Chapter 45

A Time of Introspection

The first thing that Snow did on having the Heptakon in her possession was borrow several of Connie’s metal nodes. Once the containers had been given over, for the latter part of the day and part of the evening, she spent her time in seclusion in the cargo hold of the ship while she mended the Heptakon, not even once leaving for break. The dinner plates had not yet been put away when she at last emerged from the hold, looking weary and tired. The entire party was sitting around the table, listening to Connie retell her story about what happened on Earth during her last visit.

The party fell to silence on seeing Snow. Without a word, she walked over to the table and placed a velvety cloth on the table. She unfolded it before their eyes. There, resting on the cloth, was the shiny, seven-sided Heptakon bracelet—in one piece. A few gasps issued from the party at the sight of the artifact.

Rahl picked up the bracelet and studied it closely in the lamplight. “It looks perfect. I cannot see where it had been cut.”

“Allow me to see it,” Maltokken said. He also examined it under the light. “He is right,” he said, rotating it in his stubby fingers. “This bracelet has no flaw that I can see.”

“Looks are meaningless,” Theo scoffed. “The question is whether it still retains the enchantment.” He looked over at Snow. “Well?”

Snow grinned at him haughtily. “Why don’t you perform divination on it? Then you tell me.”

“Very well. I will return.”

Theo stood up and went back to the bunks. He returned a few minutes later with the new Staff of Magical Detection he had made during idle moments on the voyage across the Oscacian Sea. Maltokken held up the bracelet for Theo. The metal tip of the tip glowed incandescently when Theo brought it close to the bracelet.

Theo pursed his lips, obviously impressed.

“Good work,” Rahl said to the sorceress. On hearing that, the party broke into a brief applause for Snow. She stood up and bowed graciously.

Maltokken spun the bracelet around on his index finger. “Just think: soon we’ll cast the spell at the Atranox, banish Chaos, then we return back to Tollingwood,” Maltokken said. “We’ll be welcomed as heroes!”

“It will not be that easy,” Rahl said. “We will have a difficult three days of travel across the Atranaean Mountains. We may encounter the thrakes.”

Maltokken let out a small laugh. “Thrakes? Let me at them. I’ll turn them into coats.”

“Provided they don’t turn you into a meal, first,” Theo added.

The party broke out in laughter. In a moment of mirth, Maltokken tossed the bracelet in the air and tried to catch it on his outstretched fingers, which he did successfully. He did it again. Connie watched him toy with the bracelet. This bothered her. She snatched the bracelet off his fingers the next time he caught it.

“That will be enough of that,” she said.

The party suddenly grew quiet on hearing that.

Maltokken looked at her with a hurt expression. “Why did you take it from me?”

“Because,” Connie began as she clutched the bracelet tightly in her hands. “Because you have no idea how I feel about his thing.” She held up the shiny iridium artifact for the others to see. “The reason I’m here is that I put it on in the first place.”

“But is harmless to you now,” Theo said.

“Or is it?” Snow interjected with a wry smile. “Connie, why don’t you put the bracelet on for us? Show us how lovely it looks on you.”

“You can’t be serious, Snow,” Connie said, giggling nervously.

“Yes, I’m serious. Put the bracelet on.”

Connie smiled as graciously as she could. “I’d prefer not to.” With that, she put the bracelet down on the table.

“Why don’t you want to put it on?” Theo asked.

“Because I no longer wear jewelry that does not belong to me,” she answered.

“Connie. Put on the bracelet,” Snow ordered firmly.

Connie looked down at the bracelet on the table. “Please, Snow. No. I don’t want to.” She looked over at Rahl. “Should I really do this?”

Rahl shrugged.

Snow continued, “Connie, may I remind you that I am your mentor? Not Rahl. You must trust me with your life. Now I will order you: Put on the bracelet. And I mean now.”

“Honestly, Snow. That bracelet terrifies me.”

“Now!”

“Very well, then,” she said, abruptly sounding very nonchalant about the whole matter.

She picked up the seven-sided bracelet. After contemplating it for a moment, she slipped it over her hand and onto her wrist. She let go of the bracelet with her other hand and let it dangle loosely on her wrist. She stared at all members of the party. They stared back at her. Everyone waited for something to happen, most of all, Connie. When nothing out of the ordinary occurred, Connie slipped the bracelet off her wrist and handed it back to Snow, breathing a sigh of relief.

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“I think Connie deserves a drink for her courage,” Snow said. “That wasn’t easy for her.”

The party gave Connie a hand of applause. Maltokken poured a round of wine for everyone amidst laughter of relief that no part of Alyndia’s perverted spell remained on the bracelet.

Connie suddenly stood up. “Thank you all for this enlightening interaction. Now, if you will excuse me, there is a small matter that I need to attend to.” Without another word, she left the table and made haste back toward the crews’ quarters.

“What was that all about?” Maltokken asked.

“I have no idea,” Theo said.

At that moment, he noticed that the area of the wooden bench where Connie had sat next to him moments earlier had a large wet spot.

Later, wanting to be alone, Connie went topside into the chilly air for a breather before she turned in for the night. Snow spotted her walking up the ladder and decided to join her.

“I’m glad you were able to retrieve the bracelet,” Connie said to Snow while they gazed together across the sea lit by dual moons.

“It was not easy,” she said. “I had to literally drag that bracelet out of the ether.”

“We had a problem with some cloudy weather on the other side,” Connie said. “I was worried myself that the professor’s machine would not work properly.”

They stared across the placid water. The white of the glaciers reflected the green moonlight, giving the mountains a ghastly, evil glow. Thrakes howled incessantly in the distance. It startled Connie as to how similar the thrake howls sounded like those of thrakes on Earth. The timbre was the same, but the pitch was almost an octave lower. It almost sounded like an extended soulless moan as devoid of life as the frigid air around them.

“I wanted to ask you about something you said to Rahl and me earlier today. You said you had a dream where you blew a spell. Well, it didn’t happen. Did it?”

Snow shook her head. “No. I was very careful. The spells were difficult, but I cast them flawlessly.”

“So do you still believe your dream foretold a future event?”

Connie gazed at Snow while she waited for the sorceress to answer. The sorceress did not respond at first. Puffs of steam issued from her nose as she breathed into the frosty air. She shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she said finally. “I could have been wrong about the literal interpretation of the dream. As I said, the spells I cast to retrieve the Heptakon were extremely difficult. I suppose if I were to blow any spell, it would have been one of those I used this morning.”

Connie still detected some reservation in Snow’s voice.

“Are you saying it was only a dream?”

Snow turned to Connie. The sorceress’s eyes now appeared darker than usual as they peered into hers.

“Call me cynical, but I’ve been involved with the celestial arts far too long to believe that a dream is just a dream. Dreams often mean something.”

The two women stood on the deck by themselves while they contemplated the rising of the moons. Snow yawned. “It is time for bed. We will begin our trek into the mountains early tomorrow. Rahl will not be happy if we are too sleepy to cast our spells.”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Rahl,” Connie said.

“Oh, no. Now what?” Snow said wearily.

“I want to know something once and for all. Do you have dibs on him?”

Snow laughed, obviously amused by Connie’s question. “What an odd question you ask! Rahl and I have been friends for years. In fact, we were born in the same village.”

“But I’m wondering if you have any, well—” Connie wanted to sound tactful with this question, so she tried to choose her words carefully. “I’m wondering if you have a romantic interest in him. Because, if you do, I do not want to interfere.”

“That is very magnanimous of you, Connie, but you are too late.”

“I am? What do you mean?”

“I mean that Rahl and I have already had our time together. Our love came and went years ago; our relationship played out. Now, we are only friends. I do not expect this to change, nor do I want it to. No, I will never be an obstacle for whatever blossoms between you.”

“I’m curious. What happened between you and Rahl? Why did it end?”

“He met Jenada. Need I say more?”

“Was it an amicable parting?”

“It wasn’t at the time. I was devastated when I learned where he placed his affections. But we were very young at the time, and the passage of years has a way of healing wounds of the heart.”

Connie looked away, pleased at the revelation that she no longer had the rival she’d thought she had. This pleasure was short-lived, however.

“I know you like him, Connie,” Snow continued. “I have known this for a long time. But why do you think Rahl would be interested in you?”

“You don’t think I’m beautiful enough? I notice him watching me at times.”

“Of course he watches you. He is a man. But beauty has nothing to do with what I’m talking about. Have you ever noticed he seems out of reach from you—perhaps even distant?”

“Yes, at times.”

“So, I ask you again: what makes you think he would want to be with you? He knows you must return to your world when this quest ends, that is, if it ever ends.”

“I can make him very happy in the time before then. At the very least, it will take us months to get back to Roggentine.”

“Oh, Connie.” Snow shook her head as she said the name. “You don’t understand at all. Think about this: Rahl has lost the only woman he’s ever really loved. He’s also lost his beloved brother. I haven’t heard from Calicus, so maybe Chaos Death has overcome Roggentine. That man has suffered loss after loss. Tell me, now—why would Rahl allow himself to fall in love with you when he knows that you too will soon be taken from him?”

Connie looked away as she ruminated over Snow’s words. The celestial sorceress was right on the money again, as usual. At that point, Connie couldn’t blame Rahl for hiding his feelings from her.

“Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to return,” she said. “Sometimes I wish I could live out my days on Cerinya.”

“How could you say that? It was never your destiny to be here. It was only through your naivety and Alyndia’s unstable spell that you ended up here in the first place.”

Connie gazed at the water morosely. “In talking to Alyndia, I realized I wasn’t very happy on Earth. When I saw her all smoochie with Professor Layton at the airport, I realized how lacking and empty I felt.” Connie looked at Snow. “I’m so envious of her. My family likes her more than they did me. I think they even prefer her to me. Can you believe that? Even my partner seems to like her more than me. And I wouldn’t have believed that unless I’d heard it with my own ears.”

“Why do you care what they think of you?”

“I don’t really, but it seems to me their feelings toward me are a symptom that something was wrong in my life.”

“You can fix all these things when you go back.”

Connie shook her head. “No, it’s too far gone now. Alyndia has erased from my life what little I had that gave me pleasure.”

“Alyndia has broken spiritual law. When she returns to Cerinya, Calicus will see to it that she is richly punished. Believe me this: She will spend the rest of her life making amends for what she has done to your life on Earth.”

Connie shook her head. “No, Snow. I don’t think I want that.”

“Why not? Revenge is sweet.”

“I understand her better now. I’ve decided that she doesn’t deserve that.”

“But weren’t you bitter for what she had done to you? You’ve told us many times that she ruined her life. Are those not your words?”

“Yes, but I don’t feel that way so much anymore.”

The sorceress looked at Connie with a puzzled expression. “Is that so? Well, I advise you to banish those thoughts or any delusions you may have of remaining here. You are still going back to Earth, whether you like it or not. That is, provided you survive our quest.”

“I’ll go willingly when the time comes.”

“Good. And lest you have any hard feelings towards me about it, keep in mind that it wasn’t my decision that you should return. In fact, I had nothing to do with it whatsoever.”

“I understand that.”

She rubbed her hands together. “It’s cold out here, and I’m getting sleepy. Have a pleasant evening.”

The sorceress descended the hatch into the hold of the ship while Connie stayed on deck by herself. She stared pensively across the still water while she thought over the days events. A lone thrake howled again in the distance. It’s lonely, mournful sound reminded Connie very much of the way she felt in that time in space.