by Terry Spear
“Tells me what?” I had a sinking feeling based on the dark inflection of my former nursemaid’s voice.
Cesil bit her lower lip. “You promise you won’t tell your father I told you. I mean I didn’t know, honestly, you were unaware yet.”
“What? My father, God rest his soul, has been dead for four years. Do not tell me he is still alive when all these years I’ve thought otherwise,” I said, deeply exasperated.
“No, my lady.”
“You are not making any sense.”
Cesil grasped my hand and squeezed. “It didn’t matter who your father was, my lady. You were always dear to me.”
A sickening feeling centered in my stomach. “My father wasn’t my father? Do not tell me I’m not of royal blood.” At once my heart skipped a beat. If I wasn’t royal, I wasn’t “the one” and yet everyone thought I would save them.
Worse, the Dark One thought so, too.
CHAPTER 20
“No, my lady. You are royal,” Cesil said.
“And?” I could tell Cesil was afraid to upset me, but she was upsetting me more by keeping me in the dark.
“The king is your father.”
I slumped in my seat. No way was King Leonid my father. That would make my mother his deceased wife, the queen, not my aunt. And my parents would have been my aunt and uncle. “No,” I said.
Cesil still wrung her hands and I sensed her distress. Was she upset she instead of the king had told me? I still couldn’t see him as anything but my uncle. Or was there more to the story than she was telling?
“Is Lynet my sister?”
“She is the king’s daughter.”
That hadn’t answered my question. But as much as we looked alike...that meant we were twins? Just like Sumaria and Conlan? Twins were prevalent in the region. Even Duke Yarovon had twin daughters, so this wasn’t much of a surprise. Only the fact that it had been hidden from me was.
“We were twins?”
Cesil nodded. Her eyes shimmered with tears.
“Why? Why did everyone lie about us?”
“My lady,” Cesil said, choking on the words.
As upset as I was over the whole notion, I patted Cesil’s hand to encourage her to talk. It was not her fault for keeping me in the dark after all.
“It was foretold King Leonid’s daughter would be a mage. It was also said, she would fight one of the most evil wizards of our time. The time of the birth was given. It was your time, my lady. Lynet was born a few minutes later. The king spread the word that his first daughter died and gave you to his sister to raise who was without child. I was the midwife who delivered both you and your sister. The duchess had been away for nearly a year, so no one knew she hadn’t been with child.”
“The king and queen were my parents,” I said under my breath. The realty hadn’t quite sunk in yet though. “Who else knows this?”
“The Baroness DeChamplainet,” Calla said from the back of the wagon. “She told my uncle and I overheard their conversation. She intended for you to seek refuge to escape marrying Duke Farthington as a ploy to turn you over to the Dark One.”
“Why would the king have me wed the duke?” I asked.
“To keep the fact you were his daughter a secret until you had your powers,” Cesil said. “He wanted to keep you safe.”
Peterusk said, “The mages have gotten word of this, too. I’m afraid Zars will know as well.”
“Doesn’t matter now. He saw me in the mage shop. He knows who I am.”
Though my feelings of who I was and how I fit into the royal family had been instantly shattered, relief coursed through me to know I still was a royal mage. It wasn’t that I felt any confidence in my abilities, but the awful notion the Dark One would come for me, knowing I was the one when I wasn’t...
I shuddered.
“Straight ahead,” I said, “ease off to the right.”
At once we were in the middle of the village of Valdune.
Mages poured out of the buildings to greet us as lanterns lighted the town. Several young males smiled at Calla. I grinned to see how delighted she was to have so many interested in her. Two males offered to help her from the wagon.
“My queen,” Benjorian said, hurrying forth to greet me.
This time I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what I was anymore.
“Five of our mages have ridden our swiftest horses to gather the Dark One’s artifacts and bring them here.”
“Good,” I said. “This is Calla and I will leave her here to be tutored and cared for.”
Peterusk joined the other mages, as several slapped him on the back in greeting.
“You are not leaving us so soon, my lady?” Benjorian asked.
“I must find Prince Renault and his sister.”
“I will take you,” Dorian said.
“We must go,” I said. “Safeguard the artifacts until I return.”
Without another word, the village vanished when I wished it and Dorian and Cesil sat staring at the road, I imagined in shock that the village had disappeared.
“Continue,” I urged. “We still have a long ways to go.”
We hadn’t traveled far when the same bandits who accosted Conlan and our party before on the same stretch of road, stepped out of the woods in our path.
The leader’s attention was on Dorian, I assumed because he was the male driver and more of a threat to them.
“Get down from there!” the leader shouted.
“Must I use my spells on you to convince you to leave us alone this time?” I asked, my voice raised.
The leader stared at me, then his face paled. “The shadow walker,” he said under his breath, then he and his men scurried into the woods.
“And don’t return to my road again!” I shouted.
Dorian chuckled.
That night, we stopped early and slept huddled together to keep warm in the wagon. My mind drifted and I thought back to Prince Sumaria’s comment. I had to know, could water kill the Dark One if he drank it?
Then as if I had dictated it, I found myself shadow walking in the Castle Ro. In the great hall, the courtiers feasted, and I stepped inside. To my surprise, I saw the Dark One eating, his eyes dark and narrowed as he stabbed a slice of beef with his knife.
Just as a server refilled Zars’s wine goblet, I changed the wine to water. Would it kill him? I could only hope. I waited. Patience wasn’t one of my virtues. I tapped my foot on the floor as my hands fisted on my hips. Hurry up, I wanted to shout. Zars fingered a slice of cheese, poked at a bowl of stew, but avoided the goblet. Did he know I stood there waiting for him to drink the “poison”? Waiting to see his demise?
He tapped his knife on the cloth-covered table. “I cannot see how the woman escaped so easily. How difficult could it have been for you to keep her locked up? From what I understand, the blow to her head kept her unconscious for hours. Why didn’t your men finish the job?”
“My lord, I told you we had the idea that you wished to kill her yourself.”
Zars growled. “Imbecile.”
Duke Yalovon shuddered, greatly intimidated as the Dark One carved an x in the tablecloth. Then he lifted the goblet to his lips, and paused. “Where is Calla? I don’t see her at the meal.”
“We cannot locate her.”
“Baroness DeChamplainet seems to think she’s had something to do with the woman’s escape. Do you?”
“Yes, my lord.”
Zars nodded. “Correct answer. If I thought you’d try protecting your niece...”
He tilted the goblet to his lips and took a hearty swig. All at once he began to choke and gag. I was cheered. He couldn’t take the water! He spit the water out, then threw the goblet to the floor. Zars jerked his head to where the wine bearer stood ready to refill the goblets at the main table. “You there!”
I tilted my head to the side trying to figure out what had gone wrong. The water didn’t kill him. My heart sank with defeat. Before the wine sever could take a reluctant st
ep forward, I grabbed the pitcher of water, then as if it moved in thin air, I carried it back to Zars.
The room full of courtiers grew silent.
With a quick flip of my wrist, I dashed the contents of water in his face. Hoping his face would disintegrate like hot water dissolved salt, I was dismayed when it didn’t.
“Die!” I screamed, temporarily losing my lady-like composure.
Water dripped down his blood red cheeks and nose. His eyes couldn’t have bulged any more than they did now.
Then he lunged forward, scrambling over the table filled with food as if he’d suddenly turned into a mad dog, swinging his knife at the unseen threat—me.
My heart nearly quitting, I quickly vanished.
* * *
By early the next morning, we spotted smoke from campfires over the next rise. I still couldn’t get over the fact the water had no affect on the Dark One. But still seeing the smoke ahead, I hoped we might have located Conlan and his Moravia.
When we investigated, we not only discovered Conlan, Moravia, Larson and Basil, but his sixty armed men cooking breakfast.
Elated, we rode toward the camp.
Five men rushed into the road and stopped our horses before we reached the camp.
“I’m here to see Conlan,” I said, irritated that we’d get so close only to be thwarted by his own men.
“Prince Renault to you,” a surly man said. His blue eyes darkened with hatred.
“Who are you, sir?”
“Lord Venton, and I know who you are. But you will not enchant the prince with your mage ways.”
“Conlan!” I shouted, enjoying the look of anger that flashed across Lord Venton’s face as his cheeks reddened.
“Arabella!” Conlan raced to greet us.
“Will you take Cesil back to Cambria?” I asked Dorian.
“No, my lady. I wish to go with you. You should have a lady with you at all times,” Cesil said.
“I offer whatever service I may,” Dorian said.
I smiled at the two of them, well pleased they wished to aid me. I could definitely use all the help I could get.
“All right.” Before I could climb down from the wagon, Conlan pulled me off the bench and swung me around in his arms.
He kissed my lips as if nothing else mattered. “I didn’t want to ever let go of you when you shadow walked to see me.” He squeezed me so tightly to his chest, I felt faint.
But then I did what I never thought I’d ever feel the urge to do. I tilted my chin up, stood on the tips of my boots, and kissed him back, with the same passion, the same longing, the same desire to be loved as I was certain he loved me.
“I will marry you, duchess, if it is the last thing I do.”
“Princess,” I corrected him. But I didn’t give him time to say anything and headed for my horse. “We must hurry.”
***
It took two days to reach Crondor, but when we arrived, we couldn’t have been more disheartened. At least three thousand men lay siege to Conlan’s white stone castle whose ten towers stretched to the sun.
The enemy vastly outnumbered Conlan’s sixty soldiers and we were doomed.
Then an idea came to me. In Zars’s rare book, a battlefield illusionary scenario had been illustrated. Create a force larger than the one a mage wished to defeat. Set them into motion. If it was large enough, the real army would run away in fright. At least I hoped it would, before they realized the illusionary army was only a pretend force.
Lord Venton approached Conlan. “I told you, sire, she would be the ruin of us.”
Conlan ignored him and spoke to Basil and Larson. “We need to get her back to Valdune safely. They’ll have to train her as Benjorian first offered.”
I ignored Conlan and Lord Venton and set about to make my pretend army. I spoke the incantation under my breath and wiggled my fingers at the valley below us. A pale golden mist filled the area, hiding the battlefield for several minutes. Then a strong wind came out of nowhere and blew the mist away. In its wake, at least five thousand men, two thousand on horses and the rest on foot, headed toward the enemies’ forces. I recognized the banner of the enemy to be Duke Yalovon’s, wavering in the breeze. The banner of the imaginary forces was my father’s own blue and gold standard, a golden lion against a backdrop of royal blue. My heart soared to see my father’s forces, albeit not too real, making a show of force for right.
I only hoped Duke Yalovon’s men would flee before they discovered my trick.
Trumpets sounded, warning the army to prepare for battle. Panic ensued as men grabbed their weapons and tried to get into some kind of attack formation.
Despite the odds, they weren’t running. Did they realize my illusionary force was just that?
But worse, while the soldiers readied themselves for battle, we found ourselves surrounded by another force. These carried Duke Farthington’s standard.
“There you are, my dear,” Duke Farthington said as at least a thousand men drew close in a circle around us. “You shouldn’t have been running around the countryside with the prince and his shabby escort. You might get hurt.”
“Where’s Zars?” I asked.
“Right here.” Zars rode up on his black horse, his expression just as black. He glanced in the direction of the fighting men. “I never could get them to fight when I used that spell.” He looked back at me. “Should we end this now?”
With every intent of destroying my enemy so that I wouldn’t have to, Conlan rounded my horse and swung at Zars with his sword.
Zars raised his fingers to cast a spell.
My heart thudding, I quickly reversed it, not knowing which spell he cast until the Dark One fell from his horse with a thud. He lay still for a moment as if I’d knocked the wind from his chest. His face had turned gray. I imagined whatever he’d tried to do to Conlan would probably have killed a non-mage.
I also realized that as much as I wanted to destroy the Dark One, it seemed I couldn’t. I could only cast spells that protected others...or me...that were defensive in nature. A sickening realization I might not be able to be the people’s savior like they’d thought washed over me.
The soldiers I created didn’t attack Duke Yalovon’s men. They only defended themselves and in so wounded or killed his men. Duke Yalovon’s forces began to break up. Several of his men lay injured on the field. The illusionary soldiers were as real as I was.
I turned my attention back to the Dark One. He slowly rose to his feet. He tried to cast a spell on me, another deadly spell this time, one that would cook my body as if I had been set on fire.
I threw the spell back at him. He yelped in pain, but must have used some kind of spell to shield him from the full effect. Then he grabbed Moravia and mounted his horse. I realized then I had no power over him when he held the life of someone in his dastardly clutches.
Dorian helped me to mount and I rode after Zars but so did Conlan.
His jaw was set. “Together,” he said. “We do this together.”
I nodded. Moravia was his sister. I wouldn’t try to dissuade him, though I knew in my heart only I could end this, but how?
For three miles we chased after the Dark One as Moravia struggled to free herself. And then he came to a mist-covered lake.
Peeking through the mist stood a black stone castle on an island surrounded by a dark lake.
Zars jumped from his horse and dragged Moravia with him. Before we could reach them, he climbed into a boat with her and held a dagger at her throat. The oars dipped into the water on their own as the boat slipped through the still black water to the island.
“I’ve never seen this lake or island before.” Conlan dismounted, then lifted me from my saddle.
“It’s like the village of Valdune, impossible to see, unless I imagine in this case, the mage wishes us to see it.”
We hurried into one of the boats left on the shore.
Zars sent a bolt of lightning in our direction. I forced the bolt next to his boat, but
not wanting to hurt Moravia, only sent water splashing into it.
As they reached the island’s shore, he threw Moravia to the ground and faced our approach. This time, he caused the water to swell as if we were on a typhoon-twisted sea.
Waves splashed over the hull threatening to capsize us as I cast a protection spell over Moravia. As long as she stayed put, it would protect her.
But Zar’s attention remained focused on us. When Moravia slipped into the boat, he never noticed. She rowed away from him out of his line of vision.
Good. Now it was just the Dark One and Conlan and me. Conlan readied his sword as my oars paddled the boat in the rising surf.
Because the Dark One lived in the center of a lake, he couldn’t have feared water. Had Prince Sumaria deceived me? Did water make Zars more powerful?
The waves rose higher, threatening to sink our small craft. I raised my wet hands and used the spell against him, my clothes drenched, clinging to me, heavy, weighted down. Would he become bigger than life?
The waves towered above the Dark One. And for a moment I saw his hands raised as if to protect himself. His mouth gaped wide, but he didn’t express any incantation.
The wall of water swept him off his feet, dragging him under as our own boat capsized.
As I sank into the water, I realized at once, the evil mage was powerless over water. But to my horror, I knew...I was, too.
The water covered the entire island, knocking the castle from its foundations. The crumbling black stone sank into the lake like the earth had opened up and devoured it.
Conlan shouted, “Arabella!”
I couldn’t keep my head above water. I couldn’t swim. My wet gowns weighted me down like a boat’s anchor.
“Here,” I cried out, my word garbled as I gulped a mouthful of fishy water.
And then I felt something tug at my leg. The Dark One’s head appeared below the surface of the water as he pulled me down. He was trying to use me to elevate himself from the frigid water. We would both drown. The Dark One and “the one.”
“Arabella!”
I sank beneath the water, unable to keep my head above it as Zars pulled me under one more time. Every bit of my body grew numb with the cold and my mind drifted. Then Zars’s clawing grip on my arms lessened. With the last bit of strength I had, I climbed onto his shoulders, knowing he was dead...but I would soon be, too, if I couldn’t get a breath of fresh air quickly.