First Comes The One Who Wanders (21 page)

"If you have any ideas, now would be a good time to share," said Leilas to the voice.

"Magic comes to mind, crafter," replied the voice.

"I don’t want Rengailai to know where I am. If I use magic, he will." Leilas avoided another mighty swing of the club.

"Rengailai left his fortress early this morning. He won’t notice your magic. He assumed if you did manage to escape, this fellow would be enough to stop you. If you continue to try and fight without magic, the ogre might well prove him right."

"So he sent you and this ogre to take care of me?"

"He didn’t send me. I'm here at another’s request." A swipe from the ogre’s hand near her face drew Leilas’ attention back to the danger at hand. She wasn’t sure why he wasn’t using his magic. Perhaps in most fights he didn’t need to use anything other than his club.

She cast a spell of unbinding at the giant creature. He laughed a hollow laugh as he brushed it easily aside. Then he lifted his hands and began to cast a spell of his own. Leilas recognized the spell and began to counter it before the ogre had completed speaking it. The ogre changed his stance and began another, more powerful spell. Leilas again spoke a counter spell to negate the power of his spell.

With a roar of frustration, the ogre swiped at her head with his hand again. Leilas jumped out of his reach then cast a spell before the ogre could react. In a moment, instead of an angry monster, there stood an impressive monolith of granite.

"Don’t you think that works better than all that hacking and slashing?" a small man, extremely pale in color with white hair and grayish eyes, stepped from behind a tree. "Little folk like us need to rely on our natural assets."

"I’m not quite as small as you," replied Leilas dropping her sword and rubbing her injured arm. The small man in front of her was dressed in brown breeches and his green tunic was covered by chain mail. He didn’t look like a threat and she wasn’t interested in anymore fighting, so she continued the conversation the small man had started. "But yes, magic does have its place. However, the sword works just as well and doesn’t attract as much attention."

"That’s true," replied the gnome.

"Not all of us agree with Rengailai," the gnome moved on to a different subject. Leilas did her best to keep up with him, though her fatigue was fogging her brain and making it difficult. "Rengailai is arrogant in his power." The gnome moved quickly across the space between himself and Leilas. Reaching out, he touched her shoulder. With a few words, Leilas felt the bones move back into place and the pain begin to recede. "Some of us believe you’re quite a powerful magik." The gnome then placed his hands on the bruises around her throat. "These wounds are a bit more complex. I’m afraid we may have to let them heal naturally. I can only do so much in trying to heal one such as you."

"Thank you–," Leilas paused. "I’m afraid though, you have me at a disadvantage. You seem to know all about me, but I haven’t had the honor of meeting you."

The gnome removed his green felt hat, with yellow feather, and bowed stiffly from the waist. "Garabaldi, master of Land, at your service, your Highness. I’ve come to continue your education."

Leilas had to smile to herself at this gnome’s formal address. Bowing formally in return, she asked, "What lesson am I supposed to learn from you, good master? But I must tell you, despite my appearance, I'm a Sky crafter."

"Surely you must know that I've already determined that. Why else wouldn’t I be able to heal you? But you are more than just a Sky crafter, Leilas Leyson. You're the Chosen One. As such, it's time you learned about dark crafters. Or don't you believe the part of the prophecy that says the balance is within you?"

"I've barely heard the prophecies and have had no time to make up my mind what I think they mean. I haven't heard that part; that the balance is within me."

"That's neither here nor there," replied Garabaldi. "It's part of the prophecy and I'm here to help you explore the dark side within you. It shouldn’t take us too long to get you up to speed. I have the perfect exercise to help you understand."

Leilas glanced at the small gnome who'd come to collect her and teach her about the dark magic. How had he known to come? He'd said someone had sent him. Was that someone Solein? He was the one who'd been trying to teach her what she needed to know as Chidra up until now.

"I serve neither Solein nor the light magic. I wouldn’t have come at his request," replied Garabaldi, turning to head away from the cave where Leilas had emerged.

"Then may I ask whom you do serve?" asked Leilas following him, wondering how he knew what she'd been thinking. She'd been shielding her thoughts.

"You may ask," replied Garabaldi. "But I think part of your education will be to discover that bit of information on your own."

Leilas wasn’t sure why she was taking this crafter’s word for truth or why she was willing to follow yet another dark crafter off to his stronghold, but something inside her told her she could trust this crafter and that she needed to go with him.

"The other masters who study the prophecies said that you wouldn’t have anything to do with those of the Land. I knew you had enough knowledge to know you need to understand the balance of power better." The gnome nodded knowingly, even though Leilas had to wonder how he could be so certain when she wasn’t.

"Perhaps because I've lived a very long time and have a better understanding of the prophecy and of human, or in this case crafter, nature," Garabaldi answered her unspoken question.

"Damn," said Leilas under her breath, as she reigned in her thoughts and shrouded them again. She definitely needed to get control of transmitting her thoughts to anyone willing to listen.

"Not all dark crafters are evil like Jayram and Rengailai. They have chosen to follow the Dark Lord Dredrac. As you know their followers are called the Dredracians. Those, like me, have nothing to do with Dredrac or with the Dredracians. We cling to the pure dark magic, which was also created by Jovan."

"I was told there were none, save the dark elves and the dark magical creatures, who hadn't succumbed to the evil in the dark magic."

"There are those who believe that. But there is a remnant of us who have resisted the evil that Rengailai introduced."

"Then you've heard the story of the Chasm of Ceryk."

"Yes, my master told me the stories of the old times," replied the gnome. Leilas couldn’t help but notice he was less inclined to talk about this subject than the ones he introduced. He might be here to teach her, but he wasn't happy that he'd been given this task.

"I was happy to accept my master’s request," said Garabaldi, once again answering her unspoken question.

Leilas frowned. She was certain, her thoughts were well shielded. "But there are bounds on what questions I may ask of you,"

"You are after all, a Sky master," replied Garabaldi.

"And that makes me your enemy? If you feel that way, why did you come?"

"Not an enemy, but not an ally and because I believe that to save Preterlandis the balance must be restored and you're our best hope to restore that balance."

"But I'm only the one to declare the champion. As far as I know, I'll have little to do with restoring the balance."

"That's where the scholars have got it wrong, replied Garabaldi. "But it's not for me to explain that to you."

"Who will explain to me what I'm to do?" asked Leilas.

"That's not for me to know and for you to discover."

Leilas sighed as she followed Garabaldi along a narrow trail that led through the forest. How was she to learn her destiny if no one would tell her what she was supposed to do or where she was supposed to go?

Her throat was killing her and she was badly in need of water. But as far as she could tell, Garabaldi wasn’t carrying a water skin. She listened for any sounds of water, but heard none. Swallowing thickly, she did her best to ignore her pain and thirst and continued walking.

"Very few of your kind have been to my home. Not many of the people in my city would welcome you. We'll do well to keep your arrival a secret. You won’t be staying long. If we're careful we won’t run into trouble."

"I’ve had enough trouble the last few days. I’m not looking for more." Leilas began to worry how much danger she might encounter in this dark crafter’s lair.

It couldn't be as bad as the danger she would be in if she didn't find some water soon, though Leilas, wondering if she should mention her thirst problem. Perhaps she could just put the thought in his mind.

"Or you could just keep thinking so loudly I can’t help but hear you," replied Garabaldi. "I can see we need to work on thought control. You seem to have quite a gift."

"Or a curse," remarked Leilas under her breath. It was draining to have to watch her thoughts every second.

"A gift," corrected Garabaldi.

"It's hardly a gift when all your enemies can read your every thought. I would think that you wouldn’t want to teach me how to control my ability to mindspeak. Being able to read your enemy’s mind must be to your advantage."

A scowl descended over Garabaldi’s wrinkled face. "Under normal circumstances you would be correct. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t teach you, at all. Instead, I'd send you away and warn you not to wander in the land of dark masters. You would have been lucky not to have met a dark master who has embraced the evil of the dark magic and would have killed you on sight. But these are not normal circumstances." He huffed and sniffed his displeasure. "You don’t have any understanding about what is at stake or how it will affect the masters of Land and Fire. Master Frey’s tutelage seems to have been woefully inadequate in the areas that matter the most."

Leilas had no reply. This was the second master who'd told her Gidron Frey hadn't been a good master. Or worse, that he'd intentionally not taught her what she needed to know. The masters of Sky had believed she might be the Chosen One from the time she was born. They'd given Gidron Frey the responsibility to teach her what she would need to know as the Chosen One. Yet, he'd taught her nothing of the prophecy, or dark magic. He'd said nothing about a special destiny. He'd subjected her to dangers that could have killed her or destroyed her mind. She was beginning to believe he'd failed to live up to his responsibility. Most of the magic she knew now, she'd learned from Solein. She'd learned healing from Trion. She'd learned how to fight from Ariel. Gidron Frey had taught her only the bare essentials of what it was to be a crafter, always telling her that she'd learn the rest after she'd taken her oath. She could only guess at his motives. But she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he'd been her master and friend for almost ten years.

Garabaldi veered to the left and made his way through the trees where there was no path. "There's a creek about a quarter mile this way. I can at least slake your thirst, if I can’t fill your brain."

Leilas accepted the rebuke in silence. She'd never thought about the dark crafters wanting to keep the balance. It seemed to her that they were always upsetting the balance and the masters of Sky and Sea were always trying to restore the balance. In all the wars, the dark crafters joined forces with evil men, helping them to tip the balance. Garabaldi walked on in silence, except for the huffing and sniffing. Clearly, Leilas had been dismissed for now.

The soft splashing of water over rocks that reached Leilas’ ears filled her with joy and relief. The trees gave way to a white, rocky beach where a small river tripped over rocks on its way to the sea. Leilas peered around cautiously before she stepped out onto the rock shoal and headed for the cool, inviting water. Dropping to her knees, she drank deeply until her thirst was slaked. Then she splashed some of the water on her face to remove the grime and sweat that had dried there.

"It’s too bad we don’t have a water skin," remarked Leilas, half-hoping Garabaldi would volunteer he had one hidden somewhere on his person.

"We don’t have much farther to go. We'll stay near the stream if you prefer. No one will bother us."

Leilas had been under the protection of many people in her short life, but she wasn’t sure she'd ever get comfortable accepting the protection of dark crafters. Still, it seemed this was what she was supposed to do, so she accepted it as best she could.

Rising, she pulled her tunic into order and motioned for Garabaldi to continue. While they were making their way to wherever they were going, she was going to work on controlling her thoughts.

"A good idea," remarked Garabaldi as he walked past her to lead the way. "You need a great deal of practice in that area."

This time Leilas threw back her head and laughed. "So it seems." Still laughing, she fell into step behind the gnome as they made their way along the riverbank.

The valley the river ran through was gradually narrowing into cliffs on either side. Very soon, they would be pinned by the fast flowing water on one side and the cliffs on the other. Garabaldi seemed unconcerned, so Leilas tried to adopt the same attitude. It was against her nature and her training, but still she put one foot in front of the other and followed silently.

They'd walked halfway through the canyon when Garabaldi turned and began examining the cliff wall to their right. Leilas gazed over the basalt and sand cliff, but saw nothing remarkable about the spot Garabaldi had chosen. But as she watched, he touched several stones, said something in a language Leilas didn’t understand and then stepped back as the rocks began to move away from a large opening in the side of the cliff.