Gender: Female Location: in a double decker bus...
Edeladry shrunk back with fear against a damp, dirty wall. She knew the reputation of the man who had dragged her away from the street, into this small, dark room. He was middle-aged, plump and seemingly harmless, but she knew better. She had heard the stories. This was a bad man, a dark man – the girls that went missing, the girls he took from the streets up to his private rooms came back with vacant eyes, bruised bodies and bruised minds as well. So far, Edeladry had never been one of his victims, but she had been a fool to hope that this could ever last. She tried to struggle, tried to cry out, but he clamped his strong arms around her and stuffed his smelly, disgusting ‘kercheif in her mouth, to muffle her screams.
Edeladry knew what he was going to do to her, and she knew there was nothing she could do to stop him. She felt the rage start to build inside of her. How dare he! How dare he!! She had never done anything to him, how could he hurt, simply for the pleasure of doing so? He had already destroyed her best friend, but Edeladry hoped she would escape before he pushed her so far that she would kill herself, like Lynessa had.
He pushed her roughly onto a bed, tied her to the bedpost, and her rage increased. She saw him begin to undo his breeches, and she knew exactly what he would do to her next. As he reached for her, that built-up rage suddenly exploded, and she wanted him hurt, like she knew he’d hurt her. The rage craved release. It wanted somewhere to go. It found it.
The room, and the cheap inn along with it, exploded in flames.
With her skin half-burnt and her only coverings some smouldering rags, Edeladry fled that hell-hole as fast as she could. Tears of pain, shock, fear and revulsion streamed down her soot-streaked face, and she knew she was running for her life. If anybody caught her…
It was either slavery or death. She didn’t know which would be worse. So she ran.
Pure exhaustion was the only reason she slept at all that night. When she woke, in the cold, wet ditch that had been her bed for the night, the full shock of what had happened suddenly hit her. To call flames down on someone… he might have deserved it, but what did that make her? A demon? A changeling? Fire was always described as an evil thing in the tales, so there was no way she could be good. She must be bad. She should take her worthless life now, so that this terrible thing inside of her would hurt no others. The world would be a better place without her…
:NO!:
Edeladry heard the scream, in her mind, in her heart, and in her soul. She looked up, to meet eyes of the most beautiful, sapphire blue she had ever seen…
For one wonderful moment, she lost herself in those eyes. Then, she was whipped back by an amazingly musical voice in her mind, to a reality which was now almost as wonderful.
:I want you. I need you. I love you, and I will never leave you.:
Edeladry wrapped her arms around the snow-white neck, and wept into the silken mane, for no one had ever loved or needed her before.
When Edeladry woke for a second time, she didn’t want to open her eyes. She’d had the most wonderful dream, and she didn’t want to return the bleak reality of her horrible world, where she was unwanted and unloved.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, and rolled over. She gasped. There, in a beam of sunlight, looking like something out of the Havens itself, lay a beautiful snow-white Companion. This wonderful vision slowly stood, and, with great formality, spoke into her mind.
:I am Kiara. I Choose you, and we will be together always.:
Gender: Female Location: in a double decker bus...
The path was flashing away beneath them. Edeladry had never known it was possible to move this fast…
Feeling detached from everything, Edeladry was considering asking Kiara why the ground was running away from them, but decided it was too much bother. If she thought, the pain would come back…
Kiara sped up, and the world blurred. The colours were beautiful, swirling around her… She wanted it to last forever… then the blackness came.
~
Josie suddenly found herself being pulled towards the North road. She could hear Healer Tiane calling her back, but she seemed so far away. She looked up, to see a dust cloud in the distance, moving towards her at an astonishing speed.
The shape solidified and she saw a tiny figure clinging to a Companion. She was driven to her knees by the pain, until something closed around her. For a moment she panicked, not knowing what this alien presence was. She looked up, to see the Companion standing over her.
:You can’t help my Chosen if you feel her pain. I’ve simply closed you off from it. Now GET UP!:
Josie stood up, confused. She thought Companions only talked to their Chosen…
:Believe me, it’s a stereotype I could do without. Do you have any training in your Gift? No, didn’t think so.:
Josie heard a huge sigh in her head.
: Doesn’t your Master realise they’ve got a potential disaster in their village?:
“Yes, that’s me Josie the troublemaker,” she said barely suppressed sobs thick in her voice. “The one who’ll never make a good healer because she doesn’t have the dedication and the right frame of mind…”
:Enough. Ready yourself, and don’t fight me. Now, this may hurt a little…:
Josie felt disorientated for a moment. She had no idea who, where or what she was…
She blinked once, then looked down at the girl, now cradled in her arms. Her grotesque scars were fading as she watched, and she was sleeping the true sleep, not fever-dreams.
“What the…?”
:I didn’t have any time to waste on the intricacies of Healing, so I worked through you. You have a powerful Healing Gift, little one. But it will destroy you, your Master and your entire village, if something’s not done about it.:
Josie blinked again, confused, but before she had time to react to what was going on, a hand wrenched her round by her shoulder and screeched, “What on earth do you think you’re doing, you stupid girl! How dare you attempt to Heal someone without supervision –“ :Let her go.:
Healer Tiane whipped her hand from Josie as if it were burnt. :You do not deserve the robes you wear. The Healers of Valdemar do not manhandle children.:
Tiane and Josie glared at each other, but Josie had been pushed too far. The hate in her eyes was so furious as to cause Healer Tiane to look away first.
With triumph still singing in her heart, Josie jumped at a sudden stirring at her feet. She knelt down to look into the younger girl’s eyes, which were just beginning to open. She smiled reassuringly and said, “It’s all right, you’re all better now…”
The girl’s eyes still drooped with fatigue.
“Alhenio carim…” [1]
Healer Tiane gasped. “A Karsite? What is this devilry…?”
Josie glared at her. “It’s happened before!”
“And he is as rotten as the rest!”
Before Josie could think of a retort, there was a whisper in her mind.
:Get yourself and my Chosen over my saddle, and hold on tight. We have to get out of here before the rest of the village learn they have a Karsite in their midst…:
And in a thought she leapt, leaving Tiane and the rest of the village in the dust behind her.
All Karsite is modified Sindarin… hey, Sindarin had the right syntax, and it saved me having to make it up!
Gender: Female Location: in a double decker bus...
Josie was worried. They had ridden hard for three days and three nights, and the girl’s fever had returned.
: She is not truly Healed. I do not have the skill. I merely stopped the pain – but there are deeper hurts still.:
Josie concentrated. If she tried hard, she could make her thoughts to words…
~What have they done to her? Those nightmares make me scream…~
:I will try to help shield you from them, but emotions are more difficult than physical pain…she screams, inside, I can hear her.:
Josie set her jaw. ~How long?~
:We will reach Haven tonight. She will be safe there – the Realm’s strongest Healer’s and Mind-Healers will be there for her.:
~
Edeladry opened her eyes, then closed them quickly as pain seared through her head. She tried to concentrate, to remember where she was, and what had happened, but she couldn’t focus.
Softly, she asked, “Sen ia?” [1]
“Û. Sen Valdemar.” [2]
Her eyes flew open with shock and horror, then she winced again from the pain.
“Talath ned i curunír ned rhîw?” [3]
“Curunír ned rhîw? Raug canù?” [4]
“Raug im!” [5]
“Raugle canai?” [6]
“Gwaith nín… a lín.” [7]
There was silence above her, and she a moment to register where she was. Her breath quickened and she leapt to the floor and backed away towards the wall.
The voice, which she know recognised as male, asked, “Neithaman?” [8]
She couldn’t answer. She just covered her face with her hands and shook.
~
“Help to me, if you please!”
The Healer in charge looked up to the Herald’s worried face and beckoned the nearest Mind-Healer to follow him.
They entered the room to see the young girl with her back to the wall, head in her hands, whispering to herself.
“Alhaust, im edonnalhaust…” [9]
“What is she saying?” demanded the Healer.
There was silence.
“Herald?” he asked, in a gentler tone of voice.
“She… she says ’Not the bed. Please, not the bed.’”
“Get out.”
Both men turned to the young Mind-Healer next to them. She looked them straight in the eye and said, “It is better that a woman deal with this.”
The Healer protested. “Ariana, you are not ready for-“
“Then send in a senior female Mind-Healer,” she retorted. “Men cannot help in here.”
“You don’t even speak Karsite!” he protested.
“Then send for Myste… or better, her Companion… Now GET OUT! Can’t you see you’re just making it worse?”
~
An hour later, and she had calmed. She was in the gardens, curled up under a bush with her Companion, savouring the fresh air, but refusing to look anyone in the eye.
She looked up, to see the tall man in white who had come to see her in the room she had been in. Before she could shrink away, she heard Kiara inside her head.
:He won’t hurt you. He will never hurt you. I would not let anyone near you who would.:
Edeladry looked into Kiara’s eyes, then up to the man’s face again. She thought a moment, then, somehow knowing Kiara would never lie to her, she said, “Havo.” [10]
The man smiled and bent himself almost double to fit underneath the bush.
“Le estel enni?” [11]
“Pedo Kiara…” [12]
He frowned a moment, then asked, “Pedole Valdamaran?” [13]
“A little.”
He smiled.
Encouraged, she continued, “’Border-Brats’ they call us. A little of all.”
“A good starting point, have you. Than I had, it is better.”
Confused at this stream of unfamiliar words, she frowned. “Starting point?” she asked.
“Ecthel helthaherio,” he translated. [14]
Her features cleared, then clouded again. “Si man bach?” [15]
~
[1] Is this hell? ((lit – this abyss?))
[2] No. This is Valdemar. ((lit-No. This Valdemar))
[3] The land of the white witches? ((lit- Land of the wizard[s] of white [I couldn’t find a word for witches]))
[4] White witches? You do not call them demons? ((lit- wizards of white? Demons call not?))
[5] I am the demon! ((lit – Demon I!))
[6] Who calls you demon? ((lit- demon thee call who))
[7] My people… and yours. ((lit – people my… and thy))
[8] What’s wrong? ((lit- wrong what?))
[9] Not the bed, please not the bed… ((Lit- not bed, I plead not bed))
[10] Sit.
[11] You trust me?
[12] Kiara said… ((lit – Say Kiara…))
[13] Do you speak Valdamaran? ((lit- speak you Valdamaran?))
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Feb 11th, 2004 08:06 PM
