Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (24 page)

Seran crouched down in front of
her and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She looked at him and a bit
of life returned to her eyes. He encouraged her with much the same words that I
used, to have a drink and cake. She meekly took a sip and started nibbling. I
sighed and walked off.

Brant came over to me. He looked
a mess, covered in blood, luckily most of it was not his. I must have looked
much the same.
 
“How is the arm?”

He looked at it as if he had
forgotten all about it. “Not bad. I have a cream that I can use. Do you still
feel it?” There was no need to explain what ‘it’ was.

“No, but I do not think it came
from the Dyrrendrel.”

He nodded. “It lasted well after
the last one died so it must have come from something else, but why did it not
attack then?”

I thought about it for a moment
before shrugging. “Maybe it does not attack. It could be that it is some sort
of support system for the others. It puts us off balance before the others
attack.”

He did not look completely
convinced, but he let it lie. Probably, like me, just glad it was over. I
looked up at the horizon. The sky was just lighting with dawn. I yawned and
started packing our things up.

It was going to be a long day.

Eight
days after leaving Medirea and our rations were starting to run low. Seran had
brought what seemed like a lot of food from his farm, but even that was almost
gone.
 
The last couple of days we had
been taking turns hunting at dusk and dawn to supplement what we had. None of
us had anticipated that the next town on our route would be this far along.

To our collective joy, we saw a
village on the horizon. As we drew nearer, it became clear that it was closer to
a city. By the time we reached it the sun was almost setting. Even so, the
streets were busy. We walked
a way
in to have a look
around before choosing to stay at the Red Deer Inn. It was a great wooden
building with a black slate roof. We left the horses at the stable and a porter
took our baggage.

Inside thick dark wood beams
crisscrossed below the ceiling. There was a head of what I assumed was a red
deer, mounted on the wall opposite the entrance. We sat down at a table by a
window overlooking the street. The roast chicken dinner was cooked to
perfection. I used my bread to mop up the last of the gravy in my plate. Brant
and Seran had a second portion. It was full dark out, but every building that I
could see through my window had lanterns hanging out front, bathing the street in
a dim glow. The streets were busier now than when we came in.

I called the serving girl back
over and asked her if there was something going on this evening.

She smiled broadly. “This is
what Brailen is famed for. We have an evening street market. It is quite
wonderful. You should go out and enjoy it.”

We decided to do just that when
Brant and Seran had finished their food, but Trissa insisted that she needed to
have a bath first and Seran in turn insisted we wait for her to finish. In the
end we all sent for bath water to our rooms and washed, albeit some quicker
than others.

When we finally got out, I
expected to see that we had missed it all, but quite the opposite was true. The
streets were packed with people. There were fiddlers, jugglers and singers
every few feet. I noticed some of the lamps had a strange flickering quality,
unlike a candle. I walked up to one and was amazed to see there was something
alive inside. Small flying insects were producing the light. I thought it one
of the most delightful things I had ever seen. There were tables and chairs out
in the middle of the street and serving girls were bringing food and drink out
from the surrounding taverns and inns.
 
Each table had a lamp with the strange glow insects, throwing a soft
light across it. Music drifted across the air from some unseen source.

The
stalls sold everything from the mundane to the strange. Some of them sold what
I would expect at any market; food, pots, brooms, but then we came across a
stall selling weapons. It had the usual swords and daggers, but it also sold
star shaped metallic discs and other curiosities.

The
stall keeper saw that I was looking at them. “They are throwing stars they are.
Saw a fellow bring down a buck with one o’ them, I did. Might not think it
lookin
at
dem
, but I tell ye,
sharp as razors an’ deadly to boot. I do
ye
a deal. I
give
ye
three for a gold mark.”

Before I
could respond, Brant snorted. “You must be kidding. Three can’t be worth more
than a silver piece at most.”

The
keeper’s back stiffened and the glitter in his eyes dulled a bit. Clearly, he
was offended.

I
quickly interjected. “Thank you sir, but I do not think we will be purchasing
them.” He clasped his hands behind his back and gave a small nod, his mouth
turned down at the corners. I continued browsing the items. Among the display
was a dagger with three blades. A straight one in line with the hilt and two
curling away from the main shaft near the hilt. It had a sturdy hand guard, but
I still shivered thinking how easily you can injure yourself as opposed to your
enemy.

More in an effort to break the
tension that had formed, I asked the keeper, “It seems odd to have a stall such
as this in the market. Do you have trouble in the area?”

His face brightened a bit as he
said, “Not yet, but from
wha
’ we hear it may not be
long before we do.”

I frowned. “What have you heard
then?”

His eyes stretched a fraction.
“You not heard? Trouble stirring all
round
from
wha
’ we hear. Everything from border troubles to people
rioting in the best of towns is
wha
’ we hear. More
and more rumours
flyin
’ about each day now. ‘S why I
say not long now and we’ll be
havin
’ trouble here as
well.” This was disturbing news. I wondered whether it could be linked with the
stirring of Rakadamon.

Seran was looking at some of the
whips on display and disdainfully sniffed at them. The keeper’s eyes snapped to
him. Hurriedly I pulled at his arm and led him away saying a quick thank you
over my shoulder.

Brant looked at me
condescendingly. “You do realise, don’t you, you do not have to be friends with
everyone?”

Indignant, I shook my head. “I
was not trying to be friends with him, but you tend to catch more flies with
honey than with vinegar.” He looked at me blankly. “He had some information. I
wanted to know what that information was.”

He shook his head.
“Right.”
His voice was heavy with sarcasm. “You don’t actually
believe what he said? For blood’s sake, he is a weapons dealer; he probably
stirs up rumours himself to increase his trade.” He shook his head
disparagingly. I supposed that he may have a point, but still resolved to keep
my ears sharp for more of the same.

We started back to the Red Deer.
A crowd thronged the streets and we had to weave our way through. I looked over
my shoulder to see if the others were still following. My heart skipped a beat
and my stomach felt as though I had swallowed a stone. The Watchers were in the
crowd, looking directly at me.

Brant shoved me. “You can’t stop
dead in your tracks right in front of me, not in a crowd like this!” I had
taken my eyes away from them for but a second, but when I looked back, they
were gone.

I hurried on to the inn. Once we
were clear of the crowd, I told them that we had not succeeded in evading our
pursuers after all.

Seran shook his head. “That is
not possible. We were sure that they had not followed us out of Medirea. How
would they have found us? Despite the lanterns, it was still pretty dim,
perhaps you were mistaken?”

I shook my head firmly. “It was
them. They were looking directly at me. I am sure.”

We slept doubled up that night
despite having paid for individual rooms. Trissa had looked scandalised when we
said she should sleep in Seran’s room, but was convinced easily enough.

Brant and I went to our usual
drawing of lots to decide who gets the bed. Neither one of us were willing to
share the very narrow bed with the other. We barred the window and door as best
we could, although the window was too small for someone to climb through. It
was a restless night with both my worry about the Watchers and Brant’s near
constant grumbling about having to sleep on the floor waking me up.

We were up and at the table for
breakfast barely after dawn. Soon after, Seran and Trissa arrived. I waited for
everyone to sit down before speaking. “We need to deal with the Watchers. We
cannot keep running from them.”

Brant murmured agreement and
Seran said, “Agreed, so what do we do?”

I raised my eyebrows. “We know
they follow us, so we go about as normal. Once we are certain they are there,
we lead them to some place secluded, most likely outside the city and away from
any spectators. Then we confront them. Markai can herd them along if they do
not follow into the open.” The serving girl arrived with our breakfast; a large
plate of fruit followed by sausages and fried eggs.

I turned to Trissa. “What are
your plans? You do not need to be a part of this. You can go off on your own to
someplace safe.”

She hesitated for a moment
before answering in a soft voice. “I will leave your party if you ask me to.”

That was not at all what I had
asked, but before I could answer, Seran did. “Of course Kadin is not asking you
to leave.”

He shot me a glare telling me
that he was telling me as much as her. “I would not feel comfortable leaving
you here. Besides, the Watchers may think her a member of our group. They may
come after her. I think she is safest with us.”

I kept my face smooth and
nodded. What he said made sense, but I could not help but wonder if he would
ever feel happy to leave her behind.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

After
the joviality of the night before, the streets seemed eerily quiet and devoid
of people. We ambled along pretending interest in the few shops that were open.
By lunchtime, I was starting to question whether I had actually seen them. We
found a large green park with benches and trees offering welcome shade.
 
Taking out the flask of wine, cooked ham and
fresh bread that we had brought, we sat down on one of the benches. We made
light conversation and for a while, I could forget the reasons that had brought
us there.

I lay down on the grass looking
up at the sun glittering down through the leaves of the big Nightshade tree.
Trissa and Seran were sitting close together on the bench talking softly with a
giggle coming from her every so often. Brant gave a disgusted grunt and lay
down next to me.

I found my thoughts drifting to
Aliana. I wondered when I would see her again and if she thought about me, and
then reprimanded myself for it. She had after all not shown interest in me
beyond being my friend, had she?

It was becoming clear that the
Watchers had no intention of revealing themselves easily. I called Markai and
she seemed to appear out of the thin air, as though she had been there all
along. I told her of our plan and that it didn’t seem to be working. I asked
her to have a look around to see if she could find their scent. She loped off
into the surrounding trees.

I did not have a long wait
before she found them.
What shall I do?
Do you want to confront them?

I thought for a moment.
Yes. Tell me where they are exactly and we
will come to them. If they see us approaching and try to get away, stop them,
but just keep them there.
I answered.

I explained to the others what
had happened and we set off in the direction Markai had given. I quickly
spotted the thick patch of trees that she had shown me. As we drew nearer, I
saw movement amongst the trunks.

Suddenly the two Watchers came
striding out towards us. It seemed Markai was frog marching them out. By the
sullen expression on their faces, they did not get much say in the matter. When
they were some ten paces away, I held up a hand. “That is close enough.”

One of them was very tall and
broad shouldered. He had long blond hair hanging well down his back. His face
was slim with large grey eyes sparkling with anger. The second man could be the
twin of the first, except for being of shorter stature and his long hair was
black.

“You have been following us from
Pharae. Who are you and what do you want of us?” Brant asked angrily.

He snorted. “We have not been
following
you
, we have been following
you.” He stabbed a finger at me and sniffed. “You are supposedly the one who
will lead the Resistance, but we have our doubts.”

When he stood there silently
looking at me in defiance, I said, “So, you are seeing if I will fail?”