Wings of Arian (18 page)

In the vision Kiora was standing back in the cave looking at a man sitting at the same table she had just been at. He looked remarkably like Aleric. Same silvery hair, same eyes. He was taller and broader than Aleric. He leaned over his book scratching away with his feather pen, pausing every now and again to dip it back into the ink well. Arian suddenly looked up. He had a blank look on his face as he stared into the empty cave. She watched him carefully, not sure what he was doing. His eyes came into focus again and he looked like he was watching something, something she could not see.

“He is having a vision,” She whispered to herself.

“No!” Arian yelled throwing back his chair. He ran to the opening of the cave shouting Arturo’s name, without a moment’s hesitation he hurdled himself over the edge.

“No!” Kiora yelled. She threw herself onto her stomach and peered over the edge. Arian was falling rapidly toward the rocks below. Kiora’s voice stuck in her throat. She was helpless, watching something that had already happened. He was falling toward the earth with his arms and legs in a spread eagle position. She could not believe what was happening. At the last second a familiar streak of white came hurtling around the mountain. Arturo swooped underneath him allowing Arian to land perfectly on his back. Kiora’s mouth was hanging so far open it was beginning to hurt. She forced it closed watching Arian and Arturo shoot off into the distance.

She closed her eyes, processing what she had just seen. The unity and faith between Arturo and Arian was phenomenal.

When she opened her eyes the vision had ended and she lay on her back looking up at the ceiling. She went to push herself up but a hand grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her back down. She looked over to see Emane lying next to her with his blue eyes glued to the ceiling.

His voice was forced but even, “Look, I’m sorry I yelled. Now, if you are going to keep practicing this will you please just lay down?”

Kiora lay back down. “Did I hit my head again?”

He snorted. “Yes, can’t you tell?”

“Honestly?” She glanced at him but his eyes were still determinedly fixed on the ceiling. “My head was pounding so hard before I can’t tell much difference.”

“Great. Now, if you will please promise to stay on the floor, I am going to go work with my weapons some more.”

“I promise.”

“Thank you.” Emane stood without looking at her and walked back over to where his chest of weapons was sitting.

Kiora put her hands under her head and smiled. He did care, even when he was acting like a jerk. Without warning and without request the darkness was back, sucking her once again back into her own head.

“No, no, no!” she shouted out loud trying to focus all her energy into pushing the vision forward. It stopped moving just as it had the last time, wavering back and forth shuddering. She gave one final shove and won the battle as the darkness abated and the vision rushed outwards. The vision was now clearly and easily portrayed in front of her like a moving painting, dancing around her. It took little effort to keep it there now that it had found a home.

She stood up slowly looking around her. The picture was 360 degrees. She turned in a circle, looking at her surroundings.

She was back in her village, very close to the castle. The stonewalls towered above her, the turrets stretching even higher. The houses that surrounded the outermost walls of the castle were exactly as she remembered with the worn pathways between the villagers’ homes and the bakery. The villagers milled about, going on with their daily life completely unaware that she was watching.

“Kiora, what are you doing?”

Kiora was startled; she had never been called to in a vision before. She turned slowly around trying to ascertain where it was coming from.

In front of her, and yet not fully there was Emane. He didn’t appear to be part of the vision. The vision was clear and crisp as if she were really there. But Emane looked as if he was standing behind a piece of sheer fabric. She blinked her eyes trying to make him come into focus, but he would not. It was almost like he was… she gasped.

“Emane are you still in the cave?”

“Of course I am still in the cave Kiora, lay back down.” He started to walk towards her.

“Stop,” she yelled, “Don’t come any closer. I don’t know what it will do.”

“What?”

“I am having a vision. It’s here in the room.”

“You can see me?”

“Yes.” The picture started to lose its focus. “Emane I am losing it, I need to see this.” She focused her energy back to the picture before her. She could still see Emane’s shadowy figure pacing around the room.

Eleana floated into the picture followed by Aleric. They stood at the edge of the village, partially obscured by the shadows in the tree line.

“Have you told her yet?” Aleric asked

“No, there is no need.”

“Eleana, she is already beginning to have visions about them. There must be a reason for that?”

“Perhaps, but there is not time. We must move them, we need allies.”

“Have you completed negotiations?”

“Yes, I don’t think they will side with him again, not after what happened last time. But they will not agree to side with us until they have had time to examine the two of them, they are understandably skeptical.”

“And you trust him not to mention the gates to Kiora.”

“I think he has given up on the gates long ago, Aleric. Regardless of that, it is the only way. I will send Arturo for them in the morning.”

“And what will we do?”

“We need to continue to search for allies, as well as keep an eye on this people. He has already been here, I am sure of it.”

Chapter Ten

ON THEIR OWN

THE VISION FADED AS Emane came back into focus.

“Well?” he asked. “What did you see?”

“Eleana and Aleric,” she frowned. “They were talking about something that they didn’t want to tell me, something about a gate.” The image of a gate from her visions as a child flashed before her eyes. It was a repeating theme that she could not understand. There was no such gate in their land.

“A gate? Is that it?”

“And that they are sending Arturo for us in the morning”

Emane snorted and walked away.

“What?” Kiora asked to his back.

“Nothing.”

“No it’s not nothing, what?”

He picked up the club from out of his box of weapons and began testing its weight. “Kiora, it’s nothing. I just have a hard time with all of this that’s all.”

Kiora bit her lip, her first impulse was to cry but she held it back wrapping her arms around herself. “By all of this, you mean me?”

“Well, yes… I mean no. It’s with everything I suppose.”

“Everything magic?”

“That certainly isn’t helping.” Emane took a few test swings with his club, “But to be honest, things weren’t really all that great before I came here either.” His voice came in spurts between swings. “Just… the way… things go… I guess.”

“Are you trying to tell me that your problem has not always been with me?”

Emane smiled as he took a giant swing. “Not…exactly.”

“What does that mean… exactly?”

Emane took a running leap at the wall, yelling, as he slammed the club into the rock. Kiora’s eyes opened wide, a large piece of stone cracked and fell to the ground as Emane dislodged the club. “Look Kiora, sharing feelings is not something I am very good at.”

Nudging around a pebble with the toe of her shoe she said, “We will be spending a lot of time together, Emane. It might be helpful if we understood each other.”

Emane took another swing at the wall. “You think so, huh?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Not to point out the obvious, but I don’t know much about you either.”

“Not much to know.”

“I doubt that.” He swung the club in a 360-degree spin.

“What you see is what you get,” Kiora said nervously.

“No, it’s not.” The club came down with a crash against the stone floor.

Kiora jumped. “Do you have to do that while we talk?”

“It helps me to relax, would you rather I use the sword?”

“No, you missed the point,” Kiora sighed.

“And I think you…” Emane stopped to swing the club at some imaginary enemy, “…missed mine.”

Kiora thought for a second. “I suppose I did.” She had no idea what Emane was talking about.

“What you see is what you get?” he snorted while rolling his eyes.

“What is that suppose to mean?”

He slammed the club into the ground and leaned against the handle, breathing hard. “Kiora, I have never seen or heard of a village girl that had magical powers. I have never seen a simple girl go and fly off with a dragon. I have never seen a girl who cries so much, but is brave enough to risk her life for others. I have never seen anybody appear so weak,” he picked up the club and threw it back into the chest “and be so strong.” Unsheathing his sword he started running drills.

He thought she was strong? She watched him for a while, moving as if she were not there. “Why do you always change the subject?” she finally blurted.

“I… did not… change… the subject,” he said between each slice of air.

Kiora could feel the fire starting in the pit of her stomach. “Yes you did, you always do. We started off by me telling you that I don’t know much about you, and then somehow you turned it back on me again.”

Emane broke into a huge grin. “I suppose I did.” He swung the sword hard in a deep slicing motion. “Force of habit.” He sheathed his sword and tossed his blonde hair back off of his forehead. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll try.”

“Try?”

“Yes.” He walked over and leaned against the side of the cave. Sliding down to the ground, he causally placed his arms over his knees. “I will try to have an open conversation with you without swinging a sword.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” His eyes twinkled as he looked at her.

“Why?”

He rolled his eyes and laughed. “I can’t win with you can I?”

Kiora blushed. “Sorry. I have seen so many different sides of you, I never know which one I am dealing with. I can’t figure you out.”

“Hmm, that sounds just like what I said.” Kiora blushed, again. “I am starving though so here is the deal. You summon us some dinner and something to sleep on and we will talk.”

“You don’t want to sleep on this floor again?”

“No I don’t!”

“What sounds good for dinner, your highness?” Kiora bowed.

“Something warm,” Emane’s smile faded, “and don’t call me that.”

“Yes, your highness.”

“Kiora!”

She giggled. “Sorry, dinners coming right up.”

She closed her eyes and thought about a roast chicken hot out of the oven. She felt a little guilty knowing that it would be coming out of someone’s oven but there wasn’t much she could do about that. She called for a loaf of bread, some butter (in a dish this time). She imagined some apples on a tree (no bites out of these ones) and some more potatoes. She turned around and opened her eyes to see Emane tearing into a roll.

“I get dinner ready and you’re not even going to wait for me?”

“Sorry, it’s been a long day.” He picked up another roll and held it out to her, grinning.

Kiora grabbed the roll and sat down next to him. “Alright, start talking.”

“I do not believe that you have held up the entirety of the bargain,” he pointed out, brandishing his roll at her.

She rolled her eyes. “Alright fine, after I eat.”

They ate until they thought they were going to burst.

“Not only was that delicious, but there weren’t even any bites missing this time,” Emane said with satisfaction, leaning back on his elbows.

Kiora laughed. “I am improving, aren’t I?”

“Yes you are.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “I had an idea about where to get the bedding from.”

“What kind of idea?”

“If you summon it, it can come from anywhere right?”

“Yes”

“So, it could feasibly come right off of somebody’s bed while they are sleeping.”

Kiora giggled again, and was immediately embarrassed. She seemed to do that more around him. “That would be a shock wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. But blankets are also expensive to buy and time consuming to make. I would feel badly taking something like that from the villagers. So I want you to try to take my bedding, from the castle.”

“Do you have enough?”

Emane laughed, “Yes, I defiantly have enough.”

“I am going to have to be very specific to get it, can you describe it to me.”

Emane described the room, where it was at in the castle, and how many blankets, sheets and quilts were on his bed.

“Twelve! You have twelve blankets!”

“I know, it’s a lot.”

“A lot!? I had one, and it’s two inches too short for my legs!”

“Excess seems to come with being born into the royal family.”

Kiora shook her head, “Alright give me a few minutes, and no talking.” Kiora closed her eyes and tried to remember the castle. She moved her mind down the hallway she knew held the Prince’s quarters and tried to imagine inside just as he described. She pictured herself walking down the hall to his room and opening the large wooden door. She could see the large four-poster bed in her mind: carvings curling up and around the pillars, the gold fabric draped from the top. She concentrated as hard as she could and imagined the piles and piles of blankets and sheets moving from the bed to the cave. The magic was draining out of her; it was a lot more work than a few food items. She could see the blankets in her mind but she didn’t know if they had moved yet. She gave it everything she had before she finally had to turn around, with a gasp. To her surprise there was a pile of bedding sitting on the floor; not only the blankets, but the sheets and all the pillows too.

She looked at Emane, “How long have these been here?”

A couple of minutes.”

She couldn’t believe it. “A couple of minutes! Couldn’t you see that I was dying over here!”