Baris woke up covered in sweat.
"Dad! Dad! Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?" asked Riga, jolting awake. "I heard you talking..."
"Yes," said Baris, panting. "Well, no..."
"Tell me," said Riga.
"I... The woman bathed in light that I've told you about before..."
He paused, fearing he would sound insane. Riga looked at him, perplexed. The sun was barely beginning its celestial ascent and shone brightly into the blacksmith's house.
"Yes, I'm listening," he said.
"She told me that if I stayed in Genib, I would be murdered by the queen..."
He paused a second time as if to think. He got up from his bed and started pacing in the living room. Suddenly, he stopped, turned to his son with a grave look and declared:
"We are leaving tonight... Yes! We leave tonight!"
"Leave? But where to?" cried Riga, alarmed.
"For Arcadia!" said Baris determined, this time around.
"But! Dad! We'll have to cross the Rassan pass, and that's impossible, you know it!"
"That's true, yet we can't stay here any longer, so I've decided to leave tonight. We'll go to the edge of the kingdom and then we'll see."
The Rassan pass inspired the greatest fear, both among the Arcadians and the Genibians. Unless one could fly like a bird, it was simply impossible to cross. Of course, people had thought of killing the creature that guarded it, but it was so imposing - about thirty meters long and five meters wide - and so fierce that few had dared to try.
That is why the idea of going to Arcadia did not appeal much to Riga. Nor to his father, for that matter, even though he had come to terms with it. This thought overwhelmed him all day at the shop because, that evening, he would finally leave Genib to return to the country where he was born. As the minutes ticked by, he became more and more certain of it. He began to rejoice in silence amid the metallic din. The inescapable feeling of finding a lost happiness overwhelmed him, and he didn't know if the drops of sweat that rolled down his body were due to the effort and the heat of the fire, or the idea of undertaking a suicidal expedition. In the end, and without being able to say why, he trusted his dreams, this mysterious luminous figure, the future... Trust...
As evening came, Baris began to bustle about. He was all excited and happy as a lark. He conscientiously packed his clothes and all his personal effects. As he took a pile of clothes out of his wardrobe, a small container fell to the floor and rolled to his feet. He picked it up and looked at it for a long time; every time he saw it, memories of Arcadia resurfaced. What did it contain? Nothing precious in fact. At least, not to a stranger seeing it for the first time. It contained a potpourri of buttercups. They had no smell or remarkable beauty, but they had a particular significance to him. To his eyes, this little thing was everything: his native country, his friends, his youth, his wealth, his home, his glory, his wife, this flask, so to speak, represented a condensed version of his entire history in Arcadia, the summary of this sad man's entire life.
When he fled from Arcadia, it was one of the few items he could take with him. Recalling these painful memories made him melancholic once again.
Riga pulled him from his thoughts when he opened the door to go out:
"Where are you going?" his father asked him. "It's very late. What are you going to do outside?"
"The queen asked me to do her a favor," he replied in a sheepish tone.
"At such a late hour? And when did she ask you to see her?"
"Uh... Yesterday, after the fight, a guard came to tell me that she asked for me. Don't worry, I won't be long, see you later!"
"Wait…"
But Riga had already dashed into the night. Baris didn't even try to stop him because he knew he was already far away.
He ate dinner alone, but time was passing, and Riga still wasn't back. He began to worry: why was he late? Had something happened to him? The night had fallen long ago, and a very full moon had risen. The stars were not visible, and the streets seemed lit by artificial light. There was a knock at the door:
"Dad! It's me!"
"At last!" exclaimed Baris, opening the door to his son, extremely relieved. "You took your time!"
He locked the door and leaned against it. He was obviously waiting for an explanation that could excuse such a delay. He stared at this unconscious child who had almost compromised a twenty-year-old dream. Riga, on the contrary, avoided his father's gaze. His eyes, his body were shaking for a reason that was surely not the coolness of this summer night.
"Yes, it's the queen: she held me back," he finally said as if to justify himself.
This peremptory answer, far from satisfying his father, had the effect of leaving him floating in a sea of perplexity. He had no proof of the truth of his words as he had no proof of the contrary. In the end, he could only give him the benefit of the doubt, even if more details would have been welcome.
"If it's the queen who held you back then I can't blame you. However, if you went into town to loaf around then…"
"No, I assure you! In fact, I stayed at the palace because something unusual is happening: Averkane has been arrested!"
"What! Why?"
"I went to ask the queen while she was in her bedroom. She wouldn't have heard the guard knocking on the door; he walked in and... bang! It seems that the guard surprised Averkane sitting on the window sill while the queen was bedridden!"
"In her room? What was he doing in her room? That's strange..." said Baris, scratching his mustache. "And then?"
"They threw him in a dungeon waiting to judge him. Rumors are rife about his presence in the queen's room! He refused to answer questions and couldn't provide any explanation. He sat with his arms crossed on a chair that was collapsing under his weight but didn't…"
Riga was interrupted in his passionate story; Baris was left breathless. The door vibrated against his back: someone had knocked violently! And this time, it wasn't Riga. But then, who was it?
"Baris!" someone shouted. "Open! By order of the queen, open immediately!"
By the order of the queen? It must be royal soldiers! Baris panicked; his gaze immediately went to Riga:
"What are they doing here? Why are they at our door?"
"I… I…"
"Raaah!"
Baris couldn't hide his rage. He ran into the bedroom to rummage in his travel bag for the little flask of buttercups, a bag of supplies, and a brocade purse containing several gold coins.
It was no longer possible for them to quietly reach the Rassan pass as he had hoped. The queen was much quicker than he thought, as if she had been informed of their departure. She could just as well have waited until the next day to have him arrested when he would have presented himself at the castle to work. Baris quickly dismissed this idea from his mind because, on the other hand, why would she have waited? It seemed more logical to him. But time was pressing, someone continued to knock on the door; guards were posted in front of the entrance and maybe even all around the house.