The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) Garrett Robinson (poetry books to read TXT) 📖

concentration, focus, and also an exacting knowledge of both animal forms. For Kaita to turn from a raven to a lion, she had to know both creatures’ bodies in as much detail as she knew her own. Then she had to craft the bridge between the bird and the cat, undergoing many, many failed and painful transformations as she learned. And the same bridge that took her, for example, from the raven to the lion, would not let her turn from the raven to a serpent. Another bridge would have to be constructed.

In truth, Kaita was a highly accomplished weremage, and one of the greatest of her age. It is a shame that she was never allowed to feel that way—neither by Thada of the family Telfer, the Rangatira who scorned her, nor by Mag, who defeated her again and again no matter the strength of her animal forms.

Had Kaita ever been allowed to see just how powerful and valuable she was, one must wonder if she might not have turned to evil.

OF KAITA AND THE LAND OF TOKANA

There are two other important details concerning Kaita and her time in the mountainous region of Tokana, and they are worth discussing here.

When Kaita returned to her mountain homeland, hotly pursued by the Wanderer and Albern of the family Telfer, she became busily engaged in the activities of her fellow Shades. For the most part, this consisted of covert actions to further stoke ire between the Rangatira and the trolls, and this required a great deal of speedy travel through the peaks.

If it was possible, Kaita would of course take her raven form. But sometimes she had to remain grounded, and then she would use her mountain lion. When she did, she usually modified her transformation to hide the white tail of the lion she held in her canon. She did this because she had no wish for Ditra, the Rangatira, to hear of a lion with a white tail. Ditra would, of course, recognize the form at once, and she would know that Kaita had returned. Kaita feared that Ditra would be wrathful, and she would expend great effort to track Kaita down.

Albern and Mag, however, had already seen Kaita’s lion in its natural form, including the white tail. They passed this information to Ditra, who received it much differently than Kaita thought she would. Not only did she keep the information from Mag and Albern, but she withheld it from even her most trusted advisors. She also assigned Maia, her lead ranger, to hunt for the weremage in secret. This greatly hampered the efforts of not only Maia, but Albern and Mag, and was a tremendous boon to Kaita’s aims in the region—even if she was thwarted in the end.

The second interesting detail is the answer to a mystery that long plagued Albern: how did Kaita acquire her troll form, in which she named herself Gatak?

It is exceptionally rare for any weremage to acquire the shape of any of Underrealm’s other sentient races, whether troll, satyr, imp, wurt, or what have you. There are old, old laws of the High King, nearly as old as Underrealm itself, that forbid the capture or enslavement of any of these creatures, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the “Awakened Folk” to differentiate them from beasts. Those who break this law may be put to death, along with any accomplices, and even any who knew of the violation but said nothing. It is not quite so strict as the King’s harshest law, but it is not far off, either. And without the creature being so restrained, it is impossible to spend the necessary time in contact with them to acquire them.

Mysteriously, this law is one that the Shades also obeyed, just as they obeyed the ancient edicts protecting the Guild of Lovers, which saved Dryleaf’s life in the hills north of the Greenfrost. And so indeed, it was not by unscrupulous means that Kaita acquired her troll form.

When she fled Tokana in her youth, driven out by Albern’s mother, the Rangatira, Kaita spent a while in the wilderness. She was a ranger, after all. Living off the land was as easy as dwelling in a city or town, and more so when her magic made it a simple matter to hunt for food.

For some weeks she was alone. Now, this was deep in troll territory, but the trolls there were not numerous, and it was easy to avoid them. But after some time, she did encounter a troll—a elderly female named Sookar.

At first, Sookar behaved aggressively towards Kaita. But it happened that they met when Kaita was at her lowest point. She had given up any hope of recovering the life she had fled. She had been abandoned by her lover, Ditra, and disgraced in the eyes of her lord. Life seemed to have little purpose, and for days she had toyed with the idea of ending it.

Therefore when Sookar made as if to attack Kaita, Kaita did … nothing. She stood there, her eyes dead as if in Mag’s battle-trance, and waited for the troll’s great fists to smash her into a pulp.

And that is nearly what happened. But at the last second, Sookar stopped. She stared at Kaita in confusion and irritation. Why should this puny human not flee, or cower, or try hopelessly to fight? And because Sookar knew a little of the common tongue of Underrealm, she was able to give voice to her frustration.

“Why do you stand there?” she snarled. “Do you think I will not crush you?”

Kaita looked up into her eyes and said, quietly, “In fact, I hope you will.”

It was one of the few things she could have said that would spare her life.

Sookar was an old, old troll at that time, but many years before, she had had a child. And that child had died after sneaking away from her and stumbling off a high cliff. For a long time aftewards, Sookar had