Sentria: The Age of Adventure (Book 2)

Chapter Thirty-Three: Impossible Things

We mounted our horses and I sat the sleeping Eldwyn on mine. I felt his breath on my neck as I rode and while it was shallow, it let me know that he was still breathing. We rode westward, then northward to the mountain trail of Invar. It was a dark path leading up to a jagged mountain with many plateaus and the rushing Continental River to its north.

"We won't be resting?" asked Prince Lucas. "It's almost sundown and I doubt there are many places to rest on the mountain."

"Eldwyn might not have until the morning," I told him. "We have to travel through the night to make sure we find the Gray Woman."

"But we don't know this mountain. We don't even have a map."

"I'm going by faith, Lucas. Please have faith in me...I need it."

"I have faith in you, Darren. Never doubt that." Prince Lucas nodded and we rode up the mountain. 

It was steep, but our horses were well-trained and they moved with grace. I kept one hand on the reins and another holding Eldwyn's hands about my waist to make sure he stayed on. I could feel the life fading from him. I kept speaking to him along the way, telling him of all of our grand adventures, hoping that that would keep his light alive.

Hours passed and I could see that Lucas was getting tired, but he fought through it. I liked having him there with me. I had been carrying the burden of the Oblivion Witch alone for a year along with the love I had felt for Eldwyn and it pained me so in that quiet way. 

We came to a plateau that flattened out and I stopped and looked around. "There," I said, looking up at a lonely brown house by the cliff above us. It was small and square with a black roof and a field of yellow daisies all around it. 

"I know that's where she lives." We went further up the trail and we turned when we reached the next plateau. We dismounted in front of the house and tied the horses to a nearby tree. "We'll be back," I told the horses as I took Eldwyn off of the saddle and carried him in my arms to the door.

Prince Lucas knocked on the door three times. There wasn't an answer and he went to the window and looked through the shutters. "This house might be abandoned. It doesn't seem—"

The door opened abruptly and Lucas stepped back in surprise. It was the Gray Woman. She was old and tall with kind eyes that looked as if they could look into a heart of darkness and turn it pure. She wore a frumpy black dress and her hair was gray and yet silky, as if it was spun by spiders.

"Welcome," she said. "Come in."

Lucas and I looked at one another and hesitantly walked into the house. It was small and yet cozy—familiar in a way that wasn't possible. The main room was filled with flowers in pots from all different regions of Askeran. I didn't know how they survived, but I was too worried to ask. There was a tea kettle on the stove that was cooking and a gray cat with black stripes on its back roamed the space in constant motion. Jumping on the window sill then back down to the floor like it was waiting for something.

The Gray Woman sat down in a chair made of oak and picked up a parchment that she was folding into some kind of bird. I laid Eldwyn down on the cushioned bench nearby and addressed her:

"Please, help him." I clasped my hands together as if I was praying. "I know you're the Gray Woman from the story. I need you to cure him."

She looked up at me with the most serene smile I had ever seen and said "I cannot. He has to cure himself."

"He's barely breathing. Please, no riddles. I will give you anything that you ask, just cure him of his curse."

She got up and walked over to him, still folding the parchment. "Eldwyn, wake up."

Eldwyn's eyes opened wide.

Lucas tugged on my arm and asked, "...How did she know his name? How did she do that?"

"I knew you were coming ever since I was a child," she said soothingly. "Darren, Eldwyn, and Lucas. They were characters in my head that I knew would come to life. So many years ago, I dreamed of an old woman who lived in the mountains of Invar and then I saw her and the characters recreated in a book. 'Impossible,' I thought at the time, but it proved that reality isn't what we think it is. The more I grew, the more I saw these impossibilities until I became an old woman myself and I took to the mountains to fulfill my destiny: to remind Eldwyn who he is. Not to give him some cure."

Lucas and I stood still. No matter how much I had learned in my quest, I still found myself surprised by these unbelievable instances.

The Gray Woman put down her parchment and sat alongside Eldwyn. "Eldwyn Gamor of the Misty Moors," the Gray Woman sang, "you are from here and from elsewhere. You've had many names over the centuries and worlds. The magical boy who's destined to save the all-time. I see it all: the number seven, the three kingdoms, the wizards, the schools of magic, the ravens, the tree, the fire, and the old stones. You are heart itself, the manifestation of the one that beats within the warrior you are meant to protect throughout time. You will not die today. This evil that is within you is only passing through you to reveal that you are not to fear the darkness, but to claim it. It's a part of you, and apart of your journey. A ritual. As it always has been and as it always would be. You, Eldwyn Gamor, are good."

Eldwyn sat up immediately as if nothing was wrong and looked at us, "Hello," he said.

"Eldwyn!" Lucas and I said together, then hugged him tightly.

"He is healed," she said, and went back to folding. "Eldwyn's powers won't return back for some days. Maybe even a few days as his body has to readjust to the energy."

"Thank you so much." I kept hugging Eldwyn, not wanting to let him go.

"Yes, thank you," said Lucas. "...Why are you folding that."

"I'm tethered to the other worlds and if I don't do this all will be destroyed."

"...Well," I said, standing up and reaching in my jacket. "Let me repay you."

"I don't need any money," said the Gray Woman. "This was my destiny and requires no payment."

"We understand." I put my coins away.

"Thank you so much for saving me," said Eldwyn. "I think...I think I understand now."

We stayed for the rest of the night at the Gray Woman's home and slept in her spare room. In the morning she made us a garden salad that was the best salad I had ever tasted. I asked her more about the future, but she said that it wasn't the right time. We thanked her again and left the house.

I stood on the porch and turned to her, saying, "Might I ask, would you happen to have a map of the mountains? I don't know the Mountainlands and we must convince the leaders of the Five Mountains to join us against Cordath."

"I do," she said from her chair. "But you won't be needing it. Farewell." She looked back down at her hands as she creased the wings of the parchment bird.

"Let's go," I said to them and we walked our horses. As we were untying them, six bulky mountainnmen wearing bearskins draped around their shoulders came down the mountain holding axes, spears, and burlap bags. I stepped forward to stand between my friends and the mountainmen. I didn't yet know if they were friend or foe but I feared the latter.

The mountainmen stopped. The biggest and baldest one stepped forward and said, "You've gone too far and you won't be going any further."