CHAPTER 10
Amashanae stood at Geyal’s door. To her amazement she realized that she was afraid to knock it. What could happen? She thought, trying to push the sudden worry out of her mind. Could this be a trap? She picked up her courage and shook the doubt out of her mind and knocked firmly on the door. But the door slid open beneath her hand as she touched it.
”Please enter, my child”, the old lady spoke from the rocking chair, smoking her pipe even while she uttered the words, “Please come in.”
Amashanae hesitated but did not move one step.
“What are you afraid of, my child?” the old lady queried with a curious smile. “Old Geyal? No, you do not need to, dear Amashanae. You do not need to.”
”How do you know my name?” Amashanae asked, carefully stepping inside and letting the door close behind her. “And how did you know Juara’s name?”
“Ah, the great warrior Juara”, Geyal laughed and toyed with her pipe. “I bet he called me crazy, he did… but alas, names are irrelevant here now. I knew you would come for old Geyal.”
”But...how?” Amashanae begun, but Geyal interrupted her with a wave of hand as she got up from her chair. She approached Amashanae with a smile.
“No questions yet. Please listen to me. You are an important one, Amashanae. Your quest for your origins will be a hard one, but I know that eventually you will succeed... for better or worse. Now show me the amulet?” she beckoned, eyeing Amashanae’s cleavage for signs of it.
Amashanae stood still, feeling somewhat dumbstruck. How could anyone know this much about her, when she did not even know herself? And the amulet…could she show it to her, would it be safe?
“I see you hesitate,” said Geyal, looking at Amashanae’s eyes. “Do not be afraid my child. I am not your enemy.” She took Amashanae’s hand in hers and continued: “Old Geyal is here to help. Trust me. Please show me the amulet.”
Without further resistance Amashanae dug out the amulet, lifted it over her head and gave it to the old woman. Geyal took it carefully and examined it in detail, with a very interested expression on her old, wrinkled face.
“Ahh. Yes. Please sit down” she motioned Amashanae to take a seat.
She studied the object for what seemed a long while, turning it over in her hands and every once in a while she mumbled something, letting her fingers go over every line of the amulet. Then she suddenly asked a question:
“So, you were in troll attack?”
Amashanae, who had not expected such a reaction, just sat and looked at Geyal, astonished. But the old woman just stared at her expectantly, so she had to answer.
“Um, y-yes…Goblins actually.” It was a new feeling for Amashanae not to know what to do or say. Geyal stared at her with an expecting smile. “Oh, earlier on? Yes…” Amashanae said. She felt very small sitting there, and old Geyal such a powerful figure. She seemed to be all-knowing. So she just bit her lip and waited. Geyal kept touching the amulet and looking at Amashanae with a curious expression. Then she spoke again.
”Yes, old Geyal knows. Tell me. Have you noticed that there are too many evil things taking place of late. It is raising.”
“What is raising?”
Geyal smiled even wider as if Amashanae had just asked the stupidest question ever uttered. Then she turned her eyes back to the amulet and caressed its surface.
”Now where was I… Yes, it is hard enough to seek…self…but all of this…” she kept eyeing the amulet and begun to trot back and forth in the room, speaking as if she were discussing with someone Amashanae could not see. “The elf is a strong one. I do not believe…failure is… She needs to fight against … No, I am not going…to tell…”
Amashanae began to feel really worried about whether she really should have given the amulet to Geyal after all. Perhaps Juara had been right. What is she talking about? She ran her hand across her breast where the amulet had rested. There is no other way out of this room her mind wandered and she let her hand touch her neck, feeling the sword in its scabbard like it should. Just in case. Geyal saw her do that and laughed under her breath and spoke again in what seemed like riddles.
“Amashanae, your sword is not the greatest weapon at your disposal. Ah, well, here! I am done with it!”, Geyal suddenly shouted and threw the amulet back to Amashanae.
“What? What weapon?”
“Hush. Just watch those hands, child.” She paused and eyed the puzzled elf. “Alright. I shall grant you one question now.”
”Who am I?”, the elf blurted out surprising even herself as she slipped the amulet back over her neck, eyes never leaving the old woman.
”Alas, you’ve asked the one question I can yet give no answer to. But I can give you this.” Geyal brought out a bottle from her pocket and offered it to Amashanae. “You seek your past. If you drink this, it may help. It may not. It may even harm you. It may open a door to the deepest abyss of your soul. It may not tell you anything, or it might tell you too much. It is your choice to take it, or not, but alas, if you take it, you’ll fall into a deep sleep for a day or two and your mind will be open to danger.”
Amashanae took the potion, saw that it was well closed but unremarkable in appearance, and put it in her pocket.
“Thank you Geyal. There is so much I want to ask –”
“Be careful my child”, old Geyal interrupted and waved her hand in front of her. Amashanae closed her eyes and felt a breeze across her brow. When she opened her eyes again, she was not in the house anymore, but standing on the street, right in front of the inn. Her hands instinctly slipped to her sword and the amulet as her eyes seeked confirmation on her whereabouts. Everything was in order. Fool! The voice whispered, laden with frustration. Amashanae realized that somehow the voice had been forced quiet during her visit in Geyal’s house; something told her it would have wanted to speak out but had not been able. She did her best to ignore it and turned back to looke at Old Geyal’s house. That was strange, she thought. But the bottle! She quickly rammed her hand in her pocket. The bottle was safe, tightly sealed. So it had actually happened. She shook her head. For a moment she thought she wanted to drink the potion right then and there, but then she remembered the warning the old woman had given. Better safe than sorry. How did she know…what had she meant? What had all the mumbling about fighting ‘her’ been about? She just gave me more riddles, Amashanae thought. It is best I tell no one about this, she pondered, and stepped back into the inn.
After Amashanae left, Geyal turned around and closed her eyes. A sudden blue ardor lightened up the room and a majestic figure appeared standing in front of her as she opened her eyelids.
“Do you think she will succeed?” Geyal asked. “Shall the realms be granted salvation?” The figure laid its weightless, translucent palm on Geyal’s shoulder and answered in a gentle voice:
“No. This world will be crushed, as it was written, but the extent of it all… the paths are still open. But there is little hope.” and with that, the figure vanished with a gust of wind, leaving Geyal standing and staring at the now open door from which a cold wind reached at her feet. She shuddered and closed the door.
“Go with grace…” she muttered and returned to her chores.
In the inn the mood had escalated into a very merry spectacle indeed. There seemed to be dancing, singing and drunken people everywhere and music was pouring out of the numerous instruments the locals played with skill. It seemed that Juara had already consumed plenty of beverages, and he was sitting at a table, making Asaryen, Elareos and a few locals laugh with his antics and stories. He bellowed out in a loud voice, no doubt exaggerating and embellishing his adventures with imagination. Asaryen, who Amashanae suspected had never really drunk much alcohol, was also quite joyous, giggling and laughing as if having a seizure as Juara went on with his stories. But all this meant little to Amashanae. She only wanted to get some rest, sort out the information she had now amassed. Think. She approached the innkeeper without paying attention to the partying bunch.
“Innkeeper! My dear man, do you have a room to let? I fear there is little I can offer for compensation, but…”
“Ah, never mind the money. Tonight it’s on the house”, he said, producing a key from somewhere as if by magic. ”The door next to the kitchen, down the hallway. Yours is the last one on the left. The best we have!” he laughed. ”Can I offer you anything else? Peach drink?”, and then she lowered his voice and spoke almost to Amashanae’s ear: “male company?” To her amazement Amashanae felt her face blush.
“Eh, no…thank you”, she stuttered. “I think I will just lie down.”
She promptly turned on her heels and left the counter and the innkeeper, found the corridor and the room designated for her. It was rather a small one, but at least the din of the inn was well muffled here. There was a wide bed with a straw mattress that seemed very soft, and a stool next to the bed. There was a multicolored, strange looking rug on the floor. No windows, which seemed a little curious. Amashanae quickly assured herself that the room was safe and stepped in, closing the door behind her. She undressed the harness with the sword, flexed her back and sat on the bed, setting the scabbard against the bed and the stool so that it would be within easy reach if need be. Then she emptied her pockets at the end of the bed. The bottle. She picked it up, staring at its featureless surface, thinking fervently but it seemed that thoughts escaped her mind all too easily and she could not concentrate. She let her body drop on the bed, still holding on to the bottle and found the amulet with her other hand. The noise from the party continued, but it did not bother her. They will do fine without me, she thought, closing her eyes. “Tahlthar”, she whispered. And then she fell asleep.
In the common room Juara was getting quite drunk. He had downed several tankards of beer and almost a half bottle of peach spirit. Lustily, if faltering, he sang battle songs with other drunken men and staggered around the room, jestering with girls whenever he got a chance. The innkeeper had made sure the drinks never stopped flowing. Even if Juara's condition was dubious it was nothing compared to Asaryen’s who swayed at the table, almost passed out.
“Thrs ah gilr... girl who chan't stand peachhspirit” Juara laughed as he looked at Asaryen. “And thrs agirl who, um, can!” he announced and looked at Elareos who had kept off the drinks almost completely. He took a step closer to her, doing his best to keep his footing steady. Then he tried to land a huge kiss on her cheek, which to his surprise suddenly seemed way too distant to reach. Juara banged his head into a support beam next to the table and fell down on the floor. Roars of laugh overcame the whole inn at the spectacle and Juara joined in the laugh. He managed to get back on his feet and shouted triumphantly:
“Anot…her round of dring..ks forr me!” And with that, he threw up on the floor.
*****
Far away in the dark palace the surface of water rippled. Raelia watched how the ripples revealed a crowded inn and people in it and smiled. This was what she was looking for. But how could this obnoxious drunken lot of wormbags be important? Why had the demon lead her here? She closed her eyes for a while, gathering strength, and swept her palm over the water. The water rippled again and the inn vanished. But a new image began to manifest. A dark room? As she strained her eyes she realized it was a sleeping figure…an elf! Raelia’s eyes fell wide open and she froze for a moment in amazement. Suddenly she realized what the Decamod had tried to tell her. She smiled, wider and wider, until she burst into laughter.
”Of course!” she exclaimed as she rushed out of the chamber to find Il’sharat. Behind her the image of the sleeping elf begun to fade away as the water settled.
A tree. The only thing she could recognize for a long while after awakening was a tree looming above her. A quiet breath of wind whispered amidst the branches. For a passing moment the breeze gently touched down and caressed her skin, dabbed her hair and wrote unspoken poems for her mind. Slowly she sat up. She felt as if a long dream had ended… The wind begun to sing a new verse in her mind, but she finally opened her eyes. What is this place? Who am I? These few conscious thoughts seemed to evade her although she tried very hard to concentrate. Rambling thoughts kept pouring in while her mind begun to wake up.
She gazed around and examined the forest surrounding her, dimly lit by an unseen source behind the canopy of trees. It all seemed very normal, yet there was something in the air. It felt like there had been a presence, something very powerful here, just a short while ago. She stood up and put her palms against her body, not so much in defense but simply to feel her tangible self. Then she lifted her arms and closed her eyes as she pressed her hands into her hair and concentrated. But she felt only darkness…
As if involuntarily her hands started to travel down her neck again and she felt there was a sword strapped on her back. “Tahlthar”, her lips suddenly uttered and she felt a little agitated. Her hands continued to slide down her bosom until they touched an amulet hanging from her neck. That roused odd feelings in her mind - feelings she could not quite understand. The amulet beckoned her. It was as if it wanted to tell her something, something she failed to comprehend, could not decipher the message it tried to convey. She trembled and tried to focus in it, but still there was nothing to be gained…
Her hands continued down, trance-like, over her waistline and reached her legs. She crouched while her hands reached her ankles, and that was her posture when she suddenly remembered. Her eyes burst open and the word she then whispered echoed in the forest for a long time after she had moved on; “Amashanae!”
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends