by Chris Ward
‘I do not know, but let this kiss last us forever if we cannot.’ And she kissed him long and then they held each other in that beautiful welcoming light as the water flowed down to them, but it did not go through the door but was halted by some invisible force and so the passage began to fill.
And then Rayven and Rema held hands in love, and passed from the land in that gentle manner.
The wily man suddenly remembered where he should be, and taking as much gold as seemed fair to compensate him for a life of unfairness, he ran back to the line. But it was no longer there. In a panic he went on and down and the water was all about, but he came to the steps, and with relief saw he could yet descend. He was wet and cold but excited for he thought, I will be rich to start with in this new place, and he fairly leapt down the steps and stood before the open door and felt it pull him on. He stepped through but could not pass for the gold in his tunic held him back. He strained and fought and began to curse, and all the time the water rose. He suddenly felt angry that once more when things seemed to be his way he was thwarted once again. I will get through he thought. I deserve this much and tried again, the water now high up and so he had to swim. But he could not do it. The tunnel filled and he took a mighty breath to have another try but as he did the stone door swung shut and he was in the dark. He swum up and suddenly knew his mistake. He stood upon the steps and threw the gold aside then dived down and pounded upon the door, but it would not open and he could not pass.
And then others came in boats and found their way into the Palace higher up and wandered through it and spent some time in trivial things just as the wily man had done.
The man who sat upon the steps and cried with eternal regret.
Until he drowned.
And Rayven and Rema passed on into a better place for which provision had been made and the further they went the more they could discern and...
It was far beyond words.
Chapter 25
Words of Wisden
Far beneath the land where the one called Ungarit, lord of lies was happy for those who knew of him, to beleive, this was his realm, the mighty chamber of molten rock was cooling. For age upon age its fiery heat and expanding form had pushed up, bulging out toward the sky, and yet was contained; and one tile of its roof was Revelyn.
And then its time was past; it cooled and shrunk. Imperceptible at first, and then by means of erupting vents and subterranean subduction the roof sunk quickly back into the icy sea; a sea which had no feeling, suffered no remorse, and would be swayed by none, no sorcery or sacrifice, or any other.
But...
Before the land was lost to the waters, sunk forever to the depths of the relentless sea - beyond memory, beyond love and all those powers and emotions which seek against evil to hold all together…… was Revelyn and a myriad people.
Torn from the Great Land of the Nephil, but nourished by the warm Southern Current, it was a land of endless forests and towering highlands, old rivers and ancient memories, traditions and ambitions, bitter enemy and courageous friend. Woven throughout, was all that humanity so long in suffering, learnt to name as strength and weakness, good and evil.
For an age before a sudden passing Revelyn knew of the deeper magic and powers which none but a few who followed still acknowledge ever did exist.
None knew deeper love.
None experienced such bitter regret.
But for the remnant a provision would be made...
KingsLoss
The sea encircled KingsLoss slowly from the east. Tryon noticed first the lower south bank of the mighty Ravalin River one day disappeared altogether. It was not seen again, and beyond he saw from upon the ramparts, a great salty marsh spread right through the forest which then became a growing endless lake to the east. A watcher on the northern road sent word that the frozen lands where the Mamyth roamed were now a sea, right up to the escarpment and he feared that great divider too would not long stand above the waves.
Tyron sent for all the watchers and brought his people into KingsLoss, and he remembered the words of the strange one, Rayven daughter of Sylvion, White Queen of Revelyn.
‘Provision would be made.’
He assembled the people and told them of the land’s travail of which he had known but said little, and great was the grief and then the fear for near six hundred heard his solemn words.
‘But we will be saved,’ he said but they were not convinced, and so dissension sought to tear apart the fabric of their lives. And Tyron grieved and did not know what to do. But the water came higher with each day until the flat lands behind the Fortress by the river succumbed to its voracious appetite. And Tryon sought to know what to do and in desperation he went and sat in the shallow flood by Giraldyn’s grave and spoke his fears and measured his faith. The people watched from higher up and thought him to have lost his mind, but in that time word came to him; he supposed it was because he sat there in contemplation, but then it seemed as if he might have heard them in the wind.
‘Look for my Sword,’ came the word, and Tyron knew that Giraldyn guided him.
‘He had a mighty sword,’ he told Tress his wife, ‘but I recall he put it aside long ago when he first sat in the wheeled chair, for he had no more use for it; others fought in his place.’
And they looked throughout the Fortress for the lost sword of Giraldyn, and Tyron found it finally just as the waters threatened to flood the tunnels beneath. It was lying in a polished wooden box upon a forgotten shelf in a place where the old man used to spend time alone. And Tyron brought it to the upper chamber and with others round him he broke the lock upon the box and took out the sword which shone with an unusual sheen. And Tyron examined the sword and knew then that they were saved.
‘Here,’ he said, ‘the words of our provision.’ And high up upon the blade just beneath the ornate hilt, he read the neat inscription;
Sonder.
Take nothing
Pass safely
When the waters come.
And all knew the tunnel deep beneath KingsLoss and the stone door on which the strange word Sonder had been carved, above the slot which would take only Giraldyn’s sword...
And so KingsLoss sank beneath the sea and when it did, none there remained to see it.
Orcxyl the Great Hunter
Orcxyl hunted wolf and deer, and rabbit, hare and scythercat and bear. He never failed to return without success, and the ghost sat with him in the evenings as he tanned the hides and stitched his clothes. The Valley was a place of change for what once was haunted and foreboding now admitted life and growth; but the ghost grew sad for it saw its way was not natural as the hunter’s was. It longed for some redemption and spent time in bitter regret for the evil in its past. And slowly it came to see that it must no longer tarry in a world where it had no real place, but go forward into the night and see what this would bring.
And so one day it brought to Orcxyl the flat stone which it had hidden from the other quarrelling ghosts and told the Great Hunter that he must place it upon the shaft when it rested in its tomb; only it asked that Orcxyl stay close for a time to see that it remained as dead, or whatever that might mean.
And Orcxyl agreed for he understood that to be a ghost was but a half life in which no real colour or possibility held true, but only more of what had passed with no fulfilment or any joy; but he was sad for he had grown used to his strange but vexed companion.
And so the ghost travelled on into the night and Orcxyl remained there alone.
The waters came to his valley three moons after the ghost had departed with its strange acceptance of its fate. Orcxyl then remembered the words of the old man whom he had chanced upon in the forest long before, and he knew he must leave, to seek out the Varanii and share life with others of his race. He rode west upon his mighty steed and came easily to Svalbard where the great river still poured forth from the deep dark lake. He scaled the cliffs and gazed upon its brooding blackness and was amazed, for on a far shore he sp
ied the mighty floating house the Varanii had left, still lying safe where it had been secured. It took two days to find a place to cross the raging torrent and then he led his horse up a winding broken path and over into Svalbard to finally stand beside the strange and empty vessel. Orcxyl went aboard, sensing the ghost of someone close, and there he found upon a seat the old man who had died in happiness at his people’s escape when Svalbard fell. He took the remains and buried them upon the slopes and raised up a cairn to mark the place, and when he had finished he went and sat upon the very same seat and fell asleep, and as he slumbered the Varanii returned, for the waters had driven them back.
They found Orcxyl there upon the seat and thought him to be some anointed one, and so with joy he was acclaimed, and remembering the words of the old man in the forest the Great Hunter agreed to lead them into the days ahead.
The water rose and the Varanii once more brought aboard all they could, and hoped for some deliverance, for from the top of the Caldera, in all directions there was sea, save for the Redoubt Mountains some distance west. And it was hoped that with the wind they might make for there, but all knew that they had no way to guide their strange craft.
On the seventh day the sea reached the black lake and swallowed the new river which flowed to the east from Svalbard, and seven days more the ship with all its people and many animals and supplies was cast forth from the safety of where it had rested. The wind was strong from the east and the waves no more than a small man’s height; so the great vessel creaked and groaned but rode the swells well enough. But they were swept by the currents past the Redoubt Mountains and close in under the mighty cliffs of the Northern Breakaway, and then on over the Empty Lands lying far below in the deep. A powerful southerly current then took hold and forced them faster still, between the sinking peaks of the Dagger Mountains and the Highlands to the east, until on the eighth day they feared they would founder for the ropes and lashings were parting in places, and the mighty timbers split.
And then they saw great mountains of ice come close and these towered over them and cooled the waters and calmed the sea. And then by some coinciding of three great icebergs which came together in a thunderous collision, they were enclosed and locked in upon a small body of water. And so the ice formed underneath and they were frozen in a valley which on all sides could not be scaled but which gave water and saved their ship as ever south they sailed. But they saw only clouds above and did not even feel the motion of the sea, so vast was the ice which carried them on. Two moons passed and then the three great bergs began to melt and cracks appeared and suddenly in the night they fell apart and with a violent disturbance upon a huge wave the floating house was cast forth, and all it contained; free once more and on a warmer sea.
And there before them, not far off was another greener, warmer land, upon which with the tides and wind they came to rest, and without any loss they went ashore and disappeared into tall pine and spruce, and Orcxyl smiled, for the tracks were plentiful and new creatures everywhere, and...
The Varanii now were truly free and Orcxyl with them, and Revelyn but a memory.
AlGiron
The tiny bird flew on and on without pause as though it knew the value of the precious load it bore. It came unharmed to AlGiron and Reigin understood, for after the fall of the Western Gates some bolder ones had climbed down and found a tunnel unseen before, which went east into the rock and at its end there was a stone door, and at its centre there was a slot and above, most neatly carved, the single word.
Sonder.
On his return this had been revealed to him and also how all attempts to solve the riddle of this door had failed. He thought that this was perhaps the Provision which he had requested Rayven seek, for his people, the Edenwhood, but like all others he had no idea how to open the door. He spent much time in persuading his people that Revelyn was sinking into the sea, and AlGiron too would follow, but it was hard for such a race, indomitable and proud to believe that lofty AlGiron would fall. They were a race apart and had long believed they were not affected by anything which passed in Revelyn below. But as the sea consumed the Lowlands they saw from all around their land that they became an island and the great height above made little difference, for all along the cliffs as AlGiron trembled often, more and more broke way and tumbled down with a thunder and was lost forever.
Reigin told of the great tomb in Fellonshead now filled, and the last great Edenwhood who fought, and why. The wise ones among them nodded sadly and agreed that the time of the Edenwhood was passing, but Reigin could not tell what Provision stood as passage from the land, and many thought in grief it would be by death alone when at last the great Upthrust finally fell.
And so when Rayven’s message came, borne on the wings of such a fragile bird he was greatly heartened and called a mighty meeting, summoning the leaders of the clans from all over AlGiron. And finally the people listened well, and after much debate and reasoned talk they decided to trust the way which was placed before them. A day was set and all the Edenwhood who wished, came to leave by the strange stone door. Eight thousand gathered in Alderyn and plans were made for their passing. They took nothing as Reigin demanded, and one early morning, to the sounds of falling cliffs nearby, the Edenwhood stood and waited as Reigin, the last Elder of their kind thrust his mighty sword, Anderwyn into the slot named Sonder, and as in Ramos the hilt snapped off and the stone door opened into another place, which none who approached thereafter could find words to describe. They passed slowly, one at a time, some hand in hand or carrying their children, and Reigin stood back and waited till the end. He felt the new land beckon him and all the while he stood and watched his people go, until he was the last; but he took breath and did not enter, and turning from the path before him, went back to Alderyn. The door closed as he departed and so the last Elder of the Edenwhood went back to sit with his dying wife, for Cordia had fallen ill whilst he was away, and could not be moved for pain or death, and he would not let her stay and die alone.
Seven days and nights he nursed her well, and when she died he buried her with sweet grief and sadness, and then lived on alone for two winters after, in the mighty empty city which echoed with the memories of the Edenwhood who had lived there half an age. The Last Elder ruled alone until one day he stood upon the great stone platform which reached out over the new ocean far below, and where the shining eagles still soared above. Around him Alderyn began to fall, the cliffs in places gave way to take what remained of the Edenwhood into oblivion. And then the platform shuddered, but Reigin stood upon it tall and proud, and like a statue, remained unmoving, then with a sigh he looked out across what once was Revelyn, and then it fell and Reigin with it... down to the sea far below. He fell in peace and did not fear, for death was but another door, and so Reigin passed from Revelyn in that way.
And AlGiron stood one winter more as the rock was undermined by raging waves and the shaking of the land. And then it too fell; and lay with Revelyn on the bottom of the icy sea, to become a memory lost, a legend fading into myth, which lasted like a mist.
Thule, Land of Ice
The Safeness lost, Farview fallen;, the Highlands sank with Revelyn, and like AlGiron it crumbled too all along its cliffs, shrinking but retaining shape. It was not ever high as AlGiron, so more closely did the sea seem to come to overwhelm it, but when the great fire deep below had cooled and the tile of Revelyn on its roof had ceased to give the water anymore, it was an island all alone in a cold and foreign ocean. The warm southern current was now no more and the wind and salty weather harsher and more foreboding. The volcanoes continued on as if to speak of Ungarit’s fury, and with deadly eruptions and sweeping rivers of mud the land was changed, and those who remained grew less and found it too unforgiving to make life work. The forests died and lakes froze over, whilst the Orax and all the other game slowly disappeared, and ice in rivers and great sheets lay deep across the land.
In four score years the land was empty. No longer did any human feet ma
ke footprints in the snow.
Far to the east the Norse still warred and built their fast and narrow boats and remembered Revelyn, but could no longer find it. And then with two hundred winters gone brave men sailed to the west, tired of war and in search of a more peaceful place to live. Ingolfur Arnarson was the first, a chieftain of the Norse, and after him came many others to try their luck in Thule, land of ice, that rumour told still remained somewhere far across the sea.
And so once more other feet strode across the land.
And then after many winters two hunters climbed a frozen peak and stumbled upon a mighty cairn below that ancient forgotten peak, once known as Algehorn. It seemed the work of ancient hands, for the runes upon it were of a strange almost forgotten tongue; but clear enough there were some marks left carved into one flat rock set firm amongst the pile. Simple depictions not easily mistaken.
A strange bow and a featherless arrow, and weathered words which seemed to say,
I always loved her.
Nothing else remained.
About the Author
Chris Ward lives in Melbourne Australia. He is married to Barbara and is the father of two children, Catherine and Lachlan. He has been an educator for many years and is currently teaching and counseling at a school he co-founded in outer Melbourne. Chris has a passion for a wide range of literature and commenced writing for his own personal enjoyment some years ago. His first book was for his children, The Adventures of Seaborne Morse, published by Horizon Publishing Group in 2009. (See below.) Since then he has continued writing, exploring different genres, and plans to continue developing his skills in this manner in the future.
