Keepers of the Crown

by Lydia Redwine

  His conflict was disregarded when a speck of white caught the corner of his eye, and he glimpsed another piece of yellowing paper floating down from where it had escaped from the trunk. He snatched it from the air and unfolded it, curious to know what else his father had written.

  My dearest Ilea,

  Please understand that I am deeply sorry for betraying you. I cannot speak of where the Crown of Cures is now, but be assured that it still exists.

  As for the writings of mine that you hold in memory, I am pleased to add that I think I have found the girl who is spoken of within my writings. She is the daughter of someone I have met here in Mirabelle. She has the mark of the Savior which means”

  The letter ended there, abruptly, with nothing more. Not even a signature. Whoever this Ilea was, she had never received this. Perhaps Daniel had never meant to actually send it.

  Peter scanned and rescanned the last, cut off sentence. “The daughter of someone I have met here in Mirabelle…” He read the words aloud.

  Then, with pulse rumbling, he folded the paper up and pushed it back into the trunk just before Saffira’s voice called him inside. He stumbled inside, still lost in thought. “I need to see Cam again. Unless...she’s already seen this. Yes, Cole probably showed it to her before he ever thought to tell me.”

  Although he refused to acknowledge the events happening outside of Mirabelle, Peter now had no choice now but to be concerned.

  Six

  Five human forms were spread on the ground fast asleep two

  hours after the sun’s sinking. Cam, however, was still huddled next to the fire, occasionally feeding wood to its eager flames. Riah, as she had noticed only recently, had not yet gone to sleep. He came to sit next to her, and he too fed debris to the fire, even when it was not needed. Silence passed between them for what seemed an eternity. Only the crickets and frogs of the marshes sang through the night air.

  Finally, Riah ceased messing with the fire. He sat beside Cam and leaned forward, his eyes intent. His legs bounced and hands fidgeted in his lap.

  “Why did you join the Seekers?” Cam inquired quietly. The question had been simmering inside her for days now.

  He turned to meet her gaze. “I want to help…after, well…my father…” he trailed off, his eyes slipping into the distance, staring at nothing in particular. He snapped back to attention. “I suppose I wish to redeem myself. If there is any chance of us finding that magic, then I want to help. I want to be there.”

  Cam nodded, turning to poke a stick into the ground. Riah’s warm body temperature radiated off of hers, and she almost closed the gap sideways to keep warm. “Too bad it isn’t the magic you think we’re looking for. Not that you need to know.”

  Riah took a turn at asking a question. “What are your sisters like? I mean, besides Fiera?” Cam smiled, appreciative to have a favorable topic arise. First, she described Adria and Mista and how vastly different they were. Adria, beautiful as the sea on a sunny day, had a quiet temperament and loving nature. Mista, wild like the blossoming of spring, held jest and spirit.

  “I’m sure Mista will choose Gnosi when she’s of age,” Cam added. Riah nodded, smiling a little. Cam found she liked when he smiled, only if it was a little.

  Riah’s smile seemed somewhat forced. “I wonder why anyone ever had to choose in the first place. I mean, all the realms comprise one nation. Why couldn’t anyone get up and leave and live somewhere else after a while?”

  Cam shrugged. But she knew the reason. She had asked Cole once. His response had made perfect sense. “Do you know when they began making us choose?” he had asked. Cam had shaken her head. “Shortly before the rebellion. Actually, shortly before you were born. They made it mandatory that we had to choose so that, eventually, Spirit Followers from other realms couldn't mingle together, marry, or have children together. If people are made to choose and shamed for leaving their homeland, eventually, minoritygroupsin therealms willdieoff.”

  “But why don’t they just move into their own realm, then?” Cam had asked.

  “Move into their own realm and have no way to partake in the magic or the ruling system?” Cole had responded. It had made sense. It still did.

  Cam turned from her memory back to Riah who was asking something else.

  “What about the other one?” he asked softly. His arm brushed hers when she did not reply for a long while.

  “Uh…she was…um…like a mother I suppose. She was protective, loving, sometimes too critical, but she was someone I knew Icould always rely on.”

  “Was?”

  Cam choked down the exploding ache in her chest. She nodded slowly but didn’t bother to elaborate. Fortunately, Riah didn’t ask for an explanation. He shifted. “I suppose we should try and sleep.” He began to rise. On sudden instinct, Cam grasped his arm and pulled him down. His gaze held expectancy.

  “Was thereever anyoneyouever caredfor?” sheinquired softly.

  He was seated again. “My mother and…Saff.”

  “What happened?”

  Riah shrugged. Cam saw conflicting answers battling for dominance in his expression. “Lie to me, then,” she dared silently. A look of sadness flickered in his expression. He swallowed. His face turned so that his nose hovered just above Cam’s. Cam felt her eyelids drop as their breaths mixed. She had hardly any time to register Riah’s warm, soft lips melting into hers before he pulled away. Every nerve tensed when his fingers moved to her jawline. His tan complexion glowed red in the firelight, and his eyes wavered in an intense gaze. As though her senses were seized, Cam jerked away.

  “I-I’m sorry...I don’t know why…”

  “I should have known. He’s trying to deceive me…” Cam thought as she watched him pretend he shouldn’t have kissed her. She forced a grin and said instead, “At least you weren’t intoxicated,”

  His face turned sheepish, recalling his drunken state the night of his birthday party, the same night that Cam was first in Gnosi. Cam wiped her hands on the fabric of the blanket before noticing that he was still looking intently at her. “I’m sorry for everything that’s happened, Cam.” Cam only stared as he rose and situated himself on a bedroll on the other side of the fire. “Me too. Sorry for this game we also seem to be playing against one another.”

  Cam’s eyes fluttered open.

  By the gray light beyond the treetops, she could tell that dawn had broken not too long ago. She winced at a sudden throbbing in her temple and released a low moan. Everything in her vision was swimming. “Did I…? I don’t remember finding any…” She reached to touch her head, only to find that she couldn’t move her hands...

  Because they were bound together.

  “Get her to the water,” a sharp voice commanded. Jezz’s figure loomed over her and something was clutched in her hand. A piece of dark fabric.

  Cam’s vision went black.

  Hands were underneath her arms and hauling her to unsteady feet. Slightly disoriented, panic swept through her in a cold sweat.

  What was happening? A nightmare was what this was.

  She jerked as if she could wake herself up. But she was already awake and was being dragged away from the warmth of her blanket and cloak. “Calm down!” her brain screamed. She forced her heart rate to diminish so that she could hear her assailants’ voices. Jezz was close to her ear, ordering things to Ahab who was panting heavily on her left. His strong arms lifted half of her weight so she was not forced to walk by herself.

  But who was the third one replying to Jezz? “Should we just drop her in?”

  “She can swim,” the male voice said.

  Cam’s heart slammed against her chest. His tone was ice cold. Nothing like the warmth and gentleness it had held the night before. “She can swim...not when I’m this weak,” Cam’s mind groaned. And Riah was the third person dragging her to…what? Her death?

  Her throat was burning with the cries clawing up through her mouth. Her body contorted into a fit of rebellion. She thrashed helples
sly, and at first, the three assailants’ cries were that of surprise, but between the three of them, enough hands slammed her into an immovable position.

  A cold wetness spread on her bare feet and a shiver ran up her spine. The hands left her, and she was plummeting into the bitter, biting water. She screamed before her mouth was engulfed with water as she sank beneath the surface.

  Cam thrashed like a caged animal until she realized that there wasn’t just water beneath her feet. She was standing in shallow water. Sand, clay, and seaweed squeezed between her toes. She forced her head to break through the surface.

  She could hardly gather air into her burning lungs, however, before she was forced back under. A heavy hand slammed on her head again and again.

  Cam couldn't tell if the screams she heard were from her throat or the ones in her brain.

  She felt something slip, her feet first and then the ropes about her wrists which had come loose in all her movement. It took Cam one second to grip the hand pushing her under and tugged with all her might. The surprise action gave her enough time to reach above the water, gulp another breath of air, and rip the cloth from her eyes before she was forced back under. Everything burned: her nose, mouth, throat, lungs, eyes.

  It ceased. No hand was pressuring her head.

  She thrashed to the surface of the murky water. The first sensation was that of air filling her throat, nurturing her lungs. The second was the sounds of shouting and objects whizzing through the air.

  Arrows. A splashing sound hit her eardrums, and she expected to go back under only to find she was still standing with her feet planted in clay, mud, and algae.

  Cam vigorously rubbed the water from her stinging eyes, and her vision slowly cleared. The first thing she saw was blood mixed with murky water and a body floating face down with an arrow protruding from a gaping wound in its back. The dark curls of the figure swirled in the liquid.

  Ahab.

  The image hit her brain like the rock that had hit her skull before waking up. She waded towards him, floundering through the water and eventually into his sticky blood. She turned him over and was met with his ashen face. His body was still, but he blinked once. His eyes meet hers, and his lips parted.

  “Sorry,” he muttered almost inaudibly. Panic swept through Cam as Ahab closed his eyes. The cry that burbled from her throat was that of confusion. She whirled around to see the commotion behind her, though it was still blurred in her vision.

  Jezz was battling with Ahab’s killer.

  Caleb.

  “Caleb rescued me,” she realized. And now a knife was being flashed close to his throat. With a wild animal-like cry, Cam floundered through the water, sinking into the sandy floor. She pulled herself on land, grunting and coughing up water. Because she was soaked completely through, it was harder for her to dash to Caleb’s aid. By the time she had reached him, however, he had everything under control.

  Having pinned the thrashing Jezz down, he lay atop her form. From afar it looked intimate, but when Cam drew near, the blood on Jezz’s face said otherwise.

  Finally, Caleb stood up, arrow in hand. It was dripping in blood. The same blood pouring from a gaping wound in Jezz’s chest. He had just pulled it from her.

  “You didn’t have to kill her!” Cam screamed at him. The sound hoarse and choking. “Keep her alive!” Jezz had answers. Like perhaps why they were attempting to murder her. Cam, however, knew all too well why.

  “I didn’t kill her, Cam,” Caleb said solemnly, his eyes wide and voice raspy. She glanced from his expression to the bloody arrow in his hand and back to his face.

  “You stabbed her!”

  He shook his head vigorously.

  “I pulled it out of her, Cam.” Her eyes darted to Jezz who was groaning on the ground. Cam crawled to her side and grasped her cold hand in hers. Water dripped over her face mixing with the already streaming tears.

  “I didn’t want to do this,” Jezz choked out through her tears and blood. “We had to assassinate you…or…they…were going to kill us.” Cam’s eyes widened. “I never wanted to kill you…none of us did.”

  “I did.”

  Cam’s stomach clenchedat thesoundofRiah’svoice. She turned to see Caleb knocked to the ground. Though still conscious, blood gushed from his head and drizzled down his face and throat. Caleb was coughing, his body twitching.

  Cam’s eyes wererippedfrom her friend when Riah jerked away from Jezz. His dark eyes were flashing fire.

  “We had fun, Cam, we really did. And I was telling the truth when I said I was sorry last night. I even meant the kiss.” His lips curled into a sneer.

  He smirked as he shoved Cam to the ground and pinned her, his arm banded across her chest. An elbow pressed into the hollow of her throat.

  She reached her hands out, searching for anything; anything at all to save her. A wooden object tipped with sharp iron grazed her fingers. Her skin felt the sticky substance of blood. “And poison,” Cam realized.

  It was the arrow Jezz had used to kill herself, the one Caleb had dropped before Riah had slashed his face with a knife.

  “I had fun with your sister too. What was her name? Terra, if I remember correctly.”

  Fury rose like a tidal wave and slammed Cam as though she had collided with an unseen wall.

  Riah. Riah had been one of the lovers Terra was sold to! It made sense, of course. What better way to prove your allegiance to a creature such as Apollyon than by giving your daughter for the enjoyment of his son? The hatred from Riah’s eyes seemed to pour through Cam as well. She screamed with rage. Her throat burned.

  Riah dropped onto her, his body limp.

  A hard object pressed into Cam’s stomach. With a cry, she heaved Riah off of her and the hardness left her stomach. The arrow she had grasped protruded from his thigh. With wide eyes and open mouth, she pulled in a sharp breath.

  What had seized her? Self-defense or hatred? She shook, her entire body trembling. Riah’s face had gone ash-white and tremored with pain. It was not just the arrow that caused pain but the poison it was tipped with.

  “Forgive me, forgive me,” she murmured earnestly as if she had been struck suddenly. Then she realized her guilt. She had never forgiven Riah. She knew she should have. “Forgiveness is something we should give to everyone, whether they deserve it or not.” Her father had said these words.

  “Forgive me. Forgive me,” Cam murmured at Riah though she did not know if he heard her. She knew she could not save him. She scrambled on all fours back to Jezz whose breathing had slowed immensely. Again, she grasped her hand.

  “Come on, Jezz, stay with me. Eyes open!” Jezz said nothing. She no longer had the strength too. Instead, she smiled. For the first time, she gave Cam a real smile.

  As she slipped from life into death, the tears welled up in Cam’s eyes and sobs wreaked havoc on her body. It was not until she was fully crying that she realized Caleb still lay upon the ground.

  She pried Jezz’s cold, dead fingers from her hand and crawled towards Caleb. She touched the spot where blood had dried up. “I’m okay, Cam. It’s just a cut.” She nodded, and they helped each other to their feet. They were both a wreck, especially Cam. She was soaking wet, her hair sticking to the sides of her face and neck. They were both splattered with blood and dirt.

  Cam’s eyes grew wide at another realization. “Fiera! Tyron! Where are they?” She turned quickly and sprinted, or tried to sprint, back to their camp. Caleb shouted after her, trying to run. The vicinity was desolate, with no sign of the other two anywhere.

  A low groan echoed through the forest as the dawn faded into the morning. The sun was a blurred, burning substance glaring through the trees as Cam zigzagged through the fog and almost collided with a tree. She stumbled right over a figure lying on the ground. When she forced herself to halt, she tumbled over a log and landed face first in the mud. She scrambled to her feet and threw herself back to where the figure was lying. Her hands grasped at the black cloak now lying in
a puddle. Nothing was beneath it. It was limp, just lying there. Cam glanced into the puddle.

  And wished she had never been given sight. The image rippled before her and slowly, so very slowly, she lifted her eyes.

  He hung from the tree, his wrists slung over a branch and fastened in place with...were those nails? The body was limp, lifeless. Blood was still dripping from the various wounds in his naked chest. Cam fell to her knees on the ground, her fingers quaking as she reached to touch the blood already on the ground. It fairly fresh, and vultures were already circling above them. “Killed before they awoke me.”

  The odors of the forest trickled into Cam’s senses. Strong were the smells of the aftermath of whatever they had done to Tyron. Rotten. Feces and urine. Not to mention the dry blood pooled around the base of the tree. And if Riah Drakon had managed to kill Tyron Ardor, leader of Mirabelle’s armies, then...he was far more dangerous than Cam had ever imagined him to be. Why the hell had he been released from his prison?

  Cam reached with quivering hands to the necklace set with a ruby still hanging from Tyron’s neck. She yanked it from him. A remembrance. A stone dropped into the pit of her stomach. Dread colored her complexion. It had been hours since his body had been left here. Her lips quivered. “Come on, Cam, we’ve got to find Fiera,” Caleb said quietly. She jumped, not realizing that he had come up behind her. His hands were around her arms, trying to pull her away. But Caleb wouldn’t even look up. “We should bury him…” Cam said with a voice so choked it was nearly inaudible. First his wife all those years ago, and then his own children during Apollyon’s revolt.

  “No, Cam…. wehaveto find Fiera.” Caleb’sown voicewas rushed and distant now. His hands were no longer at her shoulders. He was already sprinting ahead in the fog-laden forest, blood still streaming down the cut Riah had made on his face.

  A cry curdled through the forest. Cam heard the cry before she saw the figure who had issued the sound. Although alive, Fiera leaned against a tree, clutching at her thigh. Caleb was prying her hand away to reveal a wound encrusted with dry blood. “Took you long enough to find me,” Fiera said, wincing. Her face was streaked with tear stains.