The Black Hand and the Dragon Rider:
Written by Ahelya, translated by RandomessIsGold
Original Author's Note:
I have decided to write a new long multi-chapter fic but in a completely different fandom. For those of you who know me, I usually delve in manga fandom, especially towards Blood+.
So, I have decided to try writing Eragon, and more precisely, the story of Brom and Selena. I hope you'll like this beginning of fanfiction. Don't forget to tell me what you think, after reading this prologue. Thanks.
Prologue: The Prediction
Selena's Point Of View:
It was not wise, I knew that well, but I had to do it, and fast. I needed certain herbs to complete the mission he had given me. I had already succeeded in buying most ingredients to the potion I was preparing, in order to do that, I had had to visit many herbalists in Teirm the past few days, always under a different disguise. I could not afford to be discovered. I had thus bought the herbs I was interested in at different shops, a plant could be lethal if correctly used, and if I purchased to many in one place, it would arouse suspicion.
I only needed one last ingredient and I had already gone all over town in search for it. I ended up leaving the commercial district near the harbor, to make my way deeper into the town. I wandered for a long time, until at last what I was looking for appeared in front of me.
Angela the herbalist …
I did not understand why Angela had chosen to relocate her shop here. To me, it did not seem favorable to her business since the store seemed to be almost invisible, surrounded as it was by wealthy homes.
I approached the door with a confident walk. The door was closed. I knocked against the wood. No answer. I thought for a short moment.
Was this wise ? The shops full of customers near the dock offered much more protection. Here, I was alone. If this Angela remembered me afterwards …
I pushed away this dark thought. I would be long gone before my poison killed the man ! I had bought the ingredients in different stores. This woman could not therefore have any suspicions towards me.
Death is on your hands.
Who was speaking ? I looked discretely at my surroundings.
Angela isn't here. Open the door for me.
I looked down. A huge cat with a shaggy mane was rubbing himself against my skirts. His head was angular, his body revealed sinewy muscled limbs. Apparently, this was no ordinary cat. His eyes stared at me intensely. I guessed this look unnerved anybody. But not me.
Will you open the door ! The cat growled, impatient.
I obeyed. It was better not to annoy a werecat.
He entered the room.
Well … you know what I am, yet you do not seem surprised.
I didn't answer.
Come on in.
I obeyed again. The room were I was now standing was dark, and poorly lit. I understood the reason for that soon enough, vines obscured the window. When my eyes got used to the semidarkness, I noted I was in some sort of a big living room, full of heteroclite objects. I knew the function of some of them. The purpose of the others was unknown to me. I wondered a moment how Angela could everything she needed in this complete mess that presided over her shop.
There was a fuming cauldron in the chimney, and the smell that emanated from it was familiar … Cinnamon, nettle and a wood that a knew very well. This was a powerful aphrodisiac at small doses, but with a bigger dose … How many times did I use this ruse ? Sharing the bed of my victim, and before the more serious things began, asking him to drink this elixir that would guarantee us a magical night. They rarely refused.
It was no doubt a love potion that simmered in the chimney. I smiled. I now understood better the location of Angela's store. All those rich young women forsaken by a husband too occupied by his business, and that needed affection and attention.
The werecat drew me out of the recesses of my mind.
Any other human would have asked for my name by now.
He had curled onto a old red velvet couch, his eyes were closed.
And any other human would think you were sleeping, I answered promptly.
He lifted his angular head and stared at me again. It looked like he was smiling. His fangs were sizable.
Ah yes. You are not any other human. Hardly any smell of death as much as you do.
He curled on the sofa once again.
I am curious, but I not insult you by asking your name.
Selena, I heard myself answering.
Why … Why did I do that ? Not only did I give him my name, but I gave him my real name as well ! I reasoned with myself. It was only but a name … However, I was wrong, the werecat was now in a sitting position, gazing at me with renewed intensity. That name seemed to mean something to him.
The dark hand that gives death, said he, did he speak of us ?
No, it was not him. Well, it was almost him, he I thought of it carefully. He had talked of werecats during of his periods of lucidity. I did not know what the others had done to him, but it had been enough to make him lose his name and his refined intelligence that I had seen on rare occasion. He did not speak anymore. I was one of the rare people that still talked to him. Even his master didn't listen to him anymore.
The door opened suddenly. A young woman with curly brown hair, Angela I deduced, entered. She was carrying a basket and a chorus of croaking was coming from it. She looked at me. My presence apparently did not bother her, because she said nothing about it. Her eyes fell upon the werecat. Surprise appeared on her face.
« He talked to you ! »
I nodded.
The woman dropped her charge. Five or six toads got out and hopped away from it. I crouched to pick them up.
« Leave it, Solembum will take care of it. »
The werecat pounced suddenly on one of the toad and his jaw closed upon him. A sound of bones breaking echoed and he swallowed the frog. He was already onto his next prey when I was just standing up.
« He had never spoken to strangers, before. »
Angela looked thoughtful.
« You must be someone special. »
I was not special. I had been a young girl that had followed a handsome man. I had become his murderess out of love for him, and I still was now.
« I wonder what your future must be like. »
It was exceedingly simple. I would be the Black Hand until someone decided to stop me, or until he decides that I am no longer useful. My life would stop at that point, it was certain.
Angela walked up to one of the walls. It was covered in dusty shelves.
« Crystals balls are never clear, when it comes to fortune-telling, but I have something else that ,ay be useful. »
She dug through her things actively.
« I have no future » I told her.
She ceased her search for an instant and gazed at me.
« My dear, with a face like yours, every future is possible. »
She was not completely wrong, because this face had made a simple farmer's daughter become the lady of a castle that was said to be poise, elegance and gracefulness themselves who was at the same time the most notorious assassin of all the Empire.
« Ah ! There they are ! »
She went to the table, there was a folded cloth in her hand. She opened it and inside were small distorted shaped of I-didn't-really-know-what marked of diverse signs. They weren't made out of wood, but it looked like …
« Knucklebones of a dragon. » Angela informed me.
I was silent.
« Do you wish to know your fate ? »
She put the cloth that had previously held the bones on the table, while I thought about her proposition. I was almost certain my future would be the same as my past. What if I was wrong ?
« I do not know » I ended up saying.
Angela had finished preparing. She turned towards me and smiled.
« I would have refused if you had agreed without considering it. »
There was one thing I wanted to know. My child … My son …
« Would you see people who are close to me ? »
Angela threw an interrogating glance.
« I'm looking for someone. » I added.
It was only a half-truth. He had taken my child. I knew where he was, but I could not see him unless he allowed me to. It was my reward when I succeeded in my assignments. It was a bone he gave to one of his dogs.
I had made my decision. If I knew my future, perhaps I could change it. I sat down at the table.
« Tell me my future. » I declared in a determined tone.
Angela placed herself in front of me. Solembum, who must have had finished his toad hunt, climbed on the table and laid in between us, so that we formed a triangle. His « mistress » picked up the knucklebones. She closed her eyes. Her lips formed without noise a few words and then ….
« Manin ! Wyrda ! Hugin ! » She cried with a strong voice.
Words from the Ancient Language. He had taught it to me so that I could defend myself from magicians. I had never really needed it very much until now.
Angela had thrown the bones on the cloth that she had spread on the table. Some had fallen on it, while others had fallen on the wood of the table. She was inspecting those last ones. Her face soon grew somber and sad.
« What it is ? » I asked
She looked up and observed for a long time.
« Why ? » she asked.
I did not understand.
« No. I don't have that right. It is your story, your past. I am only here for the future. »
The voice of the werecat echoed in our minds.
She has seen the death on your hands and the one who put it there.
I smiled sadly at Angela.
« I loved him, I told her.
- You don't anymore ? she inquired.
- I don't know. He is the father of my child, even if he took him away from me. »
The witch sighed.
« You have already suffered very much, and that which I am about to tell you will not help. I am sorry. »
It was this bad ?
She took a knucklebone. On it, was a horizontal ligne interrupted by a vertical line.
« Usually, I get an elm, or an aspen, she confided, this means a normal span of years but here… »
I figured it out immediately.
« I'm going to die young is that it ? »
It was still hard to believe.
« You're going to die soon, as a matter of fact. »
I did not know what to say to that.
« When ? How ? »
« The bones do not know. »
How could I protect myself from this death if I did not know when it would occurr ?
Angela took another knucklebone. This one had a thunderbolt rune onto it.
« And death will be your companion until the end. Someone that is close to you will soon as well. »
So I was to continue to kill for him. But the death of a loved one … I did not see who that was. Not him anyway. No one, except the King, could kill him. No, it could not be … I tried to contain my tears. Everything but not my son !
« But your future is not only darkness. »
I was going to die before long. I was going to keep murdering for him. My child was no doubt going to die as well … Not only darkness she had said ?
« This sign means change, rebirth, she said, showing a third bone, and this one … »
She beamed. A rose that flowered under the moonlight.
« And this one shows love, love that defies centuries and dynasties, the one poets speak of. Even so ... »
She looked at me in the eyes.
« The knucklebone is partly hidden by the shield. If someone finds out of this affair, misfortune will befall you, and your lover. »
Another bone,. Some sort of rope.
« I do not know how this union will end, yet one thing is sure. A child will be born out of it. »
A child ? Ever since the birth of my son, I did everything I could not to have another one. He made sure of it as well. The midwifes that had helped me give birth had been categorical. Another pregnancy could prove fatal. He would have liked other heirs, but he valued his Black Hand. He rarely shared my bed, preferring that of the young women of Dras-Leona.
Angela's eyes widened, and her eyebrows lifted.
« How is it I did not see that sooner ? »
She took in her hand a knucklebone that had no visible rune or sign.
« I haven't this one in centuries. »
Something made me think it wasn't just a metaphor. She must have been much older than she looked.
« Typically, it is under the rest, it is hidden. But for you, it is in the middle of the cloth. Separated, but surrounded by all. »
She gazed at me.
« Everything I have just told you will come from it.
- What does it mean ? There is no sign or rune inscribed onto it.
- Because it is the sign. »
She lowered her voice.
« The change will come to you, in the form of a Dragon, or a Dragon Rider. »
Original Author's Note:
A door opens suddenly in front of all the readers. A little character, knee high to a grasshopper comes out. He looks rapidly around him.
« Hmm... It looks nice here... »
The small character notices he has an audience.
« Hi, everybody. I am SvC, aka small voice of Ahelya's conscience. I'm the one that kicks her butt when she takes a lot of time to write the next chapter. She also uses me as her manager, when she has need of it. So, the little message I'm supposed to pass on today, is that Ahelya is a moderator on a forum called « Bibliothèque Francophone » and you'll find the address on her forum is somewhere where you can list all of your favorite fanfictions on ffnet. The only thing you need is a correct grammar and orthography, and one last things, the fic or fics must be in your favorites. Don't hesitate to make a little visit. »