Shadows

The light that Angie blinked awake to was less harsh than it had been the day before when she’d been lying in Mrs Gambol’s barn, but despite that the morning seemed a lot brighter. She was lying on a plush feather mattress under soft, white sheets on which Polo dozed peacefully, and compared with the rough conditions she’d spent the past two days in it was heavenly. Angie wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, and keep resting until all her aches and pains were soothed away. Taking into consideration that this may take several weeks, and that rather more importantly she had no idea where Robert and the Orb were, she rose to attention and began to get dressed. Had she managed to successfully kill the Skadirr? Was Robert still alive?

Waking up in a strange bed having been disrobed was an unfamiliar experience, and having had it happen two nights in a row Angie was fervently hoping it wouldn’t occur again tonight. She was not in a barn this time though, and instead was in a room not dissimilar to her one back at the Sailor’s Jaunt in Velayne. Angie assumed she must be in one of the guest rooms at a tavern in Clifftop, which was a good sign that the fireball she’d generated last night hadn’t burnt down the entire village.[27] The last thing she remembered before losing consciousness had been that dreadful howl and inescapable, unimaginable heat.

Once fully dressed in the borrowed gambeson and her hobnailed boots, Ange seized the crook in one hand and made her way carefully down the creaking wooden stairs. As she entered what must have been the main room of the tavern, she spotted Godfrey and the other wagon drivers sat around a table drinking ale and eating breakfast. Godfrey turned and beckoned to her as he heard the familiar tapping of the crook, and shifted aside slightly so she could be seated at the bench.

“You could have warned me how big that explosion was going to be, miss,” Godfrey griped as Angie sat down.

“Sorry,” Angie hung her head. “I didn’t know it was going to be so large. I mean, I knew that alcohol was something fierce but I had no idea just how combustible it was going to be…”

“Well don’t you worry about that now. The fact of the matter is we’re safe and that dreadful creature seems to be gone.”

“It did it, then?” Angie brightened up. “It definitely killed it?”

“In so far as you can kill something that doesn’t look like it’s truly alive,” nodded Godfrey. “For example, my wagon was never really alive but it’s certainly dead now.”

“Sorry again,” blushed Angie. “How much does a wagon cost?”

“You really don’t want to know. Now, stop being ashamed of yourself. You did a brave and excellent job last night, Miss Angie. For now just enjoy breakfast and a bit of peace and calm.”

“It must be nearly lunchtime, though,” stated Angie.

“Well, then enjoy lunch and a bit of peace and calm. Where’s that Robert boy got to by the way? I haven’t seen him since we got here yesterday evening.”

“He, um…” Angie said in hushed tones. “As I said last night, he ran off with the Orb just in case I failed. He’s probably further along the western road by now, and I said I’d catch up to him.”

“Oh, you did say so indeed,” nodded Godfrey. “Well, I think you’ve been doing enough running and travelling for a few days and deserve to pause for lunch at least before continuing on. If the boy’s sensible,” paused Godfrey, “which I’m… sure he is, then he’ll have found somewhere safe to hunker down for the night. There’s some good caves at the base of the trail down from here, or failing that there’s an old farmhouse not too much further along that’s good for a bit of shelter.”

“Well, alright then.” nodded Angie after some contemplation. Would Robert be the kind to stop and rest if he got tired? He was very logical, but then again if he’d been told to run, would he think outside the order long enough to realise he needed rest at some point? These were questions that should be answered after food, she thought, tucking into an apple.

“I can see you’re still a bit concerned, so I’ll tell you what – as soon as we’ve finished eating I’ll take you down on my horse Sadie. She’ll probably enjoy being able to move without a wagon tied to her, and it’ll mean we can get down quicker to where Robert might be hiding out. Deal?”

“Deal.” Angie nodded. “And thank you again for all your help. I promise I’ll find a way to get you a new wagon once this is all over.”

“You do that and we’ll be just about even,” Godfrey winked. Angie grabbed a roll of bread from a basket that had just been placed in front of her, and wondered how Robert had got on last night.

“H-hello,” smiled the strange boy with four eyes. Keliashyrr watched him cautiously, her foot still rested firmly upon the glowing red sphere the boy had dropped. “I w-wonder, would you be so kind as to remove your foot from the Orb, p-please? It’s just I’ve t-told a friend of mine I was going to keep it safe and take it far away, and you’re im-p-peding that n-now.”

“What a curious boy,” came the voice of Ambriel from inside Keliashyrr’s head. “I wonder, when he says ‘Orb’…”

“What is this ‘Orb’ you speak of?” asked Keliashyrr inquisitively.

“Oh, um, well… i-it’s nothing, r-really. Just a um, gift, that I have to deliver. So if you could take your foot off it please that would be most helpful.”

“I don’t believe him, do you?” asked Ambriel. “Because that Orb seems to be radiating an awful lot of magical power for something that’s just a gift. Take a closer look at it, but don’t take your eyes off the boy in case he tries something foolish.”

Keliashyrr reached down towards the Orb, and the boy yelped and cried out.

“No! D-don’t touch it!” Keliashyrr hesitated.

“Why?” Keliashyrr and Ambriel asked at the same time.

“It’s d-dangerous. I’ve been t-told that if you hold it you, err, combust – whoosh.” Robert gestured.

“You ‘whoosh’?”

“B-burn. Go up in flames. Whoosh.”

“Hmm,” mused Ambriel, and again Keliashyrr felt the odd sensation of someone else’s voice humming inside her head. “The Orb never used to do that when we had it. I wonder if Fortis added something as a safeguard after I left that I didn’t know about? To prevent the humans from using its power?”

“But then it should be fine for me to touch, shouldn’t it? Besides, the boy is touching it and he hasn’t been burnt to a crisp.” Keliashyrr pointed out.

“Err, excuse me?” asked the boy, raising a hand and looking around. “Who are you talking to?” Keliashyrr ignored him, listening instead to her father.

“True, it could all be a ruse,” Ambriel admitted. “We don’t know this boy is human though, do we? He looks it, but all manner of creatures could rule the world at the moment. As with everything my child, we must exercise caution. Don’t touch the Orb for now. Besides, if there is some enchantment on it to prevent non-Olossa touching it, you are only half Olossa, and we don’t know if that would allow you to touch the Orb as safely as I could, for example.”

“Fair enough,” nodded Keliashyrr, somewhat reluctantly. Something about the Orb was drawing her to it, willing her to touch it. “So shall I just let him have it, then?”

“T-that would be nice,” smiled the boy.

“Yes, for now,” agreed Ambriel. “Find out more about this boy and who he is. He could be a useful ally, or at least allow us to find out more about what the world is like at the moment.”

“Very well,” said Keliashyrr, lifting her foot from the Orb and trying to act imperious. “You may keep the Orb for the time being, boy. What is your name?”

“R-robert,” the boy said, picking up the orb and rising to his feet.

“R-robert?” repeated Keliashyrr.

“N-no, it’s just Robert,” smiled Robert shyly.

“Just Robert?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well, Just Robert,” continued Keliashyrr, not understanding why the boy seemed to grimace and shake his head slightly, “what is the world like at the moment?”

“I didn’t mean to ask him that exactly,” cringed Ambriel.

“W-well, that’s a big question,” replied Robert. “The world as a whole, or the world directly around us? I c-can’t really speak much for the world at large, b-but here it’s summer, and night time, and relatively warm still. Is that r-roughly the sort of thing you wanted to know?”

“I mean,” said Keliashyrr, rearranging her thoughts, “who, in general, runs it? Is it the humans?”

“Well, yes. I wouldn’t say ‘runs it’ as such, but humans tend to live pretty much everywhere. If that’s all, I really do need to keep moving,” said Robert politely, and turned to continue jogging away.

“Wait!” called Keliashyrr, heading after him. “Who are you? What is your purpose in this world?”

“I’m Robert, like I already said. I’m a bookbinder. Or at least, I was. N-now I’m sort of unemployed, and trying to escape a Skadirr.”

“A Skadirr?” asked Ambriel. “They’re still around? Why is one hunting him?”

“Why is it hunting you?” asked Keliashyrr, ducking under a branch as she ran to keep up with Robert.

“Oh, you k-know of them?” Robert asked conversationally.

“Yes, I do,” replied Ambriel to himself. “It was an Olossa who created them – an unholy combination of shadow and death. Savage creatures that were used more than once as assassins by power hungry Olossa jostling for positions within the Spires. What is one doing chasing this boy? Is it after the Orb? They can track magical objects for miles, it could well be someone is after the Orb…”

“Why is it chasing you?” repeated Keliashyrr. “Is someone after the Orb?”

“I t-think so, yes!” nodded Robert. “I don’t know too much about it to be t-terribly honest. As I say, I’m only really helping a friend who’s indisposed at the m-moment.”

“Do you know the importance of that Orb?”

“He’s not in this one!” called Godfrey, emerging from yet another cave.

“I don’t think he can have stopped here then,” sighed Angie. “To be honest with you it doesn’t look as if he even came down this track.” Angie was beginning to get nervous again. What if she hadn’t actually killed the Skadirr? What if it had realised her ruse, and just broken off to chase Robert down instead? Had he even managed to get that far away from Clifftop? Whilst it was true there was no body, Angie couldn’t help but begin to fear that last night’s victory hadn’t been quite the cause for celebration as she’d first thought.

“Well don’t fret, Miss Angie,” consoled Godfrey. “He can’t have got too far away.” He swung himself back up onto his horse, which shone a gorgeous light bay colour. Angie took Godfrey’s offered hand and pulled herself up behind him, giving a tired wince as her injured calf knocked against the side of the horse.

“On to the farmhouse, then?” she asked.

Robert wasn’t quite sure what to make of this new girl. For one thing, she was clad almost entirely in rabbit furs, and whilst Robert knew next to nothing about fashion he couldn’t help but feel that this was rather odd. She asked a lot of questions too, which Robert didn’t mind as long as he had an answer, but some of her questions were quite strange, or phrased confusingly. He couldn’t help but feel he was being interrogated, but even that wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been for the last, and perhaps most important, issue.

At certain intervals, such as just after Robert had answered one of her many questions, the girl seemed to break off from the conversation to talk to herself for a while. Robert knew he was no master of the conversation, but even he thought this was quite rude. It was all well and good to talk to yourself when no-one else was around because everyone, even hermits, need a bit of interesting conversation now and again. To talk to yourself whilst you were in the middle of a conversation though was, even to Robert, weird.

What’s more she was starting to ask awkward questions, and having just met the girl Robert wasn’t comfortable knowing how much to tell her. He’d never told anyone about his ability to read the past of objects before so that wasn’t going to start now, but she had just asked how much he knew about the importance of the Orb and he was struggling to construct an answer that didn’t give the game away.

He knew the Orb must be very important from what he’d seen when he first touched it, what with all those wars and deaths and being able to grant its holders magical abilities, but was that something he wanted to tell this girl? She looked relatively harmless and friendly, but there was a hint of something in her eyes that suggested she wasn’t quite as innocent as she appeared. After all, all the rabbits that made up her clothing must have died somehow.

“Do you know the importance of the Orb?” asked the girl again.

“M-maybe,” Robert plumped for. It wasn’t a good answer but it was non-committal, which was good enough for now. “D-do you?”

“Maybe,” parroted the girl.

“Do you know you’re speaking Old Elthric by the way?” asked Robert, as if it had just occurred to him. “I don’t know many who speak like that these days. None, in fact.”

“Oh,” paused the girl. “What are you speaking then?”

“Just… current Elthric.” Robert shrugged. “It’s not too different really, just sometimes I can hear you pronounce the extra ’e’s. What’s your name b-by the way?” There was another pause as the girl seemed to think about this, and had a whispered conversation with herself.

“Keliashyrr,” Keliashyrr piped up after an uncomfortable few seconds of silence.

“Ah,” replied Robert. “C-can’t say I’ve ever met anyone with that name before.”

“It means ‘child of two worlds’.”

“Does it now?” asked Robert. “My name means ‘bright, or shining, fame’.”

“And are you bright and famous?” asked Keliashyrr.

“Well, b-bright I guess, and I suppose my manner makes me a bit infamous.” Robert paused. “Are you a child of two worlds then?” There was a brief silence, and for a moment all that could be heard was the sound of their footfalls on the ground as they ran.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It’s just, as far as I’m aware, there’s only one world,” Robert panted, the long run and conversation starting to make him out of breath. “This one.”

“I think it’s meant figuratively,” suggested Keliashyrr.

“Ah, okay. But there is only one world.”

“No, he’s not in here either!” called Godfrey, stepping out into the sun from the abandoned farmhouse.

“Where could he be?” asked Angie, concerned. “I don’t suppose he could have made it past here, could he?”

“On foot? I doubt it,” shrugged Godfrey. “Even at a fast pace it’s taken us a good few hours to get out this far on horseback, so I doubt Robert could have got beyond here by foot last night.”

“Is there any other way he could have gone?”

“Unless he doubled back down the other way and back towards Velayne – but then we would have seen him go past us, I’m sure.”

“No, he wouldn’t have gone that way, that wouldn’t make sense…” pondered Angie. “So he didn’t keep going west, and he didn’t go east. South leads to the sea,” she muttered, gazing out across the untended fields of grass and wildflowers lining the coast. Angie turned around and gazed up towards Mount Ares, the steep snow-capped mountain that lay at the centre of the island of Adwich. Thick forests lay around the base of it, covering the foothills in a dazzling green ocean of leaves.

“Could he have gone into the forests?” asked Angie.

“I can’t see why he’d have chosen to go that way,” replied Godfrey, scratching his chin. “There’s nothing up that way except trees and rocks. I suppose there’s the northern ice fishing villages if you really keep going beyond the mountain and into the tundra, but there’s no sane man alive who’d think trying to get there on foot without supplies is a good idea.”

Angie and Godfrey looked at each other.

“So to recap, you’re Just Robert, a bookbinder who’s fleeing a Skadirr which is hunting you for this mystical orb you’re carrying for a friend, and you have no idea where you’re going?” asked Keliashyrr. She was quite enjoying this. The first human she’d met and he was completely and utterly bizarre! Well, actually the first human she’d met was that hunter she’d run across earlier – but he had been fairly boring so didn’t count. The first human she’d actually spoken with though was so interesting, and his story so outlandish and wonderful!

“I s-suppose that sums it up quite well,” admitted Robert, who’d paused briefly to catch his breath. He was bent double and wheezing, sweat dripping from his brow, but Keliashyrr was hardly out of breath and hadn’t even broken a sweat. “How are you doing that?” Robert asked.

“Doing what?” asked Keliashyrr.

“Not, well… sweating, or breathing hard, or anything,” Robert coughed, clearing his chest.

“I wasn’t aware I was doing anything different.”

“Right,” Robert panted. “It’s just, I’ve never run before and I w-wondered if I was doing something wrong.”

“You’ve never run before?” Keliashyrr replied.

“No.”

“But it’s such fun! Feeling the wind in your hair, the world racing past you! How could you not have wanted to run before?”

“T-there’s not a great deal of space in a bookshop to run around,” Robert sighed, “There’s a lot of dust, though.”

“Why would you want to be in a bookshop, then?” asked Keliashyrr. “Sealed away inside, not able to interact with the wonders we see before us?”

“Well, bookshops have books for starters.” Robert shrugged. “Books are worth it. You – you know how I said earlier that there’s only one world?”

“Repeatedly,” nodded Keliashyrr.

“W-well, with books it’s as if there’s more than one world. It’s as if each book is its own world, which you can explore and enjoy at your leisure.”

“That does sound amazing,” smiled Keliashyrr, relishing the thought of multiple worlds to explore. If they were all as vivid and wondrous as this one, she would very much like to see others. “Will you teach me how to read?”

“Y-you can’t read?” asked Robert incredulously.

“I’ve never tried.” She shrugged.

“How ghastly,” gaped Robert. “How can you get to… however old you are, and not have r-read a book?”

“I’m sixteen, and-”

“Don’t say you only woke up today!” quickly interrupted the voice of Ambriel, who until now had been watching his daughter enjoying the conversation with interest.

“-and I, um… I was never taught how to read.”

“Never taught how to read? Did you not g-go to school?”

“No.”

“B-but surely your parents taught you? Come to think of it, what are you doing in the forest? A-are you some sort of child who’s been raised by wolves? I read a b-book about that happening once.”[28]

“I was not raised by wolves!” replied Keliashyrr indignantly.

“No, I suppose that makes sense,” nodded Robert. “After all, you’re talking perfect Old Elthric and no wolf could teach you that. You’d b-be growling and the like if wolves had raised you.”

“Well, I’m glad we can agree on the fact I wasn’t raised by wolves.”

“So who were you raised by?”

“Change the subject!” shouted Ambriel.

“Getting late, isn’t it?” Keliashyrr asked, completely derailing the conversation. Robert and Keliashyrr looked up at the night sky, and could see the moon clearly rising over the treetops.

“Y-yes, I suppose it is. Time to keep moving, then,” Robert grimaced, and set off running again.

“You’re not going to sleep?” asked Keliashyrr, sighing and starting off after him.

“Can’t! I promised Angie that I’d keep moving.”

“Angie being your friend?”

“Yes. She has a bad leg which is why I’m doing the running. She’s going to catch up once she’s better.”

“Well I hate to point out the flaw in this plan, but if you don’t know where you’re going, how is she going to find you?”

“Ah,” Robert halted, both in speech and movement, so suddenly that Keliashyrr nearly ran into the back of him. “I hadn’t t-thought about that. That’s annoying, I t-tend to think about most things. The different varieties of Cardiga wine, for example.”

“What?” said Keliashyrr and Ambriel in synchrony.

“There’s lot of different ones, that’s all. For a small island, t-they do make a lot of wine.”

“Well, maybe don’t think about wine for now, and concentrate on the task at hand? Concentrate on how your friend is going to find you?”

“Oh yes,” nodded Robert, as if the fact he was on a dangerous mission had skipped his mind temporarily. “Maybe I should leave a trail? There was a story I read where this man used a ball of string to find his way through a maze that had a creature in the centre with the head of a bull and the body of a man, or was it some sort of sun-god? That part wasn’t clear…”

“Okay, well that’s a good first thought,” nodded Keliashyrr, “Do you have any string?”

“No string!” cried Ambriel. “No trail! We can’t risk anyone else stumbling across it and using it to track you down. This Robert may be exceptionally odd, but he seems harmless. Others, including this friend of his, might not be. No trail!”

“I don’t have any string,” sighed Robert, biting his lip.

“Okay, well that’s fine because on second thoughts it wasn’t such a good first thought. I’m sure if she’s your friend she’ll find you?” hazarded Keliashyrr.

“Is that how it works?” asked Robert.

“Pardon?”

“Is that how friendship works? That if you’re friends with someone they can find you? Just I’ve never really h-had a friend before Angie, and I don’t know how it works.”

“Um… maybe? I’m afraid I can’t say I’ve had many friends, either.”

“Oh. Well t-that’s okay then, because I’ll be your friend. I’m sure Angie will be your friend too. She can be a bit angry at times, but she’s nice. Then we’ll all have two friends each – t-that’d be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Yes, thought Keliashyrr. That would be.

“Well, this is the edge of the forest closest to Clifftop,” announced Godfrey, pulling his horse to a stop not too far from where they’d started their search that day. “Do you think he’s gone this way?” Angie dismounted and began to search across the ground, looking for a sign that Robert had deviated from the road and come towards the forests.

“What do you think, Polo?” she asked the dog, who was gnawing on a loose branch. Polo was about the furthest you could get from a bloodhound, but it had been worth a try. She scraped the crook through the dirt, searching for clues as she stepped further into the forest. Eventually her searching turned up something that wasn’t dirt or leaf mould. It was Robert’s faded old bowtie, red and gold swirls jumping out of the greenery.

“Aha!” cried Angie, reaching down to pick it up. “This is his!” she called back to Godfrey, holding the bowtie above her head victoriously. “He did come this way after all.”

“Good,” smiled Godfrey, relieved their hunt had not been in vain.

“Right, onwards into the forest then,” nodded Angie, stepping forwards confidently and slinging a sack of provisions over her shoulder. It was only after a few steps she noticed Godfrey wasn’t following. She turned back to him, where he was sat on his horse, looking sheepish. “You aren’t coming?”

“I’m afraid I can’t, miss. I’ve got to return to the rest of the wagon drivers. I might not have a wagon at the moment but they still need me, and I still need to get home to Alderbay.”

“Well you’ve done more than enough for me, Mr Godfrey. Go back, go home, and rest. And don’t feel bad.” Angie added, noticing the man looking crestfallen.

“It’s just, it feels wrong to leave you alone in the forests, miss.”

“You saw me against the Skadirr last night, didn’t you Godfrey?”

“The shadow creature? Yes, but I also saw you the morning after you’d run hell for leather away from it, and…”

“I can handle myself, Godfrey, don’t you worry.” Angie smiled.

“I don’t doubt that miss, just… be careful.”

“And you, Godfrey. Thank you for everything.” With that Godfrey touched his forelock and turned to ride back towards Clifftop, pausing to look back towards Angie as she hobbled off into the forest. The second time he looked back she had already disappeared into the tangle of trees.

At the same time as Angie and Polo entered the forests from the western side of Clifftop, a group of bandits, no longer lead by Duvet Verc-Lean, crept into the forests from the eastern side. Arrow was at the front of the group; Art following close behind him as they made their way back to the clearing where Arrow had spotted the mysterious girl the other day.

Arrow was beginning to have serious doubts about his life choices.

[27] Apart from claiming Godfrey’s wagon, the blaze had also engulfed a couple of houses and a bakery. Thankfully no-one had been killed, but the innkeeper was a bit dismayed at the number of rooms he had been ordered by the mayor to rent out for free.

[28] In fact, Robert had read several. His favourite had been written by an author who also had a side-line in exceedingly good cakes.