by H. L. Burke
***
The moon floated in the sky above them. In its pale light, the endless waves of grass resembled a silver sea, the individual blades swaying as one in the breeze. Quill shivered and wished she still had her extra cloak.
Gabrin and Eanan walked before her, their heads bent down, though Gabrin still occasionally checked his compass. The tower they sought had long before faded on the dark horizon, and with acres of identical meadows to all sides, it would’ve been easy to get turned around.
They passed a herd of grazing deer. The animals looked up, frozen in place, then resumed eating once the humans moved on.
Is this the right choice? Can I really trust the Elementals?
Neither of her companions wished to discuss her vision. Eanan accepted her directions without question.
Her legs ached. A few hours’ rest hadn’t been enough to prepare her for a night on her feet.
Well, it was my own stupid idea. At least we aren’t being watched. If we can’t see the hills, chances are things lurking on the hills can’t see us. I hope.
The ground rose, sloping like the sides of a great bowl.
“Not much farther, and a good thing. The moon’s about to set, and daylight won’t be far behind.” Eanan glanced back at her. “You all right?”
She nodded, knowing if she spoke her voice would give away her weariness.
He smiled sympathetically. “We’ll set up camp as soon as we reach the treeline and have some cover. You’ve had an eventful day, and the last hill is always the hardest.”
“Looks like we’re a little bit off. I think that’s the tower we wanted to aim at.” Gabrin pointed a little to the east. On top of the next hill, the structure was silhouetted against the sky, like a finger raised in warning.
“Close enough.” Eanan shrugged. “The tower was our guidepost, not our end goal. Besides, with Quill’s mapmaking skills, we’ll be sure to find our way.” He slapped his knee and laughed.
The great hills at the end of the valley were tall, but their slopes were more gradual than the bluffs to the north. Soon they stood at the summit, gazing down into a forested valley before another set of rounded hills. Something white glistened in the moonlight.
Quill’s breath caught in her throat. “That’s it! That’s the building from my vision. The path is right behind it.”
A smile crept over Eanan’s face. His eyes shone in the moonlight. “It has to be the old Seeker Sanctuary. That’s the only reason for a structure that size out here. It seems to be intact. I wonder what’s inside. Perhaps something we can learn from, maybe even books.”
Gabrin raised his hand. “Don’t get your hopes up. There’s a big difference between stone walls and paper pages. Just because one survived doesn’t mean anything is left of the other.”
Eanan waved him off. “It doesn’t hurt to hope, boy. Imagine what the value of a few pages from those days would be worth, or a map that shows the locations of the remaining three gateways? We may be the first humans to tread the floors of the Sanctuary in centuries. Come on! It’s all downhill, and the ruins will offer us shelter. That’s where we rest tonight.”
He half-ran, half-slid down the hill, disappearing into the trees.
Gabrin glanced at Quill and shrugged. “We better catch up before he hurts himself.”
They started down the hill together. His hand occasionally brushed against hers as their arms swung at their sides.
She smiled up at him. “I was expecting you to be more excited. This is your goal as well, after all. Discovering lost wonders.”
“Yes and no. Let’s just say I’m bracing myself for disappointment. The Span was in decent shape, but the Highway has been torn apart by the woods. Chances are, there isn’t much left of the Sanctuary either. Besides, it’s more a distraction than our main goal.”
She nodded. “And when we find the Evermirror? What then?”
“Ideally, the water elementals will point us in the direction of the next gateway, help us fill in the gaps missing from our lore … I’d like to recover all four, though perhaps Earth and Fire should remain shut.”
Quill shuddered. “Perhaps they can tell us why the Earth Speaker tried to kill us.”
“The obvious answer: he doesn’t want us to find the Evermirror. The why is what puzzles me. The Fire Folk’s motivation for the attacks was obvious: they need fuel to grow and survive. Our world provides that. But the Earthen?” He shook his head. “When we find the Evermirror it will answer a lot of questions.”
She pushed her hair behind her ears. “But what if … what if this is all a trick? What if the Water Folk are as evil as the Fire Folk proved to be?”
“Elementals are as much folk as we are. People do terrible things when they are desperate, but that doesn’t necessarily make them evil.”
“You weren’t here for most of the war. You didn’t see what …” She shut her mouth, remembering the fear she felt every night when the militia was called up, and the ache when the war ended but her father didn’t come home.
His hand squeezed her shoulder. Sympathy rolled off him. “Look, I may have missed much of the war, but …” He stopped and exhaled.
She turned to face him.
Gabrin raised his eyes towards the sky then back to her. “I was a child when we crossed over the sea. I remember the fear, though. It was enough to make my parents pack up everything and set off for the unknown. That journey was hard. Too hard for … my mom … I understand. I’m not trying to diminish what you feel about the Fire Folk. There was a time I thought they were demons too.”
“What changed?” she whispered. The moon played across his features. His face hardened and discomfort flitted through his touch. “I’m good at understanding. I won’t … if it is something you don’t want to tell me …”
“My first time away from home, apprenticed to a navigator on a ship, we docked at a small port and I saw a man sell his thirteen-year-old daughter to two crew members for their amusement. Objecting cost me a broken jaw, and the next morning the girl was still dead. No one in the village ever did a thing about it. I think the father got an extra barrel of fish for his loss.”
She shuddered at the anger and revulsion that rolled through him, and he pulled his hand away.
“I realized that the Fire Folk were bad, but we humans can be just as despicable. And me? A couple punches, and I did nothing else to try and save her. Simply sat in a corner, nursing my wounds and trying not to hear her …” He shook his head. “Like I said, I’ve been called a lot of things in my time, but the one time I tried to add ‘good’ to that list, I chose my own safety over the life of a child and let her die an unthinkable death. That’s who I am. A Fire Demon couldn’t be much worse.”
“I don’t think that’s true ...”
He started down the hill again, his back to her.
“I think you’re wonderful,” she whispered. The wind caught her voice and carried it far from him.
The thick branches of the trees swallowed Gabrin. Quill hurried forward, listening for the rustling of his movements so they didn’t get further separated. Limbs swung at her face, and sap stuck to her hands.
A faint smell of smoke mingled with the pine. Her heart sped up. “Gabrin! Eanan?” she hissed.
Gabrin pushed aside a branch, but in the darkness she couldn’t read his face. He might as well have been a shadow.
“What?” he asked, his voice echoing her low tone.
“Do you smell a fire?”
He inhaled. “Blast … we’re not alone. Where’s Eanan?” He reached back and grabbed her hand. “Stay close.”
His worry mingled with her own, but his grip was strong, comforting.
Eanan’s not a fool. He’ll smell the fire and be cautious. We just need to find him. She steadied her breathing and followed Gabrin through the trees.
The thick pines gave way to a stand of oak. The moonlight glistened off the Sanctuary ahead. Smoke drifted over the wall, but there was no sign of Eanan. Gabrin�
��s grip tightened.
A man emerged from behind the wall. “I heard something, I swear.”
Quill cringed at his familiar voice: the man from the Span. She pressed herself against Gabrin’s chest, longing to disappear.
“Probably an animal,” another man answered.
Relief swept through Quill. They hadn’t seen Eanan yet. Gabrin tugged her back into the thick trees. He tapped his finger on her lips.
She nodded, though she didn’t need the reminder to be silent. Her ears twitched, listening to the tramp of feet. They grew closer. Gabrin’s muscles tightened beneath her hand, and her pulse spiked along with his. At times like this, she hated her empathy. Feeling for two made everything so much more extreme.
The footsteps stopped, then turned and crunched away over dried leaves and twigs.
“I don’t see anything. It’s too dark.”
“You give up too easily,” a woman’s voice said from somewhere to their left. “Daman says he heard something. You will feel rather stupid if you get your throat cut in your sleep when you could’ve listened to him.”
“Well, whoever it was, they would’ve ran off by now. We’ve made too much noise.”
“True.” The woman took on a pensive tone. “We’ll take turns on watch. If there was someone out there and they return, they won’t catch us unready.”
Gabrin’s shoulders relaxed. His hand rested on her upper back, guiding her further into the trees, up the slope.
“We need to find Eanan and get away from here,” he murmured.
“That man, the first one who spoke …” she tried to keep her voice low and quiet, but her words came out squeaky.
“I know. I recognized the voice too. Apparently, we won’t be rid of him so easily.” He stopped and leaned one hand against the nearest tree. “If I were Eanan … I’d run ahead, eager to see the ruins … but then I see the firelight. I’d skid to a halt, but I’m Eanan. Eanan doesn’t leave questions unanswered. I want to know who is by the fire. So I creep up … obviously making just enough noise to draw attention to myself because I’m an idiot …”
“Name calling won’t help. Should we even be talking?” She tugged at his arm.
“Unless they have magically enhanced hearing that can detect whispering from a furlong away, we’re fine. Still, we can’t linger here. Dawn will come, and then they won’t need their ears to find us.” He slipped out his compass. “Where is this path the Elementals told you about?”
“Right behind that building … it starts out in a narrow valley, then a stair …” She rubbed her arms. “We’ll have to find a way around them.”
“Hopefully, Eanan is smart enough to try and get there too. Why didn’t he backtrack to look for us? That would’ve been the obvious choice.”
“Maybe he was afraid he’d draw them to us.” She squinted into the darkness. From here the trees blocked the sight of the Sanctuary.
“That’s possible … if he were close enough to them when they detected him, perhaps he hid. If so, maybe he’ll creep out once things have settled down, but we can’t afford to wait. He was there when you drew out the map. He should know which way to go. Come on.” He opened his compass. The icestone glowed slightly, illuminating the instrument’s face. “We’ll go far enough to the west to avoid detection, then come at the Sanctuary from behind. Best-case scenario, Eanan’s waiting for us there.”
Quill followed him, but her stomach ached. I can’t face that awful man again … but if he has my grandfather … no, don’t even think like that. They clearly hadn’t captured him. He’s going to find us, and everything will be fine.
The forest thinned again, and the Sanctuary shone through the trees like an earthbound moon. They circled it, keeping eyes and ears open for either Eanan or the Earth Speaker and his companions.
A nightbird gave a shrill warble somewhere in the pines. Gabrin’s sword whipped out of its sheath, and Quill bit back a gasp.
“Steady,” she whispered. “That’s just a mothkite.”
“No blasted bird has any business sounding like that.” He scoffed, but his blade stayed at ready.
Even if I have to fight, there’s no water here.
“There’s water in the air … in the earth … don’t limit yourself, child. You’re so close to us now.”
She winced at the Elemental’s intrusion. Are all my thoughts laid bare to you?
“When you think of me, I feel a pull now. Our beings have connected, but if you ask whether I observe your innermost thoughts, no, I will allow you your privacy.”
Allow meaning you could violate that if you wished?
“At this stage, you still have the power to keep me at arm’s length. I can whisper; you can ignore. I can listen; you can choose not to speak. Our further bonding, however, may become necessary if you are to access my powers.”
“Quill!” Gabrin hissed and yanked at her hand. “Move your feet.”
She blinked. The Elemental didn’t speak again.
The oak trees gave way to a meadow. “Great.” Gabrin ran his hand through his hair. “No cover … that’s where we need to be, though.” He pointed to the hill that rose behind the Sanctuary. “We’ll have to go quickly. At least it’s still dark … for now.” He motioned towards the eastern horizon. A thin band of morning threatened the deep blue of the night sky.
“So let’s run.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the grass.
Quill bent her head and focused on the hills. They didn’t need to hit exactly the ravine, just the treeline on the other side of the meadow. Then they could search out the path while under the cover of the forest. The treeline approached as the stars faded above their heads.
A shout, muffled by distance, hit Quill’s ears, and she dove into the long grass.
Eanan! That was Eanan's voice. Did they capture him? Kill him?
Gabrin collapsed next to her, one arm around her waist. His heartbeat raced through her, and her breathing synced with his heaving chest. Pushing his emotions away, she searched for her own calm, remembering her mother, her father, Trea … anything that could give her a feeling of well-being again. Gabrin’s face somehow fought to the forefront, his mischievous grin sending warmth through her face, down her neck, and right into her core. She didn’t resist.
Thank the Creator empathy doesn’t work both ways.
They lay, her back pressed against his chest, the grass swaying above them. No footsteps pounded towards them. No voices carried through the night. The rustle of wind through the meadow gave way to birdsong. The sun’s first rays moved across Quill’s face.
She rolled to face Gabrin. “That was Eanan, wasn't it?”
“Shh, we shouldn't talk here. We need to get further away.”
“All right, let's go.” She extricated herself from his arms and crawled.
He followed as she wormed her way through the grass. Her feet constantly caught on the edge of her skirt.Trea has the right idea, wearing trousers. I'll take that up if I get out of this alive.
“I’m trying to think of a more degrading way to travel, but I’m not coming up with anything,” he muttered.
She turned her head. “At least you’re alive.”
“True. The view’s not bad either.” Gabrin winked then ducked to avoid her heel. “Steady, empathic.” He chuckled. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
“It’d be worth it.” She rolled her eyes, but for the first time since being separated from Eanan, she felt hopeful. “Come on. I can see the treeline.”
Finally they reached the forest. Quill stood and rubbed her sore knees. Gabrin brushed off his trousers.
The back of the Sanctuary stood across the field from them. There was no sign of the Earth Speaker, or Eanan.
“That shouting we heard … do you think?” She bit her bottom lip.
“We can’t stay here.” Gabrin adjusted his pack.
Quill’s throat tightened. “We can’t just leave Eanan. We have to find him.”
“They have him.” His to
ne grew cold, surly almost. “Eanan's not stupid enough to cry out unless they already knew where he was. That shout was his warning for us to stay away, to escape while we still could.”
“We have to go back.” Quill rubbed her arms. “We can't just leave him.”
“And what do you propose we do? You can’t fight. That Earth Speaker almost killed us the first time. If even one of his companions has his powers, we’re as good as buried. I know Eanan. He’d want us to push onward, and that’s what I’m going to do.” He strode away from her.
Quill pulled at her braid.How can I just leave? I have to do something … I have to … but what can I do?
The weak morning light washed over her, carrying with it the realization of how long she'd been on her feet. She leaned against the nearest tree.
“With or without you!” he called.
With a sigh she trudged after him.
Chapter Twenty
Karvir ached for fire. His body cracked when he moved. The closest he’d come to fire since his capture had been during his interrogations, when Arana and her cronies would keep a torch, just out of reach. His core magnetized towards the flame, but the bindmetal shackles held him from it.
Unable to find the fuel he needed, his core tore into his innards, like icy teeth gnawing in his chest.
Trea and Brode are capable. They’ll be fine … Creator, I suppose it’s you and me. I don’t fear death, but to die not knowing that my girls are safe? Please, help me through this.
Shouts penetrated the walls around him. Something had his captors stirred up. He listened, but the noise died down as quickly as it had arisen.
Could Trea be out there? With Daman’s powers, I hope she has the sense to stay away. I need to find my own way out of here. Daman still has the key to my shackles, but Markyl seems vulnerable.If I can just get him alone for a few minutes …
Footsteps shuffled towards him. The ancient door creaked open, and torchlight revealed all three of his captors with a fourth person.
The men tossed this newcomer onto the floor. Karvir’s core flared. Eanan’s eyes widened.