First Comes The One Who Wanders (14 page)

Brenth wished he knew. He'd like to talk to someone about what he’d seen. He didn't understand the significance of the canyon. He'd definitely understood the evil that had been there. It had been palpable and it had been focused on Leilas. But there had been good as well. It had been less defined and harder to pin down. What did it mean? Usually, when he saw something, the meaning was clear to him. This time, it wasn't clear at all. It was almost as if this vision hadn't been intended for him, and yet, he'd seen it so clearly. Brenth sighed in frustration and glanced in the direction of his mother. Then he looked behind him again. He'd been given a job to do, and that job meant that his dilemma would have to wait. Resting his hand on the hilt of his short sword, he tried to calm his mind by concentrating on the scenery that was passing by. The forest was aflame with color and the trees pressed in around them as they carefully made their way along the almost non-existent path. As he concentrated, he found a picture forming in his head and he pulled back to the path in surprise. He must've let his feelings project, because he saw his mother turn back and look at him with concern in her eyes. Her motion triggered a similar response in Joshuas and suddenly, he was the focus of attention.

"What is it, son?" Joshuas asked the question, glancing down at the limp form in his lap to assure himself she was still all right.

"We're riding into danger. We must turn back, quickly."

"This path has been safe for as long as I've been alive," his mother replied. "This is a safe part of the forest, protected by the Dryads."

Brenth shook his head in confusion. "I see small, dark ugly creatures and catlike people, very near and I don't think they want us in their forest.

"Where?" Joshuas threw his gaze all around them. "I don't see anything but trees. And I don't feel anything."

"They're coming up out of a hole, pouring out. There are lots of them, more than we can fight," he answered Joshuas' next question before he could ask it. "We need to get out of here, now."

Joshuas threw a questioning look at the queen and she shrugged helplessly. "We could cut straight through the forest, but I can't guarantee where we'll end up if we do."

Brenth chaffed at the unnecessary delay. He could feel the evil coming closer. "We need to go, now."

"Then go." Joshuas urged them. He pointed in a direction perpendicular to the one they were following. "I'll take the rear. Avoid clearings or paths and hope our luck changes for the better. I'm not particularly in the mood to be fodder for goblins."

"I thought crafters were supposed to bring good luck," said the queen before she plunged into the tangled brush covering the ground in the direction Joshuas had pointed.

"That was before I volunteered to be your daughter's keeper."

"They're looking for me," whispered Leilas, and Joshuas looked down in surprise to find her awake and lucid. "They can feel me now. You won't be safe as long as I'm with you. Loose me and let me ride in the opposite direction. Then you'll be safe."

"Not a chance, Princess. Good, bad or indifferent, we're in this together."

"Yours is not the only life at stake, nor the one most at risk," replied Leilas. "Perhaps you should let those with more to lose make that decision."

"It would be the same," replied Joshuas as he plunged after the others. "Like it or not, you're stuck with us." Joshuas tightened his hold on his passenger as they followed the queen and her son into the depths of the forest.

They plunged into a small clearing, encircled by trees with a large rock outcropping on the far side that rose up from the forest. Before they were halfway through the clearing, a large boulder in the side of the outcropping seem to break in two with a loud crack and dark, ugly creatures began to pour out of the opening. Werecats, goblins, and even a few orcs moved like a blur and soon had them surrounded. The queen's horse reared in fear and she barely held her seat as she was abruptly forced to a stop, a group of dark soldiers not more than three lengths in front of her. The chattering noise coming from the mob in front of them was as unnerving as it was loud. Joshuas quickly considered his options and began a chant, but Leilas put an end to it with a quiet command to stop. Joshuas was surprised at the intensity of the command and his immediate obedience, as if he had no other choice. Brenth, who'd begun to pull his sword, let it fall back into his sheath. Queen Daina seemed less surprised at her daughter for taking command, and began to talk comfortingly to her horse, which was skittering all around in reaction to the presence of these dark creatures.

As if in response to Leilas' words, a short catlike man stepped lithely from the mob of dark creatures and moved to Joshuas' mount. Though he was clearly one of Brenth's cat people, he wore the maroon robes and the insignia of the School of Fire. He spoke only to Leilas, as if he didn't even see Joshuas holding her bound in his arms, and in a language that Joshuas hadn't heard for nearly a century and had never mastered. It just sounded like chittering to him, like rats in the drainage canals. Joshuas would have made a move to fight again if Leilas hadn't imperceptibly shaken her head.

"You must speak my language, so my companions can understand what you're saying to me." Leilas spoke to the creature standing in front of them. Of the four in their group, she seemed the most collected.

Which was about right for this trip, thought Joshuas. The crazy one was the one who was giving orders and taking charge. Still, her order had been compelling and she seemed lucid and clearly able to handle this situation, for now.

The creature hissed at her request and his eyes narrowed with displeasure, but his next words were somewhat recognizable by Joshuas. Not that he liked what he heard any better. "The master would like to speak with you. You'll come with me."

"Is that an invitation or an order?" asked Leilas. "What happens if I refuse?"

"The madness will probably overtake you." The cat man shrugged as if it didn't matter to him. But Joshuas suspicioned it was important to bring Leilas to his master while she was still somewhat sane. "I'll come take you when you aren't able to resist."

"And who is this master who wishes me to come?" Leilas squirmed trying to sit more upright. Joshuas wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to a more comfortable position. Then, while Leilas was talking, he began to unobtrusively untie the thongs that bound her. He could feel the tension in her every muscle as she struggled to stay in control as she faced this enemy. This magik had spoken the truth. If Leilas didn't get to a healer soon, the madness would probably overtake her.

"He'll tell you what he wants you to know, when he talks to you," said the dark crafter imperiously.

"He expects me to come, just because you tell me some master, name unknown, wants to talk to me. There's very little incentive here to entice me to go with you."

The cat man paused to consider her words, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he struggled with the foreign language. He shrugged his shoulders again as he began to speak. "If you come willingly, he'll let your companions live and he'll help you with the madness. There's no one else. Diedra isn't in Menas and hasn't been seen for many years."

"There are other healers who can help," said Joshuas, knowing even as he said it that they probably couldn't do much for Leilas. Diedra was their best hope; even this dark magik knew that.

"Your friend will try to persuade you, with this false hope, not to come." This was the dark magik’s only concession that Joshuas had even spoken. "Centuries of dark madness are a sad fate for a crafter."

"One you would gladly inflict on me in other circumstances," chided Leilas.

The magik smiled darkly, purring softly in his throat at the thought. "Your people have killed many of my family with as little conscience."

Leilas felt the thongs on her hands give way but did not move them. Joshuas smiled to himself. Perhaps she wasn't as poorly trained as he'd thought. She might make a warrior yet.

"When we kill, it's cleanly, a quick death. It isn't without conscience. Sometimes it's just a necessity of life and war. I find none of your warriors in this darkness I wander."

"Exactly what I'd expect a crafter of the Light to say. Do you come willingly or not?"

"I want to see my companions safely to Menas before I go with you. Otherwise we might as well begin the battle now."

"I'm not going to let you walk off with this cat by yourself," whispered Joshuas fiercely in her ear.

"You do have a problem with letting others choose their own course," Leilas whispered back. "This is my decision. You can't make it for me. And if you choose to defy my decision and fight these creatures, you'll almost certainly seal the deaths of my mother and brother. I'll stop you before I let you condemn them."

"My people will ensure your companions reach Menas safely," the dark crafter dismissed her request with a wave of his hand. "We have no time to waste riding to Menas and back. The master is waiting."

"Then I guess we begin battle, now," replied Leilas, dropping her hand to the hilt of her sword at her side. "I'll not go with you until I'm sure they're safe." Leilas looked around at the evil faces staring at them. "They don't look as though they have our best intentions at heart and a day or two more won't make any difference. The madness has already taken hold. It will come and go. I may not be coherent when we reach your master, no matter how soon we arrive."

"Then why don't I simply wait until you succumb to it, kill your companions and save myself some time."

"Because I'll fight the madness as I do now, and I'll fight you until I die. I wonder what will happen to you when you bring me dead to your master's door."

The magik turned and began chittering commands to his fellow warriors. All but a dozen returned to the rock and disappeared within its depths. The remaining soldiers lined up on either side of Queen Daina's horse and waited.

When the dark creatures were ready the magik turned back to Leilas and hissed. "We'll ensure your companions safe passage. I'm not anxious to discover what my fate would be at the hands of the master. Like the elders, the master is old and very powerful. We can make the edge of the forest by nightfall if we hurry. My men wait for you."

Joshuas let the dark magik move away before he began his angry tirade in Leilas' ear. "You should have informed our furry friend there that you weren't getting rid of me that easily."

"What you do once we reach Menas is your business, Master Joshuas. I gave this crafter my assurance that I'd go with him. I will go with him. Alone." After a short pause, in which Joshuas could see her measuring what she wanted to say, she continued. "I was hoping you'd watch over my mother and Brenth until they're settled."

"This is madness. Give me one good reason why I should let you do this?"

"Because I've asked you to let me do this. You can't go where I need to go right now. It's not your destiny."

"But it's yours to go willingly into the stronghold of some master of Fire?"

"Furry face's master isn't from the School of Fire," commented Leilas, looking back over her shoulder and smiling at the man who was scowling at her. "And if I'm not mistaken, you were one of the masters convinced I was the Chidra. So, yes, perhaps this is my destiny."

"You don't even know what being the Chidra means. So how could you know this is your destiny?"

Leilas leaned back against his chest and closed her eyes. Joshuas could feel her body relax as it lay against him. "I just do. Keep your eye on him." She nodded her head in the general direction of the dark magik. "He's given us his word, but neither one of us knows how much that's worth." With that, Leilas slumped against him and Joshuas knew she had succumbed to the poison flowing in her veins once more.

~~~

It didn't feel like madness. It wasn't really madness. No more than suddenly waking up to find yourself thrust into the foreign regions of Zandi beyond the Black Forest might make you feel as if you had lost your mind. Looking around Leilas recognized that she'd been in this strange, savage land before. She wasn't sure how many times before, just that she'd been here. She wondered if the fact that she remembered was an indication that the poison was beginning to wear off. In many ways this poison was like the drugs the Zandies used in their rituals. The same drugs Master Frey had used to expose her to some alternate forms of knowledge seeking when he'd deemed her ready to expand her mind. The reality the drugs exposed was definitely not the reality of Preterlandis. But she wasn't sure that being in an alternate reality made it any less valid simply because it was on a different level of perception.

This place she found herself thrust into each time she was overtaken by the effects of the dark crafter's poison was barren and jagged, all browns and grays, broken up only by the white of desert sand. The sky was an orangish brown, colored with dust that was blown by a constant dry, hot wind. If the heat, wind and thirst didn't make you hate the place, the many dangers and pitfalls would soon seal your bad opinion. One wrong move found you falling over a cliff to your death or dying of thirst in the desert, only to come to life again in the same nightmare, still reeling from the emotional reaction to each life-changing disaster.

Leilas shivered as memories and feelings flashed in her mind of the worst of these experiences. Every victory had a price. Now that she could remember this place, she'd be cursed with these memories as well. There were years and years of experiences, more years than she could count.