Sam reached me as King Adam draped the rope around the poor boy’s thin neck. My stomach turned over as I heard the audience around me cheer and chant, hoping for the death of this poor boy simply because his parents died first in the Epidemic.
I swallowed hard as if it was my own neck about to get pinched, but that was when I noticed the Parker boy doing something strange. He kept trying to use his roped hands to gesture toward King Adam, or at least up towards the noose. A couple times I saw the king’s cape move or the boy’s own hair rustle as if with an imaginary wind. I squinted at him, trying to figure it out. What was he doing? It was almost like invisible magic…
It hit me almost like lightning. This kid was a Rounan!
Before another thought could even touch my mind, my body was spurred into action. I desperately began shoving through people, finding tiny crevices between them that only my tiny body could fit through. Sam shouted, lost in the roar of the audience, but he was too big to follow me.
“Citizens of Lunaka!” King Adam yelled over the chaos, trying to begin some sort of speech, but I couldn’t hear the rest of it. I had a one-track mind, and it was focused solely on the Parker boy. I caused Sam to lose all of his records. I could at least save one of his people.
When people clustered too close together, I knew there was only one way to make them part for me. I scooped a ball of light out of thin air, my magic flowing more freely than it had ever before, and thrust it high above my head where it tripled in size. Everyone in Lunaka was deathly afraid of magic. I knew from experience. Instantly, the people around me turned with enormous eyes of terror. They began scrambling over themselves away from me, inadvertently trampling some of the slow.
As a path to the stage yawned wide, King Adam finally noticed me, his eyes jumping to mine like daggers. “It’s the Allyen! Guards, stop her!”
With a boost of magic, I leaped onto the stage, promptly heading for the Parker boy. I didn’t get very far before a rock hard hand shot out and knocked me in the head. My vision swirled and my ears roared as I attempted a spell to shove everyone away from me. It sort of worked, considering I made it up and Frederick hadn’t actually taught me that yet. As another guard tried to tackle me to the ground, he was thrown away from me by someone else. The screaming instantly stopped as people watched in surprise.
Sam made a gigantic leap, no doubt aided by his magic, to the stage and landed squarely on top of the guard who was trying to take me out. He met my gaze with fierce eyes for a split second before he turned with a flat hand, magically severing the rope that threatened the Parker boy’s life. I had never seen him so angry as he shoved King Adam’s guards away left and right, catapulting them off the stage with stronger magic than he’d ever led on to have. I found myself kneeling behind him, unsure of what to do.
I felt myself blush. I was so in awe of him. In my defense, I did take out one guard who tried to come up behind him, but I suddenly began to feel like a failure as I watched Sam fight more and more guards. My heart thundered. Nothing could happen to Sam. This was supposed to be me helping Sam, not forcing him to save me.
“Stop!” King Adam bellowed, as I rose to try and help. “You Rounan scum, I hereby order you to stop!” He tried to get off a blast of wind magic to knock Sam and I over. As I raised my arms to block, Sam nudged the king’s aim too high and then flattened him to the stage with a big, invisible hand. As this happened, a guard rushed up behind Sam, aiming for his head. Sam ducked, but the guard still managed a grip on his hood and yanked it off.
King Adam’s eyes grew large once he took in Sam’s face and the bandana tied around his head, the gold stars surrounded by blue with a purple border. The colors of his people, Grandma had called it the day he came to take me to the livery after Frederick and I narrowly escaped the Spring Festival at the castle. From his pinned down position, the king sneered, “Kidek Samton Greene is helping the Allyen, eh?”
Sam glared at the king, and his voice was deep, strong, and penetrating. “I will not allow you, or your master, to murder any more of my people!”
Finally, I made myself useful during everyone’s chitchat. I magically rocketed a few more of the guards off of the stage, effectively taking care of the rest of them. Sam turned to me, still angry as he magically held the king down, and took the terrified Parker boy and I by the hands.
The king’s eyes widened in fury as he struggled in his pancake position. “Guards! Capture them now! Don’t let any of them get away!”
Sam hoisted the scrawny boy around his shoulders. I felt him take a huge breath, his magic growing inside him before he turned on his heel, pulling me under his arm and gripping me tight under my ribs. All of this happened within seconds before I abruptly felt my feet leave the ground. We flew through the air in a supersized jump to the edge of the crowd, and I held onto him for dear life. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes we were moving so fast. Sam kept his balance when the ground came up to meet us, but I stumbled. He mercilessly pulled me forward as we began to sprint away from the square with at least twenty of the guards on our tails.
Time seemed to slow once more as we sprinted at full speed. I couldn’t have run faster even if I’d wanted to, and I quickly noticed that the Parker boy had fainted, slung across Sam’s shoulders. I glanced over my shoulder only once to see King Adam’s guards yelling and racing towards us. The king himself mustered all his power to try and use the wind to bring us back to him. It was like running against a wall.
As I felt my feet lift the ground yet again, I wondered if he had succeeded. Then I noticed Rachel’s tight grip around my middle. In split second, I looked up to see my red-haired friend, whom I had known for years, with colors sprouting from her back that came around and enveloped the four of us. I had no time to look closer at them before the whitest light I had ever experienced filled my head.
It was suddenly completely silent. The silence rang in my ears after being around the noisy crowd and the guards’ shouting.
The light disappeared, and, in that same moment, I landed on the ground, hard. My eyes were blinded for a few seconds afterward, but I recognized the now familiar scent of oak and the feel of the soft grass where we landed. Once my vision cleared, I could see our makeshift campsite. I rubbed my eyes hard, and when I saw Sam, he looked just as confused and amazed as I did.
Suddenly, I heard Rachel laughing. “Oh, good grief! Samton, really? That’s your first name?”
Sam dropped the unconscious boy on the grass, still looking angry. “I really don’t see what’s so funny about my name!”
“Well, I think it’s hilarious.” Rachel beamed as she went over to talk to her brothers. Luke and James were confused as they kept glancing toward the Parker boy who was still completely unconscious. Rachel seemed to explain the situation further to them. I could just hear Luke’s thoughts now, could imagine his grumbling about having another person to babysit all day while the rest of the adults, aside from me, went off to work.
Sam didn’t say a word to me, and instead quickly turned around and headed back to his tent after a piercing look.
The boy we saved was waking up as Sam headed away from him, and after a few frantic looks around, he curled into a ball and breathed erratically. I might not have been able to save him on my own, but he definitely needed someone right now. The boy’s eyes locked on to me, widening slightly as I crept closer to him. I moved as carefully and slowly as I could, kneeling in the grass still maybe five or six feet away when the poor kid began to whimper.
I held my hands out so he could see they were empty. “It’s okay! You don’t have to be afraid of us. I promise. We rescued you, remember?
The kid took a raspy breath as he thought, and I began to wonder if he was sick. For being slightly tall for his age, this kid didn’t have a speck of meat on him. His arms were so thin they made my stomach churn to look at them, and his neck didn’t seem to be big enough to support his head adequately. His clothing was ripped in some places but haphazardly sewn
up in others, as if he’d fixed them several times. They were also drenched with coal dust, leading me to believe he’d been hiding in the mines. That assumption matched both his pale skin tone and the big mining goggles strapped to his head. After what seemed like an eternity, the boy barely nodded, a fraction of the fear leaving his eyes.
I grinned a little bit as I sat down cross-legged while inching a little closer to him. “My name is Lina. What’s yours?”
The boy looked down and only held his stomach. I reached into the pouch that hung from my waist and dug around until I found some of the jerky I’d been saving for later. I had hardly offered it to him before he snatched it away and began to nibble on it like a squirrel. It reminded me of the way Rosetta used to eat her jerky when we were little and didn’t have as much to go around. It made me teary-eyed.
“Camerron.” He whispered.
“Nice to meet you, Camerron.” I smiled at him. Once I saw that he had calmed down and was content with his jerky, I rose to go find him some water because I was sure he was thirsty. The Owenses were still off in their corner discussing, although I noticed James had left the huddle. Probably to reassume his lookout post.
When I reached the fire, I noticed somebody was already in the act of boiling water to cleanse it. I lifted the iron kettle off the fire and poured it into my own tin cup that was waiting with everybody else’s for whenever our next meal was. I was standing to return to Camerron when I came face to face with a piping hot Sam.
“What are you doing?” Sam’s voice was rigid, his arms crossed defensively over his chest.
“I’m taking Camerron some water. I’ll add some to your pot later if that’s the problem.” I replied, a little too edgily. This metal cup was beginning to burn my hands.
Sam balked at me. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done today?”
“I-…” I tried to say, but he cut me off in his anger.
“You have no clue, do you? What being a leader is all about?” Sam’s voice continued to rise.
“Sam, I was just trying to save Camerron! After all, he’s a-…”
“Lina, you need to understand how much is at stake here!” A pained expression entered Sam’s face. “I just got exposed to the entire kingdom in order to save you because you wanted to help one boy! I can never go back to Soläna ever again, and my people are in even more danger because of you! I’ve already lost all of my records and now people have seen me with you and protecting you, the Allyen! If Rhydin wasn’t already after the Rounans, he definitely will be now.”
Sam sighed and turned away from me as if the conversation was over, but it definitely was not. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back around to face me, throwing my cup to the ground. “Hey, I didn’t ask you to jump in and save me okay? I didn’t ask you to show yourself off to everyone! I’m sure if you had waited an extra, I don’t know, thirty seconds? Rachel could have saved me instead. That’s their job, if you’ve forgotten, not yours!”
“Hold up, you’re blaming me for saving your skin? Lina, a guard was about to tackle you to the ground and likely slit your throat!” Sam shook his head, his eyes becoming like fire and color entering his cheeks. “I don’t think you understand that literally everything you do affects this whole kingdom, this whole continent. Because if you die, nobody will be here to defeat Duunzer or Rhydin! I know you’re still mourning your family, but you need to at least grasp that this is so much bigger than that! I’m an outlaw because of you. I lost my farm, my mining job, and all of my records because of you. To top it all off, now all of my people are doomed!”
“Sam, I’m sorry, okay? I never asked to be the Allyen!” My words began to slip as my throat developed a lump. I fought back tears hard. “I saved him because-…”
“It doesn’t matter!” Sam shouted and then began to shake a finger at me. “I didn’t ask to be a Rounan either! I sure as heck never asked to be Kidek, Lina, but you know what, life isn’t fair! We still have to serve in these roles whether we want to or not!”
“Okay, you know what?” I placed my hands on my hips, trying to ignore the fact that each of his words pierced my heart. “Do you actually want to know why I saved Camerron? He’s a Rounan! I tried to save him because I get it. It’s my fault you lost your records. I just thought if I could help you save just one of your people, maybe you would feel better! I guess that’s just not good enough for you, is it?”
Sam suddenly looked like I’d slapped him. He peeked over to where Camerron was eyeing us fearfully, having listened to our whole conversation. He swallowed hard as he stomped over to where the boy sat and rolled up the sleeve of his right arm. There was a geometric mark that stretched from the boy’s wrist to his elbow, although it was smaller than I would have thought. I remembered how Frederick had explained to me that true Rounans have these marks on their arms, and that they tell you how much magic they have. Sam sighed as he saw it, convicted that I was right as he began to rub his temples. The Parker boy really was a Rounan even if he didn’t have much power.
He walked back toward me, his jaw set but his energy gone. “Why didn’t you tell me he was a Rounan? I could have helped you.”
“Sam, he had a noose around his neck. If I had waited to clear it with you, he might not be here right now.” My words were firmer now. “You shouldn’t have jumped in. Rachel could have saved me and whisked us far away from there, and you could still have your life!”
“Lina…” Sam looked down, almost embarrassed, shaking his head like something just wouldn’t compute. His voice was much quieter. “Lina, I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t just wait and see what happened. You were in danger.”
His change of mood made me quirk my eyebrow. “And it never occurred to you that my three bodyguards could swoop in and save me? That’s why they’re here, y’know.”
“I know. I just…” Sam eyes turned up to the sky, at a loss. “It was something I had to do. I didn’t even think about it. I just did it. It was…instinct.”
“Why?” My voice got louder, getting frustrated with his vague responses.
“Just because. Let’s leave it at that.” Sam tried to turn away from me again.
“Sam!” I reached out and grabbed his hand. “You can’t get all mad at me for jumping in and saving Camerron and causing you to be revealed to the whole kingdom if you can’t tell me why you had to save me yourself and not wait for the Owenses!”
Sam sighed, his shoulders slumping. He turned around, swallowing hard and biting his lip rather fiercely before finally looking me in the eye. His expression was almost tortured as the words spilled out. “Because I’m in love with you. I had to save you. I couldn’t bear to go one second longer watching you up on that stage. I’m sorry that was such a mistake.”
With that, Sam walked away from me. It was as if my heart stopped beating all together. His fingers fell through mine like sand. My mouth fell open, and my arms dropped to my sides limply. I suddenly felt vulnerable as I stared at his back walking away from me. My heart broke as I watched him go, willing him to come back to me so we could continue this conversation.
Had he really said it? Those three tiny, powerful words? He said he was in love with me. After all this time. After he took me to the Spring Festival and after catching me as I fell down the canyon with my magic coming alive. After he came to visit me at the livery every few days, and offered to take care of my farm for me. After I always wondered but always shut it down because I thought it couldn’t be possible. Why would he ever love me?
Yet now, I’d lost him. He said he’d made a mistake. He walked away from me before I could even respond. Had he changed his mind?
Of course, it was not until this moment that I discovered how much this idea would hurt. I’d been intertwined with him this whole time and never realized it, even after all the time I spent protecting him at the beginning of the year. All that time, I’d thought I was protecting him because he was my childhood friend. But that wasn’t true.
I’d protected him becau
se I loved him. And now, the idea of him somehow hating me was absolutely unbearable.
Chapter Sixteen
F rederick and his sister, Mira, arrived in the middle of Sam and Lina’s argument. Frederick decided not to get involved. After all, Sam and Lina were each grown adults who could handle themselves responsibly. He truly hoped they could make up and not be at odds with each other anymore. Anybody with two eyes could tell that they were in love with each other. Although, to be honest, Frederick hadn’t quite picked up on it until Rachel told him. It was not his gift, he had been told by Cassandra, his own soon-to-be wife.
When he reached the Owenses, he noticed Luke and James on either side of Rachel, as if they had to hold her back while Sam and Lina had their argument. Frederick knew that Rachel was fiercely protective of Lina and had been so ever since she began her assignment in Lunaka a few years ago. He was glad Lina had such a good friend during this time.
Frederick cleared his throat, and the three Owenses looked at him. He grinned slightly. “So, I suppose you’re the reason they got out of there so quickly?”
Rachel nodded, straightening her posture as if she’d never gotten riled up. “Yes. Unfortunately, I had to show them my magic, but there was no other way. If I hadn’t, we would all be in prison right now facing our own nooses.”
“It’s a handy skill.” Frederick said, not angry at all. “It’s convenient that you and your brothers possess it since the only other person who can use transportation magic in the world is Rhydin. One of these days, we will need to explain what you three are to Lina and Sam. They deserve to know.”
“She hasn’t had time to ask about it yet. But when she does, I’ll be referring her to you.” Rachel winked at him.
Mira stepped forward, her pale, stoic face seeming more of a mask today. “Are there any updates that we should be aware of?”
The Allyen (The Story of the First Archimage Book 1) Page 17