“What?” the man blurted angrily. “What say you?” He stared at us, furrowing his brow. We continued walking away from the fountain. “Don’t ignore me!” he yelled.
“We were just on our way,” Patreus answered quickly, pretending he was not avoiding the man.
“Well, stay! Have a drink from the fountain with me,” he offered.
“It is late, and we must be going,” Patreus replied.
“I said have a drink with me, damn you!” He grunted. “Or shall I hurl a ball of flame at you and your family?” The man chuckled at his threat, as if it was a joke or an exaggeration.
Patreus motioned for us to stay near the edge of the clearing. He approached the belligerent stranger. They locked eyes for a moment, and with a sudden outburst, the man violently reached for Patreus’ neck. Patreus knocked the flask from his hand, spilling the rest of it onto the ground, and ducked underneath the man’s arms, spinning around to grab the man from behind. He tripped the man’s feet and suddenly was on top of him, holding his face to the ground and drilling a knee into his back.
“You are a slave to this liquid.” Patreus grunted with anger as he studied the man. “I see you bear the band of marriage. Like me, you are a family man. Do you have children?”
“Yes,” he whimpered.
“How old are they?” There was silence. The man could not answer. “I asked how old!” Patreus pressed him.
“I, I don’t know.” He spoke with shame. Patreus’ words sobered him almost instantly.
“What will they think of you when you grow old, knowing you didn’t care, that you were never there for them?”
“You’re right, stranger. Forgive me for my behavior towards you and your family.” He sounded sincere. Patreus eased his grip on the man, letting him up slowly.
“Go on. Go home to your family. I’m sure they are worried for your safety,” Patreus told him. The man nodded his head and left the glade.
“Why didn’t you speak to him of purity?” Peitus asked once the man was gone.
“It could have brought danger on us if I spoke of such things. Since it is a crime to worship, he could alert authorities if he later became angry. We do not need that kind of attention," Patreus answered. "It was best that I point out his neglect for his family. Hopefully, if he loves them, that will lead him down the path to seek purity.”
#
As we walked toward the edge of the oasis, Patreus pointed out a small stream of water that was safe to drink. We made our way to a clearing near the western edge of the oasis and set up our camp. We gathered some kindling and made a fire. Fiama cut up the rest of the vegetables she brought from the farm and made a soup with the fresh stream water, and we all ate it with some bread.
“Our supplies are nearly gone,” Peitus noted.
“Yes. We will be able to replenish our supplies at Kal’Adria. We are close. I will return the jewelry we found in the ogre's den to the heirs of its rightful owners, and the rest we can use for bartering if we run out of silver coins."
“What of the dark item?” I asked, reminded of the necklace Patreus removed from the ogre in the desert.
“Dark item?” Deius asked, not knowing the ogre was in possession of one.
“You have a keen eye, Valdren. It will be logged in a book that lists the dark items, and then locked away until it can be properly disposed of or destroyed,” answered Patreus.
“How is that done?” Peitus asked.
“There is a two step process, from the little that I know of it. First, the Lapisians and Aquidians have mystical ways of removing Scievah’s evil incantations from the items, rendering them powerless. Then second, for good measure, the physical material is melted and destroyed by a blacksmith or a jeweler,” he explained.
We soon grew tired. The day was long and our many physical exertions throughout our travels caught up with us. Before going to sleep, I made it a point to speak with Patreus about what I experienced at the fountain earlier. I told him everything I felt; the desire, the thirst, the calmness, and then the voice.
“That is not exactly the compelling desire for power, my boy, though it is similar. The desire for power cannot be forced upon someone initially. It is first a matter of free will. One must freely drink of his own choice. Only after drinking can the waters compel you and make you addicted. It is then that free will is inhibited, though never fully removed. What you felt seems more like the Gift to me, since I know you have not sipped from the forbidden waters, yet there was still a strong compulsion,” he explained.
“What is the Gift?” I asked.
“It is the rarely experienced vestigial power of the truly pure, only hindered and tainted by our corruption. The soothing, relaxing and peaceful sensations are the true purity of the power within the Gift. The first Ahaareti sensed this; the Old Gift. But the lust and desire part that you felt is the mark of impurity within us all. It drives the one who experiences the Gift to want more of that sensation, to seek it out, as if he had already sipped the forbidden waters. It is the same thing the dark wizards are said to experience. The difference is that they nurture the desire part by drinking from the waters, allowing the urge to overpower the Gift. This can only cause destruction.”
“But wouldn’t I need to be near a power stone to feel the Gift?” I asked.
“Yes. That is why some say that Scievah has placed part of the Firestone into the stonework of the fountain. Those rare few with the Gift can feel its power here, only they all end up like the dark wizards, in service to Scievah.”
“So then how was I able to restrain myself from the urge?” I asked.
“You have a strong will, and the Divinae are on your side. It would seem that Hemela herself is looking out for you.”
It was a long and tiresome journey through the desert, so after our talk, I fell asleep fast. In my dreams I was back on the farm, digging near a tree. I unearthed a polished and smooth stone. The stone turned into a lamb. The lamb approached me and as I began to run my hands through its soft wool, it turned into a lion. Startled, I jumped back and then awoke from my dream with a gasp. My eyes fixed on the dwindling firelight with the moons setting beyond it in the desert. It was not quite dawn but morning was on its way.
There was a footstep behind me, well off in the distance since I barely heard it with my keen senses. I shifted my body to get a better look, pretending to turn over in my sleep so as not to deter the potential intruder. I wanted to spy on him while he thought he was spying on us; something I thought Felgor would have done.
The footsteps drew nearer and emerged into the clearing from the bushes. It was only Deius. He returned to his blanket with a filled skin of water, tip-toeing, cautiously trying to keep silent so as not to wake us.
I slipped back to sleep for a bit, and my dream continued. The lion approached me and asked me to ride atop it like a horse. Together we rode through the lush green fields that once covered the valley north of the Great Divide, like Tillius had done before.
I awoke to the bubbling of boiling water. Fiama was making tealeaf brew, a hot replenishing drink. The morning was cool and the drink warmed me to my core. It was quite aromatic. Bitter, yet also sweet and invigorating. Soon I was alert, like I was awake for some time already. My mother did not make this drink often, so this was my first taste.
I thought of her and my father then. I felt somewhat guilty that they were not in my thoughts as often during our journey. I wondered if it was because I was moving on and dealing with their absence, or because so much was happening around me to constantly keep my mind occupied. I sensed it was a bit of both. This saddened me. I missed them dearly, and thought of them somberly as we gathered our belongings for our continued journey. The others talked amongst themselves, but I was quiet in my thoughts. Deius noticed.
“Why so quiet? Everything alright?” he asked. His forwardness took me by surprise, as he had been acting strangely since I emerged from under the barn.
“Yes, everything is fine,” I rep
lied. “I was just thinking of my parents.”
“You’ll see them again, I am sure. Even if I have to help break them out of prison with you,” he offered supportively.
It was refreshing to see him like this, acting toward me as he always had in the past. He was, after all, my best friend. He took a big gulp of water from his skin and offered me some, but I was full up from my morning tealeaf brew, so I declined.
“Will you train with me today?” he asked. Just then I remembered, as if it were the haze of a dream; Deius had been up during the night, filling his skin with water.
“Yes, of course,” I replied, thinking it would be the ideal way to test my suspicion that Deius may have filled his flask with forbidden waters during the night, still desperate to further his combat skills. If Deius had shown dramatic improvement, I thought, it could mean that he was drinking from the fountain. I hoped that was not the case, but I feared it was a possibility.
CHAPTER 9
The sand under our feet was fine, and the desert rolled out in gentle dunes ahead of us in ripples that sat still like a frozen portrait of ocean waters. The morning was hot, but we pressed onward. We trained as we made our journey west, aiming to get as much practice in as possible before the sun rose to its peak.
Deius showed some improvement, particularly in his focus on the movements. He was no longer rushing toward greatness. He was calm, but I still wondered if his gains were ill-gotten. It was possible his flask was filled with safe stream water and not the forbidden liquids. I could not know for sure.
I considered switching his water skin, or dumping his skin and refilling it with my own water. I wondered if the potion took effect instantly, or if it was a gradual effect. I thought of telling Patreus, but since I was not sure I decided it was best to wait and see if any effects became apparent. After all, such news would cause an even deeper rift between Deius and the rest of us, and I did not want to act prematurely. I took comfort in knowing that the fountain’s waters only bestowed temporary powers. Eventually Deius would run out of water, I thought, and his powers would fade. I just hoped that Deius would not hold onto any desire for more, as Patreus warned that the waters could become addicting to those who imbibe, causing obsessive and vile behavior.
As the sun grew strong we ended our training. But Deius continued on by himself, as usual, diligently and fervently practicing his motions and movements, occasionally stopping to catch his breath or revitalize himself with a swig of water. He stopped once the wind picked up. Heavy gusts pelted us with grains of sand that lifted off the nearby dunes. We walked with our eyes shielded by our hands.
“How much further until these conditions break?” Peitus sluggishly questioned.
“Not long,” answered Patreus. “Soon we will be able to travel in peace and camp somewhere less harsh.”
“Good. I would hate to set up camp in this dreadful place. We will still arrive in Kal’Adria by nightfall tomorrow, yes?” Fiama verified.
Patreus nodded his head in the affirmative while looking to the ground with his head down, his hands cupping his eyes.
We plodded on. The day began to dwindle, and before long sunset was nearly upon us. Then Patreus noticed something ahead in the distance, poking through the low clouds of sand that swept across the desert.
“Look! Up ahead!” he shouted. There was a lush tree in the distance. Its colors danced in the waves of heat and lit up the bland horizon like the moons illuminated the dark sky at night. “It was not here the last time I came this way. It would seem it has grown strong as well as rapidly,” he explained.
The wind ceased and the dust clouds peeled away, revealing a clear view of the tree. It was a wide and robust tree, with a canopy that hung down low and presented bulbous gold and amber fruit at arm's length for picking. They seemed to sparkle and glisten in the low, early evening sunlight. Its leaves were broad and majestic, and they varied in color from bright blue to purple and deep crimson.
“It’s beautiful,” Lunaris commented with a smile that brightened her face as much as the tree brightened the desert landscape.
“So are you,” I said to her quietly, sharing a private moment we both had longed for but had not been able to achieve. Gazing into my eyes, she repaid the compliment with a bashful smile.
“Our footing has become firm,” Peitus observed.
No longer were our feet sinking and sliding in the hot sand with each step. The ground turned to a stiffened soil of sorts. Though still dry, it was more supportive, and it contained a hardened variety of short, tan colored grass.
“Now it is solid. Are these roots?” a puzzled Peitus asked when we were a short distance further along. I peered down to see what looked like fine roots curling in and out of the ground all around us. When my eyes followed the roots outward ahead of us, I saw that they thickened and seemed to lead to the tree.
“By the king!” exclaimed Patreus. “Look. Its roots extend a farms length in all directions from its trunk!”
“It reminds me of the old paintings of the Sacred Willow,” Fiama noted.
“Yes. It does rather look like that. But it can not be! I would not have missed such a sight in my past journeys,” Patreus reasoned.
“It is another sign of the presence of the Fifth Stone,” stated Fiama.
“Indeed it is,” said Patreus.
We were walking among its thickened roots, which became larger and larger the closer we moved toward its trunk. The tree cast a long shadow under the fading sun, where moss and greener grasses fought the desert to grow. Once under the canopy, we sat upon the tremendous roots that stuck out of the ground, looking up at the strange fruit that dangled above us like giant colorful dew drops.
The fruit was shiny. It was like a bubble of transparent yellow-orange liquid that hung down in the shape of a teardrop. It was slightly bigger than the size of a balled fist, and it looked heavy, like a skin of liquid.
“What a bizarre looking fruit!” Deius proclaimed. “Do you think it is safe to eat?”
“Or drink,” I added.
“I don’t know,” said Patreus.
“Look there,” said Peitus, pointing to the ground. “It seems like an animal may have gotten to some.” Peitus stepped a few strides away and picked up what looked like the outer skin-like shell of the mysterious fruit. "I bet it is safe to eat. Shall I try one?”
“There are many things animals can eat that Haareti cannot,” warned Fiama. “It could be poisonous to us.” But before Fiama could finish, Peitus had reached up and pulled one down from the tree.
“It's light as a feather!” he exclaimed.
“Peitus, we can hold our appetite until we get to town. What if you get ill or worse?” Fiama cautioned.
“I can take care of myself,” he proudly stated with a smile.
Peitus approached us with the orange colored fruit. When he held out his hand, turned his palm up, and released his grip on the fruit to show us, it suddenly began to float! It hovered in the air and moved slightly in the gentle breeze. Then it slowly began to descend toward the ground, floating low but not touching the ground. We were astonished.
“It’s amazing!” cried Lunaris.
“I would guess that the ripe ones are heavier and float lower to the ground like this one,” Peitus explained.
“Let’s try another,” said Deius as he plucked another from the tree, this one more yellow in color. When Deius opened his hand, the fruit floated higher in the air, just above our heads. “I think you may be right,” he said, confirming Peitus’ theory.
“I’m going to try them,” said Peitus. “Someone’s got to be the first!”
We were all a bit apprehensive, but curious at the same time. I wondered how our ancestors discovered which foods were good to eat and which were not. How did they know which would be poisonous? Was it merely trial and error? Process of elimination? What about the spineling vegetable? It was armored with prickly spikes, yet inside was a delicious pulp of savory goodness. I imagined that the
pioneers of such foods were bold and risky like Peitus to have tried eating such things.
Peitus reached down and grabbed the low floating orange fruit and held it to his mouth. He took a hearty bite of it and chewed for a few moments with an inquisitive look on his face, his taste buds no doubt searching for answers to all of his curiosities.
“Well,” he said, still chewing vigorously, “the skin is quite chewy. I can’t seem to break it down so I’m not going to swallow it,” he said, before promptly spitting the skin to the ground.
The fruit seemed to lose its bulbous form now that the skin was pierced. Then Peitus slurped out some of the insides while giving the shell a slight squeeze. After a moment, his face was in delight.
“It is delicious!” he exclaimed. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. It’s very sweet, like a mixture between a solid and a liquid, and it seems to jiggle around like the belly of a fattened Haareti!” He laughed.
He quickly finished off the rest and discarded the skin. Then he reached up for the yellow colored fruit that floated higher in the air. His face was slightly puckered after he tasted it.
“This one is sour. Not bad, but a very different taste. It is still very sweet, but not as juicy, and it has a very sharp flavor,” he explained.
“Perhaps it is not fully ripened, or perhaps it is an entirely different fruit altogether,” said Fiama, who had grown interested to try them herself. Due to her knowledge of plant life, Fiama was naturally interested in the tree and its fruit.
“It’s still very tasty, just different,” Peitus continued. “I feel invigorated with energy!”
“There are small seeds in some of these shells,” Fiama observed while gathering some pieces of fruit and packing them up along with some twigs and empty skins. “I wonder if I could grow this back at home, though I guess we would need much more space to grow just one, from the look of its root structure.”
We all eventually tried some of the mysterious floating fruit. I preferred the slightly sour golden variety. It had a stimulating and bubbly taste, and it seemed to revitalize our spirits to give us energy for the journey onward. The tree provided us with renewal, and we were on schedule to make it to Kal’Adria by nightfall of the next day. Night had fallen and we camped there, under the tree, planning for an early start.
The Return of the Fifth Stone Page 14