Going to Caemlyn

"That makes sense," said Jarlath. Where Vaeren's moat had once been was now only a ditch that they easily passed. They set out back through the ravine, with Matthias and Belinda following. Their comprehension might have slowed, but they seemed to move much faster than they had before. Jarlath also realized that Matthias and Belinda both looked much more rabbit- like than they had yesterday. He had a terrible thought--what if he had botched his spell and permanently turned them into rabbit warriors? Well, he could hopefully find someone to undo the curse once they reached Caemlyn.

"Have you ever been to Caemlyn before?" Carola asked Jarlath as they set out onto the trade route--or rather the former trade route, since both of those who used it were now dead, thanks to the D'Honaires and the royal family of Aqualaria.

"Yes, but I don't think I know my way around it," said Jarlath. "I just went for a few days on the way to the Tower of Ganthet. I spent most of that time stuck in a dark room being questioned by the high priests. It's a real pain trying to become and Adventurer wizard in Allaria--first, you have to be tested by the high priests, then the White Hand, then the Quester's Guild. But I couldn't just sit on my butt and be a Scholar, though hopefully I'll do some research too. But I really wanted to go out and fight evil and have adventures."

"Like your brother?"

"Hopefully better," said Jarlath, grinning. "My brother is a very good and brave man, and he's very good at what he does and unlike me he's very physically strong. But he isn't the most intelligent or thoughtful person in the world and doesn't always think before he acts." Carola couldn't help but think that Jarlath wasn't always very thoughtful and didn't always think before he acted either, but she still liked him. If his brother's reputation was correct, then Jarlath was a lot like him, although Carola suspected he wouldn't necessarily appreciate being told that. Even she couldn't help being a little ambivalent about her sisters, especially Astra, and she was a warrior like them rather than a wizard in a kingdom where those who held the power of magic were often looked on with suspicion. But then again, she reminded herself, she wasn't just a warrior anymore, was she?

No, she had better stop this train of thought before it was too late. She didn't want to think too hard about it. She asked Jarlath, "How did you meet Matthias? It doesn't seem like you two have a lot in common."

"Well, I guess we don't," said Jarlath. "We met shortly after I came here. In the Academy of Atreides, the older warriors like to terrorise us novice wizards sometimes, when we haven't yet learned to use our powers for self-defense properly. Probably they resent and fear us a bit. Matthias helped me put a stop to some of them when they tried this, and we've more or less been friends ever since. So what's Aqualaria like?"

Carola sighed. "I actually haven't been there in about half a year. It is very different from Allaria--the air is humid, the places are overgrown with jungles crawling with life. Here everything seems very sparse and majestic. In the court, Belinda and I never got to do very much, as we weren't the first daughters, even though that gave us more freedom in some ways. We could never convince our mother to send us out on quests like our sister took. Then, the Dragon invaded Aqualaria and captured us to force the Queen to pay tribute and Astra to serve him. It was terrible. It seemed like the entire city was on fire. Then we were imprisoned for a year by the Dragon. He never tortured us and always treated us well, but we always lived in fear of what he might do to us. Still, it wasn't that different from life in court when you think about it. He even gave us some books he had stolen from Allarian monastaries. Many of them were some of your people's legends, stories of heroic adventures and handsome warriors. I think he meant it as some sort of cruel joke, but it gave us hope. We knew in our hearts that our sister would find some way to rescue us and we never lost hope. And she did, with your brother's help."

"Wow," said Jarlath. He remembered how terrible imprisonment in Vaeren's dungeon had been--he couldn't imagine being imprisoned for half a year, even under good conditions. "So were there any handsome wizards?" he teased.

"No, I got the sense that on the whole your people don't trust wizards very much. Then again, you have more of them than we do. You're the first wizard I ever really knew very well-- our court wizard spent most of her time in the jungle outside Themiscyra concocting spell or trying to discern the future. I've only seen her once or twice in my whole life."

1. At the end of the day, they reached the place where they'd made camp just before their encounter with the Guardians. Nothing happened to them, although Carola had the odd feeling that something was following her.
2. They encountered someone along the way.

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