Ceridor (Danubian #4)

29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Six weeks later—the summer solstice

June 21 st , 2449

Johann

The morning of the summer solstice, Peter and I were walking the hallways together and working on our memory techniques when we heard someone singing outside.

Where is the call, the solemn sparrow's song?

For Johnny Appleseed, Johnny Appleseed?

To the rivers long, and to the mountains strong,

Walks Johnny Appleseed, Johnny Appleseed.

Where the heavens lay, and where the children play,

'Neath the forest's gaze, those blessed sower's days,

And in the starry night, until the morning light,

Dreams Johnny Appleseed, Johnny Appleseed!

Peter grabbed my arm. "It's Awariye!"

The windows were open and we leaned out. A beautiful man around our age waved up at us. Next to him stood an enormous warrior clearly serving as a bodyguard, but as I took in his features I recognized them from two years ago.

"You're Igor," I said.

That got his attention. His dark brows rose and he blinked at me, crossing his arms. Maybe he didn't remember me but that was fine.

"Let's head downstairs," said Peter.

We whipped around to find Ceridor right behind us, a finger to his lips. "Discuss nothing while we're here. Wait till we get on the road."

"Okay," I promised.

We grabbed our packed bags and left the monastery as a group of seven: myself and my partner; Corbi, Marit and Peter; Awariye and Igor.

We made it through the magical barrier and past the village, then started climbing into the mountains. The golden sun slanted through the trees as we entered the deep forest. Ceridor nodded back at me that I could speak now, and Awariye bumped shoulders with him in jest.

Immediately, I turned to Igor who was walking behind Awariye. "I'm so sorry to hear about Kristoff. Two years ago, you and he held me in a tent for a bit when Ulbrecht took West Danube."

Igor's hazel eyes widened and he finally recognized me. "Prince Ott."

"Just Johann now," I corrected.

"Johann then," he said. His eyes were no longer aggrieved as I might have imagined at my mention of his former lover and shield mate. Instead his gaze settled on Awariye and his expression changed to calm and contentment.

"Kristoff guarded my back in battle," he said. "His spirit stayed a while to make sure I wasn't leaving myself unguarded before he moved on."

"I am going to the capital after this, to take the High King up on his offer to let me train and fight with his men," I said. "If you still need someone at your back, then I will prove myself."

He clapped a hand on my shoulder and gave me a nod. "Good. Let's see what you can do."

The path narrowed and we fell silent as we got into single file, but Awariye's cheerful voice had me looking up. "Bello!"

Suddenly an enormous dog bounded right into our group. He jumped on Peter, slobbering in his face, then tried to do the same to the rest of us, but by then we were ready. We encircled him with our hands out so he couldn't pounce on us or knock us over. Eventually he calmed down enough from our entreaties of "Easy boy, easy" that I was able to get a good look at him: as large as a Great Dane but with such a wrinkled face he surely was mixed with something else.

Bello jumped into my arms. I hugged the big goof and we became instant friends.

"He was waiting in the forest for us?" I asked once Bello bounded ahead on the path.

Ceridor chuckled, his beautiful blue eyes twinkling. "We're going to where he is."

That sounded secret enough that I held back from asking for more. Ceridor had explained to me before we arrived at the Diana Monastery that Wren—the monk who was the current keeper of the lanterns—was planning to meet us on the summer solstice, and that Awariye and Igor would come with him. We had crossed now back into Danubian territory, and with the arrival of the dog we were surely going to Wren.

Then a soft voice drifted down the path. "Hush, Bello. You make so much noise, honey."

A small castle ruin appeared among the trees, and at the top of the path stood a hooded man bent over and loving on his dog, every bit the image of a wizard secluded away in the forest.

Igor circled the ruin while the rest of us came up to the wizard, who pulled his hood back to reveal he wasn't much older than I was. He had floppy light brown hair and tan skin, but what arrested me was a strange multicolored flicker I caught in his eyes. I blinked, but it was still there, so I couldn't be imagining it.

"This is Johann," said Ceridor.

The wizard smiled and extended his hand. "Wren of Helvetica. We didn't know Ceridor was hiding away a boyfriend somewhere."

A bit embarrassed, I shook his hand but then scratched the back of my neck, searching for the easiest explanation. "We're childhood friends."

Awariye cooed and Ceridor swatted him.

"Want to see them?" Wren quipped, waggling his brows conspiratorially.

He led us into the castle ruin. The small structure had a lofted ceiling as if it were built to be some kind of bell tower, but once Wren opened the door, I knew why they were using this space.

On a large wooden table stood seven bronze bowls with wire netting over them that allowed them to be carried. Windows were staggered up the walls, facilitating air circulation. That was definitely a good thing, considering how overwhelming the presence of the seven fires was, and how aggressively they sucked up all the oxygen in the space.

"Are they evil?"

I hadn't realized I'd whispered the question aloud, rather than just thinking it, until I heard my lover's swift intake of breath. Bringing my gaze back down from the high ceiling, I caught Wren looking at the lanterns with fire dancing in his gaze, and Marit appraising me with concern.

"Do they feel evil to you?" asked Marit.

Hesitating a moment, I recognized fear in my chest and belly, in reaction to the strong presence. "I don't know. But should I really be here? I want to claim my birthright and become a regional petty king. Could this power corrupt me..."

"You clearly sense the power," Wren conceded. "Can you see anything else?"

I relaxed my eyes and tried to imagine that I could see Dunu here with us. Then immediately I shut that thought down. I'd only been thinking of her to try to summon my etheric vision, but if Dunu had nefarious intentions with dispersing the beaded rosaries and having them lit with candles, then I did not want to accidentally alert her to the lanterns' location. She was clearly not human, and since she was only slightly verbal I did not know whether she was able to sense our thoughts or imagined images if they were generated clearly.

But then my eyes gave me the answer. The presence billowing off the table congealed into a pale flickering orange around the actual flames.

"The fires are larger than the physical flames," I said, "at least four or five times larger."

Ceridor nodded, and I let out an exhalation in relief. So he could see it, too.

Wren smirked. "They're larger than even that, but to answer your question, I don't personally think they are necessarily evil. There are gods behind these symbols, and gods have no obligation to adhere to human conceptions of good and evil. Rather they likely stand above such a polarity and their thoughts and motivations are only things we can guess at."

It unnerved me that they were out here in a simple structure in the woods. "Why not keep them somewhere more secure?"

"I actually keep them for most of the year in a hut up in the mountains, but once the snows close the passes, I need to be down in the capital or I'll freeze to death. Awariye and I tried keeping them in Ulbrecht's castle in their own chapel, but when the power comes down, it ricochets off the stone walls and is absorbed by anything nearby that's...squishy."

That choice of words shook me out of my fear. My lover and I chuckled when Marit slung an arm around Wren's shoulders and touched his forehead to Wren's, saying, "And if that squishy thing is your brain , then what, my friend?"

Wren laughed. "Then I absorb the power into my body and brain."

The happy moment popped like a bubble on water, but its legacy served to lift my spirits. The two monks separated and Wren once again addressed me, though he stayed in Marit's side-hug. "The power that comes down when Uli fights has to be carefully funneled into the world, or else it just flies everywhere. It feels like trying to direct a raging river. With some experimentation, Awariye and I have found a few things that work. It's critical that the lanterns be near thick, lush forest whenever Uli goes into battle, so the soil can absorb the energy that comes into the material world."

I nodded, still unwilling to come in past the doorway, though thankfully Ceridor stayed right there with me so I didn't feel weird about it.

Ceridor

Every time I came into the presence of the lanterns, they appeared differently to me. Each time, they were more vivid, brighter, louder, larger.

I contemplated my words, choosing them very carefully. "Wren, if ever the power were to turn and go from how it feels now, to something unequivocally evil...would you know how to stop it?"

Thankfully Wren seemed to genuinely consider the question, scrunching his brows and pursing his lips. "If it's bad enough we'd be willing to invite a curse from the gods for abandoning their symbols, sure. There are ways to shut it down—just do the opposite of what we have been doing to encourage the flow. If nothing else, we take them somewhere far away from any village and bury them."

"There are dead zones in these lands," I added, shaking from the memory of passing by such a place. "Spiritual dead zones of such pain and grief that no humans would live nearby, though nature has grown over them and will slowly rehabilitate the pain left there. We could bury them there, decrease the chance of them being found."

Marit chimed in. "If the historical texts in the library are accurate, those dead places are from the Second World War, sites of mass extermination in the twentieth century."

"That's terrible," Johann whispered, making me wonder what version of our far-back history he'd learned as a sheltered prince.

I nodded to Marit, guessing that he was right.

"So we know what we'll do if things take a turn," said Wren, "but until then, I want to build a group of beloved and trusted people around these lanterns who can step in to take my place should Fate take me before this is over. Awariye has already experienced these gods directly, just as I have. Marit, I hope you're around enough that you can also."

Marit nodded. "That's one of many reasons why Corbi, Peter, and I are moving to the Danubian capital. Ulbrecht is opening doors for us to build on what we've learned at Diana Monastery. I've never been as theurgically inclined as you, Wren, but I also never thought I'd be establishing a training center for warrior monks allied with a Danubian High King either. Corbi is excited about establishing his clinic"—he glanced at his lover, who nodded confirmation—"and he's thrilled that Ulbrecht has promised the funds for it, so easily removing the hardest part of that process. And Peter is still searching for a path he wants to dedicate himself to."

"I want to help with the lanterns if I can," Peter chimed in. "I want to see whether the visions I've seen are possible dreams for us in the future."

Johann shivered and I wrapped my arm around his hip, pulling him into my side. He seemed to be staring into space, deep in thought, though also in the vague direction of the table of lanterns.

"What say you, Ceridor?" asked Wren.

"About?" I asked; I'd rather have him clarify than assume.

Those twinkling lights still danced in Wren's eyes. I couldn't tell if they were getting more prevalent with time, or if my vision was just sharpening in the same way that the lanterns changed each time I met them. Awariye thought the power that came through heightened a person's capabilities, whatever those happened to be. He said his memory techniques came more easily, for example, and Wren thought he felt closer to the gods each time.

But Marit worried that the same function might work in the negative, that if the power came through a rageful person, it could push them to become violent.

"Would you be willing to train with the lanterns?" Wren asked. "I imagine you'd be capable of it, with your experience, and from what I know of you."

I glanced at Johann to find him watching me, an unreadable expression on his face. I saw a future where this power became so strong it slipped the leash and exploded out of our control. This poor, desolate place that had suffered from invasion and turmoil for so long...I did not want such a dire fate to come to pass.

I saw Johann's fear and imagined him as a regional king supporting Ulbrecht and allied with Magnus. Thinking of my love for this tender, sweet man, my answer became clear.

"I would step in, if it was to protect Johann," I said simply, knowing that my beloved fighting under the High King meant it would be protecting Ulbrecht, too.

Marit hummed, then yipped when Wren poked him in the side.

Johann cupped the back of my neck and pressed his forehead to mine, closing his eyes. "May it never come to that, love."

"I know," I answered, closing my eyes too. "May the bright gods bless us, if they so choose."

"Indeed," concurred Wren. "If we at all can, may we manage to live in peace."