The Swarm Trilogy

by Megg Jensen

  She plucked another petal, her eyes still on mine. “He loves you.”

  I shrugged and stood up. “Have fun playing.” I patted her on the head and trotted off toward the castle.

  The boots were stiffer than I was accustomed to, but I pushed faster, ignoring the chaffing feeling against my shins. There were too many mysteries to solve. I needed to find the one with a clear mind, but it seemed more important I understand what was going on with my mother and Mags. Losing her memory was probably a blessing. But why Mags? What had she done?

  I raced into the castle, grabbing the nearest guard. “Has Chase gone this way?”

  “I believe he went to see his mother.” The guard smiled. “Missing your man already? It’s not even time for the midday meal.”

  I was about to protest when I remembered that most of the people here thought Chase and I were together. They didn’t know our story. They didn’t know about Bryden. I didn’t want to explain. “Yeah, something like that,” I said.

  He winked at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. Everyone here adored Chase.

  I rushed up the long, winding staircase to Reychel’s chambers. I wished I knew why Chase was going to see her. Their relationship was strained, and she was so emotionally inaccessible. I knocked on the heavy wooden door at the end of the hallway.

  It swung open and a smiling face greeted me. He held out his arms to me, and despite myself I hugged him fiercely. Chase’s father, Mark, had come to help take Bryden’s lifeless body away.

  “How are you, Lianne?” He stepped backward, inviting me into the receiving room.

  I strode into the room, looking around for any sign of Chase or his mother. My search came up empty.

  “I’m getting better.” I meant it, too. I wasn’t going to feed him any false pleasantries. With his missing hand, I knew he wasn’t a stranger to loss. It wasn’t fair to either of us to lie.

  “I’m glad to hear that. I know Chase has been very worried about you. I saw him riding Lightning this morning by himself. I think that’s the first time I’d seen him without you since the two of you arrived here all those months ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I certainly wasn’t trying to hold him back from any of his duties.”

  Mark laughed. “Duties? Chase doesn’t have any duties other than taking care of you. I think that’s all that matters to him lately.”

  “I’m sure he has other things he should be doing.”

  Mark sat down on an upholstered green damask chair and motioned for me to take a seat on the couch across from him. I sank into the plush cushion, grateful for the moment of rest. My legs had started hurting again. My body needed to get used to horseback riding.

  “We aren’t the rulers here. I guess you could say we are the keepers of this castle. Our queen, Krissin, lets us stay here. Technically it is Reychel’s, I suppose, if you follow the rules of succession. Her father was the last officially appointed nobleman here. We don’t follow many of those rules anymore. Queen Krissin makes things up as she goes.” He smiled. I wanted to know more about this woman who ruled by her own set of guidelines. “You’ve met her husband, Ace.”

  My eyebrows shot up before I could control my surprise. “That stringy-haired rogue is the king?”

  “He could be, but he won’t take the throne or the crown. Krissin rules alone, and I think she prefers it that way. Ace was a solider of fortune with me before he met Krissin. He didn’t want to give that life up.”

  “And you? What have you given up?” I immediately regretted the question. I glanced at his missing hand.

  Mark held his arm in the air. “I gave up everything for love. Reychel is my whole life.”

  I knew I was about to put my foot in my mouth, but I had to ask the question. “Is she different since she was severed?”

  Mark sighed. “It’s a fair question.” He stood up and paced around the room. “I wouldn’t say she’s changed. With me, she’s always been the same. I love her more today than the day I met her. I think it’s her relationship with Chase that’s been most difficult.”

  “That’s what I gathered. But he’s her son. She should love him.”

  Mark’s eyes bored into mine. “She does love him. Make no mistake about that. Reychel was willing to give up everything for her son. She offered up her very existence, as she knew it. She was willing to have her gift taken away and her memory erased just to save him. I supported her because I knew nothing was more important to her than the unborn child inside her.”

  “Then why does she treat him the way she does?”

  “Reychel’s had a hard life. I can’t even imagine how she copes with it. She tries, Lianne, she does.”

  It seemed so simple to me. If she really loved her son, she wouldn’t have to try.

  “What about the others like her? How are they coping?” I’d learned in my early days here that the Malborn had attacked, and nearly conquered, Serenia before Chase was born. Chase’s parents found a way to take away their magic and make them forget.

  “We severed quite a few Malborn before Reychel. They now live in camps scattered throughout the forest. I believe your mother is in one of them.”

  I didn’t let on that I knew about the camp, or my mother. I still hadn’t puzzled out why Mags was there. She didn’t have any magic, or a hurtful bone in her body. It sounded like these were prison camps of some kind. Until I had the answers I needed, I would hold the information close.

  I nodded, encouraging him to tell me more.

  “Most of them seem to be dealing with it well. Many of them were dangerous, part of the gifted Malborn army set out to destroy us. I am sorry we only contained the danger here. I guess we never thought they’d reached outside of our realm. If we’d taken greater steps, then perhaps your people and the Fithians wouldn’t have suffered at their hands.”

  “We had enough of our own problems,” I assured him. “My mother was trying to take control by using me.”

  “Yes, I know your story. Chase filled me in late one night while you were sleeping. In the first few days you were here, you spent more time sleeping than awake. He used the opportunity to tell me your whole story.” Mark cleared his throat. “I know this is an awkward question, but what exactly are your intentions toward my son?”

  I wished I knew the answer. I could see the curiosity in Mark’s eyes, but I also saw the love for his son. Chase was a romantic, much like his father, but Chase and I weren’t his parents. It wasn’t love at first sight. It wasn’t Chase and I against the world. It wasn’t a love born of time and nurturing. Chase loved me before he met me and I hadn’t had the chance to really know how I felt about him. He’d become my dearest friend. My only confidante. The man I tried to kiss when I realized that life might finally be worth living.

  A shiver raced through my body, remembering how his lips had felt against mine. Something had changed, but I couldn’t put a name to it.

  “It’s okay,” Mark said. “You don’t have to answer. It wasn’t really a fair question, was it?”

  His smile relaxed me. I wasn’t ready to answer, but maybe someday I would be. It was too complicated now. “Not really, no.”

  Mark shrugged. “If you’re going to question me about my wife, it’s only fair I get to question you about my son, but I know you may not have an answer today.”

  “Maybe not tomorrow either.” I smiled back. “But when I do have an answer, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

  Mark raised an eyebrow. “The first?”

  “Okay, okay. Maybe the second. After Johna. She’s a bigger busybody than you are.”

  We both burst into laughter.

  A flash of light burst into the room. Reychel walked through the portal with Chase only moments behind her. I jumped up from the couch.

  “What’s going on here?” Reychel sounded weary.

  The mirth I’d felt with Mark disappeared with the portal. “I was looking for Chase.”

  Mark walked behind the couch Reychel sat on. He pla
ced his hand on her shoulder, rubbing it lightly. “Did you and Chase finish what you set out to do?”

  Reychel nodded. “Yes, for now, I think so. It seems our friends had a visitor today, though.”

  I looked at Chase, but he didn’t offer an explanation. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve obviously walked into something private. I’ll leave. Chase, when you’re done, can we talk?”

  He shook his head and put his hand on my arm. “No, this concerns you too. You should stay. Right, Mother?”

  His voice was strained. Whatever they’d come back from had done nothing to help their relationship.

  Reychel brushed Mark’s hand off of her shoulder. He backed up, but not far. He gazed at the back of her head with the same look I’d seen Chase use on me. I shuddered. She didn’t treat him the same way he treated her. Everything seemed like such a burden to Reychel. Guilt crept through my veins. I treated Chase the same way all too often. I tried to convince myself it was different. Reychel was Chase’s mom and Mark’s husband. I hadn’t made any commitments to Chase. Up until a few months ago, my loyalties were solely with Bryden. Even in death, I felt like I owed him my love. If I let go of Bryden, would anyone else honor his memory?

  “Yes, Lianne, you should hear this from me. You know that we subdued your mother?” Reychel asked.

  I nodded.

  “She’s staying in one of the camps we put our Malborn prisoners in,” she continued. “We monitor these camps on a regular basis. There were so many gifted women in their reproductive army and we couldn’t let any of them go home the way they were. We severed them, then set up little communities for them.”

  “Do you plan to keep them there forever?” It wasn’t just my curiosity about my mother leading me to question them. I wanted to know what was in their future. I wanted the wars to end, at home and here, if possible.

  “That’s part of the problem,” Chase said. “My parents have been managing this issue since right before I was born. So far, my mother is the only one who’s retained her memory.”

  I didn’t dare glance at Reychel.

  “But,” Chase continued, “if any of them do regain any bit of their lives before being severed, then we have a problem. A big one.”

  “It doesn’t help that someone penetrated the boundaries to our closest colony today,” Reychel said.

  I held my breath, waiting for her to point a finger at me.

  “But we don’t know who it was,” Chase said. “We didn’t want to ask them a bunch of questions. We don’t even know if the intruder made it into the village.”

  “How do you even know someone was there?” I asked.

  “We have our ways. If someone gets through, we’re aware, but that’s about it. Unless we resort to placing live guards around the colonies, we won’t know much more than that.”

  “Then why don’t you ask the people there if someone discovered them?” Guilt washed over me. I knew I should say something, tell them it was just me, but until I knew why Mags was there, I had to be quiet. Chase knew Mags was my best friend, so he was holding back from me too.

  “We don’t interact with them at all. We have a messenger who delivers food and preaches Eloh’s word to them.”

  “So you’re basically holding them prisoner and forcing your religious dogma on them?”

  “It’s not that simple, Lianne,” Reychel said. She pushed her hair out of her face, her amber eyes searching my face. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for. I wouldn’t be the one to tell her I was their intruder. “Many of the people in those communities committed atrocities. We don’t know if it was their gift poisoning them, and the power it brought, or if it was their nature. Either way, a little instruction in religion will only help rehabilitate them.”

  My mind flashed back to the community and Mags. She didn’t possess an ounce of magic and yet, there she was, her memory erased along with the rest of them. I wanted to know why, but asking directly would be an admission of guilt. “So, it’s just my mother and these evil Malborn you captured years ago?”

  Reychel’s eyes flitted toward Chase. He didn’t acknowledge her glance, but she’d given herself away in that moment.

  “Mostly.” Her answer was so simple, so abrupt.

  “What’s that mean? Who else is there?”

  The silence in the room screamed in my ears. Not even an errant breath gave away the answer I already knew. I wanted them to tell me.

  Chase draped his arm around my shoulder. “Everyone in Serenia knows these camps exist, they just don’t know where. Sometimes people come to us, begging to be severed. Some of them aren’t even gifted. They want to erase a painful life and start over again. It’s easier to leave devastation behind than to deal with it every day. Some of them take the easy way out.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me until that moment that I could make all of the pain go away. Bryden’s death, my mother’s deception, the lies my people told – by being severed I would lose the memories. A sharp knife stabbed my heart. Even though I could ask them to help me forget Bryden, I’d never do it. Life without him was hard, but if I chose severing, I’d also lose the stolen moments of joy we shared. I couldn’t bear it.

  That explained Mags’ presence in the camp. She’d lost her love. Her older sons were out of her grasp, held prisoner by the Dalagan invaders. She chose an easy way out.

  “But I don’t understand. If someone doesn’t have magic, then how does severing work?”

  Reychel stood up. She paced the room, and then stopped abruptly. Her eyes looked down at the floor. “We’re not sure. A few years ago, there was a terrible criminal, one of our own people, who murdered his wife and children. Instead of placing him in the dungeon for the rest of his life, we decided to attempt to sever him.”

  I gasped. “Without his permission?”

  “No,” Mark said. “We gave him a choice – death or be a part of the experiment.”

  I placed my hand on Chase’s arm. I suddenly felt unsteady. It was one thing to stop people who were using their magic against others. Using magic on someone who didn’t have it seemed extreme. My mind flashed back to the day of Bryden’s death when I’d destroyed a good portion of the Malborn army with fire. I hadn’t stopped to think if any, or all, of them had the magical ability to fight back. My heart sank as I realized their quick deaths meant they hadn’t.

  “We formed a circle around him, our hands joined, just as we did with all of the others,” Mark said. I glanced down at his missing hand wondering how he was part of the circle. His eyes followed mine. Embarrassed, I pulled my gaze away, but not before he rubbed his wrist with his good hand. “I entered his mind. It was the first time I’d read an ungifted person. His mind was,” Mark paused, scratching his chin, “blank. I guess that’s the best way to put it. Except for one tiny thread. I travelled along it with my mind and was bombarded by memories of the night he killed his family.”

  Reychel stood behind Mark, her arms around his chest. He heaved a deep breath, sinking into her firm embrace. She loved him as much as he loved her. I felt it deep in my soul.

  “It was truly horrifying,” he continued. “He had no regret, Lianne. I can’t even fully express what it was like being in his mind. There was no redemption for him. I was sure of it, so I did the only thing I could do. I cut the thread with my gift. He fell to the floor, and rose a new man.”

  I stepped backward into Chase, needing him to support me. There was a problem. “How do you know he wasn’t faking it?”

  Mark sighed. “We don’t know. That’s why we’ve put them in colonies in the forest and kept guard. We think the problem has been solved. We know the gifted among them can’t access their gift. It’s been twenty years. Someone would have slipped by now.”

  “Unless they’re plotting,” Chase said. “This has been my concern all along. What if it didn’t work?”

  “It works,” Reychel said. “Trust me. I cannot access my gift anymore.”

  “Her mind appears the same as the others who h
ave been severed,” Mark added.

  Reychel smiled, a rare occurrence. “He checks all the time to see if my gift is healed. It hasn’t. There’s one thing we know for sure about severing. It makes the mind clear.” She shook her head and her dark hair settled on her shoulders. For a moment, I envied her. Reychel was older than me, but her hair didn’t show even one strand of grey. I stood before her, an oddity. A shadow of my former self. We were both broken, forever changed, because of magic.

  Maybe there was a place for common ground between us. As quickly as it appeared, Reychel’s smile fell. “I have work to do. You’re both dismissed.”

  Chase grunted under his breath, then replied, “Yes, Mother. We’ll leave now.”

  I was anxious to leave too. Without realizing it, she’d given me the answer I’d been searching for. It couldn’t have been a coincidence she’d used the word clear to describe her mind after severing.

  Find the one whose mind is clear.

  I was looking for someone who was severed. I had to see my mother again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chase and I walked down the stone hallway together. Tapestries dotted the walls, depicting everything from scenes of chivalry to moments of war to placid landscapes. I wished, if only for a moment, I could jump into the nature scenes. They reminded me of the private grove I’d had back in Fithia. Whenever I needed to think, or be alone, I had escaped there. No one, other than Bryden, had ever disturbed me.

  Here, I couldn’t even take Aphotica out for an innocent ride without wandering into a secret.

  “So where exactly did you and your mother go?” I asked.

  He didn’t look at me, keeping his eyes focused on the hall ahead of us. “We checked out the perimeter. Looked for clues of who’d been there. That sort of thing.”

  Guilt washed over me. I couldn’t keep the truth from him for another second. Chase was my only true friend. I needed his help more than ever.