The Fog of Forgetting (16 page)

Evelyn sighed in resignation and looked up.

“Look!” She pointed to the sky. “A shooting star!”

Her finger tracked a trail of light traversing the sky. It fell for several seconds, leaving a long, glittering tail. It was followed by another, then another, and then another in rapid succession.

“Tho many,” whispered Teddy. “I can't wish on them all.”

Seaborne leapt up, alarmed. The falling stars appeared to be getting closer, their light flashing like lightning across their upturned faces.

“That's because they're not stars! Come. We've got to move.”

They took off again, but before they had traveled very far, one of the stars landed in front of them and exploded. A great flash of light and heat seared across their path. The grass in front of them caught fire. There was another explosion, and another flash, and another. In seconds, they were surrounded by a ring of burning grass. They had not escaped the Exorians after all.

“We'll have to run for it!” shouted Seaborne. “Pull your hoods down over your faces and cover your mouths!”

“I can't!” screamed Evelyn. Her face contorted in terror, watching the flames lick higher and higher into the sky, devouring the grass. “It's too big! We'll never make it!”

“You have to try!” cried Seaborne. “Follow me!” But before he could move, dark shadows flickered in the flames, and with a great screaming yowl, a pair of
tehuantl
burst through the wall of fire, unharmed by the spitting heat. They were followed by a band of fully armed Exorians, their thick skin untouched by the flames.

The
tehuantl
closed in on the escapees. Arrows whizzed through the air, shot from the crossbows of the Melorians who'd given chase and were now held at bay on the other side by the fire. Seaborne gave Evelyn and Chase a look of warning and leapt in front of them with a shout. His sword flashed, sending a shiver through the Exorians. The
tehuantl
pounced. Seaborne swung his blade. The creatures snarled and retreated, pacing the ring of flame, guarding the perimeter to prevent any Melorians from breaking through or any of the children from escaping. The Exorians fell on Seaborne.

Evelyn pulled the knife from beneath her poncho. Chase grabbed his own blade. Teddy raised his slingshot. They advanced. In response, the Exorians made a wall with their shields, isolating Seaborne from the three. Seaborne bore down on the Exorians with a fury, forcing them to raise their spears. Chase and Evelyn took advantage of the opening; Evelyn sunk her knife into the shoulder of the nearest Exorian. He grimaced and grabbed for her wildly. She ducked out of reach, pulling the blade out of his shoulder as she went.

Chase hacked away at whatever unprotected legs and torsos he could find, maneuvering around the shields. He glanced quickly over his shoulder and saw Teddy on one knee, slingshot loaded and aimed at the head of a nearby Exorian. Evelyn was on the ground, cornered by an Exorian, the tip of her knife broken. She stabbed madly at her attacker's bare feet with the jagged tip of her weapon. The Exorian roared in pain and slammed his shield into the side of Evelyn's head. She fell to the ground, unconscious. The man dropped the shield and lifted her prone figure onto his shoulder.

Chase's blood ran cold. Both he and Seaborne were too far away to reach her.

“Teddy!” Chase yelled, pointing to the Exorian carrying Evelyn. “TAKE HIM OUT!”

Teddy nodded and reloaded his slingshot. He pulled the band as far back as it would go and released a rock the size of a small apple. To Chase's surprise, it found its mark, hitting the Exorian squarely in the temple. He crumpled to the ground.

“Nice one!” Chase hollered.

“Keep them coming, Teddy, my lad!” Seaborne yelled. “We need all the help we can get!”

With a hair-raising growl, Axl and Tar shot through the wall of fire, their hackles singed and standing up like manes down their backs. The
tehuantl
hissed and leapt into the air. The dogs charged. A furious screaming exploded the air. The flames parted again and into the circle sprang a larger hound, tawny brown with a gray ridge of bristled fur. Behind it poured the remaining Melorians, including Tinator, Mara, Calla, and Knox. The great, tawny hound clamped his jaws down on one of the cats and hurled it, lifeless, to the ground. Axl and Tar joined forces to dispatch the other. Knox fought his way over to Chase and Teddy, and together they dragged the still-unconscious Evelyn to relative safety at the edge of the melee.

“What do we do now?” asked Knox, staring at the impassable wall of fire surrounding them. His face was black with sweat and soot. Evelyn's head bobbed against his shoulder. Chase tried to shield Teddy from the heat.

“We can't run through it—not like this. They won't make it.” Chase nodded toward Evelyn and Teddy.

Knox gritted his teeth. “Do you think they'll make it if we don't?”

In answer, the ground beneath them groaned ominously, then rumbled and shook. The air shuddered and the earth around them ripped apart with a great crack. Knox shoved Evelyn to safety; Teddy and Chase fell backwards. The crack lengthened and widened until it encircled the flames, and then, in one great heave, it swallowed the ring of flames and resealed as quickly as it had opened. The remaining Exorians changed tactics and sped toward them, spears blazing in the sudden darkness. Tinator stepped from the shadows to intercept them. With one graceful gesture he released a bolt from his crossbow; an Exorian fell. Two more took his place. He lowered the crossbow, his last bolt spent, and, before he could reach for his sword, the Exorians pressed their advantage.

Knox stumbled to help him, exhausted and also defenseless, having lost his knives and axes in the last battle. He tore the shaft of Tinator's crossbow bolt out of the fallen Exorian and stabbed it into the back of another. Tinator swung his crossbow blindly like a club, then lost his balance, sinking beneath his attackers.

“Tinator!” Knox called out.

Chase squinted in the dim light. The Exorians had Tinator on the ground. The Melorians, distracted by their own fight, were too far away to see the danger. Evelyn and Teddy lay in the grass at Chase's feet. Knox lay sprawled several yards away. He couldn't drag Knox to safety and get to Tinator in time. He would have to choose between them. Through the gaps between the Exorians' legs, Chase saw Tinator raise his head. Their eyes met.

“I'm sorry,” Chase mouthed.

Tinator blinked in understanding.

“Not me, not me!” Knox shouted as Chase heaved him over to Teddy and Evelyn. “They'll kill him! Chase!” Knox gave a desperate look over his shoulder toward Tinator.

Chase dropped Knox next to Teddy and grimaced, doubled over in pain. His lungs were burning: each breath felt like tiny razors piercing his chest. His legs were shaking.

Knox pulled himself up, and clawed at Chase's arm. “You have to help him, Chase! He can't fight them alone.”

A memory stirred at the edge of Chase's brain, more like the echo of a memory than the real thing—as if Chase had heard the story from someone else: A school stairwell, lit by a deceptively rosy light. The light of summer, rising. Two boys had cornered him, backpacks thrown on the floor, shoving him against the wall. Threats. His lungs whistled loudly in the cavernous air. Then, out of nowhere, a shadow blocked the light and the boys were on the ground. It was Knox, come to save him.

Now, he knew, it was his turn.

Chase tightened his grip on his sword and turned to face the Exorians. In the light cast by their torch spears, he saw that Tinator lay prone, convulsed in pain. A spear had found its mark. The Exorians were circled around the fallen Melorian, spears down, allowing the poison to do the fighting for them. Their confidence made Chase forget how tired he was.

He yelled and ran toward them in a fury. They turned almost lazily to repel him, just as the hounds of Melor sprang from the shadows. In minutes, the fight was truly over. All of the Exorians were dead.

Chase let his sword fall to the ground.

B
odies of fallen warriors lay scattered in the moonlight at the center of the charred circle. Melorian and Exorian blood pooled together and sank into the ground. Evelyn sat up, sporting an egg-size welt on her forehead. Tinator lay sprawled, bloodied and unresponsive, the tip of an Exorian spear embedded in his ribs. He did not move. Mara and Calla and a small group of Melorians gathered around him.

“He will heal, right, Mother?” Calla pleaded. “He is strong.”

“Yes, Calla, his daylights are strong,” Mara replied. “I will tend him. See to the others.”

Calla helped Chase and Knox to their feet. Evelyn and Teddy joined them at Tinator's side. Axl and Tar made their way through the assembled group, friendly dogs once more, followed by Rothermel, who stooped to examine Tinator. The dying man's breath came in shallow, short gasps.

“Tinator's daylights have been loosened by battle and the poisoned tip of the spear,” said Rothermel, frowning. “We must remove the tip quickly if he is to have any chance of recovering. We will make camp here and care for him. And Seaborne.”

“Seaborne?” Evelyn asked groggily. “What happened to Seaborne?”

“He is also injured, though not as grievously.” With a deep sigh, he surveyed the grass plain and looked to the east.

“Dankar seems intent on your capture and willing enough to follow you to the gates of my own halls. Your presence here is a danger to my people. You must go to Metria, to Rysta, my sister. The stone of Metria is most feared by Dankar. He will not risk such boldness beyond her borders.”

The Keeper bent and spoke something low into Axl's ear; with a deep bark, the hound sprinted away. All eyes returned to Tinator. Rothermel placed his large hand on the warrior's forehead, waxy and pale, and covered his eyes with his palm. When he lifted his hand, Tinator's breath deepened. He appeared to be sleeping.

“How do you do that?” exclaimed Knox.

Rothermel made several swift, precise movements and removed the spear tip from Tinator's side. He held his hand against Tinator's wound and answered, “I am his Keeper; I may influence his daylights.”

“And make him live?” pleaded Knox.

Rothermel shook his head. “I have used the power of Melor to allow a healing sleep for Tinator, but I may not use it to overcome the guidance of his heart, nor to make him do something unnatural to his being—and I cannot keep him from dying if his injuries are too great for his vessel to bear.”

Mara dabbed at Tinator's wound with a tincture and dried moss. He opened his eyes and raised his arm, grimacing with the pain the effort caused him. He ran his fingers across her scar.

“Wife,” he whispered. “Do not be afraid.”

Knox picked up Tinator's crossbow and lay it at his side. His eyes traveled from Tinator's face across the shadowy battlefield, taking in the wounded and dead Melorians.

“We did this,” he said, in a terrible voice. “If we hadn't come here, none of this would have happened. I'm sorry.”

Tinator grazed the boy's fingers with his own. “Heed what I told you about the Fifth Stone. Fight for Melor, and do not give up hope.”

“Look, his daylights have stopped the blood,” Calla murmured, pointing to a dried brown rivulet of blood on Tinator's side. “He is strong.”

“There is no one stronger,” said Seaborne, who had been carried off the battlefield to a makeshift sickbed beside Tinator's. His face was battered and bruised and his hands were bandaged, but his eyes were soft and he was smiling. At Calla.

Knox sat beside him and gave him a wan half-smile. “So, that's your secret.”

Seaborne winked at him. “If you tell anyone, I'll make these Exorians look like a training exercise.”

“Does she know?”

“I think so,” said Seaborne. “Maybe. But she is young yet. Her love is strongest for her father.” One by one, the other children made their way over to Seaborne, clustering around him as if he could protect them from what was happening to Tinator.

“Are you okay, Theaborne?” asked Teddy.

Seaborne lifted up a bandaged hand and patted Teddy's arm, a little wistfully. He glanced again at Calla, her head bent low to catch any words from her father's stricken lips. His face fell.

“Battle robs us all,” he whispered.

Tinator writhed in pain and let out a groan. Rothermel held his palm to Tinator's chest for several moments, then addressed Mara, his expression grave.

“It is up to him now. Either his daylights will remain in the vessel we know as Tinator, or they will fragment. Either way, he will not be lost. You know this. He will always be among us, if not in this form, then another.”

“I prefer this form,” Mara answered, her voice breaking.

“It is one of the finest I have known,” agreed Rothermel, “and I have known legion.”

A snort and a burst of warm breath smelling like fresh grain and sweetgrass announced the sudden arrival of four horses, tall and muscular and dark as the night from which they appeared. Rothermel met them with affection, speaking low and stroking the muzzle of the largest horse. It whinnied happily. He turned to face Evelyn and the boys.

“My friends have agreed to take you to the eastern boundary of Melor, to the northern banks of the great Hestredes. You will find my sister's people waiting for you there.”

“What?” cried Knox, disbelieving.

“What about Frankie?” Evelyn demanded.

“And Dankar?” said Chase.

“I don't want to go!” squealed Teddy.

“Quiet.” The Keeper's voice was low and unyielding, resonating in their bones and rolling across them like the tremor they had felt before when the earth split open. “You will go to Metria and do as Rysta bids you. Much has been ventured on your account” —his eyes flitted across to Tinator— “and much lost. You will not stray, nor lead your companions, be they two-footed or four-, into further danger. The enemy is after you. Of that there is no longer any doubt. I do not wish for you to find out why. However”—he turned to Evelyn—“should you want to find your sister, you need only disobey me. Dankar will find you readily enough, and you will join her—and her fate. If that is your heart's counsel, I will not restrain you; it is your choice, but yours alone. Please do not take the others with you against their wishes.”

“It is their wish, isn't it?” Evelyn turned to the boys.

Knox looked at the ground. “Yeah—we need to find Frankie. She must be here somewhere.”

Chase cut in. “Knox, Evelyn! You saw them, right—the Exorians? We have to leave before they kill everyone in Melor to get to us.
Everyone
.” He paused to let his words sink in. “We can't let that happen.”

Evelyn took a few paces away and looked out over the battlefield. The Melorians were gathering their dead, Duon among them. She watched as the fallen were rolled into their hammocks and placed side by side in the pale moonlight. She had seen death lain out like this before. She put her hands to her face.

“I have told you that Rysta is most feared by Dankar,” said Rothermel. “There is no greater challenge to the power of Exor than the stone of Metria. Melor is a fading power, almost spent. I am now only capable of protecting what is left. You must seek further guidance and aid from my sister.” He stepped back. “I believe we have overcome the greatest danger, but I send you forth with a friend, just in case.”

Calla crossed over to them, her face flushed and angry. She twirled her hand on one of the horse's manes and effortlessly hoisted herself onto its bare back.

“Let's go,” she snapped.

“You're coming?” cried Teddy, with relief.

“And she's not too happy about it, obviously,” mumbled Knox beneath his breath.

Calla maneuvered her horse next to Seaborne and reached down to grab Teddy and settle him safely in front of her. She turned her horse and stared impatiently at the other three children.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Knox and I don't know how to ride,” Chase admitted sheepishly.

Calla snorted. “Fortunately for you, the horses do. Get on.”

Rothermel whistled softly. Axl and Tar sprang to his side.

“You two shall go as well, and return with Calla. No Melorian will travel alone this night.” He closed his eyes and laid a hand on Calla's horse. “May the blessing of Melor be with you,” he said, “and may your daylights protect you. Let nothing stay your course.”

Above, the sky was lightening from deep blue to a shade of indigo. All that remained of the rainstorm were a few spools of thready clouds, unwinding across the almost-full moon. Calla manuvered her horse east, toward the mountains; it whinnied and reared, its forelegs pawing the air. Calla's steady figure, a shadow against the purple sky, urged it forward. Before Chase, Knox, or Evelyn could say a word, their horses followed Calla's in a smooth, swift gallop. Hills of grass fell beneath their hooves. They rode hard, without hesitation, toward the rising sun. They did not pause to look back—not even when cries of mourning at the passing of Tinator were carried to them on the wind.