“Did you speak with that wizard?” she asked when they stepped inside the house.
Kael set Elva down and barred the door locked behind him. “We will not speak of this right now,” he said. “Not in front of Elva.”
Alyn glanced over at the child who was climbing into a chair at the table. Why hadn’t she insisted Elva take a nap, too? Then perhaps her husband would feel free to speak to her.
She looked back to Kael, curiously. Why was he locking up so early? Was he frightened of something? It wasn’t like him. What had that bloody wizard said?
“When will we speak of it?” she asked.
Kael barred the window shutters. “Ask me no questions right now, Alyn. Just tend to supper.”
Elva could feel her parents’ red frustrations. It was like they’d tied her up inside a thick blanket. She squirmed in her seat. Were they mad at her? Certainly Mama was mad. And Papa was mad. She bit nervously at her fingertips and squeezed at her belly. Her Telling was quiet, but the red was strong. What was it they didn’t want to talk about in front of her?
She watched her parents silently go about their business, unwillingly bearing the burden of their tensions that permeated the house.
Kael had no appetite for supper that evening, nibbling at his food under Alyn’s silent scrutiny, and after the meal, he gathered the children around the fire, telling them a light-hearted tale about the time he and Dian had gotten their horses stuck in the muck of Fadir’s Fen outside Fead. The children laughed and clapped, hearing of the antics their father and grandfather had performed attempting to get the horses unmired. When the children began to nod, Kael carefully tucked them into their beds, kissing them goodnight. As he double-checked the bars upon the windows and the door, Alyn finally dared to question him.
“What did that wizard tell you today to upset you so?”
He shook his head. “It is nothing to concern yourself with.” He took her into his arms and gave her a kiss. Lovingly, he caressed her swollen belly. “You need only concern yourself with the children.”
“I need to concern myself with my husband as well,” she said. “And if something is troubling you, perhaps I can help if you but give me a chance.”
“There is something you can help me with,” he said, lifting her into his arms to carry her to the bed. “You can help me extinguish the fire burning inside me. The fire that burns for you.”
“Kael, you are absolutely insatiable,” she protested. “Is this your solution to everything?”
“It is the best solution for what plagues me right now, my dear.”
He took her with a passion he had forgotten existed, and afterwards, nestled her safely within his arms, vowing that Ragg’s threats would remain invalid.
On the banks of the brook beside the bridge outside Kael’s home, sat Blugort and Ragg. They had arrived just after sunset.
Blugort was growing impatient, merely sitting and watching the house. When would his master says it was time? The lamps inside had all been extinguished; what was they waitin’ for?
“It won’t be long now,” Ragg said, attempting to calm his restless companion. “The man and woman are not yet asleep.”
“Why isn’t they sleepin’ yet?” Blugort grumbled.
Ragg smirked, staring over at him. “Have you never engaged in the act of procreation, Blugort?”
Blugort raised his eyebrows. “Oh.” He nodded in understanding. “I sees it now.” He folded his arms upon his upraised knees, resting his chin upon them, staring at the darkened house. If Men was anything like Blasties, this could takes a while.
The darkness of the night deepened and eventually Ragg announced, “It is time. Wait for us beside the road.”
Ragg walked the rock-lined pathway to the door where he transformed into a tiny mouse, then crept through the crack at the threshold. The mouse scurried across the room, coming to the bedchamber that Elva shared with Sashi. He transformed again, gently shaking Elva awake.
Elva sleepily opened her eyes. “Mama?”
“Shhh.” Ragg put a finger to his lips, then bent and whispered softly into her ear, “Come with me and be very, very quiet.”
The Telling said not to go, but Elva ignored it and climbed out of the bed to obey her mother. Grasping onto her mother’s outstretched hand, they crossed the dark room toward the door. Her eyes were keen in the darkness and she had no trouble finding her way. Curiously, she watched her mama remove the bar from the door and lead her outside. There was something wrong with Mama. She was no longer blue. Or even red. She had no color at all.
“Where are we going?” she asked, rubbing at her eyes as they walked down the path.
“It’s a surprise,” Ragg said, taking the girl out of the yard to the road where Blugort waited. He put Elva’s tiny hand into the blastie’s and knelt beside her. “I want you to go with Blugort and be a good girl. Do everything he tells you. Will you do that for Mama?”
Elva pouted and nodded her head. The Telling above her belly was grumbling hard. She did not want to go with this funny-looking man, but if Mama asked her to, it must be important. Reluctantly, she let the blastie lead her away from home into the night.
Ragg went back into the house and replaced the bar on the door before transforming once more into a mouse to escape between the cracks.
His hand felt scratchy as a thistle, Elva thought as the funny-looking little brown man took her through the dark, deserted streets of Avar, and she wanted to pull away, but he held on tight. Finally they came to the decorated door of the wizard’s home and without knocking, they went inside. It smelled of earth and heath, and something dark and unnamable. The man in the black robe she’d seen earlier that day at the marketplace sat at the table. He had given her a pear which Mama had promptly taken away. It didn’t matter. She hadn’t wanted that hard old pear anyway, especially not from this ugly man with no color who probably wasn’t a man at all. She couldn’t understand why she felt that about him. Only that she did. It was just a thought, vague and frustrating, like so many things that rose out of The Telling.
“Don’t be frightened,” the man in the robe said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He bade the sleepy girl to sit beside him. “Did you know I knew your father?”
“Lots of people know Papa,” she grumbled, trying to get comfortable upon the sagging straw matting of the seat.
“Indeed, they do,” Ragg said. “But I’m speaking of the wizard Fane.”
At this, Elva came alert, pushing all the warnings of her belly down. “You really knew him?”
“Oh yes.” Ragg continued to probe the girl’s memories and thoughts. “He stayed in my home for a time. I knew your mother, as well.”
“Mama doesn’t seem to like you much,” she said, recalling her mother’s behavior at the marketplace.
“I’m not talking about the woman you call Mama. I’m talking about your real mother.”
“But my mama—”
“Is not your real mother.” Ragg shook his head. “No, child. The woman you call Mama is just someone your papa hired to care for you after he killed your real mother.”
“No,” Elva gasped in horror. “You’re a liar.” How could he say such horrid things about her papa?
Ragg smiled sympathetically. “I’m afraid it’s true, my child. Your father Fane asked your papa to take care of you and your mother, but your papa hated your mother because she was too ugly for him to bear. And after your father Fane died, your papa killed your mother and then hired a pretty woman to raise you and pretend to be your mother.”
“No, no, no,” Elva screamed, clamping her hands over her ears. There was too much noise! She did not want to hear this man’s awful words. She did not want to listen to the shouts of The Telling.
“He killed her and threw her body into the river.”
“Stop it,” Elva wailed. Papa would never do that. Not ever.
“But he did,” Ragg said sadly. “He killed her because she was a troll.”
Elva g
lared at the man. “You’re a liar,” she spat. “A dirty, stinking liar!”
Ragg reached out and stroked one of her pointed ears. “Your real mother was a troll, Elva. Where do you think you got these? Why do you think you’re so small?”
She hadn’t thought of it before. But it couldn’t be true, could it? Surely her mama was really her mother. Her mother wasn’t some ugly old troll.
“I don’t like you,” she shouted. “I don’t like liars. I want to go home!”
“You will go with Blugort for now,” Ragg told her.
“I won’t.” Elva scrabbled away from the table and raced across the room. “I won’t go. I won’t. I want my papa. I want to go home!”
“But it’s by your papa’s choice that you are here,” Ragg said. “Only if he decides he wants you back will you get to go home.”
What was he saying? What did he mean? Didn’t Papa want her? Oh, she didn’t want to go anywhere with this horrid little brown-faced man. She didn’t want to hear this man who was not a man. Or what her Telling was telling her. She just wanted to go home.
Tears rolled down her reddened cheeks and she fought the blastie with all the wriggles and screams a six-year-old child can possess until Ragg and Blugort were finally forced to bind and gag her.
“There are some woods east of here,” Ragg said. “Turn north from the road at the brook. Behind the second waterfall is a grotto. Hide her away there and I’ll send for you tomorrow.”
The blastie disappeared into the dark, carrying the whimpering child in his arms.
Kael slept fitfully, his sleep plagued with the day’s events, and as dawn’s light edged in through the cracks of the shuttered windows, he could sleep no more. His spirit was frustrated, and the physical solace he sought from Alyn did little to ease the tension. He disengaged from his wife, rising from the bed instead of lingering as usual.
As he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling on his trousers, Alyn knelt behind him, caressing his shoulders.
“Perhaps that wizard will leave Avar today,” she murmured. “And you can rest easy again.”
“Perhaps.” Kael rose to his feet and donned his shirt and jerkin. “I have some business to attend to in Fead,” he told her. “You and the children will come with me. We will leave immediately after breakfast. Pack some food for the road and have the children ready.”
Kael crossed the room to feed the embers in the ingle and Alyn arose and dressed, stealing curious glances at him. “You’ve never taken us to Fead before. What kind of business? Tell me Kael. Why won’t you confide in me?”
“Just trust me and do as you’re told.”
With the fire back to life, Kael lifted the bar from the door and stepped outside to relieve himself when he heard Alyn begin to shout. Racing back inside, he saw her frantically searching about.
“What is it?” he demanded. “What is wrong?”
“Elva,” she cried. “Elva is missing. She is nowhere!”
“I’ll go check the barn,” he said, hurrying back outside. “Perhaps she is with the horse.”
He opened the door of the barn and called out, but the only reply came from the gelding. As he ransacked the barn, he knew deep inside that she was not here. She couldn’t have gotten out of the house. The door had still been barred. She must be in the house. She must be.
Hoping the child had only been hiding, he hurried back to the house, but when he got inside a dreadful truth began to claim him.
Amid the shambles of the house, Alyn sat at the table, crying. “She’s gone. Where has she gone, Kael? Where could she be?”
Kael threw on his boots and sword belt, then strode over to Alyn and lifted her to her feet, kissing her deeply. He gazed into her moistened eyes. “You have always been my greatest strength and my greatest weakness. I love you, Alyn. Please remember that. No matter what may happen today, always remember that.” He released her and stepped to the door. “Bar this door behind me and don’t let anyone—and I mean anyone—except for me, inside. I am going to go find our daughter.”
After Kael closed the door, Alyn slowly lowered the bar. She knew he was going to see that terrible wizard who’d surely done something with Elva. That terrible wizard and his skulking blastie had most assuredly stolen her daughter, but how and for what purpose, she could not guess. Her husband’s words had sounded so final. What did he know that she did not?
She gathered Lundin and Sashi close, snuggling upon her bed, staring blankly at the barred door, feeling very much alone.
Kael burst through the door of the wizard’s quarters, his sword drawn.
Ragg sat at the table, sipping tea, unimpressed by Kael’s entrance. “I’ve been expecting you.”
“Where is she?” Kael shouted. “Where is my daughter?”
“I imagine your daughter is safe at home,” Ragg spoke, taking a sip of tea. “However, the child of your brother is in my keeping now.” He waved his hand and Kael’s sword flew away.
“Give her back!” Enraged, Kael sprang at Ragg. The talisman grew hot against his chest.
Turning into a large crow, Ragg flew upward, but an instant of contact occurred when Kael’s fingertips whispered upon the crow’s wing.
Kael crashed to the floor, thrusting his burnt fingers into his mouth.
The crow squawked and settled high in the rafters, his singed wing feathers smoking. “You blighted little toad,” the crow shrilled. “That was not a very smart move, boy. Now you’ve gone and made me angry.” Ragg ruffled his feathers. He had not seen that coming.
Kael glared up at the crow, understanding now how easily Ragg could have managed to steal Elva from his locked home. The crystal glowed like a flame beneath his shirt, the light creeping through the openings at his neck and arms. He took his burnt fingers from his mouth and stared at them. He had scarcely touched the demon, yet that brush against the feathers had burned them both.
“Give me back my daughter,” Kael spoke gravely, glaring up at the crow.
The crow flapped its wings and cawed. “All you have to do to get her back is give me the crystal.”
Now, more than ever, Kael knew that he couldn’t give it up. It had the power to destroy the beast. That was its magic. Ragg wanted the stone because whoever possessed it had the power to destroy him. All that person had to do was get close enough to hold onto him. He would destroy himself in the process, but such a sacrifice could be made to rid the land of Ragg.
Could he do it? Would Ragg be caught with his guard down again?
“No,” the crow said. “You can be certain that you’ll not get another chance like that, for my guard is well up.” Ragg knew he had met his match. He had been negligent, underestimating this man, and this man had enough purpose of heart to destroy himself rather than surrender. Such was the way of most of these so-called warrior types. Only his love for his family could undo him.
The crow in the rafters continued to speak. “I will have Blugort bring the child back here at midday. Be here, so that we can negotiate further.” With that, Ragg flew out the door and away.
Elva’s keen night-sight enabled her to clearly see that the funny-looking little man had taken her to a waterfall in the forest. Her arms and legs ached within her bonds and as the blastie took her behind the waterfall into a dark, narrow cave, immediately they slid down a steep, slick incline.
Landing in a heap at the bottom of the slope, Blugort picked himself up, sputtering, “Blasted master coulds have warned me about that!” He picked Elva back up and placed her far to the rear of the deep cavern, then sat beside her, staring, and it caused her to shiver.
He scared her. She didn’t like him. She didn’t like him looking at her. She didn’t like the cold lump in her belly. She didn’t like this cave, all spidery and full of whispers and she just wanted to go home. Again, the tears rolled from her eyes.
Why had Mama sent her away? What had she done to make Mama and Papa send her away? Would Papa ever want her back? The tears continued to spill from her eyes as
she tried with all her might to remember what it was she had done that would make her mama and papa so angry that they would send her away.
She glanced up at the ugly little man who sat beside her. Why did he have to keep looking at her? She closed her eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t there, but still she could feel his eyes upon her. Although she was exhausted, she couldn’t sleep. Not with that Blugort staring at her. Not knowing that Mama and Papa wanted her gone.
She sobbed throughout the night and darkness was just beginning to give way to the dawn when three fat, tiny creatures shuffled into the cave and slid down the muddy slope to the bottom.
Blugort leapt to his feet, drawing the short sword from his baldric.
Elva shrank back against the damp wall as far as she could, her eyes wide, taking in the repulsiveness of the short, round, skinny-legged creatures.
Blugort stood defensive guard before her. The three trolls snorted and grunted, edging their way around the cavern before suddenly disappearing into a dark hole on the far side.
Able to relax again, Blugort sat down. “They won’t harms ye,” he told the girl. “They was just three trollies out t’gets a bites t’eat.”
His words only gave her a new fear. She had never seen a troll before. All she knew of them came from Papa’s tales, but she had seen their ears and surely her own ears were as big and as pointed as theirs. Not small and rounded like Lundin’s or Sashi’s, but big and pointed as a troll’s.
Papa has said her father Fane had lived in a troll cave before he died. Had that colorless man who was not a man spoken the truth? Was The Telling right? Had her real mother been a troll? Is that why her mama and papa had given her away? Because they didn’t want to be the parents of a troll anymore? They had their own children now. They couldn’t be bothered with ugly little Elva any longer.
She had seen Papa talking to the men at the market. Then Papa was whispering to Mama when he took them home. Then Mama and Papa were angry and then Mama gave her away. The man who was not a man told her she could go home if Papa wanted her back. It was Papa’s choice she was here. And only Papa could decide if she could go home again.
The Legacy of Skur: Volume One Page 27