Eyes of Emerald

Chapter 34 - Moved

  The first thing I heard when I opened my eyes was raised voices. Someone seemed to be in an argument next to my bed. I groaned slightly, holding my head. I felt like my brain was being boiled inside my skull. The voices stopped suddenly.

            "Otto!" exclaimed Angel, and I heard her footsteps walk quickly to my bedside. I smiled slightly, trying to prop myself up on my elbows, but Angel pushed me back down. "Lie down, silly. You'll only make it worse." she smiled.

            I frowned. "What have I done?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes.

            "After all that Shifting and running, you collapsed on the borders. We can't let you get any worse because otherwise we won't be able to move camp. You're the only injured person here now." she told me, sitting down on the bed. I groaned.

            "Why are we moving camp?" I asked, holding my head. "And can I please have something for this headache?" I asked, feeling the heated throbbing grow worse with every word that was spoken. Angel nodded, grabbing a vial of bright green liquid that was bubbling from the bedside table. She handed it to me, and I drank, not caring what it was. Immediately the headache began to retreat slowly, leaving my brain feeling strangely empty. I winced, sitting up.

            "We have to move 'cause Balthazar," she forced the name out like it had a bad taste, "knows where we are. And if he knows, we'll all die when he attacks next." she sounded cheerful. How on earth could she be this optimistic?

            "Where are we moving to?" I asked, brushing a strand of hair away from my eyes. Angel's gaze flickered from me to the window, where I could see tents being taken down and huge wooden crates dragged about.

            "A place...I can't remember the name, but it's..." she screwed her face up in concentration. "The caves of something, it began with an L." she bit her thumbnail savagely. I felt my stomach go cold, then tingle like fireworks had been set off inside.

            "Was it..." I hesitated. "Was it the Caves of Lothóreal?" I asked tentatively, hardly daring to even hope. If the place even existed, of course - and if the spirit was telling the truth - the spirit that had told me that she was my dead mother.

            Angel's face lit up. "Yes!" she grinned. "That was it - but how do you know?" she asked.

            I smiled. "Oh, just heard the name before." I waved off her questions. I would tell her later - once I'd worked out if it was true or not. "When are we leaving?"

            "As soon as you're better," Angel grinned. "And you look okay, let me just go find Celie to write you off." she stood and disappeared through the door, leaving me alone.

            I wondered what on earth my dream was about. Was the ghost actually my mother? Was this ghost actually a ghost? Was it even real?

            I rubbed the back of my head hard - it began to ease the throbbing, which was much less severe now. How far away were these Caves? And why was the secret to defeating Balthazar there?

            I shook my head, the unanswered questions swirling in a thick cloud inside my head. I wished I could answer them all, but at the moment, no one seemed to know the answers. It was like a locked door with no key - I was ever so curious as to why this ghost had appeared to me - me, of all people!

            A sudden commotion was heard outside the room and Angel skipped in, followed closely by Celie. They were both smiling, and Celie was carrying in a long travelling cloak - I guessed they had been packing all night and were almost finished - however large the camp was.

            "Well?" I asked impatiently. "Am I allowed to get up?" Angel's smile grew.

            "You're allowed up now - but you have to ride on the cart there." Celie threw the cloak to me. I nodded, happy that I didn't have to walk all the way there.

            "How far is it?" I asked, standing unsteadily and wrapping myself in the thick warm cloak. It was made of a woollen grey material and I threw the hood up, covering my face. I felt like some sort of spy, hiding in the shadows.

            "About half a day's travel, if we're lucky. We should make it to the Caves at lunchtime if we start off now. All we have to do now is take down this tent and then we'll be off." she looked animated, like she was excited for a change of scene. I was surprised that everyone seemed so...so used  to this. Like they had moved before. They were able to take tents down with a speed unknown to me.

            I nodded, following them out. I saw carts piled high with tent poles and canvas. Horses were everywhere, being tacked up and attached to the carts. People were milling about like flies to a piece of meat.

            I followed Celie to the cart holding the canvas, where Iris was sitting happily, watching the events taking place around her. Ffi was overseeing the procedures, yelling at people who were carrying huge metal tent poles around.

            "That way!" she pointed her hand impatiently, her face bright red. "No - that way!" she shouted louder, some curls of flaming hair coming loose from the low ponytail it had been slung into.

            I grinned inwardly at that. She sounded so bossy there - even though we all knew she was totally the opposite.

            "Autumn!" shouted Iris, jumping nimbly down from the cart and running over to give me a hug. She looked better than she had been - still a little pale, but the sparkle was back in her eyes - the twinkle that made you wonder what she was planning next.

            "Hey Iris!" I smiled at seeing my half sister again. I wondered how she was getting on with the news - had she refused it, accepted it, or simply pushed it out of her mind so she didn't have to think about it?

            "You're riding with me." she announced, pulling me up to the cart where she had been sitting. Her grip was strong, so I let myself be dragged along with her. Sometimes I thought she was younger than her ten years, by the childish enthusiasm she seemed to show for everything.

            The cart was comfier than it looked. The canvas made a nice chair for me, and the travelling cloak kept me warm. Iris sat next to me silently, and we heard a last crash  of the poles being pushed into place on the last cart, and then Ffi yelled out:

            "Everyone to your places! We're off!"

            Everyone rushed to the carts and horses. Ffi was the driver of our cart (luckily, I felt), and Angel and Celie were riding behind us. I felt my heart wrench when I saw how many people weren't here - before the attack, the population in the Camp had been something like five hundred and fifty something, and now it looked like there was only about two hundred of us left, fighting miserably for something that we were unlikely to win. But still they fought on. I admired their courage and determination - they were almost as stubborn as I was.

            And, with that, we began the long drive to our new Camp location. I watched the familiar scene fade away into the distance and then turned to the front with a sigh.

            "I'm going to miss that place," I sighed, leaning back against a chair. Iris watched the horizon quietly. I knew she felt the same, but she didn't want to admit it.

            I felt the swaying of the cart as the horse clip-clopped over the rocky path on the cliffs, and imagined I was on a boat, sailing far across the sea, using only the light of the moon and the stars to guide me...
 
                                                                                                                   *
           
            The next thing I knew, I was being shaken gently awake. I shook my head blearily and opened my eyes, feeling the cobwebs of sleep being dragged away.

            "We're here, Otto!" I heard Angel grin, and I noticed that the gentle swaying of the cart had ceased and that there we were on some sort of plateau overlooking the deep blue sea on one side and surrounded by mountains on the other three. A huge, gaping mouth was high up in one side of the wall of mountains, dark and ominous. That must be the cave that Elysia meant. The Caves of Lothóreal.

            Well, they certainly looked mysterious enough. Anything could be hidden in there. I shivered, jumping down from the cart and promptly falling over as my leg had pins and needles. I massaged it hard, trying to get the blood running once again.

            Iris laughed, and I stood, without falling over this time, and brushed off the dust from the dry ground.

            "Okay guys!" came a loud shout from nearby, and I saw Ffi standing on top of one of the carts, her face red in the cold wind. "We need to get the tents up before the sun sets! Get on with it!" she yelled, jumping down and grabbing a tent pole, heaving it from the cart.

            Angel, Iris and I ended up helping put up the weaponry tent. It was pretty simple, a cast iron frame made up of long poles that slotted into one another, which was then covered by the canvas which was slightly burnt and smoke-smelling. It was much easier said than done - the poles were heavy and in the cold weather, our hands were soon numb. They were long and needed about two or three people on each one to manoeuvre them into place.

            By the time we had finished, it was dark and the crescent moon was shining like a silver medal over the cliffs. We collapsed into our beds (which had only just been set up), our bones aching. I don't know about the others, but I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

                                                                                                                *
            We woke with the sun, rising when it rose and got to work once more. My muscles would scream when I lifted  something above my head, but I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore it.

            We worked in silence, the only noise that came from anyone were grunts as they tried to lift heavy objects into place. Even Ffi didn't yell for at least an hour, which was a bonus.

            It took what felt like forever to erect the Dining Tent. It took about a hundred of us to put the huge frame up, and even more to drape the canvas cover over it. I would have thought that the witches and warlocks and elementals would have used their magic to float it over the top, and they certainly helped, but most of the work was done by hand. I did have to Shift into an albatross once to try and unhook the canvas from when it had got stuck, which tired me out from trying to fly in the winds that were picking up every minute.

            It took most of the day to erect every tent, and then we were sent off to do what we liked, as Ffi, Celie and the rest of the Leaders would sort out all the weapons and tables and that. I dragged Iris and Angel to one side.

            "Guys -" I began, my eyes sweeping from side to side to make sure no one saw. "I need to talk to you."

            "About what?" Angel asked immediately. I rolled my eyes.

            "I'm just going to tell you, dimwit." I elbowed her in the stomach lightly. "Anyway - the other night I had a dream. I was tied up in Balthazar's dungeons, and..." I twirled my hair around my finger. "Well, a ghost spoke to me." I said, watching for Angel's response. It was immediate.

            "What?" she exclaimed, and I grabbed her shoulder, reminding her to be quiet. She looked around sheepishly. "What?" she asked, quieter. Iris was watching me with curious eyes, but she knew well enough not to interrupt.

            "I dunno. It - she - was all white and glowing, and she...she said her name was Elysia." I took a deep breath, as Iris' eyes grew wide.

            "You don't mean...you don't mean Queen Elysia?" she asked incredulously. "King Balthazar-" she said his name sourly. "His dead wife?" She stared, shaking her head slightly. "That can't be true."

            "I swear it is." I said solemnly. "Balthazar told me that she was my mother too." I added, carrying on before they could react. "But anyway - she told me that the answer to defeating our father is hidden inside the Cave of Lothóreal." I explained, watching Angel and Iris' expressions change from what the hell are you going on about to oh my God you must be mad but I'm going to go along with it anyway.

            Angel shook her head. "Otto, this is..."

            "Why the hell did you not tell us then?" Iris demanded, her voice rising in pitch and she raised her arms slightly.

            "That's not the point!" Angel argued. "We've got to go to that cave - we've got time now. Let's go, before it gets dark!" she grabbed my arm and started, before I stopped her.

            "We can't be seen. They'll only ask questions. We don't want that." I muttered in her ear, and Iris frowned.

            "How are we going to do that? The cave is right up there." Iris pointed to the dark maw above, gaping over us like the mouth of a shark, opening up in the cresting waves which were the mountains.

            "We'll have to find a way." I said determinedly.