_____________________________________
Josiah
was hard at work for the first day, using the wind to blow away their tracks
and water to drown any scents. It may
not be enough to stop a blood tracker, if that was what Farron sent after them,
but it would fool regular scouts.
Question was, how hard would Farron look for them now if he thought Ezra
was dead, and if he believed Ezra's lies about where to find Prince William.
They
followed the edge of the vast black and white lake, occasionally riding
straight through the water's edge, the cool water erupting from beneath the
horse's hooves in glittering sprays.
Josiah caught the prisms of colors in the tiny droplets with his
sensitive sight, seeing the life inside each one. Sometimes he thought he saw haze around them, almost like the
auras that Oracles saw, but when he blinked, they were gone.
In
the distance, the mountains of the Mid Reaches loomed high, the purple, green
and white peaks reflecting in the cool calm of Lake Rhea with an almost unreal
clarity. Chris saw only death in their
shadowed peaks, and the others were hard pressed not to feel the same way. Returning to them meant they had failed,
that the quest, if that is what it was, had been a failure.
Josiah
cast glances at the most solitary member of their group, disliking the blank
expression on Ezra's face. The black
prince was keeping his own company as much as he could, his defenses solidly
built, though Vin and Josiah had both tried to draw him out when they stopped
for food. With all his secrets told, it
was almost as if the thief felt he had nothing else to say.
The
first night they didn't stop except for brief rests, riding through much of the
night along the water's edge in a straight line, trusting Josiah's mage skills
to prevent their horses from faltering.
But, by the second night, neither they, nor the horses, could continue
at the harsh pace. Risking a fire for
the first time, they hid deep inside the dense forest that blanketed the edge
of the lake, using the thick canopy and mossy branches as shelter. It had started to drizzle earlier, and, by
the time they stopped, a full thunderstorm had broken out over their
heads. Josiah blocked the water from
drenching them until the others could whip up some defense out of their oiled
canvas tents.
Ezra,
looking decidedly miserable, shook the water from his hair in a spray, then
laughed when he saw Nathan glaring at him.
The healer had not moved away in time to avoid getting hit by the spray.
"Sorry
Nathan," the thief grinned, "didn't see you there."
"No,
I expect that you didn't," came the cold reply. Gathering his silks around him, the healer settled himself down
near the fire and promptly sneezed.
"I hate this," he muttered. "Blasted weather."
"Now,
now, Nathan, thunderstorms never last," Josiah remarked. "They may be
bright and powerful, but they wear themselves out quickly."
As
he spoke, the land suddenly flashed white, blinding them. Seconds later, thunder rippled through the
forest, causing JD to shiver.
"We
don't often have thunderstorms up in the mountains," the boy chattered,
pulling his cloak tighter.
"You
don't?" Nathan asked, curious.
"But I always heard that the rain up there was practically
incessant during most of the year."
"Sure,
but it's mostly just mist, or drizzle, or a light rain. It never just dumps buckets on you like
this."
"It
is very peaceful up there, actually," Josiah agreed. "In five years,
I don't recall any truly violent weather.
I mean, you get blizzards and ice storms in the western kingdoms in the
winter, and boiling hot temperatures in the summer, and, in the eastern
kingdoms, there are hurricanes, thunderstorms and the occasional tornado and
typhoon. But up in the Mid Reaches, the weather is just sort of..."
"Gray,"
JD sighed. "Boring."
Josiah
nodded, but he clearly did not think the concept was boring. "I wonder why
that is?"
"Location,"
Ezra said sleepily, from where he had settled himself next to Nathan and draped
an arm across his face. "Altitude, landscape, that sort of thing," he
yawned, turning himself on his side and drawing up a blanket around his shoulders.
"Right,"
Josiah sighed. "Of course."
Ezra
smiled, "JD is right, though...it does make the place sort of dull. I always tried to avoid staying there for
longer than a day or two, when I was forced to use that route."
"It
won't be dull for much longer," Chris said darkly.
No
one spoke for awhile after that, the rain pounding on the leaves and canvas
drowning out any further need to speak.
Fairly quickly, everyone but Chris and Vin, who were on watch, fell
asleep.
Chris
wandered around the camp, feeling the sudden stillness as the thunderstorm quit
and the forest still hadn't regained its spirit yet. He stepped lightly, ears straining to hear the owls start hooting
and the wolves to start howling again. Vin leaned against a wet trunk, feeling
the dampness and rough texture through his thick wool cloak. The crossbow was loose in his grip, and he
tapped it methodically against his leg as he stared out into the black expanse
of the forest.
At
some point, the moon came out, albeit briefly, but it was enough to create an
illusion of diamonds sewn into the velvet green as the light caught the
captured beads of rain. Fireflies
flitted about around the trees like will-o-the-wisps, and Vin thanked the Gods
that Josiah was with them to protect them with his magic wards.
One
of the sleepers sniffed where he slept, then again, and his breathing became
more shallow, almost gasping. Vin
looked over at the group, then across at Chris. The paladin nodded and tiptoed through the sleepers until he
stopped next to Ezra. The thief was on
his side, his shoulder visibly shaking.
Frowning, Chris knelt and picked up the edge of the blanket that had
fallen off and drew it back up around the thief's shoulders. Then he rested a gloved hand on the arm,
trying to offer comfort to the sleeping man.
Moments
later, he stood up again when it seemed that Ezra had calmed down, and the
paladin crossed over to Vin. The
scout's furrowed brow asked a question, and Chris shook his head.
"Just
tears, nothing serious," he told him.
Vin
gave a heavy sigh, wishing that were true. Chris walked away, moving to the
edge of Josiah's wards and leaning on a fallen tree.
Another
fifteen minutes or so passed, and the forest did finally come alive, insects
being the most prominent noise buzzing in their ears. Trained to ignore such annoyances, neither watchman noticed.
Then
Josiah screamed.
____________________________________
The
mage hugged his knees, his eyes staring blankly into the fire in front of him,
rocking slightly. Nathan spoke to him,
trying to draw him out, but the older man was practically catatonic, eyes wide
and unseeing.
At
the same time that he had shrieked, the wards had collapsed around the camp,
and now the others were all up and on guard, feeling the pressures and dangers
of a now exposed area. They weren't so
much afraid of human attack so deep in the wilderness, but they were wide open
to the fey.
Everyone
had swords drawn, except Vin, who had cocked his crossbow and was resting it on
his right forearm, ready to be brought to his shoulder on a moment's
notice. He asked JD if the kid wanted
to use the scout's longbow, but JD had shaken his head vehemently, muttering
something about not trusting himself.
Ezra
sat next to Josiah, watching Nathan intently as the healer searched for some
medical reason for the older man's state.
"Josiah,
please," Nathan coaxed, lightly touching the mage's arm, "you have to
hear me. I'm right here. Can you blink, turn your head,
anything?" Grimacing, Nathan tried
pinching Josiah's arm, but he may as well have been swatting at flies for all
that it got a reaction.
"Can
you reach him with your healing magic?" Ezra asked, "The same way you
reached his sister?"
Nathan
shook his head, "That took me months before I had any idea how to move
inside her brain enough to repair what I imagined was snapped. If I tried that with Josiah, without knowing
anything about how his brain is set up...." the healer shook his head.
"They
do say madness runs in families," the thief said quietly. "From what
I've heard tell of his father, I would call him the progenitor of both Hannah's
illness and now possibly Josiah's.
Maybe the illness is similar enough to try?"
Nathan
shook his head, "I'm not sure this is madness, Ezra, not in the way you
mean. There was no catalyst for this
episode, no reason for it. Fact is,
this is different from any episode I've seen, including those of his sister.
Usually the mad will follow you with their eyes, or react to painful stimuli,
but Josiah's just ignoring me. I think
he's there, he's just thinking too much about something else."
Ezra
snorted, "Well, your right, Nathan, sounds like he's perfectly sane to
me."
Nathan
looked at him sharply, then shook his head. "You're not helping."
"Sorry."
Nathan
frowned, and touched Josiah's arm again. "He's completely cut himself off
from the outside world for some reason, including his magic. He wouldn't see a flash of lightening now
much less be aware of the power it possesses." He grimaced, his mind working furiously for a solution. After a moment, he looked across at the
thief again. "Touch him."
Ezra
jerked, "What?"
"Touch
his arm. Hannah reacted to you, maybe Josiah will too."
"Nathan,
I've touched Josiah's arm loads of times...."
"I
know, but maybe this time will be different.
Maybe he's somewhere where the current inside your blood might affect
him." The healer bit his lip, "Please?"
Ezra
frowned, but shrugged. Reaching out, he
placed both his hands on one of Josiah's arms and closed his eyes. After a moment he lifted them off and smiled
apologetically at the healer.
"Sorry,
Nate. Nothing."
"Well,
it was a long-shot." Nathan placed a hand on Josiah's head, gently petting
the soft, short gray hair and repeated his earlier questions: "Josiah? Can
you hear me? We need you here, old friend, come back to us...."
Standing
a few feet away, Chris looked up suddenly, hand still gripping his short sword
like a vise, and turned in the direction of the lake. "Does anyone hear
that?" he demanded. Ezra glanced
at the paladin and stood up, then also turned to look in the direction of the
lake.
"Hear
what?" JD asked, rapier tapping at his boot in a nervous fashion.
"Singing?"
Buck cupped a hand to his ear, "Coming from the lake?"
"Sirens,"
Chris swallowed, "Has to be. Buck, sing something!"
"What?"
The captain looked at Chris like he was crazy.
"Sing
one of your drinking songs, or guardroom songs, as loud as you can. Those are sirens, Buck. Sing, now!"
The
captain continued to frown, but he was still trained well enough to answer an
order. He started slowly, singing a
ribald song about a lassie from Erin in a low-slung blouse, then got louder as
Vin joined in. The scout grinned,
enjoying the wicked lyrics almost as much as Buck did.
Ezra
winced as several particularly discordant notes threatened to collapse his
eardrums.
The
siren's music faded into the background, unable to compete with such cacophony.
Only
vaguely listening to the hearty music, JD wiped a sheen of sweat from his brow,
as exhaustion and the humidity played with his health. Blinking, he suddenly thought he could hear
something or someone hissing...almost as if someone were trying to get his
attention. Looking downwards, he caught
sight of a tiny man hidden in the greenery, dressed in colors that made him
almost invisible. The small man smiled,
emerging from the thicket. He didn't
reach JD's knees in height.
"Hey
there, little one," the fey creature whispered. JD instantly backed up a step, wondering how someone five feet
smaller than he was could call him "little."
The
fey creature looked surprised at the boy's trepidation, and raised his hands to
demonstrate passivity. "Oh, no, no, please! Don't be frightened, son. I've come because I know who you are and why
you're here. I've come to help,
veritably, truly!"
"Help?"
JD looked around at the others, but none were paying him, or his strange
companion, any mind.
"Yes,
yes, to help, good lad. I know that you
want to defeat the evil one named Farron, and, as one of the blood, I have come
to tell you how."
JD
shook his head, "As one of the blood?
But...why would you help me?
Josiah says that you folks are glad about Farron's rise, because it
heralds the ascension of blood magic over elemental again, and your return to
the world. Why would you want to
help?"
"Because
I am not one of the new whelps infecting this land with poisoned blood, laddie.
I am one of the old fey, and I liked the way things were. Peaceful and perpetual." The little man shook his head and stepped
closer, allowing JD to see the carrot color of his hair beneath the dark green
hat. The creatures eyes were the color
of obsidian, absorbing the fire without reflecting it. Swallowing, JD found himself drawn into those
eyes as easily as the light.
"Old
fey? Like the northern elves and dwarves? You're one of them?"
"Aye,
one of them, yes, veritably." The head bobbed, though it seemed as if the
eyes never moved. "Do you want to
know how to defeat Farron?"
JD
smiled lightly, his mind filling with images of the others praising him for
finding the solution, his heart swelling with the hope of a world without
Farron. He nodded at the creature, and
the fey man smiled.
"I
will tell you, then, sir, veritably. I have a sword. A magic sword. It glows
like the moon when quiet and dazzles like the sun when in use. It cuts through anything, whether real or
magic, and makes its wearer invincible against the bloods. The Mandate can not
stand against it. Farron can not stand against it. He will die with one touch of the good in it, veritably!"
"A
magic sword..." JD smiled more brightly, why not? "Where is it?"
"I
have it. All you have to do is answer
three questions," the creature said innocently.
JD's
face fell, "three questions? Why?"
"So
that I know you are the one to bear it.
I think it must be you, veritably, but I must be sure, see? The sword has only one bearer."
JD
frowned, "Why do you think it is me?"
"Because
the bearer is the youngest of the seven. That is you, yes?"
JD
nodded. The creature grinned.
"Then
no problem. You answer my three questions, and the sword is yours...."
JD
knelt down, totally entranced by what the little man was offering. Over by Vin, Ezra shook his head, as if he
were realizing that he had been falling asleep at his post, and rubbed his
hands over his ears.
"What
if I can't answer one of them?" the former stable boy asked, tilting his
head. He lay his rapier on the ground
next to him, forgetting it.
The
creature shrugged, "If you fail...then you don't get the sword."
"Is
that all?"
The
creature chuckled, "You ask a lot of questions, laddie."
JD
nodded, "I know. Is that all?" he repeated.
The
fey man's eye narrowed, "No, but it is of no consequence. Question number
one: where are you from?"
"JD?"
Ezra blinked and rubbed his green eyes, and shook his head again. He couldn't
quite see, but it looked as if the boy were kneeling and talking to something.
"I'm
from Four Corners," JD smiled.
"Question
number two: where is your heart?"
The
thief knocked Vin on the arm, but the scout was oblivious, staring aimlessly
into the forest. Both his and Buck's singing continued, but it sounded stilted,
almost as if he were singing mechanically.
Josiah had stopped rocking, and was watching Ezra. This startled the thief so much, he almost
forgot what he was doing. Then he heard
JD answer.
"My
heart is here," the boy said, his hand thumping his chest proudly. Looking around, the boy realized that Ezra
was gesturing at him. For some reason,
this frightened the young man. Ezra was
going to try and get the sword first! Turning back to the fey man, he demanded
the third question, and quickly.
"Patience,
little one!" the fey admonished, "Now, Question number three: where
is your soul?" he asked, his black eyes deepening.
"JD!
NO!" With sudden clarity, Ezra saw the creature, recognizing the
leprechaun for what he was. Ripping the
crossbow from Vin's slack fingers, Ezra raised the bow up and fired a single
shot at the creature's face. The
leprechaun screamed, jolting JD and causing the kid to stumble backwards onto
his butt. The arrow caught the creature's
sleeve, but it had already run, meaning that when the arrow landed, it was sticking
out of the muddy earth, a piece of fabric the only sign that anything else had
been there.
"DAMN
YOU EZRA!" JD yelled loudly, grabbing his rapier up from where he had
dropped and raising it up. "The magic sword was mine! I could have saved us all! Now we're all
going to die because of you!" He ran at the thief, and Ezra fell back,
raising the arm holding the crossbow just in time to stop the rapier from
slicing at his face. A long gash on the
arm burnt through his senses, and the thief cried out in pain.
"JD!"
Vin jumped on the boy's back, bringing him to the ground. Ezra continued to stagger backwards,
dropping the crossbow and gripping his bleeding arm. The boy continued to fight and yell, while Buck moved in to help
Vin. Chris took up a position between
the struggling men and Ezra, not hiding the confusion on his face. Nathan ran to the thief's side, taking the
arm and pulling up his magic to heal it.
"What
happened?" Buck demanded where he had pinned back one of JD's arms. Vin
shook his head where he held onto JD's other arm, but he was looking at Ezra
with a dumbfounded expression.
"How
did you get my crossbow?" he asked.
"A
leprechaun," the thief panted, feeling a little lightheaded all of a
sudden, as if he'd just run a mile up a mountain. "Cast a spell on us, so
we wouldn't see it talking to JD. I'm
guessing he was trying to steal him away."
"He's
wrong! He was one of the good
fey!" JD retorted. "He said he had a sword, a magic sword, that made
its bearer invincible!" Tears were rolling down his face now, and he shook
his head, still reeling from what felt like the loss of all his dreams.
"No,
JD, he was a leprechaun, not one of the northern fey. He was asking you three questions, right? And the last was, where
was you soul. You can't answer that,
JD. It has no answer."
"No,
I know where my soul is, thief! I know!"
Ezra
frowned, leaning slightly against Nathan, "Oh really? Where?"
The
kid opened his mouth to answer, then paused.
His eyebrows knitted, and he shook his head. Suddenly very tired, the kid's logic returned with a sudden flash
of insight.
"Lords
Above, what did I just do?" he muttered, his eyes widening, "I'm
sorry, Ezra." Vin and Buck let go
as JD slumped to the ground and buried his face in his hands. "Gods, but
it would have been nice, if it had been true."
In
the background, the siren song grew again in intensity.
"Buck!"
Chris said quickly, looking in the direction of the lake again. The captain instantly started singing again,
this time choosing a Brishnian patriotic song, once more drowning out the
sirens with his tone deaf singing.
Tuning him out, Chris turned to listen to Ezra's answer to Nathan's
question about how he knew something was wrong with JD.
Ezra
shook his head and leaned more against Nathan, "It was like fighting a
monsoon, Nathan," he said loudly, to be heard over the singing,
"Something was trying to keep me from looking over at JD, but I could hear
him talking, could hear the leprechaun tempting him...." The healer was
holding a hand to Ezra's forehead, then let go when he was satisfied there was
no fever, though he disliked the abrupt lack of color in the man's face.
"Your
blood must protect you somewhat from the blood magic, being as they are
related," Chris said, his voice also raised, rubbing his neck with his
hand. "But it is obviously not
sensitive enough, and we can't keep this level of alertness all night, every
night." He looked at Josiah,
ashamed to realize just how much they had relied on the man's wards before
now. None of them had realized just how
strong the fey had become, but clearly gaining the third Key had had a major
effect on increasing their power just in a few short months.
Ezra
looked up then, his eyes bright. " Josiah!" he shouted, "He was
looking at me! When I figured out what was happening, I saw him look directly
at me...." he looked across at the mage, but Josiah looked as catatonic as
ever, rocking slowly back and forth.
"Must
have been your imagination?" Nathan suggested, also watching the
mage. But it was a question, not a
certainty. Nothing seemed certain
anymore.
Ezra
shook his head and went to sit down in front of the mage, "No, I think he
was reacting to the danger, somehow. Or
maybe, reacting to me being able to fight the blood magic." Reaching out,
he placed his hands on the big man's and stared into his eyes.
"Can
you see me?" the thief asked, feeling a bit stupid. Nathan was kneeling next to JD now, rubbing
the boy's back. The others just watched
Ezra and Josiah.
Ezra
frowned, and gripped the hands a little tighter, "Josiah, I know you are
in there. Can you see me? Hear me?
Anything?"
Again
no response.
Ezra
gritted his teeth and let go of the mage's hands. Standing, he looked around the campsite, then quickly started to gather
up blankets.
"What
are you doing?"
"A
test," the thief shoved the blankets at each person, ignoring JD's
tear-strained and apologetic face when the boy looked up at him. "Wrap these around your heads, and
hum."
"Hum?"
Vin said, raising his eyebrows. "Hum what?"
"It
doesn't matter. But Buck, I want you to
stop singing." The captain
frowned, then began a new verse, waiting for Chris to agree. Ezra also looked to the paladin.
Chris
looked back at him, confused. "I don't understand."
"Josiah
and I are going to listen to the sirens."
Chris
frowned, and looked at the blanket. Then, with a tired sigh, he did as Ezra
wanted. Seeing the paladin wrap the
blanket around his head convinced the others as well. Buck stopped singing, the only sound coming from him and the
others a light hum.
The
siren song returned, and Ezra found himself looking involuntarily in the
direction of the lake. The harmonic
voices rose on the wind, growing in strength as more and more of his body
responded to the sound, and the thief found himself turning in that direction
and taking a step. A hand on his
shoulder stopped him, and he shook his head as if to clear it. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at Chris, who
lifted his hand off the shoulder.
Swallowing,
and starting to feel the strain of fighting the voices, Ezra moved over to
Josiah and sat down. His whole body
thrummed with the music, and he realized he had started to shake. Every movement not sending him in the
direction of the lake caused him pain, his muscles screaming in agony of not
being able to go where they wanted.
Forcing
his hands up, Ezra touched Josiah's hands and focused on the blue orbs. His jaw was chattering with the tiredness,
and he became acutely aware that whatever protection his blood afforded him, it
was nowhere near strong enough to fight the sirens.
"Help
me," he whispered hoarsely, watching the mage closely. "I can't hold
on much longer."
Josiah
didn't blink. Ezra shut his eyes. Gods, what had he been thinking?
The
siren song grew louder, filling every sense, tingling on his skin, leaving a
silvery feel on his tongue. It blacked out his vision of everything but the
beauty of the lake's waters in his mind's eye.
Then
something snapped, and his eyes flew open.
He couldn't resist anymore. He didn't eve notice that Josiah had stopped
rocking and seemed to be watching him as he tried to get back on his feet.
He
was stopped by a fierce grip on his hands.
Josiah
growled, then yelled loudly, still gripping Ezra's hands in his as he stood up
to meet the now struggling younger man's movements, forcing Ezra to kneel back
down using his superior strength.
Letting go suddenly with one hand, Josiah pointed a single hand in the
direction of the lake, white light exploding from the center of the palm to
blast towards the invisible sirens.
Then, letting go completely, both his hands flew in a series of quick
movements, white light mixing with faint echoes of blue and red and brown to
create an almost visible barrier around them.
The
sirens screamed, and stopped.
Ezra
fell to the ground and held his head.
His muscles twitched, causing him convulse slightly.
Josiah
collapsed to his knees next to him, panting and reaching out to touch the
younger man's shaking back.
The
other's ripped the blankets off their heads and surrounded the two men. Nathan went to Josiah first, grabbing the
older man's head and looking him straight in the eye.
"Can
you hear me?"
Josiah
knocked him away, "Yes, yes! Help Ezra!"
"He'll
be all right. I need to know that you
will be."
Josiah
frowned at the healer, not understanding.
Then his eyes widened, "Hannah...."
"Hannah?"
The
mage nodded, and a smile lit his face, "I...she...in my dreams...I know, I
know..." he grinned, looking at the others hovering around them. "She
found me, talked to me. I understand who we are, now, and what we must do! I
know how to defeat Farron." Then
his face fell, and he looked at Ezra, who had managed to calm down enough to
lay more or less quietly.
"But
you especially will have to trust me," the mage said, looking directly
into Ezra's eyes. The thief frowned,
then he chuckled, the sound coming out more like a series of hiccups as his
body continued to react to the released adrenalin. When he stopped again, he grinned up at the mage.
"Josiah,
I just trusted you to break out of your catatonia in order to save me from
certain death," he laughed and struggled up onto one arm. "I think that suffices to prove that I
trust you."
Josiah
shook his head, "No, son, it's not your life I need you to trust me with.
I need you to trust me with your soul."
____________________________________________
Ezra
simply stared at Josiah, squinting slightly, "My soul? What does that mean?"
For
some reason, a tinge of anger underlined the question, something the mage
didn't expect. He pushed Nathan away
and sat back, rubbing his hands through his short gray hair.
"Well,
um, I realize it is an imprecise term...."
"Imprecise?
My soul? That's not imprecise, Josiah, it's absurd." Turning away, the younger man lay down again
with his head against a log, wrapping his arms around himself to ward off a
sudden chill. Kneeling down next to
him, Vin wrapped his blanket around Ezra's shoulders and tucked him in. The thief thanked him with a crooked smile
as his body started to shiver slightly.
Meanwhile,
the healer took hold of Josiah's shoulders and made the mage focus on him
again. A faint yellow glow lit Nathan's
fingers as he passed them across Josiah's forehead and down his neck. Josiah frowned at him, but let him
work. Finally, Nathan sighed.
"Josiah,
what happened to you?" the healer asked, gathering a blanket around
Josiah's shoulders. The older man shook
his head, accepting the comfort by pulling the blanket's corners together in a
tight fist. In the background, Vin
began vigorously rubbing the thief's arms beneath his blanket. Ezra couldn't seem to stop shivering, and
Vin was doing what everyone did when they saw a friend or family member
shivering -- he was vigorously rubbing the man's arms. Oddly, Ezra didn't seem to mind. Even odder, no one else seemed to think it
was strange. Only Josiah smiled
slightly as he watched the unbidden form of affection. Then he looked back at Nathan, and worked
through his mind how to answer the healer's question.
"I'm
not really sure," the mage began slowly, "I've been having horrible
dreams lately, but I doubt that is something peculiar to me," he glanced
at the others, seeing confirmation in their quiet expressions. "Anyway,
the worst one was a recurring nightmare I'd been having about Hannah. I would dream that I could hear her calling
to me, telling me I'd buried her alive, or that I'd failed her quest, or
destroyed her life. At least that is
what I thought she was saying." He
frowned, rubbing his forehead with his fingers to dispel the growing
headache. "I was wrong."
"You
know, I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever get anything right," Vin
said, irritation coloring his tone as he slumped down next to Ezra, giving up
on trying to warm the other up. Ezra
sighed slightly, and managed to bring himself to a sitting position again with
Vin's help. In other words, he leaned
slightly on the scout's arm.
"Yes,
well, I've been wrong about quite a few things on this quest," Josiah said
quietly, "but I am able to see clearly now, thanks to my sister."
"How?"
Nathan tried not to show his skepticism, but death was something his profession
was taught early on was an irreversible phenomenon. Apparently, along with every other legend and myth that was
becoming reality in this crazy world, ghosts were also becoming fact. He hated the thought of that. People should be allowed to rest.
Josiah
smiled at his friend, sensing his unhappiness, "Hannah was able to use her
power to split her aura from her body just before Farron killed her, that place
giving her the ability. Then, before
the energy of her mind could be lost within the void, she hooked her mind to
mine. Not that I was aware of it. All this time, when I dreamt, I thought I
could hear her, but my own fears and conceits drowned out her voice."
"Funny
that," Ezra murmured, shutting his eyes and leaning more against Vin's
arm. Josiah nodded.
"Yes,
well, again, that is something I realize is not peculiar to me. Hannah, however, got tired of being ignored,
and, judging us to be safe for the first time in a while, she took action and
forced my consciousness from my body to meet hers."
"You
screamed, you know," Nathan told him.
Josiah raised his eyebrows.
"I
did? How embarrassing," he frowned
at them.
"And
it cut you off from your magic. The
wards fell."
Josiah's
frown fell, and he shrugged. "Yes, that I realized when Ezra...." he
looked at the younger man, but Ezra had fallen asleep. He snorted, "Well,
for all that I may not have been in my body, I did remain in contact with the
rest of you. Sort of amazing
that," for a second, his academic side flashed through, but then it
disappeared as he looked back at the thief.
"Anyway, I could hear him calling for help when the foolish boy
almost gave himself to the sirens to get me back..." he shook his head.
"So,
what did Hannah tell you?" Chris
asked, moving to kneel next to the preacher.
Josiah
pursed his lips and looked at the ground, once more weighing his answer. When he looked up, he asked Vin to wake
Ezra. The scout looked down at the man
leaning on his shoulder and nudged him.
The green eyes fluttered a moment before focusing again on the mage.
"Can't
this wait until morning?" the thief asked petulantly. Josiah ignored him.
"Do
you know of the legend of Four Corners?"
"Legend?"
the thief yawned.
"Which
one," JD said cheekily, grinning.
"THE
legend, son. I'm talking about Center Rock."
"Oh
that?" JD snorted, "Josiah that's just a..."
"Don't
say it, JD," Buck said quickly. "After sirens, leprechauns, fairies,
sprites and the Mandate, I don't think you can ever say that again." The kid twisted his lips into a sneer, but
stayed quiet.
"Do
you know the legend?" Josiah asked Buck.
"Sure,"
the captain shrugged. "Everyone
knows that one. The Center Rock marks
the point where all Four Kingdoms meet. They say that, if you stand there, that
you can feel all the power that exists in the Kingdoms, the energy that is the
source of everything. For a moment, you
may even be able to know what it is like to use that power."
"They
also say," Chris added somberly, "that those who have stood in that point
disappear. Lost inside the energy they
wanted so badly to see and use. That's
why you only feel the power for a moment before you're gone."
"But,
see, it is a myth!" JD asserted. "When I was a kid, we used to play
around the rock, daring each other to climb on it. Eventually, we all did, and nothing happened. It's just a rock,
Josiah. The stories surrounding it are
just that, stories. And if you say that
Farron might have reawakened it, the way he has everything else, then I can
dispel that too. Just before we left,
one of the other men in my village, one whose family was killed in one of the
emperor's raids, he went to the rock in desperation. Nothing happened."
Josiah
frowned at this news, "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I'm sorry, Josiah."
"But
Hannah was so certain," he paused, and drew the blanket closer. After a brief moment, he turned to look
squarely at the boy, "JD, where is the rock located?"
The
kid shrugged, "Not far from town. Maybe a mile? Almost straight north away
from the river, up on one of the mountainsides."
"I
wonder....Vin," Josiah looked at the scout, "You know your maps
pretty well, tell me, do you think you could pinpoint the place where the Four
Kingdoms meet?"
Vin
frowned, "Not off the top of my head.
I take you don't think the Center Rock is the real center?"
"No. But that doesn't help much if we can't find
the real center."
"My
father knows," Ezra said sleepily. "When we traveled through the Pass
when I was a child, he tried to find it.
Said he knew that the Center Rock was not real." He yawned again.
"Did
he find it?"
"Sort
of. It's not far from the Center Rock,
but it is well hidden inside a thicket of brambles. I remember watching as all these soldiers tried to break through
it, but it kept growing back almost as fast as they would chop. And then, when Farron finally thought he'd
gotten through, turns out he'd just pushed through to the other side. We never
did find the center." His eyes
were closed again.
"He
gave up?"
"Yeah.
He came to the conclusion that there must not be anything worth looking for
after getting enough scratches on his arms to raise a bunch of nasty
welts," the young man smiled, looking younger at the memory.
"Could
you find it again?"
Ezra
remained silent for a moment, and after a time, the others wondered if he
hadn't fallen asleep. Then the green
eyes opened, and the pale moonlight reflected in them without glitter. All the youth was gone from his face as he
stared directly at Josiah, pure ice in the gaze.
"Even
if I could find it again, I will not."
The
mage grimaced, "Why not."
"Because
I know what you want. You want me to
stand at the center. I won't."
Josiah
frowned deeply, watching as Ezra shut his eyes and rolled away from Vin to lie
once more on his side. The scout
reached a hand across to touch his shoulder, then stopped, sensing the man's
need for isolation.
The
mage picked at his robe, noting that the magical white fabric had finally been
torn, "Ezra, do you recall when we spoke of your aura, and I said that it
was made up of every color?"
The
thief made no response, but he was obviously listening.
"Well,"
Josiah gave him a crooked smile, "I was wrong. And...you were right."
"Right?"
Ezra opened his eyes slightly, but he didn't move.
"You
have no aura. It is, essentially, a
void. There is nothing there."
Ezra
sighed and closed his eyes again.
Josiah's face flushed with irritation.
"There
is nothing there, Ezra, because it is meant to be filled, see? And the reason the rest of us each hold the
power of an element is because we are your anchors."
"Anchors?"
Chris asked, also watching Ezra.
"Listen,"
Josiah looked up at the paladin to get his attention, "have you ever visited
the coast near the Northern Reaches? Where all that volcanic basaltic rock
formed itself into columns, some a hundred feet high?"
Chris
nodded, "you mean the Giant's Steps?"
"Exactly.
Those columns are all hexagonal, Chris. When all that firerock cooled, it
formed hexagons because that is the most stable and strongest shape in nature,
strong enough to contain the earth's most powerful force. We, in essence, are the six sides of those
columns, as representatives of the elements.
Ezra is the center, as representative of the blood, but with the
potential to harness the elements as well, his empty aura."
"I'm
not standing at the center," Ezra said quietly, lowering his head closer
to his chest and taking a deep breath.
"Hannah
told you all this?" Chris asked, ignoring the thief.
"Yes."
"I'm
not going to show you where the thicket is, so forget it," Ezra stated
again, curling himself into a ball.
The
mage sighed, "Ezra, I realize that you're...."
"Josiah,
your sister is dead. It's all a delusion.
Let's just all go to sleep now, okay?" Ezra was well aware he was
whining, but his heart hammered so hard in his chest that he didn't care.
"Ezra,
don't be such a...."
"I
am a prince. I can do as I like."
Vin
and JD snickered at this, but Chris's brow knitted in anger and he stood up to
go loom over the smaller man.
"Your
highness," the paladin hissed, "I regret to inform you that you have
no choice in this matter."
"Brishnian
paladins mean nothing to me. I'm
Danaerian."
Chris
knelt down, "Right now, I could care less if you were Elvin. You made me a promise, did you not."
"It
was not a promise to stand in that place."
"It
was a promise not to run out on me. If
you refuse to do this, it'll be the same as if you had."
"Why?
Because there is no other way to defeat Farron? But there is," Ezra rolled back over, his eyes bright. "If I kill him, then kill myself, the
Mandate will have nowhere to go."
Chris
watched him a moment, than lowered his head.
Ezra
frowned, "What?"
"When
Farron killed Selene..." Chris scratched at his hair, eyes seeking to fix
on something other than the men around him, "And I saw the Mandate....All
the royal families are tied together by their blood, by the Keys, Ezra. If you kill Farron and yourself, the Mandate
still has one more blood relative it can infect. The holder of the last
Key. It will move onto him simply
because it has nowhere else to go."
"But...Billy's
just a boy," Buck said quietly, instantly reading Chris's mind. The paladin nodded.
"I
know. And I'm his paladin, I can't be the one...I took an oath."
"One
of us would have to kill him," the captain said blandly. "It would be
the only way to save him from the Mandate, Chris, should it come to that. Your oath would be served...."
"You
would kill a boy?" Nathan demanded quickly, unable to comprehend the
direction the discussion had taken.
Chris
turned his back on them then, his hands tightly clasped behind him. This was obviously something he had been
thinking about for a long time. Buck
reached out a hand to touch his oldest friend's shoulder, but the paladin shook
him off.
Josiah
shook his head, "Chris...Sir Larabee...this conversation is
unnecessary. I believe what my sister
told me. The Center is the reason we
were brought together and the reason we are who we are. There is no other explanation. It is what Destiny designed."
Chris
turned to look at the mage, not hiding his skepticism. On the ground, Ezra once more rolled onto
his side away from all of them.
"But
what if you're wrong?" JD asked, "I'm sorry, Josiah, but it's so
unreal."
"You
prefer a magical sword from a leprechaun?" Buck said quickly. JD glared at him.
"I
would," Vin said, "After all, that's sort of what I was hoping for in
the first place." He shrugged.
"The
Center is real, brothers," Josiah said. "It is, I can feel
it." He looked again at the young
man lying on his side, hidden in his blanket, and licked his lips. "Ezra, you are the heart of this. I promise, I will not let you become lost in
that place. You just have to trust
me."
The
thief, however, did not respond. He
stared out at the black trees, feeling the pain of the sirens call still in his
limbs. Vin leaned over and touched his
friend's forehead, brushing back some of the now fairly long dark brown hair
that stuck to it.
"I
was only a child," he whispered, so low Vin wondered if he was the only
one supposed to hear. The others,
though, all looked across at the still shivering form under the blankets,
easily catching the phrase in the still night air.
"Where
the bramble thicket is..." Ezra continued, "the trees, their limbs
form a sort of arch, like a doorway, and the thicket is at its most dense right
between them. I remember...walking up
to the archway and trying to see through the thorns and fog, my mind dreaming
about the legends of Pan and Fairies, and wondering if this was the way through
to their world." He smiled, "Of course, now that I have seen them for
real in this world, I am no longer so entranced as I was then. But I remember that thicket, that
archway. I remember my father shouting
orders at his soldiers somewhere nearby, and the thrashing of the men as they
desperately chopped away at the brambles.
But, see, where I stood, it seemed less thick. I even reached out, and found that, if I wanted, I could have
walked through the brambles easily, and gone through my archway. But, then I caught that sensation for the
first time. The same as when Hannah touched me. I knew, without a doubt, that
there was only death on the other side.
So...I backed away and sat on a rock, waiting for my father to finish,
knowing he would never find what I could so easily have reached." Ezra shut his eyes, then turned to look up
at Vin's face hovering over him, then over at the mage. Josiah looked tired. Ezra frowned, "It is odd, mage, but,
until you mentioned the Center, I'd all but forgotten that memory."
Josiah
nodded, "Will you trust me?"
Ezra
lowered his gaze, then asked a general question of the group, "How far are
we from Four Corners now?"
"A
week, if we push it," the healer replied, having made the trip the most
recently.
"Then
I'll give you my answer in a week."
_______________________________________
It
did not take him a week. The next
morning, Ezra had quietly informed the mage that he would do whatever Josiah
felt necessary.
The
rest of the ride was quiet, everyone feeling the stress and wondering if this
would be their last seven days of peace.
Eventually,
they hit the edge of Rhean River where it dumped into the Lake. The thick white
river was audible from a mile away, amplified as it was by a massive waterfall
over a hundred feet high. Unlike the
Tillurian side of the Mid Reaches, where the mountains descended gradually into
the hills and plains of that Kingdom, the mountains here seemed to erupt out of
the earth without warning. The flat
warm forests of Cathacus abruptly gave way to high limestone cliffs covered
with lichen and moss, tree branches sticking out of crevices at odd
angles. Waterfalls abounded in this
area, thundering down into deep black pools, churning and forcing their way
downwards to reach the lake at the base as quickly as possible. As they turned to follow the river's edge,
they gladly allowed its deafening roar to take the place of conversation.
The
climb upwards into the Pass was steep, and, unfortunately, required that they
join the main road fairly early on. No
other way was feasible, and the trees quickly became few and far between in the
rocky landscape. They split up into three
groups to make themselves less conspicuous, but having to jump and hide behind
boulders at the meeting of every stranger on the road kept them constantly at
edge.
Luckily,
because of the wars, there were not that many travelers.
There
were, however, a lot of soldiers.
When
they finally saw the cairn marking the beginning of the Pass, every one of them
let out a relieved sigh. Less than a
day later, they saw the smoke rising up from the chimneys of Four Corners. A huge grin split JD's face, and he breathed
in the damp foggy air as if it were crystal clear.
"Happy
to be home, kid?" Buck asked, seeing the rapture on the former stableboy's
face.
"Home,"
JD repeated, taking in another deep breath. "Yeah, we're finally
home."
"Where
we belong," Josiah nodded. The
others all looked at him...but none denied the sentiment.
They
all felt it too, the odd welcoming strength of this place. They were home.
___________________________
As
if feeling a shift in the wind, the townsfolk all looked up as they arrived,
though most quickly turned away again as if afraid of what they saw. From the seven's experience on the trail, it
was obvious that the pass had become one of the main thoroughfares for Farron's
returning soldiers, and for refugees looking to escape the new emperor's
hold. The increased activity and
prominence was taking its toll on the once isolated and proudly independent
village.
Building
was going on in the town, as new houses were added, and many colorful wagons
packed with furniture and goods filled the alleys. JD couldn't help whistling slightly as he kneed Lucky
forward. Standing in front of his
hardware store, one of the villagers raised a hand at seeing the boy, then
lowered it quickly as some soldiers came into view.
Luckily,
Farron's men were too tired to pay attention to any more travelers, and simply
walked past the newcomers without a glance.
Once they were gone, the storekeeper came forward and reached up to grab
hold of Lucky's reins.
"JD,
son! Welcome home," he said cheerily.
"Mr.
Wickham," JD greeted with a nod, "How is everyone faring?"
The
man's face fell slightly, but he gamely held onto his smile, "Oh, well
enough, well enough. Been lots of trade
with all the soldiers and folks passing through, and, as you can see, the town
has started to grow even fatter at the seams." He looked around, frowning slightly. "Ah, but I'm sure
things'll calm down soon." The
dark tone in his voice belied the sentiment, though, and when he looked back up
at JD, there was black in his expression.
"But, son, you and your friends have got to get out of sight.
They're looking for you, you know." He jerked his head towards the center
of town, but it was obvious he meant the soldiers.
"Looking
for us?" JD said, "Up here?"
"How
do you know?" Buck asked, kneeing his own gray stallion closer. Mr. Wickham shook his head.
"Not
here. Listen, is this all of you?"
JD
turned in the saddle in time to see Vin and Chris ride up next to them, while
Josiah, Ezra and Nathan hung back near one of the livery stables.
"Yeah."
"Good."
Wickham turned and clicked his tongue at a couple of boys that had moved to
stand in front of his shop. They came
jogging over and one took Lucky's reins from the shopkeeper's hands. JD smiled
familiarly at the boy, who he nodded back with a short 'welcome home.'
Meanwhile, Wickham looked back up at JD.
"We'll
get your horses and your things, but you must all get out of sight
quickly. Go to Inez's. The Oracle awaits you there. Inez has already been signaled to keep the
back door open."
JD
frowned and looked at Chris. The
paladin shrugged and gave an imperceptible nod, and, taking the signal, JD and
Buck quickly dismounted. Chris turned
around and indicated to the others than they should dismount as well. Before they were even off their horses,
another couple of villagers came jogging over from the livery to take the reins
from the three men. Ezra looked with
curiosity at Chris, but the paladin shook his head. He'd tell them later.
As
they moved swiftly away in the direction of the back door to Inez's tavern, JD
nudged Buck.
"The
Oracle...Buck, do you think he meant...?"
"Yeah kid," the captain smiled. "Sounds like our ladies made it
here...and have been making a something of a stir."
__________________________________
Inez
led them into a large storage room at the back of the tavern, this one much
cleaner and busier than the little one behind the bar. Packed shelving lined
every wall, and one long table sat in the center, boxes stacked up under
it. Inez had said nothing in greeting,
except to touch Ezra lightly on the shoulder in welcome, a shy smile on her
face. He looked a bit nonplussed at her
regard, but an elbowful from Buck had brought his attention back to the
present.
"JD!"
Wells jumped off the table where she had been sitting, her short legs swinging
in a nervous motion. In two steps, she
had her arms around the boy in a tight hug, her head buried in his shoulder. As
nonplussed as Ezra had been, JD staggered under the hold, and, with a bemused
smile, he weakly hugged her back.
Eloise
was standing in a corner, her stance proud.
She wore dark brown breeches, a contrast to the peasant dress that Wells
wore, and a heather green doublet. Most
markedly, she wore her father's sword at her waist, one hand resting on the
pommel. Her red hair was pulled back in
a tight ponytail, and no make-up touched her face. Despite the bandit-like appearance, there was no question as to
the majesty in her. As they filed in
behind the stalled JD, the others almost wanted to bow.
The
former princess smiled lightly when she saw Buck, and he grinned back. Neither, however, made a move towards each
other.
And
standing next to Eloise, her arms holding onto the now nine year old boy in her
arms, stood Mary, her blond hair unkempt where it framed her tired face. Billy wriggled in her grip, until she let
him down to run across to Chris. The
paladin swept the boy up into his arms and returned the desperate hug. Mary took a step forward, then backed up
again, patient to wait for the welcome to end, her pale blue-green eyes tracing
the patterns on the flagstone floor.
There
were three others in the room, people that JD knew well as the leaders of this
town. Colonel Matheson, the old
Brishnian soldier and mayor of Four Corners, sat on a stool next to the
table. He was tall with scruffy white
hair sticking out from his head in patches, and a once sharp van dyke beard
covering his chin. JD was a bit
surprised at seeing the old Colonel looking so ragged – normally he was the
peak of refinement.
Next
to the Colonel were a couple other local leaders -- Mrs. Potter of the general
store, and Harry Conklin, leader of the miner's guild. JD frowned as he saw that Mrs. Potter wore
mourning black, wondering if her presence here meant something had happened to
her husband. All three nodded a quiet
welcome to the rough looking seven men that walked in. Matheson cleared his throat.
"Gentlemen,
welcome. We have been expecting you
here for a while."
"Expecting
us?" Chris repeated, walking with Billy still in his arms over to
Mary. She touched his arm, and he
reached around with his free hand to take her hand in his.
"Since
Lady Eloise and the Oracle arrived over a week and a half ago, yes." He waved a hand in Wells's direction,
"Miss Casey there has been plagued with nightmares and images, none of
which bode well for us, or for anyone on the Dajan." Matheson coughed a bit, and Mrs. Potter
rubbed his back.
Wells
was still holding onto JD, though she was standing next to him by now. She nodded and looked to the floor.
"I
thought you didn't hold by Oracles, Colonel," JD said, holding tight to
Wells hand.
"Son,
after the last few months, I'm willing to believe in many things," the
Colonel sighed. "I've had miners disappear without a trace, and others
scared half to death, muttering stories about gremlins and goblins. Bandits
have been escaping into town, crying about hobgoblins and succubae, and
then...and then...." he stopped and looked over at Conklin.
The
guild leader shook his head, shoving wire rimmed glasses higher up along the
bridge of his nose. "One of the
camps up near Center Rock was attacked...and from all accounts, the
creature...the creature was some kind of troll or ogre. Nine foot tall, ugly as sin and mean as
hell. We managed to kill it, but not
before it took a lot of men."
JD
gasped, and Buck groaned. The others
all held similar expressions of disbelief.
Though none had ever seen such a creature, the horror stories they were
all told when children left indelible impressions on their minds. Unfortunately, it made sense that the
creatures would start plaguing the mining villages, being mountain creatures.
"So,
frankly, when Miss Casey arrived with Lady Eloise, we were more than ready to
hear what she had to say," Matheson concluded. JD sighed and looked around at the others. They were all frowning, disliking the news
more and more. But, before Matheson or
Chris could say anything more, the kid decided he had to know something.
"Mrs.
Potter?" he looked across at the woman, "I couldn't help but
notice....May I ask why you are mourning?
Did the fey...?" he paused, swallowing thickly, not sure anymore
that he wanted to know the answer.
In
response, Gloria Potter looked down at her dress, picking a little at the black
lace fabric with gloved hands. When she
looked up, however, there was no fear in her eyes, merely anger. "No, son. Not the fey. My husband
was murdered," she whispered, "by a group of bored soldiers. I do not plan on letting Farron come here
without letting him know what his men have done." JD looked stricken at the news – he'd liked
Mr. Potter.
"Oh
gods, I'm...."
"Why
do you say that Farron is coming here?" Chris interrupted, retaking the
conversation. Mrs. Potter frowned.
"Don't
you know? He's following you. Maybe only a couple of days behind. He's
coming for King William."
"King...?"
The paladin turned angry eyes to Mary.
She met them evenly.
"There
is no point in hiding it anymore, Chris," she said tiredly. "In two
days, we'll all be dead anyway."
"No...no,
you must run," he replied seriously, grabbing her arm. Still sitting in the crook of his other arm,
Billy watched them with glassy eyes. He
too knew his heritage now.
"Where? He'll find us, Chris. Wells and Lady Eloise have told us about the
Mandate. It will lead him to us as surely as a dog follows a scent." At his dumbfounded expression, she shook her
head. "Am I wrong?" she asked.
"No,"
he whispered back. She nodded and
reached her arms out to take Billy from him.
The young King shook his head and held tighter to Chris's neck. The boys grip, though painful, was something
Chris didn't want to give up either.
"Is
she right, Sir Larabee?" Colonel Matheson challenged, standing slowly and
leaning heavily on the table edge.
"Are we doomed should Farron come?" There was a strange underlying tension to the old man's voice,
and it brought everyone's attention back to the present. Matheson frowned, "Or is there still
something you can do?"
"I've
had dreams," Wells said slowly, looking at each of them. "Of magic,
strong and elemental, living in each of you.
And in you," she pointed to Ezra, "there is something more. The potential to harness the power of the
Kingdoms, blood and elemental. The power of the real Center Rock."
"So
I've been told," Ezra agreed solemnly.
"A fluke of my blood, it seems."
"Blood,"
Wells said, letting go of JD. Her hands
she held clasped before her. "Then
you are he? You are Assizran? Farron's son?" At Ezra's short nod, she sighed heavily and leaned back against
JD. "I knew it," she said, looking heavenward.
"Farron's
son?" Eloise's eyebrows shot up as she looked at Ezra. "You're Prince
Assizran? You're that Ezra?"
Ezra
smiled for possibly the first time all week, catching her eyes almost
shyly. Eloise surprised him by grinning
back, and she even laughed.
"Now
I know how you all knew about that disused waste chute!"
Ezra
grinned, but Eloise hadn't finished.
She jumped around the table and grabbed him in a fierce hug, something
which surprised both Buck and Ezra immensely.
The captain actually glowered a little.
Eloise
shook her head, "I wondered what had happened to you, cousin. Twenty five
years is a long time to wait for someone who promised to show me how to beat
the guards at poker."
"You...you
remembered that?" he asked as she pulled away. Still grinning, she nodded.
"Are
you joking? That had to be the best visit I'd ever had! I begged and begged
Selene to take us to visit you, or to invite Farron back, but...." she
shrugged. Then she smiled again, "Damn, but you grew into such a handsome
man! I knew I recognized you. Remember how we...."
"Um,
sorry to interrupt," Buck said, sidling up and taking Eloise's arm,
"But shall we get back to the matter at hand?"
Both
former royals blushed and nodded, backing away from each other. Smiling, Wells noticed that Eloise looked
happier than she had since Tallus.
"Miss
Casey, is there anything else you can tell us that might be of use?"
Josiah asked.
Wells
shook her head, "If you already know about the Center Rock, then no. Just that Farron is not far. The Colonel here sent spies down either side
of the Pass, but they are almost unnecessary.
I can sense Farron's coming as if he were already in the room." She
shivered, and JD gripped her arm more tightly to comfort her.
"Two
days...," Matheson sighed.
"And I have word that there is an army mobilizing on the Tillurian
side. Three hundred men, at last
count. And, on the Cathucun side,
Farron will undoubtedly be bringing an equal number up here at his back."
"So
many men," Conklin whispered, "for just our little town?"
"No,
because of them," Wells told him, swinging her hand to take in the seven
men.
"Us?" JD looked at the others. None met his gaze, save Nathan.
Wells
nodded.
"But....I
mean, we're good, but, against hundreds of men? Just the seven of us? You
must be joking."
"Something
prevents me from seeing into the future anymore, JD, but in Farron's heart, I
know he is expecting something massive to happen up here."
"Then
he has more faith in us than we do," Nathan said wryly, leaning against a
back wall.
"I
must admit, you do not seem like much," Matheson agreed. He shrugged, "No offense,
gentlemen."
"None
taken," Buck said back, his fingers nervously playing with the leather on
his pommel.
"And
the town won't be much help. We will do
what we can, but most of the people are afraid. They'd rather lay low and hide."
Vin
sighed, his mind drifting to Tascosa, "Then you should hide. Don't give Farron reason to burn you out or
hurt anyone."
"Not
all of us want to hide," Eloise said firmly. Next to her, Mrs. Potter nodded.
Chris
shifted finally, dropping Billy to the ground so that the boy stood in front of
him. "Then, Eloise, would you be
willing to take my role during the battle?"
Eloise
looked surprised, "Your...?"
"You
are as good with that sword as your father, which means that you are
exceptional. I ask that you use that
gift to protect Billy and Mary, to act as their paladin."
Eloise's
mouth fell open, but she quickly recovered to nod solemnly. "My life is
theirs, Sir Larabee," she assured him.
Next to Chris, Mary smiled at her thankfully, and Eloise bowed back.
"I
would like to help, too," Mrs. Potter interjected.
"You
have children, Gloria," Harry sighed. "Perhaps you should think of
them first." Gloria shot him a
dark look, but at his quiet gaze, she finally turned away. As much as it galled her, she knew he was
right.
"Perhaps
we should evacuate?" JD suggested.
"No...with
trolls and the Gods know what else out there, we'll be safer here. The soldiers will not bother the town, not if
they have you to deal with. Except for
Mary and King William, who we plan to stash up at old woman Nettie's place with
some guards, the rest of us plan to stay here and do what we can to protect our
homes." Colonel Matheson sat back
down on his stool with a deep breath.
"It
makes sense," Chris said quietly.
"Thank you for what you are doing for us." By "us" he clearly meant himself,
Mary and Billy, not the six men he was riding with. Standing together, the three looked like a single unit. Mary snaked an arm around Chris's back.
Matheson
just nodded, and rubbed his eyes.
"Well, may I suggest that you all rest up for the rest of this
day. Your travels must have tired you. Tomorrow....tomorrow you can go in search of
the real Center Rock."
It
had the quality of a dismissal, and, after waiting for a nod from Chris,
everyone in the room quietly dispersed.
All
except Ezra.
Making
his way to a far corner, the thief moved to sit down on the stone floor, his
back to the boxes, and pulled his knees up close to his chest. For several minutes, he just sat there, his
head resting on his knees, trying to remember how to breathe.
A
soft rustle of skirts caused him to look up, thinking that maybe Eloise had
returned to talk to him again about their childhood. That was, until he
remembered that the former princess was wearing breeches. So he was not prepared Inez stepped quietly
into the room.
"Getting
supplies?" he asked. She shook her
head, her dark hair loose about her face.
She was a beautiful woman, with ebony eyes and a tanned face, the
product of growing up in the mountains. She sat down on the floor next to him,
and touched his hand with her own.
"Many
people have visited this tavern over the decades," she said quietly,
trailing a finger up and down his hand. "Between the time when it was my
mother's, and now that it is mine, I have seen hundreds of faces of all
shades. But, for all that, there are
certain faces, usually those belonging to people who passed through more than
twice, that I started to come to know.
And there was one in particular that I came to look forward to, for when
he visited." She dropped her hand
and sighed, looking out at the room.
Ezra
frowned at her, his expression uncertain.
"Yeah,"
she shrugged, still smiling at him.
"Even
now, after knowing what I am?" Ezra asked, remembering the sad look she
had given him when she learned he was a thief.
"Yes...believe
it or not. I think I...I think I
was...." She paused, shaking her head slightly. "I don't know. Maybe it is because you always treated me
like a lady when you came, or the fact that you saved that old man once all
those years ago, or...maybe it was because I liked your face. It changes, you know, depending on how you
look at it? It is never the same face,
though your eyes are always the same...."
Ezra
dropped his head, a large dimpled smile on his face, "Madame Roscillos, I
think, perhaps, you don't know me well enough to...."
"No,
Ezra. Prince, thief, or spy -- whatever you are...I know you. You are not the only one who can read faces,
you know. It is needed as much in my
profession as yours." Reaching up
again, she fiddled with the dark lock on his head that had fallen forward. He turned to look at her, an she was
surprised to see an expression of total hopelessness on his face.
"Everything
hinges on tomorrow," he whispered, taking her hand and gripping it,
"Why me? Why here? Inez...I don't
think I can do this."
She
let go his hair and trailed a finger down the side of his face, unsurprised to
feel that he was shivering slightly. "You will do this," she said, a
fervent quality to her voice, then she smiled wickedly, "And afterwards,
you will bring me flowers and take me out to dinner. We will go to the hotel
and order the most expensive thing on the menu. Then you will kiss me."
Ezra
blinked, and actually started to laugh, lowering his head to his knees
again. "The most expensive thing
on the menu? Who do you think I am? A
prince of a still existing Kingdom?"
Inez
smiled, and snuggled closer, resting her head on his arm.
"Buck
and Eloise have gone to her room," Inez said, as if Ezra hadn't spoken,
"And I believe Mary has taken Chris home with her. JD and Casey went for a walk to see the
river. The rest of your friends are
together getting drunk out in front...."
"Yeah?"
"Yes...And
I was thinking...Perhaps, of all of them, you should not be the one to spend
this night alone." She lifted her
head and looked at him. When he didn't
reply immediately to her proposal, she stood up and held out her hand to him.
With the briefest of hesitations, he took it, and let her lead him away to the
back stairs.
___________________________________________
"This
is it?" Chris regarded the brambles with a sneer, not hiding his
disappointment as he tied Solon to a tree.
"It's a mess."
"You
sure this is the place, Ez?" Buck asked, buckling on his short sword.
"No offense, but it sort of looks like every other wood we've passed so
far." He pulled his axe off of his
mount's saddle, figuring, if nothing else, it might be useful at chopping
through the thicket. For good measure,
he grabbed his hammer as well and stuffed it in his pack.
Ezra
just stood quietly, staring at the confusing array of twisted branches and ugly
thorns with a defeated expression.
Without answering either's query, he simply walked forward to a point
where the thicket seemed to thin out a little and looked up at the overhanging
trees. Turning around, he pointed up at
them and shrugged.
As
he had described, the tree's limbs curved toward each other, creating a perfect
arch. Beyond, the mist and fog that was typical of the Pass shrouded the
interior, making it difficult to determine the size of the place. Still, from their perspective, the copse
didn't look much larger than a small market square in size, and the six men had
to wonder why it had taken Farron's men most of the day to cut through it all
those years ago.
Ezra
turned again and stared back up at the natural archway, his posture rigid. Despite having led them here, it was obvious
that he was not really ready for what might be inside. Understanding, Josiah came up behind him and
placed a hand on his shoulder. The thief sighed and shut his eyes, then
shrugged off the touch. Giving Josiah a
brief nod, Ezra took a step.
The
brambles fell away.
"Well,
that has to be a good sign," Vin smiled.
When Ezra had stopped at the sight, the scout came up behind him, interested
to see that the brambles disappeared before him as well. "I sure wish I had had this power when
I was scouting for the army," he deadpanned, taking the lead and smiling
back at the thief. Ezra smiled back and
moved forward to join him.
Once
begun, there was nothing to it. The
thicket faded away for all of them, as if it had never been there. Together, the seven men walked deeper into
the glade, each hesitating only briefly as they reached the
"archway." They could all
feel it now, the sense that this was a place that had not been touched for
centuries, maybe for millennia. No one
knew how old the legends about the Center Rock was, but there was a definite
sense of antiquity here, as if millions of years might have passed while this
small glade stood still. To Ezra, it
felt like he was entering an ancient tomb.
"Are
there any stories about people who have done this before?" JD whispered to
Josiah. The preacher smiled a little,
knowing that there was no reason to whisper, but, somehow, it seemed
appropriate.
"Not
exactly, no. But, the fact that stories
about it exist at all suggests that someone must have been here before."
"But
the warnings...about losing yourself in the power? If people have been here
before, how would they have lived to talk about it?"
Josiah
shrugged, "Legends are rarely first person, son, although the description
may sound like it. All you need is a
witness, it doesn't have to be the protagonist. And then, there is the
possibility that someone has done this before and succeeded. After all, if they hadn't then how would
people know about it at all?"
JD
absorbed this logic slowly, knowing full well that it was all only conjecture.
Still, it was easier than thinking that it had been waiting just for them all
this time.
Fog
enveloped the men, subduing the sounds of the forest except for the buzzing of
insects and the calls of birds high up in the trees. Even the roar of the Rhean
River faded within the thicket.
Finally, even the buzzing was gone, and all they could hear was their
feet trampling the leaves and brush underfoot.
"This
place didn't look so large from the outside," Buck noted idly. His voice seemed unnaturally loud in the
silence, and they all shot him dark looks.
The captain shrugged.
"He's
right," Nathan whispered, stopping and turning to look behind him. He was at the back of the group, and was a
little worried to see nothing but fog, thicket and overhanging branches behind
him. He realized that they formed a tunnel, and, looking forward again, he
frowned at the fact that he couldn't see its end. Ahead, the others were had all stopped to look back and wait for
him.
"I...I
don't think it ends," he whispered nervously, indicating the tunnel like
structure with his hand. Ezra, who had
been leading with Vin by his side, looked in the same direction, and would have
stepped backwards if the scout had taken a firm grip on his arm.
"It
will end," Josiah assured everyone.
"Trust in that. Keep going
Ezra."
Chris
took the initiative and walked up behind the thief. Giving him a tiny shove, he propelled Ezra forward. The thief turned with a glare, straightened
up, and started moving forward more purposefully. Chris grinned.
The
thief only took perhaps four more steps when the illusion of a tunnel fell away
and he found himself standing in an almost perfectly circular clearing. The sun, heretofore absent, shone brightly
down from above, out from a perfectly clear blue sky.
Entering
just behind him, the others staggered in, each one mouth agape, confused not
only by the weather – sun in the Pass was a rarity – but by the fact that they
hadn't seen it coming.
"An
optical illusion?" Nathan suggested, trying to remain logical. Josiah just shrugged.
"Or
maybe just magic," the mage noted, smiling slightly.
Chris
walked forward carefully, examining everything from the markings on the trees
to the rocks on the ground, measuring and memorizing. Then, like the others,
his steel colored eyes were drawn to the center of the clearing, to the pattern
of stones sitting there, looking as if they had been waiting a long time. Only waiting....
Six
large rocks stood attention in a roughly hexagonal shape. They were plain gray,
roughly five feet high, without marking or adornment. They weren't even similar in shape – some were thin and
cylindrical, others fat and square.
There seemed no reason to them, except, of course, for what they were
guarding.
In
the center, no more than a few inches off the ground, was a perfectly hexagonal
piece of clear obsidian. Like the
rocks, it had no markings, but while the outside was smooth, the inside was a
complicated mess of angles and cuts, as if someone had shattered it from the
inside out. The sunlight caught at the
odd angles, making it glitter.
"It
looks broken," JD said quietly, moving to stand with the others just
outside of the area marked by the sentry rocks.
"Maybe
it is," Vin said. "That would work with our luck."
"I
don't believe in luck, Master Tanner," Ezra replied. "I think it is exactly as it is
supposed to be."
"Well...it's
a hell of a lot more impressive than the big piece of granite the town calls
Center Rock, even if it is sort of small," JD added, smiling.
"More
n' big enough for a man to stand on top of it, with a hint of wiggle
room," Buck nodded, then he looked down at Ezra's boots. "How big are your feet, Ez?"
Ezra
snorted, "Not big enough, Captain Wilmington."
"Josiah,
there any special way we should do this?" Chris asked, looking across at
the older man.
The
mage shook his head, "Your guess is as good as mine, Chris. We could stand in front of the sentries when
Ezra steps into the middle, or we could stand between them, or maybe behind
them, facing out. Or we could face in...."
"Mage
Sanchez," Ezra interrupted, dragging a hand down his face in exasperation,
"Your confidence is overwhelming."
"Well,
I know where you stand," the mage retorted snidely.
"Dead
center," Nathan added, picking up Buck's wicked humor.
"Nathan,"
Chris chastised, "Don't." The
healer gave him a wry smile and backed off.
Ezra nodded his thanks at the paladin and smiled. Chris shrugged back, a tiny smile on his
face, "But he does have a point."
Ezra's own smile fell instantly.
"Sir
Larabee, I think this would be a good time to point out that I never liked
you."
In
response, Chris laughed, and the others quickly joined in. The humor went a long way to dispelling the
tension that had been crushing them all for the past week. It faded when they noticed Ezra staring back
down at his feet, the thief's own smile fading as he imagined himself standing
on that glass.
"Mage
Sanchez, I think you should stand within the stones where they are
placed," he suggested quietly, "and facing me. That way, maybe you or Sir Larabee or one of
the others can intervene if something goes wrong...."
Josiah
nodded, "Sounds logical."
"Ezra,"
Vin asked suddenly, smacking the thief on the arm, "you gonna keep using
our last names, or do I have to hit you?"
A
wry smile graced the thief's face as he looked up at Vin, "Sorry...Vin. Force of habit when I'm
annoyed or angry...or scared out of my wits."
"Yeah,
well, don't be. This is going to be
easy. A real piece of cake."
"A
piece of cake," Ezra repeated, looking again at the rock. Abruptly, he
exhaled loudly and scratched at his thick hair. "Well, let's get this over with, okay?" He stepped right up to the glass's edge and
stopped, turning to wait as the others slowly filed around the clearing. Without being told, they each picked a rock
which most seemed to suit them. Chris,
for example, chose one of the taller rocks, thin, and perfectly straight. Josiah, on the other hand, picked a stouter
rock, the top chipped in a few places, and a long white scar of quartz down one
side.
Soon
they were all in place, standing at attention about four feet from where Ezra
stood. The thief licked his lips,
offered one more smile, then stepped up.
Nothing
happened. The thief frowned, staring at
his feet.
"See,
it IS broken!" JD said, crossing his arms over his chest. Ezra sighed, turning around in place and
shrugged.
"Or
maybe I am not the right one," he whispered sorrowfully. Looking up at Josiah, he lifted his foot as if
to step off, and suddenly froze, his eyes widening. He looked at the others,
his bottom lip trembling slightly as he placed his feet firmly back onto the
Center Rock. "Did...did you feel
that?"
"What?"
Josiah asked, gripping the staff in his hands tightly.
"The
earth...it, it...Goddess help me, I can't get off!" Terror gripped the thief now, and he reached
a hand out to Josiah, as if the mage could pull him off. Josiah just watched, mouth agape, not
knowing what to do. Hesitating, the
older man stepped forward, raising his own hand to take the other's, only to
draw it back when Ezra jerked violently, like a puppet being pulled by its
strings. A loud cry erupted from the
thief as he drew his arms away from Josiah, his hands forming shaking fists by the
sides of his face.
"Too
late, too late! Get back!" Throwing his arms around himself, Ezra bent
over, looking as if he were about to wretch.
"By the Light! When did it get so cold? Josiah! It's freezing!"
"Josiah?"
Chris asked, his hand on his sword, the metal half drawn from the
scabbard. He took a step forward, "What...?"
The
paladin stopped when Ezra suddenly collapsed to his knees on the glass, the
hexagon growing larger as they watched in order to encompass him, and the thief
started to shake, his hands shifting up to cover his ears. "Screaming... Someone is screaming! No,
not just someone...many, many....and...and," he sobbed, tears flowing down
his face as he stared out at them, "and the ground is on fire! It's
everywhere! Josiah! Something's wrong!
Something's WRONG!"
The
mage shook his head, "Ezra, listen to me! There is nothing here. It...it
has to be a trick..." the mage
took another step forward, and ran into something. Putting his hands up, he felt the ice-cold, invisible barrier
that had formed up from the edges of the glass, blocking them from their
seventh. Fear filled the older man's
face now as he started to punch at it, "No! Ezra! Ezra look at me!"
But
the thief had fallen forward so that his head was pressed to his knees, his
hands wrapped squarely about his head, oblivious and completely alone. He started to rock, quietly begging the
voices only he could hear to stop screaming.
That's
when it got dark.
Without
warning, the sky blackened, the sun blocked out by a wave after wave of dark
gray cloud, their masses churning and roiling overhead. The others looked up at
the mini cyclone, knowing perfectly well that it was forming directly over
Ezra's shivering form. Beneath their feet,
the earth began to tremble, and the leaves on the surrounding trees withered
and fell, as if the life were being leeched out of the landscape. Grass crunched underfoot as it browned and
died with everything else.
Wind
blew in from all around them, passing through the invisible barrier as if it
weren't there, wrapping itself around the thief in a tight grip. And from above, the clouds started to swirl
faster and faster, forming a funnel that slowly began to dip and rise, dip and
rise, dip and rise, each time getting closer to the ground.
"Tornado,"
Vin whispered, his hands now also pressed against the barrier. As if in answer, thunder erupted inside the
clouds with a deafening boom, and lightening streaked the sky, landing to
explode inside the clearing barely feet from where they all stood. Freezing rain and hail started to pelt down
on their exposed heads and backs, eliciting tiny nicks and bleeding cuts on
everyone's face and hands.
Alone
inside the eye of the storm, Ezra had started to scream, the sound cutting
through the tornado's winds. His dark
form started to blur inside the gray winds, running together like water thrown
at a still wet painting.
Chris
had pulled his sword and was hacking with all his strength at the nothingness
separating him from Ezra, yelling all the while in frustration, while Buck used
his war axe like a mallet, his expression grim. Josiah was trying to gather his magic, holding his staff over his
head in both hands, but it refused to come – the stone at the staff's tip
remained dull and lifeless. JD, meanwhile,
had gotten down on his knees and was trying to dig under the barrier, all the
while frantically calling Ezra's name, and Nathan was trying to bend the
barrier with his tiny bit of healing magic, figuring it was worth a try. After a moment, he got down on his knees and
started to help JD.
Vin
continued to rest his hands on the barrier, his eyes closed, unable to believe
they had let this happen. What had they done wrong? There had to be something more!
Then,
like a shockwave, he remembered. Startled, his gray blue eyes flew open, and he
backed away from the barrier, amazed that they had all forgotten their purpose
here. Closing off his mind to the tornado, he gripped his hands into fists and
called out silently for the power he knew was there, begging it to awaken. Shutting his eyes, he turned his face to the
sky and turned all his attention to sensing that one element that was his
alone.
And
like a feathery touch, it answered him.
Opening
his eyes again, he stared with wonder at the world, grinning as the storm
seemed to stop where he stood. All
around him, coloring everything, even his friends, was an intense green light,
it's power humming with life. Having never seen it before, except as a fading
thought when he was in Tallus, it amazed him how deep and rich the color was,
and how true. As he was able to focus more on it, he realized that the green
light was not stationary, but was swirling like the tornado, though it spun in
a counter direction. Without effort, it
seemed to pass through the barrier, proving itself more powerful than both it
and the tornado, and it seemed to grow brightest where it swirled around
Ezra.
"We
have to use our elements," he whispered, then, more strongly so that the
others could hear him over the wind, "The Elements!" He saw Josiah and Nathan look back at him,
both within hearing range. He laughed
with the power he felt and flung up his arms. "Use the elements!" he
yelled, drawing the green power of life to him. When he reached out again, the
barrier melted away beneath his touch.
In moments, he was by Ezra's side, throwing his arms around the bent
back and holding on. The Tornado dipped
down and touched the scout's back, whipping his long brown hair across his
face.
Then
another arm wrapped itself around them, and Vin risked opening his eyes to see
Nathan on Ezra's other side, the healer's eyes shut against the driving
rain. Josiah was there a moment later,
his staff thrown away as useless, placing a hand on Ezra's still bent head and
the other to grip Nathan's arm. JD and
Buck were next, taking up positions similar to Josiah. By unspoken accord, they all knew that they
had to all be touching the thief somehow.
Last,
accompanied by an angry bellow, Chris stripped away the rest of the barrier and
joined them, completing the circle they had made around their seventh.
At
his touch of Ezra's back, the world buckled, almost throwing them all off. But it only made them grip more firmly,
grimly determined not lose their seventh...or themselves. The screaming blasted all their ears, and
the gray pushed once more to try and take them all.
But
the wind only managed to make one more pass....and was gone. In moments, it was
if the storm had never been.
Sunlight
poured down on them, and Ezra stopped shivering. Lifting his head, he found the others all surrounding him, and
his tearing eyes narrowed, confused.
But, as he looked further, beyond their worried faces, the confusion
fell, and was replaced by absolute wonder.
The others looked around at his expression, but to them, the clearing
looked exactly as it had when they arrived.
"Are
you all right, son?" Josiah asked, lifting his hand from Ezra's head. The thief focused on him and smiled, at
first uncertainly, and then more brightly.
"I'm
still here," he said. "It was going to take me, but I'm still
here. And just look at it! Isn't it amazing?" He smiled at all of them, his hands opening
before him, and patted Vin on the arm. The scout smiled back, but his eyes were
still lined with worry. Ezra didn't
seem to notice.
Slowly,
as if he had just aged fifty years, the thief stood up, his feet still firmly
planted on the Center Rock, and tipped his face up to capture the sun. Hesitating slightly, the others let go and
backed off when he seemed to be all right, though they chose to stand well
within reach.
"Thank
you," Ezra whispered to them, not looking down. "Thank you. You drove
away the void – now all that is left is the light," he laughed, wondering
if he was making sense, and wondering if they could see what he saw. "And all I have to do is...." he trailed off, and started laughing again.
Around
him, the six men stood close by, frowning slightly, watching as Ezra reached a
hand up towards the sky and gripped it into a fist.
Pure
Light exploded around him, blinding them and knocking them off their feet.
In
the middle of a swirling mass of color, Ezra continued to laugh.
__________________________________
Surging
out of the hexagon at his feet, pure light saturated the area, the obsidian
focusing all the wild energy of the Four Kingdoms within its facets and Ezra
releasing it into the clearing. The
moment Chris had touched the thief, the hexagon had filled with light, driving
back the gray void with ease – but it was a light only Ezra could see.
Swirls
of color of every kind circled around him, crossing and mixing, then remerging
as bright as ever. Pure black light
passed through his right hand, while orange passed through his left, and he
plucked their magic as easily as if he were plucking petals off a flower. Then he released it again, letting it swirl
back into the light. Shutting his eyes,
he felt the warmth of fire, the cool of water, the pulse of blood, and the rush
of life as they brushed past his skin.
The magic whispered in his ears and tingled on his tongue, played with
his hair and glittered inside his eyelids.
Smiling,
he opened his eyes and sighed. He
understood now what it was he had been given this gift for.
__________________________________
Vin
groaned, bringing his hand to his head as he rolled over, his memory a jumble
of images. Blinking, he became aware of
several things at once. First, someone
had wrapped up his coat to act as a pillow behind his head. Second, the sun shone brightly overhead,
warm and inviting, and a light wind rustled the grass and leaves. Third...someone had their hand on his
forehead.
"Hey
Vin," a soft voice drawled as the hand pulled away, "how are you
feeling?"
Gray-blue
eyes opened slowly, focusing carefully on the man hovering over him. Ezra was smiling, and looking extremely
apologetic.
"I'm
really sorry for what happened," the thief said wryly, "I didn't
realize what I was doing when I took hold of that power. It sort of knocked you and the others out
for a bit." He stood and backed
away, allowing Vin to prop himself up on his elbows.
"You
did this?" the scout asked wonderingly, seeing five men slumbering close
to him, all with "pillows" and some with makeshift blankets. Ezra shrugged, and Vin shook his head. "Well, hell," a crooked grin
filled the scout's face, "I am impressed." Ezra laughed.
The
sound woke the others, bringing them around slowly until only Nathan was still
rubbing his eyes and complaining about early morning risers. Ezra had moved away to sit himself on the
edge of the Center Rock, his feet crossed in front of him casually.
"You
know, I think this is the first time since we met that I was the only one
awake," the thief grinned. "I
was tempted to run off with your things, but, then I figured you possibly
deserved better. Only possibly though,
after all, you did get me into this mess." He waggled his eyebrows at
them, and Chris grumbled something about ungrateful thieves as he got onto his
feet.
Josiah
bent down to gather up his staff, then wandered over to sit himself on the
ground next to Ezra. He couldn't help
but tilt his head as he regarded the other man, until Ezra started to mimic his
examining gaze with some exaggeration.
Josiah huffed and turned to look at Chris.
Feeling
a bit guilty, Ezra sighed a little, "Sorry, Josiah. I know I have to tell you what happened, but
I was sort of waiting for everyone's attention. But, so you know, I am no different now than I was before I
stepped on this rock...with one little difference."
"The
power of the Center Rock," Chris said, moving to lean against one of the
sentry rocks, "Do you have it? That is, can you control it?"
"Um...yes,"
Ezra frowned, then smiled brightly again, "In a way. I used it to augment each of your talents,
and to allow you all the use of your elemental powers. Right now, I would say that not even an army
could stand in your way." He
grinned and stood, watching as each man looked down at themselves and each
other, as if they could see what Ezra was talking about. The thief shook his head and walked up to
Chris.
"Sir
Larabee, you already had the gift of speed.
I've rarely seen anyone wield a sword with as much agility or dexterity,
but now that talent has been increased tenfold. No one on the battlefield will be able to move as fast as you,
whether with a sword, hammer or any other weapon of your choosing. You are master of them all."
Chris
frowned, and looked down at his hands.
Then, shrugging, he pulled a dagger from out his belt and made a few
passes with it. It didn't look any
faster to him. He looked back at Ezra.
"Imagine
someone is attacking you, Chris, and fend of their attack."
"All
right, but I feel a little silly," the paladin lunged forward with the
dagger and started fighting in earnest.
Power surged down his arm, and he grinned wolfishly as he realized how
fast he was moving. Stopping, he held
the dagger up to the light and laughed.
"What
about his elemental power?" Josiah asked, leaning on a nearby rock. Chris, still grinning, looked at Ezra
expectantly.
"The
elements were more difficult to bend than blood, which is how I gave him the
gift of speed, and his and Vin's powers in particular were difficult to
harness. As such, he has the black
magic of death and rebirth at his command, but because the energy refuses to be
abused, I could only manage to let him have control over his own death."
Turning away from Josiah, Ezra met Chris's eyes carefully, "It means that,
at this moment, Sir Larabee, you are immortal.
Nothing, not even the splitting of your head from your body, can kill
you. But!" the thief raised a hand
when Chris opened his mouth to ask a question, "But, the power is not
forever. Once gone, any wounds that
have been inflicted that are mortal, they will kill you. My suggestion would be
to have your wounds healed before it is too late. Of course, if you do have
your head severed from your body...I'm not sure that can be healed, but,
well, you get the idea." Ezra shrugged, a lopsided grin on his face.
"So,
in other words, Chris, try not to get too damaged, eh?" Buck laughed, but
his eyes were bright with amazement.
Unable to think of anything to say himself at the news, Chris just shook
his head and put his dagger away. Ezra
turned to Buck next, as he was standing by Chris's side.
"Captain
Wilmington, you, of course, have the power of fire. You can throw fireballs, light a candle, or burn down a forest,
all with a single thought. But,"
Ezra smiled-- he was enjoying the telling them the 'buts' -- "But, I don't
suppose I need to caution you on what your power can damage. If you burn down a
forest, you will kill everything inside, and the fire, once started, could
spread without ceasing. Even if you
throw a fireball, there is the potential for far more damage than you intended
to inflict. My suggestion would be to
work with Nathan, as he has the power of water."
"So
I do!" Nathan was laughing and looking at his hand, watching as a water
pooled in his palm to waterfall down into the ground. "Amazing!"
Buck
arched an eyebrow and, closing his eyes for a second, snapped his fingers to
throw sparks at the waterfall, instantly turning it to vapor. Nathan looked up and frowned angrily. The captain just laughed and turned back to
Ezra.
"Ezra,
this is....is the really real? Or am I still dreaming?" he asked. In response, the thief dragged a hand
through his tousled hair and nodded.
"It
is real, Captain. Very much so."
Buck
drew in a deep breath, determined not to allow this chain of events to unnerve
him, and grinned brightly. "So, uh, what is my talent? Speed, dexterity,
agility...?"
"Ah,
no. You are good with a sword, Buck,
but not the way Chris is. No, your
talent lies in your endurance. Like the
fire that you can command, you are, in essence, unstoppable. You won't tire, or
even feel strain. Until such time as
the power ends, you can fight with the same energy and resourcefulness at the
end as you did at the beginning."
"Endurance,
huh? That work with just swordplay, or
in other areas as well?" Buck waggled his eyebrows, the wicked nature of
his question more than obvious to the others.
JD rolled his eyes.
Coughing
into his hand, Ezra looked over at JD next, and the boy instantly straightened.
"You,
Master Dunne, already know that you have the power of the earth at your
command. It has given you strength
several times, but it can do much more than that. If you wish, you can begin an earthquake, or call up a lava flow,
or create a chasm hundreds of feet deep.
The earth is a dynamic force, and it will answer if you call.
But...."
"But
also be aware of what damage I can do," JD finished. "Yeah, I think I
get that." Ezra ducked his head
and smiled, while JD shrugged. "So, what is my talent? I'm guessing it does not involve my skill
with a rapier...?"
"Oh,
it does, sort of. This may seem
strange, JD, but the way I see it, your talent is that no one ever sees you
coming. You are brilliant with a
rapier, and your experiences over these past months have only seen it
grow. But, because of your age and,
honestly, your, shall we say, subdued appearance?....Combined, these make
people not perceive you as a threat.
That has translated into your gift of being able to pull off the
unexpected. What this means, JD, is
that I've given you the power to make yourself invisible. If you want, you can
make it so that none can see you unless they are looking directly at you."
"No
one can see an earthquake coming," Vin noted, tapping his fingers on his
legs.
"Right,"
Ezra agreed. JD frowned, not sure this was a talent as heroic as Chris's or
Bucks, but after a moment he started to smile as he considered the
possibilities.
"Coming
up from behind," he said, grinning wickedly, "They'll never know what
hit them." Buck almost expected the kid to start rubbing his hands
together.
Ezra
meanwhile, had turned to Nathan, "Now, Master Jackson, you are already
aware of your elemental magic. As to
your talent, I admit to giving you two, but only because you already had some
blood magic of your own that was easy to build upon."
"You
mean the healing magic?"
Ezra
nodded, "You'll have almost unlimited resources to heal, but I could not
speed up the process. Though you should
be able to heal any type of wound without draining yourself or them too much,
it will take the same amount of time as if I had done nothing."
Nathan
frowned, a faint gold glow lighting the fingers on his right hand, "And
the other?"
"Just
a little addition to your arsenal."
Walking across to the taller man, Ezra reached around and pulled one of
the knives out of its position on the healer's back. Then, stepping back, the thief grinned...and threw it as far away
as he could manage.
"Hey!"
Nathan turned aggravated eyes on the Danaerian, "Why the hell...?"
"Check
the sheath," Ezra replied, a little smugly.
Still
glowering angrily, the healer reached back and stopped. Amazement filled his features as he pulled
an identical knife out to the one that Ezra had just thrown away.
"Damn,"
Buck intoned, "That's nice."
"I
have done the same for your arrows, Master Tanner," Ezra said, looking
over to the scout.
"Vin,"
the scout rejoined. Ezra ducked his
head again.
"Right,
sorry. But, the point is, your quiver
will always be full for your longbow, and your crossbow always nocked, whenever
you need it."
The
scout raised an eyebrow and looked at the small quiver he had attached to his
thigh. Pulling an arrow out, he
mentally counted the remaining, then proceeded to snap the wood in half. When he looked down again to count the
arrows in the quiver, he was impressed to see the same number as before he'd
broken the one in his hand.
"Very
nice."
"I
have also enhanced your skill at the bow.
Of course, you are an excellent marksman -- like Chris, one of the best
I've ever seen – but even the best can use a little help. Now, no matter what you aim at, you will hit
it exactly where you want to. You want
to take down a man a hundred feet away with an arrow to the thigh, just turn
your bow that way and fire. You will
hit exactly that. It doesn't matter
even what bow you use. Even the
crossbow will be able to shoot bolts that distance."
Vin
shook his head, speechless.
"And
his power?" Chris asked. "You
said it was difficult to control, like mine."
"Yes,
and like yours, he can only use it on himself," Ezra replied.
"He
has the power of life, right?" Nathan said. "So, what, he can make himself grow older?"
Ezra
laughed, "I'm not sure.
Maybe. But what the power can
really do is heal any wounds he might get.
In essence, you are like Chris, Vin.
Any blow you take will heal itself in seconds, without you even thinking
about it. But, be careful, though you
may seem immortal, you're not. Too many
hits or..."
"A
severed head," Buck threw in. Ezra
shot him a dark look, then opened his mouth to finish. Vin forestalled him with a raised hand.
"I
get the idea, Ez."
"What
about me?" Josiah asked, still leaning his back against his stone.
"Well,
air is at your command, as it always was, though, obviously, more powerful. But
the rest of your magic is as it ever was.
I could not increase your ability to wield fire, water or earth, as
those are not your elements." He shrugged, "However, you do now have
the ability to wield them all at once, without extra effort."
"Well,
if you didn't augment his magic," Buck asked, "what did you do?"
"Josiah
has another gift, Buck -- his strength.
Did you know, Josiah, that Buck here once likened you to a bear? He said it was because you could easily
crush any of us with those huge hands of yours. Now, it's true that was an
exaggeration, but you are very strong. I simply increased that innate talent,
and gave you the force of twenty men.
You could lift an ancient oak up by its roots as easily as if you were
picking up your staff."
Josiah's
eyes widened, and he turned to stare down at his hands. After a moment, he
laughed. "You know, Hannah always
did say that if I ever lost my powers as a mage that I would make one hell of a
miner. I wouldn't even need a hammer to
break the rocks. I guess...I guess she
was right."
"She
was right about many things," JD agreed, moving across to throw an arm
around the mage. Josiah smiled.
"And
you, what about you?" Vin asked, looking across as Ezra sat himself back
down on the glass.
"Oh...well,
that's the downside of controlling all this power," he shook his head.
"I have to use all my energy to make sure I don't let it go. A fact which, like Nathan and his healing
power, means I can do nothing for myself."
"What?"
The
paladin's outburst was angry, but the obvious concern underlying it diffused
its strength. Ezra sighed.
"It's
just the way it works, Chris. I can
capture and hold energy, as much as I want, but if I tried to focus it for my
own use, the balance of blood and elemental magic that I am barely hanging onto
inside would explode in my face. In
all our faces. I can pass energy to
each of you equally, like spokes on a wheel, since you are my anchors and own part
of this power, and I can release it back into the Rock, but otherwise, I have
no power."
Chris
was frowning deeply, wishing he could see what Ezra was really thinking behind
his mask of complacency. The thief
spoke casually, as if he were discussing an annoyance, as opposed to the
possibility that, with a single thought, he could kill them all.
"Chris,
if he's right, we have to hide him," Buck said quickly. "Somewhere in
town, or up at the widow's place where they have Mary and Billy. I mean, he can't fight like that...."
"Captain!
I resent that. I am an excellent
fighter, superior to any mere soldier, and I believe I'm being
modest!" Ezra stood up to face
him. On the ground, Josiah placed his face in his hand.
Buck,
meanwhile, merely looked at him as if her were a moron, and raised an eyebrow,
"A good fighter, yes, but against an army? You'd be overwhelmed."
Ezra
shook his head, "While I disagree, and heartily, I must also point out
that I have to be there, to face Farron.
I told you I can capture energy and hold it, so too can I capture the
Mandate if I can just get my father to release his control of it for a
moment. Then I can release it back into
the Rock. With all the other energy I
contain, the Mandate will seem like drop in the bucket."
"We
can kill him, and the Mandate will pass to you anyway, as his son. If you're here, you can release it to the
Rock in seconds."
Ezra's
jaw firmed, "You will not keep me out of this fight, Captain. Besides...I need to be close to all of you
to keep the power flowing to you."
Buck
opened his mouth once more, as if he had another argument, but Chris laid a
hand on his shoulder.
"It's
his right, Buck."
"But
if he dies, then all is lost! Damn it, Chris, don't you see? If some archer gets lucky, or some
swordsman, then we lose our powers as well!
Farron will overwhelm Four Corners and all will be lost!"
Chris
stared at him a moment later, then looked back at Ezra. The thief took in a deep breath, the only
sign of his trepidation. There was a
pleading in his eyes, one Chris knew well.
"It's
his right, Buck," the paladin said again.
Ezra
shook his head, "I'll stay out of the main fighting, Buck. I promise.
And I will...trust the rest of you to protect me, seeing as that is in
your own best interest," he licked his lips, and took another deep
breath. "But please, as much as it
was our destiny to find this place, it is my destiny to meet my Father one last
time....Please, Captain Wilmington, you must see that."
Buck
stared at Chris's eyes, seeing the solid conviction in their black depths.
Finally, he bowed his head, his eyes closed.
Ezra shut his eyes in thanks.
"And
the rest of us?" Nathan asked,
"Do we get a say?"
Ezra
looked at him, his brow furrowing, but the healer only nodded proudly at him.
"Because
if we do have a say," he said, "then I just wanted to tell you all
that I am proud to have been a part of this journey. We started it together, and we will finish it together. That is
my prediction, and my belief." He
stuck his hand out to Ezra, and the thief took it solemnly, a smile twitching
at the corners of his mouth.
"It's
been fun, if nothing else," Vin agreed, placing his hand on theirs. "And, Buck, I'll keep him well covered,
I promise."
Buck
sighed heavily, then stuck his own hand on top of Vin's. "I'll hold you to that, Tillurian. But, you know, now that my head's stopped
talking, my gut's been telling me that Nathan has the truth of it."
"Who
would have thought," JD said, putting in his own hand, "that seven
men would be so arrogant as to take on an army tomorrow! Now, Buck on his own I could
understand...." he grinned as Buck tried to swipe of his hat with his free
hand.
"Seven
men," Josiah said slowly, picking himself up and walking across to add his
hand to the center, "One destiny."
A
dark smile crossed Chris's face as he added his own hand, then broke the circle
by pushing down and breaking them up.
"Let's
finish this."
_________________________________________________
Concluded on Part Six