The Mirror Mage | ONC2022

5. Rider's Keep

(Author's Note: this chapter is dedicated to Kaiddance and her ONC story, The Aurora Endeavor, a scary disaster thriller... especially scary if you were thinking of a cruise in the near future!!)

Ben blinked and opened his eyes. His head pounded and his muscles felt like jelly. What the hell had just happened? Had he been hit by a car? Or knocked off his horse? He tried to sit up, but he couldn't get his body to obey, not even to raise his head. Fearfully, he flexed each limb as he lay there. Nothing appeared to be broken, so why couldn't he move? Was he in hospital, drugged, semi-conscious perhaps?

He stared up at the ceiling, struggling to remember. For some odd reason he had been expecting to see dusty wooden beams, but everything was white. White stone, carved into a shallow dome, the room lit by candles burning steadily inside their glass bowls, each tucked into a niche high up near the ceiling.

Candles? Ben swallowed. This was like no hospital he had ever seen. Where the hell was he?

He made a huge effort to sit up one more time, and blacked out.

When he came around the second time, he heard voices. Thank heavens, finally someone who could tell him what was going on. He was on the verge of calling out when something stopped him. It wouldn't hurt to listen for a while before revealing that he was awake.

The voices were speaking English, heavily accented but understandable for all that. Being an actor, Ben prided himself on accents but he couldn't pinpoint these. Nevermind, it was what they were saying that was important. The next sentence froze him in place.

"Thou gave him too much hemal!" The voice was accusing.

"I had to! Thou saw how violent he was when he came through! He was crazy, like a wild liss. He was like to break my arm if I hadn't stopped him." A deeper voice, sounding defensive.

"But it's been twenty glasses. He should have woken by now! Rider will be furious if thou have damaged him. Especially since the glass is broken now. It's not as if it can be used a second time."

"Thou worry too much. He still breathes. See, his chest rises and falls."

"That's all very well. But will he be sane when he wakes? A witless man will be of no use to us, whether he can glasswalk or not."

"Will the ropes hold?" A third voice, young and anxious.

"They will. Long enough for us to see whether he has his wits about him when he wakes. If not, I have more hemal, should we need it."

"Well, I will leave you to watch. I have other duties which call me. Come, Anda."

Ben heard the sound of movement and opened his eyes the merest fraction, hoping no one would notice.

Was this some weird joke? Or perhaps he was dreaming, imagining himself taking part in a medieval play. All three figures that he could see were wearing cloaks, with hoods covering half their faces, resembling nothing so much as a group of medieval monks.

Ben felt a shiver run up his spine. Joke, dream or hallucination...whatever this was, he didn't like it.
He flexed his muscles again, experimentally. On the plus side, he thought the drug he'd been given was wearing off. On the down side, he could feel the rope around his wrists and ankles anchoring him in place. He thought he might be able to get free but he told himself to be patient and wait until he was alone to test that theory.

Ben felt a swirl of cooler air on his left side and then another voice spoke, this one higher pitched and slightly breathless. "Master Uldor? The Rider would like to see thee. As soon as it's convenient."

"That means now, of course," muttered the deep voice of the person who had confessed to drugging him. He turned to look at Ben.

Ben stayed motionless, only his chest rising and falling, slow and steady with each breath.

"I suppose it's safe enough. He sleeps soundly. Ciara, thou stay here and watch him, but don't get too close. If he wakes, send for me immediately."

More rustling and the slap of sandals on the floor, and then Ben was alone with Ciara, a young woman by her voice. He sensed her approach, ignoring the instruction to keep away.

She spoke softly, as if to herself.

"Can it be true thou come from another world? Thou look just the same as a man from Sunia, though thou have no manly beard. But your clothes... It's true they are different. Strange. I have never seen anything like them."

Another world? Ben swallowed. Surely, she was speaking metaphorically. Wasn't she? He needed answers. He couldn't bear to wait any longer.

He opened his eyes.

The young woman, who had been on the verge of stroking his sleeve, let out a gasp and jumped backward, her hand going to her mouth.

"Don't worry, I can't hurt you," Ben assured quickly, speaking in a low voice. He wriggled one hand to draw her attention to the ropes. "I just want to know what is happening. Can you tell me, where is this place?"

The young woman stared at him, curiosity overcoming fear. She had an oval face with light brown skin and green eyes, and she wore the same roughly woven hooded cloak that the others had. At a glance, she certainly seemed human enough. Apart from the eyes, which were a slightly unusual shade, she looked just like someone he might have seen any day on the streets of London.

"This is Rider's Keep. In the Grasslands."

Ben swallowed. That didn't sound like anywhere he'd heard of in England, or in the whole United Kingdom for that matter.

"The Grasslands? Where is that? What country?"

Ciara hesitated. "I should get Master Uldor." She started to move.

"Wait. Please tell me, what is this land called?"

Ciara paused.

"We are in Sunia, one of the lands of Rhillion. They say thou come from one of the Mirror Worlds, is that true?"

"I have no idea," murmured Ben, but he spoke to the empty air. Ciara had gone.