Well of Sorrows

  Table of Contents

  Part I1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  Part II11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  Well of Sorrows

  Joshua Palmatier

  Colin Harten and his parents had fled across the ocean to escape the Family wars in Andover and find a better life. But the New World proved no haven for the Hartens and their fellow refugees. Forced to undertake an expedition to the unexplored plains east of the newly settled coastal cities, the Hartens and their companions were not prepared for the dangers they would face. Pursued by plains dwellers known as the dwarren, the Hartens' wagon train fled to the very edge of a dark forest—a place they had been warned to avoid at all costs by a small band of Alvritshai warriors, the first race they had encountered on the plains.

  Colin survived the perils of the forest, rescued by spirits of Light, and transformed by the power of the Well of Sorrows, but he paid a very high price. For drinking the LifeBlood--the waters of the Well—changed Colin into something not entirely human. And whatever he has become, he might prove the only defense against the dark spirits of the forest and the Wraiths they had created to destroy humans, dwarren, and the Alvritshai alike.

  Well of Sorrows

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  eISBN: 978-1-62579-391-1

  Copyright © 2010 by Joshua Palmatier

  Cover art by: Ron Miller

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

  Electronic version by Baen Books

  First Printing May 2010

  Part I

  1

  OLIN SAW WALTER’S FOOT A MOMENT BEFORE it connected with his stomach.

  Air gushed from his lungs as the kick landed and he folded in upon himself in the hard-packed dirt of the alley, his arms cradling his gut. Pain exploded from his abdomen, radiating outward into his legs, smothering the aches and pains from all the other blows Walter and his gang had landed earlier. Colin rocked back and forth, tried not to cry out, the pain in his stomach spreading to his thighs, sending tentative spikes into his lower back—

  And then, with a sickening sensation—a loose, queasy, tingling sensation—his bladder gave.

  Colin’s eyes flew wide in horror and he gasped, spittle flecked with blood from where he’d bitten his inner cheek flying from his lips. He felt warmth spread through his underlinen and breeches, and he squeezed his eyes closed tight. Hot tears burned his cheeks; tears he’d managed not to shed as the gang cornered him and began beating him, tears he’d vowed he wouldn’t shed again after the last time they’d found him. He fought them as he pulled his knees in even tighter, as he tried to hide the blotch of wetness that now covered the front of his breeches. But he couldn’t hide the sharp, pungent stench.

  “Diermani’s balls,” Walter swore, stepping back from Colin with a lurch, one hand covering his mouth as he faked gagging. “The little squatter pissed his pants!”

  Walter’s three cohorts roared with laughter. One of them stepped forward, planted his feet to either side of Colin’s head, and spat onto Colin’s face. Colin flinched as it struck his cheek, tightened the ball he’d made himself into, the tears of shame and pain and ineffectual anger he’d held back now slipping down his nose into the dirt. His breath came in short, hitching gasps. His side cramped with a sudden sharp spasm, and he cried out.

  “Stupid shit,” the older boy said from above him. It sounded like Brunt, the largest of the gang; Walter’s heavy. “Don’t you know how to hold your water? You take your breeches down before you piss!”

  “Damn refugee,” Gregor said from farther away. “Go back to Andover, where you came from. We were here first!”

  “Yeah, go back west, back across the Arduon Ocean, back to the Bontari Family and the Court and their goddamned war.”

  Colin began sobbing. He couldn’t stop it, no matter how hard he clenched his teeth. Keeping his eyes tight, he listened as the gang shuffled around, Brunt withdrawing, his feet scuffing the dirt of the alley, kicking it up into Colin’s face. Snot clogged Colin’s nose, and he began breathing through his mouth in harsh exhalations. He listened to the gang chuckling, listened to see if they were going to kick him more, or punch him, or pinch him as they’d done before. They seemed to have withdrawn.

  But they hadn’t left.

  Someone’s foot stamped down hard into the dirt close to Colin’s head, and he jerked and cried out. Another burst of laughter, and then a hand clamped onto Colin’s upper arm, fingers bruising the skin through his shirt, and wrenched him upright. Colin’s eyes flew open as new pain flared in his shoulder, and he found himinches from Walter’s thin face. The thug’s gray-green eyes blazed with hatred beneath his dirty, blond hair. His mouth was twisted into a grimace, as if he could barely stand touching Colin.

  “Listen, pissant,” he hissed. “Portstown belongs to us, to the Carrente Family. We were here first. Our grandfathers crossed the Arduon and settled the damn town, and we don’t want any of you refugees here screwing the place up, especially Bontari refugees.” He twisted the Bontari Family name with derision, with cold hatred. “So crawl back to your pissant parents in that hovel you refugees have built over in Lean-to and tell them to get the hell out of our town.”

  He shook Colin to emphasize his words, Colin limp in his grip. He thought Walter was going to kick him again, or knee him in the groin, as he’d done once before—Colin could see the intent in the sudden tightening of the corners of Walter’s eyes—but Walter merely snorted in disgust and thrust him to the ground, one of the other thugs giggling. Colin scrambled up onto his elbows, but the gang had retreated to the far end of the alley and now sauntered out into the greater sunlight of the main street. None of them looked back. Rick, the smallest of the bunch but still bigger than Colin, punched Brunt in the arm. Brunt grabbed him around the neck and hauled him down into a chokehold as they rounded the corner, ignoring Rick’s shouted, “Hey!”

  Once they were gone, Colin sank back and lay flat, wincing at another spasm in his side. He wiped the snot and spit from his face, felt the grit that had stuck to his skin, and let his arm flop back down to his side. He stared up at the blue sky overhead between the edges of the two warehouses to either side and tried to think of nothing.

  Instead, he thought of home. Not the makeshift shed in the section of town that locals called Lean-to—no more than a single closed-off room with a dirt floor, a blanket for a door, a crudestone cook pit, and some pallets. He thought of Trent, in Andover, the city across the ocean that he’d called home his entire life. He thought about the house they’d lived in—a real house, with stone floors, a wooden door, and a patch of land enclosed by a low stone wall. When he’d been younger, he’d helped his mother plant gardens while his father was away working for the Family and the carpenter’s guild. Tomatoes and peppers and all of the herbs: parsley and oregano and basil. Until age five, when he’d been sent to the school to learn of writing and mathematics and the Codex of Holy Diermani. At nine, he’d begun his apprenticeship in his father’s carpenter’s guild, even though many of the boys his age had decided to enter the Armor y, to serve in the Family’s army.

  But then his father had come home one day and told them he’d found them room on one of the refugee
ships heading to the east, to the New World. Because of the rumblings of a war within the Court, a Feud among the Families.

  Colin frowned as he lay in the dirt of the alley, his eyes narrowed in anger. He remembered the day of the departure clearly. He hadn’t wanted to leave, hadn’t wanted to give up his apprenticeship, his friends, his life.

  So he’d fled to the guildhall, had been stubbornly sanding down the edges of the Markosan cabinet for Dom Pellum when his father flung open the door to the workroom. Everyone had halted their work when the door cracked against the inner wall—everyone but Colin. The harsh scraping of sand trapped between two planes of wood had been the only sound in the room until the moment his father’s hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around.

  “Colin Patris Harten, what in bloody Diermani’s name do you think you are doing?”

  Colin glared up into his father’s rage. “I’m finishing Dom Pellum’s cabinet.”

  “No,” his father said. “You’re coming with me, with your mother.”

  His father’s hand clamped so tightly around Colin’s arm that Colin could feel his own fingers tingling. And then his father began to drag him out of the guild.

  “No! No, you can’t make me!” Colin flung himself backward with all his weight, clawed at his father’s hand, dug in his feet, but his father’s lean frame was too strong, his grip too tight.

  They’d made it to the door, Colin kicking and screaming the entire way, tears beginning to form, when the guildmaster stepped in front of them.

  “What are you doing, Tom?”

  Colin felt a surge of hope, tasting like sweet apple in the back of his throat.

  “I’m taking my son,” his father said, voice tight with warning, “and Ana, and we’re going to board the Trader’s Luck.”

  “Headed for Portstown? With the Chance and the Merry Weather?”

  “Aye.”

  “That’s a Carrente town. Carrente and Bontari have never been allies in the Court. With the coming Feud, are you certain—?”

  “I’m a member of the guild. It’s a new world, they’ll need craftsmen—journeymen—in order to expand. I have my papers. The guildhall will accept me, Bontari or not.”

  The guildmaster nodded at the defensiveness in Colin’s father’s voice, although Colin could see the doubt in his gaze as he turned to look down on Colin. “And I take it that Colin doesn’t want to go.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Colin’s father answered anyway. “No. But he’s not yet twelve. He’s not of age to make the decision for himself.”

  Colin stared up into the guildmaster’s eyes, pleaded with himwith every fiber of his body. The guildmaster’s eyebrows drew together in consideration, and he drew in a deep breath, held it—

  Then exhaled heavily, shaking his head.

  He stepped aside. “He’s your son.”

  The taste of apple turned suddenly sour.

  His father stepped forward before the betrayal sank in completely, pulling Colin out into blinding sunlight onto the steps of the guildhall, but then Colin began to struggle again. That’s when his father jerked him in front of himself and cuffed him hard on the back of the head. “Stop it, Colin, stop it!”

  Colin gasped and froze. Not because his father had struck him—he’d been cuffed on the head before, and not just by his father or mother—but because of the fear he heard in his father’s voice. Fear he’d never heard there before; fear he could now see in his father’s eyes as he knelt down beside him.

  “I know you don’t understand this, Colin, but we have to leave. Now. The Families are preparing for a Feud, one that I don’t think will be settled in a day or a month or even a year. It’s going to rip the Court apart, and I don’t want you or your mother to be caught up in it. And it’s going to involve all the Families. There won’t be anywhere in Andover it won’t reach. Which means we can’t stay in Andover. The only place left to flee is across the Arduon, to the New World.”

  Then the city’s bells began to toll midday, and his father’s haggard glance shot skyward, toward the sun and the drifting clouds, and he swore under his breath.

  Standing, he said, “The ship’s going to leave soon. We have to hurry.”

  And they had, running down through the Circle, through the tiered outer Precinct and market, to the shipyard and docks and the vibrant blue waters below. Colin had stumbled along at his father’s side at first, but the pace was too slow and after a few blocks his father hoisted him up onto his back. From this vantage, he could see the labyrinthine streets packed with crowds of hundreds as they passed, sun glinting off the rounded, orange-red clay tiles of roofs, the blinding white buildings, the porticos, walled gardens, and secluded courtyards, all crammed into the steep landscape in haphazard fashion. At the top of the rocky bluff, above Trent, the stone columns of Dom Pellum’s estate rose into the blue sky, verandas, colonnades, and stone statues spread out amid the acres of grapes in the vineyards behind. For the first time, Colin noticed the groups of men from the Armory, noticed their brooding eyes as they watched the streets, their armor and pointed helmets glinting in the sun. They were everywhere, especially at the docks, three entire ships flying the Bontari pennant surrounded by them as crates of supplies were unloaded and carted up the terraces to the Dom’s estates.

  Colin saw his mother on the dock that held the Trader’s Luck a moment before his father leaned back and shrugged him down from his shoulders.

  “Thank Diermani,” his mother gasped, crossing herself— forehead, chest, right shoulder, heart—and the fear in her eyes drove the last of Colin’s resistance away. But not the resentment. “We have to hurry. The captain has already threatened to leave without us.” She snatched Colin’s hand and then rushed toward the end of the dock, a satchel flung over one shoulder.

  “He doesn’t dare,” his father growled as he stooped down and hauled two sacks onto his back and lifted a chest containing his tools into his arms, grunting with the weight. “I’m acting as ship’s carpenter on the trip.”

  They hustled to the lowered plank. The captain bellowed, “There you are! Get them down below and your gear stowed. We’re leaving. Now!”

  His mother had descended the ladder into the hold before him. His father had shoved him from behind, to keep him moving.

  And then, with two hundred and twenty other men, women, and children, on three different ships, they’d fled Trent.

  A part of him had hated his father that day. A part of him hated his father still.

  His father.

  He lurched upright into a seated position in the alley in Portstown, winced at the pain in his stomach and sides, at the bruises he could already feel forming on his arms, chest, and back. But the loose, queasy sensation in his gut had faded, leaving behind a shaking weakness in his legs.

  He stared down at his soiled breeches, his dirt-smeared, torn shirt, and felt sick.

  His father would kill him.

  “You may as well come in, Colin. I can see your shadow.”

  Colin gave a guilty start. He’d been hovering outside of the ramshackle hut they’d claimed in Lean-to, listening to his mother hum softly to herself as she worked. But now he sighed and shoved aside the ragged blanket they were using as a door and entered.

  He halted just inside the entrance, not quite able to look at his mother, and waited for the lecture to begin, as it had the last two times.

  Instead, his mother simply said, “Oh, Colin. Not again.” The defeat in her voice forced him to look up.

  She sat before the circle of stones that made up their fire pit. Wood had been set, ready to be lit, and the tripod braces his father had constructed to hold the pot over the flames were out and waiting. His mother held the pot in her lap, her arms resting on its edges as she sliced a potato to add to the water. The skin around her hazel eyes appeared bruised with exhaustion, her face gaunt. She’d pulled her long black hair back and pinned it to keep it out of her face while she worked.

  They stared at each other. Col
in felt tears begin to burn his eyes again, but he clamped his jaw tight and forced the sensation back, his gangly body going rigid.

  His mother smiled tightly, and then she set the black pot to one side and stood.

  “Well, come here,” she said, moving toward the table against one wall, where she picked up a cloth and dipped it into water. “We’ll get you cleaned up as much as possible before your father gets back. He’s down at the docks, looking for work.”

  Colin could hear the snort in her words. His father had been down to the docks looking for work for the past eight weeks but had found nothing so far. Nothing of significance.

  His mother turned, wringing out the cloth, then paused when she noticed the stain on the front of his breeches. Her sudden frown almost brought the tears back, but then she knelt and looked up into his eyes, pressing the damp cloth to his face, wiping away the blood and dirt, and the tracks his earlier tears had made.

  “Was it Walter and his cronies?”

  “Yes. They caught me on Water Street. They dragged me into an alley.”

  “And no one saw you?”

  Colin didn’t answer.

  His mother sat back. “People saw you, but no one came to help?”

  He nodded.

  His mother stood abruptly, threw the cloth back onto the table as she stormed over to the pallets and one of the small chests they’d carried with them all the way from Trent. “Were they townsmen who saw you?” she snapped as she dug through the chest, lifting out clothes and setting them to one side. “Were they from the Carrente Family? Sartori’s people?”

  “Yes.”

  She muttered something under her breath, then pushed back from the chest and stalked across the room. “Here. Get out of those breeches and linen and into these. Your father should be here any minute.”