Chapter 20

Mato crawled into the trail master room and looked over the scrolls. This would be his last opportunity to study them for months.

“See you in a few hours,” Ezhno said.

“Thank you,” Mato replied. If this journey was his only time to train in the secret lore of the trail masters, why hadn’t Ezhno let him have the entire day to study yesterday?

He hadn’t even scratched the surface of the scrolls Ezhno had offered. The idea of double-checking everything tickled his brain. Mato looked over the scrolls carefully, noting subjects like history, medicine, politics, and alchemy.

Ezhno’s teachings could be reduced to, ‘Watch what I do, ignore what I say.’

Words could be valuable, but actions said more than words.

Mato dropped to the floor and looked into the hidden shelf beneath the table. At first glance it appeared that Ezhno had given him all of the scrolls. However, by holding the lantern up and peeking far to the left, Mato spied two forgotten scrolls.

The first one was labeled ‘Trials.’

“Sotsona has at least six items from the trials: sword, scabbard, dagger, bow, and bracers. Why does he insist that we only seek swords?

“Not every rune is equal. It is equally clear that not every seeker is equal. If a weak seeker requests a strong reward, they are certain to fail. A sword is a moderate reward. A scabbard is a weak reward.

“Clearly we cannot send a seeker to obtain a scabbard first. An empty scabbard has no value.

“If seekers have the same range of strength that runes have, then what might a transcendent seeker request? And how might we determine a seeker’s strength before their trial?

“The complication is that seekers always survive their first trial. Subsequent trials have increasing risk. Sotsona is the only person known to survive more than five.”

You could take more than one trial? He should have figured that out already. Lief Longbeard had a greatsword and a bracer. It was equally obvious that there was more than one type of reward. How had that knowledge been lost? Ezhno didn’t seem to know about it, and these scrolls were easily within his reach.

Mato continued reading.

“The Aret is the peak of human development. For centuries we pushed them into the northlands, forced them to live on possums and skunks. In exchange for this forging, we received our greatest enemy. It is no wonder we were driven into the salts.”

Okay. Ezhno didn’t share this first for good reason. Even if it was true, it was hard to believe. Even if it was true, it spelled doom for the Abo. Did the Great Spirit use one people to sharpen the next people? One nation disappearing into the next?

From there the scroll dipped into deeper and deeper heresies.

“The Deep Spirit is not our enemy. He shapes the land, bringing forth new life. Without the Deep Spirit, the entire earth would be dead and silent.”

Mato nearly dropped the scroll. The Great Spirit guided and protected life, particularly the Abo. Without the Great Spirit they would have perished in the salts. Long ago there had been balance, the Deep Spirit working the oceans, and the Great Spirit working the lands and skies. Then the Deep Spirit grew greedy and took the rivers and lakes, and the Great Spirit was patient.

When the Deep Spirit took the mountains, and any lands covered by ice and snow, the Great Spirit finally reacted. Their battles shook the world. Land broke away and formed islands. Mountains belched fire and smoke. The earliest people nearly died.

Then the Great Spirit imprisoned the Deep Spirit far below the earth. Peace returned, but it was not total, as it had been before the battles. The Great Spirit stretched itself, trying to maintain the earth, the skies, the oceans, and the deep places. It was hard to do the work intended for two, but there was no choice. So now they lived in a world where the Deep Spirit often tried to escape its prison, and the Great Spirit was stretched beyond its strength.

You could see this when the earth shook and broke apart, or when mountains belched smoke and fire. You could see it in the anathema, and tendrils of the Deep Spirit reached into the world, twisting creation into monsters.

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“The Great Spirit is not the creator. Who created the earth, and why, is a mystery to the spirits, just as it is to us. What is known is that the Great Spirit and the Deep Spirit cooperate to protect life. Why they do not tell us more of what they know is the most frustrating mystery of all.”

No war? No prison? What was Holona thinking? Where was the evidence for these claims?

He heard Ezhno enter the tunnel and considered hiding the scroll. Then again, he had no injunction against reading it. Why not take advantage of the opportunity to ask some questions?

Ezhno pulled himself into the room and stood. His eyes widened slightly and his face went through several emotions--pain, sorrow, humor…

“You took my lessons too literally, Mato. I suppose you have questions?” He settled cross-legged on the floor and Mato joined him.

“Questions?” Mato asked, with a smirk. “This scroll has answered all of my questions.”

Ezhno whacked him on the back of the head, but gently.

“Is any of Holona’s writing true, or is it all… supposition?”

“Supposition,” Ezhno laughed. “That is generous. I have read that scroll several times. Most of us do. When you get used to the way Holona structures her arguments, you find that she contradicts herself in a handful of places. She is even aware of one instance, but insists the work is true despite the apparent problem.

“Holona is the reason we do not have any female trail masters.”

Mato frowned at that. “Why would we ban all women, just because one of them said some things she shouldn’t?”

“Not us, Mato. Sotsona III forbade us from recruiting women. Since we are required to present all apprentices to the priests for training in runes and glyphs, and Sotsona eventually meets each of us, it is difficult to disobey that order.”

“If this scroll can be proven to be false--and contradictions would seem to make that easy--why do we keep it?”

Ezhno slowly unlaced his right boot and pulled it off. Then he reached inside and fiddled around. After a few seconds he presented Mato with a coin. It was silver, but not quite the same hue as the other silver coins Mato had seen. On one surface there was a shield rune, and on the other a snow glyph.

“I was about your age when I took my second trial,” Ezhno said. “I already had a sword, and I was trying to figure out what other options might be available. I asked for courage, and was told I already had it. I asked to be a good man, and the lady said, ‘Request granted,’ and left. The following day I asked for untold wealth, and she took me into the trial. It was tremendously difficult. I would not have survived without the water of life.

“My ‘untold wealth’ was this coin. It is not silver, because it does not tarnish. The lady put the shield rune on it right before I left the cave. I was feeling rebellious, so I did not want to use the recommended glyph. In a foolish act of impatience I etched the snow glyph on the other side. The recommended pairing is the defense glyph, which forms a moderate pair. My choice forms a weak pair. The sanctuary glyph would have provided a mighty pair, and the scroll I needed was only a few minutes away. Do not waste an opportunity like I did.”

Mato turned the coin over a few times. “Does it protect you from the cold?”

“Yes. I put my poncho on when others do, because I do not want this coin found, but I have been in the mountains in winter. It was so cold out that my urine would freeze before it hit the ground. I was cold, very very cold, but I did not die or lose any toes.”

Mato returned the coin, and Ezhno put it away and tied his boot. “Have you taken a third trial?”

Ezhno shook his head. “I have considered it, but they seem to grow more difficult each time. Even with the water of life I do not think I would survive.”

“You have twenty-five runes on your sword. Why only one on the coin?”

Ezhno smiled. “I have tried to earn another rune with the coin, but when I kill a monster with my sword, only the sword can absorb the essence. I do not know how to kill a monster with the coin.”

That made some sense. Even if you could request non-weapons, why would you waste the opportunity? A sword was a nearly perfect weapon for the situation, small enough to carry and long enough to provide good utility.

“I have not taken a trial yet. Would it be safe, like other first trials, or dangerous like your second trial?”

“I don’t know. Most swords are earned in the trials. We do not know very much about the differences involved in being gifted the blade. Perhaps the difference in difficulty is based on your power, not on the number of attempts you have made. In the absence of good evidence, my guess is that you have skipped your first trial, and would proceed directly to your second.”

His reasoning made sense. The details of trials were a secret kept between the Great Ladies and the seekers. The generalities that were discussed openly suggested that trials were tailored to individuals, with the strong facing feats of strength, the brave facing feats of courage, and so on.

“Did your second trial test one of your strengths?”

“No. My first trial tested my balance heavily. The second tested brute strength, which is a weakness.”

“I wonder what sort of trial I would face?”

Ezhno reached over and ruffled his hair. “Probably speaking to strangers.”

Mato grimaced. “So deadly, then.”

“Precisely.”

Ezhno didn’t have enough meat to go around, so they took a pair of pemmican cakes back to camp.