The Heart of Trelyssia

by Lisa Chitty

Abi looked up at Randall and asked the one thing she was desperate to know at this point. ‘How’s James?’

  Randall’s eyes clouded with sorrow as he stepped to one side and allowed Abi to see what his frame had been blocking. James was lying where she had seen him fall. Steve was kneeling beside him. Sasket and Zaria were standing a little distance away, as if to give them all space. As Randall moved, Steve looked up and by the desolation in his expression Abi knew that she was too late.

  ‘No!’ Abi gasped.

  Randall, for once lost for words, gently took Abi’s hand and led her over to where James lay. She knelt down beside him, opposite Steve, tears running down her face. She hesitantly reached out to touch James’s face, her hand shaking with emotion. But at the last moment, she was unable to complete the gesture. It was like Abi didn’t want to confirm what her eyes were telling her. A lack of response to her touch would bring it all crashing home.

  Abi looked up to see Steve watching her. ‘It can’t end like this,’ Abi whispered to him. ‘This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.’

  Steve, tears shining in his eyes, knew that he could say nothing to Abi. There were no words that could provide any comfort, and even if there were, he was hurting too much himself to be able to say them.

  Abi caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Theldon had come over to join Zaria and Sasket. All the varying emotions that she had been feeling over the last few hours came bursting out of her at the sight of Theldon. ‘You said we’d be reunited’ she yelled at him. ‘You promised!’

  Theldon shrank back from the force of Abi’s rage. ‘I’m sorry,’ he tried to placate her.

  ‘Sorry!’ Abi was still yelling and the strength of her anger had driven her to her feet. ‘Sorry isn’t going to fix this. We were meant to be together once all this was over.’ Abi gestured around her.

  Zaria stepped forward to defend Theldon. ‘No one could have known this would happen, Abi. We were all aware of the risks that this battle entailed. I’m sure that right now you just want to find someone to blame, and Theldon is a convenient target. But it’s not his fault. It’s not anybody’s fault.’

  Zaria’s gentle words sank through Abi’s anger and made sense. As always, Zaria was right and Abi could blame no one for what had happened. She turned back to where James lay, looking for all the world like he was asleep. ‘It’s not fair,’ Abi whispered ‘I had to lie to him and now he’ll never know the truth. He had to endure what I’m going through now and he shouldn’t have had to.’

  Abi felt like she was being punished for her deception, but as she looked back at Zaria, she knew that she wasn’t. It was something that had just happened and there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent it. She went and knelt back down beside James. ‘I love you James,’ she told him. ‘I’ll never forget you.’

  Abi’s eyes roamed over James’s body, drinking in every part of him. She was determined to etch the image of him securely in her mind, to remember him always. As she was doing this Abi noticed a piece of cloth over his neck. It looked so out of place that she reached out to remove it.

  ‘Abi, don’t!’ Steve reached over and stopped Abi’s hand with his before looking her in the eye. ‘You don’t want to see what’s under there, believe me.’

  Abi looked down at James for a moment then back up at Steve. ‘I have to know.’

  Steve shook his head, dislodging tears that ran down his cheeks. ‘Don’t make your last memory of him worse that it already is.’ He still held Abi’s hand preventing her from doing anything.

  ‘Please,’ Abi begged him. ‘Let me see.’

  Steve was struggling to decide what was right. What Abi wanted, or what he thought was best. Finally he dropped Abi’s hand and then turned his face away. Freed of its restraint her hand carried on to touch the cloth and slowly Abi removed it. She gasped in shock as she saw the gaping wound it had been covering, but Abi couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight. James hadn’t stood a chance. Abi had seen enough. Too much. Steve had been right.

  Abi went to place the cloth back over the wound, not that she would forget what it had looked like now that she had seen it. As she did so, her hand brushed part of James’s neck and the very end of the deep gash. A tingling shot through Abi’s arm that seemed to come from the amulet. Confused, she looked down at her hand to try and work out what the sensation could mean and struggled to comprehend what she was seeing.

  Abi wasn’t completely sure, but it appeared that the sword cut in James’s neck was now shorter. Abi stretched out her hand over the wound, as if to check its size and see if it had shrunk. Hesitantly, Abi touched the very end of the gash again, and felt the tingling sensation once more. This time she watched and saw the two sides of the wound shift over and close together. Abi jerked her hand back with a gasp.

  Steve looked up at Abi’s gasp with a sympathetic expression on his face. He clearly thought that Abi’s gasp meant that she was upset at the sight of the wound. ‘Abi… he began.

  ‘Shhh,’ Abi interrupted him. ‘Just watch.’ Abi wanted to see if she could close the wound in James’s neck, but she needed confirmation of what she was doing, and Steve watching her would provide the proof that she needed.

  Shaking, Abi held out her hand and touched the tips of her fingers to one end of the deep cut. The tingling began again, but this time she didn’t pull away. She traced her fingers all the way along the wound and as her fingers passed, it closed up seamlessly, not a trace of where the gash had been showing.

  Abi looked up at Steve and could see he was eyeing her warily. ‘What have you done?’

  Abi shrugged helplessly as she didn’t know what was happening. Before with the amulet Abi had always instigated everything that it had done. But she knew that this miracle had come from the amulet itself.

  Randall had backed off a little way, to give Abi space to grieve over James, but now, as he sensed the change in atmosphere, he came back over. He stood next to where Abi knelt and placed a hand on her shoulder. He gave it a brief squeeze and opened his mouth to say something, when his gaze fell on James. ‘What the …?’ he exclaimed, and dropping to his knees he placed his hand on James’s neck, to where the wound had been. He looked from Steve to Abi in confusion.

  ‘Don’t look at me,’ Steve told him. ‘She did it.’ He pointed across at Abi.

  ‘How?’ Randall’s expression was incredulous.

  All the restrictions that the amulet had imposed on Abi had now been lifted, so she reached beneath the chain mail and tunic she was wearing and pulled the amulet out into the sunlight. ‘I don’t really know how,’ she told Randall. ‘I just know that the power to do it came from this.’

  Steve and Randall silently stared at the amulet, not quite prepared to believe that something as innocent looking as that, could have healed such a bad cut. As if sensing their disbelief, it began to glow in Abi’s hand. Either that, or it was just revelling in the touch of her hand. Steve and Randall drew back slightly, as if afraid.

  ‘It’s alright,’ Abi reassured them. ‘It’s harmless.’

  Randall had been piecing things together and had now worked everything out. ‘Sasket said that you were using magic in your battle with the Baron. Is that how you did it?’ He gestured towards the amulet.

  Abi nodded her head slowly, feeling slightly distracted. Zaria, Sasket and Theldon had come closer to see what was going on, but Abi didn’t acknowledge their presence. The amulet was beginning to glow brighter and it was vibrating strongly in her hand, which it hadn’t done since she found it. For some reason, Abi felt compelled to reach out her other hand over James and as she did so, she knew that she needed to place it on his chest.

  ‘No!’ Theldon cried out trying to prevent what Abi was doing. ‘Stop. It’s too dangerous.’ He reached out to try and stop Abi from touching James, but Steve and Randall blocked him from getting near her.

  ‘Leave her alone. There’s nothing dangerous in Abi touching James,’ Steve told Theldon. �
�Can’t you see that she’s just upset.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Randall backed Steve up. ‘Let her do whatever she feels necessary to let her grief out.’

  ‘It’s not that,’ Theldon desperately tried to tell them. ‘I think she’s going to try and attempt something that just isn’t possible.’ As Steve and Randall stared at Theldon in confusion, Theldon turned his attention to what Abi was doing, but as he looked on, he knew that he would be unable to stop her in what she was about to do.

  Abi barely heard what was going on around her. She was too wrapped up in what she was feeling. Right now she was completely in the grip of the amulet’s power and nothing could break it. As her hand touched James’s chest an enormous surge ran down her arm and through into James. The amount of energy coursing through her made her gasp, but she couldn’t pull away. The glowing amulet grew brighter until it was incandescent. Everyone surrounding Abi and James, backed off and had to shield their eyes. Then as suddenly as everything had begun it stopped, and as the energy drained from Abi she fell to one side, feeling completely exhausted.

  ‘Abi!’ Steve and Randall cried together and leapt forward to her side.

  ‘I’m alright,’ Abi managed to mumble.

  ‘You’re not’ Randall disagreed. ‘What happened?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Abi struggled to sit up with Steve and Randall assisting her. She was as bewildered as everyone else as to why the amulet had behaved like it did.

  They were all stood staring at Abi, who really didn’t know how to reply, so to divert the attention from herself she reached out to James. She placed her hand on the exact spot on James’s chest where it had been when the amulet was active.

  For a while there was just silence as the others looked on. Abi could feel nothing and was still at a loss to explain the amulet’s actions. She was about to take her hand away when she felt the barest of movements as though James had just taken a very tiny breath.

  Abi looked down and was amazed when she saw James’s chest rise and fall again. ‘Look,’ she cried. ‘He’s breathing! The amulet’s brought him back to us!’

  The others all switched their attention from Abi to James with varying levels of disbelief, but this soon turned to amazement as they saw that Abi was right. James was breathing strongly enough now that they could all see the movement with ease.

  Abi removed her hand from James’s chest and took his hand in hers whilst stroking his cheek with the other hand. ‘James, wake up,’ she called softly. His eyelids flickered in response, then he gave a huge gasp and his eyes flew open.

  He lay there for a moment, adjusting himself to where he was. He took in Randall and Steve beside him and he began to smile, but then his gaze fell on Abi and he looked confused. He turned back towards Steve. ‘Mate, I think I’m seeing things. I can see Abi kneeling beside me. She’s holding my hand.’

  A slow grin spread across Steve’s face as he realised that his closest friend was no longer dead. ‘No, you’re not seeing things.’ Steve looked across at Abi. ‘I can see her too.’

  James turned his gaze back to Abi. ‘But you’re dead. Everyone knows that. Or have we lost and we’ve all died?’

  Abi shook her head slowly and raised his hand to her lips, gently kissing it. ‘No, I’m not dead, and neither is anyone else. My supposed death never happened and I’m so sorry that you thought it had.’

  ‘But how?’ James was clearly very confused.

  ‘It’s a long story,’ Abi told him. ‘In fact, we’ve got a lot to tell you.’

  ‘Never mind that now. I’ve got more important things to do.’ He suddenly sat up and put one arm round Abi, whilst the other went to the back of her head and buried itself in her hair. ‘I never thought I’d do this again,’ he murmured softly.

  He gently brought Abi’s face towards his, and there, in the middle of the battlefield, surrounded by death and destruction, they kissed. Despite the horror of the previous few hours and everything they had been through, their love had been renewed and was now even stronger.

  They gently parted, now that they both knew for sure that the other was alright. ‘Now young lady,’ James began. ‘I think you’d better tell me everything that you’ve been up to since I last saw you!’

  Abi laughed, took his hand in hers and stood pulling him up with her. ‘We’d better find somewhere comfortable then. It’s going to take a while.’ Abi led him off, and the others slowly followed, smiling at the fact that everything now appeared to be alright, and more importantly, that they had just won an epic battle.

  Chapter 20

  Before they could get very far, they were all stopped in their tracks. The rebel army had witnessed Abi’s triumph over the Baron and had wanted to celebrate it with her, but her sudden disappearance had confounded that. Now, however, they had spotted Abi and were unwilling to let her go again.

  ‘She’s over here.’

  ‘Our Saviour!’

  ‘All hail the Lady Abi, who has saved us all.’

  The cries and cheers were deafening and went on and on with more people coming over as they realised what was happening. It seemed that everyone there wanted to congratulate Abi on the victory, when all she wanted to do was run and hide from what she had done, and seek comfort from the one place she knew she was guaranteed to get it, James’s arms. The possibilities for getting away from everyone though, were getting more and more remote as the crowds pressed in round them, hands reached out to touch Abi as though she was some good luck charm.

  Abi was feeling claustrophobic and was gripping James’s hand so tight that she was sure she must have been hurting him, but she just couldn’t let go. The physical contact between them was all that was keeping Abi from breaking down. Or screaming.

  Sensing how uncomfortable Abi was, James decided to do something about it. ‘Enough!’ He bellowed as loud as he possibly could, nearly deafening Abi in the process. She looked up at him in astonishment, amazed at how loud he could be. She could see similar startled looks from Steve and Randall. James grinned down at Abi. enjoying a chance to startle her Then, before anyone could start up again, he continued in a much quieter, but still authoritative tone. ‘Now back off and give Abi some space. She’s had a hard time and needs to come to terms with everything that’s happened.’ As James was still unaware of exactly what had gone on he was hedging slightly but it wasn’t apparent to the crowd that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

  Slowly and begrudgingly, everyone began backing off leaving a clear space round the seven of them. It was tempting for Abi to just whisk herself and James out of there, but she knew there was unfinished business here that needed her attention first.

  ‘You’ve got your clear air like you asked for, now you must heed us.’ A tall skinny man at the front of the crowd addressed Abi directly and at his words the cheers began again.

  They waited a while for the cheers to subside before the skinny man spoke to Abi again. ‘You have done what we all wanted. The Baron is dead and his rule is over, but what do we do now? We are free people but we don’t know how to be free. As the Baron Slayer, you must guide us.’

  Beside her, Abi heard James’s sharp intake of breath at the words Baron Slayer. He had just put the pieces together of what she had accomplished. However, Abi couldn’t allow herself to be distracted, not just yet. She had to give this gathering the answers they were looking for before she could find the peace and quiet she craved to catch up with James. ‘It is true that I killed the Baron.’ Abi told the crowd. ‘That was my sole purpose in coming here. Now that I have done that, it is up to you, the people, how you proceed from here.’

  ‘We have no leader, we can’t just do as we please.’ A man somewhere in the group protested Abi’s statement, and soon others were agreeing or shouting out their own opinion. The gathering had descended into chaos again, so Abi gave James a little nudge. He looked down at her, gave a long suffering sigh, and then did as she had silently requested.

  ‘Silence!’ Once more the
strength of his shout had the power to bring quiet to the unsettled mob.

  Abi knew that she could have used the amulet to have achieved the same results, but for some reason she felt that the use of magic now would have a very detrimental effect on what she wanted to achieve. Abi spoke into the silence before anyone could say anything. ‘When I first came here, I was told the legends of this place, of the royal family and what had happened to them. I was told these stories by someone you all know and trust. Theldon.’ Abi gestured in his direction, and he inclined his head in acknowledgement. ‘He told myself and my companions the full story of why we were brought here. That we were to defeat the Baron. But that was not the only thing. The purpose of deposing the Baron was so that the rightful heir to the throne could reclaim their birthright.’

  At these words there was once again a large protest from the gathered hoards.

  ‘It’s all a myth.’

  ‘Everyone knows that they’re just stories.’

  ‘The royal family are no more!’

  This went on for a while, and this time Abi let them carry on until they ran out of things to say. What Abi was about to do required total receptiveness from everyone around her. She couldn’t afford to get this next part wrong. Eventually everyone calmed down enough for Abi to continue.

  ‘The stories are fact!’ Abi asserted. ‘There is a current living person who is a direct descendant of King Raydon and his Queen, Alissandra.’ Abi shot a discreet glance to her left and received the merest nod of acknowledgement. ‘If I reveal who they are to you all now, will you swear fealty to them?’

  This time instead of a protest there was a stunned silence. Abi waited patiently, knowing that she couldn’t rush this. She had to get their total acceptance and if it took the rest of the day, then so be it. Randall and Steve were watching Abi questioningly, clearly wanting to know what she was about to do but thankfully not pushing the issue. James was being just as patient as Abi. He stood next to her, still holding her hand, and just by his presence, Abi’s confidence was bolstered.