'So, what is it that you're reading?' Tarlequin asked, plunging himself on the ground. He'd managed to convince Mersha to leave the tent so they wouldn't disturb anybody.
'A book.'
'Well, I can see that. What's it about?' Tarlequin said with a smirk. He liked the boy.
'Oh, it's a collection of some widespread dwarven guidebooks. The first part was about how to dig tombs for dwarves according to their rank, now I'm in the middle of a lecture about taming mountain bugs and I've already read a bit of the end, it's a small collection of bedtime stories.' Mersha explained without looking up, turning a page in the process. Tarlequin raised an eyebrow, did the boy talk and read at the same time?
'Bedtime stories! Lovely, what kind of stories?' he asked curiously.
'Most of them are boring, just the usual behave or you'll be punished and stuff, but there is one I quite liked, it's about a dwarf and his half-dwarf friend, they keep doing things they're not supposed to do and when they bother an old dragon, he tries to eat them. But he's so old he doesn't even have teeth anymore and because he can't swallow them whole, he just keeps them in his mouth until they starve there...' Mersha said with a strange shine in his eyes. Tarlequin didn't know what to say about that, he'd never heard that story before and he'd never heard Mersha talk so much either.
For a while, they both sat in silence, Mersha read on and Tarlequin was deeply sunk in his own thoughts. He didn't even notice the people passing them nor how they all went silent when they got close to the two. When Mersha suddenly said something, Tarlequin had to ask him to say it again because he hadn't been listening.
'I said your friend isn't dead. I just thought you might want to know that.' The boy said, not even taking his eyes off the book.
'Do you mean Raf'ney-krush?' Tarlequin asked. Of course he knew Raf wasn't dead, he'd seen the queen himself, but Mersha couldn't know that. Foreteller or not, nobody could know in advance who the queen of the night was going to choose. Not even the best foretellers had ever managed to see that coming, they could see that somebody was going to die and sometimes also when and where, but they couldn't tell the difference between death and joining the queen's army.
'Yes.' Mersha said, turning another page.
'How do you know?' Tarlequin asked, trying to sound casual.
'I saw him. Before it happened. I saw how she looked at him. Of course she was going to choose him, it was obvious, wasn't it?' The boy still didn't look up. To him, it seemed to be all clear and nothing to care much about.
'You saw the queen of the night?' Tarlequin asked, deeply confused now. Mersha sighed.
'Yes, didn't I just say that?' he sounded bored. 'I had seen her already days before, in the distance, not daring to come closer. She's scared of the Outcast, you know. But once she knew his time was coming, she couldn't keep away from him anymore. She followed you when you left for that battle, she was with you all along.'
The thought of that sent shivers down Tarlequin's spine. Could it be true? He'd always thought only death could allow people from their world to cross over to hers. But if she'd been following them, she must have found a way to reach them herself, at least to see them. But most importantly, was she really scared of the Outcast? And if yes, then why?
The queen of the night was from another world, she ruled there all by herself, always recruiting an army of people, stolen just before their deaths. She'd do that until she'd found a worthy king, then the king would lead the army into battle and she'd recruit a new army once the king was dead. The queen was the cunning mind behind it all, behind every battle big enough to cause new beliefs to form. A creature like her didn't have to be scared of anything nor anyone.
'How did you know it was hear?' Tarlequin said after a while. Now Mersha sighed again, closed his book and put it away.
'Because she told me. I have known her for all my life, she's always somewhere around.'
'And she talks to you?!' Tarlequin was deeply shocked.
'Yes, of course, it would be rude not to answer when I ask her questions. But I haven't seen her since she left for your friend. Seems like she's up to something.' When Tarlequin just stared at Mersha in disbelief, the boy opened his book again and read on. The Faun quickly came up with an excuse and went looking for Nume and Kran.
'What do you mean Raf isn't dead, of course he is, I saw him die.' Nume said. She was exhausted and worried, maybe she shouldn't have let Tarlequin leave his tent yet. Though he looked alright, he'd made them walk far away from the camp so they could talk by themselves, now both Nume and Kran were slightly out of breath but Tarlequin was just excited.
'Well, he isn't, but we will never see him again, or at least we should hope so.' He hurriedly said.
'What?' Kran sounded equally worried about Tarlequin's sanity.
'He's been recruited by the queen of the night.' They just gave him blank stares. Damned Phraio, why didn't they warn their children about that? Tarlequin gave them a brief summary of what he knew about the queen, but they still didn't seem to understand why he was so excited about this.
'He's gone, how does it change anything?' Nume asked with a sad sigh.
'Well, because he's still alive. He might not be in our world anymore, but Raf is still the same, he's out there somewhere, and Mersha can see the queen so that means she's found a connection between our worlds...' More blank stares.
'What does Mersha have to do with it?' Kran wanted to know.
'He's a foreteller.'
'Is he?' both Nume and Kran asked at the same time.
'Yes, well, I think he is, he himself didn't exactly say so... Maybe he didn't see the future but he most certainly knew the queen was going to get Raf before it happened. Somehow, he can see her and even talk to her, I don't know how that is even possible, only those who are about to die can go from one world to another. That means he must be living partially outside our world!' Tarlequin talked quickly and was very excited, but neither Nume nor Kran could follow him. 'Don't you see?'
'No, I really don't.' Nume said. 'Maybe you should go back and rest...'
'Oh, stop it, you've made me lay around for long enough! I'm fine, really, you have to believe me.' Tarlequin insisted but Nume eyed him up sceptically.
'Alright.' Kran said. 'I'll try to believe you, but please, say it again, slowly this time!'
Tarlequin took a deep breath and started over. He told them how he'd seen the queen when he'd passed out, he repeated what she'd said to him about the boy having seen it coming and he explained to them what Mersha had told him earlier on.
'So there is a queen with an army of undead...' Nume started.
'They're not undead.' Tarlequin interrupted her. 'Well, not exactly, not in the way of die and come back to life, they just didn't die in the first place. But they can die, at least if the legends are true.'
'... and she's recruited Raf. And somehow she's found a way to talk to a boy, Mersha, in our world, despite not really existing here?'
'Correct.' Tarlequin nodded affirmatively.
'Despite this giving rise to some questions about the sanity of both you and Mersha, how exactly is that important to us? To me, Raf is dead, I mourned his loss, I still do, and I'll never see him again. It would be nice to think he were living his life somewhere else, but not if it means he's a soldier captured in the last moment of his life.' Nume said and now it was Kran's turn to nod.
'But don't you see? It's Raf we're talking about, he's still the same, he still wants to be forgiven. He blames himself for everything that went wrong in K'haren and he wants to end it, end the suffering. And now he's joined the mightiest army that has ever been seen in all worlds. If Mersha is right and the queen is already close enough to be seen by him and even talk to him, then that means another cycle is near.'
'What's a cycle?' Kran wanted to know.
'The time from the rise of a world to its fall and the rise of a new one.'
'So it's the end of the world?' Nume asked, sounding amused.
'Yes. Well, no. The world doesn't just end, K'haren will still be there, there will be survivors, but everything will be different. Whenever the queen's army strikes, it changes everything. Most of the time, survivors base legends on it and out of the legends grow religions and stories of gods and heroes. But that's just a side effect. Our cycle started many centuries before the Phraio got here, it was a time when dwarves and Dretho dominated K'haren. I've only been to the dwarven halls once before they were destroyed and I remember their huge statues for various gods and goddesses, most good ones, some deemed evil.' Tarlequin explained.
'But isn't change exactly what we want?' Kran said once the Faun stopped to breathe.
'Not if it comes with death and war.' Nume pointed out.
'Exactly. The army might strike anybody, but no matter which side it attacks, there will be many dead. Our only hope is that Raf can distract them or convince them to kill as few as necessary...' Tarlequin said with sadness and worry in his voice.
'But why does the army fight in the first place?' Nume inquired.
'Well, nobody really knows, some say the queen needs death to live, others claim it's just a part of the way the world works, just like a wildfire can burn down woods and new life will grow from the ashes...'
'And what are we supposed to do about it?' Kran really didn't have a clue what they could do about something as big as that, though he wasn't even fully sure whether he believed in it yet.
'Nothing, really, but it's still better to know what's coming. However, you should make Mersha stop talking about this, the last thing we need is panic once the message spreads.'
// Here's another poem for you ;)
I'd like to know
Your thoughts about
My work till now
To still my doubt