After dessert, which Katharean had found herself unable to eat as a growing nausea gripped her, she quickly excused herself, apologising and muttering something about being tired. Her departure was met with disappointed frowns, but she barely noticed, such was her need to get out of the hall and away from the admiration-filled eyes of the dwarves.
She heaved open the heavy doors and glanced behind her to see Eragon and Saphira following close behind Obsidian. The moment they were out of earshot, Eragon rounded on her, blocking her path.
"What happened back there?" He demanded, anxiously. She glanced around at the walls of the narrow passageway and a sudden claustrophobia gripped her.
"Not here." She whispered, breathing heavily as her irrational fear grew in intensity. "I need to get out of here, Eragon. I need some air." She gasped.
"Come with me. I know a quicker way outside than the tunnel we came here by." He said, gripping her hand and leading her swiftly through the labyrinth of tunnels and passageways until eventually they arrived at the foot of a crumbling, dilapidated staircase. She broke free of his grip and raced up them, panting wildly. The steps ended at a large stone hatchway and she threw herself against it with all her strength, falling to her knees on the hard ground outside when it suddenly gave way with an ancient groan.
Eragon stepped out behind her and hoisted her gently to her feet. She took a few long gulps of fresh cold air and felt her pounding heart slow and her breathing grow steady.
"Better?" He asked softly, and she nodded, looking around just in time to see Saphira emerge through the open hatchway and Obsidian squeeze his large form out behind her.
"Sorry." She murmured, embarrassed now by her hysteria. "I just felt so trapped down there. After months of living in and around Tronjheim, you would think I would be accustomed to living underground."
"I understand." Eragon soothed, though his confused eyes told her he did not understand at all.
Great warrior. She thought. Terrible liar.
"So what happened? When you fainted..." He started, and she shook her head.
"I did not faint." She said. "I had...an episode of sorts."
She explained about her recent visions, all of which seemed to focus solely on Murtagh or Thorn. When she reached the part about Murtagh scrying her, Eragon's face darkened. Without another word, he held his hands in front of her and closed his eyes as he began to mutter almost unintelligibly in the Ancient Language. A full minute passed before he stopped speaking and released the flow of magic.
"There." He declared, with satisfaction. "Now I dare-say even the Gods themselves will have trouble finding you."
"Thank you." She smiled, and Obsidian huffed with relief.
"The wards apply to you too, Obsidian, so you need not worry about anyone finding Katharean through you...or vice versa." He added as an afterthought.
"What would I do without you?" Katharean smiled. Even in the darkness, she saw a blush rise in Eragon's cheeks.
"Great things, I imagine. After all, you succeeded in escaping the Empire with no assistance at all." He reminded her.
"Oh, I had help." She grinned, glancing pointedly at Obsidian. "Call it divine intervention."
Please. He snorted. The dwarves think highly enough of us as it is. Do not spread rumours of my divinity, for the sake of my sanity.
She frowned slightly at his words and wheeled back to face Eragon.
"Actually...what did you tell the dwarves about us that has them in such a frenzy?" She asked. Eragon grinned, sheepishly.
"I may have exaggerated slightly...and mentioned something about a...duel with death itself on the threshold of Helgrind."
"You said what?" She laughed.
"They think you are a miracle."
"They think I am the Messiah." She rolled her eyes.
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"Of course it is! Talk about great expectations."
"I didn't mean to put you under pressure, Katie."
"Under pressure?" She grinned. "Now what would give you that idea?"
Saphira snorted in amusement and Eragon chuckled.
"Duel with death, indeed...sometimes your imagination runs away with your sense, Eragon Shadeslayer."
"It was not my imagination, Kate. It was the imagination of the people. That is what they wanted to believe. I just...embellished it slightly."
"Okay, whatever you say, Eragon. Come on, let's fly somewhere." She said, climbing onto Obsidian's back.
"Fly where?" He asked, settling into Saphira's saddle.
"Anywhere. Somewhere past the clouds...I want to see the stars." She smiled, wistfully.
Obsidian took off with a rustle of wings, and Saphira was by his side in moments. They glided silently between the towering mountains, like great, glittering bats, climbing higher and higher until the ground below was obscured by a thick haze of clouds.
Katharean glanced at Eragon and they exchanged a meaningful look. This was their world, a world that only they could share. Suddenly, the cavernous underground halls of Farthen Dur felt a million miles away and all of her fears and doubts meant nothing in the quiet perfection of the night. Nothing could disrupt her peace now.
Well...almost nothing.
Her perfect world transformed and the brilliant light of the full moon flickered and died, leaving her along in the suffocating darkness.
No. She realised. Not alone.
"Brisingr." Spat a voice as familiar to her as her own, and a chandelier above her head burst into life. The thirteen candles mounted on it burned in angry red, and she was unsurprised to see Murtagh's face illuminated in their eerie glow, twisted into a scowl. She watched as he paced the small room, the same one she had seen him scrying her in. He appeared to be so deep in his thoughts that he took no notice of his surroundings, and on his third circuit of the room, he stubbed his toe on a small round table.
She winced, almost feeling his pain. He stopped and glared at the offending object as if it had somehow hurt him intentionally and, in a feat of frightening speed and strength, lifted it from the ground and hurled it at the wall beside Katharean, where it smashed and splintered on impact. She recoiled from him, startled by his rage. Though she knew she was invisible to him, she could not help but feel scared by his new aggression. She had never seen him so angry...he had raised his voice to her only once before, the day she left him in Ceris, and even then he had been more upset than angry.
If she wondered what had left him in such a rage, she needn't have wondered any longer, for he answered her question silently.
He reached into his tunic and pulled out a small piece of parchment and something else which he kept concealed in a tight fist.
She crept closer cautiously, moving behind him to peer over his shoulder at the note he was reading. She recognised the penmanship instantly as her own.
Murtagh.
I must leave you now for a second time, though it breaks my heart to do so. Please know that a part of me will always be with you, as I will keep a part of you with me wherever I go. Stay safe, and may the stars watch over you.
With everything that I am, and all the love that I possess,
Katharean.
Murtagh's hands were shaking as he read the words over and over.
"Did you know?" He whispered to the darkness, shaking his head. "When you wrote this note, did you know? Have you known all this time?"
"Known what? What are you talking about?" Katharean asked, forgetting that he could not hear her.
"How could you have left me here if you knew?" He roared, hurling the object in his hand across the room where it bounced off the wall and rolled across the wooden floor.
"I don't know what you..." She trailed off when she recognised the object lying on the floor, gleaming in the red light. She walked over to it slowly and tried to pick it up, but she had no purchase on this shadowy world.
"Selena's ring...how could you-?" She started, but stopped abruptly when Murtagh stepped right through her. They both froze, and Murtagh shuddered and shook his head as though trying to rid himself of the strange feeling.
"Someone just walked over my grave." He muttered, bending down to pick up the ring that he had thrown. He studied it, pensively, turning it over in his hands until, with a sad sigh, he replaced it in his breast pocket.
Katharean could feel the vision facing and, on impulse, she stepped lightly beside him and brushed her lips against his cheek.
The last image she had of him before the world returned saw a sad, longing smile playing on his troubled face as he held a hand to the place where her lips would have touched his skin, and she wished more than anything she could stay.
For the second time that night, she opened her eyes to see Eragon, who heaved a sigh of relief.
"Kate, please do not do that to me again." He pleaded, helping her to her feet.
"I guarantee nothing." She replied, placing a comforting hand on Obsidian's snout.
"What did you see?" Eragon asked, frowning.
She shrugged. "More of the same. Just Murtagh."
"And? What happened?"
She hesitated, considering whether or not she should tell him all that she had seen. The trouble was, she was not entirely sure what she had seen.
"Nothing." She lied. "He was asleep."
"Oh." Eragon replied, looking slightly disappointed. "Well, at least he cannot trouble us while he sleeps."
"No." she said, thoughtfully. "No trouble at all."
I wouldn't say that. Obsidian growled. You slipped right off my back. You fell almost a hundred feet before I could catch you. These visions are debilitating and dangerous. What would happen if you were to suddenly fall unconscious during battle?
It has crossed my mind. She sighed, lowering herself to the ground to lie on her back on the soft grass. Eragon stood over her with a raised eyebrow, and she smiled wearily. With a grunt, he dropped to his knees and sprawled out beside her, folding his hands over his chest as Saphira and Obsidian settled themselves in a ring around the two Riders, encircling them protectively.
"Twice in one night." Eragon commented, shaking his head. "As if we did not have enough to worry about. We will speak with the elves when we reach Ellesmera. I know of someone who may be able to help you control these visions better. We may even be able to find out what's causing them."
"Well then, let us hope all goes well tomorrow. The sooner the coronation is over and done with, the sooner we can leave."
"If they do not crown a new king on the morrow, I might scream. I have never known politics to be quite so tedious." Eragon muttered. Katharean chuckled.
"Obviously you have never had dealings with my father." She grinned, fondly. "I love him dearly but my word, that man can keep a debate going until the cows come home."
"Your father? Really?" Eragon asked, tilting his head to look at her.
"Oh yes. He and I are nothing alike. He would often joke that we could not possibly share blood, and that my mother must have found me in the vegetable patch at the foot of the garden."
Eragon chuckled, quietly, and she sighed nostalgically.
"Selena was always more like him, though she was not his real daughter. He is the only father she has ever known, and she placed much more stead in him than I ever did. Sometimes, I think he resented my behaviour...I was much too headstrong, he said. But other times, I believe he was grateful. Sometimes, I would catch him looking at me in the most peculiar way...I think I reminded him of my mother...although that is purely speculation."
"You never knew her?"
"No. She died when I was very young. Elice, my step-mother, never had much time for me. She is a real Lady, you know? A true noblewoman. I couldn't stand her. But...she was just one of the many subjects that my father and I could never quite see eye to eye on."
"You must miss him, though." Eragon said softly. She gazed at the stars, thoughtfully.
"I do. I just...I haven't really thought about him much. It's easier that way. I miss Selena more, I think. She and I were as close as any two sisters...it is not a bond I would sever lightly."
"Of course. Roran and I are cousins by blood, but brothers in every other way."
"I still haven't met him, you know." Katharean commented, quietly.
"You haven't?"
She shook her head. "You never introduced us."
"Oh. You will meet him soon. He is with the Varden now, in Surda."
"I would like that." She replied, yawning. "Let's sleep here tonight. I don't think I'm ready to go back underground just yet."
They lay under the stars talking for hours, talking about everything and nothing. Eragon taught her the courtesies and greetings of the elves, and Katharean recounted her escape from Dras Leona. The talked away most of the night, eventually falling asleep side-by-side under the silent, watchful gaze of the stars.
AN: Please review! It makes me all happy and warm inside.