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

by Michaela Riley Karr

  Yet, for all its beauty, nature could not shake the misery that gripped my heart like a handcuff. Not only was my family gone, but so was my land. The land of my ancestors. The land that I had worked my tail off trying to prove myself on. The land that had occupied every spare minute of my pre-Allyen mind. Right now, in any normal year, we would be beginning the preparation for harvest. What harvest would there be this year?

  My boredom was also worse because Frederick and Mira had chosen to go back to the castle. They decided it would help the rumors die if Frederick popped back up unmarried, and if Mira cleared her name because of her big impending marriage, aka Royal alliance, to Prince Xavier of Mineraltir. With that, all the jokes surrounding Frederick and I’s “engagement” finally ceased, the one positive of this move. King Adam thankfully accepted Frederick back into the castle although he was interrogated on my position. He held strong throughout it all.

  Unfortunately, our biggest fear was confirmed within a week of Frederick and Mira returning home. Evidence surfaced that King Adam, their father, truly was one of Rhydin’s Followers and possibly one of the most dangerous ones at that. Both Mira and Frederick tried their best to use their time at home to see if they could catch word of Rhydin’s plans while still protecting their mother, Queen Gloria, and little sister, Princess Cornflower.

  They might be going to try and convince the two Royal women to leave the castle. Or, at least, that’s what they told me. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just go public with the information about Rhydin, make the people see that King Adam was evil, and that he needed to be overthrown. Everyone always shook their heads when I mentioned it. After all, why listen to the grieving girl?

  When I tried again to voice that to Rachel, she scoffed at me. “Lina, nobody is going to believe that ‘our great king’ is working for a sorcerer that nobody believes to exist, who happens to be after a little peasant girl who just discovered she has magic! Even if they did believe it, it’d cause mass panic and make everything worse.”

  I threw my hands up in the air as Rachel left. Since no one had seen her the day of the deaths, she had been able to keep her maid job at the castle, which was pretty good considering it was now our only income. Luke had sold his livery, unable to tend it after his name was slandered in the papers, and Sam and I were considering our crop – our crop that we had agonizingly tilled and planted and tended – gone. Since the papers had released that my farm was burnt down and my family slaughtered, including myself, there was nothing we could do to save it. Not to mention my goats. Sam’s house had also been ransacked because he helped me, which broke my heart.

  Sam had been writing letters nonstop ever since it happened a little more than two weeks ago. He explained at one point that all his records of different Rounan families across the continent had disappeared when someone went through all his belongings. These records contained family ancestry, birthdays, ability levels, and most importantly, locations. Therefore, Sam was desperately writing letters to all the Rounans that he could remember to warn them, especially to his sister, Kelsi. Warn them to move, as well as caution them away from his residence. As Kidek, Rounans came to him from across Nerahdis to settle their disputes and seek help from him. Apparently, Rounans didn’t recognize the Three Kings. Sam never slept for those few weeks, desperately trying to remember addresses and despairing when, more often than not, he couldn’t.

  And me? For me, time stopped altogether. I took what little things from my home that hadn’t been destroyed in the battle and continued to grieve. Thankfully, my little bag of treasures that I used to hide under my straw tick had been undisturbed, and so I fingered the little rag doll that Rosetta had given me years ago often. I found one of Keera’s hair ribbons to tie around it as well.

  Lunakan custom was to keep a candle burning for the dead for a whole month after they were gone, but I didn’t have one at my disposal out in the forest. I kept the doll and ribbon in the pocket of my black dress instead. I’d even found the myths book that I used to read every day in the livery basement, although a few more pages were now tagged for me to read by Rachel.

  Whenever I tried to gravitate to Sam for comfort, he would become angry. I really didn’t understand why until I asked him one day. It was late afternoon, the sun shining hazily through the leaves. Sam had mostly finished his letters since he couldn’t remember too many addresses outside of the Rounans that he had regular contact with. I came over just to be near him, feeling lonely since my whole family was gone, and he set the last of his letters down angrily, smearing some of the ink.

  I swallowed hard, and got up the courage to ask, “Sam… Am I the one who’s making you mad?”

  He gave a deep sigh, straightening his wrinkled tunic. “No, Lina. I’m not mad at you. You just remind me of who I’m mad at.”

  “Oh.” I murmured, moving a couple inches away from him to give him some space. “Glad we got that cleared up.” I nearly walked away, but Sam stopped me.

  “Wait.” He said, turning around and looking me in the eye for the first time in two weeks. There were dark smudges underneath his brown eyes, and they were puffy. I hesitated, unsure if I should come close to him or not, but he soon found the right words. “I apologize for not saying it before, but I’m sorry. If I had never taken Mikael in, this would have never happened.”

  Ah. He was angry with Mikael. I thought for a minute before I responded, wanting to make sure that I chose the correct words since I was still grieving and didn’t want to say anything I didn’t mean. After all, I blamed James for their deaths initially but came to terms that he had done the best he could. There was someone so much better to blame than James.

  I took a deep breath and started slowly. “Sam, I know it’s easy to blame yourself, but you couldn’t have foreseen that the little boy you took in would do this. I mean, I couldn’t have seen this coming. Mikael spent nearly every waking minute at my house with Rosetta. You know that. Remember when we went to the Spring Festival?”

  My stomach recoiled. How long had it been since I watched Mikael take my sister to the festival? Her first beau killed her.

  Sam threaded his fingers through his hair, rubbing his scalp because his brain couldn’t process the information. He stammered, “I-I-It just doesn’t make sense. H-He told me that he loved Rosetta, and that he wanted to marry her. And then he kills her? He was so happy to live with me after the Epidemic killed his parents. Rhydin’s Epidemic. And then he joins him?”

  My heart began to ache as Sam looked away, struggling to hold back tears. He was my childhood friend of ten years. I had seen him grow from a little boy who wasn’t afraid of anything except the dark, to a shy teenager who never knew quite what to say, to a kind, stubborn at times man. Yet, I had never seen him cry. His father abandoned him well before I met him, and his mother died of the Epidemic when he moved to Stellan for a little while, so I never saw him grieve for her. His sister was older, and so moved away a long time ago when she’d gotten married. Yet, now here he was, his face buried in his hands and completely silent to keep the sobs from coming.

  I sat down next to him and just breathed for a second, trying to control my own tears that came so easily nowadays. When I felt in control of my emotions, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and squeezed tight, resting my head on his arm. My voice was stronger than I would have thought when it came out of my mouth. “I think we both are learning how manipulative Rhydin is. He has been planning all this for the last century, down to the minutest detail. I don’t think I realized just how far he’s willing to go to destroy us until I saw him that day.”

  Sam raised his head and looked down at me quietly, his thin cheeks red and his eyes a little glassy as he took in the sight of my head on his arm.

  “Blame Mikael all you want.” I said firmly, “But Rhydin is the one who tricked him. Rhydin is the one who used him to get through the barrier and destroy my family. Did Mikael even know that you were the leader of the Rounans?”

  Sam though
t for a minute and then shook his head.

  “Who do we know in this world that hates all Rounans and would have a motive to ransack your house for your records?”

  “Rhydin.” Sam said through gritted teeth, “And King Adam. They want to cleanse Nerahdis of Rounans because they believe the Gornish people are the purer race.”

  “Exactly.” I moved my other hand to grip his firmly. “Mikael had no intention of ruining your contact with your people. That was all Rhydin’s doing. I know how much you want to protect them.” I paused for a minute. “And y’know, Sam, I don’t believe this notion that Rounans are somehow ‘dirty’. You’re a Rounan. I’m Gornish. But to me, we’re the same. Two people given magic and responsibilities they never asked for in a world that can’t accept it.” I smiled timidly.

  The first smile I’d seen in a long time spread across Sam’s face. His eyes stopped glimmering, but a light blush remained on his face. He squeezed my hand carefully. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  I took a deep breath, and we just sat there silently for some time, letting the sounds of the forest sink in around us. There was the sound of the wind dancing around our little makeshift tents, making flapping noises. There was a squirrel a few feet away that was gnawing on an acorn, but my ears soon fazed that out as I watched the dancing sunspots on the ground when the wind picked up and rustled the trees.

  Sam’s words broke the silence. “Are you bored?”

  I just blinked at him. “Uh, I guess? Why?”

  Sam seemed to sense how much I needed to get my mind off of things, so he pulled me over to the campfire. He sat down cross-legged and helped me down next to him. His voice was light. “How about I tell you an old Rounan story?”

  I smiled slightly and leaned into him as he began, but I must admit that I didn’t pay very much attention. It was more history lesson than story, explaining where the Rounans had come from. It was slightly interesting in the beginning, when the Gornish people traveled to Rounia and made Rounans their slaves after their land died, but when they made it to Nerahdis, slavery was abolished by Emperor Caden.

  After that, I found myself losing interest since Sam wasn’t the greatest storyteller. By gosh, he was the greatest farmer I knew, but this just was not his gift. Instead, I found myself merely happy to be curled up next to him. It felt totally natural, and I couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of me beyond being friends.

  I shook the blush from my face and stared up at the sky, wondering where my family was now. The sun was beginning to go down toward the west, sinking beneath the heads of the mountains, and casting a majestic purple color onto their faces. To the east, the twin moons of Lunaka were beginning to rise, one of them slightly ahead with the other in constant pursuit.

  They were like Rhydin and I. Up until now, it seemed like he was always chasing me. He was always one step behind me, targeting the people around me until I’d be by myself and vulnerable.

  Nearly every day, I thought about going to pick up my sword and practicing with it, but every time I came within a few feet of it, I just couldn’t do it. My hand couldn’t reach out to take it. I needed some time to recover, but I vowed right then and there that once I was back up to snuff, Rhydin would be the one to find himself with someone constantly behind him. Someone who never let up on coming after him.

  And that person would be me.

  Chapter Fourteen

  T here was snow. It was falling lightly, little speckles of white crystals playing in the wind until they hit the ground as gravity said they must. There was a wide snowy plain in front of me, as perfect as if someone had dropped a white paint can on the whole kingdom. The wind was nippy, but rather than feeling the gusts of cold that played with the snowflakes around me, my body felt constantly like ice.

  As I glanced around, I didn’t recognize the scenery until I looked behind me. There, standing tall against the backdrop of beautiful white, was Lunaka Castle, seeming dark and menacing as its spires reached for the heavens. Why was I near the castle? Bad things happened the last time I was here. Frederick and I were nearly killed.

  Suddenly, the ground began to shake with such ferocity that my legs could barely keep their balance. My body felt like jelly as loud, cracking noises filled the air. Behind me, one of the oldest sections of the castle crumbled like toast. To the south, a great plume of inky smoke was belched into the air as I felt the mines begin to collapse beneath my feet. I panicked, my breathing hitching in the icy cold. What was happening? Was the world ending?

  The castle bell tower started booming like thunder, over and over and over, not how it typically rings. It BONG-ed so loud it reverberated inside my head as cracks yawned wide at the base of the tower. The tower had only done this once before that I knew of, and not even in my own lifetime.

  My father told me there was once when he was a boy that the tower rang without end. It was calling the people to the castle because Soläna was in danger. He had heard it during the Quarren War decades ago when Auklia was invading. What was it calling the people to escape from now?

  My vision shifted on its own accord, out of my control, and what it focused on caused a jet of heat to race down my spine. It looked almost like a curtain of darkness. A huge blanket of black hung as high up in the sky as anyone could see all the way down to the land below. The curtain draped over the southern wall of Auklia as well as the western wall of Mineraltir. It was rapidly advancing on Lunakan soil, overtaking the mountains as the bell tower roared for the people to come to safety.

  There was another shape silhouetted against the midnight curtain. It was long and serpentine in the way it moved through the sky, two crimson red stars for what seemed like eyes…

  I sprang forward so fast when I woke up that I smacked my head on a low tree limb. I gasped in pain and began rubbing my temple as I sat back down with my blanket. As my vision cleared, it took me a minute to recognize where I was after such a vivid nightmare. It was dark outside, but with the campfire going, I could see the flickering face of each of the other makeshift tents.

  I then noticed that I had worked myself halfway out of my own tent and sighed. I had a knack for moving in my sleep when I had a particularly real dream. I resettled myself to where I had started at the beginning of the night but left the flap to my tent hanging open.

  Rachel was also in my tent, sleeping the night away since it was one of her brother’s turns to be on watch. Her hair glimmered in the firelight streaming through the open flap. She’d never admit this, but she actually snores lightly. The other two tents housed the Owens brothers and Sam. Lucky him, he got his own tent!

  I tried to relax and go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. My brain wouldn’t quit, kicked into motion by the scary dream. It’d been a month now since my family was killed. My heart still refused to believe that they were truly gone, but my mind had absorbed the shock.

  Shortly after Sam and I had our conversation, I found the strength in me to begin practicing again. My sword had grown awkward in my hand after not touching it for a month, but it was easier to get accustomed to it again the second time around. Once I got back to where I had left off, Luke deemed me ready to spar with him one-on-one. It was basically like being pushed into the deep end of the lake with only a basic knowledge of swimming, but I adapted quickly. I even started to learn how to fight with a sword and magic at the same time.

  Frederick had visited us once since his return to the castle. During that time, he taught me how to focus a little ball of light in my hand and hold it there until it reached the size I wanted before throwing it at my target. It was pretty simple, but ever since he went back with Mira, I hadn’t been able to learn any other attack spells.

  The rest of us were trying to give the Royal siblings as much time as possible to glean any information on Rhydin from their father, but it wasn’t going well. It was the only hope we had for some sort of lead on what Rhydin’s plans were. It seemed that we were in the dark when it came to recent news, here outside of town. Fr
ederick and Mira were even failing to convince the queen and Princess Cornflower to leave for their own safety. Rachel and I were beginning to wonder how much more time we could spare for them.

  I didn’t see Sam much anymore. He and James found jobs in the mines to supplement Rachel’s maid income, and it made me sad. Luke couldn’t go, because he was wanted for treason after his livery was seized. He’d made his frustration that he had to stay with me all day very well known. Sometimes I’d see a flicker of red enter his eyes!

  Probably adding to his anger was me asking about Evan on nearly a daily basis now. I’d learned that Rachel was communicating with him almost on the hour with some sort of magic that I didn’t even know she possessed, but I figured at this point that Frederick had loaned her some, just like Rhydin had loaned some to his non-Royal Followers. Our protectors wanted to keep Evan and I on the exact same page even though we weren’t allowed to be together yet. I was so impatient to meet him and get his help, but our combined magical presence would make us way too easy for Rhydin to trace.

  A twig snapped and a whoosh of wind circled our encampment. Rachel was instantly awake and crept toward the fire, where the sound had come from. Sometimes, I wondered if she had sleeping ninja skills, she could wake so fast. When I looked over, I saw a willowy figure with a purple cloak, but before my mind could even register who she was, I had already sensed her as an aeromage, as well as her meekness and kindness. I knew it was Princess Mira before I’d even glanced in her direction, making me feel pretty good about how my magic was progressing. Maybe I really could do this Allyen thing.

  Seeing as I couldn’t sleep anyway, I walked over to the campfire with Rachel to meet up with Mira. She seemed distraught and more tired than anything. Rachel asked, “What are you doing here, Your Highness?”