Chapter Seven
For those of you who haven't read my story lately, I did change Chapter Six, so you might be a little confused if you try reading this without going back and first taking a look at that:) What I have edited is in bold, and it is mostly at the end.
Sorry for any inconveniences.
Happy reading!
Cahira Arjaeis
Her eyes were unaccustomed to the darkness as she stumbled forward, her leg brushing against something rough and hard. She leapt aside, shivering with excitement, then paused.
A tree?
She felt forward, gripping the thick trunk, and then rested against it for a moment as her eyes finally made out that she was in a thin forest. In the distance, the moon, a faint sliver of a crescent, shimmered dimly, hardly illuminating anything.
Suddenly she jumped.
"…I saw something! Check over here!" The speaker's accent was thick and foreign, perhaps—Arabic sounding?
Alexandra drew in her breath quickly, leaning flat against the tree, and searched the landscape around her. At first she could not tell from where the voices came—but then she saw a dark figure, someone on horseback.
Ever so gently she inched round to the opposite side of the tree, hopefully out of his sight.
Another voice rose from the dark.
"I saw something! I think it was her!"
Her eyes grew wide. Her? Are they searching for ME?
"Hey! What was that?" the voices sounded closer.
It was as if they could hear her heartbeat. What have I done? I have no reason to run, she thought, her mind racing.
A horse's whinny erupted just beside her, and with that, she took off like fleeing prey.
"Come on!" the voices behind her hollered, and there was a heavy pounding of hooves that began chase.
She stumbled over the rough ground, realizing that it was rather difficult to run in the green silk kimono that Candock had given her.
Why am I running? She nearly tripped, but instead thrust forward with determination. They won't catch me—they just can't, she thought, but she could not understand why she desperately did not want those men to find her.
For a moment, when she could no longer think about herself, she realized that the sound of hooves had died away, become much more distant behind her.
She almost paused with relief, and then suddenly—too suddenly—something burst from the trees beside her.
With a gasp she fell to the ground, whether her legs had given way or she had been knocked down, she did not know.
Her eyes searched the darkness wildly as she staggered onto her feet—but she saw no horsemen.
Instead, by the faint moonlight, there appeared to be a new, different creature before her.
She stared with an amazed, almost wonderful feeling.
At first it appeared to be a horse, but with strange, wing-like ears. But as it gently trotted forward, she saw, that indeed, it was not completely a horse. It had a scaly mane running down its neck, scaly dragon wings, and a dragon's back half.
Its eyes were very wide also.
But there was no time for words, for sound—
A loud whinny behind them spread commotion, Alexandra losing any sense she had gripped of what was carrying on in the darkness. The two horsemen seemed to be awfully close, and then—
She felt herself being flung into the air—But how?
And then, quite strangely, there was something warm, and sleek beneath her.
"HOLD ON!" a very odd, strident voice exclaimed.
Where did it come from?
The beast beneath her leapt forward, galloping with a very bumpy gait, forward, to a clearing, and then—
As the trees cleared, another very strange thing happened. The wind was suddenly in her face, flinging her hair behind her. The trees weren't just behind her, but beneath her, and the two horsemen?
She was on the back of a flying beast! (It felt extremely odd straddling it while wearing what was practically a dress.) And, what more—?
"All well back there, fledgling?"
The strident voice blared into the cool, fresh air.
Alex bit her lip, then grabbed at the thick mane before her in an attempt to stay on the beast's back.
Looking before her, she saw a tower, strangely familiar, in the distance, looming very near to them.
"Uh..." was about all she could say.
But the next thing she knew, with a loud thump and an uncomfortable jolt, she was looking at the inside of the pagoda-like tower—
Luna Serenada!
With this thought she fell off of her mount.
The wind and loud flapping of rubbery wings no longer in her ears, she could hear the rather amusing, strident voice quite well as it exclaimed;
"Aha! What a fleeing! Quite well. All well. What else to say, fledgling?"
"Ow," Alex said, standing and rubbing her knee. "I mean…"
She was almost used to hearing strange beasts speaking the same language as her.
"Uh—I guess—well—thanks."
"Don't mention it. So what were you doing in Oubonzi? Those soldiers… ahggg, don't want to mess with them. I… was in a gypsy caravan, a display—! Ueerrruurrrrrrgg…"
Alexandra made a face of slight amusement at the weirdness of it all.
"I… I was looking for this place," she said, spreading her hands out in the moonlit tower.
"Ah, how amazing. You don't say? Wonderful. Actually, what is this place?" the creature asked.
"Luna—Moon Hill," Alex tried.
"Hrrrmmmll," the creature grunted.
Alex looked around in the small, pagoda-like room.
Aha, stairs, she thought triumphantly.
At the bottom of the tower Alex stumbled out, the strange beast following her, profusely complaining.
"…Hate stairs. Rotten, lumpy, hard-to-descend stairzzzzzzzzz," the creature grumbled.
She glanced behind her at it, then back up at the crescent moon, then down at the ground beneath her feet and the solid, stone walls around her. To all sides was immense foliage, leafy trees, viny plants, flowering bushes, withering stumps.
She stepped forward, in awe.
"My goodness, amazing, astounding, and… hrrmrgh! So many plants! This… this is a garden, of some sort?" the creature behind her jabbered annoyingly.
Alex kept walking, staring at a white-leaved, twining tree to her left, then a slightly dead, pink-flowered bush to her right.
Suddenly she stopped.
The creature behind her, which had been ambling in follow a little too closely, stepped on her heels.
"Hey—" she hissed, and the paused. "I thought I saw something." In her moment of intensity she suddenly became aware of her Fae, which had been following her through the whole escapade. It had been so quiet she had forgotten it. Now it seemed ready to protect her… but from what?
"Something, someone, or somemrrphrph?" it whispered.
"Shh!" Alex snapped irritatedly, then studied the darkness before her nervously.
"Who's there?"
She had been getting much bolder since this entire expedition had begun.
Something flickered behind the thick foliage of the over-grown garden. A lantern?
The creature, who at first had seemed rather frightened and wary, suddenly leapt in front of Alexandra.
"SHOW YOURSELF, IMPOSTOR!" it shrieked ear-splittingly.
"Ay!" Alex exclaimed, looking down, startled at the increasingly strange creature.
The lantern drifted toward them, still somewhat stifled by the thick trees.
Alexandra strained her eyes to watch it. For a moment it seemed to vanish. She and the creature both tensed, waiting for the light to reappear.
Then, they were both startled as the lantern was unveiled directly in front of them, nearly blinding them.
"Ugh!" Alex said, instinctively shielding her eyes.
"Whathathgh?" The beast grumbled, leaning forward.
There was a moment when Alex's vision was adjusting where she lost track of things.
"Veloxar?" The creature exclaimed, joyfully, it seemed, but Alex did not know why.
There was a commotion, the creature leapt forward, the lantern hit the ground with a clank, almost going out. Alexandra was the first to dive for it, grabbing it and shielding it cautiously in her hand as she lifted it to see the "impostor's" face.
She was stunned, the creature was delighted.
It was the same unspeaking, ghost-like youth from clan-Louz who had given her the note in the hallway.
For the moment the creature was nearly all on top of him, licking his face with a thin, snake-like tongue and chortling to itself about a happy reuniting with someone it loved.
"Get—get over here," Alex managed, pointing to the ground beside her, trying to get the creature's attention.
The young man looked up, and, obviously recognizing her, pushed the creature gently away and stood.
He put a calloused hand into the side of his white blouse and pulled out an envelope, which he extended to her.
She snatched it up and held it beside the lantern. It was in the same scrawled, hardly legible handwriting—this time, though, done a little more painstakingly.
He held out his hand for the lantern, and she, not knowing why, instantly handed it back to him, unsealing the letter, but keeping an eye on him as she did so.
By the dim lantern light and the twinkling illumination from her Fae, she could just read it.
I waited for you last night, hoping you would arrive, but you did not. Still putting my trust in you, I waited again tonight, ready to write another letter should you not appear again.
She was surprised at the change of grammar, sentence structure, and the very present tense. It was as though another person had written it.
In this garden are a thousand seeds, flowers, herbs, trees, and the like. Long ago, I discovered a book written by someone very skilled with herbs, who knew that many of these plants could cure illnesses and relieve pain.
I was a knight under the King of Akharashafin. When two of the king's advisors found that I had this book, they sought to thieve it from me and present it to the king in hopes that they would be forever in his goodwill. But I wanted it for other reasons. They chased me with devilry, even went after my life. I was forced to flee to the land I had long heard spoken of as "Zamachei", a place of peace. But I did not escape without the two lords first laying a curse on me, making me mostly unable to communicate. I cannot speak. I am only now regaining the full ability to communicate through writing.
I did not mean the book to be such a burden, and indeed I had no such high hopes as to be a healer to any—but when I saw your friend, I knew he was not of this world, and I knew how ill he was. My heart has somehow extended to him.
Perhaps you will help me find the cure I spoke of earlier. I know it is somewhere in this garden.
-Veloxar
Alexandra raised her eyes.
The youth was holding the lantern low, so that the light gleamed dark shadows under his eyelids, lending an eerie cast to his entire face.
How could she believe something so entirely wild and unearthly? His story is weirder than weird! she thought, and yet—Somehow, she did believe him. And if he could help Nihl… that would mean that she could go home.
It was a mistake to go through those pools in the first place! But I've started it, so I ought to—no, I WILL end it, she thought almost angrily. Taking a deep breath, she folded the letter gently, tucking it into the silken front of her green kimono, and spoke.