“Tomas? Are you awake?” he finally heard Elion’s muffled voice sound through the heavy wood.
He turned from the window and hastily made his way across the thickly carpeted floor.
“Come in,” he said, while opening the door for his friend. “I was lost in thought and I did not hear you. Have you been standing here for long?” he asked.
“No. Not really. I thought perhaps you were resting, and if so, I did not want to disturb you,” Elion said. “I was just about to turn and walk away. Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?” Tomas replied.
“No particular reason. You just look preoccupied, that’s all.”
“Well, to be honest, I am. You knew that, didn’t you?”
“I suppose,” Elion replied. “Though I did not realize it until now. Is there anything you want to talk about?” he asked.
Tomas walked back to the leaded glass window and sighed. With his back to Elion, he started to speak.
“I have worn this ring around my neck since the moment I left Pardeau. Until I used it to link with the Chosen before we got here, it has been nothing more than a comfort to me. I felt its warmth and I felt its power, but it never impinged upon me in any way.”
He then turned around and faced the elf.
“It is beckoning to me now, Elion,” he said seriously. “I do not know what it wants because it does not speak in words to me, but images flood my thoughts. Sometimes I feel as if they are my own memories that I should somehow recall,” he explained.
“Can you describe one to me?” Elion asked. “Maybe I can help.”
“You know that I never met my parents? I was removed from their home as a newborn and I did not know of them until recently. Yet, I have been seeing faces and locations, rooms and buildings, that I believe have something to do with my family. My aunt and uncle told me what they felt was safe to divulge, but these images could not be stemming from anything they said,” Tomas said.
“How do you know that it is the ring that is provoking these experiences? Maybe you are just longing for your family, and you are therefore imagining what they and their surroundings might have looked like,” Elion replied.
“I have seen my brother’s face, Elion,” he said soberly, and he looked the elf directly in the eyes. “His blue eyes were staring straight into mine.”
“Now Tomas, I do not mean to cast doubt upon what you believe you have seen, but how hard would it be for you to picture your brother? After all, you are twins!” Elion said.
“He has a need to contact me, Elion. I just know it!” Tomas said. “It is not my imagination. And I do not know how to use the ring to facilitate this.”
“You had no problem communicating with the other Chosen. What is the difference here? Can you not just use the same method as you did then? That is, if you are certain that it is Davmiran who is beckoning you.”
“I am sure, Elion. I am quite sure. And I have tried to respond. Something is interfering with my efforts. I wish I could be more specific, but it just feels as if each time I reach out to and then through the ring, the link that I know is there is severed before it is even completed.”
“Then you must try a different way,” Elion said. “Or maybe from a different place. How long have you been attempting to communicate with him?”
“For the past hour or so,” Tomas replied.
“Was tonight the first night that you tried?”
“Yes, it was. I never thought it was safe to attempt it before. And besides, I did not initiate it either this time. The ring did. “
“I think we should go find Esta and ask her if there is a place in the castle or elsewhere in Avalain that she thinks would be more secure than here. Maybe someone is trying to prevent you from reaching him,” Elion said. “You know that there are others who want very badly to stop you from ever talking to your brother, let alone meeting him. Caeltin’s reach is quite extensive. It would not surprise me if he was behind your problems.”
“It would not surprise me either. In fact, I would have expected it of him if we were still out on the road. I just did not think that he could do anything to us here in Avalain,” Tomas said dejectedly.
“Neither did I, but things are changing every day. We have to be careful wherever we might be. You and your brother are so important to all of us.”
“I will not endanger him. If the Evil One thinks that he can reach my brother through me, he is mistaken,” Tomas insisted.
“I think he is probably more concerned that you will reach him yourself, Tomas,” Elion surmised. “He has two of you to contend with now, when before he thought there was only one. He must have been quite surprised when he found that out!”
“Davmiran and I cannot be together. That would be foolish of us,” Tomas said.
“I agree. But if you two could confer with one another, perhaps there is no harm in that.”
“I suppose,” Tomas replied.
“What is troubling you?” Elion asked earnestly.
“My brother and I are like two lost souls. He has no memory of his past, and I never knew of mine. We are all that is left of our family and of our history, and yet it is too dangerous for us to even meet,” Tomas confessed.
“It is best that you do not spend time in the same location. There is no question that Caeltin would be overjoyed if he could dispatch the two of you at once. But if you are able to talk to Dav in some way, that may ease your concerns, and maybe in time you will also be able to be together.”
“The time will come,” Tomas replied. “But it is not now.”
“Ironic, is it not? I found Davmiran and brought him to my home away from the city that he was supposed to be awakened in. And Cairn found you and brought you to the city your brother was supposed to be in. Does anything ever proceed as planned?” Elion asked.
“According to someone’s plan perhaps.”
“As long as it is not Caeltin’s,” Elion remarked. “In the meanwhile, I think we should find another location within the city where we can try to use the ring and find out once and for all if the two of you can actually communicate through them.”
“Should we really consult with Esta about this? I imagine that if anyone knows where it would be safe for us to go in this city she does,” Tomas said.
“On second thought, I think she has enough to contend with right now. Besides, I do know where we can go,” Elion replied.
“You do?”
“Yes, I am sure of it! When Filaree arrived at Pardatha she was accompanied by a loyal and devoted knight, Cameron, for whom she had more than a common affection,” he recalled cheerlessly. “I told you the story of his courage and of his sad demise.”
“Yes, I remember, though she herself had never spoken to me about him. The Queen told me that they were friends since they were children,” Tomas recalled. “There were many tragedies that occurred that fateful day. And many courageous warriors,” Tomas said to Elion, and he emphasized the elf’s own role in the victory before the gates of Pardatha.
“Perhaps, Tomas. But I never felt courageous. I did what I had to do under the circumstances, and I was very scared,” he said candidly.
“Who ever said that heroes were not allowed to be scared? And, is not the definition of a courageous person exactly what you just described? A person doing what he or she has to do under the circumstances regardless of concern for oneself?”
“I suppose,” Elion said modestly. “But in any case, my point in bringing this event up was that Cameron and Filaree had a strange and meaningful encounter in the woods just outside of Avalain before they got anywhere near Pardatha. There is a place called the Winding Woods that I believe is still protected.”
“By the Lalas?” Tomas asked.
“No, but by less sentient trees than Lalas, though safe nonetheless. At least, safe from the Dark Lord’s eavesdropping.”
“How can you be sure?” the boy asked.
“Filaree told me a story when we were together in P
ardatha about her father and another from Avalain named Pembar. Her father had known him well many tiels ago, and she and Cameron had to pass through the Winding Woods on their way to meet Baladar.”
“I remember hearing it too, now that you mention it,” Tomas recalled.
“This forest, though dangerous in its own right, was a haven as well. I am sure that it would be a safe place to communicate with your brother from. Filaree said that the thousands of trees that make up the woods live and act as one, and that once you step foot within the borders of the Winding Woods, you are in its world and no others can influence you.”
“Nor can they assist you!” Tomas added as a warning.
“Why would we require assistance? We intend only to enter for a brief moment and then to leave the way we came. We are not trying to cross through them, as she and Cameron did,” Elion said.
“Did Filaree not have a token which she wore around her neck to identify her?” Tomas asked.
“The black tree?” Elion acknowledged.
“Yes. The item that her father had given her.”
“Do you think that we need something like that just to go in there and come right back out?” Elion asked.
“How am I to know, Elion. But can we take the chance without knowing for certain?” Tomas asked.
“How badly do you need to speak with Davmiran?” Elion inquired.
“The need is dire,” he replied.
“Then what other choices do we have? The risk is greater for us all if Caeltin is able to eavesdrop upon you. If we feel that the place is unsafe for us, we will leave at once. Let us venture in carefully and not too deeply.”
“Or if another whose allegiance we cannot vouch for interferes,” Tomas said with a strange look in his eyes.
“One of the Possessed, you mean?” Elion asked, confused by the boy’s use of words and his lack of specificity.
“Perhaps,” Tomas replied, though it was clear from his response that the Possessed were not the ones he now feared.
“Who else did you have in mind, Tomas?” the elf asked.
“There are many now whom we can no longer trust. The Dark Lord’s reach has grown longer of late, and he has touched and befouled some of those whose fealty we never questioned before. It is hard to determine exactly where the enemy lurks,” the boy said ominously.
“Even in Avalain?” Elion asked, surprised.
Tomas looked intensely into Elion’s eyes. There was a sad and worried expression upon his face that deeply disturbed him, and that made the boy look many tiels older than he was.
“Few allegiances cannot be sundered by his evil,” Tomas replied. “It is best that we trust as few as possible.”
“If you suspect something or someone, please share your concerns with me. I cannot help you if I am kept in the dark,” Elion said.
“I have no one specific in mind,” the boy replied. “I just think that we should be more careful now than ever before. The influence of the trees is waning and we must be prudent. The Lalas have concerns of their own, and ours and theirs may no longer always be parallel. I sense a great darkness encroaching.…”
“Darkness? You frighten me sometime, Tomas. Was I not the one to begin this conversation by advising you that we should watch our backs? How long have you felt this way?”
“Since the day you carried me into the cave. The feeling has never fully left me.”
“More the reason we should seek the shelter of the Winding Woods. It is as independent as any place on earth.,” Elion replied.
“Do you know where the entrance is?” Tomas asked.
“Yes,” Elion nodded. “I believe that I do. It will take us some time to get there though. We have to cross through Chilmark first.”
“Is that a problem?” Tomas questioned.
“It should not be. The plains are usually safe, although these days, nothing is for certain any longer.”
“How long will it take us to get to the woods?”
“If we ride fast and do not stop on the way, it should not take us more than three hours or so. That should leave you enough time to do what you need to do, and we can still be back by nightfall. Six hours round trip traveling time and an hour for you and your brother sounds about right.”
“I cannot imagine needing more time once we arrive. That is, as long as nothing unforeseen delays us,” Tomas replied.
“Do you sense something?” Elion asked apprehensively.
“No. I do not. But as you said before, things these days are unpredictable. I hope the woods welcome us.”
“Unless the trees therein have been unduly influenced since Filaree was last there, they will not refuse us,” Elion said with confidence.
“I have no doubt that they will allow us to enter. But, will they also allow us to leave?” Tomas inquired.
“We will soon find out, Tomas,” the elfin Prince replied.
“The sooner the better then. The ring is burning a hole in my chest, Elion.”
Tomas grabbed a cloak from a peg on the wall and tossed it over his shoulders.
“Let us go,” the elf said, and he led Tomas out the door.
They walked down the wide hallway to the staircase at its end. It wound down a number of flights and then opened up into a common room on the ground level of the castle. A few people were milling about, but no one that they recognized. Together, they crossed the broad floor and exited through a doorway onto the courtyard. The palace stables were close by, and in minutes they were saddling up their horses for the journey to the Winding Woods. Tomas paused for a moment, reached inside his tunic and then clasped the ring tightly in his palm. He closed his eyes and allowed the warmth it generated to permeate his entire body. Just as suddenly, he released the delicate silver band and climbed into his saddle.
“Are you ready, Elion?” he asked his companion.
“Are you, Tomas?” the elf replied, and the boy nodded. “Good. I needed to know that.”
“This meeting has been long overdue and many times postponed. It has never felt right. Now the moment is upon us and I yearn for it so,” he confessed.
“May the First guide us and protect us,” Elion said, and they both spurred their mounts onward.
Tomas said something in response, but his words were lost in the rush of the wind as they sped out the stable doors and across the cobbled streets of Avalain.
Chapter Thirty-four
The thick woods gave way to scrub and brush, which made it difficult for them to conceal their whereabouts from anyone or anything that might have been passing overhead. But, the flat terrain and lack of physical obstructions were more conducive to swift travel than the dense and tangled forest from which they recently emerged. The sky was streaked with grey clouds that pulsed with an odd lightning unaccompanied by the thunder claps of natural storms. There was a heaviness to the air that they could not attribute to the intense humidity alone. It seemed more tangible than mere moisture, and far more menacing. The group of four led their horses carefully and determinedly across the plains, in the direction of Sedahar.
“Did you see that, Teetoo?” Giles pointed overhead.
“Long before you did, I suspect,” the Weloh replied.
“What do you think it was?” Clovis inquired.
“I am uncertain. But, you can be sure that whatever travels here uncloaked does so only with the Dark Lord’s consent,” Teetoo said.
“Except for us,” Giles said.
“Yes, except for us,” Teetoo concurred.
“I feel so exposed. How are we to maintain the secrecy of our arrival if we have to travel so openly?” Alemar asked.
“I am not leading you totally unprotected into the jaws of evil, Princess. It seems that Premoran’s gift to me has powers beyond those of communication,” Teetoo explained, and he revealed the brightly glowing bracelet on his wrist. “I believe that this is masking us somewhat. Have you not noticed that what little life we have encountered since we left the forest has barely been aware of our
passage here?”
“I did, actually, Teetoo. But I paid it little mind. I assumed that these creatures were simply unafraid or unconcerned,” Alemar replied.
“I found it strange that they allowed themselves to be nearly trod upon!” Clovis remarked.
“Inured to the realities of Sedahar?” Teetoo commented.
“Maybe,” Clovis said. “One would still think that life had meaning for them.”
“Here, just the opposite is the case,” Teetoo said ominously.
“Are you saying the he and his spies cannot see us nor sense our presence?” Alemar asked.
“To an extent, yes. If he suspected our arrival, others more astute would be searching. He cannot see us because he is not looking.”
“And if he was?” Giles asked.
“Need I answer that?” Teetoo replied.
“How long do you suspect we will be able to proceed in this way?” Alemar asked.
“As long as the bracelet’s power conceals us,” the Weloh answered. “Do you have the map, Princess?”
They could see a structure towering in the distance but no matter how hard they tried to focus their eyes upon it, it remained blurred and nondescript. Even the incredibly sharp eyes of the Weloh could not pierce the obfuscation. She withdrew the rolled parchment from her knapsack and handed it to Teetoo. Giles and Clovis flanked Alemar protectively.
“Do not expect things here to be as they appear elsewhere,” Teetoo warned them as he unfolded the thin parchment. “Most is artifice and sham. The truth is hard to glean from deception.”
They all felt quite vulnerable as they marched across the plain, but other than the clouds that streaked quickly overhead and the scurrying of an occasional small animal, nothing else moved.
“As I had hoped, his eyes are elsewhere,” Teetoo commented. “One as arrogant as Colton would not feel as if he needed to guard his own home. But we still must locate the entrance.”
“Let’s hope that the eyes of his generals are elsewhere as well,” Clovis said.
“Generals?” Teetoo questioned. “He has no generals. None save the Dark Lord himself wield power in his realm.”
The Shards Page 37
