Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (40 page)

Aliana turned to me. “I was
thinking of what you said of this fellow who might want to travel around with
you. I think I may know him. I met him a few days ago. When he heard I had
travelled here with only one attendant, he nearly fainted. He kept warning me
of travelling alone. He said that if he were able to leave now, he would travel
with me to keep me safe from the twisted bandits. I thought such talk a bit exaggerated.”

My ears had perked up at the
phrase. Keeping my tone casual, I asked, “Is that the term he used; ‘twisted’?”

She thought for a moment. “Well,
yes, but then what else could it be. Of course they are just some cruel
bandits.”

It may be a simple coincidence,
but I thought it worth looking into. “Whether this is Malion’s friend or no, he
sounds like a real gentleman. I think I should buy him a drink to thank him for
his concern over you. Does he stay here at the Queen Larissa?”

She shook her head. “No, I was
under the impression that he is friends with the inn keeper though. His name is
Roscien.”

I inclined my head to her.
“Thank you. I will ask Malion if that is his friend’s name.”

She smiled secretively. “Oh,
yes, you said he was an acquaintance of his.”

I wondered what she meant by
that, but thankfully, Brant, and the rest turned up at that moment and the
conversation started flowing in other directions. Alathaya bodily turned her
back on Aliana and sat talking with
Tas.

I looked at her, the gracious
curve of her lips moved as if dancing when she spoke. Her glittering laugh lit
the room. Could it be that she liked me? She had never given me any reason to
believe she liked me in any way other than to be friends. I realised I had been
staring at her and with a start saw she was looking back at me with a raised
eyebrow. My first instinct was to look away quickly, but thinking that that
would make me look embarrassed, I shifted my eyes a touch to look at her cheek
and squinted. I gestured to her cheek and wiped my own. She flushed red and
discreetly used a napkin to dab at her cheek. She looked at me questioningly,
and I nodded. She smiled at me gratefully.

“I shall have to go. Mistress
Freida would have the skin off my back if she so much as heard a whisper that I
let the silk merchant wait. I presume you will still be here tonight?” Her
voice tilted at the end making it a question. She and Breen rose as she spoke.

“I believe we will be. We shall
see you then.” I answered and wished her good luck for her meeting.

As soon as they were gone,
Malion turned to me. “Where do we find this person?”

I was glad to have an answer. “I
am going to ask the inn keeper about his friend Roscien. It seems it may be
easier to find him than we could have dared hope for.” We decided to split into
three groups. Malion and I would make enquiries about Roscien and the others
would go about town and see what they can find out that may be relevant to us.
It was surprising what you could learn of a town or city from its market place.

We found the innkeeper, Ghais,
at the entrance of the inn. We started off by complimenting him on the inn and
the rooms and thanking him for his hospitality. “Our friend Aliana tells us she
has met a very interesting man.
Roscien.
You may
perhaps know him? Well, she is quite taken with him and she is rather afraid
that she may not see him again before she has to leave. Would you be able to
tell us where we can find him for her?” I would not want to imagine what she
would say if she knew I had said that, but I had to get him to tell us where
Roscien was.

Ghais squinted suspiciously. “I
have seen them talking.
Did not look to me like she was all
too interested in him.”
He paused looking from me to Malion and back. I
tried to make my face look as innocent as possible. “But I suppose, if you say
so.
Would not want him angry with me.
He lives a few
minutes down the road. You will see the house with the red door with an ornate
door frame, but do not ask me what is on it.”

Excitement started to build in
my stomach. Could he have the Alliance symbol on his door? I thanked him
hurriedly and walked down the road.

We found the red door easily
enough and it was in fact the Alliance symbol that was carved into the
doorframe. I knocked several times, but there was no answer. Across the road
from the house was a small green area with trees. We walked over to it and sat
with our backs against a tree trunk.

We sat talking and laughing for
several hours. Suddenly Malion’s eyes stretched and he stared past me, his
mouth gaping. I jumped up, reached for Navitas, swung around and had Sunder
unsheathed before I saw what we were facing. An apparition appeared in front of
me. It looked like a spirit for I could see right through it. I held Sunder
ready, yet I did not think it would be of any use against this thing. Perhaps I
could use fire against it as I did against the Haze? Markai appeared snarling.

Calm as the day before the
storm, he folded his arms and laughed. “My, my… you are jumpy. What do you
want? You come here armed and apparently ready to fight.”

Reasoning that he would have
attacked already if he had been planning to, I lowered Sunder. “Are you
Roscien?”

He held up a finger and flicked
it side to side while clicking his tongue several times. “It is bad manners to
answer a question with another question; especially when you look so… intimidating.”

I burst out laughing. It was a
bit too ironic. This spirit appears to us and he thought we looked intimidating?
Seeing his stern look, I most unsuccessfully tried to disguise my laugh as a
cough. I cleared my throat. “Pardon me. We cannot share our information with
anyone but Roscien. We have travelled far to find him. We have some things in
common.”

Malion chimed in with, “We have
our history and some Knowledge in common.” He put extra weight behind ‘history’
and the capital in Knowledge was clear.

Roscien seemed to understand the
meaning and grudgingly answered. “I am Roscien, but who are you?”

And so began our lengthy
explanation of who we were and why we were looking for him. After a few minutes
of this though, he disappeared and an altogether more substantial Roscien
opened the red door and motioned for us to follow him in. He was a very tall
man of middle years. I guessed he was at least a foot taller than Brant. His
hair was pure white and tied in a short tail. As we sat down in his kitchen
around a stout wooden table, I realised that I had not felt the heat in my
chest. I put this down to the fact that he had appeared to me in his spirit
form and acknowledged me immediately when he appeared in the flesh. In the
centre of the table was another elegant carving of the Alliance symbol. I
traced it with my finger musingly. I wondered at this open display of it; did
he not worry that the wrong person might take an interest in
it?
He busied himself brewing tea for us and motioned for me to continue telling
the tale. He listened carefully, his sharp eyes showing little surprise at any
of what we were saying.

When I finished speaking, he
nodded. “I cannot say that I was not expecting something of the like to happen.
When I received my Talent, I knew that Rakadamon must have been stirring. Only
the evil that radiates from his being would put such things in motion.”

He looked at Malion. “So, you
could make us believe we are anywhere you chose? That could be an interesting
battle technique, to confuse your enemy with such games. How quick can you
change from one place to the next?”

In answer, we were suddenly
sitting on some flat stones at the edge of a lake. I had only a moment to take
the scene in before we were at the top of a great mountain, an icy wind blowing
over us. I shivered, but a moment later we were standing in a desert with the
intense sun beating down us making sweat trickle down my brow within moments
and then with another blink of an eye we were back in Roscien’s kitchen. I
mopped the sweat from my brow.

Roscien was laughing a deep
belly laugh. He clapped his hands together. “Impressive, my friend.
Very impressive!”
It may have been impressive, but it still
made my head spin.

“I have some information which I
am sure you could use. You said there is only one more Alliance member you need
to find?” I nodded, and he continued, “It just so happens that our families
have kept in careful… not exactly contact, but awareness of each other. They
are in Asueit, a town to the west of here. We used messengers every now and
again, just to keep in touch. We never sent them directly to the other family,
but via several delivery and collection points. We felt some comfort in knowing
there was at least one more Alliance family out there. Your news that seven
families in all remain is incredible.”

I could not believe our luck.
This simplified things greatly. “So, Roscien, you have not explained all that
much about your own Talent. How does it actually work?”

He smiled. “Essentially it is a
form of meditation. I literally just project my being, my spirit, to another
place. As my spirit-self, I can walk through walls, hold conversations, and go
anywhere I like. I cannot however, interact physically with the world around
me. The other drawback is that while I am
Travelling
,
my body is completely vulnerable. I can vaguely hear what is going on around my
body, but even that I lose on occasion. So, if someone was to attack me at that
time, I would be easy prey.”

“Have you heard of any attacks
on villages recently?” I needed to know how far their touch had spread.

He nodded gravely. “Several.
Some as close to Sinsai as three days’ travel.
Rumours of
monsters as well.
Of course, they are talking of Twisted Ones and Dark
Children, that
much is clear, but they do not know that.”

“I fear these things are only
the start of what could come. I believe our time is short. We need to move as
quickly as possible. With that in view, when can we meet this Alliance member
that you know of?”

He shrugged.
“May
take a few days.
As I said, we are not in direct contact and the message
must reach them first.”

I nodded. Any delay was
frustrating, but I knew this was the best way.

Roscien agreed to send his
message and meet us at the Queen Larissa the following night to sup with us and
meet the rest of the members. I left his house feeling buoyant. As it was still
early, we decided to have a stroll through the market place.

I was astounded to find three
weapon traders. One of them even offered lessons with the
sword,
spear and bow ‘to protect one’s own’. I knew it for a sign of the times, but it
was still unsettling to see, especially since each of the merchants had their
hands full with patrons. We were walking by them when I heard a familiar voice.
He was calling out his wares as well as saying that he had some people looking
for employ.

Without looking, I knew who he
was. I looked at Malion. “There is something I need to do. Follow my lead.”

I plastered a smile on my face
and walked over to Nassarit, the man who had sold Trissa and her brother into
slavery. Laughing I walked up to him and slapped him on the shoulder.
“Nassarit!
Imagine meeting you here! Working as a merchant
now? Did things as a gleeman not work out then?”

A grimy smile spread on his oily
face in return. “A man does what he has to in order to survive.
Kalid
, right?”

“Kadin.”

He was still smiling, but it did
not come anywhere near his eyes. “
Kadin, that
was it.
How have you been?”

I shrugged. “Not bad, not bad.
Listen, we never did get a chance to have that drink together. What time do you
finish here
today,
we can meet up once you are done?”

He nodded vigorously. “Yes that
sounds good. Where are you staying, I will meet you there.”

I shook my head. “It is not a
very nice place. Tell you what, I will meet you here and you can take me to a
good tavern. Man like you knows his way around a town, am I right?” We agreed
to meet at sunset.

We walked off and Malion started
heading towards our inn. I followed until we were out of sight of Nassarit and
then pulled him by the arm around the side of a house we were passing. There
was a narrow alley running between the two houses and I ran down to the other
end with Malion following behind. I crouched, and peered around the corner. As
I expected, Nassarit was hurriedly packing up his stall. Without taking my eyes
from him, I explained to Malion what this man did and what I planned.
 

We followed Nassarit as he
hurried away from the market. I waited until he was well away from the bustle
of town before I crept a bit closer. It was not long before he reached his
house. He stretched out a hand to open the door and gave a panicked yelp when I
grabbed him by his coat collar and dragged him around to the back of his house.

I called Markai and she appeared
in a heartbeat.
 
She sat down next to me
calmly looking down at the squirming man. I shoved him against the wall. “You
lied to me, Nassarit. You are not a gleeman at all.”