Hidden: Tales of Ryca, Book 1

by Shereen Vedam

  Hagan waved away his man and his understanding gaze met Gilly’s teary one. He knew. Jarrod too. One look at Anna and they would have realized she was Prince Keegan’s daughter. There had been no reason for Hagan to make Gilly go on and on about her limp, unless he, like Jarrod, had been trying to jog her memory.

  “Are you all right?” Anna whispered.

  “Yes.” Gilly wiped away her tears, unable to tear her gaze from her sister. Papa might as well be standing before her.

  “That man is Hagan, the leader of the Rycan Warriors.” Keeping a firm hold on Gilly’s fingers, Anna dragged her toward her family.

  “I know.” Gilly resisted the urge to hug and kiss Anna all over her beautiful, memorable face. Instead, she cleared her throat and said what she had been practicing since leaving their tent. “Hagan is going to help us leave Perm, Anna. The King’s Horsemen are coming, so we must leave. Fast. He’s agreed to provide us with horses and an armed escort to Tibor.”

  “Gilly, you can’t decide something like that. Who comes with us is up to Marton.” She gestured for her husband to join the discussion.

  “It will be safer if they accompany us,” Gilly said.

  Bevan’s laughter drew her gaze. Hagan had gone over to join the children and was tossing the young boy in the air. Bevan squealed all the way down.

  Marton gave their abductor a suspicious look. “Why would he want to help us?”

  “I agreed to do something in exchange.”

  “What could he possibly want from you?” Anna asked.

  “I’d like to know that too.” Tom moved closer and took her hand.

  Gilly squeezed his fingers, taking silent comfort from his touch. There were so many unanswered questions in his gaze that she could never answer.

  Skye laughed as Hagan tickled her.

  “Children, come away from him,” Anna said. “Don’t play with that man. He’s dangerous.”

  “Anna,” Gilly said, in a warning undertone. “This is not the time to make a fuss.”

  “He captured us, hit my Marton on the head and kept us locked up here all night. If that doesn’t warrant fuss, I can’t imagine what does.”

  As Skye and Bevan ran over, Gilly turned with concern to Marton. “Are you all right?”

  “Never mind him,” Anna said, dismissing her husband’s injury as swiftly as she’d brought it up. “What does Hagan want?”

  Hagan returned to the doorway and leaned nonchalantly against the wall.

  Gilly’s stomach clenched. This was the unpredictable part of her plan. Her gaze flitted nervously between Tom and Marton, as she said, “Hagan knows about the magic.”

  “What magic?” Marton said.

  “I can wield Light,” Gilly said. “That’s how I helped Anna escape back in Nadym, and kept Skye from being injured from a fall.”

  His eyes widening, Marton pushed Anna and his children behind him.

  Tom remained silent, his hold steady, as if he were indifferent to her revelation. To him, this was not news. How much did he know about her?

  Anna patted Marton’s arm. “Magic is not bad.”

  “I thank you for saving Anna and Skye,” Marton said, “but I will not have my family exposed to that forbidden practice. Since it’s the horsemen’s job to track those who use it, you have put my family in jeopardy. I thought you cared about us.”

  Each word stabbed Gilly in the chest. “I do.”

  “You don’t act like it. Anna isn’t going anywhere with you or him.” He pointed to Hagan.

  “Anna and Gilly will do as I say,” Hagan said, straightening his stance, arms crossed. “This is the time to rise up and strike against the King.”

  Gilly moaned at that foolish admission. After he promised to keep silent. She had to stop him before he spilled all of her secrets.

  Marton stared at Hagan open-mouthed and then turned on Gilly. “I can understand him spouting nonsense, but I thought you had sense.”

  “Please let me explain, Marton.” She glared over her shoulder at Hagan. “Alone!”

  He remained stubbornly by the doorway, and then with a shrug, left the room with his warrior. A lock clicked.

  Gilly faced Marton. “As he said, he wants to go to Tibor to overthrow Ywen. He believes because we were in Erov, we are a symbol he can use. He refuses to let us go, unless I help.”

  “I don’t know if I believe a word you say anymore,” Marton said.

  His words hurt, partly because they were true. She was lying, but she was also trying to save him, his wife and his children. “I have a plan.” She motioned everyone closer. “I have a potion that will put Hagan to sleep for a long while. It will give us a chance to get away.”

  “No magic,” Marton said.

  “Marton, magic isn’t evil,” Anna said.

  “But Mama, everyone says it is,” Skye said.

  “They’re wrong.”

  “No, they’re not,” Marton said. “She’s bewitched you, Anna.” Appearing both repulsed and curious he stared at Gilly. “Are you a witch?”

  “No, she is not,” Tom said. “She’s the same as you or I.”

  “I don’t know what I am,” Gilly said. “I’ve always been able to cast spells and set wards. Marton, I love Anna like a sister and would never harm her.”

  Anna gave Gilly a startled look, and then turned to her husband. “If Gilly is evil, so am I.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “When we were at Erov, Gilly tried to find out who killed Aton by casting a spell.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to alarm you.” She took his hands. “There’s more. When she was in the middle of the spell, something attacked her.” She sent Gilly an apologetic look. “Her whole face was scorched. There was blood and burned skin and her eyes, oh Marton, they looked horrible.”

  He drew her to him and muttered soothing sounds. “But Anna, Gilly’s fine now.”

  Her sister’s description sent shock waves through Gilly. Had she been hurt that much? She remembered the pain but the next day her face was normal. If her sister was right, then not only did magic run in both their blood but her sister was more powerful than either of them imagined. Even their mother had not been able to heal Gilly so well and so fast after her fall.

  “Gilly’s fine because I healed her,” Anna said, sounding confident and leaving Gilly amazed.

  She glanced at Bevan with new speculation. If his mother was this powerful, what did that say about her children, about Bevan and his bright Light that had outshone all others?

  “You Mama?” Skye asked.

  Her niece’s question drew Gilly’s distracted thought to the present, but she was left shivering in wonder.

  Tom, squeezed her hand, his gaze worried.

  A concern she didn’t know how to answer.

  “Yes, me,” Anna said. “I held my hands over her face and prayed to the Light to heal her and the redness disappeared and her eyes, they were normal again. I thought maybe I’d imagined it. That Gilly hadn’t really been hurt, but now I think back, Marton, her face was completely burnt. I know it. I didn’t imagine it. Something attacked her, tried to kill her.”

  “This is the reason why magic is banned, Anna,” he said. “Don’t you see? You must never do it again.”

  “Marton, how can it be evil if it saved Gilly’s sight?”

  He shook his head and sat down on a nearby bench, holding onto Anna. “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “Gilly has another secret that could explain it better,” Anna said. “I’ve thought about it a great deal.” She turned back to Gilly. “About your story of being in charge of me and carrying me to safety. You weren’t just my keeper were you?”

  Gilly gulped. She had been waiting for an opening like this to tell Anna they were sisters. How could she share anything now? “I’ve told all I can.”

  “You missed one important point,” Anna said. “You left out that we’re kin.”

  Gilly�
��s head snapped around. Anna knew?

  Marton said, “That’s why…”

  “…we can both wield Light,” Anna finished. “I know in my heart that Gilly is my sister.”

  There. It was out and not from her lips or Hagan’s. Her sister looked defiant, as if daring her to deny their connection. The thin line of Anna’s lips said how hurt she was at Gilly’s silence and Gilly’s heart melted. She was done with denials. Now she knew how much Anna resembled Papa, denying her would be paramount to denying his role in their lives. “I’m sorry I didn’t admit it before, Anna. I spoke the truth when I said you have your papa’s temper. You are also his spitting image.”

  Anna’s eyes welled with tears and Gilly opened her arms to the child who had longed for a family and invited her back into hers. Her sister ran to her without hesitation.

  All Gilly’s worry that Anna would be furious at her numerous lies and evasions and abandonment vanished as her sister clung fiercely to Gilly, claiming her with the same uninhibited love she bestowed on her husband and children. “I knew it!”

  Gilly basked in her sister’s acceptance. She could have held her like this forever. As long as Anna had wanted a family, Gilly had been missing hers. A tear fought free of her tightly clenched eyelids and warmed her cheek.

  Skye and Bevan’s arms wrapped around them and Anna laughed as she included her children in the family gathering. Gilly wiped her cheeks, which grew moister with each hug.

  “It’s all right to hug Gilly, huh, Mama?” Skye asked.

  “As if my strictures ever stopped you,” her mother said, but her indulgent smile robbed her words of their sting.

  “If this is to be a moment of truth,” Tom glanced at Marton, the only one who still stood far from Gilly with his arms crossed, “and it seems it must be if we are to trust each other, I, too have a confession.” He looked at everyone in turn, and finally his sorrowful brown gaze met Gilly’s. “I did kill Vyan in Nadym.”

  “I knew it!” Anna shouted, this time with fury, but then she fell silent as Marton shook his head. She hurried to her husband’s side, dragging her children along.

  Gilly ignored Anna’s gesture to join them. Of all the things she had expected Tom to confess, this was not one of them. “And Aton?” she asked in a quiet voice that barely squeaked out of her tight throat. Please say, No.

  “No,” Tom said, reclaiming her icy fingers within his warm hold, “I didn’t kill Aton”

  “Why did you kill Vyan?” Marton shuffled Anna and his children to the bench’s far side as if afraid that Tom might lunge at his family with a knife. He had given her the same look a few minutes ago when he learned of her wielding Light.

  Gilly took a deep calming breath and faced Tom. He was right. Time for truth to blaze away all of their fears and insecurities. In her heart, she held onto the man she had known most of her life. The one who was silent, who watched her with haunted eyes, whose touch made her tremble with odd desires. He had saved her life in Nadym by killing Vyan and been beaten savagely for that service.

  “What happened, Tom?” Gilly asked.

  “He was about to tell the horsemen about a baby who was once found at the temple,” Tom said. “And about a young girl with goats who appeared shortly after. I could see his intention in his eyes whenever his gaze swept over to Anna. I had to stop him, so I threw that knife from the front window.”

  “That would have been over twenty paces away,” Anna said, in a scoffing tone. “You could not possibly have hit him from that distance. Not as drunk as you were back then.”

  “As a lad, I used to practice knife throwing with my father,” Tom said with a slight frown and flexed his right hand as if he, too, were surprised at how well he had done. “This time Gilly and Anna’s lives depended on my hitting my target. That seemed to give my throw power and aim.”

  “Why would you care what Vyan told the King’s Horsemen?” Marton asked. “Enough to want to kill him?”

  “Jarrod was right,” Tom said. “I am from Tibor, the boy responsible for Prince Keegan’s death.”

  “You ran for help,” Gilly said, and gently stroked his arm. “Tom, he must have put a spell on you. You are not responsible for what happened that night.”

  “What does any of this have to do with Vyan and Anna?” Marton asked, shaking his head in obvious confusion.

  “I’m coming to that.” Tom’s anxious eyes were fixed on Gilly. “In the corridor outside Prince Keegan’s room, I came to from the blow to my head in time to see Tamarisk drop one of the royal children over the railing. Princess Mamosia screamed and cast a spell to stop her daughter’s fall, but it too late.”

  “Enough.” Gilly placed a warning hand on his, seeing where this was leading. Tom was about to say Gilly was that child, and if that were the case, and Anna was her sister…

  “Let him speak,” Marton said. “Since you are now a part of my family, you will abide by my rules. That means no more secrets. Go on, Tom.”

  “Princess Mamosia fled down the stairs with her other children. Tamarisk was about to go after her so I tripped him and he stumbled and fell. I ran away before he could come after me and took the back stairs. I reached the courtyard in time to witness the royal carriage leave. I followed on foot.”

  Gilly listened to his tale and the last puzzle pieces that was Tom fell into place. He must have followed her family, not only to the cottage in the woods, but trailed her and Anna to Nadym. What a resourceful, determined boy. She held herself back to keep from hugging him. He had been her invisible shield and sword from the moment papa died. She had never been alone.

  “The hardest part was after the horsemen found the royal family hiding at the cottage,” Tom said. “I wanted to warn them, but Princess Saira, Gilly, arrived ahead of me. When she left with the baby and a few goats, I followed her.”

  “Lady Saira-Gilly,” Anna said. “Aton called you that. He knew who you were, who we were all along.” She abruptly sat on the bench behind Gilly, her face ashen. “We’re Prince Keegan’s children.”

  Gilly met and held her sister’s stunned gaze. This was the revelation she feared. How would Anna respond? Would she charge into Tibor to demand her birthright? She hoped not.

  “I should have waited to make sure the princess and the other children left safely,” Tom said, regaining Gilly’s attention. “When they didn’t follow, I went back to check on them.”

  “You found their bodies?” For so long she had berated herself for not going back to check. Fear of leaving Anna alone or taking her into danger had kept Gilly away from the cottage. “Did you give them a proper burial?”

  “They weren’t there, Gilly,” he said. “I checked the whole area. The horsemen were gone, and so were your mother, bother, and sister.”

  Legs shaking, Gilly stumbled over to Anna and sat beside her, her mind numb. The horsemen hadn’t killed her family? Anna threaded her fingers through Gilly’s and held tight.

  “I did the only thing I could,” Tom continued, his beautiful brown eyes solemn as a gathering thundercloud, his face lean and intent. “I followed Gilly. You covered your tracks well, but I was determined to find you. I searched village after village. Then in Nadym, I hit gold. I heard of a baby left at the temple steps and about a lame young girl who cared for goats. I knew I’d found you.”

  “Why?” Gilly thought of all that wasted time. The countless nights she’s spent alone, out on the moors with her goats, staring at the dark sky and wondering about her past. All that time, Tom had been nearby, watching her. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

  “You didn’t trust anyone. I tried to talk to you a few times but you always ran away. When you grew older,” he began and then hesitated, breaking eye contact.

  “He didn’t think you liked him,” Marton said. “I told him you would be lucky to call him your man but he said he wasn’t worthy. I never understood then, I do now. He feels responsible for your father’s death.”

  She covered her cheeks as a rush of
heat coursed through her body. Had Tom been interested in her as more than a duty, even back then, in Nadym? Why couldn’t he have said so?

  There was something important she was missing in this conversation. What had he said about her missing family members? They weren’t at the cottage when he went back to check. Why would the horsemen have taken their bodies? Oh no! Could they still be alive? She cried out.

  “Gilly, what’s the matter?” Anna put arm around her. “Talk to me! Don’t shut me out again.”

  “If the horsemen didn’t kill Mam, Tamara and Garren, would they have taken them to the castle? To the dungeons. For Tamarisk to drain them of power as he does the magical guild masters?” Gilly clutched her sister by the shoulders, “Oh, Anna, they could have been suffering all this time. While I’ve been hiding, that monster could have been torturing them.

  * * *

  Gilly and Tom herded the children outside to give Anna and Marton a chance to speak in private. She could well imagine the thoughts racing through sensible, practical, Marton’s mind, now he had discovered his wife was a princess who wields magic.

  As am I!

  Her mind wrestled with the absurd notion. Yesterday, she was a lonely goat herder. Today, she belonged to Ryca’s highest station.

  And Mam might be alive!

  Bursts of joy spiraled up besides waves of dread at what her family might have gone through these past two decades trapped in the dungeons of Tibor castle. Underpinning those swirling emotions was a quagmire of overwhelming guilt for not returning to the cottage in the woods when her family didn’t show up at the appointed time. For assuming they were dead.

  Mam would come for me if she was alive.

  The foolishness of such a false belief tasted as sour as week old milk. Tamarisk the sorcerer held Princess Mamosia captive.

  She couldn’t come.

  Heat washed over Gilly’s face in shame at the safe life she had lived in such complacency. No more. She wanted to storm out of Perm right this minute and straight into whatever horror Tibor held so she could rescue her sister, brother and their mam.