by Sanders, Dan
Bevan tried to keep Sabina awake by talking to her. “Do you remember coming here often with your father’s mother?”
Sabina looked startled. “Until today, I didn’t know I had been here at all. My memories are vague, but all happy. We used to play in the water. I remember the water.” Her face brightened.
He asked, “What happened to your father?”
Sabina’s face darkened. “He rejoined when I was young. I don’t remember anything else.” She pushed a piece of chicken into her mouth.
Bevan changed the subject. “So what happens when we get down to Nilawen? After the sun sets we have only one day to have the Harp back in Havendel.”
“The prophecy is clear on that point at least.” Sabina quoted it verbatim. “The Vertu Chamber, in the Sea of the Styx, lies the Harp of Harmony…”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Bevan said confidently. “I still don’t know why we don’t just ask for it.”
“The Styx are a volatile race, and will not get involved in what is seen as Annwynian affairs.”
“Maybe if they know the Faoir have taken a side—”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Sabina said less assuredly. “Besides, we don’t have the time to explain ourselves.”
“But stealing it—?”
Sabina ignored Bevan. “It won’t be easy. But we have a bigger problem, assuming we ever find somebody to transport us to the Vertu Chamber. The prophecy reads further, ‘…lies the Harp of Harmony, waiting for the Child of Land and Water to bring it forth—”
“Hey—” Bevan interrupted again. He winced when she threw rice at him. “I was just going to say, isn’t that what the Styx said to you at the Gala Ball? If I remember correctly, ‘Child of land and water, your past will be your future, if you accept it’. Maybe you’re the child of land and water.”
Sabina let her spoon fall. Her face turned a more ghostly shade of white.
Bevan quickly motioned with his hand and a drink lifted off the table and floated to her lips. She pushed it away. She said, “I had forgotten. He must have the wrong person. If you remember I choked on my meal.”
“And if I remember I helped you remove the bone.” Bevan leaned back and placed his foot on the table.
“Stop joking,” she said. “They are the same thing, but how can that be me?” Sabina shook her head. “It can’t be. I have to think about this. And can you remove your big hoof from the table.”
Sabina finished and hobbled into the cool night air. She watched the ships bobbing on the silvery glass of the night sea. Bevan was grateful for the distance the darkness put between them. He always annoyed her. For a long time they stood in silence. Their arms touched and remained quietly at peace, while merchants moved in ignorance of their private moment.
“Hey you,” called a gravelly voice from behind.
Bevan spun around.
“I’s heard that yous wanted passage to Nilawen.”
Bevan looked at the grubby man before them. He had a red face and large nose ring. His eyes were close together. It bothered him to have to deal with such peasants, but he would take help from anybody.
“Who wants to know?” Bevan said.
“Somebody asked for Captain Ahad?” the stooping man said.
Sabina stepped forward and whispered to the man, “It was I. Is he available?”
“No miss, but I am one of his special crew, if yous knows what I means, and if you are a friend of his, I will helps yous, for a price of course.”
Sabina coughed and said, “We would be grateful.”
She motioned to Bevan to pay the man.
Bevan said, “How can I trust you? How do I know you even have the right vessel?”
The man waved and hustled along the dock. Yellow shadows from the bobbing foreshore lights danced off his round back. The repeated squawks of a night gull echoed off the water. Late stragglers meandering along the docks suspiciously watched the strangers.
Slapping against the edge of a dock was a barrel capsule made entirely of black crystal, lined with gold ribs. The pointy nose of the vessel made it look more like a horse than an underwater ship.
“How—?” Bevan began.
Sabina elbowed Bevan into silence. He pulled out a large sack of gold, and watched impatiently as the man bit and sniffed the currency.
“Not enough,” the stooped man said.
“That’s the finest gold on Annwyn, my man. Ibendari gold. More than you will earn in three lifetimes.”
“I ask no questions why a prince would want to sneak into Nilawen in times like these.”
Bevan was about to raise his hand and hit the insolence out of the thief when Sabina stepped forward and said, “What about your crystal vest of power, my Prince.”
“Just go along with it,” Sabina Thoughtspoke Bevan.
“I should flog you,” Bevan threatened the man as expected, but agreed, “Upon our return you will have my crystal vest of power. It is in my carriage, over at the north edge of—” Bevan pointed to the north of the city lights. He realised he had given away too much. Ketty had stayed behind at Bevan’s demand, and for a moment he was worried about her safety.
The man smiled his approval, pointed to his water carriage and spoke. A smooth crystal plank slid out from the side of the bobbing vessel. Sabina boarded the sub-ship easily. Bevan nervously followed, tripped, and nearly fell into the water.
“What do you call this wonderful vessel?” Sabina asked when safely inside.
“She’s just a sub-ship to me, miss. I does as I’m told, you know. Now strap yourselves in tight and hope we don’t get seen.”
Chapter 39
Gilga’s Kettle
STORVEN STRONGHOLD,
ANNWYN
The sun blinded Emily when she first stepped into the Reven enclave. Impossibly high mountains, with clouds drifting across their peaks, surrounded Emily in a u-shaped dish. Emily thought every type of stone and crystal on Annwyn must be in this one sanctuary. The entire bowl was richly furnished with stones and crystals of every colour. Miniature red stones dangled like jewelled vines from an invisible ceiling. Small trees with canary yellow tree trunks held aloft leaves of intricately carved violet crystals, pregnant with pink stone fruits. Large orange and black boulders aimlessly wandered up the sandstone mountainside. The light green grass was a glowing mossy stone that caressed her footpads as she hopped to the centre of the bowl. Her spirits lifted at the wonderland bombarding her senses.
Emily looked back at her friends waiting in awe at the entrance. Her body was a speck of white dust surrounded by piles of gargantuan boulders. She looked up and stared around the bowl but she could not see any Reven. It was hot. She wanted to call out for them to hurry, but held her tongue. Eventually, one of the boulders moved. Small rocks fell away from the mountain to reveal a gargantuan Annwynian stone being. Suddenly the entire range shook, and the sound of a thousand avalanches, crushing and sliding, rang in Emily’s sensitive ears. Nearly a dozen Reven circled the Chosen One’s miniature furry form, blocking out the red southern sun.
Emily’s heart raced. She dared not move, thinking she would be accidentally squashed in the noise and the dust. Shadows decended on her and one of the stone beings lowered his polished stone hand, the size of Prince Bevan’s carriage. It thudded onto the greenery. Emily stumbled when the ground moved beneath her. She composed herself, took a deep breath and in two large hops bounded onto the ornately carved fingers. The Reven lifted her close to his polished face. He paused for a long while, his whole being vibrating silently, as though communicating with his fellow Exotics. Eventually he spoke. His voice was the deep crashing of rocks mixed with the singsong of the crystals.
“Eama, we are the Reven, the most ancient beings on Annwyn, born before the last Elemental. Chosen One of Eostra, you have come to ask for help.”
Emily’s mouth went dry. She had rehearsed this speech. “I am here to ask for Gilga’s Kettle, so I can fulfil the prophecy and save the Twin Worlds fr
om destruction.”
Boulders clashed as the Reven consulted with one another. When the Reven spoke it was slow, each word painfully drawn out. He spoke so slowly Emily thought the sun had moved between each word. She reflexively tapped her foot in impatience.
“You speak too fast. You are arrogant to assume the demise of the Twin Worlds. You are young, and fail to see the real cycle of particles and worlds.”
“Great Reven, Eostra gave me this quest in person. I have retrieved Eostra’s Egg.” Emily pointed in the direction of Zane. She continued, “I must see it through for her. The seers of Wellwyn have seen the future.”
Another long time passed. She sat on her haunches. In the distance, Emily thought she saw giant dragonflies buzzing on top of the rocky ranges. She shook her whiskers and rubbed her eyes with her paws to stay awake and focus.
The deep crystalline voice rang in her ears. “See it through for Eostra? What about you Eama? What do you care for this world? I see you have not yet fused with the land. You know not what you ask, or what you promise. You are not able to use the gift of Gilga’s Kettle.”
The grounded rumbled as some of the Reven turned and walked away. They were not going to give her the artefact. Emily didn’t know what to say. She panicked as she saw the quest and the sacrifice made by her friends slip away. She remembered to take her time. They were not in a rush, and pushing them would only annoy them further.
She remembered what Sabina said about the prophecy. The circle will grow and change so things can come to pass. Emily had originally thought that meant a physical growth and change. Maybe it meant personal growth and change. She pondered a while longer and decided that the only time she was able to achieve anything was when she connected to others, or to the land; only then was it real. Perhaps she should connect with them through Thoughtspeak, so they could really understand her. She pictured the Reven and tried to find the mind, but all she saw was millions of years of stone walls blocking her path. She could not connect. It was too hard. She hopped back, frightened. She nearly fell off the hand holding her. She had to relax. They were trying to teach her about time and patience. But time was the one thing she didn’t have. She sat on her haunches again and laid her ears back and closed her eyes.
This time, she concentrated on her whole body connecting with the land, not just her mind. She looked into herself and pictured her heart, her belly, her brain. She pictured her blood and her bone. She pictured the rock, and squeezed her mind hard to picture the coloured dust that swirled around her, and the rock scaling the sky before her. She opened her eyes and looked into the faded ruby eyes of the Reven. She pushed her whole body into the unfathomable particles of the stone. And it happened. She could feel her heart slowing, her belly and her blood becoming one with the stone, a thick gravy of blood gently flowing in her body. She felt like stone to her very heart. Thump- the first pump, slow, like the rising of the sun; Thump, another pump, slow, like the setting of the sun.
When she saw the crystal eyes of the Reven she saw the real being, and suddenly she was one with the stone. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution were laid out before her: the raising of mountains, the sinking of valleys and rivers, the birth of new species bursting alive in a blink, the rejoining of old species fading like a fog. She nearly choked on the power inside her.
When she spoke this time her voice had changed. Her mind’s-voice reverberated around the enclave and for the first time she did not feel small. The Reven were part of her, and she a part of the Reven. She could not understand her words, or where those words came from, but she understood what she was saying.
“Great Reven, you are the foundation element, the bedrock of time. I come before you with no promises. Beings are born and beings rejoin. I seek harmony only for that which seeks harmony. An Elemental, the essence of each element is proud and powerful. In eons past, their self-centred ways saw the destruction of their own creation. Harmony, chosen with their own will, saved the Twin Worlds. Gorgos, the dark one, seeks to undo that which was made. For that I seek your help. I can promise only that I love, with every fibre of my being, the cause of harmony, of rebirth and of new life. For that is my new life.”
Emily couldn’t believe what she was saying; it gushed out of her like the waters of the Orena River.
The Reven shook and shimmered. Rocks fell and crumbled in the great conversation that took place. But this time Emily heard their words.
“She fused with the land.”
“She spoke in the Reven tongue.”
“But she did not fuse with all elements. She has not reached her full powers.”
“She has yet to complete her journey.”
“There is hope.”
“Yes, hope.”
It became quiet. She was lowered to the ground. She released the Reven connection and became herself once again. She did feel different.
“Eama, you have changed. Your desire is granted.”
Emily’s ears touched the mossy floor as she bowed to the towering Reven before her. She looked around and realised the day had passed and the night had come. The sky was black but the rock bowl where she stood glowed a honeyed yellow light.
In the middle of the enclave stood a stone dais, similar to the one in Thilameth. She was surprised to see Zane, his hands calmly by his sides, standing a short distance away. She hopped over to the small stone basin sitting on the dais and looked over the top lip. It was carved with symbols of the Elemental Lore. It was made of the purest white stone, shiny like translucent snow. Emily’s heart thumped. She nodded to the still Zane. She glanced at her friends walking into the Reven enclave. Rupurt and Lupi kept their eyes to the ground, scared of looking up at the giants before them. Kato sauntered over unperturbed, honeyed shadows bouncing off her sway back. Theni stood solemnly next to her mother, whose serene smile beamed with delight.
“You did it, Emily,” Rupurt said.
“Hey, your tail, it’s green and brown like a tree,” Lupi declared.
Kato nodded sagely and said, “It is part of her change, of Emily representing the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. She has fused with Earth Lore. She is becoming the land and the land is becoming her.”
“Well done, girl,” said Lupi hovering around the stone kettle.
Emily marvelled at her new earthy tail before hopping closer to the chalice. “It’s beautiful, but why is it white?”
Kato nodded approvingly and said, “It also has been cast from the four elements and white is the purest form of all known colour.”
Emily wrapped her forepaws around the Kettle to lift it. It didn’t move. It was as heavy as the world in which she stood. She placed her long footpads on the dais and heaved and pulled and puffed. The bowl didn’t move.
“What am I doing wrong?” she yelled to the vacant black sky.
The Governess said, “They can only be carried by Rock Lore.”
Without invitation, Zane stepped forward. He pushed his sapphire fingers deep into his own belly. His crystal form melted around his hands. He withdrew a large crystal egg and held it up to the light. His belly melded back into its original glassy surface.
“That’s where it is,” said Emily, relieved at not having to remember where the Egg was.
“Eostra’s Egg,” the Governess said. “It’s exquisite.”
“His mission is to protect the Egg,” Lupi said to the Governess.
Zane gently lowered the Egg into Gilga’s Kettle. When the two artefacts touched, a song rang in the air and multi-coloured light washed across the entire basin in waves of rainbow pleasure, blinding the hushed bystanders.
“The prophecy is true!” the Governess exclaimed, squinting.
“To restore harmony as Aldrick explained,” Professor Sashiel said with a sad smile.
As though the kettle were a hen’s egg, Zane smoothly took the Kettle and pushed both Kettle and the Egg back inside his belly.
“Aww, that’s creepy,” Lupi said.
“My belly chur
ned,” said Rupurt holding his own light-blue belly.
All the party laughed, except for Theni who had quietly excused herself.
Emily was exhausted from the day and did not hear much of the evening’s conversation as they strolled back into the Storven tunnels. The voices flowed in and out of her mind like a dream.
Kato strolled outside to sleep with Arun. Emily’s vision faded in and out as she hopped drowsily through the corridors with Rupurt and Lupi.
“Are you well, Emily?” Rupurt asked.
“The Reven fusion drained me. I just need sleep.”
Emily looked at Lupi and said, “Did I succeed today?”
Lupi smiled and supported her as they walked. “You did great, furry one, you did great.”
They came to the door to their room. Lupi said to Rupurt, “I’ll stay with her tonight. She needs me.”
“Good thinking,” Rupurt said. “I’ll see you in the morning. We have a big day ahead tomorrow. Do you know where Havendel is?”
“I’ll ask the Governess,” Lupi said. “She’d know.”
Lupi balanced Emily against the wall and opened the door to the room. She did not see the vicious smile hanging in the darkness waiting for them.
Chapter 40
Xavier Visits Sirakon
JALPARI, SOUTH EAST RANGES,
ANNWYN
“Are you there? Siri? Are you there?”
“Xavier, is that you?”
Xavier’s vision cleared and saw the nervous girl sitting on a bed. Her red locks fell about her waist, her red wings like veined teardrops of rose gold hung across the other side of her bed. She waved to him, a worried look on her sleepy face. Her bangle tinkled in the light of the crystals.
“Yes, it is me,” he Thoughtspoke.
“How can you–?”
“Ssh, I don’t have much time. I’ve finally mastered Astral projection.”
He saw her shocked look as she drifted out of focus. The concentration required over this distance gave him a headache. He couldn’t hold it for long. He looked down and saw his dark tunic hovering above the floor. Sirakon wiped the sleep from her eyes, slid off the bed and tiptoed closer to him. He realised he had never seen her bedroom before. A simple wooden bed with leather mattress and stone head sat along the wall. A red book with a black spine lay on the floor next to her bed. He recognised it from his earlier studies of Fire Lore. She’s neat, he thought.