Moirai
Chapter 5

“Alnya, you’ve got to leave,now!” Kasanda hissed as quietly as she could. Suddenly she was no longernervous and jumpy, but focussed.

I was not focussed. I couldn’t move. My limbs locked in place as thebanging continued. My mind screamed at me to run, but my body would not obey. Ifelt someone grab my arm and try to pull me towards the back of the room justas the door fell inwards, crashing to the floor.

In the doorway stood two of themost hideous creatures I had ever seen. At first they were silhouetted but asthey stepped forwards into the room their appearance was revealed. They lookedvaguely human, but the resemblance only extended to shape. Both were a foottaller than normal humans, and their skin was tinged with green. Most horriblyof all, both had a third arm sprouting from different places on their monstrousbodies. The one on the left was leering around the room with limited intelligence,its thick brow hanging over its eyes and giving it a Frankenstein’s monster-ishappearance. It’s third arm was sticking out of his stomach. The other, who wasslightly thinner and seemed to have a bit more of an intelligent spark in itslivid green eyes, had its arm curled around to the front, originating somewherebehind the right shoulder. Both carried fierce-looking axes in their thirdhands.

I felt like my feet were glued tothe floor, my eyes fixed on the axes, their sharp points glinting ominously inthe light from the fire. A cold horror filled me at the thought that Indina wasevil enough to use, or possibly even create these creatures for her dirty work.

The world around me receded intoone image; the axes, as the two creatures took a step closer. Everything aroundthem had faded into a hazy greyness. All I wished was that they were unarmed. Iknew that then, maybe, I wouldn’t be quite so scared and then I could leavewith Loni and Mayran. The image of the axes disappearing flashed through mymind. A hysterical laugh bubbled up in my throat and I briefly wondered ifKasanda could actually do that using her aura.

Then, just as suddenly as theidea occurred, the bubbles of laughter turned to heat, rising and growinginside of me and obliterating all other thought. My chest tightened. The heatgrew, but not to an uncomfortable level. I felt warmed from the inside out. Theedges of my sight seemed to glow with a pale green light.

Then, my chest released and, atthe same moment, the axes burst intoflames and disintegrated.

I gaped, staring wide-eyed, as awave of dizziness fell over me. I swayed, breathing heavily and just generallystunned. It dimly registered that it had only been about ten seconds since thedoor had been broken down.

Everyone else froze, staring atme. Then Kasanda tugged on my arm harder, yanking me towards what I dimlyrealised was the back door.

“What just happened?” I heardsomeone ask, but I couldn’t tell who it was. My mind had shut down…because ofthat exact question.

What had happened…simply couldn’t happen. I refused to believethat it had. I didn’t even dare think the words. I barely felt it when Amberand Roald hugged me goodbye, when Mayran pulled me up behind him on a horse andinstructed me to hold on and when we sped out of Nerome at a gallop.

My brain started working againalmost ten minutes later, when Mayran had obviously decided we had gone farenough. He jumped down off the horse, pulling me down after him. I saw, out ofthe corner of my eye, Loni get down off her own horse, and a third that hadbeen tied to Mayran’s.

I stood there, staring out acrossthe lightly wooded area where we had stopped, still trying to come to termswith what I had done. Everything seemed slightly blurred, as though seenthrough glasses that weren’t right for my eyes.

Mayran’s face appeared in frontof me and his hands rested on my shoulders. “Alnya, are you alright? Do youfeel light-headed?’

I blinked several times and ittook me longer than it should have to understand his words. I answered hisquestion as honestly as I could. “No, I’m not really alright, but I don’t feeldizzy anymore. I’m just…in shock.”

“You need to tell me exactly howyou feel. What you did back there…” he shook his head as though impressed,“Well, I didn’t even know that was possible. I’ve never heard of anyone doingthat, let alone on their first time. You may be feeling…well, you should befeeling…”

I recoiled at his implication,although I had already admitted to myself that it was true. “Just…stop rightthere.” I said, stepping back. “I don’t want to talk about it and it will never happen again.”

Mayran frowned deeply, but hisexpression quickly changed to one of understanding. “What do you…oh. Of course,Kasanda told me. You fear magic.”

I turned away, annoyed that hethought it was so simple that it could be summed up in those three words. Heprobably thought I was being stupid, but he hadn’t gone through what I had as achild, then to grow up and replace out that magic was actually real…

“Trust me. It won’t happenagain.” I repeated.

To my surprise, his hand touchedmy arm. “We’ll see. Your attitude may change. And surely, even you must admitthat without what you just did – however you did it – we would probably be in amuch worse situation right now. You distracted them enough for us to get out ofthere. Kasanda would have taken care of them afterwards.”

“‘Taken care of them?’” I quotedback anxiously.

He shook his head. “She wouldn’thave killed them. She would have probably teleported them far outside ofNerome, and placed a barrier outside her and Loni’s houses so they couldn’treturn.” He then asked his earlier question. “So do you agree that what you didwas helpful?”

I nodded reluctantly, but added,“We could have gotten out of there without magic, so just because it helped,that doesn’t mean it’s a good enough reason for me to do it again.”

Mayran opened his mouth tocontinue his argument, but I was rescued by Loni, who tapped him on theshoulder. “Leave it…at least for now.”

He looked at her and nodded, movingback to allow Loni to approach me while he went to check on the horses.

“Sit down and at least have somewater.” She instructed gently, but firmly. I almost laughed. Due to the factthat I had believed her to be an orphan, I had always perceived her as beingthe one to be taken care of, yet whenever I had been injured or sick and mumwasn’t around, she would always look after me. Whether it was a grazed knee atschool or a cold that sent me home while mum was at work, she was always there.

“I’m fine.” I protested, but didas she said.

“No you’re not.” She insisted. “Idon’t pretend to know much about auraics, but I understood what Kasanda toldyou. What just happened took energy out of you. You’re still quite pale.”

Despite what I told Mayran, Loniwas right. I did in fact feel light-headed still, but it wasn’t because of thereasons she thought. Telling her this, however, would be pointless. As much asshe understood my fear of magic, she did not share the same view.

I heard her sigh quietly. “Look,all I’m going to say is that I know you’re scared of the aura and what thosewho have one can do, but that’s what Mayran’s here for. He’s going to teachyou. He’s an aurae, too.”

“How do you know?” I asked,surprised because I had presumed she knew as little about our third travellingcompanion as I did.

“Kasanda told me as we left.” Sheanswered. I realised it must have been during the period where I had beenunaware of my surroundings.

I looked over at Mayran, who hadgotten the map out and was studying it intensely. I wondered if this was just aruse and he was listening to us, or if he truly was trying to give Loni and Iour time to talk. His hair was now even messier; the wind of the fast ride wasthe culprit for that, but it wasn’t an unattractive look.

Instantly I berated myself forsuch a silly thought.

I took one last drink of waterbefore getting up and walking over to him. “So, where are we going first?”

“Well…there’s a homestead that weshould be able to reach by this evening. Friends of Kasanda. She would havetold them we were coming.” He replied. I couldn’t see a label for the homesteadon the map, but had to trust that he knew where it was. His last words remindedme of something.

“Kasanda said you could contact herto let her know we’re alright. How can you do that?” Now that Loni had told mehe was an aurae, I realised that he would probably use magic to do so.

“It is done by summoning what isknown as a spectrum.” He explained.

“With magic?” I asked.

He nodded. “With my aura.Basically, I can bring up a two-way…portal, if you will…of anyone as long as Iknow what they look like, but they have to be an aurae themselves. Then I, youor anyone else can talk to them through the portal and they can talk back. Ittakes up a fair amount of stamina, which is why when I do contact Kasanda we shouldlimit the length of time to a few minutes, as I can’t use too much energy incase of any threats we may encounter.”

Conflicted thoughts arose insideme. What he was suggesting was incredible and also slightly comforting becauseit would be nice to see Kasanda and possibly Loni’s parents now and then. Butit was done with his aura and his words about using up energy concerned me. Itreminded me too much of when Kasanda said that auraics have died fromoverestimating their power.

I said no more as we mounted ourhorses and continued on our way. Luckily, Loni and I had both done horse ridingat a young age; it had been Loni’s suggestion, and now I suspected why. Thehorse Kasanda had chosen for me was a quite beautiful silver mare with a blackmane and tail. Loni’s was the colour of honey, while Mayran’s steed was a tangelding. Riding came so naturally that it allowed my thoughts to wander again.

I refused to think about theevents directly before our departure, because if I did I knew I would justbecome angry and frustrated that Kasanda had told the truth about me. I wascontent to go as far with this as I could, but I would do it my way, withoutmagic.

That led me to another train ofthought; there was a constant tug from somewhere near my heart that felt likeit was pulling me towards the south-east. Without having to consult the map, Iknew it was precisely the direction of Indina’s castle. I couldn’t work outwhat could be causing it and felt a jolt of panic as it occurred to me that Indinacould already have some spell surrounding me, leading me into a trap. Who knewwhat she was capable of? It had been nearly twenty years since she had leftKasanda, and by Kasanda’s own words she was already an accomplished mage bythen. There was no telling how much she had increased her power over the years.

But then I remembered howconfidant Kasanda had been that I would accept this journey. Surely she knewsomething about what this pull was inside me. I briefly considered askingMayran about it, but decided against doing so; he might not have any idea andif he did, would probably tell me not to worry about it.

We reached the homestead he hadtold us about late in the evening, having stopped a few times to rest thehorses and eat. The entire trip had been mostly silent, each of us lost in ourown thoughts. Every time I would glance over at Loni and Mayran, I couldn’t helpbut notice the stark differences in their expressions. Loni’s face wasdetermined and focused, staring ahead intently. I knew her well enough to seethat there were as many thoughts flying around inside her head as there were inmine.

Mayran, on the other hand, hadthe haunted look back in his eyes. He clearly was not focused on the pathahead, but was lost somewhere in his mind. For the second time I wondered whyhe seemed to have such dark memories and what they were. I also noticed that hewas very good at hiding those memories and the effect they had on him, becauseas soon as we stopped for the night the dark look vanished as though it hadnever been there.