Wind Rider (5 page)

Kara glared at me. “Didn’t you see how
Woltan
has been avoiding using magic?”

“How was I supposed to get rid of them?”

“Smoked them off, or put a stinging powder. But
now that you’ve used magic, I might as well too.”

She reached down and touched her legs, and said a
word so quietly I could not hear her. The leeches disappeared.

Then
Woltan
was upon us,
scowling. “Why are you using magic? The dark lord has his eyes open, and he
looks for you. Your magic will have put a marker here for everyone to see. We
have to get moving now, to avoid unwanted company.”

“Leeches and crocodiles are not unwanted company?”
I asked, hoping for a smile.

Woltan
shook his head.
“I am glad you’ve regained a sense of humor, Anders, but I see nothing funny
here. There are a lot worse things that can come to call than leeches and
crocodiles. Magical creatures, more evil and far stronger than anything we have
met. And since my people have been in our walled city for so long, we are
ill-equipped to deal with them.” His face flushed, and he turned away.

Kara put her hand on his shoulder. “
Woltan
, it must be hard to leave a city for the first time
in your life. But remember there is evil here that none of us have seen. And
your people have kept alive knowledge and wisdom that the rest of us have
lost.”

Woltan
nodded. “We must
work together. But for now, let’s get out of here, and in the future, avoid
magic when not strictly necessary.”

“At least until we reach the relative safety of
our people,” Kara nodded, putting her hand on my shoulder.

Our people
.
Kalle
wasn’t here with us, so why was she saying that? I couldn’t help smiling then,
because I realized she was talking about me, too. Suddenly, I wanted nothing
more than to meet my kindred, explore what it meant to be
Kriek
.

Woltan
was looking at
me. “So I have your word, too, Anders?”

I nodded.

Woltan
looked worried.
“If your life is threatened, use magic. But go first for your sword. And
remember, we are being watched. Let’s get out of here.”

After the excitement of the river crossing, it all
seemed to blend into one long road. There were tree roots and other
impediments, and my feet felt numb and sore at the same time. My eyes numbed
too — there was little to see except trees on both sides. Finally we came to a
small clearing. It was getting dark, and
Woltan
called a halt.

We all sat down and let our packs fall. Cullen
began digging a pit with a small shovel, then lining it with rocks. Elias and
Karsten
collected wood from the clearing, and the woods
nearby. Soon they had a big fire going, and
Karsten
went with Cullen looking for food in the dying light.

The rest of us huddled around the campfire.
Woltan
and Kara made soft beds of old rotting leaves
covered with newer smooth ones and lay down.
Woltan
lay flat, facing the sky. “In a few hours we will set watches. Everyone needs
to rest, and the watches will be short. We will need to keep a fire burning.”

I got to my feet and started gathering firewood
from the clearing. My feet still hurt, but it felt good to do something besides
walk for hours upon end. It was definitely more pleasurable to travel the
Kriek
way — there in an instant. But then I remembered my
uncle’s eyes upon us, and how we all had been frozen, our bodies burning up
with energy, our brains frying.

Perhaps it
was
better to walk a bit.

There was also something satisfying about making a
great pile of wood, ready to be turned into heat and light. All without magic,
unless you called fire magic — there was something magical about the heat and
light it gave, when you contained it.

Elias and
Karsten
returned with food they had gathered nearby: mushrooms, and a few roots and
tubers.
Woltan
examined and pronounced them all
edible. And there was meat; some dried salted pork that
Karsten
had brought along to flavor everything. It all went into the soup;
Karsten
and Elias had found a small stream, and even caught
several small fish, which
Karsten
would clean and
then bake in the coals. It was amazing how much they foraged and scrounged up
in such a small period of time; I figured it must be exciting for them to be
outside the gated city, for the first time in who knew how many generations.

Soon it was completely dark, but you could barely
tell with the fire there, lighting and warming us. We slept around the fire in
a circle, and I fell asleep watching
Woltan
, taking
the first watch, and then before I knew it
Woltan
was
waking me, and I sat there, rubbing my eyes, and then I stood, until my watch
was over; and although several times noises in the night startled me, and a few
animals walked across the clearing, nothing approached the fire and I saw
nothing all hour with my third eye. When I woke up
Karsten
to take my watch we talked for a little bit, in whispers, mostly about how cold
it was, but then
Karsten
told me to go to sleep. I
fell back asleep almost before my eyes were shut.

I felt the morning before it awakened me — felt
the light on my cheek and my eyes, the sun’s light and warmth. Then I was
sitting up, staring at the campfire.
Woltan
was up,
and so was Elias. They were talking quietly a few yards away, but I couldn’t
hear anything but the crackling of the campfire. It was almost as if there were
voices in it, speaking to me. The flickering flames too seemed to beckon me in.
I stared at the flames and felt something change in me, felt like I was leaving
my body and falling into the fire. But it wasn’t fire. It was my home, and
there was my uncle, smiling at me…

Come home. You belong with me, not with those
traitors. You know the one truth; we will rule together. All the rest is lies
and half-truths.

I felt confused and lethargic; I couldn’t move my
body. I stared at the fire and saw my uncle. My uncle beckoned to me with a
fiery hand. His face smiled and his laughter crackled in the fire.
Come.
Together we will free your mother, and live together, all three of us.

It was then that I felt something. I realized how
numb I had become, and felt a buzzing at my side. I reached down and then the
sword was in my hand, and then it was out of the scabbard, and I swung it in
between myself and the fire. At last my mind was clear again, though I still
saw the eyes and the face in the fire. I held out the sword like a wand, facing
the fire, and the face smiled at me.
Bring the sword with you. With it, we
can rule everything and everyone.

I felt all the power I possessed move from my body
to my mouth, and follow my arm to the sword: “VERSCHWINDEN!”

A bolt of blue fire shot forth from the tip of the
sword, hitting the smiling crackling face of fire straight in the forehead. For
a moment the face looked panicked, shocked. Then he held up a hand, a pentagram
on the palm, and then the fire was just a fire.

I sat back down again, exhausted.

Woltan
crouched down
next to me, and Elias with him.

Elias looked me in the face, concerned. “What
happened?”

I shook my head. “I saw him, again. Through the
fire. He was trying to get me to come with him again.”

Woltan
looked disgusted.
“Fire gazing is an old art, another way of
scrying
.
You must keep your mind focused and alert. The dark lord will obviously stop at
nothing to find you, and to bring you to him. Could you see where he was?”

I shook my head, again. “I only saw his face, and
his palm.”

“His palm?”

I nodded. “When I spoke the spell, it hit him in
the head. But he brought up his hand to ward it off.” I got to my knees, and
stood up then, and they stood up with him.

Elias touched my arm. He looked worried. “Was
there a design on his palm?”

I nodded. “A pentagram. Why?”

Elias shrugged. “A recurring dream I have. Of a
hand, with a pentagram on it, raised, and I scream, and then I wake up.”

Woltan
put his hand on
Elias’s shoulder, and we stood there for a moment, watching the campfire that
was now only a campfire once again.

Then he was waking everyone up, and Elias was
throwing dirt on the fire; we broke camp in all of ten minutes.

IV

It started to rain just as we hit
the road, and the rain followed us all morning. The clouds above us were so
dark and full of wrath that
Woltan
did not discount
Elias’s suggestion that perhaps the dark lord had cursed us. Soon everything we
had that was not protected in a bag was soaked through and through. The rain
became torrential by mid-morning, and when the road became more of a small
stream,
Woltan
suggested we seek shelter. But we
found nothing but trees …

Now I stood huddled with the others under a huge
pine tree, just twenty paces from the road. The smell of sap and needles
mingled with the rain, and although we were soaked, I felt a little better
huddled next to the others. The pine tree was big enough for us to all stand
huddled around it, and the pouring rain slowed around us. I wished I could cast
a spell, to dry myself and the others off, but if the dark lord knew more or
less our position, any
spellwork
would only make it
clear to him exactly where we were.

Elias spoke then. “This tree is very
very
old. I can hear its thoughts.”

Kara nodded, wiping water off her face. “It’s a
good tree.”

Woltan
spoke then.
“Let’s rest here a bit, and eat and drink a little, and then seek more
permanent shelter for the night. If I remember right, we’re coming to
mountains. There, even if the dark lord sends all the bad weather at his
disposal at us, we shall find shelter among the rocks. If luck is with us,
perhaps we will build a small fire.”

Karsten
brought out the
rest of the rolls. My hands were numb as I leaned back against the tree and
fumbled with the roll — it was soggy, but once I got it in my mouth, chewed it
up and swallowed, it brought warmth to my stomach, a warmth that spread out
slowly but wonderfully to the rest of my body, until I could almost feel my
hands and my toes.

I stood up then, and looked around. Through the
rain I could see
Karsten
,
Woltan
and Cullen, chewing and staring out into the rain. Elias and Kara were
invisible, their backs against the far side of the tree.

I heard something then — it sounded like singing,
or laughter, or singing laughter. It came from all around us, and it came from
above us, in the tree. I shook my head. My mind must be playing tricks on me –
I was losing my marbles in the endless rain. But when I turned to the others, I
saw Kara with her head cocked to the side, and then
Woltan
too, looking around, searching.

Elias spoke again then: “The tree is not the only
thing old here; can you hear the laughing voices?”

I could hear them, through the noise of the rain;
somehow they cut through the weather as though they were not part of it, or
were unaffected by it. I shivered. If only I could feel as happy and carefree
as the voices sounded.

There was a tap on my shoulder.

Would you join us, then?

We all looked up. Green semi-transparent people
stood among the branches of the tree, beckoning to us.

The answer came from Elias of course, and it was
loud and strong.
If you are friendly.

The green people laughed, and arms reached down to
grab and pull me up. They were hard to see, like glimmers in the air, movement
in the mist. The storm clouds thundered above and lightning hit not far away.
Someone must have sensed my worry, because I heard:

The storms will not hit here, no matter who
controls them.

Soon we were all up on the first branch, and I
tried to concentrate instead on the green people around me.

If you looked at them directly, they disappeared.
Out of the corner of my eye, though, I could see them laughing and pointing and
singing. I closed my two eyes and opened the third.

The world burst into color.

The people I could barely see with my normal eyes
glowed like green torches when I looked with my third eye, and their laughter
and speech were like fireworks, exploding from their mouths. The tree was like
a small city, and we were only at the entrance. There was a gate in front of
us, open, and then a spiral stairway up the enormous trunk, between the
branches. Already, a few branches up, I could see a kind of room, and above it,
there were more.

We had stopped for shelter underneath an enormous
tree, an ancient living thing whose thoughts rumbled slowly along for those who
would listen, and that held in its branches a small city full of voices raised
in magical song. Looking at the trunk, not only could I hear the voices of the
tree people — I could see as well how their voices sang to the tree, their
voices bands of color that reached out into the trunk, mixing there with the
multicolored thoughts of the tree.

Elias tapped me on the shoulder. “There is as much
energy here as in the city.”

I nodded. There was strong magic here, and it was
good, green magic. I could feel it, could see it, could smell it in the fresh
clean scent of the evergreen.

Suddenly lightning struck a nearby tree with a
great flash and blast.

There was a scream of rage from inside the tree,
an explosion of orange inside it, and its branches shook briefly, knocking me
off balance.

The singing had stopped.

The dark lord is angry with you. We must close
the gate. Once we are all inside he cannot see us. Until then he can see all of
you, and although he cannot strike our tree, he will do more damage to her
children. Hurry, please.

We hurried through the gate. I looked back to see
the gate close behind us, and a web of green light take its place. Then the
singing began again and when I looked out, I saw that the whole of the tree was
covered in a web of green light, a web that touched every individual in the
tree, and connected to the tree trunk. Everywhere, energy circulated. I could
feel that energy protecting and also, somehow, hiding us.

I heard Elias’s thoughts then.

Yes, Anders, somehow we are safe here; we can
do magic, or think aloud; and he cannot hear us or reach us or touch us. It is
quite amazing, actually. Ancient magic.

Woltan
stood beside me,
and pointed.
It is all very amazing, but we would do better for the moment
perhaps to concentrate on our hosts.

I saw up just ahead a group approaching. They were
all a little transparent, and green, and if you looked at them with your third
eye they were bright burning green fires, so bright that you almost had to look
away. They were strongly magical, whatever they were.

Are they elves?

There was suddenly much laughter again.

Three of the group came forward and presented
themselves.

The tallest one, who had a long green beard and
very little hair on his head spoke first in our minds.
My name is Erik
Fredrikson
. As the eldest here, I will welcome you to the
tree mother. Your coming is not unexpected, and we welcome the opportunity to
help you in your quest against the man who calls himself the dark lord, and who
has poisoned so much of our forest.

At this there was a collective sigh, and a groan
from the tree, that shook the branches again.

Erik smiled a bitter smile.
Even mentioning him
causes great pain to our tree mother. She has seen so many of her kin poisoned
or destroyed.

The tree shook again.

Erik frowned.
So let us talk of something else
for the moment. You are all tired and weary, hungry and very wet. Come into our
guest rooms, and when you are warm and dry and fed, we will speak of how we can
help you on your way, and perhaps strengthen your group.

And then a green girl was in front of me, smiling,
and waving me on, and I looked over at Kara as she was led away too, and the
others, all to different parts of the tree. Then I was in a room — there was no
other word for it, though it was made of branches and leaves, a room that was
alive and green. On the floor there was a bed, and there was a place to sit,
and a place to wash, and the girl showed me with a lot of
pantomine
how to wash myself. But I reached out to her with my mind.

Thank you. What’s your name?

Her green face turned a little red then.
I’m
sorry, I didn’t realize you could speak with us. Most city folk can’t.

I am not most city folk.

She nodded.
We’ve heard of you. My name is
Ulrike Erikson.

Does that mean that Erik…?

He is my father. But you need to bathe now. The
water is warm; it is small but useful magic. Wash now and put your clothes in
here, and they will be cleaned and dried as you wash.

Useful magic.

Ulrike nodded.
I must go. We will see each
other soon.

I reached out his hand to keep her there, and
touched her hand.

There was a shock, and warmth flooded my body. She
looked me in the eyes then and I wanted to pull her to me, to pull her warmth
to my rain soaked cold. But she pulled her hand away, and I felt hot in the
face. The moment was gone.

You need to wash and rest, Anders. After you
have bathed and dressed again, rest. Everyone will rest. We all sleep here in
the late afternoon, to refresh our minds for the evening supper. And then we
will talk. One day, when the talk is done, we will dance. And if you will, we
will dance together.

And then she smiled at me once more before I could
answer, and she was gone.

I left my clothes where Ulrike had indicated and
washed myself. The water was hot as promised and smelled like clean pine. It
made me sleepy, and something about the tree made me feel safe and snug. When I
had finished washing myself, I put back on my clothes, which were dry and
clean, but a bit greener than I remembered them. They smelled good too, a
strong smell of pine that relaxed me. The bed of needles was soft and warm, and
soon I was asleep.

Perhaps it was the magic of the tree, but for once
my dreams were free of the dark lord. Instead, things forgotten from my
childhood came to my dreams with a brilliant clarity: swimming under water in a
lake and holding my breath so long that my father up above had scolded me; my
first attempts at magic — I had made a piece of paper move with my mind, and
flown a paper airplane around the room in circles until my father, proud but
annoyed, had snatched it out of the air.