Propitious and Alacritous made ready to draw nearer to the captured children when the still small voice abruptly spoke again.
“Though I wish it were not so, you have but two paths before you. One is harsh and painful while the other is easy, but it will cause you much regret.”
With this new thought, Propitious was now sure that it had not come from herself, but she did not know from who or where it came. With a slightly anxious feeling, she whispered the question which tickled the back of her mind. “Who are you, my lord?”
Alacritous gazed at the Seer with glowing blue eyes, but she said nothing, for she rightly guessed that she was not talking to her.
The answer came into the mind of Propitious without judgment or rebuke. “I am the Herald of Truth.”
The Seer nodded solemnly and then replied in a whisper, “Please, tell me first of this easy way.”
Yet another thought came in answer. “The easy path is this: turn away now and leave the children to their fate, but forever wish that you had saved them.”
“What fate awaits them?” she asked with a shuddering sigh.
Somehow, the Herald of Truth seemed sad as He responded within her mind. “They will be given to the Dragon, Wormtongue, and she will feast upon their flesh.”
The heart of Propitious sank, and she shook her head slowly rejecting this before knowing the other way. “And what of the harsh and painful path?”
“It is a cruel course indeed, for you and Alacritous shall save the children, but in saving them, you alone will be captured and thus take their place. North, you shall be taken and there cruelly treated. However, there is this hope: if you choose the harsh and painful path, I will not allow them to bring death upon you. Moreover, a mighty nation shall spring from your womb, and four races of men will be created by your kindness. See now, I lay this choice before you. Pick your path quickly, for your time to act is now.” After these last words, the still small voice went silent.
“And Alacritous will be safe?” Propitious asked pensively.
“She will,” the Herald replied.
The Seer laid her delicate hand upon her breast and felt her racing heart. She knew that there was really only one choice, but fear fought to keep her from taking the first step. Closing her eyes, she stilled her worried heart and then answered the Herald.
“I cannot leave my little brothers and sisters to suffer such a cruel fate, therefore, I will take the hard path if you will be with me, if you will be my constant guide, and if you will keep me from falling into darkness.”
The Herald answered immediately. “Take courage and be of good cheer, for I shall ever be with you, and though the darkness may cause you to suffer, I will not allow it to overtake you.”
With her decision made and the Herald’s promise gladly received, a new resolve filled her heart, and so she began once more to undertake the rescue of her siblings.
Thus, Propitious and Alacritous passed by the drowsy guards with ease. Quickly coming to where the children lay huddled together, the Seer roused them, and immediately, they silently lunged at the two young women and clung to them desperately.
While there were twelve children all together, only four were the siblings of Propitious, but even though she did not know the others, they were all overjoyed to see the kind faces of adults. They sobbed as they held onto them, and Propitious and Alacritous were moved to weeping with them, but then the Herald of Truth spoke to the Seer again.
“You must make haste!” said the still small voice. “After you have undone their bonds, you must tell Alacritous to lead them over to that boulder that sits furthest out. They shall all run around the large rock seven times, and then, Alacritous must help them all climb onto its pinnacle. From there, they shall leap to the next boulder and then to the next so as to leave no tracks in the dust. Once they are back to the main pile of giant stones, they must find a crevice to hide in, and when the day has fully come, they shall flee west where they will find the remnant of your people.”
Obediently, Propitious roused the children from their crying and quieted them as the two women began to untie their bonds. As they freed them, the Seer explained the instructions given to her by the Herald of Truth.
When all was ready, she sent them off, one by one, while ensuring that the guards were not looking. Lastly, Alacritous started to follow after the children, but Propitious caught her hand.
“The Herald of Truth has told me that I will not be able to go with you and the children.”
Alacritous started to protest, but Propitious hushed her with a hand on her cheek.
“You must watch over the children,” the Seer clarified. “Take them west, for the Herald has said that you will find a remnant of our people there.”
Alacritous sighed with indigo eyes and then nodded begrudgingly. After a long embrace, the two young women parted, and Alacritous followed after the children.
They had all made it past their captors and were racing toward the far boulder when one of the children tripped over a stone and fell to his knees with a sharp cry.
Propitious saw that one of the guards had heard the sound, and as he began to turn, she leapt up from her hiding place and shouted at him. With sudden fear filling his ugly face, he quickly threw his spear at her taking little time to aim. The weapon’s crude stone point buried itself into the Ancient’s thigh. She stumbled backward and hastily snatched the spear out of her leg.
All the guards rushed to the scene threateningly jabbing their weapons at her and growling words she could not understand. As they gathered around her with angry curiosity, she glanced out to see that Alacritous and all the children were finally on top of the line of boulders. They were watching the events unfold with horrified expressions.
When Alacritous saw the Seer’s eyes looking at them, she read in her longing gaze that she wanted them to keep moving, and so Alacritous made the children resume their work of leaping from one large rock to the other. Thus, they soon all disappeared around the mound of boulders. Once on the far side, they found a large crevasse, and there they huddled inside to await the day.
In the same moment that Alacritous and the children had found a hiding place, the fell-men suddenly remembered their captives. With hoots and shrieks of anger, they followed the children’s footprints in the dust until they came to the furthest boulder. When they found that they had gone around the giant rock, they followed eagerly only to come back to where they had begun.
Scratching their flat heads, a fear settled upon the gray men, and they quickly returned to Propitious with nervous glances cast in her direction. They never dreamed that the children would double back to the same mountain of boulders where they camped. It had to be some kind of strange magic!
The leader of the group that had hunted the children to the far boulder addressed a larger Grayling in their cruel-sounding gibberish, and as he did so, he held out one hand with his palm upward and drew a circle there with his forefinger.
The other fell-man scoffed and turned with anger toward Propitious. He glared at her for a moment and then shouted what seemed to be an angry question, but as before, she could not understand his words.
As the gray man yelled at her, Propitious noticed for the first time that she was much taller than these Graylings even though she was only one-hundred years old – at that age an Ancient was never much taller than five feet. The apparent leader who stood in front of her, being the tallest among them, only came to her chin.
Also, he seemed older than his height allowed, for as I have said, among the Ancients, the greater one’s age, the taller that one would be. This revelation was yet another oddity amid so many things she had seen that night.
With a smoldering fury, the gray man raised the butt of his spear, and with a swift jab, he struck her in the forehead.
The Ancient maiden stumbled backward as all went black.
With mean grasping hands, the gray men bound her arms and legs tightly. Once she was secured to their leader’s satisfaction, the Graylings scurried over and hid themselves under and between the boulders, for the sun was beginning to rise in the eastern sky.
And so it was that the gray men spent the day in hiding from the sun while Alacritous and the children escaped to the west weeping for Propitious as they went.
