“I had a daughter, once,” she said, her words quiet, spoken carefully. “Elora left Aslania with my brother, making the other world a new home.” She placed her hands flat against the table. “She was never to return. Never, as death could be her only welcome. Time has passed slowly for me these long years, yet my daughter has remained at the forefront of my mind this entire time. Had I been wrong to send her away? Was there a reason she existed?”
Athena’s fingers curled into fists as she strove to hold tears back. “Sometimes, late into the dark hours I find myself talking to her, as if she was here with me. Telling her how sorry I was, how I wished she might understand and forgive me. If Nat could find a way to bring her back to me, he would. But that, I thought, is a dream that would never happen. For the last few years my mind has been wondering if perhaps I should try to find her. Maybe I was wrong to have sent her away. I want her back – want her here with me so much that it hurts and I don’t care the consequences anymore. Do you think she forgives me?”
Elora went to her and placed her hand upon her mother’s. Emotion was thick in her throat as she smiled down at the person who had been missing for most of her life.
When her mother regained control, she rose and embraced Elora.
Elora didn’t know whether her mother had worked out who she was or that she had sparked off emotions because she had seen something in her daughter of this fake Otheena.
“I’m sorry child, you don’t need to hear the ramblings of an old woman. You need to sleep. You’ll find a bed in the attic room. If you need anything more, please come back down - I don’t sleep much these days.”
Elora, unable to speak with her mother, smiled and nodded before she departed for the steps. Her mother stopped her as she began to climb.
“Pleasant dreams.”
Elora felt a great weight lift from her shoulders as she climbed the stairs to the attic room. Tomorrow, after she had performed the Eversong and strengthened the bonds that held Solarius, she would explain all to her mother.
She opened the door and stepped inside, seeing that her mother had kept it clean and dust free. The bedding was fresh and made as if she had expected somebody to return. Had she done this for the last fourteen years
Elora was still smiling as she knelt on the bed to close the window. The large silver moon that hung above the mountain peaks seemed to smile back, as if it was aware of her happiness and bathed her in its soft light, sharing in her joy.
Ejan scowled at the huge silver moon that grimaced down at her through the branches, as if encouraging her melancholy mood, bathing her in gloom. It even cast a gravestone shadow from Ragna’s hammer that she had left against the trunk of the tree she sat under.
The ground was cold, like the mountain air and the water Nathanial insisted she sip. Her fingers clutched the wooden cup that matched the icy lump her heart had become. Would the soldiers that had killed Ragna bury him or leave his body for food for the snow jubbs and mountain cats? She had a mind to walk back to the bridge to check on him, but she saw that it was folly. No matter what state his body was in or where it was, he was still dead.
Nathanial approached her, a steaming bowl of food balancing in his hand. “Eat this. It’ll fill your belly and help you sleep,” he said, placing the bowl down on her lap so she had no choice but to take it.
“What is it?” The grey sludge appeared like bog mud, in the darkness.
“I made a porridge from the biscuits we had left. I’ve put some juniper berries in for the flavour. It’ll taste better than it looks,” said Nat, lowering himself onto the exposed roots of the tree opposite.
Ejan pushed the spoon around the porridge, green berries semi-floating in the mix. She hadn’t the appetite to eat, yet still put a spoonful in her mouth and mechanically chewed. Whatever strength she could gain from this gruel would help her on the long trek home to Jaygen. A berry crunched between her teeth and the bitter juice made a strange fizzy sensation on her tongue. She swallowed it down, disliking the taste and watched Nathanial watching her.
“Aren’t you having any?” she asked, not wanting to be eating all the rations herself.
He made a strange clicking sound with his tongue before speaking. “I’ll have something later, it’s your body that needs sustenance.”
She shrugged and fighting the urge to yawn she shovelled another spoonful into her mouth, all manners forgotten. Nathanial grinned at her as she ate - a grin she hadn’t seen on him before. Was he in pain or worried over his niece and merely putting on a brave front?
“She’ll be fine,” Ejan offered, her words sounding odd, as if slurred by drink. Another mouthful of the gruel and she felt so drowsy she had trouble putting the spoon in the bowl.
“Oh, I don’t doubt she’ll be fine,” Nathanial said, the grin widening until he began to chuckle, as if he found the whole ordeal amusing.
Ejan tried to place the porridge down beside her, but her fingers failed to work and ended up dropping the bowl on its side and spilling her meal onto the earth. Why did she suddenly feel drunk? Yet it was more than that, the fizzing sensation on her tongue spread to her lips and cheeks, even her fingers began to feel numb.
“That devil spawn, Elora, will sing sweetly enough in the church of Minu,” Nathanial carried on, as Ejan slid against the tree, her strength failing to keep herself sitting upright.
“Tak...tak...tak. Just like her father planned.”
The words sunk into Ejan’s mind as she wrestled with their understanding. What was Nathanial saying? And why the teeth cringing clicking noises? She attempted to speak, but only a moan passed her swollen tongue. Barely able to raise her head, she swivelled her gaze to follow Nathanial as he rose and came over to kneel beside her. He shoved her roughly onto her back.
“When...tak...Elora, sings, she will release the bonds on Solarius and he will rise once again. Tak...tak. It’s such a shame your husband won’t be there to see it.” Nathaniel said, as he rose once again to loom over her. “I killed him you know. I slew your Raggy.”
Ejan could do no more than moan, her body was totally paralysed. Even tears failed to fall as the frustration boiled in her, wanting to be released.
“He was so brave charging headlong across the bridge at the river, waving his lump of a hammer. Those archers would have missed if I hadn’t summoned a wind to alter the course of a stray arrow. I was aiming for the Shadojak but wind is such a fickle temptress.” He lifted his aged hands before him, turning them this way and that as if examining them for the first time.
“This is the oldest body I’ve ever taken. Old and shrivelled, yet the power the mind holds to manipulate the elements is incredible. When Silk first suggested that I take this body I refused, after all, Silk is merely a takwich. Yet he was right. After I take your body, I wonder if I can still make the wind blow to my tune, or change the course of water.
All Ejan could manage was to make her leg spasm, a pathetic twitch at her foot. She was trapped inside her own body, at the mercy of her husband’s killer who loomed above her, lips grotesquely pulled into a grin that didn’t suit the face.
“Don’t worry about your lack of movement. That’s only the paralysis powder I slipped into your food. It’ll wear off in a few hours, but you won’t be you, then. I will be.
“Before I took this wrinkled prune of a body I had control of another. A younger man named Reuben. Stronger body yet weaker mind. I used him to trap Elora and let the Shadojak and the Shaigun kill me. The pompous fools didn’t even check that I was truly dead. But then, that was the plan. When they left, I crawled from Reuben’s carcass and followed them home. Then made my way back to Silk to tell him where she was. You see, it was never our intention to catch the princess, just to provoke them into moving. Prodding them to take action and guiding her path to where she is now, where she was planned to be all those years ago.”
Ejan tried to bite the inside of her cheek, her tongue, anything to try and stimulate a reaction in her nerves. Her mouth failed to move and all her vocal chords could produce was a moan which tapered off into a whimper. All she had was her mind and the spasm in her toe. She didn’t even have the luxury of going down fighting; no steel salute to Odin. Would the God take pity on her and allow her into the halls of Valhalla? This wasn’t a warrior’s death.
“I thought the traitor Zionbuss had me worked out on his ship, that’s why I made myself busy with the sails. Even though he mentioned what I was, only feet from me. Spliceck. There’s not many of us. Not like the common takwich...tak...tak.”
Ejan listened to his words as she worked her toe, putting all her effort into moving it, although it only twitched every few seconds. Not a lot she could do with that, yet it was giving her a way of fighting back, pathetic as it was, she wasn’t giving up.
Her gaze fell upon Ragna’s hammer, leaning against the tree, steel head uppermost with Elora’s handprint facing towards her. Raggy, what shall I do? This entire quest was for nothing. Worse, you died for nothing. It will end with the polar opposite of what they had intended and Solarius will be released to spread chaos and death upon both worlds.
Come on girl, twitch that foot she goaded herself. Twitch you bastard!
“You know - I’ve never taken a female host,” Nathaniel said, eyes alight with excitement as he admired his prey; aged fingers rubbing together as if working out where to begin.
“Tak...tak...tak,” he clicked, as he stepped closer, raising his hands to his mouth. “You are ripe, like a peach, Ejan. You will do nicely. Now keep still. Tak...tak. This will probably hurt - a lot.”
