Mark of Fate

by K. T. Webb

  Weeks had gone by with no further shared dream experiences. Renata wanted to induce sleep with the herbs used before administering a mark, but Legacy refused. If they forced the response, there were too many variables to consider. What if putting Evander under the influence of those herbs severed the invisible link between them? Nothing would convince her to risk that.

  Instead, she insisted that Renata join her in focusing her energies on the journals and all the secrets they held. Noble was warming up to them more each day, he seemed like a completely ordinary child. Legacy had to remind herself that something about him gave Renata the indication that the Shadow Mages had been part of his upbringing. It became their mission to investigate the journals in hopes of finding out how much influence they’d had on the boy. It hurt her heart to keep a secret from him, but it seemed the only way to investigate without posing any threat to him should the enemy be watching through his eyes.

  Standing in a room lined with books that held her fathers' secrets left Legacy’s head spinning. So many thoughts and memories were recorded on the pages of each journal. Renata stood in front of the shelves. She skimmed the bindings, searching for something but not saying what it was.

  Legacy sat at the table watching her in silence before she began thumbing through the pages of the most recent journal. She had not been able to get what Noble said out of her mind. Was her father plotting to kill her, or had he raised Noble to do it for him? Every hair on her body stood on end as another possibility found its way to the surface—were the Shadow Mages preparing Noble to become the next murderous king?

  They had so many unanswered questions, things they needed to know if they were going to have any hope of ending the threat posed by the Shadow Mages.

  “I think this is the one I need,” Renata exclaimed as she pulled a dusty volume from its place.

  “And what do you hope to learn from this specific journal?” Legacy asked.

  Renata smiled kindly. “I want to know who his mother was. Even if he never met her, every young boy loves his mother. If we have some information about her, it may help us open a more meaningful dialogue with him.”

  Legacy furrowed her brow. She had been so busy thinking about the king’s influence and what the Shadow Mages had planned that she had completely overlooked the boy’s mother. Everyone had a mother, even if they never had the opportunity to meet her. The thought fired through Legacy with an almost visceral pain; somewhere in the tomes that lined that room was information about her mother, about Honor’s mother. Of course, Honor had been granted the advantage of being with her mother as a young child, she knew people who had spent time with her, she knew her name and where she was from. Legacy had nothing.

  When Renata suspended the pregnant woman’s life, she knew nothing about her other than the identity of the child in her womb—a baby that may one day end the rule of King Junius. He had poisoned the woman who bore his child to keep the child from being brought into the world. Renata was able to use the wild magic to slow the effects of the poison long enough for Legacy to be born. The young mother never regained consciousness during her final days. She could have been anyone, she could have been from anywhere. Suddenly, Legacy was gripped by the need to know who her own mother was.

  She began scanning the shelves for a journal that would cover the span of time her mother may have had an encounter with the King. It seemed there were far more journals written over the course of the past ten years than there had been in multiple decades before. For many years, there were only two or three volumes. But then, for the previous nine years, there were between six and eight journals per year. Legacy tried to do the math in her mind quickly as she looked further into the past with each shelf.

  “Oh, no. No, no, no!” Renata’s voice shook with ill-contained emotion.

  Legacy abandoned her task and rushed to the table where Renata had begun to examine the journal she selected. The woman was shaking her head as though gripped by a horrified trance. Legacy could not see what she was reading at that point, but something had disturbed the woman beyond words.

  “Renata? Tell me what has you so distraught,” Legacy tried to gently gain the woman’s focus.

  “He was a monster. Worse than we ever imagined. He was an absolute monster.”

  Legacy immediately knew Renata referred to King Junius, but she had no idea what could have been in the journal that would have made him seem worse than they knew him to be. She put her hand on the Oracle’s shoulder and spoke her name once more. Renata turned to look at the young queen with tears brimming in her eyes.

  “There were more. That man killed all of them.”

  “More? More what?” Legacy pleaded for a more articulate answer.

  “More women, more babies. More children. More siblings. Noble was the boy. He was baby number nine that the king intentionally created. The eleventh child born to King Junius.”

  “There were five more apart from Honor, Noble, and me?” Legacy’s face flushed with heat as she sank into a nearby chair.

  “No. You misunderstand. Your father did not know you lived; he already knew your sister was alive somewhere. He wanted a son. An heir to the throne that could rule the same way he did; an heir that would kill the child who got away.”

  “So, there were eight others? He had eight other daughters between Honor and Noble?” Legacy felt her stomach lurch.

  Renata nodded, blinking against the tears that now streamed down her face. “I failed them. I saved you, I helped keep Honor safe, but I failed so many other innocent children who were born only to be murdered by their father.”

  Legacy shook her head in horror. Her mind could not process the horrors her own mother had faced, poisoned at the end of her pregnancy, knowing she and her unborn baby would both die. Learning there were more women, more children who had fallen victim to King Junius’ murderous ways left her head spinning. If he did not want children, why was he so careless with his affections? A strangled sob escaped Renata, bringing Legacy back to the present.

  “Renata, I know it feels like you failed, but you did not fail. Those children were doomed from conception. My father was a monster.” She crouched down until she was eye level with the Oracle, “You saved me, you helped Honor and her mother. How were you to know Junius would continue making the same mistakes and punishing others for them?”

  “Some Oracle I am! I should be able to see these things. I should have seen those children the way I saw you, the way I saw Honor.”

  “I get the feeling you were not supposed to see. Junius had help from the Shadow Mages. Somehow, they kept you from seeing Noble just as they shrouded these other babies from your sight. Now that we know, we have to find out why.”

  Renata did her best to appear agreeable, but Legacy knew this revelation would eat at the old woman until she left Alderwood forever. For the time, Legacy needed her to use that anguish to fuel her will to fight. The time for Renata to end her quest had not yet arrived; if knowing she had been unable to save the children fathered by Junius helped her carry on, the Queen would accept it without hesitation.

  Legacy returned to her own search, the one that would end in personal knowledge unlikely to be useful to anyone but the Queen herself. She pulled down the journal she suspected held the answers she sought. It felt heavier than she expected, as though the information within it somehow carried more weight than any other volume she had handled. Legacy sat in a dusty armchair positioned in one corner of the room. From her spot, she could see the table where Renata sat reading intently, occasionally scribbling something on the paper beside her. Without a doubt, she knew the Oracle would share whatever was found within those books. They would work together.

  Turning her eyes once more toward the cream-colored pages of the open book, Legacy began devouring the words scrawled in her father’s hand. The first few entries held nothing of significance, so she skipped forward to see if there were any mentions of a woman further on. After skimming through t
he entries, her eyes landed on a hint of what she was looking for. King Junius wrote about a woman who caught his eye. It was difficult to reconcile the lovestruck tone he used as he wrote with the man she knew would come to murder the object of his affection.

  Today, I met the only woman I have ever tolerated for more than the briefest interactions. Lord Mahuron of County Morgh paid me a visit to pay the annual tithe. He has come to me many times as they all do, some with excuses, others with good news. This time, however, he brought his daughter. She had never been to Pallisaide before, and he delighted in parading her before me as proof of his essential position. The man has let his power go to his head in recent years and fancies himself a king in his own county.

  The daughter was something to behold. Her hair is the color of the wheat fields blowing in the breeze behind the castle with eyes that sparkle with the multi-faceted allure of an emerald. Her skin rivals the smoothest porcelain. It thrilled me to see her blush at my stare. For the first time in my long life, I had found someone who excited me.

  The longer we spoke, the more I knew I had to have her for myself. Being with a woman did not mean I would procreate. Looking at Elysia affected me in a way no other woman had. I have invited her to stay at the castle and study under the tutelage of my most trusted historian. I do not know if duty or fear inclined her father to agree, but she is now under my care. A young girl of 17, freshly marked and full of curiosity.

  I must have her.

  Legacy shuddered. The more she read, the more she realized it was not love that had struck King Junius that day—it was an obsession. For the first time in his life, he was obsessed with someone other than himself, obsessed with something other than his throne. The feeling must have been foreign to him.

  What gave her pause was the name Lord Mahuron. If this woman was, in fact, her mother, she knew Justice was not old enough to be her grandfather, but he could be related to her in some way. Mahuron had once been a great name. If the first Mahuron had a son, it would make sense for him to take on the moniker when he became a Lord himself.

  When Legacy looked up to share the theory with the Oracle, she realized Renata had left the room. Legacy grabbed the next journal from the shelf and carefully stowed both volumes in the satchel she brought. She had to find Renata before the woman stumbled into something dangerous. There were too many possible traps waiting along the way!

  The corridor outside the study was no longer dark. Legacy and Renata had lit torches along the walls to help them avoid any more pitfalls. There was no sign of the old woman. Legacy turned back to the study. She approached the desk where Renata had been writing notes. The journal still lay there, open to the page that identified Noble as the eighth baby. Legacy shuddered at the thought of her father meticulously recording his sexual encounters, writing the outcomes as though observing a scientific study. She sank into the chair to read the same entry that had upset Renata.

  Today was the best day of my life. Everything has led to this. All the sacrifices I have made, the plans I have intricately woven together have brought me to this moment. I am aging. There can only be one explanation for the phenomenon. The Shadow Mages searched, they told me they could feel a child who came from my blood. Somehow, a child was born, and I did not stop the mother before it was too late. A daughter is out there, growing each day on the path to finishing me. The only hope we have of stopping this girl from one day destroying everything I have built is to produce a worthy heir. A son.

  Every time we found a suitable vessel to bear my child, the seer insisted we would produce a prince. Each mother and child disappointed me more than the last. It took nearly eight years to find the perfect combination, and finally, today, it is all over. Vessel 8 has given birth to my final child. A son.

  He will be the one to destroy the threat we face. He will take over as King when I am gone. He is the only child that will ever matter in Alderwood.

  King Junius must have documented each “vessel” and probably wrote about the anticipation of learning the gender. Legacy was nauseated just thinking about how desperate each of those women must have been. She wondered; did they know what number they were? Did they know they meant nothing to him if they could not produce a son? How was Vessel 8 treated after the birth of her son? Was she killed and thrown away as the others had been, or did she receive special treatment? Had Noble met his mother?

  With too many questions swirling in her head, Legacy blew out the candle on the desk and closed the door behind her. She called out to Renata, hoping the older woman was somewhere nearby. If she had fallen down the same hole as Evander, it was going to be nearly impossible to hoist her out. Renata was small, but Legacy still had bruises on her arm from the effort it took to help Evander escape. Her body would not be able to withstand the weight of another rescue.

  “Renata!” she called down the echoing corridor. “Renata, you cannot take off and not tell me where you went. We do not know what could be down here!”

  She received no answer. Perhaps Renata had gone back up the steps that led to the statue entrance. Legacy was not interested in exploring the tunnels that led away from the main corridor alone. If she fell into a hole or was attacked by a creature, who would come to her aid? After a few more minutes of calling for the Oracle and receiving no answer, she huffed out an exasperated breath. She had two choices—begin exploring without getting reinforcements or leave the subterranean maze to determine Renata’s whereabouts.

  Legacy looked longingly at the steps. Everything in her head told her it would be better to go upstairs to look for Renata, but her gut told her she should explore on her own. She had always been told to listen to the instinctual feelings she was desperately trying to push aside. With a resigned sigh, Legacy turned and walked to the first torch and gently removed it from the wall. None of the other corridors were lit, so she would need her own light source if she was going to have any chance of seeing in front of her. To her left, she found an opening and began her exploration. The corridor grew thinner and shorter the further she went, ending in a section of wall with holes on one side and strange corresponding marks on the opposite side. Legacy reached forward to touch one of the marks. A whooshing sound filled her ears as something moved toward her outstretched hand. Instinctually, Legacy pulled her hand away from the indentation. A mechanical click sent metal spikes stabbing into the wall. Heart pounding, Legacy jumped back away from the trap. There was no reason to linger in the tight space knowing she could go no further.

  Once she was back in the main corridor, Legacy hesitated before continuing to the next tunnel. The energy around her felt different than it had moments earlier. It was as though a shift in the air added a heaviness she had not encountered before. She called out into the rippling shadows that danced between each torch on the wall.

  “Hello? Renata? Is that you?” Whatever she was feeling, it did not make her think of Renata. The energy was not evil, it was almost empty; she sensed no feelings, no thoughts, just a presence.

  After a few more hesitant steps, she caught sight of movement to her right. At the end of the nearest tunnel, someone had walked into view. Legacy narrowed her eyes and raised her torch as high as she could in the limited space. Before she could shed light on whoever was with her, the person rushed away. Legacy called out with no response. She cautiously walked forward, wondering if someone would be hiding just beyond the glow of her torch.

  Movement ahead jarred her, rooting her to the spot. Her heart pounded wildly as a smaller shape stepped into the opening. Legacy lifted the torch higher. As the circumference of light expanded, she caught a glimpse of the person sharing the space with her. Her stomach did a flip at the blank stare in his eyes. She shivered involuntarily at the sight. Not twenty feet from her, Noble stood as though he was in a trance. Legacy looked around, trying to determine who else had been in the tunnels with them. There was no other sign of life.

  “Noble? How did you get down here? Have you seen Renata?”

>   The young boy made no effort to respond. He turned in a mechanical fashion and walked to his left. Against her better judgment, Legacy followed her brother toward an unknown location. She had experienced quite enough in the hidden bowels of the castle and would have preferred to return to the stairs rather than pursue Noble down yet another hallway. Legacy felt in her gut that something was not right. For a child who had been locked up in a room most of his life, it seemed highly unlikely that he would be exploring the depths of the castle on his own.

  “Noble! Slow down, where are we going?” Legacy hissed as she stumbled over her own feet.

  The boy simply stopped and pointed straight ahead of him. He waited for Legacy to catch up, then took her hand and practically pulled her toward an unknown destination. Legacy still got the impression that her brother was not mentally awake. Obviously, his body was present, she could feel his soft skin under her own as she gripped his hand. The torchlight played off his features in an eerie manner; one moment, she knew he was expressionless; the next, his face seemed to morph into a terrifying parody of the boy she knew. Noble showed no indication that he was aware of their location, let alone the presence of his older sister other than gripping her hand.

  Legacy was tempted to pull away. They seemed to walk for much longer than seemed prudent, considering they were alone, and Legacy still had yet to find Renata. The further they went, the heavier the atmosphere became. It was as though she could not breathe without forcing herself to bring air into her lungs. She found it nearly impossible to put a finger on what was lurking beneath the surface. A quick assessment told Legacy there was more to fear in the underground labyrinth than she had imagined. Wherever Noble was leading her, it resonated evil. Something ancient and dark was lurking in the shadows, waiting to devour them as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

  “Noble, I think we are making a terrible mistake. I can feel . . . something here. Please, come with me.” Legacy tried to bring him to a stop by gently tugging his arm.