Questing Sucks (Book 1) (11 page)
Cah’lia studied his eyes, and Patrick knew that she finally saw the truth in them. She probably still struggled to accept his words, but she was a smart woman, and she would fight past her confusion.
“But what about Sehn? I’m sure that, while there’s some part of him that will appreciate your generosity to our people, he will still be expecting some form of personal reward.”
Patrick struggled with the question; this was the one thing he wished not to discuss. It would not harm their journey, so it wouldn’t be catastrophic to tell the woman, but he wished he could spare her from what he had to say next.
“Sehn will not need a reward, Cah’lia, because in all likelihood, with our timing as it stands, he will never return home.”
Cah’lia’s eyes widened; she visibly trembled. “What do you mean? What are you saying, Patrick?”
“I promised his father that I would try to bring him home, but I also told him, and now I am telling you, that it won’t be easy. Sehn will never live to see his twenty-first naming day. On the eve of that night he will die; because of what he is, because of what he was born with. In six months, Sehn will be no more.”
Tears came unbidden into Cah’lia’s eyes. Her hands began to shake, and her knees went weak. She fell to the floor. Patrick kneeled down to assist her, wiping her face with the sleeve of his expensive silk shirt. She sobbed uncontrollably.
“Is this…Is—is this some kind of joke?” she asked. “How is this possible?”
“It has already begun. Have you noticed he has started to lose his appetite? Sehn is dying, Cah’lia. He will remain strong until the day of his death, but soon he will begin to feel pain. It will not cripple him, but it will cause him agony. I don’t know the specifics, because I don’t know of anyone like Sehn, but if I have to drag him to our destination, I will. And I need you to be strong and help him. I wish I could tell you why we’re doing this, what evil it is we fight. But even mentioning it could spell out the end for us all.”Cah’lia squirmed under Patrick’s hand, refusing to meet his eyes. She struggled to speak as rivers of tears navigated down her small face. “But…you don’t understand, Patrick. Sehn is going to rule the world someday. He has all these plans. I’ve never met anyone who wanted as much as he does. He has more dreams than anyone does, and he has more hopes than anyone does. Are you saying he will live to see none of them?”
Patrick kept his voice steady. “Yes, Cah’lia, you may as well come to accept it now. Sehn will die, and there’s nothing we can do. But he can, at the very least, play a role in saving this world, and you can help him. I’m sorry that he won’t get to chase his dreams, but you must not let him know any of this. Keep him focused. Keep him moving. He can’t die until we’ve used him up.”
A tremendous fury entered Cah’lia’s eyes. They hardened and turned to steel. “Used him up? How can you speak that way of him?”
“Not easily, I assure you, but if you care about your family, your loved ones, or even your home, then you must remember that Sehn is nothing more than a tool. Save your tears for later, because I promise you that, if we fail at this, what is to come will be worse than any pain you have ever felt and they will surely be needed.”
Patrick grimaced as Cah’lia pushed him away and ran out of the room.
He was not an evil man. He did not delight or take comfort in the suffering of others. But seeing what he had seen, knowing what he had come to know, he had been forced to make himself numb. Sehn would die in six months with or without his interference, and that was a fact. None of this was Patrick’s fault, nor would he take the blame.
How many Elves, Patrick wondered, had ever seen the brazen Suhn, chief of Elvar, weep into open palms after learning of his child’s cursed fate? Patrick had made the man a promise, one he intended to keep.
He would try harder than he’d ever tried at anything to bring Sehn back to the place of his birth, so that his father may say his goodbyes. But regardless of all other factors, Patrick would not sit idly by and let the world burn to preserve the happiness of one woman.
Chapter 10: Bankruptcy
Sehn’s eyes popped open. Seeing the afternoon sunrays falling over his bed, he realized he’d overslept. Patrick insisted on keeping their stay in Koringrath brief, and Sehn was not willing to whittle away the time sleeping. One could make quite a fortune buying and selling in Koringrath, and even though Sehn had lost money every other time, he had a feeling that this time it would be different.
The inn room was comfortable; five queen-sized beds were spread out around the room, with sitting areas, tables, and exotic paintings of the plain’s wildlife hanging in various locations along the walls.
Sehn sat up and growled as he spotted the sleeping form next to him.
“Nero, what kind of man are you? Sleep in your own bed.” Sehn gave him a nudge, and the little Elf sat up, wiping his eyes. He appeared dazed as he looked around him.
“Ah! I must have fallen asleep waiting for everyone. I wanna go see the city. How could they let me fall asleep like this?”
Nero tried to sprint out of the room, and would have, had Sehn not grabbed him by the ankle. “Hold on a second, Nero. I would love nothing more than for you to go out alone and get murdered, but Cah’lia would never let me hear the end of it. I’m going with you.”
Nero jumped out of the bed, spinning, twirling and clapping. Sehn was going to put a stop to that one of these days; happiness was a forbidden emotion.
“Where did everyone else go, Sehn?”
Only then did Sehn realize they were alone in the room.“Who knows? Hopefully they died.”
Nero laughed and followed Sehn out of the room. They walked down the narrow hallway of the inn. Looking out of the occasional window, Sehn could see they were on the second floor. The thought grated him.
I am so tired of residing on only the second floor of things! The Great Sehn should sleep among the clouds
.Sehn knew that the day would be long and tiring. As soon as they exited the inn and Nero’s little foot touched the first piece of stoned pavement on the Koringrathian streets, he refused to calm down. Sehn was dragged to places he didn’t want to go, literally dragged as Nero tugged on his shirt and pulled him along. Sehn growled but willingly followed after him.
“What’s this, Sehn?”
They hadn’t traveled far from the inn. Koringrath had so much to do that, just a few minutes’ walk down the road, a world of shops and activity on both sides of the wide street surrounded them. Whatever Koringrath lacked in the ways of Elvar’s natural beauty, it more than made up for in other areas.
Nero stood in front of a fruit merchant, drooling over the exotic treats from distant lands. He pointed at greenish, oval-shaped fruit with pleading, longing eyes.
“That looks
so
yummy, Sehn. Buy me one.”“Yeah.” Sehn laughed. “Because
that’s
happening. Let’s go, Nero.”Nero gave Sehn a reproachful look. “But I want it, Sehn! If you don’t buy me it, then I’ll…I’ll tell Cah’lia I saw you looking at her butt yesterday.”
Sehn’s felt his heart race; he flinched as he filled with both anger and humiliation.
“What! I have done no such thing, you little runt. I was merely trying to look at the sun to gauge the time, and her fat, Elven-ass was so large that I couldn’t see past it. It almost burned my retinas out, too, just like the sun.”
“Oh? Okay, then, well I’ll tell her you said
that.”Sehn muttered curses under his breath and turned towards the merchant. Nero was really beginning to become a pain.
“How much does it cost for that green oval monstrosity this little brat is jumping around about?”
A twinkle of light crossed the merchant’s eyes, as if he’d just found himself an unwitting customer. Most of these merchants made tons of money off children guilting their parents or some other relative into buying them useless garbage.
“This is a very special fruit, my Elven friend,” the merchant said.
I bet it is,
Sehn thought bitterly.
I bet he’s going to tell me that none like it exist in the land!“Not many like it exist in the land,” he continued. “It is said to imbue special powers on whoever eats it. In fact, I believe this piece of fruit is the very last of its kind.”
Nero’s eyes lit up like the fireworks on the celebration day of Goddess Helena. For a moment Sehn thought the little Elf was drooling.
What an idiot
.
Only a moron would believe anything said by a merchant
.“Not only that,” the merchant said, “but also, whoever eats it is fated to one day conquer the world.”
Sehn slammed his fist on the merchant’s table. “Really? Why didn’t you say that before? The Great Sehn must have this fruit.”
“But, Sehn, I wanted that one,” Nero moaned.
“Don’t worry, Nero. You can have the next world-conquering fruit.”
“But I want
that
one!”Sehn ignored the little Elf. No one would dare make such a false claim, not to the face of Sehn himself! Sure, the merchant might be lying about a fruit that imbues special powers, but what were the odds that a man destined to rule the world would come across a merchant that sells an item to invoke it? It was destiny.
The merchant made an exaggerated gesture of looking over his shoulder before turning his head back on the two of them. “What if I told you that I had another? I try to keep it hidden, just in case someone finds out. I’ll tell you gentlemen what; I’ll give you both pieces of this amazingly rare fruit for only ten gold coins—ehem—three thousand Elvens in your currency.”
“Damn, that’s pricey. Very well, but can you give
me
the world-conquering fruit and Nero the powers one?”“But of course, my good Elf.”
It was half the money Sehn had left to his name, but it would be worth it. He slammed the coins down on the merchant’s table and walked away with the fruit. He could see excitement on Nero’s face, which he was certain mirrored his own. Even if Sehn wasn’t hungry before, he was hungry now…hungry for power!
“Nero, let’s go to that open area over there. We don’t know what kind of transformations our bodies might incur after eating these magical foods, and we might need our space.”
Sehn chuckled as he made his way with Nero to a clearing just in front of a water fountain. Soon, they would be more powerful than the stone carving of the mythical God depicted in the middle of the fountain.
Together, they bit into the fruit. “Yum, Sehn!” Nero said. “This is really good!”
“Of course it is, Nero. That is the taste of power.”
“Wow, I think I feel something—I am growing more powerful!”
“I am too! It’s finally happening, Nero. We’re becoming Gods!”
Cah’lia and Sehn’s three buddies came into view from the street across from the water fountain.
“Oh, there you two are,” Cah’lia said. “We were looking all over for you guys. What are you two idiots up to this time?”
“Silence yourself, Cah’lia! Nero and I are transforming into Gods. Behold as the day of reckoning has come before you!”
Nero made grunting sounds, flexing his arms and snarling. “The power, Sehn; it’s too much.”
“You must learn to control it, Nero! I shall grow to the size of a tower and fuck a cloud!”
Patrick turned to Cah’lia and sighed. “Cah’lia, this isn’t the first time Sehn has done this here.”
She sighed in return. “Yes, sadly he does this every other week at home, the both of them. They never learn.”
The two nodded at the same time. Patrick said, “Well, let’s just hope he still has some money left in his pocket this time.”
Sehn danced around with Nero, grunting at the sudden rush of power. Citizens scrambled out of their way and covered their children’s eyes. One said, “Don’t look, sweetie. Whatever he has you might catch it.”
It took almost an hour for Sehn to realize he had made yet another foolish business investment.
“Fuck my life!”
