Chapter Six/Chapter Seven (excerpt)

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Chapter Six

Jonathan had expected a short walk to another building in the village where they would find their King, but he wasn't so lucky. Once he left the inn they had been staying at, the left the small village and began to head east, the rising sun guiding them. He wanted to ask them where they were going and how long it would take, but the language barrier prevented that and Zeal didn't know enough words to ask herself.

Whenever Jonathan asked her where they were going, she'd simply reply, "to see their King." It was unsettling to say the least. He felt like their prisoner. Even though they wren't bound, he knew that they couldn't leave them.

The afternoon came and went, and they didn't stop. Nobody tried telling them where they were going, nobody really noticed they were there, but Jonathan did notice that they kept their hands on their weapons, just in case they had to notice them.

Once the sun started to set behind them, Jonathan was sure that they'd rest and then continue on the next day. He wondered how long they could go on walking for. Wasn't there supposed to be an ocean eventually? These people, long ago they were at war with Camsirtch, and they lived here near the ocean, that's all he really knew about them.

When it was almost dark, Jonathan finally saw something in the distance. Small stone houses, and a few wooden ones like he had seen before in the village. They were going there, they were going to rest for the night it seemed, and that made Jonathan feel a little better. He was tired, and very hungry. When was the last time he had eaten? Sometime in the other dimension, two days ago. Suddenly he felt like passing out if he didn't eat soon.

"Negare," a man said to him and Zeal suddenly, pointing towards the settlement.

"What does that mean?" Jonathan asked.

Zeal shook her head. "I think it's a name."

"Name of the village?"

"I don't know."

They kept walking, ushering the two along, some people were trying to speak with them now, but most of it was all in vain. Then they came to one of the stone houses, it was round like the others, but much larger. There were guards on either side of the wooden door. Either this was a jail for them, or someone important was in there. Maybe a King.

A soldier nodded towards the door and the two went inside, a handful of the men came in after them. Inside the house it was warm. There was a fire in the middle of the room, and skins lined the floor and the walls. There were men and women inside, the men seemed to all be guards, and some of the women were cooking, while the others stared on in interest.

At the far side of the room was a great chair, raised of the ground on a dais and on it sat a large man, with long hair and a shaggy beard. He wore furs lined with gold and leather and held a polished wooden scepter in his hands. He stared down at them with a weathered face, his age impossible to tell, and suddenly spoke with a loud booming voice.

"Venz Negare FbesHegare, Ehyre naq Ybeq bes Penzrybog naq ny Ynaqf febhgu. Jub nre lebh?"

They didn't have to know what he was saying to know that he was the King.

"He says," a young man stood to the King's right, he had no bearded and kept his head bowed. "'I am Negare son of Hegare, Ruler and Lord of Penzrybog as well as all the lands south of here.' And he asks your names." He spoke with a thick accent, but they could still understand him. Zeal was sure that this man worked with the traders of Serrsircth and that's why he knew their language.

"What a stupid name for a country," Jonathan muttered quietly to Zeal.

"My name is Zeal, this is Jonathan. We are lost travelers."

The man turned to Negare and translated it for them.

The King looked at them with disdain, he didn't believe them. He said something else and the man quickly translated it.

"King Negare knows that you are spies."

"Spies? Ab." No, Zeal said.

"You are spies from Camsitrch, he says."

"I am from Serrsirtch. Serrsirtch!" Zeal said to the King, not wanting to speak towards the translator.

"King Negare says Serrsirtch is the children of Camsirtch, you are maybe working together."

"You've traded with Serrsircth many times, you know that we have no love for Camsirtch."

"There is war in your land, things might have changed."

"They have not!"

Haven't they? Jonathan asked himself. Weren't they in fact going off to help Camsirtch now? Was she just saying this to get them to trust her?

"They why have you come here?"

"We are lost."

"No one accidentally crosses the mountains and finds themselves here."

"We have no way of explaining ourselves," Jonathan whispered to Zeal.

"You think I don't know that?" Zeal hissed back.

"Jung frpegf ner lebh juvfcrevat?" The King yelled.

"Stop your whispering," the man warned them.

"I promise you we mean no harm, we simply want to return to Sersirtch."

The man translated and the King looked at them calmly. Jonathan felt that at any moment he would order them to be executed. Although he knew very little of these people, he had heard many stories of them being... Violent. Finally the King answered, much more quietly.

"King Negare says that you will stay here, until he knows of your true plans."

"We have to get back home!"

The King yelled at them now.

"He says you should not have left now. He says it will be impossible for you to go home now that Jvagre is so close."

"Jvagre?" Jonathan asked. "What's Jvagre?"

"Winter."

"You can't just keep us here."

"Bu?" The King said mockingly. 'Oh?'

"King Negare says that he can."

Zeal wanted to her sword in her hand, she wanted to strike this man now. She couldn't stay here a moment longer, already they had cost her a day. She needed tog et home, needed to get back to her daughter. This was unfair! Why did things have to happen this way.

"I beg of you! Let us leave!"

"Genxer gurz nijnil." Negare ordered with a wave of his hand, and the handful of guards behind them reached forward and grabbed Zeal and Jonathan's arms, beginning to drag them away.

"Let go of me!" Zeal yelled, pulling away from them. "I'll go myself!" She left the house, the guards hot on her heals. They didn't let go of Jonathan though, and he didn't try to escape. There was no real point now.

They were taken to the edge of the village to one of the small wooden houses and while Zeal walked in, Jonathan was no so gently pushed in. The door closed behind them and as Jonathan fell to the ground - because there was no floor - he heard them put a bar across the door.

"They mean us no harm, let's go with them," Jonathan mumbled angrily as he stood up, peering into the darkness. "Last time I listen to you."

Zeal yelled in frustration, and he heard her hit the wall. "There's no way out of here!"

"Well what's the use of them locking us in a jail with a back door!?! They're not stupid, we are!"

"We need to leave now! We need to get back!"

"I hate to say, but there's no way we'd make it to Camsirtch now."

Zeal sat down on the ground, her hands on her knees, she had to calm down. "We need to get back."

"I know! But even if we ignore the fact that the Penny-Ratty people will probably chase us down and kill us if we escape, our chances of not dying in the mountains are getting slimmer by the second."

"If we left now, we could make it."

"We could. We could make it. We could possibly make it. And then what? We stumble into Camsirtch, half dead from the mountains. Serrian Royalty and her Oracle? They'd kill me at first glance, and then keep you for ransom, and the second they found out that you've been ostracized from you own people-"

"We don't know that for sure-"

"-they'd kill you too!"

"I can't wait until Spring."

"You're no good to Serra dead."

Her grip tightened on her knees, her knuckles almost turning white.

Jonathan sighed, going down on his knees to look Zeal in the eye, he could just make her out in the darkness. "Look, I know how badly you want to get back. We both have people we need to save, and neither of us are doing them any good by being so far away, but we also know how the outsider works. He'll keep Serra there until you show up. He'll lure you in, and try to kill you. But he'll fail. We wait until the end of Winter and then leave this place. I'm sure they'll trust us by then. We'll reach Serrsirtch by the end of Autumn at the latest, but the important thing is that we pass over the mountains during Summer."

Every part of her, every sense of her being screamed at her to leave now, to take her chances against the Penzrybog, to take her chances during winter, but she knew in her heart that she couldn't. "... I'll wait, but not a moment longer than I have to," her gaze pierced into Jonathan's and he knew she'd be gone even before the end of winter, with or without him and the trust of King Negare.

"Hey, don't worry so much. You're forgetting whom you're talking to. I am an oracle after all."

"An Oracle who lost his visions."

"Just because I don't get visions now, doesn't mean I didn't get visions before."

"You had visions about this future?"

"Hundreds," that was the truth, but in all honesty trying to remember them was like trying to remember a dream. Sometimes he'd see something and think, 'was that in a vision?', but the meaning would be lost to him. "Everything will work out... At the very least I'll live. After all, you did see me die in the future."

"... Do you know what your last words to me were?" Zeal asked, but she was no longer looking at him, her eyes were looking far off elsewhere.

"No... What were they?"

'Thank you for your sacrifice.'

My sacrifice... she thought to herself. Was she going to fail Serra?

Zeal smiled. "I'm not going to tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because the future's not for me or anyone else to write."

Chapter Seven

That night they went back to the forest floor. There were at least five landings at different parts in the city that had access to the ground. Once there they started a few fires going and began making a meal for themselves. Galma explained that they often came down, but could also very quickly get back up if they thought someone coming. She also said that barely anyone came this way, being that they were at least a weeks walk from the road between Camsirtch and Serrsirtch.

It was Atanax's turn then to ask everyone questions. She wanted to know how all of theirs parents were, and how life had been for them since she had left. She also wanted to find out more of their ring of spies, but she quickly found that that she'd have to ask the adults about that one because they seemed to know very little of it.

It would seem that Toshowex didn't share secrets with children either.

After their meals were finished, and no one could think of anymore questions to ask and sleep weighed heavily on all of them, they hid all evidence of a fire and climbed back up into the city. In the night time they had only a few candles in each house to light the way, just in case someone came by and while they had no guard posted, they wouldn't be seen.

"You can stay in my house with me, it's small, but it was built to fit an adult."

"What will you do when two of you want to live together?"

"Why would two of us want to live together?"

Atanax smiled. Her daughter may be leader of her small group of Elves, but she was still an 11 year old child in the end. "Because, when a boy and a girl love each other, they want to spend as much time with each other as possible."

Galma made a face of disgust. "I don't love any of the boys here, they're all too little."

"What about Augan?"

"Augan?" Her look of disgust only got worse.

Atanax laughed. "Maybe it's not the right time for this discussion."

"No, because it's bedtime."

"GALMA!!!" Someone who was still cleaning up of the forest floor yelled up frantically.

Galma ran to the edge. "Kehres? What's wrong!?!"

It was too dark to see anything clearly, but they could hear shuffling about, panting, someone calling out. There was fighting down there. Galma got a look in fear as she turned back to her mother.

"They've found us." She wasted no time running into her house and grabbing a bow and a handful of arrows. Atanax expected her to then head for the ladder and climb down, but instead she went back to the edge of the landing, grabbed onto a vine and jumped. "THEY'VE FOUND US!!!" She yelled, and other Elves began to grab their own weapons and torches and headed for the forest floor.
Atanax found herself reaches for the Crystal with some relief and she followed her daughter down the vine. It felt as thought it had been ages since she had last used the Crystal and every part of her was yearning to feel the magic pulse through her veins once more.

They reached the forest floor and gathered around in a circle. Kehres, a boy who was maybe 10 years old stood over the dead body of a man. Kehres had no weapons, and Atanax knew that he has used his magic to lay waste to him. The man wasn't alone though, two others were beside Kehres, holding swords up, reading to kill the boy.

At least five Elves had bows, and all held them ready to strike. Would they shoot with Kehres still standing there? They were just children, they shouldn't be killing. The two men - though once Atanax got a good look at them she realized that they couldn't have been older than twenty - had fear in their eyes. They understood what they had just found.

"Drop your swords," Atanax said calmly.

"Get out of the Kehres!" Galma yelled, worry on her face.

"Elves..." one of the men said in awe. He had shaggy brown hair and it was clear from his stubble that he had been traveling for a while, they both had. He dropped his sword, not because of Atanax though, because he was in shock.
The other man had a look of fear in his eyes. He held his sword higher, looking right at Kehres.

"You killed Jeda," he said, gritting his teeth.

Kehres looked up at the man calmly, he could still feel the magic at his finger tips, like electricity.

"No..." Atanax whispered, and before she could do anything the man lunged at the young boy. The Elves reacted, letting their arrows fly. The other man fell to the ground, just missing the arrows.

"NOOO!!!!" Galma yelled, running forward as blue light surrounded both the man and Kehres, the arrows flew towards them.

The light just disappeared then, and everyone was silent as they watched the two standing figures slowly fall towards the ground.

Galma was holding Kehres almost as soon as he fell, shaking him, tears in her eyes. "Wake up! WAKE UP!!!" He didn't move.

The Crystal flared in Atanax's palm, she could heal him. She was at her daughter's side instantly, almost pushing her aside because she was in such a hurry. With one hand she started pulling out arrows, and with the other she put the Crystal close to his heart. Blue light exploded around them, Atanax could hear some of the children screaming, but she didn't care. She had to save this boy, she couldn't let him die, he was just a child.

Slowly the light seeped back into the Crystal and although Atanax tried with all her might to make the magic work, she understood that it wouldn't. He was dead. She had infitnit power in her hand to heal and destroy, but she couldn't bring back the dead, even of one so little.

"He's dead," Atanax whispered.

"No, no, no, no," Galma kept repeating the word as though it could bring him back. She reached out for her daughter, wanting to hold her, but she just pushed her mother away and grabbed Kehres in a tight embrace. "KEHRES DON'T DIE!!!" She screamed, her tears falling onto his lifeless face. "DON'T DIE!!!"

"We didn't.... we didn't attack him..."

Atanax turned her head to the man who was still lying on the ground, his sword a few feet away from him. He looked absolutely terrified, he was even shaking.

"We just saw him in the woods, we thought we heard something and we went to see what..." He looked up at the other Elves arroud him. "I just got here, I can't die now..." he whispered softly to himself.

"Kill him."

The whisper was so quiet that Atanax wasn't too sure what Galma had said at first, and when none of the Elves reacted, Galma understood that nobody was sure of what she had said. "KILL HIM!!!"

The Elves, shaken, help up their bows once more. Those who had no bows suddenly had sparks of blue electricity on their fingers.

"No," Atanax said and stood up. "Everyone calm down. We're not killing this boy." She looked down at him, cowering behind her legs. What was he? 18?

"He has to die!!!" Galma yelled up at her mother.

"He didn't do anything!"

"THEY ALL HAVE TO DIE!!! HE'S SEEN US!!! HE'LL BRING HIS ARMY HERE AND KILL EVERY ONE OF US!!!"

"I won't let you kill him."

"Why not!?!"

"It's wrong."

"He'd have no mercy for us! So we have none for him!"

"Says who!?!"

"Toshowex!"

"Well she isn't't the Queen! I am! And I say that we do not kill a man who cowers on the ground! I say we kill when necessary! Not for sport!!!"

Galma was speechless. No one move, no one breathed. Most of them were looking at Atanax's palm, glowing blue with magic. They knew that she could kill all of them easily. They knew what whatever the decision, it was hers to make.

"He can't live." Galma finally said, her eyes set in a glare.

"No, he can live, he just can't leave." Atanax turned around to the young man, he looked up at her with both awe and fear. "What's your name?"

"T-Tiers... Nai. TiersNai."

"My name's Atanax, and you have found the Elves."

(Ok, so I couldn't get chapter six up yesterday, so here it is today. Chapter seven was really long, and mostly exposition, so I just posted the last part of it, which is the only really important part in it, and has the appearance of one of my fav. characters: TiersNai. You know, I feel like I'm talking to myself... but that's ok.)