by Megg Jensen
Bryden held up his hands. The boat began moving and I held on tight to the sides.
“I’m going to go faster, Lianne, you might want to close your eyes.”
I trusted Bryden’s warning and held them closed. The cold water sprayed my face and the shouts of the fighting turned from a loud rumble into a soft murmur. The battle was behind us and Trevin lay ahead. My heart pounded with excitement. I’d be able to save him, to rectify some of the mistakes I’d made.
The boat slowed and I opened my eyes. We were closer to the land, south of the castle. The town appeared in the distance and I knew I wasn’t far from Trevin. I’d never come from this direction into town, but I knew my home well enough to get my bearings.
I jumped out of the boat as soon as we pulled up to the land. “Let’s go,” I said. Trevin was so close and I couldn’t contain my excitement. That little baby with his sweet dark hair. I missed him so much, even his little habit of spitting up on everything.
“I think I’d better stay here,” Bryden said. “My leg is hurting again. I don’t understand why, but I don’t think I can keep up. Go get Trevin and bring him back.”
“Your leg feels worse because you’re away from the healers,” Sebrina said. “They cast a spell over our boats to allow people to heal faster.”
I saw the hope spring to life in Bryden’s eyes and so did Sebrina. “I’m sorry, Bryden. It can’t heal your leg permanently, but it can make you feel better.”
Bryden tried to hold his face steady, but I knew him well enough to know he was disappointed. For a moment he wondered if he could be whole again, like us. It didn’t matter to me, but I knew it mattered to him. I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to live life like he did. He was stronger than he knew.
I hugged him and kissed him full on the lips. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. You’re comfortable with protecting yourself, right?”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked. “I may not be able to run but I can blast anyone who’s running at me.”
I reached out to Sebrina, helping her climb out of the boat. “Are you ready, sister?”
“Just point the way!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
We ran on the shore and looked to the north. The battle still waged, but we weren’t a part of it. No one was down shore this far and no one seemed to care about a little boat with three passengers. We were nothing to the battle when the king was in the castle. I didn’t think anyone else mattered in this fight.
Sebrina and I raced into the outskirts of town. The chaos overwhelmed us. People ran down the streets, screaming about the fires in the castle. I looked up at the ramparts and flames flickered out the windows. Relieved Mags and Trevin were free, I urged Sebrina to keep up with me. I only hoped the midwife didn’t leave with Trevin already.
Packing up an infant wouldn’t be easy. She’d need supplies and I banked on that fact that she was still in the town.
We ran through the maze of the town. It had been laid out in a horseshoe originally, flanking the castle. But as the population grew, small pockets built off the horseshoe until it was a mess of streets, some leading nowhere and others leading directly to the castle.
I knew my way to the midwife’s house. I had been the one charged with getting her when Mags was in labor. After three children, I think I could have found my way to her cottage blindfolded. We ran past the forge and around the corner from the baker. Next came the Hiding Hound pub, usually overflowing with music and good-hearted cheers. Not today. No one hung around outside chatting. No one went in for a mug of mead.
Rounding the corner I saw the midwife’s cottage. I stopped in front to catch my breath and Sebrina paused beside me. I pointed to the door and then peeked around the side of the cottage to make sure no one was lying in wait for me.
Sebrina knocked on the door. It swung open, and then she doubled over, groaning.
A dagger protruded from her chest and blood poured down the front of her shirt.
“Sebrina!” I screamed and caught her in my arms as she fell.
“Lianne, I dreamed my whole life of meeting you. There were so many times I didn’t believe you were real, that you were a fairy tale told to us by our elders to give us hope for our future.”
“Hang on,” I said. “I won’t let you die. Not now. Not this way.”
“It’s okay,” she gasped, struggling for every breath. “I came to battle knowing death might await me. My only dream was that I’d get to meet you too.”
My tears spilled on her cheeks, mingling with her own tears.
“Don’t talk like that,” I begged her. I looked at the dagger, so neatly positioned in her heart. We’d just found each other and I didn’t want to let her go.
Sebrina’s smile didn’t fade, but her breathing turned raspy and each breath became farther apart.
“It was a solid hit,” she gasped. “It doesn’t hurt.”
Her white shirt continued to fill with blood, turning her clothes a dark maroon. I ripped the bottom of my shirt off, wadded it up and placed it near the wound. I didn’t dare pull the dagger out, it would mean a quicker death.
“I can get you back to the ship. Your healers can help you.” I was desperate for a solution, any way to keep my sister alive. I couldn’t bear the thought of another loved one dying because of my mistakes.
She shook her head, breaking my heart more with every tiny movement of her chin. “It’s too late. The dagger was meant to kill. He knew what he was doing.”
Her breath rattled one last time as her eyes went blank.
“No!” I screamed at the sky, hugging my sister’s head to my chest. Dead. I’d only had a few hours with her. A lifetime of love and companionship stolen from me first by the king and now by a killer hiding in the cottage.
I laid Sebrina down carefully and closed her eyelids with my palm. I looked through the doorway and a stunned Kellan stood just inside the threshold.
“Lianne?” he asked, confused. “Who is that?” His eyes darted between Sebrina and me, obviously confused. But I realized quickly that I’d been his target. He’d been waiting here for me, ready to kill me when I came for Trevin, as he knew I would. He saw Sebrina and mistook her for me.
“My sister. My twin sister Kellan, and you’ve killed her. Why? Why do you want me dead?”
“Twin sister? Then the attack? It’s true? Our people have come?”
“It’s true, Kellan. They don’t know you’re the one who betrayed them by turning in their people to the king. They don’t know you’ve killed my sister and tried to kill me,” I said, rising up to my feet. “Yet.”
I stepped back with my right foot, assuming a fighting stance. My arms bent at the elbows and my left fist took the front position, protecting my face.
“Is Trevin still here? Renee, are you in there?” I called out.
Kellan’s eyes flashed to the side. I didn’t need any confirmation from Renee to know she still hid inside with Trevin, Kellan’s slip up told me everything I needed to know. He used them as bait for me. If I’d talked to anyone and heard she’d left, I wouldn’t have come to the cottage. He was clever, but I could read him as well now as I could a few months ago, before his Awakening. He may have changed. I may have changed. But our instincts remained the same.
“We don’t have to do this,” he said. “Maybe we can work something out.” Kellan held his hands up, palms facing me. I didn’t believe for a second that he wouldn’t attack.
“What I want to know is why you’re so bent on destroying me. First you wanted me to kill the king, now you tried to kill me. Instead you killed my sister.”
“Our people? Those poor innocent victims? You don’t know what I know. If you did, maybe you’d be on my side instead of Bryden’s. I know the lies he’s been feeding you and you gobbled them up like a baby bird reaching for a worm. Do you think I took anything I’ve done lightly?”
“What was it all for?” I asked. I wouldn’t attack first, but if I could keep him talking
then maybe I could understand what had been going on in his head. “You were using me, too much of a coward to do these things yourself. If you wanted the king dead, why didn’t you kill him yourself? Why me?”
“I can’t use the magic,” he insisted. “I had my Awakening, but I’m still blocked and I know why. Our people kept me shielded while allowing you and Bryden to run around setting off explosions. I’m twice the warrior of both of you put together and I deserve access to my magic more than either of you.”
“Blocking you? How?”
“Those three idiots, the ones I turned in and had executed last week, they realized I’d discovered the truth. Everything Bryden’s been told and everything he’s told you is a lie. Once they knew, they refused to allow me access to the magic.”
“Then what’s the truth? What did you figure out that we didn’t?”
“We weren’t the only ones who were asleep. Everyone,” he waved his hand around at the town, “was asleep. The Dalagans kept everyone in the dark, letting the Fithians think they were great conquerors, when really all they were doing was farming the land for the Dalagan's eventual invasion. All this fertile land? That’s what they wanted. They were waiting for us to take down the king so they could attack.”
Conflicting thoughts swam through my mind slamming into each other at every pass. I’d been told so many things, had so many things revealed to me. I’d changed my beliefs more than once and now I was being presented with another theory.
“If they wanted the king dead and you knew why they were coming then why did you encourage me to kill him?”
“So he could be out of the way and I could finally marry the woman I loved.” Kellan threw his head back and laughed, but it wasn’t the laugh I’d loved so much my whole life, instead it was infused with bitterness and anger. “But you killed her, didn’t you? You were always jealous of Albree, even when we were together. Did you know that she wasn’t jealous of you? Not once. She trusted me. She loved me. I seduced you. She seduced the king. Then we used you to get rid of the king and Mags. Except you had to take it too far. You killed my love.”
I gasped. Why hadn’t I seen it? The manipulations had nothing to do with our people, but everything to do with Kellan’s drive to have it all.
Then he attacked.
Instead of beginning with a punch, like normal, he tried sweeping my legs. I jumped over his kick and I punched, but I missed, barely feeling the skin on his cheek as my fist flew past his face.
He twisted around and I landed where he had been standing.
“We don’t have to do this,” I said, holding my ground in fighting stance. I held my hands in the air, palms facing him. “This can end now. We can figure something out.”
“There’s no turning back,” Kellan said, double-punching me in the gut. The force of the hit sent me flying backward. I’d left myself open, let my guard down. I couldn’t do it again.
I sprang off the ground, landing solidly on my feet. I spun to the side, clipping him on the hip with a roundhouse kick. He stumbled and I attacked with another solid kick to his stomach. Kellan grunted and doubled over.
My elbow flew out and connected with his chin, sending him sprawling on his back on the ground, next to my dead twin sister.
I jammed my foot into his neck, forcing his chin upwards. His eyes flitted to Sebrina’s body and then back to my face, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t try to offer an apology. Nothing.
“I will not be the one that kills you,” I whispered as I leaned and hit his temple with a rock that was lying on the ground next to him. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out.
I jumped off his prostrate body and ran back into the cottage. The midwife trembled in the darkest corner of the room, holding Trevin against her ample chest. He had a bottle in his mouth and his eyes were wide as I came into view. I was relieved to see he recognized me.
“Is he?” the midwife asked me as she motioned outside with her head.
I shook my head. “He isn’t dead, but he’ll be out for a long time. It gives us plenty of time to get out of here. Do you have anything packed?”
“Oh yes. As soon as I got Trevin this morning, I began packing. I didn’t trust the king to leave the poor boy alone so I wanted to leave with him by tomorrow morning.”
“Where were you going?”
“I have relatives who live in the forest in a small community long forgotten by the king. I was hoping they’d take us in so I could raise the boy right. He’d have a bad life here with everyone knowing his parentage.”
She was a smart woman. If they stayed Trevin would have a terrible life as the son of the traitorous queen and her executed lover. No one would ever want to associate with him. He’d be a bigger outcast than I’d ever been.
“Do you mind if I take him?” I asked. “I’d like to raise him myself, to teach him about how amazing his mother and father were. I hope someday Mags will come back and they can be reunited. If you take him away to your relatives, she may never find him again.”
The midwife sighed, and nodded her head. “I’m too old to be raising babies anyway. I had hoped one of my relatives would take on the daily duties, but you’re young and strong and it’s obvious how much you love him.”
“I do love him,” I said. “As if he were my own son.”
The door creaked open and someone entered the dark cottage.
“Until his mother comes back, he is your son. Just like your mother here cared for you until I could see you again.”
I turned around and saw a woman standing in the doorway. She had my height and build. Her nose was different, flatter, not as rounded as mine. While my hair was a fiery red, hers glowed with the golden light of dawn.
“Bryden told me you’d be here,” she said.
“Mother?” I asked, sure that the woman standing before me had to be my birthmother. She looked like Sebrina. Like me.
She nodded and opened her arms. I ran into them, burying my head in her shoulder.
“I saw Sebrina outside,” she said, her voice cracking.
“I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. The man lying next to her mistook Sebrina for me. It should be me lying on the ground dead, not Sebrina. She did nothing to deserve this.”
“Neither of you did anything to deserve the lives you lead. This is the way of the world. We must take it as it comes. Our healers can help her.”
“What?” I asked, pulling away from her. “Sebrina’s dead.”
“Her spirit didn’t leave. We can’t call back a spirit, but we can fix a wound in the body. It’s really not so hard.”
“You can bring a dead person back to life?” I was stunned. There was so much I didn’t know about the extent of the magic my people held.
My mother laughed and stroked my hair. “I didn’t come alone. My men have already laid Sebrina’s body on a pallet and the healer has begun his work. I’m sure she’ll be okay or I wouldn’t have left her to see you. She’ll be asleep for days while she heals so she won’t know the difference.” She kissed me on my forehead. “Amazing! You look just like your sister.”
“Where did you see Bryden?” I asked. “He was supposed to wait on the boat for us.”
My mother smiled. “Like any man he does as he chooses. When he saw the castle begin to fall, he sped back to one of the main ships. He begged for help, for someone to trail you and Sebrina. He feared for both of you, knowing that while the battle was won, your war still continued. He’s a smart boy.”
I nodded. Of course Bryden had gone back for help. He’d never left me alone yet, not even when he couldn’t be with me. No one had ever looked out for me the way he did.
“But you?” I asked. “Why did you come? Are you able to defend yourself?”
She laughed, a tinkling sound like falling rain on a warm afternoon, and I instantly felt safe. “Sebrina took after your father, an adventurer with no magic. You, my dear, took after me. We’re both very powerful in magic. I am afraid of no man or woman.”
“Do you fight too?” I asked.
She laughed again. “No, no, that came from your father.”
“I’d like to hear more about him. About you too,” I said. “Oh, I want to know you all!” I held back the sobbing I felt rising in my throat.
“There will be time for all of that, Lianne, but for now we have to have to take care of your friend’s baby. They are preparing rooms for us in the castle as we speak.”
“In the castle?” I asked.
“That is your home, isn’t it? They told us you’d been raised there and our leaders want you to be comfortable during the transition. I’ve never lived in such a fine palace, it will be a treat. Bryden will be joining us there. I assume you’re anxious to see him again?”
I nodded. I couldn’t wait to see Bryden, to thank him for everything he’d done for me and to tell him about Kellan’s final betrayal.
“The man on the ground next to Sebrina,” I said, “he’s the one that tried to kill her. His name is Kellan.”
My mother’s blue eyes narrowed. “Everyone knows exactly who Kellan is,” she said. “The king spilled his secrets faster than a thief facing the execution block. We know Kellan turned over our three spies to the king. He will be held responsible for their deaths. He will talk and then he will pay.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Trevin spit on my dress as the leader of the Dalagans sat on Rotlar’s old throne. I’d heard the king was held in the dungeon but as for Kellan, no one would tell me what had happened to him. As long as he wasn’t running free then I didn’t care.
Bryden sat to my right, his eyes rapt on the Dalagan leader, Marek. I couldn’t judge his age by his smooth skin or light gait, but his gray hair, still speckled with red, told me he was much older than he appeared.
We’d been asked to gather for a celebration the same night the castle had been taken. I’d donned one of my old dresses, still hidden in the back of the closet in my old chambers. It wasn’t anything fancy, just blue linen, but it was the best I had. Trevin, on the other hand, wore a shirt and nappy. It was the only thing Renee could find for him on such short notice since all of his clothes had been burned at the king’s order.