Plots Abound
“Astraea?” Njall stammered. “But you are bound to your hut.”
“It is a blue moon outside, so I can appear for but a moment.” She rasped, as her image seemed to flicker.
“The blind child is right,” She murmured her eyes on the girl holding the staff. “She and her sister have sought someone for decades to face against the Pied Piper and save all those he has cursed with eternity at his side. He has put a similar curse on the ship your sister and my love are on. Seraphina is indeed with them, and they have gone to the darkest of all routes. To death.”
Zaya watched as the girl before them vanished in smoke and turned to Njall. “Death? My sister is dead?”
Shazir sat slumped on his knees his mind buzzing. “I don’t think she means death.” He murmured as he looked up his gaze not on the Queen but on Njall. “Death by punishment. Death by misdeeds. If you walk the path of death, you will face both before rebirth, for you must face the council and judge before your final journey.”
Njall’s eyes widened as he listened to Shazir’s chant. “Yama? The death god of Judgement?”
Shazir stopped talking and turned bodily to look at Njall who had not moved from the doorway. Shazir wondered briefly if he was standing there, in the event that Shazir had decided to flee. “I do not know why I just said that.” Shazir replied.
And by all accounts it was true.
The words had sprung up from somewhere within him. Like something was deep inside him, a wealth of knowledge that went along with the sudden power that flowed within his veins. Shazir looked down at himself and pulled out the key hung by a chain. He heard distantly the shuffling of the guards taking a step away from Shazir and moving closer to the Queen. Of the gasp that fell from Njall’s lips, and he felt the scowl that was now on Vanna’s face.
“The Key of Orlaith. Surprised he would even part with it.” Vanna mused, looking down at Shazir. “You must be to him a prize of immense value.”
“He was the former lover of a dragon; would that be of use to this Kagan fellow?” Njall asked, moving closer, seeming to realize that Shazir truly was not as much of a threat as they had believed.
“It would be a great prize, to Kagan as he loves to use those people love against themselves.” Vanna replied to her eyes darkening.
Shazir looked sidelong at his companion. “Is that why he took your sister as his wife?”
“Violet has always been a beauty beyond compare.” Vanna replied her eyes distant. She glanced at the Queen with a sigh. “There was a story once, of a village besieged by foul creatures with no reprieve. One day a stranger came into the village to the elders, and swore he would get rid of the creatures in a single night for his weight in gold. The elders promised they would do so, thinking that this stranger, little older than a child, could never get rid of the creatures in a single night.
But he did.
The elders saw that they owed the man but told him they had nothing to give. He swore that if they would not give him the gold he sought, he would take every child that night, and they would never be found again. Again, the elders refused to give him gold, and that night when all the elders slept soundly in their beds, the strange man, stood on the highest perch in the square and played a fiddle. He watched with a smile as the children stood from their beds and followed him out of the town.
All but two. A boy that could not move without assistance,”
“And a blind girl.” Shazir concluded looking up at Vanna once more.
“Stand up, Shazir.” Queen Zaya murmured.
Shazir shakily got up from his knees, facing Zaya not with threats or arrogance, but now a man broken by time and punishment. This was not the man she had seen mere months ago, eyeing her throne and body.
This man was something else.
Someone else.
Zaya turned to Kailani, who was already gazing at her queen as if she knew what would come next. “Take Shazir back to where his quarters are within the castle.” She looked at Vanna, “You can stay within him, until I can confirm what you say about the ship is true.”
She turned to her husband, her eyes sorrowful. “Tell me you can find them.”
Njall put a fist to his chest and bowed. “I have more than enough experience locating that particular ship.”
Zaya watched with her nine, as Kailani gripped Shazir’s arm and led him out, Vanna following behind them. “Do you think this is a wise course of action?” One of the other nine, asked.
“I think it is the last course we can take. My sister is on that ship, if it is truly lost, we will need all the help we can get. Even from our worst enemy.”