Wintermore (Aeon of Light Book 1) (23 page)

“That wasn’t the fun I was referring to,” Lyle says.

Agna rubs Preta’s back. “We don’t want to hurt you, Lyle, we just want to be on our way.”

“So soon? The fun, fun, fun hasn’t even begun yet.”

Agna points her shaky finger at Lyle. “Let us go, and no harm will come to you.”

Lyle raises the fire poker, aiming it toward Agna. “You don’t order me. I’m a forest guardian, a leshy of the sixth order. I’m the one who orders, not you.” He rubs his hands together in anticipation. “Now that that’s cleared up, time for fun.” Lyle licks his fingers and moves to Yaz. He removes Yaz’s gag and tosses it into the simmering pot.

Yaz violently shakes his head back and forth. “I’m gonna mount your hairy, green-glowing eyeballed head on a wall, you monster.”

“What’s with the obscenities with you people?” Lyle says, flapping his arms up and down like a bird with wide wings.

A green mist puffs out of Lyle’s hairy armpits, and it floats like smoke into Yaz’s nose.

Yaz’s head circles, and his eyes dance.

Preta stands, her eyes widen. “
Yaz
?”

With his stupid grin reminiscent of his drunken foray at Deet’s bachelor party, Yaz ogles Preta. He giggles once, hiccups, then giggles again. With every passing second the intensity builds. His body twitches, and he laughs hysterically. Wrinkles on Yaz’s face accentuate, and tears flow from his eyes and stream down his cheeks. The intensity of Yaz’s laughter grows, and he rolls on the ground, kicking his bound feet in the air like a dog on his back dreaming he’s chasing a squirrel.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Lyle says, quickly clapping his hands together. “Watch, Agna. Watch, smelly, ugly girl. This is the best part. Watch, watch, watch, watch; fun, fun, fun, fun.”

Preta squirms as Yaz rolls on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. Each passing second, his laughter grows more intense. He gasps for air and coughs.

Yaz’s bulging eyes swell with water, and his mouth contorts into an unnatural, stiff grin.

Preta reaches out her hand. “He can’t breathe, stop it, Lyle, you’re killing him!”

Lyle hops up and down, clapping. “Fun, fun, fun, fun; laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh; fun, fun, fun; laugh, laugh; die!”

Preta feels a jerk on her shoulders, pulling her straight up. An aqua-blue glow emanates off the cave walls, forming a shadow of Preta connected to Agna.

Deet’s head twitches, and his eyes widen in surprise.

Lyle stops laughing. His grin shifts into a scowl. Lyle crouches down with arms raised.

“Rumble-Elbmur,” Agna’s calm voice says inside of Preta’s head.

With palms inward and eyes shut, Preta’s arms rise to her chest. She’s a spectator of her own body. Her feet planted on the ground, she feels yet can’t control. Energy courses through her body, building in her chest.

Preta’s arms shoot toward the ceiling above Lyle. “Rumble-Elbmur!”

A faint brownish-grey light strobe bursts out of Preta’s hands, hovers for a second, then disappears. The connection with Agna breaks, and Preta falls to her knees. She gazes up at Lyle.

Lyle roars, blasting Preta with another dose of stench wind.

Above Lyle, small pieces of rock crack and rain down.

Agna lifts Preta to her feet and out of the way from the crumbling rock. “Let’s go.”

Dazed from the connection and Lyle's third dose of stench breath, Preta stutters and sways, her eyes rolling. “Are we gonna eat the hairy smell lesh-whesh?” Preta giggles and her legs gyrate like wet noodles.

Agna tugs Preta. “Come on, snap out of it, help me, girl.”

A larger piece of ceiling breaks off, falling onto Lyle’s head. The leshy tumbles to the floor with a thud.

Preta giggles hysterically while pointing at Lyle. “Oh, fun, fun, fun, fun!”

“Snap out of it!” Agna says, dragging Preta to her brothers. She releases Preta and unties Deet. “We need to go, now.”

Deet slings his gear and helps Yaz get to his feet.

Yaz, still in shock from his near-death laughing hysterics, is mumbling and unable to stand without help.

Lyle is passed out on the ground and snoring.

Agna drags Preta past the leshy.

Preta jerks loose from Agna’s grip and stares at Lyle lying on the floor. She jumps up and down, clapping and snorting like a pig. “Fun, fun, fun; hairy, smelly leshy wheshy heshy;
ha, ha, ha-ha, ha
—”

Agna yanks Preta’s arm. “Stop it, let’s go.”

Preta stumbles forward. “That was fun, Agna. Can we do it again?”

Agna peeks back at Deet struggling with Yaz. “Move faster.”

Preta exits the cave, and her head sways in circles as she gazes at the sun.

Deet emerges with Yaz, and they bump into Preta and Agna.

“Fun, fun, fun, Dee,” Preta says. “You want to do it again?”

Deet ignores her. His eyes meet Agna’s. “Where to now?”

Agna flicks her head away from the cave. “Down the hill and far away from here. Stick together and don’t trust what you can’t see.”

Deet scowls, glaring at Agna. “I’m learning that fact over and over ever since I met you.”

ONE IN THE SAME

With Preta in tow, Agna weaves her way deeper into the Yelton.

Yaz limps with an arm hooked around Deet’s neck.

Preta regains her senses as the pine branches strike her body and face. She wiggles herself out of Agna’s grasp.

Agna reaches back in a panic, and Preta waves her off. “I’m good, I’m right behind you.”

For an hour, they travel downhill and penetrate deeper into the forest. No one says a word.

They emerge into a clearing with a small creek weaving through tall limp grass.

“I think we’ll be all right here for a while,” Agna says, “let’s stop and rest.”

Deet surveys the area to make sure it’s safe. He lowers Yaz to the ground and follows him, plopping onto his butt. They both lean back and lie flat on the ground as they breathe heavy.

Agna extends a water pouch toward Deet.

Deet sits up and takes the water. He throws his head back and drinks. After a few sips, he thrusts the container into Yaz’s chest.

Yaz doesn’t move. He just clutches the water bag close to his belly and breathes. “So where the hell are we now?”

Deet unfolds the map and points to it. “We were in this grey section before the thing got us, but now I have no idea, I lost my compass on our little adventure with stinky breath.”

Preta sits down next to them. “So we’re lost. Agna, do you know where we are?”

“Sorry, Preta, I don’t. All I know is we are deep in the Yelton.”

“This is turning into a real right shit plan,” Yaz says.

Deet sighs. “If you didn’t chase ghosts, we wouldn’t be lost right now.”

“Hey, somehow you managed to end up right next to me, Brother. So what ghost did you chase?”

“It’s only because I was looking for you that I ended up next to you.”

In frustration, Agna flaps her arm in front of them. “Boys, enough! Arguing won’t get us anywhere.”

Deet glares at Agna. “Then what’s your suggestion, witch?”

“I don’t know yet, and I’m not a witch.”

Deet sits up and gazes up to the sky. “It should work,” he says to himself, and he stands up and scans the ground. He snatches up a long stick tangled in the grass and sharpens it to a point. Deet moves to the center of the clearing and thrusts the stick into the ground. He pulls out his sword, marking the dirt at the tip of the stick’s shadow.

“What are you doing?” Preta says.

“He’s making a compass,” Yaz says.

Deet sits back down. “We wait and let the shadow tell us our next move. The shadow generally moves in a west to east direction. Let’s eat and rest and let the stick and sun show us which direction we need to go.”

Preta stares at the stick for a half hour, waiting for the shadow to move. She points with a shaky finger. “There, it moved.”

“We’ll wait longer to make sure,” Deet says. “Relax, rest, and save your energy.”

Deet’s words go in one ear and out the other as she continues staring, trying to grab the shadow with her mind and pull it to make it move faster.

Yaz falls asleep, and Agna is gazing off into the trees, lost in thought.

“You going to just sit there and not explain yourself?” Deet says to Agna.

Agna, taken aback by the affront, her eyes narrow. “Excuse me?”

“Don’t play coy, I saw what you did with the light. You can do what Preta can do.”

“Oh, well, the time wasn’t right to tell you before,” and Agna glances away from Deet’s eyes, trying to defuse the situation.

“Not right? You’ve got to be kidding me. You knew Preta was in danger all along, and you still didn’t explain yourself thoroughly.”

“But I warned you, and you chose not to heed those warnings.”

“Warnings, yes, maybe, in a cryptic way you did. Though you could’ve explained more to make it clear to us.”

Agna talks with her hands. “I’m sorry, I find it best the less people know, the better, especially when it comes to what Preta and I can do with the light. There’s much you don’t understand, Deet Penter. I would’ve explained more to you and Preta when the time was right, though last week the time wasn’t right.”

“And between now and then half my family and the town are dead because the time wasn’t right.”

“There was no way of telling the outcome last week. You can blame me if it makes you feel any better, but no one can predict the future. I didn’t think any of you could handle or even believe the truth so soon.”

“You connected to me,” Preta says, “like I did with Redly and Berta and the birds.”

Agna forces a smile. “Yes, I did.”

“Can I connect to any person and to you too?”

“No, Preta, it doesn’t work like that, at least not yet for you. You can connect to certain life forms; in your case your brothers and sisters and animals.”

Yaz sits up. “So the only people Preta can connect to is me and Deet?”

Agna chuckles. “No no, Yaz. Preta’s other brothers and sisters.”

“I don’t have any other brothers or sisters,” Preta says.

“Yes, you do. You have your seeros brothers and sisters, six of them to be exact.”

“Zeros, what?” Preta’s face contorts, unsure if what she heard was correct. “How, where, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

“No, Preta—seeros is what your kind are called, amongst other not so flattering names. The how is the boy; he was a natural born seeros, and his death passed his power onto you, which is lucky and rare. If you weren’t the same age and within a couple thousand feet from the boy at the time of his death, the power would’ve dissipated forever.”

Deet snorts. “
Lucky
?
Seriously
?
You say lucky
? Because of that damned light I lost my grandfather, my sister, my home, and my life.”

“I’m sorry, Deet, truly I am, but the light entered your sister, and we can’t give it back. Things have changed, and now you have to deal with it. You still have Preta and Yaz to look after. And your life isn’t over because of this.”

“I had great things,” Deet says, spittle sputtering out and sticking to his beard, “and you and your light destroyed my life.”

“It wasn’t me.” Agna leans toward him and extends her hand, pleading for his forgiveness, and Deet inches away from her. “I’m trying to help you. It wasn’t me who killed the boy and your family. Lomasie and the others like him killed your family.”

“Others?” Preta says, tilting her head to the side. “What do you know of these Acue that are after us?”

“I imagine Lomasie isn’t after you for himself, and as a guess, it’s probably not personal. You’re valuable to certain people, and they will stop at nothing to capture your light.”

Deet squints at Agna, and he holds up the Acue silver card embroidered with the golden owl he took off the dead praetor. “How valuable?”

“Depends what you want to use the light for. Though if you’re old and rich, how much is five years of youthful energy and not aging a day worth? Then again, there are equally unpleasant reasons someone may want to use the light.”

“And what’s
that
supposed to mean?”

“The light inside the girl is a part of her now, and they’re forming a bond, a symbiotic life circle. If she dies, the symbiont will attempt to find a place to reside before it dissipates into the nue. In most cases, the person who kills the light’s host will become the new host. The light will enter the person and give them energy, and they won’t age for up to five years.”

“Why five years?” Deet says.

“That’s when the symbiont matures and or Preta turns eighteen, coming full circle. The powers Preta gains between now and then she will retain within her. Though the symbiont will leave her and leave behind an echo of itself. The symbiont will then begin a new cycle, either leaving Preta for another new born child, or in this case, leaving those who stole the light.”

“And the killer can cast spells?” Preta says.

“No, Preta, only a seeros child can cast spells. Killers of the seeros get the energy, and won’t age, but they receive no other abilities. You are a special case.”

Yaz nods, starting to understand. “I see, that’s why the light went for the blonde woman. And when I killed her, it turned to the next closest person, Preta.”

Deet shakes his head, not approving. “But I thought the woman was a seeros, she had a mark on her back.”

Agna sighs. “Very curious indeed, Deet, and I don’t have an answer to why the light was going for the woman.”

Crack
—

A stick breaks, and Preta flinches. Concerned, she eyes Deet.

“I heard it too. Everybody up, we’ve stayed here too long.”

GOODBYE

A shadowy figure darts from tree to tree.

Another figure appears over Deet’s shoulder.

Deet draws his sword and points the tip around the clearing. “We’re surrounded.” He nods at Agna. “Witch, do your magic!”

Agna opens her arms and shakes her head in frustration. “I can’t, I already used the light for this cycle.”

Deet scowls. “Yaz, Preta, ready yourselves.”

Yaz leans against a pine tree and fires an arrow.

A bandit wearing thick fur tumbles dead to the ground.

Two more bandits, also wearing scraggly, matted fur, jump into the clearing and growl and then go for Deet.