Moirai
Chapter 8

Aboutan hour later, we found ourselves mingling with the locals of Okanto, manymetres below the actual city. Mayran and Eldaline had vanished almost as soonas we had entered the large open area where it seemed most of the peoplegathered, off to catch up on the however-many-years it had been. The panicmomentarily returned to me when he left my side, but it was far less than ithad been in the tunnel. I just tried not to think about the tonnes and tonnesof earth and rock pressing down upon me.

Afterhearing the story from several of the locals, I uncovered the truth of what hadhappened on the surface. A few weeks ago, a black siege of storm clouds hadappeared on the horizon. By midday, it was right over the city. Lightning beganto strike down, sparking huge fires wherever it hit. The citizens had realisedit was unnatural lightning when the stone buildings themselves had begun tocatch on fire.

Eldalinehad been the one to call the city to action. She had reminded them all of thecatacombs that spider webbed underneath the city and rallied everyone together,heading to safety. As far as Indina knew, for it was clearly her nasty work,the occupants of Okanto had all perished. She never bothered to check; she wastoo confidant in her abilities.

Itwas quickly decided that we would spend the night, restock our water and food,and then continue on South towards the forest. We were shown to rooms whereeven the beds had been carved out of rock. The room was small, but not as smallas the tunnel, and so it was bearable.

Thatnight I dreamed.

I was standing on a large flat stone thatstuck out of a body of water; a river or lake, I presumed. Thick fog surroundedme, obscuring anything more than a couple of feet away.

Sinister laughter sounding from somewhere infront of me made me jump. The fog cleared a path, revealing another stoneseveral metres away. Upon it stood a woman who appeared to be in her earlythirties, despite her shining silver hair. She wore a long, tight black dressthat reminded me somewhat of Morticia Adams, and her skin was so pale it wasalmost grey. In fact, as I looked closer, it actually was grey. I would havedescribed her as beautiful if it wasn’t for that and her wicked red eyes thatseemed to hurt as they focussed on me.

Somehow I knew this was Indina.

She regarded me nonchalantly, but I couldsee that her sharp eyes were taking in everything. “So, you are the one that Icontinually get whispers of. Hmph! Far less than what I expected. If that wenchKasanda was going to send someone as a challenge, I thought it would at leastbe someone worth facing.”

I was frozen with fear and shock that Indinawas actually in my dream…speaking to me. I had so much I wanted to say, forthat very day I had imagined how much I would yell and scream at her for what Ithought she had done to Okanto. Presented with the opportunity, however, all Icould do was stare. Or, perhaps it was some sort of magic that kept me still. Ihated that thought.

She continued to taunt me, apparentlyoblivious to my reaction. “You are honestly pathetic. Afraid of magic, not evenan adult and not a scrap of knowledge about this world! I cannot believe it!”

Her voice on the outside was clear andsharp, but there was an undertone of darkness; every word seemed to drippoison. The slow speed in which she spoke added to that effect.

“I’m not alone, and I will learn.” I finallymanaged to say, and my voice sounded very small compared to hers, which hadseemed to come from everywhere at once.

She cackled again. “You’re not alone? Ha!You have no idea of your travelling companions, do you? Maybe you should askthem. Well, don’t trouble yourself over the girl, but Mayran…” her laugh waslow and malicious this time. “Well, let’s just say that there are things abouthim that would curl your hair.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself? It seems likeyou’re warming to him enough…” She raised an eyebrow.

I opened my mouth to retort, but without anywarning she suddenly came at me, charging across the stones. I turned and triedto run, but my feet wouldn’t move. Stuck as I was, I could do nothing butscream as her cold, clawed hands gripped my shoulders like a vice.

Iwoke still screaming, drenched in perspiration. I was breathing even fasterthan it had been in the tunnel earlier. My whole body was trembling with thelingering terror from the dream. The darkness of the room did nothing toalleviate it.

Myfear of magic was instantly rekindled, for that was the only way the dream,which wasn’t really a dream, could have occurred. It positively terrified me,because that meant she knew where I was and what we were doing.

Fora moment I half expected someone to come running any second, before rememberingthat Loni and Mayran were in rooms quite far away from mine. I lay back down.However, I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night, and the following morningI waved away the shadows under my eyes an ordinary bad dream.

Eldalinewalked us back to the surface again. Going through the tunnel a second time wasmade slightly easier as I was going towards the open air rather than away fromit, but I still felt shaky by the time we emerged.

Althoughall of our spirits were far more uplifted than upon entering the city, therewas a sad air around all three of us as we left it, for the parting betweenMayran and Edlaline had lulled us into a regretful silence.

Hehad embraced her warmly, and she had returned it. Mayran, once again, had tearsshining in his eyes. Eldaline looked him affectionately in the eye and gave hima warning that if he didn’t take care of himself with Indina, Eldaline wouldpersonally replace the witch and kill her. Mayran, in return, promised to visitagain as soon as time permitted.

Hethen became quiet for the next few hours, only speaking to comment on how longit should take us to get to the forest, which was about four days. I didn’tmention my dream, for as the day went on it seemed far less a work of evil andmore a product of my scared and tired mind.

Werode a fair distance throughout that day, but Mayran didn’t stop to train me.Nor did he bring up magic, something which relieved me. I couldn’t help butstare at him whenever I knew he wouldn’t notice, asking the question presentedto me in my dream; exactly who was he?

Severaltimes I considered asking him, but I was worried that he would either brush meoff with a vague answer or a lie, or get angry at me for prying into his past.The fact that the dark look had returned to his eyes since leaving Okantodidn’t help to alleviate my curiosity. I mentioned my questions to Loni thatnight after Mayran had fallen asleep – without contacting Kasanda; somethinghe’d done almost every other night – declining to mention the dream. She agreedthat she had been wondering similar thoughts but also agreed that I shouldn’tmention anything...yet.

Thenext day found us leaving the desert behind, and the vegetation increased muchquicker than on the Nerome side of Okanto. In the distance stood the forest, spreadout as far as the eye could see in either direction; nothing more than a darkgreen mass of oaks and other deciduous trees. Nothing about it gave anyindication of the Dryads that resided within.

At mid-morning we stopped and Mayran,who had slowly been acting more normally the past day or so, pointed to a smallfarm about half a mile away, on one of the first patches of fertile, non-sandyground. “Before heading to the forest, we should go and ask whoever lives thereif it is safe. We don’t want to run into any of Indina’s tricks again and becaught unawares like last time.”

Loni and I agreed, not evendaring to ask about what her ‘tricks’ might be, after seeing the two distortedbeings that showed up at Kasanda’s house and what had happened to Okanto. Westarted making our way down the other side of the hill, where the last specs ofsand turned to grass.

A man was standing as thoughwaiting to greet us next to the mailbox of the farm, the house a couple ofhundred metres behind him. He leaned casually against it, one elbow resting onthe top. He wore the oddest assortment of clothing I had ever seen; brown pantswith shiny boots, a white and red striped shirt large enough to just be pulledover his enormous stomach and what looked like the visor of a knight’s helmet,covering his eyes. His hair flopped around his face and was a dull ginger,looking quite in need of a wash. He waved as we approached.

“Oh ho! Travellers!” he cried ina deep voice. His tone was light, but the second he spoke an unexplainableshiver ran down my spine.

“Hello, there!” Mayran calledback, waving back. Neither spoke again until we reached the mailbox. The mangrinned at us, making his already fat red cheeks become like apples.

“Well, I haven’t seen anyone aroundthese parts for months!” the man said loudly. It seemed as though he alwaysspoke with a lot of volume.

“Why is that then?” Mayran asked,his clam voice sounding almost like a whisper after the other man’s roar.

“Didn’t you know?” he demanded asthough it was common knowledge. “The Dryads have been…well, you’ll see foryourself. You’re heading over there, then?”

Mayran nodded, a frown slightlycreasing his forehead. “We are, but if there’s something wrong, I wouldappreciate it if you could let us know. We don’t want to go riding into danger,you see.”

The man laughed then, slappinghis belly and leaning back. “Danger? Ha! You lot wouldn’t know danger if itdanced in front of you!”

He was really starting to annoyme, now. His obnoxious nature got to me from the start, and now he clearlywasn’t telling us something important. “Who’re you, anyway?” I blurted beforesense could tell me to do otherwise.

“Oh, no-one really.” He mutteredoffhand. “Name’s Gould. Like ‘gold’ but with a ‘u’.”

As if we needed the spellinglesson. I started to tell him as much before Mayran put a warning hand on myshoulder.

“If you’re not going to tell usabout the Dryads, then we’ll leave you be and continue on our way.” He said,and I noticed with some satisfaction that he was trying to hide his ownannoyance.

Gould waved his arm at us, asthough shooing us away. “Fine then, go!”

I huffed and turned, startingtowards the green horizon. Mayran and Loni followed after a moment.

“Quite a strange fellow.” Lonicommented, frowning as much as Mayran and I were. “Acted as though he didn’tcare much about anything. And what was with that visor?”

“No idea.” Mayran muttered. “Keepwalking and don’t look back. We don’t know what’s happened with the Dryads.Gould could be more than he seems.”

I heard it before they did; aslight chink and the snick of metal accompanied by the soundof something moving through air. I turned just in time to see a small knifeflying handle-over-blade towards Loni. I tried to push her out of the way butwas too slow, and only managed to deflect the strike. The knife imbedded itselfinto Loni’s left shoulder and she screamed in pain, dropping to her knees.

Gould’s raucous laughter reachedour ears, accompanied by a much higher, colder laughter from somewhere allaround us. It seemed to obliterate all other sound or colour or feeling. It waslike the world around me grew grey and slowed down. I had heard the laughterbefore. I felt very strange; light-headed and slightly ill. I gazed down atLoni and felt my heart ache to see her pale face as she struggled to remainconscious, but for some reason I couldn’t replace the will to bend down andreassure her…