Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy

by Poole, Jeffrey

  Tristan opened the door for them and gestured for them to go inside.

  “This will be yer quarters for the duration of yer stay in the castle. I will have some provisions sent up. Once ye are ready, ring the bell,” he indicated a rope hanging down from the ceiling in a corner on the far wall, “and I will return to escort the two of ye back to the Great Hall. For the record,” he added, “I am very glad the two of ye are finally here.”

  With that, he gently closed the door, leaving the two utterly baffled Americans staring at each other.

  “Okay, what the hell just happened here?” Steve demanded. “We just became babysitters, didn’t we?”

  Sarah walked over to the closest seat, a large plush green couch, and sank down onto it. The surreal moment still hadn’t passed for her, ever since being informed that she was one of the Nohrin, the royal babysitters it would seem. How? How could they be the ones from that prophecy? It was by sheer accident that they stumbled across the portal to Lentari, wasn’t it?

  Moments later, Steve joined her on the couch. There was so much going through his head that he didn’t even know where to begin. Clearly these people have made a serious mistake. How could they, who hadn’t even been here a week, be the people from this centuries old prophecy? This had to be nipped in the bud, and done so rapidly.

  Staring straight ahead, Sarah sighed heavily. “So what do you think about all this?”

  “That they’re all off their rocker. Just because we happen to be outsiders does not mean we fit this prophecy thing. They have clearly made a mistake. Plain and simple.”

  “But what about your jhorun? If what they say is true, then you have a super strong, super rare jhorun! I can see how the king and queen might see that as being the perfect jhorun to compliment the responsibilities of caring for their son.”

  “Are you telling me that you’re buying in to all this? You believe we’re the people from this prophecy?”

  Sarah leaned back, staring up at the ceiling, which happened to be display a very masterful fresco depicting several groups of griffins in flight. Admiring the handiwork, she slowly surveyed the room, taking in the tastefulness of the decorations, the carvings, and the paintings. The fireplace appeared to have carved marble figurines decorating the mantel. The three windows in the room (suite?) had thick, dark green drapes drawn across, thus allowing as much privacy as was possible. In the far corner sat a plush chair, also dark green, next to several bookcases full of old tomes. Rising up off the couch, she wandered over to the bookcases to see what types of books they contained. Books on history, care for exotic creatures, and the like met her eye. There, next to the chair, was the rope Tristan had referenced before. Must be the medieval equivalent of a telephone, she mused.

  “Well?” Steve prompted.

  “What does this room tell you?” Sarah’s hand swept the surrounding area. “Do you think that we’re in a simple guest quarters or do you think we just might be in the best room of the castle?”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It tells me that they truly believe we’re the Nohrin. They believe we’re here to protect their son. And I have to tell you,” Sarah admitted, “I actually think that we are.” Seeing her husband’s shocked look, she took his hands in hers. “Listen to me. Look at the facts. We have powerful jhorun. We’re outsiders, and once we figure out how to get back home, who best to care for this boy than us? We can take him to a completely different world!”

  The final piece of the puzzle slid into place. She was right. They alone in this kingdom could offer this endangered child the best level of protection. They could keep him safely on their world where nobody from this one could touch him.

  He sighed deeply. Sarah angled her head to study his expression. Yes, it looks like we finally have some comprehension in there.

  How was it possible, Steve wondered, that it could be foretold several hundred years ago that they would be here in this place? More magic, he presumed. If he had the magical ability to control fire, then it’s feasible that someone might have the ability to predict the future, see premonitions, etc. He sighed again.

  Sarah smiled at the man she loved more than anyone else. “Tell you what, let’s have something to eat, freshen up, and see what the king and queen have to say, okay?”

  He nodded. “I don’t feel that hungry. But-” he held up a hand as Sarah took a breath, “let’s have something to eat and then we can go down and chat with them. The only real thing I want to know is how the hell to get home.”

  ****

  An hour later, the two of them were ready to confront the Kri’yans once more, so Sarah tugged on the rope. She cocked her head, expecting to hear some type of sound. Nothing. In less than five seconds, there was a curt knock. Walking over to the entrance to their room, she opened the door to reveal Tristan smiling at them. Had he been waiting out there all this time? Could he have heard anything that they had talked about? As discreetly as possible, she ran her fingers over the door. Very solid. No eavesdropping here.

  Steve rose from the couch. “We’re ready to see the king and queen.”

  “Excellent,” came the crisp, clear tone of his voice. “If ye would follow me, please.”

  This time, the efficient solder took them to a richly decorated chamber away from the Great Hall, and away from prying eyes and ears.

  “Where are we?” Steve asked.

  “We are in the Antechamber. There is protective magic all throughout this room, so ye may talk freely. Oh, I should mention to the two of ye that this room is enchanted against virtually all jhorun.”

  Steve stared at the soldier. “Why did you tell us that? Do you think we’ll try to hurt someone?”

  “I mention it only to warn ye, friend. If ye try to use yer jhorun, and nothing happens, then ye will know why.”

  Steve visibly relaxed. “Oh, my misunderstanding then. Sorry.”

  Tristan left the room, closing the doors behind them. Steve and Sarah looked at each other.

  “Think our jhoruns will work here?” she whispered to him.

  “I’d like to try,” Steve whispered back, eyeing the burning logs in the hearth.

  At that moment Kri’Entu and Ny’Callé entered the room. “Steve, Sarah, ye appear much more relaxed than when we parted.” The king gestured to four plush chairs set in a circle by the fire. “Please, sit, rest. We have much to talk about.”

  The queen looked at her two guests. Steve wasn’t fidgeting, or rolling his eyes, or showing any signs of the skepticism that he had demonstrated from their previous meeting. He and his wife must have had a long talk.

  As the king talked with Steve, chatting about what his world was like, Callé observed her future babysitters. They were completely at ease with one another. They were holding hands! Clearly these two get along well together. The perfect Nohrin.

  Sarah felt as though she was being watched. She glanced over to the queen and met her eyes. The queen smiled at her. Feeling nothing but kindness emanating from the refreshingly direct queen, Sarah felt herself trusting her more and more. When the men paused in their conversation about wildlife native to the kingdom, the queen took the opportunity to ask a question she was dying to know.

  “Sarah, do ye have any children?”

  Sarah shook her head. “No, we don’t. We’re thinking about having a few, but nothing yet.”

  Suddenly finding his seat uncomfortable, Steve fidgeted, and attempted to steer the conversation to a different subject.

  “Is it true that this room blocks all magic?”

  The king nodded. “Only a very select few have jhoruns strong enough to resist the protective enchantments cast upon this chamber.” Recognizing the stubborn streak in Steve’s eyes, the king smiled. “Feel free, my friend.”

  Sarah shook her head. Nothing but a big kid at heart.

  Steve glanced at the hearth. Extending his jhorun to the blazing fire, he pulled all the tingling energy inward. The flames extinguished with a soft
‘poof’.

  Steve was grinning from ear to ear. “Cool!”

  The Kri’yans were also smiling. They hadn’t mentioned that if they weren’t the Nohrin then their jhoruns would have been unable to defeat the Antechamber’s restrictive charms.

  “Try yours, babe.”

  Thinking of what she could teleport into the chamber, she remembered her lip balm in her purse back in their quarters. She held out her left hand. The balm materialized instantly in her palm. She uncapped it, applied a small amount to her dry lips and sent the small tube back to her purse.

  Queen Callé laughed. “Now that is a jhorun I would love immensely!”

  Sarah grinned. Here was someone she could easily become friends with. The queen had an easy-going, comforting personality that exuded openness and honesty.

  “I’m still learning the nuances of it,” Sarah confessed. “Steve seems to have more control over his jhorun than I do with mine. I’m still practicing, though.”

  In a hushed, conspiratorial tone, the queen leaned forward and spoke to Sarah. “One might think honesty is a good jhorun to have, but how often do ye want yer husband to tell ye that a dress chosen for a certain occasion is unflattering?”

  Sarah stifled a giggle. “He does that to you?”

  Smiling, the queen nodded. “My jhorun is one of the more powerful manifestations of veracity. It is difficult to suppress. Not impossible,” she added quickly, as Sarah looked ready to ask a couple of questions, “but difficult. Therefore I let my jhorun be active at all times.” She looked at her husband who was deep in conversation with the foreign man. “I just have to be careful which questions I ask.”

  Interested, Sarah leaned further towards the queen. Sensing a shared female moment of mirth, Callé conspiratorially leaned towards her as well. In hushed tones, she whispered to the queen, “how does your husband feel about telling you the truth about everything? Some women would view that as the perfect marriage!”

  Suppressing the urge to laugh out loud, the queen risked a glance at her husband. “Entu has said on more than one occasion that it is difficult to handle at times. So he has to choose what he says, too. The truth can be said many ways, and some ways are less dangerous than others.”

  Sarah giggled. “I never thought of it that way.”

  “He is very skilled in word play. He can still say the truth to me and yet convey another meaning entirely. I am still amazed at how he can do it.”

  Steve, noting the huddled conversation Sarah and the queen were having, shook his head. Unbelievable. She did it again.

  Kri’Entu, noting Steve’s astonished stare, glanced over at the women. What was this? His wife had only just met this woman a few hours before, and yet now they were acting like they have known each other all their lives!

  “I don’t know how she does it,” Steve murmured. “We haven’t been in this kingdom that long and yet she can instantly bond with any woman here and become their best friend.”

  Stroking his beard thoughtfully, Entu smiled at the two gossiping women.

  Sensing they were being watched, as one, the women turned to the men. The queen and Sarah both raised an eyebrow. Since both were within the peripheral vision of the other, each noted that the other did the same thing. As if on cue, both smiled.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Steve began, “but I need to ask the million dollar question now.”

  Sarah nodded, indicating for him to proceed.

  “Your majesties, in my grandparent’s house on my world, there is a really large door carved with a representation of this kingdom.” Seeing no acknowledgement from either king or queen, Steve continued. “In their safe was a big green crystal key. It fit into a keyhole shaped window of the castle on the door. Sarah turned the key, and presto, we had an instant portal to Lentari.”

  “He incorporated the portal into the decor. I must admit I was curious about that,” Kri’Entu murmured.

  Steve jerked in his chair. “So you’ve heard of this type of portal then?”

  The king nodded. “It is the main method of transportation between great distances in Lentari. There are only a few portals, so they are reserved for official use only. We tasked Shardwyn with finding a suitable method of returning the Scribes to their home world. He contacted the best craftsman of portal keys that ever lived. Well, the only maker of portal keys.”

  Elation surged through Steve. “Yes! So you have another portal here! Beautiful! So you can send us home then? We figured that’s how we can best protect your son, taking him to our world.”

  The king and queen stared at each other in shock. Of course! It was so clear now! The Nohrin would hide their son on a world where no harm would befall him. No one from their kingdom, nor any others for that matter, would be able to find him!

  “Is there a portal here, in this castle, then?” Sarah asked hopefully.

  “Aye,” Kri’Entu answered slowly, as realization sank in that his son would soon be leaving. Taking a deep breath, he faced the two Nohrin. “Ye only need yer key to activate the portal.”

  The queen watched as Sarah’s face fell, her eyes filling with tears. “Yer key is not with ye, is it?” she asked softly.

  Both Sarah and Steve slowly shook their heads.

  Turning to her husband, Callé asked the obvious question.

  “If they do not have the key, how does the portal work then?”

  The king shook his head. “Without the key, our portal cannot tune in on the receiving portal. So it would not work.”

  Sarah, on the verge of tears, looked to her husband for solace. Steve, however, wasn’t ready to give up.

  “Okay, so we don’t have the key. Can’t we get another one? I mean, there’s got to be some way to replace a missing key, isn’t there?”

  “I had not thought of it that way,” the king confessed. “No one has lost one before. Ye will have to seek out Maelnar.”

  “And he is?”

  “The dwarf who crafted your key.”

  “How do you know he’s the one who made it?”

  “Because,” Entu explained, “Maelnar is the Strathos, the maker of keys. He is the only maker of portal keys and has lived for hundreds of years, with every indication of living for hundreds more.”

  “Is this Maelnar person easy to find? Please tell me he’s here in the castle.”

  “Unfortunately, no, I am sorry. His clan lives in the Bohani Mountains far to the north. I last met Maelnar when I was but a boy. I have not seen him since. He’s very reclusive.” Seeing the Nohrin’s faces fall yet again, the queen spoke up.

  “Fear not, we will find him. We will send out word immediately to ascertain his present whereabouts. The dwarves govern themselves, so we can not order Maelnar to reveal himself. But they are our allies. They should at least be able to point us in the right direction.”

  Clapping his hands, the king summoned Tristan into the room once again. “Send word immediately. We need to locate the dwarf Maelnar. He should be in the vicinity of the Bohani Mountains. Go now.”

  “Sir.” Tristan bowed, leaving the room as silently as he had entered.

  “How long do you think that will take?” Steve asked.

  “Truthfully, I am not certain,” Kri’Entu admitted. “We can only wait. There is no sense in wandering all over those mountains until we have an idea which area to search.”

  “So what do we do now?” Steve wanted to know.

  The queen spoke. “I think now we should talk about the Bakkian. Would ye care to hear about it?”

  Scooting his chair closer to his wife’s, Steve nodded.

  The king rose, went to his private desk in the far corner of the room, turned, and faced the stone wall behind it. Reaching out with his right hand, he gently pushed in one of the stones. There was a soft click, and a section of the wall slid aside, revealing a large cavity within the wall. Sitting within the cavity was a larger version of the griffin safe that Steve and Sarah had become very familiar with. The griffin on this safe starte
d the musical humming as the king approached. As before, the griffin raised its leg, and the king pushed the button.

  Reaching inside the hidden compartment, the king withdrew a small, rusted chest. As he turned to walk back to his guests seated before the fire, the compartment within the safe closed with a snap, and the griffin stepped back onto the button, hiding it from sight. Even the wall slid smoothly closed, Steve noted.

  Kri’Entu set the chest on the small table before the two Nohrin and gently pushed it towards them. He couldn’t hide his smile as a very skeptical Steve glanced down at the rusted chest.

  “What’s this?”

  The king smiled. “That, my friend, is the Bakkian.”

  “That??”

  The king nodded.

  Reaching slowly out to the chest, Steve undid the latch and gently opened the coffer. Leaning forward together, Steve and Sarah peered into the small, deteriorating container. Sitting inside was a crystalline object resembling a small shield, about the mass of a clenched fist. The crystal had a symbol embossed onto the surface, depicting some type of animal. Steve nodded, recognizing the image now: it was a picture of a griffin with one foreleg raised. Was this the mark that the young prince had upon his shoulder? Clearly the griffins held some type of unknown importance here.

  Sarah sat back and studied the king and queen. “I thought this prophecy would be in a book, or on a scroll, or something. That journal mentioned a four hundred year old document.”

  “My grandparents said they found some manuscript last year. It’s mentioned in their journal. Once it was found, the journal said the entire kingdom could read the Bakkian in its entirety.”

  “Ah, the manuscript.” Kri’Entu nodded. “It chronicles past attempts to locate the Bakkian.”

  “So who found it, then?”

  “A knight who lived hundreds of years ago. Went by the name of Volan.”

  “Was wondering who that was,” Steve muttered.

  “So what are we supposed to do with that?” Sarah asked, pointing to the crystal shield.