The Witch Woman's Prophecy

48 | Control and Persuasion |

As my pursuers advanced towards me through the desert. I sat staring blankly at them, unable to think of a single thing that would make any difference. I had failed. I couldn't finish the Remedy and the guards were almost here. I would have to go with Hericle when he came for me the next day and never go back to Polemmy. I called myself every bad name I had ever heard, and berated myself for being so useless, then I shook my head as if the action could replace my gloomy mood with a more positive one.

When I returned to the cavern I did my best but still could not identify or fit a single piece. Soni and Naamiya puzzled over the remaining pieces, but I had no hope that they would be successful. I wasn't even upset that they were touching the pieces of the Remedy.

I stared at the Remedy until my head ached from frowning and my eyes were gritty and dry. The cavern walls seemed to close in around me. If I did not get out I would surely suffocate within its confines. I stalked out of the cavern and paced back and forth along the path with my stomach twisted into knots.

My thoughts turned back to Monila and Hericle. What would my life have been like if he had stayed with Monila in her mountain village where we could have been a proper family? Or if Monila had not been forced to go to Merthgem and if I had not been foretold? I pictured us living together. I would have grown up knowing who I was and with the security of a father. I shook the thought away, feeling disloyal. I had grown up with love and security. Kershel, Veena, Halash and Doya had given me everything a young boy could hope for.

Except a father of my own.

I sat down on the path by the knotted rope with my back against the cliff and stared out across the desert. Anger that Hericle had not made more of an effort to find me boiled through me, and I clenched my teeth. He had not cared enough about Monila to carry on searching. Why not? Perhaps it had been a relief that he didn't have to be father to a child he hadn't wanted. But there was the pride I'd seen in his face when we met and he had claimed me as his own son? Could I be wrong about that?

As though my thoughts had summoned him, his voice came from behind me.

'Thamet?'

I looked round at him from where I was slumped on the ground.

'What's wrong?' he asked, coming to sit beside me.

'Why didn't you try harder to find Monila and me?' I asked him. 'I loved the people who brought me up, but it wasn't the same.'

He looked down at the ground in front of his feet. 'I loved her, she was everything to me. I wanted to marry her and raise a family, but I believed it when they said she had died. I could have taken the time to search further, but there were too many things happening; I was trying to raise an army. I swear to you that if I'd known that you were alive then nothing could have stopped me from finding you.'

He put his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder. The anger I felt at his failure to find me evaporated. I wanted nothing more than to bury myself in his arms like a child.

'What did you find at the end of the path?' he asked.

'A cavern with a relic lying on the floor, though it was in pieces. It's a remedy and I've been putting it together, but I can't finish it. I tried so hard. For a time it was as though I had built it many times before, but now I can't make the pieces fit. I've failed. It's all been a waste of time.'

'Your journey hasn't been a waste, Thamet. We've found each other at last. It's time to leave the relic behind now.'

'I can't just leave it! I promised I would finish it!' Being denied one last chance to complete the Remedy filled me with panic. I just needed time. I had to persuade him to let me stay.