The Blood Witch (The Blood Reign Chronicles Book 1) (29 page)

“Well it is a long story…….. what I told you before was not untrue, just not the entire truth. Suffice it to say, after the staff destroyed the king then one of the mordji retrieved it, and secreted it away in a safe spot,” the old man said guardedly.

There were several moments of silence before Nicoldani’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “It was you!!! Wasn’t it? That is how you know all of this. You were the one who took the staff and hid it,” the big man said, with excitement in his eyes. It was reminiscent of the look on Gin’s face when the old man would tell her his stories.

The old man just smiled noncommittally before saying, “All I know is that we must stop the witch before she can find the Staff of Power, or we are all doomed. There are no other mordji left to bind her this time. If she can somehow find the staff, then there will be little that we can do to stop her. I alone cannot stop her, and I am the only Arch-Mordji left. The art has been long lost.”

The three sat there for a long while, each contemplating the astonishing revelations that had just taken place. Finally, they decided to try and get some sleep before morning. Nicoldani agreed that they should rest, but said he would take the first watch.

Jak tried to sleep, but the feeling of eyes watching him wouldn’t go away. It seemed stronger at times, and would subside at others, but it never went away completely. As a result, the little sleep he managed to get was fitful and restless. After several restless hours, he was actually relieved that it was his turn at watch.

Jak walked to where Nicoldani was sitting on the trunk of a particularly large tree that had toppled over sometime recently. Jak approached the big man, but without even looking in Jak’s direction, Nicoldani said, “Go back to bed. I will take your turn at watch. You just get some sleep.”

Jak couldn’t see the man’s face, and wasn’t sure from his tone whether Nicoldani just wasn’t tired and wanted to spare Jak, or if the big man didn’t trust Jak to be on watch by himself. In either case, Jak didn’t particularly like the implication. He wanted to take his turn at watch, and it also disturbed him, the fact that Nicoldani might not trust him.

“I can’t really sleep,” Jak said tersely, “is it alright if I sit watch with you?”

This time the big man eyed Jak sideways, before finally saying, “Do as you wish.”

Jak took up a seat next to the big man on the trunk of the large tree, where they both sat in silence for a while. Jak realized that he really did care what the big man thought of him. Nicoldani had become a friend to him, and was the closest thing to family Jak had left. It saddened him to think Nicoldani didn’t trust him.

Finally Jak spoke, “I’m sorry for…….for what I did to you in Gloryvane.”

Nicoldani turned to Jak and studied him a moment. Jak didn’t think Nicoldani realized that he could see his face so clearly, along with the look in the big man’s eyes. Jak almost thought he saw fear in the Nicoldani’s eyes. Jak struggled to keep the shock from his own face. He thought back to the previous night and what he had done. Jak had handled Nicoldani like a child, lifting him off the ground and holding him helpless. Jak supposed the man had never been handled in that manner before, especially not by a boy. Jak wasn’t sure how he had been able to do it.

Jak pressed on before Nicoldani could respond, “I would never hurt you intentionally. I was confused, and caught up in the fight, and didn’t know it was you.” Jak could see anger creeping into the big man’s expression, and quickly changed his approach. “They would have killed you and Benjim…. and Gin too. I couldn’t let them do that. You are my friend, and the closest thing to family I have left, other than Gin. You have to believe me. I….I wasn’t myself.”

As Nicoldani continued to study Jak, his expression began to soften a bit. This time, Jak could not hide the shock from his own face and quickly turned away. Jak thought he saw……tears beginning to well up in Nicoldani’s eyes. But perhaps he was mistaken. When he turned back, Nicoldani was composed and stern faced again. Maybe it had been his imagination.

“You did what you had to do boy. I suppose in a way I owe my life to you,” Nicoldani said grudgingly.

“I don’t know what you ar---” the big man cut off and began again, “the old man seems to think you have an important part to play. I believe the old man to be wise, and I trust him. I suppose we all have our secrets, although I think you already know most of mine after the other night.” The far off look in his eyes seemed to say he still had more secrets that Jak didn’t know about.

Placing a large hand on Jak’s shoulder, the big man said, “I trust you too Jak. I am sorry for the way I have been treating you. You are a good boy……..a good man. I know you will do what’s right. I know you did not choose this for yourself, but fate plays a part in all or lives. We just need to do the best that we can with the hand we have been dealt.”

It felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from Jak. He felt so good he almost forgot about the watching eyes…..almost.

They both continued sitting there in silence scanning the trees, with a sense of unease. Jak was more than relieved when the eastern sky started to turn amber with the coming sunrise because he wanted to be gone from this place. The others seemed to share his enthusiasm, and they gathered camp quickly and set off east out of the valley, down the slope towards the shore of the East Sea.

Chapter 10

The pathway down the eastern slope of the Achii Mountains wasn’t quite as bad as the climb up the western side had been, but traveling was still slow. It took most of the day for the small party to make their way down to the foothills, and finally to the edge of a great cliff overlooking the shore of the East Sea. The massive body of water gave Jak a sense of awe, as it stretched out endlessly to the horizon.

Gin couldn’t stop talking about it “How big is it?” The little girl asked no one in particular. “Does it end, or just go on forever? Where did all the water come from?” The questions were incessant, but Jak wondered too, and didn’t mind, since he found himself wanting to ask some of the same questions.

The smell of the salt air was refreshing, and the rhythmic sound of waves crashing against the rocks below was almost hypnotic. Jak could have just sat there watching the waves for hours, but unfortunately, he did not have time for that. It was nearly dark, and they were having trouble finding a path that led down the cliff to the sandy beach below.

Evidently, according to Benjim the prophet lived in a cave by the seashore. By the time they found what appeared to be the trail leading down, it was too dark to chance the dangerous path. They decided to wait until morning to go the rest of the way down, and just setup camp for the night near the cliff.

When morning came, Nicoldani had already scouted ahead and said there would be no way to get the horses down the steep narrow path. They would have to go on foot the rest of the way and leave the horses behind. Since they didn’t want to leave their horses unattended, Nicoldani offered to stay with Gin, while Jak and Benjim went to try and find the prophet. Nicoldani had no real desire to speak with a prophet anyways, and Gin was just as happy staying behind with Nicoldani. She just took up a position on the cliff overlooking the massive sea, to just sit and enjoy the enchanting sight.

The tiny trail leading down the cliff was difficult, and Jak worried about Benjim. He was afraid the old man would have a hard time picking his way down the steep path. But as it turned out, Benjim seemed to manage it better than Jak. As luck would have it, the shoreline wasn’t really that far down, and it only took a half hour or less to get to the beach.

After reaching the shore, they began to walk along the sandy beach searching for the cave where the prophet was supposed to be living. Not long after rounding a bend where the rocky cliff jutted out almost to the waters edge, they spotted a man hunched over near the water in the wet sand.

As they approached, Jak noticed that the stranger seemed to be eating something. It nearly made Jak sick to his stomach when he got close enough to see what it was that the man was eating. The ragged dirty old man was crouched over eating a fresh caught raw fish….. the entire fish. The grimy man was taking large bites from the fish….guts, head, fins and all. It appeared, that most likely the fish had been alive when the man started eating it. The strange man’s robe was tattered and torn, not to mention in serious need of cleaning. He wore no shoes, and his feet were dirty and calloused. His grey hair and full beard were matted with grime and tangled with twigs and dirt.

Benjim spoke up then, “Greetings, we seek the prophet. Do you know where we can find him?”

The grubby man eyed them suspiciously as if they were going to try and take his food. He turned away from them, eying the pair over his shoulder before hunching back over his meal.

“Do you know where we can find the prophet?” Benjim asked a little more forcefully.

The man continued with his noisy eating, before finally dropping the remains of the fish carcass and motioning up the beach. Then he started off in that direction, in a hunched over loping run, dragging his feet through the sand as he led the way.

Benjim exchanged glances with Jak and shrugged his shoulders, before turning and following the man. After rounding another bend, they reached the mouth of a large cave. The dirty little man had outpaced them and was already inside.

As Jak entered, immediately he choked back a gag. The smell inside the cave was horrible. A single lantern was the only source of light, and the smoke that drifted from it smelled like old rotten fish. But the odor from the burning lantern wasn’t the worst of it. Most of the terrible smell seemed to be coming from the man himself. He smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in a year at least…or possibly ever. There were rotting fish carcasses strewn about the floor of the cave, along with waste and other things Jak could not recognize. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to know what they were. He struggled to choke back the rising bile in his throat. The smell was so awful he wasn’t sure he would be able to handle it for much longer. Benjim seemed unaffected, other than wrinkling his nose a bit.

The dirty man sat on the floor of the cave among refuse and rotting carcasses, while looking at some sort of shell he was holding in his hands. The man would put the shell to his ear and laugh gleefully. Then he would look intently into it as if there was something inside, before putting the shell back to his ear and giggling again. The strange man seemed oblivious to Jak and Benjim entering, and did not even look up at them.

Benjim spoke again, “We seek the prophet. Do you know where he is?”

The man gave a start, and then looked at the newcomers as if seeing them for the first time, before returned to examining his shell. Jak looked at Benjim and shrugged his shoulders. Perhaps the old man had been wrong. It seemed that he had been wrong about the name of the village where those insane people had been, so why not this too. Maybe there was no prophet here? There only seemed to be this crazy old hermit.

Benjim began to get frustrated, and asked the man again, even more emphatically this time. The dirty man suddenly sat up straight, deliberately placing the shell down carefully in front of him before saying, “The prophet is not here right now. But he will be here shortly, if you would like to wait for him.” He stared at them expectantly, as if waiting for an answer.

“We will wait,” Benjim said.

It was strange to Jak, the man sounded and acted differently than he had just a moment ago. Even though it was the same grubby dirty man, he sounded much more refined and coherent than before. The man’s voice was different, and his eyes alert and focused. It was almost like a different person altogether.

The silence stretched on for several more long moments, and Jak began to shift on his feet impatiently.
Where was this prophet?
He wondered.
What did the man mean when he said the prophet would be there shortly?
The stench was overpowering, and he raised his hand to shield his mouth and nose from the putrid smell.

Suddenly the dirty man’s head slumped forward as if he were asleep. Then abruptly his head swung back up, regarding Jak and Benjim with a clear fervent look in his eyes. “You wish to speak with the prophet?” he asked in a reverberating tone. His voice now sounded different than either of the previous two times. It resonated from the cavern walls, and had a commanding tone. This was all just a bit too strange for Jak.

“If so then you have come to the right place. You are extremely fortunate, since I do not come back here very often any longer. I am the prophet Leginaria. What is it that you wish to know?”

This man was the prophet?
He seemed to Jak just to be a crazy old man.
How could this dirty, smelly man sitting in a pile of filth, be a prophet?

However Benjim’s eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, “We seek wisdom concerning the Blood Witch, Allysix. She has been freed once again into the world, and we seek knowledge of how to stop her.”

Jak’s head swung around in surprise.
Allysix?
That was the name the villagers at Gloryvane had used.
Allysix was the Blood Witch? What did she want with Jak? She had already had him in her grasp in the cave that night. What more could she possibly want from him, and why had she set the villagers on him to capture him?