“So,” he concluded, “before I do so, do you have anything you’d like to say?” His eyes twinkled with mischief as the prisoners, still enchanted by his silencing spell, said not a word. “Nothing? Very well then.”
Parnasus lifted his staff again and moved it in an elaborate series of gestures. As he did he loudly said, “Graft!”
At once the eyes of the prisoners seemed to glaze over. They fluttered for a moment, then closed as the assembled captives lost consciousness. The First Elder turned to Logus Idra, who stood nearby. “Captain Idra, be so kind as to load this rubbish into a krast-cart and dump it back in the forest. They will regain consciousness in about an hour, at which time they will be quite convinced that they have bested us and that Trakkas is virtually undefended, as we have all sailed off to Kier. They will carry that news back to their outpost.”
As the prisoners were gathered up and hefted none too gingerly into the rough wooden cart, Idra gave the heavy orange work-krast a swat on his flank. He took a band of twelve with him as he led the captives away.
“Excellent!” cried Slurr, placing his arm around the ancient wizard’s shoulder. “I believe this tactic will turn the tide for us, and your part will go down in history!” he said.
Parnasus smiled up at the lad and said, “I trust that it will, though it remains to be seen if I will be remembered for good or ill.”
“Do you think this plan will fail?” Slurr asked, a sudden flicker of doubt crossing his face.
“I do not. I believe it will have the effect you intended. Surok will become overconfident and he will lead his creatures to Trakkas. My misgivings stem from the knowledge that although our army will be prepared, we still have not seen the return of the Chosen one. Without her, though we may kill many of the Army of Darkness, we will not be able to stop Surok himself.”
Slurr, though he had assured everyone who would listen that Cerah would return soon, was also becoming worried that no one had heard from her since Tressida had reached the Frozen South. He said nothing in response to Parnasus’s concerns.
“But for this moment,” the elder wizard said, “we shall not fret. Didn’t you say yourself, she always arrives at precisely the right moment? No doubt she will again.”
They walked together toward a fire, over which a kettle of jakta bubbled. The wizard poured them each a tall mug as they sat in two canvas chairs.
Slurr took a long sip of the steaming stimulant. It felt good as its ingredients acted upon his nervous system, both calming and invigorating him. “Thank you, Elder,” he said. “This is just what I needed.”
“It is good, but it is not what you need. You need your wife to rejoin you,” Parnasus said.
“I miss her so desperately,” Slurr confessed, speaking quietly. “And not just so that she can take down Surok when he comes. I have not touched her in nearly a fortnight. My entire being cries out for her.” As he spoke, a glint of metal caught his eye. He reached down and picked up Cerah’s staff-blade, Isurra, from the place he’d laid it as the prisoners were marched into camp. Indeed, he never let it out of his sight for any length of time.
As he cradled it loosely in his hands, Slurr saw Parnasus’s hand shoot to his temple, a sign that he was receiving a projection. After a moment, he lowered it, and grinned broadly.
“What news?” Slurr asked, eager to hear, but worried that it might not be the message for which he’d been waiting.
“It was indeed Cerah,” he said, answering the question the lad was truly asking. “She was inquiring about your plans.”
Slurr continued to look to the wizard expectantly. “Is that all?” he asked, as Parnasus’s smile continued to beam.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “There was one other thing.”
Slurr waited as long as he could stand, then shouted, “WHAT OTHER THING?”
The wizard broke into a hearty laugh. “She’ll be here before dark,” he said at last.
Slurr jumped to his feet, letting out a loud whoop. “Finally! Finally, she returns to me!”
As Parnasus watched Slurr began to run about the camp, telling first Yarren, who was seated with Russa, then several of his closest captains the good news. “The Chosen One approaches!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
As the word spread throughout the camp, a rapidly growing chorus of cheers spontaneously burst forth from every warrior of the Light. Soon the noise grew so loud that Idra, now well into the Zursh Forest heard it clearly and he said to his men, “I hope that means something good!”
13
Brothers
When Tressida arrived at the camp, Slurr did not wait for Cerah to dismount. With a running leap, he flew onto the dragons back and wrapped his huge arms around his beloved wife. “Oh, my heart and soul!” he said to her. “I have missed you so terribly.”
Cerah said nothing. Instead she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. As she did, a crowd of warriors and citizens of Trakkas who had rushed forth and encircled Tressida, let out a cheer that was even louder than when the news of the Chosen One’s eminent return had first reached them.
“All hail the Chosen One and her Rock!” the fighters cried. The Free People of Trakkas echoed the call.
For a full minute Cerah ignored them, continuing to embrace her husband. Tears poured down both of their faces as the emotions overwhelmed them. Finally, she stopped kissing Slurr long enough to turn to the crowd. “Well met, one and all!” she called.
Again the cheers erupted. At length Slurr released her from his embrace, and they slid together from Tressida’s golden back. They walked to where Kern and Parnasus stood, their faces flush with joy and relief.
“You’ve been away,” Kern said, with his infamous understatement.
“I have wandered,” she replied, aping his downplayed attitude. Then they both burst into laughter as the wizard took his turn and warmly embraced his dear friend.
Finally, she turned to Parnasus. Though her eyes still blazed with gaiety, she addressed him in a serious tone. “Elder,” she said, “we have much work to do.”
“More even than you realize,” Parnasus said.
“How so?” Cerah asked, ready to get to all pressing matters at hand.
“I shall let the general fill you in.”
Cerah turned back to her husband, ready to hear his report, but the moment she saw his face she began smiling again.
“Stop looking at me like that, Cerah, or Surok shall overrun us while you and I go blissfully to our graves!” said Slurr, beaming back at her.
“I’m sorry, General Slurr,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to reign in her joy at being with him again.
Slurr put his hand in front of Cerah’s face. “Perhaps if I’m unable to see how beautiful you are, I will be able to talk to you about urgent circumstances!”
Cerah laughingly swatted his large hand away, and said, “Enough! Please, tell me our status, Lug!”
“I certainly will, but first there is someone I wish you to meet,” her husband said. Turning toward the crowd of warriors and citizens he called, “Ban! Come and let me introduce you to the Chosen One!”
From out of the throng stepped young Ban, once again cleaned up and presentable. He walked toward Cerah and as she saw him in the flesh, she was more struck than ever by the familial similarity. He looks even more like his half-brother than my vision could show me! she thought.
“Hello, Ban. I’m afraid it is my fault you’ve come from your home to this place. I hope you will forgive me for that,” she said to him.
Ban, for his part, was struck nearly dumb at meeting Cerah. He was amazed by her beauty, thinking her, next to his mother, the loveliest woman he’d ever seen. But he recognized immediately that there was more to her than her appearance. He sensed an overwhelming uniqueness about her, one he had certainly never experienced before in any other person and that he could not begin to define. After trying to think of something to say that was worthy of one so amazing, he finally settled upon, “It is an
honor to meet you at last.”
Cerah’s laugh was disarming. “The honor is mine! You may have been sent here by my projected thoughts, but you were commissioned by Ma’uzzi himself. It was a message delivered to me directly from the Next Plane that I passed on to you, and to Slurr.”
Ban didn’t respond, struck at once by the mention of the Creator God. He still had very mixed feelings about that topic, but knew that now was certainly not the time to express them.
“Well, we have Ban to thank directly for our most recent victory,” Slurr said. He went on to tell her of Ban’s spy mission, made possible by the Stygians’ repulsive decision to throw their young into battle. He then detailed his countermeasures, which had been completely successful, finishing with Parnasus’s mind manipulation and their anticipation of a major assault by Surok’s full, overconfident forces.
“We have never been so prepared for a confrontation with him, especially now that you’ve returned. Which reminds me. I have something for you,” Slurr said, reaching among a stack of pikes to produce Cerah’s staff-blade.
“Isurra!” Cerah exclaimed. “I have made my way without my weapon for too long!” She took it and grasped it tightly with both hands. Immediately the gorrium weapon began to glow a brilliant vermillion, to a chorus of “ooh’s” and “ah’s” from the assembled crowd. When she held it above her head, crimson sparks shot from its keen blade and showered harmlessly upon those within a twenty-foot radius, much to their delight. Ban’s eyes grew as wide as wagon wheels. He’d been in the presence of wizard-folk long enough to have seen magic used, but nothing prepared him for the power that Cerah projected. He recognized this as more than a trick done for show, but rather a demonstration to her faithful that she had indeed returned to them. It was not a few red sparks that Ban was sensing. It was something far deeper, but again he could not find the words to describe it, even to himself.
“Darling,” she said to her husband, “let us make our preparations for the battle to come.”
“They are well underway already,” Slurr responded.
“I would like to meet with your captains in a short while, but first I need to speak with you in private.”
Slurr’s eyebrow raised, and a devilish smile crept across his face.
“Speak, I said! Speak!”
“Very well, we can go to my command tent,” Slurr said, offering his arm to her. She slid hers through his and pressed it next to his body as they walked together to the tent. As they went she heard Yarren and some of the other wizards addressing the civilians who had come to greet her, instructing them to return to the city and to seek out the sturdiest and most secure buildings within its borders.
Slurr held back the flap and followed Cerah into the tent, closing it behind them. Respecting her assertion that this was time for talking, he cleared off one of the stools that had been brought in to the large tent, and sat next to her upon another.
“What do you need to tell me?” he asked.
“I need to talk to you about Ban,” she said.
“What about him? He’s a wonderful little rascal,” Slurr began, but Cerah held up her hand, cutting him off.
“He is your brother,” she said, hoping she didn’t blurt the words too quickly.
“What did you say?” Slurr asked, all humor draining from his quickly paling face.
“I said he’s your brother. Let me explain.” Cerah took the next thirty minutes to tell the entire story of her journeys through the other planes, and the visit from the spirit of her mother. She told him the entire story of his birth and his parentage, especially his mother, Preena Jacasta, now going by the assumed name of Alawar.
“She changed hers’ and Ban’s name to protect them from the people who killed his father and grandfather. She feared, rightly, that they might come for him as well, as they sought to eradicate all the males of the line. Although your father was not of the ruling class, those same people would surely have killed you, if they knew you survived your abandonment in the dumping grounds and had been able to find you.”
“Then that is why your mother hid my identity, even from me,” Slurr said, clearly shaken by everything she was telling him.
“She did not know any of this while she lived,” Cerah clarified. “She was following the leadings of her long-dormant spark. She knew only that she must keep you hidden, and, to do so in plain sight, she named you Slurr, the most unassuming name of which she could think.”
Slurr lowered his face into his hands, and remained hunched over for several minutes. Cerah said nothing more, but rubbed his strong back with her slender hand, wanting to comfort him as he assimilated this earthshaking news. After a very long time, he lifted his face and looked at her. Tears streamed down his handsome face, leaving streaks in the dust that had settled upon it while moving about the camp.
“I have a mother,” he said finally. “A mother who lives, yet knows nothing of my fate. And a brother! A little brother whom I sent into the enemy camp to spy and gather intelligence. I could have sent my own brother to his death!”
“I wish I could have gotten to you sooner, to tell you everything, but I had to go to Melsa first, to speak with the ancient elders. I have learned much from them that will help us in the days to come.”
“I know you did what needed to be done,” he said, assuring her that he harbored no hard feelings toward her for delivering this difficult news. “I’m just struggling a little to process all of this.”
“It is life-altering, I realize,” she said, still caressing his back gently.
Again Slurr fell silent for several minutes, then to Cerah’s relief and delight, he began to smile through his tears. “I guess that explains why Ban is so handsome!” he joked.
Cerah laughed at the break in the tension. “He looks like a tiny you!” she said.
“We must tell him!” Slurr said, standing so rapidly that the stool upon which he sat flew backwards, bouncing off the wall of the tent.
“I am not sure how he’ll react,” said Cerah, a look of care returning to her face.
Slurr continued to smile. “If he is truly my brother, I sense he will be as overjoyed to learn the news as I am!” he cried to her.
“You’re happy then?” she asked him, as she too rose to her feet.
“Oh, Cerah! I was content every day of my life to be a part of your family. But I always knew that while you all made me completely welcome, I was not truly one of you. I always wondered about my mother and father. I wondered why she had thrown me away. Now I know it was not her but her family that did that to me. But it worked to give me a chance that my grandfather was not willing to offer. He saw me as a mark of shame, but she saw me as her child, and I believe by pinning my name inside my swaddle she was hoping that I might one day find my way back to her. To know that she lives…and that I have a brother...that is far more than I could have ever hoped for. Please come with me so that we can tell Ban everything!”
“Of course. Let’s go right away,” Cerah said, even as Slurr was already hurrying out of the tent.
“Ban! Ban!” he called as he wove his way through the warriors who were moving to their platoons in preparation for the anticipated battle. After a few more calls the boy appeared.
“What!” he said in reaction to Slurr’s agitated state. “I haven’t done anything I wasn’t supposed to!”
Slurr laughed and turned to Cerah. “Years of making his living by ‘redistributing wealth’ have made him a little distrustful,” he explained. “No, little man, you’ve done nothing wrong. You’re still the hero of the day. But I have news. News that was to me wonderful beyond belief, and I hope you will feel the same about it.”
A look of relief washed over the boy and he said, “Well out with it then!”
“Isn’t he a firecracker?” Slurr said to Cerah, ruffling the boy’s unruly hair.
“Are you going to tell me the news, or do I have to torture it out of you?” Ban asked, growing more excited by the moment. Cerah realized th
at although he probably couldn’t imagine what Slurr was going to tell him, just the fact that he was so clearly excited about it was infecting him with anticipation as well.
“Alright,” Slurr said. “Let me present this in a somewhat controlled manner. You’re my brother!”
Ban’s face changed from excitement to shocked disbelief.
“I’m your which, now?”
“You and I have the same mother. Preena is my mother as well!”
Suspicion crept into Ban’s expression. “How do you know my mother’s name? I never told you that.”
“Cerah has told me everything. Things that I am sure you don’t even know about her, and about us. I realize this is not easy to understand or believe. I would be skeptical myself if the news had come from any other source. But it came from my wife, who I trust utterly. And she received it from her own mother.”
Ban turned to Cerah. “I was told your mother is dead,” he said, a little brusquely.
Cerah, understanding what his young mind must be going through, did not take offense. “She is. But one of the more wonderful parts of being the Chosen One is that I am able to communicate with the spirits of wizards who came before me.”
A Single Candle (Cerah of Quadar Book 3) Page 20