The Reader

Chapter Nine - The Book

Chapter Nine.

Merric watched the way her eyebrow arched delicately. He could tell she was trying hard not to scoff at him. Well, if she wanted to believe such a powerful, terrible weapon didn't exist then it was not his prerogative to convince her otherwise. He returned to sweeping the horizon, searching for another one of Ogai's messengers.

"How does it work?"

Her voice startled him and he looked at her, amazed. "What?"

A half-smile curved on her shapely lips. "How does the Book work?"

Thrown off-balance, Merric stumbled over his words. "Well ... no-nobody really knows. Legend tells of ... of a person called a ... a ... a ..." He cursed inwardly, he had forgotten the name.

"A?" she prompted, slipping her feet from the stirrups to stretch her legs. Merric had to force his gaze away from her lithe thighs and focus on her face.

The name came to him. "A Reader."

"And what did this Reader do?" She rotated her neck, closing her eyes as she did so.

"Are you doing that deliberately?" he demanded instead, watching the curve of the nape of her neck.

She looked at him strangely. "Doing what deliberately?"

"Never mind."

"The Reader?" she encouraged.

Merric coughed to clear his throat of the sticky, hot dust, then continued with the story.

"Well ... this Reader lived a long, long time ago, sometime during the Great War. He was just a normal person, a stable-boy at the King's castle if I remember correctly. Back then there were people like ... like ..." He gestured to her hands.

"Like me?" she asked.

"Yes." He cleared his throat again, this time out of awkwardness. Dusk tossed her head, jingling the bit. "But not just with ... with fire, with water and wind and earth as well. These people were revered as gods in human form. Regular folk built temples to worship them."

"They sound like sensible people," she muttered.

He chuckled slightly, feeling a little more at ease. "Anyway, each one of these four different elements belonged to separate orders. These orders didn't much like one another and were always at odds, so they eventually held a council and decided to elect a leader. The Firestarters -"

"Firestarters?" she broke in.

"People like you," he replied.

She looked curious. "I didn't know there was a name for what I am."

He smiled. "Can I finish my story?"

"Oh ... of course. Sorry."

"The Firestarters wanted to elect one of their own, a strapping young man by the name of Edan." Kallista snorted slightly at the description. "The Surfers, water people, wanted to elect a wise old woman of their order named Edlyn. The Air Riders wanted to elect a powerful boy called Rabi. But the Earth Movers said that it wouldn't be fair if all four orders were led by one individual from a certain element.

"So they all agreed on choosing a normal human to lead them. Back then magic still existed, so the leaders of each order sought out an old wizard in the Shadowrith Mountains. His name was Jangoon and he had immense power. He agreed to conjure an enchanted book that held the secrets to all four elements; fire, water, air and earth, then gave the book to the elders and made them promise that they would help teach the elected leader how to use it.