Legends of Belariath
The Quest For The Baron's Silver
Una Legoran – Third Signet Ring
A tiny sigh, expelled through plump, soft lips. A little grin curling up the corner of her mouth. A gleam in her eye as she signs the parchment, her intent to retrieve this treasure. She writes carefully on the parchment, starting the long lyrical account of her quest in her flamboyant handwriting.
“I, Una of the tribe of Legoran, formerly, a Torian by race, do hereby lay down my intent to retrieve said treasure, a signet ring. I have visited the Baron at his home a day hence. He is a strange man. Not I to judge others, however. He has lent me a guide to take me to the location of his ring. He will not tell me much, stupid man… except to say that I must search a castle in the depths of a forest about three days travel from here.
I wait for the guide as I write. Not the most trustworthy of creatures, I feel… but she is all I have to lead me. We will see….”
Una looked up as something flitted through her open window at her room in the Unigo Tower. She shifted, reclining as she was on the stone seat by the window. A wingtip gave off a soft rustle. The little pixie, for that is what it was, buzzed about her sparse room for a moment, with a trailing sound of burring wings. Her eyes followed it, and rolled for a moment as she waited for it to calm down enough to stop moving.
“Ah… the guide.” She muttered to herself idly. “And not before time.”
Eventually the whirring creature slowed to a halt, perching upon her desk with two tiny feet. Bright eyes settled on the torian seated with lazy grace in front of her, and she made a small bow.
“Greetings, lady Una!” she squeaked. “I am here!”
“So I see…” Una replied after a pause, rich voice modulated with tones of dry amusement. “Are you all prepared, little Saska?”
The pixie nodded excitedly, fragile wings giving a quick flit. “Yes yes, Master is waiting! Let’s go!”
Una nodded, sliding from her seat and picking up her backpack. It would be walking mostly, despite the fact that both could fly. She needed supplies and so forth… and the bag held all to survive in the wilderness. She didn’t need too much… coming from a nomadic tribe of the winged, she was certainly more used to harsh weather than most.
She made ready her room, making sure everything was in place… in some ways the carefree woman could be meticulously neat… and turned to the little pixie, who was buzzing annoyingly about her head and chanting, “Lessgo lessgo lessgo come ooooon… come on….”
Una flicked her an irritated glance. “We are on our way.” With a few graceful steps, she turned towards the large window… embracing for a moment the first soft fingers of light from the coming dawn. With a gentle whumf noise, her huge, heavy cream wings outspread… and she stood for a moment…. then without warning launched herself out of the window, into the air.
The Unigo tower, being a construction of magic, had fiddly dimensions. Much larger, and therefore taller, than it looked from the outside. High up in the air, she began to drop like a stone until her large wings caught an upward gust of wind, balancing her in mid air. She descended slowly toward the ground, weighed down somewhat by her backpack. Midway through the drop Saska flitted close to her ear. “Didn’t wait for me! Meanie!” the creature shouted petulantly, above the noise of the wind.
“Can’t hear you!” Una shouted cheerfully back, knowing every word the pixie had said.
Two days of traveling with the infuriatingly chirpy Saska had begun to grate on the nerves of the unpredictable woman. Una trudged through the forest, dagger ever at the ready, the creature ahead of her for the moment, winging through the trees. Occasionally, a mutter under her breath would spill forth, tone vicious, and words usually concerning ‘bloody annoying pixies.’
What a guide. Two hours after they had set out, Saska had led her a wrong turn, straying into a village that was not on the map, certainly not on the route, and full of desperately vicious humans that kept offering them cheap jewellery for ridiculous prices, then trying to kill them when they refused. After that little adventure, Una had made it a point to check in with her every half hour, consulting with her on the map.
The pixie was full of useful, petulant phrases like “I know the way…” , “That wasn’t there last time,” and Una’s utter favourite, “This is a shortcut.”
She had lost a couple of feathers, her thighs were aching from walking and kicking various murderous people in the throat, and to top it all, she hadn’t washed once since they set out.
She stopped near a willow tree, running her hand for a moment along its bark and sighing gently. There…on the breeze… the sound of running water.
Stepping from the path, her sandals crunching softly over the leaf strewn springy ground of the forest floor, she followed the source, not bothering to shout to Saska… she could find her as and when.
A lovely sight met her gaze. In a shaded glade, with shafts of sunlight piercing the blanket of leaves and branches, was a slow, ponderous river. Water clear as crystal and tinkling sweetly over the rocks on its banks.
She stepped closer, lips parted as she longed to bathe in the cool liquid, get rid of the dirt and relax. She kneels to take a drink first, brushing her hair over one shoulder and leaning over the water, her own reflection staring back up at her.
She leant over further, to scoop up some water…. And the reflection’s eyes blinked.
Without warning, a face moved… broke through the water gently. It was most definitely not her face. The skin was tinged blue, the eyes like two shining crystals.
“Hello.” Said the face.
Una blinked.
“….Hello…” she murmured, staring into the eyes.
The Naiad, for that is what she was, smiled beguilingly, her eyes locked onto the Torian’s, her face only just poking out of the water. “Come join me….” she said softly, voice soft and undulating.
“Ermm….” Una said, quite taken aback and feeling slightly confused by her hypnotizing eyes.
“Come join me…” the Naiad pressed again, a hand slipping out to join the head out of water, a finger beckoning.
Una hesitated, lost somewhere in that crystalline gaze. Seemingly unable to notice that her body was leaning further and further out, teetering dangerously close to overbalancing and dumping her in the river. Closer, and closer… the water lapping, her wings folded, no help at all as she seems unable to stop herself moving…
And suddenly, a fierce buzzing erupted near her ear, and the blue face before her contorted in surprise and fury. The buzzing thing flitted directly towards the Naiad’s nose, attacking it fiercely. With an annoyed, unbecoming yelp, the face submerged back into the river with a splash.
Una leant back, taking in a deep breath. Saska chattered and squeaked unintelligibly at the water, whisking about.
“Stupid!” she turned on the Torian. “Stupid Una lady!”
“Hey, hey hey!” Una replied, snapping. “What the bloody hell d’you mean, stupid? What are you talkin’ about?”
Saska waved her tiny arms about wildly. “That was a Naiad… she was hypnotizing you with her magicky things! You were about to fall into the river!”
Una frowned, paused… looking back at the water. “…Really?”
“Yes yes yes!” the pixie chattered. “She was a wild one… she would have tried to keep you for herself, and then we would never have got my master’s ring back!”
Una scrambled slowly away from the bank, brushing little stones and dirt from her white tunic. Golden skin splashed with water. Looking rather shaken.
“Oh…” she muttered.
To her credit, the pixie demanded nothing like a thank you nor an apology from her, simply saying, “Dangerous places in these forests…. Need to be more careful, Una lady.”
With that she flitted off slowly, looking back to see if Una was following.
And Una did indeed follow, with a little more care than before.
The next day, at the edges of the forest, they spied the castle. Keeping crouched low, as Saska had said that the baron who had her master’s ring kept a good watch about his property.
The place was sprawling, black and jutting against the rapidly darkening sky.
“Got a plan for getting inside?” Una said softly, glancing at Saska.
“Huh. S’your job.”
Una rolled her eyes. “Well you said there was no way in except the front door… that all side doors and routes into the cellars and underground rooms were guarded continually, and on top of that, the place is laid out with warnin’ spells that sound an alarm whenever any of these designated entries are breached by someone unknown.”
The pixie considered, then nodded. “Yep.”
“So how do we get in?”
“Er…. Don’t know.”
Una tilted her head, shifting the golden hair about her shoulders. “The only way we can, dear pixie… the front door.”
Saska furrowed her brow. “Whaddya mean… hey… wait!!!”
For Una had started off from her hiding place, crossing the plain ground leading up to the edge of the castle grounds… in plain sight of every castle window, and every guard.
(to be continued)
With thanks to Una