The Allyen (The Story of the First Archimage Book 1)

by Michaela Riley Karr

  As soon as the wind died down, Sam went back to planting. I just watched him for a while, trying to mimic his movements again. He stepped forward through the little row left by the plow and shoved his pole two or three inches into the soil, dropped a few seeds into the hole, and then used his boot to close it. I understood the whole drop and boot technique, it was making the hole that was getting so difficult too fast.

  “You’d think I would have gotten better at this!” I gasped, tiring quickly of the wooden staff in my raw hands. I stabbed it into the ground yet again, pulled it out, and dropped a few seeds into the hole before I stomped it shut with my boot in frustration.

  Sam shrugged, the time to do just a little gesture resulting in two more holes formed and filled with seed. He looked down at me when he finished, his brown eyes still joking. “Maybe because farming is man’s work, not woman’s?”

  I stuck my tongue out at him, something I’d done millions of times since we were kids. “Ha ha, very funny!” He only grinned, resulting in another two holes full of seed. I sighed. My back was killing me, my hands were stinging, and sweat dripped down my forehead. My voice fell, “Sam, you know I have to do this.”

  “I know.” Sam was quiet. Quickly somber, as only he could do. He stared at the air above my five-foot-tall frame. “I don’t know what to tell ya, Lina. Just don’t kill yourself, please? You can take a break, I’ll keep goin’ until I have to go.”

  I grabbed up my staff again and quickly poked another hole in the ground. “Nope.” He wasn’t about to show me up.

  Sam shook his head and chuckled in spite of himself, another three seeds in the ground.

  We went on for maybe another hour until I felt like my hands were going to plumb fall off, but then Sam looked toward the setting sun, judging what time it was getting to be. I knew what time it was. It was eight. He had to leave. Apparently, there were people waiting for him, but I knew well that Mikael was still at the house with Rosetta.

  We walked back to the house rather quietly. My silence came from exhaustion. I didn’t like admitting it, but there wasn’t a single part of my body that wasn’t moaning.

  The sun had set the faraway mountains on fire by the time we reached my front door, and there wasn’t much light left in the sky. Just a bit of yellow and pink before the night would take over, decorated with stars.

  In pure joy, I untied the sack of seed and let it fall off my back, the weight of it revealing my sweat-soaked tunic and dress underneath. The wind rushing against my weight-free back felt absolutely beautiful. Setting my staff against the wall of the house sent needles through my fingers, and I couldn’t quite stifle the grunt that escaped my lips.

  Sam’s eyebrows came together to a crease in the middle of his forehead, the one that was beginning to leave a permanent mark. “You should go to bed.”

  “In a little while.” I said, trying to smile. “I’ve got some stuff to do first. Thanks for all your help though, I really appreciate it.”

  Sam just smiled a small smile. It wasn’t his genuine lopsided one. “Good night, Lina.”

  “Good night, Sam.” I was too tired to spite him this time.

  I walked in the door and splashed water onto my face from the basin, trying to wake myself up enough to fulfill my commitment to Keera. I glanced at my reflection again, and I looked absolutely terrible. Heavy bags under my eyes, and sweat and dirt intermingled in streaks down my red cheeks. Just plain yuck. I scrubbed my face harder.

  When I turned around, Keera was waiting there expectantly although she had changed. I recognized one of Rosetta’s old outfits, a long brown dress with gold borders that fit well enough. I didn’t blame her for not wanting to stick out like a sore thumb, but I still preferred her Auklian ensemble.

  We walked to town in silence, pretty much all of the light gone from the sky since the two Lunakan moons were only beginning to rise. Keera was fascinated by this. “Is that another moon? Just below the other?”

  I looked back at her in confusion as we reached the path down to the canyon. The pulleys were closed for the night. “Of course. Can’t you see both of them in Auklia?”

  “Uh-uh.” Keera shook her head so much her black braid flew over her shoulder. “We only have one.”

  “Huh!” I was honestly shocked.

  I stared up at the two moons, mirror images of each other, in the half moon stage right now. One was slightly smaller and lower, but other than that they were the same. I began to wonder if the moon that was lower couldn’t be seen in Auklia because of our mountains. Maybe, it was a northern moon.

  “Lunaka is weird.” My cousin proclaimed. I honestly could only laugh at that.

  The town was still fully lit below us, every lantern and lamppost aflame in its own individual beacon of light. The streets were beginning to thin out, men in coal-encrusted overalls beginning to meander their way back to their homes. As we reached the cobblestone road at the bottom, I looked back up at the streak of star strewn sky I could see, like a crack in a black wall.

  I held Keera’s hand tighter as we walked through the empty corridors, little pieces of newspaper floating about in the dying breath of the wind from above. I was honestly starting to get a little scared, I’d never been in the city after nightfall on a regular day. Festivals sure, when people were still roaming about merrily, but this was verging on the ghost town category.

  My voice was a little shaky when I spoke to calm myself, “So…When did you meet Grandma? I’m surprised they didn’t send you to her rather than me.”

  Keera didn’t seem to be phased by the dark city at all. “A long time ago when I was just a baby. I remember her being really nice, but that’s about it. They told me I could choose which person I wanted to go with, so I chose you.”

  I almost stopped in my tracks. “Really? How come?”

  A faint grin appeared on Keera’s face. She merely shrugged, much to my dismay.

  Distracted, I felt my shoulder collide with something hard, and nearly fell to the ground. A hand darted out of the night to grab me before I dropped, and I realized I’d run into another person without even thinking about it. The words tumbled out of my mouth, “Oh, I’m sorry I didn’t see you!”

  The man standing in front of me was wearing just as bright of colors as Keera had this morning, only he was wearing warm colors rather than cool colors, which of course was proper since he was a man. A pair of glasses sat on the bridge of his nose, something you never saw in Lunaka, and light hair fell over smug eyebrows. His voice was slightly nasal, which made it a little hard to take the man seriously. “Oh, no I apologize, I should have been watching where I was going. I don’t know how I could have missed someone like you.” He smiled, but it wasn’t sincere.

  I felt my jaw lock shut, and I pushed Keera slightly behind me. All instinct.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Eli Zephyr, advisor to Queen Maria of Auklia.” The man bowed deep, one of the multi-colored sashes that hung from around his waist brushing the ground. “And just who might you be?”

  This man was an advisor. An extremely important advisor. I figured it wise to answer him even though I really didn’t want to. “Linaria Harvey.”

  “Linaria? Strange name, very beautiful.” Eli took my small hand and lifted it to his thin, angular face. My mind refused to register the formal kiss on my hand. He bowed again. “I apologize, I really must be going. I hope we meet again…” And off he walked.

  Hopefully not. What on Nerahdis was an Auklian advisor doing in Lunaka so late at night? All Royals would be tucked into their gold-laden beds by now. I wiped my hand against my hip to get any remnant of the creeper’s saliva off as I pulled Keera along toward Grandma’s house, closer to the northern end of town. I simply wanted to get there and be done with it.

  “Is that really your name?” Keera asked, confused.

  I looked down at her, a bit surprised. “Well, yeah. I prefer Lina because it’s shorter, but I figure if he comes lookin’ for ‘Linaria’ later, he
won’t find me on it. Nobody knows my full name but Grandma and Rosetta.”

  Keera seemed impressed. “Smart.”

  When the house came into view, I was elated. It was just a little cottage squeezed between a big mercantile and a flower shop. Real estate was limited down here so everything was pretty jammed together. It was white with blue trim, the only house I’d ever been in that was actually painted, and the lantern over the door was always lit, whether Grandma was there or not. The windows were glowing with life. There was even a little bit of extra decoration for the festival coming up, little paper flowers stuck to the windows. She was a lovely little old woman, my Grandma Saarah. She was my father’s mother, and she’d always had a front row seat as Rosetta and I were growing up.

  I was about to knock on the door when I heard voices inside. They were muffled, I couldn’t really make anything out. Grandma Saarah was your typical go-to-bed-early kind of woman, and she never had visitors past sunset. I crouched under the windowsill and glued my ear to the door, shushing Keera when she tried to ask me what I was doing. I felt like I was listening to my friend Rachel’s voice, but that was preposterous. There was a male voice I didn’t recognize either, and a couple speaking in accent.

  Finally, one of them got loud enough for me to understand. “Saarah, you cannot deny that this is happening. I literally just saw him with her, and there was another at the marketplace the other day posing as a merchant. You cannot tell me that you are not at least suspicious!”

  Well, that was definitely Rachel’s voice. I recognized the flow and light beat she gave to every one of her words. Was she talking about me? Was I the “her”? I always went with her to the market.

  Grandma must have said something back, but she was interrupted, again by Rachel, who seemed to be getting very upset.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they’re gathering here. We need to tell her now, or it will be too late!”

  Chapter Three

  A fter a few seconds of more shuffling and more whispering, the old mahogany door creaked open and shed a beam of light on my hiding place in the dark. Keera and I were still crouched under Grandma Saarah’s blue-painted windowsill, looking completely and utterly guilty.

  The lantern above Grandma’s door illuminated the face of Rachel’s youngest brother, James Owens. His freckled face was still young, but it was shocking how mature he had become since I’d seen him last, regardless of the shaggy hair. Out of the curved cheeks of a child had appeared the defined structure of a man, very similar to his elder brother Luke and yet different. His blue eyes were calm, and a smile graced his pale lips. “Why am I not surprised?” He laughed and extended a long hand.

  I took the offer, and the boy helped me to my feet although he was careful not to let the door open any wider than it already was. I turned to my cousin behind me, and she was already on her feet brushing garden soil from her dress, bits of fern putting up a good fight.

  When I looked back to James, another head had appeared in the cracked door, one that I was much more familiar with. Her red hair glinted in the firelight from the lantern, but she looked relatively thrilled to see me, rather than the anger I feared for eavesdropping.

  Rachel grinned as her freckled hand found mine and began to pull me through the sliver of the doorway. James stood behind us in such a way that anyone on the street would not be able to see what exactly was happening. Rachel’s flowing voice I had heard from inside reassured me. “Come in, Lina. We have some things we need to talk about.”

  Keera grabbed onto my other hand as I squeezed through the door. She followed suit, not letting go. James ducked in last, shutting the door very quietly, which was extremely strange. They were the ones being suspicious, not me.

  When my eyes finally focused on my grandmother’s living room, I couldn’t stop my jaw from dropping. The room itself was the same. The cupboards and bookcases still lined the pretty blue flowered walls with so many dishes and books it was a wonder they hadn’t collapsed after so many years. A small round table sat in the middle, as it always had, with a rocking chair in the corner covered in knitting.

  Grandma was sitting in the rocking chair, as she often did, though her little wrinkled hands were gripping the arms of the chair, not needles or yarn. Her silver hair was bound back tightly in a bun away from her rounded, sweet face, which did not seem happy. She glanced at me worriedly, an expression I didn’t see too often, but I was now looking at the other two people inhabiting my little grandma’s home at the moment.

  At the spotless table in front of me were two people that I had only seen from very far away, and yet I knew exactly who they were. I had to be dreaming!

  Sitting on one side with perfectly erect posture and a handkerchief in her lap was Princess Mira herself, the eldest princess. She was only a year younger than me, I knew that much although up close she appeared so much older. Her pretty purple eyes were nestled in a pale, full moon face under a night sky of deep black hair, which was braided intricately away from her face and back into the hood of her midnight colored cloak. She looked at me with uncertainty, like she was scared, but a tiny grin slowly cracked the porcelain face.

  Opposite the table from her was someone who nearly made my heart stop in its tracks. The crown prince!

  Prince Frederick sat without his cloak, unlike his younger sister, and my eyes soaked up every detail of this person I’d never seen and yet would someday be my king. He was extremely wiry, compared to his soft sister, for every tendon and vein could be traced along his hands and neck. He wore a white vest suit over a more Lunakan-esque brown, long-sleeved tunic and trousers while messy golden threads covered his head. His face was as still as a statue as he glanced my way. His deep blue eyes seemed like they were boring right into my soul.

  I dropped to the floor onto my knees, bowing down to these two immensely powerful people. It was the instinctive response that every peasant learned as a small child whenever they were graced with the presence of a Royal, someone with extensive magic that could kill you at any time. Much less two of them in the same room. I knew for a fact that Lunaka’s Royal family tended to have wind magic, though every once in a while, there was an exception. This prince and princess could easily level the entire town with their power.

  “You may stand up.”

  A voice I didn’t know. It was male, full of authority. I slowly raised my forehead from the floor to look straight into Prince Frederick’s blue eyes again, his face maybe a foot away from mine as he crouched in front of my kneeled position.

  Long dimples appeared in his thin cheeks; he was smiling. “There’s no need for that, Linaria. I do not believe my people should grovel on the ground in front of me as they do my father.”

  He helped me stand although I was sure my eyes were probably double their usual size, and I couldn’t really grasp the concept of speaking at the moment. Why the heck were two Royals in Grandma’s house?

  I let go of his thin yet strong hands and backed away from him until I collided with Rachel behind me. She wouldn’t let me back up any more than I already had.

  “Relax, Lina. Everything’s okay. Frederick and Mira are friends. They’re here for a very important purpose.” Rachel started rubbing her rough hands up and down my arms as if it would help… It didn’t.

  Keera kept glancing from me to Prince Frederick, and I realized that she probably had no clue that these two were part of Lunaka’s Royal family. She was used to the Auklian Royals. Then her eyes located Grandma Saarah, still sitting in her rocking chair motionless, and she smiled. “Gramma!”

  Grandma’s small body finally relaxed. Her eyelids drooped a little bit, and a smile carved its way through the wrinkles. “Keera!” Her sweet, melodious voice exclaimed, and she opened her arms for the twelve-year-old, who was nearly as big as she was, to climb into her lap.

  I looked around me again, seeing the prince, princess, Rachel, James, and her other brother Luke sitting around the corner at a convenient seat next to the windo
w. Finally, I found my voice. “Okay, what on Nerahdis is going on here? How do you all know each other? Grandma, why are these people here?” I turned on Prince Frederick, “How do you know my real name?”

  The old woman tucked Keera’s dark head under her chin and cleared her throat, “Something’s happening, Lina. I’m sorry I haven’t told you until now. I was hoping it wouldn’t become necessary.”

  “What’s happening?” I looked from Grandma to Rachel, who came around from behind me to stand next to the blond man who would become king. I looked at them expectantly. They were right about the same height actually, both significantly taller than me anyhow.

  After the prince remained quiet, Rachel groaned and took the plunge, “Lina, this isn’t easy for me to explain simply…so I’m just going to say it. You’re an Allyen.”

  I just blinked for a few seconds, looking at Rachel and Prince Frederick’s frozen expressions. Princess Mira was sitting on the edge of her seat now, the grin vanished from her doll-like face. I could feel Luke and James staring at the back of my head, and Keera suddenly became very alert in Grandma’s lap. I was confused. “I’m an… An Al-yen? A what?”

  A collective sigh went around the room. Rachel continued talking, her pale fingers reaching for her red hair, which she twiddled for a few minutes before answering. “Uh… An Allyen is… Well, it’s actually a pretty long story-…”

  “Keep it concise, Rachel.” I heard Princess Mira’s voice for the first time from where she still sat at the table, folding and refolding her handkerchief. It was higher pitched than I would have imagined, almost a peaceful, tinkling noise.

  “Allyens are users of magic.” The prince said, his tone even as he measured my expression, “Magic that mimics light, to be precise.”

  My eyes went to the floor. I could feel my heart rate slowly increasing, and my mouth felt dry. “Are you saying I’m a Rounan?”