Chapter Fourty Two – The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep by Kelly D. Tolman

Posted by admin on July 13, 2009

The Cleansing of Darnuth Keep is a fantasy novel describing the adventures of Colter Halfspear as he becomes a man and an initiate of magical powers.

With autumn fading quickly into winter I hunted each morning and then returned to skin and cure hides and smoke meat for our winter store.  So many supplies had been left behind that we needed blankets, clothes and food.  The cold mountains would have to provide our needs for the coming winter.

Dina handled her bow expertly, though she lacked my experience in the wild.  At first we hunted separately, scouring the valley and mountain near the keep.  Each day Dina grew a little more frustrated as I found more success.  Pascalli suggested after a few days that we would be much safer hunting together while he worked on his preparations.  Whatever he prepared for the Kaarum he did not explain to us.

We set out together, and I immediately noticed the noise she made as we walked.  At first I ignored it, hoping she could learn by watching, but eventually I realized she needed help.  “Let’s rest a bit,” I said.  She didn’t want to stop.  “We won’t find anything this morning.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked.  “This game trail is fresh.”

“The trail is fresh, but you aren’t,” I replied.

“I’m not tired,” she said, frowning.

“You move like you are tired.  And I know that I am tired,” I said.

“You haven’t been yourself since you opened the gate to the inner circle.  You don’t cook anymore, and you never join us at the fire in the evening anymore.”  I didn’t expect to feel any concern in her voice, and the comfort surprised me.  “What’s wrong?”

“I saw horrible things.”  I know tears came to my eyes, but I did my best to hide them and keep my voice steady.  “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Will you at least tell me why you always find more game than me?” she asked.  “My father taught me to hunt when I was only a girl, but I’m not having any luck here.”

“Hunting for sport is not the same as hunting when your life hangs on your skill.  You are too nervous.  You make a lot of noise, and you miss the small details.  You have to know not only to look, but to see and understand.”  I hoped I didn’t sound like Pascalli lecturing, but I knew I did.

“I would like to move the way you do.  I always wanted to be better than my brothers.  They have glory and honor already, but I will have to earn mine,” she said.

“I don’t know anything about glory, but I know that you don’t need to hunt like me to earn respect.  You have a strength that is all your own.  You gave up your life to be with us.  I can respect that,” I said.

For the first time, I think she smiled at me.  Although she never mastered everything about the wild, she put her heart into it with each step.  Later that day we found two Kaarum, which we shot at a safe distance before they caught our scent.  I learned to forgive what I viewed as her shortcomings, and she began to overlook mine.  Such friendships are bought hard and dear, and only come with time and trial.

“What will your family do when you return?” I asked her as we sat around the fire.  I needed something to take my mind away from the flames.

“I don’t know,” she replied.  “My family has a great responsibility to the emperor.  I met him once, you know.”

“Who?” I asked.

She laughed, the sort of laugh I expected from Laural.  “The emperor, silly.  I lived three summers in Dynwater, learning the ways of the courts.  I know well my duties, and so does all my family.  My father may not be able to let me live if I go back.  Certainly he can no longer claim me as a daughter.”

“Why not?  All you did was cross a gate,” I said.

“I aided you.  There are some in Dynwater, and other places, who do not want you wandering free.”

“I haven’t seen or heard from my mother or sister since I left the village.  I don’t know if they are still alive, though I hope they’ve had an easier time than I have.”

“You’ll see them again someday,” she reassured me.  “Maybe one day we can visit them together.”

“And maybe you will introduce me to your family.”  We laughed away our fears.  I came to know that her great resentment of me stemmed only from fear of my father’s legend.  Together we found game and gathered nuts and roots while forging a bond tempered through hardship.

Pascalli did not forget any of my other duties.  At times Dina hunted alone, scouting only the fringes of the city, or stayed in camp preparing stores for winter.  On those days she stayed because Pascalli kept me busy with my training and my learning.  The daily efforts with sword and spear were redoubled, but he added to this meditation and serious practice with magic.

“Living matter is the most difficult to master,” explained Pascalli.  “So we will begin with that which was never alive, or at least only alive so long ago that it has no memory of itself.  That is to say it has no intelligence.”  He held up a pebble.  “Begin with that.”

I looked at the pebble.  It seemed rather ordinary and uninteresting.

“Remember, you must focus.  Find its voice and the voice of the element you want to use to control it.  You have proven you can listen to the air, which is the easiest, go ahead and lift the pebble.”

So I began each day lifting the pebble.  Eventually Pascalli moved me on to not just lifting the pebble but having it fly in circles or other patterns, and eventually to keeping it hovering over my shoulder as I moved around the camp.  Controlling magic can be very tiring, and long before the first snows fell I had already grown weary of my daily routine.

Still Pascalli proved relentless.  Each night when I returned he checked that the stone had not fallen.  Then he introduced me to the other elements.  “There are many elements all around us, and many kinds of energy.  Understanding magic means understanding all of these things and bending them to your will.  Take fire, for example.  It is all around us, but you must ask the air to give it to you.  The same is true of water and of lightning and of the force that causes things to fall.  Concentrate on your stone again, but this time try to find the voice of fire within it.”

I concentrated.  Instead of the usually wispy voice of the air I could hear a low rumbling, crackling whisper like a very distant forest fire.

“Now ask it to warm the rock.”

I found that I was not surprised when the pebble grew intensely hot.

“Very good,” said Pascalli.  “You did not break your concentration.  From now on you will use magic to light our campfires.  Also practice collecting water from the air into your canteen as you hunt.  I do not expect miracles yet, but time is short and you will soon be tested.”

When the first flakes of snow trickled from the sky Pascalli ordered us to stop our hunting efforts.  By then we had a large stock of supplies in one of the smaller mansions in the citadel.  We still had not entered the palace proper, which Pascalli seemed to regard with both dread and curiosity.

“Now then,” he began, using his lecture tone.  “The time has come for us to begin in earnest one of the many reasons we came here.  That is to say the main reason I came here, though you two are of course involved.  As you both know, the Kaarum have sent their scouts through this valley.  It is one of the few passes open during the winter though they have not tried it in many summers because the wild beyond it is both dangerous and unrewarding.  The passes to the east are much better.  Unless I am very much mistaken they will be forced to send their army through the valley this winter.  They will wait until the lake is frozen over and until their own supplies of food far to the north have nearly dwindled until they are forced to hunt for plunder.  We have come to stop them here.”

“How are we going to do that?” gasped Dina.  “Three people against thousands of Kaarum do not make good odds.”

I had to agree, but I knew from the twinkle in the wizard’s eye that he had a plan.  “There once was a time, young lady, when I alone could have stood against them without bothering so many markets in advance to prepare.  Should time prove to be on my side, I shall prepare young Scratch here to do the same.  In the meantime trust that this old bag of bones has a plan larger than his belly.”

Clearly Dina was not taken in by his smile.  Pascalli ignored her glare and continued.

“There are ample supplies of certain minerals in the mountain, which I have been constantly mixing and preparing.  Scratch, you may recall that the Veldmen make such powders from time to time to help delve.  We shall place quantities of these powders in strategic locations around the valley and when the Kaarum arrive they will explode causing all of the snow to fall from the mountain on top of them.  With any luck the frozen top of the lake will also give way and in one swift crack we’ll have them all.”

Naturally I thought he had lost his mind, but I had the good sense to hide it.  Dina, however, exploded in a short-lived fit of incredulous rage.  She was right, of course, there were far too many ways the plan could go wrong, but I knew Pascalli too well to really doubt him much.  Besides, I had done crazier things already.
Copyright 2008 Kelly David Tolman

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