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Topiara - Chapter 35
"Are you sure we need to wait a whole ten-day?" Sharin sighed at her comrades. "I don't know about any of you, but I know nobody here, I'm rested, and I'm BORED."
"I take it you're not all that impressed with life in Tandri?" Farranby remarked with a grin.
"Not when all I do is either walk through marketplaces or sit around common rooms drinking bitters," she responded with a disgusted expression on her face as she raised her tankard. "I should have spent more time gathering herbs on the banks of the Straits and set up my own little booth."
"Like you need the money," Lyara rolled her eyes. "Like any of us need money anymore."
"I have to admit that Sharin has a point," Jilan shrugged and looked around the table at the others. "When we first got here, we were tired enough that a ten-day of rest sounded like the minimum we'd need. But now…" His gaze connected with Lyara's, then rounded on Farranby. "Am I remembering correctly that you said you spoke the Vryies language?" At the nod, he continued, "Maybe what we need to be doing is to start actually preparing for this next trek of ours. You could start teaching us what you remember…"
"I haven't spoken Vryies for years, Jilan," Farranby complained then. "I've probably forgotten most of everything I did know."
"Maybe if you remember a few words, some of it will come back to you," Lyara suggested. "That's how I started remembering how to speak Kauwlut."
"And maybe you could tell us about what you remember of the way they live too," Sharin added in her quiet way, sounding much more happy at the prospect of something new and different again. "We don't need to get down there and start offending against custom and religion the moment we open our mouths or do anything."
"I suppose I could make an appointment to talk to Master Lyndon and see if he has any information that we could use that he'd be willing to share," Lyara spoke in afterthought. "Certainly his Guides have been taking people close to those lands as often as they have been taking people north toward the Kauwlut territories — a few things must have been learned over the years…"
"You know, I've been thinking that we aren't going to want to be traveling with too much specie on us," Farranby remarked after staring into his bitters while the conversation swirled around him. "For one thing, the Vryies have little use for it; and we don't need to set ourselves up as targets for highwaymen and cutthroats operating within Talandri lands before then."
"I doubt that very many highwaymen or cutthroats would tackle four people who are traveling armed and obviously ready for trouble," Jilan reminded him pointedly. "Lyara and you wear swords, I've been wearing my bow in plain view, even Sharin has been wearing a blade lately…"
"Still," Farranby insisted, "there's no reason for us to carry extra weight that would do us little good."
"Farranby's right," Lyara nodded, listening to the inner whisper that was Topiara. "We could dump off a goodly share of what we've been carrying around with us with our usurer on our way out of Tandri – but we shouldn't worry about doing that until we're finished here in town. We still need to make a list of the supplies we'll need for this journey and purchase them too."
"I don't think you're going to be bored for much longer," Jilan commented to Sharin over the top of his tankard.
"That suits me," the girl replied contentedly. "That suits me just fine."
"What in the name of every god in this office do you think you're doing heading off into Vryies lands?" Master Lyndon gaped at Lyara, who sat on the other side of his desk with an air of increased maturity and purpose.
"My friend Farranby seeks to rescue his daughter from whoever purchased her somewhere on the road between here and into the Vryies lands," she answered patiently. "As his assistance in putting an end to the threat posed to your Guild and myself by Vinzen was invaluable, I see this as my way of being able to balance the scales between us."
"What about Jilan Torbishaun?" Lyndon asked curiously. "Does he still travel with you?"
"Yes," Lyara replied and prayed to the Wolf-Faced One that she wasn't blushing. "We are together."
"So," Lyndon leaned back in his chair and gazed thoughtfully at his former associate, "the three of you think you can just walk into the Vryies lands and affect the rescue of a young girl sold into servitude… how long ago did you say?"
"Over a dozen years ago. And there are four of us now — an herbalist travels with us."
The bushy eyebrows climbed his forehead. "What makes you think that this girl will even WANT to be rescued by the time you find her – IF you can find her, that is?"
Lyara's dark gaze never flickered. "What happens when we find her is still unknown, Master. All that matters at this point is that we'll never know until we DO find her." She folded her hands on her lap in front of her. "The question is, do you have any information that you can share with us – or that we can purchase from your Guild – that might be of use to us in making the unknown just that much less."
Lyndon leaned forward over his desk. "I will barter with you for the meager information I do have, Lyara," he stated firmly. "If you survive your trek and return to Tandri, your first stop will be this hall, where you will spell out in complete detail everything you have discovered or learned. The more information about the Vryies we have to work with, the better able to protect our clients our Guides will be."
"That sounds more than fair, Master," Lyara agreed easily. "In fact, I'll make the bargain just that much more sweet from the Guild's point of view. I am very familiar now with the Kauwlut language and customs. I will share much of what I have remembered and what I learned when I escorted Jilan to the north."
"But you already did that," Lyndon reminded her, then tipped his head, "didn't you?"
"I did, but not to the extent that I'm offering now," Lyara told him. "However, I would ask that in exchange for this knowledge, that you never share it with anyone coming to this hall with the purpose of conquering the tribes to the north. Use the knowledge to protect clients of Guides only, and I'll tell you everything I know."
"Even to the point of sharing what that talisman in your hair stands for?" Lyndon asked, his eye resting on the fur and fang fetish that Lyara rarely went far without anymore.
Lyara nodded. Perhaps one day there would be another former Kauwlut slave looking for his or her past that would benefit from the store of knowledge that she would deposit with her former master. But for now, she dismissed those thoughts in favor of looking forward to the immediate future. "When would it be convenient for my friends and me to come to hear what you have for us?"
"Come back in a two-day – share an evening meal with me here in my office – and I will give you everything that I have," Lyndon promised, rising and extending his hand to her over the desk. "Do we have a bargain?"
The young woman half-rose and caught Lyndon's hand in hers and gave it a firm shake.
"Oh." Lyndon sat back and twisted in his chair, reaching behind him on the shelves of documents and maps for a rolled document. "This came for you not long after you left for the Varren Straits."
"For me?" Lyara's brows furled.
"Written in Nilyaron's own hand and bearing his personal seal," Lyndon announced, handing the roll across the desk into her waiting hand. "To my knowledge, you are the first person other than advisors to the Kings with whom the Oracle has communicated personally more than once."
She stared at the rolled parchment and then looked up at her former master. "Do you mind?" she asked, gesturing at the document with her free hand. Lyndon settled back into his chair again and waved his permission. Lyara carefully broke the seal and unrolled the thick parchment.
Greetings, Lyara.
If you are reading this, then you were successful in finding the mate to your stone. With luck, it also means that you have found your own mate as well. I congratulate you on rescuing the flute from the man who had tried to steal the power it contained and use it against the welfare of the land. However, the time has come for you to take heed. The journey you are about to take will by far be the most dangerous one, as well as the most important one. You will need to protect all that you have received, not only from those who would take all that you possess, but from the possibility of destroying it yourself. Remember that your own emotions can be the worst enemy you will ever have to face.
You begin the final leg of your quest, and if all goes well, my successor will be the prize you bring back with you this time. There is a place of fire and snow deep within the Vryies lands that you must find and visit with your life's companion. The path there is a long and dangerous One. May the luck of all the gods you look to be with you.
Nilyaron, Oracle of Talandri
Lyara felt a shiver of apprehension at the Oracle's warning, and her face folded into confusion. What could possibly happen in the Vryies lands that would be any more dangerous than what she'd already faced? What place of fire and snow? Her dark eyes looked up into the watchful face of her former master when not even Topiara seemed willing to voice an opinion about the mystery.
"What is it?" Lyndon asked with obvious curiosity.
She rolled up the parchment and shook her head. "The Oracle sends me riddles, Master."
Lyndon smiled at her. "They're only riddles until the meaning becomes clear, Lyara. If he came right out and told you what the answer was, you would not have the benefit of your ability to choose your own destiny. As it is, you have a vague idea now which will be made plain in due time, I'm sure."
"Is this the way the Oracle always made his predictions?"
"You mean, in riddles and allegory and metaphor?" The Guides Master chuckled heartily at the question. "Actually, yes. The King had more than one advisor whose sole duty it was to decipher the Oracle's pronouncements and get the information to the people most likely to need it." He saw that Lyara wasn't sharing in the humor of the moment. "The riddle bothers you?"
She sighed. "It warns me of a danger worse than anything I've faced, and yet tells me very little about it."
"I'm sure the Oracle's warning will come clear to you," he reassured her. "And in the meanwhile, I will see you later — in a two-day at evening mealtime. Bring all your associates, so that all can learn."
"Well?" Jilan asked as Lyara joined him in the common room of the White Flower Inn and gestured rather curtly at the serving girl for a tankard of bitters. "What did Master Lyndon have to say?"
"He will see us for the evening meal in a two-day," she told him and took a long draught. "He'll give us all the information he has at that time, in exchange for my relating everything that I learn about the Vryies when I get back."
Jilan watched her closely and then frowned. "What else?"
She looked up at him sharply. "What do you mean?"
"There's got to have been something else — you were in a much better mood when you left than you are in now," he stated calmly, "and you've just downed half of your bitters without even tasting them."
Lyara stared at him for a moment, then glanced into her tankard to discover to her dismay that he was right. "I just…" she started and then fell uncomfortably silent. Finally she shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it."
Jilan's mouth opened and then shut again as Rodayn whispered in the back of his mind softly. "You're worried," he told her knowingly. "About what we're going to do?"
She continued to stare into her tankard and finally nodded. "I got a message."
"From whom?"
"The Oracle."
Now it was Jilan's turn to stare. "Nilyaron himself?" She nodded again, running her finger around the rim of her tankard absently. "Anything I should know about?" he asked slowly and carefully.
Topiara finally warmed on her breast and whispered softly in the back of her mind. "I'm not sure," she admitted. "The message was a warning. That's what has my mood so sour."
"What kind of warning?"
She shook her head again. "That's the thing — the message was nothing but a riddle. It was a warning, but it made no sense."
Jilan watched her for a moment. "What did Lyndon have to say about it?"
"That the warning would come clear eventually," she sniffed in frustration. "How am I supposed to protect against something that is more dangerous than anything I've faced yet if I don't know what it is?" she cried softly, her voice rising.
Again Rodayn whispered in the back of Jilan's mind, and he finally took the suggestion. He rose and came over to sit next to her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Hey! It will be all right. Whatever it is, there are four of us to face this danger, not just you alone."
Lyara was grateful for his comfort, but his reassurance didn't help quiet the murmuring that Topiara was making in her mind. Whatever Nilyaron was talking about, Topiara found of great concern as well. She leaned against Jilan's shoulder, determined not to say anything else to him about her mysterious message from a dead Oracle. Upsetting him would serve no purpose, and a hunch that was her own and not from Topiara told her that if he knew of the way in which she had helped shape his future by putting him in the proper place to be found by that flute, she would jeopardize everything.
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