The Legendary Warrior (Book 5) (9 page)

“I’ve gotten better,” he said with a wink, and she had to loo
k away from him to not burst out laughing again.

“You know, it’s good to hear you bouncing the belly again. Been a while.”

“Bouncing the belly?”

“You know, skipping rocks across the lake? Crunching the abs?
Laughing?
”

“Oh,” she chuckled. “I didn’t know it was noticeable.”

“Very. You lost some light in your eyes since James left the group.”

“I’m trying to figure out a way to get him back sooner.”

“Only way to do that is to take Lakrymos off the throne, and that won’t be easy. Facing him head on won’t work.”

“We have to outsmart him,” she said, frowning. “But how?”

“Don’t know. But that’s why we’re here, isn’t it?”

“It is,” she said, watching the people debate. “What do you think their defenses are?”

“Is that the kind of conversation we should be having on their doorstep?”

“Humor me.”

“They have strange devices,” he said, following her gaze. “Part of their defense has to be deception. Having an open area like this when Languor and Allay both have tall walls…it would make me think twice before I came here. I would want to know more.”

“I know they have ways to watch for intruders, but that still doesn’t stop an attack.”

“It’s not their words, that’s for sure.”

“We gav
e the stone to Prattle. Do you think that’s what’s making them so secure?”

“They would have to be doing a lot of experimenting to reach that level of comfort, especially with this Yama threat looming.”

“We didn’t realize the extent of manifestations until Thorn came along. I can only imagine how long it took for him to train his body to handle that many manifestations all at once. He must have devoted himself entirely into creating a soulless army rather than improve his skills with the eidolon.”

“The manifestations are more dangerous if done right.”

“Maybe the Prattlians are doing the same. Think about it. Thorn was able to create an ether that could capture the souls of others. Those Reds, dragons, stone giants…they all came from him alone, and he wasn’t even the most intelligent in the world. Can you imagine if the Prattlians have come together and analyzed it in depth? Now that they know of the power it can give another?”

“But we all have that power. The stone just gets us started. It’s up to us how far we go…provided we live long enough.”

“There may be more secrets to discover,” she said, leaning onto her knees, her feet stepping on the underside of her dress. “And if anyone can discover them, it is the Prattlians.”

“You’re not thinking of imprisoning them now, are you?”

“No,” she said solemnly. “But it does make me wonder. What if the weapon we need to defeat Lakrymos lies in the stone? Remember what Kyran told us. Thorn said he achieved his level of power through a relationship with the stone. I’ve felt its power when one was attached to my heart. It hummed, and if I wasn’t so distracted by our extinction, I would have delved more into the possibility of it being
alive.
I think it’s time we study the stones more in depth while we have the time.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?”

“We can start right now,” she said, standing to her feet. Zhou followed suit—but a lot slower. Catherine scanned the people around her and then she decided on a group of four, sitting idly in a small patch of grass. Zhou jumped behind her, and they both landed on the miniature meadow. The Prattlians looked up at them with puzzled looks on their faces.

“Isn’t…” one of the women began. “I know your face. There is familiarity beyond the dirt.”

“I’m Catherine,” she said proudly, giving each of them a smile. Zhou kept a hand at his side, ready to unleash his eidolon at a moment’s notice.

“The Queen?” the woman exclaimed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Languor.”

“I’ve come for answers.”

“Concerning?” a middle aged man replied, adjusting his shirt so that it wasn’t lopsided on one shoulder.

“The stones of power. I would like to learn more about them.”

“You had one in your chest,” a lanky teenager replied. “You should more than us. We can only speculate.”

“We should be the one asking the questions,” a bulky middle aged man with greying hair replied. “And the question on all of our minds is how dangerous it is for you to be here. Doesn’t Lakrymos want your head?”

“We can’t go back to Allay,” Zhou replied. “But we are free to travel to the other Kingdoms.”

“It’s still unsettling,” the teenager replied.

“My name is Marie,” the middle-aged woman said, nodding toward the former Queen and then her bodyguard. “I can be of assistance.”

“Why would you help them?” the teenager asked, but the bulky man shushed him.

“If Marie wants to entertain the travelers, she can,” the bulky man replied. “We trust her judgment, remember?”

“Says you,” the teenager muttered.

“Nice to meet you, Marie,” Catherine bowed. She motioned toward the grass. “May I?”

“Certainly,” Marie replied, and Catherine and Zhou sat down in the grass. Zhou yawned and stretched his arms out. He gave the group a weak smile and blinked at them lazily.

“What would you like to kn
ow about the stones?” Marie asked. “And before we give you our take on that matter, remember that we don’t actually know for sure if the information we believe in is accurate. It is merely conjecture.”

“I understand,” Catherine said, leaning forward. “But I think you might have more insight into them than you think. The
Prattlians may debate a lot, but they are also known for their stories and oral traditions. I’m sure a lot of history and facts are mixed in the speculation among your people. Is there anything you know about the stones before Thorn? We all know that he was the King of Old that found all five originally. But what I don’t understand is how another set of stones resurfaced once the first set was destroyed. Does this mean there were other sets before Thorn as well?”

“Catherine…” Zhou began, but Marie held up a hand to silence him.

“My apologies,” she said to him, “but there is no reason to be secretive. The Prattlian people already know about the second set of stones. Tyuin hasn’t told us, but there is little that we cannot figure out, especially of matters within our own Kingdom. Tyuin now has a stone in his grasp when we know for a fact that the five were destroyed, so what does that tell us?”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Catherine winced, looking at Zhou. Zhou rolled his eyes.

“Might as well continue then,” Zhou sighed.

“Yes,” Catherine said. “As I was saying, I would like to know about the stones.”

“Are you
trying
to keep us here all day?” the plain looking, middle aged man said. “Do you know how long we’re going to be sitting here now?”

“I understand if you have somewhere to be,” Catherine winced. “I don’t mean to keep you.”

“I’m out,” the lanky teenager said, standing to his feet. “My mom will wonder why I didn’t leave from the beginning if I stay. Some debates transcend curfews. This is not one of them.”

“Same,” the plain middle aged man replied. “In this case, I need my rest. I’m already tired as it is. But I hope you enjoy the conversation, Your Highness. You are in good hands.”

Catherine began to say bye, but the two leaped off the platform and were on their way. The bulky middle aged man laughed and nodded her way.

“My name is Winnie. Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Catherine said, rubbing her arm. “You have nowhere to be?”

“Oh, I like watching Marie work.
Once she gets started, she will debate you into the ground.”

“But this isn’t a debate.”

“For now it isn’t,” he said. “You just wait.”

“Excuse me,” Marie said, as she adjusted her seat to get more comfortable. She
took her long fine brown hair the length of her body, wrapped it into a ball, and then placed it under her butt. Catherine’s eyes eyebrows shot straight up.

“That’s a lot of hair,” she said. Marie laughed and folded her hands together.

“It’s a declaration of my wisdom. The longer the hair, the wiser the Prattlian.”

“Is that true?”

“No,” she said, and Catherine laughed with her. “But in all seriousness, the stones of power is a topic that we Prattlians like to refer to as “anathema.” While it is not necessarily taboo, what it means to us is that a debate will follow in which there is no end, and no clear winner since there is not enough evidence to support either side. The information we got about the stones from Thorn’s defeat only fueled this topic, and so many of us are exhausted from discussing it. Still, it is one of those matters that needs to be addressed from time to time, for it still a great mystery.”

“So what do you think about them?”

“Much of the stones’ history is based on oral tradition so there’s no way to confirm its authenticity, but I believe that if there are many renditions of a particular story, there are facts hidden between the lines. Usually these facts are the snippets that never change within the context of the story, no matter who is telling it. These particular snippets somehow transcend the orator’s bias, beliefs, and knowledge on the subject. In the case of the stones, every Prattlian agrees that if there were a set of stones prior to the ones Thorn found, no one has heard anything about them, so we can assume that the set Thorn found was the first.”

“
Then how did the second set appear?”

“There are a few theories. Some say the Maker. Others say the Dark One. A few believe they are created by someone across the seas like the Yama. A very few think that the stones are a race unto themselves. But regardless of the theory, all of us believe that the stones are alive. Sentient? I’m not sure. But alive? Very much so.”

“And what does that mean? If the stones are alive?”

“It would complicate things. Because the next questions are: why are they here? And why did they reappear? Are the
y the exact same stones as before? Or different ones, like individuals? Are they being controlled by someone, or did they come on their own? It’s a lot simpler if they were dead. Then I would say that they are being used for a purpose. But if they are alive? Who knows what is going on.”

“Is there a way to find out?”

“Of course,” Marie said, tapping her chest. “You can ask one. You might have to give up your life to do so though.”

“And I’m supposed to believe that a
Prattlian has never tried asking?”

“Well, in the past, we thought the stones were merely weapons, then
they were our only means of survival. They were exclusively held by the royalty as well, but…I think the main thing to realize is that we love to talk and debate with others above anything else. And that’s something we just can’t do if we’re dead.”

“Welcome back from the long weekend,” Orchid said, as the students sat down in unison. Orchid scanned the room and the students glanced at one another. Finally, her eyes set down upon Bastion, and he squirmed in his fragile wooden desk. It creaked and groaned as he fidgeted, and Orchid gave him a curt smile, raising her eyes to that of an “I’m superior” level. The students folded their hands and watched as she walked back and forth.

“I’m sure that many of you are wondering what happened in Training Room D.” No one dared to murmur, unless they wanted a sword thrust into their side. Orchid waited for someone to make a sound, and when no one did, she continued her speech with disappointment. “Our King
Lakrymos was training in private when a Yama assassin attempted to take his life.”

The student body nearly imploded, fighting back the urge to say something. A Yama? An actual Yama? In Allay?

“He was able to destroy the intruder,” she continued, “but he has gone off on a mission of his own choosing now. Fearing that the Yama have reached our shores, he is scouting out their army and then he will return with a full report. In the meantime, I ask that you keep this matter between yourselves and within the walls of the Sage Academy. Do not say a word to the villagers or you will be executed on the spot. We need them clear headed and making our supplies. We cannot halt production. However, if you happen to see a Yama within the village or the Academy, make sure that you tell one of the Sage officers or myself immediately. DO NOT ENGAGE IT.”

“What do they look like?” a curly headed boy asked, and in the next second he screamed. Orchid had appeared at his side and plunged one of her eidolon daggers into his side. She removed the blade and ki
cked him over with his desk. He cried out and she spat on him.

“Get out of my class,” she said to him, and he crawled away, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. The rest of the students did their best to face forward and remain as still as possible. Orchid wiped the boy’s blood off her dagger by using the shirt of the girl on her left, and then she sheathed the dagger and went back to the front of the room.

“The Yama are hideous,” she said. “You will know what they are the moment you see them. But what they look like doesn’t matter. What they can do is all you should be concerned about. Their devices are more advanced than the Prattlians. Their strength greater than the Sages, and they are coming to take us all as slaves. Do not let that happen. Understand?”

The classroom remained still.

“UNDERSTOOD?!” she shrieked in her little voice. A girl said yes, and in the next second, she screamed. Bastion didn’t bother looking behind him. The moment Orchid disappeared from the front of the room, he knew what had happened.

“GET OUT!” he heard Orchid shriek, and the girl moaned as she wobbled away, banging into the wall on the way out. “As a matter of fact, all of you get out! NOW! BEFORE I CLAIM ANOTHER VICTIM!”

The students couldn’t get out fast enough. Bastion made sure he was near the front of the pack, pushing a few of his classmates out of the way in the process. Orchid had a big reason to come after him—more so than the others.

“Surprise!” Daisy shouted, appearing in front of him. She jumped up and down, but he quickly grabbed her wrists and led her away.

“We have to get further away from here. Orchid is in one of her moods.”

“What happened in there?” she whispered, and he moved her along.

“Too many interruptions while she was talking.”

“She does the same thing in my evening class. But more importantly, are you okay? Does she know?”

“She does,” Bastion whispered. “But she’s keeping me alive for now. She needs me for the war.”

“Lucky you.”

“Right. Hey, where’s Kent?”

“SURPRISE!” Kent shouted, bursting out of one of the training rooms. Bastion fell backwards into the side wall and slumped to the floor, clutching his chest.

“You can’t be doing that right now!” Bastion yelled at him. “I’m on edge.”

“I was going to yell it regardless,” he said casually. “But that
was
perfect timing. I have to admit. Hey, aren’t you going to ask why we’re yelling ‘surprise?’”

“I. Don’t. Care.”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” Kent said, grabbing Bastion’s shirt collar and lifting him to his feet with his massive grip. “We’re here to cheer you up, in light of recent events.”

“It’s a surprise birthday party!” Daisy shouted, patting him on the back.

“It’s not my birthday,” Bastion muttered.

“Yeah, we figured that,” Kent replied. “But
we tested the odds.”

“Why would you do that? I could just tell you the day.”

“Doesn’t matter. Today will be your birthday in our minds. Besides, you might even survive until your next one. Every day is a gift.”

“Who taught you that phrase?” Bastion grimaced.

“You were muttering it in your sleep last night,” Kent laughed. “Nah, I’m kidding. But seriously, you could die at any moment. Let’s celebrate.”

“Why don’t we think happy thoughts and wait until the
real
day?”

“Nope. We prepared for today. It’s waiting for you in the dorm room.”

“Are there going to be other people there?”

“Would you want that?” Daisy asked, and Bastion sighed.

“I don’t know. You’re the ones throwing the party.”

“Okay, it’s more like a private, just the three of us
kind of party. And there’s no cake. No…no cake,” her voice trailed off in sadness. “But!” she perked up. “I got your favorite! Terr meat.”

“Yum,” Bastion muttered, heading to the east side of the Academy. “No thanks. I think I’ll head to the dining hall instead.”

“We’ll join you,” Kent said, walking in stride next to Bastion. Daisy stayed slightly behind. “Hey, are you sure you want to go to the dining hall? I mean, the way they cook the Terr meat now, they really started going wild with the spices. You should see it.”

“What is wrong with you two?” Bastion asked as he pushed open the dining hall
’s double doors. The moment he did, he realized what his friends were trying to save him from. There were over a hundred students scattered among the long wooden benches inside, but it was the boy standing on a table in the center of the room that caught his attention.

Mason ran his fingers through his hair and then wiped his hands across his clothes. A blue t-shirt and a pair of brown slacks. He glared at Bastion as if he had just crashed
his
birthday party. Bastion didn’t go inside. He turned around and began walking back toward the dorms. Daisy and Kent caught up to him.

“I think I’ll have that
Terr meat,” Bastion grumbled along with his stomach.

“He
came back today,” Kent replied.

“That’s a long time to get over an eidolon breaking.”

“It affects us all differently,” Daisy said. “But the important thing to remember is that we have each other’s backs.”

“What do you mean? It’s not like this is a thing.”

“With Mason it’s always a
thing.
The fact that you’re still breathing after you hurt him is a
thing.
He’s going to retaliate. It’s just a matter of how and when.”

Bastion stopped in his tracks to face his friends. “How do you know this? Why were you guys even hanging out with him in the first place?”

“I used to date him,” Daisy admitted, averting her eyes away from Bastion. “A couple years actually.” Bastion didn’t say anything, though there was plenty on his mind.
Why? Why did she date the lunatic but not him? What was it about him that caught her attention?

“He was the first friend I had here in Allay,” Kent said. “Being a foreigner, I was desperate for companionship. He was the son of the
Allayan Order Master, so it was almost like he was obligated to befriend me in order to keep the peace between the Orders. But I didn’t know that at the time, and I didn’t care either. I was happy to have someone to talk to.”

“That’s how we met,” Daisy said, pointing to Kent. “Mason introduced us.”

“We found out later he was a jerk, but it’s not easy to drop people when you’ve invested so much time and feelings into someone, you know?”

“We had broken up,” Daisy mumbled. “Because I saw what kind of person he was, but we still hung around him. That probably wasn’t healthy. It was good you were there that day in the meadow, Bastion. I sensed the attack coming my way, but there’s no guarantee that I would have blocked it.”

“Ugh,” Bastion muttered, slapping the palm of his hand to his forehead. “So…you’re saying that Mason is definitely going to try to get back at me?”

“Yep,” they said in unison, nodding. Bastion sighed and stood there in silence, wondering what to do. Kent crossed his arms and cleared his throat.

“Hey, we shouldn’t worry about all of that now though. We know he’s going to do something so we might as well prepare. How about we take a look at the renovations to the old Academy?”

“You mean where Zhou’s group goes?” Daisy asked, with a twinge of excitement in her voice.

“It’s not Zhou’s group anymore,” Kent said with a smile. “I think we should go check the place out.”

“Let’s go,” Bastion said. Anything to take his mind off of Mason.

When they reached the center of the Academy and ascended the stairs, they stopped in unison, staring at the wonder before them. Before the thick glass floors even came into focus, they heard the rippling of the water below them, lapping from side to side. They glanced up and stared at the glass floors, ten of them stacked on top of each other as if they were inside a building with an invisible exterior. Each floor had its own furniture and secrets, but they weren’t labeled. They had to figure out what each’s floor’s purpose was solely based on its contents. A library, a training room, a common room. Those were but a few of what they could identify.

The brick walls were mortared with a substance the color of gold and
they glowed eerily. On the ceiling were markings in the shapes of lightning bolts, and they glowed an electric blue that reflected off of the water down below. Daisy whistled just as Kent closed the doors behind them.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Daisy asked him, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Let’s not ruin the moment.”

“And what if there is a security in place? It might be hard for them to hear our cries for help.”

“
Your cries
,” Kent stressed, walking past her. He squint his eyes and examined each floor. “I guess I’ll go for the highest. No point in settling for less.”

“Higher doesn’t mean better,” Daisy muttered, but he ignored her. He crouched down low, and then he leaped upward as high as he could in an arch, reaching out for the tenth floor’s edge, but it was obvious that he was going to miss it before he was even half-way across the water. He ended up tucking himself into a ball and he hit the fourth floor, rolling across its surface and crashing into several wooden tables. Bastion rubbed his hands together and leaped for the tenth floor as well, but the moment his feet left the platform, Daisy had tugged at the back of his shirt. It was more than enough to slow his momentum and he nearly fell right into the water. He barely caught the edge of the bottom floor.

“Thanks, Daisy,” Bastion shouted as Daisy landed above him. She reached down and helped him to his feet. Kent climbed down until he was on their level.

“This place is incredible,” he sai
d. “Never seen anything like this before.”

“So what do we do first?” Bastion asked, a smile escaping his lips. He could already feel the adrenaline from excitement pumping through him. He wasn’t even sure if they were allowed in the area, but it was a little thrilling going against the status quo. He was tired of having his life mapped out for him.

“What’s this floor?” Daisy asked, looking behind her. They examined the area, taking note of the different weapons on the far wall. Axes, halberds, swords, maces, nun chucks and bows and arrows among several other things. The side walls were made of the same thick glass, and when Bastion looked down, he could see faint scratches in the surface. There had been many sparring matches there.

“
Want to touch one of those?” Kent asked, pointing to the weapons.

“I’m sure they’re nothing special,” Daisy replied. “Let’s head up. I think you were right about the floors. The tenth one is probably the best.”

“Eh, maybe,” Kent said. “We should head their first so we can tell the other students. I don’t get why Zhou students are so tight-lipped. I would be—”

Kent’s words were cut short as he suddenly went flying into the far wall, crashing into the we
apons that hung there. They crashed on top of his slumped body as he plopped down onto the glass floor, his head hanging low onto his chest. Bastion and Daisy were frozen as they stared at the creature standing between them, so close that they could reach out and touch it.

It was tall and thin. Veins were protruding from its skin, and something was pumping through them. Their skin had thin bronze
rings around every part of its body except the head, and the rest of its skin was a dark grey. The head was that of a human’s but the eyes were ovals and large, as if it was wearing goggles. When the creature opened its mouth, its tiny teeth were like a shark’s and the lips were so thin it was as if it had none. Its body was normal, but the way it moved, it was as if it was in slow motion.