Aglanthol 1 - The Legend of Khaalindaan - 9. Chapter 9

Qildor and Magath exchanged a worried look.

"What is it, Mistress Gwyn?" Magath asked in a soft voice.

Gwyn placed her cup on the table and rose to her feet.

"You must help me, Magath. Take the poker from the fireplace, please," she said.

Qildor and Magath exchanged another look. But then Magath rose to his feet and went to the fireplace. Gwyn had meanwhile crossed the room. She stood in the corner of the room and examined the stone wall.

"Here," she said in a fragile voice. "Here. A storm never has taken down this wall, luckily."

Qildor joined them. He looked at the wall. Gwyn pointed at a brick.

"Remove this brick, Magath," she said. "Elbor had just built the house before we moved in. This brick was loose then and I hid it behind it."

Gwyn turned around and looked at Qildor.

"Elbor was my husband. He died ten years ago. I hid my dowry from him. Not that I distrusted my husband. But you never know. The item was given from mother to daughter over the centuries. Unfortunately, my only daughter died at the age of five. I had no more children. And so I forgot about the dowry. There was no need to pass it on."

Qildor just nodded. Gwyn looked at him for a while. But she did not really see him. The old woman looked into the past. Then, suddenly, she straightened and turned around again. She pointed at the brick once more.

"Please, Magath, remove the brick. But please be careful. I don’t want the casket to be damaged," she said.

Magath stepped forward. He seized the poker tightly. After a minute or two he had removed the brick. He cleaned the hole from the dirt and the dust. Then he reached in and looked for the casket. He found it instantly.

Magath held the casket out to Gwyn. She took it and hurried to the table. Qildor and Magath followed her. Gwyn cleaned the casket with a cloth she had taken from the pocket of her apron. The casket was made of silver that had turned black over the years. Gwyn tried to polish it in vain. She gave up her efforts finally and placed the casket on the table. Qildor and Magath gazed at it.

"Like I said, my mother gave it to me as a dowry," Gwyn said. "It was passed on from mother to daughter over the centuries. It is made of silver and silver is precious. I need to polish it. Look how terrible it looks. How could I forget about it?" she said in sad voice.

Qildor and Magath waited patiently. Finally, the old woman had calmed. She raised her eyes.

"One of my ancestors got this casket from a man in exchange for food. The man was half starved and close to death. He gave it away for food. My ancestor gave it to his bride. And this woman gave it to her eldest daughter. Anyway, this is not the part of the story that will interest you," Gwyn said.

She straightened.

"The starving man was a Khalindash. He told my ancestor he had gotten the casket from a man living far in the north. My ancestor, however, believed that the man had stolen the casket. But all this does not matter as well," she continued.

Gwyn leaned forward and seized the casket.

"What matters is the content of the casket," she said.

Gwyn opened the casket with some difficulties.

"This casket contains a map. The starving man told my ancestor that this map was far more precious than the silver casket itself. My ancestor did not believe him. Nonetheless, he did not throw away the parchment. Nobody ever did. Who knows? Perhaps someday we can sell the parchment. That’s what we thought," she said.

She placed the parchment on the table. A cold shiver ran down Qildor’s spine. The parchment was old, but not yet crumbled. The outside of the map was covered with symbols that Qildor recognized instantly. He gazed at the parchment. His thoughts were running wild. Only recently, he had seen a similar map. The wizard Neldor had tried to hide it from him.

Gwyn unfolded the map. Magath leaned forward curiously. He had never before seen a map. Qildor’s eyes wandered over the parchment. The inside of the map looked like the map Neldor had taken from the shelf. It looked like the official Aglanthol map that had only recently been drawn.

While the outline of the continent was exactly the same, mountains in the west and an ocean in the north and the east, Gwyn’s map, however, lacked the lines that indicated the frontiers. The kingdom of Aglanthol was not drawn in her map. Qildor swallowed. It was not drawn in the map because the map was far older than the realm of Aglanthol was.

Qildor’s eyes wandered to the right of the map and in almost disbelief and in almost fear he gazed at what was drawn in there. It had not been drawn in Neldor’s official map. The map showed another continent that was covered with plenty of spots. It showed a country that was huge, three or four times larger than Aglanthol was. The whole of the country was populated. The spots were towns. When Qildor had counted twenty towns, he stopped. He gazed into the room in shock.

Gwyn watched Qildor and she nodded faintly when finally Qildor’s eyes met hers. Magath was still studying the map. He looked at the ocean in the middle of the map. Symbols that looked like small snakes indicated water. Magath had meanwhile figured that out. He looked at the left of the map and then at the right of it. And then it dawned on him also. He looked up and met Qildor’s dead serious look. Magath winced and his face turned ashen.

"Why have they never come back?" Qildor asked in a stifled voice.

Gwyn shrugged.

"I cannot say this," she said calmly. "Something or someone must have stopped them."

"But who or what?" Magath asked in a low voice. "Will they come back? Or have they returned already?"

Qildor straightened. His muscles were tensed. Gwyn looked between the two men.

"I don’t think the nation is a mighty nation anymore," she said.

Qildor and Magath looked at her.

"They have not come back in centuries," Gwyn said. "Something must have happened to them. The plague killed the intruders. Perhaps the plague killed them over there, too."

Qildor nodded slowly.

"You are right, perhaps, Mistress Gwyn," he said. "If they were that many, they would have probably come here with more ships. In fact, they would have conquered Aglanthol in a day or two."

"So we were on the wrong track?" Magath asked.

"I guess so," Qildor replied.

He looked at the map again. The parchment was covered with symbols.

"Neldor," he said.

"What?" Gwyn and Magath asked at the same time.

"I have seen a similar parchment only recently," Qildor explained. "The wizard Neldor hid it from me when I entered his room. The parchment was covered with exactly the same symbols that are drawn on the outside of this map."

Gwyn and Magath kept looking at Qildor.

"Neldor told me more about the legend of Khaalindaan. He suspects the Khalindash want to conquer back their old homeland that was located in the north of Aglanthol in previous times."

Gwyn nodded.

"The Bre were driven from this area when the wizard Norlorn had banned Khaalindaan and had sealed his power," she said.

"Why did Neldor hide the ancient map from me?" Qildor pondered.

Magath nodded pensively. Gwyn leaned forward.

"Our thoughts are getting too complicated. Things are simple usually," she said. "Perhaps we have to look for a detail that we have not yet seen. We need to connect the details in a simpler and more believable way."

Qildor nodded.

"You are right, Mistress Gwyn. It all does not really make sense," he said.

"Sleep on it," Gwyn said kindly. "And come over once more for tea tomorrow. I will be thinking of the tales that my aunt told me. Perhaps I can recall another bit."

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