CITY OF THE GODS: FORGOTTEN (55 page)

They rode along for another hour looking at the peaceful scenery when suddenly Aavi cried out. “Look! Over there on the ground!” She pointed to the left into the nearby field.

“What?
 
What do you see?” D’Molay asked looking in the general direction she was pointing.

“One of the urns! See it over there not far from those trees?” she said excitedly.

D’Molay scanned the grassy area that Aavi was pointing at and saw what might be an urn lying on its side near the edge of the field.
 
“Ah, yes. I do now.”

“Can we go see it? I have to know what was inside. Please?” she begged, grasping the upper sleeve of his shirt.

“I don’t think we can make Jamir stop,” D’Molay cautioned.

“Please?
 
I - I need to know,” she persisted, although she couldn’t put in words why it was so important.

D’Molay had never heard her plead so desperately to do anything before. Leaning forward, he called out to Jamir. “We need to stop for a moment. Can you do that?”

“If the lady is going to be sick, just lean her over the edge and let her do what she needs to. I cannot just stop every time someone wants to,” he said.

“Please - I’ll pay you extra. It will only take a moment or two.”

Jamir twisted around to stare at them. “Why is it you need to stop? I am already behind schedule.”

“We just need to look at something in that field over there. It will only take a minute.” D’Molay pointed off to the side now, as they had passed where the urn lay. Aavi was frantic and he could feel the tension in her hands as she grasped his arm.

“I’ll stop for ten silvers, but don’t dally long or I’ll leave you here.”

D’Molay nodded, and Jamir pulled on the long reins bringing Tondum to a slow halt. With his foot, he kicked free a leather restraint and the rope ladder unrolled down her side.
 

“You have two minutes.”

Taking him at his word, D’Molay clambered quickly down the rope then reached up for Aavi. Her feet kept slipping off the ropes and she almost lost her grip on the rungs. If it hadn’t been for D’Molay steadying her as she went down, Aavi would have fallen to the ground in a most undignified manner. Once they were both down, Jamir called out again for them to hurry. D’Molay took her hand in his and they ran together across the green foot tall grass and weeds that grew in the field. As they approached the urn, they could see that it was broken. A dark patch of liquid surrounded the shattered shards of clay, staining the grass. D’Molay was pretty sure what was.

“Blood. Don’t touch it.”

Aavi stopped well away from the mess, where several dark feathers littered the ground.

“Blood? From what, the harpies?” Aavi said as she picked one up.

 
        
“I can’t say. Is the urn or the blood glowing for you now?”

She stared intensely at the urn for a moment. “No, not at all. I keep trying to see a glow, but there isn’t one. Could this be a different urn than the ones on the ship?” Aavi looked closely at the feather she had picked up. There was blood on it. She quickly dropped it.

“This has to be from the ship. It hasn’t been here more than a few hours or the blood would have dried. I can’t think there are many urns being flown this way. It has to be from the Hektor, but whatever caused the glow before is gone now.”

Suddenly they heard a sound that could only be an elephant trumpeting.
 
They looked back to see the man waving at them. D’Molay reacted first. He grabbed Aavi’s hand and they ran back through the tall grass to the road and their impatient transport.
 

“You’re lucky I didn’t just go - now get back up here! I don’t have all day.”

As they retook their seats, Jamir looked slightly annoyed, but said nothing else to them.

As they sat back on top of Tondum, Aavi held on to D’Molay tighter and closer then she had before. He could tell she felt insecure again. Then she whispered in his ear. “I don’t understand why I saw the urn glow before and now I don’t. If the blood and the urn are still there, where’s the glow?”

He turned slightly towards her as he answered. “The urns were sealed. Maybe once it broke, whatever made it glow leaked out.” D’Molay had another more sinister guess, but he didn’t want to worry Aavi any further.

“You mean it soaked into the ground too, like the blood?” she whispered back as her hair blew across D’Molay’s face.

He tucked a few strands back into her hood. “Yes, something like that, but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment.” He gave her hand a squeeze.

“I suppose you’re right. Those harpies are far away by now. At least I got to look inside one of those urns.” Aavi felt belated fear as she realized that they had slept last night surrounded by urns filled with blood. She tried to forget this by looking at the flowers and interesting plants growing by the side of the road.

D’Molay had a theory, but he kept it to himself. Enough blood to fill urns of that size could only come from sacrifices. Maybe when human blood was fresh, it maintained some of that glow that Aavi could see in living beings. But who would need a hundred urns of blood?
 
D’Molay had heard stories of creatures in the Realm of the Undead that might feed on that much, but that realm was far to the south, and the harpies seemed to be headed due west. As he mulled over these things, he felt a tug at his sleeve.

“What are you thinking about?” Aavi whispered in his ear.

“Hmm?
 
Oh nothing, just thinking about where we have to go next after Jamir drops us off.”

 
“Oh. Will it be hard to keep going?” She could tell he was worrying for his glow had dark flecks in it. “I wish we could stay here. It’s so pretty. The green grass, the trees and the butterflies.”

“Yes, Olympia has some of the most scenic countryside. The Celtic Realm is very beautiful too.
 
Lots of castles and small lakes. Maybe we’ll get to go there some time; you never know.” He was glad Aavi didn’t press him to reveal his thoughts.

Eventually Jamir turned his head back as the elephant continued to walk down the lane. “We are nearing the end of my route.
 
I’ll be taking a different route back, to other inns and farms, but this will be as far inland as I get. You can either get off at Hamadryium or one of the smaller places on the way home.”

“Can we get transport from Hamadryium?” D’Molay asked.

 
“It’s not a village, but they have helped other travelers in the past. You must be careful while you are there. Don’t pluck fruits or leaves from the trees, or cut or burn any wood. The dryads are very sensitive about such things and could punish you with their magic,”

“Thanks for the warning Shilpa,” D’Molay replied, then turned to Aavi. “Did you hear that? Be careful around the trees.
 
We don’t want to get in trouble.”

Aavi nodded her agreement. “I don’t think I ever have hurt a tree, and I won’t now.”

As they entered the Hamadryium enclave, they could see that the trees were taller and fuller than most of the trees they had seen on the journey inland. D’Molay noticed more wildlife beside the road. Rabbits and deer were numerous among the bushes. He was fairly certain they were passing trees that were home to or at least cared for by the hamadryads. D’Molay had met several dryads over the years, though he had never been to one of their enclaves. They turned a bend in the lane and came to an open field of deep green grass. In the center of the field, about eighty yards away, was a stand of huge beautiful trees, arranged in a circle. Tondum got as close as she could to the trees without getting off the road, then Jamir brought her to a halt.

“Everyone off,” he said.

Aavi looked around. “But . . . there’s nothing here.”

“Look to the trees, young lady,” Jamir said, pointing to the circle of them in the field.

Aavi and D’Molay did, and saw a female form gracefully emerge from one of the large elms. The thin being had long greenish hair and she was wrapped loosely in green fabric. Then others came from the trees, until eight similar females stood in the grove. They looked over at the elephant and one of the dryads waved slowly at them.
 

Jamir unrolled the rope ladder. “As I told you. Everyone off.”
  

By the time the three of them were on the ground, the hamadryads were most of the way across the field. Each of them carried a basket of fruits or nuts. How they had suddenly obtained those baskets remained a mystery. Jamir motioned Samda over and the four of them all stood together beside the elephant.

“We must wait here for them to come to us. Do not step into their field unless they invite you. Sometimes they will want to touch a new visitor on the face. Just let them do it. It’s their way of saying hello.”

The first hamadryad smiled at them as she put down her basket. She had pale skin the color of new tree shoots, pointed ears and large hazel-colored eyes. What had seemed like fabric from a distance was in fact vines and grass that grew together like a living dress. Her basket contained the largest and most delectable-looking pears that D’Molay had ever seen. He understood why Jamir made the long journey here. The trader could have stopped at any of the orchards along his route, but the fruits from the hamadryads would be worthy of the gods. D’Molay then wondered how he paid them. He doubted that had any need for money. What would a dryad buy?

One by one, each of the eight dryads placed their baskets by the side of the road without so much as a word. They had brought pears, figs, pomegranates, nuts, berries, grapes and apples. All of the harvests were exquisite and perfect in every way.

“Good greetings, Jamir,” said their leader. “We have gathered more of the offerings from our beloved grove. Have you brought what we need?”
 

Jamir bowed. “Ptelea, it is good to see you as always. There is no doubt you have the finest produce in the realms. I know the Vishanti will be most pleased with them. And I did bring you as many of the items you requested as I could. Samda, bring out the boxes.”

“Yes, Father.” The boy walked back to the cart. D’Molay, curious as to what they had brought for the wood nymphs, followed him.

“Here, let me help you,” D’Molay said as they both got into the cart.

 
“Thank you, sahib. All their items are on this side.” He pointed to a row of open boxes in the cart.
 
As they started to unload them, D’Molay saw the containers were filled with seeds, sand, clay and rocks. One by one, they laid the small crates by the side of the road right next to the baskets the hamadryads had brought.

Ptelea and several others crouched down to look through the boxes as Jamir told them what he had.
 
“I was able to get you the fine sand from the shores of the lake, clay from the Durga springs, copper and sulfur rocks and many new seeds and bulbs from my realm. I could not get the salt though, but I can bring that next trip, I believe.”

Ptelea looked up when he finished, a pleased look upon her face. “Yes, these will do nicely, Jamir. We no longer need the salt though. The centaurs brought us a cart full of broken salt statues that were sufficient for our groves.”

“Salt statues?”
 
Aavi and D’Molay said at the same time as they looked in surprise at the dryad and then at each other.

“Yes.
 
It is sad that they were all broken. Some craftsmen must have used very poor stone to make them, but they serve our plants well.” Ptelea gave them both a motherly smile, one that reminded D’Molay of an abbess he had once met in a French nunnery.

“Is there a chance we might see these broken statues?” D’Molay could not help but ask her, even though they had yet to be introduced.

“I’m afraid not. We broke them all up and scattered the salt in several of our orchards beyond this field. There is nothing to see now,” Ptelea said. Then she brought her attention back to Jamir. “I can see my sisters are pleased with your offerings, so let us trade container for container.”