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“Yes, he is teaching her! But I am afraid of…”
The woman’s low whisper sounded like a question, and the man’s exhausted answer came next, “He has torn it all apart. No lead… No clear sign or trace to catch at… I am not sure Arr has a hand in it… It’s proven all too much complicated…”
The woman answered something again, too quietly, and the man hissed, “We cannot return now… We’ll have to present some evidence. Right away, before everyone has time to know what is what…”
For another while they spoke too quietly for Elcha to get a word but at last the man raised his voice again, “Message came today. She was seen near the Azure Ridge and the Gray Hill. She
moves really fast since she manages to reach different parts of the mountains. And you should be perfectly aware that she will not escape this time.”
“Doesn’t matter, actually. The valley is sealed,” the woman’s quiet voice came, yet again so softly that the voice itself could not be recognized.
“Then keep them here all year round. Not a single step out of here!” the man hissed again. “I’ll have the perimeter sealed, too. I really hope your plan will work!” the man raised his voice and was almost screaming. “No magic to be used here, just block it all!”
Then they went on whispering again, after which Elcha could get another bit. “As long as the first is alive, they don’t need the other one… the older blood is more important! Goodbye! See you in a year.”
Next moment it was only the woman standing there in her dark cloak, her head covered with the hood. Another moment… and the path was completely empty.
Elcha was still waiting as she did not want the two to see her eavesdropping.
Strange talk, she thought. I wonder who they were and who they were discussing. Besides, she got quite curious about the valley being sealed. It means that our valley got some guarding spell cast on. But why? And who against? I think I’ll have to tell Mammy or Ricka, she decided finally.
Elcha stepped out of her refuge and rushed up the hill. Just a bit more, and then Dartor would lose its power – too dark. As she ran out into the glade covered with flowers, she hurried to pick them to stuff up her bag, then lit a light on her palm so she could see the way, and went back.
That time, somewhere far and away up in the mountains, a triumphant inhuman howl could be heard, and two coal-black creatures darted between stones. One stopped and pulled the air with its nostrils, then chose a more accurate direction and rushed into the crevice between the rocks, as the second snarled and followed it.
The Premonition
Next morning I woke up all in cold sweat. Nightmare!
I saw a fire, and it was everywhere – everything around was in flames. And it was burning m from inside. I could not stand the heat and screamed. Then some shadows came out of the fire. They resembled the beast that had attacked me in the mountains. And there were more and more of them. Then I saw a woman’s face. She was either crying or singing a song, or chanting a spell. And then she shouted something through the roaring flame, and shoved a bag into my hands as she asked me to take care of it. The shadows surrounded her, and at that point it felt like I fell into darkness… And I was falling way down… The feeling was sickening, just horrible… And then I woke up.
I had seen the dream before, more than a few times. But each time it would change a slight bit – once the woman was seized with fire, resembling a fiery goddess; another time the fire around turned into a fiery beast, or some man appeared, whose face I could not see, to shout something to me. But the effect was inevitably same – the woman disappeared all enveloped in flames, and then I fell somewhere deep down, into an abyss, pressing the bundle tightly to my chest… And fear, terrible fear, a feeling of helplessness, which left me sobbing in silence…
For several minutes I was lying still trying to recover, my heart pounding.
I got up and sat on the bed. There was some bitter feeling squeezing me deep from inside. Every time I had that dream, I was out of humor for the entire day ahead, and it looked like that day would be no exception.
But then it was something different. Either my subconscious decided to play tricks or someone invisible wanted to play with my subconscious. Anyway, my nightmare got a whole army of monsters – all with their manes moving – crawling in.
I shook my own mane, shaking my head from side to side to dump the obsession. The Sun was already staring into my bedroom window, as if giving me a gentle hint that I had been sleeping too long.
I could hear the door squeak, which meant Elcha was already up, so it was time for me to get down to something, too. I got dressed, braided my hair and went downstairs.
There were some people waiting in the hallway, while the door to Nargara’s study room was closed. That meant she had a customer in.
I greeted everyone politely and turned left into the kitchen. Elcha was already laying the table – pies, honey and cottage cheese. There on the stove I saw a small clay teapot, which was sending forth a delicate and fresh scent of thyme and lemon balm.
“Want some tea?” my sister said cheerfully.
“Sure,” I accepted right away and sat at the table.
Elcha was fast bringing cups, sugar and spoons, after which we got to breakfast.
“Nightmare again?”.
I tried really hard to look calm but my sister was no spring chicken when it came to
seeing people through.
“Yeah, again,” I replied reluctantly and ran my hand through my face trying to drive away all the images that were still haunting me.
“How about some herbs in your tea before bed? I picked a lot yesterday. Could prepare the right mix for you. Will make you sleep like a bab…” Elcha stopped half-word and then went on rattling yet in a lower voice. “You know, yesterday, when on my way to pick some Dartor, I overheard some strange talk.”
“You are up, aren’t you? Great!” Nargara came in. “Lots of delivery today. Ricka, you take two boosters – one to Kold’s bakery, the other to the Meekle brothers… And four efils…”
“It’s Friday, so I got to go to Truvle’s. Why not visit him fir..?” I asked.
“No, Truvle is coming himself to pick his elixirs,” Nargara cut me short showing she would not tolerate any argument.
I exchanged looks with Elcha. The smith never wasted his time on things like that. He never liked having to drop his work even for a minute. And visiting us would take at least two days.
“Anything wrong?” I asked, even though the answer was more than obvious.
“That beast. They saw it again near the valley,” she exhaled and rubbed the temples with her hands as if trying to relieve herself from inner tension.
I exchanged another look with Elcha. Frightened already, both of us.
“Ricka, from now on you are working within the valley only. No single step beyond. Got it?” Nargara raised an eyebrow impatiently.
I was so shocked with the news I could only nod my head fervently, “Gotcha.”
“Elcha, and you too! Pick herbs only on the inner slopes.” Elcha followed me nodding.
“Good, then. And another. You remember the ban on any magic, right?”
We nodded again, as if one.
“Perfect,” she lowered her voice and went on, “and please take that seriously. I don’t want any of our customers to learn that the Karun witch’s daughters are firesses. That would bring about too many questions. We don’t want our reputation stained.”
“Nor do we want it fried,” Elcha giggled.
I could barely strangle a laugh.
“Hey, girls, I need two sacks of Talker flowers today. The guards got a couple robbers, now want to make them sing, so they ordered a couple elixirs. Go get some on the east slope in the afternoon. Together. And once again – don’t even think of going beyond the valley! I mean it.”
“You mean it,” we echoed.
Then Nargara charged Elcha with a few more tasks, after which we quickly finished our breakfast and ran, each of us about her own business.
The morning time flew as we were up to the ears in fuss. I ran to Kold’s bakery taking him the booster for sourdough. It made yeasted dough rise instantly, while the baking turned out just great. Kold, as usual, stuffed my bag with a whole bunch of rolls and cinnamon buns saying I had to eat more given my kind of work. I was too thin, he added – all skin and bones. As for him, he definitely never limited himself with his own product, which you could easily see from his fat cheeks and a stout build.
After that, I went to the Meekle brothers’ brewery taking a similar booster for beer, where
they treated me to a bottle of delicious lemonade they were selling in their shop along with beer. Then I delivered all the four efils and headed home.
Elcha was sitting on the porch waiting for me.
“Ready? Got the bags?” I asked.
“Yes, here,” she waved two gray rags. “And I also took some meat pie.”
“And I got lemonade and fresh buns,” I bragged pointing at my bag.
“Well, then we don’t have to hurry back home, could stay till sunset,” she hit me cheerfully with her idea, which I accepted with a nod, and there we went.
Walking a little through the city’s snaking streets, and passing through the square and the market, we approached the eastern gate and moved along a dirty road heading out of the place. After a while, we turned to a familiar path, which ran up into the mountains.
I had to walk alongside with Elcha, which was very tiresome as I was used to moving fast, so now the habit backfired. It felt like we were crawling like a couple of old turtles and the entire thing was nothing but a waste of time. Patience was definitely not my strong point.
Elcha could notice my irritation immediately, so she tried to distract me with a talk. And she succeeded after a while, to be honest. She was really fond of chatting, and loved asking hundreds of questions even more. Just asking, I mean, never waiting for all the answers to come. And that day my sister was asking me about my training with Yoos. “Well, tell me, how you are doing there. Using the blades yet?” she chattered. “I’m dying to know! He must have shown you lots of his best tricks.”
“Well, not actually… To be honest, it’s all much more complicated than I expected…” I said and frowned a little as I began to tell her about the latest training session.
The conversation made the rest of the way not so long, so it seemed quite soon that we came out to the stony slope where we usually collected little grass called Pyris. People, though, nicknamed it Talker.
“Hey, you don’t have to worry. You are just starting it. You always manage to get everything right, I know you. And this will be no exception,” my sister tried to reassure me. And yes, I have to admit I was really disappointed with my military failures. Not that I expected much success right away, but waving the whip all day to never hit the aim… That was way too bad for me.
“It’s like with magic. At first I couldn’t even hold the light on my palm. And now, look here,” and her palm flashed with a clear little fire gleaming gold around. I whistled in surprise.
“Wow! When did you learn this?”
“Well, around a month ago, I guess. I just never show it at home so Nargara doesn’t know I can and I do play with fire. And also, look now,” and she threw a fiery arrow into a nearby stone cracking it immediately, after which Elcha stood, arms akimbo, looking at me with conscious superiority. “See now?”
“Well, Mammy will never be happy with this. Remember what she said this morning?”
“Oh, c’mon,” she waved her hand at me, “there is no single soul around! And no one can see us here! You know, sometimes I think she takes it too seriously. Had she let us practice it to the fullest, you would have mastered your flow control long ago, so we would not have to use things like blocking.”
I dropped my eyes. The thing was that my magic skills left much to be desired, or were even worse, to be exact. My stream was totally chaotic, and which was worse, I had no clue why
it acted so. Once I could not stir it at all, but then fire came out, and so strong, it could literally burn everything around. For me it never was dangerous, but for those around – deadly. I could burn them alive. Mammy got worried about that all after an incident long ago, when I almost burned one man. That old fool decided to give me a slap in the face for some sort of a prank, and I felt so insulted I suddenly burst into flames, scaring to death both myself and everyone around. We had to move once again to another place after that, and Nargara blocked my magic thus preventing me from getting into any big trouble. Can’t say I was too much disappointed, actually. Trying to use magic that will never obey you may cost too much, you know. I had my fast walking, and I could manage my speed perfectly, so that seemed more than enough for me.
Elcha, though, got a real itch to use that gift. Anytime! And despite the ban, she would polish her skills.
Meanwhile, talking all the time, we began collecting small Talker flowers stuffing them into the bags and tamping them down from time to time to fit more.
Once the bags were full to the top and tied firmly, we went down the slope to the mountain river, sat on the grass, took out supplies and started waiting for the sunset.
That long trip made our legs hurt incredibly, so we decided to put them into the fast stream running down the mountain, and were enjoying its coolness.
“I was just thinking the other day, why not practice some archery? I think I could ask Yoos to teach me. Think he would agree?”
“Well, at least you could try asking him,” I smiled, “if you really mean it, of course. But keep in mind that he is not going to be any softer on you just because you are a girl.”
“Oh, I’m very serious. And my sister is so cool! Really tough and awesome! And me? I am no worse, you know. I’ve already made up my mind!” she announced putting on some oh-I-am-so-totally-determined-now look, yet could not keep it for long and burst out laughing.
“Hey, you, with your mind made up! Just don’t shoot off somebody’s nose,” I said ironically and splashed water in her face.
Elcha closed her face with a sleeve, jumped to her feet and shouting something like “That’s what you are up to!” began to splash back. We were chasing each other along the river bank, splashing and squealing like two young kids. Then, all of a sudden, she slipped on a wet stone while I tried to grab her. Next instant, clinging to each other, we collapsed into the fast stream, which picked up its prey instantly carrying the two girls, both twisting and puddling, away from the place where they fell into its soft yet firm grip.
For some time the river was spinning us in its captivity, but then its strength and depth began to decrease gradually, as if offering us a chance to crawl out.
Drenched to the skin and freezing, we fell on the grass. We looked at each other and burst into a hearty laugh – we looked so stupid. Both dripping, hair tangled and stuck to the foreheads, like the tentacles of a red octopus.
Having had enough, I got up and looked around. The river had taken its riders to the other side of the mountain ledge and thrown into a small ravine.
“It took us out of the valley. Better be careful, remember what Nargara said today,” I warned Elcha looking the way we came from.
“Please, gimme a breath! We aren’t that far, just half an hour on foot. It’s about five minutes for you, over there,” she pointed putting a hand to her forehead and looking that way.
The Sun was about to set.
“Let’s dry our clothes first,” I decided, and, running lightning fast along the river, I gathered a large pile of branches.
“Get one of your fire arrows, that’s where we’ll see the use of it,” I added, throwing out the dry branches under our feet.
Elcha had a short wave of her hand, and fire, breaking off her palm, hit the pile embracing it instantly with its red tongues.
“Ta da!” my sister said ducking a curtsy. “Welcome! Contact me any time!”
We got closer to the fire and began drying our clothes, which did not take long as the fire emitted a lot of heat. My face must have been really sad as I shook out of the bag what once was the buns, now all soaked with water. But the sight of the bottle of lemonade, clean and intact, brought so much delight to our hearts that we finished it the same instant.
Elcha was rattling away telling something about Selena’s birthday they celebrated the day before; she was telling everything, never leaving out a minutest detail, making funny faces and gestures all the time. Then she started to talk about the strange couple she met as she was walking to pick Dartor, and about their conversation that she could not comprehend in full…
But I could not focus on her chit-chat, just had to listen half-ear, as I was still thinking about my nightmare. I didn’t like having that dream as it would inevitably leave some unpleasant impression on my heart, and that time it was growing into anxiety.
I took my eyes up to look at my sister. She was still talking.
“… and then he says to the woman something like ‘I will seal it, too. Just to be on the safe side.’ And also…”
“What seals do you mean?” I asked feeling that I had already lost grip of the story.
“Ricka, you haven’t been listening to me all this time!” she screamed. “There is someone casting spells in our valley, and we have no least idea!” she was indignant. “I’ll have to tell Mammy about….”
But I still could not focus on what she was saying as I got some strange, yet familiar, feeling crawling in my chest. I shook my head trying to see what was wrong, and next moment my hands, all by themselves, touched the daggers on my belt.
Silence… It was absolute silence around, disturbed only by a distant sound of water and Elcha’s chatter. The rest of the world seemed not to exist. I looked at my sister who was sitting on a large boulder and trying to shake sand out of her boots. My glance ran over her shoulder… And there I froze, seized with horror that made me forget how to breathe.
Right behind her, on a steep wall, pressing its claws into the stone, the beast was descending quietly, with its moving mane stretching the tentacles forward, its nostrils swelling large enough to draw in not just the air but all the stones around, and never blinking or moving its violently burning eyes off its prey.
