In All of Infinity (12 page)

The breeze from the open window was more
than welcome, since she often enjoyed nature when it wasn’t filthy.
She detested dirt and mud, which was why she’d had to avoid Otis’s
embrace. He hadn’t bathed in some time and smelled of body odor, as
well as some local whore. The only kind of filth she could stand
was created by her own mind. She smiled at this.

When she was little, her father had her
share a room with her older sister, Milena, who was considered the
one to increase the value of the Ojala name. Although the girls got
along rather well, Reverie knew Milena never valued anyone as much
as herself. Reverie was often punished for saying something so
negative, but it turned out being true. The first chance Milena
got, she married a stable boy and left Peniolea, never to be seen
again. Their father disowned her, and let Reverie move into the
largest bedroom.

Reverie sat down on her bed and looked at
the two dresses being held by her maidservants. Their drab faces
told her how long they’d been standing in the same spot. She looked
at the younger maid, Mona, for a second, recognizing her floral
scent from somewhere else. Without changing her expression, Reverie
realized that Mona was the ‘local whore’ Otis was seeing. She
wasn’t so bad looking, really, but she wasn’t as beautiful as her
employer’s daughter.

Mona brushed a loose light brown strand
behind her ear, and Reverie found her eyes trailing the maid’s
slender neck. Her eyes alighted on the cleavage emerging from the
low neckline, knowing her breasts were why Otis had made love to
her. He had an affinity for breasts.

“I believe I’ll go with the brown,” she said
and dismissed the other servant with a wave of her hand.

After the door closed, Reverie bounded off
the bed and walked over to Mona. She took the dress and placed it
on the bed, looking at it once more, fascinated at how the light
made it seem as though the dress were different shades of brown.
After she did, she walked over to Mona, who didn’t meet her
eyes.

“Where is Otis?”

Mona quickly turned, her breasts not heaving
for a second. She began crying and put her head in her hands.
Reverie blinked, not expecting this reaction from her servant. She
had expected surprise, but not tears. After all, the local women
had as much chance with Otis as she did. He wasn’t a man of
bearing, unless his muscles and attractive features were taken into
consideration.

“Oh, Ms. Ojala, it’s just awful!” Mona
wailed. “It’s beyond awful. I haven’t been able to think of
anything since I saw it.”

Reverie furrowed her brows, found herself
patting Mona’s back. She detested the scratchy fabric and pulled
her hand away and tried being consoling. She came out scathing.
“What are you talking about? Could you control your emotions? It’s
not as if he died.”

Mona wiped her eyes, cleared her throat, and
took a deep breath. “The king had him wounded by one of his
henchmen. They took his… his…” She began gesturing towards her
lower torso. Reverie understood what was trying to be said. “…and
they fed it to his dog. His dog is one of those tiny little dogs.
You know the ones.”

Reverie’s mouth dropped open. “He
wouldn’t!”

Mona nodded rapidly. “He did. I saw it.
After they did that, they threw him in a cage and…”

“Is he still alive?”
Reverie asked. She felt motivated to do what she needed to do, even
if that meant charging into the castle and murdering the king
herself. Even though Otis had his faults, he didn’t have many and
he didn’t need to be punished this way. It was cruel
and
unusual!

“The town right now is no place for a lady,”
Mona stated. “It’s filled with criminals…”

“Is he alive?” Reverie repeated, grabbing
hold of her servant’s arm. “I need to know if he’s alive.”

Mona bowed her head. “He’s alive.”

Reverie retrieved her cloak and grabbed
Mona’s arm, pulling her out of the room. She didn’t know what she
was going to do, but she knew she had to do something. There was a
fury growing in her heart unlike anything she’d ever felt,
possessing her. If Mona hadn’t agreed to accompany her, she was
sure she would have done something drastic to the loyal
servant.

When they exited the house, the sunlight
looked down on them, threatening to end the mission before it had
started. The guards looked at them with curiosity, so Reverie
brought one of them, Brornar, into the situation. He was a burly
man with dark skin, towered over them at 6’9, and had a desire to
please. Reverie only told him that she was going into town, not
stating for what reason, but knew he didn’t believe her. When she
told him that she would explain along the way, he seemed happy with
the answer and walked with them to the separate stables, of which
there were three: one for servants; one for the Ojala’s, and one
for the guests.

Reverie’s horse, Ash, was dark gray. It
seemed to know its mistress was ready to ride, because he began
pawing at the ground and nickering. She ran her hands through his
mane, said a brief hello, and then began preparing him for travel.
After she finished, she met up with Brornar and Mona near the
servant’s stable. They were sharing a horse, which looked as if it
would collapse any second. Reverie knew it was a better idea for
Mona to ride with her, and the horse looked at her with a sense of
relief.

While they rode along, Mona explained the
situation to Brornar, who listened intently. He knew the king well,
had been his bodyguard at one point in time, and scared both women
when he said they could be riding into a trap. As Reverie looked
around the tree-shaded road, which dipped down on each side into
more earth, she wondered if they would be attacked. She remembered
the king’s fixated gaze on her when she realized he was looking,
and thought each time that he would approach her about his
passionate intentions. She had hoped he would have the decency to
do so, but perhaps this was his way of doing it.

Without warning, Ash shied and two groups of
thugs came from each side of the road. Reverie lost her hold on the
reins when Mona’s body ramming against hers, knocking the breath
out of her. She slid off the horse and landed hard on her rear,
watching the groups for a second as they became one and rushed
towards the horses. Instead of waiting for them to snatch her, she
bounded to her feet and looked over her shoulder. The sunshine
beckoned her, offered safety, and would mean she was close to
home.

Reverie looked back at the group and saw one
of bandits staring at her. He was tall, almost 6’, and built
wonderfully, almost like a statue she’d once seen. As she stared
into his dark eyes, she had the oddest feeling come over her,
almost as if she knew him. She couldn’t possibly, could she?

“Hello,” he said softly.

She started running towards the sunlight,
knowing he was pursuing her. For some reason, she couldn’t find
fear emerging in her heart. She actually wanted him to catch her.
What was wrong with her? He was a criminal! If she wanted to live
to see another day, she had to make it back home. Who would have
thought going to save someone would end in her own capture? Hell,
she wasn’t even sure what their intentions were!

Reverie spotted one of the servants going
down another path several yards away and increased her speed. She
tried screaming for help but realized her voice was gone. She was
breathless, but she pushed herself. Even though she realized it was
futile, she wasn’t going to accept the fact and give up. Merely
feet away from sunlight, she tripped over the hem of her dress and
fell onto the dirt.

“Are you alright?”

“Don’t touch her!”

Reverie felt a hand on her back and suddenly
began shaking. She rolled onto her back and balled her fists,
trying to make herself stop. When her head began aching, she closed
her eyes and bit her lip hard. She tasted blood.

“Back away!” She felt someone scoop her head
up, and another hand cover her eyes. “Love, I need you to fall
asleep. Think of clouds over rivers deep. Have dreams of babies
with eyes of blue. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Until it be that I beckon
you.”

Reverie couldn’t retaliate and found herself
doing as the voice requested. She fell into a deep sleep, thinking
only of clouds, rivers, and babies with blue eyes.

***

“What happened?”

Isaac watched Reverie as
she slept, realizing that her lip was still bleeding, but couldn’t
get the image out of his mind of her seizure.
He
had caused her pain. If there was
anything he wanted to do, it wasn’t to hurt her. He loved her. How
could this have happened?

Windrew removed his hand from her eyes and
stood, still staring down at her. He knew he was going to have to
answer the younger man’s question, but he didn’t know how he could.
He hadn’t seen this sort of power in many years, and, the last he
heard, it had never actually been used. It was forbidden magic,
which was a form of enchantment that involved killing someone. He
had recognized it when she stared at Isaac, saw how she seemed to
glow when she gazed at him. The spell could only be broken by the
death of who cast it, or by a greater power. As a second level
wizard, he was hardly qualified to do the job. He was troubled most
by not knowing who could create such a spell. Who had been killed
for this spell? If he tried to bring her back without the proper
level of power, she would die. He shuddered at the thought of using
forbidden magic, especially to go so far as making a loved one’s
touch catastrophic.

Isaac turned Windrew around, stared hard
into his face, but realized the wizard wasn’t revealing any
emotion. Isaac slapped him hard and the older man smiled. He had an
idea.

“We need to get to the Temple of Idenia,”
Windrew said and started down the road. He smiled at his men, then
at Mona and Brornar, who were both concerned about their mistress.
“We, that is, Isaac and I, need your help. If you are willing, we
will mount up this very minute, as a team, and start towards the
Temple of Idenia. If not, only Isaac and I will go.”

Windrew realized he was asking plenty of his
men. They knew that Idenia was located in the north, beyond lakes
and valleys that were known for their evil. Some of them wouldn’t
come back, and become a ghost to add to the plenty roaming
aimlessly across the Cathene Continent. He had almost perished
during such a journey when he was a much younger man, surviving
only because he’d been able-bodied. He wasn’t so sure he was
anymore, but he knew he was going to try. He had to try. There was
a thick fog of evil surrounding him, and he was going to do
everything in his power to see his way through it. He would find
the source of this evil and destroy it…if such was the last thing
he ever did. His only dread was telling his beloved Anekaya.

“I’m with you,” Brornar stated.

“Hey, captain drama, I think you should tone
down just a bit,” Isaac said as he knelt beside Reverie. “She’s
waking up.”

Windrew felt both a blush rise to his cheeks
and a rush of confusion come over him. He looked over his shoulder
before turning completely. Sure enough, Reverie was stirring,
rubbing her forehead as if she’d only had a headache and nothing
more. He didn’t understand how that was possible. He’d seen the
signs. She was affected by magic. With questions and doubts filling
his mind, he rushed to her and looked at Isaac who merely glimpsed
at the wizard.

“I don’t understand how this could be,”
Windrew said quietly. “I saw all the signs of…”

“Forbidden magic?” Isaac asked with a nod.
“I saw the signs too. I’ve read the books.”

“They’re…they’re more than books, Isaac.
They’re scriptures written by the highest wizards and witches ever
to walk the Cathene Continent. The only way she could have brought
herself out of this is by…”

“Having magical abilities? Yeah. I thought
about that. I don’t think it’s entirely impossible,” Isaac noted,
his eyes still focused on Reverie. “As a matter of fact, I think I
have some of my own.”

“When did you think this?” Windrew wondered,
trying to keep from mocking the younger man, who seemed very
serious. “Today? Where did you get them? When you were visiting
your folks? You did visit them, right?”

Windrew had almost begged Isaac to go home
for a fortnight, try to regain some normalcy in his life. He had
been searching for Reverie almost four years, even bypassed school,
severed relationships, and simply lived to seek she who he couldn’t
find. He used to wander the streets aimlessly, almost as if he were
looking for a clue that could link him to where she could be. He
found it strange that her father also disappeared, so he knew there
was something peculiar about the house. When he walked inside only
a month after the disappearances, he followed a cat upstairs to the
attic, tripped over it, and stumbled through a sheet to a
completely different world. As for normalcy, Isaac didn’t want it,
not until he could find Reverie.

“Mmm… no. I didn’t visit them. I stopped in
front of the house and stared at the door, but I didn’t go in. I
don’t belong there, not without her,” Isaac answered and had his
hand hover above her. He wasn’t sure he should touch her, not after
what happened before. He began wondering when she would look at him
and at least tell him that she was ok. He needed to know because
she was all that he lived for. “Do you know who Nadia is?”