Gaia Town - The Tales of Taranis and Fearghas - 5. The Verdict

The Verdict

Something cold touched his ear, snuffled, nipped, pushed. Grumbling, Taranis swatted away whatever it was and pressed his face further into the soft, warm bedding. “Hmmm…slightly burnt caramel and summer grass.” But the good smelling pillow moved away and a warm tongue ?licked? all over his face.

'Good morning, Taranis.'

"Fear! How…Ugh." Taranis rubbed vigorously at his face and ear with the corner of his blanket, eying the large black wolf sitting in his bed, obviously extremely pleased with himself. “You changed back.”

‘I woke and was wolf.'

“You slept right through it?” Taranis leaned forward and ran his fingers through Fear’s black fur. "It didn't hurt as much as last time, then?"

‘No. The transformation is only painful when forced, probably because the change is slowed.'

“We should get—” A knock interrupted Taranis. Frowning, he looked at the window. It was still early in the morning, the sun just peeking through the trees. “Enter!”

But nobody came in; instead he heard a muffled voice from the other side of the door. “Prince Taranis?”

Taranis rolled his eyes. “Someone is afraid of the vicious Wolfener.” He shook his head. “I wonder what they expect you to do. Eat them for breakfast?”

He pushed the blanket aside and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. Yawning, he pulled up the waistband of his loose pants, as he went to the door. “Yes, Felim?”

The man outside flinched when he saw Taranis narrowing his eyes at him and hurried to bow. "Prince Taranis, King Eógan wants you and the Wolfener Fearghas to join him and Prince Ailill at the solarium for breakfast.”

Taranis looked along both sides of the hallway. “Where are the guards?”

“Prince Ailill ordered them to resume their duty in the main hall.” Felim fidgeted with his hands at the same time trying to peer around Taranis through the half-open door.

Taranis was tempted to ask Fear to growl just to see the man’s reaction. "I see. Thank you, Felim, we'll be there shortly." Grinning, Taranis closed the door and turned around. “No guards anymore and we are invited to Eógan’s private dining room for breakfast.”

‘No guards?’

“No guards.”

‘It could be a trick.’

“No, that’s not the way Eógan handles things.” Puzzled, Taranis watched Fearghas pacing the room, sensing the air coming through the windows. The wolf’s body trembled with tension; even his ears vibrated.

‘I don’t trust him.’

“Well, then trust me. If Eógan had sentenced you to death, there would be guards swarming this room right now. They would shackle you and drag you outside and we would have been summoned to the great hall and not to the solarium.”

‘Something is wrong. I sense hostility, anger, and fear.’

“Of course. The House of Quorish is threatening us with war. Everyone is upset and worried.”

‘That’s not what I mean.’

“What do you mean, Fear?”

‘It’s directed at me and partly at you.’

***

Taranis could feel Fearghas’ agitation rise. The wolf prowled beside him, constantly sniffing the air, with his ears moving in every direction to catch the smallest noise. Elves they encountered took one look at Fearghas’ large canines and pressed themselves against the walls or disappeared into doorways.

Ailill and Eógan were waiting for them at the entrance to the solarium. The room was breathtaking. With its hexagonal layout, windows from floor to ceiling on four walls, a fireplace in the fifth and the door in the sixth, it felt like a comfortable lookout for the King to oversee his realm.

The table in the middle, which seemed to be carved from one large piece of tree trunk, had already been set with plates of food, fresh fruits, and baskets with bread.

“Good morning, great-grandfather.” Taranis nodded at the King, then looked at his grandfather. “Good morning Ailill.”

Ailill smiled. “Good morning, Taranis.” His gaze fell on the wolf sitting beside his grandson. “Fearghas, you changed back to your wolf form.”

The wolf pressed his body against Taranis’ leg.

“Yes, it happened last night while he was sleeping.” Taranis wove his fingers deeply into Fear’s neck fur, trying to calm him with his touch.

“I expected as much. Sleeping, the human part of his mind could no longer hold the beast at bay. Nevan’s spell is too strong,” Eógan said.

Fearghas tensed even more at Eógan’s words; a low rumble escaped his chest.

Eógan looked at the wolf. “I won’t apologize for forcing you to transform. It was necessary. Taranis’ life and well-being is more important to me than your discomfort.”

‘Obviously.’

“Good.” The King sat down at the table, selected a piece of fruit, and cut it in half. “After carefully assessing our information and conversing with Ailill, I believe you are no longer a threat to Taranis. My son is right; if you wanted to kill Taranis, you would have done it a long time ago.” Finally he looked up from his plate. “You are free to leave Aranthe any time you want.”

Fear pulled his head out of Taranis’ grip, shook himself, and turned to the door. ‘The beast will leave then. I’ll be waiting for you outside the premises of Aranthe, Taranis.’

“Fear!” Taranis threw a scathing look back over his shoulder before he ran after the Wolfener.

‘Felim is too afraid to enter your room because of me, the beast, as your King likes to call me. I can feel their hostility Taranis, their fear, their hate, their wish to kill me. Now that I am free to leave any time, preferably sooner rather than later I presume, I’ll do just that.’

The King wrinkled his nose briefly before his face became blank again. “Wolfeners aren’t welcome here; my people don’t trust you, but I told them you have your uses. They will recognize this in time. You are excellent guards. As Taranis prefers to live alone, away from Aranthe and his family, at least he is well protected when he is with you.”

“Father!”

The King waved his hand dismissively at Ailill. “I tell it as I see it.” He pointed at the chair beside him. “Taranis, sit down. We have much to discuss.” Then he looked at Fearghas. “This concerns you as well, swallow your pride and listen.”

Taranis pleaded with Fear. “I have to talk to them and I want you by my side when I visit Mother’s grave.”

When the wolf didn’t move Taranis knelt by his side. “Please.”

Fearghas turned around and lay down beside a chair furthest away from the King. Shaking his head at his friend’s antics, Taranis sat down at his assigned place and immediately saw a large wooden bowl filled to the brim with raw meat. Looking at his grandfather, he raised an eyebrow and mouthed, “Raw meat?”

“Fearghas can’t hunt in Aranthe, it wouldn’t be safe for him,” Ailill answered quietly.

For the first time Taranis noticed the absence of his grandfather’s consort and whispered, “Where is Oran?”

“Some of us need more time to accept certain things than others.”

“I understand.” Taranis put his hand on his grandfather’s arm briefly, before he pulled the bowl closer to him. “Breakfast, my friend. How do you want to eat this?”

‘You mean do I want to eat like a dog under the table or be fed like a favorite pet or slave?’

“If you want to see it like that.” Taranis pushed the bowl back to the middle of the table and filled his own plate with an assortment of fruits and thin slices of bread. “You can wait until we are out of Aranthe before you feed, I suppose. First though, I have to talk to Ailill and Eógan, and afterwards I will visit Mother’s grave.”

Ignoring Fearghas after that, Taranis peeled one of the fruits on his plate with a little more force than necessary.

Fear huffed, flattened his ears, and finally pushed his head on Taranis’ thigh. ‘I am angry, but not at you. I apologize.’

Taranis looked at the mess on his plate, then took a cloth and wiped his hands clean. He pulled the bowl with the meat back to him. Cocking an eyebrow, he grinned. “Dog or pet?”

‘Feed me?’

Taranis took a piece of meat and held it in front of Fear’s muzzle. The wolf took it almost daintily and even licked Taranis’ fingers afterwards.

Covering his smile behind a glass of juice, Ailill watched them for a while, winking at the King. “Interesting, don’t you think?”

“Certainly.” Eógan turned to Taranis. “You came here to seek knowledge about Ando I presume.”

Taranis nodded. “After what I saw in Endora’s mirror I have to get Cai out of there as fast as possible. I should have never left him I--”

“I’ve heard of Endora, a dwarven witch with dubious intentions. You shouldn’t have gone to her at all but come directly here and sought Ailill’s advice,” Eógan interrupted him angrily.

‘Maybe he thought you would pressure him to stay at Aranthe and he wanted to avoid that.’

“Taranis belongs here. This is his home, as it is Cai’s.”

“This is a topic for another time, Father.” Ailill frowned at the King, he asked Taranis, “What did you see in Endora’s mirror?”

Taranis looked from his grandfather to the King. “Cai has been held in my father’s dungeons. Did you know this?” He pushed his chair back and stood up. “They whipped him! Shackled him to the wall like a common criminal!” Taranis went to one of the large windows and let his gaze wander over the endless forest below. “Father was losing his mind, but I won’t believe he ordered this. He must have lost control over his generals and they did this to Cai, maybe to force Father’s support. There is no other explanation.”

“That is what we heard. They thought they could raid neighboring border villages while Lord Urien was away, negotiating with the mages, and they didn’t want your father to interfere. According to the rumors the negotiations didn’t go well and the Lord took the attacks as a welcome excuse to postpone the talking to secure his borders first.”

Taranis nodded. “I saw burning villages, most of my father’s soldiers were dead or captured. It looks like Lord Urien conquered my father’s land easily. Then I saw Cai. He was in my father’s bedroom, chained to the wall with a Nefarium shackle. He looked better. His ankle was bandaged.”

“Yes, that is what I saw in my mirror also. When I conferred with our people in Ando, they confirmed Cai is alive and well and that Urien had a medic taking care of your brother’s injuries.”

“You have people in Ando? At my father’s house?”

“I needed to know what was going on; my granddaughter and her sons were living there but she didn’t tell me much.” Eógan closed his eyes briefly before he took a sip from his glass.

“You knew they were torturing Cai and did nothing about it?” Taranis yelled, expecting the guards to come in at any moment.

“Of course not! We were working on getting your brother out when Urien attacked. We wanted to take advantage of the confusion but he was faster. It was almost as if Urien knew where Cai was, and came to free him.”

“I see. What else do you know?”

“Our sources tell me Cai is locked up in your father’s former bedroom. There is word that Urien doesn’t trust his own people with Cai. Seeing that his door is warded with numerous complicated spells only Urien can lift, it looks like he is more concerned with protecting Cai from the outside than preventing him from escaping. And there is more. We know he hides behind glamour and he isn’t what he appears to be. We don’t know where he came from, can’t get behind his glamour or his mental shields. Whatever he is, he is powerful.”

“And you know nothing about Urien, other than he was a nameless warrior who challenged the minor warlord Dagda Ruadhán and won the Fata?”

“Unfortunately. That, and with his land and influence, he is now one if not the most powerful warlord of Ando.”

“How close is he to the mages?”

“We have no clear information about this, but it’s rumored although he isn’t fond of them, he isn’t openly opposing them either.”

“He is an unknown factor.”

“That he is.”

There was one more thing Taranis needed to know. “What about Father? Is he…dead?”

“No, Urien confined him to his former study. We hear he speaks to a painting of his siblings and to your mother. He seems to have lost any sense of reality. I’m sorry, Taranis.”

“I see. Lord Urien hasn’t killed him. That is interesting, because as long as the old lord lives, there will always be questions about the new lord’s legitimacy.”

‘Maybe Lord Urien doesn’t care?’

“Maybe. Taranis, do you remember Waldron, the blacksmith? We have heard you had business with him.”

“Yes, I remember him well. I agreed to set up a commission for the merchant Asmodeus with him.” He closed his eyes briefly. “If I had known what they were planning…”

‘I warned you about Asmodeus. He smelled wrong, as did Waldron.’

“I know, I made a great mistake, and because of that a young half-gnome lost his life.” Then Taranis smiled. It was not a nice smile. “I wouldn’t mind seeing Waldron one last time.”

“Your wish might come true sooner then you thought then. Waldron is in your Father’s dungeons. He is an outcast Andoan mage and his real name is Thoewald. The mages placed a large reward on his head and some of Urien’s men recognized him, captured him, and put him in a cell without notifying their lord. They want to collect the reward put on his head without sharing it with their lord I presume.”

***

They walked along a barely visible path. Taranis stopped at the edge of the forest, when a glade opened before them. At its center stood a white marble column surrounded by wood anemones.

Fearghas pushed his head against Taranis’ hand. 'Your mother's grave?'

"Yes." Taranis scratched Fearghas’ ears; his gaze darted around the place before he finally squared his shoulders and walked the last steps to his mother’s gravestone.

On top of the column sat a silver bowl. Its outside was decorated with ivy and fern, enameled in different shades of green.

Taranis picked up dry leaves and small twigs. Fearghas then noticed the stars of different sizes and shades of blue strewn all over the inside of the bowl.

“My mother’s mirror. Ailill made it for her when she first showed that she had the sight.”

‘Leaves and stars …’

“Represents Mother’s mixed heritage, yes. Every seer has their own mirror especially made for them and it dies when they do.”

‘Your mother inherited the sight from Ailill?’

“Yes, and she was very disappointed when neither Cai nor I showed any sign that we had it also.”

Taranis stared at the empty bowl for a while, running his hand over his forearm, occasionally tracing the leaves of his tattoo with his fingers. Finally, he seemed to have come to a decision, when he cupped his hands over his mother’s mirror. Clear water ran out until the bowl was half-full. Hesitating briefly before he mumbled some indistinguishable words, he took a step back.

The face of a beautiful woman with long, silvery-white hair and piercing green eyes appeared on the water’s surface.

Fearghas immediately knew it had to be Taranis’ mother. Her ears were a little longer, her eyes a little more slanted, her lips a little thinner then Taranis or Cai’s, still her resemblance to the twins was remarkable.

“Fearghas. Protector, guard, friend, confidant, companion. All this you are to my son. I trust you with his life and to never leave him, even when he sends you away. Promise me that!”

Startled, Fearghas answered, ‘Of course,’ and looked at Taranis, wondering why he hadn’t reacted to his mother’s words.

Taranis’ gaze was fixed on the bowl, head slightly cocked and eyes glassy, and Fearghas realized Taranis was hearing his mother's words, only they were different from those Fearghas had been hearing.

Taranis looked at his mother’s face, her sight and voice causing him a familiar pain. “Taranis my son, I know you haven’t forgiven me for leaving you and Cai, but I’m glad you still came here to visit me. You are strong; you can go on without me. Your brother will need you soon. Hurry before she gets to him. Protect him as you always did, but when the time comes you have to let him go, let him follow his own path. I love you, both of you. In time, you may find it in your heart to forgive me. I am here, waiting for you.”

The face in the mirror disappeared.

‘She talked to you.’

“She asked me for forgiveness and to protect Cai.”

‘And will you?’

“I’ll always be there for Cai, she didn’t have to ask me that.”

‘You know what I meant. Will you forgive her for leaving you?’

"No. She didn’t only leave me, but also Cai and her beloved husband, our father. Maybe he would have changed his mind. Maybe he is missing her now and if she came to him he would be better. We will never know. I have to accept her decision, but I can't forgive her, nor understand her. You can only make a difference if you’re alive. She forfeited her chance to do that."

***

Taranis packed a small backpack, his swords, and bow, before he went to find his grandfather and Eógan to say his goodbyes. When he opened the door to Eógan’s private meeting room a familiar voice called him from behind. “Prince Taranis!”

Taranis turned his head, and quickly grabbed a handful of Fearghas’ fur, because the wolf bared his teeth while snarling menacingly.

Lir.

“Prince Taranis.” The elf bowed deeply, totally ignoring the growling wolf. “So happy to see you again.”

Taranis looked up and down the hallway and frowned. “Lir? What--?”

Then Ailill stood suddenly behind them and ushered them all into the room. “Come in and close the door.” He looked at Taranis and the spitting Fearghas by his side. “You know each other?”

When Taranis nodded Ailill continued, “Lir is one of our most successful sources. He works—“

“—at Endora’s Haven I know. We met.”

Fear stood still in front of Taranis, growling deeply as his eyes followed Lir’s every move.

The elf grinned. “The Wolfener still doesn’t like me, huh? He seems to be the jealous kind, Prince Taranis. I know he even tried to take a small bite out of poor Endora.”

“That’s not true. He only nipped at her when she came too close and touched me; he is protective.”

“That too.” Lir winked bowed again, then walked around them and threw himself into one of the chairs in the King’s meeting room. When Eógan glared at him, Lir shrugged. “May I?”

Ailill came over and stood beside the King. “It is very dangerous to come here at times like these, Lir. I hope you have good reasons.”

“Don’t worry, I made sure nobody followed me, but I had to come in person. My findings were too important. I had to make sure only you knew of them.” He took in a deep breath. “We finally know their plan. The general is most talkative in bed when he has had one too many of madam’s home-brewed schnapps. You might want to call King Othmar’s envoy to think of a way to counteract their machination. I already have a few ideas if you care.”

Ailill nodded then looked at the King before he asked, “Lir, please, could you go and get him for us? We’ll meet you both here again, but we have to talk to Taranis some more first.”

Lir narrowed his eyes at Taranis, curiosity clearly written all over his face, but then he got up from his chair. “As you wish.” He left the room, but not without looking back over his shoulder one last time.

Ailill put his hand on Taranis’ shoulder. “Taranis, I looked into my mirror this morning. Certain things are in motion and you have to depart immediately. Timing is important. The war doesn’t concern you for now.”

Taranis bowed to the King and Ailill. “I’ll be on my way then.”