Chapter 33
Torchlight flooded their small camp, waking Glyf from a fitful sleep. She glanced over to see Chayse surrounded by a trio of intruders. Although Marley still lay motionless, Thysl unexpectedly sat up, a befuddled look on his pale face in the sudden light.
Glyf attempted to get to Thysl’s side, but intruders blocked her passage before she took two steps. She watched as a groggy Thysl tried to rise to her defense. He stumbled, crumpling to the ground.
Before she could shout, one of their assailants clasped him beneath the arms, helping him to his feet. Another put a thong of leather with three raw blue stones tied into it, about his neck. The last one, still blocking her, stepped forward and she got her first good look at the strangers. Shadowed in the dark to a monotone gray, the elaborate looping style of his braids incorporated both hair and beard. His height looked close to her friend Marley’s.
He did not have a third eye, but the broad forehead and wide-set eyes, along with the jaunt of his nose, clearly reminded her of the Vortryl. A glowing blue stone hung from a silvery chain around his neck, casting his ageless face in stark relief. Glancing around, she realized each of the assailants wore one of the blue shining stones in different shapes and sizes about their necks.
He held out one of the makeshift necklaces, like the one they put around Thysl’s neck, and her fingers itched to touch the stones. She dipped her head and he looped the leather and stones over her butchered topknot, settling it around her neck. As he stepped back, she realized she could now understand their speech.
Glyf examined the gems on her necklace. They were smaller than the ones those of this band wore. Although crudely carved with patches of a darker, duller blue pocking the shining core, she could feel the power through her tunic, through her skin, through her veins.
It seemed more primal in its feel than even the elements. Soon she felt the heat of it in her wounded arm. The injuries had begun to knit from drinking the water Chayse provided, but now… now. She wiggled her fingers and sighed with relief.
The jarring pain and nausea she endured in varying measure over this past five-day seeped out of her like water through her fingers. Now that the pain and fatigue retreated from her body, she looked over to Marley, only to watch him lifted onto a litter they fashioned with staves and a couple of cloaks.
“Wait!” Glyf called out, but the two carrying him up the beach moved forward without acknowledging her plea.
The one that gave her the necklace laid his hand on her arm, getting her attention. He shook his head and said, “He needs more healing than these few stones can give. You will see him again soon enough. Now come.”
Thysl and the two that helped him came up beside her. He nodded to Glyf, still looking confused over what was going on, but said nothing. With the two men walking, one on each side of him, she waited for them to go ahead of her. She glanced over to see where Chayse was, but he and three of the strangers were already halfway up the beach.
Sandy hills speckled with scrub grass and the occasional lotus tree provided an eerie nightscape as they walked. Their escorts kept an easy pace, and the hills slowly gave way to a steeper incline and a rocky path. None spoke and Glyf wondered if they used some type of mind-speech like that of the dragonkin.
Although the path continued to climb, the slope was gentle and now that her wounds were healed; she found herself glad to stretch her limbs. They rounded a small switchback in the trail and she glanced up in time to see the makeshift stretcher and Marley’s escort disappear in a dip in the trail. There was no sign of Chayse.
Glyf stopped, turning to the man walking with her and said, “I do not know who you are or where we are, but thank you. Since you have healed me, I trust you do not mean us ill. Will our injured friend heal?”
He grunted, giving her a quizzical look. “Your eyes are good, young one. He will heal, it will take longer, but yes, he will heal. Now keep walking.”
Relief flooded her and she almost chuckled at being called young. He said nothing else and his demeanor discouraged further conversation, so Glyf hurried to catch up with Thysl and his escort. The lot of them were friendly enough for the situation, but she didn’t know if they were their guards or their escort or their captors.
By daybreak, they topped a ridge overlooking the bay. A forest of Wista trees unfurled, like folds of emerald and gold satin, down the far side of the ridge. Although unsure of her sight at this distance, she thought she could pick out pieces of the Dragon Spit strewn like some giant wooden mosaic along a distant beach. Glyf drew in a deep breath of rich foliage-scented air.
With the coming of the sun, the troop stopped to rest and eat. One of their escorts handed out pieces of flatbread infused with herbs unfamiliar to the dragonkin, along with some kind of dried fish. The flavors melded well and they finished it quickly, their appetites replenished as well as their health.
Her escort tossed his water skein to her and said, “Drink up,” around a mouth full of fish. “It will be awhile before we stop again.”
There was no hostility in his words or actions and as Glyf studied him over the skein, his casual courtesy and gruff confused her. Finally, she said, “Thank you.”
He nodded and said, “It is noted, now it is time to move.”
Before long, a march of ruined stone columns and arches marked either side of the trail and ancient trees flanked them. Thysl walked just ahead of Glyf, but she had not seen Marley or Chayse since topping the ridge. Soon the trail broadened into more of a road that looked worn smooth by the movement of many feet over many years.
Offshoot paths meandered through the stone works and into the forest at regular intervals. Most of these, so overgrown with moss and ground cover as to be almost indiscernible. Glyf wondered as they pressed on through the rest of the day if these ancient ruins represented part of this band’s past or the bones of a civilization long dead.
Evening met them where the trees opened to reveal a wide valley snuggled within the circle of mountains covering the interior of the island. The sun, a pink fracture of rays on a mountain-creased horizon, caught her by surprise. Her gaze slid from the peaks to the valley below and Glyf gasped. For that moment, in that breath, she was just glad to be alive.
The vale sparkled with vitality, but the gemstone in this spectacular setting was a canopy of creamy white blossoms arching up and out from a massive tree. Glyf came up motionless, her breath taken away by the sight. Even at this distance, she felt the essence radiating from it.
When she finally pulled her eyes away, she found Thysl standing next to her, gazing out into the valley. “They say Alhwone planted his walking stick in the most fertile soil on Hebryll, watered it with his tears, set the sun and the stars to watch over it and the wind to sing it lullabies. And as it grew, life and death capered and danced, entwining as lovers will, amongst the blossoms and leafy green,” Glyf said quietly as they gazed out at the colossal tree.
Thysl’s eyes, a blue maelstrom of emotion as he looked from the tree to his friend. “Then that would be the vale of the Wista-Nem,” he said, a frown of disbelief drawing a crease between his brows. His next question was so clear on his open face that his words seemed redundant. “How did we get… here… did I do this with my Windsong? The last thing I remember is the Lightning Titan, holding me by my topknot on the foredeck of the boat.”
Glyf saw the consternation on Thysl’s face and turned to the three escorts for some sort of insight or answer to give her friend. They obviously knew what the two discussed from the looks on their faces. Glyf thought she glimpsed a compassionate flash in the eyes of her escort, but when she approached him, he turned away.
He set about laying a fire, his words drifting over his shoulder. “We camp here for the night. Tomorrow, your questions will be answered… or not.”
With a sigh, Glyf returned to her friend and shrugged. “We knew something was happening with the Tavir. I do not believe it was your song but the twisting of the ethereal powers that caused your song to draw them. We can thank the fates for showing favor that we washed ashore here.”
The tree’s enormity dwarfed all but the mountains enclosing the valley. Glyf stood beneath its spreading boughs, humbled by her insignificance. She realized as she stood there, Ymarii in her dragon form could easily hide within that tangle of leaf and branch and not be found for days.
Glyf shook herself out of her reverie, forcing her eyes away from the Wista blossomed limb, to meet the fierce hunter’s gaze of the Wista-Nem’s guardian Arubicon. Although she knew he was Ymarii’s mate and father to her and her siblings, they had never met. His time spent with her mother, always their own and always away from the maze of tunnels and caves she called home.
Long ago, rumors said that he was not an elemental at all but the ancient that stood with Hebryll to stop his brothers from the destruction of this world. She had heard Alhwone gave him a new life as the guardian to the Wista-Nem, the Tree of Life. Each guardian possessed the ability to shift between three forms, but, the whispered gossip among the hatchlings said, Arubicon was gifted only two, the gruistwolf and the gyrhawk.
Glyf did not know if the tales were true, but the gruistwolf was certainly one of his forms. She expected to feel something, but did not. Except maybe relieved she did not hatch from a dragon’s egg looking like a wolf cub.
The guardian dipped his head, acknowledging her. His actions showed no signs he considered anything about their familial relationship important. Glyf smiled to herself, glad she would not have to snake past a sentiment neither of them shared. Unsure what to do when Arubicon said nothing, she bowed and said, “I greet you, Arubicon, Guardian of the Wista-Nem.”
Arubicon’s long bushy tail twitched as if to show his patience ran thin and Glyf wondered why he did not acknowledge or return her greeting. In mind-speak she tried to give him the elemental ritual greeting, but found she still could not use her abilities, including her mind-speech.
She knew by the heat in her neck that her face reddened and she cleared her throat, not wanting to let her shame leak into her words. “Air and Light to you this day.”
Earth and water be yours. Arubicon’s reply filled her mind and she felt his surprise and possibly a bit of amusement from him even in the mind-speak.
“Let the fire burn brightly in your heart,” Glyf replied, gaining hope from his ability to mind-speak to her. She squared her shoulders and held her head higher.
And your spirit never falters, Arubicon responded.
His silver-gray eyes bore into Glyf as she spoke the last line of the greeting. A greeting used by the elementals since Arubicon took on the mantle of Life Guardian. She knew it well from the mosaic she helped maintain on the ceiling of the nursery. “May the creator bless your journeys and the fates treat you kindly.”
He sat back on his haunches, his tongue flicking out for a moment as if tasting the scents before him. Then, once again, his words filled her mind. Now, tell me hatchling, why Ymarii’s child finds herself flung by storm titans to wreck upon this shore with this unusual group of companions.
The area beneath the Wista-Nem’s branches lay dappled in sunlight. A stone bench sat not far from Glyf and she wandered over to sit in the cool shade. She wasted no time in laying out the trail of events that lead from the Air Guardian’s domain in the Bitterun mountains to this island and the valley of the Wista-Nem.
And you are sure Mijenjae are involved? The soft growl of his words hummed through her mind.
“Aye, there was no uncertainty in Hefldeep’s words or warning.”
Arubicon’s lips pulled back in a snarl, fearsome and terrible in his primal anger. The muscles in his shoulders and neck rippled beneath his snowy white fur. If Glyf had not been sitting down, she would have stepped back.
As it was, she tensed her jaw and straightened her back and, out of habit, reached for her long tail of hair. Bereft of both the symbolic power of her hair and her elemental abilities, she determined not to lose her dignity to fear. Clenching her fists at her sides, she stood and stared into the eyes of the raging guardian.
She felt the waves of power off of him slowly change from that of blind hatred to controlled passion. When he mind-spoke, his words seemed clipped and distant.
I have met one or two Mijenjae over the… years. Do you know its name?
Glyf shook her head. “Marley said, at least, one hid within the ranks of The Tavir Academy in the Nation of Sedd. A group called the Cult of Sangryl’s Light may be under the sway of a mijenjae, or so Marley suspects, but I have no names for you. That is why we must be set back on our journey as soon as we can travel.”
Thank you, child, one more thing. Who is the young Al’far with you?
“Oh, Chayse,” she paused, unsure how much to tell him. “We know little about him. He and his half-giant friend Mek joined our group no more than two days before our shipwreck. We ran into him outside Windy Cove, only to find he was looking for Marley as a recommended mentor.”
“Why here, why now? What is the heart of his quest, Glyf? Is he a weaver?
The depth of thought she felt in his questions gave her reason to believe he was not interrogating her as much as brainstorming with her in its rawest sense. Glyf smiled, becoming more comfortable as she talked about Chayse. “I am not sure why. He has shown no signs of weaving Tavir or interest in learning. I don’t know if he is a bard, but he has a good sword arm, an honest heart and a kind spirit. I, for one, am glad he is here now. As for the heart of his quest, he has not revealed what calls to him.”
Glyf knew the interview was over as Arubicon gazed up into the leafy branches filled with wista blossoms. She got up to leave when his voice once more filled her mind.
Take your ease here for a few days, while your friends heal. Eat your fill and prepare yourself to continue your journey. I will talk with you all before you leave.
Suddenly she remembered her friends and spun back to face Arubicon. “Can you tell me... my friends Jayf and Mek... were they found on the island?”
We found none but those with you on the beach. Perhaps the fates had a different path for them.
Glyf saw the dismissal in his eyes and turned to leave when again his presence bled into her mind.
What happened to your hair, daughter?
Startled, when he called her daughter, she stopped mid-step. Her hand flew up to touch the coil of her topknot and the finger length of amber-colored hair sticking straight up from it. She could not keep the heat from her face as she once again lived through the humiliation.
The helplessness she felt since the attack on her home pushed the words out of her mouth in a jumble. A jumble that sounded selfish and petty to her ear in the light of their circumstances. She hoped she did not sound that way to the guardian as she finished her tale.
Do not let your outer circumstances define you, but instead let them challenge you and open your mind to new possibilities.
She swallowed roughly and continued walking. His presence in her mind, gone. His words settled into her like a sudden rain on a sun-parched land.