Vibrations: Harmonic Magic Book 1 (33 page)

“You feel it,” Rindu said. It was not a question.

Shaking his head, emerging from his reverie, Sam turned to see that the Zouy was standing right next to him. He hadn’t heard the monk approach, again. “Pardon me?”

“You feel it,” Rindu repeated.

“Feel what, exactly?”

“The energy. The balance. The peace and comfort. You feel the peculiar calmness of the
rohw
in this area. Is this not true?”

Sam paused before answering. He did feel something. Wasn’t he just thinking about it, thinking that this felt like it should be his home? “I feel something, like I belong here.”

“Perhaps you do, Sam. Perhaps you do. I have spoken to Dr. Walt and asked for a half an hour before we go to the town. I would like you to meditate here with me, explore the unique energy signature of this place. It may be…enlightening.”

The two sat down with their legs crossed in front of them, as always, knees almost touching. Rindu said softly, “I would like you to empty your mind and allow the energy to simply do what it will. Allow yourself to enter the
khulim
and then experience whatever it is that the
rohw
has in store for you.”

Sam opened one eye, having closed both as he started controlling his breathing. “You sound like you’re saying the
rohw
is alive.”

“The
rohw
is the very thing that makes us, and all else, alive. It is not alive in the sense that it moves around with a particular purpose or that it decides to do something and then does it, but the
rohw
is
life, Sam. A master attempts to understand it as husband does his wife. If he understands her and acts according to her disposition, then his life is happy because his wife is happy. If, on the other hand, the man does whatever he wishes, not taking into account the desires of his wife, then his life will be…unbalanced.”

Sam opened his other eye, both going wide. “Rindu, that was…that was a wonderful analogy. That one is a definite keeper.”

The Zouy’s lips twitched into a momentary smile.
Well, it was a very good analogy.

I agree,
Skitter pushed into his mind.
Even I know that most of his parables are difficult to understand or are just plain crude.

Enough from you for right now. I have to concentrate. On nothing.

“I understand,” Sam said aloud to Rindu. Closing his eyes again, he regulated his breathing and brought himself to the edge of going into a trance.

Sam felt his world swirl, threatening nausea, but then it snapped into focus in his mind. He was standing on something, but inky darkness surrounded him and he could see nothing, no matter which way he looked.

Suddenly, his world swirled again. Feeling disoriented and dizzy, he clenched his muscles and waited for the feeling to subside. Soon, it settled and Sam could see a soft glow coming from his left side. Turning, he watched as a thick rope of light pulsed and gyrated. Not knowing exactly how he did it, he moved toward the rope. His feet didn’t move and he had no other sense of motion other than the rope of light getting larger and brighter. He wondered if he was really moving toward it or he was causing it to move toward him.

As the size of the glowing object increased, Sam changed his mind about what it looked like. It wasn’t a rope, but a pillar of some kind. Except that pillars didn’t twist and move like this one did. The gentle green glow was brighter, but not bright enough to hurt his eyes, even after being in the total darkness just a moment before.

Tentatively, Sam reached out and tried to touch the object, which was now big enough that it dwarfed him. His hand passed through. Oddly, though his hand passed through without him feeling anything with his sense of touch, he did feel something in his body react to the object, a peace or calmness that pervaded his entire body. He still wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it was alluring.

Taking a breath—if he could actually take a breath in this place within his mind, a place in which he really had no body—he stepped inside the pillar. His vision was flooded with light so that he couldn’t see for a moment. While it drowned out everything else in his vision, it still didn’t hurt his eyes. Maybe it was because he didn’t really have eyes in this place.

When the moment passed and he could see again, he saw himself sitting there in front of him, Rindu facing him and both men breathing rhythmically. He saw a soft glow coming from himself, though it was a yellow-white glow in contrast with the background of soft green. Rindu also glowed, but much more brightly.

The men were not the most interesting part, however. As he looked around, Sam could see that other things glowed as well. Small animals scurrying around in the bushes faintly glowed. Nearby trees and vegetation were also nascent. It was surprising to Sam that much of the foliage glowed a little more brightly than the animals. He saw Dr. Walt and Nalia off to the side, chatting, the former glowing gently and the latter more powerfully. As he looked at her, she stopped, cocked her head, and then looked directly at him. Not him seated on the ground, but him who was watching. He moved several feet away and watched as her head swiveled to follow him. Then, shaking her head slightly, she resumed her conversation with the doctor.

The most interesting thing of all, though, was only revealed when Sam looked more carefully. When he looked deeper, beyond the individual illuminations of each of the living things around him, he saw faint lines. Concentrating on them, they resolved. He was seeing lines of energy criss-crossing in front of him and as far as he could look in all directions. Ley lines. Though they were all straight, they also seemed to curve around the area in which his body sat. It was like the optical illusion he had seen once, made completely of straight lines that nevertheless seemed to curve.

As he studied them more carefully, he realized that the area around them was a convergence point of many sets of lines, all mingling and coming into perfect harmony. He wondered if that was what caused the feeling of balance he had felt.

Motion just ahead and to his right made Sam look toward that direction. As he did, he saw Rindu’s eyes snap open and look directly at him. Then the world lurched and Sam felt like he was falling.

With a start, Sam landed roughly in his body. At least, that was what it felt like. He opened his eyes and had to purposely adjust his vision until he could focus on Rindu’s face, not two feet in front of him. The Zouy had his little smirk/smile on his face.

“Ah, I see that you have seen,” he said.

Sam, still disoriented, only nodded.

“You saw the ley lines? The convergence?”

Sam cleared his throat. “I did. What is this place? Why did I see that? I never did before.”

“This place is a vortex, a meeting of the ley lines. The simple reason you have not seen it before is that you had not developed your sensitivity to the extent necessary to do so. Soon, you will be able to see ley lines without the
khulim
.”

“I saw all living things glowing, but the glow of the trees was more powerful than most of the animals. Why is that?”

The Zouy regarded him. “Why do you think?”

Sam ran his fingers through his hair.
I really need a haircut.
“I don’t know. Is it because they’re naturally more in balance, at peace?”

“Very good. Yes, there is great power in trees and plants. They are unhindered by conscious thought and so are more fully able to stay in balance with the universal
rohw
. Animals, thinking of eating or not being eaten, are more distracted. Trees may become concerned if they do not have water, but they do not worry overmuch.”

“Not overmuch? Are you saying that they think or worry at all?”

“Oh, they sense things and think to a certain extent, but theirs is a different type of thought and sense. Suffice it to say that all living things use the
rohw
to one degree or another and all are worthy of life and respect. We will discuss it more another time. For now, Dr. Walt has been generous and patient and it would be good if we acquiesced to his desires and move on to Greenfeld.”

“Thank you, Master Rindu. That was…enlightening.”

“As I promised it would be.”

While checking the packs strapped to the rakkeben, Sam glanced sideways at Nalia, catching her looking at him quizzically. He thought he got the sense she was looking quizzically, anyway, though with the mask firmly in place, he couldn’t be sure. She gave him a little wave as she mounted her rakkeban. He wondered at his friend once again. Had she actually seen his incorporeal form? Just when he thought he had finally figured her out, she surprised him again. Smiling at her, he waved back, got on Shonyb, and headed off toward Greenfeld.

36

As they topped another small hill, Sam got his first real look at the town of Greenfeld. It was unlike any of the other groups of structures he had seen so far in this world. The houses were loosely scattered and most had small plots of farmed land around them. It looked like the small farms had been shaken in a giant cup and rolled out along the countryside. On the hills or between them, the community spread leisurely throughout the area, which was a valley sheltered in the cradle of high mountains to the East and lower, but still formidable, mountains on all other sides.

The houses themselves were interesting as well. Because of the plentiful source of lumber, no doubt, all the houses he could see were made of wood. They were mostly of the A-frame variety, with sharply pitched roofs that made Sam think that they had heavy snows during the winter. The wide homes looked comfortable and homey, especially with the chimney smoke drifting up from half of them and swirling softly into the sky. It was what Sam would have expected the town to look like, for some reason. It just seemed to reflect the peace he felt from the area. He decided he liked Greenfeld.

Dr. Walt came up beside him. “Do you like this area, Sam?”

“Yes, very much so. It is comfortable here.”

“I always thought so. I have been here several times. In fact, I stayed here for several months whilst excavating some ruins just off to the West there.” He pointed toward a cleft in between two mountains. Then, he pointed East toward the larger mountains. “That mountain range is called the Greenclaw Range, for obvious reasons.” Sam noticed that the mountains were sharp and slightly curved, like claws. “That range extends all the way up into what is Washington State in our world. But then again, I suppose you know that if you are familiar with geography in Telani.”

“It’s beautiful here, like in our world, but I think it’s even more beautiful here than home because there are no freeways or cars or any of the ugly buildings that can mar the landscape. These buildings seem to be part of the area, not just there in defiance of the land.”

“Aptly put, my boy. Rustic and beautiful. Exactly.”

They reached the outskirts of town and Sam saw that there were other, more functional buildings lining the main street. The roofs were still sharply pitched, but the buildings were more closely spaced and not as wide as the farmhouses. Many were three stories tall, no doubt to take advantage of the prime space in the town proper. “Dr. Walt, why did we bring the rakkeben into town this time when we have left them outside of town with the other places we have visited?”

Rindu answered for the doctor. “Rakkeben are a more common sight further north. There is a large community not too far north of here, at Wolf’s Run, and there is a breeding industry between here and there. For those with the money, and the disposition which allows the rakkeben to choose them, it is not unheard of for others to bond mounts.”

Nalia dismounted and stepped up to Sam. “And with the heart of the Sapsyra at Marybador not too many miles to the Northeast, most people here have probably seen riders at one time or another, though the Sapsyra are no more.” That last part was said as barely a whisper, as if she had run out of breath to form the words.

Before Sam could respond, Rindu took up Nalia’s hand and squeezed it consolingly. “The Sapsyra will never be gone as long as you remain,
Iba
. With the Sapsyra as with the Zouyim, we carry the honor of our people. They shall rise again.”

Nalia visibly relaxed. “It will be so, father. It will be so.”

As they prepared to enter the provisioner’s shop, Sam noticed for the first time groups of men clustered further down the street. Because the shop was one of the first buildings they came to, they had not, as yet, passed by any of the groups. The men looked suspiciously like soldiers, though they were dressed in disparate styles. He was not happy to see that they had been noticed by one of the groups, the evident leader of which was stomping his way toward them.

Sam nudged Rindu with his elbow and jerked his head toward the quickly approaching man. Rindu whispered something to Dr. Walt, whose face suddenly went pale. “Do not speak,” Rindu told Sam. “With your accent, we will get even more undesired attention than we have already received.”

The man ground to a halt in front of them, four other men just behind him, all with weapons that had seen obvious use. They moved and handled them with the familiarity of men who had spent time with those weapons.
Yes, definitely soldiers
.