Link to Chapter 1 – Previous Chapter – Next Chapter
Outside, the wind howled and sent cold gusts rippling through their clothes as they rushed forward. Thunder rumbled overhead. A flash of lightning was visible in the distance, and in that brief second of light, black clouds churned.
“Quickly, Great Mother! We don’t have much time until the rain starts!” Faramond yelled above the noise of the storm. They all picked up their pace.
They followed him to an enormous building along the outside ring of the plaza. The front doors were two or three times her height. Faramond pulled one of these doors open and let them all go inside, then rushed in to follow them and closed the door loudly behind him. He let out a long sigh of relief and rested against the door to catch his breath.
They were in an entrance hall, decorated with large paintings of beautiful landscapes and rich carpets of many colors. As they stood recovering from their quick dash across the plaza, another crash of thunder sounded outside. The Crone walked to one of the windows.
“Ah, the rain has started. We made it just in time,” she said.
“But isn’t it just water?” Rain asked.
“It’s unlike any rain you’ll see in Ellwood. Come, look outside.” The Crone moved aside so Rain could look out the window. When light flashed, she focused on the rain and noticed something was different—maybe it was darker, or thicker. “It is what we have called ‘black rain.’” Rain remembered Maruck’s joke from earlier, and it began to make sense. “It does nothing to buildings or land that is different than normal, but if it touches an animal, elf, anything breathing, it will sear the flesh. You have only a few minutes from when the wind starts gusting and the thunder and lightning striking to get inside to safety.” She looked at Rain sadly. “It is another reason why the healers are quite busy lately. These storms have happened more frequently, and some people simply cannot find shelter soon enough.”
“Like us,” Maruck said. “If you hadn’t come along we might have lost track of time and been stuck out there in the black rain.” He made a quick bow to her. “Thank you, Rain.” Camaran did the same, if reluctantly.
Rain laughed a little but stopped when she saw Maruck was serious. “You’re welcome,” she replied, smiling.
“Our weather patterns are another reason I believe this world, Straldun, was made by Myrna specifically to torment us,” the Crone said. “The sky is constantly cloud-covered, and though we can see the sun through them, we cannot ever see the moon. And that is our one connection with the Goddess, when we are separated from her presence. It is the one thing above all that has made people lose hope.”
Rain felt a pang of sadness for these people. Her people. She wanted to do anything in her power to help them.
Faramond turned to her. “Your name is Rain, is it?” He chuckled. “After all these years, another sort of ‘rain’ will give us hope.” She smiled at his wordplay. “If you wait for a bit, I will get your room and one for the soldiers ready. Great Mother, you may retire when you like.”
The Crone laughed. “You needn’t be so worried about me.”
“Yes, Great Mother,” he said, bowing to excuse himself, and hurried off through another set of doors.
The Crone turned to her, deep in thought. “It is interesting that you come to us at this time. There are not many Sisters left. Brothers were rare even before all this tragedy. The elf-women usually have greater power, you see. Most moon elves can wield innate magic, certainly, but there are few that have as great power as you. I sense the ability for you to reach white energy, one day. You know of it, yes?”
Before Rain could show her surprise, Camaran said, “It’s odd that one of us lives elsewhere. The banishment was for all of Dolmeria, except for Myrna. How did you escape?” he asked with tension in his voice.
“I… I really don’t know…”
“Don’t be rude, soldier. She might have no idea,” the Crone said. “How old are you, Sister?”
“Twenty. If I may ask, why?”
“Do you know much about our people, Rain?” Maruck asked.
“A little, but not much,” she said, and being surrounded by moon elves, she was embarrassed she didn’t know more.
“We live for around five hundred years, and mature early, by about your age. For all we know, you could be over a hundred years old.”
Rain’s eyes widened. “I knew elves lived for a long time, but…”
“That means you are still young…” the Crone thought aloud. “Perhaps your parents were the ones that escaped the banishment. Did you know them?”
“Not my birth parents. I was raised by humans.” Images of Celena and Fergus flashed through her mind, bringing a sharp pang of homesickness.
“Something about you looks familiar,” the Crone said. “I’d be interested to learn who your parents were. So many of us were lost over the years that the people I’ve known and lost have blurred together.”
“The rooms are ready,” Faramond said from the doorway, dashing Rain’s hopes of asking about her parents. “Follow me.” He held the door open and waited for them to come.
The Crone started to head toward a second set of double doors. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Sister Rain. I will see you tomorrow.” The Crone smiled, and once Rain nodded in return, the elf-woman left the room through a set of ornate doors, closing them behind her.
***
Rain and the two soldiers followed Faramond. As they walked, Rain sensed there were other elves around, but she saw none, probably because it was so late. The butler pointed out a room for Maruck and Camaran, generously sized with two beds and a separate bathroom. He led her further down a hall, up a flight of stairs, and pointed to the door on the right.
“This will be your room.” He opened the door to show a large room with an elegant bed, separate bath, and a small table with two chairs by the window. The curtains were drawn to the deadly storm outside. “Upper floor is the women’s quarters.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“Sleep well, Sister.” He walked off down the hall.
After closing the door, she realized how tired she was, and how inviting the bed looked. She pulled off her boots and let out a sigh of relief from walking in them all day. She managed to get her cloak off and set it on a chair by the window before she threw herself onto the bed. Questions ran through her mind and the sound of the rain on the window, slightly different than she was used to, made her nervous. But her tired bones didn’t let her stay awake long.
***
The morning sky dawned gray, not as dark as the day before, but still no break in the cloud cover. After eating a small but satisfying meal of fresh fruit, bread, and tea that she found on her table, Rain found Faramond on the ground floor. He told her to head to the temple, where she found the Crone. He followed not far behind, staying by the door while they talked.
“Good morning, Sister. How was your sleep?” the Crone asked from her throne.
“Restful, thank you.”
“Very good. I will have Faramond escort you to the healers. You may ask for help from them, and if they give you any trouble at all, let me know and I will talk with them.” She smiled as if the healers gave trouble often.
“But Great Mother, I must stay and protect you—” Faramond began.
She shook her head sternly. “No, you must go with Rain. Her mission is vital to our people as well as hers. You would do well to honor her word and treat her as you would any Sister.”
“Yes, Great Mother.” He bowed deeply to hide his reddening face. After a moment, he recovered and stood straight. “It is not far, Sister. Please, follow me.” He nodded to the Crone and led Rain out of the temple through the enormous front doors.
***
Faramond was silent as he led Rain down one of the streets leading away from the plaza. The early morning air was eerily quiet, and in the shadows between the buildings not yet touched by the thin light through the clouds, she could imagine dark, hidden things lurking…
“Sister,” Faramond said with composure, “may I ask that you do not focus on the dark alleys? It only encourages them.”
She frowned at his back as she followed him. “Encourages them?”
He looked back at her over his shoulder. “The shadows are as alive as the rodents scurrying about and the black vultures swooping overhead.” He cleared his throat and took on a more friendly tone. “I do apologize if I surprised you, but I don’t read minds. I can just tell when the shadows become more restless. As I said, thinking about darkness only encourages it. So do try to refrain from doing so.”
“I understand,” she said, though she felt tricked.
“I do sense that you are a good person, so I will trust you to watch your thoughts.” He turned around to smile cordially and then continued on in silence.
Strange fellow, she thought, but then decided not to judge him in case he wasn’t keeping his promise. To keep her thoughts positive, she held her aegis and thought about home.
***
They had been going straight down the street for a while, and now they turned left down a side street. As they continued, the buildings were made of wood rather than stone, and she reasoned they were a good distance from the center of the city, most likely near the outskirts. Soon the street opened up into a small grassy area circled with small wooden buildings. Faramond strode up to the largest one and knocked loudly.
“Who is it?” a cranky voice called from inside.
“Business of the Crone,” he said loudly and confidently.
The door opened a crack and the eye of a female elf who had a bit less of the ageless quality of the Crone peered out.
“Faramond, it is too early to take patients,” she said quietly.
“It is not a patient. It is a matter of life and death for both our people and those in Ellwood.”
The healer’s eyes widened in shock. “Ellwood?” she peered at Rain, then looked back at Faramond. “No. You must be joking. I cannot take patients today.” She closed the door firmly in his face.
“I do not joke, Lynara!” he yelled. “If you do not open this door immediately, I will go all the way back to the main plaza and bring the Great Mother to you. Maybe her wrath would suit your punishment better than my own preferred ways.”
The door opened wide showing her gray hair hanging long and straight, eyes and cheeks wrinkled in a smile, and slight portly frame. It was strange to see on an elf. “Come now Faramond, don’t you worry, I’ll see the girl now. I’ll let you both in, but you must let me explain.”
Faramond gave her a curt nod and went inside, and Rain followed.
***
A musky-sweet smell filled her nose when she entered. The walls of the large room were covered with bookshelves, drying herbs, and various healing tools. Near the back, two doors led to other rooms, and a small wood stove sat in the center of the room, warming the immediate area. A single bed rested against one wall by a window, in which a wounded guard lay resting. His bare chest was bound with linen, and his face was laced with sweat.
Lynara led them to a table against the opposite wall from the bed and had them sit.
“Tea?” she asked, walking to the stove, on which a kettle sat steaming. She brought the kettle over to a cupboard and pulled out a mug.
“We did not come to chat,” Faramond mumbled as she pulled out two more mugs.
“It’s a relaxation tea,” she said after bringing the cups over and pouring the tea. “Chamomile and mint.”
“How do you manage to get the herbs? Do they actually grow here?” Rain asked.
Lynara looked at her curiously. “You look like you’re from here, but you aren’t, are you?” She sat down and took a breath, happy to explain. “I create them with the magic. Orange and yellow are my strengths, but it’s getting harder and harder these days for anyone to use any sort of energy. When things were normal, I would only use yellow. Creating herbs uses less energy than healing, and it’s getting ever more difficult to draw on my magic.” She sighed. “Listen, Faramond, the reason I wasn’t going to let you in was this guard.” She gestured at the elf in the bed across the room. “There have just been too many patients and… my healing abilities have been waning. I cannot help everyone anymore.” Her face took on a serious expression. “It scares me.”
Faramond finally looked sympathetic. “I am sorry, Lynara. You cannot be expected to help everyone. But we would like you to at least try helping us.”
She took a sip of tea and then asked, “What is it that you came here for?”
“I need a cure.” Rain explained that she was from Ellwood and told about the awful things the Soulblight was doing. Lynara took it all rather calmly. In the rush of explaining herself, Rain told her about Shea. “I miss him terribly, and I am not allowed to see him, else he tries to hurt me again.” She looked the healer in the eye. “I know he is not the enemy. He’s in there, somewhere.” Rain sipped her tea, letting it soothe her.
Lynara eyed her gravely. “The Soulblight… I’ve heard of it in my studies, but it is so contagious and such dark magic is needed to create it that I pictured it as merely legendary.” She sat back in stunned silence. “I don’t remember the cure.” She paused. “But I might be able to find it in our library.” Sitting up straight, she finished off her cup of tea. “We should go now. The sooner the better.”
“The library?” Faramond’s eyes were fearful, and Rain knew it wasn’t some strange fear of books. “You don’t really mean to go—”
“Faramond,” she said, telling him with her eyes to let the matter go, “can you get a few guards to come with us, and meet us at the nearby junction?”
Rain frowned. Guards to visit a library?
“Yes. I’ll go now.” He swiftly stood and went outside, tea untouched.
***
Lynara led Rain to a large intersection in the roads, where they waited for Faramond. She tried to ask Lynara why they needed guards, but all she would say was that they needed to be protected. Faramond came within minutes, followed by three elven guards clad in thick leather, each carrying two longswords and a dagger. Rain wouldn’t have been surprised if they were hiding more weapons somewhere in their clothing.
They proceeded up a street that lay on a hill, and once the top of the hill came into clear view, Rain saw what had to be the library. The enormous building was intricately carved out of stone with arches lining each wall, two of which led to the main double doors. The other arches held stained-glass windows almost three times her height. There was a large barren area in front of the building with a few old benches, which she guessed used to be some kind of common area before the banishment. It was eerie to see it empty. As they approached, she saw the building was old and unkempt, with dirt lining the outer walls and ivy crawling up the sides.
They walked up the front steps, and one of the guards opened the double doors. They creaked, adding to the unkempt feeling of the place. Lynara strode inside first, followed by Faramond, who pulled Rain along like she was a child. She figured she wouldn’t have entered on her own anyway. Inside, the ceiling was so high and dark that she couldn’t see it clearly, and the faint light that shone through the windows illuminated dust and unnaturally thick cobwebs hanging between bookshelves, chairs, and lamps up above. The guards entered after her, closing the door with a solid bang.
“You’re sure it’s not upstairs with the healing scrolls?” Faramond asked Lynara as they passed a large spiral staircase.
“Anything having to do with dark magic, particularly spirit magic, is in the lower level. Even their cures. They’re delicate topics, deadly in the wrong hands,” she said quietly. “We all know what happened the last time we weren’t careful who went down there.”
“Of course I know what’s in the lower level! I was just hoping we wouldn’t have to go through this,” Faramond said. It was odd to see him angry, and Rain wondered if he was hiding fear. But what would be so frightening that they needed guards in a library?
“I said it for the benefit of the newcomer.” Lynara nodded over her shoulder at Rain. Faramond was silent.
They continued past many bookshelves filled with old, leather-bound books until they reached the back of the building. At first she wasn’t sure why they’d stopped; this bookshelf by the wall looked like any of the others, containing old, faded volumes laced with strange spider webs. She reached out to touch the webbing, thick as rope.
“What makes this strange—” she began.
Lynara pushed her hand away from the web before she could touch it. “Careful, my dear,” she said, smiling, and ignored the question.
The healer then walked to the back wall, and in a spot Rain thought was just another section of wall, she pushed inward with her hand.
From behind Rain came a creaking noise, and she turned to see a section of the floor give way to a dark stairway leading down.
“Light, please,” Lynara said.
“It would take too much out of me to keep a flame going,” Faramond said. “I am going to need a torch. And you are the better torch-maker.”
Lynara grumbled something and then closed her eyes, holding her hands in front of her like she was receiving something. After a few moments, a thick wooden stick appeared in her hands, about half as tall as she was.
“Too long, Lynara,” Faramond said, but gave it up when she glared at him.
“It’s impossible to make my magic work correctly right now. You should know! It’ll work fine.” She then produced a rag and a bottle of oil.
Faramond prepared the torch and then used his own magic to light it. He gave it to a guard, who withdrew a sword in his other hand and started down the dark narrow stairway. Lynara followed directly behind, and Faramond urged Rain ahead of him down the stairs.
A repulsive scent wafted from the floor below, reminding Rain of the raw meat Fergus used to prepare in the Inn’s kitchen. “What is that smell?” she asked, plugging her nose with one hand, nervously placing her other hand on Lynara’s back for reassurance.
“The spiders’ last meal,” Faramond said from behind her.
Rain went rigid. When Lynara realized Rain wasn’t following, she turned around. “Don’t be scared, young one. Fear draws them to us.” She glared at Faramond, and then continued down the stairs. Rain reluctantly followed.
***
When they reached the bottom, the torchlight illuminated the ceiling two stories above. There were more spider webs than on the ground floor, and some of them seemed even thicker. Rain stayed away from the webs, not only heeding Lynara’s warning, but afraid she’d get stuck if she touched them. The books on the shelves around them were larger, and most of them had dark leather covers. They walked slowly down the widest aisle, made by two bookcases.
“Stay quiet,” Lynara said in a whisper. “The book should be down this way.” She pointed to the right, down a skinnier aisle, and the guard nodded and went ahead with the torch. It was harder not to touch the webs here, squeezing between the two bookcases. The healer stopped midway down the aisle, searching the book spines. Many of the titles were in a strange runic language, and those in the common tongue were in such stylized script that in the darkness, Rain couldn’t read any of the titles.
“Oh dear,” Lynara said, fingers hovering over a particularly thick volume. “It’s covered in webs. Almost as if someone put them there…”
“Can’t you cut them away?” Rain asked.
“Touching these webs in any way will awaken the spiders. Even if we managed to not get stuck to them, they’d be upon us in seconds.” Lynara groaned.
“This is why we brought soldiers!” Faramond exclaimed. “Just cut them away and we’ll make a run for it.”
Lynara looked at Rain for confirmation. “This is essential to the survival of the people of Ellwood, yes?” Rain nodded. “And if Myrna is the one behind it all, it will be essential to our own survival as well. Let’s do it.” She nudged the guard with the torch and pointed at the book she wanted. “Carefully cut through those webs.”
He nodded and handed the torch to her, then took out his dagger with a leather-gloved hand. After quickly slicing through the thick spider webs so that the book was clean, he gingerly pulled the volume out of the bookcase. Lynara took it from him, but before he completely let go, he found one of his gloves’ fingers stuck to a residual web. He took off the glove and let it hang on the web that now dangled from the bookcase. Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to get the web off of his dagger either, he reluctantly let it rest where the book had been.
A strange hissing noise began, and grew louder. They began to walk back the way they came, but once they were all in the wider aisle, horrible screeching sounded from the depths of the room. Rain couldn’t calm down, no matter how much Lynara soothed her, and she was afraid the fear was exciting the spiders. The two guards that hadn’t helped with the web cutting shifted position so they stood between the group and the screeching coming from down the aisle.
“I’m sorry, Lynara,” Rain whispered in a quavering voice.
“It’s not your fault. We touched the webs,” she said. Red eyes opened in the darkness down the aisle. “Run!”
Spiders skittered toward them. The first ones were a few inches wide, but behind those were larger ones, and so on until Rain could see eyes so large in the darkness that she couldn’t believe they belonged to a spider.
“Come on, Rain!” Lynara yelled, already far down the aisle. The two guards stayed where they were and the other ran toward the staircase, cutting through the smaller spiders that had begun to crawl along the wall behind them, weaving webs to block off the exit.
Rain finally got a grip on her reflexes and dashed toward Lynara and Faramond. The guard hacked away at both webs and spiders, each one a couple inches wide with an incredibly large abdomen. They were all jet black except for a small yellow spot on their bellies. Each time one was killed, a horrible scream rent through the darkness around them, and the other spiders screamed as if in pain, as if they were all connected. The guard drew a second sword from his belt and handed it to Faramond, while Lynara sent out orange bolts of light, cringing with effort. Each bolt of light seemed to vaporize the spiders when hit. Once they fought through the mass of smaller spiders, the guard dashed up the stairs and the rest followed.
At the top of the staircase, Lynara held out the torch so the two guards who were still fighting could see where they were. The guard who had come up the stairs with them yelled down to his comrades.
“Come on! You’re nearly there!”
They soon heard the sound of tearing spider flesh. The larger spiders were upon them. Momentarily the screeching stopped, and then came a scream higher in pitch than any so far.
“The queen spider!” Lynara whispered.
One of the two guards below found the staircase and after muffled yelling, ran up the stairs alone. Human screams soon followed.
“Healer, close the entry before the spiders take any more of us,” the guard said.
“Are you sure?” She gave the guard a grave look.
“Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain,” he said, voice cracking. “It’s how he wanted to go.”
Lynara put her hand over the stone in the wall that had opened the floor, and the floor materialized again over the stairwell, turning to stone just as another scream from the guard was heard from below.
“I’m so sorry,” Rain said to the guard.
“He told me to tell you to stay strong and keep going. If our whole race is in danger, he was willing to sacrifice himself for your purpose.” A tear ran down his cheek.
Rain nodded, nearly in tears herself. Someone had died for her mission. There was certainly no turning back now.
The other guard clapped the teary-eyed one on the back. “Let’s go,” he said, emotions in check.