Decision made, she took a deep breath. “I choose this life,” she said as she stared deep into Hunter’s sharp green eyes to show she meant business. “I came here to find out the truth and to know who I really am. I didn’t expect to find any of this, but I will accept it. I choose my true identity.” Relief flooded into her as the rightness of her words settled into her being.
Hunter gave her the serious look of someone wanting to make sure she understood the gravity of what she had said. He also had a slight twitch of his mouth and the sparkle in his eyes of someone who was proud of her... perhaps the look of a grandfather. Her heart warmed, causing a single teardrop to fall from her eye and slide once again down her cheek.
“Do you know how to distinguish the wards from my true self?” Kaeleigh asked, suddenly nervous as she wrung her hands.
“I do,” Hunter said, nodding with a knowing smile. “You see, I was the one who placed them on you in the very beginning.”
CHAPTER TWO
Kaeleigh paced nervously in front of the large picture window in the main room of the cottage waiting for Hunter, her grandfather, to get the necessary items together for him to work his magic. There was a nervous energy of the unknown buzzing in the cottage, but also an excitement and a hope of what she would discover. Hunter had said it was extremely important they begin to strip the wards that had created a permanent glamour for her while she was in the mortal realm as soon as possible. She knew Hunter felt her time was short, even though he didn’t say it. Observing how he swiftly yet confidently collected items and muttered to himself about the process, she could tell he thought time was of the essence. As he settled before the tall table in the center of the room that divided the sitting area from the kitchen area, he seemed to be open to talking. Hunter told her a small bit of history while he laid out herbs and stones and a sundry of small knickknacks that apparently held magical properties. They didn’t look like much to her.
From his mutterings, she gathered that apparently this was not the usual warding method. Not only unusual, but it was actually quite rare, and not many in Alandria could even perform it if they tried. She learned that her grandfather had been some kind of person of importance (which of course, didn’t seem to be need-to-know information at the moment), but had to retreat into hiding in order to stay alive. Hunter was her father’s father. He had been hunted initially, but since he had been hidden away, not unlike herself, it seemed—only he knew who he was—things had remained quiet.
“Hunter?” Kaeleigh asked tentatively, hoping she wasn’t interrupting too much.
Hunter stopped and took in her face with genuine care. “You may call me Grandfather, if you wish to.” There was a flicker of hope in his eyes before he turned back to focus on his preparations.
Her heart soared as a lump of emotion got stuck in her throat. Giving a small smile, she blinked back the tears that suddenly threatened to spill over once again. She almost forgot what she was about to ask. “You said my father is alive... Where is he?”
Keeping his back to her, he paused in his organizing. He turned partially to her and a brief look of vulnerability and regret flashed across his face. “I lost him.” Sighing, he looked out the window past her and into another moment of time. “I know he is alive though.” He gave her a small abashed smile. “You see, we have a special bond, one that was created by my father to feel the life energies of our line. You will feel this too, once you are whole again. I know he is alive, but I haven’t been able to find him. Tracing apparently wasn’t a part of the magic.” He grumbled that last part, obviously frustrated.
“What does that all mean for my father?”
“Either he is in hiding as well, which he would be smart to remain as such; or he is unable to be found... meaning he is being held somewhere.”
With a new resolve, Kaeleigh made a vow in her heart and then to Hunter. “I will find him.”
He came close to her and laid his hands on her shoulders. “I hope you do. I hope I am able to help. But you must be careful. There are many things about to transpire, I feel, and you are very important—though I do not yet know how all our pieces fit together.” He went back to preparing the table.
“Alandria is dying,” he said without looking up from what he was doing. He stopped, hands both flat on the table, taking a deep and obviously pained breath. “I can feel it. You haven’t been very far into it yet, but you will see it. Not everyone does. There is a magic that is glamouring even the essence of Alandria itself.” Suddenly Hunter slammed his fist down on the table, shaking everything he had just worked so carefully to lay out. Fists balled up, he turned his head toward Kaeleigh.
This strong, regal, capable man—being—before her had such tenderness and affection for his home and his people, Kaeleigh’s chest hitched with pain at not having had the privilege of growing up with that knowledge and love for a place and a people... her people. But this was her chance and she wanted to learn, to understand, and to feel what it was she saw in his eyes. What she had seen in Finn’s when he crossed the borders of this realm. What she saw in Daegan’s eyes when he talked about the land or his protectiveness and pride at who he was and where he came from. She saw the pain they all had, but what she also saw was a reason, a cause, a pursuit that overrode it and drove them forward to fighting for something they believed in—their home. She had never had that. But maybe here she could find it.
“I haven’t been able to find the source of the darkness that has been spreading. It is poisoning the land and siphoning off the magic that is intended for her growth and the sustainability for her people. It must be stopped.”
“What happens to Alandria... to the people, if it can’t be?”
With sad eyes, he looked at her. “We will perish with the land as our magic is depleted. Or we will be forced into hiding in the mortal realm, where there isn’t enough magic to keep us—that many of us—alive for any considerable amount of time... either way it is a death sentence.” He stood tall and confident and looked out the window once again. “I refuse to let that happen.” He stood there a moment longer in silence while Kaeleigh absorbed all he had said.
There was something else she wanted to ask him in private before the others returned. “Why was Finn punished? Or... banished, I guess?”
“In the last battle, when we realized that the darkness—the Droch Shúil—had indeed found a way into Alandria, there was much confusion and subterfuge, races turned against each other and themselves. Finnlan got stuck in a terrible situation and he made a judgment call that unfortunately was a grave error.” Hunter stopped pacing in front of the window with his hands behind his back. His expression was drawn but resolved as he looked to where Kaeleigh was sitting on the small wooden stool in front of the fireplace. “I won’t say anymore. It is his story to tell if he wishes to, but this is a matter I would suggest you not push him on. It was all I could do to persuade the council of Elders to allow him the mercy of sending him with you to the mortal realm. He may not have seen it as a mercy at the time, but I needed someone to protect you.” He gazed at her pointedly. “Did he?”
Kaeleigh nodded seriously. “He was always there for me. He protected me and he was my friend.” I didn’t have many of those. Kaeleigh chastised herself for being so hard on him. He had done the best with what he was given to deal with. “But what I don’t really understand is, why was I sent away? Why did I need to be glamoured and why did I need Finn and Chel’s family for that matter?” Kaeleigh asked, suddenly frustrated. She could feel the temperamental energy stirring deep within her when she got emotional, but tried to immediately tamper it down, which left her feeling weaker than it should have for the little she expended.
Hunter’s eyes widened. “Well done, Kaeleigh. But has this been happening much... your energy depleting that way, I mean?” She nodded. At the paling of her face, he headed back to the work table. “I will answer your questions because there is much to discuss and you need to know what you are dealing with, but right
now, we must hurry. Your energies are failing at a rapid pace. Please sit. Don’t do anything while I finish up preparations, and hopefully your friends will have returned by then.” He helped her move to the more comfortable seat made out of some kind of stretched leather, but it had a pillow and she curled up to where she could see him but also look out the window from her other side.
Intensely focused elsewhere, Hunter puttered around the little table as he laid out all the tools he needed on the block of wood that stood on four legs. There was method and order to what he was doing. Watching him, Kaeleigh mused on how it looked like he was getting ready to either perform an exorcism or a sacred ritual; Kaeleigh hoped for the latter. Nervously, she bit her lip and worried her necklace between her fingers as she stared out the window again, trying not to think about the pain that she had endured when she was on the bridge. She hoped this was not the same kind of torture... or worse.
Closing her eyes, she willed herself to relax and tried to focus on the things Hunter had told her about Alandria and what it was once before. She tried to visualize what it must have been like, but her mind kept wandering to where her friends and Daegan might be. She wasn’t sure if she counted Daegan as a friend, but he had been there for her when she needed him to be... mostly. Thinking of Daegan—it was unsettling to realize that she had actually been having visions and dreams of him before they had even met. Suddenly, all she could see in her mind’s eye was Daegan. Kaeleigh could see him standing strong and fierce in all his glory as a warrior, a Faerie warrior. But then, as if she could look beyond his exterior, she didn’t see him fighting and defending the innocent of Alandria, or for the cause that needed to be won. Instead, she saw him crumbling in on himself, broken and tortured in soul and in body—trapped within himself. The tortured feeling that came from his spirit, and the frayed ribbon of magical energy that she could see periodically coming from him, concerned her greatly. She didn’t know what it all meant, but her heart broke for him.
Suddenly, from vision to reality, she saw Daegan and Finn walking back up the path toward the cottage. Speak of the devil. Not talking to each other, just simply walking in the same direction at the same time. Her heart soared at seeing Finn; she was so afraid that he had gone off to do something stupid thinking he was protecting her, like turning himself in. She could breathe easier knowing he had come back. Chel was just behind them, breathing heavily, hands on her hips the way Kaeleigh had seen her do many times when she was cooling down from a run. As if this was something she did here in this realm all the time.
As if sensing her, Daegan looked directly at her, the thin window pane the only thing between her and the piercing question in his eyes that burned into her soul. What she saw reflecting in his eyes wasn’t the same intensity that had been directed at her before, but was a raw, naked emptiness that burrowed deep inside of him. The spell of his façade suddenly broke on her.
⚔⚔⚔
Finn went inside, but Daegan stopped short of the door and stared back at Kaeleigh’s piercing stare that held a knowledge that disarmed him. He frowned, unnerved at her sudden ability to openly stare into his soul. There weren’t many that could see beyond his guard—in fact, he couldn’t think of any except maybe Arileas. Hands clenched at his sides, he took a deep breath, re-erecting his figurative shield of boulders and thorns before entering the cottage. Once inside, he refused to look at Kaeleigh, but immediately focused on the unexpected ritualistic manner of preparations that Hunter was doing and tried to decipher his apparent madness.
Finn and a quickly recovered Chel also stopped, staring as Hunter cleaned off a very sharp dagger.
“He is preparing for my un-warding ritual,” Kaeleigh explained.
“How are you feeling, Kaeleigh?” Finn looked her over intently.
“I’m okay right now, Finn,” she said as she lightly patted the seat next to her for him to sit. “But Hunter has been filling me in on some things.” She went on to explain to the best of her understanding what Hunter was doing and why she was “sick.”
Chel scrunched her face in concern. Finn leaned forward in his seat, his brows pinched, his gaze focused intensely on the fire while elbows bounced on his knees. He seemed uncomfortable with what was about to transpire.
“Is this safe? I mean will it hurt her?” Daegan asked, surprising everyone as he had been quietly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
Hunter paused in his work to look up at Daegan. “It shouldn’t,” Hunter replied, to Kaeleigh’s relief especially. “She will feel some pressure, I believe, but most of what she will feel, I suspect, will be the emotional loss of her prior self.” At what he imagined Daegan was trying to convey—but failed—as indifference to his answer, he continued arranging and then rearranging his supplies.
Kaeleigh spoke softly. “Finn? My grandfather was telling me about how you...”—she paused—“how you became my...”
“Guardian?” Finn quietly finished for her. His eyes softened when he looked back at Kaeleigh sitting only mere feet away from him.
“Friend. I was going to say friend,” Kaeleigh responded with a sweet smile. Which, in turn, made Finn smile.
“I won’t go into the details of how I was in the position I was in, except to say that I had made a mistake,” Finn said quietly. He stared with unseeing eyes at her, obviously haunted by his past. “I was going to be killed or worse... banished as consequence for what I had done. It was during a time of great confusion and chaos in Alandria.” Finn paused, taking some deep breaths. There was a barely noticeable tremor in his hand as he got up and slowly moved toward the window. “The night before I was to go before the council and the public, the king of Adettlyn decided upon banishment from Alandria.” He hung his head as he painfully continued, “I would rather have been killed than to be dishonored that way and kept out of my home forever. However, the king told me it would be done in private and I was to be sent with a mission... a chance at redemption: to take with me a daughter of Alandria, a child who needed to be hidden and protected at all costs.” The room was silent as he spoke.
Kaeleigh stared at him in disbelief. “But I’ve only known you for the last few years. How is that possible?”
“I have been guiding and looking after you even when you didn’t know I was there.” He hung his head low. “I know I failed you for a time early on. I left for a season to redirect some scouts that were looking for you, when you fell into the hands of...”
Kaeleigh put her hand up, stopping him from referring to the time when she was placed into some very unfortunate foster families. She snuck a quick and hopefully discreet glance to see Daegan frowning at her. Not his usual scowl, but almost one of deep concern—which made her feel even more uncomfortable. She didn’t like to talk about it in the first place, but she definitely didn’t want people to pity her. She was given the lot she had in life—yeah, sometimes it sucked—but she had made it out, hopefully a stronger and better person for it.
Finn took a deep breath then looked over at Chel. “That’s when I found that Chel’s parents had left Alandria as well. They took you in without question.”
Chel had come over and grabbed Kaeleigh’s hand in support. Daegan, still leaning in the corner, arms folded, now glared at Finn with a puzzled look. She didn’t have the energy to wonder what that was about. He caught her watching him, but expressionless, he began to watch Hunter lay everything out in a specific order much like a surgeon would lay out his instruments. This collection of instruments included an oddly shaped stone, a perfectly whittled stick, several different-colored candles placed at each point of the chalk-drawn star with seven points on the wooden table, an ancient-looking athame with an intricately designed handle, a purple velvet pouch filled with something, a little vellum envelope that held several short, fine brownish hairs, and the head of a large white orchid.
Seeing the orchid caused Kaeleigh to gasp. She slowly moved toward it extending her hand, wanting to touch it, to receive what comfort she could ascer
tain from the familiarity of a simple flower. As much as she felt suddenly found in this new world and new life, she also felt lost. Kaeleigh still had so many questions and didn’t even know where to begin. For now, she let them be to wait the moment out.
Daegan approached the table, watching over Hunter’s shoulder as he continued to make preparations for whatever it was that he was about to do. Irritated, Hunter looked up and over his shoulder at him. Daegan continued to stare at the contents of the table, unaffected by the older man’s stare. “I have never seen this kind of magic prepared,” Daegan said, shrugging.
“It is not magic that is practiced by many in Alandria. It’s an ancient magic that has lost its way with the passing of time. We, those privileged to be creatures of Alandria, are gifted with our own magics each to their own races—as you know—but there are deeper magics that exist, or used to. Some use objects to channel magical energies into, but there are some who contain this magic innately within the depth of their being. The ancestry that my line belongs to possesses the latter with much practice and a little bit of luck.” Hunter winked as he gazed back at Kaeleigh, who was listening intently as she studied them from by the window.
“My grandfather taught my father, and it was he who taught it to me. I attempted to pass it on to my son, but it is not easily learned, and since time has been stolen from us for now, I’m afraid he has not learned enough to even perform the smallest of this magic.” Hunter looked down, sad, but quickly refocused.
Veiled Shadows (The Age of Alandria: Book Two) Page 2
