The Vaetra Chronicles: Book 01 - Vaetra Unveiled

by Daniel R. Marvello

  Ebnik turned back to me. "A certain number of Sensitives have strong reactions to vaetric manifestations. Phobics, like your friend Meldon here, have a strong fear reaction. Euphorics have a joyous reaction, sometimes to the point of hallucination. Manics go berserk with anger, usually attacking the sorcerer who produces the manifestation."

  Another thought occurred to me, and I turned to Daven. "That's why you kept such a close eye on me the first time Sulana used the Seeker in my presence. You thought I might be a Manic."

  Daven shrugged. "You never know."

  "So, really, Meldon could be a Channeler too." I said to Ebnik. Meldon's jaw dropped and he looked absolutely horrified at the suggestion.

  Ebnik nodded. "It's possible. However, we don't know of any Phobics or Manics who have been able to overcome their reaction sufficiently to pursue training in sorcery. Sorry, Meldon."

  "That's fine with me," Meldon mumbled.

  Barek stepped forward and leaned toward Sulana. "Can we save the sorcery lessons for later and deal with the problem at hand?"

  Sulana grimaced. "I suppose you're right, although it seems that Jaylan needs to understand more about what's going on in order to help us. Okay, so we need a plan. You said you had an idea for getting Kefer out of the village?" she asked me.

  "Yes. I'll tell him Meldon shot a good-sized buck just up the road from the village, and that we could use his help bringing it back. We'll need to be far enough back from the village that his amulet fades out of range before we take it from him; otherwise, Peltor may figure out that something's up. The road curves just before you get to the village, so we'll be able to get fairly close before we're seen. I'll walk down the road until I start to detect the other members of the Guard, and then I'll scratch my head as a signal. You'll need to set up the ambush well back from that point."

  Sulana nodded and looked around at the group. "Is everyone ready?" We all indicated that we were, and she turned back to me. "Go ahead, Jaylan. We'll follow you."

  I started walking down the road to the village. When I was about half-way there, I stopped and put my hand on my amulet. "Member," I said, and channeled vaetra into the amulet. It started to hum. "Protector," I said, and a second tone joined the first. Now that I had more practice activating and deactivating the amulet, the Protector spell had even less influence over my mind. It crashed against the door of my self control, but I was able to hold that door closed. Being able to exercise control over the spell sent a thrill of excitement through me.

  I started walking again. About fifty paces from the curve in the road, the flickering awareness of the other Guardians resumed. I raised my hand and scratched my head, signaling the others. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw that they had stopped a good twenty paces behind me.

  After I went around the curve in the road and got closer to the village, Kefer ran forward to intercept me, his hand on his sword. "Is everything okay? Where's Meldon?" he asked, craning his neck to look around me and down the road.

  "Meldon's back with his prize." I said with an eye roll. "He got a buck and didn't want to leave it behind even for a moment. It's just down the road, and we could use your help carrying it back. It will be easier to dress it out back here in the village."

  Kefer responded to my news with a grin. "That's great! Let me tell Peltor what's going on and I'll give you a hand." Kefer jogged over to Peltor, who stood as Kefer approached and listened to Kefer's enthusiastic explanation. Peltor frowned in my direction, nodded to Kefer, and sat back down.

  As Kefer walked back to me, I glanced around the village. Everything seemed quiet, and I noticed that the fisherman had not yet returned. Then my eyes caught movement out on the water. The two fishing boats floated around a rocky point to the south, rowing toward the village. They'd be back soon.

  Kefer was still grinning as he rejoined me and he slapped me on the back. We started walking back down the road away from the village. "The fish here is excellent, but fresh venison will be a welcome change," he said.

  "I couldn't agree more. Everything quiet while we were gone?" I asked.

  "Yep. Same as ever. I almost wish some outsiders would appear just to relieve the boredom."

  The irony almost made me laugh, but I kept a straight face. "Not me. A little peace and quiet is welcome after what I've been through the past few days."

  "Aw, you're just used to things being slow at Raven Company," he scoffed. "A little excitement would do you some good. Get the blood flowing again. Makes you feel alive."

  I was going to make a flip reply, but his words unexpectedly struck home. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was time to shake things up and try something new. "You may be right," I finally said. We walked around the curve in the road, and I shook my head to dispel the distracting line of thought. I started paying careful attention to my awareness of the other Guardians.

  "Of course I'm right," Kefer continued. He blustered on about being ready for some action for a few moments, and then slowly fell silent. Right as we were nearing the limit of the amulet's range, he stopped walking.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  Kefer gave me a haunted look. "It's spooky...the way the others disappear. I've never gone this far from the village before. How did you and Meldon stand the feeling of isolation?"

  "We knew we had a job to do. We wanted to protect the security of the village, and we wanted to pay the villagers back for their hospitality while we've been here."

  He absorbed that and took a deep breath. "I guess you're right. Still..."

  "We're almost there. Meldon is just up the road."

  "I don't see him," Kefer said, peering ahead.

  "The deer ran into the trees before collapsing. We thought it was safer to leave both Meldon and his buck in the trees in case someone came down the road."

  Right then, Meldon appeared, waved to us, and went back into the trees. Someone must have realized that Kefer was balking and thought to send Meldon out to ease his mind. But they forgot something; Meldon was no longer wearing an amulet.

  Kefer drew his sword with a rasp of steel and stared at the place where Meldon had disappeared into the trees. "Outsider," he said, and started running down the road toward Meldon.

  I drew my sword as well and ran after Kefer.

  Kefer stopped where Meldon had left the road and peered into the trees, sword at the ready. Then he straightened and dropped his sword. With a clang, it fell to the road.

  Ebnik stepped out of the trees, tucking his casting orb back into his pocket as I caught up to them. He walked up to Kefer, pulled Kefer's amulet out from under his clothing by its chain, and placed a hand on it. The amulet fell silent, although I could still hear a low sound emanating from Kefer himself.

  The rest of Sulana's team emerged from their hiding spots alongside the road and walked over to where we stood. Talon removed Kefer's dagger from his belt and both Talon and Barek held Kefer's arms.

  Ebnik nodded to them and pulled out his orb again. He stared at Kefer and suddenly Kefer was struggling in the grip of his captors.

  "Who are you? What do you want?" Kefer demanded.

  I stepped into his range of vision. "Kefer! Relax. These people are here to help."

  Kefer looked at me in confusion. "Jaylan? What's going on here?"

  "You've been under a spell. Lord Thoron put us all under a spell to help him make more of these amulets." I touched mine and looked at his.

  He looked down at the amulet resting on his chest. "Yeah, I remember. Get that thing off me!"

  I removed his amulet for him and handed it to Ebnik. It took us a while to calm Kefer down and make introductions. Any doubts about Kefer's willingness to cooperate evaporated quickly and Talon and Barek released him. He was all for going after a piece of Lord Thoron.

  I looked around the group. "Where's Meldon?"

  Meldon called from behind a tree a few paces into the forest. "Right here, Jaylan. Could you do something about your amulet?"

  I looked down at my amu
let and realized it was still active. It's influence over my mind had fallen to the point where I could practically ignore it. "Sorry, Meldon." I deactivated the amulet, and Meldon sheepishly came out of the trees.

  "I'm sorry to be such a coward, Jaylan, but all this sorcery is unnerving."

  "You aren't a coward, Meldon. In fact you've been incredibly brave. I'm sorry I got you into all this."

  "Well, Borlan did promise adventure when I gave him my commitment," he said with a weak smile.

  Kefer had watched me deactivate my amulet with alarm and then suspicion. "How are you able to do that, Jaylan? I couldn't even think for myself while I wore one of those things."

  I hesitated before answering. I wasn't sure I was ready for the world to know about this new aspect of my life, but Meldon already knew, and everyone else would find out soon enough. "I've discovered that I have a little talent for sorcery. Not much, but enough to control the amulet."

  He stared at me for a moment. "What's Borlan going to think about that?" he finally asked.

  "Or Dela?" Meldon added.

  I shook my head. "I honestly have no idea. I haven't even worked out what I think yet."

  ***

  Now that we had Kefer on our side, we were faced with the true difficulty of getting to Lord Thoron and freeing the villagers.

  "Under the cover of the amulets, getting close to Lord Thoron shouldn't be too difficult. He's usually deep into the process of creating another amulet in the afternoon, but that will be over soon," I said.

  Ebnik looked thoughtful. "Tell me more about his amulet process."

  I described what I had seen the prior day and that morning. How Lord Thoron drained a village woman of her vaetra in the morning and spent the afternoon constructing an amulet, drawing on the additional power he had acquired. As I spoke, Ebnik's face went white and then red.

  "He drains the women to the point of unconsciousness?" he asked with measured words and a glowering stare.

  "Yes. He used a device of some kind to drain her, and then one of us would have to carry her back to her hut a while later."

  Ebnik and Sulana looked at each other, anger and frustration clear on their faces. "That bastard!" Sulana spit out.

  "Why, what's wrong?" I asked, looking back and forth between them.

  Ebnik waved his arms around as he explained. "He knows how dangerous it is to drain someone to the point of exhaustion! It can cause long term damage! He's probably shortened the life of every woman in that village by now. This is the same kind of thing that got him expelled from the Archives in the first place."

  Sulana calmed herself and placed her hand on Ebnik's arm. "Paeter never did believe the claims of long-term damage. And we had no direct proof to offer him. Just legends from times past."

  Ebnik took a deep breath and shook his head. "Yes, and Paeter is a short-term thinker. He always takes the quickest path to his goal."

  "At least he has one redeeming quality," mumbled Barek.

  Sulana glared at him, and he had the good sense to look away.

  Ebnik's anger abated, and he started pacing back and forth, rubbing his chin. "I think we now know why he chose to set up shop in this particular village. That ice house is probably sitting on top of a rock shelf or underground boulder. The stone blocks sit on top of that and give him a huge vaetra well to work from. Creating implements requires a tremendous amount of vaetra, and draining the village women makes it possible to work much faster." He glanced over at me as he paced. "You said he could create an amulet per day?"

  "I think so."

  "He created one every day I was there," confirmed Kefer.

  Ebnik shook his head. "Amazing. The man is as resourceful as he is unscrupulous."

  "When you said the stone blocks are a vaetra 'well,' what did you mean?" I asked Ebnik.

  "Minerals and living flesh store vaetra. We refer to anything that stores vaetra as a 'well,' and just as the name implies, vaetra can be drawn back out by an accomplished sorcerer. Paeter is using the ice house you described as a giant well. It gives him the ability to apply far more vaetra to his work than would be possible using just what he carries within himself."

  Talon interrupted with a quickly raised hand. "Hold," he said quietly, and everyone fell silent. He was staring down the road toward the curve.

  "What?" Sulana whispered.

  "I saw movement down at the corner," he whispered back.

  Alarmed, everyone turned to look down the road. I saw nothing but a few branches waving in the breeze. Is that what Talon had seen? Or was someone spying on us?

  "We're wasting time here," Barek growled. "Surprise requires speed."

  Sulana gave him a curt nod in agreement. "Surprise also requires a plan or both sides get surprised. But you're right. Let's get on with this."

  We quickly debated and discarded a few options for approaching the village. In the end, everyone agreed that we first needed to take Lord Thoron out of the fight. Our best bet for doing that was to get Ebnik close to Lord Thoron without alerting him. I felt confident I could handle Peltor myself, but we needed to get Ebnik into the village without him being recognized as an outsider. He could wear an amulet, but Peltor would realize he was a stranger even if none of the villagers noticed. To the villagers, we had all been strangers, and none of them had cared as long as we wore an amulet.

  Ebnik had a solution for that problem. "I can hide us with a Veil and follow you into the village. As long as no one has physical contact with me, they won't see me. I'll have to drop it before I try to immobilize Paeter, however."

  "I can distract Peltor and prevent him from interfering when you drop the Veil," I assured him. "But bring an amulet with you so you can wear it when we leave."

  Sulana gave us a tight smile. "Sounds workable. Let's do it. We can figure out how to free the villagers once we have Paeter under control."

  I enabled my amulet and Ebnik cast his Veil. Interestingly, I could hear the spell operating, but I couldn't locate the source of the sound. Likewise, even though I knew Ebnik was there, I could no longer see him.

  A hand gripped my arm, and suddenly Ebnik appeared at my side. I tried to focus on him, but it seemed like my eyes were crossing. His appearance wavered as if he were underwater and I was looking down at him from above the rippling surface. When he spoke, his voice sounded as if it were coming to me through a tunnel. "I'll follow about twenty paces behind you. That will give you time to distract Peltor while I get into position."

  I nodded in response. He let go of me, and it was a relief when he disappeared once again.

  We all headed toward the curve in the road. The others held back while I rounded the curve. Presumably, Ebnik was right behind me.

  Before I got within sight of the village, I noticed something unusual about my awareness of the villagers. They were all bunched together for some reason. Also, tendrils of fog were floating down the road from the direction of the village. Fog wasn't particularly unusual this time of year, but it was unusual at this time of day with a bright sun still well above the horizon.

  When I got all the way around the curve, the fog was so thick ahead of me that I couldn't see the village. However, my awareness of the villagers told me they all stood at the end of the road. My steps faltered to an uncertain stop.

  I closed my eyes and searched through the impressions given off by the Guardian amulets. Nowhere could I feel the strong presence I was used to associating with Lord Thoron, but if he remained in the ice house, he could still be out of range. The villagers were so close together that it was hard to distinguish them. I couldn't tell exactly how many of them had gathered.

  So much for our plan to sneak Ebnik into the village undetected.

  Apparently, Talon had not been imagining things after all. Someone had alerted Lord Thoron that three of his Guardians were conversing with a group of strangers. That someone (and I was betting on Peltor) may have also been close enough to tell that we were outsiders again.

  I turned o
n my heel and started walking back the way I came. "I assume you can hear me, Ebnik. Something's wrong. The villagers are gathered at the end of the road."

  I had only taken a couple of steps when Ebnik suddenly appeared in front of me. His casting orb was still in his hand, and he looked down the road into the fog. "This is not natural fog," he observed. "Paeter must have raised it to slow us down."

  I nodded in agreement and looked back over my shoulder. "He knows we're coming, and he told the villagers to stop us."

  Ebnik looked pensive. "Paeter won't go quietly. He can make this very difficult, even with two sorcerers against him," he glanced at me, "or make that two-and-a-half. We may be in for a fight after all."

  I snorted and said, "Barek will be thrilled. We need to warn the others." I walked around Ebnik, who nodded absently and continued to stare into the fog.

  As I started walking, a light gust of wind flowed past me and down the road. I took a few more steps before Ebnik started speaking an incantation. I turned around to see what he was doing and looked up in time to see an arrow arcing through the breeze-thinned fog, aimed straight for my chest.

  Chapter 24

  I've had a few intense moments in my life where I thought to myself, "It's the end of the trail. I'm done." This was one of those moments. I had no time to defend myself and no time for regrets.

  My eyes had just locked onto the arrow and that fleeting thought of finality had sparked across my mind when the arrow stopped suddenly in midair and shattered as if it had struck stone. I stood frozen for a moment trying to make sense of what my eyes had just witnessed.

  "Run, Jaylan!" Ebnik shouted at me, and then he began another incantation.

  I looked down the road and saw that the breeze had thinned the fog enough for us to make out the villagers faintly. They could see us as well. One of them had a bow and was nocking another arrow. I turned and ran before the archer could get off another shot, just as Ebnik cast another Veil and disappeared again.

  I sprinted down the road realizing that Ebnik must have put up a vaetric shield of some kind to stop that first arrow. I already owed my life to the man, and we'd only just met.