Chapter 5: Searching
Numair Salmalin let out a cry of frustration and slammed his hand down on his desk. He just couldn't do it.....He had been trying for hours to use a small charm he used as a focus to find where Daine had been taken. And he just wasn't getting anywhere...there were two possibilities....he was too angry to concentrate...or Daine was....gone....gone to realms where he could never find her....but NO! She wasn't dead. He couldn't accept that. She WAS alive. He stood up from the desk and made his way out of his cluttered workroom. On a pile of Daine's clothes lay Kitten, a miserable gray, letting out pitiful peeps of sadness and hugging one of Daine's shirts. Seeing Numair, she peeped, and ran over to clutch his robes. With a sigh he picked her up. "Come on, little one, lets go find Alanna..."
The Lioness, King Jonathon, Queen Thayet, and Numair sat around a small table. They all watched Numair, who was quietly stroking Kitten, curled up in his robes. Jonathon was the first to speak. "Have you tried using your focus? If we can find out where she is.." Numair nodded. "I tried. and failed." He spoke shortly. Jonathon nodded, then started again, this time speaking tentatively."I know...this may not be a good time to ask this...but we need to know...what was the spell the stormwings used to dampen your magic? I need to know in case it happens again." Alanna glared at Jonathon, then turned to Numair, who was looking at them sadly.
"The spell is not a strong one...in fact, quite the opposite. Mages rarely use it because it is extremely easy to reflect, and can be thrown right back at them by another mage. I was not expecting it, therefore I did not have time to reflect it." His eyes grew dark and angry at the memory.
At that moment, there was a knock at the door, then two pages, Nealan of Queenscove and Keladry of Mindelan, walked in, looking extremely nervous. "Ah! Good. They have arrived." spoke the king, seeing them. "You may take a seat." He told the pages, then he turned to the others. "I have asked these pages to come considering they were very nearby when the...abduction...occurred. They may have seen something. " He turned again to the pages. "I assume you are the two that found Master Numair?" They nodded. "Did you see anything else? Stormwings, other mages...anything?" Kel shook her head. "No...we were...um...walking" She blushed, remembering what they had really been doing. "and we heard Master Numair yelling. We saw nothing else...I'm sorry..." "Don't be" replied the king. "I'm just glad you found him. " Numair nodded, and thanked the pages himself. "I could find her with the focus....but I just can't concentrate!" he said in frustration.
Hearing Numair's words, the dragon Skysong sat up and chirped, giving the stork-man a look that seemed to say "foolish human..." Then with quick paws, she reached up his sleeve and grabbed the bracelet with a small charm on it, Numair's focus. He stared at the small dragon. "HEY...what are you-" Kitten cut him off with a whistle, then, staring at the focus, voiced a whistle-croak. The charm lit up, and started to hum. All the humans watched, their eyes wide. Kitten whistled again, this time at a small silver bowl on the table. It lit up, revealing a blurry image. She chirped in satisfaction, and carefully slid the charm back onto the astonished Numair's wrist.
Numair stared at the bowl, then at Skysong..."How...you...but I...tried..." He stopped, and beamed at the dragon. "Thankyou, young one. You don't know how important this is." Kitten gave him another look, this one seeming to say. "How do you know? I made the focus work, didn't I?" Then she crawled up onto the table, sitting on her haunches next to the silver bowl, where an image shimmered. Numair stared at it also. It was an emerald forest..the royal forest? No....the trees were different....."Could be Carthak..." offered the Lioness, although she seemed unsure. There were thousands of forests! How could they find out where this one was?
Kel stared at the shimmering image in the bowl....she recognized those forests! The trees...the birds flying among the branches. That was a Yamani forest! Looking at the group of powerful people sitting around her, she started to speak, then faltered. Now all eyes were on her. 'this is stupid' she thought 'I'm a knight in training! I don't need to be afraid of them!' She started with more confidence in her voice. "Those are Yamani woodlands. I grew up near some just like them." They all stared at her, like she had grown horns. "Are you sure?" asked Alanna eagerly. "I'm positive. The trees, the animals. They're all the same." Kel felt immensly proud of herself, having proved her use to the Lioness, her hero. A smile grew on Numair's tired face. "To think, a group of some of the strongest and most powerful people in Tortall gathered to figure this out, and we are given the answers by a young page and a dragon child. " Then he stood up quickly and looked around. "What are we waiting for? You can all sit around here waiting for the stormwings to bring her back, but I'm going to find Daine."
Ok, I know, bad place to end, but my brother is bugging me for the computer. So bye-bye then!
~CometFern