Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (10 page)

Jayden sauntered towards Jeff and clapped him on the back. “Don’t try to understand them, my friend. It’s impossible, and more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Personal experience? Guessing some of your knowledge comes from whatever happened between you and that woman we met on the road?”

The Lord’s green eye darkened and he leaned his heavy frame against the window. Staring out into the brightening morning, he kept silent, clearly not about to indulge Jeff’s curiosity. A hint of sun crept up over the trees. As he watched it rise, Jeff was surprised that he didn’t feel tired, even though by this point he might have been awake for twenty-four hours. He wondered how long the adrenaline would keep him going before he crashed.

Hardly back in Andvell for a day and already having his head messed up.

He hated this place.

***

Over the next few hours, they passed the time with books and dozing, none of them ever relaxing enough for a real nap.

At some point the food arrived. Three servants carried in trays of fruit, porridge, and cold meats, and the four of them tore into everything, happy to eat without tasting to cut their gnawing hunger.

They were just finishing when the door opened and two soldiers, chainmail glinting in the early morning sunlight, stepped in, taking place on either side of the doorway. Between them, one man entered the room. He looked to be about sixty years old, portly, grey brown hair cut short with a trimmed moustache sticking out over his top lip. He stood with his hands clasped in front of him, the sleeves of his blue tunic falling over his fingers. The silver embroidery caught the light to show off the royal family’s winged horse crest.

The four involuntary guests rose to their feet, but he lifted a hand and gestured for them to sit back down.

“Please stay comfortable,” he said. “I’m here to chat, not to receive accolades.”

The man’s voice was deep and gravelly as he chuckled. He moved towards the empty loveseat and sat down, flipping the back of his tunic out of the way.

“I am First Counsellor Basten, the queen’s advisor. Which one of you claims to be Lord Feldall?”

“That would be me,” said Jayden.

The advisor’s eyebrows rose with interest. “I see.” He didn’t bother to hide the hint of skepticism in his voice, but Jeff saw the faint recognition as well. Jeff understood the counsellor’s difficulty. The last time Jayden had been here, he would have been a whole man in the Feldall colours. At the moment, after a night in the forest among the other drastic changes, he looked little better than a ruffian. “I have no doubt you are who you say you are. I understand from Captain Dorning that you accepted your detainment graciously. For that, we thank you.”

“We understand there have been disturbances in the area,” said Brady. “The last thing we want to do is cause more trouble.”

“I appreciate the consideration. Have you heard, then, what’s been going on?”

The four of them looked between each other, all eyes eventually landing on Brady to take over the story. He cleared his throat and crossed his hands over his knees.

“What we have to tell you might sound a little hard to believe.”

Jeff swallowed a laugh, silently offering the scholar an award for greatest understatement of the century. He watched the advisor’s face closely as Brady proceeded to fill him in on the last thirty-six hours.

Jeff thought Brady’s explanation succinct, and so far made more sense than he could have managed. But based on Basten’s expression, the scholar had lost the man at the mention of world jumping.

The Counsellor rubbed his fingertips over his moustache. “I know well what Raul can do. I went myself to assess the damage in Cordelay, and haven’t been able to sleep well since. I don’t deny his magic is powerful—but powerful enough to travel to another world? How would he even know that such a world existed?”

“Because our enchantress opened the corridor first,” said Brady.

Basten reached over to grab a handful of cherries. “Magdalen Stanwell’s reputation precedes her. I hear we should have picked her up when she came out of training.”

“Lucky for us you overlooked her,” Brady replied with a grin.

“How did
she
learn of this other world?”

Jeff noticed Brady hesitate, saw how he picked up a cherry and chewed thoughtfully to give himself an extra moment, and then said, “The Witches of Andvell Forest came to us and explained the situation. It turns out we’ve had peace for the last five years because Raul’s last spell trapped him behind the Veil. Whether they knew that at the time, I’m not sure, but they gave us knowledge about this other world, and about this man, Jeffrey Powell.”

“And who are you?” the advisor turned towards him.

Jeff nearly choked on a cherry pit at the sudden attention. He spat it out into a napkin, staring over the edge of the cloth. “I’m an author.”

Confusion crossed Basten’s face. “A writer? How could you possibly help?”

Jeff looked back to Brady, who resumed his story. “Jeff is
our
author. We share differing opinions on how he makes that possible, but in his world, he writes about us. His words, to some degree, influence what happens in Andvell.”

Jeff waited for the older man to burst out laughing, or sign for the guards to throw them in the dungeon. He couldn’t blame the man. He hardly believed it after being the one to live it.

“The Sisters told you this?” Basten asked after a moment.

Brady nodded.

“For such an important national threat as Raul, why would they come to you instead of us? Our resources are more expansive, surely we could have cleared up the mess before it reached the levels of Cordelay.”

Jeff saw Jayden finger his dagger hilt as, with measured words, he said, “Raul killed my father. We have a claim on his life. And with all due respect,
my Lord
, no matter how many men you had at your beck and call, they would have fallen just as easily against the blades of walking dead soldiers and floods of blood. We’re still repairing damage to the Keep.”

The advisor twisted his signet ring around his little finger. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful. Please, continue.”

Jeff listened to Brady’s retelling of his first visit to Andvell: how they had summoned him, the missing villagers, Talfyr. He went into details that Jeff had forgotten, or events that had happened before his arrival that he hadn’t known, like how Brady had travelled to the library in Cordelay to find the Meratis spell. It left Jeff wishing he could do a reprint of
Evensong
to add it all in.

By the time Brady finished, Basten looked ready to throw any reliance on their credibility out the window.

“You do appreciate how difficult this is to believe.”

“Yes, my Lord, I do.” Brady reached into his pocket and pulled out a paperback. Jeff recognised a copy of
Evensong.
The bastard had stolen it from his shelf. “But if you get past the incredulity, you’ll find it’s all true.”

Basten took the copy of the book and thumbed through it, reading paragraphs here and there, checking out Jeff’s author biography in the back. It felt surreal, having his own characters read what he’d written about them. Kind of like they were sneaking a look into his diary. Good thing he was proud of the quality.

Setting the book down next to him, Basten once more crossed his hands over his lap. “So after all of this, you’re saying Raul is back in Andvell and has brought people from this young man’s world to help him regain his power?”

“That about sums it up,” said Jayden.

“And Jeff and this young lady,” he bowed his head towards Cassie, “are here as well because …?”

“Bad luck,” said Jeff, without thinking. He cleared his throat, folded his napkin, and set it on the table. “I mean accident.”

Brady picked up the story and described Raul’s exit from the chalet. When Basten had heard everything he needed to know, the scholar added, “We know our time is limited. Raul told Jeff that whatever it is has already begun, that we’ll be too late to stop it.”

Basten didn’t say anything, staring at Brady as if to gauge his honesty. After a moment, the scholar spoke again, “So you can appreciate the importance of haste right now. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can interrupt him. Before he gains any of his magic back.”

“Yes, yes I see that.” Basten brushed his moustache again. “Unfortunately, the decision is not up to me. I’ll relay your words to the queen, and see what she makes of them.”

“And your own recommendation?”

“No matter if what you’re telling me is true, the name of Feldall still holds meaning in this country. That should keep you in good standing.” He rose, and the others stood with him. “We’ll return for you shortly. I’ll make sure some water is sent up for washing. It would be best not to appear in front of Her Majesty in your current condition.”

He left, the two guards trailing behind him, and the door closed again. At least this time they didn’t bother to lock it.

Jeff turned to Brady. “He didn’t believe a word, did he?”

“Maybe one or two. I think he believes we are who we say we are.”

“And if they don’t?”

“Then they throw us in jail to rot,” said Jayden. He had finally released his blade, and was twisting it through his fingers. “We’re wasting time. By the time they let us go, Raul will probably have done his little doohickey ritual and be even more evil than he was before.”

“I don’t think it will happen that quickly,” Brady tried to reassure him. “But you’re right that he won’t sit around and do nothing. I imagine he feels weak, being back here, half the man he was. Weak men are usually the angriest.”

“It doesn’t bode well for the people who follow him,” said Cassie. “What do you guys plan to do once we get out of here? How are you going to find him?”

“First we’ll get you home, and then start at Treevale and go from there,” said Jayden. “Raul’s followers must be hiding somewhere. We’ll track him down. Maybe someone here can tell us where they saw the strangely dressed people. That should help start us off.”

“Like that woman?” Jeff asked.

Jayden speared a berry. “No. Like anyone else. Don’t push it.”

The door opened, and a servant returned with a large bowl, a second with a heavy ewer. They set them on the dresser and left the room without a word.

Taking turns, they each grabbed a cloth and washed the dirt off of their faces and hands. Jayden also had blood to contend with from the man he’d stabbed, and Jeff grieved for his favourite t-shirt that would forever bear the stains of that fight.

Cleaned and fed, fatigue now started to seep through his muscles. Sinking into the sofa, Jeff allowed his eyes to close, focused on the soothing sounds of Brady flipping through pages of a book, and Jayden back to picking at the food tray. Cassie made no noise, and curiosity pushed Jeff to squint one eye open. He found her staring at him.

Their eyes met, and she looked away, picking up the copy of
Evensong
. He wondered what she’d been thinking, what she wanted to say to him. He didn’t know women well—at all, if he were honest—but she was obviously mad at him for something. He just wished he knew what.

His eyes closed again, and his mind drifted on a current of semi-sleep, his limbs light and wobbly.

Images flickered behind his eyelids of half-dressed women and scary deer, which turned into cougars and pounced at his throat, tearing into his skin.

His eyes flashed open; his pulse pounded in his temples. Nothing else in the room had changed, so his head fell back again. Then dragons flew over his head. Green scales in the sunlight, beautiful now that they weren’t scary. One of the giant beasts turned its head towards Jeff. Its eyes weren’t golden like Talfyr’s, but red. Crazy. It opened its massive jaws and, with the release of a sulphurous cloud, let out a scream that cut through Jeff’s veins like ice and exhaled a wave of flame, right where Jeff stood.

He opened his eyes. Still no change in the room.

Giving up on sleep as an impossibility, he joined Brady near the bookshelves, grabbed a volume on the history of the Royal Family, and started flipping through crests and names. His mind still groggy, none of the words sank in, but the pictures were vivid and took his mind away from their situation. As his eyelids grew heavy and began to sag, his attention fell on a particularly colourful sigil: a black bear with bared teeth against an orange background. He started to read the description, but before he got farther than
“One of the oldest Andvellian Houses”
, the door swung open and the two guards marched in. Jeff expected to see Counsellor Basten, but instead Captain Dorning stood at attention.

“There a problem?” Jeff asked.

“I’m to take you lot down to the audience chamber. Queen Ansella wishes to judge you in person.”

Glancing at Jayden, Jeff was alarmed to see the warrior look even more shaken than Jeff felt. The man’s cheeks had blanched, his scars tight across his face. His chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.

Jayden’s nervousness made Jeff even more so. He tried to catch Brady’s eye, but the scholar didn’t notice him, equally fascinated with Jayden’s reaction.