OK guys sorry for the delay but unlike you lucky young fella's, I haven't had any kind of a holiday yet and this was the first chance I had to write and get a chapter up. Hope to get the next chapter up sooner, I promise as I felt like an ass keeping you waiting so long.
I also see a lack of reviews made recently, which I guess I deserve. Thank you to the handful of people who have PM'ed me though, asking about plot points and everything else.
One thing you should know when I write this is that I have no solid structure to the story or even any idea where I'm going more than one or two chapters ahead of what you're reading so plot suggestions etc. would be most welcome.
As it's getting harder to submit chapters on a regular basis, I fear your disappointment when I say that I might not be able to complete this story in any kind of timely manner. That time is not yet though, so don't hit panic buttons yet. I would be relieved though if an avid fan with more time than I on his / her hands would a) have some idea where I could go with the story or b) could take over the story in the event I can't or c) just give me a heads-up on if their writing a story of their own so I don't feel so bad in leaving you lovely readers in the cold.
Anyway, enough glum thoughts and here's the next chapter so enjoy and I hope you eagerly await next weeks.
Chapter 24 – Two Surprises in One
"Angela!" Eragon exclaimed in disbelief.
The woman smiled with her familiar cheeky grin, "welcome back to Alagaesia Eragon. I always knew we'd be seeing each other again."
Murtaugh looked at Angela and asked, "So this is the Angela you often spoke of Eragon?"
"He spoke of me? How lovely of him," Angela crooned as she looked his way, "I take it you're his brother then?"
"How'd you know of our kinship?" exclaimed a shocked Eragon as he and Murtaugh regarded her with surprise that their relationship was already known to her.
Angela laughed out loud as she replied, "the first time we met, I told you your father had fallen in love with the wrong woman. Did you think I could say that without having known who she was? Oh yes, I remember how trapped she was with Morzan and how she came to truly know him through the abuse of her first child."
"You also said you read the fate of a woman named Selena. I take it that is how you came to know her and why she ran away from Morzan with time enough to leave me in Carvahall?" added Eragon.
"What did you tell her to make her do that?" Murtaugh butted in; hungry to know more of the mother they had both never had a chance to know.
"I told her the truth. That her husband would cause her pain and the only way to save her firstborn would be to betray him and sacrifice her own life if she must," Angela said with a serious expression on his face.
"But she didn't save me did she? I was still a slave to him and Galbatorix for years," Murtaugh's confusion was mingled with a touch of anger.
"Didn't she? Her love of Brom and the Varden's rebellion led her to leave you it is true, but it also led to Eragon's birth and the ultimate overthrowing of Galbatorix at your hands. You forget that prophecies and fortune-telling care nothing for the slow passage of time, that doesn't mean they are not always true. Look at Eragon if you want to find a better example, his fate was to leave Alagaesia forever but if that's the case how is he here now? You need only ask if he's the same person he was when he stepped into my shop and had his reading," Angela quipped in answer.
Eragon made a cutting motion with his hand and said, "we can discuss this later you can be sure, but right now we want to know how it is you're here, in the middle of things once again?"
"I go where the action is Eragon, which you already know about of course. In this case though, it was more a case of chasing Solembum across Surda when he went missing a couple of days ago. I managed to track him near the vicinity of this city and felt the turmoil and invading presence surrounding it. Naturally I assumed he would be here also as his tracks show he was making a beeline in this direction but no such luck," she explained with a slightly hurt expression.
"Why are you trying to find him? Surely he can come and go as he pleases?" Eragon asked.
"And he has done in the past, but we have been companions for a long time, longer than even you have been alive and he has never just up and disappeared before. Since the last time I saw him I have been going over our most recent conversations trying to find some explanation for his leaving, and now you're back," she left the rest unfinished.
"Perhaps he meant for you to meet us here. Didn't he play an important role before when he helped in finding the lost eldunari under the rock of Kuthian?" Murtaugh asked as his gaze switched between his brother and the herbalist.
"Maybe," Angela replied, "though why not just tell me or bring me himself?"
"Werecats are known for being unpredictable and mysterious," Murtaugh added, his argument gaining momentum.
"They also have long memories. Perhaps Solembum knows something we don't about the threat we are facing, werecats are closely akin to dragons in magic and heritage after all." Angela countered.
Murtaugh and Eragon both knew the truth of it. Besides Angela, they had both spent more time around werecats than anyone else and with the countless experiences Eragon had gained through the eldunari of Dyr Aurbodain, could still only guess at the true extent of werecats ability.
"What of the other werecats? We saw one of them in Ilirea, but before that, it has been a decade since they have involved themselves or even appeared at a human court. Even in Ellesmera and the elven cities, they have all but disappeared. Maud hasn't been seen near Tialdari hall in some time and she was a long-term ambassador to the ruling elven body," Murtaugh explained, speaking of the werecat Eragon had met on his first visit to Du Weldenvarden.
They do have ancestral memory similar to ours, interjected Umaroth, the three of them pausing as he joined the conversation. In a way theirs is much clearer than ours though we do not understand why. At the height of the Rider's glory, the leading theory behind it was that the werecats had more conscious control of their magic and their ability to shapeshift into human form meant their nature was as fluid as the flow of magic through the land.
"So what does that mean? Dragons and werecats can use unparalleled magic when they tap the rivers of magical energy around them, but werecats can at will because they spend more time near it?" Eragon asked.
"And why does that matter now? Maybe the werecats saw this invasion coming, which is why Solembum left, but his friendship with you meant that he led you right to us as a means of helping win it." Murtaugh said.
If we felt the dischord on Dyr Aurbodain, you can be sure the werecats felt it as well. Even in human society, they were known for their wisdom in the nobles' courts and on multiple times recognised as omens of good and bad portents. Glaedr rumbled.
The omens he spoke of are part of why Grimmr Halfpaw insisted that a werecat would be permanently installed on the right side of the ruling power in Ilirea in exchange for their help against Galbatorix.
"But if they felt it, why not tell anyone it was coming? They disappeared without a word instead of helping prepare against it," Eragon asked.
"Because that has always been our way, or would you see it differently young Rider?" a voice came from the door Angela had come through.
All three of them wheeled around to see who had spoken. Outlined against the door was a shaggy young boy with black hair and a feral grin, "greetings upon you on your return Shadeslayer," said Solembum.
Angela's look of shock changed to anger in the blink of an eye, before the brothers could even get over the sudden arrival. "Where have you been?" she thundered in a tone swaying between anger and relief.
"I have been with others of my kind. A gathering was called when the enemy was still to reach the shores of Alagaesia and for good reason. When your enemy treads carefully, you must too, or you become blinded to what he would have you see rather than what is," Solembum said.
"Why did your kind keep knowledge of the danger to yourself though?" Murtaugh repeated Eragon's question.
"More lives would have been lost had you been aware of the danger. The enemy is strong, but his reach is not and for that reason alone we kept our silence until we could discern our path," Solembum explained.
"Their reach grows by the day! Within a week, they have breached the shores of Surda and defeated our best spellcasters!" menaced Alaric, having overheard the last of the conversation. The retinue's also within the room had remained quiet throughout the duo's unseen appearance, but no more, Alaric looked angry to say nothing of Lady Ylena.
"And yet they were turned at the first sign of Eragon and Murtaugh! There is only one amongst their vast armies who can withstand the might of these two brothers and he has yet to unveil himself," Solembum growled in reply, his eyes flashing a storm-grey.
"Eragon has been gone for two hundred years and a myth for half of that! You rolled the dice on his return? What right did you have and how did you expect him to come?" Lady Ylena railed to the defence of Alaric.
"A threat as great as the one we face would not miss the notice of Vrael's successor, nor the dragons that stand at his side! This enemy is a thorn in the side of all creatures of magic; he cares nothing for the damage he would do merely to set foot on this land." Solembum replied as he struggled to compose his expression, a hard thing to do for such feline and ferocious features.
"What do you mean, merely to set foot on this land? The enemy is already here isn't he?" Helena asked worriedly.
"His armies are, but the abomination himself remains offshore, wielding his considerable power from afar, waiting for the moment to strike and deal a single deadly blow. You see, he knew we would prepare for him, the very ground under your feet sought to warn us of his coming," Solembum shook his head slowly.
Everyone assembled looked confused and glanced at the ground, Solembum laughed bitterly, "you are all too young to understand, which is why you failed to notice. The original pact sealed between the dragons, elves and the other races since also included the very earth upon which it was made, earth stretching the length of all Alagaesia."
"The bond, you mean it affects the world around you?" Eragon asked pointedly, remembering a tracking technique Arya had once used to find him.
"Some stronger than others. Why do you think you felt the dischord on Dyr Aurbodain, how did the elves feel it also? Blood running thick with the magic of the Rider's and dragons bonds with the earth in ways beyond our understanding, out of this bond arises the elementals of old and the incredible feats of magic we werecats and dragons can perform." Solembum replied.
Something didn't make sense. "But this abomination has no such bond and neither did the grey folk?"
"But he does and they did. The grey folk were more powerful and wise than you could imagine, their bond was formed naturally over the years in much the same way as the elves would have over the care they take of their forest homes. Another reason the abomination is so vile and why the very land seeks to warn you is that he forced the land to do his bidding in the transformation magic. He is a poison on this land, and were he victorious in defeating us, the land would gradually die from the infection of his very nature." Solembum said.
"So if this dischord is the land trying to warn us of his coming, what happens to it when the abomination sets foot on Alagaesean soil?" Murtaugh asked, slightly afraid of the answer.