Journey To The Rift (Coimirceoirí: Guardians of the Marked Ones)

by Cathi Shaw

  The ban on marriage was ridiculous in Brijit’s mind. Why couldn’t they marry? It wasn’t as if the ban really made the Coimirceoirí any less likely to have romantic affairs. They just had to be more discrete about them.

  It was obvious to her that if some of the old traditions were changed, all this silliness would be eliminated. It was a waste of their time and energy. Part of Brijit wondered if the traditions were kept so the flirtations continued. After all, indiscretions acted as distractions that kept the Coimirceoirí from questioning other rules the Elders held too dearly.

  It would be a simple matter to cull the appeal of the male students. All they had to do was to let the girls and boys train together. The fact that the Academy was an all-girls’ school and Stone Mountain was an all-boys’ school was more than half the problem. But the Elders insisted that their Coimirceoirí be trained the way they always had. As with many of the Elders’ rules, it had no basis in logic. Almost no one questioned the Elders’ ways, and it was more than enough to set Brijit’s teeth on edge. She knew the she couldn’t be the only one in Five Corners who disagreed with their outdated beliefs but few spoke out against the Elders, especially in public.

  In her second year, when she’d first heard of Stone Mountain, Brijit had quizzed the headmistress about why only male students were allowed to train there. Her mentor, Raspella, had always seemed to agree with Brijit’s rants about Stone Mountain, but it had been clear that she didn’t have the power to do anything about it. So fourteen-year-old Brijit had approached Mistress Cowan. She had been told that the male and female students were trained in different settings for practical reasons. When she pushed the matter, Mistress Cowan had told her that her questioning nature was very valuable but she needed to stop challenging tradition. She had said there were more important things for Brijit to focus on. This would soon become the standard reply Brijit was given whenever she questioned the Elders’ traditions or authority.

  Of course, Brijit would be lying if she didn’t admit that she was slightly intrigued by the male Coimirceoirí. Stone Mountain was far to the south along the Forbidden Coast, past the Outlands. Few knew much about the area, but folklore told of monsters and storms that raged so darkly that most of Five Corners considered it utterly uninhabitable. There were even some regular folks in the Five Corners who believed that Stone Mountain didn’t truly exist. But the Coimirceoirí had been training their male students there for centuries. To survive the climate there alone would be a test of the students’ strength. Brijit wanted to get one of the Stone Mountain Coimirceoirí alone, but not for the reasons her peers might think – she simply wanted to discover what it was like to live in that part of Five Corners.

  Serena and Elsa were giggling about the few male Coimirceoirí they had managed to spot when the Stone Mountain delegation had arrived the previous evening. Of course, the girls had been sneaking around the Academy’s halls after curfew. Brijit had stayed in their room, engrossed in an old scroll she’d found in the library that afternoon, which traced the ancestry of the Elders back to Queen Aibhilín. She had barely noticed when they returned from their spying mission.

  “Aren’t you even a little bit curious as to where we will be assigned?” Brijit asked, trying to bring her friends thoughts back to more practical matters.

  Serena rolled her eyes. “It’s obvious you will be the one who is selected this year, Brijit. None of the rest of us are even close in ability.”

  Elsa nodded in agreement. “We’ve accepted the futility of it all since Year One.”

  “And we will be sent where we are sent. There is no point fretting about it,” Serena added. “It will be announced tonight, whether we worry about it or not.”

  Brijit stifled a sigh. Each year, when the senior group of students graduated to begin their work with the Elders, two of their ranks were chosen to fulfill their practicums at the palace in Séreméla. The best male and best female of each class were chosen as apprentices to the royal family.

  While she appreciated her friends’ confidence, and she hoped they were right, she didn’t dare jinx herself by believing it. Brijit’s skills were in healing and as an empath. Her skills in the latter area had caught the most attention in her years at the Academy. Brijit’s mentor Raspella had worked hard to help Brijit hone her empathic skills, which were now not only better than the rest of her classmates’ but also better than those of her instructors.

  Despite her many gifts as a Coimirceoirí, however, Brijit’s outspoken and questioning manner might count against her when the Elders chose the palace apprentices. While Raspella had appreciated her assertive nature, Brijit knew many of the instructors at the Academy did not. And she doubted the Elders would want such a difficult student to join them in Séreméla. They preferred Coimirceoirí apprentices to be obedient servants. An inquisitive, questioning one would not be welcome.

  Of course, the female apprentice they chose to go to Séreméla would, in large part, depend on who the male apprentice was and what his talents might be. Brijit felt a prick of irritation. She hated to think her fate might hinge on what some unknown male student’s skills were.

  Her attention was drawn back to her friends, who were watching her expectantly.

  “What?” Brijit asked, realizing with a flush of guilt that that she had been lost in her thoughts and not listening to their conversation at all.

  “I said you’re not going to spend the whole afternoon with Raspella going over tinctures you could make in your sleep, are you?”

  Brijit bit her lip. She would prefer if they believed that was what she intended to do. She knew they would insist on coming with her if they knew her real plans. She didn’t want them or anyone else to know what she was up to, yet. And not just because the Elders and Academy instructors would be livid if they found out but also because she didn’t want her friends to get into trouble just as they were preparing for graduation. It would be better if they flirted with the male Coimirceoirí than accompany Brijit on her afternoon activities. The less they knew, the safer they would be.

  Serena stared at her hard before raising her eyebrows in disbelief. “They’ve already made the decision about who will be going to Séreméla, Brij. There’s no point in trying to impress them anymore.”

  Brijit pressed her lips together and didn’t reply.

  Elsa shook her head. “Never mind, Serena, she’s a lost cause. Brijit, you do know that our freedom is coming to an end?”

  Serena sighed in disappointment. “We will see you tonight, right?”

  “Of course,” Brijit nodded. She watched as her friends walked down the corridor ignoring the pang of guilt she felt for not joining them.

  Freedom. What her friends didn’t understand was that Brijit had accepted that her freedom was over the moment she had agreed to train as a Coimirceoirí. The honor had been too great for her to refuse, not that she’d even considered refusing (much to Grandmamma’s disappointment). Brijit had wanted more than anything to serve the Elders in this way. It had been her ambition from a young age to help Five Corners in any way she could. She shook her head now, unable to believe just how naïve she had been.

  Ever since she had been a young girl, it had been clear that Brijit had inherited her grandmother’s skill as a healer. But Brijit wanted so much more than what her grandmother had settled for. While being the wise woman in the village was an honor on a local level, it was not what Brijit craved. She wanted, more than anything, to make a real difference in the world. She knew she could do just that as a Coimirceoirí.

  She wanted to be the Academy’s apprentice, not just for the honor of it. If Brijit’s hunch was right, what was happening in Five Corners centered on what was going on in Séreméla. She needed to be placed there if she wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery. But there was no point in fretting about that. She couldn’t control the decision that had already been made. Instead, she would make the best of her remaining time at the Academy and see what she could find out – even if it m
eant leaving her principles in the closet for now.

  #

  As Brijit entered the laboratory, the pungent odor of multiple herbs and tinctures flooded her senses. The room was empty, exactly as she expected it to be.

  Brijit had no intention of meeting with Raspella. She had tried to ask questions of her mentor too many times over the last few months, ever since that trip to Merryville. She closed her eyes briefly as the memories assaulted her again.

  The small dirty girl dressed in rags who had grabbed at her hand as Brijit followed Raspella through the village.

  “Please, tell me why,” the girl sobbed.

  Brijit did not understand what she was saying and had to gently shake off the girl as she hurried to catch up with her mentor. Raspella was marching into the tiny town hall where the council of the small village was gathered. In front of them was a dead child, no more than five years old. Brijit was shocked. The child had clearly been murdered, and it appeared the deed had been done at the hands of the villagers themselves.

  “Is this the first one?” Raspella asked the mayor.

  He nodded, his face grim.

  Raspella stared at the body for a moment. “Show me.”

  The wise woman of the village turned the child’s body over and pulled the ragged dress on her shoulder down to reveal a black mark. Brijit stared at it. She had seen that symbol before.

  “You have done the right thing,” Raspella told the villagers. “Burn the body.”

  And with that. her mentor motioned to Brijit and they left. Brijit waited for Raspella to tell her what it meant, but her mentor remained silent on the journey home. They had not planned on visiting that particular village that day – they had been on business in another town not far away where Brijit had helped to deliver a baby as one of her final healing tests. The summons to Merryville had been last minute, and Raspella had clearly not been happy about having to take Brijit with her but she also had been told that she could not delay.

  It was only when they returned to the Academy that Raspella turned to Brijit and said, “I trust you will not tell anyone what you saw.” Her mentor looked at her sternly.

  “What did I see?” Brijit asked tersely, still unable to believe how coldly Raspella had acted in the presence of a murdered innocent.

  “Nothing that you need to worry about.”

  Brijit couldn’t believe her ears. “A village murders a child because of a mark on her shoulder and I’m not to worry about it?” It was unthinkable not only that the Academy would condone such behavior but that they would hide it.

  Raspella stopped her tracks outside the gates to the Academy and gripped Brijit’s shoulders hard. “You will not speak of this, Brijit Carnesîr. I can’t explain what you saw but I will tell you that everything that was done happened on Elders’ orders.” Her mentor’s words hit her like a slap. Raspella following Elders’ orders so closely was unheard of.

  Inside the laboratory now, Brijit felt outrage rising in her chest again. The Elders seemed to control everything, no questions asked. Raspella was one of few people at the Academy who had no problem critiquing the Elders. But for some reason she was now blindly following their orders. Brijit had not pushed Raspella on the matter. Something in her mentor’s demeanor had warned her to keep her mouth shut. But she had not forgotten what she had seen. Nor had she told her mentor that she’d seen that symbol before…in fact that she wore it every day around her neck.

  Brijit reached inside her dress and felt the pewter pendant hanging there. Her grandmother had given her that pendant before she left home and told her to always keep it out of sight but on her person. Brijit had thought nothing of it. She assumed it was just a family heirloom that her grandmother had wanted her to have. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  Looking around the laboratory again to make sure she was quite alone, Brijit pulled the pendant out and gazed at it. The triquetra inside a circle was exactly the same as the mark she’d seen on the dead child’s shoulder. What it meant was a mystery to her.

  Frowning, she slipped the chain back beneath her gown and made her way across the room to Raspella’s office. For months now she’d been trying to get answers about what had happened in Merryville. And for months she’d found nothing. Even the Academy library seemed to be missing information related to the rune that was on her chain. Other symbols were listed in the books, but that particular one was not there.

  And two weeks ago the dreams had suddenly started. Brijit didn’t know what they meant, but she’d been waking feeling panicky and anxious, her sheets twisted and soaked in sweat. The dreams were not exactly the same but similar in content. Her grandmother kept popping into them to warn her that she was in grave danger. The rune was always floating in the background of a charred and inhospitable landscape that was ravaged and churning with a darkness so evil it left her heart pounding when she woke.

  Other themes cropped up in the dreams, too. Dead children with the black triquetra burned into their shoulders, even babies with the mark. Elders laughing behind closed doors. But none of it made sense to her. Brijit might have been able to forget what had happened in the village, but her dreams reinforced her feeling that something was going on. She didn’t know what it was, but her gut told her it was something sinister.

  Brijit had the distinct impression that Raspella knew more than she was willing to share. The commands may have come from the Elders, but her mentor was definitely involved in the specifics of what was happening.

  Looking behind her once more to make sure the lab was empty, Brijit tried the door to Raspella’s office and was mildly surprised to find it unlocked. The potions instructor was notorious for locking her door and enforcing what little privacy she had as an instructor at the Academy. It was out of character for her to forget this one detail, particularly when she was not in the lab teaching.

  Rather than question this good luck, Brijit pushed the door open and let herself into the office. Closing the door behind her, she squinted in the darkness and then fumbled in her pocket for the candle she’d brought with her. Swiftly lighting it, she set it on Raspella’s cluttered desk and began sifting through the papers that covered every inch of the space.

  Her mentor was never a tidy person. Her desk was covered with ungraded assignments and fragments of potions, along with random ingredients. Shaking her head, Brijit shuffled the papers around until she saw a letter haphazardly stuffed between two first-year papers. Scanning the contents Brijit suddenly gasped when she saw her own name spelled out in Elder script. Lowering herself to Raspella’s chair behind the desk, Brijit focused on translating the Elder language.

  Brijit Carnesîr is our selected apprentice this graduating class.

  Brijit stopped reading as a rush of pride filled her. She was actually going to Séreméla! She had done it. A smile pulled at her lips. Then she continued reading.

  We have reviewed the concerns stated by yourself and the other instructors at the Academy but the Crown Prince and the Council insist that her gifts far outweigh her spirited nature. We are confident that we will be able to control her.

  Pain stabbed at her as the meaning of those words sunk in. Brijit’s smile faded. Raspella must have argued against her nomination as the apprentice for this year. But why? She had thought her mentor was on her side, but this letter suggested the Elders were the ones who wanted her. Even if they said they would have to control her. Brijit snorted at that. The Elders were arrogant enough to assume they could control all Coimirceoirí. Well, they were about to be surprised if they thought they could control her.

  The next lines in the letter also caught her attention.

  As you know, this year’s apprentices will not be going to Séreméla but will be taken to The Rift.

  Brijit paused in her reading, her brow furrowed. What was The Rift? She had never heard of apprentices not going to Séreméla. Elders valued tradition over all else. Something had to be very wrong for them to change this tradition so radically. Her gaze returned to the lett
er.

  The Coimirceoirí’s job there is urgent. Brijit, in particular, is needed by the Royal family. The time of the Prophecy is approaching, and her skill will be necessary in coming days.

  Brijit ran her hand through her hair. What skills were they referring to? Her healing skills? Surely not. The Elders themselves were renowned healers. So did they mean her empathetic skill set? But that didn’t really make sense either. And what was the Prophecy? She had never heard of it. And where was The Rift? As far as she knew, such a place did not exist in Five Corners.

  Brijit raced through the rest of the letter, looking for more clues, but the remaining paragraph only included the usual niceties of polite conversation and a signature line. Frowning, she carefully put the letter back between the two assignments where she had found it.

  She scanned Raspella’s desk, looking for more clues. Surprisingly, she didn’t have to look hard. Buried under a stash of dried lavender and wax candles, she found a map of Five Corners that she had never seen before. Squinting, Brijit brought it closer to the candle and gasped. Where traditional maps only showed Séreméla and the open Sea of Arcadia, this map had another section labeled The Rift. In fact, the entire western part of Five Corners appeared to be rewritten. Chewing on her lip, Brijit considered her options. She could attempt to sketch what she saw on the map, but she was hopeless at drawing and she had no materials with her anyway. The details on this map were intricate. She could try to commit it to memory, but she didn’t trust herself.

  Then a thought occurred to her. She would be leaving the Academy in the next few days. She now knew she was one of the Elders’ apprentices for this year. The Elders usually collected their Coimirceoirí apprentices within two days of the banquet. Classes weren’t set to resume for the younger students for another week. Chances were good that Raspella would not be in her office before Brijit left. Or if she was, she wouldn’t notice the map missing until it was too late.