Could some of it be real? Her heart started to palpitate.

  Maybe some of these were true? Even if it is truth, it will be twisted by the witch. Best to not place any relevance on what I see, she reasoned within herself and felt better about it.

  The scenes continued around the room with the collapse of Riverhouse and the raping and pillaging of Lavonne or the burning of the forests of Noril. She had accepted that they weren’t real so they no longer bothered her. Everything that she held dear was being destroyed before her very eyes and she couldn’t care, she couldn’t let it through. She watched her father beaten to the ground by a gang of giants where he was crushed under foot, almost breaking her will, she turned back to Nigel.

  “How did you keep from going insane while believing this was real?” she asked.

  “You mean other than being of a superior race?” He smiled wryly. “I’m not sure that I did stay sane,” he said plainly and just waited for her response, she didn’t have one and remained silent.

  “The twelfth and last window is where she sings. It is the only one I go to now and I am drawn to it almost every day.”

  Juil ignored the remaining few windows which in some way felt as if she had just cheated the game, she liked that feeling and vowed to cheat this game every chance that she could.

  Then, she was there in front of the window, instantly captivated by the ethereal woman seen within the opening her heart began to open to the sound. Her features were ghostlike, yet precise and perfect, her skin pristine almost pure porcelain yet she could see a starry sky through her. Her eyes were an ice blue and they conveyed every emotion within the lyrics of mourning and pain. Her hair was black as night and thick, flowing backwards from unblemished skin revealing the ears of a human and still her song pulled at her internal elven strings, drawing her tighter, wrapping her within a pained loving embrace that both captivated her and, in a way, repelled her. She smelled of love and hope and sang of pain and woe and she felt of…betrayal. Juil felt her life in the words and her soul revealed within the tone.

  She isn’t real. As soon as she thought it, she knew it to be truth. She was here to distract and deceive those away from their purpose. To captivate and allure, nothing more.

  She listened to the words though she didn’t understand them, they were of the old tongue, pangean possibly…lost long before the cataclysm. It was the tongue that all languages developed from, yet none still spoke. It was life and death, it was pain as well as glory, yet above all, it was love. A love so deep and powerful that it threatened to pull your very soul from your chest, she couldn’t help but watch on as tears streamed from her eyes and pain built within with every keening tone and she realized that this song in and of itself, was life! The singer’s eyes flashed as if they actually saw her and not the world to which she sang. It was the lamentation of life. The singer smiled when she carried into the next verse as if Juil had revealed her secret.

  With this realization she was able to pull her eyes away. Brightly painted lips shaped every word as raven colored hair blew with the wind and her eyes kept trying to suck the elven princess into their depths.

  She turned and saw that Nigel stood next to her, his cheeks also streaked with tears and she placed a hand on his arm as he walked out. She continued down the stairway and on to the atrium where the stairs began. She waited for the aerial who actually had to back down the steep stairs due to his wings constantly hitting on the steps behind him.

  “Are you alright?” Nigel asked after noticing that she wouldn’t look at him as if she was deeply troubled by the event.

  “Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. Her song, it just pulled at me in a way that I have never experienced before.”

  “It never changes yet each time it’s like you hear more. It is more than a song; it is…I don’t really know what it is other than it is greater than me.”

  “It’s life, or at least the lamentations of life or what life should be. When I realized that, it was like she freed me. I think I would have stood there for eternity just searching her face to see what I was supposed to see. Such beauty created to be shared by all, only to be destroyed and befouled by all. This kingdom is an example of how people raped and maimed her bounty. Her song was life and love and even more so, it was betrayal. The spite of a cheating spouse or hate from a jealous brother. It was as much about the treachery as it was about purity and how one feeds upon the other.”

  “The lamentations of life? You don’t mean to think that this woman…this singer is a goddess or any such superstitions like that, do you?” Nigel’s tone was exasperated.

  “No, Nigel, it is deeper than that…more meaningful. I believe that she is something big, like the mother of earth or the sister of lost souls, but I don’t know for sure. That is the only thing that can explain what I felt in her presence. She was power and life and she mourned all that she has lost, her song strikes the very soul of all who hear it.”

  “Bah! You’re still feeling the wine from last night,” Nigel scoffed.

  “Take me back to our alcove and I will break out another bottle and tell you how we are going to get out of here, providing that you still want to go.”

  “Oh yes, it’s all that I want.”

  14

  Stew

  Tia‘s scream was a fear quite different than Tic’s. The things she feared could be as bad or worse than death in her youthful opinion. In truth, fear is fear and absolute terror cannot be compared on a decibel scale when you are at the mercy of the cruelty of strangers, especially incredibly huge strangers. All she saw was two bearded and hairy men the size of giants followed by a clean-shaven face with a thick dark mane, all of whom had massive heads. Giant hands to match the heads grabbed her roughly, instantly halting her retaliations. A dirty bag was thrown over her head before she was roughly dragged out of the skiff and pushed over the rail. Landing with a scream at the icy water, soaking through her clothing, she was relieved when two sets of hands pulled her out of the water by her armpits and dragged her onto shore and down what seemed to be a trail between Trees.

  “Giants!” she heard Tic scream, eliciting raucous laughter.

  Is that what they are, giants? They are big for sure, but giants? she thought maybe, but probably not. Big though, even being dragged by them she could tell that they had to reach down to do it and she was relatively tall for a girl, unlike Tic who was actually quite short for a boy his age. She could feel when they broke through a tree line or from between buildings by the breeze, she thought she could detect the scent of pine sap over the smell of rotten fish.

  We were sleeping and no one was steering the skiff; is it night or morning? How long had we slept? I’m so hungry, I guess that doesn’t matter now. I’m sorry, Tic; I am so, so sorry. Tia’s mind raced and she wanted to scream or lash out, but what good would that do? She wanted to run and kick, yet most of all…she wanted to save Tic.

  He shouldn’t even be here, but he came anyway, he came for me. I made him come.

  She was thrust into a rough-hewn chair that still had pine sap stuck to the seat. She wasn’t a woodsman and had never been out of her own city so she wasn’t skilled at feeling the air of situations. So, like most people when their basic senses were cut off, she was helpless.

  Tia heard commotion beside her and assumed that they were tying Tic up next to her. The hood was snatched from her head, but she was instantly blindfolded freeing up her nose and mouth.

  “Don’t make me gag ya, girly,” a ruff voice croaked. “Say…you’re a pretty one ain’t you? Yes, well…we’ll see, we will definitely see won’t we.”

  “Let Tic go, he had nothing to do with this,” she stammered out not thinking clearly.

  “To do with what? What were you up to? Two people alone out on our sea.”

  “We’re on a journey,” Tic said quickly as he mentally reached forth to find power but his thoughts were too stressed. He didn’t want to hurt anyone but if they pushed too far, he knew that he could…what? What could he actually do? I never should have thrown away the stone.

  “Well I know that, but why? Untrained and under supplied on the North Sea? Is you escaped slaves maybe?” the man prodded. “Is there a bounty on ya?”

  “Or is you just applying for the position?” A distant howl of ribald laughter caused her knees to weaken.

  Slaves? They both quivered at the thought.

  “Oh, this one might make it to the market but the scrawny one…we needs to tender him up some before he gets to the grill,” the first speaker said and Tic almost squeaked out a response. “Quiet! Gag him,” he shouted and Tic was gagged.

  “We were sent out by my—”

  “That don’t matter, your fate is already set in stone. First, I have something to say to my people so just you just keep your mouth shut until I’m done. Then we’ll get to tenderizing the situation, if you know what I mean.” He chuckled gruesomely.

  “We have been on a rough road lately,” Tia heard the man say to his people with his back to her. She was wrapped up in the chair unable to move anything more than her wrist and ankles. Her fate was truly sealed and the only thing she knew was that death and the stew pot was on an equal plane as slavery, maybe even a little higher. Tia stifled her sobs, she didn’t want to wear a gag like Tic. For some reason it meant more to her to maintain that one freedom than anything.

  “When I pray to the god, Rowen, I pray for wayward children like these to find their way into our hands.” More laughter followed with hoots and howls from what sounded to be men… Wasn’t it, just men or…? Who was that god he prayed to?

  “Who?” She couldn’t help it, it just slipped out. She could feel their captor turning upon her already, the air shifting as he rushed toward her and she heard Tic screaming as if he was being tortured.

  “Stop, stop!” he screamed and wept so hard it sounded as if he was going to lose his guts through his mouth despite the gag. It came from deep inside and she wept knowing that she too would be gagged.

  “Didn’t I tell you to shut your trap? I think it is time you see exactly what you’re in for.” His sinister scowl could be felt through the cloth, she winced as his thick finger pulled the cloth from her eye’s and she looked out at the horde of barbarians that were ready to cook Tic and rape her before selling her into slavery only to see…

  “Uncle Rowen?” Tia and Tic both said at once and the room erupted with laughter.

  “You didn’t really think you were going to let you two go off on your own un-supervised did you?”

  “But, but the giants?” Tia stammered.

  “We ain’t no stinking giants, bucko.”

  “No, they are by no means giants. They are frost piners, which you would consider to be like lumber jacks but much, much larger, which is close enough to the truth,” Rowen said casually.

  “We’re not like them, they’re human and we…why we are frost piners and we’re not like weakling humans.”

  “Yeah, yeah…they’ll hear it all in good time just like everyone else has.” Rowen laughed.

  “What is going on?” Tia said with tears streaming down her face, her voice hoarse from crying. “What are you doing to us?”

  “Untie them please. I am teaching you a lesson. Though this situation was staged, it could have very easily been real. I have traveled the world over as my father’s brother had before me and our grandfathers before him and on and on for several generations down the line. More than that, it is the position that you and Tic are going to assume.”

  “You’re insane, this wasn’t a lesson!” It was Tic who screamed now until Tia spoke up again.

  “Our entire family might be dead and you’re playing pranks? How could you?” Her tone was one of the betrayed.

  “It was actually a lot of fun and you will never forget to always be on your guard. I, on the other hand, had to learn the hard way. Once I was caught by a pack of trolls. They had me trussed up and aging for their stew pot for three days until the elves found me. Had a gang down in Lavonne beat the crap out of me and leave me for dead after they robbed me and that’s just some of what I am willing to talk about. Your family is fine girl. I received a sprint earlier this week and all of them are safe. Lemure is at war and Vince and Tad Junior have signed up with the military, but all in all they are fine and the business is still pumping out footwear.”

  Tia was untied first and she rushed over and punched her uncle in the chest and then hugged him with a strength she didn’t know she had left in her.

  A part of Tic wanted to rush over and hug his uncle too like he had all of his life but he just didn’t feel quite right about that. There were a lot of eyes on him right now and he had broken down pretty bad at the end there. The blindfold was bad and the gag made it worse but when unseen hands started tickling him, well…he thought they had started to tenderize him like they said they were going to do. He decided to walk slowly over trying to remain calm and stuck out his hand for a shake after checking to see that his britches had remained dry.

  “I can’t express to you how happy I am to see you, Uncle Rowen.” Rowen grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a hug with him and Tia.

  “You’re still not too old for one of these, Tic.”

  * * *

  “That’s wonderful, what is it?” Tia asked the man whom she found out to be named Kyle, turns out he and Rowen had been friends and business associates for years and played a major part in setting this all up. The other frost piners were involved simply because they thought it would be a fun distraction, and it must have been. They would smirk every time she caught one of their eyes and some of them would scoff and say Giants under their breath.

  “It’s narwhal, we ran across a couple of them when we was out searching for you.”

  “Us? You were out searching for us?”

  “Yep, well that and fishing. Ya can’t pass up the opportunity to cast a net when you get the chance.”

  “No, I don’t suppose you should. We would have done much better if we had cast one or two out.”

  “Yep, bad planning on your part,” Kyle said in a tone that said he wasn’t criticizing. “I took the liberty of going through your ship, seeing as how I’m supposed to teach you a few things and all. You didn’t have enough food and water and you don’t know how to hunt or fish, that is simply foolish to think you can survive the sea with such limited educations.” Just minutes ago, Tia thought this man was nothing less and probably worse than an animal. Now he is looking down at her as they ate side by side informing her as to how uneducated she was. He was right, she was an illiterate child when it came to the sea but she could learn.

  “Now ya had a sword with ya and that’s all well and fine, but ya didn’t have an axe. You should have two or three axes on a skiff like that and more rope and a couple of gaffs.”

  “What’s a gaff?”

  “It’s something that would have helped with the bigger fish and getting them over the rail as well as many other uses. A gaff is a very important tool out here.”

  “Where is here anyway?”

  “You’re on the northern chain. We harvest the islands out here in the summer time seeing as how the frost pine can only be harvested in the dead of winter,” Kyle replied.

  “Is that why the sap is so expensive?” Tic, on the other side of him asked, having organized the accounts on purchasing pine sap that was truly the secret to the success of their boot manufacturing business, at least lately. He would never say so but frost pine sap cured with a few other things including sawdust made a bendable substance that is perfect for shoe and boot soles as well as making a great adhesive.

  “No, that sap is what we drain from the trees in the summer time or they’ll explode when the temperature drops into the negative fifties. So, we drain them and sell the sap to Rowen. Then he gets to overcharge us for our boots,” he finished and others around laughed.

  “Yours look like the work of my father or my brother Vince. They both have a way of strong arming their vertical stitch, that pair on her…” Tia pointed to a woman in the group. “…is probably Vince as he keeps it tighter. Dad is usually in a hurry, it’s still good work it just isn’t quite as neat. Vince has a flair for it and has taken over a lot of the manufacturing.”

  “So, it’s really a big business and Rowen is more than just a hawk?” Kyle asked.

  “What’s a hawk?”

  “A salesman, you know. He doesn’t make or build anything and simply buys low and sells high.”

  “Oh, no. Not at all actually. Rowen is good, very good at the trade and his craftsmanship is innovative and pretty near perfect, he was trained by his father and grandfather. The business has been going for several generations now,” Tic said with pride and Kyle smiled.

  “Well, you make the best boots on both sides of the bay.”

  “What island is this exactly?” Tia asked already bored with talking shop.

  “Tekundralokai, that’s high elvish for island of the snake wolf.”

  “Snake wolf, do you mean lokai? Aren’t they more like a dog?”

  “Yes, a dog with no legs and a long body, you will see a lot of them and you will learn to stay away, you can trust me on that. They don’t get that big on the island but on the mainland, watch out. They’re big, mean, and territorial. We will talk about this all over the next few weeks. Tonight, relax, enjoy your meal, and we will get you cleaned up before you’re assigned a tent. I assume you’re okay sharing one with your brother?”