Wandering Lark (62 page)

“You are in the Between,” she said. “This is how it was in the time before.”

“Time before what?”

“Before the Lord of Stone put his Mother’s Curse on us,” she said. “I am Astaleeya, Keeper of the Knowledge.”

“Knowledge of what?” Fenelon ventured.

“Knowledge of what was...and of what will be.”

Fenelon frowned. “What will be?” he asked. “Then...am I dead?”

Astaleeya shook her head, still wearing that infuriating smile. “Not yet,” she said. “But your time will come before it should one day.”

That was certainly not what he wanted to hear. “So where am I...”

“As I said before, you are in the Between.”

“Like where demons go when they gate?” Fenelon asked. “But I thought this place was poisonous to us...”

Astaleeya stepped back. “Poison? Demons?”

“Demons,” Fenelon said. “Ugly shape-shifting, magic wielding, people-eating monsters that live in the Void...”

For a moment, she appeared lost in thought. Then her face lost all tension as she looked at him again. “Youngerkin,” she said. “And Elderkin. The Youngerkin were the result of the Corruption of the Mother of Shadows. Is this what you mean?”

“Yes,” Fenelon said. He wasn’t exactly sure, but it made sense. Demons like Vagner, for instance, were said to have come into being during the age of the Shadow Lords.

Astaleeya shook her head. “No, this is not the place where Youngerkin travel. But this is the place where we dwell until the time of war.”

“Time of war.”

“Come...I will show you.” She turned and started out of the circle of stones. Fenelon hesitated. He was reluctant to stray far from where his body was supposed to be, and if this was just another form of his mage essence traveling outside his flesh, he did not want to forget where his body was. Astaleeya must have known this, for she turned and smiled. “You have naught to fear,” she assured him. “You will be returned to this place...”

Fenelon took a deep breath. “My father will worry,” he said.

“He worries now,” she said. “But we cannot tell him that you are well. We cannot speak to those who are not in the Between. For we are but memory to some, ghosts to others. We guard this place for it holds the Knowledge of the Way Before. And we guard the passage so that none may pass into the World of the Old Way. Come.”

“Garrowye is the World of the Old Way?” Fenelon said and followed as she left the circle.

“Garrowye, no. Taneslaw is the World of the Old Way. Garrowye has lost its way. Its land barely remembers what was once important.”

“And what was important?” Fenelon asked.

“Magic.” She said it in such a way that he shivered. “The life of the land was magic. And now that life is waning. Garrowye’s magic sleeps. Only in Taneslaw does magic live.”

“But magic lives where I come from,” Fenelon said. “There is plenty of magic in Ard-Taebh. In Carn Dubh, even in Ross-Mhor and the Riverwall Kingdoms and...”

Astaleeya stopped and fixed him with a hard stare. “Speak not the names of those lands here, lest the Mother of Shadows hear you. For she would grasp them in her dark claws, rend them and bury them in shadow. There is danger of this at all times...danger that must not be ignored. The Twice-Blooded Twice-Born will set the Mother of Shadows free, and only the Twice-Blooded Once-Born will have the power to summon She Who Sits At the Center of All Things.”

“You’re speaking in riddles,” Fenelon said. “Who is this Twice-Blooded Twice-Born?”

“Blood will beget blood in the circle of time,” Astaleeya said. “And when the circle comes around, blood of darkness will beget the Twice-Blooded Twice Born. Only if the blood of light comes full circle will the Twice-Blooded Once-Born come to past. I have seen this cycle before, and She Who Sits at the Center of All Things and guards the Balance of All Things can only defeat her dark sister if the Balance is threatened.”

“But the Balance is threatened,” Fenelon said. “And I have to get to Garrowye.”

She shook her head. “It is forbidden. The way is closed to all but those who have knowledge of walking through the stones.”

“You don’t understand,” Fenelon said. “A friend of mine has gone there, taken there by one called Ronan Tey and…”

Her voice became a howling wind. “Speak not the Name of the Betrayer!”

“The Betrayer? What do you mean?”

“The Bard who betrayed us. He came from Garrowye seeking songs, and we welcomed him as one of our kindred, but we did not know that the song he sought was one as ancient as time. He betrayed us and stole that which we had been guarding since the last Darkening.”

“What did he take?” Fenelon asked, but he had a feeling he already knew. Was it possible Ronan stole the knowledge of the Dragon’s Tongue Key from these creatures? It would explain why he had been so elusive as to his purpose for fleeing this land.

“He took the Soul Stone of the Elderkin,” Astaleeya said.

“Elderkin.  You mean a demon? There was a demon in the Soul Stone?” Soul Stones...he had heard of them in some ancient text. “What sort of demon? Why was it there?”

Astaleeya’s expression tightened. “Since you have asked in innocence, I will answer as the Keeper of Knowledge that must not be lost. The Soul Stone was entrusted to my people by She Who Sits at the Center of All Things. When the Betrayer stole it, he set the Elderkin free. This Elderkin was first born of its kind, and most precious to the White One, but it betrayed her by threatening to sunder the Balance of All Things, and so to punish it, she took its life and put it in the soul stone. She took its skin and etched it with the Knowledge that must not be forgotten and gave it to the Stone Folk, but they lost it in a game of chance and its whereabouts is unknown.”

Fenelon held his breath. The demon skin at Dun Gealach! It had to be.

“Its bones,” Astaleeya continued, “She Who Sits at the Center of All Things took and buried among the mountains herself so that none would find them. Its flesh, she devoured that it might never truly be parted from her...”

“And its soul? What happened to the soul of this Elderkin when Ronan set it free?”

“It consumed Ronan Tey. It became Ronan Tey.”

Fenelon felt his knees weaken as a wave of nausea overwhelmed him. He sank to the ground. His heart was thundering in his ears. It was as though something was pulling on him. But his mind continued to mull over what Astaleeya said.

It became Ronan Tey...

Then Ronan Tey is a demon...
And poor Alaric is carrying the mark of not one demon, but two.
         

Fenelon shook his head. “Look, we have to find Ronan Tey. We know he is going back to Garrowye, and he has taken my friend as a hostage, and they had another demon. A Youngerkin.”

Astaleeya’s eyes softened with unshed tears. “Then we are lost,” she said. “The Lord of Stone punished us for losing the Soul Stone. He turned our home into the Stone Forest and covered it with a sky of stone. He charged us in the name of She Who Sits at the Center of All Things to forever guard the path. If the Betrayer has walked through the stones and taken your friend to the Land of the Old Way, then it can only be to do one thing. To take revenge on She Who Sits at the Center of All Things for punishing him.”

“Then you must tell me the way there...” Fenelon felt the pull again. Like something trying to drag him into the ground. He fought it, not willing to leave yet.

“Do you not understand?” Astaleeya said, her fierce nature returning. “You cannot know the way for the way no longer exists. That was the curse of the Lord of Stone. He closed the way with our forest. None may pass who does not know the way to Walk Through the Stones. Those who come to this Forest are doomed to wander through the trees for an eternity, never find their way. Now, you must return to your flesh. You and yours must go back to your own land before the Forest of Stone claims you. Your very presence here heralds the beginning of the end. For it was told to us by She Who Sits at the Center of All Things that when strangers of another land came, the Circle of the World was on the verge of turning. The Twice-Blooded Once-Born will be born in a foreign place while the Twice-Blooded Twice-Born will bathe your land in blood... GO!”

“What? Wait, I have more questions!” Fenelon begged, but he was feeling so weak and unable to rise. His consciousness slipped into darkness that folded around him like warm blankets.
No, no, I can’t leave yet!
How could he convince this creature that he had to know the way?

“Fenelon! Open your eyes! Fenelon, please, son, open your eyes!”

That was Gareth’s voice, and the urgency was enough to make Fenelon obey. His head hurt, and his body felt weighty as though he had been floating in water for a long time and just crawled up onto land. Pale lights—lanterns and foxfire—slowly filled his vision, and with it, a worried expression on his father’s looming face.

“He’s all right,” Gareth said softly. “Hobbler, he’s alive.”

“Alive is a matter of opinion,” Fenelon mumbled. “My head feels like I’ve been kicked by a horse.”

Gareth helped Fenelon sit up.

“What happened to the blue people?” Hobbler suddenly said.

Gareth looked up. “They’re gone.”

“No, they’re still here, but they have done what they are supposed to do,” Fenelon said carefully. His own voice was thunder inside his aching head.

“What are you blethering about?” Gareth asked.

“Let’s go back to the inn,” Fenelon said.

“What? But we haven’t found our way to Garrowye yet.”

“And we won’t,” Fenelon said. “The way is closed unless we know how to walk through stone. The tunnel that brought the Haxons and the Stone Folk into our world has been buried under us for all time. That is what the Stone Forest and its Hidden Folk are guarding. The passage no longer exists, and this forest is nothing but a trap for the unwary...”

“You spoke to them?” Gareth said. “How...what did they say.”

“I’ll tell you when my head stops hurting. Let’s get out of here while we still can.”

“Are you sure you can make it?” Gareth asked. He helped Fenelon off the ground.

“I don’t have much of a choice,” Fenelon said. He started to take a step, but his head betrayed him. Before he could tumble to the ground, Gareth was there, pulling an arm around Fenelon’s waist and offering the support of a shoulder.

Fenelon smiled. It had been many years since he had leaned on his father for any reason. “Thanks,” he said.

Gareth merely nodded. “Perhaps once we get out of the Stone Forest, we can rest a spell and you can sleep off the headache. If we can’t go on, we might as well take our time going back.”

Fenelon was grateful for that. With a little maneuvering, they found the path and followed it out of The Stone Forest. Once they were well away from its borders, Gareth called for a halt. Fenelon was relieved for a chance to lie down and take a rest.

Culann had led Alaric to the Queen’s
quarters once they were both bathed and dressed. There, they found a bevy of women sitting around the Queen, and next to her on the pillows was none other than Talena. She looked quite happy in Alaric’s opinion.

At the sight of the men, her demeanor changed. She pulled herself away from the Queen and glowered at the King. Culann merely crossed the room and kissed his wife without a hint of shame. Alaric looked aside, only to realize Talena looked aside too. Clearly neither of them was “comfortable” with the affectionate display, especially since it seemed to be moving into a more serious range.

With a sigh, Alaric walked around to where Talena stood.

“So, how are they treating you?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Well enough, I suppose. They’ve not used torture, if that’s what you mean, unless you count scaring the wits out of me by telling me the truth about what I am. And that old harridan is a lot stronger than she seems.” She gestured toward one of the women who stood close by, hands clasped before her, eyes narrowed suspiciously on both Talena and Alaric. “She knocked me flat on my back.”

Alaric glanced at the woman with renewed respect. She ignored him and stepped forward to look at Talena.

“It is time for you to return to the tower,” she said. “The White One orders it. You and she still have matters to discuss.”