The Heart of Trelyssia

by Lisa Chitty

  Randall looked at Zaria horrified. He had only been joking. ‘I’m sorry,’ Randall said. ‘I didn’t realise that he was in any danger. I thought he could look after himself, even though he’s getting on a bit!’

  ‘It’s alright.’ Zaria accepted Randall’s apology. ‘You weren’t to know as we deliberately kept it from you. We thought that you had enough to worry about as it is, without concerning yourselves about someone else. There’s really nothing we can do about him, so shall we get on with organising our plans?’

  James nodded and picked up where he had left off. ‘It will be highly dangerous for those who light the explosives, and we can’t guarantee that they will survive.’ James told Sasket.

  ‘I understand, and I’ll make sure that those who are chosen also know the risks,’ Sasket reassured him.

  ‘Why can’t we have archers with flaming arrows do it?’ Randall asked.

  ‘The distances involved are enormous,’ Brougan answered. ‘The degree of accuracy required is too great. We can’t afford to miss. However, we would be able to light the flammable areas that way. Accuracy is less important there.’

  James nodded. ‘Once we’ve flushed the Baron out, it’ll be down to you, Marldon to devise the battle plan for the actual fighting.’ He sat back down in his chair.

  Marldon rose. ‘Thank you for that, James. ‘Your plan makes more sense than what we originally came up with. We’ll make sure that it’s foolproof, and then we’ll proceed. I suggest we now take a break.’

  Agreement came from everyone in the room, and people got up, stretched and started talking amongst themselves. Steve, Randall and James formed a small group in the corner.

  ‘So, when did you get so bloodthirsty?’ Steve asked James.

  ‘I’m not!’ he replied.

  ‘You are!’ Randall told him. ‘Just now when you were explaining everything, you were positively relishing the fact of open warfare.’

  James regarded his friends for a while, unsure of how they were going to react when he told them of what he intended. ‘I won’t say that I am bloodthirsty. However, I have promised that I will avenge Abi’s death, and if that means that I have to kill the Baron with my own two hands, then so be it!’ James then stood and leaving Randall and Steve staring after him in shocked silence, he exited the room

  Chapter 12

  Abi stopped screaming. In the blink of an eye, everything had changed. As she sat up and looked around her, she could see that she was no longer in the forest. Instead, she was in a neatly kept garden, sitting on a lawn, which was surrounded by tall bushes, which screened off much of what was beyond. At the bottom of the garden was a thatched cottage. Abi got slowly to her feet wondering what to do, and more importantly, where the others were. The thought ran through her mind that perhaps she was dead, after all the guards had been set to kill her. But if that was the case, this was a strange afterlife. She decided to head towards the door of the cottage and see if anyone was around. She certainly hadn’t been noticed so far.

  Abi went up to the door and knocked on it. She stood for a while before knocking again as no-one came. Again there was no answer, so she pressed the latch on the door, and it swung open easily. ‘Hello!’ she called into the darkness, blinking to adjust her eyes to the dimness of the interior. There was no response so she wandered further in. She called out again, but received no answer. Abi had decided to go back out and wait in the garden or possibly find her way out of there, when a voice from behind stopped her.

  ‘We meet again, at last!’

  Abi knew that voice and as she swung round to speak to the person who had addressed her, a grin spread across her face. ‘Theldon! Thank heaven you’re here. It’s great to see you!’

  Theldon smiled back. ‘It’s good to see you too. Now, shall we go and sit down and have something to drink?’

  ‘Oh, Theldon, I wish I could, but I can’t,’ Abi said regretfully. ‘I’m grateful to you for somehow saving me and bringing me here, but you have to send me back. The others will be worried about me, especially James.’

  Theldon made no reply and instead he brushed past her. He went along the hallway and into one of the rooms. Abi followed him and found herself in a kitchen, where he was about to put the kettle on. ‘Theldon. Did you not hear me?’ Abi grabbed his arm and swung him round to face her. ‘You have to send me back. Now!’

  Theldon gently disentangled himself from Abi’s grasp and continued to make some tea. ‘You’d better sit down’, he told her. ‘This is going to take a while.’

  Realising that she would get no further until she had done what Theldon asked, Abi took a seat at the table and watched him finish making the tea. He brought it over to where she sat and settled himself opposite her. ‘Right, firstly I cannot send you back…’

  ‘What?!’ Abi’s startled exclamation interrupted him. ‘But you have to.’

  Theldon frowned at her. ‘I don’t have to do anything, young lady! But the reason I cannot send you back is not because I don’t want to. It’s because I don’t have the power to do that.’

  ‘Fine!’ Abi rose from the table. ‘I’ll just have to find my own back then.’ She turned to march from the room but found her way blocked by Theldon. She gave an exasperated sigh. ‘I do wish you wouldn’t do that!’

  Theldon grinned at her discomfiture. ‘I really do think it’s best if you sit down, drink your tea and listen to what I have to tell you.’ He took Abi’s arm and gently guided her back to her seat, and sat her down.

  ‘The second matter that I need to clear up is that I did not rescue you and bring you here.’

  Abi stared at him in stunned amazement. ‘But then, how did I get here?’

  ‘In a way, you brought yourself here.’

  ‘What?! You aren’t making any sense.’ Abi sat shaking her head wondering if old age and senility had finally caught up with Theldon.

  ‘Allow me to explain…’

  ‘Please do!’ she interrupted sarcastically.

  That earned her a frown from Theldon. ‘If you would keep quiet and just listen, we’d get to what I need to tell you quicker!’

  Abi apologised and he went on. ‘When I said that you brought yourself here I didn’t mean that you did it consciously. When you realised that your life was in danger, the thought that formed in your mind was to get to a safe location. You didn’t specify an exact one, so you ended up here.’ Theldon paused.

  ‘But you still haven’t explained how.’

  ‘You are now the wearer of the amulet which bears an engraving of Heart of Trelyssia Rose on it are you not?’

  Abi gasped. ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘I was the one who told you to search for it, remember? Unlike everyone else, I knew that your sole purpose in coming here was to find it, and use it to end the Baron’s rule. Your identity has been kept a secret known only to one person of each generation.’

  ‘But why?’ Abi questioned.

  ‘Because of the four of you that arrived here, it is only you, using the amulet that can actually bring an end to all of this and bring order back to Trelyssia. You had to be protected because if the Baron had known of this, your life would have been in danger from the very moment you arrived here. He would have been sure to have found you by now and killed you.’ Theldon paused, regarding Abi gravely.

  ‘But, if I’m the important one,’ Abi began hesitantly. ‘Why are the others here?’

  ‘They are as necessary to this battle as you are. Whilst you will deliver the end to this, they are responsible for the means to the end. They will create the necessary situation which will allow you to confront the Baron and use the amulet.’

  ‘Confront him!’ Abi exclaimed. ‘You mean I’m going to have to fight him?’

  ‘Yes. Only you as the wearer of the amulet will have the power to defeat him. It is not going to take strength to complete this task. It is going to take intelligence and correct knowledge of what the amulet will enable you to do. You have already discovered it can
transport you to a safe place.’

  Abi looked at Theldon for a while, taking in what he had said. ‘So, if the amulet brought me here it can take me back. Well, it was nice seeing you again, but I really need to get back before everyone starts worrying.’ Abi got to her feet and closed her eyes. She concentrated on the caves, on the rooms that she had shared with the others and especially thought of James. She then began to fervently wish to be back with him and hoped that this was how the amulet would work. She opened her eyes and found herself still in the kitchen of the cottage with Theldon. She gritted her teeth before asking Theldon, ‘so, how does this thing actually work?’

  Theldon chuckled before answering. ‘Not in the way that you want it to!’ At Abi’s glare, he stopped laughing, became serious and gestured for her to sit down. ‘You were brought here for another reason than to save your life. No one from the outside world can find this place, because the only way to get here is to use magic. The amulet has a certain level of sentience, but not how you or I would understand it. It knows that you are currently unable to use it so it brought you here to me. This is the only safe place where you can be educated in the use of it in the whole of the kingdom.’

  ‘So I have to stay here?’ As Theldon nodded Abi went on. ‘When are the others going to arrive?’

  Theldon looked at her for a moment before replying. ‘They aren’t coming. Only people who are able to use magic can come here. You and your companions are to be separated and will remain so until the day that you confront the Baron.

  Tears filled Abi’s eyes as she looked at Theldon. ‘But what about James? We’ve only just discovered we love each other. To part us now is cruel! Can I least speak to him somehow, like you did when you contacted us in the Great Hall back at the caves?’

  ‘No. You do not yet have the necessary skills to be able to do that.’

  ‘But you do! You can contact them.’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t. It isn’t allowed.’

  Abi stared at him incredulous. ‘What do you mean not allowed? I have to get a message back. They probably don’t know what’s happened to me. They could even think I’m dead!’

  ‘That is exactly what they do think, and what they have to remain thinking until you have completed your training.’

  Abi stared at Theldon in amazement, temporarily lost for words.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he told her. ‘I know it seems harsh to let someone you care about believe the worst about you. But it is necessary.’

  ‘No!’ Abi cried. ‘I won’t let James think I’m dead. It’ll tear him apart. If I can’t get back instantly using the amulet, I’ll just have to use my own two legs!’ Abi got up from the table and fled from the kitchen, down the hallway and back into the garden. Here she paused and looked around. She noticed a path leading out and past the bushes into the surrounding trees. She gathered herself together and sprinted along hoping that Theldon wouldn’t suddenly appear in front of her and stop her headlong rush. Luckily however it seemed that he had decided to let her run. Abi followed the path dodging low tree branches. Even though she was running as fast as she could, she placed her feet carefully, determined that she wouldn’t trip this time.

  It was becoming harder to breath and Abi’s legs were beginning to ache when she saw the trees thinning out in front of her. Thinking she must be reaching a main track she pulled herself together to run just a bit further, and burst out from the trees into the open. Here she stopped in her tracks amazed. Abi had run for ages but all that she had succeeded in doing was a large circle, because she found herself once more in the garden of the cottage.

  Abi didn’t stop to wait and see if Theldon was still around. She turned round and went back into the trees. This time however she didn’t run. She was determined not to make the same mistake twice so she opted for a fast walk instead. She didn’t rush headlong, but paid attention to the direction she was going, and instead of following the path, she chose to make her own way through the trees, relying on her sense of direction to lead her in a straight line away from the cottage.

  It seemed to take less time to reach a clearer patch of trees and Abi pushed through eagerly, certain that this time she had taken the right track. However, as she stepped through, she found herself once more back in the cottage garden. Abi was incredulous, but her determination to get out of here was increasing. This time, she selected a different point to leave the garden by, even though this meant picking up scratches from the bushes as she passed them.

  Abi was fairly certain that it would be third time lucky, as this time she thought to leave a trail behind her of the way she had come. She deliberately broke the branches of various trees in such a way that it couldn’t be missed as she made her way, confident that all the time she was putting more distance between the cottage and herself. This time as the trees became thinner, Abi was confident that she had got away as she could see no evidence of broken branches ahead of her, they were all behind.

  Abi strode through the trees, and was overwhelmed by dismay when she saw she was back in the cottage garden. This time Theldon was stood in the centre of the lawn waiting for her. He looked at Abi sorrowfully before he spoke. ‘It’s no use. The power of the amulet will keep you here until it’s ready to let you go.’

  Tears filled Abi’s eyes, as the import of what Theldon had said sank in. She would not see James, or Randall and Steve again, until she was allowed to. Her heart ached with what the three of them, especially James, must be going through right now. To be deliberately misled into thinking she was dead must be tearing them apart. Her anguish for James overwhelmed her and the tears became great sobs as she sank to her knees on the grass and wept for him. Abi knew that James was going to go to through a rough time back at the caves, whilst she was at the cottage, safe from harm and unable to contact him.

  Night fell before Abi was able to dry her tears and go back inside the cottage, where she assumed Theldon was waiting for her. She went through to the kitchen where a hot meal had been laid out on the table and Theldon was sat waiting for her. Abi sat opposite him and began to pick listlessly at the food. She looked up and asked the question that had been burning in her mind. ‘Why do they have to think I’m dead. Why can’t they know that I’m safe?’

  ‘Why didn’t you tell them you had found the amulet?’ Theldon countered.

  ‘Because the amulet wouldn’t let me,’ she whispered.

  Theldon nodded. ‘The amulet that you wear has the power to influence its surroundings. From it came the legends that you have been told about by Zaria and Sasket. It was the amulet that created the fiction that you were going to die.’

  Abi paused reflectively. ‘Well, I suppose that does explain Sasket’s attitude towards me, and why he kept giving me those mournful looks. I presume that both Zaria and Sasket knew before my arrival about my supposed death?’

  ‘Yes they did. They even knew an approximate time scale of when you were supposed to die.’

  ‘Great! They knew when and didn’t even try to stop it. Some friends!’

  ‘You mustn’t be harsh on them.’ Theldon admonished Abi. ‘They have both been brought up to believe that everything in those stories is absolute and will come to pass. They didn’t try and stop it because they thought that there was absolutely nothing they could do.’

  ‘But you knew,’ Abi protested.

  ‘Right now I am the only person besides yourself who knows different and that is how it will remain until the time is right.’

  Abi sighed softly finally accepting her fate. There was nothing she could do to change events so she might as well get on with it. She squared her shoulders before addressing Theldon. ‘So when does my training begin? I assume that you are going to be the one to educate me in using this thing.’ She waved at the amulet where it had slipped from her clothes and now lay in plain sight on her chest.

  Theldon smiled gently at Abi. ‘I suggest that you finish your meal and then get a good nights rest. Tomorrow is soon enough to start, and you are
going to need all the strength and energy you can muster to start your training!’

  ‘Before I do go and get some sleep there’s something that I want to know.’ Abi wasn’t about to let Theldon have everything his own way.

  Theldon sighed before replying. ‘You’re not exactly an obedient person are you, especially for a woman! What do they do teach you where you come from?’

  Abi stifled her laughter. ‘Back on Earth, we’re taught to be independent and we have freedom of speech. Women are equal to men and don’t have to suppress who and what they are. If all a woman wants is to be married and have children then that’s fine. But equally, if she wants to have an education and career that’s allowed too. We have the freedom to make our own choices in life.’

  Theldon regarded her gravely for a moment. ‘It certainly sounds like a very different way of life. If you are successful in your quest then you will have a lot to teach us. We are all so used to how things are now that we are going to have to been shown how to change.’

  ‘Even the heir to the throne?’ Abi was trying to subtly lead the conversation in the direction that she wanted it to go.

  ‘Yes, even the heir. The Baron’s rule has gone on so long that even the rebel cause have forgotten what it was like to live in a democracy, with freedom to choose!’

  Theldon’s reply hadn’t given Abi what she was trying to find out, so she decided the best course of action was to ask him direct as she was certain that he would know. ‘Who is the heir to the throne? Seeing as how I’m supposed to be one of the ones to restore them to their birthright, I think I should know!’

  ‘I am not going to tell you that, as I’m not allowed.’ As Abi groaned in protest, Theldon held up a hand to silence her. ‘However,’ he went on. ‘You are not a complete idiot. If you think about it, I’m sure you will find that you already know who it is! Now, I think we have done enough talking for one day and tomorrow will be a long hard day for you. So eat and rest!’