“I’m sure it won’t be,” Aren said, smiling reassuringly despite the grim circumstances, “The way I see it this is just an excuse to make a hot breakfast.” Selth was about to make a biting remark at him for his callousness when she saw that his eyes were as tight as everyone else’s in the clearing. Instead she smiled and picked up the rabbits that had been left over from the previous night. Aren waved his staff over them and instantly the smell of warm rabbit drifted throughout the campsite. Kant scowled slightly at the use of magic to reheat the rabbit meat but he moved over and started eating. As he did, he slowly began to relax and even started joking about how he was going to beat some manners into Mattle when he next got his hands on him.
Just as they finished breakfast and began preparing to saddle their horses Mattle stumbled into the clearing. For a moment there was silence all around as Selth, Aren and Kant studied him in shock and he looked at them in much the same way. “I thought you would have left by now.” he mumbled, “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“Boy!” Kant roared, “What in the name of The Lord of Night did you think you were doing, wandering off in the night and not coming back until we were about to leave. I ought to beat you senseless! I ought to revoke you from the Inquisitors and have you hanged!” he broke off as Aren patted him on the back and Selth was shocked to see that the older Inquisitor was actually close to tears. She had known that he had a special relationship with Mattle but she didn’t think that he would actually let anybody so close to his heart as to be able to bring him to tears.
“Yes, well, I had some thinking to do,” Mattle said in an astonishingly quiet voice, “And some unexpected things happened.” As he said the last part a wolf padded into the clearing behind him and eyed the party across from it with unconcerned yellow eyes.
Kant started reaching for an arrow but Aren’s hand on his shoulder stopped him. “Amazing.” he said, “Simply Amazing. You bonded with an animal after emotional trauma. This could change everything we know about why crooners bond! We have to get you back to the academy immediately.”
The wolf snarled and even Selth looked at him in shock, “Really, you don’t think you could be a little more emotional after Mattle returns to us in the nick of time, with a bonded animal companion to boot. Try maybe, ‘I’m so glad you came back to us. Your animal companion is really fascinating.’ Not, ‘This information is really interesting, you’re just an object to me that’s useful for gaining knowledge and you did a great job of it.’”
Aren gave her an offended look but both Kant and Mattle were nodding in agreement. “That’s not what I was implying at all. It’s just very interesting and sometimes I can’t help but share my intellectual stimulus with those of you who fail to appreciate it.” he sniffed unhappily and looked up into the sky, avoiding eye contact with any of the rest of them.
“It did sound offensive.” Mattle said, “And Raxous agrees with me.”
“Raxous?” Aren asked, coming down from his offended position as quickly as if it had never occurred in the first place. Mattle rolled his eyes in annoyance at Aren’s eccentricities and indicated the wolf which had moved up to his side.
Kant broke in to their conversation, having gotten his tears under control. “As long as it doesn’t scare the horses I suppose.” he said in a gruff voice. There was an undercurrent of emotion that offset his words, though, and when Mattle walked over to their party he threw his arms around the younger man and gave him a massive hug. The wolf, Raxous, started to growl but Mattle glanced down at it and it stopped.
Selth stepped forward to examine the wolf but it instantly snapped its head towards her and started growling, low in the back of its throat. Its ears flattened and it bared its teeth at her. She glowered at it, evidently the wolf shared its companion’s feelings for her. Turning to address Mattle she asked, “Is Raxous a boy or a girl then?” it seemed an innocent enough question to start a reconciliation with.
He gave her a surprised look, as though shocked she could even consider speaking to him, before curtly saying, “He’s a boy. Why?”
“Well you can’t expect me to go around calling him an it, can you? And I certainly can’t be bothered to say Raxous every single time I refer to him. That would be ridiculously difficult.” She snapped before turning away and stalking towards her horse. She should have known better than to try to reason with the thickheaded fool.
Mattle looked at her in annoyance then turned away and walked to his own horse, “Can we get going now? I’ve held everybody up enough already as is.”
“Yes, I think that would be best.” Aren said and with that the four of them mounted their horses and rode back onto the road. Occasionally Selth spotted Raxous keeping pace alongside the horses, hidden by the trees, but more often it felt as though the wolf had disappeared completely from their group. Once more Selth tried to talk to Mattle but he just flicked his reins and rode out of range of hearing. Aren gave her a shrug when she dropped back to ride alongside him but otherwise everyone held their silence.
There were far fewer travelers on the road than they had seen the previous day, which had shown even fewer travelers than the day before but instead of being worried about the proximity of the war Kant and Aren were ecstatic. Fewer people meant fewer potential spies to get them killed at the border. The four of them rode into a town at one point but they only stopped long enough to buy food before riding out of it. “This close to the fighting it will be too expensive to stop at an inn.” Kant explained, “War prices are going to make it hard just to buy bread and cheese with the money we have, let alone a room to sleep in for the night.”
Selth and Aren both expressed disappointment but Mattle appeared more than happy not to be stuck in a town for the night. As they rode into a clearing a mile beyond the town he leapt off his horse and Raxous darted out of the woods. The horses shied at the sight of the wolf appearing so unexpectedly but Kant was able to calm them down. By the time he looked back Mattle and Raxous had disappeared into the woods. “If this keeps up I’m going to work that boy until he remembers that he’s my apprentice.” Kant growled as the three of them set about creating their camp.
Aren sighed and with a wave of his hand a fire sprang up in the middle of the clearing they had chosen. He and Selth both moved to sit beside it, carrying their saddlebags, and Kant moved to his horse and started stringing his bow. Before he could set out into the forest Mattle and Raxous trotted back into the camp. Raxous held a rabbit in his mouth and Mattle was carrying a brace of them over his shoulder. “Useful” Kant grunted, unstringing his bow and laying it down besides his other gear. Mattle tossed the brace of rabbits he had caught towards Aren who picked them up and started cooking them over the fire. Soon the mouthwatering smell of cooked meat filled the clearing but Kant didn’t allow Mattle or Selth to stay by the fire. Instead, he grabbed practice swords from his gear and tossed one to each of them. “Fight!” he told them, then pointed to Selth and added, “And don’t smack him into a tree.” she shrugged and began rolling her shoulders. When Mattle started forwards, time slowed as it had previously but this time she could feel the strings of power that were causing it to happen. She blocked them off and let time flow back to a normal speed.
Mattle attacked high and low darting back and forth as fast as a snake but Selth could read every move he was going to make before he started the swing. She stood as solid as a rock, deflecting his every blow until his foot shifted slightly as he tried a complicated maneuver. Snapping forward, fast as lighting, she struck him in the wrist with a quick twist of her blade, causing him to drop his sword, then leveled the tip of the practice sword at his throat. A nod from Kant had her bringing her sword down and Mattle stumbled backwards, cursing. “What did you do wrong, boy?” Kant demanded.
“I wasn’t fast enough.” he said, almost growling.
“Wrong!” Kant barked, “Selth, what did Mattle do wrong.”
She gave him an apologetic shrug which he sneered off before answering Kant, “He te
legraphed every attack clear as day and then misplaced his foot when he tried to strike me the last time.”
Kant smiled, “Yes, thank you. I’ve been trying to tell him that for a year and a half now.” Turning to Mattle he said, “If you show your opponent exactly what you’re going to do before you attack then it’s no fight at all, no matter how fast you are. That’s why you always lose.” he leaned down and picked up Mattle’s practice sword, facing Selth. “Watch.” he said. When he closed with her Selth had to block the flow of magic that was slowing down time again. As the magic dropped a tornado struck her. Kant’s blade flickered all around her and she gave a snarl of frustration as she was forced to back up one foot, then another. Finally, she noticed a small shift in balance and whipped her blade towards Kant, going on the offensive. Suddenly it was Kant who was giving ground before her. They fought back and forth across the clearing for five minutes before he finally managed to sneak inside of her guard but as he did so she brought her own blade up so that it touched his throat. Kant laughed, “Draw. Though I never thought such a thing was possible in a fight like that.”
Selth laughed as well, “I’m just shocked you managed to get me in the end, you must be the best swordsman I’ve faced in a thousand years.” she stumbled to a halt and Aren and Kant both looked at her sharply. “What, what did I mean. A thousand years. Why did I say a thousand years?” Selth muttered to herself.
“Mattle!” Kant called out, “See if you can rustle up some more rabbits with your wolf. I’d like to have meat for the ride tomorrow and the hunting will be scarce when we get to No Man’s Land.” Mattle looked over at the three of them suspiciously but he nodded and set off into the forest. When he had been gone five minutes Kant turned to Aren, “Could you set wards around the camp so no one can hear what we’re talking about. I don’t like to think it of him but Mattle’s been behaving oddly today and I want to be sure.”
Aren sighed but nodded. He began muttering under his breath and paced around the edges of the clearing, waving his hand and staff in complicated gestures. “That will prevent anyone from hearing what we have to say and hold fast anyone who tries to get into the camp without them realizing that they’re trapped.” he explained when he was done, looking pleased with himself.
“Thank you Aren,” Kant said, “Now, the two of you are going to tell me exactly what Selth is. I haven’t said anything so far because there hasn’t been a great opportunity and because it didn’t seem like too big a deal. But what she just said undermines that so the two of you are going to tell me or I’m going to take Mattle and leave you to try and cross into Mardule on your own.”
Selth shared a look with Aren and they both shrugged at the same time, “Neither of us really knows,” she started, “I wasn’t really anything until I had a dream one night . . .” she told her whole story, with Aren adding in parts when he felt it was necessary. By the time they were finished several hours had passed and Mattle and Raxous were visible, frozen in place by the wards that Aren had put up.
Kant had worn an expression of surprise from the beginning of the story nearly till the end of it and when they finished he sighed, rubbing his brow, “And that’s the truth. No lies?” Both of them nodded, “Damn, what about the reason for going to the Mountains of Endless Night? Is it what you said or is it something to do with her?”
Selth looked over at Aren, she hadn’t considered it before but the question made sense. He shook his head though, “I can swear by whatever you want that I’m not going to the mountains because of Selth. It is because of Ancarth the Black.”
Kant waved off the need for an oath, “Okay, why do you think you can’t access your power?” he addressed Selth.
She shrugged uncomfortably then told them, “I have to kill the traiganidorian, the beast I described which attacked me in my dream. Apparently because it wounded me it left an imprint in my power and now its attack tears into me every time I try to use my true power.”
Kant nodded thoughtfully but Aren gave a startled squeak, “Traiganidorian! You never said traiganidorian before!”
“What?” she asked, “What’s so big a deal about a traiganidorian?”
“What’s such a big deal? Do you even know what a traiganidorian is?” Aren nearly shouted, the fire flaring up as he became distressed.
“Obviously she doesn’t,” Kant said calmly, “and neither do I. So please tell us so we can be just as worried as you evidently are.”
Aren calmed himself with a clear effort and explained. “Traiganidorians are creatures from the ninth plain of Hell. Not the realm of The Lord of Night,” he said at Kant’s sharp look, “This is something far deeper than that. Hell is a realm that connects all the worlds, all the universes in existence – though no one knows much about those universes aside from the fact that they exist. But of Hell we know a little, mostly because of Ancarth the Black. The beasts, the monsters he used to capture most of Aulternanden, were from the third layer of Hell. Because of him we started an extensive exploration of it but we barely got past the first layer so we had to content ourselves with just knowing it was there. But one mage, he pushed farther than anyone else. He found a portal that led to the deepest layer of Hell, the ninth layer. The creatures he described were enough to make apprentices wilt in terror and grown men cry for their mothers. Most dangerous of all were the nine traiganidorians – a creature from the first layer of Hell told us that name after we had captured it. They are death, pain and suffering embodied, creatures that could destroy a planet in a day and nothing can be done to stop them.” Aren took a deep breath, “Now do you understand why I reacted as I did?” he snorted, “Kill a traiganidorian, as soon kill Ancarth the Black himself. As soon kill The Lord of Night or The Provider. No, sooner!”
Selth and Kant both looked at him in shock then Selth gave a shaky laugh. “Well, maybe the traiganidorian will fall on its own claws and kill itself for me.” Aren and Kant both gave her flat stares and she threw up her arms in disgust, “Well is it important anyways? I don’t have to kill the thing. I don’t have to use that part of my power, I don’t want to anyways! Besides, I have other powers. Let’s just focus on the mission at hand and then we can decide what to do about the traiganidorian.” She glared at Aren and Kant until they both nodded their agreement, “Now get these wards down and make Mattle and Raxous think they were hunting this whole time or something. I’m pretty sure even those two will recognize that two hours have passed since they arrived at camp.”
Aren looked at the two frozen shapes with amusement but nodded his agreement. “Yes, I think they will.” he walked over to perform his magic while Kant looked at Selth cautiously, as though he was seeing her for the first time and wasn’t certain whether he liked what he saw. She sighed sadly, that had been one of the reasons she didn’t want people to find out about her, but before she could confront the Inquisitor he walked to a flat patch of ground and lay down to sleep. She paused for a moment then followed suit and soon she was lost, dancing among the stars.
18
No Man’s Land
I have created new entities, Sentinels I call them. They are mortals whom I have invested with my own power. I will not share the secret of this with the lesser five. They do not deserve to know. They are too dangerous, touched by Chaos as they are.
– Journal of Shattrenlix
Selth was prodded awake by Aren the next morning as the sun reached almost halfway to its Zenith. “Come on sleepy, we’re late by almost two hours for our usual start.” he said. She staggered to her feet and grabbed her saddlebags. Looking around she saw Kant and Mattle both struggling awake in the same way she had and she felt a flash of relief that she wasn’t the only one to oversleep. Selth threw her saddlebags onto her horse and tied them down then walked over to where Aren was preparing breakfast. He hadn’t bothered to bring out the rabbit from the previous night, just hard cheese and bread so that they could eat as they rode.
He portioned out four chunks of cheese and four slices of bread
as Kant and Mattle finished tying their gear to their horses and then the four of them hurried on their way. Raxous dashed through the trees besides them and Selth saw more and more of him as they rode. There were no more people on the road she saw with some surprise but the feeling faded as the four of them rode out of the forest into a sudden wasteland. The wind howled across it and it seemed as though the very life force of the land had been sucked away. Kant reined in and the others stopped their horses behind him in jumbled fashion. “It’s closer than I remember,” he said, “That’s not a good sign, it means the Mardulians are able to send more raiding parties past the Andian encampment.” he glanced back at the other three, “From here on out we move slowly and only when I say so. Mattle, if that wolf of yours is actually linked to you then use it to help scout for soldiers. If a party of them sees us we’re as good as dead.”
Mattle scowled when Kant said, ‘your wolf,’ but he held his tongue. Evidently. he knew when it was okay to talk back to Kant and when doing so would land him in hotter water than he could handle. Kant glared around the whole group until each of them agreed to what he had told them then he waved his hand and they moved forward at a walk.
He seemed to be more of a hound than a man for the rest of the day. At every hill he would lean his head to the side and listen for sounds of horses, leading them around the war parties headed their way. Once he even smelled the air and claimed that he could tell there were soldiers camped out because of the smell of unwashed men on the breeze. Selth tried to smell the air and all she got was the burned-out smell of dead grass and trees which permeated the area. Sure enough though, when they rode in a wide arc around the area Kant had pointed out, there were campfires visible.
The God in the Shadows (The Story at the Heart of the Void Book 1) Page 20