| SORCEROUS SIGNALS |
| Written by C.A. Casey / Artwork by Lee Kurugnati |
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| The Last Hero of Wodling |
"Twenty-three, twenty-four--" Tanley froze, the number of raindrops etched on the ancient torch pedestal forgotten. She
gave her head a shake to clear away a sleepless night and squinted into the black outside the arc of torchlight. A rhythmic
crunch of boots on the dry grass approached the hill.
It's the soldier. Tanley struggled to her feet, her legs numb from sitting most of the night on stone ruins.
She stared in awe at the woman striding up the hill. The torchlight illuminated her tousled blonde hair and tawny eyes. Her
uniform was taut over a muscular body, battle sashes dangled from her epaulets.
Tanley unsheathed her sword with a trembling hand. "Draw your sword."
The soldier stopped under the crackling torch and captured Tanley in a critical glance. "No."
"Draw," Tanley said.
"No. I will not fight you." The soldier strode out of the torchlight.
"You must." Tanley tripped on a broken slate and landed hard on her stomach.
The soldier threw up her hands without stopping or looking back. "You don't want to fight me."
"I must." Tanley regained her footing, stumbled past the soldier, and blocked her path.
The soldier crossed her arms and gazed at Tanley.
Tanley sucked in a nervous breath and ignored the squeak of her stiff and not-quite-grown-into leather armor. She battled
the reality of what she was doing--challenging a soldier as seasoned as her stained and age-worn uniform.
The soldier put her hands on her hips. "I accept your challenge. That's enough."
"Draw your sword," Tanley said.
"What is your charge?" the soldier asked.
Tanley swallowed her heart-stopping fear. This woman could end Tanley's dreams of soldiering before she had a chance
to put on a uniform. She pulled her shoulders back and tried to snatch courage out of the air. "To challenge the first soldier
I see."
The soldier glanced down at herself. "And have you done that?"
Tanley's frustration overtook her fear. "What would that prove?"
"That you have some sense," the soldier said. "Now let me tell you my story."
Her story? Tanley struggled against her exhaustion. "Why should I listen?"
"Do you want to win the challenge?" The soldier took a step closer to Tanley. "Are you ready to listen?"
Tanley willed her feet to stay put and tried to calm her thudding heart. Ueleti's toes! This woman knows how to intimidate.
She lowered her sword--a gift from her mother who wouldn't let her perform this greatest of all duties to their village with
her old training sword.
"Every year for ten years the new holder of the Dragon's Claw has challenged a soldier and lost," the soldier said.
"Those challengers had to leave Wodling because of the shame," Tanley said.
The soldier's eyes glinted with sadness. "They all went to Ynit and became soldiers."
"You lie." Tanley shook her blade at the soldier--her frustration tempered with confusion. "Some have returned with soldier
sashes and with wages they claimed came from their duties in Ynit. No one has ever asked how they really earned those
coins."
"They know no one believes them," the soldier said. "They thank Ueleti they're allowed to visit their families in peace."
Tanley opened her mouth to protest. The soldier held up a hand. "Let me finish my story. Then you can judge if I lie to
you or not."
Tanley wanted to fight. She had been chosen to make this challenge and to fight. She gazed at the mountains already
silhouetted by the first hint of dawn--not much time left to do her duty.
But how did this soldier know so much about Wodling and the challenge? Listen as much as observe, her mentor had said.
Not everyone is out to deceive just because they face a sword.
Hesitation encroached upon her frustration and confusion. "Talk."
"For ten years not enough rain has fallen and Wodling has had to send folks to Rihnon to barter for food and water," the
soldier said.
"How do you know that?" Tanley asked.
The soldier spread out her hands. "Eleven years ago, I was the one who brought a year of rain to Wodling."
"You?" Tanley studied the soldier in search of anything familiar. "The last one who challenged a soldier and won was
strong and brave. Not a coward who refuses to fight."
"The last challenger who brought rain to Wodling listened to the previous challenger who had saved this land from
drought," the soldier said.
Tanley circled the soldier with her blade poised to strike. "I'm not so young that I don't remember Cenle before she went
to Ynit to join the Regulars."
"What do you remember about her?"
"She was tall and strong and handled the sword with the grace of Ueleti herself," Tanley said. "I sat on my father's
shoulders when he followed the litter from past the crossroads when they brought her in from the hunt. When she fought
the panther. Her bravery earned her the Dragon's Claw that year."
"You weren't old enough to recognize me now," Cenle said. "The person I was then got trampled out of me at the battle of
Halt."
Tanley frowned. "Cenle fought at Halt."
"Did she have scars from that panther attack?"
"The panther slashed her arm, leaving long scars," Tanley said. "They were a fierce red for a long time before they turned
white."
Cenle pushed up her loose-fitting sleeve and held out her arm.
Tanley stared at the alabaster lines marring the sun-bronzed skin. "It's true I don't remember Cenle's face but I remember
her scars."
"Now do you believe who I am?"
Tanley tried to fight through her muddled exhaustion. "Maybe."
"Will you, at least, listen to what I have to say?" Cenle asked. "The soldier who lives to retire knows when to fight and
when to listen."
Tanley waved her sword. "Where did you hear that from?"
"My mentor, Resle, would say that," Cenle said. "We never believed her. But she was telling us something important. Very
important to the welfare of Wodling."
"Resle still says that." Tanley lowered her sword.
A smile touched Cenle's lips. "And no doubt you roll your eyes at it."
Was this a part of the challenge? Was this a test to prove her worth as a warrior? "Are you really Cenle?"
"Yes."
"Are you really telling the truth?"
"Yes."
Tanley was there to fight but a missing piece gnawed at her. If she only had to listen, why had so many challengers lost
the challenge? She could listen and still fight. "Talk."
"The honor of the Dragon's Claw is not an honor, but a curse. Since that night eleven summers ago, my life has been a
journey of disillusionment," Cenle said. "Before I tell you what you need to know, you must enter into a trust-pact with
me. If you betray my trust, Wodling is doomed. It's as simple as that."
Tanley couldn't make sense of her challenge turned upside-down. Cenle was a soldier of Ynit and a soldier's honor was
worth more than her own life. "Will I win the challenge?"
"You will, indeed," Cenle said.
Tanley sheathed her sword. "I'll listen."
***
Tanley squinted into the early morning sunlight and saw her young cousins and their friends at the crossroads. She knew
well their excitement when she got close enough for them to see her unsheathed sword and the dark object dangling from
her other hand.
The children squealed and raced back to the village. The puffs of dust in their wake hung in a sliver of gold slipping out
from the horizon. The silence intensified her duty to her village and how solitary she felt. She remembered her pride all
those years ago when she had been the child who told Resle that Cenle had won the challenge.
She stopped in the settling dust where the village lane met the road. Her role in the tale of Cenle's victory had kept her
pride and ambition intact through the years. Now other children raced to the village for a chance to become a part of her
story. To tell the villagers that Wodling had been saved from drought for the year and that they had a new hero. She didn't
feel like a hero. She felt numb, confused, exhausted . . . disillusioned. She now understood Cenle's words.
"You did it, you did it!" The breathless shouts came from far down the road.
Tanley shielded her eyes against the sun--half-buried behind Lipert Mountain--to see more dust clouds as her friends
sprinted to her. They whooped and jumped with the same exuberance she had felt just the day before. Now that she knew
the truth about the challenge, her friends' innocent jubilance crushed her heart. She now understood why all the heroes of
Wodling left the village before summer's end. They couldn't live with their own deceit.
She gave her friends an exhausted smile. "I did it."
Graile, eyes wide at the glistening blood, circled the sword. "What was it like? Fighting a soldier, I mean."
Tanley had to choose her words well. Cenle had told her to stay within the truth because constant lying cleaved at the
soul. "It was not as I thought it would be."
Graile rolled her eyes. "And?"
Tanley sighed as she trudged down the road. Her friends scrambled after her. "Wait until I've had something to eat and get
some sleep." And time to recall what Cenle had instructed her to say.
Graile nodded, as did the others. "We understand. We're just so excited, that's all."
Tanley grinned. "Right now, just make sure I don't fall asleep during the ceremony and fall on my face."
Her friends laughed and slapped her on the back.
"You won't embarrass yourself in front of the village," Graile said.
Tanley knew they didn't care that the night before she had been just like them--a newly-sashed soldier. Now she was the
hero of Wodling and that somehow changed everything about her. She ached at the thought her friends would be a part of
her deceit. She realized the heroes not only left Wodling because of their own lies but for causing those around them to
participate in these lies.
By the time they passed the outer stone houses of Wodling, Tanley was too exhausted to dwell on the sham that had made
her a hero. She focused on walking with her sword and the sash held out in front of her. She wondered why she--or
anyone else--hadn't noticed Cenle's fatigue when she had approached the village square eleven years ago. All she wanted to
do was fall onto her bed and sleep for days.
The citizens of Wodling gathered in the square shuffled the loose dirt they hoped would soon be mud. They waited for
her. Look like a hero. Cenle's words echoed through her mind. She then realized the heroes had unsheathed their
remaining strength and energy to create the final illusion of a hero of Wodling--completing the deceit of the challenge.
The people jostled and shifted until a path was cleared for her. Resle stood next to the black stone monument in the center
of the square and watched Tanley approach.
Tanley raised her sword and sash higher and fought a grimace at her burning arm muscles.
Graile squeezed Tanley's shoulder. "Go be a hero."
Tanley mustered a smile as her companions dropped behind a few paces. She didn't have to look back to know they
tempered their excitement to match the other villagers' expressions of solemn expectation.
She stopped a pace from Resle, and was startled to see pride in her eyes.
Resle held out a scarred hand. "I must examine the sash."
Tanley concentrated on keeping the sword steady and laid the sash in Resle's hand.
Resle held the sash close to her eyes and inspected the markings etched into the leather. Tanley knew she prolonged her
examination to build the tension in the fireside tales that would be told until the next hero brought home a soldier's sash.
Resle lowered the sash and raised her eyes to the villagers. "Tanley, daughter of Taner, daughter of Tain, on this Summer
Solstice, has challenged and defeated in combat a soldier from Ynit." She gazed at Tanley. "Is she in the hands of Ueleti's
healers?"
Tanley nodded and focused on saying the proper words with a mouth as dry as the dusty square. "Yes. I brought the
healers to the soldier before I returned to Wodling."
Resle held up the sash to the villagers. "When the sand clock reaches six marks, rain will drench our parched village and
fields."
The people gazed at the sand clock that clung to Ueleti's temple. A quarter sandmark to wait. They gazed at the cloudless
sky and sucked in their breaths.
Resle held out the sash to Tanley. "Tie it to your belt and wear it with pride," she said for only Tanley's ears.
"Pride?"
"You'll learn to appreciate the sacrifice you made for this sash," Resle said.
"What about the sash's former owner?" Tanley took the sash but had to hold it until she was allowed to sheathe her sword.
Resle smiled. "I think she'll find her life much more agreeable now that her duties to Wodling are complete."
"Duties that are now mine." Tanley gazed at the sky.
The citizens of Wodling murmured as clouds coalesced, gray puffs of moisture that hadn't been seen in any usable
quantity for ten years. Many eyes shifted to Tanley and she knew they didn't see the girl who had grown up beside them.
They saw a hero with skills beyond mortal knowledge. She knew she looked brave and tall, holding the sword and sash as
if born to perform this crucial part of the ceremony.
As time passed, all eyes drifted to the sand clock. Stillness settled over the square as the grains of sand piled just over the
sixth mark; stillness broken by splats of water on the dust-thick ground. Neighbors cheered and hugged and danced
bizarre jigs with the drops of rain.
The rain splashed Tanley's blade and washed away the blood. Resle nodded and Tanley sheathed her sword, relieved to
unburden her shrieking muscles from its weight. She watched her friends and neighbors cavort in the now torrential rain
and felt . . . nothing. Numbness. Disillusionment.
"It gets better."
Tanley blinked away from her exhausted reverie and stared at Resle.
"Once you're away from Wodling--in Ynit," Resle said. "But it does get better. Most of us learn to live with it."
***
Tanley peeked around the wall of the inn's stable and waited for her eyes to adjust to the contrast of night-black and the
flickering amber of the street torches. Summer was waning and she was more than ready to escape Wodling.
The constant lie ate at her like a wound that wouldn't heal. A wound that lay open over the whole village of Wodling.
There had to be a way to lift this horrible spell. Every spell had a counter spell. All I have to do is find it.
The last patrons of The Dragon's Claw had stumbled out the door a quarter sandmark earlier and the Inn was quiet with a
single lamp glowing in the window next to the door. Only the breeze and the night creatures whispering to each other
touched her ears.
"I've come this far, I have to do it," she muttered.
She escaped the shadows and splashed across the muddy ground to the black stone monument in the middle of the square.
She pulled a roll of sheepskin from her belt and spread it over the slanted slab of stone. Much to her relief, the skin just fit
with a bit to spare. She rubbed the sheepskin with a piece of coal until the indentations in the slab emerged as light-colored
markings on the blackened skin.
***
"Nice work."
Tanley looked up from rinsing the grime and desert sand from her face. Kene from Wodling held out a drying rag. She had
challenged Cenle and lost the year before Tanley had made the challenge.
"Thanks." Tanley accepted the rag. "You handled yourself well against Gasne."
"She turned me into a dust rag." Kene glanced at her filthy uniform. She bit her lip, and Tanley could see the question in
her eyes that every challenger since Cenle had asked since her arrival in Ynit. "Does your trust-pact allow you to say
anything about that night?"
Tanley sighed. "Unfortunately, no."
"Can you at least tell me why you decided to listen?" Kene asked. "What Cenle said that convinced you to listen?"
Cenle's words, as always, echoed in Tanley's mind. Don't ever apologize for being a hero. "Would it help to know
winning the challenge is no blessing?"
"Cenle has said as much," Kene said. "But what's the point of it then? Why is it so important we sacrifice so much for it?"
Tanley watched a sand devil whirl across the sparring fields. Not for the first time did she think it ironic that she spent her
life in a drought-cursed village dreaming of being a soldier in this desert city of Ynit. "Perhaps there's an answer we can
accept. Perhaps not."
"Then maybe you can tell me what happened to the Tanley I grew up with--the fearless, confident, always ready for fun
or a prank Tanley," Kene said. "I can't believe whatever happened on that hill could change a person so much."
Tanley pulled her eyes from the sand devil. "That alone should be enough to consider yourself lucky you didn't listen to
Cenle. At least all you felt was disappointment and humiliation. If the only failure you can claim in your life is you didn't
become the hero of Wodling, then your life will have been well spent."
Kene stared with the same lack of comprehension Tanley had seen in all the failed challengers who had confronted her.
"You're telling me I'm better off to have discovered the sting of Cenle's blade that night?"
Tanley met Kene's eyes with a steady gaze. "Yes. I wish the wounds I received on the hill could heal as quickly."
"You know what I think?" Kene said. "I think there's something wrong with a spell that takes Wodling's best soldiers and
either humiliates them or turns them into such brooding melancholy souls they have to leave and never return."
"I don't think the wizard who cast the spell liked warriors very much." Tanley swore on Ueleti's sword she'd do everything
possible to break the spell before she faced the next challenger on the hill.
***
Tanley stopped in front of the small adobe house and could only stare. She prayed to Ueleti she had been given the wrong
address for the wizard.
A woman, in a shapeless tunic and baggy leggings, sprinkled water on her vegetables as she sang a popular song. She
stopped her chore and moved her middle-aged body to a vigorous rhythm that only she heard, and then threw her head
back and bellowed the refrain. She turned to Tanley and ended her song with a startled "Oh!"
"A visitor." The woman put down the urn and hopped through the garden on ragged sun-baked blocks. "Come in, come in.
How can I help you?"
Tanley fought the impulse to run to the safety of the sparring fields and followed the woman. "I need some information
concerning a spell."
The woman muttered a few unintelligible words and pushed open the house door. "Let's sit." She pointed to a handful of
chairs. "I'm Fernl."
"Tanley." She selected a chair near the door.
Fernl fell into a well-worn chair. "Now. Did you say you had something to sell?"
Tanley shoved down her bewilderment and alarm. "Spell."
"Spell." Fernl nodded. "Of course. That makes more sense. Now I can only give you information, and magic for amulets
and the like for you to manipulate yourself. I'm not allowed to directly cast spells to help you."
"I understand that," Tanley said.
"I can't stand it either. People just go off and use a rogue wizard to get what they want." Fernl smiled as she removed a
cloth from a sweating decanter. "Would you like some cold fruit juice?"
Tanley just wanted to bolt. "Yes, please."
"Now what spell do you have in mind?" Fernl poured two tumblers of juice.
Tanley pulled the sheepskin from her belt and gave it to the wizard.
Fernl settled back and held the skin close to her eyes. "Hmmm, yes. This could only be Naemi's handiwork. She was
notorious for ruining people's lives."
"Can you help me break it?" Tanley enunciated the words.
Fernl gurgled a laugh. "The way to break the spell is right here as clear as the summer sky in Ynit."
"So you can help?" Tanley asked.
Fernl studied her with a thoughtful expression. "You're from Wodling?"
"Yes," Tanley said.
"Did you have to go through this challenge?"
Tanley hung her head. "Yes."
Fernl's eyebrow shot up. "You didn't win it?"
Tanley sighed. "I won it."
"So you know all the nonsense Naemi amused herself with."
"Amused herself?" Tanley tensed with anger. "How do you know what Cenle had me do?"
"It's all here." Fernl waved at the sheepskin. "Not in these big words--nonsense mostly, except for a couple of obvious
hints. You did a nice job of rubbing everything off of the--"
"Slab of stone." Tanley's anger faded to puzzlement.
"Naemi's message is quite complete and quite explicit on how to break the spell," Fernl said. "This slab must be in a hidden
place."
"Why do you say that?" Tanley asked.
"The spell has been in place for, let's see, two centuries? Any wizard would have been able to help break it if they saw it."
"It's in the village square," Tanley said. "In front of the well."
Fernl stared at her. "Did you say it's in your village square?"
"Out in the open."
"Interesting." Fernl squinted at the rubbing. "But in character with Naemi. She probably cast a minor spell on the stone to
hide this script from wizards. A spell like that brings as much attention to itself as bits of stray magic."
"But it's visible. We thought it was just decoration," Tanley said.
"Visible to everyone but wizards," Fernl said. "An example of the demented games Naemi liked to play."
"You're saying all that my village has gone through, all the humiliation and disillusionment its warriors have suffered, all the
years of drought and scraping together whatever we could to barter for enough food to see us through another year; you
mean it was some kind of joke to this wizard?" Tanley stood, angry and frustrated.
"Unfortunately, yes." Fernl sighed and rubbed her eyes. "She may have been a rogue wizard, but she was more skillful
than most. Someone in your village most likely committed an offense against her and she responded with this spell."
Tanley sank back into the chair. The desire to break this spell before it disrupted her village one more year burned with the
intensity of Ueleti's eternal flame.
***
Tanley crouched in the shadows that obscured the newly rebuilt stable wall next to the Dragon Claw Inn and opened her
senses to the night-darkened square. The ground was already turning to dust as the Summer Solstice drew near and the
year of rain slacked off.
The silence had settled enough to give her confidence and she pattered across the square and stooped in front of the dark
monument. Now that she was there, she felt silly about what she had to say. Naemi must have really hated warriors.
"Give me the key."
She half expected nothing to happen and wasn't sure if anything had happened. She peeked at the black stone slab and
almost missed the long piece of dark metal in a matching indentation. She sent a prayer of thanks to Ueleti, grabbed the
key, and pattered back to the shadows.
***
Tanley crouched in the six-sided open air shrine to Ueleti nestled at the base of challenge hill. She didn't know if praying in
an ancient neglected shrine was as effective as praying in a temple, but she sent her prayers to Ueleti anyway. If
something went wrong--even with all the preparation . . . No. She couldn't think such thoughts.
Soft footfalls on the road froze her for a heartbeat. She grasped the amulet that Fernl had given her, and when Kyla, the
new challenger, passed by the shrine, she whispered, "Sleep."
Kyla stopped in mid-step and crumpled to the path.
Tanley stared hard at Kyla and listened for any sign the spell wouldn't hold. Nothing but the night meadow sounds reached
her ears, and Kyla remained motionless.
Tanley eased off the stone floor onto noisy neglected weeds. She approached Kyla, struggled to pick her up, and carried
her back to the shrine. Her shoulders ached--Kyla had been smaller and lighter the last time Tanley had seen her.
She set Kyla on a pile of furs and bound her hands and feet. "You want to be a hero? You just have to listen to me and
believe." She grasped the amulet. "Wake up."
Kyla opened her eyes and glanced around but didn't show panic.
"Forgive the restraints." Tanley worked to calm her unexpected nervousness. "It's important you listen to what I say
before anything else happens tonight."
Kyla gazed at her with the trust of an old friend. "I'll listen. But what about the soldier? What if I miss her while I'm here?"
"I'm the soldier you're to challenge," Tanley said, surprised at Kyla's calmness.
Kyla frowned. "You?"
"Yes." Tanley eased down and crossed her legs. "So you have nothing to lose by listening to what I have to say. If you still
want to challenge me after that, we'll go to the hill and you'll have your chance."
"This amulet you sent to me as a good luck charm." Kyla looked down at the crossed swords dangling from her neck.
"Did it help you capture me?"
Tanley nodded. "It has a spell that makes you fall asleep and wake up on my command."
"Is this what happened to you?"
Tanley shook her head. "No. The time wasn't right."
"What do you mean? Who did you challenge?" Kyla asked.
"I challenged Cenle. It's the hero's duty to be the one who's challenged."
"Cenle," Kyla said. "That makes sense."
"What I meant by the time not being right, is last year wasn't the year the spell could be lifted from Wodling," Tanley said.
"This is the year it can happen--if you do what I instruct you to do."
Kyla's eyes widened. "Tell me what I have to do."
"Why aren't you stubbornly questioning everything I'm saying?" Tanley asked.
Kyla snorted a laugh. "I wanted to be the challenger on the hill since the moment I first heard the stories on my mother's
knee. Success meant becoming a hero. But while I grew up, only one soldier became a hero and the rest of the challengers
had to leave Wodling in shame. On one side of the blade, it made me wonder if it was worth pursuing. On the other side,
the idea was too seductive to resist. But I don't have to tell you that."
Tanley studied a worn patch on her boot. "No."
"Then you won the challenge," Kyla said. "Given the history of challenges, that was the same as denying me and my
comrades a chance to succeed. None of us tried very hard to win the Dragon's Claw this year." She emitted a throaty
chuckle. "I was the one unlucky enough to do a heroic deed, being the closest to the inn's stable when it caught fire."
Tanley stared at her in shocked surprised. "I never thought about how you'd feel about your chances of winning the
challenge."
Kyla stared into the dark beyond Tanley's lantern light. "Enough time had passed since Cenle by the time you were ready to
try for the Claw."
"It was what we all lived for," Tanley said.
"I had to pretend to be happy to win the Claw and my comrades had to pretend to be disappointed," Kyla said. "Resle
instructed us on how we had to keep up appearances, no matter how we felt. Pretending to be happy in front of my
mother hasn't been easy. She's so proud. She bought me these new leathers and this sword. It's been . . ." She sucked in a
ragged breath. "It's been hard."
Tanley's world collapsed in on itself and the warm night air was all of a sudden too thick to breathe.
"It shouldn't be too hard to understand why I'm not demanding to do what I've been sent to do," Kyla said. "If I faced
you, I'd lose for sure."
"I've given you the chance to be a hero when you had no hope of becoming one," Tanley said.
"Yes."
"Because it's a part of the ritual, I have to ask you to enter into a trust-pact with me," Tanley said.
"That's why no one has ever spoken of it--even with an ale-soaked tongue," Kyla said.
"I had to enter into one before I could become a hero." Tanley fingered Cenle's sash tied to her belt. "Too many secrets
have to be kept. One whisper outside of the trust-pact and the spell would be released and Wodling would be in drought
forever."
Kyla studied Tanley for several heartbeats. "Do I have your promise that I'll become a hero? That the next time I see my
mother; I'll see pride in her eyes?"
Tanley captured Kyla's eyes with her own. "If what I ask you to do doesn't make you a hero, then you may create
whatever story you want to describe how I stopped you from meeting the challenger and how I made you do what I'm
about to tell you."
"You're a soldier of Ynit. You would let a lie from me ruin what you spent your life training for?" Kyla asked.
"Yes," Tanley said.
"If you're willing to risk everything then so am I," Kyla said. "I have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain."
***
Tanley fiddled with her plate of sausages and eggs and looked up every time the door opened. The Goat and Goose Inn
was quiet that time of the morning. Too quiet for her rioting thoughts.
"Where is that girl?" she muttered into a mug of tea.
Kyla rushed through the doorway and pushed around the mostly empty tables--bringing along the metallic scent of rain, as
it clung to her leathers and sloshed the floor from her boots.
"Sorry," Kyla said as she sat across from Tanley. "It wasn't easy sneaking away."
"I'm guessing it worked." Tanley brushed raindrops from Kyla's tunic.
Kyla laughed. "You could say that."
Tanley waved to the serving girl. "Tell me what happened."
Kyla gave the girl a grateful smile and accepted the mug of spiced tea. "It was amazing."
"Tell me everything," Tanley said.
"All right. From the beginning." Kyla took a long sip of tea. "I walked down the road, trying to remember everything you
told me. It sounds strange but I didn't feel apprehensive about how everyone would react to what I was about to do. I felt
exhilarated. Like a warrior entering the unknown to battle expectations and fears with only truth as my weapon."
"You were suffering from lack of sleep because you wanted to talk all night instead of getting some rest," Tanley said.
"Lack of sleep had nothing to do with how I felt," Kyla said. "I heard the excited squeals of the children before I could
make out their faces. My youngest sister already had a sprinter's start on the others; their shouts echoing back to me as
they raced away."
"We used to meet the warriors at the crossroads together," Tanley said.
"We didn't know what it was all about then." Kyla stared into her mug. Tanley sensed a new layer of maturity that came
from a life-changing experience. "Within heartbeats, a group of my comrades--shocked and silent--ran toward me. They
stopped several paces away and stared at my bloody sword in one hand and the key in the other."
"Do you think they'll ever forgive us for putting an end to the challenge?" Tanley asked.
"I hope so," Kyla said. "So Scarl asked, 'You won the challenge?' And I said in as strong and confident a voice as I could
muster, 'Even better than that. I won the key to break the spell forever.' Needless to say, they were shocked."
Tanley laughed. "Dumbstruck more like it."
"I said, 'I'll tell the story when I get to the square,' and I strode down the road with them trailing after me. I passed the
outer buildings and saw Resle where the road opens onto the square. Her eyes looked ready to pop out of her head when
she realized the thing in my left hand wasn't a sash. All kinds of emotion flickered across her face before she got back to
her usual soldier calm."
Tanley grimaced. "That was the hardest part I bet. Facing Resle and knowing what she was thinking."
"Oh, yeah." Kyla laughed. "But I kept a steady pace and maintained a confident expression. You said, 'Don't give Resle
anything to make her question what you're doing.' So I tried not to. I stopped in front of her."
Kyla took another sip of tea and gazed at Tanley with eyes full of wonder. "I looked past Resle to my friends and family on
the square and said in a raised voice, 'My fellow citizens of Wodling. Today is a day of celebration. Not just for one year
but forever.' The people looked stunned and watched me with uncomprehending eyes."
"I can only imagine," Tanley murmured.
"I said to them, 'When I got to the top of the hill, the soldier I was to challenge had been captured by a great warrior.' I
didn't dare look at Resle but could sense her surprise and disbelief. I continued with, 'This warrior is a descendent of the
wizard who cast the spell upon our village. She told me the wizard had cast the spell to last two hundred years.'"
Kyla's eyes were distant as if she could still see the scene. "I said, 'She had been a cruel rogue wizard and couldn't just let
the spell disappear. She had set up a final challenge that would either break the spell or doom Wodling to endless drought.'
Now the people were spellbound--as if some stray magic had transformed me into a master storyteller."
"You weave a good tale," Tanley said.
"I felt caught in a fireside epic," Kyla said. "I told them, 'The conditions for this final challenge were simple. If I defeated
this warrior, she would give me the key that fits the lock on the monument. Unlocking the monument would break the
spell. But if I lost, the spell would be released and Wodling would never see a drop of rain again.' I couldn't believe these
people I grew up with clung to my words and watched me with a respect I had only witnessed twice before. When Cenle
and then you had brought home a soldier's sash."
Tanley frowned as she tried to remember anything from the morning she faced the villagers as a hero.
"I said, 'I prepared to fight this warrior.' The people stared at me in silence and I wondered if I embellished too much. But
you told me to make it dramatic." Kyla looked a bit sheepish.
"It sounds like you did well," Tanley said.
"I did my best." Kyla shrugged. "I said, 'Trained by Emorans she was. Tall and muscular. In leather armor that looked as if
it had seen more battles than most of us had ever fought in our dreams. She was powerful enough to capture and bind a
soldier of Ynit. I didn't think I had a chance but I also didn't have a choice. I was on that hill for a purpose--to bring rain
to Wodling. It didn't matter who I fought to make that happen.' I pointed my bloody sword into the air. 'We fought but I
had the fate of Wodling on my shoulders and Ueleti gave me the strength I needed to beat this warrior. I wounded her until
she was unable to fight and she finally conceded defeat.' I pointed the key into the air. 'She then gave me this key and
instructions for breaking the spell.'"
Tanley realized she was staring spellbound at Kyla. "You missed your calling. Your storytelling will make you a popular
soldier."
Kyla laughed. "I have to get through training in Ynit first."
"You'll have no problem," Tanley said. "So what happened next?"
"Resle caught on and asked, 'Is this warrior in the hands of Ueleti's healers?' and I said, 'The soldier and I took her to the
healers.' Resle's eyes betrayed her uncertainty but she said, 'Then carry out the warrior's instructions.' She stepped aside
and the villagers made a path to the monument."
"Resle was the unknown in the plan," Tanley said. "I'm glad she trusted you."
"I'll never forget how I felt at that moment," Kyla said. "My soul was drenched with the hush that settled over the people.
I'd heard that unexpected victory in battle was the sweetest, and I savored every brush of the breeze against the temple
bell, the creak of the rope on the inn's well, the expression on my mother's face as she looked upon me as hero." Her eyes
almost glowed with the wonder of it all. "Still holding my sword and key in the traditional way, I walked to the monument
at an unhurried pace with Resle following behind me. As you instructed, I tried to maintain the old ritual as much as
possible."
"I'm glad it worked," Tanley said.
Kyla nodded. "The respectful silence wrapped around me in a cloak of anticipation. No one seemed to notice I wasn't
exhausted from being awake all night or I bore no evidence of battle other than the bloody sword, and that was thanks to
the bladder of sheep's blood from you. I walked to the opposite side of the monument and faced the slanted slab of black
stone, half-relieved to see the hole you said was there. I'd never noticed it before."
"Me neither," Tanley said.
"I placed the bloody sword over the words etched into the stone. I said, 'With this sword I prove that the descendent of
the wizard, Naemi, who cast this spell upon our village, has been defeated in battle for possession of this key.' I lifted the
key so the villagers could see it. 'With this key I break the spell that has hung over Wodling for two centuries.' I slid the
key into the hole until it pulled away from my fingers as if taken over by magic and disappeared. I didn't know what to
expect so I stayed relaxed and confident and stepped back from the monument."
Tanley wondered if she would have been able to have done what she had asked of Kyla. Perhaps the time for the spell to
be broken was indeed upon them.
"I watched, along with the people close enough to see, the words and markings melt into the stone until it was smooth and
black. They gasped and I admit, so did I, as new words formed in noble letters. At the top was my name. I couldn't
believe it. Then your name below mine, then Cenle's, then Hener's, until the names of all the heroes of Wodling were
etched into the stone," she gave Tanley an impish look, "which gleamed as if polished and glistened in the large drops of
rain that fell onto the monument."
Tanley grinned in delight.
"The shock lasted all of a few heartbeats and the villagers let loose with such a noise I'm surprised you didn't hear it all the
way here. I exchanged looks of understanding with Resle as everyone frolicked in the rain. She said, 'Thank you.'" Kyla
captured Tanley's eyes with her own. "I told her, 'Don't thank me. The true hero doesn't wish to be known and I took a
trust-pact not to reveal who it is. The spell is gone and that's all that matters.'"
Tanley sat back dumbfounded. "There can be only one hero of Wodling at a time. This is your time."
***
Tanley lifted her tankard in a silent toast. She couldn't believe that a year and a day had passed since she helped liberate
Wodling from the spell. She missed Kyla's company but didn't begrudge her decision to return to Wodling to be a part of
the local garrison once she had become a soldier of Ynit.
She glanced at the tavern's entrance and frowned in surprise. Kyla, travel pack hanging from one shoulder, walked her
way.
Tanley half rose. "Why are you here? Is everything all right at home?"
Kyla laughed and sat down. She plopped her elbows on the rough-wood table and gave Tanley a wry grin. "We come from
a village of crazy people."
"What happened?" Tanley asked.
"They wanted to have a festival on the anniversary of being freed from the spell." Kyla accepted a tankard of ale from a
serving girl and downed half of it.
Tanley shrugged. "Sounds normal to me."
"They just didn't want to have a day of games and feasting, they wanted to reenact what I did last year." Kyla's face
scrunched in comic disgust. "Someone actually remembered all that nonsense I spewed. Wrote it all down and referred to
it like it was from Ueleti's sacred scroll. They wanted me to reenact it myself but I convinced them as politely as I could
that I shouldn't do it." She took another gulp of ale. "I thought they would just leave it at that. Just have the games and the
feasting."
Tanley put her head in her hands and groaned. "Don't tell me."
"Cien earned the Dragon's Claw this year and she had to reenact the freeing of Wodling from the spell." Kyla's voice
twisted with irony.
"At least they won't be humiliated and have to leave Wodling forever," Tanley said.
"But it's based on the nonsense we made up," Kyla said.
Tanley studied a knot in the table. "It was made up but it really happened, too. No lies. No deceit. Just the truth. The
holders of the Claw can reenact your performance and get on with their lives."
"That's true, I guess. But I'll never be able to be in Wodling during the festival. That reminds me. There's one thing I've
been meaning to ask about." Kyla signaled the server for another ale. "How did all our names get etched onto the
monument?"
Tanley laughed. "The wizard who helped me said they like to leave a little reminder of their magic."
gave her head a shake to clear away a sleepless night and squinted into the black outside the arc of torchlight. A rhythmic
crunch of boots on the dry grass approached the hill.
It's the soldier. Tanley struggled to her feet, her legs numb from sitting most of the night on stone ruins.
She stared in awe at the woman striding up the hill. The torchlight illuminated her tousled blonde hair and tawny eyes. Her
uniform was taut over a muscular body, battle sashes dangled from her epaulets.
Tanley unsheathed her sword with a trembling hand. "Draw your sword."
The soldier stopped under the crackling torch and captured Tanley in a critical glance. "No."
"Draw," Tanley said.
"No. I will not fight you." The soldier strode out of the torchlight.
"You must." Tanley tripped on a broken slate and landed hard on her stomach.
The soldier threw up her hands without stopping or looking back. "You don't want to fight me."
"I must." Tanley regained her footing, stumbled past the soldier, and blocked her path.
The soldier crossed her arms and gazed at Tanley.
Tanley sucked in a nervous breath and ignored the squeak of her stiff and not-quite-grown-into leather armor. She battled
the reality of what she was doing--challenging a soldier as seasoned as her stained and age-worn uniform.
The soldier put her hands on her hips. "I accept your challenge. That's enough."
"Draw your sword," Tanley said.
"What is your charge?" the soldier asked.
Tanley swallowed her heart-stopping fear. This woman could end Tanley's dreams of soldiering before she had a chance
to put on a uniform. She pulled her shoulders back and tried to snatch courage out of the air. "To challenge the first soldier
I see."
The soldier glanced down at herself. "And have you done that?"
Tanley's frustration overtook her fear. "What would that prove?"
"That you have some sense," the soldier said. "Now let me tell you my story."
Her story? Tanley struggled against her exhaustion. "Why should I listen?"
"Do you want to win the challenge?" The soldier took a step closer to Tanley. "Are you ready to listen?"
Tanley willed her feet to stay put and tried to calm her thudding heart. Ueleti's toes! This woman knows how to intimidate.
She lowered her sword--a gift from her mother who wouldn't let her perform this greatest of all duties to their village with
her old training sword.
"Every year for ten years the new holder of the Dragon's Claw has challenged a soldier and lost," the soldier said.
"Those challengers had to leave Wodling because of the shame," Tanley said.
The soldier's eyes glinted with sadness. "They all went to Ynit and became soldiers."
"You lie." Tanley shook her blade at the soldier--her frustration tempered with confusion. "Some have returned with soldier
sashes and with wages they claimed came from their duties in Ynit. No one has ever asked how they really earned those
coins."
"They know no one believes them," the soldier said. "They thank Ueleti they're allowed to visit their families in peace."
Tanley opened her mouth to protest. The soldier held up a hand. "Let me finish my story. Then you can judge if I lie to
you or not."
Tanley wanted to fight. She had been chosen to make this challenge and to fight. She gazed at the mountains already
silhouetted by the first hint of dawn--not much time left to do her duty.
But how did this soldier know so much about Wodling and the challenge? Listen as much as observe, her mentor had said.
Not everyone is out to deceive just because they face a sword.
Hesitation encroached upon her frustration and confusion. "Talk."
"For ten years not enough rain has fallen and Wodling has had to send folks to Rihnon to barter for food and water," the
soldier said.
"How do you know that?" Tanley asked.
The soldier spread out her hands. "Eleven years ago, I was the one who brought a year of rain to Wodling."
"You?" Tanley studied the soldier in search of anything familiar. "The last one who challenged a soldier and won was
strong and brave. Not a coward who refuses to fight."
"The last challenger who brought rain to Wodling listened to the previous challenger who had saved this land from
drought," the soldier said.
Tanley circled the soldier with her blade poised to strike. "I'm not so young that I don't remember Cenle before she went
to Ynit to join the Regulars."
"What do you remember about her?"
"She was tall and strong and handled the sword with the grace of Ueleti herself," Tanley said. "I sat on my father's
shoulders when he followed the litter from past the crossroads when they brought her in from the hunt. When she fought
the panther. Her bravery earned her the Dragon's Claw that year."
"You weren't old enough to recognize me now," Cenle said. "The person I was then got trampled out of me at the battle of
Halt."
Tanley frowned. "Cenle fought at Halt."
"Did she have scars from that panther attack?"
"The panther slashed her arm, leaving long scars," Tanley said. "They were a fierce red for a long time before they turned
white."
Cenle pushed up her loose-fitting sleeve and held out her arm.
Tanley stared at the alabaster lines marring the sun-bronzed skin. "It's true I don't remember Cenle's face but I remember
her scars."
"Now do you believe who I am?"
Tanley tried to fight through her muddled exhaustion. "Maybe."
"Will you, at least, listen to what I have to say?" Cenle asked. "The soldier who lives to retire knows when to fight and
when to listen."
Tanley waved her sword. "Where did you hear that from?"
"My mentor, Resle, would say that," Cenle said. "We never believed her. But she was telling us something important. Very
important to the welfare of Wodling."
"Resle still says that." Tanley lowered her sword.
A smile touched Cenle's lips. "And no doubt you roll your eyes at it."
Was this a part of the challenge? Was this a test to prove her worth as a warrior? "Are you really Cenle?"
"Yes."
"Are you really telling the truth?"
"Yes."
Tanley was there to fight but a missing piece gnawed at her. If she only had to listen, why had so many challengers lost
the challenge? She could listen and still fight. "Talk."
"The honor of the Dragon's Claw is not an honor, but a curse. Since that night eleven summers ago, my life has been a
journey of disillusionment," Cenle said. "Before I tell you what you need to know, you must enter into a trust-pact with
me. If you betray my trust, Wodling is doomed. It's as simple as that."
Tanley couldn't make sense of her challenge turned upside-down. Cenle was a soldier of Ynit and a soldier's honor was
worth more than her own life. "Will I win the challenge?"
"You will, indeed," Cenle said.
Tanley sheathed her sword. "I'll listen."
***
Tanley squinted into the early morning sunlight and saw her young cousins and their friends at the crossroads. She knew
well their excitement when she got close enough for them to see her unsheathed sword and the dark object dangling from
her other hand.
The children squealed and raced back to the village. The puffs of dust in their wake hung in a sliver of gold slipping out
from the horizon. The silence intensified her duty to her village and how solitary she felt. She remembered her pride all
those years ago when she had been the child who told Resle that Cenle had won the challenge.
She stopped in the settling dust where the village lane met the road. Her role in the tale of Cenle's victory had kept her
pride and ambition intact through the years. Now other children raced to the village for a chance to become a part of her
story. To tell the villagers that Wodling had been saved from drought for the year and that they had a new hero. She didn't
feel like a hero. She felt numb, confused, exhausted . . . disillusioned. She now understood Cenle's words.
"You did it, you did it!" The breathless shouts came from far down the road.
Tanley shielded her eyes against the sun--half-buried behind Lipert Mountain--to see more dust clouds as her friends
sprinted to her. They whooped and jumped with the same exuberance she had felt just the day before. Now that she knew
the truth about the challenge, her friends' innocent jubilance crushed her heart. She now understood why all the heroes of
Wodling left the village before summer's end. They couldn't live with their own deceit.
She gave her friends an exhausted smile. "I did it."
Graile, eyes wide at the glistening blood, circled the sword. "What was it like? Fighting a soldier, I mean."
Tanley had to choose her words well. Cenle had told her to stay within the truth because constant lying cleaved at the
soul. "It was not as I thought it would be."
Graile rolled her eyes. "And?"
Tanley sighed as she trudged down the road. Her friends scrambled after her. "Wait until I've had something to eat and get
some sleep." And time to recall what Cenle had instructed her to say.
Graile nodded, as did the others. "We understand. We're just so excited, that's all."
Tanley grinned. "Right now, just make sure I don't fall asleep during the ceremony and fall on my face."
Her friends laughed and slapped her on the back.
"You won't embarrass yourself in front of the village," Graile said.
Tanley knew they didn't care that the night before she had been just like them--a newly-sashed soldier. Now she was the
hero of Wodling and that somehow changed everything about her. She ached at the thought her friends would be a part of
her deceit. She realized the heroes not only left Wodling because of their own lies but for causing those around them to
participate in these lies.
By the time they passed the outer stone houses of Wodling, Tanley was too exhausted to dwell on the sham that had made
her a hero. She focused on walking with her sword and the sash held out in front of her. She wondered why she--or
anyone else--hadn't noticed Cenle's fatigue when she had approached the village square eleven years ago. All she wanted to
do was fall onto her bed and sleep for days.
The citizens of Wodling gathered in the square shuffled the loose dirt they hoped would soon be mud. They waited for
her. Look like a hero. Cenle's words echoed through her mind. She then realized the heroes had unsheathed their
remaining strength and energy to create the final illusion of a hero of Wodling--completing the deceit of the challenge.
The people jostled and shifted until a path was cleared for her. Resle stood next to the black stone monument in the center
of the square and watched Tanley approach.
Tanley raised her sword and sash higher and fought a grimace at her burning arm muscles.
Graile squeezed Tanley's shoulder. "Go be a hero."
Tanley mustered a smile as her companions dropped behind a few paces. She didn't have to look back to know they
tempered their excitement to match the other villagers' expressions of solemn expectation.
She stopped a pace from Resle, and was startled to see pride in her eyes.
Resle held out a scarred hand. "I must examine the sash."
Tanley concentrated on keeping the sword steady and laid the sash in Resle's hand.
Resle held the sash close to her eyes and inspected the markings etched into the leather. Tanley knew she prolonged her
examination to build the tension in the fireside tales that would be told until the next hero brought home a soldier's sash.
Resle lowered the sash and raised her eyes to the villagers. "Tanley, daughter of Taner, daughter of Tain, on this Summer
Solstice, has challenged and defeated in combat a soldier from Ynit." She gazed at Tanley. "Is she in the hands of Ueleti's
healers?"
Tanley nodded and focused on saying the proper words with a mouth as dry as the dusty square. "Yes. I brought the
healers to the soldier before I returned to Wodling."
Resle held up the sash to the villagers. "When the sand clock reaches six marks, rain will drench our parched village and
fields."
The people gazed at the sand clock that clung to Ueleti's temple. A quarter sandmark to wait. They gazed at the cloudless
sky and sucked in their breaths.
Resle held out the sash to Tanley. "Tie it to your belt and wear it with pride," she said for only Tanley's ears.
"Pride?"
"You'll learn to appreciate the sacrifice you made for this sash," Resle said.
"What about the sash's former owner?" Tanley took the sash but had to hold it until she was allowed to sheathe her sword.
Resle smiled. "I think she'll find her life much more agreeable now that her duties to Wodling are complete."
"Duties that are now mine." Tanley gazed at the sky.
The citizens of Wodling murmured as clouds coalesced, gray puffs of moisture that hadn't been seen in any usable
quantity for ten years. Many eyes shifted to Tanley and she knew they didn't see the girl who had grown up beside them.
They saw a hero with skills beyond mortal knowledge. She knew she looked brave and tall, holding the sword and sash as
if born to perform this crucial part of the ceremony.
As time passed, all eyes drifted to the sand clock. Stillness settled over the square as the grains of sand piled just over the
sixth mark; stillness broken by splats of water on the dust-thick ground. Neighbors cheered and hugged and danced
bizarre jigs with the drops of rain.
The rain splashed Tanley's blade and washed away the blood. Resle nodded and Tanley sheathed her sword, relieved to
unburden her shrieking muscles from its weight. She watched her friends and neighbors cavort in the now torrential rain
and felt . . . nothing. Numbness. Disillusionment.
"It gets better."
Tanley blinked away from her exhausted reverie and stared at Resle.
"Once you're away from Wodling--in Ynit," Resle said. "But it does get better. Most of us learn to live with it."
***
Tanley peeked around the wall of the inn's stable and waited for her eyes to adjust to the contrast of night-black and the
flickering amber of the street torches. Summer was waning and she was more than ready to escape Wodling.
The constant lie ate at her like a wound that wouldn't heal. A wound that lay open over the whole village of Wodling.
There had to be a way to lift this horrible spell. Every spell had a counter spell. All I have to do is find it.
The last patrons of The Dragon's Claw had stumbled out the door a quarter sandmark earlier and the Inn was quiet with a
single lamp glowing in the window next to the door. Only the breeze and the night creatures whispering to each other
touched her ears.
"I've come this far, I have to do it," she muttered.
She escaped the shadows and splashed across the muddy ground to the black stone monument in the middle of the square.
She pulled a roll of sheepskin from her belt and spread it over the slanted slab of stone. Much to her relief, the skin just fit
with a bit to spare. She rubbed the sheepskin with a piece of coal until the indentations in the slab emerged as light-colored
markings on the blackened skin.
***
"Nice work."
Tanley looked up from rinsing the grime and desert sand from her face. Kene from Wodling held out a drying rag. She had
challenged Cenle and lost the year before Tanley had made the challenge.
"Thanks." Tanley accepted the rag. "You handled yourself well against Gasne."
"She turned me into a dust rag." Kene glanced at her filthy uniform. She bit her lip, and Tanley could see the question in
her eyes that every challenger since Cenle had asked since her arrival in Ynit. "Does your trust-pact allow you to say
anything about that night?"
Tanley sighed. "Unfortunately, no."
"Can you at least tell me why you decided to listen?" Kene asked. "What Cenle said that convinced you to listen?"
Cenle's words, as always, echoed in Tanley's mind. Don't ever apologize for being a hero. "Would it help to know
winning the challenge is no blessing?"
"Cenle has said as much," Kene said. "But what's the point of it then? Why is it so important we sacrifice so much for it?"
Tanley watched a sand devil whirl across the sparring fields. Not for the first time did she think it ironic that she spent her
life in a drought-cursed village dreaming of being a soldier in this desert city of Ynit. "Perhaps there's an answer we can
accept. Perhaps not."
"Then maybe you can tell me what happened to the Tanley I grew up with--the fearless, confident, always ready for fun
or a prank Tanley," Kene said. "I can't believe whatever happened on that hill could change a person so much."
Tanley pulled her eyes from the sand devil. "That alone should be enough to consider yourself lucky you didn't listen to
Cenle. At least all you felt was disappointment and humiliation. If the only failure you can claim in your life is you didn't
become the hero of Wodling, then your life will have been well spent."
Kene stared with the same lack of comprehension Tanley had seen in all the failed challengers who had confronted her.
"You're telling me I'm better off to have discovered the sting of Cenle's blade that night?"
Tanley met Kene's eyes with a steady gaze. "Yes. I wish the wounds I received on the hill could heal as quickly."
"You know what I think?" Kene said. "I think there's something wrong with a spell that takes Wodling's best soldiers and
either humiliates them or turns them into such brooding melancholy souls they have to leave and never return."
"I don't think the wizard who cast the spell liked warriors very much." Tanley swore on Ueleti's sword she'd do everything
possible to break the spell before she faced the next challenger on the hill.
***
Tanley stopped in front of the small adobe house and could only stare. She prayed to Ueleti she had been given the wrong
address for the wizard.
A woman, in a shapeless tunic and baggy leggings, sprinkled water on her vegetables as she sang a popular song. She
stopped her chore and moved her middle-aged body to a vigorous rhythm that only she heard, and then threw her head
back and bellowed the refrain. She turned to Tanley and ended her song with a startled "Oh!"
"A visitor." The woman put down the urn and hopped through the garden on ragged sun-baked blocks. "Come in, come in.
How can I help you?"
Tanley fought the impulse to run to the safety of the sparring fields and followed the woman. "I need some information
concerning a spell."
The woman muttered a few unintelligible words and pushed open the house door. "Let's sit." She pointed to a handful of
chairs. "I'm Fernl."
"Tanley." She selected a chair near the door.
Fernl fell into a well-worn chair. "Now. Did you say you had something to sell?"
Tanley shoved down her bewilderment and alarm. "Spell."
"Spell." Fernl nodded. "Of course. That makes more sense. Now I can only give you information, and magic for amulets
and the like for you to manipulate yourself. I'm not allowed to directly cast spells to help you."
"I understand that," Tanley said.
"I can't stand it either. People just go off and use a rogue wizard to get what they want." Fernl smiled as she removed a
cloth from a sweating decanter. "Would you like some cold fruit juice?"
Tanley just wanted to bolt. "Yes, please."
"Now what spell do you have in mind?" Fernl poured two tumblers of juice.
Tanley pulled the sheepskin from her belt and gave it to the wizard.
Fernl settled back and held the skin close to her eyes. "Hmmm, yes. This could only be Naemi's handiwork. She was
notorious for ruining people's lives."
"Can you help me break it?" Tanley enunciated the words.
Fernl gurgled a laugh. "The way to break the spell is right here as clear as the summer sky in Ynit."
"So you can help?" Tanley asked.
Fernl studied her with a thoughtful expression. "You're from Wodling?"
"Yes," Tanley said.
"Did you have to go through this challenge?"
Tanley hung her head. "Yes."
Fernl's eyebrow shot up. "You didn't win it?"
Tanley sighed. "I won it."
"So you know all the nonsense Naemi amused herself with."
"Amused herself?" Tanley tensed with anger. "How do you know what Cenle had me do?"
"It's all here." Fernl waved at the sheepskin. "Not in these big words--nonsense mostly, except for a couple of obvious
hints. You did a nice job of rubbing everything off of the--"
"Slab of stone." Tanley's anger faded to puzzlement.
"Naemi's message is quite complete and quite explicit on how to break the spell," Fernl said. "This slab must be in a hidden
place."
"Why do you say that?" Tanley asked.
"The spell has been in place for, let's see, two centuries? Any wizard would have been able to help break it if they saw it."
"It's in the village square," Tanley said. "In front of the well."
Fernl stared at her. "Did you say it's in your village square?"
"Out in the open."
"Interesting." Fernl squinted at the rubbing. "But in character with Naemi. She probably cast a minor spell on the stone to
hide this script from wizards. A spell like that brings as much attention to itself as bits of stray magic."
"But it's visible. We thought it was just decoration," Tanley said.
"Visible to everyone but wizards," Fernl said. "An example of the demented games Naemi liked to play."
"You're saying all that my village has gone through, all the humiliation and disillusionment its warriors have suffered, all the
years of drought and scraping together whatever we could to barter for enough food to see us through another year; you
mean it was some kind of joke to this wizard?" Tanley stood, angry and frustrated.
"Unfortunately, yes." Fernl sighed and rubbed her eyes. "She may have been a rogue wizard, but she was more skillful
than most. Someone in your village most likely committed an offense against her and she responded with this spell."
Tanley sank back into the chair. The desire to break this spell before it disrupted her village one more year burned with the
intensity of Ueleti's eternal flame.
***
Tanley crouched in the shadows that obscured the newly rebuilt stable wall next to the Dragon Claw Inn and opened her
senses to the night-darkened square. The ground was already turning to dust as the Summer Solstice drew near and the
year of rain slacked off.
The silence had settled enough to give her confidence and she pattered across the square and stooped in front of the dark
monument. Now that she was there, she felt silly about what she had to say. Naemi must have really hated warriors.
"Give me the key."
She half expected nothing to happen and wasn't sure if anything had happened. She peeked at the black stone slab and
almost missed the long piece of dark metal in a matching indentation. She sent a prayer of thanks to Ueleti, grabbed the
key, and pattered back to the shadows.
***
Tanley crouched in the six-sided open air shrine to Ueleti nestled at the base of challenge hill. She didn't know if praying in
an ancient neglected shrine was as effective as praying in a temple, but she sent her prayers to Ueleti anyway. If
something went wrong--even with all the preparation . . . No. She couldn't think such thoughts.
Soft footfalls on the road froze her for a heartbeat. She grasped the amulet that Fernl had given her, and when Kyla, the
new challenger, passed by the shrine, she whispered, "Sleep."
Kyla stopped in mid-step and crumpled to the path.
Tanley stared hard at Kyla and listened for any sign the spell wouldn't hold. Nothing but the night meadow sounds reached
her ears, and Kyla remained motionless.
Tanley eased off the stone floor onto noisy neglected weeds. She approached Kyla, struggled to pick her up, and carried
her back to the shrine. Her shoulders ached--Kyla had been smaller and lighter the last time Tanley had seen her.
She set Kyla on a pile of furs and bound her hands and feet. "You want to be a hero? You just have to listen to me and
believe." She grasped the amulet. "Wake up."
Kyla opened her eyes and glanced around but didn't show panic.
"Forgive the restraints." Tanley worked to calm her unexpected nervousness. "It's important you listen to what I say
before anything else happens tonight."
Kyla gazed at her with the trust of an old friend. "I'll listen. But what about the soldier? What if I miss her while I'm here?"
"I'm the soldier you're to challenge," Tanley said, surprised at Kyla's calmness.
Kyla frowned. "You?"
"Yes." Tanley eased down and crossed her legs. "So you have nothing to lose by listening to what I have to say. If you still
want to challenge me after that, we'll go to the hill and you'll have your chance."
"This amulet you sent to me as a good luck charm." Kyla looked down at the crossed swords dangling from her neck.
"Did it help you capture me?"
Tanley nodded. "It has a spell that makes you fall asleep and wake up on my command."
"Is this what happened to you?"
Tanley shook her head. "No. The time wasn't right."
"What do you mean? Who did you challenge?" Kyla asked.
"I challenged Cenle. It's the hero's duty to be the one who's challenged."
"Cenle," Kyla said. "That makes sense."
"What I meant by the time not being right, is last year wasn't the year the spell could be lifted from Wodling," Tanley said.
"This is the year it can happen--if you do what I instruct you to do."
Kyla's eyes widened. "Tell me what I have to do."
"Why aren't you stubbornly questioning everything I'm saying?" Tanley asked.
Kyla snorted a laugh. "I wanted to be the challenger on the hill since the moment I first heard the stories on my mother's
knee. Success meant becoming a hero. But while I grew up, only one soldier became a hero and the rest of the challengers
had to leave Wodling in shame. On one side of the blade, it made me wonder if it was worth pursuing. On the other side,
the idea was too seductive to resist. But I don't have to tell you that."
Tanley studied a worn patch on her boot. "No."
"Then you won the challenge," Kyla said. "Given the history of challenges, that was the same as denying me and my
comrades a chance to succeed. None of us tried very hard to win the Dragon's Claw this year." She emitted a throaty
chuckle. "I was the one unlucky enough to do a heroic deed, being the closest to the inn's stable when it caught fire."
Tanley stared at her in shocked surprised. "I never thought about how you'd feel about your chances of winning the
challenge."
Kyla stared into the dark beyond Tanley's lantern light. "Enough time had passed since Cenle by the time you were ready to
try for the Claw."
"It was what we all lived for," Tanley said.
"I had to pretend to be happy to win the Claw and my comrades had to pretend to be disappointed," Kyla said. "Resle
instructed us on how we had to keep up appearances, no matter how we felt. Pretending to be happy in front of my
mother hasn't been easy. She's so proud. She bought me these new leathers and this sword. It's been . . ." She sucked in a
ragged breath. "It's been hard."
Tanley's world collapsed in on itself and the warm night air was all of a sudden too thick to breathe.
"It shouldn't be too hard to understand why I'm not demanding to do what I've been sent to do," Kyla said. "If I faced
you, I'd lose for sure."
"I've given you the chance to be a hero when you had no hope of becoming one," Tanley said.
"Yes."
"Because it's a part of the ritual, I have to ask you to enter into a trust-pact with me," Tanley said.
"That's why no one has ever spoken of it--even with an ale-soaked tongue," Kyla said.
"I had to enter into one before I could become a hero." Tanley fingered Cenle's sash tied to her belt. "Too many secrets
have to be kept. One whisper outside of the trust-pact and the spell would be released and Wodling would be in drought
forever."
Kyla studied Tanley for several heartbeats. "Do I have your promise that I'll become a hero? That the next time I see my
mother; I'll see pride in her eyes?"
Tanley captured Kyla's eyes with her own. "If what I ask you to do doesn't make you a hero, then you may create
whatever story you want to describe how I stopped you from meeting the challenger and how I made you do what I'm
about to tell you."
"You're a soldier of Ynit. You would let a lie from me ruin what you spent your life training for?" Kyla asked.
"Yes," Tanley said.
"If you're willing to risk everything then so am I," Kyla said. "I have nothing to lose and possibly everything to gain."
***
Tanley fiddled with her plate of sausages and eggs and looked up every time the door opened. The Goat and Goose Inn
was quiet that time of the morning. Too quiet for her rioting thoughts.
"Where is that girl?" she muttered into a mug of tea.
Kyla rushed through the doorway and pushed around the mostly empty tables--bringing along the metallic scent of rain, as
it clung to her leathers and sloshed the floor from her boots.
"Sorry," Kyla said as she sat across from Tanley. "It wasn't easy sneaking away."
"I'm guessing it worked." Tanley brushed raindrops from Kyla's tunic.
Kyla laughed. "You could say that."
Tanley waved to the serving girl. "Tell me what happened."
Kyla gave the girl a grateful smile and accepted the mug of spiced tea. "It was amazing."
"Tell me everything," Tanley said.
"All right. From the beginning." Kyla took a long sip of tea. "I walked down the road, trying to remember everything you
told me. It sounds strange but I didn't feel apprehensive about how everyone would react to what I was about to do. I felt
exhilarated. Like a warrior entering the unknown to battle expectations and fears with only truth as my weapon."
"You were suffering from lack of sleep because you wanted to talk all night instead of getting some rest," Tanley said.
"Lack of sleep had nothing to do with how I felt," Kyla said. "I heard the excited squeals of the children before I could
make out their faces. My youngest sister already had a sprinter's start on the others; their shouts echoing back to me as
they raced away."
"We used to meet the warriors at the crossroads together," Tanley said.
"We didn't know what it was all about then." Kyla stared into her mug. Tanley sensed a new layer of maturity that came
from a life-changing experience. "Within heartbeats, a group of my comrades--shocked and silent--ran toward me. They
stopped several paces away and stared at my bloody sword in one hand and the key in the other."
"Do you think they'll ever forgive us for putting an end to the challenge?" Tanley asked.
"I hope so," Kyla said. "So Scarl asked, 'You won the challenge?' And I said in as strong and confident a voice as I could
muster, 'Even better than that. I won the key to break the spell forever.' Needless to say, they were shocked."
Tanley laughed. "Dumbstruck more like it."
"I said, 'I'll tell the story when I get to the square,' and I strode down the road with them trailing after me. I passed the
outer buildings and saw Resle where the road opens onto the square. Her eyes looked ready to pop out of her head when
she realized the thing in my left hand wasn't a sash. All kinds of emotion flickered across her face before she got back to
her usual soldier calm."
Tanley grimaced. "That was the hardest part I bet. Facing Resle and knowing what she was thinking."
"Oh, yeah." Kyla laughed. "But I kept a steady pace and maintained a confident expression. You said, 'Don't give Resle
anything to make her question what you're doing.' So I tried not to. I stopped in front of her."
Kyla took another sip of tea and gazed at Tanley with eyes full of wonder. "I looked past Resle to my friends and family on
the square and said in a raised voice, 'My fellow citizens of Wodling. Today is a day of celebration. Not just for one year
but forever.' The people looked stunned and watched me with uncomprehending eyes."
"I can only imagine," Tanley murmured.
"I said to them, 'When I got to the top of the hill, the soldier I was to challenge had been captured by a great warrior.' I
didn't dare look at Resle but could sense her surprise and disbelief. I continued with, 'This warrior is a descendent of the
wizard who cast the spell upon our village. She told me the wizard had cast the spell to last two hundred years.'"
Kyla's eyes were distant as if she could still see the scene. "I said, 'She had been a cruel rogue wizard and couldn't just let
the spell disappear. She had set up a final challenge that would either break the spell or doom Wodling to endless drought.'
Now the people were spellbound--as if some stray magic had transformed me into a master storyteller."
"You weave a good tale," Tanley said.
"I felt caught in a fireside epic," Kyla said. "I told them, 'The conditions for this final challenge were simple. If I defeated
this warrior, she would give me the key that fits the lock on the monument. Unlocking the monument would break the
spell. But if I lost, the spell would be released and Wodling would never see a drop of rain again.' I couldn't believe these
people I grew up with clung to my words and watched me with a respect I had only witnessed twice before. When Cenle
and then you had brought home a soldier's sash."
Tanley frowned as she tried to remember anything from the morning she faced the villagers as a hero.
"I said, 'I prepared to fight this warrior.' The people stared at me in silence and I wondered if I embellished too much. But
you told me to make it dramatic." Kyla looked a bit sheepish.
"It sounds like you did well," Tanley said.
"I did my best." Kyla shrugged. "I said, 'Trained by Emorans she was. Tall and muscular. In leather armor that looked as if
it had seen more battles than most of us had ever fought in our dreams. She was powerful enough to capture and bind a
soldier of Ynit. I didn't think I had a chance but I also didn't have a choice. I was on that hill for a purpose--to bring rain
to Wodling. It didn't matter who I fought to make that happen.' I pointed my bloody sword into the air. 'We fought but I
had the fate of Wodling on my shoulders and Ueleti gave me the strength I needed to beat this warrior. I wounded her until
she was unable to fight and she finally conceded defeat.' I pointed the key into the air. 'She then gave me this key and
instructions for breaking the spell.'"
Tanley realized she was staring spellbound at Kyla. "You missed your calling. Your storytelling will make you a popular
soldier."
Kyla laughed. "I have to get through training in Ynit first."
"You'll have no problem," Tanley said. "So what happened next?"
"Resle caught on and asked, 'Is this warrior in the hands of Ueleti's healers?' and I said, 'The soldier and I took her to the
healers.' Resle's eyes betrayed her uncertainty but she said, 'Then carry out the warrior's instructions.' She stepped aside
and the villagers made a path to the monument."
"Resle was the unknown in the plan," Tanley said. "I'm glad she trusted you."
"I'll never forget how I felt at that moment," Kyla said. "My soul was drenched with the hush that settled over the people.
I'd heard that unexpected victory in battle was the sweetest, and I savored every brush of the breeze against the temple
bell, the creak of the rope on the inn's well, the expression on my mother's face as she looked upon me as hero." Her eyes
almost glowed with the wonder of it all. "Still holding my sword and key in the traditional way, I walked to the monument
at an unhurried pace with Resle following behind me. As you instructed, I tried to maintain the old ritual as much as
possible."
"I'm glad it worked," Tanley said.
Kyla nodded. "The respectful silence wrapped around me in a cloak of anticipation. No one seemed to notice I wasn't
exhausted from being awake all night or I bore no evidence of battle other than the bloody sword, and that was thanks to
the bladder of sheep's blood from you. I walked to the opposite side of the monument and faced the slanted slab of black
stone, half-relieved to see the hole you said was there. I'd never noticed it before."
"Me neither," Tanley said.
"I placed the bloody sword over the words etched into the stone. I said, 'With this sword I prove that the descendent of
the wizard, Naemi, who cast this spell upon our village, has been defeated in battle for possession of this key.' I lifted the
key so the villagers could see it. 'With this key I break the spell that has hung over Wodling for two centuries.' I slid the
key into the hole until it pulled away from my fingers as if taken over by magic and disappeared. I didn't know what to
expect so I stayed relaxed and confident and stepped back from the monument."
Tanley wondered if she would have been able to have done what she had asked of Kyla. Perhaps the time for the spell to
be broken was indeed upon them.
"I watched, along with the people close enough to see, the words and markings melt into the stone until it was smooth and
black. They gasped and I admit, so did I, as new words formed in noble letters. At the top was my name. I couldn't
believe it. Then your name below mine, then Cenle's, then Hener's, until the names of all the heroes of Wodling were
etched into the stone," she gave Tanley an impish look, "which gleamed as if polished and glistened in the large drops of
rain that fell onto the monument."
Tanley grinned in delight.
"The shock lasted all of a few heartbeats and the villagers let loose with such a noise I'm surprised you didn't hear it all the
way here. I exchanged looks of understanding with Resle as everyone frolicked in the rain. She said, 'Thank you.'" Kyla
captured Tanley's eyes with her own. "I told her, 'Don't thank me. The true hero doesn't wish to be known and I took a
trust-pact not to reveal who it is. The spell is gone and that's all that matters.'"
Tanley sat back dumbfounded. "There can be only one hero of Wodling at a time. This is your time."
***
Tanley lifted her tankard in a silent toast. She couldn't believe that a year and a day had passed since she helped liberate
Wodling from the spell. She missed Kyla's company but didn't begrudge her decision to return to Wodling to be a part of
the local garrison once she had become a soldier of Ynit.
She glanced at the tavern's entrance and frowned in surprise. Kyla, travel pack hanging from one shoulder, walked her
way.
Tanley half rose. "Why are you here? Is everything all right at home?"
Kyla laughed and sat down. She plopped her elbows on the rough-wood table and gave Tanley a wry grin. "We come from
a village of crazy people."
"What happened?" Tanley asked.
"They wanted to have a festival on the anniversary of being freed from the spell." Kyla accepted a tankard of ale from a
serving girl and downed half of it.
Tanley shrugged. "Sounds normal to me."
"They just didn't want to have a day of games and feasting, they wanted to reenact what I did last year." Kyla's face
scrunched in comic disgust. "Someone actually remembered all that nonsense I spewed. Wrote it all down and referred to
it like it was from Ueleti's sacred scroll. They wanted me to reenact it myself but I convinced them as politely as I could
that I shouldn't do it." She took another gulp of ale. "I thought they would just leave it at that. Just have the games and the
feasting."
Tanley put her head in her hands and groaned. "Don't tell me."
"Cien earned the Dragon's Claw this year and she had to reenact the freeing of Wodling from the spell." Kyla's voice
twisted with irony.
"At least they won't be humiliated and have to leave Wodling forever," Tanley said.
"But it's based on the nonsense we made up," Kyla said.
Tanley studied a knot in the table. "It was made up but it really happened, too. No lies. No deceit. Just the truth. The
holders of the Claw can reenact your performance and get on with their lives."
"That's true, I guess. But I'll never be able to be in Wodling during the festival. That reminds me. There's one thing I've
been meaning to ask about." Kyla signaled the server for another ale. "How did all our names get etched onto the
monument?"
Tanley laughed. "The wizard who helped me said they like to leave a little reminder of their magic."
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