by A. R. Wilson
“What about the goblins?” The tremor in Kidelar’s voice suggested he too was recovering from another vision surge.
“They come to stare at me then leave.” Montanya plucked another sprig of grass.
“You mean feed you.” Kidelar tucked the map into his cloak.
“They have never fed me.”
“How long were you down there?”
“I think it’s been almost a year.”
Kidelar sighed and smiled. “Sweetheart, that’s not possible.”
The girl shrugged and continued to eat.
“Well, let’s not wait for the goblins to come looking for you.” Jurren stood then leaned down to pick up Montanya. “You’ll ride with me.”
She tucked herself into a ball with her face buried in him. He held her close for a moment, wondering how much of her story was true. Cale pressed his chest against the ground to allow Jurren to climb on without putting the girl down. After Cale rose to his feet, Jurren took off his hunting cloak to wrap around his new travel companion.
Arkose picked up Jurren’s travel pack and took out a piece of rope. “Here, put this around you and her to keep her from falling.”
Jurren nodded in thanks. “Don’t suppose you’d mind carrying the pack for a while?”
“If I recall, it was mine to begin with.” Arkose grinned.
“This time, no racing. We stick together.” Kidelar sat atop Logan, adjusting the straps of his pack.
Logan’s eyes turned toward Jurren. “Agreed.”
Nodding, Jurren placing a hand over Montanya’s thin arms as they pulled against his waist. Motioning for Kidelar to take the lead, Jurren waited for Arkose to mount Helmsley. They took to the sky with Jurren following at the rear.
An hour later, Logan turned toward the ground. Helmsley and Cale followed, finding a place to land wide enough to accommodate all three dragons.
“This is the second spot on the map.” Kidelar pulled out the parchment. “Let’s look around.”
Arkose gave a long stretch as though working out a knot in his back. “The symbol at this stop is a circle within a circle too, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but I don’t know if that means anything.” Kidelar stared down at the map.
“It did last time.” Jurren worked loose the rope around his waist, then scooped up Montanya and slid off Cale. “We found a small circle within a larger circle. The ring to the door under the pond.”
The scholar frowned. “Then I suppose we need to find another circle.”
Logan plodded up to a pile of boulders at the base of a rockslide on the far end of the clearing. Cale and Helmsley followed.
Jurren turned to find Montanya plucking at the grass again. His hunting cloak bunched around her as she stooped.
“There are some blueberry bushes near the dragons. You might like the taste of them better than the grass.”
Montanya stood to smile at him. Something in the shape of her eyes reminded him of a face from a dream. At least he thought it was dream. Then he noticed her cheekbones were less pronounced than before. Was that possible?
“Thank you.” She pulled his cloak higher around her shoulders then shuffled off through the clearing.
The gait of her walk was much steadier than someone in her condition. She walked with the slow pace of a person with a cold, not a child on the brink of starving to death. The progression of her condition made no more sense than her story.
“Jurren, over here!” Arkose’s voice echoed in the open air.
Turning, Jurren saw a hand waving at him from a bend of trees. He hurried over to where Kidelar and Arkose stood. Beyond the trees, tucked into the reverse side of the rockslide, the rim of a fifty foot hole spread out in the shape of a perfect circle.
Kidelar stayed several steps from the edge. “I would really prefer to not climb down another cliff.”
“Like you said, we don’t know what we’re looking for.” Jurren walked a few steps past him.
A flickering of trees, water, silver, and rings skipped behind his eyes. Thankfully, it was only a mild reminder without the usual nausea. The water was behind them, he was sure of that. Trees were yet to come. A deeper nagging told him the silver and rings were both already with him and yet to come. Though it felt strange to know things beyond his gut instinct, it helped to keep him from second guessing himself.
At that moment, the rocks did not feel like rocks. He couldn’t explain exactly how, which is why he didn’t say anything to his companions, but he sensed something false. The hole was so evenly shaped. It was as if something had cut a giant burrow into the ground. Like the rockslide on the other side was the dump pile from a long-forgotten excavation.
Jurren looked at the cliff above the hole. It too had been sheered flat in whatever process created the chasm. Then that nagging pushed him forward. He needed to climb.
“I’m going to take a look from up there.” Jurren walked to find a starting point.
“What do you think you’ll find?” Arkose stayed by the hole.
“I don’t know.”
Jurren found a handhold leading to a good foothold and began his ascent. Several minutes later, he was at the top. A sweeping landscape of mountain peaks dotted with trees spread in all directions. Below, the hole looked more artificially made than before.
At the top of the cliff, between two large rocks, a puddle of mud sat as the last remnant of a previous rainstorm. A speck of silver glinted at him from the muck. He fingered at it and pulled out a ring. Brushing off the mire, he saw a silver band of trees woven around each other in an intricate braid.
The nagging within him ceased.
This must be it.
He placed the small ring on his pinky finger then made his way back to Kidelar and Arkose. Thrusting his hand out, he showed the two men what he found.
“What is it?” Kidelar held out a hand.
Jurren slipped off the ring. “A silver band designed to look like braided trees. All I know is once I picked it up the nagging in my gut went away.”
Kidelar nodded as though he understood the feeling. “But what do we do with it?”
Arkose shrugged. “Whatever we do, we need to do it fast. The sun will be setting soon.”
“The map shows a swirl at the next point.” Kidelar handed the ring to Jurren and pulled the parchment out. “That could indicate all the circles coming together.”
“I suppose.” Jurren put the ring on his finger. “Let’s go check on the rest of the group.”
He led the way to where the dragons lay resting. Montanya stood picking a berry from the briars by Logan. The closer Jurren moved toward her, the more her appearance seemed like that of any pre-teen girl. His hunting cloak, now dappled with a few berry stains, rested clutched around her waist by her left hand to keep her right hand free. The leanness of her upper arms now resembled a regular scrawny kid.
Arkose’s voice echoed Jurren’s own thoughts. “What is in those berries?”
Montanya looked up at them and gave a sheepish smile. “My people heal fast.”
Logan lifted his head as if to avoid looking at the girl. “What did you find?”
“Just a ring.” Kidelar walked over to Logan.
Montanya wiped her mouth with the back her hand, while giving a soft laugh. “I don’t suppose you found a silver band that looks like trees woven together.”
Jurren stared at her.
After a few moments, her eyes widened as her gaze fell toward his hand. “Did you?”
“How could you know that?” Jurren tucked his hand closed.
“You found my ring!” She clapped her hands over her mouth, pulling her shoulders up hard, then dropped them to gather his cloak up around her. “The goblins took it from me the night I was stolen. I thought they kept it.”
Montanya walked over to take his hand in hers. Jurren pulled back. That inner nagging warred with his gut instinct over whether to give it or keep it. Neither side could agree. How could a ring that fit on his hand belong to her? Even a pin
ky ring to him would drown any of her fingers.
Her eyes puddled. “But it’s mine.”
“I think I better hold on to it for now.”
Her brow lowered as though his words brought the weight of the world on her shoulders. She muttered something as she retreated to the blueberry bush, though she didn’t pick any.
“Don’t you find this a little odd?” Arkose was rubbing the back of his head. “The map led us to find her ring? How could the seer know that?”
Jurren examined the silver band. As he turned it around, he felt something engraved on the inside of the band. Lines and circles nearly identical to the route they followed on the map filled the reverse side.
“I think this proves the seer’s foresight.” Jurren handed the ring to Kidelar.
The scholar took the band. His eyebrows pulled together as he stared. “Amazing.”
“Silver, trees, and rings.” Jurren rubbed his forehead.
Kidelar looked up at him, nodded, then handed the ring to Arkose who refused to take it. “The sun moves against us. We must continue on to the third symbol.”
“We don’t have enough light to get to the next spot.” Arkose walked over to Helmsley and rubbed under the dragon’s chin.
“We’ll do what we can.” Jurren held out a hand to Montanya.
She stared at his other hand, the one with the ring, then up at him.
“I will give it back to you when I return you to your father.”
After a few moments, she nodded and accepted his hand. He picked her up and put her on Cale. Sitting in front of her, he tied the rope around the both of them then patted Cale’s neck to signal they were ready. Logan took the lead, heading south by southeast toward the next symbol.
An hour later, the sunset forced them to find a place to land for the night. Kidelar suggested they start a fire, and Jurren advised against it. If even one goblin came looking for the missing girl, the glow of a fire would lead it straight to them. The only thing more dangerous than fighting a goblin was fighting a goblin at night.
Each man sat propped against his dragon with a sword held at the ready. Montanya sat near Cale’s hind leg. As the cool of evening increased, she moved to sit by Jurren. He rearranged his cloak around her to better protect her, then put an arm around her. Within moments, she fell asleep.
The sense of déjà vu hit Jurren again. He would recognize her for a fleeting instant then, before he had the chance to wrap his mind around it, the image would be gone and she was an ordinary girl. Maybe an effect of the vision from Ellesha Shan Shair? With each flash of near-memory he had about the girl, the more his gut instinct nudged him to keep his distance from her. And yet, that internal nagging encouraged him to embrace her like a daughter. Like a war between his soul and his spirit. The more he quieted his mind to focus on truth, the louder both of the voices became. Was it possible for both of them to be right?
Jurren closed his eyes, wishing for dreamless sleep. Something snapped his eyes open. With his hand on his sword, he strained his ears into the darkness around them.
Nothing but the sound of dragons breathing.
Leaning back into Cale, Jurren closed his eyes again, listening for the snap of a twig or the crunch of dirt. Nothing. As he waited, the sensation of eyes watching him continued to increase.
So much for sleep.
CHAPTER 14
Images of fire and shadow licked at Tascana’s eyes. An infant’s scream shot through her, and she bolted upright. Stinging sunlight forced her eyes shut, and she pressed her palms against her cheeks. Whew, it was only a dream. After rubbing away the sensation, she squinted at a chest of drawers. The same looped knobs from her dresser back home stood out on the face.
Strange.
Looking down at the bed, she saw the same blanket she had slept with for the last several years. Was she losing her mind? Or had the past week been nothing more than a lengthy nightmare? But it was so real. The flight with the dragon, that horrible dinner with Jerricoh, swimming until she thought her lungs would burst. That was too long to be a dream. Even the streaks of dirt were missing from her arms.
Looking at the items around her, everything spoke of home. The design carved into the door, the rug on the floor between the bed and the dresser, the size and shape of the window. All of it stood as proof that the nightmare was finally over. Which meant Mother and Father were in the next room.
Tascana leapt off the bed, snatching the door open. A blank wall blocked her view. Three doors stretched out along a hallway. She retreated, pulling the door shut. Over her shoulder, sunlight continued streaming in. Pressing her hands into her stomach, praying for a miracle to smother the tightness building within, she moved toward the window. Trees on top of trees stacked against a series of sharp mountain peaks. They formed a massive bowl around the valley below. Dozens of rooftops scattered in a large circle around what must be the town square. Some of the buildings sat low to the ground while others were a full story higher than where she stood.
Figures similar to Zander performed their daily tasks oblivious to her presence. Their elongated bodies caused them to bow and bob as they moved. Clothing seemed to be optional as some wore little more than a belt while others worked side-by-side in full robes.
She turned away from the fur covered mole-like people to inspect the room once more. Dellia’s words haunted every feature. “I decorated it myself.” How was it possible for anyone to recreate her living space back home with such detail? She studied the features of the dresser then went to pull open a drawer. Nothing inside. Well, at least that was different. She smacked it shut.
A voice called from the hallway. “Hello? Are you up?”
She opened the door to find Dellia fidgeting. “Yes?”
“I heard you moving around so I wanted to come check on you. Are you hungry?”
“Not really.”
“Revel made enough dinner for all of us. It’d be a shame for it to go to waste.”
“Dinner? It’s already that late?”
Dellia switched from fidgeting with her hands to twirling her hair. “Actually, you slept all day yesterday and most of today.”
Was it possible? She could not remember a time when she slept past noon, let alone through an entire day. The mere thought caused her tongue to cling to the roof of her mouth.
“I am a little thirsty.”
The blond girl gestured toward the stairs, smiling. “We have plenty of water.”
Stepping into the hallway, Tascana followed the girl downstairs.
Two young men sat at a table with a half-finished meal. One sat a little taller with medium blond hair and square shoulders. The other had darker hair and a leaner build. Their gawking stares made her wish she had asked for the water to be brought up to her. The leaner of the two shot out of his seat to pull an empty chair away from the table.
“Allow me.” The young man waited for her to sit.
Not wanting to offend her hosts, and not realizing how hungry she was until she saw food, she accepted the offer. Tascana tore through three pieces of bread, two chicken thighs, an apple, and three cups of water before her appetite subsided enough to notice the others’ expressions.
“Ha!” The boy seated to her right pointed to the one who had held out a chair for her. “Ten minutes, that means you owe me.”
“Don’t be rude.” Dellia gave the young men a sour shake of the head, then softened into a smile as she turned to Tascana. “They made a bet last night on how long you would focus on your food before you paid us any attention.”
Heat filled Tascana’s cheeks.
“No, no! Don’t be embarrassed!” The dark-haired boy shook out his hand while chuckling. “Both of us still remember our first meal in this place. It took Chalance over there twenty minutes to notice anyone. I took almost thirty minutes.”
A hard coating formed around the food in her stomach. Had they been watching her like some kind of performance for their amusement?
“Revel, you’re n
ot helping.” Dellia reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. “And you’re not making a good first impression.”
Revel’s cheeks flashed as he withdrew his hands into his lap. “Sorry.”
“Now that we’ve had our first awkward moment together, how about we introduce ourselves?” Dellia pointed to the young man on Tascana’s right. “That is Chalance. He’s quite handy with a dagger, whether making them or putting them to use.” Sticking a thumb out, she indicated the other boy. “This is Revel. Quite skilled with a bow, which is a more useful tool than his skill of shooting off his mouth.”
Revel snapped at the girl. “I said sorry, didn’t I?”
“Sorry is a gesture of goodwill, not the final bandage to an injury.” Dellia kept her eyes on Tascana as she spoke.
“Look, I appreciate all this, I really do, but I don’t plan on staying.” Tascana pushed her plate away.
“Trust me, you do not want to move in with a dallest.” Revel started shaking his hand to emphasize his point.
Tascana filled her cup with water again. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Newcomers aren’t allowed their own homes.” Chalance shrugged as though apologizing.
Tascana sighed, rubbing a hand on her forehead. It was like talking to her mother. “I want to go home.”
“We are home.” Revel now had both hands spread out.
“You are home. I am not. My home is in the village of Hess Bren on the southwestern border of Bondurant. That is my destination.”
All three of them sat back in their seats, staring at her as though she were mad.
“Perhaps it is time for you to meet Arnya.” Dellia stood up.
“I meant no offense.” Tascana also stood, pushing her chair back in place.
“None taken. It is the way of things, I understand.” Dellia opened the door, letting in a cool, evening breeze. “Each of us wanted the same thing the day we arrived. Perhaps the truth will not deter you from your desire.”
Tascana nodded, though unsure what the girl hinted at.
Outside, children sat beside adults chatting or playing games of chance. A few dallests played out a peculiar rhythm on a circle of drums. As Tascana followed Dellia, every dallest stopped what they were doing to watch her walk by. Their eyes clung to her skin as if she were an animal on display. An oddity among these strange creatures.