Amos Daragon_ The Mask Wearer - Bryan Perro [25]
Yet this dangerous creature became very vulnerable under certain circumstances. For example, it died instantly if it heard a rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo. In addition, just like gorgons, the basilisk was unable see its reflection and survive. So it lived in perpetual fear of mirrors and other reflecting objects that could cause its immediate death.
One by one, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place in Amos’s mind, and he was finally able to imagine a way to free Bratel-la-Grande of the snake-haired women. First, it was obvious that the gorgons would not leave the city without getting back the pendant that was now in Beorf’s possession. Second, Yaune the Purifier, who knew of the gorgons’ power and therefore should have been able to protect his knights, had made a grave mistake. Since the knights’ well-polished armor shined as bright as mirrors, the creatures should have died instantly when facing them—well before they could curse the city. But Yaune had neglected an important fact: gorgons always attacked at night, when mirrors don’t reflect anything.
The only way to eliminate these monsters was to install mirrors everywhere and to light hundreds of simultaneous fires in the city. But how did one go about executing such a plan? Amos wondered. He thought of Beorf’s fireflies, but he would never be able to rally thousands, even millions of them.
Deep in thought, Amos was still trying to come up with the best way of eliminating the gorgons when he arrived at a village. He stopped to drink at a fountain.
“Who are you, young man, and what are you doing here?” an old lady asked. She was dressed in white and bent over her cane.
“I’m on my way to the woods of Tarkasis,” Amos told her. “Can you point me in the right direction?”
The old lady remained pensive for a moment. “Unfortunately, I can’t help you. In two days, you’re the second person who’s mentioned this forest to me. Isn’t it strange?”
Amos was surprised. “Who else asked you about the forest?” he wanted to know.
“A very nice man and his wife. They also inquired if I had seen a boy with long dark hair, wearing leather armor and an earring, and carrying a stick made out of ivory on his back. Yesterday I had not seen him, but today he’s right in front of me!”
“Those are my parents!” Amos cried out, deliriously happy to hear news of them. “We had to go our separate ways and I absolutely must find them. Please, madam, tell me which way they went.”
“I believe they went that way,” she said, pointing.
Amos thanked the old woman, eager to take off. But the woman asked him to stay with her a few more minutes.
“I’m going to tell you something, my young friend,” she said, inviting him to sit down next to her. “I know that you wish to find your parents as soon as possible, but I had a dream last night and I feel I have to tell you about it. I was baking rolls. Every member of my family was around me, and I was doing my best to please them. My children, my grandchildren, my cousins, my nephews, they had all been turned to stone. Then, suddenly, you appeared in my dream. I did not know you and you asked me for something to eat. I gave you three or four rolls. As you bit into one of them, you found a hard-boiled egg. I told you, ‘One often finds eggs where they are the least expected.’ That’s it. I don’t believe that dreams are meaningless, so I baked rolls this morning and I brought them with me. I also have some eggs. They’re for you and my wish is that you find your parents soon.”
Amos thanked her, took the food, and went on his way without really understanding the old woman’s dream. When he turned back to wave a last good-bye, the woman had vanished.
The farther Amos walked, the more he thought about what the woman had said: One often finds eggs where they are the least expected. He stopped in his tracks. What if the pendant stolen by Yaune all those years ago contained a rooster’s egg? That had to be the reason why the magician of darkness wanted so badly to get it back! The pendant