by Day Leitao
“Didn’t that tip you off that your father was a monster?”
“It could have been your father, Darian. Maybe he learned about it. It was his son who’d been humiliated. All I know is that the girls who’d been my two best friends were dead. Because of me. Yes, they were cruel. But they were children. And they had a family. They all died. For a long time, I didn’t have any friends. I’ve never told this story to anyone.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Cayla. Like you said, you were just a kid.”
“At the time, I knew well what I was doing. And I knew it was wrong.”
“Were you ever going to tell me this story?”
Cayla took a deep breath and looked away. “Maybe. I still don’t see how it relates to any of this, though.”
“Did you ever apologize?”
Cayla rolled her eyes. “He threatened to kill me. Plus, I buried this story deep in my memories, to the point it seemed to be another person who did these things. I thought he’d forgotten as well. I mean, I’m sure he’d want to forget a moment when he was humiliated.”
Young, helpless, humiliated. Darian still had trouble picturing Sian like that. Although, from what she said, he was already proud. He was still proud. “Maybe he didn’t forget, Cayla. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought that maybe this is his revenge?”
“A little overboard, isn’t it?” She made a voice, “Oh, you threw me in a hole with shit when I was a kid, I’ll take over the kingdom.” Cayla shook her head. “And he never mentioned it. I saw him a few times after that. He was polite. Normal. He never tried to talk to me or ask me to dance before I met you, but…”
“Now I understand why he hates you, Cayla, and this matters.”
“Yeah, I wonder where his hate was when I was opening the portal to bring Karina. When I was asking my mother to bring the book to her. So convenient.”
“We know that getting Karina here was more important than whatever hate he has for you, and that matters.” Darian looked at her, pale and shaking. “Thanks for telling me this. Including the worst parts. You could have blamed it all on your friends.”
“Maybe I did.”
He wrapped her in an embrace. “Is that why you insist he’s so repulsive? Because you still remember the time you were teased about it?”
Cayla snorted. “That was a long time ago, Darian.”
“Time doesn’t erase certain things.”
“Well, maybe. Maybe I’m reminded of how I was repulsed at the idea of any romantic feelings. For him or anyone. I was only nine. Maybe there’s something of that.”
“And how come…” He caressed her hair. This was off topic and was likely to make her upset, but he had to ask. “How come then you saw me and you, uh, became my friend, considering I look like him?”
She stepped away and faced him. “You don’t remind me of him. Same eye color, maybe. Same hair color, fine. All the rest is different. The thing about you is that you didn’t have a poisoned mind or heart, like everyone I grew up with, like everyone in the castle. You were different, like a breath of fresh air in a stuffed room. I needed that. I didn’t care who your brother was.”
Darian held her hands. “And now we have to defeat him.”
“We will.” Her face was determined.
28
Magic
While the party was still going on, Karina, Darian, Cayla, and Liam took a rowboat to a small island in the middle of the river, together with Leena. Darian wasn’t sure Liam there was a good idea, but the boy did have inside information about his brother, and perhaps he’d be able to help them.
They sat around a fire that wasn’t really to warm them up, as the weather was hot enough. Still, watching the flickering flames relaxed Darian, and maybe brought some memories from his childhood.
“So,” Leena said. “You have questions for me. I’ll do my best to answer them, but first, each of you needs to pay a tribute, by giving me some truths.”
This was not just a conversation, but there was a ceremonial fire, and he hoped Cayla and her friends understood it.
Darian got up. “I’ll start.” He glanced at Cayla. “Lylah, Cayla’s mother, told me Whyland always needs a guardian as a queen or king. She said she was a guardian, and thanks to the fact that nobody else was called queen in the years she disappeared, no problem came to Whyland. She also said Cayla is a guardian, whatever that means, and that she would inherit the throne. I’ll also say one thing: in the little time I was, uh, kind of a king, I don’t think I was acting fully as myself. I was scared, very scared. Scared of losing Cayla, and I,” he looked down, “I was a terrible king, boyfriend, and future husband.” He looked at her. “I’m sorry. I love you, but you didn’t deserve what I did to you.”
He sat near Cayla, who kissed his cheek and got up.
“I knew Sian as a child. Not much. Once, some friends teased me that I was in love with him. It was stupid and cruel. We teased him back. I think he hates me, and I don’t like him either. That might mean something—or not. You know, he did take the kingdom from me, and I think once he tried to separate me from Darian. It also might mean nothing.” She sat and glanced at Darian. He held her hand.
Liam got up. “I’ve known Sian since I was ten. We trained together. We were going to be part of a team of elite warriors, but the group was disbanded, perhaps because the king came to fear us. I have been friends with him ever since. He does things and plans things behind everyone’s back. In the beginning, it was his father, then it was more of the army. I was his number two. He told me he wanted to bring her to Whyland.” He pointed to Karina. “He asked me to lie to his brother so that he’d convince Cayla to teleport her here. I did that. He said he would take the kingdom, and he promised power and riches for his supporters. He confided to me and a couple of his closest friends that Karina was the key for him to take the power.” He looked at Karina. “I’m really sorry. I regret my part in this. I met you and I saw you, and I couldn’t forget you. I could no longer support Sian, and that’s when I turned against him.” He looked at Darian. “I know you don’t trust me, perhaps because you don’t understand my motivation.” He pointed to Karina. “Well, she’s my motivation.”
Karina looked away and seemed embarrassed. She then seemed to have realized it was her turn, and got up, telling most of what she’d done in Sian’s company. Darian was surprised to learn that his brother had friends and even owned businesses in Siphoria, but perhaps he shouldn’t be. He got worried when she talked about going into a strange dimension, and bringing a staff, and how she teleported away from him when she realized what he was about to do. Karina was very embarrassed when she said Sian wanted her to be his queen and confessed that they might have been involved. It was actually baffling how his brother had had each detail planned, and how he’d duped them all. She finished by saying, “…so I know part of it was my fault, but I want to make it right. How can we defeat him?”
“Karina, it wasn’t your fault,” Liam said. “It might have been a love potion. He’d be capable of doing that.”
“Love potions only amplify the feeling that’s already there,” Cayla said. “And they are quite dangerous.”
Darian remembered something else and got up. “I forgot to say something. A long time ago, when I was still in the army, I got poisoned. My superior thought I was going to die. I ended up taken by the magic people from the south, and they healed me. While I was healing, they said I was a spell speaker. I think that’s someone who can convince people of things, a good talker. I might have that power, but I believe my brother has even more. So that explains his allies.” He looked at Karina. “And how he convinced you to do something quite dangerous.” Darian sat down.
Liam said, “It makes sense. People love him, he really does seem to have a power like that.”
“I don’t think he knows about it, though,” Karina said. “He once told me he didn’t have any magic.”
“He could be lying,” Cayla said.
“He doesn�
��t lie, though,” Karina said. “Not with words, at least. He can trick you, but he’ll twist his words in a way that they’re not false. He says he doesn’t like to lie.”
Cayla shrugged. “Maybe he does it sometimes.”
“Maybe,” Karina replied.
“Is that it?” Leena asked.
“We might remember more, but I think we all brought something,” Darian said.
Leena nodded. “Indeed. I’ll start with the last thing you spoke about, and I’ll have to say: Darian and Sian are both spell speakers. It’s not so much that they can convince people to do anything, although in theory they can, but an ability that gives them good leadership abilities. There’s something important, though; lying dampens this ability.”
“So he knows!” Liam said.
“I doubt it,” Leena said. “Sian has been brought up away from any magic knowledge. It’s more likely that he feels it. Magic is a power that people can feel within themselves. He might feel that lying makes him weaker, and thus he dislikes it.”
“Darian mustn’t have any of this power then,” Cayla said.
Perhaps he should feel insulted, but it was true that in the last years he had to act in both sides, and lied a lot. Even lately, with the secrets Lylah had asked him to keep, he had to speak non-truths.
She continued, “He keeps telling me I’m the most beautiful blah, blah, blah.”
“But that’s true!” Darian replied.
Cayla squinted. “I was joking.”
Leena looked at her. “He does see you in all your magnificent beauty, Cayla, and he speaks the truth. As to other lies… It might be that he has no choice, and it might be that he also feels the magic, but he rejects it, therefore he blocks it by lying.” She looked at him. “What is it, Darian?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Leena nodded. “But there’s more. Spell-speaking is a powerful tool, if used correctly, but more than that, it is a sign of someone with strong magic abilities.” She looked at Darian and Cayla. “Have you ever wondered what brings you together so strongly?”
Cayla was now sitting close to him, taking his hand, and squinted. “Am I supposed to wonder? Look at him.”
He felt that he was blushing, but squeezed her hand. She traced circles in his palm, and he had to make an effort not to let his mind wander thinking about her touch and all the touches they had and were yet to have. But his mind had wandered, as he only heard the last part of what Leena had said.
“…powerful magic.”
“What?” he asked.
“Powerful magic calls to powerful magic. It’s no accident you and Cayla are together.”
“I don’t tend to think of myself as powerful,” Darian said.
Karina found it funny that Darian, like his brother, didn’t grasp his own magic.
Leena shook her head. “That’s the fate of most people, they live never to understand their own magic.” She turned to Karina. “Isn’t that the case with Sian?”
“If he’s saying the truth.”
“He probably is, and yet he found the Darloom castle, he used the staff, he did things that most people wouldn’t have been able to do. He must use the self-control he learned in the army to focus his magic, and he uses it well, even if he doesn't know that’s what he’s doing. So that’s one thing you need to know. He’s quite powerful. And being king, regardless of how he got the title, will amplify his magic.”
Was it true that powerful magic called to powerful magic then? Was it what it was? Or had been?
Leena looked around. “Second thing is the Darloom castle and the Queen’s castle. Whyland is in a specific convergence of dimensions, and that makes it need special security. See, depending on who comes through, they could not only conquer our dimension but other dimensions as well. The Light Gardens and the hidden cities in the south are just in pocket dimensions, and one reason we’re here is to watch for the portals. So far they’ve been kept safe, though.” She looked at Darian. “It’s true that we need a guardian at the throne. Otherwise, the portals in the Queen castle would be open.”
“Why aren’t they open now then?” Karina asked. “Unless… Is Sian a Guardian?”
“Unlikely,” Leena said. “But you can cross dimensions, can’t you?”
“Yes…”
“Maybe you count as a guardian. Didn’t he want you to be his queen? Perhaps he knew.”
All the talk about Karina being queen made sense, and it still hurt that it was just because of some weird magic rule. Impressive that things like these still hurt. “He actually said something like that, that Whyland can’t have anyone on the throne. But he has a new queen now.”
“Does he?” Leena asked.
“I’m pretty certain he does,” Liam said.
Karina felt her chest turning to ice.
Darian asked, “Why then the trouble of bringing Karina?”
Liam shrugged. “For the staff, maybe.”
“And you don’t happen to know who this new queen is?” Darian asked.
The awe-inducing super-duper more than pretty queen. Just the thought made her shiver.
Liam replied, “I told you, he started to exclude me from things, and he had his little secrets.”
Leena said, “Maybe then he found another guardian. Maybe. That would be quite impressive. Perhaps he can sense people with magic.”
That made sense. “I think he does,” Karina said. “I mean, he says he reads people well. Also, apparently, from what I gathered, he knows when someone is talented enough to invest in them. He might be seeing their magic.”
Leena nodded. “Possible, very possible. Like I said, he has quite focused magic, therefore he must be using it somehow. Detecting magic is quite advanced, but from what you’re saying… But back to what matters, what I know is that there’s a guardian in the Whyland throne right now.” She turned to Karina. “And it’s either you or someone else. Now, that other dimension with those creatures, that’s where Darloom lives.”
“It’s a person?” Karina asked.
“Not a person. A thing, an energy. But those creatures aren’t his. He conquered that land. That place is called Marisia, and the creatures are Maris. They suck blood. But there’s nothing wrong with sucking blood in itself, except that Darloom causes aggression, war, destruction, and, without other animals, Maris are starving. They would like to come here, but the portal is sealed.”
“I came through,” Karina said.
“Because of your power. And you came through water, didn’t you?”
“How do you know?”
“Well, Maris can’t swim. That’s one way to keep them out. And you only came back because of your power. Any other person would have been trapped there.”
Knowing how much danger Sian had put her through was another reminder of how little he cared about her. But she had another question. “What about the ones who attacked us? How did Sian bring them here?”
Leena shook her head. “He didn’t. He probably doesn’t know about them. That’s one issue with his plan. Every time the staff is used, it opens the portal. Just a little slit, but enough for some of them to pass through.”
Karina asked, “So they attacked us because they were hungry?”
“Maybe. They also might have been controlled by Darloom. Your power is not a joke, girl.”
Karina shivered.
Leena continued, “I don’t think he knows about the Maris coming through, and they weren’t under his orders. But there are more things he doesn’t know. Darloom understands the deepest fears and desires in your heart, and it can use them against you.”
Karina didn’t want to interrupt, but she had to say something, “So you think it manipulated his desire to be king into something, something…” She didn’t know how to finish. Immoral? Had he ever been moral? Well, he had some moral standards about not killing people. What she meant is perhaps that he’d been manipulated into doing something who’d hurt someone else so deeply, but she didn’t want to talk
about her pain.
Leena sighed. “If being king is his deepest desire, yes, Darloom might have manipulated him so that he would open the portal for him.”
“But I don’t think he will open the portal. He wouldn’t do that.”
“No,” Leena replied. “I doubt he would want to open the portal and let anything into Whyland. Even if he’s the most selfish and power-hungry person in the world, they would only threaten his power. That said, Darloom has ways to trick people. I fear that some of it has already infiltrated Whyland—and the castle. Darian, you said you were horrible as a king. You’re not the first horrible king. Do you think your fear might have been amplified?”
Darian thought for a moment, then said, “Maybe.”
Cayla stared at him. “Nice excuse.”
He looked at her. “Do you think I’m horrible like that?”
“Sometimes you are overprotective.”
Darian looked away.
Leena said, “But that’s exactly the thing. Darloom is not going to change anyone, he’ll only manipulate what’s already there. Chaos, confusion, destruction, it thrives in it.”
Karina had to get to the part that mattered. “Do you think it’ll come through?”
“I don’t know. There’s something happening, and I’m not sure what it is.”
Reassuring.
Cayla then asked, “What about my mother? Do you know what’s happening up north?”
“Your mother’s safe. She needs to stay away from this fight.”
Cayla got up. “You knew that, and you’re telling me that just now? I was dying with worry.”
“No, you weren’t. Deep down, you knew she was safe.”
Cayla waved her arms. “Very, very deep down, then. She can come back and fix things, can’t she?”
“No. She has been advised to stay away, and so she will.”
