Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (15 page)

I noticed a small wooden pot
next to my bedroll. I removed the lid. It contained a grey coloured cream. It
had only a faint smell, almost of cut grass. Markai strolled up to me
.
For the burns.
I
was a bit startled; this was the first time she actually communicated to me in
words. Previously, it had been less like talking and more like understanding
what she meant.

I spread the cream over the
burns. It felt cool on my skin and took a bit of the sting away. If I had been
travelling alone, I would have left my shirt off as even thinking about a shirt
rubbing over my body made me shiver. I would however, have endured a lot worse
to avoid having to explain it to Brant.

I noticed him stirring so I got
up and pulled a shirt over my head, gritting my teeth against the wave of pain
that went through me. Nausea rolled over me and I had to stand still with my
eyes closed for a few moments to stop the world spinning around me.

I looked up and saw Brant looking
at me curiously. I plastered a sly smile on my face.
“Morning.”
He grunted before turning away. Methodically I started packing my things away,
trying to conceal the fact that every movement sent shooting pains through my
chest. I saddled Balder and while holding my breath, and clenching my teeth,
climbed on.

I could hear curses coming from
Brant. Teeka, his mare had wandered quite a way off and was acting very
skittish as he was attempting to saddle her. Markai was watching with great
amusement. Balder had clearly gotten used to having her around, but poor Teeka
not so much. Brant looked at me furiously as if daring me to mock him. He
eventually managed to calm her enough to saddle and mount. Without a word or a
glance back, he set off north once more. I followed.

Halfway through the day, the
silence was growing tedious. Markai was now coming and going of her own accord
and she had gone a while ago. I racked my brain for some topic to open up a
conversation with him. It was not easy; we had very little in common.

Before I could find anything to
say though, he spoke. “What was your denouement gift?” Not one to talk of small
things, then.
 

I did not want to tell him, but
then I was not sure anyway. “I am not entirely sure.” I answered honestly.
“Some sort of disc. Looks like it may be an antique of some description. I do
not know the purpose of it, but the Cha told me I would find it useful.” Honest
enough, without revealing anything of import.

He snorted derisively. “Probably
he meant you would be able to sell it once you are removed from the village
entirely.” He laughed roughly. I did not need to ask him what he had received,
as the whole village knew.

His gift was a beautiful dagger.
The golden hilt had the inscription ‘Onward to Greatness’ which he took to be a
personal prophecy for his future. He had made sure that the whole of Predaki
knew of this so-called foretelling. He had carried the dagger at his side ever
since receiving it. “We should reach Searille before dark if we keep a brisk
pace.”

His answer was in a tone of an
adult speaking to a particularly slow child. “Funnily enough, we have been
keeping this pace for just that reason.” I saw him shaking his head in
annoyance. I again thought about how long this journey may turn out to be.

We reached Searille just after
dusk and I was relieved to hand Balder into the care of the eager looking
stable boy at the Brown Water Inn. The short innkeeper met us with a gleaming
smile as we entered.

His small eyes flickered to the
sword at my hip and the dagger at Brant’s, but he recovered quickly and made a
small bow. “Gentleman, please feel at home. I am Prendil, the innkeeper here.
Two rooms, will it be?”

Whether it was because I was
wearing the larger weapon, I did not know, but he was looking to me for the
answer. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the scowl on Brant’s face. I
nodded and could not help a small self-satisfied smile from creeping onto my
lips.

He gave another small bow.
“Supper for you tonight?
We have a wonderful pork stew with bread
freshly baked by my dear Agrianna.” The smell of freshly baked bread was
already swirling around my nose and making my mouth water. Again, he looked to
me for the answer.

I smiled. “That sounds most
appetising.” Brant had already walked off. He sat down in the corner of the
room, his back to the wall. I took a seat at another table. I had already had
enough of his sullen face.

The serving girl came over to my
table as soon as I sat down. She had strikingly red hair, which she wore in
tight curls. When she walked, her hips swayed wildly from side to side. She
gave me a small smile with her full lips. She was looking at me in the most
peculiar way. I nearly thought I must have something on my face.
 

She placed her hands on the
table and leaned down towards me. My eyes could not help but look at her over
exposed bosom in front of my face. I whipped my eyes up to hers. My cheeks were
burning.

She laughed. Laughed! “You are
the innocent one aren’t you? I could cure you of that… No? What will it be
then?
Ale or water?”
She gave a harsh bark of
laughter, which made me pull my face a bit further back from her.

I cleared my throat.
“Ale.”
Her shoulders were still shaking from laughter as she
walked off to fetch my drink. I was sure everyone at the inn was looking at me
after that exchange.

Thankfully, a different serving
girl brought my food and ale. She looked at me with some sympathy in her eyes.
“Don’t you worry yourself over old
Adnis.
” I thought I
heard her mumble under her breath, “Nasty old wench.”
 
I did not want to show just how embarrassed I
felt so I ate slowly and with as much dignity as I could muster.

A man with a face telling a
hundred stories, had started playing a mandolin and singing a beautiful song
about a village’s joy when the men return from some long forgotten battle. His
sonorous voice filled the room and carried you to that day; it let you share in
the joy and relief of families being reunited.

I glanced over to Brant’s table,
but he had already left. A huge yawn escaped me.
 
Going up the few stairs to my room felt like
climbing a mountain.
 
My bags had been
brought up and were standing neatly against the wall. I took out the Book of
Remembrance and the sentinel, the small wooden box that I got as my denouement
gift. I put both next to me on the bed under the scratchy blanket. I pulled the
blanket away from my still sensitive chest and pushed it down to my waist.
  

The mattress was straw filled
and lumpy. I had to shift and pound a bit at it to find a comfortable position.
Finally I exhaled contentedly, closed my eyes and was instantly asleep.

I woke up groggily. It was still
dark and quiet outside. Gratefully I turned over to go back to sleep. I jumped
when the window shutter slapped back onto the wall. A cool breeze was blowing
in from the open window.

With an irritated grunt, I stood
up to close it. My foot snagged on something and I had to catch myself on the
edge of the bed to keep from falling. I squinted through the darkness and sleep
filled eyes to see what I had tripped over.
 
My saddle bags were lying in the middle of the floor, their contents
scattered across the room.
 

My attention snapped into focus
and I reached for Navitas. Markai appeared, her huge bulk filling up a
substantial part of the room. With the focus of Navitas and Markai’s presence,
all of my senses became infinitely keener.

Immediately I became aware of a
rank smell of rotting meat. I could hardly believe that I had not smelled it as
soon as I woke up. The deep shadows of a moment before were now laid bare in
front of me. A quick look around the room showed that whoever, whatever, had
been here had already gone.

I went to the window and looked
out, but could not see anything out of the ordinary. Markai sniffed around the
room and vanished. A moment later, I saw her outside running with her nose low
to the ground.
Find them
came her
answer to my unasked question. I closed the shutters and secured them with the
small hook.

I searched through my bags, but could
not find anything that was missing. Could they have been looking for the
sentinel, or the Book of Remembrance?

I had not told anyone of the
Book and only my brothers knew of the sentinel. On the other hand, what else
could they possibly have wanted? The Book was too big and heavy to carry on my
person, so I packed it away, but I resolved to carry the small sentinel on me from
then on. I
laid
back down without much hope of finding
sleep again.

Eventually I let go of Navitas,
not because I was sure of safety, but because the putrid smell in the room had
started to burn my nostrils. Now that I was aware of it though, I could still
catch a light whiff of it in the air.

Dawn found me still staring up
at the ceiling of my room. I took out the small tub of cream Boryka had given
me. The burns were healing much faster than I would have believed possible, but
then recently, I had seen a whole lot that I would not have thought possible.
The smell of breakfast was drifting into my room and my stomach rumbled loudly.

Not long after sitting down in
the dining area, Brant lumbered in. He looked as if he had even less sleep than
I did. Dark circles cradled his red eyes. He gave me a bitter look, but to my
great surprise sat down across from me. He gave me a measuring look. “Good
night’s sleep?”

I shrugged as casually as I
could. “The mattress was a bit lumpy for my taste.”

He snorted. “You have always
been one for games.
As slippery as a sailfin.
Enough.
Did you have an unexpected guest last night?”

Candid speech I could respect. I
looked at him levelly. “Yes. Although I only woke up after it had gone.”

His mouth pulled down at the
corners.
“
It
.
Yes, either the person who did this had carried with him a bag of fetid meat or
it was not a person. I am of a mind that it was the latter.” So, he had smelled
it too. His nose wrinkled up as if he could still smell it.

I nodded. “Is anything of yours
missing?”

He shook his head. “That is the
perplexing thing. It had clearly gone through my things.
Leaving
its stink all over everything.”
He blew out sharply through his nose as
if to dislodge the smell. “It did not even take the coins from my purse.
Catching me in my sleep like that, it could have easily killed me.
Unless it had been sent by someone with specific instructions.”
His eyes narrowed at me suspiciously.

I rolled my eyes. “Please, you
cannot seriously believe that I had anything to do with that?” When he simply
looked at me flatly, I continued. “If I was after something of yours, why go
through the trouble of getting….hired help which left all the evidence bare
when I could very easily have searched your things myself out in the forest the
previous night?”

He did
not concede my point, of course not,
but the suspicion left his
face. The serving girl came over with plates of sausages, fresh bread and soft
butter. We ate in our usual strained silence. He stood up. “Pack up, we need to
leave.” He strode off without waiting for a response.

Soon we were back on the north
road. One positive that had emerged after the break-in to our rooms was that we
were at least now talking to each other a bit more civilly.
Talking
of trivial things.
We discussed skills we had learnt with Triak,
exchanging ideas on tracking prey.

It was while talking of this
when Brant spotted tracks in the muddy edge of the path. He held up his hand
and reined Teeka in. We looked around to make sure this animal was not close
by.

Brant dismounted and had a
closer look.
“Looks a lot like a wolf track, but not quite
right.
Too big for a start and this,” he pointed to the impression of
the middle pad of the paw, “it is divided into three parts. Very strange, I
have certainly not seen the like before.” He looked a question at me.

Again, I wondered how much I
should tell him.
A man who hates me and everything about me,
but yet, was sent on this journey with me by the Cha, a man whom I trust with
my life.

What made my mind up was the
fact that while he was with me, his life was as much at risk from these dark
creatures as my own. I took a deep breath. “I have.”

His head came up sharply, his
eyes glinting like steel.
Always so suspicious.
“I
came upon a village that had been burnt down. All the villagers murdered.”

His brows pulled together in a
frown. “That does not sound like the work of animals.”

I nodded. “I believe they were
not acting alone.”

He shuddered, shaking his head
he said, “You speak of these animals as if they can think.”

I shrugged and then nearly
yelped as Markai suddenly appeared next to me. Balder gave a surprised whinny
and shied away pawing at the ground. With a soft word and a pat on her neck, I
had her under hand quickly. Teeka, however, nearly pulled Brant clean off his
feet. She reared onto her hind legs, whinnying loudly, her eyes rolling around
wildly. It took several minutes to calm her down. Brant was breathless from the
effort. “They must be closer than we thought to scare Teeka like that. I can
just faintly pick up their rotten smell in the air here. Keep your eyes open.”