The Shards

by Gary Alan Wassner

  “Is there any chance you are mistaken, Elion?” Preston asked. “Could it be that you misheard his words?”

  “I wish that were the case,” the elf replied sadly. “But I unfortunately am quite sure of what he said. I heard the words as clearly as if I said them myself.”

  “Is the presence you sense here an evil one?” Esta asked, returning to Elion’s initial concern momentarily. “I feel suddenly quite insecure,” she admitted, looking warily around.

  “No, Esta. It does not feel so to me,” he reassured her. “I do not think we are in any danger from it. The feeling is quite powerful though.”

  “I am beside myself!” Stephanie admitted. “What is happening to our world? This is so awful.” She wept softly.

  “We must renew our search for Tomas,” Esta declared as she stood up and began to pace across the stone floor. “The poor boy!”

  “Betrayed by his own tree,” Preston repeated to himself. “How horrible! No wonder he would not awaken. How could he face such a situation?”

  “For us all, it is a dismal thought,” Elion said. “For us all, Preston.”

  “I will not believe it until I speak with Tomas once again,” Stephanie proclaimed. “There will be some other explanation. You will see,” she said to them all.

  “I hope so,” Esta replied from somewhere in the darkness. “By the First, I truly hope so.”

  Elion was poking at the fire and attempting to keep it alive without having to rise at that moment and retrieve more wood for it. Preston sat there with his arm tightly around Stephanie’s shoulders, simply shaking his head back and forth, and Queen Esta paced and paced.

  “I cannot stand here any longer,” Esta announced. “Preston? You are adept at navigating this sanctuary. We must find him immediately! We have not come this far just to give up now. We cannot sit here any longer waiting for him to return. He could be in danger. How awful he must feel!”

  “You are right, my Lady!” Preston replied. “We must begin to search at the least. I feel so for him. He must be so sad!”

  “And frightened!” Stephanie added. “Tomas is courageous, and he has suffered so much already. But I know him, and this must have been devastating to him. I cannot bear the thought of him wandering these caverns alone with this knowledge. Elion, I wish you had told us before.” Elion hung his head woefully.

  “Alas, so do I now. I thought only to save you all from worry. It was a mistake and I apologize for it.”

  “I did not mean to criticize,” Stephanie said quickly. “It would have made no difference really. You were only being kind.”

  “From now on, I will not presume so,” Elion replied.

  “Suffer no regrets, Elion!” Esta insisted. “Your motives were honorable. Besides, it would not have changed things for us had we known sooner. It would have caused us all only more anguish. We would not have guarded him any more closely than we did. He would have slipped away nonetheless.”

  “She is right, of course,” Stephanie said sheepishly. “I spoke too soon, Elion. It was selfish of me to say that. I am just worried, that is all.”

  “But you are correct regardless. I had no right to withhold this from the group,” Elion said downcast.

  “We are wasting time. What is done, is done!” Preston interrupted, though with no bitterness in his tone. “We must find him as soon as we can. If he is despondent and frightened, he could wander anywhere. He needs us now more than ever!”

  “There are three passages that lead out from this chamber,” Esta said. “One would return us to the place through which we entered, and the other two head deeper into the mountain. How do we choose which to pursue?”

  “Do you think he went to find Ormachon?” Stephanie asked.

  “That was my first thought too,” Preston said.

  “It would have been mine as well, if I did not sense some other presence here,” Elion said. “I am sure Tomas felt it also.”

  “He must have! His sensitivities are so acute. He must have gone to find out what it is. But which tunnel would he have chosen?” Esta asked.

  Preston walked to one of the openings, the floor of which inclined upward slightly. His eyes were already accustomed to the semi-darkness, and a dwarfs eyes were far more suited to seeing in the dim light to begin with. He got down on all fours and began to sift through the powdery, sparkling fragments which lay upon the surface, slowly making his way toward the passage, when all of a sudden the others heard him gasp loudly and they rushed to the source of the noise.

  Elion drew his dagger, as did Esta, and Stephanie raised her arms protectively in front of her, brandishing a stick that she lifted from a pile next to the fire.

  “Tomas!” Preston exclaimed, his voice infused with both surprise and relief.

  Tomas walked into the room with his friends, and they rushed to embrace him. Stephanie wept with joy, Preston pounded him on the back, Esta stood behind him smoothing his hair as if she were his mother, while Elion stood by smiling.

  “Why did you do that Tomas?” Stephanie asked as if she was angry at him, though relief was clearly motivating her. “You could have told us you were going somewhere. No one would have stopped you.”

  “Are you all right?” Preston asked. “What happened?”

  Tomas seemed relaxed and untroubled, and his mood surprised them all. After what Elion had related, each of them expected that when they finally did find each other again he would be despondent and uneasy, if not totally anguished. But he was smiling and casual, as if he had gone for a simple morning stroll.

  “Yes, I am fine,” he replied. “I thought not about what I was doing at first. It was as if I was in a trance. By the time I was aware of what was happening, it was too late to return and advise you all,” he explained. “I am sorry for causing so much concern.”

  “What is more important,” Esta began, “…is that you are all right. Elion informed us of your revelation,” she announced.

  The boy’s eyes opened wide before he hung his head for a moment, but he quickly lifted it again and looked at Esta’s face

  “Be not concerned, your highness. I have come to grips with it,” he replied.

  “What are you talking about?” Stephanie burst out. “How could you possibly come to grips with something like that? You must be devastated!” she continued, and immediately regretted her impetuousness once again. She covered her pretty mouth with her hand as if she had said something terrible.

  “It was not as it seemed,” he explained. “There was purpose to Ormachon’s behavior.”

  “As I suspected,” Esta said, nodding her head.

  “None of us believed it could be true,” Preston added, as he gazed knowingly at Elion.

  “It is a complicated story, and I have no facts to support my belief, but I am convinced that the ‘betrayal’ was necessary,” Tomas said.

  Elion stood in the background listening intently to every word Tomas uttered. He was still smiling, but his worry had not fully abated.

  “Elion?” the boy said to him, realizing that he had not joined in the conversation along with the others. “Are you not happy to have me back too?” Tomas joked.

  “More than you could imagine,” Elion declared. “But I know there is much you have to tell us, and I am anxious to hear it. Who else abides in this mountain?” he asked bluntly.

  “Elion is convinced that we are not alone here,” Esta explained. “It has been troubling him since you disappeared.”

  “Tell us, Tomas. Where were you? What happened to you?” Stephanie asked.

  Tomas walked toward the fire that still burned in the middle of the floor, and he beckoned the others to join him around it. When they had all finally sat down once more and they could each look upon one another easily, Tomas began to speak.

  “Yes, Steph, I was stricken beyond measure by Ormachon’s actions,” he related. “My mind was overwhelmed by the revelation. I must have collapsed, because the next thing I remembered I was lying in this very room, an
d my head was pounding.”

  “You did. I carried you back here to the cave Preston discovered just before the storm hit,” Elion explained.

  Tomas smiled at his friend.

  “It seems that without you, my brother and I both are unable to take care of ourselves,” he laughed. “That was no ordinary storm, Elion,” Tomas replied, and his demeanor changed dramatically with those words.

  “We suspected so,” Esta confirmed. “But the cavern sheltered us sufficiently from it. Preston spotted it in the nick of time,” the Queen nodded to the dwarf warmly.

  “The mountain is shielded,” Tomas said. “‘Twas no coincidence that you found it when you did, Preston. Thank the First that we met one another,” Tomas said gratefully while simultaneously grasping his friend’s arm.

  “The fabric weaves of its own will,” Esta said. “Have you something to tell us, Tomas?” she then asked. “As we said a moment ago, Elion is convinced that we are not alone here. Are you of the same mind?”

  “I have sensed the presence of others since we entered this shelter,” Elion confirmed. “Though now the feeling seems to have abated,” he said curiously.

  “Your instincts were correct, Elion, and they are correct once again,” Tomas reasserted. “When I awoke it was not entirely of my own volition. I was ‘called’, much as my brother’s teachers were ‘called’ to Pardatha by Baladar. I knew not why at first, but I suspected from whence the summons came. Even in the darkness, I knew just where to go. In a semi-conscious state, I walked to a chamber that had been warded and concealed deep within the heart of this mountain. There, I met with others of my kind, Chosen, who had gathered here for a number of reasons,” he related to them, clearly unconcerned about revealing the events to his friends.

  “This is quite unusual,” Esta said gravely. “I have neither heard nor read of any other such meeting.”

  “These times are not like other times,” Elion said. “But, would you or I or anyone other than a Chosen have been privy to this type of gathering had it ever occurred before anyway?” Elion asked.

  “You make a valid point, Elion,” the Queen agreed. “Though my dear husband was a Chosen too,” she reminded him.

  “But it was unprecedented regardless,” Tomas said. “Quite unprecedented!”

  “Have they all been betrayed by their trees?” Stephanie asked anxiously.

  “Some have in other ways,” Tomas said candidly. “But perhaps ‘betrayed’ is no longer the proper word to use to describe what was happening. The Lalas in their infinite wisdom are simply keeping things from us all. For what reasons, we do not know, nor will they tell us. But the others have convinced me that Ormachon gave away my location only to force us into this shelter from which, by the nature of the rock and the convergence of power herein, even his vision has been blocked.”

  “This mountain is impervious to both the Lalas vision and the Dark Lord’s intrusions?” Elion asked.

  “It seems so, Elion,” Tomas replied. “That is why they chose this site to convene.”

  The others drew closer to Tomas, and their eyes were now glued upon the boy.

  “Had we not been pursued by that storm, Preston would never have searched for the entrance and we would never have taken refuge here,” Tomas explained.

  “And you would not have found the others,” Esta completed his thought.

  “Exactly!” Tomas agreed. “We would have continued on our way to Avalain, and I would not have had a chance to meet with them. The Chosen could not have summoned me as they did whilst we were roaming the open land. Their summons could have been overheard or detected, and they could not risk that.”

  “Why could not Ormachon simply have told you or instructed you or whatever it is he does when he communicates with you? Why did he have to reveal to Colton where you were?” Stephanie asked.

  “He gained a confidence by so doing, one that was extremely hard to earn. And he has surely confused Colton enormously as well. This is what we all surmise,” Tomas related.

  “Correct me if I misstate what you are trying to say,” Elion said. “Ormachon advised Caeltin of our whereabouts in order to frighten us into this cave so that you would then be summoned by the other Chosen? Is that not a bit farfetched, Tomas? I realize that it must be hard for you to accept what Ormachon has done, but regardless, this seems so unlikely, does it not?”

  “Unlikely as it may appear, I believe it to be true,” Tomas said honestly. “Something is preventing the Lalas from telling the Chosen what they are doing. But, surely they have a master plan that motivates their actions. We know they are dying, slowly, one by one,” he continued. “We do not know amongst us why or what we can do to help them. What we hope is that the Gem of Eternity holds the key, and find it we must if we are to have any chance of saving ourselves and maybe even the remainder of the trees.”

  “Colton wants to find it as well, I guess,” Stephanie said. “If he finds it first and destroys it what chance will the rest of us have?”

  “Little or no chance, Steph,” Preston said. “Don’t the trees know where it is? Why can’t they just direct your brother to it?”

  “The location of the First who harbors the Gem is known to no one,” Elion replied. “It has been so since the beginning of time.”

  “Not even to the other Lalas?” Stephanie asked.

  “No. They do not know either, though they are bound to it in many ways,” Tomas responded. “That was the only way to insure its safety. That is also why the First has never bonded with anyone.”

  “Why is it that now the light is being withheld? Does the First not know the effect such a masking is having on the world?” Esta asked, frustrated.

  “Caeltin has grown powerful. His reach has extended beyond his realm and he may be close to discovering its whereabouts himself. The shielding of the light may be a devastating but necessary result of that,” Elion surmised.

  “And so the Chosen agree,” Tomas said. “And they believe that the weakening of the Gem’s radiance has resulted in the continuing demise of the trees. They cannot or will not live in the absence of the light.”

  “So the conclusion brings us right back to the beginning once again,” Esta said. “We must find the First and thereby the Gem before that evil beast does. And the longer it takes us, the more trees will die and the more our world will suffer.”

  “Exactly!” Tomas agreed. “And Ormachon did whatever he did in accordance with a plan that we may never fully know or realize.”

  He paused for a moment while everyone digested all of what was said.

  “They fear for the first time in thousands of tiels,” Tomas began to explain. “And we may therefore not understand all of their actions any longer.”

  “That is nothing new to me,” Stephanie remarked.

  “Me either,” Preston concurred with her.

  “It does seem logical after all,” Elion agreed. “I was very skeptical before, but there is a consistency to what we have said that rings true.”

  “Yes, it certainly does. But why would Ormachon want Colton to think that he is helping him?” Preston asked, still confused.

  “He would only want that if he wished the Dark Lord to think that he has given up on us,” Stephanie said casually.

  “That’s it!” Elion almost shouted. “What you said makes perfect sense, Stephanie. It will certainly cause his confidence to flourish after his recent defeats. If he thinks that the trees have forsaken us and accepted dissolution as our inevitable fate, he might be thrown off guard, if only for a moment.”

  “Perhaps a crucial moment!” Esta agreed. “And that could give Davmiran and the rest of us just the advantage that we need.”

  “It could also generate a trust that the trees could use to their own advantage later on,” Elion added.

  “What must the Dark Lord be thinking?” Esta mused. “He knows that the Lalas have no more knowledge about the whereabouts of the Gem than he does. And now he thinks the trees, either one or many, are
assisting him in preventing us from finding it ourselves. Thus, he must be convinced they have reconciled themselves to the conclusion that he has been pursuing since he first was exiled from the others.”

  “A natural conclusion considering that the trees really are dying!” Preston noted.

  “And the best way to assure him of this would be to sacrifice you, Tomas!” Esta said.

  “Or Dav,” Elion added.

  “Or both!” Stephanie said, and gasped once again. “Oh, I hope your brother is safe if his whereabouts have been revealed as well.”

  “Davmiran is safe,” Tomas confirmed. “That much I know for certain!”

  “That is a relief to hear,” Esta said. “I understand now why you are not quite so disturbed as you were before, Tomas. Reason and hope combined can be a potent elixir for an uneasy soul.”

  “When hope alone will not suffice,” Elion added. “And in this case, we all required more than wishful thinking. But there is still so much we do not know.”

  “We can speculate forever about this and be sure of no more than we are now,” Preston said. “I say we start moving again and talk on the way. We will have plenty of time to ponder all of this.”

  “I agree,” Esta said. “We should return to Avalain as we planned.”

  “Though I have always dreamed of Avalain, I have never wanted to go to it more than I do right now!” Stephanie said. “Do you think it is safe for us to leave here?”

  “The storm has passed,” Tomas said. “Colton has turned his attention elsewhere for the moment since he lost our trail. He seeks other things now. It is safe.”

  “Have the others all departed as well,” Esta asked of the Chosen with whom he met previously.

  “Yes. They have all returned to their homelands by now,” Tomas replied. “We have agreed to keep in contact though.”

  “Oh?” Elion asked. “This is an encouraging disclosure.”

  “A council of sorts?” Esta inquired.

  “You could describe it so,” Tomas replied. “Circumstances have made it ineluctable.” Stephanie looked at him strangely, and he smiled. “Necessary, Steph,” Tomas clarified. “That means necessary,” he repeated, and she blushed.