The Year of the Lumin (12 page)

Noir finished mending back together the damaged tissue and closing up the wound.  Then he released his lux for a moment to rest before he started on the other man.

The coughs of the second man willed him to start again.  Noir tried to embrace his lux to heal him.  For the first time in weeks, he was not able to grasp it.  It was as though the power slipped through his fingers.  He tried again and failed.

Noir knew that if he did not heal the man, he would get worse.  Without another Luxin nearby, he could possibly die.  Noir focused himself, gathered in all that Fafnir had taught him, and successfully embraced lux.

As Noir healed him, the effort to keep the power focused in the man's wound was a constant battle.  He could tell that it was the last bit of energy his body could put forth.  As soon as the tissue was mended and the wound closed up, Noir collapsed onto his face beside the two men on the ground.

Chapter 17

One of their own

              As Ratt watched his friend heal the two men, he noticed that it was getting easier to see what was going on.  The night was breaking and the slightest hint of blue could be seen in the sky. 

              He looked back at Noir.  He seemed to be having trouble keeping his balance while he knelt and worked.  “He looks even more tired than I thought.  Using lux really takes it out of him.”  With amazement at the craft, Ratt watched Noir work on the second man's punctures.  The row of claw piercings disappeared and the flesh healed to show only scars.  As soon as it sealed up, Noir wavered and then fell to the ground next to the man.

              “Noir!” Ratt yelled.  He and the other men ran to Noir immediately.

              One of the men jumped up from where he was sitting and said, “What happened?”

              The man with the pierced side that Noir had just healed placed a hand on Noir’s shoulder and lightly shook him.  “Is he alright?”

              Ratt turned Noir's body over so he was facing the sky.  His eyes were closed, but he could see his chest rising and falling.  “He must have passed out.  We had been traveling all day and night.  I guess healing took the last bit of energy from him.”

              The man who had been pierced by the stragh claws stood up, “We need to let the lad rest.”  He put his hand where the wounds had been.  “He did a great thing and we should protect him while he sleeps.”

              “I agree,” said the man with the thick accent.  “We should protect him until he wakes.”

              The five men quickly gathered pieces of cloth together from their belongings and made a rough bed for Noir.  The man who had his leg healed was still asleep.

              As the night sky lightened, the group took to hiding places to avoid being seen.  Several times they heard but did not see straghs near them, crunching almost silently through the forest.  But later, by the time the sun could be seen hitting the very tops of the trees, a group was heard and then soon seen stalking eerily through the trees toward them.

              As the straghs neared, Ratt could see it was a group of six or seven.  However, they looked different than the straghs they had previously seen.  These did not have the look of creatures who had not eaten in months.  Their bodies were oddly plump and swollen.  One soldier hissed, “They’ve fed.”  Ratt had heard about these creatures, how they fed, and what they fed on.  Ratt shivered.  Then they were close enough to Ratt's position that he could smell their stench.  It burned at his nostrils and he gripped his axe haft waiting for an opportunity to strike.

              Suddenly, wooden shafts stuck out from the straghs in multiple places.  They flailed about wildly and most of them fell.  The three that were left standing scrambled to turn and face a group of four men dressed in Talik armor charging for them.  On each man's back were a bow and a quiver of arrows.  They had their weapons drawn and raised as they ran toward the beasts.

These four men were not part of the group that was guarding Noir.  He watched as the straghs and men clashed together.  Piercing claws met iron shields.  Ratt decided that he couldn't let these men fight alone.  He stood up from his place and charged forward as well.

The other three armored men from Ratt’s group fell in behind him.  As Ratt raised his axe to strike at the back of one of the straghs, he noticed one of the four newcomers.  He was a large bearded man with a red and yellow sash over his shoulder.  Ratt was glad to see Captain Grandel.

The men made quick work out of the remaining straghs.  Grandel and his men fought with more grace than Ratt had ever seen.  These men truly were well-trained warriors.  After the straghs had fallen, Grandel stared at the creatures with a look of disgust… or was that a grimace of pity?

After the group cleaned off their weapons on the foliage around them, Captain Grandel approached Ratt’s group.  He greeted each one with a handshake and fond recognition.

When Grandel reached Ratt and studied his face, he did not recognize him at first.  But after a few moments the memory connected and he said, “You’re the young man who stole my horse.”  He said it not with anger.  “Adeel told me you stayed with Noir during his training.”  He looked around as he walked forward.  “Where is the lad?  Why is he not with you?”

Ratt answered, “He is resting from exhaustion.  We traveled all day and night to get here and it was too much for him.”

“What of his Luxin training?  We have heard no news of it.”

“He completed it.  Follow me and I’ll take you to him.”

Grandel’s spirits seemed to be lifted greatly when he heard that Noir had finished his training with Fafnir.  Ratt and the others led the captain to where Noir lay.

While looking at Noir, Grandel said to the group of men, “We should let him sleep.  We will greatly need his abilities soon.  For now, let us take a quick rest and plan our next actions.”  Grandel quickly gave orders to three of the men to take posts around the group to look for attackers.  They each immediately did what was asked and the rest sat down to meet.

Ratt tried his hardest to pay attention and give input where he thought it was relevant.  Despite his efforts, he had to repeatedly jerk his sagging head back into consciousness.  He had been up for more than 24 hours by that point.  Eventually, he nodded off with the talk of men thudding dully in his ears.  He was vaguely aware of his body being laid down on the flat ground.

~~~

The man wielded lux to hold his victim in place on the ground.  The only thing he did not hold still was the man's head and mouth.  He always took pleasure in what a man had to say when faced with imminent death.

“I don't understand,” the helpless warrior in Talik armor said.  “Why are you doing this?”

The man using lux chuckled as he removed the last piece of his armor and placed it on the restrained man.  “Why, you ask?” he said plainly.  “Why does anyone do anything?  Why did you serve Talik and that fool Grandel for so long?”  He stood back up, the last piece of the armor in place.

“I served Talik because I believe it is what is right.”  The man's words became frantic as he saw the dagger being drawn out.  “What does that have to do with anything?  I don't understand.  Why?!”

The dagger plunged down and found the man’s chest.

After the wheezes and grunts stopped, the man said with a laugh, “Why?”  He knelt down and whispered into the ear of the now lifeless body.  “Because that fool Grandel will pay tenfold for the thousands of lives he destroyed.”

He began the process of changing the corpse's image.  It was a talent he had with lux.  Most Luxins could do this over time with lots of effort if they ever tried, but he had a swiftness that was unrivaled.  When the job was nearly done, he heard the swift and barely audible plodding feet of approaching straghs.  They sounded like they were charging toward him in an attack.

“Those creatures can't tell me from one of
them,
” he thought as he saw the creatures crash out of the brush nearby.

The man quickly embraced the lux inside him.  He forced it into the air around each of the straghs’ hands.  Their bodies jerked bizarrely as their arms were held fast in place but their bodies continued forward.  Bones snapped from the force.  Then the man twisted the air around and drove the long black claws into their owners’ chests.  The straghs flailed for a moment, then hung limply in the air dangling from their lux-held wrists now buried deep into their own hearts.

The man sniffed, released his hold on the straghs, finished changing the appearance of the corpse, then calmly walked away from the scene.

~~~

Captain Grandel sat on a log and looked at the two sleeping boys.  It was the first time he had had a chance to sit and rest since his town was overrun.  He thought about all the lifeless faces of his friends that he had seen in the last two days.  He rigorously scrutinized his tactics and orders for any faults that could have led to this destruction.  Grandel had thought himself to be a very calculating, careful man, but there must have been faults to his carefully laid-out town.  Only a few hundred straghs had managed to decimate the town’s defenses.  He had to have been holes in his defense.

Unless Elrid and the others were right.  Unless there truly was a traitor in their midst.  Like hundreds of times before, he scanned through his memory of people in Talik for anything that seemed suspicious.  He could think of a short list of people who he didn’t know well or seemed strange for one reason or another, but nothing to warrant treachery.

Grandel shook his head.  It all had gone awry.  He had failed these people.  But he couldn’t give up.  He had to rebuild the town.  He couldn’t go back to either of the two kingdoms for hundreds of reasons.  These people had pledged themselves to him.  He, especially now, could not give up on them.  Wifes, brothers, sons, fathers, all dead because of him. 

It was like before.

Grandel gritted his teeth as his mind recalled all the atrocities he had done in the past.  He didn’t remember putting his hand in the pouch that held Kahmi’s gift.  He pulled out the small cloth-covered box and turned it over in his hands.  His love for Kahmi was peppered with uncertainty.  When it came time for them to escape and build the town that they had exhaustingly planned together, Kahmi had refused to go with him.

Before he left her, she had given him the small package wrapped in cloth and tied with a red string.  Kahmi had said that if he ever returned to her with the package still unopened, she would be waiting for him.  He wondered if he would ever get the chance to return.  Perhaps now that everything had failed....

He tossed the old thoughts away and said to himself, “I cannot return now, Kahmi.  I must first tend to my present failures here before returning to my old ones.”  He put the small box away in a small pouch where he always kept it safe.

“Captain Grandel,” said one of the Talik men.  He had not noticed the man come out of the forest around him.  “I was out scouting the area like you said and I found something you should see.”  He paused.  “You aren’t going to like it.”

“Do not speak in riddles.  Out with it.  What did you find?”

A short pause, then “We found Luxin Kit, sir.”

The Captain’s heart sank in his chest.  He knew exactly what the man meant by “found.”  Kit was a long-time ally of his.  Grandel saved him from becoming a slave when his town was destroyed.  Grandel was with Kit the day he left for training with Fafnir, and the day he came back.  He had witnessed his first healing and the first time he saved someone’s life by deflecting a deadly attack.

The captain pressed together his lips and fought off tears for his friend and ally.  It was one too many for Grandel to take in stride.  “Take me to him.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Grandel followed the man for a few minutes until he stopped and stood aside for his captain to pass.  Grandel walked forward and saw a sight that told an odd tale.  A man lay sprawled on the ground wearing the Luxin armor and cloak.  Grandel’s stomach turned as he saw Kit's frozen face.  Oddly, it was not of terror or pain, but of confusion.  A small pile of straghs was nearby, each with its own claws buried in its chests.

Grandel bent down to take a closer look at his friend.  A dagger stuck out of Kit's chest.  Grandel recognized the craftsmanship of the dagger as that of Gonn, Talik’s blacksmith.  Kit had a dagger sheath strapped to his belt, but the weapon was still there, so it wasn’t his.  Elrid was indeed right about there being a traitor.

Captain Grandel studied the scene for a while longer trying to gain more clues about who could have done such a thing.  He barely contained his emotions as he tried to imagine the last moments of his Ally's life.

Grandel wondered how much this traitor had to do with the attack on Talik.  It seemed like this traitor could use lux, though he knew of none other than Adeel, Noir and Kit in the town.  He also realized the possibility that neither Chiron nor Tier spearheaded the attack since neither kingdom openly used straghs.  Many puzzles were now laid out for Grandel to analyze.

Grandel painfully closed the eyelids of his friend and asked the man who had led him there to prepare the body for burial and take it back to where the rest of the men were.  He stood up and walked away from another body of a fallen friend.