The place of knowing, p.2
The Place of Knowing, page 2
part #5 of The Volatar Saga Series
We had come to Coynahl not to fight, but to build connections.
I didn’t know if such a thing would be possible, not with what we had done over the years, and not with the traditional battles we had waged with the Hith, but we had to try.
I paused, looking at the people gathered in the streets. They were disheveled. Many of them looked sick, thin and gaunt, their clothing tattered, faces missing the gleam of hope that should shine in their eyes. These people had suffered.
Did they suffer because of the war, or did they suffer because of the Hith presence?
I didn’t know which it was. I didn’t know if it even mattered. All I knew was I had seen that expression before. It was one the Jahor had worn when I had first freed them.
“Look at them,” Coldan whispered.
“I see them,” I said.
“I didn’t know it was like that here.”
“What did you expect?”
Coldan shook his head. “I didn’t know. I still don’t, I suppose.”
“We didn’t know what they would do,” I said.
“I figured they would take better care of their people.”
“If we assume that none of this is the Hith, and if we assume that none of this is something these people asked for, then we know this is all tied to the ger’thin and their view of our kind.”
Coldan just nodded. “I don’t like it,” he said.
“I don’t think we are supposed to like it.”
“I still don’t like it,” he said.
I grunted, chuckling softly. “Again…”
I trailed off as a young girl came running over. She chased after a bottle that rolled in front of us, and she grabbed it quickly, looking up, her eyes widening when she saw Coldan before narrowing once more and grabbing the ball and turning away.
“Look at you. Already making friends.”
“They’re going to recognize me,” Coldan said.
“Maybe. It’s why I didn’t want you to come.”
Coldan glanced back at me. “And I wasn’t about to let you do this on your own. So it seems we are in a bit of a predicament.”
“Really? A predicament?”
“You aren’t leaving me, and I’m not going to let you walk away.”
I guided the horse a little farther forward. We headed toward the wall, and as we did, I could practically feel something shifting, some aspect of energy that was changing.
I could feel that power within the city. It resonated within me. It was the power of the ne’rash.
“Something’s off,” Coldan said.
I shook my head, frowning slightly, and focusing on the energy of the ne’rash. “Not quite,” I said.
“I’ve seen that face from you before.”
“What face is that?”
“The one that looks a little constipated,” Coldan said. “It looks as if you are trying to work out a shit, but you aren’t able to.”
“That’s quite descriptive.”
Coldan shrugged. “If you would rather me describe it differently…”
“I would rather you not be thinking about what I look like when I’m doing that.”
“Oh, Volatar, don’t worry. All men have to shit.”
I grunted, shaking my head and chuckling. “I suppose they do.” I looked around me, motioning to everything nearby. “It’s a feeling I have. I can pick up on something that’s here, some aspect of power, and I recognize that energy.”
“The ne’rash,” Coldan said.
I nodded slowly. “It’s out here. I can feel it.”
“We knew it would be,” he said.
I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He was right. We had known there would be something to it. We had known there would be an aspect of power, some part of the ne’rash here. It would have to be. This was the headquarter of the Hith. This was where their strength was. It was just that I had not expected to have come across it quite so potently, and quite so suddenly.
It had come on suddenly. Almost too suddenly.
“Do you think they’re aware of us?” Coldan asked.
I would’ve said no, especially as I had felt nothing up until this moment, but the fact that it had come on so quickly, and so potently, left me thinking that perhaps they were aware.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Maybe it’s not so much that they are aware of you as it is that they are aware of power?”
I shrugged again. I didn’t have a good answer for that. I could feel something, and I suspected what I could feel mattered, that it was somehow bound to what was happening here, but I didn’t know.
“We should get inside the city,” I said.
“What are you worried about?”
I shook my head. “Nothing,” I started. “I think that—”
I didn’t get the opportunity to finish.
A burst of power came from within the city.
It was a surge of ne’rash, but it was mixed with something else. There was something different than the ne’rash, different even than the elaron.
Another great power.
The fact that there was another great power used within the city worried me.
“Hevith?” Coldan whispered.
I looked over. We needed to be careful using our names, especially that one. Both of us knew there were enough people who would recognize the name Hevith.
“We need to be careful,” I whispered.
“What is it?”
“There was a great power.”
“And?”
“And I don’t know what it means.”
“How close was it?”
“Close,” I said.
“That doesn’t help me.”
“It’s within the city,” I said. “And it’s a power I don’t know.”
Coldan turned away, and his hand moved once again to the hilt of his sword.
I wouldn’t fault him if he were to unsheathe it now, but was thankful he didn’t. With my ability to call upon the power of the elaron blade, I thought I could offer us a level of defense, but it would have to be quick. As I looked at Coldan, I sensed his discomfort.
“We don’t know what it is,” I whispered.
“Which is why I’m getting ready,” he said.
“I think we should just wait.”
“Wait? Since we don’t know what we’re dealing with, you would have us simply wait?”
“I would have us recognize that we don’t want to overreact.”
“It’s not an overreaction if I’m ready.”
As much as I wanted to argue with him, there was no point in doing so. He was right.
“Don’t take action unless we need to.”
We reached the wall leading into the city. From there, I could feel the shifting of energy. On the other side of the wall was a surge of power.
Ne’rash, but it was something else. It was the strange energy I’d detected before.
As I attempted to take another step, I could not.
When I looked over to Coldan, I saw him frowning, concentration written on his face, a deep and angry expression burning there.
“Easy,” I whispered.
“They’re holding us,” he said.
I nodded. I should have expected something along that line. The Hith would have some way of knowing that we were coming, and it wasn’t at all surprising that they would have used that to attack. But I hadn’t expected them to have held us so tightly.
“The moment we break through this, they’re going to know we’re here,” I said.
“Does that matter?”
I shook my head. “Not particularly, but I want us to be ready. When we push through, we have to know that whatever else happens, they’re going to come for us.”
“Let them come,” Coldan said.
“We didn’t come here to fight them,” I reminded him.
Coldan let out a frustrated sigh. “Would you stop making so much sense?” he said.
I smiled at him. “I can’t help myself. Somebody has to, especially since you prefer not to.”
“I recognize you’re trying to give the Hith more credit than they deserve.”
“And you’re blaming them for something that I don’t know that they deserve.”
I closed my eyes, concentrating for a moment.
In doing so, I could feel power filling me.
As soon as I took the next step, as soon as we pushed through this resistance, we were going to be met by danger. I had to be ready for that. We both had to be ready.
Taking a deep breath, I let it all out slowly and steadily, and I turned to Coldan. “We will begin.”
I mixed the elaron and the ne’rash together. I took a step, slicing through the resistance.
Something thundered near us.
Power. Ne’rash power.
More than that, it was some unknown great power.
“What is it?” Coldan asked.
“They’re coming,” I said.
2
Volatar
We guided the horses forward.
There was no point in staying where we were. That ended up looking more suspicious than anything else. It was better for us to just keep moving, to at least give the appearance we were supposed to be here, that we weren’t going to cause any threat to the people of Coynahl.
I didn’t intend to cause problems for the people of Coynahl. All I wanted was to get to those who could make a difference, the Hith leaders who might be able to intervene and offer us answers we needed.
Power continued to build around us, though I from his lack of reaction, I could tell Coldan wasn’t aware of it. It exploded every so often, the echoing energy of ne’rash, mixed with that of something else. It was that something else that troubled me the most.
“Where are we heading?” Coldan asked.
“There,” I said, nodding toward the center of the city.
“Are you sure?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea whether there’s anything worth finding there, but it seems like that’s where we need to go.”
The massive tower exuded energy, a strength and power that left me thinking that if nothing else, that was where we needed to be going. The further we went, the more I expected to encounter more people challenging us, but we didn’t. There was nothing.
“I get the sense you still aren’t certain,” Coldan said.
“Because I’m not,” I said.
“We could turn back.”
“If we do, then we’ll never learn what we need to know,” I said to him.
“Are you so certain this is how we want to go about learning it?”
“No,” I said.
“I’m not so sure I like this side of you.”
“Which side is that?”
“The side who is honest with me.”
I chuckled. “Would you rather have me deceive you?”
“I would rather have you tell me the truth, but I would rather that truth not be this.”
I grinned at him. “I think we feel the same.”
The further we went, the more I began to feel something. It was energy, but it was a strange sort of energy. I couldn’t tell if it was something to be alarmed by or not. I didn’t know if it was the energy of the unknown great power, or if it came from the ne’rash.
If it were from the ne’rash, I would’ve expected to have uncovered something of it. That I could not detect it made me think that perhaps there was something different to it.
“What is it?” Coldan whispered.
“When will you stop asking me that?”
“When you stop having that expression on your face.”
“It’s the same power I’ve been feeling since we came in here.”
“It hasn’t changed?”
“Not yet.”
“You expect it to.”
I shrugged. “I expect there will be something, though to be honest, I don’t know what we will encounter.”
We continued winding through the streets. I noticed the people inside the walls of the city were not all that much better off than those outside it. I would’ve expected that they would be better dressed, or in better health, but much like what we had seen outside of the city, there was a feeling all around me of desolation. Sadness. Emptiness and loss. All of that left me filled with sadness for these people. They deserved better.
If this was the Hith, then maybe coming here and thinking we might find an alliance was a mistake. If this was the ger’thin, then coming here was right. These people needed our help.
“That power is shifting,” Coldan said.
I looked over to him. “Can you feel it?”
“I can’t feel the same as you do,” he said, “but I’m aware that there is something.” He closed his eyes, and for a moment, he started to glow softly.
I smiled to myself. I wondered how much he knew of what he was doing, how much he was aware of how that power flowed within him. Probably not nearly as much as what he deserved to know. Coldan had as much of an understanding of the power within him as he needed. He was a soldier. A fighter. But then he was more, at least to me. He was my advisor. My friend.
“You should be careful doing that,” I said.
“Doing what?” He frowned as he looked at me. “I’m not doing anything.”
I smiled at him. “If you want to believe that, it’s fine.”
“Hevith…”
I smiled at him again. “There you go again. I warned you not to use that name.”
“I doubt anyone here knows you by that name.”
“You might be surprised.”
We continued moving through the streets, and every so often, I could feel something shifting and shimmering in the air. Power that tried to track us.
It seemed to have lost us the moment we stepped into the city, though I wondered how much of that was because I focused mostly on the ne’rash, using that to hold on to power to maintain our safety. The ne’rash was welcome within the city. As far as the Hith and the ger’thin knew, I didn’t have much control over the ne’rash. Had I not gone to the is’anish, I would not have much control.
Now I had enough control, and enough of an understanding of the ne’rash, that I could use it to not only wrap around us, but to protect us in a certain way.
I let it creep out, thinking of how the ne’rash flowed within Nearrahn, the city of the is’anish. I remembered that power, the way it worked through the tree, flowing out of the ground like roots that exploded.
I created protections around me with the ne’rash. It was those protections, that power, I needed to ensure our safety. I plunged forward.
“Something changed,” Coldan said.
I glanced over. I hadn’t felt anything. “What do you detect?”
“It’s circling us.” He looked over to me, a deep frown on his face. “I don’t know how to describe it other than it’s surrounding us. I suppose it’s probably nothing more than my imagination.”
I shook my head, frowning as I did. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“I don’t detect what you do, but that doesn’t mean what you’re picking up on isn’t right.”
I continued looking at the people around us. None of them seemed to pay us any mind.
Was it because of my connection now to the ne’rash I pushed out? I was trying to get us through the city as quickly as possible and without any conflict, but I didn’t know if that would be effective.
The ne’rash.
Coldan looked troubled. I had to push with the ne’rash a little bit more.
It wasn’t what I wanted to do with the power at this point, but given the expression on his face, I realized we had some urgency to what we needed to do.
“How close are they?” I asked him.
Coldan shook his head. “I don’t really know. I can tell there’s something getting closer, but I don’t know exactly where it is or how much time we have until they reach us.”
I pushed out with the ne’rash. I might be able to use it to detect the source of power; maybe I would be able to determine just how much time and distance we had before there was anything to be concerned about. Even as I pushed out with the ne’rash, I became aware of the trickling energy around me, but within that, there was something else.
I needed to find the source of that unknown other great power, and whether it was tied to the ger’thin, or something else. It was possible it wasn’t dangerous. I doubted it, though.
Why else would that power be here?
I held on to the ne’rash, slithering it underneath the ground.
No, not slithering it. I pushed it, growing it, connecting to something deeper, something more meaningful, and I could send that power out from me to connect to the rest of the power. It wasn’t so different than what the is’anish had done. Their connection was stronger, greater than what I possessed, but it wasn’t so different I couldn’t do something similar.
The ne’rash had always been a destructive power to me, but that was because that was how the Hith had used it… that was how the ger’thin had taught them.
“We need to move quickly,” I told Coldan.
“Have you neutralized them?”
“It’s not a matter of neutralizing them. I’m using the ne’rash on them—”
“Hevith!”
I shook my head. “I’m trying to slow them and connect so they recognize me as no threat.”
I didn’t know if it would work, but I thought if nothing else I might be able to hold on to the ne’rash, to slow their approach. The people around us began to move out of our way, almost as if they were aware that we were in a hurry.
We reached an intersection on the street, and I paused, looking into the distance, and realized the tower loomed almost too far away. Coldan still wore the same pained expression on his face. I could tell from his expression we might not be able to move as quickly as I needed.
“It’s fine,” Coldan said.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s going to be fine,” he said.
