Wishes and Lost Hope
Chapter Ten
Wanton Rescue
Silence in the glen would have been unnerving, but the obscure voices that trickled to straining ears still managed to strike a chord of unease. That the birds had decided not to sing, and whatever scampers had decided not to scamper, disregarding the mugginess of the day, only added to the deathly feeling of the usually spirited forest.
"Hopeless," was the first word that came to Elazul clearly. A huffed, angry word, its speaker fed up with time spent meaninglessly. The Jumi recognized the voice, if he couldn't place it. The path ahead, around the corner, became clear as he walked, and the recollection sparked as the stranger came into sight.
Elazul rested his hand on his sword's hilt as he waited, not about to underestimate any threat on this man's part. Unnoticed at first, he watched as the other sought to make sense of the oddball of all Wisdom.
Escad turned away, frustration exploding in a burst of dust as he kicked the ground in fury. He noticed Elazul at last, but only looked over the Jumi's shoulder as though seeking the answer to his problem. With a smirk, he shook his head and turned back to the nonsensical bird-man. It was never that simple.
"Where is she?" quiet, and simple. He had already tried threatening, and the Wisdom had eluded him easily.
"Oh, she's gone; gone away," Pokiehl relied honestly, beak daintily balanced against a wingtip-like hand. He smiled his smile, and withdrew from the fallen tree he had balanced against.
"But she was here?" stubborn as he had been in the line of inquiry, Escad found himself unable to discern even that small truth which he suspected – that the damned bird knew too much and would not divulge.
"And then she went and gone," Pokiehl sighed, perceived as bored with the game. The sparkle of his delight persisted, however, contradicting the drawl of his voice.
"But where'd she go?" Elazul spoke up out of necessity, ignoring the startled glance of his peer before the Master Storyteller.
"That's it!"
Refreshed by the difference, the bird shouted gleefully. One eye closed, the other glittering, he gazed eccentrically at the Jumi. Suddenly ignored, Escad narrowed his eyes and stepped up beside them, still incensed, but willing to be civil if it got what he wanted.
"What's it?"
"That's it!"
He held out, at arm's length, a short length of chain dangling a small round mirror.
"If the man in the mirror remembers; clearly, so should you."
Even as the human reached for the trivial bauble, and even as the Wisdom suddenly vanished without leave, did something strike Elazul. Whether it was a trick of the supernatural or the strange refraction in the mirror as it spun upon its chain in his rival's hand that ticked it off, a facsimile in the Jumi's memory sprung to life and threatened to contend with reality to have him.
Moments later, they were standing there. The mirror was gone, along with most of their bearings. The rustles of life around them dulled as a secretive, though bearing the near side of innocuous, hiss.
oOo
"What are you doing here?"
The woman eased her step, reluctant to rush into certain doom. She would make it there, but only at her own pace.
Athena glanced to her side, as the younger girl reached the top of the staircase. She wondered, briefly, how long it had taken Kraols to replace her, or if it were a ploy – surely he knew how the system worked. She suddenly wondered why he took so long in trying to find her. Did he even care..?
Noticing, with certainty, that the girl was in no rush to get to her master made the mercenary double think her rationale. Either she feared his wrath at Athena's insistence to disobey, or…
"You know he's going to kill you, one way or the another."
The girl stopped, and Athena did the same. The cold, living stone around them silently listened, as only it could.
"He won't. Stop dawdling," ahead by a few steps, the younger one did not turn to face her predecessor.
"You're the one who stopped," Athena pointed out, her voice void of the chirp that it so often carried when she spoke among her friends, "What's your name?"
"Why? What's it matter?"
"That's an unusual name," whether she truly mistook the answer or not was a question unto itself. 'Why' whirled around, pouting furiously, and the woman took no notice, "Look, Why, I don't care what you do – but do you know what Kraols is after?"
"Didn't think so," Athena might not have known the particulars, but she knew the result, along with two ways to put it to a stop.
Why stood fast, fear of this strange woman growing. She had been so proud of her task, so confident – now she just wanted to get the prize to Kraols so she did not have to listen to her anymore.
Athena smiled, as though she read the girl's thoughts, "Don't worry, we'll get there eventually."
The mercenary went ahead, leaving the other to follow if she dared. There was still a ways to go, yet.
oOo
Running. Sierra had said that Athena was here, and a great deal of something else.
Up. Neither of the males knew how she found them, or this ungodly place, only that her quick-winded explanation had something to do with noses as they scaled the stairs in an exhausted daze.
oOo
Mirrors. The polished glass reflected the outermost shell, although these in particular had the ability to divulge a deeper complexity.
Stone tiles clicked beneath her boots; the mirrors reflected the light of numerous wall-mounted torches to a focal point in the center of the room, and she stepped into it without hesitation. Her shadow flickered pale below her feet, and the room came alive. Slowly, she walked past them, the ex-comrades and the new stock that stood before the mirrors. One stood out, flanked by two that did not.
Athena faced the Jumi female a she passed by. Pearl… or was it Lady Blackpearl? No fear and little recognition mingled with distrust, emotions as equally controlled as Athena's were currently and mysteriously absent. Blackpearl then… or some amalgamation of the two as it often were.
She had passed by in mere moments, approaching the dias at the back of the room even as her old master stepped from the shadow. Athena's lip twitched, as she held back a smile. He had aged not one day… and certainly not the years since they parted. Copper skin resulting the years under the sun wrinkled slightly, and deep enthralling green eyes that could mesmerize serpents twinkled as the man smiled his delighted. Although, Athena realized time had changed him slightly – he had lost a noticeable amount of weight, casting him shockingly thin; and raven-black hair had grown considerably longer, cleaned and straightened, and pulled back sharper than she recalled him having worn it before.
The woman knelt – one knee to the floor, the other to her chest – a custom of yesterdays long gone. The only insincerity that showed through gesture was the hand she rested her weight upon, which curled slightly at the knuckles. It felt wrong, but it had to be done.
"My dear child," a strong voice, bringing forth a wave of nostalgia… but with a dangerous edge she failed to notice, "You worried us, disappearing like that."
The 'child' he spoke to no longer existed. His tone might have been to relieve unease, speaking like she had not been gone for the lifespans of some of his youngest disciples. To put her at rest, and welcome her home.
It was something she would not accept. Her free hand rested her boot, and the dagger she had hidden there. Somehow, she thought she saw her only chance… it came and gone as she mulled over it – worried about both consequences of success and failure as Kraols charged her to account for her vanishing.
"I found the path to the Holy Land, my lord," Athena purred the sentence with a semblance of the pride she once felt for the man's cause. The effect was instant, and the room resounded with the hushed voices of disbelief and wonder, excitement and cautious criticism, and a soft chime that was lost to the noise. Smiling, she lifted her head to meet Kraols' eyes, lest he disbelieve her.
In the chamber outside, three fatigued reached the top of the stairs, barely having slowed from a run during the trip upwards. Breathing heavily, they stumbled towards the Room of Fate, and had to consciously quell their clamor as the murmur of the meeting drifted through the opened doors.
Only the small of common sense on the Sierra's part kept them from jumping in on the assembly.
"What's she doing?" Elazul's whisper died in the hush. He might have wondered if he'd spoken at all, but by then he, himself, had already forgotten.
Escad felt the chill of uncertainty that radiated from Athena's friends, as well as a similar reaction striking from his own fears.
In the heart of evil, the carefully hidden yearning was pushed aside; the need that could only be fulfilled if the vagrant was telling the truth. One needed certainties, after all.
"So, are you ready to cut all ties with this land?"
The dagger he offered was familiar to Athena; it was the same one used far off, in another land, to ceremonially take lives for various reasons. The woman blinked, choking down revulsion as Pearl was escorted closer to the dias.
Beyond the chamber, yet in plain sight to any who might have turned a head, the grip of dread froze Elazul to the cool stone beneath his feet. This isn't real; this can't be real…
The mix of betrayal, and hopeless grief threatened to overwhelm him, should he not wake up soon and end the nightmare. He leapt, only to find himself suspended. The world spun about as the others held him back, despite his flailing, and a fur-covered hand covered his mouth to keep his protests at bay. He struggled, but it did nothing, and he felt tears well as the event before him unfolded.
Tears. Athena's gift to the Jumi, once all else had failed, which the knight held back as the woman, one of the few people he had poured all his young trust into, set cause for him to doubt years of built up hope.
If the small group had been noticed, they went unheeded as the congregation broke into shouts and screams.
oOo
Athena reasoned that if she chose to fight the numbers come to light and still hidden, she would not die alone.
It was a comfort, in a strange way. For all due sake, she would prefer the Jumi woman to live. Such a rare specimen of life, born of living mineral… of a pearl, an organic mineral. She would not destroy it; she could not let it be taken in one blink of her eye, and not without a fight.
Athena did aim perfectly – the man at Pearl's side, the one closest to the door, fell from shock more than pain, but they soon mingled regardless. The mercenary chose him so that the Jumi could run, but it proved inconsequential as she spun and killed the other guard with graceful ease. Moments later, she had her own knife to compliment the dagger.
"We're leaving," Athena said, speaking for herself more than for the benefit of the room. She had little hope of it; they were towards the back of the room, and there were plenty of individuals ready to protest the early departure.
Suddenly, the room burst into deafening screams. Sticking close together, the two women made the slow progress towards their escape. Athena had a harrowing time fending off every one creature that became too bold for its own good, and she kept expecting the rest to smarten and attack all at once. Any time, she mulled as they closed in at a painfully slow pace.
It was much a surprise when the front suddenly parted. Trusting luck, she urged Pearl forwards, and together they ran past their abrupt saviors. Athena stopped at the door, turning to urge the retreat. She would have to remember to yell at them later, but for now she simply smiled at her old mentor, an apology for not staying and being torn to pieces for his enjoyment.
The flight down the stairs was too fast to be terrifying. The memory imprinted itself and was forgotten as the unseemly group made it past the first gate and its guards. After stumbling over jumbled rocks and terrain, they paused at the vast field that lay just beyond.
It was Blackpearl's idea to split up through the tall grass as a precaution, and the last words that were spoken before they fled into the cover of night.
At the gate of the tower, the startled sentries were in for another shock as their leader appeared under the ancient archway. Under his scrutiny, they arched their bows; one volley of arrows flew high into the sky before raining into the field.
Under the cover of darkness, something stumbled and gasped. A speckled black pattern spread over the dim hue of the wild grain, and disappeared on the dusk of the earth from which the plants grew.