“It was just a dream,” Tryss whispered. “Nothing more.”
Reeling, he struggled to his feet, and though they moved to catch him, he lurched out of their reach to a nearby tree where he retched.
The three of them fidgeted, but The Daisha watched her elf with deep intensity. When his heaving stomach at last sank into a quivering balance, he stood with his bowed back to them, bracing on the tree with an arm. His voice came quiet and strained. “Just…just leave me alone for a little while.”
They nodded silently, and he stumbled into the dark forest. After his crashing through the brush faded away, they turned back to their camp. But they could not settle there—Tellie trembled, Tryss sat with her face in her hands, and Kelm tugged incessantly at his sleeves. The Daisha paced about the camp, looking constantly in the direction Errance had disappeared and sniffing the air. At last she came over to them and stuck her nose in each of their faces. “All right,” she snapped. “I demand to know exactly what they did to him in that prison.”
Tellie cleared her throat. “We really don’t know anything about what he’s gone through,” she said. “But when something like this happens…” Her voice broke. “I don’t even want to think about it.”
Snarling, The Daisha flung her head away. “If any danger comes near my elf, why I’ll…curses! Curses! The most abysmal of curses on all who have hurt him! May their teeth fall out and may their wings wither! I shall tear them all to shreds!”
Tryss made a sharp shushing motion with her hand, and they turned to see Errance returning, slump-shouldered. He dropped to his knees beside the fire and stared at it with as much heat as the coals themselves.
“Just a dream,” he muttered.
“That’s all,” Tryss assured.
“All?” The word was sharp as a knife, and they flinched.
Errance’s hands clenched and unclenched as if they sought something to strangle. “All a dream? Sometimes I wonder.” His breath came quick, and his skin shone deathly pale in the firelight. “Ever since I’ve met you, ever since I’ve escaped, I’ve wondered if it was real or just another hallucination. I’ve had them before. They’ve spawned from my mind alone or I’ve had them forced on me. There was always something in the enchantments they created that I could tell was false, but they might have gotten better. For all I know, none of this could be real. But then what is real?”
Tellie stared at him in growing alarm as his words grew more feverish and rushed together. She wondered if she should say something, should do something to stop him. The Daisha was beginning to growl in her throat.
Starting to shake, Errance ranted on, “For all I know, my life in Aselvia could have just been a story they created for me, something to taunt me. There could be nothing but darkness, nothing but pain, nothing but—”
“Errance!” Tryss cried, reaching out and grabbing both his arms. “Errance, enough!”
He pulled away from her, trembling, but the Daisha reached out a long paw and caught him against her fluffy chest. She craned her neck around to nuzzle his cheek with her nose. “There, there,” she murmured, making motherly, shushing noises that were strange coming from her predator mouth.
Kelm and Tellie exchanged frightened looks and crawled a little closer. Tryss, after searching through her bundle, pulled out a few leaves that she offered to Errance to chew, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Errance,” Tryss said. “You can’t let yourself start thinking that way.”
“But it’s true, isn’t it?” he whispered, staring into the fire. “All of this could be false.”
“No!” she snapped. “No, it could not be. The Darkness could not have created the love you remember from your childhood, nor could he have invented the adventure we’re having. Its goodness is beyond his creation. This is true and real, and you know it.”
With a shudder, he dropped his head against his knees and didn’t respond. They watched in helpless dismay, wondering if perhaps he was about to cry and if the world might end if he did.
Tryss lowered her voice to a soft and gentle tone, and asked, “Can I make anything you’d like to eat? I can heat some water.”
He shook his head.
“Another good lick across the chops should do him,” The Daisha said confidently.
Errance hunkered deeper into his arms. “No.”
“What about music then? I can play my pipe and…” Tryss offered.
“No.”
At last, Tellie found her voice, though it came out small and weak. “I…” She cleared her throat. “I could…I could sing for you.”
“No, no…”
“I could whittle,” Kelm offered.
Tellie rounded on him in disgust. “Why in Orim would he want you to whittle?” she exclaimed.
“Why in Orim would he want you to sing?”
“Why…!” She opened her mouth, outraged.
“Both of you, silence!” Tryss ordered.
But she needn’t have spoken because in that moment they all went silent as Errance gave a choking chuckle. Slowly, he raised his head and rubbed his hands down his face with a deep groan. “No,” he sighed. “I don’t think the Darkness could ever imagine what you two decide to bicker about.”
Tellie and Kelm blushed, not quite sure where to look.
After that, no one spoke for a long while. They sat there and listened to the mountain crickets chirp, the wind shiver through the branches, and The Daisha’s breaths rumble warm and deep.
“I don’t know what came over me,” Errance said at last, barely above a whisper. “I don’t usually allow myself to think like that. I don’t dare or else I’d go insane. I have to believe this is real…believe or else collapse.”
“You’re exhausted, physically and mentally,” Tryss said. “It’s little wonder you haven’t had an attack like this earlier.”
At that, Tellie’s mind flashed back to her ordeal in the Unseen. While the One had comforted her, the Darkness must have unleashed himself upon Errance in full force. “I’m sorry,” she said.
He glanced up, frowning. “This has nothing to do with you, Tellie.”
Nothing to do with her. Of course. Because she couldn’t possibly have a significant effect on his life. She stifled a sigh.
“Will you be all right now?” Tryss asked tentatively. “I could stay up with you, if you like.”
He shook his head. “No. No, go to sleep. We all need it.”
No one could argue with that, but even when they’d settled back onto their bedrolls, they kept watching as he eased back down onto his blanket. His hands folded tightly over his chest, and he gazed up into the sky without blinking. The Daisha curled up behind his head, griping and cursing the whole while. When she laid her noble head by his own, he smiled slightly and stroked the ridge of her brow. It seemed to calm her and soon she was snoring.
One by one, they all dropped back off into sleep, till only Tellie remained awake. Once again, her vision in the Unseen began to fade. Not so much that she forgot what happened, but that the intensity was less vivid, the reality less believable. But she knew she had seen Ayeshune, the One and Only. She knew this, no matter if the rest diminished. She knew it to be true by one thing.
Peace.
Sighing deeply, she cushioned her head in her arms and fell into a sweet, dreamless slumber.
Morning dawned bright, shining through the dewdrop scalloped leaves. Tellie awoke to the sound of a trilling bird. Stretching, she sat up and looked over the camp where the other sleeping forms were huddled. She breathed deep, filling her lungs with the fresh air.
And that was when she realized Errance was gone.
27
oOo
The nightmare hit me hard. Punishment for daring to think I could someday be happy again. I have been bound too long to live in freedom. What I have felt in these past few days is not meant for me. It is sometimes better to give in first before you are taken by force. And if that is my fate, I cannot keep anyone near me.
&
nbsp; “Where’s Errance?”
Tryss startled awake at Tellie’s cry, scrambling to sit up without tripping in her blanket and braid. She looked first to Errance’s empty bedroll and then around the rest of the campsite, but there was indeed no sight of their elven heir. The Daisha began to bound about the camp, wings and tail smashing against the circling trees, her fur bristling.
“Daisha! The Daisha! Stop, you’ll ruin any tracks!” Tryss shouted, reaching out to grab Kelm and Tellie before their scrambling could do similar damage.
They all froze, swaying with dizziness, and cast anxious glances into the surrounding forest. In the quiet, they could hear the birds and the creak of wood, but nothing else.
“Perhaps he just needed a little privacy,” Kelm suggested. “He’s done that before.”
“He’s also left us before,” Tellie said. “If he was just going to be gone for a while, he should have left a note or something. No, he’s gone, because now we have The Daisha to protect us. Oh, it was that awful nightmare; I just knew something like this would happen!”
Tryss turned, took Tellie shoulders and gave them a firm little shake. “Tellie, you must calm down. Now.”
The young girl blinked at her stern tone, but she obediently shut her mouth and was silent, though her exchanged glances with Kelm were as nervous as ever.
Taking a deep breath and pressing her hands to her head, Tryss forced herself to think, which became a little easier when The Daisha stopped romping about the woods and paced back to the camp, nostrils flaring. “All right,” she said, lifting her chin. “The Daisha, will you search from the sky while I take the ground?”
The Daisha lifted her doe-like ears with pride. “Not to seem rude, little skin-blender,” she said, not seeming to notice how Tryss frowned at the title, “but I’m sure I could handle the search well on my own.”
“I’m sure you could,” Tryss said stiffly. “But while this is not my forest, I’m good at tracking, and while I might be slower than you, more people covering the search have a better chance of success.”
After a pause, The Daisha nodded and then waddled out to a clearing where she could spread her wings and take to the sky.
Tryss turned back and saw the two children looking at her expectantly, the very images of calm and dignified anticipation. But when she looked at them without speaking, their faces melted into worry.
“Aren’t Kelm and I searching too?” Tellie asked.
She shook her head.
“But Tryss,” Kelm protested. “You just said the more who search, the better.”
“Only if they know how to search. You two would get lost, and then there would be more trouble on my hands,” Tryss snapped. “Now stay here and don’t leave!” She hated her sharp tone, had always hated using it on her younger siblings, but it was effective. Both Tellie and Kelm sat with a thump on a nearby log and looked up at her with wide eyes.
She turned to leave, but her conscience tugged her back to their unhappy faces. “Don’t worry,” she said, patting a hand to their cheeks. “Errance probably just went out for some peace. He might come strolling back here any time, and then you all can have a good laugh about it.”
At the sound of tree branches rustled by the wind of The Daisha’s takeoff, Tryss set out on her own search, circling the camp close to the ground for any sign of footprints or broken foliage. She caught one trail and pursued it, but whether it was Errance or a deer that’d been bold enough to pass through camp that night she could not be sure until she reached its end. But that trail led to fern squashed down flat where an animal had bedded, and so she hurried to the next possible path.
The unknown forest seemed bent on causing endless frustration with broken branches and stirred soil scattered across the forest with no apparent reason, and she began to feel wholly inadequate to the task of tracking.
Despite her encouragement to the children, a knot grew in her stomach as she considered why Errance disappeared. If he’d been anywhere near and was not attempting to sneak away, he certainly would have heard their commotion and come back to be sure they were safe. But if he had left…why would he leave? How could he leave—now, in the middle of nowhere, still so far from Aselvia? Back when she had first met him, she’d considered him a strange, callous man, quite capable of deserting them. But now, after these days where their unlikely company had hardened into comradery, she was furious he would do such a thing to them—not to the others anyway.
See them safely to their homes, the Ancient had said. Such a quest held heavy weight to it. When first given it, she could scarcely believe that such an honor had been bestowed upon her, yet she had not doubted her ability to carry it through. She’d pitied the elven prince and considered bringing him and the children back to his homeland a thrilling adventure. But Errance changed her mind not long after. When he frightened her, she’d sworn she would look after the children and let him fend for himself, and that was all that duty and honor required.
Duty and honor be dashed! When he had first tried to escape, she assumed it was only his stubborn desire to go home alone. Now, she was not so sure. If he had another intent in mind…Oh God, let me find him in time.
A dark shadow sailed over her, and a trumpeting voice called, “There he is!”
Startled, Tryss looked up to see The Daisha fly overhead. She broke into pursuit, leaping over logs and branches.
Tellie hated to be excluded. After Tryss left, it did not take her long to begin pacing the camp, twitching her hair, and leaping eagerly towards every noise.
Kelm remained sitting on the log, but he pulled out the little pocket-knife the chemas had given him and began whittling. He frowned at his friend as she stalked back and forth. “Will you stop that?”
“It’s inconceivable!” she cried, flinging up her hands.
“Do you even know what that means?”
She ignored him. “How could he leave us like that? You men are impossible!”
Despite being packaged into generalized mankind, Kelm adopted a reasonable tone and said, “The Daisha and Tryss will find him.”
“They can only go so many directions at once. Why, he could get hundreds of miles away if they took the wrong route.”
Shaking his head, Kelm bent back over his whittling, but he straightened in alarm as he saw Tellie make a decisive turn into the forest. “Hey!” he exclaimed. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“He might have gone this way,” she said, planting her fists on hips.
“Tryss told us to stay here!”
She lifted her chin and pulled the Moon Medallion out from under her collar. “I was given this for a reason, Kelm. I was told to find the next king of Aselvia. Well, I found him, but it won’t do any good unless I see him safely to his homeland. It’s my duty to find him.”
Kelm scowled, but he saw she was quite resolute. “Bother it,” he grumbled, rising to his feet. “That explanation better sound good when you’re telling it to Tryss.”
“I assure you, you don’t have to come,” Tellie said, very dignified.
“I assure you, I’m coming.”
The Daisha’s flight had led to a small plateau at the rocky feet of the mountains. She’d disappeared out of sight on the top of it, but it was not so tall that Tryss couldn’t hear the ensuing argument as she tried to scale the steep hill. Their words were indistinguishable in their effort to be heard. The Daisha roared with the gnashing of teeth, but Errance, not at all intimidated, threw fiery retorts back at her.
When at last Tryss reached the top of the slope, she saw them facing each other near a ledge.
The Daisha noticed Tryss approaching them first. Her head poked out towards the chema. “There you are! Try to speak some sense into this obstinate creature! If he doesn’t get reasonable soon, I’m picking him up and carrying him back to camp—upside-down! See if I don’t!”
His face flushed red with anger, Errance swung around towards Tryss. But to her surprise, as soon as he saw her, the color in his
cheeks paled and pain leapt into his eyes. He turned away to face the cliff’s edge and crossed his arms.
Tryss hesitated, all courage stolen at the daunting curve of his set shoulders. She cast a pleading glance at The Daisha, but the creature really did seem angry beyond reason and had stomped away to the other side of the hill, though her ears still cocked back in their direction.
Now that she had found him, she hardly knew how to approach. Everything she thought to say felt wrong. She recalled the story she’d told Tellie, about the hurt monkey who’d hurt her in return. There was truth in it, wisdom that needed to be shared. But it wasn’t enough. Errance was more than what her fear and pride had been willing to box him into. She could hardly make sense of him, so often did he contradict, yet the glimpses of something beautiful had awakened the desire Tellie spoke of—finding the colored glass behind the grime.
“Why did you leave us again?” she whispered.
She did not know she’d spoken aloud until he answered.
“Can’t a man take a walk without women demanding him back?”
It might have been humorous, but there was such venom to the words, Tryss flinched. “Evasiveness does not become you,” she said, unable to keep the hurt out of her voice.
“On the contrary, it has always served me well.” But his back bowed under a heavy weight.
“What did we do?” she pleaded. “Where do we go wrong? Why will you not stay with us and see this through until our destination? Did I offend you again? And if so, what is my offense?”
Errance slowly turned. “Look,” he said, voice measured. “I did not leave because of anything you’ve done. Tellie and Kelm have brought back life I thought was lost to me. And you…” His gaze dropped. “I admit, I misjudged you at the beginning. I was wrong to treat you so.”
“Why did you?” she asked. “I know my people’s history does me no credit, but my grandfather worked so hard to distinguish us from them, and I—”
Moonscript (Kings of Aselvia Book 1) Page 33