Chartile: Prophecy (7 page)

“
But you know all that
stuff. From your mom and Gran?” asked Jayson. “I’ll bet you even
went with her to the palace when you were little. You can teach us.
This is our only shot, Piper. We act now or never.” He slammed his
fist into his open palm, and Leo and Jack nodded in agreement.
Piper closed her eyes and sighed in resigned defeat.



Leo crouched low in a defensive position
historians would have called The Plow. He had remembered hearing
about it during a field trip to Fort Meigs many years ago. He
wasn’t sure how he actually remembered how to do it. His breathing
was slow and steady, which belied the rapidly beating heart in his
chest. Jayson and Piper sat with their backs to a half dead bush
that had stubbornly grown amongst the craggy terrain of the
mountainside. They were pouring over notes and diagrams, discussing
the layout of the palace and the best locations to get inside.

Leo ignored them. He was focused. He was
collected. All he cared about was the feel of the steel in his
hands, the perfect balance of its weight, and the opponent standing
across from him: Jack.

Jack advanced, the bow staff gripped in both
hands. He swung, aiming directly for Leo’s head. But the once
over-cautious boy was ready. Leo blocked Jack’s attack with an
instinctive parry and lunged for Jack’s heart. Jack, too, was ready
for this, and the parry-repost continued up and down the rocky
hillside.

As Jack and Leo fought, Jayson and Piper
rolled up their maps, their discussion complete. The girl rose,
brushing the earth from her backside, and stretching towards the
sun with the faintest bit of a smile on her lips.

“
Piper,” said Jayson
cautiously. He stared up at her from where he still sat on the
ground. “When are you going to teach us how to use
magic?”

Piper froze and stared blankly down at
Jayson. He looked away, his shoulders drooping and his frown
deepening. The silence between them was almost palpable.

“
Jayson, I wish I could
teach you, but I honestly do not know how. Most of what I know came
after I was banished. I was alone, desperate, hungry, and frankly,
bored. I cannot put into words how I do what I do. It just
happens.” She refused to meet his eye, as with every time Jayson
had asked this over the last week.

“
You could at least give
us some tips, you know, like some magic words to say or something,”
Jayson continued to press.

“
Jayson, I refuse to talk
of this!” cried Piper, and she turned, storming back up the
mountain, the parchment crushed tightly in her hands.

“
Well, you’re going to
have to!” Jayson yelled at her. He leapt to his feet, and squeezed
the grip of his bow until his knuckles turned white. “If we’re
supposed to fulfill a prophecy here, we need to have all sources of
power and weaponry available to us. How else do we win?”

Piper rushed back down the hill to Jayson,
stopping within inches of his freckled nose. She glared, but Jayson
could see her eyes glistening with tears. He had never seen her
this angry before, and his hands shook as he glared back.

“
Power and weapons do not
guarantee a victory, Jayson Hill.” Her words came as a breathless
whisper as she fought the emotion that welled in her. “It takes
brains as well as brawn, perhaps even more so. If you are going to
be a leader, you need to learn some humility as well.” She took a
step back and sighed, her voice softer. “Maybe you aren’t the souls
of the ancient kings. Maybe I was wrong. Or maybe, you just need to
grow up more first.”

She looked over her shoulder at Jack and Leo
who had ceased their fighting in mid stance. Their faces fell with
the same loss of confidence Jayson’s had, and for a moment Piper
felt a pain of guilt. But she knew she was right. These little boys
were nothing more than that — at least right now. She had to be the
strong one. She had to guide them.

She looked at the map still clutched in her
hand. “This was a mistake,” she said, and threw the parchment to
the ground, “You aren’t ready.” She left the boys standing still as
statues, and staring after her with pleading eyes.

“
Piper, wait,” said Leo,
and started after her.

Jack grabbed his arm. “No, just let her be.
Let’s find out what Jay did this time.”

Piper stalked up the rocky cliff side making
far more noise than she normally would have. But she didn’t care.
She was angry, and confused. Above all else, she was afraid.
Everything she had been taught as a child seemed as though it had
been to groom her for this. No one else in her village knew about
the laws of Chartile, or had been taught how to speak with
confidence and humility. They did not know the difference in poise
necessary when addressing a small or large gathering of people.
They did not know which colors signified which rank within the
royal army. She was different. She always knew this. From her
bright green eyes, when everyone she knew had blue or gray. From
the sharp defined jaw, to her natural ability to teach and lead. It
had been easy for her neighbors to banish her. They had feared
her.

Questions whirled in her mind. Surely her
destiny was bigger even than usurping Taraniz. And the boys. How
did Jayson, Jack and Leo fit into everything? She regretted those
hurtful words. They made her stomach twist in knots.

At the base of the mountain, amidst the rock
and dry earth, a lone beech tree had grown. There were a few sparse
and smaller trees that had tried and failed to grow in the desolate
terrain. But this tree was special. It was tall, thin and
weathered. Despite the sparse landscape, it had grown and survived.
It was the place Piper came to think. She had found it after the
riot, when her parents had died, and after she had been cast out.
Like that day, she sat at the roots of the beech tree, her hands
clutching at the gnarled white bark as she dropped to the ground.
She buried her face in her arms, and cried.

She cried long and hard. She let every
emotion she had ever felt for the last three years wash over her.
Her tears, hot and salty, stung at the cut still healing on her
cheek. She cried, and she cried, and she cried. She cried until she
could cry no more. Then she just sat, trembling and hiccupping, and
wishing she had remembered the water skin.

“
Piper,” said a gentle
voice behind her.

She lifted her head at the sound of that
voice, and slowly turned to look over her shoulder at the young man
kneeling behind her. Her face brightened, and she leapt from the
ground to embrace the man.

“
Dimitri,” she whispered,
“What are you doing here?”

“
I need your help.” he
said.



“
I have to admit, I tend
to agree with Jayson. Even if he does have a lack of tact about
it.” Leo said taking a drink from the water skin Piper had
left.

Jayson thrust his hands out before him and
replied, “See? I’m not always insane, ya know.”

“
Yeah, but Piper might
have actually listened if you hadn’t had a tantrum about it. You
could have said things differently,” Jack suggested.

“
Like how? It’s never a
good time to discuss magic with her. Never! I don’t understand what
she’s so afraid of.” Jayson accepted the water skin from Leo. He
stopped mid swallow. Water dribbled down his front when he saw
Piper coming around the path with a tall, dark skinned and muscular
young man at her side. They stood to greet the newcomer, suddenly
feeling very awkward in their gangly fourteen year old
bodies.

“
There has been a change
of plans,” Piper said matter-of-factly as she came to a stop before
them. “We will be leaving for the Dwarvik fortress on the other
side of Mount Kelsii.” She gazed at each of the boys in turn.
“Immediately.”

Jayson, Jack and Leo looked at each other,
but did not speak. The young man at Piper’s side stepped forward,
seeing the uncertainty in their faces, and smiled politely to
them.

“
My name is Dimitri. I am
a friend of Piper.” He gave a small bow. “I am a retainer and the
royal liaison to the Empress of the Dwarves of Chartile. She has
personally requested a meeting with all of you.”

“
With us?” asked
Leo.

“
Yes,” Dimitri replied
with a nod.

“
But, we’re just kids,”
said Jayson.

“
I am sure all of your
questions will be answered very soon,” said Dimitri with another
smile.

Silence fell. Jayson swung his arms at his
sides while Jack contorted his mouth into several bored faces. Leo
picked at a pimple on the back of his neck, and Dimitri turned to
Piper, his eyebrows raised and a smile pulling at his lips.

“
Well, I suppose we should
gather our things, then.” Without a look at any of them, Piper
headed back up the narrow mountain path toward their cave homes.
The boys were left standing in an uncomfortable circle with Dimitri
until the young man finally broke ranks, and trudged after
Piper.

“
Anyone else get the
feeling he’s a bit more than her friend?” Jayson asked. Jack and
Leo rolled their eyes at Jayson before turning to follow up the
path. “What? You agree, don’t you? You just don’t want to say
anything.” Jayson followed after, bringing up the rear.

They must have been quite a sight, if anyone
had cared to take notice. Dimitri, a strong, dark skinned young man
with wavy dark hair, dark eyes and rippling muscles in the lead.
Jack, Leo and Jayson, three dirty and lanky boys followed in the
middle, and Piper, a tall, messy red-haired young woman brought up
the rear. They made their way slowly up and eastward, around the
craggy, desolate mountain. They had packed light, for Dimitri had
said he would take them along the same path he had travelled to get
there, and there was plenty of food, water and shelter along the
way. It was hard going. The path narrowed and widened unexpectedly,
or took sharp turns beside sudden vertical drop offs. The boys had
decided to put their tennis shoes back on to give them more
traction on their still untrained feet. Dimitri was fascinated with
the shoes, and soon they were talking and exchanging tales. Only
Piper remained silent.

They walked for hours, moving slowly along
the paths. The vastness of the large mountain seemed less
noticeable when they were living at its base by Outland Post.
Gradually, the mountain began to turn greener and lusher with
trees, flowers and moss. Little brooks bubbled from the rocks, only
to disappear again a few feet away beneath the ground once more.
They noticed birds they had never seen before, and the bugs were
atrocious. With the craggy little foothills and sparse landscape
they had been living in, it was hard to believe such an immense
ecosystem lay only hours beyond where they had made their temporary
home. They wondered why Piper had never brought them here to hunt.
When asked, she simply replied, “I don’t like to be far from my
home,” and she refused to speak more on the matter.

The boys realized their daily treks hunting
and gathering food were nothing compared to hiking the entire
mountain. They stopped often to rest and refill their water skins.
Jack assumed it was because they were too slow and complained often
of fatigue. Leo suspected Piper was stalling for time. She did not
seem eager for what awaited her when they arrived at Fortress
Kelsii. Jayson was just grateful, and heaved himself to the ground
with great dramatics each time.

“
Holy cramping legs to the
max, Batman!” he cried after nearly eight hours of traveling. They
had stopped at their third or fourth spring, and dusk was beginning
to fall. “How much further is this place? You said you got to us in
a day?” Jayson asked Dimitri, his eyes wide and staring in
disbelief.

Dimitri smiled and laughed, his eyes kind.
“Yes, but I did not need to rest as often. As liaison to the
Empress, I often run messages from one side of the mountain to the
other, and back again. We do have ponies some of the errants use
for longer treks. The furthest orenite mines are miles away from
the main living areas. But, the ponies are few in number, and they
do not seem to care much for me.”

“
What are the mines like?
How deep do they go?” Leo was fascinated with the sciences of
something he once believed to be no more than myth and fairy tale.
He questioned Dimitri every chance he could, and the young man
answered him patiently.

“
Oh, I do not know
anything about that,” said Dimitri. He wiped his sleeve across his
brow and stretched his long legs. “We are always digging deeper and
creating new tunnels. It is a great feat of engineering that only
the most skilled are trained to do. They must work with precise
calculations to ensure the tunnels do not collapse. They must
account for the ventilation shafts, and even the kind of stone they
are working with. This is why there are runes and jewels covering
the tunnel walls. They serve not only as adornment but as markers
to tell you where you are, and how to get to certain places of
importance. Some tunnels have sharp turns every twenty feet for
miles! But they are truly gorgeous. Human or no, I would never want
to live anywhere else.”

“
If you work for the
Empress,” said Jack as he banged and scraped mud from his shoes,
“who’s the Emperor?”

Dimitri laughed a deep belly laugh
unbefitting his age. It made Piper smile in a way the boys had not
seen before.

“
My apologies,” Dimitri
replied. “I forget you are not of this world. There can be no doubt
of that now, I am sure.” He wiped a tear from his eye and looked at
the sky above him. It was growing darker by the minute. The shadows
around them had lengthened significantly since they had stopped.
“We should set up camp. I told the Empress I would be back by
nightfall, but it is too dangerous to travel much farther in the
dark.”