Champions of Serenity :Gathering the Circle

Chapter 23

The gyrfalcon landed in a tree outside Rehven. The patrol of Elite ignored it as they marched into the town and questioned everyone they could about strangers in Rehven. From the town, sounds of people being beaten came to the sensitive ears of the bird of prey and the small figures of children scurrying for cover in the forest eves was caught in the ever vigilant sight of the bird.

When night fell, the gyrfalcon glided to the ground and the shadow of the great trees of the Samtin forest. A moment later, Tris stepped from the same shadow and cautiously made her way into the town. The sounds from two of the taverns told her these were not the places to seek shelter for the night. The Elite were housed there and took their entertainment from women who worked in those places.

The sign creaked in the night’s breeze and Tris hid a smile as she read the name, it was a good omen for her. Beyond the open door, a fire blazed in a large fireplace and a few of the town’s poorer folk sat around drinking from chipped wooden mugs. Easing her way inside, she took the nearest table to the door and made it appear as if she were trying to warm her hands against the chill in the air.

A woman came over to her and looked her over. She had a black eye and her lip was swollen and split. “You aren’t here to make trouble, are you miss?” Her voice was soft, fearful.

Tris gently touched the woman’s hand and allowed her thoughts to join with the innkeeper’s wife. What she found within the depths of this woman was a remarkable strength of will and a determination to not let the rule of Greshinea ruin her life. This is a woman that Tris would protect, if for no other reason than to put a thorn into Greshinea’s peace. She quickly placed memories and thoughts into Lynda’s mind and slipped back into the shadows and out into the night.

No one would remember she had been there and tomorrow, when she came into town mid-morning, she would be getting a welcome that not even the soldiers of the Elite could question. Tris then returned to the forest and spent the night sharing the den with a fox and his family as another kit.

When the sun warmed the earth of the den, Tris crept out and took her own shape. Then she blurred her features again to make herself appear more human than elf. Shouldering the pack she picked up before leaving Taniry, Tris began walking down the road to Rehven and the meeting with her Aunt Lynda and Uncle Matthew of the Dancing Demon.

She kept her head down as she trudged down the dusty road to the small inn at the end of town. Several of the Elite called out to her and she ignored them, pretending deafness and muteness. It was easier than trying to disguise her voice. By the time she arrived at the Dancing Demon, several of the soldiers were following her.

Matthew and Lynda rushed out when they saw her from their windows. “Cassie, thank the gods you made it. We were expecting you last night, what happened?”

Tris turned and pointed to the soldiers and then made the motions of being stopped and searched over and over again. Then she shrugged and stood with her shoulders stooped and tired.

Matthew looked at the soldiers and put his arm around the girl before him, drawing her closer to his wife and their home. “My niece, my wife’s sister’s daughter, she’s a deaf mute. She’s coming to help us here; her ma is getting married again. New man doesn’t like Cassie cause she can’t talk.” Matthew explained to the soldiers and they nodded and left.

Once inside, the couple led her to a room in the back and helped her get settled. She allowed them to give her some fresh bread and some cool water, but wouldn’t take anything else from them. There was something near this town she was supposed to find and until she did, this was as good a hiding place as any and better than living in the forest as an animal.

Later that evening, more soldiers came to check out Cassie, one of them a magic-user in the pay of Greshinea. He came in, sniffing the air as if magic were a stink he could smell.

Cassie, wearing a simple brown dress with a white apron over it, brought drinks on a battered tray. She was careful not to spill any of the warm liquid from the wooden mugs as she set them down. The oily probes from the magic-user disgusted Tris, but she didn’t let him see anything more than the simple mind of the deaf-mute she was pretending to be.

“Well, Sye, what do you make of her?” One of the soldiers asked.

“I don’t know yet. It could be that she’s a simple as she appears. There is a stink about her, but this whole mud hole stinks. It’s having those damned Dryads and Druids living here that do it. I’ll be glad when we get the orders to get rid of those tree loving freaks. I’ll save judgment until Lev can look at her tomorrow.”

Tris brought them all bowls of hot lamb stew, with plates of crusty bread, and sweet white cheese, She made a big play of being careful to not spill any of the hot food and left, tripping over her own feet. Let them think what they like. She knew why she was here now. She would be gone by morning. The Samtin forest was the ancient home of the Dryads and Druids, those sworn to protect the earth and the magicks that lived there. Drianne had mentioned that if Tris could find this place, she might find the answers she was looking for.

As the men were leaving, a tired looking man with a pinched face and dressed in the livery of Greshinea’s Elite, entered the Dancing Demon. His head swung from side to side as he searched each and every face.

“It’s Lev. He isn’t supposed to be here until tomorrow.” The whispers implied both fear and concern.

“I smell magic here. It’s small, a glamour, but it’s here.” His voice was high pitched and nasally. His eyes were too small for his face and gleamed like a rat’s in the semi-darkness of the inn’s common room. “Yesterday, it was planted yesterday, it’s cold. No, it’s warm, today, this morning. Female, old, no young. It’s….you!”

The wizened magic user grabbed Tris’s arm and pulled her closer to him. She felt his mind ripping into hers as he might tear into a loaf of bread. She made sure all he found was the fright of a deaf-mute who didn’t know what was going on.

“Who is this child?”

“She’s my niece, Honored Sir. She don’t do magic, she’s deaf and mute, born that way. Please, Honored Sir, she’s come to work for us.” Lynda said, coming forward as if to take Cassie/Tris back from the hold of the man.

“She is no more your niece than I am your nephew good woman. I don’t know who she is or what she is, but she doesn’t smell like your bloodlines. Take her with us Sye, it will be a pleasure to crack this nut open and see what it holds. It’s a strong glamour she has worked and I can’t pry out the truth without my tools.”

Lynda and Matthew protested this, swearing all manner of oaths that she was who they claimed. But they fell on uncaring ears. The soldiers stood and drug the silently sobbing Cassie out of the inn and to a camp outside of Rehven.

Tris was thrust into a tent and tied with a magically treated chain to a post in the center of the tent and left there for the whims of Lev and Sye. She could have laughed at the feebleness of such precautions used against her. The chain would hold those with lesser magic abilities, but to her, it was like putting a piece of sewing thread around the neck of a rabid dog to hold him in place. Her eyes glowed purple as she allowed her magic to fill her body.

Using but a hint of the growing power, she changed her form, once again, to that of an owl. Tris left the tent and sat on the branch of a nearby tree to watch what would happen. She held her magic close, ready for the battle when it happened.

Shortly after moonset, Lev and Sye entered the tent with all the arrogance of men expecting to be pleasured by a captive woman. She counted two heartbeats until they rushed out, sounding the alarm. The camp came to life as soldiers began to hunt for the missing girl.

Remembering her vow to protect Matthew and Lynda, Tris released her magic and let it filter through the forest, creating a barrier between the soldiers and the town of Rehven. The hunger using magic created in her rose up and claimed her. Taking her own shape once again, she saw the world through greenish purple eyes and haze, the hunt had begun.

It was almost noon before the bravest of Rehven ventured forth from their homes to see what had happened the night before. The screams and yells from the forest told the story of some great beast that hunted and killed any not protected by walls and with fire. One of the soldiers was allowed to escape and he crawled into town speaking of the hordes of demons that possessed the forest.

Matthew and Lynda mourned the loss of Cassie, the niece they never knew until the day before and lost to the beasts in the forest along with the Elites that had terrorized the town for the past month. Tris watched from the forest and nodded at a job well done. This town, for now, was safe and she could continue her journey to find the answers she sought.

Shægnek removed her hand from in front of her mouth and took a sip of water. She kept telling herself over and over that it was just the nature of the Demon and that in time she would get used to it. But watching the First take such delight in killing and eating the raw and sometimes living flesh of Greshinea’s men was enough to make the goddess wish she didn’t have a stomach.

“The First kill again?”

“How could you tell, Chaos?” Shægnek said with more acidity than normal as she fought to keep her bile down. She really didn’t need Chaos hovering around her right now.

“You always turn a peculiar shade of green when she does, Shægnek.” Chaos looked out the window and a great smile brightened his face. “Ah, will you look at that unbridled chaos she creates. Just by being alive she causes chaos and now that the prophecy is in motion, her actions cause more chaos. The irony is she belongs to Serenity and to order. I’m going to have to visit this Trisinda Jaqukwen sometime soon and see if I can’t tempt her into changing sides.” Chaos waved his hand as Shægnek started to protest. “I know, she won’t and she belongs to Serenity, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try. Half the fun of living is trying impossible things just to see if they work. And even if it doesn’t, it will still create enough chaos within her own mind that she’ll continue to add to the chaos of this world even while serving order.”

Chaos left then, chuckling to himself, again his reason for coming left unsaid. Shægnek was getting upset with this. He had something on his mind and if she didn’t find out soon, it would affect the events unfolding before her in her window.