The Pearl (Elearah Chronicles) - First Chapters

Chapter 1: The City Of Guan-Jian

Mika patted the neck of his ­horse when they set foot in the keep, a gentle reward for a job well done. It was getting dark, and the impossibly long shadows were fading into the background. He moved his head in circles. His muscles ached, but he was used to it. In the time they had been traveling, the pain and he had become acquaintances, never friends, but subtle partners.

He felt lucky. He was healthy, well fed, and the view was fine. He looked at Elearah and smiled. She watched him with huge green eyes and smiled back. Balian—the man she called father—was the last to arrive, his lips curled into an amused smile. The old man said he was a bard, Mika had seen enough to know there was more to the tale.

They arrived at Guan-Jian the third day of the eight month of 2102 in the Lin-dan calendar. They had been traveling almost four months, taking Elearah to the Spirit Mountains on the northern border of Bian-Jing. Timus had said she would be safe in the Goddess Sanctuary, and he was always right, when he stopped laughing and looked you in the eye with that gaze of his. He looked like a gnome most of the time, but he was a god, after all.

Mika´s eyes drifted around the scenery. Guan-Jian was a picturesque place, like most of the towns in the province of Bian-Jing: well kept, with cobblestone streets and simple yet comfortable houses. The round clay constructions loosely resembled the traditional gers of their nomadic ancestors. The doors were the pride and joy of their owners: big, wooden, and painted in red with symmetrical designs. Following ancestral rules, they always faced south. The lateral windows had wool panels soaked in resin, while the roofs were covered with red tile. The elevated houses left enough storage space for the corrals underneath. Mika had always admired the simplicity and efficiency of the design.

The young man looked at the closest home and smiled. Through the dim window, he saw a small figure moving around the central stove, while smoke poured out of the chimney. Time for dinner.

Down Main Street, where he expected to see the fountain, there was an obelisk. The monument, shaped as a square based tower, was placed in a small round plaza, right in the heart of the keep. The pyramid on top resembled an arrow piercing the sky. It was imposing, and it certainly made a statement. But it seemed foreign, arrogant, invasive. Why would anyone go through all the trouble of building it? Why put it in a remote town with no more than a few hundred souls in the cold and forgotten north of Huo?

He had seen obelisks in many cities during this last trip through the fire kingdom and never really paid attention to them. But this time, it was so out of place that he did take heed. And there was something ominous about it. Around the obelisk, he saw the remnants of a fountain. It had been taken down to leave space for this… thing. Awkward.

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When they came closer to the obelisk, the gloomy feeling grew stronger. Elearah stared at the grey walls towering over them and looked at the bard, a silent question in her eyes. The old man grimaced.

He answered in a low voice, almost muttering to himself, “I don´t know where it comes from, but I would certainly like to find out.”

Elearah felt the bard shiver. There was more to the token than met the eye.  She extended her senses toward the tower. Something was not right, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

 “Father, is there any legend or story that relates to an obelisk?”

The bard looked at her, and his eyes flickered.

“There is one. Let’s settle in, go for a spirit, and I will tell you all about it,” he answered with a crooked smile as he wrapped his robe around himself. A cool breeze brushed past her, and she shivered, tugging her coat tighter as well. It was cold and they were in summer, Elearah couldn’t imagine how these people made it through the winter.

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Traversing the small community toward the other end, they found the inn. It was a square building with a central courtyard made out of stone, clean and well maintained. The flour sieve image on the lantern sign indicated they also served meals.

They arranged accommodation for the horses and entered the main house. It was warm and welcoming inside. A solid kang took most of the view, with small red charcoal rocks burning underneath it. A short, stout man, with a big white smile, sat comfortably on it, ready for business.

 They asked for two rooms, one for Mika and Balian and the other for Elearah. The men cleaned themselves up, changed clothes, and went to get some drinks. Elearah planned to stay in her room longer, and have a restorative bath, as she called it.