Broken World Book Three - A Land Without Law (16 page)

Chanter held
her beneath the waves for what seemed like an eternity, until the
Prince was sure that she would drown. Remembering his mistake when
Chanter had saved her from the joining staffs, he quelled his wish
to run down and haul her out. When Chanter lifted her at last, she
gasped and opened her eyes. She stared at the Mujar in confusion,
then smiled and slid her arms around him.

Kieran turned
to find Brin beside him. "Let's bring the other two." He led the
Aggapae up the beach.

Talsy gazed at
Chanter. "You came back."

"Only just in
time, it seems." Chanter shook his head. "Why didn't you call me?
It was stupid not to."

"Was I that
sick? I've had fevers before. I didn't think it was so
serious."

"Everything's
serious now. The world's changing, remember? Your illness was a
chaos disease, and it would have killed you."

She lowered
her eyes. "I knew you'd come if it was serious."

"I told you to
call me. I couldn't hear Dolana's warnings when I was surrounded by
Shissar. If I hadn't already been coming back, I might not have
heard it at all. As it was, it came through the stone I was
carrying."

"You found
it!"

"Yes, I found
your useless piece of stone, as you wanted me to. But I won't look
for any more unless you promise not to be so stupid again."

She hugged
him, stroking the wet hair that hung down his back. "I
promise."

Talsy released
him when Kieran, Mita and Brin splashed into the sea with Shan and
Taff.

The Mujar
turned in surprise. "They're sick too?"

Kieran nodded,
shooting Talsy a look of bitter relief. She scowled at him, and he
looked away. Chanter healed the Aggapae, and, while they walked up
the beach, waded further into the sea to retrieve something from
the sandy bottom. He waded out and showed it to Talsy, who studied
the seamed grey rock with its lines of tiny letters.

"It's been in
the sea for nearly a year, why isn't anything growing on it? Does
it still have power?" she asked.

Chanter shook
his head. "It was at the bottom of the ocean, nothing grows down
there. No light."

She tried to
imagine the seabed. "What's it like?"

"Cold, quiet
and dark. Sometimes there are currents, sometimes it's so still you
can't feel your body."

"How did you
find it?"

Chanter guided
her up the beach. "With extreme difficulty. I thought it was
hopeless; that's one of the reasons I chose to come here first.
What's the point of finding the other pieces if we couldn't find
this one? Compared to this, finding the others should be easy."

"Really?"

"Yes, but
getting to them won't."

"What do you
mean?" she asked.

"The chaos
grows worse every day, and with it the world gets more dangerous.
Next we go to the Kingdom of Zare."

"Why there?
Why not the mountains? What about the missing piece?"

Chanter helped
her into her tent and onto a mat. "What about it? I didn't think
we'd find this piece, and now that we have, where's the missing
piece? Do you still want to go after the other two?"

She nodded,
pouring a cup of water. "We must. The missing piece must be
somewhere."

"But we may
never find it."

"We have to
try."

Chanter sipped
the water, which must have tasted good after living for so long in
brine, she surmised. "Then we must leave here as soon as you're
strong enough. The sooner we return to the valley, the better."

The Mujar boy
walked across the desert, kicking up plumes of dust. He had left
the flower five warm spells ago, having consumed the two leaves. At
first he had headed towards the warmth's source, using it as a
guide. After only a few hours the warmth came from above, confusing
him. Deciding that it was not a good beacon since he had passed it
so quickly, he walked on until it vanished behind him. Many hours
later, it had reappeared in front of him, and he passed it again.
Now he had passed it five times, and wondered if it was the same
heat source each time. He had little time to ponder its mystery,
however, for his hunger gnawed in the centre of his being and drove
him on.

Already he had
made several adjustments and learnt much about his world. He had
discovered silver lines that ran through the ground, and become
aware of their power when he had lain down to rest. The creeping
cold and weakness had driven him to his feet again, forcing him to
continue walking. Unlike adult Mujar, the boy needed to rest
occasionally, especially since the food he had consumed had not
been enough to nourish his growing body.

Another
problem occupied his mind while his feet trudged on by themselves.
He should have a name. All Mujar were born knowing their names, but
he did not. The golden light that flickered and swirled in his
brain made thinking hard and remembering even more difficult. The
memory of his birth had faded, overlaid by recollections of endless
walking. Somewhere in his core lived a name that was his own, if
only he could find it.

Becoming aware
of something different ahead, he stopped and allowed his senses to
unravel it. Images formed as his mind absorbed the information and
placed it on his inner eye. A haze of shimmering blue blocked his
way, striped with twisted lines of silver. His deep memories told
him that the blueness was Shissar, and the silver was Dolana. There
was also Crayash, which he saw in himself, and another, invisible
but all around him, called Ashmar. He trotted towards the haze of
colour, avoiding a boulder outlined in bright silver.

The blind boy
reached the edge of a dying forest and mapped it with his hands,
running them over rough bark, smooth branches and cool, fleshy
leaves. He smelt and tasted everything, spat out the bark and
twigs, but ate bitter leaves to fill the emptiness within him.
Moving deeper into the forest, he consumed all the leaves within
his reach. He found plants on the ground that tasted better, and
his senses guided him to sweet roots rich in Shissar. He discovered
that he could grasp the cold silver threads and part them to
unearth the roots quickly. He foraged hungrily, learning about his
environment and how to control it.

Chapter Seven

Talsy shivered
as they rode through yet another tract of dying land with withered
yellow grass and trees bereft of all but a few spotted leaves. Over
the past month, they had passed through several areas like this,
where the horses huddled together nervously and the Aggapae had to
soothe them with soft, meaningless words. Chanter led them on the
pale grey horse, which seemed the least affected by the strangeness
around them, trotting on boldly. Her hand stole to the tiny bottle
tucked between her breasts. When she had fallen sick, she had
hidden it beneath her sleeping mat so Kieran would not find it. As
yet, she had had neither the opportunity nor the courage to use it,
and the thought of tricking Chanter left a bad taste in her mouth.
She looked up as the horses stopped.

A black pall
rose into the sky ahead, hiding the sun with its vile veil like a
banner of doom. The ugly cloud's immensity amazed her. Chanter's
horse moved forward and the rest followed, while the Aggapae
fingered their weapons and muttered.

A few miles
further on, they stopped at the edge of the living forest and
looked out across a wasteland of destruction. As far as the eye
could see, stumps and ash covered rolling hills and valleys.
Chanter led the way across the dead land, and soon her horse moved
up beside the Mujar's at his command, and Kieran joined them. The
Aggapae dropped back out of earshot, and Talsy studied the stumps.
Each was cut smoothly, as though sliced by something extremely
sharp. Chanter looked sorrowful as he studied the destruction,
frowning.

"What's done
this?" Talsy asked, capturing his attention.

"Lowmen."

"But how could
they?" She gestured to the ruins of the forest. "I've never seen
anything like this before."

"You'll see
many more strange things before this journey's over. These people
have an earth wizard, and he's given them tools of destruction
created by Dolana. Earthpower is the most destructive force, and
can be used for a purpose like this if tools made out of metal or
stone are powered by Dolana."

"But why kill
the forests?" Kieran asked.

"They have
taken the wood, so perhaps that's what they wanted. Or maybe they
just wished to clear the land for grazing beasts, increasing their
wealth either way."

"No one could
use so much wood, or so much land," the Prince muttered. "It's
madness."

Chanter
nodded. "Yes, it is madness, or you could call it chaos. The Lowmen
revel in their new power. They use their newfound prowess at
destruction, perhaps for no other reason than that they can."

"What about
the Kuran?" Talsy said.

"They have
fled deep into their domains, too afraid of the chaos now to
continue their war on Lowmen, as are the Dargon. The forests are
unguarded, and your people have discovered that they can tread
safely upon the soil now, so there is nothing to stand in their
way."

They crossed a
stream choked with ash and soil that flowed sluggishly through the
blasted land. It pushed at barriers of wood and dead leaves, its
banks lined with the corpses of fish. Many more animal corpses lay
amid the destruction. The burnt forms of foxes, rabbits, squirrels
and monkeys lay under the ash with the occasional larger, bloated
carcass of a deer. All of them had died in agony, their mouths
stretched with pain and fear, their burnt eyes staring hollowly at
the ruins of their once beautiful world. Sadness and pity brought
tears to Talsy's eyes, and she scrubbed at the moisture that
trickled down her cheeks.

"Don't be
ashamed to weep." Chanter's soft voice jerked up her bowed head.
"Weep for the world, it deserves our sorrow now, for it is
dying."

"It's wrong!"
she burst out, her voice choked with anguish. "This is why we must
restore the Staff of Law!"

He turned
away, staring across the blighted land.

"Doesn't it
make you angry?" she demanded.

"No." Chanter
faced her again. "Only sorrowful. What good would anger do?"

"You have the
power to stop this, restore the forest, take the wizard's powers
away from him!"

The Mujar
shook his head. "Actually, I don't. I'm not a god. Yes, I could
restore the forest, but they would only destroy it again. I could
take away the wizard's powers, but only for a while, as soon as I
released the Dolana he would regain them. What would you have me
do, stay here and protect one forest when this is happening all
over the world?"

Talsy scowled
at him. "You could control the whole world if you wished, stop this
everywhere, deny all Truemen wizards the Powers by taking control
of them yourself."

"Ah." He
nodded, smiling. "You would have me replace the Staff of Law. Plant
my feet in the ground and take up the reins of all the Powers,
spend all my willpower holding the world in order. Yes, up to a
point that's possible, but I don't know all the laws, nor do I have
the ability to hold the order like the staff did.

"That was its
purpose, but it isn't mine. I would have to rely on the spirits to
tell me of transgressions so I could right the wrongs, but while I
was busy with one thing, others would happen. I can't replace the
Staff of Law, not only because I don't have the same kind of power
it did, but also because I'm unable to kill, which is sometimes
necessary."

Talsy looked
away, chagrined and ashamed.

Kieran stared
at Chanter, amazed. "You could do all of that?"

"It's no great
achievement. I cannot replace the staff."

"But we could
stop what's happening here if we find the wizard and get rid of
him."

Chanter shook
his head. "Why is that always the Lowman solution? Kill the
problem. It doesn't really solve anything. Another would spring up
in his place, and if you killed him, another would come along.
Already there must be many so-called wizards with a little power
over one of the elements, and soon there will be more. You might as
well try to empty a stream with a cup."

Kieran's
shoulders slumped.

Talsy looked
thoughtful. "Are there any other Mujar in the world?"

"There may
be," Chanter allowed.

"Well then,
they could help, share the load, couldn't they? If there were a few
on each continent, they could govern the lands around them."

"Until Lowmen
came and threw them into a Pit for spoiling their fun."

"The good
people would protect them."

"And then
there would be wars." The Mujar sighed. "Eventually the good people
would be wiped out and the world would be in an even worse
predicament, until it fell apart, of course."

Talsy growled
in frustration, glaring at the ruined forest, and Kieran shook his
head in reluctant agreement.

"He's right.
The only solution is to restore the Staff of Law."

Chanter shot
him a sad look as his horse picked its way through the stumps of
two-thousand-year-old forest giants, their girth greater than a
man's height. In some areas glowing embers still winked in the
blackness, and these they avoided. The stench of burning and death
hung thick in the air. The black smoke that smudged the sky with
filthy fingers rose from a distant border, where the dead forest
met the living and men were still busy with their foul task.

So vast was
the destruction that they were forced to push on far into the night
to reach living land once more. They stopped in a grassy glade
where the horses could graze and slid exhausted from their
mounts.