“Very well,” Marrec said with a smile.
See? He thought. Reach out a little, and you shall be rewarded.
Marrec continued, “What do you know of the Sea of Fallen Stars? You’ve heard of it, then? How about fabled Waterdeep?”
Later, his conversation with Ususi concluded, he returned to his room. The mage proved to be a good listener, which was a trait rare in Marrec’s experience. Usually, in purely social situations, it was he who listened and the other who talked, telling Marrec of himself, his triumphs, his children, or the happenings in his day. When Marrec did get a word in edgewise about himself, it was clear that many people used that time to formulate what they would say when they next had their chance, instead of listening in return and showing that they had listened by asking a question related to what had just been said.
Ususi wasn’t like that. For that matter, neither was Gunggari, probably why he and the Oslander had struck up a friendship and traveling arrangement.
Of course, when it came to listening, none could top the ever-quiet Ash.
Marrec was Ash’s putative guardian, and she shared his room. She sat on a small bed brought up to the room by a servant after Marrec inquired if something more accommodating to her small frame might be had. Marrec studied the girl, looking for any changes. As always, no expression crossed her face as she stared without sound out the open door opening onto the garden.
He sighed and seated himself next to her.
“Well, girl, here we are, and I don’t know if we’re any closer to finding out your role in all this.”
He held up a small, delicately carved stone vessel for her to drink from. When she was finished, Marrec continued, “You and me, we’re a lot alike, you know.”
He wondered if he had told the same thing to Ash before. Probably. Undeterred, he continued, “I was a foundling, same as you, and like you I was not… am not… entirely human.”
He stopped, studying the girl’s face for any hint of surprise. Nothing.
“I’m not a healer like you, though. My ability… is more destructive. It’s a burden. I’ve done things that I’m ashamed to admit.”
He sighed. Thoughts he had tried to bottle up over the last few years began to bubble to the surface of his mind, and his lips.
“I can’t help but wonder if my past… crime… is somehow responsible for Lurue’s disfavor with me? Maybe this is all some sort of test, or quest, for me to finally cleanse the monster that lives within me, finally repudiate it once and for all.”
Ash began to trace the lines of stone faintly visible behind the wall plaster. Her wide blue eyes reflected a gulf of emptiness, or Marrec dared hope, acceptance.
“If you are somehow connected with Lurue, then you know what I’ve done. You know my vow, too; that never again shall I call upon the power of my heritage, lest ill once again befall me or befall those I hold most dear.”
Marrec cleared his throat, and went on, “That vow sustained me in the early years of my service to the goddess. All seemed well. I thought it was all behind me, but with this gradual quieting, and my loss of contact with her divine spark, I just wonder…”
He whispered, “Is it my crime? What more must I do to gain forgiveness?”
He reached forward and touched Ash’s brow with a finger. The girl turned, gave him the tiniest of smiles, then went back to” tracing mortar lines.
Marrec spoke no more, but the memory of what he had done would not be bottled up.
— SSSZ- SSSSSS SS
The ranger Thanial’s revelation was nothing short of a life-altering shock. Could young Marrec really be born of creatures he’d been taught to fear and despise all his life? How could he deny it? His memories were proof enough, not to mention the power of his gaze unleashed. The power to replace flesh with unmoving, unliving stone…
“It is an evil thing you tell me, Thanial.”
“Can knowledge by itself be evil? Only the use to which we put it. Not telling you about your parentage that might be considered evil. When you know the truth, you are free to make the best decisions possible. With the time we’ve spent together, I’ve come to know your character, and you are good.”
Someone pounded on the exterior of Thanial’s cabin door. The grizzled ranger gave Marrec’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze then saw to the caller.
It was a boy from the village, babbling of another attack. The ogre raiders had returned to the village, vengeful and more cruel in the wake of their ignominious retreat months earlier. Worse, a truly abominable ogre, nearly double the size of the others, led the raid. The boy said the village elders had sent him. He pled for Thanial’s help in driving off the threat, not recognizing Marrec, who was older and attired similarly to the ranger.
Thanial grunted, “I will come.” He glanced at Marrec. “And my apprentice, too.”
The ranger shrugged into his leathers; Marrec did the same. His leather armor was another gift from his benefactor. Thanial grabbed his sword, Marrec his wooden spears, and they were off through the forest. Thanial told the boy from the village to stay in his cabin. The young villager was too exhausted to protest.
A dark form paced them, partially visible through the trees. It was Thanial’s companion, the great wolf Shira. Marrec felt better knowing that Shira would be with them.
Just before they reached the village, Thanial paused. They could hear screams and the clang of steel through the trees. They were close.
Thanial said, “Marrec, this is an opportunity for you to use your abilities for good. Stifling them can’t be healthy; they are part of you. Your actions define your nature, not your heritage or the sins of your forebears. Defend the village any way that you can.”
Marrec took a deep breath and simply nodded.
Thanial leaped out of the trees and ran for the village gates, Marrec on his heels. Shira rushed ahead.
The first ogre they saw was dead, surrounded by three villagers, also slain, just within the gates. Beyond was the town square. A dozen ogres swarmed the courtyard, each twice the size of an ordinary villager, but the ogres in turn were dwarfed by their leader. They swarmed around the feet of what may have been a giant in truth, their heads topping that creature’s belt.
The overlarge ogre appeared something like a bestial human grown far too big, but it was larger, stronger, and armored in the cured skins of its fallen enemies. In its hand it gripped a wooden club that was twenty feet long if it was an inch. Rusted nails and the fangs of unknown animals protruded from its length.
The sight of the leader’s armor, with its sewn limbs, bodies, and faces, stretched and distorted to make a whole sheet of leather armor, made the gorge rise in Marrec’s throat. He stumbled, coughing and retching.
Thanial was made of sterner stuff. He charged in, slaying an ogre outright with his blade, clearing a path toward the towering ogre leader. Shira followed Thanial, guarding the ranger’s back from the other ogres, a ferocious shape larger than a man herself.
Several villagers, those who were not strewn unmoving around the courtyard, were grouped in a small alley. The giant leading the raid turned his attention from attempting to crush them with his tooth-and-nail-studded club to defend itself against Thanial’s advance. It screamed something unintelligible to Marrec in a foul, phlegmy tongue and brought up its club. Its silhouette was enough to completely shadow the ranger’s approach.
Thanial ducked under the club and stabbed the creature. A flattened human face on the creature’s armor clamped its flaccid mouth down on the length of Thanial’s blade, trapping it. The ranger screamed in frustration as he attempted to pull his sword free. No good. The giant ogre laughed. The creature relinquished its grip on its club, and in the same movement snatched up Thanial.
The ranger struggled in the monster’s grip, but the hold was unwavering. The giant raised the ranger to eye level and spoke in Common for the benefit of its victim and anyone else who happened to hear, “I got a few rips in my armor that your skin can patch, except for your left arm. I’ll bite it off now; saves time later.”
For Marrec, time slowed. It seemed that the illumination in the courtyard dimmed but for a fey light that picked out his mentor and the giant ogre. The creature laughingly manipulated Thanial in its grip, trying to get the man’s arm to stick out as he might pose a doll.
“No!” screamed Marrec.
Pain lanced his eyes, as if ice picks had thrust out from each orb. He locked eyes on the beast and willed it to
