Disclaimer: See Chapters Two and Three.
Nisien sat in the nearly deserted common room, absentmindedly drawing his finger back and forth through the dust of the table top. He looked up briefly, Gwyr and Berenice were doing likewise. He sighed and went back into his trance. It had been a long night. The three of them had been sent by the Clayr to investigate the visions they'd been having. They had seen the heirs to the Old Kingdom finally emerging after one hundred years of nothing, one for the Abhorsen and one to inherit the crown, and they had been hopeful that they would find someone. He had thought they had finally completed the task, when Nisien saw the strange girl, but she was Ancelstierren, and the Clayr had not mentioned that.
He couldn't help but think that this would all be easier if the Charter was what it used to be. In his grandfather's time, it had been as strong and steady as the Ratterlin. The Charter Mages were stronger, and the Charter Stones glowed brighter. But after the last Abhorsen perished, the Charter had gotten harder and harder to reach, noticeably, even, in his own time. Someday, would it be gone forever?
Berenice elbowing him sharply in the ribs woke him up. She was gesturing towards the door, where a stranger had just entered. It was the girl! Nisisen started and watched with interest as she scanned the common room. Obviously, she was looking for them, because as soon as she saw the three companions, she headed straight for the table.
Lianne had followed Mogget's orders and checked every inn in the small town she could find. It hadn't been a long search, so it was still early in the afternoon when she found them. The man was sitting in a table in the corner, flanked on either side by the two people she had seen him talking to earlier. They were all three watching her warily. Lianne gripped the silver ring a little tighter, and walked towards them.
"Are you a royal guard?" she addressed the man. He was oldest, and seemed to be the leader. He started when she said this.
"Ancelstierre is a democracy, what royalty would you be talking about?" he said innocently. Lianne's heart sank. Had Mogget been a hallucination after all? No, she had the ring. That was proof enough.
"Well, if you are, here." She dropped the silver ring onto the table, where it clattered loudly. "It's from Irul. I mean, Yral, or...something."
"Yrael?" It was the woman who spoke. She suddenly looked very guilty, like she had said something she shouldn't have.
"Yes, that's right. The cat."
The three companions looked at each other, and back to Lianne. It was the second man who finally spoke.
"Well, Nisien, you found one. Now what?"
"Keep up, Lianne. We should make it to the river by nightfall."
Lianne sighed and tried half-heartedly to spur the horse to a faster gait. It looked at her with one dark eye, no doubt thinking that this was the stupidest rider it had ever had. After Nisien surmised that she didn't need to get anything from the grocery store, they had set off on, of all things, a horse. The creature was determined to make Lianne's life miserable.
Gwyr and Berenice were off to some place she had never heard of, the Clayr's Glacier, and Nisien was taking her to another place mysteriously missing from any maps she has seen called the Abhorsen's House. They had only been traveling for about an hour, and Lianne hadn't been able to coax him into talking much.
"So, this is another country, after all? With a king?" she asked.
"There has been no king or queen for one hundred years, since Queen Ellimere. Or Abhorsen."
"Abhorsen?"
"To bind the Dead and keep the Kingdom in order."
Lianne digested that for a moment. Why would the Dead need to be bound? Unless they had an uncanny habit of getting up... the girl thought back to the Thing that attacked her and shivered. Had it not been, well, alive? She had thought it was some kind of rabid animal, but the smell was so awful, and there was it. Nisisen had already dismissed it as her 'sensing death.' He claimed that it would get easier to control. She hoped so.
"How do Dead things, er... get back out of the ground?"
Nisien looked back over his shoulder at her, looking slightly bemused.
"Magic, the Charter."
"Oh, right. And this is what the Abhorsen uses to bind them, right?"
"Yes."
Lianne tried to imagine what the Abhorsen must be like. After that day's escapades, she had a hard time doubting the presence of magic or madness.
"So, have you found someone to be the Abhorsen? I'm still not understanding all of this."
"Yes, you."
Sorry that took me so long. This isn't the best chapter, but I kinda had a little writer's block going. Stick with me guys; this will only get better, promise!
