***
The travelers quickly organized themselves for departure. They had only one carriage now, and no one had a clue as to how to operate the Phoon Crawlers. So they crammed Esmeralda, Dorthea, Robert, Raahi and Ngare into the carriage, and the remaining Elite Guard went on horseback. South, along the mountains toward the river they rode, a humble caravan soft in the glow of the setting sun.
“Are you going to try it?” Raahi asked Esmeralda.
“Try what?” Esmeralda said.
“The flute.”
“Yeah,” Robert chimed in, “we went through all this for you to play the thing.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to play.” Esmeralda carefully took the crystal instrument in her hands. “Am I supposed to play a certain song?”
“Prophesies are generally pretty cryptic,” Raahi said. “You never seem to get really specific instructions. I suppose you should just play something…whatever comes to you.”
She held the flute, feeling the warm, smooth surface that nearly breathed under the touch of her fingers. The whispering sounds returned, swirling around her head like wind. She felt the name “Ko” reverberate in her head and snake down the length of her body, to her toes and back again.
“I can try,” Esmeralda said.
She put the flute to her lips, tried placing her fingers in a way that seemed as if it might be correct, and began to play. There was only one note, low and throbbing, that fell like water from them both: Esmeralda and the flute. She closed her eyes and saw, or felt, two quick flashes of light and was instantly in front of the tower Shrine in the midst of Song. She flew up, streaming toward the top of the tower, and saw the Counselors seated in the Observatory. Their patiently searching eyes stared in all directions, unaware of her presence. She quickly flew down, driven by a force she did not understand, until she approached a large, circular mosaic on the floor of the courtyard. The mosaic, done in pieces of multicolored brick, was of a great tree with a large, red circle in the center of its trunk. Esmeralda flew through this design and into the dark below. She soon slowed and floated to the floor of a cavern. Huge beyond reason, the cavern extended forward and opened into a chamber beyond. Water dripped from the ceiling arrhythmically, and there seemed to be more light than would naturally occur in such an underground area, but she could not find its source. In the chamber beyond, she heard an incredibly loud rustling noise, as if a great creature were idly shuffling its feet. She heard another fundamental sound, low and rumbling but huge in its breadth. She thought of walking forward but couldn’t feel her body. The rumbling grew in intensity, and she thought it sounded a bit like snoring but hugely amplified.
“Esmeralda!” Robert cut through, collapsing the vision.
“What!” Esmeralda opened her eyes. She was on the floor of the carriage, the flute lying next to her.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“You’ve been laying there for a while,” Robert said. “Raahi said you were okay, but, well, it’s been awhile.”
Raahi stood in the cramped surroundings and tried to help Esmeralda up to take her seat. “What did you see?” he asked.
10. Under The Tower.
Esmeralda explained the vision as best she could. Everyone wanted to know what she saw in the cave under Shrine, and her ability to describe only vague sounds was met with general dissatisfaction. Night drew on as they neared the river, the weather going cool but not so uncomfortable as to cause anyone to complain. Robert sat next to Esmeralda and relayed how awful it was to be stuck for the better part of a night and day with the princess and what an incredible grace it was that Esmeralda did not have to get to know her. She agreed on all points, having nothing in the way of rebuttal and happy to be back with her friend once more.
When they reached the river, they all exited the carriages, filling canteens and taking drinks from the clean water.
“This river runs to the south of Alavariss,” Raahi said. “The water is good. The Alavarisians have a river called Myrn which runs through their awful city; it is little more than black sludge.”
“Yes,” Ngare cut in, “this water is still good, but Alavariss grows all the time. Even now, I hear they are making plans to divert the water into their city. One day, this very old river will be as black as Myrn.”
“Let’s hope not,” Raahi sighed.
“How does Alavariss work?” Robert asked.
“What do you mean?” said Raahi.
“I mean, it’s such a bad place. How can a place like that exist? Don’t the people just want to leave?”
“Well,” Raahi considered, “it is a bad place, through and through, and there are many people there who are slaves to the Emperor. They are his property and could not leave if they wanted to. But there are nearly as many who choose Alavariss for one reason or another. Some would like to be emperors themselves or something like him. Some are cast in a deeper spell, a good thing that has worked against them.”
“It doesn’t seem right,” Esmeralda said.
“I know.”
They traveled southeast along the banks of the river toward Song. It would take them all night and more to reach the Shining City, and everyone in the carriage did their best to sleep.
Around one o’clock, the lead horse in the caravan pulled up short, and its rider, the Elite Guard Sala, called back. “I think I’ve got something here!”
Ngari and Raahi ran up from the carriage to find Sala standing over a little form collapsed on the shore of the river. It was Yaris. The princess lay on the ground, hugging her knees, her hair a tangled mess over her tiara.
Ngare looked at Raahi. “What should we do?”
Yaris woke and stared up at them. She didn’t speak.
“Yaris?” Raahi said. “What are you doing?”
“Sleeping.”
“Do you need some help?”
“I don’t know,” she said and stood slowly on wobbly legs.
Dorthea, Robert and Esmeralda, sensing an end to the danger, came up from the carriage. They all stood in a half-circle staring at Yaris with disbelief.
“Yaris,” Raahi said, “your father’s army is somewhere on this plain. Alavariss itself is northeast of here. Are you trying to get home? If so, you seem to be heading the wrong way.”
Yaris stared at the floor. “I don’t think I can go home.”
“Well, I’m sure you can. If you need help, we can give you one of the horses and some water.”
Yaris was near tears. “No. I mean, I just don’t want to go back there.”
Ngare sighed heavily. Raahi pulled him aside.
“What do you think?” Raahi asked.
“I think the carriage is cramped as it is.”
“But certainly we cannot leave her here in the open to starve.”
“It would have been better for her to go back, meet up with the army and quell her father’s assault,” Ngare said. “She needs to go home.”
“But she hasn’t.”
“She hasn’t.
“Then the army will, what, advance into the Phoon wilderness?”
“Yes. But that must have been part of the plan to begin with. The Phoon will be well hidden.”
“Either way, it means we needn’t worry about them searching for us for some time.”
Ngare thought for a moment. “We certainly can’t force her any longer, but will she want to come with us?”
After some deliberation, it turned out that she did. She rode in the carriage, quickly falling asleep on Robert’s shoulder, which he found deeply uncomfortable. The caravan moved on through the night, one passenger heavy, with the horse drivers and riders showing dogged determination as they crossed, unsleeping, into the day and the vision of Song in the distance that accompanied it.