Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (45 page)

I let it go, not wanting to
start us off on an argumentative foot. He turned back to the stable as the
stable hand brought out a massive bay gelding. It stood raking the ground with
a hoof as Dhillion approached it. I just stopped myself from asking him if he
was certain he could handle a horse like that.

He walked up to it confidently
and laid a hand on the horse’s flank. In a matter of moments, the horse was as
calm as a clear spring day. It lowered its huge head and rubbed it against
Dhillion’s shoulder making him laugh. The stable hand looked astonished at this
display, but had the good sense to keep his silence. Dhillion mounted lightly
and sat with one hand holding the reins and the other on the horse’s flank.
 
Alathaya looked at me with raised eyebrows.
Clearly, there was more to Dhillion’s talent than he had admitted.

We barely stopped at all during
the whole of that day and kept riding until well after dark. We finally made
camp and I gathered firewood. We sat talking companionably over a supper of
cheese and flatbread. I moved to sit next to Dhillion. “I noticed that you
calmed that horse quickly.”

He smiled proudly. “Another
little trick I have. It is also part of my Talent, but it feels different when
I do it with animals. It just feels like I am talking to them and because I
make myself intelligible to them, they listen.”

I smiled, trying to make my next
words softer. “Why did you not tell us this before?”

Despite my smile, his face
turned into a scowl. “I did not think it was relevant. What does it matter that
I can calm a horse?”

“Every bit of advantage we may
have is vital and if I know of all our capabilities, then I can use it to its
full advantage.” I did not even see her coming, but Trissa stormed across the
camp, apparently having been listening to our conversation.

“I will not let you use him!”
She shrieked. “You pretend to be caring, to understand what we have been
through, but really you are only thinking of how we can be useful. Well I am
telling you now that we have been used enough. No more!”

I was so taken aback by her
outburst that I sat there silently looking at her now red face.

“Trissa, do not worry, we are
just talking. Calm down.” His voice was so smooth and serene that even I felt
more untroubled.

Trissa’s face went as flat as
soapstone, and she smiled and nodded. “You two have fun chatting.” She drifted
away.

I looked at him incredulously.
“You cannot simply wash away people’s emotions like that. She was only
concerned for you.”

When he looked at me that
curious glint was back in his eyes. “Yes, I can.
Especially
when they react like that over nothing.
I can look after myself. She
will realise that sooner or later.”

“You do realise when you do
that, you are not solving the issue at hand, but merely ignoring it.” I
reasoned.

He shook his head at me. “How is
it not a solution when I would not have to deal with that problem again? I tell
her once, and she will remember not to do that again.”

I thought about Thopher’s face as
he followed Dhillion’s orders. He was fighting it tooth and nail. I wondered
whether a person directed to do something by Dhillion, still had some small
voice telling them to do otherwise. I hoped I would not have to find out, but
somehow, I thought it more than likely that I would. His chilling rationale for
using his Talent on anyone he
pleased,
left me
shivering. I decided there and then to apologise to Trissa regarding my
conversation with him. I felt a little guilty for knowing my only reason would
be to probe into her real feelings.

Later that evening, as Trissa
was busy making her bed for the night, I cleared my throat to get her attention
and she looked at me with a smile. “Trissa, I just wanted to apologise about
earlier. I did not mean to upset anyone; I was simply trying to say that I need
everyone to tell me as much as possible. With only half the pieces to a puzzle,
you will never finish building it.”

She gave a tinkling laugh and a
dismissive wave of her hand. “I should apologise. I should not worry so. I will
stay calm from now on.”

I took her by the shoulders and
looked her full in the eyes. “You had every right to be upset. He is your
little brother and you thought I meant to take advantage of him.”

A confused frown creased her
brow. “No, I mean, no you were just talking. I know I should stay calm.”

I had to quell the urge to shake
her by the shoulders to try to snap her out of it.

Alathaya laid a hand on my
shoulder and when I looked around at her, she gave her head a small shake. I
let go of Trissa and she turned back to what she was doing at once.

I followed Alathaya to where she
had made her bed and sat down with her. “I think we may have a serious problem
with Dhillion.” I had dropped my voice down to a whisper, but I still looked
around to make sure no one could hear. “Trissa did not seem to realise that
Dhillion had compelled her to say those things. He does not seem to see the
difference between using his Talent against his sister as opposed to the people
who abducted him.”

She nodded. “At the same time
though we need to keep in mind that he has been away from family and friends
for a long time and he is still a boy at that.”

I looked around at him. He was
laughing at something Seran was saying. “You are right, but we need to be aware
of it. He could use his Talent on anyone of us and we wouldn’t even know. We
need to look out for each other.”

She nodded in agreement. I got
my bedroll and made my bed next to hers. She smiled at me, but there was
determination, rather than happiness in that smile. “Tomorrow we hopefully meet
up with the rest and that would make our group complete.
On
to Magtisanya then?”

I nodded and returned a like
smile.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The
sun’s first rays woke us. We had a quick breakfast of dried fruit and cheese
before setting off. The group’s spirits were high and laughter filled my ears
and lifted my mood. We arrived at Pharindea before midday. It was a moderately
sized town and since we had not been able to specify an inn, I knew we had a
game of hunt the rabbit ahead of us.

I split us up into three groups;
Trissa and Dhillion, Seran and
Tas
, and Alathaya and me.
I was surprised when Trissa did not complain about being separated from
Seran.
 
We agreed to meet at the tavern
we were standing in front of at dusk, whether or not we had found the rest. We
went off in different directions and started asking around at inn after inn. I
could not believe that a town of this size had need of so many inns and I
started wishing we had agreed to meet in a smaller town. We kept looking until
we realised that dusk had already set. We made our way back to the tavern,
still asking at several places along the way.

We arrived at the tavern tired
and disappointed until we walked inside and saw them all already there. A
massive smile crept along my face as we walked up to them. I noticed the dark,
curly haired man with the hooknose sitting across from Malion - the final
member of the Alliance. There was a fierce intelligence in his eyes, and as he
gazed at me it felt as if he was probing my thoughts. They looked up at us as
we approached and when Roscien saw us, he stood up and introduced us to Xain,
who shook my hand with a firm grip. He bowed gracefully to Alathaya’s equally
graceful curtsy. As we sat down, talk resumed, but I noticed a glaring
omission.

I turned to Roscien. “Where is
Brant?”

He pulled his brows up and
pursed his lips. “It’s a long story really. I will tell you all the details
later, but the short of it is that while we were travelling back, we came under
attack.
More of those Skell creatures.
Anyway, Brant
was injured.”

I felt my eyes widen and he held
up a hand. “Not too bad, a cut to his arm, but it needed stitches. We were not
long past a village and he said that he would ride back, get patched up and
then catch up with us.” His eyes darted away and back again.
“Except,
he never did.
We have been here in Pharindea for the past four days, but
still no sign of him.” He licked his lips and nervously tapped his fingers on
the table.

“It is clear there is more to
this, so just spit it out,” I said, trying to keep my voice level and calm.

He stilled his hand, but kept licking
his lips. “We had a messenger come by yesterday. Young
lad,
said Brant paid him a whole silver to come give us the message.” He paused and
resumed his finger tapping.

“What was the message?” I hardly
kept myself from snarling the words.

“Just remember, I am only giving
you the message and he is a grown man, old enough to make his own decisions. I
cannot be held accountable for it.” Seeing the thunder on my face, he quickly
continued. “The message was that he had decided not to follow you any longer.
He does not want us to look for him. He said to forget him.”

I ran a hand through my hair.
The whole table had gone quiet.

I looked up to be met by eight
pairs of concerned eyes. “Did you think he seemed different in the days leading
up to that? Did you have any idea he might do something like that?” I was
avoiding the question that was chasing me. I decided I had to face it. “Do you
think he will go over to our enemies?”

Shocked silence followed my
question.

Finally, stutteringly, Malion
answered.
“No, of course not.
I do not know why you
would think that a possibility. The days before, he seemed normal, if a bit
quiet. He did not seem unhappy or anything. I just thought he was always a bit
quiet.” I had also noticed him becoming increasingly introverted. I put it down
to our group getting bigger. I should have known. I should not have let him
stay with Roscien.

Lightning strike me as a fool, I
thought.
  

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

It
turned out that Dhillion and Trissa had found the other group. At one of the
inns they went to, the innkeeper said that they were not staying with him, but
he knew where they were. He offered to draw them a quick map, but Dhillion had
‘asked’ him to show them, lest they got lost in an unfamiliar town.
When he said that with a wide grin on his face, I could feel my
blood boil.
I was about to say something to him, when Alathaya lay a
hand on my arm and whispered, “Not here.” I bit back my words. Maybe not here,
but I was going to have to talk to him about this sooner or later.

Talk soon turned to the
newcomer, Xain. I smiled at him. “You know all our Talents, so would you care
to share with us what yours is?”

He smiled and I waited for his
response. He did not say anything though. Just when I thought perhaps he simply
did not want to talk in front of everyone, there was a tap on my shoulder. I
turned to find Xain smiling down at me. Startled I looked back to where he had
been sitting and he chuckled and gave me a cheeky wave. I looked back, knowing
what I would see and still needing to look again. There he was, standing behind
me. He slowly walked around the table and stood next to himself. I laughed.
“Are you twins?”

This got a rumble of laughter
from Roscien and the Xains. Then in front of my eyes, one of them started to
shimmer until it seemed his whole body was shaking. Then he was gone.
Simply disappeared.

Comprehension dawned. “You
duplicate yourself.”

Another
rumbling laugh from Xain.
“Replicate is a more accurate
description since I can make more than one copy.” His voice was as smooth as
velvet.

I nodded appreciatively. “How
many can you make?”

He shrugged. “I have had five
going at once, although anything beyond that becomes… distracting and then the
whole thing collapses.”

“How far can your copies stray
from you?”

He rubbed his hand together. “I
think as far as a hundred yards. The further they are the more tenuous my
connection to them. Go much beyond that and I lose them.”

I nodded. “That is pretty good,
but what can they do? Obviously, they do not simply mirror your movements, but
as we are going into battle, can these copies wield a sword or shoot a bow? Do
they think for themselves?”

He laughed good-naturedly at my
questions. “They will be able to fight. They have all the skills I do, which is
to say a considerable amount with both bow and sword. They will fight until
taking injury. Even a mild injury will make them disappear. I cannot maintain a
copy of me that is no longer identical to me. Likewise, if I should be injured,
the copies will disappear. Assuming I am not mortally injured I can still make
copies again and they will behave as though not injured, because of course they
do not feel pain.
As for your question of thinking for
themselves, to a certain degree.
I only need give them instruction on
generally what to do, but they will do it without me having to give instruction
for every detail. For example, if I told one to build a house, I would not need
to explain to it stone by stone how to do it.”