The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' Read online

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  The Tessellation Saga

  Book 2

  The One

  By

  D. J. Ridgway

  ***

  The Tessellation Saga

  Copyright © D. J. Ridgway 2013

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, scanned, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes without the permission of the author. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own free copy at Smashwords.com. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously

  Contains Adult Reading Material

  ***

  Dedications

  For Gillian and Simon

  ***

  Table of Contents

  The Story so Far…

  Chapter 1 - Seekers

  Chapter 2 - The Village Green

  Chapter 3 - Fire Ants

  Chapter 4 - Murder

  Chapter 5 - The Heart of the Piece

  Chapter 6 - Tea

  Chapter 7 - Toby Reaches Branton

  Chapter 8 - Gideon’s Relapse

  Chapter 9 - Young Jed Leaves the Company

  Chapter 10 - Varen Meets His Twin

  Chapter 11 - Jedadiah Bleeds

  Chapter 12 - The Twins Talk

  Chapter 13 - Several Stitches

  Chapter 14 - The Branton Road

  Chapter 15 - Young Jed Grieves

  Chapter 16 - Mayan awakens

  Chapter 17- Gath Laughs

  Chapter 18 - Tales Told of Slaves

  Chapter 19 - Gath Leaves Devilly

  Chapter 20 - The Latticework Coffin

  Chapter 21 - The Clearing

  Chapter 22 - Tom and Selda Hollins

  Chapter 23 - Blue

  Chapter 24 - Gath Reaches Green Home

  Chapter 25 - Frustration

  Chapter 26 - The Valley

  Chapter 27 - Arotia

  Chapter 28 - More Frustration

  Chapter 29 - Boys Become Men

  Chapter 30 - More Tales Told

  Chapter 31 - The Sentient Crystal

  Chapter 32 - Sonal Returns Home

  Chapter 33 - The Crystal Rages

  Chapter 34 - Gath Feels the Magic

  Chapter 35 - Gath Meets His Son

  Chapter 36 - Lessons Continue

  Chapter 37 - Mayan Is Lonely

  Chapter 38 - Medim Despairs

  Chapter 39 - The Man in the Mirror

  Chapter 40- Into the Gateway

  Chapter 41 - A Final Battle

  About the Author:

  Excerpt from MeGath: Book 3 of ‘The Tessellation Saga.’

  The Story so Far…

  A young, heavily pregnant girl with an arrow lodged firmly in her back flees through a fierce storm across a dense forest. An age-old wolf leads Jedadiah Green, a hermit living in the forest to her, she dies but not before telling the hermit, ‘save my baby.’

  Gideon Green has grown up as a woodsman’s son who wants nothing more than to wed his fiancée Mayan and stay beside his beloved forest. On the eve of Mayan and her twin’s eighteenth birthday, Gideon gives them both a gift, a small gemstone necklace he has made with the help of Sonal, a family friend and mage. As Gideon cuts the leather ties for Jed’s stone, he inadvertently cuts his hand and in a moment of madness, Jed takes the knife and cutting his own hand takes Gideon’s bloody hand in his, thus sharing their blood and making them blood brothers.

  Jed leaves shortly after to join the army in Devilly, the capital of Derova and be a king’s man under King Gath. During a parade, Gath feels the power in Jed’s shared blood and begins an investigation.

  Meanwhile a captured prisoner from the Bleak, an area of Derova that Gath knows well is brought before Gath, for questioning. He finds an intriguing tattoo across the prisoners back and harvests the skin to hang it in a frame, the prisoner himself, weak and ill escapes with the help of Lemba, one of the king’s body slaves.

  Jed meets and falls in love with the silent girl and endeavours to find out about her but after the company receive orders to find the escaped prisoner, his search for the girl is cut short. After weeks of searching and in the foulest of weather, Jed collapses on the back of an old cart. The owner of the cart takes him in and for her own reasons cannot inform the authorities that she has him. Lying in a soft warm bed Jed begins to recover and dreams of seeing his friend Sonal.

  Toby Hollins is also a villager from Green Home and is taken to see Gath for starting rumours about the image on the coins of the realm, ‘Gids,’ he calls the coins, telling everyone that Gideon Green is the ‘Spit out o’ the king’s mouth.’ Intrigued, Gath performs a magic spell using Toby’s blood and memories to see this Gideon Green and at once realises that Gideon is his son. He wants Gideon back, wants the power he has harnessed in his blood and he makes Toby a sergeant giving him an elite corps of troopers with the order to bring Gideon in. ‘I don’t care what you have to do to get him, but get him,’ the king says.

  Lemba sitting on some cushions in the room where Gath creates his spell overhears and realises that the man Toby has been told to find is Jed’s brother, in shock she accidently knocks over an ornament bringing Gath’s back attention to her and he gives Lemba to Toby as a gift, ‘after your mission is complete,’ he says. As a reminder of what is to be his, he pulls a thick swatch of Lemba’s hair from her head and magically fashions a silver braided necklace that twists and turns of its own accord in time with Lemba’s own hair when the two are close together.

  After Sonal has a vision of the brother he thought had lost years ago, he seeks out Jedadiah in the forest to tell him what has happened. Sonal explains he ‘saw’ Varen with young Jed and Jedadiah invites him to accompany the family to Branton, a town three days away from Green home. From there he says Varen and Gideon can drive on to Devilly to see young Jed and allay his fears. ‘Gid ‘as not been out o’ the forest before, he says, ‘p’haps ‘e should see some o’ the world afore ‘e weds.’ The family leave for the visit to Gideon’s grandparents but whilst on the journey across the country, Gideon becomes ill; Sonal looks into the ether and attempts to send a spell of healing into the young boy but is astonished at the power he finds within him. He wonders if it is because he is travelling away from the forest, but forgets his theory as Gideon quickly gets better when they arrive.

  After a final beating from Gath, Lemba, bruised and bloody escapes with Rhoald and head toward her sister’s cottage, the same cottage that she took the escaped prisoner, Varen too. As Jed awakens, he finds Lemba beside him and he declares his love. He soon realises the escaped prisoner is also in the house and that he is the brother of Sonal. Lemba explains using her hands to speak, that Gath is sending Toby to get Gideon. At first disbelieving and with his conscience about his oath as a king’s man in his heart, he decides to go back to the army but still weak he sits on a bench outside a pub to rest for a moment. Through an open window, he recognises Toby’s voice and overhears him saying he is now a sergeant. Sick to his stomach Jed surmises that if that aspect of the ta
le is true, then the rest must be too. Worried for his friend and his family, Jed returns and joins the small band heading toward Green Home.

  After travelling for over a week Toby, with his newly sewn chevrons still clean upon his arm sits atop his horse at the outskirts of Green Home Village. Moving to one side he allows his crack troopers to move before him as they follow the track toward the heart of the village and his revenge.

  The Tessellation Saga

  Book 2

  The One

  Chapter 1

  Seekers

  The cart rolled steadily over the cobbles and Jed stared out at the darkness. To his amazement, they had managed to pass through the Devilly City Gates without the guards even noticing them, though he had felt nauseous at the sudden smell of rotting vegetables emanating from the crate he was sitting on. Rubbing his arms at the distinctive telltale sign of magic in the itching and crawling of his skin, he looked across to see if Lemba felt it too but she gave no sign of feeling the magic as she stared out at the rough taverns, warehouses and hidden brothels that she knew were on this side of the city gates. He took her hand instinctively knowing what she was thinking.

  ‘Ner love,’ he said ‘never fer you.’ He squeezed her hand and felt her smile though she continued to watch the gaudily dressed women and bawdy men as they cavorted outside the numerous taverns and inns. He stood up carefully to light a small lamp that swung from a hook behind the driver’s seat, the soft muted light illuminated the young girl sitting directly beneath it and dressed once more as the charcoal burners son. He smiled, even covered in dirt and ashes he thought her the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, he shook his head knowing that here is where Hackman would eventually have left her, if, he had not killed her first. A shout interrupted his thoughts as two drunken men began fighting, a sad faced whore stood to one side holding her bloodied cheek, her dress soaked in the ale that was as plentiful as the water in the river. Lemba trembled slightly, holding her own cheek in silent sympathy and leant against Jed’s legs for support, this was where her father had sold her so long ago, this or somewhere like this, she thought. The whore got smaller and smaller as the cart rumbled on but Lemba continued to stare as Jed sat down once more and again took her tiny hand in his. Finally, she turned toward him and buried her face in his warm shoulder, accepting his arms as they protectively curled around her. One day I will be able to explain to him, she thought, one day.

  Rhoàld sat the other side of Lemba and smiled weakly as he felt Jed pull the girl toward him noticing the smile, Jed smiled in return. He looked quietly at the frail old man thinking he looked a little different from the man he had met in the kitchen of Dotty’s home; at that time, he had thought perhaps the old man had also been ill. Now, despite the poor light, Jed could see colour in his cheeks that before had seemed washed-out or pale and his eyes were not quite as sunken as they had been.

  ‘My boy do I look so different from when we first met?’ Rhoàld asked. ‘Do you not remember me?’

  ‘Surr,’ Jed replied, ‘I don’t recall us ever meetin’ afore two days ago, though I confess I did think yer looked kinda familiar,’ he answered.

  ‘I am …was, the Kings aide.’ Rhoàld said quietly, Jed reeled.

  ‘Yer presented me with the Champion Student cup,’ he said, shocked at the change in the man he knew from experience was no older than his father was.

  ‘Shh...,’ interrupted Varan who was riding alongside the cart on a gentle beast from Dotty’s small stable. ‘We must get a little further away before we start talking without wards.’

  The company fell into a deep silence as they moved quietly but steadily away from Devilly, although Rhoàld felt Jed’s eyes turn to him repeatedly in disbelief.

  Soon the only audible sounds were Varan’s singsong mumbling and the clip clop of the horse as it pulled the creaky cart. The darkness deepened and the noise of the city gave way to the peace of the night as gradually the streets turned to rough roads and then into dirt tracks and the city fell far behind them but still the little group travelled in silence.

  Night turned once more into day as the group continued to move ever forward, each member of the party lost in his or her own thoughts and Jed repeatedly went over in his mind the conversation he had partially overheard through the window of the tavern. Why send Toby to get Gideon? He wondered, because, Toby knows Gideon, his thoughts continued. Then iffen ‘e’s the king’s son, what’s ‘e doin’ at Green Home Village in the first place, ‘n’, why would the village be in danger? The more he thought about it the more confused he became, the same thoughts rolled around and around in his head before eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep.

  Itching skin and the smell of tea woke him, they were still on the move but Dotty, managing to heat a little water on a small-unlit stove was busy handing out tea, bread, ham, fruit and cheese, he could still feel the faint itching in his skin as he took his tea.

  ‘I did tell you that I might have need of my herbs,’ she said, smiling as she handed Jed a mug and a small platter.

  ‘Hot?’ Jed queried, staring at the stove, acknowledging the fact that it was not actually burning.

  ‘Ah now, I did also mention that I could do things…,’ she added with a grin as she offered a second steaming cup to Varan, still riding alongside the cart.

  Day turned slowly once more into night and the company stopped beside a quiet brook to rest the horses and stretch their legs. Varan, as usual when they stopped, walked in a tight circle around the group mumbling in his singsong way and although Jed tried hard to ignore the movement in his peripheral vision, found the constant circling irritating. As they travelled, Lemba had been by his side day and night and had noticed his irritation.

  ‘Close your eyes to it!’ She said, using her finger-speak.

  ‘I can’t’, Jed replied, adding, ‘I won’t be able to talk with you!’ Lemba smiled shyly and their lessons continued until the moon had gone behind clouds and it became too dark to see.

  Rhoàld seemed to have become pale and wan once more and was trying to sleep on the floor of the cart, he had watched Jed and Lemba, happy in each other’s company and he wished them well but their burgeoning love had only served to make him miss his Bastian even more.

  Before light, they prepared to continue their journey, loading up the cart in the dark and sweeping the area to ensure they had left no sign of their passing. Jed thought constantly of home and of Toby and his crack troopers all travelling on king’s horses and without a doubt, a lot faster than they were.

  Dawn approached once more and Rhoàld began to feel uneasy again, Bastian was gone from him and he felt alone. He thought of Gath and the way he would smile welcoming him into his presence. He will have missed me by now, he mused as he watched the sun trying to rise behind the trees in the distance, turning part of the sky a dappled red and yellow and cloaking the rest of the earth with a grey blanket. Gath’s handsome face swam before him and he felt the loss and loneliness of his king. Guilt plagued him; he could feel Gath’s presence growing in his head. I should never have left when my king needed me so badly, his guilty thoughts consumed him and he cried out in his mind. Here, my lord I am here…!

  Varan stopped his weary horse and stared back the way he had come.

  ‘Seekers…,’ he hissed, ‘hold hands quickly...’ he shouted, jumping lithely from the horse and clambering onto the back of the small cart. Jed who had been dozing felt his hand grabbed tightly by Rhoàld who had leant forward as if in great pain, immediately his palm began to burn hot and his neck itched. He tried to pull away unaware of the trauma escalating within the man’s mind, Rhoàld was crying and keening like a child who had lost his mama as droplets of blood began to ooze from his brow. Dotty grabbed his other hand and felt the power coursing through him.

  ‘Varan,’ she called, her voice sounding shrill, ‘he seeks Rhoàld… do something.’

  ‘Fool,’ Varan shouted at Jed who had finally managed to loosen his hand from Rhoàld’s v
ice like grip. ‘Help him man, pour your strength into him.’ Jed took the hand once more and stared at the blood beginning to run down the face of the king’s aide, Rhoàld slumped into unconsciousness. Confused and scared, Jed looked at the man before him, he looked near to death, not at all like the man who had presented him with his award and he thought of Rhoàld as he had first seen him, a tall strong man of about fifty summers.

  The wind had been blowing quite fiercely as the championship competition had come to a finale and the last of the bouts were completed despite the worsening weather. Gath had left the ceremony as the wind had grown stronger leaving Rhoàld, to act in his stead, high up on the Dias the officers and their wives stood to acknowledge the champions each one holding onto a railing or even each other as they braced themselves against the strength of the wind. Rhoàld alone had stood firm as the champions approached, the wind just did not seem to touch him. At the time, he had been reminded of the mighty sentinel oak he and Gideon had often climbed as children. It stood tall and broad, seemingly immovable, a giant on top of his tower, steady and sound. So that’s why I didn’t recognise yer, Jed thought as the blood ceased to flow from the man’s forehead and the air around them cooled rapidly.

  ‘Well done my boy,’ said Varan wearily. ‘That vision of Rhoàld was perfect. I remember him the same way,’ he added as Lemba and Dotty nodded their heads.