by B J Hanlon
“Will you still be here when I wake?” she asked, her tone a little wistful.
He didn’t need to think about it, leaving her alone in this place didn’t feel like an option. “Yes princess.”
“Aria… please.” She stepped closer, lifting to her toes she kissed him on the cheek. Her lips felt warm and a little wet. She moved back, keeping eye contact with him for a moment before turning and sauntering back toward her room.
After changing, he decided to try and get something to eat. The thought of jerky or raw fruits and vegetables were fine, but he went to the kitchen to see what if he could prepare something else, maybe something finer.
On a shelf in a pantry he found books with recipes written in Borsi. Handwritten notes denoting experiments and tweaks were in the margins in small scribbly letters that took a bit of work to understand. On the top of a page was written ‘Princess’ favorite.’ He thought of her kissing his cheek again…
The meal was a rice dish with spices, beef, and vegetables. A nice dinner with a beautiful princess in an empty keep seemed like one of his childish fantasies. One that could come true.
He searched and found the ingredients in a cold pantry through a door at the rear of the room were meats hung.
Edin cooked for a couple of hours, he chopped vegetables and thick sliced sausage. The smell made his stomach grumble with anticipation.
While the pan with the concoction known as paella was cooking, Edin forced himself back down the stairs into the older part of the building.
Back in the wine cellar, he picked a couple more bottles of wine that were next to the Yaultan hoping they’d be the same.
After the meal was ready, he carried the steaming plates of food and wine up the stairs to Arianne’s room. He knocked, but no answer.
“Arianne?” He called a little louder.
Edin pushed open the door, the antechamber was empty and the fire was out.
In her chamber, the dual hearths were roaring and the large chamber was warm going on sweltering. The large duvet and soft comforter looked to be untouched on her bed.
“Princess?” Edin called again. The chair she had been sitting in the night before felt cold to the touch.
The door to her wash room was open, his heart beat as he moved closer to it. The thought of her standing before him without clothes made his heart skip. A smile on her luscious lips, her blonde hair barely covering her breasts, her perfect ivory skin shimmering with a sheen of crystal water…
Edin swallowed. “Princess?” Edin called out as he walked toward the door. Still no answer. Where was she? He peaked in, it was empty.
He set the food down and left. A few steps into the hallway he heard quiet sobs. Following the sound, led him into her father’s room. A low light penetrated the stained-glass casting colorful oblong shapes on the pedestal and stone floor.
The sobbing continued softly from the direction of the canopy bed. He quietly stepped around a few things before he saw a lump lying on the edge of the great bed.
“Arianne?” he said quietly, the sobbing stopped for a moment and he heard a sniffle from beneath the blankets. “I made dinner.”
Edin rested a hand on the top of the lump, he wasn’t sure what part of her it was but hoped she wouldn’t hit him with a tornado.
She pulled back the covers and looked up at him through tear-stained eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“I found a letter in the Grand Master’s chambers… in your room.”
“My room?” Edin said slightly upset. It was an invasion of privacy like her looking for streaks in his undertrousers.
“It’s from my father,” she said, the smell of wine and her purple and black tongue said she was quite inebriated. “It was dated the fifty-second day of the year forty-eight eighty. It was the last day I can recall before I woke.”
Edin reached down and rested his hand on hers.
“Every noble who wasn’t a mage rose against us, everyone. I’d known many of them my entire life, I knew their families, their children. Even Ellorna de Yaultan, she wasn’t a mage but we were like sisters. Her father, the Baron de Yaultan, he attacked and murdered my uncle.”
De Yaultan. Edin swallowed. “I’m sorry…” Was that his ancestor? Was he from a family of traitors?
“It’s the wine,” she said looking at him through puffy eyes. “I’m not like this usually. You made dinner? How nice.” Her words were coming fast, she grabbed her wine glass and took a drink smiling with purple lips.
“It’s pal-ella,” Edin said hoping he was getting it correct.
“Pah-ey-luh?” she said enunciating the word.
“Maybe.”
“It feels like I haven’t had that in a thousand years.” Arianne joked. It seemed forced.
She made him wait in her antechamber while she changed into something more appropriate for dinner. It took almost a half hour before she opened the door to let him in. She was dressed in a tight-fitting shimmering gown that accented her eyes. Her hair was flowing down her back with a sparkling tiara in it. The puffy redness from her eyes was gone.
They set up a table and ate with little small talk. She offered a few satisfied groans, but he wasn’t sure if they were real or just for show.
“That was delicious,” Arianne said as she slid the plate with few morsels remaining away. “And very kind Master Edin.” She paused and wiped her mouth softly with a white cloth. “It comes to me that I know nothing about you… beside the fact you’re from Yaultan. What brings you here? Where is your family… I want to-”
“I have no family,” Edin interrupted. “Like you I am orphaned. As to how I got here… it’s a long story.” He sighed.
“We have time.” She smiled and pressed into her big chair. He spoke at length and she was a good listener. That surprised him, he thought she was the type of person who’d interrupt every moment.
Edin spoke of the journey and where he was headed, the Isle of Mists, he left out the she-elf, Arianne clearly hated the race. He also didn’t speak of his nobility. What if he was descended from the Baron of Yaultan… She shouldn’t hold him responsible, but he knew in grief, rational thoughts were rarely so coherent. Berka was proof of that.
Edin was able to hold back tears when he spoke of his mother, Kes, Grent, Dephina, and Master Horston.
When he spoke of Frestils and Fali she laughed.
“Two women were sweet on you then they became appalled by you?” she asked when he told of fleeing Frestils. “You have a way with the ladies. I can see where they’re coming from. You do have an istolli quality.”
“Istolli?” Edin asked with a furrowed brow.
She seemed to be thinking, “repellant. Yes, that is correct.”
“Thank you,” Edin said flatly.
She winked at him in a way that reminded him of the bard. Her eyes began wandering around the room. “I do not wish to stay here anymore,” she said sighing. “I’d like to come with you, your Isle of Mists. It sounds like Delrot, though it wasn’t a sanctuary nor a school in my time. It was a place for arcane experimentation. Very dangerous and kept far away from the populous.”
“You want to come?”
“I can’t stay here forever… and my kingdom is gone… if what you’re telling me is true.”
Edin nodded, he didn’t know what to say. He promised his mother he’d go. Could he even find Ashica? Afford passage? There were many items of value here, gold and silver, but he couldn’t have her sell her family’s things. Edin’s mind was foggy from the wine.
“I need more wine,” Arianne said and pushed herself off the couch before stumbling and falling onto him.
He reacted trying to catch her, a hand landed on her brest. Through the thin dress he felt her warm body and something perky, her nipple under it. Edin swallowed.
“Sir, you need to remove your hand,” Arianne said. “I’m a princess.”
“I am sorry, princess,” Edin said letting go and quickly averting his eyes.
> “I think this wine is a little strong.”
“You haven’t had a sip in a thousand years, I would suggest you are a lightweight.”
“A lightweight? Are you saying you think I’m fat?” She scowled.
Oh god, Edin thought, he didn’t follow the logic but experience told him to deny. “No… I’m not, you just get drunk easier.”
She frowned and suddenly jammed a finger in his face, “I think I’m ready for bed. Please excuse yourself.”
Edin hesitated for a moment trying not to yield to the powerful stare. Then he bowed his head and nearly ran from the room. The wine made his equilibrium feel off as he moved through the corridor.
As he walked, firelight began to spring from the sconces. What happened? He wondered as he walked back toward his room.
He tried laying down, but felt the room spinning. He needed air… or to vomit. Edin stumbled toward the stairwell and looked out the large window at the swaying mountains. Actually, he was swaying… The storm had passed and a cool air brushed over him settling his mind and his stomach.
Something told him to climb the tower and to get the view from up there. He did.
The tower stairwell spun at least three times in his ascent before ending at a wooden ladder. Edin was tired and a bit out of breath when he reached it. On the wall next to the latter was a small metal pole like the one that lit the sconces in the subterranean floors. He lifted it and heard a clicking and light shown from above.
Edin climbed it to a windowless circular room with a conical roof. In the center of the room was a large stand with a metal bowl filed with water at the center.
He set his wine glass down on the rim and stared into it. Around the edges were raised stone symbols he couldn’t recognize.
“The mage relay.” He said and ran his fingers around one. The curvy lines glowed blue for a moment then disappeared back to the gray stone. Edin ran his fingers around the rim of the bowl causing a soft hum. Nothing else happened.
On the wall he noticed more highborn words with symbols below. They were the same as the ones around the bowl. Each word had three symbols in a certain order. He looked at the first one and turned his attention to the bowl. He got the feeling it was some sort of code. An order to press…
He touched the three symbols in order. They glowed blue and a feeling of static began to pulse through the air. The water seemed to swirl as if it were headed down a drain.
A moment later, the blue faded and the water became still again.
Edin tried again with the second unknown sequence. Three new symbols turned blue and the room filled with the pulse. Dark shapes appeared in the water, swirling like fish beneath a rippling stream. He felt the hair on his neck stand.
A jolt ran through his body for an instant. His body seized as a bolt of lightning leapt out of his hand and flickered into the water. Everything went black for a moment and suddenly he felt as if he were being thrust through a whirling tornado. The wind around him constricting. His eyes stung like he’d dipped them into lemon juice.
The black turned gray ahead of him and then he could see a black dot growing larger. He tried to move, to fight it. A scream came from his body but he heard nothing else.
A blue ring appeared in the center of the dot, he was rushing toward it as fast as if he’d just leapt from the mountain. Edin shut his eyes trying to will away the pain.
It grew more powerful like a hot poker in his orifices… all of them.
Then he felt nothing. Everything just disappeared. He thought he opened his eyes, but it seemed like they were shut. It was dark.
He couldn’t feel his body, he wasn’t breathing, there was no breath, no lungs. His heart thumped… if he had a heart.
“Hello?” he said. The sound of his voice echoed in his brain, only a little stranger. It was like yelling under water.
The feeling of an electric current ran through him and suddenly he was falling again through the blackness. A red orb appeared in front of him and he was diving head first toward it.
The orb got closer and he went through. He blacked out for an instant before he realized he’d stopped and was looking at a physical room.
The room looked like the one he’d just left. Just like it except for one thing...
The eerie glow of a ghost moon poured through a narrow window. And the moon seemed to have shifted somehow.
Then he realized he was somewhere else. The relay… it worked.
A smile crossed his face. “Hello?” Edin said, “is anyone here?” Shadows lurked in the corners.
Across a water-filled bowl from him, was a single wooden door, but there was nothing else in the room. Where was he? Was this the Isle of Mists?
Would another magus come through the door and tell him to come to them? Tell him he’d be safe. Edin took a step, but didn’t feel the ground beneath his feet. He glanced down and saw a smoky figure where his body should’ve been… as if he were a spirit.
Of course, he thought, his body was back at the castle.
Edin moved to the door and reached his hand toward the handle. And then through it. He couldn’t touch it. The physicalness, everything that was Edin in body… was gone.
He put his palm to the door, hoping he could just slip through as he’d heard ghosts did. The door stopped him like a brick wall. Edin moved to the window and peered outside. Probably something he should’ve done at first.
A moment later, he regretted it. His mind went dizzy, as he stared out from the window at a grid-like pattern of streets far below. They emerged from the darkness at least five hundred feet below him. Fires stood out like little drops of blood on a snow fall. Edin looked away and tried to grab the wall to steady himself. Edin closed his eyes for a moment before he looked again.
Was this the Isle of Mists? It looked like a city. Tiny people moved on the streets below. Edin was a giant looking at ants.
Straight down the wall, torches lit a large square with more ants walking across it. He only barely made out the reflections off their bald heads.
“Por Fen… the citadel,” he whispered.
“Correct young magus,” a voice called from behind him. “I see you’ve made it to Erastio’s Rise. For the longest time we had thought it destroyed…”
Edin turned toward the sound. On the other side of the dish stood a man with hunched shoulders and a hood covering his face. He wore deep black robes of some fine cloth that Edin could only guess at.
Old white hands reached out and slowly dropped the hood revealing a wrinkled face and shaved head. The man’s thin lips held a malevolent grin as dead hazel eyes stared at him. The same color as his own… but his didn’t feel that way.
On his lapel was a white Por Fen monk badge.
A sense of dread came over him and Edin dropped his eyes to the bowl between them. He felt as if his throat clamped. The bowl held nothing but dark water. Panic came over him, he had no sense of how to get back inside.
“Inquisitor de Demar,” Edin said looking back to him.
The man nodded slowly, the deep wrinkles waddled on his forehead. “There is little light where you are,” he shook his head, “I hear relaying in the dark can be dangerous. Difficult to find your way back.”
“You…” He gulped without actually swallowing. “Can see me?” Edin asked. If he could feel his heart, he would be sure it was racing.
The man inclined his head in a slow manner that sent chills down Edin’s spine.
“By the by, my name is Diophin Gray, master of the order, protector of the church, gods and men. I, the hunter, believe it is good to know one’s prey.”
“Prey? Like you want to eat me?” Edin said. “Gods, how many of you creepy blotards want to eat humans? You’re closer to dematians than man!”
“I do not…” The Inquisitor seemed to shift awkwardly. “No that is not what I meant… It is our sacred duty to protect and to serve the people and gods… abominations must die and you will not get away... unless…”
“I alread
y destroyed Merik and his lackeys-”
“Merik is not dead. Though he has been reassigned. We have others… many and they hunt you like a wolf does a fawn. It is made all the easier with your mind trapped.”
His mind trapped? It took a moment, he looked at the bowl again… was he? Edin wasn’t trained in anything mystical… everything he did was on instinct…
Then he thought about the keep, his body. The place had been hidden for generations.
“You’ll never find it.”
“Well that is not entirely the case but you’ll never know. You’re trapped.” A grin came over his wretched face. “Soon you will dissipate and wake in the land of Yio Volor where your soul will be torn by the Darkness most befitting your kind.”
Edin glanced around the room. There was much certainty in the Inquisitor’s face… he was old and had done this his entire life.
Arianne, he thought. He had to get out and tell her but suddenly he was feeling almost lost. Like he was losing track of what happened, the order of events, where he was. The room seemed to float in and out of light. What happened to him?
He saw the dark room in the tower. Then back to Inquisitor’s… His mind went to Arianne, would she find him? Did Edin himself lead the Por Fen to the keep or was the man trying to bait him into revealing something?
The smile on the man’s face grew. They were coming. Edin’s stomach would’ve dropped if he had one.
Edin clenched his fists, he could almost feel them as if they were coming into existence. A humid air began to caress his checks and his arms. He thought about the man in front of him. The death in those eyes, the souls he’d condemned, mothers torn from their child, families ripped apart… people annihilated if anyone shows the slightest bit of the so-called taint.
“You claim you’re a man of the gods. You hunt down mothers and daughters, fathers and sons... You’re just a wicked ugly blotard.” Edin spat, “If the gods didn’t want people like me, they wouldn’t create us… you are wrong, you are evil, and you will be punished.”
“You were formed to test humanity.” His voice was calm but cold. It was as if Master Horston was lecturing. “Like your mother, like your former love. They were tainted because of you. Maybe if you would’ve faced your punishment, Merik would’ve let them live.” The man shrugged, “you killed both for an extra few months hiding in forests and sleeping in plains and running to a dead mountain keep... Your life is over, you just don’t know it yet.”