by P R Glazier
Chapter 9. Suspicions Aroused
Minervar removed the key from her pocket and laid it upon the desk in her room. Nar’Allia walked over and joined her side; they both looked down at the strange key that lay there.
Minervar was the first to speak, “I really do wonder why the Grand Master is interested in this key?”
“Who exactly is the Grand Master momma?”
“He is the appointed leader of the Keepers in TeraT’Inu’Itil. We, that is Serinae, myself and the rest of our companions met him when we were there. I assume it’s the same person still, for the Keepers are long lived like all the elder races and the position is one for life.” She stared at the key for a while before she then said, “I saw the stonework on the temple while I was there, the depictions of Eny’Nin’Rel and the relationships he has had with all peoples. The carvings are quite moving they are a stark reminder of all that has happened over the ages of the world and what is supposed to happen in the future” She shrugged and then confessed, “but I have no recollection of ever seeing this odd little face there, perhaps it is only an insignificant little carving. But it hardly seems to fit in with the rest of the theme of what is shown.”
Nar’Allia took up the key and looked at it closely, but she could see nothing other than what it appeared to be. Just an odd looking key. “Perhaps someone added the carving on the temple later. Perhaps this is why the Keepers are so interested; they want to find out who carved it there upon the temple.
Minervar nodded with pursed lips, “maybe you are right.”
Then Nar’Allia said, “I wonder what Serinae was doing with it.”
Minervar thought for a while. “Perhaps she didn’t have anything to do with it, perhaps like your suggestion just now; perhaps someone else placed it there. Maybe it was Solin herself that sewed the key into Serinae’s sparring jacket and then left the cryptic messages. It could have been placed there after Serinae left.”
Nar’Allia rubbed her elbow and winced a little. “Well it must have been after Serinae was gone, it hurt my arm when I had the jacket on, so I don’t suppose for one minute that Serinae would have suffered its discomfort for any length of time.” Then almost as an afterthought she said, “you didn’t trust Amndo with knowledge of the key, why is that?”
Minervar slowly shook her head, “I was thinking of telling him, but for some reason I didn’t think it appropriate, strange, for he seems like an amicable, trustworthy sort. I don’t have any reason to be suspicious of the Keepers, they helped us greatly once, we could not have accomplished what we did without their willing involvement. I have no reason to believe they would not do the same once more. But like I said let’s just keep it to ourselves for the time being. Let’s also keep our eyes open for any hint as to what the key fits, or indeed any further information concerning it. But we must keep it hidden for the time being. At least until we are able perhaps to find out more. It was put in the sleeve of that tunic for a reason, to hide it and perhaps be found by someone intentionally, it would have been placed elsewhere if a Keeper was meant to find it, for they would never have worn such a garment. No I think Solin, or someone else, meant us, or even you, to find this thing and we would be wise to keep it to ourselves, of that I feel sure.”
The days moved on into many more weeks. Nar’Allia kept up her daily sparring with Jonas. She was improving greatly to the extent that Jones on numerous occasions had to concede defeat and beg Nar’Allia for a rest. There came a time when Amndo again left the house in Amentura saying that he was to travel back to TeraT’Inu’Itil to report to the Grand Master. Minervar had just about finished going through the house familiarising herself with all that it held. She had taken to reading in the library for hours on end, but could not report anything new about the ‘gatekeeper key’ as the two T’Iea now called the odd item that had been found. Its origins it seemed where destined to remain a mystery. But Amndo telling them that the human nomadic tribes of the rust desert seemed to know of the face, or the Dolan, depicted upon the key, suggested to them that they may also have a connection with the key itself, it may even have originated from that region. The whole thing was very perplexing. Minervar suspected that Solin had probably not travelled very much in the Rust Desert, if at all, for any reference to that desolate place was mainly confined to books by some other authors texts that Solin had translated into the common tongue from whatever language they had originally been written in. But accounts concerning the nomadic tribes and the desert itself were few and far between, even in Solin’s great library.
Oddly Minervar couldn’t find the book that Amndo had been reading that day, the one that had the picture of the little slit-eyed face drawn in it. She asked Jonas, he just shrugged and said that although he knew the library well, he was not familiar with the contents intimately or indeed the book to which she referred. She wished that she had seen the cover and knew then the title so she could look up the book in the compendium that stood upon the dais in the library. She began to wonder if Amndo had taken the book with him when he left, but chastised herself for being too suspicious, instead surmising that without knowing the title she had no clue how to look up the books position on any shelf in Solin's large library and short of pot luck there was no chance of finding the book unless she started at one end of the library and looked in every volume on every shelf until the picture was found. Even then of course she may easily miss it.
Eventually Minervar’s thoughts started to ponder about returning to the great forest. Perhaps Solin knew about the gatekeeper key, perhaps all along she had used them to unwittingly find it and return it to her in the great wood.
She gasped, that may be it, perhaps she was trying to throw the Keepers off the scent, perhaps they would have known she had it and she needed someone else to bring it to her, someone the Keepers would not suspect. Minervar confided in all this with Nar’Allia and the two T’Iea women made preparations to return home.
They both started to get excited about the prospect of seeing the Gel’Te’Ertenya again, but most of all being once more at home with the twins and Iolrreas. The sun was lower in the sky now and the days were getting much shorter, although they were still warm it really did start to get chilly when sitting outside in the gardens of an evening. Autumn was just around the corner and Minervar thought it better they travel back home sooner than later, for if the snows fell heavy this year, especially on the higher grounds, they may well be stuck in Amentura until the spring.
