24. Dark river

“Listen" Angelica said softly, the others freezing in place, ears straining. "There, water bubbling up through rock?"

"Quite so." Antaryon replied lifting his lamp high, throwing the muted light as far ahead of them as possible down the winding corridor. "Beyond that curve?"

Liva nodded and quietly added "Go". Her sword was out, shield up and ready just behind Antaryon, with Angelica following a short way back keeping a wary eye back the way they had come. We are too few to win a fight against numbers, but we can make them remember us for sure.

Just before a sharp curve down to the left, Liva whispered to Antaryon who lowered the lantern, covering its light with his hand and shining it back to light Angelica's way to join them. Puzzled she advanced, a look of confusion flickering over her face as Antrayon blew out the light as Liva signaled 'hold here'.

The air was fresher, crisp and damp, not the dusty lifelessness they had first encountered beneath the ruined cathedral. As her eyes began to adjust, Angelica drew her breath in with a low and very un-ladylike whistle of surprise.

The walls of the cavern ahead were slowly lighting with dozens of tiny drops of light, glow worms casting their tiny silken thread nets hoping for a stray bug. Liva nodded, and after motioning Antaryon to take the rearguard went down the roughly paved floor, with Angelica close behind.

"Oh" Liva said in soft wonderment, smoothly returning her sword to her scabbard.

The room ahead widened into a natural cavern, with a small cave stream running slowly towards them and dropping deeper underground beside the path. Angelica instinctively stepped closer to the cave wall to her left and away from what could be a slippery step into the water, but her eyes reveled in the sight.

Ahead to their right appeared to be a tree, or possibly a carving, which blended the shape of a woman with a tree. Her arms were raised and melded into blackened branches reaching to the ceiling; long willowy leaves falling towards the floor, detail lost in the dim light. But what captured their attention most was the water gently running from her eyes, weeping down into the small pond below. Whether living or carved mattered not; either way Angelica felt like an intruder interrupting something old, private, and sacred. She also put away her sword, as quietly as she could, and dipped her head in respect.

Very gently, Liva began to sing. Angelica had never heard the tune before. It was sweet and gentle both, meandering as the waters about the stones.

Angelica listened, then shifted uneasily as new lights began to appear in the waters; a gentle pale blue light, slowly strengthening as more sparkled into place, until the water was as meadow of bright pale blue flowers, drifting slowly down with the soft current, light playing in the water and over the rock above.

"What are they?" Antaryon said softly moving slowly to take a closer look, only to freeze when Angelica touched his arm.

"Algae of some sort?" Liva said with uncharacteristic uncertainty for someone who knew so much about the wonders of nature.

"Or" Angelica said softly "they are souls trapped forever ..."

Liva stepped left, moving slowly with purpose as she resumed her song, leading them out of the grotto.

"Stop!" Angelica said urgently, Liva checking herself in mid stride. "Stealth wire. See it?"

Liva paused, then nodded, stepping over the trip wire carefully without interrupting her song. Antrayon followed her, then Angelica.

Angelica turned as the path curved around and away from the tree/statue, and curtseyed deeply. The others bowed and curtseyed behind her, without questioning her motive until they were well away and safely back in more mundane tunnels.

Liva let out a long breath "thank you" she said softly.

"Don't mention it." Angelica replied.

Antaryon had one eyebrow raised in question, but even now did not quite have the courage to actually speak out of turn.

Angelica smiled, looking about in the gentle glow from the tunnel worms, letting her own tension ebb away on her breath. "I'm always a tad nervous about temples to the Qin of Suffering".

"Only the pure were sacrificed? All the same colour?" Antaryon asked timidly.

"Well you were perfectly safe then." Liva said dryly.

As Antaryon choked back a laugh at the soldiers' humour, he led out at Liva's signal.

@->--/-----

Antaryon signalled with his off hand, sword held ready beside his chest 'one around the corner.'

Stepping as carefully as she could, Angelica moved forward to peek beyond through the doorway, being careful to not block Antaryon's swing if he needed to defend her.

An elegant woman in a long, rich violet coloured dress was standing at a scribe’s table, poring over an illuminated manuscript set on a stand. One hand idly twirled the end of her long black hair, making its purple highlights dance in the light. "No, that cannot be right. How would adding lavender make that work? It's beautifully drawn, but nonsense." She reached down with a glass rod, and carefully, to not damage the ancient vellum, tuned to the next recipe.

Angelica simply watched, entirely unsure what to make of her. Neither old nor young, carrying herself as a noble yet without rank or sigils shown. The woman simply was.

"Well do not simply stand there, either contribute to the conversation and share your thoughts on the lavender, or keep on with whatever intrigue you are about. Hurry up lass, the day is wasting."

Liva smiled, stepping lightly past the others “It’s not nonsense at all. But the words are not telling the whole story, either” she replied brightly.

“Oh?" the woman turned the page back, searching for what she had missed, her large brown eyes locked on the newcomer. Two tall candelabra threw soft yellow light over the pages, but made the woman’s shadows chase each other across the smooth stone floor.

"May I?" Liva asked. At the elder's nod Liva stepped closer to see more clearly, her feet clicking on the stones. The candelabra stood clear to not have any chance of wax sputtering off onto the irreplaceable pages, and Liva kept her distance as the correct page was again put on display. Liva smiled, childish glee of one who had defeated the scribe’s game spilling into her voice. "There. In the margin."

"Clever, very clever" the woman said softly, completely lost in the page and its implications. "So it is three of those curious beetles that are needed. I take it they prefer to live on lavender where this was from?"

"Quite so" Liva beamed.

The lady, for her poise and manners marked her in a way borrowed finery never could, turned to face Liva. "I am Elbereth. You have solved a puzzle that has been eluding me for so long I cannot recall why I thought to solve it. Welcome…?"

"I am Liva, and these are my friends Anne and Antaryon." who promptly stepped forward and bowed and curtseyed respectively.

"Now, you have given me something of great value, I know something new that will give me years of delight, looking for secret clues hidden in the illuminations. A new way to see my world.” she gestured about her at the rows and shelves vanishing into the gloom. “What would you wish in exchange?"

Liva turned to Angelica, who opened her arms and gestured at the books and scrolls uncounted disappearing off into the darkness, then shrugged, gesturing with her palm to Liva to make the choice as simply as one might choose which pudding to have served first.

"Well" Liva considered, deliberating "the path to Haven."

"Bold choice. Only someone who dreams would ask for a dream." Elbereth replied with a genuine smile on her face. She reached up in surprise and traced the shape of it "Oh, has it been so long? I cannot recall the last time I smiled" she paused in place for a time. She began to sway gently, then danced, her long black and purple hair flowing behind.

Liva watched, catching the rhythm of the steps, then beamed as Elbereth began to hum the tune. With perfect timing, the two fell into a dance unlike any Angelica had ever read of. They spun, moved back and forward as if in combat, and spun some more. The change was with a sharp clap clap! Elbereth gestured to Angelica and Antrayon to join in too, but both looked like Meowls caught in the moonlight, and waved off with laughs and cheers to the dancers.

Eventually Elbereth spun away, and bowed to Liva, who dropped into a deep courtsey, still smiling and laughing. “Oh my” Elbereth said, looking at her hands as if seeing them for the first time. “Haven.”

Antaryon and Angelica had come up to stand with Liva, all infected with the delight of the dance. Elbereth gestured them beyond, lighting a short candle which sat on a metal plate with a looped handle at one side, and led them a short distance to an alcove of benches set in an open square, surrounded by yet more scrolls and books on wooden shelves.

Once they were seated, Elbereth stared into the single candle, and continued softly. “When I was little, I would go outside every day to play in the sun with my friends. To me, the soaring arches and domes were not marvels, but merely homes. The amazing windows these” she waved about in the vague direction of books “speak of were merely windows, and oh my! The trouble we would get into for kicking our ball into them! We ran so fast, laughing all the way as we fled, pretending a cat had scored the goal.” she smiled at the days long past. “The mountains were near, and when the snowmelt came, waterfalls would leap out into the canyon, filling the whole city with rainbows. On such days, we just sat and watched the light play and dance, and made paper animals to cast into the waterfalls, our wishes riding upon their backs.”

"How?" Antaryon asked, having fallen to one knee. "How do you know all this, are you Qin, Ancient One?"

"No boy" Elbereth laughed: a dry, rich sound that echoed softly about the room before being swallowed by the books. "I am a librarian. But even a librarian comes from somewhere. My home is lost to me, for I left it one night stowed away in the back of a wagon.”

"Was it Haven?” Liva whispered.

“To me, it was simply Home. It was a city of lights and colour, full of delight, wonders, warm days and peace. But for me also empty and cold. My true family were not there.”

Angelica’s eyes asked the question.

“I have no idea where they were, or indeed how I had come to be in the city without them. None would tell me, speaking instead to my value, or my potential, or just telling me to go play. So in the end, I ran away to find them.”

“But?” Liva asked gently.

“I never did" Elbereth said, staring into the gently swaying candle flame. “Anyway, I know my home was real, and I know it matches what people keep calling Haven in various tales. But for all the years I have searched, all the knowledge I have collected … I have no idea how to get back. My home is as lost to me as to you.“

"You will get home” Angelica said with quiet certainty.

“So will you” Elbereth replied with sadness in her voice “but I am quite sure you have business to attend to first. We shall meet anon."

Angelica nodded, abandoning any attempt to conceal the truth reflected in Elbereth's deep bright eyes; eyes that had read her as easily as the manuscript on the work table.

“And” Elbereth added, her head tilted slightly to one side, bright smile making her appear the same age as her guests. At Angelica’s eager nod she continued. “In all the best plays, the actors remember when they are meant to be afraid.”

Without a word Angelica curtseyed low; a full courtesy that so recently she would use only for Father and Mother on formal occasions. Never had she felt so indebted, so hopelessly unable to repay the generosity of a stranger. She knows, and is helping us anyway. This might actually work!

"Out.” Elbereth laughed, adding “That way" and pointing with the feather of the quill in her hand. "I have work to do. No children are permitted in my library!" she turned back to her scribing desk running her fingers over the golden foil in delight, rod abandoned. Her smile had departed neither face nor eyes, and they could hear her humming the dance softly as she returned to her craft.

Antaryon led out at Liva’s nod, and Angelica smiled as a black and grey cat jumped up on the scribe desk, purring and rubbing its head against the back of Elbereth’s hand, rewarded with a gentle scratch beneath the chin.

Angelica tore her eyes away from the tranquil moment, and followed Antaryon into the darkness.

"What in Karcion was all that about?" Antaryon asked quietly.

"I've given up trying to understand this place" Liva said flatly.

Same Angelica lamented silently maybe I should have had a much better plan than trust Victoria, always turn left as she said, and make the rest up as I go. All I really want to do is hug Mother and weep forever as she strokes my hair and tells me it will be alright. She lifted her head, smiled, and said calmly "shall we?"

They continued into the unknown, cloaking themselves with their fears.

@>-/----