Moirai

I rushed over to Loni, relieved to see that she was simply unconscious, and roused her. She didn’t seem concussed and I couldn’t see any injuries, but I asked her just to be sure.

“No.” She murmured dazedly. “I just...remember them shooting something at me.” She felt around the back of her neck for something, pulling out a tiny dart. Not poison, I presumed...some sort of sleep dart then?

“Them?” I asked urgently.

She was suddenly instantly awake. “Oh my gosh, Alnya, they took Mayran!”

She tried to sit up, but I gently kept her lying down. “Hey, hey, hey, hang on, we don’t know what they gave you. Just wait a second. Who took Mayran?”

“A hoard of Erkings.” She answered.” Probably about thirty of them. They came out of nowhere and shot us both with those darts before we even saw them. They must have taken him to Indina!”

“At least they left you here.” I said.

Despite my calm exterior, inside my entire brain was in panic mode. Indina’s words from my last dream returned to me, about how eagre she was to see Mayran and Loni as well as me. What was she going to do to him?

“He’s going to be utterly terrified, having to go back there, and who knows what she’s doing to him.” Loni cried, echoing my thoughts.

She made to sit up again, and this time I let her.

Right, calm down and breathe, I told myself. She wouldn’t kill him. Not yet, at least. She’s using him as bait, as yet another reason for me to get to her castle, just in case I decided to turn back now. He was safe, at least until we got there.

“Well,” I sighed, standing and pulling Loni to her feet. “Let’s add rescuing him to our list of impossible tasks.”

Loni took a deep breath and nodded. “Right.” She looked around. “One thing is positive; they left the horses. If we ride as fast as we can through the rest of the forest, Mayran said we should reach Druge before sundown. He was going to suggest we wait on the outskirts of the city until tomorrow, before heading around it to the castle...but given the circumstances...” She left it hanging for a moment before asking, “Are you ready?”

I thought about that. Was I ready to face Indina?

I closed my eyes. Voices and images swirled around my head; Kasanda, Loni, the Praesul, King Nardien and Mayran himself. They were all counting on me, and the rest of Renenta. And now Indina had struck at me personally, by taking Mayran. No matter what else, Mayran had become as much of a friend to me as Loni was, and no matter what happened to me, I would make sure that he got out of that castle alive.

“Yes.”

Within minutes we had gathered the supplies that had not been either trampled or kicked into one of the pools and mounted the horses. I tied Mayran’s to mine. Only then did Loni ask what happened once I went with Sauria. I told her, expecting a reaction similar to mine, or at least for her to reassure me that Kasanda wasn’t hiding anything.

Instead she seemed instantly wary, avoiding the matter altogether.

“Well, the Naiads and the Dryads have always been at odds with each other. That explains Nardien’s animosity towards Kasanda...”

“But do you know if she is hiding something from me?” I pressed.

Loni stared ahead. “It is not my place to answer that, Alnya.”

“That’s what the King told me!” I gasped. “If it’s not your place, then whose is it?”

“Kasanda’s.” She answered, turning back towards me and reaching her eyes. “Please trust me. You’re not meant to know just yet. It could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“I don’t know. That’s the point. I promise I’ll get Kasanda to tell you when we get back to Nerome.”

“What if we don’t?”

“We will.”

She sounded so sure, that I didn’t even think to open my mouth and deny her. I decided to let the matter slide; right now, I had bigger problems.

True to what Mayran had said, it was only just getting dim when we stepped out from under the trees.

Druge lay less than a mile in the distance. A low stone wall surrounded the city, hiding it’s buildings from sight.

“It’s abandoned, isn’t it?” I asked.

Loni nodded. “No-one knows why. It wasn’t Indina, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, Druge has been empty of people since long before Indina came into the area. It’s as though they all just vanished one day. There’s a myth that they got swallowed up by Roak, the Aura of the earth, but no proof has ever been found.”

“The Aura of the earth?” I asked. “I thought there was only one Aura, with a capitol ‘A’.”

“There is only one Great Aura, but there are four Lesser Auras who control an aspect of the world. Other than Roak, there is Hindra, the Aura of fire, Nautilla, the Aura of water, and Adela, Aura of air.”

“Perhaps before I return home I might see if Kasanda has any books on the mythology of this world, it sounds fascinating.” I murmured.

“I’m sure she will happily lend them to you.” Loni agreed.

We started out towards the city, but when it came to going around the city, Loni insisted we give it a wide berth. “You never know what lingering powers might hang over the city.” She advised in a hushed whisper.

It took less than an hour to make our way around Druge, and by the time we had reached the other side, I could see it.

The building that would either be my prison, my grave, or my escape from this endless nightmare of fate rose before me like some sort of humongous creature, the many candle-lit windows looking like a hundred eyes. Its oddly-shaped turrets resembled arms. It wasn’t like the typical, symmetrical castle of film and television; it was rather a mess. The arm-like towers poked out of strange places, and it looked far too tall for the laws of gravity to keep upright. Surely Indina must be using her aura to hold it up.

The bricks that formed the castle were black, making it even more shadow-like in the dusk. Though the sun had recently begun to set and the sky should have been painted in gorgeous shades of gold and pink, everything was grey. The colour leeched out of the world the closer we got to Indina’s dwelling. The overwhelming sense of evil clung to the very air, making hairs stand up on the back of my neck and a cold sweat break out on my forehead.

Loni had gone very quiet and still when we reached the black iron gate. It wasn’t a huge, impending gate like I had been expecting and didn’t even look as though it could keep much out. The resemblance to spider’s legs twisted into each other gave me shivers.

I looked over at her, knowing that this was our last chance to hesitate, to turn back.

Loni was pale, but her mouth was set in a firm line. She gave me one nod, but didn’t attempt a smile. My hands trembled as they gripped the reins of my horse and their skin was pasty white, standing out starkly against the grey of everything else.

It struck me that there actually was no turning back. This wasn’t the last point of hesitation; that point had been days ago, if it had even existed at all. We had to go in. We had to try. We had to rescue Mayran.

I had to.

So, with a determination I hadn’t even thought possible, I nudged my horse forwards. He pushed the gate open with his nose, and a tremor ran through him as he touched the iron. Then we were in, and for some reason, I felt absolutely certain that we wouldn’t be coming back out that gate. We tied our horses to the gate and continued on foot.

I knew her eyes were staring down at us. I could feel them boring into my back as we made our way down the strip that could very loosely be called a path towards the castle.

We went inside.

The evilness of the place increased tenfold to what it was outside, and for a moment it stopped me in my tracks and made my head spin. I didn’t know exactly what made me feel like that; it wasn’t anything my senses were picking up. But something definitely felt wrong. Something my aura could sense.

I was worried about our horses, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. Candles fixed to brackets in the walls lit our way quite obviously, as the only candles lit were ones that followed a path off to the side and up a seemingly endless flight of stairs. She was calling to us.

I felt in as detached as I usually felt in dreams as, for over ten minutes, we climbed in a circle up what I presumed was one of the turrets. Things didn’t feel real, even though I knew they definitely were. The bricks were slippery with dampness, as were the steps, so the going was slow. The entire time I was only really aware of Loni following behind me, and the stairs rising up.

I felt ill and light-headed and scared. That wasn’t how I was meant to feel. Weren’t heroes meant to feel determined, full of anticipation, angry? Ready to remove the evil that had hurt countless people? So, why didn’t I feel like that? Sure, deep down inside there was the anger at all the things Indina had done, coupled with the determination, but all that was squashed under several layers of pure fear.

Why was I even bothering? If I didn’t feel even a bit confidant, what was the point in trying?

I knew the answer to that. Because I had to. Because I had no other choice…Renenta had no other choice.

Finally, the staircase ended and the floor became flat again, forming a short corridor with a wooden door at the end. We paused for a while to catch our breath, which was clearly visible as puffs of mist from the cold. I couldn’t tell from below just how far above ground the tallest tower was, but it had to be quite high because it was definitely not this cold outside. The very castle itself was cold.

I jumped as Loni rested a hand on my shoulder, and cursed my tense nerves.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I considered lying to her, telling her that I was fine...but the words came out before I could stop them.

“Of course I’m not okay, how could I possibly be okay? Mayran is with Indina and she’s doing God knows what to him, and the only thing I’ve got saying I’m going to come out of this alive is a twenty year old prophecy.” I took a deep breath. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to go through with this. I’ve gone too far now to turn back.”

She nodded, her small face determined. “I’m not backing out either. As the Inventrix, I accepted the risk of coming with you years ago. As your friend, I’m not letting you do this alone.”

“Thank you.”

I turned towards the door...