The Fenimeldiyaan: Vacation - Chapter 8

Morgan groaned, his head pounding like a drum. Slowly, he sat up, rubbing his head. He was in some kind of a tent, and he was covered in sand. Blowing some of his sand-covered hair out of his eyes, he crawled to the flap and pushed it open. What he saw outside of the tent caused him to recoil. “What in the world?” he yelled, retreating to the safety of the tent.

Outside was a giant green snake.

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“May I meet yer other student?” Rita dared to ask.  She was far from pleased with the facilities on the island and loneliness had begun to set in, making her feel even worse.  She had always been surrounded by her family, friends or fellow students.  “Mayhap we could study together?”

Without looking up from the potion that she was mixing, Ursula shook her head.  “She be way ahead of ye and her powers be far stronger.  She could have destroyed all yer sand-sculptures with one single blast.  But she needs to learn control.  If I let the two of ye work together, she’d probably end up injuring ye, or worse.  Tis safer to keep ye apart and let ye both develop at yer own pace”.

Rita could not fault the logic in that.  She struggled to control a pang of jealousy at the thought that this other student was better than her.  Although her sorcery studies had been forced upon her, that did not deter her from wanting to succeed and impress her family.

“Drink this”.  Ursula handed Rita a wooden bowl which contained a foul-smelling concoction.  “Ye need to get yer strength up, for tis time ye started earning yer keep”.

Rita sniffed the vile mixture, noticing that there were lumps in the sticky red substance.  She held back from asking what the ingredients were, deciding that she would rather not know.  She closed her eyes and tipped the bowl up, swallowing as quickly as possible in order to avoid tasting most of it.  She detected a slight fishy taste, but nowhere near as bad as she had imagined.

“All of it” Ursula urged.  “Scrape the sediment out with yer finger.  That stuff ain’t cheap to make, ye know, so don’t waste it”.

Rita did as she was told, having learned the hard way that it was not a good idea to refuse.  When she had protested about having to slaughter a wild boar and drain its blood into a large vat, Ursula had given her a stinging slap around the face and sent her back to her room without anything to eat.

“So what do I have to do to earn me keep?” she asked, giving the empty bowl back to Ursula.

Ursula inspected the bowl before tossing it into a basket containing other dirty dishes.  “Tis about time I had a new computer tablet.  Me Ma and Grandma weren’t big on technology but I like to keep up with the times.  So I need ye to steal me a shiny new tablet”.

“From a store?”  Rita remembered Andreas mentioning the lamentable state of the security measures in most shopping malls.  “Aye, I should be able to manage that easily enough”.

“Not a store” Ursula corrected.  “From a private residence.  Tis a place ye visited a few year back, so ye should remember the pattern for translocation.  Lord Alonzo Nentofore be fond of technology and he be wealthy enough to spare some of it for me”.

“Casa Nentofore be easy enough to get into” Rita stated.  “But I ain’t too good at keeping up an invisibility spell and even if I did manage to steal a tablet, Lord Alonzo would tell Andreas and Andreas would be able to trace me left-over mind signature”.

“Not if ye wear this”.  Ursula took a necklace from around her neck and handed it to Rita.  “The crystal contains a dispersal spell.  Even an Ascended Master would have difficulty tracing yer vestiges.  So go and get it done!”

“Right now?” Rita asked.

“Sooner ye go, sooner ye can be back here learning more new tricks”.  Ursula waved dismissively before returning to her potion-mixing.

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Anwyn leaned in close to Andreas and spoke in Sartorian, using a murmuring tone to suggest that the two of them were having a romantic private conversation.  “I understand that some parents have expressed concerns about the safety of students at the Don after Rita and River going missing”.

“Aye, me love, tis true”.  Andreas grimaced and fiddled with his hair.  “I’ve lost count of the times I’ve warned the Elders about the lax security over there”.

“We know that River deliberately went out to look for Rita” Anwyn stated.  “But how did the abductor manage to take Rita away without leaving any vestiges?”

“Far as I know, there be only two methods of artificially dispersing a translocation trail” Andreas replied.  “The obvious one be for an Ascended Master to do it, but the other method involves casting a delayed scattering spell.  The spell would have to be trapped in a crystal and the user would have to know how to trigger the spell at exactly the right time.  Twould involve specialist knowledge of crystal theory”.

“Tis the kind of thing that Sel would have known about” Anwyn mused, thinking of her first husband.  “Probably Uncle Emlyn too.  There be a good chance that he passed that knowledge onto Loro”.

“Aye, me love”.  Andreas gave her a grateful smile.  “Me other self will get right on it.  And I’d lay odds that Morgan would be able to help, once he be recovered from his flame-out.  I hope he’ll be willing to merge minds with me”.  In order to keep up appearances for the sake of the Vordellan visitors, he kissed and caressed Anwyn.

“So d’ye reckon that Rita and River be in the same place?” Anwyn asked, once they had broken from their embrace.

“Tis highly likely” he told her, leaning in for another kiss.  “Tis why it be vital that I do the mind-merge with Morgan.  His psychic connection with River could lead us to her”.

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Morgan huddled in the tent, knowing that the thin silk offered no protection if the snake decided to attack.  He waited a few tense minutes before daring to peep out of the flap again.  The snake was still there, basking in the late afternoon sunshine, coiling and uncoiling lazily.

A little while later, Morgan heard voices speaking in Sartorian; a deep rich masculine one and a soft, light one which might belong to a child.  Cautiously, he lifted the tent flap.

A plump, smiling dreadlocked Sartorian man was stroking the snake’s scales while a chubby teenage girl with vines woven into her curly hair spun in circles nearby, creating miniature sandstorms.

Morgan was transfixed in terror when the snake wound its coils around the portly man’s naked body.  The man seemed to be enjoying the snake’s attentions and murmured softly in Sartorian.  The girl giggled and continued her frenetic spinning dance.

“Greetings, Morgan, I hope ye be feeling better now” the man projected telepathically, using ideas to convey his meaning, since he obviously did not speak Vordellan.  “I be Erroll Ohrivaal, Hastamage, and this be me granddaughter, Yadzah”.

At the mention of her name, the girl stopped dancing and bowed to Morgan.  “Tis an honour to meet ye, Morgan”.  Her attempt at Vordellan was strangely-accented but sufficiently clear for him to understand.

“P-pleased to m-meet you” Morgan stuttered.  “Is … is the snake tame then?  L-like a sort of pet?”

Erroll let out a deep booming laugh which made his cheeks and belly wobble.  “I don’t think me wife would take too kindly to being called a pet”.

“You’re m-married to a snake?”  Morgan’s eyes grew round with astonishment.

Erroll laughed again and stroked the snake’s scales.  The outline of the snake shimmered and became indistinct.  The long body shortened and the scales morphed into human skin of a pale shade.  A tiny naked woman with a shaven head reclined in the portly man’s arms.  All that remained of the snake was a tattoo of it down one side of her face.

She smiled and looked at Morgan with her odd maroon eyes.  “Sorry about that, Morgan.  I have to let the serpent out regularly.  It needs its freedom.  Ye’ve no idea how good it feels to be able to stretch and coil in the sand”.  She stood and bowed to him.  “I be Justeen Halloran, wife to Erroll and grandma to Yadzah.  I expect ye be hungry.  I always feel hungry after letting the serpent out”.

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Morgan’s stomach rumbled rebelliously despite his confusion. Blushing furiously, he allowed Justeen to pull him out of the tent and he stood up, brushing sand off his clothes. Then he returned Justeen’s bow. “It’s good to meet you,” he stammered slightly. “I’m sorry if I seemed rude earlier. It’s just … how did I end up here?”

Justeen took hold of his arm and Erroll took his other one when they saw he still looked exhausted. “I think it be easier if yer friends explain,” she told him. “Be ye hungry?”

In spite of himself, he laughed a little. “I’m always hungry. The others are probably eating now.”

It was painfully slow-going as they crossed the desert. Whatever Morgan had done, he’d overdone it and ended up draining himself both physically and mentally. At long last, Morgan saw Apollo, Gerald, Andreas, and Anwyn sitting on the sand, eating. Andreas and Anwyn seemed intent on their conversation and Apollo and Gerald were speaking in low tones to each other.

They all looked up when Erroll and Justeen approached with Morgan. Andreas and Anwyn had a quick conversation with them before Erroll and Justeen left them alone. “Morgan!” Andreas said. “How ye be feeling?”

Morgan mopped off his sweaty forehead and sank down on the sand beside Apollo. “Hot, sweaty, and tired,” he said. “And weird. Am I missing something?”

“I temporarily disabled your magic,” Apollo admitted. “Under the circumstances we discussed …?”

Realisation hit Morgan like a bolt of lightning. “Oh, Andreas!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t cause any permanent damage, did I? And where is Elsa?”

“She’s alright, and nothing that couldn’t have been fixed,” Apollo assured him hastily. “Her system was just overloaded with magic. Nothing she can’t recover from.”

Morgan slumped his shoulders. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I should’ve told you.”

“Probably,” Gerald agreed, but he did give Morgan some food.

After Morgan had eaten a bit, Andreas stood up. “May I have a word with ye?” he asked.

Morgan reluctantly followed him, thinking he was going to receive a scolding. “I didn’t tap into my darkness on purpose,” he started to protest.

Andreas held up a hand to stop him. “I ain’t going to scold ye,” he told him. “I were going to ask ye for help. Two of me students have gone missing. I understand ye know of one — River Meer?”

“Oh, that mute girl from Thraesh,” Morgan said. “Yes, I know her. We met in Corttann some years ago. What about her? Is she alright?”

Andreas shrugged. “We be trying to find her. Would ye be willing to merge minds with me? Apollo said ye were connected to her.”

Awkwardly, Morgan mimicked Andreas’s shrug. “I guess so. I don’t know how well it’s going to work. She and I suppressed our connection for years so we didn’t affect the other. But you can try.”

Andreas gave him a reassuring smile before resting his hands on the sides of Morgan’s head. Morgan inhaled sharply as images danced in front of his eyes — memories from years ago. Figures in black cloaks surrounding him, separating him from Apollo …

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The memory came fast and strong. Morgan and Apollo had only recently arrived in Corttann, searching for a new life where they would not be hunted and attacked every day. It was unfortunate that they chose Corttann; magic was detested and feared. Witchfinders had quickly found and captured them both, dragging them from their room at an inn in the middle of the night.

They had separated Morgan from Apollo, dragging him to a cart with a strong cage built into it. At first, when they shoved him inside, he’d thought it was unoccupied. But pushed in a corner, he saw on the opposite, a child, her face masked with a mess of brown curls. She couldn’t have been any more than eight years old, and his heart broke to see her there.

The Witchfinders had raised their whips over her, and he had reacted without thinking, flinging himself into their path. The whips had come down upon him, and the girl had wrapped her arms around him, sobbing and sniffing. Pain shot through Morgan’s body, yet the Witchfinders gave no indication of ending the painful beating.

Then he and the girl’s minds had merged into one. The pain from his beating and her understanding of how it felt initiated the merge, and their magic became one as well. Morgan’s darkness coupled with the girl’s power caused an explosion that wiped out the Witchfinders and destroyed the cage. Together, they had used their magic to free Apollo from where he’d been tied to a stake and they had run away. Although both Morgan and Apollo had wanted to take young River Meer with them, she had disappeared in the night, and Morgan and Apollo had suppressed Morgan’s connection to her.

Another image forced its way into Morgan’s mind — not a memory, but a vision. It was a girl, the same girl, but older. She was covering her face and sobbing in some room somewhere. Some sort of porridge mixture dripped down the wall, and a bowl lay broken at its base. Then the image was gone.

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Morgan pulled away from Andreas, his mind running a mile a minute. His head still pounded mercilessly, and he rubbed his forehead with his pointer finger. “What the devil was that?” he asked. “That doesn’t usually happen … does it?”

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Rita materialised in the courtyard outside Casa Nentofore.  It had taken her a while to fix the pattern for translocation in her mind, since she had only been there on a couple of occasions — the first being shortly after she had met Andreas and the second during one of her vacation times away from the Donovan Institute.  Remembering Andreas’s lessons in spying techniques, she had decided that it would be wiser to observe the house from the outside before entering.  Hopefully Alonzo would be asleep by this time, although Luigi’s habits were harder to predict.  Neither of them had special powers, so she was fairly certain that she could use tricks of the light to hide from them if they did happen to be awake.

She remembered that the ground floor and first floor of the property were rarely used by Alonzo.  Sometimes he allowed homeless people to sleep there, if the nearby hostel was full and they had nowhere else to go.  Therefore it did not surprise her that the front door was unlocked when she tried it.

Seeing that there were no lights on in the house, she eased the door open and tiptoed inside.  She was wearing practical, soft-soled flat shoes instead of her preferred designer heels, so she could move silently.  She almost tripped over the prone body of someone laying on the floor; a young woman using a ragged cloak as a blanket.  There were two smaller lumps beneath the cloak-blanket, indicating that the woman had young children with her.  A weird impulse made her dig in her pocket and bring out the few banknotes which she carried, reasoning that they would be no good to her on the island.  She tucked the money underneath the makeshift blanket and stepped past the sleeping woman.

There were several other homeless people sleeping in the various rooms on the ground floor, but they did not stir as she made her way through the house.  When she came to the stairs, she materialised her cloak and flew up, rather than risk the old staircase creaking and giving her away.

The first floor was deserted.  She flew up the next staircase and landed gently in a hallway on the second floor, listening out for snoring or any other indications that this part of the house was occupied.  She risked peeping into one of the bedrooms, but the bed was an old-fashioned four-poster and the bed-curtains were drawn shut, so she could not tell whether or not anyone was sleeping there.

The second floor parlour was the room which Alonzo used the most.  Rita remembered the air of shabby cosiness from her previous visits.  Unexpectedly, a tear trailed down her face.  She wiped it away, thinking of how easily Andreas had pushed her aside to go on vacation and how he had turned his cellphone off.  In the past, he had left his phone on when he was away and he had always answered her calls.  Sentimentality would only be a weakness.  She had to stay strong in order to get her revenge on him.

It did not take her long to find what she was looking for.  Next to a home-made laptop was a shiny new tablet.  She picked it up and slid it into her pocket, her heart thumping wildly.  Although it felt wrong to be stealing from the Nentofores, who had only ever showed her kindness, the fact that it would hurt Andreas gave her an odd thrill.

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Ursula grinned and took the tablet from Rita.  “Must admit, I had me doubts about ye, Carp, but ye’ve come through for me.  About time I had something new.  I be sick of sloppy seconds”.

She fiddled around with it, trying to work out how to turn it on.  Rita watched for a few minutes, enjoying seeing the scruffy sorceress struggling with the modern gadget.

“Here, let me show ye” Rita offered.  “Takes a little getting used to, but I’ll teach ye”.

It felt good to turn the tables on her gruff, unsympathetic teacher.  However, when she pressed the button to switch on the tablet, the screen filled with strange symbols and it emitted a loud beeping sound.

“Thought ye said ye could teach me” Ursula mocked.

“I didn’t expect there to be encryption codes on it” Rita answered, tapping away frantically on the keyboard interface.  “Looks like Andreas’s work”.

Ursula glared at her.  “Well ye were his student until recently, so I expect ye to crack them codes.  Get on with it!"

She stomped away without a backward glance, leaving Rita to struggle with the tablet.  The symbols flashed and changed, indicating that a new layer of code had been set on top of the others.  A message in Carpathian scrolled across the screen, stating that for every wrong attempt at entering the pass-codes, another layer of encryption would be added.  There was no point in trying to guess the correct combination, for it would only generate more layers of code.  Tears gushed down Rita’s face, landing on the glowing screen.

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“Sorry about that” Andreas said.  “Must have been hard on ye, dredging up unwelcome memories.  I wish there had been another way.  But we’ve learned two very important things — the connection ye have with River be very strong and we’ve got a visual imprint of her location”.

Morgan continued massaging his aching head.  “It didn’t look like much to me.  That drab little room could have been anywhere”.

“Not so” Andreas corrected.  “The colour of the plaster on the walls be a big clue.  Tis a cheap type of plaster, containing a lot of sand and mud.  I’ve already got a good idea where that plaster came from.  Tis a formula often used by gypsies to construct temporary shelters.  It ain’t built to last.  I also know some people in the construction trade who ought to be able to confirm me suspicions”.

“Er … glad I could help” Morgan said.  “I hope you find River.  I didn’t know her well but I wouldn’t want any harm to come to her”.

“Go and rest now” Andreas suggested.  “Ye still be suffering the after-effects of using yer dark powers”.

Morgan stumbled away across the sand and flopped down next to Gerald and Apollo.  Erroll came up to him, holding out a mug of herbal tea.  “Drink this.  Twill calm ye down and restore yer strength at the same time”.

The tea was thicker than Morgan was accustomed to and dark green in colour.  However, it smelled quite pleasant, so he took a sip.  It had a strange earthy taste but even the first sip made him feel better, so he drank the rest of it.

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Anwyn gave Andreas a firm hug and they sat down on the sand together, again acting romantic for the benefit of their visitors.  “Did ye find out anything useful from the mind-merge with Morgan?”

Andreas took a herbal cigarette from behind his ear, lit it and inhaled deeply before passing it over to Anwyn.  “Aye, I reckon we’ll have a fix on her location now that me other self has done research on a few things.  There be a strong indication that gypsies be involved in River’s abduction.  Look for yerself”.

He sent a telepathic projection of River’s dreary room into his wife’s mind.  “See that plaster mix?  Tis a typical temporary shelter of the kind made by Virian gypsies.  And ye know where that be leading me”.

Anwyn sighed.  “Not the Cadogans, surely?  I thought Dorrie were supposed to be a reformed character.  She’d promised to only take on willing apprentices and not to force them into going to her island”.

“Me sources among the Virian travelling community last saw Dorrie translocating away from Nhemayah” Andreas stated.  “Her trail led to Losintho and there be no evidence that she’s returned to Viria yet”.

“Good luck with trying to recruit Losinthans!”  Anwyn gave a harsh chuckle.  “If they be feeling generous, they’ll send her back to Viria.  If they ain’t, she’ll end up in one of their subterranean ice-cells”.

“Aye” Andreas agreed.  “So we can rule out Dorrie as a suspect.  We know that her daughter, Vanessa, were executed by Lord Claude many years ago.  That only leaves her granddaughter and a handful of more distant relatives.  Think I’ll set the Trickster onto them, while I try to break through the shield on the island”.

“Let me know if ye need help with that” Anwyn offered.  “Dorrie’s shield be on the weak side, but we don’t know how strong her relatives might be”.  She gave him another kiss before getting up and joining the others.

Andreas nodded in acknowledgement.  He closed his eyes and fixed the pattern of Nhemayah in his mind, using his enhanced senses to search for any weak spots in the sorcery shield.  “River, can ye hear me?” he transmitted.  “What be the name of Galea Nentofore’s eldest son?”  It was a test question, for he had implanted the answer in the deepest layer of River’s subconscious when she had first taken up her studies at the Donovan Institute.  Only an Ascended Master could break the codes and access the hidden memory.  Even River herself was unaware that she knew the answer.  Andreas also took the precaution of changing the test question at random intervals, so even if someone did manage to glean it from River’s mind, they would have the wrong information.

“Please, Goddess, let me be right” he prayed.

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River had not yet stopped crying. After Ursula had left her, she had not seen or heard another person all around her. She had attempted to leave the room, but she didn’t want another run-in with Ursula and rejected the idea. Now she simply sat in the middle of the room, crying and wishing she was anywhere but here. Her joy at being able to transform into the book Uncle Nye had wanted seemed to have been ages ago. Now she was alone and without friends. Even Rita was gone.

All of River’s attempts to translocate to safety had also been fruitless. As Ursula had said, the shield prevented her from leaving and she had only managed to exhaust herself further. Wiping tears from her cheeks with the sleeve of her black robes, she tried to concentrate on happier memories. But none would come to her.

Still sniffling, River heard something in the very back of her mind. It was as if someone were whispering to her, asking her something. She concentrated, desperately hoping something would come. Then she heard something. “What be the name of Galea Nentofore’s eldest son?” Galea Nentofore? She hardly knew the woman! How was she supposed to know the name of her son?!

It came to her without her even realising it. “Garado. Andreas, is that you?” Desperation flooded into River, fuelling her mental transmissions. “Please, take me back! I just want to go home!” Tears flooded down her cheeks and she started sobbing.