Elris

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley,” he slurred. The drunk spun his half full mug across the wooden table, spilling it. Shouts of protest came from the table he was sitting at. The tavern inn was busy and Elris didn’t listen to the rest of his story. She made her way to the back counter.

“I just need a stay for one night.” Elris said.

The woman at the counter looked her over. “Yeah, we’ve got a room for you in the back. Dinner’s hot and breakfast starts just before sunrise.”

“Thank you.”

Elris took her key and made her way down the hall, leaving the noisy tavern room behind. The inn was creaky and old. She opened the door to her room. It was simple: a bed, nightstand, and washbasin. There wasn’t room for much else. She closed the door and locked it. She took off her worn, dusty cloak and draped it over the end of the bed. Unhooking her bag, she set it gently on the floor. It still made a small thunk. There was no rug. The wood was worn smooth and soft.

She sat on the bed. The mattress wasn’t as thin as she expected. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The shutters to the small window were closed, but on the other side, in the distance stood the Faranor mountains. The purple sky of the setting sun would be over them, dimly lighting their snowy tops. She debated opening the window to look at them. The window was facing mostly north, but the rest of the inn was to the east and it should still give a good view of them. Fatigued, her body protested moving, so she stayed where she was.

She ran her hand across the bed. The sheets were coarse, but not threadbare. That was good. She gently pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn’t want to think about it. Filling her lungs with air, then letting the breath out slowly; she closed her eyes. The mountains were in the distance. The early summer air was soft, and gentle, cooling down with the night. Her father was a thief; her mother a betrayer. She wondered, was the king dead by now? She thought of what was in her bag. It was heavy. She had been carrying it for two days. No one had questioned her and they had no reason too. Had they been able to feel her heartbeat like the mages of the stories, they would have known her fear of them. But they were just soldiers, and she was just an ordinary traveler. No one questioned her. She took another slow deep breath to calm her thoughts. She needed to sleep tonight. Continuing to try and use her breath to calm her thoughts, she laid her head on the pillow.

She woke up slowly the next morning, still used to going to the forge. When everything hit her again, she threw her arm over her eyes, blocking out the light. She moved her arm again. The light was soft. Travelers generally left earlier than this. It was still early for her. She got out of bed and washed her face. Shouldering her bag and carrying her cloak, she opened the door and headed to the front. A couple people walked down the hallway with her.

A few people were in the tavern eating breakfast. Elris turned her key in at the counter. The woman handed her breakfast. Elris took it to an empty table and sat. She glanced around, but no one paid much attention to her. Shrugging off her bag, she set it on the bench, leaning it against her leg. She adjusted it so the weight wasn’t pinching her thigh.

Breakfast was porridge, dried fruit, and a soft roll. She wrapped the roll up and put it in her bag at the top. She didn’t taste the porridge. The dried fruit was good. She ate some of it, then ate the rest. Scraping the sides of the bowl with the spoon she finished her porridge. Knots were forming in her stomach. It felt like a weight was on her spine and in her shoulders. Her fingers tapped slowly, trying to move the tension in her limbs. Noticing her shallow breathing she forced herself to breath deeper. Her muscles were tense when she stood. She wanted to sit back down again, but she stepped over the bench and put her bag on her back again. She wanted to keep moving. The bag was heavy. Used to working with steel and other metals, she didn’t think it a burden to carry on her back. She threw her cloak on and clipped it in place. She gave the bowl back to the woman at the counter and left.

Outside the air was cool. The sun was peeking over the tops of the trees. Tallnight forest was light and airy, and filled most of the country. Sleeping had helped her feel rested and able to travel. Last night she had felt dead on her feet before she had spotted the inn. Now, she was ready to take the day of traveling. Heading this way, she just wanted to keep going. There was no reason to turn back.

The roads were dusty and sparse of other travelers. For a half an hour near midday, she traveled along the same way as a miner. Thankfully, he paid little attention to her and turned off on the road to Calris. The sign pointing to the road he took was worn and in need of replacement. Near the capitol they would never have let a sign get so dilapidated. But the second half of the day before, she had realized how the niceties of the capitol did not extend further out. The road she was on continued northeast. She traveled as the sun moved behind her.

She tried to remember the maps her brother had studied. The city of Perf was this way. The mountains were getting closer, but she wasn’t sure if she would need to cross them before getting to Perf. She wasn’t sure where else to go. Not knowing the roads or the cities, or villages around here, there was no reason to go elsewhere.

As it started getting late, she watched for an inn in the distance. The trees were too close to the road to be able to see a building itself, but the smoke would show above the treetops before too far off. The further she walked the clearer it was, she wouldn’t be spending the night in an inn. Stars started to appear and the sun set. Finally, she walked off the road to a small clearing. It wasn’t as nice as it had looked from the road. Prickly bushes spread their long arms across the ground and only thin, short grass poked through.

She cleared a small area and set up camp. It took her until the thick crescent moon had lowered below the tree line to finish. Her and Malkah’s paths had almost always taken them along populated roads with inns at good distances, and she had rarely traveled with her parents. She pulled the cloth wrapped package out of her bag and looked at it in the firelight. It was a stone tablet longer than her forearm and almost as thick. Small writing was etched across the entire surface. It was the Scroll of Kings. It didn’t look all that impressive sitting in her lap. She knew the high priest used it to find the lineage of kings but didn’t know how it worked. Her parents had sided with the High Priest to overthrow the king. Her years of apprenticeship and now work with Malkah had prevented her from being home much. Having no idea when they changed their belief, she had believed them to be good people until a few days ago. The day had been horrible as they told her their views and what they had done. No one had known the tablet was missing when she escaped with it from her parents’ house late that night.

Her chest ached and her eyes stung. She looked at the sky, but the stars gave no answers, just beauty. She knew without it, their coup wouldn’t have solid ground. As much as she was ashamed and horrified by her parents’ actions, the question that kept slipping into her mind was whether they had met the high priest or not. She remembered the parade ten years back, just before her apprenticeship had started, watching the king and the high priest ride past. They had both looked so noble. The king smiled and waved at his people. And the high priest, solemn with his responsibilities, held his head high as they passed the crowds. She wondered if the high priest had hated the king even then.

The back of the Scroll of Kings was smooth. She felt it with her fingers. Judging by the feel of it, it was blue slate from the Korlac mines. The slabs from there were thick and durable. She knew quarriers argued if it was a true slate. Stonemasons preferred it, but blacksmiths found it hard to work with. She had never worked with any before. Whenever someone requested something that also required stone and Korlac slate was the best option, Malkah had always worked it himself.

The edges of the tablet had been sanded to a soft bezel. The front had not been. Every mark of etching was visible. She ran her fingers over that, amazed at the craftsmanship. The continuity of the letters was remarkable. Each specific letter looked the same across the whole script. The care it would take to make that would have taken a while. She wondered how many attempts they had made and if there were any half-written ‘Scrolls of Kings’ lying around somewhere.

The galaxy was starting to appear above her. She wrapped the tablet back up and put it back in her bag. Another day had passed as she was no closer to knowing what to do with it. She hoped someone in Perf would know what to do, and that she would be able to find them, whoever they were.