Ep.29 - The Year Of The Bear
(Start at the beginning)
Julia’s flesh goosed, the fine hair about her body standing in bristle as the topic swung toward Lady Fareamay. She didn't know the history between her Lady and the Serpent but had sensed something amiss when the task to return the package was given her. Like her hiding now, crouched low in fear of this creatures presence, she quietly wished for Fareamay to stay the same. Distant, obscure, unconnected to whatever price was a part of the bargain Carmel was making with the beast. Yet that same fear had stricken her throat, frozen her legs, and left her as unable as she was unwilling to intervene on her Lady’s behalf.
Carmel nodded having thought on it a moment. “Very well, I will tell you what I know.”
Dolev gasped, her hands clenching in their holds on Julia’s shoulder and side. The Chronicler heard the faintest of mutterings off the Bear’s lips, the word ‘No’, spoken from some foreboding depth that caused a shiver of doubt to run through Julia’s already tense nerves. “What?” Julia whispered in response but Dolev was already rising to her feet. The Bearess strode forth from their hiding place. Julia reached to stop her but found herself unable and unwilling to do so. She simply had to watch as Dolev intervened in the conversation in a way she could only wish to. The mystery though was why?
“Stop!” Dolev called from the darkness between the cavern entrance and Carmel. Carmel turned, the Serpent’s head lifting behind him, its eyes narrowing, the form of the man now dwarfed by the size of the beast at his back. Beside Julia, Kodiak sidled, looking more tense and on edge than ever.
“What’s she doing?” He whispered in an irate tone.
“I don’t know?” She found herself saying, yet deep down she somehow knew.
“Another rat, slunk from the shadows.” The Serpent greeted, appraising Dolev suspiciously. “I sense the rest of your vermin cowering at the tunnels mouth. Such a pity you don’t all walk freely into the light.”
Dolev stopped at Carmel’s shoulder, wrapping herself around his arm. “Do not share this knowledge with him, I see tragedy befalling those you might involve.”
Carmel shrugged, drawing the lines of his brow to a hard angle, the appearance both aggravation and perplexity. “The Serpent seeks a trade, what would you have me do, woman?”
The serpent moved in close, breathing deeply through its nostrils, and submerging itself in Dolev’s scent. “You’ve the wretched stink of a Druid, disgusting creature, so brazen as to look into the veil of my mind.” It bore its teeth and hissed. “Tell me, seer, what business is it of yours as to the knowledge I seek?”
“I make my own business,” Dolev answered defiantely with none of the trepidation displayed by her companions.
“We had come to an agreement which you’ve sullied, Druid, an offense by any reasonable standard, and that even without your crenel seeking ways. By rights something you should pay for with your life!” Carmel drew Dolev back, putting himself and his sword between her and the Serpent. The Serpent ignored the response and continued. “But I am advanced in my years, and it occurred to me that perhaps I should be tolerant of your childlike ignorance. It is within me to take great pity on your poor situation, to offer you the chance to substitute something of value to make up for our loss, that and to appease the offense.”
Dolev shook her head, “I bare nothing, and rebuke any claim of wrongdoing for seeing what I see and speaking as I see fit as it is my nature to do.”
“Nevertheless, I hold power over this domain, little rat, and one way or another I won’t allow you or your mischief to forget.”
“Then what would you have me do? I want no quarrel but have no belongings except these meager trinkets in my possession, and any secrets I bear are likely of no interest to you.”
The Serpent drew back its lips to form a somewhat garish rictus of a grin, leering at Dolev menacingly it said, “I would happily take your sight, Druid”, the words stretching out and hanging in the air like the promise itself.
Julia had no view of Dolev’s expression, she heard no sound, nor saw any notable shift in her demeanor. The silence that followed however spoke volumes and there was only the Chroniclers imagination left to wonder at what that must have meant for Dolev.
Now it was Carmel’s turn to intervene, speaking to Dolev in a low, conspiratorial tone. Uncomfortable for the proximity to the Serpent who was ever aware of everything transpiring before her. “I don’t understand your gift but I do know you don’t have to strike any bargain with this beast. I brought us down here, this business is on me.”
Dolev looked back at Carmel with the cool, stern expression she’d held when she’d first laid eyes on him. The one that spoke of deeper considerations, full of richer thought, and a distant wondering beyond the here and now. She raised her hands to cup the frame of his jaw, “No, I will do this,” and Julia saw all the concern and defiance melt from Carmel in an instant. “Tell the Wilderman whatever he wishes to know and in exchange I will relinquish my sight. Do so without compromise or I swear you’ll live out the rest of your days and your existence beyond them under the weight of a curse fitting your transgression. I swear it as an oath.”
“Very well, Druid,” the Serpent inclined it’s head, acknowledgement, agreement, a degree of submission to authority Julia had not at all expected. “Come, Wilderman, ask me your questions, I grow impatient for my holding, and even more so of your presence.”
Carmel shook his head, discontent, disbelieving, then reluctantly nodded in agreement with Dolev. He turned, his sword once again lowered as he looked up into the menacing face of the Serpent. “Tell me a tale, Serpent. I want to know all that you know of the Yos. Who they are, where they come from, why they were once known but have all but disappeared from living memory. Spare me no detail.”
(Continue to Ep.30)
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