Ericl carried a staff in one hand and a large cloth bag in the other. He looked over at the shutters and gave a quick, almost imperceptible nod of the head.
Two more Eurikaya appeared out of thin air; Aran’s friend and a male I did not recognise. They eyed each other warily before pulling out dusty wooden chairs and sitting down.
Ericl touched a large ball on the back wall and it lit up with a light the same colour as the one Prenaslavka had emitted when she had transformed herself into a spider.
The three sat in a strange wide circle. Ericl got up and placed the cloth bag in the centre, it was very large; perhaps six feet or so in length and three feet in width. He spread it out.
The blonde woman looked a little nervous as he was doing this. The man looked at her impassively.
Ericl cleared his throat.
“We are released from our torment this night. The authorities search far and wide but we are too powerful to be captured as before. Tonight we demonstrate our true purpose for rebuilding the Eurikaya.”
He looked at the blonde girl.
“Tonight we experiment further than ever before”.
He pointed at the girl with the stick and muttered some words. She convulsed and then sagged against her chair, her eyes still open; he had killed her. She had not even had time to realise what was happening before it happened.
Quick as lightening, the two men opened the cloth bag and laid the body inside. Covering it quickly with the outside of the bag, they turned to each other quickly.
“I am not comfortable with what we just did Ericl,” muttered the man.
“Nevertheless, she was in league with Aran and would have turned us over to the authorities if Aran had not, even after these past years in their prison. She has more than enough of the Ogra inside her to be sufficient for our experiment”.
He glanced at the man coolly, as if prepared to react against further dissent. The other man however, closed his mouth and sat back down into the chair.
“What do we do now?” the man asked?
“We wait until her Ogra has descended, a night, perhaps more. We then conduct the experiment. She is honoured to be the first. Perhaps this will teach her where her true loyalties should lie”.
The man looked at the bag and breathed deeply, seemingly still disturbed by what he had witnessed.
“Her punishment is done now” he said. “We will allow her the due process before we do the experiment”.
Ericl nodded. “See to it; be sure that no one sees you”.
I hung back; terrified I was going to be seen. I didn’t know what an Ogra was but I had definitely heard that word before somewhere. I thought deeply, the memory almost there and then dissipating suddenly. Then, as I watched Ericl in the silvery moonlight, I remembered; I had heard the word in my dream. The dead ones had chanted it amongst many other words I did not recognise.
I had never remembered that before but the word filled me with a black and evil terror.
The scene then faded and we were back in the room; sunlight shone through the crack in the shutter. Ericl and the man were in the chairs, both holding the staff Ericl had been carrying the night before. The body was gone.
Then, they muttered more words and I heard a now familiar screeching sound that quickly faded. Transfixed and rooted to the spot with horror, I carried on watching.
Ericl’s face in the sunlight looked like a skull as his thin lips chanted the same words over and over again.
Then the floor shimmered and I heard the screaming again; the same screaming I had heard when my father had been murdered and the same that had been heard when I had been spared on that fateful night.
A sulphuric smell, not unlike the smell of the drains I used to walk past in Zafiya filled the room as the floor shimmered once more.
Still, they carried on chanting. I was trying to keep a hold of myself; I knew I had to see this through. The Falaira needed to know for sure, I was going to do that for them, though the fear that arose in me was on the verge of making me insensible. Khalashaya would be watching but I could not be sure of this. I didn’t know if we would get a chance to access the same memories twice.
Then the floor seemed to melt completely as a dark shape arose from it. It had a hole for a mouth and eyes that glowed red. I was well acquainted with that visage.
I knew I had just seen the birth of the Eurikaya as they were known in my time; the Eurikaya that would almost destroy this world and then find other ways to return via the Molecha and on the Blue Planet – my New Earth.
I lost my senses and the ground received me.
Dreaming, lost in a misty cold place with nothing to show me the way. My bare feet froze as they touched the ground
Once again I was alone. It had never bothered me before in all my years of dreaming this dream; it was something I had always been used to. I had been alone my whole life, even before the death of my mother and father. However, it bothered me now. I felt a yearning for Khalashaya like I had never felt before; I needed him here, I needed him to make me feel safe.
I was unsure of where I was or whether he could sense what was happening to me; I could tell that this was not a place I had been in before, even in my many dreams of the netherworld. My feet itched all of a sudden and I saw grass growing underneath them, my skin grew cold and I sensed that I was, in fact, in the dream world.
Where was the river? Where were the voices, the singing voices that had compelled me to join them my whole life? As the mist cleared, I saw I was in a clearing surrounded by the same strange trees of Deloran. These trees were not the sun touching pillars of the village but were more like the trees I had seen when we had first escaped the Gleema and made contact with the city of the Free Falaira.
A shout sounded through the trees, seemingly muffled and strangled by the thick mist that circled my scarred feet and permeated my thin gown. It came again and the voice was familiar. It was Khalashaya; he was here too, he was trying to find me. The joy that I felt then was indescribable, it was like a glowing ball had arisen out of the darkness and encircled me with its light and love.
I looked around, trying to see if there was a way out of the mist, somewhere I could go to get warmer. I would have to take care of myself and stay safe until he found me. I told myself off for being so vulnerable and silly.
I walked out of the clearing and into the trees; then with a jolt, the ground met my face - hard.
I was stunned and winded for about thirty seconds as I tried to prise my face from the freezing forest floor. It had seemingly rained recently and the dirt stuck to my face. I had tripped over something hard and wooden, possibly a large tree root.
Picking myself up, I sat up and looked in the direction of where I had come. A thick stick lay wedged between two tree trunks about six inches off the floor. The mist had hidden it from me; even now, it touched the stick gently, curling around it like soft smoke.
Something about the surface and colour of the wood in question told me that it was not a natural part of the forest, it was not magically raised from the ground but its length seemed to be the exact width of the trees it was between. It was well and truly locked in. I knew a strong shove from me could dislodge it though.
I found myself drawn to its smooth texture, the way the light from the moons created little mini orbs on its reflective surface and danced in front of my eyes. I reached out and touched it.
Connection, that was the instinct that drove me at that second, the desire for connection. It was like it was infused in the stick and then in me as my skin met its surface. Then I felt a strong sense of evil around me. Whatever I did, I was doing wrong by touching this stick, or staff.
I pulled it free of its trap, feeling a conflicting desire to draw it into my chest and hold it close. It was important to keep it safe; I had found it for a reason - or it had found me.
Oh, there was something else whirling inside my myriad of conflicting feelings: familiarity. I had held this staff before in my dream. I stoo
d up and also stood the staff up; yes, it came up to the same point as the one in my usual dream did. Turning it over, I saw the familiar markings on the other side.
This was very strange, why would I have a different version of the dream now after all this time? Why—
Again, something hit my stomach, fear and realisation that was hot wet and nasty.
Ericl, when he had used the woman’s soul to create the Eurikaya, possibly the first ever Eurikaya, he had used this stick! This was the weapon he had used, and I had seen it in my dream my whole life. What did this mean?
I let my fingers trace the familiar carvings in the staff. With a flash I was back in that hateful room, watching the Eurikaya being raised up from...from the dark place. Ericl was chanting and concentrating.
Then I was gone.
When I awoke, it was as if I had been asleep for a long time. I was lying on the forest floor but it was sunset this time. The mist had evaporated and I was warmer. I ached all over from my apparent collapse but told myself to get up and figure out how I was going to get out of here. I would find a tree, climb it and try and see if I could find a way out. I no longer sensed Khalashaya, it was as if my dream had pushed him away in order to make sure I saw what I was supposed to see.
Moving my arm, or trying to, made me realise that I was weak, terribly weak. I could see, but not much else was possible. Breathing was an effort and I heard myself wheezing as I struggled to get air in through muscles that would not work properly.
My face was buried in grass and I was lying on one of my arms, the other one being in front of me.
As well as the weak feeling, I was also confused and disconnected somehow. Like something had scooped out part of my brain. I could not survive for long like this, that I was sure of, though I knew not why. My link to life was never weaker than when I was in this state, I had sensed that the first time it had happened on the morning of the day my father had been murdered. I did not know how or why I knew this though, like I did not know many things.
A tingling feeling on the back of my neck told me that I was being watched; something was watching me from in front of my eye line. My face was buried in grass but I wondered if I could raise my eyes enough to be able to see over it.
It was a huge effort but I felt my eyeballs move, the pain of the movement ripping through my head.
What I saw made my blood freeze in terror. A Eurikaya stood in front of me, not the one I had seen with Ericl but the one I had seen on New Earth and in the Gleema city. This was the Eurikaya that had killed my father. But how did I know this? How could I differentiate between one creature and another?
The answer was that it came of a sense not of the human body; it was the same sixth sense that had first warned me of Khalashaya’s presence after Herena had died, it was the same feeling that had gone into my through the wood of my front door when my father had been murdered.
This was also the Eurikaya that had spared me. It hovered above the ground, the ends of it not touching the grass, the smell was indescribably foul. It glared at me with its holes for eyes and in that moment I could see why the Eurikaya had almost destroyed an entire world, and why they still could.
It moved towards me. I felt my heart jolt in fear. I was close to becoming insensible through terror for the second time that day and was not certain I could keep myself together for much longer.
It moved again, now it was a metre away from me. I was going to have to use what I had inside me to repel this creature. My barrier was what was needed, it was the first magic I had ever learned from Khalashaya and Woodarch and it hopefully would prove to be the thing that kept the Eurikaya away from me.
I visualised the barrier and saw it appear in front of me in the form of a thin luminescent blue line. It took all my mental strength to keep it there as the foul thing inched forward slowly.
Now it was half a metre away, it tilted its head slightly, its glowing red eyes seemingly studying me intently. Then I felt a freezing cold touch on my face that chilled me to the bone. I was about to die at the mouth of hell, serenaded by Satan himself. Its pungent stench hit my nostrils and was almost too much to bear.
Then something happened, I could move my face. Nothing else on my body obeyed my commands but I could move my mouth and neck partly, I turned and saw with a jolt of horror that it’s long black spectral fingers had penetrated my shield easily.
It outstretched another hand and touched the arm that was out in front of me. I felt the same chilled to the bone horror but also found that my arm was back under my control again. What was this? Why was this creature able to make me better whilst emanating such evil and hatred?
As its touch lingered, I regained a little strength and feeling in both of my legs and my other arm. Then it was gone from my sight. That was it? Had it healed me and then left?
I had my answer when I looked up and saw it above me. I found my voice and screamed.
It responded by entering my body completely. I was back to full strength and had lost that disconnected feeling. I felt whole again. I was also looking at a mystery I did not want to solve for fear it would change everything and prove my detractors right. This was a question I really did not want to know the answer to at the moment.
I continued to lay in the grass for some time, letting the emotions from what I had seen and experienced wash over me in random order. The Eurikaya were a Falaira’s Ogra; I imagined an Ogra was the spirit of a Falaira that had gone to the dark place after death.
The girl’s Ogra had been very evil and expansive, this seemingly meant that, despite her good looks and innocent demeanour, she had been evil, possibly on the same level as Ericl.
Then, if an Ogra was a Eurikaya, what did it mean when a person was born both Eurikaya and Falaira like Leeh? Did that happen after birth or could Eurikaya be innate as well as magically created?
Khalashaya’s voice called me through the forest, he could find me but I did not want to be found. I wanted to delay dwelling on what my experience had shown me. I told myself that it could not be true. This was a vision, the fact that the Eurikaya had made me better meant nothing. I was not in a “real” situation was I.
These thoughts made me feel only marginally better. There had to be another explanation. I could not have been the entity that had killed my father in that cruel way. I had loved him, he had been my father and my only friend in a world that despised me.
Thinking of my father again filled me with emotion and I let it out into the grass, wishing I was dead, wishing I could join Leeh in that forest burial mound. She and I had connected on a deep level, was this the reason why? Had she sensed kindred?
The world turned black around me and I knew no more.
The Eurikayl
Khalashaya was standing over me with a look of confusion on his face. I gulped, terrified of what he had seen, what they had all seen.
I felt myself lifted to my feet and then his arm around my shoulders.
"What happened?" Prenaslavka's voice cut through the darkness, it made my head hurt as I struggled to keep hold of my emotions.
I looked up at Khalashaya.
"You disappeared. We saw the Eurikaya coming up through the floor when Ericl called it up. You then disappeared and you have been asleep for a while".
Had I? No wonder I was feeling so stiff; I was also hungry, despite the fact that it had been the middle of the night when I had first sought out Khalashaya.
So they didn't know what had happened to me? They did not realise that I had had another vision. Nothing in Khalashaya's demeanour as he brought me a hot drink and a blanket and sat next to me suggested that he knew.
He could clearly tell I was troubled within myself as I caught him looking at me once or twice before looking away quickly.
I sat and tried to make logical sense of what I had witnessed. The first Eurikaya, or at least one of the first, had been a woman, a dead woman who had had an Ogra. Even the word did something to me at a deeper level than I could access with
my thoughts. This was an evil thing, something that all Falaira feared innately.
I looked at him and opened my mouth to answer the question. He beat me to it.
"The stick, tell me where you have seen it again"
That was not what I had been expecting but it meant that I did not have to think about my other vision for longer. I felt something move in my stomach and I knew I would soon need some sort of outlet for what I was feeling. Could I trust him though? So much rested on it.
"It has always been in my dream, I am usually holding it as I try and keep myself upright in the mud.
“It’s the same stick, the one he used to call up the spirit. The Ogra”. The words came out of my mouth but my voice sounded strange, flat even.
He looked away, emotions flickering on his tightly closed mouth like flames.
He then looked at me.
“We need to tell the Queen what we know”.
Ten minutes later, we were sitting in front of the Queen with a tired looking Raven and Larcen flanked either side of her. Raven gave me a curious look; I imagined I must look quite rough after my experience. I gave her a smile I hoped was reassuring.
She said nothing as we told her what we had found out about the Eurikaya. All that happened is that her face grew whiter and more strained.
“Larcen” she turned to the young Falaira who nodded. “Get the guard together and come back immediately”.
The Long Lost Page 28
