The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies) (44 page)

“
Euol, you
can’t give them those,” said Kireth and Huri together.

“
It’s their
first trip away. Let them enjoy it,” said Jert.

“
Exactly what
I thought, my dear friend,” said the innkeeper.

“
Very well,”
said Kireth. “But don’t drink too much at once. They’re quite
strong, and you’ll need your wits about you out in the open land,”
she said to the teenagers, pointing at one and then the
other.

“
The
y’re doomed,” said the farmer,
and Euol laughed.

“
If anything
happens to them and I find that that wine had something to do with
it, you’ll be laughing on the other side of your face, Euol. You
hear me?” said Kireth.

Jert was
pointing at his friend and laughing silently behind the woman’s
back.

“
I don’t know
what you’re laughing at. That’s nothing to what I’ll do to you,
husband,” added Huri. The tone of her voice made the farmer
shudder.

Now it was
Peter and Braten’s time to laugh.

When all was
handed over, they saw that of water there were six canteens between
them. Of the wine there were only four, which Kireth and Huri
thought were way more than enough. Their food consisted of loafs of
bread baked that morning, salted meats tightly wrapped in a type of
brown paper, and something that Peter thought looked like chicken,
only the skin was purple and the meat was a tawny color. After they
had seen what they were getting, they repacked it all back into the
backpacks and set them in Peter’s wooden chest for safekeeping.
That was not the last time that they opened the chest before they
got to the South gates, for the people of the town had decided to
reward Peter with some of the food and drink (which mostly
consisted of beer, mead, and more very strong wine) that the Lores
would have taken if he had not have intervened.

Braten was
saying his last goodbyes to his parents and friends; however; Peter
was looking out of the open gates. He saw that there was sunlight
only six or seven meters away from where he stood. A thick, grey,
gloomy cloud was sitting overhead and had been since Peter had
first seen the gallows, though it was starting to break up in small
parts. Little yellow rays of sunlight were peaking through, and
Peter was happy to see the beautiful purple sky.

Kireth and
Huri were now furious at the thought of the boys having all of that
wine but said nothing, though Euol and Jert knew. And they also
knew, as did their wives, that they could no longer be held
accountable for anything that would happen.

When Braten
had hugged his mother and father and said his goodbyes for what
seemed like the fifteenth time, Peter said his goodbyes to all. He
shook hands with the mayor, Euol, Jert, the parents of the little
girl, and lastly, Jaroe.

Kireth threw
her arms around him. “Make sure you look out for each other,” she
said to both boys. Then it was Huri who put her bigger arms around
Peter. “Take care,” she said to him while looking at
Braten.

“
The
y’ll be fine,” said Euol.
“Come on, now. It’s time they were on their way, don’t you
think?”

Both women nodded at the same time, though
with tears in their eyes.

Peter and
Braten started toward the sunlight, followed closely by Peter’s
magical wooden chest.

“
Why don’t we
just Phaze them to Cayer- Huld?” asked Jaroe
inquisitively.

“We received an order signed by the Grand
Wizard telling us to send Drago on foot with a guide,” replied the
innkeeper.

“
I see,” said
the Warlock. “I better get back to the mayor to give a full account
of everything that’s happened.” The sheriff turned and strode off
in the direction of the mayor.

Euol stood watching the boys vanish behind
the hill.

“
In case you
haven’t noticed, dear, Braten is no guide,” said his wife, who had
heard him talking. “In fact, he’s never been further than Trintarn
Pass.”

“
Yes, I know,
but they have a Bresttwarl map,” replied the Wizard.

“
A Bresttwarl
map! A Bresttwarl map!” said the woman with distress in her voice.
“You know that Braten can’t read that language on those maps. Drago
told me that he didn’t know that language either. Wait a minute.
Why didn’t Drago ask for a guide?”

“It was probably because I told him that
Braten was the best guide we had,” said the innkeeper calmly.

“
WHAT! YOU
LIED TO HIM!” Kireth’s Voice rose up over every other
noise.

“
Careful,
people might hear you,” said Euol.

“
I don’t care
about that. What I do care about is that you sent those two boys
out there with just a stupid map, which neither of them can read,”
said Kireth, a little lower this time. She had the feeling that
people were staring at them.

“
Don’t worry.
The map won’t let them go off course,” said her husband.

“
And what’s
that supposed to mean?”

“
It’s a
magical map; it’ll tell them the safest route.”

The boys
walked past three-mile stones and felt fine with the distance. They
soon decided to make it seven, and by then they hoped the sun
wouldn’t retreat to the horizon until then. So on they went for
three more miles, and as they passed the sixth stone marker, they
saw that they would not make it to the seventh, for the sun was
going down. They saw a clearing in the tree line of the forest to
their right, which was in the shape of a small semicircle. Peter’s
wooden chest set itself down against a tree at the side, and the
boys plunked down in the middle of the small area and opened the
chest to see what they could eat first. However, the first things
they saw were the bottles of wine and canisters of water. They
removed them and rummaged around to find what they wanted. They
grabbed a small frying pan that Braten had packed.

Peter saw a
rock lying across the road. He held out his hand. After
concentrating hard, there was a blue glow in his hand, and the same
light flashed around the rock. It vanished and then reappeared
beside him. He turned his hand so his palm was facing downward. The
top of the rock was round, however. When Peter moved his hand down,
it slowly became flat enough for the frying pan to sit
on.

“
It’s a
little small for this,” said Braten holding up the pan.

“
I don’t
think it’ll matter,” said Peter, “as long as we make it hot
enough.”

“
Allow me,”
said Braten taking out his wand. He pointed it at the rock and
said, “Infero.”

They could
see the stone heating up, though not enough, so he did it again and
again until the rock was so hot that it turned bright red and
scorched the very ground it sat on. Peter quickly set the frying
pan on top.

“
Now we just
have to wait until the pan heats up,” said Braten, happy with what
had been accomplished.

“
But why
didn’t you just heat the pan up?” asked Peter.

“
You’re
forgetting we still have to decide what we’re going to fry in it.
So while we’re doing that, the pan will heat up.”

They went
back to the chest, and in the end, one large piece of the salted
meat was their chosen food, along with potatoes that they mashed
and fried. And they didn’t forget the wine, of course. When they
finished, they used a spell to clean the frying pan, plates, small
cups, and utensils they brought. Then they put them all away,
except for the plates. For desert they had yellow and pink skinned
fruit that was so juicy that when both boys bit into them, the
clear juice swiftly ran down their chins and onto the collars of
their shirts. Peter was a little surprised to see that on the
inside, the fruit was blue. The beautiful, succulent taste of the
fruit filled his mouth and tinkered with his taste buds.

After a few
more of the same, they were full and lay on the grass with their
heads resting on pillows, which were supplied by Euol and Kireth,
along with the thick blankets that covered them from feet to
shoulders.

They heated
the rock up over and over again to keep themselves warm for most of
the night. They lay there talking about what they were going to do
as soon as they reached Cayer-Huld. Not long after that their
weariness won and they fell fast asleep.

Peter woke to
find daylight and immediately went to reheat the rock. Just then,
there was a faint sound of drums.

“
Wake up,” he
said, gently nudging his friend.

“
What… what
is it?” said the other boy sleepily.

“
I think it
sounds like drums.”

“
Drums!” said
Braten, sitting up and hearing the same sound for the first time.
“Where is it coming from?”

“
I have no
idea. But whatever it is, it’s in there,” said Peter pointing into
the forest.

“
You know
what I think it is?”

“
Haven’t a
baldy notion,” Peter replied.

“
What does
that mean?”

“
I haven’t a
clue.”

“
Okay. What
was I talking about?”

“You were telling me what you think that
noise is,” said Peter.

“
Well
, the last time I was here
with my dad, we saw forest-Gnomes. They had a drum, but they didn’t
use it then.”

“
So you’re
saying that it’s Gnomes?”

“
I’m saying I
think it might be Gnomes.”

“
There’s only
one way to be sure.” Peter walked to the edge of the wood. “So are
you coming?” he said looking back.

“
We haven’t
had breakfast yet.”

“We can have that after,” said Peter.

“What about our stuff,” Braten asked in
earnest.

“
It’ll be
fine,” said the young King, though the look on his friend’s face
told him he still was not convinced. “Well, what do you think we
should do?”

“
W
e could do a spell to hide the
chest.”

Peter knew
exactly what he meant; his friend loved doing whatever magic he
could. “Fine. If it’ll make you feel better, go ahead and do and
use magic.”

Braten’s face
lit up. It was over in a couple of seconds. The chest and the
pillows and blankets were all hidden, and even they could have been
convinced that they had never been there.

“
So are you
ready?” asked Braten.

“
I’m waiting
on you.” Peter couldn’t help but think that perhaps they were too
late, as the drums had stopped. They walked into the forest,
treading as carefully as they could, which for Peter was easy. Like
the Elves, he was so light-footed that there was hardly a sound
with his footsteps. In addition, there were no footprints at all.
Peter didn’t realize this; however, Braten did, but he said
nothing, for they had heard what sounded like high-pitched voices
not too far off.

As they went,
Braten heard the beautiful sound of cheeping, chirping birds; it
made him feel a bit more at ease. To Peter, it sounded very
different indeed. To him, they were not cheeps or chirps, but
words. He didn’t know that what he was hearing were
birds.

“
By Jeurat,
you’ve got a big arse,” said one of the small creatures, which
sounded like a man’s voice.

“
Well,
it could be worse dear. I
could be like you and look like an arse,” said what sounded like a
woman.

“And just what is that supposed to mean,”
said the male bird.

“
Well,
when I met you I wasn’t
getting any younger in age or looks -”

“
Yeah,
you can say that again. And
guess what, love? You look even worse, if that’s
possible.”

“
My mother
always said you were an idiot. She was right. I was just too stupid
to see it,” said the female bird angrily.

“
Okay, you’re
stupid. I can agree to that.”

“
You know, if
not for the kids, I would’ve left long before this.”

“
I always
knew those damn kids would be the end of me.”

“Hold up,” said Peter as he put up his hand
in a gesture for the other boy to stop, as the birds kept at
it.

“
What is it,
Drago?”

“
Can’t you
hear them?”

“
Oh, yeah,
the birds. They sound beautiful, don’t you think?”

“
I think
whatever it is your hearing definitely isn’t what I’m hearing,”
said Peter.

“
Why, what do
you hear?” asked Braten, very curiously.

Peter looked
up into the tree as though trying to find the creatures with his
enhanced eyes. “Forget it; it’s hardly important.”

So Braten
continued to stumble though the woodland, tripping over the thick
yellow tree roots that stuck out though the blue and purple leaves.
He almost shouted to Peter when he thought he saw one of the roots
move. Though only a small whimper was coming from his mouth, fear
had taken hold of his body, and he couldn’t move.