The disquieted land, p.24
The Disquieted Land, page 24
part #5 of The Memory Stone Series
“Trinte directed the sorcerer acolyte to carry the ashes to a temple somewhere, and he performed an awful task, a spell that changed the world, and that brought Donal back to life,” she continued.
“How? What could he do to make a few flakes of ash become an evil magician?” Theus wanted to know.
“He used an obscure ritual, one that was never meant to be used in such a fashion. The ritual drained away most of the energy of all the gods and goddesses, and used that tremendous power to open a doorway between life and death. He allowed the dead Donal to return to our world,” Currense told Theus as she unconsciously drew her hand across her forehead to adjust strands of hair. “But it takes so much of the energy to preserve Donal in this world that there is no energy left for any of us gods to use – not me, not Limber, not Trinte himself.
“The ritual is meant to be used only in the most dire of situations; perhaps Limber might have used it to resurrect you if your battles had gone poorly, but I do not know. It certainly was not ever intended to be used to revive evil, and it was not expected to be used for such a long period of time,” she mused.
“And so none of us are able to do anything. We cannot answer prayers, we cannot intercede, we do not have the ability to do more than barely enter your world for brief periods. All the power of our realm goes to sustaining Donal,” the goddess lamented.
“And so now he has Donal as his pet. Trinte keeps Donal alive, and the dark magician knows that he must rely on Trinte to avoid returning to the inferno.”
“What is Donal supposed to do? How can he do anything to make Trinte happy? Trinte is mad at Limber it sounds like,” Theus asked.
“Trinte expects Donal to somehow destroy Limber’s supporters, and I believe that must start with you,” Currense looked directly at Theus. “You are perhaps the likely intended target of Donal’s attacks. If Trinte can bring down Limber’s champion, then he can proceed to bring down the city and the worshippers and Limber himself. That, I suspect, is where all of this is leading.
“Donal will not have the old power he formerly had,” Currense said after a sober pause, as Theus tried to digest her warning. “One cannot come back from the death in darkness as he has and carry the energy that the living can. But he will be dangerous. He no longer needs to feed upon the energy of others, not while he can draw on the energy of the realm of the gods.”
Theus sat in silence, no longer looking at the goddess. His hands were clasped in his lap, and he stared vacantly at the floor while shock coursed through his system.
“I have to fight him then,” he said after the pair had sat in silence for a minute. “I have to find him and fight Donal and defeat him. Can I defeat him? Can I kill him, again? Is it possible?” he asked.
“If you do kill Donal this time, there can be no coming back. And Trinte will be permanently damaged,” Currense replied.
“And the rest of you? Will you get your powers back?” Theus asked.
“In time, yes. Once Trinte no longer can invoke the spell to open death’s door for Donal, the power that he has usurped will begin to flow back to the rest of us,” the goddess assured him.
“Where are they?” Theus asked. “Where do I need to go to battle him again?” He felt ready and determined.
“I do not know. You must determine where that is. Where there is trouble, where there are worshippers of Trinte, those are likely to be clues that can lead you to find where they are plotting their evil designs,” Currense responded.
Theus saw her wince momentarily.
“My goddess, are you alright? Can I help you?” he instinctively held out a hand to grasp her wrist, without even considering the temerity of a mortal grabbing a goddess.
He felt the connection. Despite her diminished state, her divinity was apparent in the feelings that began to course through Theus, and his body responded instinctively, grasping his own energy to defend himself.
And then the energy left him. It flowed instantaneously into Currense, before she shrugged her arm out of his hold, leaving him gasping momentarily.
“My apologies, my lady. I deserved that,” he acknowledged as he bowed his head.
“You did nothing wrong, and I’m sorry for the momentary harm that befell you,” Currense placed her hand atop his head in a comforting manner. “You actually were donating some of your energy to me, and I appreciated it.”
Theus looked at her in surprise, shocked at the thought that he had given energy to the goddess. But the streaks of gray in her hair had disappeared, he realized, perhaps as a result of what he had done.
“Go now,” Currense told him. “I’ve told you enough for tonight. Go home and see that lovely bride of yours and rest easy. If the time comes that you need my counsel, come back to my temple and ask.”
And then she was gone, and Theus was alone.
He sat back down on the bench, befuddled by Currense’s pronouncements, until a priest tapped him on the shoulder.
“Are you well?” the priest asked, unused to seeing people loiter in the temple under the new conditions of the goddess’s absence.
“I am, thank you,” Theus replied, unrecognized. “I just have a lot to think about.” He stood up, engaged his energy, and stepped out of the temple, leaving the priest stunned
He arrived back in Great Forks after the dinner had already been served to the family, and he sat down late, to be mildly reprimanded by Coriae.
“Did you dawdle in our new home too long?” she asked. “Too enchanted by its charms?”
“Yes,” he falsely agreed. He didn’t want to repeat the truth of all that Currense had told him. “I believe we can move in whenever you’re ready, and then I can start fetching the future magicians who are going to join us.”
Later that night, Coriae rolled over in their bed and saw that Theus was wide awake. “Can’t you sleep, my love?” she asked. “Is something bothering you?”
“I’ll need to go to Limber tomorrow to tell Crystal to bring her recruited servants to the castle with her. And I was thinking that we might stop in Greenfalls to buy horses that we can ride to the castle, to start building our stables.” Those hadn’t been the things on his mind, but they served to hide the truth of his disturbance.
Chapter 23
Within a week, Theus and Coriae rode from Greenfalls on two horses and led two more with them into the stable yards of their castle. They unsaddled the horses and put them in stalls on their own, then received a surprise as they approached the back entrance of their home.
The back door swung open, and a lovely white-haired woman with a strangely attractive gray pallor opened the door and greeted them.
“Welcome home,” the stunning girl spoke warmly. “I am so pleased to welcome you.”
“Theus, who is she?” Coriae spoke in a very direct way to her groom. “Who is this woman?”
“I’ve never seen her before,” Theus honestly answered as he looked from Coriae’s frowning visage to the woman at the step.
“Is Crystal here? Are the granitines in the castle?” he asked.
“But my lord, I am Crystal,” the woman answered in surprise, as if stating the obvious. “Are you not pleased with my form? I thought that I should appear as a human in order to be the steward, so that your guests would be less troubled by meeting a granitine. Is this not a good semblance of a human?” she asked in surprise.
“It’s a very good semblance,” Coriae answered. “Perhaps too good. Did Theus have any input into the look you chose?”
“I had no idea this would happen,” he replied. “No idea at all.”
“I did not tell him of my plan,” Crystal also spoke. “I apologize for upsetting you, as I clearly have.”
“No! You have done nothing wrong,” Coriae said passionately, now worried that the granitine’s feelings had been hurt. “Your logic makes sense; it just caught us by surprise. You might wear clothing in the future that reveals less of your body though,” she counseled, as she eyed the plunging neckline of Crystal’s blouse.
Crystal introduced the master and mistress of the castle to their new servants, Onyx, Jade, and Ruby, all in granitine form, and then immediately began to apprise the two humans of all that the new steward expected to do in the following days. The two humans scaled back her ambitions and promised to help recruit some additional human farmers who could work the soil of the plateau between the castle and the mountain range.
Theus went back to Greenfalls to speak to Eiren, to ask that she help him arrange a small caravan that could ship provisions to the new castle.
“I want to see this home of yours!” Eiren demanded.
“I can take you there,” Theus agreed mildly.
“Oh, that’s true,” his friend replied with a blank look on her face. “You can, can’t you? Let me make arrangements,” she directed, then stepped out of their parlor meeting and informed the staff that she would be gone for half a day.
“This is amazing? How can this be here? I never saw this on any caravan trips,” the impromptu passenger goggled minutes later when Theus brought her back to his new home. Inside, they spoke to Coriae, who greeted Eiren warmly, then corrected and expanded the list of items that Theus had asked to have delivered.
“I heard a rumor that you secretly stopped into Greenfalls a fortnight ago,” Eiren mentioned. “A priest at Currense’s temple said a man disappeared into the air, and I could only imagine one person who fit the description.”
“You didn’t tell me you went to the temple,” Coriae also chided him.
“I wanted to visit it. That temple means a lot to me,” Theus temporized, unwilling to expose the chilling truth of what Currense had disclosed to him about the devastating conflict among the gods.
“It must have been empty; no one goes there anymore, or any of the other temples either. It’s so sad,” Eiren spoke. “The city seems a little emptier without the gods and the temples bringing their energy to us, the hopes and prayers answered.”
Together, the trio toured the castle, but paused in the family residential wing when they encountered Crystal.
“This is our steward, Crystal,” Coriae introduced. “And this is the Lady Eiren of Greenfalls.”
“We have met before,” Crystal replied politely, as Eiren scrutinized Coriae and her attitude to a woman of Crystal’s surpassing beauty serving in the castle.
“I can’t say that I remember,” Eiren replied.
“I am a granitine,” Crystal explained.
“One of the stone servants of Lord Limber? You don’t look like any other granitine I’ve ever known,” Eiren declared.
“As far as you are aware, I suppose that’s true,” Crystal said enigmatically. “Now, if you will excuse me, I need to check some things. It’s very good to see you again.”
The tour of the three friends continued on.
“And all of this wing of the castle will be for the new magicians who Theus plans to train,” Coriae announced as they entered an empty hall.
“We’re ready to send you our candidate whenever you’re ready,” Eiren offered. “Alsman picked him out – a priest at the temple of Currense, as a matter of fact. One of the young ones. Alsman knew him there of course and trusts him. Without anything to do at the temple, I imagine Teed will be pleased to embark on this new adventure.”
“Another week or so and you can send him on his way,” Theus suggested. “We should be ready by then, if we get enough supplies delivered from Greenfalls.”
“Oh you!” Eiren exclaimed. “You know I’ll have your supplies here within the week. I ought to take you to the armory and teach you a lesson for even doubting the delivery!”
“You won’t have to go far; we’ve got an armory right down the hall,” Coriae cheerfully offered. “Would you like to see it?”
An hour later, Theus was humbled and bruised by the combined efforts of Eiren and Coriae, who mercilessly challenged him with continual combat.
“Your armory is next to your bedroom; that’s unusual,” Eiren observed in an even voice afterwards.
“Now Theus, you need to take me home. Alsman and the palace will be wondering where I am,” she requested. She said warm farewells to Coriae and cautious farewells to Crystal, then pressed against Theus and was back in her own home not long afterwards. Theus returned to the castle and bathed away the sweat and grime of the pitched practice match before dinner.
A few days later, a horsebound messenger came riding up to the drive that led from the road to the castle.
My lord, their worships Alsman and Eiren beg that you come to Greenfalls immediately,” the exhausted man ran his words together as he slid off his lathered horse. “They bade me deliver this message with urgent haste.”
He held out a rumpled parchment which the surprised Theus took from his shaking hand, while Crystal held the reins of the horse.
The letter was a desperate plea for help.
“Theus, a cholera plague has broken out in a neighborhood of our city, and people are dying in terrible numbers. If you have the power to cure the ill and solve this problem, we pray that you will come to our city with all your speed and ability, to help our people,” the letter was signed by both of his friends.
“It’s a bad situation in the city?” he asked the question of the messenger as his stunned mind tried to grasp the situation.
“A score or more are dying every day in the neighborhood around Currense’s temple. People are fleeing the city,” the messenger nodded his confirmation.
“What of the doctors in the city? Can they not help?” Theus asked.
“I am only a messenger, my lord. I do not know why they do not stop this plague,” the man cautiously replied, fearful of giving a wrong answer.
Theus turned to look at the castle behind him. He hated to leave his home. He and Coriae were settling into a routine, finding that the vast castle could feel like a home, one that was their very own. But the call from his friends was a serious one, and he knew that only the greatest fear and pain had caused Alsman to turn to Theus. Again, it was the absence of the gods and goddesses that left ordinary men and women without options or hope.
“Coriae,” he pitched his voice and directed it to his new wife inside the castle. “I’ve gotten a message from Alsman and Eiren; they face a plague and need help. I’m going to Greenfalls, to see how I can help. I’ll be back as soon as I can be,” he called. “I love you,” he added.
“See that this messenger is given comfort and a rest before he returns to Greenfalls,” he directed Crystal, who nodded.
“My lord, won’t you return with me?” the messenger misunderstood the command.
“I’m not going to wait that long,” Theus replied. He turned to face towards the west, saw Coriae at a window waving at him. He smiled and waved back, then took a step forward and disappeared.
“What has happened to him?” the astonished messenger asked.
“He’s probably already on the edge of Greenfalls,” Crystal replied. “Now let’s stable your horse and feed you,” she began to lead the worn rider and mount around the castle to the stables and kitchen in the back.
Theus was in fact within sight of the walls of Greenfalls, walking slowly against a flow of people who were abandoning the city for healthier environs. He worked his way through the crowds to the palace, and was soon conversing with Alsman, Eiren, and a number of advisors.
“There’s little we can do to treat those who catch the disease,” a doctor explained. “By the time we know they are ill, it’s already too late, and we can only try to comfort them a little in their last hours.”
Theus wracked his memories of healing arts as he listened to the description of the disease.
“It comes from bad water,” he told the room. “There’s a source of water that is unhealthy, contaminated with spoils and filth. We have to find where people get their water from.”
“There are wells throughout the city. Every part of the city and many temples have extra wells people use to draw their water, if they do not draw from piped water of their own,” one city leader offered.
“Tell people to boil all the water they have before they drink or bathe or use it in any way,” Theus advised. “That will make it healthier.”
“There isn’t enough fuel for the fires that’ll be needed to boil every drop of water we use,” another man protested. “We already have to have untold wagonloads of firewood and coal brought into the city every morning.”
“Do this, or watch the plague continue,” Theus advised.
“In the meantime, I’ll go try something else,” he added.
“Thank you Theus. We’ll issue the proclamation immediately, and we’ll send prisoners out of the jails to start cutting more firewood for the city residents,” Eiren answered, as she looked at Alsman, who nodded.
“We’ll find other ways to increase the amount of firewood,” he agreed.
Theus left the conference and hurried towards Currense’s temple. The fact that the cholera plague was the result of fouled water was absolutely connected to the goddess’s absence, he was sure. He hoped that he could reach her and rely on her to help find a way to solve the problem at its root.
“My goddess,” he spoke the words before his knees had even touched the stone step around the railing that surrounded the watery heart of Currense’s great temple on the banks of the river. “Your people are suffering. Can you help them? Can you tell me how to help them? How to we solve this problem?” he begged for information.
“Swim in my water,” a voice that barely registered spoke in his ear.
“That will cure the people? Swim in the water? The river water? The well water? I don’t understand,” Theus immediately responded.
“Here, now, come swim in the water in the temple,” Currense spoke again.
Theus swiveled his head to look left and right. He was alone inside the temple, no priests – let alone other worshippers in sight. He rose partially from his knees and vaulted over the low railing, then stepped forward.
He remembered the pool. He remembered the time Donal had launched an attack on Coriae and him through a proxy, and Currense had saved their lives by immersing them in the waters of the pool in her temple, but he knew of no other times that people had entered the sacred waters of the pool. Prayers written on notes that floated upon the water had been common when people had faith that prayers would be answered, but there had been no more use of the water than that.
