Gorinthians (26 page)

In the meantime, Ferrich had
walked up to the set of tubes and now stared at them in
fascination. “Amazing!” His eyes shone with excitement. “How far
away can you talk through these tubes?”

“
Almost a mile,” Seranova
replied modestly. She felt a thrill of satisfaction mixed with
pride that someone besides her parents showed some interest in one
of her inventions. All of the villagers regarded her devices with
scorn, if not outright hostility.

As Ferrich studied the tubes
where they connected with the main tube on the ceiling, Seranova's
mother arrived, descending in the lift box that Seranova had
designed just last year. As the lift box lowered from the second
floor to land softly in the entryway that connected the sitting
room to the main hallway, Ferrich’s attention was diverted from the
listening tubes to the lift box.

"How does this work?”
Ferrich asked, hurrying over to the lift box to study it, almost
running Seranova's mother over in the process. He stood peering up
at the roof of the lift box, the top of which was now flush with
the ceiling, then walking around inside of it, looking at every
part of it. He looked up in surprise as Morindessa cleared her
throat loudly.

"I don't mean to ruin your
fun, Ferrich," Morindessa said, that small smile once again
lighting her face, "but we do have a rather urgent matter to take
care of."

Ferrich laughed sheepishly.
"I'm sorry," he said to Seranova's mother. "My manners have left
me. I am Ferrich and this is Morindessa."

Her mother's eyes widened at
Ferrich's name; when he mentioned Morindessa's, she shrank back in
sudden fear. Deisian moved swiftly forward to place himself between
his wife and Morindessa, while Seranova assured them that
everything was fine. Ferrich stood with his mouth gaping, staring
at them as if they had gone mad, while Morindessa arched a very
cool eyebrow at Ferrich.

"We just had a chance
meeting," Seranova explained, describing the bizarre encounter. Her
parents went from looking intrigued by the coincidental meeting, to
alarm as she described the Elementals' attack.

"Gorinthians, you say?” her
father asked when she finished explaining the king’s unusual
behavior.

"That is what Morindessa
called them,” Seranova replied, inclining her head at
Morindessa.

"Why would the Gorinthians
be hunting you?” Seranova's mother asked Ferrich
curiously.

Morindessa cleared her
throat. "I'm sorry, what was your name?" she asked Seranova's
mother.

"Clariona,” she replied,
flushing slightly. "I didn't mean to overreact earlier, but you
surprised me."

"Think nothing of it,
Clariona." Morindessa gestured at Ferrich. "We are not certain why
the Gorinthians are hunting Ferrich, and Ferrich was not even aware
of what a Gorinthian was until a few day ago.” Pausing, Morindessa
studied Seranova's parents before asking, "How is it that you know
what Gorinthians are?"

The two of them shared a
guarded look before answering. "My father knew of them,” Deisian
answered, studying her in return. "He knew a lot of stories about
the old civilization and the war that ended it."

"What was his name?”
Morindessa asked intently.

The couple shared another
guarded look before Deisian sighed resignedly. "I am going to
assume that his name will be safe with you, since the Gorinthians
are trying to kill you. He was known as Ralcon, and was one of the
last members of the Derinian order. Enough people remember the
Derinian Order as being responsible for the end of the old
civilization that it isn’t good idea to be associated with
them.”

Morindessa nodded in
satisfaction. "I thought you looked familiar.” Seranova did not
recognize the sudden spark of suppressed emotion in Morindessa's
eyes. Could it be hope?

"Have you ever met a woman
by the name of Riah?” Morindessa asked too casually. "She may have
been in the company of a man that was garbed in black."

Deisian sighed sadly. "I
knew a woman by that name," he admitted heavily. "If she was a
friend, then I am sorry to inform you that she died some years
ago.”

Seranova had been watching
Morindessa so she saw the wave of anguish that clouded her face for
a moment. Tears welled in her eyes before she hastily pulled them
back, resuming her mask of calm. "I see,” was all she
said.

"The man that you are
referring to," her father said suddenly, "was his name
Lochnar?"

"Lochnar?” Morindessa
repeated, looking as if she were tasting the word. "I never did
learn his name. The man of whom I spoke was Riah's
father."

Deisian nodded. "Yes, that
was Lochnar. As far as I know, he still lives.” From the look on
her father’s face, there was more to it than that, though he said
nothing more.

"Father, the soldiers that
escaped saw me clearly,” Seranova said in a rush. "They will be
back to look for me. Maybe the other creatures will too, I don't
know.” She watched her father anxiously, not willing to come out
and say that she must leave.

Her father sighed again. "I
know.” Looking at Ferrich and Morindessa, he continued. "There is
more at work here than meets the eye, I think. We could pretend
that it was chance that you went to the lake on the same night that
these two decided to make camp there. We could also pretend that it
was chance that what you found on the bottom of the lake was the
very weapon that you needed to defeat the Elemental and the
Gorinthians. We could even stretch it so far by saying the fact
that both Morindessa and I have ties to members of the Derinian
order was just an odd coincidence.” Pausing, he surveyed the three
of them to make sure that they understood. "We could pretend a lot
of things, but I think there is another force at work here,
something that is guiding your every footstep."

Morindessa looked like this
was not the first time that she had thought of this notion. She
also looked like she did not like the implications involved, though
Seranova had no idea what they might be. Ferrich's eyes were
narrowed in thought as her father's observations sunk
in.

"I think it is time that we
moved on," Deisian continued determinedly. "This has been an
excellent home for the time that we have been here, but its purpose
has been served.” He was watching Seranova, his eyes full of pride.
"You have grown into a mantle of greatness that you do not yet
realize, though one day you will."

Seranova stared at her
father uncertainly. "Are you saying that you are coming with us?”
Seranova was not certain that her parents would be up to the
journey that she was sure stretched before them.

Shaking his head, her father
sighed. "We will go to Shalilayo,” he said, glancing at his wife
with an upraised eyebrow. "If the Gorinthians are returning, then
we will need to be in a place where we can be of the most help.
Shalilayo is one of the best strategic locations for the Enemy to
have. We will need to influence the succession now that the king is
dead and make certain that his replacement is not a Gorinthian as
well."

Staring at her father as if
she had never seen him before, Seranova could only shake her head
slowly in wonder. Who is my father? He was certainly much more than
I realized. How did he know so much about the inner workings of
court? And how was he going to influence the next succession?
Turning to look at her mother, she noticed for the first time the
regal bearing with which she carried herself. Clariona did not have
the casual, almost clumsy gate of the other village wives, but
carried herself with a grace that made her seem a swan among ducks.
Clariona's expression was a mixture of sadness and anticipation, a
combination that Seranova would not have thought possible to have
share the same face.

Morindessa cleared her
throat again, this time a little more urgently. "I don't mean to
rush you, but we need to move on if we want to make any distance
before morning."

"Where are we going?”
Seranova asked curiously.

Morindessa glanced at
Ferrich with a slightly troubled expression on her face. "South,
for now."

"I have a kind of ship that
we can use," Seranova offered. "That way we won't have to worry
about running into soldiers."

"A ship?" Morindessa said in
surprise. "That would be wonderful."

Walking up to her parents
swiftly, Seranova embraced them fiercely. "I love you," she
whispered softly into their ears. Her father whispered back that
they would see her again when they returned to Shalilayo, and her
mother told her to take care of her companions.

Turning away from her
parents, Seranova led Ferrich and Morindessa out the front door and
down a path behind the house. The path led to an inlet from the
lake that was a few hundred feet from their property. The inlet was
surrounded by thick trees that were sheltering what looked like a
large floating two-wheeled carriage with a mast in the center of
it. There were small benches on the front and back of the odd
looking barge and three very odd-shaped seats on the sides and
middle.

"That's a ship?" Morindessa
asked doubtfully.

"Sort of," Seranova replied
as she walked down the small dock that it was tied to. She stepped
aboard. "Except that this will travel faster than any ship that you
can find on this lake."

From the blank look on
Morindessa's face, Seranova could tell that she thought that it was
a boast. Ferrich was considering it with pursed lips, studying the
round wells that attached to the sides. They would both see in a
few moments.

As her two companions joined
her on board, she directed Morindessa to sit in the seat next to
the port side, while she slipped into the seat on the starboard
side. "Ferrich, can you cast off?" she called to him as he sat down
on one of the benches. With a start, he stood back up and untied
the ropes that held them to the side of the small dock.

Reaching down to a lever
that was sticking out of the deck next to her, she pulled hard.
There was a loud clank beneath the decking, causing her two
companions to jump slightly. She pulled another lever and the deck
in front of the two seats opened up as a small set of foot pedals
appeared where her and Morindessa's feet were. This time,
Morindessa did jump out of her seat in surprise, but settled back
sheepishly as Seranova arched an eyebrow at her.

"Push your feet against the
pedals to make the paddle wheel move," she said to Morindessa,
pushing her feet against her own and pedaling backword to show her.
"We push this way to go backword, the other way to go
forward."

The strange ship began
turning in a circle as soon as Seranova pedaled backword, but
straightened slightly as Morindessa began pedaling on the other
side. As the small craft turned to face the open lake, Seranova
told Morindessa to begin pedaling the other way. Seranova pushed
the lever next to her forward, which caused the ship to turn the
direction that she wanted. The small vessel picked up speed as they
moved out into the main body of the lake. Seranova continued
pulling different levers, which increased the resistance on the
pedals and in turn increased their speed.

As the two women pumped
their legs against the pedals, Ferrich crawled over every inch of
the boat, like a mouse that had just found a table full of food and
did not know what to inspect first. He climbed on top of the well
that covered the waterwheel, studying it from his precarious perch
with an intensity that made both she and Morindessa laugh.
Morindessa suggested that she pull the steering lever the other way
and see how well Ferrich swam. Ferrich was completely oblivious to
the two of them. Instead, he made his way down from the well and
over to the front of the vessel where a handle stuck out of the
deck. As he looked inside, his eyes widened at the complicated
series of gears, chains and pulleys rotating swiftly through the
underside of the deck.

"Be careful, Ferrich,"
Seranova warned. "You could lose a finger if it gets caught in the
gears."

Ferrich's head bobbed up
above the upraised decking that had been hiding it, with a startled
expression that made the two women laugh again. He had obviously
forgotten that anyone else was on board.

"Can he help in that seat?"
Morindessa asked, gesturing at the seat that was between
them.

Seranova shook her head.
"That is the seat I use when there is no one else to help." She
pointed at the lever that she had switched when they first boarded.
"It is set to either connect the middle seat to the gears, or the
two side seats, but not all three."

Morindessa nodded her
understanding. "Where did you learn how to make all of this?" she
asked with interest.

"I actually can't take all
of the credit for this invention," Seranova replied with a distant
look on her face. "My father had a friend that had stayed with us
for a couple of days once." Seranova remembered how interested the
man had been in all of her inventions, telling her how brilliant
she was. She had only been nineteen at the time and had flushed
with pleasure at the compliment. "I had been working on a vessel
that was much simpler than this at the time. When he saw it, he
showed me a small drawing of how gears and chains worked, and that
I could use my feet to propel it instead of my arms, leaving them
free to steer."