"You have something of hers?" asked Ulula as I started to descend the rest of the way down the stairs. I dug into my coat pocket and produced the small silver key. I turned it in my fingers and she nodded. "Good. Now, give it to me, and stand there over there," she instructed, pointing at a spot on the edge of the wheel. I walked slowly towards it, taking a closer look at what had been painted.
The wheel had eight segments, and in each of them a word was written. I tired to read them, but noticed that I couldn't. I might have been concerned with a lack of literacy skills, but having previously been able to read the books upstairs, I concluded that the words were probably in some kind of... magic language.
I stopped to stand opposite of Ulala, and handed her the key. There was a pause. She took a deep breath.
A pulse of energy ran through me and I gasped.
Ulula was muttering to herself, gesturing with her hands, drawing symbols into the air. The outside of the wheel started to glow. The key was floating in the air between us.
Another pulse. I let out a small groan.
Rosa was in the sidelines, looking worried. One by one the words started to glow as well, and the lines dividing the segments. Ulula's muttering had grown in volume, and she was now practically yelling. I couldn't make out the words. I couldn't make out anything.
A third pulse and my vision went dark. The view of the house was changed into something else, something slowly coming into focus.
There was a room. An attic, by the looks of it, and a girl. I recognized her from the drawing, the lines on her face unmistakable. Meera. She was huddled against a wall, a dark cloak wrapped closely around her, and her breath came out in white puffs. She got up to her knees, twisted around to peek out a small window, the world outside coated in snow, a lonely lantern by a fence the only source of light for miles. She sat back down, shivering slightly and pulled the cloak closer to her slender body.
Bells started to chime.
My mind slotted itself back into reality, a violent jerk running through my body and I gasped to get air back in my lungs. I found myself sitting on the floor, Rosa and Ulula both standing over me, concern evident on their faces.
"What did you see?" asked Ulula. Rosa's hand was on my shoulder and she helped me keep steady as I pushed myself up. "Did you see her?"
"I... I did," I said, bringing a hand to my face, rubbing at my forehead. "I saw something, at least, and it certainly looked like her. She was hiding in like an attic or something. I think she managed to run away yesterday morning, but she's still being pursued."
"What did the place look like? Did you see any clues?" asked Rosa. I frowned.
"It was pretty bare, I'm afraid," I said. "All I could see was her, a wall, and a lantern outside. It was snowy there too, if that's any help."
"Not really..." said Rosa, deflating. "There was really nothing else?"
"There was..." I said, and I could hear it again in my mind. Bells. "There were bells. Big bells. And they were nearby."
"Bells?" asked Rosa, perking up again. "As in plural? Several bells?"
"Yeah, several bells. Two, or maybe three," I said. She grinned. I let an optimistic smile on my lips as well. "I'm guessing that says something to you?"
"Well, there's plenty of bell towers around these parts," said Rosa, her hands on her hips and a smirk plastered on her face. "But only one which has several."
~x~
Since Rosa and Ulula didn't own a map with my destination on it, our next stop was the town, and more specifically the Moonlight Inn. Ulula had opted out of coming with us, saying that the spell had taken a lot more out of her than she'd thought, so as we got to the fork in the road, she bid me good bye and good luck, telling me I'd always be welcome back. I gave her a hug, and thanked her for everything. Rosa gave her a kiss on the forehead, and then she left, and we hurried to the town with Rosa.
"Luna, we need a map!" Rosa shouted as a way of hello and Luna looked up from where she'd been pouring a drink into a pint.
"Gonna have to be a bit more specific than that, sweetheart!" she shouted back as we made our way to the back of the surprisingly busy main room. Although when I thought about it, it was only around eight in the evening.
"A map with Pinsdell on it," said Rosa, sitting on a stool and drumming her fingers excitedly on the counter. "You have one, don't you?"
"Of course, just give me a minute," said Luna, smiling, took the pint to a customer and disappeared momentarily through a door with a "staff only" sign on it. She reappeared soon after, a scroll of parchment in her hands. "Here we are," she said, spreading the map on the counter.
"This is us," said Rosa, pointing at a dot on the map, resting on the edge of a large wooded area. There was a name next to it, Corsilva. "And this," she slid her finger north along a road, past two different towns and stopped it on a larger dot, marked Pinsdell, "is where we're going. Around four, five hour trip on horseback."
"What's in Pinsdell?" asked Luna, peering curiously at the map.
"We think Meera is hiding there," I said, studying the route Rosa had indicated. It ran along a river, for the most part, before turning west at the second town over. Fairly straightforward.
"Really?" Luna's voice was surprised, and when I looked over her face was overcome by relief. "Oh, thank goodness you've found her."
"Now we just need to find her before someone else does," I said, letting out a breath.
"You have horses, right?" asked Rosa and Luna turned to look at her.
"Yes, right, you can borrow them if you want," she said. "They're very good, if I do say so myself. You can probably make it to Pinsdell in less than four hours."
"Thank you so much, that would be amazingly helpful," I said smiling brightly at Luna.
"Don't worry, we'll bring Meera home," said Rosa and winked.
"Wait, wait," I said, sudden realisation hitting me hard. "'We'? Since when are you coming along?"
Rosa blinked up at me, like I'd asked the stupidest question in the world.
"Do you know any of the customs around these parts?" she asked. I hesitated.
"Well, no, but..."
"And do you know where to find the clock tower once you get to the city?" she asked.
"Not exactly, but I..."
"And do you know what to do if the mission is prolonged? Do you know how to take care of a horse?"
"No..."
"Or how much money is a reasonable price for a bread?"
"No."
"And do you know how to take care of your wounds is someone attacks you?"
"Yes!" I said. I wasn't sure why I knew, but I knew that I knew.
"Oh," said Rosa. "But the point is, while you know how to do many things, you still don't know how the society works. And two heads is better than one, don't you think? If we hit a dead end, it's easier to come up with a followup plan together than alone."
She concluded the speech with a triumphant smile. I wasn't entirely convinced, but it seemed like she'd decided that she was coming along and I doubted that there was anything I could do to stop her. I'd only known her for a few days, but stubborn was clearly one of her character traits.
"Fine," I sighed finally.
"Yes!" she laughed. "Horses, Luna! The time's a-wasting!"
~x~
Luna's horses were as amazing as she'd said. We quickly saddled two of them, saying our goodbyes to Luna, and then we were off. The road was dark, but the moons shone from the sky, reflecting off the pure white snow piled on the ground and millions of stars twinkled above head, illuminating the night with a beautiful glow. The view was breathtaking.
We rode along the river, our pace fast but not so fast as to wear out our horses too soon. Rosa lead the way, knowing the road better than I did. We didn't speak much, it would have been hard to hear the other over the wind anyway.
We rode past the first town, a village to be exact, its streets empty, but lights in windows, and we continued our way. The road became smaller for a while, but by the time we got to the second town, considerably bigger this time, if had widened again. After about ten, fifteen minutes of leaving the second town the road split into two, and we curved left, away from the river that continued it's coursing way up north. We were going west now, and I knew we were close. I had memorized the map, and I knew that the trip from the second town to Pinsdell, while longer than the distance between the two towns, was shorter than the trip from Corsilva to the first town. We were close. So close.
The first houses that appeared in the horizon made my stomach turn in anticipation. Excitement or fear, I wasn't sure. Both maybe, or maybe neither. We slowed down as the houses became more frequent and Rosa had to think about where we were going. It wasn't enough anymore to just ride through the town, she needed to navigate us down its streets to the bell tower. I trusted she knew the way.
I could hear the bells, before I saw the tower. The sound was the same I'd heard, I was sure of it and we sped up our horses one last time, rushing towards the sound. Finally it loomed in front of us, a tower, not as tall as I'd imagined, but it was wide, no doubt due to the several bells it housed. They were still ringing and as we dismounted in front of the tower, tying our horses onto the fence, a bit away from the light of the lantern, they struck for the twelfth time.
It was midnight.
________________________________________________________
Soooooo that happened. I like Rosa, I don't want her to go away yet. But it is up to you if Meera joins the party yet or not. Oooh, exciting! I guess we'll find that out tomorrow!
I know you wanted this early, but this is as early as I managed. I wanted to get it written before Gigantti but I'm so slow haha. Anyway, it's only eight, this is good too.
Your topic isssss "Eyes"
Pie out.
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