Gluic removed her hands from Santorray. His massive body was spread out on the ground, with stones placed in specific locations on his body for her to heal him. Deep wounds had been sewn up but it was far too soon to know if he would ever recover.
Ericc rested nearby; his healing from Gluic had already been performed. Water, food and rest were all he needed.
Removing one of the stones from the Blothrud’s head, she handed it to Thorik. “Here’s your Runestone back. Keep it safe.”
“I will. I always do.”
“Good.” She removed one of her remaining feathers from her hair and placed it in his. “Now, did you watch what I did?”
“Yes, Granna. But I keep telling you that I don’t have the ability to perform a healing.”
“Me neither. I let the stones tell me what to do. You’ll do fine.” Reaching over, she straightened his feather.
Thorik pondered on how to interpret her last statement as he watched the Blothrud moan from the pain. Gluic had suddenly started instructing him on various techniques, which she had never expressed interest in showing him before. “Granna, what did you see in the Mythical Forest, when you held the crystal to Santorray?”
“A murder.”
“Of who?”
Gluic smiled with compassion for her grandson’s concern.
“You? But why? Who would murder you?” Thorik asked.
“Don’t fret, Thorik. Worrying about it won’t change anything.”
“Santorray? He’s the one, isn’t he?”
“And what would it change if it was?”
“First off, you could go without healing him.”
“And let him die, when we can save him? Could you really do that?”
“Yes.” Thorik spoke before thinking. Removing the bright orange feather from his hair, he poked the end of it a few times at his other hand. “No, but how can you heal him knowing he will end your life?
“End my life? Dear, he’s only going to murder me. I’m sure it will be for a good cause. But someone else actually ends my life.”
“There’s a difference?”
Gluic pinched Thorik’s skin. “This flesh is only a host for our souls. I talk to people all the time that aren’t restricted by these barriers.”
“Yes, I know. As the Mountain King’s words say, ‘Our soul-markings show we have souls’.”
“Not exactly, but close enough.”
“I suppose you’ve talked to the Mountain King.”
“He’s very nice. Even he would tell me the intent of the words are as you said, but there is more depth to it.”
“If that is true, why is it that I haven’t received any? Am I without a soul?”
“No, my dear. Soul-markings display your personality, your mettle, and your idiosyncrasies. That much we can see. But they also hold truths about you and your purpose in life. Your purpose is so strong that it is holding back the rest of your traits from showing through your skin.”
The thought never crossed his mind. “Is that possible?”
“Can you raise a column of marble a thousand feet in the air with your mind?”
Thorik hugged his grandmother for her constant encouragement. She always had a way of making him feel better. “Thank you, Granna.”
“Don’t ever doubt your value, my boy.”
Grewen returned to the temporary camp with Brimmelle and Avanda. They had walked up to the top of a nearby peak to scout ahead. “Looks clear, just a stray small herd of Chuttles. Did you get the litter completed?” Grewen had broken a few branches off the tree they rested under, before heading out to scout, to allow Thorik material for the device, which would haul the Blothrud.
“Yes, and we just finished another healing of Santorray. Ericc should be ready to travel as well.” Thorik woke Ericc and helped him to his feet. “We have a lot to talk about, starting with your little disappearing trick back in the Eastland camp.”
The young man didn’t reply as he grabbed some items to carry. He had been unappreciative and agitated ever since they rescued him.
Grewen reached down and picked up the semi-conscious Blothrud.
Santorray woke from his haze and tried to push away. “I’m fine. I’ll walk.”
Setting him into the litter, Grewen agreed with him. “Yes, you will, just not today.”
Attempting to sit up, Santorray instantly realized he couldn’t. The pain was too great and his muscles were too torn. “Watch out for Chuttles.” In his own way he was trying to lead the group and give them advice. “Always assume they are ready to attack. Change direction without warning. Don’t let your guard down. They are a powerful Fesh.”
Grewen snapped a handful of dry grass from their roots and tossed them in his mouth. “And they stink too.”
Brimmelle couldn’t let the opportunity go to waste. “You’re one to talk.”
Grewen strapped the Blothrud in and lifted one end of the litter to drag Santorray. “What? I kind of like my smell. Musky and yet earthy.”
“Unearthed is more like it. Your odor is of a plate of rotten eggs and raw fish after baking in this waterless land for a week.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Grewen said. “Now you’ve gone and made me hungry.”
“I helped Thorik gut a giant stink beetle once, when its sack exploded all over both of us, and even that smelled better than your feet.”
“Why would you cut open a stink beetle?”
“To retrieve one of Thorik’s Runestones, which he irresponsibly left on the floor.”
“Do you really think my feet smell?”
“I’ve smelled better things pulled out of a pig’s rectum than you.”
“What were you doing pulling things out of pig’s rectum?” Grewen countered, while they headed up the next hill and continued to banter back and forth.
Meanwhile, Thorik tried to get Ericc to talk. “Your father meant a lot to me.” He received no response. “He saved our lives more than once. If it wasn’t for him, the entire Dovenar Kingdom would be under water.”
“Don’t paint him angelic. I know better,” Ericc finally said.
“He was a good man.”
“A good man doesn’t leave his son to be raised by others.”
“He had no choice.”
“That’s a lie. He chose to leave me. He chose to never return to see me. He chose to let me grow up without him. And now to die before I can ever see him again.”
“He was protecting you.”
“To what end? To live a life alone, without a father? I would have rather died alongside him than hide in a cave all my life.”
“He tried to do what was best for all of us. He was responsible for the Dovenar Kingdom, as well as the rest of Australis. He’s saved hundreds of thousands of lives.”
“Foregoing his family in his great quests. How dare he bring me into this world if he wasn’t going to be there for me. I hate him for it. His responsibility to Australis constantly put my mother and I in danger. It killed my mother, and it’s his fault. Where was he? He promised to protect us.”
“He couldn’t possibly be there to protect you every moment.” Thorik recalled his own situation with Avanda.
“Then he shouldn’t have told us he would. Hidden away, I’ve missed out on my youth. Because of him, I’m being hunted down by the Del’Unday as well as the Kingdom you talk so righteous about. Because of him, my life is in shambles.”
“Listen, you need to stop blaming your father for all of your issues. He did the best he could for you. He loved you. He would have died for your mother if he could have. You need to accept who he was and take responsibility for yourself, your own actions, and your own future.”
“That’s exactly what I was doing before you came along. I was waiting for Darkmere to arrive at Corrock.”
“To end your life?”
“To end his.”
“Revenge won’t bring your father back or give you those lost years of youth.”
“No, but it will end this torment once and
for all. I will continue to be hunted until one of us is dead.”
Thorik didn’t know how to reply. Ericc’s last statement was correct, even if Thorik didn’t agree with the boy’s plans.
The two stopped talking about the subject. Aside from general communication around evening camps, Ericc isolated himself from the rest.
Thorik attempted to strike up a conversation about Ericc’s E’rudite power to shift locations in a blink of the eye, but failed each time to get the young man to talk.
Chapter 32
Unwelcome