The Shadow Of What Was Lost (46 page)

Thanks to a stiff breeze, the air
was much clearer in the middle of the town, enough so that Caeden felt
comfortable lowering his kerchief. As he drew closer to the newcomers – a woman
and a young boy, perhaps fifteen - he could see their red eyes, their ragged
clothing and the cuts and bruises on their hands. They had been running, then.
Possibly for days.

“Who are you?” called the boy as
they approached. “What are you doing here?”

Caeden and the others stopped
just short of the two. “We are travellers,” said Taeris, tone gentle, seeing
the fear and suspicion on the strangers’ faces. “On our way to Ilin Illan. What
has happened here?”

Something seemed to break in the
woman, and she rushed forward, embracing Taeris and beginning to sob. He stood
there awkwardly for a few moments, unsure what to do.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said
eventually, stepping back in embarrassment and wiping her eyes with a dirty
sleeve. “We’ve not seen another living soul for three days. Not since it….” She
broke down again, and the young boy hurried forward to comfort her.

“We were attacked,” said the boy.
His tone was devoid of hope, and his eyes looked dead to Caeden. “Soldiers in
armour black as night, men with no eyes. Our Watch tried to fight them, but
they were so fast.” He shivered at the memory. “It wasn’t really a battle. None
of the invaders died at all.”

Caeden took a step back, a chill
running through his veins. He'd been worried about his potential involvement in
whatever was going on, but this... this was worse than anything he'd feared.

Taeris, too, looked at the boy in
dismay.  “This was the invaders' doing?”

The boy nodded, still comforting
the weeping woman, whom Caeden assumed was probably his mother. “Word came only
a few hours before they got here.”

“Who are they?” Taeris asked,
clearly unsettled. “Where did they come from?”

“The riders who came to warn us
said they were from the North. From beyond the Boundary.” The boy rubbed his
hands together nervously, glancing around as if he expected the enemy soldiers
to reappear at any moment. “Don’t know about that, but they weren’t natural, I
promise you that. Stronger and faster than normal men, and like I said, their
helmets had no holes for them to see out of. It was something twisted, no doubt
about that.” He spat to the side. “The Bleeders are rising up again, maybe.”

Taeris winced, and Caeden saw
Wirr scowling from the corner of his eye. “The Gifted are still bound by the
Tenets, lad,” said Taeris. “But I believe what you say.” He gestured to some of
the larger stones left from the destroyed houses. “Please, sit. Tell me what
happened. As much detail as you can.”

The boy shook his head. “I wish I
could, but me and my mother ran once we saw what they were doing. Ran into the
forest and just kept going for the entire night, until we were too tired to go
any further.” He rubbed at the cuts on his arms. “They weren’t like our
soldiers would have been. People were screaming for mercy, but they wouldn’t
listen. They killed the men, and then what they did to the women….” He trailed
off.

Taeris patted him on the
shoulder. “It’s okay, lad. You’ve been a great help already.” He guided both
the boy and his mother over to a stone on which they could sit. “What are your
names?”

“I’m Jashel. My mother’s name is
Llys,” the boy said, still scratching at his arms.

“I’m Taeris,” said the scarred
man. He glanced towards the trees from which the two had emerged. “How long
have you been hiding in the forest, Jashel?”

“Three days,” said Jashel. “We
came back yesterday, and the soldiers were still here, camping in the town.
They were pulling down the buildings one by one, and dragging the corpses out
to the road. Placing them like they are now.” He bit his lip. “They left last
night. We were still trying to decide what to do when you showed up - we would
have gone for Naser, but my mother has something wrong with her leg. It would
be too hard for her to walk all that way.”

Taeris nodded. He reached into
his knapsack and drew out a loaf of bread, offering it to Jashel. The boy took
it hungrily, breaking it in two, thrusting one half at his mother and then
wolfing down the other.

Caeden watched him eat in
silence. What this young boy had been through these past few days was beyond
what any person should ever have to endure.

“We need to bury them,” announced
Jashel, his mouth still full with the last chunk of bread.

Taeris blinked, glancing back
along the road. Caeden followed his gaze. There were hundreds of bodies.
“They’ll get a proper burial, Jashel, I promise,” Taeris said as gently as he
could, “ but there are not enough of us to do it.”

Jashel’s face started to go red.
“They’re my friends,” he said angrily. “My father is out there. He fought
knowing he was going to die, so we could get away! He deserves a burial!”

Taeris tried to hold Jashel’s
gaze, but couldn’t. He looked away. “I’m sorry, lad.”

“It’s not your fault, sir.” It
was Llys, talking again for the first time since breaking down in Taeris’ arms.
She moved across to give Jashel a fierce hug. “We can’t do it, Jashel,” she
said to her son. “I understand. I want to as well. But there are too many.” She
smiled sadly at him. “We are alive. We need to worry about surviving. Your
father would have wanted that.”

Jashel looked like he was about
to argue, then sagged, burying his face in his mother’s shoulder. He let out a
couple of long, heaving sobs. Caeden looked away awkwardly.

“Is there any way we can help?” asked
Taeris to Llys after a while. “We can give you supplies enough to see you to
Naser.”

Llys shook her head. She drew up
her skirt, revealing a blackened and swollen ankle. “I’m not going anywhere for
a while.”

Taeris hesitated. Then he stepped
forward, kneeling beside Llys and placing his hands around her evidently broken
ankle. He closed his eyes.

Llys’ ankle began to glow as
Essence flowed through Taeris. By the time he took his hands away – only a few
seconds after he had begun – the ankle’s swelling and bruising had disappeared.

“That should make it easier,” he
said with a small smile, looking drained.

Llys wiggled her ankle in
astonishment. “You’re Gifted,” she said quietly.

The knife was in Taeris' belly
before any of them realised what was happening, and everything seemed to move
in slow motion after that.

Taeris emitted a single, low moan
before collapsing, and Caeden knew straight away that the blade had gone in
deep and long, a killing blow. Mother and son both had daggers in their hands,
their dead eyes suddenly registering with Caeden. Absently, through the sudden
fear, he wondered how he hadn’t seen it earlier. They weren’t just tired,
terrified. It was like there was no life in them at all.

And though he couldn't say why,
he knew exactly what it meant.

Caeden dove at Llys, wresting the
blade from her hand before she could stab Taeris again, but she kept fighting,
clawing at his face, his arms, anything she could touch. She hissed, her eyes
wild, feral and red-rimmed, moving with inhuman speed and strength.

To Caeden’s left, Aelric’s sword
struck like lightning, spearing young Jashel through the neck just before the
boy’s blade descended on Dezia’s exposed back. Then there was a blinding blast
of Essence, and Caeden felt the attack stop, the woman in front of him slumping
to the ground as if her bones had turned to jelly. He looked over his shoulder
to see Wirr standing there, panting, his arms outstretched.

Caeden dropped to his knees
beside Taeris as the others crowded around. A ghastly gash ran the length of
Taeris' stomach, exposing intestines and other innards; blood pooled around him
on the stone of the road, dark and smooth. The Gifted’s eyes were still open,
but his breaths were shallow and had a horrible bubbling sound.

Taeris was dying.

Caeden turned to Wirr. “He needs
healing,” he said urgently.

Wirr ran his hands through his
hair. “I don’t have enough Essence left in my Reserve to heal him. Even if it
were full, I’m not sure I could repair a wound that bad." He hesitated.
"You need to do it.”

Caeden looked at Wirr, horrified.
“I don’t know how.”

“You have to try and remember.”
Wirr grabbed Caeden’s hand and forced it against Taeris’ stomach. “I know you
can do this, Caeden. Close your eyes, try and sense your Reserve. Then you need
to tap into it and infuse the wound with raw Essence. If Taeris gets enough,
his own body will do the rest.”

Caeden swallowed, heart pounding.
“I'll do my best.” He began to close his eyes.

“Wait.” Wirr grimaced. “Maybe I
spoke too soon. It’s not like firing a bolt of energy. It’s gentler than that,
trickier. You don’t hurl it, you let it flow. Like a stream.” He bit his lip.
“That’s very important, Caeden. If you can’t get the difference, the energy
will be too forceful. That would kill him.”

Caeden paled. “Is there some way
I can practice?”

“There’s no time.” It was Aelric.
He placed a hand on Caeden’s shoulder. “He’s almost gone, Caeden.”

Caeden gave a resolute nod,
turning his attention to Taeris. He positioned his hands over the gash in
Taeris’ stomach, ignoring the blood soaking up between his fingers. Then he
took a deep breath and closed his eyes, searching out his Reserve. Trying
desperately to remember how he'd done it in his dream.

The warmth of Essence was flowing
through him, out of him, before he knew what was happening.

As quickly as it had come the
feeling faded and Caeden sat back, drained. The wound had closed, only the raw
pink of a newly healed scar now visible, but Caeden could not see any
indication of Taeris’ chest rising and falling. Wirr dropped to his knees
beside the Gifted, ear over Taeris' mouth, listening for any sign of life.

There was nothing for several
seconds... and then Taeris gave a violent, hacking cough, his entire body
contorting with the effort. He sat up and turned, vomiting the remaining blood
from his stomach. When he'd finished he slowly turned back to Caeden and the
others, hand on the freshly healed wound.

“Seems taking that Shackle off
was a good idea,” he said weakly.

Caeden gave him a relieved smiled
and allowed his tense muscles to relax a little, from the corner of his eye
seeing the others doing the same. He helped Taeris stand. The older man tested
out his muscles gingerly for a few seconds; once satisfied he could move
without pain, he wandered over to where his attacker had fallen. Llys' eyes
were closed, but her chest rose and fell rhythmically.

“We need to take her with us,”
said Wirr.

Taeris sighed. “No, lad. I saw
her eyes, just before she stabbed me. Her body may still be sound, but her mind
is gone. Following orders, but making use of her memories to achieve them.” He
rubbed his beard, expression thoughtful. “I’ve seen this once before, a long
time ago - we called them Echoes. These ones were left behind deliberately, a
trap for anyone who came after. Especially Gifted, apparently.”

"I think he's right,"
added Caeden. He flushed a little at everyone's surprised looks. "I don't
know how I know, but I thought the same thing when they attacked."

Dezia stared at the woman in
disbelief. “But she told us her name. They were upset about what had happened.”

Taeris shrugged. “And that was
likely the case, before they were changed. But the people that they were no
longer exist.”

Wirr scowled. “So you’re saying
we should just kill her?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,”
said Taeris softly. “It gives me no pleasure, but it is what needs to be done.
If we leave her, she’ll kill others.”

“We don’t know that!” protested
Dezia.

Taeris gave her a sorrowful look.
“Didn’t you notice how the last group of bodies we saw coming in to town didn’t
match the others? They were fresher, and were wearing travelling cloaks, not
work clothing. There were children amongst them. I thought it was odd at the
time....”

Caeden's stomach churned as he
glanced back down the road. He hadn't spotted that.

To his side, Dezia’s face twisted
as she realised what Taeris was saying. She looked at Llys in horror. “We can’t
kill her,” she said, though her voice was more uncertain now.

“What would you have us do?"
asked Taeris. "There are three options. One, she comes with us. We don’t
even have rope to tie her up with, let alone know anything about her
capabilities given what's been done to her. Two, we could leave her. She could
come after us, or she could lay in wait for more people here. Or three, we can
kill her.” He folded his arms. “She’s
dead
, understand. Something else
is using her body and memories to trick people. She’s no longer human.” He
raised an eyebrow at Wirr. “Unless you think you’ve somehow found a way around
the First Tenet?”

Caeden grimaced, and Wirr turned
away, looking sick. Taeris was right. Wirr had blasted Llys with Essence,
something he shouldn’t have been able to do.