Seven years before the founding of the first kingdom

Netac stared at the seed in his hand, focused on its schemas, searching for the inner pattern that would unlock its future potential as a stalk of wheat. He found it hard to concentrate with Corha sitting next to him, her knee rubbing up against his thigh, her scented oil smell tickling his nose. She was of an age to marry and had, without words, let him know over the last year that she might be interested in him. While seventeen was a good age for a girl to marry, Netac had always assumed he would wait at least another five years before he even started to consider marriage. Ironically, he'd always thought she was more interested in Garanth, than himself, but then Garanth had been busy over the last couple of years training as a warrior.

Karux sat next to him in his customary place in the circle. "Don't make this hard. This was Eiraena's first schema and she was seven years old when she performed it."

Eiraena looked up and snickered at the mention of her name. She also had changed over the last year or so. Though she still refrained from looking anyone in the eye, she seemed to be making an effort to pay attention to and interact with the people around her. She would even occasionally speak in a soft and halting fashion.

Karux gestured at Harkin. "Enough delay. Harkin, let's see what you can do."

Netac could feel Harkin gathering karis, but he tried to stay focused on his own seed. The patterns were amazingly complex, an entire plant coiled tightly in on itself. He could try to pull it apart, draw out the tap root and the leaves hidden curled inside, but he suspected the plant would resist that.

Harkin collapsed his schema. Silence followed.

"Well, that was certainly unimpressive."

Netac, still focused on the world of shapes, cast a nervous glance at Harkin's seed. It had become a tiny shriveled mass of broken patterns, further compressed than when he'd started.

"Netac, let's see what you can do."

Netac shifted his focus back to his own seed. He began summoning the karis, arranging the elements into long schemas and attaching them to parts of the seed's pattern he sought to change.

"Remember," Karux said in an encouraging voice, "It wants to grow. You just have to give it what it wants."

Corha's knee rubbed against his thigh.

Netac collapsed his schemas prematurely. The symbols fell into each other in a wave of shifting potential and the seed split in half with a small snap.

Karux sighed. "Corha?"

Corha had already constructed her schemas in tiny little spirals like they had grown out of the seed. She collapsed them and they were drawn inside, as if the seed had sucked them into itself.

The seed, glowing with energy, shoved out its taproot and flung out a stalk with unfurling leaves.

"Finally," Karux said. "Much of what we are doing to defeat the curse is this sort of work. The poles which I've constructed to hold back the blight do this on a much larger scale. If you are to help me, you have to learn how to promote nature's fecundity."

Netac looked at Corha who smiled sweetly at him.

Behind her, the elders Nesim and Tac'ha walked into the room.

"Elders." Karux said. Netac noticed that he never used the honorific for older men "adra" which meant father, or even the shortened form "dra" which was simply a polite way of acknowledging a male.

"Oracle, forgive us for the interruption," Nesim said.

"I assume the council of elders wishes to speak with me."

"Yes, a matter has come up—"

"The blight is spreading," Tac'ha blurted out. "Last fall's crops were bad. Koria are threatening to pull out of the agreement. Har-Tor cannot feed itself on its own."

"Yes, well that is certainly a problem." Karux rose. "I better go speak with them." He reached into a dish at his side and picked up some seeds which he tossed to each of his students. "Practice."

Netac caught his seed and held it, watching Karux disappear down the corridor. He waited until silence fell then caught the others' eyes. Harkin looked subdued. Corha looked thoughtful. "This isn't going to work, is it?"

Harkin shrugged.

Corha frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The blight is spreading, that means Karux's attempts to stop it are failing. We are, none of us, at a level to help him reverse that." He waited for a response, but there was nothing to say. "We have to try something else," he concluded.

"Try what?" Harkin asked.

"The seat of power."

Corha shook her head.

"It's the only thing that can break the curse. Karux has all but said so."

Corha frowned. "He also said not to do it. That it would destroy the one who claims it."

Netac gave her a crooked smile. "He didn't say destroy."

"He said we'd lose our humanity."

"And what does that mean?"

"Perhaps we'd become like the spirit beings," Harkin suggested. "Cast off the limitations of the flesh, travel the world as one of the spirits."

Corha looked down at her seed. "That sounds like death."

"He did say we'd have power over the elementals. Power enough, it would seem, to stop the n'kroi and end the blight." Netac surveyed the others' expressions. Corha was unhappy, but seemed to recognize the truth of what he said. Harkin clearly agreed. He looked almost eager. "The other question is who will do it."

"I haven't agreed we should do this," Corha said. "In fact I think it's a bad idea."

Netac looked to Harkin. "That just leaves you and me."

Harkin looked thoughtful.

Netac considered what it must be like to have power over every living thing. He wasn't sure he would trust Harkin or anyone else with that power. But life as a spirit being, to lose all the senses of the flesh, to be cut off from his family and everyone he had ever known. It was a tremendous price to ask.

"I'll do it," Harkin said. "I don't know when, or how, but I'll claim the seat of power."

"If what the elders said is true, it will probably need to be soon."

"But, how can I get away?" Harkin rubbed at his forehead. "The festival of the seeding is not far away. Perhaps I can slip away then."

Netac shook his head. "Karux will probably want to go back out to the koria and check and replace his poles—especially if the blight is spreading."

"What do you think he'll do when he catches you?" Corha asked.

"You mean, if he catches me," Harkin corrected.

"If Harkin makes it to the seat of power first, I don't think Karux will be able to do anything to him. Harkin only has to get a day's head start and I doubt Karux could catch up to him."

"But if he doesn't make it," Corha insisted. "What'll he do?"

"Send me home?" Harkin shrugged. "Refuse to teach me his craft?"

"You already know too much." Corha leaned forward. "If he thinks you're a danger, he won't just let you go."

"You don't think he'd kill him, do you?" Netac chuckled, though he felt a nervous truth to what she said.

"Not unless he has to. But I do know that when the dwerka expanded the stoma here in Har-tor during the time of the struggle, they built small rooms for holding people—prisoners captured during the fighting. And I know some of them were used."

"And how do you know this?" Harkin asked, his voice shaking slightly though he seemed to try and give it an incredulous note.

"Kitchen staff. I talked to someone who used to take meals down there."

"Filching food again?" Netac asked and recoiled from the hurt look in her eye.

They lapsed into silence and minutes passed.

Karux never let them out of his sight for long. Sneaking out and getting all the way to Ogofdinas without Karux catching them seemed impossible. "We'll just have to wait until he's distracted...somehow," Netac said.

"Yeah," Harkin grumbled. "Like anything could distract him."

<====|==|====>

Garanth decided he liked the life of a reaver. He spent most of his time living with the new recruits in the tents and even doing the routine chores like hauling supplies, cooking food and digging latrines. He had completed all the training available and was often recruited by the trainers to help train the new recruits. It amused him to instruct men years older and a head or more taller than himself. The youth who seemed to easily defeat older men in practice, and who wore a strange and deadly new weapon on his hip, even seemed to attract a sense of awe from the others.

"I don't see how you can eat that," Torkin said catching him in the meal tent.

"It's not so bad, really," Garanth said around a mouthful of gruel, "as long as you catch it while it's warm. I think Artym is experimenting with herbs. When we have salt-pork, it's actually pretty good."

Torkin shivered. "That's why I stay up hill whenever I'm in town." Torkin jabbed a thumb over his shoulder toward Har-Tor.

Garanth scraped a beetle from the table. "Are you here to pick up a new batch of recruits and take them off to fight angorym?"

"Yes. I thought I'd invite you to come along."

"I'd love to go, but Karux won't let me. I've already suggested to him that I've done all the training here that I can."

"Is he afraid you'll get hurt?"

Garanth scooped up a spoon of gruel and nodded. "He says I'm too small."

Torkin chuckled. "You're larger than the dwerka."

"Yes, and I'm larger than he was when he first fought an angorym." Garanth jabbed his spoon at Torkin as he spoke. "A fact I've reminded him of several times."

"So I guess you're going with him on his new recruitment drive?"

"What recruitment drive?"

Torkin gave him a funny look. "The blight is spreading, the harvests are falling off. The elders have decided to contact the villages south of Nur and see if they can recruit them."

Garanth frowned. "I hadn't heard."

Torkin shrugged. "I guess not, then. They were packing this morning to leave. Karux is only staying long enough speak to the new recruits before they go north."

Garanth shoved his bowl toward Torkin and rose. "I better get packing then."

<====|==|====>

Karux didn't seem too pleased when Garanth showed up, dressed in his coat of plates with his sword on his hip and short spear in hand and all the food and gear he'd need for a sennight in his pack. Garanth made a point of waiting until they were leaving Har-Tor before joining in.

Karux scowled. "I suppose you're coming along as well?"

Garanth just walked along beside them as they descended the steep ramp from Har-Tor and passed through the gathering of buildings beyond the outer gate, smiling as if he had been personally invited.

Corha gave him a curious looking over as if some fascinating change had taken place in him over the last several mahts. Netac flicked expressionless glances at him, bouncing them between him and Corha. Harkin, alone, seemed to take it all in stride. He gave Garanth's weapons a brief glance and an approving nod.

"Where's Eiraena?" Garanth asked Karux.

"She's staying with Jomel's widow. Since her daughter's have all grown and married, Eiraena has become like a daughter to her." He smiled crookedly at Garanth. "She's trying to teach her social graces, trying to undo all the damage years of living with womenless men have done."

The journey to Korion-Iscuron should have only taken half a day, but a late start and an unnecessary rest stop meant they didn't arrive there until well into early evening. Netac seemed little eager to see his family again and fell further behind as they neared. More than once Garanth looked back and watched the following line of beetles pass Netac up.

The elders greeted them under the large tree at the center of the korion. They seemed little changed, though the tree itself was obviously distressed and had dropped many leaves out of season.

"Greetings, elders," Karux said, stopping before the tree.

"Greetings, Oracle." The chief elder rose from his stool beneath the tree. "Is that my grandson I see?"

"Yes."

"Come, Netac. Embrace your bidra."

Netac walked over and dutifully hugged his grandfather. "Your ma and dra will be happy to see you. Have you learned the secret of breaking the curse yet?"

"Not yet."

"He has, only this year, made great strides, though," Karux said.

"I hope to hear all about it tonight. I assume you will be staying with us?"

"Only the night, we head south tomorrow."

"Ah, yes. Into the blighted lands." The old man took note of the other two boys and the girl. "I see you have more help with you."

"These are my students Harkin and Corha," Karux gestured with his staff, "and you've already met Garanth."

"Well met, dra," each said politely.

"Welcome, each of you." He eyed Garanth's spear curiously. "That's quite the pig-sticker you've got there. Afraid you'll come across a wild boar?"

"I hope not, dra. But reavers never leave their weapons behind."

"A reaver, eh? We'll your weapon may come in handy if you go into the blighted lands. There is plenty of hunger there. It has driven the animals and even some of the men mad."

"And how are things here?"

The elder's face turned grim. "We've lost the southern fields. This fall we should have just enough harvest to last us through a year. Next year?" he shrugged. "Korion-Iscuron is almost done." The old man made an effort to brighten. "But we should have enough to feed you tonight. Come, we'll find places for you to stay."

Karux and his students were reintroduced to the people of the korion and shown to the houses in which they would stay. Karux insisted on seeing the condition of the southern fields and was stunned to find his poles had crumbled away to soft splinters. "When did this happen?"

The elder pushed back his hat and scratched at his fine gray-white hair. "A couple of years back."

"Why didn't you say something? We could have come out and replaced them; it might well have slowed the blight down."

The old man shrugged. "You can do that now if you like, but it seems to make little difference."

Karux rose and scanned the fields. The farmers had let the southern fields lay fallow, but even the grass and weeds that had taken over looked sickly and yellow. The blight stretched all the way to the southern horizon forming a gentle curve from the east to the south with the distant city of Nur at its center. "It could have bought more time."

"We decided to leave the fields for pasture, thought the manure and resting the land might allow us to plant this year. Instead, many of the animals went barren or miscarried their young. It's almost as if the land were stealing the life out of them."