The Gathandrian Trilogy 01 - The Gifting

Isabella though, he was not so sure of. No, not sure at all. When he’d touched her by the bridge, he’d known she was hiding something, but hadn’t been able to tell what that something might have been. Still, everyone carried secrets and he had not called any other adult by the name of friend before in his life. Even Ralph… He had never been Simon’s friend.
    A little unsteady, he tried to concentrate on the present. It was no good thinking about the past. He had enough troubles here.
    Shutting his eyes, he spoke what he thought he understood from the bird. “You want to test me with questions. To prove my worth in some way. If I answer you like…like the leaf answers the sun, then you will take me back to be with my friends. But, if you consider my responses to be like the worm, burrowing deeper into the darkness, then…then I will die.”
    His eyes sprang open. “Really? You would kill me.”
    Sunlight and truth.
    No path away from it then. He swallowed once more.
    “Then ask me your questions,” he said.
    Three there are only , the bird replied and, as he spoke, the more his voice in Simon’s inner being echoed Ralph’s. The dawn is this, what drives you to hunger? In the high flight of the day, what sky enemy do you fear? And for the roosting time, what fills your darkness hours?
    “ What? I don’t understand. How can I when you and I are so far distant in our ways of seeing?” Simon sank down again onto the ground beneath, his mind spinning out for a key to the raven’s demands. Hunger, fear and darkness. It seemed impossible that the beautiful snowy creature before him could ask of such things but if he wanted to live—and by the stars he had always wanted to live—he would need to find the answers to satisfy him.
    Honesty.
    The word sprang into the forefront of his mind and it brought with it an echo of Johan. Simon met the raven’s eye once more. Yes, he thought, I will speak the answers which resonate most with me, whether it satisfies my questioner or not. Let what come be as it will.
    Gazing around, he didn’t see any of the calm blue air. His mind was travelling elsewhere and the only gaze he had was for that which lay within.
    “What drives me to hunger?” he mused. “I suppose that’s easier than I thought. The memory of home, and what it once meant to me. No, perhaps that’s too simple. Perhaps what drives me is the thought that one day I might be able to know that same sense of connection, that peace which I associate with home. Though, the gods know that association didn’t last long.”
    Hesitating, he searched for what else he could say, but found nothing.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I have nothing more to say in response to your first question. I don’t know what you want of me, but that is all I know how to give. Is it enough?”
    The raven’s steady expression gave no hint, but at the same time he made no move against the scribe.
    “Is that it then?” he asked. “For the first answer? Shall I move on to your second now?”
    The faintest inclination of the head only, and after waiting for another few moments, Simon continued. “What sky enemy do I fear? Believe me, if by “sky enemy” you mean enemies who are a danger in the world I know rather than the world I do not, then the list is too long. We would be here together until nightfall—if nightfall exists in this place, no matter what Johan says. After all, I cannot see where the light comes from, so how can I tell if there is an opposite?”
    Without warning, the raven hissed and stretched out his wings. Simon jumped and slid away from him, but he stalked nearer and kept the distance between them. The bird hissed again, his black beak snapping open, dangerously close to Simon’s face. He felt sweat prickle his eyes.
    “All-all right,” he stammered, not daring to move again. “I’m sorry for wandering away from your question. Give me a moment. I will answer you.”
    The bird’s head cocked as if considering the plea, and then his mighty beak closed and his wings folded back onto his body. At once the pace of Simon’s heart slowed.
    “The sky enemy…” he murmured, mind racing and trying to gain time. “The sky enemy…one enemy. One enemy, not more. Is that it? No, you don’t want to help me, do you? I can see that. Sorry, that wasn’t a jest, believe me. No mind, I’ll answer for one enemy only and hope it’s what you want.”
    He stopped, hesitating to choose one from the many he held