The first life of tanan, p.6
The First Life of Tanan, page 6
Tanan pictured the eight-sided rune from the book. He was curious about the illusion of the moving lines, and wondered how lines drawn on a page could play that trick on the eyes. He would have to ask Sweelin if he knew how that…
A rock slammed into the back of Tanan’s head, jarring him away from his thoughts. He was suddenly in pain and angry. Tanan jumped up from the bench and turned just in time to see Grapf hurl another rock, which flew straight at Tanan’s face and struck him above his left eye. It hurt like hell and sent Tanan into a rage.
Kirkik came around the corner of the butcher’s shop just in time to see Tanan, with blood streaming down his face, scream, “Pig faced bastard!” and charge at Grapf with fists clenched. Kirkik bolted, intent on stopping the fight.
He reached them just before Tanan got to Grapf, and threw his arm between the boys, sweeping back toward Tanan to gather him up and prevent the impending punch.
The moment Kirkik touched Tanan, there was a deafening boom, like a clap of thunder. Kirkik was sent tumbling through the air and landed ten feet away, motionless.
Grapf screamed like a startled little girl and ran away from Tanan, tripping over his own feet and then scrambling up to run some more.
The thunderous noise brought people out of the Rusty Hook, shops and homes. A crowd gathered, fed by more people who came running down the hill. Nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.
Tanan was stunned. He stood staring at Kirkik’s body. Lindelin arrived, and pushed through the crowd to where the Constable lay, and placed his fingers on the man’s neck.
“What happened here?” asked Lindelin. His tone left no room for anything other than an immediate answer. The crowd of faces turned toward Tanan, who was still staring at Kirkik with a stunned expression on his face.
Lindelin went to Tanan, taking him by the shoulders and giving him a gentle shake. “What happened, Tanan?”
Tanan could barely whisper, “I don’t… did I… is he… dead?” His eyes were filling with large tears that began to stream down his cheeks.
Lindelin left Tanan and returned to the dead Constable. He closed his eyes and began to chant. His lips moved, but he made no sound. After half a minute he laid his hands on Kirkik’s body and held them for a moment, his lips still moving.
Lindelin bowed his head. When he turned to look at Tanan, he looked as if he had aged ten years. His face was ashen and he looked tired. There was sadness in his eyes.
“Go home right now,” he said to Tanan. Then, he turned to the crowd, focusing on no one in particular, “Someone go find Jelak.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jelak arrived a few minutes later carrying his butterfly net, took stock of the situation, and dispersed the crowd. Nobody argued, but every window around the square with a view of the scene was soon filled with curious faces.
Lindelin and Jelak stood over the body.
“I think Tanan did this,” said Lindelin. He was tired, and sat down on Jelak’s bench.
Jelak looked at Kirkik’s body. “How could Tanan have killed a full grown man?” he asked. “There’s not a mark on the body.”
“I told you that we were planning to send him off to study with Soama, but I had no idea his magical ability was this strong.”
He looked from the body up to Jelak, “I didn’t see what happened, but I saw his face afterward. This was an accident.”
Jelak joined Lindelin on the bench. The two sat quietly for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts.
Finally, Jelak turned to Lindelin. “Did you know that Kirkik was the younger brother of King Dannap?”
Lindelin shook his head, his heart sinking.
“This isn’t going to end well,” said Jelak.
Lindelin nodded, and then put his hands on his knees and stood up. “We were planning to leave Port Billen. I think we’ll have to go sooner rather than later.”
Jelak looked up at his friend. “Get Tanan out of the village now, Lindelin. The King’s Legion will track him down. I won’t be able to stop them, but maybe I can slow them down.”
Lindelin squeezed Jelak’s shoulder as he walked past. “Thank you, my friend.”
• • •
Anin saw the commotion from his Apothecary. When he heard that Tanan had been involved, he closed the Apothecary and went home. Tanan was nearly hysterical with grief over what had happened.
When Lindelin arrived, he made Tanan tell them what had happened. After a few follow up questions about his morning’s studies at the Abbey, it made sense.
“Tanan,” said Lindelin, “you didn’t know. Nobody could have known that you would be able to work that kind of powerful magic. This was just a terrible accident.”
Lindelin and Anin went into the next room and spoke quietly. Anin started packing bags while Lindelin went to talk to Tanan again.
“Tanan,” he began. “I’ve always been proud of you. What happened today doesn’t change that. Even though it was an accident, some people won’t see it that way.” He paused for a moment, not wanting to say what he had to say next. He touched Tanan’s chin and tilted the boy’s head up until they were looking at each other.
“Your father brought you from the main land when you were an infant. Your mother and father were Lataki.”
Tanan felt sick. He had always been told he was from Istra, but his mother wasn’t able to take care of him so Soama had brought him to Port Billen where Anin and Lindelin had adopted him. Like every child in Komisan, he grew up fearing the Lataki, hearing stories about how the Lataki would come and kill everyone if they ever found out about the Komisani. How could he be a Lataki?
“Son,” Lindelin continued, “I’m sorry you have to find out today, like this. There are going to be men, soldiers, who will come…”
Tanan was crying.
“Your father is going to take you out of Port Billen and you can’t ever come back.”
Tanan threw himself at Lindelin, burying his face in the the old man’s chest and sobbing. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tanan followed his father up the road with his chin in his chest. He was miserable. He just wished he could disappear. Anin left the road and found the trail that led to Soama’s Abbey.
Tanan followed along, silently. He was in a fog, replaying the incident over and over in his mind. When Grapf hit him in the head with the rock, things had gone fuzzy. Tanan could still see the look of amusement on Grapf’s face when he threw the second rock. He had looked at Tanan as if he were nothing, a plaything that only existed for amusement.
Why had the Constable been killed? Tanan had been thinking about the protection spell, but that wouldn’t kill someone would it? His grandfather said it was an accident.
Tanan wished he’d read about the spell before he learned the chant.
They walked through the afternoon and into the night, neither of them speaking until they reached Soama’s Abbey.
“Wait here,” Anin said, putting his hand on Tanan’s chest to make the boy stop. He went up to the Abbey while Tanan stood waiting in the dark. Tanan was surprised to find that they were already at the Abbey.
A few minutes later, Anin came back and led Tanan to the building where Soama was waiting. Soama led Tanan to the room where he had slept during his month long stay, and helped Tanan take off his boots and get into bed.
Tanan was asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tanan was feeling better when he woke up, but still emotionally drained.
Soama was in the room, opening curtains and letting sunlight flood into the room. It was well past morning.
“Please stay in bed for a moment,” Soama said and then left the room.
Anin came in a minute later with his mortar and a flat wooden stick. “I’m going to treat your blisters so they’ll heal more quickly.” He began to smear smelly ointment on what Tanan suddenly realized were painful blisters from his new boots.
“The good news,” said Anin with a slight smile, “is that you’ve broken in your new boots. Let that dry for a few minutes and then you can come out and have something to eat.” He left the room.
Tanan thought about what had happened the day before. He hadn’t meant to kill the Constable. He would never even really want to hurt Grapf, he’d just lost his temper. He’d been chanting the spell and thinking about the rune when Grapf hit him with the rock. Grandfather was right; it was an accident. But knowing that didn’t make him feel any better about it.
He got up and went to the kitchen. There was a bowl of soup and a chunk of bread waiting on the table for him. Soama and his father were sitting at the table.
“Good morning, Tanan,” said Soama. “Sit down and have something to eat.”
Tanan sat at the table and started eating the soup without really tasting it.
“Your father told me some of what happened,” began Soama. “I need you to tell me the whole story.”
Tanan told Soama, leaving out nothing and finishing with his theory about the protection incantation. Soama listened without interrupting.
When Tanan had finished, Soama said, “Can you tell me the words of the spell?”
Tanan didn’t want to say them, but didn’t argue. Softly, he chanted the words of the spell, using the melody he had set them to.
Soama repeated the words back, without the melody. “Those are the words?” he asked.
Tanan nodded. He fought back the urge to cry.
Soama described the symbol that went along with the spell and Tanan nodded again.
“You shouldn’t be able to perform that spell. No novice should be able to make that spell work.”
Tanan finished his soup and, by force of habit, cleaned his dish and put it away, and then sat back down. Soama was staring into the distance, deep in thought.
“Here’s what I think happened,” Soama said. “And I think that I have underestimated your abilities.”
Tanan studied the pattern of the wood on the tabletop and wished he were someone else.
“Tanan!” said Soama, sharply.
Tanan’s head whipped up and he looked at Soama.
More gently, Soama said, “Feeling sorry for yourself won’t change what happened. Please listen to what I am saying to you.”
Tanan nodded, “Sorry, Soama.”
Soama continued, “It is rare for a person to be able to harness and use magic. There are five known branches of the magical arts. For someone to be able to do more than one kind of magic with any proficiency is extremely rare.”
“The first is what we call Environmental Manipulation, which is the ability to manipulate the elements. The hot and cold tricks that you learned fall under this category.”
“Then there is Healing Magic, which is what your father, grandfather and I can do to varying degrees. When you were working in the garden, you learned a chant that eased the pain in your back, proving that you are able to perform healing magic.”
“The third kind of magic is Protective Magic. What you did yesterday, without fully understanding it, was Protective Magic.”
“The fourth kind of magic is Temporal Manipulation, or the ability to effect the flow of time. I know very little about that kind of magic, but I have a suspicion that you might have some ability in that one as well.”
“The final branch is, of course, Offensive Magic. Throughout history there have been very few Abbots who had any talent with it. I don’t think it should be considered a proper branch of magic.”
“Tanan, you have shown that you have the ability to perform three kinds of magic. If my suspicion about your ability to perform temporal manipulation is correct, you will be the first person that we know of who has shown talent in all four of the main branches.”
Tanan stood up from the table. “I don’t think I want to be able to do any of it if it means I’m going to hurt people.”
“You have no choice in the matter. You can’t wish it away any more than you can wish away the color of your eyes. What you can do, is learn to understand your abilities and control them so that what happened yesterday never happens again.”
“But why me?” asked Tanan. “Why me?”
“I don’t know, Tanan. The Brotherhood of Abbots have studied magic for a thousand years and we still know very little about why anyone has the gift. Magical ability can be passed from parent to child, but not always. Sometimes, parents with no magical ability have a child with extraordinary abilities. Like many things in life, it is a mystery.”
Tanan crossed his arms in front of him. “The King’s men are going to kill me when they find me. I killed the Constable, and I’m a Lataki anyway. Maybe that’s why I killed him.”
Soama sighed, “Sit down, Tanan.”
Tanan sat.
“Despite what you’ve heard about the Lataki, they are not mindless killers. The difference between the Komisani and the Lataki is that the Lataki live a nomadic life and the Komisani have developed a somewhat more advanced civilization. The truth of the matter is that the Komisani have killed many Lataki to prevent them from coming too close to Komisan. The Lataki fight amongst themselves, but even if they had the desire to come to Komisan, they have no organization, and inferior weapons. They would stand no chance against the King’s Legion.”
“How do you know that?” asked Tanan.
“The island of Komisan is part of a much larger world. The Brotherhood of Abbots is part of that larger world, as you will soon see. You were right to say that the King’s men will kill you if they find you. But we’re not going to let them find you. When your grandfather arrives, we will leave Komisan and travel to a place where you will be able to learn to use your magic properly.”
A fluffy grey cat walked into the kitchen and jumped up onto the table in front of Soama. The Abbot removed a narrow leather collar from the animal, who meowed once, jumped down from the table and walked back out of the door it had come in.
“Was that the cat that’s always sitting on Jelak’s bench?” asked Tanan.
Soama ignored the question, focusing instead on removing a tiny scroll from the tube attached to the collar. He pulled a silver ring from his finger and held it to his lips, whispering a few words. Then he looked at the scroll through the ring, reading the words that were otherwise invisible.
Soama looked at Anin. “Lindelin says Jelak is acting Constable. He wrote a report and sent it to Panna. We will meet him in two days and take our leave from Komisan.”
“And,” he looked at Tanan, “he says to tell you everything will be okay.”
Soama turned back to Tanan. “Go lie down for an hour and use the chant I taught you when we were working in the garden. It will help with the blisters.”
Once Tanan had left, Soama turned to Anin. “Jelak sent a runner to the capitol this morning. It will be an urgent message. Once the runner reaches Yants Bay I expect the message will be carried on horseback. I’m not sure if two days will be soon enough.”
Anin nodded his agreement. “Let’s leave for our rendezvous point this morning. I’ll slip into Port Billen after dark and speak with my father.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Soama spent the rest of his morning sending a series of messages to fellow Abbots telling them that he was leaving and asking for an Abbot to be sent to the Abbey as soon as possible. Then he packed his things. Anin went to Tanan’s room to work more healing magic on the boy’s feet. An hour later the three departed Soama’s Abbey.
Late in the evening, they arrived at a narrow beach about five miles north of Port Billen. Anin left Soama and Tanan on the beach and set off for the village to retrieve Lindelin and a boat. Tanan and Soama climbed onto a large rock and sat looking out over the water.
“How are you feeling?” Soama asked.
“My feet feel better,” replied Tanan.
“And how do you feel about what happened with the Constable?”
“I know it was an accident, but I still feel like a terrible person.”
“That’s because you have a conscience and a good heart,” said Soama, putting his arm around the boy’s shoulder and giving it an affectionate squeeze.
“I want you to know about the man that died. He was more than an ordinary Constable, he was a soldier in the King’s Legion. He was in Port Billen because he suspected you of being Lataki. If he’d had enough evidence to prove it, he would have killed you.”
“Just for being born a Lataki?” asked Tanan.
“The Komisani have hundreds of years of fear and prejudice when it comes to the Lataki. The Lataki aren’t bad people. I have met Lataki and I can tell you that they fear the Komisani more than the Komisani fear them. For hundreds of years the King’s Legion has been patrolling the mainland and they kill any Lataki that they find, just to keep them away from Komisan. The Komisani live in fear of their Lataki cousins, but they are the ones who do the killing.”
“That’s horrible,” said Tanan. “Why haven’t the Abbots told people about this?”
“We have tried, but beliefs are hard to change. And the Kings of Komisan have used the fear of the Lataki to rally and control people for many generations. It is a complex situation.”
The two sat in silence and watched the stars come out as the sky grew darker.
“Soama,” said Tanan. “Thank you for telling me this.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It was nearly midnight when they spotted Anin rowing his boat along the shoreline. They ran down to the water and helped him pull the boat up onto the beach.
“We need to hurry,” said Anin as he climbed out of the boat. “Where are your packs?”
The urgency in his voice spurred them to action. They ran and grabbed their gear from the rock they had been sitting on and dumped it into the boat. Tanan and Soama climbed in, then Anin pushed the boat into the water and jumped in.
