Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3)

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Theus focused his energy, ready to throw his voice again. He turned his head away from the guard, to hide his lips, as he spoke words that sounded in the hallway immediately outside the cell. “Bring my prisoner to me now!”

  “Come on you, out of the cell now, and no tricks!” the guard immediately snarled.

  Theus complied as the guard backed out of the cell, holding his lantern. The pair emerged out in the wide corridor that was lined with cells. Theus was a step closer to freedom.

  As soon as he cleared the doorway, Theus grasped his energy, and cloaked himself in invisibility.

  “Where are you, boy?” the jailer rasped angrily. “You come out of that cell, now!”

  The jailer started to step back towards the doorway, as Theus stepped to the side and studied the man intently. He spotted the large ring of keys on the man’s belt, and grabbed them, ripping them away from the jailer, while a moment later Theus slammed the jail door closed; it struck the jailer with full force and knocked the man unconscious.

  Theus hurriedly dragged the jailer into the cell he had just vacated and closed the door. He picked up the lantern the man had dropped on the floor.

  “Amelia?” he called loudly, his voice echoing through the long chamber. He stepped over by a pair of doors. Amelia?” he repeated. “Where are you? I’ve come to save you!”

  “Here!” a voice answered from down the hall. “Who is it? I’m here!”

  Theus walked down several steps in the direction of the answer.

  “Call again,” he shouted. There were sounds of movement and voices in several cells, he realized.

  “Amelia?” he called.

  “I’m here! Help me!” the answer was nearby; Theus identified the direction, and ran to the cell door.

  “I’m here. Just a moment,” he spoke excitedly as he selected one of the keys from the jailer’s ring and placed it in the lock. The key didn’t fit. Theus put down the lantern on the floor, so that he had both hands free, then he selected a second key.

  “Amelia, it’s me, Theus. I’ve come to rescue you,” he explained as he tried putting the second key in the lock. It fit, but didn’t turn.

  The room looked strange, as the light on the floor illuminated all things upward, and long shadows stretched up towards the ceiling. No light breached Amelia’s door, and her window remained a dark square.

  “Theus?” her voice was husky and full of wonder. “How did you get here Theus? Why are you here?

  “I’m so glad to see you!”

  Theus tried placing a third key in the door lock. As he did, he heard boots stomping the floor, a single set of boots approaching the prison corridor.

  Theus jiggled the key frantically, and it turned. There was a click, and the door started to swing open. At the same time, the door to the corridor, the door from the outside, also began to swing open.

  Amelia started to leap out of the cell, but at the same time, Theus was frantic to get out of sight. He pressed her back and leaped into the prison cell with her, pulling the door shut behind him, and locking them both into place.

  “Theus!” the girl cried. Theus felt confused in the darkness.

  “What mischief do we have here?” a deep voice asked from out in the hallway. It was Donal.

  “Amelia? Is that you?” Theus asked.

  “I sense something has changed,” Donal’s voice sounded very close.

  “Oh Theus! You’re a captive too! I’m so sorry,” Amelia answered.

  “Come here and hug me,” Theus demanded.

  The door to the cell began to rattle.

  Theus felt the girl’s body press against his. Something was different.

  The room filled with light, as the door opened.

  Theus grasped his energy in panic, and took a step forward.

  He and Amelia left the prison cell.

  Chapter 9

  Theus was standing on a mountainside, amidst scrubby bushes, holding a beautiful woman in his arms.

  She was not Amelia.

  She had honey brown hair that barely reached her shoulders, and a tattered green gown that was stretched tightly across her body, splitting open at some seams. She was nearly as tall as Theus. She was beautiful.

  Theus began to cry. He was exhausted from the use of the white magic, and he felt weak.

  He’d done so much, and pressed his own courage beyond its limits to go into Donal’s lair, in order to save Amelia. He knew he’d never be able to make himself undertake the nerve-wracking ordeal again. And he’d failed to set Amelia free.

  “What is it dear?” the woman asked soothingly. Her hands began to stroke his cheek and his hair. “What’s wrong? Where are we? How did we get here?”

  “I went to rescue Amelia, the princess of Steep Rise, and I’ve set the wrong person free,” Theus sniffled, as he brought his crying under control. “I’m glad you’re free, but you’re not the person I went to rescue.”

  “I am Amelia!” the woman answered. “Don’t you recognize me?”

  “Amelia was a girl, a sweet young girl,” Theus replied with ragged breaths. “And you’re a woman, a beautiful one.”

  “It’s me, Theus,” the woman said insistently. “The girl who you made walk in the wilderness in her shift. The girl you took to Exlive. The girl who warned you to escape from my uncle.

  “Theus, it’s me!” the woman exclaimed. She grasped him in a tight, intimate hug. “And you’ve rescued me.

  “But how did you do it? Where are we? How did we get here?” she asked.

  Theus slumped. He removed himself from her hug, then settled down to the ground, dropping into a sitting position, his head propped up by hands holding his face.

  “Are you alright?” Amelia asked, crouching down low in front of him, her hands soothing his head once again.

  “I’m exhausted,” he answered. Confusion was like a thick, impenetrable cloud in his brain. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t decipher, he couldn’t reason.

  “Using the magic to move like that exhausts me, especially when I carry someone,” he told the girl.

  She sat down beside him.

  “You used magic?” her voice was full of awe. “Of course you did; that’s how we got here, wherever here is. What did you do? Did you steal some of Donal’s?”

  Theus raised his head and stared at the girl. Her face was full of wonder. She was looking at him with an openness that showed no guile. She was Amelia, he realized. She was still a young girl inside, still innocent in ways, still trusting him.

  “Donal used his powers to steal some of your life, didn’t he? He made you age; you’ve grown up, at least your body has,” Theus explained to her, but really to himself as he spoke out loud.

  “Yes,” Theus saw the pain in her face, and he heard it in her voice as she spoke. “Please, let’s not talk about that.”

  “I know,” Theus stretched an arm around Amelia the woman, and hugged her warmly, protectively. “I have felt it too, I know.

  “I have some white magic abilities now,” he told her, to change the subject and to answer her earlier question. “The biggest thing I can do is move a long way in a single step. But it takes a lot of energy out of me. I’m a wreck right now,” he admitted.

  “You did this all on your own?” Amelia asked wonderingly. “Did you come to fight Donal? To use your white magic against his black magic?”

  “I came to save you,” Theus answered softly. “I heard you in my dreams, and I came back to save you. I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner to protect you.”

  “Oh Theus,” Amelia said softly. She leaned in against him and kissed his cheek, then pressed her cheek against his. “You are the greatest hero ever! You’ve saved my life over and over.

  “And of course, I saved your life too,” she spoke in a more practical tone. “I warned you about my uncle’s plan,” she separated their faces, then rested her head on his shoulder.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “I have to recover. When I take a
step like that, I need hours to get my energy back. We can walk for a while, starting in a few minutes, and later today,” he looked up to check the position of the sun. It was only midday; he would have time to regain his strength so they could take another magical long step. “Later today we’ll move by magic.”

  “Where will we go? Are you taking me someplace safe?” Amelia’s voice had a note of trepidation; the girl was fearful, still affected by the horror of being in Donal’s control.

  “We’re in the mountains north of Southsand now. I was planning to take us north,” he told her.

  “These are the Greentree Mountains. I learned that from my tutor,” Amelia told him. “They go from Southsand past Steep Rise and all the way up to Greenfalls. They change names there and they’re called the Wallchick Mountains. Isn’t that a funny name?”

  He could feel her voice, as her head rested on his shoulder; it resonated within his own flesh. It felt intimate.

  “We’ll go to Stoke,” he decided on the spur of the moment. She would be safe there. It was someplace he could take the girl and find a refuge for her.

  “That will be fun; I’ve never been there before,” she murmured.

  “Theus?” she asked a moment later.

  “Yes?” he waited for her question.

  “Will you get me some new clothes? These are so dirty, and they feel so uncomfortable,” she switched topics with surprising speed.

  Theus rose up, dislodging her head from his shoulder, and he swung his pack off his back, then opened it and reached inside. He pulled out a set of clothes, clothes that he had carried since he’d left Coriae in Great Forks. They were sized to fit him, but in her new physical state, they would be approximately correct for Amelia.

  “These are man clothes,” he warned. Her dress was tight on her, he could see. It must be uncomfortable.

  “Oh, thank you!” she squealed with delight like a little girl. She was a little girl, he had to remind himself, despite the very undeniable evidence to the contrary.

  She snatched the clothes from his hand and unrolled them to inspect them, then turned her back to him. “Would you please unbutton my dress? I can’t wait to change!”

  Theus looked at the line of small buttons that descended from her neck to the small of her back. He awkwardly fumbled with the top button, and took several seconds to finally open that first button. He fumbled his way down the row, his fingers brushing against her skin with each effort.

  “Are they difficult, or do you have sausages for fingers?” Amelia giggled as she teased Theus.

  Her flesh felt soft and vibrant to his fingers, and he blushed as he sat behind her and struggled with his task.

  “There, is that enough?” he asked after opening slightly more than half the buttons.

  “Turn around and I’ll see,” she instructed him. Though still physically wrung by the use of the white magic, he gladly rose from his seat with a groan, then slowly stepped away from Amelia.

  There was a rustling sound, and a series of soft grunts, then more rustling, and more grunts.

  “How is it going?” Theus asked.

  A mass of cloth struck the back of his head, then flowed and draped over his face. He reached up and pulled it away, seeing that it was Amelia’s former dress.

  “You can look now,” she said primly.

  Theus turned and stared. Despite the shapelessness of the wrinkled clothes, Amelia’s unnaturally age-advanced appearance managed to shine her femininity through the drab outfit she sported.

  “You make those clothes look so much better than I ever could,” Theus tried to conceal the impact of studying her pose.

  “Well, I hope so,” she declared pertly. “You just slouch along, without even trying to stand straight or use good posture,” she accused him. He felt mildly insulted, and his face must have displayed his feeling.

  “I mean that you’re such a hero, and no one would ever know. You don’t swagger about,” Amelia skipped over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. “And you are a wonderful hero,” she reassured him. “You’re my hero; I think I’ll make you the champion someday – the queen’s champion.

  “I’ll have to be queen someday, when we win the war and reconquer Steep Rise to set it free. I know Amory must have died at sea with Redford,” her face was pained as she admitted she had lost hope for her brother.

  “No!” Theus interrupted her excitedly.

  “No, you won’t be my champion?” Amelia asked in shock.

  “No, ‘no’ you won’t be queen – Amory is alive! I saw him and Redford. I helped set them free!” he told her.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?!” Amelia exclaimed. She hugged Theus again, a tight rapturous embrace, then kissed him on the cheek again.

  “That’s one good thing about being older, I suppose,” she mused. “I’m the right height to kiss you whenever I want.” She proceeded to peck him on both cheeks, the nose and the chin.

  “Amory is alive?” she asked at last.

  “And Redford too. Their boat was picked up and they were made prisoners in Steep Rise; they said they saw you there. I went there first looking for you, and I found them instead, so I helped them escape,” Theus explained.

  “You’re the best! You can be Amory’s champion,” Amelia declared. “Or I suppose Redford will do that, so you’ll still have to be my champion,” she kissed his face innocently once again.

  “You have to stop doing that,” Theus said uncomfortably.

  “Oh, that’s right, you have a girlfriend. Did you see her? What was her name – Coriae?” Amelia asked.

  “She’s not my girlfriend any more. We,” he paused, not wanting to admit that he had left Coriae because of Amelia herself, “we went our separate ways.”

  “I’m sorry Theus; I’m so sorry,” Amelia sounded truly sympathetic. “Once we have a court again, you can have your choice of any lady-in-waiting,” the girl seemed satisfied with her solution. “You won’t even remember old Coriae.”

  “Let’s get going, shall we?” Theus suggested. He was ready to move. Any step and every step they took away from Southsand would be a good step. He wanted to increase the distance from Donal by the greatest amount possible.

  He picked up his pack, and they prepared to go. Amelia had nothing to carry; she had only escaped from the prison cell with Theus carrying literally the clothes on her back, the dress that lay on the ground nearby, a discarded piece of cloth.

  “Which way?” Amelia asked.

  Theus looked up at the sky and studied the sun. “North, that way,” he pointed to their right.

  The pair of thankful escapees began to hike, moving slowly to accommodate Theus’s exhaustion.

  “Theus?” Amelia asked after five minutes of walking. “I’m hungry; can you find food for us here, like you did when we were on the shore?”

  “I’ll keep an eye peeled,” he promised, sure that he could find edible products anywhere. Half a minute later he stopped and pulled a fern leaf frond, then plucked away the browned edges, and presented it as the first of many small items that they grazed on throughout the afternoon.

  They made slow progress in the mountain landscape, especially as they descended from a rise into a gulley, then had to ascend a steep path back upwards.

  “Come on Theus,” Amelia said playfully as she scampered ahead of him, then looked down with a challenging expression on her face.

  He looked up at her, and saw both the physically mature young woman she had been transformed into, as well as the still young girl in spirit who dared to play games in the middle of a flight to safety. He grinned as a trick occurred to him, then he engaged his weak energy, and used a fraction of it to throw his voice to a spot just behind Amelia’s head.

  “You’re my captive now,” he growled as he hid his mouth with his hand.

  Amelia’s face revealed her shock at hearing an unexpected voice behind her, and she shrieked as she plunged down the hill towards Theus, then took up a position behind him.

&n
bsp; What was that?” she asked cautiously as she looked around their location, trying to find the being who had threatened her. Then she noticed Theus’s laughter.

  “What’s so funny? What did you do?” she realized she had been tricked, and she delivered a soft punch to his kidney.

  “I can throw my voice with magic too,” Theus explained.

  “Well, aren’t you mister fun and games?” she muttered, as she left him and stalked back into the lead ahead of him.

  They continued to make their way during the afternoon. As evening approached, Theus began to consider their options. He had the energy to make one more long, magical step, he felt confident. But after he made it, he would be weakened to the point of complete vulnerability for himself and Amelia. And while the jailer at Donal’s tower had allowed him to retain his pack and his purse for some reason, Theus had no weapons – no sword, no knife, no staff; all had been confiscated when he’d been thrown in the cell. He would be unable to offer Amelia any type of weapon at all for self-protection.

  But he wanted to travel badly, as far and as fast as possible.

  “Amelia,” he called to her as she walked ahead of him through the wilderness, “I’m going to move us forward with more magic, but it’s going to cost me a great deal of my own energy, and I’m going to be ready to collapse when we arrive. So you’ll have to be the grown up who takes care of us wherever we are. One night when I did this I slept in a hollow tree, and another time I just slept on the ground under a bush,” he explained.

  “I can be the grown up; I’ve got a grown up body, don’t I?” the girl asked proudly.

  “It’s,” Theus paused, “yes, a very grown up body. I just want to make sure you make good choices for us. I’ll be counting on you.”

  “How long will it be until we get to Stoke? Could you take me to where Amory and Redford are?” the girl asked.

  Theus paused to consider the request. There was some logic to the thought, and he knew she’d be excited to rejoin her brother and guard. But the two were in a wilderness that Theus didn’t know, and were likely to be in a state of battle with the occupants of Steep Rise, in dangerous and fraught circumstances. He still thought of Amelia as a little girl to some degree; he’d rather protect her in the safety and civilization of Stoke, he decided.