The Chosen of Anthros (19 page)

“I know you’re there,” the figure said. Even now he wasn’t able to tell where they were, only what direction their voice was coming from.

His breath hitched and he reached for the knife at his belt. He crouched low to the ground, ready to spring at the person.

“There’s no need for that,” the figure said. It was definitely a woman’s voice, though she spoke low enough he could just barely hear her over the winter wind. “I can hear your thoughts. And right now, they are really loud.”

“Are you one of them?” he asked. He could barely hear his own words over his hammering heart. He hadn’t thought to have an encounter just now, but if a harbinger of darkness was here for him, there would only be one of them leaving this meeting. Rorick intended that person to be him.

The woman stepped out of the shadows to his right. He instantly recognized Rowan by the way her white hair gleamed above the shadows of her cloak. “Harbinger of darkness?” she asked. There was humor in her voice, but also an edge. “I assure you I’m no harbinger of darkness. But what makes you think there would be a harbinger of darkness around here?”

Rorick straightened a little and relaxed his grip on his knife. “Camilla says she thinks there are harbingers of darkness here in Haven.” Rorick didn’t think anything of the comment until after he said it. How could he be sure that Rowan really wasn’t a harbinger of darkness? If she was, he’d just ratted out his teacher.

“Don’t fret,” Rowan said, folding her hands together in front of her waist. “It doesn’t run in the family. I’m not a darkling like my brother, Fortarian.”

Rorick nodded. He felt as though he could trust her.
Is that still worth anything?

“You act like the final war is upon us,” Rowan told him. She studied the bearded man. He might have relaxed a little, but he still wasn’t at ease. “I assume you’re going down to see what those shadows are?”

Rorick nodded.

“That’s dangerous,” she told him.

“And what are they?” Rorick asked.

“What do you think they are?” Rowan asked him. Her eyebrow arched high.

“You’ve known they are meeting there and you haven’t done anything yet?” Rorick asked. There was heat in his voice, but he did his best to keep it low so it wouldn’t carry to the shadows he suspected were gathering even now.

“I don’t feel the need to justify the actions of the council to you,” Rowan told him. “But remember that our numbers are low, and whatever foothold we can get on what the darkness plots, the better.”

“So they send you?” Rorick asked. “How long has this been going on?”

“Again with the questions.” She sighed. “We just learned of the rising darkness. It didn’t take much to link the shadows at the base of the hill with what Leona saw in her vision. When the ravens told me about this, I decided to come down here and see for myself what the shadow was plotting.”

“Why you?” Rorick asked.

“I’m telepathic. We are wasting time. If you’re coming then do so, if you’re going to keep asking questions then leave. I have a job to do.”

Rorick didn’t say anything, Rowan was already leaving him behind. He fell in line behind her. Rorick searched around them for any indication of tracks in the snow, but all he could see were their own. Suddenly a restraining hand on his arm pulled him up short.

“We won’t be able to talk when we get there,” Rowan told him. “If these are harbingers of darkness, there’s a chance one of them might have some kind of mental ability, which could be dangerous for us. But if you have anything to say, do so mentally. I won’t be able to respond to you, but I will hear you.”

“How do I do that?” Rorick wondered. He shivered in the cold night. Stars stood above them in a dazzling array. No clouds. He feared it would get colder before it got warmer.

“Just think loudly,” Rowan told him.

Before he could respond to her, the harbinger was pulling him down to the ground. They crept for some distance before she stopped. Rorick followed her lead.

At first he didn’t see anything but a field of endless snow before them, but then, one by one, shadows plummeted out of the sky like billows of ink dropping into clear water. They settled on the ground and took shape. They stood in the forms of humans, some short, some tall, some heavy, some thin.

They gathered together in a tight circle. If they were saying anything, Rorick couldn’t hear them, but then again, they weren’t close enough for him to hear them unless they were speaking very loudly.

Harbingers of darkness,
he thought.
It has to be them. Camilla is right.

He looked over at Rowan, but her face was veiled with some emotion he couldn’t read.

The harbingers before them were gesturing, motioning around them. Once and a while he could hear a bark of laughter that shivered in the frozen air and then vanished to nothing.

Then, like a flicker of moonlight upon the snow, a silver incandescence came toward the gathering. It was cold and hollow. A presence that he couldn’t sense any kind of life from. Just the sight of it made Rorick shiver down to his soul.

The gathering of shadowy figures parted for the illumination. The light pulled up short in the center of the gathering, and just like the shadows had done, the silver presence shifted into the shape of a woman.

She was tall with long blue hair and frozen skin that Rorick could see even from where he crouched. Atop her head rose what looked like horns, but made of wood. Icicles hung from the horns to frame her head.

I know her,
Rorick thought to Rowan.

The harbinger didn’t seem to hear him.

I KNOW HER!
He yelled at Rowan in his mind.

The harbinger listed to the side, her eyes closing in what appeared to be pain. When she opened them again it was to glare at the younger man.

And then she gripped his hand hard. He turned to where the harbingers had gathered, but the group was now in a panic.

“Who was it?” he heard over the snow.

“I don’t know, it sounded like a man!” a male voice called.

“Quickly, retreat. If they know who we are…”

And as quickly as the shadows came, they retreated. They melted into shadows, and spiraled up into the sky, and were gone.

Daniken turned toward where they hid and took a tentative step forward. Then she stopped. Rorick knew without really knowing how he knew that the dark elf could see them.

Rowan rose to her full height and stared the elf down.

Daniken didn’t retreat from the look. Instead she seemed to smile and then was gone.

“You said Camilla mentioned harbingers of darkness to you?” Rowan asked him. She looked to where Rorick still lay on the ground.

“Yes,” he said.

“Then you need to bring her to me. You come too. First thing in the morning. Only a few know about this, and I would like to keep it that way. We need to rat these darklings out.”

“You do understand that I work late?” Camilla asked.

The group was small, only the raven twins, Rorick, Camilla, Rowan, and Gil.

“I understand that I was up as late as you last night, you can handle it.” Rowan didn’t even look at Camilla when she said it. They were crowded in the yurt where Rowan taught Abagail.

“Alright, we don’t have long, but I have news.”

Everyone stopped fidgeting and turned their attention to Rowan.

“Huginn and Muninn came to me yesterday with some rather disturbing news. Apparently we have a new harbinger with the ability to see into the future. On this person’s first run she was able to tell that there’s a rising darkness coming to claim Haven.” Rowan eyeballed each of them in turn. “You’re all here because I trust you enough to let you in on this secret.

“Last night Rorick and I traveled to the base of the mountain to investigate reports of shadows gathering there. What we found was a group of harbingers meeting with a rather strange looking dark elf that Rorick seems to know.”

Camilla cut a glance toward Rorick, but he pretended not to notice.

“They weren’t there long, and I wasn’t able to catch much of what they said. I also couldn’t tell who many of them were, but I do know a few. I don’t want to rat them out yet because I don’t know who I can trust outside of the room with the information we gathered. Some of the people I recognized there last night are key members of the council.”

Huginn shifted uncomfortably.

“If there are key members of the council with the darklings, there’s no telling where more harbingers of darkness could be,” Muninn said. She nodded. “You’re right in keeping this quiet for a while Rowan.”

“What can we do?” Camilla asked, finally taking her eyes off Rorick.

“If there are people you know you can trust. I mean know without a doubt that you can trust, we need to gather them so we can start hunting these fiends down,” Rowan said.

“And then what?” Gil wondered. “Put them in the stockades like we did with Fortarian? We don’t have enough anti-wyrding collars for that.”

“We kill them,” Rowan said simply.

Silence hung in the air around them.

“But how will we know if they are harbingers of darkness for sure?” Muninn asked.

“There are enough of us here with mental powers to be able to tell,” Rowan said. “We must be sure before we kill them. We don’t want to go on a murder spree. But I must remind you that this is what harbingers of light do. We seek out darklings and we exterminate them.”

“I have no issue killing them,” Camilla said. “Who’s first?”

“Patience,” Rowan told her. She wore a smile for the swordswoman. “I want to get as much information as I can before we start killing them, and we have to come up with a plan on how we are going to do it without getting caught.”

“I will watch them,” Camilla said. “Give me names and I will watch them and wait until they are alone.”

“It shouldn’t just be you that does that,” Huginn said.

“Huginn, I want you and Muninn out of the danger of it. We need our seers to be able to scout as much information as they can. I know you haven’t been able to find much of yet, but now that we know for sure that we are looking at our own brethren do you think you can narrow the search?”

“Yes,” Muninn said. “We can delve into specific pasts and presents and find out what we can.”

“Alright,” Rowan said. “I will provide you with names. Gil, Camilla, and Rorick, you’re the…dispatchers here.”

“What about Leona and Abagail. I know they would want to help,” Rorick said.

“Leona will be helping, and I will talk to Abagail tonight after dinner. Gil will have to take over training her this morning, because I have to do a little leg work now. Alright, gather who you think you can trust, but keep that trust close. We need to act on this fast, but it wouldn’t do to have the darklings know what we are up to.”

“Did you come to learn the truth of who you are?” Fortarian’s voice came to Leona from the darkness of his cell. “Do people know you keep coming here alone?”

“Abagail will be here soon,” Leona said, casting her gaze to the end of the hall and the closed door that led to freedom and sunlight. The stockades was damp and there were patters of rodent feet in the far away reaches of the prison. It made her shiver.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Fortarian said, coming from the shadows. He situated the jacket over his frame as if it were the finest fabric instead of tattered rags. His hair, though slick with grease and unwashed, was combed back and styled. His eye wasn’t as bruised as it had been.

However, the most startling thing about Fortarian was the shadow plague. When Leona had been there before the plague had been fading, as if the wyrd was leaving his body now that the collar was in place. It was vibrant once more. The longer Leona stared at the plague, the darker it seemed until she was certain it was moving.

Is it moving? And how is it stronger even with that collar?
Did the collar stop the wyrd from entering the body? Did it slowly drive it from the body? She couldn’t be sure, but Leona suspected that wasn’t the case because if it were they would simply use the collars to drive the shadow plague from everyone.

“Leona?” Fortarian said in a singsong voice. She hadn’t seen him draw near to the bars.