Authors: Thomas Rath
A Quick Sun Rises (36 page)
Thane’s eyes flickered open as his nose took in the scents of sweet grass and budding flowers. Stretching lazily, he suddenly became somewhat alarmed at what he felt; or more precisely what he didn’t feel. All the fatigue, all the aches and pains, all of the cuts, bruises and injuries, both superficial and those somewhat more serious, were gone. Quickly checking the place where the vined creature had stabbed him and where Dor’s knife had cut out the poison, he found healthy skin without the slightest discoloration or blemish. The innumerable other cuts he’d received from the insect-like beings were the same. He felt more whole and rested than he could remember ever having felt before.
Looking around, he found his companions stirring as well, their looks of astonished relief revealing the same sensations and healing he was feeling. “How is it possible?” Tam asked.
She followed Thane’s gaze as it turned to the five sentinels that stood over them in silent majesty. He tried to remember what had happened to him after his first encounter with the sacred trees but all that came to mind was the floating sensation he’d felt and then waking moments ago. How long had they been out, he wondered. His stomach did not ache with hunger so he felt that it could not have been too long, but with the wounds he’d had now fully healed, the actual time was probably much longer than he’d wanted to originally stay. Scanning the Underwoods forest that made an almost perfect circular perimeter around the meadow, he could see the Kybara lounging lazily just inside the ring with more still lounging beyond.
“How long have we been out?” Dor asked through a yawn.
“I don’t know,” Thane said, “but it would seem too long.”
Dor was checking his own wounds that were no longer visible and only nodded his agreement.
“Do either of you feel different?” Tam asked, looking at her hands and arms. “I mean, other than healed and rested.”
Dor nodded his head quickly. “Yes. It’s like I feel more whole than I ever have. More…”
“Complete,” Tam said with him, then added, “more alive.”
“Yes,” Thane agreed. “It’s like all things are at my bidding.”
Domis looked at each of them in turn, his eyes growing larger with each passing moment before finally resting his stare on Dor. “You’re glimmering, Master Dor,” he breathed.
“What?”
All eyes turned to Dor as mouths open. “He is,” Tam breathed.
“And you have a misty aura about you,” Dor said.
They then turned to Thane. “It’s amazing,” Tam said.
“What?” Thane asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. He could see the patterns that seemed to dance around his two friends noticing that each was as different as the person they were attached to.
“You’re glowing,” Domis said, reaching a hand toward him and then pulling it back.
“It’s like the sun itself is burning within you,” Tam added.
“What about me?” Domis asked hopefully but was immediately disappointed when he could see by their looks that he was just himself. “What is it?” he asked, trying unsuccessfully to mask the frustration he felt.
“It’s our Tane,” Dor said, suddenly realizing that he recognized them in his friends. “We can see each others Tane.”
Thane and Tam nodded their agreement. Of course that’s what it was. Each suddenly became quite aware of the Tane that sang to them, running through their veins in a torrent, whispering to them, begging them to release its power and use their abilities. It spoke to them, revealing its secrets that none of them could ever imagine. It was like stepping out of the dark and into the light. They understood. Thane wiped at a tear that rolled down his cheek. It seemed so clear and simple now.
“We need to go,” Domis suddenly said, breaking the spell that seemed to fall over the three Chufa.
They turned and stared at him for a moment as if not understanding what he was saying. “We have to go,” he repeated. “We have to get the arrows and go. They’ll be waiting for us.”
Dor and Tam blinked and then looked at each other. He was right, but none of them wanted to ever leave this grove again.
Thane finally spoke, his words drawing them all out. “He’s right. Domis is right. If we don’t leave now, we may never leave. We are meant for this place but we can tarry no longer.”
Dor and Tam nodded in reluctant agreement though their faces revealed the inner sadness that gripped at their hearts.
Thane opened himself to the song of the YeiyeiloBaneesh and was instantly one with the center tree.
“
Grandfather
,” what was once Thane spoke to the tree. “
We have great need of you
.”
“
I know your need child
,” it answered, “
but we also have need of you
.”
Their minds and spirits having congealed, as it were, into one entity, what was Thane instantly understood his responsibility as descendant of the great tree shepherds of old. And he would fulfill his duty but need pressed him to be away immediately though his heart desired to stay in the small grove forever. He felt more alive than he had ever felt before as his Tane called to him, enveloped him, and spoke promises of all that he could do should he but ask it.
“
I know my duty and will fulfill it to the least part
…” he said.
“
But for now
,” the tree finished for him, “
you must be away so that the victory of your return may be more than just a passing season
.
We will give you what you need, though only three are of a maturity to do so and I have already done so
in the days of yore and cannot again
.”
They understood. Thane felt himself retracting, clumsily finding his way back to his body, though it was heartrending and almost painful to do so. His friends stared in wonder as his eyes blinked finding his body once again though feeling it a clumsy instrument compared to what he’d felt when part of the tree.
“They will help us,” he explained, though Tam and Dor seemed to sense that on their own.
“But how will you get the arrows?” Domis asked.
Almost instantly he was answered as the trees position to the north, west and east suddenly moved their branches in a swaying motion, back and forth as if a great wind had come up, though the grandfather and the youngest tree to the south remained untouched. They watched in wonder as the limbs continue to move and sway, increasing their tempo back and forth and back and forth until reaching a crescendo. It was then that their limbs ceased to move and all at once they seemed to lean back bending at the place where the trunk transitioned from bare word to where their many limbs began. With a grown, the bark around the spot began to pull back as if cut by a sharp ax revealing the soft inner wood that was bright white in color. It too began to peal away, layer after layer until finally reaching each tree’s heart. The hearts shimmered, vibrating with the song that filled the meadow, vibrating with the Tane that coursed through each Chufa.
They watched in awe, mouths agape, tears flowing like a river down their cheeks. It was like watching a birth as the mother writhes in the pain that will bring about such joy; an opposition of life that bespeaks all things in the world. A loud crack resounded from each of the three trees as their hearts were suddenly snapped from them followed by a profuse excretion of clear liquid as if blood flowing from their wounds. The hearts were then pushed forward through each of the tree’s layers as they began to reattach themselves behind it until they reached the outer bark which closed after them, making the trees whole once again while holding secure the thin shaft of inner wood.
Hesitantly at first, Thane drew near to the closest tree, his hand raising, slowing to touch the gift that had been so painfully offered. It felt warm to the touch, just like the arrow that DaxSagn still held in his quiver. No longer could he feel anger toward his once mentor as his selfish disregard for what was happening had ultimately led him here. Gently pulling on the shaft, it freed itself from the bark and seemed to pulse in his hand. It was alive. Now he understood. The grandfather’s heart was what Dax held onto. And now he would have the hearts of three others. Though he couldn’t imagine that they could be destroyed, he also understood that to do so would also kill the tree to which they belonged.
Gathering the other two, he reverently bowed to the trees and then retreated back to his friends giving one to Dor and one to Tam. Dor smiled at the gift, running an appreciating hand along the shaft before staring down its length and snickering joyfully; perfectly straight.
Tam, on the other hand, hesitated, staring at Thane as if surprised that he would offer one to her. Instinctively, she understood the same thing about the heart that Thane had deduced and now she was not so certain she felt worthy to have one. She went so far as to open her mouth in protest but Thane hushed her.
“You are as equal a shooter as both Dor and I, possibly even better. We need your skill if we are to come off victors against the dragons.”
Closing her mouth with a snap, she almost shone with Thane’s compliment at her shooting skill, a wellspring of pride suddenly bubbling up with the realization that she was to be part of what could turn the war to their favor. But just as suddenly, the icy tendrils of doubt reached up and gripped her, stealing her breath as she took the shaft into her hands. All of her life she had wanted the opportunity to do something worthwhile, something that mattered, something that went beyond what her people saw as the proper place for a Chufa woman. Now that her dreams were about to be realized, she found herself hesitating. What if she wasn’t good enough? What if she failed at the poignant moment when the lives of so many were dependant upon her ability to shoot true? What if Thane’s compliments were mere words to force her in this direction out of need alone?
She stared at him while feeling the arrow’s pulse that was now hers to guard and to use. In him she saw no doubt or falsehood as he held her gaze with his bright green eyes. It seemed to strengthen her resolve as she felt new life and added confidence suddenly chasing back the cold feelings of doubt. Smiling, she nodded once and then embraced her lifelong friend. She would do it. And when the hour came for her to perform her duty, she would not fail them.
The troll brought his club down, Jack unaware of his impending doom as the full force of the troll’s fury and bloodlust brought the weapon to bear toward the back of his head. A flash of white was all the troll saw before he felt himself suddenly flung backward, his club falling impotently to the ground as dragger-like teeth sank into his neck and tore out his throat cutting off his dying scream. Continuing with his forward motion, Erl’s massive body collided with another troll, knocking it to the ground were it was trampled to death by its own before he again launched into the air, his claws raking off a goblin’s face. Landing lightly and free of the pressing onslaught, Erl raced headlong after Jack who was none the wiser to his near demise.
The body of men regrouped quickly. Their small numbers, compared to the horde that poured from the tree cover like a disrupted ant hill, beckoned them on promising the thrill of the kill and fresh meat for the cook fires. Jack checked the skies, willing them to be clear, knowing that should the dragons come they were lost. Raising a hand, he signaled the archers to the ready. Arrows were nocked and pulled to cheekbones waiting for the sign to fire. On the enemy rushed, tripping over themselves to be the first to taste the warm blood that called to them as it sat ready in the open.
Jack dropped his hand and a hailstorm of arrows took flight shadowing their foe with the promise of death. The front line faltered as skin was pierced and muscles were torn dropping them in a heap to be trampled by those that followed. The few not struck by a killing blow were overtaken and crushed in the press of those that came in their wake as they cried out for help. Again Jack motioned his band farther away from the road drawing Zadok’s horde after them. It was working, and new hope filled them that Calandra’s refugees might actually make it into the keep after all.
Bringing his men to a halt, Jack prepared them for another volley but froze in mid command, his face turning dark, his hope snuffed out. Erl growled, his hackles rising. “Draw swords!” he yelled. “Prepare to charge!”
Rushing out of the crowd of howling orcs and trolls, a large group of wolg riding goblins broke away from the throng and chased down the gap separating them. Somewhat disorganized at first, they coalesced into a rough line as they sped forward their swords drawn and faces fierce with rage. There was not time to send out a volley of arrows and then mount a charge. To be struck with the full force of the enemy’s advance while standing still would be devastating. At the least they must meet them stride for stride.
Steel rang as it was drawn from scabbards and then heels were planted into horses flanks sending the men racing forward to meet the charge. Zadok’s army continued to give chase, hoping to reach the fighting in time to get a taste of it. Jack knew they would have to be quick or risk ultimately being surrounded.
The two lines collided reducing their battle cries to rasps of steel and grunts of effort mixed with the screams of the wounded and dying. Soon the sweet smell of new grass and horse hide was mixed with the iron scent of blood and sweat giving the air a tang that stuck in the throat and nostrils. Though out numbered, these men were not fresh recruits having been vetted in war many times before, enjoying the kill almost as much as the enemy. Sharp teeth bit into horse flesh but was answered by razor hooves that lashed out while man fought goblin for the advantage. Bloodlust swept over the men driving them to greater strength as they pushed back against their foes, piling up their kills with such speed as to intimidate the enemy and force them back again toward the massive numbers of the approaching army. Though the men were in a battle rage and wanted to follow, they were still disciplined enough to hold back and retreat on Jack’s word. The rest of the army was getting too close, and he was not willing to sacrifice such men to the slaughter that sheer numbers would visit upon them.
Kicking his mount, Jack led them away, leaving the field littered with the enemy, though not without some casualties of their own. Ranse galloped up next to him, his shirt covered in blood, his sleeve torn revealing a seeping wound on his arm. Jace was next to him, a slight smile pulling at his normally stone face. This was his element and he relished in it. A few of the wolgs and their riders gave chase for a brief moment but quickly slowed when they became aware that their numbers had been cut in half. Their courage was counted numerically not by a strong will or heart. Once they realized that the men outnumbered them, the fight almost immediately drained from them. They were natural cowards that preyed solely on the weak.
“They’re stopping,” Ranse yelled, pulling up next to Jack. “Is it enough?” he asked as they motioned to the men and pulled their horses back, turning to watch as the army halted, it’s massive line turning back to the road that would take them to Bedler’s Keep.
“I don’t know,” Jack answered, “but we had better make sure. There is still yet another long stretch of wood before they reach the keep and the city that sits at its feet. We best make for it quickly and see if we can’t pull them up again. We’ll know better then how the others fair in getting the people in.”
* * *
Jne took a long drink from the water skin, scanning the terrain as she did so. The water soothed the dryness as it ran like silk down her throat. The day was hot and the terrain rough and dusty drying her mouth while wetting her clothes with sweat. They had taken refuge in the shade under one of the sparse trees that dotted the area along the road northwest of Bedler’s Keep. Though anxious to overtake the remaining miles to the keep Soyak had convinced her that a slower pace would be best, thus allowing their Tjal kin time to come to their senses and catch up before they reached the castle. She’d argued, not wanting to miss any of the fighting, but more so because she missed Thane. In the end, Soyak’s persistent logic and constant nagging had won out.
Passing the water skin to Soyak, Jne turned her attention to the road from which they’d come. “Do you think they follow?” she asked without need for explanation.
Soyak shrugged while drinking freely from the skin. “I cannot say, child, but I have faith that they will eventually come to the right decision. We are not so lost as to ignore the itch of a fight for too long. Whether they catch us or not, I think they will come.”
Jne sighed, trying, without success, to suppress the thought that if the Tjal would come sooner or late, why then were she and Soyak traveling so slow? Let them catch up as they may.
Soyak smiled at her knowingly. “I too was impatient when I was young like you,” the old woman said, a fire igniting in her eyes as she remembered. “What grand days they were throwing myself into battle without thought for any save the glory that would be mine. And I will have that glory again,” she said, her voice strong, belying the age that had ravished her body. “But…” she let the word hang in the air, snuffing the blaze in her eyes and heart. “I have learned that sometimes it is better to wait for the betterment of all.”
Jne glared at the piece of grass she’d pulled from the ground and was now shredding. “May age never take me,” she cursed under her breath, though Soyak’s ears picked up the near insult.
Instead of taking offense though, she laughed. “You may very well get your wish,” she said. “And then where would your man be? Though I seek a glorious death as much as any, glory is not shared like a bed or a life with the one you love. It is a grand and selfish endeavor.”
Jne suddenly regretted what she’d said. She didn’t want to hear what Soyak was saying. She didn’t fear death, and the thought of giving her life in glorious battle was almost greater than anything else she could ever wish for. But then Thane’s face came to her mind and she felt the hole that had been left in her soul since she’d left him. It was all too confusing. Wasn’t death in battle the ultimate that all Tjal sought after? But what of the man she would marry? Was not a life well lived with him just as glorious? She needed to change the subject. The thoughts and feelings that were suddenly bombarding her were giving her a headache. “And what of you,” she finally asked, turning the conversation back on Soyak. “Was there one for whom you gave up the glory of battle or are you just too good to lose?”
Soyak stared at her for a long moment, her eyes suddenly sad. “His name was Karle.”
Jne was surprised by his name. Certainly not a Tjal name.
“No,” she confirmed, her eyes taking on a glossy look, “he was not Tjal. He was a blacksmith’s son from Tigford, but he didn’t fit there. He was a man born of human parents but with the heart of the Tjal. He hated the sea, and the forge even more, though I can tell you it certainly favored him.” Soyak smiled at the red that suddenly flushed Jne’s face. “It was so long ago,” she continued, the mist returning to her eyes, “but I can still see him and the unruly locks of light hair that touched his large shoulders. I knew that moment I saw him that he would be mine.”
Jne just barely controlled the gasp that tried to escape her lips. Thane had been the same for her, though she had originally thought him Tjal. When she’d found him unconscious on the dead plains north of the Mogolth she’d felt the certainty and rightness of it as much as the feeling of her sword in her hand.
“How did you meet?” Jne asked in an almost whisper.
“It was in the square at the market in Kabu where you regained your honor. He had come with his father to sell and buy. I wasn’t even supposed to be there that day; one of the other girls was with fever so I had to fill in for her. And I have cursed and blessed her for it ever since.”
“What happened?” Jne pressed, suddenly very interested in the old woman’s story.
“We met and fell in love. One moment I was haggling prices with his father and the next I rested my eyes on him and they refused to look anywhere else.” Soyak paused as if reliving the day, her face taking on a faraway look with the slightest smile curving her lips.
“And did you marry?” Jne prodded, the frustration evident in her voice at the constant pauses.
Soyak’s face went slack. “No. I killed him.”
Jne felt tears coming to her eyes to match those that suddenly rolled down Soyak’s wrinkled face. “He left his father’s care and employ that very night,” she explained. “He seemed to find the same thing in me as I had found in him. The time we had together seemed so short,” she whispered, remembering. “But the day came when he either needed to become one of us or return to his father. And, by fate’s cruelest demand, the lot fell to me to test him at steel.”
Jne could not keep back the tears now. She had been the one who tested Thane but it had been by her own choice. Once she’d found out he was not Tjal, she knew that there was no chance for them. And though she felt he was hers from the beginning, she felt it best that she be the one to test him. She tried those long days to hate him, to belittle him and see weakness in him; certain he could not possibly pass the first tests. And when he did make it to steel she had hoped that he would beat her and kill her so she would not be forced to live such a lonely life without him. She never thought he would spare her and shame her as he had. It had almost broken her, but she could never bring herself to despise him for it as she’d worried she might. And now they would have their whole lives to be together.
“I cut him down with the first swing,” Soyak said, breaking through Jne’s personal reminiscence. “I’ll never forget the smile on his face as he bled out in front of me.” Soyak suddenly wipe at the tears that washed down her face making Jne aware of her own. “After that, I threw myself into any fight I could find but the glory of battle had suddenly lost its glamour. It couldn’t replace the void I felt inside.” She stopped and looked at Jne who tried to look away and hide the emotion that had bubbled out of her unbidden. Soyak smiled. “And that is why I am an old woman all alone. And that is also why I embraced the chance for this last fight. I will give battle one final chance to bring glory to my name, one final chance to take me back to the young man that slew my heart.”
Jne looked at her calloused hands where her swords fit so perfectly. Everything in her life had been about glory and honor until she met Thane. Was it right for her to give up her life, her people, her culture, for love? Was the warrior’s path so cruel and exacting in demanding the ultimate sacrifice for a life to be of worth? More importantly, would she give it all up for Thane’s love? She couldn’t deny who she was, but could she be more than that? Could she wed the two and be happy in her own skin?
Soyak’s voice interrupted the debate raging in her mind and she realized that, for now, she didn’t need to decide fore the choice was not given her as of yet. War was forced upon them and it would find her in its midst delivering death to the enemy.
“You see,” Soyak smiled, pointing back along the road they had recently traveled. “They’ve come.”