An Oath Of Lords And Ladies (ARTK, Book 1)

Chapter 70

Noveno 20th, 3328 A.G

  While she was out, Nara dreamed only once. She found herself back home, in the chambers that'd once belonged to her father- and for a moment she believed she'd woken up. Then she saw that her walls were blackened, warped in a way- and when she looked in her mirror she saw nothing but what was behind her. She blinked several times, then reached out to touch the glass.

Instead of it being solid as always, her fingers went through. Startled, Nara jumped back. In her dream state, barely conscious- the dream's significance did not register. So after a few moments, she stuck her hand all the way through- and when that worked, her body.

  She found herself in a mirrored version of her room, identical to the other. Then and only then did she come back into consciousness, able to think as if she were awake.

  She walked across the room to her door, surprised at how real it felt when she touched the barring. After picking the heavy wooden board up and tossing it aside, she stood still for a moment.

  If she hadn't stuck her hand through a mirror and seen her warped and blackened walls, she would have sworn it was real and asked how in the hells she managed to stay knocked out while they carted her back home.

  The hallways were so thick with smoke that it brought tears to Nara's eyes and impaired her sight. She coughed along the way, but felt the strongest urge to go outside; and had no reason to ignore that urge. At some point, the smoke filled her lungs so much that she was unable to stop coughing. She covered her mouth and nose with her whaleskin cloak, and that seemed to help a little but not nearly enough since she had to keep moving it from her face to breathe every few seconds.

  When she'd finally reached the main entrance, she wanted to cry out in relief. It took her nearly thirty seconds to get the door open as it was heaviest of the main house, but she did- and the moved only a single step before collapsing again. Despite hitting the stone palm first, she felt nothing.

  She looked back, and the home she'd just exited was suddenly smoking ruins. In the courtyard, countless bodies laid charred while others had their throats slit open or knife wounds to the chest. Something horrendous had happened here, and Nara didn't want to know what.

  Instead of allowing herself to think, she got up and walked forward to the closest body. It was recognizable enough that she could recognize it as the man who'd previously been House Ashhand's butcher. Nara sighed. She never did like him, but no one deserved to partially burn- survive, and then have their throat cut open. She moved on to another- a woman with red hair.

  She stumbled back after moving the woman's hair aside to see it was herself.

  That time, she truly woke- sitting up with a gasp from the bed they'd placed her on. She bit her cheek a few times just to be sure, then felt a hand on her arm.

  "Thank the gods-" She recognized Aises's voice. "You were out for a while."

  She saw Renard and the High Priest Raaf standing aside, watching her then. She had no time to ponder the dream. Aises poured and handed her a glass of water from the large jar sitting on a table beside the bed, which Nara happily accepted. Aises would not poison her.

After she'd gulped down half a glass, she spoke.

  "The...high priest was correct. I can communicate with the giants.... using an ancient language." She finally said.

  "Of course I was correct. Being incorrect would mean the loss of my position, which I cannot get if my memory falters even once." The high priest Raaf replied. Nara saw her gifted book on the table too, and her eyes lingered.