Mythborn: Rise of the Adepts (47 page)

Now I must do the same, but on a grander scale. I must create a system of faith that is impervious to doubt, and it starts with me.

I know many spells of warding. I believe here, in this place, they will have greater power. I know this to be true, I feel it. I believe it. It is my will that is master here.

Ritual is key, faith is power. Nothing can stop me. I must believe. My life depends upon it.

F
ALLS OF
S
HIMMERENE

You cannot know a person’s heart

Until you have crossed blades with them.

Once done, their character lies open to you.

They will always act as they did,

When trying to survive.

—Davyd Dreys, Notes to my Sons

A
rek awoke to the sound of birds... a sound more incongruous because of its source. Was he not in the Altan Wastes? As his eyes cracked open, he found himself lying in a bed, with a canopy of fine silk above. Flitting about in a small, golden cage were a pair of black and yellow songbirds singing to each other. He was dressed in soft clothes that made him uncomfortable, but only for their fineness. Then he looked down and two shapes pushed up the fine blankets, his
feet.

He choked out a small laugh... it was not a dream! Then, with a trepidation he had not felt since he was a child, he wiggled the toes of the foot he had thought lost.

Pain shot up his leg and exploded in his brain. Yet instead of feeling bad, he could not help but laugh. To feel anything at all was better than feeling nothing but a stump... and with that exhausting effort, a world of new hope opened. Tears sprang unbidden down his cheeks. His foot and therefore his future might once again be his.

"Nice."

Arek started, then turned to the voice, hastily wiping his face. Piter, he thought at first.

"Sorry, didn’t mean to surprise you. Honestly."

Arek finished wiping his eyes and realized the voice came not from the shade that had recently become a part of his life, but rather from a girl. "Your name?" he managed to croak, sleep still in his voice.

"Tej," she answered simply, "of EvenSea."

Arek’s eyes focused on his guest and his breath caught. Not just any girl, he corrected himself. She was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. Her hair flowed from her head like an ocean wave and framed a face that was exotic, but burdened by a deep pain, a pain that made her seem more vulnerable. Her eyes were amber, and it occurred to him that the royal family of EvenSea were said to have amber eyes.

"I... your name?" he asked again, his voice sounding stupid to his own ears.

She laughed, then looked past his bed to the window. Her eyes caught the sweep of the desert sun and seemed to soak it in, then intensify it, until her gaze almost glowed. When those eyes looked back to him, his heart skipped.

"I already told you...," she answered again, just as simply. "A one-time princess, now just Tej. For someone so handy with a weapon, you’re not very good with faces," she added with a faint smile, pointing to a small bruise on her temple where Arek’s foot had connected. "Though you clearly you don't mind hitting a girl."

Arek realized with a shock where he had seen her before, in the hallway outside that chamber. That seemed an eternity ago. Now his earlier guess that she was of the Tir royal line fell into place. Had he hit her? The look on his face must have betrayed his thoughts, for he saw the girl’s smile grow and she moved closer.

"Please, no titles or rank. I'm trapped here as much as you." Her head tilted to one side and she smiled and said, "You fight well. Ash says you’re better than anyone he’s ever faced."

Arek looked around, his mind quickly wondering what new tact the king attempted, and asked, "No guards? What do you want?"

"A favor."

At that moment, Arek’s vision tunneled and the world froze and he felt the familiar space of time that portended Piter’s arrival. It didn’t take long until the familiar dark-robed figure strode into view, appearing from thin air. The shade paused, looking at Tej. "Pretty, but useless."

"What do you want now?" Arek asked, tired and fed up. The anger of the torture and treatment by the king, the fear of having been abandoned here amongst strangers, it all came together now, then fell upon the shade of Piter.

"I
saved
you. If I had not come, you would be dead now!" Piter moved past the frozen figure of the princess and faced Arek, standing his ground. "It’s more than you
ever
did for me!"

"What are you talking about?" Arek asked. Something in the tone of Piter’s voice broke the turbulent frustration and anger that had threatened to boil over a moment ago. He felt drained and somehow melancholic.

Piter looked down, but when he looked up again, there seemed to be a change in the shade’s eyes and a question came out in earnest: "Why did you hate me?"

Arek stopped, dumbfounded. "What?"

"You were always cruel, letting your friends poke fun. When did you include me? You fall in with them and I am left behind, the odd one?"

Arek took a breath, then asked, "When did I hate you?"

"It wasn’t always like that. We grew up together and were friends, brothers." Piter looked away, then said, "It’s hard enough to be an orphan, but you made my life on the Isle miserable."

A heartbeat passed, then two, and Arek dropped his gaze. He hadn’t thought of it like that, it had always seemed that Piter was annoying, or somehow just in the way. He answered, softly, "We... I didn’t mean anything."

"No?" The shade looked on a bit longer, then said, "Forget it,
Master.
It doesn’t matter now. All you should care about is your own life, your own friends, as usual."

Arek didn’t have an answer. His treatment of his classmate hadn’t felt particularly mean or base. Neither Tomas nor Jesyn liked Piter and therefore he became an easy target. But it was just jokes, Arek told himself, no harm had really been meant.

Now the shade forced him to think about his actions from his name-brother’s point of view. By that measure, he was less sure he had acted so kindly.

Silence hung between them, stretching out for a few heartbeats before Piter said, "Your destiny lies deep below this fortress. Don’t be foolish and open a portal for the king. You’ll be killing me twice."

Arek shook his head to clear it, not hearing Piter completely. "What?"

Piter rolled his eyes and said, "Fool, you need to head downward. The Gate you seek is there. It is a place of power. Your will is the key, and achieving this Gate will set things right."

"You mean, free you? You can still be saved?"

The shade looked around, as if sensing its own departure, and said, "Perhaps, but you are likely too stupid."

Arek felt a flash snap as time resumed its normal pace—the jolt of connection and the shade of Piter was gone.

In that moment, he heard Tej finish her request, "Take me with you when Ash’s team goes to the nomad camp."

Arek looked at the girl with a faraway stare, the last conversation still filling his brain. He knew he needed to think about how he had treated Piter, but the direction the shade had given him burned its way into the forefront of his mind. The Gate lay below Bara’cor? Then he looked at Tej and blinked, her question registering for the first time. "What do you mean, take you?"

Tej cocked her head to the side and looked at the songbirds, not seeing the effect it had on Arek. "I feel like one of those birds."

Arek looked up and knew what she meant. "So do I, but in my cage, there always seem to be cats." He smiled and when he looked back at her, he was surprised to see she was smiling too.

Then her gaze grew serious and she said, "The nomad chieftain killed my father, he impaled him in front of me. I want to end his life."

Arek sat back, shocked by her revelation, then he said, "I am sorry." His mind raced and he added, "But how can I help?"

Tej gestured with her chin to the blank spot on his chest where his Finder had been. "Your charm. Take me with you. I’ll be ready."

"First, I’m not going with them, and even if I was... be accused of kidnapping you? Not likely," he retorted, then let out a small laugh at the absurdity of her request.

Tej pushed past the boy and plopped herself onto the bed next to him, sullen on the edge of angry. "So you’re scared?"

"Yes, very," Arek said, nodding vigorously, not caring what she thought of that.

"The king won’t do anything. I’ll already be on the other side and Ash will still parley with your master for your release."

Arek stared at her, startled at how close she was and that she seemed wholly unaware of her own beauty. As to her question, he also began to think she was slightly crazy. "I don’t even have the charm."

Tej looked up, her amber eyes glinting. "What if I stole it for you?"

Arek laughed. "Use the charm and ruin your king’s one chance at breaking the siege? What part of my body do you think he’ll cut off for that?"

"Cowards always find reasons why something is too difficult. Heroes don’t." Her quirked lips and crossed arms made it clear which part she thought he was acting now. The accusation was plain on her face and stance.

Arek leaned back into the soft pillows, thinking. This was not at all what he had expected and in front of her, his ability to reason fled. He closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath, focusing. As he did so, his thoughts cleared and he said, "Going into the nomad camp is the job of trained warriors. No offense, but from what I saw, your skills aren’t good enough. At best, you’ll hinder any attempt to achieve your own goal."

He hated being so direct and worried she would leave right then and there. Instead, her face took on a thoughtful look.

"What do you think I should do?" she asked in a small voice.

Arek shook his head, not wanting to mention that anyone could open the portal by breaking the Finder. That fact would likely send the girl on a fool’s mission. "I don’t know. I can create the portal. Assuming you could sneak past the guards, you could go in after the king’s men, but for what? It won’t be easy to find who you want. There are thousands of nomads in that camp. Furthermore, the team won’t stick around once they’re done, and there’s almost no way you can be there right when it happens."

"That’s easy," replied Tej, "we go where all the yelling is."

Arek looked at her incredulously. "You’re assuming the king’s men can do the job. What if this nomad chieftain is tougher than they think?" He looked directly at the girl and met her amber gaze, adding softly, "I’m sorry, but if your training is an example of the skill of Bara’cor, they are all going to get killed."

He looked down, not wanting to disappoint this girl. No, this
lady,
he corrected. Then his mind latched onto what the shade said just before leaving and he decided to redirect her and get some of his own questions answered. "Tej, what’s below Bara’cor?"

Tej stared back at him, a strange look on her face. It was as if he had somehow acquitted himself well in her eyes, or at least he imagined that’s what she was thinking. Then she shrugged, "Lots of things. The fortress is pretty extensive."

"But do you know your way around down there?" What Piter had said planted the seed of a plan, but it required someone who knew the fortress intimately.

"I guess so. Why?" She plopped back down, rolling onto her back to stare again at the canopy and the songbirds.

"I think there’s something down there, something that might help us defeat the nomads. If we could find it, you may get what you want," he said. It was mostly true, but he had tweaked it a bit to appeal more to her need for revenge.

Tej sat up and her eyes filled with hope. "A weapon?"

Arek shrugged, "I’m not sure."

Tej nodded, then tilted her head to one side with that strange look she had earlier. "You don’t care what I think, do you?"

"No. . ." Arek stated truthfully. He found her alluring, and outright lying to her seemed somehow wrong.

The princess continued to stare a bit longer, then smiled and stood up. "Refreshing." She stooped to grab a pair of boots sitting unnoticed at the foot of his bed. "Put these on. They look like something from the medics, probably soft."

Arek caught one, the other smacking him in the face. He almost yelled, but her laughter gave him pause. Plus, the boots
were
soft and filled with a cotton fluff that when laced tight would serve as a nice bandage.

"What happens when I have to change these?"

"Like I’m going to know you that long," she replied. "All right. I don’t know the fortress
that
well, but I know someone who might."

"Who would that be?" asked Arek.

A voice from a shadow near the door spoke then, startling them both.

"Me," said Niall as he stepped into view.

R
EBORN

You must give away any thought of surviving.

Enter each battle as if you have already died,

And your time here is merely borrowed.

Embrace this, and you will act without fear.

—Kensei Shun, The Lens of Shields

S
cythe watched the image of Silbane in a small water bowl. Beside him stood Hemendra, not at all happy to be in the Redrobe’s tent. The watery image showed their captive, still secured to the pole in the tent where they had left him.

"You take a great chance leaving him alive," stated Hemendra.

"I would hazard the world, this army, your life, even the pathetic lice on your skin, to ensure my plan’s success. I leave nothing to chance."

The words came out almost normal, betrayed only by a slight tremble at the end. The nomad chieftain had spent enough time with Scythe to tell when he was teetering on the edge of a violent outburst. Usually these ended in the death of a nomad or two, like the skinning of the two scouts.

Hemendra didn’t think too deeply over this. The mage instilled fear, and Hemendra gained respect as a result. Still, the man
was
dangerous and in Hemendra’s opinion, only the Redrobe’s power and promise to help breach Bara’cor’s walls had kept him alive this long. He scowled, but said nothing. Gutting him would be simple, when the time came.