Realm of Shadows Trilogy

by Linda McNabb

  Rem could hear screams long before they reached the door down one of the long corridors and it was all she could do to hold Waide back. Even she was alarmed by the sounds of his brother’s cry for help and Waide already had his sword drawn.

  ‘Wait, we don’t know who else is in there yet,’ Rem said quietly as she pulled Waide to a halt in the corridor. She took hold of his shirt front and made him look into her eyes. ‘What use would we be to him if we rushed in and ruined the rescue?’

  Waide looked ahead at the open door where the noises were coming from and nodded but said nothing. His jaw was clenched so tightly he probably couldn’t speak.

  Caden cried out again and Rem almost ignored her own advice. As she paused at the door she realised the boy wasn’t in pain. It was squeals of delight that had drifted down the corridor. Young Caden was running around the room squealing as he pounced on the cats and then they pounced in return. All of the night-shadow’s eyes were glowing a brilliant green and they were definitely no longer exhausted. There was nobody except Caden and the cats in the room but taking him while the cats were there was not going to be easy. She looked at Waide, who had just come to the same conclusion, and was about to whisper a comment when someone’s hand clamped over her mouth and she was pulled backwards into the nearest room across the hallway.

  ‘Shh… someone is coming,’ Asher said as he released his hold on her. She gave him her most withering stare but the man ignored her and pushed the door almost closed. Rem stepped back a little until she found a line of sight out into the corridor and saw Kranos hurry past. His footsteps stopped and he had presumably reached Caden’s room. A second set of footsteps hurried to join him from the other direction.

  ‘Are the cats refreshed yet?’ he asked. ‘They must leave immediately.’

  Rem couldn’t hear a response but there must have been one, for Kranos continued. ‘Excellent, come along my dear friends. Jex, have you got one of Arianna’s scarves for them to take the scent from? Come, my wife will be along shortly to care for the child.’

  Rem watched Kranos and Jex walk quickly back down the corridor, followed by a stream of night-shadows. Had they really left Caden all alone?

  ‘We will only have a short time to do this,’ Tal said as she peered out into the corridor to check if it was clear.

  ‘Remind me why your brother is here?’ Asher asked Waide. His puzzled expression showed that he had almost connected the dots and would soon realise who Caden really was.

  ‘Surely we discuss this after we rescue him,’ Rem suggested as she pushed past Tal and into the hallway. ‘You can all go back down to the stables. Waide and I can manage this. We don’t need everyone charging in there and frightening the boy.’

  Waide slipped his sword away as he hurried after her and she heard the retreating footsteps of the others as they headed back down the corridor. Rem and Waide ran into the room where they had seen Caden. It was large bedroom and there was no sign of anyone. Rem’s heart sank. They were too late.

  Then she heard a small noise and saw Caden standing near the window, tucked almost completely behind the curtain as he stared out at the view. He had grown since Rem last saw him and he looked like a five year old now.

  ‘Caden!’ Waide called out as he raced across the room towards his brother.

  The young boy turned and grinned as he saw Waide. ‘Did you see the kitties? It’s fun here.’

  Waide gave him a bear hug and lifted him off the ground then spun him around.

  ‘You’ve had quite an adventure, Caden,’ he agreed. ‘But mother misses you and it’s time to go home.’

  Caden grinned and nodded in agreement then wrapped his arms around Waide’s neck. ‘Can we wait to say goodbye to the cats?’

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ Waide said as Rem peered out into the corridor to check if the way was still clear.

  ‘Can I come back one day?’ Caden asked.

  ‘Sure,’ Waide agreed.

  Rem indicated that their escape was still okay and Waide hurried past her and almost ran down the corridor. Rem paused a few seconds and looked back at the room and something niggled at the back of her memory. Why did this room seem familiar for she had surely never been here before? Perhaps it was just because they had seen other rooms in this place and they had all begun to look the same. She took several steps back into the room as Waide’s footsteps faded away. She knew she had to leave but something on the wall caught her eye.

  It was a painting. A portrait of a young girl standing next to a night-shadow with one hand resting on its back. She was smiling contently and looked carefree and happy. Her dark ringlets hung down over her green and red dress and she wore a pretty bracelet on her right arm.

  Rem’s eyes narrowed as she recognised the bracelet as the one that Asher sold at the village when they first arrived in the east. Then the colour of the dress brought back another memory. It looked like the one she had worn when she arrived at High Gate.

  As a sinking feeling washed over her she heard footsteps at the door but she could not look away from the portrait. Her eyes travelled back up to the girl’s smiling face and she knew it was her.

  ‘I had a feeling you would turn up again, Arianna,’ a voice said in an unfriendly tone.

  Rem dragged her eyes away from the picture and focused on the woman standing in the doorway. Mayala looked more irritated than worried and there was definitely no indication that she was at all pleased to see her daughter.

  ‘My name is Rem,’ she replied bluntly. The painting may be of her in a former life, but that life was gone. Nothing remained of who she might once have been and she had no desire to try to recover it.

  ‘What have you done to yourself?’ Mayala had not moved and she was blocking Rem’s escape. It was clear that she did not approve of the changes in her daughter’s appearance. ‘And what are those dreadful lines on your face?’

  Rem’s hand moved up to touch the dragon mark on her forehead and her thoughts went automatically to the white dragon. Where was he? Was he still trying to get through to the east?

  ‘I have no memory of who I once was and I do not wish to know. I will leave now and you will never see me again,’ Rem said reaching up to rest one hand on the tip of her sword. ‘You want me gone and I wish to leave. Surely that is a good solution for us both.’

  Mayala looked amused at Rem’s veiled threat by touching her sword. ‘That little thing would not harm me, or do you not even remember that I am a wizard?’

  Rem chewed her lower lip as she considered her mother’s words.

  ‘So that would make me one too?’ she queried.

  Mayala laughed openly. ‘I only wish you were as there would have been no need for all this drama. You are a throwback from my great-great-grandfather’s past when he had a child with a mortal, back before we were banished to Deek. The child was a wizard but clearly carried some traits of the mortals that have remained dormant until you were born. It is a deep family secret that would see us stripped of our status as heirs to the throne.’

  Rem said nothing as she stared at the woman who was her mother. She did not look at all familiar and Rem wasn’t sure she even liked her. She had disposed of her only child to save her own place in society.

  ‘Where is the boy?’ Mayala asked bluntly as if the previous conversation was finished with.

  ‘Gone. He does not belong to you.’ Rem let her hand drop from the sword.

  Mayala’s eyes narrowed but her expression did not change. ‘Bring me the boy and I will forget that I saw you and let you all leave unharmed.’

  Rem didn’t even consider it an option but she matched her mother’s blank expression and nodded just once. ‘I will return him just before sunset.’

  By that time she and her companions would be well away from the city and hopefully beyond her mother’s reach.

  ‘Make sure you do. If we do not take the boy with us I will make sure the cats hunt you until they destroy you.’

  Mayala stepped aside to let
Rem pass and glared down at her in distaste as Rem left the room.

  Rem forced herself to walk off slowly then slipped quickly away down the stairs and through the kitchen. Several things looked familiar now and she wondered if her memory was beginning to return. She shook the thoughts away. She did not want her old life back. Instead she thought of Seth as she slowed her pace back to a demure walk across the lawn between the building and the stables by the wall. Had Caden helped him recover? She quickened her step as she went out of sight of the few servants about the grounds.

  Eagan had the stable door partly open and looked relieved to see her.

  ‘Waide thought you were right behind him. Where did you go?’ Eagan asked as he let her in and shut the door behind her. He dropped a wooden beam into place to prevent it opening from the outside.

  ‘I took a wrong turn and got lost,’ Rem said with a shrug. She looked over at where Seth still lay on the straw and felt a wave of relief run through her from head to toe. He no longer looked like a corpse. His skin was pink, his cheeks flushed and his eyes were open. Eagan noticed where her attention had gone and nodded.

  ‘He began to improve the second Caden came near, and when the boy touched Seth’s arm he woke up.’

  Seth lifted his head a little and smiled at Rem before letting his head fall back heavily.

  ‘He will take time to recover. After all, he was all but dead.’

  Waide was keeping his distance from Seth and still looked as if he wanted to thump him. ‘He wanted to know what happened so we have filled him in.’

  Rem understood Waide’s anger. She too had more than enough reasons to be angry with Seth for a long time but as she looked back at the prone figure she felt nothing but grateful that he was alive. Perhaps the anger would return when he was fully recovered.

  **

  ‘Eagan.’

  Eagan turned to where Darius had appeared next to Seth. Something seemed a little different about the wizard. His image was sharper, clearer, and more colourful somehow.

  ‘The boy has done much more than heal Seth.’ Darius looked a little lost for words for a few seconds, something Eagan had not seen before! ‘I have been restored as well.’

  Eagan moved to the side of the room and Darius floated over to join him. ‘Restored how?’

  ‘My magic has been renewed to what I possessed when I first entered the staff,’ Darius explained. The broad smile on his face showed how delighted he was to have had a second chance at what passed as living for him.

  ‘Remarkable,’ Eagan said with a disbelieving shake of his head and a glance over at Caden. The child sat holding Seth’s hand. ‘No wonder everyone wants him for themselves.’

  ‘Even if we use some magic it will most likely return instantly if Caden is nearby.’

  ‘So you have enough to reverse the spell we used last year?’ Eagan asked quietly. ‘We can save the boy’s life.’

  Darius hesitated for a second then smiled grimly and looked a little ashamed of himself. ‘Of course I will have. For a moment there I sought to keep him near me and keep my magic available forever. We will need to wait until Seth has recovered though and we are able to make our escape.’

  ‘I guess so. Unless they find us first. I imagine any wizard would be able to find him easily,’ Eagan pointed out.

  Darius picked up the large leather tome from somewhere inside his staff-home and flicked through the pages. Then he looked up and grinned. ‘This is a spell I would never have tried before as it uses a lot of magic, but I can shield the stables so that anyone looking in or walking past would think they are empty, even another wizard!’

  ‘That would be useful,’ Eagan agreed. He was just about to ask what he should say as his part of learning the spell when Darius shouted out a single word.

  ‘Hide.’

  Eagan frowned a little as he felt a tingle wash over the entire stable. Did Darius think he no longer needed to teach Eagan now that his magic was fully restored?

  ‘So when we have left this city you will reverse the spell on Caden,’ Eagan said, wanting to make sure the wizard set a specific time to heal the boy or the temptation to keep him as his personal well would be too great.

  ‘Of course…’ Darius paused as if listening to someone speak then his expression dropped and he looked quite downcast.

  ‘What is it?’ Eagan queried.

  ‘Neras has pointed out something I hadn’t thought of,’ Darius said with a sigh. ‘When I cast the spell to reverse our one from last year it will use almost all my magic, possibly all of it.’

  ‘And?’ Eagan knew there had to be more to this as he had already said it would take a lot of magic.

  ‘The boy will no longer be a well of life so my magic will not be restored afterwards.’

  ‘Ah, I see,’ Eagan said. The wizard would be back to where he was before, possibly even closer to vanishing than he had been. Darius faded from view, no doubt to readjust to his changed future again. Eagan leaned against the wall and watched those around him. Rem was keeping her distance from Seth, as was Waide which did not surprise him, but Asher, Tal and the hired thug were standing near one another, trying not to look as if they were talking amongst themselves.

  ‘Darius,’ Eagan called out softly. When the wizard appeared Eagan nodded in the direction of the three conspirators. Darius floated over and Eagan went to check on Seth so that they would talk freely without realising they were being overheard.

  Seth had fallen asleep again, but he looked better with every passing minute. Caden sat holding his hand still as if aware that he was helping somehow.

  ‘They have worked out that Caden is special and are planning to steal him,’ Darius said, popping up in front of Eagan.

  Eagan blinked back his surprise and set his lips into a grim line. It seemed that the power that Caden held was tempting to everyone. Before he had a chance to decide how to deal with this new information, Asher approached him.

  ‘There are things you aren’t telling us,’ Asher stated.

  Eagan nodded but did not elaborate.

  ‘Why?’ Tal asked. ‘And what are they?’

  ‘You would not have helped us if you knew,’ Rem butted in and walked closer to join the conversation.

  ‘And you’re a wizard as well,’ Asher all but accused Eagan.

  ‘No,’ Eagan replied quickly. ‘I’m just the apprentice, here to help do the work of the wizard.’

  Asher looked hard at Eagan as if he didn’t believe him.

  ‘You can’t see or hear Darius. Only I can,’ Eagan added. He didn’t bother to mention that Seth could hear all wizards as it would only complicate matters even more. He held up the staff. ‘He lives in here.’

  ‘And he’s not like the other ones?’ Tal chipped in.

  ‘No, our wizards drove the others out of our lands long, long ago,’ Eagan replied.

  ‘So they came here instead,’ Asher said bluntly. ‘As long as your lands were fine you probably didn’t care where they went.’

  Eagan had no answer to that. Did anyone even know about the people who lived this side of the new mountains back then?

  ‘If this child is who the wizards are looking for then they won’t leave without him,’ Tal pointed out. Everyone looked over at where Caden lay sleeping next to Seth. It was hard to remember that he was still less than a summer old.

  Eagan sighed deeply. Tal had a point. If the wizards didn’t leave, then they couldn’t sneak Caden out and reverse the magic that was ageing him so fast.

  ‘If we reverse the spell on him now it will cure him instantly. The wizards will not want him then. Nor will they leave though.’ Eagan shrugged. He didn’t have an answer.

  ‘They must leave. And never come back,’ Asher insisted and stared at Caden. ‘But we can’t let them take the boy.’

  ‘Well, I’d say we all agree on that,’ Waide said, folding his arms and daring anyone to disagree with him. ‘But you’re not keeping him.’

  Eagan stepped back as Darius po
pped into view directly in front of him and shoved the spell book almost through his head. He knew the book would not touch him but it was odd having it thrust at him so sharply.

  ‘I have a solution.’ Darius looked pleased with himself and grinned broadly as he spun the book for Eagan to look at. The others stared as they realised Eagan was seeing and hearing something that they couldn’t.

  Eagan backed up a little to focus on the page before him. The spell appeared to be a way to multiply objects. ‘You want to make a copy of Caden?’

  ‘I guess that’s what it boils down to. The copy will look, sound and act exactly like the real one but it is only a temporary one. It will fade away when exposed to moonlight.’

  The others were waiting impatiently for Eagan to continue. Seth propped himself up and looked at the sleeping boy with interest.

  ‘A copy that will fool the wizards long enough,’ Seth said, nodding his head. ‘They will take the copy and leave. And then the real Caden can be returned home, unharmed, but a little older than he should be.’

  ‘I will deliver the copy to them,’ Rem said. ‘I can take it just before the bridge appears. They won’t have time to see that it isn’t really Caden.’

  Her expression was blank, yet Eagan couldn’t help but wonder at her motive for offering so quickly. He didn’t really want her to be near her parents any more than necessary in case she worked out who she really was, but who did that leave? Seth wasn’t well enough, nor did he know the way to the bridge. Waide was unlikely to leave his real brother’s side and he didn’t trust Asher or Tal, not even with a copy!

  ‘Well, Darius, how do we do this copy?’ He wasn’t used to speaking loud enough for others to hear when talking to his wizard friend and it felt odd.

  ‘Give me a few minutes to work out the spell. I’ll need some peace and quiet to get it done.’

  ‘I think some of us should head out and check what rumours are going around,’ Eagan said as he turned to the rest of the group. ‘Darius and I will stay here and work on the copy.’

  ‘I’m not leaving Caden,’ Waide said and shook his head.