Prophecy (The Destiny Series Book 4)

by Christine Grey

  Logan returned with Liam and another Etrafarian at his side. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, she begged over and over in her mind, but oddly, the words never made it to her lips, which was strange.

  She saw them talking to one another. She knew they were talking because she could see their mouths moving, but she could not make out the words over the sound of anguished cries. Why weren’t they doing something about that, for Cyrus’s sake? Someone was obviously in pain.

  Tabitha had first been frightened by the sound and then she had progressed to anger, but now she felt the first stirrings of sympathy for the disembodied scream and its pain, loss, and heartbreak. She read these emotions in the voice, even though it was starting to lose some of its vibrancy, having begun to take on a raspy quality around the edges.

  The Etrafarian Tabby didn’t know was pouring powder into a cup of water. The woman added a splash of berry wine before stirring it well, and Tabitha wondered what was in it. Etrafarian medicine was fascinating. She considered asking about it, but who could think above all the noise? No, better not to bother.

  The cup was being held out to her. They wanted her to drink it. Logan was leaning in, and she saw his pleading look. Surely, she would drink it for Logan.

  There seemed to be something wrong with her arms. She was reaching for the cup in her mind, but her arms lay in her lap as if detached from her body, and they did not respond to her instruction. For some reason, she felt nothing more than a vague indifference to the whole thing.

  That screaming!

  Why were they bothering her?

  Stop the noise! she demanded, but again, the words remained unspoken, and they only continued to beg her to drink, or at least that’s what she thought they were doing, as she still couldn’t make out their words.

  Logan took her hands up in his. He looked to Liam who nodded. What was he doing now? The tiniest flicker of flame sprang to life from the end of one of Logan’s fingers; it was lovely, it almost seemed to dance there, like a tiny sprite. He flipped her hand palm up, closed his eyes, and touched the little flame to the center of her hand.

  There was a flash of white pain, and Tabitha screamed out. It was at that moment she realized that her scream and the one that had pursued her all the way from the beach were the same. The harsh sound ceased, and the cup was placed into her unburned hand. Once more she was urged to drink.

  “She will sleep,” Liam said to Logan as she downed the contents of the cup.

  At least she could hear again, but she didn’t want to sleep. She wanted to get Brint.

  Brint!

  Brint was gone!

  Holly was gone!

  The Breken had taken them, and now they were gone.

  She tried to get up from the chair. She must get up! She needed her crutch. Where was it? Even now, the ships were taking Brint farther and farther from her. If Brint was gone, part of her was gone. She was nothing and no one without her brother. Jealous of him she might be, but she had never been without him for more than a week or two when he would go to the capital, and during those times she had shut herself inside the keep and concentrated on her medicines until his return. She could not be without him any more than she could be without air.

  She willed herself to stand, but the contents of the cup had already begun its work, sneaking its way insidiously inside of her, so that there was no strength in her limbs.

  Logan lifted her from the chair and moved to take her to the bed. “No!” she said, but it came out as less than a whisper; if he heard her, he showed no evidence of it. She was placed onto her side, facing the wall, and her head was resting upon the pillow. He drew a blanket over her before returning to Liam. Her eyes were heavy, but she fought the effects of the medicine as long as she could while she listened to their voices in the other room.

  “They were Dark Hearts,” Liam said.

  “I saw them.”

  Logan sounded tired and Tabitha wanted to go to him, but her body was heavy with sleep.

  “What were those other things?”

  “I do not know. Agents of Cifera, no doubt. Whatever they were, they are gone now.”

  “I saw two ships. It is likely that the boat that took Holly and Brint was only one of many. They must have come ashore all along the coast and worked their way inland to launch their attack.”

  “But why? They took nothing!” Liam said, confused.

  “Yes, they did. They took Holly.”

  “And you think that was their intent all along? The girl?”

  “If Cifera has her, she has all she needs to stop the prophecy.”

  Tabby heard Logan sit down heavily in one of the chairs, though she couldn’t move her head enough to see him.

  “Do not be so sure, Logan. This may be but part of Rah’s plan.”

  “Then Rah is heartless and cruel.”

  “Do not say such things! It is not for us to question Rah!” Liam spoke firmly, and Tabitha heard the flash of anger in his voice, but Logan was equally angry.

  “I will question Him! I will do more than that if I am able. Did you see her, Liam? I had to burn her to snap her out of it! What kind of God does that? Tabitha and her brother are more than siblings, they are like one being, and Rah has torn them apart, ruthlessly sundered what should never have been undone. It’s cruel, not to mention Holly, who was obviously tricked in some way, sweet, trusting, kind-hearted girl that she is. Do you think she would easily betray her friends and family?”

  “But Logan,” Liam said in a much gentler voice, “Rah knew all of this was going to happen. Since before the first Etrafarian drew breath, He knew. We must be patient. We must trust and have faith. You owe Rah everything.”

  “I owe Rah nothing! I give my trust and faith to those who have earned it, not some absent deity who delights in torturing His children. Rah can kiss my—”

  “Logan! Stop it! You are tired, and you have been through a terrible ordeal. Do not say things you do not mean and that you will later regret.”

  “But Liam, did you see her?” Logan’s voiced trembled as he spoke.

  “Yes,” he whispered back. “Sleep now, Logan. I will come to you in the morning, and we will decide our next steps.”

  Tabitha heard Liam pull the door shut when he went, and then there was silence. She had fought sleep as long as she could, but before she drifted off, she felt the bed sag behind her, and Logan put his arm around her waist. He pressed his lips to her hair and breathed deeply. She felt the hollow ache in her chest subside slightly, not much, but it was enough, and she let herself sleep.

  ***

  When Tabitha awoke, the day was well past noon. Logan had gone while she slept, leaving her alone in the quiet house. She lay there a long time thinking. When the tears came, she let them. Why had Holly done it? She had seemed so happy. Why would she betray them? Had she, though? Had she really?

  There was a time when she had not been happy, when she had wandered alone, until the day when she had been fine again. Why hadn’t Tabitha dug deeper, tried to find out what had been wrong? She thought about the last few days. There had been signs something was going on, hadn’t there? The way Holly had kissed Brint so forcefully, right in front of her and Logan, and without so much as a blush, almost as if it were the last time she would have the chance.

  Then there was Tabby’s own conversation with Holly, only yesterday morning, where Holly had said she would be her friend, always. It hadn’t seemed terribly important then, but as she replayed it in her mind, the word, always, took on an almost ominous quality.

  Tabitha slipped her hands beneath her pillow, trying to hug it close, as if she could hold herself together if only she could hold onto something else for support, and she felt something there.

  Tabitha pulled her hands back from behind the pillow, as if she had been stung. Could it be? She took hold of the pillow and slowly moved it aside. There, as if waiting for her to find it, was the scroll. Tabby picked it up and clutched it tightly. She had left it! Tabith
a had seen it in Holly’s cloak, had told her to keep it, but Holly had not. Whatever it was that had convinced her to leave them and go to Cifera, here was proof that Holly had, at least, a little doubt.

  “I believe in you, Holly. You are my friend and I believe in you.” She spoke the words, though they were little more than a breath of air, as all of the screaming had robbed her of her voice. Even with no volume, saying the words aloud made them solid and gave her something to hold onto. She rose from her bed, donned her own cloak, and placed the scroll in her inner pocket, as Holly had done. It was time to get up, time to get moving, time to…begin.

  Chapter 35

  It was the smoke that drew Brin’s attention. Had it not been there, he might have never seen the tiny Etrafarian settlement. There were no more than a scattering of hotspots—the remnants of what must have been a fairly intense forest fire. He circled lower to examine it. Just when he decided there was nothing to see, he caught the flash of something shiny out of the corner of his eye. It was a house made of wood and all around it, the soft rolling hills of fairy homes. The hills looked not much different than any other hill, except for the windows and doors, which were easily unnoticed from the air, unless you were looking for them, but the house of wood stood out like a beacon.

  A second pass drew the fairies from their homes, and Brin saw them pointing and speaking excitedly to one another. Tabitha came out of the wooden building, and her face split into a smile of pure joy upon seeing him. He was torn. He wanted to rush down to her, but if he delayed telling Dearra for even a second, and she found out, she would have his head.

  “I’m going to get your mother and father,” he called down to her. She nodded and waved, and he could see her tears.

  When Brin returned to the ships, Dearra was there at the rail.

  “Where have you been? It’s been hours! I told you—”

  “I found Tabitha!”

  “You…you found her? What about Brint? What about Holly?”

  Carly had burst from below deck when she heard Brin’s voice, and she was already at the rail, with Darius and Daniel right behind her.

  Brin was looking at their expectant faces, leaving Dearra's question unanswered.

  “Brin! For Cyrus’s sake!” Dearra said through laughter and relieved tears. "Where are they?”

  “I…I only saw Tabitha, but I didn’t stop. I knew you would want me to come straight here. There's an Etrafarian settlement a little way from here. She is with them.”

  “Guide us—we’ll follow you in,” Darius said. He went to the captain and relayed instructions to the man.

  Brin felt the cold finger of dread upon his heart. He had only seen Tabitha, and the words “too late” and “sundered” still echoed through his mind.

  ***

  Tabitha bounced excitedly in Logan’s arms as she watched the approach of her parents through the narrow opening of the cove. The rowers seemed to be going achingly slow. She could hardly control the urge to force Logan to set her down so she could dive into the water and swim out to meet them. She felt foolish being held, but after her ordeal, he hardly let her walk anywhere. Her ankle had been tested to its limits, and some of the healing progress she had made had been lost after her fight with the wolves.

  No sooner had the boat touched the sandy bottom than her father was over the side and racing toward her. She felt Logan hesitate for a fraction of a second before releasing her into her father’s arms. He buried his face in her hair and hugged her so tightly she was left breathless. Her mother’s hands were on her now, as well, and she felt them stroke her hair, her face and her back.

  “Tabitha?” Aunt Carly’s voice interrupted their reunion. “Where is Holly? Where is Brint?”

  Darius loosened his hold enough to allow her to breathe, so that she might answer, but he was still cradling her tightly to his chest.

  She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came forth.

  “What’s wrong, Tabby?” Darius asked with a panicked look.

  “Her voice is gone,” Logan answered for her. “It will return.”

  “What do you mean gone?” he asked, glaring at Logan. “What did you do to her?” His eyes darkened, and the cold Breken countenance that Tabby so rarely saw changed his look from one of happy relief to one of danger.

  Tabby took her father’s face between her hands and turned it to look at her. “No, not him,” she forced the whisper to come and closed her eyes against the pain.

  “Brint and Holly are not here,” Logan said.

  “Well, where are they, boy?” Daniel looked nearly as dangerous as Darius had, but Logan did not flinch before him, as many would have.

  “The Dark Hearts took them and the Breken helped.”

  At this, Aesri gasped from her place at the back of the group.

  “Dark Hearts? Breken? If someone doesn’t start making sense in the next three seconds…” Daniel blustered.

  Liam stepped forward, saving Logan from Daniel’s wrath. “The Dark Hearts are Etrafarians who chose to follow Cifera when she was banished by Rah from our island home. Many of us thought they were a myth, but it seems we were wrong. The Breken were with them, and it was the Breken ships that took Holly and Brint.”

  “They were kidnapped?” Carly asked, obviously horrified by the thought of her daughter in Breken hands.

  Liam looked uncomfortable. He twisted his hands together as if trying to steady them before he answered. “It appeared to Logan that Holly went with them willingly. We believe she knew they were coming for her. Brint followed after her of his own accord. They were already well away from here when Brint dove in to give chase to the retreating boat. They stopped to wait for him, pulled him aboard, and continued back to the Breken ships.”

  Daniel looked as though someone had punched him in the stomach. “She went with them on purpose? She…she wouldn’t do that.”

  “Logan said he was certain that was the way of it.”

  “Who the hell is Logan?” Darius snarled.

  “I am,” Logan said, tipping his head to look the much larger man in the eye.

  The two of them stared at one another, taking each other’s measure.

  “Darius,” Dearra said. “Let’s get Tabitha back to the village where we can talk. She needs to get that foot up and iced from the look of it.”

  “What’s the matter with her foot?”

  “It appears to be broken, dearest. No, Darius, calm yourself,” Dearra crooned. “You’re squeezing her too hard. Relax—she’s going to be all right.”

  He loosened his hold, for which Tabitha was immensely grateful, and started up the path with her. Logan walked tightly by her side. Tabby wanted to warn him away, but her voice, or lack of one, would not allow it. She saw her father give Logan a hard glare, but Logan ignored him and walked on.

  Brin waited for them in the village. The Etrafarians had already assembled chairs and refreshments for them. Logan pulled out a chair so that Darius could set his daughter down, but he ignored the gesture, took a seat, and set her in his lap. She sighed. She was beyond happy to be with her parents again, but it seemed that Brint might have been right about her father’s reaction to Logan. The thought of Brint made her face cloud over in pain, which her mother mistook for pain of another kind.

  “Darius, put her in the chair next to you, for Cyrus’s sake—she needs to get her foot up.”

  He complied, but scowled darkly as Logan scooched his chair closer to her other side.

  They talked for hours about everything that had happened since their flight from Etrafa, though Tabitha was unable to contribute much to the conversation, other than a few nods or head shakes.

  Aunt Aesri could not be consoled. She held herself partially responsible. The mermaids had warned her about the Dark Hearts, but she had been unable to believe they existed, let alone that they would travel to Etrafa.

  Brin was mostly quiet. His thoughts seemed elsewhere, but when Tabitha withdrew the prophecy from her cloak and handed it to
her mother, he turned his head and attended to the words she spoke.

  At the dawn, there were two

  Protecting that which was made.

  Betrayal and jealousy separated them,

  And summer fled before winter, the prophecy awoke.

  When summer’s heat was taken from the Great Tree,

  It began its slow descent into eternal sleep.

  Death is patient and creeps like shadows at midnight,

  Pausing once to look behind, and then steady on.

  For the tree to live, so must it die.

  The one may gather the seed freely, but if she fails,

  The seed of The Tree must be paid for with willing sacrifice.

  Once gathered, water it with scarlet and breathe life into it with first fire.

  If the story comes full circle in the desert sand,

  The crimson blossom may be plucked from a single flower,

  But, should the echoes drift across oceans and time,

  The petals must fall from the two roses who grow from the thorns on distant shores.

  Fire and Ice cannot abide together.

  Fate whispers one must yield to the other.

  If fire prevails, then all shall be reborn,

  But if Ice be victorious, winter’s kiss will remain unbroken,

  And all shall fade away.

  The beginning of destiny’s circle can be found at the end.

  Everyone focused on Dearra except for Tabitha who was watching Brin. His face told a story, and in it she read recognition, surprise, and fear, as clearly as if she were reading a book. When he felt her gaze upon him, he turned and looked in her direction, offering her a smile, as if to say everything would be fine. Too late, Brin. I saw everything. You know, but you aren’t going to tell us, are you? She frowned at him, asking the question with her eyes, but he turned from her and would not meet her gaze again.

  “What does it mean?” Dearra asked, as she reread it to herself. I can read it easily enough, but it’s almost like the words won’t connect to one another in my head.”