Phoenix Rising (52 page)

With Poplock’s help, the four of them soon assembled a feast on Thornfalcon’s kitchen counters and the three humans sat at a small table near the counter, while the little Toad continued his exploration and accounting of the useful materials available in the house. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be listening to you. I’ve got good hearing.”

“How in Terian’s name did you
find
us?” Tobimar asked Xavier.

“Well,” Xavier said, studying the assorted foods as though intimidated by the choices, “I’d been told I had to find you quick, and so when I came to that one village I was going to ask about where to go. And so I hear this guy getting on his horse, saying ‘That Adventurer says Thornfalcon may be in trouble.’

“So I remembered that you guys were officially ‘Adventurers’ and asked him quick if it was you, and he said yes and said you’d gone off to help Thornfalcon. He then rode off to warn people, he said, but he’d pointed off to the south so I started running in that direction.”

“But I was
down
that path,” Kyri said, puzzled. “Without directions you just
couldn’t
have found the right one.”

“You’re probably right,” Xavier said with a grin, taking a leg from a roast brushhen, “but once you guys started fighting this Thornfalcon guy? Lights
all
over. It was like following a lightning storm that sat in one place. The lights went down for a while, but by then I had a line on the direction, and by the time you started in on the monsters I could
hear
you.”

“Good luck for us,” Tobimar said, and Kyri nodded her agreement.

She looked over at Tobimar.
This Xavier’s a different matter, I think, but . . .
“So,” she said, cutting a slice of coilserpent, “did Toron send you after me?”

“No,” Tobimar answered, filling his own plate, “King Toron didn’t mention you d—”

“
King
Toron?”

He blinked in surprise, then closed his eyes as though realizing something painful. “Oh, Terian and Chromaias. You don’t
know
.”

“Know
what?”

He sighed, “The news will only just be getting here anyway. I have no idea how you got here so fast—I saw you the day I had my first audience with the King. If you’d stayed just a few more days—”

“I had . . . reasons to move as fast as I could. And I got lucky, met an old man along the way who—”

“Had a funny five-sided hat,” the Toad and Xavier said at the exact same time. Poplock’s voice was slightly muffled, as it was coming from one of the cupboards.

Kyri stared in that direction. “How did you know?”

“Khoros,” sighed Tobimar.

“Who is this ‘Khoros’?”

“Look, we need to all figure out what’s going on here,” Poplock said. “Tobimar, you tell her your story, I’ll tell mine, Xavier tells his, and she tells hers.
Then
if we have any questions left, we ask them.”

The black-haired Skysand Prince grinned. “Oh, I’m
sure
we’ll have questions left. But you’re right, we should stop asking random questions and getting confused.” He bowed across the table to Kyri, then looked abstracted for a moment, as though trying to put his thoughts in order. Finally he began speaking.

“I am the Seventh of Seven—the Seventh child of my mother, the Lord of Waters, ruler of Skysand, as she was the Seventh child of her mother. In the normal way of things, I would have lived there and become a ruler in my own right—likely of one of the Seven Cities, or—perhaps—become Lord of Waters myself, if my siblings had died or chose not to take the burden, or my mother chose me above them.

“But we have an ancient history, and a tradition that goes beyond family or rulership . . .”

As he talked, Kyri began to get an impression of the young man before her, and found herself slightly intimidated.
I spent most of my time waiting for other people to save my world. He was exiled to gain the chance of saving his people . . . more than four years ago. He’s been travelling and adventuring all that time, and I’ve just been praying and studying.

A new horror came over her as she heard of the disasters that had befallen Zarathan, one after the other, after she left; the death of the King, the slaughter of the
Artan
and others of the Forest Sea, attacks on others . . .
And if this is all connected . . . Myrionar, what is
happening
to the world?

At one point, Tobimar broke off—it was while he was describing his first sudden confrontation with Xavier—and stared at her in a way that made her near to blushing. “What?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Tobimar looked embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to stare, but . . . your eyes. They’re just about exactly like Xavier’s. I’ve never seen that precise shade of gray, and it’s also their size, the intensity . . . Really, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear you had to be related.”

Suddenly she remembered that day, as they were approaching Zarathanton. “By the . . . I think I actually
saw
those five! A tall blond boy, two dark-haired boys, and two girls, all strikingly beautiful, and . . . yes, it
was
you, Xavier! I remember, because you looked so much like my sister Urelle.”

“I look like your
sister
?” Xavier echoed. “Well . . . I hope that’s good. I admit . . . we do look kinda alike. But given that we’re from different
planets
I doubt we’re actually related.”

“Urelle?” Poplock’s voice came from another room, over the sound of clinking—something small sorting through heavy silverware, she suspected. “Isn’t your middle name—?”

“Uriel,” Xavier said slowly. “That’s . . . pretty weird.” He suddenly glanced up. “Hey, I remember now! I saw
you
and . . . what, your mom, maybe? Leaving the Castle, right before we went in!”

Kyri felt a pang from Xavier’s innocent mistake, but smiled. “That was my aunt, but yes, I was there.”

Tobimar looked at the two of them again, obviously still struck by the similarities, then shrugged. “Another piece of a puzzle that we can’t quite fit into the picture . . . yet. Anyway, let me go on . . .”

They had finished their meal by the time Tobimar was done; Poplock then came in to give his summary, and rest after what was obviously strenuous work. Kyri didn’t feel entirely comfortable with the looting, so she didn’t watch or inquire much. She knew the discomfort was silly; anything valuable Thornfalcon had should be used against the false Justiciars, or destroyed so
they
couldn’t use it. Still, the sound of someone cheerfully breaking open cabinets to root around inside and find whatever caught their fancy . . .

In some ways, Poplock’s story was even more startling than Tobimar’s. The idea of that minuscule Toad somehow disrupting the plans of a great demonlord, of destroying an entire hidden enclave of
mazakh
and worse, and rescuing Tobimar from certain death some years later, was both comical and sobering. But she’d seen all too clearly just how dangerous Poplock could be.

“And so we came in and found out Thorny wasn’t nearly as nice a guy as he should have been, and kept him busy long enough for you to join us.” Poplock finished. “So that’s about it for me. Your turn, Xavier.”

She realized quickly that his was the strangest tale of all, and one that she wasn’t going to understand in full for a long time. But the important points of his venture—the pain of losing a beloved brother, grief and vengeance, a second chance granted, these she understood and empathized with so strongly it ached within her.

It also sent a chill down her spine.
There are far too many similarities here. Is that the doing of this Khoros? Or someone or something else? A force we haven’t yet heard of?

But Xavier continued his story—which of course dovetailed at times with Tobimar’s, but then split off. “Then I got to the Broken Hills like you said”—he nodded to Tobimar—“and started looking. Of course, that little mountain range isn’t so little up close, and I was afraid I wasn’t going to find anything. I mean, at least this Idinus guy has a known address.” He grinned, but his face was . . . tense, and the grin faded.

“What’s wrong, Xavier?” Tobimar asked. “You didn’t find him?”

“Oh, no, I found him all right. Well, I
think
it was him, even though it was a her when I met him. If that makes any sense?”

Tobimar nodded slowly, and so did Kyri. Kyri said, “In the legends, the Wanderer wears many faces. He’s been old and young, man or woman,
Artan
and human and Child of Odin, wizard and warrior and sage. So yes, it makes sense. He’s definitely a
man
, but he can assume many forms and will take those, and other names, when it suits his purpose.”

“Okay. Well, she never
said
she was the Wanderer, but she kinda implied it.” A shadow passed over his face again. “I can’t . . . talk about everything she said. Some of it’s personal to me, other parts are just for the others in my group. Anyway, after we were done talking, she told me that I needed to hurry, that you would need me soon. And she gestured and
poof!
, there I was at the near end of the Broken Hills.

“So I made my way towards Evanwyl, got into that town—Gharis?—yeah, Gharis, and you know the rest.”

Kyri smiled, then became more solemn. “Mine’s not quite as travelled a narration, I suppose, but there’s a lot to tell you. For me . . . for me it started when my parents died . . .”

She was aware of Tobimar’s eyes on her, and those of Xavier, and there was warmth and sympathy there that she knew was not feigned. After learning the Justiciars were corrupt, she’d wondered if she would ever truly be able to trust again, and known that just the thought was a dangerous one; someone who could have no trust would never know true justice. But she could sense that Tobimar was telling her the truth, that Xavier was as honest as she, and without them and their strange companion Poplock she would already be dead. And she remembered Aunt Victoria’s words: “. . .
you will perhaps find the allies you need
. . .”

“. . . and I grabbed my Raiment and put it on, getting outside just in time to keep Thornfalcon from finishing you off,” she concluded. “So Justice was balanced in the moment of our meeting; we saved each other from the same threat.” She looked over at Xavier. “And then you saved us both, and together we finished the job. So once more, Justice was balanced in that moment.”

Tobimar laughed and pushed away from the table. “Yes, I guess that’s so!” He stood up, looking around.

“But these attacks you’ve described, and your quest . . . I agree with you. There must be some connection. Thornfalcon, these false Justiciars, Myrionar’s silence, the assassination of the King,” she stumbled over that, the idea that such a thing—which had not happened since perhaps the Fall itself—could have been accomplished, “. . . the attacks on the Great Forest and even Artania itself . . . and the five people from your world, Xavier, and this Khoros.”

“I think he’s trying to fight against whatever’s in charge of these attacks,” Xavier said. “I don’t
like
him—even less, the more I’ve learned about him—but he’s on the side of the angels, I think.”

“Probably.” Kyri thought for a moment. “The name is vaguely familiar. But why would Toron not
tell
you about me?”

“Yeah,” Xavier said. “That’s really bugging me, too. If he’d told us at the right time, heck, we might all have been going together.”

“Except,” Kyri said slowly, “you couldn’t have caught up with me even if you’d known right away. Because Khoros himself made sure of that.”

Tobimar frowned. “That’s true. But let’s think about it from Toron’s point of view. He said that he was doing his best to also guess what Khoros wanted us to know and not know. If he was right, then there must be some advantage to us not knowing.”

“Well, let’s look at that,” Poplock said. “If we’d known, we would’ve come up here knowing the Justiciars were bad. We’d have been weeks . . . no, still
months
, behind you, too. Knowing they were bad, we wouldn’t have gone over to contract with them, so we wouldn’t have gotten into the Temple and gotten their info.” He looked over at Xavier. “You’d probably have stuck with us. Maybe wouldn’t have met the Wanderer, or not until a lot later. Maybe we’d have gotten into a fight with one of these Justiciars by ourselves and gotten killed. Or we’d have been more careful sneaking around, and we wouldn’t have been hot on Phoenix’s trail, so we wouldn’t have shown up in time to save her.”

“And right now the Justiciars think you’re on their side . . . or at least a dupe for them,” Kyri said slowly. “We might be able to use that.”

“And
,” Xavier said with a surprised grin, “none of them know
anything
about me. As far as your enemies are concerned, I don’t exist. And while I’m going to have to get going
pretty
soon,” he continued, “I’m not just bailing on you until I know this whole situation’s under control.”

Tobimar suddenly laughed. “And we’re sitting here talking it all out without any reluctance. Don’t you see how hard that would’ve been?”

Kyri blinked.
Of course
. “Even if I’d somehow beat Thornfalcon on my own, assuming I’d lived . . . I’m working alone. I have to be wisdom and caution as well as Justice and Mercy, and a battle with Thornfalcon would have made me terribly cautious. If you showed up claiming to be willing to help me, I’d have had to be even more careful. I’d have to spend days, maybe weeks, figuring out if I could trust you, or if you were part of the enemy’s deeper game.”

“Well, we
could
still be, I guess.” Poplock said, voice echoing hollowly from upstairs.

“Anything’s possible,” Kyri admitted with a grin, “but Thornfalcon didn’t expect an interruption, and certainly didn’t expect to lose his head. And no one making up a story would
ever
have come up with
yours
, Xavier.”

“Heh. No argument there.
I
don’t believe this story sometimes, and I’m
it
.”

Tobimar nodded, and seemed about to answer, then glanced out the window and started. “By the Seven . . . I think I’m starting to see some light out there. We need to go. There’s still so much for us to talk about, and decisions to make . . . but not here, I think.”