Shock of Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure (Anchoress Series Book 1)

by D. L. Armillei

  “Such as?” Brux said in a forceful tone that intimidated Len into continuing.

  “For one thing, we Manikists believe it wasn’t the Coin that Goustav used to defeat the demons. It was—”

  Someone off in the distance yelled a warning that the Balish were coming.

  Len started twitching. “It’s not for me to say.” He hastily went about closing up his cart.

  “Where’s the Coin?” Van asked. “I, uh, command you to tell me.”

  “Go to the Troll’s Foot Tavern—in Araquiel. Show them your eyes, and they’ll help you.”

  “Can I buy this book?” Van said, waving the translation manual in the air. “Do you have papers for it?”

  “Keep it. There’s no papers.” Len hopped onto the seat of his cart, then paused and glanced down at Van. “Good luck, my princess,” he said gravely. “May the Light of the Creator shine upon your path.” He snapped the reins of his horse and disappeared into the night.

  Van slipped the book into a pocket of her cargo pants. The part of Len’s story about Queen Cordelia dying shortly after retrieving the Coin bothered Van. Cordelia had planned to use the Coin against the Balish, in order to prevent the rise of demons. Manik’s text had warned people not to use the Coin against one another, only against true evil. Did this have something to do with Cordelia’s death? Van shook her head to remove her worrisome thoughts and told herself that Uxa didn’t plan to use the Coin against the Balish. She wanted it to preserve Manik’s law, to prevent another Great War between the Lodians and the Balish. The circumstances of their mission were completely different from the events that happened a thousand years ago.

  Van longed to rehash everything with Brux but still felt angry with him for being a jerk about her father. “Don’t say a word about my eyes!” she ordered, as she stubbornly rushed ahead of him.

  They made their way back to the Grotto by way of the front door. The rest of their group sat at a back table by the mural.

  “Where were you two?” Jorie snapped.

  Paley gave them a huge smile. “Yeah. Where were you two?” she said in a solicitous tone.

  Van felt heartened that after Paley had connected with some boys here, she seemed okay about Van spending time with Brux.

  “Van thought it was a smart idea to follow a strange man into a dark alley,” Brux said.

  “What’d you do that for?” Elmot asked, alarmed.

  “I was trying to make my fake parents in Hod proud.” Van took a seat. “Okay, so I was trying to get some peddler to spill about the Coin.”

  “Did you?” Jorie asked.

  “Van tricked him into thinking she was the Anchoress-in-Waiting,” Brux said, then he and Van filled everyone in on what Len had told them.

  Van felt relieved and surprised that Brux said nothing about her flashing phosphorescent violet eyes.

  “Araquiel, the gateway to the north,” Elmot said. “The two men I talked to told me the only way in and out of Fomalhaut was through Araquiel, due to the mountainous terrain.”

  “From what I heard,” Trey said, “there are gold mines in that region, owned by—you guessed it—the Balish. As far they’re concerned, the only reason for anyone to go up there is to steal their gold.”

  “Good job, guys,” Jorie said. “I didn’t get squat. I was thinking this might have been a waste of time. Thinking of maybe even heading back south.”

  “No!” Van, Brux, and Elmot cried in unison.

  “There’s no doubt the Coin is in Fomalhaut,” Brux said, remembering the map in Manik’s text. “We’ll have to risk crossing the border.”

  “Take it easy. We head to Araquiel tomorrow, first light. Now, we celebrate our good fortune!” Jorie ordered platters of food and a jug of honeyed wine, using money she had won arm-wrestling.

  They feasted until only bones and scraps remained. The two guys Paley had met pulled up chairs; one of the girls Brux had flirted with also drifted over.

  Van instantly hated her.

  Trey and Elmot stood at the other end of the table, chatting with two girls, and Jorie wandered off to hang with her arm-wrestling buddies. Paley jabbered a few inches from one of the boys’ faces, ignoring everyone else at the table. Brux seemed preoccupied with the stupid girl, who fawned over him like a trollop. So Van pretended to be interested in the other boy, who sat across the table from her, gawking at Van like a hungry wolf. As he droned on about his life as a stable boy, Van’s thoughts drifted to the mural behind him.

  Something about one of the maidens nagged at Van. The woman had the regal bearing of a princess and raised a gold chalice in celebration. She looked to be in her early twenties, dressed in an elaborate formal gown from an age long gone, and she wore a coin pendant necklace. Her delicate cherry-colored lips tilted into a smile, her violet eyes . . . her eyes!

  Van’s hand shot up, pointing to the wall behind the stable boy. “That woman . . . in the mural . . . her eyes!”

  He stopped his monotonous monologue and twisted in his seat. “What about them?”

  “They’re like mine!” Phosphorescent violet!

  He shook his head. “Your eyes are blue.” He used the mural as an excuse to come around to Van’s side of the table so he could get a better look. Paley and her guy had scuttled to a private corner some time ago, and the stable boy slid into Paley’s vacated seat, next to Van.

  Van noticed that the girl talking to Brux had maneuvered herself onto his lap, so she scooted closer to the stable boy, in case Brux happened to be watching.

  “You do kind of look like her,” the stable boy said, stretching his arm around Van’s chair.

  She figured he was trying to flatter her, until she realized Paley had said the same thing. In the House of Lacus. “That’s Queen Amaryl, right?” Van asked.

  “So, I was sayin’—”

  “Why couldn’t Amaryl figure out how to use her own power?” Van interrupted. “Why did she turn the Coin over to Goustav? Do you know?” Anything was better than listening to him talk about the tribulations of sharing a bedroom with his two older brothers.

  “Oh, uh . . . if that’s what you want to talk about,” said the stable boy. He shrugged. “Probably because they were having an affair.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Day 6: 9:52 p.m., Living World

  Van shook her head to clear her ears. “They were having a what?”

  “An a-f-fa-iir.” The stable boy stretched out the syllables as if she were a bit slow.

  “I thought the Lodians and the Balish hated each other?” Or were they drawn to each other like night and day? Like Van’s great-grandparents on her father’s side. Like her father to her mother, Manik to Zurial. Both of the latter marriages didn’t end well. Now there’s Goustav and Amaryl?

  The stable boy narrowed his eyes at Van.

  She realized how her question sounded and said, “I mean . . . back then, you know?” She figured it wasn’t a good idea to talk about the animosity between the Lodians and the Balish persisting to this day, especially since her team of undercover Lodians had trespassed in Balish-occupied territory.

  His chest puffed out, as if he’d stepped onto a metaphorical soapbox. “Amaryl’s husband, Rowen, was gone. Like a good man, he went off to fight in the war for more than a year. Demons were destroying everything, didn’t matter, Lodian or Balish. Every day, people lived without knowing whether they would survive to the next one. Amaryl, the Anchoress Queen, had the Coin but was too dimwitted to figure out how to use it. Typical woman.” He snickered. “So, she copied her mother. Went to Mt. Altithronia to get help from the Elementals.”

  The history buff in Trey drew him to their end of the table, leaving Elmot with the two girls, one of them pouting. “Ah, the affair. Fascinating subject.”

  The stable boy tensed at the intrusion of another guy.

  Trey slipped into an empty seat across the table. “Fable has it that the Lodians’ Elders don’t allow an Anchoress whose powers are dormant to travel outside
Salus Valde without her Assigned Protector,” Trey said. “It’s always a male, chosen at birth by the Elementals. The Assigned Protector must devote his life to protecting the Anchoress, unless she gains access to her full power, which only happens during times of war. Then she becomes a great warrior and no longer needs protection. But, out of loyalty, he usually stays by her side, continuing his duties until the Anchoress passes down the magic of the bloodline to her daughter and a new Assigned Protector is awarded.”

  Elmot excused himself from the girls, too. “So romantic, the very idea of it.” He sighed. “The Assigned Protector’s essence is that of a guardian. The Elementals forbid the Protector from becoming romantically involved with his charge. They see love as an inherent flaw in mortals, a distraction that makes the Protector weak and vulnerable, to the point where he’s not able to do his job.” He lowered his head, sadly. “Tragic, though. The Elementals seem to pick people who make great couples.”

  “Goustav was Amaryl’s Assigned Protector?” Van asked, baffled. “How’d the Elementals come up with that one?”

  “Amaryl’s Assigned Protector took a dirt nap during the war,” the stable boy said, with a snide grin. “Died protecting her in battle. If he bites it, then someone else can take the vow and become her Sworn Protector.”

  “Goustav—a great warrior in his own right—volunteered,” Elmot said, who seemed to be lost in the drama of the past. “Elementals allowed his swearing in. They were okay with assigning someone Balish to protect the Anchoress, because the Assigned Protector was forbidden from getting romantically involved.”

  “So they weren’t allowed to be together?” Van asked. “Same rules apply?”

  “Yup,” the stable boy said. “It angers the Elementals when their rules are broken. Nothin’ good comes of it.”

  “The Elementals don’t think of the Anchoress-in-Waiting as one of their many children,” Elmot said. “She is the child. The child above all other children. The Assigned Protector is not chosen lightly.”

  “When Goustav accompanied Amaryl on her journey to Mt. Altithronia,” Trey said, “this is when her alleged affair with him started.”

  Elmot and Trey kept sharp eyes on Van, as the stable boy sat a bit straighter, tightening his arm possessively around her.

  “Amaryl was attracted to Goustav,” the stable boy said, “because he looked and acted like her husband.”

  “She totally had a type, I guess,” Van said. She shrugged as if to emphasize her words, but she actually wanted to shake loose from the stable’s boy arm, which remained firmly in place.

  “No one knows what the Elementals told Amaryl,” Elmot said, thriving on gossip. “But it’s believed she never accessed her full powers, which is why she needed Goustav’s help.”

  “He must have given the Coin back to her,” Van said. “She’s wearing it as a necklace in the mural. It’s a scene taking place after the Dark War.”

  “Amaryl, pffft! Hypocrite and a floozy,” the stable boy said. “She disapproved of her sister marrying a Bale, while the whole time she was secretly knocking boots with her soon-to-be brother-in-law.”

  “There’s no historical evidence supporting that Amaryl and Goustav were romantically involved,” Trey said, relishing the potential for a debate. “It’s no secret Amaryl didn’t trust the Moors. She sanctioned the marriage of her sister for the sake of peace, for the good of the people.”

  “Is that them? In the mural?” Van waved her index finger. “What are they celebrating?”

  Elmot and Trey were used to Van’s denseness, but the stable boy’s incredulous look made Van feel as if she were back in her special classes.

  “It’s a painting of The Wedding Celebration,” the stable boy said.

  Van stared blankly.

  Elmot and Trey snickered.

  “The four royal warriors celebrating the end of the Dark War—Amaryl, Zurial, Goustav, and Manik,” the stable boy said. “You do know about the Dark War, right?”

  “Duh, yeah,” Van answered, although she didn’t know much about it.

  “Good thing you’re pretty,” the stable boy said, shaking his head.

  Van didn’t care for his comment, and by the looks on their faces, neither did Trey and Elmot. Yet she didn’t say or do anything in response to the annoying stable boy, because she wanted Brux to see another guy acting interested in her. She hoped he would get jealous and come over, to put a stop to it.

  “After the Dark War ended,” Elmot said, in an attempt to keep the stable boy out of the conversation, “the truce between the Balish and the Lodians was sealed by the wedding of Princess Zurial to King Manik. It must have been a beautiful ceremony.” He sighed.

  Trey rolled his eyes.

  “Yeah, beautiful. Until the bloodbath eight months later.” The stable boy chuckled inappropriately.

  “Bloodbath?” Van asked, wishing she had the courage to shake the stable boy’s arm from her shoulders.

  “The Rebellion,” Trey said. “Amaryl’s husband, Rowen, survived the war and came home in time for the wedding. Legend says Amaryl chose Rowen over Goustav, and Goustav’s ego couldn’t take the bruising. He believed Amaryl had cast a love spell on him and that Zurial had done the same to Manik. He believed the Lodians were making fools of them and formed a secret plan to break the truce. He planned on killing Zurial before the wedding, thereby releasing Manik from her spell.”

  “Sounds like Goustav wasn’t right in the head, either,” Van quipped.

  “He never carried out his plan because Zurial was pregnant,” Elmot said. “He couldn’t murder the unborn heir to the kingdom—someone of his own bloodline. It would have been an unforgivable act against the Creator, which would cause him great misfortune. So he suffered the wedding, allowed the truce, and lay in wait until the heir was born. All the while, gathering resistance fighters.”

  “Many Bales agreed with Goustav, that the Balish were the rightful victors of the Dark War,” Trey said. “Goustav was the warrior who defeated the demons, so he and his followers believed the Balish should have all the spoils, not split the win with the Lodians.”

  “The moment Manik’s heir, Mehal, was born, Goustav and his men carried out his nefarious plan,” Elmot said.

  “Like a butcher, Goustav slaughtered anyone who opposed him.” The stable boy’s hand swooped through the air like a machete.

  Van thought the grotesque gesture unnecessary but felt relieved that he’d moved his heavy arm away. She shifted her body to make it harder for him to reach around her again.

  “He killed them all, except his brother and the baby Mehal,” Trey said. “Goustav’s plan didn’t involve killing Manik, his own bloodline, only breaking the truce. He was off the hook for killing Zurial—she died during childbirth. The Lodians who came to Balefire Palace for the birth weren’t so lucky. They were slain and so were a lot of Lodians in Salus Valde, especially those with royal blood.”

  “It was such a terrible time,” Elmot said, shuddering.

  “Manik already felt broken up over the death of his twin sister, who’d been killed in battle just before the war ended,” Trey said. “The Balish belief that the death of a royal twin is a bad omen originated from this time. Then, after the Rebellion, Manik became so grief-stricken over Zurial’s death he couldn’t rule anymore and couldn’t care for his baby. There was no spell . . . he was in love.”

  Elmot lowered his eyes in empathy, clearly distressed over the romantic drama.

  “That’s when Manik went brainsick crazy,” the stable boy said.

  “Not so crazy,” Trey added. “Before allowing Goustav to take control, Manik established a law that protected the Lodians and hid the Coin. He sealed the deal with the help of the Elementals, who bound Manik’s wishes using their magic. This way, Goustav couldn’t turn around and change the law once he became king. Goustav never had a child, and the Balish royal bloodline was carried forward by Mehal, whose descendants are the present-day Moors.”

  Van opened her
mouth to remind Trey about the information he and Elmot had found in the library in Agerorsa, claiming that Goustav had an heir, but she changed her mind after a warning glance from Trey. Instead, Van asked, “So, Manik went insane. Zurial died in childbirth. Goustav ruled the kingdom. What happened to Amaryl?” Silence hung in the air, each waiting for the other to say something.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Trey cleared his throat. “She was slain in the woods of Aduro, before having a child. Those present believed they witnessed the end of Anchoress bloodline.”

  “Yeah, so?” That much was no surprise to Van; she already knew only Manikists and orthodox Lodians believed the bloodline had survived the war.

  Trey hesitated, as if deciding whether to tell Van the tragic details of Amaryl’s death, then said, “Amaryl was murdered . . . by Goustav.”

  A chair crashed into the wall, barely missing Trey’s head. Van saw two of Jorie’s beefed-up arm-wrestling buddies yelling at each other, and then the place broke out in a smashing brawl. Van had to duck and weave to avoid fists and flying chairs, as she, Trey, Elmot, and Brux scrambled to get out the door.

  Jorie nervously waited for them outside. They had made it out unscathed, and Van felt glad the incident had detached that ridiculous girl from Brux’s lap. But Paley was nowhere to be found.

  “Jorie, who knew your womanly wiles would incite a riot?” Trey said with a lofty grin.

  “Ho-yeah, they do,” Jorie replied, grinning, while fist-bumping Trey.

  Van was surprised, too. She saw Jorie as a rough, tough, masculine warrior and wouldn’t have guessed Jorie liked flirting with boys. Jorie had proved Van wrong.

  Paley appeared out of nowhere, disheveled, with the boy she had been talking to earlier trailing close behind.