by David Ekrut
The man regarded her for a long moment. His eyes narrowed as he looked upon Feffer. His words held no room for argument. “If he cannot be held responsible for his words, then his testimony will be disregarded. Does the Lady Lifesong have anything further to add?”
“I do not.”
He looked over the crowd, “Would any others care to offer testimony?” Without pause he stood and said, “It is done.”
When the other council members stood, the bald man struck with the crook three times. “Let us enter an hour of prayer to ascertain the fate of the accused.”
Without further preamble, they all exited in the same order they had arrived.
People started to talk at a loud whisper. All of the conversations were the same. Half of the people argued for his innocence and half for his guilt. Most of the arguments repeated what had been said already.
“Why would Jasmine stand to defend someone if he wasn’t innocent?”
“She was obviously deceived.”
“She would know good from evil …”
Before a full minute had passed, the arguments became an indiscernible jumble of shouts.
Elwin glanced at the man next to him. Cold eyes regarded him as one might watch a fox outside a henhouse.
“Excuse me,” he said to the man. “I need to get out.”
Zarah pulled on his arm, “Where do you think you are going?”
“I need to get to Feffer.”
“Mother will take care of him,” Zarah pointed.
Jasmine escorted Feffer toward the door. Feffer’s face twisted in protest, but Elwin could not make out the words. Then Feffer’s gaze met Elwin’s.
Feffer’s eyes lit up, and he pointed. And though Elwin could not hear his friend’s voice, he could see Feffer’s mouth form the words, “Elwin. There’s Elwin.”
Several people followed Feffer’s finger to Elwin. Jasmine jerked Feffer’s arm down and all but pushed him the last several paces out of the courtroom.
But the damage had been done. The conversations became more muted as people began to point out Elwin’s location. The man with the cold eyes sitting beside Elwin stood and moved toward the exit, but he didn’t take his eyes from Elwin until he had cleared the doorway.
Elwin looked around, hoping to find a friendly face but found none. Most of the people avoided his gaze, but not all. The young woman who had carried the child looked right at him. Her lip still quivered, but the tears had left her eyes. She never blinked as her face twisted into a sneer. Elwin watched her for several moments, unable to make himself look away.
“What is it?” Zarah said in a soft voice.
He tore his eyes away from the girl and made as if to rise.
A hand on his knee made him freeze in place. He looked at the hand and followed the arm up to Zarah’s face. She snatched it off his leg as if from a fire and her cheeks colored.
“I need to get out of here,” he told her. “Everyone is looking at me.”
“You cannot,” she whispered. “They want you to be guilty. If you leave, they will think you are guilty.”
“But I’m not,” he said. “Why doesn’t that matter to them?”
“Do you not see?” she asked. “They are afraid of what they do not have. This is precisely why we have the Guardians. Their laws make those ungifted feel safe. Look around. What do you see?”
He looked up. Several eyes darted away from him, but the girl still glared at him. She looked as if she had not blinked once. He could feel others staring at him from his periphery.
“They are angry,” he said at last.
“Some,” Zarah said. “Yes. Some are angry. But their anger is born from fear.”
“And loss,” he said.
She touched his hand. “It will all be made right. You will see.”
Elwin glanced to the girl. She had finally turned her attentions back to the child in her arms. He took a deep breath.
“I hope you’re right.”
“Of course, I am right,” she said nudging him with her arm. “I spoke.”
He met her gaze. Her smile managed to be both playful and smug. Despite himself, he felt his lips returning her smile. After a moment her smile faded, but she held his gaze for several heartbeats.
“Practice your breathing,” she said without looking away. “It will be good practice for you trying to move your essence in a crowd.”
He nodded and closed his eyes, but the image of Zarah was slow to fade from his thoughts. Dragons take him if there was anyone more beautiful. But that wasn’t why he did as she suggested. It was good practice. She could make a good suggestion every once in a while.
Pushing Zarah from his thoughts, he focused on his breathing. He felt for the power of Air around the room but did not open his essence to the flow. He felt ripples in the room as people shifted in their seats and whispered to one another. He tried to focus on individuals, but there were too many people moving at once.
Ignoring the people, he cleared his mind and felt for his essence. It was much like closing his eyes and thinking about his heartbeat. Even though he rarely paid attention to it, if he focused on the rhythm, he could feel the beats in his chest.
When he didn’t try to move it, his essence seemed to stay near his head. Or at least, every time he found it, that’s where it rested. He took deep breaths and didn’t try to search for it so much as he tried to make his mind aware of his essence, like he would his hand or foot. Just like that, he felt his essence hovering above his body. Each time seemed to be faster than the last.
Jasmine compared willing it to move to walking, but it felt more like crawling with a knapsack filled with boulders. He envisioned his essence like a mirror of his own body, like it looked in the shadow realm. Focusing on the limbs of his ethereal extension, he forced the arms and legs of his essence to move through the forms as Jasmine had instructed him.
It did not stir the air as it moved, but he could feel the power of Air pressing against his essence. The power sought to fill him like rain fills an empty cup. Only, it would not unless he allowed it to do so. Jasmine had tried to explain the physics of it to Elwin, but her explanation had sounded like gibberish. A person existed in space and time, but, like the shadow realm, his essence existed both inside and outside of space and time. Then, his essence acted like a conduit for taming the Elements. There had been more, but he couldn’t remember it. It was all blather anyway. None of it helped him.
He realized his essence had stopped moving through the forms and hovered above his head once more.
“Curse it all,” Elwin said under his breath.
“What is it?”
He opened his eyes. Each person his gaze settled on flinched and looked away as if he had threatened them with a stick.
Elwin sighed. “I can’t focus. I started doing the forms, but I lost concentration.”
“I saw,” Zarah said.
“You saw?”
“Yes,” she said, “I was watching you do the forms. A bit slow, but overall … not bad. Then you began to drool like a simpleton.”
He gave her a flat look. “An essence can’t drool.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “But if they could, yours would have been.”
“How long until I can see like you?”
She shrugged. “No telling. Try a few more times. I’ll squeeze your hand when they come back in.”
Elwin closed his eyes and tried to make his essence go through the forms, but his thoughts roamed. First, he thought of Feffer and tried to imagine what under the Lifebringer had happened to his skull. Zarah had said training would be rough, but that had been a lot of blood. What, short of a giant’s hammer, could be strong enough to split a skull so hard?
But, Feffer was healed now, so Elwin need not worry over his friend. Pushing Feffer from his thoughts, he found his essence droo
ling once more. Not drooling, curse Zarah. Resting. He found his essence resting. As soon as he began the forms anew, the image of Biron’s family entered his mind. Most of all, he could not shake the image of the young woman. Elwin had never felt hatred for anyone, but he was certain he had seen its face. Was she Biron’s sister? Biron was several years older. The woman could have been his wife. Was the child in her arms Biron’s son?
When he felt his hand squeezed, it shattered his thoughts, and his eyes popped open.
The seven white robed figures were in place behind their chairs. Jasmine stood in the same spot as before right in front of the bald man. Elwin spared a glance to the woman holding the child. She did not look back, but for reasons Elwin couldn’t explain, he wished she would.
Again the man in the center struck his crook on the platform. They remained standing, towering over the crowd.
“We have reached a decision of indecision” he said in drawn out tones. “Haste does not make for wise choices. Therefore, we will reconvene in one year’s time. We do not doubt the belief you have in your words, Jasmine Lifesong. And we do not discount the faith that your king has placed in you. It is for this reason alone, we are willing to place the accused’s actions in your care. From this moment, your fates will be as one. If a single innocent life is lost as a result of his willful actions, then this will be the same as if you have performed the act yourself.
“These will be our terms,” he said. “Are you still willing to place your faith in this child?”
There was not a moment of hesitation and clear confidence in her voice. “By my life, I will care for this child. So long as I have breath, I ensure that he will return here in one year, so that you may see the validity of my words.”
He struck the crook in rapid succession once more.
His eyes met Elwin’s as he said, “If the accused, Elwin Escari, attempts to elude judgement, his actions will be taken as an admission of guilt. He will be found and executed without further proceedings. A date will be set after Summer’s Solstice not more than one year’s time from this day. Until this time, our proceedings are concluded.”
They all exited once more.
Elwin heard sobs coming from the family at the front, and he noticed that several people were now looking in his direction, though no eyes seemed to land on him. Jasmine walked out the doors without even glancing in his direction. The other people began to stand and leave as well.
Elwin sat there. He wasn’t sure how to feel. It wasn’t over. He was still alive, but it wasn’t over. Would they assign a warder to watch over him now? Would he become one of the number of elementalists that disappeared?
Finally, all of the other people had gone. Only the family remained, huddled together. He could see their backs quivering as if their sobs wanted to escape through their bodies.
“We should go,” Zarah whispered to him.
Elwin stood. He wanted to go to the family and tell them how sorry he was, that it was an accident.
As if reading his thoughts, the young woman’s eyes shot toward Elwin like an arrow released from a bow. He felt himself step backward and almost stumble over the pew. Bowing his head, Elwin turned and left the family to their grief.
Elwin sat in his chair in the lecture room, leaning on his desk. Zarah sat next to him and shared the silence. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, but he felt better with her presence.
Jasmine walked through the open doorway, rubbing her forehead with the side of her forefinger. She sat in the empty chair next to him. Her eyes held a soft look that he had not seen from her before. Her lips were tight and her hair slightly disheveled.
“I am sorry, Elwin,” Jasmine said. “I was wrong in my assessment. I have never actually had to defend against the Inquisition. I … I made a mistake. I should have brought forth more witnesses. I should have spoken with Biron’s family and many other things that are too late now. We will return next year, and I will be more prepared. But in the meantime, you must train.”
She leaned forward. “We need to prepare you for … whatever may come. There are events occurring that will require every ounce of power that we can find. And yours will be valuable. You have a purpose. The Lifebringer brought you to me for a reason. Rest assured that I will not let your life be taken for vanities.”
Of the many questions racing through his mind, the one that escaped his lips was, “Where’s Feffer?”
“He is resting.” A touch of surprise sounded in her voice.
“Can I see him?” He felt a mountain of hope rising in his chest.
She shook her head. “That is not a good idea. He will need to return to training as soon as possible. And so will you.”
“What about the Inquisition?”
“Let me worry over that. In the meantime, we must return to your studies.”
Her words felt like a weight settling onto him, and he found it hard to breath.
He had been stolen from a life to which he could not return. And he was not sure that he would even want to now. Knowing his family was not real made his entire life feel like a great falsehood. Would he forget that if he could? Would he want to live a lie?
His actions had taken a life.
A family had lost an irreplaceable treasure. A life, a force for good, was no more. Because of him. He could see the woman’s grief. He could feel the family’s pain. It was a part of him now.
The tears began to fall. He had no strength left to fight the agony within. He covered his shame with both hands. He couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Elwin wept.
Chapter 10
A Soldier’s Life
Feffer elbowed the thin mattress beneath him, trying to smooth out the lumps. Perhaps he should have played the cripple for one more day. The mattress at the Temple of Life had been softer than anything he had ever slept on. Putting up with the surly healer for one more day would have been worth sleeping another night in the bed.
He had acted the perfect gentleman his entire stay, but the woman had behaved as if his very presence was an insult to her existence. Feffer couldn’t remember much about the first day or so, but he couldn’t have said anything too terrible.
Though, the healer had been blessed with a beautiful bosom. Perhaps he had commented on it? Of course. Curse him to the abyss, that must have been it. Maybe he should try to make it up to her. He could find some way to apologize without ogling her breasts. Otherwise, she might think his apology a mockery. And that would make matters worse.
He rolled onto his back and sighed. At least he had a top bunk. Each bed was stacked three high. Not that he had much of a view. The support beams above him stretched the full extent of the barracks and made layers up to the ceiling. At the top, the wooden supports came together to provide the perfect cubby to hide his belongings.
He had not been up there since before getting his skull cracked. That had been half a tenday. As much as he itched to climb up and check his coin purse, it would have to wait. The best times to get up and down without being seen were just before meals. It was rare that anyone skipped a meal, regardless of how tasteless and measly the food. He could wait until then. If someone had found his cache, there would be little he could do about it.
He looked to his left. The bunks were an arm’s length apart, but his eyes had adjusted to the dark well enough to see the other figures sleeping on the bunks around him. Before his accident, Feffer had grown accustomed to looking for motion in the night. His squad slept in the four bunks closest to the east wall, and Gurndol had yet to make good on this threats.
Before getting his head cracked like an egg, Feffer had started making it a point to incur extra drills by making mistakes. At first, it had been to take the pressure off Fandar. The larger boy had the grace of a pregnant cow. In truth, he didn’t like seeing pranks acted out on Fandar, but Feffer mostly wanted to agitate Gurndol. There would be no
reason to think Gurndol would have forgotten such slights to his pride in Feffer’s absence.
Tomorrow would be Feffer’s first day back in action, so it seemed tonight would be a good night to catch him off guard. It’s what Feffer would do if he was a pompous prat looking for undue vengeance.
Feffer crossed his arms behind his head and sighed. One more tenday until Sir Gibbins assigned a squad leader. It would likely be Gurndol. They tended to choose members of noble families as squad leaders. And while Feffer had been resting up, Gurndol had likely moved ahead in the ranks.
Three round slender strands landed across his upper chest, waist, and legs at the same time. He felt a heartbeat of confusion until his mind realized what held him. Rope. It pulled tight against his chest as if someone played tug-of-war from the other ends. A dark wad hit his midsection, knocking the breath from him. He had just enough time to tense as a second blow struck down. The throb was instant and he struggled to catch his breath.
It took him a moment to realize his arms had not been caught by the rope. Only a single rope held them at the pits of his arms. He wiggled his head and arms free of the top rope as another blow came down on his stomach. He grunted against the pain and grabbed the headboard. Pulling from the headboard and kicking with his legs, he was able to free his lower half.
He sat up and rolled the last rope down his legs. The pillow case filled with soapstone struck his foot, and Feffer muffled a curse.
A loud whisper came from below. “I think he got this rope loose, pull tighter on your ropes.”
Feffer leapt off the top bunk in the direction of the whisper. His feet struck the top of someone’s head, and he heard Gurndol cry out and crumple beneath him. Feffer caught the top bunks on either side to keep from falling with his target, then pulled back up to his bunk.
“What happened?” he heard one of the others whisper.
“Gurndol’s not moving.” That was Marlin’s voice speaking well above a whisper. He had become Gurndol’s number two. “Get back to your bunks.”