Chapter 09

Family Descent

Book One �" Divergence

Part I �" Novices

Chapter 09

April 1657

 

 

            Korrie followed the east west road through the city on his way to the eastern gate. The road nearly followed the river as it flowed along his right hand side. Behind him he led two horses, his own and Iyara’s that he would take with him to Chevranta.

            By the time he reached the east gate he had mounted his own horse and zigzagged his way through the traffic; wagons, and carts, carriages and horses and people on foot traveled the road either bound from or coming from the gate. The sun had past its zenith and now began its downward journey.

            Tismet kept a fare distance from the young man so as to avoid detection for while the quasidrake’s chameleon ability made him nearly undetectable against objects, against the sky he would surely be spotted. Tismet arrived at the outer wall of the city ahead of Korrie. He waited, secreted against the slate roof of one of the two gate towers.

            Korrie passed beyond the gate. A short distance beyond the east road ended where it intersected the Orfane Way. South did the way run to cross the Orfane at Castin Ford and then west, following the river to the city of Seaside. North it ran from Orlon around the eastern flanks of the mountain and north more until met the Crossland Road in Pilwyn.

            Korrie turned and followed the road north. The road was hard-packed by millennia of traffic along this major trade way. Throughout the afternoon he traveled passing by wagons and carts bearing south to Orlon. Soon, he rode in the shadow of the mountain as the sun slid further to the western horizon. As he rode, Tismet followed from on high keeping himself always between Korrie and the sun to make himself more difficult to discern against the pale blue sky.

            As darkness began to settle across the land, Korrie passed by a caravan at the side of the road; the wagons stopped as the travelers made camp at the roadside. Korrie politely turned down the caravan leader’s offer to have him join their camp. He continued on quarter mile and directed his mount to the left side of the road. He dismounted and led both steeds into the woodland blanketing the foothills of the mountain.

            He found a small clearing in the wood, away from the road. Here he picketed the horses and, after removing packs and saddles and bridles and blankets, he brushed down both horses and fed them grain and gave them water to drink. Then he set a small ring of stones and placed within it branches he gathered from the forest floor. At a word, the branches began to smolder and then burst into a small smokeless flame.

            Korrie filled a small pot with water from a skin and set it over the fire to boil. He rolled out his blanket near the fire and then ate a meal of cold beef and crusty bread. He withdrew a paper packet from his back and emptied tea leaves into the pot of water which had begun to simmer.

            Tismet, having secured himself a coney in the fields alongside the road, settled high in the crook of tree near Korrie’s campsite. He ate his dinner as Korrie filled a small leather cup with the brewed tea. Tismet had finished his meal and was deciding how best to sleep in the tree when he heard Korrie’s voice coming quietly from the clearing. The tiny dragon’s head cocked to the side listening for trouble, but it seemed Korrie was a having a conversation, yet Tismet heard no other voice. His talons lightly gripped the large branch upon which he perched and he scurried to the farthest reach. Still he could not make out the words but he had a clear view of Korrie’s campsite and in the flickering firelight he saw nought but his young charge sitting on his blanket, holding his cup and speaking to no one. His ophidian eyes narrowed and his head tilted from side to side as he tried to fathom the scene. A taloned finger reached out and tapped the side of his long snout as he contemplated. He finally decided that there was no apparent danger, and while the behavior was odd, it was not a behavior that warned of the onslaught of an attack of the syndrome.

            He watched as Korrie stirred the fire and spread out the coals into a thin layer. The young man emptied his leather cup and rinsed it and set it aside. He then lay down on his blanket and drifted off to sleep. Satisfied that all was well �" or as close to well as he could hope, Tismet crawled back along the branch and wedged himself into the crook of the tree for a fitful slumber.

 

            The next morning, Tismet awoke to find Korrie already finishing his breakfast. Tismet groaned to himself as he extricated himself from the tree’s embrace. Korrie packed up his camp and readied the horses. He returned to the road and turned toward the sun rising in the east. He secured the lead from Iyara’s horse to his saddle and mounted his own horse and then left the road behind following the morning sun toward the Baltic Wood.

            Tismet took to the air and his small but powerful wings carried him high and higher still until Korrie was but a speck below and east he flew to put himself once again between Korrie and the sun before returning to a lower altitude.

 

Throughout the day Korrie rode east through the gently rolling foothills. Now and again he would stop by a stream to water the horses and refill his skins. When the sun was full overhead Korrie came to a small copse of silver birch surrounding a small spring and stopped to take a quick meal.

            Tismet landed outside the copse and quietly crept within. The trees and undergrowth were alive with the sounds of insects and small animals and birds although some did look askance at the small quasidragon as he carefully picked his way through the bracken and plants of the ground beneath the trees. He found a delightful small rock that happened to be bathed in the rays of the high noon sun filtering through a gap in the leafy canopy. With a contented sigh he sprawled on the warm rock and lulled while Korrie ate his lunch.

            However, soon after, he was startled to hear Korrie’s voice again. He raised his head and looked through the branches of a hearty fern that stood between him and Korrie.

 

            Korrie sat on a fallen log, his skin recapped sat beside him.

            “It matters not.” Korrie said and there was a hint of aggravation in his voice. There was a pause and Tismet thought the youngster were listening to something �" or someone.

            “If they did it was but for concern over my welfare.”  He shook his head. “Nay, not meddling.” Korrie then stood and began repacking his belongings. “Enough!” he shouted and Tismet nearly fell off the rock at the tone of anger in Korrie’s voice.

            Korrie mounted again and with a “Hai!” he spurred the steeds out of the copse and back to the path he followed to the east. Tismet scampered out of the trees and took to wing all the while puzzling over his familiar’s troubled son.

 

            The sun was now low in the western sky and cast long shadows ahead of Korrie. Although there was no road from Orlon to the Baltic Wood, a path did exist for there was once a road and still folk traveled to the wood on occasion and it was this rough, barely discernable path that Korrie followed. As the first of the stars began to dot the sky and the lavender moon Silna rose into the sky ahead, nearly full, Korrie saw the shadow of the wood rise up before him.

            As he drew nigh the margins of the olden wood, he came to a great standing stone, worn by ages and ages. It was an ancient marker that told travelers the temple of Luganis lay within; but that was long ago for the temple was nearly abandoned when the new temple was built on the Isle of Luganis in the northern sea. Further, many years past, the green dragon Seryninvus destroyed the abandoned temple before he himself was destroyed a dozen years later.

            As planned, Korrie would venture into the wood on the following morning lest he lose his way among the hoary old trees. He set a small camp at the edge of the wood and Tismet, though weary of the travel, kept a night-long vigil but no sign did he see of Korrie’s earlier odd behavior.

 

            Korrie rose with the dawn, the sky overhead clear but for a scattering of benign cottony clouds that drifted lazily toward the rising sun. The grass about was dew covered still for, while sun rose up, the place where Korrie camped was shadowed by the massive wood.

            He reawakened the slumbering fire from the previous night and broke his fast with tea and bread and an early apple he bought in the Orlon. He wandered the camp site while eating the apple and breathed deeply of the morning air enjoying true solitude for the first time in his life. Although Tismet did note occasional puzzled glances from the young man toward the wood and the tree in which Tismet had kept watch.

            At last Korrie packed up his belongings and set out once more. He entered into the forest, past the standing stone, and following the little used path. Beneath the horses’ hooves the ground was littered still with the detritus of leaves fallen the year before. Overhead and all around the wood was alive with the sounds of birds and small creatures tending to the detail of their daily lives.

            Korrie had followed the path for several hours when he came finally to the clearing Shalhanna had described. The glade was nearly circular and fully a fifty yards across. Through the opening in the canopy, golden sunlight fell from the high sun and seeds and pollen and small insects glittered overhead illuminated by the radiance as they danced and drifted.

            Korrie bore to the north of the clearing and discovered the path he was told to search out. It departed the glad at a sharp angle behind the undergrowth and was all but undetectable to the casual passerby. As he rode onto the path he spoke up into the tree tops.

            “Go home, Tismet. I am come safely to the bounds of Chevranta and will shortly come upon the watchers of the path. Fare you well, old friend and I thank you for the company.” He then set his horse upon the path.

            Tismet canted his head to the side when Korrie called up to him and, if he could have frowned, he would have. He sent his thoughts out to Korrie for no longer did concealment seem necessary. “Be well, young mage. Learn thee much and may thee find peace among thine elven kindred.” With a shriek reminiscent of the roar of dragon, but higher pitched, the tiny quasidrake sprang from the branch and his ruddy brown wings carried him swiftly to the sky above the forest and westward he flew back to the academy.