The book of the burning

[ChrisGibson]

RETURN TO THE WORLD OF INTRIGUES, MAGIC AND SENSUAL DESIRE...





We praise you, our Mother, for by your very movements were we created. By your very being to we have being, and in your very life do we have life.

- prayer to Amana







After a whole day of sitting at the head of the vardo, Ohean yawned and crawled back into it for sleep.
“Theone, wake up and drive.”
Theone was glad to do anything, and she got up immediately and went to the head of the wagon while Ohean rolled over and slept straight away.
As the sun was setting, Ohean stirred and looked up to see Anson.
“What?” he mumbled. “You don’t have to check on my safety while we’re in a moving wagon.”
“I know that,” Anson said, sitting down beside him. “I didn’t come to protect you.”
“You just came to look at me?”
Anson grinned and said, “Yes. That’s it. Do you mind it?”
Ohean chuckled and pulled his knees to his chest.
“I wish I could be you,” he said. “Just for a moment. Just so I could see what you can see when you’re looking at me.”
Anson lay down beside him and quinted.
“Sometimes you look very old, but then sometimes you look younger than me. Then I want to protect you.”
“You don’t—”
Anson put out a hand.
“Is this where you tell me that I don’t know you? That I don’t know where you come from. You’re right. I don’t. But you can tell me, can’t you?”
Anson was quiet and said, “I do remember my mother. I remember Essily telling me how all of us lived before we were born, across the sea. And that souls who find themselves together, who love each other, have always been together. That everyone who belongs to you in this life belonged to you before.
“If that’s the truth?” Austin interrupted. “Have we all always been together?”
“I’m afraid so,” Ohean said.
“To hell with you,” Anson cuffed him lightly on the shoulder.
Austin said, “Ohean, what’s a wand?”
“A wand…?”
“I had once heard of sorcerers who loved men the way you love Anson, how they used them as a Wand. And… I didn’t understand that.”
Ohean’s hand turned limp and Austin repeated, “Ohean?”
“Did anyone ever tell you about the High Ones? About the making of the world? Elladyl, the mother of the Star Gods, the Mahran. Addiwak, the Mother of All?”
“A little?”
“Addiwak the Mother of the Universe brought forth the High Ones, but the great mystery before them is that of the Twins, sometimes called the Brothers, or the Lovers. They are not spoken of often but in magic circles, they are called the Blue Bird and the Serpent. They discovered love with each other, and that love produced the universe. Because of the strength of the love between an enchanter and his lover, or two enchanters, there are some magicians who intentionally use others to increase that power. When an enchanter takes a young man, his servant, to himself to increase his power, or to work spells through him, he is called a Wand. This is a practice of southern sorcerers.” Ohean shrugged. “Or greedy ones.”
“I have never heard of this,” Anson murmured.
“Because I have never spoken of it, and will not soon after. Anytime an enchanter takes a beloved, then what passes between them in the night can be used for powerful purposes,” was all Ohean said.


That night was a warm one, and nobody cooked because there was enough ready made food and they were all thinking of Dissenbark, whom they had left behind, and the city of Nava that was a day before them. All about them was wide space, and they had passed the occasional farm, but now there was nothing, just grassy land off the road. Behind them, the blue and black mountains still stretched, snow veined, and Theone asked Ohean what they would do when they came to the city.
“Nothing in haste,” he said. “I hear there is a hotel near Temple Circle. We will go there. I went inside that temple years ago. But, as I said, it has been years. I do not know what has changed. I do not know where the Stone is. I say we camp out in the hotel for a few days. I say we put a strategy together.”
“And then we enter the Temple,” said Anson.
“Yes,” Ohean said, after a while.
“We enter the Temple,” Anson said again.
“It’s so final,” Theone said. “Isn’t it? I mean, I’m aching. I’m literally wanting to bang my hands into a wall or something because when it’s all said and done we will enter the Temple, and my stomach is sick just thinking about it. I need to do it. But…”
“Yes,” Ohean said. “Well, we won’t fail.”
“How do you know?” said Anson.
“Because I am with you,” Ohean said.
Theone said, “Anson, do you have a song for us?”
“I had a story,” Ohean said. “Anson can rest. We can all rest, and I will point out to you the stars in the sky. See, that one there? That is the Hammer of Conrad, the Star King who was the father of your own house, the Alcontradi. He and his Queen built Yr Mahrain, the Crystal City by the Sea, and there they hung the Stone of Elladyl. In days gone by she sent the Avayan into the world with it, a gift to men.”
“Who are the Avayan?”
“The various incarnations the gods undertook to enter the world and aid all its peoples,” Ohean said.
“It has been taught that Mahran and the Kuaelar dwelt in Kokaubeam, in the realm of the Stars, and the Anyar and Vasyar lived in the Sea beyond the Sea in the realm of Varanesse. On the Earth, of old, were the ancient powers, those dark things under the earth, and below them the demons of fire, and across the mountains the Giants, the Etins of Frost and Cold, of Wind and Woe.
“This world is the Mother of Men. The Vasyar came to help them, and to guide them, but in time men wanted to be rid of the Gods. They wanted to live on their own, and the Vasyar, sensing this was wise, heeded them. All except Tethys who is the Sea, the Gods who by their nature are already part of this world. And Kavana remains, living beneath the Great Fire Mountain, and Mount Korumdumon, and some say that Nar took the form of a Bear and still lives as one in the north. But the others left. And with them the Children of Men who would not live in a world without them. Also the Children of the Gods, the Feri Folk, left.
“On their way across the Great Sea, which is further than the Sea you know, they were met by Mikail, who is the Warrior of the Vasyar, and he told them that they were forbidden to return to the Land of the Gods, but that as they had left with men, they must remain always in the world of men, even if at the very end of it. So Amana and caused the Furthest Isle to be raised up, and there, beyond the world’s edge, dwell the Vasyar till the appointed time.”
“They live in this world?” Theone said.
Ohean nodded.
“That their light might never disappear, the Vasyar live at the lip of this world, and often, it is said, the oldest of the Feri, Famke and Laryn and Ahnesse still walk upon it, visiting the children of men and doing what they can.
“But during the time when Mozhudak the Demon of the Pit, was roused they stayed away, knowing the power of Gods and Demons would ravage the world. So that was when the Amanyar came. They came from Solanea.”
“The Amanyar?” Theone said.
“The Seven,” said Anson.
Theone turned to her and now he spoke.
“As has been taught by the Royan, the Gods came back into the world again and again as avatars, for they had forbidden themselves to live in the world directly, such was their power. But the Amanyar were different.”
“Were they the children of the Gods?”
“All are the Children of the Gods.”
“You know what I mean,” Theone said. “Were they Feri? Or were they the men who had left the world with the Vasyar?”Not all were Gods, some were the Feri and some were men and all were full of power, sworn to always be in this world in one form or another. The avatars pass, the the Ytar are always here.”
“What they were in that world is unknown, and unimportant. But what they became in this world were the enchanters, the heroes and, sometimes, the enchantments themselves. Those are their stars,” Ohean lay on his back and pointed out five spinning stars, like a snake.
“Arthyr, Istaryl, Mahonwy, Tanquaril, Merrilyn, Phellyn and Owen,” Anson listed them.
The last name he said like a whisper. Theone did not ask, and Ohean did not answer. Under the starlight, Austin watched as Ohean turned on his side, beside Anson and, at last, Austin drifted off into sleep.

In the middle of the next morning, Kenneth was walking south, out of the direction of the sun.
“I don’t have a horse,” Yarrow had told him. “All I have is this sack, and this cloak and purse full of money, and good directions. By my blessing you will never lose your path. The Gate of Daumany is three days away by horse, and through that an additional four days before you come to the city by the sea that they now call Nava. That is by horse. On foot I don’t know how long it will be.”
Kenneth found a bower and sat under a tree to eat and doze. All the day he had been thinking of errant knights on quests, and this was strange because he couldn’t remember ever being told such stories. Under the tree he dozed and remembered the cards in Yarrow’s house from which she read the future. The first was the Fool, with a bundle over his shoulder. The zero card, the beginning before the beginning. That was him. And there was the Four of Cups, the young man sitting under the tree gazing at the three cups, not seeing the fourth behind him. There was something he could not see. Not just yet. Some wish he did not have the imagination to wish for. It would take care of itself, that’s what Yarrow would say. The world took care of itself.

Someone was tickling his head.
“Stop it now,” Kenneth murmured.
The tickling went on, and finally Kenneth, making a slight swipe at the top of his head, woke up and looked to see a horse nuzzling his head.
“Oh, my…” Kenneth sat up.
It was a red horse, and the horse snuffled him and then nuzzled him, and then it kissed him.
“You’ve been sent to me,” Kenneth decided.
“Well,” he said. “Do you have a name?”
When the horse said nothing, Kenneth said, “Until the other day I didn’t either. May I get up on your back, please? May I? Thank you. Shall we go this way?”
And the horse obliged.
“We’re going south. We’re going toward the Dauman Gate. Now that you’re here it should take two days. Maybe a little more. Whaddo you…. Ah, but you know where you’re going don’t you?”
As they rode through the empty land, Kenneth said, “Well, my name is Kenneth…. Sooner or later I guess we’ll find out yours.”

They were not in one of the great halls of the palace, but rather a small, dining room overlooking the Temple precincts and the Fifty-First Prophet, blessed be his name, Dahlan, aged sixteen, was drumming his fingers on the worn table top.
“I feel like a prisoner and not like a ruler,” he declared.
Beyond them, in the little kitchen, the Mother of the Prophet had made herself useful by cooking, for she did not wish to stand around, and beside the Prophet, Elder Allman scowled and said, “You feel like this because it is precisely what you are.”
“We have not had time to gather enough faithful men,” Erek Skabelund said.
“Faithfulness is not the problem,” Allman said. “We have not had time to gather powerful men.”
“You sent your wives away?” Dahlan said.
Allman only nodded sharply, but Skabelund said, “Mareesa headed out on a wagon train the other day.”
“Where did you send her?”
“To her family’s home in the east.”
“I wonder,” Dahlan said, steepling his fingertips, “if you should have sent her further.”
Aimee Kimball, her blond hair tied back in a severe bun, came to the table and placed a dish of eggs, mushrooms and spinach before her son.
“Eat,” she said. “Right will win out.”
“I would not be the first head of a state, especially the religious head,” Dahlan said, “to be driven out of his home, and there is no doubt, Phineas has taken over everything. No, Mother, it is might that wins.”
He looked down at the plate. He lifted his fork.
“Mother, it looks delicious, but right now I can’t. I need to go to the garden.”
Aimee nodded.
“Well, then take this to Sariah when you go?”

The palace was a mighty complex and much of it was shared between the High Priest and the Prophet, but in the councils of the last several months, the Prophet had been put down every time, and it was only in the last month, filled with rage, almost punching a hole in his wall, that Dahlan had to admit he had no power, his people had sold him out, and in this generation the Prophet would be the puppet and the Priest the power.
It was Allman who had spoken first.
“There is something not right about Phineas.”
“Yes, I agree,” Dahlan had said, wearily.
“No, I mean he and the Black Hands… They do not serve God. At least, they do not serve ours.”
Erek had said it more plainly, “Allman believes they are working witchcraft.”
Witchcraft! It was the Royan who were expert in it. It was an offence to God, one of the things which the Zahem could not reconcile themselves to their dark skinned neighbors for, and yet, the very High Priest?
“That Temple belonged to another one once,” Skabelund said. “It was believed that we purified it, made it holy for the worship of our God. And yet, rather than consecrating it to Heavenly Father, we ought to have destroyed it.”
“Do you think they would have let us?” Allman said. He shook his head. “No, I believe the priesthood was always dedicated to those old gods, and the way they continued was to join their religion to ours.”
“And now?” Dahlan said.
“And now all pretense will be dropped,” Allman said. “Now they will worship their demons openly and drag all of us to hell with them.”

“What will we do?” Sariah asked. She sat beside Dahlan and, sensibly, forked a mushroom and a bit of scrambled egg and then popped it into her mouth.
“I should stand by my people.”
“We should flee,” Sariah said, simply.
Dahlan blinked at her.
“If Phineas is a sorcerer, and it appears that he is, then we should flee as soon as possible to wherever we can. You’re no good to your people dead.”
Sariah kept eating, and above them, from the crown of the Temple, the drums beat, boom boom boom.


SPECIAL POST TOMORROW: WORKS AND DAYS

 

[CharmedFan28]

It was great to get back to this story! A nice surprise! With the way this portion ended it sounds like there will definitely be some big action in the next one. Great writing and I look forward to Works and Days tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I'm glad you were surprised and delighted. I thought about giving a synopsis, but so much has happened, I just couldn't. Bits and Pieces was a huge story, and now that it's gone other things will come to fill its space.

 

[ChrisGibson]

A black palanquin surrounded by riders in black met a golden carriage outside the walls of the city off Nava. When the palanquin lowered, the curtain was opened, and sitting, facing the golden carriage like one on a throne was Phineas.
The carriage opened, and actually sitting on a throne was a handsome man, black haired, with white streaks in his temples. Phineas and the man with the golden circlet on his head drew near each other, and Phineas said, “Your majesty.”
“Who is that with you?”
“This,” Phineas nodded at the disheveled man, “is a thief who came to the Temple for the Jewel.”
“Then you’ve found him,” Ciarence began.
“No,” Phineas said. “This is not the one we wanted.”
“And no,” the man threw his dirty head up, “I am not a thief. I am Ethan. the son of Rovert of the the House of Chyr.”
While Phineas made a noise, Bellami’s eyes widened and he said, “Send him back!”
“Cerainly not,” Phineas said.
“This is an heir to the Throne of Chyr. We don’t want another war.”
“The Queen is dying. She has no one to succeed her,” Phineas dismissed Ethan. “The man is a thief and should be treated as one. I have been holding him as my prisoner. Now I give him to you.”
The King of Solahn raised his eyebrow and frowned.
“Phineas.”
“This is a moment of joy,” Phineas said. “We meet and just in time. A new enemy is coming to take the Stone which your fathers gave to the Temple, and to Mozhudak in repayment for a victory. That enemy shall be mine,” He roughly shook Ethan by his bound wrist. “Take this one and do as you will.”
Bellami looked from Phineas to Ethan.
“Speaking of taking,” he began. “once we lost Zahem, it is surprising we never took it back even though you kept the Temple.”
Phineas smiled and shrugged.
“You cannot take from a God once you have given. And, at any road, you shall soon have your ancient lands again.”
“He is a demon, not a God,” a voice shouted from the carriage.
“Who speaks?” Phineas’s eyes narrowed, and a young man, green eyes laughing, with curly black hair jumped from the carriage.
“I speak! Rendan!”
“Rendan,” his father chided.
Ethan, dirty faced, smiled up at the boy.
“Rendan of Baumand, son of Bellami King of Solahn, and your God,” he said frankly to Phineas, “is a demon.”
He said to his father, “The worst thing we ever did was make a pact with the priests of the Temple. The power of Mozhudak may have given us Zahem for a time, but it was the wrath of Banthra that set us back.”
All the while he spoke, Phineas’s eyes narrowed, and King Bellami said, “Peace, son. What is done is done, and now we will work to keep the Stone. Keon,” he called his tallest guard to him. “Set a guard around the Temple.”
“Lord King, you are welcome into my palace while you stay in the city.”
Rendan opened his mouth, but Bellami placed a diplomatic hand over it and said, “Phineas, though the people of Zahem disagree, this is a city of my kingdom, and I have a palace of my own.”
“Meet me tonight?” Phineas said. “Your Majesty?”
“You will meet us,” Rendan said, moving away from his father’s restraining hand, “and sup at our palace.”
Phineas cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow before saying, “But of course.”



At the little farm overlooking the white walls of the city, Ohean sold the vardo and the horses and then, jingling the coins into the little bag and handing them to Theone, he said, “Coming into the city in a shiny yellow vardo was the last thing we needed.
“Turn around,” he said, putting an arm over Austin’s shoulder. “There she is. The great city herself, stretched before the sea, all white walled and beautiful after the Solahni rebuilt her. The Solahni princes even built the fine palace in her, copper roved, glinting red once, now green, the Takarand. But they never stayed there. They preferred their own cities because, see her, like a sleeping dragon, incense green and grey pouring from her crown, the Temple, the resting place of Mozhudak. And hear those drums, that dull horn. That is the sound that tells you Phineas, the High Priest is here. He is watching for us. He is watching, perhaps, for me. Though he does not know it.
“So,” Ohean said, as they moved through the grasses, he parting them with his staff, and the companions came back onto the road, here and there crowded, so close to the city, “we will be quiet, as quiet as mice, and sneak in, and take the Jewel from the mouth of the Dragon!”

Though what Ohean had said scared him a bit, the truth was Anson was excited by Ohean’s excitement. There was no doubt Ohean felt as if he was marching toward a great meeting, and here, in the basin of Zahem, surrounded by green hills, the weather was much warmer than it had been in the Borders. Even Theone bore a quietly triumphant smile and there was good will in the people on the road, some walking, but many riding on horses and wagons into the city.
“The ones riding out look a hell of a lot happier if you ask me,” Theone said. But she was happy all the same.
What Austin found amazing was that, though they had been traveling down toward the city for some time, they did not seem to be coming into it very quickly, and it was with shock that he realized they were upon the Great Gate, its two large white towers carved with beings of dragon body and lion head, mouths opened toward each other. It was more crowded here toward the gate, and suddenly Theone had stopped walking.
Austin Buwa did not realize this until Ohean and Anson had stopped walking too.
Theone had stopped before a wagon, and in the wagon, with a pretty auburn haired girl wearing copper bangles. The driver was a very long, tall man with a wide brimmed hat, and a band was tied about his wrist. When he leapt from the cart and stood before Theone, she was shaking. Trembling, she looked up at him, and he was looking down at her, his mouth wide open, his eyes beginning to shine.
“Master Nelson, what is it?” Mehta began.
But he only whispered: “Theone?”
And then she nodded rapidly, tears falling from her eyes and Ohean touched her hand. She cried in the middle of the road for some time before looking up at the man in the cart who was also crying and calling him:
“Gimble.”


The first thing he did was unbind him.
The second thing Prince Rendan did was declare:
“If it were up to me, I would let you go.”
He was marching up and down the long marble hall of his apartments in the Takarand and saying, “You are a royal prince. Just like me. Only, a hell of a lot more heroic than me. I haven’t done anything. I know I wouldn’t go into that temple.”
Suddenly Rendan threw down the red towel he’d been ringing and the look in his eyes that people in the Great City knew was dangerous came.
“Hey!” Rendan said to Ethan. “Howabout I spring you now? How’s that? That’ll show em!”
“Yes,” the dirty man smiled wryly, “and then I’m sure they would show you, and I don’t think you want to be shown by Phineas. Shown anything.”
“Oh…” Rendan looked frustrated, “I’m not afraid of him!”
“Well, you should be,” Ethan said, simply. “I was in his power a long time, and there wasn’t a day I wasn’t afraid. Letting me go might be momentarily satisfying for the both of us, but he would catch me. Quickly. And make you pay. And your father would pay as well.
“No, right here is the safest place for me to be. And for you to keep me.”
Rendan put his hands behind his back. He was medium height, good looking with far apart eyes and broad shoulders.
“What can I do, then?” he said quietly. “This isn’t right, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Well, you could start,” Ethan suggested from where he stood on the other side of the room, “by ordering me a bath.”

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a surprise to see Gimble alive! I thought he had died but I guess I was wrong. This story seems to be getting to a very interesting place and I look forward to more of it tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Oh, yes, Gimble is alive and well, and just look at who he is!

 

[ChrisGibson]

TONIGHT THE MOST FRIGHTENING THING IS NOT THE MONSTER UNDER THE EARTH, BUT THE FEAR IN OUR HEARTS


“We were headed back to the farm,” Mehta told them. “We thought to be back in two days time.” She shivered. “Ever since that ship came into the city, and the Temple was lit, and those drums started pounding, it’s been a place I’ve wanted to get away from.”
She turned to Nelson, who was also Gimble, and said to Theone, “I know who you are. You have never been out of his mind. I already know who he was. Where he was. He needs to get out of this city. We all do,” she said.
Nelson was looking at Mehta with deep respect, as was Theone, and Theone said, “Dear Mehta, we cannot do that. We’ve come into the city for a reason.”
“Perhaps,” Ohean said, “the same reason that ship has come.”
“Phineas, the High Priest of Mozhudak is in the City,” Nelson said. “I remember the feel of him. The Zahem believe he is the High Priest of their God—”
“But he is,” Austin said. “I remember him from my childhood.”
“But do you remember the last High Priest?”
“No. But it was his uncle, Elkenah. And before that Hopni.”
“Friend,” Nelson said, “what if I was to tell you the majority of the High Priests on your records are nothing more than Phineas come again and again in different forms? What if I was to tell you that Phineas had always been the dark priest of Mozhudak?”
“That is… the story we tell with our Prophets,” Austin said, “that there are really only two, exchanging life after life.”
“I do not know the truth of that tale, but the truth of what I am saying is well known among the Black Hand,” Nelson said. “And Phineas does not die. He only brings death and in bringing death he finds new life, and changes form.”
“He is the Seventh,” Ohean said, “the one who is broken.”
“We saw his procession,” Mehta added.
Anson leaned into Ohean and said, “Ash, if he’s here then he knows we’re here.”
“He knows someone is here,” Ohean said
“Tea…” Nelson began, and started over again. He couldn’t believe he was looking at her. “Theone… why are you here?”
“It’s…” she looked from him to the others.
“I think the two of them should be alone,” Ohean said.
“I agree,” Anson nodded.
“I’m all for them being alone, really I am,” Mehta said, lifting a drumstick. “But truth is I’m hungry right now, and what that means is it’s the two of them,” she pointed at Nelson and Theone with her drumstick, “who ought to withdraw.”

Their speech was nearly inaubible in the crowded dining hall of the Whitefoot Hotel.
“I thought you were dead.”
“No. I thought they would kill me,” Nelson said. “They told me I lost what I had, that once I could kill without thinking and now, here I was, bawling on the floor over a child. And a child who was meant to be another Hand or just a usewoman. They turned me out with not even my cloak or my sword and shut the door. They declared that I not be given food or quarter for four hundred miles around. They set the White Mark upon me and bound my tongue. They didn’t kill me, but they almost did. If I had not found my name again I could never have spoken again. I would never have been able to put myself back together.
“This was how Mehta found me. I was only a little ways from Turnthistle Farm. That’s what we call it.”
“Turnthistle?” Theone said.
“Yes. Isn’t it a funny little name?”
“No, Gim—I mean…”
“Orem,” Farmer Nelson said. “My name is Orem.”
“Orem,” she repeated.
“Yes,” he said.
“It’s only… We stayed there. A few nights back we stayed there. A young man,. Arvad—”
“Yes, Arvad’s the lad who runs things.”
“Arvad kept us. He talked about you. But… How could I know who you were? To me.”
“I named him. The baby.”
Theone looked up at him.
“I named out baby Saran.”
Theone nodded her head. She nodded a lot to keep from crying.
Neither one of them said anything for a long time. Then she spoke.
“Orem…. I…”
“You can call me Gimble.”
“Gim,” she said, “I’ve wanted to say your name. I… I didn’t know I loved you until almost before it was too late. I made my heart so hard all this time thinking about you. Dead. What they did to you. And now you’re here. You’re right here, and…”
“I know.”
“No you don’t,” she said. “I… I’m afraid to touch you or look at you because… you might disappear You’ve been dead to me so long I’m afraid you’re a ghost. Even now.”
Orem reached out to touch her face and then, to his surprise, drew back his hand. His laugh was a little shaky.
“What?” said Theone.
He gave a long sigh and said, “I’m afraid to touch you too.”
They stood like that for a long time, and then Orem said, “I guess we will just have to be very gentle to each other. Make sure neither one of us blows away.”


“The time has come to tell the whole truth,” Ohean said. “But it can’t be told here.”
Theone, Orem, Mehta and Anson, and Austin looked at him.
“None of us can be left out of this. We are all here, called together for a purpose, I believe,” he said. “Not believe, but know. Though I cannot say how. But we must not discuss matters here.”
“I still have the use of my rooms for one more night,” Orem said. “We can head back.”
Mehta sighed.
“Look, Mehta,” Orem turned to her. “I know you wished to be gone from here by the end of the day. If you wish I will not hold you. You may return to the farm.”
“I do not wish to take the cart a two days journey by myself,” said Mehta. “And I do not wish to leave you either. We will go back to the hotel. We will remain in the city.”
Orem opened his mouth to say something, but Mehta shook her head. “You don’t have to say a thing to me, Master,” she said.
“If this is important,” Orem said to Ohean, “and I see that it is, then we should go back to our old rooms at once.”

“You remember my kinsman, Ethan, who was kept in the dungeons?”
“Yes.”
“He had secrets—” Theone began, but Ohean held up a hand.
Theone looked up and Ohean moved all about the room, when he reached the middle of a wall, making a gesture with his hand, again and again, and when he passed the balcony, in view of the Temple, he cast a sharp gesture at it, then drew down his hand like one pulling close a curtain and said, “Continue.”
“He had secrets,” Theone said, “that I could not tell you, Gimble. He was searching for a Stone.”
“The Stone of Mozhudak,” Orem finished.
“The Stone of Elladyl,” Theone corrected. “A gift from her to the queens and kings of my people. Ethan sought it, and was caught. He escaped the prison, and I chose to come after him when I was free. See, he said he would come back and rescue me once he had gotten the Jewel. He seemed to think it would be so easy. After two years I knew I had to get away and find it myself. Ethan is probably dead, but then who knows? I thought you were too. Anyway, I was going to get it when I met Anson, Austin and Ohean, whom you already know is an enchanter, said he had been sent to help me. I believe him, and he knows more about what we’re going that I do. He said I had to trust him, that we all had to trust each other. And now I do.”
Ohean nodded and said to Orem. “And now you, and you Mehta are in this too.”
“You all are going to enter the House of Mozhudak and take from its secret place his—the,” Orem corrected, “Stone?”
“Yes.”
Orem turned away and he looked at the ground. He clasped his hands together.
“Orem,” Theone began. Then, “Gimble. What is it?”
He looked up at her.
“You don’t understand, Tea. I was a Hand. Look,” he exposed his wrist. “I still have the Black Star. I killed men. I killed…. People,” he said. He shook his head. “You speak so lightly of just going into that Temple. But I… I was consecrated there. That was where I lost my name. I…” he shook his head. “I believe it was evil. I believe that now, but it was what I was born to.”
“It’s what I was born to as well.”
“No, Theone,” Orem said. “You father was, but he escaped. Your mother was made to serve, but she escaped. They took you back. It is part of you, but… It was all of me. It was the only world I knew. And… I don’t mean to say I respect it. But… I cannot go against it.”
While Orem looked on the floor, Theone looked up to Ohean.
“There’s no shame in that,” Ohean said, simply. “None of us asked you to. Only try not to hinder us.”
Orem nodded his head.
“I’ll more than that,” he said. “I will try to help you as much as I can. I mean that.”

The weather was warm enough to sit on the balcony, and insects were chittering that night. Beneath them was the low noise of the city of Nava at night, and Theone came out, pushing a hand through her thick hair, and sat beside Anson and Pol.
They could see the firelit form of the Temple, long and grant, crowned by its towers, the eternal smoke rolling up from it.
“It really is something,” Anson said because he could not think of anything else to say.
Theone nodded. She twisted her stiff neck around.
“I never realized how much it is part of what I was brought up in. How closely it is linked to that horrible place that almost destroyed me. That almost destroyed Orem.”
“You just called him Orem.”
“Well, yes,” Theone said. “That is his name. And it fits him. He almost lost it. He’s so… He’s a good man, but he was so beat up by them. And he’s still beat up. I never saw that before. He was strong when I came to him. He was strong in the ways of the Black Star. Not quite a good person. Now he is good and so weak and so fragile I don’t want to break him.”
“You love him.”
“Yes,” Theone said. “I’ve heard of girls falling in love. I didn’t fall. I simply love him.”
“You had his child. You could go to him.”
“No,” Theone said, shaking her head.
“You’re afraid to.”
“Yes. He’s back. It’s new. It’s too new. When I woke up this morning he was dead and gone and I had learned to live with it. He was the only man who ever… Who I ever loved being with, and after him, after Saran died, I was never with another. I don’t know if I’d break him or he’d break me. I can’t go back to him. Do you understand?”
Anson nodded, thinking of Ohean, thinking of the lovers he’d met in the shadows of Kingsboro and the tents of war, thinking of the bleak beds he’d lain in after Ohean was gone, until Pol, his dear Pol who was now on the White Island..
Austin said, “I’ve spent half of my life loving a woman I could not love properly, then experiencing pleasure I could not understand. All the time I thought of the love of my life, who broke things off with me, who is in this very city right now. I still think of him, and you know what, Tea?”
She turned to him.
“As much as I want to find him, see his face again, touch his lips, the truth is I’m just as afraid as you of what will happen if we ever meet again.”

MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a well done portion! Interesting to read what happened to Gimble/Orem. At least Theone got to see him again though I don’t know what will happen with then. This plan to steal the stone sounds risky. I am very excited to see what happens next and that was some great writing!

 

[ChrisGibson]

All that has risen will fall, and all that passes will come again. All that is scattered shall be reclaimed. This is the only truth I know. I know it in the depth of my bones

- Isobel Tryvanwy Regina




Well, before Ohean was to bring it up, Mehta said that informing the hotel new companions had arrived could prove risky. She suggested Theone take Orem’s room, and the rest of them stay in her apartment. When Theone and Orem seemed reluctant about this, then Austin said, “The ladies in one room and the men in another. I’m not entirely sure where I will stay.”
When Anson pointed out that there were only two women, they simply split up in two groups and Mehta, sensing nerves between her master and his lady, put the first in one room, the last in another.
Mehta was used to waking up earlier than anyone else back home at the farm and certainly, even in the city, getting up well before Orem, so she was surprised when the door opened and he came through, yawning.
She stirred from the day bed and he made a wave to indicate she should go back to sleep, and then she turned over and did so. Had he gone to Theone? But that made no sense. They could have had the whole night. It sat in her mind; she needed to ask. But not now. Orem was moving about the room, and now he was climbing into bed. And now she could hear him snoring.

“Ahhh Ahhh. Ahhh God, Ah, ohh, ohh, that’s it. That’s it,”
The boy came down from his pleasure, murmuring over and over again, “That’s it. That’s it.”
He licked his lips and lay on his back, squeezing himself, feeling good inside and twisting his body touching himself lightly with the vibration of the pleasure.
“It’s sunrise already,” the blond haired boy said. “Should we get something to eat?”
“No, I’m not hungry,” Austin said, sitting up. “Hand me my shirt, will you?”
“In a hurry, are we?” the boy jested.
“Yes,” Austin said, receiving the shirt. “I am. I have to get back to where I’m staying.”
The boy handed Austin his pants and his underwear murmuring, “Are you cheating? A wife? Or maybe a man? Does he know? Are you sneaking back?”
Back to him, Austin unrumpled and shook out his shirt, slipping it on, his white back and buttocks disappearing from the boy’s view.
“I liked you better when you were silent,” he said, pulling on his briefs.
“I wasn’t silent at all last night. Or this morning. And you didn’t want me to be.”
The boy sat up on his elbow. “And I liked you a lot better when you just wanted to fuck me. You were a lot nicer.”
Austin stopped. He buckled his pants.
“I’m sorry about that. I don’t mean to be unkind. I just wanted us both to have a little fun. But it’s morning now, and I have to go, so…” Austin reached into his pocket and pulled ou some coins.
“I’m not a whore,” the boy said.
“I know. But I was. And last night I didn’t have to be. And… I just thought you might like to get something nice for yourself. Say… a breakfast roll. So take this,” Austin said.
He kissed him quickly, reached for his jacket, and then dipped out of the door.

“They’re not here,” Mehta told him when Austin returned.
“Everyone is up so early!” she said. “Theone and Ohean went to the market. I guess to get some breakfast. Anson is nowhere in sight. You’ve been out all night. Same as master?”
“Same as Master?”
“That’s right. Orem came in this morning around sunrise.” Mehta shrugged.
Austin moved through the room, scratching his head. “I think I know why,” he said, yawning.
“Yes,” Mehta said, quietly. “I think I do too.”
“I need a bath,” Austin told her.
The door opened and Orem stood there. “Mate, can I have a word with you?”
Mehta nodded and rose from her sewing.
“I have to talk to you,” he said.
She nodded, and followed him to the next room while he said, “Austin. The bathroom’s empty and the water should be hot again now.”
Austin looked at him and said, “Thank you.”
When Mehta and Orem were in the next room she said, “I’m all ears. I’m ears. What is it?”
“You saw me come in this morning.”
“Yes,” she tried to sound as diplomatic as possible.
“You suspect…. Something.”
“It’s not mine to suspect or not to—”
“Mehta.”
“Theone,” Mehta said. “I thought she was the one you loved. That you waited for. But you didn’t go to her, did you?”
When Orem said, “No.” there was no strength in his voice.
“You went to some…. Look, I know you. I know you are a handsome man, and tall and…. Maybe it makes you feel good that you can find a woman like that. Just go into a woman and that’s fine. Really, I don’t care. But it’s not fine when the woman you love is asleep in the next room and you can’t go to her. Why would you do it, Orem?”
“Because I wanted to be with her, but I was afraid of her,” he said.
Mehta said nothing.
“I was afraid of what would happen to me. To us. If I went to her. But last night I couldn’t not be with someone. So I did what I did. You weren’t supposed to know.”
Mehta, who had made a career out of hiding her true emotions, could not do it right now. She shook her head in bitter disappointment.
“It was wrong, Master. She’s a good woman. She’s a beautiful woman. A gracious lady.”
“I know.”
“And she has had so much unkindness in her life. I think she would understand it,” Metha said. “I think she would know why you did it. You’re so afraid of love, that you run to stick your wick in everything passing, and then pretend you’re doing it to whoever you love, and come back with shame on your face. You deserves better than that. And so does Theone.”
Orem had endured Mehta’s speeches before, but usually there was nothing to them. They were all air. This time she was serious and he was silent. He remained silent a little longer and then said:
“Listen, Mate. I promise I won’t go off and do what I did again. I… After I was on my own, after they turned me out I had to learn to function on my own, as a man. And as a man I learned fear. So I get afraid, and weak. You’re right. There have been times in the past when I went to women because I could. Because it was fun. But there were also times when I did it because I couldn’t bear to be alone. Or untouched. Last night was like that.
“If it happens happens again you can tell Tea. Tell Tea. But it won’t happen again, and for now I would ask you to forget it.”
“I would never tell Theone. That’s for you. I’m no judge, Master. I’m a housekeeper.”
“And more.”
“Yes,” Mehta said. “A friend.”



“Bring me my bowl, and bring me my spheres.”
Urzad nodded and disappeared. A few moments later the olive skinned young man returned with a laquer box and handed it to Phineas.
“Here you are, my lord. Will you be needing me?”
Phineas looked at him.
“For magic?”
“No,” the sorcerer shook his head. There was a great balcony, but a rice curtain was drawn between it and his view. “This will not be such a strong magic. Go take your rest.”
Urzad nodded. “Yes, Master. Thank you, Master.”
As Phineas opened the box set on his lap, Urzad turned to leave, and heading out the door, closing the door behind him, he wished that it was such a magic. On his own he was nothing. But those moments when the mighty Phineas took him and, in the cabin of the Brizhaard, or in this very room, used him as his very own Wand, and the two of them were the same flesh, he was filled with so much power.
“I am the only one living who knows what it is like to hold the High Priest of Shadows in my arms. Or be held by him. The only one whose skin he touches, or who has been entered by him. Or who has entered him in his need.”
It never made him feel proud, not exactly. There was never a moment when being possessed or even possessing Phineas made him feel as if he had power over the sorcerer. One night with the Dominix cut away all of those foolish ideas to the point that even after that first time, when there had been no magic, when he had been scarcely fifteen, and the Lord had turned to him and brought him to his chambers, he knew respect the whole time, respect when it was over. And fear. That first time as they were dressing again Phineas had told him “I chose you. I chose you because you were beautiful and your mind spoke to my own. And great things will come of you, Urzad. You will be mine.”
“Urzad!” Phineas called.
Tonight, Urzad pushed open the doors and came into the hall. It floors were like polished black glass, and the hall was cool, low and wide. Phineas was in white. He said, “I have seen a star. The star was descending.”
“Master?”
Phineas waved it off.
“It would only have a meaning to me,” Phineas explained. “But the star descended into this city and… What it means is that I need a guard summoned.”
“Yes,” Urzad turned around.
“Urzad?”
“Yes, Lord?” Urzad turned around.
There was a rare smile on Phineas’s face and he said, “Wouldn’t you like to know why I need a guard summoned?”
Urzad only said, “You are my lord. You commanded it. I was doing it.”
Phineas nodded, pleased. That was the thing about him, what Urzad understood and what made his being a Wand possible. Someone this powerful did not have to intimidate. He just had to be. There was never a moment when he was not powerful.
“An old enemy,” Phineas said. “An ancient enemy is here. He thinks to come into my city and take the Stone from the House of the Bright One. And I want him found.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“Oh, yes,” Phineas said. “At the Hotel known as Whitefoot.”


TOMORROW NIGHT WE WILL RETURN TO WORKS AND DAYS

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a great portion! I hope Gimble/Orem at least talks to Theone. They definitely have unfinished business. Sounds like the plan to steal the stone is becoming known. I am very interested to see how both of these situations work out. Excellent writing and I look forward to Works and Days tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

I didn't know you had read already. What a delight and surprise. Well, that is the unfortunate things with wizards doing wizard business, Other wizards may learn about it . We'll see soon enough what Ohean has up his sleeve. Glad you enjoyed and, as always, thank you for reading.

 

[ChrisGibson]

In Nava, the enemy is in hot pursuit of Ohean and his companions....


NAVA


“It is a beautiful day. Hard to believe we’re doing what we’re going to do and not only shopping,” Theone had noted, but Austin, who had become especially grave, and even put aside all eyeliner since he’d arrived in Zahem, said nothing.
“Austin, dear, what is it?”
Austin had stopped looking at the sights and looked to Theone She had not known him in Kingsboro, only heard tales of his leather wardrobe, his dramatic eyeliner and cultured ways. On the road he had a three days growth of beard and, lately, weary eyes.
“As you think of Orem, so I think of him,” Austin said, pointing to the complex of buildings to the north.
Theone looked to the Temple and then away. Ahead of her, Ohean was entering a book shop.
“It isn’t only Skabelund,” Austin looked to the buildings that lay beside the Temple, the great Takarand Palace on one side of it, and on the other, the Lion House, the Palace of the Prophet and his Old Council and his Young Council, most of it taken over by Phineas.
“It isn’t only Skabelund,” Austin said, at last. “It’s everyone. I may not seem very religious, and I cannot say that I am. But these are my people. That boy is my Prophet. I was there when he was selected, and now…”
“Now they’re going to kill him,” Theone said. “They will kill him, no doubt about that.”


“I got you something at the bazaar.”
Anson, who was polishing his sword, looked up, scowling and said, “We have work to do. You can’t just run around buying presents in bazaars, especially since someone might know you.”
“You’re welcome, and I love you too,” Ohean said.
Anson slowly put the gleaming blade down and Theone looked upon it. She had never seen it unsheathed. Beautiful, like water it was, all mottled patterns flowing beneath it. Almost, she could hear it moving like flowing water, as if, should her eyes leave it, this metal would flow, and the letters etched upon it, which she did not understand seemed to almost writhe under her sight.
Ohean placed in Anson’s hands a large book, bound in leather, chased in gold swirling patterns, and then, while the Hace held the book like a plate, he gave him a silver pen.
“What is this?”
“It’s a book for you to write all of your poems, and all of your songs. And whatever else you wish,” Ohean began.
“I’m such an ass,” Anson said.
“Occasionally, yes.”
Roughly, Anson pulled Ohean down beside him and kissed him. on the cheek.

Down in the courtyard, where the water was rippling in the large fountain, Theone found Orem.
“Here’s the thing, Austin,” Orem said, “I actually think I can love you.”
“I hope so,” Theone said. “I’m pretty sure that I can love you too.”
“Last night, when I left,” Orem said, “I went off with some strange girl. I woke up with her this morning.”
Theone said, “Men do such things.”
“If we are together,” Orem began, “if you allow me to be with you, I will not do such things. But, I would not press you into anything. We are not back in that horrible castle that is so different from the way things should be. I am not that stupid boy.”
“Nor I the silly girl.”.
Orem had been pacing about the fountain. Now he kissed Theone quickly, and she did not move away, but held him to him.
“I love you,” he said again, kissing her. “That’s what I want to be to you. The one who loves you. I want to love you.” Orem breathed.
There, in the cool darkness, to the rippling of water, Theone held Orem’s face, as if looking at him for the first time.
“We were always together,” Orem discovered. “Always. I just came and joined you again. After a long time.”
“Is it safe to come out?” Ohean called. He was in a black open robe over traveling clothes, the hood down.
Theone and Orem both smiled, laughing a little.
“Yes. Yes it’s fine.”
“Oh, good,” Anson added, coming out next, the magnificent sword sheathed in its scabbard.
“I have a feeling we don’t have long to stay here,” Anson said, “And Austin and Mehta have everything packed away.”
“Excellent!” the clear voice of a woman spoke from behind Orem.
Orem jumped, turning around his hand to the knife at his side, and Theone turned, wondering. A woman in blue with thick black hair was looking down at them where, a moment before, there had been no one.
“Yarrow!” Ohean said the same time as Theone, and both of them looked to each other.
“I have been traveling many nights to reach you,” she said.
“This is my sister,” Ohean
Anson looked at him. “You have a sister?”
“And brothers too,” Yarrow said. “In a way, at least. The story is too long to tell here. For now I’ve come to get you and your friends out of this hotel, and not a moment too soon.”
Ohean nodded curtly, heading back into the hotel and Anson, always a man of action, leapt after him and up the stairs, but Theone and Orem were still waiting for Yarrow who said, in a low voice: “Phineas, the one who calls himself High Priest of Mozhudak, knows you are here. And he has sent his men to come and kill you. They’re on their way. Right now.”






“What are you looking at?”
“Don’t make me jump,” Prince Rendan cried, climbing from where he had knelt in the high space looking out of the window.
“I was looking across the way, the other side of that temple. Phineas has sent a whole troop of men through the city, searching for someone.”
Ethan folded his hands together and said, “Who, I wonder?”
Rendan shrugged.
“Whoever it is they have my sympathies. And we are to dine again together tonight. That Urvad or Urzad or whatever he calls himself—”
“Phineas’s Wand?”
“Phineas’s boy whore! Yes. He came across the way with the message that we are cordially invited to attend Phineas’s palace tonight for supper. I am sure you are expected to be there too.”
Rendan growled and muttered, “He’s such a canker. Gods, and I’ll inherit a land with him and his fiends in it.”
Ethan had said nothing this whole time, and Rendan said, “In Chyr, you have no Black Stars and you have none of Phineas’s priests do you?”
“We have enchanters,” Ethan said, “though not so many as the sorcerers you have here. We have mostly loremasters, men with a little magic and much knowledge. And of course we have knights. I am a knight. But… nothing like a Black Star.”
Rendan shook his head and Ethan said, “When you are king you can change all this.”
“All of this has never changed,” Rendan said. “It’s been this way from the beginning. And my father is mighty. Before him so was my grandfather. They chafed under Phineas, who is eternal—”
“No man is eternal.”
“Phineas is no man,” Rendan said. “Not truly. And none know where he comes from. Some have said that of old he came from across the Sea. Personally, I think he came from hell. But wherever he came from, ah, if he would only go back there!”
“Rendan,” Ethan said. “The truth is that you don’t know what you will do when you are king, or how strong you will be. And you can do what your fathers never did: make alliances with the Royan kingdoms. Who knows? In your lifetime there could be an end of Phineas.”
“Would you help me?” said Rendan. “When we’re out of all this. When you’re out of all this. Surely, since you’re a prince you will be a king—”
“No,” Ethan said, flatly.
Rendan looked on him.
“I will never be King. In the House of Chyr there are many princes and princesses close to the throne. But the Queen, Ermengild, has lived many years. Her husband was a prince of Alcontradi, royal blooded like herself, distant kin. They had many children together. But Ermengild gained the wrath of a Fair Woman, and she cursed her seed. All of her children died but for a twin daughters, Jergen and Sehana. Jergen went to find the Beryl of Elladyl, the White Stone. But she was taken away and never seen again. Sehana, her sister died by poison and we went after her killers and, at last, found them. But with Sehana gone, it was then that I took it upon myself to find Jergen and, if it were possible, the Stone.”
Rendan nodded his head, and sitting silently across from Ethan, he said, “And that is why you are here? In this land?”
“I found out what became of Essnara. Yes! I knew her daughter. She had been taken as a thrall by the Black Star, misused, but it does not matter. She is still an heir to the Throne. I never told her this. It seemed cruel and useless at the time.
“But the Beryl I still hope to find. I told that girl, through, Essnara’s daughter, that I would return to her with the Stone and so, you see, I will not consider my task complete until I have found the Beryl, which is the White Stone of Elial, and the Princess Theone.”


The great wicket doors of the Whitefoot flew open and, Urzad at the head of them, troops in black poured into the red carpeted lobby.
The matre de opened his mouth for a fraction of a second to protest, but shut his mouth as Urzad motioned for a third of the men to head up the stairs, and the rest to swarm through the hotel, into the courtyard where old folk and lovers were startled in the midst of taking their ease.
There was no shouting or screaming; one just got out of the way. All of these men were not Black Stars. This was police work, but there were a few Hands in charge of everything. Once, on the second floor, there was a shout.
“This is the room! The Master said these would be the rooms.”
They waited for Urzad, but he shouted, “What are you idiots waiting for?” and then the captain kicked open the door to Mehta’s chambers.
There were three or four women in the room and Urzad saw they were all maids.
“That’ll cost us something,” a plump old woman said folding her fists on her hips.
“Check the next room!” Urzad barked, ignoring her.
While men left, some through the balcony, for the room that had been Orem’s, the old maid said, “I hope you don’t check that one the way you did this, and if you do, please leave money for repairs.”
“Old woman,” Urzad said, his voice dark with rage, “what has happened to the people who were in these rooms?”
“Oh,” she said, folding her hands over her belly, “it were delightful, it were. Well, first they were a delightful lot. I jess have to say that. And anyways, this beautiful—well, all the women were beautiful, even the one what was a farmer’s maid—anyway this one comes in. She’s dark and chocolately like a westerner and she says, we’ve got a few seconds to leave and then they’re comin’ fer us. And I spect you’re the they.”
“They’re gone,” a man returned from Orem’s room, with his unnecessary report.
“What direction did they go?” Urzad demanded of the old woman.
“Why the direction you came,” she smiled at him. “Out of that door.”
Urzad’s knuckles turned white, and just then, the old woman, who was apparently impervious to rage and the wrath of the Black Star, reached into one of her pockets and said, “The chief one. He was handsome and brown and something real fun, they called him Ash, wrote this. He said you were to give it to your Master, whichever that is.”
Urzad nodded rapidly while the woman handed him the note and he opened it to read:



MISSED ME.
BOO.

NOW MY TURN TO FIND YOU!

HA HA HA!

YOURS SINCERELY,

O.

Even in his rage, Urzad looked the note over and wondered…. Not A for Ash. No. It was definitely O.


MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Great to get back to this story! I am glad Orem and Theone sorted things out. Looks like that group got away just in time! Excellent writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

TURNTHISTLE
FARM


Dissenbark was sitting on the porch that went along the side of Turnthistle Farmhouse, and looked out on the road.
“That’s some strangeness,” she said to herself, and wrapping her shawl about her, she went inside the house. She liked the flagstone floors of the kitchen, and the afternoon sun struck them half golden. When she was lost in the peace of this large, quiet kitchen, she forgot the worries she generally felt. The questions like, “Where are they? What has become of them?” She wished she’d gone on to the city with them, knew how they were right now. Waking up this morning, in a beautiful bed with the smell of Arvad’s cooking, something that ought to have been a gift, was too much for her when she didn’t know what had become of Theone or Anson or Ohean.
“Arvad,” she said to the young man who was stirring a pot of soup and attending to the bread and the roast—would that she could find such a man—“there’s some folk coming down the road.”
“Um,” Arvad said, shutting the oven door. “We should go out and meet them.
They had both assumed that travelers coming down this road would stop at Turnthistle. It was the very first farm on the road out of the Dauman Gate, and the nearest city was Nava. They came out of the front door, the same wide barn door that they had seen their friends away from only a few days before. Up the road a dark haired, fresh faced man was coming, accompanied by a woman of middle years with dark golden skin and fair pale hair, riding a mare. Hers was tied back in a long ponytail. Probably, Dissenbark thought, they could both use a bath, but they looked more as if they were tired children worn out from a day of fun than world weary travelers.
“Nearer and nearer,” Arvad said. And then he said, “I like the look of them. Especially him, but then apparently I like the look of anyone.”
“Nonsense,” Dissenbark said. “You liked the look of Austin, and of Anson, and that’s well, for he’s well worth the looking at.”
“Halloo!” the man on the horse called, waving his hand. “Halloo!”
He whispered in the roan’s ear a little, and the roan sped up while the woman and her mare maintained the same pace. As the man approached, Arvad shouted, “Hail. Stay with us the night. Supper’s on in a bit, and you can get a wash up if you like.”
“I’ll attend to your horse,” Dissenbark said to the woman who dismounted with the grace of a true rider.
“I am Arvad. And this is Turnthistle Farm. I am caring for it while my master is away. This is Dissenbark and she is staying with us for a time.”
Dissenbark nodded and put her hands to the reins saying, “Lovely horse. Beautiful lady.”
“Thank you, and thank you,” the woman spoke first while the dark haired young man thanked them too and then stepped forward, beaming, and shook both of their hands briskly. “I’m a traveler. I’m just a fool on his way, really. My friend who accompanies me is Aunt Birch. We are headed toward Immrachyr. My name is Kenneth.”



Aunt Birch immediately went to the kitchen to help Dissenbark and Arvad.
“Lady, it isn’t necessary,” Arvad said.
“What would we do?” she asked, smiling mildly, “simply watch you?”
So all four of them helped put the dinner on. Moments later, as the sun was painting the evening sky golden, Kenneth, face washed, and promised a bath, sat at the large, rough table, unable to stop smiling.
“I don’t have much to tell,” he said. “I can’t remember anything before a few days ago. All I know is that I can’t stop laughing, and I can’t stop smiling.” He added, “and I have the feeling that I haven’t really ever done much of either.”
Arvad had insisted on doing everything himself, but Dissenbark said this was foolish. When Kenneth offered to help she said, “This is foolish too. You’ve been traveling all day.”
Dissenbark had been tending to a horse for the better part of a half hour and she smelled like it. It was no easy work, but her continuing to work, for some reason, did not seem foolish to her in the least.
Aunt Birch had set down white plates. Lovely white dishes were on the rough table by thick glasses filled with purple wine. There was a jug of milk and hot loaf of golden brown bread, steaming by a saucer with a ball of yellow butter the size of a little fist. And the soup that came to the table was bright-brown red.
How calm this Aunr Birch was. What a creature of mystery, humming a song to herself. And how like… someone. Oh, this Aunt Birch was like her, surely. She knew it, but how did you ask a woman such a question.
Dissenbark looked out of the great picture window of wavy old glass, and seeing the sunset staining the rim of the sky red and orange and purple, she was inspired to sing the evening prayer.




Oh, Blessed She,
Who causes winds to rustle
Through the crops like hands
through hair
Bless us I dare to pray
Bowing down before your beauty
Placeing my knees upon your lap
And my head upon thy breasts


O lady, come now through the cracks
With all your light and sweetness!

Aunt Birch touched her hand lightly and sang in a high voice to match Dissenbark’s alto:

Like a breeze through the drafty window
Or the rainwater through the rent in a bell
Or the wind in the sail
Like glue
Sugary syrup
Like sap
Like honey in the cleft of the rock.



Dissenbark turned to Birch, her eyes smiling. Yes, a sister so far from home. The men at the table were looking up at them both. Dissenbark’s voice was, like the last three nights she had sung, always a surprise to Arvad, and Aunt Birch’s was lovely to Kenneth, but now the two women sang together. As they prepared to eat, and night drew on, despite everything and despite all of Dissenbark’s own fears, for this moment, the blessing of peace was cast over them, and they were still.


CHAPTER CONCLUSION


Tomorrow more of Book of the Burning and the beginning of Part Two of Works and Days

 

[CharmedFan28]

That was a beautiful chapter conclusion! Nice to come home to this writing. I look forward to more of it and Works and Days tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

NORTHERN ESSAIL

THE ABBEY OF SAINT REMAYE



They stayed at the Abbey of Saint Remaye. Kings had, or so they thought, power by strength, and priests gained their power by superstition, Rufus assumed, but the Abbess of Saint Clew gained her power mainly through reputation, both of the abbey and of her person, and she had convinced the Abbess Longerin to host Queen Hermudis and himself.
As Rufus sat across from the Queen his cousin, he thought, but then she is the great granddaughter of Ifandell Modet, and a devout follower of her teachings. This is another reason this nun was so quick to house us, I am sure.
And yet, like that long dead teacher and sorceress, Hermudis had a certain high handedness, and she was surely displaying it now.
“Cousin,” he began, and she noticed he did not say, sister. “I feel that what you are saying is that these wars center around you.”
Hermudis blinked at him, ever the cool one she, witch, princess, queen.
“I am merely asking what you would ask of the south. My daughter is the Queen of Westrial, and the child in her womb will sit on Westrial’s throne.”
“If it’s a boy.”
Hermudis repeated, “The child in her womb will sit on Westrial’s throne.”
Hermudis was not used to the Sendic lands. She thought this was Armor or the West where they suffered a woman to rule over them. Or change them. Never mind. Let her speak.
“Bohemond is marrying the new King of Essail’s sister.”
“You mean that murderess’s daughter.”
“Enough of that,” Hermudis said. “Who with a crown on their head that fought their way to a throne did not have blood on their hands? My point is we are in bed with Westrial and Essail and by that token, Senach.”
“And by we you mean you and Raoul.”
“I was hoping I meant you and me.”
“And that, Cousin,” Rufus said, “is the problem.”
“You are Edmund’s heir,” Hermudis said. “There is no other. I only want to know, when the time comes will you be content with Inglad and leave the south on its own, or will you try to bring the south to you?”
“As ally, or as territory?”
“Either way.”
“I will have Hale,” Rufus said. “All of it. And King Cedd is allied to Rheged.”
“Not yet. As yet he has sent no troops.”
“If he does I will move against him,” Rufus said. “And your daughter. Rest assured.
“Ah! There is. Those tiger eyes.”
“Have a care, Rufus,” Hermudis warned.
The bells were ringing from the carillon, and Rufus was smiling.
“Should we go pray?” he asked his cousin. “Together?”
Hermudis had always thought that when she was not surre what to say the best thing was nothing at all, complete stillness. It was with this stillness she rose and, saying not a word, went to the chapel, followed by her cousin.
How grasping he had always been. Born a bastard he had always wished for power and honor that she had taken for granted. Best to clear her mind, to not even think of him at the moment, to allow the chanting of the monks to flow over her.

Karaniya mattha kusalena,
Yan tam santam padam abhi-samecca;
Sakko uju ca suhuju ca,
Suvaco cassa mudu anatimani.

Santussako ca subharo ca,
Appakicco ca sallahukavutti;
Santindriyo ca nipako ca,
Appagabbho kulesu ananu giddho.


God, oh God, oh God, Sometimes all you could do was cry out to God.

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.

In the midst of the nuns chanting, a courier came into the chapel, and Hermudis looked up for only a moment. It had to be important. Anything unimportant would have waited for the office to end. Rufus, looking so pious, so homely as usual, so not a king, stood up with his half brother, this Richard who was nothing, really, and they left.
Hermudis violated her usual patience and piety to crane her head and look past the chantry door to the vestibule where she saw Richard, the courier and Rufus, his eyes wide with panic.
Hermudis turned back to the chanting, smiling, attempting to look serene, wondering what it was that had distressed her cousin so, thinking:
Sometimes all you can do is cry out to God.


“Phineas has entered Zahem!”
“And this means?”
“Oh you’re a cool one!” Rufus shook his head, scowling at Hermudis as he moved across the room like a fuming lion.
“He has entered Zahem with Phineas.”
“That old sorcerer!”
“They are taking over the Temple in Nava.”
“Which, as I remember, was theirs to begin with.”
“They are calling up all of the Black Star.”
“Have they invaded Zahem?”
“No, cousin,” Rufus said. “they have not invaded Zahem. They have been invited in. The Prophet has been set aside. The forces of Zahem, which are numerous, have been joined to Solahn.”
“Whatever could they be doing that for?” Hermudis inquired innocently.
Rufus glowered at her and she said, again, “Cousin… what… could… they… be doing that… for?”
“To invade Daumany.”
“Um,” Hermudis murmured, turning to her tea and pouring another cup. “Looks like you might have to ally yourself to Sussail. Or to Armor. Maybe,” she lifted the cup to her lips, “even to Westrial. Inglad seems a bit far away from where you need to be.”
“Inglad is a place I cannot be anyway,” Rufus said.
“Why is that?” Hermudis asked, face passive.
“Osric Wulfstan abducted my cousin. Edmund is in Hale, kept prisoner with Allyn, and Edith has declared herself Regent.”
“And your troops?”
“Are on their way back to Daumany.”
“Because they heard of what’s going on down south?” Hermudis sat up. “But that makes no sense.”
“No,” Rufus said, “because someone sent a letter with my signet saying I had sent them back. We are all going back to Daumany. We are going in the morning.”
He looked at her with suspicion. She was a witch. Everyone knew it, but what were the limits of her power? Still, the thing about suspecting a witch, especially one with a crown on her head, is that one never dared ask. And so he did not. He only nodded curtly.
“Cousin.”
“Brother,” she returned with the correct address, and he turned on his heel to leave.
Hermudis sighed deeply, crossing her hands on her lap. Alone, she reflected, “Sometimes all you can do is call out to God.”
And sometimes She answers.




SUNDERLAND



Teryn Wesley gripped the back board of the bed, making a wounded noise while, ass pushed out, his hands reaching back, he invited Cody Willams to fuck him. He opened his eyes once or twice and turned his head to the mirror at the dresser, and in it he could see the look on Cody’s face, the knitted brow, the almost frown, that intensity strong as fire. He reached behind him until he seized Cody’s hair and pulled his face into his back.
“Fuck!” he cried out, feeling the sweat roll down his body. “Fuck me.”
They rubbed their cheeks against each other and Cody reached up to pull down Teryn’s face and kiss him. Teryn’s hands were in his hair and running down his body. They stood up now and Teryn pulled down Cody’s face, and his hand clutched at Cody’s sex. Cody moaned while Teryn stroked him there, and then he went on his hands and knees and took him in his mouth, and Teryn’s hands planted down on his head, rubbing, massaging, touching his ears, stroking his shoulders. Teryn’s strong thighs pulled Cody in and gripped him while his lover’s mouth traveled down the shaft, over the balls, and turning him over, entered the cleft of his ass. His tongue darted in Teryn, and as Teryn cried out, gripping his shoulders tighter, Cody took his cock and massaged it, feeling his own harden, feeling a drop of semen trickle out of him. He began to massage himself, and as Teryn cried out, he cried out too, his lips kissing his ass, his tongue licking, delving deeper inside until, in that room, they were in a place very far from anyone else where Teryn’s pleasure was his own, and Teryn passed from feeling Cody into almost being Cody, understanding the pleasure, joining with his lover’s desire while, in sighs and moans, they became one.

Teryn wondered why it was like this. He’d been with many men, and certainly his experiences with Anthony, and with the King especially, were full of both love and pleasure. But this was different. Maybe because Cody was the same in age as him. Maybe because Cody had been inexperienced, and they had to work their way to this, because each new thing was just that, a new thing.
“What in the world are you thinking?” Cody said, his voice going slightly country.
Teryn said, “I think too much, you know? I sit in my own head, talking to myself, thinking about thinking.”
“It means you’re smart.”
“Does it?” Teryn wondered. “I think it just means I think that I’m smart. Which isn’t the same.”
And then, because he didn’t want to think that way, and what he had just said sounded too clever by half, Teryn added, as he hooked his thigh over Cody’s and pulled him closer, “Actually, I think it means I’m lonely.”
“Well,” Cody started to say, “you don’t have to be—”
But just then there was a knock at the door which was just as well because Cody had been about to say, “Well, you don’t have to be lonely,” to tell the lie many men had told in the past. Cody was a servant attached to the royal castle of Essail, and in a matter of days, Teryn would be heading back to Kingsboro.
“Come—” Teryn began, feeling his voice go froggy. He cleared it.
“Coming.”
He climbed out of bed and began dressing and Cody said, “Where should I go?”
“Just put the blanket over you. The bed’s so rumpled and you’re so little, no one’ll see you.”
He answered the door in his nightshirt and blinked in surprised to see the Lady Eva.
“Lord Wesley, sorry to disturb so late at night,” the honey haired girl said. “The Queen requests your presence immediately.”
While Teryn looked surprised, Eva pointed over his shoulder to the rumpled bedpile and said, “And you are to bring my cousin as well.”

The whole time they were on their way, Cody kept murmuring to himself, “How did Eva know?” then he would say, “But Eva knows everything. She always knows.”
“Cody,” Teryn said, as they approached the Queen’s door.
Cody looked at him.
Coolly, Teryn placed a finger over his closed lips, then he knocked on the door.
“Lord Wesley, Cody, please come in,” the Queen sounded gracious and lovely and all the things Teryn knew Morgellyn was not.
They met here in the antechamber of what had been King Stephen’s quarters where a small wooden throne was kept for private gatherings. Even late at night, Morgellyn was well dressed in a bed gown of green and yellow silk from Itzumi, her golden hair pulled back by a comb.
“Lord Wesley,” she said, “I have a favor to ask you and I know full well it is a favor, for you are a highly reverenced member of my lord brother’s court. This is why I am trusting such a request to you, and should you reject me, I will simply find another more free.”
Teryn genuflected, wishing he’d worn a hat so he could doff it for show.
“Only ask, Your Grace.”
“My daughter, the Princess Linalla has momentarily left the court of Essail to visit my aunt in Senach, and I would have you escort her back to Sunderland. I want all of my children under one roof.”
Teryn was still thinking while he was on one knee.
She doesn’t trust her children in Sussail. Which means she doesn’t trust Hermudis. It would be better to bring her back to Kingsboro, further from the war front. But… would she trust Isobel?
“Lord Wesley,” Morgellyn began, “is there something on your mind?”
“Your Grace,” Teryn said, standing up, “I was thinking that if you are looking for Linalla’s safety, it would be better to bring her to Kingsboro.”
Unless you no longer trust your brother.
The same thing seemed to be going through Morgellyn’s mind, for she did not answer straightaway. It was always possible that her plans for her children were less than noble, and what could she do when they were far from her? Perhaps she even wondered what Isobel would do with Linalla, perhaps complete the marriage to Bohemond behind her back? Ah, but a Queen must not seem untrusting, especially not toward her own kin.
“Have you heard from my brother, Anson?”
“No, Lady, none of us has.”
She would have sent her to Ondres. Close to Senach, far from Cedd and Isobel.
“A shame,” Morgellyn said, sitting back.
“Well,” she said at last, “yes, I would have you bear her to Kingsboro. I really believe that soon, and very soon, it will not be necessary, but it would be good for her to see her uncle and her soon to be sister. Surely you would love to see your home again. And, of course, you will take Cody with you.”
Cody smiled fiercely, looking a bit like a goblin, and Teryn realized, That was her play. She knows Cody has a hold over me. She knows Cody was all I needed to go on any journey she would send.
Well then, he thought, as he and Cody were marching down the hall, back to his apartments, let us see what happens when it is only the two of us and a willful princess, and we are all far from this grey castle!

MORE NEXT WEEK

 

[CharmedFan28]

Wow lots going on but in a good way. It’s nice that I have the weekend to re-read. Great writing and I look forward to more in a few days!

 

[ChrisGibson]

AMBRIDGE




That night the bells rang in Castle Whitestone and her ladies came to wake the distraught Queen.
“Your Grace! Your Grace! He’s found!”
As Edith Baldwin combed out her hair and searched blindly for a veil, and one of her maids handed her a white one, she asked, “My husband? The King is safe?”
“Lady no. Your brother.”
“Praise God!” the Queen clasped her hands and then reached for her heavy black beads, and they left her rooms, and then set down the corridors to the great hall.
“Cousin Edith!” Lingelde was crying. “Cousin, he’s found.”
“He’s found!” Ardith crief, pushing her hair out of her face as the fair haired women, on either side of her brother, supported Allyn, covered in soot with one black eye and a bruise on his cheek. His clothes were ripped and his armor gone
“Brother,” she pulled Allyn to her, weeping.




NAVA


Well, they had not been caught. That was plain. Urzad held onto the note all through the day, and waited for the supper where the King would attend.
Phineas’s palace was to the right of the Temple, and the complex of golden colored palaces that made the Takarand was behind it. From there a small party all in white and gold, except for Ethan, in red and white like a sore thumb, crossed the court. It seemed to Urzad, from his rooms above them, that as he watched them walk past the Temple, on the broad path of crushed stones and disappear into the entrance of Phineas’s palace, they did their best to ignore the ancient structure.
“Why do I feel like I’ve just walked into the adder’s lair?” Rendan whispered to Ethan as they came into the receiving hall, it’s black marble shining like glass, torches in its green pillars and white stoned walls.
Behind the king, who was already being greeted by functionaries, Ethan smiled at the prince and said, “Because you have.”

Urzad did not know if he would be summoned to dinner and, certainly, he did not actually want to be. When one of the serving men came up to his rooms, he sighed and dressed. He knew there was not time for a bath. Inside his vest he placed the note, knowing he should give it to his master, certain no good could come of it.

The dining hall was lit well that night. It was almost never used, generally locked. Tonight, though, it was filled with blazing chandeliers, the only place in the palace completely of white stone and white marble. Here were lords and ladies who had come with the king. There were some of the heads of the leading families in the city. The Prophet was not here, and Rendan felt sorry for someone who was not much younger than he, and for those who had sided with him. Their days were numbered, and Rendan wondered if the Black Robes could get rid of the One Prophet of the Zahem, how long Phineas would suffer his father or himself?
Here again were, in black, priests of the Temple, and at the head of the great table, his face bland, was Phineas. The King had already been seated at the other head, and beside him were his son and then Ethan.
What was being said at the table largely went over Rendan’s head. It was not important. Urzad assumed that his master was getting the better of these men, and then suddenly he heard:
“Urzad?”
His name called. It was so quiet, without emotion, but it cut across the whole room, and even though few knew who Urzad was, all eyes were on him now, and the music had stopped, and he found himself rising.
“Urzad,” Phineas spoke again. “Today’s search for our enemy did not succeed?”
“No, Master,” Urzad heard himself saying. All he could think of was that silly old woman. Or was she just flat out disrespectful?
“I have reason to believe you do have something for me,” Phineas said. “Don’t you?”
And Urzad found his hand in his breast pocket, and he was saying, “Yes, Master.”
Urzad produced the note and Phineas, from the head of the table said:
“Urzad, please bring me the note.”
And so he did. It seemed like a very long walk, and it was a very silent walk, up to the seat of Phineas. He wasn’t afraid of anything, but right now he was afraid, and he handed the letter to Phineas who opened it, and read it. For the first time ever, and this was only for a fraction of a second, Phineas’s face looked wild, and then it actually looked, almost, not completely, afraid.
He folded the letter and it disappeared into his robes.
“Thank you, Urzad. Please, sit down, Urzad.”
Urzad turned around, making the long walk back to his seat, and thinking how he had expected his master to be angry, enraged, perhaps at him. But not afraid.
The music began again, and the hall was filled with the low buzz of chatter. Urzad wondered why his apparent escape from punishment did not make him feel any better.



AMBRIDGE




“Leave us,” the Queen said to her servants.
When Ardith and Lingelde remained, she said, “Girls? You too. For a moment.”
“We’re just glad to see you alive!” Ardith said, kissing Allyn.
“And don’t forget to hold that to your head,” Lingelde pushed the cold towel into his hand.
“And give yourself time to rest. You take on so much. We all love you—”
“Ardith!” Edith snapped.
“She’s such a witch sometimes,” Lingelde murmured as the two girls left, closing the door behind them.
Allyn, long legs spread out before him as he held the towel to his black eye, laughed a little until he coughed, and then he winced.
“Well,” Edith said, running a long finger around the pewter mouth of her wine cup, “you certainly did lay it on a bit thick.”
“Had to make it convincing, sister.”
“The black eye… The cuts.”
“I had Roderick do it.”
“And he did it? He did it so well. One should wonder about a friend like that.”
“Damn you,” Allyn said, lightly. “He was light with it first, but I told him this was serious and I would do him almost as rough.”
“And you did.”
“And now we are the…” Allyn waved a long hand about languidly, “sole survivors of Osric Wulfstan’s ambush.”
Edith frowned, looking down at herself, then said, “But did you have to ruin my gown?”
“Convincing sister, convincing.”
“Yes,” she said. “And you killed the Dauman soldiers.”
“A shame that was, but necessary.”
“But what of ours?”
“Guarding your rat bastard of a husband.”
“Good,” Edith said. “Soon they’ll be killing him.
“Well,” Edith rose, brushing her gown, “we had better go back to bed. We’ve a long day tomorrow, many long days, actually. We have a kingdom to take back and Hale be damned for now.”
“And Rufus’s troops gone? Thank God for that.”
“Well,” Edith said, “you can thank God all you want, but you’d do better thanking Morgellyn.”
“Queen Morgellyn? In Essail?”
“Yes, she sent me Richard’s signet ring, and that bit of international diplomacy is going to cost. Unlike God, Morgellyn Aethelyn never does anything from sheer goodwill.”


MORE TOMORROW

 

[CharmedFan28]

Excellent to get back to this story! It seems like events are really coming to a head! I hope the group of characters we have gotten to know so well don’t get caught. Great writing and I look forward to more tomorrow!

 

[ChrisGibson]

Well, you're certainly right. I mean for a while you've said and it's looked like things are coming to a head, but it seems to be the real thing now. We'll see what happens to Ohean and his companions soon ,but I'm banking they'll make it out okay.