Storm Holt (The Prophecies of Zanufey Book 3) (11 page)

‘Sounds ominous,’ Issa mused.
 

Coronos grinned at her and reached for the iron door handle. It turned with a screech and he peered inside. After a moment he looked back at them. ‘Looks more our thing, and they even have South Frayon ale. I’ve not had that for over twenty-five years,’ he grinned and looked ten years younger. Issa and Asaph looked at each other, then followed him inside.

‘Come in, come in. We have fresh ale and good food for all,’ the jolly bar woman beckoned and greeted them with a big smile. She was short, fat and her light brown hair was tied back, although most of it was coming free in straggles that framed her shining red face. She smelt of wine, hence the red face, Issa thought.

There was a sunlit doorway on the other side of the bar, suggesting a beer garden and making it a lot less gloomy than the other tavern. Issa felt herself relaxing and heard Asaph give a small sigh of relief. There was only one other person there, a skinny old man bent heavily over his pint at the bar. He glanced at them, looked them up and down, then turned disinterestedly back to his pint. Perhaps the sour, partially drunk look on his face might be why the bar woman was eager for more patrons.

‘Ah my dears,’ she said in a soft Southern Frayon accent. ‘Come eat, drink, there’s plenty of space here or out in the garden, and it’s a wonderful day for sitting outside. Food and drink to be had by all?’ she gushed.

‘Actually we need a place to stay for the night, as well as food and drink,’ Asaph said.

The woman’s smile deepened. ‘Well, we have only one room left tonight, if you don’t mind sharing. Though I’m not sure it will be to your liking as there are only two small beds.

Asaph thought about it for a moment then glanced slyly at Issa who refused to meet his gaze.
 

Coronos gave a brief nod and said, ‘We’ll take it and make up a third bed with cushions and our clothes.’

‘Splendid,’ said the woman clapping her hands together. ‘Now take a seat in the garden and I’ll bring food and drinks.’

A short time later Coronos was smiling down into his rich orange coloured South Frayon ale, whilst Issa and Asaph were enjoying a flagon of Corsolon wine. The wine was cold, sweet and refreshing as they sat under a frayed canopy, partially protecting them from the hot afternoon sun. The garden was more of a paved area with a few rather sad dried up potted plants that had died a long time ago. Prickly cacti weeds with bright pink flowers pushed up between the paved stones, and she thought they actually brightened up the rundown place.

Lunch was a simple, but enjoyable salad of tomatoes, cheese, eggs, pickles and plenty of bread. Afterwards she stretched her back and yawned. ‘Finally a sit down on a proper chair, if you can call it that.’ The rickety bench they shared creaked alarmingly as she wiggled. Coronos nodded in agreement and Asaph joined her yawn.

The wind had dropped and it was getting hotter. She pulled off her hot tunic. It caught on her undershirt as she did so and pulled down the front just enough to reveal the raven mark.

‘What’s that? You’ve hurt yourself,’ Asaph noticed immediately, setting down his glass.

She pulled her shirt closed. ‘It’s nothing. Just a bruise.’
 

She’d been mulling over whether to tell them about the mark for days, but she really didn’t feel talking about it right now. All she wanted was to have a normal few days enjoying a new city and forgetting anything bad had ever happened in her life. For the past few hours she’d begun to feel like her old self again. She’d begun to feel like Issalena Kammy rather than the Raven Queen she was supposed to be.

‘Let me look at it. Does it hurt?’ He reached over to her and tried to see, but she pulled away grasping her shirt between her breasts.

‘Please,’ she said, louder than she meant to.

He pulled away embarrassed as well. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to…’ he let it trail off, whatever he was going to say. She could tell from his frown that he was caught between wanting to help and letting her be.

‘The mark of the raven, if I’m not mistaken,’ Coronos said as he filled his pipe with lintel weed. Issa looked at him, despite his age he had sharp eyes. ‘Freydel would know more about that, but there are some things I’ve heard about. When did it happen?’ he looked at her, and smiled reassuringly at her worried look.
 

She released her grasp on her top and smoothed crinkles.

‘It happened after I returned the dagger to Karshur,’ she began. ‘I wanted to talk about it, but everything’s happened so quickly since then. I told you about the dagger, and when Karshur took me to the Land of Mists, but I did not mention the gift. I didn’t understand it, I still don’t. Karshur’s task was done, and in doing it he gave me a gift before he departed. A mark that is a raven,’ she hesitated, wondering how to explain.

‘Alongside Keteth’s gift the mark is a spell that allows me to physically go into the land of the dead instantly and return. I think there’s more to it,’ she added, remembering her abrupt return from the Murk. ‘I didn’t want these gifts, and don’t want to use them, but it saved my life on Celene. It seems that ravens also have this gift, to move between the worlds.’

‘Ravens can travel between the living and the dead,’ Coronos nodded. ‘A gift such as that will have hidden blessings I’m sure.’

‘There’s something else that happened, maybe the karalanths told you,’ she said, wondering if she should talk about it. She wanted to share the strange things that happened to her, didn’t want to shoulder them alone. ‘It’s a bit like when Asaph becomes a dragon. When the foltoy attacked us in the forest, I somehow transformed into a raven to escape them. I’m not quite sure how it happens but I’m almost certain Karshur’s gift, the raven mark, has something to do with it.’ There, she’d said it now, and she went silent to see what their reaction would be.
 

She was relieved to see only looks of mild surprise on their faces, then annoyed - surely transforming into a raven was no small thing. She looked into her glass, and drained the rest of the wine.

‘There’s far more to this world than even I can imagine,’ Coronos said, shaking his head with a smile, ‘and here I sit with two shape shifters. You two really are becoming quite something.’

‘As long as it doesn’t hurt, I’m sure the mark is quite becoming,’ Asaph grinned at her. His dimples made her blush. ‘Maybe one day we could fly together.’

‘I’d like that,’ Issa smiled.

They finished their drinks as the evening drew on and the late summer sun faded.
 

‘Let’s get an early night,’ Coronos advised, ‘and hopefully see the mayor first thing before anybody else.’ They both nodded, already stifling yawns as it was.

‘WE thought you were dead,’ Shufen said, sipping his steaming soup as they sat outside the Elder’s house. The light of the pyre illuminated those gathered there now that the sun had fully set.

‘I was gone at most half a day. Possibly the worst half a day of my life,’ Marakon said, gripping his own mug between his hands.

‘You were gone no less than a week, my friend,’ Shufen shook his head. Marakon started at his words.
 

Shufen continued without noticing. ‘We waited for nearly as long. I thought you were already dead but Jarlain did not believe it. Then she had a vision of you returning on shining horses that moved faster than the wind. Then she saw the Seadevils coming. If she hadn’t had that vision we wouldn’t have been at all prepared for this attack. Thank the goddess you came, there were so many of them.’
 

‘A whole week?’ Marakon replied incredulously.

Shufen nodded. ‘I warned you about that awful place, time moves funny there. What did you see?’

‘I saw myself, of what I was many lifetimes ago. I’d never really thought about past lives, or if they were even real.’

‘They’re real all right,’ Shufen nodded with eyes wide.

‘Indeed. And now my knights of yesteryear, who died forgotten and alone and cursed to wander the Drowning Wastes as wraiths, have returned. Their curse has been lifted so that we may right and wrong and finish what we started.’ Shufen looked at him with raised eyebrows.

‘We must destroy the one that cursed us,’ Marakon said shrugged. Memory of the ordeal in the Drowning Wastes, of the demon wizard Karhlusus, and of his past lives made him pale. ‘How long I’ve wanted to be free of the darkness surrounding my days,’ he shook his head.

‘Seeing you all fight…’ Shufen’s voice broke his thoughts. ‘I think you have powers beyond mortal men and women. I think the goddess has blessed you in spite of your curse. And now you have your first victory.’

Marakon smiled. ‘The first of many.’

‘ “The first of …” what, did you say?’ Jarlain’s voice came from behind. She smiled down at them.
 

Marakon jumped up, surprised to see her up so soon when surely she should be lying down. She had washed and changed into clean clothes, but she looked pale and exhausted. Before he could stop himself he embraced her. She hugged him back, she felt weak. Her hair smelt of flowers and he found it quite intoxicating.

‘I’ll go see how my father is doing,’ Shufen said and left.

‘The first of many victories,’ Marakon said huskily, and drew back. ‘Your stone, the one with the bear, it brought me back. It reminded me of the real world, of you.’

She said nothing, only smiled. ‘I’m so glad you returned.’ Tears glistened in her eyes.

‘You should not be up. You were hurt badly,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘Yes, I lost lots of blood, but the Elders are learned and skilled. The bleeding has stopped, though it will take time to heal fully. Movement can help, and I was getting sore from lying down. I could sleep no longer.’ He embraced her again and felt her sag weakly in his arms.
 

‘Let’s sit,’ he said hastily, and helped her sit beside him, she leant most her weight on him. ‘We should take you back to bed.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I want to stay here with you.’

He stroked back a lock of her hair, noticed the smooth curve of her cheek in the light coming from the Elder’s house. ‘I cannot stay,’ he said.

‘I know,’ she said without looking at him. ‘That’s why I don’t want to go back to bed. I don’t want to be alone.’

‘I have a wife and children,’ he began. Perhaps she knew already. A flicker of pain passed across her features. ‘And I must return to them. I miss them and my home. The goddess calls us, we cannot ignore that call. I never really thought about the goddess much. I thought like most think, that she, in all her guises, had abandoned us to our fate. But now the dark moon of Zanufey rises, and because of it, because of her, my curse has been lifted so that I might right a terrible wrong I committed. I have to set my knights free for good.’ He said these things, the truth, and yet all he wanted to do was to stay here with Jarlain and the Gurlanka. Set down his sword and heal his warrior spirit once and for all.

‘Tell me what you did. It’s time to hear it all, I’m not afraid and I won’t judge. I know you for who you really are. Who we were in the past is not who we are today,’ Jarlain said.

Marakon looked at her and sighed. He didn’t want to talk about it, but they had to know, she had to know. He finished his mug of spirits and stared at the burning pyre. Where to begin? The memories of that far away time rolled through his mind, and they were as clear as if it had all happened yesterday.

‘A long time ago, I’m not sure how far back, but it was during the Demon Wars over three thousand years ago, when I was king of the ancient sunken land of Unafay.’ Jarlain leaned back to stare at him, disbelief in her eyes.

Marakon smiled. ‘I’m not lying. It was your High Elder who revealed that part to me just a few hours ago.’ Jarlain looked away and curled closer in to him as he spoke. He told her everything that he remembered; of his honourable knights and their battles against the demons, of his rise to power and greed for more, of being tricked by Karhluses and slaughtering hundreds of innocent people. He told her everything as quickly as he could, thinking that if he spoke fast the emotions would have no time to break through. She did not say a word, even for a long time after he’d finished. Eventually she broke the silence.