Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (53 page)

I nodded. I knew the moment was
coming and I was trying to make sure I was prepared for it. “We will hear Tas
and Roscien’s report,” she continued, “but I think at dawn we need to move.”

My stomach twisted.
“That soon?
What of Alathaya…”

She shook her head. “We cannot
delay.”

After a moment, I nodded grimly.
“How do you propose we go about this?”

She lifted her head. “I have a
plan, but when
Tas
and Roscien are back, we can
discuss it amongst all of us.”

I had not even realised that
they had left. Moreover, I had not even noticed it had gone dark. I took a deep
breath and walked back to Thaya’s bed. She looked peaceful, her face relaxed. I
put a hand on her forehead and was shocked. Laskia must have been keeping a
closer eye than I had realised.

He saw my face and came hurrying
over. “What is amiss?”

I shook my head. “Her head, her
fever, it’s gone.”

He gave an irritated grunt.
“Yes, what do expect when we say we will heal her?” Not waiting for an answer
he walked away shaking his head.

I was too relieved to be
offended by his rude behaviour. I sat grinning like a half brain fool, staring
down at her. From where I sat, I could see
Tas
and
Roscien's bodies. First
Tas
, then Roscien sat up.
Tas
was blinking and stretching his eyes and giving his head
a shake in between. Roscien looked all together more comfortable.

He sat chortling at
Tas's
behaviour. "Still not used to it, eh? It does get
easier."

I walked over to them. "How
did it go?"

They looked at each other.
"Not bad. We will call everyone together so that we only need to speak
once," Roscien said evasively.

When they still just stood
there, apparently waiting for me to go, I said. "I will call the others
then."

Before they could protest, I
stalked away and started letting everyone know we were ready to have the
meeting. It did not take them long to gather. It seemed we were all getting a
bit bored of waiting and eager to do something.
Tas
and Roscien were last to arrive.

"What have you
learnt?" Markai asked.

Tas
shrugged. "We have a better idea of the layout of the place, but it
remains a maze. Once in there, it is exceedingly easy to get lost. We have
between us, I think, a better sketch.” He handed it to me before continuing.
“We did also see more... beings in there this time. We had to be careful not to
be seen, but we did manage to catch a glimpse of Rakadamon."

"We think," added
Roscien and
Tas
gave him an exasperated look. Clearly,
they had discussed this and not come to an agreement.

Still looking at Roscien,
Tas
continued. "He was sitting on the massive throne.
It must have been him. He is hardly going to let someone else sit on his
throne.”

Roscien glared back at him.
“Perhaps, but that was a man sitting there. A fairly large man, I grant you, but
a man nonetheless."

Tas
balled
his hands into fists. "That does not mean it was not him. Just because he
looks normal does not mean he is. Just take you for example..." He laughed
at his own joke.

Laskia and Wulik bore identical
grimaces.

"I must agree with Tas,
however crudely he puts it. Appearances can be deceiving. He may appear a man
to fool his enemies, to lull them into complacency. That settled," Markai
gave them each a warning look, "what else did you see? What was he
doing?"

They were so obviously not
looking at each other that they might as well have been staring daggers.
Roscien cleared his throat. "He was talking with some sort of committee.
There seemed to be many of the creatures that Kadin and we have come across
present in the room. As we said though, we had to stay hidden and that is no
easy feat in such a bare room. We could not get close enough to really hear
anything."

"Apart from 'we start
tomorrow',"
Tas
broke in, earning him a glare
from Roscien.

"What are they starting?"
Trissa asked in an anxious voice.

Tas
and
Roscien looked at her. "We don't know. That is all we heard."

She linked her arm with Seran’s
and snuggled against his side. Dhillion was still sulking and had not said much
all day. He gave her a reproving look and I wondered what was going on behind
those mysterious eyes of his.

"Describe him to us."
Tas
pressed his lip together into a fine line. "As Ros
said, he is tall, broad shouldered. He has curly black hair that comes to his
shoulders. I glimpsed his eyes and," he glanced from me to Markai and away
again, "well, they look exactly like yours and Kadin’s." I looked a
question at Markai, but I could sense that she did not know anything more about
that than I did.

"Anything else you can add?
Anything else that you saw and thought might be useful to us?" Markai
asked.

They shook their heads. "I
guess we are ready to decide on the details of the plan. I have already set it
in motion. We are all well aware that we do not have numbers on our side so for
Kadin to stand a chance at getting to Rakadamon, we will need to make sure
their attention is focused elsewhere.
Beratus
has
returned to the main camp and they have marched closer to Magtisanya. They are
now only a day away. We will draw the largest part of Rakadamon’s force toward
them.”

“How are you planning on
achieving that?” Xain asked half-curious, half-incredulous.

If Markai could grin, she would
have been grinning then, instead she looked as though she was snarling. “Why,
by using Kadin. Or at least, someone who looks a whole lot
like
him.” She looked at Tas. “You will be appearing as Kadin. We will pretend to be
trying to sneak up on them. We make sure they see us, and more importantly,
‘Kadin’. When they realise they may be able to catch him and bring him to their
lord, they will not be able to resist. They will come flocking. During the
diversion, you, Kadin, will sneak round the back into the castle and confront
him. Roscien, you will be with Kadin and Alathaya, if she is well enough, that
is.”

“She will not be well enough.
She was near to death tonight. Even Wulik and Laskia told her that if she did
not drink their tea, she would die.” I looked to them for confirmation, but
Laskia was rolling his eyes and Wulik looked at me disgustedly, shaking his
head.

He spoke to Markai. “Do humans
not understand healing? Only, this is the second time he asks such a question.”
He looked to me. “Healing means to make well. And, I do not mean a bit, but to
make better, back to normal. Do you understand?” He had adopted a tone I had
used when teaching Lilana something. A tone I had stopped using by the time she
was four, because I thought it condescending and insulting to her intelligence.

I bristled, to say the least. My
jaw started to ache and I realised I had been clenching it while he was talking
to me. I opened my mouth to give an acerbic reply, but Markai spoke before I
could. “Humans use the term differently. Healing simply means treatment to
them.” She looked at me. “Jerieghen have great mastery over illness. When they
talk of healing, it is in the fullness of the word.”

Comprehension dawned on Laskia
and Wulik, but it did not replace the derision in their eyes, only added
mockery.

"Moving
on, then.
Laskia has informed me that the tea he gave her
earlier will work well enough that she could potentially perform several
returns tomorrow before feeling any ill effects. She will just need to take a
water skin of it along and drink as soon as she recovers consciousness after a
return."

"What about the rest of us?
Are we to be part of the distraction or are we going with Kadin?" Malion
asked.

Markai looked at him. "You
will go with Kadin and defend him at all cost. Kadin is to defeat Rakadamon,
but the rest of you have to make sure that he reaches him. I will let Kadin
think about how best to use your Talents and what he would like you to
do," she continued.

I nodded and turned to Malion.
“Your Talent will obviously come in use once we enter combat. I want you to
come up with a few scenarios and describe them to us so that we can avoid
confusing our own team.”

He nodded and Markai continued.
"Trissa, how do you fare with controlling your Talent?

Her eyes widened a bit at the
sudden focus on her and she looked like a rabbit who knows it has stepped in a
snare. "I have made some progress. It is still a bit sporadic, but getting
better." She looked discreetly over to Laskia who nodded confirmation.

"You are running out of time.
Laskia, I want you to spend the rest of the evening working with her,"
Markai commanded. He grimaced, but nodded.

"Tas, how are you doing
with everyone's Talents?
Any that you have a problem
with?"

He shrugged. "Only
Trissa's, but then she can't even control it herself."

She looked at him and made a
vexed sound. Both he and Markai ignored that though.

"You will train with her
under Laskia tonight," Markai said and then it was
Tas’s
turn to grimace.

“Dhillion,” Markai said, “you
will go with the diversion.
Beratus
will ensure you
are brought safely to the reinforcements."

Dhillion’s only answer was to
snort, but Trissa sighed in relief and he shot her a glare.

"Any
questions?"
Markai directed the question to the group in
general.

Xain answered, "Say we are
successful, say that Kadin manages to defeat Rakadamon, what then? We still
have an army to contend with. We all know we are sorely outnumbered."

She pinned him with her ice blue
eyes, but I was sure what she said was for all of us. "Then we do whatever
it takes. We do not know what will happen once he dies, but one thing is for
certain, we must carry on fighting. We must carry on fighting until his entire
army is wiped out." Her voice was pure resolute determination.

It was clear that she did not
expect us all to make it through this alive. I looked over my shoulder to where
Thaya was sleeping. I knew I had a destiny to fulfill, but I also knew I would
not allow any harm to come to her. I could only hope that I would not be made
to choose one or the other.

The rest of the evening, I spent
sitting with Thaya. She woke for a while and although groggy, she would not let
up until I had informed her of all that had been going on while she was
sleeping. "Laskia and Wulik are confident that by tomorrow you will be
back to normal. They have also prepared another dose of the tea that we can
take with us." She apparently had no memory of the tea and I was not about
to remind her of it. We would cross that bridge if we got to it.

Malion came over to me. He had
worked out a few scenarios and was going around describing them to everyone. I
was pleased with what he had come up with. We talked a while over the finer
details; before he moved on to speak to Seran.
 

I slept next to her that night.
Perhaps slept was a bit too strong a word. Lay with my eyes closed was probably
a better description of it. I kept going over what I had to do on the morrow.
My stomach clenched with anticipation every time I thought of the enormity of
what we were taking on. I tried not to toss and turn too much though; Thaya was
sleeping like a rock next to me, every now and again snoring lightly.

By the time Markai started
rousting everyone out of bed, I was half-relieved that the night was over and
half-petrified. The light wind that rippled the leaves above me carried a
slight chill. It was still well before dawn. I was not the only one with bleary
eyes that morning. I was sure that neither Seran nor
Tas
had had much sleep either. In fact, the only person who looked well rested and
ready for this dark day was Alathaya. She smiled at me beatifically and I said,
“You look better.”

Her smile widened a bit and she
nodded. “I feel as though nothing had happened at all. No ill effects remain. I
am going to have to ask them what they put in it.”

I kept my smile in place, but
could not help wondering if we even would see them again after that day.

 
Laskia and Wulik already had a pot of porridge
boiling. This time the smell turned my stomach. When I refused a portion,
Laskia thrust the bowl into my hand. "You cannot hope to win a fight if
you do not prepare your body for the rigours of battle. Eat." He turned on
his heel and strode off.

I forced the food down,
wondering how something that tasted so wonderful the day before, could taste so
disgusting. I could see I was not the only one struggling to get my food down
that morning. A hush blanketed the camp. Everyone was on edge, even Laskia and
Wulik exchanged some heated words.

We cleared all our things up and
Markai gathered everyone into their groups. Only one of the Qupari that had
been at the camp when we arrived was staying, the rest would lead the way, with
Laskia, Wulik,
Dhillion
and of course Tas going along.
He had made one last feeble attempt at convincing Markai that he should be
permitted to stay and fight. She told him in no uncertain terms that he best be
on his way. My stomach was clenching and unclenching and a few times, I thought
I was going to be sick.