The Forbidden Library (21 page)

Having just finished a late afternoon stretch and walkabout, Turesobei cast the
spell of sensing presences
. Their reitsu stalker didn’t appear, but Turesobei doubted he was gone. Probably he was just hanging further back. He did pick up something else.

“There’s a beast northwest of us. Two hundred paces. I think it’s a sonoke.”

“I don’t see anything,” Kemsu said. “Must be in a hollow, or maybe lying behind some rocks.” Gullies and rocks had become increasingly common over the last day of riding. “But then it’s hard to see anything right now.”

The sky was deeply overcast and a fine snow was misting down on them. The goronku considered this to be heavy weather. Upon Kemsu announcing it as such, everyone from Okoro laughed, especially Iniru who had grown up in a rainforest.

“Only one?” Narbenu asked. “You sure?”

“He’s on the outside of my range, but I think so. Why?”

“They’re herd animals. Small herds, usually. Not common to find one alone this time of the year, but it may have gotten lost or injured. Kemsu, you and Iniru go after it. We could use the meat. If we all go we’ll be more likely to scare it off. Everyone else, walk around and stretch.”

“What about you?” Kemsu asked.

“I have … business … to attend to.” 

Enashoma dismounted. “Won’t killing a wild sonoke disturb our mounts?” she asked.

“Never bothers them,” Narbenu responded. “The wild ones are a different strain. Savage, too, so you have to be careful around them.”

“Should I go and calm it with a spell?” Turesobei asked.

“I think Iniru and I can handle this,” Kemsu said. 

Kemsu and Iniru drew their spears and rode off. A lot of time passed. Enough that Turesobei grew concerned. When Narbenu began to fidget, Turesobei cast the spell again, putting more power into it than before.

“I think they must have just killed the sonoke. Its energy is fading. They’re farther away than I expected though. Must have had to chase — Oh no!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Narbenu.

“I’m sensing more sonoke coming toward them.”

Narbenu drew his spear. “How many?”

“Hard to know exactly but … dozens. Thirty, maybe forty of them. Moving in on them fast.”

Enashoma climbed up onto the saddle with Motekeru.

“We have to get to them and warn them.” Narbenu kicked the flanks of his sonoke. “And fast.”

Lu Bei popped out. “I’ll stay as far ahead as I can, master, to warn them as soon as possible.”

“I’ll keep my spell up so I can judge their location.”

“As soon as we alert them, we’ve got to get away from the sonoke herd,” Narbenu said. “Packs that large are rare and incredibly deadly. If they smell the blood of one of their own slain, they’ll go into a frenzy.”

Chapter 25

Having been alerted in advance by Lu Bei flying ahead screeching warnings, Iniru and Kemsu appeared over a ridge, racing their mounts at full speed. Wild sonoke were charging after them, two ahead of the pack were closing in fast. As they joined Turesobei and the others, the two pack leaders surged forward, going much faster than their tame sonoke mounts could. Probably because the wild sonoke didn’t have saddles, supplies, and riders to weigh them down.

The wild sonoke were different in appearance. Their fur was rust-tinged instead of gray-tinged. Their horns were larger, their fangs longer. Narbenu twisted in his saddle and jabbed at one with his spear, scoring a minor wound on its flank. The second beast tried to ram Kemsu, but his mount turned enough to dodge the blow. Iniru struck its tail, but that only angered it more. As it rounded on Kemsu again, Turesobei lunged with his spear, missing the beast entirely. But as his mount turned, Zaiporo got in a shot and stabbed the beast in the eye, causing it to fall back. The other wild sonoke attacked Motekeru. He dodged his mount out of the way then grabbed the wild sonoke by the horns and pulled it up off the ice far enough that he could reach in with the claws of his other hand and rip out its throat.

Narbenu and Kemsu gaped at Motekeru in awe, but only for a moment. Dozens more of the wild sonoke were closing in.

“We’re not going to get away!” Kemsu yelled.

Turesobei tapped Zaiporo on the shoulder. “Switch places with me.”

Carefully, while still riding, Zaiporo hopped ahead of Turesobei and took the reigns of the mount. It was a maneuver they had done before on denekon and it worked perfectly. Sitting backward in the saddle to face the enemy, Turesobei quickly cast the first powerful, non-storm spell he could think of that might affect an entire herd chasing after them, the
spell of the flame wall
. It was a poor choice in this place, but since the creatures would be unaccustomed to fire, he hoped it would terrify them.

A shroud of flame erupted between them and the wild sonoke. The beasts in the lead skidded to a halt and then backed away in terror. The flames flickered out and Turesobei sagged in the saddle. He’d had to use a lot of internal kenja to pull that spell off with a quick-casting.

Lu Bei sped along beside him. “Didn’t work long, master!”

“I knew the spell would fail quickly.”

“I didn’t mean that. Look.”

The wild sonoke had conquered their fear and renewed the chase, their frenzy unabated. At least it had bought them a little time. Surely the wild sonoke would tire eventually.

“How good are their senses?” Turesobei asked. “If I magically summoned a cloud of fog, would it bother them much?”

“They can hear us and smell us well enough,” Narbenu said. “I think we’d be at more of disadvantage than them.” 

They rode as fast as possible, but the wild sonoke gained on them steadily. Turesobei cast the
spell of dark fire
. A crackling, black and purple globe of fire appeared in his hand. He tossed it at the lead sonoke. It struck the beast, melted its face, and sent it tumbling, slowing several others. But it didn’t slow the herd

“Wow,” Kemsu muttered. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Turesobei …” Kurine muttered. “You … how …”

“The bloodlust is in them strong now,” Narbenu said. “How many times can you do what you just did?”

“Two or three, if I’m lucky,” Turesobei said, panting heavily. “There’s a limit unless I use the storm energy. And I may pass out if I keep at it.”

“Doesn’t sound like a good strategy,” Iniru said.

“I could cast a wind spell to kick up loose snow to blind them. That might work better than a fog cloud and it could disorient them. I have plenty of air energy to draw on here.”

“Do it,” Iniru said.

“Master, the
spell of the screaming wind-blast
from Chonda Lu’s grimoire. That would surely knock them back and disorient them. It would be much more powerful than the
spell of heaven’s breath
. Do you remember it?”

“Lu Bei, I can’t do that spell.”

“But you can draw on all the power of the air kenja here to make up for lacking the internal power, like you did with the storm spells using the
Mark of the Storm Dragon
.”

“It’s not scripted and I haven’t rehearsed it.”

“But you do know it, yes?”

“You know I do.” Turesobei rarely forgot a spell, even after studying one only once, but it was dangerous not to know one perfectly and recite it regularly. One mistake could be fatal, or just lead to a lot of wasted energy. But then this was dangerous, anyway.

“Master, imagine you are Chonda Lu, like you did before, and quick-cast the spell from memory. I think it will work. If it doesn’t …”

“All right. Everyone, clear away. Give me some room. The spell could backfire.”

With the wild sonoke nearly on top of them, Turesobei began chanting the spell. Since he’d only studied once, he cast it slow and steady. As he did, he thought of the dream he’d had, of being Chonda Lu out on the plains battling Vôl Ultharma. He tried to feel exactly what Chonda Lu had felt then.

One sonoke got close to them while he was casting, but Motekeru and Kurine fended it off.

Turesobei fell into a trance where he became Chonda Lu, much like he sometimes became the Storm Dragon. He was sitting over the grimoire, writing the
spell of the screaming wind-blast
down into it, chuckling as he thought of the first time he’d cast it, in a contest against a short, dark-skinned Kaiaru rival. It had been a breezy day, and they were out on a hill, a kite flapping lazily overhead.

The spell went off, ripping Turesobei back into the present. A screaming, wailing, eardrum-assaulting blast of wind erupted behind Turesobei and his companions. Despite substituting air kenja, the spell drew on so much of his internal kenja that his eyes rolled back in his head, but he stayed conscious, just barely. Air and ice energy poured into the spell, overpowering his intent. The energies far exceeded what the spell called for. And given it was a Kaiaru spell he’d never practiced before, he had no control over it now that he’d cast it — like when he’d attempted the lightning spells at home the first time.

The wind blast struck the wild sonoke herd. Despite their forward momentum, some slid rapidly backward. Others flipped over and tumbled violently away. Even those that hunkered down were pushed back until they were out of sight. 

The wind-blast kicked loose ice and snow up, forming a cloud behind them. A cloud that began to spin up into the sky and kick snow back toward them, increasing the intensity of the flurries that had fallen all day. In minutes, a heavy snow began to fall over the area as a giant cloud billowed overhead, expanding out in all directions.

“It’s rebounding,” Turesobei said listlessly, his eyelids fluttering. It was all he could do to stay conscious. “The cloud, the magic. It’s all rebounding. I’ve accidentally triggered a snowstorm. And it looks like the prevailing winds overhead are bringing it toward us while the lower winds I summoned are kicking snow up into the clouds.”

“You can’t stop it?” Kurine asked.

“I have no control over spells that powerful and it drew more energy than I expected. Far more. We can take shelter or we can try to outrace it. The magic will have to end eventually.”

“Let’s try to outrun it then,” said Narbenu. “We don’t have time to take adequate shelter.”

Turesobei doubted they could outrun it either but said nothing because he was sure Narbenu knew that. Minutes later, a blizzard engulfed them. Visibility became poor and then non-existent. None of them could see each other unless they kept side-by-side. 

A howling wind struck them so hard it blew them apart from one another. Turesobei shouted to the others, but the responses he heard back were unintelligible. Turesobei couldn’t see anyone. He thought he heard a shout from Narbenu.

“What we do?” Zaiporo shouted.

“I don’t know!”

Turesobei and Zaiporo’s sonoke crashed suddenly into the mount Iniru was riding. She must have stopped for some reason. As the two sonoke struck each other and recoiled, they plunged over a ridge and slid down a steep incline. The sonoke tumbled and threw them out of the saddle. Turesobei slid until he crashed at last into a deep snowbank.

Chapter 26

Buried under an avalanche of snow, unable to breathe or move, Turesobei fought back the urge to panic. He attempted a spell, but when he spoke snow filled his mouth.

A clawed hand shot down, grabbed him by the collar, and yanked him free. “You okay, master?”

Gasping for breath, Turesobei gazed up into Motekeru’s horrible, jagged bronze face and nodded. He’d never been so glad to see that face before. “The others?”

Motekeru nodded to where Enashoma and Iniru stood huddled together beside two sonoke. “Still looking for the rest.”

A small section of snow nearby lit up and melted somewhat. With another burst of light more snow melted. A spark fired upward and Lu Bei burst free, shaking the snow from his wings. He zipped over and flew into Enashoma’s arms.

Turesobei stumbled toward Iniru and Enashoma. Judging from their ruffled, snow-covered, somewhat battered appearance, they had gotten buried in the avalanche, too. 

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” Iniru wheezed.

“Bruised,” Enashoma panted. “Motekeru rolled over me. Zai … We gotta find him.”

Lu Bei zipped up into the sky immediately and began circling. Motekeru stomped around. Though the snow still rained down heavily, it wasn’t as bad as it had been. Visibility had improved to the point where Turesobei could clearly see Motekeru from twenty paces away. Probably because the snow was only falling down from overhead. It wasn’t also blowing in from the side. 

As he prepared to cast the
spell of sensing presences
, a sonoke squirmed free from the snowbank. Zaiporo came up along with it, one hand clutched to a saddle stirrup. 

Enashoma ran to him and gave him a hug which made him groan. “He’s all right … I think!”

Two sonoke appeared out of the blizzard — Narbenu and Kemsu, unharmed.