‘As I tried to explain, General, there are beasts of the Forgotten Years still in that jungle. If it is any consolation, your men died instantly.’
‘Why did you not inform us of this before?’
‘I was not aware that you intended to go there. I have plotted your path around it for a reason, despite being the shorter of the two routes.’
Alkon laughed a stressed, beaten laugh. ‘You have made a grave mistake, Callibrian. This is all I needed to convince the High Council of your trickery.’
Kobin’s expression was stern, as if he did not understand what Alkon was saying.
‘I’m not sure they will see it that way, General. I informed them of the potential danger, though I could not confirm it until now, and that is why they approved the route I have chosen. You would do well to discuss your options a little more thoroughly with them next time; you cannot continue to blame me when I am only here trying to help.’
Alkon shook his head, still chuckling. ‘You cannot twist it this time, Callibrian. Your continual misleading comments have caused more damage than you are worth. After we have taken Waikor, I will see you executed.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Kobin, casually. ‘However, I am sure they will ask you how I could inform you of the dangers if I were not informed of your movements. You see, General, I will be mentioning to them that you have been trying to deny the finding of the Daijuar through this boy, and now that the men who you sent to track him are dead, which you will confirm, they will have all the evidence they need to know that you are at fault.’
Alkon stopped laughing. In his tiredness, he had overlooked something that now appeared obvious, and he had given Kobin the upper hand. But there was little he could do now. The damage had been done. Kobin would know that he had won, but admitting defeat would be ultimately damaging.
‘I think we will let the High Council decide who is at fault,’ he said. ‘Now get back to your quarters. You no longer have permission to be out.’
‘At once, General,’ said Kobin, and disappeared into the night as he left.
Alkon sat back into his chair. His face was darkening with each day that went by as his health began to fail. Thinking back, he wasn’t sure how he had been able to blame Kobin at all for what had just happened. He was so desperate to be rid of him now that he had been making mistakes in everything he did, not just in fighting Kobin. He had to get away from the wars, had to be free of his command. He would be taking a military unit to Waikor city soon enough, and then it would go on to fight at Corsec. Perhaps then he would be free.
He looked to the ceiling and wondered what he had done to deserve so much misfortune over the previous weeks, and then turned to the books lying on the side of his desk, the first being his father’s journal. He decided he would read for the remainder of the night, a small but welcomed escape. If he were to find answers at all in these times, it would be in his father’s written thoughts.
Chapter Twenty-One
Through these lies I see this place.
February 7, 997 R.E.
Jaden’s fingers moved, tracing the grooves between the stones as he came awake. The road was smooth underneath his fingertips, as if it had been worn down from centuries of rain so that not a sharp edge remained. He lay still in the darkness, feeling the cold around him as he tried to open his eyes. They felt heavy, tightly shut as if to resist seeing anything that opening them might reveal. He began to remember where he was, what had happened the night he had left Waikor and the aircraft crashing, but he did not know when that was.
Slowly lifting himself up and sitting against a railing along the side of the road, Jaden breathed in and found a familiar, yet strange fragrance entering his lungs. He recognised it from somewhere, the sweetness that was laced with bitterness at the beginning and end of each breath. It made him want to fight against taking in the air he needed, not wanting to have to endure the bitterness, but as it filled him, he found all he could think of was taking more in.
He stood, still leaning against the railing, and with a few blinks, he was able to keep his eyes open. It was no longer as dark as it had been the night of the crash, but thick cloud cover must have blocked out almost all of the daylight, leaving only the cold and a morning fog about him.
There were bizarre, almost enchanted sounds in the silence, slight and hidden, yet eternally present. He shook his head to clear them without success, as if they were from tiny creatures now inside his ears, singing him their haunted melodies.
He looked around him, and soon saw that he was not at Corsec. He was in a forest, with little more than a single road within it. The road had caved in to his right, into the gully below, and stretched as far as he could see through the fog to his left. The railing was intact, smoothed like the stones but still showing some of what must have once been a finely chiselled balustrade in the past. There were statues of sitting winged beasts to either side, still perched on their columns. They were almost entirely covered, entangled in the vine that grew over and throughout the railing and into much of the forest.