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The King's Challenge #41

TKC 41

We run to get away from the rain of mud, and Damin starts screaming, “Get out! Leave Normur now!”

People are soon in the streets despite the weather, too many of them. They impede our progress and swiftly drown out Damin’s continuous warning shouts.

Finally I pull him to a halt in a recessed doorway. “What?” I demand of him.

Heaving, he says, “Underground water is pushing up and it will explode from every hole it can find to do so.” He draws repeated breaths. “It must have poured down in the countryside and all that is now coming this way. Last time this happened, centuries ago, a large part of the plateau collapsed.”

Dread overcomes me. The entire city could tumble into the marshes. “And that thing under the bridge?”

“What thing?”

Damin did not see it. He merely followed my instincts, for it was my instinct that saw danger as something manifest. I am not certain whether to be relieved or horrified. Never do I want to see such a creature again.

“Never mind,” I mutter. “We need a high place, somewhere to shout warning from.”

Damin nods jerkily. “I know where. Come.”

We run. Damin has my hand and pulls me in his wake, shouldering people out the way. As we go, we give warning, but it is doubtful many hear it.

The clock tower comes into view. Damin kicks the door in and we hurtle up countless stone stairs.

“There’s a gong for alarm,” Damin gasps.

“Go!” I heave. “I will follow. Go!”

He releases my hand and sprints up. Desperation creates adrenaline, but I cannot keep up with him. My chest is on fire and my legs are dead under me.

Moments later a mighty clashing sound reverberates into the city. I cover my ears.

7 Wonders of Middle Earth

The King's Challenge #40

TKC 40

A gargling scream takes our attention from personal issues. Damin and I lean convulsively over the bridge, for the sound seems to come from under us. There is nothing to see, but the otherworldly shriek continues.

“Go that way,” Damin points and turns to run back the way we came.

I race across the bridge to the other side. From opposite ends, we descend to the water’s edge. The sound is human, if desperate, but what is below does not appear as human at all. As I crouch to stare into the gloom under the arch, my instincts warn me. Something is not right.

Damin is about to enter the shallow pond on the other side and I hurtle to my feet and gesture wildly at him, shaking my head with intent. He sees me, thank the stars, and stops.

The screaming transforms into laughter, the manic kind able to raise even the dead into flight.

A glint tells me Damin has his dagger to hand. Looking down, I discover I have mine as well. I do not remember reaching for it. Together we then slowly pace away from the water and Damin gestures for me to wait. Swiftly he turns and sprints across the bridge to my side. Again the gargling scream erupts.

It is akin to tales we grew up with, the monsters under the bridge stories, but this is beyond frightening. What is it? Slime and mud oozed over something misshapen, and it seemed to cling to the underside of the arch as if afraid of drowning in the shallows below.

I frown. As if afraid.

I grab Damin’s hand and we run. “Something bad is about to happen,” I gasp at him.

It does. With a sound akin to burbling thunder, the pond explodes in a rain of sludge.

Scrolls today

The King's Challenge #39

TKC 39

In the gloom of a rainy day, in a city about to be abandoned, with life changing around us by the minute, Damin turns to me and breaks my heart.

“Alyssa is a good person, Lyra, and I did sleep with her, if that is what you want to know.”

I do not want to know. I swallow. Of course five years have passed and I did not expect Damin to remain celibate, and yet I hoped he would. As I have been, not that suitors knocked at my door.

Shrugging, I jerk around and stride along the wet streets. Damin follows, wisely saying no more. I do not watch where I go. By some fate, when I need it most, the close buildings abruptly give way to open space.

I am amazed by the park spread before us. A pond, bridge, trees, benches. Silence and serenity. I need clarity … and space appears. Is this inner instinct?

“Lyra.”

Shaking my head, I make my way onto the stone bridge. I stare into the water. Raindrops form circles and spirals. When Damin is beside me, I look up. “Did you love her?”

“For a time, yes. I questioned everything I was and she made me forget. I could not hear her the way I hear you and it was a comfort.”

“Why did it end?”

He stares into the water. “I heard you one night as if you were beside me as you are now. You were sobbing, so hurt, agony in your soul. Your face …” He takes my face into his hands and shifts aside hair covering my left temple to touch a scar there. “They stoned you, two eyes. I wanted to kill someone. I knew then I loved you more than life. I ended it that same night.”

100 ways to say 'GREAT'

The King's Challenge #38

TKC 38

Mirlin had already paid the mapmaker and the wizened little man presents us with ten copies when we visit his dark den nestled in a backstreet. This is good news, for now we do not need to wait to continue with our mission.

The best news, however, lies in what he tells us.

“The underground knows. We are set to start walking to the fort marked, on the night of the two moons.” He beams up. “My son is a strong lad and will lead us well. We have our own map.”

“How many will walk out of Normur?” Damin asks, his entire body relaxing as if someone has waved a magic wand over him.

“The majority, Damin Mur. We estimate around twelve thousand. Only the rich and the too old will stay behind.”

I look up at the little man. He is a brother of the undertaker at the deadhouse in the lower city, must be. “The rich are not all bad, sir.”

He nods. “I am aware, but we have not been able to speak with anyone who will listen. Perhaps that is your task before you call to others beyond this city, my lady.”

Inhaling, I say, “I am not a lady …”

The man shakes his head. “We heard what happened, how folk walked through the flood unharmed. You are our lady.”

Tears prick at my lids.

He continues. “Have a care who you speak to, my lady. We will leave here fighting for every step if we need to, but would prefer to walk out in peace.”

We thank him then and take our leave. On the cobbles outside, Damin turns to me. “I know who we should tell in higher society. Her name is Alyssa.”

The manner in which he says her name makes me suspicious. “Alyssa, is it?”

Old Soul

The King's Challenge #37

TKC 37

In the morning Attis leads us to the small space he and Mirlin share in Normur. It will mean a few days to have copies of the map made, and we do not have coin enough to remain at the inn.

It is a hovel and I barely mask my shudder when Attis beams at us. For a boy alone out in the big world, it is no doubt a sanctuary. I would rather take to the road again and sleep under a tree than accept this, but then, I am a country girl.

“Thank you, Attis,” I murmur.

The boy dips his head. “I’ll be back at sunset with a platter. Madam allows me a meal, and I’ll just heap a bit extra.” Winking, he vanishes back into the awakening streets.

Damin is staring at me. “You are a snob, Lyra.”

“Why? Because I have standards?”

“Fortunately I am one too,” he says, grinning at my snappishness. I give him the finger and he collapses in laughter. His gusts of mirth from the edge of Attis’ cot go on … until I realise he has started weeping.

“Damin?” I whisper, kneeling before him.

“So many dead,” he gargles. “Many of them friends. Those poor kids, one day running the boards, the next floating in filthy …”

“Hush,” I murmur, taking him into my arms. This is the Damin I grew up with, the one ever compassionate, feeling others’ pain as if it was his own.

With his head on my shoulder, Damin mumbles through his tears. “Do you know what a mind is at the moment of death, Lyra? A knot of fear. Red suns become entangled with black strings and hurtle about a purple vessel … the kids … they become calm … small blue flowers …”

I hold him.

The wise man

The King's Challenge #36

TKC 36

Attis again opens the inn’s back door to us. He proceeds to lead us through a busy kitchen. The hour is yet early and meals are still being served. Attis, bless him, has the presence of mind to snag two loaded platters.

Swiftly we are in the same room as before. Clothes we discarded there sit stacked neatly on the bed.

“Told madam you’d be back,” Attis says on a grin, handing us our dinner.

I kiss him on his cheeks, take my plate and eat like someone starving. Damin is more formal. “You are a worthy friend, Attis,” he says with hand over heart. Attis grins and shoves his plate at him. Laughing, Damin starts eating.

The boy hunkers before us. “Rumour is that the lower city is empty. Some laugh and say it’s because everyone drowned, and others whisper that folk walked to somewhere safe. I can’t go look; the edge is unsafe and there’s a barrier up.”

“Both,” Damin murmurs. “Half drowned, half left.” Abruptly he stiffens, spoon in the air. “Wait. Mirlin is your uncle you said.”

Attis shrugs. “Not by blood. We met on the road outside Normur and made a deal. Looked better to be uncle and nephew, and we’d watch out for each other.”

“You sister?” I ask.

“She’s much older than me, lives up north.”

“You are quite the liar.” I glare at the tousle-haired boy. “Why were you so frightened of me the night I arrived in the city?”

“He told me, Mirlin did, of the woman with two eyes, how she would save people. I didn’t believe him, and then you came. Scared me, it did, for then his story about the thing in the sky could be real too and …” Attis lapses into silence, and then, “I’m going with you.”