SWNOVELS Shadowblade: (A Dance of Fire and Shadow Book 1) – Chapter 17
TO HIS EMINENCE, THE most Illustrious Emperor Ashur Purmut, first of his dynasty, noble Head of the Great Rapathian Empire, my most Humble Greetings. I regret that I am unable at this time to deliver the Samarian Royal Family to receive your merciful justice.
I discovered that key Eldrin commanders survived the onslaught of your Rapathian legions. They must be dealt with swiftly and their base of operations discovered, as they could pose a serious threat to establishing your Imperial dominance in this kingdom. I need to keep the king and his nephew hostage a short time longer as leverage to flush out the troublemakers.
I will keep you informed of progress.
Your obedient and humble servant, Lord Farang.
.
.
We ride for several hours, climbing all the time. The air is getting noticeably cooler and I unroll my winter cloak from the bundle I packed onto Sahan––was it only five days ago? It feels like a lifetime, so much has changed. I pull the folds of silver-grey wolfskin around me as the wind veers, now coming as a soft breath of ice from snowfields far above. I want to ask how much further it is, but right now I don’t feel like talking to anyone.
Maybe if I run now I could escape, but my best chance of persuading the Eldrin to protect Alina is to stay with them and persuade them to let me become her courier. If I can avoid the death sentence I have brought on myself.
The trail levels off as it brings us to a high valley surrounded by birch and aspen, while above are low-growing juniper and blueberry with the distant snow peaks beyond. But what takes my breath away isn’t the grandeur of the wide sweep of the cirque. It is the forested pinnacle rising from the middle of the flat valley floor.
Ever since I was a child, I have dreamed of this place. I even made drawings of it, feeling compelled to focus and record the wild imaginings forcing themselves into my mind. A mountain of strangely-shaped rocks with a track climbing and circling, twisting its way to the top between outcroppings and tree roots.
In my dream I would follow the trail even though I grew more exhausted than the distance justified, determined to reach the palace or temple I couldn’t see, yet I knew it lay just out of sight at the summit. It held something I wanted, a mysterious knowledge I could sense was waiting for me––and yet no matter how many times the dream came to me, I never managed to reach the top.
We follow the spiral trail as it winds up and around the hill through a leafy tunnel of cool green shadow. Near the summit a wide flagged courtyard leads into a great arched cave echoing with the fluttering and squeaking of thousands of tiny bats.
We dismount. Several more Eldrin warriors emerge from an archway just beyond the cave to take the horses. I follow Marin through the arch. Everything feels so strange, yet so uncannily familiar that I have given up trying to work out what will happen next.
The tunnel runs level for some distance, lit only by a few candles perched in small alcoves along the walls until it gives onto another broad paved terrace on the far side of the pinnacle. I glance over the edge of the low wall and see immediately that there is no approach on this side. This terrace perches halfway up a vertical cliff.
Three arched entrances lead back into the rock. Marin speaks quietly to the others and they disappear into the left hand arch. No protocol about leaving weapons outside. People here must trust each other implicitly.
As soon as we stop I notice the restlessness inside me. It has something to do with this place but for the life of me I can’t understand how or why. Marin rests his hands on the parapet, gazing out across the wide sweep of valley to the distant mountains. I move to stand beside him as quietly as I can, the conflicting sensations and emotions fighting painfully through my body.
“You going to tell me where we are and what happens now?”
He doesn’t take his eyes from the distance.
“This is Maratic. Home of the Eldrin when we are not on duty in the city guarding the king. The training ground for new recruits.”
“I sort of guessed as much, apart from not knowing the name. I think you know what I was really asking.”
He takes a deep breath. “Ariel, I don’t have the experience or the objectivity to know whether you can help us fight the Emperor’s forces or if you will bring disaster on us all. I am sworn to defend this country from invasion. That means not taking unnecessary risks with everyone’s lives. I brought you here to someone with more experience. Someone who will make that decision.”
Something else occurs to me. “Marin? Only the Eldrin know of this place don’t they?”
“Yes.” He hesitates. “I should have made you cover your eyes on the journey here but I knew there was no point.”
“You mean I either get accepted as one of you or I don’t get to leave? Alive, anyway.”
“I just hoped that somehow, being able to see it as we approached just might make a difference. Might help.”
I can tell he feels worse about this than I do. I lay a cautious hand on his arm.
“Marin, it took me a while to understand how hard it has been for you to disobey your orders to kill me. And seeing Maratic did make a difference. I have dreamed about this place so many times but I don’t know why.”
He doesn’t answer. The silence is broken by one of the Eldrin coming out onto the terrace.
“Sir. Jantian will see you now.”
Marin steers me through the central arch into a wide chamber lit by several openings through the rock walls, the crystalline surface of the rock reflecting rippling gold light from the evening sun back and forth across the space. The restlessness inside me grows even stronger here, tingling and humming through my body until I find it almost impossible to stand still.
The man waiting for us in the chamber is lean and dark-haired. I find it hard to guess his age as he stands straight and tall despite the lines on his weathered face and hands. He is dressed no differently than the rest of the Eldrin here, in dark grey livery with a black cloak around his shoulders, but there is a commanding presence about him that goes beyond mere outer trappings.
Marin pauses quietly for a moment, then bows his head and goes to one knee.
“Master, forgive me. I disobeyed your orders three times and it hasn’t gone well. I don’t have enough experience for this situation.”
I can’t fathom the whole meaning of the fierce way Jantian looks at him but I finally understand that Marin has been risking his own life by repeatedly disobeying orders. No wonder he found the last few days difficult.
Jantian’s voice is quiet, yet holds the kind of power that demands instant compliance.
“Four times, actually. And you are right. It hasn’t gone particularly well. But it would probably have gone worse if you had not used your initiative when circumstances are changing so rapidly.” He waves a dismissive hand in Marin’s direction. “So you can get up and go figure out how to make the best of what we have.”
I have never seen Marin look so relieved. I can’t imagine what Jantian is like when someone really crosses him. Well, maybe I can but would rather not. I move to follow Marin out, desperate to get away from the buzzing energy of this place.
“Not you, Ariel.”
Dammit, I was afraid he would say that.
I turn back to face the Master of the Eldrin. He looks at me searchingly for a few moments.
“What do you feel right now?”
Odd question. I puzzle over which fragment of disturbing feelings I should select. Maybe I should go for the one that is rapidly becoming unbearable.
“I feel like I want to get out of here as fast as I can and go sit outside. It’s… overwhelming.”
“Hmm. That would explain what I’m picking up from you.” He steps towards me and lays his hands either side of my head. His touch is firm and cool, and after a few moments the horrible buzzing and agitation subsides. I let out a huge breath of relief. It feels like bliss just to be back to normal.
“Thank you. I can think straight again.”
He frowns, focusing on his hands. “The respite won’t last long, I’m afraid. If you don’t want it to come back, you will have to work on it yourself.”
It occurs to me that I wouldn’t have to bother to work on anything if I could just be somewhere else, but the conversation I just had with Marin did rather suggest that was not going to be an option. I decide to keep quiet on that one and stick to questions that might get me out of this trap.
“Are you going to explain what is happening to me? My mother died before she could tell me anything.”
“So I understood from Marin’s messages. I learned a little more when I held you just then.” He waves me to a pile of furs by the wall. “Sit. I’ll try to keep it simple.”
I curl my legs into the warm furs and lean against the wall, hoping he will get through this before the buzzing starts again and I won’t be able to concentrate. To my surprise Jantian comes to sit with me, as if trying to be less intimidating. It helps, but not much.
He waves his hand at the crystalline walls and arched ceiling of the cavern, glowing red-gold in the last rays of sun filtering through the openings in the rock.
“Maratic is a place of power, where earth and sky energy come together in perfect focus. Some people have a natural gift, to draw that power into themselves and use it, but it takes years of discipline and practice to control it.”
That helps to explain what I have noticed already.
“So that’s why Marin is so focused on self-discipline and obeying orders? Sometimes I feel it’s going to break him. It’s too harsh.”
“He has no choice, Ariel. Once he set out on this path, he has to be sure he can control the power he is using before it controls him. Nothing to do with whether I want him to follow my orders or not. I’m just here to help him through the process. As I am with all of them.”
Suddenly the jumble of scattered information fragments begins to form a pattern. “It’s the same power I was given by the Shadowblade isn’t it?”
“Similar. Except that you were given it all at once like a spoilt rich kid suddenly handed great wealth and privilege you have no idea how to handle or control. To become a Power Mage with the Eldrin, an apprentice must begin by training to take on that power in stages. It is a commitment to constantly practice, working together, trusting each other, operating as a team.”
“But like you did with me just now, you could give or take away, same as the Blade?”
Maybe Jantian will just take it away and I can go home.
That hope must be written all over my face, because he shakes his head.
“I have never sought to develop the ability to do either, beyond the temporary reprieve I have just given you. I think you already discovered for yourself that kind of transfer can be deadly. Fortunately for us, there are only a few Elementals like the Shadowblade left in this world. They are ancient beings where this kind of power takes corporeal form, but it is raw and wild in them––as it now is in you. They have no connection to humanity or a sense of right and wrong. Think of it like an ice avalanche or ocean storm, or maybe a wildfire. These earth-sky manifestations are simply unleashed energy. They don’t discriminate in their destruction. But when that destructive power gets into the hands of a human with all the usual urges of greed and revenge, it can become a threat to an entire nation.”
“Why would Elementals want to give it to humans?”
“They pass it on because they thrive on the attention and offerings of aspiring adepts who want instant results. There will always be plenty of those. Not many people are willing to spend years following the hard discipline of the Eldrin. I doubt if any of the few remaining Elementals even consider learning how to take it back. What the Blade took from you was life-force to save himself. There would be no incentive for any of them to learn the perfect point of balance at which they could take back the additional gifted power but leave just enough life-force for the adept to become a normal human again.”
Looks like my choices have narrowed down to two. Accept a regime of hard training, or die. Maybe three. If I’m not allowed to leave and the calming effect of Jantian’s hands wears off, I’ll rapidly go insane from the wild buzzing power of this place, already stirring faintly at the back of my awareness like fingernails scraped down glass.
“What must I do?”
“Sleep. You start training at dawn.”
Jantian waves me towards the door and I leave hastily. At least the jarring, discordant energy isn’t quite as bad outside on the terrace.
Marin is sitting on the low parapet, apparently unfazed by the dizzying drop below. He looks up as I walk over to him.
“So Jantian decided to train you?”
I notice the relief mixed with apprehension on his face and brush aside thoughts of what the alternative outcome of my conversation with Jantian might have been. Maybe Marin still feels enough for me that he’s glad I was given another reprieve, but he is no doubt aware that at some point he will be responsible for my actions again. Not sure if I would want to take on someone as unreliable as I have turned out to be.
I rub my temples, trying to disperse the wild buzzing once more scrambling my thoughts.
“He told me to sleep, but I don’t think that is going to happen with all this restless energy running through me.”
Marin stands and steers me back through the tunnel to the courtyard where we first arrived.
“The manifest power is not as strong on this side. So long as you don’t mind a few bats.” He stoops to pick up the bundle of my things left by the cave entrance and leads me inside.
This cave is almost as large as the great cavern where I met Jantian, with tall stalactites forming graceful arches around the sides. Now that dusk has fallen the whole place is fully alive with a myriad fluttering wings as dark shapes swirl in squeaking patterns around the shadowy dome of the roof.
Now, I grew up among trees and rocks and the creatures that live there and I have never really understood the panic some people get into whenever a bat or mouse comes near them. But that does not mean I’m overwhelmed with delight at the thought of spending the night on the floor of a cave with nothing to cushion the rock hardness apart from a generous layer of bat droppings.
Marin follows my gaze and almost smiles.
“It isn’t that bad. The floor gets swept each day.”
“So I only have to worry about what is already coming down from above?”
“Not even that. Over here.” He leads the way to one of the arched alcoves at the side. The flat floor is carpeted with fresh hay and well sheltered from the flapping inhabitants of the main cave.
He spreads my wolfskin cloak over the hay.
“Some people are naturally over-sensitive to the power of this place when they first arrive, even if they haven’t been opened to it by the Blade’s gift as you have. So they sleep on this side until they can get their alignment under control.”
It helps to know there are others in the same situation. Well, almost the same.
“Thanks Marin.”
He turns to go and I struggle to stop myself begging him to stay. The cave still feels very alien and lonely and the buzzing might be fainter but it hasn’t disappeared completely. He stops and looks back, almost as if he heard my voice in his head.
“Is it still there?”
I nod miserably. He sighs, and then comes to sit beside me. Even through the dissonant energy of this place still threading my consciousness, I am powerfully aware of Marin’s sheer physical presence, so close in the dusky shadows of the alcove. I can tell he feels it too, yet we both know we are on our last chance to prove to Jantian that we intend to put all our focus only on his instructions. I can feel the barrier of will Marin lays between us, an almost tangible force.
He whispers in my ear. “I can stay with you until you sleep. I don’t have Jantian’s skill but I could probably ease it a bit.” He leans behind me and draws me close, then throws the cloak over us both. His arms fold around me and he takes my hands in his own.
I rest my head on his shoulder, listening to his breathing, trying to focus only on calming the restlessness. The effect isn’t as dramatic as with Jantian, but after a few moments everything seems quieter. I suppose controlling it for myself is something I need to learn.
“Marin? How are you doing that?”
“Giving you some of the calm reassurance that this place gives me. The Eldrin all need to reconnect with Maratic’s power every time we return here.”
“Won’t giving it away just keep you awake instead of me?”
It might almost be a quiet snort of laughter, his breath on my neck, soft and warm. “After the last few days, I think I’m tired enough to sleep through anything.”
My own exhaustion makes me think back once more to when the Blade took what he called ‘life-force’ from me.
“Marin, if you were wounded, could you recover by taking… power or life-force from me? Like the Blade did? Does your training show you how to do that?”
I feel him tense, as if I have suggested something distasteful, unacceptable. An abomination.
A long quiet moment before he answers.
“It would feel wrong. Like I was turning into one of the bloodsucking cousins of our winged friends flitting around the ceiling over there.”
I have heard stories about the vampire bats of Rapathia and always felt glad that Samaran lies too far north to be suitable territory for them. But it doesn’t feel quite fair as a comparison. I did agree to the exchange with the Blade and although it was exhausting it did not make me feel like helpless prey being devoured against my will. As I run through how it felt in my mind, I’m starting to wonder if maybe I was actually participating…
“Suppose you did nothing and just let me give healing power to you? If I learn how to do it, that is?”
“No! Next few days we both have to focus only on following Jantian’s orders. Give everything we have to proving we can offer something useful to fight this invasion.” Marin falls silent, his fingers tense around my hands.
I suppose the very idea is getting perilously close to everything about the Blade he has been trained to avoid or destroy. I can’t think about it any longer as the exhaustion finally draws me into blissful oblivion.