Oh my. Sounds frightening. Maybe she really does have MAGIC powers now. You never know what Amathaon could do...
It was not Cory who brought me food. It was the woman, Cecils wife, and I got off the bed when she came into the room because I didnt trust her. She held out a bowl but then backed away when I reached for it. I stood quiet, breathing shallowly because it hurt less that way, and waited to see what she was going to do. I had no intention of wrestling with her for a bowl of soup. She held it in both hands against her stomach and said, Have you ever worked on a farm? No, I havent. What have you done then, all your life? She was frowning and determined to work herself up into an angry fit. Life in these cellars during the winter must get awfully boring. I went to school. I traveled. School? Whats that? Letters. Writing. Counting. A scribe? Something like that. Still gripping the bowl in one hand she reached up to the pendant on her necklace, playing with it until it flashed in the candlelight, catching me in the eye with its light. I gasped at the unexpected pain shooting through to the back of my skull and the woman smiled. She handed me the bowl then and watched as I sat down on the bed and started to eat. Youre no scribe. Youre a sorceress from the mountain. Got thrown out, Ill wager, by one of the others, one whos bigger and stronger than you. I dont know anything about a mountain, and Im not a sorceress. You can bet I wouldnt be here now if I were. I got lost in the storm and now Im very sick with something, the flu, maybe. Thank you for the food. Im very grateful for your kind hospitality.
Cory came in carrying another bowl of soup. He took the empty one from my hands and gave me his. Cecils wife started to protest but Cory grinned at her and said, Im not hungry tonight so Im going to let her have mine. I just gave her yours. You dont get two bowls, Valen. I did last night, Sweetheart. You said something about a big man like me needing more than one itty bitty bowl of soup for supper. He winked at her. Her face turned very red and without another word she grabbed the empty bowl from his hand and left the room. I watched her leave and then looked at Cory who sat down on the edge of the other bed. I said, Are you and she Nope. Hands off. Cecils my brother, he scratched at his scruffy chin, in this world, anyway. Have you noticed that he even looks like me? Its unsettling. I never had a brother, always wanted one, and now Ive got one. Farming is a rough life, especially when more than half the year is ruled by snowstorms and blizzards, but I might want to stay and help him out. I shuddered, remembering the smell of that creature chasing me through the snow. Finished with that? he said. I nodded and he took the bowl but he didnt leave the room yet. I think you should let me look at your feet and help you get those shoes off. It seems you stepped in something. Your skirts are stained and so is the bed now. Whats the matter? Dont look at me like that. I wasnt looking any particular way. I lay down, wanting to sleep. I didnt even care that the pillow was lumpy and smelled of hay. Yes you were and it gave me the shivers, thats for sure. He bent over my shoes and began to unlace them. The leathers all torn up. I think your feet are cut, probably from ice mixed in with the snow. And a moment later he said, There we are. Shoes off. I should get some bandages for he got quiet. I could feel his touch on my foot, unexpectedly gentle. Interesting, he mumbled. What? Your blood. Its not red. Its black. Maybe thats why your skin is grey. Its kind of creepy, Andy, if you dont mind my saying so.
I started to tell him that the candlelight wasnt strong enough for him to see colors accurately, but we were interrupted by a loud scream from the other room. Cory abandoned me immediately, running to see what was wrong. I jumped up from the bed and almost fell over from dizziness, then gathered my wits and followed him. I feared it was the Medruzz. I thought the horror had somehow gotten into the house, maybe through the window Id broken on the upper floor, and I was terrified of being trapped in these cellar rooms. It wasnt the Medruzz that had frightened Cecils wife. She was on the floor, out cold. Cory and Cecil lifted her up into a chair where she slowly awakened but only enough to sit dazed and quiet. Cecil was chattering nonsense, his voice shaking, She came out of the fire right in front of us. Out of the fire! But shes not burning, Valen. Shes from the mountain. From the mountain He stammered into silence. Thats when I saw the other woman. She was smiling at me, and there was something so fascinating about her that I moved around the table to get a closer look. I stared at her face and at her grey skin, puzzled, and heard Cory come up behind me. He said, She looks like you, Andy, except healthier. I like her clothes better, too. The woman looked over my shoulder and nodded at Cory, then leaned forward to speak softly in my ear, I know someone who has the cure for the poison in your lungs. Come with me now and I will take you to him. Her voice was low and comforting, offering release from my pain. I didnt decide on my own to go with her, that I know. The strength of her will simply overwhelmed me, and probably everyone else in the room as well. I heard nothing else and I saw nothing else as she stepped closer and put her arm around my waist. I blinked my eyes in a cold wind and found myself sitting next to her in an open carriage moving over the snow. When I looked up at the driver of the carriage I saw a creature of mottled black skin with horns on top of his head. He cracked a whip over the rumps of black horses and glanced back at me with glowing eyes. The wind picked up a strong smell and carried it into my face, and I knew immediately that it was the Medruzz who drove the coach.
Out of the frying pan into the ... this gets weirder and weirder ... I can't even guess what's going to happen next! Let's hope the Medruzz isn't hungry.
It's going to get a lot weirder before it reaches the finish line. It's very different from my usual interests and involves sorcery and magic and evil things that go bump in the night. Poor Andy. Hope y'all can stay with me.
I wouldn't worry too much about that!! The staying with you part, I mean. Your thread is the first one I check.
I opened my mouth to scream but coughed instead. The coughing tore at my insides and consumed me, taking all my breath away until I bent over my knees, too weak to care what happened next. I felt a hand stroke my hair and gentle words near my ear, My poor, poor child, so sick. I am taking you to Hugo, High Priest of Niichaad. But you tremble. Is it my pet? She laughed, light and clear, a beautiful sound. Dont be frightened of him, this Medruzz. He is mine, and will not touch you, however grim he may look. But the wild one? Oh, yes, he is to be feared. I looked away from them both and told myself that this all had to be a dream. Cory and I did not really go exploring an ancient and abandoned city. Our lander is crashed on the surface of this frozen world and I am delirious and dying in the middle of the wreckage. Or maybe I am not dying, but only in a coma while Arkin works his medical magic, healing the damage to our bodies. I just have to wait. Anytime now, Ill wake up. Help me, Arkin. Wake me up before I lose my mind. As if to convince me once and for all that this was only a dream the coach tilted upward and rose off the ground. The horses strained at the harness, galloping furiously, their manes whipping behind their heads, but their hooves did not pound the earth and made no sound at all. The harness creaked, the horses panted, and the wind tore at my clothes. The feathery tops of pine trees moved past and disappeared until all I could see was a wide stretch of the night sky. We were flying.
I looked at the woman sitting beside me and realized immediately why I found her appearance so fascinating. She was me. It was my face with grey skin. When Cory had said she looked like me I thought he was talking about her skin, but he was, in fact, talking about the shape of her face. I smiled at her because now I knew for certain that I must be caught in a nightmare. There was no other explanation. She smiled in response, as if I looked in a mirror. We are almost there, she said. I knew when the carriage drew closer to the ground because the trees rose up around us. Then the wheels crunched and the horses hooves thudded into the hard packed snow. The trees slid away to either side and ahead of us was an open field. Rising from the middle of it, looking every bit as dark and abandoned as everything else built on this planet, was Hugos temple. The carriage headed straight for the big doors in the center, then pulled away to the side after the sorceress and I had climbed down. Oh, yes, I call her sorceress. Once I escaped this dream I would no longer believe in magic, because I believe in the order and reasonableness of science. But now, immersed in a world of horned demons and flying carriages, I was forced to accept the chaos of sorcery. She rubbed my shoulders and encouraged me to enter the building, and although she smiled and moved around me with casual ease, it was clear that she did not like the temple. I saw her eyes shift toward its high walls and then quickly away. I saw this several times. She fears it, I thought. Why? Whats inside? If a sorceress with a horned beast for a pet fears what lies in the temple, then what lies in the temple must be the antithesis of evil, whatever it is. This was what I was thinking when I walked up the steps and pushed open the heavy door. I had no idea, then, about all the things a sorceress could fear.
The huge door closed behind me with an explosion of noise and a gust of wind. I stood very still, waiting to see if anyone came running to discover who had entered the temple, but only the dry pine needles moved, spinning off the stone floor in a small flurry before settling back. Their faint rustle and a thin keening of wind around the door were the only sounds I heard. Three candles on the wall to my right were just enough light to show me that the two-story chamber was empty. The walls were covered with old wood that had blackened and cracked with age. I thought I saw in its ancient surface a hint of carvings now so worn away it was impossible to know what they might once have been, and I sincerely hoped the rest of the building was not like this. More than anything else, I wanted a warm bed; I was so tired and cold. There are candles, I told myself. Someone is tending them. I saw a smaller door in the opposite wall and pushed on it with no effect at first. Pushing harder I managed to get it open and walked through to a corridor. It was just as cold here, but the walls and floors were of a lighter, cleaner stone, which raised my hopes. I walked a little ways to my left and saw stairs heading upwards. I considered taking them but I could feel the cold air from upper floors sinking down the stairwell. I knew that the higher levels in a stone building the size of this one would be as cold and maybe even as windy as it was outside. My hands were numb. My feet burned with the cold. So I turned to the right instead and followed the corridor in the other direction. I soon found stairs that headed down. Warmer air rose up into my face and I saw light reflected off the stone floor below. Encouraged by the promise of warmth, I went down to yet another corridor but this one was shorter and opened on a small, columned chamber with a pool of water in the middle. Beyond the far edge of the water was a table with a candle and some object that looked like metal. I moved closer to the object. It appeared to be something broken off a machine, and was clearly rusted and useless. Yet here it sat, a relic, perhaps, of an ancient history. I turned away from the table to examine the walls behind the columns, hoping for something more. Rooms, perhaps. Another corridor, maybe. Then I heard the footsteps, the sound of several people walking together, almost but not quite in step with each other. It echoed clearly off the stone walls and they were getting closer.
Pictures. Andy explores the temple. *I'm having trouble posting to the site today. It's very, very slow and and sometimes throws me out.*
Five young men came around the corner and stopped, all in a huddle, at sight of me. They were covered from neck to shoe in grey robes and had no hair on their heads or faces. Even their eyebrows were gone. When I moved closer I realized they were older than they first appeared but had the shy, nervous manner of people who had been isolated for a long time. Only one of them met my eye and stepped forward. How did you get here? he said. I came looking for Hugo, High Priest of this temple. Id like to talk to him. It was not a direct answer to his question but the story was complicated, and my throat hurt. I was also extremely thirsty. You will see him, indeed, because you have committed a terrible blasphemy, walking unclean in the temple of Niichaad. If I had known, I would never have done such a thing. Please forgive me, but I am cold and very sick. Please let me talk to Hugo. Someone told me that he would help me. He shook his head, eyes wide, as if still in shock at my transgression but motioned to one of the others. Run ahead and announce us to His Holiness, Master Hugo. The rest of you, we go together. One of them objected, But Galen, the rites We go together! We must consult with His Holiness about the desecration of the temple. There will be no rites performed until after the cleansing. I kept my lips tightly closed against the urge to snap at them. Obviously, charity toward the poor was not part of the agenda at this temple. Easy, Andy, I reminded myself. Its a different world and perhaps all of them live like Cecil and his wife, hardworking farmers who manage to take care of themselves one way or another. Surrounded by the four remaining men I was led to the upper levels of the temple. And I was right about the weather up there. The halls were cold and windy.
Argh! Stupid internet connection, keeping us in suspense! Oooh, simulpost. I owe you another Coke. Still in suspense, though ... hope she doesn't get in too much trouble.
The room where I finally met Hugo was huge but the only furniture was a desk at the far end where a man sat with head bent over his writing. The group that escorted me stood still, waiting, while their master continued to write. After a few minutes he carefully rolled up his paper and put it away in the desk. Then he lowered his hands to his lap, curling his thin fingers around a long staff balanced on his knees. One end of the staff carried a bright yellow globe that moved slightly as he breathed. He nodded at the acolyte closest to him and the young man told the story of my discovery in the chamber below the temple. I watched Hugos face and concluded that it did not look kind. Why had the sorceress brought me here to see this man? Why would she tell me that she wanted to help me if it was not so? I am nothing to her. Except that we looked alike. The acolyte said, And the floors of the chamber are stained with her blood. Master, her blood is black. What? I looked down at my skirts. Yes, they were crusted with dirt and it was black. Why would he think it was blood? What had Cory said just before the sorceress sent Cecils wife into a screaming fit? It was something about the blood on my feet being black. My hands and feet were so numb from the cold I could hardly feel them anymore but I think I would have known if they were cut and bleeding. I was about to lift my skirts and examine my feet when I remembered where I was and what was happening. I looked up and into the eyes of Hugo. He said, She is a sorceress. Execute her. NO! I screamed. Hugo may have been expecting that reaction because he did not even flinch, but the young men around me were taken by surprise. They stepped back. I turned and ran for my life, and what I thought about as I ran was that Id kill that sorceress with my bare hands if I ever met her again. She had betrayed me, and for no reason.
