Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (33 page)

Master Hollis’ racking cough
broke into my musing thoughts. When his coughing stopped, he sipped at his tea
again. “I think my gift was triggered because of the danger our family was in.
I just wished I had used it better then; I have always blamed myself for their
deaths.
Tas
, do not let something like that happen to
you. Do not be afraid to use your gift in whatever way you can to further the
purposes of the Resistance.”

“Yes Grandfather,”
Tas
replied obediently.

“Can we not convince you to come
with us, Master Hollis?” I asked without much hope.

He sighed heavily. “Had it been
but ten years ago, I would have jumped at the chance to fight back, but now…”
he shook his head, “I would hinder more than help. I will however, swear to
help anywhere I feel I can.”

It was all I could really expect
and ask for. I turned to Tas. “Are you coming with us now, or will you meet us
at the Handsome Knight when we leave?”

He looked around the house. “I
have a few things I need to do before I go. I will meet you. When are you
planning on going?”

Alathaya looked to me. “I don’t
know yet. There is someone I need to speak to before we can leave. Can we send
you another pigeon the day before we are to leave?” He nodded.

When I greeted Master Hollis, he
gripped me by the forearm with a surprisingly firm hand. “You, my boy, will
need to be strong. I do not simply mean physically. You will need to lead many
people in very bad times. Make sure they know their best option is to follow
you. There is greatness in you. Never doubt that.” I shook his hand and murmured
thanks before leaving.

The moment we were far enough
away from the house to be sure not to be overheard, Alathaya nearly burst with
excitement. “I cannot believe what my eyes saw today. I have met
Tas
several times before, but they never said anything about
a gift.”

I smiled at her. “And you? I
suppose you told them all about your gift?”

She smiled ruefully. “You have a
point there. It is amazing though is it not? Can you imagine the possibilities?
He can be anyone he chooses and have their attributes to boot.” She went on
chattering and I only half listened.

Suddenly Balder started getting
skittish. She danced to the side and snorted. I reached for Navitas and Markai
appeared snarling by my side. With sheepish grins plastered on their slender
faces, Luan and Pharis came walking out of the woods, their hands held up as if
in surrender.

“You certainly are improving. I
think a couple of weeks ago we would have been able to track you for days
before you took any notice.”

I grimaced inwardly at their appearance.
The last encounter had been anything but pleasant. Alathaya looked at me
uncertainly and I realised that she had not had the, uh, pleasure to meet these
two. I waved a hand towards one then the other. “Alathaya, this is Luan and
Pharis. They are part of the Guardians.” Luan flicked his long black hair back
over his shoulder at the mention of his name while Pharis gave a small stiff
nod and sniffed.

Her face lit up. She held out a
hand to them as if to shake theirs with a broad smile on her face. “It is a
pleasure to meet you. I am Alathaya of the Almeida Alliance family. I have
heard so much about the Guardians, but have never had the honour of meeting
anyone.” They looked down at her hand with identical disdainful looks on their
faces and they both held their hands behind their backs as though scared she
might grab a hand if she could. The smile slipped from her face and she dropped
her hand down.

Luan looked up at me with his
cold green eyes. “As you must be aware, we are not simply here for a chat. We
want an update on your progress. We know you have found two more since we last
spoke.” He looked Alathaya up and down with distaste and I saw her frown
deepen. “Are these humans as prepared as they should be?” I laughed at him.

“What do you mean are they as
prepared as they should be? I am hardly prepared. I am learning as I go along
and most of what I am learning is coming from the Alliance members themselves.
So yes, compared to me, these humans are perfectly ready for the Great Threat,
even if it should strike tomorrow.” I could not keep the scorn out of my voice.
How dare they question the Alliance and me when all that they have done was
watch, criticise, and doubt? I saw my anger echoed in Alathaya’s face, but
judging from the smug smiles still in place on theirs, it was lost on them.

“I can see that you enjoy our
little encounters as much as we do, so I will keep this brief. We have been
looking for the others that you seek. North-West of here, there is a small town
caller Eranidin. We believe there is an Alliance family there. If we find more
detail, we will inform you.” Pharis sniffed and looked away as if bored.

I was taken aback by the fact
they were actually helping. “Thank you. How did you find this out?”

Luan raised his dark brows at
the question. ”We are well connected. That is all you need to know.” They
walked away back the way they had come.

Alathaya was frowning heavily.
As we rode away she spluttered, “Are they all like that? I mean the Fae. Are
they all so superior and insufferably rude?”

I had to fight the smile that
wanted to form on my lips at her indignation. “No, I have only met a few of the
Fae, but they are the only two who are like that.” I had tried to keep the
smile from my voice as well, but her head still snapped to me angrily.

She shook her head and muttered
under her breath. After a while, she spoke again. “Who is it that you need to
speak with before we leave?”

I had forgotten about that. “Oh,
well, actually now I do not need to speak to her anymore. I was going to try to
contact Quiniewa to ask if she has managed to find out anything more, but now
that Pharis and Luan has come to us with this information, we will not need to
speak with her yet.”

She nodded. “I will send a
pigeon to Tasolin then so that we can leave on the morrow.”

Alathaya left me to go to Ami to
send the pigeon and when I arrived at the Handsome Knight inn, I found the rest
of them in the common room. Brant looked relieved to see me, although I suspected
it had more to do with spending time alone with Trissa and Seran than with seeing
me. He was smiling broadly. “So what have the day brought us?
Another fish in the net?”

I looked at his glass of ale and
wondered how many he’d had. I smiled back though, “Tas will be joining us
tomorrow when we set out again.” Trissa made a clicking noise with her tongue.
I looked a question at her.

“Do we have to leave again
tomorrow? It feels like we have been travelling for months. It would be nice to
stay in one place for a while, just to catch our breath.” I shook my head. What
was she thinking? That we were on some leisurely tour of the countryside?

“What do you suggest? We dawdle
for so long that the Dark Master’s followers catch up with the next Alliance
member before we do?” I knew my tone was harsh, but talking with
Tas
and his grandfather had brought the reality and urgency
of the Threat into sharp focus and she was talking as if we had no need for
haste whatsoever. She was visibly offended and Seran frowned and pulled his
mouth into a tight angry line.

“Kadin, perhaps you need to
watch your tone a bit.” Her face softened at his words.

I sighed heavily and sat down.
“I apologise. The reality of our situation is just starting to stare me in the
face now.” I told them of
Tas
and his grandfather and
how his family had been hunted, his parents murdered.

“So we set out towards this
Eranidin tomorrow morning then?” Brant sounded pleased with the plan.

I nodded. “Alathaya has already
gone to send a pigeon to let him know we are leaving. He will meet us here at
dawn.”

“There is actually something I
wanted to discuss with both of you.” I looked from Seran to Trissa. “When
Quiniewa spoke of the seven I seek, I did not realise that they would all be
Alliance family members. It was only after I spoke with Master Almeida that I
put the two together.” Trissa was staring with a blank face at the table and
Seran leaned back on his chair. “I did not know I came from an Alliance family,
because I was not raised by them, but I wondered why you two did not say
anything about your own
background?
”

Seran looked at her, but when
she just continued to stare at the table, he spoke. “For myself, I perhaps did
not reveal all the details. I did grow up with the Knowledge and warnings of a
future that seemed impossibly far away drilled into me every day. I knew that
one
day,
one of the family would receive a gift and be
called to fight in the Resistance. I never thought that person would be me.
When I excelled in my training with the whips, I thought I was just talented.
To be honest I never thought much of it.”

“That was until the war, until
my first encounter in battle. That left no doubt in my mind about what I am. I
was so happy when everyone was cheering me on in battle; using my skills and
Talent for the good of our people. I was looking forward to getting home and
telling Father of it all.”
 
He shook his
head, a sad smile playing across his lips. “I have told you how well that all
went. Of course, Father knew what it meant, but if he supported me against the
wishes of the council, it would have raised suspicions. It would have risked
exposing us to Rakadamon and his followers. To keep the town quiet about it, we
decided it was best that I left.”

I nodded slowly. “I understand
that, but why did you not tell me this right from the start?”

He shrugged. “I was not certain
you were who you said you were. You come to me out of the blue and pronounce
yourself the Protector and Preserver, the soon to be leader of the Resistance.
As far as I knew, you could have been a Twisted One sent to lull me into a
false confidence. Make me reveal myself and my family.”

I took a slow sip from my mug.
“Why did you not tell me later? After we found Alathaya, you could not still
have doubted me?”

He pursed his lips together.
“Truthfully, I did not even think about it after that. Besides, it does not
actually change anything.”

I disagreed. Any piece of
additional information may be useful, even if I do not see that use right away.
There was no point in arguing about it though. I looked expectantly at Trissa
and was startled to see tears rolling down her cheeks. “All is right, Trissa. I
am not angry that you did not tell me. I just need all the information that I
can get.” I tried to make my voice soothing, but she just sat shaking her head.
Seran put a comforting arm around her shoulders and rubbed her arm.

“I have been trying not to think
on it too much. I did not grow up knowing all these terrible things. Ma and Da
were
ordinary people. Da died when I was about ten turnings.
As you know, Ma died not long before that dog came and took us away. They never
said anything. When I was nine, some girl of the village started telling tales
about me. She said that I had been left there one day and that Ma had had to
beg Da to keep me. Said I was not really their baby. I went crying to Ma and begged
her to tell me it was not true and she did. She told me all these stories of
when she was expecting and how she had always known that I was going to be a
girl.”

She shook her head and cleared
her throat. “Now I think that she had been lying. I do not think I was theirs.
On top of it all, my brother may not even be my brother. Ma fell pregnant when
I was four. Early on, she became unwell though. Da could not take time off work
to look after her so we travelled to her sister in another town.”

She pulled her brows together in
frustration. “I can’t even remember what the town was called. She stayed there
for the duration of her pregnancy. At least, that is what they told everyone.
We only went to pick her and the baby up once he had been born.” She shook her
head. “I have been
lied
to my entire life, no wonder I
fell for Nassarit’s nonsense.”

“You cannot blame yourself for
that man’s evil. If your parents were trying to convince everyone, including
you, that you were theirs, they may have been trying to protect you. We know
that Rakadamon has been searching for the Alliance members. If they knew of
that, then what better way to keep you safe than by making everyone believe you
were theirs?” Seran pacified her.

She looked at him with eyes
bleary with tears and nodded sadly. “You are probably right. I just wonder what
happened to my real parents then. Do you think they have been killed?” Her
voice had started to shake again and her chin trembled.

“I don’t have the answers, but
don’t upset
yourself
over things that we cannot know.
Maybe they are in hiding somewhere. They could even have been planning to go
back for you when it was safe to do so,” he postulated.
 

She looked doubtful, but her
chin went still.

Alathaya walked in and sat down
on the rickety chair between Trissa and me. She saw that the other woman was
upset and shot a glare at us. Seran gave his head a small shake to warn her not
to ask and thankfully, she did not. “It is done. He will be here tomorrow
morning.” We were all set then for the next leg of our journey.