Discovered, page 17
Baywolf turned back to Dax and bowed. “Sorry, I was a little shocked to see the man that I was trained to replace. For years I imagined you as some kind of god. But you are just a man like me.”
Dax laughed in spite of himself, “A god. Not even close. Just a man who has lost his way and wants to make some of it right again.”
“Then in that, we are brothers, Dax,” Baywolf said and turned to Ruth.
Ruth took one look and said, ‘Okay. That’s enough for now. Let’s do this before someone discovers we are here. Bolong said that you could get us in front of Aaron through secret passages?”
At Baywolf’s nod of agreement, Ruth turned to Dax and said, “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” Dax said. He couldn’t say one more word. Otherwise, he might lose his courage, and that was the one thing he was not willing to do.
Fifty
Aaron didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Sitting in his throne room, he waited for the people who were coming for him. He wanted to laugh because he was so much smarter than them, and cry because he saw that Baywolf was one of them.
On the other hand, perhaps Baywolf was playing them, in which case he could forget the crying and start laughing. But he had to do it quickly because he wanted to look frightened when Dax arrived. Dax and some woman he had never seen before. No matter. They were no match for him.
So Aaron laughed as hard as he could. He hoped that the Warrior Monk who occupied the corner of the room would do something, anything. Twitch. Wiggle. Make a noise. But it never did. It just stared at him with the black holes that passed for eyes that followed him everywhere.
How Sawdi had raised people from the dead and turned them into these horrible things, he didn’t know. Or even why. Well, he probably knew why. They were such efficient killing machines. No one could hurt them, and only Sawdi could control them.
Aaron laughed again. What if the Warrior Monk was going to protect him? Wouldn’t that be a perfect scenario? That brooding white thing could help him destroy the people coming now to get him, because Aaron was sure that this wasn’t a social visit.
Aaron had heard the shrieking of the Monks and thought that Sawdi had returned. He had a brief moment of hoping that Sawdi had come back to take the Monks with him, so he had opened the seeing tube he had built into one of the walls of this throne room to see what Sawdi was doing on the roof.
He had a few of these tubes built into the walls of the Palace. He built them before he encrusted the walls with the precious gems he had brought to him from all over Thamon.
If he were magic, he could have seen everywhere without the tubes, but he wasn’t anymore. All the magical skills he once was so proud of had slowly drained away so that he had to resort to things like a seeing tube.
The tubes were not as good as magic, but they served a purpose. He could watch various parts of the Palace without leaving his throne room, or the bedroom where he had other tubes installed. The men who had installed them for him were long gone, turned to ash when their job was done and swept up by the Blessed Ones.
It was the tube to the roof that Aaron used the most because it was where he could see Sawdi arrive and try to gauge his mood. Not that it had ever helped. Sawdi was expressionless like his Warrior Monks.
At first, seeing the dragon, Aaron believed that it was Sawdi and Bolong. But a split second later, he realized that it was Dax and another dragon, not Bolong. Not that anyone but Sawdi rode Bolong.
Imagine that, Aaron thought. What will Sawdi say when he learns that there is another dragon on Thamon? Probably capture it for himself. It gave Aaron a thrill to think of Sawdi being surprised by something.
Although he hadn’t expected a dragon, Aaron wasn’t surprised by this turn of events. He had anticipated that Dax might sooner or later come to get him. It was what he himself would do after all.
But the dragon was surprising, and so was the woman. It would be interesting to see what Baywolf would choose to do. Would he surprise Aaron, too, or fulfill what he had trained him to do?
*******
Across the ocean, Ibris felt as if a hand was squeezing his heart, making him feel faint. Beside him, Oiseon grabbed his shoulder to keep him from falling.
The two of them were sitting on Ibris’ favorite bench on the beach, watching the waves lap gently against the white sand and Etar rise in the east. It had been peaceful, both of them content to listen to the water swoosh in and out over the pebbles embedded in the sand, the white foam fizzing and then dissipating.
They sat on the bench, not speaking. It was their quiet time of day before their work began. Ibris, as the Preacher, and Oiseon as the leader of the Mages, would try to keep the people calm while they waited to hear the latest about Aaron, Stryker, and Sawdi.
Falcon had come to tell them that everything was progressing as planned. But that had been days ago. Had Dax, Ruth, and Roar arrived on Edes?
Did the Eos make it to Turva? Would they find the pendant before Stryker?
The fact that Ibris didn’t know that members of his family that he had thought died long ago, were even now fighting for the resistance was a good thing. Otherwise, he might have actually fainted from the fear.
Because it was fear that had gripped his heart. Something was happening, and he had to help. Turning to Oiseon, he said, “Get the Mages. Get everyone willing to help the rebels and meet me at the market.”
Oiseon didn’t ask why. He knew.
The time had come, and now they needed to do their part.
Fifty-One
Baywolf led Dax and Ruth down a long flight of twisting steps, before coming to a stop in front of what looked like a solid stone wall. But Baywolf didn’t pause. He walked right through it.
Ruth and Dax looked at each other in amazement. What had just happened? Then an arm stuck itself out of the wall and pulled them in. A second later, they were all standing in a small circular room, and Baywolf was laughing at them.
“Shocked you, didn’t I? I’ve been waiting for years to be able to do that to someone,” he said, his green eyes bright even in the low light.
Dax turned around the room and then back to Baywolf before saying, “Maybe you better explain yourself before we go any further.”
Baywolf gestured at a bench on one side of the room and waited until Dax and Ruth had taken a seat. He stayed standing, his massive arms crossed over his chest.
There was a small window set in line with the bench, and Dax and Ruth could see out to where the Palace was surrounded by Warrior Monks, a white mass breathing as one being.
Gesturing at the swirling Monks, Ruth asked, “Can’t they see us in here?”
Baywolf leaned back against the stone wall and closed his eyes. He knew what Dax and Ruth were seeing. A large man with an ugly face, the face that had isolated him from the other boys at the training camp.
He had pretended not to hear them because it was easier to ignore the taunts. It hadn’t been the same camp where he knew Karn, Dax, and Ibris had been trained. But he was sure that all of Stryker’s camps were the same. Bullies learning to be better bullies. That some of them had learned how to survive amid that terror was a miracle. That some of them were now willing to rebel against what Aaron, Stryker, and Sawdi had done, was even more miraculous.
Baywolf counted his survival as a miracle. Aaron rescuing him from the camp was not what he had expected. He had expected to die the day he beat the other boy senseless. It was the day he had lost control of himself. It had never happened since then. Now, if he had to be violent, he chose it, not the other way around.
Through the years, he had let Aaron train him, but when Aaron wasn’t looking, he taught himself. Although he could barely remember his childhood before the training camp, over time, he got glimpses of what it had been like.
And after remembering that it had included magic, Baywolf looked for that in himself, hoping against hope that he was something more powerful than what Aaron wanted him to be.
While Aaron trained him to be stealthy and secretive, and use violence when needed, Baywolf trained himself first to find and then use magic. The invisible door and window were the result of what he had learned how to do. Hide. And watch.
That’s how he had discovered that Udore was a wizard, and was staying in jail by choice, while he, Rose, and Karn planned a rebellion.
Baywolf hadn’t revealed himself to them because he wasn’t sure at first what side he would be on. After all, Aaron had rescued him. Didn’t he owe Aaron something? However, over the years, he had watched Aaron become increasingly power-hungry and lose the few magical abilities he once had because of his greed.
He didn’t want to lose the magic he had found and practiced. Magic was his only tie to the memory of where he had come from. Still, he waited. The element of silence and surprise was something he treasured. Besides, he didn’t know how anyone could take Thamon back.
It all changed the day that Bolong spoke to him. Bolong had seen Baywolf hiding on the roof and talked to him, not out loud, of course, in his head. That was an entirely new experience for him.
Since coming to the Palace, only Aaron had spoken to him, and he had never experienced mind-talk before with anyone. It had taken him a few moments to realize that the words had come from a dragon. It had never occurred to him that Bolong was more than what he appeared to be. That all the dragons in Sawdi’s crown were also men.
They only exchanged a few words before Sawdi returned. But after that, Baywolf made sure he was on the roof when Bolong arrived. Because they never spoke out loud, no one heard them, and if anyone were watching, they would have never known that a conversation was going on.
But there was. And over time Bolong became his one and only friend. His first friend. Someone he could trust. It was through Bolong that Baywolf learned of all the horrors that Aaron-Lem was doing in the world.
It was Bolong who told Baywolf that someday he would have to choose. Would he remain Aaron’s, or would he fight for freedom?
When Bolong put it that way, there was no need to wait for a decision. He wanted freedom. Baywolf had dreams of being free. Maybe even finding his family. Perhaps they still lived.
Bolong had told him about the Sanctuary on Turva. If they weren’t there, possibly they would be in one of the others scattered around Thamon. Places where people had gone to hide, waiting for enough people to fight the evil that had taken over Thamon.
Yes, it had been an easy decision once Bolong explained the situation. He wanted freedom. He would fight for freedom. For himself. For the people in the Sanctuaries. And that would mean defeating Aaron.
Baywolf opened his eyes and looked at Dax and Wren, patiently waiting for him to tell them what they were doing, trusting him to do the right thing.
“Aaron knows you are here,” Baywolf said. “Which means we have to do something he doesn’t expect.”
“What?” Ruth asked.
“Not show up. Aaron can’t find us here. Besides, I need to hear your plan for stopping him and the Warrior Monks.”
Dax looked at Ruth and cleared his throat. “I have a weapon to use against Aaron. The same one he uses. But we didn’t know that the Warrior Monks would be here.”
Baywolf laughed and said. “Good thing I have a solution for that problem.”
Fifty-Two
Meg and Tarek stood together, looking at the map. Udore had given it to Tarek after telling him that he was the one that had to go with Meg to get the pendant. The rest of them would be watching for Stryker and Sawdi, and hold them off as long as they could.
Udore had taken Meg aside and told her all that he knew about what the prophesies had said she would need to do. To Meg’s question whether Udore was positive that she was the one that needed to do this thing, he answered without hesitation that yes, she was the one.
Although the writings didn’t mention Meg or Tarek by name, all the signs pointed to Meg as the one who had to find the pendant and then destroy it, although the man with her could provide support and protection.
“I didn’t know it was my son that would be doing this,” Udore had said to her. “But even if I had, I couldn’t have done anything to stop it. But now that I have met you, Meg, I am proud to know you, and it pleases me that you and Tarek have found each other again.”
“Again?” Meg asked.
“Ah. Well, it depends on what you believe child, but yes, I do think we find each other again as we move from lifetime to lifetime.”
Udore waved his hand towards the group of people waiting for them, and said, “Like them. All of them. Together again. You and I, together again.”
“But I don’t remember any of this,” Meg said. “However, I think I know what you mean about knowing people before. On Thamon, everyone has felt so familiar, even though we were strangers.”
When Udore nodded at her, she added, “But then, I don’t want to do this same thing over and over again. Can’t we be done with it?”
“Yes. I believe you can finish it now, and then your next lifetimes will not include this kind of trouble. Now is the time, Meg,” Udore said, handing her the map.
Meg thought about what Udore had said as she and Tarek studied the map. She knew that Udore, Wren, Karn, Silke, and Suzanne were watching them from somewhere in the woods.
They had hiked all day to reach this spot, and they were all exhausted. But there was no time to rest. Stryker was right behind them, and if Stryker was near, so was Sawdi.
The problem they were having was that the map was showing them that the pendant was directly beneath them, which didn’t make any sense. They were standing on the ledge that looked out over a massive cavern.
Meg had accidentally kicked a stone over the edge and had listened to it fall as it bounced down the sides of the cliff. It took a long time to reach the bottom.
Looking out over the chasm, Meg could see what looked like tiny openings in the sides of the cliff.
“Could those be caves?” she asked, pointing to the closest one. “What if the last piece of the pendant is in a cave right below us?”
Meg dropped down to the ground, sharp stones cutting her hands and knees as she crawled to the edge and looked over. She wanted to be sick. Something she had never told anyone was that she was terrified of heights.
Yes, she had flown as a bird and even a dragon, but that was different than being a human, used to standing on the solid ground, seeing empty space below and having no wings. Grasping the edge of the cliff, she pulled herself across the ground, trying not to cry out as stones cut through her clothes.
Tarek had grabbed her feet, so she moved further out off the edge, shaking so hard she thought Tarek would not be able to hold on. Finally, she was far enough out that she could see a small cave directly below them. It had to be where the pendant was. But the opening was about ten feet straight down. How would she ever get there?
Once again, she mourned the loss of her shapeshifting abilities. If she could still turn into a bird, she could fly into the cave, find the pendant and bring it out so that everyone could help her destroy it. But she couldn’t shapeshift anymore. She knew that Udore had told her that this had to be done by her, and her alone, but she had no idea how to get the pendant, and then how was she supposed to destroy it?
“One step at a time,” she heard Udore tell her.
Tarek could support and protect her, just as he was holding her feet so she wouldn’t fall over the edge, but he couldn’t do it for her. She would have to find another way to get into the cave.
Wiggling backward, she edged away from the edge, and once it was far enough away, stood and walked into Tarek’s arms, shaking with fear and determination.
“I think I know how I can get into the cave, Tarek,” Meg said.
Taking off her torn cloak, she started ripping it into long strips of material. “Help me braid these pieces together and make a rope, and then you can lower me down.”
“But then I can’t go with you,” Tarek said.
“No, you can’t. I have to do this myself,” Meg answered.
Tarek nodded, and the two of them worked together to make a rope. When they were done, Tarek tied one end of it around Meg’s waist and the other end around a Stonenut tree that grew not far from the edge. If Meg slipped, he could pull her back up.
Tarek grabbed the coil of the rope, Meg stood facing him, and then backed off the cliff, trying to keep her feet on the side of it while leaning away. For a moment, she felt as if she would faint. She was parallel to the ground, her feet sliding on the sides of the cliff.
Tarek spoke gently in her mind, “I’ve got you, Meg. I won’t let you go. Find the pendant, and I’ll pull you back up.
Watching from the woods, Suzanne wanted to run out and help. Udore put his hand on hers and shook his head. “You need to help in another way,” he whispered.
A few seconds later, Suzanne understood what he meant. In the far distance, she heard a sound only another dragon would recognize. Sawdi and Bolong were on their way.
“Be safe, Meg, but hurry up,” she whispered to her sister, grateful that Meg couldn’t hear what she could—the sound of dragons, and Bolong’s warning that they were near.
Fifty-Three
Stryker staggered into the clearing. He had practically run the rest of the way up the mountain, leaving the guards far behind him. He no longer needed them. When the map stopped being so cryptic and showed him the last part of the path to the pendant, he had forgotten about everything except getting to where he was going.
As he ran, his cloak caught on a tree branch, but he ignored it. The only important thing was the map clutched in his hand and the pendant pieces. One around his neck, the other transferred to a pocket in his pants.
