Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (15 page)

             
Suddenly something grabbed his shoulder startling him from his trance-like state. Thane jerk open his eyes and for a split second thought he could see nothing around him but the stars and the night sky. Then, just as suddenly, he was staring out into the ocean and found TamVen tugging on his arm.

            “I said are you all right?” she practically shouted in his ear.

            “Yes, yes,” Thane replied irritably, pulling his arm away from her and standing up.

            “Well, I’ve been standing here trying to talk to you and you just sat there with your eyes closed,” Tam retorted. “You don’t have to be so rude.”

            “What?  How long have you been standing there? And hey, how did you know about this place anyway?”  Thane was exasperated.

            “First off, I’ve been here for only about a minute or two and secondly, I’ve known about this place for a long time. I knew you would be here.”

              Thane felt like he might fall over. “You knew I would be here?” 

            “Yes, of course. I know you always come here when you are upset. I just never came before because I didn’t want you to know I knew about your hiding place. But tonight I have something important I need to ask you. So here I am.” Tam smiled sweetly as if the whole world were in perfect order while Thane sat down flabbergasted at the prospect of Tam knowing about his hiding place.

              “You’ve always known about my secret place?” Thane felt himself getting dizzy so he laid back and tried to keep himself from becoming sick. “I can’t believe it.” 

Tam sat down next to him and innocently began to ramble on. “Anyway, the reason I’m here. I was thinking the other day, ‘you know
, I bet that I could shoot a bow as well as anyone else around here if I was only given the chance.’”

             
Thane nodded silently without really hearing while he stared off into space still trying to recover from his initial shock. “She knows about my beach,” he said dumbly.

             
“Well, I know my parents wouldn’t allow it so I thought, ‘Maybe DaxSagn,’ I mean he is the best. But then I remembered that he wouldn’t teach me either on the account that he and my father are friends and that just wouldn’t do. So I kept thinking about it until I finally came up with a brilliant idea. You can teach me how to shoot a bow!” Tam smiled brightly as if extremely proud of herself while Thane turned to stare at her still not sure how she could know of his private beach.

             
After a moment of silence the gist of what she was babbling about finally sank in past his swimming head and upset stomach. He shot to his feet. “You have got to be crazy if you think I am going to teach you how to shoot a bow!  It’s not allowed. You know that as much as I. Not to mention the fact that your father, my father, DaxSagn and everybody else in the village would kill me!”  Thane stomped around shaking his head. “No way! No possible way! Not in a hundred cycles!”

             
Tam sat in silent amusement watching while Thane made a rut in the sand as he paced back and forth spewing out all of his silly objections. When he finally stopped and looked at her, she quietly announced, “I knew you would object, so I thought to myself, ‘hmm, what does Thane have of such importance to him that he would trade for, let’s say a lesson a day for an hour?’  Then I thought of this place and how attached you are to it and how fond you are of its secrecy from everyone...”

             
“Wait a minute there,” Thane blurted out trying to keep himself from strangling the little imp where she stood. “Just hold on. You can’t blackmail me you little troll.”

             
“Oh I can’t, can’t I? Well, we’ll just see about that.” Without another word, she rose quietly and started for the surf as if to leave.

             
“Wait!” Thane cried desperately. “Where are you going?”

            Tam turned around and smiled one of her most sickeningly, sweet smiles. “To the village, of course, to let everyone know where you are. I’m sure they’re just worried sick about you.”

              Thane felt like he was going to throw up. This little troll brain was going to get the best of him after all. He frantically searched his mind for anything to get him out of this mess but the only thing he could come up with half way decent was to get rid of her permanently and he couldn’t do that. Or could he?
No. They would find the body
, he thought to himself.
It’s tough living right.

             
“All right, you win,” he finally said with a heavy sigh. “But only two times a week for half an hour.”

           
“Four, for three quarters of an hour.”

           
“Three, for half an hour.”

            “Done,” Tam laughed clapping her hands. “I knew I could count on you.”

            “Sure. Now, will you kindly leave me alone? I’d like to be by myself for awhile—a long while.”

             
Tam turned and skipped towards the sea looking back just as she reached the water. “Let’s say here, tomorrow, after the evening meal?”

             
Thane mumbled something that sounded like an affirmative answer and Tam bounced into the water and around the rocks out of sight.

             
“That girl is going to kill me yet.”

*     *     *

              The five men gathered on the floor around the small candle that threw dark shadows across the walls giving the hut an ominous feeling that matched their purpose.

            “You heard what Dax said about the boy. There can be no mistaking it.”

            “Maybe, but one incident doesn’t prove anything. That’s only one in five. I say it’s still coincidental.”

            “You both have good points but we must remember the sign of the five Tane which he carries. That could be the final clue to prove what some of us have suspected all along.”

            “That’s true, but we can’t prove it either way because no one remembers Gelfin’s TanIs.”

            “I’d be willing to bet the four of you that other signs will show, and when they do it could be too late for the rest of us. I side with taking care of the problem before it grows out of hand.”

              “I still say we wait for more proof. If it comes down to him being who we think, then I will personally cut the TanIs from him and end the whole thing. My brothers Kinpa of the five Tane, we have a great responsibility to protect our people and I for one will not forget that sacred trust. Are we agreed?”

             
The others looked at each other for a grave moment before all finally nodded their heads in consent.

CHAPTER
FIVE

             
A gust of wind raced down from the snow capped mountains on its way to the sea and adventures unknown. It struck Thane’s face with a slight nip bringing with it the fresh scents of the forest while tempting him to follow. He loved the early morning peace that settled in the trees surrounding his home just after a rainstorm. Everything was fresh and renewed in a way that made him feel alive. He felt welcome here. No one was around to give him strange looks or move away snickering when he approached. The forest was friendly to him, returning the care he gave to it.

             
Another blast rolled down off the mountains stinging his face in its chill and making him pull his blanket tighter around his lean frame. The cotton leggins he wore kept the cold from his legs although they were still a little big. His mother made them large on purpose because of the growth spurts he was experiencing. She quickly tired of having to make new ones for him every two moons.

             
Sitting perched on a large rock, he stared into nothingness, trapped by his own thoughts. Closing his eyes, he drifted down the corridors of his mind and let himself get lost in the serenity of his surroundings. The wind picked up again and he felt himself become lighter as if cradled and carried on its wings of freedom. He no longer felt the rock on which he sat or the cold that was creeping down the front of his blanket. The sounds and smells that wafted around him suddenly seemed to take on life and could be recognized as separate individual beings with their own distinct personalities. Every subtlety had divided itself into a visible feature to his mind. The drops of water falling from the leaves and needles, the whispers of the winds as they brushed through the branches of the trees, the animals in hiding as they watched him; even the ant, crawling up the rock. It was all there and he was part of it. He wanted to open his eyes but was afraid the moment would pass if he did. He wanted to explore the whole world in its minuscule subtleties. As if in answer to his desires, he began to feel himself in motion as if moving through the forest on a flurry of wind with everything exposing itself for him to examine.

             
Suddenly, he sensed movement behind him as if a mountain had just fallen from the sky. He could feel the ground give way to the pressure of a foreign weight as if ten trolls were standing on the same spot. The sounds of breathing came like an explosion. He focused his senses to the noise and weight trying to discover the monstrosity that had invaded the forest and its peacefulness. As he focused on the intruder he was overcome by a sense of anticipation and intensity. Thoughts shot through his mind like a whirlwind, feelings of excitement, desire, love and a strange need to approach unheard.

Thane smiled knowingly, instinctively perceiving with what and with whom he was dealing. He opened his eyes and for a fraction of a second thought he was looking over the tops of the trees out towards the ocean. Then he felt strangely heavy as if encumbered by his body while his thoughts seemed thick as if wading slowly through mud. It was but a brief moment before he felt normal again and his senses cleared but what a strange feeling it had all been.

              “You can come out now Tam,” he finally said. “I know where you are.” There was silence. “Come on Tam. You are in front of a small tree about one quarter of a stone’s throw away, directly behind me.”

             
There was silence for a moment longer and then Thane could hear a heavy sigh and footsteps coming towards him.

             
“By the mother’s blood,” Tam exclaimed in exasperation as she came up to where Thane was sitting and plopped down next to him. “How come I can never sneak up on you, Thane of the five Tane?”             

“Now don’t start with the name calling, Tam,” he returned with a bit of an edge to his voice, “or I’ll leave right now and that will be the end of today’s lesson.” She always knew what buttons to push to get at him and it drove him crazy.

              “I’m sorry,” she replied unconvincingly before taking the blanket he offered her and wrapping it around her shoulders. “I’m just so frustrated! I’m never going to get it right. How can you always tell when I’m coming?”

             
Thane suddenly realized that he wasn’t sure what had happened to cause him to know she was there. It wasn’t until he had entered some sort of self-induced trance that he knew she was behind him. How had he done that? And were those actually her feelings that came over him so strongly?

             
“Well?” Tam pressed. “Are you going to answer me or just sit there with that silly look on your face?”

             
Thane returned from his perplexing thoughts and looked at her dumbly. “I…uh…I’m not quite sure,” he whispered.

             
“Well that’s great! How am I ever going to get good at it if you don’t know how to teach me?”

             
“I mean,” he rushed, trying to recover. “I’m not sure how to explain to you how to improve on it.”

             
Tam looked at him with furrowed brows. “Are you all right, Thane? You look a bit anxious.”