Ellas Past

David (Al'Kar)

It took three days for my wounds to heal sufficiently such that standing or raising my damaged arm did not cause excruciating agony, though, even before then, if not for Anna’s insistence, I would have been up and about – long ago my master had conditioned me to both fear and accept the pain.

He insisted that I should feel all of the pain, the pain of the injury and that of the healing which was worse, far worse; respite from duty was seldom, if ever given.

So on that third day, against Anna’s wishes, demands even, I dressed and left the room she had provided for me, Anna in tow, the look on her face a mix of exasperation at my stubbornness, and amazement at my recovery from what was a devastating injury.

‘So where do you go, Al’kar? What is so urgent that you do this to yourself? You are in great pain; I can see it in your every movement.’

We had reached a crossing in the corridor, and I really didn’t have a clue where I was going. I knew what it was I wanted to do and who I wanted to see, but as to where.

‘I wish to speak with the man, Gadrid,’ I said, phrased as a request not a demand. I somehow knew that any form of demand would get me nowhere.

‘And why do you wish to speak to him?’ Anna’s voice sounded offended, as if my request had somehow undermined her and the authority she had with her people, even though none were near.

‘To determine the damage he has caused, and decide upon the urgency at which we must move from this place… unless that is, you have already spoken with the man and already have the answers to my questions.’ My words were spoken with deference. The last thing I wanted was to offend Anna – Lord knows, I owed her so much.

‘Yes, I have spoken with him,’ Anna answered, her voice now tinged with anger. ‘We have little to fear, of that I am sure.’

Why anger? I thought. What have I said that has made her so? ‘You are angry,’ I said hesitantly. ‘Why?’

Anna flushed, but said nothing. Her face was an unreadable mask.

‘Anna, please. I do not wish to play games. Not with you, not with anyone. I have told you my story… what I have been and what I have done. The little I held back was at your own insistence… you did not want to know who I was before.’

A lie, but a white lie – I had held back where it was that I served him and when it was.

‘So be open and honest with me, I beg you. I have a myriad of questions, but will settle at this point for the answer to just the one… why are you angry?’

The gaze Anna turned on me then must have been the one that she reserved for turning one who has angered her into stone – her blue eyes shone, and her lips were stretched tight across her mouth as if she forced herself to hold back a tirade of abuse.

This woman, this mere girl, will give her life so that I can stand here before her now. Be patient, she needs to learn to trust in you. She is not yet the woman I knew so briefly. The look she gave and my thoughts of patience could not stop the smile that crossed my face as I said, ‘Well?’

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Somehow that simple smile seemed to disarm her. The blue, that so wonderful, bright blue, was still there in her eyes, but now there was a gleam, a twinkle of humour, and her lips slowly formed the beginnings of a smile.

‘My anger is irrational,’ she said, quietly. ‘Come, let us walk and I will tell you of it. You have no need to speak with Gadrid… soon the taint he carries will be gone and he will join us once more.’

With those last words, Anna took my arm and directed me to the right, down a flight of stone stairs, and out into the open courtyard beyond. I did not say a word, I simply marvelled at how I could be here with this woman that I had so long ago lost. She led me across the cobbled stones to a ruined fountain, its water long dried up, and the figure at its centre a jumble of broken stone.

‘This was one of the many tributes raised in honour of Jalholm for all the wonders he brought to our world,’ Anna said, quietly. ‘He was the greatest of us all, they said. He gave to our already near perfect world miracles beyond compare… and yet they say that nothing comes without a cost…’

Her voice was filled with such sadness that I wanted to hold her tight, tell her that she would win her fight, and that, for a while at least, all would be well with her world again.

But seeing the look on my face, she said, ‘Let us sit here a while and talk of my anger. Forget my words of Jalholm; he was but the first victim of the foul creature Dar’cen.’

She sat on the low stone wall that encircled the ruined fountain, and as I sat cross-legged on the cobbles before her, she raised an eyebrow questioningly.

I said nothing, I merely wanted to look at her, watch her as she spoke. Somehow being here with Anna brought a comfort to me that I did not understand and could not explain even to myself, let alone explain in words to her.

After a few seconds, she spoke, ‘My dreams told of your coming… for years you have been in my dreams and at the forefront of almost my every waking thought. You were to be our salvation. You were to lead us against him… it was to be you that would bring his downfall. And yet…’

Tears filled her eyes, and I quickly moved forward to kneel in front of her and envelop her in my arms.

‘All will be well,’ I said. ‘I promise you it will be. Together, we will defeat him. I, too, have dreams of a fashion—’

‘Enough!’ Anna commanded, as she pulled free of my arms, the anger back in her eyes. ‘You say too much. I am not to know of you…’

She quietly trailed off again, her anger subsiding almost as quickly as it had come.

‘And that is what angers me. How can I do this when there is so very much that I do not know? Cannot know. Must not know.’

‘Why is it that I must not speak of myself,’ I asked hesitantly, as I sat back again cross-legged in front of her.

Anna seemed to struggle with herself before she answered.

‘I… I cannot explain why. I do not know why. I only know that there are things about you, about your life before you came to us, that I must not know… and it is more than knowing. When you speak, even as you begin to speak words that I should not hear, a terror takes me, and I know I must stop you.

‘So it was when you spoke now… and yet even so I fear that I was too slow, and that I heard that which I should not have. I pray that it is not so.’

With her last words, Anna reached out her hand to me. I took it in my own as she said, ‘My dreams tell me that I must put my trust in you, that we must all put our trust in you. And yet they also told that you would come to lead us… but you say that I must lead, and that you will follow. Already you bring change, change beyond that which my dreams have shown… yet I must trust you. Above all else, I must do that, no matter how you change that which I have seen. I will lead, as you say I must. But this war we fight cannot continue as it does… we gain nothing, and we loose so very many lives as we struggle to merely resist him. And yet I know no other way.'

‘Will you… will you help me? Will you show me the way, counsel me… Yes, that is it; will you be my counsellor, my adviser, in this war that we must win?’

And so it was settled. Anna would lead and I would advise. An agreement that I found very much to my liking.

There was so very little that I knew of this place, this time; I knew of Dar’cen and his evil first hand, and I had strengths that no other could boast of, but I was no leader. And yet Anna was little more than a girl, I knew. We would need to work together, and learn from each other.

For what I believed was that, with my support, Anna would become the leader that this world needed.