“Twice, I think. And with a small amount of rest, a third time. I could employ some easier spells as they come in.”
“No, just use the big spell. But wait until more get in here.”
They retreated to the back of the cave. Zaiporo knocked an arrow but didn’t release. The hounds ran up to intercept the knobs that closed in on them. Turesobei readied his fire spell. He wasn’t worried about the hounds being in the way. For some reason, they were immune to fire.
Fifteen knobs had entered, and the hounds couldn’t keep the first wave off Turesobei and Zaiporo any longer.
“Now!” Zaiporo shouted.
Turesobei unleashed another hell-storm of flames that instantly killed all the knobs. The fire hit the hounds, who now glowed with a fiery sheen, their minor injuries healed. Four more knobs came in. The energized hounds, who couldn’t normally kill them on their own, finished them off.
They waited, but no more knobs entered the cave.
“Let's go outside,” Turesobei said.
They slid down the ledge, darted out through the waterfall, and ran out onto the bank. The Storm Dragon zoomed overhead, blasting knobs and vines. Storm Dragon Lu Bei zipped around doing the same. The knob-ga lay dead near the tree line, the remainder of its charred body trailing smoke up into the air.
There was no sign of Motekeru or Kurine, but there were two bundles of vines going down into the plunge pool. As Turesobei drew his sword, all the vines went suddenly limp. He leapt into the pool. Near the bottom, he found Kurine. She was tangled in tightly-wound vines that were no longer animated. He cut her free, and they swam to the shore.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I would've drowned without that spell,” Kurine answered, hugging him tight. She glanced around. “Is Awasa still down there?”
“I didn’t see her,” he replied.
Zaiporo was about to dive into the plunge pool, but Motekeru trudged up onto the bank, carrying Awasa and Fangthorn. He gently set her down, then slipped the blade into the scabbard on her back.
She coughed up water and gasped for air.
Turesobei knelt beside her. “Are you injured?”
She shook her head.
“How did you survive?”
“Breathing technique…Lady Hannya…taught me.”
“I reached her just in time,” Motekeru said. “The vines had begun to strangle her.”
As the Storm Dragon finished off the last of the knobs in sight, Turesobei scanned the area
“Iniru!” he called out.
There was no answer.
Chapter Nineteen
Her companions stepped through the glimmering portal one by one, then the gate to the Forest Realm closed. Again, panic struck Enashoma. She was all alone…with the Blood King. But this time, she mastered it after a few breaths. She turned to see the Blood King staring at her with pale blue eyes.
“You did better this time,” he said. “Have you made any progress communicating with Nāa?”
“Not yet.”
The Blood King nodded and headed down the steps.
Enashoma frowned. “Aren't you….”
He paused. “Yes?”
“Well...aren’t you going to get mad and threaten me?”
He continued on. “Not yet.”
Enashoma wandered out into the courtyard, shaking her head. Why had she pushed him like that? What was she thinking?
She stopped in front of the rose vine Turesobei had teleported into, the place where he had nearly died. The gardeners had pruned the plant and tried to get it back into shape. Holding a blossom between her fingers, she leaned in and smelled it.
After the Blood King had healed Turesobei, she had gotten into an argument with him, scolding him for taking risks and overdoing it. He had sworn he was doing his best, that he had no choice but to push himself as hard as he could. She understood now that he had been right.
She wasn’t good at taking risks.
Running away from home had seemed like a huge risk when she'd done it. But, looking back, she saw how sheltered her view of the world had been. She'd been running away with her brother, the clan's hero, and Zaiporo, a trained bodyguard. Some risk. And it had led her into constant trouble and danger.
In communing with Nāa, she was risking her soul. What if he took over her body and mind the way the Warlock had tried to do with Awasa? No matter how gentle Lu Bei and Hannya claimed he was, Nāa was still a Kaiaru, and Enashoma didn't trust him.
Of course, if she hadn’t taken a risk in running away, she’d still be stuck living the life her mother wanted for her in Ekaran. She’d be sitting at home worried sick about Turesobei, as well as Lu Bei and Iniru. And she probably wouldn’t still have a relationship with Zaiporo.
Without a doubt, she never would have ridden through the sky on the back of a cloud dragon. She never would have seen a land covered in ice or the Forbidden Library. Kurine, the new Awasa, Motekeru, the hounds: she never would’ve known any of them. And she wouldn’t know the magical art of mudras or have her very own kavaru.
She smelled the rose blossom again. “Time to grow up, Chonda Enashoma,” she muttered to herself. “Take the risk. Get it over with.”
She sighed. Dealing with Nāa and learning magic would at least give her something to do while the others were away in the realms. Maybe then, she wouldn’t worry so much about them.
The problem was how to contact him. Nāa had been the one to appear to her in the kavaru vault. She had tried simple meditation and opening herself to her…his…stone. But nothing had happened.
Then it struck her—the soul mirror.
The Blood King had said she was a bonded host, which must mean that Nāa was already inside her. He wasn't some invader trying to break into her mind. He had probably been within her ever since she had first arrived here, just waiting for her to notice. That's why she'd seen him during her mudra test instead of nothingness.
But to try the soul mirror again, she needed to be somewhere she'd feel completely safe and centered. Otherwise, there was no way she’d be able to reach the right state of mind. So the question was, where should she go to try it?
Her room? The courtyard or the gardens? She shook her head. She had studied the Pawanaré Mudra Abjurations in the Training Hall, but despite hundreds of hours meditating there, it just didn’t seem like the right place. Maybe in the Library, surrounded by books and learning…. That might be a great place to study later, but it wasn’t right for this.
What she needed was a location that made her feel as comfortable as the field of lavender she visualized when meditating.
An idea came to her. She ran to the Throne Room.
The Blood King sat up attentively on his throne. “Have you made progress already?”
“No, but…” it was hard to even say it “…I was being too timid and afraid of taking risks, so now I’ve decided to try.”
“A wise decision, but why are you telling me this?”
“The Canvas. You said you could make it into any sort of room you needed.”
“Within reason. It cannot provide power or reveal truth. It is only suitable for things such as the obstacle course you trained in.”
“Could it be a field of lavender, and could the dome above show me a sky right at dusk?”
“Your safe place during meditation?”
She nodded.
The Blood King stood, his eyes glowing emeralds. “That is a clever idea, Chonda Enashoma. Though I never thought you incapable, I may nevertheless have misjudged you. I can make this happen.”
Enashoma bowed. “Thank you.”
“Thank you master,” he replied. “If you are going to study under me, you are going to have to learn the proper form of respect.”
Enashoma restrained the disgust welling within her. “Thank you, master.”
“Come back in an hour. The room will be ready then.”
* * *
The Blood King opened the door to the Canvas for her. The sweet, soot
hing scent of lavender poured out into the hallway.
“All yours,” he said. “Take as much time as you need.”
“If the others return—”
“I will send a servant to notify you.”
“Thank you…master.”
Enashoma entered the expansive, domed chamber. The ceiling was the dark purple of nearly twilight, dotted by a few faint stars. Along the horizon floated pink and reddish clouds still lit by a setting sun. A breeze from nowhere gently stirred the field of lavender that grew from wall to wall throughout the chamber. Enashoma walked through the field, trailing her hands along the flowers. She took a deep breath, and the scent nearly overpowered her.
The Blood King had created a scene almost identical to the one she visualized during her meditations. She circled through the field, starting along the edge, and spiraled into the center. There, she settled in.
Sitting crosslegged, she adopted the mudras required for activating her soul mirror and opened her mind to the kavaru on her forehead. The process didn’t work the way she had expected it to.
Her body jerked. Suddenly, she was a spirit, standing a few feet outside herself. Her physical body remained upright, breathing deeply, mudras held perfectly. She felt its pull on her getting stronger and stronger.
“If you focus on your body,” a soft but masculine voice said, “then you will return to it.”
Enashoma spun to see the handsome, though exceedingly pale, Kaiaru standing before her again. The dusky purple flowers matched his eyes exactly. He swept a lock of curly, black hair from his face and smiled warmly.
Taking a step toward her, he brushed his hands along the flower tops. “You picked my favorite.”
“They’re mine, too,” she said quietly.
“I’m Nāa.”
She glanced back towards her body with a frown. “I know.”
“You have entered a dream space,” Nāa said, “created by the unity of your mind and my spirit. You are safe here.”
Enashoma nodded. “So…um…you’re my ancestor?”
“More than two thousand years before your time, Chonda Lu married my favorite daughter. She birthed two children, a girl and a boy. The boy lived on. You are descended from him. The precious girl died…young. Ultimately, she was more important.”
“Why?”
“That is a tale for a later day.”
“So we are…I mean I am…”
“A bonded host. But I can free you from that burden…if you like.”
“I–I don’t know. What does it really mean?”
“It means you can use my kavaru, as a wizard might, but more easily. And you can communicate with me whenever you like, as we are doing now. It also means that I experience the world you see and taste, hear and feel, as if your body were mine. However, I cannot take possession of you or control you in any way, even if you wanted me to do so.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Additionally, if you wish—and it has to be your choice—you can, upon dying, choose to be reborn into a Kaiaru—me specifically, of course.”
“So if something killed me….”
“You would, in a sense, rise from the dead, your injuries healed and your youth restored. A small part of you would then remain alive through me.”
“So in my dying, I would give you life again, but nothing you do can cause me to die?”
“Exactly,” Nāa replied. “But this is not something you must decide today. Feel free to consult others. However, do not let the Blood King know. He may concoct some way to force you to choose, in which case, he would no doubt kill you so that I would be reborn.”
“How do you know about him?”
“I know everything you know about him. I know everything in your personal history. And, of course, I remember everything I knew before my spirit faded from the world.”
Realization sunk in. Enashoma gasped, covered her lower face with her hands, and blushed deeply. “You know everything I’ve ever done, and you’ve been experiencing the world through me?”
“Since you took up the kavaru, yes.”
“So the other night, when Zaiporo and I…”
“I was there with you. I experienced everything you did. If that makes you uncomfortable, you could refuse to be bonded to my kavaru. And I would understand. Though, I think, given the situation you and your companions are in, that you may need me.”
“It’s…it’s weird is all…I guess. It’s weird for you, right?”
“Being hosted within another person is turning out to be strange, yes. Being a teenage girl? Not as strange as you might think. I was reborn into a teenage girl’s body once, and I spent centuries as a woman.”
“I forget that Kaiaru aren’t bound to a single gender.”
“Apparently, there are very few of us in your time, so it is not surprising that you would not remember.”
“Sorry.”
“That my race has faded? It is not your fault." Nāa smiled sadly. "I spent decades telling Chonda Lu this would happen. We are still strong, he would assure me. But eventually, he saw that I was right. It was inevitable.
“Of course, I never imagined I would wake more than fifteen millennia after my passing. Much less that my stone, and thus my spirit, would end up in the possession of a madman working to restore all my kind and recreate some sort of ridiculous golden age.”
Enashoma stared at him a few moments, trying to take all of that in, and mostly failing. “So…how exactly did you wake up?”
“Honestly, I do not know. The first thing I remember was feeling a familiar magical presence, tapping at my spirit, as if knocking upon a door. Then, very faintly, I heard the voice of a dear friend. And then I heard yours. You have the voice of an angel, my dear.” Tenderly, he stroked her cheek. “You remind me so much of my granddaughter, Bei. You even look like her.”
“Bei? As in Lu Bei?”
He chuckled. “He is a remarkable creature. Truly remarkable. You know, he learned the art of tea making from my last wife, who was a tea merchant. And he is still making the best teas in the world, after more than two thousand years….”
“Wow,” Enashoma said. She was so overwhelmed, and had so many things to ask, that she barely realized he hadn't actually answered the question before her mind snagged on the next idea to float past. “So, the presence that woke you? It was the Maker’s Brush, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, it was my brush.”
“It didn’t belong to Chonda Lu?”
“He inherited it from me.” His eyes flared, and his features darkened. “But now that I know the things he did with my brush after I was gone, I regret having ever fashioned it. Motekeru should never have been created. On the other hand, without the brush Lu Bei—”
“Wait, Chonda Lu made Lu Bei using the brush? That’s why it means so much to him.”
“Lu Bei was made using the brush, yes, but he was not made by Chonda Lu. The fetch is special. He is a magic beyond all other magics. You could not make another one like him with a million attempts.”
Enashoma clasped her hands together and leaned forward eagerly. “Tell me how Lu Bei was made.”
Nāa winced, then doubled over. She reached out and grabbed him by the shoulders. “I–I cannot say. It is too painful to recall.”
His form began to fade. “Wait! Don’t go. I have so many questions.”
“Do not ever tell the Blood King about the brush. It would be far too powerful in his hands.”
Nāa disappeared.
Enashoma took a sharp breath as she jerked again. She was back in the real world, inside the dome, amidst the field of lavender. The pulse from the kavaru was weak. She rushed out of the dome and into the Throne Room.
The Blood King stood immediately. “Is there a problem?”
In a panic, she said, “I was talking with him, in my mind, and he faded away!”
The Blood King marched down the steps and touched the kavaru. “The stone is weak. His spirit is not as strong as I ha
d thought.”
“Will he be okay?”
“Yes, I suspect he will be…in a few day’s time.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Meditate and draw energy into yourself. When you reach the point where your body can store no more, the excess kenja will spill over into the kavaru, recharging it.”
She relaxed. “Oh, good. I will do that.”
As the Blood King’s eyes turned yellow and scanned her up and down, she tried not to think about the Maker’s Brush hidden in her room.
“What did he say to you?”
“Not much…master.” Her mind raced as she tried to think about what details she could safely reveal to the Blood King. “He told me what it meant to be a bonded host. He said I could refuse if I wanted, but I didn’t. I asked…I asked him how he came back, but he said he doesn’t know yet. Then I asked him…about how he had died. That’s when he cried out in pain and faded away.”
“Death is often a painful memory.”
“I am going to go back to the Canvas and meditate now…master.”
“Very well,” the Blood King said. “I will leave that room open to you until such time as I might need it for other matters. No one else besides you may enter.”
Enashoma slipped out of the Throne Room and returned to the lavender field within the Canvas. Again, she sat in the center. With both hands, she adopted the mudra of energy drawing and meditated. Keeping her focus was difficult. Her mind kept drifting to the Maker’s Brush, the very item that Chonda Lu had used to make Motekeru and all his other creations, except Lu Bei, who was somehow special. There was always more to Lu Bei…always.
Enashoma went erect. It suddenly occurred to her how ridiculously minor her little animated origami creatures were. That brush, doubtlessly along with other magics, had created Motekeru and Lu Bei, and who knew what else. And now she, Chonda Enashoma, had the power of a kavaru to use along with it, and someone who could teach her how to use it.
Chapter Twenty
Turesobei and the others didn't have to venture far into the rainforest before they found Iniru on the ground, leaning back against a tree. Her face was scratched, her arm was bleeding from a cut, and her left leg was a bloody mess.
The First Kaiaru Page 10