Longing Ring

30

The creature whispered, "Here's what I think you should do. I think you should die. "

"Die?" J'role asked, suddenly afraid. Already he missed his mother and his father.

"Kill yourself. You really shouldn't be alive, you know. That's what we'll work on for the rest your life. There's nothing I love so much as a suicide that's been stewing for a decade or so."

"Suicide?" J'role thought. He didn't know the meaning of the word.

"It's a big word," the creature said. "Don't worry about it now. You'll come to understand it very well later. But it's the only way you can make up for being such a horrible son. "

J'role began to cry.

The person crying in the corner of the room-who was it? — left.

His mother leaned dawn and picked him up and began to croon.

J’role tried to speak. The noises poured out of his mouth.

His mother threw him back down onto the bed, making his head bang against the stone wall. She leaned down and covered his mouth, forcing him into silence.; "Shhh," she said again and again. "Shhh, be silent. "A He became quiet. "You…," she began, not to him, but to someone else. The creature in his thoughts, J'role realized, the white shadow from the corner of the room. "You didn't tell me about this!"

The creature in J'role's head laughed.

She looked into J'role's eyes. "Speak to no one. No one but me, do you understand?" He nodded

* * *

Everyone in the Hall of Records, magicians and researchers, those on ladders and those sitting at tables, turned and looked sharply at J'role. But he paid them no heed. With a swagger and a broad grin he approached the table where Releana and the dwarven magicians worked.

He stepped up onto the table, pointed to the books, then tapped himself on the chest.

"J'role?" Releana asked.

He took one of the books and stood it upright on the table. Several of the magicians moved to stop him, but Releana and Merrox stayed their hands.

He opened the book to the middle, spreading the pages and the covers wide so one page stood very much alone. Then he pointed with one finger at the picture of the small, mysterious block in the upper right-hand corner of the page. He moved his finger perpendicularly to the page, and soon the tip reached the picture of the block. He took the next page in the book and placed it against the open page. Then he raised his finger over the pages, and moved it past the pages.

He repeated the motion of his finger, first moving it toward the page, then bringing up several more pages, then moving it beyond the pages, as if through the illustration of the blocks.

Finally he turned the book so the pages he held faced the magicians. Once more he slowly brought his fingertip toward the first page he held out, touching the illustration of the small block.

"What is he doing?" one of the magician's asked, his tone full of annoyance.

For a flickering moment J'role wondered if he was wrong. The image in the garden had seemed so clear: A tunnel of sword blades framing the elf queen. Each one, a flat object, combined to create depth, and in the end, a whole picture.

But once again Releana came to his rescue. She took the book from J’role and said,

"Look. Each symbol by itself is meaningless. That's because each illustration is combined with the illustration in the stone behind it. And that bit with the stone behind it. The symbols are not formed by looking at the pictures as if the stones formed a wall, read horizontally, as we're trying to see them. They're made whole by depth. We have to imagine standing at one corner of the city, and looking down along the city wall, as if we could see the symbols on one stone after another."

Merrox said, "Each vertical row of stones probably forms one complete symbol."

"When all the stones are in place, we'll have the full picture," Releana finished. "That must be it."

Some of the dwarven magicians nodded sagely, some looked excited, and others looked irritably at J'role. J'role just sighed. He was one step closer to finding the city and getting his voice back.

He spotted Releana looking up at him with a bit of surprise, a bit of pleasure, a bit of awe.

That was good, too.

He waited as the dwarfs and Releana transcribed the symbols on the stones. On fresh parchment they drew one empty square for each vertical row of stones, then went through each page, adding each bit of detail from each of the small squares. Slowly the squares filled, and the magicians nodded and licked their lips, looking at one another with growing excitement.

J'role sat in a chair, watching. He could serve no more purpose now, but he was too excited to leave.

The magicians worked through the night, taking shifts in compiling the symbols, some working while others napped on tables and chairs in the far corners of the hall. Candles were brought in to augment the light of the wall's glowing moss. The dwarfs drew and drew. Food was brought in. Exclamations of "Ah!" pierced the deep silence every now and then, but never with the whole mystery solved just symbols completed.

Until…:

"We have it!" Releana shouted suddenly.

J'role nearly tumbled off the chair where he was sleeping, then rushed over to the table.

Releana looked down at the two dozen sheets of paper spread out over the table. J'role saw the images of trees and cats and arms and swords and flying chariots, each picture framed and adorned with dots and lines and squiggles, all of which translated the meaning of the word from its basic picture to sounds. The sounds were re-combined to make more words.

"It must be the words spoken to bring the city back," said one dwarf.

When Releana looked up and saw J'role beside hers she put her hand on his shoulder and drew him close. "This is what we say, outside the city walls: 'You are found. There is a place for you in the World. Come home.' "

The expedition-J'role, Releana, and Borthum in the lead, followed by forty dwarfs armed with glittering swords and armor that caught and reflected the sun's light like a pond of clear water-marched north to the Serpent.

The group obtained passage across the river on the Chakara, then continued on their way, planning to cut a wide path around Blood Wood and work their way back to where J'role had first seen the city. Though they no longer had the ring, J'role was confident he could find the place again.

They had traveled a full day from the Serpent, and had just made camp, when Borthum raised his head, cocking it to one side, listening carefully. "Animals are approaching"

Everyone stopped in their tracks to scan the surrounding area. In all directions small hills rolled up and down like frozen waves, and for a moment nothing was visible in the deepening twilight. Then a long line of blackness swelled up from over a hill.

"Orks," Borthum said, annoyed. "What are they doing this far north?"

How did they get across the river?" Releana asked.

The dwarf shrugged in reply, then said, "T'skrang river boat, perhaps? They might have paid to have their animals transported. Or they might have traded their swords for passage." He stared out across the darkening landscape. "There are more of them this time."

"Are they the same-?" one dwarf began to ask.

"I don't know," Borthum said quickly. "Arms!" he shouted.

Everyone scrambled to action, some tossing brands bright with fire out past the camp to widen the circle of light. The dwarfs put on their helmets, drew their swords, and formed two circles, one inside the other.

To J'role the wait for the orks to arrive seemed interminable, but finally came the thunderous beat of hooves. He felt the tension increase around him, saw the firelight slide up and down the swords as the dwarfs heft their weapons in preparation for battle.

But the charge never came, instead, the ork raiders formed a line about thirty yards away and hailed the dwarfs. They outnumbered the dwarfs two to ones and J'role knew the dwarfs had little hope of winning such a battle.

Borthum sent one of the dwarfs, Noddin, forward as an envoy. Noddin called out to the raiders in a language J'role did not recognize, but that he assumed was the ork tongue.

"He says he wants the children," Noddin said with a glance at J'role and Releana.

J'role felt strangely calm at the words. They seemed to fit in with the pattern and flow of his life.

Borthum furrowed his eyebrows. "Odd. Tell him no …"

Before Noddin had a chance to pass this on, the ork leader shouted more of the harsh sounding words. When he was finished, Noddin said, "He wants Garlthik One-Eye as well. We are to return to Throal and release One-Eye. When One-Eye returns here, they will exchange him for the children."

"He is mad," Borthum said with surprise. "Arms!" Borthum shouted, the matter already settled in his head.

But J'role had other ideas. He was certain the dwarfs would not win a battle, and from what the orks said, he was almost as certain that they meant him no harm.

It was now obvious that Garlthik had spoken to the ork raiders and secured them safe passage to Throal so J'role and the others could find the information to reach Parlainth.

Now that they had, Garlthik wanted his freedom, and he needed J'role and Releana to lead him back to Parlainth and use the information they'd gained to enter the city.

A spark of admiration flared in J'role's soul for Garlthik is audacity. His father would never have done such a thing. Garlthik had submitted to capture, had arranged for others to discover the precious secrets he could never have gained on his own.

Brilliant.

A strange excitement came over J'role. It was like being very alive, but also very close to embracing death. The ork could teach him much. Of that J'role was certain. And if Garlthik did mean him harm in the end, then J role would fight just as fiercely to kill Garlthik.

Yes. It was all becoming clear now, and it excited him to see everything falling into place. Life was made up of all the pain people inflicted on one another. And the thrill of it was to absorb the pain and live off it, to inflict pain and ruin the people who would ruin you. The thoughts made him nervous, but they seemed so true.

As the dwarfs prepared to make their stand against the orks, J'role rushed forward, cutting through the dwarven line. A few hands grabbed at his back, but the surprised dwarfs could not catch him.

"J'role!" shouted Releana.

“What's he …?" J'role heard Borthum begin to say, but then he was running so hard toward the ork raiders That the only sound he heard was his own heavy breathing.

Ahead of him two ork raiders charged toward him on their beasts. Panic seized J'role as they came along either side of him, and he wondered if after all, he was going to die at their hands. But as the orks thundered by, a strong hand reached, down and grabbed him by the right arm, swinging him up. He landed astride the saddle, sitting behind an ork.

The beast's back was wide, and J'role had trouble balancing on it. He instinctively wrapped his hands around the ork's side. The ork laughed and wheeled his six-legged beast back toward the line of raiders.

Noddin was shouting across the night air in the ork tongue. The leader of the orks shouted responses, and prolonged negotiations began. Unable to understand the talk, J'role became distracted by the sensations around him. The fidgeting of the powerful animal on which he sat. The musky odor of both beasts and orks, mingled d with the stench of blood. The muscular body of the raider around whom he'd wrapped his arms, the ork's body strong from a life lived under the demands of continual combat.

A cry went up from the dwarven camp, and J'role looked out to see Releana rushing past the ranks of the dwarfs. Again they were surprised, but this time a few gave chase. The ork leader barked some commands and ten of his raiders rushed forward. The dwarfs drew themselves up into a combat formation, ready for an assault. But the orks merely rode up to Releana and scooped her up, then rode back to their own line.

The ork leader shouted a few more words, then raised his fist high in the air. A growl rippled through the ranks of the raiders and they turned their beasts, some pulling their reins up to make their animals' forelegs dance momentarily in the air. Then they raced away into the night. The wind rushed against J'role's face, the beast's muscles moving against his thighs, the thunder of the herd filling his ears. He buried his face against the ork's fur vest, suddenly so happy. How astounded that he should be riding with ork raiders, caught up in deceit and manipulation in a hunt for a hidden city Yes. The motion of it all, he thought. If only he could keep moving fast enough, he would never have to feel anything again.

They moved constantly, camping for a few hours to rest the beasts, then continuing on.

J'role and Releana remained tied up at all times. The sun was hot, but the orks seemed not to mind.

Releana thought that J'role had run to the orks to prevent the dwarfs from fighting a losing battle, and he only nodded. He felt shame that some part of him was excited to see Garlthik again.

The following day the ork leader came over to talk. He laughed and patted J'role's cheek, then said in broken dwarven, "Garlthik … told me… you come … would come to us all by self. He is wise man …" The ork tapped his head. "Knows people …"

The leader walked off. J'role blushed, looked down at the ground. For hours he stared at anything that would keep him from seeing the face of Releana.

On the third day three ork raiders rode into the raider's camp and went directly to the ork leader. A buzz of conversation rushed through the camp. Three more orks went back out with the three who had just returned, and they took a seventh rider-less beast with them.

An hour later the orks returned, now with a seventh rider. Garlthik One-Eye.

The raiders leaped to the ground even before their beasts stopped moving. Garlthik, obviously not as familiar with riding as the others, waited until his animal came to a complete halt and another ork had taken the reins to hold the beast in place. After finally dismounting he looked around, spotted J'role, and walked briskly toward him. He spread his arms wide and smiled broadly, his odd, ever-present enthusiasm swirling about him like leaves blown in the wind. "J'role, lad!" he cried.

J'role jumped to his feet, though he was still bound to a tree by the cord around his wrists.

He looked down and saw Releana looking at him, pain and suspicion on her face. He felt terribly torn; his-shoulders drooped.

Garlthik watched the brief exchange of glances, and stopped. Remaining at a distance, he said, "Good to see you're all right, boy. And you too, girl. I'm glad it all worked out without bloodshed."

"And now you'll release us?" Releana asked. Her face revealed a hostility J'role had not seen since the first time they'd met in the pit of Blood Wood.

Garlthik shook his head seriously. "Not just yet. Not just yet. We've one more errand to run, for you know how to call back the city and I do not." He gestured back at the orks.

"I've promised them a big share of the reward, you see. If they don't get it…," he said.

then passed his hand over his throat in slitting motion.

"Why should we trust you?"

"Don't. But if you don't do what I say, I'll kill you His face broke into a grin again.

"G'day. We'll be leaving soon." He turned and walked back toward the leader.

Yes, J'role thought with approval. Garlthik had set the choices right out in front. Do it or die. The truth. Not the choices his father had offered, each year slowly withering with promises of “preparations" that would never come. He stared after Garlthik, then sat back down, his thoughts full of the future. Would the citizens of Parlainth be able to remove the creature from his thoughts? Would he get his voice back? Would he and Garlthik go on and have adventure after adventure?

Would Releana ever trust him again?