Then, silence.
THE PINE FOREST
W hile they walked along the path that skirted the right bank of the Silver River, Viktor noticed different types of climbing plants along the little earth wall to his right, even if he hadn’t seen them the first time he travelled that way.
“Perhaps I hadn’t noticed them at night,” he told himself, remembering how he was looking out of the curtain at the back of the cart, staring at the edge of the village.
“Something wrong?” Selene asked, noticing her thoughtful friend.
“No, nothing,” he replied, shaking his head.
Selene took her eyes off him for a moment, to bring them back soon after.
“You told me there are some things that aren’t clear to you ...”
“More than some,” he said, amused.
“I mean ... about the diary ... remember?”
“Oh, yes ... how can I forget it? Above all, about some names it refers to.”
“Such as?” asked the girl, intrigued.
“Like the fact that Galaeth could be over seven hundred years old. In the diary, Xemnath talks about him and refers to him as his Master. How is it possible?”
“Are you serious? At this point, he must be an elf,” Selene ventured.
“No, his features are human. I would have noticed if he had a pair of pointy ears, I think... We trained together for a few days!”
“Well, I don’t really know what to say ...” she gave up. She waited a bit, but Viktor said nothing. “Anything else?”
“Have you ever heard of the Daedalus of Death?” Viktor asked.
“The Daedalus of Death? Where did you hear it?”
“This is also in the diary. Xemnath attributes the death of his parents to this mysterious Daedalus, so I think it’s a secret gang or something like that. But why kill them?”
“Is there anything in the diary that refers to Xemnath’s parents? Anything that speaks about them?”
“All I know is that they too were part of the Star, and that they themselves trained Xemnath at first.”
“So it seems easy enough: the Daedalus attacked the Star to their own advantage.”
“As far as I’m concerned, the Daedalus could have been a group of bandits that killed Xemnath’s parents while attacking their village.”
“I don’t think that two members of the Star would let a handful of bandits kill them, Viktor,” the girl observed.
“So you think they are only people that fight against the Star? For what reason?”
I don’t know, but a rivalry between the two sides is all I can think of. Maybe I’m wrong, I don’t know… in the end ours are only theories.”
“Well, still better than nothing,” Viktor concluded, while the road came close to a narrow curve to the left.
“We’ll ask as soon as we get to Placym,” Selene said. “If only Dandelion were here with us ...” thought the chosen one aloud. The gem on Siride’s knob reflected a ray of sunlight on Selene’s cheek, lighting a part of her face for a second.
“How did you feel when you threw yourself off the bridge?” Selene asked suddenly, as she saw the long stone bridge that overlooked the immense waterfall.
Viktor didn’t expect that sudden question. “Fear, initially, then nothing,” he explained. “I was determined and I thought I could do it, so I didn’t think about it. If something went wrong, it wouldn’t have been so painful, but I would have gambled my life for a mithril rod: not very clever. I was a fool, I know, but it was the first thing that came to my mind. The river is really shallow down there, but fortunately, the point where the waterfall dives is deep enough to get out alive.”
“Never do anything so foolish again,” Selene warned, glancing at the crystal clear waters below them.
Viktor reluctantly remembered that road and for a moment he still seemed to feel that tremendous pain in his legs.
“Over there, on the right side of the pool of water at the bottom, there’s a small cave in the rock. I managed to light a fire thanks to some big flints and some dry grass I found. I was frozen and waiting for my wet clothes to dry was torture ... not to mention when I tried to climb up the slope.”
“I don’t think you’ll forget it soon,” Selene said.
“Neither do I,” Viktor confirmed.
The two youngsters went into the dim light of the forest, keeping some squirrels company that ran for cover from the unwanted intruders.
“Your brother would have killed them for dinner,” said Selene, getting a smile from her friend.
Many hours went by walking down the path.
Selene remembered having spent half a night and the early hours of the next day to reach Beleth with the wagon, so she foresaw at least two days at that pace if they stopped for the night.
The grass off the path was leg high and its noise, at first annoying, had become company.
Selene reached out to pick some berries from a bush but she jerked when a fox cub jumped over the hedge.
Viktor smiled and saw the animal disappear through the trees. “If it had been dark ... you would have died!”
“Stop it! If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t know which berries to pick!”
“Just because you know more plants than me doesn’t mean I don’t know how to recognize which berries to pick! In the worst case I would have been satisfied with dry meat and cheese for dinner.”
“You just decided to make me feel useless, eh?”
“If you want, I’ll take you home,” Viktor said, smiling at her.
“You like being angry,” Selene asserted as she got up to put the berries in her saddlebag and resume the walk.
The day, meanwhile, was coming to an end and Viktor decided to set up a bivouac.
“The grass is less fallow here, we could set up a bonfire and spread the blankets under these two trees,” Selene suggested.
“Okay for me, it’s just what I was thinking of. Put some stones to form a circle where we can light the fire,” he continued.
“I was going to look for wood nearby,” Selene said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll go.”
“All right, but be careful.”
Viktor nodded and moved under the tall, thick pines, looking for dry branches that had fallen to the ground.
He found a couple of them, but he quickly realized he had moved far away. He could not see his friend anymore.
He immediately turned around hoping to find Selene again. He began to shout her name.
He called his friend’s name twice again without receiving an answer, then he heard a noise from the moving grass behind him and immediately pulled Siride out hiding it behind him.
The tip of the blade stopped under Selene’s chin, as if its brightness had been captured by the shadow.
She turned her astonished look on Viktor, as a great drop of perspiration fell from her forehead.
“Sorry,” said Viktor, shoving Siride in its sheath, his heart beating madly.
“Why did you scream? Did you want to make our position public news?” she shuddered.
“I was afraid I was lost,” he replied. He bent down to pick up the wood he’d dropped when he pulled his sword out.
“Let’s go,” Selene said, pointing to a pair of trees. She had also picked up some wood.
The two found themselves near the blanket Selene had laid on the ground, and began to arrange the branches they found in an improvised circle of stones.
When they had finished, Viktor lit the fire with flints; he took off his belt and placed it on the ground along with the saddlebag. He stretched and dropped onto the blanket.
Selene lay down beside him and lost herself in the roof of pine needles above her. Through the thick foliage, the first stars spotted the sky and the clouds stood aside.
The moon radiated the celestial vault.
The temperature had dropped and the two friends moved the blanket a little closer to the fire.
“Let’s eat something and go to sleep, tomor
row we’ll leave at dawn,” suggested Viktor.
Selene took the berries she had gathered that afternoon and some dry meat from her stocks.
“In the part of the diary I read, Xemnath referred to a cycle of lives that must end. What do you think he refers to?” Viktor asked suddenly. The thought of the diary didn’t let him go.
“A cycle of lives ...” reflected Selene as she bit into a piece of meat.
Viktor put his hands near the fire.
“I haven’t the faintest idea what it means. You could read more from that diary to try to understand what he meant better; in this way you will be able to come to terms with the discourse concerning the Daedalus of Death too.”
“I’m going to read it when we get to Beleth, peacefully. Until then I want to concentrate on the journey,” he replied, swallowing a large plum coloured berry.
Selene nodded. They lied down, back to back, without speaking. They stayed in that position for a long time, then Viktor felt the girl moving to look at him.
“Still awake?” she asked.
“Yeah ...” replied the other, pulling Selene’s hair away from his lips.
The girl tied them and let them fall behind her back.
“You can’t sleep either, can you?” Viktor asked.
Selene slowly bent down toward him.
Viktor continued looking at her, but he winced when her mouth was only a finger away from his lips.
A strong, icy wind gushed between them, causing the fire to nearly go out but then it began flaring again.
Frightened, Selene had a hand on the pendant Viktor had given her for her birthday.
“Are you all right?” Viktor struggled.
She nodded, then approached the boy to drink some water from a flask he was offering her.
“It was just a rustle of wind,” Viktor said, laughing.
“Didn’t you hear the screams?” exclaimed Selene.
“Screams? What screams?”
“It wasn’t the wind ... someone shouted!”
“Selene, no one travels at night, we are the only ones in the forest. You must have imagined it.”
The girl didn’t answer, keeping an expression of terror mixed with concern on her face.
“It will be better to sleep, you will see that tomorrow things will go better,” suggested Viktor. “We can sleep in shifts,” he added when he saw the girl so silent. “Start sleeping, when I’m tired I’ll call you and we’ll switch places.”
“No ... start resting ... I couldn’t sleep now,” Selene said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Viktor lied down and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to call him.
“You can choose not to go!” an anonymous voice echoed in the darkness of Viktor’s mind.
“I have to do it now!”
The voice he answered had a profound tone that couldn’t mislead him: it was Xemnath.
Little by little, a distant light spread out, revealing an old rundown house.
The brightest stars wriggled among the grey clouds in an attempt to be noticed; the moonlight faded in the cold of the freezing winter.
A pair of braziers burned in the corners of the decadent room. On a fireplace, whose fire had burned out, some utensils had been placed that Viktor couldn’t recognize.
Xemnath observed beyond the four dilapidated walls the amalgam of trees in front of him, the hood of his tunic on his shoulders and his silver hair moving with the wind.
Behind him, a raven-haired girl with icy eyes controlled him; her look was stern, but also worried and scared.
She adjusted her hair with one hand, and then put a large green satin shawl over her shoulders, covering a long blue cobalt colour dress.
“Stay with me a little longer,” the girl pleaded.
“Years have gone by. The seal is broken, and Zergh sits on the throne of the fallen civilization of dwarves. His power increases every second that passes and the ancient dark creatures are rising again from darkness. If we wait any longer, he will create an army, then there will be too few of us, and we’ll be too tired to fight him. Now I have Arald and time has come.”
“Wait until your research with the elf reveal its fruits. If what you were talking about was true, you would have other power to use against Zergh and maybe you ...”
“This is the only solution! Try to understand, the research is uncertain and, if I fail, Zergh will have reached the pinnacle of force: stopping him will be impossible. I have to act now.”
“Your research will have proved useless then!” she scolded in a faint voice.
“Not useless. Not for who will be,” he asserted.
Everything fell silent and Xemnath approached a table lit by a brazier, taking a big red bundle off it and coming out of the collapsing house.
A whistle echoed in the woods and a black horse emerged from the darkness. Xemnath tied the big bundle to the saddle of the horse, then the woman’s small hand stopped him.
“I don’t want to say goodbye.”
“Never say that. It will not be a goodbye. Not forever,” he replied, his voice steady.
She tried to speak again, but he put two fingers on her lips.
He kissed her for a moment and a tear of hers wet his cheek.
When that brief contact ended, he stroked her face, jumped on his horse and spurred it, disappearing in the trees.
The images rotated and recreated scenes from an already known dream, then Arald’s intense light brought Viktor to reality, causing him to wince in his sleep.
“That dream again?” Selene worried.
“Yes ... more or less,” he replied, rising to one side. “This time it was different ... I saw what happened just before the usual dream began.”
“What did you see?”
“I think Xemnath was camped in a wood with a woman in an old, rundown house. He had to attack Zergh, even though he was waiting for something else ...”
“Why have Arald and not go fight Zergh right away? He had the skills to do it, as far as I know ... didn’t he?”
“In fact ... I think the woman was his lover. They talked about something that would give Xemnath more power to fight Zergh; there is talk about an elf who must have helped him in this search, but I don’t know exactly what it was.”
“More details?” asked Selene, intending to know more.
“When he leaves her, it seems he won’t return.”
“That’s distressing.”
“It’s more for me,” the boy said. “In the dream, Xemnath says his search was not completely lost.” Not for those who will come,” he points out, but I know nothing of this research, except an elf’s involvement.”
“But the elves live very far away from here!”
«Yeah ... the point is that the more I go forward, the more things confuse me. I don’t know the reason for these dreams, nor why Xemnath believed I could find out what he was looking for before confronting Zergh.”
“If he was so convinced, maybe you should trust him,” Selene replied.
Viktor nodded, then silence.
A female voice echoed among the trees in the darkness and another wave of wind pervaded the bodies of the youngsters.
“Those cries again!” Selene shuddered.
Viktor plunged on Siride. “This time I heard it too!” He stood up slowly, then he heard the voice again.
“She’s asking for help!” said Selene.
“Yes, I heard ... what is a woman doing in the forest at this time of night?” Viktor exclaimed.
Selene shook her head, then they heard the voice again, louder and very stern.
“I’m going to check, wait here,” the boy ordered.
“No, I’m coming with you!”
“We don’t know who may be on the other side of the forest, wait here or we’ll both risk getting lost!”
Selene pulled a knife from the sheath that Trust had given her when they left and, without objecting, remained where she was.
Vik
tor took a burning ember from the bonfire and waved it in the air to revive the flames a little and use it as a torch.
He took one last look at Selene and passed the luminous border that separated him from darkness.
He walked cautiously through the bushes, accompanied by the sound of the grass.
He held Siride with his right hand; in his left, he held the torch: the wood burned fast.
More screams echoed in the darkness, then the sound of the beating wings of some birds made him jump to the side.
The bright eyes of a large owl not far from him made him fall to the ground.
He quickly picked up the torch and the night moisture helped him avoid a fire.
It took him a while to retrieve Siride, then he heard the woman’s voice again. A long and interminable lament that increased in volume, forcing Viktor to cover his ears.
He sped up.
He saw something move beyond the luminous haze that surrounded him. In front of him, there was a small area of grass and a female figure in the middle was kneeling in despair.
He slightly raised the torch and took a few steps forward.
The woman wore a long red and white robe, she was barefooted with long, straight, black hair falling over her shoulders.
“Madam!” Viktor called, still maintaining a certain distance
The woman continued to cry and ignored him.
The chosen one tried to attract her attention several times and the lament waned into silence.
“What are you doing alone in the woods at this late hour? Why are you so desperate?” he shouted.
The figure quivered and stood up slowly, her head bent down in the darkness. “Do you want to take me too, now?”
“Take what ...” he stopped when he recognized the corpse of a newborn at the woman’s feet.
The interlocutor clenched her fists, reopened them and repeated that gesture several times.
“I can feel your fear, human ... are you afraid? Do you know what it feels like to lose what you love? Has anyone ever been taken away from you before your eyes?” the stranger yelled, stepping forward and showing her face.
The inner part of her eyes had given way to a deep black colour, she had purple eye bags and scars, tears and blood marked her face.
The hideous figure leaned toward the boy, grinned and showed decayed teeth. “You’ll feel fear tonight!” she cried, still advancing.
Viktor Page 20
