The Path to the Sun

Chapter Six

Chapter Six 

They retreated to the shelter of the cave. He propped his boots against the wall next to the fire to dry and noticed what appeared to be a drawing scribbled there. “Hey, Roh, what do you make of this?”

Roh took a stick from the fire and held it to the wall. “I'm not sure.”

“Looks like an animal. Don’t you think? Look, it has pointy ears and big owl eyes.”

“It looks like a Mawghul!” Jandon exclaimed, looking over Kiran’s shoulder. “I told you. Black, scaly beings with big, round bulging eyes that eat people whole—in one gulp.”

“Look, there’re more, way up.” Bria pointed to the ceiling.

“It’s just the work of savages,” Deke grumbled.

“What do you see?” Roh shouted over the patter of rain pounding the ground outside.

“Well, there's more than one drawing. First, there is a man and an animal in the forest. Then a huge mouth, I think. It looks like teeth. Then, in the next scene, the animal is gone and the mouth is closed. Like the forest swallowed him.”

“Mawghuls, I knew it!” Jandon said. He paced in a circle, biting his lip. “We’re doomed. We should go back.”

Roh turned to Jandon, his eyes hard as stone. “There is no turning back.”

His words echoed through the cave, leaving a pulsing silence in their wake.

Deke spoke first, “Well, only one of us is going back anyway.”

Kiran turned to Deke. “What are you talking about?”

“The Seventh Elder, you know, the prophecy.” He shrugged with a dismissive wave of his hand. “No, of course you don't.”

The prophecy? Where had he heard that before? Kiran set his jaw and glared at Deke. He was tired of being dismissed. “Everyone knows the Seventh Elder will come.”

Bria stepped in. “But we don’t know when. According to the prophecy, the Voice of the Father will choose. Do you understand? If it’s true, one of us will be the Seventh Elder.”

“What do you mean? If it’s true?” Kiran asked her.

“People say it was in the scroll that went missing during the Time of Dissention. My father’s not so sure.”

“Of course it’s true,” Deke said. “What does your father know? He’s not an Elder.”

Kiran’s eyes went to his pack and the scroll he harbored there.

“We do not question the ways of the Great Father. By the Script, He guides us. We follow.”

Roh glowered. “And by that you mean, He will guide you, and we are to follow you? Is that it?”

“My father told me—”

“Your father’s not here. Aldwyn told us to do this together. He didn’t say anything about following you.”

Deke clenched his teeth. “But I will recognize the signs.”

“And how is that? Do you know something you’re not telling us? Something in the Script?”

“I do,” Kiran blurted.

“You do what?” asked Roh, his eyes still on Deke.

Kiran fumbled through his muddy pack and held the scroll out before him. The pounding of the rain echoed through the cave. Kiran faltered, the weight of their eyes bearing down on him. “Aldwyn gave me this scroll before I left,” he said, his voice crackling like dry wood on the fire.