The Land Set Aflame

Chapter 40: The Twilly's Count

They sat silently for a long moment, all eyes bleary and grim, and the residual fear hanging palpably in the air around them. No one could sleep, even though they were all exhausted. Except for Kithana, of course: elementals didn't need sleep.

Callyndia's shoulder was still aching fiercely, and her entire left arm still seemed rather insensate. Glancing over at Svenden, she could tell he was also feeling the after effects of his shadow sword wound.

"You should all go to sleep," Kithana said for the third time, "I can keep watch all night."

Naturally, everyone ignored her. Again.

"They're right on the other side of that kallaw," Svenden said, his green eyes jammed over in that direction, "They could come after us anytime. We should be moving away from here."

"I didn't even know there was a kallaw here," Callyndia said, ignoring his suggestion, "My mother said there are eleven kallaw in Mellesh. None of the eleven she told me about are in this area. This one must be new."

The little twilly, Lulie, fluttered over and landed on Callyndia's shoulder. "Who's your mother?" she asked in her adorably childlike voice.

Callyndia smiled down at her. "My mother is Alloria Rosa," she explained, bracing herself mentally for the inevitable questions that would follow.

Lulie just cocked her head to the side, no evidence of recognition on her face. "Where does she live?" Lulie asked.

Callyndia frowned. "Wait, you don't know who Alloria Rosa is?" she asked.

Lulie shrugged innocently. "Should I?" she asked.

Callyndia's eyes flicked towards Svenden to see if he was hearing this. He apparently was, and he was frowning too. "She's the Queen of Mellesh, dear," Callyndia said patiently to Lulie.

"What's Mellesh?" Lulie asked.

"This forest is Mellesh," Svenden said incredulously. He looked at Callyndia again. "I thought all the fairies were born just knowing that information instinctively, or something."

Callyndia nodded. "That sort of knowledge is usually imparted to all fairies via the kallaw they're born from," she said, "Lulie? Were you born here, from this kallaw?"

"Yes," Lulie said, "I was born forty-seven days ago." She looked at Svenden with a proud smile on her face. "And I can count all the way to forty-seven."

She started counting from one.

"That's amazing!" Callyndia said sweetly. She then looked at Svenden as Lulie continued counting. "If Lulie was born from this kallaw, but it hasn't imparted that knowledge to her, then chances are, my mother doesn't have a connection with this kallaw. She might not even know that it exists at all."

Leofric cleared his throat. "Lady Sablesong," he said, "Do you suppose that the shadow magic on this kallaw is somehow shrouding it from your mother's knowledge?"

"I've never heard of that before," Callyndia said, "But it sounds like something shadow magic might do." She thought for a moment. "Leofric, do you think you could dispel shadow magic from a kallaw, the way you dispelled that curse from us?"

Lulie had counted past twenty by this point.

"I'm sorry," Leofric said, "I didn't really pack for removing curses. I only had the two packets of ingredients for that spell, and I used them for you and Mr. Moon. I couldn't tell you whether that particular spell would have worked for a kallaw, anyway: I might need to channel a great deal more mana for that."

Callyndia sighed. "I was hoping I could use the kallaw to speak with my mother," she said, "But if it's hidden from her, that wouldn't be possible."

"Well, how far is it to the next kallaw?" Svenden asked.