Untitled Document

The Chronicles

Book One: The Lot in Life

Chapter Eight

Torchlight flickered off the rough stone walls of the prophet's underground chamber. The prophet herself sat before a small brazier, glowing coals kept the incense in the bronze dish burning. She waved her hands through the rising trails of smoke, and then seemed to study the distortions in the smoke's tendrils. She repeated this process several times in slow succession; then she leaned directly over the brazier and stared intently at the glowing coals.

“They sense a change is coming,” the prophet said in a toneless voice and then began to rock back and forth over the brazier. “They are stirring…agitating…trying to exert their influence over the world.” She paused to pass her hand through the smoke once more, then continued to let it buffer against her face. “One of them has already managed to break free, but he is still very weak. Most of his powers remain in his prison.” She leaned back and used long metal tongs to pick a few more glowing pieces of coal from the nearby fire pit, added them into the brazier, and then added more incense. The woman standing behind the prophet watched all of this mutely.

The prophet went back to studying the smoke tendrils in silence, until she suddenly gasped and leaned towards the brazier so quickly that she knocked the bronze bowl over, sending glowing coals and incense flying everywhere. However, she seemed oblivious to all of this as she sprawled across the stone floor, keeping her eyes trained on two particular coals and the incense burning around them. The woman watching her covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief; the prophet was so absorbed in whatever she was doing that she didn't notice that she was laying on a few of the hot coals and the smell of burning flesh was beginning to permeate the room.

“This can't be,” the prophet said faintly as her fingers reached to touch one of the glowing coals before her eyes. “He has come!”, she screamed into the dark chamber. “The world shall end! The LastBorn has come!” The prophet picked up the coal and stared at it, oblivious to the sizzling sound coming from her fingers. “The LastBorn has come!”, she screamed frantically as the writhed on the floor, looking for all intents and purposes like she was going to try and crawl into the coal. “The world shall end!! The LastBorn has come!! The LastBorn has come!!! The LastBorn has co…”

The prophet never finished her statement as a long, thin dagger blade was plunged into the base of her skull, severing her spinal cord. The queen of Charista rose off the floor and wiped her bloody hand down the front of her dress.

“The LastBorn…I thought so,” she said to herself as she left the dark chamber for the bright hallways of the palace above.

-----.-----

The common room of the inn was pretty crowded that night, despite the heavy snow. Nearly every table was occupied and some people were just leaning against the long bar that stretched along one wall of the room. Allen watched all of the activity from his seat at the corner table that they'd managed to get. A serving girl swooped in, setting a big plate full of roast lamb and potatoes in front of Allen, Liandron, and the Symbions. Gabe was off in the center of the room, dicing and having a drinking contest with some of the merchant guards that the brothers had introduced him to before they'd left earlier for home. The serving girl finished setting the plates around and moved off to another table, clearing Allen's view of the entertainment in the middle of the room. Gabe seemed to be having a good time, laughing and speaking loudly with the guards while they bet on throws of the dice and who could drink a tankard of ale the fastest. Unfortunately for Gabe, Liandron was not mixing his drinks like she normally did, so they weren't getting progressively weaker as the night wore on. This was evident by the way he seemed to waver in his chair each time he threw the dice.

Allen couldn't really blame him; it wasn't like they really had anything else to do. Earlier that day, just as they had found out about the merchant fleeing through the South Gate , there had been a lot of talk about taking up pursuit on the spot. The Symbions still had their horses and Allen was confident that they could find some more without too much trouble. Even the city gates being closed shouldn't have been much of a problem; the Symbions could have either used their influence or powers to have the South Gate opened again. However, Raine had put a stop to all of the talk of pursuit by vaguely saying “something doesn't feel right,” then she headed back to the inn that they'd left this morning. So now, snow continued to pile up on the roads, despite the best efforts of the city guards to keep them clear, and they still had no clear idea about when they might leave or how they planned to get there. Allen had actually considered for a little while if he wanted to continue on with this journey. It seemed that the danger to Gilder's Hollow had passed now that the merchant's arrows were destroyed and he was on the run. The thing of it was that he didn't know how much of a problem Maren might pose in the future, which was why Allen opted to keep pursuing him. Plus, they still didn't know why the merchant had attached New Load and tried to do the same thing to Gilder's Hollow; to find that out, they would need to catch him. There was also the troubling news that someone who matched the sole survivor of New Load's description had been seen leaving in the merchant's coach. Allen didn't know what the plans of his friends from back home might be, but he guessed that they would probably want to return to Gilder's Hollow. Master Enmor's inn might not be doing much business now, but once the mines of New Load were repopulated, its common room would be teeming with business once again; so Liandron could ill afford to go traipsing off hunting a Dark Heart to Faren. Gabe, on the other hand, could never be too predictable, so Allen couldn't guess if he'd want to come along or not. Despite Gabe's other flaws, he was very devoted to his family, so he might not like leaving them. Yet Allen knew that he himself must go; not just to solve the riddle of the New Load massacre, and not just because he wanted to stop the merchant from doing something like that again. He felt almost as if he was being drawn along on the journey…something told him he had to go…that there was a door in that direction.

“Oh the bloody idiot!”, Liandron seethed, snapping Allen out of his thoughts and back into the real world. She stood up and started over towards the center of the room where it looked like Gabe was about to be pounded by one of the burly guards. Liandron was in the middle of the fray in an instant, yelling at the guard and Gabe at the same time, both of whom appeared to have had too much to drink. Allen chanced a glance at the Symbions as he got to his feet; Kaine had taken Allen's untouched plate of food and was starting to eat it, but Raine was watching the commotion with keen interest and a dire expression. Allen was just heading over to rescue Gabe, both from the guard and Liandron, when he heard the drunken guard say “oh, you had to get your whore to come protect you?” Allen just shook his head as there was a shriek of “what?!!!?” from Liandron, then the crashing of the table being knocked over as she launched herself at the guard. “This is just great,” Allen muttered to himself as he tried to fight his way through the crowd that had gathered around the center of the room to watch the spectacle. He could hear a lot of grunting and yelps of pain intermingled with Liandron's continued tirade of curses at the guard. Allen finally managed to shove his way through the crowd just in time to see Liandron pinned with her back to the floor and the guard, apparently having gotten the better of the battle, sitting astride her with one arm raised in the air, his big hand balled into a fist and ready to come crashing down on her. The guard's face had several small cuts, apparently from Liandron's fingernails, and Allen noticed that Gabe way lying sprawled on the middle of the floor by the overturned table, with a large gash across his forehead. “I think I'll teach you who's boss!” the guard roared as he brought his fist racing down to Liandron's face.

The punch never connected, however, as Kaun had the drunken guard's arm clamped in one of his hands, and Jain had one of his hands wrapped around the guard's neck. Allen didn't know when they had arrived, but he was glad they had shown up since there was no way he could have reached Liandron in time to save her from the blow. The guard, who was very red in the face and seemed to be struggling for a breath of air, was lifted off Liandron by his neck, then forced to kneel on the floor. “Apologize to her,” Kaun said as his brother let go of the guard's neck.

“I'm not going to…” the guard began, but Jaun pushed down hard on the back of the guard's head, thumping his forehead into the floor boards.

“A – pol- o – gize to her,” Jaun said again, emphasizing each syllable with a thump of the guard's head into the floor.

“I'm terribly sorry,” the guard finally said dazedly, staring blearily at Liandron.

“There's a good boy,” Kaun said as he grabbed the guard by a handful of his hair and started dragging him screaming to the inn's door, which Jaun opened and the guard was tossed wholly through. “And if you come back, we'll kill you,” the brothers said together as the door was slammed shut.

Liandron was picking herself off the floor and mumbling angrily about manners while dusting her clothes off, so Allen knew that she was alright. He went over to Gabe, who was still on the floor.

“What happened to him?”, Allen asked Liandron.

“The gallant one here tried to rescue me and got laid out by the idiot guard,” Liandron answered angrily, but her expression turned tender as she looked at the big gash on Gabe's forehead.

“Take him back to the private dining room,” Raine said as she suddenly appeared next to them.

The brothers and Allen carried Gabe back to the private dining room as the innkeeper finally arrived on the scene to confront them. “Hey! You can't just set about destroying my inn and expect to keep staying here!”

“Oh, can't we?”, Raine asked, showing the innkeeper a dangerous smile. The innkeeper apparently decided this was not a battle worth fighting, and retreated quickly behind the bar. “Put him on the table,” she ordered the three men as Liandron set about quickly clearing the table of the maps that they'd been looking at all afternoon. The brothers and Allen laid Gabe gingerly on the table while Raine leaned over him, staring intently at the wound on his head. She studied him closely and in silence for a long time, leaving the others to wait anxiously for word on his condition. Allen noticed that his friend's color seemed to be a bit pale and it looked like his breathing was becoming uneven. Raine finally placed her hand over the gash on Gabe's head and the green glow briefly surrounded it, then faded away. “I'm sorry, he's dead,” she said seriously.

“What?!”, Liandron shrieked.

“Just kidding, he's just an idiot,” Raine answered as Gabe's eyes shot open and he suddenly sat upright.

“That's right! I'll run you into the ground for saying that to...huh?” Gabe stopped speaking as he took stock of the situation.

“Oh, Gabe!” You're such a hero!”, Raine gushed at him, clasping her hands to her chest and acting like she was about to swoon.

“Ahh…I'm what? Did I win?”, he asked slowly, all of the ale still apparently in his system.

“Oh yes! You were so magnificent,” Raine kept on. “You beat up that guard and I was so impressed that we got married!” She batted her eyelashes at him.

“Oh, I did….what?!?!”, Gabe screamed, trying to back away from Raine. “Did we…did we really…?”, he asked.

“No! Idiot!,” Liandron said, smacking him on the back of his head with her open palm, apparently not too concerned that his brains might still be addled. Rained looked a little put out that her fun was over as Gabe slid off the table and shakily got to his feet. The brothers moved to either side of him in the event that he should fall.

“Ahh yes,” Kaun started, as if suddenly remembering something. “We actually had a reason for being here. Momma thought you guys might like to come over and have dinner at our place; she'd like to meet you.”

This proposal was greeted with silence, until Liandron finally spoke up. “Well, we've already eaten…and it's pretty late…plus with Gabe and all…”

“Oh…Momma was really looking forward to it,” Kaun said sadly. Allen caught Liandron and Raine exchange a look and guessed where things were heading.

“Of course we'll go!”, Liandron said brightly, in a tone that even Raine would have trouble matching.

-----.-----

The group made their way through the snow lined streets of Charista, the whole time Raine chattered away happily to Kaine about how the brother's “Momma” was probably going to beat him up for getting her sons involved in such dangerous affairs. Allen found it amusing that Raine had absolved herself of any wrong doing, when she was normally on the front lines, if not the main instigator of any trouble. As they walked on, the Symbions dropped back a little from the group, so as not to be overheard, but due to a trick echo off the brick buildings, Allen could clearly hear Raine say “something's not right…I think the door's open.” This caused Allen to miss a step; he didn't know why, but somehow he was certain that she was referring to the same door that he kept seeing in his dreams. Whatever the door was, judging by the tone of Raine's voice, it had her worried.

The party left the affluent area of the West Gate and turned north, into the section of the city that thrived off the trade with Nordemain. Since mostly coal and iron came into the city through the North Gate, that section of town contained a lot of blacksmiths and foundries, plus most of Charista's other manufacturing industries. The raw materials from Nordemain were considered so dirty that the merchant trains carrying the coal and ore were the only ones not required to unload at the Ministry of Trade building. They had their own warehouses on the edge of town where they could unload their goods. Allen had heard it tell that all of the coal burned in the area had stained most of the northern sections of town permanently black, but he couldn't tell right now as it was all hidden under a blanket of snow. What he could see of the buildings however, did appear to be shabbier than those near the West Gate. They weren't as tall and seemed to be leaning at odd angles. However, Allen knew from experience in Gilder's Hollow that the size of someone's house wasn't a good measure of their worth. Like Gabe's house wasn't one of the biggest in the village, nor was it the prettiest, but Almon was one of the nicest people you could ever meet. A few of the locals were out and about, they all said “good evening” as the party passed; already they seemed much nicer than most of the snobby merchants and bankers that inhabited the West Gate.

Finally, they arrived at a very rundown row of houses, which were all wooden and appeared to be leaning against each other for support. Allen guessed that if one of the houses came tumbling down, that it would probably take all of the rest of them with it.

The brothers went in first, Kaun announcing “we have company, Momma,” towards the back of the house as everyone else filed in. Kaun and Jaun were barely into the room before a swarm of young girls seemingly enveloped them. The brothers both picked up an armload of giggling girls and swung them around. “Oh no, Kaun! What's this?”, Jaun said, his expression that of exaggerated surprise.

“Why, it seems the house has been infested with horrible children,” Kaun answered while spinning around, which sent the girls into squeals of delight.

Allen looked around the small room; there was a fireplace on the left wall and towards the back of the room was a doorway that obviously led to a kitchen. It was easy to tell that room was a kitchen by the sound of clanging pots and the rich smells of food wafting in from there. Along the right side of the room was a narrow staircase leading to the second floor. He also noticed that scattered all around the room were hastily stowed bedrolls. Allen tried counting the children that were flitting around the room, but there were just too many of them and they were moving around too fast to allow him an accurate count.

Suddenly, Jaun held one of the children straight armed in from of him, directly in front of Allen. “And this, Allen, is my momma!”

“I aammm noooot,” the girl, who looked to be about three whined as she tried to squirm free of Jaun's grasp.

“No?”, Jaun puzzled as he set the girl down on the floor and scooped up another one, which he promptly held in front of Allen. “Okay, then this one is!”

“Oh, you boys give me SO much trouble,” the girl said in what was obviously an impression of their mother, while she shook her finger at Allen.

Allen couldn't help but laugh as the girls began swarming the newcomers to their house. Raine and Liandron were already plopped down on the floor, braiding the girls' hair while having their hair braided in return. Raine seemed to be garnering a bit more attention than Liandron, probably due to her light blue hair, while even Kaine was having trouble turning down repeated pleas form the girls to let them braid his shoulder length white hair. Gabe, who insisted that he hated children, had naturally ended up with a few of the girls clamped to his legs as he tried walking around. “Ugh,” he complained; “hey, where's your father? He hiding from this lot?”

“He's up there,” Jaun answered offhandedly as he and Kaun tossed one of the girls back and forth across the small room in a bizarre game of catch.

“Hey! Come on down and be annoyed like the rest of us!”, Gabe called from the foot of the stairs.

“Haha, no dear,” a squat woman said as she came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on an apron. “He means that my husband is up there…with his ancestors,” she said, pointing towards the sky meaningfully.

“Oh,” Gabe said, his expression falling. “I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…”

“Don't worry about it, dear,” the woman said, dismissing the matter with a wave of her hand. Allen noticed that both Raine and Liandron were giving Gabe an identical cutting stare.

“Ha ha, you're stupid,” one of the girls clamped onto Gabe's legs called up to him. Her mother scolded her about using that word, but Allen saw Raine and Liandron nodding their encouragement to the child.

“Hello, everyone,” the squat woman said in a thick accent that marked her as being originally from one of the port cities to the west of Steppin. “My name is Lenora Lamerra, but everyone just calls me Momma Lamerra, or simply Momma. Dinner will be ready in just a little bit, so make yourselves at home.” She bowed slightly, then left back for the kitchen.

Allen thought that everyone had pretty much made themselves at home already, even Gabe seemed to have resigned himself to his fate and was currently teaching a few of the girls how to play dice.

“Are all these girls your sisters?”, Liandron asked the brothers as she stared around the room.

“Well…sort of,” Kaun began, settling down on the floor. “You see, in Charista property and titles can only pass down to a male heir. So a lot of the girls get abandoned after they are born…somehow most of them seem to end up here; that's why everyone in this part of town calls Momma…Momma,” he finished awkwardly.

Allen stared around the room and wondered what kind of people would abandon their children like that.

“But I tend to forget which ones are actually related to me by blood,” Kaun continued while peering closely into the face of one of the girls. “Then again, they all look alike to me…small and weird,” he said, then stuck his tongue out at the girl.

“I hope I'm not really related to you,” the girl said, wrinkling her nose at Kaun, which got a laugh from everyone in the room.

-----.-----

A while later, Momma Lamerra and a few of the older girls began serving everyone bowls of food from the kitchen.

“Here you go, dear,” she said as she handed Allen a wooden bowl full of noodles and a thick, red sauce, along with a wooden spoon.

“Thank you, mistress,” Allen said as he took the steaming bowl. The meal looked delicious, but he still wasn't terribly hungry, even though he hadn't eaten dinner. He guessed that he was probably more tired than he was hungry.

“Oh, he's so polite!”, Momma gushed, clasping her hands across her chest and beaming at Allen. “You boys could learn a lot from him,” she said sternly to Kaun and Jaun.

“Yes, Momma,” they echoed together in what sounded like a rote response. As their mother headed back into the kitchen, safely out of earshot, Jaun flicked at noodle at Allen and said “suckup.”

“I can still hear you,” Momma called from the kitchen, which caused both of the brothers to sit very quietly and meekly. Liandron and Raine had a grand time of making fun of them as the last bowls of food were brought in from the kitchen.

Conversation during the meal was dominated by Momma questioning the newcomers to her household about what life in Gilder's Hollow was like. At almost every one of their answers, she would invariably say “oh, that sounds so nice.” She also tried to question the Symbions about themselves, but either Kaine would simply stare blankly at her, or Raine would give some completely outlandish answer that everyone knew couldn't be true.

Later during the dinner, the conversation turned from the newcomers to the families' personal affairs, as Momma asked the brothers if they'd ever gotten their pay from “that nasty merchant.”

The brothers just looked at each other then bowed their heads. “Well, no, Momma…”, Jaun started.

Allen suddenly felt very guilty as he realized he had been the one to cause the brothers to not be paid by Duke Erolstrom. Looking around at the small room full of people, it was obvious that the big family could ill afford to lose out on that money. He felt that he was justified in what he had done to the merchant, but at the time he hadn't really thought about what the consequences of his actions might be. “I'm sorry, mistress,” he said to Momma Lamerra. “It was my fault that your sons didn't get paid.”

“Oh, don't worry…I heard all about what you did. You sound like such a good boy. My boys couldn't stop talking about how much they liked you when they came home.”

“Momma!”, Jaun and Kaun said together as they actually managed to look embarrassed, which caused Raine and Liandron to make fun of them more.

“Well…anyway, don't you boys worry, I'm sure that the landlord will give us some more time to pay,” Momma said.

“Not likely,” Jaun said contemptuously; the family apparently didn't get on well with their landlord.

“Maybe you could pay him with this!”, Kaun took up, holding a sleeping child up towards his mother.

“Very funny,” Momma Lamerra said as she took the dozing girl from Kaun and laid her gently down on the floor.

Allen had thought that it was awfully quiet in the house, then he finally noticed that it was because almost all of the children were sound asleep. “Mistress Lamerra,” Allen began, but was interrupted by the woman telling him to address her as “Momma.” “Well, anyway…Momma,” he struggled with the word, it not helping that Liandron and Raine were giggling at him. “I have to travel south for quite some time…and I need someone to look after my house.”

Liandron and Gabe stared wide eyed at this news, and Raine just continued patting the hair of the child sleeping on her lap while a smile played across her face.

“Well, I was wondering,” he continued; “if you and your family would mind staying there…it would really help me out.” He thought of the big, empty house back in Gilder's Hollow that he didn't really like living in anymore. He figured that Momma and her large family would be able to bring some happiness to the place again. “I would pay you too, of course,” he added, seeing her hesitation.

She glanced at her sons, who were both just staring open mouthed at Allen. “Oh no…I couldn't…”, she began, but she looked like she was entertaining the offer.

“Sure you could,” Jaun finally took up the cause. “The girls would be much happier there.”

Allen tried imaging what Gilder's Hollow would be like after the swarm of children descended upon it. The thought made him laugh to himself.

“And that way, Kaun and I could continue onto Faren with this lot,” Jaun said, nodding his head towards the Symbions and Allen. Allen was caught off guard by this; he hadn't even considered that the brothers might want to come along, much less that he'd enable it by freeing them from having to be the providers for their family. He reminded himself of his chat with himself earlier about the consequences of his actions.

Momma Lamerra studied Allen and her family in silence for a long time, then she finally nodded her ascent. “Well, if it would help you out…”

“It really would,” Allen said honestly.

The rest of the evening was spent working out the details of the family's move. Allen wrote out a letter for Momma Lamerra to give to Master Enmor which should help to smooth their transition into Gilder's Hollow, by allowing the family to put all of their groceries onto Allen's account, and various other things. He also gave Momma Lamerra a small bag of gold as an advance on their pay. He was glad she didn't look into it, because it was actually quite a lot of money, which he knew she would never accept. Once everything was all settled, there were a lot of warm good-byes and the brothers tried offering the group small children to strap to their feet so they wouldn't get cold. The three friends from Gilder's Hollow and the two Symbions finally started making their way back to the inn.

Walking through the quiet streets, Raine suddenly stopped walking and latched herself onto Allen. “You're just SO cute!”, she gushed as he tried to back away from her, which just caused her to clamp on tighter. “Giving up your house to that cute little widow and all of those orphans!” She gave him one final hug and let go, and then went back to walking next to Liandron.

Having Raine phrase it that way, he did feel pretty cheesy, but the deed was done. He really did need someone to look after his house and Momma's large family would be perfect for the job. The last thing that house had really heard had been his screams so long ago…it deserved to hear laughter again. He shook the dark thoughts out of his head and would have enjoyed the walk back to the hotel more if he didn't have to overhear Raine and Liandron discussing how sweet he was.

“You're doomed,” Gabe said from next to him as he watched the girl's carrying on.

-----.-----

Finally arriving back at the inn, everyone else went inside, yet Allen hung back. “What's up?”, Gabe asked, seeing that Allen hadn't followed him across the threshold.

“I'm going to head over to the stable to have a talk with its master,” Allen said. Gabe waved him off and closed the door to the inn, leaving Allen alone in the snowy street. He walked down the road and wandered over to the stable, but wasn't terribly surprised to see that the stable master wasn't there this late at night. He went inside anyway and looked around. There was a sled leaning against the wall, and the horse that the girl from New Load had taken from Allen's stable was still being well looked after. His thoughts were that Momma and her family could probably just have that horse pull them back to Gilder's Hollow since that was the only place the animal would go anyway. He also had intention to either rent or buy a sled from the stable master. However, since the man wasn't there, Allen simply wrote a note to him and left it on his desk, along with a little pile of gold coins. He and the owner of this stable had a good business relationship, so he knew that Momma Lamerra and her flock would be well taken care of. It also didn't hurt that Allen had helped the man's daughter out of a jam a while ago while she was passing through town.

Finding that everything was to his satisfaction, Allen left the stable and started back towards the inn. It felt like someone was watching him, but regardless of how many times he looked around, he couldn't catch sight of anyone. He stopped, turned totally around, but still could see no one but the odd person hurrying home after a late night at an inn. He pulled the hood of his cloak tighter around his face and shrugged it off at just his sleep deprived brain playing tricks on him, until a figure stepped out from an alley next to him.

“Did she tell you yet?”, a female voice asked.

Allen turned to face the woman, but that just allowed the wind to drive snow directly into his eyes. He tried shielding them with his hand, but he couldn't make out much of the dark figure. “Did who tell me what?”, he asked as he tried to clear snow from his eyes.

The woman laughed and spun around on one foot. “No no…didn't think that she would,” she said in a strange sing-song voice. “Didn't think she would tell you yet, no for a no,” she sang as she spun around a few more times.

Allen decided that he was definitely too cold and tired for this, and he guessed that this woman must not be right in the head. “Look, I don't really have time for this,” he began, but stopped as a gust of wind blew some blue hair out from under the hood of the woman's cloak.

The woman laughed harder as she pushed the hair back under her hood with one hand. “Oh yes…yes…now you know! Now you have time!”, she sang. “Now you know that you need to listen!”, her voice changed from the sing-song to a scream by the end of her sentence.

Allen quickly glanced around and noticed that the snow in other parts of the city was blowing in a completely different direction than that which was hitting him in the face. It seemed like only in this one little area was the snow blowing in the wrong direction.

The woman laughed once more as she started dancing in time with a tune that Allen couldn't hear; the dance brought her closer and closer to Allen. “Oh yes, now you know,” she sang lightly as she advanced. “But you still don't know…because I bet she didn't tell you…I bet she didn't tell you, did she? LastBorn!” She hissed the last word and Allen turned away from her as she charged the last of the distance between them, but she merely wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself against his back, so much so that he was completely supporting her weight.

Allen had thought the woman just crazy, but the blue hair and the term “LastBorn” held his attention…and now he knew that the woman was crazy, and very dangerous.

“So did she tell you? Did she? Did she?”, the woman whispered into his ear as she bucked up and down on his back in time to her sing song questioning. Allen guessed that the woman would probably carry on this way regardless of what he said, so he just remained quiet. “Did she tell you…about…”, the woman was having trouble speaking through fits of laughter. “Did she tell you about the door?”, she finally managed to get out. She glanced around at Allen's face and could tell by his expression that she had touched on something. “No no…of course she wouldn't,” the woman said in her sing-song voice, which sounded now like it had a touch of sorrow in it. “You see,” she said in a completely normal voice. “The wider that door opens, the sooner you will DIE!” She screamed the last word, not for emphasis, but because Raine had streaked through the falling snow to plant the hilt of Kaine's sword into the woman's face. The woman shrieked and released her hold on Allen, then fell to the snow covered street. Allen looked around at Raine, who looked pretty menacing with her cloak blowing about her and Kaine's long sword in one of her hands. Raine merely gave him a cursory glance to check for injuries, but most of her attention was riveted to the woman whimpering on the street.

“Oh, Rainey…how could you be sooo mean?”, the woman said, sounding like she was a little kid on the verge of tears. The fall to the street had knocked her hood from her head, and Allen had little difficulty telling that the woman was the queen of Charista, even through the blood streaming down her face from the injury Raine had caused to her scalp.

“You should really get back home and play with your dolls,” Raine said menacingly to the queen. Because if you come near him again, I'll skin you alive!”, she seethed as she turned the sword around in her hands.

Allen was vaguely aware that the commotion outside their windows had some people looking down at them to see what was going on, but he doubted they could see too much through the snow.

“We were just talking,” the queen simpered to Raine as she got to her feet and faced her. “I was just telling him a story about a door….about what it was doing to him. Surely you've told him about that already right Raine? About how your little boyfriend is dying right now?”

Allen just stared at them in shock as Raine charged for the queen again. However, the queen dodged nimbly to the side and looped back around to catch Allen's face in both of her hands. Then she planted her bloody lips to his and gave him a very hard kiss until Raine caught up with her again and rammed the hilt of Kaine's sword into her back. The queen uttered a little scream which was muffled by Allen's lips, then she slipped down to the ground. Allen could tell by the way that she was whimpering that she was still alive.

Raine put Kaine's sword under one arm and knelt down to the ground. He thought she meant to heal the queen, or perhaps finish her off, but she just scooped up a handful of snow in one of her long cloak sleeves, then grabbed Allen in her other hand. “Come on,” she said quietly as she started leading him back towards the inn.

Allen glanced back to where the queen had been laying, but she was already gone. “Raine,” he said. “What was that all about? What's this door I keep seeing in my dreams? What did she mean its killing me?” He stopped and pulled on her arm to force her to stop as well.

She took Kaine's sword out from under her arm and leaned it against a wall, then took the wet sleeve of her cloak from where the snow had melted and used it to clean the blood from Allen's face. He expected some sort of answer, but she just studiously worked on cleaning him up, then when she finished she just stared at him silently with sad eyes. Then she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a little kiss on his cheek. “Not yet,” was all she said before she scooped up Kaine's sword and started running back to the inn.

-----.-----

Allen finally made it back to the common room of the inn and Gabe came running up to meet him. “What happened?”, Gabe asked as he watched Allen shake loose snow from his cloak. “We were all sitting around the table when all of a sudden Raine jumps up and bolts for the door like the place was on fire. She even took the time to swipe one of Kaine's swords from his back.

Allen glanced over at Raine, who simply stuck her tongue out at him, then went back to talking with Kaine. Allen walked over to the big fireplace that dwarfed most of one of the walls and sat down on the wide stone hearth. “You don't want to know,” Allen muttered as a serving girl brought him a mug full of hot spiced brandy, which he actually took a long gulp of. Liandron appeared from the private dining room, carrying one of the maps that had been spread across the table in there before they had to clear them off. She sat down on the other side of Allen and spread half of the map out onto his lap.

“So here's the problem,” she said as she shook a crease out of the map. “If we can't catch up to that merchant by the time he makes it to Faren, we likely never will.”

“We?”, Allen asked incredulously. “I didn't think you would want to come along.”

“Get serious,” Gabe replied. “What have the three of us ever not done together? Of course we're coming along.”

Though he hadn't expected it, Allen was really glad to have his two friends offer to come along with him. And Gabe had a point, they really had done everything together all of their lives.

“Anyway,” Liandron said, tapping her finger on the map. “Faren is a major trade hub for the SouthLands. If the merchant can make it down there, then he could take any one of seven major roads to other parts of the SouthLands. So unless we get really lucky, we won't be able to track him.”

Allen looked at the map in his lap and saw what she was talking about. The South Road from Charista was the only road leading into Faren from the north, but from the South, East, and West of the city were seven roads leading off, most of them to cities not even on the map. “Well, hopefully we can set out in the morning and cut his lead,” he said as he handed his half of the map back to Liandron and stood up. “But if we are, then we all need to get some sleep,” he said as the other two stood up, then they all headed for their rooms.

-----.-----

Allen had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night, but given the events of the day, he didn't find that terribly surprising. He kept turning things over and over in his head; from the bizarre conversations with the queen, to the Lamerra family, to their pursuit of the merchant.

Many hours later, after he finally drifted off to sleep, he found himself staring down at the same open door and the same figure standing beside it that he saw in his dreams every time he slept. Tonight the figure took its time looking up at Allen, but when it finally did, it was shaking with silent laughter. “Come to me, LastBorn,” it finally said. “Don't you want to see the door open all the way?” When it said this, Allen noticed that the door was indeed open a little more than it had been when he first started having the dreams. “Don't you want to see the door open all the way…and don't you want to come die?!!?!”

Allen awoke to find Kaun shaking him, while trying to be quiet about waking him. “Get up!,” Kaun whispered to him urgently.

“Hmm, what is it?”, Allen asked thickly, trying hard to focus on Kaun's face.

“The king and queen have been found murdered…and people are saying you did it.”