The Orphan's Secret

by R. J. Francis

  Kotaret bowed low to the queen, and said, “Thank you, Your Majesty.” He sat. Sylvia put her arm around him.

  The queen went on: “The second person I wish to commend today is Nastasha.”

  “Your Majesty,” Nastasha said. She had donned a grey dress—the uniform of a refugee.

  The queen continued: “You all know that this young lady is responsible for the survival of every one of you last night. What you may not know is that after she saw you to safety, she confronted the enemy alone, and she even stole into their camp to make sure that our secrets were not betrayed to the invaders. She has shown herself to be an expert strategist and a selfless protector of our kingdom. I have asked Nastasha to be my personal advisor, and she has graciously accepted.”

  “Come forward, dear,” said the queen. Nastasha stepped up and the queen placed her hands on the young heroine’s shoulders. “In the presence of the royal court of Arra, I hereby appoint Nastasha, daughter of Nauplia, child of Valeriy the High General, to the post of advisor to the crown. Let it be recorded that on the eighth day of the second month of autumn, in the year one thousand twenty-four, Her Excellency Nastasha began her duties.”

  Nastasha thanked the queen and the court.

  “I have another announcement of great importance,” said the queen. “For many years, our kingdom has sheltered two foreign officials. By the grace of the divine spirit they are here with us today. Let us welcome them into our court as permanent ambassadors.”

  “Ladies, Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you at last, Her Royal Highness, Alessa, Princess of Celmarea.” Alessa, who had also changed into a humble grey dress from the stockpiles, stepped out from behind a soldier at the chamber’s entrance and joined the queen. Wearing her braided crown of silver dotted with pearls, she radiated beauty, toughness and confidence. The survivors tried to recall whether they had ever run into her in the city. “Princess Alessa is my sister.”

  This ignited a mad flurry of whispers, as the fact that the queen had a sister was not widely known. Alessa curtseyed to her sister, and then to the astonished group before her. The young men bowed low and the ladies curtseyed.

  “Finally, I would like to introduce the youngest survivor of the Celmarean tragedy, a person so dear to me and my family. It is an honor and a pleasure to introduce to you at last, Her Royal Highness, Elaina, Princess of Celmarea.” Elaina entered, her crown in place, but also in the simple grey outfit. Some of the survivors recognized her from having seen her with Nastasha on the day of their castle tour. Some had seen her in the market. Elaina curtseyed to the queen, and then to the court. They responded with the appropriate gestures of deep respect. To Elaina, the survivors were strangers, but they were Jaimin’s friends, and she could tell in an instant they were all wonderful people. She couldn’t wait to get to know them. She stood by Nastasha, who took her hand.

  The queen said, “Tomorrow we shall have a ceremony to acknowledge those we have lost. When we retake the castle, our fallen will be properly remembered according to the customs. And I assure you, we shall retake the castle. May the divine spirit fill us to overflowing with courage, for we can and we must prevail in this conflict and restore peace to our land.”

  Elaina and Alessa spent a few hours among the royal court survivors. The new “ambassadors” felt awkward receiving so much attention while everyone was in mourning, but they handled the situation with modesty and respect, trying not to speak much about themselves despite being asked a slew of questions.

  Meanwhile, Jaimin and Nastasha walked together to the waterfall cave to await General Valeriy’s arrival.

  “Are you going to tell me about your adventures in the enemy camp?” Jaimin asked her.

  “It’s not something I’d like to remember,” Nastasha said.

  “Did they hurt you?”

  “Slightly.”

  “Did you hurt them?”

  “Significantly.”

  “Alessa thinks I’m in Kalmise now,” Jaimin said.

  “Oh no. You too? Isn’t it a bit early?”

  “Apparently. Whatever Elaina did triggered it. So, soon I’ll be able to read your thoughts.”

  “Wonderful news.”

  “I’ll be moody, mysterious, and rash,” Jaimin said.

  “How is that new?”

  “And Elaina will be by my side, just as unpredictable,”

  “Okay. And…where are you going with this?” Nastasha asked.

  “I’m just letting you know what you’re in for in your new post. You know the succession rules. My mother is leading for now, but on my next birthday I will be crowned king. You’ll have to put up with me for as long as I live.”

  “I love our kingdom, Jaimin,” she said. “I’m ready to serve.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  The next morning, Elaina and Alessa headed down to the cold cave behind the waterfall to help two soldiers who had arrived with injuries. Small groups of retreating Arran soldiers had been harassing the Destaurian invaders every time they saw the chance. These two heroes were among the few survivors of a squad from the port post that had wiped out an entire enemy camp in the early morning darkness.

  There were a few medics, but no menders on the scene. Elaina approached the first young man, who had a chest wound, thinking she might at least be able to help determine how bad it was. Before she even touched him, a white light leapt from her hands, flowed through his body, and sealed up his wounds.

  He stared at her, unable to speak—stunned by what had just happened. She stared back, just as amazed, as the medics led him off.

  “I’ve done it again,” she said to Alessa.

  “I felt some of that,” Alessa said. “You and that boy were…”

  “Connected! I know.” She saw him disappear from her view, up the lava tube. “And we still… are. Does that make sense?”

  “I’ve seen a lot in my travels through the worlds,” Alessa said, “but what you’re doing with your hands is new to me.”

  Elaina laid her hands on the next patient, who had a broken arm, but this time the divine light didn’t arrive. She just felt lightheaded, and her vision was blurry.

  “Are you a mender?” asked the wounded soldier.

  “Yes,” she said. “Just relax.”

  “What’s the matter?” Alessa whispered.

  “Hold on,” Elaina said.

  She “felt” in her mind that the man had a severely fractured radius. She also knew it was broken in two places. Focusing further, she could visualize the bone and both breaches. But she felt horribly inept; she had no idea what the next step was. Without the white light she was just a novice mender, and was hardly qualified to be treating patients.

  But where was the light? “Keep your arm still,” she told the man. “You will need to wait for another mender.”

  She grabbed Alessa and walked her a short distance up the lava tube.

  “What is it?” Alessa asked.

  “Maybe he’s not wounded badly enough,” she said. “Jaimin and that first man I just healed were near death.”

  “You think it only works if they are mortally wounded?”

  “Maybe.”

  “It won’t be hard to test your theory.”

  And test it they did. Another casualty turned up soon, this one with horrible injuries all over. As expected, the light flowed, and Elaina restored him. She felt an instant connection with him, as if she suddenly knew his life story and loved him like a good friend.

  Elaina had no doubt she was a mender, but only for the wounded who were closest to death did the white light appear.

  They stayed a while by the waterfall, attending to more broken Arrans as they arrived.

  “Your hair is longer still,” Alessa said, after Elaina had completely healed several more soldiers. “It must grow when the light flows through you.”

  “That’s just odd, isn’t it?”

  Alessa felt the tips of Elaina’s hair. “It looks great. Soon you’ll look like y
our mother. And keep going—you’ll have longer hair than Nastasha.”

  “I want you to tell me all about my mother.”

  “I will. She was amazing. She was smarter, and more perceptive, than all of us.”

  “You know what she wants me to do, right? You’ve read her note.”

  Alessa nodded.

  “I will do what she asks. I’ll find Eleonora, and heal my father. If I can heal Jaimin, and these men, surely I can break whatever spell my father is under.”

  “I bet you can. Your mending seems to be strengthened by your Celmarean blood. I wonder if your mother knew.”

  “Knew what?”

  “She always said we’d find our strength in reaching out to other nations—in working together. It would seem you embody her ideals, and your new ability may prove she was right.”

  “But who is this ancient enemy? Who holds my father in their grasp?”

  “No one knows.”

  When the ladies returned to their camp in the cave, Jaimin was asleep in his cot. Elaina leaned over him, kissed his cheek, and moved his hair off of his eyes. He flinched, but he didn’t wake. She noticed he’d left Alessa’s gleaming long sword unsheathed beneath his cot. Curious, she slipped her hand under the hilt and lifted the weapon. A blue glow on the blade’s edge caught her attention. “What happened to your sword?” she whispered, not expecting a response.

  Jaimin’s eyelids popped open. “Don’t move,” he said.

  “What?” She was startled.

  “Be careful with that. I just sharpened it.”

  “Why didn’t you sheathe it?” she asked. “Your sister could have hurt herself.”

  “Tori wouldn’t go near it. Lay it down slowly.”

  Elaina set it down. “Why is it glowing?”

  “Watch.” Jaimin sat up, lifted the sword’s hilt, and gradually lowered the blade’s tip onto the cave floor. Elaina had to blink to make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her, because after the sword’s tip touched the solid stone, it kept descending. The blade hummed faintly as the ground swallowed its length, and it only stopped sinking when its guard contacted the floor. Jaimin let go of the hilt, and he and Elaina stared at it for a long time.

  “I sharpened it,” he said again.

  “That’s amazing! How did you do it?”

  “The edge narrows to a single row of molecules. I’ve optimized the crystal lattice to create the strongest bonds possible.”

  “You’d be able to slice anyone in half!”

  “That’s the theory,” Jaimin said. “Of course, I haven’t tested it on anyone.”

  “You couldn’t put it back in the scabbard?”

  “No,” said Jaimin. “I’ll have to modify the scabbard to hold it, and that’s going to be more of a challenge.” Without removing its blade from the floor, Jaimin pulled the sword toward him until the hilt was under his cot. “I’m going to store it this way, for now.”

  “I wish we could end the war without spilling any more blood,” Elaina said, “but I know more people must die. With this, at least their deaths will be quick. You must tell Nastasha at once. If you’re too tired, I can send for her.”

  “I’m exhausted,” said the prince.

  In the afternoon, Nastasha and General Valeriy returned, and Jaimin took them out into the forest for a demonstration of his modified sword. Fresh, dry snow had dusted the cliffs, the trees, and the forest floor. The white sun blazed in a cloudless blue sky. It was so quiet, Jaimin found it hard to believe there was still a war going on. A few royal guards kept watch from a distance.

  “Ah, here’s our volunteer,” he said, stepping up to a healthy birch with a trunk as thick as a man’s thigh. The tree had shed most of its leaves, and those remaining glowed a radiant yellow. While Valeriy and Nastasha kept their distance, Jaimin drew the sword and passed it through the tree’s trunk. The blade seemed to melt into the trunk, only becoming distinct again as it emerged. He sheathed the sword and stepped back. Nothing happened.

  “It must be cut clean through, then,” Nastasha said.

  “Push on it,” said Jaimin. Nastasha approached the tree and gave the trunk a nudge above where Jaimin had cut. The tree broke at the cut and toppled, belching powdery snow as it landed with a whomp.

  Nastasha examined the stump, and found the cut to be flawless. “That’s impossible! Let me try it,” she said. Jaimin unstrapped the scabbard from his belt, handed it over to her, and stepped back. She drew the sword and swung it back and forth. The blade made a low-pitched humming sound as it glided through the air. “It feels so light! What’s that sound?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Jaimin said.

  Nastasha lopped a few rounds off the trunk. “It’s not even like slicing warm butter,” she said, “because there’s no resistance at all. The edge must somehow loosen the molecules around where it’s cutting, letting the thicker part of the blade pass through. Did you design it that way?”

  “I didn’t really know how it would turn out,” Jaimin admitted.

  Nastasha cautiously sheathed the sword. “Jaimin, this is going to be a tremendous help to us. Can you teach the technique to the other menders?”

  “Elaina may be able to do it.”

  “Maybe,” she said. “But she’s needed for another role.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  “What role is that?” Jaimin asked.

  General Valeriy spoke up: “I’ll stay here and find a way to make this appear normal in case the enemy comes across it,” he said, holding up one of the perfectly sliced rounds of birch.

  “I shall explain,” Nastasha said to Jaimin. She signaled for him to walk with her, and they set off toward Three Falls.

  “We’ve been analyzing scouting reports,” Nastasha told him, “and, of course, you and I were right all along. The occupiers are too strong a force. We aren’t likely to succeed in pushing them from the castle, let alone from our lands.”

  “We can’t live in caves,” Jaimin said. “Surely they’ll find us soon, if they haven’t already. Look—we’re leaving tracks even now that could lead them straight to the royal court.”

  “I know we can’t live in caves,” she said. “Alone, we can’t win. But with allies, perhaps…”

  “Audicia?”

  She nodded. “Your mother believes we can take advantage of the Celmareans’ influence there to gain the support of their king. He could provide men, ships and arms.”

  “That would take forever to organize.”

  “Not forever,” she said, “but we must act now. Your mother intends to visit the Audician king herself as soon as preparations are made, and she wants to bring Alessa and Elaina along to help rally the Celmarean exiles.”

  Jaimin took some time to absorb this news, as they crunched on through the snow. “I will go as well,” he said.

  “No, you and I must stay here. The court can’t be seen to be leaderless in such a precarious time.”

  Jaimin was horrified at the thought of being separated from Elaina, but maybe sending her north wasn’t such a bad idea: she might be safer in the protection of the Audicians than she would be remaining in the caves. Getting her to Audicia would be the riskiest part.

  “It really is our best hope for success,” Nastasha said. “Our scouts believe it would be safest and quickest for them to travel by sea.”

  Jaimin sighed sharply. He knew that once Elaina departed he would be a wreck. Still, he accepted the reality that his mind and his heart were not likely to be at peace any time soon.

  “I’ll explain it to Elaina,” he said.

  “She knows. She’s already preparing.”

  Jaimin was silent the rest of the way, thinking through what could go wrong. Just before they arrived at Three Falls, Nastasha stopped and hugged him. “Don’t drive yourself mad over it,” she said. “I’m sure they will be fine.”

  He smiled. Knowing Nastasha wasn’t going anywhere would make this new plan bearable.

  The night before the diplomats depa
rted, Admiral Sherman held a dinner in their honor at his command camp by the sea. Alessa and Elaina wore their formal gowns.

  After the meal, Jaimin and Elaina put on their cloaks and ventured outside. The moon was illuminating the falling snowflakes. “Let’s go for a walk,” Jaimin said. Motioning for the guards to keep their distance, he led Elaina up a steep path onto a cliff with a magnificent view of the ocean. When they reached the top, they looked out over the sea.

  “I love the sea,” she said. “I wish I had a little house near the shore.”

  “I’ll build you one right here. We can breakfast outside, and watch the sky change color. In the summer we can go down to the beach, and watch… watch…”

  She smiled. “You can say it.”

  “Watch our children playing in the surf.”

  “I’d like that,” she said. “Do you really want to spend your life with me?”

  “You know I do.”

  “But you know what I’m planning to do, don’t you?”

  Jaimin looked down. “You’re going to try to find your sister, and to heal your father.”

  “I have to, Jem. I have to finish my mother’s work.”

  “I’ll help you,” he said. “Healing Radovan could end the threat of war for good, and protecting Arra is my work. But more than that, I want nothing more than to be with you. Your challenges will be mine.”

  Her eyes glossed over with tears. “And yours mine.” She threw her arms around him.

  “Princess Elaina, will you be my wife?”

  “Yes! We’ll marry as soon as we can.” She held him for many minutes, feeling his love for her within him.

  “I have something for you,” said Jaimin, as her grip softened. He removed a black bag from the pocket of his cloak, and lifted from it a traditional Celmarean engagement cape. Elaina had never seen one before, so Jaimin had to explain to her how it worked—according to his mother’s directions.