Fifthwind (31 page)

"Why
not?"

"Our
power is too great to bow to the whims of ambitious men." Cobalius
widened his stance and kept his eyes fixed on Ben and the blade
before him. "I call no land my home, and no ruler can claim
dominion over me. I am enemy only to those who threaten the balance
of power..." Cobalius rested his hand on his blade. "...or my own
well-being."

The
implied challenge did not go unnoticed.

Ben
understood that simply being born of a land did not dictate an innate
loyalty to that land. He had witnessed first hand the pliable nature
of loyalty, where unfortunately, a man's allegiance was often only as
strong as convenient memory lapses and blatant selfishness would
allow. However, Cobalius was clearly not that kind of man. He
displayed the level of nobility that is admired among men of honor,
and something told him that Cobalius was a man of his word, a man of
utmost virtue and discipline. After careful consideration, Ben came
to the conclusion that he looked quite ridiculous with his sword
drawn against such a man, and without another word, he quietly
sheathed it.

With
only the slightest hint of satisfaction crossing his face, Cobalius
moved to the door of the shelter and stepped inside. A moment later
he reemerged with two apples in hand and leaned against the exterior
wall. "Want one?"

"No,
I've never cared much for them."

Cobalius
shrugged and polished one on his sleeve. "I want you to think back
as far as you can remember. When did you first notice you could sense
things that others could not?"

Ben
said, "That would depend on what you mean. I've always had a good
feel for what is happening around me and that awareness has served me
well over the years. In combat, it goes deeper than just guessing the
moves of my opponent, I can actually anticipate their intentions."

"When
did those skills begin to appear unnatural to you or those around
you?"

Ben
thought back to his time as a young soldier fearing the wrath of a
hardened old Sergeant. Only his talent had set him apart and earned
him a modicum of respect. "It was Mason who first recognized it
back when I was under Captain Haddaway's command. After that, my
career took a new path that led me to service in the Royal Kreggorian
Guard."

Cobalius
pointed toward the distant peaks and Ben turned to look. Almost
instantly, he felt a wave of dull pressure building up behind him
that was growing rapidly in strength. With little time to spare, he
sidestepped and raised his hand to catch the hurled apple with a loud
slap to his palm. Ben grinned triumphantly, "I already told you. I
don't like apples."

"And
how long have you been able to do that?" Cobalius asked with a hint
of sarcasm.

Ben
tossed the apple in the air and caught it in the other hand. "Only
since I arrived in Kishell Springs. It was when I got here, that I
started to see things without benefit of my eyes."

"Tell
me. What do you see?"

"It's
hard to describe. My vision loses color and the world gets a duller,
more subdued appearance, but the strange thing is that I can see
better and in all directions at once. I'm hoping that in time I'll
get good enough to make out colors and better detail."

"There
is no color in the Witherscape," Cobalius stated plainly. "The
shadows you experience are not a condition of fledgling skill or a
flaw in your vision, the Witherscape is a place just outside the
boundary of this world, a place where the normal rules don't apply.
There, the sun does not shine, nor the moon. You have no physical
body in the Witherscape, so your vision is not confined to what those
fleshy orbs in your skull are limited to."

"What
I see... is a place?"

"Yes.
It is as real as the world you are accustomed to, and often just as
treacherous, if not more so. Vincent's limited understanding of these
things combined with your inexperience has put you in jeopardy. You
see, every time you've closed your eyes and used Mindsight, you've
entered the Witherscape and positioned yourself in potential danger.
Especially since you have already learned to navigate within that
world to points removed from your physical body—"

"Drifting,"
Ben interrupted.

"Yes,"
Cobalius nodded. "It's the second of the five Fahd skills. It is
while Drifting, that you are most vulnerable; a complicated issue
that Vincent failed to warn you of."

The
morning sun peeked over the trees and brightened the cottage,
instantly warming the air. Cobalius stepped away from the structure,
into the sunlight and then turned to face Ben. "You are not always
alone in there. The Witherscape is home to its own assortment of
inhabitants. They range from things that are minor nuisances to
creatures of harmful intent. Some can even be deadly."

"Creatures?"
Ben exclaimed. "Yesterday, while at the statues, I was attacked by
shadows while I was Drifting."

Cobalius
nodded. "Lurkers. They are the rodents of the Witherscape; they are
essentially harmless unless encountered in large numbers. While
important to be aware of, they are the least of your worries."

Ben
moved to a spot next to the fire pit, and sat. He took a moment to
let the new revelations sink in and still had difficulty finding the
right words to express his newfound state of wonder. Everything had
changed. It was as if he had just been told that the sky was red, or
that night would no longer follow day, or that fire does not burn. He
resisted an urge to reach for the smoldering coals to test the absurd
possibility. Instead, he said the only thing that came to mind. "I'm
going to need your help, Fahd Cobalius."

Cobalius
offered his hand to Ben and pulled him to his feet. "Close your
eyes."

The
air was thick, unmoving and cold. Not the usual winter chill, but a
dead and listless stuff that enveloped Ben in a frigid blanket of
almost stifling weight. There was no breeze to stir movement in the
trees, nor was there any sound, other than a far away and nearly
imperceivable hum, a constant droning that made the Witherscape feel
vast and cavernous.

The
trees stood silent, as they always did, but now seemed trapped in a
perpetual state of withdrawn indifference. There was no sun above,
only a dull lambency like looking through a canopy of dingy-white
linen. Ben had never really taken notice of these things before,
assuming the irregularities were merely the result of his amateurish
abilities. Now, with a newfound understanding, he looked upon a world
he had never known existed. And now that he knew what it was, it was
strangely unsettling.

But
he was not alone. Cobalius was there.

"This
is where all things began, and all things will someday end. A
timeless place lost between here and there, where the Fifthwind
originates and seeps through the thin fabric of worlds to bring life
and wonders to our land." Cobalius gripped Ben's shoulder, "This
is the realm of the Fahd. This is the Witherscape."

Ben
glanced around, taking stock of his surroundings. "Everything looks
the same. The cottage, the trees... nothing has really changed,
except that everything is colorless."

Cobalius
said, "It is the same in almost every detail, but this is only a
reflection of the world that you know. A near perfect copy, but still
only a shadow."

Ben
did not let the key word of the statement escape him. "You said,
near perfect copy. So, there are differences."

"Everything
that exists and everything that happens is duplicated here in the
Witherscape. Throw an apple, and its shadow is detectable here in
this world, and easily avoided even if you were not looking or
prepared for it in the physical world."

"That
explains a lot," Ben said, now beginning to understand.

Cobalius
lifted a finger to emphasize the coming point. "But, the reverse is
not true. There are things here in the Witherscape that exist only
here, and not on the other side. And events here do not necessarily
have an effect there."

"Now,"
Ben said, "you've lost me."

Cobalius
moved back to the side of the safehold and leaned against the stone
wall. He raised a finger and said, "Watch."

He
stepped toward the fire pit, but this time, he left his body behind.
An apparition of shadowy smoke, churned and boiled as he moved toward
the fire, vaguely human in appearance but as insubstantial as a
ghost. Once he reached the fire's side, he kicked a stone away from
the ring, sending it several feet from the others. Having done so, he
moved back into his body, and stepped away from the wall. "What you
just witnessed occurred only here in the Witherscape. In the real
world, my physical body made no contact with the physical rock, and
therefore it did not move."

Ben
remembered how he had seen such an apparition before, and finally
realized why Mason and Kyla had seen nothing. While Drifting,
Cobalius moved only within the Witherscape, a place that he could see
and they could not. What he had witnessed was something only one with
his skills could detect. To anyone else, Cobalius had never left the
side of building.

"That's
why you've been watching me," Ben said, "because, I spotted you
when I should not have been able to."

Cobalius
nodded, "On the day you arrived, I did not expect such a reaction
from you, and knew at that moment that you possessed our skills. It
was not my intention to frighten you."

Ben
thought back to the recent times he had successfully Drifted, and
wondered if he appeared as nothing more than a churning mass of
shadow as he moved. He concluded that to anyone with the skills to
detect him, he apparently did. He turned his attention back to the
rock by the fire. "Only its shadow has been moved. Only here in the
Witherscape. In the real world the rock remains where it was."

"Take
a look."

Ben
pondered the riddle for a moment and then opened his eyes, allowing
his sight to be flooded with the colors of the forest. He blinked
away the initial brightness and looked again at the fireside and at
the rock that remained untouched next to the others. "So, changes
made in the Witherscape have no consequence in the real world?"

Cobalius
shook his head grimly, "No. The consequences are quite severe. That
rock will cease to exist within a few days. It's difficult to
explain, but remember this: Nothing can survive for long in this
world once its counterpart, or shadow, has been torn from it. The
Witherscape is like the soul of all things in this world, and the
Fifthwind is the glue that binds them."

Ben
began to piece together that relationship with the other things he
had already learned. He said, "That was mentioned in The Scourge of
Stonewall. The Breaking of the Soul of the World. That girl long ago
eliminated that bond."

"And
many things soon after faded from existence because of her act. The
things most reliant on the Fifthwind's bond were the first to go.
Magical creatures and plants could not survive. In time, all things
would have faded into oblivion, but good fortune was with us, and the
Fifthwind slowly started to return and reverse the damage. If not for
this timely healing, our world would have died."

Ben
wrapped his mind around the complexity of the seeming paradox and
arrived at a single, terrifying conclusion. He now understood why
Cobalius had said he was in great danger every time he had Drifted.
He thought back to the occasions he had experimented with his
newfound skill and suddenly felt sick. "If I had been unable to
return to my body—"

"Or
had been prevented from doing so by the lurkers," Cobalius
finished. "Your body would have fallen into a soulless state and
slowly faded away. "The lurkers feed upon the walkers in their
realm. Drifting is a skill unique to the Fahd, but also a skill that
must be used with the utmost caution."

Ben
remembered his experience at the ring of statues and recalled the
tremendous effort he had put forth to fight his way back into his
body and the retched, sickening feeling he had experienced once the
mysterious shadows had latched onto him. The thought that he could
have been prevented from reentering his body gripped him with fear.
There was much he needed to learn if he were going to master these
skills and manage to keep himself alive in the process.

Ben
said, "There must be precautions. A way for the Fahd to move safely
through the Witherscape without fear of the consequences."

"Everything
a man does has its consequences," said Cobalius grimly. "But, in
time you will learn ways of minimizing those dangers. Let this be
your first lesson: The Witherscape is not a playground."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"How
was your sleep?" Cobalius asked as he smothered out the remaining
coals in the hearth.

Ben
looked around the small room, somewhat startled. He didn't remember
falling asleep. It had been a long day, coming to understand the
Witherscape, and the special relationship The Fahd held with that
place. Later in the evening, the lessons moved on to more mundane
subjects. The last thing he recalled, was a discussion about the
importance of unbiased decision making on the battlefield, and how
emotional ties could cloud one's judgment.

He
knew all too well that Cobalius was implying that Ben's feelings for
Kyla would hinder his ability to think clearly at crucial moments
when purity of thought could mean the difference between victory and
defeat. The brotherhood of The Fahd did not approve of emotional
relationships, it was part of their honored covenant. Ben had been
told quite clearly that before his training was complete he would
have to make a choice between The Fahd and a life with his friends.
It was a decision he did not want to deal with at the moment.