Chronicles of Efia: Dawn of the Desert King

Chapter Fourteen

"Hear what?" Shiou responded, mesmerized by the images inside the candle.

Fulbright shook his head twice to dispel the ringing in his ears, but the sound only continued to grow until he could just make out the breathy whispers coming from the light. Hundreds of voices filled the air around him, transforming from the murmurs of an ancient language into words that Fulbright could understand. He held his breath and slowed the pulsing sound of blood in his ear so as not to miss a word that was spoken.

Suddenly, images began to flash against the wall on the opposite side of the room, flickering from one event to the next. Fulbright saw Ackerely, vibrant and green. The image flickered. Demur and Malay were interrogating each other about Fulbright's whereabouts. Again the images flickered until Fulbright was staring at his mother's face, her eyes pale and searching. She seemed to be looking right at him; Fulbright finally heaved a huge sigh.

The queen was in his room, standing at the foot of Fulbright's bed, her hands gripping the curtains she had just wrenched back. Fulbright walked toward the wall of blue shimmering light, stretching out his hand as if to take hold of his mother's face. She in turn reached out to him, his fingers passing through hers as she grabbed hold of the letter that rested on his bed.

Fulbright retracted his hand in confusion. It had been three days since his disappearance. Why would his mother just now be discovering his letter when his room would have been searched immediately. The queen slowly opened the letter just as a few guards entered his room to search it. The light flickered and in an instant, his mother vanished from view. Fulbright groped the darkness, desperate for her to reappear.

"I thought the candle was supposed to show only the present?" Fulbright asked, turning to Shiou.

Shiou shrugged, mesmerized by the sequence. A view of the Alodian temple appeared. The temple rested on a summit within the Alodian Mountains that overlooked the province of Alodie and the eastern borders of Ackerley. A colonnade of crystal pillars--carved in the likeness of the spirits of prophecy and light, Nabas and Jelana--surrounded a small courtyard of stone seats that curved into two crescents facing each other to form an incomplete oval. In the center was a circular platform, large enough to fit seven regular sized elves on it at a time. From a bird's eye view, the formation of the seats and platform resembled an unblinking eye that glowed in the moonlight.

"Is that your temple?" Shiou asked, pointing to the image as Fulbright came and sat at the edge of Shiou's bed with him.

Fulbright nodded. "I don't understand why I am being shown this. I just wanted to see my home."

Fulbright recognized several of the Alodian priests entering into the colonnade for what appeared to be a late night council. There were twenty-three in all. The priests sat in their respective places around the platform, the eleven firstborns taking their place to the right of the platform facing west, and the younger taking their place to the left facing east.

Among the council were three figures unlike the rest, neither elf nor nymph. They possessed markings along different parts of their body that Fulbright immediately recognized as the three Bards of Old. He had met them once when he was five and found the mystery of their origin to be disconcerting. The three Bards sat cross-legged in their robes of taupes and whites, their heads bowed and their eyes shut as the elves filed into the courtyard.

"Who are they?" Shiou asked with wonder.

The skin around Fulbright's eyes creased as he tried to hide the satisfaction of knowing something that others did not. "They are the Bards of Old."

"I thought the Bards of Old was just lore!" Shiou exclaimed.

"They are very real, and full of wisdom and secrecy," Fulbright replied with a chuckle.