heart stop.
It was the storestone. The one the Elynes had left with the Kyralians, in case they ever faced conflict with Sachakans again. Narvelan must have stolen it. The other magicians certainly wouldn’t have approved of his taking it.
Narvelan looked up at Hanara, and a look of realisation crossed his face.
“Oh. I’m sorry, Hanara. I hadn’t thought what to do about you. Guess we’re in this together.”
Hanara opened his mouth to ask why.
Then Narvelan’s arm rose and fell. The rock hit the store-stone. A crack appeared. Hanara had a moment to wonder why the crack was blindingly white.
Then all sensation and thought ceased.
The path was narrow and steep. It twisted and turned around the precipitous side of the mountain, climbing and descending in order to pass enormous boulders, or wide cracks in the ground. Hunters had advised Jayan and Prinan that the way was too difficult for horses, and though they wished they could declare it unpassable for humans, the truth was it was merely hard work.
Jayan sent healing magic to his legs and felt the ache fade. He’d needed to do this less and less often over the last few days. I might actually be getting fitter, he mused. Looking back, he saw that the dust that covered Prinan’s clothes, skin and hair was only broken by darker patches of sweat under his arms and on his chest and back. And I look just as bad, he mused. I doubt anybody at the Guild would recognise us, and if they did they’d gain much amusement.
Prinan looked up and grinned. “I wish Tessia could see you now. She’d have a good laugh.”
“I’m sure she would,” Jayan agreed. He felt a pang of affection for her, followed by an equally strong pang of anxiety. She’ll be fine, he told himself yet again. She’s still the best healer in the Guild. Of all the women in Kyralia – or the world – she has the best chance of surviving birthing a baby.
But she’d not had a child before.
Yes, but she’s assisted in the birth of plenty. She knows what to expect.
Maybe they’d waited too long.
But there had been so much work to do first. Developing healing and teaching it to others. Getting the Guild established and sorting out all the problems. And magicians certainly have a talent for creating problems...
The path rose and turned round a ridge before him. To stop yet another endless argument in his head, he set his mind on navigating it. He scrambled up, grasping at protruding rocks for extra leverage. His calves protested. His thighs strained. Then at last he’d reached the top. He sat on the ground, gasping for breath. Then he looked up and felt his entire body go rigid with cold.
For many heartbeats, all he could do was stare.
What had been green, fertile land ten years ago was now a blackened, scoured desert. From the foot of the mountains to the horizon stretched nothing but bare, blasted earth. His skin prickled as he realised he could make out lines radiating from somewhere to the north. Lines that were made up of gouges in the land, or the flattened trunks of trees. He barely registered the sound of Prinan reaching the top of the ridge and stopping beside him.
“Ah,” Prinan said. “The wasteland. No matter how many times I see it, I can’t get used to the sight.”
“I can see why.” Jayan glanced up at the magician. “The magicians who investigated still think it was the storestone?”
“We know of nothing else that might have caused so much destruction.”
“And Narvelan did it?”
“He disappeared a few days before, the same time the stone was stolen. And he’d been trying to convince us that we should weaken Sachaka by spoiling the land.”
“But we’ll never know for sure if that was what happened.”
“No.” Prinan sighed. “And the last chance of working out how to make storestones is gone.”
Jayan drew in a deep breath, then rose. “Well, if that’s what storestones can do, maybe it’s better that nobody found out.”
Prinan shook his head in disagreement, but did not argue. “So, do you think we need to build another fort here?”
Turning to look back down the path, Jayan considered. “I will have to think about it. This pass is by no means easy or fast to traverse. The fort in the main pass will only ever slow the advance of an army, not block it. If we cause a few land slips and carve away the path in a few places, this pass may not need anything more than watching.”
Prinan frowned, then nodded. “I suppose you are right. Though Father will feel we are being foolishly neglectful not building a big stone fort to block the way.”
“I understand,” Jayan assured him. “But surely if he has seen this,” Jayan waved a hand at the wasteland below, “he knows there is little chance of another invasion from Sachaka.”
Prinan nodded. “Narvelan may have been mad, but I suspect he was correct in his belief that destroying the Sachakans’ land would weaken the people. What Father fears is retribution. It would only take a few Sachakan magicans to cause havoc in Kyralia.”
“Then I will recommend we post a watcher on the Kyralian side.”
“I guess that’s the best we can do,” Prinan said. He sighed, then looked over his shoulder. “And there’s not much point us continuing on into Sachaka. Shall we head back?”
Jayan smiled and nodded. “Yes.” Back to Tessia. Back to await the birth of our son. Then he grimaced. And back to the never-ending work and arguments of the Magicians’ Guild.
ANIMALS
aga moths – pests that eat clothing
anyi – sea mammals with short spines
ceryni – small rodent
enka – horned domestic animal, bred for meat
eyoma – sea leeches
faren – general term for arachnids
gorin – large domestic animal used for food and to haul boats and wagons
harrel – small domestic animal bred for meat
inava – insect believed to bestow good luck
limek – wild predatory dog
mullook – wild nocturnal bird
quannea – rare shells
rassook – domestic bird used for meat and feathers
ravi – rodent, larger than ceryni
reber – domestic animal, bred for wool and meat
sapfly – woodland insect
sevli – poisonous lizard
squimp – squirrel-like creature that steals food
yeel – small domesticated breed of limek used for tracking
zill – small, intelligent mammal sometimes kept as a pet
PLANTS/FOOD
anivope vine – plant sensitive to mental projection
bellspice – spice grown in Sachaka
bol – (also means “river scum’) strong liquor made from tugors
brasi – green leafy vegetable with small buds
briskbark – bark with decongestant properties
cabbas – hollow, bell-shaped vegetable
chebol sauce – rich meat sauce made from bol
cone cakes – bite-sized cakes
creamflower – flower used as a soporific
