While Arianne did not like the idea of Dare playing decoy because of Lylea’s warning at how easily the Enemy could kill him, it would allow her to the chance to Sanhael without notice until it was too late.
*******
It was late in the afternoon when they left Naiad on a single masted boat with lateen sails and sailed up the Yantra River.
With the gentle slopes of the Iolan Hills flanking them on either side, Arianne watched the setting sun pull long shadows across the land from the bow of the small craft, lost in thought as she considered with some melancholy, the quest ahead. Celene was manning the sails while Keira, after some instruction, was guiding the boat up river with the rudder. They indulged in idle chatter for awhile after leaving Naiad but as the day grew short, all three had lapsed into a thoughtful silence as each reflected on their situation.
With her hands resting on her belly as if she could feel the life within slumbering, Arianne found her thoughts fixed on what would happened if she failed in this quest.
She wished she had Celene’s strength and Keira’s courage. Ironically, she was older than both of them and yet they endured greater trials in both their short existences than she had in most of her sheltered life. The only time she was truly been tested was when she had ridden away from Barrenjuck Green, ferrying a sick and blind Keira to Eden Taryn after the Disciples were done with her. She remembered how angry Lylea had been that she went after Dare herself instead of sending one of their soldiers. Love had driven her then to overcome her fear, she prayed it would do the same now.
Glancing at Celene who was tying down a corner of the sail and admiring how the blue canvas billowed against the wind, Arianne wished she had Celene’s courage. Celene did not shrink from danger, indeed she rode out to face it. How many times, had Arianne heard the tales of Celene’s bravery in battle, how she had fought along side of Dare and his Circle? Refusal to believe that she was any less than a man had earned her his undying respect and there were moments where Arianne wondered if Dare wished she possess the same steel.
Keira’s courage had not been so overt as Celene’s but Arianne and Dare owed her a debt nonetheless,
The Disciples were Balfure’s most trusted servants. It was claimed that they were spawned from the Dread Mother of All during the Primordial Wars. Though they were able to transform into the guise of man or elf, their true visage was so terrible that men could go mad upon seeing it. A twisted amalgamation of three different animals, their bodies were shaped like a great cat while their tails were pointed and sharp like a wasp’s stinger. Instead of cat’s paws, their feet were the talons of a bird and finalising this grotesque shape was the head of the last human it had assumed.
As hunters, they were relentless and were known to always catch their prey once they caught its scent. They stalked Dare across the Northern Province after he had taken counsel with Selkirk at Cereine, chasing him across the Baffin Range and finally into Barrenjuck Green. Like a glaring of cats, they tried to run him to ground and would have captured him if not for the distraction that coast Dare’s friend Braedan his life. It was only until after Dare entered the Green, with the ancient wood possessing its own guardian spirits, that he was able to find refuge with Tully and Keira.
Unfortunately after Dare had left with Tully, the Disciples had found their way to Furnsby Farm and Keira.
Keira never told them if the Disciples had ever shown her their true forms before they inflicted upon her their torture of the cerebrii but the woman never spoke of it. Somehow, she had endured the scars of their brutality and spared everyone around her the terrible details that would only make them feel guilt. Arianne knew that Tully worried constantly for her because he did not know the full extent of her ordeal only its after effects. Arianne wondered if Keira knew how brave she was being able to hold in the terror that drove lesser men mad.
Yet here she was, embarking on this quest because she thought she was weak when maybe she was the strongest person Arianne knew.
*******
‘You are silent,’ Keira stated as she joined the queen at the bow. The wind was blowing northwards, allowing the sail to do most of the work and carry them up river. Celene had taken charge of the rudder directing the boat to move against the current by weaving it from side to side along the river bank. It allowed Keira the freedom to join the queen who was sitting alone.
Both she and Celene had noticed the queen’s melancholy though neither brought attention to it. It was understandable of course that Arianne should feel somewhat overwhelmed by everything that had taken place in the last day. Only yesterday, she was celebrating the arrival of her child and today, she was off to face an enemy who had struck at the most intimate of places.
‘I am thinking,’ Arianne answered, looking up at Keira as the other woman sat down beside her.
‘Of what’s ahead?’ Keira ventured a guess.
‘Of what could happen if I fail,’ Arianne confessed with a sigh.
‘You mustn’t think like that,’ Keira reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. ‘I know it seems grim but we will stop this.’
Arianne was trying not to let despair overtake her but it was difficult when she considered the consequences for failure. ‘I do not know if I have it in me to stop this evil from taking my child. My mother thinks that I can stop Mael’s agent but I wonder if she only thinks that because she has little faith in the ability to men to prevail. She forgets that until I met Dare, I had spent my life sheltered behind the Veil. He was the one who encouraged to explore the world outside, to see what lay beyond. That time when I came to take you to Eden Taryn, that was probably the first time I had really travelled alone.’
‘I remember,’ Keira nodded. ‘You saved my life.’
‘You saved Dare’s,’ Arianne countered just as promptly.
Arianne remember how much pain Keira had experienced with the cerebrii burning through her veins and how much of her journey to Eden Taryn was seen through a stupor of pain and darkness. At Dare’s summons, Arianne ridden to the edge of the Green and escorted Keira to Eden Taryn, while he, Aeron and Tully let the Disciples away. He had already been so grieved at the loss of Braedan and was not willing to sacrifice this stranger whose only sin was to give him shelter.
‘It was the right thing to do. As this is the right thing to do,’ she said firmly, ‘We can do this Arianne and if we fail, at least we tried to stop the evil from returning to our world. Sometimes, we have to suffer for the good things. Maybe that’s what makes it all worthwhile.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Arianne whispered, caressing her belly protectively, as if will alone would shield the babe within from all harm. ‘If I fail and the Enemy is successful, I will have only two choices left to me. The first is to take my own life because I will not give birth to a monster. I will not raise a vessel of Mael to watch him bring to ruin everyone I love. If I am not given the choice and somehow, the Enemy sees to it that I do give birth to the child, then neither Dare nor I can allow him to live long enough to reach adulthood. As a child of our flesh, I will not call him our son, he will be king. Imagine if you will what that means.’
Lylea’s vision coming to pass, Keira thought. A blood thirsty king with an army of Berserkers, with the potential to be even worse than Balfure ever was.
‘Don’t you see,’ Arianne said with tears running down her cheeks, ‘if he is born then we will have no recourse but to put him to the sword or risk the destruction of Avalyne. I know Dare would do it. For the good of his people, he would make the sacrifice and I know as surely as I breathe, it will destroy him.’
‘It is not the failure I fear Keira,’ Arianne whispered, ‘its what we may to do after.’
And to that, Keira said nothing.
*******
They travelled for much of the night until they found a sheltered cove hidden at which to camp for the night. Leaving the subject of the quest for the moment, they engaged in idle chatter, as if they were taking a leisurely trip up river
, instead of the dark crusade that could see them all dead before it was done. After Arianne’s real fear had been voiced, Keira advised Celene not to speak too frequently about the Enemy because Arianne was painfully aware of him already.
At sunrise, they resumed their journey up the river, speaking of a past journeys and reminiscing about the days when life was not as complicated or as changed as it was now. Despite their best efforts however, the shadow of the Enemy lingered at the edge of their consciousness, always there to remind them of the danger they were slowly approaching.
It would take them three days to reach the Winter Keep where they could be resupplied so that they could resume their journey to the Falls of Iolan. Arianne wanted only a brief delay before continuing northward. According to Lylea, the Enemy would be ready to carry out his spell of restoration in two full moons and Arianne had to reach him before that. It was a long journey to the Frozen Mountains and they had no time to waste.
*******
Upon arriving at the Winter Keep, Celene had kept Arianne’s presence a secret until she could be properly revealed to Galain the Caretaker, why it was needed. Galain had fought alongside of Celene at the Battle of Astaroth and the former comrades possessed a healthy respect for each other. Once Galain knew the Queen was travelling alone with two friends, he understood the need for discretion and welcomed Arianne into the Keep with the strictest of secrecy.
They shared his table that evening and Arianne had to admit the company of Galain and his lovely family was a pleasant distraction from the grim nature of their quest. His wife, a friendly, warm woman named Mika, was thrilled to receive the queen and her friends in the Caretaker’s wing of the Keep.
Meanwhile Galain gave Arianne an account of all the news in the region. Working in concert with the elves of Eden Halas and the newly returned dwarves of Iridia, they had been driving Balfure’s goblins back into the Wilds. Since the dwarves had reclaimed their cities beneath the Starfall Mountains, the goblins were being forced to return to their former enclaves in the Cinder Mountains.
When asked why she was travelling, Arianne explained that with the impending birth of her child, she wished to see the places of her childhood before it became to difficult to travel. Thus she was taking the opportunity to see Eden Halas, Barrenjuck Green and Eden Taryn before the swell of her baby’s growth kept her bound to Sandrine indefinitely. Mika who had given Galain a houseful of children, was sympathetic and Galain was more than happy provide his queen with whatever she needed to continue her journey.
They left the Winter Keep the next morning and while he invited them to stay longer, Galain understood Arianne’s need to depart. He provided them with a trio of fine palfreys to make the overland trip past the Iolan Falls since it could not be crossed by river.
A boat ferried them from the Keep to the Eastern Shore with Celene mindful of everything the instant they set foot on dry land again. Although Galain had assured them the goblins were no more a plague in this region, Celene was not anxious to see him proven wrong with Arianne in such a delicate state.
Upon reaching Eastern Shore, they followed by the flow of the Yantra on horseback, letting it rush past them speedily towards the Falls. Even from the land, the ladies of the quest could see the currents moving swiftly away the turbulent cascade that spawned it. In far quicker time then they thought it possible, they soon sighted the cloud like spray that arose from its churning waters.
Of the great cascade, they saw little because to see it in its entirety would take them off their course and theirs was not a mission of leisure. It was one of urgency and sensibly, they turned their horses to an easier path in the woods to take them beyond its fury.
*******
The first thing Arianne noticed when they arrived at Caras Anara was the silence.
Caras Anara was the only remaining human settlement along the river before entering the woods of Eden Halas. Before the occupation, there had been many such small communities along the Yantra until Balfure’s goblins were such a menace that many of the river folk had abandoned their villages for safer territory. Caras Anara was the only one that still remained due to its proximity to Eden Halas. King Halion, father of Aeron, had little tolerance for goblins and took great relish in driving them from his territory.
It was after dark when they arrived in Caras Anara and Arianne thought that perhaps that the hour was too late for these folk and they were all in bed. However as they rode down dirt track into the small community, their horses seemed troubled and it took some urging for the to behave as they should. There were no lantern lights beckoning them through windows nor was there smoke rising out of chimneys. There was not even the sound of livestock in the barns or the sound of life in the surrounding woods.
There was only silence.
They rode past the local tavern, usually the most popular place in such villages and saw that it was devoid of any folk. The sign hanging over the entrance swayed back and forth aimlessly in the wind and the door lay wide, like a mouth agape in shock.
‘Where is everybody?’ Keira asked quietly feeling a sense of dread come over her as she looked over the place. This community looked no different from her village in the Green. There should have been lights in every window, smoke from lit hearths and people chattering away.
‘There is something evil here,’ Arianne said immediately, feeling the malevolence emanating from the empty streets like something tangible against the skin. ‘I do not like the look of this Celene, we should leave.’
It was not a warning that Celene took lightly. Her hand was already resting against the hilt of her sword because she could feel it herself, even without the heightened senses of an elf to guide her.
‘Yes,’ Celene agreed readily. ‘We should.’
‘Maybe we should go by the river,’ Keira suggested. ‘I hate to think that we’d be sharing the same ground as whatever caused this.’
‘Keira is right,’ Celene turned to Arianne. ‘If this is the work of goblins, they will not follow us if we are on the river and they will not risk entering Halas.’
It was a good plan but Arianne hated to linger in this dead village any longer than necessary. ‘I would like to leave this place as soon as we can. However the river is the safest course,’ she admitted reluctantly as she searched the darkened streets once more, trying to see any sign of life in the shadows.
There was not.
‘We must find a vessel to take us then,’ Celene replied, nudging her mount down the sloping road towards the river. She could see the faint outline of a wooden docks and the tops of boathouse by the shore. She supposed a community like this would also supplement their livelihood by fishing.
The sense of foreboding was not dispelled when they reached the river bank and dismounted. The boathouses were in the same state as the houses they had passed. Silent and dark. Only the lapping of water against the shore gave any indication of life. The horses still uneasy and it required Arianne’s elven powers to soothe the beasts’ anxiety lest they bolt and leave them stranded in this eerie village if they could not find a boat.
There was no doubt in theirs minds that the people of Caras Anara were dead. How that had come about was a mystery but it was a certainty for all of them. Even if they saw no bodies that gave absolute proof of this, the stench of doom was unmistakable. Something terrible had happened here and none of them were certain the danger was entirely.
Further along the shore, they saw a forgotten collection of boats that varied in size and use. Some were large fishing boats, constructed to catch an abundance of fish and others were smaller for use as transport. There was no sign of life on any of them and it reinforced Arianne’s warning to leave as quickly as possibly.
‘You two seek out a boat and make it ready for our use,’ Celene instructed as she stepped onto the wooden dock. ‘I shall unpack our things from the horses and lead them on the road away from here.’
Both women stared at Celene not liking the idea that she was going off on her
own.
‘Are you certain that is wise?’ Arianne asked, her brow furrowing with concern.
‘I will not stray far,’ Celene assured her. ‘I shall only go as far as the road and release the horses. We have no need of them once we leave and I do not like to think they might fall prey to whatever happened here. Keira, keep an eye on Arianne.’
‘I will,’ Keira said firmly, retrieving the blade Celene had given her from the halter across her back. Having it in her hands made her feel a little safer. Celene was right about that.
‘Do not be long Celene,’ Arianne declared as she swept her gaze across the shoreline and felt the hollowness in her stomach at the sight of the darkened boathouses, derelict like the rest of Caras Amara.
‘I will not,’ Celene answered and went to unpack the horses while Arianne and Keira went to find them a means of leaving this place before whatever darkness that engulfed this village found them too.
*******
Celene was mindful of every sound as she walked cautiously from the shore into the main road after she had unloaded their belongings from the saddles of all three horses. She still heard nothing except the clopping of their hooves and it chilled her to the bone that there was not even the sound of an owl hooting in the night. The woods beyond the village seemed more ominous than ever, with the trees looming over her like long fingers about to close in on her.
She took a deep breath, forcing away the churning in her stomach to some far away place because she had no patience to deal with fear when she needed to be alert. The horses were jittery enough without her own anxiety increasing their agitation. It would not take much to send them running and while she was reluctant to let them go, Celene knew they would find their way to Winter Keep on their own.
‘Safe journey,’ she wished them finally before slapping her mount hard against the rump, startling the mare into a sudden gallop that prompted the others to follow. The horses snorted their indignation at such an abrupt dismissal but were soon breaking into full gallops down the dirt road leading them out of the town. In a matter of minutes, she could no longer hear their thundering hooves against the hard ground.
Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon Page 9