INBORN (The Sagas of Di'Ghon) (28 page)

Ghile grimaced. He didn’t have a choice. He’d have to trust the maskstone to get him by the inborn. If he could feed on just a few of the big strong men he’d seen, he would come back and find a way to separate the two of them.

Ghile sat in the shadows. He gripped the maskstone tightly in one hand and waited patiently for his moment. When a cluster of people passed him, all stinking of stale sweat and meat pies, he slipped in behind and started walking, using his musical daydreamer gait he’d come into town with.

He was absent-mindedly humming a tune when he sauntered passed them. Ghile held one of his hands at the ready, barely keeping the teeth at bay. If the inborn spotted him he would have to turn the few humans he was mixed in with. Out in the open it wasn’t ever a good idea, but if he had to, he could use them to hold the two off long enough for him to make it where he was heading.

He kept walking casually for a time, making sure he was well past the two, before he made his move. He slipped down below the heads of the crowd, letting them shield him from their view as he clambered into the catwalk system he’d seen the huge muscled men climb out of.

Ghile breathed a sigh of relief.

The elaborate scaffolding snaked all along the underside of the tannery.
It led to various platforms, each a site of some sort of gear wheel, and leather strap system that obviously powered some contraption above in the tannery. No matter how convoluted it was to follow, every piece of apparatus was eventually connected back to the giant wheel, that from his new vantage point, directly above it, he could see was spinning extremely fast.

He moved through the system silently, enjoying the feel of his powerful legs as he sprang from one scaffolding platform to the next. The entire structure groaned and shook around him.

A series of long narrow channels had been cut out each side of the gorge wall. They ran in perfectly straight vertical lines, from the top to the bottom of the tight chasm. He judged the distance at easily one hundred and fifty feet. In the channels an intricate structure of massive timbers crisscrossed from one side of the gorge to the other. On the other side of the timbers was the tallest wooden wall he’d ever seen. He couldn’t believe something that big could be made of wood. Behind the wheel and further down the gorge, water shot out of large square tunnels mined out of the rock wall. Each was easily big enough to drive a couple carriages through side by side. He craned his neck to watch the brownish streams rushing out of both holes and disappearing into the mist far below.  Some sort of relief channels.

The entire dam was a thing of beauty. Every piece of timber was joined to the next with expert craftsmanship.  Ice cold water ran down his wrist and arm as he traced his fingers along one of the mighty timbers overhead.

Movement below caught his attention. He stopped running, legs momentarily poised across two trembling timbers. Making sure he still stayed in the shadows of the catwalks, he moved in close enough to get a better look at what was going on.

Thirty feet below him a horizontal column of light brown water roared out of a large hole in the giant dam wall. Twenty feet below that one was another. The powerful streams slammed into the towering water wheel with unimaginable force. The great wheel, its outer paddles set at perfect angles, was designed to catch the flow, and now it spun at incredible speed. It was definitely moving faster by the second. The massive paddles threw water and air alike, turning the underside of the tannery into a maelstrom of stinging
windblown spray.

A team of men manned a platform at the center of each side of the wheel. They were diverting a flow of water on the great iron axle. Steam screeched off the smoking iron, forcing the men to take turns being the one closest to the hot metal.

A third team of men worked with practiced precision. In a steady ring of blows, the four burly men, every one of them swinging a sledge hammer the size of an ox head, were desperately trying to drive a huge iron door in place and shut off the highest flow of water hitting the wheel.

At once
, he understood the contraption, and the dilemma.

The holes in the gorge walls allowed some of the water to pass around the dam. There was probably a way to control the flow going through the tunnels, thereby allowing them to also control how much water hit the wheel and at what speed. Imagine their surprise when, after the gorge wall tunnels were opened to their widest, and still the water continued to rise. Now the wheel, driven by the twin horizontal columns of rushing water, was spinning out of control.

The dam was lost. That explained why those workers were running with such abandon. They were the smart ones.

If he timed this right, he could feed, get rid of Thaniel’s friends, and be on their way to Di’
Ghon in less than an hour.

He was smiling from ear to ear when he dropped down onto the scaffolding platform where the four big strong men hammered at the door. The first man didn’t even know he was there when he
finally started to feed.

Toothy Grin

Finding a ramphyr, even if it was right in front of you, wasn’t an easy thing. They were masters of disguise. On the outside they looked just like one of us. Most people wouldn’t have a clue. One day their neighbor of twenty years comes over borrowing salt and instead sucks the blood from their chest cavity. It wasn’t like that exactly but… pretty close. They walked around in the daylight, ate what we ate, and did the things that normal people do. In most cases, even for the Order, tracking down one of the ramphyr was no simple task.

An
inborn’s abilities, as amazing as they were, weren’t a guarantee either. Even if someone was the most powerful inborn ever to wield one ghon, it didn’t mean that they could sense any of the other ghons at all.
Air, flesh, fabric, flame, sound, light, space,
time
and especially
life
would be completely undetectable to one born only to
water
. There were only four abilities Lars Telazno didn’t possess.
Time
,
space
,
flame
, and of course,
life
. He was completely unable to see or touch the first three.

He couldn’t, like every other
inborn that ever lived, touch
life
. When he held any of the ghons, he could sense
life
flowing like a mighty river through him and everything around him. But no one had actually even seen the elusive silver current, in ages. Thank the Creator they hadn’t been able to wield it.

Lars had been born lucky, or cursed. According to Gabril, it depended on the day. He had some saying about fate… Either way, Lars was still a rare
inborn.
Air
,
water
,
flesh
,
fabric
,
sound
, and
light
, were all his. And he’d had decades to perfect his abilities, maximizing his potential at every opportunity.

Even so
, the day wasn’t looking so good.

They were standing right in the middle of the dam watching people pass by. The wooden street that ran across the dam was the only gorge crossing for a hundred miles. It was quite a sight. The massive structure of the dam wall supported a complicated tanning operation that was powered by a great water wheel. Lars rubbed his nose, again. The place smelled of decay and the rotting animal fat that was used in the various stages of the leather tanning processes.

Lars Telazno gripped the Phyr’Ghon meldstone and scanned the people around him as they walked through the soaking mist. He had opened himself to
flesh
hours ago and was beginning to feel the strain. Tiny beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead. Yet, he held on. It was his only hope of spotting the ramphyr. Everything that had blood pulsed around him. In the wet gloom of the town, the people, animals, and even the insects all seemed like floating islands of beating amber light as they passed by.

“Well?” Gabril asked under his breath.

“Patience.” Lars wiped sweat from his brow.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lars picked up on one man. Without his hold on the
Phyr’Ghon, Lars wouldn’t have given him a second glance. He appeared the world’s most happy go lucky of men, a limping bounce in his step. He was humming a tune Lars hadn’t heard in twenty years, ‘Lime Green Lana’. The man that sauntered by them was the only person in the town that didn’t resonate in amber. He was painted in the right dark honey hue, enough that at first glance he would appear like everyone else, yet, while everyone else pulsed with the energy of living flesh, this man seemed to be just wearing flesh, like a uniform. It was a subtle difference, hardly detectable, and especially if Lars hadn’t been holding the meldstone to fine-tune his senses.

Lars Telazno grinned.

“What is it you say about fate?”

“Sometimes she smiles at you. Sometimes she spits in your face before she kicks out your teeth.”

“Well, today, she’s in a good mood.” Lars flashed his eyes at the happy go lucky man, making sure Gabril saw the motion.

“Are you sure?” Gabril asked, one of his hands habitually checking over a few of the blades he had stashed on his body. The Circle went incredibly still, as if he was storing energy already for the fight ahead.

“What’s this?” Lars watched as Harkanin’s yellow and green wagon rounded the corner and plodded up the drenched street. Lars squinted. Something was swinging on the underside of the wagon.

The ramphyr was headed away from them. Harkanin was coming towards them. As he drew closer, the man didn’t look well. He was white as a chicken egg. Lars waited for the trader to pull up beside them.

“Did you see Thaniel?” Gabril asked, never taking his eyes off the sauntering ramphyr.

“Better. I have both boys in the wagon.” His eyes darted back over his shoulder.

“You have Thaniel?” Lars Telazno tried to look around the man.

“You won’t find them. I have ways.” He said proudly.

He and Gabril exchanged a glance and they both bent over immediately to look under the wagon. Lars probably should have just waved him onward and met them on the other side of the gorge but he just wanted to get a good look at him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to think about anything else until he made sure he was alright. After two days of riding down the pass Lars could think of little else. This boy was the strongest inborn the Order had found in ages. Unfortunately they weren’t the only ones that knew of his existence. The Guild of Night would stop at nothing to get their hands on him. He had to get Thaniel to Di’Ghon, where he at least had a shot of protecting him. The boy’s life depended on it more ways than one.

Lars Telazno’s heart skipped a couple beats the moment he saw the blood stained door swinging back and forth under the wagon. Gabril darted forward and stuck his head into the compartment. The man popped back out a half second later with a snarl. The compartment was empty.

“Harkanin.” Gabril growled.

“Come on out Jorel. This
aint a time for games.” Harkanin slid off the wagon bench and landed on the stone street. He was pretty lithe for a man of his size. When his face appeared under the wagon, his eyes immediately locked on the door.

“Where are they?” Lars demanded.

Harkanin looked like he swallowed a lizard.

“They were in there. I swear on my mother’s eyes they were.” He said, wringing his pant legs with white knuckled fingers as he backed away from both of them.

“Tell me everything.” Lars said, “Now.”

“The First is here.” A tremor broke in Harkanin voice as he added, “They’re looking for Thaniel.”  

“The First? Ontar’s First?” Gabril asked.

“They have the girl… Elycia. But they didn’t find the boys.”

The First was well known for being a ruthless band of soldiers. Their duty as far as Lars knew was to protect the ruling family, the Ontars. He really had no idea what they were doing down here but they weren’t to be taken lightly.

“One of them had her tied up on his horse.”

“Why?” Gabril asked, his eyes already scanning their surroundings, then back to the ramphyr.

“I don’t know. You don’t just go asking the First anything.” He said a bit acidly.

“If Thaniel knows they have her he’ll give himself up before he lets any harm come to her.” Gabril was right. Any fool could see the way that boy looked at her all moon-eyed. Sometimes his body even went limp around her. There was no doubt about it. The boy was lost.

“They searched the wagon.” The trader flicked water off his face with a fat finger. “He was right under their noses and they didn’t suspect a thing.” Harkanin grinned slyly as he added, “They weren’t the first patrol I snuck something by. If I let every tax collecting bastard take what he wanted I’d be a beggar in a month.”

“Then where are they?”

“I told you, I don’t know.” The wily trader insisted. “The last thing I saw was the door closing.”

“Where did they stop you?”