by Chuck Black
Ganoaf’s devotion, however, did seem to annoy Salina greatly. Carliss felt the tension mounting in their odd trio, and she wondered if allowing Ganoaf to come along would prove to be a serious mistake, and possibly even jeopardize their mission.
Each day that they traveled, Salina seemed to become more and more agitated by the big man’s presence. Although Carliss couldn’t understand exactly why this was so, she attributed it to the fact that Ganoaf seemed to become more anxious the closer they got to Moorue and would hardly let Carliss out of his sight or leave her side. She constantly felt the pressure of having to smooth out the relationship between her two comrades.
In addition, she felt a bit unnerved by the presence of a hawk screeching overhead. One seemed to follow them as they traveled, and Carliss wondered if perhaps their traveling was scaring up game for it to hunt. Whatever the reason, Carliss didn’t care for the bird’s company. Her latest encounter with Lord Drox’s death ravens was still too fresh in her mind.
By evening of the third day, they had reached the eastern edge of the foothills. From here they would travel straight north along the western edge of the Altica Valley. If all went well, they would reach the land of Moorue by the following afternoon.
They rose early the next morning and rode steadily, stopping to eat lunch in a serene, grassy refuge beneath the shade of a grove of trees. They ate the last of the food that Eunice had packed, and Carliss discovered that her leather water bottle had been leaking. It was nearly empty. She wasn’t too concerned since they were almost to Moorue and could replenish their supplies there. She washed down the dry bread that composed most of their meal with the last of the water from her bottle.
They decided to rest a bit before moving on. Carliss leaned up against a tree trunk and rested her head on its smooth bark. The three-and-a-half days of travel seemed to be taking a toll on her, and in spite of the urgency to find an antidote for Dalton, she could not resist closing her eyes for a moment, lulled by what seemed to be music in the distance.
She could hear the perfect notes of instruments playing and the sounds of hundreds of people talking, laughing, and dancing as she approached the ballroom.
The ballroom?
She looked down at her drab outfit and was embarrassed, knowing the room would be filled with men and women dressed in exquisite attire. She looked about and dashed to a column for refuge.
What am I doing here? she wondered. This is the last place in the kingdom I should be.
Just as she was about to flee the castle, she saw a stunning woman and a handsome gentleman coming up the stairs.
“Lady Brynn, you look beautiful this evening.” Dalton escorted Brynn past the column Carliss was hiding behind and into the ballroom. Carliss turned away, trying hard not to let the ache in her heart surface once again. But just for a moment, she allowed herself to consider how wonderful it would be if she were arrayed in such fanciful garments as Lady Brynn. She laughed at herself as she thought of the gorgeous royal blue dress she had once seen worn by a lady of the Arrethtraen nobility.
She turned to plan her escape, but then looked down to see that same beautiful gown now adorning her slender body—a perfect fit. She lifted the fabric and felt of the quality. “What is this?” she asked. “I must be dreaming, but it’s so real, too real to—”
“Lady Carliss.” A strong masculine voice spoke from behind and startled her.
Carliss turned to see a tall, handsome gentleman holding out his arm to her.
“Shall we?”
“I…I…” Carliss timidly slipped her arm through his, and they entered the ballroom. It was a fabulous event that outshone any she had ever witnessed. Despite the beautiful gown, she felt like a spectacle, completely out of her element.
“Shall we dance?” her escort asked.
“I don’t know how,” she replied sheepishly.
“Come, let us try just the same,” he whispered as he led her to the dance floor.
After an awkward start, Carliss seemed to quickly acquire the eloquent skills of dancing. Before long she was floating effortlessly around the ballroom in the arms of her handsome escort.
It was a strange sensation. Carliss knew she was dreaming. There had been a couple of times when she had experienced something similar-dreams she knew were dreams—but this was different. This seemed so real, and yet she had the power to manipulate people and events in the dream simply by wishing it to be so.
“Excuse me, sir,” Dalton asked politely. “May I cut in?”
Carliss’s escort looked to her for approval, and she nodded.
“I hardly recognized my best friend’s little sister,” Dalton said with a smile as he led her into the flowing movements of the dance.
Carliss blushed and momentarily looked away. “Won’t Lady Brynn be upset?” she asked as she turned back to look at Dalton.
His eyes seemed fastened in a gaze upon her. He just smiled and seemed all the more delighted to be with her.
As they danced and talked, the crowd in the ballroom made way and gradually disappeared until they were the only two left.
“Carliss no sleep,” Dalton said with a voice that was not his own.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“Carliss no sleep.” The words came again, but now Dalton’s face morphed into that of Ganoaf, and she felt her arm being pulled back and forth.
She resisted waking from the dream, but Ganoaf wouldn’t stop. She blinked, and realized that her eyes felt dry and scratchy.
“What?” she mumbled.
“Carliss no sleep!” he repeated, shaking her arm again. This really irritated her, and she yanked her arm from his grip.
“Enough! Leave me alone!”
Ganoaf cringed and backed away, apparently hurt by her harsh tone.
Carliss shook her head, trying hard to focus and remember where she was. Her rest had been deep and hard. She felt as though she were trying to recover from a full night’s sleep.
“What’s wrong?” she asked groggily.
Salina was packing up her horse.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she said with a smile. “Nothing’s wrong; we just need to be on our way. I thought Ganoaf was going to rip your arm off trying to wake you, though. I don’t think he knows his own strength. Are you all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Carliss shook her head, trying to clear it.
“Must have been some dream,” Salina said. “The way your arms were moving about, I’d guess you were dancing. I could almost hear the music,” Salina teased, then circled her horse to secure the saddle.
Ganoaf was still cowering a few steps away from her like a scolded puppy.
“It’s all right, Ganoaf.” Carliss pushed to her feet, holding on to the tree trunk. She held her head with her left hand. Everything spun about her for a moment, then settled back into place. “I’m not angry with you. I was just very tired.”
Ganoaf hung his head and came close. She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right.”
They mounted up and pressed on toward Moorue. As they traveled, Carliss’s dream lingered in her mind, and she found it difficult to focus on anything else. It was a dream she wished she could dream again. However, deep in her heart, she knew it would be best if she didn’t. The fabric of that dream seemed so much easier to deal with than the reality of the kingdom in which she lived.
How long will those images and feelings last? she wondered. Her head and her heart had discovered a new battlefield upon which to war.
THE MOORUVIANS
They had not traveled far before Carliss’s mouth felt dry as a desert.
“Do you have much water left in your bottle?” she finally asked Salina when she felt she could stand it no longer.
Salina lifted the bottle and shook it.
“Not much, but you go ahead. I’m fine.” Salina tossed it to Carliss.
“Are you sure?” Carliss asked.
“Ganoaf thirsty.” The big man brought Chaser up next to Carlis
s. He held out his hand for the bottle.
Carliss tried to moisten her lips with her tongue, but her skin just stuck to itself.
“Ganoaf thirsty,” he pleaded again, and Carliss reluctantly gave the bottle to him.
“I gave that to you, Carliss, not—”
Just then Ganoaf grabbed the bottle from Carliss, but he lost his grip and it fell to the ground, spilling the last of their water into the dirt.
“You imbecile!” Salina shouted as she halted her steed and recovered the bottle. “That oaf is going to get us killed in Moorue, Carliss. I can’t for the life of me understand why you let him come with us.”
In spite of her dire thirst, Carliss controlled her frustration with her clumsy accomplice. “It will be all right, Salina. We’re not far away. When we arrive, I’ll find a place to keep him out of the way.”
Salina brushed off her bottle and shook her head in disgust. Once they were underway again, Ganoaf fell behind and trailed Salina and Carliss.
“You’re too hard on him, Salina,” Carliss said as she turned and looked at the slouched form riding a short distance behind them.
Salina glared at Carliss for just a second; then her countenance softened. “I suppose you’re right. I just don’t want anything to jeopardize our mission. I can’t quit thinking about my family—guess I’m a little edgy. I’ll try to go easier on him.”
Carliss nodded.
“What do you think we will face in Moorue?” Salina asked solemnly.
Carliss thought for a moment, wondering how they were going to fulfill both of their missions—locate Salina’s family and find the antidote to the lizard’s poison—in such a short time.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
By late afternoon, they entered the land of the Mooruvians. They came to a small village named Wallen, not far from the city of Moorue, and stopped to replenish their water supply. Carliss immediately realized that something strange was afoot in the town. Numerous people sat on benches staring blankly at nothing. One young woman danced down the street with her arms wrapped around an imaginary partner, and a portly middle-aged gentleman nearly bumped into Salina’s horse, a silly grin plastered on his bearded face.
They found a small tanner’s shop, where a middle-aged woman was working a piece of leather.
“Madam, do you have any leather water bottles for sale?” Carliss asked.
The woman looked up from her work. Lines of worry and bitterness creased her forehead.
“Not here. You’ll have to go to the bottler shop in Moorue for that.”
“Come on, Carliss,” Salina urged. “Let’s be on our way.”
The woman went back to her work on the leather, but Carliss stepped closer to her.
“Madam, what is wrong with these people?” she asked.
The woman looked up at Carliss and stared blankly at her. For a moment, Carliss thought she had fallen into the same strange state as so many outside her shop.
“They’ve been drinkin’ the waters,” she finally said.
“The waters?”
The woman looked exasperated. “Yes…the waters.” She nodded toward the corner of their shop, and only then did Carliss realize that a man was sitting there, propped up by the two adjoining walls. “It’s nearly all he does now.”
“What is it?” Carliss asked.
“Carliss, we need to get on to Moorue,” Salina said. She and Ganoaf both looked uncomfortable with this place.
“I don’t know exactly,” the woman said in answer to Carliss’s question. “A man comes through and sells it to folks. They drink a flask of it, and a few moments later”—she pointed back to her husband in disgust—“fools are created.”
“But I saw a girl dancing—”
“She’s drunk so much of the waters she doesn’t know which world she’s in,” the woman interrupted.
Carliss could tell that this discussion was getting the woman riled. Every time she looked at her husband, she became angrier.
Carliss risked one more question. “How long will it last?”
“Sometimes just a few minutes. But the more they drink, the longer they stay… like that. He just sits there and does nothing, sometimes all day long!” The woman was now shouting at her husband and wagging her head. She ranted about his laziness while he just continued to smile a silly grin.
Carliss decided that she had seen and heard enough. Quickly she exited the shop.
“This is really strange,” Carliss said to Salina as she took one more look at the motionless, dazed townspeople.
Dusk began to gather as they mounted up and left Wallen, confused by what they had seen. Perhaps the city of Moorue would give them more answers, Carliss thought. Darkness had fallen, however, by the time they neared the city, so they made their camp on a hill overlooking the city and its flickering lights. They would enter Moorue in the morning.
They awoke to a panoramic view of the city and took some time to get their bearings. From their hilltop vantage point, Carliss could see that the city was partially encircled by a wide river that formed a kind of moat around its edges.
“That’s the Jem River, I think,” Salina commented, stepping up beside her. “Take a look at the castles.”
Carliss had already noted the three towering castles that stood as sentries between the river and the city’s edge, positioned on the northern, eastern, and southern corners of the city. A great stonewall ran from castle to castle, creating a protective barrier around Moorue. The land between the city wall and the river was dense with trees and vegetation, but not as foreboding as the swampland that began just beyond the outer banks of the river and stretched into the Altica valley. This vast swamp was cast in shadow by a tangle of trees and shrouded by a mist that showed no signs of burning off in the morning sun.
Carliss deduced that the swamp had to be the habitat of the esca lizards Petolemew had talked about. Is the wall the people’s only protection from the lizards? she wondered. Why would a city be built this close to such a dangerous abode?
There were many questions to answer, but perhaps the most intriguing of all was the strange sight she beheld in the middle of the swampland a fair distance from the river’s eastern edge—another castle that was twice the size of the other three. It seemed to sit atop the trees in the swamp, and its spires towered higher than any of the other three castles. Also above the treetops was a brick causeway that looked to be the only way in and out of the massive structure. It spanned most of the swamp, then descended via staircase to connect with a bridge that spanned the river. Though it was daylight, Carliss could see a string of torches burning along each side of the bridge. A narrow road ran from the bridge to the city wall where the eastern castle was positioned.
It was a strange and surreal place that seemed to defy all logic. To build such a city with four castles in the midst of a poisonous-lizard-infested swamp would have taken great effort and many resources, and the inhabitants, it seemed, would be in constant danger. How could such a city prosper? Yet the city did seem prosperous, with caravans of wares entering and exiting the city gates in a steady flow. Many had passed by them on the road without uttering a word.
Salina broke into Carliss’s reverie. “So, where do we start?”
Carliss thought a minute. “With Lord Malco,” she said, remembering the name that one of the marauders had spoken. “And I have a feeling”—she pointed to the massive castle in the swamp—“that he lives there.”
DESTINY
As she looked over the strange scene of city, swamp, and castles, Carliss felt her stomach churn. Now that they had arrived in Moorue, the urgency of her mission threatened to overwhelm her. While traveling, they at least had been moving forward. Here her task turned from travel to investigation, something that was difficult to hurry and impossible to be patient with, knowing that time on a fellow knight’s life was ticking away.
How dangerous was the swamp? Was this truly the lizards’ domain? Did the ancient flower truly exist, or was
it a myth? Did Malco guard his swamp? There was so much to know and no one they could trust enough to ask. Carliss felt as if she were in an enemy’s camp, disarmed by her lack of knowledge.
If only a haven of the Prince were here, she thought. But she had not heard of any missions that had ventured this far north yet.
They found a bridge over the river to the south and rode into town. As they entered the city gates, Ganoaf seemed extremely uneasy and pressed Chaser close to Rindy. The city was bustling with activity, and the main thoroughfare was a river of wayfarers in constant motion.
Carliss, Salina, and Ganoaf stayed to the side of the road, out of the main thrust of traffic, but there they encountered beggars every few paces, pleading with the passersby for handouts. One lad caught Carliss’s eye, and she fully expected to hear his plea, but it did not come. The boy just gazed up at her, well after Rindy had carried her past him. Carliss thought his demeanor odd and turned her head back to look at the lad once more, but he had disappeared into the crowd.
The city of Moorue was densely structured, with shops and homes that seemed to nearly sit atop one another. Except for the three or four main thoroughfares, the streets were narrow and crooked. Nearly all were cobblestoned. The air was heavy, damp, and filled with strange smells that did not sit well with Carliss. She found herself crinkling her nose from time to time, searching for a breath of fresh air, but there was none. Every so often she would glimpse a person who seemed dazed and distant, much like the people they had seen in Wallen.
Carliss and Salina left their horses with Ganoaf near a watering trough and walked to an open-front shop to buy some dried meat, bread, and cheese.
“New to Moorue?” the owner asked as he placed their groceries in their knapsack.