Zahara's Gift

by A. J. Walker

  “My name is Chantal, the head chambermaid in this castle. Yes, we are all here against our will. But if you do as you’re expected, you may survive. Your day will begin by meeting here with the other maids. We then take our baskets and go around to the rooms of all the guards and pick up the dirty clothes and blankets. After that we sweep and mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, and do the laundry. Once each room is spotless, we make up the beds with clean sheets. When the rooms and halls are clean, we set the dinner table for the master. He usually has a feast with several officers in his army. After dinner, we clean up their mess and it’s off to bed. There will be lunch at noon and we can eat dinner while the master entertains. Get into groups of two,” she said and paused until everyone was standing next to their new coworker. “I will be placing one of the more experienced members who have been here longer with each pair to make sure you do the job correctly.”

  She went around and placed a more experienced maid with each pair except for Kirsten and Maija. Once Chantal got around to them, she said, “I have been ordered to take the two of you under my watch. You will be learning from me.”

  Kirsten and Maija both raised their eyebrows ever so slightly as they looked at each other.

  Why would Chantal have been ordered to make sure we work with one another? Is Merglan reading our minds and knows my plans of trying to escape? But I haven’t even started my plan. I just know I want to do something to get out of this wretched place, Kirsten thought to herself as Chantal led them through the narrow stone halls.

  As they followed, Chantal pointed out all of the chambers of the more important members of Merglan’s army. They were mostly officers and commanders, the majority of them were human with several male orcs and one female orc tasked with overseeing their grand plan.

  Whatever that is, Kirsten wondered.

  When they reached the end of the hall, Chantal showed them a set of stairs that led off to a large structure attached to the main building.

  Pointing to the stairs, Chantal said, “This is the master’s chamber. You are not to go beyond this point. Only I am allowed to clean the master’s chambers.”

  Maija and Kirsten nodded slowly, examining the doorway.

  “You two will start by cleaning the rooms here in this hall,” she said pointing back the way they’d just come. She paused and looked at them as if she was wondering why they hadn’t moved yet.

  “Oh, now?” Kirsten said, catching the awkwardness of her gaze.

  “Yes, now,” Chantal said and shooed them away with her hand.

  Kirsten and Maija spent the next several hours of their morning cleaning together. They talked about how strange this place was, what her brother was doing in the mine, and how they were going to plan another escape or attack on the guards.

  They were just finishing in the room next door to Merglan’s chambers when Maija caught Kirsten’s attention.

  “Pssst,” Maija waved her over to the doorway. Maija had her back pressed up against the wall in their room’s entryway. Kirsten rushed over to her and put her backside against the wall next to her friend.

  “Shhh,” Maija shushed with a finger over her lips. She poked her head around the partially open door for a moment and brought it back in. “Did you hear that?” she asked Kirsten.

  “Hear what?” Kirsten asked, not hearing anything.

  “The voices,” Maija said in a whisper.

  “No, I didn’t hear any voices,” Kirsten said.

  Maija poked her head through the doorway again and looked up and down the hallway. Then receding back into the doorway again, she said, “I can hear voices talking out there, but I can’t see anyone in the hallway.”

  “Let me take a look,” Kirsten said. She poked her head beyond the door and into the stone hallway and looked first to the left, then to the right. There was no one there, and as hard as she strained her ears she could not hear anything. Bringing her head back inside, she said, “I don’t see anyone or hear any voices.”

  Maija looked at her surprised, “Really? You don’t hear the people talking?”

  Kirsten shook her head. “What are they talking about?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure, it’s pretty muffled. I heard something about a prophecy though,” she said.

  “Let’s find out where the voices are coming from,” Kirsten said.

  Prophecy sounds interesting, she thought.

  “What if we get caught?” Maija asked. “We could be beaten or worse if we’re discovered.”

  “It’s worth it,” Kirsten said and exited the doorway out into the hallway. “Now where are these voices you’re hearing coming from?” she asked, looking around the stone corridor.

  Maija followed her out into the hallway when she saw that no invisible person or force had immediately reprimanded Kirsten.

  “The talking is coming from in there,” she pointed to the door leading to Merglan’s chambers. The door was cracked open slightly so Kirsten walked over and put her ear up against the crack opening. At last she could hear muffled voices, more like whispers, floating down the stairs to the door. She pulled her head away from the crack and looked at Maija amazed she’d heard them from the other room.

  “You could hear that from the other room?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’m surprised you couldn’t,” she whispered.

  “Wow, I could barely tell that there were voices when I put my ear on the crack, and I cannot even begin to decipher what they’re saying. To me it just sounds like psssst, psssst, pssst,” she said.

  Maija pushed her aside and said, “Let me try.” Maija stood at the doorway for several minutes, her expressions changing from curiosity to shock and surprise. She pulled away from the door and hurriedly said in a low voice, “Quick, back into the room! Chantal is coming back down.”

  They rushed back into the room and picked up their cleaning where they’d left off. No sooner had they gotten back to work than Chantal entered the room. She walked around inspecting what they’d been doing. She quickly pointed out some necessary changes and some spots in the room that required further cleaning. Kirsten and Maija wondered if she knew they’d been listening at the door.

  Before Chantal left the room, she turned and said, “Ahem.” Kirsten’s heart dropped for a second, thinking they’d been found out and Chantal was going to send them off to be punished. “You’re doing a fine job so far. A bit slow, but better than I expected.” Chantal turned and left the room.

  Kirsten waited for almost a half hour before asking Maija what she had heard the voices saying. Just as she was about to tell Kirsten exactly what she’d heard, Merglan walked past the door. They heard his footsteps stop in the hallway and heard him walk backwards until he was centered in the doorway. He turned his head slowly and looked at Kirsten and Maija, who stared back at him terrified at what he might do to them. After several long breaths, he turned back to look down the hallway and continued walking, closing the stairwell door behind him. After that, Kirsten and Maija decided they’d better wait to discuss what she heard until they were back in the solitude of their cell that night.

  Together they finished their cleaning duties and joined the others in the kitchen to prepare the feast for the master. Once the meal was over and cleaned up, the two returned to the courtyard. Thomas had been waiting for them. Two guards were posted at the end of the hallway near the gates. The three of them were free to talk before they went to bed.

  After Kirsten and Thomas had briefly discussed the day’s duties, Kirsten asked Thomas if he knew why Merglan had come after their family and what exactly he wanted. Thomas couldn’t give her much more information than he’d provided back on the ship.

  “He asked me all sorts of questions about our father and whether I was capable of performing magic, but I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Thomas said. “Thargon’s master said I wasn’t who they’d sent him to find, but that he was close by when Thargon found us. Do you think he was talking
about the young man who was with Anders when he came back with us?” Thomas asked. “If they’re still together, Anders could be in danger,” he said, concerned for his cousin.

  “It’s possible. That would explain why Thargon came after us when Anders and the young man returned to the house with father,” Kirsten sighed. She had hoped Thomas would provide her with a more solid explanation for why they’d been captured and turned her thoughts to her cousin saying, “I hope Anders isn’t worrying himself sick over us.”

  “I’m sure he’s handling it as best he can; he’s strong-willed,” Thomas said confidently. “And if I know Anders, he’ll be trying to find us and free us from this mess. No magician or magical beast will stop him.”

  “You’re probably right, but we can’t wait here forever. We need to break out of here,” Kirsten said lowering her voice and looking over her shoulder at the guards.

  “I agree, but how?” Thomas whispered. “This place is under a powerful spell that doesn’t allow anyone to leave. Today a man saw the gates were left open and made a run for it. As soon as he rushed outside beyond the gates, he vanished, poof, just like that,” Thomas said snapping his fingers. “All of a sudden he reappeared back where he was before he’d made his escape attempt and the guards quickly took him away. I don’t know what happened to him, but it couldn’t have been good.”

  “Geez,” Kirsten said, shaking her head. She remembered the strange thing that had happened to them earlier. “Maija and I heard someone talking about a prophecy. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Maija did.”

  “What was it? What’d they say?” Thomas asked intrigued.

  “At first it was muffled, but once I got my ear to the crack in the door, I could hear them clearly,” Maija began. “It was Merglan talking with Thargon. Merglan said something about the son of a king and the veiled daughter of the elf huntress who had been prophesied to become the most powerful sorcerers in history. It sounded as though Merglan was trying to stop them from finding their magic. He also mentioned something about how they would be coming on the backs of powerful dragons. He told Thargon that he’d been close to capturing one of them at the Grandwood Games, but nabbed the wrong person. He went on to say how if he weren’t so busy with their operation that he would have gone in Thargon’s place.

  “After that he said something about how he wasn’t able to sense what the boy was thinking when he came aboard the ship. He sounded frustrated as to why he couldn’t sense him on the boat or in his cell at night, but can sense his thoughts clearly when he’s was working in the mine. That’s all I heard before Chantal came back and we had to get back to work.”

  “So there’s hope that someone’s going to rise up and defeat Merglan and his evil army?” Kirsten asked hopefully.

  “Well, I didn’t hear them say it was a sure thing, they just said there were two who have the potential to overthrow him, destroying his magic,” Maija said. “It sounds like they’re worried about them finding the magic and want them killed before they discover it.”

  “And that’s what they wanted with you?” Kirsten asked her brother. “ Why didn’t they just kill you if they thought you were one of the people who could be powerful enough to overthrow him?”

  “Maybe they wanted to try to convert me to their side? But why would they want that? It doesn’t much matter now, I’m not dead and they said I wasn’t the one they were looking for,” Thomas said.

  Hearing a scuffle of footsteps in the hallway, the three of them stood up. A group of the dark armored guards came into the courtyard. With filthy hands gripping the hilts of their sheathed swords, they told them through thick accents to get back into their cells or they would be beaten. The three did as they were told and the cell doors were locked behind them.

  Kirsten whispered to Maija once they knew the guards couldn’t hear them, “I hope Anders isn’t in too much danger if Merglan really is after the lad who was with him when Thargon took us. Do you think he’ll be okay?”

  Maija tilted her head to gaze longingly at the darkened sky. “I don’t know.”

  Chapter Twelve

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  Glacial Melt Bays

  ANDERS AND MAX SAILED with Britt and her crew, following the Rollo Navy ships along the coast of the Bareback Plains east and into the Marauder Sea. Life on board the ship proved more difficult than Anders could have imagined. Everyone ate and drank only what they needed to get by without falling ill. It would take the ships nearly two-and-a-half weeks to sail around the Bareback Peninsula and into the Glacial Melt Bays area. They didn’t have much extra food and water aboard the small ships and couldn’t afford to waste much time stopping on land. The only stops the crew made were to resupply their barrels of fresh water and gather more food. Each time they’d leave before nightfall and each time Anders missed the chance to meet with Zahara.

  Everyone had to sleep under the blanket of the night sky, because the ships had no cabins or quarters below deck. Unaccustomed to sleeping while sitting up, Anders didn’t get much rest during the extent of their voyage. A mixture of saltwater and rainwater formed puddles that pooled in the low points of the ship’s floorboards, making the option to lie down for rest more miserable than sleeping upright. He tried sleeping on the deck of the narrow ship the first night, but got so cold he was sure he would freeze to death.

  Anders kept a constant eye toward shore, hoping to see Zahara. Though he didn’t spot her, he somehow knew she was nearby and keeping her eyes on him. Max caught Anders staring at the shoreline one day and asked what he was looking at. Anders lied, saying he thought he saw some more wild horses, but Max gave him a wary look unconvinced he was telling the truth.

  In addition to keeping his encounters with a dragon secret, Anders desperately wanted to tell Max about seeing Ivan sneaking away from camp and Zahara’s suspicion that Ivan was hiding something important from them. But he again decided against it, because he knew in the close quarters of the ship someone would overhear him, so he kept his secrets to himself.

  After nearly two-and-a-half weeks’ travel to the east and one rough night sailing around the choppy waters of the Bareback Peninsula’s tip, they at last reached the Marauder Sea.

  “One more day with good winds, and we should be at Glacial Melt Bays where we’ll begin our hunt,” Britt said sounding more than ready to fight against Merglan’s soldiers.

  “How do you know our location so well?” Anders asked.

  “I’ve sailed these waters several times before,” she said. “On my first raiding party we sailed to the southwestern tip of the Eastland Territories. We were going to attack a well-known orc encampment.”

  “Wait what?” Max stopped her, surprised at the mention of orcs. “There are orcs in the Eastland Territories?” he asked.

  “Oh yeah, loads of them. Thousands,” she replied.

  “What’s an orc?” Anders asked.

  “You’ve never heard of an orc?” Max asked surprised.

  “Why, are they well-known?” he asked.

  “You could say that,” Max said.

  “Orcs are a cruel species, the spawn of pure evil,” Britt began. “Most are as large as Red, some growing to twice his size. Orcs grow at a very rapid rate. Their children are often indistinguishable from adults by the time they are three years old.

  Every orc I’ve ever seen or heard talk of is boorish and it’s impossible to differentiate the males from the females with an untrained eye.

  Their dark gray splotchy skin gives them camouflage among rocky and tree-covered areas; however, most orc tribes tend to gather in wide-open areas, like the plains. In the vast expanse of these areas, they can gather in large numbers and see potential enemies coming from miles away. Many orcs have tusks that protrude outward from their lower jaw. A tusk can range anywhere from the size of my finger to the largest of rams’ horns.

  People say they’re the spawn of demons brought to Kartania from the underworld to cause chaos in the li
ves of humans, elves and dwarves. I don’t know about all that nonsense,” she scoffed. “I’m not sure where they came from or how they got here; all I know is they are a plague on this earth and should be exterminated.”

  “I believe they are the spawn of demons,” Max said. “I didn’t know there were any left, though.”

  Anders looked at him, eyebrows raised, “You believe in demons, but not dragons?”

  “Yeah, so what?” he said with some extra authority.

  Britt continued, “Orcs are unnaturally strong for their size but are notoriously slow. Most of them now congregate in the Highland Plateaus in Eastland.”

  “I heard stories as a child that Eastland is the birthplace of the fairnheir, too,” Max said, completely engrossed by what Britt was saying.

  “Isn’t that what Thargon is?” Anders asked. Britt cocked her head to the side, eyeing him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Thargon is the one leading the soldiers we’re hunting.” Anders added to clarify for Britt.

  “No,” Max said. “He’s a kurr.”

  “Oh,” Anders said. “What’s a fairnheir then?”

  “That beast that Thargon was riding the night your uncle was killed was a fairnheir,” Max said. Anders nodded picturing the beast on the streets of Grandwood during the attack and again on the road where Uncle Theodor met his demise. “They’re like hounds, but as large as bulls and have the disposition of badgers.”

  Britt continued to eye them quizzically, “Well, in lighter news and to answer your question, Anders, I’ve sailed around this part of the world several times.” Max and Anders sighed together, remembering the origin of their conversation.

  For the rest of the day Anders imagined what it would be like to fight in a battle against orcs, kurr, and fairnheir as his father and uncle had during The War of the Magicians.