‘He will stay where he was directed to, although I cannot guarantee he did not hear you.’
‘The regent must become the true heir to be granted all that goes with it.’
‘To be seen as the rightful king,’ she whispered.
‘Exactly. Then he would be more likely to keep the kingdom together.’
‘Everyone still pays tribute…’
‘But not as they did. The world is not what it was in the previous king’s time, and there are rumours of unrest.’
Ana waited. This man had heard far more than she had herself. There were no signs of unrest on Sheer Rock. Although she rarely saw anyone, rumour spread faster than illness in a castle.
‘The gwelka,’ she said, thinking of the little grey man.
‘They may be part of the problem. And the Near Folk aren’t as obliging as they were.’
‘The Near Folk? Are they not myth?’
He laughed and tugged at his sleeve. She leaned forward as the silver scar caught the moonlight. ‘I never heard of them attacking people, but it may be that they think they too have a chance to grab the power. Without the rightful heir on the throne, wearing the crown of Ilia, the regent may have no chance to leave his place to an heir of his own.’
‘He’s not married,’ she said slowly.
‘He may have other plans.’
Ana stared out into the darkness. She didn’t understand what the world wanted from her, or what it was meant to be.
Ana heard the movement before she saw it, and then a girl appeared in the dim light beside the master. She hung back, but Ana felt something from her.
‘My daughter,’ the master murmured.
The lights around the edges of the courtyard seemed to increase, and as she stepped into the light Ana saw something she didn’t expect. The girl would have only been a few years younger than herself, red blond hair and strikingly beautiful.
Her eyes were dark, and in the dim light Ana wasn’t sure that she was seeing exactly what was in front of her. The sword master’s arm moved slowly to block her, to protect the girl from Ana, and she knew the feeling was right.
She reached out quickly, grabbing the girl by the arm and dragging her closer.
‘Papa,’ the girl cried, clearly frightened of the dark witch before her, but Ana didn’t care. She had found her way to him.
‘Ed,’ she whispered.
Chapter 32
The firelight crackled, and a strange hush covered the clearing before Ed heard his name called. Clearly this time, pulling him from his half-sleep state. Belle stirred beside him, and then he saw a shimmer and was on his feet. As were Dray and Ende.
Standing before the fire and reaching for him was Ana. She looked very different, but it was certainly her. Her dark hair was loose and reflected the firelight, giving him the impression that she had returned to them. A strange shimmer around her indicated that she wasn’t there in body. One hand reached to him while the other appeared to be closed around something, but he couldn’t quite tell what.
‘Don’t touch her,’ Ende hissed, his hand on his arm. Ed hadn’t even realised that he was reaching for her. ‘You don’t know who sent her.’
‘You are not safe,’ Ana said. ‘I’m not sure whether to tell you to stay away or return.
‘Ana?’ Dray asked, stepping forward, but she didn’t acknowledge him or turn his way. Her eyes only focused on Ed.
‘What have they done to you?’ Ed asked, taking in her changed form. He had seen her as a woman at the castle of the mountain lord, but this was something very different.
‘You don’t like it?’ she asked, disappointment in her voice as she ran her hand over her side. He gulped down the wonder at who this woman was.
‘Ana, how did you reach me?’ he asked, trying to distract himself.
She held up her hand then, and another came into focus.
‘Salima,’ he breathed. As Ana’s eyes hardened, he wondered if they had done more than dress her differently.
‘He said I couldn’t reach you. That only magic could find magic.’
‘Ana?’ Ende interjected, and she only glanced his way, her focus on Ed.
‘I found the magic to find you. But I don’t know if I can use it to bring you here.’
They stood in silence as Ed wondered if she was working for the mage, learning from him and so helping him. Dray’s hand was heavy on his shoulder. He felt as though he had let them all down by allowing her to be taken, and then for Ana finding Salima.
‘Dray?’ she said, her voice soft, and Ed thought she might cry.
‘Why is it not safe?’ Dray asked, giving Ed’s shoulder a gentle squeeze.
‘There are too many who doubt, and his uncle… It is more than the crown.’
‘Can you return to us?’ Dray asked, his voice soft and coaxing as though talking to a child, or to a madman on a ledge. ‘Can you step to us?’ he asked, raising his hand to her, and Ed noticed Ende’s uncertainty.
She reached forward, and for a moment Ed was sure she had taken the soldier’s hand, but as soon as he thought she had become solid, she disappeared.
Dray released his hold and stepped forward. Ed’s legs failed, and he slumped to the ground.
Ende looked from where she had been and then to Ed. ‘She has magic,’ he said.
‘We knew that,’ Belle said behind them, but Ed couldn’t turn. There was too much going through his mind. He could only nod.
‘Who is the girl?’ Ende whispered, and Ed looked up at him.
He wasn’t sure what Ana had seen in her or how she had managed to connect them. ‘The magic,’ Ed whispered, thinking of Ana’s hand closed so tight around the girl’s arm. ‘She said she found the magic.’
‘Who is the girl?’ Ende asked more firmly, his deep voice resonating through Ed and drawing his attention.
‘The sword master’s daughter,’ he said quickly.
Ende opened his mouth and then closed it.
‘How is she connected to you?’ Dray asked, and Ed turned to him. ‘Ana found it; perhaps others can as well.’
‘They don’t know to look,’ he murmured, then focused on Belle in the firelight, her face crumpling with disappointment. He looked up at the group standing around him, wanting to trust them yet uncertain as to what they might do with the information. Something had shifted in Ende, something hard, and he took a small step back. Ed wondered if he would see the dragon now.
‘Ana said you were in danger,’ Belle said, kneeling beside him and blowing out a slow breath. ‘We should stay away.’
‘The danger will not dissipate by staying away,’ Dray said.
‘How can it be?’ Ende said more to himself than anyone else, moving away from the fire.
Ed climbed slowly to his feet and looked up at the soldier, wondering if he could ever be seen as more than just a boy in his eyes. ‘Are you the king’s man?’ he asked.
The soldier looked at Ende’s back before he nodded.
‘He thinks that you are hers.’
‘What do you ask?’ Captain Drayton said, standing tall.
‘Do you think I should wear the crown?’
The man blinked in surprise and then smiled, resting his hand on Ed’s shoulder again. ‘Yes,’ he said. Then he looked back to the fire and where Ana had stood not so long ago. ‘Your doubt is because of the girl.’
‘The sword master doesn’t have a child,’ Ende murmured, moving back into the light, and Ed wondered at the confusion. He was sure that he had worked out who she was just as Ana had, and yet he seemed to find it harder to accept.
‘Then whose child is she that she could connect Ana to the king?’ Belle asked.
‘My sister,’ Ed admitted, fear making the words sound forced and scratchy. ‘Salima.’
‘The queen only had one child. The other died with her,’ Dray said, repeating the story told by so many.
‘It was my father’s way of keeping her safe. He was the only one who knew the truth, and when he died, th
e loyal soldier who had hidden her returned. I knew immediately, although he never admitted the truth. I knew her.’
‘As Ana did, because of her connection to you,’ Ende finished. ‘The child was never mentioned after your mother died, as it was seen to be the cause of her death. Your father at times openly admitted that he was glad the child had not survived, for he would not have been able to look upon him as a true son.’
‘Another way to keep her safe,’ Ed said. ‘In some ways I was an only child, and there were only three of us who knew the truth.’
‘Three?’ Belle asked.
‘She doesn’t know who she truly is,’ Ed said, turning to Belle for the first time. ‘Master Forest thought it best to protect her, and I couldn’t tell her. She missed a different mother.’
Ende nodded slowly and sucked in a deep breath that caught in his throat.
‘I’m sorry,’ Ed said. ‘I know you were my mother’s friend.’ He stopped then and looked at the old man, who raised inky eyes to meet his. ‘You knew she was with child,’ he said slowly, and the old man nodded once. ‘But you didn’t return when she died.’
‘When they died, there was nothing to return for.’ He sounded distant.
Ed stared at the old man for too long. ‘Ende,’ he said slowly. ‘Endeavour. You were her truest friend.’
‘Not true enough, it appears.’ Ende moved back to the tree he had been sitting against when they had settled for the night.
Ed looked back to the flames of the fire, hoping Ana would keep Salima and their secret safe.
Chapter 33
Salima pulled her arm from witch’s fierce grip and took a step back. She could still see Ed’s hazy outline in the darkness, as though his ghost had remained after their connection was severed.
‘Why did that work? Why did you need me?’ she asked hurriedly, trying to swallow the odd bitter taste that lingered at the back of her throat.
‘Magic,’ the woman murmured, ‘and blood.’
Salima looked at the witch, whose face had softened in the dim light of the torches as she looked in the direction Ed had been. Who is she to Ed?
‘Mistress Merrin,’ her father said, drawing her attention, and Salima looked from the witch to him, reminded that he was there. ‘Stop.’
Her father had assured her that the woman was willing to help find Ed. But there was something else she had seen when she had taken her arm and dragged them across the kingdom to Ed. Although she knew she hadn’t moved at all.
The look on the woman’s face at her father’s instruction scared her enough that she pushed her way between them. ‘How did you reach him?’ she asked, not satisfied with the earlier response.
‘You are very determined, aren’t you, little princess?’
‘Don’t get smart,’ Salima quipped. ‘Just tell me how you reached Ed.’
‘We have a connection to him, you and I,’ she said. She smiled, but it made Salima’s skin crawl.
‘He’s my friend.’
‘And mine. Yet I needed something else to help me find him.’
‘Magic?’
‘In a way.’ She actually looked a little lost for a moment.
‘Can you bring him home?’ Salima asked.
‘I’m not sure if I could, if I should. I’m worried…’ She stopped, looking to Salima’s father before focusing on Salima. ‘You don’t know what you are to him.’
‘I’m his friend,’ she said again, finding that she was standing straighter although the woman was taller, older and beautiful. Her long dark hair was even a little intimidating.
‘Mistress Merrin.’ Her father’s voice carried a dangerous edge.
The witch glanced at him again and then softened, as she had when she had stared after Ed. She nodded once. ‘Call me Ana.’
Salima tried not to sigh. ‘Who are you?’ she asked with frustration before she could stop herself.
Ana turned away. Salima reached forward and grabbed her arm, similarly to how the woman had grabbed her earlier, but not with the same vice-like hold. Ana looked at the hand, then at Salima and then at her father.
He shook his head once.
‘There is more than you know,’ she said to him.
‘I don’t need to know anything other than where the king is,’ he growled. Salima turned to him, letting her hand fall from the woman’s warm skin, missing the heat almost instantly. Without warning, the woman turned and took her in her arms, holding her close. She blew a slow breath over the top of her head. Salima wasn’t sure which one of them it was meant to comfort. And for a moment she felt the woman reaching through her, searching for something deep within her.
‘Ed travels with others,’ she whispered. ‘Those who would like to know you.’
‘Friends?’
Salima felt Ana nod against her. ‘Friends who would die to protect him.’
‘Why did you leave him?’ Salima asked, suddenly wanting to cling to this woman and her comforting warmth. Then she remembered the frightening look on the woman’s face, and she wondered if she should trust or fear her. And whether she could do both.
‘It was not my choice.’
Salima pulled back reluctantly. ‘Whose choice was it?’
‘The mage and regent,’ her father whispered.
Ana nodded. The kinder, softer woman almost called to her. Salima had never really felt a connection to anyone as she did to Ed and her father. She couldn’t remember her mother, as she had died when she was born. Her father was all she knew, and he hadn’t remarried. There had never been a mother figure in her life, and she wasn’t sure that this woman fit her idea of a mother.
‘You and Ed are drawn together,’ Salima said, almost voicing what she felt for herself.
Ana nodded. ‘We were. I dreamt of him before we met.’
‘It appeared as though you spoke to others as well as the king,’ Salima’s father said.
‘Dray,’ she said softly. ‘A soldier, and Ende was with him.’
‘Ende?’ he asked slowly. ‘Ende is with the king?’
She nodded. ‘You knew him.’
He glanced quickly at Salima and then nodded.
‘The old man avoids the capital. It must have been some time since he was last here,’ Ana said.
‘Old man?’
‘You know what he is?’ Ana asked, confusion flitting across her face.
Salima wondered who this other man was. ‘You are connected with them all. That is why you saw them when I couldn’t,’ she said.
Ana focused on her, her brow knitted. ‘You couldn’t see the old man?’
She shook her head.
‘It wasn’t so long ago he was young and wild,’ Salima’s father said.
‘I think he is still wild in his way,’ Ana said, laughter at the edge of her voice. Salima smiled at her comfortable ease. ‘He has helped me greatly, although he wasn’t sure he should.’
‘Why?’ Salima asked quickly.
‘He thinks I might be dangerous,’ Ana said almost absently.
‘I can see that,’ Salima admitted, and her father glared at her. ‘Well, it is true. I’m not sure whether I should run from you or throw my arms around you.’
‘I’m don’t think that Ende is sure either.’ Ana smiled, and Salima felt the urge to hold her again. When Ana reached for Salima, she took a step back.
‘I feel your confusion,’ Ana murmured. ‘I need to return.’ She bowed her head to Salima’s father and then disappeared into the darkness.
He let out a slow breath as she disappeared. ‘If Ende fears she is dangerous, she may well be.’
‘Who is Ende?’ Salima asked. ‘I have never heard you mention him before.’
‘He’s an old friend from before you were born.’
‘You didn’t talk about him as though he was a friend.’
‘He was a difficult man. Selfish and hot headed.’
‘Ana described him as an old man. He might have learnt as he aged.’
‘Do you see me as an o
ld man?’
‘Of course not, Papa,’ Salima said, wrapping her arms around him. She was comfortable with him, yet she didn’t feel the same comfortable warmth she had with Ana.
‘He was close in age to myself. Perhaps he hasn’t aged as well.’
‘You will always be the most handsome of men to me,’ she said, squeezing him tight.
Lying in her narrow bed that night, Salima couldn’t sleep. Her father paced in the room next door, his feet heavy on the boards and constant in their movement. The evening’s events wouldn’t stop running through her mind. The vision of Ed. Just Ed, she had thought, as though she had only seen him. Yet she knew she had travelled across the world. Or at least across the kingdom.
She closed her eyes and focused on the image of Ed, his relief initially at seeing Ana and then the uncertainty at her using Salima. Was it just because they were friends, or was there something else? She didn’t think that he saw her as the woman he saw in Ana. But did it change the way he looked at Ana?
He hadn’t been alone. There was an older soldier, similar in age or perhaps younger than her father, yet something about him told her he could be trusted, and she didn’t think it was the black armour of the King’s Men.
She looked beyond him to the old man at Ed’s other side. He was old, older than her father by many years. In fact, it seemed he could be old enough to be her grandfather. Was this the man her father knew? But he wasn’t what her father had described.
There were other people behind him in the trees. Thick, ancient trees. Another older man, and a young woman. Another beauty, although very different from the witch. Her blond hair, although dishevelled, was still golden in the firelight. Salima looked around the clearing as though she had stepped through the magic gate created by Ana. She moved easily amongst the people in the group, hearing them all and looking back at Ana’s form as Ed would have seen her.
She could feel the tension in the clearing. The uncertainty of the soldier, talking to her so calmly while she felt his worry. Ed’s excitement, the old man’s fear. Or was it joy? She paused by him, trying to determine what he was, and what he felt about the situation and Ana.
She reached for him, but before she could lay her fingers on his sleeve, the heat pushed her back. It was as though he was hot enough to burn her. A strange mix of emotion washed over her, and then he turned jet-black eyes on her.
The Empty Crown Page 22