She marched toward the door, perfectly aware this was something of a dare. Yet, she found herself provoked.
“Phillip,” the prophet murmured. “You aren’t going to leave her on her own, are you? After you were such a help the last time.”
He rose. “I thought I was inconsiderate the last time?”
Wynn chuckled softly but ceased when she heard voices beyond the door.
“I nominate Aedis for the position,” proposed an older man.
“That’s a good suggestion,” replied a younger woman, “but she will not take it. She and Merrick are quite consumed with their work at the moment.”
“What do you all say to Lyric?” said another.
With those words, Wynn was thrown into a vision of a fairly handsome young adult male strolling along a pristine white beach. Another man came up behind him with a dagger and stabbed him through the back.
“No,” Wynn gasped. Crashing through the door, she cried, “You mustn’t!”
The assemblage of eyes around a long oval table turned to her.
“Oh, er, I…” she mumbled.
The room was both formal and elaborate, the architecture clearly foreign. Therefore, she had entered another kingdom—Bashtii, perhaps? Moreover, it was evident she had just disturbed some kind of official meeting. She felt her face flush crimson.
“What is it, Wynn—ooph!” Phillip ran into her back.
The apprentice shut her eyes to the sheer humiliation of the situation, but they flew open again as she was smacked into once more by a smaller figure. With that, she heard the sound of the door slamming closed. Wynn and Phillip turned to find it gone, replaced by another door. Everyone in the room likely assumed they had passed through it rather than a portal from another place.
“This is a new room, isn’t it?” Terrance muttered, assuming he was still within the cabin.
Wynn cast Phillip a glower. If only he’d thought to close the door behind him to keep the dwarf from passing through.
“Was there something you had to share?” asked a woman with beautiful black-brown hair and piercing blue eyes. It was clear she found the situation mildly humorous as she looked to them with a wry grin.
Wynn swallowed. “Well… yes.”
“Say,” Terrance interjected. “What goes on here? Who are all these people?”
Phillip gestured for his silence.
“Excuse me,” said the man at the head of the table. “I have not seen you three before. And though your clothing is certainly familiar… it is not of this world.”
Wynn could not imagine why her clothing should be familiar to anyone in this place, for the strangers’ apparel was all quite unusual. Then, she realized the woman of the piercing eyes was dressed in Kierelian clothing.
“You’re from Kaern?” the blue-eyed woman asked.
Wynn nodded.
“But how did you get here?”
“That is… difficult to explain.”
The woman smiled and patted the empty chair beside her. “Very well. Why don’t you have a seat here and introduce yourself.”
Wynn raised her brows but accepted the chair while Phillip and Terrance remained awkwardly behind.
“I’m Iviana,” offered the woman who appeared not quite a decade older than Wynn. “And you?”
“Wynn.”
“Hm… that name sounds familiar,” she replied thoughtfully. Turning to the man at the head of the table, she added, “Wouldn’t you say so, Flynn?”
“Seems I’ve heard it somewhere,” he replied meditatively. “However, I am far more curious as to why they were eavesdropping, not to mention why she disagreed with the suggestion of Lyric being made a member of this council.” He asked this with a dubious brow, but Wynn found she liked his manner anyway. She had also noted just how he looked at the kind woman beside her. It was clear he was smitten. Unexpectedly, she realized he had been the man who’d been stabbed in the vision. Seeing his kind face in person made her much more passionate about her current mission.
“I did not intend to eavesdrop. However, seeing as I did, I must warn you not to have anything to do with the person you mentioned.”
“Lyric?” Iviana asked. “Why ever not?”
“Well, have you… ever heard of someone having a vision?”
Iviana’s blue eyes lit with understanding. “Go on.”
“Well, I… saw him stab you.” She pointed to Flynn.
Everyone around the table shifted in their seats, looking to one another, communicating without words.
“But Lyric is the most harmless man I know,” said a woman at the far end of the table.
“Yes, I must agree, he has never given me rise to distrust him,” said another.
“I’d still like to know how these three got here in the first place,” said an older man. “Not to mention why that child possesses a beard.” He was pointing to Terrance. Wynn peered back at the dwarf, but rather than appearing offended, he merely winked at a pretty girl who stood at attention behind Iviana.
Oh, Terrance, she thought with the roll of her eyes.
“He is not a child,” Iviana explained laughingly. “Merely a short, grown man.”
“If you must know, we arrived here through a door,” Wynn explained, knowing the sooner she got to the point, the sooner they could get home.
“Yes, we saw that,” someone said.
“I mean…” she continued, “a door that leads to various places and worlds.”
She had expected disbelief but instead received a deal of interest as well as a great many questions.
“You mustn’t ask me,” she replied. “I don’t know anything about it. I only pass through it.”
Iviana looked at her as if she thought her the funniest thing she had ever beheld. Wynn could not imagine why she should think so. She knew she was an impatient person, but she really knew nothing about the door except it was provided by a cabin that was meant to be “slightly alive.” That was simply not something she was going to disclose.
“Just because she crosses through some portal,” began an older man at the other end of the table, “doesn’t mean she does not possess ulterior motives for keeping Lyric off the council.”
“Really?” Wynn asked, not concealing her irritation. “I don’t even know you people. What motive could I have?”
“Please do not take offense,” the man replied, “but we have no way of knowing whether your tale is true.”
“Wynn,” Iviana began tentatively, “I don’t suppose you could try seeing a vision about me? Perhaps that could help verify your story.”
Wynn’s stomach turned. She had never been put on the spot for a vision before… Moreover, she’d only just begun seeing them. She had no idea if they could appear on demand. “I’m not certain…”
A few in the room exchanged skeptic glances.
“But I will try…” she added, placing a hand upon Iviana’s shoulder.
To her surprise, she was swept into a visual of the woman sitting in a chair. Her attention was drawn to the ring upon her left hand. With a blink, Wynn’s vision put to rights and she observed Iviana’s hand.
“I saw you wearing a wedding band…” she began tentatively, “but you don’t have one now. Will you be married soon?”
For the first time, the self-assured young woman who wore power like a shawl appeared uncomfortable. “No, I am not.”
“Aren’t you even close to getting engaged?” Wynn pressed.
The handsome man at the head of the table shifted uncomfortably. She couldn’t tell if the thought of this woman getting engaged to someone other than him made him restless, or if his own intentions were on the brink of being revealed.
Iviana shook her head vehemently. “Not at all.”
Wynn would very nearly have believed her if not for the fact she was avoiding eye contact with none but the head of the council. But Wynn could not imagine it would go over well if she were to point this out.
“Well…” she searched for so
me other way to mend the situation. “Let me try again.” She pressed her hand upon Iviana’s shoulder once more.
What she saw was nearly the same as before, but this time Iviana was holding an infant. The girl Terrance had winked at approached them, but when Iviana offered for her to hold the child, the girl’s face appeared anxious and she shook her head in refusal. Smiling, Iviana stood and urged the girl until, finally, she simply laid the baby in the girl’s arms. With that, a piercing light shot forth from both the girl and infant. When it subsided, the child was gone.
“Oh!” Wynn cried, returning to the council room. “Oh, you mustn’t let that woman hold your child.” She pointed to the pretty girl behind Iviana.
There were a great many mumblings and Iviana appeared truly startled. “You mean Era? I do not have a child, but I assure you I would trust anything of mine to her without a moment’s hesitation.”
“But she’ll take your baby away!” Wynn insisted.
This, she was certain, was when she finally lost the woman, for she gazed upon her with a combination of disturbance and pity. Wynn wished she could disappear inside herself.
A warm, strong hand rested upon her shoulder. She turned to find Phillip pointing to the door, revealing theirs had returned for them. Immediately, she started toward it.
“Well, uh… I guess I’m sorry I interrupted your meeting. I’ll… just be going now, if you don’t mind.”
“Now, wait a moment—" someone shouted just before they’d rushed through the door where Phillip closed it swiftly behind them.
Filing into the main room, she threw herself into a chair.
“How did it go?” asked the prophet from where he yet sat as his desk.
She threw her hands over her face. “Horrifying. I’m not talking about it.” Peeking at the young men through the cracks of her fingers, she added, “None of us are.”
Phillip nodded with understanding, but she could tell he was concealing the slightest of smiles. Terrance did not attempt to hide his devilish grin. Obviously, he had enjoyed the spectacle of her failing, whether or not he entirely understood it.
“Precisely what did just happen in there?” he asked. “You two housing fugitives in a back room or something? And what was all that rubbish about a door leading to other worlds?”
Wynn saw Phillip attempt to cut Terrance off, knowing she would not wish to further contemplate the humbling situation they had just escaped. But the prophet appeared to miss this as he replied, “Wynn’s door whisks her away to far off places so she may aid others and learn more about her role as the next prophet.”
“Oooh,” Terrance replied mirthfully. “So… Wynn was meant to help those people. I see.”
She closed the cracks of her fingers through which she could see him but could not help asking, “How can you believe him so easily? Don’t you think it a little far-fetched?”
“Well, yes, but his explanation makes far more sense than a bunch of quirky, noble people hiding away in a room I previously knew nothing of…” He paused a moment as a thought occurred to him. “Actually… now you mention it, it really doesn’t make sense. What just happened?”
Wynn let Phillip do both the explaining and the convincing. When Terrance had finally been brought to speed, he turned to her with, “You know, I really doubted you could actually be the prophet’s apprentice, but you’ve certainly surprised me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you actually saw—what do you call them?—visions and the like.”
Wynn laughed bitterly. “Didn’t you see me in there? I made a miserable fool of myself with those supposed ‘visions.’”
“Mmm, not exactly. You should have seen the look on that pretty girl’s face when you said she’d take the baby away. She, at least, had an idea of what you were blabbing about, though she would not confess it.”
She mulled this over, biting at her lower lip. “But she had such a sweet face. She wouldn’t hurt a child. Nay, I cannot believe it.”
“Well, you don’t have to mean to hurt someone to do so,” he countered.
She had to admit there was some wisdom in that… even if it had come from an unlikely source. “Terrance…” she started.
“Yes, love?”
“I met your Maera of the Wood Beguiling.”
“Oooh, did you now? Was she as beautiful as my mother describes?”
“Hardly.” She shivered upon recalling the dream-meeting, momentarily contemplating whether she ought to share it with the prophet. Instantly, she decided against it, not wanting to worry her dear guardian. “But… I thought that was a made-up story?”
The dwarf grinned as if she was a silly child he enjoyed teasing. “That, I suppose, is for my mother to know and you and I to contemplate. But it is nice to know you’ve been thinking of me.”
She couldn’t tell precisely what he really thought about the matter, whether he was wrong in disbelieving his mother’s story or had believed it and merely liked making her feel a fool. Either way, she wasn’t going to waste another moment wondering about anything that had to do with that man.
- E L E V E N -
Of Prophets and Castles
AS DAYS PASSED, Wynn awaited indications of the things Phillip’s sisters had mentioned the prophet was capable of, but next to nothing arose. He remained as ever the quirky old man she could not help finding herself growing to adore. She was uncertain if these feelings were born of his childlikeness or his unparalleled grace for others—especially her. Even in her foulest tempers, he saw good in her and that took her off her guard more than anything she had encountered. This man was a saint—a peculiar one, to be sure, but full of benevolence and wisdom just the same.
One day, however, he responded to one of her stormy temperaments quite differently. He had been away for the whole of the day and returned to find her in a dreadful humor after she had once again been working to organize the cabin.
“If you would only remain here and help me on occasion instead of gallivanting all over the kingdom or wherever it is you go,” she harangued, “I might just have a little time for myself once in a while. It isn’t as if I signed on to become your maid. I am supposed to be learning something here.”
Peering just over her shoulder, he spoke with severity, “How dare you?”
She melted. Never had she heard him speak thusly. “I-I’m sorry, prophet...”
“Be gone from this place at once!” he commanded.
Her mouth dropped open. “I-I... I am so sorry,” she muttered, reining in tears. “I’ll just… get my things.”
He appeared mystified by her words before crying, “Oh, no, you darling girl! I was speaking to that mite of a wicked sprite that was perched on your shoulder just now.”
Flicking the tears from her face, she blinked back at him. “A what? You say a sprite?”
“Yes, just a wee daemon.”
“A daemon sprite?” she nearly squealed. “What was it doing on my shoulder?” Horror set in. “Then there really are sprites in this forest! I knew it! Phillip tried to tell me otherwise, but I–”
“It was using something,” he broke in with a rational tone, “some loathing or trepidation in your heart, as an invitation to influence you. That is how it received access to you and this house. For, no, daemons do not usually dwell in this wood as it is filled with other entities they do not care for. Not only that, but I try to lead a life that will not give them entrance. You must work through whatever it was able to use so you need not fear its return.”
She could not say what it was he referred to as the “invitation.” Although, there was some pain tucked away that morphed into hatred before she dismissed it. But even upon realizing this, she did not know what could be done about it and was not prepared to share with him.
On the other hand, she was astonished he was capable of commanding about a malevolent imp and determined to observe him more diligently.
“Why haven’t you begun training me?” she asked. “Why do
you wait? Are you uncertain I am the one Phillip was meant to fetch? Do you doubt I can do it?”
Taking a sweet, warming tenor, he answered, “Not at all, my dearest girl. I think the world of you, truly. If I’d had half your spirit at your age, I’d have grown capable of a great deal more at a much earlier time and have saved myself quite a lot of trouble. Yet, if that trouble had been avoided, I wouldn’t be here with you now.
“To tell you the truth, you might be one of my favorite persons I’ve met… and that has been more than you would believe. I’m certain you observed the skulls about the place? Those were left me by old friends upon their deaths to remember them by… yet I cannot recall a one of their names. Now you, if you were to leave me your skull, I’d remember unto eternity. I’d keep it in a place of honor—just beside my multi-realm stone collection, and you know how I feel about it.
“No, it is no fault of yours I wish us to take our time. In fact, it is because I care for you that I wait. You see, there have been those who’ve been given a great deal of power and been trained in the using of it before they were ready. These individuals were revered greatly by the people who witnessed their capabilities. Unfortunately, their cases nearly always ended by them committing some act by which they fell from the pedestals they were placed upon. Alternatively, it goes to their heads, making them act in a way a vessel of the Great One ought not. In fact, I have even known some who were seduced by the servants of the Great One’s enemy, the Dark One, to be used as his vessels instead, whether or not they knew it.”
She recalled her dream-meeting with Maera some nights past, so easily understood his meaning. After all, the sorceress had sought her out for just that purpose. Her doubts on the subject, therefore, were put at ease by this more than adequate explanation.
“I am not saying we need wait years,” he continued, “though if that is what it takes, then so be it. I only await a word from the Great One for when it is safe to plunge forward. Then and only then will your spirit be prepared for what is to come.
The Prophet's Apprentice (Chronicles of the Chosen) Page 14