Chapter Forty-seven
The sound of the horn resounded throughout Seramour. It was the first time in thirty tiels that it had been blown, yet everyone knew what it signaled, and despite the fact that many of the younger people had never heard its saturnine sound before, their hearts grew stone cold from it nonetheless. The sound hung over the Heights, melancholic and forlorn, and the citizens of the city held their breath in dire anticipation of what was to come.
Treestar walked to the southernmost wall of the chamber and gazed out over the rooftops toward Sedahar. He was aware of the preparations that had been occurring in the Dark Lord’s realm, but he had hoped they would have had more time to ready themselves. By the look of the sky, he knew their time had run out.
At least Davmiran has been aroused already
, he said to himself.
Elsinestra walked over to him and put her arm through his.
“Dearest? It has started already?” she asked though she knew the answer.
“Has it ever ended, my darling?” the King replied.
“Perhaps this time, now that the boy is awake, it will be different. Did you see him smile?” she questioned her husband.
“Yes, I did. But what will it mean if he cannot leave here to carry out his appointed task?”
“Are you so certain husband, that we will not prevail?” she asked, surprised by his gloomy outlook.
“I make no predictions about the battle to come, Elsinestra. I only know that he must leave here immediately,” Treestar stated. “They cannot train him in Seramour as we had hoped.”
“But the lifts are sealed, dearest. How can he leave?” she asked.
“Adain. Do you know the way to the air shafts in the north of the city?” Treestar called out to his nephew, as a new sense of urgency infiltrated his voice.
The boy walked over to his side and nodded his head.
“Yes, my Lord. I do. Though they are well concealed, I believe I can find them if I need to,” he replied.
“You must be certain in this matter, Adain. We cannot afford to have you running in circles, searching for something with the enemy in our very midst.”
“I know where they are, uncle. I will not disappoint you,” he said, confident this time.
“Good,” Treestar said. “Much will depend upon that.”
Turning to Robyn, Filaree and Cairn, he started to instruct them as calmly as if he was telling them where the best place to picnic in Seramour was. While he told them how to navigate the air shafts down to the forest floor, and where they would emerge when they reached the bottom, Davmiran slowly and carefully rose from the dais upon which he had been resting. He too walked to the southern-most arc of the chamber and gazed out over the city toward Sedahar.
The blue of his eyes sparkled clearly and vividly. Though frail of body after the long period of his unconsciousness, he seemed lively and animated.
“I am very hungry,” he said all of a sudden, shattering the seriousness of the moment.
Everyone stopped to look at him, as if he had said the funniest thing in the world.
“I must admit Davmiran, that I had expected your first words to us to have been somewhat different,” Robyn said, smiling. “Perhaps a bit more profound.”
“With the Dark Lord at our gates, so had I,” Filaree echoed the Chosen’s sentiments.
“He has never been far away,” Davmiran said. “At least not since Mira cast me.”
“Do you remember that?” Robyn asked, surprised that he knew about the casting.
“I seem to,” he replied, though he looked perplexed. “I remember Mira very well in some ways. But I cannot recall much of anything else. I think that I know who I am, though. But I do not remember where I was before those last moments with her. Oddly, the name you address me with does not seem to be familiar.”
“It was only recently bestowed upon you. In time, you will learn all that you must,” Robyn reassured him. “Who are you Davmiran?” Robyn asked, stone-faced.
The boy turned to face him and he was about to speak, but he paused, perplexed. After a moment or two, he shook his head slowly.
“It is unclear. I understand that the name you call me has not always been mine. But I cannot recall another. Do you know?” he asked the Chosen.
“Yes, Dav, I do. But I fear that now is not the time for this. I will tell you though, that your memory will return in time. For your own protection, your guardian chose to block some things from your mind. She did not know how successful her efforts to cast you would be, and she would not allow you to suffer more than you already had. If you retained too much memory of your past, she feared it would endanger you more. She was a noble and heroic woman,” Robyn said.
“I feel her still, as if she were a part of me,” the boy said. “This is not where I was cast to,” he then stated matter-of-factly.
“No. It is not,” Elsinestra replied. “You were in Pardatha, a city to the north of here. My son Elion brought you here,” she explained.
Elsinestra walked over to them and handed Dav some bread and cheese. She then grabbed a soft parcel from a side table and carefully unfolded it. It was a long cape, and Elsinestra wrapped it lightly around the boy’s shoulders.
“This belonged to Elion. You will need something to keep you warm upon the road.”
He turned his eyes to her and reached out for her hand. The Queen clasped his in hers, and the two gazed into one another’s eyes.
“Thank you,” he said to her quietly.
She smiled and dropped her stare to the ground.
“We are running out of time,” Treestar interrupted, growing more and more agitated with each passing moment.
“I recognize he who approaches,” Dav said, looking southward once again. “Is he coming for me?” he asked.
“Yes, Dav. There is no question about it. He has somehow discovered that you are here, and he seeks to destroy you,” Robyn explained.
“Must you be so brutal?” Filaree asked. She walked up to the boy and stood protectively beside him. “He is like a newborn babe, and you frighten him so.”
“He is no babe, Filaree,” Robyn replied. “Besides, it will do him no good to have the truth kept from him. These times are difficult, I admit. But we must all be honest with one another when it is beneficial to be so.”
“You could have been honest Robyn, and still have been more understanding,” she said.
“Can this be Filaree Par D’Avalain speaking?” Cairn chimed in.
“It does not sound like the hard-nosed warrior I have come to know.”
“I seek only to make his initiation into our company a bit more pleasant for as long as possible,” she tried to explain.
“No one need shelter me from the facts,” Dav said. “I have very little memory of my past, and I would rather that my future be more certain. If this be the truth, then let me hear it fully, though I thank you for your kindness, my Lady.”
“So be it, then,” Filaree said. The others concurred.
“In that case, let me be the first to warn you,” Treestar began. “If you do not leave Seramour now, you may never have another opportunity. I do not know what Caeltin will throw against us, but by the First, I know it will be deadly. He has only recently lost an opportunity at Pardatha. It is unlikely that he will wish to repeat that defeat here.”
“Is the city prepared?” Robyn asked.
“We are as prepared as we can be. The lifts are sealed. I doubt he will attempt to attack us from below, though I am certain he has not left such an obvious escape route available to the people of Seramour. Surely the woods of Lormarion will be infested with his fighters. He strikes from above, and we have been readying our defenses for quite some time. When we first realized that the clouds were his harbingers, we set about organizing. Alas, we are more vulnerable to an assault from above, and we have fewer means of thwarting one.”
“How large a force can he send in this manner?” Cairn questioned. “What means of transport could bring an army by air large enough to threaten the Heights?”
“Never underestimate his power,” Robyn said. “The irony of his evil is that he creates what he needs in order to destroy.”
“Our people are ready for whatever he may throw against us, as long as it is susceptible to arrows and shafts. Every rooftop in the city is inhabited by our archers and they are the best in all the land, “ Treestar said.
Davmiran gazed out toward Sedahar while they discussed the city’s defenses. He lifted his arm and raised his index finger, as if pointing to something. Slowly, he twirled it in a small circle, drawing spirals in the air. Robyn walked over to him and watched closely. Soon, the others joined him by the boy’s side. With his head slightly askew and a calm, innocent look upon his face, he continued this motion.
“What are you doing?” Robyn whispered to him.
“He uses the clouds to conceal his army. I am using the same clouds to conceal us from them,” he replied softly. “It will give us the time we need to slip away.”
“You can reach that far with your power?” Robyn questioned.
He smiled. “It seems so,” he answered, as if surprised himself.
“I thought you were unschooled. When did you learn the art?” the Chosen questioned, forgetting for a moment that the boy had no recollection of his past.
“I do not remember,” he said. “It just seemed the right thing to do,” he replied innocently.
“My job may be considerably easier than I anticipated,” Robyn said. “Mira’s legacy is strong within you.”
“You should take advantage of this opportunity,” Treestar interrupted. “Go while you can,” he advised.
“Yes, we should,” Filaree concurred. “Where is Calyx?” she then asked Cairn.
“He will find us when he must,” the scholar replied. “We need not wait for him here.”
“I must join the people below and see that all is in order.” Turning to his wife, the King asked, “Will you oversee the evacuation of the children, dearest?”
“Certainly, my love. The shelters are ready for them. I need only give the order,” she replied.
“Good, for the time has come Elsinestra,” he said, head bowed. He turned to the others, “We must leave you now.”
Robyn bowed deeply to the Queen and then to her husband.
“It is difficult for me to abandon you in the wake of what we know is approaching. You have sustained the boy; nourished him and kept him safe from harm. On the dawn of his awakening, we take him from you and leave you and your people to face the onslaught alone,” Robyn said.
“The fabric weaves of its own will, my friend,” Elsinestra replied. “It was an honor to have been able to protect him for all these days. His presence brought hope to us all.”
“Yes, but it also brings upon you the wrath of Colton,” Filaree interjected.
“Do you think that we would have been spared had the boy never been here at all? It was only a matter of time before we were targeted anyway. Now at least, we can fight knowing that there will be a future whether we win or lose here,” Treestar explained.
“Teach him well, my friends. So much depends upon the four of you,” the Queen said, taking her husband’s arm. “Be brave.”
She turned next to Davmiran, and struggled with the words. Choking back the tears, Elsinestra lifted her chin slightly and looked deeply into the boy’s blue eyes.
“You mean more to me than you can imagine, my son,” she began. “Elion, my youngest, brought you here merely six months ago, yet it seems as if I raised you from infancy myself. You never spoke a word to me in all that time, though your presence lifted my spirits each and every day. I expect great things from you, Davmiran,” she said like a mother to a child. “We will prevail here, despite how grim it may seem now. And we will all meet again when the threat of dissolution no longer hangs so ominously over our heads.”
She walked over to the boy who was standing there motionless and calm, and she kissed him tenderly upon the cheek. He grasped her hand in his own and brought it gently to his lips. He then leaned close to her as if to return the kiss. As his mouth brushed her cheek, he spoke. “I will not forget you. Though I was not awake all these months, I was not unaware,” he whispered so that only she could hear.
“Come now,” Treestar interrupted them. “We cannot linger any longer over good-byes if we wish ever to greet one another again in this lifetime,” he chastised his wife, seeking to mitigate the pain of this difficult farewell by reminding her of her other pressing duties. “Adain? Are you ready to lead them to the shafts?” he asked his nephew.
“Yes, sire, I am,” he answered, shoulders back, head high.
“Well then, let us be off,” Robyn replied.
Filaree, Cairn and Davmiran joined Robyn near the doorway, and Adain, having bid his aunt goodbye, took his place at the front of the line.
“Firstspeed,” Elsinestra said to them all as they prepared to make their way out the narrow doorway and down the steep steps to the darkened streets below.
Chapter Forty-eight
He rose naked from the bed and walked toward the other side of his vast chamber. His body glowed with a dark power, shimmering and shining in an otherworldly fashion. Raising his right hand, he motioned with his index finger and clothing appeared upon his lean frame, hugging his features tightly. Black leather and crimson velvet swathed him from head to toe.
Adrianna watched from the other side of the room, her heart still beating as fast as it had been the night before. She slipped silently out of the bed and grabbed her cape which lay in a heap upon the stone floor. Throwing it over her shoulders to cover her own nakedness, she retreated to a dark corner of the room, and from there she continued to gaze upon Colton.
The Dark Lord ignored her, as if she was not even present. He pointed at the wall before him and it dissolved into thin air, revealing a cache of swords and other weapons. Reaching inside, he lifted the one he wanted. The hilt was a gaping mouth, teeth exposed, the lips drawn hideously back. The blade was black metal, highly polished, and it glinted in the morning’s light. Its reflection sent barbs of color bouncing from wall to wall as he turned it in his gloved hands.
Still basking in the glory of having been chosen by Colton the previous evening, Adrianna grew bold. She stepped out of the shadows and moved toward him.
“How can I serve you, my love?” she asked.
As if he had no idea that she was even present in the room, Colton turned to her and stared. She crumpled beneath his gaze and dropped her eyes immediately to the floor.
“Be gone,” he hissed, dismissing her categorically. “I have no further need for you, woman.”
Adrianna quickly gathered her cape about her tightly and made her way carefully to the door. Garnering the courage to speak again, she asked, head bowed, “Will you take me with you to Seramour?”
Colton looked at her askew for a brief moment, and then he laughed a horrid, beautiful laugh. It caused her to tingle with expectation, and at the same moment to cringe with revulsion. Her emotions were so thoroughly confused that she grew dizzy and was afraid that she would collapse upon the floor before him.
Eyes like ice, “Come if you choose,” he replied. “I care not.”
“Thank you, my Lord,” Adrianna said, kneeling before him. “Thank you so much. You will not regret this.”
He shrugged as if this was all meaningless to him, and then he walked out of the room. Adrianna sat upon the cold, stone floor giggling to herself like a child with a new toy.
I should have told him
, she thought.
I can feel it stirring in my womb already. He thought I could not conceive, like the others. But he was wrong. I am fertile. I will bear him the son that he surely wants, and I will be his Queen
, she imagined.
All of a sudden, a terrible chill crept over her entire body, causing her to shiver and shake. Her eyes darted from left to right and she hugged her arms tight to her body, but the feeling would not abate. She shook all over and her teeth chattered in her mouth. A pain shot through her abdomen and she wretched violently in response. Another pain wracked her body and sent her sprawling upon the floor. Standing up, she tried as best as she could to pull herself together and to fight this intrusion, but her efforts were for naught. Once more, her body convulsed as if she had been punched in the stomach, and she doubled over from the blow, unable to remain erect. Adrianna’s eyes rolled back into her head and her chin collapsed upon her chest. She lost consciousness and fell heavily upon the hard stone below.
When she regained her senses, she found herself sitting in a pool of dried and blackened blood, and she ached all over. Her hand flew to her womb and she pressed it hard against her skin, as her heart pounded anxiously upon the wall of her chest.
I have not lost it. It lives still within me
, she realized, elated. Now though, she understood something else as well.
This child must be my secret. If I should lose it, surely he will kill me. I will have failed him. But if he does not know about it until it is born and living amongst us, I cannot disappoint him. I will do this alone
, she vowed.
And when I return to him with his babe in my arms, I will be like no other before me
.
Adrianna rose from the cold stone, wobbled to the wash table in the corner and cleansed herself as best as she could. She carefully wrapped her cloak around her and concealed the evidence of her recent travail. Departing the chamber, swollen with joy and consumed by the exultation of her condition, she headed for her own room to ready herself for the long ride to Seramour.