James Barclay - Rise of the TaiGethen

Onelle put her head in her hands.

‘Auum, he was wild. He was unshaven, he stank like he’d run all the way from Ysundeneth without pause and he was weak from hunger and thirst. He should have collapsed but there was something in him, driving him on. He brought the Il-Aryn together, and he gave this extraordinary oration. It lasted for an hour, maybe more, and we all sat and listened though so much of what he said was little more than ravings; nonsensical mutterings. Half the time I wasn’t sure if he was talking to us or talking to his other self. I have never seen anything like it.’

Auum nodded. It sounded like a continuation of his meanderings outside the city a few days before.

‘He’d been talking to Garan,’ said Auum. ‘Something got so far inside him he couldn’t shake it. He’s descending fast, isn’t he?’

‘Is he? I don’t know, Auum.’

‘You’re going to explain that, I hope,’ said Auum. ‘Because from where I’m standing he’s a menace, pure and simple.’

Onelle sighed. ‘I know you and he don’t see eye to eye but I’ve spent a great deal of time with him during the years since his return. We’ve studied together, worked together and talked endlessly about the Il-Aryn and how best we can harness it for the good of us all.

‘He’s passionate to the point of zealousness and he’s given to flights of fancy, but more than that, he’s a genius. Don’t scoff, Auum, because you don’t know, you don’t see. He believes Ix is the rising god in our pantheon and that the Il-Aryn are the bedrock of our future.’

Auum’s heart missed a beat. ‘I see. The days of the Ynissul are over, are they?’

Onelle stopped and Auum was surprised to see the frustration in her expression.

‘No, Auum, you’re missing the point. Yniss will for ever be the father of us all, but we have to evolve. Man is here with his magic and we have to be able to fight fire with fire or we will fall. Magic has been awakened within us. In some threads it will remain dormant but in others it will burst into brilliant life and we have to be able to harness it. Ix is undeniably in the ascendant and you have to face that. Embrace it. Magic will be the salvation of the elven race.’

‘Really.’ Auum raised his eyebrows and gestured in the direction of the River Ix. ‘There are thousands of men in the forest right now and magic will not save us from them. Takaar would do much better to refine his fighting skills and join the TaiGethen. If we can repel them, then we can talk about where our future lies.’

‘You cannot stop what is happening,’ said Onelle. ‘Why can’t you see that?’

‘No, I can’t stop it. But our enemies can. Right now we have no magic, and so we need to fight in the way we always have.’ Auum walked on a few paces. ‘I need to know that he is not going to cause any more problems. The Ynissul are safe and hidden, which is something. But Takaar has taken what little magical force we do have and run off with it. What exactly was this genius raving about? And why didn’t you go with him?’

Onelle managed a brief smile. ‘You know very well that my travelling days are long done. I will never leave this temple.’

She stopped and Auum could see she was nervous, uncertain about what to say next.

‘You began by describing a lunatic to me but you’ve just been painting a picture of some sort of tortured genius. I understand your loyalty, but it seems to me you’re confused about whether you want to follow him or warn people away from him. So tell me what he said.’

Onelle wiped her hands on her leggings. Her beautiful oval eyes sparkled with moisture and she had to clear her throat twice before she spoke. ‘I love Takaar. I love what he has brought us, though I have often struggled with his methods. When he ran in, he had no time for anything but taking our Il-Aryn adepts with him. He called them all teachers and said their role was not to be that of pioneers. He said we’d been sailing the wrong rivers and that others would provide what we lacked. He said Ix had been laughing at him, but that he had the answers now.

‘After that, he began to mumble. I heard something about a gift, how time would wait for the just and something else that, I admit, was really strange.’

‘Which was?’

‘He was talking to his other self. I know because he was looking to his right and not at us. And he was getting angry. He said that they were after him but he wouldn’t let them get him. Then he laughed at something and said that not even Shorth was fast enough.’

‘Who do you think he was talking about?’

Onelle shrugged. ‘I thought it was you, the TaiGethen.’

‘He flatters himself.’ Auum didn’t feel the need to go any further. ‘But why on earth did the adepts go with him? I’d have been running in the opposite direction.’

Onelle frowned as if the answer should have been obvious.

‘Because he asked them to.’

‘Could they really not see through him? Where’s he taken them and what does he think they’re going to do? There is at least one human army in this forest, after all.’

‘He’s looking for other threads than the Ynissul with active Il-Aryn potential. Presumably the Ixii are high on his agenda, though not one of them has shown the slightest potential so far. He didn’t say where he was going, but there’s really only one possibility, isn’t there? He has to be going to Katura.’

As soon as Onelle began to speak, Auum felt a hollow fear open up inside him. And the moment she mentioned the home of the free elves, the true scale of the unfolding disaster was made plain to him.

‘No wonder they didn’t strike here,’ he whispered. ‘They didn’t need to.’

‘Auum?’

‘He’s been betrayed,’ said Auum. ‘He’s going to lead them straight to Katura. We’ve got to stop him or he’ll bring about the death of us all.’

Takaar should have been easy to track. Or rather, the tracks of those in his charge should have shouted louder than a troop of howler monkeys seeking mates.

Fifteen cells were engaged in the search, yet after two days they had found no trace whatever. Not a fading water-filled boot print; not a broken vine or scratched tree trunk. Not a dead campfire, nor a scrap of cloth or evidence of elven defecation. Takaar had to be leading them south, but even if he had taken them across to the Ix or towards the other great rivers Orra and Shorth, the Tais should have seen some evidence of it on the ground.

It was as if Takaar and the adepts had disappeared into thin air.

Auum knew that it smacked of desperation but his climb above the canopy was made with a last lingering hope of spotting stray smoke. The land rolled away north back towards Aryndeneth and Ysundeneth and smoke smudged the landscape. The greatest concentration of it was away towards the Ix where the human army was moving along the course of the river, presumably tracking the elf that he could not.

Up in the sky, human mages could be seen as specks among the great eagles and soaring birds that graced the domain of Gyal. Clouds were gathering from the east where more smoke was evident, signifying more enemies moving deep into the forest. Corsaar would put a number on their strength when he reported.

Yet to the south, where the hand of Yniss had plucked at the earth to forge valley, mountain, ridge and rise, there was nothing. Its beauty was wholly undisturbed.

‘Where are you, Takaar?’

Auum’s ears pricked and opened fully, sampling the familiar sound behind and to his left. He listened as it approached, not turning his head. Instead, Auum stood, his feet locked to the very highest bough, his body straight and in perfect balance while the wind picked at his clothes. He stretched his arms out to either side and breathed deep.