The Grey Isle Tale by Ryan Freeman

Author:Ryan Freeman [Freeman, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-05-19T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter IV

Grey Dawn

The trio had eventually stopped to rest sometime deep into the night. Morning eventually dawned somehow, impossible and sudden like some glimmering jewel. But what the first rays revealed was not pleasant. Smoke lurked in the dells of the eastern skirts of Mount Silvertine. At first, one might have mistaken the sooty clouds for tranquil mist or fog, which usually lingered early on in the day. On particularly spectacular autumn mornings, the mist would lap the mountain sides like ocean along the seashore. Blues and silvers would reflect off the immaculate snowy crag of the iconic landmark’s snowline. Birdsong and gull’s cries would sing in the tree hollows while the faint, ever-present tang of the sea would season the air, pungent and refreshing.

But today was not one of those mornings. Janos had still been afraid to sleep. He was pretty sure the darkness within knew this, too. Whenever he did dream, it was always of blood and destruction… but every once in a great while – Janos would remember phantastic visions he had never witnessed before. Where they former memories of previous hosts? He could never quite tell… But once, just once, the prince had remembered with a tangibly bitter, painful longing which did not belong to him, images of piercing white light and endless rolling green fields. In the distance stood impossibly tall mountains, golden and purple with their own inner light, and beyond Janos somehow intuitively knew, lay The City. But whatever this even meant, he had never been able to puzzle out. With an involuntarily shock and shudder, Janos was wretched away from the keyhole of his own mind, like some naughty, uncomprehending child caught eavesdropping. That night he dreamed of an infernal abyss – Tartarus most likely. Always, in this dream, there was a kind man dressed in white whispering something which obviously ought to have been comforting… but always the darkness within Janos tried at first to ignore and then noisily screech and wail just to drown out the man’s compassionate words…

“Janos.”

The prince felt himself thrash in his uneasy sleep.

Purple-blue mist floated into his dream’s vision – completely out of place with the usual sequence of scenes and acts.

“These are not your dreams, Janos. Awake now.”

“MMMM….”

“Janos. Hey, Your Highness… wake up!” Someone shoved him.

Janos jolted awake. The transition from someone else’ dreams to full waking felt worse than a bucket of ice water his etiquette teacher had once used on him after he had fallen asleep during a particularly dry lesson. “I’m up… I’m up.” The prince grumbled, bear-like.

“Hey Mr. Wizard – I finally got him to wake up.” Grinned Gisele… “I swear,” she said, turning back to Janos, “you sleep like the dea…” The captain turned ashen and then suddenly found something immersive and intriguing about her pack’s brass strap buckle.

The Prince Janos clenched his jaw and grimaced, “its fine.” He lied. Getting up gingerly, he stretched, carefully noting where the previous night’s violent encounter had loosed his body’s internal stitching. Janos sighed.

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