“Pick it up,” the queen suggested.
Sarah eyed the small, crystal shield. “What will happen if we do?”
“No harm will come to ye, I promise,” the queen assured them. “The Bakkian will only reveal itself to those involved with its prophecy.”
More curious than cautious, Steve stared at the object. “And how does it do that?”
“Ye only have to touch it.”
Sarah looked to her husband to take the initiative. Correctly interpreting her glance, he shrugged. Reaching in with his right hand, he took the crystal object out of the box.
Surprised by the weight of the thing, Steve hefted it in his hand. Unlike the jorii, this object didn’t appear to be generating any heat. Quite the contrary, it was cool to the touch. He held it up to his face, studying it closely. Was this carved out of a single piece of crystal? Cool! These guys really had a knack for working with precious stones.
Holding the Bakkian out in front of him, Steve looked questioningly at the Kri’yans. “So what do I do? How do I open it?”
Kri’Entu stared at the strangely quiescent piece of crystal. What was wrong? Why wasn’t it working? The spell should have been activated once contact was made. Were they not the Nohrin?
At that moment Sarah leaned over her husband’s shoulder and ran her fingers along the raised image of the griffin embossed onto the surface. Suddenly there was a flash of golden light, illuminating the entire Antechamber. Finding themselves unable to let go of the crystal shield, Steve and Sarah watched with amazement as several seams appeared on the surface of the crystal. The center, which had the griffin on it, parted right down the middle and swung open. An iridescent golden light escaped from the heart of the crystal shield, bathing both husband and wife with an eerie glow. A soft female voice started to speak:
Many years from now, it will come to pass,
A child will come, born unto class.
The mark of the Gryph, found upon his arm,
Indicates to all: protect from harm.
Into Their care the Marked will be placed,
Fending off challengers who must be faced.
Advice and guidance, given to the boy,
His life will be filled with love and joy.
Power over an elemental, one will possess,
Which will it be? No one can guess.
The second will be cunning and clever.
Hesitate to protect their charge? Never.
An’ this child grows to man
Peace will spread throughout the land.
However, if the Marked happen to fail,
Then the darkness will prevail.
As the darkness rises in the north,
This child must go forth.
Stand ye not in his path,
Seek ye not the Protector’s wrath.
Wait for the Guardians to arrive on this soil,
Their coming rejoiced, avoiding turmoil.
Who are these people with the strong jhorun?
They are the Protectors, the fêted Nohrin!
The shimmering light withdrew inside, reverting back into an unblemished crystal once more.
Sarah’s mouth was gaping open. “Okay, I can see how that might pertain to the two of us.”
Steve snorted. “’Seek ye not the protector’s wrath’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you can get a temper if you’re provoked.”
Steve harrumphed. “What’s the ‘darkness’ refer to?”
Kri’Entu tapped his fingers absentmindedly on his chair as he held a silent conversation with the queen. She nodded to the two of them.
Go on, her eyes said. They need to know.
How much do I tell them? His eyes inquired.
Everything, was the response.
Knowing that some type of communication was going on between the two silent monarchs, Steve and Sarah nervously eyed each other, waiting for them to finish.
Taking a deep breath, the king faced his two guests.
“There have been disturbing reports coming from the north,” the king explained. “A dark wizard from Ylani has found a way to steal jhorun.”
“Say what? How?”
“No one knows. They have captured three of our spies and returned them to us, their jhoruns stripped away from each of them.”
“Can’t your wizard replace the stolen jhorun?” Steve asked.
The queen sadly shook her head. “He has been secluded in his workshop working diligently on a remedy. Thus far, no luck.”
“Maybe their jhorun will return in time,” Sarah suggested.
“The first spy was returned to us over three years ago.”
Steve whistled. “I take it losing your jhorun is a bad thing?” Seeing his wife’s horrified look, Steve hastily added, “No offense to your majesties. We have lived the majority of our lives without jhoruns, so I don’t know how you people would react to losing one.”
The king held up a hand and stared hard at Steve. “I said stolen, not lost. Our spies reported seeing this dark wizard wielding their own jhoruns against them.”
“How does your son fit in to this?” Steve asked.
“Mikal restored them,” Kri’Entu said simply.
“What?” Steve exclaimed. “How?”
“The closest we can approximate,” Ny’Callé said, “is that Mikal’s ability, his jhorun, is enhancement. It was quite by accident that we discovered this.”
“Indeed,” the king agreed. “We had consulted Shardwyn several times about Mikal’s lack of a jhorun. Ye see, a Lentarian child’s jhorun first manifests itself around their fourth birthday. We did not discover what jhorun our son had until last year.”
“What happened?” Sarah wanted to know. “How did you find out?”
“Mikal was curious about the land to the north, so he was talking to one of the people who had their jhoruns taken from them. Tristan. Ye met him before.”
Both Sarah and Steve nodded.
“While talking with Tristan,” the king continued, “Mikal evidently asked what type of jhorun he had that the wizard stole from him. Tristan told him what his jhorun was, which was being able to temporarily summon small daggers. Since at that time Mikal did not know the nature of his jhorun, he wished Tristan could have his jhorun back so that he could see a demonstration. At that moment, for a span of a few seconds, Tristan was able to conjure a small dagger.”
“Is it fully restored now?”
The king nodded. “Tristan reported that after that initial conversation with my son, his jhorun was fully regenerated in about three months.”
Steve stood up and started to pace. “So, let me get this straight. This dark wizard guy, he finds some way to steal the jhorun from a Lentarian.”
The Kri’yans nodded.
“And your son has the ability to restore it. My question is,” Steve paused a moment, “does he restore the jhorun so that both the original person and the wizard have it as well? Or does your son somehow restore the jhorun to the original person, thus stealing it back from this bad wizard?”
The queen spoke. “I do not know how he does it, but he is actually taking them back from the dark wizard.”
Sarah leaned forward. “Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” the king said darkly. “There have been five attacks upon him. Since he is protected by the strongest jhorun at our disposal here in the castle, I believe it will only be a matter of time before they try a more daring scheme to lure him out of the castle.”
“I’ll take that as a big ten-four,” Steve muttered.
The king stared matter-of-factly at Steve. “Will the two of ye protect our son for us?”
Sarah moved to stand next to her husband. He took her hand in his. Addressing the king, Steve nodded. “Your majesties, we will do all we can to keep him safe. You have our word.”
Chapter 9 – Protectors
With tears of gratitude in her eyes, the queen rose and faced both of the newly appointed Nohrin. She couldn’t
help it. She embraced Sarah in a tight hug. “I, we, thank the two of ye. A thousand times over.”
The king stood up and extended his arm. Steve grasped it.
“Ye honor us with yer courage.”
Grinning sheepishly, Steve shrugged.
Releasing Sarah, the queen caught Steve’s arm as he tried to sneak by her and pulled him into a hug as well.
Patting her awkwardly on the back, Steve plastered a smile on his face and waited to be released.
“Tristan.” The king was staring at the darkened corner of the Antechamber.
Tristan appeared yet again out of the shadows. When had he returned, anyway?
“Sire.
“Please escort Kre’Mikal here.”
“At once, sire.” Tristan melted back into the shadows, and from the far reaches of the chamber they heard a door open and then close. A servant girl then materialized out of the shadows, a different one this time, holding a large platter with four goblets on it. She stopped by each person in turn. Both Steve and the king each took a goblet. Sarah and the queen declined with a smile.
“So,” Steve said, absently patting his pockets, “your son’s jhorun is enhancement. So he can pretty much do the same thing as a jorii, right?”
The king was in the process of raising his goblet to his lips to take a drink when he froze. “How are ye aware of the jorii?”
“Because we happen to have one with us,” Sarah explained. “When we were going through his grandparent’s house, we found their safe.”
“The same type as yours,” Steve said, hooking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the fake stone wall.
“Did ye find a large quantity of jorii in their possession?” the king asked carefully.
Steve nodded. “Yep, a whole sack full of them. We didn’t learn about what they were until we met up with the first people we saw here. They hadn’t seen one of them before, either.”
“Speaking of which,” Sarah interrupted, “we need to send word back to them to let them know we arrived safely. They were a tremendous help and we wouldn’t have made it this far without them.”
“I will send word immediately,” the king assured them. “Who are they?”
“A young man by the name of Kornal, and his wife-”
“Nilhanu,” the king finished for her. “He has the ability to find a certain species of fish, and if I am not mistaken, his wife’s ability is the enhancement of local pontal.”
Sarah was amazed. The king not only knew of them but also knew what their jhoruns were? Maybe there weren’t that many people here in this kingdom after all.
“Do you know them personally?” Steve wanted to know.
“I do not, but I do make it my business to be apprised of all types of jhorun in Lentari.” The king walked over to a map that was stretched across his desk. Steve joined him a few moments later.
Staring down at the map, the king tapped his fingers on a dot. Was that a village? Curious Steve leaned over to see for himself. “This is Avin,” the king explained. “A small village nestled in the southern region of Bohrra Forest. I believe your friends live maybe a day’s journey east.” The king looked up then. “Is this where ye first came into our kingdom?”
“Ummm, I think it was further west. The portal dropped us in the middle of the forest, and if I remember right, we walked for half an hour before we found this really big waterfall.”
The king studied the map. “I know the one. It is here,” indicating an area close to the village. “Had ye walked west, ye would have encountered the village in less than a day.”
“Figures,” Steve muttered. “I choose a direction to go, and naturally if we would have gone the other way, we would have found help sooner.” He sighed. “Oh well, I’m glad we went the way that we did.”
“As are we,” the king was tapping his fingers on his desk. “Steve, Sarah, may I make a request?”
Both Nohrin nodded their heads. “Sure,” Sarah said. “What can we do for you?”
“Allow me to hold on to the jorii. It is highly coveted here. I will rest easier knowing that it is properly secured.”
“With pleasure.” Sarah held out her right hand. The sphere materialized on her open palm. She passed it to the king. “It’s all yours. Is that why there’s a whole sack full of these things in the safe on our world? So no one here would be tempted to steal them?”
“Aye, it is,” the king agreed. “I have enough to deal with right now, and the last thing I need is for word to go out that an unprotected jorii exists here in the castle.”
Inspired by this recent explanation, Steve asked Sarah to retrieve the crystal disc for him. Sarah pulled it out of thin air and handed the crystal nonagon to her husband. Holding the sparkling disc, Steve turned to the king.
“Okay, what’s this, then? There’s a small sack of these in their safe as well.”
The king smiled, taking the proffered object. “This is called a mimet. Shardwyn gave a large number of these to the Scribes.” He smiled again, as he recalled the memory of Steve’s grandparents being given the crystals by the canny wizard. “Using this disc, ye can store yer jhorun to be used at a later time.” Seeing Steve’s quizzical expression, the king explained even further. “Jhorun will regenerate once it is used. As an example, assume ye are preparing to go on a journey. Ye start storing jhorun in these discs. Yer jhorun regenerates. By the time ye go on yer journey, ye have several times more jhorun at yer disposal.”
The king returned the disc to Steve, who turned it this way and that, admiring the workmanship. “How does it work? How do I put jhorun into it and how do I pull it back out?”
“I will show ye. Hold the disc in yer hand. Now, focus yer jhorun, yer energy, on the disc. In yer case, try to make it burn.”
Looking down at the disc, Steve ignited his left hand. The disc was now warm to the touch. Curious to know if the disc’s power level was related to the warmth it exuded, Steve sent a brutal blast of power down to the crystal. Nope, the degree of heat that the disc was generating remained the same.
“Handy!” He extinguished his hand and held the crystal up to the light.
“I have a question,” Sarah began. “If Steve charges that thing up, can anyone use the stored jhorun in it or is it accessible only to him?”
“Only those who store jhorun in it are able to draw from it.”
Sarah smiled sheepishly. “It was worth a shot.”
“So how do you get the jhorun back once it’s in there?” Steve wanted to know.
“Go over to the hearth and try it out.”
Steve grumbled all the way. “Everyone instantly assumes I’m gonna burn the place down. Great, just great.”
Sarah decided that the painting closest to her was fascinating and pointedly stared at it, lips quivering as she fought desperately not to laugh. The queen also looked away as she stifled a bad case of the giggles.
Grasping the crystal disc tightly in his hand, Steve sent his jhorun down to investigate. He discovered a large quantity of his jhorun, all bottled up, clamoring to be released. So how does he tap into the stored jhorun?
Steve turned the disc over and over in his hands, his jhorun mentally probing the disc. He could feel the extra power, but it felt like it was locked in another room. What’s containing it?
Growing tired of mentally probing the disc, Steve finally decided to pull the energy he felt within the disc inward, as though he was extinguishing a campfire. Without any restraints in place, all the jhorun decided to come out and say hello at the same time.
The fireball blasted Steve onto his butt, catching him completely unaware and consequently burning a large hole in his shirt. Fortunately, the fireball burned itself out before it hit the ceiling. Deep rumblings reverberated throughout the floor.
“Omigod!” Sarah rushed forward. “Are you okay?”
Steve sat up, looking down at his now exposed gut. Gingerly he felt his eyebrows. Good. Still there. He huffed out a muffled apology and just sh
ook his head. Callé, taking her cue from Sarah, now pretended the tapestries on the walls held the Secret of Life and therefore studied them meticulously while she waited to see if Steve was injured or not.
Kri’Entu, already noting the lack of damage to the Antechamber, had laughter dancing behind his eyes. Doing his best to not smirk too much, he leaned down and gave Steve an arm up. “Are ye well?”
Looking down at his chest, with his white belly on display to the world, Steve couldn’t help but laugh. “Learn something new everyday, dontcha?”
With tears streaming down her eyes, Sarah was able to compose herself long enough to ask if he was burned.
“No, not really. I don’t feel any pain.” Puzzled, he looked at his wife. Eyes narrowing as she laughed inwardly, he frowned. “Why did my shirt burn? I just figured my clothes would be immune to my jhorun.”
“There are probably limits,” the king suggested. “Caught unaware, ye were, and the mimet had a bit of a charge, adding its energy to yer existing jhorun.”
“Everything happened so fast you did not have time to react,” Callé reasoned. “It could have been worse, ye know.”
Steve’s ears turned bright red as he blushed crimson at the thought.
A guard stepped out of the shadows and offered him a green tunic. Skeptical on whether it would fit, Steve pulled the soft shirt over his head, smoothing the edges, tugging here and there to assure himself of a comfortable fit. Not bad, he mused, not bad at all. Nice, light material. Smiling, he turned to the soldier, who had melted back into the shadows.
Admiring his new shirt, Steve turned to the king. “How did that guy happen to have a shirt in my size available?”
Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy Page 19
