Chapter 24 #2
‘Yes, and also no. I don’t know what happened to them. When I arrived, I went inside and found… them. They’d left a script, with their names. I stayed the night in their annex and meant to fire it the next day, but wolves came. It was scary.’
‘So you left them, for me to find? Like that?’ Her face was fiery, red spots of anger on her cheeks. He shook his head.
‘No, no. I tried to burn the place. It was weird, Sereh. I can’t explain it. Something else set it alight. I don’t know how. I don’t. In the morning, I woke to find it like that. I did my best but, well, I wasn’t in my right mind. I’m sorry you had to see that.’
For a moment, Sereh looked ready to explode, but suddenly, the fire went from her. When she spoke, her words sounded hollow.
‘Estrith and I grew up together. We were both only children. During the Long Night our families often stayed with one another. Then, during the Long Day, we’d work on our own steadings.
I’m surprised you don’t remember her, but…
’ She paused. ‘Thinking about it, my father was the Quarter Scribe, and so he attended every Quarter Council. Estrith’s parents didn’t very often.
That’s the only reason I survived. I was with Estrith when my parents were killed by Rankil. ’
He was silent as they walked onto Vatna Jokull, consumed with sorrow for Sereh, and suddenly all his thoughts vanished.
‘What is that?’ he heard himself say.
Stretching across the great glacier, as far as the eye could see, was a wall. Its opalescent surface shimmered purple in the rays of the sun. He felt his mouth hang open in shock.
‘Erann?’ Sereh’s voice trailed off.
He’d never seen anything like it before, and he was certain it hadn’t been there when he’d stumbled over the glacier on his journey to Rankil’s.
He wondered where it had come from. He stepped forward to touch it.
As he did, blue sparks leapt from its surface.
He laughed as they floated off into the clear sky.
‘Would you look at that?’ He laughed again. ‘Sereh, come here, you try.’
But Sereh just stared at him, her eyes narrowed. Arrow was at her side.
‘What are you talking about?’
He gaped at her.
‘What? This!’ He pointed at the wall, sending another burst of blue sparks bursting out. ‘Did you know this was here?’
‘What was here?’ She looked at him blankly. ‘Vatna Jokull? Of course, I did. I found you on Vatna Jokull. Surely you remember that?’
‘No, not the glacier, the wall.’ His voice barely contained his frustration. ‘That!’
She turned her head sharply back to the glacier. Arrow whined.
‘What are you talking about, Erann?’ Her response was as exasperated as his.
‘Can’t you see it? Seriously, can’t you see it? It’s huge. It stretches from here,’ Erann touched the wall again, sending a further trail of blue sparks into the still day, ‘all the way across Vatna Jokull, at least that’s what it looks like from here.’
Sereh peered at Vatna Jokull, hands on hips, then met his gaze, eyes full of cautious concern.
‘Are you sure you’re well, Erann? You must have hit your head very hard when Arrow was dragging you to the cave, and maybe when you fell over the marker stone as well. I imagine you haven’t eaten properly for days, what with you leaving your backpack with me.’
Sereh stood in front of him. At the centre of the wall. Her presence sent a steady stream of blue sparks flying into the air. Yet she seemed totally unaware of it.
‘I don’t understand.’ He placed his hand into the wall.
He could feel it under his palm for a moment and then his hand passed right through as though there was nothing there at all.
He stepped beside her, noticing how from inside, the pale purple came alive between his hands.
There was a slight sensation of his neck hairs standing on edge, as sparks drifted and flickered before him, like embers on the breeze.
He took another step and came out the other side, but when he turned to look at the wall again, it was gone.
Was he just seeing things?
Thoroughly unnerved, Erann stepped back to where he’d been on first discovering the wall. He extended his hand but the purple light had vanished. The hairs on his neck had settled. The blue sparks had disappeared.
‘What is happening to me?’ he muttered, aware Sereh watched him with a wary look.
With visible effort, he met Sereh’s gaze and shrugged his shoulders.
‘It’s been a strange day. Don’t worry about it. Come on, we need to make good progress with what remains of today. Put as much distance between those men and ourselves as possible.’
He strode forward purposefully, knowing Sereh and Arrow would follow.
He was quiet as he walked, thinking about the things he thought he’d seen.
In the space of an afternoon, he’d seen a golden dragon with huge green eyes, and a huge shimmering, purple wall that seemed to cover the whole of Vatna Jokull.
No, he thought, he’d not seen them. It was just an illusion.
He was convinced he wasn’t suffering from snow blindness, but couldn’t explain why he’d seen things when Sereh had not.
For a moment, he worried he was becoming unwell, like his mother.
Maybe the strain of losing his father was all too much for him.
He just hoped he’d be able to find out the answer once they made it to the Library.
What he had seen was the marker stone with the unusual colouring and markings on it. So first, he wanted to see the cave Sereh had mentioned when he’d fallen over the hidden marker stone. Somehow, he felt it was important.