***
An hour later, the two of them were ready to confront the Kri’yans once more, so Sarah tugged on the rope. She cocked her head, expecting to hear some type of sound. Nothing. In less than five seconds, there was a curt knock. Walking over to the entrance to their room, she opened the door to reveal Tristan smiling at them. Had he been waiting out there all this time? Could he have heard anything that they had talked about? As discreetly as possible, she ran her fingers over the door. Very solid. No eavesdropping here.
Steve rose from the couch. “We’re ready to see the king and queen.”
“Excellent,” came the crisp, clear tone of his voice. “If ye would follow me, please.”
This time, the efficient solder took them to a richly decorated chamber away from the Great Hall, and away from prying eyes and ears.
“Where are we?” Steve asked.
“We are in the Antechamber. There is protective magic all throughout this room, so ye may talk freely. Oh, I should mention to the two of ye that this room is enchanted against virtually all jhorun.”
Steve stared at the soldier. “Why did you tell us that? Do you think we’ll try to hurt someone?”
“I mention it only to warn ye, friend. If ye try to use yer jhorun, and nothing happens, then ye will know why.”
Steve visibly relaxed. “Oh, my misunderstanding then. Sorry.”
Tristan left the room, closing the doors behind them. Steve and Sarah looked at each other.
“Think our jhoruns will work here?” she whispered to him.
“I’d like to try,” Steve whispered back, eyeing the burning logs in the hearth.
At that moment Kri’Entu and Ny’Callé entered the room. “Steve, Sarah, ye appear much more relaxed than when we parted.” The king gestured to four plush chairs set in a circle by the fire. “Please, sit, rest. We have much to talk about.”
The queen looked at her two guests. Steve wasn’t fidgeting, or rolling his eyes, or showing any signs of the skepticism that he had demonstrated from their previous meeting. He and his wife must have had a long talk.
As the king talked with Steve, chatting about what his world was like, Callé observed her future babysitters. They were completely at ease with one another. They were holding hands! Clearly these two get along well together. The perfect Nohrin.
Sarah felt as though she was being watched. She glanced over to the queen and met her eyes. The queen smiled at her. Feeling nothing but kindness emanating from the refreshingly direct queen, Sarah felt herself trusting her more and more. When the men paused in their conversation about wildlife native to the kingdom, the queen took the opportunity to ask a question she was dying to know.
“Sarah, do ye have any children?”
Sarah shook her head. “No, we don’t. We’re thinking about having a few, but nothing yet.”
Suddenly finding his seat uncomfortable, Steve fidgeted, and attempted to steer the conversation to a different subject.
“Is it true that this room blocks all magic?”
The king nodded. “Only a very select few have jhoruns strong enough to resist the protective enchantments cast upon this chamber.” Recognizing the stubborn streak in Steve’s eyes, the king smiled. “Feel free, my friend.”
Sarah shook her head. Nothing but a big kid at heart.
Steve glanced at the hearth. Extending his jhorun to the blazing fire, he pulled all the tingling energy inward. The flames extinguished with a soft ‘poof’.
Steve was grinning from ear to ear. “Cool!”
The Kri’yans were also smiling. They hadn’t mentioned that if they weren’t the Nohrin then their jhoruns would have been unable to defeat the Antechamber’s restrictive charms.
“Try yours.”
Thinking of what she could teleport into the chamber, she remembered her lip balm in her purse back in their quarters. She held out her left hand. The balm materialized instantly in her palm. She uncapped it, applied a small amount to her dry lips and sent the small tube back to her purse.
Queen Callé laughed. “Now that is a jhorun I would love immensely!”
Sarah grinned. Here was someone she could easily become friends with. The queen had an easy-going, comforting personality that exuded openness and honesty.
“I’m still learning the nuances of it,” Sarah confessed. “Steve seems to have more control over his jhorun than I do with mine. I’m still practicing, though.”
In a hushed, conspiratorial tone, the queen leaned forward and spoke to Sarah. “One might think honesty is a good jhorun to have, but how often do ye want yer husband to tell ye that a dress chosen for a certain occasion is unflattering?”
Sarah stifled a giggle. “He does that to you?”
Smiling, the queen nodded. “My jhorun is one of the more powerful manifestations of veracity. It is difficult to suppress. Not impossible,” she added quickly, as Sarah looked ready to ask a couple of questions, “but difficult. Therefore I let my jhorun be active at all times.” She looked at her husband who was deep in conversation with the foreign man. “I just have to be careful which questions I ask.”
Interested, Sarah leaned further towards the queen. Sensing a shared female moment of mirth, Callé conspiratorially leaned towards her as well. In hushed tones, she whispered to the queen, “how does your husband feel about telling you the truth about everything? Some women would view that as the perfect marriage!”
Suppressing the urge to laugh out loud, the queen risked a glance at her husband. “Entu has said on more than one occasion that it is difficult to handle at times. So he has to choose what he says, too. The truth can be said many ways, and some ways are less dangerous than others.”
Sarah giggled. “I never thought of it that way.”
“He is very skilled in word play. He can still say the truth to me and yet convey another meaning entirely. I am still amazed at how he can do it.”
Steve, noting the huddled conversation Sarah and the queen were having, shook his head. Unbelievable. She did it again.
Kri’Entu, noting Steve’s astonished stare, glanced over at the women. What was this? His wife had only just met this woman a few hours before, and yet now they were acting like they have known each other all their lives!
“I don’t know how she does it,” Steve murmured. “We haven’t been in this kingdom that long and yet she can instantly bond with any woman here and become their best friend.”
Stroking his beard thoughtfully, Entu smiled at the two gossiping women.
Sensing they were being watched, as one, the women turned to the men. The queen and Sarah both raised an eyebrow. Since both were within the peripheral vision of the other, each noted that the other did the same thing. As if on cue, both smiled.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Steve began, “but I need to ask the million dollar question now.”
Sarah nodded, indicating for him to proceed.
“Your majesties, in my grandparent’s house on my world, there is a really large door carved with a representation of this kingdom.” Seeing no acknowledgement from either king or queen, Steve continued. “In their safe was a big green crystal key. It fit into a keyhole shaped window of the castle on the door. Sarah turned the key, and presto, we had an instant portal to Lentari.”
“He incorporated the portal into the decor. I must admit I was curious about that,” Kri’Entu murmured.
Steve jerked in his chair. “So you’ve heard of this type of portal then?”
The king nodded. “It is the main method of transportation between great distances in Lentari. There are only a few portals, so they are reserved for official use only. We tasked Shardwyn with finding a suitable method of returning the Scribes to their home world. He contacted the best craftsman of portal keys that ever lived. Well, the only maker of portal keys.”
Elation surged through Steve. “Yes! So you have another portal here! Beautiful!
So you can send us home then? We figured that’s how we can best protect your son, taking him to our world.”
The king and queen stared at each other in shock. Of course! It was so clear now! The Nohrin would hide their son on a world where no harm would befall him. No one from their kingdom, nor any others for that matter, would be able to find him!
“Is there a portal here, in this castle, then?” Sarah asked hopefully.
“Aye,” Kri’Entu answered slowly, as realization sank in that his son would soon be leaving. Taking a deep breath, he faced the two Nohrin. “Ye only need yer key to activate the portal.”
The queen watched as Sarah’s face fell, her eyes filling with tears. “Yer key is not with ye, is it?” she asked softly.
Both Sarah and Steve slowly shook their heads.
Turning to her husband, Callé asked the obvious question.
“If they do not have the key, how does the portal work then?”
The king shook his head. “Without the key, our portal cannot tune in on the receiving portal. So it would not work.”
Sarah, on the verge of tears, looked to her husband for solace. Steve, however, wasn’t ready to give up.
“Okay, so we don’t have the key. Can’t we get another one? I mean, there’s got to be some way to replace a missing key, isn’t there?”
“I had not thought of it that way,” the king confessed. “No one has lost one before. Ye will have to seek out Maelnar.”
“And he is?”
“The dwarf who crafted your key.”
“How do you know he’s the one who made it?”
“Because,” Entu explained, “Maelnar is the Strathos, the maker of keys. He is the only maker of portal keys and has lived for hundreds of years, with every indication of living for hundreds more.”
“Is this Maelnar person easy to find? Please tell me he’s here in the castle.”
“Unfortunately, no, I am sorry. His clan lives in the Bohani Mountains far to the north. I last met Maelnar when I was but a boy. I have not seen him since. He’s very reclusive.” Seeing the Nohrin’s faces fall yet again, the queen spoke up.
“Fear not, we will find him. We will send out word immediately to ascertain his present whereabouts. The dwarves govern themselves, so we can not order Maelnar to reveal himself. But they are our allies. They should at least be able to point us in the right direction.”
Clapping his hands, the king summoned Tristan into the room once again. “Send word immediately. We need to locate the dwarf Maelnar. He should be in the vicinity of the Bohani Mountains. Go now.”
“Sir.” Tristan bowed, leaving the room as silently as he had entered.
“How long do you think that will take?” Steve asked.
“Truthfully, I am not certain,” Kri’Entu admitted. “We can only wait. There is no sense in wandering all over those mountains until we have an idea which area to search.”
“So what do we do now?” Steve wanted to know.
The queen spoke. “I think now we should talk about the Bakkian. Would ye care to hear about it?”
Scooting his chair closer to his wife’s, Steve nodded.
The king rose, went to his private desk in the far corner of the room, turned, and faced the stone wall behind it. Reaching out with his right hand, he gently pushed in one of the stones. There was a soft click, and a section of the wall slid aside, revealing a large cavity within the wall. Sitting within the cavity was a larger version of the griffin safe that Steve and Sarah had become very familiar with. The griffin on this safe started the musical humming as the king approached. As before, the griffin raised its leg, and the king pushed the button.
Reaching inside the hidden compartment, the king withdrew a small, rusted chest. As he turned to walk back to his guests seated before the fire, the compartment within the safe closed with a snap, and the griffin stepped back onto the button, hiding it from sight. Even the wall slid smoothly closed, Steve noted.
Kri’Entu set the chest on the small table before the two Nohrin and gently pushed it towards them. He couldn’t hide his smile as a very skeptical Steve glanced down at the rusted chest.
“What’s this?”
The king smiled. “That, my friend, is the Bakkian.”
“That??”
The king nodded.
Reaching slowly out to the chest, Steve undid the latch and gently opened the coffer. Leaning forward together, Steve and Sarah peered into the small, deteriorating container. Sitting inside was a crystalline object resembling a small shield, about the mass of a clenched fist. The crystal had a symbol embossed onto the surface, depicting some type of animal. Steve nodded, recognizing the image now: it was a picture of a griffin with one foreleg raised. Was this the mark that the young prince had upon his shoulder? Clearly the griffins held some type of unknown importance here.
Sarah sat back and studied the king and queen. “I thought this prophecy would be in a book, or on a scroll, or something. That journal mentioned a four hundred year old document.”
“My grandparents said they found some manuscript last year. It’s mentioned in their journal. Once it was found, the journal said the entire kingdom could read the Bakkian in its entirety.”
“Ah, the manuscript.” Kri’Entu nodded. “It chronicles past attempts to locate the Bakkian.”
“So who found it, then?”
“A knight who lived hundreds of years ago. Went by the name of Volan.”
“Was wondering who that was,” Steve muttered.
“So what are we supposed to do with that?” Sarah asked, pointing to the crystal shield.
“Pick it up,” the queen suggested.
Sarah eyed the small, crystal shield. “What will happen if we do?”
“No harm will come to ye, I promise,” the queen assured them. “The Bakkian will only reveal itself to those involved with its prophecy.”
More curious than cautious, Steve stared at the object. “And how does it do that?”
“Ye only have to touch it.”
Sarah looked to her husband to take the initiative. Correctly interpreting her glance, he shrugged. Reaching in with his right hand, he took the crystal object out of the box.
Surprised by the weight of the thing, Steve hefted it in his hand. Unlike the jorii, this object didn’t appear to be generating any heat. Quite the contrary, it was cool to the touch. He held it up to his face, studying it closely. Was this carved out of a single piece of crystal? Cool! These guys really had a knack for working with precious stones.
Holding the Bakkian out in front of him, Steve looked questioningly at the Kri’yans. “So what do I do? How do I open it?”
Kri’Entu stared at the strangely quiescent piece of crystal. What was wrong? Why wasn’t it working? The spell should have been activated once contact was made. Were they not the Nohrin?
At that moment Sarah leaned over her husband’s shoulder and ran her fingers along the raised image of the griffin embossed onto the surface. Suddenly there was a flash of golden light, illuminating the entire Antechamber. Finding themselves unable to let go of the crystal shield, Steve and Sarah watched with amazement as several seams appeared on the surface of the crystal. The center, which had the griffin on it, parted right down the middle and swung open. An iridescent golden light escaped from the heart of the crystal shield, bathing both husband and wife with an eerie glow. A soft female voice started to speak:
Many years from now, it will come to pass,
A child will come, born unto class.
The mark of the Gryph, found upon his arm,
Indicates to all: protect from harm.
Into Their care the Marked will be placed,
Fending off challengers who must be faced.
Advice and guidance, given to the boy,
His life will be filled with love and joy.
Power over an elemental, one will possess,
&
nbsp; Which will it be? No one can guess.
The second will be cunning and clever.
Hesitate to protect their charge? Never.
An’ this child grows to man
Peace will spread throughout the land.
However, if the Marked happen to fail,
Then the darkness will prevail.
As the darkness rises in the north,
This child must go forth.
Stand ye not in his path,
Seek ye not the Protector’s wrath.
Wait for the Guardians to arrive on this soil,
Their coming rejoiced, avoiding turmoil.
Who are these people with the strong jhorun?
They are the Protectors, the fêted Nohrin!
The shimmering light withdrew inside, reverting back into an unblemished crystal once more.
Sarah’s mouth was gaping open. “Okay, I can see how that might pertain to the two of us.”
Steve snorted. “’Seek ye not the protector’s wrath’? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you can get a temper if you’re provoked.”
Steve harrumphed. “What’s the ‘darkness’ refer to?”
Kri’Entu tapped his fingers absentmindedly on his chair as he held a silent conversation with the queen. She nodded to the two of them.
Go on, her eyes said. They need to know.
How much do I tell them? his eyes inquired.
Everything, was the response.
Knowing that some type of communication was going on between the two silent monarchs, Steve and Sarah nervously eyed each other, waiting for them to finish.
Taking a deep breath, the king faced his two guests.
“There have been disturbing reports coming from the north,” the king explained. “A dark wizard from Ylani has found a way to steal jhorun.”
“Say what? How?”
“No one knows. They have captured three of our spies and returned them to us, their jhoruns stripped away from each of them.”
“Can’t your wizard replace the stolen jhorun?” Steve asked.
The queen sadly shook her head. “He has been secluded in his workshop working diligently on a remedy. Thus far, no luck.”
“Maybe their jhorun will return in time,” Sarah suggested.
“The first spy was returned to us over three years ago.”
Steve whistled. “I take it losing your jhorun is a bad thing?” Seeing his wife’s horrified look, Steve hastily added, “No offense to your majesties. We have lived the majority of our lives without jhoruns, so I don’t know how you people would react to losing one.”
The king held up a hand and stared hard at Steve. “I said stolen, not lost. Our spies reported seeing this dark wizard wielding their own jhoruns against them.”
“How does your son fit in to this?” Steve asked.
“Mikal restored them,” Kri’Entu said simply.
“What?” Steve exclaimed. “How?”
“The closest we can approximate,” Ny’Callé said, “is that Mikal’s ability, his jhorun, is enhancement. It was quite by accident that we discovered this.”
“Indeed,” the king agreed. “We had consulted Shardwyn several times about Mikal’s lack of a jhorun. Ye see, a Lentarian child’s jhorun first manifests itself around their fourth birthday. We did not discover what jhorun our son had until last year.”
“What happened?” Sarah wanted to know. “How did you find out?”
“Mikal was curious about the land to the north, so he was talking to one of the people who had their jhoruns taken from them. Tristan. Ye met him before.”
Both Sarah and Steve nodded.
“While talking with Tristan,” the king continued, “Mikal evidently asked what type of jhorun he had that the wizard stole from him. Tristan told him what his jhorun was, which was being able to temporarily summon small daggers. Since at that time Mikal did not know the nature of his jhorun, he wished Tristan could have his jhorun back so that he could see a demonstration. At that moment, for a span of a few seconds, Tristan was able to conjure a small dagger.”
“Is it fully restored now?”
The king nodded. “Tristan reported that after that initial conversation with my son, his jhorun was fully regenerated in about three months.”
Steve stood up and started to pace. “So, let me get this straight. This dark wizard guy, he finds some way to steal the jhorun from a Lentarian.”
The Kri’yans nodded.
“And your son has the ability to restore it. My question is,” Steve paused a moment, “does he restore the jhorun so that both the original person and the wizard have it as well? Or does your son somehow restore the jhorun to the original person, thus stealing it back from this bad wizard?”
The queen spoke. “I do not know how he does it, but he is actually taking them back from the dark wizard.”
Sarah leaned forward. “Are you sure?”
“Quite sure,” the king said darkly. “There have been five attacks upon him. Since he is protected by the strongest jhorun at our disposal here in the castle, I believe it will only be a matter of time before they try a more daring scheme to lure him out of the castle.”
“I’ll take that as a big ten-four,” Steve muttered.
The king stared matter-of-factly at Steve. “Will the two of ye protect our son for us?”
Sarah moved to stand next to her husband. He took her hand in his. Addressing the king, Steve nodded. “Your majesties, we will do all we can to keep him safe. You have our word.”