by Linda McNabb
Everyone else was still asleep, so he slipped quietly out of the wooden castle and headed for the herb cave. Choo, Jelena’s cat, followed him as if to keep an eye on him. The deep, underground river ran through the tunnels not far from the cave, and a rope pulley had been set up to bring the water up. He raised two buckets of water, with Choo watching from the shadows, only her yellow eyes showing. He was carrying the buckets to the herb cave when he heard footsteps in the tunnel behind him. When he heard a sneeze, he knew exactly who it was.
“I thought I’d find you down here,” Guyan said as he turned to greet her. She caught up with him and took one of the buckets. “The dragons still aren’t back.”
“I don’t think they’ll give up looking for Eldric until they find him,” Zaine said, shaking his head a little. “I wouldn’t want to be him when they do.”
“Your father is looking for you,” Guyan said, as she helped him tip the water into the clay pipes that irrigated the herbs and bushes. Choo wandered through the bushes, pouncing on insects and rolling in the warm dirt. Guyan didn’t look up as she continued, “He says it is time to go.”
Zaine put the empty bucket back by the doorway but did not reply. He wasn’t ready to go back just yet, but this was not his world. He had no choice. Guyan walked back with him to Royal Heights, and neither spoke until they arrived.
“Make sure someone waters the herbs,” Zaine instructed Guyan as they walked towards the small group waiting for him. All of the visitors to Zhan were assembled and looked ready to leave.
“And weeds them,” Maata added. She had weeded the entire herb cave in the past few days, and Zaine knew that she would love to stay and keep doing it.
“I can carry water. I can do it for you,” Jelena said seriously as she picked the cat up, who had followed them back. “Stop running off, Choo!”
“I’ll help,” Dom offered eagerly.
“What about your finding?” Tercel asked.
Dom shrugged and looked caves, overstuffed with findings. “We probably don’t need half the things we bring back. I won’t need to go very often. Besides, I have another career in mind.”
“Do we really have to go today?” Zaine asked, hoping that his father would find a reason for them to stay a little longer. There was nothing he missed about his home world.
“We have our own lives to be getting on with,” Davyn said, putting an arm around his son as the group started walking through the cavern. “And so do the people of Zhan.”
“I’ve tried talking to the king several times, but he’s always too busy. I’d like the chance to talk to him before we go,” Trianna said as they left the cavern and headed into the tunnels. Calard was following them, but kept a dozen paces behind and did not attempt to join in their conversation.
“There won’t be any more kings or queens in Zhan,” Guyan reminded Trianna firmly. Trianna turned away without answering.
There were quite a few people in the tunnels already, most of them carrying bags and furniture.
“Over half of the people of Zhan have chosen to return to our old homeland,” Guyan said as they watched the people turn off down a tunnel. “We will have more than enough room here in the caverns for many hundreds of years.”
“Sy has gone there, too,” Dom said without any hint of concern. “He thinks that he has the right to be the first king there.”
At the mention of a king, Trianna’s eyes brightened a little. Zaine could almost see her trying to work out if it would be to her advantage to offer her services to the eager young royal-to-be.
Zaine felt sorry for Dom. Not only had his father run off and was being chased by the storm dragons, now his only brother had gone too. It didn’t look like Dom had a mother around to look after him either.
“Will you go as well?” Zaine asked.
“Dom will be staying with us,” Guyan said, giving her cousin a playful shove. “But he’ll have to start learning more runes if he wants to be a starweaver.”
“I’ll teach him some,” Jelena said with a laugh, and she skipped off ahead before Dom could retaliate.
Dom grinned. It was obvious that he was more than happy with his new living arrangements.
“Will you need more starweavers if the links will hold for a hundred years?” Maata asked.
“The dragons are going to create more dragon stones and we will open as many links to other worlds as we can,” Guyan explained.
They followed the tunnels and Zaine didn’t need anyone to tell him which way to go now. He felt at home in the tunnels, and he had been down them a hundred times in the past few days. He liked to visit each of the starlinks and watch the other worlds.
A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the stone cottage that led to his world. Directly ahead of him lay the single tree in the courtyard at Summer Castle and its leaves blew gently in the wind. A light dusting of snow covered most of the courtyard and the tree.
Through the sands off to his right, he could see the stone hut and starlink that led to Guyan’s home world. A steady stream of people were crossing into that world, carrying all of their belongings with them. King Reko, now fully recovered, was standing by the side of the circle with his queen, farewelling each person in turn. The king looked up and saw Guyan through the sands. He waved at her and turned to speak to his wife, and then they both hurried out of sight.
“I think he wants us to wait,” Guyan told them.
A minute later, the king came running out of the stone cottage. Although he was breathing hard, he was grinning broadly. “I’m glad I caught you. We have another problem,” he said, leaning down and putting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. He wasn’t wearing a crown. The crowns had been hung on the wall of the throne room – neither the king nor the queen had wanted to put them on in case time stopped again.
Guyan’s mother walked out of the cottage and stood next to her husband. She smiled at her older daughter and then turned to Zaine. “What the king is trying to say is that we would like Zaine to stay on for a while, if he wouldn’t mind.”
“Me? Stay?” Zaine could hardly believe his ears. He wanted nothing more.
“We have no healer now that Eldric has gone,” the king explained, having finally recovered his breath. “We were hoping you would stay and train some of our people.”
“But there is something you may not like,” Mya said, a note of caution in her voice.
Zaine doubted there could be anything about Zhan that he didn’t like. Guyan sneezed again and glared at Jelena who backed away a little with her cat.
“You will not stay as you are now,” Guyan said. “You will begin to age again and grow older for as long as you stay here.”
Zaine grinned. That wasn’t a drawback. He didn’t really want to stay looking twelve for the rest of his life anyway! He’d looked this age for nearly two years now and he was ready to be older. He turned to look at Davyn, silently asking his father’s permission to stay.
“We need to be going,” Davyn said, gently touching his son’s arm. “It looks like you’ll be staying for now.”
Zaine could have jumped with happiness. He felt at home here. The runemarks on his skin had stayed dark even after he had taken off the golden crown. Back home he would still be looked at as the odd one out, and even more so now that he had runes on his skin. Here, he was treated with respect.
Zaine embraced his father and shook hands with Tercel before turning to Maata.
“Go and sort Theodane out,” he said with a grin. “He’ll take over Summer Castle if you don’t, and then I’ll have nowhere to stay when I visit.”
“I’ll challenge him to a contest,” Maata said with a sideways look at Calard, “and beat him. Then he’ll have to go back to his own castle.”
“He is the rightful king,” Calard said, finally shaking off the silence that had settled on him ever since time had restarted. He looked to Tercel for support. “You cannot challenge him now.”
“I’m on her side,”
Tercel said, stepping closer to Maata. “The prince had no right to take the throne as he did.”
Calard looked furious and stalked off to stand next to the starlink, his back turned. Guyan spoke the rune to open the circle, and Calard, seeing the runes glow briefly, stepped quickly across them and hurried off across the courtyard in the distance.
“I suppose you’ll be back to visit sometime, Zaine?” Trianna asked stiffly as she edged towards the circle. She looked desperate to stop Calard from talking to Theodane.
“In a while,” Zaine replied.
A brief smile tugged at one side of Trianna’s mouth, but she quickly regained her distant expression. “Perhaps we could talk – if you have time then.”
Trianna turned quickly, not waiting for his reply, and stepped into the circle. She barely paused as she reappeared in the snow-covered courtyard and hurried off after Calard without a backwards glance.
Zaine wasn’t sure what to make of his mother. Maybe there was a softer side to her. He shook off such confusing thoughts as Dom spoke to him.
“I could show you more about being a finder if you like,” Dom offered. “And you could show me the herbs.”
“So you want to be a starweaver, a finder and a healer?” Guyan asked her cousin with mock astonishment.
“Why not? Zaine is,” Jelena pointed out.
“I’m not a finder,” Zaine said.
“Yes you are,” Dom said, then grinned. “You found Guyan and Jelena, and you brought Guyan back to Zhan, didn’t you?”
Zaine had to agree, and he ruffled the young boy’s curly hair.
“We’d better get back. There’s no telling what Calard will tell the other weavers if they see him first,” Davyn said. “Not to mention Trianna.”
Zaine stood next to Guyan as his family and friends crossed over the runes. Instantly they vanished, and reappeared, smaller and further away as Calard had done, next to the single tree in the courtyard. They all turned and waved before moving out of sight, leaving only footprints in the snow and the tree swaying gently in the wind.
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