Staff of Shigmar: Chapter 6, Part3

11 April 2026

Today, we return to the sixth chapter of the second book of our epic fantasy, Staff of Shigmar. Recall that last time, Tevvy, with Thal and Blakstar, activated Shigmar’s statue in the center of Kalbant, and then remembered that Klare’s family lived in Kalbant; they move off to find Klare, Klaybear, and Rokwolf, fearing what they will find. . . . (24 November 2014) We remind all readers that this book, Staff of Shigmar, as also the first book, is free for download from Smashwords! Glossary links: Book 2, Book 1

Chapter 6, Part 3

Klaybear hurtled past another smoking ruin, dreading what he would see; he pulled up short, staring at the rubble before him. Klare knelt on the ground next to what must have been a body. Although her back was to him, he could tell by the way she knelt that she was healing; he could feel her manipulating elemental forces. Looking around as he moved slowly forward, he saw that very little remained of her family’s home. The house had been completely destroyed; only a few stones of the foundation remained in place. The whole area was covered with smoldering rubble and broken bits of what were once personal possessions. Even their animals had been butchered, lying strewn among the wrack. As Klaybear got closer to his wife, he could see her sister kneeling opposite Klare, watching as Klare worked, one hand on her mother’s forehead. Jally looked up, hearing the sound of his approach, her dirt-stained face streaked with tears, and a strand of her brown hair was stuck to her forehead, falling over her nose.

“Jally,” he said as he knelt next to Klare, “where is the rest of the family?” he asked, fearing her response.

Jally turned her head and glanced toward the place where the house had been. “They never got out,” she sobbed. “Father pushed mother and I out first, then went back for the boys. The whole house exploded; the purem were everywhere; they took us and they . . . ,” she burst out crying, unable to speak for a time.

Klaybear looked down and saw his mother-in-law, unconscious; Klare worked frantically to keep her alive. One glance told Klaybear that she was losing the battle, although the wounds were not obvious; there were bruises all over her mother’s body. As he watched her work, she lifted her hand from her mother’s forehead, and Klaybear saw something that knocked him from his knees back onto his hands; his hood fell off.

Jally looked up and saw the mark burned into Klaybear’s forehead. “You!” she exclaimed, pointing and rising to her feet. “It’s you! You killed my family and destroyed my village!” She reached out with clawed hands and leapt at her brother-in-law.

Klare looked up, shocked by her sister’s outburst. “Jally, no!” she said, putting out a hand to try and stop her.

Before Klaybear could move, Jally had her hands around his throat. “We were defiled because of you!” she hissed through clenched teeth; her fury loosened the hair stuck to her forehead, revealing that she was branded with a similar mark.

Her hands were suddenly pulled from his throat, but the action left parallel scratch marks on either side of his neck. Klaybear gasped and saw Rokwolf holding the still struggling girl.

“No!” Jally shrieked. “He killed my family and my friends; he must be punished!” She struggled futilely in the seklesi’s grasp.

“Do something!” Rokwolf shouted.

Klare reached out a glowing hand and said, “supno,” putting her to sleep; Jally went limp in Rokwolf’s hands. The seklesi laid her carefully on the ground next to her mother.

“What happened?” Rokwolf asked, pulling his twin to his feet.

Klaybear was still too stunned to speak.

Klare shook her head. “She, for no apparent reason, attacked him.”

Klaybear was staring down at the two foreheads. He pointed. “Look at their foreheads,” he said. “I was so shocked when I saw your mother’s forehead that I fell back, my hood fell off, and your sister saw the mark on my forehead. That was when she attacked,” he finished, letting his arm fall to his side.

Klare’s eyes filled with tears. “Why?” she sobbed. “Why would they do this to my family, my village? My father and brothers killed, my sister mad, my mother . . . ,” she stopped, bowing her head, her body shaking.

Klaybear knelt and took his wife in his arms; Rokwolf looked around.

“Where were her father and brothers?” Rokwolf asked in twin.

Klaybear nodded toward the rubble that was the house. “Inside,” he said, “the house exploded.”

Rokwolf moved carefully forward, stepping over the tumbled foundation, eyes scanning the wreckage. He could see where the walls had been, but there was little else recognizable among the rubble. He moved through the house, looking for places where someone could have sheltered from the explosion. “Wasn’t there a cellar?” he asked, still speaking in their private language.

“A root cellar,” Klaybear replied, “but it was entered from the outside of the house.”

“At the back?” Rokwolf asked.

Klaybear nodded. “Yes,” he said. Klare’s sobbing had quieted, but she still clung to her husband. “How is it,” he began, shifting to common, “that you have any energy after using the kortexi’s sword to open a door? When he sent Delgart and Marilee to you in Holvar, he slept for over six hours.”

Rokwolf had moved out of the back of the house, looking for the cellar entrance. “The kortexem are the best fighters in the land, having great skill and knowledge of weapons,” he said, “but if they have a single weakness,” he went on, pulling the broken cellar door off of its opening, “it is in the use of weapons endowed with teka; they are not allowed to use them. In fact, they shun and refuse to use them, so they receive no training in the use of these kinds of artifacts.”

“Aah, of course,” Klaybear said, suddenly understanding. “I’m surprised Thal did not think of it.”

Rokwolf stopped talking for a moment as he climbed into the cellar, emerging a little later. He came around the rubble that was the house back to where Klaybear knelt next to Klare, holding her in his arms. “It is as I feared,” Rokwolf noted, “when the house exploded, the ceiling of the cellar collapsed and filled with rubble. If anyone is still alive in there, it will be difficult to extract them.”

“I can try and detect any signs of life,” Klaybear said, releasing Klare reluctantly and rising, “but Klare is better at it than I am,” he finished, looking down at his wife, who had turned back to examine her mother and sisters.

“I cannot leave them,” Klare said, “neither one is very stable at this moment.”

“I can go,” Klaybear said. He moved off with Rokwolf to investigate the cellar.

Rokwolf switched back to twin. “You have very little time,” he said. “Your Headmaster was quite insistent on the four of you getting into the tomb quickly.”

“The four of us?” Klaybear asked.

“The three key holders and Tevvy,” Rokwolf replied. “Given what has happened here, your wife will not leave her mother and sister, so I will stay with her and watch over her, until you return with the staff.” Rokwolf put one hand on his twin’s arm. “It is almost as if the Headmaster knew what we would find.”

“How could he know her home would be attacked?” Klaybear asked.

Rokwolf shrugged.

Klaybear climbed into the cellar; Rokwolf knelt beside the opening to watch. Klaybear raised his hands, surrounded by green light, concentrating on the rubble filling the collapsed cellar; beads of sweat formed on his forehead, beginning to run down his cheeks; the mark on his forehead pulsed with dull red light. After a few silent minutes, the light surrounding his hands went out, and he lowered his hands slowly. Klaybear sniffed and wiped his face on his sleeves after climbing out.

“You reminded me of the kortexi weakness with teka weapons,” he remarked, trying to turn his thoughts and their conversation away from the tragedy before them.

“Yes,” Rokwolf replied, “they are banned, so they are not trained in the use of teka-enhanced weapons, unlike we seklesem, you kailum, or the maghem. When you use your staff or rod to work with power, you draw energy from all that surrounds you, then channel that energy through the orthek you weave.”

Klaybear nodded. “That makes sense,” he said, “and it is something that we would not have thought of, since we are trained from the beginning to draw energy in the way you describe.”

“So Blakstar,” Rokwolf went on, “does not draw on those other sources as you do, not knowing of them, which means the energy is drawn by the weapon of power directly from him, draining him of strength. He will have to be careful with that sword in battle, as it will drain him completely of strength if he does not learn how to wield it without weakening himself.”

Klare looked up as they walked back to where she knelt beside her mother; her eyes filled with tears and red from her weeping. Klaybear saw her, recognized her sorrow, teared up himself, and moved forward quickly to take her again in his arms.

Come back next Tuesday for the next installment in the serialization of our epic, the conclusion of this sixth chapter! Get a full ebook copy from Smashwords for free! If you prefer print, purchase your copy from the link provided. Good reading!