Shasa smiled. “I am not your master, Mala. No man is your master any longer. . do you understand?”
Mala nodded her head but kept her eyes fixed on the floor. “Yes, Master.”
Shasa shook his head.
“What we want to know is how you came to no longer be a slave,” said the older man with a beard.
“I do not remember it very well, sire,” Mala replied.
“It is difficult,” Harku pressed on, “but you must tell us.”
Mala’s lower lip began to quiver.
“Tell us!” Harku commanded in a firm voice.
Shasa’s face was full of warning for his brother, but Mala suddenly began to speak.
“We were at House Devotions,” she said, her words coming out in a rush. “Everything was happening just as it always had before. Lord Timuran and his wife and daughter were near the House altar. I had already had my Devotions from the altar and was standing to one side of the subatria. Then Drakis-I don’t know what happened, but Drakis was yelling and fighting the House Guardians on the far side of the Aether Well. He didn’t want to take his Devotions. I couldn’t understand why. . we had just spoken earlier in the day, and we had such great hopes. . but there he was, fighting the Guardians, and. .”
Mala stopped talking, her eyes still fixed far away.
“And what, child?” Shasa urged.
“And then the Aether Well came apart. . like shattering crockery only so much quicker and with a terrible noise. That’s when I knew.”
“Knew what?” Kintaro asked.
“That’s when my memories returned to me. . and I knew that my life was over.”
“He is the fulfillment of a prophecy laid down in the most ancient of times.” Belag stood tall in the center of the lodge, the crest of his growing mane nearly touching the rafters of the ceiling overhead. He spoke with conviction, his eyes bright in the torchlight. “He freed me from the enslavement of the Rhonas sorceries and showed me the way to life and peace. He is the embodiment of the promises made of old. He will journey to the north countries, commune with the gods, and return in power to wreak vengeance and doom upon the Rhonas Imperium. He is the one that my brother sought beside me. . and for whom he gave his life.”
“And how do you know this?” Harku demanded. “How do you know he is the one?”
“My brother gave his life for him,” Belag affirmed. “He is the one!”
“. . now, Drakis, he knew that the Iblisi were after us after we had spent the night at Togrun Fel, and he was determined that those slippery elven bastards would not lay a hand on us. He also knew the Song of the Dragon that was calling him along, giving him the knowledge of what was to come, that if we had stayed there but another hour, those very demons of the Imperial Corruption would be upon us. So, he stood before us and led us westward through the entire length of the Hyperian Plain-where the gods favored him by laying all manner of food and drink in our path. I tell you, Elders of the honored Sondau Clan, that the gods themselves granted powers to that boy that are beyond explanation!”
“Thank you, Master Jugar,” Shasa said for the fourth time.
“Wait! There’s so much more to tell! Take, for example, that time when we were passing the Hecariat-that terrible, doomed tower on the plains of Hyperia! The spirits of the mountain came down among the stones as we passed. .”
“We shall take your statements into account as we deliberate,” Harku said emphatically. “You may go.”