The princess gave a sigh, her face extra pale tonight. “I’m sorry. I summoned one of your brothers to transport me back here. I just needed a break from him…”
“Your father?” I asked, thoughtfully.
Mira only nodded and sank into a heap by the fire. “He’s become so overwhelming. He’s not even trying to hide his evil anymore. It’s become so terrible that I cannot even escape him in my sleep. I have nightmares about him now.”
“You’re having nightmares too, huh?” I chuckled slightly before I sat down next to her. “I’m glad I’m not the only one. Are yours really vivid? Like it seems completely real?”
Rachel fixed me in her blue death gaze. “Lina. When did you have this real nightmare?”
I shrugged, not thinking anything of it. “Oh, I dunno. My dreams vary in their realness, but I’ll tell ya what, the one I had tonight was crazy real. It was freaky, too.” I shuddered a bit as I remembered the shaking earth, the black curtain, and the red eyes.
My red-haired friend was down next to me in a flash of lightning, her nose only inches away from mine as she scrutinized every tiny detail of my face. “You need to tell me what happened in it right now.”
“Why?” I asked hesitantly, leaning away from her. I was completely convinced that she had finally gone insane.
“Because!” Rachel began to be frustrated, her tone shooting through the roof. “Allyen dreams sometimes happen in real life! I mean, the only particularly good future-seer is Rhydin, but this could be really important! Future-seeing is a side effect of any magic, but what makes a good user of it is if they can tell it will happen or not.”
I wasn’t really sure I could believe her, seeing as I couldn’t particularly remember any of my other dreams happening in real life, but it was true that my magic hadn’t been awakened for too terribly long. Taking a deep breath, I tried to explain the crazy, terrifying nightmare. “To be honest, I’m not sure what happened. I remember there was snow on the ground, and I was standing up by the castle facing away from it. The ground began to shake violently, harder than any other mine collapse I’d ever felt, and when I looked up, there was all this black! It’s hard to explain. It was almost like Auklia and Mineraltir were still in the nighttime while Lunaka was in daylight. The bell tower was ringing really loud. My father once told me a long time ago that the king would ring it if the people were in danger. And then there were these two red stars in the darkness, almost like eyes!”
“Oh, good grief.” Rachel squeezed her eyes shut as if I either just told her the worst news ever, or she couldn’t believe the nonsense I was sputtering. I was leaning toward the second option when she spoke again. “Lina, don’t you remember that page I tagged for you to read in the myths and legends book?”
As my eyes whirled up to think, I noticed that Luke, James, and Sam had all joined us around the campfire. The first two were listening intently, but it seemed as if Sam was still half-asleep. I knew I had read that whole book cover to cover twice. It was like my school years all over again. In one ear and out the other.
Rachel gasped, flabbergasted with me. “The entry on Duunzer! Remember? The dragon…?”
“Oh, yeah!” I smiled as I remembered, but then immediately frowned. “That’s not good, is it?”
“No. No it’s not.” Rachel smacked herself in the face.
Sam piped up groggily, “I thought Duunzer was just a myth. Like the giants, y’know?”
I noticed an eye roll from both Owens boys.
“It may surprise the Kidek and the Allyen, but all things considered ‘myths’ by the general populace are not actually mythical!” Rachel grumbled, her sarcasm very evident. Sam and I blushed. “In case you don’t remember, Lina, Duunzer was a dragon. Or is, I should say. But not just any dragon, it’s a created being. Do you remember what they’re called, Lina, from your lesson with Frederick?”
Good grief, it really was like school all over again. Except this time, I remembered the answer. “They’re called Einanhis. Frederick explained how Birdie was an Einanhi, a shell created by magic and given life by magic, but it’s not real. I remember because Frederick said it was an Old Gornish word for ‘puppet’.”
I could almost picture Frederick patting my head like a good little student. But Mira’s smiling at me would have to do.
“Exactly.” Rachel said, “It’s a dragon created by Rhydin that commands a special, magical Darkness, which is the living black that you saw in your dream. I wonder if this is what Rhydin has in store for us in the future. You said there was snow on the ground?”
I nodded, but my brow furrowed. “Well, yeah, but what do you mean the Darkness is living?”
Rachel didn’t seem to know how to answer that question. She raised a finger to her lips, and a few seconds of silence went by before Mira chimed in, her voice almost surprising me. “The Darkness is considered living because it is part of the dragon’s conscious. Any person consumed by it disappears, unless Duunzer is defeated.”
“How do you know that, Mira? And I don’t?” Rachel asked, slightly upset that she hadn’t known this information.
A twitch of a grin appeared on Mira’s doll-like face. “Growing up as a princess has its few privileges. I have access to histories that the public does not. The reason I know, and the reason Duunzer has an account in the myth book, is because this incident has happened once before. It was back when my ancestor, the first king of Lunaka, King Spenser, was on the throne. The very first Allyen, Nora Soreta, was the one who defeated Rhydin and Duunzer the first time over three hundred years ago.”
“So, history has now come full circle.” Sam concluded a few minutes after she spoke. “That’s how Rhydin is going to make his big entrance all over again.”
“But that also means…” Rachel trailed off slowly, and then flicked her eyes up at me.
I swallowed hard. “Let me guess. Just like Nora, the first Allyen, defeated Duunzer, I get to beat it this time? …Is this open for negotiation?”
Luke’s words were like rock, never being the one to show compassion. “You don’t ‘get to’, Lina. You’re the only one who has the power to, as well as Evan. If, of course, your dream was accurate and this is what’s coming for us.”
“Luke, this is the only concrete information we’ve gotten all month,” Rachel retorted. “Yes, it’s just a possibility, but it’s worth looking into. Besides, we need to work fast to find the arrow now that Saarah is gone so that Rhydin doesn’t find it before we do.”
“What arrow?” Sam and I said simultaneously. We gave each other a glance before looking back to Mira and Rachel.
“When Nora defeated Duunzer, she crafted a special arrow that could hold the Allyen locket so she could shoot the locket through the dragon.” Mira said calmly, her hands folded in her lap. “Allyen magic is made of light, and the dragon is made of Darkness. Nora was very smart to have figured that out in her age. The arrow became an heirloom, passed down to every Allyen just like the locket in case Rhydin ever became able to resurrect Duunzer.”
“But Grandma never had a chance to pass it down then… Did she?” I bit my lip to keep my voice from quavering.
Rachel took my hand and squeezed it tight. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sure she kept it well hidden in her home, but we need to go find it before Rhydin does. Otherwise, there will be no stopping Duunzer when the snow falls.”
“Alrighty then.” I said as I rose to my feet, brushing the dust off my behind. “When will we go, then? Tomorrow?”
“Now.” The three Owenses said in unison as each of them darted off into a different direction to collect supplies for the trip.
Sam and I were left alone as Mira returned to the castle magically. Sam, who had been nodding off for the first half of the conversation after being sleep deprived for so long, was now fully awake. I could tell just by looking at him that the gears were already moving rapidly in his mind. I wondered what he was thinking about. Duunzer? His people? Rhydin? Me?
I blushed at that last one and kne
w I was kidding myself. It had been so long since that festival that we had shared. I was sure he had completely forgotten any feelings he could have possibly had. Nonetheless, I gravitated over to him until the siblings came back because it still simply felt right.
I pulled my locket out of its safe spot tucked away in my sash. It was amazing to think I had thought it just a simple heirloom a couple of seasons ago. I looked up at the sky. I could still see the twin moons up high, beginning to sink toward the western horizon. It had to be around two or three o’clock in the morning.
Time was more crucial than I originally thought. Early Autumn had barely begun while snow was falling in my dream, enough to cover all the prairie. If Rhydin had already found the arrow, I didn’t want to think about what was coming for us. Even with a season to go, we could already be too late.
Oh, Grandma, I hope you hid it well.
Chapter Fifteen
T he sky was still mostly dark by the time we made it to Soläna. It was that hour of darkness right before the sun’s glow could be visible in the east. We didn’t have much time left if Rachel wanted to be in and out before the sun even peeked over the horizon.
While we walked, I noticed the earth was beginning to have that musty smell it takes on after the leaves start to fall and waste away on the ground. The light covering of fog kept us from seeing too far ahead of us. It was as if the entire world had turned gray, seeming rather eerie since I’d never been to town this early before. All the windows were still black, empty eyes that watched us as we tiptoed down the edges of the cobblestone streets.
Once we got closer to Grandma’s house, I could feel the tension rising in my heart. Not only were a few of the windows around us starting to have lights in them as the early workers began their day, but I hadn’t been to her house since before she was…before she was killed. The cloak that hid my identity felt heavier and heavier on my head and shoulders. Sam had chosen to accompany Rachel and I as extra back up while Luke and James were no doubt scouting around to make sure none of Rhydin’s people were anywhere close to the house.
As we came around a bend, the house came into view for the first time. I chided myself for not coming to take care of it after the deaths, even if I hadn’t really had any choice but to leave town. The door was hanging open, lopsided on its hinges with several long, deep gouges in its wood. Every single window was broken, and the flower boxes had been ripped off, the dead, wilted flowers strewn around the little yard and the road. A towel was hanging out of the one upstairs window, ripped to shreds by the glass.
A lump rose in my throat as I witnessed the sad little house that was no longer a home. I could visualize my grandmother rolling over in her grave. I tried to swallow the lump down the best I could. I knew the inside could only be worse if someone had ransacked it for the arrow.
Once Rachel received word from her brothers that the perimeter was clear, we three entered the house and closed what was left of the door behind us. I took my heavy hood off and tried not to look too hard at the broken dishes in Grandma’s cabinet, the upturned table and ripped rug, and the smashed wicker rocking chair that she had rocked every one of her grandchildren on. Rachel and Sam both eyed me carefully, trying to gauge if I was ready for this, but I wouldn’t look at them. I began to search, even though I had no real clue what this special arrow looked like.
Wordlessly, we all began sifting through the carnage. Sam and Rachel both attempted to take the messier portions so I wouldn’t find so many memories, but when I searched in the beginning, I tried to not look very closely at the things I dug through.
As time went by, it proved to be downright impossible. My eyes noticed every item that was out of place, destroyed, or happened to be in the exact same spot. I’d heard stories about how twisters could come tear apart your house, carrying your belongings for miles, yet still leave something completely untouched. Whenever I came across something that remained neatly tucked into its spot, such as Grandma’s biscuit pan safely stowed next to her stove, it reminded me of those stories.
After maybe twenty minutes, I had stuffed several mementos in my pockets, such as my grandfather’s watch that Grandma had cherished and my grandmother’s journal that was lying on her bedside table as if she was still coming home tonight to write in it. The house was small, so there wasn’t much to it, but it amazed me to watch Rachel and Sam search.
Rachel left nothing put together. She mercilessly dumped out vases, dismantled music boxes, and felt for secret compartments inside every one of Grandma’s drawers. Sam busied himself with the chimney after thoroughly ransacking the upstairs, prying a few bricks loose before deciding that there was nothing up there. Rachel even took a few of the rods of Grandma’s headboard apart to see if something had been stuffed in them. Our precious minutes before daylight ticked on, and we still kept coming up with nothing. No matter how many nooks and crannies we tried.
Rachel straightened her back after leaning under Grandma’s old wood stove, dust bunnies caught in her messy hair. “Alright, guys. If it was here, I think we would have found it by now. We’re out of time, we need to leave immediately if we don’t want to get caught.”
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. It was true. Rhydin beat us to it, or somebody stole it just to pocket the change.
“Does that mean Duunzer really is his plan?” Sam said quietly to Rachel, trying but failing to keep me out of earshot.
Rachel shrugged as if she were at the end of her rope. “I really don’t know. It’s looking more likely, but it could have been taken by anybody. Saarah could have hid it somewhere different when she moved to take care of Lina’s farm. There’s a number of possibilities here, but Duunzer definitely isn’t eliminated.”
Sam took a deep breath. I began to ardently hope that we could come back later and look again, or even search the remains of my own house since she was right. Grandma had lived there for a month before her death. We pulled our cloaks on and waited for a signal from Luke and James before opening the door. Early morning sunlight came streaming through. As we exited the house and tried to turn north, hoping to escape unseen, our plans changed in only a second.
Town was erupting with noise with the coming of the sun. People were beginning to wake up, open up windows, and head out the door to their jobs. Rachel snatched the back of my cloak and pulled me over to a dark alley next to Grandma’s house where Sam was standing.
He was flabbergasted as he pulled his hood down lower. “Sheesh, this is the earliest I’ve ever seen these people up, and I work in the mines every day!”
“And it’s all of them.” I added as I screened the brown-clad masses moving past us toward the south. “Not just the men. The women and children, too.”
As people continued to walk by us, we three simply could not think of a reason why so many families would be heading in the same direction this time of day. It wasn’t a market day. If it was school, it would only be children. It wasn’t a holiday either since the annual Harvest Festival wasn’t until later in the season. Which I obviously would not be attending this year seeing as Sam and I had no harvest to celebrate. As fewer people began to float on by, it became easier to pick out their words since the roar of footsteps was subsiding.
“I’m so glad they finally got him!”
“Me too… He deserves… Hang.”
“That Epidemic was so bad…”
“…My mother died in it, and my brother!”
“…that Parker boy is gonna pay for this!”
Abruptly, it clicked in my head who they were talking about, and I gasped, “Oh, no.”
“What?” Rachel looked at me confused. After all, she didn’t grow up here. “Who’s this Parker kid? Why’s he important?”
Sam cleared his throat, crossing his arms quietly. “The Epidemic began in Stellan, twenty miles southeast of here. I lived there with my mother when it began. Mr. and Mrs. Parker were the first to fall sick with it, as well as the first to die of it. The public has blamed their family
for it, and this boy has been on the run ever since. Sounds like they finally caught him.”
I eyed Sam carefully. “What are you saying, Sam? That boy doesn’t deserve this! It’s not his fault! It’s Rhydin’s!” Sam bit his lip, but I kept going, “We need to stop this.”
Rachel reached for me like lightning, but I had already turned in to the flow of traffic. If she wanted to stop me now, she’d cause a scene. I held my hood around my face as I walked quickly, slipping between people like water between rocks, trying to get as close to the town square as physically possible. It became more difficult as I caught up with the huge crowd, nearly every citizen in Soläna now. When I looked over my shoulder, Rachel and Sam were following me closely, trying to catch up without looking suspicious as the only hooded figures in the mass.
Once I had sardined my way closer to the center of the square, I got a good look at the stage that had been erected there since the last time I’d been to town. It felt like the air was knocked out of me when I saw the tall wooden beam with a rope necklace hanging from it. It instantly brought back that day when Mama had accidentally taken Rosetta and I to town while one of these was being used. They only hanged the most terrible of criminals in Lunaka, mostly Rounans.
Yet, here standing in front of this noose was a handcuffed ten-year-old kid. Tall for his age and scrawny, like he hadn’t had a good meal in ages, a pair of mining goggles strapped to his head. His green eyes were terrified.
My eyes narrowed when I saw who was next to him, King Adam himself. The man seemed to have aged slightly since I’d last seen him at the Spring Festival. His face was etched deeper with lines although not quite wrinkles. Silver curls had appeared at his temples, but his dark eyes were like fire. He was executing this one himself.
I began taking deep breaths as I prepared myself. What was I going to say? What would I do? Would I shoot magic at the rope? I didn’t have my sword! How was I going to pull this off without getting myself killed? I needed to work fast or King Adam was going to throw that noose over his head, and it’d be too late. What had I gotten myself into?
The Allyen (The Story of the First Archimage Book 1) Page 16
