He told us that it was only a matter of days after crossing over that his mother died. They traveled all the way to Ghadel, moving around outside the borders of the city, searching for a place he could only guess at. She fell ill from the extreme travels and collapsed from exhaustion at the base of a tree. He said that he was near starving and almost died himself. He cried for days with no relief. Only then, did a woman hear his cries from within the walls of the city.
That woman was Ardren, the Princess of Ghadel. I recognized her name the moment it fell upon my ears. She had apparently been betrothed to a lord in a neighboring city I’d never been to. The lord moved into her castle, married her, but was unable to bear a child—until she heard Serid’s cries. They took him in, raised him as their own, and made him prince.
“Are you going to tell me soon what has gotten your mind so consumed that you won’t respond to me?”
With Marren’s voice finally penetrating the fog in my mind, I turned my attention to him. He walked beside me with his sword strapped to his waist and a cloak over his shoulders. “What’s the cloak for?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
He stopped walking, mid-step, and grabbed my arm. I stopped turning my head to glare from over my shoulder.
“Try me.” His tone pleaded.
I rolled my eyes and stomped my foot like a disobedient child but said, “Oh, alright.”
I opened my mouth to voice my thoughts, but Marren’s eyes caught something behind me. He squinted and stiffened his posture. I followed his gaze.
A hunched over figure, fully cloaked, walked with a gait. He was alone on the road. Immediately, I felt as though we’d walked into a trap. I gripped my sword, prepared for anyone else to jump out at us from within the sheltering woods that lined both sides of the road and for this man to straighten himself and try to fight us.
Marren caught my arm. I met his gaze as he slowly shook his head. Not a good move. We need to find out what he’s doing here and why he’s alone.
Fine. Be my guest, brave and noble one.
Marren’s eyes shot a cold stare at me. Clearly he didn’t find that funny. He approached slowly. The man startled by Marren’s appearance. He cowered as he gazed into Marren’s face then fell to his knees grasping onto Marren’s cloak and hands.
I stepped closer, noting the man was aged, worn, and covered with cuts and bruises. His cloak opened and my eyes found a horrible wound at his side. His clothes were tattered. The only thing on him that appeared well-kept was his cloak.
Marren fell to his knees with the man and tried to comfort him. The man’s voice shook as he tried to say something I didn’t understand to Marren. Marren would respond with short and gentle phrases in his native tongue. The man didn’t strike me as a werewolf. His eyes were the shade of storm clouds, his skin the shade of the wood of a tree. His dark hair held strings of silver and white. It stuck out in spots from under his hood.
The man said his final words through gurgled gasps as blood rose to his mouth, he uttered in common. “Lernn. Find Lernn.”
I didn’t notice until the man’s body went limp that his eyes were fixed on me. Sending a straight shot of a cold chill through my body and clutching my spine that would last much longer than any winter’s chill. He spoke to me. He told me to find Lernn.
“Who is Lernn?” I asked Marren. My voice cracked as though all the moisture left my throat.
“I’m not sure, but there’s something else.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet. It doesn’t make sense. We need to get back and find Naloud.”
Fear clutched at my heart. A fear that didn’t belong to me and quickly faded. Marren was afraid, and he tried desperately to keep it from me. Instead of fighting with him about it, I turned on my heels and ran for home.
***
When I approached the door, I sensed something was wrong. It hung open into the foyer, an eerie silence coming from within. A dagger tacked a note to middle of the door. I ignored it, desperately running through every room and every hiding spot Naloud used until I exhausted all means of finding her inside. I ran through the garden and the nearby woods behind the house. Still nowhere to be found. I couldn’t smell her or sense her. My heart drummed frantically, its beats echoing loudly in my mind. I ran back to the front door as Marren stepped slowly into the foyer. On the way in, he grasped the note on the door and pulled it free from the dagger.
He read the letter to me in his mind.
I warned that you would pay for your folly! You paid with the life of your child!
His hands shook and his knees gave out from under him. I was wrong. It can’t be. I was wrong!
I ran to him, wrapping my arms around him and trying to console him. It’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. Please. We must hurry. I think we can still find her.
You don’t understand. Serid…he’s…
He shook his head and started to sway back and forth.
“What Marren? What about Serid?”
He sighed. It shuddered on the way out.
“Serid,” he paused to clear his throat, “is Naloud’s heart song.”
The world might as well come down upon my shoulders. It would have made more sense than what Marren said. “What? But how?”