wait,” he lamented.
“You guessed it! C’mon, get dressed!” Cilna pulled off his covers.
A cold wind made him shiver. Laboriously, he got up. The water in the washbowl was freezing, but he screwed up his courage and dipped his hands in to rinse his face, so as to clear his mind.
“I’m ready,” said a shivering Kaj, tucking his shirt into his pants.
“Finally! C’mon, let’s go!” Cilna grabbed him by the hand and started pulling.
“Clarice, are you coming with us?” he asked, resisting Cilna’s tugging.
“You go on ahead. I know the way, if I’m needed,” she replied, in her usual detached manner.
As soon as the two turned the corner, the nalnir pulled something out of her pocket, and she wrote some words on a parchment. Then she departed the house, the door slamming behind her.
Cilna and Kaj reached the square, where a considerable crowd had gathered.
“What’s going on here?” asked Kaj in amazement.
“Come in! Come and see!”
As soon as they entered, they were greeted by everyone’s salutations and laughter. They sat there on their cots with relieved expressions, chatting amongst themselves. Kaj, standing at the center of the nave, saw smiling faces every which way he looked. But how was this possible?
“I hope you don’t think it’s thanks to your pigswill!” teased a soldier.
“I don’t! I didn’t do a thing!” he replied, incredulous. He made the rounds, to find no fevers or wounds in anyone. “How can this be? You’re all healed!”
An old woman replied: “Somebody was here last night. I saw her. A hooded figure, not very tall, with a white light ‘round the hands. Didn’t catch her face, though.”
“Are you sure?”
The woman looked none too pleased by this. “I may’ve been ill, but I wasn’t mad, deary!”
“I was here till the late evening,” said Cilna, “and I didn’t hear a thing.”
“Did you notice anything else of note?” Kaj asked the woman.
“What does it matter!?” interrupted the young elf. “Everyone’s hale and healthy! It’s almost like you’re unhappy about that.”
“You don’t get it! Not just anybody could have done this. It’s just like the stories I’ve been told by the elders of Lochbis.”
The old elf woman was deep in thought. She looked up and said: “I think she had long hair. And she was definitely an elf. Her hands were so slender…” she smiled contentedly.
Kaj returned her smile. “Thanks for being such a talented observer.” He turned to Cilna: “Check on everyone again. Some of them are very worn out—they still need a day or two of rest. The others can go.”
“Sure thing. Wait, where are you going?”
“I need to have a chat with someone.”
At that moment, Clarice was putting distance between herself and Fenan. She had all of her stuff on her (which wasn’t much), and as always, her mind was swimming with thoughts.
Kaj came out on the path, and spotted her pacing away, about to leave the village.
“Clarice, wait!”
But she heeded not his words. He jogged up to her and grabbed her by the arm. Her death glare shocked his fingers loose, and she quickly withdrew her arm.
“Do NOT do that again!” she warned him.
“I’m not letting you run off! I want answers.”
“Oh, you want answers?” she asked in resolute tones.
Kaj goggled at her. “Of course! Is that so strange?” he said, the words coming out harsh.
Clarice was looking away. There was a strange glint in her eyes; she seemed almost resigned. “Before you can have your answers, I must have mine,” she explained. She turned around and started walking again, but when Kaj again tried to stop her, she pointed a dagger at his throat.
“Don’t you try following me!” She didn’t need to add anything else.
Though nothing was clear to him, Kaj raised his hands in surrender, and she continued on her way, sheathing the dagger.
Kaj was still busy at the sanctuary, as a group of men-at-arms had come to the village in search of food and information. By the afternoon he was exhausted, so he went home, wrote in his diary, and rested his feet on the table while rocking in his chair. He reflected on his days with the nalnir, from their meeting on the banks of the river to their arrival in Fenan. His memory went to that night’s events, and it was then that he spotted it. He rose to his feet quickly, almost tripping in his haste. On the stool beside the door lay a carefully folded parchment next to a leather bag. He opened the letter:
Wear it, and don’t show it to anyone. Soon you will understand.
Kaj opened the bag. Inside was a necklace with a medallion. The man took a close look at it. The stone was quite beautiful, a light purple color at the edges, and darker and deeper at the center—almost smoky, in fact. It was bright, multifaceted and rough, which probably meant it was a fragment collected who knows where, and embedded in gold as it stood. There was something magnetic about it. He let it dangle off his fingers for a moment before putting it on. Kaj looked at it, and it seemed to shine lightly. He held it a little longer in hand, then hid it under his shirt.
Meanwhile, on the path that ran alongside the White Creek, the evening’s shadows were lengthening, and the clouds that had Clarice on her travels seemed to be making way for the last faint ray of sunshine. The hooded figure moved rapidly down the road, headed for the small stretch of woods at the foot of the Slumbering Peaks. She needed to reach the tunnel entrance to the Rainvale as quickly as possible. She had been journeying alone for many years, far and wide throughout Draelia and sometimes even beyond. This had honed her senses, and she had learned to survive in even the most extreme circumstances. That was why she was still alive. Her thoughts strayed to Kaj for a moment. She absolutely had to look after his well-being, at least until she had dispelled all of her doubts.
Her train of thoughts was distracting her. She stopped, taking in the noises that surrounded her. She took a deep breath; there was something in the air. The trees were close now. She had to hurry and seek shelter for the night.
Clarice found an area at the foot of a steep hill. The place was sheltered by large trees and dense shrubbery, and the ground around was slippery, making it impossible to risk advancing further. She made a hole for the fire, thereby concealing the light of the flames. She curled up next to it, wrapped in her cloak, and slept for a few hours.
She was startled awake by a host of strange noises. Perfectly still, she listened. Some soil fell upon her, and she understood from the croaking that it was a pack of anurians, a species of froglike amphibians that wandered from one land to another in nomadic groupings, collecting what they found on both continents. They were rarely seen in that area; since
