The Gathandrian Trilogy 01 - The Gifting

people has shown him that they do not treat the poor with decency. And the boy is certainly poor. Apart from that, Hartstongue’s career in Lammas has been one of destruction, deceit and weakness.
    Ah, if Simon had been another man indeed… No matter, soon the First Elder will be here and Johan’s proposal for a solution to this devastating war will be rejected. Perhaps he will even withdraw the offer first. They must find another way.
    The heavy curtain behind them opens and the First Elder appears. Johan steps back to allow him entry. Both he and his sister fall to their knees, heads bowed. An aroma of night-musk and cardamom fills the air. The planning potion. A decision has been made then. Even though this is what Johan has been expecting, the fact of it makes him tremble. What will Gathandria do now?
    The First Elder speaks at last.
    “Get up,” he says, his voice as old and gnarled as the linden-oak in his former garden. “Our people listen best when they are not in a position of humility.”
    Though it goes against all their instincts, the two siblings obey.
    “What you have proposed, Johan Montfort,” the Elder continues, “has been granted. Your journey will be dangerous and our enemy will fight it with all his might. We must trust that the power the two of you have nurtured will protect you and overthrow all the obstacles in your path if you simply have faith. We will follow your progress with the gifts of the mind-circle and, where we can, we will help you. But be warned, the enemy will fight that also. You are commissioned, therefore, to go beyond the Land of the Mountains to the Lammas Lands and bring back our lost child to us. Find the man who calls himself Simon Hartstongue and bring him here. We believe that, together, the three of you may find mind-power enough to defeat the one who strives against us. But the final battle must be fought here, where the enemy began his work.”
    Johan finds he can hardly breathe. He blinks. A thousand protests on the pointlessness of what the elder has agreed to crowd his tongue, but he says none of them. The decision has been made and there is no arguing with it; he and his sister must go through with their plan. How he wishes that he had put his doubts to the elders, withdrawn the offer, before the Council met, but he had not thought it necessary. At the same time, he cannot deny that his own excitement grows at the fact that something is to be done, and it is he who will do it. Away from Gathandria.
    “And what if he does not wish to come?” Isabella asks.
    Her brother draws in a sharp breath at last. From the beginning, she has been his reluctant supporter, though in the end she had to cast her lot in with him. The elders would not countenance her rebellion. Not in the matter of family and, after all, he and the coward Hartstongue are the only family she knows now.
    The elder does not take offence at the interruption. He only smiles. “Then you must persuade him.”
    “Using whatever means are at our disposal?”
    The answer is a nod. It is obvious to Johan that the meeting is over. He and his sister must face the consequences, both for bad and for good.
    Johan speaks, his mind already leaving his doubts behind and sparking a series of steps to take on this new adventure. “My lord, I thank you. We thank you. I wish to go without ceremony, if that is possible. That way, the journey will be easier, as our enemy may not sense it. Do I have your permission for that?”
    “Yes. You have. Go in your own timing, and may all our gods be with you both, my friend. For truly, we need whatever help you can provide.”
    With a sweep of his arm and a sign of blessing, the First Elder is gone. Johan smiles.
    “Come, sister,” he says, not quite meeting her eyes. “If we are to take this journey, then we must start tonight.”
    She snorts and tosses her hair.
    “Whatever you may tell me over and over again about our lost cousin and the good he has within him,” she says, “all I know is what I have gleaned unnoticed from your mind: that he is a coward and a murderer. What hope can there be for us from such a one as he?”

    Isabella
    In truth, when the decision is made to journey to the Lammas Lands, Isabella is grateful, though she does not let her brother know it. Sometimes he can be a fool, even when he is wise. He cannot know the powers she has gained from the company she keeps, so her mind is lost to him. Oh, he thinks he knows it but he does not. Not