Chapter 4
The harvest celebration was in full swing, for the sun had set, and the bonfire had been lit, and people were dancing merrily around it singing an old hymn of worship to Aleen. The archery competition had been won by Trell, and the wrestling competition by Geb, and before long, the dancing competition would begin. Amir sat on the side line, with a drum in hand keeping to the beat of the dance as he watched Caldna dance around the fire. By all the Gods she was beautiful. He wished he could be out there, dancing with her, but this damned wound would keep him from dancing for a while...if not for a very long while. His smile waned a bit, but as Caldna turned round the fire and caught his eyes, flashing him a wide joyous grin, his worry was snuffed out and he resumed smiling in delight.
His heart raced as he thought about this night, and what he was to do later. He hadn't been able to find Zechariah, and was beginning to worry that he had forgotten about the rings. But he pushed that worry aside. Zechariah was reliable. He'd be back before the time was upon him. Soon, it was announced that the dancing competition was ready, and all the eligible women made their way to the ring to dance. Sometimes one at a time, or in pairs they danced a fast step, swinging each other around in feverish flurry. And in the center of it all, danced Caldna, clearly holding the eyes of those who watched, and the envy of the other women. She danced like an angel herself, and before long, was declared the victor in the competition.
Then, it was the time for the sacrifices. Animals hobbled and prepared, and A priest of Aleen stood beside a large standing stone that had been placed for this ritual, and spoke in a loud voice over the crowds that stood below. "Here we offer up these animals lives as penance for our sins, and as gratitude to Aleen and all the Gods for their blessing this year. Tied to Korvic's rock, and bathed in the blood of those she saught to save, she suffers for our lives and our freedom!" Caldna was led up beside the priest, and was disrobed. "To honor her sacrifice, we bath one of our own in blood to remember Aleen's suffering." Caldna was tied to the rock, in imitation of Aleen. A sheep was thrown over the rock to dangle above Caldna and the priest stepped forward. "Aleen, hear our prayers of thanks, and accept these sacrifices to ease your suffering!" He cried out as he cut the sheep's throat, letting the fresh blood pour down over Caldna. She trembled, in excitement of the honor, and at the horror. Fjord Silverkin stepped up onto the stage that had been prepared for him, and he began to play a melody on his theorbo to accompany the sacrifices, and he began to sing, telling the tale of Aleen's sacrifice. Though everyone knew it well, they either stood in silence, watching the offerings, or sang along with the ballad.
Eventually, the sacrifices were done, and Caldna stood, completely soaked in the blood of the sacrifices. The priest stepped back as was custom, and waited a moment to 'await Aleen's blessing'. As the moment came to an end, and the priest stepped forward to cut Caldna free, he froze, wide eyed, staring at Caldna.
She was beginning to glow.
Amir looked on in horror and wonder, as his beloved began to convulse violently in her bondage, beginning to scream horrifically, but the light from her breast grew ever brighter. Amir tried to stand and go to her, but was held back, and everyone watched in wonder, as Caldna grew still, and then glided through the ropes, and began to change. Her hair flashed bright golden, her skin became paler than snow and she grew in size. All around him, the people of Hyran and Perdale fell prostrate as Caldna became Aleen's avatar. She laughed, so beautifully it was eerie to behold.
She turned to the people laying face down before her and said, "You sacrifices please me greatly, and have eased my suffering." She turned to the priest and taking his head in her hands kissed him on the forehead saying "You have served me well. Continue to bless my people." Turning back to her worshipers she said, "Times have become dark, and trouble stirs in Umar. But I have come this day to assure you that I have not abandoned you in the past, and I will not abandon you now. Be at peace, and celebrate this eve with me." And then, as if on some cue that only Fjord had seen he struck up a light and cheerful tune of celebration, and Aleen smiled at him, beginning to dance. "Let us dance through the night!"
Her worshipers cheered, some not sure if they were worthy to stand in the presence of divinity, but their fears were cast aside as she leapt in among them and grabbed one up in her embrace and began to dance. She stood taller than any man there,
November 11th
November 11th
casting her brilliant light into the shadows banishing them as she danced among her people, and all around her were enraptured by her beauty.
Amir longed to dance with her, but he was forbidden this joy, and so with a bittersweet taste in his mouth, he kept drumming away, trying to follow the intricate melodies that Fjord weaved so artfully. He had changed his instruments up, swapping the theorbo for his preferred nine string fretless lute, and rather than strumming it with one hand as would be commonly expected, he laid it over his lap and played the whole instrument with both hands, striking and strumming the strings in a bizarre pattern, but the music it created was undeniably wondrous.
Amir was in the middle of a rhythm, becoming lost in the music, when all of a sudden there was a commotion in the midst of the onlookers, those who either did not wish to dance, or had danced so energetically that they must take a break. Through the ring of onlookers, into the light of the fire, Amir saw Zechariah stumble through the crowd, knocking several people over. Amir saw Zechariah pause for a moment, scanning the festivities, eyes wide in terror and sweat dripping from his matted hair. Amir saw Zechariah locate Aleen's avitar, and begin to make a beeline for her. 'No!' Amir thought, 'not tonight. Please, not tonight.' Amir stopped his drumming and made to intercept Zechariah, but his leg protested loudly, forcing him to take his seat again. Zechariah was making his way quickly towards Aleen, Amir couldn't stop it. Zechariah would ruin these festivities.
From the shadows of the ferverd dancing, something struck Zechariah, and he went flailing backward. The onlookers in that portion of the dance had gone quiet, watching the events unfold. Zechariah jumped back up to his feet and tried to make his way forward again, but Arrongar stepped from within the throng of the dancers, and towed him away by the arm. Finding Amir, he dragged Zechariah over who, as he approached, Amir could hear him crying "The light! The light! I need to be in the light! Don't take me to the shadows!"
"Zechariah!" Arrongar said firmly as he tossed him down by Amir's feet, "Get hold of yourself."
"What's happening?" Amir asked.
"The shadows, they haunt me! They whisper to me!" Zechariah cried wide eyed. "Don't keep me from the light! I need the light! Aleen!" Zechariah cried.
A loud slap was drowned out by a crescendo by Fjord, and most of the onlookers had already resumed their celebration. Stunned, Zechariah seemed to gain some measure of control over his mind, though his body shook with fear.
"Zechariah." Arrongar said firmly and calmly, "Explain to me, what is going on? What has happened?"
Tears coming back unbidden to his eyes, Zechariah said, "I can't. I can't. You wouldn't believe me. You've never believed me."
"Zech. You're scaring us. What happened?" Amir asked, his own eyes filled with concern and worry. He'd never seen Zechariah like this before.
"Zechariah. I may not believe that your dreams are real, but I do believe you have real dreams. Tell me." Arrongar insisted.
"They'll kill you. They'll kill all of you." Zechariah cried hiding his face at first, but the darkness of his covering his own face scared him enough that he willingly faced the embarrassment of onlookers over covering his face in shadows.
"Kill us? Who will kill us?" Amir asked.
"I don't know. I don't know."
"Amir, can you take him home?" Arrongar asked
"NO!" Zechariah cried, "It's too dark. I have to stay in the light."
"You can take the lamps and..." Arrongar continued ignoring Zechariah.
"Actually...Father..." Amir began, "I was going to propose to Caldna tonight."
"Ah... I see. Well, I'll take care of Zechariah. Come on Zech," He said grabbing his youngest son by the collar and hoisting him to his feet, "Lets get you home."
"Not home! I can't..." Zechariah said.
"Zechariah." Arrongar said trying to express finality in his voice.
"No." Zechariah insisted. "I'll stay at the tavern."
"The tavern's full with visitors from Perdale." Amir tried to reason but Zechariah wasn't having it.
"I'll sleep in the commons, before the fire, in the light... Delden won't mind, and I'll pay him in full."
Arrongar took a deep breath. "Fine. Lets get you settled there." He said, wrapping an arm around Zechariah both to comfort him, and to keep him from bolting and doing anything rash.
"Zech," Amir called as they left, "I know this isn't quite what we had planned but...do you have the rings still?"
Zechariah nodded, and handed them to Amir before leaving quietly.
Oloric's Rest was oddly quiet juxtaposing the celebrations outside. With the doors shut, and the fire lit, you could barely hear the steady beating of the drums and dancing feet. Arrongar brought over a mug of wine and began heating it over the fire, while Zechariah, at first sitting by the fire, rose and lit candles all around the room with shaky hands. Once the room was very well lit, and Zechariah was sitting the wine in increasingly steady hands, Arrongar asked, "I don't want to get you frightened again, but Zechariah, this is weird, even for you. I need to know what happened."
Zechariah sat still staring into the fire for long moments, and Arrongar sat back giving him the space he needed to think. "What happened to my hand Father?" Zechariah finally asked.
"This again?" Arrongar asked confused. "Why are you bringing this up again?"
"Just answer the question...please." Zechariah insisted.
"When you were little, your mother and I got busy, and didn't keep as close an eye on you as we should have, and you ended up crawling into the fire. You were burned so badly, that we thought you were going to have to loose your hand, but Aleen was gracious to us, and instead, you only lost some control in it." Arrongar explained again. "But you already know this."
"Ya. That's what I've been told." Zechariah asked, with a coldness in his voice.
Arrongar leaned forward, becoming uneasy. "What do you mean that's what you've been told?"
"You wanted to know what happened?" Zechariah asked.
"That's what I've been saying." Arrongar replied.
"I spoke to the shadows. They came to me, and spoke with me. They told me that they wanted to kill you. Or at least torture you. They said that you were holding me back. That you had trapped me." Zechariah said with haunted voice. A chill ran down Arrongar's spine. Zechariah looked him dead in the eye. "Why would the shadows hate you?"
"I...They're just dreams Zech. Maybe your upset at me about something." Arrongar began to try to reason.
"NO!" Zechariah said leaping to his feet and throwing his mug across the room causing Arrongar to jump back at the sudden outburst. "Enough lies Father! What happened," Zechariah said with deliberate pause between each word, "to my hand?"
Arrongar took a deep breath calming himself from meeting Zechariah's anger. "Sit down Zechariah."
"Will you tell me the truth?" Zechariah asked.
"Not if you try and intimidate me any further." Arrongar said calmly.
Trembling, but regaining control, Zechariah sat again, but he was still so tense. Arrongar stood up, retrieved Zechariah's mug and filled it again with wine, before going behind the bar and grabbing a mop. The humility of the act humbled Zechariah's anger.
"Sorry Father." Zechariah apologized.
"It's okay son." Arrongar replied as he finished his mopping. "You have good reason to be angry, but that doesn't excuse acting in the anger."
"I know...but I've always felt alone, and then...finding out I've been lied to my whole life..." Zechariah said.
Sighing, Arrongar sat back down and took up his own mug. Staring, in turn, into the fire, Arrongar thought long and hard. It was time for the truth. "Zechariah," he began, not looking away from the fire, "You have to understand that everything I did was because I was trying to protect you."
"What do you mean?" Asked Zechariah. Finally, he was going to get some answers!
Taking a deep, Arrongar continued. "The heavens sometimes tell of good tidings, and sometimes of ill omens. The day you were born, was a day of ill omens. You were born under the sign of death. Of course, many people are, and it doesn't usually mean much. I'm not, after all a superstitious man."
"But?" Zechariah prompted after a pause.
"But...there was something odd about you where you were born." Arrongar continued hesitantly. "You, saw things, things that were not there, at least to my eyes. You barely looked at your mother and I, your first words were not to us, but to whatever they were. Other's had already begun to talk about the possibility that you were demon possessed, because you seemed to not see the world around you, and they didn't want you around their children. One day, when you were just beginning to climb on everything, we had put you down for a nap, and left you in a room alone...but there was no fire."
"What?" Zechariah asked, but Arrongar just continued.
"After a short while, whilst we were working in the kitchen, we noticed that the shadows were behaving...unnaturally. They began to move and...pointed to your room. A dread set over us, and we ran into your room and...saw something." Zechariah went cold. The shadows had moved? Then...
"It was like all the shadows in the room had pooled together to form a thick pool of shadow into which you were crawling. The shadows reached out for you, and took you by the hand, drawing you in. Your mother and I rushed in, your mother grabbing you away from the shadows, whilst I threw a lamp at it. I didn't know what else to do. I don't think I hurt it and though it did leave...it seemed to have accomplished what it wanted. On your hand...your left hand...it was bloody and when we tried to bandage it, we saw that it was a series of intricate runes cut into your both the front and back of your hand."
"Runes? What runes?" Zechariah asked.
"You know them well. You've been carving them into everything you can get you hands on since you could hold tools. Carving them, just like they were carved into you."
Zechariah swallowed nervously, looking at his scarred and mangled left hand.
"We didn't know what to do. We had your hand looked at, but it was healing just fine, but then...things began to happen. We would find you in places that we had not put you, and more than just you climbing, like getting into locked rooms, and playing with my records. Things would appear or disappear when no one was looking, and...it began to draw the wrong kind of attention when we found you with Dawda's papers and the keys to the treasury."
"What?" Zechariah asked in shock. "How?"
"We don't know. But, we had to do something. There was talk of treason, but then King Ata was more interested in seeing what you could do...and he talked about taking you away from us. We didn't know what to do. Perhaps..."
"Perhaps it would have been better if you had let him take me?" Zechariah said coldly.
"Perhaps." Arrongar agreed taking the last of his wine and serving himself more. "But we didn't because we loved you, and didn't want to lose you. But we had to come up with a plan."
"So you burned off the scars." Zechariah concluded.
Arrongar nodded slowly. "We had to make it look like an accident...so we held you over the fire, and...forced your hand into it, burning away the runes but...Amir happened to walk in. He was supposed to be playing with friends in town, but came back early. He was seven at the time, and remembers it clearly...remembers your screams." Arrongar tried to swallow the lump in his throat but it wouldn't leave. "In a way, I lost two sons that day. I made Amir swear to never tell anyone, and his trust in me was shattered, and I knew that one day you would find out, and that your love for me would be lost also."
Zechariah messaged the frozen bubbles of his burned flesh thoughtfully. "Did it work?"
"Partially. You stopped disappearing, and things stopped disappearing with you, and it seemed that whatever was going on had been stopped...but then the dreams began...and we couldn't find a way to fix that."
"Perhaps there was nothing to fix." Zechariah said with cold accusation in his voice.
"Looking back...probably not. But we did what we thought we had to." Looking to Zechariah he said, "I won't apologize for it Zechariah. I did what I believed was best for you, and for the Feldman family. I've always done what I thought was best, even if it is wrong. If you can't accept that, however, I do understand. Amir never could accept it."
"He's always tried to look out for me so that you wouldn't have to see it." Zechariah said with realization coming over him.
Arrongar nodded. "He tried to keep your dreams secret from me, and tried to not me hear them or see them. I think...he was afraid of what else I might do."
"I have to leave Hyran." Zechariah found himself saying. "You can't protect me...or hurt me...any more."
"If you think that is for the best...then that is what you should do." Arrongar said hesitantly.
"I don't think I have much of a choice. The shadows are back...and they either want me gone...or revenge on you...I think..." Zechariah said, unsure of what he actually meant or was trying to say.
"I don't fear the shadows Zechariah. If you need to leave, let it not be because of them." Arrongar said.
Zechariah nodded slowly. "Yes...I would leave you anyway." Zechariah could see the strain in his father's expression, the tightness in his jaw...the pain he was trying to hide.
"Let me know when you plane to leave at least. I would send you off in honor." Arrongar said standing.
"I will Father." Zechariah said, returning the mugs to the bar. "Father!" Zechariah called as Arrongar was opening the door to leave. "Thank you." Arrongar nodded, and then ducked out into the darkness, leaving Zechariah alone by the fire, where he collapsed and wept, releasing the tears he had been hiding.
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