Ian Johnstone - Circles of Stone

Simia looked up. “You have to show him!” she hissed. “It’s important. It has to be!”

Sylas shook his head. “Not now,” he whispered. “Everyone’s already freaked out. This will only—”

“Well if you won’t, I will!” She stood and took a step forward. “Paiscion!” she shouted. “You need to see this!”

“Where is the choice when all must be brought into balance? Which is the righteous path in two opposing worlds?”

PAISCION STOPPED MID-SENTENCE AND looked at her in surprise, then followed her finger to the Merisi Band. He frowned and started to walk over. “This had better be important, Simia Roskoroy,” he murmured.

The crowd began to chatter among themselves.

Paiscion drew up and looked from Simia to Sylas, then down at the Merisi Band. He inclined his head a little.

“When did this inscription appear?”

“Just now,” said Sylas, “when Naeo and I got close. The band started to glow and—”

“The Samarok!” interjected Paiscion. “Do you have it with you?”

Sylas nodded. He reached for his bag, fished inside and drew out the ancient tome.

Paiscion took it carefully in his hands. For some moments he leafed through it, searching for something, apparently at random.

“Blood …” he murmured under his breath, “blood … blood …”

Finally he stopped and furrowed his brow in concentration, apparently allowing the Ravel Runes to work their magic. Sylas saw the writing on the page writhe and shift again and again and again until finally, Paiscion nodded. His eyes snapped up to Sylas’s.

“Here,” he said, handing the Samarok back, open at the page. Then to Sylas’s surprise, he turned on his heel and walked off beneath the boughs of the Living Tree, heading directly for Naeo.

“ Important , you see!” grinned Simia, poking a finger in his side.

Sylas was too busy looking at the Samarok to reply. His eyes passed quickly over a page that seemed to be written almost entirely in verse, but before the Ravel Runes had time to reveal their meaning, he heard Paiscion speak.

The Magruman was now beneath the tree, talking to Naeo. There was a quick exchange and then, in some confusion, Naeo raised her wrist. She and Paiscion stared at the other half of the Merisi Band, still glowing faintly in the sunlight. For a moment they were motionless, then Paisicon’s face filled with a knowing smile. Naeo was plainly bewildered. They exchanged a few more words and then the Magruman left her side and walked back out into the centre of the gardens.

By this point the Say-So had reached a high pitch of excitement, so that when Paiscion raised his hands he had to wait for silence.

“Sisters and brothers!” he shouted. “Sisters and brothers! Young Simia here has spotted something that may be very important to these proceedings.” Attention shifted to Simia, who seemed fit to burst with pride. “As you may or may not have heard, when Sylas and Naeo first met, the Merisi Band split in two, forming a new bracelet for each of them. It seems that when Sylas and Naeo drew near one another just now, these two bracelets revealed a message, also in two parts.” Paiscion opened his hands and grinned admiringly. “It is a message intended to reveal the way ahead. It speaks to us in this very moment!”

The Say-So erupted once again in excited murmurings and whisperings, followed by scores of hushes and calls for quiet. Everyone wanted to hear what Paiscion would say next.

“The inscription,” he continued, “is simply this …”

He cleared his throat.

“ In blood it began. In blood it must end. ”

The gathering was silent long enough for Paiscion’s words to echo from the cliffs and then the whispers began again – whispers filled with fear. Worried looks were exchanged, faces paled, heads were shaken in foreboding.

But the frightened murmurings fell away almost as soon as they had begun.

The Magruman was smiling.

He was standing with his arms crossed, waiting, with a broad grin on his face.

“Forgive me, Paiscion,” protested Kaspertak, “but what is there to smile about? What can this be but a terrible prophecy?”

“It is a clue!” cried Paiscion. “A clue written by Merisu himself, for who but he forged the Merisi Band? And if it is a clue written by Merisu, where should it lead us but to the book he himself began all those centuries ago.” He pointed across the gardens. “It leads us to the Samarok!”

Suddenly the entire Say-So was focused eagerly on Sylas and the book he held before him.

“I have just looked through the Samarok myself,” continued Paiscion. “Using the Ravel Runes, I have searched for that same phrase. References to blood lead to many entries, but blood and beginnings lead to only one. An entry deep in the ancient histories – an entry I have never seen before. Sisters and brothers, it contains the exact message we have found on the Merisi Band!” He paused to allow more excited chatter to die away. “Now, Sylas, as the rightful bearer of the Samarok, perhaps you could read the whole entry to us?”

Sylas closed his eyes to overcome his nerves and to clear his mind. Finally he opened them and focused on the runes at the top of the page. Instantly they started to work their magic, changing from a nonsensical scrawl into intricate Ravel Runes, revealing their true meaning.

He read the first words: “ The Song of Isia .”

“Speak up, please!” shouted someone high on the cliff.

Sylas cleared his throat. “It’s a song!” he shouted. “ The Song of Isia! ”

There was a new surge of excitement, with animated chatter, knowing nods and cries of, “Isia, of course!”

“Quiet, everyone!” shouted Filimaya, clapping her hands. “Let Sylas finish!”

Sylas turned his eyes back to the page, mastered his thoughts and read on:

“She sings from the skies,

Through earth and the sea;

She sings through the lies

To both parts of me.

She tells of old lore,

Of dark and the light;

She tells of a war

Two children must fight.”

Suddenly the gardens were filled with more excited whispers. Sylas waited for them to calm before continuing.

“She sings of two lands,

Though one we can see;

She tells of twin bands,

To set us all free.

She sings of the lines

Of glove and the hand,

She tells of a time

For one final stand.

But this time of sun

Will end all too soon.

Our hope quickly won,

Will die in one moon.

She sings from the skies,

Through bare root and tree;

She sings through the lies

To both parts of me.

In this her sad song

A message she sends:

In blood it began,

In blood it must end.”

He felt a slight shiver as he read the final lines, then looked up from the page to see hundreds of faces staring back. Paiscion was the only one who moved. He nodded quietly to himself, a smile growing on his lips.

“And so there it is,” he said, almost to himself, his eyes bright behind his glasses, “our past, our present and our future!”

There were murmurings from the crowd, then someone cried out: “But I don’t understand!”

Paiscion threw his arms wide. “The song tells us all we need to know!” he cried. “That all is coming to pass just as the great Merisu foretold! That Sylas and Naeo, these two children wearing twin bands, are destined to fight a great war for freedom! A battle to vanquish the lies that have divided our two worlds! Our two selves!”