A Quick Sun Rises (16 page)

Thane smiled slightly and shook his head in amazement. “I did it,” he said, his surprise registering in his voice.

Jne looked at him, a slight glint of something in her eye that he couldn’t immediately decipher and then she flashed him that magnificent smile that so rarely surfaced. “I knew you could.”

He held her gaze for a long moment until she surprisingly looked away, the slightest touch of red coloring her cheeks. He didn’t think he would ever fully understand this woman that was so rigid and uncompromising yet, at times, seemed, for the briefest moments, a little child just barely weaned from her mother’s lap.

A screech from the roc brought their attention back as they watched it bounce on its feet and then bob its head, the cooing sounds coming from its throat just audible over the wind. Thane smiled at its celebration at being healed, happy that it had the faith in him to make him try to heal it. Turning to Thane it locked on his eyes and drew him in.
Thanks be to you for healing me
.
I am Azaforte
.
My once mate is Debipena
.
The giving of names is a sign of respect and honor
.
You are named Irmante
,
or friend
.

Touched, Thane responded as he thought proper.
I am Thane of the Five Tane
.
You have given all for us
.
We owe you so much more
.

We give willingly without expectation of anything in return
.
The choice was always ours to make
.
Our sacrifice, though great, is only a small part of what others have already given and will eventually give in the end
.
Others will yet make the last great sacrifice to save us all
.

Thane broke contact but instead of feeling the joy he had originally felt at healing Azaforte, he suddenly felt dark and cold, like a part of him was dying. He looked at the roc for a moment longer trying to understand why he suddenly felt so alone. A warm hand touched his arm startling him. He turned to see Jne, her face seeming slightly pale in the dim light.

“We must find the others,” she said softly, her hand lingering on his arm before she almost reluctantly pulled it away.

He blinked, and then just nodded. Forcing a smile, he pointed to the roc, “This is Azaforte.”

Chapter Eleven 

“Try again,” Dor encouraged.

Tam gave him an exasperated look but said nothing. Instead she closed her eyes and tried to make contact with the raging wind that whisked her hair about stinging her face as it cracked like a whip against her skin with the changing gusts. It had only been short moments after they where encased in a cocoon of roc feathers that Dor had suggested she try to ride the winds like Thane and attempt to find and make contact with their friends. At first she was hesitant, unsure of herself or the possible dangers inherent with riding the winds, but necessity and fear for Thane and Jne’s safety had won out and she now found herself facing the angry elements as she tried to throw her spirit into the air currents. She actually felt grateful for the strong winds as she could almost feel her ArVen Tane stirring within her, begging for release.

Dor watched with anticipation feeling completely useless as Tam’s eyes were pressed shut, the concentration she was exerting marring her face. She thought back to the thrill she’d felt while flying on the roc and how the wind had called to her in such a way that made her want to just completely lose herself in its force and power. She tried to clear her mind of any other thought or sense other than the air currents flowing past. She tried to reach out to them but felt as if a door still remained locked mocking her efforts.

Something was holding her back, she could feel it. It wasn’t the wind. It seemed to call to her like a distant echo barely noticeable above the multiple sensations that bombarded her senses. She was the one creating the wall, she knew it, but she wasn’t sure what she was doing to keep it there, not allowing her to just let go and travel along the air’s currents.

She tried again to clear her mind of the thoughts that seemed to race unbidden down its many corridors, disrupting her ability to touch the wind with her soul and release herself from her body. She could feel her heart pounding hard and fast against her chest, the rhythm of it sounding loudly in her ears. The wind whispered to her, caressing her skin, inviting her to let go and follow. She wanted to listen, she wanted to obey the quiet voice, but still she remained earthbound, her soul locked tightly within her solid frame.

The wind slapped her as if mocking her for choosing to remain stuck to the ground. She suddenly felt ashamed as if she were denying her Tane, as if she were denying the person she was. A tear slowly slid down her cheek and opening her eyes there was Dor, patiently watching and waiting.

“Did you do it?” he asked excitedly.

Tam’s expression dropped as she shook her head. “I can’t let go,” she said, the tears coming more quickly now. “It’s right there but I can’t seem to reach out and touch it.”

To both their surprise, Dor’s arms suddenly wrapped around her and pulled her close. She could feel the slight shiver in his body, but whether from the cold or the nervous excitement that came from being so close she couldn’t tell. She felt warmed by his touch, letting go with a sigh the anger and frustration she’d felt only moments before.

“You’re trying too hard,” he whispered into her ear. “You can’t force it. You just need to allow it to happen.”

She looked up at him, her voice more stinging than she’d wanted it to be. “That is so easy for you to say when it’s not you who has to perform.” She immediately regretted her rebuke as Dor’s arms slipped away leaving them separated again.

“I don’t chide you,” he said, his voice remaining surprisingly soft. “I only meant to encourage. I know what it is like to try and fail. Every night, since Thane challenged me to use my Tane and pull water from a bag, I have spent hours trying to force the water to obey my command. It’s not until watching you now that I understand why I fail. The Tane are not to be forced or commanded. It is us who need to bend to their will. Only then comes the ability to direct that will where we want it to go. For once, Tam, stop trying to control everything and let yourself go.”

His words stung and her natural reaction was to lash out, but she knew by the tone he used and the way he was looking at her that he hadn’t said it as a challenge or a rebuke, but with concern, and even—love. She bit back the anger that had flared and instead reached out and drew him in, hugging him close. No words were exchanged but when she finally let him go she felt calm and serene.

Sitting down, she leaned back against the roc that had remained in the same spot since they landed; it appeared to be sleeping, though how it managed in such a storm was beyond her understanding. Closing her eyes, she let herself sink back against the downy feathers and freed her mind to wander releasing, as she did so, all the stress and pressure she’d felt. She didn’t think about wind or trying to force contact, she just let herself feel it as it ripped past her as if in a rage. The power she felt in it was intoxicating and she wanted to embrace it but she forced herself to do no more than be aware of its existence. She could feel it calling her now and something within her cried out for release; it was her Tane. It struggled to be unconstrained and answer the wind’s bidding.

Tam hesitated for a moment, a sudden fear rising in her that she fought hard to suppress knowing that it would extinguish the spark that had started to grow. And then, she let go. Let go of herself, let go of who she was, gave herself over to the control of her Tane and the fierce energy that was the wind.

All at once she felt herself gliding, flowing along with the greatest sense of freedom and joy that she had ever felt in her life. Up and down she floated, racing along a river of air that carried her farther and farther away. She hesitated in opening her eyes, afraid that the sensations would turn out to be tricks of the mind. She suddenly laughed at the thrill feeling an unspeakable amount of elation and independence. Nothing held her. Nothing bound her to its will. She was nothing and everything all at once.

Slowly, she opened her eyes not quite knowing what to expect. She gasped involuntarily. She’d done it. She was free from her body and racing over the wondrous peaks and lush valleys that made up the Shadow Mountains. For a place of such extreme danger it was intensely beautiful to behold from high in the air. For the moment she completely lost herself in the power and liberty the winds offered, letting them carry her along at their whim to wherever they deemed to go. Never in her life had she felt so alive. It was an ecstasy that defied description.

She watched the mountains slip away below and suddenly found herself carried over the Dedrik forest past Hell’s End Station. She felt herself picking up speed now as she was dropped low to rush over the plains back toward Calandra. Her heart sank as wisps of smoke snaked through the air over the capital city, obviously overrun by Zadok’s army.

“And who are you?” a sinister voice suddenly spoke.

Tam gasped as an evil face seemed to appear out of nowhere directly in front of her. Though the wind continued to carry her along, the face remained as if locked in with her movements. The air suddenly felt strange; oily was the only thing she could think of to describe it. She felt like she needed to bathe. The face cackled malevolently, sending a shiver through her body. Though she’d not felt the sensation of temperature with the wind, she suddenly felt cold.

“Whhh…at do you waaa..nt?” she finally managed. “Who are you?”

The face laughed. “It does not matter, my sweet,” it said smoothly but without emotion. “You will not live to remember it.”

Tam’s eyes widened in terror as she suddenly felt the air around her begin to dissipate. She knew from Thane that to lose all the wind in such a state was to lose her life. “Wait!” she cried in desperation, her voice pleading. “Don’t. Please, don’t do this.”

The face merely laughed, the evil stench of its form sickening her. “Don’t worry my dear,” it sneered. “This will only hurt, a lot.”

She became desperate as the strands of wind holding her up and keeping her alive suddenly began to unravel more quickly. She tried to call out to them but she didn’t know how to make them stronger. One by one they simply let go and faded away. One by one the strands of her life were snuffed out by the evil form bent on her destruction. One by one the pain she was suddenly feeling increased as parts of her seemed to fade with the currents the wicked figure destroyed. She struggled in desperation but it was no use. The wind would not come to her rescue and there were very few strands left keeping her connected to life.

The pain was almost more than she could handle and she suddenly found herself yearning that the last wisps of current would be torn away so she would no longer have to suffer so. She whimpered and then let out a terrible scream.

“Tam!”

Her eyes snapped opened and she found Dor, Thane and Jne standing over her with bright smiles on their faces. The storm still raged but she didn’t seem to notice as she let out a terrible cry before falling into Dor’s arms.

Dor looked up at Thane, a concerned look on his face. “What is wrong with her?”

Thane knelt down by his friends while Jne merely watched, her expression unreadable. “Tam,” he said gently, placing a supportive hand on her back. “What ails you? You are safe.”

She looked up at him, her sobs coming in waves almost to match the storm. “It was killing me,” she said, gasping between sobs.

“What was killing you?” Dor asked in confusion.

She rested her head on his shoulder, the sobs still coming uncontrollably. “It was awful. I was riding the winds on my way to look for Thane and Jne.”

Thane suddenly grasped her arm. “You rode the winds?” he asked excitedly. “You actually left your body and rode the wind currents?”

She only nodded. “But there was this face.”

Thane’s expression instantly turned dark. “A face?”

“Yes,” she said, finally gaining some control over her tears. “It was evil and it laughed at me as it unraveled the wind and tried to kill me.”

“Zadok!” Thane cursed. “But how did he find you?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. How is it that he can ride the winds like you and me? Is he a Chufa?”

Thane shook his head. “Once, maybe, and even then I’m not so certain. He uses sorcery to force his will on nature.”

“I was almost lost,” she cried. “How is it that I am not dead?”

Dor’s face suddenly looked ashen. “I called your name and you just opened your eyes. Thane and Jne found us. I thought that you had fallen asleep, so I was waking you to tell you that you didn’t have to try to connect to the winds anymore.” He gave Thane a questioning look.

Thane shook his head. “I don’t understand how it works exactly. All I know is that when we leave our bodies they remain in some type of trance-like state and to disturb that immediately returns us to our bodies.”

Dor swallowed hard, the knowledge that Tam had almost been killed striking him like nothing else had before. He suddenly felt weak.

“There was something else,” Tam said, finally gaining some control over her emotions. “I saw Calandra. It is taken.”

Thane just nodded. All of them knew that the city would fall. And though he was concerned for Tam, the danger to her had past and was quickly being devoured by his excitement at what she’d accomplished. With the revelation that came with Kat’s and Bren’s ability to use multiple Tane he had hoped that not only could he teach others to go beyond their own Tane, a complete failure when Dor tried, but also to use the powers their existing Tane offered. Now he had proof that others could wield the same powers as he. His people had fallen into mediocrity because they lost the ability, or will, to use what the Tane offered. If he could just get them to listen to him when they reached the Ardath, the Chufa could rise as a great people once again. Not to rule or press authority over others, but to become the beautiful race he knew they must have been during Gelfin’s time.

Gripping Tam’s shoulder, he motioned toward the rocs sitting close to each other huddled in against the storm. “Are you able to ride again?”

She nodded her head.

“Good. We need to keep moving. Time is no longer the luxury it once was. If Calandra is taken, as you say, then we probably only have a few days before Zadok’s evil satiates itself on the lives of their victims and they begin to move on after the others. We need to get the arrow and return before then so we can fight against the dragons.”

Tam and Dor only nodded in agreement, Dor helping her to her feet. Thane turned to Jne who was suddenly smiling at him. It captured him how beautiful that smile was when she shared it with him. Not wanting it to end, though confused why she had chosen to gift him with it, he smiled back but then raised an eyebrow in question. Jne moved past him toward their mount and merely said, “Your honor makes you extremely attractive.”

Thane turned and watched her pass, his face flushed by her words. Though he didn’t quite understand what she meant, her brazen declaration made it suddenly difficult for him to concentrate on anything but her.

“Let us be gone,” she announced from atop the roc, “and test the honor and heart of the Chufa people.”

Thane had the rocs fly to the north of the Chufa village where they were able to find a clearing large enough for the two giant birds to land without notice from the local population. It was probably an hour’s hike to reach the outskirts of the place the Chufa called home, but it was better to remain unseen for as long as possible. To have landed right in the town would have caused a great stir and possibly the loss of life as those on guard duty might think themselves under attack and unleash a volley of arrows into them. As it was, Thane was not very certain as to the welcome they would receive. The last time he’d been in the Chufa village he’d been beaten and left for dead.