Silently the groom finished securing the cinch strap around Frost’s girth and stepped away. Handing the reins back to him for a moment Calla checked the saddlebags to make sure she had everything she thought she would need before climbing up onto the horse’s back. She took the reins in both hands. “Are you still coming Lina?” she called.
The Tri-tail stood up and walked over from her place by the far wall. I said I would, did I not? she replied.
Frost eyed her nervously and backed away from her several steps, his hooves clattering on the paving stones. I do not like wolves, he said.
Lina flicked one tail and gave him a canine smile, showing all her teeth. Come on, now. We are not all that bad.
I met a wolf once. I still have the scars on my left shoulder and hock from the encounter. He thought he could have me for lunch, so I gave him a piece of my mind; I am confident his ribcage is still healing.
We are not all the same. I am a vegetarian.
You liar!
“Enough, both of you!” Calla shouted; both animals stopped instantly and turned their heads to look at her. “Others may not understand what you’re arguing about but I still can. Please stop—it’s giving me a headache.”
Horse and Tri-tail muttered their apologies, neither of them looking at each other.
Calla sighed and tugged at the reins to turn Frost around. Digging her heels into his sides she urged him forward at a trot; Lina followed right behind them. Silently they made their way through the city, drawing a few stares and even a few bows from the people they passed.
If she hadn’t been there, probably none of them would be alive.
Their pace slowed on the more narrow streets and they had to weave carefully through the thicker crowds. They weren’t stalled there for long, eventually making it to the wider streets and then the main plaza where there were fewer people. Pulling on the reigns Calla directed Frost towards the city’s main gate, urging him to a canter once they had passed through while Lina continued to follow as close as she could. Clouds of dust from the dirt road were kicked up behind them. As she rode Calla would turn around every so often to stare back at Elenan, and each time she did so it had grown smaller and smaller until it was no more than a shining white dot on the horizon. Calla sighed. She did have some good memories from her time in this part of the world, but now she had to let it all go.
She turned Frost off the road and into the deep grass of the surrounding countryside. The horse galloped across the field to the top of the next hill, where he suddenly stopped. His ears pricked up and he lifted his nose into the air, seeming to sniff at it for a moment. He whinnied quietly. Someone comes, he said, turning his head to look off to the left.
Calla followed the direction of his gaze until she saw a tall, cloaked figure coming across the field towards them. Curious, she dropped the reins and hopped down from the saddle, turning to face the newcomer; they didn’t show any sign of turning towards the road, just continued in her direction. Calla couldn’t tell from this distance who they could be—they wore a hood that hid their face completely from view. For an instant she thought maybe it was Hiran coming back at last. Her heart lifting slightly with hope at the thought she ran to meet him. She had a better look at the figure as she drew closer and realized something was off, that they couldn’t be Hiran. The person was taller than her but only by about an inch or two while Hiran towered over her by at least half a foot. The hands and wrists were too slender, too feminine. She could make out the lower half of the person’s face under the shadow of that hood, the features delicate with wrinkles just starting to form around the mouth. As if to further prove the point the woman she now faced raised both hands and dropped back her hood, so Calla could properly see Elenia’s face. She felt her heart sink again in disappointment.
It must have shown on her face. Elenia arched one thin eyebrow in confusion. “You were expecting someone else?” she asked.
Calla stared down at the blades of grass swaying gently in the breeze. “I just…” She bit her lip. “I thought it might have been him.”
Elenia didn’t ask for clarification. “He made this decision by himself,” she said. “Hiran wants to be alone for a while, just until he can figure out what he wants to do next. It is something he must do on his own—no one else can decide for him.”
Calla said nothing, just stared out across the grassland in silence.
Elenia tapped her on the shoulder to regain her attention. “Come with me for a moment,” she said. “There is one thing I still wish to discuss with you while I still can—something I could not speak of until now.” The Lady walked into some of the deeper grass, motioning for Calla to follow.
Calla hesitated, looking back to where she had left Frost and Lina behind her. The horse had wandered down the side of the hill, his head almost completely obscured from view as he grazed at the tall green blades; Lina was further up the hill, ears pricked up in curiosity as she watched her companions.
Do not worry about us, she said as she met Calla’s gaze. We will still be here if you need us. Frost shook his mane as he lifted his head from the grass to look at her, snorting quietly in acknowledgement.
Calla turned back around to see that Elenia had used some of her power to weave the grass into two small chairs that stood a foot or two up off the ground. She was already sitting on one and Calla took the other; she found it more comfortable than sitting on the ground. The two sat in awkward silence for several minutes. Calla fidgeted uncomfortably, noting how the air seemed to still slightly with tension as the silence continued. Several times Elenia turned towards her, her mouth open to say something but then she would suddenly look away again, apparently to formulate some other kind of opening.
With a loud huff of frustration she gave up. “This will be the last we ever see of each other,” she said finally. “Therefore I think it best that you should know this now, before it is too late. But tell me first Calla, do you remember your mother? Any detail of her?”
Calla was a little taken back by the question. “I…I’m not sure.”
“Can you try?”
Calla frowned and stared off into space. She could try, but she wouldn’t come up with much. She had lost her mother when she was a child; asking her to remember a face she hadn’t seen in years was impossible. What few memories Calla still had had since grown blurry and she couldn’t recall any physical details that might have stood out. All that was left were a few faint images of a beautiful woman with long, dark brown hair and the echoes of a soft voice singing lullabies to her—beyond that she had nothing. “I really don’t remember her,” she said aloud. “She disappeared when I was seven, and no one knows what could have happened to her. Why?” She looked back at the Lady. “What does that part of my past have to do with anything?”
“Some would say nothing,” Elenia said thoughtfully. “I, however, say it is everything.”
“My Lady?”
Calla must have missed some point Elenia was making for the Lady simply looked at her with one eyebrow raised. “I gave Mai a reason to seek you out: that you were the last of an ancient bloodline of the Druid order. She used that same reason to persuade you to come to us.”
“What of it?” Calla’s fingers curled around the edge of her seat.
“Did you not think it strange to find yourself considered as the last of a group that hasn’t existed for centuries? How none that came before in your line possessed the talents you were blessed with? Why, out of all the people that inhabit this earth, you were the one sought after by almost every supernatural creature and power that hid on the edges of legend? Did you wonder, perhaps, that such an explanation as being called the last Druid was too simple?”
Elenia looked directly at her, an almost knowing light in her eye. “Did you think that maybe it was because of something else entirely?”
Calla’s eyes went wide as the Lady’s words started to sink in; recent memories started to slide into place with it, and she was left with strangest feel
ing that she knew just where this was going. “No…” she whispered. “No, that’s impossible…You can’t be…”
Elenia stared down into her lap. “I did not want to abandon you the way I did,” she said quietly. “But if I had stayed I would have put you in even more danger. I was left with no other alternative.”
Calla had been edging away from her slowly until she was perched on the very edge of her seat. She tightened her grip on the other side of the chair to keep herself from falling off. “You are my mother?” She couldn’t believe her ears.
Elenia just nodded. “The demon and the woman who became your stepmother had gained full knowledge of this fact; they tried to use it against us. He must have found her shortly after I left and persuaded her to follow his cause. Or she could have fallen to him sooner than that—we will never know for sure.”
“That’s impossible—how can any of that be true?”
“If you had seen even a fraction of what I have, you would understand that there is little I do just on a whim.
“You must understand Calla that I have seen far much more of this world than you could possibly imagine. My brothers and I are direct descendants of Chaos himself; we were charged with watching over this world and protecting the balance of life which kept it from tearing itself apart. Kar chose to fuse his energy with the earth’s foundations—rock, water, and air. He stirs the earth’s molten core on occasion, forcing it up to the surface as a way of repairing some of the tears in the main structure. Ronan, you are already aware, chose to take the afterlife, as all living things need a place to go when their life energy is spent. I was then granted with watching over life itself—plants, animals, the first people. We came to this world at its very beginnings and have watched it grow from there for thousands of years.
“I had no problems with what I was tasked with, do not misunderstand me about that; I loved all the creatures I looked after and the ones I created for myself after a few centuries. But I could never truly call any of them my own, and like Ronan I found myself desiring some kind of change. Unlike him, however, I was not limited to what I could or could not do outside of my sanctuary—I could still keep watch over every living thing as I wandered the world. I did not make my travels too much of a habit, journeying out once every century or two and returning home when I felt satisfied. I made every effort to mask my presence, my true nature, from every living thing I encountered.
“It was during such trips that I had I started meeting the early Elves and humans that lived here. Being around them awoke new thoughts and feelings I never had before when I was with my brothers, and I found I liked them. After my first wanderings I started having…personal relationships with the men—occasionally I would have a similar relationship with a woman; all of them left me only partially satisfied, but it was better than being left with a massive void in my heart, wishing for some other element that might fill it.”
“And you had children with them,” Calla said, her throat tightening uncomfortably.
Elenia paused. “Not always. I bore only six other children before you, all of them sons. I was not expecting to have any, but when they came it made me happy; I beheld a living thing that I could truly call my own, something I created that had a part of me as well. It made me feel complete. The boys were all somewhat gifted, but not nearly as much as you are. They were not powerful enough to draw so much attention from anyone, their families, my brothers, what demons that still came and went. I left them in the care of their fathers but would look in on them from time to time. They grew up, had families of their own, lived mortal lives—they were happy. If they had any knowledge of the powers they inherited from me they never showed any sign of it. But you were different.”
“In what way, other than the obvious?”
Elenia laughed softly at the question. “Much changed for me that led to your birth. At the time I met your father my only interest was to wander; my last son died four hundred years ago and I was not sure if I was ready for another child. I had stopped to rest by a tree when your father crossed my path; he had come to the woods on a hunting trip with a friend. I do not know how much you believe in the idea of ‘love at first sight,’ but that was what happened when Morlan first saw me. I tried to leave the area but he kept following me. At one point I turned to try telling him to leave me and he kissed me before I could get a word out.
“Call it a whirlwind romance—I quickly fell in love with him, so much so that afterwards I couldn’t bear the idea of leaving him. Something about this was so much different from every relationship I had before, I could feel it; I do not think I had ever felt so alive as when I was with your father. He was bold, he was strong, handsome, and kind. Though I never told him about my true nature he never asked about it or any of the other secrets I withheld from him. I did not tell him I had no home in the city, but I stayed in the area where he would always find me. Almost a full year after we first met we married and I went to live with him; in all that time he was still unaware of what I was. I gave birth to you three years later.
“That was when everything changed. I thought it strange and was concerned when you did not start crying once you were born—I thought you might have been born dead without even getting a chance at life. But you were far from it, staring at myself and your father with wide eyes, holding onto us tightly. You were the most beautiful thing to us. At first I sensed no magic in you and I was not so concerned, yet when I looked in on you that night I found I could not have been any more wrong: I found you in your cradle surrounded by all kinds of blossoming flowers, giggling and trying to grab the small butterflies that fluttered from flower to flower with your tiny hands.
“Being but an infant you had no control of any kind over the talents you inherited from me. I was so shocked by what I saw I could only stand there, staring.” Elenia brought one hand to her face and shook her head. “Ah, the truth was out then. I was too stunned to try and hide it all from your father, for he entered the room right behind me. He did not believe in magic, but he could not deny that what he saw was not a natural occurrence. I told him everything that night, about who and what I was and what you must have been. I was surprised by how well he took the whole thing, and begged him not to cast you out.
“‘Why would I cast her out?’ he had said. ‘She’s still my flesh and blood, isn’t she?’ I’ll never forget the words.”
Calla gave a start. “He knew?” she asked in a whisper. “My father knew about it all this time and didn’t say a word?”
“We both agreed to tell you only when you were old enough to understand. As it was I was afraid to let you out of my sight. I thought that perhaps being born a girl was what led to your having so strong a gift, since the biology of the female creature makes it possible for them to create new life in the form of their offspring. I was terrified to leave you on your own. Ronan was still in the demon’s control and would undoubtedly send any and all of his agents after you, especially if they knew of the ancient prophecy foretelling the final battles of the gods; your power would act like a magnet to them, drawing them straight towards you. I stayed for as long as I did because I thought it the best way I could protect you.”
“So why did you leave?”
Elenia bit her lower lip. “The way you ask, you make it sound as though I did it without a care in the world.”
“You left me on my own, to think that I might be going mad and to fend for myself against a woman who would later try to kill me.”
“I told you before, I had no choice! Do you honestly think it was easy for me to leave you, both you and your father? You were my family! I could have come up with so many reasons to stay; protecting you, helping you understand your full potential—those would have been at the very beginning of my list, even if the insanely fast-paced way of mortal life took some getting used to. But in keeping so much focus on you I was neglecting my sworn duty. I thought I could keep you safe by staying but I was doing so much harm to the rest of the world, harm that could hav
e eventually found its way back to you anyway. Ronan had already been pulled away from his duties, and I was slowly realizing just how much I was neglecting mine. If I continued to stay it was possible that the world could have destroyed itself from the imbalance.
“For so many years I debated what to do. You were seven years old when I finally decided I could no longer stay. I made Morlan swear so many oaths to protect you in my absence. I begged him not to say a word to you about why I left, nor to tell you of what you really were unless you found out on your own; the explanation of my sudden disappearance I left for him to create. I left you to return to the fear and despair that held so tightly to this world, to the people I left so I could be with you. I watched as the world slowly crumbled around me and I knew the darkness was closing in.”
Elenia held one hand to Calla’s face. “I know you needed me,” she said. “I wish I could have been there for you without having to turn away from everyone else.”
Calla just sat in silence. She couldn’t think of anything to say.
Elenia left her seat and moved to share Calla’s. She folded her arms around the girl’s shoulders and rested her cheek against the side of the girl’s head, slowly rocking her back and forth. “I am sorry, so sorry for everything,” she said quietly. “I would correct all of it if I could.”
Calla said nothing in response at first; she just sat there and let Elenia hold her. She was being asked to take in a lot of information. This supreme being, this woman who had looked out for her for the past several months—she had been her mother all along. It made her half mortal, half god. That piece of knowledge alone was intimidating.
So what did this mean for her future?
“I will not force you to stay,” Elenia said, as if hearing Calla’s thoughts. “I know how you miss your friends and close family. You are more than capable of making such choices on your own. Besides, I gave up the right to have a say in any part of your life long ago—and to continue to have an active role going forward.”
The Last Druid Page 26
