Gorinthians (45 page)

“
I am going to need you to
do the rest, Morindessa,” Thistledown coaxed her gently. “You need
to attach yourself to your body again. Try to flex your muscles.
That seems to help sometimes.”

Morindessa continued
writhing on the ground for several moments, before jerking into an
upright sitting position with a loud gasp, her eyes flying open.
She let out a long, shuttering breath and fell into Riah’s arms,
sobbing quietly.

Thistledown stood up,
looking at the place he could feel Lochnar. “Do you think Jerard
will attack us here?”

“
No,” Lochnar replied
grimly. “He knows we are expecting him now. He will wait until he
thinks we have forgotten the incident, or passed it off as a trick
of the imagination. Then he will strike.”

Thistledown nodded his
agreement. Jerard had always been a patient person, and was nothing
if not cautious. He would want to make sure he held all of the
cards before attacking. “We need to get to Shalilayo as quickly as
possible.”

Looking into the hall at the
silent youths, Thistledown handed the Chasel back to Seranova with
a nod of thanks. She was studying his alien features in
fascination, instead of the wary caution that most people regarded
his wild appearance.

“
Riah, why don’t you stay
here with Morindessa?” Thistledown suggested. “The rest of you come
with me. We need to purchase some horses.”

Ferrich cleared his throat,
“Do you mind if I stay here?” he asked, glancing at Morindessa in
concern, “I already have a horse.”

Thistledown nodded in
acquiescence, walking back down the hall with the others following
behind. The common room was filled with sleeping soldiers, many of
them snoring loudly. Lori caught up to him as he exited the inn,
walking silently next to him. She looked as if she were unsure of
where to start, so Thistledown made it easy for her, “What’s on
your mind, Lori?”

Looking up at Thistledown
with a small crease on her forehead, Lori absently rubbed one of
her temples, “Do you know anything about the world that Terrance
and I are from?” she asked at last.

“
I do,” Thistledown replied
quietly, looking back at the other youths. They were talking among
themselves, with Seranova listening to their conversation with
interest.

“
I was wondering why
Terrance didn’t use electricity, or create guns, or any of the
other things that we have on Earth?” Lori looked up at Thistledown
expectantly, her young face showing a sharp intelligence. “He was a
scientist after all.”

Thistledown rubbed his chin
musingly as he pondered her questions. “As for electricity, it
won’t work on this world. It exists, but this planet has such a
strong electro-magnetic field that it interferes with electronic
devices. When Terrance first arrived, he did try to make several
electric components that were similar to what you use on Earth.
Even using vacuum tubes instead of transistors didn’t work.” Lori
was looking at him strangely, probably wondering how he was
familiar with the foreign technology. “Terrance thinks the raw
Spiritual energy that radiates throughout this universe creates too
much instability in the conductive elements electricity travels
through. As you learn to use your
yar
, you will see the same phenomenon
when you are near a fire. It changes its
yar
as quickly as its molecular
structure changes so that it causes a chain reaction with the
Spiritual energy around it.”

“
Are you from Earth?” Lori
asked curiously, studying his face doubtfully. “I don’t even know
what some of what you just said meant, but I am familiar with the
words.”

“
That’s a difficult
question to answer,” Thistledown replied evasively. “The most
direct answer would be no, I am not from Earth. Terrance has shared
a lot of his knowledge with me however.” It was not exactly a lie.
Terrance had shared a lot of his knowledge with him. Just not in
the manner that he had implied.

“
All right,” Lori said
after a moment of thoughtful silence, “what about the language? I
would think it stretched coincidence a little too far to arrive on
a planet in another universe, only to find that everyone speaks
English.”

Thistledown chuckled softly,
“Very astute. If you asked anyone on this planet if they spoke
another language, they would not even know what you were talking
about. When Terrance and Jerard first arrived on this planet, the
people here spoke many languages. Once the two of them had
organized the different primitive tribes of humans into a civilized
society, they insisted that everyone learn English. There are
variations and differing accents throughout the continents, but
everyone but the Zerans still speaks English, though they don’t
know that it is called English.”

“
And the guns,” Lori
prompted. “Or do they have guns?”

“
No guns,” Thistledown said
firmly. “Jerard has no interest in guns, because he has weapons of
much greater destructive power. He also does not want to kill
everyone. He has plans for them that they have to be alive
for.”

Lori frowned, glancing up at
Thistledown, “So why don’t you use guns?”

“
A gun is
just another tool for killing, except that it does it more
efficiently than a sword or a knife,” Thistledown said quietly.
“Our goal is to save lives, not empower people to kill more
efficiently. Before the end of the last civilization, people
used
yara
as a
weapon. With a gun, you can kill everyone in a room, or on a
street. Using
yara
, I could stop every heart in this town from beating. But as I
said, we want people to live.”

Lori nodded slowly, the
doubt fading from her young face. “What about cars?” She gestured
at a wagon cart next to a food stand that a farmer was loading as
he closed for the night. “Do they all travel by horse and
foot?”

“
They do
now,” Thistledown looked at the farmer loading the cart, causing
the scrawny man to do a double take as he saw Thistledown’s feral
eyes and alien features. “Before civilization ended, we had created
large highway systems that traveled through the air, powered
by
yara
. Society
didn’t depend on the basic needs of survival the way it does in
primitive cultures, because they could create their own food
with
yara
, and
pull castles and manor houses out of the very ground in a matter of
hours. People spent most of their time on recreational activities
and studying
yara
.
For a short time, it was the happiest society to ever exist.”
Thistledown was lost in his memories of a different life, where
sadness and misery were strangers. For a short period of time, it
seemed that the darkest mysteries of the universe would be brought
to surface in the light of discovery that had spread across the
globe.”

“
Do you miss it?” Lori
asked gently, bringing Thistledown back to the present with a
start.

“
Miss it?” Thistledown
asked with a laugh. “It’s hard to say. Memories are always grander
than reality. If I am still around in a thousand years, I will
probably look back on this period of my life fondly. I have always
believed that people do not achieve happiness; they must exercise
it. The more you exercise it, the easier it comes back to
you.”

Thistledown broke off their
conversation as they arrived at the stables on the outskirts of the
town. Reaching out with his
yar
, Thistledown’s awareness expanded
into the large house next to the barn. Everyone was still awake,
but Thistledown could tell from the mellowness of the residents’
resonances that they were close to settling in for the night.
Before he arrived at the front door, a couple of dogs ran out from
behind the house, barking and snarling viciously at Thistledown.
For some reason, domestic animals like dogs and cats went berserk
when Thistledown was near. It must have had something to do with
his original heritage, but he had never discovered how cats and
dogs could sense him coming before they saw him. He knew they could
not feel his resonance or his
yar
, and he was fairly certain it was
not his scent.

A young man with pimples
covering his face came out the front door, shouting at the dogs to
stop barking. It was an exercise in futility. He finally walked
down the short steps, grabbed both dogs by the scruff of the neck,
and began dragging them back toward a shed at the back of the
house. It seemed that the dogs might win the tug of war with the
pimply lad, until a short, chubby, bald man exited the house and
helped him wrestle the dogs to the shed. He returned a moment
later, brushing his hands together.

“
I apologize about the
dogs,” he said with a patronizing smile. “I don’t know what’s got
into them.”

“
Not a problem, good
master,” Thistledown assured him with a smile, careful to keep his
lips closed to conceal his serrated teeth. “We apologize for the
late hour, but we are in urgent need of some good
horses.”

“
I don’t know about good
horses,” the chubby stable master replied, rubbing a hand over his
baldpate. “Some of the king’s soldiers showed up this morning and
garnished my finest horse flesh.”

“
We will be glad to take
what you have left, good master,” Thistledown replied brusquely.
“We will need seven.”

Yawning, the stable master
absently ran his hand over his baldpate one more time. “Let me
fetch a lantern and I will show you the stables.”

He disappeared into the
house, reappearing a moment later with a lantern. “If you will just
follow me please.” He walked past without looking at them, almost
as if he were afraid he would recognize them if he saw them.
Thistledown wondered what Lieutenant Sanders had said to him that
morning regarding strangers.

Jalorm quietly moved up so
that he was walking next to Thistledown. “There is something wrong
in the stables,” he murmured quietly, leaning down so that his
mouth was close to Thistledown’s ear. “I can smell
blood.”

The stable master looked
back at them curiously when he saw Jalorm whispering. Thistledown
reached out with his
yar
to scan the stable. He missed a step as he took in
the blood that covered most of the walls and floor, as well as
horse body parts that something had torn to pieces. Feeling a sense
of foreboding, Thistledown felt the ground for the tracks he knew
would be there. He sighed as he felt the three-toed tracks of the
lizard creatures covering the ground inside the stable. The tracks
led into a forest that began at the edge of the
stable-
yar
d. The
creatures were already several miles into the forest, leaving only
their tracks as evidence that they existed.

“
Lizards,” Thistledown said
softly to Jalorm. “They are already deep into the forest now, but I
fear we will have to purchase our horses elsewhere.”

Jalorm had tensed at the
word ‘lizards’, unconsciously grabbing the hilt of his sword.
Celdic, Lendel, Li and Cha’le had not heard the quiet conversation,
but when they saw Jalorm tense up and reach for his sword, they
reached for their own weapons. Thistledown could feel their
yar
racing past him in
different directions as they searched for the danger. The plump
stable master had reached the stable doors, fumbling with a key at
his belt. He opened the door and walked in, and immediately jumped
back out with a startled yell.

“
What in the two moons
happened to my horses?” the chubby man cried, staring through the
stable door at the slaughter inside. His face was white and his
eyes were wide with shock as he studied the gore that covered the
walls and floor of the stable.

Thistledown moved up next
to the stable master, grunting as his eyes surveyed what his
yar
had already
discovered. “I have come across the likes of this recently, good
master.” Thistledown told him calmly, “It is the work of
lizard-like monsters. You might think about surrounding your
stables with a larger wall.”

The chubby little man turned
to stare at Thistledown, his mouth dropping. “A wall?” he exclaimed
in astonishment. “I am ruined! I have nothing left! Even the bank
won’t loan me any money when they see what has
happened.”

Thistledown pulled a large
purse full of gold coins and handed it to the stable master. “You
have my sympathy good master,” Thistledown told him solemnly.
“Build yourself a wall and I will collect payment for this loan
next time I pass this way.” Thistledown had no intention of
collecting the money back, but he knew the man would spend the
money more wisely if he thought he would have to pay it
back.

The stable master stared at
the fat purse in his hand, looking more amazed at the heavy pouch
of coins than when he had seen the slaughter inside his stables. “A
wall, you say?” he said slowly, raising his eyes to meet
Thistledown’s eyes. “And how high would you say it would need to be
to keep the monsters out?” The stable master seemed to be
recovering from his shock at the dead horses.

“
Fifteen feet to be safe,”
Thistledown answered, tapping his finger to his chin thoughtfully,
“and it might not be a bad idea to put some spikes on the
top.”