Search the Forgotten - Chapter Seven      "Brrrrp!"      "Excuse me," I said, looking around as the others at the table stared at me.      "You're excused," Orin said from across the table.      They'd finished eating a half an hour ago.  Admittedly, Jae was a good cook.  It seemed he could persuade the most humble of dishes to taste as if it came from the kitchen of a palace.      My head started to pound.  I could not determine why it should this time.  Maybe this was a normal headache.  Maybe I ate too much.  I shoved my bowl away.      "You have to finish that," Jae said.  "Master Arthester said...."      "I know, I know," I replied a bit irritably.  I pulled my bowl back.  "I have to finish everything you serve me."  Well, at least the brief exchange and my taking a break from eating, no matter how brief, let my headache fade.      "So, did Arthester say why you had to eat all of this now?" Skylar asked.      "He only said I won't be eating supper," I replied around a mouthful.      "Typical," Orin commented.  "He's being mysterious again."  He took a drink from his tankard.  "Why those of the wizardly persuasion have to be so mysterious all the time is beyond me.  They always have to make a big thing out everything they do.  Like it's so complicated."      "Oh?" Lynna said.  She, Jae and Skylar were staring at him.  I noticed this with a quick glance before returning my own gaze back to my food.  So I didn't see who did what but suddenly Orin started scratching himself.  He grunted and I glanced at him.  It was as if his body was one big itch.  "Cancel that then if you think it's so easy," Lynna said.      "Ack!"  Orin scratched his armpits and his elbows and forearms.  "Stop this!" he said as he scratched his shins and behind his knees and his thighs.  "I apologize!" he added as he scratched at a place I'd rather not mention.  He dropped to the floor and squirmed, I presume to scratch his back.  Meanwhile he grabbed off his boots and scratched the bottoms of his feet with his hands.      Lynna made a small quick gesture and Orin collapsed with a sigh.  He took a few deep breaths and muttered a "Thank you" that Lynna made him repeat in a louder voice.      Orin retook his seat and gulped his drink.  Then he looked at the young woman sitting next to me.  "That wasn't fair, you know," he said rather contritely.      She smiled evilly.  "I know," she replied.  She wasn't sorry either.      I ate the last of my bowl of stew.  "Done at last," I sighed.  I shoved the bowl away and Jae took it.  A moment later, he replaced it before me...full again!  I looked at him, disbelieving.  "You can't be serious!" I exclaimed.  "I can't eat another bite."      "I'm sorry, Arif," Jae said.  I must admit he did look like he was sorry.  "That's the last bowl.  Master Arthester gave very specific instructions."      I dragged the bowl closer and picked up my spoon.  "Promise me one thing, Jae."      "What?" Jae asked.  He took a step closer and gripped the towel he was holding more tightly.      "Tomorrow, no stew for supper," I said.  "Okay?"      He nodded.  "Absolutely, no stew."      Orin laughed, Skylar who was sitting next to him chuckled and Lynna smiled.  I sighed and took a bite of stew.  Tasty it was, but I was getting tired of it.      Arthester came in and commanded that Skylar and Orin bring a bed into the dining area of the kitchen.      "Why?" Orin asked.  "A kitchen is a stupid place for a bed."      "Why?" Arthester repeated calmly.  "One, this is the room with the best ventilation.  Two, because I said to do so."      "I could...," I started while pushing my bowl away slightly.      "You could finish that," Arthester said.       I pulled the bowl back and took a bite.  As Skylar walked passed, he touched my shoulder.  "Nice try," he muttered.      "Lynna, dear," Arthester said.  "Would you be so kind as to fetch some clean linens for the bed?  And a soft pillow?"      "Certainly," she replied.  And she left the room to do so.      "What's the bed for?" I asked between bites.      "The bed is for you," Arthester said as he took his accustomed seat at the head of the table.  "You will lie upon it and you will breathe this latest mixture.  I will cast my dream revealing spell as before and we shall see what we shall see."      "You're sure it'll work this time?" I asked.  I let a belch out slowly and as inaudibly as I could.  I reminded myself to request a treatment that requires fasting next time.      "It worked the previous times," Arthester pointed out.  "It's just that it wasn't strong enough to get completely through whatever our adversarial foe has done to you."      "Foe?" I asked.  I forced another spoonful into my mouth as Orin and Skylar brought the bed pieces in.      "Foe," Arthester said confidently.  "He or she must be a mage of considerable power and perhaps an alchemist of much knowledge as well.  Whoever did this to you wanted you out of his or her way but not dead.  Perhaps he thinks he might have a further use for you."      "Or she?" I asked.  I took a small drink from my mug and frowned at it.      "Yes," Arthester said thoughtfully.  "Our foe could be a woman.  No way to tell.  Unless we can see your memory of the fiend putting you into this condition.  Assuming you we're awake at the time."      I scraped the last bite from the bowl and ate it.  I chewed slowly, thinking my stomach might need the extra time to make room for it.  I took another sip from my mug.  Broth of all things!  I didn't even get any tea or ale or even plain water!  I finished it, set the mug in the empty bowl with the spoon and shoved it away.      "Now you must use the facilities," Arthester said.      "What?" I asked.      He gave me a look that very nearly said, "think about it." I caught on.  "Stay in there as long as you think you must.  Put on the nightshirt you'll find hanging in there.  We'll start as soon as you return."      I am not going to relate how long I was in the privy.  Nor am I going to tell you what I did in there.      When I returned to the kitchen, the bed was assembled with a sheet and a top sheet.  And the comfy pillow.  No blanket though.       Arthester had retrieved some sort of apparatus and had it set up on the table.  There was a glass flask on a tripod over a candle flame.  The fluid in it was a dark greyish green and it was giving off a greyish mist. The flask had a stopper in it with two glass tubes sticking out of it.  One tube, was short and nothing was connected to it.  The other glass tube had a long rubber tube attached to it.  That tube was in turn connected to an oddly shaped piece of rubber, the purpose of which I would find out soon.  From that object, another rubber tube ran to a glass tube shaped like a coiled spring.  It was held by clamps to a metal frame.  Another rubber tube connected the other end of the glass coil to a short glass tube that was placed in a stopper in yet another flask.  This one just sat on the table.      Orin, Skylar and Lynna were seated on the side of the table near the bed.  Jae was standing near the Master Mage and Physician, apparently awaiting instructions.      "Get in bed and make yourself comfortable," Arthester said to me.  I did so.  "You three," he said to those at the table, "move back a bit."  They did but they grumbled under their breaths.  "Jae, open the doors to the rear and the windows in here."      "Yes, sir," Jae said.  He did his task without complaint.  I rather thought that Arthester must like that.      The Physician Mage then picked up that oddly shaped piece of rubber with it's two rubber tubes and brought it over to me.  He sat on a chair next to the bed.  "Now, Arif," he said, "I am going to place this over your nose and mouth.  You see, it is shaped for that purpose."      I could see that one end was narrow and could just fit over a person's nose, while the other end was wider and could enclose a person's mouth.  I could figure out the rest.  That was so I could breathe that fuming mixture in the flask.  And this time, I would be getting more of it than just what wafted out of a beaker or off a cloth.      "I'm going to want you to just breathe normally," Arthester continued.  "When this mixture begins to take effect, I will cast the dream scrying spell as I have before.  Then we shall see what we shall see."      "Very well," I replied.      Arthester covered my nose and mouth with his contraption and I breathed as normally as I could.  That substance in that flask which I was now breathing, had a curious scent to it.  I don't really want to say it was spicy, but that was all I could think of at the time.  I thought of leaves too for some reason.  I was going to try to gather my thoughts about this, when the room started filling with a smoky fog.      Maybe the massive hearth, cook stove and oven at the other end of the room had a malfunction of it's flue.  I was going to mention this but I closed my eyes instead.  It felt as if Arthester almost dropped the nose and mouth thing, but then it was more firmly returned to it's place.      The fog was getting thicker.  And darker.      The fog cleared and the next thing I knew, I was walking down a corridor, dressed in formal attire. Someone was beside me and he was saying something about the furniture but I couldn't make it all out.  He was smiling though.      I said something and I was smiling at him.  I referred to him as my brother.  He was older than me, but not that much taller.  I said something about a comfy room or bed, but I couldn't even hear myself completely.      This man, my brother, said something else as we walked.      We stopped in front of a door and he said good night to me.  Then he gave me a light punch on the shoulder, turned and walked down the stone corridor, the breeze of his passage making a nearby tapestry wave slightly.  Two guardsmen followed him and two others remained and took up positions outside the door.      I felt secure in the knowledge that they were nearby.  I entered the room and picked up a nightshirt that I found draped over the back of a chair.  I disrobed, put on the nightshirt and climbed into bed.  It was large and comfortable.  The heat from the hearth's fire was very pleasant and I knew I'd get a good night's sleep tonight.      It wasn't long before I was asleep and dreaming, but I was awakened by a loud crashing noise and sound of swordplay.  There was yelling but as I tried to rise from the bed, I was roughly shoved down.  Then something was shoved over my face and as I struggled, I found myself growing weaker.  The light from the fire in the hearth was fading from my sight.  Someone roughly tried to pick me up.      Someone said something in a voice that seemed oddly familiar somehow.      "Of course," a gruff voice said.  Then the gruff voice said, "come along, Your Highness."      Fog surrounded me, black as the darkest night.      I was unaware of any sensation.  I did not feel cold like I would expect in a real fog.  Nor clammy either. I felt nothing.  I saw only darkness.      Well, this was boring.      I had to wonder if death was like this.  Dark and nothing.  If it was, then that was just one more reason to live life to the fullest as far as I was concerned.      It seemed an age of darkness and nothing before the darkness began to get lighter.  Perhaps this endless fog was lifting.  The blackness turned grey but there was a dark shape before me.  It moved and I thought it gestured.  Someone said something and darkness loomed around me again.      And the darkness grew cold.      "Wake up!"      I heard the command.  I obeyed the command.      I groaned.      "That's it," Arthester said coaxingly.  "Wake up."      "It's chilly in here," I commented.      "Jae, the windows and doors," Arthester said.  He then helped me to sit up and I looked into his eyes and a memory came to me as my head cleared of some muzziness.  A word.      "I have a brother," I whispered.      "It would seem so," Arthester said.  He smiled at me.      "Oh, you have more than that!" Orin exclaimed.  I glanced at him and he and Skylar wore silly grins on their faces.  "You're royalty," Orin said.  He offered a mocking bow.  "You're Highness!"      "What?" I asked.      "Well, that's what we heard," Orin said.      "Heard?" I looked at Arthester Jalivay.      "Different version of the spell," he said.      "Yeah, but, 'your highness'?" I asked.      "Well, we couldn't exactly see who was being addressed as 'your highness'," Arthester Jalivay admitted. "It could have been someone else that was in that room," he added, glancing at the others.  "After all, it did seem as if you'd lost consciousness."      "Well, if I lost consciousness, how come you heard sound?" I asked.       "I didn't say you'd gone suddenly deaf," Arthester said.  "Even when unconscious, it's possible to still hear what goes on around you."      "His Royal Highness, Arif," Orin said.      "I am not a Highness, Royal or otherwise, Orin," I said.  "So stop saying that."      "Yes, my lord," Orin said.  Skylar began laughing and I glared at both of them.  Then I noticed the light through one of the kitchen windows.  "It's bright out there," I said.      "Yes.  But the sun is heading toward the western horizon.  It's almost supper time," Arthester said.      "Supper time!" I exclaimed.      "You've been asleep a day," Lynna informed me.  "Most of your dreaming was just darkness."      "A whole day!"  I looked from one to another.  They each nodded in turn.      I sighed and rubbed one hand through my hair.  And then I realized something.  Something almost as extraordinary as discovering that I've got a brother or that I've slept for an entire turning of the clock.      "I'm hungry," I said.  "What's for supper?" - = - = - Return to top of page. Chapter Eight     I...uhm...don't think I'm ready for email yet.    ;-) But that doesn't mean you can't try and send me a note! Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 B. J. Miller Jr. All Rights Reserved