The Channel (The Gifted Book 2)

by C. L. McCourt

  Rhea saw Bandon standing at attention outside the dining room. "I see you're allowing Bandon to treat you like a prince."

  He nodded. "Out of respect for the queen."

  "Of course." Rhea cringed inwardly at her comment. She had no idea what was required to show respect for royalty.

  The attendants helped them find their seats at a round table centered under a modest chandelier. If this had been King Arthur's court, the chairs around the table would have been all the same, but here, it was obvious that the one ornate chair among the other more modest chairs belonged to the queen. It gave the illusion that she sat at the head of the round table.

  Rhea was asked to sit to the right of the queen's chair, and Gaibel was seated on the other side. Next to Gaibel were Randell, then Huntr, Taulin, Daen, Lanne, and back to Rhea. The seating arrangement placed family closest to the queen.

  They stood when Queen Jauline made her entrance a few minutes later. "Welcome. I'm so pleased you are able to join me tonight. I hope you don't mind the informality, but I find this room friendlier than the formal dining room."

  When the group was seated again, the queen waved to the attendants to start serving.

  After their glasses were full, the queen raised hers in a toast. "This has been a joyous day. I want to welcome Gaibel and Terrwyn into my family, and I want to thank everyone here for their part in ensuring that this day was possible."

  The group raised their glasses in toast and drank.

  "I'm going to get to know my niece and sister-in-law a little better this evening," said the queen. "Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves if you wish. I don't want to monopolize the conversation." She looked to Rhea. "You look lovely. Does the dress fit well?"

  "Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for lending it me."

  Jauline flipped her hand dismissively. "Nonsense, it is yours. You must dress for your station."

  Station? She didn't want a station. It was bad enough to carry the weight of the Libraim on her shoulders; she didn't want a societal position. "Please forgive me for not knowing, but what is my station?" She'd been called a princess but didn't know if that was true or what it might mean.

  "You are a princess and second in line to the throne. I do not have any children so I have named my nieces and nephews my heirs. You are my niece. Aedan, my sister's oldest son, is first in line as he is a few days older than you. After you are your cousins Issa and Tandr, my sister's daughter and youngest son."

  "I don't know what to say." Actually, she knew exactly what she wanted to say, "Thanks but no thanks," but she refrained.

  The queen grinned at the look on Rhea's face. "That's quite all right. Gaibel explained that you weren't raised to understand our ways." Her expression became more serious. "But you'll learn."

  Rhea could swear her heart skipped a beat. This was all going too fast.

  A small burst of laughter caught the queen's attention. "Please share with us what is so amusing."

  "I was just telling Gaibel and Lanne that Rhea bested Daen sparring sword-to-sword," Randell explained. "He wasn't pleased."

  The queen looked intrigued. "Daen, is this true? Did Terrwyn best you?"

  Daen nodded and kept a straight face, as if the teasing were nothing. "She's quite gifted."

  Randell laughed. "Of course. And it wasn't but a few days later that Rhea and Daen both met their match with Huntr's daughter, Raesa. She is also gifted."

  The queen looked Rhea in the eyes. "With practice, I'm sure you can do better."

  And the pressure starts. Rhea didn't want to argue with the queen, but she didn't want a precedent to be set either, so she chose her words carefully. "Thank you for your confidence, but I doubt practice is going to give me what I need to best Raesa sword-to-sword, unless she makes a mistake. She knows her opponent's moves before they happen. The only way I could win the match to which Randell is referring was to use my gift."

  The queen's expression became tight as the rest of the table waited quietly for her reaction to Rhea's apparent dismissal of the queen's encouragement. Jauline studied Rhea's aura before continuing. "Ah, yes, your gift. Or should I say gifts. Commander Nauylor shared some rather spectacular reports. Can you explain your gifts? How you came to have so many?"

  Rhea looked to Gaibel, seeking advice on how to proceed, and received a slight nod. Rhea glanced around the room at the attendants standing along the walls. "Before I tell you, may I ask that the attendants be excused for a few minutes?"

  The queen's demeanor became serious when Rhea met her questioning look and didn't explain further. At first, Rhea thought the queen might deny her request, but without taking her eyes off Rhea, the queen waved her attendants out of the room.

  When the door shut behind the last of her staff, the queen turned to Rhea. "Go ahead. What makes your gifts so special that you don't trust my people?" She didn't look pleased and her tone backed up that assumption.

  Rhea quickly glanced around the table, searching for the support she needed. Her eyes passed over Huntr's furrowed brow. Uh-oh. He didn't look happy. Rhea turned back to the queen and announced, "I'm the Libraim's channel."

  There was a clang from across the table. Huntr had dropped his fork. The expression on his face was that of surprise but also of frustration. He didn't like being kept in the dark, and that's exactly what had happened.

  Jauline stiffened ever so slightly but remained calm as she turned to Gaibel. "You knew and didn't tell me. You hid her. How do you keep something like this a secret?"

  Before Gaibel could respond, the queen's expression went from angry to confused. "When you said she was raised outside the courts, I thought ... Where outside the courts?" The tension building in the queen's body screamed that she was angry.

  Gaibel had kept Rhea's secrets, all her secrets. Again Gaibel tried to reply, but before she could, the queen turned to Rhea. "Where were you raised?"

  Rhea took a deep breath as she wondered if the queen would believe her. Seeing no other choice, she answered. "The world of shadows."

  Queen Jauline didn't flinch, didn't sway, didn't even react. Her gaze held steady as she locked eyes with Rhea. "Fairy tales again." She glared across the table at the commander. "You knew this and believed her?"

  He didn't shrink away from her anger. "Yes, Your Majesty."

  "And you believed this to be true, this fairy tale?" She waved her hand as if to dispel the words that lingered in the air.

  "The world of shadows exists, Your Majesty. I've seen proof of it."

  The queen studied her commander carefully, looking for any sign that he was not being truthful. "What proof? Show me this proof." Both her hands were pressed to the table as if she were trying to keep herself in her chair.

  The commander glanced at Rhea, and Rhea quickly took her cue. "I have what you might consider proof in my room. Should I get it now?"

  "Yes, go. Commander, go with her."

  ~~~

  Rhea was talking more to herself than the commander as they walked to her room. "And everything seemed to be going so well. The whole thing about me being a channel seemed to go right past her. I would have thought being a channel would have been a bigger deal than the world of shadows, but no. Who knew?" She lifted her hands in the air and let them drop.

  Huntr's voice was quiet and tense. "You didn't trust me."

  Rhea almost missed what he said, so buried in her own frustrations. "What? Oh Huntr, I'm sorry. At first, we didn't know who to trust. And then, well, it didn't seem to matter." She glanced at him, looking for a sign that he was going to forgive her but didn't see anything.

  "It hasn't really sunk in for me," she continued. "One minute I'm this normal person graduating college, and the next, I'm a channel and am supposed to save the world … or something like that." Right when Rhea thought she had a handle on everything, the newness of what was happening came flooding back.

  "When you put it that way, I suppose I can understand your rel
uctance to share such information." He gave her a wink and stopped by a closed door. "This is your room."

  It was a good thing the queen sent him along. Rhea wasn't sure if she would have found her room so quickly. She grabbed the saddlebag with her personal belongings and headed back to the dining room. When they returned, the table had been cleared and everyone sat in silence.

  Rhea placed the items on the table in front of her, all the things that couldn't have come from Luxatra. The newspaper, a ballpoint pen, the journal with its spiral binding and pages written in English, a plastic water bottle, and a few other personal items.

  Jauline studied each item, intrigued with what she saw. She asked Rhea to explain each as she held them in her hand. When Rhea got to the newspaper, the commander explained he had witnessed its retrieval, and Rhea added what was displayed on the page. When they were finished answering questions, Rhea was silent.

  The queen looked across the table. "Lanne, you've seen this world? You taught her our language, our ways?"

  "Yes, Your Majesty. It's a wondrous place. I was with her whenever the openings in the veil would allow. I taught her the best I could, given the circumstances."

  The queen turned back to Rhea. "What made you return? Why now?"

  "I have only just discovered who and what I am. Randell, Daen, and I have known each other for less than a month." Rhea was suddenly lost in all the events that happened during the last week of school. "It happened so fast." She looked to Randell and Daen for their input.

  Daen explained that he had been sent to the world of shadows to help Rhea and that he waited many years to find her. Randell shared how he found Rhea in his class and introduced her to Daen.

  "And then suddenly I was being pursued by men from Luxatra," Rhea added, "trying to either capture or kill me. Daen helped me discover my gift, and before I knew it, I was in Luxatra trying to understand everything that was happening."

  The queen was looking at Rhea, but she was someplace else. She suddenly turned to Gaibel and glared. "Why? Why hide her in the world of shadows?"

  "If she were raised in Luxatra ... I was concerned that, if she were raised here, she would create an imbalance between the realms. I wanted her to be able to decide her own path when she was ready."

  Jauline waved her hand dismissively. "I doubt these are your reasons. This sounds like Argeon's thinking."

  Gaibel didn't respond. The queen hadn't asked a question. She had stated her understanding of fact, and Gaibel found it interesting that she had gotten it right.

  The queen reined in her emotions once again, hiding her thoughts. She scanned the expressions on everyone's faces before focusing on Rhea again. "And what makes you think you're a channel? There hasn't been a channel for over a thousand years."

  Rhea had been waiting for the question, but now that it was presented, she realized she didn't have a definitive answer. She didn't know where to start. Before she had her thoughts together, those who had concluded what she was started to explain.

  Gaibel told her about the mark. The commander provided more detail regarding what he had witnessed since sending his first message. Taulin shared his experience with the Libraim.

  Daen told her what happened in the other world and why he thought it to be true. "The Libraim gave Rhea this gift for a reason. She has a purpose."

  The queen listened intently. When the stories were over, she sat back in her chair as if she needed distance to take Rhea in, to see all of her, like that would reveal the truth.

  Rhea felt like a fish in a glass bowl but sat still and quiet, hoping the queen would believe what she'd been told.

  "And why are you here? What is your purpose?"

  "I believe I'm here to stop a war. If you believe that the warriors attacking the realms aren't Laundan warriors and agree not to retaliate, then I believe I have served at least one purpose."

  "One?"

  "I can only guess at the others. Although a war is not a small matter, there have been wars in the past, and the Libraim has not gifted anyone to stop them. I think there's more. I just have to keep looking and hope that it presents itself."

  The queen leaned forward. "You are second in line for my throne. You will do as I say."

  Rhea's heart raced with anger. No one orders her around, but how does she tell that to a queen that is also her aunt? Rhea recalled Huntr's advice. He'd said to be honest and that's what she did. "With all due respect Your Majesty, I will not use my gift for anyone's bidding. I haven't decided what I want to do next." In her thoughts, she said, "And when I decide, I'll let you know." That last part was likely too much. But, oh, how she wanted to say it!

  Their eyes locked. Rhea wasn't going to back down. She wasn't going to be pushed around. That's not how she was raised, and that's not what her gift was about.

  The queen shook her head. "Just like your father." Her thoughts drifted away. Her stare changed. She was back to looking through Rhea, as if she weren't there.

  Rhea couldn't tell if the queen had just forgiven her resistance or if being like her father was a bad thing.

  Jauline turned to Gaibel. "I understand why Argeon made the decision to hide her. A mother from Taulomi, a father from Sentran, and no connection with Laundan," she glanced at Taulin. "There certainly would have been issues as soon as she was discovered. I would have liked to have seen her raised here, but I would guess Argeon and Craen would have had their own concerns and desires regarding Terrwyn's teachings."

  Rhea felt the tension escape her body. The queen seemed to be forgiving Gaibel's deception and her resistance. She hoped.

  Jauline waved her hand over the items still on the table. "You may put these away before others see them. If there isn't anything else, I would like to call this evening to an end."

  Rhea chewed her lip, nervous to bring up yet another subject. "Actually, Your Majesty, there is."

  39

  Kalaub

  Queen Jauline sank back in her chair and waited for Rhea to add even more to an already full evening. "And this can't wait until tomorrow?"

  "No, Your Majesty. May I see a painting of my father? I need to be sure of something before I share what I think I know."

  Rhea had expected to be sent to view a large portrait hanging someplace in the palace, when the queen rang a bell, and an attendant entered the dining room.

  "Bring me the small portrait of Prince Kalaub I keep in my private office."

  Everyone waited quietly for the attendant to return. It was only moments before the attendant entered the room and handed the portrait to the queen.

  Jauline gazed at her brother's likeness, the pain in her eyes evident. After a moment, she handed it to her niece.

  Rhea studied the image, mentally comparing the face she saw in her vision to the face in the portrait. Although time and cruelty had taken its toll on his features, Rhea was certain the man in her vision was the same she looked at now.

  Her hands started to tremble, as she realized the magnitude of what she was about to share with the two most important women in her father's life. A flash of emotions rushed through her: joy at finding him, anger that he'd been taken, and fear that he was hurt.

  "Well?" Randell's voice brought Rhea back to the moment.

  She couldn't lift her eyes from the painting. "It's him." Even though she didn't personally know the man in her vision, in the portrait, for some reason, she felt a connection to him, a bond.

  When Rhea was able to lift her eyes, she was met with seven faces. Four knew what was happening, three did not. She turned and faced the queen and Gaibel. "It's one of the men from my visions."

  "What visions?" The queen asked, her face appearing stern but her eyes carrying pain.

  "The Libraim has given me several visions. This man has been in two, so far. In the most recent, shortly before we broke camp to ride into Cauhill, I asked the Libraim to show me where I could find the man who has been sending false warriors into the realms."
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br />   Rhea told the queen, Gaibel, and Lanne about seeing the room with the stone walls and how the man with the dark hair spoke of prisoners. "The Libraim showed me the prisoners." She couldn't help but touch the portrait and look at the man's face. "He was one of them."

  Rhea looked up in time to see Gaibel swallow hard. She tried to appear calm as she casually brushed the table, but her trembling hand spoke the truth.

  The queen repressed her desire to cry with joy. She wouldn't get her hopes up until she knew more. "Are your visions of the past, present, or future?"

  "It's hard to tell. The visions from the Libraim have been … photos from the past, until now. The vision of the prisoners moved as if I were standing in the room myself, looking around.

  "When I focused in on him, the man that looks like my father …" She shook her head as she tried to believe what she was about to say. "It seemed he looked right at me, as if I were there. I think he asked for help, but then the vision faded so I can't be sure."

  A quiet gasp escaped the queen's lips. "Kalaub. You saw him, and he saw you."

  "I didn't say he actually saw me. It was a coincidence that he looked in my direction. It just seemed like he saw me."

  "No. You don't understand. When he was a child, he was always exploring, getting into trouble. One day he found a way out of the palace and decided to explore the forest on the far side of the palace lake. We searched for him, but it got late. We began to fear something had happened to him but he showed up the next day, dirty, hungry, but with a smile on his face. He said a ghost had appeared to him and showed him the way home."

  "I don't understand," said Rhea. "Obviously, I'm not a ghost."

  "The so-called ghost appeared at the palace gates a few days later," the queen continued. "He called himself a spirit walker. He said he can appear to those who need help, those open to seeing. Kalaub was a child. His mind was open to believing what we might not accept as adults. Maybe his mind never closed. You are a spirit walker."

  Rhea shook her head. "You don't understand. The Libraim showed me the vision. I wasn't the one."