The Crimson Spark, page 39
part #1 of Vagabond Legacy Series
Cain gave Nea a quick embrace and then the two of them joined up with Leo and Seiyariu.
“Outside the city wall there will be horses and supplies,” said Cain, patting Leo on the head. “Do keep them safe Seiyariu.”
“On the contrary Maria,” he said with a coy grin. “It’s usually them that keep me out of trouble.”
61
Ghost of a Chance
Nea never stopped being amazed at the changing landscape of Fortuna. After only two days on the northern road they might’ve been in a different country all together. The horses they’d been given were strong, fast and didn’t falter at the freezing rain that started pelting them on the second day. The road north was harsh and it grew colder every day. Just before evening came on the third day, they crested a hill, and saw it for the first time. The mountain they’d been searching for, Tidal Monadonock. It loomed in the distance, almost lost amongst the clouds.
They’d entered the highlands. Hundreds of hills stretching out before them. They curved and twisted as though crashing down upon their comrades in the battle to be called a mountain. All were joined, and flowed into one another, waves in a storm. The shape of Tidal Monadonock looming before the setting sun like the grave of a titan. It was surrounded by thick dark clouds, obscuring its true height.
At the foot of the mountain lay thousands of gigantic stones. They jutted out of the grassy earth like knives. A forest of rock, packed tightly. It guarded the base of Tidal Monadonock like a line of pikemen.
A small town was built into the side of one of the larger hills. They rode past this and camped just a mile or so from of the stone forest.
They made camp quietly and got a fire going. Their provisions from the palace were still in good supply and they ate a hearty dinner as the sun began to set.
Nea had been stiff and quiet as they rode over the past few days. She was still turning over Leo’s words back at the castle.
“Listen up you two,” Seiyariu said pointedly. “Before we make our way up Tidal Monadonock I want to make sure that you are clear on just what we’re dealing with.”
That’s different.
“Why don’t you start by explaining what this cabal is,” said Nea.
“Well aside from teachings of The Green Road, Romulus entrusted one more duty to the vagabonds. That was the safeguarding of Knail. Romulus was the one who found Knail you see. It’s not known how. But whatever the reason, Romulus decided that it must be kept safe, else the system of protection he’d created for the Archipelago would be pointless.”
Nea shook her head, confused. “I feel like I’m coming in late. Who’s Romulus?”
“Romulus Caloway,” said Leo helpfully. “He was the first vagabond. He defeated the Astrologue and stopped The Clash of Comets.”
He what?
“Oh, is that all?” she replied with a laugh. “You lot never stop surprising me, do you?”
“You’ll get used to it eventually,” said Leo. “I think.”
What had she gotten herself into? “Why wasn’t that in any of the books I read?”
“Part of Romulus’ plan involved decentralizing both power and information.” Seiyariu explained. “We keep much of our history to ourselves and are duty bound not to record it on paper.”
“And it’s the same with Knail,” chimed in Leo. “Neither the vagabonds nor the cabal are permitted to record everything.”
Nea scowled. “For a bunch of homeless gadabouts you have an awful lot of rules.”
“Those rules, Dulcinea, are precisely what keep us from being simple homeless gadabouts.”
“And another thing,” she said, her scowl deepening. “What the hell is a Dulcinea?”
“You are. Back to your question of what the cabal is. Vagabonds were given a basic understand of Knail’s functions, its parasitic abilities and its destructive potential. But the true secrets of Knail, what it is, where it comes from, and how to work it, Romulus didn’t want those secrets, or indeed Knail itself, to be drifting across the Archipelago with us. So he chose twelve delvers, the most powerful in the land. These were the cabal.”
“And is that what Quinnel’s Da is a part of then?”
“Yes. These delvers would keep Knail and study it, only they were never permitted to try and understand its true nature. Sealed away in remote places like Tidal Monadonock. The mountain is inaccessible to all but us vagabonds, for it was our duty to shepherd Knail from delver to delver once every generation.”
“Are they permitted to write things down?” said Leo.
Seiyariu shook his head. “Their secrets are passed down verbally as well, father to son after they’ve completed their training.”
“Then the old horse has a point,” said Nea. “How is it that Beljhar knows all about Knail?”
“Perhaps Isa was right…,” Seiyariu muttered to himself before continuing. “Around five years ago there were at least three living members of the cabal still being considered for the next rotation. But one by one, they began to disappear without a trace. Votrow began to fear for his life and rightly so I believe. He suspected there to be a traitor among the cabal and ceased all contact with them and the vagabonds.”
“A traitor,” said Leo, chewing the words thoughtfully. “I remember Kokaleth saying something about that.”
“Yes,” said Seiyariu. “He laughed Votrow off at the time, but now he’s beginning to entertain the theory as well. It explains a great many things. It will be something I’d like to ask Votrow about when we see him.”
“You sure we will see him? What makes you sure he’s still up there?” asked Nea.
“If Quinnel left him alive, then there’s nowhere else a man like him would be.”
The hell does that mean?
Leo said nothing, staring into the fire. That determination in his eyes from their meeting with Chiron hadn’t gone out.
“Alright you two,” said the vagabond, getting to his feet. “I’m going to go into town and see if anyone has heard anything useful. I want you two to try and get some rest, we’ve been riding all day and you’re going to need your strength for the climb tomorrow.”
“Alright,” said Leo.
“You got it scarecrow,” Nea grinned. “Don’t get yourself arrested.”
“I’ll do my best, Dulcinea.” Seiyariu winked, then with a flutter of his cloak, he was off, making his way towards the distant lights.
“Damn,” Nea muttered, lying back on her bedroll. “That’s a lot to bloody digest all at once.”
“Yeah,” was all Leo said.
“Still,” she said. “Better than all those secrets yeah?”
Leo nodded. “Seems like secrets come with the cloak, don’t they?”
“You got that right,” said Nea. She finally managed to catch his eye. “You’re going to sleep tonight right?”
Leo shifted uncomfortably. “So you noticed?”
Nea had noticed. Leo had barely slept at all since they’d left Equius. She’d caught him lying there, but with his eyes open, as if far away.
“Is it because you think it’ll happen again? Knail I mean?”
His face fell. “I’m not sure. I thought I had figured a pattern, but not anymore.”
“Do you, want to talk about it?” she asked. “Maybe if we put our heads together we can parcel out how it’s happening. Maybe it reacts to when you’re in danger.”
“Maybe,” said Leo. “That was what happened in Adis, but we were in danger the entire time we were on Beljhar’s ship and it only flared up at the last moment. But there was something about it on the ship and in the castle…”
“I saw. It was shaped like a person, just like you said.”
“There was something more this time though, but you can’t think I’m crazy alright?”
“Too late.” She managed to get him to smile with that one. “Go on.”
“Before you came into the room I thought that the light, I thought it had a face.”
“A face… you mean like a person’s face?”
Leo nodded, nervously glancing around. He bit his lip. Nea’s mind quickly conjuring a thousand horrible things the face could be to fill the silence. “I’d been having that dream. The one I told you about.”
“The desert?”
He nodded. “Nea what if this light… what if it’s Nico?”
Nea stared at him, unable to hide the confusion in her eyes.
God, what do you say to something like that?
“Leo, you told me Nico was dead.”
“I know I did, but what if that doesn’t matter, maybe Knail is beyond all that, that’s why everyone wants it so badly. Is it really that much more unbelievable than any of the things we’ve seen here?”
“I… I don’t know what you want me to tell you.” There was a silent plea in his big dark eyes, a plea for validation that she couldn’t give. She would not lie to him again.
“Leo,” she began. “I’m not gonna pretend I know what it’s like to lose a twin. But do you think that maybe, between these dreams, and Knail, you’re looking for something to hang on to, so you don’t have to let go?”
She couldn’t bear his wounded expression.
“You think I’m making this up?” he asked.
“I believe you saw something, hell I believe you saw Nico. But I also know there’s one thing on earth you’d give everything to have back, and maybe that thing on your arm does too.”
Nea wished he’d slapped her, cried, yelled at her, something, anything would be better than the betrayed look on his face. He just nodded and for the first time he retreated from her. Getting to his feet and striding back into the forest of jagged rocks. Leo didn’t say a word, he just left her alone with her guilt, digging into her stomach like the roots of a weed. She thought for a moment about going after him.
What else could you say? Dead is dead, you can’t force him to accept that.
Had she been careless? She had nobody to ask but herself. For what felt like the first time in her life Nea wished she wasn’t alone.
62
Old Man Winter
For what felt like the first time in his life Leo wanted to be alone. The memory of his words from just the other day made him feel sick. All she had been was honest and he was running away like a child.
There wasn’t a path so much as a series of gaps in the stone; sometimes these were so tight that he needed to go hand over hand on his stomach. Others pressed him between two vertical pillars so tight Leo felt like they might slam shut and crush him any moment. He’d no idea where he was going, but as the moon drifted out from behind a cloud, he could see that the walls were covered with Peregrine Runes. They read, continue, halt, turn, continue, and then turn again.
Worse, far worse than Nea doubting him, was the fact that she might be right. Perhaps all he was doing was conjuring the things his heart desired. Illusions.
Illusions. Scuttling in the dark for whatever shines through, his own private opal brooch. Beljhar had been right after all. Leo stopped and drove his right fist into the wall with every ounce of strength in his body. The shock and impact traveled up his arm but he felt no pain in his parasitic fist even as the rock splintered beneath his fingers. So he hit it again and again until he felt calm enough to keep going.
For what felt like hours he squirmed and wriggled through the narrow passages following the signs with hardly any visibility. The narrow path was strewn with corpses. Skeletons in various states of decay. Leo couldn’t bear to look at them, he didn’t want to be reminded of the dream. The corpses were dressed in all kinds of attire, everything from noble raiments to vagrant rags. But there wasn’t a single green cloak among them. This gave Leo a bit more hope as he pressed on, the runes leading him into a series of corridors hewn from the same cobalt stone as the maze above.
While he hadn’t been sure if the stone forest was natural or not, these halls were unmistakably man-made. The twists and turns eventually gave way to a vaulted chamber, rather like a church. But instead of a pulpit or stained glass, at the end of the room there were a set of oak doors. Above them, a massive Peregrine Rune had been carved. Though Leo did not recognize it, the symbol filled him with a strange kind of awe. It was the image of a spear pointed up with the streak of a comet behind it.
He moved to open the door, pulling hard with his black hand. The old wood creaked and groaned, giving way to his first real view of the slopes beyond. A gust of frigid wind filled the chamber, and Leo saw that Tidal Monadonock was covered in snow.
He’d only seen snow in books before, but Leo knew enough to understand that there was something otherworldly about this first fall. How was it that the white powder fell only on the mountain side? Was this part of Votrow’s power?
His boots crunched through the fresh fallen snow as Leo wrapped his cloak about his shoulders. His breath fogged, his bones rattled. A hand-spun winter, another obstacle standing between travelers and the mountaintop.
The game trails hewn by centuries of wildlife were buried under the snowfall and the mountain slopes were overgrown with trees stripped bare by the cold. Upon the flesh of these trees were carved still more Peregrine Runes, guiding him up the mountain.
For the first time, Leo considered turning back. Seiyariu and Nea would surely be worried about him. But the memory of that look on Nea’s face kept him pushing forward. He would find Votrow and he would have his answers. One way or another.
Then Leo saw him, a figure in the distance, almost obscured by the billowing snow. He raced forward, not thinking. All too quickly the figure grew larger, far larger than any man could possibly be. It turned, catching him in its hollow black eyes. Leo felt his heart falter in his chest. It wasn’t a man at all, it was a skeleton, a gigantic skeleton. Carved not from bone, but from ice.
It stared at Leo, the same way Nico did in his dreams. Its eyes pits of endless dark that threatened to swallow him whole. The thing opened its mouth and a voice that cut like the winter wind came howling down to him.
“You trespass upon this mountain child.”
“I… Isa Votrow?” Leo stuttered, shivering.
“And who are you?”
Leo wouldn’t lie; he needed the delver to trust him. His teachings from Seiyariu, his gut instincts, everything told me that much. “I am… my name is Leonardo Fortunato.” He held up his black hand. “And I believe you once were chosen to keep this safe.”
The skeleton crouched low to the ground, leaning in towards him. Its skull was the size of Leo’s entire body. “And how does one such as you come across the Knail?”
“I stole it, stole it from a man called Beljhar, he leads an army called the Black Briars. He’s trying to take the Archipelago for himself, using Knail and me.”
“And you seek to return it to its home in the mountain?”
Leo shook his head, fighting to keep his legs from shaking. “No. I came to ask you to teach me its secrets.”
Votrow laughed, a freezing wind blowing down the trail, sinking its teeth into Leo. “You are not a vagabond.”
“I am!”
“You wear the colors, but if you seek the power of Knail you have no idea what it means to walk the green road. Knail will never be used again.”
“I’m the student of a vagabond named Seiyariu.” he said. “And the son of Heiro Al-Emani, last King of Inferno.”
“A fine pedigree indeed. But both of them should know better than to allow the Knail anywhere near human flesh.”
“It was no one’s fault but my own,” Leo said. “I had to make a choice. I chose Knail.”
“And now you will make another choice,” said Votrow simply. “You will choose to return it to me. Where it belongs.”
“I need it!”
“If you knew what it was you carried, you wouldn’t be so eager. The Knail will never be used again.”
A long boney arm extended towards him, wrapping its frozen fingers around his body.
“What are you doing?” Leo drew his knife and slashed in vain at the ice as his feet left the ground. He tried to call on Knail’s power but the cold was overwhelming and he felt his mind going blank.
“You will come with me and together we will make sure of that.”
63
One for One
Any footprints Leo had left were lost in the snowfall, but Seiyariu pressed on, following the Peregrine Runes up the through the woods with Nea hurrying behind him, both trying not to let the weather slow them down.
Though the village was small, it had taken Nea nearly an hour to find the scarecrow. When at last his green cloak came into sight, she nearly collapsed at his feet, red-faced and out of breath.
She hadn’t been sure what to tell him other than the fact that Leo had gone on without them. But if Seiyariu was suspicious he didn’t press her on it. They set off after him immediately, through the spiny maze of stones, through the grand hall and out onto the slopes of Tidal Monadonock.
The snow was up to her ankles, enough to slow their progress up the mountain. But it wasn’t the snow that forced them back, it was the stinging cold wind. The trees offered some protection, as did their cloaks, but it bit at them all the same. There was something unnatural about that wind, something hostile, like an animal guarding its territory.
Nea ground her teeth as they walked. She should’ve done something to stop Leo, anything.
Just sat there like an idiot and let him run away. Who knows what bloody trouble he’ll get into.
After nearly two hours of climbing, Seiyariu finally spoke “How are you holding up?”
