Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (7 page)

He saw me running my finger over
the golden image of Markai. “As I said, this was destined for you. Now, it is
time you start learning how to use this blade. Let us see how far along your
training is.”

When I looked around, I realised
we were no longer in the clearing by the stream. We were not even in the
forest, but standing in the centre of a massive stone bowl. There were steps
leading up the side of it, but it was so deep that I could not see what lay
beyond the rim of the bowl. It was full day with the sun beat down on us
mercilessly.

Absently, I thought that it had
not been this hot in months. Before I could push this errant thought away, he
had his sword unsheathed and was poised, ready to attack. The instant I raised
my sword, he lunged towards me.

I barely managed to block his
thrust and stepped back off balance. He made a tut-tut sound. I stepped forward
and swung towards him. Again and again he easily blocked all my blows. After
only a few minutes, I had sweat soaking my shirt and it was dripping from my
brow. He hardly looked as if he had exerted any effort whatsoever.

Finally, he held up a hand. “We
have a long way to go. You are more off balance than not. Your movements are
sloppy. I can see what you plan to do before you even realise you are planning
it.

“You must learn the Shea-Rin.
Now concentrate and follow my example.”

Without looking to see if I did
as he asked, he turned his back on me. He set his feet wide apart and crouched
low. With sword in hand, he started moving fluidly from one form to another. I
was already tired from sparring with him and it was not long before I was
breathing hard. I had lost track of the number of forms we had gone through and
I was ready to collapse. My legs shook and I could barely keep my grip on my
sword. To my great relief Master Boryka straightened up, bowed and turned to
face me.

He looked me over and I thought
I saw amusement flicker across his flint grey eyes, but it was gone too quickly
to be sure. “You did well. Most trainees do not make it all the way through the
first time. You must repeat this exercise once in the morning light and once in
dusk’s embrace.”

I was too exhausted to speak so
I simply nodded my agreement.

“I expect improvement when we
next meet. Be diligent in this. It is not only your life that will depend on
your proficiency.” He pointed up at the sky. “When the moon is next full, I
will test you once more.” With that, he turned around and stalked away and up
the steps.

I strapped my sword around my
waist and slowly followed. With screaming muscles, I struggled to make it up
the steep stairs. When I reached the top, I stopped and looked around, my mouth
dropped open. A vast open landscape stretched as far as I could see. Master
Boryka was nowhere to be seen and yet where could he have gone?

There was nothing but sand; no
trees or hills, or a single blade of grass to break the landscape. I swung
around, scrutinising the horizon in every direction. Something shoved at my
shoulder and I spun around only to find nothing there. The bowl had also now
disappeared, swallowed by the sand.
Another shove.
Again, I looked around, but found nothing.

An ice cold wave of water hit me
in the face. I gasped wiping the water away. Opening my eyes, I found a worried
looking Grer standing over me with an empty water skin in hand. “Are ye
a’right
, Kadin? I do be sorry about the water, but ye were
twisting and turning and
talkin
’ all nonsense like ye
be
havin
’ a bad dream. When I couldn’t wake
ye
, I be worried. I thought maybe that awful tea ye had, had
truly been poison.”

I gave him a grim smile. “I am
starting to wonder the same thing, Grer.”
 

With a puzzled look on his face,
he pointed next to my bedroll. “Well now,
ye been
holdin
’ out on me. Ye didn’t say ye
was
a LemMestari.”

I frowned and looked to see what
he was pointing at. My eyes widened in disbelief.

Next to my bedroll lay the sword
master Boryka had given me. I stared at it; I was sure it could not truly be
real. I picked it up, cradling it as though it might break, and examined the
elegant hilt. I looked up at Grer. “What is a LemMestari?”

His brows furrowed and his eyes
grew hard. “How do ye get to own such a blade without realising what ye
got?
 
Ye didn’t steal this, did ye? I’d
be in a bad position if ye did, working for the King an all.”

I tried to think on my feet to
come up with a plausible story without having to tell him the truth. Not that
he would have believed me if I told him I got it in a dream. “I got it from my
father,” I said. “He died before I was born and this is all I have left of
him.”

He relaxed a little. “That, boy,
is a blade of Kings. No
mistakin
’ that hilt ye got
there. It’s the stuff o’ legends that is. They say there were only ever five
made by the great Blade Masters.
Made for the five great
Kings of Surrelmidia.
Mind, this would ha’ been back before the Severance.
Ye say ye had this fro ye da? Nobody never said
nothin
’
to
ye
, boy?” Doubt crept back into his voice.

I scrambled to embellish my
story. “It was left wrapped up with the Cha. It had been my father’s dying wish
that the Cha keep it for me. He was never to open the package and only to give
it to me once I reached my seventeenth name day.”

He seemed somewhat mollified.
“Well ye should take care o’ that and mayhap be a bit careful with who sees
ye
with it.
Lotsa
men out there
would kill
ye
without a second thought to get their
hands on
tha
’ sword.”

I bobbed my head, grateful for
his advice.

As was now the norm, my head
felt thick and foggy, but today I had the added gift of every single muscle in
my body aching and my head was pounding. A quick swim in the cold stream helped
clear my head, but my body was so stiff that even dressing was difficult. Grer
shared some of his flatbread and cheese with me. He even had some coffee, which
we brewed over a small cook fire. I was relieved to see Balder had returned
sometime in the night and was grazing close by.

We both started packing up our
belongings and refilling water skins at the stream.
 
“Where do you go from here, Grer?” I knew I
had to continue on my own, but I did not quite know what I would say if Grer
said he would continue on with me.

He shrugged. “I have finished
what I have come to do. Now I need to go back to Hefrnea ta report ta the King.
Are ye planning ta come into town?”

I shook my head.

Relief warred with a bit of
regret for the lost company. “I think I have more to discover out here before I
make my way back to civilisation.”

He grinned.
“Thought
ye might say
tha
’.
Well it’s been a pleasure
meetin
’
ye
. May the season be
fruitful and kind to
ye
.”

I bowed and said, “May your feet
follow a sure road lighted by the sun.”

I mounted Balder and we set off
on our separate ways.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

After
hours of riding, I decided I needed to expend some energy. I found some fresh
tarvaga tracks and got my sling out of my saddlebag loading it with a smooth
stone. A short while later I spotted it close to its burrow. I knew I only had
one attempt at it, but that was all I needed. With deathly precision, my stone
hit the animal in the head killing it instantly. I strapped it to my saddle and
set off again.

I was a bit more wary after my
run in with the Dyrrendrel and so I reached for Navitas. Heightened awareness
flooded all my senses. I could pinpoint where each and every bird was from the
merest tweet. I could smell the stench of a ground rat burrow thirty feet away.
I felt alive.

Balder started shying to the
left and snorting. I looked around immediately thinking of the Dyrrendrel.
There was a rustle in a nearby brush and just as I reached for my bow, Markai
came
padding out. I almost laughed at my own jitteriness. I
patted Balder and spoke softly to her to try to settle her nerves. I rode on
for the rest of the day enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the forest.

With Navitas flowing through me
and Markai quietly trotting next to me, I felt whole. It had only been a day
since I had embraced Navitas, but now it was filling a hole that I had not realised
I had.

Once dusk started setting in
Master Boryka’s instructions came back to me. I dismounted and let Balder
graze. I took out the sword. Each time I looked at it I could not help but be
amazed at the craftsmanship, the beauty and the feeling of power I felt when I
held it in my hands.

Standing in a small clearing, I
hesitated. I tried to recall all the forms of the Shea-Rin, but I could not
bring them to mind. I could clearly remember the first form though, so with my
sword in hand I set my feet wide apart and crouched low. Markai sat a little
way off looking at me intently. I took a deep breath and as if of its own
volition, my body started moving. When I tried to bring to mind the shape of
the next form I need I could not remember it, but apparently, my body did.

Each time I thought I would
hesitate or stop for lack of knowing what to do next my body simply did it.
Finally, I simply let my mind go blank and poured all my awareness into what my
body was doing. It felt like taking my outer Navitas focus and reversing it to
focus it completely on my body. On each and every muscle, strengthening and
shaping each form of the Shea-Rin. I did not even notice the utter exhaustion
flooding me until I finished the last form and all but collapsed, my whole body
shaking. My clothes were drenched in sweat and clung uncomfortably to my body.
I could do nothing but sit and recover. Markai was still looking at me and I
could swear I could see approval in those intelligent eyes. It could also have
been that I was slightly delusional with fatigue.

Long after the sun had
disappeared, I was still sitting in the same place. I hardly had the strength
to move, but eventually motivated by hunger, I made camp and built up a good
fire.

The night had turned cold and I
sat close to the fire as I made a soup with some of my precious spices, onion
and potatoes and roasted the tarvaga. Markai was sleeping curled up next to the
fire. A few times that night, I thought I heard the soft growl of the
Dyrrendrel or the soft crunching of leaves under paws. Each time I looked over
to Markai to see if she had heard it as well and although she was not sleeping
anymore, she did not seem alarmed.

I poured my cup of the Cha’s
tea. With some relief, I noted that it was the last cup. I steeled myself and
swallowed it down. I shuddered and spat a few times to try to rid my mouth of
the disgusting taste.

Throughout this Markai watched
me
with interest, or perhaps it was amusement. I settled on
my sleeping mat and she came to lie next to me. The feel of her against my back
was unsettling to start with. The feeling of my skin burning and icy water
running under my skin spread from where she was touching me, through my whole
body. After a few minutes, it felt…..
right
.

Her presence surrounded me and
filled me. Lying on the hard ground, in the middle of nowhere I felt more at
home than I had ever before. The cold fled and even my body no longer felt the
pain of my earlier exertion. I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up with full night still
around me. My fire had burned out, and through the dim moonlight, I saw a
figure sitting a little way off with my sword in their hands. I flew up already
focusing my Navitas. Instantly Markai appeared and snarling was running towards
the figure. She stood up and I saw that it was Quiniewa.

Relief rushed over me and Markai
stopped abruptly in her tracks.
 
Quiniewa
appeared as a young woman and did not look alarmed in the least by how close we
had come to attacking her.

Instead, she was looking at
Markai with immense joy written all over her face. It made her look even
younger, childlike. She rushed over to Markai and threw her arms around her,
enveloping her in a tight hug. My breath caught. No one had previously seen her,
not to mention
touched
her.

It almost felt as if Quiniewa
was hugging me. It was most peculiar. I moved my arms about just to convince
myself that there were no arms around me. Even more curious, was that I could
feel what Markai was feeling. I was able to distinguish clearly between her
emotions and my own, but hers was still just as real and intense as if they
were in fact my own.

I realised that they knew each
other. How this was possible I did not know, but I got a most definite sense of
joy at the reunion with an old friend from Markai. When Quiniewa released her I
expected my connectedness with Markai to go also, but it did not even
diminish.
 
They were looking at each
other intently. Quiniewa was murmuring in a low voice, too low for me to make out
any words, but I could tell it was not a language I had ever come across
before. Through my connection to Markai I realised they were actually
conversing. I did not hear any response from her, but I could feel her
conveying her message back to the Teacher, although I did not understand what
was being said.