“And so your journey is over before it has begun,” Elder Shasa intoned. “You have done well, Urulani. You are among our most trusted sisters of our clan. Will you then assist us? We wish to begin our investigations at once.”
“Direct me, Elders,” Urulani replied.
“We will find the heart of the tree by starting with the leaves,” Shasa said, pressing the fingers of his hands together and lightly touching his own lips. “Let us begin with his companions.”
“Elders of the Sondau,” Urulani said, bowing low. “I present to you Mala, an escaped slave from the House of Timuran in far Rhonas.”
The man with the iron-colored gray hair leaned forward. “Mala. . is that not a Merindau Clan name? Are you of the Merindau Clan?”
Mala stood shivering in the torchlight.
The gray-haired man glanced at Urulani. “Does she not understand our speech?”
“She understands, Elder Kintaro. . I cannot explain her silence as she would hardly keep her words to herself during our return journey today. Indeed, I had soon begun to dread our rest periods as she was always so full of words after we stopped.”
Mala shot an angry glance at the woman.
Urulani smiled in response. “Perhaps you might ask her again now, Elder Kintaro.
“I am not of any clan,” Mala said at once then her eyes fell to gaze unfocused at the floor. “I was. . I was born a slave and know of no clan but the Houses in which I served.”
“But you are no longer a slave,” said the balding man seated between the other two, his voice calm and quiet. “You no longer serve any ‘House’ as you call it. How it is that you have come to be free?”
“Free, Master?”
Shasa smiled. “I am not your master, Mala. No man is your master any longer. . do you understand?”
Mala nodded her head but kept her eyes fixed on the floor. “Yes, Master.”
Shasa shook his head.
“What we want to know is how you came to no longer be a slave,” said the older man with a beard.
“I do not remember it very well, sire,” Mala replied.
“It is difficult,” Harku pressed on, “but you must tell us.”
Mala’s lower lip began to quiver.
“Tell us!” Harku commanded in a firm voice.
Shasa’s face was full of warning for his brother, but Mala suddenly began to speak.
“We were at House Devotions,” she said, her words coming out in a rush. “Everything was happening just as it always had before. Lord Timuran and his wife and daughter were near the House altar. I had already had my Devotions from the altar and was standing to one side of the subatria. Then Drakis-I don’t know what happened, but Drakis was yelling and fighting the House Guardians on the far side of the Aether Well. He didn’t want to take his Devotions. I couldn’t understand why. . we had just spoken earlier in the day, and we had such great hopes. . but there he was, fighting the Guardians, and. .”
Mala stopped talking, her eyes still fixed far away.
“And what, child?” Shasa urged.
“And then the Aether Well came apart. . like shattering crockery only so much quicker and with a terrible noise. That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” Kintaro asked.
“That’s when my memories returned to me. . and I knew that my life was over.”
“He is the fulfillment of a prophecy laid down in the most ancient of times.” Belag stood tall in the center of the lodge, the crest of his growing mane nearly touching the rafters of the ceiling overhead. He spoke with conviction, his eyes bright in the torchlight. “He freed me from the enslavement of the Rhonas sorceries and showed me the way to life and peace. He is the embodiment of the promises made of old. He
“And how do you know this?” Harku demanded. “How do you know he is the one?”
“My brother gave his life for him,” Belag affirmed. “He is the one!”
“. . now, Drakis, he knew that the Iblisi were after us after we had spent the night at Togrun Fel, and he was determined that those slippery elven bastards would not lay a hand on us. He also knew the Song of the Dragon that was calling him along, giving him the knowledge of what was to come, that if we had stayed there but another hour, those very demons of the Imperial Corruption would be upon us. So, he stood before us and led us westward through the entire length of the Hyperian Plain-where the gods favored him by laying all manner of food and drink in our path. I tell you, Elders of the honored Sondau Clan, that the gods themselves granted powers to that boy that are beyond explanation!”
“Thank you, Master Jugar,” Shasa said for the fourth time.
“Wait! There’s so much more to tell! Take, for example, that time when we were passing the Hecariat-that terrible, doomed tower on the plains of Hyperia! The spirits of the mountain came down among the stones as we passed. .”
“We shall take your statements into account as we deliberate,” Harku said emphatically. “You may go.”
“Oh, but there is so much more!” the dwarf offered cheerfully. “The Miracle of the Faery Halls! The Miracle of the Hak’kaarin! The Miracle of the. .”
Elder Kintaro groaned.
“THANK YOU!” Shasa said too loudly.
It was late by the time RuuKag was led out of the lodge. As the manticore was led from the room, Urulani moved to one of the guttering torches at the side of the room.
“He is hiding something,” Kintaro said a few moments after the door closed behind RuuKag.
“He is afraid,” Shasa replied. “Fear can make anyone do foolish things.”
“He doesn’t believe in Drakis,” Kintaro said.
“He says he does not know, but, then, he doesn’t really believe in anything,” Harku observed. “Which is of no use to us.”
Urulani pulled the fluttering torch from its mount and snuffed it out in the pot filled with sand sitting on the floor below it. “You will not need the others.”
“How so?” Harku asked.
Urulani pulled a new torch from a second holding pot and lit it on one of the other torches. “Because one is a Lyric who no longer knows herself-or finds it too painful to be herself. In either case, examining her will not help you.”
“And the other?” asked Kintaro.
“The other is a chimerian,” Urulani answered as she placed the new torch in the wall bracket. “It has been rightly said that a chimerian once told the truth-and was executed on the spot for heresy.”
“I do not like your tone,” Shasa said, “but I agree that we cannot in this matter trust the word of a chimerian. They see the world through their own eyes. . and have no love or regard for us.”
“Then it is time we dealt with this prophecy directly,” Kintaro said.
“I agree,” Harku responded.
Shasa nodded. “Urulani?”
“Yes, Elder Shasa.”
“Bring us this man Drakis.”
“What is your name?”
“Drakis, my lords.”
“Of what clan?”
