Myths and Legends

by Sherry Foster

  About that time, Darian interrupted him to snarl, "Do not talk to me like a child."

  Raising his eyebrows, Kane looked at him. "Well, when you finally grow up, I will quit talking to you like you are a child."

  Darian took a swing at Kane, catching him in the chin. Kane had not been expecting it, even though he should have. Kane hit the deck, rolled, and came up swinging. Trading blows, the two began to attract a crowd on the deck.

  Patro, hearing the commotion, came running back to see his bond brothers slugging away at each other. The crew members who were gathering around the fight began to take bets. In the four weeks they had been at sea, fights between Kane and Darian had become a normal, almost everyday occurrence, and the fight could go either way. Patro just crossed his arms and tried to decide which one he should bet on this time. Before he could make up his mind, the Captain came strolling up.

  Looking at two of the future leaders of the race, the owners of his ship, the men he may one day have to give his life to protect—fighting like schoolchildren—enraged him. Looking at Patro, he told him, "Wrap ‘em up."

  The crew members watching, who had heard him, began to protest. The Captain had gotten quicker and quicker at breaking up these fights. In the beginning of the voyage, the Captain had not known what to do with the young men entrusted to his care. All three of the Lyra, at close to or over six foot tall, towered over every other man on the ship by a few inches, and all three had powers the rest of the crew and the Captain could only dream of having. The captain had not known how to break up a fight, when he knew that Darian could wield fire and Kane could wield ice. Afraid to interfere, he had originally let the men fight until one of them got the upper hand—or until they wore themselves out.

  The second week they were out, though, things had changed. Patro had gotten involved in one of the fights. He had gotten upset when Darian and Kane started fighting in the middle of a discussion, and he was not done arguing his side. When Darian and Kane had begun to fight, Patro gave a long, irritated sigh, and after a moment reached out his hand and encased each of them in a large block of ice up to their necks. Then Patro continued to argue his side while the two struggled to release themselves. When the two got louder than his argument, he ran part of the ice up over their mouths to shut them up, while thickening the ice around the rest of their bodies and continuing his argument. By the time the men had freed themselves from the blocks of ice, Patro had long since finished his side of the argument and retired to his cabin.

  Since that day, whenever the two fought and Patro was around, the Captain would have him 'wrap em up,' as he called it. If Patro was not around, the Captain would send for him. It did not matter how many times the Captain told them he would have no fighting on his ship—the two did not listen. It was not like he had any way to punish the men. Usually, the Captain would send everyone back to their posts and lay down the law—again. Then he would leave the two men encased in ice to calm down. It wasn't as if he could help them out of the ice. He did not know—and Patro had never told him—that Patro could recall his ice from the two if he wanted. He never wanted.

  Sending the crew back to their duties, the Captain just looked at Kane and Darian in disgust. All he said was, "One day, you will lead this race. Is this what you want your people to remember you for, this constant fighting?"

  After the Captain and crew had dispersed to resume their duties, Patro looked at Kane, "What did the idiot do this time?"

  Darian, angry at being encased in ice once again, began swearing at Patro. "Why do you always take his side? Just once, maybe you could take my side, or at least give me the benefit of the doubt?"

  Patro nodded, "You're right. Now, who threw the first punch?"

  Kane, who had fallen silent, was busy studying the block of ice and trying to merge his body with the pattern of ice Patro created. One day, he would be able to flow Patro's ice around his body effortlessly, but that day would be far in the future. For now, it was a tedious, time-consuming chore.

  Darian, on the other hand, would never be able to flow the ice around his body. Being a fire walker, he could only melt his way through. And since he was not yet the strong fire walker he would through age and time become, melting his way out was also a tedious, time-consuming chore.

  "You know, I don't think it matters who threw the first punch," Darian declared.

  "Oh, in other words you did," Patro told him.

  Both men heard laughter coming from where Kane was working his way out of the ice.

  "Shut up, Kane," Darian snarled, "Just shut up. This would not have happened if you had not acted all high and mighty."

  Patro looked over at Kane, "What did I miss?"

  Kane snorted, "Oh not much, Darian is just upset because he just found out he will never be able to skip to the ship, so if pirates take it, he figures it will be lost forever."

  Patro, looking between the two men, said, "Yeah, that was where I walked away, so what happened next?"

  Kane shrugged his shoulders, which were now free. "Nothing, he just started swinging."

  Darian looked up from where he was trying to melt the ice, to say with a voice filled with bitterness, "He was talking to me like I was a child."

  Patro muttered, "I feel like I’m doing that all the time." In a louder voice, he tried to reason with Darian, "Well, even you have to admit that was a rather stupid comment to make."

  Darian, eyes narrowed, looked at Patro, "Which comment are you talking about?"

  Kane, as if he could not help it, paused what he was doing long enough to tell Darian, "Almost any comment you make, you're an idiot."

  Patro was glad that at that moment, both men were still firmly encased in ice. He thought he’d better shore it back up, so he took a moment to thicken the ice around the men, which did not endear him to either of the two.

  Taking a deep breath, Patro looked at Darian, "You do realize this ship is bonded to us by blood? The wheel is bonded to the Captain by blood, right?" Not pausing to let Darian say anything—which he looked like he wanted to do–Patro eased the ice up to cover Darian's mouth, much to Darian’s displeasure. "What that means, if you had paid any attention at all to our lessons on Ships of the Line, and evidently you didn't, is this ship, bonded to us by blood and bonded to the Captain by blood, can only be steered by the Captain or the first mate. That is why the first mate had to contribute some of his blood to the building of the ship—just like the Captain, just like us. This ship will always be drawn back to one of our blood if another hand tries to control it. Idiot." Having said his piece, Patro turned and walked away, leaving the two to struggle from the ice as best they could.

  A few minutes later, Darian had managed to melt the ice enough to ask Kane, "So no one can steal this ship?"

  Kane looked at him and gave another long-suffering sigh; he could see a future filled with long-suffering sighs. He told Darian, "Oh, they can steal it," smirking, "they just can't control it, nor could they ever hold it. Blood will call to blood, and our blood calls to the ship."

  Darian considered what Kane had just said. When the two were almost free, Darian finally spoke again, "If our blood calls to the ship, and the ship calls to our blood, why do you suppose we have always been told we would not be able to find it if it is moving? If blood calls to blood, and this ship calls to us and us to it, don't you think that over time we would be able to find this ship anywhere in the world? I mean, as we mature and our powers grow, and our ability to skip develops, it would seem to me we could use our blood bond with the ship to find it, no matter where it is in the world."

  Kane got a thunderstruck look on his face as Darian finished, then a thoughtful look formed on his face. After considering what Darian had said, and checking every word twice, he narrowed his eyes. "You may just have a point there—sometimes I actually have hope for you. We will have to check that. If it works that way, well, it won't be the first time we have been lied to in order to keep us from screwing something up. Trying to skip
to a ship when we haven't developed our skill yet would be a first class mistake, but telling us we can not do it would be typical of our trainers. I will run it by Patro and see what he thinks."

  Darian smirked, "I am not the idiot you both think I am."

  As Kane walked away, he asked over his shoulder, "You coming to eat, or what?"

  Chapter Three

  Kane stuck his head into the common room where Darian was relaxing. "Darian, the Captain says we will be able to see land soon. I am going up top, you coming?"

  Darian looked up at Kane. "Can you feel our Shadow?"

  Kane paused, "Yeah, I can, but I can’t tell where; I thought he or she would feel us coming and be waiting."

  Darian, looking around the room once more, followed Kane out of the room and up the steps to topside. Patro was standing with a dejected slump to his shoulders, looking toward where the land would be appearing soon. When Kane and Darian joined him, he said, "Where is he? I can't pinpoint where he is. He feels tangled or something." No one could have mistaken the confusion in his voice for anything else.

  Kane shrugged, "I can feel him, but it’s like he’s traveling."

  Both men looked to Darian. Seeing the look on his face, Kane and Patro turned more fully to face him. Eyes narrowed, Kane demanded, "What?"

  Darian shifted his eyes first one way, then another, as he tried to figure out just what to say. He decided ignorance was best. "What do you mean ‘what?’"

  Kane reached out and grasped Darian's shirt in his fist, and while pulling Darian toward him, he shook him slightly. "You have that, 'Oh shadows, everything has gone sideways, how do I hide this’ look on your face. I know that look; Patro knows that look." Darian glanced at Patro, who looked angry as he nodded his head in agreement with Kane.

  Patro said, "We know that look—you are hiding something—something big, something important, and probably something that will land us in trouble. What have you done this time?"

  "Done? Me? I have not done anything." Darian told them smugly.

  Kane, still holding Darian by the shirt, shook him again, "Done, said, didn't do… what was that look on your face about?"

  By this time, they were attracting looks from some of the crew, but that look was never good, and both Patro and Kane knew it. They also knew that look meant massive problems for someone—usually them. Patro looked at Kane and Darian standing toe to toe, then back at the crew. Thinking a moment, he tossed a shield of ice between them and the rest of the crew. Turning back to Darian he asked, "How much trouble are we in, will we be in, or will we have? What have you done?"

  Darian shook lose from Kane and furiously told them, "Why do you both always blame me when things go wrong, isn't it possible that this time it was not my fault? Did either of you think of that?"

  Kane inhaled deeply, then exhaled, shaking his head as if to clear it, clenched his fist, gritted his teeth together, and asked, "What is it that is not your fault this time?"

  "Ah, well, you see," Darian started–

  Patro interrupted to yell, "No, we don't see."

  "Oh, well, it’s like this," Looking at Kane, he asked, "Where do you feel our Shadow Walker?"

  Kane shrugged, "That’s just it, it feels like they are all over the place, everywhere, nowhere, I don't know."

  Darian's shoulders sagged as he said, "Yeah, about that. Seems that the whole place is filled with possibilities."

  Kane looked at Patro to find him staring right back at him. Patro shrugged. Looking back at Darian, he asked, "What exactly does that mean?"

  "Well, the threads, they could go to anyone—everyone seems to have threads reaching for us. I mean, maybe not everyone, but hundreds of people in that direction," pointing toward the horizon, where the land was now a dusty smudge, faintly seen.

  Kane swallowed, but the lump he felt in his throat was still there. Breathing deeply was not helping. He wanted to hit Darian, but then again that was a daily thing. Something about Darian just made a person want to hit him.

  Kane looked down at the ship beneath his feet, then back to the horizon before finally looking back at Darian. "Are you telling me that you cannot find our Shadow Walker? That he or she could be one of hundreds of people? That you, who refused to let us wait just five more weeks for more instruction—you, who had to leave right then because we would see twenty-five years of age just about the time we got here—You are telling me we have the scroll of maturity on our shoulders, we turned twenty-five just two days ago, we can bond our souls and our people to a Shadow Walker and you are telling me you can not find them? That the whole blasted race is filled with possible Shadow Walkers? You do not know which one is ours?” His voice rose an octave as he asked each question—“Do you at least know how to find out which one is ours?"

  The way Darian was avoiding his and Patro's eyes, it was clear that he did not know how to find the Shadow Walker.

  Kane was so furious he wanted to hurt Darian. Their souls may have been bonded together, he may have loved both his bonded brothers, but at times like this, he just wanted to knock some sense into Darian. Before he could think about what he was doing, he had picked Darian up and thrown him overboard. Patro stared at him, then turned to look at the spot Darian had disappeared from, and dropping his shield, he screamed, "Man overboard!"

  He and Kane both stared over the side, searching the water behind them as they tried to get a glimpse of Darian. Patro told him, "That was not the smartest thing you have ever done." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "I envy you, though—that must have felt wonderful."

  Kane told him, "Very satisfying. But you know when they get him back on board, he is never going to let us forget this, right?"

  Patro nodded, "Yeah," but before he could continue, he felt a pulling on his bond with Darian and grunted as he felt the tugging upon his soul. He noticed Kane had a grimace on his face and appeared to be struggling also. Soon, both he and Kane had their feet braced, and were bracing against each other. A moment later, Darian staggered out of the nothingness and fell to his knees at their feet. Kane had a moment to be surprised, believing that Darian had managed to skip from the water back to the boat, which, now that he thought about it, was no longer moving. Maybe, thought Kane, it was not so impressive after all.

  No, still impressive, he thought. They were only just managing to skip the nothingness from one side of a room to another, so from water to ship? Yeah, pretty impressive. Before he could think on the matter further, Darian, still gasping for air from his exertion, reached out and grabbed Kane's knees, bringing him tumbling down to land on his back. Darian immediately attempted to claw his way up Kane's body, going for his throat while muttering, "One, I only need one. Kill one, keep one, one, I only need one."

  Seeing Kane floundering beneath Darian was funny, but judging by his expression, Darian intended to kill Kane this time. Patro could not allow that—no way was he going to be stuck with Darian for 10000 years or so without Kane. Oh no, if he had to put up with Darian, Kane was going to be there to keep him sane. Gulping in fear, he quickly attempted to encase Darian in ice without getting Kane caught up in it. He was not entirely successful, so he got to work encasing just Darian’s arms, and then the feet, while trying to pull Kane from underneath him.

  Normally he was not afraid of Darian—after all, Darian could shoot as much fire as he wanted at him and Kane, but all it did was pass by them harmlessly. But when it came to brute strength, Darian had him beat. And in all the fights the three had had, Patro had never seen such fury on Darian's face before. Darian was correct in that he only needed one of his two benyan for him to stay sane. A Fire Walker could exist if one of his Ice Walkers died. When it came to fighting, Darian and Kane were pretty evenly matched, and either of them could take Patro, but to have to live as Darian's only Ice Walker, Patro would kill Darian and damn the entire race before he did that.

  Well, maybe that was a bit extreme. They needed to calm Darian down and figure out how to find their Shadow Walker. Then
kill him. Yes, that was an excellent plan, thought Patro. Too bad they could only dream of it. To lose Darian would be, well, the race would survive, but it would not flourish.

  Finally having separated the two, Patro and Kane struggled to get the block of ice that was their Fire Walker upright. Turning, it looked like the entire crew was on deck, along with the Captain. Patro took an involuntary step backwards at the expression on the Captain's face. As the Captain ordered the crew back to their posts, he stomped over to the three young men, hollering over his shoulder for the first mate to take control and drop anchor.

  Chapter Four

  Kane thought he had never seen someone as angry as Darian—until he looked up from helping Patro to see the Captain storming over to them. He saw Patro take a step backwards, away from the furious captain. Gulping, Kane wished he could take a step, too, but he wished his foot were to land in his bedroom when he completed the step. One day, he thought, but unfortunately, not today.

  "Captain Iscra, sir," Kane started, only to be interrupted when the Captain looked at Patro and said, "Put up a shield, I want a word with the three of you."

  Gulping, Patro did as he was told, and with his eyes on Kane, he erected a fairly thick shield around the four of them.

  Taking a few deep breaths, the Captain started to speak, but stopped to take a few more deep breaths. Kane and Patro did not want to say anything, so they just stood there, then started slowly inching backward, toward the shield behind them.

  Putting up his hand, the Captain commanded them to freeze. Then he looked at Patro and said, "Let him go," pointing to Darian.

  Patro just started shaking his head, and Kane volunteered, "We think maybe just freeing his head would be best, sir?"

  A few more deep breaths, and the Captain asked, "How is he even breathing if you have his entire head covered? Are you trying to kill him?"

  Kane shook his head and said, "No sir, he has air holes. As much as we would love to kill him, we can't." Shrugging, he continued, "We would die without him, and he needs us just as much—well, one of us. At the moment, he seems intent on making sure he only has one of us, so how ’bout we just um, leave him wrapped up? He can hear us, you know. A bit muffled, but he can hear us."