Gorinthians (17 page)

As if to grant his wish,
Thistledown came strolling around the bend in the path with Li,
Cha’le and Lendel following. As he looked at them, he felt his
heart leap into his throat. His sister and two friends looked
half-dead from fatigue. They stumbled behind Thistledown and almost
fell with each step. Celdic hurried forward to support Li as they
made their way to the cottage.

“
What happened to them?”
Celdic asked Thistledown in shock.

Thistledown looked a little
out-of-sorts for the first time since Celdic had met him. His eyes
were tight with concern and his ever-present smile had been
replaced by a worried frown. “They are just exhausted and hungry,”
he replied, leading them up to the cottage door and holding it open
for them.

Celdic half-carried Li in as
she leaned heavily on him. Selindria and Terrance stood up from
their small conference in the sitting room as the small band of
disparate youths trudged in. Selindria rushed forward to help
Cha’le and Terrance moved forward to help Lendel, who shrugged off
Terrance’s offer of assistance.

“
What happened?” Terrance
demanded of Thistledown as he entered the room, closing the door
behind him.

“
I am not entirely
certain,” Thistledown replied with a troubled look at the three
exhausted youths. “Lochnar met them in the mountains and
accompanied them down to the pick-up point that you saw. I only
arrived a few moments before he went back to scouting their camp.
He sensed an intruder of some kind.” Thistledown lowered his voice
slightly. “He warned me to take the children away immediately, so I
awoke them and brought them here.”

Selindria led Cha’le to the
room that she slept in and Celdic took Li to his room. He tucked
her in the bed he had slept in the night before. She was too tired
to make a coherent response to his concerned inquiries and was soon
asleep. Celdic stared at her for a moment, watching the strain
loosen around her eyes as she fell into the deep sleep this place
seemed to encourage. Even in her haggard state, she was beautiful
enough to take his breath away.

Eventually, the voices he
could hear outside the door drew him back out to the sitting room
where Thistledown was shaking his head slightly to a question that
Terrance had asked him. Selindria was just entering the sitting
room as well, with a purposeful look on her finely featured face.
She walked up to Thistledown, staring down at him from her superior
height.

“
Did you say they met a man
named Lochnar?” she asked coolly. Her left eyebrow was arched and
her hands were on her hips. Celdic was glad that Thistledown, and
not he, was the object of her attention.

Thistledown winced at the
name as she planted herself firmly in front of him. He shared a
look with Terrance, sighing resignedly.

“
I might have said that
name, though I have heard him use others,” Thistledown replied
evasively. “I think the name he usually goes by is Rachnan. He
probably just heard the other name somewhere and decided that he
liked it more.”

“
Is that a fact?” Selindria
asked him sweetly. “And would you say that this Lochnar fellow has
a sunny disposition by any existing standards of the
word?”

“
Well, as to that, who can
say what is sunny?” Thistledown answered philosophically, his
expression bland.

“
Would you like to tell me
what my father is doing here?” Selindria asked Terrance curtly. “Is
he involved in this scheme of yours?”

Terrance shook his head. “I
honestly do not know what Lochnar is doing here,” he said watching
her closely. “I knew that Celdic’s friends would be joining us, but
I did not see Lochnar involved at all.” He paused a moment. “I also
did not know that Lochnar was your father.” The last came slowly,
as if he did not like to admit his own ignorance.

“
Didn’t see him?” Selindria
asked, her eyes narrowing. “Are you saying that you can see the
future?”

Celdic stared at Terrance.
He knew that the Chasel was used to help make choices when the
Elders raised new leaders because it could see dimly into the
future, but he thought the ability was unique with the artifact in
the mountain peak at Chasel Ri’ Aven.

“
Merely a path of
probability that, once known, can be influenced to varying
degrees,” Terrance replied cryptically. “Lochnar seems to be able
to avoid the eye of probability as well as everything else.” He
finished the last in a mutter.

“
That’s as may be,”
Selindria continued doggedly, “but how is it you know my
father?”

“
That is a long story that
we really don’t have time for right now,” Terrance replied firmly.
“There are other, more important matters that need to be covered
before we leave. To sum up, Lochnar was in a little more trouble
than he could handle and I happened to be in the vicinity, so I
helped him out. We have had a semi-cordial acquaintance since
then.”

Celdic watched Selindria
roll this around in her mind, deciding whether to press him for
more information. Before she could question him further, Terrance
turned to Celdic. His eyes looked into Celdic’s soul, appearing to
know secrets about him.

“
We have things to discuss
before we leave,” Terrance said, his eyes locked on Celdic
intently. “Come with me Celdic,” he said, making his way to the
door.

Celdic glanced at Selindria
questioningly. She possessed a slightly sympathetic expression that
made the hackles on Celdic’s neck erect stiffly. Squaring his
shoulders, Celdic followed Terrance out the front door and onto the
path that led them to the cottage.

Terrance slowed down so that
Celdic was walking beside him. Celdic looked at him sideways,
sensing he was at a loss for words. It made Celdic uncomfortable to
see him so uncertain.

They continued walking in
silence for a while. Terrance had his hands tucked in his trouser
pockets and his forehead creased in thought while Celdic had his
head cocked uncertainly, wondering what it was Terrance was going
to tell him. As they rounded the bend in the path, Celdic realized
the trail he had followed so many times that morning no longer
looked the same. This path led into a forest that staggered the
imagination with the immensity of the trees within it. Just one of
the trees was easily as large as the house he had grown up in. The
branches on these titans began at over a hundred feet high and
spread a canopy that shaded entire acres.

As Celdic gazed in awe at
the towering giants surrounding them, Terrance cleared his throat.
“I have quite a bit to tell you, some of it probably very
shocking,” he said, glancing at Celdic with his piercing
eyes.

Celdic nodded without saying
anything. Terrance’s behavior had somewhat prepared him for an
unsettling conversation.

“
I am not sure if Selindria
already told you or not, but you were not born in Chasel Ri’ Aven,”
Terrance said, bracing for the next part. “You were born where that
tree is standing,” he finished, pointing at a tree that was as tall
as three of him.

Celdic gaped at where
Terrance was pointing. He had been ready to hear that he was not
from Chasel Ri’ Aven, but to be brought to the place of his birth,
a place that as far as he could tell, did not exist in the real
world, shook him to his core. “What?” Celdic exclaimed. “Here? Why
not the moon or maybe on the bottom of the sea? At least they
exist!”

Celdic thought that he saw
the corner of Terrance mouth quirk toward a smile, but a second
later he was all business again. “When your mother and I decided to
have a child, we were not sure what would happen,” Terrance said
seriously. “There were some complications involved in my ancestral
origins that cast doubt on the chances of your survival if we had
stayed in the physical realm that you know.”

Celdic stopped, his jaw
working but no sound coming out. Terrance just watched him
silently, waiting for the questions that he knew would come. Celdic
felt the world around him heave as his mind tried to comprehend all
of the revelations that were bombarding him. Finally, shaking his
head slightly to clear it, he focused on Terrance.

“
You are saying that you
are my father?” Celdic asked doubtfully.

Terrance nodded, still not
saying anything. Celdic studied Terrance’s face again and noticed
all of the resemblances he shared with this man, resemblances he
had never shared with the parents that raised him.

“
What about Cha’le?” Celdic
asked suddenly. “Selindria said that none of us were from Chasel
Ri’ Aven.”

“
She is the daughter of a
dear friend and companion who I had until quite recently,” Terrance
said sadly. “He was one of the last living members of the Derinian
order. We knew that Cha’le would be a target from the day she was
born, as well as you, Lendel and Li. The only place that you would
be able to grow up with a semi-normal life was Chasel Ri’
Aven.”

Celdic was having trouble
sorting out his feelings. He stood at the place of his birth, a
place of beauty beyond anything that he had dreamed, with the
person claiming to be his real father and all that he felt was a
sense of disorientation. The compass that had guided his life
seemed to be spinning like a top. He sat down on the ground, closed
his eyes and tried to find the calm that Selindria taught them was
necessary. Slowly, calm returned to his mind as he forced the
chaotically swirling thoughts to slow down. Opening his eyes, he
looked at Terrance who had lowered himself to a crouch next to
Celdic.

“
What of Li and Lendel?”
Celdic inquired calmly, “Who are their parents?”

“
They were
twins of another member of the Derinian order,” Terrance replied,
looking relieved that Celdic was recovering his wits. “You see,
as
yara
was lost
after the cataclysm, people’s ability to use it gradually
dissipated. Now, only Zerans and Talons can even sense it, and then
only slightly.” Terrance pointed at Celdic. “You and your three
friends are direct descendants from a generation that existed
before the cataclysm, which means that all of you will be able to
use
yara
to one
degree or another. That makes you a direct threat to the
Gorinthians, as well as numerous others throughout the world. The
only thing that kept us from being overwhelmed to date is that
there are enough factions fighting among themselves as there are
against us.”

“
Are you going to tell Li
and the others?” Celdic asked quietly. “About their parents, I
mean.”

Terrance nodded. “They’ve a
right to know and there really isn’t anyone else to tell them,” he
said with a sigh. “It’s been a long time since I have felt this
alone in the world.”

Celdic impulsively patted
him on the shoulder. Even through all of the turmoil he felt, he
realized the pain that must come of seeing all of those that you
love pass on. “You’re not alone anymore,” Celdic reassured him with
a tight grin. “We’re family, right?”

Terrance grinned back, the
laugh lines around his eyes creasing. “So we are,” he replied
warmly, embracing Celdic. “It was a hard choice, giving you up to
someone else to raise, but it was the only way I could be sure that
you would be safe.”

Celdic nodded in
understanding, feeling that he had finally found at least one
buttress that could support him in the deep currents that had risen
around him and his friends. Celdic glanced down at the earth that
made curious patterns around them. There were small mounds of earth
shaped like half moons while others made arches out of soft dirt
that should have collapsed, all covered in lush green foliage
adorned with multi-colored flowers. “What is this place?” Celdic
wondered aloud.

“
This is
paradise,” Terrance said looking around fondly. “My paradise
anyway. In the old world every merchant, noble and even some
commoners had their own paradise. This is just one of the things
that you can do with
yara
. This place exists at the
boundary between the physical realm and the spiritual realm. Like
all matter, everything is made up of opposites. For every opposite,
there is a middle ground where the two opposites meet. This is a
kind of neutral plane where both sides exist, but neither holds
dominance. When you add a third element to that equation, such as
an entity like us that has the ability to act for itself, we have
dominance over the elements that exist on this
plane.”

Celdic could barely contain
his excitement as the possibilities unfolded before him. He could
hardly wait to start learning about
yara
. Terrance had been watching him
and had noticed the eager look in his eyes. He laughed softly
before continuing.

“
As with every good thing
that exists, there is always a downside.” Terrance frowned slightly
as he gathered his thoughts. “Just as I told you that we hold the
power over the elements in this realm, we, as the third element in
this equation, have our own opposites. Other people that are not
content with ruling their own paradise, or living a normal life
with a normal family. I don’t know that I would call these people
evil, so much as selfish and seriously lacking in foresight.”
Terrance gestured around them at the towering trees. “If one of
these trees grows too closely to another, it will consume most of
the sunlight, diminishing the amount that the tree next to it can
obtain. In the grand scheme of existence, we are not so different.
We encroach on another person’s space, diminishing them, making
them less in one manner or another, yet we do not see it as evil.
In the end, it is just stupidity.”