Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two'

by Chester, Mireille

  JOURNEY

  The Chosen One Trilogy:

  Book Two

  A Quelondain Novel

  Mireille Chester

  Copyright © 2011 by Mireille Chester

  Published by Mireille Chester

  Smashwords Edition

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  A big thank you to Corinne Linfitt and Leslie Morgan for the time they took to edit my mistakes;

  Thanks a million times over to Marc Renaud for all the time he put into making my website;

  Thank you to everyone who made it to the book readings; having so many of you show up was mind blowing;

  And of course a huge thank you to the staff at Baico Publishing without whom this may never have happened.

  This book is for everyone who told me they couldn’t wait for it to come out and of course for my terrific husband, Kyle, who still insists on reading over my shoulder.

  Prologue

  “Nothing is as it seems.”

  It was such a simple statement and yet it held all sorts of meaning for me. If nothing was as it seemed, then what exactly was real? When Damian had thought to give me the warning, what had he meant? He must have had something in mind at the time. Could it be he was letting me know that all of this really was a dream after all? I thought of Jasper, Dodge, and everything I’d been through. No. Definitely not a dream. So then, what?

  It had been almost two years since I had first crossed over to the world of Quelondain and found that I had been born here. I still thought the prophecy might have been wrong; that I wasn’t supposed to be the Chosen One, but, really, who was I to argue.

  Maybe that was what Damian had been talking about. If nothing was as it seemed, could it be that even though everyone thought I was supposed to be the one who could save or destroy them all, that I wasn’t? Every sign indicated that I was; the fact that I was the only half bred being in this world (my father being human and my mother being a Wedelve); the fact that I could do sorcery as well as healing; there was also the fact that I could see the future in my dreams.

  But no, the prophecy was probably right.

  Was it a situation he had meant to warn me about? Maybe it had been a person or persons.

  No. It had to be a situation. Everyone close to me, dear to me, had proved beyond loyal. All of them had proven themselves more than once by risking their lives to save mine. Everyone in our pack was who they seemed. I was sure of it.

  Chapter One

  The wind was blowing hard and I shivered.

  “Come here, Shlova.” Jasper pulled me closer to him and wrapped the blankets around us tightly.

  Brice put a few more pieces of wood on the fire and came to sit next to us.

  “Do you think Dodge will be ok?” I looked out the mouth of the cave even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see him. He was a little farther down the trail in a shelter Brice and Jasper had thrown together at the first signs of the storm. The only thing I could see outside was the snow blowing horizontally.

  “He’ll be fine. He’s a horse, Hayden.” I could hear the smile in Jasper’s voice.

  Brice gazed out into the snow. “On the plus side, we know no one will be following us and when they start the search again, our trail up to here will have been erased.”

  It had been two days since we had left Kantong’s abandoned cabin. At the rate we were going, it would take us another week and a half to reach the Northern Regions which was our final destination.

  “Blasted Namaels,” I grumbled.

  Jasper grunted.

  I glanced back at him apologetically. “Sorry. Not you two. Just cats in general right now. Why couldn’t they just leave us alone?” I hated being cold and at this moment in time I was freezing. It made me grumpy.

  Brice got defensive. “Why are you grumbling about cats? It seems I recall a couple of instances where the dogs were a pain in the rear.”

  “Yeah, well, blast the Majs, too.”

  I felt Jasper look over to him and Brice was quiet.

  “And you never mind,” I mumbled to Jasper. “If he has something to say, let him say it.” Another blast of wind made its way into the cave. I stared into the fire.

  “No. I’m fine.” Brice glanced at me. “I just don’t like being stuck in a cave when there are scouts from two different armies looking for us.”

  Jasper grunted in agreement.

  “You’re grunting a lot,” I said to him.

  All I got in return was another grunt.

  I took a few deep breaths and got myself to relax. I felt him relax in answer. “Man, I wish we could just go home.” I hugged Jasper’s arms and ran my fingers under his sleeves to warm up my hands.

  “Do you regret coming back?” he asked quietly.

  “What? No! Why in the world would you ask that?”

  I felt him shrug behind me. “It’s just…living on the run, having to kill. I know you don’t like killing. You could be with your parents, going to school. Not having to worry about all this.”

  To go back to the world where I had been raised, where cars, showers, and cell phones existed. To leave Quelondain, where I had been born, where supposedly I was going to be a major part of whatever future was coming. It might have been tempting were it not for Jasper or all of my friends. He was right. I didn’t like killing or fighting. That was one of the reasons we were forced to hide like this. Maybe all I needed to do was pick a side. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t pick sides and I couldn’t leave and so we hid.

  “You think I didn’t worry about all of this when I went back? That’s all I did! I barely functioned. All I could think about was where were you and were you ok? Was Dodge ok? And Tara, Ben, and Luke, Mel and the twins. I even worried about Brice!” I grinned over at our friend. He was really more like an overprotective little brother.

  Brice accepted the peace offering and smiled back.

  “There’s a crossing about a half day from here.” Jasper let the statement hang in the air.

  I shook my head. “I thought about it once. After Luke took me and I thought you were dead. I was sure it was best for everyone if I left. But even then, deep down, I knew I couldn’t go. My life changed from the first moment I saw the hill crossing and even though I’m glad it was you who found me first, I know I would still be here if it had been another Namael or one of the Majs that had met me. I know life would have been different at first, but I’m positive I would have come to this point eventually. I would have made up my mind not to fight, and I would still be hiding.”

  I kissed his cheek. “And what would you have done had I been found by the Majs first and we had met on the battlefield?”

  He smiled. “Well, that’s simple enough. I would have walked past everyone, killed anyone who had gotten in my way, grabbed you by the arms and kissed you.”

  I laughed. “Could you imagine? Everyone would have walked away in shock.”

  “To stop a battle with a kiss. If it were only so simple.” He wrapped the blankets around us snuggly.

  I looked up at him. He looked so tired. His eyes were closed, but I knew he wouldn’t let himself fall asleep any time soon. “You’re not trying to get rid of me, are you?”

  His eyes flew open and he looked down at me, shocked.

  I smiled and reached
a hand back to touch his cheek. “You don’t have to answer. Your reaction was good enough.”

  He grunted, annoyed, and closed his eyes. He opened them again. “You didn’t truly believe that, did you?”

  “Not that you don’t want me here. Just that you want me safe over there.”

  He grunted again. “It doesn’t matter where you go, Hayden, you’re not safe. Or do you forget the situation I found you in the last time you were there?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe I do it on purpose.” I smiled at him. “Maybe I like to watch you swoop down and save me.”

  His sky blue eyes squinted with his smile. “Your own personal knight in shining armor, am I?”

  I was laughing at the memory of Jasper walking up behind me while Dave had been trying to force himself on me. “The look on his face when he saw you! ‘What is it with you and big Scottish guys?’! I’m sure he thought I was lying to him when I told him I had a husband.” A warm feeling washed over me and I found his left hand so I could feel the gold band on his finger.

  He kissed the back of my neck and I knew he was feeling how much I loved him. Having your mate be able to feel what you were feeling was a handy thing is some situations, but could be very annoying in others. I was getting pretty good at shielding him from feeling my emotions all the time, but sometimes I would forget. There were also times when I would make sure he could feel it, like now.

  “Why don’t you two get some sleep? I’ll keep watch.” Brice didn’t wait for an answer. His form blurred as he shifted into a jaguar and went to sit at the entrance of the cave.

  I looked at Brice and smiled.

  “What?” Jasper looked over at his friend.

  “I was just thinking of the first time I saw you shift into a tiger.”

  He laughed. “You were positive that you were dreaming.”

  “And when you were trying to explain the difference between the Namaels and the Majs. I couldn’t grasp that the dogs you were talking about were actually people shifted into dogs.”

  “The look on your face when I told you the dog had sliced me with his dagger after jumping out of the tree!”

  I laughed. “All I could picture was a big German Shepherd in a tree holding a dagger in his mouth!”

  Jasper reached over and grabbed the blanket Brice had been using. He spread it over the ground and lay us on it. “A shlova yan,” he whispered.

  “I love you more,” I whispered back.

  “I’ll shift so you can stay warmer.” He kissed me softly. “Try to have a good sleep.”

  I snuggled into the tiger lying beside me and wondered again why it was that Jasper always managed to be warmer than me. I ran my fingers in the fur on his side and smiled when he started to purr.

  Sometime during the night, I felt him get up. A few moments later, Brice was laying with his back to me. He looked back at me, his greenish blue cat eyes blinking once, then settled back down.

  “Get some rest, Brice.” I covered both of us up with the blanket and lay my arm over him. It didn’t take long for me to fall back asleep.

  When I awoke the next morning I realized that for the first time in two days I was actually hot. I stayed lying with my eyes closed, enjoying the feeling. My hand ran through the fur under it and the purr was almost instantaneous. I cracked open one eye just long enough to make sure I really did recognize the purr and that the fur was striped and not spotted.

  There was a big sigh from the furry form behind me and I realized I was sandwiched between the two of them.

  Jasper shifted and turned so he was facing me. He kissed me tenderly and chuckled.

  “What?”

  “What would you have done if I had been Brice?”

  I blushed. “You caught that, did you?”

  He grinned.

  “I guess I would have said sorry and turned around and pet you instead.” I laughed and looked past him to the mouth of the cave. “When did it stop?”

  “About an hour ago.”

  Brice stretched out to his full length, the toes on his paws spreading and showing his claws. His jaws snapped shut after his yawn. He shifted and sat up. “Morning.”

  He reached up and brushed some straight blond strands of hair out of his eyes.

  I smiled. With his hair sticking out everywhere first thing in the morning he looked quite a bit younger than his twenty years which was a big contrast to when he was fighting or standing guard.

  He took in our surroundings, looked toward the mouth of the cave, and the quick glimpse of the young Brice I had gotten disappeared.

  “Do you think we should head out?” He looked at Jasper who nodded.

  “The sky is clear. It’s over.”

  There was a snort from outside of the cave.

  Jasper translated for Dodge. “He thinks we should head out.”

  It was my turn to grunt. “Of course he does.”

  We packed everything up and I gave my horse a hug before swinging on. “Hey, Buddy. How was your night?”

  He nodded his head and I looked to Jasper for the rest of it. “He said it was fine; a bit windy.”

  I laughed and gave him a pat on the neck. “Funny.”

  I looked back once toward the cave and we moved off into the white world that stood between us and the Northern Regions.

  We had been trudging through the snow for three days when Dodge stopped short, his nostrils flaring.

  “You’re right,” acknowledged Jasper. “I smell it too.”

  Brice turned from one direction to another. “From where?”

  I tried to smell what they smelled. Of all of us, I had the worst nose and Dodge had the best. He turned his head toward the smell.

  “I’ll go,” volunteered Brice.

  Jasper shook his head. “We’re too close to the border. It might be humans. You know what they will do if they capture you.”

  Brice grunted, either at the thought of what they would do, or at the fact that Jasper was even considering he would let himself be caught.

  Jasper started off again. “We’ll detour a bit. They don’t know we’re here yet. If it was us they were after they wouldn’t have lit a fire.”

  We traveled away from the smell of the fire for the better part of the day then turned north again.

  “So what’s the story between the humans and the Namaels?” I knew that there were humans in this world, but had yet to see one.

  “They think we’re possessed,” stated Brice. “You know, demons or something of the sort.”

  I started to laugh. “You’re kidding!”

  Jasper glanced up at me, but didn’t look amused. “It’s true. Not too many come this close. They have a colony where they choose to live in the Northern Regions.”

  “So were they always here?”

  “No. They come from where you were. For some reason, certain humans can cross over here, but once they are here, they can’t go back. They have just enough magic to cross, but then it leaves them.”

  “How do they know where to go once they get here?”

  Jasper glanced in the direction of the fire. “They send scouts out to watch some of the crossings. Those that are found are brought up here to live in the colony. Those who aren’t found usually manage to get themselves killed or poisoned by something they try to eat. Some are lucky enough and manage to drift into a being from this world and are shown that being’s way of life.”

  “So not all humans think you’re demons then.” The Wedelve half of me was scowling at my human half.

  “Just the ones in the colony.” Jasper looked up at me and smiled. “Don’t be too hard on yourself, Shlova. You can’t pick who your parents are. Besides, I doubt your father thought like that. He never did live in the colony. The ones that are brought to the colony are brainwashed and the rest are raised that way.” Jasper shook his head.

  “So what happens if they catch one of you?”

  Brice looked up at me and shivered. “They separate you from your animal. They call it exorcism,
I think.”

  “What?” My mouth fell open. “How?”

  Brice’s eyes were opened, but I didn’t think he was seeing the trees and snow ahead of us. “He has a staff. It’s made of this queer black stone. I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere else. And when he brings it close, you can hear it scream.”

  He blinked and looked at me. “I was thirteen. I had thought to follow my dad on one of his patrols. Dad sent me home, but I didn’t listen. I tried to keep up, but after a few days I was completely lost. I wandered too close to a crossing the humans had been watching and got captured.

  “There were three of us put on trial. I’m not sure why they call it that. They don’t plan on letting you go until they separate you.

  “We were tied to posts with our arms behind our backs so we couldn’t shift.

  “Their leader, they called him Braw, touched the first man with the stick. I could hear it screaming and then he was screaming. You could hear them separate. It was this horrible ripping noise. Both of them were bleeding from their eyes, nose, mouth; even their ears. Both him and his lion. They shot the lion with three arrows and the man screamed again.” Brice wiped his arm across his face and stared straight ahead. “And then he fell. They shot his lion and he just died.

  “The man with the staff said that this man had been possessed by his demon for too long; that that was why he had died.

  “The second man was a Maj. I hadn’t realized until they ripped his wolf away from him. I guess he had been possessed for too long as well.” Brice swallowed hard.

  Jasper’s face was white and I wondered if he had heard this story before.

  Brice took a deep breath. “They all left then. It was late. The man with the staff told me to pray for my soul. That it be strong enough to banish the demon without killing me. They left me tied to the post. I remember feeling so helpless, wondering how much it would hurt if I shifted to try and get out of the ropes. I wasn’t brave enough to try. That and I didn’t think I would get far with two broken arms. I just stood there and cried, and when I had come to terms with the fact that I was going to die, an angel came.” A small smile touched his lips.