The Hands of Fate

Chapter 17

"So," Strizor said, his hands folding and resting on his lap as he talked to Farah. "You heard a..... voice?"

The maid nodded slowly. The sorcerer seemed to think she was going mad, and she couldn't blame him. If a person came up and told her that they had heard voices she too would be concerned for their health. She bit her bottom lip, hoping that the wise man would understand that she wasn't making this up.

Ever since she arrived at his door things had been weird, awkward, and doubtful with him asking why she had been out with the Prince in the first place. She had told him that he was showing her a nice place to purchase bread for the royals, since that was the only thing she could think of right on the spot. Strizor, although doubting her, had nodded, then taking the unconscious Prince inside his home. Farah had come inside also, leaving Atlas outside to care for himself.

Strizor had asked for details, and so she had given them to him, although she didn't tell him about the robbers, for she still wasn't even sure why they wanted anything to do with her necklace; but she also wasn't sure if he would think of her differently if she did tell him about the necklace along with Theo and Hendrix. So she had kept that part to herself, and hoped that when Caspian awoke he wouldn't blabber about the bandits.

When Farah told Strizor about the ring, though, he demanded that he see it. It was as if he had suddenly been overtaken by something, causing him to become even more curious about the object. She had handed it over, allowing the sorcerer to take a look at it.

Upon laying his eyes on the ring he had frowned, furrowing his brow. Strizor had hurried over to where he kept his potions, taking three different liquids, then combining them into an empty cauldron. After a few minutes of combining them there, the liquid brewing in the cauldron took on a weird brown color. Strizor merely shook his head, beginning to stir clockwise. As he stirred slowly, the liquid became a dark orange color, and steamed, though it didn't appear to feel hot at all.

Farah watched in awe as the sorcerer plopped the ring into the pot. There it sizzled even more, and began to bubble. Farah should've yelled at the man for ruining the royal ring, since she may be executed for getting into the middle of the royal marriage, for she was the one who had taken the ring off of the unconscious Prince; but she said nothing. The maid was too entranced by what was going on to say anything.

Soon enough, the potion shrunk down and dissolved into the bottom of the cauldron. As she couldn't see the bottom of the cauldron from where she was standing, Farah peeked over the edge and gasped. There sat the ring, looking as good as new.

Farah had stared at the ring for a few moments before she saw Strizor's hand reach in and take it out. The sorcerer then headed back over to a seat across from the cauldron, sitting in it. He motioned for the maid to do so also, and she obliged. In the dusty atmosphere, it was hard to see every detail of the older man's face, even with being so close to him; but what Farah saw the most clearly were his eyes.

She remembered Adeline telling her that every pair eyes told a story--and right now, Strizor's seemed to tell knowing and somewhat worry. Farah had frowned, unsure of why the sorcerer was so nervous about the ring, for he was magical. That was when he began to ask her how she knew to take the ring off of the unconscious Prince.

Farah promptly told him about the voice she had heard, and that brought them to the present, with Strizor looking at her as if she were insane. And yet although he had a look of suppressed shock on his face, she could sense that behind it was curiosity as to why and how she could've even heard such a thing that would lead her in the correct direction.

"The voice, was it..... feminine?" He asked her slowly. Farah blinked, trying to remember the voice she had heard. She furrowed her brow as she attempted to bring herself back to the time she had heard the thing speak to her.