The siren left the sleeping room and returned shortly with a carafe of fluid and scrumptious looking biscuits. She placed the food on a table by Rhiann’s bed. Rhiann munched on the nutritious bread and drank the delicious fruity beverage.
Rhiann finished his food and said, “Maranna, you are beautiful and I am enjoying your hospitality, but I really must I must get to the Hanging Gardens and give Uncle Mayard the sword Exeter. I’ve tarried too long.”
Maranna said hesitantly, “Rhiann, we have much to discuss. I… I have something I must tell you, and there’s no easy way. I can’t sing everything away.”
She stepped away again and returned with a bundle of items and an old tattered leather bag.
Rhiann frowned and muttered, “Wait… that’s Uncle Mayard’s hat… and holding bag… and cloak. He’s here. No… he’d never be without them. Maranna…?”
Maranna extended her soft fingers and softly stroked his face. The siren whispered, “Rhiann, your Uncle Mayard only lives in our memories. He passed peacefully at the Hanging Gardens. Nona honored him with a pyre. A hundred centaurs and six Manticores trumpeted his farewell lament.”
Rhiann said, “No… he said he was going to help shore up the defenses of the Gardens! That’s why he wanted me to fetch the sword in his stead!”
Maranna sighed and continued, “He wanted it this way. Rhiann. He did not want you to remember him by his final weak moments. Nona stood by and comforted him. Mayard was too weak to make another journey and he knew it. His strength faded fast after you returned to the Gardens. Read his journal about the Cloudmares. You’ll remember them the next time you see them. They carried you to the Gardens. His greatest and oldest friends were with him at the end.”
Rhiann sobbed, “But I was not!
Maranna said, “Again, that’s the way he wanted it.”
Rhiann sobbed a bit and asked, “What are Cloudmares?”
The cloudmare’s intrinsic Forget Spell was more effective than Rhiann’s. The young sorcerer did not remember traveling to the Hanging Gardens on the Cloudmares. Maranna briefly described the beasts and relayed they were flong-time friends of Mayard Klarje.
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