Part III
Chapter 13
Allies
Wolf's counsel was to return to the gray void to see what was there. It was agreed, with some contention between Morra and Neda, that Morra was to accompany her while Neda waited outside the three circles. Neither had ever been to this place and wanted to see what it was like. Connie impressed upon Morra that she must be still, to avoid leaving personal tracks back.
Connie setup the two circles. When the second circle was closed Connie touched the ring and called Wolf.
Morra's eyes opened wide when Wolf, as big as a person appeared instantly. He sniffed at Morra and then swung his massive head to Connie.
"Call Raven," Wolf said.
Connie held up her ringed hand and imagined Raven, her clan's guardian. Raven was many things, one of which was the Trickster. What Connie was calling Raven for was one of the other things Raven did, expose things that were secret.
Raven appeared silently, flapping black shiny wings. The whoosh of air around them became charged with Raven energy.
"Greetings Daughter of Raven House in Morwea Woods," Raven cawed. Her head swiveled to Morra. "Greetings Daughter of Nen. House on Land and Water." She looked at Wolf, "Greetings Brother Wolf. Why have I been called?"
"I have called you," Connie said, "to assist me in seeing beyond the veil, for a specific person."
"And this person?" Raven cawed.
"The enemy of my clan."
Raven cackled. "If it were one person or group that would be easy."
Connie frowned at this information. Wolf growled.
"Okay, so that's a generalization of what politics is like among families. Just who exactly is this enemy?" Raven asked.
"The leader of the Besardo."
"Why didn't you just say so?" Raven said.
"Do you know who it is?" Connie asked.
"I will help you find who you are seeking." Raven ruffled her feathers and spread her wings, nearly dwarfing them all, including Wolf. Raven picked at something that dropped at her feet and tossed it before Wolf's paws. Wolf coughed up an amulet with strange markings. It fell on top of Raven's unknown article. Connie used the dirt to close the circle around them, softly chanting protection spells she learned with Ramla and Rozene.
Connie said, "Now - with - swiftness - to the place of nothing."
The environment changed quickly to a gray world of silvery shadows wavering from their combined arrival. Connie could feel that the one she was looking for had been recently present. It was an unmistakable stink that was diminishing rapidly. Something had been left behind and over it another was bending. At their arrival the other turned. For a moment fear crossed the eyes and then cleared when it did not perceive who he was expecting. The eyes were familiar. Connie brought her hand up to send thousands of ripples to distort their images. If any of the foul wisps attached to them, they would have been followed back to their circle. Connie suspected that the Besardo leader wouldn't fall for the same type of trap.
"Seems someone beat us to the trail," Morra said.
Raven fluffed her feathers and Wolf shook himself.
"I'm sure there will be many looking," Connie said thoughtfully. "Thank you Raven. Thank you Wolf. I will think about what we've seen before I make another try."
Wolf and Raven disappeared.
"Leave no feather, hair or dust." Connie brushed the area with her hands, "Leave no scents or tracks to us. Let whoever tries to follow….lose his or her way into this hollow." Connie drew a circle spiraling it into a whorl.
Morra standing near Connie stiffened at the sudden stink that came out of the whorl. Smoke and foul air puffed out like a miniature volcano.
"Who are you?" a voice demanded.
Within the protection spell from this other, Connie picked up on a personal amulet. It was as good as leaving a trail back to his circle. It was the same person they had just seen and whom Connie recognized as the blurred face she witnessed two days ago. Behind the bluff Connie was able to pick up more about him. He wanted to be leader, but was not yet ready to declare himself. He was skulking the trails his leader traveled, hoping to get something of value his leader may have left behind.
Connie snapped the connection closed. A dangerous game of tag with the underling was in play. Connie cleaned the circle and wiped it out.
"Do you know who it is?" Morra said. "I didn't get a clear vision of him."
"That one is not the leader. He doesn't know who the leader is by sight. I didn't recognize him, but I did the eyes. He's a shapeshifter. If he dares to tell the leader of our visit there will be a new level of play."
"A shapeshifter. That is not good news, but it should be of no surprise," Morra said. "They were bound to infiltrate a group they would be least expected to deceive."
"You said the leader would be someone that is very good at keeping concealed even from other Besardo members, so why not a shapeshifter that can do the same?"
"It would have to be a beast that is solitary in nature," Morra said. "Are you doing okay? I want to let the others know, but I don't want to leave you until you feel your energy is back."
"My energy is fine."
"Then let's open the circle and I will be gone. There is much to do."
Morra hurried back toward the cabin while Connie watched her. The young girl from her previous visit to the gray world resembled Morra. Neda stood next to Connie containing her curiosity.
"While you two were busy, Pili had the others building sweat lodges. It looks like he's decided the squad is ready to meet their familiars or something serious."
"There does seem to be an urgency in the air," Connie said.
The Raven sat on a branch nearby. It opened it's beak but nothing came out. Connie nodded at the silent warning….to keep it to herself. The leader was her burden. She left a second challenge which she was sure the leader would not hear of promptly. Ruthless people lived by ruthless rules in order to keep their positions of power. This withholding of information could bring a harsh schism from the two at the top if she stirred the kettle of distrust enough.
Connie cleaned all traces of the circle with Neda's assistance before following Morra back to the cabin. Raven flew past her and sat on the roof. Wolf stayed in the forest, watching…ever vigilant since their first contact.
While Connie crossed the cabin threshold, she could feel the protection spell that someone had weaved. Easily, she passed through.
"A warding spell has been added," Connie said.
"While you two were busy. As you said, there is a different type of energy in the forest. It's on all the cabins we use in the forest; however, we'll be going to the shelters to make sure all are protected." She grinned at Connie's expression. Some of the shelters were in hard to reach places. "Anyone out during this weather is out for mischief or an emergency."
"I heard that if that's what you wish, being a pampered royal and all, that's what you can see but it doesn't mean it's true," a new voice said.
Standing in the doorway was an old man dressed in wet weather gear.
"Well, are you not going to greet your uncle?"
"Not really. And you're not my uncle," Neda said.
"I could be. You never know with the way the family sleeps around."
Connie found the conversation rude and disturbing, though Neda received it with little difference.
"And you are?" Connie asked, since Neda failed to provide a name.
"Today…I think I'll be General Klovoko."
"Are you a shapeshifter?" Connie asked.
"Save me from such doings! Of course not. Do I have the eyes? Do you pick up on some kind of kinky energy about me? What? Tell me what gives you that ridiculous idea?" he demanded.
"You remind me of a tree troll I had met in Morwea Woods. Instead of living underground, he chose the hollowed out tree trunk near Ursa River."
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" was all he could say looking amazed and seemingly unable to articulate anything more.
Neda built up the fire, sending out a nice warmth with the added logs.
"Why are you here?" Connie asked.
"Hm. Hm. Well…" he then sputtered to silence. It was odd to see him just standing in the doorway.
"You can't come in!" Connie said suddenly realizing that there was more than one protection spell around the doorway.
"Not without our invite," Neda said, moving to the couch. "And no, you can't come in. You'll mess up the protection spells. So then,
General Klovoko," she mocked, "What news have you? Speak, up!"
"It's but a whisper," he said, unaffected by Neda's attitude. "but whispers are secrets and they come faster to my ears then shouted words."
"That they do," Neda agreed.
"Well, this was said into the ear of a sleeping child. '"Don't go to the forest in your dreams, least of all without your bag of charms"', her mother had said. Silly child went into the forest, running like an excited filly, she did. And lost she became, wandering until she found my mound."
"It was a child from years ago," Connie said. She remembered the story told by Rozene's familiar, teaching her that traveling in dreams had its own charms to keep a traveler safe. The child's parents were not able to wake her.
"Yes."
Neda gave him a look of impatience. "It's that same story you've been telling for years, people getting lost in their dreams."
"I haven't said anything about his one. I've been thinking on it. I've decided to trade her for something."
Neda looked over at Connie. "He could be telling the truth, but then again, maybe not."
"So what do wish to trade for?" Connie asked.
"To be your companion when you walk the forest."
Connie didn't have much experience with trolls since she always carried something that would not let her become entrapped in their web of doings. Trolls were solitary creatures so why he wanted to accompany her had her curious..
Connie thought about Morra's guess that the second in line was a shapeshifter of a solitary creature. Besardo were only from the royal lines and she knew of no troll in any of the families. Would a troll be able to assist in recognizing who she was looking for?
"And for what reason?" Neda asked.
He looked at Connie. "You've made a challenge days ago. You'll need all the help you can get from the different realms."
Days ago. That means my first visit. So it was heard.
"The one who you seek is not known by anyone but herself. She felt your presence in the gray void and is seeking you. The great void was hers until you moved through it and left your mark."
I left no mark. And a she? Connie knew that to believe everything a Troll said, was not wise, because they saw thing differently. They moved around better in dreamscapes, capturing the unprepared who sought something underground. Besides, genders to them was determined by how a person projected her or his the energy, not the physical body they walked in.
"And how did you come to know any of this?" Connie asked.
"It is being whispered in dreams. You have been identified."
"How was I identified?"
The Troll was getting impatient. "Well you left a bit of yourself behind. You were sloppy like a beginner."
"I see." Connie decided to let things be. Someone had visited the gray void and left something of hers within, if what he said is true. It had to have been done right after she had left the first time. When they visited it just recently, there was no trace of her presence from her first visit and she had not dreamed of the visit.
Tonight, she would see what belongings of hers were missing. The danger to that was drawing the missing object back to her and thus opening up a connection that the Besardo leader was looking for.
Neda stared at the Troll suspiciously. "The real question is, what do you intend on getting out of this?"
"I'm not offering to go with you. You're too suspicious, for one."
"And for two?" Neda asked.
"You're not the one she's after."
"How do you know it's a her?" Neda said.
"A Troll knows those things."
Neda laughed. "You know only what you steal in dreams. It's illusionary."
"I'm not here to speak with you," he said.
"Who is this? Unblock the doorway, old man!" Morra said.
The two glared at each other and then both burst out laughing.
"So, you heard of the challenge too?" Morra said. Morra did not offer to allow him to cross the threshold.
"There isn't anyone that hasn't heard it," he said.
"You can't go with us, old man. It's not just for our protection but yours as well. Someone may mistake you for a Besardo sympathizer, not as a curious lore master."
"A lore master?" Connie asked.
"Yes. One of the few that travels outside of his realm to get different views of a story, however, it doesn't mean it's reliable," Morra said.
"You've got that right," Neda said.
"I tell it as I see it," he said.
"And what he doesn't see, he makes up," Neda said. "He hides when it gets dangerous and doesn't bother to ask anyone there what went on."
"I…" He huffed up and Neda stood up to carry the discussion further. .
"Oh, stop it you two," Morra said. "
He looked at Connie. Connie winked at him.
Morra and Neda believed they were accompanying her into the woods for the next challenge, however, it would not be them, she thought. They were too likely to accompany her and for that reason her next visit would not be with anyone whose energy she was familiar with. Familiarity would be a distraction.
"My offer stands," General Klovoko said, looking directly at Connie. He turned and as he walked, faded into nothing.
"You're not going to take him up on his offer, are you?" Neda demanded. "You would never be able to tell…"
"That would not be a good idea…" Morra spoke over Neda.
Connie ignored the two as they both gave reasons why she should not take a person that would be of no more use than a tourist. She settled in the comfortable chair with her feet close to the warmth of the fire. Her thoughts were on a mountain. She had seen it when she flew with Neda in her air cart along the wall when she was a tower guard. Focusing on something that had nothing to do with what she was going to do, was how she was going to keep her plan secret.
Continued