Andoran's Legacy

by M. Gregg Roe

  Almera didn’t say anything, but she thought that Marilee’s replacement of Karin was a hopeful sign. There were still many questions. Was Karin now back in the brooch? Was Audrey in the brooch? Or was she simply being somehow suppressed? That seemed most likely.

  Pointing upward, she adopted her “no arguments” expression as she addressed her son. “Go tell your grandfather what happened and then tell him to come here. Drag him out of a council meeting if you have to. Then go to the Temple of Arwon and see if Preston or some other cleric is available.”

  To his credit, Saxloc simply cast Levitation and flew off without saying another word.

  Back inside, she found Audrey—no, Marilee—standing in front of the large window gazing outside. Even from a distance, she could sense the brooch’s power. The unknown magic pulsated at a rate that she suspected matched Audrey’s heart rate, slow but steady. That definitely felt ominous to her.

  Marilee abruptly turned around. “I know I’m dead. Anton too. We were all sick. I told Berna to send her girls away with some of the less sick ones that was trying to get to Fisherton.”

  “Then you saved them,” said Almera, stepping forward. “They’re here living with us, and so is Romee.” Then she told Marilee about the three that had ended up living in Havenbrook.

  “I’m so happy,” said Marilee, teary-eyed. “I know you and Draymund’ll take good care of them, just like you took care of Audrey.”

  “We will. You have my word. Marilee, is there anyone else in there aside from your mother? Berna? Aldruth?”

  After looking briefly puzzled, Marilee held out the brooch cradled in both hands. “You mean in here, don’t you? My mother told me about this when I was younger. She said it’d be mine someday. But we never found it after she died.”

  Almera walked up and pointed at the brooch. “That is Andoran’s symbol. I think he was the one who fathered your mother.”

  “The god?” asked Marilee, looking both astonished and skeptical.

  “He wasn’t a god,” she said firmly. “He was a human with a real talent for magic. He developed, or perhaps found, a means to greatly prolong his life. And he kept improving his magical abilities and creating new spells. But he was mortal. I actually saw him die.” That had been horrifying, to say the least.

  “Andoran’s dead?”

  “Yes, for nearly twenty years.”

  Marilee shook her head. “I never knew. Back home, there was people that worshipped him.”

  Almera cracked a smiled. “There still are. And his greatest creation still exists.” More than one person had expected the Gray Forest to disappear following Andoran’s death. But Andoran’s Realm endured.

  “I’d like to stay and talk,” said Marilee, then pursed her lips. “This body feels so good, but it’s Audrey’s, not mine. I need to give it back to her, but I don’t know how.”

  That didn’t surprise Almera, but it did concern her. She gave it some thought before speaking. “Just imagine yourself back where you were. Will it to happen. It might help to close your eyes.”

  Marilee nodded, determination showing in her eyes. “Give my best to Draymund. I may not see you again.” She closed her eyes and her body tensed, then abruptly relaxed.

  “Uh … ,” said what was clearly now Audrey as she shook her head and blinked several times. “Wasn’t I just talking to Saxloc?” After glancing around, she gestured with the brooch. “Did this do something to me?”

  Feeling greatly relieved, Almera smiled warmly. “Yes, and I will explain what I know.” She nodded at Audrey’s outstretched hand. “May I look at that again?”

  The change was startling. “It’s mine,” she snapped, yanking her hand back. She stuffed the brooch into her right-hand pocket and crossed her arms in front of her. “It’s … Why did I just do that? I feel kind of strange.” She relaxed and dropped her arms.

  Almera sighed softly and smiled. “This is going to require a great deal of explanation. But first, let’s make some tea.”

  Audrey still had questions—loads of questions. She wasn’t at all happy about being basically a prisoner in her own home even if Almera had promised to do all the cooking. And why wasn’t she allowed to see her cousins? At least they had let her write a letter to Grasapa to apologize for missing her teaching duties that afternoon. But she was determined to return to work tomorrow morning. It was her responsibility.

  She was also angry at Daragrim. He kept asking to take the brooch away to study, promising that it wouldn’t harm anything. That wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to risk anything that might harm what remained of her mother and the grandmother she could barely remember. Maybe there was some way to restore them. Magic could do all kinds of things.

  Lying on her back in her bed, Audrey pressed the brooch to the right side of her head. Maybe getting it close to her brain would help. “Are you there, Mother?” she asked. “Marilee? Karin? Please talk to me. Or give me some kind of sign.” She had no memory of being possessed by the two of them. After a minute or so of fruitless waiting, she clutched the brooch to her chest. A necklace. She needed to make it into a necklace so it would always be near her heart.

  Audrey looked over as Saxloc entered the room, quickly closing the door behind him. “What now?” she asked, glaring at him. “Do they want to dissect me? Have a blacksmith melt down the brooch to see what’s inside?” She pulled her legs back and sat up as he seated himself on the bed.

  “First of all,” he said, failing to hide his annoyance, “my grandfather simply wants to examine it. It won’t hurt anything.”

  “Are you absolutely sure?” she demanded, waving the brooch at him. “What if that kills them?”

  “Audrey, they’re already dead. At worse, it would free them to move on.”

  She yanked the brooch back close. “I don’t want to free them. I want them with me.”

  “What about allowing Preston to examine you? He won’t touch the brooch.”

  “Let me think about it.” That didn’t sound too unreasonable, and she really liked him. “Why can’t I see Ilona and Iris?”

  “Because the brooch might also affect them.”

  That gave her an idea. “Maybe they can bring back their mother. Maybe I can’t because I’m not her daughter.”

  He hesitated a long while before answering. “I can’t rule it out. We should try it eventually. But not now. We don’t know enough.”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “Wait. Was there a second point?”

  Saxloc scratched the side of his head. “What was it? Oh, I know. There’s no furnace in this city that can melt that brooch.”

  “But isn’t it just some kind of steel? And I know steel is just iron with stuff added.”

  “It’s Kylar steel, and no one outside of Kylar knows how to make it.” He frowned. “Except Andoran obviously knew.”

  “I’m still having difficulty believing that I’m Andoran’s great-granddaughter.” Audrey suddenly laughed. “Do you remember what Siljan asked me on that trip after we killed all those wolves?”

  Saxloc chuckled. “She asked if you were secretly Andoran’s daughter. She was only off by two generations.”

  “I can’t wait to tell her. You know, that huge book I read about Andoran never mentioned him being married or having children. Or even having a girlfriend,” she concluded with a silly grin.

  “That’s true, but we really don’t know how accurate that it. He may have fathered hundreds of children, leaving each woman with one of those brooches. We may find more of them out there.”

  That touched on something that was starting to worry her. “Maybe not. I need to take this somewhere. It wants me to take it.” The compulsion was steadily growing stronger.

  “Where?” he asked, looking worried again.

  “Fog Lake.” The image kept cropping up in her mind. “The middle of it. I need to go.”

  “I see,” he said, looking even more worried. “I’ll just go have another talk with my parents and my grandfather.
We’ll let you know when dinner is ready.” He departed, closing the door firmly behind him.

  Audrey laid back down and held the brooch above her head, using both hands. “If that’s where you want to go, I’ll find some way to get you there. But I want them back, both Marilee and Karin. Unharmed. Understand?”

  What she hadn’t told Saxloc—or really anyone—was that when she and Violet were ten-years-old they had “borrowed” a rowboat and tried to go to the center of the lake. They had seen and heard things that scared them half to death, but they hadn’t told anyone about that part. In hindsight, she now suspected that they had been compelled not to talk about it. There really was something in the center of Fog Lake. She was certain of it.

  By the time Almera came to tell her that dinner was ready, Audrey had made a necklace of sorts using a thin strip of tan flannel. From now on, the brooch would be with her always.

  The sight was so unexpected that Draymund simply stood for a while in the doorway, taking it all in. After years of ignoring his mother’s unsubtle hints, Saxloc was finally tackling the disorganized mess that was his office. And he wasn’t messing around, pulling out all of his desk drawers, clearing off shelves. The room was covered with stacks of books and piles of paper of varying heights. There was a strong odor of dust.

  Sitting cross-legged in the only clear space, Saxloc pointed at a tall pile sitting on an upholstered chair. “Those are all poems that Siljan sent me. The one titled ‘Irritating Isadora’ is hysterical.” He sighed and put down the piece of paper in his hand. “How was the meeting?”

  “We came to some decisions, but first I need to put your mind at ease. Preston examined Audrey, and aside from being somewhat anxious, she is in perfect health.” Saxloc opened his mouth, but closed it when Draymund held up a finger. “She still won’t let anyone else touch the brooch, but she allowed your grandfather to hold his hands near it.” Daragrim had impressed them all, simply talking honestly and openly to Audrey, rather than trying to persuade her. “The brooch has gone back to hiding its magical potential, but with one change. He could detect faint overtones of spirit magic, which explains Audrey’s compulsion.”

  Saxloc nodded. “I still feel guilty about forgetting about it.”

  “That was something else we discussed. It’s possible that the brooch was responsible, that it basically caused you to put it away out of sight and then forget all about it.”

  Visibly relieved, Saxloc said, “I only found it because I was frustrated trying to find something in that drawer and dumped it all out. Then I went straight over to see Audrey because I felt guilty.”

  That was an indication that the brooch needed time to act. Smiling, Draymund said, “Your mother took it upon herself to try a Sleep spell on Audrey. Secretly, of course.”

  “That’s worked on her before,” said Saxloc, rubbing his chin. “But it obviously didn’t this time.”

  Sitting was out of the question, so Draymund moved to lean against the doorframe. “It had no effect. The brooch is protecting Audrey as well as coercing her. We think that it would actually be dangerous to separate her from it at this point.”

  “Then what are we going to do?” he begged.

  They had discussed it at length, but because it was nearly midnight, Draymund decided to skip that part. “We think that the only option is to let Audrey have her way. And who better to accompany her than the people she is most accustomed to traveling with? You have all of tomorrow to prepare. I will make the arrangements, including contacting Gabriel and Hankin.” He was also going to have to go to Xlee’s Martial Arts Academy to speak to Bennet and Zalina.

  Nodding seriously, Saxloc said, “We’ll need to go to Fisherton to get a boat. From there we can contact Siljan.”

  “Exactly.” The young woman was a spirit magic specialist, making her the perfect one to monitor Audrey.

  “Have you told Audrey?” he asked.

  Draymund laughed. “You have never seen someone so happy.” He gestured at the mess. “Now get some sleep, son. This can wait until morning.”

  He wasn’t so fortunate. Almera had him up half the night asking questions. She was desperately worried about Audrey, and so was he.

  32

  ‡ Hope ‡

  It was if Audrey was trying to will the ship to go faster. She stood at the very front of the bow with her unbound hair blowing in the wind and a smile on her lips. Gabriel knew that she was under some kind of magical compulsion, but it seemed to him that it was hope that was driving her forward. He had rarely seen her so happy.

  Gabriel didn’t question that the spirits of Marilee and her mother had been captured by the brooch that Audrey had shown him. Magic could do remarkable things in his experience, and there had been no spell-caster in recorded history more powerful than Andoran. There also seemed a clear purpose to the brooch, an attempt to preserve Andoran’s own offspring, albeit in an unorthodox manner.

  The leaves were beginning to turn, making for a pleasant trip downriver to Rohoville, where they would be spending the night. Gabriel smiled as he imagined how Danj might respond to the news that Audrey was a descendant of Andoran. He would probably tell the story of how he had once encountered an avatar of Arwon (although omitting the part where he insulted what looked like a normal man at first). It would likely prove entertaining.

  Saxloc walked up to the port railing where Gabriel was standing. His demeanor was nearly the opposite of Audrey’s as he said, “I think we should ask Aliva to join us.”

  That, unfortunately, wasn’t going to be possible now. “She is in the Witch’s City at present,” he explained. Aliva still stayed with Kora when she was in town.

  After a long sigh, Saxloc said, “I’m just worried we won’t be able to handle this.”

  “I disagree,” Gabriel said, earning himself a surprised look from his friend. “Had Marilee’s mother given her the brooch before she died, I suspect that it would have been her who felt a compulsion. She would have found a means to get herself to the center of Fog Lake.”

  “You may be right. She could easily have taken it there, but then what? Her mother is reincarnated somehow? Marilee returns home with the brooch but with no memory of what happened?”

  “I cannot speak as to the reincarnation,” said Gabriel, “but the memory erasure sounds likely. Andoran would probably want the matter kept secret.” It also explained why they had not heard of such a thing before.

  “Eyes,” said Saxloc, suddenly intent. “Maybe they get made into Eyes of Andoran.”

  It was an odd idea, but not entirely implausible. “I am having difficulty picturing Marilee as an Eye of Andoran.” His dry comment had the intended effect, causing Saxloc to smile.

  “That is hard to imagine,” said Saxloc, resting his elbows on the railing as he relaxed. “It’s just a theory. Maybe he just kept them around to talk to.”

  Saxloc suddenly looked to his right, and Gabriel saw Audrey walking toward them, still smiling as she used a hand to smooth her unruly hair. “I’m going below to get a bite to eat,” she said, stopping next to them. “Anyone else hungry?”

  “No thank you,” said Gabriel, inclining his head politely.

  “I’ll go,” said Saxloc.

  Gabriel turned his attention back to the dense woods south of the river. It really was a lovely day to travel.

  Audrey ran her fingers over the letters neatly chiseled into the surface, over the names of the dead. She recognized most of those listed, but not all. It simply reinforced that she hadn’t been part of the village when it met its horrific end. She had fled Farmerton to seek a better life, but the village had still been her home, a place where she could visit the family and friends she had left behind. But no more.

  The thick slab of stone thrust out of the earth like a giant tooth, its sides tapering and edges beveled. The black stone’s smooth surface was marbled with a network of fine white veins, beautiful in its own way. One side listed the names of those that had perished while the other simply re
counted the village’s history and ultimate fate. That side also listed the six known survivors.

  The others were waiting for her where the meeting hall had once stood. The memorial had been sited just south of there, in what had been the village’s common area. That was where the well had been, but no sign of it remained. The nearby trees were mere stumps now, presumably cut down after being damaged by the fire. The goblins had been thorough, eradicating every trace of the buildings and fences. Only the simple wooden pier that jutted out into Fog Lake remained. But the shape of the land and the surroundings remained the same. Audrey found that comforting.

  She had expected to cry, but maybe those tears had already been shed. Or maybe it was the brooch that she could feel against the skin of her chest. Hope in the form of a piece of cold metal.

  “Can we stay here tonight?” she asked as she walked up to the three young men.

  After some exchanged looks, it was Gabriel who spoke up. “Of course. It is already mid-afternoon.”

  They could probably have made it to Fisherton before dark, but it would have been a push. Yesterday they had been slowed by wind, rain, and the resulting mud, failing to reach Merryton as they had planned.

  Hankin stepped apart from the other two. “I’m going to fly to the temple; I’ve got enough range for that now. Siljan and I will meet you in Fisherton tomorrow.” He made a complex gesture with his left hand. “Levitation!”

  Audrey watched as Hankin rose into the air, feeling envious. When she finally lost sight of him, she saw that Gabriel was already laying out the pieces of the lightweight travel tent he had recently purchased and was quite proud of. It had done its job last night, keeping those inside dry even during heavy rain.

  “Does it bother you?” asked Saxloc quietly, now standing just to her left. “That everything has been erased?”

  “I thought it might, but I think it’s better this way.”

  “I agree,” he said, smiling gently at her. He nodded to the north. “I’m going to Goblinton, or whatever they call it, and let them know we’re here. They might have patrols that come out this far.”