”

  “Well, his tribe loves him, from what I hear,” Leopold said.

  “And just whom have you been speaking to from Whiteclaw tribe?” Trevor asked suspiciously.

  Leopold smiled coyly and adjusted his tunic, a tuft of chest hair poking above the collar as he did. “Looks as if I’m not the only one with a jealous streak.” Trevor gave Leopold a look that displayed how unimpressed he was with the irony. “This is Ferrenglyn, Trevor. If you haven’t noticed, everyone is from somewhere else.”

  Trevor rolled his eyes and nodded. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You know how politics work. If this issue isn’t taken care of swiftly, Redcroft will look bad, and public opinion will change like the tide. The other tribe chiefs might select a master who favors their own agenda, but Fordrick Redcroft needs to choose the best master for the job. End of story.”

  Suddenly, Leopold stopped and held his arm out to halt Trevor. “I’ve completely forgotten why we were coming out to the chasm. This conversation has me all flustered.”

  The men were now a couple hundred paces away from the road, absently wandering toward the chasm in the valley floor as if on a long stroll.

  “We weren’t heading for the chasm,” Trevor said and laughed like a fool. “Remember, we had planned on having lunch at the Serendipity.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” Leopold said and tapped himself on the forehead. “We walked right past it. I swear, Trevor, if our heads weren’t attached…”

  Ah’Rhea opened her eyes and frowned. She hadn’t heard what she was hoping to hear from the men, and now their incessant conversation would be heading back her way to disturb her perfect afternoon. She briefly considered telling Dell to let the men in, and then she could use zulis to extract the information she wanted from them, but she wasn’t sure how that would go over with the owners of the Serendipity, and she enjoyed the place too much to become unwelcome. She knew they would never voice their displeasure—no one spurns a zul master—but she didn’t like feeling unwelcome.

  Ah’Rhea had paid well to have her privacy, and she knew Dell wouldn’t go back on her deal, but she also thought these men might not be the kind to just go away. Ah’Rhea could envision the men standing at the door of the Serendipity, demanding to know why the restaurant was closed, and loudly arguing about what to do next. They might spend twenty minutes debating before they moved on. Ah’Rhea had paid for privacy, but she couldn’t keep outside noise from affecting her, at least not before returning to her cave to procure specific spices.

  So she sighed and stood from her chair, gathering the remaining feffer fruit and wine, and left the porch. As she reentered the enclosed dining room, she found Dell exiting the kitchen.

  “I was just coming out to check on you,” the woman said with a look of distress. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes,” Ah’Rhea said. “Everything is perfectly fine. I’m just suffering an affliction of conscience. I overheard some people on the street wanting to come inside for food and drink, and I’m feeling guilty about hoarding such a beautiful day on the porch to myself. I’d like you to reopen the restaurant to the public, but I was wondering whether there might be another area I might have to myself. Maybe a private room?”

  Dell smiled. “Follow me. I have just the place.”

  Ah’Rhea returned the smile, happy she wouldn’t have to leave, and followed Dell through the swinging door and into the kitchen.

  As the two women entered, Mitt stood from his workbench, surprised by the zul master’s presence. He wiped his large hands on his shirt and nodded.

  “It’s a pleasure to have your business, Master Ah’Rhea.” Mitt smiled and then brought a hand up to rub the back of his blond head. It was as if something had just occurred to him. He turned to a cabinet and produced an unlabeled bottle of wine. Happily he stepped forward and handed it to Ah’Rhea. “On the house,” he said. “It’s new. I haven’t released it yet. Let me know whether you like it.”

  The zul master thanked the man and continued to follow Dell through the kitchen. The two women entered a slim hallway, and now Ah’Rhea could see a ladder at the end of the hall going up through an opening in the ceiling.

  “We don’t allow customers up the ladder,” Dell said to Ah’Rhea. “It’s usually a place Mitt and I go after a long night or anytime we need a break. It’s small but very private. I think you’ll like it.”

  The two women stopped in front of the ladder, and Dell took the items Ah’Rhea was carrying out of her arms. She then turned and placed them in a dumbwaiter that was set into the wall.

  “We had this put in to transport food and drink,” Dell said. “It got too hard to climb the ladder while carrying the things we wanted to have up there with us.” Dell smiled and lifted a hand to the ladder. “After you.”

  Ah’Rhea climbed the wooden ladder, and when she came to the ceiling, she reached up and pushed through a purple curtain that had been draped over the hole. Above was open air, so she continued climbing. Once she had come out to a section of flat roof, she left the ladder, stood, and took in her surroundings. To her right the building continued upward as a tall yellow wall. Out from it hung a small awning, and just underneath was a table with two chairs. To Ah’Rhea’s left was a view that looked out over the chasm. The beautiful blue sky she was enjoying from the porch below stretched before her, but now much farther because she was higher. Ah’Rhea couldn’t help but stare and smile, wishing she had known of this secret spot a long time ago.

  A squeaking noise came from behind, and Ah’Rhea turned back to the wall to see the dumbwaiter coming up through an opening next to the ladder. Her two bottles of wine and bowl of feffer fruit sat on a tray, so she took them out and placed them on the table.

  “It’s nice, isn’t it?” Dell aske
d as her head poked up through the purple curtain.

  Ah’Rhea nodded and thanked the woman, knowing Dell had led her to a place she and her husband didn’t share with just anyone.

  “Let us know whether you need anything else,” Dell said and then disappeared back down the hole.

  Ah’Rhea turned and took a seat in one of the chairs at the table, just as something brushed across her feet. She looked down and saw Reego materialize out of the ether. The little jawhar looked quite chipper and jumped up onto the other chair. Then he turned his head sideways, looked at the new bottle of wine, and looked back to Ah’Rhea.

  “I suppose you’ve come for your bounty?” the zul master asked playfully.

  Reego barked at her and let his tongue hang. So Ah’Rhea removed the remaining feffer fruit from the bowl, found a corkscrew Dell had placed on the tray, opened the new bottle of wine, and poured some of it into the bowl for her jawhar. Reego immediately dipped his head in and lapped up the liquid.

  Once again content, Ah’Rhea sat back, drank from her already-opened bottle of wine, and let her mind ponder the conversation between the two men. Something had happened in the village of Brinvarda, something bad had happened to a little girl, and it seemed as though zulis had been used. It was not uncommon for zulis to be used in the tribes by those who were unpracticed, and it wouldn’t be the first time tragedy had resulted from its improper use. However, it was very rarely an issue the chiefs needed a zul master to address. This suggested there was more to the story, and Ah’Rhea silently cursed herself for not spying on the men more quickly to find out exactly what that was.

  She looked out into the distance and thought she could see her cave from where she sat. It was amazing what a wonderful view of the valley, the chasm, and the red rock cliffs she had. She took a swig from the wine bottle, and suddenly something caught her attention on a cliff across the valley from her own cave. Her eyes searched briefly to lock on to what had grabbed her attention, and when she found it, she squinted her eyes to try to see better. It seemed as though one of the zul masters was lighting a fire outside of the entrance to his or her cave. In the distance, the orange fire looked like the tiny flame of a candle.