As my pursuers advanced towards me through the desert. I sat staring blankly at them, unable to think of a single thing that would make any difference. I had failed. I couldn't finish the Remedy and the guards were almost here. I would have to go with Hericle when he came for me the next day and never go back to Polemmy. I called myself every bad name I had ever heard, and berated myself for being so useless, then I shook my head as if the action could replace my gloomy mood with a more positive one.

When I returned to the cavern I did my best but still could not identify or fit a single piece. Soni and Naamiya puzzled over the remaining pieces, but I had no hope that they would be successful. I wasn't even upset that they were touching the pieces of the Remedy.

I stared at the Remedy until my head ached from frowning and my eyes were gritty and dry. The cavern walls seemed to close in around me. If I did not get out I would surely suffocate within its confines. I stalked out of the cavern and paced back and forth along the path with my stomach twisted into knots.

My thoughts turned back to Monila and Hericle. What would my life have been like if he had stayed with Monila in her mountain village where we could have been a proper family? Or if Monila had not been forced to go to Merthgem and if I had not been foretold? I pictured us living together. I would have grown up knowing who I was and with the security of a father. I shook the thought away, feeling disloyal. I had grown up with love and security. Kershel, Veena, Halash and Doya had given me everything a young boy could hope for.

Except a father of my own.

I sat down on the path by the knotted rope with my back against the cliff and stared out across the desert. Anger that Hericle had not made more of an effort to find me boiled through me, and I clenched my teeth. He had not cared enough about Monila to carry on searching. Why not? Perhaps it had been a relief that he didn't have to be father to a child he hadn't wanted. But there was the pride I'd seen in his face when we met and he had claimed me as his own son? Could I be wrong about that?

As though my thoughts had summoned him, his voice came from behind me.

'Thamet?'

I looked round at him from where I was slumped on the ground.

'What's wrong?' he asked, coming to sit beside me.

'Why didn't you try harder to find Monila and me?' I asked him. 'I loved the people who brought me up, but it wasn't the same.'

He looked down at the ground in front of his feet. 'I loved her, she was everything to me. I wanted to marry her and raise a family, but I believed it when they said she had died. I could have taken the time to search further, but there were too many things happening; I was trying to raise an army. I swear to you that if I'd known that you were alive then nothing could have stopped me from finding you.'

He put his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder. The anger I felt at his failure to find me evaporated. I wanted nothing more than to bury myself in his arms like a child.

'What did you find at the end of the path?' he asked.

'A cavern with a relic lying on the floor, though it was in pieces. It's a remedy and I've been putting it together, but I can't finish it. I tried so hard. For a time it was as though I had built it many times before, but now I can't make the pieces fit. I've failed. It's all been a waste of time.'

'Your journey hasn't been a waste, Thamet. We've found each other at last. It's time to leave the relic behind now.'

'I can't just leave it! I promised I would finish it!' Being denied one last chance to complete the Remedy filled me with panic. I just needed time. I had to persuade him to let me stay.

'No, Thamet. You're coming with me. It's time for us to be off. There is a new life waiting for you.'

I clenched my teeth to stop an outburst. Why wasn't he listening? He had only known me for a few days, so what gave him the right to order me around as though I were one of his men? Basata had been a part of my life for much longer and I had made a promise to her.

'Who are you to say what I can and can't do? I'm going to finish what I started and I'm not leaving it until I'm ready.' My anger made my voice sound strange in my own ears, like that of somebody older than me; somebody used to making decisions for himself.

'I'm your father. I have a lot to make up for – years of lost time. I'm going to take you home. Then you are going to keep your promise and help me raise an army and take back Polemmy!'

I was furious. I turned from him and began to stride along the path. Once I was at the cavern I would have the support of Soni and Naamiya. Hericle followed me and grabbed at my arm. I pulled away and shouted over my shoulder at him.

'I'm staying here with my friends! They've looked after me more than you ever have.' I turned around and walked away from him again.

Hericle grabbed at my shoulder to turn me around but his hand glanced off me and threw me off balance. I stumbled and my head cracked hard against the cliff face as I went down.

The world went black for a time.

***

My forehead throbbed and a pain jabbed at the back of my neck as I emerged from a confused dream to the sound of Hericle and Soni arguing above me. Their words filtered into my mind, but I felt no connection to them.

'You said six days. You've only given him four. You can't make him leave now, not when he's so close to finishing.' Soni's voice had a pleading tone.

I clutched at the last traces of my dream. Basata had been there again, whispering in my ear, telling me about the Remedy she had left for me. As the argument above me grew in volume I tried to hold fast to the strains of her musical voice rippling in my ear.

'We have to leave now. There's something I must do. He can't stay any longer, especially now the guards are coming for him. If they want him, they will find a way up here,' insisted Hericle.

What was it Basata had been trying to tell me?

The Remedy.

A remedy was a cure. It would put things right. I thought of all the things that needed curing; Soni's face, the pain I experienced whenever I was near to the relics, my relationship with my father.

The Remedy in the cavern would solve all my problems. I only had to complete it. I knew it. As the argument raged on overhead, I dragged myself to my feet and lurched along the path to the cavern, my hand on the wall to steady myself.

In the gloom of the cavern I looked at the pile, determined that I was going to complete the Remedy even if I had to try every single remaining piece in every possible position. It was late afternoon and the light inside the cavern was growing dim. I needed to stop thinking and allow my body to finish the Remedy. I walked to the pile of pieces and picked one up. As I touched it, a surge of energy flooded through my limbs. I almost ran to the Remedy and put the piece into the correct position. As I twisted it, I was filled with new hope. I could finish the Remedy now.

I dashed back to the pile and reached for another piece, then ran to the Remedy to put it in its place.

The cavern filled with a flickering orange light as Naamiya came in with a flaming torch. Perhaps it had come from Hericle, but it didn't matter. I could have put the Remedy together in total darkness.

I worked on through the night until the pellets wore off and I was shaking with pain. Naamiya and Soni dragged me out of the cavern to the end of the path and wrapped me in my blanket without trying to make me climb the rope. I was weak and shivering again, and I was glad of their body heat. I did not try to stay awake that night. I went to sleep eager to hear Basata again.

But I was disappointed.

***

I woke with the first rays of daylight and headed back to the cavern. As I chewed my very last pellets, I hoped that I could complete the Remedy that day. There were no more pellets unless they could be brought from Polemmy, and I doubted that would ever happen.

Hericle was sitting by the knotted rope with his legs dangling over the edge of the ledge. He stood up and held out his hand to me. He waited for me to take it but I just looked at it.

'It was wrong of me to try to force you, but you must come with me. If we don't take Polemmy then famine will.' He sounded almost humble.

My jaws clenched and I had to consciously relax them. 'Yes, you were wrong, but I'm going to finish building the Remedy. When I've completed it, we'll talk about Polemmy.'

I climbed down the rope without looking at him. Above me, Hericle gave a snort of disgust and kicked a rock before making his way towards to the mountain pass.

As I neared the cavern, there was a noise from down below in the ravine. I looked down to see the stout figure of Prindah.

'My boy, you must stop what you are doing. What you are doing is dangerous. Great harm will come to us all if you carry on,' Prindah shouted up to me. His voice was high pitched and quavered slightly. I knew he was frightened, but of what I had no idea.

I looked down at him and sighed. My father wanted to give me orders and now Prindah wanted to control me too. I recalled the desperation and the despair in Basata's eyes. It would disappoint her if I did not complete my task, and I would not let that happen.

I turned away from them and walked towards the cavern.

'Please. Come down. I'm not worried about the warehouses. You must come back to Polemmy. Whatever you are doing up there is wrong.' Prindah's voice was a squeal now.

I shook my head and didn't bother to answer. The Remedy waited for me. I walked into the cavern.

I looked at the remaining pieces of the Remedy and selected one. I knew just where it fitted. The top of the Remedy was so high that I had to reach above my head to put the piece into place and align with my fingertips. I could have found a rock to stand on to make my task easier, but I did not want to stop for even the shortest time.

Five pieces remained. I took a jewel studded panel and fitted it to the front of the Remedy.

Four pieces. A thin, flexible slip of metal slid into a groove and attached the jewelled panel to the bottom of the Remedy.

Three pieces. A solid metal bar went from the end of the strip to a fitting on the ground.

Two pieces. Another flexible strip went from the panel to the top of the Remedy where it clicked into place next to a silvery dome.

The last piece. A sheet of metal that I pushed into a slot beneath the jewelled panel.

I stood back and waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened. The Remedy sat still and silent. I looked at the crystal drawings, but they told me nothing. I could not see any part that was fitted incorrectly. The Remedy looked exactly as shown on the final crystal sheet.

A noise from outside disturbed me. There was nothing else I could do inside the cavern now, so I went outside to see what was happening. The bottom of the ravine below me was filled with by many guards that I couldn't count them. When they saw me above them, they pointed and shouted to me. I was dazed by the bright sunlight after the days of working in the dim light inside the cavern and my ears, now used to silence, were assaulted by the shouts of those below me.

The guards were penned in the ravine below. The cliff below me was too smooth to scale. They would have to go north and travel to the other side of the mountain to find the pass that had brought us up here. There was no way that they could reach me. I was safe up here.

I sat down and leaned back against the cliff behind me. I tried to pick out single voices in the crowd, but I was too tired and disappointed to make sense of anything right now, except that some of the guards below were shouting orders.

The sun warmed and relaxed me, but after a time I stood and went back into the cavern where it was quiet and I was alone. I looked at the Remedy. I ran my hands over it, feeling the smooth perfection of its making; its beauty and intrigue. Tears ran down my cheeks. It had cost me so much pain and given me nothing in return. I sat down on the ground and wept until I was drained.

Surely I had done everything Basata had asked of me. What could I do if the Remedy did not work? Had something had gone wrong with it since the Before Time? Or had something had worked its way loose as I had positioned later pieces?

I crawled on hands and knees, looking for any part that was not joined to its neighbours correctly. All were as firmly fitted in as they had been when I first put them there.

Weakness overcame me as relic pain began to stab into my skull. I had done all I could do. The pellets I had eaten that morning had lost their potency and I was now feeling the full effect of the relic metal. I crawled away from the cavern, and managed to steady myself against the rock face and walked towards the rope.

I could not come back to the cavern again.

I had no pellets left.

***

Thamet has finally reached the end of his endurance. How is he going to get the Remedy working?

Any feedback good or bad is truly appreciated, I am trying to make this the best story I can. Please let me know if you find anything confusing or if you think I've left anything out.

And finally, if you liked it, please press the little yellow ⭐️ to let me know!

Anni X