Drumwe Isles

chapter seventeen

There was nothing suspicious about Amra Yelran walking into the Elven palace. She was, afterall, a member of the royal family. Clad in everyday clothes, brown leather pants and an oversized tunic, it was very easy for her to wander about inconspicuously. Nobody suspected she'd either need to or be interested in stealing from her own uncle.

So Amra greeted the guards casually. She walked right through the throneroom, where her uncle was pacing before the Druid Council and a meeting of some sorts was taking place, and off to a room on the left. The Elven library was an ancient wonder in its own right. It held walls upon walls of ancient scrolls, modern books, and even a few stone tablets. Of course, much of the stone tablets weren't eligible to Amra, who hadn't paid attention hardly enough in her teachings of the Ancient Elven language.

She began wandering about the walls of books and came, pretty quickly, to the conclusion that her uncle hadn't put his maps with any of them. So next she turned her attention to the desk at the sitting area towards the centre of all the walls. At most given times throughout the day there was an ungodly old woman who found herself planted there whose name was Roshya. She was so old that it might have been unusual, were Elves not immortal creatures. Throughout the years she'd picked up every dialect of Elvish language there was and she didn't actually originate from anywhere on Drumwe, but nobody talked about where she actually came from. Amra was convinced her uncle only put the woman in his library because she was one of the only Elves around who could read every single scroll which he possessed.

This time though, Roshy was nowhere to be seen. Though Amra could only imagine that wouldn't last long and made quick work of digging through the desk drawers. Ulnyrth made it a point to be a very open man with both his personal and official affairs. Thus, not a single drawer in the desk was locked. When Amra's hands started brushing old maps, and dust started wafting all about her, the girl knew she was likely pretty close. Soon enough she found a particularly yellowing and flimsy map and slapped it on top of the desk.

It depicted all of Drumwe, from Dillac's mountain cities to Taudor's bandit holes at the northwest. She scanned the Fallburne region swiftly, looking over her shoulder to check for Roshy before returning her complete attention to it. At the very north-most point of Fallburne, about the Singing Caves, there was a tree which had been drawn differently from all the other trees in the region. It was unlabelled and not particularly suspicious but Amra knew Elvish people well. This tree had spoken to them differently; it was the one.

Amra slid the map down her pant leg, where it caught in the fabric about the ankles which were tucked into a pair of warm walking boots. This way she could hide the content without looking suspicious in the least. Amra closed all the desk doors and scanned the area afterwards, making sure to leave nothing looking amiss.

"Looking for anything in particular, dear?"

Amra froze, turning to face Roshy sheepishly. Though the girl suspected someone could stop her and ask her what she was doing, she hadn't planned for what to do were it to happen.

"Yes, Roshy. I'm trying to find a cookbook with good recipes for frimbo."

"Frimbo?"

The old woman looked Amra up and down wearily.

"Are you with child?"

Amra's cheeks reddened and she shook her head furiously.

"Acoris was curious about it, saw one of the Elves eating it."

Her lies were flimsy, but not enough to invoke the interest of Roshy. The old woman shrugged and waved the girl over as she began walking towards one of the first sections in the library. Swiftly, they came upon the cookbooks and the old woman skimmed the titles before selecting a newer leatherback book and handing it to her.