The crowd was bigger today. I wondered if it was because I was in a more public place, but when the mothers came up, I realized it was partly because they were afraid and partly because they were curious. I finally found out what they were curious about when the third mother approached and sat on the rug in front of me with a tiny baby in her arms.
“What can I do for you?” I asked. “Is your baby ill? Do you need food?”
“Princess Elena, will you bless my child?”
I shot Liam a confused glance, but he remained at attention. Turning back to the mother, I said, “I don’t offer blessings. Only food and kind words. If it’s a blessing you want, you should visit the priestess inside before you go.”
“No. You’re our hope, Princess. Will you at least hold my baby, Maria, and offer her some kind words?”
“Of course I’ll give your baby kind words,” I said, reaching for her, but Liam extended his hand to block me.
“Not today,” he grunted.
The mother shrank back, and I shot Liam a glare.
“Stop. It’s a baby.” Then I reached for the infant. The mother handed over her bundle, and I looked down into the sleeping baby’s face. I had no idea what her mother expected from this encounter—this was a first. Most mothers wanted food or medicine, but this meant something to her, so I leaned down and whispered, “May you have a long and healthy life, sweet Maria.” Then I kissed her forehead and handed her back to her mother.
“Your eyes,” she whispered as she got to her knees and took back her baby. “You’re the one.”
“The one what?” I asked.
Matthew pulled her to her feet. “Time to go.”
“May the gods bless you, Princess,” she said, looking back over her shoulder as Matthew hurried her down the stairs. “You are the mother of—”
Matthew had led her down several steps, and her words were lost in the wind. When he returned, I shot him a glare. “There’s no reason to be rude, Matthew. She didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You take too many risks.”
“A baby’s going to hurt me?” I asked in disbelief.
“One day your kindness will be your undoing,” Matthew said.
His words caught me by surprise. Did he really think that? But I couldn’t help wondering what she had been trying to tell me. Was she a fortune-teller? Was she telling me I was going to have a baby with Leonardo? I shuddered. By the gods, I hoped not.
A half hour later, the last mother and child headed down the steps and Matthew offered me his hand. “The priestess has stoked the fire inside for you, Princess. Go inside and warm yourself up before we head back to the castle.”
I started to protest, but I was cold, and I felt an inexplicable pull inside. “Is Christa not back yet?”
“She came back some time ago,” Dax said. “But she was cold, and there was nothing for her to do, so we sent her back to the castle.”
I went through a door into the inner chamber of the temple. Matthew had been right about the fire. There was usually a small fire burning along the back wall—a sacrificial offering to the gods—but this one was larger than I’d ever seen.
The room was warmer than I’d expected, so I unfastened my cloak and dropped it on the floor next to the wall as I walked closer to the fire.
The temple was hundreds of years old, built when magic was supposed to have filled the earth, and legend had it that the fire was built for this—to keep the last remnants of magic alive until its return. I’d been taught that the priestesses never let it die, but this was to be our last priestess. What happened when she was gone?
When I was a young girl, my first tutor had taught me that magic had existed. He said when I was older he would tell me about a legend that pertained to my family. But when my mother found out, she had him replaced with a tutor who called believers in magic ignorant fools.
“You are far too intelligent to be an ignorant fool, Princess Elena,” my new tutor had said. He’d told me magic was how simple people explained natural phenomena they didn’t understand—like the changing color of the leaves and the changing seasons. Real magic had supposedly been long dead, but the temple had survived, even if it wasn’t used for the old traditions and instead was often used as a place of refuge.
The stone pit was raised with two stone steps leading up to it. There were carvings in the stone around the hearth, but it was the four-foot, free-standing stone arch over the pit that really caught my attention. There were two carvings on either side of the arch and a carved circle at the top.
“Do you know what they mean?” a weathered voice asked from behind me.
Startled, I jumped and spun around, placing a hand over my racing heart. I came face to face with an elderly woman. All the nonsense talk about imminent doom had made me jumpy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.”
She was a short woman, and her shoulders hunched forward as she shuffled toward me, leaning on a cane. Her loose brown robe hid the size of her body underneath, but I guessed that she was tiny.
She was the priestess.
“Do you know what they mean?” she repeated, gesturing toward the stone arch.
“No.”
“They are the five parts of magic.”
A smile tugged at my lips.
“You don’t believe in magic?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow.
“Magic no longer exists,” I said diplomatically.
“But it did,” she said, motioning toward the symbols. “Once upon a time.”
I didn’t want to offend her, so I held my tongue.
“That fire has burned for over six hundred years, never once going out. But the time for it to be extinguished is soon.”
“Surely we can find someone to replace you, Priestess,” I said. “There are temples to the south.”
Her eyes twinkled. “That is not why it will go out. Do you not know the legend?” she asked. “Do they not teach you the ways of the world in that pretty castle of yours?”
I sucked in a breath, caught off guard. “Of course they do.”
“So you know what it means when the fire goes out?”
I remained silent. Legend had it that the fire would go out when magic was reborn, but that was a story . . . a myth.
“Do you know the elements of magic?” she asked.
“They are the elements of the physical world,” I said. “Are they not?”
She gave a sharp nod and pointed her cane to the symbol on the left side of the arch—circular lines that spiraled inward. “That symbol represents air.”
The fire danced, and I could have sworn the fire was reaching for the symbol.
She pointed to the symbol above it—two upside down Vs. “And above it is fire.”
Without thinking, I took a step toward them, and the fire rose higher.
A smile lit up her eyes. “It is true.”
“What is true?” I asked, glancing back at her.
“What has been foretold.”
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about, but everyone seemed off today. Besides, she was a sweet woman who had worked at her post long before my mother was born. She deserved respect even if she was spouting nonsense.
She pointed her cane at the symbol on the bottom of the other arch—three parallel lines. “Earth.”
The fire roared higher.
Was she putting on a theatrical show for me? She’d never made airs for “the princess” before.
She dropped the cane with a loud thud, and her gnarled finger lifted toward two parallel curved lines that resembled waves. “Water. And the element that binds them all . . .” She motioned to the simple circle carved into the stone at the top of the arch.
Spirit, something whispered in my head.
“Spirit,” the priestess said.
How did I know that? I had a moment of panic and realized I must have remembered stories from my tutor.
“You’re still not a believer,” she said with a faint twinkle in her eyes. Was this sh
ow to convince me?
I gave her a soft smile in return. “I’m sure people believed in magic when it was . . . in fashion.”
“Magic existed, my child, before it was stolen from our world by a greedy mage. Do you know the story?”
My tutor had taught me but only in bits and pieces when I was five or six. As I grew older—seven and eight—he had worked up to full stories, but even then, I was sure he had left parts out.
But the story that had finally gotten my tutor fired was the story of the greedy mage. My mother considered it disrespectful and treasonous to the crown, even if the story was about a king and princes long, long ago. And even if the townspeople retold it often. But maybe it hadn’t been a coincidence that the story was told late at night in pubs, when the patrons were drunk on ale—my tutor had been drunk when he’d told me with an urgency that had frightened me. After my mother had walked in and heard what he was telling me, she rationalized his firing by saying it was a story unsuitable for a young impressionable princess of ten. I’d always found it odd that she hadn’t fired him for the uncharacteristic drunkenness. Still, pieces of the story remained in my memories.
“There were two brothers,” I said, the memory working its way to the surface.
She beamed, her eyes becoming narrow slits. “They were twin princes, set to take over the kingdom of Garius, only no one knew which one was the heir. Their father had purposely hidden the times of their birth, which meant no one knew which one was the elder. He declared that the one most worthy would inherit the kingdom. Do you remember what happened next?”
I shook my head. “I learned the fable years ago. It only remains in snatches.”
She chuckled. “Fable indeed. They were your great, great, great—and many more greats—uncles.”
My mouth parted.
“Their story is your family legacy.”
I got over my shock and realized she must be poking fun at me.
“My uncles many greats back had magic?” I said good-naturedly.
“The whole kingdom had magic. This temple was filled with it. But the royal family was blessed with the most magical power . . . until the mage stole it all.”
Despite myself, I was curious.
“Because there was a war,” I said, another vague memory pushing forward.
“Yes, the greedy mage was weak on his own but discovered a spell that gave him more power when he was surrounded by chaos and disagreements. You were right. True magic comes from the elements of the earth, but it starts within.” She reached over and put her hand on my chest. “What’s in you controls the energy around you, Princess. Most people have only one element, although some rare beings are granted two.” She paused, her cloudy eyes trying to focus on my face. “Rarely is one born with five. Your uncles each had five, and the mage wanted their power.”
I nearly laughed, but the twinkle in her eyes had turned serious.
“Are you insinuating I have magic?” I asked in disbelief.
“Insinuating? It’s there for both of us to see. For you to feel.” Her hand remained on my chest, and sparks tickled my skin, sinking deeper under my skin.
“Magic is not dead, Princess Elena. It has merely been asleep for hundreds of years, hiding and waiting for the right ruler. The ruler to defend its power and the kingdom.” She stepped closer, and the flames shot higher, engulfing the stone arch. Her eyes glowed with red and orange, making her look otherworldly. “No, magic is not dead. It only needed to be sparked back to life.”
The priestess removed her hand and took several steps backward. A blue bolt leapt from the fire and hit my chest. Pure electricity shot through me, making my back arch. I gasped as heat spread throughout my body.
“Princess Elena!” I heard Finn shout, followed by the sound of metal sliding against metal—they were drawing their swords.
I tried to tell them the priestess was harmless, but as the fire shot nearly to the twelve-foot ceiling, the bolt of energy worked its way through my body, and I wondered if this was the danger my guards had been sensing all day. And if they truly had sensed it, how?
“Step away from her,” I heard Liam’s strong voice command.
“She is the one who has been prophesied,” the otherworldly woman’s voice said, echoing off the walls around us. “Magic has been reawakened. Magic has been reborn.”
The flames grew higher and hotter, and the stone arch burst into flames, crumbling to ash before it fell into the pit.
The old priestess said, “I created that arch centuries ago to hide the last embers of magic. I’ve been waiting for the ones who were worthy.” Her head turned to scan the room, and I realized all five of my guards surrounded us. “You have five protectors for a reason, my princess. They will guard you with all they have.”
My mouth parted to speak, but I couldn’t form the words. My chest was on fire, and I could barely breathe. I was still on my feet, but I was certain that I wasn’t supporting my own weight.
The priestess gave me a sympathetic look as she watched my body shudder. “Rebirth is painful, especially after it has been hiding for so long. For that I am sorry,” she said in a soothing tone, and stones in the walls and ceiling suddenly began to glow in greens and reds, blues and violets.
“Magic stones,” Dax said in frightened awe. “Legends say that centuries ago they glowed. When there was—”
“Step away from the princess,” Liam practically growled as he took several steps closer with his sword drawn.
The old woman ignored him, her orange, glowing eyes holding mine. I couldn’t have looked away if I tried. “I have ignited the dormant magic inside you, but you must rebirth it, Elena. Only magic will save this world. But just as magic is reborn, evil forces will want it for their own. You must do everything in your power to keep it from them.”
The walls and ceiling glowed even brighter, and the pain in my chest became even more intense. I gasped from the pressure.
Liam started to rush the old woman, but she held out her open-palmed hand, and Liam went flying backward through the air, crashing into Matthew and Tobias. They all fell to the floor.
The priestess kept her eyes locked on mine. “The magic in you is weak yet. But within you now lies the ember that will unite all five elements and give your magic strength. This you must do or you will die.”
I stared at her in shock. What?
“May the gods be with you, Elena, Heiress of the Kingdom of Light.” A blinding light filled the room, and suddenly the fire in my chest was gone. My knees buckled, and I began falling to the ground, but strong arms caught me before I hit the stone floor.
“Where did the witch go?” Dax snarled.
The old woman was gone, and the room was dim again. The flames were gone.
“She’s not a witch,” Liam said in a stern voice. “Witches have magic. This was a parlor trick at best.”
“A parlor trick?” Matthew asked, his chest rumbling against my side as he spoke.
It was then I realized he was holding me. Something inside me shifted, and an energy I hadn’t felt before needed to be as close to Matthew as possible. My body ignited in places I wasn’t used to, and a deep yearning ached in my core. I moaned softly.
Matthew looked down at me in alarm. “Are you hurt, Your Royal Highness?”
I didn’t respond with words, but instead lifted my hand to his cheek as I searched his eyes. Matthew—he’d been quiet and strong ever since he was a boy. I’d always known he’d protect me against anything, even when we were children.
“Something’s wrong with her,” Tobias said. “Let me see.” He put his hand to my forehead. “She’s burning up.”
But Tobias’s touch ignited a new yearning, a different one than what I’d felt with Matthew.
“What’s wrong with her?” Dax asked, his hand resting on my arm.
“Did the witch harm her?” Tobias asked.
“That woman is not a witch!” Liam’s voice boomed.
But my body was betraying me a
gain as it greedily soaked up Dax’s touch, my energy reaching out toward him . . . needing more.
“Let me see her eyes,” Finn said, cupping my face as he stared at me. “Her blue eyes are glowing a bright blue. I was sure I saw it earlier, but look at them now.”
I heard him talking about my eyes, but my focus was on him and the others. My breath came in heavy pants as the energy in my chest reached out to him now. Four of my five guards were touching me, and my body ached for all of them.
What was wrong with me?
Panic rushed through my head. Had the priestess drugged me somehow? I knew of men who had been taken in by prostituted women and given the root of Ichias, a drug that took away their inhibitions. Had she given me that? But how? At the moment, it didn’t matter what she’d done, only that I was behaving in a way that didn’t suit a village barmaid, let alone a betrothed princess. The craving, the yearning I felt now . . .
I was not to be trusted. I needed to physically distance myself from them.
“Put me down,” I said—only, my mouth was so dry the words felt like I pushed them past cotton.
Matthew started to lower my legs to the floor, but Liam reached us in three strides and reached for me.
“Give her to me.” His voice sounded strained, and I knew he blamed himself for what happened.
“Liam, I’m fine.”
But the moment I was transferred to his arms, I knew I was anything but fine. The others had dropped their hands, so all I felt was Liam. I moaned again as I involuntarily burrowed against him, needing to be closer. I lifted my gaze to his face, fighting the urge to lift my lips higher and kiss him.
“The fire’s dead,” Finn said.
“What?” Dax nearly shouted, moving closer to the fire pit. Looking in that direction, I realized the pit and arch were gone. The only thing left was a pile of ash where they had stood.
Heiress of Light: Magic Reborn (Reverse Harem) Page 3