Gorinthians (7 page)

"So, what are you doing
here?” Celdic asked curiously. He was not sure what it was that
Thistledown's kind did. "Are you just exploring, or is something
wrong?"

"I left my dwelling when the
Dray Grass stopped growing.” Thistledown stared at the floor. "The
others thought it was my fault the Dray Grass no longer grew,
because I am different from them, so they told me to leave. The
Dray Grass is our primary food source.”

"Where will you go now?”
Celdic pried, as an idea came into his head. If the Chasel were
correct, then Celdic would be leaving soon. Perhaps the two of them
could travel together.

"Wherever my feet take me, I
guess,” he replied in a carefree voice.

"You could stay here for
while,” Celdic offered tentatively, not sure how the little man
might react.

"Mmm. I suppose that might
be interesting,” he mused. "I have always wondered what you humans
do in your big cities."

A knock on the bedroom door
interrupted their conversation. Thistledown spun with a hiss as
Cha'le opened the door and looked in.

"Who were you talking-” she
cut off with a startled exclamation when she saw
Thistledown.

"Calm down, Cha'le,” Celdic
insisted, hoping to quiet her. "This is Thistledown. He used to
live by the Rajan Gardens. He came to visit the city, so I thought
we would give him a tour. Thistledown, this is my sister, Cha'le.”
Celdic said it all in a rush, trying to overload his sister with
enough information that she would not have time for
surprise.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr.
Thistledown.” Cha'le replied in a bewildered tone.

"Just Thistledown, please;
no need for formality. And I am very glad to meet such a ravishing
young lady, pretty Cha'le,” he replied with a florid bow that was
just slightly overdone. Half way down in his bow, he winked at
Celdic, who began to think of Thistledown as a very complex little
fellow.

Cha'le laughed aloud, "I am
sure that we will get along just fine, Thistledown. In fact, there
are a number of things that I have wanted to do for a while now
that I may be able to do with your help."

"Anything for you, pretty
Cha'le," Thistledown replied with a roguish grin.

"Don't let her get you
involved in her pranks, Thistledown,” Celdic warned.

"Pranks?” he asked with his
head tilted. "I don't think that I am familiar with that
term."

"That's all right,
Thistledown,” Cha'le said with a mischievous smile, "I will educate
you."

Celdic sighed. "Maybe you
should stay away from him, Cha'le."

"Uh huh, right,” Cha'le
drawled noncommittally. "We should get going. We are already
running behind.” She turned and left, closing his door behind
her.

Celdic stretched and then
hurried out of his nightclothes and into some clean trousers and a
gray shirt that he laced up. Pulling on his boots, he laced them
up, grabbed his book from his nightstand and dropped it into his
bag.

"Would you like to travel in
here?” Celdic asked Thistledown, indicating his bag.

"Who could refuse such a
luxurious mode of travel?” Thistledown replied with an ironic
laugh. "Thank you, kind sir."

Holding the bag down to the
ground, Celdic opened the top and allowed Thistledown to climb in.
He rushed out of the room and into the kitchen where his sister was
eating porridge. She had changed out of her nightgown and into a
pair of black linen trousers and a gray blouse. She looked up as he
came to the table and then motioned her eyes questioningly toward
their mother who was washing the breakfast cooking dishes in the
sink. Celdic shook his head slightly. He did not want his parents
to know about their new companion.

Celdic wolfed down his
porridge and then he and his sister both got up to leave. They said
their goodbyes to their mother, hugging her tight, then went out
the front door.

"We are going to tell Lendel
and Li about Thistledown aren't we?” Cha'le inquired as she wrapped
her hair into two ponytails that she pulled over each
shoulder.

"Did someone call me?” a
voice piped up and Thistledown's head popped out of the top of the
bag.

"I think so,” Celdic replied
to Cha'le's question. "They would find out soon enough
anyway."

"Where are we going?”
Thistledown inquired, peering down the trail.

"To the Tar Ri’ San,” Cha'le
answered as she took the lead on the path. "That is where we get
our instruction in academics and combat."

"What kind of academics do
they teach you there?” Thistledown asked casually, as if he were
only mildly interested.

"Just about everything you
can imagine:” Cha'le replied with a wave of her hand, "Mathematics,
Language, Art, Physics and a whole range of classes on how to use
Rajan compounds."

"Rajan compounds?”
Thistledown asked curiously, "What are those?"

Cha'le glanced over her
shoulder at them and then continued. "Yes, Rajan compounds. We take
the plants from the Rajan gardens and learn to mix their
yar
with other materials
in order to achieve certain effects. For example, we can make a
sword that will not break or a ball that will give off light
forever. The possibilities are endless, as long as the gardens keep
producing plants with special
yar
."

They were approaching the
split in the trail where they would meet Lendel and Li. As they
neared it, Celdic noticed a man half hidden in the brush at the
split. Feeling a sudden foreboding, Celdic quickened his pace to
catch up to Cha'le.

With a surprising
suddenness, the dark outline rushed onto the trail and reached for
Cha'le's throat. Cha'le's hand shot up, her palm catching the
stranger under the chin, and he flew backward several steps.
Assuming a defensive stance, Cha'le waited for him to recover.
Celdic moved past her swiftly and met the stranger’s advance with a
solid kick to the solar plexus that put him on his back gasping for
air.

Celdic advanced on the
fallen enemy with the intent to force some answers out of
him.

"Don't touch him!”
Thistledown’s voice cried out urgently.

Celdic looked down to the
ground to where Thistledown had jumped, still keeping one eye on
the stranger. "Why shouldn't I touch him, Thistledown?"

"He is a Gorinthian,”
Thistledown explained with an intensity that froze Celdic in his
tracks. "If you touch him, he will be able to take your
body."

"What are you talking about?
How could he take my body?” Celdic demanded, somewhat
confused.

"It is nothing but a spirit
and it can move from body to body. Kill it before it takes yours!”
Thistledown shouted shrilly as the stranger began to rise
again.

Celdic looked in the
attacker’s eyes, and saw a fire burning in their depths that
chilled his heart. Reaching for his belt knife, Celdic jumped to
the side of his attacker as his arm shot out with fingers extended
for his throat. Spinning around behind it, Celdic flicked his knife
around its neck and pulled, being careful not to touch
it.

The now throat-less body
dropped lifelessly to the ground. Celdic felt an odd sensation, as
if he were feeling a scream, rather than hearing it, a scream
filled with hate and anger.

Wrinkling his nose in
disgust, Celdic stepped away from the corpse. It had already begun
to decay and its stench soon filled the clearing where the trail
split.

Celdic looked up quickly to
see if Cha'le was all right. She stood a few paces away, gagging at
the smell.

"Are you all right?” Celdic
asked her urgently. "You touched it with your hand."

"I am fine,” Cha'le replied,
still gagging slightly as she moved away from the stinking carcass.
"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine,” Celdic assured
her. "It didn't touch me."

Celdic stared at the corpse
with a slightly haunted look in his eyes. He had never killed
anything more than a chicken before and now he had a killed a
man.

"You did the right thing,”
Thistledown said to him from the ground, looking at him shrewdly.
"You would be worse than dead if it had been successful in grabbing
your throat."

Cha'le had been staring at
the lifeless form and she suddenly let out a small gasp. "That's
one of the gardeners! We’ve passed him on our way to the Tar Ri’
San before.”

Thistledown shook his head,
"That may have been someone you knew once. A Gorinthian evicts the
former spirit of whatever body it takes. All that you did was
destroy the vehicle this Gorinthian was using. I would imagine it
is already on its way back to the Rajan Gardens to steal another
body."

Cha'le was looking at
Thistledown suspiciously. "You seem to know a lot about these
creatures. Where did you learn so much about them?”

Before Thistledown could
answer, Lendel and Li came down the fork in the trail that led
toward their house. They were both wrinkling their noses as they
approached the small clearing.

"What is that stench?” Li
asked in disgust.

"Is that you Celdic?” Lendel
asked with one eyebrow raised. "Just because you have visions when
you look in the wash basins doesn't mean you can stop
bathing."

Celdic did not bother to
respond. He just gestured up the trail toward the rotting
remains.

Li let out a loud gasp and
Lendel bit off an oath.

"What happened?” Lendel
demanded, holding his nose as he moved closer to the rotting
corpse.

"He attacked us on our way
down,” Celdic explained, gesturing toward Cha'le. "Well, he
attacked Cha'le actually and when I went after him, he tried to
attack me."

"Who was it?” Li's voice had
a small quaver to it and her face was white.

"It was a gardener,” Cha'le
replied with revulsion. "I think that we should alert the
Guardians. There may be more of them."

"A gardener!” Lendel gasped
in shock. "Why would a gardener attack you? And why would there be
more?"

"Cha'le is right,” Celdic
said in a subdued voice. "Let's go let the Guardians know about
them. Thistledown can tell you about them as we go.” Not waiting
for Lendel to question him further, Celdic began walking down the
worn path into the small forest.

"Who is Thistledown?” Lendel
asked, looking around as he caught up to Celdic.

"I am Thistledown,”
Thistledown replied from Lendel's pack, into where he had somehow
managed to climb.

Lendel gave a startled
exclamation from the voice that appeared to be coming from behind
his ear. Jerking around, he looked behind him. Not seeing anyone
there, he turned again.

"Up here big guy,”
Thistledown called out again.

Lendel spun again, this time
so violently that he almost fell over. Cha'le snickered behind him.
Li blinked uncertainly at Lendel, where the source of the voice was
coming from. Thistledown patted Lendel's shoulder with his palm and
Lendel spun around yet again, his eyes attaining a wild
look.

"Is he invisible?” Lendel
asked, his eyes darting around the clearing.

Cha'le doubled over and
laughed and Li looked amused by Lendel's reaction, almost
forgetting her own incomprehension.

"He is a three-inch tall man
sitting in your pack,” Celdic answered, rolling his eyes. "If you
two are done playing, we have this other matter to attend
to."

Lendel pulled his pack
around and looked into it. Thistledown sat on the top of the pack
with his legs crossed.

"Good morning,” Thistledown
greeted him amiably.

Lendel almost dropped his
pack and Thistledown jumped clear of it.

"Very clumsy,” Thistledown
commented reproachfully. "Pretty Cha'le, would you
mind?"

"Why of course, my dear
Thistledown,” Cha'le replied with exaggerated formality. She
lowered her pack and he climbed on.

Celdic had already started
down the trail again. They continued through the small forest as
Thistledown described their encounter with the Gorinthian, somehow
making Cha'le out to be the grand heroine that had saved them all.
Celdic began paying closer attention when he described the
Gorinthian’s odd nature.

"A long ago time they were
extremely deadly.” Thistledown expounded. "They didn't need to
touch you to steal your body. They could hop from body to body at
will. After the Derinian Order wounded the Earth's spirit,
Gorinthians were no longer able to draw the extra energy they
needed to penetrate a person’s aura. I guess they get all the
energy they need at the gardens."

"What do you mean when you
say the earth's spirit was wounded?” Celdic interrupted.

Thistledown looked at him
suspiciously for a minute, as if he suspected some kind of joke.
When Celdic did not respond, Thistledown's expression turned from
suspicion to amazement. He looked at each of them in turn and saw
the same blank look of incomprehension on their faces. "Are you
trying to tell me you don't know anything about your own history?”
he demanded incredulously.