Gorinthians (11 page)

“
Well met, Terrance, my
friend,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I see that you are
taking more than you bargained for.”

Terrance was very
conspicuous in not glancing at Selindria. “I tried to leave
Thistledown, but the Elders didn’t want him hanging around causing
trouble. You know how they are.”

Jalorm chuckled as
Thistledown shot up behind Celdic’s head with an outraged
expression on his face. Before he could begin his tirade, however,
Selindria broke in.

“
You’ve met before?” she
asked Jalorm coolly, ignoring the interplay.

“
Many times,” Jalorm said
with an abashed look. “It was Terrance who taught me a lot of the
new ideas that I brought to class after I started training on the
borders.”

Selindria just grunted with
a slightly disgruntled look on her face. It seemed that everyone in
Chasel Ri’ Aven knew about Terrance except Selindria and
Celdic.

“
Jalorm will accompany us
from here,” Terrance announced in the silence that followed. “He is
one of the best Guardians in Chasel Ri’ Aven and some of his
talents will be very useful.”

Jalorm did not say anything,
but he did flush slightly with the compliment. Celdic felt somewhat
better knowing that another person he knew would be joining
them.

“
Shall we press on?”
Terrance said briskly. “We need to reach the border by
sundown.”

“
Impossible,” Selindria
said flatly. “The border is still another full day ahead of
us.”

“
Just take my word for it,”
Terrance said wearily, starting down the path once more. They
followed him for another quarter of an hour, when he unexpectedly
veered off the barely recognizable path into the thick foliage that
surrounded them. Celdic glanced around curiously as they made their
way toward a small hill that rose from the side of the mountain. As
they drew closer to the hill, Terrance slipped out of sight without
warning. The others continued following, walking into the seemingly
substantial side of the small hill in front of them, each of them
disappearing in turn. Celdic looked closely as he stepped into it
as well and realized that the achelnise plant covered the hillside
in order to disguise it.

Celdic stumbled to a halt as
he came out the other end and then spun around to look behind him
in amazement. Above them reared the steep mountains that they had
been descending. Looking around, he realized that they were in the
foothills at the base of the mountain.

“
What happened,” he blurted
out in astonishment. Selindria was also staring around her in
wonder.

“
We had to take a small
shortcut in order to make it to the border by nightfall.” Terrance
allowed himself a small grin as he continued down the gradual
descent of the foothills.

Jalorm did not look
surprised, already following closely behind Terrance. Celdic shared
a glance with Selindria as they both began the descent as well,
wondering if she was thinking the same thing that he was. If there
were shortcuts throughout the passes that could take you through
the mountain in the blink of an eye, what would happen if an enemy
discovered them?

“
Only those who know how to
activate a wave-gap can use one,” Thistledown piped up behind
Celdic, as if reading his thoughts, “and Chasel Ri’ Aven is
protected from random wave-gaps. Only wave-gaps that have been
synchronized with those on the inside can enter the
mountain.”

“
How many of these
wave-gaps are there in this mountain?” Selindria inquired with a
twist to her mouth, as if she were tasting the word.

“
Quite a few, actually,”
Thistledown returned in his high voice. “Originally they were made
for emergencies so the Guardians could report from the border much
quicker, should an army invade.”

Celdic could immediately see
the advantage of such a tool. He wondered how it was kept such a
secret that even Selindria did not know of them. A glance at
Selindria showed that the same thought had occurred to
her.

“
How is it that I have
never heard of these shortcuts?” Selindria questioned, her cat-like
eyes narrowing.

“
As I understand it, the
Guardians have secrets that they only share with other Guardians.”
Thistledown shrugged. “Even the Elders don’t know all of their
secrets; except, of course, for the ones that used to be Guardians
themselves.”

Celdic could only shake his
head in wonder. There seemed to be no end to the surprises
regarding his ignorance of his homeland. What he thought of as a
very simple lifestyle turned out to be more complex than he ever
imagined. He needed time to think, to meditate through all that he
learned in the last day. Glancing up at the horizon Celdic could
make out Lunitra, the larger of the two moons that orbited the
planet, creeping over the plains to the North. They would need to
bed down soon and then he would be able to put everything together.
He had always been quick at adapting after he had time to study a
challenge out in his mind and come to understand it from all sides.
He had always surprised his instructors at the Tar Ri’ San when he
left class as clueless as the other students, and then came back
the next day with a perfect understanding of the subject. Selindria
had told him once that he had a gift for understanding that went
beyond mere intelligence and that his mind did not work in the same
way as those around him. She thought it might account for his
difficulty in using his
yar
, though she did not say
how.

Celdic slowed down, a
feeling of foreboding tingling up his spine and into the base of
his skull. Terrance had also slowed, his stance immediately wary.
The others looked at Terrance questioningly, noticeably unaffected
by the phenomenon that Celdic and Terrance alone appeared to be
experiencing. Celdic looked around them, trying to determine from
where the ominous feeling emanated. They had reached the lower
stretches of the foothills and the trees had thinned out to a
sparse forest with meadows interspersed throughout. Large boulders
were clustered throughout the forest, varying from the size of a
small cottage, to the size of a large house. Celdic realized that
the feeling of foreboding felt as if it came from the boulders. As
he peered closer at one of the larger boulders, about twenty feet
from them, it unexpectedly unfolded into a nightmare. It stood at
twenty feet with arms as large as tree trunks and legs even larger.
Its limbs were covered in the orange moss that grew on rocks in the
mountains, giving it the appearance of clothing, but there was no
head to the enormous creature. Headless or not, it appeared to know
where they were. It raised a fist as if to smash them into the
ground.

Celdic felt a rapid
concussion go through the air that carried the lowest tones of a
subterranean boom with a counter pitch that could shatter the
thickest glass. Had it been directed at Celdic, he was sure that
his skull would have exploded. The monstrosity in front of them
reeled back as cracks appeared throughout its huge form. Celdic
looked to his right to see Selindria gazing intently at the thing,
the way she did when she was using her
yar
. As he watched, the air between
the beast and them shaded as if there was tinted glass between
them. An ear-shattering explosion followed this as the monster
blasted apart into chunks of shrapnel that bounced harmlessly off
the tinted shield between them. The shrapnel continued on, snapping
trees like wheat from a scythe as they hurled through the air. Many
of the other creatures, which had begun to unfold, were also
knocked over by the blast. Celdic felt something recede into the
distance at enormous speed before fading from his awareness
altogether.

Terrance had pulled
something out of one of his pockets and now held it in his hand,
pointing down toward the ground. It looked like a steel ball with a
spike sticking out of it. Terrance drove it into the ground as the
other creatures recovered and began to move toward them. Selindria
was turning to the next closest of the creatures when Celdic felt
the sense of overwhelming power that he had felt at the Altar of
Guardia rush past him and his companions, making a wide arc that
swept through all of the stone giants. As the wave swept through
them, they crumbled into fine powder and blew away with a sudden
wind that gusted through the devastated forest.

Jalorm was still crouched,
ready to attack with a long mace that he must have thought would be
his only chance against beings made of stone. Slowly he stood up,
his eyes still wide with the adrenaline rush that always came
before combat. Celdic burned with the shame of his inaction. He had
just stood there, stunned with the immensity of the creatures,
unable to even draw a weapon.

“
What were they?” Jalorm
asked somewhat shakily. Celdic had always been friends with Jalorm,
who had left the Tar Ri’ San four years before Celdic. Celdic was
glad that Jalorm was not as calm as Selindria and Terrance appeared
to be. Thistledown was already making himself comfortable on
Celdic’s pack again.

“
Gorinthians,” Terrance grunted with a frown. “Somehow they
managed to make their own hosts.” He looked troubled as he stared
at the remains of the first one that Selindria had blasted. “This
is something new. Always before, they had to inhabit human hosts
that were made to house spirits. It seems that they have discovered
a way to enter the world before
yara
has healed
completely.”

“
What does that mean?”
Jalorm looked just as troubled. “Will we be facing entire armies of
stone giants?”

“
Not unless they have
learned how to reproduce with these new hosts,” Terrance answered
with a dry chuckle. “There were very few Gorinthian’s left when
they were banished near the end. Their numbers have only diminished
since then.”

Terrance readjusted his pack
and started down the path again. “Let’s keep moving. The border is
just ahead.”

As they started down the
path through the blasted trees and shrubs, Thistledown began
singing a bawdy song about a highborn lady dallying with a troll.
Celdic’s ears grew redder as the song progressed while Terrance’s
eyes crinkled with quiet mirth. Selindria also looked amused, while
Jalorm looked as uncomfortable as Celdic. The second time around,
Terrance joined the singing, punctuated frequently with laughter at
the more obscene aspects of the song. It was at these parts that
Thistledown cried out even louder, as if to make sure that the best
parts were not missed.

Trying to find a way to
ignore the song, Celdic turned to Jalorm. “When did you first meet
Terrance?”

Jalorm looked glad of the
excuse to do something besides listen to the song that had climaxed
to the highborn lady riding the dwarf around the bedchamber like a
horse. “He showed up while I was on watch during my first year,”
Jalorm replied loudly, trying to talk over Thistledown’s
high-pitched cries coming from behind Celdic’s shoulder. “I
recognized him as soon as he came near of course, but it was still
a shock.”

Celdic shook his head. He
must be talking about the bond. Celdic thought about telling Jalorm
that he shared no part in that bond, but decided to keep it to
himself. He would just think that I was a freak or something. A
little voice in the back of his mind piped up that it might be
true. “Why did he come to see you?”

Jalorm looked into Celdic’s
eyes for a moment before answering. “He thought that I had some
special talents that he said would be useful if I learned how to
use them.” Jalorm scratched his scraggly-bearded chin thoughtfully.
“He told me that I would need to go on a journey in the
not-too-distant future and that he needed to make sure that I was
prepared for the journey.”

“
What special
talents?”

Jalorm gave him that
searching look again, as if wondering how he would react. Finally,
he heaved out a deep breath, “I suppose that you will find out
sooner or later. I have the Jen De’ La.”

Celdic’s eyes widened in
surprise. He would have never guessed Jalorm would have the Jen De’
La, the elemental power that so few were born with. The power,
triggered from fear or excitement, caused someone with the Jen De’
La to move at speeds impossible for normal mortals to achieve and
possess strength much greater than the ordinary person. Most who
were born that way were dangerous to be around because of their
unpredictable nature. He had known him for most of his life and he
had never shown any signs of it. He said as much, and Jalorm nodded
slightly.

“
I learned to control it to
a degree when I was still very young. The Elders knew about it and
so took extra precautions in training me on the combat field. That
is why Tarya Selindria taught me alone.” The last he said with a
sheepish grin, and no wonder. The others had been told that he had
progressed too far to combat with the other students, and so, had
to be privately tutored by Tarya Selindria.

“
She wants us to call her
just Selindria now,” Celdic offered in a low voice. It still
sounded strange just saying her name without the honorary
title.

As quiet as he had said it,
she still heard her name and glanced over at them. Sometimes Celdic
thought her ears were sharper than her eyes, which was saying a
lot. She opened her mouth to say something when Terrance’s singing
cut off.