Awakened, page 21
He pulled himself out of his reverie and nodded to her before scanning the crowd for the rest of the group. They had agreed to meet where he stood now just before nightfall so that they could begin their trek during the evening. It wasn’t quite the time yet, but he hadn’t expected them all to be gallivanting through the shops until now. The crowd was still bustling, despite the approaching storm and night. That’s how it was here in the Plains of Erisdell. In some ways, he liked how lively it was, but in other ways he hated how on edge the crowd left him.
As he looked about, his eyes fell on a hooded figure standing across the way. A chill went through him as he recognized the boy. He couldn’t see his face, but he knew who it was. Riln’s ‘pet destroyer’. Prost made a point to not talk to him or interact with him except when necessary. So far, it had worked out just fine. The Destroyer reminded him too much of Riln and his slinking creepiness. Perhaps that was the product of all the private sessions Riln had held with the boy for as long as Prost could remember. It didn’t surprise him that he was hooded and hiding, that was usual for him.
“Master Prost, I’m sorry I’m late! I—”
Prost held up a hand and the voice behind him cut off.
“I don’t want apologies, Iridan, I want answers. We’ll address your tardiness in just a moment.”
“Yes, master.”
Prost turned and stared down at the little man. He wasn’t actually that much shorter than Prost, but he seemed to shrink down in his presence, making him appear so much smaller. Iridan wasn’t old, he was middle aged, but he was balding. The look was unbecoming of a man his age. Despite the condition of his hair, Iridan was quite fit and muscled, his arms bulging through his tight shirt and his neck thick as a tree trunk.
“Where is the boy? Your first letter placed them here three days ago, but your next said they had moved on.”
“Y-yes sir. They went north, straight north without much deviation. After they slaughtered my pets, I had them followed for a time. That’s what my informants told me, at least—”
“And who is following them now?”
Iridan paled at the question.
“Why master, my informant stopped following a day ago so that he could tell me where—”
“You didn’t send anyone else?! You imbecile! They could be anywhere!”
The shopkeeper shrunk down further at this outburst and looked as if he were trying to hide behind a table that wasn’t there.
“No! Master, I didn’t send a person to follow them. I sent a bird! She’s right good at tracking people! Never you mind that!”
Prost wasn’t completely satisfied at the thought of an animal tracking the party, but at least the man wasn’t overly incompetent and had continued tracking them.
“Why did you not stop them? You were told to capture them, or at least stall them as best as you could. Yet here we are, and here they are not. How did you fail?”
Iridan looked offended at the comment.
“I did send my spine hog army to at least kill some of ‘em, but they had a Lightbearer with ‘em. He right blew up my precious pets with a mere hand flick. I’ve never seen anything like that. I managed to skewer a few of ‘em pretty quickly, and I thought that I had the best of ‘em, before they blew up my hogs.”
Prost glanced to the side at the Destroyer they had brought with them. He had seen firsthand the power of a full Destroyer, and it wasn’t something you could prepare yourself for. Mert was a fledgling in comparison, as were all second-birth Destroyers.
“With their injuries, I figured I had stalled ‘em for a time, but the foggin’ Lightbearer healed ‘em quicker than I could do anything about. I didn’t stay around much longer after that. They’d have sure caught me and killed me.
That was it. It confirmed that Avryn was with them.
Fog it! That is going to complicate all of this.
“You were told to do everything that you could to stop them. It sounds to me like you did not. Our partnership depended solely on the keeping of our deals, and you have failed me, Iridan.”
“But—no. I—I—didn’t fail. I’m tracking them now, see? They won’t get much further without you knowing where they’ll be and—”
“When will your bird return?”
The man sighed, realizing that any explanation was going to be lost on the powerful man before him. Prost liked that he had that effect on most of his ‘partners’. They never were quite that, more like his inferiors, and he made sure to make them feel that way. It made working with them a lot easier when they feared him.
“She’ll return on the morrow. She comes to my shop every two days to see if anyone’s ready to follow. You can go with her after that to their position.”
“And what’s this bird’s name?”
Iridan paused at the question, clearly perplexed that Prost needed to know such a menial piece of information as the name of the tracking bird.
“Speeker, that’s her. Why would you—?”
His knife cut the man’s throat cleanly, Iridan’s eyes open in shock. Prost stood there, a fire in his eyes as he watched the man clutch at his neck, blood pouring through his fingers. Without much of a thought, Prost turned to the north and began walking. His murdering of Iridan would likely cause a commotion soon, but they would be gone before that. Stopping just a few shops down, Prost leaned against the pole of a tent and watched as a crowd gathered around the body of the man.
“Lanser’s beard, Prost. Couldn’ yeh have waited till dark at least?” Alts said as she came up beside him.
“I didn’t want to listen to his babbling or excuses anymore.”
Mert came and stood next to Alts, an annoyed look on his face.
“Well, now what are we gonna do? We have to wait until tomorrow for the bloomin’ bird to show us where to go.”
“Shut it, Mert.”
The rest of the group arrived shortly, each of them skirting around the crowd as they approached, a look of concern on their heads. Prost hadn’t worked directly with all of them, particularly Yanlin, their Fixer, but they seemed to understand right off the bat not to mess with him. With unspoken communication, they all seemed to know that Prost was the cause of that chaos.
“Vint, I need you to See Iridan’s bird. Tell me where she is, and how she got there.”
A man with brown hair cut very close to his scalp stepped up to him. He was short, much shorter than Prost, and very bulky. Vint looked to be almost twice the width of himself, which made him look disproportionate in nature. The man and his twin sister, Lathe, were both Shielders, but Vint had chosen Seeing as his second-born power and was actually quite gifted, from what the other Seers had said.
“Tell me about him.” Vint said. His voice had an accent that clearly marked him from the mountains in the southeast.
“I only got her name, which is Speeker. And she supposedly makes her way to the shop of that dead man over there every two days. His shop is just over there, not too far from where he died.”
Vint raised an eyebrow at the brazen comment about another human’s death. He was too soft of a man in Prost’s opinion, but he was very gifted.
“You know that I work much better with more of a description. Why did you not get one?”
“Your reputation precedes you, Vint. Now, See.”
Vint scowled, his thick brown eyebrows framing his eyes, making his wide set nose seem much larger than it was.
Breathing in deeply, Vint closed his blue eyes and exhaled slowly. He did this a few more times before his eyes snapped open suddenly. Instead of the normal color and white of his eyes, his entire eyes were glowing brightly with a reddish sheen, characteristic of all Lightbearers from Watchlight.
Prost stared at Vint who stood there, unmoving, while his eyes Saw things that no one else there was able to. Though it seemed like an eternity before the glow in his eyes left him, it had only been a short time. As quickly as they had started to shine, his eyes faded and he gave Prost an apologetic look.
“I’m not a full Seer, Prost, I’m only a second-born. I can’t See the present and past as well as I can see an actual future. I either need more information about the bird, or we need to create a future that I can See more easily. You should not have hastily killed the man.”
Annoyed at the limitation of the man’s powers, Prost growled softly, thinking about a possible solution.
“Idiots.” A voice cut in, interrupting Prost’s trail of thought.
He turned, anger flaring in his chest, and glared at the woman that had spoken up. Vint’s sister, Lathe, was inspecting her nails casually, acting as if what was happening was little concern to her. She was Vint’s twin, and they looked frighteningly similar, despite the differences in their gender. She also kept her hair cropped so close to her head that you could see the shape of it. Her build was the same as Vint’s, wide set, bulky, almost fat, and her eyes the same striking blue. The only difference was her unusually large breasts that poked out heavily in front of her. That, and her disposition was almost the exact opposite of the considerate and kind brother of hers.
“You said the bird comes back every two days to the dead man’s shop? Just leave someone here and let them follow the bird. I vote Mert, he’s the most annoying one, anyway.”
Mert, hearing the comment, merely grinned and made a hooting noise as if to validate her claim of his annoyance. She rolled her eyes and spat on the ground. Lathe didn’t like people in general, and she often thought that she was far better than those around her. It was a fascinating event, finding twins that had awakened on the same day and had both awakened as Shielders. The two were inseparable since then. The party didn’t really need two Shielders, but Vint had chosen his second-born power as Seeing and she chose Destroying. That would come in handy, at least.
“This would work, actually. Though I don’t think leaving Mert is wise. His Moving will be needed, should conflict arise.”
Prost hated to agree with Vint, but he was left with no choice. Mert, no matter how stupid and bothersome he was, could actually be handy in a fight. He was their only Mover in this party, and they couldn’t afford to leave any of their Lightbearers. That is why they had brought a few normal soldiers—they were expendable.
“You.” Prost said, pointing to a plain looking soldier that they had brought along. He was fairly new to Watchlight, so Prost hadn’t bothered to get to know him, let alone his name. “Head to the merchant’s shop, wait for the bird to come back, then follow it to where the boy and the wench have gone. It’s just over there.” He gestured to where the dead man’s shop was located. After a brief description of the shop, the man set out to hold the post until the bird arrived.
“Now, is that sufficient of a future for you?”
Vint nodded, seeming satisfied. Once again, he concentrated and his eyes began to glow, their reddish gleam casting a grim look on the faces of those standing around him. The clouds had gotten close enough to partially block the setting sun, so the darkness became stark against the glow.
He was in the trance for a bit longer this time, and a smile spread across his face.
“I See where they are now, yes. The bird will return tomorrow, and she’ll lead our soldier north a few days. They seem to now be in a glade, a day from Arrant Falls. I cannot see their destination, but they will be at the falls by the evening tomorrow.”
Prost cursed to himself. They were quite a distance away. He didn’t like it, but they would have to travel in the storm and hope that it would delay Avryn and their group enough that they could catch up and intersect at the falls.
The light faded in Vint’s eyes again and they all stared at Prost. As much as some of the people in the group didn’t like it, they knew he was in charge and the call was his.
“Get the horses. We move out, now.”
Mert let out a whine at the decision.
“But it’s going to be stormin’ soon! I hate getting wet in the storm.”
“If I cared about that Mert, I would let the boy and Janis get away and let Riln’s wrath fall on us. But I don’t, so get your foggin’ behind on your horse and let’s move.”
Mert feigned offense at the comment, but did as he was told. The rest of the group followed suit.
“Neera, in the storm we’ll need you to Light the way as much as you can. I wouldn’t worry about being seen by anyone, the storm’s going to be a bad one.”
“Very well, sir.” Neera replied.
She was always overly polite to her superiors. No matter how gruff or rude Prost was to her, she maintained her coolness and used honorifics when addressing him. He didn’t particularly like it, for it made him feel old, and a bit more hard in nature than he actually was, but he couldn’t hate Neera for it. It wasn’t just to him that she was kind, but to everyone.
“Do you think you can?”
“I awakened years ago as a Lighter—this will be no problem, despite the storm.”
She was confident in her abilities, that was good. Neera stood tall and lean. Her skin was dark, so dark that when night came, she blended in well, something Prost could only manage by wearing black clothing. Her hair was thick and coarse, black as night, cut around her shoulders. She hailed from the northern mountainlands, characteristic of which was her dark skin and hair.
“Good, let’s move.”
In a few moments, the whole group had gathered their horses and tied on the new things they had purchased. Prost lurched himself into his saddle and kicked his horse into motion. By the time they had reached the forest line, the clouds had reached over their heads and a slight rain had begun to fall. The wind hadn’t picked up yet, but he could feel it. It wasn’t far behind them.
“Neera, now.”
Neera breathed in and held her hands out before her. In a flash of brilliance, a large orb of red Light burst into life in front of her. Spreading her hands, the orb multiplied into a dozen others of the same size and flew to the edges of the group, hovering a few feet above their heads and surrounding them in a tight circle, some extending into the forest to show the way, should anything dangerous try to approach.
“RIDE!”
Prost kicked his horse into motion and it began running. The Lights closest him followed at the same pace, illuminating the whole area. Just as he began the run, the wind picked up in fierceness and buffeted his clothes. The torrent that followed left him soaked to the bone in mere moments. He gritted his teeth against the cold of the wind and rain, but felt a thrill within himself. He loved the rain. Instantly, he felt a burst of energy and excitement as he led the party north, toward Arrant Falls.
Chapter 11
The rain pummeled the ground, roaring loudly enough to drown all other surrounding sounds out easily. It was morning, that was evident by the dull grey light that filtered through the pouring rain, but what time in the morning, Marric couldn’t tell. Wet earth and plants produced a smell that was actually quite nice, had he not been soaked and cold at the moment. He sat with his legs up to his chest, trying to fend off the uncomfortable feeling of coldness. It really wasn’t that cold outside, but the strong wind and rain seemed to cut directly through his clothes and touch his skin with its kiss, making it seem freezing.
“Well, at least we git ta take a break, righ’, Mar?” Harmel said cheerily, also keeping his legs curled up to stay warm.
Marric stared at him incredulously. The man had a strange way of staying cheery in the worst of situations. Just a few days ago, he had cracked some joke about being just like their dinner of meat on a stick after being skewered by multiple spines from the hogs.
“Oi’m jus’ sayin’, we could be a lot worse, tired’n all tha’.”
The deluge hadn’t let up all morning. It had started in the middle of the night and woken them all up with a start. With urgency, they had tried to prepare a shelter of branches, roots, and other plants, but it was mostly washed or blown away with the strength of the storm. Where Marric and Harmel sat now was a sad excuse for a shelter—all that was left was a branch of considerable size propped up against a tree slanting down at a steep angle. It did little else than cause the rain to run down its length and create a pool down at the bottom. There was some foam spinning idly as the rain-created river flowed into the puddle. What created the foam, Marric couldn’t tell.
Well, I guess he’s not wrong. I was getting pretty tired with our pace. Though I wouldn’t count this as rest, Marric thought.
Though the comment about rest was a strange one, not to mention that it was delivered at a really strange moment, it did seem to warm Marric up a bit.
“Why do you say things like that? It’s like when things are completely horrible, you seem to see the good in it all.”
Harmel produced his famous giddy grin that he showed ever so frequently. His smile was a bit crooked, the left side of his mouth pulling up a bit higher than the other.
“Well, yeh see,” he said matter-of-factly, “Oi figure Oi have th’right to be ’appy, no? Life ’as a way of gettin’ yeh down, bu’ tha’ don’ mean Oi ’ave ta feel th’same, hmm?”
Marric smiled back at the man’s stupid grin.
“I think you’re a bit strange, but it’s nice that you can feel that way.”
Barely audible through the pouring rain and wind was the yell of someone approaching. Harmel’s face hardened into an uncharacteristically serious form as he reached for his sword. Avryn appeared through the sheet of water, hair pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of his face. His clothes drooped off of him, their water-filled weight yanking them down to the ground.
“I take it you didn’t hear me, did you?” Avryn shouted again, a grimace on his face. “We found a place to hole up for awhile. Let’s get the bags.”
Marric felt a small flame of hope in his chest at the sound of that. Perhaps they could light a fire and warm themselves for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. When the rain had first woken them, they had opted to wait out the storm as a group, then continue on as soon as it broke. After their makeshift shelters gave up the ghost and they saw that the rain wasn’t changing its pace, Shrell and Avryn decided to search for more adequate shelter. Janis didn’t say much, but she slipped into the rain herself. They could only assume that she agreed with them and was doing the same.
