Ende wondered if he would survive this journey himself to return to the mountains he had come to love. People were not what he had thought they were. Some were better than he hoped, but too often they disappointed him. He had hoped Ana was one of the good ones, but as he looked over the straggly group before him, he feared he might be leading them into something very different because of her.
‘Time to stop thinking about this and start moving,’ the captain said, and Ende nodded in agreement.
With Phillip leading, they made their way slowly down the mountain. The Near Forest grew closer, and he looked at the dense canopy, wondering what might lurk beneath it. He had rarely walked beneath it, preferring to fly above it, and it had been some time since he had done that.
‘Ana is better than you think she is,’ the captain said, walking behind him.
‘She is in your head,’ Ende said.
‘It is more than that.’
‘Is it?’ Ende stopped and turned back to the man. He seemed very sure of himself.
‘I have seen a lot in my time,’ he said.
Ende laughed, a loud booming noise that echoed around them and made the others ahead on the path stop and look back. ‘Have you indeed, young man?’ Ende asked, emphasising his last words. ‘You have no idea of what I have seen.’
‘We are helping a king regain his crown.’
‘It will be far more than that. These things always are. The great fight of his grandfather’s time. What do you think started such a battle, that it dragged the entire kingdom to war?’
The captain opened his mouth and then closed it.
‘There is a reason you are the soldier you are. A reason you chose to stand with the king.’
The man nodded, and he saw then what the girl had seen in him. The strength, despite his tired ways, and the dedication he had to his post. There was more to him. There had been when he was just a soldier, then as a captain and now.
‘You are not the king’s man,’ Ende said, ‘and she has done that, deliberately or not.’
‘I’ll protect him with my life.’
‘I don’t doubt that,’ Ende said. ‘But you do it not because of who you are, but because of who she is and your connection to her.’
‘Are you so sure she is dangerous?’
Ende sucked in a deep breath and, with a nod, turned back down the path.
They walked in silence for a time, and then the man behind him cleared his throat. ‘What do you think she is?’
‘I don’t honestly know. I see conflicting ideas of her. I can see a kindness.’ He stopped and turned back to the soldier, looking even more tired than when they had started out, and not due to the walking. ‘I can see that she truly cares, but there is something else—whether that is the idea that she is dangerous, or that when she learns what she truly is, she will become something else.’
‘She didn’t even know she was gifted,’ the captain insisted.
‘But others did,’ Ende murmured, turning back along the path.
‘Ana is the lord’s niece.’
Ende nodded slowly. He had known her mother briefly, and he could understand that the lord would know what Ana was even if she hadn’t seen it. She would know what to look for. ‘She had been in the castle of the Lord’s Seat all that time?’
‘Yes,’ the soldier behind him said.
‘And no one told her who she was?’
‘I don’t know that there was anyone to tell. Her parents are gone. There was a boy,’ he said slowly, and as much as Ende was tempted to turn back and read his face, he continued forward. ‘Tim?’ the captain wondered aloud. ‘He worried that she didn’t have her cloak.’
Ende stopped so suddenly that the captain nearly walked into the back of him. ‘Cloak,’ he said.
‘I had marched her out. My only thought was to get her as far away from the Walk as possible,’ he murmured, ‘to save her. We didn’t stop for supplies or cloaks. I shared mine,’ he said, looking at Ende as though for reassurance that he had looked after her well enough in running away with her.
‘Did she have a cloak at the castle?’
‘I don’t know, but I would assume so. Does it matter now?’
‘It might,’ Ende said, ‘it just might.’
‘Will we camp inside the forest tonight?’ Belle asked. Ende shook the image forming in his mind, but it didn’t quite take shape.
‘Yes,’ Ed said, picking up his pace a little.
Ende looked out through the stringy trees that dotted the rocky landscape. They had some way to go before they would reach the base of the mountains and then make it across the plains. ‘Are you sure we can make the distance?’ It was still early morning, but he thought it was too far, at least for Belle and Phillip.
‘We have to,’ Ed said, stepping around Phillip and taking the lead. ‘It will keep us safe.’
Ende slowed as he watched the young king stride out ahead of them, only slowing when his feet slipped on the gravely path and he looked back to ensure they were following.
‘What did you see?’ Ende asked.
He shook his head and kept walking.
Ende moved easily past the girl and her father and stopped in front of the king with his hand on his chest.
‘How did you…?’ he stammered, then looked down at the hand.
‘What did you see?’ Ende asked again.
‘I don’t think I saw anything, but I had a feeling.’
‘A feeling could be the same,’ Ende encouraged.
The young man sucked in a deep breath and then blew out softly, letting his head fall back to look up at the sky.
‘I’ll believe you,’ Ende whispered.
‘The forest protected the girls,’ he said quickly.
‘Not from those men,’ Belle snapped.
‘I think it did,’ he said, turning to her. ‘Those who ran off wouldn’t have been able to find you again. When I stepped outside the clearing, I couldn’t see the light or hear the chatter and laughter…’
‘We weren’t that loud,’ she said defensively.
‘You were,’ he said, laughter in his voice, and then his brow creased. ‘But when I was outside the clearing it was as though you weren’t there.’ He turned back to Ende, whose hand still rested on the young man’s chest. ‘Will it protect us all or only some of us?’
‘That is to be seen,’ Ende said. ‘It may not let me in at all,’ he added, allowing his hand to drop and turning to look over the distant mass of green.
‘Who lives in there?’
‘All sorts, including the Near Folk. It may be that they kept the girls safe, although it might be that they wanted the girls for themselves.’
‘If that were the case,’ Belle said, ‘they would have taken us before my father and the king arrived.’
‘Maybe they were waiting for an opportunity. Maybe the men were keeping you safe from them.’
Belle shivered. ‘Are they like the gwelka?’
Ende shook his head slowly.
‘Please call me Ed,’ the boy said with a sad sigh.
‘I don’t think that I should,’ she said politely. ‘And if we want to make the trees before nightfall, I suggest we get moving.’
‘But do we?’ the captain asked.
‘The boy might be right,’ Ende admitted, stepping back to allow him to lead the way. He waited for the farmer and his daughter to continue down the path and then joined in at the same place he had started in the line.
‘The king and his merry band,’ he murmured as they continued down the mountainside. ‘Let’s hope this isn’t the last the world sees of us.’
‘You know you have quite a negative outlook on life,’ Dray quipped behind him.
‘Gwelka and Near Folk,’ Belle said ahead of him. ‘All we need now is a dragon to swoop from the sky and eat us, and you might actually be happy.’
It was Dray who laughed first, and Ende had to laugh with him.
They travelled mostly in silence through the rest of the d
ay. All of them focused on some different aspect of where they were going and why, or where they had come from. But Ende was surprised that the sky was only just turning orange as they made it to the edge of the forest. Ende watched the group move as one beneath the trees while he waited, unsure if this was the right path. Within moments, he lost sight of them and knew the king was right. He just wondered if the forest was saving them from him too.
‘Ed?’ came a desperate cry, and he raced forward to find the group standing as one not far from the edge of the forest.
The voice had sounded like Ana’s, and as he joined the group, an image of a woman in black disappeared.
‘Who was that?’ Belle asked.
‘Ana,’ Ed and Dray said at the same time, glancing at each other and then turning to Ende.
‘I didn’t see anything,’ he murmured, ‘but I heard her.’
‘How?’ Dray asked.
He shook his head. She might be trying to find them with the same magic that dragged her away. But was she looking because she wanted to be back amongst them, or was someone else making her look?
‘That was not the shape of the maid,’ Phillip said, his old face blushing in the dim light. ‘That was a woman. I think you are being tricked by a witch.’
Again, the group looked to Ende. ‘There could be any number of explanations,’ he said. ‘And I don’t know any of them with certainty. At least the boy appears to be right about the forest.’ He looked around and then back to the group, where the king seemed somewhat disappointed. ‘Sorry, Your Majesty. Slip of the tongue. But once you entered the trees, I couldn’t hear you. It was only at the girl’s call that I knew where you were.’
‘Ana,’ the boy said.
‘Maybe,’ Ende conceded. ‘Shall we set up camp here? We can consider our way forward in the morning.’
‘If it was Ana…?’ Ed asked.
‘Then she will try and try again until she finds you,’ Ende said, pulling the bag from his back.
‘We are meant to be saving her,’ he said with a shake of his head.
‘Maybe you will save each other,’ he said, reaching for a dried branch near his feet and then another. ‘Now let us get a fire started so you don’t freeze during the night.’
Chapter 31
Ana stared at the scorched edges of the ink drawing. She wasn’t quite sure what she hoped she would find, or whether she would manage to reach him, but all she had seen was trees. She thought she had seen the silhouettes of Dray and Ed, but she couldn’t be sure it was them. She only hoped that when she did find them, Ed wouldn’t be too angry that she had damaged his mother’s portrait.
She had at least taken it from the frame. Although she knew that he held it regularly, she didn’t know if he had painted it himself. She turned it over now, the other side of it blank, and the burnt edges marked her fingers when she turned it back. She was almost tempted to wipe them on her apron before she remembered she no longer wore one.
It had been some weeks since she had served at the Seat of the Lord. Now it was she who was waited on in another castle, yet she couldn’t quite place who she was or why her life was so different.
She had called to Dray, asked him to save her, and he had. All without really knowing what had happened. He was coming again to save her, she thought, and although she wanted to call out for him, she knew she didn’t need to. She looked up from the painting towards the door.
The mage provided her space and time to explore what she thought she might be and, surprisingly, how she might be able to reach the king. She didn’t think they had worked out her connection to him. Although the sword master had.
He cared about the whereabouts of the king for a different reason than these other men, and she wondered if he would help her. Although seeking him out risked angering the mage, and she was sure there was much she could learn from him.
‘Any luck?’ the mage asked, appearing in the doorway.
Standing in the middle of her room, looking at the image on the bed, Ana shook her head.
‘Magic calls to magic,’ he said.
‘There has to be another way.’
‘You could try more of his items. The more personal the better. You have his mother’s image; do you have the pen he drew her with? Or…’
‘Tell me,’ she begged.
‘Try calling to him from his room. King Edwin rarely went out and was very private. Perhaps the room itself can assist you.’
‘What will you do when I find him?’
He laughed as he turned back for his study. ‘If you find him?’ He cackled. ‘I doubt you could come close.’
‘What do you know of my gifts?’ she asked, unmoving.
He shrugged then, as he had done the last time she had asked.
‘You could teach me.’
‘I would rather you found it on your own.’
‘Why?’ she asked, turning fully towards him as he walked away. ‘How would that help you? It could take me years.’
‘I’m in no hurry,’ he called over his shoulder. ‘And it worked for your mother.’
Ana stared after him, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Had she been trapped in this room, trying to discover what she was and what that meant? She looked towards the empty doorway. Did he really know her? Had she been on his side, or he on hers? The world was turned around, and Ana no longer knew what she had.
She opened the other door and headed along the corridor without glancing at the soldier. She walked with purpose, and he didn’t question as he followed her to the king’s door. She put her hand on it and closed her eyes.
She couldn’t sense him here. She feared the mage might be right that magic called magic and without it, she couldn’t reach him.
Trying not to sigh, she lifted her hand from the wood and headed back the way she had come. She branched off from the main corridor, wanting to see more of the castle to get more of an idea of Ed, as well as the men who both wanted him found and yet didn’t. Had it always been this way? she wondered. Did anyone in power risk losing it to those who wanted more than they had?
She paused by a lead-lined window. She didn’t need anything that she hadn’t had before. Despite who she was and what had been taken from her, Ana had been content in her way, every day the same. Yet here she was seeking out something she’d never thought she had, magic.
The castle was lit by large torches, although the shadows outweighed the light. Where might they be now, and should they stay away?
She walked a little further into a large open courtyard. She could hear the distant noises of horses. Other than a few soldiers, she didn’t see anyone. The air was warm as she breathed it in. If she’d had nights like this, she might have spent far more time out socialising. Tim came to mind, with his concern for her lack of a cloak, and she wondered if he would have stood in the evening air with her.
She turned and looked back past the soldier. The mage hadn’t just used her cloak to call her; he had used something that caused the strange flames and smoke. He had used magic to call magic. Ana had only tried to use her connection to Ed, and she had very nearly made it. She wondered then what she might learn if he took the time to teach her, and what she might achieve.
A man appeared before her, and it took all she had not to jump as he materialised out of the darkness. The sword master. She bowed her head, and he narrowed his eyes. Then he glanced at the soldier, and if she hadn’t been watching him, she might have missed it.
‘The king has not returned,’ he said.
‘I’m not sure what I can do to rectify it,’ she said honestly.
‘You are a witch. Surely you can magic something up.’
The soldier stepped a little closer, but she held up her hand and was surprised at how easily he stopped. ‘Maybe you would like to walk with me?’ she asked softly of the sword master. ‘I am not used to such warm evening weather.’
‘It won’t last,’ he said, indicating back into the dark. She glanced at the guard, willing him to stay whe
re he was, and then followed the master into the darkness.
‘In many ways, I miss the sea breeze,’ she said, finding him not far into the dark. ‘Who else walks of a night?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ he whispered, and she leaned a little closer to hear him.
‘I might not have the skills you hope I do.’
‘Or you might have more. The question is whether or not you will use them to help the crown.’
‘Does it matter to you who wears it?’
‘The king,’ he whispered hoarsely.
Ana sighed. She didn’t know if she could trust this man. She thought—or hoped—that she could, but she didn’t know him. He might very easily be a spy of the regent. ‘What does he want with me?’ she wondered aloud.
‘The king?’
‘His uncle.’
‘Has he not told you?’
‘It wasn’t very long ago they wanted me dead, and now they don’t.’
‘They don’t want him returned.’
‘No,’ she admitted easily. ‘But they are happy for me to try and find him.’
‘If something were to happen to him, it might easily be your fault. Witches are unpredictable.’
She knew that his words were meant as a warning, but she regretted being unable to see his face. ‘Is this all it is about?’ she asked, and he stopped.
Without the crunch of their shoes on the gravel, and with the sudden silence of the horses, as though they too listened to who else might be hidden in the darkness, the world seemed to cool around them. She shivered.
‘What have you heard?’ he asked.
‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Which is why I’m now curious about it.’ She took a deep breath. She had to trust someone, and this man had known her father. ‘They want him locked away, not taking the crown or even asking for it to be returned. Although the boy king has long ago ceased to be a boy. They need me, but I’m not sure what for. And it is far more than the crown that he wants.’
‘It could simply be that he wants to rule the kingdom.’
‘Perhaps,’ she murmured, walking on. ‘But he rules now.’
‘He is a proxy.’ The older man’s voice lifted through the darkness. ‘The guard?’
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