Later that night

Rhonda Floam

Midnight conversation

I’m writing again today, or maybe it’s early tomorrow.

I’d been asleep, but I sleep lightly. Good for me!

I heard a soft movement, like someone trying to sneak away, and, of course, I was right. Begkragk and Donnessling were stealing away from where we were all sleeping, and I decided to follow. The lessons I got from my good friend Elinor about walking silently really paid off (kamari can make no sound at all when walking in the woods through brambles!). I was able to follow, at a distance, but not be heard or seen. I think I was a bit lucky, too, that the two of them seemed to be deeply in conversation and not paying much attention to anything else.

Begkragk knew where he was going and took them down a narrow corridor that seemed like no one had walked in for a long time. He found a door hidden along the wall and took Donnessling in with him. I got myself close enough to hear them.

“It’s mine!” I could hear Begkragk say.

“It belongs to no one,” Donnessling replied. “It’s too powerful for any one …”

That’s when I heard a snapping sound like a hand slapped on stone.

The rest of the conversation, more like an argument actually, was more of the same. Donnessling argued that the stone, which he called “one of the Eyes from the Crown of Drawnwyn”, should be reunited with the “other Eyes”.

Begkragk wasn’t having any of it. His folk found it, and they found it in the mountains of their kingdom, so it belonged to them!

There was something Donnessling said about where the Eye had been in centuries before. I didn’t pick up on all of it, but it seemed to have traveled quite a bit.

The two of them must have gone on for an hour or more before Donnessling finally gave up. I remember the last thing he said. “We will do all in our power to protect Zanyr and to protect you and your folk, but beware, Begkragk, this Eye has powers you know not of.”

Begkragk responded with something about how he could control the stone and would use it to bring order to the northern regions of the continent.

After that there was silence, and then I could hear them in the hallway just outside of the room, and not far from the alcove where I was hiding. Somehow they passed me by without seeing me. I think they were each so focused on not hammering the other that they weren’t paying attention.

I waited a while for them to be well gone, and then I headed back to write this down and to find another hour or two of sleep before the next day began.