My first instinct was to return immediately. I wouldn’t allow Alaire to suffer because of a decision I made. On the other hand, though, Roana was there with him now. Alaire was in good hands, and though it hurt to stay, I knew it was right. The magical world did not consist of only Alaire and me; there were three more Dark magicians struggling just as we were. If I didn’t fight Aldemund because of one man, then I wasn’t sure I could ever go out to battle again.
I reread the message repeatedly until I almost memorized every word. The cat lay beside me with his paws stretched out and his head down. I petted his fury body with one hand as I touched the words on the crumpled paper with the other. The white ribbon had fallen to the ground, but I did not bother to pick it up. I needed to tell Emeria about it, but then I realized she had never returned. Just when I stood up, I heard the sound that scared me the most.
A young girl’s scream.
I threw the note aside, stood up, and ran toward where the noise was coming from. The screaming did not stop; it continued as I made my way toward it. I reasoned with myself that it could be anyone, but deep down inside I could feel it was Emeria.
When at last the screaming stopped I froze in place and saw the girl. At first I did not recognize her, but the broken bracelets surrounding her on the ground I noticed instantly. Her dress was torn so badly that her corset showed. Vertically down her arms were scratches and bruises and her right leg was bleeding. The blood was absorbed into the grass, but the stains painted the ground bright red. On her temple there were small scrapes, and her eyes were wide with fear. Emeria did not look like a teenager; she gave the appearance of a child who had been harassed.
“Emeria?” I whispered.
She was curled up into a ball, shaking like a baby. Having never seen anyone act in such a manner, I continued to stare.
There was no response from Emeria. She whimpered and the moment I decided to comfort her, she began wailing. Despite how many times I continued asking her to hush, she would not listen to a word I spoke. I stepped forward and then felt something hit me in the back. I fell down, rolled over, and gazed up to see the man who I thought had given up pursuing us. There was a serious yet hungry look on his face. Hungry like he desired to kill us for pure pleasure.
Without glancing at Emeria, I understood all too well what had occurred. “You did this!” I accused, pointing my finger at him.
“Be that as it may, I warned you we would fight. From the looks of it, you have nowhere to hide,” he said.
“Why do you insist on fighting? Have not enough lives been taken?” I countered.
He hesitated and then said, “Everyone has been talking about you, yet no one seems to remember anybody named Celestria. Look what’s happened to your friend; you are bound to meet a worst fate.”
“What do you want from me?” I replied, keeping a close watch on Emeria. If it was not for her pain, I could have considered running. However, there did not seem like there was a way for me to escape.
“Tell me who you are or I will fight you,” he answered. Either way, of course, he would not change his mind. He had already attacked Emeria, despite the fact that she was a White magician, and I wasn’t about to risk bluffing.
In an instant, the sky became darker. He swore and then came running toward me. Unaware of his magic, I dodged his attack and winced as I skid my leg against the ground. When I stood up, he came from behind me and jumped onto my back. Once again, I fell down and he grabbed onto my neck. White smog blew into my face, though I closed my eyes and mouth. I did not know what the smog was or what kind of magician could perform such a spell, which meant either I lost my memory on types of magic or he obtained a rare magic. Seeing his confidence, I feared he was indeed a rare magician whose magic no one could predict.
My attacker pushed my body and flipped me over. He sat on my legs, and it felt like they would break with his weight. Abruptly I noticed he was holding a long white knife that glimmered against my dress. He pressed it toward my throat, and I could not speak another word. I needed to say something to force him off of me, yet I had no control over what would happen next. The man was the one with a knife aimed at my throat; my entire life was in his hands. The blade pricked my skin, and I felt blood trickling down.
“Celestria!” Emeria screamed.
The man turned and snapped at her to keep her mouth shut. She silenced, though I could tell she was attempting to say something. With the agonizing pain, I was unable to cry over the fact that Alaire would not be able to save me. He would not come from behind a tree and stop the blade from going through my neck.
“Mate, what are you doing?” A man's voice called from nearby.
A woman's voice sounded angry. “Japhet, stop this!”
Helpless, I looked into my attacker's eyes and searched for mercy. His eyes were dark and empty; he would not spare me my life with the fury that was built up inside of him. A yellow spark hit the blade and the knife landed where Emeria lay. She reached for it but failed to extend her hand far enough to grasp the object. While Japhet glanced up aimlessly, I took advantage of the moment to perform a spell. Before he could react, a black crow made entirely out of smog appeared beside him. It pecked at him as drops of blood formed down his neck, and then it dissolved into thin air before anyone could recognize it. Fortunately no one saw the smog, any of his injuries I could say were caused merely because I had tried to defend myself.
“Christopher, look at what this woman has done! My poor Japhet!” she cried as she rushed to Japhet, who had fallen over and lay on the ground beside me.
She forgot he was the one with the knife... I thought to myself.
The other man, who wore a golden cape, approached me with a smile. He was the first friendly face I had seen in hours.
“Forgive Fayth; she sometimes does not realize what trouble her fiancé likes to cause.” He held out his hand to me.
I was hesitant and could not take my eyes off of his cape. The color looked so real, as if it could have been made out of real gold. The remainder of his outfit was like any other man’s, and his hair was tangled up in a ponytail.
“Let me help you,” Christopher said, “I promise we are not bad people.”
I took his hand, but could not find the words to speak. If Fayth felt strongly toward Japhet, then Christopher had been the one using magic. I had seen a yellow spark like his before, and it confirmed that he was a Light magician. There were four White magicians surrounding me and only one of me...
“Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth, but then I noticed the sky becoming brighter. I watched as Fayth used her own magic to take away the darkness I had caused. Then, returning to look at Christopher, I became unconscious.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Behind the Lies
I woke up, and heard a fire crackling nearby. I raised my head and then dropped it down again onto a pillow. A blanket covered my body; across from me was Emeria, who was sitting on a rock, with Christopher, wrapping gauze around the wound in her leg. He was careful with her, as a father might be with his daughter. From the smile on Emeria's face, I could tell she respected him.
“Looks like you won't be running anytime soon,” Christopher said in a teasing tone.
She giggled and then noticed I was awake. “Oh Celestria!” she exclaimed, though she was unable to move anywhere. Christopher kept his hand on her leg and began applying gauze and herbs to her other injuries.
“You are Romanian, eh?” Christopher asked, only glancing over in my general direction. I tried to smile but winced, feeling an all too familiar pain in my shoulder.
“Yes, I am,” I replied.
“No worries, I moved here several years ago when Fayth announced her engagement to Japhet. I’ve been around to learn a few things.” He winked at me as if I should be impressed.
“Oh...” I said. I thought back to the message from Grefin, and then attempted to turn my head in order to search for Muta. Emeria needed to return to Grefin so she
could find out what was happening. Seeing no sign of the cat, I laid my head on the pillow yet again and stared at the sky. The clouds covered the moon, but the fairies continued to flutter in every direction. I heard someone cough and leaned up to see who it was.
Fayth came to sit by the fire; her face was thin and her brunette hair was partially tied up. Her jade dress was sewed beautifully, and the jewels at the bottom glowed as brightly as the smile on her face.
Fayth patted Christopher on the back and sat beside him. “Japhet's gone off to hunt again.”
“Again? What nonsense has Aldemund been putting into his mind? Four Dark magicians were confirmed dead yesterday; he’s wasting his time,” Christopher answered.
I struggled to take my hands out from underneath the blanket. “What did you just say?”
You misunderstood. He did not just say…
“You didn’t hear? Wilhem confirmed that four of the Dark magicians are dead. There is only one alive now,” Christopher said.
I wanted nothing more than to throw up. I also realized he might be involved with Aldemund somehow, but Emeria was too close to Christopher for me to warn her.
“Confirmed? How?” I asked.
Fayth explained as she took the ring off of her finger and cradled it in her hands. “There is a meeting tomorrow where the Council will discuss that.”
Despite the discomfort it caused, I rolled over to look away from them and stared at the grass. I felt I would be sick, and I regretted having eaten anything. Grefin had written in his message that Alaire was doing poorly, but there was no way for me to determine when he sent it. Could he have died one night? Might Léal have died as well like my dream foreshadowed? I worried and pondered over their well-being, and even went as far as to think about the two Dark magicians I had not met.
“I, for one, am glad they’ve gotten what they deserved,” Fayth said.
I tilted my head up and stopped myself from voicing my opinion. Instead, Christopher added in his own thoughts on the matter.
“I am as well, but Aldemund has everyone worried for no reason at all. We have our own magicians trying to fight a battle we’ve already won,” he sighed.
Fayth snapped, “What has gone through your mind? Aldemund is the reason we have come this far, and he has a purpose to everything he does.”
“You’re afraid of him,” he said in a lower voice.
“Perhaps I have a right to be. He’s a powerful magician, and he knows me a bit too well.”
Refusing to look at them, I whispered for Muta. In all likelihood the cat was nowhere near, but without him there would not be hope of Emeria returning. I wasn’t concerned with returning, for I feared it might be too late. For hundreds of years people hated Dark magicians for their power, and now there was no stopping their hatred.
“Muta is our cat. He's small and gray, but Grefin would be outraged if he found out he is missing.” Emeria was explaining when I shook my head and focused on the conversation.
“DeVilly? Outraged? No, your father is not like that at all. I saw him when he brought you here as a child,” Christopher said.
I perked up. Since Christopher had known Grefin many years ago, I decided to ask a dangerous question. Turning over, I faced them.
“Did you ever know Margareta and Stefan Hale?” I asked. There was little I knew about my parents. Their appearance and names were all that had remained in my memory since the fire. Besides that, now it was unlikely any of my relatives would be alive; they had all been Dark magicians.
“Hmm...” Christopher thought for a while. “I can't say I did, but then again I never knew many magicians from Transylvania.”
I turned to look at him, and then I focused on Emeria. She had the most pitiful look on her face, as if at any moment she would break down and cry. Fortunately she did not question the disappointment that I assumed was evident in my eyes. There was no point in knowing anything about my parents, but for a minute I had hoped I would find out there was good in my family. Like me, my parents had been Dark magicians. Years ago, I had an opportunity to escape what I was involved in now. However, I never took that chance and if I was given it again I knew I would decline. I could not give up my magic after everything I had gone through. How could I? It was the one thing in my life that remained when all else left me.
“Emeria...” I whispered her name without even realizing it.
She raised her head at the sound of her name.
I pushed my hand against the pillow to lift my body up. When I was sitting, though slightly slanted, I said, “Grefin's message came today.”
Suddenly Fayth's eyes widened. “He sent you a message?”
“Of course,” I said, ignoring her, “there is going to be an issue with returning since we have lost Muta.”
For some reason Fayth’s interest did not die down. She placed her hand on Christopher’s thigh and laid her head there. While he glanced down at her with an attempt to hide a smile, I noticed Fayth was staring directly at me.
I was prepared to tell Emeria about the message, even though the two other magicians would hear. Before I was able to, there was the sound of a cat's meow nearby. Everyone's eyes followed in the direction it was coming from and saw the gray cat had returned. He pranced over to Emeria and curled up into a ball, seemingly aware of his new surroundings. Muta purred loudly, though I could see Emeria was whispering something into his ear.
“How do you know Japhet?” Fayth blurted out.
I hesitated, glancing at Emeria for help. When she offered none, I decided to tell Fayth what I knew. “He overheard the other magicians talking about me. I suppose he became suspicious and that was why he attacked me.”
“Yet Emeria says you have a relationship with a Dark magician...” Christopher said, leaning back on the log behind him.
I glared at Emeria, who only returned a blank stare. I didn’t desire to answer more questions.
“Well...”
Fayth interrupted me and jumped up to point. “That ring! Christopher, I've seen that ring!”
I stared down at Alaire's ring, which I regretted having kept. Fayth ran over to me and grabbed my hand without thinking twice. My eyes grew wide as she studied my ring finger, and Christopher looked as confused and horrified as me. We waited in silence for her to explain the reason behind her outburst. When at last she dropped my hand, she did not return to sit beside Christopher. She knelt beside me, grimacing.
“Magicians who worked for Esmour wore that ring…” her voice quivered, and then she turned to glower at me.
“You worked for Esmour?” she asked, though her cheeks lost color as she spoke.
There was nothing significant about the ring. The gray gem in the middle was as dull as wood. Around the sides of the ring were black designs. Taking the ring off, I realized that inside of it there was the black Eldarian letter “D”. The letter meant nothing; it was merely a letter of the alphabet. However, since it was printed in Eldarian there was no doubting that it had been made specifically for a magician.
“No, a man I knew worked for him.” I tried chuckling to cover up the bluff. Why had Alaire never told me what the ring meant? Why would he request I keep an item that would endanger me? There were numerous magicians who continued to mention Esmour’s name, but even with the little information I had gathered on him there remained something more to his story that made him the feared magician he had been. At least by wearing the ring maybe it would give Aldemund something to fear, seeing as Esmour had been his enemy.
“Fayth, calm down. She is not a Dark magician; there would not be any in Belsgar. Grefin has ensured the safety of this place ever since the original founders died,” Christopher said.
My jaw dropped. It made sense for Grefin to be wealthy and well-respected. The part I did not understand was why he had given me a way to enter Belsgar when he was putting his allies in danger. More to the point, he allowed his own daughter to come with me, which I realized now was ironic. She had already been hurt; there was
nothing I could do to keep her out of harm’s way.
“We are part of the Magic Council; we should report her for having a connection with one of them,” Fayth retorted. I pinched her arm without being able to stop myself.
“Ouch!” she cried, returning a glare. Slowly, she backed away and returned to sit beside Christopher.
I coughed and said, “Dark magicians are as human as you are. You have already killed so many of them. Now you must take away their humanity?”
At last Emeria spoke up to save me from the trouble I was slowly drowning in. “Celestria’s brother was a Dark magician until he was killed. Sometimes she cannot help but to defend what he stood for.”
“And what was that?” Christopher asked, though he nodded his head at me.
“The Dark magicians were mistreated, and they have been for centuries. Despite this, they’ve never given up or changed sides. They…” I choked, feeling the spit build up in the back of my throat.
“They join the battle and fight for all of the men’s lives that have already been lost,” I finished. Alaire had spoken the truth; for too long my eyes were shut to the world around me.
After a minute the question no longer mattered because I heard Muta meow and saw Emeria stand up. She struggled to balance her weight, but eventually she stood straight. The cat circled around her as she explained to Fayth and Christopher that her father would not be at the meeting. They were astonished, and I myself could not understand why Grefin would want to skip such an important event. When Emeria turned to me, she blinked and said nothing.
A second too late I said the word that was meaningless.
“Sorry.”
She was gone and Muta had departed with her. I lay on the grass, staring up into the night’s sky. There was one too many times I should have apologized. The lit sky could not stop me from pondering over everything, yet I stared into the night and desired to feel differently. In the morning the conference would be held, and from the way Fayth spoke I was convinced most everyone in Belsgar would attend. There was only one person who mattered to me: Aldemund.
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