by Luna Lais
Eranen's eyebrow went up again. He smiled shaking his head. "I married your sister did I not?"
"If that is the only mistake you have made I am going to have to agree with Alli." Darien said laughing.
"Marrying her was not the mistake." Eranen said staring at the cold fireplace. "Doing it without giving you a chance to deny me was the mistake."
"Even that you did right! I would not give my blessing for your union. I could never trust any man with her life. I would have denied your request for that reason alone, but there are still others." Darien said looking at his sister's husband.
"You mean my station in life. Lissandra's own objections for Kiala used against her," he sighed. "Still I do feel I cheated you out of your rights as a brother. She didn't even let you punch me afterwards. She really should have let you hit me at least once."
"Think nothing of it." Darien said shaking his head. "I would have only been hitting a friend and would have regretted it later. Honestly I could not be happier with her choice in husbands. I will have to insist you seek another occupation. I can not allow a princess of Calandoria to be married to a farmer."
Eranen chuckled, "I have not been a farmer since the day we met. As much as I hate to say it, I fear I will be back to being a soldier soon. That is if you will have me?" He met Daniels gaze with his own.
"Of course," Darien said. "What changed your mind?"
"I did not want to risk dying. I did not want her to be left alone the way my own mother was after my father's death." Eranen confessed. "Now keeping her and our world at peace at all cost is worth risking my life and any tears she might shed due to my death."
Darien wanted to probe further, but did not. If a man wanted to bear his soul he would. If he did not want to no amount of questioning would make him speak. Darien stood and stretched his arms before moving back to the mantle and retrieving his bottle. He carried to the chair next to Eranen's and sat down. "Are you sure you do no want to have a drink?"
Eranen shook his head. That was all the encouragement Darien needed to remove the stopper and take a hearty drink from the contents. Had Eranen wanted some he would have used a glass.
"I am leaving tomorrow," Eranen said. Darien slowly sat his bottle in his lap and replaced the stopper.
"You have just arrived," he replied agitated. "I maybe happy about my sister's marriage, but I do expect to see her a little more."
"She is not going with me," Eranen said meeting his friend's eyes again. "I am leaving her here in your care. I have something that I must do and I need to know that she will be safe. You are the only one I trust to the task."
"Where are you going?" Darien asked in disbelief.
"Chasing a fairy tale," Eranen replied.
Darien felt a feeling of dread come over him. Eranen was smart, logical; he did not buy into superstitions. For him to say something like that could only mean one thing. His world was about to be turned upside down again. He hoped more of his loved ones would survive this time.
"Did Lissandra tell you about the book she found, the book of prophecy?" Eranen asked Darien.
Darien thought back to the last time he had seen his sister. She had been so ill they had hardly spoken at all. "I honestly do not remember. My mind was so full of vengeance I only heard things that pertained to crushing the Temple of Moon's Soul and destroying the evil within."
Eranen nodded in understanding. All of them had been distracted by their own demons at the time and emotions between them had been tense. He himself could barely recall the days leading up to the destruction of the temple. He only remembered Lissandra being sick and his worry for what she had committed herself to do. How many more times would she face death before this was over? Would he be able to prevent anything from happening to her or their child? "It was a book given to me by my mother. My grandmother gave it to her to pass to me before she died. My grandmother told her to give it to me win I was sixteen and with it I would win the most worthy of brides." Eranen looked at Darien to make sure he was still listening. "Had my mother ever read it I have no doubt she would have thrown it on the rubbish pile. Luckily she could not read and did just as my grandmother had instructed. On my sixteenth birthday she gave me the book and told me what my grandmother had said. I was excited. I thought my mother was handing me a book that would give me the secret to wooing women. What sixteen year boy would not want that? As it turned out I read the first page and tossed it carelessly on a bookshelf.
"Why?" Darien asked curious to know what the book contained.
"It was a book of poetry," Eranen explained.
"Is that how you won my sister, with poetry?" Darien chuckled.
"No," Eranen answered. "If you want to hear about that you will have to get it from your sister. As an innocent victim I swore myself to secrecy on my wedding night."
Darien laughed thinking Eranen was joking, but when Eranen did not join in he made a mental note to speak with Lissandra first thing in the morning.
"I had actually forgotten about the book until my mother died." Eranen continued the tale. "When I went home to salvage what I wanted from the shack we had lived in I came across it. I am not sure why, but I took it with me when I left. It was the only birthday present I had ever remembered getting. I carried it over my heart in each battle I fought for Maeorus."
Darien understood what Eranen was saying. The medallions he, Lissandra and Makren wore meant more than a proclamation of royalty. It meant they were family. When he was away from home simply feeling it around his neck made him feel close to them.
"I tried reading it again a few years ago." Eranen took the bottle from Darien's lap and quickly took a drink. He needed a drink all the sudden. "Again I did not make it past the first page." He said handing the bottle back to Darien.
"Why not?" Darien said. The curiosity was killing him, but he would not rush Eranen. This was his story to tell.
Eranen shrugged. "I use to think it was truly the worse poetry ever written. Only a truly insane mind could have come up with such horrible rhyme. Only a crazier person would have thought it worthy of binding."
"And what do you think now?"
"Now I think it just was not the time for the words to be read. It was if fate had prevented me from seeing the book for what it really was a book of prophecy."
Darien was starting to fell uneasy. He hated prophecy. Prophecy had turned his life upside down. Cost him his brother and his sister, threatened his other brother. Prophecy denied him love. He took another drink from the bottle in his lap. "How can you be sure it is a book of prophecy?" Darien asked after swallowing the fiery liquid.
"It's all in there." Eranen replied, "Your brother Jimreth's death, Makren's return, Rachel's death, my marriage to Lissandra. It is all there and more. Most of it we do not understand. There is no order to the events in the book. It is hard to tell what has already happened and what is yet to come."
Eranen paused, "I am sorry for not reading the book soon enough to help save them. I did not know what I had read until the events had already passed."
Eranen had read his thoughts. If only he would had read that book on the night they had first met Jimreth and Rachel both might have been spared. "Are there more?" Darien had to ask. He had to know even if it hurt to hear the answer.
"I am not sure," Eranen said honestly. "There are two passages that concern me. One is of a ghost and is very confusing. The other is of a powerful king holding his own knife to his sister's throat." Eranen looked hard at Darien. "That particular prophecy I pray will never come true."
"You can not believe that I would harm Lissandra?" Darien said. "I love her. I could never harm her. I spend ever waking moment I can thinking on how to keep my family safe." Darien took another drink then handed the bottle to Eranen. Eranen looked worse than he felt. He made another note to himself to see Lissandra first thing in the morning. He needed to see that book.
"The book mentions the moon meeting the sun," Eranen said after downing more of the spirits. "
I still wish I knew what that meant exactly."
Darien often wondered about that himself. He was sure that it had referred to Eranen and Lissandra, but if that were true Descartes would be destined to defeat them.
"Do you remember me telling you the story of the old man in the mountains?" Eranen asked.
Darien nodded absently still pondering on the Moon and the Sun. He remembered the tale from his own childhood. Ever child had heard of the man in the mountain that ordained destinies. Once he wrote the events of your life there was no going back. He was often used to scare unruly children into being good. "Well, I am going to find him." Eranen said.
Darien's attention snapped back to Eranen at his words. "You do not really believe that there is a man as old as the world itself living up in the mountains, do you?" Darien asked.
"I do not know what to believe anymore," Eranen confessed, "but the last passage in the book says he is there and that I should seek him. If there is any truth to the tale I need to find him before spring. Before Descartes armies pour through the mountains destroying anything in their wake."
"This is absurd," Darien protested. "It is not only absurd it is impossible. Why would one man be allowed to live until his prophecy is fulfilled when other acumen die the minute their own prophecies are not."
"I do not have the answers to that, but I have learned in the past few months that coincidence does not exist. If he is there perhaps he will be able to answer that question. I find it more than a coincidence that as a small boy my grandmother told me that fairy tale every night at bedtime. I became so captivated by the tale as a grown man that I was planning on making a journey to the mountains just to see what I would find. I gave up that idea after Lissandra came into my life and that is when a book a prophecy appeared that demanded I find him."
Darien turned the bottle up and drained the last of its contents. When he was finished he took the bottle and hurled it into the empty fireplace shattering it. "When you find the man, bring him to me." Darien said harshly. "I have questions I want answered."
"My thoughts as well," Eranen replied.
Chapter 43
Kale paced back and forth on the stone waiting for the man to arrive. She was wearing the sword her grandfather gave her. The man was going to answer her questions if he ever arrived. He was late she thought, perhaps she should be worried. Her grandfather did not tell her what she should do if he was late. She peered down the road again. She should go look for him, after all wasn't she his protector. If someone else killed him before she spoke with him she would never have her answers. It was possible the man might actually need her protection, even if what she had been told about him was true. She jumped off the stone with every intention on heading for the mountains herself, but at that moment he came into view. She knew it was him only because of the cart and mule that followed behind him. Her grandfather had never told her what he looked like.
As he came closer she was able to make out more of his features. He definitely did not fit with what her mind thought the savior of the world would look like. Of course he was not the savior, only the guide, but still she thought he would have been older. A man of such importance should have a look of wisdom about him and long gray hair. She had expected long gray hair. This man was hardly older than she was. As he got closer and she could make out even more of his features she began wondering what she had committed her life to. He had a smooth face, flawless. Golden hair curled around his neck just above the collar of white robes. It was more likely she would be staving off women rather than keeping him from any real danger.
Tobias saw her standing proud by the large stone. She was glaring in his direction. She had been since he rounded the bend. She had her arms crossed in front of her and was patting her foot as if she was impatient to have this meeting over with. He shook his head at seeing her. She was not what he had been expecting. How could a women so tiny protect anything? He had seen smaller woman. If he were honest one of the best warriors he had ever known was a woman who didn't even reach his shoulders. Looks were often deceiving and he would not use them to make any decisions regarding the girl. Her apparent irritation did annoy him. Tobias already knew this girl had yet to dedicate herself to his cause. Perjak had placed so much faith in her. Children were often disappointments to parents. Would she be the exception or the rule he wondered looking at her again. She had short curly hair that framed her face. He decided this was another mark against her. Any woman who would cut her hair was a fool. Hair was a woman's best weapon against a man.
"You are late!" she said when he stopped the cart in front of her. She was still patting her foot. The sword hung at her waist jingled with each fall of her foot.
"You have not taken the life," Tobias said walking to stand in front of her.
"How do you know that?" she said trying to pierce him with her brown eyes.
"Because had you drank it you would have known I was going to be late." He said watching for her reaction.
"Really?" she relaxed her arms and looked at him curiously. "How?"
"Did Perjak not tell you about the potion?" Tobias asked wondering if all of this had been a mistake.
Kale shrugged her shoulders and sat down on the stone. "All he told me was that it would join our life forces together. Thus the name life." She watched him as he moved around the cart and joined her on the stone. He raked his hand over his face trying to relieve some of the tension building there behind his eyes. "I am not sure how I feel about that," she continued. "What if you do something foolish and get yourself killed. I am not ready to walk with the spirits yet."
Tobias looked at her. Just what had Perjak told her? It was too late to change anything now. She was all fate had left him. There was no second choice. "If you would have drunk the potion you would also know that is not going to happen. Quiet the opposite in fact. Drinking it will guarantee you live through this."
Kale considered the man's words for a moment. She knew little of magic and did not trust it. Apparently this man had some knowledge though. "Is my life in danger?" she asked.
"Not yet," he sighed even though he had the urge to strangle both her and her grandfather. "It may never be," he added to put her at ease. The potion does more. It is the other magic it holds we need the most."
"What kind of other things," she asked.
Tobias knew right then he was not going to like her. He had always preferred people to follow orders rather than ask questions. He did not share his cousin's belief that people needed to know more than he told them. It was just as well his cousin was made king and not him. That single act of his grandfather had sealed both of their fates. He had spent years wondering how things might have been different had he been chosen. Would magic the most miraculous of gifts have become a death sentence for those unfortunate enough to be born with it? "Drink the potion then we will talk further if you need to, but trust me you will not. You will have all the answers." He jumped up from the stone and began heading down the road.
"Wait," she cried. He could tell by the jingling of her sword that she was running after him. He rolled his eyes sky ward and turned to face her again. "What?" he said impatiently.
"It smells bad," she took the bottle from a pouch she had tied at the belt around her waist. After removing the stopper she stuck it under his nose. Tobias took a step back away from the offensive smell.
"What if it kills me? It's old, maybe it's not any good anymore."
"It will not kill you," he smiled. "It is supposed to smell like that. Just drink it." He said again.
She placed the bottle back in the pouch ignoring his order. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"Home," he said flatly turning once again towards the mountains.
"You can't" she said pleading with her eyes. "How can I protect you if you're not with me?"
Tobias turned towards the girl once again. "You are not suppose to protect me." He said softly. "The time for that has passed. You are supposed to protect the fated ones."
&n
bsp; "Who are they?" she asked confused at his words.
"I really can not tell you anything else until you drink that." Tobias said pointing to her pouch. "If you want answers you are going to have to commit yourself to hearing them first. I suggest you do not take to long in deciding either. It takes time for the potion to work. Some effects you will feel instantly, other will take weeks to fully work. Weeks we don't have." He turned once again to head for the mountains. This time he did not hear the jingle of her sword. She did not follow. He had only taken a few steps when pain engulfed him. He could feel himself falling but couldn't stop it. He heard Kale scream before darkness over took him.
"Are you alive?" a soft voice was pulling him from the darkness. He opened is eyes and saw the source of his misery. Kale's face was hovering over his.
"Do you always make decisions so hastily?" he said sitting up. He tried to focus his eyes on her face. He didn't like her nose it was to pert he thought. It made her look saucy. He didn't like saucy females.