by Peter Plasse
“Oh Iqbal,” she said. “Would that I saw things as clearly as you.”
“Any time, old friend, any time. Now I will sleep. You know what to do. Go now and speak to him. You know what to say. Go now.”
He began to snore softly. As they were speaking, he had mentally checked all the spells set to secure Elsie’s home. They were all good, so he drifted off.
“How interesting that his very last statement was an order,” she thought. “Not a polite request, but an order. ‘Go now’.” She wondered if that had been by design.
She smiled at the realization that it undoubtedly was.
Chapter 24
Anyone would agree that it’s tough to live every moment of your life in fear that you’re about to die - when there might be danger behind every tree, under every bush, around every bend in the roadway - when every shadow might suddenly transform itself into some hideous creature and rip you to shreds.
This was the mindset of Gracie and Ryan as they dodged patrol after patrol on the footpath to Salem. The closer they had come to the outskirts of the town, the more they had been forced to hide off of the main trail, Fury’s nose proving more than once to be far more trustworthy than Ryan and Gracie’s alternating fore-and-aft scouting tactics. Over and again it was all they could do to get off and into the scrub, after hastily covering their tracks, and lay down to avoid discovery. Once, they thought the voices were Human, but surely did not take the chance of revealing themselves.
Far off down the path in front of them a stick snapped. They both heard it, clear as a bell. Once again they hurriedly swept their tracks, backed off of it, and lay down with the big horse. Once again a patrol passed by going north. Gnomes to be sure, by the chatter, but perhaps Trolls as well. Neither risked a look.
Gracie buried her face in the forest floor, thinking, “This has got to end.”
In a few minutes the war party had passed. They, like those that had thus far passed before them, seemed pressed to move as quickly as possible. This was fortunate because, while they had both worked hard at concealing their whereabouts, had the soldiers not been so determined to hurry along, they might have cast a more discerning eye on the pathway and discovered them. But for the moment they seemed, once again, safe.
“Now what do we do?” she muttered. “We seem to have no plan.”
“Any suggestions?” asked Ryan.
Fury’s ears pitched sharply forward and his body tensed. He shifted back and forth.
Out of the trees strode Lightning and Thunder.
By the looks of them they had not had an easy journey as of late. Both were filthy, their fur was matted, and they looked thin. Fury fairly danced his way over to them, nuzzling each in turn.
Ryan and Gracie exchanged broad smiles, for while they had no plan, perhaps the horses had one. They each said hello to their equine friends and rubbed them down to the point that they looked at least halfway acceptable, then Thunder and Lightning led them back through the woods in the direction from whence they had come.
With the arrival of dusk, and now under the dense canopy of the trees overhead, the darkness wrapped around them like a blanket. The horses plodded steadily onward.
There could be no doubting it. They had a plan.
“There is something you need to know,” said Jared. “It’s very important.”
Doreen finished up her dinner of trout, cooked with wild onions and seasoned with wild garlic. “Another awesome boat meal,” she thought, and as soon as she thought it, she wondered where it had come from. They were not on a boat, and come to think of it, she could not remember ever having been on a boat.
“That,” she said, “was great. I want you to teach me how to find these wild plants and spices you’re so good at finding, Jared. I mean it’s one thing to cook food so that you can survive. But then again, you could eat the food raw and survive … ”
“Doreen,” interrupted Diana, “Let Jared finish. This is important.”
Jared busied himself with clearing and scraping the dinner plates, all painstakingly hand carved from forest wood, readying them for Diana to take down to the stream for cleaning.
She gathered them up and went on her way, nodding a firm, “Yes,” to him.
He took a deep breath. This was not going to be easy.
“It’s like this. You don’t know who you are, or where you’re from, and neither do we. But I believe I, we, know why you’re here.”
“Oh really,” said Doreen. “And how do you know this?”
“Before we found you, we ourselves had narrowly escaped from a war party of Gnomes that burned my cabin to the ground.”
“I’m sorry,” Doreen interrupted.
“Thank you,” said Jared, patiently. “But, as I was going to say, in the cabin before it was burned, I had a collection of books. You know what books are, right?”
“Of course,” said Doreen.
“Good. All right. Many years ago here on Inam'Ra, centuries ago, there was some sort of Great War. It must have been a cataclysmic thing, and most of the world was destroyed. Anyway, not long after that it was decided by the leaders of the peoples who managed to survive that books would henceforth be illegal. Not reading or writing, mind you, but it was decided that no writings of any sort could ever be bound together in the form of a book. I don’t know why, but I assume they must have concluded that the act of binding written works together was somehow linked to, or maybe causative of, the Great War. So they were declared illegal, contraband, the possession of which would be associated with stiff penalties.
“But my father decided when he was a young man that this was a foolish notion, a thoroughly ridiculous notion. He ended up dedicating his entire life to tracking down any of the books that had survived the bonfires, and assembled a pretty large collection which, to make a long story short, I ended up with.
He paused and she nodded for him to go on.
“One of the books Father left me was a book on prophecy. Do you know what prophecy is?”
“You mean, like, predicting things?”
“Correct,” he said. “And in this book of prophecy, you are named as the one who will come to us and deliver us from this dark age of war.”
There. He had said it. He watched her reaction and was surprised that there didn’t seem to be one. She just kind of sat there. Here he had told her that she had been professed to be the savior of the planet from the scourge of war, into which it had yet again descended, and she was not in the least bit fazed.
“Get out,” was all she said.
“Doreen.” He glanced around them, at the mountains that soared upwards and disappeared into the moonlit night sky, at the entrance to the cave that they were occupying as their temporary home. “We are out.”
“No,” she muttered, “That’s not what I meant. It’s an expression where I come from.”
Diana returned with the clean serving plates. Placing them carefully in their packs, she sat to join them.
“Did you tell her?” she asked.
“I did,” he said.
“Do you understand the significance of this, Doreen?”
“Of what? And stop talking to me like I was six years old. That I’m in some book that predicted I would come here to save the planet?”
“So you haven’t told her.”
“Not the second part,” he said. “Doreen, the actual Prophecy goes like this. I think you should hear it. It will help.”
He closed his eyes. By the flickering of the flames of the Burnfast, his face had a decidedly green caste. It was eerie.
“There will come a dark time when the Trolls will be led by one with a heart as black as the darkest night. Under his command they will subjugate the Gnomes. The Gnomes will then fight with them as the only means to their survival. Together, then, they will try to eliminate every remaining Human, Elf, and Dwarf from our world, and they will never stop until this they have done. Nothing done by those that survive the first assault will matter, except to forestall
the inevitable, for the force that hunts them will be too great. The final attack will come in the spring after the fall of the Great Wall. Left to themselves, all will perish.
“But from beyond the stars there will arrive a lost girl, on the verge of womanhood, in the great reaches of the Ravenwild forests, who can be their savior if she is herself first saved. She will travel to the Enchanted Northland, spelled since the time of the Great War by twelve great wizards, whose bones will have long since turned to dust, but whose sorcery will never weaken nor fail. There she will match wits with the Dukkar, a creature given life from lifelessness by the power of those same twelve wizards, and if successful, she will come to possess a talisman that will give her more power than has ever been seen on this world, since even before the Great War.
“If she fails, all is lost.
“She will be recognized by those who save her by the blood-red gemstone that she wears on her neck, on the finest of golden chain. It will be in the shape of a heart, and two serpents will wrestle at its center. Take great care with this precious stone, for it will be how she finds her way home.”
Doreen fiddled with her stone pendant. She was trying to remember what the doctor had said to her about it when she was a captive in the fortress in Ghasten, and about not being from this world.
“That’s it?” she asked. “How did you ever remember that whole thing? Did you memorize all of the books your father left you as well as that?”
Jared nodded, saying, “Well, not all of them. But many of them, yes.”
“Well, I’m impressed,” said Doreen.
Diana was staring at her. Doreen turned to her. “And you,” she said, “you need to lighten up. And please stop asking me if I can remember who I am, and where I’m from. It’s annoying. If I do remember, you’ll be the first to know.
“Just because some guy in a cave, who’s living with some girl who claims to be some sort of runaway princess, tells me it’s my job to save the world … Doesn’t mean a thing to me.”
Diana was obviously confused about what Doreen was saying.
“Are you saying you won’t go?” she asked.
“Hey,” Doreen barked, “Didn’t I tell you, like two seconds ago, that you needed to lighten up? Man, talk to her Jared, will you?” She stood up, wrapping herself tightly in her newly fashioned buckskin wrap, and walked down to the stream.
As she sat there, listening to the soft gurgle and bloink of the stream’s voice, a vague and distant memory stirred deep inside her. This same sound had been a part of her everyday life when … when … It receded again. She knelt. It was real. Someday she would remember. This was the closest she had come to having an actual memory from her previous life. She found herself fiddling with her stone again. She slipped the chain over her head and stared at it for a while ...even running her finger softly over the two snakes, that were wrapped tightly around the staff in the middle of the gem, seemed to fit. She smiled. She would remember. Someday. She knew it.
Meanwhile, she would go on this stupid quest and meet this dungaree guy, or whatever he was called, and why not? Anything would beat living in a cave for the rest of her life.
Jacqueline was hungry. Hungry like she had never been before. And she was cold.
Cinnamon was out trying to hunt up something to eat, and she couldn’t sleep any longer. Sleep had become her best friend of late. It took away the hunger pangs, and the torture of the never-ending chill that was now her life.
On a sudden impulse she stood and yelled down at the Wolves below her on the forest floor. “Hey, idiots!” she shouted. “I know you can hear me, and I know you can understand me. I’m talking to you. Answer me!”
Franklin, Stefen, Roly, and Dillon crowded together in an impromptu huddle. Snout to snout, they communicated in the way that only wolves can, by thoughts, so there would be no chance that the girl in the trees above would be able to hear them.
“Now what do we do?” thought Dillon.
“Where’s Brutus? Why isn’t he back yet?” thought Stefen.
“He won’t be back for hours,” returned Franklin. “They’re out trying to get us something to eat, remember?”
All looked to Roly, who had guarded his thoughts to this point. “What? Oh, you want me to decide?”
“Somebody has to,” thought Stefen. “Beauty and brains, remember?” They were all way too hungry, or they would have chuckled in their minds at Stefen’s comment. “I say we ignore her. And the first chance we get, we eat her. This is not the girl. Not the one we all heard about so often growing up, anyway. She’s too young, I’m telling you, way too young.”
Jacqueline could see that they were bunched together and appeared to be talking quietly amongst themselves. “Hey!” she hollered. “Are you deaf as well as stupid? I said I’m talking to you!”
Stefen couldn’t take it any more. “We’re talking about how long it will be before you get so weak you fall out of the trees, and we get to have some girl for dinner. It’s been a while since we had any girl.”
“Ah-ha. You can hear me,” she said. “Now we can talk. Where are the others? Where’s Brutus?”
The rest exchanged meaningful looks. She had spoken to them, and they had spoken to her. And they had understood each other. This was straight out of Prophecy.
The Wolves hunched together again. “How did she know his name?” asked Stefen.
“She’s obviously been spying on us,” said Dillon. “Good for her. Were I her, I would do the same.”
“Smart and tasty,” said Roly, laughing loudly at his little play on words.
Cinnamon arrived back, dragging the carcass of a large bird resembling one of the Turkey Vultures that were prevalent in Salem, Connecticut. It was all she could do to drag it from limb to limb without dropping it. “Hey, a little help here,” she called out, pinching the bird against one of the limbs so that it wouldn’t fall, but unable to heft it over. “Now would be nice.”
Jacqueline scrambled over to her side, and together they hoisted the bird up and over the limb. Cinnamon was panting furiously. She was also bleeding from her scalp where the large bird had pecked her. It had clearly not been an easy fight. As she climbed up onto Jacqueline’s lap, she winced noticeably. “Cinnamon, you’re hurt!” cried Jacqueline, stopping her hand in mid-pat.
“I’ll be all right, child,” she said. “But thank you for noticing.” She glanced at the large bird with a look of satisfaction. “Not bad for an old lady, heh? Food for a week.”
Jacqueline carefully set her down and returned to the spot directly over the Wolves, who now appeared to be in a heated debate.
“Hey!” she yelled. “Cinnamon, my cat here, just brought us back a huge bird. If we give it to you, will you let us come down and talk to you?”
The Wolves all looked at each other, speechless for a moment.
“I say we let her throw down the bird, and when she comes down, we eat her and that skinny cat of hers,” said Stefen.
“Jacqueline, what are you doing?” her cat screeched.
Jacqueline crawled back to her. “Cinnamon,” she said, “I know you fought hard to get us that,” nodding towards the bird, “but we can’t go on like this. Yes, it will feed us for a while, but I’m afraid we’ll freeze to death before we ever get to finish it. Every day it’s getting colder. Making friends with the Wolves is our only chance. I’m sure of it. Let me try.”
“Stefen, I’m surprised at you. You would give your word and go back on it for the sake of a meal? We’ve gone a lot longer not eating than this. Your father was pack leader before he passed on. He would be furious if he heard you talking like this,” said Roly.
He looked at all three, glancing from one to the other. “I say we do it. We need to know more about this girl. Until now, I’m the only one who has seen the stone she wears, although I know for certain I saw it. At the very least, we could get her to show it to us. She might be the whole promise.”
The discussion went back and forth for a few minutes
.
Cinnamon licked at her side. “Go ahead,” she finally sighed. “You’re probably right. Go on then.”
Jacqueline leaned over and kissed her gently on the top of her head. “Thanks,” she said.
On the way, she decided to lay all of her cards on the table. “Come on now,” she said, “I know you’re hungry. And we are too. But we can’t stay up here any more. We’ll freeze to death. Please let us come down. And no tricks.”
The Wolves conferred for a few more seconds. “All right,” said Roly. “Throw down the bird, and you can come down.”
“Do you promise you won’t hurt us?” she asked.
“We promise.”
“I need each of you to say it out loud,” she said.
Franklin, Stefen, Dillon, and Roly each promised out loud, so Jacqueline went back to where Cinnamon was sitting and tossed the bird down, which landed with a whumpf on the forest floor.
“Are you insane?” she cried. “You’re actually thinking of staying with these Gnomes? In case you forgot, we’re trying to track down our child, Blake. Our child. For all we know, she’s dead. I’m sorry, but you have totally lost it.”
She buried her face in her hands, rubbing furiously at her brow. When she let her hands fall, the look of rage was fearsome. “Well, you can stay with your new found friends as long as you like, but I’m going to search this whole country on foot, alone if necessary, to find her.”
Blake stood patiently and waited for the tirade to end, or continue. It didn’t matter. He knew he was right, and sooner or later it would end. She had been ranting at him for about ten minutes now and seemed to be running out of gas.
“May I speak now?” he asked.
