Viktor

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Viktor Page 2

by Francesco Leo


  The blacksmith approached the young man and opened the top of the box.

  “Look,” said the family friend in a tone of satisfaction.

  Viktor looked amazingly inside the box and saw a long glass rod of a brilliant green colour. At the end of the shaft a series of filaments intertwined, forming an emerald flame.

  It was incredible to see how a normal piece of glass had been so finely crafted and cared for.

  “Nice, isn’t it? I’ve been working on it for weeks, what you see isn’t glass, but mithril, a rare mineral. I had a bit in the cellar, an elf gave it to me during a voyage I made when I was still young and a very good explorer, before beginning the gunsmith trade. To make this shaft I used all the mithril I had and it is very precious to me.”

  Viktor looked at the blacksmith thoughtfully for a few seconds before beginning to speak.

  “Yes, it’s really very beautiful, but I wonder what client could have ever asked you to create such a thing. Of all the people around here, I don’t think many know mithril, a material of which I hardly remember the name. That’s why I think it is, let’s say, an uncommon request!”

  “You’re right,” the blacksmith answered, proud of the interest the boy had shown. “In fact, no client has asked me to make it, but it is a piece that I will show during this year’s fair. I have never participated but I think that this time, with my idea, we will win the Great Talents competition.”

  “You want to take part in the Great Talents competition? Do you realize how many people there will be? It isn’t sure that we will win, we’ll only waste time to get to the city of Beleth. We could remain hear and satisfy our usual customers that will give us a secure income,” Viktor observed.

  “Well, maybe you’re right, but we have never tried and if it goes well… if we win, we’d earn very much. Now that we have the opportunity and something presentable, why not try? It doesn’t cost anything, if it doesn’t work we’ll return here and we will roll up our sleeves again and continue with our work.”

  “Hmm…O.K., we’ll go to Beleth and try to participate and win the competition, I’m aware I could never make you change your mind …when you’ve got something on your mind…”

  “Listen to who’s talking!” the blacksmith interrupted jokingly. “You’ve always been the more stubborn of the two of us, but never mind and let’s get back to business.”

  “We have to leave the day after tomorrow at dawn to get there as soon as possible, hoping that everything goes well. I’ll take care of the provisions and all the rest.”

  “Perfect. Tonight I’ll speak to Gabriel and my father, but…do you want to go to Beleth on foot?”

  Trust stared at him for a minute and then he looked into the emptiness and grimaced.

  “Well, I think I’ll have to ask your father for permission to use the wagon on the farm…I think it’s the only possible solution!”

  “I think he will agree after I explain the situation to him,” Viktor deduced, enthusiastic about the idea of getting out of his village and changing atmosphere for a while.

  They worked hard for a few hours to compensate for the time that they would have been away from the forge to go to the Great Talents competition. Viktor, exhausted, went to wash his face and nude sweaty chest. He then dried himself, got dressed and fell onto the armchair in the hall. In the meanwhile Trust gave him a glass of his famous Brandy.

  “I don’t know if this is the right moment to drink,” Viktor observed, looking at the bottle.

  “Don’t you trust my booze?” I highly recommend it, you won’t regret it!”

  “And you?”

  “I don’t think I should, seeing how I felt this morning.”

  Viktor grimaced and drank while Trust preferred a big glass of water.

  When Viktor left his friend’s house, the first glimmers of dawn began to radiate the roofs and the lawns, giving colour to the environment that had been in the shadows all night long.

  The boy took a deep breath, as if to taste the new day that was arriving, then he opened his eyes and looked towards the Butcher’s shop in the opposite direction and thought about buying some meat for lunch.

  As soon as he began walking, he realized that his legs ached very much and weren’t able to support the weight of his body: he staggered several times before falling to the ground and losing his senses.

  THE STAR OF THE PROPHECY

  T he man in front of the brazier was in the centre of a room that wasn’t very big, decorated with paintings and antique scrolls on the walls, and there were also high piles of books and thick encyclopaedias. Pages of torn notes were on the worn indigo carpet that covered the dark floor.

  The crackling of burning wood caught his attention, making his eyes widen.

  He was fifty years old but he didn’t show any signs of old age, no wrinkles, no sign of tiredness.

  Only his eyelids were slightly more closed than usual, slight, dark circles were noticed under his eyes. He wrinkled his nose and sharpened his hearing, trying to make out noises from outside; he scratched his chin, rubbing his short dark beard, with white filaments. Then he turned, walked toward the door, and the lower part of his reddish tunic fluttered.

  The door was thick, made of strong wood and iron reinforcements. It opened slowly and creaked, showing a man who was much younger than Galeaeth on the doorsteps.

  He wasn’t slim and not very tall. He raised the red hood that covered his face and he looked up to Galaeth, who stared back questioningly.

  “Sir, your presence is required in the Circular Room for an extraordinary council, please follow me,” the young man said with a tone of voice that seemed tranquil.

  “I know the way, Jef… there’s no need of you guiding me,” Galaeth answered with a cold, bored voice. “Tell the others that I will arrive as soon as possible!”

  The young man nodded and rapidly went away, then Galaeth watched him disappear from his sight and the noise of his footsteps gradually turned into silence.

  Galaeth followed him.

  Many voices were heard in the Circular Room: for many centuries this was the place where the most vivid and important discussions took place.

  Paintings of antique myths and legends by now forgotten covered the high walls. In the centre of the Room, there was a big rectangular table for thirteen people. At the head of the table was the Master, the one who mediated the arguments to be discussed.

  When Galaeth took his place at the head of the table, the voices of the present diminished until they vanished.

  “What brings the members of the council to issue permission for an extraordinary meeting, keeping your own Master unaware of this initiative?”

  Galaeth looked at every single member with cold, punishing eyes.

  Then Jef got up and began speaking with an intimidated air: “Master, the Star of the Prophecy has appeared. It seems that the legend tells the truth. It affirms that the Star of the Prophecy will mark the one who comes back to wield the light by restoring the balance of the elements and putting an end to the evil that seeks refuge in absolute power.”

  Galaeth continued staring at Jef with a mixed air of dismay, disbelief and mystery; then he looked every member of the council in the eye, waiting for comments that would never arrive. “So after eight hundred years the moment has arrived to assign Arlad to a new lord?” he said staring at an enormous arras hanging on the wall. “Amir and Kanda will find the Star’s chosen one, while you will all organize the best greeting you can for the host. I will make sure all goes well,” he continued immediately after.

  At that point another member of the council, who had remained in the shadow until then, got up and began speaking: “However I think we should prepare ourselves for eventual attacks from the Creature of the Mountains. Without a commander they rarely come out of hiding, but if Zergh returned they could move in a safer way under the dark flux of energy that he brings with him…,” he said in a loud voice, slipping his stubby hand out of the darkness. “For now” G
alaeth interrupted him, “priority is for the chosen one. The Creatures of the Mountains, like the other hostile ones, will spend time in feeling the flux of Zergh’s awakening, and it will be in that lapse of time that we will find the chosen one and prepare the attack.”

  If I am allowed, I would like to point out that the chosen one will have to go to Arald’s place after the right preparation…I don’t know if we will have the time to…” he stopped and sat down when he saw the Master silencing him.

  “There is no need to remind me what I already know and why I am here,” said Galaeth in an imperious tone of voice, slamming his fist on the hard wooden table.

  “I have said what had to be said, now it’s time to obey! Babbling we won’t resolve anything; the sooner you follow the Star the sooner you will arrive to the chosen one… and the sooner you arrive to the chosen one, the sooner you can bring him to me. Go!”

  All the members of the council got up and, with whispers and secretly spoken phrases, they disappeared from Galaeth’s sight, leaving him alone in his chair thinking. He knew that perhaps there wasn’t enough time, but he believed that it was more important to find the chosen one of the Star before thinking of defending their haven.

  A few minutes later he got up and went towards his room, smiling with hope.

  ******

  The indistinct shapes that dominated Viktor began to become clearer and more recognizable with each beat of his eyes. The boy was lying looking upward, staring with a rather confused air at Selene, Gabriel and his father First.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  His father took a deep breath and pointed to the girl at his side.

  “Your friend helped you. You fainted in front of Trust’s door and your brother found you while he was returning from the fields. Knowing Selene’s passion for white magic, he brought you to her to get treatment…”

  “What happened, Viktor?” asked the young girl, with a frown and curled lips.

  “I have no idea,” Viktor answered, pulling himself up on his arms. “Perhaps I was just tired…”

  “No, Viktor…,” Selene interrupted. “There were harmful substances in your body and I got them out… did you swallow or drink something strange?”

  “Well I don’t remember… ah, yes! I’m sure I drank some Brandy at Trust’s, but nothing else and I don’t think it could have made me ill!” Viktor answered.

  “The fact remains that you will stay here with me for a while, at least until we shed some light on this. I’m going to find out what happened to you,” Selene said.

  Viktor grimaced with disappointment and tried to convince the others that it was only lack of rest, but they weren’t convinced and soon his father and brother left him alone with Selene.

  The boy stared at the girl tucking the blankets over the bed with a sulky expression, hoping that she would give him permission to leave.

  “Please Selene, let me go. I’m well, don’t worry!” he reassured her, turning on his side. “I’ve got things to do and …”

  While he was speaking, a strong pain that ran along his right arm stopped him. He stifled a cry in the pillow, and then turned to his friend. “What the hell!”

  “A pang? Hey, where do you intend to go?”

  “I don’t understand what happened, I did all as usual: I got ready to go to Trust’s and once there…”

  “Once there you drank or swallowed something harmful,” continued the girl, annoyed at Viktor’s indifference. “We’ve known each other since we were children, I’m fond of you just as you are fond of me, and I think this is sufficient to make you understand that it’s useless trying to convince me to send you home,” Selene added.

  “Oh, come on! Your white magic is the best in the world, I’ll be better in a few minutes and will return to my usual tasks!” Viktor exclaimed in a tone of supplication, grasping her hand.

  “Idiot, your compliments will not be enough to convince me. Until I understand what happened to you, you won’t move from here.”

  Viktor plunged under the covers even more and with a frown on his face resigned to his friend’s obstinacy.

  It was nearly evening and, considering that when he left the blacksmith’s house he could see the sunrise, he must have slept through the entire morning and afternoon.

  He still couldn’t understand what he could have swallowed and the only thing he remembered was that drop of Brandy.

  “I could have avoided it,” he thought, “at that time of day I could have done very well without alcohol,” he said to himself with a smile, while Selene continued to put herbs and drugs away in the cherry wood cupboard.

  “I must admit that since we were children Selene has always been more reflective than me, even before we began playing together. From the moment she got passionate about medical herbs and white magic as cures, she has become a very talented healer. Thank God you’re in Lezhen!” he thought.

  Viktor realized Selene was worried about him even though she tried to appear calm and natural.

  “What are you thinking of?” his friend asked.

  “I was thinking about when we were children, when we played together and now, as time goes on, we don’t see each other as much. I’d be happy to see you more often.”

  The girl smiled.

  “It would make me happy to. Unfortunately with your job at Trust’s and my studies, we don’t have enough free time,” she answered, with a note of regret in her voice.

  Although she showed signs of fatigue, she still looked good. She stopped for a moment staring into the emptiness with her emerald eyes, nearly hypnotizing, that emphasized the gentle features of her face. Her straight blond hair slid behind her nape to fall over her long white robe, which covered her slender body and legs. It ended at her knees, while brown leather boots covered her feet up to her tibias.

  When she moved, he could see her trinket swinging back and forth, a small pendant she had been wearing since her last birthday, when Viktor gave it to her. It was a silver jewel and at the end there was a leaf enveloped among the branches of a tree: a symbol that, according to old stories, represented prosperity.

  “When I bought it, I thought of your big green eyes,” Viktor said inadvertently.

  “What?”

  The boy swallowed, he really didn’t want to say it aloud.

  “The trinket I gave you. It drew my attention because it is of the same colour as your eyes,” he repeated, knowing he couldn’t ignore what he said.

  Selene smiled.

  “Well, also because it reminds me of the passion you have for medical herbs and healing arts,” he added immediately after, trying to hide his embarrassment.

  Dusk was arriving, while Viktor stared out of the window at the sky filling with stars and watching the few people in the square as they returned home. After a few hours Lezhen became silent and the only noise that the young man heard was the crackling of the fire that Selene had lit.

  The girl had been still for a while, sitting with her legs crossed on a wooden chair staring into the fire. Viktor was intently staring at her then, suddenly, he remembered the blacksmith on the floor of the cellar and his explanation why he had fainted. He was sure that Trust had told him that, before fainting, he had drunk a “drop of Brandy.”

  “Selene,” Viktor murmured with a vague expression.

  The girl awoke from her thoughts, returning to reality.

  “This morning, when I went to Trust’s, I found him fainted on the floor. He said that it was probably due to the fatigue of working so hard, but I remember that he mentioned the Brandy, the same I drank. He told me that he had taken a sip… and what if it was the Brandy that caused all this?”

  Selene frowned and touched her lips with index of her right hand, turning towards her friend. “Are you sure it was Brandy? You know that Trust doesn’t remember where he puts his things. I’m afraid that you drank Tufu!”

  Viktor smiled. Now he remembered.

  “Weeks ago we worked on some throwing knives with t
he blade soaked in that poison. Because it is a minor venom making whoever comes into contact with it faint, it isn’t easy to get it and it isn’t even legal,” Viktor explained.

  “Continue,” Selene encouraged him, and the look in her eyes didn’t promise anything good.

  “To get it we had to pay a smuggler that, for security reasons, hid the poison in an old bottle of Brandy. Trust must have forgotten this little detail, and must have swallowed the Tufu in the bottle, just like I did. I know, I’ve been irresponsible…”

  Selene slapped her friend.

  “You are the usual fool!” she yelled at him.

  “Come on, don’t get so upset…” Viktor said to Selene trying to calm her down, while he rubbed his aching, red cheek.

  “But…” he began after a few seconds, “I must admit that I like it when you get so angry at me.”

  Selene tightened her fists and her face flushed.

  “I knew you were thinking about this!” she exclaimed. Thank God that you are sick, today you have really gone too far!”

  “It isn’t a shame that you worry about me. I would have behaved just the same way.”

  Selene’s angriness turned into shyness.

  After a few minutes, the girl picked up a long shawl, wrapping it around herself.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Viktor asked.

  “I’m going to Trust’s, to inform him about what happened and prevent this from happening again.”

  Viktor would have liked to stop Selene, tell her that it was too late to go to the blacksmith’s house, but he knew he couldn’t stop her. At that point, he turned towards the window through which he could see the intense shimmer of the stars. The heat in the room had almost entirely fogged up the windows and soon Viktor would have lost that only pastime. He looked away from the window but, while he was moving his attention to another part of the room, he caught a glimpse of a book protruding from the lower shelf of the bedside table. He got it and read the title without images. The letters were embossed and he read them following their outline with his finger, appreciating how the author had wanted to reserve them such a particular character.

 

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