What Is Needed

Chapter 2

Rough hands grasped Hastra. She screamed. The troll would kill her! Her heart thudded in her ears. She was dying. She stared into the blackness.

"Hastra!"

"Get it off me!"

Zelma's face, ringed with light, replaced the darkness. "Sister, what's wrong? You've fallen." Tears brimmed in Zelma's green eyes.

"It was here, a hobgoblin. It attacked me." Broken crockery and ruined food lay strewn on the rough stone. Hastra groaned, lay back on the cold floor and grabbed her head. "Another vision?" Tears streamed on her cheeks. She had to breathe. Her chest heaved.

"What's wrong?" Someone called. "Do you need help?"

Zelma helped Hastra sit up. "My sister is injured and fell."

Someone stepped closer. "What do you need?"

"Howart? That's Howart." Hastra twisted and placed her back against the stone wall. The gaunt Withling stood in the pool of light at the corner.

Zelma coaxed Hastra to her feet. "Send a student to clean the mess and have another bring more food to our room. It's second level, seventh door on the right. Hastra's weak from her travels."

"Can you get her to your room?"

Zelma nodded and displayed a weak smile. "What is needed is given."

Hastra trained her voice to a low tone. "Good, I'm not ready to share visions." There was no impression for action or meaning--yet. She winced when she put weight on her leg.

Howart frowned, nodded and left.

Hastra leaned on her sister as they hobbled away. They arrived at the stair and struggled at each step until they gained the next floor. Hastra hoped there was a prayer for her hip or she expected to be gimpy for a while. She sucked air through clenched teeth as her boot soles scraped on the wooden stair.

"You've had visions?" Zelma huffed and grunted as Hastra pushed against her.

"Yes, the first knocked me off my horse and that's how I got hurt. Thank Eloch, Corgren helped me."

"Tell me what you've seen."

Hastra shook her head. "Not here, not now."

They shambled to their door and Hastra hopped to her bed while Zelma closed the door. The young woman rounded on Hastra with arms crossed and brow creased. "Tell me why this vision's so secret in Withling's Watch."

Hastra rubbed her leg and related the exact details. "Darkness howled from the gate with a gust of wind and punched me from the saddle. There was fire-"

Zelma whirled at a feeble knock and snatched the door open. "Good, this is good. Is the floor cleaned?" The young Withling closed the door as the student mumbled an answer.

She handed the plate to Hastra who nibbled and waited as the student's footsteps faded. She related the condition of the gates, the screams and everything else between mouthfuls of warm food. Zelma stood with her head cocked and the furrow between her eyebrows unwavering. She had Zelma's attention now. Hastra paused, bit into her bread and chewed.

"And in the passage?" Zelma motioned in the direction of the stairwell.

"A second vision." Hastra nodded with vigor. "Yes, on the heels of the first. A hobgoblin stepped out of a door and attacked me as darkness descended again."

Zelma sat on her bed and leaned forward with her elbows braced on her knees. "That's rather emphatic, two in one night."

"But there's more."