The Forgotten Stone, page 45
Serete stayed with her until it was time, and they walked together to Sefer’s Knoll. Enouim gasped as they came into full view of the meeting point. A crowd of people waited, and in an open circle in the midst of them, Chayan swung two broadswords in a flourish.
“I’m beginning to think this was a bad idea,” Enouim whispered to Serete.
“You’re coming to that now, are you?” Serete nudged her. “I’m just kidding. If Eh’yeh brought you here, he must have a reason. And if anything goes sideways, I’ll be right here.”
“You can’t interfere with the exchange.”
“If she breaks an arm, I guess I’ll do my best to restrain myself, but I won’t watch her kill you. I’m not a Gorgenbrilder. I’ll do whatever I please.”
The two of them approached the crowd and chants broke out, one side chanting water warrior and the other, water witch. Chayan swung her swords again and lifted one in Enouim’s direction. The people roared.
Serete melted away into the crowd, and Enouim’s heart hammered. Her fingers trembled, and the empty dagger’s sheath at her belt taunted her. She’d purposefully left her dagger at home so that she couldn’t change her mind on her approach. At least if you die, you won’t regret it long, she thought. Eh’yeh help me.
The crowd parted as Enouim entered the ring in the center of the mass of people where Chayan paced like a hungry zegrath.
“Chayan, Chayan, Chayan!”
“Water warrior!”
“River witch!”
“Coward!”
Chayan lifted her swords to the air and let out a war cry that sent goosebumps across Enouim’s flesh. Chayan lifted a huge, muscled arm to point the end of her blade at Enouim’s chest. “Where is your weapon?”
Canukke stepped from the crowd and offered Enouim a scimitar. Malum Khoron-khelek’s scimitar, its famed black and gold markings glinting in the evening light. Chayan faltered, and a hush fell over those assembled. Enouim met Canukke’s gaze, and his eyes were as soft toward her as she had ever seen them. She felt his concern, his fear, as two people he cared for faced off against each other.
A gentle wind wafted through her hair, and Enouim felt a blanket of unexplainable calm. She glanced beyond Canukke and saw Vadik. He glanced at something invisible in the air and gave her a small smile and encouraging nod. Enouim took the scimitar and Canukke returned to the crowd. Chayan took in the scimitar and looked at Enouim with wide eyes.
Enouim leveled a stare at Chayan and swung the scimitar in as beautiful an arc as any practiced warrior. She whirled it downward and burrowed it into the dirt so that it stood on end at Chayan’s feet. Enouim knelt before her adversary.
“Pick up your weapon,” Chayan growled.
Enouim raised her eyes to meet Chayan’s, and when she spoke, her voice was low and steady. “I said I would offer you my bones. And I intend to make good on that promise.”
Surprise flitted across Chayan’s face, and she paced back and forth before Enouim. She threw one of her swords into the dust inches from Enouim’s knees. “Pick up your weapon!”
Enouim maintained eye contact but said nothing.
Chayan crossed the space between them and stooped until she was nose to nose with Enouim. “Why are you doing this?”
“The brutality of our people is little better than the Sumus. I will take no part in unnecessary violence. There is a better way, but I will let you do what you see fit.”
Chayan straightened. She paused, unsure of herself, and glanced behind her at Canukke. They shared some unspoken understanding, and Chayan twisted back to Enouim.
“Enouim Cokanda, I don’t know why you didn’t kill Malum Khoron-khelek, but it was not cowardice.” Chayan threw her final sword to the side, pulled Enouim to her feet, and crossed her arms into an X.
Gasps rippled through the crowd as the most unlikely of Gorgenbrilder’s warriors offered the mercy of strength. Chayan completed the gesture, picked up the Sumu emperor’s scimitar, and ran a finger down its sparkling blade. She lifted her voice for all to hear. “I have offered Enouim Cokanda the mercy of strength! I declare now in the presence of all of you that, though her decision with Khoron-khelek may be misguided, it was made with honor. Without her our people would still be subjected to his reign of terror, and the debt we owe her as a people is greater than any outstanding debt she may owe any individual. If man or woman takes issue with the water warrior, let them take it up with me.”
Chayan pressed the hilt of Malum Khoron-khelek’s scimitar firmly into Enouim’s hand and wrapped her own calloused fingers over top. She lifted Enouim’s fist with the scimitar high into the air, shouting, “Water warrior! Never to turn! Gorgenbrild forever!”
Shock reverberated through Enouim’s bones as the sea of people before her hoisted their weapons in the air, echoing back Chayan’s words.
“Water warrior!”
“Never to turn!”
“Gorgenbrild forever!”
51
Three months after the great battle, Enouim walked the paths of her homeland, relishing the light breeze toying with her hair and the soft light of evening. Somewhere a sheep lowed, a promise of a future where resources would again be plentiful. Few sheep or goats had avoided death or pilfering at the hands of the Sumus, but several had been saved, and some the Sumus had stolen had been recovered. Even so, much of the Sumu camps were burning when Gorgenbrilders came upon them, and little had been left behind. Traders had already been sent out to surrounding areas to barter weapons and other goods for stock animals.
On her left, a family rebuilt the stone wall of their home, two parents and three small children all carefully working to lay the stones. One of the children cried out and pointed at her as she passed, and the family looked up. The smallest child hid behind her mother’s skirts, and the father smiled and waved with the older two children. The mother glared at her with a piercing, accusing look. Enouim smiled weakly and offered a wave before turning away.
Three nights after Sefer’s Knoll, a quarrel had broken out over what to do with Khoron-khelek. The guards fought with one another, as did a mob of Gorgenbrilders outside, and finally Chayan had pushed her way through to his cell. In the dark of night she had stabbed him to death … only to find the next morning that it was indeed a tribesman but not Malum Khoron-khelek. No one knew what had happened, and half the people blamed Enouim. The other half blamed her indirectly, for not killing him when she had the chance.
All along her walk through Gorgenbrild people stopped and stared, muttering or whispering to one another. The sentiment had mostly been positive after Chayan’s mercy of strength, though somewhat confused, but she became more controversial again after Khoron-khelek’s disappearance. Sometimes people smiled and praised Enouim when she passed, some asked her about her powers, others only glared with disdain, and a few hurled insults. Enouim wanted none of it.
She rounded the bend at the edge of the residences and found what she’d been looking for—her favorite spot to get away, a little way off from any buildings, overlooking the cliff. She picked up her pace, and as she drew away from Gorgenbrild, her heart grew lighter and her breath came easier. As she drew closer, she noticed Canukke’s strong frame leaning against one of the few trees clustered together there by the edge of the cliff. She had hoped to be alone.
Enouim walked up the gentle slope and stood at the top of the cliff next to Canukke. Neither said anything. Swaths of dreamy pinks and oranges dressed the sunset for a glorious departure, doubled in the reflection of the ocean far off. Enouim wished she could see Yadara again, her gentle spirit painted with these brilliant colors. A light wind wafted Enouim’s hair away from her face and she closed her eyes, letting out a relieved, contented sigh.
She sat and hugged her knees, gazing out over the horizon. After several minutes, Canukke sat down next to her against the tree, arms crossed. Enouim glanced at him, but he was still looking out over the cliff. He seemed deep in thought, brows furrowed, as if working out all the problems of the world. Not wanting to pry, she looked away from him and back over the cliff.
“She’s beautiful, you know,” he said at last.
Startled, Enouim looked up. “Hmm?”
“My daughter. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on, if you can believe it. And I have seen much beauty.”
Enouim stayed quiet, but the corner of her mouth twitched. His rough exterior had softened somewhat since the battle, and he had spent every free moment with Edone and the baby.
“I am a great warrior of many exploits. My strength and experience are unmatched in Gorgenbrild. Yet still I cannot protect her from the evil polluting Yatzar.” He drew a deep breath. “If I cannot protect her, no man can.”
Enouim paused, then spoke slowly. “Perhaps no man can.”
“What kind of father does that make me?”
“I think it makes you the human kind.”
Silence settled into the air around them. She listened to the breeze rustling the leaves of the trees and breathed in the salt air. Enouim felt her heart beating in a low, constant rhythm, reminding her of the life she possessed. But she didn’t really possess it, did she? It was borrowed. There were no guarantees in life, and she was human too—without control over her destiny. But she was now convinced that her destiny was in safe hands.
“I had a dream,” he continued. “Back in the glades with Eh’yeh. I had pushed it aside pretty effectively until your little stunt in the Battle of Mercy.” Accusation laced his tone, but when she looked at him, his face was soft.
“Did you? So did I. And Gabor.”
Canukke shrugged. “Perhaps we all dreamed there. In the dream Eh’yeh was somehow dying in my stead, and his blood entangled and entrapped me, condemned me, drowned me. I knew I would be free and safe if only I surrendered to it, but I fought it. I didn’t want to give in.”
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t. I woke up at the last second before I choked to death on his blood. What is the purpose of such a dream?”
Enouim paused. “I think you already know. You can’t hold onto control forever, because it doesn’t work. As Kilith said to me once, would you rather follow something that works, but doesn’t make sense, or makes sense, but doesn’t work?”
Canukke nodded. “Eh’yeh has been pulling at my sword for a long time now. I think … I think soon it will no longer be mine, but will belong to him.”
Enouim smiled. “It is the freest you will ever be. We are all drowning in something or other.”
“I will not return to his glades now. Perhaps one day. But my place is here in Gorgenbrild, to rebuild and to lead, and to patch together the shambles of my family as it should have been. I have … I’m afraid I have not been a good husband.”
She sobered, thinking of Edone’s bruises. “I know.”
A tear slipped down Canukke’s cheek. He had not bidden it, but neither did he wipe it away.
“Things are starting to return to normal,” Enouim said, “though I’m not sure what normal is anymore. I’m beginning to think the new ‘normal’ will never quite be the same.”
“I think you’re right. But I am not sure how much of the difference is because of difference in the people, and how much is because of difference in us.”
“True. They see me differently now, and it can’t be undone. But it is just as well. I see them differently now too.” She sighed. “The people see me as a foreigner at best and a traitor at worst, staring at me everywhere I go. Some claim me as a Gorgenbrilder through and through, a hero, but that’s even more disturbing than the glares.”
“They hardly saw you at all before this. You were no one. Now that you are talked about, there will be strong opinions from a hundred different angles. But it’s not about you. If everyone agreed, it might mean something, but the fact that they all squabble about it tells a different story. You have been the catalyst of change, but only time will tell what sort of change it will be.”
“I’m not sure I want to be here long enough to find out. Gorgenbrild has become a weight to me.”
Canukke nodded. “I have a feeling you won’t be spending the rest of your years the way you spent them up until now. Oloren is already itching to get going on some venture or other, restless as ever despite her surgery. It seems you two may be cut from a cloth more similar than I expected.”
Enouim laughed. Oloren’s amputated arm had developed a serious infection and required another amputation surgery, so that her left arm now ended in a short stump just below the shoulder. She had lost none of her spunk in recovery, and was raring to go. “I would be at least as afraid to cross her now as ever before.”
“More so, I think—she’s always been small, and now she’s even smaller. Leaves all that fire in her tiny little frame even more concentrated.” He smirked.
“There you are!”
The voice took them both off guard, and Enouim jumped. She turned to find Serete sauntering toward them in his familiar long, confident strides. Her heart warmed to see him, and she smiled. The evening light shone favorably upon his handsome features, and she found herself distracted for a moment, taking him in.
“I have news,” he said excitedly, lighting himself next to them with the springing energy of a child.
The corner of her mouth twisted. She couldn’t help herself. “What kind of news?”
“Oh, the best kind. Adventure.” His eyes twinkled. “I’ve heard reports of something big in the waters to the north, something that has been frightening all the prey animals away, and with them the main food sources for surrounding areas. The rivers have been ‘behaving strangely’—your guess is as good as mine as to what that means. And there are rumors it’s headed this way.”
Her heart sunk. “You’re leaving?”
Canukke laughed, and Enouim shot him a glare.
Serete raised an eyebrow. “I just told you about an exciting adventure—focused on rivers—and all you can say is ‘you’re leaving’?”
“Well … aren’t you?”
Serete smiled, a little dumbfounded.
Canukke snorted. “You aren’t going to send this poor man off all alone, are you? Please.”
Enouim blushed. “Oh.”
Serete paused. “Well? What do you think?”
Enouim’s heart pounded. It sounded like salvation. A getaway, with less chances of dying than her last venture—but who knew? It was an adventure, after all. A smile slowly made its way across her face. Starting fresh, seeing the world. “What else do you know about this mission?”
“Oh, a few details, not much. Rangers often operate on rumor to get going.”
Enouim laughed. A year ago she never would have dreamed she would be in this position. But that was a year ago, and a lot had changed since then. She wondered what would change this time. She turned to Serete, eyes bright. “When do we leave?”
The End.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
Characters
Enouim – En-new-ihm
Chayan – Shy-ahn
Bondeg – Bone-deg
Quarot – Kwar-aht
Pleko – Play-koe
Qadra – Kah-druh
Malum Khoron-khelek – Mal-uhm core-on keh-leck
Pryan – Pry-on
Twedori-- Tweh-dore-ee
Canukke – Kuh-newk
Edone – Ee-doe-n
Balat – Bahl-aht
Pakel – Pah-kell
Oloren – Uh-lore-en
Vadik – V-add-ihk
Gabor – Gabe-or
Kilith – Kill-ith
Baird – Bare-d
Silas – Sigh-lahs
Kenan – Kee-nah-n
Banor – Bah-nore
Javen – Jah-ven
Jenulia – Jen-oo-lee-uh
Ruakh – Rue-ah-ck
Len – Lehn
Mereámé – Meer-ah-may
Eh’yeh - Eh-Hyeh
Canus – Can-uh-s
Amun – Am-uhn
Mayimesh – My-eem-esh
Iamwë- Ee-ah-m-weh
Poleia – Pole-ay-ah
Yadara - Yuh-dar-ah
Nyeur – Nye-your
Laskallel – Lahs-kah-lell
Fetrye – Feh-tree
Conand – Cone-and
Nymrenil – Nim-wren-ill
Rindyl – Rinn-dull
Koko – Koh-koh
Urou – Oar-ooh
Serete – Seh-ret-tay
Places
Gorgenbrild – Gore-gehn-brild
Kalka’an – Cal-kah-ahn
Levav – Lev-ahv
Iyangas – Ee-yah-ng-ahs
Sumus – Soo-moo-s
Morthed – More-thed
Rehim – Reh-heem
Creatures
Zegrath – zee-g-wrath
Tsiza – T-sieze-uh
Perasor –pair-uh-soar
Tannin – tah-nin
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To my husband George, thank you for supporting me in this and every other endeavor, for loving me unconditionally, and for being such an incredible man.
To Lo, Kendria, Derrick, Melissa, and George: thank you for letting me pick your brains to create round characters that remind me of each of you on some level. Thank you for the significant roles you have played in my life, and for being the type of people I would want along for the ride as I debut my first novel. You were generous with your time and gracious in your encouragement!
To Mr. Clifton Abercrombie, Ms. Jessica Maupin, and Ms. Janine Koehnke at Warrior Success Academy: a special thank you for your dedication to excellence in the training of Krav Maga martial arts, as well as your enthusiasm and encouragement not only in my physical training, but in my writing. You have gone above and beyond to assist in making fight scenes believable, from choreographing to consulting.
Finally, and most importantly, I acknowledge my Creator for loving His creation so much that He shares the thrill with us, that we might create as well.
