Grym Prophet (Song of the Aura, Book Three) (19 page)

Without warning, the sky grew dark with storm clouds. Thunderheads rolled in, red lightning flashed in the sky, and shadows engulfed the entire Forest of Foretelling. Elia shrieked and stumbled back as the cataclysmic scene unfolded overhead... but Wanderwillow caught her with ease, setting her upright and taking the book back from her.

“I am sorry,
” he said, and his eyes were sad. The world grew loud with noise for less than a second... and then everything was deathly silent. The darkness remained, and Wanderwillow shrunk until he was once more his normal size. “I am sorry,” he repeated, “But events are moving much faster than I had expected.”

“I... I...” Elia felt herself freezing in shock at this unexpected turn of fortune. She noticed that the Aura's eyes were growing brighter with every second, and she shut her mouth and nodded. “It's all right,” she said. “What do we do?”

Wanderwillow's face grew sad. “We must fight. A deadly enemy has found this place, which I thought safe above all others. He is even now entering, and he will soon be upon us.”

He shook his head, lapsing into silence.
Why haven't we gone to help the others???
Elia wanted to scream.
Why haven't we gone to fight this enemy?? What is happening????

“Child,” said Wanderwillow slowly. “There is no time now for you to learn from this book what I had intended for you. The young prophet read it, and found Wisdom within. The young prince read it, and he found Sorrow instead. Are you willing to make a sacrifice, to protect those you love?”

Time seemed to stop.
Love,
Elia thought.
It always goes back to Love.

Slowly, hesitantly... but willingly, she nodded.

~

Gribly watched Lauro intently as the older youth paced furiously back and forth across the clearing. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something had changed in the prince. The old anger was still in his movements... in the hunched, tense back... in the way he shook his strange topknot whenever he was silently disagreeing with himself. But there was something else, too... a fear or consideration that hadn't been there before he'd read the Aura's book.

Gribly decided to try to help Lauro figure out the problem. Among many things, Wanderwillow had told him that a prophet needed to be understanding of other people, Lauro especially.

“What did the book tell you?” he asked Lauro, next time the prince passed close by. “I don't mean to pry, but I thought if you shared... maybe we could solve whatever's troubling you together... as friends again.”

Lauro spun on him, eyes aflame, but then he seemed to think better of it... much better. The older lad was gnawing his fingernails, but he dropped his hand and sighed. The anger seemed to go out of him so that his shoulders drooped and his eyes grew dim as lead.

“You can't help me,” he said, but he looked a little calmer, and Gribly persisted.

“But I want to try, Lauro. I want to know what's troubling you. I can't do what I'm supposed to, or, at least... what the Aura wants me to, unless you help me do it. And I want to help you.”

Suddenly Lauro dropped down beside him in the grass, a peculiar expression on his face. “You want to understand me? Well then, I've a story to tell you, one without any sort of happy ending. Think you can bear it?”

Gribly thought. “After seeing so many deaths? After fighting my possessed twin brother in mortal combat? Yeah, I think I can bear it.”

The Wind Strider- no,
Sky
Strider, Gribly corrected himself- chuckled dryly. “It's about me and my father.”

“Oh... I see.”

“Not yet you don't.” Lauro paused for a moment, then began his tale.

“When I was born, I was considered a miracle. My father was- is- one of the most powerful Wind Striders in the land, but he's not as young as he used to be. A hundred and twelve years is a long time to govern the entire civilized world, and he began when he was no older than me. So, when I was born to my parents in their old age, the White Clerics of Vastion declared it to be a sign of a new and prosperous age. They predicted I would grow to be a champion warrior... a prodigious Strider... and a mighty king. My father... King Larion... never held much with the old ways... the Statutes, and other things... he'd had a wild youth, and he didn't reign himself in until late in his life.

“But this time... he believed the clerics. He believed in
me
. As I grew up, he gave me the best of everything- toys, rooms, training, teachers... anything he thought would make me the best ruler and best man I could be. You never visited Vastion, so I won't expect you to know all our customs. We're a hard people, and even with all the attention my father gave me, he never let me grow soft.

“My mother, the queen, died when I was nine. It brought my father and me closer than we'd ever been. He personally taught me almost everything he knew about fighting, ruling, and even Wind Striding. But somehow... somehow I always sensed that I was inadequate. Oh, I wasn't
bad
at anything I did, or anything I even tried! But being the best wasn't quite good enough, after Mother died. I was great... but my father wanted me to be
spectacular.
A prodigy.”

“And you weren't,” Gribly surmised.

“No. Close, but never... good... enough.” Lauro spat the last few words, and his eyes began to water with tears. Gribly kept silent, hoping his quiet presence would be enough to comfort the prince. He was at a total loss for words.

“I'm sorry,” he finally said.

“That's not the half of it,” Lauro confessed, shaking his head and ignoring his tears. “What came later was worse.” Another short pause followed as the prince breathed deeply, gathering his thoughts. “All Vastic royalty... whether they be man or woman... must always undergo a sort of test, to prove their coming of age. Before that test, a prince or princess is nothing more than a highly talented, highly indulged child. Afterward- if they pass- then they are a respected adult, and none but the king himself is their superior.

“Two years ago, I took that test. It's different each time. For me, my father would stand for nothing less than that I lead an invasion against the growing force of pirates that plagued us from the south.”

“Blast,” Gribly swore, “at
sixteen?
That's insane!”

Lauro shrugged. “I did it, though. I wanted so bad to prove to my father that I was worth something...” His eyes closed as he reminisced. “I sailed at the head of our twenty best ships. Our best sailors and some of the most experienced soldiers in our kingdom were under my command, not to mention a Wind Strider warrior in each vessel. It was a battle I thought I couldn't lose.

“But I did, at first, and badly. I don't know what my father, or myself, for that matter, was thinking. The self-styled lord of the southern seas was a far better general than I, and he thrashed us in the first great battle. My father was so disgusted when he heard that he nearly called me back for punishment. But I would
not
settle for that! Without his knowledge, I followed the rogues back to their port, a secret fortress bay in the very southernmost tip of Vast itself.”

Gribly found that he was holding his breath. With an effort, he forced himself to exhale.

“When the pirates weren't expecting it, I sneaked into their fortress from the sea. I captured their leader and took to the skies before he could make use of his own Stone Striding, which was significant, I can tell you. With another Wind Strider's help, we brought him to our last surviving ship, the one I had arrived in; then we fled back to Vastion.

“King Larion was ecstatic. He thought I had finally proven myself to be worthy of the destiny placed upon me. Without their leader, the pirates fell apart in weeks, and Vastion's grip on the South was firm once again.”

Something throbbed in the back of Gribly's mind, some part of the story that didn't seem right. What was he missing? Lauro's eyes opened again, and they were filled with hatred.

“On my seventeenth birthday, my father declared that, despite my original failure, I would soon pass the Test of Age and gain my royal honor. All I need do...” his voice broke, and suddenly Lauro struggled to his feet, glaring at the twilight sky of the Aura's otherworld. “All I need do,” he repeated, not even bothering to look at Gribly, “was execute the pirate leader... in front of every Wind Strider in the land.”

The tickle in Gribly's mind clicked, and he shot up beside his friend. “It was my father! You had to execute my father, Gram! He'd become a pirate after he lost me and my brother, hadn't he?”

“I didn't know it at the time... but yes,” Lauro nodded sadly.

Gribly paled, then controlled himself and spoke in a low voice. “You didn't, did you?
That's
the trouble between you and your father, isn't it?”

Lauro looked at him this time, a sickly grin on his face. “Almost. When I heard what was required- by my own father none the less- I snapped. I wanted nothing more to do with the test, or my honor, or being prince. So I... so I helped the pirate Gram escape. With my Wind Striding and his Stone Striding, it wasn't hard. My father never suspected me until the escape was already known over the entire realm.”

“He cast you out...” Gribly whispered in horror.

“No. He punished me, first.
Then
he cast me out. He told me never, ever to come back, unless I came back carrying the head of Gram.”

Gribly's mouth dropped open; he couldn't help it. “All this time... you've been searching for my father, to kill him?”

“NO!” roared Lauro. To Gribly's sight, it seemed as if the world grew darker around the two of them. He stumbled back, rubbed his eyes, and found that it hadn't been imaginary, the darkness was real. “No,” the prince repeated, calmer. “I've been searching for another way...
any
other way. I thought... if my father had believed the Aura had blessed me with greatness... I thought maybe they could
make
me great. They could show me how to be the man my father wanted. The son he always wished for.”

Lauro broke down in tears. Gribly stared for a moment, unhinged by the display of the last emotion he would have expected from the prince... then he grabbed his friend's shoulder and squeezed, hard.

“Listen,” he said. “I don't know the answer to anything you're seeking, and I don't know what Wanderwillow has told you so far, or shown you in that book... but just know that, no matter what differences and disagreements we've had in the past... I will
always
stand by your side. My own brother was taken from me before I knew he existed, and now he's my worst enemy. You know what, Lauro? That makes
you
my brother, now. It doesn't matter what demons or worse enemies come for us, we'll face them together.”

Suddenly thunder rumbled and boomed overhead, flashing and echoing for several seconds before dying away completely. Gribly ignored it, so intent was he on making amends with his former friend. Shadows crept in on either side, but still the two young men stood in the center of the dell, oblivious to the world around them.

No one spoke. Then, almost too quiet to hear, Gribly caught the sound of a muffled
thud
behind him. A footstep.