Free Gorinthians by Justin Mitchell Page A

for me to
claim to be anything. They all know who I am because the bond
connects us to each other. Those who are raised here are taught
about the bond while they are still young."
    Terrance looked back down at
the pack that he was retying. Celdic looked at Tarya Selindria. She
was still watching Terrance but her mind was obviously in another
place. There was an uncertainty in her eyes that Celdic had never
seen before.
    Captain Jorbran’s return
broke the silence. He had a large pack strapped to his shoulders
that he unbuckled and set in the pile in front of them. He clasped
his fist to his chest and went back to his post at the gate.
Terrance began separating packs and forming three piles. He
gestured Celdic to one of the piles. Celdic slung the pack over his
shoulders, grunting in surprise at the heaviness of the pack. It
must have been loaded with sand to be as heavy as it was.
Struggling with the new weight, he picked up the other bag that
contained a change of clothes.
    Celdic looked around and
noticed that Tarya Selindria looked as uncomfortable with the heavy
pack as he did. Terrance finished loading his pack and then walked
over to where they were still struggling with the weight of their
packs. His eyes seem to grow in intensity for a moment and Celdic
felt a small taste of the power that he had felt the previous day
when Tarya Selindria had been teaching them evasive defense. When
the strange sense of power receded, the pack on Celdic's back
seemed to weigh almost nothing at all. He saw Tarya Selindria's
eyes widen in surprise. Neither of them had felt his yar at all.
    "Right then," Terrance said,
turning away from the city and starting down the path. "Let's see
if we can make camp on the boundary tonight."
    Still looking unnerved about
something, Tarya Selindria began following Terrance. Celdic decided
to chance her mood and ask her a few questions. Falling in line
behind Tarya Selindria, Celdic tried to formulate his
questions.
    "Tarya Selindria," Celdic
ventured tentatively, "could I ask you a few questions?"
    She slowed down slightly to
put a little distance between them and Terrance. "I will answer
what I can,” she said when Terrance was out of earshot. Celdic had
never thought of Tarya Selindria as secretive. Since the time they
had met Terrance, Celdic noticed that she was becoming increasingly
closed.
    "Terrance mentioned there
was a bond between all of the human descendants of Chasel Ri’ Aven.
I haven't felt anything different since he arrived and it didn't
look like Cha' le, Lendel or Li did either.” Celdic left the
question unasked, hoping that she would finish it for
him.
    She absently reached up and
brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, looking thoughtful.
"If there is a bond, and I am not saying that I believe there is,
then it is possible that one of your ancestors is not from the
mountain."
    "But we never have
outsiders!” Celdic exclaimed in astonishment. "That's one of the
reasons we have the Guardians."
    Looking at him carefully,
Tarya Selindria seemed to be deciding how much to tell him. Celdic
felt a branch smack him in the face and decided to pay a little
more attention to the path.
    "Over the years, the Elders
have sent scouts out into the world to gather information,” Tarya
Selindria explained carefully. "This is not widely known and I
wouldn't tell you now except I do not believe we will
return."
    Celdic was stunned. From the
time that they were little children, their parents and teachers
instructed them that there was no contact with the outer world and
that there had not been in their entire history. After a moment of
thinking, Celdic realized that something did not fit.
    "How is it that you know
about it, if only the Elders know?” Celdic asked with a small
frown.
    "Because I am better at
eavesdropping than Li and Cha’le,” she replied with a toss of her
head.
    Something that Terrance had
said tugged at his memory. "Tarya Selindria, what is a
Zeran?"
    For a long