Embers at Galdrilene

by Audra Trosper

  He saw no signs anyone else occupied the house with her. What was a beautiful young woman doing living alone? Surely there was a young man in the village Maleena could have chosen. She turned from the clothes and the light caught her eyes. Deep violet, a color he had never seen in eyes before. They set her apart.

  She saw him and smiled. “I didn’t realize you were standing there. Would you like a cup of tea?”

  He nodded. “A hot drink sounds wonderful.”

  “Do you expect to be attacked?” she asked, eyeing the swords hanging on his hips.

  “Always.”

  “Always?” she echoed. “Has your life been so dangerous?”

  “I’m a Border Guard.”

  Maleena shook her head and moved to the table. After pouring tea into the cups, she sat down in one of the chairs. He sat across from her and took a long drink of the hot liquid, feeling its warmth spread through him. Across the table the young woman sipped at her tea quietly. “Do you live here alone?” he asked, although he was already sure of the answer.

  A shadow of sadness crossed her delicate features and she nodded. “My grandmother passed not very long ago. She was all I had.”

  “You have no other family?”

  “No and the villagers avoid me. I have strange powers; they stay as far away as possible. Truthfully, I tend to avoid them, too. The last few years it became more difficult to be around large groups of people.”

  “Where are your parents?” he asked.

  “They died in a fire when I was three.”

  Mckale looked across at her. “I am sorry you lost your grandmother.”

  A sad smile touched her lips. “Don’t be. I knew it was coming. I saw it months earlier. I’ve had plenty of time to get used to it.”

  “You can see the future?” His eyebrows rose in surprise, both at her powers and his own reaction to it. Her revelation didn’t bother him

  She nodded. “Sometimes...I wish I could avoid it. I’m held to the vision, good or bad, until its conclusion. There is no way to stop it. It can be…uncomfortable”

  “Is that how you knew where I was? You don’t seem like the type that wanders the road at night in the rain beating the bushes for well-hidden male travelers. You must have known I was there somehow.”

  She smiled at him. “That’s another of my ‘gifts’ as my grandmother called them. I can use water to see things. It showed me you.”

  Her abilities were considerable. What else she was capable of?

  She set her cup down and looked across at him. “So tell me, Border Guard, how is it that you came to be wandering around at night in the rain?”

  Mckale sat in silence for a long time before he finally spoke. “I served as Border Guard in Calladar for over a year. During my last trip to the border we encountered a band of Kojen. It was the third band we came across that acted different. Usually they come in a wild charge. These stalked us for days hunting in a pack-like manner.

  “We outnumbered them three to one, but these were stronger in their mental attacks. Within minutes, half of the men in my patrol were on the ground screaming.” He stared at the cup in his hands. “I don’t know what happened. For weeks there has been a hum in my mind. A ‘presence’ as you put it. It held me through the attack. Somehow I focused on it and felt power flowing through me into the ground. The next thing I knew, the ground started to shake and turn to liquid beneath the Kojen. They sank into it and were swallowed.

  “We headed straight back to Taragen. Nobody understood what happened and nobody worried too much about it. Because of it, we only lost two men instead of all. Jesten, my best friend from childhood was one of the men lost.” Mckale paused and took a long drink. He didn‘t want to think about Jesten right now. The pain was still too new. “My father seemed to understand what happened. He told me I used magic and I had to leave before anyone found out. He told me to seek out the city of Galdrilene; he said those who reside there could help me.”

  Maleena looked startled. “The city of Galdrilene is dead. It no longer exists. Why would he send you on such a journey?”

  “I don’t know, but I might as well go. I have nothing else to hang onto. My father’s words, they are all I have to follow.” He looked into her violet eyes. “Like you said, I can do magic.”

  “What I do is magic, too. My grandmother told me years ago.”

  Her casual acceptance of magic surprised him. “Was she not upset?”

  Maleena shrugged. “Nana could use it, too. She is the one who taught me what control I have. She said that all of the women in our line could.”

  “How have the women in your family avoided the Members of Peace?” he asked, astonished that she knew of so many who could use magic.

  Maleena studied her hands, slowly turned her cup in them. “They only come to this tiny place once every couple of generations. For most of the women, no one ever knew. I’m the first that’s been this strong. The town’s people wanted my grandmother to send me away. If the Members of Peace showed up here tomorrow, I would be handed to them in a heartbeat. That’s why I am leaving this place.”

  “Where will you go?” he asked.

  She looked up. “I will head east. There is a woman I will meet.”

  “What are you going to do once you find her?”

  “I don’t know. Since I have no other direction to head in, I will start there.”

  They sat in a comfortable silence, each occupied by their own thoughts. Maleena studied the man unobtrusively. He couldn’t be more than a couple of years older than she. He had a strong face, and the muscles of one used to wielding swords and wearing armor. His dark hair hung to his broad shoulders, held back by a braided leather cord around his temple. It was easy for her to forget how tall he was while sitting at the table with him. When he first climbed up onto the road, she had thought he must be a giant. The people of her region were short and she was one of the shortest.

  Weariness from the day’s events settled over her and exhaustion seeped through her body. She sighed, rising from the table. “I’m going to have to go to bed. I’m getting too tired to think straight.”

  He nodded. “I think I will hang my clothes by the fire and then try to get some sleep, too.”

  Halfway to the door of her room, a vision exploded into her mind. Gasping, she swayed under the impact and would have fallen if Mckale hadn’t leaped from his chair and caught her. He eased her to the floor as the room faded in a swirl of colors.

  Huge creatures with curling horns charged across a rolling, grassy plain, their breath coming in heavy clouds in the cold night air. They moved in a fast, unrelenting march toward rain-laden mountains in the distance. Colors swirled again. The beasts broke down the door of her home. They moved through the rooms, tearing apart beds and overturning chairs. Again the colors swirled. The beasts charged toward her. A vicious downward chop of one of the beast’s swords was stopped by the curved blades of the man she traveled with. Another swirl and the woman she had seen in the bowl ran toward her, yelling something Maleena couldn’t hear as white light flooded the vision, so bright it drowned out the last swirl of colors.

  Maleena jerked and her eyes flew open. Her heart pounded and she looked around wildly, panic charging through her body.

  “Are you okay, Maleena?” Mckale’s voice cut through the fear.

  She looked up at him. He knelt next to her on the floor, his arm keeping her in a sitting position. Maleena nodded and placed her hand on his chest to push him away. She hated the weakness that accompanied the visions. He hesitated a moment and Maleena could tell he wasn’t sure if she could support herself. He pulled away, rocking back on one knee, his arm resting on the other. His voice full of concern, he asked, “What happened?”

  “Something,” she stopped and swallowed hard. “Something is coming for us. They are coming here.”

  “How do you know this? Is it your ability to see things?”

  “It was a vision, a strong one.” She pushed her hair back from her
face with a trembling hand.

  “Do you know what it is that is coming?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve never seen anything like them. They were huge with horns that curled.”

  “Kojen.” His voice was flat and the silver of his eyes darkened to iron gray.

  Outwardly he seemed unmoved, but a dangerous quiet radiated from him. “You fought those things?”

  He nodded. “Could you tell how far away they were?”

  “I’m not sure. I saw the mountains to the east of us in the distance. They were headed toward them,” she said, trying to think. The impact of the vision left her shaky and drained.

  “If they are that far out, it will take them a few days to reach this house.” He looked down at her. “They will not be here tonight; why don’t you go ahead and get some sleep.” He rose and paced to the window looking out into the night.

  Maleena watched him go from gentle to the half-tamed wolf she’d first met. She sensed the tension in him like a bow string pulled taut. There was a readiness in him echoed by the presence in his mind.

  She climbed slowly to her feet. “I’m sorry; this must seem so strange for you.”

  He turned from the window. “Everything has been strange for me since the last time I went to the Border. At least now I know I’m not alone. Go on and get some sleep. I get the feeling it’s going to be needed.”

  She sighed and nodded, unsure if she could sleep after the nightmare of the vision. Her legs trembled, threatening to drop her on the floor again. If nothing else, she would lay down for a short while and get her strength back. “Fair night then, Mckale.” Turning, she forced her legs to carry her to her room. Despite her fears, fatigue pulled her into sleep as soon as she lay down.

  Mckale stood for a long time staring out the window into the night, thinking about the beautiful young woman with such strange powers. He felt an inexplicable attachment to her. Deep inside, he could feel that they were bound together in some way he didn’t understand. He had felt her exhaustion and her anxiety. Even now, as he stood at the window, he could feel her in the next room. Without knowing how, he knew she had fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  Despite his advice to sleep, he got very little. He dozed in one of the chairs, waking often to move from window to window, ensuring they were safe on the chance she hadn’t seen the vision clear.

  They left before dawn the next morning. With the eastern sky barely paling, they set off on the West Road. By the time the sun cleared the mountain tops in the east, they were miles down the road.

  Vaddoc looked around the city of Yari as they rode in among the southern-most buildings. In the full flush of spring, people and wagons crowded the streets as the Traders prepared to leave for the trading season. Adults packed items and crates into large covered wagons while children dashed in and out of the brightly colored vardos that were like small box houses on wheels. A haze of dust hung in the air, stirred by the herds of horses being brought up from winter pastures to smaller corrals.

  Serena and Kellinar rode ahead of him. He reflected back over the last two weeks and marveled at how much they had changed since the battle with the Kojen. Every evening, either Kirynn or himself, worked to train them in the use of a sword. A task they both fell to eagerly. Their experience with the Kojen, although a bit blurred in their memories, left them desperate to learn to defend themselves. Kellinar, extremely adept with the short knives he carried, appeared determined to become as skilled with the sword. Even Loki worked to learn.

  They also focused on the presence in their minds–another lesson Emallya refused to skip and seemed intent on drilling into them. All of them improved under her arduous tutelage.

  Vaddoc shivered inside at the thought of what this new type of Kojen would do to the ranks of Shaderian guards. The Kojen in his homeland were wild, undisciplined and disorganized. This new kind was opposite in every way and much stronger mentally.

  Emallya said they were not new, they just had leadership again. Something dark and dangerous stirred in the Shadderack Desert. Emallya refused to say anymore on the subject, insisting she would tell them when it was time. Comments like that bothered Vaddoc. The more information one had when going into battle, the better the odds were of winning. He didn’t like being kept in the dark.

  Emallya led them to a large, three storey inn. Vaddoc could see three other inns farther down the street. Sitting at the crossroads of the Tradeways, Yari was a major stop for those who traveled. Smaller merchants made their way through several times a year, purchasing their goods from the Traders and taking them to out of the way places the Traders weren’t interested in going.

  They dismounted and followed Emallya into the inn after a groom appeared to take their horses. Inside, merchants crowded the main room, their voices raised in conversation and the occasional argument. Entertainers played several instruments in one corner and harried looking serving girls wove in and out of it all.

  A heavy-set woman, her hair in a neat bun, appeared in front of them as they stepped through the door. “Lady Lorant, how pleasant to see you again.”

  Emallya sighed. “Mistress Karsay, how many times must I tell you, I am no lady?”

  “As you say, my lady.” The innkeeper smiled and looked past her. “I see you attracted a few stragglers while you were gone. You mentioned searching for something quite valuable when you passed through. Something we Traders couldn’t supply, though I can’t imagine what that would be. We can get anything.”

  “This was something I had to collect myself.”

  “And did you find it?”

  Emallya smiled. “That I did, Mistress Karsay. That I did.”

  “So, will you and these young folk be needing rooms or just a meal?”

  “Both. After quite some time on the road we cannot pass up the chance to clean up, eat a good meal and sleep in a real bed for the night.”

  The innkeeper nodded. “Aye, a long time on the road can wear a person. Long travel isn’t for everyone. That’s why I chose to run an inn here. I like my bed and my normal routine too much.”

  “Sometimes, life gives us no choice but to travel,” Emallya answered.

  “Aye, that is true, too.” Mistress Karsay patted her hair and looked around at the busy room, “Well look at me, standing here talking your ear off when you are tired and travel-worn. Come, I will show you to your rooms.”

  She led them through the room and up the stairs at the back. At the second landing, they followed her down one of two long hallways. She showed each of them to a room and left them to clean up. A short while later they sat down at a table in the main room and set to work on the dishes of food the serving girls placed before them.

  As they finished their meal, a woman with a face like a dog and a curvy body, swayed up to the table in a dress showing a considerable amount of her large breasts. “May I offer any of you company?” she asked sweetly.

  Kellinar smiled in welcome and started to stand, but Serena jabbed her elbow into his side and hissed, “This is not the time.”

  Kellinar sighed and settled back in his chair.

  Vaddoc scowled at the woman. “Is it a habit in this town for women like you to approach a table in a reputable inn? Especially when there is a child present.” In Shadereen, women of her type kept to the taverns.

  Loki rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I haven’t seen a working lady before. Thems the only kind of lady allowed in the Thieves’ Caves.”

  The woman smiled at Loki and said to Vaddoc, “Why would any inn turn down the business my trade can bring in?”

  Emallya set her drink cup down. “I have to agree with Serena, this is not the time.”

  Kellinar heaved a dramatic and obviously feigned sigh as if he was being unduly put upon, and waved the woman away. Serena rolled her eyes at him. “She really isn’t your type anyway. You always go for the pretty ones.”

  “Ah, but beauty is only a lamp wick away, my dear Serena.”

  Kirynn laughed and Serena
shook her head. “You are such a lecher sometimes, Kellinar.”

  Emallya stood and handed a slip of paper to Kellinar and a small coin purse to Vaddoc, “That is a list of things we need, Kellinar. There is still plenty of time this evening for you two to round up the items.”

  Vaddoc looked sideways at Kellinar. Despite the time spent traveling and training together, he still felt unsure of him. Kellinar showed no remorse for the life of thievery he had led. Vaddoc gave his life to the Watch, and swore to uphold the law and lay down his life for the people of Shadereen. Even though he broke those vows, the ingrained beliefs and training still ran strong in him.

  He cleared his throat. “Perhaps, my lady, it would be best to send another with me.”

  Kellinar cocked a grin. “He means someone who’s not a thief. You know, someone who is as good as he is.”

  Emallya shot a hard look at both of them. “I suggest you learn to leave the past behind and look forward only. Both of you left behind lives you will never live again. You journey toward a new life that will change you in ways you do not yet understand. Go now, together, and find what we need.”

  “Yes, my lady,” Vaddoc said and walked toward the door.

  Kellinar shrugged and followed.

  “Can I go with ‘em?” Loki asked eagerly.

  “No, you may take yourself to bed,” Emallya planted her fists on her hips. “And do not think to try and sneak out. You will not get past me.”

  “But…”

  Kellinar paused and looked back. “Loki, you promised to do as she says and we never break our word.”

  Outside the sun hovered just above the horizon and the dusty air was filled with the noise of Traders advertising their wares in a large, open market at the junction of two wide streets. Vaddoc and Kellinar moved among the stalls. They bought food, more water bags and other things on Emallya’s list. Then they went to find the final items–swords for both Kellinar and Serena, and wooden practice swords for everyone. Vaddoc looked over the blades offered. While he paid for several practice swords, he watched as Kellinar picked up several different blades, replacing each after a brief examination. After a moment, he realized the other man tested them for balance and blade quality. He took the bundled wooden swords from the vendor and walk over to Kellinar. “You know what to look for in a sword.”