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CHAPTER 22
Je
From inside, she heard a woman's voice. "Who is it, Friedrich?"
"You know who it was." Friedrich's voice was nothing like it had been when he had spoken to Je
"Well, let her in."
"But, Althea, you can't-"
"Let her in, Friedrich." Her voice was scolding without being at all harsh.
Je
Friedrich gazed out at her, not as a man defeated or reprimanded, but as a man come to face fate with dignity.
"Please come in, Je
"Thank you," Je
She took in everything as she followed him into the home. Despite how warm it was in the swamp, the small fire crackling in the stone fireplace gave the air a sweet smell along with a welcome, dry feel. That was the sense of it, more than heat-dryness. The furnishings were simple but well made and embellished with carved designs. The main room had only two small windows, on opposite side walls. There were rooms to the back and in one of them a workbench, lined with orderly tools, sat before another small window.
Je
Some of the carvings were painted, some left plain, but the feathers, scales, and fur had been carved with such fine texture that they looked like animals magically turned to wood. Other carvings were more stylized and beautifully gilded. A mirror on one wall, down low, was framed with a starburst, each ray alternately gilded gold and silver.
Toward the fireplace, a large red and gold pillow sat on the floor. Je
In a beautifully made chair, with a high back and carved arms, sat a slight woman with big, dark eyes made all the more striking by golden hair flecked through with gray. The fall of hair surrounded her face and swept down to lie about her shoulders. Her wrists rested over the arms of the chair while her long slender fingers gracefully traced the curve of the spiral carved in the end.
" I am Althea. " Her voice was gentle, but carried a clear ring of authority. She didn't get up.
Je
"Perhaps uninvited, but not unexpected, Je
"You know my name?" Je
Althea smiled, and a pleasant look it was on her. "I remember you. One does not forget meeting one like you."
Je
The smile on Althea's face widened, crinkling her eyes. "My, but you look just like your mother. Were it not for the red hair, I would think I had flown back in time to when I saw her last, when she was just the age you are now." She held a hand out level before her. "And you were only this big."
Je
"And how is she?"
Je
"I'm so sorry," said Friedrich, standing behind her. He put a hand to her shoulder in sympathy. "I truly am. I knew her, some, from the palace. She was a good woman."
"How did it happen?" Althea asked.
"They finally caught up with us."
"Caught up with you?" Althea's brow twitched. "Who?"
"Why, the D'Haran soldiers. Lord Rahl's men." Je
Althea's gaze took in the knife, then returned to Je
Je
"Did you see her before she died?"
Je
Althea shook her head with a sad smile. "Poor Lathea. How was she? I mean, did she have a good life?"
"I don't know. She had a nice house, but I only saw her briefly. I got the impression she lived alone. I went to her because I needed help. I recalled my mother mentioning the name of a sorceress who had helped us, but I guess I got the names wrong. I ended up at your sister's. She didn't even want to talk to me. She said she could do nothing, that it had been you who had helped me before. That's why I had to come here."
"How did you get in?" Friedrich asked as he gestured to the path out front. "You must have wandered off the path."
"Not that way. I came from the back way."
Now, even Althea frowned. "There is no back way."
"Well, there was no path, as such, but I made my way through."
"No one can come in from that side," Althea insisted. "There are things back there that ward that side."
"I know. I had a run-in with a huge snake-"
"You saw the snake?" Friedrich asked.
Je
They were both peering at her in a way that made Je
"Yes, yes," Althea said, sounding unconcerned about the snake, waving a hand as if to brush away such petty news, "but, surely, you had to see the other things?"
Je
"The snake is just a snake," Althea said, dismissing the fearsome beast with another impatient wave of her hand. "There are dangerous things back there. Things that would let no one through. No one. How in the name of Creation were you able to get past them?"
"What sort of things?"
"Things of magic," Althea said in a grim tone.
"I'm sorry, but all I can tell you is that I got through, and I never saw anything but the snake." She frowned toward the ceiling as she thought again. "Although, I did see things in the water-dark things under the water.»
"Fish," Friedrich scoffed.
"And in the bushes-I saw things in the bushes. Well, I didn't see them, exactly, but I saw the bushes move and I know something was in there. They remained hidden, though."
"These things," Althea said, "do not hide in bushes. They fear nothing. They hide from nothing. They would have come out and torn you apart."
"I don't know why they didn't," Je
Althea lifted an eyebrow. "I prefer my snakes without arms and legs."
Je
Althea shook her head as if she didn't want to hear it. "I can't help you."
Je
"Really."
"Please, you helped me before. I need that help again. Lord Rahl is getting closer all the time. I've only just escaped with my life on more than one occasion. I'm at my wits' end and don't know what else to do. I don't even really know why my father wanted to kill me in the first place.»
"Because you are an ungifted offspring."
"There. You've just spoken the very reason why it makes no sense: I'm ungifted. So, what possible threat could I represent? If he was a powerful wizard, what harm could I cause him? What threat could I possibly represent? Why did he want so badly to kill me?"
"The Lord Rahl destroys any offspring he discovers who are not gifted.»
"But why? That he does is the result, not a reason. There must be a reason. If I at least knew that much of it, I might be able to figure out how to do something about it."
She shook her head again. "I don't know. It isn't like the Lord Rahl came to discuss his business with me."
"After I saw your sister and she wouldn't help me, I went back to ask her about that very thing, but she had been murdered by the same men who are after me. They must have feared she could tell me something, so they murdered her." Je
"I can't imagine why they would harm her." Frowning, Althea stared off as she considered. "What you're saying, that she might know something, makes no sense. She was never involved in any of it. Lathea knew less than I. She wouldn't have known anything of why Darken Rahl would have wanted to rid the world of you. She could have told you nothing."