The Darksearer Saga: Book One

The Darksearer Saga: Book One

Ben Brooks

2001 Draft

Prologue

"You never want to believe that what you're doing--that what you've dedicated your entire life to--was the wrong cause. You never want to think that the whole of your existence has been for nothing, a blight to be remembered solely by those who hated you. You never want to find yourself conspiring against your dearest friends, knowing they are just as wrong as you once were, and that there is nothing you can do to save them from your own fate but pray. Pray that they'll see their mistakes before it's too late. Pray that they won't do the same terrible things you once did. Pray that they never find out it was you who tried to stop them.

"Over the years I have matured much. I have been one of the lucky--or is it more appropriate to say 'unlucky'--few who have seen the tragedy of their own life for what it was. Though I cannot change the past, I can take every possible precaution to protect the future from a terror as grand or grander than anything I ever concocted. I hope the steps I have taken will prevent Ylwyn from succeeding where I have failed.

"I will cease to exist, a victim of a punishment of my own devising, one fitting for the crimes I have committed. One that I hope, in some small way or another, will redeem my wretched existence. One that will save this land I have come to love--its places, its peoples, their beliefs.

"This is difficult thing for me to do, but it will be even harder living with the guilt of my deeds--the past years have more than proven so. It is thus with much remorse, and yet with much hope, that I say farewell to this world. After all this time combating death's vacuous tendrils, I never thought I would be embracing it, welcoming it.

"It always fascinated me how it took years to build cities and nations, but only days to destroy them. The path of destruction is an easy one to take, but rarely the wisest. I pray that Ylwyn discovers this sooner than I did. I pray that if she ever discovers what I have done, that she can find some way to forgive me.

"Ohn, in your wisdom, protect me from evil. I live in your name, and your name alone."

And with a flick of the wrist, Elhoi Garan's mind vanished into the void.

PART I: The Meeting

"Everyone's life is simple until that one person comes along . . . one person who will change everything."

Chapter One

The cool afternoon breezes cascaded gently through the window. The trees, bedecked in a wide assortment of colors, had started to shed their leaves. Red, brown, yellow, all clinging for their lives to the branches, struggling to stay put in the brisk winds. Despite their efforts, they fell left and right, swirling to the ground where they lay in death. Autumn had arrived.

Moren's Time, the weeklong pre-harvest festival, was less than a week away. Already the wooden stands were being constructed and the paper lanterns strung up down by the main road. Everyone welcomed this chance to sing and dance the days away, feasting on the finest pastries for leagues, partaking of the sweetest wine Kagon had to offer, and conversing by the warm glow of the bonfires with loved ones. Alexander Dreighton Lansing was going to miss this year's festivities.

The Lansing plantation encompassed hundreds of square leagues of farmland, but even at such a majestic size it was a mere grain of sand to the desert that it once had been. The Lansing family had once owned the entire nation of Kagon, but now their share comprised well under a tenth of it. Most of the land had been sold to farmers and families, and some lost to rivals in bloody battles centuries past.

Gerhard Lansing never let his notoriety or wealth come between himself and helping the farmhands, nor did he let his son sit idly at home while everyone else labored. Gerhard was a strong man, a proud man, a shining example of the greatness that the Lansing family had once been, and he wanted Alexander to be no less. This year, however, Alexander was going to miss out on the work as well as the festivities.

Alexander, Lan to his friends, was sitting on his windowsill watching dark grey clouds roll over the billowing grain fields. He took a deep breath through his nose, savoring the fresh crisp air of his bedroom. He would not be here much longer, as Porthos University beckoned. He wanted to study politics and management, for as his father's heir, the plantation would one day be his.

The thought unnerved him. It was not so much that he would have so many things to manage and attend to when he took over, but rather that for him to inherit the plantation, his father would have to be dead. Lan could not bear to think about living without his father--without any of his family. Oftentimes at night he would lay awake, listening to the crickets chirruping in the night air, thoughts of loved ones dying haunting the dark corners of his mind. He would curl into a ball beneath his sheets and shudder. The only way to drive the fears from his mind was to fall into a deep sleep, and even then, oftentimes they followed him into his dreams.

Lan wanted to tell his best friend Esmond about his fears, but every time he tried, the words stuck in his throat. He was never quite sure why. He trusted Esmond with all of his secrets--all except the ones that kept him awake way into the small hours of dawn.

Esmond had also been accepted to Porthos University. Lan was thankful to have someone going with him who he knew so he wouldn't have to start out alone, but part of him wished Esmond were staying behind. Out here in Kagonese countryside, Esmond's brash behavior and impudent wit rarely led to more than a shouting contest, but in Porthos, largest city in the human lands, people were less likely to react as nicely as they did here. Lan sighed. Perhaps getting out from under his parents would force Esmond to mature a little. Lan had always thought Cel and Salen Boyeui were far too protective of Esmond. They always watched over him wherever he went, and rarely let him go anywhere alone, unless Lan was with him. They were quite different from Lan's own parents, who let him come and go as he pleased, so long as he got all of his work done.

***MAKE THIS TRANSITION***It would be nice to be away from all of the hard work for once. His father usually consigned him to inventory work--counting bales of wheat, barrels of apples, sacks of herbs--but on some rare occasions Lan had to do fieldwork also. He looked forward to being in some strange new place instead, this year. Lan had never been more than a few leagues away from the plantation, except on a few short trips to visit some of his father's friends or business partners. The university lay nearly a thousand leagues away, in the neighboring nation of Pyran.

Though the thought of moving to the foreign nation excited him, it also made him nervous. Aside from missing his family, he would have to adapt to his new surroundings. Pyran can't be too bad, he thought. After all, the Pyranians are a lot like us. It's not like I'll have to learn another language or anything. It'll be interesting living under a monarch, though.

A rumble of thunder shook Lan from his seat. He brushed his lengthy brown bangs back from his eyes to get a better look at the sky. We might not be leaving tonight after all. The carriage would arrive well past sunset to get the boys, but if the rain was pouring down heavily enough, the carriage-master would have to wait until the following morning to set out. Won't make much of a difference, leaving a half-day late, he told himself. Not with a trip this long.

A light rapping on his door brought him out of his thoughts. "It's open," he invited, not turning from the window. He heard the door swing open, then the sound of soft footsteps as someone entered the room. **add heavy breath of mother**

"It seems like just yesterday I was tanning your hide for what you boys did to that poor old cow." His mother, Mara, speaking in that warm motherly tone of hers that always made him smile. He loved the small, plump woman dearly and did not look forward to leaving her.

"Mother," he said.**add more Lan dialogue here**

He turned to look at her. A tight bun of greying hair sat twisted up on the back of her head. She wore an old blue dress and a striped apron he had given her as a present on her last birthday. The first traces of lines had started to wear their way around the corners of her mouth. She was only thirty-seven, but life on the plantation had taken its toll on her body in years. Things had not always been as peaceful and prosperous for the Lansings as they were now.

Gerhard had been serving in the Kagonese military when he met Mara. After a string of hectic events neither of Lan's parents ever talked about for long, all of them culminating in the death of Gerhard's father, Gerhard had retired from the military, married Mara, and taken over the plantation. They had little money, due to some shady dealings Lan's grandfather had made, and had to sell off the last remaining hornfruit orchards along the south of the plantation, as well as several cattle pastures, livestock included.

With his hard-working personality and excellent charisma, Gerhard had managed to pull the plantation out of the poverty his own father had driven it into, and turn it back into the prospering farmland it had once been.

"I see you've got everything packed," Mara said, looking down at his disheveled canvas bags lying on the floor. She knelt down and reached for one of the larger ones.

"What are you doing?" Lan asked. Mara jerked her head upright, a wistful look in her eyes.

"I'm just double-checking everything for you."

Lan smiled as he walked toward her. "There's no need, mother. I've double-checked it already."

"Well--" she started, unsure of what to say next. "I'm triple-checking it." She turned her attention back to the large bag and reached inside.

Lan laughed. "I've double-checked it and triple-checked it. Everything's there. Don't worry yourself so much."

She paused in her rummaging and stared blankly at the planks on the floor. Lan bent over to get a better look at her face. A few tears started to stream**streamed** down her cheeks, following the gentle lines of her face down to her chin.

"Mother, I didn't mean--"

"No," she said, still staring at the floor. **hair hanging down over her eyes, or something** "You're right. You don't need me always hanging over your shoulder and running behind you to make sure you're okay. You're grown now." She slowly stood up and wiped her tears away. "Oh, look at me," she said. "Crying like a little girl." She sighed. "I don't know what's come over me."

Lan walked to her and she held out her arms to draw him near. He patted her gently on the back, trying not to let his emotions overwhelm him as his mother's had done. At least one of them needed to remain strong.

"It's okay," he said. "I'll always need you. You'll never lose me."

"I know, Lan," she said. She squeezed him tightly. "I know." They stood there silently and listened to the breezes flowing through the limbs of the two large oaks in the back yard. When Lan was younger, he and Esmond used to play all sorts of games beneath those trees. The grand oaks had seen every nature of boyhood game, from staves-and-warriors, to hide-and-chase. The oak trees shaded this entire side of the house, a welcome benefit during the hot, humid summers. As long as Lan could remember, the oaks had looked the same. Not even the most powerful storm to ever blow through mid Kagon had so much as bent a single twig out of place on their majestic boughs. **this chunk is just too much information here, it clogs the flow of things right now, let's just concentrate on lan and his mother**As old and stout as the trees were, their age fell short of that of the plantation house which they protected.

The house was not exactly large. Most who had never seen it assumed it was an exquisite, sprawling palace. The Lansings had always been very modest individuals, however, as the meager house showed. They didn't believe in extravagancies, only in living comfortably.

It was a two-story house, with a wrap-around porch where the family enjoyed the long, hot summer days. A yard of green grass that had seen more than its share of staff fighting stretched out several strides from it in all directions with a few large maples scattered about. **merge this in with talk about the trees**A small, well-tended garden of various fruits and vegetables grew out back. It his mother's only project that she considered her own, and she would never let anyone help her with it, and Ohn have mercy on anyone who so much as breathed on it the wrong way. Lan and Esmond had both learned to stay out of Mara's garden quite early in their lives.

**move this just down... have her enter the room first, then give this information**Across the hall from Lan's room was his little sister's room. Anya was four years of age, and had a fire in her hair to match the fire in her personality.

As Lan stood there with his mother, he saw Anya's door open. She skipped out and ran toward him, a wide smile stretched across her face.

"Lan, can I get your room when you go?" His mother looked down at the little redheaded girl.

"Now Anya," she began, "you have your own room, and there's--"

"It's okay, mother," said Lan. He knelt down next to his little sister. "I can't just give up my room, Anya. Where would I sleep when I come home for the summer?"

She frowned, stuck her lower lip out farther than Lan thought anyone should be able to, and began twirling her hair with her fingers. "I'll give it back then, I promise! Please?"

"Well, how about this," he began. "I'll let you have my room, but only if I can have your room." Anya thought this proposition over silently for a moment, her hands working fervently in her hair. Slowly she looked up at her mother. Mara solemnly returned her gaze. Lan could tell that his mother wanted to both smile and cry at the same time. He knew exactly how she felt.

"I suppose we could arrange something," she finally said. Anya's face immediately lit up to match the fiery redness of her hair. She clasped her hands into tight little balls and started bouncing.

"I'm gonna start getting ready to move now!" She giggled as she ran back to her room, seemingly making an extra effort to ensure that each and every step announced her joy. Lan shook his head and stood, watching his sister as she started to dig through her things. He smiled, glad to see her so happy. Nothing he could do would ever be too much for her. **blah garbage remove**Esmond would be a bit upset to hear Lan had given up his room, however. Anya's small room would not lend itself well to accommodating people on its floor, Esmond's favorite sleeping place.

"Are you sure you don't mind, Lan?" his mother asked.

"Not at all." He walked over toward his window to look up at the sky. "I don't need all this space, and most of my things are going to stay at the university during my holidays anyway." He paused for a moment before continuing. "Besides, she'll be needing a bigger room soon."**tell us why, lan!**

The sky was rapidly growing darker. A second crash of thunder startled him, accompanied with a breeze that blew his door shut. Mara brushed past and made her way to the window. She gazed up into the darkness for a moment, then closed and fastened the shutters.

"I thought I'd close these before the storm starts. It looks like it's going to be a bad one."

Lan plopped down on his bed and stared lazily around his barren room. The shelf on the far wall where he used to keep his books now held nothing but two old candles in dull, wooden candleholders and a small mirror. A crack ran along the top left corner of the mirror that distorted the face of any who peered into it. **awk**He had cracked the mirror when he and Esmond had been playing out in the fields one day. Lan was using the mirror as a shield, fending off Esmond's barrage of pebbles. One of the pebbles had been a bit larger than Lan expected, and as soon as he deflected it he heard the distinctive cracking sound that could have only been the glass of the mirror. His mother had been outraged, and the throbbing in the boys' behinds lingered for days afterward. Lan's grandmother had given the mirror to Mara shortly before she died. It was the sole possession Mara had of hers. Lan never thought she could scold him any worse--until the cow incident.