by Lee M Eason
VaCalt walked quickly, DuChen’s breakthrough had implications that could change everything. The creatures he had created nullified the field around them, virtually rendering them immune to attack from a Talent. One touch de-stabilized living form fields, anyone talented or not would literally break down into raw matter with no pattern to support them. She had not been allowed access to him or his research. She needed him. She needed what was in his head. Segat saw only his own protection. VaCalt saw the elimination of any Talent who stood in her way and one Order, all-powerful, unchallenged, with her as Potent. She had to have that information. She walked into the heavily guarded and shielded chamber outside DuChen’s room. Her hands clenched as she was searched. Finally, the guards stepped away but she maintained her glare on the man in her way. If General Imed felt the burning gaze on the back of his head, he made no sign of it. The UruIldran General stepped forward as the door was opened for him but turned in the threshold and gestured. “After you VaCalt.”
VaCalt refused to look at or acknowledge him in any way. Instead she stood as if oblivious to anything around her.
Imed smiled sarcastically, sharp features pulled taught by the action. “Of course, you prefer to walk in my shadow.”
VaCalt’s eyes darted to fix his. “Remember what is in there General. And who will profit in the eyes of The Emperor,” She spoke with unveiled contempt.
General Imed stepped forward. He knew about her Order’s aversion to body contact, its ritual cleansing and obsessive observances. She stiffened. The general moved his face closer to hers. “Oh. I am very aware of what is in there and the momentary status it may bring you.”
“Then you will be aware of what they are capable of doing to those who fail him. Do you not fear their gaze and the cold touch of their hands about your throat general?” She met his gaze, unaffected by his proximity. The General lifted his head away but it was VaCalt who now stepped closer, pressing herself to him. “Do you not feel my touch General,” she pushed past him.
“Tell me VaCalt,” the general added as she stepped away “Who will they be watching as we enter?”
VaCalt didn’t falter, didn’t alter her pace but she knew who those things were watching, her - the greater threat. The chill slid down her neck like a knife.
Chapter 5
Lewen mopped his brow on the edge of his shirt and peered through the heat haze. He wondered how much further ahead Jenna would get before she realised she was on her own. She was understandably nervous about seeing Aaron and with each passing hour her impatience grew. She’d been itching to gallop her mount but Lewen had suggested it wasn’t a good idea because of the heat. They’d carried them a long way from Malik’s home in the west of Ildra and they were now tired and needed rest. After weeks of travelling they were only miles away from Kagash, a small town on the border of Ildra and Sancir. He’d tried to occupy her by highlighting places of interest but in the end Lewen had settled back in his saddle and watched her edge on a little further with each passing mile.
Leaving the duplicitous river Ild to flow across the border and change its name to Oren they’d headed slightly north to join the great east-west highway that ran the full length of Ildra. They’d rode through farmland, dotted with small settlements and shaded groves of spine trees. A regular feature had been large kilns and great stockpiles of bricks; all made from red Ildran clay. Everything in Ildra, it seemed, was constructed from these.
The north gave no hint to the country’s immense wealth. The larger cities were in the south; closer to the border with Selarsh and its coastal ports. Lewen had never been there but Kellim had told him stories. The southern cities were grand and ostentatious, decorated with pure gold. He had told him of great vaults piled high with treasures from the country’s mines and about an Ildra that had never harboured ambitions beyond its borders. He found it difficult to believe, looking about him now, that they travelled through a country that was poised on the brink of hostility towards its neighbours.
Kellim had told him about some of the events leading to the start of the Great War, the devastation of Urukish, the evacuation of its people into Ildra and their longstanding devotion to the memory of their beloved Princess Illia. The south of Ildra had absorbed The Urukish population and there were many UruIldrans alive today; their sharper features hinting at an Urukish heritage. After the war The Ildran Order was founded placing an importance on dedication, ritual and remembrance of the past. The growing UruIldran influence, under the leadership of VaCalt, brought about a change in that thinking, a change that subtly turned dedication to fanaticism and remembrance to bitterness. Then Segat had come to the throne, the first ruler of Ildra to be a blood relative of Illia. An ambitious man raised to hate the country responsible for her death, a man with a belief in revenge and whose ambitions could be turned beyond his borders.
Despite the growing unrest in the south the north seemed to have continued its daily existence in ways unchanged for centuries and so the countryside was peaceful and populated by friendly locals untouched by the character of the south. Lewen wondered uneasily how long things would remain this way. He peered over his shoulder to check on Kellim and Jac who had been talking for some time, planning the next leg of the journey that would take them over the border and on up through Sancir. Ahead, Jenna reined in her mount and was waiting for him at a crossroads. The traffic had gradually increased making it seem busy in comparison to the past few days.
Jenna looked about her, mopping her brow and then her arms. “Where did all these carts come from? It’s like they sprang out of nowhere.”
“They’ve been on the increase for some time but I don’t think you noticed,” Lewen pointed out.
“Do you think it will be much further?” she asked as he drew up alongside.
“Not far at all now,” he checked ahead taking a drink from his canteen and then offering it to her. “If you look that way you can see the start of the town. Just up ahead there. I think there’s a tower too. Can you see it?”
Jenna shielded her eyes and peered through the shimmering haze in the direction Lewen was pointing, “Oh yes. I see it.” She handed Lewen his canteen before nudging her mount and once again they rode side by side.
“Is Kagash a large town?” she asked. “I’ve never been anywhere that could be called a city. My hometown was small, well it was a village really and we hardly travelled anywhere. It just wasn’t the done thing. If anyone went ten miles, they were called adventurous. Of course now after all the places we’ve been to I’d be positively worldly,” Jenna was aware that Lewen was smiling. “I must seem so backwater to you, such a country mudger, she stopped for a second. “Or is it because I’m babbling and haven’t paused to draw breath?”
Lewen laughed. “That was pretty impressive.” They both laughed. “Kagash is quite big. But I don’t think you could call it a city. It doesn’t have a port tower and cities tend to have at least one.”
“It seems very busy,” Jenna said looking slightly unnerved by the increased and often chaotic traffic. “You know, I expected to hear more languages.”
“What do you mean?” Lewen asked, waving half heatedly at an annoying insect.
“Well back home. The village didn’t get many visitors from other countries. We saw a few people from Pidone and Cian but that was it. And now I’ve been all over the place and everyone seems to speak the same.”
“As far as I know most countries speak Koan. I suppose they’ve travelled from one place to another for so long it made sense for trade and all. Only places like Kersel…” he paused for a moment to think, “and Lagash refuse to teach it as the main language and as for Ciad, well no one’s heard from them for decades.”
“Oh, I know about Lagash,” Jenna said brightly. “Isn’t there a long standing joke about Lagash being… you know, the ‘bottom’ end of the continent?”
“Yep. But those aren’t the words I’ve heard,” Lewen laughed and then pulled a face as he swallowed the insect. “Blah!” he s
pat. “Sorry, I don’t know why it got that reputation…” he said still flicking at his lips with his fingers for bits of insect. “…I suppose there isn’t a reason to go there.”
“Shinpur!” Jenna said suddenly. “Shinpur doesn’t encourage the speaking of Koan.”
“Not officially. But they do all the same. It would affect their trade empire...” Lewen steered his mount as they over took a cart. “I suppose money is just as important to them.”
They rode on a little further moving past slower traffic, made lazy by the sun’s afternoon heat and avoided some of the more careless as it clattered past. The manoeuvring kept them occupied for a while and gave Lewen time to think of another way to distract Jenna. They eventually settled into a comfortable gap between a large wagon and several men driving a small herd of milkies; that typically yapped and glared at every passer-by. “Did you say you’d never known your parents?”
“More or less,” Jenna said casually. “Orla said our mother died shortly after Aaron was born, he’s a year younger than me. Our father, from what I’ve been told, just upped and left one day and was never seen again. Orla, the midwife who delivered us, took us in. She had talent herself and recognised it in us.” She thought for a while and Lewen glanced over, concerned she may be upset. “Oh, I’m fine,” she smiled catching his look. “Orla was very busy so we had to fend for ourselves most of the time. I think she kept us at a bit of a distance, now that I think about it. Don’t get me wrong. She was kind, taught us what she knew but was very clear about the fact that one day we would leave the village and go to Naddier. And that’s about it really,” she shrugged lightly. “It’s always been just me and Aaron.” Mentioning his name made her stomach lurch in anticipation of seeing him again. She made herself keep the conversation going, she needed the distraction. “What about you? Don’t you come from quite a big family?”
“Yep, three older brothers and one younger. I came from a small farm in the middle of nowhere and hadn’t even been to the next village until Kellim, Jac and Bryn passed through one day. It was just after my eighteenth birthday and so it really sticks in my mind.”
“How did they end up at your parents’ farm and how did you end up going with them?”
“They were heading back from somewhere. I can’t remember where now but they needed somewhere dry to spend the night and ended up staying longer and sort of helped out. You know how Kellim is about farms.” Lewen had to break off while they worked their way passed a cart that had shed its load. There was a lot of shouting and people waving hands at each other but no one actually doing anything.
“That’s not going to get cleared in a hurry,” Lewen shook his head. “I’m glad we met that sooner rather than later.” He looked back at the growing confusion to see Kellim and Jac emerge from the tangle of carts and people. “Anyway they told me about their travels and adventures. We got on really well and the more I listened the more I wanted to see what was out there. We heard so little of the world and I guess I realised what I was missing. It all sounded exciting. All those places I’d never seen or even heard of.”
“So what happened?” Jenna asked enthralled by Lewen’s tale and relying on her mount’s own road sense to keep them out of trouble.
“They left and suddenly my life seemed so dull and boring and just…” Lewen shrugged pulling a face. “Just so full of nothing. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yep. I couldn’t go back to my life before, even though this has been frightening and scary and all sorts of other things. Life back in my village would be unbearable now. So, tell me the rest. They’d left, you were feeling miserable, what did you do?”
“Packed a bag, snuck out and ran after them that night. I almost didn’t find them. They’d gone on a long way ahead. I’d just about given up and said to myself I was going to carry on to the top of the next hill and then turn back. But there they were. So I shouted and they must have recognised me and waited. Kellim wasn’t happy. But I pleaded and went on and on and on. And then he seemed to consider things and changed his mind. Funny that, talking about it now just made it jump into my head. I should ask him what made him change his mind. Anyway Bryn still wasn’t very pleased.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d left without telling my parents. So he marched me right back and said that I could come if my family agreed.”
“And they did?”
“Reluctantly. But I kicked up such a fuss again and in the end Kellim persuaded them, saying it would be an education and it would give me advantages and all that sort of thing. And here I am three years later,” he finished brightly.
“That makes us the same age.” Jenna smiled back and then there was an awkward moment. They both looked at each other for a little too long, blinking in the brightness. Wanting to say things but not wanting to be the first, in case the other wasn’t thinking it too! Thankfully just as the stretched silence was becoming unbearable the others caught up.
Kagash wasn’t big enough to be called a city. It was more a town that had sprawled. Its markets were the main reason for this, pulling in all the local growers as well as farmers from across the border. The women, proudly sporting gold skin designs and eye-catching head dresses and the men with their earrings and highly prized toe rings. It was a colourful place and the cultural differences between the farmers from Ildra and Sancir made it interesting. As they entered its parched walls Jenna was full of questions and for a while was distracted from thoughts of her brother. The buildings they passed were typically Ildran, large and blocky with sloping sides. Each building seemed to encourage the broad shade of its own clutch of spine trees; decorated with colourful Ildran lanterns.
The journey through the dusty hotchpotch town took some time and it was a relief when finally, they left the crowded streets and rode their mounts into the cool courtyard of a collection of buildings that grandly announced themselves as the finest inn in Kagash. The group had become silent, despite the busy streets around them; each feeling a mixture of fatigue and anticipation. Jac in particular seemed ill at ease. Jenna by contrast was a bundle of excitement and nerves and practically threw herself off her mount when her brother and the others came out to meet them. She’d been worried that he would have changed, that somehow she wouldn’t recognise him. That he would be different outside as well as inside. He seemed even taller. He’d clearly lost weight, maybe that was why and his characteristic mop of blonde hair had been shaved off but it was him! She called out his name even though he was running towards her smiling and laughing. They collided in a mass of arms and laughter that eventually turned to tears of relief as emotion broke through. The others embraced warmly picking up from where they’d left off with banter and relief.
“Where’s Jac?” Bryn asked in amongst the excitement and chatter of the reunion. Kellim looked round and then pointed in the direction of the inn’s stables.
“He’s still not right then?”
Kellim shook his head, “better but not his old self.”
“I’ll catch up with you,” Bryn headed over, eager to talk to his friend.
Kellim and Gwen watched discretely from the group as Bryn strode over to Jac and grabbed him in a bear of a hug. The conversation that followed was clearly a difficult one for Jac who spent much of it looking at his feet or anywhere to avoid Bryn’s searching gaze.
“I can’t stand it anymore,” Gwen said to Kellim as the others began to make their way in. She headed over hugging them both and drew them back to join the others.
They sat together that night sharing a meal. It was clear to Jenna that this group was more like a family. The sharing of news, banter and leg pulling was something she had seen but never been a part of. It felt warm and comforting and the evening had passed quickly. Having her brother safe and with her made it almost perfect.
The meal over, the conversation had turned to more serious issues. Kellim related the events leading to their meeting with and escape from Naicarn. “All I can say is that Naicarn had clear
ly been at Aurt for some time,” he concluded looking at Jac and Lewen to see if there was anything further to add.
Lewen was asleep and Jac shook his head. “You’ve pretty much covered it, except for Naicarn’s reasons for being at Aurt.”
Carrick leaned forward folding his arms on the table. “I wonder why he left Amar? We know little of The Amar Order but what we do highlights Naicarn time and time again. The Amar Order has been his life’s work.”
Kellim looked at Jenna and Aaron, aware that some of the conversation would be meaningless to them. “It would help you to know something of the history of Amaria and the south and possibly help us to find a reason for Naicarn’s actions. During the time of the Panids there were two sects - The Lantriums - it’s old Koan for guiding hand,” Kellim explained with a hint of irony in his voice. “One Lantrium was based in Hallorn just to the east of Naddier. The other in Urukish…”