Pursued - Entire book

Chapter 3

Klair woke to his mother's heavy breathing as she lay in a cot near his bed. He needed to use the chamber pot and the illness for using magic was now behind him. Though he was a house guest of Maken's he knew where to go. He headed for the back porch. He padded to the door, still a little weak.

He hurried down the hall to the chamber pots which were stored on the back porch.

Once done, he was returning to his room when a flicker of a flame caught his attention from one of the rooms. Its door was slightly ajar as the latch hadn't caught. The light of the sputtering candle dimly illuminated the room as he entered. The chamber was filled with rolled parchments on shelves and papers scattered across a large table.

It was Elder Maken's study.

Klair bent down to blow out the flame and noticed a large map. The nation of Anvil spread across the wide table and he paused to study it. The country of Fist was to the north. The nation of Blade was to the east.

Studying the map Klair thought, Anvil is a beautiful land.

Throughout his youth, he'd visited various cities which contained separate friends and mentors. Happiness spoiled because of what he was. As a Norm, he could be a real part of Anvil. He imagined himself married with kids and being a famous wood crafter like Bejja, his favorite mentor. His love of the land merely increased the longer he spent amongst its woods and rivers.

He shouldn't be here.

From the small pieces of curved papers laying across the table it appeared that Maken was communicating with numerous people. A pigeon feather lay amongst the papers. Klair's eyes widened as a suspicion rose within him. Why would Maken be corresponding with so many unless...

There were a certain number of leaders of Anvil, a secret council that advised cities around the country about various problems. Members of the Elderan were secret so they could travel about the land and make personal observations. . They shared edicts by a stamped seal on grey parchment distributed by pigeon to various villages. "I've got to tell Tarrant," Klair murmured. "His uncle is an Elderan."

They had been the ones to enlist the Kapawn wizards to help Anvil fight their last boarder war against Anvil to the north. The men and women of the Elderan most likely owned the most pigeons. They used them for correspondence between provinces.

Maken had his hand on the pulse of our nation.

"So what are they talking about?"

Klair picked up one of the pieces of paper reading, our neighbors refuse to help us and our people are getting sick. Qwatan signed at the bottom.

He picked up another. We have an infestation of snakes that are more aggressive than ever before. We've lost several children. We have to constantly monitor our homes and business. Signed Penostat.

This is our third year that the gnu migration has never reached us. Without the necessary source of meat and another bad year of crops. We're struggling, signed Sescriss.

A fourth, the city elders of Turnmoss are at a loss of what to do or what is causing it.

Klair looked at the map, where is Turnmoss? Making him realize he wasn't as familiar with the continent as well as he thought. So many were starving, what are the Elderan doing about it?

He shook his head.

What was causing so many and different kinds of problems? There were over a dozen notes. Yellow markers were positioned at different areas of the map, including the cities in the notes. He searched the map for the city of Petta. He was relieved to see that a marker was not attached to it.