Erik And The Dragon ( Book 4) (12 page)

Erik screwed up his face. “If Tu’luh knows Icadion, then why would he try to ally with Nagar? Couldn’t he just turn to the old gods for help?”

Tatev raised a finger. “Therein lies the thorn that pesters his backside,” Tatev said. “After Atek Tangui rose to power, the old gods cut off the bridge between this world and Volganor, the Heaven City. The Ancients were left to their own devices as the mortals in the world started to turn away from the old traditions. As the demigods rose in power, so the Ancients did wane in their influence. Only here, in the Middle Kingdom, were the Ancients directly involved in the matters of our existence.”

Erik sighed. He was trying to keep up, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly overwhelmed. Religion had never been his strong suit, and history was not much better in his opinion. “I don’t know,” Erik said after a moment. Tatev closed the book and placed it on Erik’s lap. The tome was very heavy, as if made with pages of brass instead of paper.

“Think about it,” Tatev said. “Tu’luh is Hiasyntar Ku’lai’s son, a prince if you will. He was using the magic because he was trying to avoid the impending arrival of the four horsemen. He has seen it before, and is afraid of what will happen if they come here as well. He knows firsthand the danger that lurks in the great beyond.”

“So he is trying to save us all, and if I slay him, I will be
sentencing our world to death?” Erik asked. He shook his head. “It sounds like I am fighting on the wrong team.”

Tatev grabbed Erik’s chin forcefully and turned the boy’s face to lock eyes with him. “No, no, no, no!” Tatev assured him. “We are on the right side, I am sure of that.”

“How are you so certain?” Erik countered. “If the world ends, there will be no future at all. How is that better than letting Tu’luh use his magic to rule the Middle Kingdom?”

“Because,” Tatev began, “it is better to die free than to live a slave.”

“But is it better to have no life at all than to live as a slave?” Erik fired back. “It is not simply a choice between living as a slave and living free. The choice I see here is living as a slave or condemning all the world to death.”

“Tu’luh is very wise, and extremely cunning,” Tatev said. “But even he is not certain that the horsemen are coming. The vision he showed you was a mix of what might be in our future, and what has been in his past.” Tatev took the Infinium back from Erik. “Either way, there is a rumor that the secret to avoiding the four horsemen is written in this book.”

Erik looked at the blue leather book and then back up to Tatev. “Are you telling me that this book holds the knowledge to save the world from the four horsemen, and it was just sitting here in Axestone, and nobody cares about it?”

Tatev smiled and shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said.

Erik slapped his thighs and let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t understand you,” he said. “Most of the time you go on and on with such clear detail that I can learn everything about something like your glasses, but now, when the subject is so important it will help me decide whether or not I want to find Tu’luh and fight him again you talk in riddles.”

Tatev frowned. “Alright,” he said quietly. “The truth is that many people have tried to read The Infinium. All of those people have either been driven mad to the point that they killed themselves, or they have been turned to babbling idiots. The most anyone has ever successfully done is to read the first few portions of the book.” Tatev turned the book so that Erik could see the edges of the pages. “The portions with these pages, the ones that look lighter in color, those anyone can read without problem.” Then he rubbed a finger over the darker portions a couple times. “The portions that look brown, those are the dangerous parts.” He opened the book to the first brown page.

Erik saw a strange golden cord tied into a bow over the page. He could see that the cord actually went through all the rest of the pages, sealing them shut. A small lock held the tied cord in place so it could not be accidentally undone.

“To open this portion, and look at its contents, is to tempt fate itself,” Tatev said in a voice barely above a whisper. He stared at the golden knot for quite a while before closing the book. “As it is, there are many things I am hoping to uncover in the first portion. Things that will help us learn more about the vision Tu’luh showed you, and see whether it is an accurate depiction of what will happen, or simply a representation of what
might
happen.”

“What if you find out that he is right?” Erik asked. “Then what do we do?”

Tatev shrugged. “Then I suppose we will have to open the bound portion of the book and see if we can’t stare into the gaping black hole of fate to find the answers we are looking for.” Tatev rose to his feet then and started to walk away. “Go back to Lepkin and Marlin,” he said. “I have told you all I can for now. If I find something useful, I will come and let you know.”

Erik watched the curious librarian walk away, shoving his nose deep into the first few pages of The Infinium and nearly stumbling every other step as he banged into crates or barrels on the barge. Erik was now feeling more confused than he had ever been. He kicked his feet out and stretched his legs while he leaned his head back over the top of the bench, letting his neck and head dangle ever so slightly.
He couldn’t help but feel powerless and trapped. Worse than that, he was starting to question Lepkin, which was something he had never done before. Sure, he had always found his master hard, difficult to study under, and extremely rigid and strict, but never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined Lepkin to be
wrong
. Now that possibility was creeping full into Erik’s mind, and the vision that Tu’luh showed him of the horsemen came along with it.

He thought about the title that he was supposed to have as the prophesied hero. The Champion of Truth. An interesting phrase now, it seemed. He closed his eyes and focused hard. What was truth, exactly? Before it had seemed so clear. Right against wrong, the dark and the light. But now? Now everything was gray, and the answers were no longer easy. He thought about all of the people who had fought with him at his home. Had they all died for nothing? Would he have been better off sparing their lives and convincing them to join the warlock? What good would it really serve to protect the Middle Kingdom from Nagar’s Secret only to have these unstoppable horsemen come and destroy the entire world?

The barge lurched sideways and then the river’s current pushed it downstream.

“Next stop, the falls above Hamath Valley
,” the barge master shouted.

Erik looked up and watched Axestone fall away from them as the current slowly built up speed and pushed the barge faster and faster on its way. He realized then that he shared a lot in common with the barge. Both were being pushed by forces much stronger than they, and the course of those forces seemed unstoppable regardless of any action he might take. In that moment he felt more prisoner than champion.

“Eldrik,” Silvi said softly as the boat lurched to a stop next to some rocks. The waves rhythmically bumped the side of the boat into a large, algae covered rock and Silvi stretched her hand out in a vain attempt to steady them. “We are here.”

“I don’t want you to call me that anymore,” he responded. “My name is Aparen.”

Silvi nodded wearily. “I forgot,” she said. “Come, let’s go.”

Aparen nodded and the two of them clambered out into the shallow water,
splooshing
down and sinking slightly in the sand below. They let the boat drift off and carried their belongings onto the beach. Aparen’s stomach growled loudly.

“I have another piece of bread left,” Silvi offered.

Aparen turned up his nose at it and shook his head. He checked that the emerald amulet was secure around his neck and then he adjusted his belt to straighten his clothing. “So, where do we go from here?” he asked.

“Follow me,” Silvi said. She tossed her raven black hair behind her shoulders and trudged up the gently sloping beach. Sand and bits of shells clung to the bottom of her white dress and caked her shoes and legs. Aparen followed only half a step behind.

He looked up beyond the beach to where the great pine trees stood. They were each several feet in diameter. They were so large that he doubted whether even the two of them would be able to touch fingers if they both tried to hug around one of the trees.

“They are Elder Pines,” Silvi said without looking back. “They only grow here in
AghChyor.”

“They’re big,” Aparen noted. He took in a breath of warm, salty air and could almost taste the rich, thick pine scent from the trees. As soon as he neared one he picked up a fallen pine cone and wiggled his fingers in betw
een through the tough layers looking for seeds.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Silvi cautioned.

“Why not?” Aparen asked. “I eat pine nuts all the time back at home.

“Elder Pines are different,” she said. “The nuts they produce are bitter, and can make your stomach go sour if you eat too many.”

Aparen shrugged. He plucked one nut out and plopped it into his mouth. He didn’t see what the problem was. The nut was larger than other pine nuts he had eaten, but otherwise it still smelled the same. He bit into it and started to chew. For the first second and a half the taste was pleasant, woody with a hint of pine and a meaty texture. Then it turned extremely bitter the more he chewed. He noticed Silvi standing and watching him then with an “I told you so,” look on her face. Aparen forced a smile and kept chewing until all the bits were just small enough to swallow without gagging.

“Worth it?” Silvi asked.

“Not horrible,” Aparen replied. His face involuntarily jerked to the side and a shiver ran down his neck.

Silvi laughed and shook her head. “Come on, we have a long way to walk yet.”

Aparen shuddered again and scraped his tongue against his teeth to make the aftertaste go away. He weaved around the lumbering pines, following Silvi’s white silk dress and glancing around at his surroundings. The forest was not unlike the area around his home. The trees were similar, albeit much larger, and the ferns and bushes were all familiar as well. Yet, there was something about this forest that felt different. He kept scanning the plants, looking for what it might be, but he couldn’t quite figure it out.

“Death,” Silvi commented dryly.

“Excuse me?” Aparen said as he double-stepped to catch up to her side.

“That thing you are looking for, the thing that makes you feel uneasy, it’s death,” she explained. “Come this way.” She motioned for him to follow her down a thin, fading path of old flagstone nearly buried in the underbrush and dirt on the forest floor. They walked for about ten minutes before finally stopping before a large mound of dirt covered in dead grass and rocks. She pointed to it. “The gnomes used to be the guardians of this forest,” she said. “They were driven out. Many of their dead are buried in mass graves, like this one, others have their bones scattered about the island. Since their death, the balance in this forest has shifted. That’s why it feels different to you than the forest around your home.”

“You feel it too?” Aparen asked.

Silvi nodded. “This forest has great magic in it. With the gnomes killed and driven out, that magic has been left imbalanced. Imagine an eternal night without the promise of the dawn. That is how this forest is. The magic it produces no longer has its counterpart that created the balance here. Now there is only death.”

“Who drove the gnomes away?” Aparen asked.

Silvi shrugged. “Dremathor is his name.” She paused for a moment and then turned back to Aparen. “Dremathor is the shadowfiend we are looking for. He is the one who helped Gondok’hr.”

Aparen nodded. “So there is no life on this island anymore?” he asked.

“Some,” she said. “But not much. Certainly not the kind of life that used to exist while the gnomes presided over the Elder Pines.”

The pair walked around several large mounds and then through a long forgotten settlement. A wall of stone roughly nine feet high stood before them. There was no gate, only an opening in one side that allowed them to enter through. Aparen noted that the walls were almost twice as thick as they were high.

“It must have taken a long time for gnomes to build this,” he noted.

Silvi nodded. “They lived here for thousands of years. There are many villages like this one on the island.”

Rectangular
stone houses stood all inside the wall, rising just about as tall as the surrounding barrier, and topped with square, flat stone shingles. Lichen and moss grew on the stones now, but even still, Aparen could see that the gnomes had used colored stones in their building to create geometric shapes and designs on every outward surface. Between the houses were small pens of stone, with rotted wooden gates crumpling off to the side and weeds overgrowing the area. In the very center of the village stood a monolith about four feet wide by four feet thick. Its surface was polished smooth and it rose twenty feet into the air. A brass pyramid capped the top of the monolith, pointing to the sky above.

“How could gnomes lift something like this into place?” Aparen asked.

Silvi turned and shrugged, but she didn’t slow her pace. She continued on through the village and out the other side while Aparen leaned in to rub his hand over the smooth surface of the monolith. When he finally realized how far Silvi had gone, he hurried to catch up with her.

Outside the village, an old stone path led into a thick forest. They followed it, winding their way in between the massive oaks and pines that stood over them like silent sentinels. The silence unnerved Aparen. There were no birds, no rustling leaves, not even a wind. It was as if the land itself was nothing more than
a quiet monument of the past.

Aparen gl
anced up to the trees, and then shook off the nagging fears that nipped at the back of his mind. The two of them walked for an hour before they came to a stream. Silvi pointed onward, and the two of them walked alongside it for a while. Neither of them made a sound until Aparen clumsily kicked a stick with his feet while looking above at the trees. The stick skittered across the ground and smacked Silvi in the leg.

“Sorry,” Aparen said quickly.

“It’s alright,” Silvi replied. She bent down, raising the hem of her skirt a little to brush off her leg. He watched, admiring her curves as she rose back upright. If she noticed him watching her, she didn’t show it. She just continued on. Aparen watched her walk away for a moment before moving to follow her.

“How old are you?” he asked her.

Silvi stopped and half-glanced over her left shoulder at him. “Why does it matter?” she asked.

Aparen shrugged sheepishly. “No reason, I just… I don’t know. I was just wondering.” The young witch turned around to face him and leaned in close. Aparen’s heart thumped loudly in his chest when the two locked onto
each other’s eyes. “What I mean is…” Aparen stammered, and couldn’t finish the sentence. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to say. There was just something about her that entranced him at times. He could feel the warmth from her breath as she sighed. Her lips were only a foot away from his.

“I am old enough to be your mother,” Silvi said suddenly, breaking off the trance.

Aparen cocked his head to the side and studied the woman from head to toe. “I don’t believe that,” he said. Her skin was far too supple, her curves were tight and youthful. She didn’t have any wrinkles in her face, and even her voice lacked the sound of age. He couldn’t believe that she could be more than five years older than him.

“Believe it,” she said with a short nod. “I have been a witch since three years before you were born. I joined the coven when I was fourteen.”

Aparen mentally added the fourteen years to his seventeen, and then added the additional three years.
Thirty four
. He shook his head again in disbelief and looked her over once more. “That is not so old,” he said after a moment. “My mother is much older than that.”

She moved in closer and caressed his cheek with her left hand. “My magic has kept me looking the same since
my twentieth birthday.” She then smiled and moved her index finger to the corner of his mouth. “It will keep me like this long after the gray hairs have started to set in on you.”

He was no longer listening. He leaned in with hungry, slightly parted lips. A strong palm is all he connected with as his face smushed against her hand. He backed away awkwardly, blushing. “Sorry,” he offered.

“If you want me, I will be yours,” Silvi said quickly. “But you have to want me for me, and not just for my appearance.” She turned abruptly, swinging her hair into Aparen’s face and walked away.

“How do I prove that to you?” Aparen shouted enthusiastically.

Silvi shook her head and laughed. “You are a young man, it is going to take a lot to convince me that your desire comes from above your belt.”

He stopped mid-step, taking the words in for a moment and then he shrugged it off and walked after her. He wasn’t sure how to convince her, but he was sure that he did want her, now more than ever before.