The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (novels in english .TXT) 📗

father. She sent me here to assist with reunitingher with her kianthi.”

“She is not here,” said one of themantis-like creatures.

“You will not approach the father,”added another. “You must give us your information.”

“I will give you nothing until I havespoken with the father,” I answered adamantly.

What are yousaying? asked Moira silently; neither shenor Gareth could understand the ancient tongue.

I’m negotiating. Don’tdistract me, I replied.

Apparently I was the only one thatfelt that way, though. “We will take the information,” came thevoice of the tiger-like Kriteck, while simultaneously its magicsprang forth. Spellweavings struck me from three sides, attemptingto reach what passed for my mind.

The armor protected me from most ofit, but it wasn’t meant to be an absolute protection, not like theshield I had placed around my two companions. The She’Har magicswere tenacious, and they writhed and wove, seeking the openings inmy suit; like living things they were worming their wayinward.

I bore the might of a god,but my power would be useless once their spells reached me.Similarly, my magic would be all but useless against my opponentsdirectly; something human wizards had once had to learn the hardway. Kneeling, I thrust my hands into the ground, channeling mypower crudely but effectively. I didn’t bother attackingthem with my magic; Isimply removed the ground from beneath them.

It was a tactic my original-self hadonce used against Cyhan. The three Kriteck disappeared, falling andthen being swallowed as I buried them with the sand that flowedback over the holes I had created. I acted with such speed andforce I hoped the sand would crush them, but their bodies were fartoo resilient for such an easy victory. I drew my sword and held ithorizontally in front of me, waiting for them to unearththemselves.

I didn’t have to wait long. Withinseconds their power made itself felt, thrusting the sand apart anddownward as they began to rise from their ineffectivetombs.

Sweeping my sword in a sideways arcthe line of power I channeled down the runed blade of my sword andneatly bisected each of them as they appeared one by one, cuttingthrough their armored bodies with ease.

“You should have thought about yourdefense more. Overconfidence is a killer,” I told their bodiessomewhat smugly.

Gareth gave me an odd look. “You saidyou would lose.”

“Try not to sound so hopeful,” Ireturned. “This isn’t a victory though, there will be more andthey’ll be more cautious. If they fight smart I can’twin.”

More were approaching already. I couldsense them moving, large and small, through the dense forest. Theymade no attempt to hide themselves as they closed uponus.

“Let me speak to the father!” Ishouted in their language. “There is no need for conflict. I amhere to help, but if you try to force my hand, I will destroy thisisland!” I wasn’t sure I could follow through on my threat. With asmuch power as I currently held it might be technically possible,but their spellweavings might be able to control or absorb such acrude attack. Realistically, Gareth’s ability as an archmage wasthe best hope for that type of retribution, but I doubted he wouldbe allowed the time it would take him.

More importantly, that wasn’t mymission.

They were around us now, fifty yardsout and remaining still. Large and small, in forms that flew,climbed, and crawled, they waited. The smallest of them had verylittle aura, but the larger ones glowed with power in my magesight.They were poised to wipe us out of existence.

A tense minute passed before one ofthem spoke, “The father has awoken. He would speak withyou.”

“That is all I could wish for,” Ianswered. “My companions will be unharmed until I return.” I saidit as a declaration, but there was certainly a question in mymind.

“The father wishes to see them aswell.”

That was unexpected. Considering theircurrent level of paranoia I hadn’t thought they would allow allthree of us that close to the tree. Then again, the decision hadobviously come from Tennick, and he must be curious.

I gave the formal bow expected in suchsituations, a sort of half bow with a sweeping flourish, but it waswasted on the Kriteck. They were not created for courtesy ordiplomacy, they were created for protection and their minds werenot overly cluttered with etiquette. Why bother, when they wouldonly live a few months?

They led us on a narrow path throughthe largely untamed wilderness. It was evident that if we had notbeen with them they would have moved much more rapidly. Indeed, ifwe hadn’t been worried about creating an incident it would havebeen much faster for us to fly, either with my machine or viadragon-back. Neither Gareth nor Moira suggested such a thing,though. We walked and we didn’t speak unnecessarily.

We passed a multitude of island life,small mammals and birds mostly, but a few island deer as well. Noneof them showed the slightest sign of fear at our passing. Largepredators were noticeably absent and it was clear that humans werea novelty here. The fauna here had never been hunted.

Our journey took hours and I had noidea how much further we still had to go. My magesight’s range waslimited and my normal vision was completely occluded by the junglecanopy. I knew I should be looking for a massive tree, but until wegot within a mile or so of it I would have no way of knowing it wasclose. It was nearly dark when we finally reached it.

“What is that?” asked Garethquietly.

He hadn’t specified what the source ofhis question was, but I imagined it must be our destination. “Thisarmor impedes my senses somewhat, but you’re probably talking aboutTennick. How far away are we?” I responded.

“About a mile and a half,” saidGareth, “If that’s really him. It’s huge.”

Fifteen minutes later I was able toconfirm his observation, “That’s him.” The tree in question wassome sixty feet in diameter at the base and it rose up over fourhundred feet in height. “He’s done well for two thousandyears.”

“Done well? Do they get bigger thanthis?” asked Gareth incredulously.

I shrugged, “They can. The most rapidgrowth occurs in the first few hundred years. After that they slowdown, but they never really stop growing. They have quite a bit ofcontrol over the process though, so it