Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (42 page)

I opened the door and led her
in. I walked in and sat down on the bed. She stood awkwardly by the door. “You
know, you can sit down, I will not bite, I promise.”

She sniffed but came to perch on
the end of the bed. “Trissa is very upset.”

I realised that, as I had the
night before, she might be able to hear us through the crack in the wall. “I do
realise that, you know.” I whispered.

She looked around the room as if
expecting someone to step out from the shadows. “Why are you whispering?” She
asked in a low voice.

“These walls are very thin and I
would not want her to hear us talking of her,” I explained.

She nodded and thankfully did
not realise her mistake of the previous evening. “I know you were probably
trying to do a nice thing for her today by surprising her so, but you made a
real hash of it.”

I sighed. It was either sigh or
let frustration bubble over. “I have already had this conversation with Seran.
I just hadn’t thought about it that way. What does she want to do?”

She folded her hands in her lap
and sat staring at them. “What she really wants to do is knock you on the
nose.” She shook her head dismally. “Unsurprisingly though, she wants to go and
get him. She is trapped between a swamp and a lake. Either way, she will get
wet, but at least she can get through the swamp. He will now be involved in
this, but she wishes to keep him sheltered from everything as much as
possible.”

I nodded my understanding. “Do
you know how old he is?”

“He is fourteen turnings. They
have been separated for three of those turnings and as you can understand she
is eager to reach him as soon as possible.”

I nodded. “We have to first meet
the final Alliance member here, but we can leave as soon as possible after
that.”

She took my hand in hers. “She
is happy that you found him. She just needs some time to come to terms with it
all.” She squeezed my hand and swept out of the room. I lay down on the bed.
She had only held my hand for a moment, but it had still set my skin on fire. I
heard her enter their room, but I did not hear them talk. Either she heeded my
warning of thin walls or Trissa was already asleep.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

As I
expected, Aliana was already gone by the time I went down for breakfast. I was
pleasantly surprised however, to find Roscien sitting at a table in the common
room. He smiled brightly at me when I sat down. “How is your lady friend?”

I frowned at him.
“Which one?”

His smile turned playful. “You
always know things are either very good or very bad when you need to ask that
question. Trissa, is it? The one you so upset last night.”

I cringed. “I am yet to speak to
her again, but I think she will agree that we should go and find Dhillion.”

He nodded more seriously. “That
is what I thought she would decide. In that case, I have a suggestion. You do
not all need to wait around for this meeting. How about you go and find
Dhillion and we can meet up with you again as soon as we have him recruited.”

I thought about this a while
before answering. “It makes sense. The quicker we can gather everyone we need,
the quicker we can go to Magtisanya. Who do you suggest stay here?”

He shrugged a little too
casually. “Perhaps Malion, his Talent fascinates me and I would like to explore
that more... and maybe Brant. He has mentioned that he is a bit
travel
weary and that he would prefer to stay here for a
while.”

I shook my head slowly. “I am
not all too sure that Brant should stay.”

“Do you not trust me Kadin?” I
swung around in my chair. Brant was standing a couple of feet behind me.

I could feel colour rising in my
cheeks. “It is not that I do not trust
you, simply that
I think there was a good reason why you were travelling with me in the first
instance.”

He walked around the table and
took the chair opposite me. “I know that, but this will only be a few days. You
do not think that a few days away from your radiant presence will turn me to
the dark side do you?” He said the last part with a laugh in his voice, but I
could not bring myself to reciprocate his light tone.

I knew I had to tread carefully.
He was not a child and if I tried to keep him on a leash, he would most likely
fight against it. I did not want any resentment, but then, did I dare separate from
him when we were this close to the end? He was watching me silently, but his
face had gone still and hard.

I nodded. “Fine, it is agreed.
You will stay here if that is what you want.” He shared a triumphant smile with
Roscien. They had clearly discussed all this beforehand. I took out the map
that Nassarit had drawn and we discussed possible points where we could meet up
again. We settled on a town called Pherindea.

I waited for the rest to come
down for breakfast. Trissa sat down with a stiff back and fixed me with a level
gaze. “You have certainly put me in an awkward position, but I am grateful for
the opportunity of being reunited with my brother. I would like to take you up
on it and find him as soon as possible.”

Relief flooded through me. She
may still be looking at me with icy eyes, but underneath that, I could see her
eagerness. “If you are agreeable to it then, we do have a plan.”

She did not say anything, but
raised one eyebrow in question. I explained the plan to her.

She nodded and stood up. “What
are we still waiting around for then? Shall we go?”

I smiled. “Shall we have
breakfast first?” She reluctantly sat down just as her stomach gave a rumble.

The rest arrived soon after that
and while we ate breakfast, I filled them in on the plan. Trissa gulped down
her breakfast in a few big bites and rushed upstairs calling back over her
shoulder that she needed to pack her things.

It was still early morning when
we set off. Seran, Trissa, Alathaya,
Tas
and me made
up our party. We were expecting to travel around ten days to Warrendil, but we
were unlucky with the weather for the first three days of travel. Intermittent
spells of pouring rain and blazing sunshine marked our progress. Just as we
dried out in the sun, the clouds roiled in again and we would get soaked once
more. The fourth day finally broke clear and stayed clear - a blessed relief.
We made good time and I was relieved when we reached one of the towns marked on
the crudely drawn map. It seemed that we had overestimated the journey
time.
   

We stopped for the night at an
inn in the village. The first thing I did when we arrived there was to have
wash water sent up. I felt like a new person afterwards. I washed my clothes in
the small basin as best I could and left them hanging over the back of the
rickety chair to dry. Back in the common room, I saw Alathaya and Trissa
speaking with the innkeeper. They joined me at the table soon after I sat down.
“We asked him for directions.”

I frowned. “We did not need
directions. We have our map and we know where we are.”

They looked at each other and I
saw Alathaya rolling her eyes. “Yes, a map drawn by a man I would not trust to
clean my shoes. Besides, he could tell me how long before we reach it; nine
days.”

I could just about feel my eyes
bulging. “Nine days? But, on the map it does not look far at all.” They both
gave me a flat stare. I held up my hands in surrender. “Where are Seran and
Tas?”

Trissa pointed vaguely in the
direction of the market we had passed when we arrived. “They are buying
supplies for the rest of the journey.”

Dusk was already in the air and
we decided to leave first thing in the morning. We had an early dinner and I
went off to bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

A sudden
noise woke me in the middle of the night. A figure was standing at the base of
my bed. The window shutters were flung wide open.
 
The figure started moving towards the window.
He was limping as if injured. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I
focused my Navitas and sucked in breath. When I later thought on it, I decided
I must have focused my Navitas on the air outside the window and then by
inhaling strongly, had drawn that air to me. The shutters slammed shut. The
creature pushed at them violently, but they did not budge.

Then the stench hit me and I
realised what this figure was, a Scavenger. It was the second time one of these
had searched my rooms and I intended to have some answers. With my Navitas
focused, I could see him even in the dim light. His face seemed to be misshapen
somehow, but I could not get a good look. His torn breeches showed enough of
his leg to see a part of his thigh was missing. No wonder he was limping.

He froze when he realised he
could not get out of the window and slowly turned to face me. His face was not
misshapen; half of it was gone as if neatly carved by a butcher. I had stood up
out of bed and Sunder was bare in my hand. “What are you looking for?” He
mumbled unintelligibly before turning back to the window and giving it another
yank. He turned to face me again. I repeated my question, but got the same
mumbling reply. I thought that it might be due to the gross facial injury he
had suffered.

I held up Sunder and pointed the
sword at him. “You follow me. No noise, no attempt at running. If you do, I
will cut your head off so quickly, you will not even know what happened.” I was
hoping that this creature had some sort of survival instinct. It did give a
small nod of understanding though and I backed up to the door. I opened it and
peeked up and down the dim corridor. I gestured for him to follow me out and
pointed for him to lead the way down the hallway.

I directed him to Alathaya and
Trissa’s room and tried the door. It was not locked. Trying to keep an eye on
the Scavenger in the hall, I had a quick look around the room.
 
No intruder there. Trissa woke first and gave
a yelp, which instantly had Alathaya sitting up in bed. They looked at me
round-eyed. While keeping my blade pointing threateningly at him in the hall, I
quickly explained why I had burst into their room. “I found this thing
searching my room. Last time they did it, all they left behind was their
stench, but I realised that last time, it was not only my room that was
searched, but Brant’s room as well.”
 

Alathaya grabbed her dagger and
we made our way further down the hall to Seran’s room. I had to keep Trissa
from storming in unarmed, but when I threw the door
open,
there was no one in the room but Seran. He sat up with a gasp and had his whip
in his hand before I could blink. “Come quickly.” I did not wait for his
response, but rushed out of the room. Thankfully, he did not ask questions, but
jumped out of bed and hurried after us.

 
I heard the scuffle before we were at
Tas
’ door. “Seran, keep this thing under control!”

He gave a tight nod and I ran
ahead slamming the door open.
Tas
was wrestling with
another Scavenger and his sword was lying a few feet away from them on the
floor. “Get clear Tas!”

I stormed in and
Tas
jumped away from him. I swiped my blade towards its neck
and stopped a hair from its throat. “Stay still if you do not wish to die.” It
froze in place.

“Seran, bring the other one in
here!” He marched it in and stood it next to the other. “This is not the first
visit I have had from one of these. Brant and I had our rooms searched a while
ago.” I explained to an out of breath
Tas.
I glanced
at Alathaya. “Your house had also been searched by one of them.” I looked back
intently at the two in front of me. “My question is
,
what are they looking for?”

The one I had found in my room
was mumbling incoherently gesturing wildly with its hands. It opened its mouth
wide and pointed inside it. Peering in from a distance – I did not even want to
imagine what its breath would be like – I saw that it had no tongue.

The other Scavenger laughed
raucously. “You see even in life, he was a snivelling blabbermouth… so they
removed his tongue so he couldn’t betray us in this life.” He slurred his words
as though his tongue was three times its normal size.

“You serve the Master of the
Dark.” Alathaya said this with a voice full of loathing, but the talkative one
bowed with a mocking sneer on his face.

“Of
course.
He will grant us restoration if we serve him well and loyally,” he
said simply.

Without knowing what these
creatures wanted or what they feared, it was very difficult to threaten them.
His statement though, gave me a glimpse of his hopes. “That is if you survive
to receive restoration.”

He swivelled his eyes back to
me. His mouth pulled down in one corner. “I doubt very much that you are a cold
blooded killer, boy.”

I kept my face smooth. “I guess
we will soon find out.” I looked him up and down. “Besides, killing something
that should by all rights, already be dead, is hardly killing.” Fear flickered
in the mute’s eyes.