The Road To Kalbakar, Wyrms of Pasandir #1

CHAPTER 13 - A GREATER DANGER (Part 2)

They climbed through the hole back into the house. The two dogs came at them, eyeing them toothily, but Amaj was there and they just circled them, wagging their tails.

'Stay,' he said. 'Guard the house.'

'Will they be all right?' Eskandar asked.

'We never feed them. They're half-wild and used to catching their own meals. Plenty of rabbits around.' Amaj patted their flanks and they growled ecstatically.

I wouldn't touch them without wearing full armor, and even then, Naudin thought. But of course, I'm a mentalist, not a hero.

Amaj wiped his tear-streaked face with the back of his hand. 'My brother will send someone to take care of things.' He turned and went outside.

The early dawn colored the sky dark blue, but everything else was still in darkness.

'We must talk,' Eskandar said. 'I need more information. Tell me about your people, who you are and what's going on.'

Amaj's reddened eyes studied him. 'You really don't know?'

'I told you, I was four when they took me away from here. I remember little.'

'We're Ma'aweshi,' Amaj said. 'The old tales have it we came across the mountains to the east. I never believed there was anything beyond the mountains.'

'There is,' Eskandar said. 'Quite a lot, actually.'

'Is there? More people like them?' He waved at Kellie and Naudin.

'Many thousands,' Naudin said. 'We're not freaks, bud. Kellie is a Kell; they live to the southeast. My people are Jentakans, from across the sea.'

'Sea? What's that?'

Naudin sought an example. 'You know what a lake is?'

'No.'

'A river? A brook?'

'Brook. Water running from the mountain to the valley.'

'Right. Imagine a brook as large as all the mountains together. That's a sea.'

'You're crazy,' Amaj said. 'There isn't that much water.'

'Boy oh boy, are you in for a surprise,' Eskandar said. 'We'll show you. But not now. So you and I are Ma'aweshi.'

The lordling scowled at him. 'You?'

Eskandar gripped his arm and held his own next to it. 'The same,' he said. 'The red tone in it makes us special. Vanhaari and Unwaari are just plain dull gray.'

Naudin laughed at that. 'Score one over the orphan folks.'

Eskandar grinned back. 'They are dull people,' he said. 'I must've been born somewhere in these reaches. Where did this Kambish fellow live?'

'Wyrmcaller Kambish was my father's advisor. He had his own tower in Kalbakar Keep, the family castle.' Amaj clenched his fists. 'We lost it all when the monks came.' Then he gasped and looked around him.

'Don't worry; nobody can hear you,' Naudin said. 'Unless they are jinn.'

'No jinn,' Jem said. 'I would feel them. They lived in Nanstalgarod, you see. All of us are... were sensitive to their presence.'

'That explains why you knew. I'm sorry about the stopper,' Naudin said.

Jem sighed. 'I probably should have told you. It locks me inside, awake. Not a pleasant sensation. Leave it off; then I can get out, hear and mindspeak.' She looked around at the others. 'Don't you people feel a jinn presence?'