The Fires of Cerran

Chapter Seventeen

The corner tower was a dark, cold and unnerving place. A spiral staircase, lit only at the small pass into one of the three main floors, housed a damp and sterile air. The walls, thick stone that stung your hand with their coldness, closed around the place and offered little in the way of space or freedom of breath. There was a quiet, almost inaudible murmur from the storage basement, and to Melran these murmurs seemed almost ethereal in the darkness that now surrounded her. The room was of ample size, of that she could not complain, a large bed sat within the room and at either side sat large wooden cupboards that were bolted shut. A window, overlooking the Southern yard, was now misted and gave the illusion that nothing lay beyond the small glass square from which the girl now stood staring at. She turned, two large oak doors that were braced with horizontal black bracing, were placed at either end of the room. One, from which she had just arrived, took her directly out onto the stairwell. The other, though it was locked, she was sure would take her into one of the long corridors that ran across that corner of the building. She shivered again, though the fear that she felt had almost entirely left her now. At the entrance, she had fainted, caught delicately by Nemara who quickly advised that she be taken to her rooms to rest. Looking into the corners of the room, she paid close attention to ensure that no one stood in the darkness that was offered there. Another shiver, she pulled her robes tightly, leaving only her face exposed to the cold. Sitting on the bed, she softly rubbed her hand against the headboard, a white poplar wood that had been ornately decorated at either end with a carved design of roses, gave her a strange comfort. Closing her eyes, she felt a calmness come over her, it warmed her, and she felt her heartbeat slow and her breath steady. A knock came from the door behind her, she turned her head as the latch slowly unhooked and a slow vibrating thudding filled the room.
 ‘Child?’ a soft voice whispered from the darkness of the staircase.
 ‘I’m fine.’ Melran replied, Nemara stepped forward, she held a chamberstick in one hand, the other shielding the flame from the draft.
 ‘The King has requested that you stay here until tomorrow evening. He will send maids to tend to you.’ Nemara returned.
 ‘I don’t need maids, and neither do I need tending to.’ Melran replied, spitting her words like venom. Nemara looked at the girl with a sorrowful expression. Against the darkness the Sister’s face was delicate, and she seemed almost angelic in a place that was so bereft of light. The girl pulled her legs onto the bed, sitting cross legged and wrapped tightly in her robes, she looked down to the floor and shuddered.
 ‘Are you always cold?’ Nemara asked, taking a step forward but at the last moment choosing to remain standing.
 ‘I have known nothing but the cold for months now.’ Melran replied.
 ‘You shiver so fiercely; I worry for you.’ Nemara said. Melran scoffed at this and turning her head she spat at the feet of the Sister.
 ‘You worry for me? How exactly do you worry for me when you have brought me to this…this…pit! You do not care for me, and I wouldn’t expect you to. I do not expect anyone to.’
Such fear, I cannot imagine what she has seen. The Sister thought as she looked at the girl.  
Melran stared hard at the woman, and her eyes showed both fear and rage beyond what Nemara had ever known.
 ‘Lord Tharandal has taken to his own quarters; you will not see him until tomorrow evening.’ The Sister said, her gaze moving away from the girl. Again, Melran scoffed, throwing her head back and sighing loudly. Had this become her life, had this become her only reward. It was these thoughts that had preoccupied her mind for almost the entire journey to Ceraborn, and they seemed never to relax into the recesses, instead they only circled like sharks, steadily growing closer and closer to her own sanity.
 ‘Does the King know?’ She asked suddenly, biting her lip as she said so. Nemara shook her head.
 ‘In the confusion of the... of what happened, nothing was said to the King.’
Melran rolled her tongue around her mouth as she wrestled to find the right words.
 ‘What is this?’ She asked eventually. She had fought to find a greater question, to try and dig deeper and figure out what was happening here.
 ‘Those who have a gift such as yours are…rare. The Kingdom is in need, and the Sister has delivered you to us.’ Nemara replied calmly.
 ‘I am not a dog! I will not be passed from one Lord to another, to do his bidding when he can’t figure it out for himself.’ The girl returned.
 ‘I have seen those who fled the beast, you may have seen the power it possesses, but have you seen those who the Sister allowed to live?’ The Sister asked, now she sat beside the girl, carefully putting the chamberstick beside her on the floor before turning to the girl. Melran sat quietly, she did not want to imagine it. Nemara watched her, until at last the girl could do nothing but look to the woman.
 ‘Some men were lucky; some may live beyond the end of the month. But countless will have died since we set out on our journey. Flesh and metal burned and melded into one. Blistered wounds that fester, flies dancing about them sucking the puss like some kind of sick kitten at its mother’s teat. Some, with skin so badly burnt that the bone shines brighter than the most polished of Arisen armour. These are the truths of what that beast has brought upon this kingdom. And to the darkness that is sent there is always a light to counter it, and that is you Melran. That is why you are here.’ The Sister said, her voice was soft and light, and Melran heard the words and regarded them as almost childlike, though she knew the truth to be far more terrible.
 
 ‘These creatures, they know nothing but hate and death.’ Melran said quietly, her gaze once again falling to the floor.
 ‘Until recently my girl, these creatures were thought long dead. The darkness that has come to this land must relinquish, and it must do so to you.’ Nemara returned, placing a hand softly on Melran’s back. The girl shivered, but not at this, her mind returned to Cerran and to the fires that had burned through that place with such ferocity that even she feared for her life.
 ‘Tell me what you saw.’ Nemara said, and for a moment her voice crackled with fear. Melran did not move, instead she simply moved her gaze towards the frosted window, now dripping with condensation.
 ‘Fire.’ She said softly, without hesitation. And the two sat in silent thought, with the cold and darkness surrounding them, and fire within their minds.