I left that morning. I took my quiver and bow and two small knives which I had stuck into my boots. I had changed into my travelling clothes; thick winter trousers and wool lined boots. Walking was taking quite a toll on my feet. They had never been used this much before and I had lost count of how many times I had healed a blister.
Since leaving the nesting site I had seen no one. I had no indication of how long I had been walking for but it was starting to get darker now. I couldn’t really see properly, the thick forest made it even harder so I lifted my hand and filled it with light. My hand glowed and showed up some of the forest. I walked three steps and then thought I had heard something so stopped. The world around my hand was thick with darkness and I could only see one or two trees with my light.
It was at that precise moment when for some reason the light from my hand was extinguished. Then something flung itself into me and knocked me to the ground. A strange distorted voice screamed at me.
“Who are you and what is your purpose in the Tenebrae?”
Tenebrae, I thought to myself, was that why it was dark and not because it was night as I had previously thought. “Fin. I am Fin and I have no purpose here, I just wondered in by mistake. But I will go if you want me to.”
The Thing laughed. Its voice cracked with magic and its laugh sent a thousand chills through my bones. I knew I had to do something so I lifted my hand and closing my eyes shot a ball of fire at it.
It laughed again. I opened my eyes. “Your sorcery has no power here, Prince.”
“How do you know who I am?”
It chuckled cruelly in the darkness and a cold hand clamped around my throat and pushed my head onto the hard earth.
“I know everything, little Prince, I know who you are and what you have done.”
“I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Oh? I was under the impression that leaving your kingdom and killing somebody’s soul were crimes.”
“I did not kill anyone’s soul!”
“Once again you are mistaken, little Prince. I think you will find that Halee is quite empty. Her soul is dead and you killed it.”
I felt something wet sliding down my face and realised I was crying.
“Oh dear, not so brave now are we, little Prince.” It started to laugh again and I felt the hand begin to squeeze my throat.
The laughter pierced me to the core and I felt as though I had been stabbed by a blade of ice. Then suddenly it stopped. The Thing fell on top of me and the hand around my throat relaxed its grip of death.
A hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me out from under the Things’ body. I was hauled to my feet by someone and then I heard one word whispered in my ear. “Run.”
My legs moved as if they were apart from my body. I knew I was running but I couldn’t feel my legs and the darkness prevented me from seeing where I was going. The hand gently guided me on and slowly, my vision began to return to me.
The person leading me was a little shorter than me. They had their hood up, so I couldn’t see their features but they had no visible weapons of any kind but they weren’t wearing gloves. I frowned, they couldn’t do magic?
Suddenly the feeling came back into my legs as I tripped over a rock and went crashing to the floor of the forest. I looked up, ready to run again. There was no need. The figure was standing over me, the sunset was behind them and the forest was bathed in an orange glow.
“Thanks.” I said shakily. The voice which escaped my lips was weak and shaking. My whole body was shaking and I was breathing heavily. I tried to stand, but I only managed to get onto one knee before collapsing onto the ground. I shook uncontrollably and tears rolled down my cheeks.
The figure knelt down beside me and placed a cool hand on my forehead. It was strangely comforting. My breathing slowed but the darkness still had me in its icy grip and the figure shrugged and then stood up and left. I tried to cry out, I wanted them to come back, but my voice had now completely deserted me.
I was left alone on the forest floor, the cold earth and dead leaves pressed against my face and mixed with my burning tears. The darkness swirled about my head like a terrible tornado and Halee’s haunted features seemed to have imprinted themselves on my mind.
A shadow fell across me and I was suddenly shocked by a freezing cold wall which seemed to throw itself into my body. I leapt up. “What in the…” I stopped. The figure was standing in front of me, with an empty cooking pot. I was dripping with water and furious but I had stopped shaking and my voice had returned.
The figure pushed the pot back into a bag. “For a minute there, I thought you were a lost cause.” They stood back up.
“Lost cause?” I said through gritted teeth. “Why did you go and throw a load of water, cold water over me?”
“Well, I had to get you out of that stupid state of mind somehow.”
I raised my hand and sent a shockwave of energy towards them. They twitched one finger slightly and it was somehow redirected straight back at me.
The shockwave hit me and I went flying through the air and hit a tree before sliding to the floor, my head spinning. The figure walked towards me, “How did you?”
They reached me and pushed back their hood. I stared open mouthed. Instead of the powerful magician I had expected, I was faced with a smiling girl. She had long blonde hair tied back in a plait and soft sliver-grey eyes. She reached out a hand and raised an eyebrow.
“That, is a very good impression of a fish.”
I took her hand and shut my mouth. I stood up and she instantly let go and turned back to her pack which was lying near the base of a tree.
“How did you do that?” I walked over, wanting to know how she had deflected my spell.
“Simple. I cannot do ‘magic’ but I can move objects and spells with my hands.” She walked away from the pack then twitched her fingers and it flew towards her. She caught it, expertly, in one hand and slung it over her shoulder in one fluid movement. “See.” She turned away from me and began walking away through the forest.
“Wait!” I shouted. She didn’t stop and was getting further away from me. I didn’t trust my legs to run, so I pushed off from the ground and flew to catch up with her. I spun in front of her and hovered just above the ground. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Why do you need to know?”
“Well, I don’t know these woods or even lands if I’m honest.”
“So? What am I supposed to do about that?”
“Could you take me to the nearest city?”
She looked up at me with her eyebrows raised and said. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am not going to a city, nor anywhere near one. I am going back to my home.”
“Where is that?”
She raised her eyebrows again. “I can take you to my home; from there you can find a lift to Vita Caput.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“How far is it to your home?”
She started walking again and I left the air and fell neatly into step with her. “You are full of questions, aren’t you?”
I was impatient to know the answer and getting a little frustrated with her brushing off everything I said so I repeated the question.
“My home isn’t exactly in one place. We live in tents and are constantly moving around so I am not sure the exact distance.”
I took in this information and mulled it over in my mind for a while.
“At this time of year we are normally near Silva, in a clearing called Lympha. We are about three days ride from there.”
“Ride? But we don’t have any horses.”
She looked at me as though I was stupid and I realised stating the obvious was not a good idea. “How observant, which is why we will arrive there at the next interlunium.”
She was talking about the phases of the moon, which I didn’t understand but I guessed it would be a bad idea to press her any further on that matter.
“Listen, I don’t know your name and you don’t know mine, so shall we introduce ourselves and then we can try to get along for the next couple of days.”
“Alright, Fin, you start.”
“I am… wait, how do you know my name?”
“You told the Obscuritas remember.”
“You were listening!”
“Well, I had been hunting in the area when I heard you stumbling through the undergrowth and the Obscuritas attacked you.”
“You heard everything?”
“Yes. Fin, is that Bird for –?”
I interrupted her before she could say it. “Yes. It is. I don’t know how you know that but I would rather if you didn’t tell anyone.”
She didn’t look at me but instead up at the sky. She sighed. “It is nothing to be ashamed of.”
I quickly changed the subject, “You still haven’t told me who you are yet.”
Now she looked directly at me and her silver eyes seemed to capture my gaze for eternity.
“Silve.” She said softly. I thought hard for a second.
“Silve?”
She nodded and looked ahead once more. “Yeah.”
“Silve isn’t Latin.”
“Once again your powers of observation astound me. No, it isn’t Latin. It’s short for my real name and is easier to say in English.”
“English? Why do you want your name to be easy to say in English? What is the point in that?”
“Well you can call me Silvesco if you really want but I prefer the shorter version.”
I stared at her. “Wait, can you speak English?”
She met my gaze and nodded. “I can speak quite a lot of languages. By the way, when in the presence of my people, you will have to call me Silvesco. It is just polite.”
I frowned. How could she speak so many languages? I decided not to press the subject any further.
~SishBee~
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