The Knave of Souls - Fantasy - Sequel to The Jack of Souls

Chapter 32

DREAM CACHE

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Harric wandered alone after Fink left. He could not sleep, and he feared the dreams that would come if he did. Dreams of loss. Of folly. Of overwhelming sadness. Better to be tired in the morning than visited with such dreams. At one point he thought to visit Brolli and Mudruffle on their watch of the fires, but before he reached them he turned aside. He did not want company.

At another point he may have fallen asleep. He could not be certain. But he remembered hearing Brolli speak something in the harsh tongue of the Kwendi. Groggily, he peered about from within a patch of ferns on a nurse log. For a moment he thought he saw numerous Kwendi, but then they resolved themselves into one.

He didn't know how long he'd been looking at Brolli before he realized Brolli was standing at a door. He blinked, and stared, and made an effort to wake himself enough to clear his vision, but his eyes continued to insist that there, in the middle of a mossy grotto, stood a low rectangular opening like the door to a cabinet. Against the moss-softened curves of the forest, its hard lines stood out.

Harric squinted and blinked and changed the tilt of his head to be sure it wasn't a trick of the light, but the rectangle did not change.

Brolli now stood before the opening and appeared to haul something from inside it—a pack or large bag—and then the door was gone, and only Brolli and the pack remained. The Kwendi shouldered the pack—which included a bandolier of hurling globes—and hiked off toward camp, leaving Harric dumbfounded.

Harric pinched himself to be sure he didn't fall asleep again. When the Kwendi was long gone, he stood and walked into the grotto where he thought he'd seen the door. In the moss where he'd seen the rectangle remained a long narrow impression in the moss, as if someone had stood upon a stave of wood there and mashed the plants down. The moss on the near side had also been compressed by the Kwendi's feet, but the moss on the other side appeared untouched.

He hadn't dreamed it; there had been something there.

But what? A doorway? No. Not a doorway. He hadn't gone into it or come out of it; he'd brought the pack out from it, like it the pack had been stored there.

Harric's mind travelled back to times when it seemed Brolli's luggage was an inexhaustible supply of fresh magic hurling globes and trinkets and clothing. How many tunics could Idgit's saddle bag hold? He'd seen at least four on the ambassador. Was this some kind of portable closet? Some kind of Kwendi magic designed to store useful items so they could not be stolen or lost?

Harric smiled. Clearly Brolli couldn't share this with Willard or the others because it was a truly stupendous demonstration of magic. But what amazing ingenuity and power—a portable closet! Harric's respect for the Kwendi people rose tenfold, and he found himself wondering what else Brolli had in that closet. Weapons? Books? Kwendi snacks that he couldn't get anywhere in Arkendia?

Harric left the site in case Brolli returned, and stumbled back to camp.

As he hiked along, he began to feel uneasy about the Kwendi's secrecy. What other stupendous powers might the Kwendi hide?

He frowned. He would keep Brolli's secret. For now he wouldn't even tell Fink; the imp knew enough already, and Harric's trickster instincts told him it was always good practice to have a card or two up your sleeve that even your friends didn't know about.

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QUESTION FOR READER:  Does this seem implausible for Harric to witness this? As in, too luck to see that? And if so, would it be better/more plausible if CARIS were the one to see it, but since she's mad at Harric, not tell him about it?  If you have an opinion about it one way or the other, please comment and tell me what you think.  :)

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