Well of Sorrows (44 page)

He shrugged, turning away from the distortion, and as he did so, he heard a faint whisper.

. . .
Colin
. . .

He stilled, spinning slightly, like the needle of a compass, until he faced the forest on the far side of the distortion.
Osserin
?

The Faelehgre didn’t respond, although Colin thought he heard . . . something.

Without looking back, Colin headed toward the far woods, slipping around the distortion and leaving it behind. A hundred paces farther on, he felt the faint edges of the Lifeblood’s influence slip through him and he hissed in response, repressing a shiver. He could taste its coolness against his tongue, could feel it filling him, tingling through his skin, worse than when he’d smelled it near the Drifter. The fine hairs on his arm and on the back of his neck stood on end, and for a brief moment he shuddered at the thought that he had ever left its embrace.

Then his stomach cramped. He gasped, found himself on his knees, one hand on his staff holding him upright, the other fisted in the grass and earth, the dried blades cutting into his palms and fingers. He focused on the slivered pain, so thin and sharp, and fought back the duller, wider ache in his gut.

Trembling, he rose and pushed on toward the forest. He hadn’t thought he’d react so strongly to the Well, now that he’d been away from it for so long. And he knew he was only at the edge of its influence. He could feel its power growing as he moved closer.

Except he was too far north to be within its influence at all.

. . .
Colin
. . .

I can hear you, Osserin. I’m headed toward the forest.

A wash of relief, and as if the Faelehgre had focused in on his voice he heard the reply clearly.
We’ve been trying to contact you since
you left. We’d given up, but then we sensed you close to the forest. We’ve been calling for you for the last day.

Colin stepped under the branches of the forest and sank into their shadows, the dulled scent of pine filling his senses. He moved deeper into the forest, feeling it close in around him, sunlight lancing down through breaks, dust caught in the shafts seemingly motionless.

Where are you?

Here,
Osserin sent and Colin focused in on the direction of his voice.
Here, by the Well.

And then Osserin wove out of the forest, flickering in agitation. A few other Faelehgre hovered around him, darting here and there in agitation.

“What’s wrong?” Colin asked. “What’s happened? I didn’t think the influence of the Lifeblood spread this far north.”

It doesn’t. It shouldn’t. But look.

Osserin streaked away, the others following. Colin forged after them, picking his way over tangled roots and the fallen trunks of trees, using his staff as a crutch. He reached the crest of a ridge, began making his way down the far side, then glanced up and halted in shock.

The ridge was the edge of a shallow bowl, earth sloping down toward a basin. In the center of the basin sat a ring of river stone, rounded and smooth, like the lip of the Well at the center of the Faelehgre’s ancient city.

“Another Well,” Colin murmured. Except this Well pulsed with a faint blue light.

He stumbled the last few steps and leaned forward over the lip of the Well, down into its depths, toward the blue light. He couldn’t see any of the Lifeblood—the Well appeared empty—but he could
smell
it, could feel it throbbing in his skin.

It’s filling slowly,
Osserin whispered.
We think that’s why the radius
of our own Well increased, why we can travel here now. We think it has something to do with the disappearance of the Wraiths.

Colin shoved back from the Well. “Tell me what happened.” Osserin hovered uncertainly for a moment, as if he didn’t know where to start, but then his light dimmed and he settled closer to the ground.

It began a few days after you left. Or so we think. We can’t be certain. But that was the first sign that something was different. We sent out some of the Faelehgre to scout. What they found was not that something had changed, but that something was missing. The Wraiths were no longer in the forest, were no longer anywhere within the Well’s influence.

“None of them?”

None. All six of them were gone.

Colin felt something crawl up his back, the flesh of his spine prickling, the sensation creeping up into his shoulders and spreading out along his arms.

“What about the Shadows, the sukrael? Where are they?”

Still inside the forest. They’re still trapped by the Lifeblood, as we are. But you and the Wraiths. . . . We never considered whether or not the Wraiths could leave the forest. They never have before, so we thought they were trapped like us, like the Shadows. But they’re not. They’re like you. They’re touched by the Lifeblood, but not yet caught.

“Where did they go?”

We don’t know. We can’t follow them, and we can’t track them. We tried to contact you as soon as we realized that they’d left. We thought that perhaps they’d gone after you, especially since they left almost immediately after you did.

Which was strange. But maybe his departure hadn’t been a factor. Maybe it had been a coincidence. Or maybe his leaving the forest had forced the Wraiths to act.

“If they aren’t coming after me, then where would they go?”

Osserin flared in anger.
Again, we don’t know. But a few weeks after you left, something else happened. The Well itself . . . flashed.

“What do you mean?”

Colin could sense the Faelehgre’s frustration.
The air around the Well began to hum, to vibrate, so we gathered at the edge of the Well itself, on the amphitheater’s steps. And then the sukrael appeared in the forest on the far side, hundreds of them. They came out of the forest, as if drawn to the sound, and they were . . . dancing, weaving in and out among the trees, cavorting with each other. The hum escalated, and everything around the Well grew still. The Shadows halted, the trees quieted. Even we grew silent. Because we could feel the buildup of power, could feel it throbbing on the air.

And then a white light pulsed up through the water from deep below, from the Well’s source, and spread outward, rustling in the trees, shoving all of us back toward the city, the Shadows back into the trees. A few of the Shadows shrieked, and one of the nearer buildings cracked, the foundation splitting.

But that was it. We stayed at the Well. The Shadows stayed as well, for a time, and then, as if by signal, they fled into the forest again.

When we went to investigate, we found that the influence of the Well had expanded. We could travel farther in all directions, out onto the plains, to the north, south, and east as well, deeper into the forest.

The same thing has happened twice more, the Lifeblood pulsing, and each time the extent of the Well’s influence grows. We’ve only been able to reach this far north within the last few days. And then Yssero sensed you at the edge of our reach yesterday. We’ve been calling to you since then, hoping you’d hear and come to us so we could warn you.

Colin had settled back onto the stone of the Well as Osserin spoke. “Has this ever happened before?” he asked.

Not as far as any of us remember. And the Faelehgre have long memories.

He narrowed his gaze at Osserin in suspicion. “What do you think the Wraiths are doing?” When Osserin hesitated, he added, “Osserin?”

In a flash and dimming of light that was almost as audible as a sigh, Osserin said,
We think the Wraiths are attempting to . . . free the Shadows.

That same prickling sensation coursed up Colin’s back, only this time it continued to spread, sinking into the pit of his stomach with a nauseous heat, into his lungs with a tingling cold.

“Can they do that?” he asked, almost breathless.

We’ve spent hundreds of years trying to find a way to escape the Well. We couldn’t, because we can’t move beyond the Well’s influence, and we found no way to break the Well or alter its power from within. The Shadows are in the same situation. When you came, when you drank from the Well, there was much discussion about sending you out to find a way to free us. But in the end, we decided that couldn’t be done because freeing us would also mean freeing the Shadows. And that is too much to set upon the world. Not for what was our own mistake.

We never considered that perhaps the Shadows were trying to find a way to free themselves as well. We know that they are intelligent. After all they were once an embodiment of us, were once part of us, separated from us by the Lifeblood. They are the remnants of our bodies, while we are the remnants of our souls. That is why they feed. They are searching for the life-force that their bodies once held. But we did not realize how intelligent they are.

Colin heard something in Osserin’s voice, something dark, that made his skin break out in a light sweat. “What do you think they’ve done?”

Osserin hesitated. Then:
We think that when the dwarren first arrived here in the forest, the Shadows tasted true life-force for the first time in centuries. They feasted, but when the dwarren grew wary of the forest, they realized that in order to continue feeding, they needed to find a way to break the Well’s influence.

“You said that couldn’t be done.”

Osserin flared in annoyance.
Exactly. When the Faelehgre realized this, we stopped searching. Our drive to be free waned. It had never been as strong as that of the Shadows in any case. But the Shadows continued searching. And after the dwarren appeared, they realized that, if they couldn’t break the Well’s influence, then perhaps they could extend it.

“How?”

Osserin dipped toward the second Well
. With this. Somehow, the Shadows learned of this second Well. A dead Well, one empty of the Lifeblood. They realized that if they could reawaken it, if they could bring it back to life. . .

“ Then their realm of influence would expand,” Colin breathed.

Osserin pulsed in agreement.
Yes. But the second Well was outside their influence. They couldn’t touch it, couldn’t activate it themselves. They needed someone else, someone who could travel outside the restrictions of the Lifeblood. So they created the Wraiths.

“How?”

Osserin flickered with uncertainty.
We aren’t certain, but think back to the attack on your group. You said that the Shadows attacked in a frenzy, that they gorged themselves on the people in your wagon train, feeding frantically. They had not fed in a long time, and there were so many of you.

But then you said that their attacks changed, that they began to taunt you. The frenzy died, as if they had been sated. When you remained with Karen, they did not fall on you like they did the others. You said they “tasted” you.

Colin’s mouth had gone dry and he clutched at the stone of the Well, the memory of that day still sharp. “Yes.”

We think that they were testing you.
Osserin drifted closer
. We think that they were trying to decide whether you could be made into a Wraith.

Colin shuddered and his fingers scraped against the rough stone of the Well as he tried to dig into it. He lowered his head. “You’re saying that all of the Wraiths are . . . victims of the Shadows. That they were all once people, that they have been . . . poisoned in some way by the Shadows.”

By the Shadows and the Lifeblood. The first Wraiths, created before the appearance of humans on the plains, were short, about the same height as—

“The dwarren. They were dwarren.” Colin thought about all of the Wraiths he had seen since he’d drunk from the Well. They were always cloaked in the Shadows, so that their features were never clear, but now that he knew. . . . “They have Alvritshai and human Wraiths now.”

And the Wraiths or the Shadows figured out how to reawaken thi Well.

Colin stared down into the soft blue glow beneath him. “If there was a second Well, then there must be others. The Wraiths must be searching for them.”

If they find them, if they reawaken them, then their influence and that of the Shadows will increase. Already the influence has expanded enough to intersect with dwarren lands . . . and Alvritshai.
Osserin drifted closer.
The Wraiths have to be stopped. The Shadows cannot be allowed to prey upon the world.

Colin gave Osserin a sardonic look. “And you want me to stop them. How do you expect me to do that? You don’t know where they are, and I don’t know how to find them.”

Osserin considered for a moment, then said,
We think they’re moving northward.

Colin frowned. “Why?”

Because the influence of the Lifeblood isn’t expanding in all directions at the same rate. The first pulse spread it out circularly, like a widening pool, but the second and third only increased the Well’s influence to the north and east. When we explored the new region, we found this Well. When this
one was reawakened, it intersected with the radius of influence from our own
Well. And as it fills, its radius increases.

“And none of the Faelehgre knew of this Well?”

Osserin wavered.
None. The Faelehgre traded with people to the south, east, and west. We did not reach this far north.

Colin turned to stare down into the pulsing blue light of the Well behind him. “You don’t know where any of the other Wells are either, do you?”

Osserin’s light appeared to wince.
No. You have to warn the Alvritshai of the Wraiths and the Shadows. Part of their lands are within Shadow territory now. We’ll try to protect them as much as possible, but we can’t be everywhere at once. The area is simply too large now.

“You should keep searching for the Wraiths as well, and the locations of any more Wells. I’ll do the same.”