Book One: Beginnings

by Nicole Ashley Brown Segda

  Cara clenches her fists, gathering her courage. “Whatever you are selling, I am not buying.”

  “Ooh, I’m offended. A downright refusal before you even hear what I have to offer? Now, where is the business sense in that? Come, come, my dear, surely your opinion of me isn’t so low as to deny me a chance.”

  “First of all, I already know your proposal, and second of all, I am not your ‘dear.’ If you think for one second that I will to you give the time of day, you are seriously mistaken. You have come to the wrong person. Now go. You may think my threats to be empty, but so are yours.”

  The man crosses his arms and throws back his head in amusement. “You’re a feisty one. I like that in my women, but I am here purely on business. If I can’t convince you to join with me, then just as a sign of my sincerity on the matter, I will share with you one little tidbit of information.” He pauses for a moment and then continues, “You, my dear, have been betrayed.”

  Cara’s heart clenches, immediately recognizing the implications of the statement. “By who?”

  The man raises a finger. “Ahh-ahh-ahh, I have divulged my one bit of information and, unless you’ve changed your mind, I will take my leave.”

  Cara can barely control her rage. “I will never join you.”

  The man shrugs. “Have it your way.”

  Now that she is alone, she tears down her barricades and weeps. Having allowed herself this one act of selfishness, she can now focus on the task before her, resolving to identify the betrayer before it is too late; before all that they had worked for crumbles into the ashes of despair and depravity. She looks cautiously around her and then slips into the comforting recesses of the building that she had gotten used to calling home. Closing the door behind her she sighs heavily, having resigned to the idea that on the morrow she will have to leave these walls that had sheltered her for most of her life. She unties her cloak, letting it drop to the planked floor. She observes silently as the moonlight filters in through the window, casting itself across the completely utilitarian furniture that fills the little space she calls her home. Her hand clutches the crystal hanging on a chain around her neck, sending a prayer and a message. Without bothering to change into her bedclothes, she crawls beneath the woolen blanket on her bed and drifts into a tormented sleep.

  * * *

  Chase reclines on the grass with his hands behind his head. Staring up at the stars shining brightly above him, he remembers things of the past. He recalls standing not too long ago on the top of a hill on a night much like this. Promises had been made, and broken. Brothers forever, we will always be brothers. Nothing will ever change that, but the memory is clouded by another. I, Chase Blader, promise that no harm shall come to Kaela Lee while she is under my protection. By leaving the way he did, he had hurt her more than anything else could ever have. And then, at the waterfall, if only he could have controlled his temper and not stormed off…. If only he could find the courage to make things right…. If only it didn’t have to be this way … if. Kae had told him that he could not live in the past, but the past haunts him wherever he goes. It is a foundation which must not be ignored, otherwise the future would be meaningless. From the past do we learn, and with learning comes understanding.

  Chase looks over as Tom returns from his venture into the woods. His gaze falls upon the stars once again. “There’s something in the air tonight.”

  Tom sits down and crosses his legs. “What makes you say that?”

  “It reeks of memory and purpose.” Chase sighs, “I feel anxious, like something momentous is about to happen … or already has.”

  Tom shrugs inconsequentially. “Or perhaps both are correct.”

  Chase laughs. “Or I could just be going crazy.”

  Tom cocks his head and purses his lips. “Well then, I guess it’s a good thing the royal family was away, lest you infect them with the bug of insanity.”

  Giving him a sidelong glance, Chase continues, “I’m telling you. It’s in the air. Even the king and queen seek a lighter breeze. The air here hangs heavy, further oppressing me the longer I stay here.”

  Raising his brow and rubbing his chin, Tom queries. “You wouldn’t happen to be Gaelithian, would you?”

  Chase rises to stare squarely at Tom, his expression grave and earnest. “Why do you ask? What does it mean to be Gaelithian?”

  Tom rubs his hands voraciously. “I wasn’t being serious … but there are rumors that the old legends are still prevalent in parts of this world. In ancient Ilian history, there were supposed races that could … command the elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. There are others, but they are more obscure.” He gauges Chase’s reaction to this and then continues, “From your unaffected expression, I guess that you have heard of this. Anyways, Gaelithians are said to be descendants of the People of the Skies who, as their name implies, commanded the winds. This, however, is just conjecture and I was only correlating it to the statement you made about there being something in the air.”

  Chase is in deep contemplation. After a few moments, he laughs. “I don’t suppose I am Gaelithian, but I would like to see this place sometime.” He remembers something. “You know, a lady I met the other day said something about Gaelith. Perhaps I will be able to find some answers there.”

  Tom nods. “Well, before we set off there is something that has been brought to my attention that I need to take care of immediately.” He studies Chase for a moment before speaking again. “I will be going to the Sylvan cottage. You can either come with me or find another guide.”

  A question arises in Chase’s eyes but he leaves it unsaid. Instead, he spreads his hands before him in acquiescence. “Does anyone else have a boat?”

  Tom shakes his head. “No.”

  “Then I guess I have no choice. But I am not ready to face them.” He puts his head down in shame and then looks off into the distance. “I will stay in the forest … I know of a place.”

  Tom slaps his hands to his knees and rises. “Very well. We leave in the morning.”

  Chase huffs. “You have no retort as to my cowardice.”

  “Being that you honored my discretion in this matter, I will do the same.”

  Chase rises to stand beside Tom. “Hey, Tom, I want to thank you. Not only for the boat and everything, but you’ve helped me in more ways than you know. In some ways, I feel that you have been guiding me or helping me all along, as if our pasts are somehow connected.”

  “Don’t you go getting all sentimental on me now.” He shivers. “I can’t stand for tears. But you’re welcome. Besides, I enjoy the company.”

  Chase sighs, “I seriously hope you were only joking about the tears, especially after today.”

  Tom replies wryly. “Today? Oh, right, I nearly forgot you single-handedly defeated all those monsters.”

  “Well, you did give me the sword.”

  Tom puts his hands on his sides. “Well, it is a much more suitable weapon than that stick that you were carrying.” He rubs his chin. “Although you weren’t doing all too badly….”

  “Anything can be used as a weapon. Or more fundamentally, the nature of an object is as we perceive it to be. So perception shapes reality.”

  Tom grins widely and claps Chase on the shoulder. “My boy, I don’t think I could have said it better myself.” He shakes his head in amazement. “With that keen sense of yours and your innate ability with weapons, I sure would hate to be your enemy.”

  Chase smiles inwardly. “No, I don’t guess that I would like to be my own enemy either.” Laughing, he puts out his hand. “Friends, then.”

  Tom takes it in his own and replies. “Friends.” He chuckles. “Well, in honor of our friendship, I would like to give you this.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small box. “I’ve had this for eleven years. I intended to give it to someone but … well, perhaps you can find a better use for it than collecting dust in a box in my shirt pocket.”

  Chase takes the box and unceremoniously opens
it. Inside lays a ring wrought in white gold bearing a sapphire blue stone. A design resembling that of waves is sculpted into the slender band and encircles the smooth, spherical stone. He places it on the tip of his little finger, smiling. “I think it’s a little too small.”

  Tom shakes his head in amusement. “I guess that you will just have to find some small finger to put it on.” He winks conspiratorially. “It is a promise ring.”

  Chase puts the ring back in the box and looks up. “Promise….”

  * * *

  Maria sips a cup of coffee as she curls up in a couch in the barely used living room. Kae sits across from her in another chair, idly watching the fire blaze in the hearth. She sighs and Maria is brought out of her reverie. Maria sets down her cup on the coffee table and shakes her head in bewilderment.

  “Seventeen. Where have the years gone to? You have all grown up so quickly.” Her expression clouds over for an instant. “I still remember the day you all were brought here. And now you are a fine young woman.”

  The fire dances in Kae’s soft lavender eyes as she replies absently, “Everything has changed in so little time. I’ve hardly realized that tomorrow is my birthday. I guess it doesn’t hold the same significance it did when I was younger. And the prospect of another birthday seems to spell disaster. Right now, the future in general seems … hopeless. I don’t know—ever since Chase left, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. These past two weeks have changed me. His leaving was just so … sudden….”

  Maria succeeds in maintaining a weak smile in spite of her own doubts. Her eyes become overcast. “Surprise is just another one of life’s obstacles. It does not always come wrapped up in a nice little box. We are often forced to make sacrifices. Because, no matter how much we may want something, the price of obtaining it is just too high.”

  Kae studies her. “Maria—I need to thank you, and I need to apologize.”

  “For what?”

  Controlling the emotion in her voice but unable to hide it in her face, Kae speaks. “For the sacrifices you made when you took us in.”

  Maria waves a hand in ambivalence. “That is in the past. I admit that in the beginning it did hurt, it still hurts sometimes, but raising all of you has been a blessing. I love you all as if you were my own. You remind me of myself when I was your age; an age when I was free-spirited and did not have to make any sacrifices. But already you have sacrificed more than I ever have, more than you will ever know. That is why I think you should have this.”

  She unties the necklace around her neck and silently holds it before Kae. Squinting her eyes, she places the necklace on the table and reaches into her apron pocket. “It is missing something.” She pulls out a gold ring whose ruby at first seems to be on fire with the breath escaping from the maws of the twin dragons encircling the stone. She slides the ring onto the necklace and once again holds it before Kae. Nodding in satisfaction, she smiles. “Happy Birthday, Kaela.”

  Kae is speechless, so she simply takes the necklace with the ring and clasps it around her neck. She admires it for a moment and then looks up at Maria. “So this is what you sacrificed. This promise.” She clutches the ring and closes her eyes to hold back her tears. “I will guard it with my life.”

  Maria shakes her head. “It is just a ring. You must guard the promise that it represents.” She smiles tiredly as she gets up and makes for the hallway. “It’s getting late. You better get some rest.”

  Kae stretches and slowly rises to her feet. “For the first time in two weeks, I feel that I will be able to.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Chase shades his eyes from the afternoon sun as he steps out from the domains of the forest. He shakes his head and looks back at Tom. “It still amazes me that it took me two weeks to make a half-day-long journey.”

  Tom grins widely. “I admit that your sense of direction is … wanting.” He slaps Chase on the shoulder. “But look at it this way: that narrows down the possibilities of where you are from.”

  Chase runs his hand through his unruly black hair and smiles. “Still operating on that whole idea of cultures inheriting the ability to control the elements, are you?”

  Tom raises a finger. “Have you forgotten that unlike you, I’ve actually been off this continent?”

  Chase crosses his arms and sighs, “Well, people can believe whatever they want to believe. But I personally don’t believe in magic.”

  Tom straightens his back and raises his brow. “Who said anything about magic? Think of it as a cultural or even physical trait.” He looks around and then points to an eagle flying high overhead. “For example, birds can fly, but you and I cannot. Does that necessarily mean that the bird has magic? Just because something or someone can do something that someone else cannot does not mean that it is magic.” He adjusts his pack. “We use the word ‘magic’ because it refers to something of which we have no real knowledge. And people are scared of what they do not know.” He looks away, caught up in memory. “People can use your fear against you, to control you. It has been used to fuel wars. Look at the current state of the world. War is upon us. And we are fighting an impossible adversary who possesses no ethical compunctions whatsoever. That battle we fought the other day—that illusion—that was magic. It was not natural. It arose from the depths of a realm which I will not name. I fear for the world for in its ignorance it does not possess the necessary protection from it.” He looks up at the sun and then stares out onto the fertile plain before them. “We must pray for the salvation as recorded by the prophets of centuries past. Therein lies our only defense against this threat.”

  “Are you implying that all those forces in the Nesthra Islands, all those people fighting for their freedom, don’t even have a chance?” Chase gasps as he thinks of Cole and Ashe on their way to what may be their deaths.

  Tom looks back at Chase, insurmountable pain of inevitability stretching across his haggard-seeming features. “Even with the savior from the prophecies, the chance has always been slim. But that’s the wonder of the human spirit. It keeps fighting even in the face of defeat. It clings to the hope that if it keeps fighting long enough, it will survive. And if it dies in the process, at least it went out in a blaze of glory.”

  Chase clenches his fists in determination. “Only when we consign ourselves to defeat do we fail. If what you are saying is true, then you, I, and the Emerald Guard would have been annihilated when we fought those monsters.” He rages. “Tell me. Tell me how it is possible that we stand here now? Why are you and I not dead? The human spirit is our defense. Our innocence is not a weakness, but a strength. To say otherwise is to accept defeat and allow the evil to consume us in our ignorance.”

  Tom scratches his chin. “I am just being realistic, but you do pose a good question. Why are we still alive? If I recall, you were the one to break the spell. Perhaps you are our savior.”

  “Frankly, I am tired of your conjectures. First, I am Gaelithian with the power to control the winds, and now I am some mystical redeemer? I hardly find these irrational conclusions realistic.” Chase bluntly voices his opinion. “Your words seem to be vehicles by which you hide the fact that you have lost hope.”

  Tom is surprisingly calm in light of Chase’s accusations. “I’ve lost more than my hope.” Clearing his throat, he nods. “This is the southern edge of the Northern Woods. We should part here, unless….”

  Chase puts his fists to his sides in conviction. “I’ll be fine here.”

  Tom nods. “Very well. This should not take longer than a week.”

  “A week?” replies Chase exasperatedly.

  Tom queries. “Is there a problem? Provided you ration your provisions you shouldn’t starve, and the forest is full of nourishment. So meet me here, at this spot, in a week. Can you handle that? I do not want to have to come find you.”

  Chase observes his surroundings, noting his position relative to the mountains rising to his right with the sun just beginning its descent behind them. He fidgets. “Don�
�t worry.” He can hear a brook bubbling not too far off behind him and reasons that he is still a ways west of the waterfall. As long as he follows the river, he should find where he intends to wait. “Once I have been to a place, I can always find my way back.” If he does get lost, he can enlist the help of the dryads. Chase muses at this hindsight which would have proven useful during his two-week trek through the woods. He smiles. “Besides, I am among friends here.”

  “Friends?”

  Chase smiles. “A dryad, a fish, and a sea serpent.”

  “You keep strange company.” Tom cocks his head. “And I thought you didn’t believe in magic.”

  “I understand their nature. There is nothing magical about it; unless you are referring to the feeling.”

  Tom squints his eyes, and then with a reprimanding tone he reiterates, “Remember, a week. No more and no less.” He turns towards the Sylvan cottage.

  Chase takes a step forward and places his hand on Tom’s shoulder. “This is serious, isn’t it?”

  Tom looks gravely into Chase’s eyes. “You have no idea.” Adjusting his pack, he continues down the path leading up a hill to a house that he has not seen in eleven years.

  * * *

  Jessica rushes into the kitchen with Joel not too far behind her. They both seem out of breath, but Jessica is the first to speak.

  “Maria! There is a strange man standing outside at the bottom of the hill.”

  Joel chimes in, “I think he has urgent news, but is afraid to come in.”

  Maria walks over to the window. A small intake of breath is heard as her hands fly to her chest. “Tom.” She turns to look inquisitively between Jessica and Joel, her expression full of hope and, at the same time, despair. Biting her lip, she pulls up her skirts and runs out of the house, rushing down the hill at an almost frantic and breakneck speed. Jessica and Joel chase after her, breathlessly watching as Maria flies into the man’s outstretched arms. He twirls her around and then sets her gently upon the ground. Maria puts her arms around his neck as he runs his hand through her long auburn hair. Pulling her close to him, he bends down to softly kiss her. Maria rises onto her toes to meet his lips.