Part 5 Chapter 3

CHAPTER 34

 

 

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lraym cannot remember where he is, all he can see is blackness. His eyes go from side to side, then up and down. In any direction still black nothingness is all he can see. He tries to move but it comes out sluggish, barely moving at all.

  He is sleeping.

  With this sudden realisation his is able to concentrate, to move more. It is still sluggish, but it is better. He moves around a little more, but then realises that if he is sleeping, or was at least, he is seeing blackness because his eyes are closed.

  He suddenly feels something touch him, shake him. The touch is soft but urgent. With the shaking he hears a mumbled sound. He cannot understand it but believes it is one, maybe two words spoken as urgent as the shaking.

  He tries once to open them but it is like trying to like an entire stone house. He stops and feels exhausted and starts thinking going back to sleep is good right now. But he fights it, wanting to wake up and tries a second time to open his eyes. The darkness morphs to a sliver of light, he cannot see anything in particular detail but there are basic forms and shapes near him. With one final ounce of strength he opens his eyes and looks around him. 

  Trugaime stops shaking him and telling him to wake up, and backs away slightly to give Olraym room as he sits up. He looks around, though he can now see more than just black emptiness he can barely seeing anything past the fog. This feels familiar to him, but also different. Something has changed, but he cannot remember what it is.

  He thinks back to the last time he saw Divinwood in his dream. He sees himself lying down next to Trugaime just like he was. He sees Trugaime sitting next to him, like she is now. But he cannot remember what happens next. He knows it is important. He thinks again and again of what it could be, he goes through the events of his dream as if he is there again.

  Then he sees it in his mind, the change is he is awake. In his dream he is asleep and Trugaime is a few feet from him with a dagger in her hand. In his dream an arrow is cutting through the air and ending in Trugaime.

  Without thinking he looks over to Trugaime and rushes her onto the ground with him on top protecting her, in the haze of movement she drops her dagger. For a second he thinks he is wrong but then hears a sound above him of something whizzing past them both then the sound ends in a loud thud. 

  He looks up to where he thinks the arrow stopped and sees the back half of it sticking out of the fallen tree. He follows its trajectory to where it came from and sees a figure standing there, the same figure from his dream, the figure he now knows to be Thorne. Through the fog he sees Thorne’s silhouette stand holding what Olraym guesses to be a bow. Thorne side steps and Olraym loses sight of him for a moment. He thinks he may never see him again in time, but his fear is alleviated seconds later when he finds him again.

  He pushes himself off the ground, off Trugaime, and picks up Trugaime’s dagger. When he has it in hand and stands Thorne is already pulling back on his bow and preparing to fire again. Olraym dives out the way though this time no arrow flies by. Olraym realises Thorne saw him dive before firing and is now waiting for him to land; he has made it easy for Thorne.

  When he lands he first hears the thud of his body hitting dirt, then his own grunt of pain as his hand hits a tree root. Third is the twang of thick long string being plucked and the arrow as it flies towards him. He feels he has failed, the dreams and the messages from that cloaked woman that lead him here were all made to help him survive this moment and he has let Thorne win. He closes his eyes and waits for the pain, but it doesn’t come. He reopens them to find Trugaime in front of him, in the arrow’s way. At first he thinks she is going to sacrifice herself but then discovers the arrow has been stopped inches from her by a thick stick she is holding two-handed.

  She tosses the stick aside and raises her crossbow wielding arm with a poison dart already loaded. Just like before Thorne side steps from being between one set of trees to another set. While side stepping he takes out another arrow, puts it on the bow string and pulls it back only slightly, the bow is now pointing down. When he stops again he lifts the bow to aim and pulls the string back as far as it will go.

  For a split second everything is still as Olraym stares at from Thorne then to Trugaime, then back. Both have their weapons ready and are pointing at each other. Nothing seems to be moving, it is as if the entire of Divinwood is holding its breath waiting.

  Trugaime fires her dart and almost but not quite simultaneously Thorne fires his arrow. Time slows as the arrow and dart leave their respective bows and travel through the air. Every second feels like hours as the arrow and dart get closer to their targets. He pays little attention to Trugaime’s dart and focuses on Thorne’s arrow. He can see that unless Trugaime moves the arrow with hit her, probably kill her, and Olraym knows he cannot let that happen, he loves her too much.

  For the second time without thinking Olraym dives for Trugaime and with the momentum the two falls to the ground as the arrow flies, grazing Olraym’s arm, then continues until it is no longer visible.

  The two lie still, unsure of what to do. Trugaime looks up at Olraym and he looks down at her. For a moment they completely forget what is going on around them, it is just Olraym and Trugaime and no one or nothing else. The fog is covering Trugaime and it is making it difficult for him to see her, but not impossible. When he can see her it is like he is seeing her for the first time again. He sees every line and curve of her face.

  Almost as if a spell is broken he remembers what is going on and looks around. He cannot see Thorne so he stands and drags Trugaime up as well. They hold each other close and tight as they search for Thorne where they think he was before. But he isn’t, they cannot even see his silhouette, moving or otherwise.

  The split up, reluctantly letting go of each other, and they search the immediate area. Trugaime loads another dart into the crossbow and Olraym holds the dagger, they both listen for anything, but find nothing. They search the area in a circle with Olraym at one end and Trugaime at the other, when they move on they do it together, never getting closer or further apart, always in a perfect circle.

  “I found him,” Sertia calls out. Olraym rushes to her side and follows her gaze. 

  Thorne is lying on his back, his eyes wide open and still, staring empty upward. His bow is lying next to him and it looks as if he dropped it while still falling. Trugaime’s dart is implanted in his neck, just about his collar. The sight of it makes Olraym grimace as if he is feeling Thorne’s short lived pain.

  While staring down at his lifeless body Olraym thinks he can hear voices. They are not like the whispers the cold breezes carry and they are certainly not coming from Thorne. He looks around and stares at the cloaked woman from his dreams, she is talking to someone but he cannot see anyone else so he thinks she is talking to him. He wonders if she is reals this time and if Trugaime can see her. Before he can ask she turns and sees the cloaked woman as well.

  “Who the hell are they?”

  Olraym becomes confused by the word ‘they’, he can only see one. Olraym takes Trugaime’s hand and they slowly make their way to her. As he gets a closer look he realises Trugaime is right, there are more than one, eleven more to be precise. They all look very similar in that their cloaks are the same colour green although their patterns are different. They are all standing in a line on top of the fallen tree making Olraym and Trugaime look up at an angle. Olraym becomes angry, ‘they have been watching this whole time, and they could have helped’. He stomps over to the and lets go of Trugaime’s hand though she still walks with him.

  “Hey! Hey!”

  The cloaked figures stop talking in hushed voices and now Olraym can feel their eyes on him. He stops a few feet from the tree and has to crane his neck back to look at them, Trugaime stops next to him and takes his hand thinking it might help in some way.

  “Why didn’t you help us?”

  They say nothing.

  “Say something!”

  “We could not help, not you way you speak of,” says the woman in his dreams. Her sudden reply startles Olraym, dimming some of his anger.

  “Why couldn’t you help?” Trugaime asks, taking charge. Half of the figures turn to Trugaime, making her uncomfortable, while the other half stay on Olraym.

  “It is not our place.”

  “Not your place?”

  “We can show events as we did with you,” all twelve figures gesture as one to Olraym, it makes him feel special but not in a good way. “We cannot interfere in any other way, doing so would change things too drastically and that we will not permit.”

  Though this helps Olraym and Trugaime still have some questions.

  “What was all this for?”

  “You were not ready.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were not ready,” she says again. “You were indecisive. You had no desire to rule your lands.”

  “Am I ready now?”

  It is hard to see but all twelve figures give a slight nod.

  “What’s changed?” this comes from Trugaime.

  “You have.” This answer doesn’t come from the figure in Olraym’s dreams but from a male figure next to her. “Without you the thought of being King would never have appealed to him, he was too indecisive. But you have changed that, he has made a decision to come here, to bring you with him, and to deal with your Cult family in a non-violent manner.”

  “How has any of that helped?”

  “Now he wants it.”

  Trugaime looks at Olraym questioningly and he stares back at her for a moment then gives up, sighs loudly, and nods. Trugaime give him a smile that says she isn’t hurt or offended by this news and the fact he didn’t tell her. Her smile makes him give one back, it last only for a moment but it gets the point across. The two look back up to the twelve figures standing on the tree.

  The questions keep moving around in Olraym’s head he finds it hard to hold onto one long enough to be able to ask it, just as he moves his lips the question is pushed out by the others. Just when he grabs hold of one and is about to ask he is beaten to it.

  “Why did we have to come here?”

  Just by coincidence this is the question Olraym was about to ask and he becomes intrigued by both Trugaime for thinking along with him and what the answer might be.

  “It was needed for your survival.”

  “If all this was to stop Thorne killing us then why not do it in Tov’ra?”

  “You were still in your dungeon cell.”

  This answer confuses both Olraym and Trugaime and their expressions tell the twelve figures to continue.

  “The visions we gave Prince Olraym are the only reason he went to the dungeon to release you. Without them, you would still be there and not be here when you are needed.”

  “So you brought us here so she can save me?”

  “That is correct.”

  The twelve figures become silent and wait patiently for the next round of questions. But even though Olraym had too many, most he finds to be redundant with what they have told him.

  “So what do we do now?” this question comes from Trugaime, again taking charge.

  “Now you are ready to rule.”

   “…when you say ‘you are ready’ what do you mean?”

  “Now you are ready to rule.” She says again in the same way, no difference at all from the first time.

  But Olraym and Trugaime know what she, and all of them, actually means. They mean for both of them to rule. Olraym and Trugaime look at each other. This news shocks Trugaime most of all, not long ago she was an assassin for the Starlight Cult, now twelve strange people that she cannot really give a description of are telling to be Queen of the Highlands.

  Olraym isn’t as shocked as she is about that, his thoughts are on his sister Sertia and his mother Moira. The last time either of them saw Trugaime she was in a dungeon cell after being caught trying to kill him. They are not going to let her live long, at least not freely. He will have to do a lot of persuading very quickly, he hopes it will be fine.

  Olraym then realises that although he is thinking of how to keep her out of trouble whenever it is they get back to Tov’ra, neither he nor Trugaime have said they shouldn’t go back, or shouldn’t rule. He is thinking of being crowned King and she is obviously thinking of being with him. Maybe she is thinking about being crowned Queen. Olraym can imagine the sight of them two walking through the city, their city as King and Queen. He can see them sitting together in the throne room, exploring the halls, having fun, and ruling the Highlands.  They both smile at the same time, which when they see the other smile it makes them smile more.

  “We have succeeded.  You have become who you need to be. Now we must leave.”

  Instead of walking away one by one they seem to fade into nothingness. Fist the ones at both ends, then those next to them and so on and so on.

  “As a final word of advice I tell you this. Give the girl a chance, she may surprise you.”

   Olraym thinks the woman is talking about Trugaime, though he doesn’t understand why she said ‘girl’. Trugaime is thinking the same thing and doesn’t understand either and doesn’t like being called a girl. Neither says anything about it as more and more are disappearing.

  “Wait, will we see you again?”

  “We will meet again someday. We only come when we find we are needed.”

  There are now only the four in the middle left fully formed on the fallen tree and they are quickly disappearing as well.

  “Wait,” this time from Olraym, “who are you?” 

  There is only one left, the female from Olraym’s dreams. She is fading but with Olraym’s question she has slowed down, staying with them a little longer.

  “We are the Twelve.”

  She vanishes, Olraym and Trugaime are the only ones left in Divinwood alive.