“Blue…” I stopped short upon spotting it—the very tiny, very faint speck of blue among the thousands of stars. It was the blue star. I was about to smile in satisfaction at having finally spotted the elusive ghost in the sky when—Wait a minute. Did he just say he was from there?
I looked back down, my wide-eyed gaze meeting his.
“I believe you call it Gaea,” he relayed. “We call it Earth.”
I stared at him in pure disbelief. Surely he was joking. Then I fell out of the window.
Chapter Seven
Well, I didn’t really so much fall as was snatched off the window by someone—or something—that dashed off with me, heading toward the end of the village. I was tossed onto something else that was waiting there before being whisked away into the night.
My screams were muffled as I thumped against the back of whatever it was that was carrying me.
We rode far and fast and as the distance from the Southern Forest grew, a sense of grogginess came over me until I eventually fainted and wasn’t able to see whoever—or whatever—it was that had captured me.
***
I didn’t know how long I was out for. Only that it was dark when I finally did wake up. I was surprised myself. Who knew how far from the Southern Forest this place was and yet, here I was. Still alive.
I coughed as I heard a loud clinking and thudding sound and pried open my eyes in time to see the heavy bars of the cell swing open and someone else thrown in.
“Oof!” someone groaned.
I coughed again and rolled over on the floor to see.
It was that boy who had stolen the relic, in a heap on the floor a few feet away from me. What was he doing here?
He rubbed his head before he noticed I was conscious and scrambled over to me. “Are you okay?” He lifted my head and peered into my face.
I moistened my lips and managed to croak out, “Where am I?”
He scowled. “It seems we are in a dungeon in a kingdom on the other side of Erisea.”
I pushed off the floor to sit up and he shifted his arms to help me. When I looked around, I confirmed that we were indeed in a dark and musty dungeon. I made a face, edging to one corner, and hugged my knees closer. “What—what are we doing here?”
He looked up at the stone-faced guards standing by the door with their backs to us. “Frankly, I don’t know.”
I shot him a worried look. “Do you think they know about the relic?” I prompted, already in half a panic.
“That’s what worries me.” His reply was dark, ominous. “I don’t think so.”
When I wasn’t watching the boy pace back and forth in the cell, probably trying to think of some “resourceful” way to get us out of here, I stared out the small window up at the sky once again. It seemed to be the only thing familiar. It comforted me.
“The tiny blue dot beside that? That’s where I’m from.”
I glanced back at him, recalling our last conversation. He had to have been kidding. That was obviously impossible. How could anyone have come from that speck of a blue star in the sky? He had to be delusional.
On the other hand, if he was telling the truth, it might explain why he believed he needed the power of such an object as the relic to get back to his home.
It was surprising. I had naturally assumed at first that he was from this world given how much he seemed to know about it. Indeed, he gave off the impression as though he’d been everywhere on Arcadia as well—knowing every back road, every shortcut, every village. Then again, who’s to say he hadn’t?
You have no idea what I’ve had to go through just to get here…
He sensed me watching him and looked over. “What?”
I cast him a meaningful glance up from my seat on the floor. “You are far from home. Just like I am.”
For a moment, he didn’t know what I was talking about then he remembered that he had already told me where he was really from. “So you believe me.”
I shrugged. “I’m considering it. Everybody thought Gaea was just another speck in the sky.”
“Yeah well, it’s not,” he replied before he continued to pace back and forth. “We didn’t even know your world existed at all. We were always taught that it was all gas planets past Mars—that’s Terra to you.”
“How is it that you speak our language?” I wondered out loud, mystified.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know if I’m actually speaking it or if you’re just hearing me in your language. But I could always just understand.”
“I myself know many languages but I cannot read your…” I gestured to his shirt.
“Oh, this.” He glanced down. “It’s just the swoosh—never mind.” He dismissed quickly. “It’s not important.”
“And how long have you been here?” I wanted to know. “You seem to know an awful lot about Arcadia. Even more than I do.”
“Let’s see.” He rubbed his chin in thought. “January. That would have been almost…damn.” He groaned a little. “I’ve been here for eight months—or cycles to you.”
I noted his expression. “Is Arcadia not to your liking?”
“Hell no, I love it here,” he countered, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “I love it when armed militant men chase me down everywhere I go. I especially like being thrown in the dungeon. Yeah, that sure gets me for kicks.”
I made a face at his tone. “If I recall correctly, these men took me away. I don’t even know how you came to be here.”
He chuckled under his breath. “I know. You weren’t easy to track down. Good thing I did. Otherwise, who’d you be yelling at right now?”
I shot him a suffering look. “You are completely incorrigible.”
“Josh.”
“What?” I raised my eyebrows in question.
“You are completely incorrigible, Josh,” he repeated. “My name is Josh.” He shrugged. “Use it.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. What did it matter what I called him?
We heard another loud clinking and thudding sound and our gazes were drawn toward the door as a person walked up to it—someone tall, his body and half his face covered in dull metallic armor.
I swallowed as I stood up beside “Josh.”
The strange armored guy regarded both of us with a steely glance and I could see his eyes were faintly blue, a dark blue. “Who’s the boy?” he prompted in a voice so deep that I winced.
“Somebody we found lurking outside, sir,” one of the foot soldiers saluted as he answered.
The armored guy narrowed his eyes as if in distaste. “Take her out of there,” he commanded in a very near growl before whirling around and stalking off.
My heart started to pound. What did he want with me? I swallowed again and shot “Josh” a nervous glance.
One of the guards unlocked the cell and came in to take me away.
I turned panicked eyes back to “Josh” again and he stepped forward.
“Where are you taking her?” He tried to follow me but was restrained by another guard and once I was outside the cell, they bolted it up again.
“Hey!” the boy called, rattling the bars in protest. “Where are you going? Hey!”
One of the soldiers nudged me to hurry along up the stairs.
I winced again and took the steps two at a time, gathering my hair self-consciously.
It was still dark outside and the cold breeze was biting.
I rubbed my hands over my arms as I followed the pair of soldiers headed into a great stone structure. “What place is this? What do you want from me?” I asked but the soldiers neither answered nor acknowledged me.
I was mulling over striking down the soldiers and escaping but I still couldn’t feel my powers and without any knowledge of my whereabouts or anything more about the situation, it didn’t seem like the best idea.
The shadowy castle-like structure stood on top of a hill overlooking a wide expanse of grassy field and there was the beginning of a forest on the horizon.
I tried to
imagine the location during the day as it must have looked lovely with the gardens lining the paths but right then, with the rolling fog of before dawn, the place just looked eerie and cold.
I shivered before I was led inside, up a giant staircase, to the right, to a door.
One soldier pushed the door open and motioned me inside.
“What’s going to happen to the boy?” I at least had to know.
The bigger soldier huffed at me. “He’ll probably die tomorrow.”
“That is not your concern,” the other soldier interjected, nudging me through the door before closing it shut behind me.
“Hey!” I banged on the door a few times but I knew it was pointless. I sighed in exasperation before I turned around.
I was in a room. No, it was more than a room. The place was huge, with thick velvet curtains, a big bed, a pair of side tables, a fully set up tea table, several padded chairs with cushions, a balcony…
I headed toward the balcony and the dawn breeze greeted me. I could just almost touch the tops of the trees from the garden right below.
I looked to the horizon and saw the Great Star only beginning its ascent in the sky, making the sky turn pink then orange.
I yawned and walked back toward the bed, sitting down on the edge.
The bed was soft. Too soft for a supposed prisoner. Well, too soft for anyone who was used to living in trees anyway.
I made a face as I picked several twigs out of my hair before analyzing more bruises decorating my arm and legs, all of which were sore, by the way. “Ohh,” I groaned.
What did these people want? Who were they? I kept pondering. How did they even find me in that very obscure part of that very obscure village? They didn’t even know about the relic. Or so he said. He…Josh…
I fiddled with the smooth bedcovers as I watched the Great Star rise. I was too anxious to get some rest. I wish I was back in the Forest, I thought with a wistful sigh.
Some time and several uncounted yawns after, there was a brief but firm knock on the door and it creaked open.
I didn’t look and kept staring out the balcony, my arms folded across my chest. I stiffened as I heard the voice of the armored guy again, deep, resonating.
“How do you like your room?” he prompted from somewhere behind me.
“It’s not so different from the dungeon,” I responded flatly, glancing over my shoulder, intending to give him a haughty look.
I stopped short, gasping, and I whirled around, staring at him, stunned. “You—,” I breathed hoarsely as I took a step back.
He gave me a plain look. “You don’t like your room?” he asked again.
I looked around for the first time in the daylight. Everything in the room burst a dark pinkish hue. The bedcovers, the curtains, the padded chairs, the pillows—all magenta. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and met his gaze again.
He had taken off his armor and was wearing distinguished garb and a long heavy cape with a seal on the collar. He had light-colored hair, fair features, and piercingly familiar dark blue eyes.
I swallowed, stepping back even further. “H-how are you still alive?” I asked in disbelief, balling up my fists as I strained to remember.
I was there. I was there eight hundred years ago when he sauntered to his death back at the Mystic Lake.
It was him—the strange soldier in search of the legendary relic. The one who had named me.
My jaw dropped but I couldn’t speak. He was still alive? How?
He took a step closer to me but I held my hand out to stop him. “S-stay away,” I warned, already heaving.
He raised an eyebrow and drew something out of his pocket. It was a yellowed piece of parchment. He unrolled it and began to recite. “Halt and beware for you are in the realm of the Mystic Lake. Turn away from this place immediately or suffer the consequence.”
If it was even possible, my eyes widened even more. What the—?
He watched my expression for a moment more. “My name is Lance, of the Highlands of Kingdom Cephiron.”
“D-dantilian,” I stammered the name I hadn’t uttered in almost eight hundred years.
“Was my ancestor,” he continued, calm as anything.
I swallowed again. Ancestor? I tried to even out my gasps.
“I realize he and I share several of the same features—”
Several!
“—but I assure you, there is no need to panic. I am not him.”
“What—what—” I was having a hard time being coherent. “What do you want with me?”
“Please,” he started. “I have no intention of harming you.”
“H-how did you find me?” I wanted to know.
The corners of his mouth turned up into a smile as he took something else out of his pocket. He held it up to the light that it shimmered.
My jaw dropped again.
“I was curious to see if the legend that my ancestry carried was in fact true.” He turned the parchment out to show me, unrolling the paper to reveal a crude sketch of a girl. The face was not detailed but her hair and her clothes spouted a dark fuchsia fire.
My heart skipped a beat.
He watched me again and tilted his head to one side slightly before murmuring, “You are much more beautiful in person.”
Chapter Eight
I had called him “foolish knight.”
Eight hundred years ago, a crude young knight happened upon my tree in search of the legendary relic. I had asked him to turn away as I’d always done. He refused.
He came and went day after day to try to overcome the mystical barrier or at least learn of its weaknesses. He would set up camp, persisting to engage me in conversation.
After a while, it became futile to resist and despite his being incredibly stubborn, I’d found him quite tolerable. We would often talk for hours.
He made me laugh.
In those days, I wore a necklace I’d fashioned myself with a pendant made of enchanted ice, almost like glass.
I remembered giving it to him in place of the relic, to sell, so he would pursue the relic no further.
But instead, he kept it as a token, a remembrance of me.
One day he left and when he returned some time later, it was to his demise.
I glanced up to study Lance’s face several times as he led me by the arm to a huge dining hall.
He looked so much like Dantilian. The way he nodded, the way he smiled.
I frowned as I recalled his treachery. His greed. He had still tried to take the relic, despite wise words from me, and had died because of it.
Men were so weak…and so was I. For all I knew, Dantilian could have simply also been manipulating me.
Lance pulled out a chair for me beside him at the long dining table.
The table was covered with exquisite food served on golden platters, with golden candlesticks, gold-stitched tablecloths. The chandeliers on the high ceiling above us were crystal and gold. The sunlight streamed in through the high windows, glinting off of every shiny surface. About everything in the room glittered in finery.
“Please help yourself.” He gestured to the food as he sat down and waited for me to take the first bite.
I was still sort of stunned. I gawked at all the food then at him then back at the food. “I’m sorry, I’m—still sort of confused,” I started. “What was it that you wanted from me?”
“Do not look so worried.” He smiled. “Please help yourself to anything you like.”
I grimaced, still unable to believe it. “Sort of like a last meal?” I guessed, joking—so hoped I was joking.
Lance chuckled.
I bit my lip in a half-smile. I wasn’t as out of practice in some things as I’d thought as I could still tell jokes. “I’m sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I just don’t understand why…you would do this after all this time.”
His expression was gentle. “I’ve always been intrigued by my ancestry’s history, especially the ones dating back during the Mystic Ages. T
here are a lot of legends pertaining to that time. And since as you so eloquently bear witness to—” His smile widened. “I do so much resemble my ancestor, Dantilian of the Fourth Cephiron Reign. It’s difficult not to get fascinated by it all.”
I nodded, hanging on to his every word.
I had no idea that Dantilian had written about what had happened eight hundred years ago, much less kept scrolls of records, which according to Lance, filled a room.
My hand unconsciously went up to my neck where I was again wearing my necklace.
His gaze went to my throat. “I’ve looked past that necklace several times in my study and read all about your encounters. Only the other day, while I was reading, the necklace seemed to glow for a brief moment before its light faded. As if…as if it had lost its life force. After that, it would light up in certain directions like a beacon, which when followed led directly to that village where you were found.”
I kept nodding, totally entranced.
“I’d…like to apologize for the manner in which you were brought here,” he said, not meeting my gaze. “My men apparently thought we were capturing some sort of enemy. I know I specifically told them to bring you upstairs and not to the dungeon. I apologize for the misunderstanding.”
I shrugged to dismiss it. “It’s okay, I guess.”
He smiled at me again.
A warm rush streaked through me. Dantilian never was a slouch in the looks department. I cleared my throat and raised my eyebrows as if to ask permission, reaching my hand out toward the bread rolls.
Lance nodded. “This is all in your honor,” he informed me. “As long as you are here, think of everything as your own.”
I still could not believe he was being so nice for nothing. I shook my head. “That’s very nice of you but why?”
“I’m one of those people who do not think life is a series of accidents. I think that I was meant to find you. You may remain here for as long as you wish.”
As long as I wished? Have all this food and luxury for as long as I wished? Somebody up there was blessing me.
Or more likely, somebody up there hadn’t found out yet that I’d screwed up guarding the ancient relic.
The Curse of the Arcadian Stone: Vol. 1 Stolen Oath (Nameless Fay) Page 5
