Stargazer

Chapter 15

“She was supposed to end my life.” I elbowed Dru next to me, and tried to get him to stop, but deep down, knew it was too late.

"Oh! I see, that is rather...sensitive," Griffith replied. "But I'm uncertain if I understand your importance to the assassins. Who are you?”

“It is I, Drudo, your King of Geldel!” he said with forceful anger. Gasps emerged from the crowd around the fire as Dru turned and addressed the people.

I, in kind, gawked at him and my mouth dropped open involuntarily as Dru’s voice carried over the night to his people.

“As of three days ago, my father, the previous King of Geldel, passed away from an illness he had been battling with for some time. The crown has now automatically passed on to the next in line, making me the rightful heir, the King of Geldel.”

Many more villagers had come to join the large fire in the center of the village, alerted of the commotion. Some bowed to Dru and others whispered distastefully. He turned back to Griffith and stepped closer to him.

"And as King of Geldel, I demand to know, what gives you the right to call yourself a King? Surely you must know this is an act of treason to the crown!"

"Prince Drudo," it came out of Griffith's mouth by habit, I was sure. "King Drudo,” He corrected himself quickly. “I meant no offense with the title. It does not mean that I am a King. It is more of a joke, you see?" This was a situation the people of Altawny could never have foreseen and the tension in the air was thick, hot as if it were hard to breathe. The Prince was not backing down.

He must be a lunatic, I thought, to challenge an entire village and with no weapons. Then it struck me, perhaps he thought I would be his weapon? That would most certainly not be the case.

"I don't see," Dru challenged "There are no jokes being told tonight." Now I was sure the air was getting hotter. I was sweating and realized with a start, that I couldn't breath. I tried to take a deep breath and it wouldn't come. The last thing I heard were the gasps escaping from my own mouth as I fell to the ground and into unconsciousness.

I woke up with a fire still blazing beside me, but it wasn’t the large fire any longer that blazed in the center of Altawny’s huts where I had been when I fainted. I was inside one of the huts now laying on a bed. Spots of dappled sunlight peeked through the wood thatches of the hut, so I knew it was daylight, but didn’t know how long I’d been out for.

A woman I didn’t know, but had seen at the communal fire, hung over the stone fireplace of the hut, boiling a pot of something black and foul smelling. She turned to me and I could see she was thin and young, perhaps a bit older than myself. She had long hair that would’ve taken a lifetime to grow and it was thick and frizzy with waves like the dried grasses that sometimes grew tall over parts of Sordova in Autumn season.

“Oh great, you’re awake,” She said kindly. She held a wooden bowl of the fuming black paste and I eyed her cautiously.

“I’m not going to eat that,” I responded as I sat up in bed. She laughed and gave it a stir.

“Hahaha, no. This isn’t for eating. It’s for your dressing change to go on your wound. Please lift your shirt and I will take care of that for you.” She pointed to my stab wound. I lifted my shirt, a borrowed simple piece of cotton someone had dressed me in, and looked at my open knife wound. The wound was still an open gash and my entire stomach had dark strawberry red splotches.

“This is going to sting a bit, but just for a minute, then it will feel like relief.” she warned. I braced myself as the heat of the black tar went onto my sensitive wound and I shouted, surprised by the burning pain. “It is infected,” she shouted to me over my yells. “Your fever only broke this morning!” The pain subsided and then I felt a pleasant coolness begin to take over that felt a little like a burn, but it was a relief, like she had said.

“This morning? How long have I been out for?”

“You’ve been in and out of consciousness for three days. Most of it, you were delirious because of the fever.”

“Three days!?” Now I was concerned. In that amount of time, someone could be here from the Assassin’s Guild, looking for me or Dru, hunting us. I had know idea if they could track where we’d gone, but I knew staying in any one place longer than a few days was a mistake.

She read my thoughts, “You are safe, and thankfully I’ve been able to get a little broth in you. But here,” She handed me another wood bowl with a better smelling thin liquid and pieces of what appeared to be bark floating. “You will need to get your strength up. Drink this, but not the bark. It soaks in the broth and will help with your pain.” I brought the bowl to my lips and internally rejoiced at the salty broth taste. It was delicious and began to awaken my appetite.

My stomach growled in hunger even after the bowl was depleted and the girl gave me a small chunk of bread. “Work on this, slowly!” she emphasized. “You eat that too fast and it’ll come right back up.”

I violently ripped off morsels with my teeth and felt grateful as the bread hit my stomach. “What’s your name?” I asked the girl.

"I'm Mia, a healer of Altawny. Your stab wound was infected and you could've died. I suggest you take time to heal before exerting yourself in any way." She gave me a little delicate lecture and I could tell it was because she cared. "And your royal friend is doing fine too, but he's worried about your health."

I forgot about Dru! He'd had to go three days in a village openly conflicting the crown. "Although," She continued. "I have concerns that he is more worried about the information you carry than you." She said with disapproval in her eyes.

"Can I go see him?" I needed to see with my own eyes that he was alive and well.

"You can once Makawlah comes to see you. She is a Mother of Altawny and also a Mage; a seer to be exact. She wanted me to tell her when you were awake so I will go do that now. You are welcome to get dressed. I've laid out your clothes, cleaned for you, by the fire. Or if you prefer, I've given you another option." She smiled once again and left the hut.

I slowly stood from the bed and looked at my clothes options. I saw my weapons hanging from my belt hanging off the back of a chair and was surprised they had entrusted me and allowed me to keep them.

There, I stood undecided. I could pick my tunic, still the orange color of the sun and the sand or an outfit Mia layed out for me made of a simple soft shirt and a skirt of their beautiful flowing fabrics. The fabrics glowed almost as if saying "pick me" but as I thought more about the Assassin's possibly finding us, I ended up picking my tunic to better camaflouge, if needed.

Just as I was securing my belt around my hips a woman came in and I was about to think it was Jackivah until I realized she had dark blue lines in dots and swirled patterns tattooed upon her face. Her hair was a shade darker and held less gray, but she too, kept her curls tucked neatly beneath a beautiful head scarf.

"I'm Makawlah, a Mother of Altawny. You've met my twin sister, Jackivah." So that explained the identical features to Jackivah that had confused me. She offered me to sit in a chair as she did the same. "I would like to read you as I sense something about your path. And obviously, you and King Drudo are in a little bit of trouble it would seem."

"What do you need to do to read me...and what would you read?" I asked cautiously.

She laughed, "I would just take your hands and harness your energy to feel it. Whatever the the life-force is willing to tell me is what I'll see."