Daughter of Light (Follower of the Word Book 1) Read online

  “We discovered an old sanctuary just outside the White City. Actually, ‘abandoned’ is probably a more appropriate term. It was an Eldaran Sanctuary, built next to the waterfalls where the Eldarans had first entered the Lands. Ben and I poked around inside. There wasn’t much there, except one thing: along one wall, from floor to ceiling, were pictures made of colored glass. Not something we could take, of course. But to look at…”

  There was such awe in his voice that Nierne turned and looked at Father Reth.

  His expression was faraway. “It was so beautiful, Nierne. How the people of the White City could have forgotten such a place…” He shook his head and looked down. “I guess that is what happens when people become too familiar with sacred things. They become commonplace and forgotten.

  “Anyway, while we were in there, there was a groundquake. The ceiling came crashing down. Ben was unhurt, but a part of the roof hit me. Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a healing ward inside the city. It was there that I met Balint, a young healer at the time, and a Follower of the Word.”

  “Balint shared with me about the Word.” Father Reth laughed suddenly and shook his head. “All I knew of the Word at that point was that anything about Him sold for lots of gold.” Father Reth stepped over a fallen tree that lay across the path, then turned back to give Nierne a hand.

  “Since I had a broken leg,” Father Reth began again once they were walking down the path, “I ended up staying in the White City for a couple weeks. As I lay there, with Balint talking to me every day, I felt a burden of darkness inside me, a burden I had not felt before.

  “Oh, I knew the darkness was there,” Father Reth said, waving his hand. “But in the past, I had always shoved aside my guilty conscience. But sitting there in that small healing room, day in and day out, with nothing to do, I had a lot of time to think. My life stood before me, bleak and exposed. I couldn’t escape the truth Balint was sharing with me. And suddenly I wanted to be free of the darkness.

  “You know the rest of the story: I sought the Word and He freed me. And from that moment on, I knew I wanted to use the knowledge I had gained on my travels for a greater good than just my coinpurse. Ben didn’t understand. He continued his travels. But I went back to Thyra and joined the Monastery.”

  “Why the Monastery?” Nierne asked. “You could have found other ways to share your knowledge. You could have written scrolls, given lectures, taught at one of the academies…”

  “I guess it’s because I wanted to see the truth that had been shared with me preserved for others,” Father Reth said quietly. “At the Monastery, I could do that. And many of the scribes have benefited from my travel experiences.”

  Nierne thought for a moment. “Did you ever want to bond?” As part of the Monastery oath, every person entering that life had to choose to never bond with anyone—in order to be free to serve the Monastery until death.

  “No,” Father Reth said. “I’d had my chance a couple of times while wandering the Lands. By the time I arrived in Thyra, I had thought over my options and knew that bonding would never be for me.”

  “Why?”

  Father Reth turned toward Nierne. “Having second thoughts about your own oath?”

  “No.”

  “That was a quick answer.” Father Reth studied her for a moment. “You do know that you are free to leave the Monastery before taking your oath. You might find you want another life. You can serve the Word in many ways without being a scribe.”

  “I enjoy my work as a scribe.”

  “Are you sure it isn’t more?” Father Reth said softly.

  Nierne’s mouth tightened.

  Father Reth sighed and looked forward again.

  Nierne knew what he was thinking. A small part of her whispered that he was right. Nierne slammed that thought down just as it rose up. She wasn’t hiding in the Monastery. She really did enjoy her life there. She felt deep satisfaction in her work and loved reading about history and places and people. And the quiet life suited her. So why did the thought of living another life frighten her so much?

  She knew why.

  “Perhaps this trip will benefit you more than you know,” Father Reth said. “You will have an opportunity to see life outside the Monastery. Open your heart and your mind. And Nierne…” he said, his expression filled with compassion… “don’t be afraid.”

  • • •

  Nierne sat by the fire and thought on Father Reth’s words later that night. They had found the old stone outpost. It was still cold inside the small building, but at least it was dry. The fire spat and crackled as it ate the leaves and small twigs Father Reth had found scattered around inside.

  Nierne sighed, wrapping her arms around her legs. Father Reth was right: There was more to the Monastery than just her love of her work. Ever since she had been left at its gates years ago, it had become her security, her haven. A tower where she hid from the rest of the world.

  It was Father Reth who had helped her adjust to her new life all those years ago, which was probably why he understood her fear to leave. Outside those walls she had been forced to grow up much too fast for a young girl.

  Nierne tightened her grip on her knees as she remembered long nights sitting in the hallway while her mother did business on the other side of a thin wall. Of course, that was before the sickness had come—

  “Look what I caught for us.” Father Reth walked into the small room and held up something.

  “What is it?” Nierne squinted in the darkness.

  “A rabbit,” Father Reth said, digging around in his pile of sticks.

  Nierne looked at the lump again. It seemed that Father Reth had already skinned it. She felt her stomach turn at the thought.

  Minutes later, he had a makeshift spit set up over the fire, the rabbit securely fastened to it. It took longer for the smell to permeate the small room. One sniff and Nierne felt her stomach stop rolling and begin to growl. She couldn’t imagine trying to kill an animal to eat, but she was grateful that Father Reth knew how and that there would be something other than “dried” to eat tonight.

  Father Reth sat nearby, peering down at the map Ben had provided. “We still have a ways to go.”

  “A couple of weeks?” Nierne asked.

  Father Reth looked up thoughtfully. “Probably three to four.” He carefully rolled up the map.

  Nierne turned back toward the fire. “Do you think we’ll actually find Eldarans in the White City?” She knew it was question they both were asking themselves.

  Father Reth turned the spit a couple of times. “Well, if they still exist, I think there would at least be some knowledge of them there. As far as actually finding one, I don’t know.”

  At least he was honest. Nierne watched him as he continued to turn the spit, making sure the rabbit cooked evenly.

  Later that night, after licking greasy fingers and placing a few more dry sticks on the fire, they both crawled into their bedrolls. Outside, Nierne could hear the wind blowing.

  “Sounds like a storm is coming,” Father Reth said as he pulled up the top part of his bedroll. “Glad we have this old outpost to sleep in.”

  Nierne murmured something in reply followed by a large yawn. She couldn’t remember when she had felt this warm or comfortable. She rolled onto her side and curled into a tight ball.

  • • •

  “Nierne!”

  Nierne felt someone shaking her. “Wha- What?” she said, her mind still drugged with sleep.

  “Nierne, we need to get out of here,” Father Reth whispered, his voice tinged with fear.

  “Father Reth?” Nierne sat up and tried to clear her mind. There was a high pitch noise filling the room. It took her a moment to realize it was the storm outside. The wind sounded like banshees screaming.

  “We need to get out of here.”

  “Why?” she asked, slipping out of her bedroll. But Father Reth was already gathering their things, throwing them into the packs as fast as he could. Nierne scurr
ied to her feet and picked up her bedding, stuffing the bedroll into her pack with one hand.

  “Quick, follow me.” Father Reth headed toward the doorway.

  Nierne followed. Outside, the air whipped around her head and pulled at her clothing. With her free hand, she pulled her red curls away from her face.

  The sky was still dark. A half moon hung overhead, shedding its pale light on the rocky terrain. She could see tall dark trees half a league down the mountain. They bent and swayed in the violent torrent. Orange light lined the eastern horizon.

  Wait. Nierne tried to think. The wind screamed in her ears. Her hair tore from her hands and flew into her eyes. She grabbed the hair and pulled it back. Then it hit her.

  This was no storm.

  “Nierne, this way.”

  She could barely hear Father Reth over the wind. He motioned wildly with his hands. She hurried to his side. He grabbed her hand and began to run down the steep mountainside. Nierne tried to watch for rotting logs and bushes in the pale moonlight. The wind howled in her ears. She used her free hand to cover one ear.

  A couple of times she saw Father Reth glance back. She looked back once and saw nothing. She tried to ask what he was looking for, but the wind made her words impossible to hear.

  The third time, he stopped. Gripping her shoulder, he pulled her close. “Nierne, you’ve got to run!” he shouted.

  “Run? Run from what?” she shouted back. “And what about you?”

  “No time!” He shoved his pack into her hands.

  Nierne felt the hair on her arms rise. A shiver ran down her back. No, it couldn’t be—

  “They found us. I don’t know how, but the shadows found us.” Father Reth kept his hand on her shoulder. He steered her toward the east. Faint light had replaced the orange sky along the horizon.

  “Find them, Nierne. Find the Eldarans. And bring them back to Thyra.” Father Reth pulled her tightly into an embrace. “I always saw you as the daughter I never had,” he said, his words flying away on the wind.

  Fear filled her heart. "No wait! Father—”

  He kissed her cheek. “May the Word watch over you.” He shoved her forward. “Run!”

  “But—”

  He pointed east. “Run!”

  Nierne turned. She half ran, half stumbled down the steep mountain slope. Her hair flew around her face. The wind wrapped her cloak around her legs. She struggled to pull the cloak free. She tripped over a log and barely caught herself. Her knapsack slammed into her back. Her breath came in hard, labored pants.

  Dear Word, help us!

  Nierne couldn’t stand it anymore. She had to know what was happening to Father Reth. She staggered to a stop and looked back.

  Halfway up the mountainside stood Father Reth, his back toward her. Coming down to greet him was a large billowing cloud of black. It twisted and writhed like a hundred snakes made of smoke slithering down the mountain.

  “No!” Nierne screamed.

  Father Reth raised his arms. The black cloud split into smaller swirls. Tiny beads of red light shone from the shadows. They converged on Father Reth, churning around him, swallowing him. He disappeared from her sight.

  Nierne scrambled few steps up the mountain. Tears blurred her eyes. No, this couldn’t be happening. Father Reth…

  The shadows began to join again into a cohesive black mass.

  Fear dowsed her grief.

  Nierne turned and ran. The wind howled. It seemed to grab her knapsack and pull. She ran harder. The sun rose before her. She could see the forest below, the trees covered in golden morning light.

  The shrieking grew louder around her. Her lungs burned, and her side throbbed. She didn’t dare look back.

  Suddenly the ground began to shake. Nierne screamed. She was thrown to the side. Her legs caught on a rotted log. The weight of her pack hurled her forward. She fell face first…

  Crack.

  Intense pain bloomed across her cheek. Nierne lay in the dark, stunned. Her body vibrated with the groundquake. She tried to grip the rock beneath her. Slam. Her head hit the rock again. Stars danced across her eyes. Slam. She felt like a pebble bouncing across the back of a wagon.

  Nierne wrapped her arms around her head and curled up into a ball. She closed her eyes and shook with the ground.

  Slowly the vibrations lessened. A moment later, they stopped.

  Nierne lay still. The only sound she could hear was her breathing. The air smelled like damp soil. Cautiously, she turned her head and glanced up. Dirt, roots, and rocks made a wall around her. The sky was a pale blue. Tree branches and grass grew at the top of the ravine she had fallen into.

  Slowly Nierne lifted her body, regretting the action instantly as bile filled her throat. Her head throbbed, and she could feel the side of her face tingling. Flashes of light filled her vision, but were quickly replaced with darkness.

  Nierne fell back across the rock. The darkness expanded, drawing her in. She fought it. Taking a few gulps of air, she again raised her head, this time more slowly.

  Her head still hurt, but it seemed her stomach would let her be. Nierne moved up to a sitting position. She held her head in her hands and waited for her mind to clear.

  She took a deep breath. A moment later, she stood. She blinked and looked around for a way out of the ravine. A long thick root stuck out of the ground a couple of feet away.

  Nierne grabbed the root and hauled herself up. Her foot found an indent in the dirt side. She looked up and grabbed another root, heaved, and placed her foot where her hand had been moments before. After a few more roots, she hauled herself over the ravine’s edge, panting.

  She lay on the ground, catching her breath and realized she had left Father Reth’s pack below. She groaned. It would have to stay there. There was no way she was going back down for it.

  Nierne slowly stood. She brushed the dirt off of her pants and shirt. She began to adjust her own pack and stopped. She lifted her eyes and stared at the mountainside.

  Trees were splintered, uprooted or halfway buried in the ground. Some with their roots up in the air, others submerged so far that only the tips could be seen. Farther up the mountain, everything lay flat or mixed with boulders. It reminded Nierne of when Father Karl would turn the dirt over for his garden. Only on a massive scale.

  The outpost was gone, the pass was gone. It even seemed that the mountains were gone—

  Wait. Nierne stared at up the mountain. Where there should have been two mountaintops, there was one. One massive wall of a mountain. And the pass that she and Father Reth had crossed the day before—that’s what was gone. It was as if the two mountaintops had been pushed together so tightly that they had become one.

  Nierne just stood there, her mouth open. A shiver swept across her spine. What kind of power could move mountains? She knew. She had read about that kind of power. Only One could, with just His voice. The Word.

  She took a step forward, then stopped. Where were the shadows?

  Nierne clutched her cloak close to her body and looked around. Nothing moved, not even a blade of grass. She took a few more steps up the mountainside. Had everything…? No, it couldn’t be. Nierne stepped around a splintered trunk, her insides wound tightly inside her. The thought flashed across her mind again. Had everything been…buried?

  Nierne jumped back and looked down. The ground beneath her boots was solid. She looked up at the ruined face of the mountain. Nothing left. It really did seem as if a large hand had shoved the two mountains together into one, burying and upturning trees and rocks and anything else in its way. Including the pass. And including…

  Nierne began to run up the mountainside. “Father Reth!” she called out, quietly at first, then louder. “Father Reth!”

  She ran everywhere, looking under fallen logs, checking every boulder. But there was so much debris, and the green cloaks she and Father Reth had been wearing would make it even harder to find him.

  The sun slowly made its way across the sky and still she
continued to look, though the feeling of despair was rapidly filling her heart. “Father Reth!” Nierne called out again, this time weakly as she sank to her knees.

  “Oh, no,” she whispered. She covered her face with her dirt-stained hands and sobbed. Deep down, she knew the truth. Father Reth had been buried as well. He had stayed there to keep the shadows focused on him so that she could escape.

  A swell of emotions ripped through her: grief, anguish…and rage. Nierne brought her hands away from her face and clenched them tight. How could He? How could the Word have done that? How could He have buried Father Reth, one of His own Followers? And Father Reth—

  The truth hit her as hard as the rock she had fallen upon. He had known. The moment Father Reth had told her to run, he knew he would go down with the shadows, in order to save her. And he had embraced that.

  “What am I supposed to do now?” Nierne cried, looking upward. “I have no idea where to go or what to do.”

  Find the Eldarans. Bring them back to Thyra.

  Father Reth’s words echoed inside her mind. But how could she find the Eldarans? It was Father Reth who was supposed to lead them to the White City. It was Father Reth who was supposed to find the Eldarans. She had come along for support, not to become the leader. And now she was alone.

  You are not alone, a voice whispered.

  Nierne recoiled from the voice. She was still too overcome with grief and anger, her heart too raw, to acknowledge the small voice trying to speak inside.

  Instead, she picked up her pack and, with shaky legs and weepy eyes, began her descent of the mountain.

  One thing Nierne knew: If she did find the Eldarans, they would not be coming back to Thyra this way. The path between Thyra and the White City had been shut forever.

  14

  Rowen slowly sat up, blinking her eyes as she tried to get her bearings. Where was she? How long had she been out? An hour, a day? Her sense of time felt warped.

  She brought a hand to her head, trying to shake off the last bits of fatigue that still clung to her mind and body. Her eyes fell to her lap, where a white sheet was draped across her legs.