The Shattered Shards

by Stephen J Wolf

  He took two steps forward and then stopped. He looked around the room at the lump of tunic on the floor, the two clattered swords, and the furniture that had fallen over at some point. He hadn’t even noticed it.

  He turned back to Kitalla but she was gone.

  Chapter 41

  A Plan Develops

  Time passed slowly for the group as they mended their wounds in Marritosh. Ervinor was less depressed over the loss of his arm, though he was far from accepting it. He moped at times, but made himself useful as well. The elders of the town found excuses to call on him for aid and he obliged most of the time.

  Dariak was also feeling much better. His efforts to assist Ervinor’s healing process had drained him more emotionally than anything, for he hadn’t intended to cause suffering to the village healers. He had approached them all to explain, but each one had felt his intentions during the spell, and no one blamed him directly, though some now eyed him cautiously, if not a little fearfully. His power was certainly strong, and he knew he needed to be more mindful of his actions.

  Randler spent time in the town, boosting morale in his own way. From sweeping tunes on his lute to deep, heartfelt ballads, he brought the people in touch with themselves and, in doing so, he was able to help them face their ailments. Even Ervinor had propped himself up in the corner of the tavern to listen to Randler’s music and words.

  The injured members of the army were also recovering well. Their wounds were staunched and their spirits were lightened. Yet everyone worried about the next move. There were too many unanswered challenges to face and, when they allowed themselves to admit it, they were a tiny force, all told.

  “Time is going to slip away unless we start doing something,” Kitalla cautioned one evening. The thief had spent many hours keeping her skills intact by sparring with the warriors in the village. “We can’t remain here much longer waiting.”

  Dariak nodded and whispered, “I know.” He breathed a heavy sigh and looked at the council table. The major players of his forces sat with him, as did the elders of Marritosh. They knew that if the army fled, then the king’s forces would swoop down and reclaim the town.

  Old man Herchig slammed his tankard on the table. “Why, this reminds me of the time I was captain of a small force myself. We were lying in wait to ambush a group of brigands. We were hunkered down for what seemed like weeks and then we grew restless. Sure, we had to maintain the ambush or we would lose the thieves. But in truth, we were getting so anxious to be on with it that we started getting sloppy. Blasted brigands turned the ambush around on us and gave us a good teaching, I’ll tell you. Now sure, we’re all hunkered down here licking our wounds and gathering our plans, but the more we sit tight the more likely we’ll get complacent and just lose ourselves too.

  “Now, I know you young people are all worried about the king taking away the rest of our freedom, and he may do just that. But you have other things you need to do in the meantime if you’re going to put an end to this for good. Why, that blasted group of thieves was led by a vicious scoundrel and it was the general of the army who realized we couldn’t stop the caravan attacks by trapping a few measly sell-swords. No, he let the defenses slide where he had to so he could mount a larger assault and take down that bloody scavenger. Sure, it nearly cost me an eye; why this one day—”

  “Herchig!” one of the other elders cut in. “We’ll be here all night if you’re going to recount your life history. Make your point.”

  “He has, Imerelda,” Ervinor muttered softly, his eyes focused on Herchig. Ervinor then turned his gaze to his companions. “He’s right. The king may come, but you have other things to do.”

  “Ervinor...” Dariak started.

  “No, it’s fine,” he retorted. “I won’t be of any use to you right now; not until I regain some of my skill. And confidence,” he admitted openly. “I will remain here and help to protect these gracious people.”

  Herchig smiled. “Now that’s a lad and a fine man, too. Yes, sometimes it’s not the battles we seek, but the battles we know to avoid, that measure us. When I was but eleven years old—”

  Imerelda slammed her fist on the table, “Herchig!”

  The old man sputtered for a moment and then he released a deep sigh and sank back in his seat, clearly dejected.

  “Dariak?” Kitalla prompted.

  “The real question is figuring out what the priority is. We then need to tackle it efficiently.”

  Randler decided to enumerate the options so there were no misunderstandings. “We have Gabrion to find, naturally. We have been without our friend for far too long and I’m worried. There is also the healing jade to obtain from Pyron, though based on our last attack on Magehaven, it won’t be easy. We have to fortify our defenses here in case the king sends forces to quell the rebellion before troops from Kallisor hit the castle proper. We also need to bolster our forces, and the best way to do so will be to turn the Kallisorian troops to our cause.”

  Quereth snorted a laugh. “Sorry, all. Just hearing all that, I have no clue about where to even start. Perhaps my recent ordeal has taken the fight out of me, but we’re only a handful of people here.”

  The statement cast a sudden pallor on them all, for it was the one thought each had buried within but none wanted to face.

  Dariak broke the silence. “I have to go after Pyron before he develops any more skill with the healing jade.”

  “I’ll be by your side,” Randler immediately agreed.

  “Good.” Dariak smiled. “I’ll need your help with the resonance and dissonance theories, as well as your company. Frast? Would you join us?”

  The young mage snapped to attention in his seat and he bit his lip as he looked from Randler to Dariak. “I— No, I’m best suited to work here. I’m in need of a respite from the excitement.” He cast another furtive glance toward Randler before lowering his eyes and shaking his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Another silence filled the room before Dariak turned to his earliest conspirator on this quest. “Kitalla?”

  “You already know,” she said. “Yours is a magical fight and though I may score a lucky hit with my daggers, Pyron needs to be taken down by magical forces.”

  “You’re remaining here, too?” Frast looked up, confused.

  “No, mage,” she said softly.

  Randler nodded to himself. “Perhaps on your way you can try to persuade the troops to join us? If anyone can, it’s you.”

  “Actually,” she added, still noting that Frast hadn’t figured it out yet; his cheeks were still flushed from his glance toward Randler. “I’ll let Gabrion do the talking. He may be a simple village boy, but he knows the locals better than I do.” Her lilting tone was amusing only to those who knew her best.

  Ervinor opened his mouth in protest but Dariak laughed. “You sell yourself short, hag. You know the locals quite well enough.”

  She winked in reply and then turned to Ervinor. “When I return with Gabrion, I expect you to be ready.”

  “Ready?”

  “You’re in charge of things here.” Her tone went from light moments ago to sharp and domineering. “There’s no point in changing the chain of command. The army needs someone they know they can trust, and if we’re all heading out, then that leaves you. So I expect you to be ready.”

  “Kitalla, I need more time,” he argued.

  “You don’t have it,” she replied.

  “We’ll help,” Frast said. “Won’t we, Quereth?”

  The older mage hedged. “I will do what I can, but as I said earlier, I’m losing my will to fight.”

  “Defense,” Randler offered. “Just work with the rest of the mages and help them sharpen their skills for defense. You don’t need to do more than that.”

  “Until Ervinor needs more,” Kitalla said with a grin. She then returned the incredulous looks she was receiving. “What? I expect to come back here to our forces holding strong. I don’t intend to come back having to fight my way in. No, I will
return and you will have a nice cold tankard of ale waiting for me, and perhaps a few of Herchig’s mint rolls. Yes, that will do nicely.”

  Herchig released a sudden belly laugh that caught the assembly off guard. “Why, lass, if you only knew how I even came upon that recipe!”

  Before he could dive into the tale, Imerelda intervened, “Then it seems like we’re set. Are there any other issues we need to address this eve?”

  Everyone chuckled, including Herchig. “Very well,” he conceded. “I’ll tell you that one when you’re back with our friend Gabrion.”

  “It’s a deal,” she agreed. “But I fully expect to depart tomorrow with a pack of those rolls for my journey.”

  Herchig rose to his feet swiftly, despite his age. “Nesseria’s going to make me sleep out on the cobblestones tonight. Fire up the oven, Ness! We’ve got rolls to make!”

  * * *

  It wasn’t easy for the team to split up again so soon. They gathered together a couple of days after the meeting, having assembled their supplies and preparing to set off once more.

  “You keep practicing,” Kitalla said to Ervinor. “The fight is in you and you’ll be back up to speed in no time.”

  “So oddly serious.” He grinned. “I have a lot to do here and I’m glad for it, really. It should distract me enough so I don’t focus so much on missing an arm. Before you know it, I should be able to ride horses backwards and then fly through the clouds on the back of an eaglon.”

  “Blindfolded,” Kitalla added with a wink.

  “Is there any lingering pain?” Dariak wondered. “If you need, I could—”

  “No, Dariak, I’ll be fine,” the young man answered. “There are plenty of healers here who can help. I get the sense that I will always feel like the arm is there. I keep trying to reach out for things with it or try to scratch it because it itches. But I don’t think even your magic can fix that.”

  “Perhaps the healing jade will.”

  “I won’t count on it. I can’t. I have to focus on what’s to come.”

  Dariak accepted that and nodded. “Frast, you’re sure you want to stay here? We could use your help against Pyron.”

  He tried his best not to glance at Randler and mostly succeeded. “My place is here now. Quereth isn’t up to rebuilding the army and Lica’s been focused on healing. We need a mage in charge of the other mages. I think I qualify.”

  “More than enough,” Randler said, clasping Frast’s shoulder in earnest. The mage flushed gently.

  “Well, I guess it’s about time.” Kitalla sighed. She reached into a concealed pocket and withdrew one of the two jades she had in her possession. “We hadn’t discussed this, but I think this shard would be more useful to you, Dariak.” She reached out and handed him the fire jade.

  But the mage refused. “I can’t take it right now. The dissonance would prevent me from using the jades I am already familiar with, and I don’t have time to commune with it.”

  “Besides,” Randler added, “you can use it as a beacon for us when your task is complete. Light up the sky and we will see it. I’m sure of it.”

  She tucked the shard back into her pocket. “I hope you don’t expect me to offer the metal jade next, because I have no intention of parting with it now.”

  “Resonance,” Randler smiled. “The two of you work too well in harmony after all you’ve been through. You support each other, and Dariak and I know that.”

  The mage nodded. “Yes, and after my stint as a coagulated lump of iron, I think I’m fine with you holding on to it for a while.”

  Kitalla smiled and tipped her head toward him. “You never have explained how you have managed to ‘become’ these jades.”

  The mage shuddered. “It isn’t exactly something I either control or enjoy. In that moment of sheer desperation, it senses my need and takes over my body. First in the battle against Sharice when I became a roving lightning storm, I lost all sense of myself. And when I was bound in the magical shroud by the mages, I was being starved and my body wouldn’t hold up much longer, then the metal jade took over. Instead, it sensed that I would die and it did what was necessary to protect me. It’s a horrible experience, really. I don’t recommend it.”

  Randler added, “That’s going to be our challenge against Pyron.”

  Frast drew a sharp breath. “If he channels the healing jade like that…”

  Dariak nodded. “Yes. It won’t be easy to stop him.”

  Kitalla frowned. “Perhaps, then, it would be necessary to give you all the jades. My two and the beast jade.”

  Frast instinctively clutched the jade in his pocket. “If it would help.”

  “As I said,” Dariak argued, “I don’t know those jades well and they would hinder me. Randler and I have some ideas, anyway.”

  “Aside from that,” Ervinor chimed in, “you all need those jades for another reason: To be able to find each other again.”

  “That’s the truth of it,” Frast acknowledged. “We may not be able to stay here in Marritosh for much longer. And not just because I grow weary of this desert heat.”

  Dariak grinned. “Don’t worry. Our next base of operations will be on a glacier.”

  The others laughed. It was forced and uneasy, but it was a necessary show of mirth.

  “You remember how to focus them?” Dariak asked Kitalla.

  She rolled her eyes and pouted like a petulant teenager, but she deigned to answer. “Yes, of course. And it will help that I have these two, as it will help me to triangulate Gabrion’s position. I just hope he still has the glass jade.”

  “Whatever happened to him and wherever he went, he wouldn’t lose it,” Dariak decided. “Even in the Prisoner’s Tower, he hid it and I doubt that the shard would let him leave it behind.” He reached down and touched the earth jade, nestled along his hip in the special belt Randler had made for him. “Somehow, I think they want us guiding them together.”

  “You… speak of them almost as if they’re alive,” Ervinor ventured.

  “I can’t explain why,” the mage said, “but I think in some strange way, they are.”

  “It would explain a lot,” Randler agreed. “But I don’t know of any tales about that.”

  “Well, bring your lute, then.” Kitalla winked. “Someone needs to write the first one.” She glanced up and gauged the sun. “If Herchig is right, then this is the best time for me to head off. The sandorpions should be in a glorious daze, basking in the late morning sun.”

  “Not looking to fight them?” Ervinor teased.

  “Not needlessly. After all, if I destroy them, won’t the border guardians or the eaglons or the reptigons become too numerous or something? Food chain and all.”

  They all clasped hands one last time and then the three factions went their separate ways. Kitalla would seek Gabrion and try to bring reinforcements from the east. Frast and Ervinor would strengthen the army in the south. And Dariak and Randler would venture to the west to seek out Pyron and claim the last of the pieces of the infamous Red Jade.

  Epilogue

  A Boy Reflects

  “Dear, are you all right?” Meriad looked in concern at the boy. His face was drowned in tears and a stricken pain. She set aside the book and reached for his chin. “We shouldn’t continue.”

  In denial, he shook his head. “No Gran-mama, I’m fine. It’s just a lot. Too much happening. Too much feels too real.”

  “I see. Perhaps it is best that we stop here then.”

  “I just don’t understand it,” he wailed suddenly. “Gabrion. Protector. Hero. One of the good guys. He killed her!”

  “Yes, dear, he did,” she said with a deep solemnity. “But I don’t think he meant to.”

  He punched his pillow. “You always try to tell me that the Kallisorians aren’t evil, but he killed her!”

  “Listen, child, and listen well, for this is very important. Not everything happens the way we expect it to. But in many ways, things happen for the best of reasons—”
/>
  “They what?” he interjected, tears streaming anew.

  Meriad’s voice hardened. “Now, you will not speak to me in such tones. I will not return to complete this tale if you speak down to me.”

  It took a few moments for the boy to collect himself, but he did so at last. “I—I’m sorry. I just don’t understand how you could say something so… horrible.”

  The old woman drew a deep sigh. “Me either, if you must know. But if we move past the one moment and look at the rest, then you will see that there is more at stake than her life.”

  He clutched his jaw and then shuddered. “I don’t know how. How am I supposed to not hate him for what he did?”

  “Well, just keep a few things in mind, perhaps. What Dariak said about the jades was true; they sensed his need and acted accordingly. Think now about the pain Gabrion felt at that moment. He did not intend her any harm.”

  He made a low rumbling noise in the back of his throat. “You’re saying he—that the jade did it? You’re saying that the jades are evil?”

  She patted his shoulder affectionately. “I am not quite saying that, but there is something mystical about them. None of them knew what.”

  “We don’t even know now, Gran-mama. You said yourself that no one really knows about the jades. They’ve all been forgotten.”

  She grinned. “Perhaps, young one. But perhaps a select few people know quite well.”

  The boy’s eyes opened wide and he asked in wonder, “Are you one of them?”

  She reached out and placed her hand on the large tome. “You might say that I have learned. And it is a lesson I intend for you to learn as well.”

  He sat upright and poised himself strongly. “I am ready, Gran-mama.”

  “Oh! Are you, really?” she asked, bemused. “Well, I would agree, else I would not have ever started this tale with you. But my visit here has come to a close.”

  He moaned. “I know.”

  “But worry not, for I will return in a month’s time and we will continue the journey together. Try to keep an open mind about poor Gabrion, despite the terrible crime he committed.”