Hayes sat on the far side of the river, watching the others cross the stepping stones. He kept fidgeting and rubbing the leather band around his wrist. It burned him, and made him feel slow and weak. He looked down at the silver X. An old song came to him as he thought.
I’ll sing you a song of the long ago -
Seven shine the shiners, oh!
What did the Seven do way back when?
Why, they wove the Charter then!
Five for the warp, from beginning to end.
Two for the woof, to make and mend.
That’s the Seven, but what of the Nine-
What of the two who chose not to shine?
The Eighth did hide, hide all away,
But the Seven caught him and made him pay.
The Ninth was strong and fought with might,
But lone Orannis was put out of the light,
Broken in two and buried under hill,
Forever to lie there, wishing us ill.
There was a tenth, who all forgot,
And banished him from conscious thought,
But he was not locked away,
He sees the dawn of every day.
The last verse was also forgotten of course, just like the person it was about, but not for much longer. Soon the world would remember the tenth, and they would know what he had been through. Hayes returned to the present and stood up as Ivan walked over to him.
“What next?” asked Ivan. Hayes dug through his leather bag and pulled out the Atlas/Almanac. The ponies arrived as he flipped through the pages.
“We need to head for the town of High Bridge. It’s about half-way to the Clayr’s Glacier. There’s a sizeable garrison there, so we need to be careful.
It took them a few days, but finally the group arrived at the bustling town of High Bridge. They walked through the streets, dodging carts and friendly pedestrians. However, Hayes still felt uneasy. This was too simple. There should be guards all over, especially with the destruction of the Barhedrin outpost, but he didn’t see any. He turned to Ivan,
“Keep your eyes open. I don’t like this.”
“Don’t like what?” answered his friend.
“The fact that there are no guards to be seen anywhere in the town. It’s suspicious. Where have the ponies got to?”
“They went to have a look around. You need to unwind a little, you’re much too paranoid. Just because you haven’t seen any guards doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”
Hayes grudgingly accepted this. He turned and walked off into the crowd. Ivan followed him. Ivan knew that Hayes was right. There should be guards, especially after what they had seen on the way to High Bridge. They had come across the remains of a merchant convoy that had been attacked, presumably by Hands (as well as something much worse). Ivan shivered. He had seen some horrible sights on the Perimeter, but that convoy definitely topped them all. The wagons had been in flames, with burning bodies scattered around them. Free Magic symbols had been drawn in blood around the general area of devastation. There had been a few trees as well that would have looked rather nice. That is, they would have been nice if there weren’t bodies impaled on the branches. One man had been impaled to the branch through his torso. His intestines had been torn out of him and were stuck to the same branch a few feet in front of him. Another man had been impaled to the branch by his head, with his brain stuck to a branch to his left. Ivan recalled throwing up a lot. He caught up with Hayes a few seconds later. His friend was looking around, probably trying to find some guards. He heard a faint noise. Turning, he saw a man at the end of an alley. The man gestured for him to come down the alleyway. Ivan turned to Hayes,
“Hayes, I think that man there wants to talk to us.”
“The suspicious looking one in the alley?”
“What, you think it’s a trap?”
“Of course it’s a trap.”
“So we aren’t going to go over there?”
“Of course we’re going to go over there. We’re going to walk into the trap because that’s what traps are for!”
With that rather illogical statement, Hayes turned and walked down the alley, with Ivan following quickly behind him. When they reached the end of the alley the man was nowhere to be seen. However, there were a dozen guards with swords and crossbows.
“Alright you two, come with us.” said the guard sergeant. Ivan turned to look at Hayes, but all he saw was the back of Hayes’ cloak as his friend turned the corner of the alley. The sergeant turned to three of his men.
“After him! Take him alive if you can!” he ordered. Hayes managed to get maybe five yard before he slipped in a puddle of grease, hit his head on a wall, and blacked out. It was one of the quickest chases the guards had ever seen.
Being in the army had given Ivan a good sense of when he was in trouble. It was usually a bad sign if the commander’s face was redder than the tomato soup you’d eaten last night. Another bad sign was two ranks of men aiming crossbows at you, especially if your hands were tied behind your back.
“Alright!” yelled the guard captain, “Any last words?” Ivan thought quickly and came up with quite a good solution to their predicament.
“Yeah, I’ve got some! I want a lawyer!” he replied. The captain stared at him in surprise.
“What?”
“I want a lawyer, or at least to know what I’m charged with.”
“You are charged with deserting the Ancelstierran Armed Forces and with two counts of murder. Your friend is charged with desertion and thirteen counts of murder.”
“I still want a lawyer.”
“You can’t have one.”
“Isn’t there a law saying I get one?”
“No.”
“I want to see a lawyer about that.”
“SHUT UP!!!” The captain’s face was now officially as red as tomato soup. He was breathing rather heavily. Before he could give the order to fire, a slightly winded sergeant ran into the courtyard.
“Sir, sir!”
“What is it sergeant?”
“Prince Sameth has arrived sir! He wants to see the prisoners!”
“What? Alright scum, it looks like your deaths have been postponed for a few hours. Enjoy them.”
Hayes and Ivan were led by several guards to a large building, where they were sent to an upstairs room. The door was flanked by two more guards. One of the guards opened the door, and Hayes and Ivan entered the room. There was a young man in light armor sitting at a desk. Also in the room were the ponies. The man looked up from the document he was reading.
“Well, I see the guards have finally brought you here. Your equine friends are quite interesting.”
“You can tell what they really are?” asked Hayes.
“Yes. Anyone with the Blood can, as can anyone who they point it out to. That’s why your human friend can see them. So, why are you here?”
“We’re here because we want to get home, and Hayes and Ivan are helping us.” answered Twilight. Sameth nodded.
“Good answer. Perhaps you can give me an equally good one for the murder of the Barhedrin garrison.” He focused on Hayes.
“I felt it was necessary at the time.”
“I bet you did. After all, only a human would think that those men had families who might regret that they died.”
“You humans are worse than I am, so don’t get all high and mighty with me, boy!”
“Hey, I’m really confused here. What are you two arguing about!?” interrupted Ivan.
“I am a prince and am nearly twenty!” yelled Sameth, completely ignoring Ivan.
“Yeah, and I’m well almost 5 million!”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!” yelled Ivan.
Both Sameth and Hayes stopped arguing and looked at Ivan. Then Sameth picked up a book from his desk and handed it to Ivan, who opened it.
“Turn to chapter ten.” said Sameth. Ivan flipped through the pages until he found the chapter. He began to read aloud.
“ Chapter Ten: Calarenthor. Calarenthor, the name of the tenth Shiner, literally translates to “Fire of Chaos” in the Old Tongue. He is a powerful creature of both Free and Charter magic, and was created in the chaos and destruction of the Great War that decided our world’s fate. Shortly after the war ended, the Great Seven took Calarenthor’s blood and put it into the humans who were not Clayr, Royal, or Abhorsen. Unfortunately, there was too much Free Magic in Calarenthor’s blood, and that is why humans seem to fight everything. Shortly after his blood was taken, Calarenthor was locked in human form, and the humans were made to forget him forever. Calarenthor was not bound, as when he was forgotten he lost his power, and his identity. It is said that he is still out there somewhere, not remembering who he was.” Ivan finished reading, closed the book, and put it down. No one spoke for a few minutes. Then Hayes finally broke the silence.
“Even I wasn’t sure until we got to the House. I don’t know why the memories started coming back.”
“It could have been the dimensional rift.” said Sameth.
“So wait. Does that mean you were powerful enough to send us home without the Clayr?” asked Twilight.
“Possibly.” answered Hayes, “I would have needed lots of Charter infused rock, and that’s hard to find.”
“We’ve got plenty of Charter rocks.” said Sameth, “You could use some of those. However, there is the small problem of the necromancer that has been following you.” Hayes nodded.
“So what if there’s a necromancer! Get the portal open and let’s get out of here!” said Rainbow Dash. Hayes ran some quick calculations in his head.
“It will take me at least half-an-hour to prepare and open the portal. After it’s open I may fall into a coma.”
“I’ll take those odds.” said Ivan, “Can we count on you for help, Prince Sameth?”
“I will get what troops I can. Where will you open the portal?”
Hayes thought about it for a second.
“The Red Lake, where my old friend Orannis is imprisoned. Magic of both kinds is strong there.”
Sameth nodded.
“I will go and gather the troops. Make whatever preparations are necessary.”
Hayes spent the next few days preparing for the strenuous casting to come, while the others spent most of the time training. In the end, Sameth managed to secure the assistance of fifty guards, as well as Lirael, the Abhorsen-in-Waiting. Even Hayes had to admit they had pretty good odds. So why did he feel so uneasy?