“Now, Ella. Pick up the fork in your left hand,” the old man said to the little girl. “Hold it like this. Do you see how I’m holding it?”
Ella watched the small girl struggle to copy the old man.
“Good,” he said. “Now pick up the knife. You always hold the fork with your left hand and the knife with your right.”
Ella smiled as she saw the old man reach over to adjust the child’s grip.
Then she heard another explosion, and the sounds of pursuit urged her on. She closed the door to the house and walked back down the steps.
A young boy with a shock of black hair strode toward where Ella stood. He was scowling as he stared right at her. He had a savage red mark to the left of his mouth.
“What happened?” Ella heard a voice behind her, and she saw that the little girl was behind her on the steps. The boy wasn’t looking at her; he was looking at the girl.
“I got into a fight,” the boy said.
“Why?”
“Because people say stupid things.”
“Did you have to fight?” the girl asked.
“Sometimes there’s no other way. I don’t care what they think of me, but it’s important what I think of myself.”
Ella stepped away from the steps and watched as the boy and girl spoke.
“I don’t want you to fight,” the girl said.
The boy sighed. “Neither do I.”
Ella heard the clash of steel against steel, and looking back toward the road, she could now make out individual soldiers, terrifying men with black armor and sharp swords revealed in the occasional gaps in the smoke. Another boom came from the enemy, and Ella heard the sound of splintering wood combine with the roar of flames.
When she looked for the two children, the boy and girl were gone.
Ella decided to go back to the road. As she walked away from the house, she suddenly saw the little girl in front of her holding a stack of books precariously piled in her arms. The roar of fighting men grew louder, and the girl glanced apprehensively over her shoulder and tripped.
Books fell everywhere as the girl fell down to her knees.
“Here, let me help,” Ella said.
She knelt and began to gather the books, placing them side by side on the ground. Reading the spines, Ella saw every topic imaginable covered, from language to the study of weather, to mathematics, to lore.
The girl went completely still, and Ella saw her face turn completely white.
“He’s here,” the girl said.
Ella felt cold fear shiver down her spine, and following the direction of the girl’s gaze, she saw a man step out from behind the house.
He shifted as he walked, changing appearance and stride, even bearing, as if two men existed in the one body. He was an old man in a gold-trimmed white robe with a black sun on the breast, an emaciated frame, and stick-thin arms. The old man’s skin was dead, wrinkled like parchment, and his eyes were dark and intense, the stare of a fanatic. He held a dagger in his hand.
Then he flickered and changed. Now he was a slim middle-aged man in elegant clothing of dark velvet, diamonds set in chrome at his cuffs and a silver chain around his neck. His hair was blood red, and his eyes were the shade of blue frost. As he walked, something wet and liquid dripped from the tips of his fingers, pattering to the ground with each step. Ella saw it was blood.
“Please,” the little girl said, looking imploringly at Ella. “Don’t let him get me.”
Ella scooped the little girl up in her arms and ran.
Expecting at any moment to feel hot breath on her neck, Ella left the house behind her and rushed back to the paved stones of the road. Risking a glance behind her, Ella saw the cloud of smoke and flame surge ahead. The house was gone, as if it had never been.
The menacing figure still walked toward them.
“Please,” the little girl whimpered.
“I’ll protect you,” Ella said.
Ella’s heart pumped as she ran along the road, away from her pursuers, heading into the haze. She was forced to set the girl down and instead held her hand, pulling her along as they ran from the encroaching darkness.
The blonde girl was surprisingly fast and kept pace with Ella, no faster and no slower than she was herself. Her little hand fit snugly into Ella’s palm. The task of protecting the girl gave Ella a sense of purpose she hadn’t felt before.
They ran, and now the man was at the front of the cloud that was the enemy. He was one of them, and the threat stronger than ever before.
A blurred shape appeared through the mist, a triangular mass at the end of the road, lying directly ahead.
Ella saw it was a mountain.
“Quick,” Ella said to the little girl. “We’ll be safe here.”
The mountain came at them all at once, a stepped pyramid of dark stone looming down, solid and indomitable.
“There’ll be a chamber at the top,” Ella panted as she led the girl up the steps. “They can’t hurt us there.”
“I’m scared,” the little girl whimpered.
Ella’s legs burned with fatigue, and sweat dripped down her brow. Wet strands got in the way of her vision, and she impatiently brushed them aside. At her touch, the hair came out in a big clump. Ella looked at the strands in her hand in horror and flung them away.
Ella climbed step after step, surprised that a girl so small could keep pace with her. Glancing back, she saw that the enemy had reached the base of the mountain, the man running forward to lead the charge. He brandished the dagger and snarled as he dashed up the steps, his white robe twisting around his thin frame, though there was no wind. He smoothed back his slicked hair, and symbols on his hands and neck glowed with fire. Ella shook her head and returned her gaze to the front, desperately searching for the chamber she knew was here.
The man was nearly on them. Ella reached the dark opening and turned wide eyes behind her as she saw him lunge up the mountain. Ella heard his hoarse breathing and saw the dagger in the man’s hand speed through the air, not aimed at her, instead shooting forward at the little girl.
Ella pulled the girl into her arms, and she launched herself up the final step and into the dark opening.
Ella fell.
Suddenly there was nothing in her arms: the girl was gone. Ella screamed as she plummeted endlessly through darkness, her limbs writhing and her vision conjuring a hard floor coming up to meet her. She ran out of breath and gasped before screaming again. She screamed, emptying her breath three more times before she realized she was face down on the ground.
Ella struggled to make sense of it. She’d been falling, and now she was on the ground. She lifted her head. Where was the little girl?
Ella was in a cavern, and though there was no source of light, she could easily discern the craggy walls and smooth stone floor. She rose to her feet and, tilting her head back, could only see a black void above, a shadowed height disappearing endlessly to the limits of vision.
There were two side tunnels leading from the cavern, one large and one small.
Ella walked toward the entrance of the smaller tunnel and peered inside. This tunnel was walled, with blocks of stone fitted next to each other to fill the arched ceiling. The tunnel glowed with blue light, and it turned at the end. Deciding to see what lay after the turn, Ella walked inside.
Her bare feet made no sound on the stone, and the air was cool and dry. She rounded the corner, and still the tunnel stretched on. Ella walked for an age as the tunnel bent left and twisted right, heading deeper and deeper into the rock.
Ella frowned, tilting her head to the side as she heard a strange clinking and bubbling. As she rounded the next corner, Ella stopped and stared.
A man in a black robe had his back to her, and Ella saw a symbol on the back of the robe: a triangle bounded by a double circle. A bench stood against the wall of the square room, and Ella saw smoke pouring from the mouths of bubbling glass flasks, with pipes leading from one vial to another. Jars lined the wall, each c
ontaining a colored liquid or powder.
Ella cleared her throat, and the man turned.
He was old, with kind eyes and a high forehead. Ella saw he held an open book in his hands, the pages yellowed with age.
He closed the book with a snap and scowled at Ella.
“I told you,” he said. “Everything is poison; there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison.”
“I . . . I don’t understand,” Ella said.
“Listen! Everything is toxic, and small amounts of things considered poisonous can do good, while large amounts of safe substances can kill. For every bad there is good.”
“Please . . .” Ella said.
“You aren’t listening!” the old man roared at her.
Ella turned on her heels and fled. She ran back down the winding passage, gasping as her bare feet slapped against the stone, until she finally stood back in the wide cavern.
Ella leaned against the wall to regain her breath.
Shaking her head, trying to clear it, she resisted the urge to sob. She didn’t understand any of this. What was happening to her?
Ella was frightened of what she would find in the larger tunnel. But she had to find out what was in there.
She walked over to the entrance.
Where the last passage had been walled, this tunnel was rough and jagged, as if naturally formed. Golden light welled from inside, and with each step forward Ella found herself feeling strangely at peace. This tunnel didn’t turn and twist, it continued on straight ahead, but with all the outcrops and hanging formations, she couldn’t see what lay ahead.
Ella heard the sound of masculine breathing, back the way she’d come.
She stopped in her tracks and looked fearfully back behind her.
The man appeared from between the rocky walls. Where he walked the golden light changed to darkness, and every footstep filled the tunnel with shadow. He brought the shadow with him, and Ella knew that if he swallowed her in that darkness, she would never see light again.
Ella began to run, her chest once more heaving. She opened her stride and dashed through the passages, taking cuts and scrapes from the sharp stone. The man ran with her, chasing her, and Ella’s spine crawled at the thought of her unprotected back.
Ella heard her name, and someone suddenly stood in front of her, barring the way.
She saw it was a small woman with ruddy skin and crinkled features. She was nonetheless pretty in a way, and she had a bow in her hands, pointed past Ella’s shoulder. A soft mantle of white fur rested on her shoulders.
“Get behind me,” the woman said. “I will keep him from you.”
Ella rushed to reach safety behind the small woman and turned to look back. The man growled and sneered as he stood in the shadows where the golden light couldn’t reach him. He didn’t come any closer.
Ella realized she knew the woman’s name.
“Layla,” Ella said. “What are you doing here?”
“You summoned me,” Layla said.
“How?”
Layla shrugged, even as she kept an arrow drawn on the bowstring, sighted at the man. “I was enjoying myself, hunting, climbing, swimming, sharing laughter with my people, and then I was here.”
As Ella watched, the man drew away, taking his shadows with him. Layla lowered her bow.
“I’ve missed you,” Ella said. She met Layla’s green eyes, and Ella felt tears well at the corners of her own.
“You need to take better care of yourself,” Layla said. She ran her eyes up and down Ella’s body and raised an eyebrow. “Your hair. Is that a new fashion among your people?”
Ella laughed, though it hurt. “No.”
“I have missed you too. But do not blame yourself. We are each responsible for our own actions.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Ella said.
“If you want to keep running, then that is your choice. I will guard here, and I will keep you safe.”
“What lies ahead?”
“Your destiny.”
“Can I wait here with you?”
“No, Ella. I do not have the power to stay here long. If you choose to run, then you must go now.”
“Will I see you again?”
“You will always see me. If you want to be close, come to the Dunwood, and visit my tree. But I will be everywhere. I will be in the wind that moves through the trees, and the water flowing through the rivers. The clouds will bear my name, and I will be carried down with the rains to continue the cycle. Now go.”
Ella opened her mouth.
“Go,” Layla repeated.
Ella reached forward to touch her friend, but her grasp caught only air. Layla smiled at Ella sadly, and Ella left the Dunfolk healer behind.
The golden light grew stronger the further Ella wandered down the tunnel. She once more felt the sensation of peace, and with it came a feeling of being tired. Ella wanted to sleep, and she knew that when she did, it would be the sweetest sleep she’d ever had. She was weary. Soon, she would rest.
The tunnel narrowed and Ella passed through the close walls to see the tunnel widening once more, forming another cavern.
Ella raised a hand to shield her eyes. An arched opening at the cavern’s end shone with radiant light. The feeling of tiredness and tranquility was now so strong she could no longer resist it, and Ella knew it stemmed from this arch.
She stepped into the cavern and walked through the center, ignoring everything else as she approached the light.
When she was directly in front of the arch, she felt an incredible sensation of peace. It surged through her body, sending a tingle through her limbs, and Ella realized the pain was gone. While she looked at the light there was no more agony, only joy.
“Ella,” she heard behind her.
Ella turned in surprise as she heard the voice. For the first time her gaze took in the entire cavern. Jewels of all colors sparkled from the rocky ceiling, reflecting the golden light. A beautiful centurion tree with glistening green leaves stood over a wooden bench, branches drooping down.
Ella drew in a sharp breath.
An old man in a sky-blue robe sat on the bench, and Ella’s eyes widened as she saw he had a little girl on his lap, her hair pale blonde and her eyes sparkling emerald. He set the girl off his lap and rose to his feet as he once more spoke her name.
His white hair was flecked with ginger, and his soft beard was dotted here and there with red. His intensely blue eyes looked at Ella with the utmost kindness and compassion as he stepped toward her.
“Evrin,” Ella whispered. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here because you’re here,” Evrin Evenstar said.
Ella looked down at the little girl, whose hand was clasped in Evrin’s. “Who is she?”
“She’s you,” Evrin said.
Ella’s senses reeled, and suddenly she was the girl, the girl was she. She looked out through the little girl’s eyes, and then Ella closed her eyes and opened them, and the girl was gone. Evrin’s hands were now empty.
“I remember,” Ella said.
“That is good. But tell me, my dear,” Evrin said. “What do you remember of lore?”
Ella spoke with a trembling voice. “Runes are drawn with essence. Different runes combine to give objects properties they didn’t possess before.”
“What makes someone a master of lore?”
“Learning,” Ella said. “Experience. Wisdom.”
Evrin shook his head sadly. “You never did understand, though you came close to the source three times.” He came forward and put his finger at Ella’s breast, close to her heart. “Power comes from within. Only when you realize this, will you become the master of yourself, and then you can become what you’ve always wanted to be.”
Ella saw Layla enter the cavern to stand by Evrin’s side.
“She knows it,” Evrin said, indicating Layla. “But then again, her people were always close to the truth.”
“What truth?”
Ella said.
“You’ve always believed everything should have a rational explanation, and you’ve struggled to explain the things you don’t understand. You can’t explain away love, my dear, it doesn’t work like that. Nor can you explain intuition, or the strength to go on even through the darkest struggles.”
“I don’t understand,” Ella whispered. “Why can’t you just tell me?”
“Because these things are for each of us to learn on our own. They can’t be taught or explained, which is the point of what I’m trying to say to you.”
Ella turned to look at the archway of golden light. Once more the feeling of restful peace came over her.
“You can go that way, yes, and you deserve it, that is true.”
At the other end of the cavern, from where Ella had come, the entrance darkened with shadow. The man stood at the cusp of the cavern, watching and waiting, filled with menace.
“Or you can fight,” Evrin said. “It will mean discovering the source of your strength in the face of utter darkness. You will either find yourself, or you will perish.”
“We must go,” Layla said to Evrin.
Evrin nodded. He turned back to Ella. “I have faith in you, my dear. But when you make your choice, remember: if you choose to fight, the battle will be more difficult than any you’ve ever faced before.”
Evrin and Layla both turned to the light-filled tunnel, and as they walked, they began to fade. They became translucent with each step, and the centurion tree and wooden bench also faded.
“Don’t go,” Ella pleaded.
“Trust in yourself,” Evrin and Layla whispered together.
Evrin looked one last time over his shoulder back at Ella, and then he and Layla walked through the archway, into the light.
The man in black now stepped forward into the cavern, half-filling it with shadow as he snarled, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Ella looked longingly at the light, and then at the darkness.
She chose to fight.
54
Tiesto Telmarran stared white-faced down at Seranthia as the rumbling horn blast sounded the call to arms from behind the city walls.
The Lore Of The Evermen (Book 4) Page 37