The Eighth Warden Bk. 04 Ch. 13-14

"There was something else I learned in Cordaea," he started. "What do you know about warden gifts?" He kept his voice even, trying not to sound accusatory. Yelena had claimed she'd told him everything he needed to know.

"Gifts? What gifts?" Her expression was puzzled.

"The First mentioned them, and Three told me more."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Each warden has a gift—something to do with their magic. I think the First's is the way he can talk to us in our dreams. That's what he hinted at, anyway. Three's gift is related to her magic, too."

Yelena stared at him for a moment before turning back to the bay with a thoughtful look on her face. "Warding spells," she said. "It's got to be. I warded the entire city against demons, and I don't even have to renew the wards. I can just maintain them in my mind. I figured I'd just never met anyone else who was really good with warding spells before, but now it makes more sense. What about you?"

"I don't know yet. I haven't noticed anything unusual."

"You can cast arcane spells while wearing metal armor," Yelena mentioned. "That's unusual."

That was a simple enough answer. Perhaps it was the right one.

#

Wolf could run faster than any normal beast could move. With his mind whole once more, and his connection to the totemic realm fully restored, he no longer even needed to take time to eat or sleep.

His current quarry, however, was proving frustratingly elusive. The bird flew low to the ground, dodging trees and keeping well out of Wolf's reach. When it got too far ahead, it landed and checked behind itself to make sure he was still following. Then, just before he could catch up, it took off again.

Raven, stop! he called out in his mind. Can't you hear me?

The raven ignored him, flying between two trees into a large clearing, then changing directions and disappearing from sight behind the foliage.

Wolf burst into the clearing, his gaze darting back and forth, but the raven was nowhere to be found. Fifty feet away, atop a short mound of earth, was a broken-down shrine in the style the humans had once used when they wished to communicate with the totems. Judging by the shrine's appearance, they no longer did so.

Wolf stalked forward cautiously, sniffing the air. Just before he reached the stone structure, he felt a tug on his tail, and then a stinging sensation. He whirled around to find the bird flitting away with a tuft of his fur in its beak, as if it was a fledgling raven attempting to convince a wolf pup to play, rather than one of the oldest sentient beings in existence.

Raven flew in a circle around the clearing before alighting at the top of the shrine, where there once would have been a stone carving indicating which totem it was dedicated to. The bird stared down at Wolf, its head cocked to the side as if mocking him.

Raven! Wolf called again. Listen to me!

Raven stayed put this time rather than flying off again.

What happened? Wolf asked. I found Bear, but he couldn't speak. Where's Eagle? How long have I been gone?

Raven didn't respond, but there was a hint of intelligence left in his eyes that Wolf hadn't seen in Bear's.

Was it Snake? Wolf said. Did Snake do this to you?

There was no answer.

What was Snake up to? Why kill everyone? With Deception as his aspect, Snake had always been able to hide from any sort of scrying magic, making it harder to see how his interference would affect future probabilities.

Wolf's last memory before the long darkness had come when he'd been exploring northern Aravadora and had encountered a small gathering of humans conducting a strange ritual around a shrine dedicated to Snake. Wolf hadn't even been aware that there were shrines to Snake. There had been something odd about the man conducting the ritual—odd, yet familiar. Before Wolf had figured out the puzzle, Snake arrived, the first time Wolf had seen his brother in centuries.

Snake had tried to distract him, but when Wolf pressed him about the shrine and ritual, his brother struck without warning, taking Wolf by surprise and sinking his fangs into his neck.

It was the first time any of the totems had attacked another. By the time Wolf was fully lucid again, the only thing he was certain of was that a great deal of time had passed. The world smelled different now. The same plants still grew, the same creatures still roamed, but somehow it was different.

How had he returned to consciousness? It could only have been the tree-dweller who'd done it. No, tree-dweller was a wolf thought. It had to be the vasta, the elven woman. As her potential futures had suggested, she must have found the Staff of Life, reestablishing its connection to the Collision.

The Staff was Wolf's great pride ... and his great sorrow. It had been his idea, after seeing horrific visions of the elves' future. The humans in the southern continent had begun to discover their power over the arcane magic native to the mortal realm. They would soon invent wizardry to control it, leaving the elves at a severe disadvantage once the two peoples encountered each other for the first time.

So, with the help of all of his brothers except for Snake, Wolf had created the Staff of Life, using it to grant the elven people their own magic—elder magic, the raw power of nature, the magic of the Collision itself. And, to ensure they used that magic wisely, it had granted them the tree bond, allowing them to live in harmony with each other and their world.

Wolf's plan worked. The vasta druids, now the masters of elder magic, used the Staff and their own powers to manage and cultivate their lands and forests, forming a nation that would face the humans on even terms. When the human kingdoms built ships and sailed north for the first time, the two peoples became allies rather than enemies, stronger together than either were alone.

Unfortunately, nothing lasted forever. The druid warden Iris, ashamed of what her people did to the Chosar during the Second Demon War, delivered the Staff to the new Chosar government for safekeeping. The other wardens discovered the secret the elves had kept from them—that it was possible to combine the different magics together into more powerful spells. Eventually, that led their researchers to question the warden bond, and the way it anchored itself to something that couldn't be seen. Inventing a new sort of mage sight, they'd followed the bond beyond the mortal realm to its origin in the Collision. What they learned that day had later led them to their ill-fated attempt to destabilize the realms. They hadn't understood the truth behind the Collision—they'd simply seen the conjunction of magics as a source of power they could take for themselves.

But the Burning and the wardens weren't a problem for today. After Owl's death and the abrupt appearance of the new gods, who'd soon learned to cross into the totemic realm at will, Wolf and his brothers had taken a step back from any major interference in the mortal realm. They hadn't wished to precipitate further disasters.

So what had Snake been doing that day?

If I came back, why didn't you? Wolf asked Raven. If the connection to the Collision was reestablished, shouldn't Raven have felt it as well? What else could Wolf do? Where is Eagle? Where is Deer?

"Dead!" Raven squawked. "Dead! Find fawx! Find fawx!"

Fox? Fox was all that was left to stand against Snake? Sure, Fox was Cunning, but he was also flighty and irresponsible, easily distracted by whatever came along. Fox was low on the list of beings Wolf would trust with anything important. But did he have a choice? If Fox was the only one left, wishing otherwise wouldn't make it so.

Wolf gave Raven a grateful nod, then turned and loped away, not even sure yet where he was going. He scanned through future probabilities, trying to calculate the most optimal path.

Wisdom was dead, but perhaps by working together, Cunning and Discovery could devise an answer.

###

Chapter Fourteen

The bolt hit slightly to the right of the target's center. Corec lowered the weapon, frowning at his aim. It was one of three new crossbows he'd bought, adding to the one he'd taken to Cordaea but never used. He'd need more later if his plans worked out, but four was enough to start with.

"Ah, Corec, this isn't really necessary, is it?"

He turned to find Bobo behind him, awkwardly cradling another of the weapons in his arms.

"If you're coming with us, I want to make sure you can protect yourself," Corec said.

"I'm coming along so Ellerie and I can write our books," Bobo said.

"You know what we're likely to be facing. Boktar and Razai said they couldn't have handled those warrior priests without you. The Church of Pallisur has war priests, too. If Rusol has any sway over the Order, we'll see more of them."

"That was the magic, really," the other man replied. "It wasn't me."

"You have to learn to work with the magic," Corec said. "And you have to learn to defend yourself without it. You said yourself that you weren't sure whether you'd be able to do it again."

Bobo got a shifty look on his face. "I did say that, didn't I?"

"A crossbow is easy. You cock it, load it, aim it, and pull the trigger. It's either this or another lesson on how to use that cudgel of yours. Now, once it's loaded, be sure to never point the bow at anyone you don't want to kill—" Corec peered around the other man and raised his voice. "Nedley, cock it with the stirrup or sit down and use your feet! It takes too long to do it like that!"

Nedley, who'd braced the butt of his crossbow against his stomach as he attempted to pull back on the string, grimaced and pointed the weapon against the ground instead, stepping into the stirrup to hold it down.

Corec caught Bobo's eye and pointed at Nedley. Bobo got the message and copied the boy's movements.

Corec stood back to watch the two practice. He'd learned to use crossbows at Fort Hightower, but had never had much use for them in the past—they were best suited for surprise attacks, defending a position, or waging war. He'd spent his time as a caravan guard. When a caravan was ambushed, events happened too quickly to try to load a crossbow.

Now, though, he'd be looking for a location near Four Roads that could be easily defended, and crossbows were the best tool to aid in that defense. He hoped to hire a couple of hunters to serve as scouts and longbowmen, but the longbow took years to master. The crossbow would be a better choice for the other guardsmen.

His preparations were about more than just arming the guards, though. The battle at Tir Yadar had proved that the group couldn't hope to just continue blundering their way through any enemies they happened to encounter. Magic had saved them in the past, but Rusol was a warden too, and he had more experience at it. They'd be lucky if they were evenly matched against Rusol and his mages—and that wasn't counting the red-eyes or Rusol's mercenary army, much less the regular army and the Church.

Corec would have to learn to use both magic and traditional forces effectively in battle. Defending a fortified position would help, but he had to hope Rusol would stick to smaller attacks long enough for Razai to figure out what the man was up to.

Bobo managed to hit his hay bale target on his first attempt—though just barely, and only because he was standing just twenty feet away. The head of the bolt embedded itself into the straw in the upper-right corner of the bale.

"See?" Corec said. "I told you it was easy. Try again, and later, I'll show you how to adjust for distance and wind."

Bobo muttered something under his breath as he stepped into the stirrup to cock the weapon once more. Beyond him, Nedley had just launched his third bolt at his own hay bale, and grinned widely when it hit close to the center.

"Good job, Ned," Corec said. "Now, keep cocking it until you can do it smoothly. Make sure to load and fire it every time. Never release the trigger without a bolt loaded or you'll damage the mechanism."

Bobo was pointing his own crossbow at the hay bale once more. The weapon shook a bit in his hands, but holding it steady would come with practice. As he took aim, the bolt began to glow with a white light. He pulled the trigger. There was a loud twang and the bolt shot off, careening against the right side of the bale before embedding itself several inches deep into the stone rear wall of the inn.

Corec stared at it. The fortisteel tips were strong, but they weren't that strong.

"Look at that," Bobo said with a knowing grin. "I guess I remembered how to use magic after all."

Corec sighed under his breath. Bobo always seemed to be hinting at something when he talked about his divine blessings, but if Corec asked, the other man would just brush off his questions. It was easier to ignore him.

"Good. Now do it again without magic."

"But I thought you wanted me to ..." Bobo trailed off, a confused expression on his face.

"Pallisur's war priests train for years alongside the knights," Corec said. "Some of them were knights before they were blessed. You've got a long way to go, so let's get started. The first thing we need to do is make sure you can hit what you're aiming at ..."

#

Udit shoveled the last of his spicy chicken and rice onto a piece of flatbread and stuffed it into his mouth, barely stopping to chew. "I'm finished!" he said. "Can I go play?"

Leena hid a smile. She shouldn't encourage bad manners, but it was good to see her brother so happy and active. He'd had a difficult time after their parents had died.

"Your sister just got here," Grandmother Aruna said. "You haven't seen her in weeks. You should stay and visit." Leena hadn't risked Traveling home while she'd been on board the ship, worried she wouldn't be able to return to a moving target. She'd considered simply staying in Sanvar for the duration of the voyage, but three or four weeks in her family's camp might have drawn the attention of the snake cultists. Plus, she didn't want to be away from Ellerie for that long, though she hadn't mentioned their relationship to her family yet.

Udit's face fell. He was at an age where spending time with friends and cousins closer to his own age was more important than a polite chat with his adult sister.

"It's all right," Leena said. "We have some things to talk about with Pavan." The Traveler had arrived right at suppertime, and they'd insisted he eat with them.

Udit glanced back at Aruna, who frowned but nodded. "Thanks, Leena!" he said, then stood up from his cushion and hurried out of the large tent.

"So, then, you have news, Pavan?" Rohav asked. With his wife dead, killed by the cultists, he often took meals with Aruna or with the families of his grown children.

"I do," the other Traveler replied, pushing away from the low table and sitting back on his cushion. "We managed to capture one of the priests after his warding faded."

The search for the cult had been of mixed success. Imperial soldiers had accompanied Zidari Travelers and Seekers to capture each of the groups Davir had known about. Unfortunately, someone must have passed along a warning. The priests had all disappeared, and since they were warded against Seeking, no one had been able to track them down.

Half of the wizards were gone as well. The remainder fought back, refusing to surrender peacefully. After a dozen soldiers and two Travelers had died attempting to subdue a single wizard, the army started sending trained war wizards to accompany the other forces.

The cult members themselves were another story. Poor and uneducated, and without their priests to guide them, they were proving easy to gather up. Davir had provided the location for several groups, and those groups had known of others, though not as many as Leena had feared.

Each of the groups was small, living in tiny villages in remote stretches of the empire. Sometimes the entire village was part of the cult, sometimes only a few families. The people had been self-sufficient, living off their own farming and fishing, but with most of their able-bodied men dead or missing after the attacks on the Zidari camps, they hadn't put up much resistance when the soldiers arrived.

The families that surrendered peacefully were taken without incident. Those individuals who'd attempted to fight back had either been killed by the soldiers or, once it was apparent they'd be captured, had died of the same poison-like symptoms Leena had seen in Cordaea.

Back in Sanvara City, the empress's administrators had separated the village groups, allowing families to stay together but not permitting them to have any contact with their former neighbors. The empress herself had insisted on schooling for the children, putting the adults to work at whatever their skills allowed. Some families might be permitted to return home after the priests were all hunted down, but the government didn't intend to release any families of the men who'd attacked the camps—not until they were certain the remaining members of the family weren't a threat.

"Has he said anything?" Rohav asked, leaning forward intently.

"The problem is getting him to stop saying things," Pavan said. "He rants and raves constantly. Half of it is gibberish. He believes the empress is fake, that Sanvar isn't a real nation, that the new gods don't exist, and that there were four old gods but that Snake is the only one still around."

"What about the other priests?" Leena asked. "Does he know where they are?"

"He says they left Sanvar, and went north to join with other members of the faithful. And he claims they were joined by the holy soldiers, which is what he calls the men who lived through the attacks on the camps."

"Outside Sanvar?" Rohav asked. "Where?"

"He says he doesn't know, and I believe him. Honestly, I'm starting to think the others left this fellow behind deliberately."

"What about the cult members?" Rohav asked. "Did he say how many groups are left?" Leena's uncle had participated in three of the early strikes, transporting soldiers from Sanvara City out to the villages.

"He refused to answer any questions about that," Pavan said. "We had to send in a spy disguised as one of his jailers, pretending to be a member of the cult. The spy told him he needed to get word to the other villages so they could flee before the army arrived. He was able to get us a list. It doesn't include all the groups we knew about, but we've captured all the ones on the list."

"So we may have gotten them all," Rohav said. "The ones in Sanvar, anyway."

"But not the priests," Leena said. "They're the ones responsible."

Pavan nodded. "We'll have to hope their wards fail, or find some other way to track them down."

Perhaps Leena shouldn't ask her uncle about bringing Udit north to Four Roads after all. If the priests could be anywhere, the free lands might not be any safer than Sanvar—maybe even less safe, if the priests had truly left the empire.

Rohav said, "If they're gone from Sanvar, Leena, maybe it's time for you to come home. I don't like this plan of yours to draw them out."

"What's this?" Pavan asked. "What plan?"

"My friends—the ones you met in Cordaea—have made it back to Tyrsall. We're heading west next, into the free lands. Since the cult members were trying to find me, we think it's safer if I don't return to Sanvar permanently yet. I don't want to lead them back here. We're going to find a place where we can defend ourselves. A fort, or something like it."

"Do you think they're still after you?"

"I don't know."

"Why the free lands?"

"Because it's far from Sanvar, and we wanted to draw them away from the camps. Plus, Corec has his own enemies, in Larso, and he needs to be close to them to keep them from attacking anyone in their way."