The Forbidden Library (5 page)

“That’s a strange name.”

“It designates which sonoke sired him, his birth order, and which year.”

“You don’t name your mounts?”

“Some do. Most do not. This one is young and has finished his training. He is yours. Our gift to you no matter what happens this day. If you wish to name him, you may.”

Turesobei held his hand out. “Iyei,” he told the sonoke without a moment’s thought. “Iyei is what I shall name you, if you will have me.”

The mount Turesobei had ridden into Wakaro in search of the Storm Dragon’s Heart and that had ultimately plunged into the river from high up on the rope bridge had been named Iyei.

The sonoke sniffed Turesobei’s hand, snorted, shut his eyes, and bowed his head. Turesobei patted him between the horns. The fur was thick and soft, not at all unlike the fur he was wearing. In fact, it seemed identical. Surely not. That would be like wearing denekon scales back home.

“Well done,” said Narbenu. “Now, climb in the saddle and I will teach you the rest. You said you had riding beasts at home?”

“They are very different, but I suspect from the saddle most things will be the same.”

Turesobei climbed into the saddle, which was comfortable though a little big for him, even in all his thick clothing. He took up the reins and learned all the spoken orders, rein flicks, and sidekicks that Iyei would respond to. While the commands were strange, it wasn’t all that different from riding a denekon. Riding was riding he supposed.

After he recited all the commands a third time without error, Narbenu said, “You’re a fast learner.”

“To cast spells you have to be able to memorize a lot of phrases and commands. I’ve been working at that sort of thing all my life.”

“You have supplies in the pack behind your saddle, enough food to survive at least a week out in the wilderness. Your spear is hooked into the side of the saddle. There’s a place you can hang your axe as well.”

A mount edged up next to his. The goronku who rode it was young, probably not much older than Turesobei. He would’ve thought the young goronku was handsome with his refined facial features and bright blue eyes, but he had no idea what standards the goronku held. The goronku boy wore a copper collar around his neck that was locked into place. None of the other goronku wore anything like it, including two others who looked roughly the same age as this one.

“I’m Kemsu,” the young man said in a deep voice. “If you need anything along the way, I’d be happy to help you.”

“Excuse me if I’m impolite, but I don’t know anything about your customs. What does the collar represent?”

“I’m a slave,” Kemsu replied, almost proudly.

“Kemsu belongs to me,” Narbenu said. “That is a story for another time. Are you ready to ride?”

Turesobei nodded. He decided to withhold judging Narbenu for owning a slave. He didn’t know their customs and he hadn’t seen any other slaves. Of course, slavery wasn’t all that much worse than how most baojendari treated zaboko, with indenture and segregation, practices that were less extreme amongst the Chonda. And Kemsu didn’t seem disagreeable about it.

War Chief Sudorga barked an order and the group set out. The sonoke slithered along the ice like snakes, moving and sliding with ease. The sensation of riding was strange as he urged his mount to go. Turesobei could feel constant tugs side-to-side even though the beast kept an even, straight-ahead course. With denekon the motion was an up-and-down bounce. This was going to take some getting used to.

To help Turesobei get a feel for what the sonoke were capable of, they went slow and then sped up to the beast’s full speed which was even faster than a denekon’s sprint, though the sonoke couldn’t maintain that pace for half as long.

As they slowed back down into the natural pace for traveling over distances, Turesobei asked Narbenu, “How far is it to the village?”

“A day and a half. We’ll have to stop during the night. But with a party this large, we’ll be spared most of the dangers.”

“Most?”

“This is a harsh world,” Kemsu answered. “And there are many things that even a group of heavily armed goronku can’t scare off.”

“Like the yomon?”

“The yomon are the worst things here,” Narbenu said. “But even the yomon don’t wander out alone.”

Chapter 5

Once Aikora, the goronku village, fell out of sight, Turesobei was officially lost. Endless fields of ice stretched in every direction. No trees. No villages, farms, or rock formations. No mountains in the distance.

“How do you navigate?” he asked Narbenu.

“By sight or the stars when we can,” Narbenu replied. “The stars come out in late afternoon and stay till mid-morning, if your eyes are sharp enough to discern them.”

Turesobei craned his head back. Only a deep, purplish blue sky hung above. “Too close to noon now?”

Narbenu nodded. 

“Our stars do not come out until darkness falls.”

“Your sun is bright? It is said that our sun was once bright as well.”

“And yellow.” Zhura, the Dark Moon, was a faint waning smudge in the sky. “Even our moons are brighter. I can barely see Zhura today.”

“When sight fails us, we rely on our sense of smell.”

“That wouldn’t get me anywhere.”

Narbenu tapped his large bearlike nose. “That’s why we have these. Out here, you need them. Of course, not all of the Ancient Cold and Deep is as barren as the plain we live on.”

“You promised to tell me what we’re facing. Why you’re so afraid my friends are in danger. Assuming they survived the cold night.”

“The village you described … “ Narbenu sighed. “If you’re right, and your friends made it there … the inhabitants, the reitsu, they aren’t friendly. They’re wraiths … vampires.”

Turesobei thought about Aikonshi, whom he’d left behind, who Chonda Lu had created to be a monster hunter. “I’m familiar with vampires. We have them in our world.”

“I doubt yours are like ours,” said Kemsu, riding alongside them. “The reitsu steal the warmth from your body.”

“They drain away body heat?” Turesobei said, puzzled. “Ours drink blood, though a few drain life force instead.”

“To survive in these elder days, some people evolved thick fur.” Narbenu patted his belly. “And blubber. Others developed more cold resistant skin and learned how to survive wearing thick clothes. But the reitsu were a magical people. A lot like you. Tall and pale skinned. According to legend, when the cold swept suddenly across the world, the reitsu tried to protect their bodies using magic. 

“But it didn’t go the way they hoped. The magic warped them. They became immortal and resistant to the cold, but they couldn’t bear children any longer, and to maintain their warmth they had to steal it from others. The reitsu turned on one another, and many were wiped out. Those that remained fed on other races. The warmth of one goronku will keep a reitsu toasty for decades. But most wanted more than what they needed. Their hunger was insatiable. Those that remain now are the ones who learned to control the hunger. The rest fed and fought until they were slain by those they hunted, except a few who trade their services as assassins. The reitsu of today, when they begin to lack warmth, go into hibernation until someone comes near.”

“They can’t feed on animals?” Turesobei asked.

“It’s a poor solution. When they feed on animals they begin to take on the animals’ traits and lose their humanity, such that it is. Turns them into mindless creatures. Most of the reitsu are jaded and prefer to hibernate and actively dream of days long gone when there was yet warmth. Days they still remember.”

“Have your people fought them? You seem to know them well.” 

“We goronku know far too much about the reitsu. We warred with the wraiths for centuries. We outnumbered them, but they are incredible warriors. Fighting nearly ruined both our races. We have a truce now, a truce that has lasted over a century. They don’t feed on us. We don’t make war on them. It’s easy because there’s so few of either of our races now and we have plenty of other enemies.”

Turesobei furrowed his brow. “But you will help me retrieve my friends from them, right? If that’s necessary.”

Narbenu glanced at War Chief Sudorga. “We shall see, my young friend. You present an unusual circumstance. Our world is in a careful balance which you have already thrown off by stirring up the yomon.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, no one likes the yomon. They terrorize all of us now and then. Your killing a few of them was a good thing. Look, your companions … I don’t want you to get your hopes up, but if your friends wandered into the wraith village, they’re already dead.”

“A few of my friends are amazing warriors, one of them is supernatural. More magic and machine than man.”

“He would have to be incredible to fight off the reitsu,” Narbenu said. “The reitsu are lightning fast and deadly with their claws. And it takes only one good grasp for them to drain warmth from you. Your best hope is if they kept your companions for sport. That’s not likely, and I can’t tell you we’d be able to get them away even if they had.”

At noon they stopped for a quick lunch. The goronku dismounted and walked around, circling their arms as they did so. Figuring it was to maintain circulation out in the cold, Turesobei did the same. He had noticed his body temperature dropping as they went. Lu Bei refused to come out. Either he needed rest or the cold affected him more than he wanted to admit. As the goronku began to eat, Turesobei opened his pack and fumbled through the rations and gear, not certain what the purpose of most of it was. He thought of how clueless Awasa had been with the trail rations at first and now sympathized with her.

Kemsu helped him. “Your food rations.” He lifted the largest pack. “Sonoke cheese. Do you have cheese in your world?”

“From goats and sheep.”

“Don’t know what a goat is, but sheep cheese is good. Mild compared to this.”

“You have sheep?”

“The Westerners do. They’re the ones that look a bit like you, but are kind of fat and hairy. They always gift us a small amount of cheese when we trade with them.”

Kemsu lifted a block out of the pack and unwrapped it. “Butter. Eat it straight or melt it onto any game you kill, if you have access to a star-stone. Out here you need to eat a lot of fat to keep warm. Cheese is your basic ration. Butter for extra energy. It’s dense and worth a fortune if you’re starving.”

“A star-stone? Like the ones on the walls in the village?”

“The same, though we carry smaller ones with us.” Kemsu lifted a brightly glowing crystal from Turesobei’s pack. “Always good to have with you at night and for a little extra warmth. Better than burning blubber, which poorer people are forced to do. When you tap on the star-stone, the surface heats up. Tap a lot, quickly, to get it hot enough to melt butter. Tap just a few times to make it warm and give a bit of light. It will slowly cool. The more you make it hot, the faster it will burn out. The one you’ve been given is new. It can provide light like it does now for many years.”

“The one in my room was brighter in the day than at night.”

“Yeah, that’s a bit of a disadvantage. Works best when you need it least. It’ll grow brighter at night if you tap it. Otherwise, it seems to somehow reflect sunlight, even through ice and earth. No one understands why. At maximum heat, a star-stone will last several weeks, so only do that for emergencies. Six taps just to take the chill out of a room. Using it that way it’ll last maybe a year. Night use drains it more.”

Kemsu wrapped the star-stone back up and lifted out another food pack. “Dried sonoke strips. Stringy, bitter. Made from old ones or wild sonoke. Better if you melt some butter on it. And then this last pack is seal fat. Tastes pretty good. Gives lots of energy. Eat the sonoke first, though. Course, you’ll want to hunt as much as possible while traveling, to keep your supplies up. Someone as scrawny as you, you’ll be eating all the time to stay warm out here.”

Turesobei took out a strip of dried sonoke and chewed on it. Tasted like old goat, or what he imagined old goat would taste like, and it took him a long time to chew it up. He got it down and drank from the small canteen they’d given him.

“Sure you don’t want more?” Kemsu asked with a crooked smile.

“I had a large breakfast. I’ll eat more tonight. Or if I get cold.”

“You get cold enough,” Narbenu said, joining them, “and anything will taste good. You’ll see.”

War Chief Sudorga barked out a command and everyone returned to their mounts and rode. Turesobei stayed beside Narbenu and asked him questions. He needed to learn everything he could about this place, and fast, if he was going to have any chance of finding a way back home. And it was easier to talk than to worry about Iniru and Shoma.

“How far out does the continent extend?” he asked. “You mentioned the Westerners and the Fire Mountain. How far away are those places?”

“Both are many weeks of travel away from here,” Narbenu answered. “The continent extends out to the edge of the world, to the Boundary.”

“The edge of the world?”

“If you travel too far, you step out of the Ancient Cold and Deep and into … nothing. Looks like the world keeps going on in the distance. Ice and hills or whatever, like normal. Except you cross over and you disappear.”