“Of course it exists,” Melody said. “We’ve been there. But the pendant came from—“
“Been there?” The old scholar’s voice was a gasp. “You’ve … seen it?”
Jovan nodded, remembering. “We were there for weeks, running from Korith’s men. That place saved all of our lives. I bought the necklace in Foley, though, after we left.”
“However you came by it, that is the Havenstone,” Crestus insisted. “I have so many questions, there are no accounts of anyone who has actually been there…”
“If no one’s ever seen the stone, how can you be sure that’s it?” Duke Thordike cut off the scholar’s thought, pointing at the piece of amber set into the silver teardrop resting against Melody’s chest. “It looks normal to me.”
“Amber is everywhere,” Crestus said. “Nothing more than hardened tree sap. It is yellow, sometimes green, at its darkest it appears gold— only the Havenstone is red. Legend tells that trees in the Haven run with the blood of Goddess herself.”
“Fascinating.” His voice was dry. “Does it do anything, Crestus, or can we discuss these things later? I need to get back to my guests.” Duke Thordike returned to the dais.
“I— No one knows,” the scholar admitted, reluctantly. “The legends never speculate… Have you learned anything about it, girl?”
Melody shook her head. “I’m sorry, no. It’s just a necklace.”
Calder busied himself picking up the dropped scrolls, and handed them back when one of the guards helped the old man to his feet.
“I need a closer examination, my Lord, both the sword and the Havenstone, as soon as you can arrange it … two artifacts, here, together, simply extraordinary…”
“We will speak tonight, Crestus.” Thordike did not agree to arrange anything, he merely bid the scholar well as the guard ushered him out of the Hall.
“Now,” the Duke said, returning his focus to Melody. “You had mentioned helping me find mages, and I was about to ask your name. Why don’t we start with the name?”
“I am Melody,” she said, inclining her head in a show of respect as she had seen Jovan do. Thordike’s eyes were probing behind his gentle smile, but she sensed no threat from him.
“Melody,” he repeated. “Wonderful. Can you tell me why Duke Korith wants you arrested?”
She thought for a moment before replying. “He believes me responsible for injury done to his Chancellor,” she said, choosing each word carefully and deliberately.
“The Chancellor who accused Jovan and his brother of murder?”
“The same.”
“Did you do this injury?”
One of the guards who had escorted Korith back to his quarters re-entered the Hall, and whispered to Thordike.
Melody waited until the soldier had finished before answering. “I did.”
He raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting her confession. “Hmm. Are you also singularly responsible for the destruction of Foley, as I have just been advised?”
Melody paused for a long while this time. “I am,” she finally admitted.
Thordike examined the girl more closely, hard pressed to believe her claim. Korith was beside himself, the guard had said, insisting that Duke Thordike was harboring a more deadly force in his Hall than the Lich King himself. Most puzzling was that the girl was agreeing with him.
“You can see how this is difficult for me, Melody.”
She nodded, her features serious. “I mean no harm to you or those in your care, Duke Thordike. I come only to offer my aid. As do we all.”
He nodded. “Very well. How exactly can you help?”
Melody didn’t have a chance to reply.
“Destroyed a whole damn city, what help you think she’s offerin’? Mind you, she’ll kill us all—”
Jovan’s hand shot out beside him, grabbing his friend’s tunic and pulling him close. His eyes were dark and dangerous. “Keep your tongue, Derek.”
The man with the scarred face grimaced and jerked back, free of Jovan’s grip. “Or what? Will you kill me - like Nathen?”
Jovan’s left hand was on his sword, but he did not draw. He moved his body between Melody and Derek. “Let her speak.”
Thordike watched the scene, more curious than concerned. His raised hand kept his own soldiers from interfering. Derek’s mouth was twisted in an angry grimace, but his eyes seemed clear - and he looked surprised when he reached for his sword.
Jovan immediately grabbed his friend’s wrist, shaking his head. “Don’t make me do this, Derek.”
“He’s not.” Melody stepped around Jovan, and approached the young man who seemed to flicker in her vision with a strange, dark blue aura.
“Stay behind me!” Jovan’s voice betrayed his concern.
She calmly ignored him, stepping right up beside Derek, who was now shaking as he struggled to draw his sword in spite of Jovan’s grip. She tipped her head to one side, and looked up into the man’s eyes.
“That’s not him,” she said, reaching up and laying her fingers on the four dark scars where he had been wounded.
Derek bared his teeth and growled low in his throat at her touch, but his eyes remained surprised and frightened.
“Derek …” It was a warning. Jovan didn’t want to kill him. Derek was a good man, but he was beginning to worry that he would have to snap the scarred man’s wrist to keep the sword sheathed.
“Get out,” Melody commanded, looking into Derek’s eyes and giving the power in her voice free reign.
Everyone in the room felt the order go straight to their core, and several of them moved towards the door. Even Duke Thordike started as if to stand, but he still watched as the man called Derek twitched once, then sank to his knees, gasping.
“I am so sorry,” the scarred man breathed, horrified by what he had tried to do. “I don’t - I don’t know what happened, Jovan. Melody, I’m so, so sorry.”
Jovan hauled Derek to his feet and released his wrist. His face was unreadable.
“It was him,” Melody said, her voice once again low and pleasant and powerless. “Not you. It was Semaj, or something loyal to him.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“That was some trick.” Thordike was truly at a loss as to what to make of this group, and the tiny girl at the center of them all.
“It is no mere trick, Duke. Melody may well be the only hope we have against Semaj.” The ranger had spoken in haste, but also in truth, and Thordike nodded in his direction.
“I meant no disrespect, Calder – and none to you, Melody. It may be true. But that power makes her a target, as we’ve just seen – and it sounds like you’ve encountered this situation before.” Thordike had seen the truth on Jovan’s face when Derek mentioned Nathen.
Jovan spoke up. “We can handle it – as you have also seen.”
“May I say something?” Melody waited for Thordike to nod before she continued. “I do not seek to bring trouble to your home. If I have, then I will give you my apology, and depart. If I am granted your leave to stay, then the aid I offer you is my ability to awaken and strengthen magic in others. Your scholar is correct. Seeds of magic are in everyone, some deeper than others. I can encourage those seeds to bloom.”
She spoke slowly and evenly, still unused to speeches of such length. “You require more magic users if you are to fight Semaj. I can create them for you.” Melody remembered the face of the girl who had come to her earlier, begging for her to take the magic away. It was Duke Korith that frightened her, Melody told herself. His policies. Not the magic.
“What do you ask in return?”
Melody took a long breath and let it out, returning her attention to Duke Thordike. “Only your protection. Not from Semaj, none can offer that. I ask protection from Duke Korith, for myself as well as my companions.”
Once again, she had surprised him. “Why?”
“He has hunted me since before I was born. He would have me killed for power and parentage I did not ask for
, and he would have my friends killed for protecting me. We cannot aid you in the fight against Semaj if we must constantly be on our guard.”
It was not the answer he was expecting, but it rang true. “Tell me, Melody - why does he hunt you? If you were targeted before you were born, then it has nothing to do with his Chancellor, or Foley …”
She shook her head. “It is none of those things.” She felt Jovan’s deep curiosity, and realized she had never told him what she was about to say.
Thordike was impatient. “Then what is it?”
“I am the daughter of his wife,” she replied, not feeling anything as she said the words.
Duke Thordike stared at her, not comprehending. “Jayden Korith is your father?”
“No. Jayden Korith killed my father. His wife is my mother, though we have never met.”
Jovan shared Thordike’s surprise, though he hid it more effectively. No one spoke for a long time.
“Well.” It was all Donnel Thordike could think to say. “Well indeed.” Another long moment passed. “Is there proof of this claim?”
“You could ask him,” Melody suggested.
A voice, light and soft, spoke up from the other end of the hall. “You don’t need to,” Bethcelamin said. “It’s the truth.”
11
“Lady Korith, welcome.” Duke Thordike rose politely. “Marina, my love, you’re just in time. We have guests.”
Of the two women who had entered the hall, only her mother shone with the pale blue aura of magic, Melody noted. There was no question that the graceful, delicate woman in the deep blue dress was her mother - she saw traces of her own face under Bethcelamin’s coiled crown of auburn hair. The tall, stately woman walking at her side must be Duke Thordike’s wife, she thought.
“These men came to discuss the threat from the Lich King,” Thordike continued. “There’s Jovan, Rhodoban, Calder, Derek … we hadn’t gotten to all of their names yet, we were just meeting this young lady.”
Bethcelamin’s eyes widened, and she moved to greet the ranger, clasping his hands. “Calder! You shouldn’t be here, my husband is—”
“He knows I’m here,” the ranger said. “Don’t worry, Beth. Duke Thordike and Jovan proved my innocence, there was nothing he could do.”
“Except lose his temper.” Rhodoban smiled, bowing low to the two women.
Lady Korith was pale. “He knows, then? About Melody?”
“Melody is under my protection,” Duke Thordike assured her. “Your husband was escorted to your rooms and will remain under guard until he can accept that.”
“He won’t lay a hand on her,” the larger man promised. Bethcelamin took no comfort from Jovan’s words. Melody was not the one Jayden would be enraged with when she returned to the room.
Lady Marina smoothly filled the brief silence. “The magic users who arrived this morning told us an extraordinary young woman would be coming to the keep,” she said, dropping a polite curtsey to Melody. “Lady Korith and I were so eager to meet you.”
“They did? How many came?” Melody asked, returning the curtsey.
“So, you did send them? Thank you. There were six, in all, though one of the girls hinted that there were others.” Marina stepped up to stand next to her husband.
“Sent them?” Duke Thordike kissed his wife’s cheek before turning back to Melody - who bore a striking resemblance to Lady Korith, he saw, now that the woman was standing beside her. “You knew them?”
“No, I awakened them,” Melody corrected. “Though I confess, I didn’t think it through. When they sought me out I told them to come here, as you are known to be accepting of magic. Was that all right?”
Duke Thordike nodded. “It’s exactly as you promised,” he said. “You say you can provide more?”
Melody nodded. “They will be untrained,” she warned. “They will need to work with other users at first.”
“Strengthening a magical talent takes time,” Bethcelamin said, turning at last to face Melody. “They seemed capable, though. I expect they’ll be fine.”
Melody faced her mother. It felt strange to think of her that way. A shifting heaviness settled in the pit of her stomach. What could she say?
“I barely dared to hope it was you,” Bethcelamin said after a brief silence. “In truth, I feared we might never meet.”
“If your husband had his way, you wouldn’t have,” Jovan said.
Stop it, Melody sent him, though he had spoken nothing but truth.
“I’m glad to meet you,” she said aloud. The words felt awkward and formal on her lips.
Bethcelamin looked up at Jovan. “You’re right,” she told him, before bringing her attention to Duke Thordike. “Jayden has sought my daughter since before he and I were married. Melody is a secret he has killed to keep, and worked behind my back to destroy. He has built everything around his hatred and intolerance of magic— if anyone had known about her… his wife’s child with a known mage? That she or I still live undermines it all. And now …”
Duke Thordike nodded. “Your husband knows what threat lies ahead,” he said. “Your past will be the least of his concerns as we move forward, I’m sure.”
Bethcelamin was less certain.
“How rude of me,” Lady Marina said, stepping off the dais and taking each of their hands. ”Lady Korith, Melody, I’m sure you’d like some privacy. My sitting room is just down the hall. Please, come.”
I’ll be fine, Melody assured Jovan silently. She could feel his concern as she followed the two women. She won’t hurt me.
“Shall we finish our introductions, then?” Duke Thordike’s voice faded behind them as they walked the short distance to the sitting room.
“I’ll send Simon with some refreshments,” Lady Marina said, gesturing Beth and Melody towards the two chairs by the fire. “Take your time,” she smiled. “No one will disturb you.”
Mother and daughter sat in silence for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the fire until Simon bought them the spiced wine.
“I’ve thought about this moment so often,” Bethcelamin confessed when the steward had departed. “Yet, now that it is here, I find myself speechless.”
“Father told me not to seek you out,” Melody said. “In his journal. He said my distance would keep you safe.”
Bethcelamin smiled, remembering her first love. “Solus was always writing in that book,” she remembered. “He said you had come to him in a dream.”
“He loved you very much,” Melody told her. “He thought your marriage to Korith would bring you security and happiness.”
“Security, perhaps.” Beth took a sip of her wine, dreading the conversation that awaited her when she returned to her room, and her husband. “It was the best decision at the time. The only decision, really.”
A low cramp tightened in Melody’s belly, not quite painful. “Why wouldn’t you marry Solus?“
Bethcelamin sighed deeply. “I know little of how you were raised, Melody, but in my world a woman rarely chooses her own fate. Fathers and husbands determine our path - and my father had chosen Jayden for me.”
“You loved Solus.” Melody frowned slightly. “He loved you.”
“And both of us loved you, Melody, please don’t think otherwise. But it’s not that simple. There was no chance for us to have a life together,” she explained. “It was too dangerous, and we were trying to keep you safe as well.”
Melody knew. She had read the journal, her father had explained everything, but somehow sitting here with the stranger that was her mother, it didn’t matter. What mattered was a life spent in peace, uprooted and shattered by choices made before she was born by people she had never met. “I know,” she said, wincing at another cramp.
“Are you ill?” Bethcelamin asked, noting the fleeting expression on her daughter’s face.
“It’s nothing,” Melody said, feeling a flush rise in her cheeks. “A slight pain in my stomach, that’s all.” She found herself reluctant to mention her pregnancy, o
r the recent scare that she might be cursed, like Aggravain. She definitely didn’t want to discuss the thoughts of Jovan that had swept unbidden into her mind, visions of skin on skin, and heat—
“Have you eaten? Lady Marina is a wonderful host, we can tell her—”
“I’m not hungry,” Melody lied, breathing through a third cramp. She was hungry, but that wasn’t the source of her discomfort. She was always hungry. There was no actual pain, just a clenching tightness and a restless desire for … something.
It was just as it had been the night before, Melody realized. She hadn’t transformed as Aggravain thought she would, but she had been lost to her most basic impulses. The heat in her cheeks spread down her neck as she remembered what had happened in the loft of the stable, and again back at the inn.
Whether he could sense her hunger for him or not, Jovan would certainly be feeling the low ache of her cramps. He might already be overreacting. “I think perhaps I should return to the inn,” she said.
Bethcelamin stood as well. “Of course,” she agreed. “We can get acquainted later, I hope?”
Melody nodded, heading for the door. When the next cramp came, she had to pause outside the receiving hall to catch her breath before entering.
“Should I get someone?” Bethcelamin asked, concerned.
“I’m here,” Jovan said.
Duke Thordike watched his wife escort the two women from the receiving hall, and took his seat again. “Shall we finish our introductions, then?” he asked, bringing the smile back to his face and returning his attention to the men before him.
“I think I’ve had enough surprises for one afternoon,” he said. “Is there anything else I should know? Any close relatives of Semaj amongst you? Vampires? Werewolves?” He let the joke hang – but none of the men were smiling.
Of course. His day was not going to get any simpler.
“We’re not all here,” Rhodoban said. “You’ve met Jovan and Calder, and that’s Derek. The boy is Edwin, that’s Reed, Jonn, and Gage. We’ve all fought what’s out there. We know what’s coming.”
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