Rodrigo Zacara and the Mirror of Power

12. Balkar's Letter

'Do you think we should prepare that potion for Adara?' Oliver asked as soon as the nurse had left.

'Are you nuts?' said Rodrigo. 'You heard Mirena. That mix could kill her.'

'So why did Adara insist on showing us those jars?' Oliver continued.

'Maybe she's not in her right mind,' said Aisha. 'She could be delirious. Anyway, what does Adara know about potions?'

Aisha was right. What if Adara's wound had affected her brain? Maybe she would never be the same again. Perhaps she couldn't even remember she was human. She might stay a wolf forever and never tell them who attacked her. Never. Unless...

Unless she already had.

'Listen,' said Rodrigo. 'Imagine if someone attacked you and you woke up days later. What's the first thing you'd do?'

'Run to the bathroom,' Oliver replied. 'I imagine I'd really need to pee.'

'Whatever, but apart from that, the first thing you would do is tell someone what had happened to you, right?'

'Well, yes, after going for a pee.'

'And if you couldn't talk or write because you'd transformed into a wolf?' Rodrigo insisted, becoming more and more exasperated with Oliver's replies.

'That's it!' Aisha explained. 'She would try to send us a message in some other way. That's what Adara was doing. She was sending us a message!'

'Yeah, of course,' Oliver replied. 'She wanted to tell us she was attacked by an army of killer potions.'

'I think I can remember the jars the wolf picked out,' said Aisha, ignoring Oliver's comment. She rose from her bed and neared the shelves. 'Rodrigo, have a look and see if you kind find something where you can write this down. The first one can kill you if you don't mix it with yarrow, according to Mirena. It was violet in colour. Ah, yes. There it is. Irinacea. Then there was a white potion that would leave you with no strength. Yep, rumularia. Then there was one that would knock out a horse, dormilea.'

Aisha hesitated for a moment. Rodrigo claimed a piece of paper and a quill from Mirena's desk, fearing they would burn his hand or worse. Fortunately, nothing happened and he quickly scribbled down the strange names Aisha was reeling off.

'I think the next one was yellow,' Aisha continued. 'There it is. Unerveia. Then there was this one, nidularia, then erfedera, quirinea, ursilaria and incarvillea. Yep, I think that was all of them. Did you write them down?'

'I think I got them all,' said Rodrigo. 'Irinacea, rumularia, dormilea, unerveia, nidularia, erfedera, quirinea, ursilaria and incarvillea.'

'Irdunequi,' Aisha muttered. 'That's odd!'

'Irdu what?' Oliver asked.

'Irdunequi,' Aisha repeated. 'That's the word you get when you take all the initials of these herbs and plants. What was Adara trying to say with that?'

'It must be the name of her attacker,' said Oliver.

'I don't think anyone has a name like that,' Rodrigo replied.

'Maybe we need to take the last letter of each word,' Oliver suggested. 'Let's see, what would it be? Aaaaaaaaa. That's it! She wanted to tell us that her wound hurts a lot.'

'I reckon "Irdunequi" is more likely,' said Rodrigo, laughing. 'I've got no idea what it means though.'

'Whatever it is, it must be important,' said Aisha. 'As soon as Adara woke up, the first thing she did was to try to get this message to us.'