The inn grew quite as the night deepened over the valley. Dreams and stories were silenced in the cozy darkness of the sheets. The fire quenched in the stove, and the heavy old floors ceased to creak under the steps of the guests. The inn was sleeping… the beautiful valley fell asleep too… even the small spring behind the walls softened down its purl.
Yet, in her room, Lamar stayed awake.
“Maybe I shouldn’t… she thought to herself… he’s inexperienced and we would be an easy kill. Still… he could slow them down and I would have enough time to sneak to the boarder.” Her face darkened and a deep line appeared between her eyebrows.
“He’s still innocent… and he would most certainly… die…” But she was a warrior… she had seen death too many times to consider it an impediment. “Well… every noble cause has its collaterals…” and she smoothly got out of bed, holding a small silver knife in her hand. She searched for something in the folds of her coat and took a gray pouch that she carefully opened. There was some kind of red powder in it. She took some in the left fistand hurried to the door. Thanked to the careful inn keeper, the door was recently oiled and made no sound when Lamar strained out in the corridor. Her thin silhouette glided silently through the darkness. She stopped before a door, drawing her ear near and listening carefully… than she chose another… Behind it she could barely hear the strange sound of that bird language she heard earlier in the night. “Here it comes…” she whispered. And she let a small round stone to roll over the corridor. It made a low, stifled noise that could very well pass unobserved… Yet, the voices behind the door suddenly fainted. Lamar sticked to the wall in silence. She waited. The creak of a wooden chair… soft steps on the floor… and the door opened slowly, allowing a hooded head to appear behind it. Lamar knew she had only one instant to act before she would lose the element of surprise. Moving as fast as a snake striking its prey, she thrusted the silver knife in the creature’s throat. A sharp whistling came from under the hood and gray, latescent smoke started to spread around, changing bizarre, terrifying forms, continuously shifting, trying to find the aggressor in the darkness. She knew she had no time to waste.
-Lanak fidga gru! She murmured and threw some of the red powder in the air. The smoke creature fell down…
-Lanak fidga gru! She said again throwing the rest of the red dust into the room. She stopped to listen. There was no sound to be heard in the whole inn. She entered precautiously, noticing the other hooded creatures fallen down on the floor, caught into a magic sleep.
-Good, she said. Now… where is it?
She didn’t have to look too much. The silver moon, Solinari, sent a ray through the window, lighting a piece of metal, darkened by time, shaped in the form of old runes. Lamar picked it up and disappeared.
-Wake up! Now!
Roun jumped out of his bed, driving away the mists of unconsciousness that were still dimming his mind.
-What happened? Lamar??? What are you doing here?
-Get your things ready and let’s get out of here! Now, Roun! If you care for your life!
Roun had not much to take. In a minute he was ready to go.
-What happened?
-I’ll tell you on the way. Now hurry! You might get the occasion to show me some of your magic tricks.
Roun would have liked to ask more or at least to get some decent explanation from Lamar but he subdued to her severe expression as he understood her weird behavior hid even weirder and dangerous matters.
They got their horses and rapidly faded away, fallowing the narrow road to the mountains, Lamar insisted to take. It was the shortest way to the boarder but it was also hard and mischievous. Once again, Roun chose to respect her decision.
They were riding fast and Lamar was often looking back to check for unwanted company.
-You should tell me now what’s going on!
-Listen, we may have bad company, and this pretty soon, I’m afraid. The shadows are rising up and they’ll surely try to track our trail. The sky was cloudy all night long but it didn’t rain… so they’ll get to us… it’s only a matter of time. You’d better review those combat spells you said you were good at as we’ll soon need some magical protection, my friend!
-What’s going on, Lamar?
-I told you all you needed to know. In fact, the less you understand of all this, the safer you are, if any of us can be safe now…
-I’ve listened to all your strange ideas without questioning you. Now it’s high time to give me some insight on what’s really happening, or we go our separate ways right now, my lady!
-You didn’t get it right, you, stubborn Elf! There are no separate ways. We have to stick together or we stand no chance. They’re coming for you too…
-Who are they? How do I know I can trust you?
-You have no other choice!
-Really? Then watch me leaving… said Roun and bridled his horse.
Lamar turned around in fury, caught the reins of Roun’s horse and dragged it back. Flashing with anger she whispered sharply in Roun’s ear.
-Listen carefully… I could kill you without blinking right now… because this would happen anyway if you turned back. They have no mercy… they’d even enjoy it…And I won’t get my hands dirty with your noble Elven blood, not even by letting you commit this stupid suicide. Do you understand?
I took something from them… They aren’t humans, or Elves, or any other race you might have heard about on Atri. They’re something else… they seed fear in their victims’ mind that drives them mad… And they kill… they feed with pain.
-What are they?
-They’re not alive… yet they’re not dead… They keep their spirits no more, as they are doomed. They are mirrors, mirrors of Rubshi that haunt these lands… they feel her eagerness and disquiet. They feel the time is coming…
-Murbs… I thought these were legends…
-Legends are starting to wake up these days, my friend. You wouldn’t wanna know…
-What’s that you took from them?
-That is not your business.
-It is, since they are coming from both of us, since you need my help to keep them away, since…
-Watch out!!! Shouted Lamar.
Roun barely had the time to turn. A giant, hazy spider flew in the air coming straight towards Roun’s head. Instinctively he threw himself down to the ground. The spider missed its target. Laying on his back, Roun started to murmur a freezing spell. An icy bolt hit the spider who was preparing to attack again. Its joints cracked as it was trying to shift his form. But the frozen ties let it not change.
-You will no longer bother us, shouted Lamar and thrusted her sword deep into the creature’s body.
The spider screamed… a scream that came not from this world. Roun felt his blood growing cold. An ashy haze rose from its corpse, wrapping Lamar’s sword, climbing her gloved hand in a deadly embrace.
-Let it go, shouted Roun! But it was already too late. He saw Lamar’s look filled with terror.
-Help me! She cried…But the cry fainted and her eyes started to lose their expression. The fear melted in a blank, glassy look. She was stoned by the beast feeding from her vital energy.
Roun searched his mind for a spell… murmured its words and hit the giant spider. The magic grew in his blood, singing, scaling his mind, demanding… Words melted in his soul, magic embraced him, caressed him, followed his desires. Spells flew over and over hitting their target until there was nothing left of it. He felt again that voluptuous joy from the day of his test. He felt the wolf getting wind of the kill. And the kill was there… the murb turned into ashes, swept off by the wind. The song of magic grew softer, as he came back from his trance. Lamar’s body lay near the small pile of ashes. She was breathing.
-Lamar… He caught her body in his arms. Lamar…
-There will be more…
-Can you stand?
-I… I…think… you should take this… and she gently slipped into his hand the iron artifact she stole from the murbs. And go…
-I can’t let you here…
-Stubborn Elf… I matter little right now. Just go…
This was the one I stabbed at the inn. It had enough time to feel me, to sniff me… that’s why it got me now… it already knew…
-Lamar…
-The others will come… Just go… They probably won’t waste much time killing me…I’d die anyway…go…
But the Elf was indeed stubborn… and more than that, he was very young, his mind still filled with heroic dreams and caught in some sort of warm feeling he didn’t completely understand.
-I won’t leave you.
-Then you’ll die… And they’ll win…
Roun started to prepare the place for what he thought would be a confrontation. He put magical traps all around, surrounded their small camp with protective spells, placed a melting shadow curtain in the way and then he looked for a secluded hiding to cast his spells from. And he waited.
Lamar was shivering with fever… she was whispering delirious words… from time to time she fainted, giving Roun heart quakes. Finally, she fell into a strange state, like a deep, unhealthy sleep, on the edge of death. His heart full of hatred, Roun waited.
And they appeared… Dark, hooded silhouettes, coming with the dawn.
His spells were effective. They slowed them down allowing Roun to cast and hit them. Yet, they were getting closer. They were too many… He couldn’t focus on one of them…
The magic sang, grew, poisoned his blood with sweet venom. The spells were hitting his opponents, yet, there were not usual opponents he was fighting. The mirrors they carried instead of their spirits were hard to break. “Let me do it for you…” the words whispered in his mind. “ Let me grow in your veins like the waves of the ocean”, cried the magic… Roun felt the joy, the hunger of the wolf… “Let us be one… Let us be most powerful… Let us bend the rules of the world…” The spells grew in power and two of the murbs turned to ashes. Yet the third one was much too close.
“Let us be one” sang the words while rearranging into a new spell… “Let us bend the universe…”
-I can’t… I must rule over you…
“Let us become everything…let us live… you need…”
-No! He shouted… And the words faded again, as they did before…long before…
Roun felt exhausted. There was not enough strength in him to cast another word of magic. Yet he tried to articulate the soft and mysterious language of power… But the murb was already near him, taking the form of a three headed snake, their jaws largely opened to bite. Roun’s last spell hit it, covering it in bright flames. Yet the snake didn’t turn to ashes.
-They won, he though, waiting for the bite to come…
But suddenly the snake screamed, contorted and vanished into the morning wind. Behind the ash pile he saw a crooked, most familiar smile…
-Magic looser…
-I just know what you’re going to say, Astara. That you’d give all the magic in the world for a good katara blow.
-My point exactly. And I hope the next time you try to make fun of my katara you’ll just remember it saved your life!
-And I’m most grateful for that… Lamar… Look, you have to help me… She’s badly wounded.
-Who is she? Mighty Demius… she’s human… What’s that on her hand? I’ve never seen something like this in my whole life!
-It’s a murb touch. It’s poisoning her…
-Murb? What’s a murb?
-That creature you helped me kill… That’s a murb…
-Mighty Demius… giant snakes? I never thought such beasts lived in Elven lands.
-They’re more than beasts, Astara… They walk among us… They feed with pain and fear. They mirror Rubshi’s essence of death… They desire nothing except destruction. Legends, Astara, terrifying legends are awakening…
-You scare me…
-You should be scared… Wait a minute… You shouldn’t be here at all… How did you find us?
-That’s a quite simple story… Still, we should take care first of your friend right here… Could you find some Gordore roots for me? I’d also need some fresh water and vispus leaves if you find some…
-I’ll do my best, Astara… You still know the right recipe for the Mardar healing potion, don’t you?
-Of course, my friend… Someone had to learn the healing components while you only exercised the incantations…
-Astara… You are a most cherished treasure… I don’t know what I would have done without you.
-You’d be dead. Literally. My components, please!
miercuri, 17 septembrie 2008
Abonați-vă la:
Postare comentarii (Atom)
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu