Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene XXXV

"It was you that shot Aralak?"

After everyone had left Essen had originally planned to get some rest. It was a sensible plan, but with so much to speak about it was an impossible notion. He'd lain there silently for half an hour, his body glad of the rest, but his mind unable to consider sleep. He dragged himself up and headed back to the main room, where Colm, still awake, sat pondering the world and everything in it. A bright candle on the wooden table lighting the room like a yellow spectre. As Essen entered unannounced the shape of his shadow crept across the wall. Grabbing his blanket he lay down once more, exactly as he had in the previous room, his body once again thankful. Only now his mouth was free to talk.

The Brynnyfirdians knew little of what had happened to Prince Aralak. They knew he'd been killed - an arrow to eye - and they knew it had happened sometime after he'd travelled to the Three Deserts. They likewise understood there were suspicions, aimed at the Tunidans and also the Maiden Lands. However, beyond that it was all somewhat murky. Exactly where he'd died, exactly why he'd died. It was an unknown. An unknown that had consequences in regard the wider war, but one that was largely baffling. Colm had spent some time trying to gain a sense of it, but little did it make. Though it certainly rooted the mainland kingdoms firmly against the Tunidans, which was now a blessing to their own cause.

When Essen offered his confession it only added confusion, albeit in a way that at least explained why it was all so confusing in the first place.

"I killed him," he coolly explained, his mouth much more lively than his body. "I can't really explain it. It seemed bizarre at the time to me too, but the opportunity arose and I just took it. We were in a strange patch of land on the outer desert - chasing deer. Then all of a sudden he was just there. Just stood there - out in a field. Looking like he'd stepped into the world for the very first time. I reached for an arrow and boom, the perfect shot. I heard the dull thud, then the heavens opened and we ran for the ship."

"But are you certain it was him? You've never even seen him in the flesh."

"The ship's pilot confirmed it. Plus, I just knew it at the time. I could feel it. I don't know why I was so certain, but I just knew it, ..and it was him, you've told me yourself. He's dead, an arrow to the eye, exactly as it happened."

As Essen was saying this Colm looked down at the candlelit chart spread open on the table, its island outlines barely visible in the dark. He traced a line from the Three Deserts, across the Great Desert, and finally out to the outer land where Essen was now claiming he'd killed Aralak.

"Did he cross the desert?" asked Colm, with curiosity. The thought a logical one, though the idea of land beyond the desert was still difficult to comprehend.

"Gelken - the guy who helped us when we were out there - he said that he'd crossed the desert. That's how he got there."

"How did he cross it?"

"He just walked."

They both started laughing at this sentence, the bizarre thought adding a comedic absurdity.

"You should check what I'm saying with the boy - and the monkey," laughed Essen, beginning to doubt his own words, "He'll tell you exactly what I'm saying. In fact, he'll tell you bits I've missed out. There are still a few other things on the boat too."

"You were lucky getting back," noted Colm, the mention of the boat returning the conversation to the here and now, "The Harbour Lands are almost completely gone. We've lost control of the seas. And this island will fall too if things don't change quite soon."

"It was plain sailing coming back," noted Essen, his aching body restless at this news. "I would have had no idea a war was going on had I not left one. Now I am back though, I'm here to fight. I just need one night's sleep. That's all. Then I'll need a ship..

..If I'd have wanted peace I'd have stayed out there."