Moirai

About an hour later, we found ourselves mingling with the locals of Okanto, many metres below the actual city. Mayran and Eldaline had vanished almost as soon as we had entered the large open area where it seemed most of the people gathered, off to catch up on the however-many-years it had been. The panic momentarily returned to me when he left my side, but it was far less than it had been in the tunnel. I just tried not to think about the tonnes and tonnes of earth and rock pressing down upon me.

After hearing the story from several of the locals, I uncovered the truth of what had happened on the surface. A few weeks ago, a black siege of storm clouds had appeared on the horizon. By midday, it was right over the city. Lightning began to strike down, sparking huge fires wherever it hit. The citizens had realised it was unnatural lightning when the stone buildings themselves had begun to catch on fire.

Eldaline had been the one to call the city to action. She had reminded them all of the catacombs that spider webbed underneath the city and rallied everyone together, heading to safety. As far as Indina knew, for it was clearly her nasty work, the occupants of Okanto had all perished. She never bothered to check; she was too confidant in her abilities.

It was quickly decided that we would spend the night, restock our water and food, and then continue on South towards the forest. We were shown to rooms where even the beds had been carved out of rock. The room was small, but not as small as the tunnel, and so it was bearable.

That night I dreamed.

I was standing on a large flat stone that stuck out of a body of water; a river or lake, I presumed. Thick fog surrounded me, obscuring anything more than a couple of feet away.

Sinister laughter sounding from somewhere in front of me made me jump. The fog cleared a path, revealing another stone several metres away. Upon it stood a woman who appeared to be in her early thirties, despite her shining silver hair. She wore a long, tight black dress that reminded me somewhat of Morticia Adams, and her skin was so pale it was almost grey. In fact, as I looked closer, it actually was grey. I would have described her as beautiful if it wasn’t for that and her wicked red eyes that seemed to hurt as they focussed on me.

Somehow I knew this was Indina.

She regarded me nonchalantly, but I could see that her sharp eyes were taking in everything. “So, you are the one that I continually get whispers of. Hmph! Far less than what I expected. If that wench Kasanda was going to send someone as a challenge, I thought it would at least be someone worth facing.”

I was frozen with fear and shock that Indina was actually in my dream…speaking to me. I had so much I wanted to say, for that very day I had imagined how much I would yell and scream at her for what I thought she had done to Okanto. Presented with the opportunity, however, all I could do was stare. Or, perhaps it was some sort of magic that kept me still. I hated that thought.

She continued to taunt me, apparently oblivious to my reaction. “You are honestly pathetic. Afraid of magic, not even an adult and not a scrap of knowledge about this world! I cannot believe it!”

Her voice on the outside was clear and sharp, but there was an undertone of darkness; every word seemed to drip poison. The slow speed in which she spoke added to that effect.

“I’m not alone, and I will learn.” I finally managed to say, and my voice sounded very small compared to hers, which had seemed to come from everywhere at once.

She cackled again. “You’re not alone? Ha! You have no idea of your travelling companions, do you? Maybe you should ask them. Well, don’t trouble yourself over the girl, but Mayran…” her laugh was low and malicious this time. “Well, let’s just say that there are things about him that would curl your hair.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself? It seems like you’re warming to him enough…” She raised an eyebrow.

I opened my mouth to retort, but without any warning she suddenly came at me, charging across the stones. I turned and tried to run, but my feet wouldn’t move. Stuck as I was, I could do nothing but scream as her cold, clawed hands gripped my shoulders like a vice.

I woke still screaming, drenched in perspiration. I was breathing even faster than it had been in the tunnel earlier. My whole body was trembling with the lingering terror from the dream. The darkness of the room did nothing to alleviate it.

My fear of magic was instantly rekindled, for that was the only way the dream, which wasn’t really a dream, could have occurred. It positively terrified me, because that meant she knew where I was and what we were doing.

For a moment I half expected someone to come running any second, before remembering that Loni and Mayran were in rooms quite far away from mine. I lay back down. However, I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night, and the following morning I waved away the shadows under my eyes an ordinary bad dream.

Eldaline walked us back to the surface again. Going through the tunnel a second time was made slightly easier as I was going towards the open air rather than away from it, but I still felt shaky by the time we emerged.

Although all of our spirits were far more uplifted than upon entering the city, there was a sad air around all three of us as we left it, for the parting between Mayran and Edlaline had lulled us into a regretful silence.

He had embraced her warmly, and she had returned it. Mayran, once again, had tears shining in his eyes. Eldaline looked him affectionately in the eye and gave him a warning that if he didn’t take care of himself with Indina, Eldaline would personally find the witch and kill her. Mayran, in return, promised to visit again as soon as time permitted.

He then became quiet for the next few hours, only speaking to comment on how long it should take us to get to the forest, which was about four days. I didn’t mention my dream, for as the day went on it seemed far less a work of evil and more a product of my scared and tired mind.

We rode a fair distance throughout that day, but Mayran didn’t stop to train me. Nor did he bring up magic, something which relieved me. I couldn’t help but stare at him whenever I knew he wouldn’t notice, asking the question presented to me in my dream; exactly who was he?

Several times I considered asking him, but I was worried that he would either brush me off with a vague answer or a lie, or get angry at me for prying into his past. The fact that the dark look had returned to his eyes since leaving Okanto didn’t help to alleviate my curiosity. I mentioned my questions to Loni that night after Mayran had fallen asleep – without contacting Kasanda; something he’d done almost every other night – declining to mention the dream. She agreed that she had been wondering similar thoughts but also agreed that I shouldn’t mention anything...yet.

The next day found us leaving the desert behind, and the vegetation increased much quicker than on the Nerome side of Okanto. In the distance stood the forest, spread out as far as the eye could see in either direction; nothing more than a dark green mass of oaks and other deciduous trees. Nothing about it gave any indication of the Dryads that resided within.

At mid-morning we stopped and Mayran, who had slowly been acting more normally the past day or so, pointed to a small farm about half a mile away, on one of the first patches of fertile, non-sandy ground. “Before heading to the forest, we should go and ask whoever lives there if it is safe. We don’t want to run into any of Indina’s tricks again and be caught unawares like last time.”

Loni and I agreed, not even daring to ask about what her ‘tricks’ might be, after seeing the two distorted beings that showed up at Kasanda’s house and what had happened to Okanto. We started making our way down the other side of the hill, where the last specs of sand turned to grass.

A man was standing as though waiting to greet us next to the mailbox of the farm, the house a couple of hundred metres behind him. He leaned casually against it, one elbow resting on the top. He wore the oddest assortment of clothing I had ever seen; brown pants with shiny boots, a white and red striped shirt large enough to just be pulled over his enormous stomach and what looked like the visor of a knight’s helmet, covering his eyes. His hair flopped around his face and was a dull ginger, looking quite in need of a wash. He waved as we approached.

“Oh ho! Travellers!” he cried in a deep voice. His tone was light, but the second he spoke an unexplainable shiver ran down my spine.

“Hello, there!” Mayran called back, waving back. Neither spoke again until we reached the mailbox. The man grinned at us, making his already fat red cheeks become like apples.

“Well, I haven’t seen anyone around these parts for months!” the man said loudly. It seemed as though he always spoke with a lot of volume.

“Why is that then?” Mayran asked, his clam voice sounding almost like a whisper after the other man’s roar.

“Didn’t you know?” he demanded as though it was common knowledge. “The Dryads have been…well, you’ll see for yourself. You’re heading over there, then?”

Mayran nodded, a frown slightly creasing his forehead. “We are, but if there’s something wrong, I would appreciate it if you could let us know. We don’t want to go riding into danger, you see.”

The man laughed then, slapping his belly and leaning back. “Danger? Ha! You lot wouldn’t know danger if it danced in front of you!”

He was really starting to annoy me, now. His obnoxious nature got to me from the start, and now he clearly wasn’t telling us something important. “Who’re you, anyway?” I blurted before sense could tell me to do otherwise.

“Oh, no-one really.” He muttered offhand. “Name’s Gould. Like ‘gold’ but with a ‘u’.”

As if we needed the spelling lesson. I started to tell him as much before Mayran put a warning hand on my shoulder.

“If you’re not going to tell us about the Dryads, then we’ll leave you be and continue on our way.” He said, and I noticed with some satisfaction that he was trying to hide his own annoyance.

Gould waved his arm at us, as though shooing us away. “Fine then, go!”

I huffed and turned, starting towards the green horizon. Mayran and Loni followed after a moment.

“Quite a strange fellow.” Loni commented, frowning as much as Mayran and I were. “Acted as though he didn’t care much about anything. And what was with that visor?”

“No idea.” Mayran muttered. “Keep walking and don’t look back. We don’t know what’s happened with the Dryads. Gould could be more than he seems.”

I heard it before they did; a slight chink and the snick of metal accompanied by the sound of something moving through air. I turned just in time to see a small knife flying handle-over-blade towards Loni. I tried to push her out of the way but was too slow, and only managed to deflect the strike. The knife imbedded itself into Loni’s left shoulder and she screamed in pain, dropping to her knees.

Gould’s raucous laughter reached our ears, accompanied by a much higher, colder laughter from somewhere all around us. It seemed to obliterate all other sound or colour or feeling. It was like the world around me grew grey and slowed down. I had heard the laughter before. I felt very strange; light-headed and slightly ill. I gazed down at Loni and felt my heart ache to see her pale face as she struggled to remain conscious, but for some reason I couldn’t find the will to bend down and reassure her…