by Andi Van
“Crappy attitude?” Zaree’s volume grew, and the wolf sitting next to her actually flinched, then pressed closer to the front. Tasis reached back and put a hand on the canine’s head, and he settled.
“Zar,” Tasis said softly. “I’m sorry. But you know it’s the quickest way, and we don’t have time to spare right now.”
Zaree looked like she was going to go into another rant, but then deflated. “You’re right,” she said, looking for all the world like a sulking toddler. “Sorry.”
“Me too,” Tasis said. “I’ll make it up to you.”
Zaree glanced across from her at Jorget and Emlynn, who’d been silent for most of the trip. “Sorry,” she mumbled again. “I don’t like horses.”
“Really?” Jorget asked, surprised. The girl seemed so absolutely fearless that he never would have expected that. “Well, I can kind of see why someone might not be comfortable around them. They’re huge, and they bite and kick when they’re irritated.”
“Exactly,” Zaree said, smiling in relief. It was clear that she hadn’t expected them to understand. “So I’m uncomfortable riding in something they’re pulling. Or being within ten paces of them, to be honest.”
“Some can be unpredictable,” Emlynn said with a nod. “But the same is true of any animal, including those that walk on two legs.”
“As we’ve seen,” Tasis said, and the group’s mood grew heavy at the reminder of what they were dealing with. “Well, we’ll look in my mother’s library. If one of her books was able to point us in the right direction to find the isle, maybe something in there will point to what even Brolt didn’t know.”
They’d had no luck in finding anything about the mountain-climbing ritual from the chief except that it had been done since long before Brolt was born. None of their records or legends mentioned anything about that particular mountain, so there was the possibility that there was nothing strange in that mountain after all. Except that now it was guarded by a telepathic bird. Jorget glanced at the cat curled up next to Tasis and frowned to himself. Rin had sauntered in, exhausted after playing with the young giants all day, and had greeted Jorget, but had yet to speak to him.
“Does Rin speak to all of you?”
Kelwin snickered. “Are you kidding? Rin never stops speaking.”
The cat turned his head and glared at the elf.
“He speaks rarely when we’re away from the isle, and when we are I’m the only one who can seem to hear him,” Tasis said with a laugh as he stroked Rin, trying to ease his familiar’s irritation. “It’s not easy to speak like that when—” He sucked in a surprised breath. “Oh Maker.”
“What is it?” Emlynn asked, concerned.
“Em, you said the bird talks to those who climb the mountain?”
“Yes,” the girl agreed. “In our minds.”
“Rin doesn’t speak much away from the isle because it takes a lot of energy when he’s not near a power source. Which is what the entire isle is at this point.” He looked down at Rin, who was already staring up at him, eyes wide. “Rin, do you know of any animal who communicates like you who wouldn’t need some kind of magical boost?”
The cat cocked his head for a moment, then gave it a definite shake. That was a firm no.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Tasis sighed. “Em, what does the bird look like?”
“A snow falcon, but twice the size,” she said. “His eyes appear black, but if the light shines on them you can see they’re actually a dark indigo. His feathers are mostly white, with some black markings.” She leaned over and opened the pack at her feet, digging through it before pulling out a thin wooden box. She opened the lid reverently, and held aloft the magnificent plume that had been inside.
The moment Rin saw the feather, he began an eerie wail, jumping into the back of the cart to climb onto Emlynn’s lap, sniffing at the girl’s prized possession before letting out another cry and jumping back to the front.
“What’s wrong?” the giantess asked as she carefully placed the feather back in the box, returning the package to her bag.
“He hasn’t said,” Tasis said as he dug through his own pack. “But I’m going to guess Rin recognizes that feather.”
“But that’s….” Jorget wanted to say “impossible,” but he was quickly learning that impossible was not a word that tended to be applied when magic was involved.
“K’yerin is over a thousand years old. Probably a couple thousand, but time moves differently where he’s from, so it’s hard to convert his age. Why, then, would it be impossible to believe that the giants’ spirit bird is actually a familiar?” He let out a sound of triumph and pulled a mirror from his pack, immediately speaking the words to activate it. Jorget moved closer so he could peer over Tasis’s shoulder, and the redhead shifted positions so he could get a clear view.
The usual fog cleared quickly, showing the face of an ancient elf woman. “Josephina,” Tasis said with no small amount of relief.
The woman’s face screwed up with concern. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” Tasis admitted. “We might have a bit of a problem. Did anyone in the guild have a bird for a familiar?”
“Several members did,” Josephina said. “Can you be more specific?”
Tasis turned his head to look at Emlynn, who quietly pulled the box from her pack again and held the feather where the ancient elf could see it. Josephina went pale and jerked back from the mirror as if she’d been struck. “Oh Maker.”
“Josephina? What is it?”
The woman took several deep breaths, closing her eyes. “Falcon,” she said quietly. “That feather belongs to Bahz.”
“Who?”
Josephina shook her head. “How far are you from your mother’s house?”
“I don’t know, maybe half an hour?” Tasis guessed, a look of complete confusion on his face. “Josephina, what’s going on?”
“I’ll explain later. Right now, I need to talk to Triv. Use the mirror again when you reach your destination.”
And with that, the image in the mirror was gone, replaced with a normal reflection.
“It’s apparent that your guess about the origin of the spirit bird is correct,” Emlynn noted. “Perhaps it was someone who left the guild the day of its demise.”
“There’s obviously something else going on here that we’re not party to,” Jorget said. “Which means we’re not going to get answers before we get to where we’re going. Not unless you can get Rin to talk.”
The cat gave him a withering glare and hissed softly.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Jorget said quickly, holding up his hands. “I know you’d talk if you could. I meant if there was a way we could make communication easier for you.”
K’yerin huffed at him, then turned his head to roughly lick a paw.
Tasis watched the exchange and shook his head with a sigh. “Don’t let him get to you,” he said to Jorget. “He’s mostly irritated because he wishes he knew how to make that happen too. We’ve tried versions of a portable power source for him more than once, but it never works. Someday, maybe, if the world doesn’t burn down around us first.”
“Well, that’s a cheerful thought,” Zaree said with a snort from her corner. “You could have ended at ‘someday.’ Try to maintain at least a little positivity.”
“Zar,” Kelwin chastised softly.
“No, she’s right,” Tasis told his boyfriend. “I’m not the only one having a rough time with this.”
“Remember, you’re not alone,” Jorget reminded him. “We’ve got your back.”
“Farm,” Zaree called from the back.
“What?”
“The Kiril farm,” Tasis said, pointing to a piece of land to their right. “We’ve reached the far edge of Inafain. Watch your backs. If these people realize it’s me, there could be trouble.”
“You could wear a damn hood,” Zaree growled.
“Yeah, because that worked so well for me the fir
st time I was here,” Kelwin said with a humorless laugh. “Better we go in this way, heads high, than try to be sneaky about it. Because let’s face it, we’re horrible at sneaking.”
“Besides, what’s the point of sneaking?” Jorget added, though he wasn’t sure he understood the conversation, not completely. “You’re going to your own home. You shouldn’t have to.”
“‘Shouldn’t have to’ and ‘need to’ are two different things,” Zaree told him, her voice still holding an edge of anger that made Jorget wish there was more room in between the two of them. She could probably still reach him with a kick from where she sat. “Sure, he’ll be safe in Evina’s house. Unless someone’s burned it to the ground while we were gone, or burns it down to the ground while we’re still in it. And then it won’t matter whether or not the world ends, because we’ll all be too busy being dead.”
“Cheery,” Tasis said.
“Excuse me,” Emlynn interrupted calmly, pointing toward the farmland they were passing. “But someone is watching us.”
Tasis looked to where she indicated and swore under his breath. “That’s the oldest of the Kiril children,” he said, not taking his eyes off the girl, much like a mouse watching a cat as it tried to decide if it could run fast enough to escape the deadly claws. “We’d better hurry. If she runs to her parents to tell them I’m here, we’re likely to be in a world of trouble.” He looked down at the cat sitting next to him as Kelwin urged the horses to move faster. “Sorry, Rin. It looks like we’re going to have to test out that spell sooner than we hoped.”
“What spell?” Jorget asked, holding on to the side of the wagon as it swayed roughly. It wasn’t meant for any type of speed, but they didn’t seem to have much of a choice. He hoped it didn’t fall apart under them.
“I need to hide the house. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to do it, and I think I’ve come up with something that will work specifically for that location, but it’s been a long time since any new spells have been written. I can’t guarantee it’ll work. And it might knock me out, though I’ve been getting better at not overdoing it.”
“But—”
“If they can’t see the house, they can’t burn it down,” Tasis said. “And we need that house there. It’s a good spot to hide people we’re trying to get to the isle. I have a feeling we’re going to need a few sanctuaries like that.” He looked over toward the farmland, then glared at the road in front of them. “Almost there. Wait by the cart until I’m done. I don’t know what will happen.”
“But—”
“Just do it,” Tasis snapped, his temper colored with a dark swath of panic. He went silent after that, staring ahead as if he could shorten the distance by will alone. And perhaps it worked, because it was only a few minutes later that a house loomed in the distance. As they neared and the cart slowed, Tasis jumped to the ground with Rin right behind him.
“Dammit, Tas,” Kelwin yelled as he brought the horses to a halt.
Tasis ignored him and stopped only when he reached the front of the house. Jorget saw him look down at the cat, who was winding around his ankles, and nodded. Were they speaking? Jorget wondered what it would be like to have someone in his head like that. It wasn’t an impossible thought that he’d find out someday, if mages had the tendency to partner up with a familiar like it seemed they did. He’d have to ask Tasis about it when things were calmer.
Tasis took a deep breath and began to chant. It started off as the usual words in what Jorget had come to think of as “mage-speak,” but then something in the air shifted, and though he knew Tasis was still speaking whatever language it was the mages used, he could understand the words perfectly.
I am not the person you used to know.
Tunes of yesterday strain past my ears, and the
Freedom from the past rejuvenates.
Hair, long and red, flows down my shoulders, like the
Cold snow that drifts around me in the
Air of crisp winter.
Blue eyes like the dawn peer through
Glass, looking for some
Light—only to find
Hope.
Mountain breezes hypnotize me as
Words from the past assail me.
Smooth words, like stones in ice,
Plant a thought in my mind—maybe you never knew me.
Flowing thoughts from another time
Mirror the disquiet in my soul. I will never know
Peace until I leave you far behind.
Drip of candle wax,
Flicker of flame.
Still you try to see me, as if
Preparing for a revelation.
Silent emotions and silent battle as you play a
Waiting game.
Joy in my heart as old pain
Ends.
Life is change.
I am not the person you used to know.
As the last word faded, the ground throbbed as if it had thought about quaking and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. It seemed almost like the magic pulsed outward from the source of the spell and spread before everything went calm again.
Once it was over, Kelwin leaped from the cart and ran for Tasis, who landed on his knees before the other elf could reach him. Zaree was only a second behind.
When Jorget and Emlynn caught up, Kelwin had an obviously exhausted Tasis in his arms. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, brushing Tasis’s hair from his face.
“I’m okay,” Tasis reassured him before looking at the rest of the group. “Can you still see the house?”
Emlynn tilted her head to examine it. “I see it,” she confirmed. “But I can also sense that it’s different.”
“Good,” Tasis sighed with relief. “That’s what I was aiming for. It should only hide the house from those who refuse to accept my true nature.”
“But how did you make it so that we could understand the words?” Jorget asked. “I’ve never had that happen before.”
Tasis leaned back to get a better look at him, though he didn’t lean far enough to break the hold of the arms encircling him. “You understood that?”
Jorget nodded. “Well, yes.”
Tasis’s frown deepened, and he looked at Emlynn. “Did you?”
The giantess shook her head. “No. It simply sounded like the usual type of words used for spellcasting.”
Tasis looked down at the cat, who was staring back up at him. Confusion creased his face. “Wait, what? Say that again.” After a moment he sighed and shook his head. “It’s not working, Rin.”
“It’s been getting harder for Tasis to understand him when we’re away from the isle,” Zaree explained to Jorget and Emlynn. “He used to be able to do it a lot more, but….”
Tasis tapped the pendant he wore around his neck. “We think it was something in Triv’s final spell that did it, but we can’t figure out what. When I used it to bring back the guild, it was drained of magic. It’s just glass and metal now, which means that whatever K’yerin was using to be able to speak to me during waking hours is also gone.” He let out a heavy sigh and rested his head wearily against Kelwin’s shoulder. “Can we go inside now?”
“Yeah,” Kelwin said softly, letting go of him to take to his feet and help Tasis up. When they were standing, Tasis fell against him again, and Kelwin kissed his forehead. “You did good, Tas.”
“I’m not certain I’ve ever seen a bonded pair so suited for each other,” Emlynn noted in a quiet voice.
Jorget wasn’t sure if she’d meant for him to hear her or not, but he answered anyway. “I’m starting to see that,” he said. And he was. Looking at the two without the layer of contempt that he’d been raised to use, he wondered why it had ever seemed like a big deal in the first place.
“Come on,” Zaree told them, opening the door. “Let’s go inside.”
Kelwin ended up having to carry Tasis in, and it seemed likely that Tasis was not going to stay awake much longer. “Do you want to go to your room?” Kelwin asked.
<
br /> “No,” Tasis slurred. “Down here. Want to enjoy being home for a while.”
“You’re going to be enjoying it while staring at the back of your eyelids in half a second,” Zaree muttered.
Tasis’s answer was a snore.
Kelwin chuckled and gently set Tasis in one of the room’s wide chairs before plucking a blanket from a nearby chest and tucking it around the sleeping elf. “He’ll be out for a few hours,” he noted to the others. “Let’s see about getting dinner made before he wakes, shall we?”
Chapter 8
“WHERE—”
Jorget looked around, confused. He had no idea what this place was. The last thing he remembered was going to bed. Tasis hadn’t woken by the time they’d been ready to sleep, and K’yerin had been the one to answer the mirror when Josephina had contacted them again. When Kelwin had explained what had happened, she’d simply told them she’d talk to them later, and then…. “Oh,” he said with a laugh as he finally realized what was happening. “I see. It’s a dream.”
“It is, and it isn’t.”
Jorget turned to see Tasis staring out at the ocean, a smile on his face. K’yerin sat at his feet, but he was staring directly at Jorget. “What do you mean?” he asked.
The cat yawned and stretched. “You are dreaming. But it’s more….” He paused, and looked up at Tasis. “How did you describe it last time?”
“One step from reality,” Tasis said, finally turning away from the ocean to smile at Jorget. “Physically, you’re still in bed at my mother’s house. Mentally, you’re visiting an exact duplicate of the guild. When you wake, you’ll remember the dream perfectly, as will K’yerin and I. So it’s reality. But not.” He cocked his head, his brow screwing up in thought. “Does that make sense?”
“Sort of,” Jorget answered as he looked around. “So this is what the isle looks like?”
“Yeah,” Tasis said softly, more than a little wistfulness in his tone. “Home sweet home.” He turned to look up at the fortress that housed the guild and smiled. “I first saw it in my dreams as a ruin. And I had no idea what was going on. Sometimes it seems like forever ago, but it hasn’t even been a year.”