Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (43 page)

“
Tas
,
light those candles over there.” I gestured to the two fat candles sitting on
his bedside table. He took out his tinderbox and soon the candles flickered to
life. I looked back at the prisoners. “Now, I expect full cooperation or there
will be consequences.”

That raucous laugh rumbled
through the room again. “You mean to burn us with a candle?”

I ignored his question. “What
are you looking for?” They both sat with their mouths closed tightly. The mute
seemed to be on the point of bursting. Looking at him, I asked, “Can you
write?” He shook his head miserably. I looked down at his hands. He only had
one finger left on each hand. No drawing then either. “That is a shame.”

I looked back at the other one
while keeping my face perfectly smooth and calm. He did seem in much better
shape than his associate did. True, he was missing an eye, but the rest of him
seemed pretty much intact. I idly wondered how he had died. “You on the other
hand do not have the luxury of an excuse, so answer my question.”

His smile only broadened.
Shaking my head in mock disappointment, I picked up
Tas
’
dagger. Sighing, I drew a minute amount of heat from the candle into the blade
and pointed it at the second Scavenger. He cocked his head, showing curiosity
rather than fear. I pushed the heat towards him and it hit him in the chest. It
was only enough to prick him, sting a bit, to let him know what I could do to
him.

His face contorted in surprise
and anger. He rubbed furiously at his chest, but that mocking smile was back.
“Clever trick, but I think you should have just used the candle. I hardly felt
that.”

I smiled sardonically at him.
“That was only a taster. I was oh, so very careful, not to hurt you. Next time
I will not be so careful. Now, I ask again, what are you looking for?”

He folded his arms across his
chest in defiance. This time I drew in double the energy I did before. I held
it in the tip of the dagger, making it take on a faint red glow. When he kept
his silence, I pushed the heat to his neck. He jumped when it struck, but kept
his silence. My stomach was twisting and whirling at what I was doing. Twisted
One or no, this was torture. It continued for a while. Trissa and even Alathaya
stepped out of the room after their protests and suggestions of alternative
ways to make them
talk,
fell on deaf ears.

I was getting frustrated. I knew
I had to keep my equanimity, because if I did this out of a desire to hurt, I
would be just as bad as them. I had burnt them both several times, but the only
thing I had learnt was that they do not bleed, but their flesh does burn. A
sickly smell hung in the air. I held up the glowing tip of the dagger, the two
scavengers looked at it with fear and hatred.

 
A shimmering caught my eye. It was the barest
disturbance in the air behind them. I gasped as, in a single heartbeat, I saw the
shape of a man reach up and slash their throats and then disappear out of the
window. His appearance had left a bright afterimage in my vision and I blinked
furiously to clear it. The two lay on the floor, their heads severed. I looked
down at the blade in my hand. When I had lost my focus, the heat had spread
through the blade and was dissipating.

“What was that?”
Tas
asked as he stared bewildered at the two beheaded
figures.

“I don’t know, but I think the
more pertinent question would be why did they not kill us and leave the
Scavengers?” I answered.

Alathaya poked her head through
the door and sucked in a deep breath between her teeth. “Did you really need to
kill them? Could we not have used them instead?”

I shook my head. “It wasn’t me.
Something came in through the window and assassinated them.”

She let go of her breath in
relief. I might have imagined it, but it still seemed that she was looking at
me differently than she had the day before.

A shrill shriek came from the
door as Trissa popped her head around the corner. Alathaya quickly calmed and
more importantly, quietened her down.

“What are we doing with those?”
Tas
gestured to the bodies.

I looked at them a moment. “We
are going to need to make a fire in your hearth.”

Horror crossed Alathaya’s face.
“You cannot burn them in the room!”

I smiled sickly at her. “Do not
worry. I am not going to put them on the hearth.” Her eyebrows rose.

Tas
kindled
the fire and I added double again the wood he had on it. Once the fire was
blazing, I took a deep breath. I focused my Navitas on the fire then drew the
heat into my blade. “I think you all should leave the room.
Just
in case it goes wrong.”

They did not need asking twice
and scurried out, closing the door behind them. I drew as much of the heat as I
could and in one massive burst threw it at one of the bodies. One moment I was
looking at the body, steeling myself for the fire that could erupt, the next
moment, he was simply gone. All that remained was a heap of ash on the floor
and motes floating through the air. I released my pent up breath in a rush of
relief. I started to draw heat from the fire again, or tried to. Perplexed I
turned around. The fire had gone out completely. I walked over to it and built
it up again. It held no heat whatsoever as though it had been days since it was
last lit.

As I set about relighting the
fire,
Tas
peeked in the door tentatively. His eyes
went wide when he saw what remained on the floor. “I assume it is safe to come
back in?”

I gave a tight nod and he came
in followed by Seran. With Navitas focused, I could still faintly smell burnt flesh.
My stomach wanted to heave, but I forced myself to quell it. He sat down on the
bed and watched me stoke the fire.

Once the fire was ready, I again
drew as much of its heat as I could into Sunder and sent it as a raging torrent
into the second body.
Tas
clapped me on the shoulder.
“That is incredible! I almost wish we had another one so we could do it again!”

I could not bring myself to
laugh along with him. My stomach twisted violently. “I need some fresh air.” I
pushed past him.

Trissa and Alathaya were waiting
in the hallway still and I could feel their eyes boring into my back as I
walked past them.

Outside, I sucked in deep
breaths of cool night air. Slowly my stomach settled, but I stayed out for a
long while staring up at the stars. I was startled when Alathaya came up behind
me. I had been so deep in thought that I had not heard her approach. I clenched
my jaw, waiting for her scathing words about sinking to the enemy’s level or
something about keeping your integrity. I looked at her with hard eyes steeling
myself for it.

She took me by the shoulders and
turned me so we were facing each other. She looked into my eyes for a moment as
if searching, a small frown creasing her brow. Then she pulled me into a tight
hug. She put her hand on the back of my head and ran her fingers through my
hair. “You did what you had to do.”

I felt hot tears prick my eyes
and run down my cheeks. She held me for a long time.

We both knew
we would not be able to get any more sleep so we stayed outside sitting on the
grass and watched as the sun rose. Finally, we went inside and had a quick
breakfast with Trissa, Seran and
Tas
joining us. I was
glad when no one said anything about the night’s events. No one said much of
anything and it seemed we were all equally eager to put this behind us.

We bought a few extra supplies
before setting off. That evening, Markai joined us.
I have news about Magtisanya.
Beratus
, my brother, has reached their meeting place. He was surprised there
were so few of them, but more arrive each day. His advice is that the sooner we
can reach it, the easier everything will be
. It was good to know that
Beratus
was there and keeping us informed, but I already
knew we had to move as quickly as possible.

We rode hard, but I was still
surprised when we reached Warrendil in six days; it was a small village. The
man who had given us directions must have thought we were riding oxen instead
of horses. It was late afternoon when we arrived and the streets were busy.
Trissa was staring at every boy Dhillion’s age. She was unconsciously running a
hand through her hair every few seconds and chewing on her bottom lip. “Before
you have no hair, or bottom lip for that matter, left, shall we go and find an
inn? We can put our things down and make some inquiries.” Her eyes never left
the street in front of her, but she mumbled her assent.

Trissa tried to pull us into the
first place she saw, but Alathaya persuaded her that a place that had guard at
the door was probably not a good place to stay. However, as we made our way
around the town, I realised that most every establishment here had the same.
After taking our horses around to their stables, we walked into the Fair Lady
inn. They too had a burly man standing at the door. He eyed us all carefully as
we entered, but did not say a word to us.

In the common room, the
innkeeper came bustling over to us and greeted us with a friendly smile. He was
a tall, lanky man with a smattering of grey in his dark hair. “Welcome. Will
you be requiring rooms for the night?”

We nodded and he led us up the
stairs chattering away in such a happy, carefree manner that it made me all the
more curious about all the guards.

We stored our bags away in the
rooms before going back into the common room. We sat down and ordered some ale.
I had to restrain Trissa from running outside calling for Dhillion every few
seconds. She sat staring at the door as though expecting him to come strolling
in at any moment. After our drinks arrived, I waved over the innkeeper. He
came, but this time his smile was a bit nervous. “I do hope everything is to
your liking.”

I smiled affably at him. ”All is
well. I was just hoping you could point me in the right direction. Some time
ago, my parents travelled through here and stayed with a lovely couple. When
they heard that we were going to be passing, they insisted we greet them and
pass on their best wishes. Their names are Thopher and Raminda Windle.” I said
their names carefully and gave a sheepish smile. “My mother had me repeat that
a few hundred times to make sure I get the names right! Do you know where they
live?”

He looked at me dubiously.
“Lovely couple you say?” He shook his head and my heart sank. “I would call them
anything but that, I think! But, yes I do happen to know where those two are.”

I had to fight to control my
face. I could see Trissa from the corner of my eye and she seemed ready to run
out of the door. Tears glistened in her eyes.
 
He gave me directions to their house, it did not sound far away. I
smiled appreciatively. “Thank you very much.” He bustled away again, his
carefree grin back in place.

We finished our drinks and
casually walked out. The guard at the door may as well have been carved of stone
for the reaction he gave to our departure. We hurried along the narrow roads
and up the hill the innkeeper had described. Rounding a corner, I saw the house
with the big
spiderleaf
tree in front of it.
 

I halted everyone and turned to
face them. “If they see us coming up the road, all of us together, they may not
open the door. Trissa, they may yet recognise you, so you will need to stay
back at first.”

A quiet word from Seran halted
her angry protests. I looked at him gratefully.

“Alathaya, you and I will go
ahead, the rest of you, follow once we are at the door, do not come straight to
the house, but be close enough if we have need of you. Of course, we might need
Trissa to confirm if it is Dhillion,” I instructed.

I looked at them all to make
sure that we were all agreed, and then Alathaya and I started making our way up
the rest of the hill. I had donned my cloak at the inn, for the sole purpose of
covering Sunder. I wrapped the cloak tighter around me just to be sure that
they would not see it.

I knocked on the stout wooden
door. After another knock, a man came to the door. He opened it a crack and
peered out at us. His bushy brows pulled down into an angry frown. “I do not
purchase any wares at my front door. If I need anything I go to the market!”

I smiled and Alathaya said
sweetly. “Excuse the bother, sir. We are not selling anything. Are you Master
Windle?”

He looked her up and down before
giving a tight nod. The deep frown still creased his brow.

“Our parents passed through here
a while back and they stayed with you a couple of nights. They simply wanted us
to pass on their best wishes,” she continued, her voice dripping honey.

He snorted at her words, but
opened the door a fraction more. “You have the wrong of it. We do not have
visitors and…” he was halted mid-sentence by a voice coming from behind him.

I tried to look past him, but he
was still filling the opening. I could not quite catch what was being said to
him. When he looked back at us, his face was completely blank. His eyes almost
seemed glazed and in a monotonous tone he said, “Please do come in for tea. I
have been rude.” He stepped to the side and opened the door all the way. We
looked at each other dubiously, but walked inside.