"He's just a little shaken, that's all," I say as I rub his arm.
"I know. But what is it that has shook him so hard that he can't even talk to me about it, but he can to you?" I can hear the worry, disbelief and a hint of jealousy in his voice.
"Look, I . . . I contemplate in my mind the pros and cons of telling him about Drake's father. I end up deciding to tell him.
"Look, I don't want to interrupt you, but we need to leave. If you don't remember, we've got a tour to complete," Yashid says and I am reminded that Drake's father is not the only thing we have to worry about .
CHAPTER-24
I walk back to my tent to find Drake sitting beside the lake, on a stone, throwing pebbles in the water. Typical Drake.
"Hey," I say, approaching him.
"What do you want?" He asks wearily, not even bothering to look at me.
"What are you doing here?" I sit beside him and follow his gaze. He is looking into . . . nowhere.
"I'm . . . being me," he says with a shrug, still not looking at me as he throws another pebble in the water.
I too, pick up a pebble and throw it in the water and it lands at the exact spot where his did.
"Tell me," I say, turning him towards me.
"I told you."
"Not that. What happened in . . . wherever we were in my vision," I say, more like whisper, double checking over my shoulder to make sure no one is eavesdropping.
His face visibly hardens and his eyes get a distant look. His whole body freezes and he turns away from me.
"Nothing," he says, getting up and starting to walk away from me.
"Nothing? Nothing? Okay, you've got to stop kidding me. All right. It didn't seem like nothing to me." I grab his wrist and I can see how much he wants to resist the urge to pull away and throw me back into the lake, he stops and just jerks his hand away.
"You won't stop, will you?" He asks.
I shake my head and cross my arms.
"I . . . guess I could tell you. But . . . not here," he says, using his chin to motion towards the camp we have set up.
"But . . . we're to leave in like what . . . ten minutes," I question, looking at the speed of the preparations of leaving.
"Great then . . . it's your rotten luck," he says and walks away, leaving me standing there, mouth agape.
"Humpf!" I stomp my foot and walk back to my tent to gather my belongings and leave this place for good.
When I reach my tent, I see Altin getting out.
"Hey," I say, walking right at him.
He visibly jumps at my sight and stammers, "Uh, hi, Fena . . . What're you . . . what're you doing here?"
"I'm pretty sure it's my tent," I say sceptically.
"Yeah . . . that's why you're here. Right. Well, I'll leave." He takes off in his tent's direction.
"Huh," I say, wondering if the whole universe has teamed up to make me feel like I'm the most clueless person in the world.
When I come out with all of my belongings gathered with me, almost all of the nobles have already mounted their horses.
I too, follow their lead and quietly mount my horse.
"Hey," someone says as I settle, making me almost fall off.
I turn and see Camilla smiling at me, completely unaware of the almost sacrifice she performed last night.
"Hi," I say, trying to sound as chirpy as she does, but fail in doing so.
"So, are you excited to go to the Imeen demesne?"
"Um, not really." I mentally slap myself for being too honest with her instead of just saying that I was really excited.
Thankfully, she didn't listen as she was distracted by Altin who has appeared out of thin air and is chatting away happily with her.
I survey the nobles and find one of us missing.
"Camilla, do you know where Yashid is?" I ask.
"Yeah, he left before us to do the preparations for our arrival.
The nobles start to move, headed by our very own Prince Adrian.
He looks completely different from how he was back in the cave with me. He seems more stiff, responsible and . . . together, I guess.
I am in awe of his ability to conceal his emotions from his face. His best friend kind of returned back from the dead who is hiding a big secret regarding his father and is also a target of a psycho witch who wants to control the world.
___
"Welcome to our House," an elderly man greets us as we enter the Imeen demesne.
I see Yashid standing between the man and a woman who I presume to be his parents.
"I'm Duke Dravid and this is my wife Raskeen," he introduces himself and his wife to us as we approach him.
"If you will all follow me," Yashid says for the first time. His eyes still glint as if mischief is just at hand, although from what I could gather at the first meeting, he seems pretty constricted around his parents.
We all follow him, a quiet hum of voices of nobles, commenting on the decorations which are mind-blowing and the sweet smell of the dishes coming from the kitchen and enveloping all of us in its sweet scent.
He takes us into a big hall set with tables with centrepieces consisting of fragrance-emanating lamps.
The room is decorated with big, golden tapestries and sweet-smelling, golden flowers.
I take a seat with Camilla and two other nobles named Emilio and Christina.
"Hi," I say, sitting down. Emilio glances at me and gives me a welcome smile while Christina dons a smug look.
I am about to say something snarky but stop myself, my knowledge coming back to me and shut my mouth.
Soon, the waiters arrive and start serving us. As I take the first bite of the food, which is some kind of sweet dish called sewai, it immediately melts in my mouth and I close my eyes and can barely manage to silence the moan of pleasure that escapes my mouth.
"Hmmm," I moan as I relinquish the taste of the dish.
After we have all eaten, we are excused to go to our rooms. I spot Drake talking to Samaira about their mutual interest in pandas, which I find quite false and approach him.
"Can you come with me for a while?" I ask, tapping his shoulder.
He turns to make some kind of coy remark, but stops himself when he sees my I'm-very-serious-and-I-can-kill-you-if-you-don't-come-with-me-right-now look.
"Will you excuse me for a second?" He says in a tone which is dripping of total false sympathy and I take him by hand and dash down the hallway as soon as we are out of her eyesight.
"Whoa woman, slow down," he says, grabbing my hand and leading me towards a room which is quite well-hidden from eyesight.
"Okay, I'll slow down. I'll slow down. The person whose life I saved is not telling something which is very important to all of his friends who are constantly pressing him to tell the truth. But I'll be cool. I'm cool," I bicker.
"Okay, I get it. I'm going answer whatever you want to know. But only the exact answer." Even as he says this, I can see his expression harden and how much he wishes he could just disappeared or make me disappear.
In the dark, we both settle down on a couch beside the wall-length windows which let some rays of the sun enter the room, giving Drake's face a gloomy look. Or maybe he really feels sad about talking about his father.
"He was your dad, wasn't it?" I ask.
"Yeah," he answers shortly.
"Why were you so shocked to see him?"
"Because I didn't expect to see him at . . . wherever we were," he says, looking out the window.
"Why did you not expect to see him?" I ask.
"Because he died," he says, his face as hard as ever.
CHAPTER-25
I stare at him, mouth hanging open, but when I realise it would probably make things worse as he has started to shift uncomfortably, I close my mouth and gain my composure back.
"Wh . . . when . . . how?" I ask him.
"Some years ago. Before I came to live with Adrian. I was sent here by him. To look after the Heir of Time."
"Sent here
? Like, ordered? Who was he?" I ask, genuinely confused.
"He was the head of my clan. My Hinak clan. He died fighting the Nemeses. They . . . they even burned his body. The thing is . . . I don't understand how is he still . . . alive. Even so, why hadn't he made an attempt to contact me?" I can see behind his guarded face how hard he is trying to not contort his face and cry.
"I . . . maybe . . . I . . . I'm so sorry Drake," I say, short of words and put my hand on his shoulder, but he flinches away and I retract my hand back to my lap.
"See . . . this is why I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want people to look at me like a kicked puppy. I can handle myself. I don't want any sympathy," he says.
"I . . . you're not a kicked puppy. No one sees you like that. We just wanted to get out whatever it was bothering you out of your system. It's what we do. What friends do," I say, trying very hard to keep my cool and slap him across face.
"You're not my friend, alright. You're just someone who is more than an acquaintance but less than a friend."
"Come on. You didn't tell your best friend about this. Give me some credit. At the very least, I am your friend, more or less." I stand up and hit my toe on a table in front of me and jump up and down, clutching my toe and cursing. A lot.
"Yeah. You can be my friend," he says, laughing.
He too stands up and while bouncing like a blind moose, I bump into him and he holds me by my shoulders. "Okay, let's examine what have we got here," he says and I sit down on the couch and he takes off my shoes and examines my toe.
"It's bleeding," he says.
"Yeah, I know, it's my toe if you hadn’t noticed," I say, sarcastically.
"Shut up."
"Do you think there is a first aid kit around here?"
"Yeah. And a unicorn on a bunny too."
"Very funny."
He takes his handkerchief and ties it round my toe and we both leave the room.
___
As there are no other festivities scheduled for the rest of the day, I spend my day barging in and out of different rooms.
In the evening, I sit in my balcony, staring at the Golden Prophecy. It's blank. Fully blank.
Before I can say anything, Drake comes barging in.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing here?" I ask, shutting the book.
"I am here to train you."
"You're here to do what?" I raise my eyebrows.
"To train you idiot."
"I think Adrian was supposed to train me."
"Ugh. Not that. For your training as in being the Heir of Fire training."
"Who the hell sent you do help me in doing that?"
"Believe it or not, I am the best trainer in town. So, like it or not, I will be training you if you have to fight The Dark Queen." He crosses his hands over his chest.
"Isn't it supposed to come to me directly?"
"No. Only bits and pieces are there within you. You have to develop your skills and increase your power. To do that, you'll have to train, so if you want to defeat the psycho witch of the west, you'll have to learn to put up with me." He offers me his hand and I stand up, holding it, all the while giving him a death-glare.
"Where are we—" before I can complete my sentence, a bright light engulfs us and when it recedes, I'm standing in a forest.
"—going." I complete my sentence.
"We . . . are in the Hinak territory. The Marac Clan, to be specific."
"The what now?"
He rolls his eyes and mutters something about my stupidity.
"Um, I'm standing right here." I wave my hands around myself.
"Um, I don't care." He says, smirking.
"Let's get this over with."
He leads me to a cave-like place.
I look around myself and all I see is darkness.
"Did you forget to bring a lamp?"
"No. I brought one."
"Where is it—Oh." I say, catching his meaning.
I concentrate and the unlit torch which just appeared in his hand lights up, and some others which were present here before we came.
There are glyphs and drawings all over the place. I try to touch one, but a burning sensation runs through my whole body on the mere touch of it.
"Careful there. It's the mark of the Heir of Water. You don't touch the ones which are not yours. Did I not mention that?" He adds the last part with a sly grin.
I flick my hand and the flame from the torch nearest to him jumps and almost sets his hair on fire.
He jumps away. "Keep calm woman!" He shouts and I laugh.
"Oh, you don't piss me off, especially if I have access to fire. Did I not mention that?"
"Ha-ha. Joke with your trainer. Great start."
"Let's just get this over with."
"Okay. So, first of all, I will teach you how to make a barrier."
"Didn't I already know that?"
"What you know is nothing like what it can be. Now pay attention." He waves his hand in a motion which resembles him making a circle and then dissecting it through the middle.
I copy the gesture and, after some attempts, a barrier of fire develops around me. It is brighter than the ones I have conjured up till now and somehow drains less energy.
"I think this is how it ought to be," I say.
"Yeah, you got that one right. Now, don't get too happy. The next one is difficult. This glyph is used to attack your opponent using your powers. This consumes your power, so I would advise you to do it as per your strength. Wouldn't want to take you back to the Imeen's unconscious."
"Okay, let's start."
He moves his hand in a very complicated motion which I take five attempts to only pick up.
It is a rhombus which we surround by a circle which we dissect through the middle which leads to another circle inside which we make two lines.
When I finally get it right, I feel as if an invisible force is sucking the energy out of me.
"Okay, attack me." I notice that he has some kind of shield around himself which gleams and reflects the light of the torches.
"How the hell do I do that?"
"You control all the glyphs through your mind." With that single sentence, I command the fire which has appeared in my hands to move forward and push it forward towards Drake with my hands and it crashes on his shield with a Bam! I cannot imagine what would have happened to him if he didn't conjure up that shield.
After all this, I feel pretty tired and don't think I can go on anymore but Drake keeps on telling me to get up for the last one and so I do.
"So, this one is for deflecting a hit. Follow me." He moves his hand in a form of Zigzag which ends with a square. It's pretty simple and takes only one attempt for me to learn.
After practice is over for today, he teleports us back to the Imeens'.
I flop back on the couch as he leaves the room with a "I'll be back tomorrow at the same time."
As I turn my head towards the table, I notice the Golden Prophecy glinting. I pick it up and my heart beats at a speed of hundred miles per hour.
When I open it, there are some words, etched in golden.
You shall get what you want,
After searching lands far and long,
A price must be paid,
The life of the dearest shall be laid.
CHAPTER-26
I switch on the TV in my room and flip through the channels. Nothing. Not a single program which interests me. I throw the remote back and switch it off.
I have been fussing over the prophecy since two hours and now I'm just tired.
I lie down on my bed and eventually feel myself falling into the slumber of sleep.
__
"Wake up! Wake up!" Someone bangs my door.
I open my eyes and open the door with a yawn.
"Well, I always knew you had a big mouth, but I didn't know it was that big." I quickly close my mouth and let Drake in.
"Why the hell did you wake me up?"
"I know where to find your sister."
All sleep disappears from my body and I shout, "WHAT?"
"Calm down Lady!" He says, ushering me towards one of the chairs by the balcony.
"What did you just say?" I ask.
"I know where to find your sister."
"Do you mean it? Can we really find her?" I shake his collar, reminiscing about my sister. All the memories I have of her are of our childhood, but it still counts.
"Yes, I mean it. Although it would be very difficult, but with a little more practice and strength, you could rescue her."
"What do you mean you?" I ask, pointing to myself.
"I mean, that it's one of the ancient incantations. Only someone who shares the same bloodline of a person has the power to do the spell. In other words, you can find her. But," he raises his finger to stop me mid-sentence. "It requires great strength and practice to perform. Only one person has been able to execute the spell."
"Who is it?"
"The Dark Queen."
When I open my mouth to ask him, he quickly puts his finger on my lips and the next moment, Altin comes bursting into the room.
"Okay, we're leaving in thirty minutes." He says and leaves, although, I notice that his eyes, although momentarily, flit towards the Golden Prophecy.
"I should probably leave. You should get ready."
His hand is on the door knob when I say, "Stop."
He turns around, bewildered.
"I . . . I just wanted to know if . . . if it would be okay for me to tell Adrian about . . . you know . . . " I can't help but fidget with my hands as I see his face harden again the way it did yesterday.
"I . . . want to tell him myself," I all he says and leaves.
I get up, giddy at the possibility of seeing my sister again and hop into the shower.
As soon as the water touches my skin, a sizzling sound comes and the flesh where it touches my skin burns.
"Ahh," I wince in pain as I step out, examining my skin.
There are burn marks where my skin burnt but they heal almost immediately, but I can feel myself dizzying and lean against the wall and close my eyes until I can feel myself getting back to normal.
When I open my eyes, I turn on the shower once again and test it with my little finger. Normal.
Still sceptical, I slowly enter the shower and it feels like normal water, although I still don't relax, just in case.
IGNITE (The Heir Chronicles Book 1) Page 9