Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (6 page)

Her face contorted in mock
confusion. “Yet, you do not ask the Masters? Surely they must have come across
the like before?”

Her face turned serious. “No,
Kadin, you have not told anyone, because you know this is at the very least… unusual
shall we say. You are so desperate to be part of the Tretakai that you do not
want anything to taint their view of you. This is something that must stop. You
are not Tretakai. No, do not shake your head. Listen. The Tretakai, the
Navitas, the Hunt, the Seeking, all of it was preserved through the ages,
passed on from one generation to the next.
Never taught to
anyone from the outside and this for the sole purpose of keeping these gifts
secret and away from dangerous eyes and ears.
The Tretakai may have
forgotten what their purpose is, but the Guardians will never.” A fierce note
crept into her voice at the end and her golden eyes had the look of granite in
them.

I was trying to make sense of
what she was saying. At risk of sounding the fool, I asked, “Do you mean to
imply that somehow I was meant to learn their secrets, but something different
has happened with me.”

She shook her head, golden eyes
sparkling. “Not something different, something more.
Much,
much more.
It was your mother’s final gift to you. Do you not see, Kadin?
Her gift to you was the Talent of
Charming
.
Because of this, you drew Markai to you. I know you were wondering whether your
Navitas shaped her, but it did not. She is of the Fae. Your Navitas combined
with the gift of Charming simply called her. She, and others like her,
are
creatures of great power and Markai is bonded to you for
life now. She is a mighty ally and before the end you will come to realise that
you could not accomplish what must be done without her.”

I frowned. “What must be done,
Quiniewa?” I looked over to her and saw that she was once again a young girl,
her golden hair blowing in the breeze.

She smiled her enigmatic smile.
“That is a lesson for another day. Come, you must rest now.” She stood up and
set off. I started to follow when mighty thunder cracked across the clear sky.

I sat up with a start and looked
around in confusion. I was sitting in my bedroll in my camp. It was still full
night outside and a storm was raging. Exhausted, I fell back into bed and was
asleep within moments.

I woke
the next morning with my head once again feeling thick and foggy. The sky had
cleared and the sun was already higher than I expected.
 
I empty stomach asserted itself with a loud
grumble. I dug through my saddlebag and started chewing on some dried meat. I
had a drink of my water and poured some over my head in an attempt to clear it.

Memories of the previous evening
were trickling in. It couldn’t have been a dream. It hadn’t felt like a dream.
The implications of what Quiniewa had told me were still a bit unclear to me.
She seemed to imply things that could not be. I must have misunderstood.

 
After a while of sitting there gathering my
thoughts I decided to move on. I saddled Balder and set out once again in an
arbitrary direction. I enjoyed the quiet rhythm of riding through the trees, listening
to the birds and catching glimpses of small animals scurrying for cover as I
approached.

Eventually I came upon a
clearing in the forest at the edge of a large stream and decided to go for a
swim. After unsaddling my mount, I undressed and waded in. The water was cold
but refreshing. Lacking any sort of soap, I scrubbed myself down with some sand
then waded over to the shallows. Prea had shown me how to tickle fish. Although
I had only been moderately successful at it, with my stomach still rumbling I
decided to try. After many frustrating attempts, I managed to catch a sizeable
tench.

I made camp next to the stream.
I gathered firewood and once my fire was going, started cleaning and gutting
the tench, putting it over the fire to roast. I was itching to sketch Quiniewa,
but as I had only been allowed to bring what I was given, I had none of my
materials. I was lifting the fish off the flames when the feeling of being
watched crept over me.
Balder was whickering and snorting,
raking at the ground with a hoof.
She turned around sharply and cantered
away.
 

A prickle ran down my back like cold
water, making the hair on my body stand up. I set the fish down and stood up
looking all around me. A soft growl rumbled out from the surrounding forest,
then two more.

I snatched up my bow and nocked
an arrow. Two wolf-like creatures appeared from the brush, teeth bared and
snarling. Two more appeared at their flanks. I had seen some drawings of wolves
during my natural studies with Master Freahy, but these only vaguely resembled
those. Their heads looked too large for their narrow grey-speckled bodies and
they had shaggy manes surrounding their heads making them appear even larger. I
could see a forked tongue dashing in and out between massive fangs. Their short
black tails had the same bushy look as their manes.

My heart was hammering in my
chest. They were only about forty paces away and I had no doubts about how
quickly they would cover that distance with their powerful legs.

I was about to reach for Navitas
when to my right a huge hulking figure came crashing out of the brush,
screaming indiscernibly and brandishing a massive metal staff. He smashed the
staff into the side of the lead wolf. With a yelp, the wolf flew several feet
through the air. He swung his weapon in a wide arc over his head and with a
loud cracking sound smashed it into the jaw of the second beast. The first one
was staggering up, it gave an angry growl, but turned tail and ran off with the
rest of the pack following.

Once they had vanished from
sight, the huge man turned toward me. He wore his beard in an odd fashion with
his chin clear of hair. His thin lips pulled into a grin and there was laughter
in his light eyes. “Ye almost had yesself a bit of a situation here, now didn’t
ye?” he said.

I realised I still had my arrow
nocked and with shaking hands I put it back into my quiver and slung my bow
over my shoulder. I tried to give him a smile. “I must admit I was getting a
little nervous.
 
Thank you for your help.
What were those things anyway? They did not look like any wolves I had seen
before. I mean, not that I have seen a wolf. I mean I’ve seen a drawing of a
wolf.” I realised I was babbling. Not wanting to sound like a scared child, I
clamped my mouth shut.

He gave a bark of laughter and
sat down next to my fire. “Ay, no wolves they weren’t.
 
Ancient brother of Wolf, they are called
Dyrrendrel. I have not known them to come this
far east
.
Folklore says Dyrrendrel are no mere beasts, but slaves to a master. Who their
master is and how he came to be master of such creatures varies from tale to
tale.”

Seeing the look on my face his
grin broadened. “Of course, ye realise that these are stories told rand cook
fires to scare small children. Frightful they are, ay yes, but no
more’n
beasts.” He held out a massive hand to me. “I’m
Grer. Pleased to be
meetin
’
ye
.”

I smiled and gripped his hand.
“Kadin.
Not as pleased as I am! You will of course share my
meal with me.”

Nodding, he said, “Ay, I could
do with some food in me belly and that does smell good.”

I shared out the fish between
us. Between mouthfuls, he looked me over. “Ye don’t look like
ye’re
from rand here. What’re ye doing on
yer
own out here?”

As I was not to speak of the
Seeking to anyone, least of all to an outsider, I gave a shrug. “I just reached
a point where I needed to leave home. Discover a few things on my own. I guess
I will just see where the road takes me.”

“Ay, don’t us all.”

“So how
about you, Grer?
What are you doing out in the woods?”

“I’m the Keeper of the King’s
forest.
Me
calling is the wild. I’ve a home in
Hefrnea, but most of
me
time I’m out ‘ere. I keep
track o’ the numbers of animals in the area and I keep them safe from
poachin
’. We had some trouble with the sort. Can ye believe
talk has travelled of our Jurpa here and some ignorant outlanders have come ‘ere
specifically to hunt them and take their horns as trophy! O’ course they run
into some trouble with actually killing the Jurpas, but they be devious and
somehow found a way, a weapon or some such that’ll do the job.”

I was aghast.
“Killing
Jurpas for sport?
For some trophy?
For blood’s
sake, they are bringing curses down on themselves. It’s unheard of. What weapon
could they have that can penetrate the
Jurpa’s
hide?”

He lifted his eyebrows and
pulled his mouth into a tight line. “Ye would be surprised what evil men can do
if they be driven by their greed or need for glory.”

We fell into a comfortable
silence. My thoughts circled back to the Dyrrendrel. If Grer were the keeper
here, he would certainly know if creatures such as these did not belong. “Where
do the Dyrrendrel come from, Grer? You said they don’t normally come to these
areas.”

“
Ay, that
they don’t. Their natural prey is waterbuck and such and we don’t really have
dem
here. Dyrrendrel have been known to follow a migrating
herd of bucks, but I
ain’t
seen
no
unusual bucks rand here.” He shrugged. “Could be the numbers of buck up north
has shrunk. Maybe they
be
out looking for something
new to hunt. Looked like they liked the smell of
ye
!”
He gave a roar of laughter. “I wouldn’t worry. Once they have recognised ye are
too strong for ‘
em
they leave ye be. Not all too
brave, but clever they are.”

We spread our bedrolls out. I
poured myself another cup of the Cha’s tea. Holding my nose, I tried to gulp it
all down without tasting it. It didn’t work. The foul bitter taste made it feel
as though my mouth was contracting. I retched, but managed to keep myself from
being sick.

I became aware of the amused
grin on
Grer’s
face. “Ye poisoning yesself boy?”

I gave him a sickly smile. “Just
some tea our Cha prepared for me.
Settles my stomach.”
We lay in our bedrolls chatting about nothing. I was awake long after Grer
started snoring.

I realised with some relief that
he had fallen silent. I rolled over, thinking that I would finally be able to
sleep when I noticed Grer was not there. Neither was his bedroll. I was looking
around for where he could have gone when some movement caught the corner of my
eye. I just saw him going into the forest.

Curious, I got up and followed
calling out his name, but he didn’t answer. I hurried after him. I walked to
the edge of the trees. The moon was full, but even so I could not see very far
under the thick canopy of the forest and tracking would be impossible. I turned
back and was startled to see someone hunching over my saddlebags.

I started running back. “Get
away from my bag!” I said.

Standing, the man kept his face
still and expressionless as a stone. He was tall with light hair hanging down
past his shoulders. He had on a worn-looking leather jerkin. A flat, wide nose
dominated his face. He stepped forward from where he stood over my bags and I
caught sight of a huge sword at his side. I halted in my tracks.

I started to reach for my bow
when I realised I had not taken it. Unarmed, I reached for Navitas. He lifted
both hands above his head as if in surrender. “Now, now master Kadin. No need
for such. Calm yourself. I am Boryka. By your Navitas, you are already a
warrior of mind; and much more powerful than you realise.” He gave a glimmer of
a smile.
“In fact, more powerful than any thought possible.
You have much to learn of this still, but not from me. I am here to teach you
to be a warrior and master of your body.”

 
 
As he
was speaking, he reached down and picked up a sheathed sword. As he walked over
to me, he reminded me of Markai; he moved with the same fluidity and power. He
rested the sword over both of his hands and with a bow, presented it to me. “This
is yours, master Kadin. Destined to be yours ages before you were even
conceived. I believe you have some rudimentary skill with the sword. The
Tretakai are known for many things, but unfortunately swordsmanship is not one
of them.”

I was a little affronted by his
words, but knew them to be true so I kept my tongue. I accepted the weapon,
bowing in return and replied formally, “Thank you, Master Boryka. May the sun
show you your path and the
moon keep
you walking along
it.”

He bobbed his head.

I inspected the sword and
unsheathed it. My breath caught. It was magnificent. The beautifully carved
hilt was inlaid in gold with the image of Markai completed by blue sapphires
for eyes. The blade almost seemed to ripple and glow.