Chapter Seven

Walking among the pikes again, Elidra couldn’t help but feel completely content and at peace. It had nothing to do with the love she felt for Vrok or their people. It was something of her past she had not wanted to leave in the first place. When she first arrived she was welcomed by the Mothertree. She knew now she was as loud as she had accused Amadagu of being. For just a split moment, she felt as if she were intruding, but in letting her thoughts go, she could hear the resonating of her own steps. Loud indeed, she softly chuckled to herself.

Lost in her thoughts, they returned to Vrok. Nothing seemed to sway her. Carefully she began to affix the links of her Generals into her hair. Intermingled should worked in several of those offered to her by the people of Tova. Each time someone would come to her and offer her a link tears would well in her eyes. She felt every bit the Empress Vrok stated she was. Would that she could, every day would b spent amongst her people. But often, too often sometimes, she was required to be at the many many meetings and such her office demanded. The Emperor insisted she attend all the meetings with the generals and everything in between.

When one of his mysterious “silence” arrived, she heard the report of the entire southern lands from the Ministry to those that followed the Lord of Windra. Most interesting to her was this place they called Blackroot and some new threat the Ministry stored in it. The woman who delivered the message caused Elidra only the slightest moment of jealousy. Her vibrant eyes pierced anyone who looked at them. She was properly named ‘Jade’ for it was the image she offered when she entered a room.

Elidra didn’t overlook the eyes of the generals taking the woman in, the lust was very apparent. Vrok, to her joy, offered the woman nothing but questions. Everything made so much more sense when she learned the woman acted as a whore to obtain the information the Emperor required. It was a long night as Elidra berated him in such, demanding the woman be given a different task. To this, Vrok summoned Jade and to Elidra, Jade made her position known.

While the Empress could never understand the choice, it became very clear it was the woman’s completely and was never the idea of the Emperor or his generals. She and Jade talked often to the point of becoming terribly close. While Elidra still couldn’t agree with how it was done, to its end, Elidra could do and say nothing.

The night she challenged her Emperor about the whore informant, Vrok was stern and unrelenting in his watching of Elidra for the next several hours in absolute silence. Only when Elidra was almost to the point of tears did he finally return to the warmth she had grown to know. Teasing her, he told her he was going to make her put a band back on so she would understand such things without “interruption”. Taking his head into her hands and finding his mouth, her will was one that night… and countless others.

The warm air met her smile and she realized the Mothertree smiled with her. Leaves soft and alive fell around her, showering her with the affection of the Pikes. However both Elidra and the Mothertree knew such joy would be short lived. Elidra could feel the Mothertree waiting for the questions as if she already knew them and the answers she wanted, Elidra suddenly felt perhaps she didn’t want them.

“To be afraid of an answer is to lie child.” The voice of the Mothertree filled her head. “Is this not your home still?”

“Is it?” Elidra questioned silently. Tears immediately filled her eyes. Everything around her suddenly felt so distant, so cold and away.

“It seems that way because you are trying to make it so.” More leaves fell, almost to the point of embracing Elidra as she sat, leaning against the Mothertree.

The Empress could feel the pulse of the Mothertree’s essence as it flowed out to all the Pikes. “Who is he? What is our connection? Why are you connected to both of us? I have come to hate secrets.”

“As you should, they are the things that create darkness.” The Mothertree began. “Once you know, nothing will be the same for you. Once truth is found, its path is easy to see in all that you do, even when you don’t wish to. Truth will always be painful simply because it too often is against what you actually want.”

“Tell me, please. Start at the beginning.”

“This path is full of pain dear child, more than you realize. His protection of you will be a disservice to you now. But… you should know.

With a sudden jolt that took her breath away, Elidra saw everything that occurred with the Timewalker before she was taken from the Pikes. A hole seemed to open in her heart as her breathing stopped and she choked desparately on the information. So vast was the time she began to get lost in it. The sensation of falling and drowning at the same time filled her completely. Screaming out she tried to stop it, but it was too late, her mind threatened to explode as the raw magic of the transference of time ate at her sanity.

Exhausted she collapsed and succumbed to the myriad of images that filled her mind. The pain had left her, but the images continued.

****

Running through the field, the boy found himself desparate to find its end. When the farmer had caught him sleeping in his barn, he was less than pleased. Snatching the boy by the hair, he found the mark behind his ear. Filling the air with curses he tossed the boy away from him. Waking up as he crashed into the side of the barn, the shock of the impact took away his breath.

Fully awake, fire filled his eyes as he stood and held the grown man in his eyes. He heard the apologies. He heard the man beg. He heard the man scream. None of these things stopped the fire that first engulfed the man, then the barn and then his home. The boy only wanted sleep and now he only wanted to share the pain of the jolt he had received.

By the time he wanted to stop, it was too late. The only thing that remained of the man was ash. The barn was falling around him as the fire ate through the structure like a billion mad ants. He however, was untouched. In the next instant he was running with all he was through the field next to the barn. He was sure the fire would consume that as well. No longer was he in control of it. Unsure of where to go, he simply ran.

Far in the distance he saw a single plume of smoke snake around the crest of the nearest hill. He wasn’t sure, but something told him it was Ilbeth. Ur, a sage of sorts, was rumored to be from Ilbeth. Almost a week before he learned of Ur and thought perhaps he could convince the sage to take him in. He had never heard of Ilbeth before, but something guided his steps. It had to be that or madness.

As he came closer and closer, the boy felt something different. Ripples he could not actually see or hear in the air twisted and engulfed him. Conversations not of his own imagination became clear in his mind. Ur was there and he was drinking with others. Cresting the hill, the boy saw the single thatched roof structure in the middle of nothingness. Actual sounds, loud and strong continued to spill into the air as he got even closer.

Fear set in. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what or how he could approach the sage. What could he, a small boy do. Too often for his likes he moved unseen by the large form of adults as he continued searching for something unknown. Yet every time he tried to find food or shelter, they saw his every move. Every time he stopped he was plagued by either nightmares of terrible events that seemed to cascade out from him. While the barn that morning had been intentional, the freezing of everyone in the Hammerhold River was not. The suffication of Mother was not. The sudden disappearance of his father was yet another unintentional event surrounding him.

He supposed he could go back and try to live off what was left in Hammerhold, but he couldn’t bring himself to see or move the bodies of those around him. He did was he felt was best, he ran. He always ran.

Just outside the door of the makeshift building he realized was actually part of a hill, was a single tree. Nervous from the ever louder sounds from inside he scurried up the tree and simply watched the door.

Hour after hour dripped away as he sat stiff, yet unwilling to move from his perch. The moon, covered by clouds, yet still strong enough to give light sat high above him. All around him the sounds of the day disappeared and gave authority to those that lived at night. While he traveled, the boy became familiar with the creatures and the sounds they made, both at night and during the day. He found he liked them a far cry more than the people he had known or ran into. Even those that didn’t know he was watching he found one thing or another he genuinely hated about them.

Snapping him from thought, the door of the hill opened. The sounds blasted the night air, and then became muted as the door was snapped shut. Ur had stepped out, he knew it had to him. Stretching and belching loudly the man shook his head shaggily. Dropping to his hands, the boy was sure he was about to vomit. Shimmering however, the man’s form changed to that of a giant wolf.

Squeaking suddenly the boy lost his position. The aching and stiff muscles refused to respond to his commands. Roughly the breath was forced from him in an audible thrust. Barely able to get back to his feet, he found himself eye to eye with the wolf who cocked its head to the side at the boy.

“Wha…” Was all the boy could get out when the voice of a man passed through the teeth of the wolf.

“Amadagu” The wolf said with a bit of a slur. Turning away from the boy, the wolf began to trott off. Fighting the aches of his legs that had been cramped too long, the boy broke into a run and followed the wolf.

****

“I said I was a dog. I didn’t name you boy, so you can stop following me!” Ur snapped at the boy. When the wolf finally stopped and laid down to sleep, the boy did the same, waking with a start as he was shoved onto the ground. “What am I supposed to do with a little snot like yourself?”

Anger swelled quickly in the boy. This was no great sage, just another stupid person. He felt the fire burning in his eyes and the warmth on his hands. This would be no accident. Just as the man in the barn, he would share his pain with this ‘sage’. In that instant, the fire was gone. The anger was there, but the fire was gone. The boy was sure he saw a smile twitch on the man’s face.

“And there will be none of that boy.” Ur’s eyes locked onto him and a sternness grew quickly in his voice. “That ability is not a toy and you will find I will not allow that chest of yours to puff up.”

As the boy saw the finger of Ur waggle at him, he found himself forced into sitting on the ground. In the next second a cooking fire was between them. Turning away, Ur pulled up a rock and pulled out a small sack. Straining himself to see what was in the sack the boy was taken aback when Ur suddenly smacked him hard across the face.

“I said its not a toy. I don’t give a shades darkness how angry or curious you are, you keep that noise to yourself. Do you hear me boy?” Ur turned again to his sack and pulled out a skinned rabbit. Stabbing a stick through it, he held it over the fire for a moment.

Instantly it was cooked. The boys stomach growled heavily as the aroma of the cooked meat filled his nose. Almost as quick the feeling passed as he realized there was not way it could be cooked that fast over the fire. He remembered watching his Mother carefully holding food over the fire for almost an hour.

Ur held the cooked rabbit before him as the boy carefully touched it. As he moved to take it, Ur snatched it back. Holding up a finger, he laid the stick against his leg. Unwrapping another carcass Ur once again stabbed a stick through it.

“Do it yourself.” Casually he tossed the stick to the boy.

As he thought about it, the boy gasped as he saw the animal was completely cooked.

“Good Amadagu. Very good.” Ur smiled and chewed some meat. “I was getting tired of waiting for you to get here. Eat it all, we have some traveling to do.”