It is ours. You may use it how you wish.
Ana had no idea how she wanted to use it, other than to help Ed. She was more confused than she had been before, and as she closed her eyes, the large green eyes stared back at her again. She didn’t feel afraid, though, and she thought that was something she should feel.
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The darkness had been comfortable, and despite the strange smell, she was no longer repulsed by it. And although there were moments of clarity, as though she were lost in the hold of something greater than herself, she knew she was part of that new being. That they were one.
They blinked as one now into the light in the cold empty castle. If it could be called such, for it was small in comparison to what either of them had known in a previous life. The scent of the world was similar to what it had been in the dark. Empty.
A long black tongue licked over their lips, tasting the air. Sensing the boy.
They turned from the castle towards the view from the mountain across the kingdom. The green world beyond was so unlike the worlds that surrounded the castles of their past.
The green trees of the forest appeared more unnatural than the creature looking towards them. And they took a step forward. The tongue flicked again. She had been here, the witch who wasn’t.
They dragged their interest away from the trees and back to the castle, pushing through the weathered door. The scrape of claws on flagstones echoed through the hallways. Inside a larger room, the scent of the girl stopped. As though it had been dragged with her from this very spot. A growl of frustration filled the space.
She had been pulled from here. The boy had been here as well, and something else. Something unexpected, something hot.
Who did the boy travel with?
The forest would know. The trees would know. But would they share such secrets? Would they keep him for themselves or give him up?
They would find a way. The growl of frustration echoed through the room long after the creature had winked back to the darkness.
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Salima tried not to grumble as she headed for the practice hall. A couple of young men were already headed that way, and she knew her father would be busy. But he had asked for her to attend. Not because he thought the young men would need her assistance in any way, but because he didn’t want her anywhere near Ana.
He had been saying that for days, but the night before he had been very clear. She’d almost had the feeling that she had walked in on something, a discussion he did not want her to be a part of, because he had looked even angrier than she’d expected when she’d entered the room.
She had been careful. Between the three of them, they had been coming and going, and they needed to ensure no one saw them. Very few used the hallway outside the room, but being so close to the royal suite did mean more soldiers and risk.
Salima stopped as a tall, handsome man appeared at the edge of the courtyard. He appeared to be looking for something or someone. When his searching gaze fell on her, her heart beat so fast she was sure it would leap from her chest.
It was as though she knew him. Something on his face changed, softened, and he walked quickly towards her. Salima was frozen to the spot. Something about him scared her, and yet she had to talk to him, had to be near him. As she took a step forward, a hand closed around her arm.
She looked up at her father, his face unreadable. When she looked back at the man walking towards her, he was moving faster—very fast. She sucked in a breath as he stepped in close.
He bowed his head, his feet together. And when he looked up, he had the blackest eyes Salima had seen. In fact, they were solid black. She stepped forward again, pulling from Papa’s grip and towards the man.
He smiled at her, his perfect straight white teeth catching the light. He was handsome, with a strong square jaw and dark ruffled hair. It was short but wayward, as though the wind had blown through it. His clothes were dated but bright. She looked back to her father, who appeared unsure of what to do. He looked more afraid than Salima had ever seen him.
“Do you know me, child?” the tall, handsome man asked, his voice much deeper than she expected. It vibrated through her.
She nodded, although she wasn’t sure why. She didn’t know this man. Did she?
“Papa?” she asked, turning back to her father. “What is it?”
He sucked in a deep breath and took a step forward to stand beside her again, his hand finding hers. “Ende,” he said politely, bowing his head. “Why are you here?”
“Ende?” Salima asked. “But he is an old man.”
“I am what I need to be,” Ende said, his deep voice rumbling through her. She felt comforted by it, despite not knowing him. She wanted to put her arms around him and see how warm he was.
“You know Ana,” she said instead. “Have you come to find her?”
“She found you,” he said, his voice soft and gentle. Salima felt he appreciated what Ana had done, although she wasn’t sure why.
“I don’t think we should do anything right now,” Papa murmured.
“You have students,” she said, and he flinched. “And I am to help you,” she added quickly, fearing he thought she was trying to get rid of him and spend time with this man, although she wasn’t sure why that would matter.
“I can find Ana,” Ende said.
She shook her head and stepped closer to him. “It is not safe,” she whispered. “The mage is trying to kill her, and we have hidden her away.”
Ende looked at her seriously, and then at her father, who nodded once. “You have not hidden her very well,” he said, looking towards the tower.
“How?” she asked.
“She called to me once, and I can find her again.”
“Did you bring Ed with you?” she asked hurriedly, looking around to ensure they weren’t being overheard as Ende shook his head.
“Is he safe?” Papa asked.
“Do you think I would harm the boy, given who he is?”
Her father remained steadfast, and she nudged him. “Papa?”
“We have class,” he said, taking her hand and pulling her away from the strange tall man. Ende watched them go, his dark eyes shining in the light.
Once they were inside the room, she pulled from his hold. “He was old,” she said.
Her father glared at her as several students looked their way.
“What is he?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he murmured.
Chapter 16
Ed felt completely at a loss. They had spent too long in the forest, and he didn’t feel they had achieved anything. He knew what he should be doing, but he didn’t think he had the strength, nor the understanding as to how these people might help him find it. Belle looked just as lost as he watched her standing by the hut, staring into the trees. Did she want to go with her friends, or did she want him to stop them? He wasn’t sure how to do that, or whether he should. The tribute was set, and they were willing to go.
He didn’t want that life for Belle, despite how she frustrated him at times. But he had nothing he could offer her instead. With her they would have the ten needed, and he wasn’t sure when the soldiers were coming. Although he was sure the exchange would not occur around the Near Folk.
Dray emerged from the hut. He looked as he always did, armour polished, although how he managed that in these conditions Ed didn’t know. His cloak about his shoulders, his hand on his sword, he looked the part of a man ready to face whatever might threaten his king.
Ed was also sure the man could last for days without sleep, and yet he had appeared more tired over the last few days. When he did sleep, it was fitful. Ed had heard him calling out in the night, and he appeared somewhat spooked when he woke, as though having seen something that worried him.
“Where is Ende, do you think?” Ed asked the soldier, startling the man who appeared ready for anything.
Dray shook his head. “Where he thinks he needs to be,” he said, rubbing at his face.
Ed had noticed that his hand moved to his cheek too often, where Ana had been so sure she had seen the scar. Did he feel something? Had he seen something in those dreams?
“What if I did go?” Belle asked, still looking at the trees. Her father murmured something Ed couldn’t hear.
“I can’t even keep a small group together,” Ed lamented. “How could I keep a kingdom together?” He sighed and looked at Dray, hoping for some words of support.
“Is that a decision?” the soldier asked instead.
“I need Ana,” Ed said. She was the only one who had been sure of what he was. And without her, he couldn’t see that himself.
“Of course you do,” Belle groaned. “Come with me, Pa,” she said, taking her father’s hand. “Come to the capital. I will find a good husband who will provide, and you will be cared for. You will never have to work another day.”
The older man’s jaw dropped open.
“It is the only way I can help you.”
Ed looked from them to Dray and gulped down his regret. He didn’t want her married to some strange man in the capital. Some man selected by his uncle to win his favour. But what could he offer? Did he even want to make her an offer? She was right; it might be the best chance she had.
“Your decision is to give up,” the chief said, appearing beside him. It wasn’t even framed as a question.
He knew Ed’s heart and mind. And although Ed wanted to be something more, he was just the insignificant boy his uncle had always known him to be. He wiped quickly at the tear that surprised him. He had made the decision, and it hurt to do so. It was what was best for the kingdom.
“Truly?” the chief asked. This time it was a question, and Ed slowly nodded his head. He looked at the faces around him. Phillip looked at the ground. Belle looked beyond him, tears clearly shining in her eyes, even across the small gap between them. Dray dragged a hand across his jaw and sighed.
“None of us are what we should be,” Ed murmured. “They should have a chance. It would only bring them harm to follow me anywhere.”
“Where would we go but with you?” It was Dray who asked the question, but Ed’s gaze rested on Belle.
She shook her head once. “You don’t care what happens to us,” she said.
“I do. I want you to have a life you deserve. Not trapped here, waiting on me to come to a decision I never will. You want the chance at a family, and to help your father.”
“I had thought the king might help him, given his service.”
Ed ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t even get back to the capital, let alone a throne. What use am I?”
She huffed, her back straightening as though she was going to say something, like she would have when they’d first met. Like the time she’d slapped his arm when Ana had told them they were to help the king. He blinked back the tears, showing he was a boy, just what they all thought he was.
“What do you want to be?” the chief asked, his voice like a whisper of wind in Ed’s ear.
“I want to be of use,” he admitted, “but I’m not.” He turned from the group and headed towards the trees.
Something dark flashed in the corner of his eye. He searched the trees trying to find it and found Dray standing beside him, his sword drawn.
“Did you see that?” Ed asked.
Dray didn’t move, his eyes trained on the trees. His arm stretched out across Ed’s chest as though he might push Ed behind if something threatened. Ed glanced around to find Belle and her father had moved back towards the hut. The chief closed his eyes and tilted his head to the side.
“Is it Ende?”
“I don’t think it can reach us.”
“You don’t think?” Belle asked, her voice high and scratchy, making Ed smile. She still had some fight, it seemed. “What is it?”
The chief shook his head. “I don’t think it is only one.”
Ed drew his own sword then, and Dray gave him a sideways glance.
“You might be good,” Ed murmured. “But can you take on two?”
“We are surrounded by Near Folk,” Phillip said.
“They don’t want us,” the chief said, staring into the dark.
Ed’s heart beat loud in his ears as he pushed Dray’s arm down. He closed both hands around the sword and nodded to the man beside him.
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The longer Ana spent in the room, the more desperate she was to get out. The magic that filled her—however it had come to be, or from where—pushed at her extremities. It wanted to be far from this room as well.
“Where would you go?” the sword master asked, staring into the flames. He had been distracted since he had arrived in the late morning. The girl was not with him, and for the first time Ana missed the child rather than the heat of her. She had finally warmed enough to allow the magic to awaken, not that she had shared that yet. And it had stopped the ache in her bones.
She had found herself again, just as the cleric had suggested she needed to do. He hadn’t been near since he had tucked her in the night before, and she wondered what he knew of her that she didn’t know herself.
“Maybe I could find Ed,” she said.
“And what would you do with him? Bring him back? Send him away?”
“Master Forest,” she said, remaining where she was standing in the middle of the room, “what do you think should be done with the king?”
He looked up at her then, as though not quite listening to what she was saying. “Have you had a visitor?” he asked instead.
She was honestly confused by the question. “Outside of yourself and the cleric, who I have not seen today? No.” She took a small step forward. “Do they know where I am?”
Despite the concern, calm filled her. She knew she could escape the mage. He would not get the same chance again, and she might also ensure that the regent kept his distance.
At the idea that someone might have found them, the door quietly swung open. Ana turned to find a grinning Salima slipping into the room, a tall man following her in. As she closed the door and ushered him forward, she said, “I have brought you a visitor.”
Ana looked from the grinning girl and the tall man to the sword master, who had pushed out of the chair and now stood before the fire. He shook his head.
“He would have found her anyway, and this way I could be sure that no one noticed him.”
“I think there may be more than one who has noticed he is back in the castle.”
“Ende?” Ana breathed, stepping forward. His dark eyes flashed, but he remained still and unmoving. It all made sense, the man the queen had fallen for, loved, and what she would risk for him. Which had ended up being her life.
“Say something,” Salima said, giving the tall man a nudge. Her father stepped forward again.
“I can see it,” he said, his voice deep, his face unreadable.
Ana nodded once. What else could she do? Was this what he had feared for her? Of what she would become? An image of the crown appeared in her mind, her standing before the throne, and Ende growled. The noise filled the room, rattled the windows and pushed out the fire. Salima rushed across the room to Ana, throwing her arms around her and burying her head in her shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I thought he was your friend.”
“He is,” Ana soothed, patting her back. “He, like all good friends, wishes the best for me.”
Ende grumbled something else, which similarly came out as a growl, but not to the same extent. If not for his angry heat, the temperature in the room would have dropped, and the girl in Ana’s arms turned to him as though she could feel it.
But Ana pulled her closer as something dark swam in her vision. A strange creature, and yet she knew it. The magic surged angrily inside her. She clutched at her chest, pushing Salima out of reach in the same movement. Ende’s hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her clear.
“No!” she yelled as the room around her vanished.
She was in a forest amidst thick dark
trees, and yet she stood in a clearing. The darkness drew closer. She could feel it in the trees, and yet she couldn’t see it. How close was it?
“Ana?” Ed’s voice broke through her searching concentration, and she turned to take in the group staring at her. Ed, Belle, Phillip, a strange man she did not know and Dray, standing close to his king and yet unable to look at her. Had they been more than dreams?
Ed rushed forward and threw his arms around her. She held him tight, looking over his shoulder at the man who would have been the first to find her as he studied the ground.
“Come and meet the chief,” he said, pulling her towards the other man.
“I’m not here to visit,” she said quickly.
“You know what it is,” Belle said, looking towards the trees.
Ana stepped forward and touched her arm, and then Phillip’s, reassuring herself that they were real. “I am glad you are safe.”
“We’ve lost Ende,” Dray said, maintaining his distance. Ed looked at him strangely.
“I think I know where he is. And why,” she said, looking back at Ed.
She turned to the chief and bowed her head.
“They want you too,” he said, and she turned back to the darkness she could feel in the trees.
She stepped forward and closed her eyes, reaching out between the trees. She glanced back at the chief. The trees were infused with their magic, or their magic came from the trees, a very different place than her own. It confused her for a moment.
“You may use it,” the chief said, bowing his head. “They will do more harm if they reach us.”
She sucked in a deep breath and turned back. She could feel the trees, and she stretched her senses along them. The darkness drew closer. Two and yet one.
Large green eyes blinked behind her lids, and she could see the shadows like she had seen the magic within her. It came from beyond the veil, from the other realm, as her magic had. Was her magic this dark?
Focus, or it will kill us all.
“How can I stop them?”
A hand rested on her shoulder, and she sucked in a shuddering breath. Ed. They had always been something together. Were they a force like what she saw coming? Although the creature was coming for the king first, and she couldn’t save Ed by putting him forward.
The Lost Endeavour Page 10
