Talsy gazed at Chanter. "You came back."
"Only just in time, it seems." Chanter shook his head. "Why didn't you call me? It was stupid not to."
"Was I that sick? I've had fevers before. I didn't think it was so serious."
"Everything's serious now. The world's changing, remember? Your illness was a chaos disease, and it would have killed you."
She lowered her eyes. "I knew you'd come if it was serious."
"I told you to call me. I couldn't hear Dolana's warnings when I was surrounded by Shissar. If I hadn't already been coming back, I might not have heard it at all. As it was, it came through the stone I was carrying."
"You found it!"
"Yes, I found your useless piece of stone, as you wanted me to. But I won't look for any more unless you promise not to be so stupid again."
She hugged him, stroking the wet hair that hung down his back. "I promise."
Talsy released him when Kieran, Mita and Brin splashed into the sea with Shan and Taff.
The Mujar turned in surprise. "They're sick too?"
Kieran nodded, shooting Talsy a look of bitter relief. She scowled at him, and he looked away. Chanter healed the Aggapae, and, while they walked up the beach, waded further into the sea to retrieve something from the sandy bottom. He waded out and showed it to Talsy, who studied the seamed grey rock with its lines of tiny letters.
"It's been in the sea for nearly a year, why isn't anything growing on it? Does it still have power?" she asked.
Chanter shook his head. "It was at the bottom of the ocean, nothing grows down there. No light."
She tried to imagine the seabed. "What's it like?"
"Cold, quiet and dark. Sometimes there are currents, sometimes it's so still you can't feel your body."
"How did you find it?"
Chanter guided her up the beach. "With extreme difficulty. I thought it was hopeless; that's one of the reasons I chose to come here first. What's the point of finding the other pieces if we couldn't find this one? Compared to this, finding the others should be easy."
"Really?"
"Yes, but getting to them won't."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The chaos grows worse every day, and with it the world gets more dangerous. Next we go to the Kingdom of Zare."
"Why there? Why not the mountains? What about the missing piece?"
Chanter helped her into her tent and onto a mat. "What about it? I didn't think we'd find this piece, and now that we have, where's the missing piece? Do you still want to go after the other two?"
She nodded, pouring a cup of water. "We must. The missing piece must be somewhere."
"But we may never find it."
"We have to try."
Chanter sipped the water, which must have tasted good after living for so long in brine, she surmised. "Then we must leave here as soon as you're strong enough. The sooner we return to the valley, the better."
The Mujar boy walked across the desert, kicking up plumes of dust. He had left the flower five warm spells ago, having consumed the two leaves. At first he had headed towards the warmth's source, using it as a guide. After only a few hours the warmth came from above, confusing him. Deciding that it was not a good beacon since he had passed it so quickly, he walked on until it vanished behind him. Many hours later, it had reappeared in front of him, and he passed it again. Now he had passed it five times, and wondered if it was the same heat source each time. He had little time to ponder its mystery, however, for his hunger gnawed in the centre of his being and drove him on.
Already he had made several adjustments and learnt much about his world. He had discovered silver lines that ran through the ground, and become aware of their power when he had lain down to rest. The creeping cold and weakness had driven him to his feet again, forcing him to continue walking. Unlike adult Mujar, the boy needed to rest occasionally, especially since the food he had consumed had not been enough to nourish his growing body.
Another problem occupied his mind while his feet trudged on by themselves. He should have a name. All Mujar were born knowing their names, but he did not. The golden light that flickered and swirled in his brain made thinking hard and remembering even more difficult. The memory of his birth had faded, overlaid by recollections of endless walking. Somewhere in his core lived a name that was his own, if only he could find it.
Becoming aware of something different ahead, he stopped and allowed his senses to unravel it. Images formed as his mind absorbed the information and placed it on his inner eye. A haze of shimmering blue blocked his way, striped with twisted lines of silver. His deep memories told him that the blueness was Shissar, and the silver was Dolana. There was also Crayash, which he saw in himself, and another, invisible but all around him, called Ashmar. He trotted towards the haze of colour, avoiding a boulder outlined in bright silver.
The blind boy reached the edge of a dying forest and mapped it with his hands, running them over rough bark, smooth branches and cool, fleshy leaves. He smelt and tasted everything, spat out the bark and twigs, but ate bitter leaves to fill the emptiness within him. Moving deeper into the forest, he consumed all the leaves within his reach. He found plants on the ground that tasted better, and his senses guided him to sweet roots rich in Shissar. He discovered that he could grasp the cold silver threads and part them to unearth the roots quickly. He foraged hungrily, learning about his environment and how to control it.
Chapter Seven
Talsy shivered as they rode through yet another tract of dying land with withered yellow grass and trees bereft of all but a few spotted leaves. Over the past month, they had passed through several areas like this, where the horses huddled together nervously and the Aggapae had to soothe them with soft, meaningless words. Chanter led them on the pale grey horse, which seemed the least affected by the strangeness around them, trotting on boldly. Her hand stole to the tiny bottle tucked between her breasts. When she had fallen sick, she had hidden it beneath her sleeping mat so Kieran would not find it. As yet, she had had neither the opportunity nor the courage to use it, and the thought of tricking Chanter left a bad taste in her mouth. She looked up as the horses stopped.
A black pall rose into the sky ahead, hiding the sun with its vile veil like a banner of doom. The ugly cloud's immensity amazed her. Chanter's horse moved forward and the rest followed, while the Aggapae fingered their weapons and muttered.
A few miles further on, they stopped at the edge of the living forest and looked out across a wasteland of destruction. As far as the eye could see, stumps and ash covered rolling hills and valleys. Chanter led the way across the dead land, and soon her horse moved up beside the Mujar's at his command, and Kieran joined them. The Aggapae dropped back out of earshot, and Talsy studied the stumps. Each was cut smoothly, as though sliced by something extremely sharp. Chanter looked sorrowful as he studied the destruction, frowning.
"What's done this?" Talsy asked, capturing his attention.
"Lowmen."
"But how could they?" She gestured to the ruins of the forest. "I've never seen anything like this before."
"You'll see many more strange things before this journey's over. These people have an earth wizard, and he's given them tools of destruction created by Dolana. Earthpower is the most destructive force, and can be used for a purpose like this if tools made out of metal or stone are powered by Dolana."
"But why kill the forests?" Kieran asked.
"They have taken the wood, so perhaps that's what they wanted. Or maybe they just wished to clear the land for grazing beasts, increasing their wealth either way."
"No one could use so much wood, or so much land," the Prince muttered. "It's madness."
Chanter nodded. "Yes, it is madness, or you could call it chaos. The Lowmen revel in their new power. They use their newfound prowess at destruction, perhaps for no other reason than that they can."
"What about the Kuran?" Talsy said.
"They have fled deep into their
domains, too afraid of the chaos now to continue their war on Lowmen, as are the Dargon. The forests are unguarded, and your people have discovered that they can tread safely upon the soil now, so there is nothing to stand in their way."
They crossed a stream choked with ash and soil that flowed sluggishly through the blasted land. It pushed at barriers of wood and dead leaves, its banks lined with the corpses of fish. Many more animal corpses lay amid the destruction. The burnt forms of foxes, rabbits, squirrels and monkeys lay under the ash with the occasional larger, bloated carcass of a deer. All of them had died in agony, their mouths stretched with pain and fear, their burnt eyes staring hollowly at the ruins of their once beautiful world. Sadness and pity brought tears to Talsy's eyes, and she scrubbed at the moisture that trickled down her cheeks.
"Don't be ashamed to weep." Chanter's soft voice jerked up her bowed head. "Weep for the world, it deserves our sorrow now, for it is dying."
"It's wrong!" she burst out, her voice choked with anguish. "This is why we must restore the Staff of Law!"
He turned away, staring across the blighted land.
"Doesn't it make you angry?" she demanded.
"No." Chanter faced her again. "Only sorrowful. What good would anger do?"
"You have the power to stop this, restore the forest, take the wizard's powers away from him!"
The Mujar shook his head. "Actually, I don't. I'm not a god. Yes, I could restore the forest, but they would only destroy it again. I could take away the wizard's powers, but only for a while, as soon as I released the Dolana he would regain them. What would you have me do, stay here and protect one forest when this is happening all over the world?"
Talsy scowled at him. "You could control the whole world if you wished, stop this everywhere, deny all Truemen wizards the Powers by taking control of them yourself."
"Ah." He nodded, smiling. "You would have me replace the Staff of Law. Plant my feet in the ground and take up the reins of all the Powers, spend all my willpower holding the world in order. Yes, up to a point that's possible, but I don't know all the laws, nor do I have the ability to hold the order like the staff did.
"That was its purpose, but it isn't mine. I would have to rely on the spirits to tell me of transgressions so I could right the wrongs, but while I was busy with one thing, others would happen. I can't replace the Staff of Law, not only because I don't have the same kind of power it did, but also because I'm unable to kill, which is sometimes necessary."
Talsy looked away, chagrined and ashamed.
Kieran stared at Chanter, amazed. "You could do all of that?"
"It's no great achievement. I cannot replace the staff."
"But we could stop what's happening here if we find the wizard and get rid of him."
Chanter shook his head. "Why is that always the Lowman solution? Kill the problem. It doesn't really solve anything. Another would spring up in his place, and if you killed him, another would come along. Already there must be many so-called wizards with a little power over one of the elements, and soon there will be more. You might as well try to empty a stream with a cup."
Kieran's shoulders slumped.
Talsy looked thoughtful. "Are there any other Mujar in the world?"
"There may be," Chanter allowed.
"Well then, they could help, share the load, couldn't they? If there were a few on each continent, they could govern the lands around them."
"Until Lowmen came and threw them into a Pit for spoiling their fun."
"The good people would protect them."
"And then there would be wars." The Mujar sighed. "Eventually the good people would be wiped out and the world would be in an even worse predicament, until it fell apart, of course."
Talsy growled in frustration, glaring at the ruined forest, and Kieran shook his head in reluctant agreement.
"He's right. The only solution is to restore the Staff of Law."
Chanter shot him a sad look as his horse picked its way through the stumps of two-thousand-year-old forest giants, their girth greater than a man's height. In some areas glowing embers still winked in the blackness, and these they avoided. The stench of burning and death hung thick in the air. The black smoke that smudged the sky with filthy fingers rose from a distant border, where the dead forest met the living and men were still busy with their foul task.
So vast was the destruction that they were forced to push on far into the night to reach living land once more. They stopped in a grassy glade where the horses could graze and slid exhausted from their mounts.
As they pitched the tents and built a campfire, only Chanter was aware of the small brown-skinned people who crept through the forest to spy on them. After a while, the timid people crept away again, leaving the chosen to eat their food and settle down for the night. Just after they retired to their tents, a mournful, wailing chant echoed through the forest, underscored by distant drumming. Talsy thrust her head out of her tent and looked at Chanter, who sat before the fire. He answered her silent question without taking his gaze from the flames.
"Forest people, mourning the death of their world."
Talsy glanced at Kieran and the Aggapae, all of whom had apparently been alarmed by the distant singing, and they withdrew to their sleeping mats. The distant tribesmen sang their dirge for most of the night, making the chosen toss and turn in restless sleep, probably haunted by wailing dreams of death and fire. Chanter spent the night gazing into the fire as he tuned his senses to the sickened Dolana of the dying land.
The next morning, they rode on through a hushed, fearful forest towards the distant Kingdom of Zare. By midday, the birds sang muted, hesitant songs, as if afraid that something might hear them. Chanter caught glimpses of furry hides and fearful, liquid eyes as shy animals fled from their path. A flash of multi-hued skin and wings of shimmering colour vanished into the trees ahead, fleeing their presence like the Lowman beasts. They passed through many tracts of sickened land that the wild creatures that had once dwelt there had abandoned. In these places bulbous growths thrust through the soil, their skins mottled with repulsive colours and a sickening stench surrounding them. The horses crossed these areas with great reluctance, snorting and shying from the unnatural plants.
By nightfall everyone was gloomy and withdrawn, affected by the forest's mood. A glimpse of mountains ahead promised a change of terrain, but whether it would be easier or harder to traverse was unknown. The Aggapae pitched camp in silence and sent their horses to find grazing for the night.
As the sun sank beyond the trees, turning the clouds to streamers of fire, Chanter looked up from his plate of stew and froze. Talsy followed his gaze, but could make out nothing in the gathering gloom except tree trunks. The Mujar put aside his plate and rose to his feet with such caution and alertness that she shivered with a cold touch of foreboding. The others watched him with growing alarm, reaching for their weapons. Kieran's hand caressed the hilt of the Starsword, as the forest's night creatures fell silent.
Chanter reached the trees' darkness and stopped, poised. He raised an arm, and the gloom beyond him moved in a rush of brown fur.
"No!" His shout was cut off as a claw-tipped arm smashed him to the ground with a crunch of breaking bone.
Talsy leapt up with a yell, drawing her knife, and the Starsword hissed from its scabbard in Kieran's fist. Bedlam erupted as a horde of furry monsters charged into the camp. The first creature to reach the fire died when Kieran's sword severed its head. He leapt aside as the monster fell and his sword found its next victim in a slashing back stroke. The Aggapae stabbed and shouted, three of them bringing down a second beast. Talsy hung back, stunned by the size and ferocity of the creatures that boiled from the darkness. Some scattered the fire with huge shaggy paws as they whirled in a deadly battle with Kieran's flashing sword. He ducked slashing claws and thrust the sword into a hairy breast, swinging away to face another threat as his foe fell.
An Aggapae's scream jerked Talsy's attention from Kieran's b
attle just as a huge tusked beast bowled her over. She stabbed it, but its thick matted fur turned her knife aside. Its rank smell clogged her nostrils as she struggled to free herself from its deadly embrace. Claws raked her shoulder, then the beast dropped her with a squeal as the Starsword sliced into its back. The Prince jumped aside to avoid its claws when the monster turned, and Talsy shouted a warning as a dark shape loomed behind him. He spun, cutting the air in a circle and disembowelling the creature behind him while lopping off the other's paw. The Aggapae struggled in a seething brawl with two monsters, stabbing them with their long fighting spears. A sweeping paw lifted limp form off his feet and threw him clear, to land with a sickening thud.
As swiftly as they had appeared, the pack quit the camp and vanished into the night. Talsy crawled towards the fire's embers, and strong hands lifted her and dumped her beside it. Kieran piled wood onto the coals and fanned them into a blaze. The light revealed his pale face, streaked with blood and dirt. He crouched beside her, scanned the forest with fierce eyes and gripped the ebon blade as he waited for the monsters to return, but the forest remained silent and still. The Aggapae crouched over two sprawled forms, one of whom groaned, the other lay still. Talsy clutched her shoulder, trying to stem the blood that oozed between her fingers.
Kieran stood. "They've gone, I think." He turned to her. "Are you hurt?"
She nodded, gritting her teeth as pain replaced numbness. "Where's Chanter?"
"I don't know. Hold still."
The Prince found a water skin and poured an icy trickle over her wounds, making her gasp, then laid the Starsword against the gashes. "Heal."
Talsy sagged as the pain ebbed, closing her eyes to block out the horror of the torn camp and sprawled victims. Kieran raised the blade and examined her shoulder, then went over to the wounded Aggapae. Talsy opened her eyes to look around for the Mujar, rising on shaking legs to search the clearing.
"Don't go too far," Kieran warned. "They might still be out there."
Broken World Book Three - A Land Without Law Page 12