by RJ Crayton
Prophecy of Light - Foretold
Book 3
By RJ Crayton
Copyright RJ Crayton 2016
All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
Dedication
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1 – Mother
2 – Auntie
3 – Talisman
4 – A Mission
5 – Anger
6 – A Reunion
7 – A Bag of Crystals
8 – A Revelation
9 – Father
10 – Bullies
11 – Mates
12 – The Prophecy of Light
13 – Stolen
14 – Final Words
15 – A Change of Plans
16 – Regret
17 – A Broken Lock
18 – Reunited
19 – Shared Fate
20 – The Secret
21 – Uncle
22 – Healing
23 – Training
24 – Master Nuri
25 – A Horrific Start
26 – A Lure
27 – Foretold
28 – An Invitation
29 – Decisions
30 – Brother
31 – Long Lost Kin
32 – Promises
Also by RJ Crayton
About RJ Crayton
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my younger brother Nuri, a ray of sunshine ever since I first laid eyes on him. While he’s insisted he’s no longer my little brother since he’s taller than me, I think I’ll refer to him as my baby bro here.
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Chapter 1 - Mother
Akilah sat in the soft, plush chair, a warm fireplace glowing across from her. This room was comfortably furnished and she was surrounded by books. It was Zygam’s private library here at Khonsu Kali, the proper name of the moon temple.
Zygam, the pale one she’d been taught to fear, had been nothing but kind to her. She scoffed as she thought of Pylum’s warnings. His concern that coming here was dangerous. Pylum was a liar and a betrayer.
Zygam, who sat cattycorner from her, levitated a glass of amber liquid over to her. “Would you like more fire wine?” he asked.
Akilah shook her head as she thought of the cool taste of the amber liquid that turned to fire as at it went down. It had warmed her insides, but as the warmth had faded, she’d felt emptier than before. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the memories that had flooded her mind earlier tonight.
Her mother, Amina, had been kind and loving to her most times. Not the awful warped memories Pylum had left for her. Amina had sung her to sleep and been kind and gentle. Yes, her father, Hashim, had been obsessed with the Talisman of Elpida. The family had searched for it when she was young, spent countless days wandering the desert in search of the talisman. Those slivers of memory had been accurate, but they weren’t the whole story.
“Hashim,” she recalled her mother saying, her dark brown skin a stark contrast to her white cloak. “Perhaps the talisman isn’t for us.”
He’d shaken his head and looked at Akilah. “I have foreseen it,” he said. “The talisman is for her.”
Akilah remembered his joy at being right. They’d ventured into a dark cave on a mountain, and inside, deep inside, had been the jewel. It had shimmered in the light of the lantern they’d carried, shooting glowing rays through the dank cavern. Despite the chill of their surroundings, Akilah had felt immediate warmth when she neared the glittering jewel. It was as if it spoke to her. The world can be yours, it whispered. The world can be yours.
And it had opened for her and it had bonded with her. It had intensified every emotion she’d had at that young age. Joy at her mother’s love, anger at wandering the desert, anger at her father ignoring her, jealousy that her mother chose this quest over Akilah’s well-being. But joy at finally having found something so brilliant. All the jumble of emotions had produced a beautiful rainbow of magic, a stream of unfettered power.
Lured by the beauty of it, drawn to the immense power of it, her father had bathed in the stream. His eyes widened, and there was nothing but lust and hatred in him. He lunged for Akilah, ripping the jewel from her hand. She’d let go, and parting with it had felt like she’d lost part of her own body. A moment later, the jewel blazed like fire in her father’s hand and he dropped it. A jet of light shot from the talisman, striking him dead on the spot.
In that moment, Amina, without a sound, scooped her daughter up and fled. They searched no more for the talisman, but something about that encounter had changed her mother. It had changed Akilah, too. Her mother didn’t always act right, didn’t always say the right things. She spoke strangely and sometimes didn’t care for herself. Akilah was too young to care for herself, but old enough to know her mother should be doing better.
Amina seemed lost. The talisman had made her crazy, somehow. And Akilah knew that she would need the talisman to fix her mother. She would need the talisman to make things right. Even though on several occasions Amina shushed her daughter and begged her to speak no more of the talisman, it was all that little Akilah could think of. She knew she needed it again.
The reclaimed memory faded, and Akilah sighed. There had been many memories that had come back when Zygam unlocked Akilah’s mind. Her tale with the talisman had been sorrowful. She could almost see why Pylum would want to help her forget. Almost. But she knew he hadn’t locked away these memories to help her. He had done it to help himself. He hadn’t wanted her to know she could harness the talisman’s power.
She looked up at Zygam. “I want to hold it again,” she said.
He smiled. “Of course.”
Chapter 2 - Auntie
My aunt looked much better this morning than she did last night. I’m not sure exactly what Master Yaritza, the healer, had done, but whatever had brought her olive color back. Gone was the pale, cool skin that had looked deathly. And Auntie didn’t look as emaciated anymore. She looked halfway lively when she opened her eyes and stared up at me.
I smiled, glad she wasn’t the ghost she looked like when we were magically transported from the moon temple back here to Hakari Ahet. Master Yaritza had made me a cot here in the healing room last night and I’d managed to sleep, feeling better that I was in the same room as Auntie. With her being kidnapped and gone for so many weeks, it had been a relief to have one piece of normalcy in my life. Waking up and seeing Auntie there had heartened me.
But seeing that she was still weak from her ordeal left my heart aching just a little.
Auntie opened her mouth as if she intended to speak, but then she closed it, and I felt a horrible pang of guilt. Master Yaritza had told me last night that Auntie’s throat was swollen from Zygam’s magic. He’d blunted her ability to speak, both physically and telepathically. If she tried to do either, her throat would feel like it was on fire. But while she was being held by Zygam, she forced through the pain and communicated with me once, in my dreams. I realize now it must have caused her great pain. Just now, she swallowed and gave a pain-filled croak.
I gritted my teeth, feeling my hatred for Zygam increase. It was intense and overwhelming. I wanted him to suffer for what he had done to my aunt. For what he had done to me.
Kady, I heard in my head, and I looked down at my aunt, eyes wide, but lips unmoving.
“Shhhh,” I said aloud, though I realized she wasn’t actu
ally speaking. “You should rest.”
Her head shook lazily on her cot. Zygam’s spell is broken. Speaking in my mind will not cause me pain. Though, my throat is on fire enough, that I know speaking aloud is not possible.
“You should still rest,” I told her aloud, even though I’d meant to say it in my head. I frowned. I still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of using magic, like telepathy, on command. Or perhaps I was so used to only speaking aloud with Auntie that I needed to really focus to get it to work. I was puzzling out how to do it when I heard her voice in my mind again.
What’s wrong, Kady? she asked.
“Nothing,” I lied.
She watched me intently, and seemed to decide she would let it go. I’m glad to be here with you again.
“I’m so happy you’re here, too.”
I could — a moment ago, I could feel your anger at Zygam, sweetheart.
“Of course,” I said “Look at what he’s done to you.”
She did that feeble head shake again, and I regretted my feisty tone had been seen as argumentative. Yes, he hurt me, but you cannot become overwhelmed by anger. He wants that, Kady. He wants you as angry as him. You have to find a way to make peace with what he’s done. To channel that anger away from the destructive and into the productive.
I sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. It would help me keep the things I shouldn’t say in my mouth. I briefly wondered if I should get the glyph for grace tattooed on my arm, like Pylum, the dwarf who led this temple. I could use grace right now. Or patience. Or even forgiveness.
Auntie’s eyelids drooped half shut, then she pulled them open again. I had tired her out. I felt a wave of guilt for that. I forced a smile and said, “Auntie, I will let go of the anger. I promise.” Then I leaned over and kissed her forehead. “You should rest, and I will go speak to Pylum. He can perhaps help me temper my anger.”
She smiled at that, lifted her hand, and patted mine weakly. The surge of anger toward Zygam returned. I wanted to revel in it, to imagine Zygam stuck in a pit of vipers, but I had promised Auntie I would figure out how to mute this anger.
I realized I had said it to appease her, that I hadn’t really thought it could be done when I said it. But I also remembered what Auntie had said about lies. They were dishonorable words and they could cause powerful harm. I would not turn my words into lies. I’d had enough harm. I’d figure out some way to deal with my growing hatred of Zygam.
Chapter 3 - Talisman
Akilah had felt it the moment she’d arrived at the temple. She’d initially thought it was a trick that Zygam had set up, something to lure Kady and anyone with her, deeper into the foreign temple.
Only now she realized it wasn’t a lure, it was simply Elpida calling to her. She’d felt its power before, its distinctive flavor. It was like home and comfort, an overwhelming sense that this was right where she was supposed to be. After Zygam had unlocked her memories, Akilah had felt pain, searing pain as the memories flooded her mind. But as the pain faded, she’d felt a new sense of purpose. In the immediate, she knew that she needed to help Zygam. But then, after Kady had vanished, she’d felt fragmented.
Not her body, but her mind. She supposed it was actually broken a bit, with Pylum having locked away chunks of it. But even with them unlocked, they weren’t fully together. She had to piece them back together. The things that Pylum had left intact had to integrate with the things that had been hidden, and she had spent the evening trying to sort it out. She had become all the more bitter that Pylum had done this to her. He had betrayed her in the worst possible way. He’d left her with only the worst memories of her past. The obsession of her father, the endless, oppressive feeling of their quest, her addled and changed mother.
But there had been so much more to her life before. The memories that had emerged held love and affection sometimes, not just relentless conquest. And there were more things too, things she couldn’t quite grasp. A life after her father’s death. A better part of her life, where there had been hope.
As she’d struggled to right her mind, she hadn’t noticed the pull. In the scrambled haze of her mind, she had missed that underlying throbbing. But this morning, it would no longer be ignored. The talisman’s heart beat the same as hers, in the same rhythm and at the same pace. It called to her.
She’d asked Zygam to take her to it, but she could have found it on her own if she’d needed to. She could have simply followed its heartbeat. Instead, she let Zygam lead her to the tiny room, the one that required a glyph she’d never seen before to open. It was an imprinted glyph, one that seemed to bear Zygam’s signature. This room would only open for him. Or so he thought. She wondered if the Talisman would open the door if she asked it.
Akilah entered the room, and there it was, in a glass case on a pedestal. Her mind levitated the glass, and the Talisman floated across the room to her. It landed in her hand, and she could feel the pure power of it. She closed her eyes to relish in its glow, its warmth. Its sense of peace. There was so much here. So, so much.
The world was small. It could be hers. She could bring order to the world. With the Talisman, she could do anything. She felt like she was floating on air, like all her problems were gone. It was the most at peace she had ever been.
But the then the talisman spoke to her. A whisper in her ear. We are not complete. We need our alab.
The thought startled her, and she didn’t feel peace anymore. She felt malcontent. She felt less than whole. The talisman could not work without its alab. She opened her eyes to realize that she actually had started floating. She hovered in the air close to the ceiling. She sighed and floated down, landing next to Zygam.
“It’s not complete,” she said, holding out the talisman to him.
He smiled. “I know. You need an alab, a teacher.”
She shook her head. Yes, the Talisman had called it an alab, but it didn’t mean that. “Alab is an old word,” she said, looking into his green eyes. “People don’t use it anymore. What else does it mean, besides instructor?”
He scrunched his mouth to the side as he thought. “Besides a guide or instructor, it means father.”
Father. She closed her eyes and thoughts of her father emerged. Hashim. Tall, bearded, curly hair, a round belly a jovial laugh. She remembered him telling her mother jokes and her mother laughing at them. Then, she remembered his eyes, dark brown like hers, glowing golden as he looked at the Talisman, as he tore it from her tiny hands. She remembered the jet of light that shot from the Talisman, his cry as he fell.
She shook her head and opened her eyes. “No,” she said. “It’s not father. It means something else. We have to figure it out, Zygam, or the Talisman will not work as we want it to.”
Chapter 4 - A Mission
I went to Pylum’s office expecting him to finally explain to me about Zygam, about the Prophecy, about what happened to Akilah.
Instead, I found the door to his office open and him dressed in a traveling tunic, the kind you saw on the streets of Halcyon. He rummaged through one of his desk drawers, but did not look up. He must have sensed I was there, as he spoke while he continued his drawer search. “I’m glad you’re here, Kady. I need you to come with me.”
I walked into the office, feeling uncertain. “Where?”
“Back to Halcyon. We need to find Nigel,” he said, pulling a pouch from a drawer and shoving it inside his tunic. He looked up at me and held out a hand.
I walked closer but did not take his hand. “Why do we need Nigel?”
“Because he is in danger,” Pylum said. “I have looked into the Seas of Time and Akilah will come for him, today. Unless we get to him first, she will find him and take him to the moon temple.”
Nigel’s warning that Akilah was filled with darkness came back to me. Somehow, he had known what I couldn’t see. For only darkness could have drawn her to Zygam. I blew out. I had to protect Nigel.
A shimmering portal began to open right there in the office. He must hav
e created it, as only the head of the temple had the authority to port directly from the building. He nodded to the portal, which looked like liquid light, and held out a hand to me. I took Pylum’s hand, and he pulled me into the portal.
We popped out in an alley behind the crowded market. Pylum looked at me and said, “We need to split up.” I tried not to show my shock. Splitting up sounded inherently bad. He seemed to read my mood. “I know it’s not ideal, but you can handle yourself. Talitha is not under Zygam’s influence anymore, so I’m sure she has unlocked your magic. The Dirah I knew ten years ago could acquit herself of any obstacles that might be present in this market. Right now, we need Nigel. We have to find him before she gets to him.”
I nodded. “You said the Seas of Time said she would get him. Where does she find him? We should go there.”
“I don’t know the market well enough,” he said. Then he looked me in the eye. “Open your mind to me, and I’ll project to you what the Seas showed me.”
I wasn’t sure exactly how to open my mind, but I thought the word open and a moment later an image played in my mind. It was Akilah. She was dressed in black. A fitted, sleeveless top, a long skirt, and bracelets that looped around her arms. But instead of the sun-inspiring gold jewelry, it was silver and seemed to give off a moon vibe. She was down at the far end of the market, and there was Nigel. He saw her and tried to run away, but then she shot a glyph from her ketesh and he dropped to the ground. She walked over to him, created a portal, and levitated him through it.
I frowned as the image faded from my mind. “Why does she want him?”
Pylum hesitated and then said, “I’m not entirely sure. I just know that if she wants him, she shouldn’t have him. We have to take him back to the temple.”
“I know where he was in your vision, Pylum,” I told him. “I just don’t know if he’ll be there now.”