Chronicles of Den'dra: A Land Torn: Ancient Powers Awaken (9 page)

“
What are you?” Pure terror turned Emeck’s face into a mask.

“
An old has been that is failing the one task he set for himself. That is what I am.” Urake required Emeck’s cooperation if he had any hope of catching up to Skeln. Knowing that the lad was useless in his current state Urake smiled.

“
I trust the lump on the back of your head doesn’t impede your ability to walk. I must admit to growing weary of carrying you.” Digging into a pocket he produced a length of cord and fastened it around Emeck’s waist. The other end went around his own waist. With a pointed glance Emeck gained his feet and a little prodding started him walking. They had been traveling for a time when Urake felt his mental defenses being tested.

“
Stop it. I can feel it when you do that.” Emeck almost tripped and fell flat on his already skinned face.

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Are you going to kill him when you find him? Are you going to kill me?” Emeck quavered and looked at Urake like he expected struck down for the impertinence of the question.

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No. He is my son.” Emeck could believe it for the truth or not as far as Urake cared. The statement wasn’t exactly the truth but then again it was a whole lot more complicated than that. What mattered was that Urake needed to find Skeln as soon as possible. The chancellor wasn’t one to give up on prey. Whatever reason he had for wanting Skeln it couldn’t be good.

“
Why is he running away then?” Emeck seemed emboldened by the lack of a rebuff or punishment.

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Some very bad people were after him but he escaped and hasn’t stopped running.” Urake paused a moment to examine a footprint. Finding it to be the right size and type he moved on again.

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Worse than you?” Urake rolled his eyes.

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They were worse than me.” Urake lapsed into silence for a few more minutes.

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Why didn’t you just give us your stuff and leave?” Urake glanced over. The terror had abated and was being replaced by curiosity. Emeck was recovering well despite the circumstances. Urake pulled the sword from its scabbard and turned. Emeck’s eyes grew round as he pulled back.

“
Relax. I'm not going to kill you. See the markings on the blade?” Emeck nodded. “It is dwarven forged. Kings would pay a ransom to have such a blade. This one has a name. It’s called Skeln’den’hal. Some of the translations point to it meaning heart of snowy mountain. Another translation calls it center of cold storms. I call it Ice Heart. I have heard of similar dwarven blades but never seen another one myself.” Urake saw that Emeck had relaxed a degree.

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How did you get it?” Emeck was examining the glimmering length of metal from as far away as his bonds permitted.

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That is a story with little to no importance to the present. What is important is that I swear on this blade and my life that no harm will come to you if you obey me. If you don’t obey me then I also swear by this blade that you will not have long to regret the mistake.” Urake planted the sword in the ground and held a hand over his heart as he made the oath. Emeck was as frightened by the promise as he was reassured. In a moment he relaxed

“
What do you want of me?” Emeck was resigned to his fate. Once his Gift had been discovered by the bandit leader he had been little more than a tool. He was able to sense and track people from sometimes great distances. Sometimes he was even able to catch glimpses out of their eyes. It was for this reason that such people were called scanners or trackers. The bandits had exploited his Gift in finding easy marks. He had simply traded one fate for another. Now he was being used to track a person that didn’t want found for a terrifyingly mysterious stranger.

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I need you to find Skeln.”

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I have to be close enough to sense someone before I can track them. I can’t sense anyone near here other than you.” Emeck waited for the inevitable punishment this new unhelpfulness was bound to call upon him. Instead Urake smiled wryly.

“
Have some faith. I know more about your kind than most do.
I can give you enough to recognize his mind without actually having scanned him. What I'm going to do is lower my mental defenses enough to let you into my mind. You will see a hallway with doors down the length. The third one on the left will have everything you need. Don’t try any of the other doors.” Emeck nodded with his eyes wide.

Urake began lowering his guards as he felt the lad probing into his memories. In his mind’s eye he conjured the hallway he had described. Behind the locked doors he hid everything that wasn't relevant. He felt Emeck’s attention focusing on the hallway a moment later. A few of the locked doors were tested before the right one was found. It was mostly unintentional. A result of curiosity and lack of control. A moment later Urake was distracted by a thought and his locks weakened. That moment was all it took though. A wave of terror emanated through Urake’s mind from the connection with Emeck. Slamming the guards back into place Urake abruptly severed the connection. Emeck was scrambling backwards in a crab walk as fast as he could. Urake was almost jerked off his feet as the boy hit the end of the rope.

“Asgare!” Urake realized what Emeck had discovered. A past long buried. “You’re the Shadow Reaper! You hunt my kind!”

“
Not anymore. That was a long time ago.” Emeck probably didn’t even hear Urake he was so consumed by his fear. His childhood had been haunted by the threat of the Shadow Reaper and now the object of his deepest darkest nightmares stood over him with the fabled blade in hand. The name he knew it by was Eld'or or Dark Soul. The legends associated with the duo made grown men start at sounds in the shadows.

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I don’t want to die, please don’t kill me.” Tears streaked the dried blood and dust on Emeck’s face.

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Look. I meant what I said before about protecting you. What you saw was from a long time ago. I'm not that person any more. I tried to protect you from those memories but I failed. Some things were never meant to see the light of day.” Urake untied the rope around his waist and loosed the bindings around Emeck’s wrists. The boy was still crying and cowering but was a little better. Urake took a seat a few feet away and waited for Emeck to recover. If the lad ran he was prepared to let him go. He had already put Emeck through a hell of sorts. Now he needed to gain the boy’s trust. Lies and threats were not likely to attain this goal.

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Why, why aren’t you going to kill me?” Emeck was still hardly able to form words.

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I was never as bad as the stories you heard would indicate. Honestly, most of the people I supposedly killed were only relocated. They got to keep their lives and in return for working for me.” Urake leaned back and closed his eyes.

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But why did you do it?”

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I don’t really know any more. It was a job. Someone was needed to stop those that misused their powers. Most of the ones I was told to kill were innocent though.” There was a few moments of silence broken only by Emeck’s sniffling before Urake continued. “Did you get what you needed to find Skeln?” Urake had employed a tracker in his old life. He had learned what they needed to identify a mind and was often able to build a recognizable profile from examining the individual’s life. That skill was used to build Skeln’s profile for Emeck. He only hoped that the boy was strong enough to use what he now knew to find Skeln. Too many hours had elapsed and the trail almost certainly lost on the rocky dry creek bed that they had been following.

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I think so.” Emeck closed his eyes and focused. “He isn’t near here but I think I can see him. There are other people around him.”

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Soldiers?”

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No, just people. I can’t see him. It’s like... Like he can...” Emeck’s blue eyes flew open “He is one of us. I think he sensed me watching and it was like he just hid.”

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Can you see him from someone else’s eyes?”

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I can try but I haven’t managed it from so far away before.” Emeck again closed his eyes again and screwed up his face as he focused. “I saw him but it was only a memory. It’s a tailor and he just sold some clothes to a boy with blond hair and blue eyes.”

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So he is in a town. That makes tracking him virtually impossible. Without you, I don’t have a snowflake's chance in a blacksmith’s forge.” Urake waited until Emeck got up.

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What are we waiting for?” Urake had to smile. Emeck was doing much better than he had hoped.

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Why do you trust me now more than you did a few minutes ago?”

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You trusted me enough to untie me and let me into your head.” Emeck looked up shyly. “Besides you haven’t hurt me and have been nicer to me than the bandits were. If you wanted to kill me then I would be dead already.” Usually this one a logic that Urake had to present to other people. Few had realized it themselves. Urake thought life must have been a living hell for the lad in order for recent experiences to be termed nicer than anything. Urake got up and they continued on in the dry creek bed until a real creek took it over. Emeck paused long enough to clean the blood and dust off his face and for Urake to refill his water skin.

They then left the woods for a road and progressed towards the nearest town. They didn’t speak much. Each was left to their own thoughts. Urake’s returned over the years to the winter night over fourteen years ago. It was a wonder the child hadn’t frozen to death before Urake had found him. He had wrapped the child in the very same cloak he now carried. The first village he had come to after leaving the mountains had become his home.

Skeln had grown like a weed. Urake had noticed that oddly the child was nearly immune to cold. It was only fitting that the name he had been given that winter night had been derived from the old language describing cold. Not just cold but every kind of cold. To this day Urake still didn’t know why the infant had been left in the cold. His beginnings were in a snowy forest and he was named after a legendary sword. Skeln had mysterious beginnings to say the least. Emeck’s confirmation that the boy was gifted was no surprise. There was few other reasons why a healthy boy child would be abandoned like that.

Now the chancellor had cast his eye on Skeln. The man with all his power had an obsession with the gifted. Whatever the reasons for what drove the man, he was greedy and power hungry as they come. The immediate concern was that Urake needed to find Skeln before the chancellor's men succeeded in the same task. The more Urake thought about it the fewer options remained to him.

Arriving in the town Urake noted that Emeck was rather nervous with the relative proximity to so many people after his isolation in the black forest with the bandits. At times Urake suspected the boy got between him and his shadow. Warton was a town that Urake had frequented years ago. Not a whole lot had changed in the intervening years. Many of the shops had the same names on the doors. Others had changed. He hoped that not too much had changed. Taking a few turns he slipped between a couple buildings. Emeck remained glued to his side until they reached a back street in the poorer section of town. Here Urake asked him to wait at a door for his return. Emeck looked disappointed or scared, Urake wasn’t sure it was either or both, but he waited outside obediently.

The dimly lit establishment was a drinking house of a sort populated by the poorer denizens of the neighborhood. The better off impoverished spent their time at the other ale house on the lane. It boasted two torches to light the room. The popular suspicion was that light was so scarce in this place so the patrons couldn’t see what was in their mugs. Stepping up to the counter Urake was relieved to see a familiar face. Sure the years had added a little white to the greasy hair and wrinkles to the round face but familiar it remained.

“What will you be drinking? I have a fresh bottle of wine open or I could get you a mug of my stronger drinks.” The barkeep inquired gruffly.

“
I'm not in the mood for drinking. If I was I would take a glass of the gold vintage you keep hidden in the back. For living so close to the Garoche Lowland vineyards it is a wonder you still serve the swill you call fresh wine and have a business left to run.” Urake jested lightly and waited for a glimmer of recognition.

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You can go drink out of the gutter for all I care if you insult my ale house.” Brounn scowled and began polishing the hopelessly scarred, gouged and grease stained counter.

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My reputation must really have become tarnished. People used to laugh no matter if my joke was funny or not.” Urake lifted his arms to the countertop and slipped the bow off his shoulder. Brounn squinted at the bow then started with recognition.

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I have only seen one bow like that in my life. Forgive me. It has been years since we heard from you. Don’t think I really was telling you to go drink out of the gutter. Just a harmless jest.” Brounn spread his hands and laughed weakly.

“
I think you meant it but would never have suggested the like if you had recognized me sooner. Don’t worry. I didn’t come to tie up loose ends.” Brounn paled a shade but recovered quickly with an offer of the golden wine that had been previously mentioned. Turning down the offer Urake continued.