Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue (10 page)

THE MOORUVIANS

They had not traveled far before Carliss’s mouth felt dry as a desert.

“Do you have much water left in your bottle?” she finally asked Salina when she felt she could stand it no longer.

Salina lifted the bottle and shook it.

“Not much, but you go ahead. I’m fine.” Salina tossed it to Carliss.

“Are you sure?” Carliss asked.

“Ganoaf thirsty.” The big man brought Chaser up next to Carliss. He held out his hand for the bottle.

Carliss tried to moisten her lips with her tongue, but her skin just stuck to itself.

“Ganoaf thirsty,” he pleaded again, and Carliss reluctantly gave the bottle to him.

“I gave that to you, Carliss, not—”

Just then Ganoaf grabbed the bottle from Carliss, but he lost his grip and it fell to the ground, spilling the last of their water into the dirt.

“You imbecile!” Salina shouted as she halted her steed and recovered the bottle. “That oaf is going to get us killed in Moorue, Carliss. I can’t for the life of me understand why you let him come with us.”

In spite of her dire thirst, Carliss controlled her frustration with her clumsy accomplice. “It will be all right, Salina. We’re not far away. When we arrive, I’ll find a place to keep him out of the way.”

Salina brushed off her bottle and shook her head in disgust. Once they were underway again, Ganoaf fell behind and trailed Salina and Carliss.

“You’re too hard on him, Salina,” Carliss said as she turned and looked at the slouched form riding a short distance behind them.

Salina glared at Carliss for just a second; then her countenance softened. “I suppose you’re right. I just don’t want anything to jeopardize our mission. I can’t quit thinking about my family—guess I’m a little edgy. I’ll try to go easier on him.”

Carliss nodded.

“What do you think we will face in Moorue?” Salina asked solemnly.

Carliss thought for a moment, wondering how they were going to fulfill both of their missions—locate Salina’s family and find the antidote to the lizard’s poison—in such a short time.

“I don’t know,” she replied.

By late afternoon, they entered the land of the Mooruvians. They came to a small village named Wallen, not far from the city of Moorue, and stopped to replenish their water supply. Carliss immediately realized that something strange was afoot in the town. Numerous people sat on benches staring blankly at nothing. One young woman danced down the street with her arms wrapped around an imaginary partner, and a portly middle-aged gentleman nearly bumped into Salina’s horse, a silly grin plastered on his bearded face.

They found a small tanner’s shop, where a middle-aged woman was working a piece of leather.

“Madam, do you have any leather water bottles for sale?” Carliss asked.

The woman looked up from her work. Lines of worry and bitterness creased her forehead.

“Not here. You’ll have to go to the bottler shop in Moorue for that.”

“Come on, Carliss,” Salina urged. “Let’s be on our way.”

The woman went back to her work on the leather, but Carliss stepped closer to her.

“Madam, what is wrong with these people?” she asked.

The woman looked up at Carliss and stared blankly at her. For a moment, Carliss thought she had fallen into the same strange state as so many outside her shop.

“They’ve been drinkin’ the waters,” she finally said.

“The waters?”

The woman looked exasperated. “Yes…the waters.” She nodded toward the corner of their shop, and only then did Carliss realize that a man was sitting there, propped up by the two adjoining walls. “It’s nearly all he does now.”

“What is it?” Carliss asked.

“Carliss, we need to get on to Moorue,” Salina said. She and Ganoaf both looked uncomfortable with this place.

“I don’t know exactly,” the woman said in answer to Carliss’s question. “A man comes through and sells it to folks. They drink a flask of it, and a few moments later”—she pointed back to her husband in disgust—“fools are created.”

“But I saw a girl dancing—”

“She’s drunk so much of the waters she doesn’t know which world she’s in,” the woman interrupted.

Carliss could tell that this discussion was getting the woman riled. Every time she looked at her husband, she became angrier.

Carliss risked one more question. “How long will it last?”

“Sometimes just a few minutes. But the more they drink, the longer they stay… like that. He just sits there and does nothing, sometimes all day long!” The woman was now shouting at her husband and wagging her head. She ranted about his laziness while he just continued to smile a silly grin.

Carliss decided that she had seen and heard enough. Quickly she exited the shop.

“This is really strange,” Carliss said to Salina as she took one more look at the motionless, dazed townspeople.

Dusk began to gather as they mounted up and left Wallen, confused by what they had seen. Perhaps the city of Moorue would give them more answers, Carliss thought. Darkness had fallen, however, by the time they
neared the city, so they made their camp on a hill overlooking the city and its flickering lights. They would enter Moorue in the morning.

They awoke to a panoramic view of the city and took some time to get their bearings. From their hilltop vantage point, Carliss could see that the city was partially encircled by a wide river that formed a kind of moat around its edges.

“That’s the Jem River, I think,” Salina commented, stepping up beside her. “Take a look at the castles.”

Carliss had already noted the three towering castles that stood as sentries between the river and the city’s edge, positioned on the northern, eastern, and southern corners of the city. A great stonewall ran from castle to castle, creating a protective barrier around Moorue. The land between the city wall and the river was dense with trees and vegetation, but not as foreboding as the swampland that began just beyond the outer banks of the river and stretched into the Altica valley. This vast swamp was cast in shadow by a tangle of trees and shrouded by a mist that showed no signs of burning off in the morning sun.

Carliss deduced that the swamp had to be the habitat of the esca lizards Petolemew had talked about.
Is the wall the people’s only protection from the lizards?
she wondered. Why would a city be built this close to such a dangerous abode?

There were many questions to answer, but perhaps the most intriguing of all was the strange sight she beheld in the middle of the swampland a fair distance from the river’s eastern edge—another castle that was twice the size of the other three. It seemed to sit atop the trees in the swamp, and its spires towered higher than any of the other three castles. Also above the treetops was a brick causeway that looked to be the only way in and out of the massive structure. It spanned most of the swamp, then descended via staircase to connect with a bridge that spanned the river. Though it was daylight, Carliss could see a string of torches burning along each side of the bridge. A narrow road ran from the bridge to the city wall where the eastern castle was positioned.

It was a strange and surreal place that seemed to defy all logic. To build such a city with four castles in the midst of a poisonous-lizard-infested swamp would have taken great effort and many resources, and the inhabitants, it seemed, would be in constant danger. How could such a city prosper? Yet the city did seem prosperous, with caravans of wares entering and exiting the city gates in a steady flow. Many had passed by them on the road without uttering a word.

Salina broke into Carliss’s reverie. “So, where do we start?”

Carliss thought a minute. “With Lord Malco,” she said, remembering the name that one of the marauders had spoken. “And I have a feeling”—she pointed to the massive castle in the swamp—“that he lives there.”

DESTINY

As she looked over the strange scene of city, swamp, and castles, Carliss felt her stomach churn. Now that they had arrived in Moorue, the urgency of her mission threatened to overwhelm her. While traveling, they at least had been moving forward. Here her task turned from travel to investigation, something that was difficult to hurry and impossible to be patient with, knowing that time on a fellow knight’s life was ticking away.

How dangerous was the swamp? Was this truly the lizards’ domain? Did the ancient flower truly exist, or was it a myth? Did Malco guard his swamp? There was so much to know and no one they could trust enough to ask. Carliss felt as if she were in an enemy’s camp, disarmed by her lack of knowledge.

If only a haven of the Prince were here
, she thought. But she had not heard of any missions that had ventured this far north yet.

They found a bridge over the river to the south and rode into town. As they entered the city gates, Ganoaf seemed extremely uneasy and pressed Chaser close to Rindy. The city was bustling with activity, and the main thoroughfare was a river of wayfarers in constant motion.

Carliss, Salina, and Ganoaf stayed to the side of the road, out of the main thrust of traffic, but there they encountered beggars every few paces, pleading with the passersby for handouts. One lad caught Carliss’s eye, and she fully expected to hear his plea, but it did not come. The boy
just gazed up at her, well after Rindy had carried her past him. Carliss thought his demeanor odd and turned her head back to look at the lad once more, but he had disappeared into the crowd.