Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (28 page)

“
Sarah, do ye have any children?”

Sarah shook her head. “No, we don’t. We’re thinking about having a few, but nothing yet.”

Suddenly finding his seat uncomfortable, Steve fidgeted, and attempted to steer the conversation to a different subject.

“
Is it true that this room blocks all magic?”

The king nodded. “Only a very select few have jhoruns strong enough to resist the protective enchantments cast upon this chamber.” Recognizing the stubborn streak in Steve’s eyes, the king smiled. “Feel free, my friend.”

Sarah shook her head. Nothing but a big kid at heart.

Steve glanced at the hearth. Extending his jhorun to the blazing fire, he pulled all the tingling energy inward. The flames extinguished with a soft ‘poof’.

Steve was grinning from ear to ear. “Cool!”

The Kri’yans were also smiling. They hadn’t mentioned that if they weren’t the Nohrin then their jhoruns would have been unable to defeat the Antechamber’s restrictive charms.

“
Try yours, babe.”

Thinking of what she could teleport into the chamber, she remembered her lip balm in her purse back in their quarters. She held out her left hand. The balm materialized instantly in her palm. She uncapped it, applied a small amount to her dry lips and sent the small tube back to her purse.

Queen
Callé
laughed. “Now that is a jhorun I would love immensely!”

Sarah grinned. Here was someone she could easily become friends with. The queen had an easy-going, comforting personality that exuded openness and honesty.

“
I’m still learning the nuances of it,” Sarah confessed. “Steve seems to have more control over his jhorun than I do with mine. I’m still practicing, though.”

In a hushed, conspiratorial tone, the queen leaned forward and spoke to Sarah. “One might think honesty is a good jhorun to have, but how often do ye want yer husband to tell ye that a dress chosen for a certain occasion is unflattering?”

Sarah stifled a giggle. “He does that to you?”

Smiling, the queen nodded. “My jhorun is one of the more powerful manifestations of
veracity
. It is difficult to suppress. Not impossible,” she added quickly, as Sarah looked ready to ask a couple of questions, “but difficult. Therefore I let my jhorun be active at all times.” She looked at her husband who was deep in conversation with the foreign man. “I just have to be careful which questions I ask.”

Interested, Sarah leaned further towards the queen. Sensing a shared female moment of mirth, Callé conspiratorially leaned towards her as well. In hushed tones, she whispered to the queen, “how does your husband feel about telling you the truth about everything? Some women would view that as the perfect marriage!”

Suppressing the urge to laugh out loud, the queen risked a glance at her husband. “Entu has said on more than one occasion that it is difficult to handle at times. So he has to choose what he says, too. The truth can be said many ways, and some ways are less dangerous than others.”

Sarah giggled. “I never thought of it that way.”

“
He is very skilled in word play. He can still say the truth to me and yet convey another meaning entirely. I am still amazed at how he can do it.”

Steve, noting the huddled conversation Sarah and the queen were having, shook his head. Unbelievable. She did it again.

Kri’Entu, noting Steve’s astonished stare, glanced over at the women. What was this? His wife had only just met this woman a few hours before, and yet now they were acting like they have known each other all their lives!

“
I don’t know how she does it,” Steve murmured. “We haven’t been in this kingdom that long and yet she can instantly bond with any woman here and become their best friend.”

Stroking his beard thoughtfully, Entu smiled at the two gossiping women.

Sensing they were being watched, as one, the women turned to the men. The queen and Sarah both raised an eyebrow. Since both were within the peripheral vision of the other, each noted that the other did the same thing. As if on cue, both smiled.

“
Sorry to interrupt,” Steve began, “but I need to ask the million dollar question now.”

Sarah nodded, indicating for him to proceed.

“
Your majesties, in my grandparent’s house on my world, there is a really large door carved with a representation of this kingdom.” Seeing no acknowledgement from either king or queen, Steve continued. “In their safe was a big green crystal key. It fit into a keyhole shaped window of the castle on the door. Sarah turned the key, and presto, we had an instant portal to Lentari.”

“
He incorporated the portal into the decor. I must admit I was curious about that,” Kri’Entu murmured.

Steve jerked in his chair. “So you’ve heard of this type of portal then?”

The king nodded. “It is the main method of transportation between great distances in Lentari. There are only a few portals, so they are reserved for official use only. We tasked Shardwyn with finding a suitable method of returning the Scribes to their home world. He contacted the best craftsman of portal keys that ever lived. Well, the only maker of portal keys.”

Elation surged through Steve. “Yes! So you have another portal here! Beautiful! So you can send us home then? We figured that’s how we can best protect your son, taking him to our world.”

The king and queen stared at each other in shock. Of course! It was so clear now! The Nohrin would hide their son on a world where no harm would befall him. No one from their kingdom, nor any others for that matter, would be able to find him!

“
Is there a portal here, in this castle, then?” Sarah asked hopefully.

“
Aye,” Kri’Entu answered slowly, as realization sank in that his son would soon be leaving. Taking a deep breath, he faced the two Nohrin. “Ye only need yer key to activate the portal.”

The queen watched as Sarah’s face fell, her eyes filling with tears. “Yer key is not with ye, is it?” she asked softly.

Both Sarah and Steve slowly shook their heads.

Turning to her husband, Callé asked the obvious question.

“
If they do not have the key, how does the portal work then?”

The king shook his head. “Without the key, our portal cannot tune in on the receiving portal. So it would not work.”

Sarah, on the verge of tears, looked to her husband for solace. Steve, however, wasn’t ready to give up.

“
Okay, so we don’t have the key. Can’t we get another one? I mean, there’s got to be some way to replace a missing key, isn’t there?”

“
I had not thought of it that way,” the king confessed. “No one has lost one before. Ye will have to seek out Maelnar.”

“
And he is?”

“
The dwarf who crafted your key.”

“
How do you know he’s the one who made it?”

“
Because,” Entu explained, “Maelnar is the Strathos, the maker of keys. He is the only maker of portal keys and has lived for hundreds of years, with every indication of living for hundreds more.”

“
Is this Maelnar person easy to find? Please tell me he’s here in the castle.”

“
Unfortunately, no, I am sorry. His clan lives in the Bohani Mountains far to the north. I last met Maelnar when I was but a boy. I have not seen him since. He’s very reclusive.” Seeing the Nohrin’s faces fall yet again, the queen spoke up.

“
Fear not, we will find him. We will send out word immediately to ascertain his present whereabouts. The dwarves govern themselves, so we can not order Maelnar to reveal himself. But they are our allies. They should at least be able to point us in the right direction.”

Clapping his hands, the king summoned Tristan into the room once again. “Send word immediately. We need to locate the dwarf Maelnar. He should be in the vicinity of the Bohani Mountains. Go now.”

“
Sir.” Tristan bowed, leaving the room as
silently
as he had entered.

“
How long do you think that will take?” Steve asked.

“
Truthfully, I am not certain,” Kri’Entu admitted. “We can only wait. There is no sense in wandering all over those mountains until we have an idea which area to search.”

“
So what do we do now?” Steve wanted to know.

The queen spoke. “I think now we should talk about the Bakkian. Would ye care to hear about it?”

Scooting his chair closer to his wife’s, Steve nodded.

The king rose, went to his private desk in the far corner of the room, turned, and faced the stone wall behind it. Reaching out with his right hand, he gently pushed in one of the stones. There was a soft click, and a section of the wall slid aside, revealing a large cavity within the wall. Sitting within the cavity was a larger version of the
griffin
safe that Steve and Sarah had become very familiar with. The griffin on this safe started the musical humming as the king approached. As before, the griffin raised its leg, and the king pushed the button.

Reaching inside the hidden compartment, the king withdrew a small, rusted chest. As he turned to walk back to his guests seated before the fire, the compartment within the safe closed with a snap, and the griffin stepped back onto the button, hiding it from sight. Even the wall slid smoothly closed, Steve noted.

Kri’Entu set the chest on the small table before the two Nohrin and gently pushed it towards them. He couldn’t hide his smile as a very skeptical Steve glanced down at the rusted chest.

“
What’s this?”

The king smiled. “That, my friend, is the Bakkian.”

“
That??”

The king nodded.

Reaching slowly out to the chest, Steve undid the latch and gently opened the coffer. Leaning forward together, Steve and Sarah peered into the small, deteriorating container. Sitting inside was a crystalline object resembling a small shield, about the mass of a clenched fist. The crystal had a symbol embossed onto the surface, depicting some type of animal. Steve nodded, recognizing the image now: it was a picture of a griffin with one foreleg raised. Was this the mark that the young prince had upon his shoulder? Clearly the griffins held some type of unknown importance here.

Sarah sat back and studied the king and queen. “I thought this prophecy would be in a book, or on a scroll, or something. That journal mentioned a four hundred year old document.”

“
My grandparents said they found some manuscript last year. It’s mentioned in their journal. Once it was found, the journal said the entire kingdom could read the Bakkian in its entirety.”

“
Ah, the manuscript.” Kri’Entu nodded. “It chronicles past attempts to locate the Bakkian.”

“
So who found it, then?”

“
A knight who lived hundreds of years ago. Went by the name of Volan.”

“
Was wondering who that was,” Steve muttered.

“
So what are we supposed to do with that?” Sarah asked, pointing to the crystal shield.

“
Pick it up,” the queen suggested.

Sarah eyed the small, crystal shield. “What will happen if we do?”

“
No harm will come to ye, I promise,” the queen assured them. “The Bakkian will only reveal itself to those involved with its prophecy.”

More curious than cautious, Steve stared at the object. “And how does it do that?”

“
Ye only have to touch it.”

Sarah looked to her husband to take the initiative. Correctly interpreting her glance, he shrugged. Reaching in with his right hand, he took the crystal object out of the box.