Azurite (Daughter of the Mountain Book 1) (22 page)

“Right…I forgot your real name for a moment.”  She stopped massaging his arm and cleared her throat.

“Lift your arm up, please,” she instructed.  Liam did as asked, and Zora began pressing on his side where the tree root had struck him, searching for any fractures.  Zora felt his muscles tighten underneath her hand when she hit a spot that was tender.

“I think you’ll be fine,” she said when she was finished.  “Probably going to be a bit sore and bruised tomorrow.”  Liam shrugged indifferently. 

“It’s nothing I haven’t been through before.  But thank you for your help.  Now, let’s see about your hand.”  He reached for her, but Zora waved him off to avoid touching him any more than she already had.

“I already cleaned it and applied some aloe salve,” she said as she began cleaning up her supplies.  “It’ll be fine.” 

She fidgeted for a minute, putting everything back in its rightful place and trying to tidy up the small space.  The whole time she could feel Liam’s eyes following her.  Agitated, she twirled her long blonde hair into a knot before securing it at the nape of her neck to let off some of her body heat.  She turned to look at him.

“Are you just going to watch me all night?” she demanded.  “Or are you going to explain why you had a blade to my throat only half an hour ago?  Or how about why you can transform your appearance in the blink of an eye.  Or where and what Cerendova is and what in the bloody hell a Warden does!”

Liam paled a little bit as she harried him, completely caught off guard.  He had his legs stretched out in front of him and was leaned back on his elbows in a relaxed manner. 

              “I can’t explain that to you with out explaining everything,” Liam stated, sitting back up.  “You have to understand I kept my own truths from you for your protection.”

              “Are you planning on hurting me?”

              “Well…no.  That’s not what I meant.  You don’t understand…”

              “Then explain it to me!  I don’t get why everyone in my life feels the need to keep me in the dark all the time!”

“Zora, it’s not like that.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m reluctant because what I tell you will change the way you see the world and everything in it.  Are you prepared for every single thing you’ve thought was true about the world to be challenged?  Are you prepared to loose all the preconceived notions you’ve had since childhood?  Because that’s a big price to pay.”

              Zora gave Liam a dark, level setting stare.

              “From my perspective, Master Rose, I’ve already been denied my right as a royal heir, practically exiled from my home country, and married off to a sleazy drunkard.  What else do I have to loose except my self respect?”

Zora didn’t know how long the silence between them lasted, and she could see the wheels turning in Liam’s head.  But finally he broke down and said, “Fair enough.  You may as well make yourself comfortable, then.  I’m going to have to start from the beginning.  Literally.” 

Zora sat back down, increasing the space between them and then looked at him, waiting.  Liam began.

              “I’m going to expand on the theology of Creationism that you and I talked about in some of our lessons, but this time I’ll leave in all the details that Commoners choose to omit.”  Zora didn’t object, so Liam had no choice but to commence onward.

“From the first moment the Creator breathed life into our world, the only beings that existed were created in His image, meaning that they were good and perfect. This included the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve.  After the Original Sin was committed by our progenitors and they were cast out of Paradise, the human population multiplied and spread out into all the lands that were made for us by Him.  Over the millenniums each race was forced to adapt to their respective environments.  Whether they dwelled in the land of mountains, prairie, or desert, they built successful civilizations.”

  “However, it was observed that those who remained living near the core of creation, the original garden, adapted differently than others. They were better connected to the living world around them.  They could do things with organic matter that others could not, and they could make the earth yield to their commands; they were more intimately bound to it.”

“It seemed as though the source of the earth’s essence, the thing that governs all the forces of our world, was more potent near the birthplace of creation, and my people learned how to use it.  Eventually, we evolved into a species that was able to harness this power just as naturally as we use air to breath.”

“We named it
Ithillium
, the ancient tongue for
bond of life,
as its purpose appeared to be to connect all living things in a self-sustaining, unbreakable tie
. 
It is a power as old as the world itself and is something that can be neither created nor destroyed.  It simply exists.  Because Ithillium came into existence in the unspoiled environment of Paradise, it can only encompass what is good and can only be used for good.”

“The ancient inhabitants of the north, today we call them Commoners, knew of our wondrous capabilities.  At first, they did not fear or envy us because they believed that the gift the Creator had given us was a blessing to all mankind.  We lived at peace with the Commoners for many thousands of years.  Several millenniums into our evolution, a man was born into our lands who was considered to be the most powerful sorcerer in the history of our race.  He could do things with Ithillium that no one had ever seen before.  Unfortunately, he was also the first one to flow Ithillium with malicious intent.  He used the purity of the Bond to enhance his conceit, malice, and spite, and became nothing more than a warmonger that started the first mass bloodshed to ever plague mankind in this world.” 

“He attacked the Commoners first, subduing them into his cunning lies because they were ignorant to our ways.  He promised them that if they followed him, they’d learn how to do the things only those who flow Ithillium are capable of doing. Once he had them under his influence, he resorted to violence to overtake their lands and conquer the north.  When that was done, he set his ambitions on his own kind and attacked us viciously with the intent to become the one, supreme ruler of these lands with no living being powerful enough to challenge him.  After decades of battle, he
was
defeated by our armies, which were led by other powerful sorcerers of that age.  He was captured and sentenced to death, but not after the damage to our world had been done.” 

“Regrettably, the world as we knew it was forever changed.  The Commoners, who’d suffered a great loss as a race in the war, blamed the sorcerers for the evil acts done to them, and the confidence they’d had in our abilities was compromised.  Having never understood how Ithillium existed and how it could be used, Commoners were quick to label us as heinous murderers. 
Slythos.
”

  “In order to mollify their growing hatred towards us and prevent a future war of retribution, the great sorcerers agreed to fashion a border between the northern and southern Realms.  It was then sealed with an ancient spell that no man could undo.  This way both races could be kept safe and at peace with one another.  Sorcerers cannot enter the Commoner world, and Commoners cannot enter ours.  That act is known at the Great Severance.”  Liam paused and reached over to sip some of the water Zora had offered him earlier.

“Where exactly is the Border?” Zora interrupted.  “And why has no Commoner ever found it.” 

“It’s located beyond the swamps of Montanisto,” Liam responded as he put his cup down.  “Past all existence of civilization where the world becomes nothing but mirrors of shimmering water.”

“Can Commoners see it?”

“No, not really.  There have been those who’ve tried to make truth of our legend and seek out the Border, but the swamp just ends up leading them to their watery grave.  It was a control put in place to ensure the Border is never discovered by Commoners; another control used to keep us separated.”

Zora’s mind was getting muddled with all of the information Liam was throwing at her, and the beginning of a headache was slowly forming.  She rubbed her temples methodically to ward it off.

“Let me make sure I understand this correctly.  There is another land populated with humans just like me that are interconnected with their environment through a primordial bond of life that you call Ithillium?”

Somehow, the explanation didn’t sound so absurd to her.  In fact, it seemed to make sense of things in her life that she’d never been able to understand before: her ability to be one with nature, her connection with all living green things, the meeting she’d had with Madame Fae back in Samaria, and, with a heavy heart, the surreal, metaphysical encounters she’d had with the man in her dreams. Despite everything, Liam’s explanation seemed right to her and provided an answer as to why she felt so detached from her life all the time.  Liam was about to respond, but Zora interrupted him.

“So why the knife to my throat?” she demanded again.  The Warden looked at her dourly.

“The gift can surface in anyone in the Commoner world,” he explained.  “Which makes sense since the Border went up years after population migrations, and the war displaced a lot of people causing the races to commingle with one another.  When a sorcerer comes across one in the Commoner world who can harness Ithillium, usually we let them be because their talent isn’t strong enough to warrant uprooting them from what they know.”

“I found your case to be somewhat exceptional, though.  The first time I saw you walking the streets of Alumhy as a child, your inner Vim glowed like something I’d never seen other than in the great leaders of my country.  I thought it worth investigating.  Ithillium is an extremely powerful force, Zora, and those who don’t learn to control it and use it eventually die by it.”  Liam could tell he had Zora’s attention now.  “And trust me, it’s not a pleasant death.”  He moved in closer to her.

“I didn’t want to displace you from all that you knew, but at the same time I didn’t want to see you die that death.  I didn’t want to see you suffer daily because you didn’t know what is was that made you different, didn’t have anyone to entrust in, and most importantly, didn’t know how to exert all the energy slowly building up in your body needing to expelled.”

“Sorcerers need to flow Ithillium.  It’s what we were made to do, just like the songbird was made to sing.  You probably don’t realize when you create a Bond, because you’ve never been taught before.  But if you do, and don’t transfer the energy, it stays within you and accumulates in your Vim.”

“Vim?” Zora asked.

“That’s what we call each sorcerer’s core of energy within themselves,” Liam explained.  “I’ve witnessed what happens to those who were never trained in how to use their gift.  It’s a slow, painful death that destroys first the mind and then the body.  I care for you, very much, and I didn’t want to see that be your fate.  You’re too special.”

With this new information, Zora immediately thought of all the sleepless nights she’d had since she was thirteen.  She thought of all the bizarre and downright terrifying dreams she’d walked through and of how she could never differentiate if the visions had actually occurred.  Zora felt a glimmer of hope.  Maybe the fact that she was untrained in how to use Ithillium was slowly killing her mind, and that was the reason behind her otherworldly experiences.  Maybe she wasn’t crazy after all.  Maybe she could stop these phantasms by learning how to use Ithillium.

Zora suddenly exhaled loudly, as if she’d been holding her breath in for hours.  Liam could see her hands trembling slightly.

“My dear friend,” she whispered. “While I can now understand that your decision to repress me was driven by compassion for my future well-being, I don’t think you should have followed through with them.”  She paused.  “You are someone I’ve known for a long time, Liam, and while you may look different, I can tell your heart is the same.  Ultimately, I know you mean me no harm.” 

Zora could see that her vindication gave him some sort of relief, and he mouthed the words
thank you
to her.  The young woman felt a slow yawn creep into her throat, and she couldn’t help but submit to it.

“I’m sorry to keep you up so late,” Liam apologized, mimicking the yawn himself.

“My mind is buzzing with millions of questions,” Zora admitted.  “You’re going to get tired of hearing my voice once I start asking them.  But I think this is enough for tonight.  I can barely keep my eyes open.” 

“Why don’t you come over here and sleep?” Liam asked innocently.  He scooted over on the makeshift bed to make room for her.  She must’ve had a look of revulsion of her face, because Liam suddenly barked a laugh.  “C’mon.  You said yourself I wouldn’t harm you.” 

Zora bit her lip, somewhat unsure, then finally yielded to her weariness.  She crawled over and lay on her side facing him, her arms tucked in close to her chest.  She admired his face for a moment.  He had the same smile like Milo did, with dimples in his cheeks.  His blue-green eyes were vibrant, even in the darkness of the tent, and his brown hair stuck out in all directions.  Liam caught her looking at him, but she wasn’t trying to hide it anymore.

“What?” he asked out of surprise.

“How were you in Samaria?” she questioned.  “Since Cerendova is your home and no one is allowed to cross the Border.”