by Jeff Wheeler
Thealos could feel the mocking tone in his voice. “How did you get into the city then?”
“That’s really not important. What’s important is what they are saying about you in Avisahn right now. Nordain has kept your disappearance as hushed as possible, but everyone is talking about what you said in the council chambers.”
Thealos cringed.
“You were wise to head south. They started looking for you in Dos-Aralon first, searching the places you might stop for money.” He gave Thealos a wink. “It was clever of you to prepare so well in advance. But I already knew where you left and I had an idea where you were going. It didn’t take very long to catch up to you. By then, of course, you had blundered into those renegade soldiers. The dregs of Dos-Aralon’s army.” He clucked his tongue again. “That wasn’t clever. That was very foolish, Thealos. They could have killed you and left you for dead. If they had brought you back to Dos-Aralon right away, Nordain would have had you for certain. But,” he added admiringly, “you handled yourself well until it came time to escape.”
“Then Nordain is still looking for me?”
“Insurrection, Thealos. The Shae won’t tolerate it. They’ve sent the Crimson Wolfsmen to bring you back. They’re tracking us. Right now.”
“I did not intend to start this,” Thealos said defensively. He walked a little faster, digging his hands against his sides. “Sweet hate, I’m not going to be able to go back there for a Silvan year at the least.” He glanced up at Jaerod. “And so what you are really saying, Jaerod, is that if I had not chosen to come with you, the Crimson Wolfsmen would have found me?”
Jaerod shrugged and kept walking. “Would that have been my fault? I’m confident we can reach Sol before they find us. And by stopping at Sol first, we confuse the trail. They might expect you to go by ship to another land or city. They’ll certainly be watching the river for you. And if we head straight to Landmoor, they’ll catch us before we make it to the Shadows Wood.” He glanced at Thealos. “I can help protect you, Thealos. If you went on without me, the Wolfsmen might catch you at any rate no matter where you went. And then you’d be brought back to Avisahn for treason.”
Thealos grit his teeth. “That banned Nordain goaded me.”
“You shouldn’t have let him.” He gave Thealos a sidelong look. “Certainly not a Shae with your family name.”
“The only thing Quickfellow means in Avisahn is gold,” Thealos snapped. “I’m the son of a barter, and only distantly related…”
“Distantly,” Jaerod chuckled. “You could be the crown heir of Shampanelle with less noble blood than yours.” He shook his head, irritated. “Save me your pathetic Shae humility. You know who your father is, where the Quickfellow family came from. Your father and his fathers have protected themselves by obscuring their name in Vannier’s faith. Until you,” he added, giving Thealos a sidelong look. “The Silverbornes have been watching your family for several generations. You were allowed prominence and station, but weren’t officially considered royalty. All for a reason, Thealos. All for a reason. And now Laisha Silverborne thinks you’re out to raise a rebellion against her right to rule. I tell you, she’s a clever girl. I don’t think she’ll let you get away with it…”
Thealos looked aghast. “But that’s not what I…”
“Not what you intended?” Jaerod cut him off. He turned and gave Thealos a hard stare. “Then why else did you leave Avisahn in such an uproar, Thealos?”
“Because I wanted to learn about this land for myself,” he replied defensively. “I don’t trust her advisors or what they are saying. And she has never been outside of Avisahn in her life! But I have.” He folded his arms angrily. “If we keep ourselves behind the river, the time will come when the humans will be strong enough to cross. If we wait to get involved until then, it will be too late.”
“So what you are really saying is that you came to help start a war on this side of the river?” Jaerod’s gray eyes glittered.
It was then that Thealos realized that once again he’d said too much.
XI
The firelight danced and played in the intricate grooves of the finely crafted pommel. Thealos turned the blade over, examining the other side closely. The hilt had the fascinating impression of a wolfs-head with two glittering eyes that seemed to stare at him. He was amazed that there was no rust or splotches on the blade or hilt. But it was the blade that intrigued him the most. It was narrow, leaf-shaped, and sharper than anything he had ever touched. He was a little surprised at the heft and how light it felt in his hand. In the night air, it was cool to the touch, but he could feel the fire of its power buried deep within – sleeping. He remembered how it had felt when he faced off with Tannon’s Band. Its power had numbed him to everything, even pain. That was so very dangerous, he decided.
Glancing up, Thealos looked at Jaerod. The human sat against a shaggy elm on the other side of the fire and cut pear slices with a small knife. Their evening meal had been shared in silence. Thealos noticed the tapered long sword he wore at his side. It was an elegant weapon.
“Was your weapon forged by the Shae?” Thealos asked, rubbing the blade of Jade Shayler with an oilcloth once more before slipping it back into his belt. Jaerod looked at Thealos with an amused smile and nodded. “And where did you get it?”
“Not from Avisahn,” Jaerod replied enigmatically. “Do you want to see it?”
Thealos nodded, and Jaerod set the fruit and knife down and leaned forward, drawing the weapon from the leather sheath. Firelight glimmered across the narrow blade. Jaerod held it up for Thealos to see. There was a strange marking on the hilt, the one that matched the amulet around Jaerod’s neck. It wasn’t a Shae symbol, at least not one that Thealos recognized. Yet he could feel the power in the blade even as far away as he was. Silvan magic thrummed in the air.
“It must have cost a great deal,” Thealos observed, nodding respectfully at the weapon.
“Actually it was a gift,” Jaerod replied. He eased it gently in the sheath. “You’ve been quiet today, Thealos.” He took a hunk of wood and tossed it on the fire. Sparks showered up in angry snaps. “You’re upset about our discussion this afternoon?”
Thealos hugged his knees and stared at the flames. He knew from Jaerod’s vantage, his eyes were probably glowing. “I said more than I should have.” He glanced up at Jaerod and smirked. “I do that, you know.”
“The tongue is the hardest to tame – especially for the young. And I’m very good at prying out secrets.”
“I’m older than you,” Thealos countered. “But if you know my people, you already knew that.”
He smiled. “The Shae live longer than humans. The Life magic in you is strong and it sustains you well in this world. This longevity is a gift, truly. It gives you a special affinity with the Earth magic, which is a form of Life magic too – if you don’t mind me putting it that way.”
Thealos was not offended. To the Shae, nearly everything was a living thing and had its own magic. But people were considered a higher order than animals and plants. Shedding the life of a man was never done on a whim, just as beasts were slain for food not sport, and his people preferred working stone for shelter than slaying trees. He continued to listen as Jaerod went on.
“You are more sensitive to the balance of magic than humans or even Drugaen. You have every right to be wary of those not of your race, Thealos. Experience and disappointment are cruel teachers. I still have to earn your trust. Just as you have to earn mine.” He poked the fire with a stick. “I understand your anger at what the humans have done to the valley. It used to belong to your people – from the Ravenstone to the Kingshadow. Imagine it – a forest that stretched across the entire way, cut into little ribbons by rivers and streams. It was a vast, beautiful kingdom. The Crimson Wolfsmen kept preserves for the king’s hunting, and no man could pass or cross without using the Great Highway.”
Thealos eyed Jaerod. He could well imagine what it used to be like during his elcorrel�
��s days, but how did this Shaefellow know all this?
Jaerod took the charred stick and ground the embers into the dirt. “There was Avisahn, of course – the king’s city. But there were also watchposts built to unite the valley as one.” He poked the stick around the dirt, leaving pockmarks of ash. “Jan Lee, Jove Stand, Citidellian, Novune, Sol, Kirae.” Each black mark Jaerod pressed into the dirt showed a web around the main one. “And we can’t forget Jenterhome,” he finished, stamping another mark far south of the first one. “Only a few remain under the control of the Shae now. They were built to preserve the Silvan way.” The gray eyes lifted at Thealos across the fire. “We’re going to one right now. It was the first watchpost to be surrendered to the humans of Aralon.”
“Sol,” Thealos said, nodding. “The river city. We still control Jan Lee though.”
Jaerod shook his head. “Sol was a Shae watchpost. But it was not the first to fall. We’re going to Jenterhome. They call it Landmoor now.” He prodded the farthest scorch mark.
Thealos leaned back and studied the human. Had he learned this from the Shae somehow or was it some Druid-priest teaching? “Only the older scholars know this much about Shae history. Where did you learn this? Parath-Anatos?”
He shook his head. “I’ve been to Landmoor, Thealos. The governor of the Shoreland commands the garrison at the castle. But Landmoor is built on top of an abandoned Shae watchpost. The old records of the city…they are still there. If you can read old Silvan, they talk about what it was like back then. What an interesting picture. Long before the Purge Wars. Back during the time of the Empire of Sol don Orai.”
“Before the humans came,” Thealos said, nodding. “I still don’t understand why you are telling me this.”
“Maybe because you were not being very talkative tonight,” Jaerod replied with a wink. “I told you that I am a Shaefellow. I believe in your people. I believe that you were sent to this world to save it. Not many humans believe that any more. The Druid-priests of Parath-Anatos certainly don’t preach it.”
“And you don’t think it’s wrong to want to take the valley back?” Thealos asked.
“I don’t think it is wrong to want to defend yourselves. The gods know you are hopelessly outnumbered,” he added dryly. “But do you even know why the humans control so much of your homeland? The history behind it? Or that aside, do you truly believe in what your people came here for?” His eyes narrowed challengingly. “There is always a balance. Always a reason why things happen the way they do.”
Thealos felt a little goaded, but he tried to keep control of his patience. “Do I truly believe in why we came here? Is that what you’re asking? We came here to save you from destroying your world and to teach you how to heal it again. We saved you, all right, and we taught you…but you would not learn and remember.”
Thealos stretched his legs out, looking up at the northern sky where he saw the smooth blue light of Eroth. “That has been the more difficult challenge for us, I think. We have tried teaching you about the dangers of fire, yet in nearly every human city it is abused. Every other year, a fire burns out of control in Dos-Aralon, ruining sections of the city and destroying homes and lives. Yet before the ashes can be swept away and the scorch marks painted over, another one breaks out, repeating the lesson. Over and over, it happens. We tried to teach you about ale and mead and other things Forbidden to drink, yet there is no limit to the breweries or drunkenness. The deaths caused by back-alley stabbings, squabbling over who gets the last sip. We tried to teach that marriage is honorable, a commitment…”
“Perhaps the humans learned more from you than you think,” Jaerod interrupted softly. “Hypocrisy is so easy to pick up and so difficult to put away.”
Thealos gave him a dark look. “Are you saying the Shae are all hypocrites?”
“In one way or another, Thealos, we all are,” Jaerod replied with a sardonic chuckle. “I’m not criticizing you. Just making an observation.” He stopped, cutting another slice off his pear. Bringing it to his mouth, he chewed slowly and continued. “When you try to teach someone over and over again and they don’t seem to be picking it up, maybe you should look again at how the message is being delivered. But why am I trying to convince you of this? Isn’t that one of the reasons you left Avisahn? One of the reasons you couldn’t go along as a chapel monk or join the Shae army or fritter your Silvan year learning an artisan trade? You wanted a taste of freedom, to experience life for yourself without every little action being prescribed by a Rule of Forbiddance. You recognized the hypocrisy of your nation and chafed under it. It only stings because I’m pointing it out to you. The Shae may admit that hypocrisy to themselves, but never to those outside their culture. To do so would be to admit that they’ve botched their quest rather completely.” He smirked. “And most humans don’t even know what really happened at Ravin-Dranath. When the Shae almost annihilated themselves.”
Thealos listened quietly. He fumed for a moment before realizing that he couldn’t be angry at Jaerod for speaking the truth. He had had those exact thoughts himself. Staring across the fire at Jaerod, he replied, “I’ll concede your point, then. If you’ll concede that you are using me to your own ends. I don’t think it was random chance that brought us together – not in the streets of Dos-Aralon, and not by the river when you saved me. You found me for a reason, Jaerod. Let’s not be hypocrites with each other. Tell me why you’re really here and what you expect from me.”
Jaerod nodded. “More than fair. I doubted I would have been able to convince you to go with me to Landmoor unless I told you why. Let me try a little bluntness. We’ll see if it works. I need you, Thealos, but not for my own ends. What I mean by that is it’s my responsibility right now to prevent a terrible destruction – a destruction that has happened in the past and will happen again if we don’t try to stop it. This destruction will come about because of the Everoot, this plant that healed you. I need you because of who and what you are. You are a Shae, but not just any Shae. You are the descendent of one of the noble Silvan houses. The House of Silver rules in this valley, but the House of Quick ruled longer. I am here to bring you to Landmoor – to the Shae watchpost of Jenterhome – because a warding that guarded the Everoot has been destroyed.”
Thealos froze in the midst of warming his hands by the fire. From what little he knew of the Shae warders, it took strong magic to break a warding – the strongest of magics. The words had come from Jaerod’s mouth almost casually, but there was so much sincerity in his eyes that pierced Thealos’ heart. He listened closely as Jaerod continued.
“If we do not act quickly, those unfriendly to the Shae will use the Everoot to dominate and eventually destroy this valley. But the Shae knew this when they set the warding over the Everoot. They knew that someday the warding might fail. They also created and concealed a talisman to defend themselves if the Everoot were ever used against them. But you see, only a descendent of the original Quicksilver family can retrieve that magic. Neither can any ordinary Shae who worships Keasorn, Shenalle, or Vannier. I will explain more of the history of why this has happened along the way. There are reasons why it has taken this long for the warding to be discovered. It was set in place five hundred years ago back when Sol don Orai was destroyed – yes, by the Everoot. And there are those who would kill you for being an heir of Quicksilver. That is why I came for you, Thealos. I am here to protect you as best I can and to bring you to the Shoreland to fetch that talisman.”
Thealos stared at him, speechless for a moment. “What are you?” he whispered, awestruck by the revelation. “If you’re not a…a Wolfsman, then…”
“I am a Sleepwalker.”
Thealos swallowed. He felt his heart hammering in his chest. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get control of himself. His emotions seethed inside his chest. Was this all true? Yet everything Jaerod had said was burning inside him. “I don’t understand. The Crimson Wolfsmen are the guardians of the Shae. They should be the ones to…” He stopped, struggl
ing with the thought. “Are only… humans allowed to be Sleepwalkers?”
“We are not the Crimson Wolfsmen. They are in similitude of my order. If you are really asking if a Shae can become one, then the answer is yes. Most of my peers are Shae. You refer to whether we use Forbidden magic?” Thealos nodded hesitantly. “As I told you, everything is in balance. Life magic and Earth magic can be used two ways. The Shae use them as they should, as they were meant to be used. To heal, to protect, to defend. One practices Forbidden magic by using these magics inappropriately.”
Reaching at his waist, Jaerod quickly untied the string and withdrew a clump of shriveled Everoot. Uncorking his water flask, he poured it out on the plant. The tiny sprigs turned a rich green and the blue and violet winked back vibrantly. “And even this magic can become Forbidden if used the wrong way.” He gave Thealos an arch look. “It is the same with Sleepwalkers. There are some who use what they are taught in Forbidden ways. But this amulet I wear and this sword at my side… these can only be used by those who have chosen to fight Forbidden magic in all its forms. One is a shield and the other a weapon against all forms of Firekin.”
“Firekin.” Thealos said it with a shudder. Just hearing the word made him afraid.
“It translates from Silvan poorly, doesn’t it? The ‘power of night’ doesn’t begin to describe its myriad of nuances. There are forces at work in this valley stronger than my amulet or my sword. But the talisman that was abandoned and forgotten in Landmoor is stronger than any Firekin. It was created by the Shae to be so. Strong enough to protect you… and your people.”
Thealos nodded solemnly. “I’ve never…this has never happened to me before.” He shook his head slowly. “I felt…compelled to leave Avisahn. That if I stayed there a day longer, I would lose myself. I thought I knew why, but now I’m not sure.” He scratched his scalp and sighed heavily. “You know so much about us, Jaerod, about our ways, about what is happening down here in this country. You say you are a Shaefellow, and I believe you.” He swallowed, wondering what he should say. “And I’ve heard that some humans are allowed to live in Avisahn. If they renounce Dos-Aralon and swear to abide by the Rules of Forbiddance. Do you worship one of the Shae gods?”