Kethril (2 page)

While growing up, Liselle began to gain
magical powers that she kept quiet from her family. After beginning
the journey with her cousin, Liselle began honing that magic into a
powerful force by studying with Tathan and Vevin. Deep in the
caverns of the Rojuun, she had touched awareness with the world of
Ryallon who gave her even more knowledge of mystical powers. The
result was that Liselle was more powerful than any wizard Tathan
had seen and her full potential was yet unknown.

Tathan sat on an old moss-covered log to
think, careful not to crush a spider looking for a strategic place
to spin a web. The companion’s goal was to get the princess to her
home country of Mayncal. They couldn’t go there directly because
the Rojuun and the Empire of Iynath were that way and both wanted
to recapture the princess. There was the obstacle of hundreds of
miles of the imposing Caaldith Mountain Range too. Their current
plan was to travel west to Kethril and find a ship that would take
them on the two to three month journey along the coast. They would
pass numerous countries along the way, many of which might try to
confiscate the princess if they became aware of her.

Saving a princess always seemed fantastic
when bards sang about it, but Tathan had known the reality wouldn’t
be so wonderful even before they started. He agreed at the time
because his companions wanted to and he wasn’t doing anything
anyway.

A tear ran down Tathan’s cheek. He stood in
alarm and wiped it off, not understanding why he would cry. Stress
was one thing, but the unexpected sadness tugging his heart was out
of character. Tathan looked around and saw the culprit at the other
end of the clearing. A black bunny with grey paws and purple
streaks through its fur was staring at him from next to a tree.

Bunnies didn’t seem dangerous considering
how cute and furry they were, but their magic was sinister. They
had the ability to cause emotions of melancholy and gloom in
creatures they considered dangerous. Those creatures became
apathetic and lost the will to attack the emo bunny. A group of
bunnies would create overpowering emotions in a predator and could
even cause it to run off a cliff in an act of suicide. Tathan got
out of the clearing in a hurry in case there were other emo bunnies
around to drive him to madness.

He walked back in the direction of the inn,
paying more attention to his surroundings. Tathan could handle
himself well in a city, but forests had different types of dangers,
many of which were subtle. He longed to be in a human city again
after so much time traveling through wilderness and Rojuun
territories.

Tathan sensed danger behind his left ear. He
tumbled to the side, came up with sword in hand and swung it in a
whistling arc. His blade thirsted for blood, telling him there was
an enemy that must be destroyed. Tathan looked for the person who
would dare to attack him, but the only thing he wounded was thin
air.

He looked down at the slightly curved sword.
It was stunning. Runes were etched the length of the black metal.
Whenever it was out of its sheath, it hungrily ate nearby light.
Tathan didn’t even begin to understand how and didn’t care. The
blade made killing easy, drinking in blood the way it did light. It
never took much, but some of the blood did stay in the blade. It
also protected him from things that wanted to harm Tathan and it
warned him about those things.

Liselle and the princess were afraid of the
blade, but they didn’t understand what it meant to him and how much
it protected him. He watched with fascination as the light warped
into it. It made no sound, even when he slashed it back and forth.
Just like light and blood, sound was absorbed into it.

A noise on his right caught Tathan’s
attention. He crouched and looked to see a naked woman staring in
fear from next to a tree. Blinking twice, he realized it was a
dryad. They were mystical creatures spiritually attached to the
trees of the forest. Legends told how a group of Druids once
encountered wild magic and mated with the trees around them,
resulting in dryads, which were half tree and half Druid. It
occurred to Tathan that plants did a lot of weird things to people.
He didn’t want to know what would happen if a person was lying next
to a bush when wild magic passed through.

The dryad’s green eyes were large with
fright as she stared at the horrific weapon. Her skin was like a
birch tree, white with strips of black color. Long leafy hair
flowed like a willow to the ground. She was five feet tall with
delicate features and all the curves of a woman.

Another thing Tathan knew about dryads was
that they adored human men, taking them into the branches or a
secluded clearing for a few days to show them the pleasures of
nature. They always released and guided the men out of the woods
afterwards. Tathan realized he was pointing the sword at her and
sheathed it. Instead of taking him into the branches, the dryad ran
away at supernatural speed, disappearing within the thick
foliage.

Tathan sighed. Getting lost in the trees for
a few days would have just complicated things and Liselle would
have found him anyway. He continued walking back to the inn,
enjoying the sounds and smells of the forest. While there were many
dangers, it could be peaceful and relaxing at times. He saw a doe
walking a short distance away. It didn’t notice Tathan because he
was just as silent and there was no breeze to carry his scent.

Upon reaching the edge of the trees, he
paused to look around. Everything was peaceful and as it should be.
The only sign of life was a wisp of smoke rising from a chimney on
the far side of the inn near the intersection. Tathan debated
whether to rejoin the group. If he was in a city, he’d disappear
for the day, but he just wasn’t in the frame of mind to deal with
forest dangers, so he sighed and trudged to the inn.

He was ready to go to Kethril. It was a
kingdom he hadn’t visited yet and the spirit for adventure was
strong in him. Tathan was looking forward to visiting Mayncal too,
another country he had never been to. Traveling by ship was best
because he had a price on his head in a few of the overland
kingdoms between Kethril and Mayncal.

Tathan wasn’t a bad person. He just tended
to get into trouble. There were laws against theft and killing
people even if it was justified. Most of the killing he had done
was in self-defense. Usually he had to defend himself against
somebody who was mad at him for stealing, but that was a minor
detail.

The biggest problem he faced was the
princess. He liked her so much it ached. It would be fantastic to
run off to some big city and live in secret with her, never telling
anyone where they were. That wasn’t going to happen because Liselle
and the others were determined to take Anilyia home in order to
prevent war, the collapse of kingdoms and the loss of tens of
thousands of lives. They were being quite selfish about the whole
thing.

He enjoyed pleasant smell of the river
flowing under the bridge. Tathan relished his life. Sure he had
come close to dying more times than he could count, been thrown in
jail, bound in chains, even undergone a little torture. Most of the
people he had met along the way were borderline crazy . . .
actually, most were far beyond the border. Tathan liked crazy
people. They fascinated him. Some said he was crazy too.

The one thing Tathan hated was the suffering
he saw. Throughout all his journeys, he had seen the pain and
horror in people’s eyes. Too many times, he had passed an alley and
listened to the screams of an unfortunate woman, or entered a
tavern and seen other women so tormented that any trace of hope was
gone. Men on the streets held cups out for a copper when in truth
they only wanted their dignity and self-respect.

Tathan had tried to help a few of those
women and men. Yet his efforts failed and there were always so many
more suffering the same fate. Sometimes, when he slept, he could
hear screams or see despairing eyes. Even in rural villages or
homesteads, he found suffering and people looking into his eyes in
hopes he would rescue them. The worst of all were the children. He
could see hurt and desolation in their eyes.

At various times, he asked others if they
saw those things too, but none did. For some reason people looked
at him differently, as though their souls communicated their
suffering to him alone. It haunted Tathan, although he didn’t speak
of it.

The one person who had never shown him eyes
of suffering was Liselle. She was pure and untainted by any
darkness found in the world. Once, in the bowels of the world, a
twisted creature called Krraa kidnapped and tortured her. Even that
nightmare didn’t create suffering behind her eyes.

Tathan walked around to the front of the inn
and entered the large stone doors carved with trees surrounded by a
pattern of vines. The common room of the ancient inn was enormous
and in excellent condition, though it was unfurnished. Everyone
else was standing at the bottom of the grand staircase that led up
to a gallery along the back and sides of the common room.

“Tathan! There you are. We were worried
about you.” Princess Anilyia’s voice was rich and mellow. She came
over to grab his hand. She always held his hand whenever it was
free. “I was surprised when I woke up and didn’t find you in your
sleeping bag. Where’d you go?”

He shrugged. “I took a walk into the forest
a little ways to enjoy the morning.”

“But you told me the forest was dangerous
and I shouldn’t go in there even if it
is
friendly to us.”
Anilyia frowned at him and set her free hand on a hip.

“That’s correct. You shouldn’t go into the
forest,” Tathan replied with an impudent grin. “It’s very dangerous
and you never know when an emo bunny is going to sneak up on
you.”

“Oh, ha, ha. That’s so funny . . . what’s an
emo bunny?” she asked, platinum brows furrowing.

“It’s a yummy snack!” Vevin exclaimed doing
a snack dance. He always had a dance for whatever was going on. The
most common was the happy dance and its infinite variations.

Liselle smacked him in the chest, which
didn’t slow the dance down even a little bit. She was five foot ten
inches with long black hair and grey eyes that matched Tathan’s. A
purple flower in her hair paid attention to everything that went
on. Tathan was very careful not to upset the flower if possible. He
didn’t understand what the flower was or how it communicated with
his cousin, but it looked at him sometimes when no one else was
paying attention.

She wore a black and grey swirled robe made
for her by a Rojuun girl. It was her favorite outfit when not
traveling. Her arms were crossed and she was half glaring, half
grinning at Tathan. “An emo bunny is a type of rabbit that creates
great sadness in other creatures to defend itself,” she explained
to the princess. “There were a few in the valley where we lived,
but the flowers kept me safe from them. They’re dangerous because
they can cause a creature to take harmful actions against
themselves.”

“That’s . . . interesting,” Anilyia said. “I
haven’t learned about them in my studies. My tutors didn’t find it
necessary to teach me very much about animals other than creatures
that could be poisonous.” She looked up at Tathan. “Why were you in
the forest?”

“I told you, I was taking a walk and
enjoying the morning. The mist is gone and it looks to be a nice
day.” Tathan stretched his muscles and yawned, causing everyone
else to yawn too. The lone exception was Sir Danth.

The knight was a bit of an anomaly. He was
charged with guarding the Crown of Morhain sixteen hundred years
earlier and had magical armor bound to his soul. His body died
after the first couple hundred years and now the armor was hollow.
The companions were the first people he had seen since taking his
place to guard the crown and he begged them not to leave him alone.
It turned out that the vault where the crown was had been tunneled
into from behind and all the treasure was gone anyway.

“When do you think we should leave, Master
Tathan?” the knight asked in a deep, clear voice that had a
metallic tone.

“Honestly, I’m ready to leave whenever
Vevin’s had enough rest,” Tathan answered, gesturing at their
purple friend. Dragons could stay awake longer than humans, but
tended to sleep longer as well. “The Lost Road Inn is a nice place,
but it’s too empty. I’m ready to get back to civilization.”

“Oh, I’m ready to go anytime. I feel much
better!” Vevin did an ‘I feel much better’ version of his happy
dance. “The last few days have been wonderful. I’ve slept a great
deal and cuddled with Liselle the whole time.” Liselle grinned at
him. Vevin was also wearing a Rojuun robe much like Liselle’s, only
his was green with silver patterns that highlighted his mercurial
eyes.

“I would like to venture forth into
civilization as well,” Sir Danth nodded.

“I want to go home,” Anilyia said, taking
the opportunity to hug Tathan. The closeness of her body felt
wonderful and Tathan couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her.
Her hair smelled nice too, although he resisted an urge to bury his
face in it. As it was, Liselle’s eyebrow arched at him.

“Then I say we go. Are you ready to travel,
Cousin?” he asked, ignoring the accusing eyebrow.

“Hmm . . . I like it here, but yes. I’m
ready to go as well. I just need to change into my travel clothes
and get my pack together.”

“I need to do that too,” Anilyia said, still
pressed against Tathan’s chest.

“Alright, I say we get our things together
and meet in front of the inn when we’re ready,” Tathan told them.
With nods, they all went to get their things. Sir Danth went
outside right away, not needing anything other than the enormous
sword strapped to his back, a rich burgundy cloak he wore and a
utility belt with a coin purse, dagger and various items.