The Dragons of Sara Sara (37 page)

She could not have said more. Sarweio whirled around, trying to look in all directions at once. Her cry had alerted those around her, but with nothing visible, a slight widening of the circle around her became evident. Ellenaria clicked her tongue.

"No discipline anymore. There is nothing for it. Desare, strike the bell lightly."

Desare knew immediately what was needed. She whispered "Antonin" and the single deep boom of the bell rolled through the hall. All sound and movement ceased. Not even feet shuffled. Every ear had heard the word 'Antonin' whispered, followed by the toll of the bell.

"Let me try again." Muttered Ellenaria.

"Sarweio, excuse the intrusion. You are with Antonin now?"

Sarweio was as rigid as a tent pole. Eyes like dinner plates. Not much ruffled a Wind Reader, but nothing like this had ever been heard of. Sarweio tried twice to reply. On the third attempt she said . "My Companion has carried me to my room. I have fainted." Everyone's attention was now on Sarweio, apparently talking to someone none could see. More tongue clicking from Ellenaria.

"Humans, really. You must return to where Antonin is and sit opposite him. Quick now girl."

Sarweio didn't appear to move in the room, but she did in the real world. She had only just been placed on her small bed when she suddenly opened her eyes and sat bolt upright. Her Companion had not yet left the room.

"Help me back to the Common Room. Quickly. I must go quickly." She appeared very agitated. The Companion, M'belie, raised an eyebrow. He was not given to displays of emotion. He looked at Sarweio. She appeared to be awake, yet her body moved as though in a walking dream. Well, he had carried her up, he would carry her down. Within moments, she was in the chair facing Antonin across the inn table, and blinking her eyes as full consciousness returned.

"Desare, stand close to me." Said Ellenaria. She raised her arm and described an arch through the air. Suddenly Desare could see Antonin. All the room as though again sitting opposite Antonin.

This time his eyes were nearly popping."Desare! What ..."

"Be quiet Antonin, only listen. I am with the Keeper of the Blue Tower. I beg you, you must not leave the inn. This inn, until I can meet with you in your dream. Promise me now. Quickly."

Antonin was so surprised he said without question or hesitation. "I promise."

Desare smiled. She knew he would keep his word, however hastily given to her.

"I must go now. " Said Desare. Ellenaria was beginning to grimace with the strain of holding open the portal. "Antonin..." The room at the inn started to fade. "I love you." Came whispering to Antonin from the lips of Sarweio, yet with Desare's voce.

Only moments ago it had been Desare. Antonin was stunned. Desare? He couldn't believe it. She had said that she loved him. It hadn't been Sarweio. She was now slumped in her chair, head almost touching the table.

No one was more surprised than Desare. How had that slipped out? Where had it come from? Why, she hardly knew the boy. Well he was older than her, but hardly a man for all his swaggering about the village with his friends. He had always caught her eye though. He always danced a lot with her on festival days too. Those recent dreams had been nice too. Desare blushed to the roots of her hair. Ellenaria looked at her and smiled.

The whole thing had taken but a moment. Not a soul stirred in the great hall.

"I am out of practice." muttered Ellenaria conversationally. "That sort of thing is disruptive at the best of times."

Sarweio stood with her eyes squeezed shut, and hands clasped by her side.

"Sarweio, hear me now." Said Ellenaria. "I am the Keeper of the Blue Tower. I tell you now, so you will tell the others. The Malachite King, The Lord of the Dragon Armies, the Lord of the Morning Sun has returned. He sits opposite you in the inn. You will tell your sisters. You will assist him in all ways. You will hear me and obey. I AM the Wind." With this a gale swept across the hall, sending leaves and dust swirling up to the high arches. People were staggering before its strength. Sarweio walked calmly through it all and up the steps into a pulpit like enclosure at one end of the hall. She raised a hand. The wind stopped as suddenly as it had come. All eyes were on her. A pin could have been heard falling as she recounted her message. Nervous glances from those in the hall said she was believed and understood. It began to dawn on faces that here they perhaps stood in the heart of their very existence. The source of their power. The daughters. The unbroken line over countless ages. This was a part of the Blue Tower. They were a part of the Blue Tower.

"Desare, you must return to your room, your daytime comes again. Your mother worries. You have slept a day and a night in your world. I must give these sisters a few more surprises yet. Go now. Shoo..."

Desare stood looking at her. How? She realized she had no idea how to get back to her room. Back? Desare closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them, she was looking at the brown beams on the ceiling of her room. Her mother was dabbing her face with a damp cloth and crying.

 

Mei'An had but just closed her eyes, relaxing into a dream state that she was long practiced in. Luan would stand guard. She couldn't be in safer hands. Her entrance to the dream state would sound a soft chime in the minds of all the Wind Readers, summoning them to the Hall of the Readers. This was only used rarely. Mei'An could not remember the last time she had been summoned to the Hall.

All would meet in a great hall. None knew exactly where it was. It seemed to exist only in the dream. There were doorways in the walls, but they led nowhere. It was the strangest thing. If you walked through a doorway to try and leave the hall, you simply walked into the hall from the other side. Like stepping into a mirror. The problem was, you might not find yourself emerging exactly as you left. Only a few had ever tried to solve the riddle, until finally it was banned. Some had entered with brown hair and emerged with pale golden hair on the far side of the hall. Nothing but a single step in time separating them. Some had entered and not emerged again for hours. Convinced they had only just stepped through the door. They had seemed to have aged many years though and a few who tried had fled back into the door to reverse the process. They had re-emerged one step later on the far side of the room, little more than children. Holding hands with tears streaming down their faces, no one had been brave enough to try sending them back through the doorways again. The last person to enter one of the doors, a single door near the rear of the hall, had simply not re-emerged. She had been heard calling in an increasingly alarmed voice for hours after, until her voice finally faded into the distance, like a person who has wandered far away. Now no one tried entering any of the strange the doors. Each seemed covered by a shimmering curtain of mist, just too thick to see through. The Wind Readers were effectively confined to the Great Hall.

Mei'An expected to find herself on her feet in the hall, with the tones of the chime fading slowly. Other Wind Readers would soon appear.

What she didn't expect was what happened next. Instead of a soft muted chiming, a boom that nearly split her head sounded. The noise was so loud, the tone so deep that it seemed the very breath had been driven from her body. She found herself on her hands and knees on the floor of the Great Hall, head hanging down, trying to breathe. She realized she had stars before her eyes. Gasping with shock, Mei'An was just about to try rising to her feet when the huge bell sounded again. It hit her like a hammer blow on her back. She was flattened to the stone floor, spread eagle on her stomach, with her cheeks pressed to the cold stone floor. The very stones were vibrating with the low frequency of the sound. A fleeting thought came to her. What would be happening to her in the real world. What happened here was just as real in the waking world. Luan would be in a panic. He would not hear the bell. Only see her contortions, see her stress. He would not be able to rouse her. "I must return, I must get out of this dream." She muttered.

Mei'An felt too weak to stand. She tried to step out of the dream, but just as she was about to the bell tolled again. This time so loud she thought her bones were breaking. It wasn't in her ears so much, as in every fibre of her body. She thought she was being crushed, and howled wildly in pain. It only ceased as the sound rolled away into the distance. She lay on the floor, almost unconscious, panting like a dog in hot weather.

Through the pain filling her mind, Mei'An realized she could see through the doorways of the hall. There was a garden out there, with bright flowers and a fountain. She could hear the singing of birds.

She squeezed her eyes shut as the bell tolled again. This time it was almost at its normal pitch. Mei'An sighed with relief, and struggled to try and sit up. It was too much.

Yes, she could see through one of the smaller doorways. She realized with a start that she could also see through the large entrance doors. There were fortress walls, and towers out there. A vaguely familiar young girl almost Antonin's age, perhaps younger stood in the doorway, her clothes flickering through different changes. At one stage the girl was quite naked.

Finally, in a dress of pure yellow, the girl crossed the hall and went through the door into the garden. She hadn't seen Mei'An, prostrate on the floor in the shadows of the huge supporting columns.

Slowly she regained her strength. She sat up, taking deep breaths to steady herself. She could not step out of the dream now. She had to find out what was happening. She pushed herself to her feet and dusted off her blue silk gown. She felt ragged, but at least in the dream she was able to brush away all trace of her previous distress.

With some frustration she realized that she could no longer see through either the main door, nor the garden gateway. The girls was nowhere to be seen. She might have been the Inn Keepers daughter from Xu Gui, but it seemed unlikely. It was a mystery that needed solving. None but Wind Readers had ever been in the hall, and to Mei'An's knowledge no one had ever seen past the doorways. There was after all something other than the hall, and Mei'An was determined to find out what.

The hall began to fill with people. Wind Readers were arriving from all over the world. They had all suffered distress as a result of the bell's chimes. Mei'An most of all though. She thought she must have precipitated the tolling. It had been she who had stepped into the hall first. Now she was not so sure. There had been that young girl, young woman really perhaps about seventeen years old Mei'An thought, who had entered through the main hall doors.

Mei'An was considering all this when she noticed a circle widening around one of the women in the hall. She had cried out slightly and was now looking intently around her, as though trying to see someone. Someone others could not see. The huge bell tolled again. Not so loudly this time, but all talk stopped. With a start Mei'An realized she was looking at the young woman who had come in by the main doors. Mei'An had also heard her softly utter Antonin's name in the moment before the bell tolled. She seemed to be talking to someone beside Sarweio, the Wind Reader who had caused some of the others to move away from her. Mei'An knew her of course. Knew that she lived in far off Hua Guo. Suddenly the woman went as straight as a flagpole. Someone other than that young girl was talking to her. Try as she might, Mei'An could not discern what or who it was. To her utter amazement, Antonin appeared just in front of Sarweio. He looked just as startled as Mei'An felt, but it was because something was being said to him, through Sarweio. Mei'An sighed. So Antonin was in Hua Guo, and apparently safe. The girl winked out of sight. Mei'An knew the signs. The girl had stepped out of her dream and back into her body.

A fierce wind swept through the hall, as Sarweio made her way to the podium at the end of the hall. She would speak to the assembled Wind Readers. Young and old alike, all were gathered here. When someone took the stand, on the podium, deference was given her and all attention was given to the speaker. Mei'An was a little taken aback. It had been she who had first summoned the gathering after all. Events had taken over it seemed. However, it had been fruitful. Mei'An now knew where Antonin was. She only need a few moments with Sarweio to find out exactly where he was.

The reaction to Sarweio's words, repeated exactly as they had been given to her, was stunned silence. Even Mei'An could not believe her ears. They were in The Blue Tower. Their power derived from The Keeper of The Blue Tower. The Keeper was a woman. Perhaps an immortal. Mei'An's eyes went wide with dawning knowledge. The small figurine in the box that the inn keeper had. Rees had said that it had called - spoken to him as, The Keeper. It was the link. She must return immediately. With that little statue in Antonin's hands, he would be linked to The Blue Tower, and he would have access to untold power. All the strength he would need in the coming battle.

Mei'An pushed her way through the throng, ignoring mutters, and surprised looks.

"Sarweio, Sarweio." She called. The Wind Reader looked toward her.

"Sarweio, quickly, what is the village that you are in right now? Which Inn? Where is the boy? You must keep him there until I arrive. I leave now."

Sarweio told her all she knew, and with that, Mei'An stepped out of her dream leaving the others none the wiser. She found herself on the floor of the inn, staring up into Luan's worried face. Her dress was dusty, and her hair was in disarray. She knew she looked a fright. "A gentleman would not leave a lady resting on the floor of a common room." She said quietly. Luan blinked, his face like a granite block. He helped Mei'An to her feet and escorted her from the room, her hand resting lightly on his forearm. She only stumbled once. Rees shook his head in wonderment. The woman had been prostrate with pain, wailing and trashing about on the floor. Now she walked from the room as calmly as from a royal ball. No thought of apology for having frightened everyone out of their wits. Elsa kept her own council. Her thoughts hidden behind an expressionless face. Wind Readers were held in great respect, almost reverence, and what they did was beyond knowledge or understanding. Especially by a warrior maiden. Elsa turned to Rees. "A strange day, and not over yet I fear."

"Yes, mark me. We will be on the road before the sun rises on another day."

Antonin still sat in the chair in the common room of the inn far across the world from where he had started out. Sarweio had been taken back to her room by M'belie. Led on stumbling feet. Her last words had been a message from Mei'An. "You must not leave this village, nor this inn. You must await her arrival, as long as it takes. If the battle begins, it must be fought here. Your life, and the lives of all you hold dear depends on you staying in this spot."

Sarweio had reached the door, and turning had added in a whisper, "She comes with The Keeper of The Blue Tower." Antonin could not believe the events of the last hour or so. Desare, little Desare from his home village, caught up in this chain of events. She said she loved him. He was in unknown territory here. He was not sure of his feelings. She had made him promise to stay put until she arrived. No - until she could meet him in his dream. He had no idea what she meant. Two people had now asked him to stay where he was. He had promised one, and so would keep his promise. If the last battle started here, then so be it. He suspected it would not though. Not yet.

The Tharsians still held the Key to the prison wheel of Sara Sara. Cinnabar and the Morgoth hordes still pursued them, and Antonin pursued both. The Dark One was not yet free. How far the wheel yet had to turn he did not know. He hoped it was an age. A thought began to form. Based here in Hua Guo, he was on the far side of the Forest of Gloom, the redoubt of the Tharsians. Perhaps he could organise forays into their lair from this side, and maybe, just maybe, secure the Keystone.

Elsa and Catharina watched Antonin. They watched everything in the room, but mostly they watched Antonin. He was smiling and muttering under his breath. The recent events had been the doing of a Wind Reader. None of their business. No danger to Antonin, although he had certainly been surprised at the appearance of the girl Desare and that strange almost naked woman she had been with. Both girls had seen her clearly, although Antonin claimed to have seen only Desare.

"Well," said Antonin aloud. "This is a fine pickle. Here we are. The combined armies of all the Mare Altan, and Asha Altan descend on Ha Hu seeking the battle. Mei'An is on her way here if I understand correctly. Desare is to meet me in my dreams. We have no idea where the armies of the Dark One are. Desare says she loves me," Catharina gave a derisive snort, raising Antonin's eyebrows. "…and I am the Dragon Lord returned --- and have no idea what to do next."

This was not how it was supposed to be. Of that he was sure. In every story he had read, the hero always took charge. Everything went according to plan. The hero won the day, and the heart of the girl of his dreams. Not two girls. One girl. Which girl? Antonin shook his head. It was too confusing. He wished Gaul were here. He would know what to do. Gaul was back in the home village though. Half a world away.

Catharina was thinking along the same lines. She knew Desare, although not well. How had she become involved? Was she a Wind Reader? It was girls born with the talent. Catharina knew that. If a Wind Reader declared her love for Antonin, what hope did she, a lowly warrior maiden have? Catharina was proud of her status as a Warrior Maiden. She had been Antonin's friend all his life, and if they were not meant for each other, well, no one had said so. When it came time to put aside the spear and the bow, she knew she would go to Antonin, not to some as yet unknown Asha Altan warrior as was usual. She also knew that she could not compete with someone who might be a Wind Reader. The girl Desare was also quite beautiful, with her yellow dresses and long hair.

"Men." Muttered Catharina, looking directly at Antonin. She made a great fuss of clattering out of the common room and into the hall. Moments later there was the slamming of a door in the upstairs hall that shook the windows.

Antonin looked questioningly at Elsa, who only raised her eyebrows and smiled that secretive smile that was guaranteed to drive him to distraction one day. Antonin stomped out of the common room. Moments later the crash of his door slamming told where he would spend the night. Elsa picked up her wine glass.

The common room was filling again, the musician had arrived. There was dancing to be done.

 

 

The next morning, before even the sun began to lighten the horizon a small party was leaving the inn in far away Ha Hu by the rear gate. The soft clop clop of the horses hooves on the cobble stone of the stable yard sounded muffled. The steam blowing in great clouds from the horses nostrils told of a deep chill that frosted the air. The clink and clank of riding gear and softly spoken words as riders quietened the animals told of a party intent on leaving with as little fuss as possible. Mei'An, Luan, Rees and Edina were mounted and each had a smaller pack horse in tow. No one had had much sleep as preparations had pushed on through the night by Mei'An. The figurine of the Keeper of The Blue Tower was wrapped in soft leather and packed, along with the other objects. It was strapped on behind Rees's saddle.