The Fenimeldiyaan: Vacation - Chapter 11

“Wow, who be yer handsome friend?” Rita asked, gesturing towards the departing Varagan trader. 

River had been hoping for solitude, but she could hardly turn Rita away, so she set about writing out an explanation about how the elegant trader had tried to help her in Rishlaan.

“A Varagan, eh?”  Rita’s tone indicated disdain and she scowled.  “Best ye stay away from him.  No doubt he be wanting to add ye to his harem of concubines.  Bed-slaves, they call them.  Anyways, how ye be feeling?”

“I’m thankful to be back here” River wrote.  “What about you?  Andreas said that you had been beaten up.  If I’d known that you were on the island with me, I would have tried to help.  I only found out after my rescue”.

“Ah, don’t worry about it”.  Rita shrugged and waved her hand dismissively.  “Anyways, since we’ve both been let off lessons, how about coming shopping with me?  I need new clothes”.

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Ursula hefted the large sack of supplies onto her back and translocated away from Buron, looking forward to training the young Queen of Corttann.  It would give her something to do while she waited the tedious nine months for the Silvereye woman to deliver her child.  It seemed like a very long time to wait, but then she realised that was due to the difference in the way that the months were measured on Vordelle.  A Vordellan month only consisted of four weeks instead of the ten weeks for a Fenian month. 

She stowed the supplies away in the villa before walking the short distance over to the students’ block.  However, she knew that something was wrong before she entered.  She could no longer detect River Meer’s mind signature. 

On further inspection, the door to River’s room was still sealed by means of sorcery and the shield around the island was intact, so perhaps the girl was in such a deep sleep that her emanations were minimised.  Ursula was unfamiliar with Corttannian physiology, so she might have been mistaken.

Rage boiled up inside her when she entered the room and found River missing.  On the bed was a parchment scroll, bound with red ribbon and sealed with wax.  With trembling hands, she tore off the ribbon and broke the seal.  The words were written in Carpathian and Virian.

“Cartagrilia — Cesario to Cadogan — You should take better care of your apprentices.  The facilities here are abysmal.  We treat criminals with more respect.  You do your family no honour.  We are watching you.  Regards, Chimera Obscura”.

Ursula grimaced, remembering how she had planted a fake Cartagrilia for Mary Verkhauten to find.  Her mother had murdered Mary’s fiancé and arranged for Mary to be possessed by an unquiet spirit in order to keep the spirit away from Ursula.  By leaving this document, the Carpathians were mocking her.

She used mage-fire to burn the document before retreating to the villa.

(Note – A Cartagrilia is a Carpathian bragging statement, usually claiming responsibility for killing a rival.  It is left in a prominent place where the rival’s relatives will find it)

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Gerald was chewing his lip, frantically going over the implications of what Andreas had suggested. The only small comfort was that if this Cadogan woman wanted Elsa and Gerald’s child, it meant that she wouldn’t harm Elsa. It was a small comfort indeed, for Gerald knew how much the child meant to Elsa. He had seen her with Joseph, her nephew, and how much she seemed to enjoy the boy’s company, even though he couldn’t speak. A child of her own must have been a secret desire of Elsa’s for a long time.

And now Ursula wanted to take that from her.

Fighting down a feeling of black rage, Gerald stood, brushing the sand off his breeches. It clung to his bare torso, but he couldn’t care less. He started to pace. “What do we do?” he said. “Ursula must be blocking Elsa from being tracked by sorcerer powers, which be why me empathy link ain’t working.” It was taking an enormous effort to think logically, but anger wouldn’t bring Elsa home. “So how do we track her down? There must be a way around these blocks she’s no doubt got up …”

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It took Apollo quite a while to calm Morgan down enough to listen to reason. He knew that his cousin still loved Elsa, deep inside, which was the reason behind his outbursts, but it wouldn’t do them any good to let Morgan wallow in his rage. It would only cause them more problems. After what felt like ages for the poor healer, he finally talked Morgan off the ledge — in a manner of speaking. Now they sat in the sand together, Morgan drawing idle symbols in the ancient language of the mages in the sand with his finger. “What do we do?” Morgan asked faintly. “How do we help her?”

Apollo slid his fingers up and down his staff as he thought. “We wait for Andreas,” he said after a long moment. “No doubt he’s comforting Gerald and they’re probably trying to decide why she was taken. You don’t have to worry about Elsa. No matter the reason they took her, I can’t imagine any reason why they would hurt her. And we’ll bring her home before they can do any … lasting damage.”

Morgan looked unconvinced. “I hope so,” was all he said.

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River almost nodded in answer to Rita’s question until she remembered Andreas’s warning. Going back to Rishlaan after her kidnapping from there didn’t seem like a good idea. What if Ursula was influencing Rita’s mind, making her bring River there so she could kidnap her again?

She smiled at Rita, hiding her spurt of anxiety, and wrote, “Let me ask permission first. We don’t want to get into trouble or kidnapped again.”

River closed her eyes and transmitted to Andreas. “Andreas, she wants me to go shopping with her in Rishlaan. I don’t think it’s a very good idea, since I was kidnapped from there. What do you think?”

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Ursula finished drawing arcane symbols on the dirt floor.  She was in what she called her laboratory, although it was little more than a spare room in the old villa where she stored her supply of herbs, potions, books and artefacts of sorcery.  The itinerant labourer whom she had recently killed had provided her with sufficient blood and bones to give her the necessary strength for the next part of her plan.

“Tis an old saying, fighting fire with fire, but it never fails” she muttered, reaching for the chalice and taking a deep swallow of blood.  She then picked up her spying crystal and connected with it, watching the portly Vordellan mage drawing symbols in the sand.  She chuckled at the synchronicity — both of them drawing symbols, although hers had a specific purpose, whereas his were merely a self-imposed means of distraction.

Ordinarily, her powers would be far too weak to form a psychic connection with a person whom she had never met.  The blood-sorcery had given her strength to connect with Rita, River and Elsa, so she knew that establishing contact would be no problem.  Getting past Morgan’s conscience might prove more difficult, so she would have to take a different approach with him.

Instead of making direct contact, she sent ideas into his mind.  First, she reinforced his suspicions that Apollo did not really trust him.  She followed that up with a hint that Elsa was becoming dissatisfied with Gerald and believed that the mercenary had let her down far too many times.  Along with that thought, she strengthened the latent feelings of attraction which Morgan had always held for Elsa. 

Exhausted from her efforts, she collapsed on the floor and fell into a deep sleep.

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Andreas had his eyes shut.  Gerald could only surmise that his friend was communicating with his other self.  Although it was for their benefit, he chafed at the delay, wishing he could be doing something other than waiting around.

After a few minutes, Andreas snapped out of his trance.  “Just been liaising with Kvyrt, the Ascended Master I sent to rescue River Meer from the island.  When he were there, he discovered that Ursula’s been dabbling in blood sorcery, no doubt inspired by her grandma’s use of it.  Dorrie only used it sparingly to increase her limited powers, but twould seem that Ursula has used it to bind unquiet spirits to do her bidding”.

“Sounds a bit like some of the stuff that I had to deal with back in Vordelle” Gerald remarked.  “Afore meself and Elsa got together.  Well, sort of while we were getting to know each other”.

Andreas sighed and swiped his hand over his face, smearing more sand there.  “There always be repercussions for messing with the spirit world.  Ursula really don’t know what she be getting herself into.  She killed innocent people, most likely street folk who won’t be missed, and bound their spirits afore they could pass into the Beyond.  If her binding spell fails, many unquiet spirits would be unleashed and they could cause a lot of harm.  Obviously she never learned by her parents’ mistakes”.

Gerald hesitated, not wishing to put his fear into words. “Would any of these spirits harm Elsa and the baby?”

“Not on a physical level” Andreas replied.  “But unquiet spirits don’t like being in limbo.  They’ll either try to find a way to pass into the Beyond, or they’ll try to get a foothold back in the realm of the living by possessing someone.  There be billions of mortals in the Fenian Galaxy alone, and a spirit wouldn’t be limited to one universe.  They could scatter all over, randomly possessing people and causing chaos.  The only ones they can’t possess be Ascended Masters, but we be in the minority”.

“But ye’ve got a plan, right?”  Gerald could not keep the panic from his voice.  “Please tell me yer lot can deal with these spirits!”

“Ascended Masters and powerful sorcerers can contain them” Andreas explained, “but it takes the intervention of the Gods to send them to the Beyond.  Anyways, for the time being, let’s concentrate on rescuing Elsa.  To start off with, we need a trail to follow.  Kvyrt has located the remaining members of the Cadogan and Slattery clans, so we should go and have a word with them.  I don’t need to ask if ye be coming along for the ride, but we ought to see if Morgan and Apollo be prepared to join us”.

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Apollo tapped Morgan on the shoulder, disturbing him from his sand drawings.  “Andreas is coming back and he’s got Gerald with him”.

“Uh … what?”  Morgan blinked rapidly, as if trying to wake himself up. 

“Andreas and Gerald” Apollo prompted, pointing.

“Meself and Gerald be on a mission” Andreas announced.  “Would the two of ye like to come along?”

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Rita tapped her foot impatiently, wishing that River had not insisted on sticking to the rules.  “The only bad thing that happened when we went shopping afore were Uncle Cara following us.  Ye said yerself that the slaver be returning to Port Byzarth and the Cadogan witch wouldn’t risk coming to Rishlaan again, not with all the extra security measures which Andreas has put in place”.

Before River had a chance to reply, the tall thin figure of Caratacuus materialised in front of the bench.  He gave his typical half-smile.  “I believe I have a solution.  You may not know this, but I happen to be a tailor as well as a teacher.  My business partner, Lady Julia Halloran-Cesario, has a shop in Veretris City.  She happens to be a talented fashion designer”.

“I’ve heard of her” Rita acknowledged.  “I thought she’d retired a while back and sold off her business”.

“You were mistaken” Caratacuus corrected.  “Tis true that she delegates most of her commissions to her team of designers these days, but she still takes on the occasional private client.  I believe she might be persuaded to accommodate you”.

Rita’s eyes lit up.  “For real?”

Caratacuus half-smiled again.  “I would not mislead you, my dear.  I shall have a word with her and try to arrange an appointment for tomorrow after lessons.  Would that suit you?”

Rita faked a smile of her own, trying to hide her annoyance that the Malvanian had out-manoeuvred her in a move worthy of an Inner Circle Carpathian Lord.  “Thanks, Uncle Cara.  Her clothes be amazing”.

After Caratacuus had gone, Rita remarked “Mayhap I were wrong about him.  Anyways, I feel like I need to take a nap.  Although Uncle Rem healed all me injuries, I still ain’t back to me full strength yet”.

River nodded and held up her book.  “I should go and study.  I don’t want to fall behind.  I’ll see you later if you’re feeling better”.

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Hoping she was not too late, Rita reached out with her crystal senses.  The trail she sought was faint, but sufficient for her to follow.  She made the translocation to the spaceport in the capital city of Mhaaluk and even managed an invisibility spell.  All she had to do was wait until her target arrived.

Serkan tipped the porter and took a seat in the departure lounge.  His car and most of his luggage had already been loaded aboard the space ship.  He was looking forward to seeing his large extended family again.

Still maintaining her invisibility spell, Rita positioned herself in front of the Varagan trader and conjured a mage-fire.

Serkan never stood a chance.  Conjured fires burned stronger and hotter than regular ones and the blaze took hold of him instantly.  In a matter of minutes, he, his bags and the seat he had been sitting on were reduced to piles of ash on the floor of the departure lounge.

Rita barely had the strength to translocate back to her quarters at the Donovan Institute.  Without bothering to remove her robes and change into a nightgown, she collapsed on the bed, utterly drained.

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Apollo nodded at Andreas’s question. “We’ll come. Right, Morgan?”

To his surprise, his cousin shot him a dark look. “You mean, you’re not too worried about me going dark to take me with you?”

Apollo blinked at the unexpected and unwelcome jab. “Morgan?” he said. “I’m confident that you can handle it —”

“Then why did you come all the way from Vordelle to make sure I didn’t turn evil?” Morgan said in a positively venomous voice.

“Mate, now not be the time to be discussing this,” Gerald put in. “We’ve got to go and rescue Elsa.”

Morgan turned on him. “It’s your fault she’s in danger in the first place!” he yelled. The sand churned uncomfortably beneath him, and Apollo was beginning to get nervous. With Morgan facing Gerald, he couldn’t see his cousin’s face — or, more importantly, his eyes. “You’ve let her down again!”

Gerald’s hand went to his back, but he’d left his broadsword in the tent. Andreas took a step forward. “Morgan —”

“Don’t defend him!” Morgan snarled. “You always defend him. On Thraesh, you forced me to wait around until you rescued him, and it nearly killed me! Face it this one time. It’s his fault that Elsa was taken!”

“Morgan, that’s enough!” Apollo snapped.

“You’re right, it’s enough,” Morgan said, and turned to face Apollo. To Apollo’s horror, he saw the red that had been creeping at the edges of Morgan’s eyes completely overtake his natural green colour. “None of you want to bring her back. You don’t deserve her!” He pointed at Gerald. “And you …” He spun on Apollo again, the hatred in his eyes tearing at Apollo’s heart. “You don’t care anything about me. You just want to make sure I don’t end up like my parents — like my uncle!”

“Morgan, please!” Apollo begged, though he knew it would do him no good. Something had pushed Morgan past the brink. Something was very wrong. “This isn’t like you at all.”

“Or maybe this is me, Apollo, and you just can’t accept that,” Morgan answered. “I’ve had enough of the lot of you. I’m going to find her myself.”

“Morgan, you can’t go off on your own!” Apollo took a step toward Morgan.

“Ye be insane,” Gerald said quietly.

That was the final straw for Morgan. He turned on Gerald and twisted his hand. The mercenary went flying backwards and Apollo inhaled sharply. The sound made Morgan spin around, and before Apollo could do anything — not that he would raise a hand against his only surviving family member — Morgan had hurled a stream of dark shadows at him.

They wrapped around Apollo, but he managed to dispel them with his staff. Andreas was kneeling beside Gerald, who was groaning, regaining consciousness after the blow Morgan had dealt him. The mage had disappeared, probably translocating out of the desert. “Apollo, be ye alright?” Andreas asked him.

Apollo remained seated on the sand, unashamed of the tears on his cheeks. “I don’t understand,” he said. “He shouldn’t have … there was no reason for him to lose control like that. What could have pushed him to that point?”

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Morgan materialised in Rishlaan, unable to control his translocation. He staggered, trying to overcome the blind rage that had drowned him. “What were you thinking?” he mumbled, struggling to breathe. But Apollo had only cared about him keeping the darkness at bay. Or did he?

Morgan put his hand on a building, gasping as pain shuddered through his body. Whenever the darkness overcame him, his spells would overpower him and cause him pain. He tried to connect with something, anything, to regain control, but all of his memories were tainted. Apollo cared to just keep his darkness at bay. Gerald had Elsa and didn’t treat her right, letting her be endangered. Andreas had always cared more for Gerald than Morgan.

Morgan went to take a step, but his hand had caught on the building. He was melting through it with a flame on his palm. He pulled away, staggering, trying to extinguish the flame. After a moment, it went out, but it took the remainder of Morgan’s energy with him. In the instant before he lost consciousness, he experienced a moment of startling clarity. His thoughts were not his own. Someone was …

He blacked out and collapsed on the street.

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River was in her room, listlessly trying to study but knowing her heart truly wasn’t in it. She could sense that she was losing Rita, but she didn’t know how. The Carpathian girl was different after her stay at Ursula’s island, and River felt like she couldn’t reach her anymore.

Tears spilled down River’s cheeks. She tossed her ancient book aside in frustration, wishing that she could do something. It was at that moment that a blackness struck her, blinding and filling her with a dark fury like she’d never had before. For a long time, she didn’t realise that it wasn’t her own until she caught a glimpse of a young man staggering in an alley, struggling against an invisible enemy.

River toppled from her bed, bruising her shoulder and shaking her from the moment. But she didn’t get up. To her shock, she remembered the young man’s face from her past — something that didn’t happen very often. He had saved her from a beating a long time ago, and she had long suspected that they held a link. She knew only one thing now.

He was in danger.

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Elsa woke slowly, her mind dull and uncertain as to where she was. The musty smell and dark surroundings reminded her of her plight, and she sat bolt upright, nearly falling off the couch she had been laying on.

She had to escape. That was the only thought on her mind at that moment. It didn’t matter how, or at what point, but she would do it. She wasn’t a thief for nothing. Magicless or not, there was no prison that could hold her.

Elsa went back to the only point of entry or exit — the door — she picked the lock again. This time, to her surprise, it swung open, and she reclaimed her poker as a weapon. Then she climbed up the ladder into the area above.

The cramped shop was filled with jars and smelled funny, like herbs. Holding her breath to keep her nausea at bay, Elsa ran to the door and put her pin in the lock. When the lock clicked, she turned the knob and …

The door wouldn’t open.

“NO!” Elsa screamed, pounding her fist against the door. Against her will, tears started to fall. She had to get out. She had to get back to Apollo and Morgan, warn them that the witch was coming after them next. And most of all, she had to protect her baby.

But she was trapped.

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Andreas sighed.  “Tis what I feared might happen.  I were explaining to Gerald about how Ursula Cadogan managed to bind unquiet spirits and control them.  I suspect that some of these spirits have sensed the latent darkness lurking within Morgan and latched onto him”.

“Ursula Cadogan?” Apollo questioned.  “Some relative of Dorrie’s, I presume?”

“Aye, her granddaughter” Andreas replied.  He then launched into a hasty account of what he had already told Gerald, including his intention to speak to the Cadogan and Slattery clan members.

Apollo listened intently.  “I know we have to concentrate on finding Elsa, but what does this mean for Morgan?  What will happen to him?”

“Honest answer, I really don’t know” Andreas admitted.  “But let’s leave me other self and the Vyrdigaan Elders to deal with him.  Meantime, we should start working our way through the list — Vaunagh Slattery and Rikanthah Slattery in Shaffeypoint, Ebaron Slattery in Vanlose, Obadiah Slattery in a suburb of Elviris, Detmarah Cadogan in Bog Town and Mordecai Slattery in Reventiloh.  They all be in Northern Viria except for Obadiah and Mordecai, who live down South.  None of them have powers of sorcery, but Vaunagh, Detmarah and Mordecai all have weak Elediyaan crystal bonds”.

Gerald ran off to the tent to retrieve his sword and his discarded clothing.  Being inside the tent again reminded him painfully of Elsa.  He choked back tears, hastily dressed and strapped on his sword.  He had no idea whether Virians openly carried weapons, but he always went around armed and it would feel wrong to leave it behind.

When he returned to where he had left Andreas and Apollo, they were hunched over a computer tablet.  A map of mainland Viria was displayed on the screen and Andreas was pointing out the various towns and cities which he had previously mentioned.

“Makes sense to start in the far North and work our way down” Andreas suggested, jabbing a finger towards the red dot which represented the town of Shaffeypoint.

“Will we be driving or translocating?” Gerald asked, remembering how much he had enjoyed his lessons with Luigi at the Nentofore estate.  It was an odd thing to think of in a time of crisis, but somehow the memory seemed to ease his troubled mind.

“Translocating” Andreas answered, stepping into his suit trousers and pulling on a shirt.  “Twill be more efficient, since we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.  Though the land masses on Viria be smaller than those on Vara, twould take a week or more to do the journey by car.  I be speaking of a Fenian week, not a Vordellan one”.

Gerald tried to remember the difference but Apollo got there first.  “Ten days is a long time for anyone to be held prisoner.  There will be plenty of time for driving those dangerous contraptions once we’ve rescued Elsa”.

“Aye, ye be right” Gerald conceded.

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Shaffeypoint was a coastal town, as the name suggested.  Predictably, most of its citizens were employed in the fishing or boat-building industries.  The young Slattery sisters, Vaunagh and Rikanthah, lived in a small house in the middle of an unremarkable street.  Vaunagh made and repaired fishing nets, while Rikanthah was a cook in a workers’ café located near the docks. 

“We don’t have nothing to do with the Cadogan side of the family” Vaunagh asserted.  “Tis why our parents moved up here, to get away from all that scandal caused by Vanessa Cadogan.  We’ve made good lives for ourselves here and people let us be, so we stayed on after Ma and Pa passed away”.

Andreas seemed satisfied that they were telling the truth, so he and the two Vordellans took their leave and translocated to the next location, the ancient and historical town of Vanlose, where Ebaron Slattery worked in the furniture trade.  He was a stout middle-aged man whose only interest appeared to be teaching his three sons the arts of cabinet making and carpentry.  Like his two nieces in Shaffeypoint, he held similar disdain for the Cadogans.

“Bog Town next” Andreas informed them.

“Sounds charming” Gerald remarked.  “Let me guess … tis a picturesque place smelling of roses”.