In which the journey beginsA Chapter by Hannah EstarChapter 10 of The Time-TellerChapter 10
“Pyralis?” she said. Her head felt numb and throbbed slightly. “Jonah? Anyone?” She looked around, but couldn’t see very much. There was a pile of stones, held above her head by the boulder pushing painfully into her stomach. She could see small slits of sunlight through the stones, and she couldn’t feel her legs at all.
“Help,” She struggled a scream out of her sore and aching lungs. “Is any… anyone out there?” She closed her eyes, and she tried to move her hands, finding that only the left one responded. When she moved it, she disturbed the pile above her, and a rock fell on her head, knocking her out cold.
Megan didn’t know how long she had been trapped by the stones, but when she woke up, she was in a large, high-ceilinged room. She was lying on a pile of pillows on the ground and noticed many others in the same position. Parts of the walls were ruined, and there were some holes that led to different rooms and passages beyond them. Megan felt her stomach and legs. Feeling had returned, and it seemed as though she had never been pinned down by those huge stones. Pyralis strolled into the room through one of the holes in the wall and began walking towards her. When he was about three feet from where she lay, he propped himself up on his staff and stared at her with his unseeing eyes.
“Pyralis,” Megan began. “What…”
“We won the battle,” Pyralis interrupted. “But with much loss.” Megan breathed slowly. She did not want to hear about any more losses.
“Gethin?” she asked.
“He escaped,” Pyralis said mildly. “I could not keep him any longer after you fell. It took all my energy to hold up the spell. You did very well, better than I would have expected for so little practice. I believe, however, that I may have been wiser to leave you out of the spell casting and simply do it on my own.” Megan stared at him. She had worked so hard, and now he was saying that she might as well have just stayed out of it. Her high dislike for Pyralis burned vigorously within her mind, and she bit hard on her tongue to keep from saying some of the things she so desperately wanted to say.
“I owe you for saving my life,” Pyralis said without the slightest hint of any emotion. “I will help you find him. His army has been considerably weakened thanks to our combined powers.”
“What powers?” Megan asked, refusing to believe that she could, in any way, be like Pyralis. Pyralis raised an eyebrow.
“We will have to leave immediately. I won’t be able to track him for long. I healed you, so you should be in good shape. You did sustain some magical damage, but it shouldn’t pose too much of a problem.”
“Magical damage?” Megan asked confused.
“Yes,” Pyralis said. “I managed to heal it on the surface. You can only detect certain injuries caused by magic when there is a specific form of light present. I don’t have the necessary resources here to produce said light, which is why I was not able to better heal your injuries and am not sure exactly how badly they will affect you. I am decently positive though that you will feel relatively normal.”
“Relatively,” Megan repeated, appalled. Was Pyralis even capable of feeling for people?
“When I said we had to leave immediately, I meant it,” Pyralis drawled. “So, please gather some clothing and any other materials that you may require. Then, meet me at what is left of the gate.” When he had finished, Pyralis left Megan in the large room, having no idea what she should get or if she even wanted to meet Pyralis at the gate. Megan stood up, and made her way around the semi-collapsed castle to retrieve clothing and some descent food before finally meeting Pyralis at the gate of the long journey ahead.
“Finally,” Pyralis drawled when he saw her and began his swift walk down the cobblestone road, with the occasional pause to lean on his staff. Megan had no choice but to follow him. In this strange world, she was alone. She did not know any of the customs, nor did she know the geography or what to expect. She felt as though she were on some bizarre reality TV show. All she could think of was that her mother’s murderer was still out there, and she needed to find him even if it meant following the man that caused her to leave when she might have been able to save her. That thought echoed throughout Megan’s mind. She knew deep inside that she would not have been able to stop the magic, but she couldn’t help feeling useless. She had to find him. It was imperative.
“Pyralis,” Megan asked after the silence had stretched for an unbearable length of time. “What was that spell we cast?” This had been bothering Megan. She didn’t like the thought of having done something that she knew nothing about, especially when lives were at stake.
“Well,” Pyralis said, pausing slightly. “It was what the inexperienced would call gray magic.”
“Gray magic?” Megan asked.
“Yes,” Pyralis said. “Light, dark, and then a mixture of the two would be gray. However, I did mention that this term was used only by the inexperienced.”
“Then, what was it?” Megan asked. Pyralis chuckled, shaking his head, and would say no more. The cobblestone road lasted several miles, and then, it forked into two separate paths. One led on for a few miles, running into a small wood and eventually turning into a dirt path, barely large enough for two to walk abreast. The other lead on into a field of some very tall plants, none less than sixty inches. They looked almost like wheat, but were a much richer color of yellow.
“Now,” Pyralis said, sitting cross-legged on the stones. “It is time we discussed some important matters. After all, this is your mission, not mine.” Megan sat down, wearily facing the man that she believed the cause of almost all her misery.
“What?” Megan asked.
“Don’t you want to know where we’re going?” Pyralis drawled, facing the girl who knew so little, but possessed some magic, which he could neither understand nor penetrate.
“Oh,” Megan said. She suddenly remembered that the purpose of their journey was actually Megan’s revenge. She had not even thought about this fact because she’d gotten so use to following Pyralis without having a clue where they were going or what they were going to do there.
“Well, we’re going to find Gethin, right?” she said awkwardly.
“Yes,” Pyralis said. “Now, I know that he went south. His weakened energy, drained from attempting to quickly resist the spell, which he had not expected, was easily traceable at first. He was obviously heading south. Now, Gethin is a very powerful sorcerer, and I would not have even considered going after him with someone as young as yourself if it had not been for Tempus’ confidence in you. Sometimes, though, Tempus is difficult to read, so I would advise you to watch yourself and prepare for the worst. That road,” Pyralis pointed toward the field, “leads south, so we will be taking it. I am not sure where Gethin intends to go, but I know a few areas in that direction that would attract a man like Gethin in the condition he is in. By the time we catch up to him though, he will be mostly if not all the way recovered. The first place, and hopefully the last, we are going to search is a lake. We must go down this road for a while and then, turn onto an almost invisible path, which leads to the lake. That is the first place we should look. If he is not there, then we will proceed to the next place, and so on. Hopefully, you will learn something on the way.”
“Okay,” Megan said. She felt a little better now that Pyralis had finally told her something.
“Oh,” Pyralis added. “Whatever you do, don’t get lost.” Then, he stood up and began walking once more with Megan trailing behind him. When Pyralis said that they would be going down that road for a while, he actually meant fourteen days. The field did not end. They camped on the side of the road, one of them keeping watch, while the other slept. Megan was very tired. Three days into the journey she became so tired of lack of any sound other than the occasional ‘This is where we’ll be sleeping’ and ‘time to go’ from Pyralis, that she resorted to asking Pyralis about various plants. Every time she saw an unfamiliar one, she would take a piece of it, hand it to Pyralis and ask what it was. Then, Pyralis would go on to tell her what sort of flower, if any, it produced, what it’s various properties were in terms of potions, and sometimes these explanations would last for hours and hours, while Megan looked for other plants. This made the trip much more bearable for Megan. She thought less about Gethin and Pyralis and tried to concentrate on the entirely unrelated topic of plants.
Suddenly, in the middle of his description of a very odd looking, purplish fern, Pyralis stopped.
“Here,” he said, becoming slightly whiter. He turned into the weeds, which looked just like the ones next to them. Megan followed him. After being smacked in the face several times by stray plants, she finally found herself on an extremely narrow dirt path, lined with black stones. Pyralis still stood in front of her. He sighed deeply
“Well,” he drawled. “Almost their.” Megan caught her breath. Her heart beat fast within her chest, reminding her that the man who had destroyed her home and family might be just ahead of them. She breathed deeply and followed Pyralis silently. He was walking much more slowly now, but it did not take Megan long to see the lake. The path opened ahead of them into a very large clearing, surrounded by smooth, black stones. The lake took up the majority of it, with about a foot of dirt before the stones on each side.
“What now?” Megan asked softly in half disappointment, half relief. “He isn’t here.” Pyralis held up his hand for silence.
“Do not be so sure,” he spoke in almost a whisper. “Nothing is ever as it seems. It has been a long time since I have been here, but I am sure that the air and the entire feel of this place is different, but I cannot quite place it.” Megan held her breath. Maybe, he was here after all. Perhaps, he could become invisible. He was, after all, a sorcerer. Pyralis took a few steps and sat down about three feet from the lake. Megan walked up to it and peered into the waters. It was so beautiful. The black water glistened in the sunlight and seemed to shift slightly back and forth. Megan wondered why it did not reflect anything. The movement of the ripples was so mesmerizing. Megan found herself getting lost in their motion. Down, she went, down into the water. The dream flashed before her eyes, another life, another place. Her home, her father and her mother seemed even more distant now than her dream, and Pyralis was screaming her name.
“Don’t get lost!” she heard him as if his voice was coming through water. Megan opened her eyes. She could see the motion of the ripples above her as she floated slowly down towards the bottom of the lake. She tried to swim away, but something held her, pulling her slowly down. She was drowning, and it wouldn’t let go. Megan turned her head around. She could make out the blurred image of something or things with many slanted, yellow eyes. Megan tried to cry out, but only swallowed more water. She could hear Pyralis’ voice getting farther and farther away. Slimy tentacles wrapped themselves around her waste and arms. She flailed wildly with what energy she had. She needed air. She needed to breathe.
“Don’t get lost!” They were wrapping themselves around her. She was going to become nourishment for this vile doom at the bottom of the dark lake, which showed no reflection.
“Don’t get lost!” I know exactly where I am, Megan thought. I’m drowning. I’m going to die. Megan breathed her last breath.
“It’s an illusion!” she screamed. “I can’t breath under water.” Megan looked down into the lake and fell back away from it. She was dry.
“I was almost lost,” she told Pyralis with sudden understanding. “How did you know about this evil place. It’s horrible. I was actually going to die, wasn’t I? Die inside my own mind.” Megan didn’t know how she had suddenly realized the illusion. It was very strange to her, and she didn’t like it. She was sick of surprises.
“Yes,” Pyralis answered her, standing up. “And, I know of this place because Gethin and I came here when we were boys.” © 2008 Hannah Estar |
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Added on July 10, 2008 Author
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