Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (34 page)

 
Soon after that, we went to bed. I had some
wash water sent up and stretched out what may be my last proper wash for at
least a few days. I carefully shaved my beard and this time managed only to
leave a couple of nicks. I thought I would have trouble falling asleep that
night, but the moment my head touched the pillow, blissful sleep took me.

I woke shortly before dawn and
hurriedly stashed my few belongings in the chest before going down to the
common room. The smell of fresh bread drifted up to me. The common room was
deserted, but as soon as I walked in the innkeeper, Edalet came out from one of
the back rooms. “Well, aren’t we up early? We have some fresh baked bread that
is ready and freshly delivered churned butter. I think they have just put some
eggs on the boil so that should only be a few minutes.”

I nodded. “That sounds
delicious.” She smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.

I sat down by a small window and
was soon joined by first Alathaya and the rest not long after. Edalet came
bustling back out when they sat down and they ordered much the same as I did,
apart from Alathaya who ordered something called a
balut
.
After the kitchen door closed behind Edalet, I asked, “What is that?”

She smiled. “It is a speciality
of the Handsome Knight inn actually. It is a fertilised duck egg that they
boil.”

I was certain that I must have
misheard her. “What do you mean fertilised? So there is a chick inside?”

She laughed merrily. “That is
generally what is meant by fertilisation or were you not taught basic biology.”

I smiled sarcastically at her.
“That sounds wonderful.” Her smile shrunk a bit and a small frown furrowed her
brows.

The food arrived not long after,
including her
balut
. The large egg sat on her plate
innocently enough. She started peeling the shell away slowly revealing what was
inside. The premature, boiled chick’s eye was staring right at me with
something firm and yellow next to it with what looked to me like a vein running
darkly across it. My stomach made a turn and suddenly I was not feeling all
that hungry. I made hurried excuses and left. I could feel her mocking smile on
my back, but I did not care as long as I did not have to look at that thing
anymore, much less watch her eat it.

I walked around to the stables
and nearly bumped into
Tas
coming the other way. “Are
you ready to go?” he said with an excited smile. “The others are just finishing
breakfast. I was coming to get the horses saddled and ready.”

I gestured for him to follow.
“Do you think your grandfather will be able to cope out there by himself, it
did not look like he has much vision left?”

He snorted derisively. “Are you
kidding? I was more surprised about him not coming along with us, than I was
about you, the Chosen Protector, standing in my living room! The man is more
able bodied than most men half his age.” He barked laughter as if finding the
idea of his grandfather struggling on his own most amusing.

The stable master came scuttling
out at the sound of us. I gave him instructions about the horses and he started
bellowing commands at the stable boys. They scurried about and just as the rest
of our party came out, we had all the horses ready to set off.
 

Tas
led the
way as he had lived here for most of his life and knew the area well. He
reckoned that it would only be about three days’ travel to reach Eranidin. We
made swift progress on the first day and everyone was in high spirits. Even
Trissa had seemingly put the previous night’s anguish behind her and was
giggling with Alathaya.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

We woke
on the third day to skies threatening rain. The whole day seemed dim and
depressing. We had hoped to reach Eranidin that day, but by the time dusk
settled in, there was still no sign of civilisation. At least the rain held off
until the early hours of the next day. Relinquishing hope of any more sleep, we
set out before dawn. That day we were all wet and cold and there was little
talk between us. We were all hoping to come across a small town where we could
take shelter for the night, even if it was in some farmer’s barn, but we did
not find even that.

Exhausted as I was though, I
managed a fitful sleep and was only woken up by
Tas
to
take my watch. The rain had stopped by then, but there was no hope of finding
dry wood to start a fire. I gave a few futile attempts to use Navitas to drive
the water from some wood, but lacking any source of heat apart from my own
body, it was hopeless. I sat shivering, wishing the night away. It felt like
days before the first rays of dawn broke through and dispersed the last of the
remaining clouds.

Slowly everyone rose and started
to get ready to set off again. The sun seemed to lift all our spirits even
though we were all still soaked to the bone. Markai appeared unexpectedly as
well. As soon as she appeared, everyone went very still and quiet.
Tas
stepped back and had unsheathed his sword half way
before I even noticed. Alathaya gasped and stood back. Confused, I looked at
their faces. They were staring at Markai.

She found it all very amusing.
I decided that since these people are your
followers, I might as well reveal myself to them. Let them get used to me now
as opposed to when we are in a battle situation.
She chuckled hoarsely and
everyone took a further step back. I realised her laugh had sounded like a
growl to them.

I smiled disarmingly. “Most of
you know Markai, but for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, she is
my bonded partner. She is of the Fae, or more specifically of the Qupari. She
will not harm you and in fact she has saved my life on several occasions.”

Alathaya’s caution was replaced by
utter amazement. “She is magnificent. Do you communicate with her?” The first
half of my day was spent answering questions, mostly Alathaya’s, about Markai.
She was fascinated with the bond between us.

Not long after midday, we
started seeing signs of civilisation close by. As we drew nearer though, Markai
became unsettled. She could not pinpoint what was bothering her, but she said
something felt wrong in the air. Brant broke his daylong silence. “Listen.”

We drew the horses up and
stopped. “I don’t hear anything.” I focused Navitas, but could still not hear
anything.

“That is exactly my point. There
are no birds, I cannot hear any animals in the woods and I certainly do not
hear any noise from the village. This close to it, you would expect to hear
something. Maybe a smith’s hammer ringing or shouts from the market… something.”
Brant explained. He was right of course; it was eerily quiet.

We approached cautiously. It
felt uncomfortably like when I approached the sacked village. We crested a hill
and the village came into view. There was some smoke rising from the chimneys
and a couple of people standing around at the edge of the closest line of
houses. We stood looking down at it for a while, before deciding to investigate
closer up. As soon as the people who we had seen standing around, saw us, they
disappeared between the houses. Seran looked over at me with raised eyebrows.

The closer we came, the more
apparent the lack of normal activity was. We rode in along the main road,
between slate roofed houses, many with their window shutters closed. There were
a few people dotted around the streets. They looked at us with nervous eyes and
as soon as we approached, they would hurry away before we could speak to any of
them. One woman burst into tears and fled into her house bolting the door
behind her.

It was clear that something had
happened here, but if we could not speak to anyone, it was going to be
difficult to figure out what. The road led to a large open green square. Markai
kept sniffing the air trying to figure out what was going on.
Dark beings have been here, not long since,
but something has distorted the scent somehow.

A squat man with a thick grey
beard appeared at the door of a building across the square from us. His look
was steel and he gestured for us to come over to him. “I know him. It has been
years since I last saw him, but I am certain that is him. He is part of the
Alliance.”
Tas
spoke without taking his eyes from the
man who now stood with his right arm hanging down by his side and the left
crossed over his chest, the hand gripping the arm that was hanging down.

I started moving towards him,
but
Tas
grabbed my reins. “Look at his right hand.” He
spoke in a low voice.

The man’s fist was clenching and
unclenching. “He looks nervous. So has every other person we have seen. What of
it?”

His lips pulled into a tight
line. “He is signalling us. There is danger somewhere close and he is unable to
warn us openly, which probably means that either his or his family’s lives are
in danger. And looking at the behaviour of the rest of the townsfolk we have seen,
I would say theirs as well.”

Trissa was clearly as scared as the
villagers. “We can just turn around and leave. Why risk walking into a trap
here? Let’s just go.”

Alathaya rolled her eyes behind
her back. “It is not that simple. We turn around
now,
they will not let us leave. We have to find the Alliance member. We can fight.”
Her voice was hard with determination. She was right. We were in too far to be
able to simply go and even if we could, we could not leave without the next
member. I turned and walked along the edge of the green. The rest followed.
Markai was at my side, her eyes sharp, looking for attack. Seran came up
behind. He kept turning around to make sure we were not being followed.

The man across the green looked
over his shoulder. He seemed to be talking, arguing really, with someone in the
building behind him. When he looked back, Markai smelt fear on him. My heart
was hammering in my throat as we made our way slowly around the green. Looking
across to the buildings to my right I could see other people anxiously peeking
out of windows.

There was a sharp crack followed
by a high squealing wail. It was a moment before I realised it had been Seran’s
whip. I looked to my left to see men coming from the buildings on that side.
No, not really men.
Their skin was a strange orangey-brown,
their eyes like those of a cat and their fingers each extended into a pale
claw. They were all dressed in long black robes with cowls pulled over their
heads. The cowl was not enough though, to hide the elongated shape of their
skulls.

The one I had been looking at
saw that I had been watching it and smiled, revealing a mouth full of razor
sharp teeth. He slowly lifted a pitch-black blade and pointed its tip at me. “Kadin
Aken. We have been searching for you for a while.
Fancy
meeting you here in the middle of nowhere.
When my scouts came back and
reported your arrival I did not truly believe him. Yet, here you stand.” His
was the voice I had heard speaking through the boy at the sacked village. It
sent chills down my spine, but I kept my face blank, I refused to show this
creature any fear.
 
There were now five
of them coming towards us. Seran ripped his whip free from what would have been
the sixth one.

Markai realised why she could
not pinpoint what was wrong. These creatures did not actually have scent, but a
very peculiar lack of scent surrounded them. Her sharp ears also picked up a
very high-pitched humming noise coming from them. We backed away from them and
I heeled Balder around so that I was between Alathaya and the creatures. Sunder
was in my hand, yet I did not remember unsheathing it.
Tas
had a long curving blade out and Brant had an arrow nocked. The man who had
gestured for us to come toward him was nowhere to be seen. Trissa yelped and I
swung round to find us nearly surrounded by the creatures. At a quick count,
there were eleven of them and more appeared by the moment.

Suddenly they stopped. Two of
them looked at each other and the high-pitched humming changed frequency
several times before the second creature gave a long ear-piercing scream. All
chaos broke loose. People came pouring out of their houses, followed by more
Dark servants pursuing them and cutting them down one after the other. Men,
women children were being slaughtered all around us. I heard a fierce roar of a
scream and realised it was coming from me. Before I could think about what I
was doing, I was cutting the head off the nearest creature. Seran was a blur
and I had the feeling that even if I could divert all my attention to watching
him fight, I still would not be able to follow of his actions.

Dimly I was aware of people’s
screams and cries all around me. Buildings were burning and thick smoke
darkened the sky.
 
I blocked it out
brutally, had to block it out or risk being consumed by fear. Turning I saw one
raising a pitch-black blade, preparing to attack Alathaya from behind, she did
not see it. When I turned though, I felt dizzy, off-balance. I could not reach
it in time, but suddenly everything in front of me slowed down. The creature
was swinging its blade down in an arc, a snarl curling back its lips. Even with
time seeming to have slowed for everyone apart from me, I would not be able to
reach her in time. Instinctively I used Navitas to reach for the flames from
the nearest burning building. I drew all the heat, all the energy I could into
my blade. Once gathered I swung it as if throwing it towards the creature.
Flames burst from the tip of Sunder and streamed towards it. In a heartbeat,
the flames had consumed it leaving not a trace behind. My blade was glowing
red-hot and cleaved through the next one’s head as if through butter. Vaguely I
thanked the heavens that I had directed the heat through Sunder and not through
my arm as before and that it had hit its intended target. My head swam as
though I had drunk several gallons of wine.