Many of the Lotherian mages were doing just that, having been to Castor and Keyes many times throughout their lives. Dena and the others were planning to go, however, and I eagerly tagged along with them.
On the morning of the trip, I woke up earlier than usual, doing my routine sit ups and push ups. Larni brought me my uniform but left before I could even say ‘good morning’. As it was, I made my way to the stables with a shadow hanging over my head; I missed Larni’s companionship.
We set off just before midday. I rode next to Yasmin, chatting about our life back in the human realm.
“I left behind my dad and younger sister,” she told me sadly. “I wonder if they know what happened to us.”
I thought of my mother who was now all alone in our house. The shadow above me became a rain cloud and we rode in silence for the rest of the trip.
The landscape was beautiful. Green pastures were bordered by thick, lush forests and a clear stream burbled along next to the road. As we neared Keyes, I noticed that it was quite a bit bigger than I originally had thought. We hitched our horses and set off on foot into town. I reached into the pocket of my breeches to make sure that the little money bag Jett had handed me was still in there; despite the lesson yesterday, I tended to bounce around a lot.
“Where to first?” Dena asked, excitement gleaming in her bright blue eyes.
“Fancy a drink?” Petre asked, nodding towards a building that was obviously some kind of pub or tavern.
Inside we found that it was packed with other students, the smoky interior contrasting badly with the clear blue skies outside. Petre insisted on buying us all drinks, and we sat at a table outside, sipping the sweet lemonade.
“Has everyone finished that assignment for Watt?” Ispin asked, and everyone launched into complaints about the large amount of homework she’d been setting us.
I sipped lemonade from my tankard, looking around the village, still in disbelief that a place like this actually existed.
A main street ran through the village, paved with cobblestones. Neat little houses with thatched roofs stretched back further than I could see, a clock tower presiding over it all. A few chickens were being chased by a little boy and his younger sister.
“Sky?”
“Huh?” I turned back and noticed them all looking at me.
“I said, ‘what are you looking at?’” Petre repeated.
“Just everything,” I said, looking around again. “I can’t believe I’m here, sometimes. It’s a bit of a culture shock.”
“This is only Keyes,” Rain said, leaning forwards eagerly. “Wait until you see Castor, and Riverdoor, and Thurin.”
”We’ve got a lot to see in three years then,” Theresa said.
“Why only three years?” Ispin asked, confused.
“Because then we finish our education,” Yasmin said slowly.
“But you don’t go home,” Petre said.
“We don’t?” I asked.
“No. You stay here for the rest of your lives.”
I felt like I’d drunk molten lead instead of lemonade.
“So you’re saying we can never go back?” Dena asked quietly.
“That’s right,” Rain said, watching us closely.
I lifted the tankard to my face even though it was empty. As much as I loved it here, could I really stay in this realm forever? Never seeing my mother again?
“How about we go shopping?” Rain asked, eager to cheer us up, for Dena, Theresa and Yasmin were looking upset as well.
We agreed and headed to the market district, and then set about poking about all of the little stalls. I got lost in a book stall, and when I looked up, realised they’d left.
I hurried out onto the street, searching for their coloured tunics, but I couldn’t spy them in the crowd of people. Dejected, I shoved my hands in my pockets and drifted along with the villagers. I was just about to head back to the horses when I spied a little statue standing on a table full of antique devices.
“Afternoon, miss,” the man at the stall said brightly as I approached. “Anything I can help with?”
“Uh,” I pointed at the statue sitting on a dusty pedestal. “I was just wondering who that is.”
The statue was of a beautiful woman, dressed in a long, sweeping gown. I bent closer, and noticed she was wearing a circlet around her forehead.
“That would be Queen Fleur,” the stall owner came over to stand with me, adjusting his glasses on his nose. “Queen of the Second Age.”
“She’s beautiful,” I said reverently. “Why does she look so sad?”
“I’m not too sure to be honest,” he said. “The Second Age was long before my time.”
I picked the statue up, brushing a bit of dust off of her face with my thumb.
“Is there a current Queen?” I asked.
“No, miss. No need for one. The country is at peace.”
I ended up buying the statue from him, drawn to the beautiful woman and her sad, mysterious gaze. I headed back to the horses and found the others there waiting for me.
“I lost you,” I told them, cradling my statue in its hessian bag. “I looked everywhere.”
“Sorry!” Dena hurried over to me and gave me a hug. “I think we lost you in the bookstore.”
“What’ve you got?” Yasmin asked, spying the bundle in my arms.
I untied the top of the bag and showed them the statue on her plinth.
“That’s Queen Fleur,” Ispin said, examining it. “The last Queen.”
We rode back to the Academy just as the sun began to set. We ate in the mess hall as usual and afterwards I headed back up to my room. I arranged my statue on top of my dresser, where the morning light would catch it. I had just begun to pull on my pyjamas when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I called warily. Larni never knocked.
The door opened and Jett entered. I quickly pulled my other leg through my pyjama pants.
“Evening,” he said brightly, looking around. “Dena was telling me that you’re having some trouble with Phoenix.”
“Oh right, well, yeah I am, I suppose,” I sat heavily on my bed. “I think you made a mistake with the soul ceremony.”
Jett laughed, pulling out a chair at my table and sitting down.
“Your soul hasn’t made a mistake, Sky; it knows well where the other half of it is. Just remember that he’s different; he’s from-“
“The Shayde Mountains, yeah I know.”
“You’ve been learning your geography; I’m impressed. That’ll come in handy in your next Magical History. But listen; about Phoenix... just keep trying. This is very new to him.”
“I doubt he can top me. I’m from another world.”
“That is true,” Jett said, dark eyes twinkling. “But anyway, just remember to-“
He broke off mid sentence, staring at something to my right. I turned and saw that he had seen my statue.
“Where did you get that?” he asked quietly.
“In the village,” I replied, crawling over to it and picking it up. “It’s Queen-“
“Fleur, yes I know,” any warmth in Jett’s eyes or voice had vanished. “Look… forget what I said about Phoenix. See you in class tomorrow.”
He was gone before I had time to put the statue back down. As I crawled under the covers and pulled them up my chin, I wondered why my statue had rattled him so bad he’d forgotten tomorrow was Sunday.
~ On Monday, my first class of the day was indeed Magical History. We filed in, yawning widely and many of the students were carrying thermoses; autumn was rolling in and the air was notably colder.
“This morning’s lesson will be dealing with the relationship between Lotheria and the other countries of the world,” Jett began. “Now, trading between Surac and Lotheria of late has been strained...”
Jett’s voice droned off as my eyelids began to droop. Dena nudged me and I straightened up, blinking blearily. Jett was writing something on the board and as I squint
ed to see what it was, I realised that he’d written the words ‘Monarch’ and ‘Fleur’.
A few blinks later revealed that he’d been teaching us about the previous Kings and Queens. I scrabbled around to copy down what was on the board.
“So, in three thousand years of magical civilization, there have only been two kings and queens, with no biological link between them whatsoever. There are no records of the first king and queen, but it has only been one thousand years since the last monarchs.”
“Only one thousand,” Theresa muttered on my right. “King Morgan and Queen Fleur were the last rulers of Lotheria, called to duty by the war that was raging. However, this was not a typical kind of war,” all of the students were paying attention now. “Lotheria was at war with itself. No other countries were involved. Actually, two other countries tried to lend help. Surac,” he tapped a large, round continent on the map. “And the Tsalski Islands,” now the pointer indicated three large islands off the west coast of Lotheria. I dimly remembered Rain mentioning that she was from there. “Queen Fleur turned all help away however; she feared that the involvement of other countries would lead to the divide of Lotheria. She also suspected that both countries had a hidden agenda.”
I raised my hand and Jett nodded at me. “You mean, she thought they might try to take Lotheria for themselves?” I asked.
“Correct. Lotheria is a very resource rich continent; it would be a prize for either country.”
Dena raised her hand.
“Dena?”
“Who were the King and Queen fighting?” she asked, and we all turned to Jett for the answer.
He sighed heavily.
“The King and Queen were on either side of the war. They were fighting each other.”
The bell rang, signalling the end of lesson. Everyone stood up to leave, but Jett had one more piece of information.
“It is also a little known fact,” he said, almost to himself. “That Morgan and Fleur were soul mates.”
My eyes widened, and I couldn’t resist raising my hand despite everyone leaving.
“Why would soul mates be fighting each other?” I asked loudly but Jett didn’t reply and I knew we’d been dismissed.
~ By the time we filed into the mess hall for lunch, the morning’s history lesson had been forgotten. We loaded our plates with sandwiches and made for our usual table.
“Uh oh,” Rain said suddenly, looking at something over my shoulder. “Uh, Sky?”
We all twisted to see what she was looking at, and my heart seemed to sink all the way down through my body, trickle out of my feet and pool into my boots.
Eleanora was sitting with Phoenix, smiling and laughing away. But the thing that had made me die inside was the fact that Phoenix was smiling and talking back to her. As we watched, Eleanora laughed loudly, tossing her hair over one shoulder.
“What?” I heard myself ask weakly. “Are they... I mean...”
Rain spoke quickly to another student and then leant into the centre of the table.
“Turns out they’ve been dating for a few days now,” she said sadly, her eyes on me. “When we went to Keyes.”
I remembered that Phoenix had stayed behind, and so had Eleanora and the other mages. My heart seemed to leave my person altogether.
“So he won’t talk to me, his own soul mate...” my voice trailed off and I clenched my fists.
I’d had enough.
I stood abruptly and strode from the hall, ignoring Dena’s and the other’s calls for me to come back. I pushed the front doors open and headed out into the bright sunshine, making for the river where I’d arrived.
I was going home. I’d stayed in this new world long enough.
I broke into a run as I neared the forest edge. I could hear the river and I let the sound guide me to it. When I stumbled upon it, I realised it was running much faster than the day I’d burst through its surface and found myself in another world.
I splashed into the icy water. The water was almost up to my chest when the current yanked my feet from beneath me and I realised that I’d made a grievous mistake.
I was pulled under the surface, and for a few seconds I couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down. I floundered, kicking my feet and I managed to break the surface. I managed to gulp down a lungful of air before I was pulled back under.
I was helpless, a ragdoll in the icy grips of the river. I surfaced again and I spied a tree root jutting out into the river just up from me. As I got sucked back under, I remembered where the river ended up.
I’d seen on maps that this river ended in a waterfall, and judging by the increasing speed of the water, I was getting close to it; that tree root was my only hope. I forced my way back to the surface just as it passed. I struggled madly, and my foot hit a submerged rock. I quickly pushed off against it, and my scrabbling fingers came into contact with the root. I gripped it tightly, pulling my waterlogged body to the bank. I was reaching for another root as the other one gave way. I cried out, just once, before the river reclaimed me. Just as I’d resigned myself to the depths at the bottom of the waterfall, hands gripped the arm that I’d managed to wrestle above the surface and heaved. I resurfaced, gasping and crying at the same time. The muddy bank was the most wonderful feeling in the world as I crawled up it, coughing and hacking up river water.
“Are you alright?” someone asked, and I found myself looking into eyes the colour of the sun.
I didn’t answer; I was more concerned with breathing.
“Yeah, I’m ok,” I wheezed eventually, now rather embarrassed. I huddled my legs to my chest, already shaking from the cold. “Thanks.”
“No worries,” my rescuer said. He was wearing a yellow tunic the same colour as his eyes, and strands of dirty blonde hair fell into eyes that were looking at me with concern. “What were you doing?”
“Trying to go home,” I replied, looking at the river distrustfully. “I came here through a portal in the river. I was hoping it would take me back.”
“So you’re from the human realm then?” he asked, and I nodded confirmation. “I’m from here. From Gowar.”
“You probably think I’m crazy,” I mumbled into my dripping sleeve.
“A little,” he replied, though his tone wasn’t unkind. “I’m Dustin.”
“Sky,” I said automatically. “Thanks, Dustin.”
As his name rolled off of my tongue, I realised why he seemed familiar.
“You’re Eleanora’s soul mate.” I said, unable to keep the accusation out of my tone.
“Yeah, so?”
I climbed to my feet, shivering with cold.
“Thanks for saving me,” I said again, and left him sitting on the bank of the river.
He didn’t try to follow me.
~ I dried off and changed in my room. I felt completely numb, and I knew it wasn’t because of the river water that had deadened my nerves.
Someone knocked on my door, and I pulled it open. “Are you coming back to class?” Dena asked, examining me. “We’ve got Archery now.”
“Yeah,” I said in a voice very unlike my own. “I need to get my bag.”
Dena lifted it, having rescued it from the mess hall.
“Come on,” she said, and I was glad that she didn’t ask where I’d stormed off to.
We followed the rest of the students out of the castle to a small shed. Inside we found Jett standing next to a rack of bows, and on the opposite wall hung quivers full of arrows.
“Time to learn how to shoot, mages. Let’s see how we go.”
I hadn’t realised how tightly strung bows were, and my muscles ached from trying to hold the string back. I cut myself under my knuckles on the string, and stabbed myself with a blunt practice arrow. The others took to it quite easily and at the end of the lesson, we were lined up in front of targets and told to try our hardest.
Dena couldn’t resist laughing when the arrow simply fell off of the string of my bow, but everyone was impressed when Phoenix’s arr
ow landed with a thunkon the innermost circle of the target.
Just as we were about to turn away, another arrow hit the target. It landed a centimetre closer to the centre than Phoenix’s, and Eleanora lowered her bow, laughing.
“Oh, I beat you.”
Phoenix smiled at her, pulled another arrow back on the string and loosed it. It landed even closer to the centre than hers.
“Ok, so Phoenix and Eleanora can shoot better than the rest of you,” Jett interrupted, stopping them before it could become a full blown competition. “Time’s up, I’m afraid.”
I hung my bow back on the wall and left the range before anyone else. I couldn’t stand to see them acting all... couple like.
We had our second riding lesson, and despite how quickly I’d mastered walking, it was nothing compared to“Trotting,” Professor Alena announced happily. “Let’s see how you go keeping a rhythm.”
Whilst I had felt graceful and proud about my riding the day before, I now knew how a sack of potatoes felt.
“No, listen to me, Sky, one-two one-two,” I tried desperately to follow her, but unless Echo was being deliberately bumpy, I was incredibly uncoordinated. I found this highly more likely.
“This is a stupid gait,” I snapped to Dena as I rode to the side of the paddock. “When are we ever going to use it? ‘Oh no, I must get away quickly! I know, I’ll trot to safety! One-two one-two!’”
Dena collapsed into giggles at my murderous expression. My scowl deepened when I noticed Eleanora’s flawless trotting and one-two-ing. Finally the lesson ended, and we all limped, bandy legged to the castle for our Theory lesson with Professor Watt.
It was almost evening when we filed out onto the grounds again. I watched the sun begin to sink towards the horizon, wondering if it was the same sun I used to watch back in Ar Cena.
The obstacle course loomed ahead of us, and I began to tingle with adrenaline. If I could run this course successfully, I would feel a lot better about myself. Plus, I’d make up for the face I’d lost the first time I’d tried to do it.
I swung my arms as we walked, loosening my muscles. Jett allowed us time to change and stretch, and then lined up again. I watched the classmates in front of me run it as though from a distance; I was too busy measuring distances, calculating when to leap from the rope. I didn’t dare lift my eyes to the wall that had defeated me last time. I knew it would just terrify me.
Soul Fire Page 7