Part 1 Chapter 4

 

CHAPTER 4

 

 

D

uring the night Olraym starts twisting and turning in his bed. He is dreaming. In it he is walking through an unnervingly long hall seemingly without end, there is an unnatural light around him, the smell of many different flowers " combined together to become something almost soothing " is wafting from all over and he can hear people whispering. But as he looks around he sees no one that can take responsibility for the whispers.

  Suddenly he stops as in front of him, a cloaked figure appears. It is slightly taller than Olraym and the robes and hood it is wearing is coloured in bright greens and blues. When the figure appears the whispering becomes louder, although Olraym still does not know what is being said. Olraym stares at the figure, feeling the figure’s eyes on him. The figure walks, although it looks to him like gliding, towards him. Unsure of what to do, Olraym slowly backs away. The figure stops moving and raises its hands in a gesture to come forward. He shakes his head and continues to back away. The figures gestures again and resumes walking forward.

  “No!” he screams the sound echo for what feels like forever. Olraym can see the figure move its head but is unsure what it is trying to do. The figure moves its head again, then a third time. It isn’t until the fifth time that he realises what the figure is doing; it is nodding. This scares Olraym more than anything since he now knows the figure can understand him.

  He suddenly backs into a wall that shouldn’t be there, he spins around to see the brick wall. He looks around more and recognises this place; it is the main dining hall. The unnatural light is gone, replaced by darkness and the soothing smell of flowers is replaced by something rotting. He can see his family sitting at their respective chairs but something is wrong. He creeps to the nearest one, Moira, and as he does so a torch near him is set ablaze, creating light around him. What he sees makes him jump back in a yelp and cringe in horror and disgust. Moira is sitting there with her head leaning back covered head to toe in blood. Olraym takes a closer look.

   It is her blood.

  There is a wide gruesome slash across her throat. The rest of the torches are set ablaze lighting up the whole room. All others are the same way including himself, except one; Thorne. He is nowhere to be seen.

  The strange whispering is heard again except this time it is coming from the remains of his family. It sounds somewhat clearer now and Olraym can hear it is just one word repeated over and over again like a chant.

  He rushes to the exit but stops when he sees the figure in blocking it. Its arms are down at its sides.

  “What do you want?!” he screams, fear overriding anything else in his tone. The chanting from his dead family stops. The silence is deafening. Then the figure says one word in an obvious female voice.

  “Change,” it says.

He wakes from his nightmare in a cold sweat.

 

ø

 

Sertia is sitting at a desk in her chambers with a small oval mirror in front of her and her personal maiden behind her. Her maiden, Kaila, is slowly and delicately working through Sertia’s hair to make it a braid. Kaila is a small woman, just a year younger than Sertia with light blond hair reaching just above her waist and green eyes, many comments have been made that they look like the forests of Divinwood.

  “I trust your sleep was undisturbed last night,” says Kaila, she and Sertia have known each other for many years, and while what they have may not be friendship, it is very deep.

  “Your trust is well placed, I slept soundly,” is Sertia’s reply, she stares ahead at the mirror, watching Kaila’s progress.

  “Good… “

  “What is it?”

  “I have to ask… are you sure about Lord Olraym?”

  Sertia doesn’t answer, at first, and then she turns around, forcing Kaila to stop braiding her hair. This slightly irritates Kaila, although she doesn’t show it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Are you sure he is the right choice for king?”

  Sertia turns back around and Kaila resumes braiding her hair. Kaila goes as a steady pace, her face straight and empty, she hasn’t got nervous or anything from the conversation. This is one of the many things Sertia likes about her.

  “The choice isn’t mine to make,” Sertia says with an attempt at a blank factual tone. The attempt failed.

  “We both know that hasn’t stopped you,” retorts Kaila, mocking Sertia’s tone. This makes Sertia laugh.

  “Alright Kaila…I would prefer Olraym to be king because he is easier. Thorne would never listen to my advice, no matter what advice I give. But Olraym would listen and with the right words at the right time would follow my advice no matter what.”

  They are quiet for a moment while Kaila finishes braiding Sertia’s hair.

  “Basically he is the better choice.”

 

ø

 

Thorne is wandering through the castle, not wanting to be anywhere in particular, just wandering. He thinks of his brother’s recent arrival and the time Olraym spent away. He thinks of Sertia.

  He loves his family, always has. It is just circumstances that he has to be the way he is, has to do the things he feels necessary.

  He has wanted the crown since he was a child. He can still remember the exact moment he desired it. He was nine; he was in the throne room standing next to the throne where his father sat and his mother was sitting on a smaller less imposing chair.

  Staring at them from the other side of the room are three people, they seem wealthy and important to Thorne due to their clothes and poise. Along with them are several royal knights all of them standing at attention staring straight ahead.

  From what Thorne can tell the three wealthy important men are having some argument but Thorne cannot say what it is about. He thinks it is about property that one has but the other two feel they have a claim to, or possibly it is about a woman. They all give Gremborlin their side of the arguments one at a time, though one or two shout during the third’s time.

  Thorne stares at the three arguing then his calm father. Whenever one interrupts another a small wave from Gremborlin stops them allowing the talks to continue. Thorne cannot believe the respect these three show his father, the power of his presence. He feels drawn to it, he wants it.

  An hour after first coming in the three men finishes their arguments to the problem. Gremborlin, calm and silent at the start, now stands and gives his ruling. Thorne pays this no attention but sees is displeases two of the men, though after giving a small grunt in anger they say nothing more and soon all three leave. By this time Thorne made up his mind, he wants this power no matter what.

  When it was just him and Sertia he felt safe. He spent a lot of time with her and they played together when they were young. But when Olraym was born that changed, his feeling of safety is gone. The throne is not securely his. For a time he felt better with the thought that since he is older, is the first born, the throne is his anyway. But this is thrown away as he finds Gremborlin siding with Olraym more and more as time goes by. He feels angry at Olraym, though he doesn’t want to it’s not his fault. But he stays away from Olraym.

  He finds it funny later when Olraym shows signs of not wanting the throne or the responsibility that comes with it as Gremborlin plans, and Thorne has to stop himself from feeling so giddy in public when Olraym tells his parents he has had enough and leaves Tov’ra. But though Olraym is gone Thorne still feels that his father will give the crown and the throne to Olraym. He tries to make himself more worthy in his father’s eyes: learning more about ruling like his father, being better at making judgements, learning more about the Highlands in general. But nothing works.

  Over time he spends less and less with family or anyone. Until he meets Dunarn while traversing Tov’ra one night. He isn’t a friend or anything close to that. He just an underling, someone that he can order around and not fear that what was ordered won’t get done. With Dunarn around it is almost as if Thorne has the crown already. He has authority and respect from Dunarn.  It was a nice dream.

  But now with Olraym back and just as Gremborlin is dying that dream is being shattered, the crown will go to Olraym and Thorne will be left out in the mud. No he cannot and will not let that happen. Not after all this.

  Thorne stops and looks around. He is near a garden and sees Olraym sitting on one of the stone benches. He walks up to him.

 

ø

 

The early morning is uneventful for Olraym, but he can’t stop thinking of his nightmare. Is that what it was? He tries to forget it as he dresses and leaves, heading to the main dining hall. When he reaches it he stops short of entering, inside all his family, all but his father, are seated eating, talking, and giving each other wide hopeful smiles. But he only sees them as he did in his nightmare; bleeding profusely from their throats, their natural colour draining with every released drop. Staring up at the ceiling; doing the impossible of chanting that chant. It takes him a few breathes to calm down and enter. They do not perceive his pause and so did not stop, but they do somewhat when he enters, giving a forced smile, but only to greet him. They resume their talks while Olraym does his best to join in. as time goes by his smile becomes more genuine until he completely forgets about his nightmare.

  The breakfast meal ends and well-dressed servants enter to remove the remains. Thorne is the first to leave and he does so in a hurry, Sertia and Moira leave next, they do so together still talking in a concerned but optimistic tone. Olraym stays for a moment, considering what to do next, then leaves. By the time he does so the table is clear.

  Deciding not to leave the castle grounds yet even though he wishes to explore the city, he walks slowly through the halls. Those in the halls stop and bow as he passes. He nods back at them but doesn’t try to talk to them or anything else.

  He soon reaches a large open garden; it is an elegantly simple square area with hedge sculptures of horses on their hind legs at each end. In the middle the garden becomes somewhat circular with grass areas ending to form a piece of a circle, like someone or something ripped it out to look that way, there is a few clay pots containing flowers and then in the very centre of the garden there is a small circular pond with three rounded stone benches covering the perimeter around it.

  Olraym walks to the nearest stone bench and sits down. The light from the rising sun is finding it difficult to reach Olraym due to the castle’s high walls, but Olraym doesn’t mind. He closes his eyes enjoying his newfound serenity. His mind swirls around the events of the past few days; his time on the Tervunmal Islands, his dying father, his recent nightmare, especially his recent nightmare. Or more precisely, the cloaked figure in his nightmare. ‘Who was she? She said change, change what?’ he thinks harder and harder, questions coming and going before he can take hold of her. ‘Who was she any-’

  “What are you doing?” says a male voice. Olraym opens his eyes with a sudden force that makes him jump and notices Thorne standing in front of him with a curious expression.

  “Thinking,” is Olraym’s reply, not wanting to give too much away. Thorne’s curiosity grows and his face hardens a little.

  “Thinking of what?” asks Thorne, his tone getting harder too. Olraym notices but says nothing, although he does give Thorne a glare.

  “Thinking of the past week’s events,” at this Thorne nods in understanding and sits next to Olraym.

  “No one could have foreseen this, and even if they could I doubt anything could have been done.” Olraym says nothing while Thorne watches from the corner of his eye. “Did you go and see him?” he asks, already knowing the answer.

  Olraym nods, his mood worsening as he remembers his father lying on his bed. He thinks about walking away, finding another place for quiet serenity, but decides not to, thinking it might be what Thorne wants.

  “He wants me to replace him,” Thorne nods, knowing this too.

  They talk for several more minutes. Olraym tells Thorne of his visit with their parents. Thorne doesn’t ask where he had been before; he doesn’t care. Not really. He had hoped Olraym had stayed away. In the end Olraym decides to leave, with Thorne watching him and not caring what Thorne thinks. And although he doesn’t admit it, the talk with Thorne has helped him.

 

ø

 

After his talk with Olraym, Thorne leaves the castle. He stops just outside the castle gate and takes a look at his surroundings; the dirty peasants that pass him give a slight bow while they avert eye contact and rush along, the light wind carries with it the threat of the stench of animals. Even though the smell isn’t heavy Thorne already feels like vomiting and he quickly leaves in the opposite direction.

  He walks though many streets not really concentrating on which direction he is going, when he suddenly stops and finds himself in front of a small tavern. He stares at the tavern for a minute and realises this is where he wants to be. He enters to the sight of a mostly empty tavern. There are some people still there but they are either patrons that unconscious from the night before or they are working quietly in the tavern. Thorne walks toward an old man sitting on a wooden chair in the far corner and sits on another chair in front of him. They obviously recognise each other and give curt nods in greeting.

  Thorne reaches into his pocket and takes out a gold coin and drops it onto that table, the old man takes it and puts it into his own pocket and nods again.

  Thorne leaves the tavern and walks to an alley behind the tavern. It is narrow and muddy but empty which is why Thorne likes it.

  He waits in the alley for a full thirty minutes, the faint sound of birds slowly fade out to make way for the city waking up, when Dunarn walks towards him. To Thorne Dunarn looks a little cleaner than his previous visit to the castle but still looks dishevelled. Thorne also notices a bruise around Dunarn’s left eye beginning to form.  Dunarn notices him staring at it.

  “I had a run in with old acquaintances,” he says as he looks away.

  “Do they look as bad as you?” Thorne questions, and after a hesitant moment Dunarn nods. The two are silent as they watch the occasional early morning person walk passed them minding their own business. “I’ve just had a talk with Olraym,” Thorne says as the area clears.

  “Does something need to be done?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.”

  “…Tonight?”

  “No, we wait until after father’s death. It will not be long now.”

  “I will those I know, inform them of what need doing.”

  “Make sure none of them connect to either of us.”

  Dunarn nods in understanding and, after looking cautiously around, leaves the alley and blends into the growing crowds. Thorne watches Dunarn disappear and leaves in the other direction, back home to the castle.