Fern continued. “I’ll find four others to make the team ten—I think that’s a suitable number, and we might need some brawn on our side. We sail this afternoon.” His eyes were bright.
“There are two of my women placed here. I think you’ll find them quite capable in battle,” Fey offered.
“Two more then,” Fern said, looking pleased. “I shall head out and find some suitable men for the job.” He stood and looked around the room. “Farewell for now. We will return here after we have acquired the book. Hopefully it will not take us too long. If not, you must go ahead without us.”
Before they could move, Accolon said, “Wait! There is still the matter of the Bright Ones. It seems foolish not to discuss it while we are all here. What is it that you plan to do?” he asked. Everybody turned to stare.
Someone coughed.
Harry cleared his throat and began, “We have no—”
“We will do what we can to help you,” Jane interrupted him.
Accolon closed his eyes and seemed content with this answer. “Your great deeds have been foretold. We can only wait.”
“Forgive me for interrupting,” Emperor Liam said. “But am I the only one who counts just four Strangers in this room? The prophecy speaks of six.” He stared at Jane.
She frowned. “I’ve seen them. They crossed. They’re just not here yet.”
“Shouldn’t we be sending searchers?” Elixia asked. “They must be found.”
Jane shook her head. “You can’t find them. They will arrive when they are needed. It will only be wasting time if we look for them.”
“How do you know this?” Accolon asked.
“I was shown,” Jane replied after a moment.
There was a silence. “You were shown,” Columba repeated, her voice flat and cruel.
“Jane was visited by a mermaid,” Fern informed them.
The council nodded and murmured in agreement at this news. Harry, Luca and Anna stared at Jane but she didn’t meet their eyes.
“Goodbye for now,” Fern nodded to the group, standing to leave.
Harry looked at the two of them, surprised. Fern returned Jane’s look and then nodded, flashing her a smile. “As you wish.”
She stood and walked from the room with Fern.
“Why is she going with him?” Harry whispered to Luca, who didn’t say anything, just stared with narrowed eyes at the door their friend had disappeared through.
Chapter 21
The gathering dispersed to prepare for the voyage. The airless council room was stiflingly hot in midsummer, so Anna made for the shade of the gardens. The voyagers would not be leaving for another few hours, so she had plenty of time before the meeting she had arranged to have with her friends before they departed.
Anna found herself drawn to the basin. She remembered what had frightened her last time, and now knew what it must be. Locktar—the creature of nightmares of which Ria had spoken.
She sat at the stone bench not far from the basin, trying to gather the courage to touch that water again.
“You will have to look in some time.”
Anna started and looked up to see Tomasso watching her from the other side of the clearing.
“Why?” she asked guardedly.
“Is it not why you came here?” he asked carefully.
Anna shifted uncomfortably under his intense stare. “Yes ... I’m just a bit nervous. But I think I’ll be all right now, so you can get back to your ... work.”
Tomasso took a few small steps closer said, “Many are nervous before looking into the basin of destiny.”
“The basin of what?”
“Destiny,” he repeated quietly.
Anna didn’t want to encourage him, but she felt a tendril of dread creeping into her. “Why is it called that?”
“Because that’s what it is.”
Anna clicked her tongue in frustration. “Tomasso, I don’t understand.”
“It is a basin that shows your destiny.”
“The basin shows your future?” Anna breathed.
“No, that’s not what I said. You confuse future with destiny. They are different things.”
“What is destiny then?” she asked.
He paused for a moment and gestured to the basin. “Whatever you see in there.” He walked over and stared down at her for a long moment, brow furrowed, eyes searching. “But you have already looked into the basin, have you not?”
She looked up into his intense brown eyes. “What does it mean that Locktar is my destiny?” she whispered.
Tomasso’s eyes widened in an uncharacteristic show of emotion and he opened his mouth to say something, but a voice came from the side of the clearing, where Tomasso had first appeared. Vezzet hurried over and sat down on the seat next to her, taking her hand in his own. “It means nothing. The basin can be wrong,” he said dismissively.
“You know that is not true,” Tomasso protested.
“Stop it, Tomasso! She’s frightened, can’t you see?” Vezzet said and turned to Anna. She was so reassured by his friendly expression and gentle touch that she felt her shoulders relax. They immediately tensed again when she looked back at Tomasso.
“Soon enough she will face the reality of whatever is in that basin,” Tomasso said, staring down at her. “Look again, Anna, if you aren’t sure what you first saw. Tell us what you really see.”
Anna walked over to the basin. Tentatively she dipped her fingers into the water and watched the surface ripple and move. Once more, blood red eyes stared straight into her own, and a piercing shriek sounded in her mind. Wrenching her body away from the basin, she lost her footing and again fell to the ground. A moment later, she was scooped up quickly by Vezzet who held his arm around her shoulder to make sure she was steady.
“Anna? Are you all right?” he asked urgently.
“What did you see?” Tomasso asked.
“Yes, I’m all right...” Anna started but Vezzet cut in.
“Don’t ask her that! You have no right! You were the one that caused this in the first place. Just leave! You have done enough!” He did not speak at all like an assistant to his master.
Tomasso stared at Anna for a moment longer, then shrugged and walked from the clearing.
Anna watched him leave and felt her uneasiness grow.
“You don’t have to tell me what you saw, Anna. That is for your eyes only.” Vezzet soothed. Anna nodded and let him help her to her feet. The two of them walked slowly back to the palace.
***
Jane walked with Fern through a side gate in the palace wall and came out onto a cobbled street. There were tall buildings on either side of them, and no one in sight until they rounded a few corners and came to one of the main roads of the city. The people of Uns Lapodis had no idea that Prince Fern walked among them, and so did not bother them. She fell into stride beside him, and remembered how she had automatically followed him from the council room, leaving her friends to watch her go.
Jane’s fists clenched at her side and she came to a halt. Fern stopped and turned back. “What are you doing, you silly creature?” he asked, grinning. She looked at him for a long time, shook her head slightly and then continued walking.
“How are you going to pick two more people for the voyage?” she asked.
“I’ll go down to the soldier’s barracks and choose two who are loyal and competent.”
“How will you know?” she asked.
Fern smiled. “Trust me. A soldier captain knows. I would never expect someone like yourself to understand what I’m talking about,” he teased.
Jane rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Walking quickly, trying to beat one another, they arrived at the barracks just a few minutes later. They slowed and entered, breathless and curious, to look around. The men had only recently been ordered to the barracks. They were surprised by the orders, and unused to being confined.
A group of men sat in a large room. Some of them played cards; others were engaged
in fighting drills. They took no notice of the people that entered, oblivious to the fact that they were in the presence of a prince.
Fern looked around slowly, taking in each face. There were about forty men in the room, all young and fit.
A small, runty looking man walked up to Fern. “What can I do for you, sirrah?” he asked.
Fern studied the man’s face for a moment, and then asked, “What is your name?”
“Petr is my name. What’s yours?”
“Fern.”
“Named after the prince are you?”
“You could say that.”
Petr’s eyes suddenly widened in shock. He leaned forward, about to bow, but Fern quickly stopped him. He put a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence. Petr grinned and winked knowingly. It looked almost like a pantomime it was so over the top.
“Petr, I need you to help me. Can you do that?” Fern asked quietly, as though the man was a child.
“Aye, I can, sire. What is it you would have me do?” Petr asked eagerly.
“Show me your most intelligent man.”
Petr thought for a moment, and then pointed out a middle-aged man playing cards. “Goes by the name o’ Corte. Very smart, he is. Always wins in cards.” Corte was sitting quietly, watching the rest of his companions as they laughed with one another. As they looked at him, he laid his hand onto the table and the others groaned, leaving him free to sweep the chips into his lap with a huge grin.
“Good. Now who is your best fighter?” Fern asked.
Petr scowled. “Man in the corner is by far the best, but if I were you, I’d stay clear of ’im. Bad temper on that one. Ain’t much of a talker either, but ’e could beat anyone of us in a fight. Probably five of us at once.”
Fern’s eyes flashed, and Jane sighed.
“What’s his name?”
“Blaise is ’is name.”
The prince walked over to the dark figure in the corner. Blaise looked up, and Jane was dazzled by the darkest eyes she had ever seen, almost black. There was something strange about him, and something familiar in his handsome face.
Blaise had a pipe in his mouth and was puffing consistently. “Aye?” he asked with an edge to his voice. He had an accent of some sort. It too was familiar.
“What’s your name, boy?” Fern asked, though he knew.
“Who is asking?” Blaise asked mildly. The cloak drawn up over his head kept his face in shadows.
“A friend,” Fern said.
Blaise stared up at him closely. Then, in a movement so graceful Jane had to blink to make sure she’d seen it properly, he was on his knees, bowing his head low in a very formal gesture of obeisance.
“Highness,” he murmured.
The rest of the room had seen the movement and deduced Fern’s identity—there was only one member of royalty who stood a head taller than every other man alive. Whispers of awe raced around the room as they scrambled to their knees.
Fern smiled slightly. “Did you recognise me as their prince, or yours?”
Blaise looked up, and said, “There is not an Elf alive who could see you and not know you, my lord.”
Unlike the flowing hair typical of the Elves, Blaise’s was cropped short, and he wore clothes that gave him more bulk than his lithe body actually had. When he stood and pulled back his hood Jane realised that he was extremely tall, with pointed ears, and wondered how he got away with a human disguise.
Blaise spoke quickly in Elvish with the prince. When they finished, Blaise bowed again and walked from the room. Fern turned to Corte.
“Are you any good with a weapon?”
“Aye sire. I can wield a sword well enough. Though not as well as the lad that just left the room.”
“In that case, would you accompany me on a journey in the name of your king? It should not be long, but I suspect it will be dangerous.”
“Nothing would honour me more than to join you, no matter the danger.” Corte seemed truly happy, and Jane was pleased that they would not be dragging him away against his will. She was quite sure that Fern would have made him go, regardless of his answer.
***
Two hours later the travellers were gathered on the dock, ready to sail for the Isle of Guanu—three Strangers, three Amazonians, two Elves, an Amalian mercenary, and a Torrean singer.
Accolon came forward and placed a hand on Fern’s shoulder.
“Take care, and come back with the book. We’re relying on you.”
“No pressure,” Jane whispered to Harry.
But Fern winked and said, “We’ll be back before you know it.” He leapt onto the ship, and the rest said their goodbyes and climbed aboard.
Jane waved from the deck. She saw Anna, and thought of her friend’s parting words.
“Are you afraid?”
“Of what?”
“That ship looks very old, and apparently you’re going a long way. Not to mention everything you’re going to find when you get there.”
Jane frowned and shrugged. “I don’t know. A little. We always used to say we wanted to go on adventures. I guess this is it, staring us in the face.”
“Be careful, Jane.”
“I’ll be fine, An. Are you going to be all right here on your own? I’ll stay, if you want?”
Anna shook her head. “I’ll be okay. My idea of fun doesn’t really include roaming through some jungle. You guys go and have a blast. Just don’t get into any trouble.” Then on a lighter note, she’d said, “You’ll be on the boat for Beltane though.”
“What’s Beltane?”
“It’s a festival they celebrate here!” she replied excitedly. “One of Paragor’s traditions. They call it the lover’s night because they say that on this night, you find your soul mate!”
“Soul mate?” Jane repeated sceptically.
“Oh, don’t be so cynical, Jane. Have Fern tell you the story—it’s very romantic!”
“Maybe for those who actually believe in something so ridiculous.”
Anna sighed. “Oh, Jane. You’re hopeless.”
Jane, now on the ship, laughed, thinking about the conversation.
Jane turned her thoughts to the hurried meeting she had had with her friends before they left. It had been the first time they’d been alone together since arriving in Paragor, and they were all sitting in Luca’s room.
“What are we going to do?” Anna asked.
“About what?” Harry said.
“About the fact that Paragor is waiting for us to save it, and we have absolutely no idea how,” she replied.
“Oh, that,” Harry said with a laugh.
“I think they’re all going to be disappointed,” Anna said.
“We have to try,” Luca protested.
“Try what, exactly? They haven’t even told us what we have to do!”
“That’s because they’re relying on us! We’re the ones that have to save them,” Harry said firmly.
“Harry, trying to save them does not mean we’re going to miraculously save the world,” Anna said dryly.
“But if the Great One really did foretell that we would save Paragor, then it will happen, no matter what we do,” Harry said with a shrug.
“Do you believe that?” Jane asked quietly.
“What?” Harry asked her.
“That we have no choice in anything. That no matter what we do, our lives have been decided; they’re not our own any more. We just have to follow what someone else has said we must do. I don’t know about you guys, but when I think about that, I wonder if we should even bother trying to decide anything for ourselves.”
Nobody had known what to say to that. Now Jane regretted speaking her worries aloud.
She watched the city fade into the distance. Uns Lapodis quickly became just a smudge on the horizon and the sky darkened into sunset. It was another clear night, so the sea wasn’t too rough and the air was warm. Jane decided to go down to the saloon, where everyone was gathered to eat dinner.
She entered the
smoky bar and waited for her eyes to adjust to the light. Ria and Luca were playing their instruments next to the bar. Kindred spirits, she thought briefly, and remembered how she’d hoped that the two of them would meet.
Sitting around a table together were Harry, Corte and the three young Amazonian women. At another table, Fern conversed in Elvish with Blaise. Jane decided to sit with them. She was happy just to listen to the sound of their voices speaking the beautiful language.
But when she made her way over, the ship gave a sudden lurch with the waves that threw her stumbling against the booth. Both men reached out to steady her, making her cheeks flush red.
“Don’t worry,” Fern grinned as she slipped into her seat. “You’ll find your sea legs in no time. At least you don’t get ill.” They all looked over to where Harry was sitting with his head resting against the wall, his face a worrisome shade of green.
“I don’t think he’s been on a boat before,” Jane said.
The Elves lapsed into a silence and looked at her.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Don’t stop talking because of me.”
“It’s rude to speak when you can’t understand,” Fern said. “We were just talking about the Elf country. I was filling Blaise in on the current political situation that he has missed while in Amalia.”
She nodded and waited for them to continue, but they just looked at her expectantly.
She searched around for a topic. “Have you been to Guanu before?” she asked.
“Perhaps I should tell you a little about it, so your ignorance doesn’t get you killed,” Fern said. “No one but the priests of the god Ra dwell on the Isle of Guanu. There is a small chapel in which they sleep not far from the beach. There must also be a place for the Amazonian women to train. The rest of the island is covered with enchanted jungle. The trees glow with the magic in the air. What you saw in the Elvish land was nothing compared to what it’s like on Guanu. How the priests survive there is a mystery. They say it is Ra that protects them, but we don’t really know.
“Strange creatures are said to live there, so we must remain hidden. But somehow I doubt we will be that lucky.” Even though the prince spoke grimly, the excitement in his eyes could not be mistaken.