Shaper of Stone (The Shapers Book 1) (18 page)

He handed me the stone. I was to keep
it in my left hand and focus my will upon it. He wanted me to try to
shape it like I did with the nerafpan. Of course nothing happened. It
reminded me of the first day I carried the nerafpan with me. Maybe
this would work the same way. This was a circle, or at least close to
a circle. All I needed to do was make it a square to get started.

By the time we stopped for lunch, still
nothing had happened. Well, the stone had gotten warm in my hand, but
that was it. Talamas hardly spoke a word as I focused on the stone.
It was a stark contrast to Shira who constantly tried to encourage my
efforts.

I hoped the others were safe and making
good time.

I was beginning to feel like a little
kid in the backseat of a car. How much longer was it going to be? Are
we there yet? This is taking forever!

Instead of whining, I finished my lunch
and kept on trying to shape the rock. If I managed to shape anything
else, it could help when we reached Abella. I couldn’t risk
messing that up.

Garit gathered up the supplies, then we
resumed our march. Tibron moved further ahead. In his own way, I
think he was as anxious about this journey as I was. Although, he
never showed it. He carried himself like a knight, brave and bold.

It was his silence that drew my
attention. When anyone tried to speak to the warrior his answers were
short and to the point, never using more words than necessary. Not
that I know him well. I only had the stories Abella shared with me to
use as a comparison, but that was enough to sense that he was
bothered.

Garit was at the other end of the
spectrum. Where Tibron was quiet, Garit needed to talk. Mostly to
Talamas, no doubt to the annoyance of the older man. Garit was full
of stories. Some were true, like our fight with Balruc, but others
sounded like the bawdy tales that he heard in a tavern after too many
drinks.

Regardless of the source of the story,
I found his voice comforting. It was the one thing in all of this
that seemed normal. It was hard to think of him as the guard who
watched my cell when Vatrale first took me prisoner. I was glad he
was with us now.

We didn’t walk long before
Talamas took my stone, still round and flat, away from me. He
replaced it with a stick. The stick was about ten inches long and as
thick as my finger. It would have made a perfect magic wand if I had
any idea what to do with one. He had only one instruction for me.
Bend it.

That didn’t go well. I got a
splinter in my finger within the first couple of minutes. Then I
swore I wore a blister on my thumb by rubbing it up and down the
wood, but when I stopped to check it was just a callous feeling a
little tender. I shifted the stick to my right hand, but Talamas
yelled and had me put it back in my left.

Except for Garit, we all traveled in
silence. He talked enough to make up for how quiet the rest of us
were.

I was lost in my own thoughts. Versions
of what would happen when we found Vatrale kept running through my
head. In some we rescued Talia and Abella and everything ended
happily. In others we were torn to shreds before we ever faced
Vatrale. The worst was imagining that we made it there, but were just
a little too late and Abella was already gone.

I knew worrying about it wouldn’t
change anything, but it didn’t stop me. I was tempted to ask
what the others thought, but I really didn’t want to hear any
of my own fears echoed back to me.

-o-

The creatures carrying Abella and Talia
flew for an hour before landing to rest. Each time they stopped they
remain motionless unless the women tried to flee.

At times they rested for only a few
minutes, other times they rested for several hours. Each break ended
the same way with the constructs responding to a command only they
could hear.

Unable to escape the constructs, the
women prepared for the time when they would be away from them. They
hid the knives they carried where they couldn’t be easily seen.
It wasn’t much, but at some point they would meet the men who
command the constructs. The knives may be useless against the stone,
but against flesh and blood they would work fine.

-o-

Tibron found a spot to rest for the
night. It was a clearing maybe twenty feet across with a trickle of a
stream flowing down a hill. We had packed light with just a blanket
for each of us. It made setting up the camp fairly simple. Garit
cleared away a few of the stones and brought over some logs to use as
seats, and it was ready.

I collected some twigs for a fire. I
felt like I should be doing something. Of course I had no idea how to
actually start a fire in the wilderness, but I figured one of the
others would know what to do. Someone had to start the fire at the
last camp.

When I appeared with the kindling Garit
came over to help me lay out a fire. It never seemed to bother him
that there were so many things I couldn’t do. He simply
accepted it and offered to help, normally showing me what I needed to
know without making me feel stupid.

Talamas had found a log and watched us
work while Tibron went off for water. The stick I had failed to bend
during the day was now in his hand. He studied it like it had some
great secret, although what it was I had no idea.

Garit had me smacking a stone against
the dull side of a dagger trying to get a spark to light the fire. It
took at least a half dozen tries before I saw my first spark. A few
more tries produced enough sparks that some dried grass caught one,
and we were able to nurse it into a small flame by blowing on it. The
guardsman slapped me on the back when it looked like the fire would
keep burning.

“Are you sure that is wise?”
asked Tibron as he returned with the filled water skins. “The
light of the fire may draw our enemies to us.”

“Our enemies do not need light to
find us,” replied Talamas. “Tonight I think a fire can
serve us well. First, it would be good to have a warm meal. Garit
packed supplies to make a stew and I think we should eat well
tonight.”

“First,” I said. “Is
there a second reason that you have in mind? Not that I’m
objecting to a warm fire and a hot meal.”

“Indeed, the second reason
concerns you, Devin. You have failed to shape stone or wood. I would
like you to try to shape fire before we break camp. It is a rare
talent, but one I do not wish to overlook. To shape fire, we must
first have fire.”

Talamas tossed the stick he was holding
into the small fire. It landed just at the edge, maybe an inch or so
from the flames.

“Devin,” he continued, “Try
to make the flames jump from the larger fire to the stick. It is like
shaping the nerafpan. See it in your mind first, then project it into
the fire to make it happen.”

Garit patted my shoulder before going
over to his pack, “Good luck. I’ll get dinner ready while
you practice.”

-o-

Dinner came and went. Tibron sharpened
his blades and Garit cleaned up our mess. The entire time Talamas
watched me as I tried to make the flame move. It never happened. At
best the stick Talamas tossed near the fire grew dark, but that was
from the proximity to the fire, not because of any effort on my part.

“Great!” I finally said in
disgust. “I can’t shape anything but the nerafpan. How am
I going to stand up to Vatrale. I’m sorry guys, it looks like
I’m a failure.”

“You are hardly a failure,
Devin,” said Talamas. “This is not the best environment
to try to master the arts. It is important we know the limit of your
power before we engage in battle.”

“We are out of time,” said
Tibron.

“You are correct that our
encounter with Vatrale will be soon, and it is unlikely Devin will
learn how to shape more than nerafpan before then. That does not mean
that today has been a waste, nor that we will be ill prepared. Let me
ask you this. Are you tired or sore? How do your wounds feel?”

Now that he asked it occurred to me
that I was not tired. We had been hiking all day and my feet didn’t
hurt. Even my left shoulder stopped hurting sometime during the day.
In fact the only discomfort I had today was how hungry I was when we
stopped to camp. From the looks on the faces of the others I think
they had a similar revelation.

“You feel energetic, healthy. One
might even say refreshed. You may thank Devin for that. While he
failed to change the nature of any object I presented to him today,
it was not from lack of effort. As he focused, I could feel the power
radiating from him. That excess energy spread to us, healing us and
restoring our own energy levels even as we exerted ourselves. The
only noticeable side effect being that we burned through our own
reserves rather quickly, and I expect everyone was rather ravenous by
the time we stopped.”

It seemed the old man had found a way
to siphon energy away from me after all. I felt like I should be
angry with him, but we did need to test my powers. I hoped it was a
natural side effect as opposed to a malicious attempt. I decided to
ignore it for now, but I thought I might need to keep a closer eye on
Talamas. There was no telling what he might be able to do without me
being aware of it.

Tibron jumped to his feet and clapped
his hands together, “Then we break camp and march through the
night. With luck we can arrive before the constructs.”

“What about sleeping?”
Garit asked.

Talamas provided the answer. “We
will need to stop for meals, but as long as Devin continues to focus
his power we will not need to sleep.”

Garit shrugged his shoulders and
grabbed his pack. “We might be able to set up an ambush and
stop them before they join the others. I’m not looking forward
to fighting those things again, but I’d rather try it when they
were isolated from any help.”

I slid my arm out of the sling and
raised it into the air. The pain was completely gone. Not even a
twinge from earlier today. I pulled off the sling and said, “Let
me grab my blanket, and I’ll be ready to go.”

“Leave it,” advised Tibron.
“Carry only food and weapons. Anything else can be left behind.
We’ll take what supplies we need after we defeat Carvis and
Vatrale.”

“Or we won’t need them,’
added Talamas as he too got to his feet.

Why did he have to say that?

-o-

The sun was just cresting the horizon
when we stopped atop the hillside overlooking Vatrale’s lair.
Tibron and Garit were both quick to make sure we stayed low against
the ground as we looked upon our destination. We didn’t want to
give away our position too soon.

Actually, we didn’t want to give
away our position at all. Surprise was going to be our greatest ally.

From where we lay on the hill we could
see the perimeter erected around the area. Rising out of the ruins
was a wooden scaffolding that encompasses a recently constructed
stone tower. The work was not complete. The remnants of an older
tower lays scattered around its base.

The new tower rose from the roof of a
rectangular building. Two walls looked like they were crushed when
the original tower collapsed, and there were no signs of any repairs
being made to them. It was almost like the reconstruction was being
done from the top down. The entire structure was three stories high
at the tallest point. A construction ramp extended from the top of
the tower to a lower roof at the opposite end of the building.

There were four other buildings in the
area. Fire had taken their toll on them leaving gaping holes in the
roof and charring the walls.

They looked like they could collapse at
any moment. They, along with the main building, surrounded a central
courtyard that was currently filled with tents. Six were small ones
that might house two or three people, and there was one larger tent
that could easily hold twice that number.

I counted at least five dracomen
patrolling the area. There was also an equal number of hooded figures
that I could see, but not identify from here. Two of the hooded
figured stood watch atop of what was once a barn.

The barn was on the southern side of
the compound and was almost as tall as the tower. The men positioned
there would have a clear view of anything approaching them. No doubt
they would sound an alarm if they saw anything out of the ordinary.

The top level of the newly constructed
tower was open. A few stones placed around the edge of the platform
created a low wall. That floor drew my attention. Some type of stand
had been raised in the center of it.

Tibron whispered, interrupting my
thoughts. “Carvis is down there. I can feel it.”

I was not sure if Tibron was being
literal or not, but even if it was a gut feeling, I tended to agree
with him. We had reached our destination. Vatrale and Carvis were
down there, and if we were lucky they didn’t know we were here.

Talamas raised a thin hand and pointed
to the tower construction and confirmed what we all believe, “This
is the place. That tower is where Irena died and Vatrale’s fall
began.”

-o-

For at least an hour, we watched the
buildings. There was no sign of the gargoyles, Abella or Talia. Not
that we expected there to be. We made good time traveling through the
night with only a few quick stops.

According to Talamas gargoyles could
fly for short periods of time and were capable of tremendous bursts
of speed, but for long journeys they traveled no faster than most
people. They needed to rest in proportion to the effort they exerted,
and Talamas was certain that they would stop for the night to allow
their prisoners to sleep. Vatrale would have no use for the women if
they died on the way to him.

We counted three separate guards
watching the perimeter. One stood watch along the road leading into
the courtyard. The other was positioned south of the barn, and the
last guard was to the northeast near the ruins of the old tower. It
was this last guard that caught our attention.