by A. Evermore
Edarna was just beginning to enjoy the feeling of sunlight on her skin when her belly rumbled dangerously. She sat upright wide-eyed, rudely reminded that the potion-wearing-off warning always occurred in her stomach first.
‘It can’t be wearing off already!?’ she gasped. They were high in the air and above a lake. That realisation was far worse than the sick rumbling feeling in her stomach.
‘Oh dear,’ was all she had time to squeak at the same time as Mr Dubbins howled.
The unknowing gull gave a startled caw as the load he was carrying suddenly doubled in size. In one moment Edarna was nestled in the huge gull’s feathers, in the next she was riding on the back of something the size of a small pony. The gull was forced down from the sudden heavy weight. The drag in the air from Edarna’s dangling legs disrupted its streamline form and it rocked wildly from side to side.
Edarna’s belly rumbled again and Mr Dubbins howled. She shut her eyes. There came a small strangled squawk and then she felt herself spinning. The tiny feathers slipped out of her grasp and for a long moment she was falling. Fast. Then she hit the cold water, all breath knocked from her lungs. Briefly stunned she spun in the water doing all she could to keep her arm wrapped around her chest and Mr Dubbins under her other arm.
Edarna was not a slim woman and after a moment she felt herself rise swiftly to the surface. She gasped and spluttered and sneezed cold water out of her mouth and nose. Despite everything she wore (her big boots and two heavy layers of clothes) and carried (Mr Dubbins, the chest, an iron cauldron in her pocket) she bobbed there easily.
Mr Dubbins wiggled, thrashed, then clawed violently out of his sling. The bedraggled cat looked at her in disgust, and swam off towards the nearest shore. She squinted after him.
‘What about me?’ the shore had to be at least a hundred yards away, far too far to swim! She shivered then sighed and began awkwardly to swim after the ungrateful cat. It could have been worse, they could have landed in the trees or on rocks and died.
By the time she got to the shore the cat was almost dry and the gull stood sleeping on one leg, its beak tucked into the feathers on his back. Clearly it hadn’t forgotten the payment, despite dumping them in the lake. Edarna struggled the last few feet out of the lake and up the slippery rocks, gasping and panting whilst grappling with her chest of belongings and trying to keep her dripping shawl around her. Only when she plonked herself down on a large smooth rock in the sun did the horrible queasiness start and then the sneezing.
‘The goddess curse it,’ she gasped between sneezes and then lay back exhausted. She hated this part of the potion’s aftermath. She couldn’t fight the sleep that always came after the shrinking spell, nor ever fend off the awful cold that swiftly descended. Soon she was snoring softly, much to the gull and the cat’s disdain.
Naksu the Seer had just finished her lunch and was sitting in the warm sunlight smoking her pipe when she noticed the gull flying low overhead. It was a long way from the ocean but gulls were not uncommon everywhere in the Known World and were especially numerous in the bigger cities where there was lots of food waste. Carvon was a hundred miles north east and she assumed it must be heading there.
The gull was about three quarters across the lake when an awful sound emerged from it, a squawk followed by a strange high pitched scream. Naksu squinted up at the bird as it proceeded to plummet towards the water. Then something huge appeared on its back, something with arms and legs that screamed and flailed wildly. Naksu set her pipe down and jumped to her feet, unable to believe what she was seeing.
There came a huge splash as the screaming arm and leg thing hit the water and then silence. The gull managed to right itself before it too hit the water and disappeared towards the shore. The arm and leg thing surfaced spluttering and coughing.
‘Stay here, I won’t be long,’ Naksu said to her mule who had stopped eating the grass and was staring with intrigue at the spectacle. She grabbed her bag and her knife (just in case) and ran around the lake towards where the gull had gone and where the person now seemed to be swimming very badly towards.
It took Naksu some time to get there because there was not an easy shore walk all the way. Between easy-going pebbled coves were a network of gnarly tree roots and thick-thorned bushes that made it tricky. By the time she got there she was greeted with a very strange sight.
A gull, half sleeping on one leg with its beak tucked in its feathers, opened one eye, stared at her, decided it couldn’t be bothered and went back to sleep again. A blue cat, it really was blue like a darker shade of sky and not just dyed or painted, stared at her solemnly with big golden eyes. He sat with his tail wrapped around his legs, the point flicking now and again. Then he too looked away uninterested and stared across the lake. Between them both, sprawled on a rock snoring lay a plump older woman in a soaking wet green shawl.
‘Oh dear,’ said Naksu, wishing she’d brought her blanket, ‘you’ll catch your death of a cold!’
She hurried over to the woman who did not even stir at her approach. Prodding the woman did not wake her either so Naksu set about prising her arms off the chest she hugged and set it down in the sun to dry. Next she tried to take off the woman’s long shawl but it was an effort to lift her. In the end she had to roll her one way and then the next before she managed to get it off. Still, the woman did not wake.
‘I think there is more at play here than just colds and sleep,’ Naksu said suspiciously as she wrung out the woman’s shawl and laid it out flat in the sun. Next she pulled off her long black boots, emptied the water out of them and laid them out too.
She looked down at the sleeping woman, her long grey hair was wet and bedraggled but her cheeks were round and red and she looked healthy. Keeping her suspicions to herself Naksu sat about collecting dry wood to make a fire. It wasn’t cold but it would help dry things and she needed fire to boil water and steep herbs for the old woman to drink when she came round. It wasn’t long before the gull, the blue cat, the sleeping old woman and Naksu were warming themselves before it.
The cat seemed to think the fire was a great idea and immediately took a liking to Naksu. She stroked him as he rubbed his head against her leg. Naksu undid her long pale blue seer’s robe and laid it over the sleeping woman.
‘I must get my mule and other belongings,’ she said to the cat and disappeared back the way she had come.
Edarna awoke just as the sun was dipping low behind the trees.
‘Oh my head, my stomach. Argh my back!’ she winced, trying to sit up. ‘What’s this,’ she frowned and fumbled with the soft blue cotton blanket on top of her. She sniffed it. ‘Smells strange, don’t think it’s mine.’
‘It’s mine, you were soaked through.’
The soft voice made her jump and Edarna squinted over the fire. ‘Blasted eyes, they are not as good as they used to be and that awful stuff makes ‘em worse than ever,’ she said fumbling for her monocle. It was no use for it was all wet and smeary. Instead the other woman chuckled sincerely and came over. Edarna passed her back the blue cloak. Now the younger woman was closer Edarna’s eyes could focus a little better.
‘Oh a White One,’ Edarna said, she never was able to dislocate her mouth from her brain and said aloud everything that came into it. She’d learnt to overcome it, mind, but not by stopping saying whatever came into her but by refusing to be embarrassed by what came out of it! The albino woman smiled anyway, obviously used to such reactions to her white skin colour and pale almost pink eyes.
‘What “stuff” do you mean?’ the White One asked.
Edarna stared at the blue robe in her small pale hands, then her eyes took in the white staff by the fire, then back to the blue robes and then into that curious smiling white face.
‘You’re a seer?’
‘Yes.’
‘Not a priestess?’
‘No.’
Edarna sighed in relief. Witches’ magic was detested and scorned by all priests and priestesses but even then she h
ad to be cautious, not knowing exactly how seers felt about it either.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Naksu Feyrin and I live upon the Isle of Myrn. You?’
‘Edarna Higglesworth, the Witch of the Western Isles,’ she said proudly, ‘or at least I was called that before The Derobing. Pah!’
Naksu frowned in concern but said nothing as Edarna continued. ‘The cat is Mr Dubbins. Don’t ask me how or why but he used to be white until the dark moon rose. No idea who the gull is.’ The gull opened one eye, stared at the witch and then closed it again. ‘Hmmm, I should give him his fish… Well, anyway, I made a shrinking potion to get us from my island in the Lost Sea, at the edge of the perilous Shadowlands,’ she spread her arm wide for emphasis, ‘to the mainland.’
Edarna eyed the other woman discreetly, trying to gauge her reaction. However, Naksu only smiled and raised her eyebrows curiously.
‘I must have mistimed its duration, or got the strength wrong. The ingredients are rather old and I’m not as slim as I used to be, hah,’ Edarna explained. ‘Needless to say it did the trick as it always does. Leaves me feeling right rotten though,’ her pride faded into a pale-faced grimace.
‘Here, drink this,’ the white woman passed her a steaming mug.
Edarna took it suspiciously. ‘What seer’s magic is it?’
The other woman laughed, ‘It is only ground deven star root and oil of oregano. Simple herbalism.’
‘Oh,’ Edarna said, ‘I’ve missed oregano on my island. It works does it, this mixture? We witches are the best herbalists in the land, never afraid to experiment with, well, anything,’ even bats’ wings, but she didn’t say that out loud. Most folk were generally squeamish, not cut out to be witches. ‘But I don’t think I know this mixture,’ she ended quietly, staring into the contents of the tin mug.
‘Oregano will kill the cold and settle the stomach, deven star root to invigorate and quell inflammation,’ Naksu explained.
‘Of course it does, haha,’ Edarna said. She knew that, or had known once, surely.
Naksu smiled and sat down beside the fire, crossing her legs neatly.
‘Lots of knowledge was lost to us, or fractured, when the Ancients split the orbs. Strange things happened that we could not have known would happen. We are just a microcosm of the macrocosm it seems and when they split the magic they split everything else too,’ Naksu said ruefully.
‘Uh huh,’ Edarna nodded. She hadn’t thought about it in that way before.
‘So tell me, Edarna, Witch of the Western Isles, why are you leaving your home?’
The question, along with the surprisingly powerful herbal drink she downed, brought it all unpleasantly rushing back.
‘Oh it’s a terrible thing and so much to explain,’ she whispered, wondering whether to mention her involvement with Issa and deciding against it for now. ‘Keteth is slain.’
‘Yes, I know as much,’ Naksu nodded, ‘and a thing to rejoice for the souls are free, his reign of terror is ended.’
‘But yesterday I saw Maphraxie ships, heading south,’ Edarna said, ‘I found out too that the Maphraxies have colonised the Isles of Kammy, that was how they are able to move so quickly. Those ships were headed swiftly to Celene.’
Naksu paled, if that was possible, and looked deep into the fire. ‘I knew something terrible had happened but I could not scry, I could not even project my mind in the astral planes.’
Edarna nodded vigorously, ‘Neither me, it is like the magic is busy and the Flow cannot be directed. But there is more, worse. By taking my shrinking potion and flying on the back of a gull, I tried to get to Celene as soon as I could to warn them but I was too late. There were Dread Dragons, harpies and all manner of awful undead thingies. Smoke and fire covered the island from the Castle Elune to the Temple of Celene. It is all gone,’ Edarna couldn’t help the tears filling her eyes.
‘A man, he looked human but he is in league with Baelthrom, almost caught us. We escaped and made it here. I am on my way to the Frayon Temple now. To warn them. They took prisoners and amongst them I saw the High Priestess of Celene.’
‘High Priestess Cirosa,’ Naksu breathed. ‘Oh what a terrible terrible thing,’ she covered her mouth with her hands. ‘Celene is truly lost. I cannot quite believe it. I knew something awful had happened. I was travelling to Celene but now I see why the goddess delayed my path. I am seeking the disciple of Zanufey.’
‘Well, you’re a little late,’ Edarna said reproachfully, looking over her glasses. Then realised she’d put her foot in it.
‘You’ve seen her? Know where she is?’ Naksu asked, wide-eyed.
‘Yes, yes,’ Edarna wafted her hand dismissively. ‘She escaped the Isles of Kammy when the Maphraxies came. Only her! She came to my island. I made her well again. She will be fine, especially with that Dragon Lord of hers.’
Naksu continued to stare at her wide-eyed. ‘The Raven Queen and the Dawn Bringer,’ she breathed, ‘we have seen a Dragon Lord in our visions, the last. We knew that one, and one alone, still remained. Oh the best of news and the worst!’
‘Well, glad I can be the bearer. Knowing that Issa, that’s her name, is safe for now and that the High Priestess has been taken alive, I was on my way to the Temple of Carvon to warn them. Though I don’t know why I bother helping that haughty lot. It just seems that they should know of what I’ve seen, there’s no one else to tell ‘em.
‘Then I was going to travel to you lot on the Isles of Tirry, wondering why you hadn’t bothered to find this Raven Queen of prophecy. Her mother was a seer too, don’t you know. Issa doesn’t know who she is or where she belongs. But I think she has a bit of witch about her,’ Edarna said firmly. ‘You know that the sacred mound came to her? It actually came to her! We witches spend our lives searching for it in our dreams, some die without ever having seen it. But it actually came to her,’ Edarna shook her head in disbelief.
Naksu sat listening to the witch as she stared into the fire. ‘We received a letter a long time ago,’ she said quietly.
Edarna fell silent. Surprised.
‘Well, they did. It was before I came to Myrn. Only one letter speaking about an adopted child of a seer, a child that now lived far away in the west on the Isles of Kammy. The girl could heal animals before she could speak and was most probably a Daluni as well. The letter said the seer had come there in secret and her name was not known.
‘None of the seers discovered who the mother might be, or at least that is what I was told a long time ago. We replied three times to that one letter, to bring the child to Myrn but we never heard anything back. I have chosen to travel, despite the danger, through Frayon to Celene and then to Kammy, to see how things are, to discover if this child is indeed a seer. We seers are few now, less than one hundred, and losing more of our number whilst Baelthrom grows stronger. It is too great a risk to let a potential go unchecked. Now it seems this girl is more important than we thought.’
‘Uh huh,’ Edarna agreed nodding. ‘But the girl is a woman now and she needs help to become the warrior she must be.’
Naksu shook her head, ‘She must learn the spiritual side of magic and become adept in it. A seer’s training is a must if she is to prevail and a seer’s art is still a powerful force on Maioria. We think it is stronger even than the wizard’s magic.’
‘Hmph,’ Edarna said, ‘magic only goes so far, but who’s gonna lead the army? She’ll need a sword and armour, battle skills and a hard iron will.’
Naksu nodded, ‘Magic does only go so far, but it will take more than potions and cold steel to kill the Lord of the Immortals. It will take a goddess’s hand to stand against a god that came from the sky.’
‘Well, whichever it is, she’s going to need a lot of help. And it seems like if a seer’s magic is so powerful, why then are you walking to Celene? Even a wizard can translocate!’ Edarna scoffed.
‘You forget that the Isles of Tirry are beside Maphrax, right next to the enemies’ stronghold, and th
at, like the elven Land of Mists and the Wizards’ Circle, Myrn is shielded from view. Only a seer may enter. We dare not use magic to project from Myrn for Baelthrom will feel it. The risk is just too great.’
‘So you just sit there whilst Maioria falls apart?’ Edarna said incredulously.
Naksu looked away, ‘It is not as I would have it either but I am not one of the Trinity, I am not in charge. We keep our knowledge protected and all the most important things that must be preserved. To lose them would be to lose the world.’
‘Pah, it’s lost already!’ Edarna said.
Naksu was silent and stared into the fire.
With nothing more to say and the sour thought of Maphraxies on her mind, Edarna got up and gave the gull his fish. They had stunk out the sack she carried them in and she ended up throwing it away. Once fed, seeing no reason to leave a warm fire and the protection of humans, the gull settled down close to it for the night. The sun had set now and the sky was darkening.
The Witch and the Seer ate their own meals from their own supplies in silence. Once finished Naksu filled her pipe and lit it. She turned to sit facing the still starlit lake with the fire to her right. The white light of the half moon Doon shone down upon them.
‘You know on Myrn we have a sacred pool,’ Naksu said and breathed out the smoke from her pipe. Edarna stopped fiddling about in her wooden chest of belongings and looked up.
‘I had heard such things, yes.’
‘Well when we are strong and many are at the pool we can learn about all the races of Maioria, if they are still on Maioria. That is how we knew the Dragon Lords were not all gone, that at least one still remains. It is also how we know that pure blood dragons still exist, and not just one but many. There is one other race that has not left us though we know nothing else about them. The Ancients are still with us. Not many… Maybe only one. But they are still here and it is because of them that it may still be possible to recombine the orbs, to make whole what was once broken.’