A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,247

journal to me.

“Because I can also speak with the Eculans.”

“Who?”

“The Bone Giants.”

That interested her, and we traded information. The destruction of the northern army was news to me; everything I knew about the Eculans, including the Seventh Kenning and the Seven-Year Ship, was news to her. Tuala wanted to leave right away to inform the Brynt pelenaut at Pelemyn what his tidal mariner had done and then return to Rael to report to the Triune Council. But Meara, it seemed, would be staying. She wanted to turn the tower into a memorial for Culland. I’d not yet read his journal and knew nothing of him, but I’d seen what he’d done and agreed that such a moment should be preserved.

Before Tuala left us, I asked her to report also to the Kaurian embassy in Pelemyn and let them know I’d be coming and would deliver Culland’s journal to the Wellspring after I’d made a copy.

The courier departed, and I seated myself on the tower top with Ponder, paging through the tidal mariner’s journal and also keeping an eye on Meara as she frowned and set about her work, converting the earthen tower to stone by slowly calling up the rock from deep in the earth and fitting it around the circumference of the tower until it reached the top. Later, she said, she would let all the earth drain from the middle and build a spiral staircase inside so that people could visit the spot, and she would work with masons to create a mosaic floor to walk on. Culland’s uniform, along with the dirt around it to a depth of three fingerlengths, was not to be touched or moved, and eventually sealed under glass. But she needed to work with a Raelech mason to do the fine decorative work she had in mind, and she would go with us to Pelemyn to find one once she had the basic structure completed.

Ponder and I thought it an excellent plan. The tempest probably listened to ghosts on the wind while I read Culland’s journal and made a copy in Kaurian.

When I got to his last entry, I exclaimed and startled everyone, including myself.

“What is it?” Ponder asked.

“A possibility. A small gust of hope that I can do some actual good here.” I pointed to a passage in Culland’s journal. “It says here that another tidal mariner stole some Eculan documents from the vojskovodja near Hillegöm and brought them back to Pelemyn. If they will let me see them, I can help translate! Perhaps there will be something there to help us anticipate the Eculans’ next move.”

I dearly hoped there would be. Some shred of vital information that would mean my brother had good reason to die to get me here. Something that would save lives and validate my decision to breathe in all the words of the world instead of the wind.

Meara finished the basic tower structure near sundown but wasn’t ready to leave then. “We need something to explain what’s here. An obelisk, I’m thinking, which I’ll decorate later. But I want the words finished today. You can help with that?” she asked me.

“Of course.”

There being no stairs at present, we leapt off the tower together and Ponder caught us in the wind, lowering us gently to the ground. At the base, near where she would later create an entrance to the tower, she erected a polished granite obelisk with a Raelech-language inscription chiseled into the base through her kenning. I translated it for her into Brynt, Fornish, and Kaurian, and she etched the same message on the other sides of the obelisk in those languages:

On this spot on 17 Barebranch 3042, witnessed by two Raelechs and two Kaurians, tidal mariner Culland du Raffert sacrificed himself to call the wrath of Bryn down upon the city of Göfyrd, held by the Eculan invaders known as Bone Giants. The wave he summoned crashed through the seaside wall of the city, drowned the occupying army, and washed them out to sea, along with their victims, who returned to Lord Bryn.

—

“Gerstad Culland du Raffert, friends,” Fintan said, returning to his shape in a cloud of smoke. “His memorial can be found in that spot if you ever get down to Göfyrd. And you will find the stonecutter Meara there, too. She’s made it her life’s work to rebuild that city.”

I’d been looking forward to going home and asking Elynea about her first day as an official apprentice, but my plans were drowned by