The Mountains Rise (20 page)

The world slowly came into focus
,
and Daniel became aware that he was lying on a cold slab of some sort.

“You really know how to stir things up, don’t you wildling?” said Thillmarius, leaning
over him. “The She’Har haven’t been this excited in centuries. Some are calling
for you to be put down
,
and others want
to negotiate stud fees.”

“Stud, what?”

“Well, we don’t use money, as your ancestors did, but we do have a system of tracking
respect and prestige
,
and some from the other groves would dearly love to get their hands on your genetic
material,” said the She’Har man.

Daniel detected another presence in the room
,
and while she was out of his eyesight his mind quickly identified Lyralliantha standing
back at a distance.

“What would they do with it?”

“Use it to breed winners, of course,” said Thillmarius. “Not to worry, though, Lyralliantha
continues to refuse to share. She won’t even let me use your previous samples.”

Daniel was confused. Until then it had seemed as though Thillmarius was the ultimate
arbiter of his fate, but now it sounded as if Lyralliantha had the final say.
Even as he thought about that bit of information
,
the two She’Har began to have an animated discussion.

Lyralliantha came over to the table
,
and her look was one of
sympathy
, or perhaps pity. Daniel couldn’t be certain. She placed her hand on his forehead,
stroking the hair from his eyes and sending an intangible feeling into his mind.
It had no words, but he could feel the meaning of it.

I’m sorry.

He couldn’t understand why she would apologize to him, but she turned and left before
he could think of a way to ask her.

Thillmarius smiled and leaned over, “Good news, baratt. I was able to convince her
to let me continue overseeing you.”

“What were you arguing about?” Daniel asked.

“She wanted to euthanize you,” said Thillmarius. “The Illeniel Grove has never kept
humans. They took the position that it was
immoral and created needless suffering. Lyralliantha made a mistake when she met
and claimed you, because it went against her grove’s decision when the She’Har came
to this world.”

“She seemed sad,” Daniel noted.

“She worries that you are being made to suffer, but she has no experience in keeping
humans. I persuaded her to leave your care in my hands, as she has done up until
now. After all, I understand your kind far better than she does,” explained Thillmarius.

“What happens to me now?” asked Daniel.

The black-skinned Prathion smiled at him, “First, punishment, and then we will continue
your arena schedule. You continue to develop in surprising ways.”

Sweat broke out on his brow at the thought of the whips. Daniel’s stomach churned
and he began to shake. Repeated experiences at the hands of the wardens had created
a powerful fear response in him.
“Please, no. I’m sorry, Thillmarius. I won’t do it again,” he begged.

“I’m sorry, baratt, but time has taught me the best methods to train your kind. Not
to worry, though, I’ll handle this one personally. I can no longer trust the wardens
to punish you. They want you very dead.” Vines began to snake across Daniel’s chest
,
and soon his entire body was covered
,
and an intense burning itch began to make itself felt.

The sensation escalated until Daniel thought he might lose his mind
,
but it wasn’t until he began screaming that Thillmarius felt he had reached the appropriate
level. The next half hour was the worst Daniel could remember. Unlike the wardens,
the She’Har made certain that the recipient of his ministrations didn’t faint from
the pain.

***

After his punishment was finished
,
Thillmarius escorted him into a small chamber to have him washed and cleaned. The
torture had caused him to soil himself involuntarily. Standing under a falling cascade
of warm water, Daniel continued to shake. At the sam
e time he was glad of the water;
it was the first time he had felt even close to clean since he had arrived.

A few minutes later he emerged and found Thillmarius waiting for him. “I have a surprise
for you, wildling.”

Daniel’s eyes widened, darting to the sides.
Not more!

The She’Har laughed, “No, baratt, not more pain conditioning. I feel that
,
having been raised in the wild you lack a certain respect for your masters. Our
humans are born and bred here
;
they learn proper respect as they grow. I thought I would show you something you
will find educational.”

Daniel relaxed slightly. Anything that didn’t involve physical torture was an improvement.
Thillmarius led him upwar
d, and he was soon able to tell
from the oddly shaped rooms and strange wooden staircases
,
that he must be in the large building located near the training arena in Ellentrea.
They emerged onto the roof of the building
,
and Daniel was able to look out across the entire town. Not that there was much
to see, a bland collection of small
,
and occasionally larger
,
wooden structures rising from the earth.

His magesight noticed it first, an extremely large creature flying toward them from
the south. It was far too large to be a bird, although its shape was very similar.
As it got closer Daniel realized it was some sort of bizarre flying animal, but instead
of true feathers
,
its wings bore strange feather-like leaves. It had no beak at all, or even a mouth
for that matter, and when it landed
,
Daniel could see that its legs ended in strange root-like appendages instead of feet
with talons.

“What
…
?”

“This will take us to the place I want to show you. Here, this is how you mount,”
Thillmarius demonstrated foot placement as he climbed up, showing Daniel how to take
a seat and directing him to a spot behind himself.

Once he had taken his place
,
the odd creature began to beat its wings, driving them skyward. Daniel felt a thrill
akin to fear, but his recent torment had left him unable to summon true terror. Instead
he was merely excited as the ground fell away
,
and they soared above Ellentrea and out over the god-trees.
A transparent shield of spellwoven power surrounded the two of them, keeping the
wind from battering them as the creature increased its speed.

As they flew higher the world expanded and Daniel was struck by a sensation of awe
at the size of
it
. He had never imagined that it could be so large. Beyond Ellentrea the deep woods
extended in every direction until they merged with the horizon. To the east he could
see the rocky foothills rising, creating a region t
o
o stony for the great trees to grow.

They traveled to the west, following the river that originated in the hills toward
its unknown destination. On every side the massive god trees dominated the land,
until finally in the distance
,
a line of blue took command of the horizon.

“It’s so big,” said Daniel.

Thillmarius nodded, “This is a vast world, Tyrion, and it is almost completely filled.”

The She’Har spoke truly. As they journeyed
,
Daniel saw
no open land, only forest and more forest, occasionally interrupted by a river or
lake. A small line of mountains to the north hinted at another area free of the great
trees. The blue to the west expanded, becoming what Daniel could only assume was
a vast body of water.

“What is that?”

“The
‘
ocean
’
, bara
tt, a great body of salty water;
it covers more than half the surface of this world.”

Daniel had never heard the word ocean before, and as he saw it stretching out his
mind went blank with incomprehension.
Two unbelievable expanses, one blue and one green…
The world had few places where humans could live freely.

“Are there many places where wild humans live?” he asked.
Daniel preferred the term ‘free’, but he knew the She’Har would find ‘wild’ more
acceptable.

“Not anymore,” said Thillmarius. “A few pockets, here and there, tucked away in mountainous
areas or hilly regions where our roots don’t do well, but they have been slowly dwindling
in numbers for a long time.”

“The trees go on forever,” said Daniel.

Thillmarius nodded, “Everywhere you can see and far beyond that. Our groves circle
the world
.” They began to descend as the coast drew nearer. An open area close to the ocean
soon became apparent.
The ground had an odd appearance there.

Daniel watched quietly as they dropped, soaring over something his mind had difficulty
organizing into something manageable. Long grey stony projections soared above the
ground, supported by weird trees that were perfectly smooth and straight, although
some of them leaned. On closer examination he realized that they weren’t trees at
all, but smooth
,
stone columns. His magesight was able to explore more fully as they landed atop
a tall square platform.

Beneath his feet his senses showed him square rooms, filled wit
h debris of various sorts. The
building was as much unlike the She’Har’s wooden growths as they were different than
the buildings of Colne. The framework seemed to be made of perfectly straight
metal
, connected in ways that confused him.

“What is this?”

“A museum of sorts,” said the She’Har. When Daniel still looked confused he explained
further, “One of the last cities of the ancient humans. They poisoned the earth here,
which is why you will see no plants of any kind, much less our trees.
While most of their other works were destroyed and assimilated into the earth, this
one was left untouched, except by time.”

“And those things?” Daniel said, pointing to one of the elevated stone projections.

“Roads. They went everywhere in machines
,
and they built roads to ease their way. Before we came
,
they stretched from one end of the continent to the other.”

The city itself was colossal in size, dwarfing Colne or Ellentrea many times over,
to think that it had just been one of many…

“Why are you showing me this?” he wondered aloud.

“To teach you humility,” said Thillmarius. “I have come to suspect that your wild
origin makes you feel superior. I brought you here to show you how much greater and
more powerful your ancestors were. Beside their achievements, you are but a tiny
speck, and yet they fell to the She’Har.”

Daniel’s magesight explored the complex structures that surrounded him, but he no
longer focused on what it showed him. Instead, his mind’s eye constructed a vision
of what the place might have looked like when it was alive and bustling, filled with
men and women.
His eyes watered as he felt the loss of something he had never known existed.

So much happiness destroyed. He wants to humble me by showing me this, but instead
I have discovered that we can rise to greatness. This is a lesson, but not the lesson
he thinks.

“Do you understand now, baratt?”

“Yes,” said Daniel.
I understand that you are proud of what should be your greatest shame.

Daniel spent the rest of the week experimenting with the dirt on the floor of his
room, moving it about, digging holes with his power and refilling them. It had never
occurred to him to use his abilities in such a way before, until he had nearly been
killed by suffocation.

During his experimentation he also tried creating small whirlwinds of dust and dirt,
like he had done during his last combat. He had never really thought about air as
a solid ‘thing’ before, always considering it ephemeral or intangible, but he had
become aware of it as something truly physical now.

He could tell he was stronger. Something had changed in him during his fight with
the woman, or possibly during his fight with the wardens. His power flowed more easily
and he felt stronger. Continual practice had paid off
,
and he was able to envision complex shapes and forms far more easily than in the
past.

When the time came for his next fight in the arena it was only Garlin
who
came to escort him. He said nothing as they walked.

The fight proved to be a let-down. His opponent this week was a Prathion mage, but
he wasn’t particularly strong. As soon as he vanished
,
Daniel created two circles, a small one around himself and a much larger one that
encircled him at a distance of over fifty feet on all sides. The larger circle he
covered with
a tiny layer of diffuse aythar
just below the surface, extending from its edge inward to his smaller circle.

He ignored the other mage’s attacks, small probing assaults that came from a distance.
He became visible for a moment each time, but Daniel didn’t bother attempting to respond.
His opponent would vanish and move immediately after each assault. Daniel waited.

Eventually the man drew closer, probably hoping to try a more focused close range
assault on Daniel’s nigh impregnable shield. Due to his complete invisibility he
failed to sense the aythar that was spread across the earth beneath his feet.

Once he felt the contact of bare feet within his outer circle Daniel swiftly changed
tactics, abandoning the thin layer of aythar on the ground in favor of raising a giant
shield, following the outlines of his larger circle.
He had the other mage trapped now, between his small inner shield and the larger
one.

He began to move the air in a circular fashion, creating a small cyclone centered
on himself. Lifting dirt and gravel the area was soon filled with a miniature sandstorm.
The Prathion quickly dropped his invisibility and created a strong shield around himself,
but it was far too late for that.

Daniel was merely experimenting. His room was too small to create anything large
,
and the soil of his floor only extended a short foot before it reached a wooden floor
created by the root of the god tree. Here in the arena he
had earth and air to play with
and an opponent to focus on. The audience was just an added bonus.

He whipped the air and the dirt it carried into a blistering frenzy, scouring a wide
circular depression into the ground. Eventually the force of it became so great that
the other mage’s sh
ield failed. He died terribly, for the man’s aythar still anchored
him
to the ground as
the wind scoured the flesh from his bones. When he finally lost consciousness
,
his power failed
completely
and the air lifted him, to tumble around. By the time Daniel stopped the wind and
lowered his shield
,
there was nothing left of the man. His body had disintegrated and been absorbed
by the earth that had flown around the ring.

The She’Har roared with approval as he left the arena.
Glancing at the crowd
,
he saw several with the distinctive silver hair of the Illeniel Grove, but his magesight
did not find Lyralliantha’s aura among them.

He walked back to Garlin, feeling somewhat elated by his victory but without the
adrenaline madness that had filled him the week before. “I’m glad it’s you today,”
he told the warden.

“None of the others wanted the task,” said Garlin noncommittally.

“I lost my temper,” admitted Daniel. “It was Lavon
who
angered me though, not you.” He didn’t apologize. It would have been insincere
,
and besides, Garlin didn’t expect one, he had been raised in a different world.

“He was a bigger ass than most,” commented the warden.

“We’ve been ordered not to touch you in future. Most of the others want you dead,”
Garlin informed him. “If you decide to do anything wild in the future, don’t worry
about me. I’m not to interfere.”

“Why have you escort me at all then?” asked Daniel.

“To show you where to go and advise you if you are about to do something that will
result in punishment from Thillmarius. There isn’t anywhere to run, Tyrion.”

“He made sure I was aware of that,” replied Daniel.

When he was back in his room
,
Daniel relaxed by using his aythar to peel away some of the outer layers from the
wooden block that he had originally cut from the ‘table’ in his room. The table itself
had healed over and grown back to its former shape
,
while the piece he had cut free seemed to be slowly drying out.

Daniel only peeled a small layer off, helping it to dry more evenly
,
but
he was mindful of the fact
that if it dried out too quickly it might begin to crack. He kept the piece in the
soil under his bed most of the time, to prevent it from drying too fast.

Today he took the shavings and let his imagination play with them. Thin layers
of wood
became petals and small fibers peeled from the edges knitted themselves together to
hold each in place, attached to a slender wooden stem. After more than an hour
of delicate concentration Daniel found himself with an interesting facsimile of a
rose. Drawing up reddish pigments from some of the soil
,
he tinted the petals a faint red color while leaving the rest a light brown.

Then he waited for Amarah.

She hadn’t spoken to him since their ‘punishment’, but she continued to bring his
food and water twice daily. He plied her with words and apologies
,
but she shrugged them all off without any sign of interest.

Today he blocked her exit again, “Wait.” Before she could protest he produced the
wooden rose. “This is for you.”

Amarah’s eyes went wide. “What is this?”

“A flower,” said Daniel simply. “I have nothing here, other than memories. I made
it to remember the past. I thought you might like it.” Before she could respond
,
he pressed the wooden stem into her hand.

She was gone before he could guess what she might be feeling.

The weeks passed slowly after that, without much to relieve the tedium. Daniel was
summoned each week to face a new competitor, but the fights were no longer a challenge.
The arena had become his playground
,
and each contest was merely an opportunity for him to practice his skills in the
open air and sunshine. He killed men and women without compunction
,
though he was glad that he hadn’t been forced to fight any more children. Apparently
that was only for the inexperienced.

He could no longer be certain exactly how long he had been there, killing and living
in near complete isolation. The seasons passed
,
and he knew when summer arrived again that it had been at least a year.

The block of wood he had saved was fully dry now. There were some small cracks in
the exterior but Daniel’s magesight could see that they didn’t run deep. The main
body had dried slowly and re
mained whole. Taking his time—he certainly had plenty of it—
Daniel used his ability to slowly remove material from the outside, carving away pieces
of wood to create the body and neck of a cittern.

His mother’s cittern had been constructed of several pieces of light wood, carved
and then glued together. Notably
,
the body had been made from two large pieces to form a bowl and the open face, while
the neck had been an entirely separate piece. The frets and other protrusions were
additional pieces of wood and metal that had been glued into place.

Daniel had no glue, nor did he have any metal, but he had patience and a tool that
allowed him to remove fine amounts of material even from the interior. He slowly
carved the interior of the bowl out and shaped the neck, crafting the entire thing,
including the frets
,
from his single block of wood.

The tuning pegs he was forced to make separately, using some larger pieces he had
removed while shaping the body. Using his aythar, he carefully drilled holes in the
head, tapering them so that the pegs could be withdrawn slightly when tuning and then
pushed firmly inward to wedge them in place once the desired tension had been found.

Amarah took notice of his strange work when she came twice a day, even pausing on
occasion to watch him for a minute or two. He always complimented her, and attempted
conversation, but she rarely spoke.

After a couple of months his work was nearly complete, and his unformed block had
become a well-defined and elegant looking instrument. It lacked some of the color
of his mother’s, but it made up for that in the fineness of its woodwork, along with
delicate patterns of wildflowers etched into the face of it.

Eventually Amarah’s curiosity got the better of her
,
and she asked him a question. The first question he ever recalled coming from her
in fact. “What is that?”

“A cittern,” he replied quietly.

“What does it do?” she continued.

Two questions! Today was a landmark in his communications with her. “If I can finish
it, I will show you,” he told her. “But I don’t think I will ever get that chance.”

“Why not?” Amarah was obviously fascinated by the beautiful and utterly foreign device.

Daniel sighed, “No strings.”

His mother’s cittern had had metal strings, an expensive luxury, but they made for
a lovely sound and held up well over time. Daniel had no hope of finding anything
like that in Ellentrea. He had also seen strings made more commonly from gut, which
was something he probably could get ahold of, if he was sufficiently brutal during
his next arena match. In the past, the thought of using a fellow human’s intestines
would have sickened him, but he had descended far past that, to a level of practicality
that was just shy of animalistic.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t really an option either. Even if he carried a grisly trophy
back from his next match
,
he had no idea of the method used for curing and producing strings from gut. He
did know how to make string from hair or wool,
by twisting and splicing fibers
one at a time, but he had no good source of hair, other than his own.

He tried initially to craft strings from wood fibers, using his aythar to separate
and wind the tiniest of fibers into a lightweight string, but it had proven brittle
and weak. Using his own hair produced something more serviceable but it still broke
when he attempted to play on it.

He needed a longer hair, with a thicker shaft. At home
,
he had spliced hair from the tail of his father’s horse, using it to create string
and short ropes for halters. That would be ideal, but he had no idea where the wardens
stabled their horses, nor how he would convince them to let him use their hair.

“What do you do with strings?” she asked.

Daniel mimed playing on the instrument, strumming with one hand and pressing down
at various points along the neck with the other. “You play them. The strings generate
the notes, if you pluck them properly. Can you get string?” Seeing her interest
,
he began to wonder if perhaps she might be convinced to help.

“They have a thick yarn here…” she began.

Daniel interrupted, “No, yarn won’t do. It’s too thick. Horse hair would work, but
I have no way of getting it.”

“Horse hair?”

“From the tail,” clarified Daniel. “The long pieces. White hair is usually stronger
if you can find it.”

Amarah stared at him for a moment before turning and leaving without comment.

She didn’t ask him about the instrument the next time she returned, but after a week
she surprised him one morning. Placing the tray with his food on the table
,
she waited rather than leaving immediately.

That was unusual behavior for her. Then Daniel noticed the mass of hair piled along
one side of the tray, long strands of white hair, most of them over two
feet
long.