Leoht (BloodRunes: Book 3) Read online

  “Which part?” Katya asked him with a small snort. “The stones talking to us to have us perform their little test in exchange for them helping Layna, the fact that a sword suddenly appeared that very well could be Leoht, the sword that killed the Dark King, or that she appears to be no worse for wear after having been in a coma and dragged around the last few weeks other than a little disoriented and tired.”

  Gryffon smiled at her. Sometimes her humor, though blunt, was enjoyable. “All of it, I guess.” He stood and picked up the sword that had been laid next to Layna’s bedroll and returned, holding it out in front of him to Katya. “What do you think? You know more about it than I do, think it’s really the same sword?”

  Katya took it from him and peered at the inscription. “Well, it’s certainly marked like the one from the vision. But I don’t know how we would test its authenticity, or for that matter what the significance of it appearing would be if it was indeed the same.”

  “Did Leoht have any special properties?”

  Katya looked thoughtful, “I think there were vague references to it having unique abilities, but what those abilities were wasn’t specified.”

  “And why did it send her with a sword anyway when we were only trying to get her to wake up? Not to mention that line about the darkness and light.”

  “There is obviously more going on here than just them, whoever ‘they’ are, helping her regain her consciousness. Any ideas? Think they’re really the voices of the Three?”

  Gryffon had forgotten that Katya was unaware of the events of the past few months. “I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but there certainly is a lot going on.” He filled her in on the events that had transpired, ending with their conclusion that there were bloodbeasts being brought back as evidenced by Jezebel’s pack of hellhounds and the impending threat of war. “As far as believing that those stones were really the Three talking to us, I don’t know what to tell you. I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense…”

  “There’s far more bloodbeasts than just one noble playing with her little toys, and judging by the number of men and beasts that have been put together already, I’d guess that someone plans on invading pretty soon.” Katya supplied, and she filled him in on the army of slaves she had apparently come across.

  Gryffon was stunned. “You had this information all along and you didn’t say anything to anyone? We could have warned the Ieldran while we were in Endlyfta.”

  “It’s not my problem,” Katya snapped at him, “and you didn’t ask.”

  “It’s everyone’s problem!” Gryffon was angry now and aware that his voice was reaching levels that could disturb Layna’s sleep, but Katya just glared back at him. He took a deep breath and exhaled it quickly, releasing his hands from the fists they had balled themselves into in a swift motion. “Alright, I am asking now. Do you have more information about this subject?”

  Katya continued to glare at him and he wondered if she would bother responding. After a moment’s hesitation, however, she did. “I know that they’re being controlled by use of a magic bracer, one that can limit or even completely block the use of magic, force you to obey commands, and even manipulate your thoughts. I don’t know who controls these bracers.” She looked disgusted, as if even talking about it left a bad taste in her mouth. He was again hit by the thought that there was more to this woman than she was letting on. “I also know that it can be removed if the subject is helped by an outside source. Inside, they don’t even know the extent that they are being controlled.” She explained more about the process of removing the bracer, though several times she referred to it as a ‘collar’ and the amount of emotion in her voice when she talked about it spoke volumes in and of itself.

  “Thank you.” He said simply when she was finished. The information could prove to be invaluable if they were able to get it to the right people in time. It would undoubtedly save many lives. He forced himself not to think about how much better it would have been if she had shared it with them a few weeks ago…

  Katya cut into his musing. “The Oracle sent us to the source of the river where we retrieved the sword Leoht which was used to kill the Dark King, whose bloodbeasts are returning, and the people are turning to a false god who some people believe is the same evil the Dark King claimed to be. Are we repeating history?”

  Gryffon glanced down at Layna. “Maybe she’ll have some answers for us when she wakes up.”

  “Maybe,” said Katya, but she didn’t sound very hopeful. Gryffon supposed it would be rather wishful thinking to assume that someone who had been in a coma would be able to answer any questions about what was happening. But Layna had said that there was something important she was supposed to remember. Stranger things certainly had been happening to them.

  *

  Nuko had been spending his time trying to piece together the last few thousand years by sifting through the host’s memories and thought he had figured out at least vaguely what had happened to him. When the Elders had become angry with him, he had the foresight to create a Bloodstone, similar to the essences that the three factions would leave behind in the Kiani Stones, but much more powerful than their puny little rocks. As he had feared, they had conspired to entrap him in a prison, thinking that some time in isolation would make him change his ways. Ha!

  His own memories of that time were very hazy, but he was not fully isolated because of the Bloodstone which allowed him limited access to the outside world. Without a being to host his essence, he was unable to do too much with just the stone. Therefore, he had to spend a fair amount of effort belittling himself with manipulating the humans, guiding the evolution of their species to better benefit him. Until they became strong enough to handle the tiny fraction of his power that was contained in the Bloodstone, they were useless to him.

  The Bloodstone had been found recently though, in the last couple hundred years, and he had found to his delight that they had succeeded in evolving enough that he had been able to attempt communication and had even succeeded in learning a bit about the world again. He could only scratch the surface, but even this was more than he’d been allowed in his prison and Nuko had been elated. Though Nuko had not been able to actually fully wake from the sleep of his prison, he had been able to instill more definite commands within the human and magically enhanced the man even in his half-aware state. Then he marked him so that those with his bloodline would be drawn to one another and propagate hopefully even stronger offspring until such time as the Bloodstone called to one who would be able to properly host him.

  Unfortunately, it appeared that some of his urgings hadn’t been interpreted quite the way that he had meant them and the man convinced himself that he was a god. Not unlike what this new host is doing…. The result had been what the humans called the Massacre which ultimately caused the man to be killed and Nuko to be forced back into his prison slumber.

  The fact that he had been sleeping at all disturbed him. Though it was his first time creating a Bloodstone, he had understood that he would be aware the whole time, if not able to manipulate events until such time as he was able to procure a host. He postulated that perhaps his peers had found out about the stone and put some sort of enchantment on him which caused his essence to slumber whilst his body was imprisoned, but if they knew about the stone he would have expected a harsher reaction. Therefore, he concluded that someone else was helping the humans. It would be in his best interest to find out who, or what.

  After the Massacre, the humans also had erected a barrier between where they now had two separate countries, Gelendan and Treymayne, which had effectively cut him off from realizing that the essences of his peers were still here until very recently. Because of this isolation, he had no way of knowing what degree of interference they still had upon this world. Without this information, the disturbing news that the women his host was so obsessed with were traveling towards the essences of his peers made him nervous to wait any longer to find his body.

  Though the Bl
oodstone had allowed him access to the outside world, it also left his body that much more vulnerable, and he didn’t know how they would react to finding out he’d been interfering with their precious humans again when he was supposed to be in isolation. Or, conversely, if they already knew, what they were doing with the humans to stop him.

  Unfortunately, all his efforts to simply replace the host had been unsuccessful and the man was resisting his urgings to hunt them down ever since he had come so close to making him kill them. The only thing he had managed to do was urge the man to start the war faster in hopes that it would either distract the humans into returning to their capital, or take over the area fast enough that they could be killed in combat. He worried that this wouldn’t be enough. He might be forced to use less savory means to accomplish his goals. Nuko mentally sighed.

  *

  Nathair jumped as a voice suddenly sounded in his head.

  -Human?-

  Nathair felt a wave of annoyance wash over him; it must be the alien presence that had been trying to manipulate his thoughts lately.

  “My name is Nathair. But you can call me Master, My Liege, or God. Who are you?” he asked it rudely, smiling a bit to himself, reminded of the days not that far gone when he had been known only as Master.

  -I am Nuko. The one you call the Sleeping God.- A feeling of extreme displeasure at having to speak to something so beneath him spread over Nathair, but he couldn’t tell whether it was his own distaste or that of the infiltrator.

  Nathair snorted. “I’m afraid you’re mistaken, because I am that god. I believe you are a leftover remnant of someone who was sucked into the Bloodstone before someone who could actually handle it came along,” he told the voice smugly. “I suggest that you stop clinging to this world and let yourself pass on to the next.” He felt a welling up of anger from within him and this time recognized it as the intruders.

  -This is not the case.- It inserted the feeling quite strongly onto his subconscious. -You have bonded with my Bloodstone, a vessel which carries a tiny portion of myself. I am indeed the origin of the stone. The vast power you feel that you have right now is the merest fraction of the power I hold in my rightful form, from which you are drawing out the tiniest amount. It is nowhere near my real power. And nowhere near what I could give you if you were to agree to help me.-

  “If you’re so powerful, why do you need my help?” Nathair felt the surge of anger once again, but it was quickly quelled, and he got the feeling that whatever it was was mentally taking a deep breath.

  -My peers, the ones you call the Three and others, locked me away in a prison many of your years ago. Before they had done so, I created the Bloodstone so that I might still interact with the outside world and form a partnership with a human who would help me find my imprisoned body and free me.-

  The close bond that Nathair shared with this being allowed him to recognize the subtle difference in the way that it described this ‘partnership with a human’ and he was quite sure that negotiating with the human was not the intended method.

  Nathair felt a shiver run down his spine, the surety of the voice was chilling, and he couldn’t help but wonder if it actually was…but his own thoughts were interrupted as it was still talking, -The two girls that you are intent upon collecting as your own may have already contacted those who put me in this prison and I am concerned that they may have been sent to harm my body.-

  Nathair’s mind suddenly felt as though knowledge had been dumped into it and he took a moment to sift through it. When the gods - who weren’t actually gods, but rather just dragons whose longevity and magical prowess made them seem that way - decided that it was time to leave the humans to their own devices, they left behind three stones, the Kiani Stones, which would help to guide them. Representatives from the three factions had put their essences into each of these stones so that they may still commune with the humans in times of need, but would be free to go other places. The source of the river where his girls had gone to was where the Kiani Stones had been hidden away. Is that why he had suddenly wanted to stop them from getting there?

  “If you are so all-powerful why would the threat of mere humans, that I can feel you hold in such contempt, be of any concern to you?”

  Nathair felt that if the being could have sighed it would have. -Unfortunately, when I created the Bloodstone, it inadvertently left my physical body vulnerable. While I can only tap into a tiny amount of my otherwise vast resources through the stone, my consciousness is tied up here, leaving my physical being prone. The Kiani Stones were made only for guidance and therefore do not require the dragon to put forth much effort into maintaining and using them, however, the Bloodstone that I created was meant for much more and needs that much more of my conscious self here with it. If my peers have seen fit to send the human girls to my physical body and destroy it, I would be helpless to stop them.-

  Nathair’s mind whirled and he smiled cruelly. “Well, so far you haven’t said too much to make me want to help you. I already have more power than I ever thought possible, and you’re saying that all I have to do to get you out of my head is allow my girls to destroy your body? Perhaps I’ll find it and take care of you myself.”

  He felt smug, but at the being’s next words he wasn’t sure if it was him that had felt it, the being, or both. -That would be unwise. As you have bonded with my stone, you have become my host.- The annoyance he felt he was sure was the being’s, and he felt a flash of the intruders thoughts: That it would have liked to have seen Nathair’s essence washed clean when he had ‘hosted’ the Bloodstone. Nathair shuddered again. -Therefore, our fates are entwined. If my body is destroyed, while it will take me longer than I care to spend regenerating, you will simply wink out of existence.-

  “Alright,” Nathair conceded unhappily, “You have my attention, though I am still skeptical that you are actually Nuko as you claim. Assuming for the moment that you are, however, and that my girls are heading towards your body, what are we to do about it?”

  His decision was met with a wave of approval, and Nuko told him of his plan…

  CHAPTER 2

  Layna didn’t wake until the next morning, but she looked much more refreshed than she had previously. Gryffon brought a bowl of broth over to her. “Good morning, sleepy head.”

  She grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m feeling much better though. I was really confused yesterday, but it’s getting a little clearer now.” Layna looked around the cave. It was just the two of them as Katya had gone out to hunt and Layna asked, “So who exactly is Katya?”

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Gryffon answered with a shrug, “she showed up the same day that you were poisoned and helped save your life, and since then has been adamant about helping to get you recovered.” He left out the part about Layna’s parents and the package, he wasn’t sure that she was ready to hear that quite yet. He also refrained from mentioning his reservations over Katya’s trustworthiness. Until he knew what she was hiding, he didn’t want to tarnish Layna’s opinion of her given the news she would be receiving from the woman.

  “I guess I owe her thanks then, huh?”

  “Owe who?” Katya asked, appearing in the entrance, her face shining from the misting of moisture she’d gotten by walking behind the waterfall to get there.

  “You,” Gryffon answered for Layna, “for the healing that you did. And I owe you my thanks as well for that and for helping bring her back.”

  Katya didn’t comment, but a look passed between them further solidifying Gryffon’s unease. “So do you remember the very important thing now?” she asked instead.

  Layna brought the bowl she had been sipping broth from away from her mouth and looked to be collecting her thoughts. “Yes, although I’m not one hundred percent sure that I understand it all.” She took a deep breath and looked a little embarrassed before adding, “And it might sound a little crazy.” Gryffon gave her a lopsided grin and reached out to squeeze her hand. She took it and held onto it to his pleasur
e. “Basically, those three stones allowed me to communicate with the gods - only they insist that they’re not gods, but simply beings who have been around for a very long time and have taken it upon themselves to help guide others when they are needed. Beings which we have termed dragons. Apparently they’ve been tied up with a problem of their own so they failed to notice a mistake they had made.”

  “Mistake?” Katya asked.

  “Yes, there was one god - dragon -, Nuko,” at Gryffon’s raised brow she acknowledged, “The Sleeping God, who wanted to stay and actually act as gods to the peoples that the dragons guided. But that wasn’t what their sacred creed says. They only step in if they feel that a species will do itself or others great harm if they don’t or if they are sorely needed for other reasons. They told me that our own species had destroyed our home-world so they cleansed this one with flame and brought us here to start again.”

  “Excuse me?” Katya’s voice was more than a little skeptical.

  “I know,” Layna said her tone indicating that she hardly believed it herself, “so much for all the priests’ interpretations of the ‘cleansing fires’ representing other things. Apparently it was really literally cleansed with fire,” she laughed. “And there’s more. They claim that we didn’t have magic before, but that the world they brought us to had,” she paused, at a loss for words, and swung her hands around in an all-encompassing motion, “chaotic amounts of it. They tamed a region for us and lived among us for a short while by their standards, though they mentioned many generations so I imagine it was actually some time, to make sure that we would be able to adapt to the magical environment. And we did; when they started seeing people with talent emerge - people who could control the ambient magic - they felt that we were ready to have them leave, that we would eventually learn to cleanse the rest of the world for ourselves. As they normally do, they chose three representatives to leave behind the Kiani Stones, that’s what they call them, which are tiny portions of the three chosen ones so that they could maintain a connection with our world even as they moved on to another. If the stewards of the stones felt the urging of the stone that their guidance was needed, they could devote a small amount of energy and help resolve the matter. That’s what the Word coming down the river is, it was only supposed to be extra guidance, they didn’t mean for it to turn into a worshiper-god relationship. In fact, they seemed quite embarrassed that I was so in awe of speaking with them.”