The Chosen of Anthros (5 page)

They followed Rowan silently down several more trails until there weren’t many platforms of houses left.
Right in the middle,
Abagail thought.
Three from the top, three from the bottom.

There were numerous houses here, and she wasn’t sure if this was where most of the new recruits were housed to keep them safe, or how their housing structure went. She could tell that many people weren’t home though, most of the houses were dark so either they went to bed early, or they were with the elves.

“This is where we house the new arrivals,” Rowan told them, drawing to a halt before a two story white house. There were pink shutters on the outside, and plant boxes on the windows, even though it was too cold for any kinds of plants to grow there. “If you picket your horses to the back someone will be along to tend to them. We should discuss what’s required of people here.”

Rowan tethered her horse to a hitching post out front, and went into the house. Abagail followed Leona and Rorick to the back where they picketed their horses, and grabbed what meager supplies they had with them. Mostly weapons.

Her feet thunked hollowly on the stairs and porch. The door stood open, to show numerous lamps lit around the interior of the house. Abagail entered in time to see Rowan conjuring a fire within the fireplace.

“It will be cold for now, I’m sorry about that. No one was around to get the house ready for you. But we do keep all of the houses clean, even the vacant ones, so you shouldn’t have to worry about bugs.”

Abagail looked around the main room. There was a steep staircase to the back that led up to the second floor;however, the main floor was largely open. To the right of the door was a table nestled in a corner bearing several windows that looked out around Haven. To the left of the door was a sink and a stove for cooking. Abagail had seen that kind of stove before. Wood was loaded inside of it, and the cooking was done on the top.

In the back and to the left was another room that Leona was checking out. The light inside flickered around furnishings that could only belong in a bathroom.

The entirety of the downstairs was covered in wooden floors with few rugs scattered here and there. The walls were white with nothing on them that wasn’t functional.

“Before you get cleaned up,” Rowan called to Leona. “We should discuss the housing arrangements.”

Reluctantly Leona came back out and dropped her gear beside the bathroom. Rowan frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“This is your home now,” she told them as she sank into a chair at the table. “The three of you will live here together. There are four rooms upstairs, but since there are so many of you it’s unlikely that we will house another harbinger with you. You can take meals as a household, or you can join the harbingers at the central hall. In the morning you will be able to see that better, it’s a large building on this level.

“You are expected to keep this house clean,” she said, glancing pointedly at where Leona had dropped her gear. If the younger girl noticed, she didn’t say anything or move to clean it up. “And as I’m told by Gilphig, you have been notified that we all pull our weight around here. There are many tasks that we need doing. Tomorrow you will all be appraised for what talents you have and how you can earn your keep around here. Are there any questions so far?”

Abagail shook her head.

“If I’m not a harbinger, is there still training I can take with them?” Rorick asked, leaning against the door.

“What did you have in mind?” Rowan asked, appraising the bulky youth.

“Fighting, guarding. Something that will make me useful to Abagail and Leona.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged. We aren’t all harbingers here. Some families do send their children here for other kind of training like blacksmithing and fencing. We will find something to make you useful to them.”

Abagail looked to Leona to see if her sister had anything to add, but Leona looked too tired to say much of anything.

“Now, about your training,” Rowan said.

Abagail stiffened and yanked on her glove.

“I know on the road I’ve been harsh with you,” Rowan said. “That was necessary to try to get your emotions in check. You’ve been doing well, but not well enough to start working with wyrd on your own. So we will have to use several dampening relics we have. When you’re settled in, most likely tomorrow, you will learn more of the basics of working with your wyrd.

“My protégé, Gilphig, will be your sparring partner.”

“Sparring? Like sword fighting?” Abagail asked, her eyebrows knitting together.

“No, as in wyrded battle.”

“How does that work? What if he gets injured?”

Rowan laughed. “It’s funny that you’re more worried about him than yourself. We have precautions, don’t worry. Now, as for your abilities. You will learn to control the waking and sleeping eye as well as your fire abilities.”

“Fire abilities?” Leona asked, coming to attention.

“I don’t have any fire abilities,” Abagail said.

“You do, you just haven’t allowed them to surface yet. We will help you with that.” Rowan turned to Leona then. “And what about you, will you be training with your sister as well?”

Leona frowned at the harbinger. “I only have the power of the scepter and the hammer.”

“That’s not true at all,” she said. “You have those mental powers of yours. That’s a harbinger power.”

“But…I wasn’t infected,” Leona argued.

“You don’t always have to be infected to be a harbinger. The plague doesn’t give you powers, you’re born with them. The plague just feeds on those powers and brings them out. It’s in the confusion of trying to figure out these new powers that the plague is allowed to grow.” Rowan leaned back and motioned with her hand. “You have power. You are both destined to be harbingers.”

Leona looked stunned. She nodded woodenly. “If I can learn to control my sight, then yes, by all means I will.”

“Good,” Rowan said, slapping her hand on the table. “Now, I will let you settle in. I will collect you all in the morning.” With that Rowan Bauer left, the door thumping shut behind them.

“I call the bathroom first,” Leona said.

“I really think I need it,” Rorick chimed in.

“Nope. I call first round in it,” Abagail said, itching under her arm.

“Well, I get it fair and square,” Leona said, putting her hand on the doorknob. She was closer to the bathroom, and barred the way in. “I’m a girl,” she told Rorick. “And, if it wasn’t for you, Abbie, we wouldn’t be in this situation and I wouldn’t be dirty.”

Leona smiled widely and Abagail groaned at her sister. “Alright, you win. Don’t take forever.”

“Maybe you can make something to eat while I’m cleaning up?” Leona suggested.

“Don’t press your luck,” Abagail told her, but she was already talking to the closed bathroom door.

Leona took less time than Abagail had expected. She came out of the bathroom toweling off her short blond hair.

“I’ve never seen a bathtub like that,” she said. “You’re gonna love it. Let me show you.” She took Abagail by the hand and led her inside the warm chamber. Under the large tub was a bed of rocks. Flames licked between the rocks, heating the bottom of the tub. To the back of the tub were levers. It was to the levers that Leona went.

She pulled down on them and water began pouring in through a trough under the levers. When the water hit the bottom of the tub, steam rose into the air.

“Don’t worry, the tub won’t burn you, the water is cold.”

Abagail shut the door behind them and started stripping down. She could barely recognize the girl she once was in the tall mirror on the back of the door. Her dark hair was a bit longer, her skin marred with dirt. The shadows of the plague wreathed her elbow like a malignant bracelet. Shadows of a different sort hung deep beneath her eyes. It would be good to get clean, be full, and have a nice sleep in a bed.

“You didn’t seem to think anything strange about being a harbinger,” Abagail said, going to the toilet. Leona was facing the mirror now, drying her hair off more. For several long moments the only sound was the trickling of water into the tub.

It wasn’t until Abagail was stepping into the tub that Leona spoke. The water sloshed around Abagail in a strange way both warm and cool. She leaned back in the tub with a sigh.

“Well, we’ve known for a while I was a seer,” Leona said. “That wasn’t any surprise there. At least for me,” she said, firing a glance over her shoulder at Abagail. She raised her eyebrow.

Abagail laughed. It felt good to be relaxed enough to laugh again. “Alright, I admit it, I was wrong about your being able to see things and talk to entities no one else could.”

“Thank you,” Leona said. She dragged a comb through her hair. “But yea, it’s a little strange learning that I’m a harbinger. But honestly, it doesn’t change anything. It’s not like I have any more power than I did before.”

Abagail ducked her head under the water to soak her hair. She came back up and scrubbed water out of her eyes.

“I wonder why the darklings didn’t come after you?” Abagail wondered.

“Maybe they were,” Leona said quietly.

“What do you mean?” Abagail asked. Picking up a bar of scented soap she lathered her hands up good.

“That’s not for your hair,” Leona said, coming back to the tub. She handed Abagail a jar with a strange iridescent purple liquid inside.

Abagail frowned at it, but opened the jar and poured some of the soap in her hand. Leona closed the jar for her as Abagail started lathering up her hair.

“Anyway, Daniken seemed to be after me for some reason,” Leona said, sitting on the floor beside the tub. “That’s the only darkling influence I can think of.” She shrugged.

“That’s true,” Abagail said.

“And I’m not infected. It sounds from what Rowan said that you have to be infected for the darklings to have much sway over your power.”

Abagail nodded then ducked back under the water and rinsed her hair.

“What do you think about Rowan?” Leona asked when she surfaced.

“I think she’s going to be a handful trying to understand,” Abagail told her. She picked up the bar of soap again and started scrubbing down.

“I mean, what do you think about her not really being our aunt?” Leona asked.

Abagail shrugged. “It’s kind of a relief.”

“How do you figure?” Leona wondered.

“Well, at least it’s not like Dolan was keeping family from us,” Abagail said.

It didn’t go past Leona’s notice that Abagail didn’t call him dad.

“What about you?” Abagail wondered.

“It’s strange,” Leona admitted. “We really are without family now. We are here alone. Who’s to say that Rowan has our best interest at heart?”

“That’s true,” Abagail said, setting the soap down. “But who’s to say if she was our blood that she would have any kind of inkling to help us? Just look at her and Fortarian. Brother and sister and she acts like she’d rather burn him instead of look at him.”

“You’re probably right,” Leona said, pushing to a stand. “How’s dinner coming along?”

“Rorick and I had found some canned food. Soups mostly. We were too tired to start a fire in the stove, so they were warming on the hearth before I came in here.”

“Alright, I will see if he needs any help.”

The night passed without much incident. When they heard the noise of several harbingers coming back to their part of Haven, the three of them were heading upstairs to check out their lodging.

The narrow staircase led up to a small sitting room that opened up onto a hallway. The hall had four doors along its length, and at the end of the hall a window sat above a stand with an oil lamp on it. Rorick lit the lamp and brought it back to the first door.

“I want one of these,” he told them. “If someone gets into the house, I want to be nearest the stairs” The look in his eye told Abagail there wasn’t any arguing with him.

Worried that darklings are going to try to kill us no doubt. Wanting to protect us like he couldn’t protect his family.

She nodded. “Then Leona and I will take the back two.”

Leona was already headed to the room in the back right. “They are all the same size.” She reported.

Abagail opened the door of the back left room. It was large enough that she didn’t feel cramped, but the room didn’t have much furnishings that weren’t practical. A bed large enough for one person, a dresser for clothes, and a shelf for books. A stand beside the bed had a lamp on it, but she was too tired to worry about lighting the lamp or settling in that night. Instead she closed the door, stripped off her clothes, and sunk into the bed.

The first bed she’d slept in since coming to Agaranth.

She was nearly asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Outside two shadowed forms looked up at the window. They could feel Abagail’s presence there.

“Do you think this is what we’ve been looking for?” the raven haired sister asked her twin. “Do you think she’s the one?”

“If not, she can lead us to the one.”

“She has the eyes,” Huginn said.

“That she does. It’s not unheard of though. Better to watch and see,” Muninn told her sister. “Just watch and see how things unfold.”