by Lee M Eason
“What is it?” Jac asked scanning the deck, an arrow ready on the huge bow.
“The air…” was all she had time to say as a tall slender hooded figure and twenty men appeared on deck. The men quickly spread out as the being looked about it. The crew and soldiers responded engaging the intruders. Jac’s bow creaked and an arrow hit one of them with such force he was knocked off his feet. He already had another ready.
“Go for the one in the cloak!” Bryn shouted.
Jac didn’t falter releasing an arrow. It sliced through the air where the figure had been. The air on the wheel deck prickled and the tall figure was right beside Jenna. No one had time to react. It grabbed her and made to leave but something happened in that second and it was thrown back. Terrified, Jenna had reacted out of instinct. She refocused her will and disappeared. The figure stumbled and was gone. Aaron raced to the deck edge scanning the level below.
“I think she’s gone down here,” Aaron pointed desperately, somehow knowing her actions.
Bryn followed his finger and leapt down the steps in one bound closely followed by Lewen. Jac joined Aaron and hunted for any signs of the figure. Jenna appeared and a second later Aaron yelled, desperately directing Bryn. Bryn and Lewen began to fight their way towards her while Jac took aim. The intruders had managed to push their way from the fore deck and along the starboard side. The fighting was close and ferocious.
Jenna kept low, looking around, her breathing fast and uneven. The figure appeared a short distance away urgently looking about it. Jac saw it and sent an arrow skimming. The figure reacted and transported. Jenna saw it reappear and began nervously edging away, unobserved amongst the confusion.
Bryn caught sight of her and fought his way forwards. Lewen dodged around attempting another route. The figure spotted her and transported. Up on deck Aaron had focused his will. Jac reloaded and waited. Then the figure was there. Jenna threw herself back as it made a grab for her. Aaron reached out and the arrow was released. Somehow the creature became aware of it and made to transport but Aaron had it and pulled back. The sudden reaction yanked him onto the railing nearly pulling him over. The arrow only grazed its mark.
Jenna panicked and transported to the clearest spot she could see. Taking cover, she looked back but the figure was gone. She instantly looked about her but could neither see nor sense any sign of it. Bryn reached her last position looking up as Aaron pointed urgently to where he had just seen her reappear. Lewen also followed his directions and headed towards her.
Still winded Aaron clutched at his stomach but began to re-focus as Jac scanned the deck with another arrow. There was a sudden commotion behind them as the figure appeared. It made a lunge for both Jac and Aaron. There was a blur and then air blasted them as they plummeted to the sea.
The figure was gone before Aln and the captain could react. Aln dashed to the railings looking down.
Bryn finally reached Jenna. He took her hand and began leading her to cover as Lewen watched their backs. The soldiers and crew had pushed the fighting back to the fore deck but the intruders refused to surrender. They fought on wildly and so the ship’s bowmen now began to pick them off.
The figure appeared on the deck again but this time unobserved, keeping low and away from the fighting. The Traveller hadn’t expected as many complications. The girl and the boy were reportedly easy targets. The men she had brought were only intended as a distraction. She searched the deck and jumped to another point of cover, knowing time was not on her side. From here she had a better view and saw The Prize! Two others were with her. She would have to take all three. The men on board her ship would have to deal with them. The Traveller focused, preparing for the transport.
Jac tumbled, his senses reeling as air rushed past him. He struggled to control the fall in a desperate attempt to somehow slow it, to give himself a chance of hitting the water and surviving. For seconds he fought the air and then suddenly Aaron crashed into him grabbing at him desperately, trying to get a hold. Jac instantly realised what he was attempting and grabbed at him as they bounced against one another in the roaring air. They managed to grapple hold, there was a heart beat’s stillness and then they crashed onto the deck of The Talern. Aaron was knocked unconscious and Jac landed only slightly better but was heavily winded.
The Traveller waited for the right moment. The two men had to be looking in different directions and when they did she jumped. With calculated skill she appeared just short of the girl pushing air before her in an attempt to knock the men over. But the force hadn’t been enough and they maintained their grip. The Traveller hesitated and in that moment she was trapped. Jenna’s fear had ignited into anger, hot and desperate, she fixed two points inside the figure. It looked startled. No, was its last thought. Jenna collapsed the space and the figure folded in on itself.
Jenna shook herself free and drew in more from the field. The remaining slavers were swept over the deck edge as she marched to the side of The Talern. Gripping onto the rail she focused. Aln watched from the wheel deck his mind filled with the roar of her will. The railing cracked, as did the timbers of the distant ship, snapping and shattering as she ripped it apart chunk by jagged chunk. Its crew were thrown as the planks beneath their feet erupted, the masts broke and sails billowed and flailed as if trying to flee. Jenna lifted her hands from the broken rail and grasped violently at the air before her. The pirate ship jerked, a great shudder sending men tumbling. The air was filled with a wrenching sound as the ship broke in two. Men, timbers and equipment fell from the broken hull. She drew back her hands and for a second the jagged mass seemed to hang in the air, before plummeting. Shaking, she watched the debris fall almost as if time itself had been slowed and in that silent space, for the briefest moment, she was conscious of a presence - a whispering. She shuddered as her will relaxed and the connection to the field ebbed and was gone.
Jenna let out a sob pulling her cut and bloody hands back. Bryn and Lewen, stood behind her and had watched in disbelief, but now reached forward gently to stop her from falling to the deck. The fighting was over, all on board stood in silence struggling to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
Chapter 19
Halleck sat on a low wall seemingly heedless of the sheer drop below, the private gardens of The Amar Order behind him, the sprawling city before him; its domes shimmering in the afternoon haze. He looked isolated; neither part of one place or the other. A breeze had sprung up from seemingly nowhere, bringing with it dust from the plains outside the city walls. In the distance he could see the river Am and its famous red sailed boats tacking their way up its dark waters. He had not seen this city since its destruction in The Great War. How different it looked now. The world had changed while he had wandered aimlessly through it and now it was a stranger to him.
Gwen and Kara sat in the shade, for once with nothing to do except take in the scent of the exotic flowers and listen to the fountains that cooled the air. The gardens were peaceful and the noise of the city a distant background note.
“He must feel so out of place,” Gwen worried. “The world he knew is gone and all of this unfamiliar. He looks healthier but what’s going on in his head?”
“Food, a wash and rest make a surprising difference. The other stuff, well that’s going to take time.”
“Did Jerrad have anything new to say after he’d examined him this morning?”
“Nothing,” Kara replied still watching Halleck. “No one’s got a clue why he hasn’t aged. But Jerrad did find traces of other drugs in his system and think the Ildrans were trying to restore his memory. They’d probably managed to get him to remember what they needed and then drugged him to keep him under control.”
“His memory hasn’t returned fully?” Gwen asked.
“No. It’s still very patchy. Three names keep surfacing though.” Kara’s tone hardened.
“Who?”
“VaCalt, Imalt and Ducat. Especially Ducat.”
“Ducat - The UruIldran Butcher�
��” The woman’s name made Gwen shudder. “I can’t think about that creature,” she pushed the thoughts aside. “Has Halleck used his talent yet?”
“Still refuses to.”
“Has he said why?”
“No, but I think it’s linked to what Segat’s cronies forced him to do.” Kara thought of the conversations she’d had with him.”
“He can’t blame himself for that.”
“The Fury the Ildrans created were created through his knowledge. He blames himself for somehow not resisting the things they did to him.”
“That’s a lot of guilt he doesn’t need to feel.” Gwen paused looking at Kara “And you?”
Kara was jolted out of her thoughts by the question and finally looked away from Halleck. “Oh, me. Fine,” she dismissed with a lazy wave of her hand.
“Really?” Gwen asked, looking sceptical. “And who do you think you’re kidding miss?”
Kara let out a long sigh and drummed her fingers on the table top. “We thought we’d got away. Our careful plans didn’t take into account that they might have marked him so that he could be traced. Such an obvious mistake.” She lifted her hands in the air. “And now they won’t let me go on the ship they’re sending to find her,” she said, her frustration surfacing. “I could search the area far better. I know it, they don’t!”
“Mia Sara knew the risks Kara. You can’t carry any guilt for what happened.”
“You’re right. I’ve told myself this a thousand times but it still doesn’t make it any easier. She died and we lived. I can’t help feeling that I owe her. Going to search for her would at least make me feel… Oh, I don’t know. Like I hadn’t just deserted her.”
“If things were different. They’d let you go but you know where we’re headed next. They need all of us. Letting you go on that ship would lessen our chances of holding Segat at bay. There’s a lot more lives at stake in Amaria.”
“I know, I know,” Kara said irritably and then sighed again rubbing at her eyebrow with an agitated finger. “I just feel like I’m giving up on her.”
Gwen took her hand gently. “You argued more than any of us to wait longer and searched until the last possible minute. No one would think that.”
“I know you’re right but it doesn’t make it any easier,” she repeated her voice subdued. “It just doesn’t make it any easier.”
“It never is.”
A shadow fell across the table and both women looked up. “Am I interrupting?” Halleck asked.
“No just sorting out my addled brain,” Kara grumbled.
“Maybe you could have a go at mine next,” Halleck suggested.
Gwen smiled. “Come and sit in the shade? I’ve been trying to place your accent. It’s been niggling me for ages,” Gwen said conversationally as Halleck sat down.
“It’s Firrican, or Nebessan as it’s now called. I don’t know if anyone still speaks with this accent.”
“It’s nice,” Gwen complimented. “You add a certain something to Koan when you speak it. It’s amazing you’ve managed to retain the accent for so long.”
“There’s a lot of things about me that haven’t changed,” he said ironically.
“I wouldn’t say that.’ Kara made an effort to lighten her mood. “You’ve had your hair cut again and you can walk on your own.”
“It’s difficult to get a good hair cut in the jungle these days,” he retorted glibly.
“Ha, ha,” Kara drawled. “I didn’t do too bad a job.”
Halleck was quiet for a while, distracted. “I’m back in front of the Corumn again,” he said as if suddenly remembering an unpleasant thought.
“This afternoon?” Gwen asked.
“Hmm,” Halleck pulled a face. “It’s almost as if they don’t believe me. Like I went willingly to help Segat.”
“They’re just desperate for answers,” Kara said hoping to reassure him. “They’ve been hit and hit hard. I don’t think they’re used to it.”
“They just want to be clear about what we might be facing,” Gwen explained. “If Ildran Summoners can create Elementals they’ve got to think of a defence.”
“They may not need to,” Halleck explained. “The field’s strength isn’t what it was and will greatly limit how many can actually be realised in one place.”
“How many do you think it will support?” Kara asked.
“I’ve no way of knowing. I can only guess. The size of anything they can realise will be limited as well as the number. They’ll not be able to create a self-sustaining form field like The Children and that will limit them further. Their Summoners still have to focus the field to maintain and animate whatever they manage. So we at least have some things in our favour.”
“That makes sense,” Kara agreed. “I’m restricted by the field strength. I can only sustain a form field up to a certain size and then for far less time than The Panids were able. If there’s a lot of field use in the vicinity I’m limited even more.”
“We had a lot more freedom in what we could create and maintain before The Field’s Cap was put in place,” Halleck said nodding. “You know, my memory of then is clear but the very last part of the war and beyond is just fragments.”
“Didn’t Jerrad have some suspicions about all of that?’ Kara remembered an earlier conversation.
“Yes, he thinks my memory may have been tampered with.”
“By the Ildrans?” Gwen asked puzzled.
“No, from the time of The Great War. He is not exactly sure,” Halleck explained. “He said he wasn’t skilled enough to go as deeply as he needs to and since Amar’s Adept is dead I’m left to worry about what was done, why and by who.”
***
Kellim waited patiently, humming a tune from an old song, a song very few people would remember now. How things change, and how quickly the past was forgotten with the passing of generations. He looked up as the wind blew, stirring the branches of the giants behind him. He noted the subtle change in the air, another sign of the passage of time. The season was turning. The mornings were still cold and there had been a light frost, which had yet to lift but spring now had a firm hold. Kellim looked at the countryside around him. Kersel was a wild place of limestone crags, green comb forests and great expanses of pillow bush. He liked its bleak beauty. He liked the fact that it hadn’t changed.
The Rons Sea, only just visible, caught the first rays of the rising sun as he watched the tiny speck grow above the horizon and communicated with its Master Conveyer.
When the ship was still a distance off he focused his will and transported to the deck. He sensed the difference in Jenna the instant he arrived but decided to make no comment before speaking with Bryn and Jac. They all looked tired and troubled, Jenna in particular seemed distant and not at all her usual self. She would have questions and he feared he had no real answers to give her. But he was only too happy to set all this aside as Jenna, closely followed by the others, came to greet him. It was a happier moment in weeks of travel and worry.
The ship continued its journey north-east eventually passing over Aylis and its huge expanses of tundra. Winter was still more in evidence here with patches of snow hiding in hollows and valleys untouched by the early spring sun. Finally, they reached the forests of the north and Kellim spoke to the Captain and the Master Conveyor, directing them to a craggy outcrop near the forest edge. Good byes were said and thanks given before the small party assembled.
“Aaron, Jenna,” Kellim addressed each in turn, “I think it’s a good time for you to practise transporting yourselves. What do you say? I’m sure you are up to it.” Kellim used this as a ruse to assess Jenna’s link to the field.
They were glad of the distraction and so agreed. They’d done a lot of work on transporting at Naddier and Aaron was eager to show Kellim what they had learnt. Jenna was nervous about accessing the field again but Kellim calmly reassured her. “The field is only potential my dear. You have nothing to fear from it. Aaron, you first.”
A
aron walked to the railing and fixed a spot on the ground below. Focusing his will, he collapsed the space, instantly reappearing below. He waved back to the ship. Kellim was pleased at how competently he performed the task, confirming his belief that the boy was a natural. Aaron swelled with pride at Kellim’s evident satisfaction.
Jenna looked at Kellim. He gave her an encouraging smile. She stepped forward nervously, took a deep breath and tried to push aside her fears. The field responded and to her relief nothing was amiss, no presence, everything as she needed it to be. She signalled her readiness, sought the point she wanted, collapsed the space between and was gone, reappearing beside her brother. The skill level with which she performed the task was not quite equal to Aaron’s but the difference came in the way the field responded. When Aaron had transported Kellim recognised the same sluggish movement of the field most Talents had to contend with but for Jenna it was more receptive. Kellim was fascinated by this and began to conjecture why this had not been apparent earlier and how recent events might have triggered the latent connection.
With everyone safely transported the ship moved off in a wide arc. They watched for a while as it sailed into the distance and then Kellim led them off into the forest, assuring Jenna they were quite safe.
Their feet fell on soft needle strewn ground between green combs and the few towering rooftrees that clung on this far north. Kellim wanted a clear picture of what had happened and so asked them to relate as much information as possible. Listening intently, he wanted them all to talk, knowing it would help to share their views and fears. The morning passed and when they stopped to eat Kellim chewed on everything they had told him.
“It’s clear they see you as a solution to a problem,” he began after some time. “What that problem might have been we can only guess at. Their attempts were in vane and from what you’ve told me at an end,” Kellim reassured.