by Gwynn White
Ellora didn't have time to ponder her questions any further because Riesa and Christol arrived carrying the broth and sweetened tea. Sip by sip, the high priestess acted in the role for which she had been trained, that of healer not killer. When Jogli's blind eyelashes began to twitch, she knew she had succeeded in doing what she did best. Gently she raised him to a sitting position and started talking to him.
"Jogli, are you with us again?"
"Yeah, I guess so, but I feel like I have been trampled by a couple of rutting bulls."
"That's pretty normal for the amount of magic you used."
"I know."
"He's not here, and neither is anything of any importance."
"Figured that."
"Jogli, do you have any idea where he might have gone?"
The man twisted his hands and turned his head away from her. "Yes, I do, but you are not going to like it."
Ellora pursed her lips. What she didn't like was hearing that phrase over and over again.
"Tell, me, Jogli."
"The only other safe place for him is where he found me, Thonevrond."
They sat in Vail's chambers, which he had appointed with fine carpets, comfortable furs, and the softest bed Christol had ever slept in. This morning, though, they sat around the wizard's large dining table a map spread before them. Each one of them had a plan on how to reach Thonevrond the fastest. Unfortunately, each plan possessed a drawback, most of them fatal.
Jogli didn't need vision to explain their options. "As you can see the routes to Thonevrond, form a triangle which looks a lot like a slice of pie. The Draekhen Mountains form the outer crust. Marbeht the tip of the slice and two of the routes are the edges and one goes straight down the middle. It is the fastest, but it is also the most dangerous. When we gained access to the Halls of Marbeht, and I think we all were on the same path to the far end of the Draekhen Mountains. Am I correct in assuming that the High Priestess was seeking Maura's cave at the tail end of the mountain range, as was I before, being summed back by Vail and you by the Goddess?
Ellora nodded, then realized her mistake, and blushed as bright as wild strawberry. "Um, yes that is correct, Jogli. What can you tell us about the three routes into Thonevrond?"
"Well going back to that piece of pie on your plate, the left hand side runs along the foothills of the Draekhen Mountains. It is a rocky, crag-infested, boulder-ridden route can't be traversed by horse, mule, donkey or goat. It's also inhabited by goblins and humans are their favorite type of meat."
"Goblins are real?" Christol and Riesa asked together, their faces mirroring their shock.
"Oh, they're real enough and the scamper up and down those crags and boulders like mice in a barn. No one who stops for more than twenty seconds stands a chance because where there's one goblin there are twenty more.
"Oh dear," said Riesa. "I don't fancy that route at all.
"I don't think you are going to fancy any of them, m'lady, Jogli said, and then continued. The far hand right side of the pie is what the local calls Spydiwicky."
"I don't think I like the sound of that," said Christol, who had been carving his and Ellora's initials into Vails fine dining table. He looked at Jogli. "Why is it called that?"
"Well, to start with it's all desert, no water, no oasis, and no water bearing plants. This means you would have to carry in all you water for you and your horses to last at least three days, the typical length of time it would take. Unless you got lost.
"It is very easy to get lost because there are no landmarks, there is nothing except," Jogli paused, and the three watching him didn't think it was for dramatic effect because he swallowed a big gulp of air before he continued. "Except for the Spydiwickies."
"And they are?" Ellora prompted.
Again, Jogli gulped in air before speaking. "Giant spiders, Priestess. The size of horses. They can sneak up on you in silence or they can run you down and your horse too. Then…
Jogli's hands shook and he shuddered, a deep shudder that shook his entire body. "Then they wrap you in a cocoon of spider wicking web, and leave you there alive until they need a drink of water. Then they pierce the cocoon, and then they use their oversized incisors to puncture a hole in you. Finally, they insert their tongues and begin sucking. They suck until there is no more blood.
He twisted his hands, curling them around each other as if washing them clean. "The screams from the victims will haunt you the rest of your life."
Riesa wrapped an arm around the shaking man. "You've seen this, haven't you," she asked quietly.
He nodded.
"Who?"
"My fiancé. Vail arranged a marriage for me. Sweet and lovely she was, and shy. Vail was…I don't know how to explain him. He tortured and brutalized me when I failed with my magic, and then he would bestow things upon me I never imagined I owned. It felt like he loved me and hated me at the same time. I didn't want the gifts because they always came with a price. In the end, I only felt owned by him and I didn't want to be owned. I just wanted to live my life, to make my own choices, to go where I wanted when I wanted to. I wanted freedom. But the magic eye kept me trapped. I could not give up my vision."
He shrugged. "I guess I don't have a choice about that now."
"Ellora will find a way. I know she will. Her magic is powerful, and she just wants to be free, too. Like you," Riesa said, "She is tired of being owned by the Goddess.
Jogli pulled away from Riesa, and turned his blind eyes toward her. "It seems Ellora and I have a lot in common."
Riesa started to nod, caught herself and said, "Yes, in many ways you do."
Ellora and Christol who sat next to them by the map remained silent during their conversation. Jogli revealed more about himself in the last 10 minutes than either of them had known or could have guess in their entire lifetimes. It put to rest any doubts Ellora possessed about Jogli's trustworthiness, and one look at Christol's face told her that he felt the same way.
Ellora cleared her throat and they all turned to look at her. "Jogli, you said there were three ways. You told us about the two outside paths, what of the third, the direct route.
Jogli sighed deeply for he knew that this was the path they would choose, and it was in many was the worse one. He searched deep within his battered and scarred soul to find the courage he needed. At last, he said, "The third way, the most direct way is through the Foundling Forest."
All of their faces, except Jogli's, mirrored the same puzzlement. Finally, Christol asked, "The Foundling Forest as in foundling children?"
"They started out that way," Jogli replied, "but then something happened. It used to be a place where the streetwalkers of Thonevrond used to abandon their unwanted babies. I think they still do. But….but something happened."
Everyone saw his Adam's apple bobble as he gulped for air before speaking again. "The Master, um Wizard Vail has a theory about what happened and still happens to the foundlings left in the forest. He thinks the dragons' natural magic, the magic found in the lakes and streams in the Catacombs of Porthca, the dragons' home deep within the Draekhen Mountains have bled off into the waters of the Foundling Forest."
Christol raised his bushy eyebrows and they joined to form one uni-brow across his forehead. Ellora smiled, she had see this look many time and each time it made her smile. She added it to the things she loved about him.
"So," he said at last. "What does it all mean and how does it affect us?"
"Well," Jogli stopped himself from calling him a meathead and instead said, " for one who talks to horses, even you should be able to figure it out. Everyone knows that dragon magic is healing magic; it is nurturing and caring magic. They never use it for wars or destruction, only for protection.
Jogli's snide remarks had stretched Christol's patience with their blind guide about as far as it could go. One more sarcastic or condescending remark and Christol would show him what a farrier's hands were good for besides shoeing thousand pound horses. "I know this," he said. "Eve
ryone on Mithlonde knows this. What I don't know is how it affects us? Can't you just get to the point? Or are you purposely stalling so your master, as you called him can get away because every second we waste he is getting further and further ahead."
Jogli took a step back from the angry voice, bumped into Ellora and apologized. He couldn't help himself. Christol possessed everything he'd wanted his entire life. Good looks, a straight back, a friendly nature, well most of the time, and a helpful and useful magical talent. He only goaded Christol out of jealously.
He sighed, withholding his tears of frustration over the unfairness of life. "When the dragons learned that the magic had seeped into the waters of the forest they came to inspect the forest creatures. Much to their horror they'd become monsters. Humans can't handle dragon magic. It makes them greedy for power, greedy for life, greedy for every good thing on Mithlonde. The foundlings were not immune and they grew up by killing and eating the weakest members. Yet, the forest is so dark they lost their sight and their skin is so white it looks dead and burns in the sunlight. They are all blind and bound forever to live in the darkness of the forest.
"However, the dragon magic healed that by increasing their other senses. They can smell fresh humans from 5 miles away; they dig traps in the pathway through the forest and wait for the unsuspecting traveler. They possess vise-like grips and all the traveler gets a chance to see before they are eaten alive is the sight of pale white hands grasping at them and pale white arms twisting their horses' necks so they can also be consumed."
"Which route does Vail use the most?" Ellora asked.
"The forest, Priestess. His magic protects him if not the rest of his people. He almost always loses a couple of servants."
Ellora inhaled through her nose, sat straight in her saddle, and said, "Then we shall do the same. But we will lose no one. Is that understood?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned to Jogli and said in a soft voice, "Please call me Ellora, I don't want to be called Priestess anymore than you want to be called his apprentice." She smiled, and even though Jogli couldn't see it, she knew he understood better than the others what the name meant to them both.
Chapter Thirteen
If the darkness of the dead of night had a name, it would be The Foundling Forest as no light entered it from the sky above or from any other source. Ellora had assumed luminescent mushrooms would grown in a forest so dank and dark, yet not even their light was visible. They were only fifteen minutes into the forest when Christol suggest tying a rope around the waist of each of them. They continued tied together and slowly pacing a path they could not see like the blind, wooden horses on a child's toy carousel. Ellora led with Jogli right behind her and a silent, grieving Riesa riding next. Christol brought up the rear.
More than the darkness, the silence bothered Riesa the most. No birds sang, no squirrels chatter and no sound came from horses hooves as the trod on moss and lichen instead of twigs, leaves and branches. It unsettled the horses as much as it did Riesa, and she found herself constantly fighting her horse for control as it constantly tried to bolt away as if running away could ease its fears. Riesa knew she couldn’t run away from her grief. It lived with her, had become part of her, and spoke to her with every breath she took. Stephye had been her lover, her best friend, her all. The Goddess took him. Once temporarily when Ellora passed her powers to her, and then permanently when she refused to help him.
Riesa pondered the Goddess's ways and her refusal to help Stephye, yet she let Ellora raise him up for a funeral pyre. She had taken Ellora's powers away and given them to her, and then took them from her and gave them back to Ellora. As far as Riesa could determine, her people meant nothing to her except as sacrifices in a funeral pyre or as hand puppets to do her bidding. Right now, it appeared that killing the Wizard Vail was her main goal. Anything or anybody who got in her way, or became a hindrance or deterrent she dealt with swiftly and sometimes deadly. Riesa held the reins in her right hand and rubbed her chin with her left hand thinking. The things she'd seen and heard on this journey had given her a keen insight to the desperation Ellora must feel. It's no wonder she'll do anything to get away from her.
Thinking about Ellora's plight took her mind of her own grief for a few minutes, but it also slowed her progress as her mount more or less started leading the way, which took her off the path. It pulled at the rope that tied the group together and since Riesa's grief consumed her, she paid it no mind. The frightened mare turned around to head out of the Foundling Forest. The mare's instincts to escape danger caused it to bypass Christol who could control her with a thought. The smart mare veered west and then south away from the group and toward the freedom it sought. Only the high-pitched squeal of her horse in pain brought Riesa back to her senses, and by then it was too late.
The horse reared pulling against the arms of the blind foundlings that had its hind legs trapped. Soon different arms were pulling at Riesa, and as she turned toward them a bald, blind head rose from the ground drooling, yellow tainted saliva, and gnashing its teeth. The horse's scream of pain and Riesa's screams of terror shocked the rest of the group, which had become as complacent and introspective in the silent forest, as Riesa had been.
Ellora knew before she even turned around in her saddle that it was Riesa's screams. Just as Christol knew, it was Lady, Riesa's horse, screaming in pain.
At first, Ellora look confused and looking up at Christol, asked, "What happened?"
Christol shrugged, and his eyes were as downcast as his shame-filled mien. He held responsibility for the rear of the group and she had somehow rode or wandered right past him. "I am sorry, Ellora, I don't know. I was so busy look down for foundlings that I didn't see what was going on around me."
Ellora kept her face blank and her tongue still. Riesa was her best friend, and as much as she loved Christol, she loved Riesa equally as much. She bit her lip before speaking just as another scream rupture the deadly silence surrounding them. "Can you reach Lady?" she asked Christol.
Jogli, who had remained silent throughout their discussion, offered, "They have a chance if they just stand still. The foundlings can't see and buried in the earth next to the dragon magic, which gives them life, they cannot hear or see. They can smell their prey, but only ground movement that alerts them to the its exact location. If Christol can convince her horse to remain still, then maybe Riesa will figure it out and remain still until we reach them."
Ellora rode up to Jogli and wrapped him in her arms. She kissed his cheek causing him to blush as if he'd never been kissed. "Thank you," Ellora said to him her voice soft and kind.
However, when she spoke to Christol her voice was as cold and unyielding as ironwood and as immovable. "Christol, please reach Lady. See if you can induce her to stand still no matter what is happening to her, and see if you can find out in which direction they went."
Christol nodded, knowing it was better to keep silent until her anger dissipated. But, if Riesa was hurt, Christol didn't think her anger would pass anytime within his lifetime. He closed his eyes and sent Lady images of a peaceful meadow filled with fresh alfalfa shoots and tasty flower buds. He sent her an image of being shod and of standing perfectly still for the farrier. When he felt the calmness within her, he sent a mindspeak question to her, What is closest to you?
A creek on the left, a dead tree with lightening strikes.
Which way were you heading?
Back the way we came only I went around you. I only wanted to go home.
Christol sent another wave of soothing thoughts to her images of home and rich meadows to feed, play and sleep. When he was done, he looked up at Ellora, "They are behind us next to the creek we past. We should be able to reach them quickly."
Ellora nodded and said, "Let's go."
The sudden silence caught Riesa's attention for a minute. Looking up, she could see Lady standing perfectly still even as the muscles of her withers twitched and her hindquarters trembled as if claws were raking them. Riesa then r
ealized that the hands holding Lady's hind legs were gone as were the bald, blind teeth filled faces. She almost screamed again when she saw the raw, bleeding wound were they had tore into her horse's hocks. The hands rose up and grabbed at her again. She lay back, still and quite and the hands released her. She tried it again and received the same results. Riesa sighed, deep and heavy with relief. Christol had calmed Lady, and in calming her the hands and grotesque creatures sunk back into the mossy soil. Motion alerted them to the presence of food above them. If they remained unmoving until Ellora got there, they would be safe. She sighed again; they couldn't get her fast enough to suit her or Lady.
The lathered horse, sides heaving stumbled into Thiline, Vail flogged it continually down the small town's cobbled streets until he came to the farrier's. Hoping off, he barged into the combination stable and black smithy and demanded a new horse. He never dickered over price with anyone. He threw a bag of coins at the man's feet and said, "I'll take that one."
The smithy made a noise as if to protest, and Vail ended it before the words could form by shooting a bolt of lightning at his head. The cloying smell of burnt skin and singed hair overwhelmed the other odors in the barn. The smithy yelped, rubbed his head, and came away with handfuls of his hair.
"Do you have any other questions," Vail asked, and the smithy knew it wasn't a question. Saddling up the paint stallion, he handed the reins to Vail. He stood in the doorway of his smithy and silently cursed as Vail rode away, and sincerely prayed to the Goddess the horse would throw the wizard down the nearest mountain ravine.
The man's curses rolled off the wizard's back the way cold butter slides across a hot skittle. Leaving a trace, but having no affect. Vail's thoughts were far beyond the smithy, anyway, and raced both ahead and behind him. Jogli's betrayal stunned him. He simply could not understand why the young man did not want what he offered him, what he trained him to become.
