Moirai
Chapter 19

I rushed over toLoni, relieved to see that she wassimply unconscious, and roused her. She didn’t seem concussed and I couldn’tsee any injuries, but I asked her just to be sure.

“No.” Shemurmured dazedly. “I just...remember them shooting something at me.” She feltaround the back of her neck for something, pulling out a tiny dart. Not poison,I presumed...some sort of sleep dart then?

“Them?” I askedurgently.

She was suddenlyinstantly awake. “Oh my gosh, Alnya, they took Mayran!”

She tried to situp, but I gently kept her lying down. “Hey, hey, hey, hang on, we don’t knowwhat they gave you. Just wait a second. Whotook Mayran?”

“A hoard ofErkings.” She answered.” Probably about thirty of them. They came out ofnowhere and shot us both with those darts before we even saw them. They musthave taken him to Indina!”

“At least theyleft you here.” I said.

Despite my calmexterior, inside my entire brain was in panic mode. Indina’s words from my lastdream returned to me, about how eagre she was to see Mayran and Loni as well asme. What was she going to do to him?

“He’s going tobe utterly terrified, having to go back there, and who knows what she’s doingto him.” Loni cried, echoing my thoughts.

She made to situp again, and this time I let her.

Right, calm downand breathe, I told myself. She wouldn’t kill him. Not yet, at least. She’susing him as bait, as yet another reason for me to get to her castle, just incase I decided to turn back now. He was safe, at least until we got there.

“Well,” Isighed, standing and pulling Loni to her feet. “Let’s add rescuing him to ourlist of impossible tasks.”

Loni took a deepbreath and nodded. “Right.” She looked around. “One thing is positive; theyleft the horses. If we ride as fast as we can through the rest of the forest,Mayran said we should reach Druge before sundown. He was going to suggest wewait on the outskirts of the city until tomorrow, before heading around it tothe castle...but given the circumstances...” She left it hanging for a momentbefore asking, “Are you ready?”

I thought aboutthat. Was I ready to face Indina?

I closed myeyes. Voices and images swirled around my head; Kasanda, Loni, the Praesul,King Nardien and Mayran himself. They were all counting on me, and the rest ofRenenta. And now Indina had struck at me personally, by taking Mayran. Nomatter what else, Mayran had become as much of a friend to me as Loni was, andno matter what happened to me, I would make sure that he got out of that castlealive.

“Yes.”

Within minuteswe had gathered the supplies that had not been either trampled or kicked intoone of the pools and mounted the horses. I tied Mayran’s to mine. Only then didLoni ask what happened once I went with Sauria. I told her, expecting areaction similar to mine, or at least for her to reassure me that Kasandawasn’t hiding anything.

Instead sheseemed instantly wary, avoiding the matter altogether.

“Well, theNaiads and the Dryads have always been at odds with each other. That explainsNardien’s animosity towards Kasanda...”

“But do you knowif she is hiding something from me?” I pressed.

Loni staredahead. “It is not my place to answer that, Alnya.”

“That’s what theKing told me!” I gasped. “If it’s not your place, then whose is it?”

“Kasanda’s.” Sheanswered, turning back towards me and reaching her eyes. “Please trust me.You’re not meant to know just yet. It could be dangerous.”

“Dangerous how?”

“I don’t know.That’s the point. I promise I’ll get Kasanda to tell you when we get back toNerome.”

“What if wedon’t?”

“We will.”

She sounded sosure, that I didn’t even think to open my mouth and deny her. I decided to letthe matter slide; right now, I had bigger problems.

True to whatMayran had said, it was only just getting dim when we stepped out from underthe trees.

Druge lay lessthan a mile in the distance. A low stone wall surrounded the city, hiding it’sbuildings from sight.

“It’s abandoned,isn’t it?” I asked.

Loni nodded.“No-one knows why. It wasn’t Indina, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, Drugehas been empty of people since long before Indina came into the area. It’s asthough they all just vanished one day. There’s a myth that they got swallowedup by Roak, the Aura of the earth, but no proof has ever been found.”

“The Aura of theearth?” I asked. “I thought there was only one Aura, with a capitol ‘A’.”

“There is onlyone Great Aura, but there are four Lesser Auras who control an aspect of theworld. Other than Roak, there is Hindra, the Aura of fire, Nautilla, the Auraof water, and Adela, Aura of air.”

“Perhaps beforeI return home I might see if Kasanda has any books on the mythology of thisworld, it sounds fascinating.” I murmured.

“I’m sure shewill happily lend them to you.” Loni agreed.

We started outtowards the city, but when it came to going around the city, Loni insisted wegive it a wide berth. “You never know what lingering powers might hang over thecity.” She advised in a hushed whisper.

It took lessthan an hour to make our way around Druge, and by the time we had reached theother side, I could see it.

The buildingthat would either be my prison, my grave, or my escape from this endlessnightmare of fate rose before me like some sort of humongous creature, the manycandle-lit windows looking like a hundred eyes. Its oddly-shaped turretsresembled arms. It wasn’t like the typical, symmetrical castle of film and television;it was rather a mess. The arm-like towers poked out of strange places, and it lookedfar too tall for the laws of gravity to keep upright. Surely Indina must beusing her aura to hold it up.

The bricks thatformed the castle were black, making it even more shadow-like in the dusk.Though the sun had recently begun to set and the sky should have been paintedin gorgeous shades of gold and pink, everything was grey. The colour leechedout of the world the closer we got to Indina’s dwelling. The overwhelming senseof evil clung to the very air, making hairs stand up on the back of my neck anda cold sweat break out on my forehead.

Loni had gonevery quiet and still when we reached the black iron gate. It wasn’t a huge,impending gate like I had been expecting and didn’t even look as though itcould keep much out. The resemblance to spider’s legs twisted into each othergave me shivers.

I looked over ather, knowing that this was our last chance to hesitate, to turn back.

Loni was pale,but her mouth was set in a firm line. She gave me one nod, but didn’t attempt asmile. My hands trembled as they gripped the reins of my horse and their skinwas pasty white, standing out starkly against the grey of everything else.

It struck methat there actually was no turning back. This wasn’t the last point ofhesitation; that point had been days ago, if it had even existed at all. We hadto go in. We had to try. We had to rescue Mayran.

I had to.

So, with adetermination I hadn’t even thought possible, I nudged my horse forwards. He pushedthe gate open with his nose, and a tremor ran through him as he touched theiron. Then we were in, and for some reason, I felt absolutely certain that wewouldn’t be coming back out that gate. We tied our horses to the gate andcontinued on foot.

I knew her eyeswere staring down at us. I could feel them boring into my back as we made ourway down the strip that could very loosely be called a path towards the castle.

We went inside.

The evilness ofthe place increased tenfold to what it was outside, and for a moment it stoppedme in my tracks and made my head spin. I didn’t know exactly what made me feellike that; it wasn’t anything my senses were picking up. But somethingdefinitely felt wrong. Something myaura could sense.

I was worriedabout our horses, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. Candlesfixed to brackets in the walls lit our way quite obviously, as the only candleslit were ones that followed a path off to the side and up a seemingly endlessflight of stairs. She was calling to us.

I felt in asdetached as I usually felt in dreams as, for over ten minutes, we climbed in acircle up what I presumed was one of the turrets. Things didn’t feel real, eventhough I knew they definitely were. The bricks were slippery with dampness, aswere the steps, so the going was slow. The entire time I was only really awareof Loni following behind me, and the stairs rising up.

I felt ill andlight-headed and scared. That wasn’t how I was meant to feel. Weren’t heroesmeant to feel determined, full of anticipation, angry? Ready to remove the evilthat had hurt countless people? So, why didn’t I feel like that? Sure, deepdown inside there was the anger at all the things Indina had done, coupled withthe determination, but all that was squashed under several layers of pure fear.

Why was I evenbothering? If I didn’t feel even a bit confidant, what was the point in trying?

I knew theanswer to that. Because I had to. Because I had no other choice…Renenta had noother choice.

Finally, thestaircase ended and the floor became flat again, forming a short corridor witha wooden door at the end. We paused for a while to catch our breath, which wasclearly visible as puffs of mist from the cold. I couldn’t tell from below justhow far above ground the tallest tower was, but it had to be quite high becauseit was definitely not this cold outside. The very castle itself was cold.

I jumped as Lonirested a hand on my shoulder, and cursed my tense nerves.

“Are you okay?”she asked.

I considered lyingto her, telling her that I was fine...but the words came out before I couldstop them.

“Of course I’mnot okay, how could I possibly be okay? Mayran is with Indina and she’s doingGod knows what to him, and the only thing I’ve got saying I’m going to come outof this alive is a twenty year old prophecy.” I took a deep breath. “But thatdoesn’t mean that I’m not going to go through with this. I’ve gone too far nowto turn back.”

She nodded, hersmall face determined. “I’m not backing out either. As the Inventrix, I accepted the risk of coming with you years ago. Asyour friend, I’m not letting you do this alone.”

“Thank you.”

I turned towardsthe door...