Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (19 page)

I bowed in return, saying, “I am
Kadin Aken and this is Brant Almeer.” From the corner of my eye, I saw him give
such a small bow that it almost seemed a nod. “I assume it was the trouble
makers who did this to your wagon?”

He scowled darkly.
“And only a day outside Medirea.
I thought of walking the
rest of the way to fetch supplies, but I did not want to leave Harrit and Mai
unprotected seeing as they very nearly carried Mai off the last time.”

I nodded. I saw Mai hunch in
upon herself as if trying to hide. “May I have a look at the wheel?”

He gave me a disdainful smile.
“You may, but do you not think having travelled all my life, I know how to fix
my own wagon?”

My temper flared at his tone,
but I said, “I am sure you are fully capable, but perhaps we carry the tool you
require to repair it.”

He shook his head. “Doubtful.” I
ignored his remark and knelt down beside the broken wheel. Brant was standing
tight lipped behind me. I was surprised at his silence, although I was sure
that had some of the gleeman’s remarks been directed at him, he would not have
refrained from rebuking him.

The rim of the wheel was broken
with a piece missing as well as two of the spokes. The gleeman came to look
over my shoulder. “A broken spoke is no problem to fix, but the rim…”

I knew what the problem was. As
a temporary fix, he could have replaced the spokes with some stout wood if
there were some to be found, but for the rim, it needed to be the right
curvature. This required either unbelievable luck in finding a piece that was
just right, or having to bend a length of wood after heating it over a fire. No
mean feat. I put as much conviction into my voice as I could muster and said,
“I will have a look for a replacement piece for the rim.” I strode off before
he could make some sort of disparaging remark.

Brant stared after me in
disbelief for a moment before following me. I was ready to rebuff any comments
from him, but he simply followed in silence.

After some searching, I found
what I was looking for. The stick was about the right thickness. I pulled out
my waterskin and poured a liberal dose over it.

I sat down, holding it in both
hands and focused my Navitas on it. I became aware of every groove and grain
along the wood and of the forces holding it together. Blue mist started
floating from my fingertips and around the stick, covering it completely.

I closed my eyes and stretched
out my awareness searching for any heat energy sources. They were bountiful for
every blade of grass every stone every leaf of every tree had been warmed by
the sun this day.

I extracted small amounts of
energy from each. Not enough to affect the sources, but added together, it was
like holding a flame in my hand. I first heated the water on the surface of the
wood and used the heat energy to force the water into the structure of the
timber. Then I pushed the heat into the wood, weakening the bonds that held it
together. While these bonds were weakened, I slowly bent it into the desired
shape and held it there before then releasing the remaining heat.

I opened my eyes to see tendrils
of the mist creeping back to me. I smiled, satisfied with the result. I looked
up and saw that Brant had been watching intently.

He had something very close to
admiration in his eyes, but he said, “You are a fool and we are wasting our
time with these people. I shook my head and walked back to the gleeman’s wagon.

When he saw what I was holding,
his eyebrows rose and his mouth opened in surprise. He opened and closed his
mouth several times before finally saying, “Where did you get that? I have
searched this whole area and did not find anything close to what we need.”

I shrugged. “Just lucky I
suppose. Let’s see if it fits.” I held out the now half circle shaped wood to
him.

It was a little too big, but the
gleeman quickly trimmed the size down and hammered together the pieces. When he
was done, he had a wide grin on his face. “I owe you a drink when we reach
Medirea. I do not know how you did it, but thank you.”

The women gathered all their
belongings and climbed into the back of the wagon. Nassarit jumped up on the
driver’s seat and we set off together. I rode next to the gleeman chatting
about small things. Brant stubbornly rode out in front. I wondered at his
behaviour, but let him be.

He regaled me of tales from his
travelling. He cheerily told me about visiting a lively town called Granidea in
the east where they held a festival to celebrate anything and everything from
birthdays to marriages to pregnancies.
A good town for a
gleeman to visit.
“I made a whole three months’ wages in the three weeks
I was there.”

I smiled. “Why did you only stay
for three weeks?”

His mouth pulled down at the
corners. “Even a gleeman needs rest and there is no rest to be had in Granidea.
Had it been only me on my own perhaps I could have stayed a bit longer, but
with the wife and daughter along...” He shook his head. “It was time to go.”

He told me of their time
travelling. It sounded as though this was not the first trouble they had run
into, although it was the most serious. Previously, the worst that had happened
were thieves coming in the night.
Stealing a pouch of money
and some food from the wagon.

The gleeman frowned over worried
eyes. “I have spoken to some other travellers. They told me stories of not only
robbers on the road, but that these criminals do not shy away from violence.
And in some cases become violent without any provocation.” He grimaced. “I did
not believe these tales. At least, I was sure that the stories had been
somewhat exaggerated. That was until it happened to us.”

He shivered and his hands went
tight on the reins. “It was sheer luck that saved us. I fought them off as best
I could, but I knew that I could not win against the two of them. One was
keeping me busy while the other had gone for Mai. He was heaving her over his
shoulder when all of a sudden he dropped her like a bag of potatoes. It was the
strangest thing. They both stopped what they were doing, almost as though they
had forgotten what they had been doing the moment before. If I had been a
different type of man I could have killed them both before they started moving
again. They just stood there. Their eyes were empty. Just as suddenly, they got
on their horses and galloped away. Tell you what, that there gave me the
chills.”

I chewed over what he had told
me. What could that have been? To make determined criminals stop in their
tracks and leave people that were ripe for the picking. I wondered if this had
something to do with Rakadamon and his followers. I shook my head and dismissed
the thought. I simply did not know enough to make that assumption and I could
not go looking for the Dark Master in every shadow. I filed the information
away. If I heard any more such tales then perhaps I should pay it more
mind
.

I steered the conversation back
to lighter topics and soon the gleeman was again wearing a broad smile and
enthusiastically telling me of the last town they had visited. They had nearly
caused a town wide argument when he had sang a cheeky song about a long
forgotten affair between the farmer’s daughter and the mayor’s son. Apparently,
it was not long forgotten and the song had dug up the hatchet. They had made a
speedy exit after that. He laughed softly to himself.

That night we all camped
together. Harrit cooked a stew for us. It was much better fare than what we had
been cooking. I even helped myself to a second portion and got a broad smile
from Harrit. Mai was still very nervous and had not said a single word within
our hearing.

During the evening, I took out
my sketchpad and drew the human-like creatures that had attacked us. I tried to
put as much detail into it as possible. I drew a separate sketch of the
retractable claw that I had a look at. I was careful not to let the strangers
see my drawings. Nassarit mumbled softly about eccentric artists and I was
happy to let him believe that was all there was to it.

Nassarit took a watch as well,
which meant more sleep which I was grateful for. The women slept in the wagon,
but he joined Brant and me outside. We sat around the fire talking long into
the night with Brant even warming up a bit and joining in. The gleeman also
treated us to some music, playing his flute. It turned out to be the most
enjoyable evening I had spent since leaving Predaki.

We were travelling again early
the next day. The wagon meant that our progress was a bit slower, but I was
enjoying the company enough not to mind. I was well pleased that the wheel
seemed to be holding up very well.

The sun had reached its zenith
when Medirea came into view. We passed crop fields along the road. Row upon
golden row of corn stood soaking up the midday heat. There were workers in the
field, filling their baskets. They did not even look up when we passed by.

As we entered the town proper, I
stared at the buildings. They were made of large light coloured stones the like
of which I had never seen before. Nassarit informed me that the stone was
called sandstone and commonly used in many towns and cities. I thought it was
beautiful. The roofs were nearly level with only a slight incline to drain
rainwater. The streets were wide and clean and bustling with people going about
their business.

We walked through a market area
with stall keepers calling out what wares they had for sale. This was the
biggest town I had ever been to. Everything looked different and exciting, but
when my thoughts turned to the reason for coming here, it made me worry. In
this whole town, how was I to find someone without having the faintest idea of
who they may be?

Nassarit pointed to a building
across the road. “That is the Rose Inn. It has the best ale in town and the
beds
aint
half bad either. We have already made our
arrangements, but I will come by and buy you that drink tonight.” I smiled and
shook his hand. We turned our horses toward the inn.

It quickly became apparent why
it was called the Rose inn. There were roses painted everywhere. I even saw one
on the stable door when handing over Balder. We were met by a slender woman of
middle years when we walked in. She was quite pretty, but not a beauty. Her
large eyes gave us an appraising look, but what she concluded was hidden by a
smooth expression and a smile showing gleaming white teeth.

She wore a rose in her hair and
she touched it subconsciously as she greeted us. “Good sirs. I am Rose, the
innkeeper as you may have guessed.” She gave a giggle more suited to a girl
still wearing knee high dresses and absently fingered the rose in her hair
again. “Will it be one or two rooms for you today?” She raised one eyebrow
quizzically and had a light mocking smile on her face.

I thought it a strange question,
but told her we needed two rooms. Already I started disliking her. She gave a
small curtsy and snapped her fingers in the air. A lanky young lad came scurrying
out from one of the back rooms.

His gaze was cast down to the
floor and his mouth pulled down at the corners. “Das, show these good men to
their rooms please. Two rooms mind.” She snapped her fingers again making Das
jump as if he had been struck. He took our bags from us, insisting when I tried
to refuse. He struggled slightly going up the stairs with his heavy load, but
again declined when I tried to take my bags from him. He led us to our rooms
carefully setting our bags down.

I offered him a copper for his
trouble, but he refused. I had not stayed at many inns in my life, but this
seemed rather odd to me. I shrugged. “Thank you, Das.” He gave a tight nod and
disappeared down the hallway.

Our rooms were rather plain, but
thankfully free of any more roses. I was glad to see a small lockbox in the
room. I put the Book and the sentinel inside, locking it up tightly. I took out
a short piece of string and hung the key around my neck.

Brant’s room was adjacent to
mine and once I had settled my things, I knocked on his door. It took him a
moment to answer. He opened the door and before I could say anything he said,
“Let’s go out and look around town. I am not all too sure your gleeman friend
gave us a good recommendation here.”

I shrugged. “I got the same
feeling.”

We went back to the busy market.
We meandered around for a while, taking in the sights and sounds and in some
cases, strange smells, but finally ended up stopping at a tavern. I ordered
wine and a glass of mead for Brant. We took a table outside.

Something that had been nagging
at me finally came spilling out. “Why are you here, Brant?” His eyes widened a
bit at the question and his mouth went into a tight line.

 
He was quiet for long enough that I thought he
was not going to answer when he replied. “We have never been friends. I
disdained the way you were brought into our society and raised as if you were
one of us. They gave you our sacred secrets and what made it all worse, was
that you were the best they had seen…ever, I think. It infuriated… infuriates
me that you are better than I am. You are an intruder and I am Tretakai!” His
hands were shaking. He took a deep breath and visibly calmed himself.
“For a long time I only saw that.
I could not look past it
to see anything else and to be honest I do not know if I ever will look past it
completely.”