Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (47 page)

It was the third day of travel.
Whenever I asked Markai if she knew how long before we needed to cross over,
her answer remained the same - a few days. I would have accused her of being
deliberately vague, but through our bond, I could feel that she was telling me
all she knew. Suddenly, she darted away into the trees beside the path. I had
not heard or seen any threat, but that was the feeling I received from her.
Focusing my Navitas I urged Balder to follow at a gallop. “Stay here.” I yelled
over my shoulder as I sped into the trees.
 
I was only able to follow her by following my sense of her; I could not
see her.

My stomach dropped when I
finally found her. She was standing over the body of a child snarling and
snapping fiercely. “What have you done?”

She looked at me, disgust
flowing through her at my thoughts.
This
is no child. Let appearance not fool you. Would a child have been able to
nearly outrun me? It was a dark spy. They think to hide themselves by appearing
as children, but they cannot manage to scrub the stink of themselves away. I do
not think it could have sent a message in the time it took me to bring it down,
but we cannot be sure of this.

I looked down at the body of a
child and tried to convince myself of the truth of Markai’s words. It was not
that I did not believe her, but it required an effort of will to disbelieve my
own eyes.
 

We will have to be more careful now and make haste. I will again speak
with
Beratus
tonight. Perhaps we should cross over
sooner.
She was speaking more to herself than to me. She turned and started
back to the group.

“Should we not bury the body? We
do not want them to find it.”

She kept walking away as she
spoke.
They are treacherous creatures.
Even in death. That body will not remain for long. It will be part of the earth
once more before nightfall.

I followed her back and gave a
quick explanation to the group. Seran had his whip out in his hand, and Roscien,
Xain, Malion and
Tas
each had a sword in theirs. We
rode on in silence; everyone was looking around warily. The path stretched ahead
as far as the eye could see, it brought my thoughts back to wondering how far
we had left to go.

Two days
after that, we had found two more spies and dealt with them before they could
get away.
I worried though, at whether there were some we failed
to detect. I was torn between relief and trepidation when Markai told me the
next night that we had arrived at the point where we needed to cross.

While we were eating supper, I
called for silence. “On the morrow we will be one step closer to Magtisanya.
Markai has told me that it is not, as we assumed, on this plane.”

“You mean to tell us that we
need to travel to a different plane to get there? How are we meant to do that?”
Malion sounded close to exasperation at the thought.

A murmur ran through the group
as they speculated.

I held my hand up until I had
their attention again. “I told you that I had once opened a bridge to the other
side. I will have to do it again.”

“It sounded very dangerous when
you did it. I remember you saying that you could have died trying. Is there not
another way?” Fear filled Trissa’s voice, making it sound squeaky.

“I have done it once, so I will
do it again. It will be easier this time, because I know what to do.” I
believed no such thing, but if I did not have confidence in myself, I knew they
would not either. They looked bolstered at least, or so I hoped.

There was an uneasy tang to the
air that night. Conversation and even laughter resumed after my announcement,
but it was all a bit strained. Seran was regaling Roscien and Xain with stories
from the battles he had fought and I sat down with them to listen. Burbles of
laughter came up between his words. “He was coming right at me. In my infinite
wisdom I thought it best to run at him as well, I thought I could maybe throw
him a bit off balance. Instead,” he started laughing and took a few moments to
compose himself before he could continue his story, “I tripped on my untied
shoe laces and it was pure luck that he did not take my head off. Moral of the
story, either leave your boots off or tie your laces!” Seran laughed the most
at his story, slapping his thighs with glee. I did not find it particularly
funny, but then I had missed the beginning.

I tried my best to keep up with
the conversation, but after realising for the third time that my thoughts had
drifted, I quietly got up and walked to my bedroll. I rummaged through my bag
until I found what I was looking for. I pulled the heavy Book onto my lap and
shuffled back closer to the fire. I paged through it, skipping any pages on
creatures that we had already encountered.
 
For the past few nights, I had been trying to find time alone to do
this. I still felt unprepared for what was to come. I looked at my companions.
How were we meant to stand against the horde of creatures at Magtisanya? How
many of my friends would die before we were done? I knew that most of them were
better prepared for what was coming than I. They had been trained their whole
lives for this, but I was still the one leading them in. It was a heavy burden
of responsibility.

Markai having felt my mood came
to sit by me.
No matter how much you
study them; there will be a lot you do not know.
I frowned at her.
Not very comforting words.
You, however, were chosen by destiny for this. No one but you can do
it. You can do it no matter what the odds may seem like now.
I nodded
grimly.

I slept uneasily that night. I
kept waking from nightmares about things going wrong. My mind seemed to find
new and interesting ways that we could all be killed each time I fell asleep.
The recurring theme seemed to be me making a mistake while we were crossing
over the bridge and we either ended up sliced to pieces, or in a another plane
altogether where we subsequently get sliced to pieces by the locals.
 
The last had me wake up drenched in sweat as
though I had truly been running for my life.

It was a relief when daybreak
came, until I realised that it meant actually doing it and therefore the very
real danger that I might kill us all. Alathaya walked over to me, her face
scrunched up with concern. “You look terrible, Kade. Have you not slept at
all?”

I grimaced. “I am starting to
think that maybe I should not have tried.” She patted my shoulder
sympathetically.

Everyone gradually rose and
started getting ready for the day. There was a feeling of expectation in the
air. Looking around the group I would have said moods ranged from positively
excited, on the Roscien, Xain, and Malion end of the spectrum to the nervous to–the-point-of-crying
mood of Trissa. I had seen her snap at Dhillion that morning for treading on
the very tip of her bedroll. As I looked around it dawned on me. The pit in my
stomach was not entirely due to what I would have to do soon, but also because
of Brant’s continued absence. I had been sure that he would catch up with us.
Once we crossed that bridge though, that would be impossible. We were leaving
him behind.

We had a breakfast of nuts, wild
berries that Alathaya had gathered earlier, and some flat bread. Malion turned
to me; his eyes alight with excitement. “When are we leaving?”

Instantly, all conversation
ground to a halt and a hush fell over the group. All eyes were on me. I ignored
the knot of tension in my stomach and with a casual shrug answered, “Just as
soon as I get the gate open.”

He started to say something
else, but Alathaya broke in. “I am sure that Kadin would like to enjoy his
breakfast before we start peppering him with questions.” Surprisingly
that made him hold
his tongue.

I finished my breakfast and
repacked my bags. Everyone was doing much the same and by the end of it, I had
no excuses left. I had thought about sneaking away and trying to do it on my
own first, but then if I did manage to open the bridge, nobody would have been
ready to go through. We all mounted our horses and they sat looking at me. I
turned Balder so that I could not see any of them, but I could still feel their
eyes on my back. Markai walked up to me and sat down next to Balder.

I focused Navitas. I breathed
deeply and first concentrated on simply letting my body relax. I imagined
tension floating out and away from me. As I had before, I reached out to the
bond between Markai and me. I probed her thoughts about where we were about to
go. I looked at her memories and even her connection to
Beratus
.
I felt
Beratus’s
attention snap to us as soon as I
did that. I reached and probed until I had a clear image in my head of the area
where we would be arriving. When I was sure I had the connection right, I
opened my eyes to find… no bridge. I was so surprised that my concentration
broke completely and Navitas fled. I heard a few whispers rise behind me, but
could not distinguish what they were saying. I tried to block them out; I did
not need their doubt to fuel mine.

I sat thinking for a while.
“Markai, I need you to go where we need to be. I will find you there.” Without
a reply and in the blink of an eye, she was gone. I started over. I reached to
Markai and as I had the night of the attack at Alathaya’s house, I tried to reach
so far into her being as to be able to see with her eyes. I looked around and
could see much the same terrain as on our plane, yet everything was subtly
different. I could not quite put my finger on exactly how. I concentrated on
using all of my senses, all of her senses. She sniffed the air and I smelled
the forest around me, the small creatures scurrying around unseen; I could
smell what her senses told me were other Qupari; I tried to make that plane
more real to me than this one. I reached to be with Markai. It felt as though
my very soul was stretching.

I smiled before opening my eyes,
because I knew what I would see this time. The glorious heavy wooden bridge
stretched out in front of me, away into nothingness. I heard the others gasp
behind me. Without looking back at them, I heeled Balder and started across.

As we
made our way across, the horses’ hooves made loud clopping noises, which
strangely seemed to resonate as though we were riding in a cave. This time I
knew what to expect and was not surprised to find the unseen obstacle half way
across. This was where I believed it became dangerous the last time. I probed
it with Navitas and again it had that distinct organic feel to it. “Come in as
close as you can. When I say ‘now’, take as deep a breath as you can and hold
it. This is the difficult part.” I spoke over my shoulder without looking at
them.

Pushing at this barrier
physically only
rebounded
your efforts. To this day, I
am not even sure exactly what I did, except that at the time it felt right.
Using Navitas, I made myself aware of every person and horse in the group; I
could feel their distinct energies like pulsating suns behind me. Then I turned
to this organic wall in front of me. Instead of pushing at it physically, I
pulled at it with Navitas, trying to draw its energy to me and over my
companions. It resisted for the first moment and then it came like a wave.

“Now!”

I heard the collective sucking
in of breath from behind before what felt like a wave of thick air swallowed
me. It crashed into me, nearly knocking the breath from me and making
Balder
rear. I heeled her forward and she lurched on.

I could feel she was on unsteady
legs and just as I felt I could not hold my breath any longer, the pressure went
and I all but tumbled from my seat. Anxiously, I looked around and saw the
others struggling against the unseen threat. My stomach knotted when I saw
Alathaya’s bulging eyes. One by one, they broke free from its grasp and took deep,
desperate gulps of air. I looked on helplessly until Malion, making up the rear
came sputtering through. I released a breath I had not realised I was holding.

I remounted and continued along
the bridge. Mist still shrouded the end of it, but I could faintly make out the
outlines of some trees. I sighed with relief when Balder’s hooves met solid
ground.

We emerged into what looked like
a forest bathed in early morning sunshine. I waited close to the foot of the
bridge for the rest to follow. Malion made up the rear and as soon as his
horse's last hoof left the bridge, it vanished. I gasped. The bridge had hidden
the army from my view. The Qupari had sent what looked like thousands of
soldiers. They were moving around through the forest, paying us no mind at all.
Dispersed between them were others. They appeared human at first glance, but
the way they moved made that seem as laughable an idea as calling a Qupari an
animal. They flowed with such grace that it seemed they floated above the
ground. I was dimly aware of the rest of the group also standing around gaping.
I felt Markai's presence before I saw her come towards us. She was excited and
pleased to have surprised me so.

"You did not think that the
Fae would simply sit back and rely on you to do it all, did you?" She
grinned, baring razor sharp teeth. The others’ breath caught and for a moment,
frustration boiled up in me. I was about to tell them she was not snarling at
them but smiling, when I realised that she had spoken aloud for everyone to
hear.