Trial by Obsidian

by Naomi Kelly

  "I know," I replied and swivelled in the saddle to kiss him, "You're a natural Alpha not a Gamma."

  "Like you said, we have to actually have this battle first."

  We rode late into the night, relying solely on the horses to meander their way through the paths we could no longer see. Once the horses began tripping over branches and the uneven terrain in the dark, we stopped pushing.

  Under a canopy of unadorned trees, we set up camp. The fallen leaves and chunky logs offered a place to sit and rest.

  Reuben helped me off Omega and into his arms instead.

  We had been side by side for hours, but it still didn't feel close enough. He rubbed my arms and frowned upon seeing the goose-bumps that cover every inch of my skin.

  "Bryar? Edvan? Will you help me gather firewood?" he called out.

  I parted my lip to protest, only to find his mouth occupying mine before I could even begin.

  "I should be the only thing that ever makes your skin shiver," he whispered against my cheek.

  "You can't be jealous of the winter wind."

  "Oh, but I am. I am jealous of anything that can tousle your hair like I did.”

  He held my gaze with his wide eyes. I knew exactly what he is remembering.

  I wanted to insist that a fire is too obvious, but I stopped myself. There was no hiding from the Chambers now. They had previously proved they would set most of Deshure alight to smoke out magicians.

  I watched the men build a pyre. Bryar ignited the dry branches, sending thick, dark plumes upwards to merge with the snow-filled clouds. The skies overhead turned grey.

  The Chambers favourite colour. Perhaps they would finally get the message, that this coven of magicians was not afraid to burn.

  Before we settled down for the night, I insisted on setting up a night-watch rota. We might have still been on Deshure soil but that meant little in terms of safety.

  Reuben nodded, "Good idea, I will take the first shift-"

  "No way," I said, "You wouldn't wake me up for my turn."

  He glared back with narrowed eyes, but knew I was right, "Fine. Edvan can go first, then Juniper, followed by Willow and I will take the last shift into the dawn. The rest of you can be on guard tomorrow night at Stagton."

  Elm, Adonis and Bryar all looked relieved at the prospect of getting a good night’s sleep. Well, as good as one could, given the circumstances.

  Edvan dug a sand-timer from his saddle bag.

  "Do you carry that around so you can time how often you get on my nerves?"

  Edvan rolled his eyes in response and made his way towards the clearing to begin his watch.

  Reuben swallowed a grin and led me towards our saddle-mats "All ranking Sinlaran carry one. We use them when training our men. One hour of running, climbing and either fencing or archery per day."

  "They sound like well-trained soldiers that will be tough to beat," I said with an unsteadily exhale.

  "They are well trained," he admitted, "But they aren't magicians.

  The night-watch seemed like a great idea.

  Until it was my turn. An unfriendly prod into the shoulder courtesy of Edvan, woke me two hours later. He pointed to the log he had vacated, gave a vague wave in the direction of Sinlara where enemies were likely to emerge from, and handed me the timer. No hello. No good-bye. He went straight to his waiting spot by the fire and lay down.

  It took a colossal amount of willpower to untangle myself from Reubens hold, but after counting to ten at least five times, I forced myself upright. I placed my warm saddle-mat over him before lightly crunching my way through the forming frost. I took my seat at the look-out log and waited.

  For the first hour I saw nothing move but my icy breath in-front of me. I was beginning to worry that every thought ever conceived must have already crossed my mind as I rotated the sand-timer for the second hour.

  As if she sensed my boredom, Pepper ambled her way over for some neck pats. The Chamber horses were obedient enough to be permitted to roam as they never ventured far, but the two new geldings had to be tethered to tree stump to keep them near. Edvan had made a sly comment about how all creatures from Deshure were wild, and that's why we were all named after the gods or nature.

  So, I purposefully called the horses Yarrow and Hermes to prove a point. One a resilient plant that could survive the toughest of winters, and the other a cherished god of travel and borders. Both seemed like a good omen for what lay ahead.

  Once the last grains of sand slipped through the timer, I made my way towards Willow.

  She lay curled in a tight ball. Her golden hair glued to her neck with sweat, even though it had started to snow.

  I thumbed a small bit of Obsidian, not risking using the power thread for fear of waking everyone up. I gently released my magic over her.

  A heartbeat instantly filled my ears. It was still beating as hard and fast at the last time I heard it at her house.

  Except now it was clear.

  It was not her heart I was hearing.

  It was a separate, tiny heartbeat that thumped from the centre of her womb.

  As I retracted my wisps of magic from around her subtly swollen belly, Willow opened her eyes and stared at me.

  Sixteen

  "I'm assuming Bryar doesn't know that you're pregnant?" I blurted the second we were out of earshot of the others.

  "Of course not," Willow said as she looked through the fire-pit towards her sleeping husband, "He wouldn't let me fight if he knew."

  "Damn right he wouldn't! I won't let you fight either, Willow. You should be at home."

  "I should be here," she said firmly, "I need to safeguard the future of Deshure. I can't bring my son or daughter into a world where they have no home or are prosecuted for their magician blood."

  Daughter, I mentally correct, but kept a solemn face.

  I drew her into an angry hug, "Do you really think I would let anyone harm your child? I would tear apart Sinlara with my bare-hands! Although I think Bryar would beat me to it."

  Her gentle laugh caused tears to break free from her wide eyes, "He will be such a protective father."

  "And you a loving mother."

  "This little speck," she said lightly hugging her abdomen, "Has been the heaviest secret I've ever had to keep. Out of everyone in our Coven, I never thought you would be the first to know but I'm so glad you do. You've become another sister to me."

  "I always wanted a sister. I ended up with Adonis instead," I scoffed.

  Her genuine smile paused as said, "Sisters keep secrets."

  I groaned and shook my head. I tried to step away, but she caught my elbow.

  "Please." Her eyes were wide and sincere.

  "Alright," I said, "I won't tell anyone on the condition you stay on the side-lines when we face the Chambers. That means no physical involvement. You can use your magic from a distance. Sparingly. And you must go back to bed now."

  She drew breath to protest but upon seeing my glare, she begrudgingly nodded.

  "Thank you...Auntie Juniper."

  I gave her one more tight hug before sending her away and returning to my log.

  Conflict raced through me my eyes constantly scanned the Sinlara horizon. A heightened sense of vulnerability battled with excitement and joy which flooded my heart and warmed my soul. It made the cold night less miserable. Their child would be the first magician born since the War. A baby born of both Topaz and Garnet blood lines.

  Would she take after her father’s fire abilities or lean more towards her mother’s metal-craft? Would she have a mixture of both?

  Questions rushed through my mind, but one constant doubt stayed at the forefront of my thoughts.

  How the hell was I supposed to secure a safe future for their daughter? For all Deshure and the Coven?

  Reuben joked about running away to a tranquil farming life to raise his children. Our children. But how could we when they would have dual magician bloodlines just as Willow's child.

  A r
agged breath caught in my throat as it became clear what had to happen. When we faced the Chambers, we would have to succeed. Or die trying. There was no third option. We could not run away anymore. I was so deep in thought I had not noticed the gentle hiss from of the timer stop for a fourth time.

  I made my way back to the group. Upon seeing Reuben's peaceful face, I considered standing in for his shift too, but heavy eyelids and a worn-out mind demanded otherwise.

  I crouched down and kissed him awake.

  "You're not Willow," he rumbled with a hoarseness to his voice, "Why is she not waking me?"

  "We swapped the order of the rota."

  He looked confused, but once I started yawning, he tucked me up without further questioning. I burrowed between the saddle-mats that held his heat.

  He grazed his lips against my forehead, and I fell asleep to the echo of him whispering, "Keep the bed warm."

  * * * *

  Over breakfast, I discreetly slipped my rations onto Willow's lap. Well, I thought I was being discreet, but the ever-observant Reuben noticed.

  "Aren't honeyed almonds a favourite of yours?" he asked quietly, "And since when do you share food?"

  I rolled my eyes, "I'm just not hungry," A lie.

  He said no more but the narrowing of his eyes shows he's not convinced.

  "I'm too nervous to eat," I added as an afterthough. Not a lie.

  He wraps an arm around me and draws me into his chest.

  "You're cold."

  I was sure the marrow in my bone had turned to slush, "I'm fine."

  For a bizarre moment I wished that Truth Serum run through my veins. At least the burning sensation I would have from all the lying could warm me up.

  "She isn't as cold as Epione that's for sure," Adonis said as he gazed at the snow-cap Sleepy Hill in the distance.

  "You don't actually still believe that legend, do you?" I sighed at my gullible brother.

  "What legend?" Edvan asked. Reuben twisted to face me, his face keen with interest.

  I frowned at the grown men around me who wanted to hear childish bedtime stories, "Apparently Sleepy Hill is the burial site of the goddess Epione. When she died her soul leached into the surrounding rocks, trapping her healing ability into the crystals around her."

  "That is where we get our Obsidian power from," Adonis added, "It was the dying wish of the goddess that we carry on her work by protecting mere mortals."

  "We are mere mortals!" I blurted, "It was that attitude that led you to almost kill yourself from exhaustion last year. We don't have some sacred duty to uphold by saving everyone."

  "Magicians are descended from goddesses?" Reuben asked with a look of pure awe.

  "Not just goddesses lad, gods too," Bryar interrupted before I could wipe the admiration off Reuben's face, "Hephaetus himself is said to live deep in the pit of Mount Isa."

  "Isn't Mount Isa a dormant volcano?"

  "Aye, but only because He is sleeping. The cold and hardened lava he once spew is what gives me Garnet crystal."

  "Is anyone on my side?" I asked, turning my attention to the girls.

  "Topaz crystals are found in Merridin cave, where Athena herself is said to have lain down the sword she used to slay Medusa. The sword rusted into the surrounding stone, turning it bright orange. The crystals absorbing the goddess abilities for metalwork and armour," Elm explained.

  "I know the tale, but do you believe it?"

  Elm nodded vigorously. Willow pared back her enthusiasm and instead just shrugged. I knew her tame reaction was only because she felt indebted to me. I could almost see her praying to Athena for forgiveness.

  Edvan stood, tipped his mug, and drained the dregs of his tea into the soil, "Only a fool would doubt the gods, Juniper."

  "Only a fool would anger a magician, Edvan," I snapped but he had already made his way towards his horse. The rest followed his cue to depart. Reuben paused and waited by for me to follow.

  "Why am I the crazy one for not believing that we have some god-bestowed gift?"

  He took my hand and led me towards Omega, "You do not believe your abilities are divine?"

  "No! Of course not, I'm not some little girl who needs some heroic story."

  "Okay," he said calmly, as he gave me a leg up into the saddle, "Then tell me, how do you have your powers?"

  My huff turned into a defeated breath as I pondered on his question. It was one I had asked myself a million times. With my lingering silence the only answer he received, Reuben smirked and took his seat behind me.

  Once firmly mounted, he clicked Omega into a trot and the rest of the Coven followed.

  "Care to tell me about the Onyx legend along the way?" he asked.

  I groaned, "Not you too."

  "Amuse me. It will distract me from the fact I have willingly let you within a fifty-mile radius of Karnes."

  Over the next hour, I told him about the lore of Zephyrus with as little sarcasm as I could muster.

  Zephyrus, the god of the spring wind, would walk from the west to east coast through the snow on his annual voyage. When he reached the hearth of the land, he would heave an unending breath, drawing all the cold into his lungs. He would warm this air and then blast it towards the path he just travelled. First west, then east, melting all the snow and frost in its wake. The thaw would then flow into the deep trench his giant footsteps left behind, giving us Stagton river. Which now lay before us.

  "Are all the dark rocks in the riverbed crystals?" Reuben asked, dismounting once more.

  "No, just the pebbles that received the brunt of his gale. They morphed to Onyx under the pressure, trapping his strength inside the stone. Allegedly that is," I added.

  "How do you tell which is which? They all look black to me," he said as he peered over the riverbank into the clear waters below.

  "Magicians are drawn to their ancestral stones. You'd feel a tingle in the palm of your hands when you're near it."

  "Well in my mere mortal state they would all just feel like rocks," he shone a sad smile, "But thank you for telling me."

  "I would have told you last time we were here had I remembered the myth, but I was distracted to say the least."

  "Distracted indeed. You went from being angry with me, to saving me, to kissing me."

  "I believe it was you who kissed me," I disputed, crossed my arms and pretended to be insulted.

  "Pedant," he muttered, and crossed him arms just like me. He mimicked my taut lipped face and rolled his eyes in a Juniper fashion.

  My thinly veiled attempted at frustration slowly cracked, and then fully dissolved as he wrapped his arms around me.

  "Regardless of who started what, I will never stop kissing you," he admitted.

  We tended to the horses and built another fire-pit. Hours past. We went through cycles of more story-telling and silence. It was during the third period of quiet reflection that Adonis stood.

  He faced north, stared across the river and looked at if he were listening intently. Yet there was no sound bar the crackling of firewood. He yanked energy from the power threads, and a wave of nausea washed over me. It was as if a hollow ball of air expanded within me as he borrowed my magic.

  "I can sense them. They're projecting their emotions...their hostility. They're almost here."

  He returns the energy to the power thread, but it does nothing to ease my nauseousness. Our never-ending wait was finally drawing to a close, but I suddenly felt caught off guard.

  "Hostility? They shouldn't be coming with aggression. This is an ambush, why are they already fired up? Do they know?" Elm asked and bit her lip.

  "A few days of intense travelling with Alpha Karnes is enough to make anyone hostile," Edvan said over the cracking of his knuckles and rolling of his shoulders.

  "Maybe the men will turn on Karnes, kill him and save us the hassle?" I offered.

  I hated the undertone of optimism in my voice as I talked about a man being murdered, but Adonis' shaking head suggested that he hated it more
. I knew he still loved me. I would always be his big sister no matter what. But something had shifted between us since my return from the Chambers.

  I was no longer the innocent healer who saved everyone.

  I was a magician who was no longer afraid to save myself.

  Having to constantly just survive had cast a shadow on my soul. A darker, colder streak to me that my brother could not relate to, but it was a side to me I was beginning to relish. For this dimmed sliver of my heart by contrast made the lighter parts of me shine brighter. I could laugh, and I could fight. Kill. Love. The spectrum of who I was had widened. I was more black and white than before.

  Less grey. But then again, I had learnt whilst wearing the Chamber's prison tunic that grey had never been my colour.

  "The goal is to capture and contain him, not to kill," Reuben stated as he stared directly ahead, "He will be found guilty of every crime with which we trial him for, but it is important we are unbiased to him regardless. We cannot build new worlds on old practices."

  About three minutes later, the Chamber men began to rustle through the dense hedgerow. The first to emerge into the clearing were the banner-men.

  A dozen young guards hefted the heavy, draping flags onto the field. They fanned out along the length of the riverbank but kept their distance on the other side of the water.

  If it had just been these inexperienced squires that waited for battle in-front of us, I would have gleamed in delight, but soon the flow of Chamber men filed in behind. Some of the men look strong. The rest are stronger.

  "Attention," Karnes voice boomed out of nowhere, "Fall-in."

  Immediately adhering to his demands, the Beta legion moved to the left of the field. The Gamma men shuffled to the right. The division between them allowed enough space for the larger Alpha legion, who at its centre contained the only horse. Its rider being a stone-face Karnes. Of course, he had spotted us before we saw him, he had a better vantage point. I already felt on the back foot.

  Seeing the Coven immediately raises the hackle amongst the men.

  I recognised two of the archers at the forefront of the Alpha's group. They were Douward's guards. The same men who captured me at Sleepy Hill. I knew they were good hunters, not only because Karnes would accept nothing but the best men into his group, but because their handiwork was still raw in my mind. I fought the urge to scratch my shoulder where their last arrow landed.