The Twins of Fairland II

Tre lifted the old book from the shelf and as he carried it to the small table with the candle he spoke to the book, “Now is the time to reveal your secret and show me words that I can read.” He wasn’t sure why he decided to talk to the old book; it just seemed like the thing to do. He sat down and held the book close to the lighted candle and turned it around trying to make sense of all the scattered markings. Tre wasn’t sure the exact order of the way things happened, but the candle light started to flicker and flame up and smoke ebbed over the book and then the lines on the book began moving and came together to form words. Tre’s hands shook as he watched the marks on the cover of the book join together to form words and Tre read: The Lineage of Currin. At the bottom corner of the book a symbol formed. It was the same symbol that Tre had seen above the castle door. A large circle with a line running across it from side to side and another line that went from the top to bottom and the lines crossed in the middle. Tre’s hands shook as he opened the book to reveal words written in the ancient script that he could now read. Tre read the names of the kings of Currin and their families in order of succession until he came to the last name listed on the page. There was space on the page for more names but none were listed. Tre was sweating as he turned the page and his hand shook causing the page to move back and forth. He read about a betrothal between the daughter of the king of Currin and the son of the king of Lothan. The daughter had refused to marry the son and ran away. The son was embarrassed and swore to hunt down and kill the daughter. The son was described as evil or full of evils; Tre wasn’t sure of the exact meaning but understood why the daughter would run away from someone like that. The King of Currin readied the army to defend his daughter as the evil son of Lothan led his soldiers into the lands of Currin. A bloody battle raged between the two kingdoms and lasted for days until the last of the Lothan soldiers were captured along with the evil son. The prisoners stood in a line to be executed and just before the arrows from the Currin army were released, the evil son cast a curse on Currin, vowing he would return from the spirit world to seek revenge and wipe out the line of Currin. When the son and the Lothan soldiers were killed their bodies vanished into a black mist. The last line in the old book read: Beware of the curse of Lothan – the spirit riders will return to seek revenge against the Line of Currin. Sweat dripped from Tre’s brow as he read about the bloody battle ending with the curse. He had not heard of The Line of Currin before, but from the symbol on the old book’s cover and the one above the castle door, Queen Laurel had to be of the Line of Currin. With shaking hands Tre closed the book and the smoke from the candle disappeared from the room. He was confused by what he had read and wanted to talk to Mallrok and show him the old book. When Tre glanced down, the writing on the book’s cover had changed back to marks and slashes. Tre opened the book and like the cover the words had been replaced by long and short dashes.