When War Calls(77)

His eyes eased open as he woke from the dream, allowing only a little of the light to seep in.

‘Jaden.’ He could hear a woman calling him. ‘Jaden, wake up!’

Through small openings, he could make out a figure in front of him. He closed his eyes again, wanting to return to where he had seen his family, to feel that he was at home.

‘Jaden, please wake up,’ the woman persisted.

‘What do you want, Traveller?’ he asked sleepily. ‘I will talk to you about the rings in the morning.’

‘It is morning, Jaden. I let you sleep all night.’

Jaden became completely awake. ‘Tarsha?’ he asked in surprise.

The old woman nodded. She was sitting in front of him and wearing the same clothes as she had worn in Callibra. Her hair was as tangled as ever and her face had only been briefly rinsed, much of the dirt and muck of travel remaining in the lines around her eyes and lips. ‘It is good to see you alive,’ she said. ‘I was afraid you had not made it.’

Jaden looked around him. He was still inside the hollow of the mountain; the lush gardens, stone shrines and flowing waterways looking vibrant under the glow of the sphere above. He was still alive. The water had not poisoned him. He coughed loudly as he sat up. The sickness remained, but he did not feel as badly as he had before he slept.

Jaden rubbed at his right eye before trying to make sense of anything. It almost didn’t seem real. How could this place exist? How had he managed to find it? He thought it more likely that he would have died in the storm, or become too ill from the cold to live on until the next day. But here he was, dry, warm and safely inside a mountain that not only had amazing gardens and stone structures within it, but also the most beautiful statues he had ever seen. The faces of the statues came to mind; he remembered seeing them through the curtains of water, trying to place where he had seen them before. They were familiar to him somehow, he knew that, but he couldn’t think how. The man, he decided, was unrecognisable, looking like no one else, but the woman … she was real to him. He glanced around the hollow once more, the light stinging at his tired eyes and forcing him to squint. But he had seen enough. He knew the answer.

The statue was of Raquel.

‘This place is Daijuarn,’ he said.

‘It is,’ said Tarsha.

‘How did I get here?’

Tarsha made herself more comfortable on the step below him, wincing in pain slightly. ‘I don’t know,’ she said.

‘How did you get here?’ he asked.

Tarsha was distant for some time, and then as if she had finally heard him, she answered. ‘You were being tracked—did you know that?’

‘Yes,’ said Jaden instantly. ‘I mean no, sorry. I thought I knew.’

‘Not just by me, it seems, but the Alliance. They are interested in you, for reasons I cannot guess. You’d best be more careful, Alliance scouts are not easily fooled. You should at least make some attempt to hide your way.’

‘Did he follow me in here?’

‘No. He will not be following anyone anymore,’ said Tarsha, placing the rifle on her left upright so that Jaden could see it. ‘You would have suffered the same fate had I not realised who it was in that uniform of yours. Where did you get it?’

‘The fort,’ said Jaden with a shrug.

‘The fort?’ Tarsha repeated, her eyes becoming alight. ‘You were captured?’

‘No, I climbed in. There were no guards on the walls.’

‘Reckless,’ said Tarsha. ‘You are lucky to be here.’

‘I wanted revenge, what else could I have done?’

‘Followed your grandfather’s advice, for one!’

‘I’m here now, aren’t I?’ asked Jaden, almost angrily.

As if sensing Jaden’s new mood, Tarsha quieted, while Jaden looked away from her then shook his head before placing it into his hands. He hadn’t meant to sound so irritated. This place did something to him. For all its beauty, it made him feel strange, on edge, almost anxious. There was something about the false light and the feel of the air that would not allow him comfort. None of it felt right. It was not real, not by nature, of alien design. This was a place made by those who had failed to help his people when they were attacked, and had failed to help him when he had fallen over the waterfall. He could sense it.

‘How did my grandfather know of this, does he know the Daijuar?’ he asked, trying to take his mind off the nagging sensation building within.

Tarsha refused to look into his eyes, staring somewhere off in the distance. ‘I do not know his true association with them, but he has been my source of knowledge for many years.’