Part 16 (2/2)

”This camp is outside what used to be the village of Harinfel,” Indirial went on. ”A few hours ago, Valin came knocking. We're taking you to interview some of the survivors now.” He stepped over a soldier who had apparently pa.s.sed out and fallen outside of his tent.

”Valin?” Simon said. He was having trouble processing all the new information he had received in the past few hours. ”I thought this was the Valinhall Incarnation we were after.”

Indirial stopped. He turned around, but he didn't look at Simon. ”Wow, Kai,” he said. ”You really haven't told the boy anything, have you?”

Kai smiled, but it was a rigid thing, like the rictus of a corpse. ”It was never supposed to be me that trained him in the first place.”

The Overlord ignored that, focusing on Simon. ”Valin was the first of us,” he said. ”He was also the first to fall. You can draw almost as much power from Valinhall as you can handle, but if these*” he tapped his forearm, which was almost covered by the black chain-marks, ”*ever cover you completely, then you stop controlling the power, and the power starts controlling you.”

He straightened, and continued walking. ”We call that process Incarnation.”

”They keep saying the Valinhall Incarnation, though,” Simon said. ”Is there only one?”

Hariman made an excited sound. ”Please, Indirial, allow me,” the book said. ”For the most part, Territories are only embodied in a single Incarnation at a time. If one Traveler loses control, he becomes an Incarnation. Well, then, you may wonder what happens when a second Traveler loses control. Excellent question! Often, these Travelers simply die on the spot.”

Simon resolved to keep a closer eye on his chains in the future.

”Of course,” Hariman went on, ”there are a few memorable occasions where Travelers have lost control of their power and simply had their minds destroyed by the force. Still others have actually become creatures of their Territory themselves, and were then consumed by their Incarnation. Either way, it is theoretically impossible for two Incarnations of the same Territory to exist simultaneously.”

”Here we are,” Indirial said. He swept aside the flap for a tent that, to Simon, looked identical to hundreds of others.

Inside a man crouched in the dirt. He wore the outfit that Simon was used to seeing from the village: tan s.h.i.+rt, brown pants held up by a stretch of rope. Very similar to the clothes that Simon wore now, in fact, and in much the same condition: this man's clothes were covered in almost as much blood as Simon's. This man clutched a sheathed sword to his chest and shuddered staring off into s.p.a.ce. He held the sword as tightly as if it were his only child.

The man's two guards, in the red-and-gold of the King's army, stood and saluted when they saw Indirial.

”No change, sir,” one of the guards said. ”He's stayed put the whole time.”

Indirial thanked the soldier and went down on one knee, looking the shaking man in the eye. ”What happened?” Indirial asked softly.

At first, Simon didn't think the man would answer. He kept s.h.i.+vering and looking off in the distance. But after a few more seconds of that he turned and met Indirial's gaze.

”There was a swordsman,” he whispered. ”A swordsman with black eyes. He showed up at the edge of town, and just started walking, but his sword was so big...it was that big.” The man noticed Azura, and his eyes widened. He pointed. ”That big. The sword looked like that. Where did you get that sword?”

By the last word, he was practically panicking.

”Kai,” Indirial said, his voice a razor, ”would you please banish Azura?”

Kai said nothing, but he held Azura's hilt out to Simon. Simon took the sword in both hands, but without calling steel he could barely hold it upright. It only took a brief effort of will to banish the blade back to Valinhall.

Indirial noticed. He stared at the s.p.a.ce where Azura had once been and looked at Kai, raising his eyebrows in question.

Kai shrugged.

The s.h.i.+vering man's eyes widened even further. ”Travelers,” he whispered. ”You're Travelers.” He squeezed his eyes shut.

”Maker be praised,” he said. ”Now he'll get what he deserves. Travelers will settle for him. He'll finally get what he deserves.”

”Please, tell me what happened,” Indirial said again. He didn't sound angry; in fact, he sounded quite patient. Simon would have expected an Overlord to make demands, not to ask politely. He had only spoken with Malachi for a minute or two, but the man had spoken like a king until he saw his family in danger. Indirial seemed somehow moreahuman.

”He was just walking,” the man went on. ”But his sword was so big, and so sharp, it started cutting people. First, it sliced right through one of the ox-lines. Not like he meant to do it, just like he didn't care where his sword went or what it cut. The ox ran off, and it was old Benai's. Benai got mad, so he...he yelled at the guy.

”The swordsman, he looked at Benai, and that was when we could see that he had black eyes. He told Benai that, if he wanted him to stop, he should get a weapon. He kept walking. Benai, well, he had seen the guy's eyes. He screamed and started to run, but then the swordsman stabbed him in the back.”

The man squeezed his eyes shut. ”He called the man a coward. He said that, if any of us deserved to live, we should prove it. And then he brought the sword down, like he was cutting the air itself. And a thousand shadows came out.”

Simon stared at the man, horrified and sick. At least now he knew where the Nye had gone.

”They were everywhere, these shadows. They choked...they just...they had these chains...” the man started crying. Simon looked away uncomfortably. He could imagine what kind of horror this man had endured, but it still felt wrong to him to watch a grown man cry.

”We know,” Indirial said gently. ”Trust me, we know. How did you survive?”

”My brother had this sword, and I knew about it,” the man said. ”When we were kids, we would take turns practicing with it. Pretending, you know? So I got it. When one of the shadows came for me, I managed to stab it through the chest. It just sort of...slithered away, like a snake.”

The look in the man's eyes became pure horror. ”Then he came.”

”Were you in his way?” Denner asked. He sounded more curious than anything else, which surprised Simon until he thought about it. Surely, Denner must have heard even worse stories than this one.

The man shook his head. ”It seemed like, when I killed this shadow, like he started looking for me. There was a wagon in his way when he walked toward me, and he just...he just cut it in half and kept walking. When he came into my house, instead of using the door, he cut his way through the wall. I just stood there. Frozen, you know? But I was on my feet, and I had my sword.”

He clutched his sword tighter. ”The man with black eyes, he said, 'Come out of your house. If you deserve to live, prove it.'”

The Overlord interviewed two more witnesses that night. Their stories were the same: anything the black-eyed swordsman ran into, he cut it apart. Anyone he ran into, he fought them. If they ran, he cut them down, like they weren't worth his time anymore. And the Nye, at his bidding, killed even more. The village of Harinfel had lost almost eight out of ten of its residents. Most of the survivors were children or the very old, those that*to hear Kai tell it*the Incarnation had considered unworthy of his attention. Only three men had faced it with swords in hand and survived.

They all agreed on one thing: the Incarnation was headed southeast.

”Toward Cana,” Indirial said. He had taken the other Valinhall Travelers to his own tent, which was much larger than the others and set with tables and chairs. ”If I know anything about Valin,” the Overlord went on, ”he'll make a beeline for the capital. And if I know anything about Valinhall, he'll cut through the King's guards and challenge Zakareth himself to a duel.”

”Will that matter?” Denner asked. ”We know how well-protected the King is. Even against an Incarnation, couldn't he hold his own?”

Kai spoke up softly, but he kept his gaze on the face of his doll. ”Against the Incarnation of any other Territory, yes,” Kai said. Denner sighed.

”That's not the whole story,” Indirial said. ”It gets worse.” Then he turned to face Simon. ”Doesn't it?”

Simon stared the Overlord in the face. How had he known? Did Damasca have their own spies in Enosh?

Indirial has his own sources of information, Angeline told him. Don't worry too much about it.

”The Grandmasters know the Incarnation is loose,” Simon said reluctantly. ”They're planning to attack.”

Kai and Denner both turned to stare at Simon. Indirial just nodded, as though one of his suspicions had been confirmed.

”You have risen far, it seems, little mouse,” Kai said.

Simon shrugged, trying not to let his discomfort show. ”Alin insisted I go to the meeting,” he said.

”And I, for one, am glad he did,” Indirial responded. ”Because we can use this information against the Grandmasters. Before they destroy everything we've worked to protect.”

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