I put on a robe and step out to see someone stepping out of my room.
"Hey! Hey! Wait!" I shout, but the person is already gone. I assume that it would be some butler or maid cleaning the room.
I sigh and get ready for the day.
___
I slump in my chair in the cargo when Camilla finally stops her nonstop chatter about various noble estates. I mean, yeah, I should know about them, but this is probably not the best time for me to learn anything new, I already have a lot on my plate what with rescuing my sister and stopping the Dark Queen.
I see Altin enter into the coach. His eyes flit over to mine and he quickly averts them. It is really bothering me that since a few days, the camping night, to be precise, he has been avoiding me.
I walk over to Drake and sit on the empty chair beside him.
He is fast asleep so he doesn't even notice when I sit beside him. He drools. His mouth is wide open and he is drooling all over himself. I can't help but chuckle and that seems to rise him.
"Wake up, Dray-Dray," I say, teasing him.
"Uh," he says, wiping the drool off his face while I continue to snicker the whole time."You're never gonna let me live it up, are you?"
I shake my head.
"I'm doomed," he says and I laugh and soon, he too joins in.
After we've had our fill of laughter, I look over my shoulder to check if someone is within our earshot, and thankfully, no one is.
"I wanted to ask you how are we gonna get my sister back?" I fidget with my hands and he too, looks over his shoulder to check if someone is listening.
"It's a ritual. You have to perform a spell and it will require a small amount of your blood."
"That's it?"
"It's all you need to worry about." He turns towards the window and I get the feeling that if I press him, he won't help me with the spell.
"So, what's this spell?" I ask.
"I'll teach you. It's a complicated one, and a million things could go wrong and you could lose your life, but if executed correctly, we can get your sister back."
"Gee, thanks for the motivational speech," I say and roll my eyes.
"I was merely stating the facts."
"There might've been a mild way to put it."
"You want me to teach you the spell or not?"
I huffed and nod just as I feel a tap one my shoulder.
It's Rafelia, one of the nobles whom I haven't had the chance to meet. By the looks of it, I feel that I am lucky that I haven't.
"You're in my seat," she says, not even looking at me.
"Oh, I thought that this seat was vacant, considering no one was sitting here." I stand up.
"Well, no one was before, but now I am," she says smugly and sits beside Drake who greets her with a smile, making me wonder how could he smile at such a smug person and then I see him shoot a smirk in my direction.
She doesn't seem to notice as she actually kisses him on his cheeks and Drake stares at her with wide eyes. I can see Drake flinching and trying to break free but she doesn't let go of him.
It's my turn to smirk at him.
I turn on my heels and walk back to my seat and go off to sleep.
___
"So, you know these nobles since your childhood?"
"Not all of them, but yeah, most of them."
Adrian and I are sitting in the very end of the coach and are trying to have a normal conversation which two people who are responsible for monarchy would.
"So . . . did Drake tell you . . . "
"Yeah, but he wants to tell you himself, so . . ." I reply, catching the meaning.
"Your highness, may I talk to you for a minute?" Another noble, Alonso interrupts us and Adrian gestures him to take my place as I rise to leave.
I don't know why, but the words from the prophecy repeat themselves in my mind, as if trying to tell me that they are going to come true in the coming future.
The life of the most loved shall be laid.
This is the line which bothers me the most. What does it mean?
Debating the same question in my mind, I fall asleep.
"Help me Fena, She's coming for us, all of us," My sister says. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face is covered in bruises. She is kneeling on the floor as if she has no strength left and I want to run to her, to free her, to tell her to come to me. But I can't. My legs are frozen to the spot as I feel a cold tip of a knife touch my neck.
"Welcome back, niece."
CHAPTER-27
I turn around and see Nadora standing behind me, a knife now pointed to my heart.
It's not a normal one. Its hilt is black and engraved with intricate designs which I assume to be glyphs. At the back of my mind, a question pokes me. How can she use glyphs?
"What do you mean?" I ask.
She laughs and gives an evil smile which sends a shiver down my spine.
"What do you mean?" I ask through gritted teeth to stop them from clattering. I draw my fingers into a fist as she pushes the knife into my skin, at a level at which even a slight push can make it tear through my skin and penetrate my heart.
"You'll find out what I mean in due time, my child. Until then, something to remember me by," as soon as she says this, she removes the knife from its actual position and before I can contemplate what she is going to do, she moves it along my cheek and I feel a stinging pain and hot blood seeps out through the gash.
I sit upright with a jolt. My hand immediately moves to the spot where Nadora had cut me, but I feel nothing. I stand up to go to the restroom to check my face, and knock on the door as it is locked from inside.
A grunt comes from inside and I immediately know who is inside.
"Open the door, Drooler!" I pound hard on the door.
The door swings open just as I am about to knock once more and my fist hits him on the head.
"Can you try not to hurt me for once in your life?"
Before I can come up with a reply, o notice the blood-soaked tissues in the sink and see blood ooze out of his cheek from the same spot where Nadora had cut me.
The link! I had completely forgotten about Drake!
Still standing in the doorway, I turn his face so that I can examine his cheek, despite of all his attempts to stop me.
The blood is still oozing, although the wound is less deeper than I had anticipated, which is a relief.
"What happened?" Altin shouts from behind me and I spring away from Drake as if I have touched a live wire.
"Oh, um, he . . . uh . . .got hurt . . . " I stammer, looking at Drake to help me out. He is clearly enjoying my failed attempts to hide the reason behind his wound as a look of amusement remains on his face all the while I try to come up with a believable excuse.
"I slapped him." A voice comes from behind Altin and the one person who I never thought would ever help me out stands there, with a smug smile on her face and hands crossed in front of her chest.
Rafelia.
I stare at her wide-eyed. Thankfully, that excuse seems to satisfy Altin and he walks away after making a few comments on Drake about getting slapped by a girl.
Honestly, I feel like slapping him in the face as he teases Drake. It's like he thinks that girls are fragile, gentle and obedient little dolls who worship the very ground he walks on. Has he not even met me?
"Altin, if you don't shut your mouth, the next thing to come out of it will be your teeth," I say and he immediately retreats, holding his hands up in the air in surrender.
Soon as he is out of sight, I turn to Rafelia. She eyes me sceptically. She looks me up and down and, instead to talking to me, she talks to Drake.
"I thought she would be more tough." She walks over to Drake, pushing me aside. I open my mouth to speak something, but she puts her finger on my lips and does something on Drake's cheek, which I am unable to see as she is standing in my line of sight. She mutters some kind of spell and when she moves aside, the gash on Drake's cheek is gone, just a light mark on its place.
&
nbsp; He looks at me and, noticing for the first time the confusion in my eyes, introduces us, "Fena, meet Rafelia, the Curadicus."
"I'm sorry, the what?"
"I'm the Curadicus. I am the universal healer. I can heal anyone—of course, not in the way you can, but I can do it without constructing a link." She says, knowing the words coming in my next breath.
"I'm—"
"The Heir of Fire." She completes for me and I look at her, stunned. She doesn't explain though. She turns on her heels and walks away.
"How does she know?" I question Drake, turning around to find that he too, has left.
I sigh and go inside the restroom and splash my face with cold water. I immediately recoil at the memory of today's morning. Although nothing seems wrong, I get the intuition that a big thing is going to go wrong in the near future and hope that that my intuition is wrong.
___
"Chant after me," Drake says, for the millionth time.
We have been practicing the spell which Drake had told me about earlier to bring my sister back. Till now though, I haven't got it right even once.
We had to make a stop at Puviam, the outermost territory under the Imeen Demesne.
All the nobles have moved to their rooms while I am stuck here with Mr. I-Know-It-All and Rafelia. Both of whom don't waste a chance to point out my mistakes. Turns out, not only is Rafelia a healer, but also a great magician. She showed Drake up three times much to my amusement.
After about one more hour which feels like an eternity, they release me with a "We can work with it," from Rafelia and a "Don't forget whatever you just did when we actually need you to remember it," from Drake.
I walk back to my room and in my hurry, I bump into Adrian.
"Oh, sorry." I take a step back and then remember something which I had to discuss with him.
"I needed to talk to you," I tell him and before he can even reply, walk into my room, dragging him with me.
I put a hiding glyph which Drake had taught me before I started practicing the spell. It consists of two semicircles drawn adjacent to each other in continued motion.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" He asks and I sit in front of him and tell him about my vision.
After listening, he rubs his temples and starts pacing.
"What happened? Do you know something?" I ask, worried.
"No. I don't know why she called you her niece. But that could be one of her strategies. Anyway, that's not what I am worried about."
"Well, then, what are you worried about?"
"She is getting stronger. She is harnessing the energy from your sister. She can make physical contact with you now," he says as his eyebrows furrow with concern and he reaches over and touches the exact spot where I told him Nadora had cut me.
He keeps his hand over my cheek. After a few minutes, I start feeling uncomfortable and worried, what will him standing there with his eyes closed and his hand frozen, still at the same spot.
"She's going to kill your sister."
"But she can't kill her—"
"That's not what I meant. She's planning to steal her powers by performing a ritual."
"No . . . no . . . she can't do that," I say in disbelief. The pictures of my sister flash in front of my eyes. Her smiling face as we cut our birthday cake.
He irritation when I disagreed to wear the dress she picked out for me. The time when she fell off of a horse and I helped her get back to the palace.
"But she'll still alive, right?"
"Yes, but it will give Nadora access to you and me and she won't waste another second in capturing us and then using us to obtain the Clansh."
I stumble back to my bed and put my head in my hands.
"Relax. We're going to find a way." He rubs my back soothingly but there is no mistaking the uncertainty, doubt and fear in his voice.
"I know a way." I tell him about the spell which I have been practicing for.
"But . . . it is very difficult. Even if you could do it, there is no guarantee that you will have enough energy to perform a spell that big. Even if that is thought out, Nadora could find her way to you and could finish you for good. I can't let you take that risk. I can't. " I open my mouth to object but he silences me.
"I can't let you do that. There are many things which could go wrong."
He shakes his head and starts pacing. Again. Looking more tense than ever.
"I'm going to do it," I say silently.
"What?" He turns to look at me as if I've gone crazy.
"I'm going to perform the spell." I get up and stand up in front of him.
"Are you out of your mind?" He towers above me and I notice for the first time that I am a lot smaller than him, even though I am taller than some girls in my district.
"Yes I am. My sister is going to die if I just sit here doing nothing. Do you think I don't know what I am talking about? I know what I am doing," I shout at him, my eye-contact not even faltering once.
"I . . . understand what—"
"The hell you do. No one does. Do you have any idea how it feels to know about a family about whom you have know nothing about? How it feels when the one person who loves you more than anyone else in the world does is dying because everyone tells you that you can't do it because it is too dangerous?"
He looks taken aback and does not retort.
"I just . . . I don't want to lose her. Especially when I know that I could have saved her," I say, silently.
"If that is what you want . . . then that is what we'll do," he says and I breathe a sigh of relief.
"How long do we have?" I ask him.
"Two days. Three if we are lucky," he says.
"Then we'll have to do it tonight," I say.
"You can harness the power from the full moon tonight," he suggests and I agree to it.
"I'm going to go tell Drake to do all the preparations," I say and head out.
"—but, you can't do it. It's not the part for the plan. They'll feel betrayed," Rafelia's voice comes from the room.
I halt and hide behind a pillar and strain my ears to listen.
"That's the only way we can save her. I have to do this. I was born to do this," Drake says.
Suddenly, the door flies open and Rafelia storms out. Before leaving, she says, "Whatever you want to do, you do, but mark my words, you won't be able to follow through with what you want to do."
CHAPTER-28
I debate turning back and coming back later, but it's all a waste as, as soon as Rafelia leaves, Drake turns, he sees the edge of my golden-coloured gown, which I am required to wear as I am one of the noble ladies while the noble men are required to wear a suit.
"How long were you standing here?" He asks quietly, worry covering his face.
"What did you mean?" I counter him with a question.
"I asked you something," he retorts and approaches me but I stand there, staring him back in the eye.
"Doesn't matter how long it was standing there. What matters is that you are going to do something stupid which is going to result in something which will make matters worse than they already are," I don't realise that I am shouting at him.
"Do you even know what we were talking about?" He too, doesn't bother to keep his voice down and looks at me.
"I don't need to. All I need to know is that if you mess up the one opportunity when I can get my sister back, you are going to have me to answer to. And remember, the person who saved your life can easily turn into the person who will take your life." I turn around and leave, not bothering to look back and feeling him what I came here to tell him.
My face is still hot with anger when I reach my room.
"Something tells me that this isn't the time to ask you how the conversation with Drake went," Adrian says light-heartedly but I scowl at him and bang the door shut and feel him about the whole conversation.
___
"I think that maybe you should have at least listened to him," Adrian says after listening to me, moving b
ack a fait distance.
"What? Did the speech I gave you not an hour ago isn't enough to tell you how badly I want this spell to work out?" I say, waking towards him.
"Okay, no need to become violent now. Just calm down and think it through. Like a reasonable person would do. Meanwhile, I will go and talk to Drake." As soon as he completes his sentence, he goes out of the room, leaving me with my thoughts.
I sit down on my bed and try to calm myself. I breathe in and out.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
I follow the protocol until my face is the normal temperature.
Think rationally. I tell myself. Maybe Drake wasn't talking about the spell. Maybe it was something else.
After all, he is the one who told me there was a way. He cannot be the one to foil my plans. Maybe I overreacted. Maybe I should've kept my calm. Maybe.
___
A light knock on my door wakes me up from my sleep.
"Who is it?" I ask.
"Altin."
"Come on in," I say and get up.
"Hey . . . you look like a train wreck," he says, examining my pillow-imprinted face and messy hair which looks like a bird's nest.
"Eh," I say and shrug."So, why did you come out here?" I ask him.
"I came to just, talk to you, you know?" He says.
"Yeah, yeah," I reply.
He looks around the room. The walls are probably drab than the ones in his room, and I obviously have the smaller room than his.
"So, how are you doing?" I ask him.
"I'm . . . fine," he says and, I don't know if I am imagining it, but I think that he scans the room as if memorizing each and every detail.
I snap my fingers in front of his face and he come out of his daze.
"Hey! I'm starting to worry about you. Is there something you're worried about?" I ask in a soothing tone and place a hand on his shoulder.
His eyes flit over to me and it seems as if he is debating internally as to whether he should tell me or not.
He leans forward as if telling me a big secret and says, "I know it might sound a little . . . crazy—"
"You have no idea how crazy has become my normal," I mutter under my breath.
IGNITE (The Heir Chronicles Book 1) Page 10