Destiny of the Light: Shadow Through Time 1 (10 page)

The hours passed slowly and mostly in silence as they waded through the Steppe ‘grass’, Khatrene having to remind herself not to worry about snakes. Afternoon found them in the edges of a stunted forest with gnarled trees and ropey vines. A smell like rotting camphorwood wafted around them but Khatrene ignored it. Apparently there would be worse smells ahead.

When enough time had passed for her to hope Talis was over his anger and Pagan was safely ten paces ahead, she opened the conversation by asking, ‘So, why did you want Pagan to come? I thought you two didn’t get along.’

Talis pulled a vine out of their path and she picked her way past it, across the spongy earth.

‘He is a good fighter,’ Talis replied and she was pleased to hear him sounding calm and relaxed. ‘And he has Guardian blood in his veins. We may have need of that.’

Khatrene stopped in her tracks. ‘Of blood?’

Ahead, Pagan heard her exclamation and glanced back. Talis waved him on, then lowered his voice. ‘Not blood to be let, Princess.’ Despite his previous reserve, he now smiled at the horror on her face. ‘While it is still within his body, the blood has power. Pagan cannot yet control it, but he can aid me if magic is required.’

‘Magic,’ she repeated. ‘Remind me, what sort of magic do Guardians do?’ She hoped the question wasn’t impolite.

To the contrary, Talis appeared pleased to be asked. ‘Healing, warding, the high magic that opens the way between the worlds. These are the gifts of the Guardian blood.’

‘And a good thing you’ve got them,’ she said flippantly, ‘or I’d still be dead.’

Talis tried to smile at her joke but the memory clearly worried him. ‘No other has died in passage,’ he said quietly. ‘I still do not know —’

‘It wasn’t your fault.’ Had he been blaming himself for that? She should have told him sooner. I died in Magoria. I … fell off a cliff.’

‘When I opened the way I sensed a great disturbance.’

But before he could probe her any further, she asked. ‘So how did you bring me back to life?’ No point admitting she’d jumped off a cliff. He might start questioning her sanity. Especially if she told him a voice in her head had driven her to it.

I
F YOU TELL ANYONE OF MY PRESENCE
I
WILL GO.

I know, I know.

‘The Rite of Revival,’ Talis replied. ‘An incantation which directs the Guardian power to reanimate the dead.’

‘Is the revival permanent?’ she asked, suddenly realising she’d taken that for granted.

To her relief, Talis nodded.

‘Was Mihale …’ She gestured with a hand at her heart. ‘… dead?’

Talis shook his head. ‘The King was exhausted but —’

‘Alive and well.’ So he hadn’t jumped off the cliff.
Why did I have to
? she asked the voice.

Silence.

‘My Lady, your brother is in rude good health.’

Khatrene looked up to find him frowning at her in concern and quickly smoothed her own frown away. ‘I believe you. I was just thinking.’ She struggled back to their conversation. ‘Tell me more about Guardian power. Can you heal people with it?’

‘My Lady, yes,’ he replied, obviously forgetting his promise to avoid her title where possible.

Khatrene barely noticed. She stopped in her tracks and held out her hand. ‘Can you fix this?’ she asked. A tiny slash on her index finger was driving her crazy. She’d rather have scraped a knuckle. Papercuts were intolerable.

Talis took her hand and smiled. ‘I scarce can see it,’ he said.

‘I didn’t ask if you could see it. I asked if you could fix it.’

‘Indeed, My Lady,’ he said and even as Khatrene watched she felt a tingling warmth in her hand where he held it. Not pins and needles. More like an ant crawling beneath the skin. It was the same sensation she’d had across her shoulders before she’d jumped off the cliff, and that thought made her shudder.

As though taking this as a cue, he released her hand, and Khatrene inspected it carefully. ‘I don’t see anything,’ she said. looking at the other fingers now to be sure she hadn’t mixed up which one was cut. Then she looked back to the index finger, to where she knew the cut had been. And was no more.

She raised her head. ‘It’s gone.’

Talis, who was observing her reaction, said quietly, ‘Yet you did not believe this would happen.’

‘No.’ She smiled. ‘Can you do something else?’ she asked. ‘Something big.’

Talis grinned. ‘Shall I stab my cousin, the better to heal his wound?’

‘You’ve been thinking about that. I can tell.’

Talis shook his head, still smiling. ‘I fear I am too weak to make a good show of Guardian power for My Lady’s pleasure,’ he said. ‘As my uncle pointed out, the Rite of Revival is taxing on a Guardian. In the circumstances I would do best to husband my remaining strength. We are many days from the Volcastle and safety.’

Khatrene felt chastened. ‘I didn’t know it had weakened you. How does that happen?’

Talis gestured for them to continue and Khatrene fell into step beside him. ‘A Guardian gives a part of his own life to the one who is dead —’

She shoved a vine away from her face. ‘A part of your life?’ She was aghast, and yet selfishly grateful for what he had done. ‘How often can you do that?’

‘Once. Perhaps twice in a lifetime.’

Khatrene shook her head, didn’t know what to say.

‘In times past there were many Guardians,’ he explained. ‘Illness was unknown and death a release. Now there are only three. Myself, my cousin and my uncle.’

‘Three Guardians for the whole of Ennae? How do you decide who to help?’

‘On the King’s command, only nobles may be healed, and the Rite of Revival is for royalty and The Dark.’

She’d benefited from an elitist system. It was an ugly thought but Khatrene couldn’t deny her relief at being alive and on her way to Mihale. They walked in silence for some time while she reorganised her thoughts. Eventually, however, she had to speak up. ‘Can we stop for two minutes. I want to catch my breath.’

‘Cous,’ Talis called ahead. ‘We pause to rest. Best you search out dry kindling for our fire tonight.’

‘We’re going to sleep in this place?’ She looked around at the tangle of vines and twisting, fungus-covered trees that emerged from the rotting vegetation littering the ground. The monotony of a consistently brown landscape was exhausting.

‘Further on is a clearing, My Lady,’ he said, and Khatrene took comfort from that. At least she wouldn’t have to sleep in a tree.

She took a gulp from the flask he handed her and noticed the heavy water wasn’t making her want to gag any more. Then she said. Tell me more about your Guardian power. You can open the way between the worlds, do healing, and …’ she’d forgotten the other ability.

‘Warding, My Lady,’ he said, taking back the flask and recapping it. There are forces in our world of which a man must be wary. Certain objects. Materials. Spirits in the land that cause fear or anxiety. Madness.’

‘You can make them go away?’

I
AM NOT SUCH AS THESE
, the voice said.

Khatrene chose not to reply.

‘A Guardian protects from them.’ Talis said. ‘He wards them away yet he does not destroy them for they are part of Ennae.’

She remembered something then. ‘Aren’t Plainsmen part of Ennae? The woman leader said they were being killed off.’

Talis frowned. ‘The Dark has decreed this, for their disbelief in the Great Guardian upsets The Balance.’

Which only served to remind Khatrene that she knew nowhere near enough about Ennae to be making value judgements. ‘So, tell me about The Dark. Does he have magical powers too?’

‘The gift of discernment. Of reading good and evil in men’s souls.’

‘That’s all?’

Talis looked affronted. ‘My Lady, he maintains The Balance. Without The Dark there would be no Ennae.’

‘So he’s more important than Mihale?’

Affront turned to shock. ‘My Lady, no! Your brother is descended from the Ancients and rules by divine right. His word weighs above all others.’

Khatrene shook her head. ‘I’ll never understand this.’ She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands then dropped them. ‘All right. Tell me more about Ennae. Who else has powers?’

‘The King’s Chief Counsel is a known seer.’ Talis glanced over his shoulder at Pagan who was rustling around behind them.

‘And …?’

‘My Lady, that is all. Few with any power remain to keep Ennae from harm.’

‘I guess that makes the ones who do remain pretty darned important,’ she said, gazing at him pointedly.

Talis wiped a hand on the front of his dark, quilted jacket. He looked as though he wasn’t sure whether this was a compliment or not. ‘My Lady, pride is not encouraged in a Guardian.’

She nodded. ‘That would explain why Pagan is still an apprentice.’ This earned her a glare as Pagan strode past them with the kindling but she merely winked at Talis and fell into step beside him as they followed his grumbling cousin. ‘I don’t suppose your repertoire of Guardian magic includes love spells?’ she asked, the tattooed man never far from her mind.

Talis thought for a moment, then said, ‘I have heard of such as these. Herbal potions. Yet I do not think, Princess, that you will need magic to make a man fall in love with you.’

‘Very diplomatic,’ she said, then wondered if it was true. Lae’s words continued to swim around inside her mind, nibbling at her self-esteem. In her dreams, the tattooed man was entranced by her, but what if she found him and he wasn’t attracted to her? If Lae was any indication of what Ennaen women looked like, she was up against some stiff competition.

Y
OU ARE UNIQUE HERE
, the voice said.

So is an albino crow. Doesn’t mean you’d marry one.

Damn, but it was hard being objective about yourself. And harder still to accept the assessment of a girl who might be jealous of her relationship with Talis. ‘Do you trust Lae?’ she asked him.

‘My Lady of Be’uccdha is known to have the tongue of a trickster,’ Talis admitted, brushing another vine from their path, ‘but her heart is good. I would trust her with my life.’

Khatrene found herself suddenly curious as to how Talis had made such an unlikely match. Maybe he’d won Lae in a hand of poker. ‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘how did you and Lae come to be …’ Maybe it was none of her business. ‘It’s not important. I just wondered …’

‘Whether my marriage was arranged, as yours will be?’

Khatrene raised an eyebrow. ‘Don’t race off to buy me a toaster just yet,’ she said, then waved away his questioning glance. ‘A figure of speech. Do you mind if we don’t talk about this business of my brother choosing me a husband? It’s too bizarre.’

‘Perhaps when My Lady knows more of our spiritual teaching and the prophecies we live by …’

She’d still think it was a bad idea, but she had to agree that she didn’t know much. ‘Mihale really only told me about the battles. They were obviously the parts that interested him most.’

‘And I am glad he spoke to you of Ennae,’ Talis said earnestly, then at her puzzled frown he added, ‘In case … your return, with no memory of your homeland, should cause you fear and distress.’

‘It did,’ she reminded him. ‘But I suppose you’re right. It would have been harder to believe in Ennae if I’d never heard the stories of the brown kingdom.’

A moment passed in silence before he asked, ‘Do you question still?’

Khatrene thought about that for a full minute before she raised her head to look at him. ‘No. I believe in it now.’

Talis smiled in reassurance, then caught her arm when she tripped on another gnarled root. ‘When we reach the Volcastle and you are reunited with your brother he will see to your studies,’ Talis told her. ‘As a Princess of Ennae, you must know the prophecies concerning the Four Worlds and —’

‘Refresh my memory of the Four Worlds again.’ Khatrene remembered the four-ringed diamond symbol she’d seen on the Royal Shrine and wanted to know more. ‘There’s the Earthworld of Ennae, the Waterworld of Magoria …’

‘The Fireworld of Haddash and the Airworld of Atheyre. Four Worlds separated at the dawn of time. Four Worlds destined to be reunited.’

Khatrene nodded, vaguely remembered Mihale having told her that. ‘Okay, Four Worlds. And they’re all joined by this Sacred Pool you brought me through?’

‘My Lady, no,’ Talis said quickly. ‘The pool links Ennae and Magoria alone.’

‘So these other two worlds —’

‘Are the places of after-death to which human souls ascend. The Guardians open the way to these worlds, in fire and in air, but cannot send through to air that which is not called. Those who do not go to Atheyre end up in Haddash.

Talis was deadly serious but Khatrene couldn’t help the smile that broke out over her face. ‘So the Fireworld is Hell, and the Airworld is Heaven. That’s so convenient.’ She held up a hand. ‘I’m sorry. I’m not mocking your spiritual teaching but there’s a religion on Magoria that has the same two worlds as part of their … prophecy.’

Rather than being affronted, Talis nodded wisely at this. ‘The Great Guardian protects the Four Worlds. Perhaps he planted this prophecy on Magoria.’

‘And the Great Guardian is …?’

‘The living spirit which permeates the Four Worlds and guides us towards our destiny.’

‘Interesting.’
Are you the Great Guardian?
she asked the voice.

Pause. I
AM MERELY A GUIDE
.

Khatrene couldn’t help herself.
Not a very helpful one at that.
She turned back to Talis. ‘Okay, I promise to find out about the Four Worlds when I’m settled into the Volcastle. But only if you answer my question about you and Lae. How did you two managed to get betrothed?’

Talis frowned. He clearly thought he’d sidestepped the issue. ‘We marry according to our station, My Lady,’ he said finally. ‘As Champion to the King, I must marry a daughter of one of the noble Houses.’

He hadn’t really answered her question, but she let that ride for the moment. ‘Were there many daughters to choose from?’

He frowned, as though mentally counting. ‘Twenty-three,’ he said at last.

‘A smorgasbord.’ She looked at him with fresh eyes. ‘Did you get to pick?’