Shalilayo, p.4
Shalilayo, page 4
“Hello, Jorbran,” Selindria greeted him with a smile. “Are you ready to give up your freedom for the quiet life yet?”
“Bite your tongue,” Captain Jorbran admonished. “They’ll never take me alive.”
“They never do,” Selindria assured him, smiling wider now. “Week-old corpses make the best office workers.”
Selindria knew all of the Guardians by name. Most of the Guardians regarded her as a second mother or, perhaps, an aunt. Selindria spent an additional year training Guardians, once they were chosen by the Guardian Council. The training was much more intensive than the other students received and a lot more painful. By the end of it, the Guardian always knew exactly how much a person could do using their body as a weapon.
“So what is this all about?” Captain Jorbran asked curiously. “I just barely returned from training one of our new scouts when Captain Jalorm told me about the emergency council meeting.”
“I haven’t got a clue,” Selindria replied honestly. “I hope it is just a breach, as bad as that is.”
“I think I would have heard of a breach and been sent back out already,” Captain Jorbran said doubtfully.
“Yes, I thought of that too,” Selindria said.
“I thought you might have,” Captain Jorbran grinned.
The two of them had reached the large round building at the center of the school grounds. The main entrance was bottlenecked as the growing crowd slowly made its way into the large building. Selindria looked at some of the older faces surrounding her with a sad fondness. At one time all of these people had been one of her students and it was always depressing to watch them grow old and die after such a short life. Selindria made her way to the seat she customarily sat in for council meetings. None of the seats were assigned, except for the seats of the Presidency, but being on the council for over a century had its benefits. Everyone knew where Selindria sat and they always left her seat empty for her.
It took an additional hour before the majority of council members arrived and seated themselves. A loud, resonating tone emanated from the center of the room as the president used his yar to stroke the large metal chime hanging from the ceiling above the center of the room. The noisy chatter died down and everyone directed their attention to the president.
Selindria had taught president Chendan when he was a young man. He now stood with the aid of a cane, stooped and frail. Selindria felt a renewed pang of sadness as she realized he would probably not see his hundred and fiftieth birthday. The four Elders behind him made up the remainder of the presidency, all of them gray-haired and wrinkled. The presidency was responsible for the larger decisions in the city that did not require a vote. They were the only group who could call an emergency council meeting.
“I’m sure you are all eager to know why we have gathered you here today,” President Chendan announced, his voice clearly carrying to every corner of the room as he amplified the sound waves with his yar. “There has not been a breech, as far as we can tell.”
It sounded like a small wind storm blowing through the building with the sighs of relief sweeping through the assembly. Selindria felt her chest loosen, but only slightly. She knew the Presidency had some kind of bad news and for an emergency session to be called, it was probably just as dire.
“This morning one of the Gardeners noticed all of the plants on the South perimeter of the Rajan Gardens were dying. He and several other Gardeners went to inspect the blighted area with the expectation of some new disease or bug that affected the vegetation in the Gardens. What they found was elemental decay spreading for miles to the South. The elemental particles of all of the plants are breaking apart, apparently with no outside cause we can find. Most of the animals had fled from the region, but a few were found dead within the contaminated area. They had died in the same manner the plant life had died: their elementary particles had broken apart. The Gardeners could feel their own bodies begin suffering from the same decay when they entered the infected region, so they did not go further in than a few hundred feet. A team of Gardeners is currently investigating the size of the infection, but so far we know the infection in the Rajan Gardens is just the edge of a much larger dead zone extending further than the edges of our boundaries at the base of the mountain range. The reason we called this meeting with such urgency is because we do not understand how this blight originated and until we do, we will have to assume it can occur at any place at any time, including our city.”
Selindria felt like ice was gripping her from the inside and rippling through her body in waves. She remembered the stories her father told her about a time when entire cities would spontaneously disappear or everyone in the region would lose their minds and, in some cases, everyone would simply die where they stood and begin decomposing at such a fast rate that there was nothing left within a day of the phenomenon occurring. Her father had never told her what had stopped the terrible onslaught. Selindria silently berated herself, wishing she would have questioned him further. At the time, she had been too frightened to want to know more. The rest of the council was frowning in puzzlement, completely unaware of any historical records of such phenomena.
“We are setting up some precautions for the gardeners as well as proposing a special task force be created to investigate this new threat and find a way to counter it,” President Chendan continued. “From now on, all Gardeners are advised to only enter the gardens in pairs. All of the school’s training visits to the Rajan Gardens will need to be halted until the threat can be better determined.”
Selindria thought of staying silent until after the council was over to share her knowledge with the Presidency, but it might be awhile before the council was gathered again and it was important they all know what they might be facing.
Selindria slowly stood up. The council members surrounding her watched curiously. It took several moments before the presidency noticed her.
“Selindria,” President Chendan said in acknowledgement, respect thick in his voice, “is there something you have to offer?”
Selindria took a deep breath. “I may be able to shed some light on the phenomenon.”
President Chendan nodded at her to continue, his youthful eyes shining brightly through the frail frame of his aging body.
“What I have to share are only stories I was told by my father,” Selindria said, using her yar to enhance her voice so it would carry to the rest of the room. “He told me that in his youth the planet underwent a similar crisis. The phenomenon affected regions differently, but in every case it was something terrible. In some cities everyone would be fine one minute, and the next minute everyone was dead. Sometimes everyone would just go insane or lose their motor functions and need someone to take care of them for the rest of their lives. In a few cases the cities just completely vanished as if they had never existed. I am guessing this is not an isolated occurrence and that other parts of the planet are experiencing similar disruptions.”
There was a loud murmur of conversation throughout the council, with questions haling from every direction. President Chendan restored order by stroking the large chime hanging from the ceiling.
“Did your father know of a way to prevent these occurrences?” President Chendan asked intently.
Selindria shook her head. “No, he never told me of a way or I just cannot remember. He told me it was caused by fools doing foolish things. According to him, the Rajan Gardens were originally created by this kind of disruption.”
President Chendan glanced back at his four councilors questioningly. At a shrug from Rinchav, the First Councilor, President Chendan turned back and looked at a student Selindria remembered well. “Dedran, we would like you to take charge of a team to discover how to counter these disturbances. Captain Jorbran, would you make your Guardians available to Dedran to help him with his new task?”
Captain Jorbran stood up from Selindria’s other side and gave his assent. He glanced at Dedran and the two of them shared an unreadable look. Selindria rolled her eyes. The two of them had been in school at the same year and were old archrivals. Selindria wondered at Chendan’s wisdom in putting those two together.
Selindria’s mind suddenly went slack as the building began shaking as if from an earthquake. Her mind’s clarity slowly returned and she could sense a power rupture of some kind, several hours outside the walls of the city. That was impossible. Nobody’s yar was strong enough to reach from that distance. The shaking subsided, as did the sense of a tremendous outburst of yar somewhere in the distance.
The noise from the previous shaking was replaced by cries of alarm and astonishment from the council members, stunned by the amazing display of power unleashed. Captain Jorbran did not even hesitate. He immediately ran for the door, with two other Guardian officers jumping up from their seats to run for the exit. Selindria beat all three of them as she rushed from the building to discover the source of the power disruption.
There were quite a few students on the grounds taking advantage of their free day. They were staring uncertainly at the ground that had been shaking earlier. Selindria flew past them in a blur, easily doubling the speed of the quickest runner in the city. She could feel their astonishment with her yar as she passed them, but her mind was focused on the sense of familiar resonance she had felt in the large blast of power a moment ago. One of her students was either in trouble or was soon going to be.
Chapter 4 Possessed
The feeling slowly returned to Celdic’s skin as he stepped out of the multi-colored circle into a small cave. Lendel was already smashed up against him. He pushed Celdic forward in the cramped space, making him wish it had been Li behind him instead. Chale poked her head back in the cave just as Li came through behind Lendel.
“Are you guys going to stay in there all day?” Chale asked, grinning impishly at them before pulling her head back out and moving away.
Celdic hurriedly followed her out. He stopped after a few feet and his jaw dropped. He could just barely make out the city of Tenral in the distance, several miles away. The forest around them was thick and wild. Large evergreens filled the landscape below them. They were up on a small cliff face, about fifty feet high. Chale had already moved halfway down the narrow path in the cliff face, walking confidently on the hard sediment.
“Would you mind telling me what just happened back there?” Celdic asked evenly.
“You were there too,” Chale said patiently, “you saw as much as I did.”
“All I saw was a bunch of color and now I’m ten miles away from where I was five seconds ago.” Celdic looked back to make sure Li and Lendel were following. “Is it some kind of gateway?”
“Something like that,” Chale replied vaguely. “It moves us from there to here. Call it what you want.”
“Does it go both ways?” Lendel asked from above them.
“I assume so,” Chale said, jumping down the last few feet. “We won’t be going back that way though. The Guardian on watch would notice us coming out, so I was just planning on entering the city gates at a different entrance than Sergeant Shorty was at.”
“Why are they keeping these gateway things a secret?” Li asked curiously, bumping into Celdic as she jumped the last few feet down.
“I think they only let the Guardians use them,” Chale replied, studying the landscape around them. “Probably to get information from the border more quickly.”
After a few minutes of consultation, they agreed which direction they needed to go to get to the Altar of Guardia. The hiking was slow at first because the foliage was so dense. After an hour of fighting the rich undergrowth, they found the well-used track that led to the popular site. The sun stood high in the sky, heating up the late summer air. Wishing he had brought some water, Celdic decided a little planning might not have been a bad idea.
“Do you think we might run into any Guardians?” Li asked nervously. She was walking behind Celdic, making him feel self-conscious about his gait. She had a thin slick of sweat on her brow that added to, rather than detracted from her beauty. Celdic thought that was a neat trick. He knew some girls in his combat classes looked like greased pigs as they sweated through their uniforms on the training grounds.
“They probably won’t know we shouldn’t be out, even if we do run into any,” Chale replied confidently. She paused, looking at Celdic. “You just keep your mouth shut if we run into anyone. I’ll do the talking. You are the worst liar I’ve ever met. Sometimes I don’t even think we’re related.”
This caused an uncomfortable silence in the other three, but Chale misinterpreted their guarded looks. “I don’t think I have ever seen you three so timid before,” Chale said, shaking her head in amazement. “What is your problem?”
“Oh I don’t know,” Lendel said, glancing slyly at Celdic, “I can think of a few times I have seen Celdic more timid than this.”
Chale was easily diverted to one of her favorite hobbies. “Well, you might be right,” she said with a mischievous smile. “In fact, just this morning Celdic was wondering what Li was wearing under her uniform, but he couldn’t work up the nerve to ask.”
“I was not!” Celdic protested loudly, his ears catching fire. “You were wondering.”
Chale was laughing too hard to reply for a moment and Lendel was shaking hard as well as he stared at Celdic’s burning face. Li wasn’t laughing, but there was a slight curve to her lips that showed serious restraint. “Look at his face!” Chale said, gasping as she tried to recover from her laughing fit. “He’s like a tomato ready to explode!”
Celdic was saved by the sudden appearance of the Altar of Guardia around the bend. It stood waist high and was made of solid obsidian, reflecting dully in the bright sunlight. As they neared the altar, they could see an engraving of a man with lightening shooting from his upraised palms etched into the face. No one knew what the picture represented. Some said the altar had been here long before the people of Tenral settled in the mountains. Most youths would visit the site a couple of times during their school years, sometimes camping near it. Celdic got lost the one time he and Lendel journeyed to view the strange relic and he had never seen it. It stood alone in a meadow on a small hill. The trees at the edge of the meadow were at least twice the size of the trees in the surrounding forest. The altar had always been called the Altar of Guardia and some Guardians claimed one of the first Guardians set it up as a tribute to their service, though most regarded the theory as nonsense. The reason for the name was actually lost in the distant past, while the name somehow survived.
“So this is the Altar of Guardia,” Celdic said thoughtfully, studying the shiny black obsidian. It looked like it was created from one piece of rock, so it must have been a huge piece of obsidian. Celdic reached out to feel it and gasped. “It’s warm. What is making it so warm?”
“The yar from the planet’s core,” Lendel replied solemnly. “They say this altar has a direct conduit down to the planet’s spirit.”
“Can you link to it with your yar?” Celdic asked curiously.
Lendel shook his head. “No, there isn’t anything to link to. I mean, you can feel a small trickle of energy coming through the altar, but it doesn’t have any kind of sentient awareness that would allow you to link to it.”
“What if you had your hands on these hand imprints?” Celdic asked, pointing at the imprints of two hands on the top of the altar. “Maybe you need to be physically connected to it before it will respond.”
“I think someone would have tried that by now,” Lendel said skeptically. “People have been visiting this site for tens of centuries. If it was that easy someone would have already figured it out.”
“Unless they all assumed it wouldn’t be that easy,” Chale said dryly. “Maybe everyone else thought the same thing, so nobody ever tried it.”
“Ok,” Lendel said with half smile. “I can tell you won’t be happy until I try.” He moved around the altar so he was standing in front of the hand imprints. He reached out and laid both hands onto the altar and immediately leapt back with a loud scream.
Celdic jumped at least a foot into the air. Li and Chale jumped just as high, but before anyone could move over to Lendel to see what was wrong, he started laughing at them.
“Wow, you guys just about took flight you jumped so high,” Lendel said, still laughing as he moved back to the altar.
“I am going to tie your nose in a knot, you filthy pile of rotting refuse,” Chale growled, glaring at Lendel. Li was muttering under her breath about tying his neck in a knot. Celdic just shook his head, but felt Chale deserved a little of what she constantly dished out.
“Ok, this time for real,” Lendel said as he reached down to the imprints on the altar. This time, nothing happened when he made contact with the large piece of obsidian. He stood in front of it, frowning in concentration. He must have been studying something with his yar.
“It is different when you make contact with it,” Lendel said slowly. “It’s like the trickle of energy stops coming up into the altar when you are touching it like this.”
“Try pushing downward on the energy,” Celdic said intently. “See how far you can force it back down. Maybe it will be like a siphoning effect with water and make more come pouring out.”
Lendel gave him a doubtful look but seemed to be complying. Celdic could not help feeling resentful at times like this, when the ability to use yar would be so interesting.
Lendel suddenly backed away from the altar with a worried expression. “I think something is coming up through the energy trail,” Lendel said nervously.
“Is that a fact?” Celdic asked Lendel doubtfully, not willing to fall for another of his pranks.
“I can feel it too,” Chale said with a puzzled crease on her brow. “It feels like a person’s yar, but without a body.”
“That’s impossible,” Li said nervously, slowly backing away from the altar. “Spirits aren’t supposed to stay in this world.”
“It’s here now,” Lendel said tensely. “Maybe it’s friendly.”
