Bertan`s quest by Michelle Tarynne (ereader android .txt) 📕

called by the Oracle Lore, seemed to have no end. Not because it covered a great distance, but because none of the Seekinglanders could focus on what was ahead, lamenting only what was left behind.

Cressy's mind was constantly working, trying to spot the best moment to fade into the darkness they were leaving behind, at the end of the last Marauder line. It was pointless. The Oracle Wards were following the tribe to make sure everyone followed the Elders and no one got lost. She wanted to get lost so much.

"What a joke," an angered voice muttered next to her.

"What?" Cressy asked, quite unwillingly surprised.

"This whole walk."

"Why?"

"We are walking right into the big red trap over there," the voice seethed, "If I could, I would strangle Vaala and all the Elders."

"I'm not sure they would take it lightly," Cressy chuckled, "Though I can relate to your feelings."

"I know," the woman walking next to her took her hood off.

"Why are you even here? You could have left before," Cressy said when she realized that female next to her was the grand-daughter of the Elder couple.

"My parents forced me to join this funeral,"

"And you always listen to your parents?" Cressy asked with incredulity.

"And why are you here? Do you believe in the tale of the Great Return?" the young woman mockingly asked in return..

"I don’t know,” Cressy sighed.

"Yeah. Same here. I wish I believed. I wish I were able to," the female quieted for a moment, "But I don’t, I know I don’t believe any of that rubbish. I just wish I could."

"Why?"

"Cos if it was true, we might just survive it somehow."

"How can you be sure we won't?" Cressy asked despite having the same feelings and doubts.

"I believe what the Duchess said."

"Do you even know what she said? You couldn't have been born when she visited us the last time," Cressy snorted.

"Umm. I heard what other people say," her companion said indignantly.

"I do wonder what are they telling nowadays," Cressy asked offhandedly, "Could you be so kind…"

"Don’t you know!? She begged the Elders to reconsider, for this trek will mean the end of the Seekinglander tribe."

"Of course, there will be no more Seekinglanders," Cressy chuckled.

"And you don't have any problem with our extinction?"

"Have you ever given any thought to what you've heard?" Cressy wanted to reassure that young woman, though her gut churned, "There will be no more of us, of Seekinglanders, cos we are going back to our First Homeland. We are going to be the Anaerthers again."

"Oh, I've never thought about it this way."

"I know," Cressy sighed, "Nobody ever does anymore."

"I still don’t want to go, " the young woman whined.

"I know… I know."

They walked in silence ever since. Cressy was deep in her thoughts, for she was right there when the Duchess had visited the Elders. She remembered well what was said then. All she had to do was to reach back into her memories to recall that conversation.

Truth be told she shouldn’t have remember it for she shouldn’t be there in the first place, not mentioning understanding what was happening. She was just a kid and it was only the Elders that could attend their secret meetings that were so secret no one knew where or when they took place.

Even then, rules weren’t for Cressy to follow, just as shadows weren’t to be the source of fear but a place to hide in. Forbidden was always for her the thing to treasure the most and the Elders Council was always the most forbidden thing of all for all and every Seekinglander.

It was kind of the Fates chance that she learned where and when the meetings took place. The Elders knew that the best way to keep secrets was to keep them hidden out in the open for everyone to see. The trick was to put it in such situation that nobody would suspect what lied behind what they just witnessed.

All Cressy had to do back then was to follow the Duchess around like an annoying but sweet kid she used to be. She had no other idea anyway and it was the only one person rumored to take place in the Elders Council. The Elders were so secretive that even their identity was hidden. The only reason Cressy would never be suspected of snooping around was that she just loved secrets and gossip since very young age and she did act like she was half deaf all the time. People talk a lot and reveal secrets when they think no ear can hear them. She used that fact wisely to her advantage. Combine that with the exceptional ability to remember everything. She had to know everything.

Cressy hadn’t realized that she actually attended the first two Elders Council meetings. Apparently no one had realized that as well for it was the time of great festivities at the turn of one Great Cycle into another. Adults went through rites of the past after which the Idle Juice reigned, stripping them out of their minds. Music was loud, light were bright and the festivities brought a respite to everyone from being a Seekinglander- an outcast Inner Ground Dweller forced to live on the surface, separated from the First and only Home. Cressy never felt that way, being still too young.

Something jump-started her own core the moment she realized she was hearing exactly the same words from exactly the same person at exactly the same time, for the third time. Connecting the dots she became hyper-alert for what would come into history as the last meeting the Duchess attended.

Everything Cressy heard from that moment on, seen and scented was burned into her memory forever, always at the ready to recall. Even as distressed as she was during the Last Trek she could still remember everything that had been said on that fateful night…

“A danger of serenity lies in the bagpipe,” had said the oldest Seekinglander man that was still alive back then.

“Oh, old man. The bagpipes are already gone. They bring nothing and their music is long forgotten,” the Duchess scoffed, “Aru, another Juice here!” She yelled to the warrior tending to the kegs.

“Not by the ones who have heard them play.”

“Do you even know anyone who heard it and is still alive?” she asked with incredulity.

“We hear the music everyday.”

“The surface bagpipes are just a different kind of instrument. We all have to accept that fact.” That sentence that the Duchess uttered was the one that made Cressy’s mind go into overdrive with excitement. She knew it right then. It was the prelude to the Elders Council meeting. Out in the open, few seemingly deranged and hazed people argued about bagpipes and their music, next to the Idle Juice kegs.

“The music might seem different, but the tune they play stays the same,” High Vala said, “Like the tune of a runaway who steals a royal heart.”

“There are no runaways anymore,” the Duchess sighed, “Why would anyone run away when there is no place to go?”

“The bagpipes used to play so well in their time, just as runaways used to always find a good place,” the oldest man said.

“Past is a place when the music was the most graceful for us, now I don’t like the music at all,” she grumbled.

“How can you not like the music? We have been graced with the bagpipes and their tunes, we can still dance and sing, hoping to find them once again.”

“We do it all by the old tunes,” the Duchess argued, visibly agitated.

“Because it’s not forgotten, even I can sing the tune,” High Vaala smirked.

“But can’t you see that without the bagpipes it’s all pointless?” The Duchess argued clearly getting frustrated.

“Maybe there is a way to craft some more bagpipes,” the oldest Seekinglanders said.

“There are no craftsmen among us,” the Duchess explained impatiently.

“Maybe we can play with the trumpets instead? It’s so new! And the tunes are in the thousands if not more!” High Vaala proposed.

“Even if we had it we still wouldn’t know how to play it. A teacher would be needed,” the main water bearer of the Seekinglands answered, “Aru, some more juice over here!”

“Where would we find a teacher?” the oldest Seekinglanders asked.

“We all know that the trumpets had been born right in the heart of the Axeland. I’m not going to let everyone risk their lives for that damned music!” the Duchess hissed in fury.

“We desperately need the new music, or we would have to craft a new bagpipe, and that seems even less likely than finding a trumpet teacher,” the water bearer said.

“What do you think we should do then?

“Nothing. There are more instruments on the surface, more tunes to discover. We should forget the past and the bagpipes. There are so many good tunes that we have never heard of,” the Duchess said unable to hide her frustration at that point.

“That is rubbish, and you know it! Most of the ‘unheard’ tunes are just so bad we can’t stand to listen to them,” high Vaala disagreed.

“Then maybe it’s time to think of something totally new,” the Duchess proposed.

Aru brought all the Idle Juice they all hailed him for. He looked at them all, saw Cressy huddled by the Duchess’ side and yelled to her with laughter, “Old people can’t hold their juice! Is it because they’re old or cos they drink so much?”

“Ye’ will get old one day too!” High Vaala screeched and threw an empty mug at him. Everyone laughed too then.

“Hopefully not as old as you,” he said ducking from the mug that barely missed him, “I don’t get your issue with the current tunes,” he said motioning to the rowdy band not far away from them, getting away from the Elders before they answered.

“Your wish might just be granted,” the Duchess muttered, clearly not intending for anyone to hear it. The Elders became silent for a moment, contemplating.

“What are we to do then?” the water bearer asked somberly, “We won’t survive without your help,” he looked at the Duchess, “Please.”

“Please don’t make me do it. The heart of the Axeland is the heart of our own doom. It will destroy any core that enters it,” she pleaded quietly.

“We don’t have any choice,” he whispered.

“There are always other ways!” the Duchess hissed, forgetting that Cressy was at her side.

“Not for us. Surface will always be our enemy land. It’s time we think of the Trek back Home, but we need that gates open and friendly.”

“The Red Axe will never be friendly to us!”

“He might. That’s why we need you. He is of royal blood.”

“You can’t expect that from me! I can’t pay for our sins.”

“And yet we beg you to do just that,” he whispered to her ear, “Everything is prepared for you to go already.”

“Fine!” The Duchess said very agitated, “You don’t ask for my approval, you are telling me to go! Do I mean so little now?”

“No, it’s the tribe that means so much and you are the only person who can make it all work out just fine.”

“Fine! Just remember my words that the Axelands spell our doom” she said and left to never be seen in the Seekinglands again ever since.

 

 

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

As soon as Bertan left the King's room, her whole body tensed in a subtle warning. There it was, that familiar sense of danger again. Watchful eyes and evil intent seemed to surround her at every turn. She hoped that her reinforced robes would be able to take a lot and make her safe, but still, so many possibilities could go beyond her imagination to prepare for beforehand. There were so many steps to take back to her rooms. It seemed even farther than the place she was appointed to go to.

Unexpectedly, a swarm of slaves surrounded her like a river of bodies and she was swept off her feet. Loose sheet of fabric covered her as it would cover a slave and the flow of bodies delivered her quickly straight to her rooms. One creation of many dissolved and