The Everlands Chronicles: The Truth

by A. J. Bell

  “No!” I snapped at him. “I borrowed it from Sir Daniel to take me home. I will send it back from Stoneburg with the next trip Sir Richard takes to the Royal City.”

  His face lit up. “I have a better idea; you’ll ride with me to our camp. You can stay with us in my father’s home for a few days, and then my men and I will personally escort you safely to Stoneburg. You can let the horse go back to the Everlands right now. My men will not touch it.”

  Although the last time I visited with the Gypsies I was offered the choice to stay or die, the chance to have some rest and maybe a meal did sound appealing. I decided to send a simple “thank you” note to Sir Daniel, tied to the horse’s reins.

  “Are you going to blindfold me?” I asked Vince as he helped me to his horse. He mounted right behind me and pulled my cap off so my braided hair fell down my back.

  “I doubt you will find your way out of the forest on your own anyway,” he said confidently in my ear. His men were chuckling at the sight of us. I was not sure why, but I thought that Vince was enjoying the ride more than anybody else. He did not do anything inappropriate, but his face didn’t lie – he was all too happy to hold onto my waist.

  I must have fallen asleep on my way to the camp because I woke up as we were passing the Gypsies on guard just outside the hidden city. It was too late to continue on to his father’s house, so we decided to rest. Vince laid a mat for me beside his. A few blankets were brought over and set on the mat. The men were quietly staring at me. Because of that, I felt I should have gone straight home. Vince seemed to notice my uneasiness.

  “It’s not you,” he said. “They are looking at The Ethro. Nobody but my grandmother was allowed to carry it, and now it hangs from your neck, so they don’t know how to react.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  He continued with his explanation of what happened after Valdo let me go a few weeks back. Some of the Gypsies were so angry at Valdo’s haste in allowing me to keep The Ethro that they took arms against Valdo’s family. Valdo, however, had more supporters, so those behind the chaos were cast out, but some families were torn apart because of it, brother against brother.

  “Hunger for power does that to people.” He sounded very sad when he said it.

  “Will it stop if I give it back?” I asked.

  He looked at The Ethro hanging from my neck and shook his head. “All those who have fought for you to keep it would have done so in vain; so no, you must keep it. Go to sleep. We will leave at dawn.”

  I dreamed again. I was unable to move quickly while the palace was being attacked. Hooded figures in the dark, armed with swords and spears, were killing men, women and children alike while looking for me. The two men I pictured in the courtyard made me feel uneasy for their safety. The sight of the woman and the little boy in her arms made me feel powerless.

  Someone was kicking down my door. I heard them yell that I needed to be found, and that I needed to die. When the door was kicked open, a hooded man came towards me and ran his sword through my side. I shrieked in pain. At the same time, a pair of strong arms grabbed my shoulders and shook me softly, trying to wake me up.

  “Are you alright?” Vince asked, staring at me with concern.

  “Nightmare,” I said still shaken.

  “Do you have them often?” he asked.

  “Are we leaving soon?” I brushed off his questioning looks.

  “We are ready to go,” he said.

  Vince had waited until the last minute to wake me up. He had saved breakfast for me, but I felt no hunger due to my nightmare. In fact, I was still shaken up by my dream when we arrived at Valdo’s home.

  The place had changed a little compared to the last time I visited. There was a mist of gloominess covering the hidden kingdom. At the announcement of Vince’s arrival, Valdo came out to welcome his son, and his dark brown eyes sparkled when he saw me.

  “Good day,” he said and gave me a big hug. “What a nice surprise!”

  “She will stay for a few days with me,” Vince said. I flinched when he said with me, and I noticed that Valdo also raised his eyebrows at the implication his son made. Embarrassed, Vince corrected himself. “I meant with us.”

  After her son’s embarrassment had passed, Claire also gave me a big hug. Then, she took me to the same room she had taken me to before and again prepare a bath for me. She gave me some clothes to wear, similar to the ones she had given me before. The shirt was velvet black combined with a scarlet-red ruffled skirt with black embroidery on the edges. There was also a black pair of leather trousers and red ribbon for my hair with black roses embroidered on it.

  The bath was warm and the scented oils she poured in the water smelled like bushes of roses swept by the wind – a sweet and calming scent.

  Among the Gypsies, there were no maids to wash my back. Nobody was hovering around me. I washed and dressed myself without help, as I was used to. Doing it felt so normal. It felt like home.

  Unlike last time, there was not a room full of people waiting to see me, only the old Gypsy woman that had kissed my forehead before and Valdo’s family, including Vince.

  “You look beaut–” Vince cut his sentence short at the giggles of one of his younger sisters, laughing at the sight of her breathless brother. He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “You look clean,” he said with certainty. I suppressed a smile as I followed him across the room. “This is my grandmother, Aryelann,” he said. I nodded in acknowledgement. “She is our Queen Mother,” he added. Then he took my arm gently. “I’ll show you our kingdom,” he said, chuckling.

  We did not need horses. All the little houses were close to each other and many of them were empty; they had once belonged to those who had been cast out. We visited so many houses and met so many people that not mixing their names seemed like it would be a problem. To my surprise, everywhere we went, people would ignore Vince and give all their attention to me. It was a strange feeling, but a very flattering situation.

  The nights came fast and the days ran short while I was there. I lost complete track of time, not realizing as an entire week flew by. At the end of the week, Valdo and his family prepared a feast in my honor. Near the center of their city, they built a bonfire. Many men worked unceasingly to keep it burning and the smaller fires that surrounded it, each with an assortment of wild game roasting over the flames. Other men were rolling out barrels of ale and beer for adults, and apple cider and other juices for the little children to enjoy. The ovens were full of baking goods – cookies, cakes, braided breads and rolls, plus honey butter to go with them.

  I tried to sneak up and help people, but as their guest, they would not allow me to do much. However, the kids did not care about me being a guest, so they still invited me to chase them. Vince also tried to keep me busy by explaining the way things worked around the Gypsy camp.

  Feeling so much happiness made me wonder how my parents were dealing with the fact that I was gone. I wondered if they missed me as much as I missed them. There was no question about it; in spite of my joyous stay among my friends, in my heart burned the desire to go back to my family.

  “I will leave in the morning,” I said to Vince as we walked towards the bonfire.

  “You don’t have to go,” he said. “Don’t you like being here?”

  “I do–”

  “Then why leave?” he interrupted me.

  “My parents and Sir Richard need me back home.” He was saddened by my reply; deep inside, I was too. I was torn between my family in Stoneburg and my friends in the Haunted Forest. I would especially miss the company of my beloved friend, Vince.

  The feast that night began with a small speech from Valdo, thanking everyone for standing firm in times of turmoil.

  “It will end soon,” he promised them, and then he officially invited them to partake of the bounty that lay on the tables. “Let the feast begin.”

  We all ate almost to the point of becoming ill. After the food, everybody gathered round the flames
. It was then that I first noticed that many of the women were alone, that much of the food had been put in plates, and that it was being carried by the children to their fathers keeping watch over the camp. The guilt torn my insides. They were in this situation because of me. Vince noticed my reaction and put his arm around me. His touch was comforting, but the feeling of guilt remained heavy in my heart.

  Then the music began. The sound of the drums lifted my spirits and made me forget the sadness there. A few flutes joined the song and a couple of fiddlers made their strings ring. After a few minutes of glorious rhythm, the men and women around the fire started dancing, jumping, and swirling.

  “Shall we dance?” Vince took my hand and pulled me up. We danced and danced, as if the melody had cast a spell on our boots and prevented us from sitting down. After hours of dancing, everybody was barely able to move. We decided to sit by the fire, watching it flicker in the wind as the older Gypsies began telling stories and cracking jokes. Everyone was enjoying each other’s company, especially me.

  Suddenly, everything seemed to become quiet and peaceful, giving Valdo a reason to fill the silence. I was caught off guard by his request; being caught off guard had become a habit of mine lately.

  “I heard you sing only briefly in the woods by the river the night we first met, but my son tells me that you have a voice like the Galens from up above. Is this true?”

  “My Lord Valdo, all this night, I’ve heard voices who might as well be of Galens imprisoned in women’s bodies. Your son seems to have missed their angelical performances if he thinks my voice carries better than theirs.”

  “Will you sing for us?” he asked.

  I was sure Vince had told his father about me singing while in the Royal City. I agreed and decided to sing a lullaby about a beautiful woman with the light of the moon dancing in her eyes, with hair long and black as onyx, with skin soft as velvet, with hands that could calm the storming waters, and a voice that could cast a spell on those who listened. She could command armies to battle with one word; she could have ruled the world without a sword or bloodshed. Those who loved her called her Kaneethee. She was the great Queen of Gardenhills that fell in love with a Gypsy.

  Halfway through my performance, Aryelann joined me in the song. She knew this lullaby. She knew it by heart because she was the woman in the song – she was Kaneethee! I did not know all the details of her life, but staring at the golden fire, I could imagine her as a young maiden holding the hand of her lover, Leon Blackrose. I could see her dancing under the moonlight with her husband. I could see the smile in her face as she glanced at him. Images of truer love I have only seen in my parents. Valdo had told me her story on previous nights, a love story that continued on, even though Leon had parted from this world.

  I sat back down peacefully at the end of the song, still remembering the images I saw in the fire. But the sound of a fast-approaching rider made me jump back on my feet. The Gypsy rider hosted an arrow in his right shoulder.

  “They’re coming!” he said. “They will be here in a few minutes.”

  “Take the women and the children to my house,” commanded Valdo. “Men, grab your swords and bows and form the defense lines as fast as you can.” The women picked up their children in their arms and frantically sought refuge. Vince and I helped Claire gather his siblings so that they could hide as well. Vince took my hand and started to pull me towards the house while holding his youngest brother in his free arm.

  “Someone must have told them you were here!” His words froze me on the spot. My nightmares now came back as fresh memories – women and children slaughtered by the sword as I stood immobile by my window, doing nothing. Whoever the attackers were, they were after me as well as those in my dreams.

  “No!” I let go of his hand and unsheathed my sword. “Nobody will die while I hide like a coward. If they want me, let them come and get me!”

  He nodded, although his eyes showed fear. He let go of his little brother, who ran quickly to Claire’s arms. Unexpectedly, Vince leaned forward and planted a kiss on my lips with such force and passion that I had to gasp for air after he was done.

  “Stand by me,” he said. “I will not let them hurt you.” Still confused by his kiss, I followed him. He unsheathed his sword, and we joined the defense lines just at the time our foes came into view.

  Valdo’s jaw clenched when he saw me next to Vince. “Take her to safety!”

  I pushed Vince to the side. “We fight them together; there’s no time to argue, Valdo,” I said.

  “Fine,” he said, “under one condition. If we start to lose, you take a horse and ride out for the Everlands at full speed to remind Prince Victor of the promise he made to my son.”

  I stared at Vince. “What does he mean?” I asked, but there was no time for Vince to answer me.

  Arrows showered over us, but we protected ourselves behind flipped tables, so the arrows caused no harm. There must have been at least forty archers against us. As soon as the last arrow stuck itself in the tables, while our enemies were loading their bows again, I jumped out with Heaven in hand and a battle cry on my lips. Vince followed me, as well as the others, and soon the battle was over.

  The fact that we subdued the enemy did not make anybody happy. Those who fell by the sword had once been friends of the ones who slaughtered them. Most of the attackers had run away as their numbers started to shrink, and the wounded ones would end up as prisoners of their own brethren. I had a few scratches, but most of the blood on my clothes did not belong to me.

  A party of Gypsies on horse led by Vince followed the fleeing traitors out of close range while the rest of us started to search among the bodies on the ground for those who would need their wounds treated.

  I counted seven dead – two from our side, five from theirs – and many more wounded. The life drained out of my body when I heard Valdo’s desperate and mournful cries. Terror crept down my spine at the sight I found. In his arms, he held Kaneethee. Not one but three arrows had pierced her chest. She was panting so hard that the effort of her lungs trying to breathe was draining her of any life she had left.

  She stretched her hand towards me and bid me to follow them, which I did. Valdo took her inside his house and laid her on a bed on top of a beautiful white quilt with black roses embroidered on it. Its beauty faded as the scarlet of her blood soaked in. The healer of the camp was brought in, but his face paled at the sight of Kaneethee’s almost lifeless body.

  “Removing the arrows will kill her since there is not strength enough in her body to pull through this,” he said.

  As I cried, she looked at me, her eyes pleading for me to stop. I took her hands in mine and continued to sob quietly. Vince arrived and knelt beside the bed. A thousand apologies poured out of his mouth for being careless in protecting her. She started to mumble words that I understood well, but they made no sense. She was speaking in Fieldstream, an ancient Gypsy language. Somehow, I knew it too. Valdo cleared the room until it was just me and Kaneethee. She held my hand with one of hers as her other hand was wiping the tears from my eyes and caressing my cheek. She kept mumbling, “Yot witta memdarte. Yot rulena ine ticia.”

  “You will remember. You will rule in justice,” she said over and over again. With great effort, she pulled from one of her fingers a double ring that looked just like The Ethro she had given me before – the same jet rose, the same engraving in Fieldstream: Rablaoseck. She put it in my hand.

  All of a sudden, her hands shook so violently that I called desperately for Valdo. When he and Vince burst into the room, her hand was still enclosing mine with such strength that she was starting to shake me with her. “Yot lejam e demir,” she said to Valdo, pleadingly. Let me die.

  Without hesitation, he took the first arrow and pulled it out of her chest. She screamed in agonizing pain. Valdo then took the second arrow and pulled it out. When he did the same with the third one, instead of a scream, there was a whisper of gratitude in her lips. “Yot cianks.” She clos
ed her eyes and smiled peacefully. Slowly, the grip of her hand in mine loosened until she was gone, and it was my hand alone holding onto hers tightly. “Thank you,” were her last words.

  I couldn’t stop sobbing. I didn’t know her well, but I felt as if I had lost a piece of my soul. She believed I was her granddaughter and had bestowed The Ethro and her special ring on me in her confusion. I was certain her death was my fault. If I had never come to them, and if I had kept Elle hidden as I was supposed to, nobody would have gotten hurt.

  “This isn’t your fault,” Vince whispered in my ear. I hadn’t noticed that he was sitting in the bed with his arms wrapped around me tightly. I let go of her hand, buried my face in his shoulder, and hugged him in return. His grandmother had just been killed for my sake, but he was trying to comfort me in his arms when, truly, he was the one in need of comfort.

  Claire and a few other women came into the room, so Vince and I moved out of their way while remaining in each other’s arms. Women with water and clean towels started to clean Kaneethee’s body. Vince kissed my forehead before he left to help start digging the graves of those who had perished during the struggle or tend to any wounded men. I stayed behind to help with Kaneethee’s preparation for burial.

  We brushed her hair with a golden brush that Leon Blackrose had given her on their wedding day, and we would bury it with her. Everything in her room had the Blackrose Crest on it – the brush, the comb, the bottle of perfumed oil that we rubbed on her body and hair. Even the clothes she would wear to rest in peace were embroidered with it.

  Trying to distract myself from what had occurred, I stared at the walls. I saw a painting of Kaneethee and Leon Blackrose, both very young. She looked just like the song described her. I studied the picture, and then myself. She was wearing the black velvet shirt with the scarlet-red ruffled skirt, the red headband on her head, and The Ethro hanging from her neck, just like I had a few days ago.

  I reached for The Ethro, but it wasn’t there. I dug inside my shirt, but it had not fallen inside there. Instantly, I ran outside, looking everywhere on the ground. I didn’t even feel it fall. I had not realized it was gone until now. The same necklace that was a symbol of power to the Gypsies, the one that had been entrusted to me, was gone.