That time, somewhere far and away up in the mountains, a triumphant inhuman howl could be heard, and two coal-black creatures darted between stones. One stopped and pulled the air with its nostrils, then chose a more accurate direction and rushed into the crevice between the rocks, as the second snarled and followed it.
The Premonition
Next morning I woke up all in cold sweat. Nightmare!
I saw a fire, and it was everywhere – everything around was in flames. And it was burning m from inside. I could not stand the heat and screamed. Then some shadows came out of the fire. They resembled the beast that had attacked me in the mountains. And there were more and more of them. Then I saw a woman’s face. She was either crying or singing a song, or chanting a spell. And then she shouted something through the roaring flame, and shoved a bag into my hands as she asked me to take care of it. The shadows surrounded her, and at that point it felt like I fell into darkness… And I was falling way down… The feeling was sickening, just horrible… And then I woke up.
I had seen the dream before, more than a few times. But each time it would change a slight bit – once the woman was seized with fire, resembling a fiery goddess; another time the fire around turned into a fiery beast, or some man appeared, whose face I could not see, to shout something to me. But the effect was inevitably same – the woman disappeared all enveloped in flames, and then I fell somewhere deep down, into an abyss, pressing the bundle tightly to my chest… And fear, terrible fear, a feeling of helplessness, which left me sobbing in silence…
For several minutes I was lying still trying to recover, my heart pounding.
I got up and sat on the bed. There was some bitter feeling squeezing me deep from inside. Every time I had that dream, I was out of humor for the entire day ahead, and it looked like that day would be no exception.
But then it was something different. Either my subconscious decided to play tricks or someone invisible wanted to play with my subconscious. Anyway, my nightmare got a whole army of monsters – all with their manes moving – crawling in.
I shook my own mane, shaking my head from side to side to dump the obsession. The Sun was already staring into my bedroom window, as if giving me a gentle hint that I had been sleeping too long.
I could hear the door squeak, which meant Elcha was already up, so it was time for me to get down to something, too. I got dressed, braided my hair and went downstairs.
There were some people waiting in the hallway, while the door to Nargara’s study room was closed. That meant she had a customer in.
I greeted everyone politely and turned left into the kitchen. Elcha was already laying the table – pies, honey and cottage cheese. There on the stove I saw a small clay teapot, which was sending forth a delicate and fresh scent of thyme and lemon balm.
“Want some tea?” my sister said cheerfully.
“Sure,” I accepted right away and sat at the table.
Elcha was fast bringing cups, sugar and spoons, after which we got to breakfast.
“Nightmare again?”.
I tried really hard to look calm but my sister was no spring chicken when it came to
seeing people through.
“Yeah, again,” I replied reluctantly and ran my hand through my face trying to drive away all the images that were still haunting me.
“How about some herbs in your tea before bed? I picked a lot yesterday. Could prepare the right mix for you. Will make you sleep like a bab…” Elcha stopped half-word and then went on rattling yet in a lower voice. “You know, yesterday, when on my way to pick some Dartor, I overheard some strange talk.”
“You are up, aren’t you? Great!” Nargara came in. “Lots of delivery today. Ricka, you take two boosters – one to Kold’s bakery, the other to the Meekle brothers… And four efils…”
“It’s Friday, so I got to go to Truvle’s. Why not visit him fir..?” I asked.
“No, Truvle is coming himself to pick his elixirs,” Nargara cut me short showing she would not tolerate any argument.
I exchanged looks with Elcha. The smith never wasted his time on things like that. He never liked having to drop his work even for a minute. And visiting us would take at least two days.
“Anything wrong?” I asked, even though the answer was more than obvious.
“That beast. They saw it again near the valley,” she exhaled and rubbed the temples with her hands as if trying to relieve herself from inner tension.
I exchanged another look with Elcha. Frightened already, both of us.
“Ricka, from now on you are working within the valley only. No single step beyond. Got it?” Nargara raised an eyebrow impatiently.
I was so shocked with the news I could only nod my head fervently, “Gotcha.”
“Elcha, and you too! Pick herbs only on the inner slopes.” Elcha followed me nodding.
“Good, then. And another. You remember the ban on any magic, right?”
We nodded again, as if one.
“Perfect,” she lowered her voice and went on, “and please take that seriously. I don’t want any of our customers to learn that the Karun witch’s daughters are firesses. That would bring about too many questions. We don’t want our reputation stained.”
“Nor do we want it fried,” Elcha giggled.
I could barely strangle a laugh.
“Hey, girls, I need two sacks of Talker flowers today. The guards got a couple robbers, now want to make them sing, so they ordered a couple elixirs. Go get some on the east slope in the afternoon. Together. And once again – don’t even think of going beyond the valley! I mean it.”
“You mean it,” we echoed.
Then Nargara charged Elcha with a few more tasks, after which we quickly finished our breakfast and ran, each of us about her own business.
The morning time flew as we were up to the ears in fuss. I ran to Kold’s bakery taking him the booster for sourdough. It made yeasted dough rise instantly, while the baking turned out just great. Kold, as usual, stuffed my bag with a whole bunch of rolls and cinnamon buns saying I had to eat more given my kind of work. I was too thin, he added – all skin and bones. As for him, he definitely never limited himself with his own product, which you could easily see from his fat cheeks and a stout build.
After that, I went to the Meekle brothers’ brewery taking a similar booster for beer, where
they treated me to a bottle of delicious lemonade they were selling in their shop along with beer. Then I delivered all the four efils and headed home.
Elcha was sitting on the porch waiting for me.
“Ready? Got the bags?” I asked.
“Yes, here,” she waved two gray rags. “And I also took some meat pie.”
“And I got lemonade and fresh buns,” I bragged pointing at my bag.
“Well, then we don’t have to hurry back home, could stay till sunset,” she hit me cheerfully with her idea, which I accepted with a nod, and there we went.
Walking a little through the city’s snaking streets, and passing through the square and the market, we approached the eastern gate and moved along a dirty road heading out of the place. After a while, we turned to a familiar path, which ran up into the mountains.
I had to walk alongside with Elcha, which was very tiresome as I was used to moving fast, so now the habit backfired. It felt like we were crawling like a couple of old turtles and the entire thing was nothing but a waste of time. Patience