Upon the Stars (Love Lines Book 5)

by Diana Nixon

  “Did it work?”

  “No. Because I refused to wear it. I don’t know what was wrong with the thing, but every time I put it on, I felt like I wasn’t being myself, like someone was controlling me, telling me what to do or how to behave.”

  “Then why Leno is wearing it?”

  “My father said we should keep it, because it is the only thing that was left from Dominick. And since Tai is his son, he thought we might need it one day. But like I said, I don’t want to wear the thing. That’s why Leno said he would be wearing it for me.”

  “The amulet keeps magic of a very special kind,” I said. The mere look at the thing, a few days ago, was more than enough to know that it had been created by someone very talented and powerful. An idea came to my mind. “Do you mind if I take it with me to Dever? I want to show it to someone.”

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea. Dominick’s sons don’t know about the existence of Tai, do they?”

  “They don’t. But I won’t tell them anything. At least until it’s time for them to find out the truth.”

  Amitola shook her head, suddenly getting nervous. “No one should know about Tai.”

  “But some people already do. And I’m not talking about my father and Patrick Fairey. I think Clarions who want to destroy Dever know about Tai’s existence, as well as the name of his biological father.”

  “How do they know that? We never told anyone about Tai.”

  I thought for a moment, recalling what Tara told Evan about Clarions who came to her wedding. She didn’t know the name of the girl whose powers had been stolen by Allister – the very same girl that Dominick Murray wanted to protect. But now, that I knew everything about what had happened to Amitola, I guess I knew who that girl was.

  “What was the name of the guy who used dark spells on you?” I asked.

  “Why? It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “Actually, it does matter. Because I think he is standing behind the plan on destroying Dever.”

  “This is insane… Allister would never…”

  “So, that was Allister Woodrow, am I right?”

  “Do you know him?” Ami asked incredulous.

  “Not in person. But I have heard about him. And I know that he’s gathering an army to destroy Dever and kill one of Dominick’s sons, to pay his father for stealing his powers.”

  “What?”

  “You didn’t know Dominick paid Allister for hurting you, did you?”

  “It’s the first time I have heard about it.”

  “Allister knows that you belong to the Waroi clan. He knows about your ability to predict the future. As well as he knows that you are the only person from the clan who has ever seen him, but you can’t foresee anyone’s actions anymore. And the clan can’t foresee the decisions that have been made in the daylight and by the strangers. This is how your father missed the news about the wedding attack. For different reasons, neither he nor you were able to predict it.”

  “Because Allister gave the order after we were awake, and even though he and I met, he knew I was powerless to know about his plans.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And you think he knows about Tai?”

  “I can’t be one hundred percent sure about that, but Tai once told me that he had heard voices in his head. And they were talking about him.”

  Amitola gasped. “Oh, my God…”

  “What is it?”

  “The voices…”

  “What about them?”

  “Tai can hear the voices… Just like his grandmother could.”

  “You mean Eileen, Elu’s mother?”

  “I need to talk to my father. Come.” She rushed to her parents’ hut, saying something to herself. But I didn’t get a word of it.

  When we came to Songaa’s hut, he was more than surprised to see us, me in particular.

  “Ami? Eileen? What happened? Is everything all right with Tai?”

  Elu came from one of the rooms. “I heard someone talking… Eileen? We didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

  “Tai can hear the voices,” Amitola said, ignoring her mother’s words.

  Her parents shared a terrified look.

  “Can someone tell me what all those voices mean? What is so wrong about hearing them?”

  Elu sat on a couch; I could see her hands shaking. “Voices mean death,” she said quietly. “If someone starts to hear them, it means the person is about to die. The voices tell us about the death coming to take away lives.”

  I was taken aback by her words. “Are you sure about the meaning of the voices in Tai’s head?” I asked, frantically thinking about the way to protect the boy. He didn’t deserve to die. He couldn’t die because of some stupid voices!

  Elu spoke, “My mother could hear them too. As well as her mother and her grandmother did.”

  “So, they all knew how they would die?”

  Elu nodded. “My great grandmother died in a fire that was caused by the lightning hit. My grandmother drowned in a river when her boat hit the rocks that were hidden beneath the water surface. And my mother…she was shot by the human hunter, who left her to bleed to death in the forest.”

  “Oh, my goodness…” My knees shook, I sat in the nearest chair, feeling the sudden lack of air in my lungs. “How did you know he left her to die?”

  Songaa spoke, “When one of the clan members dies, one of us sees a dream about the last minutes of their life. Elu dreamed about her mother’s death. This is how we knew where to find her body.”

  Elu’s shoulders shook. Sobbing, she said, “I told her not to go to the forest alone. Human hunters often come here to hunt. But she wouldn’t listen to me. She loved walking in the forest. She left at the break of dawn and when I woke up, I knew she was gone.”

  “I’m so sorry, Elu. It’s terrible.”

  I couldn’t even begin to think about losing one of my parents, not to mention dreaming about their death and knowing that I wouldn’t be there in time to save them.

  “When did Tai tell you about the voices?” Songaa asked his daughter.

  “He told Eileen, not me.”

  Everyone’s eyes focused on me. “It was a few days ago. He met me on my way here and asked if it was okay to hear the voices. But I didn’t know what to say, so I thought I would ask someone about it first.”

  “What do we do now?” Amitola asked, looking at her father. She was scared. Anyone would be.

  “Like I said, I think I know who’s after Tai,” I said.

  Songaa and Elu stared at me, as if I was going to tell them that it was me who was going to kill their grandson.

  “I think it’s Allister Woodrow.” Then, I told him about Tara’s visions and my own guesses about Clarions’ plan on using Tai to blackmail the Waroi clan. They knew Dever was not in Britain anymore. As well as they knew that Patrick and Frederick might want to ask for Waroi’s help to protect Dever, because Clarions believed they were the only hermits that didn’t want to join in the war against us.

  “So, you think they are going to kidnap him?” Amitola asked.

  “I don’t know. But I think it’s better to tell Tai not to leave the pueblo alone, or better – you should allow him to come to Dever with me.”

  “Never.” Ami said. “Not now that we know that someone wants to kill my boy!”

  “Why don’t we ask Tai about the voices he has heard first? What if those were not the signs of his upcoming death?”

  Songaa thought for a moment, before he said, “I think Eileen’s right. Clarions obviously need Tai to be alive; they might not want to kill him.”

  “Why can’t we foresee anything about what they are going to do?” Amitola said, frustrated.

  “You are the only person from the clan who met Allister,” Songaa responded. “Only you can try to foresee his actions.”

  Ami laughed sarcastically. “If only I had enough powers to do that.”

  She sat next to her mother and hid her face in her palms. “I’m nothing,”
she muttered to herself. “I can’t do anything to protect my own son.”

  An idea came to my head. “Actually, I think there is a way to help you,” I said.

  Everyone looked at me again.

  “I think it’s the right time to start wearing Dominick’s present.”

  Songaa shared a look with Elu.

  “Or is there something that I don’t know about it?”

  “What is it, Dad?” Amitola asked. Obviously, I was not the only person in the room who didn’t know the whole truth about the emerald amulet.

  “It is not just a source of Dominick’s magic,” Songaa said. “It’s a tracker.”

  Ami stared at him, puzzled. “A what?”

  “I guess Dominick gave it to you to find you, if necessary,” I said. “But since you never wore it after you left his house, he couldn’t feel you. He didn’t know where you went after you left his house.”

  “Is that true, Father? Is that why you said it was better that I didn’t put it on?”

  Slowly, Songaa nodded. “Leno was the one who felt tracking abilities of the amulet. He had always been good at it. He could track humans walking near our pueblo, and animals that we needed to feed the tribe. So, when you said you didn’t want to wear the amulet, he said he would be wearing it. He learned how to use Dominick’s spells against him, giving him the wrong directions. That’s why he never found you.”

  “But Leno doesn’t have magic to block someone else’s spells,” I said.

  “No, but I do,” Songaa said. “And though I don’t use my power of magic very often, I couldn’t let Dominick hurt my daughter or my grandson. Because I was sure he would never let Ami keep the baby. Not only because it was illegitimate, but also because…”

  “He could inherit powers that would not let Evan become the Master of Lords,” I finished the sentence for him. “And that was Dominick’s biggest dream ever.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But now, that Dominick is dead, there’s no risk in wearing the amulet,” I said. “Put it on, Amitola, and I will practice with you. I will show you a few protective spells, and I’m sure that as soon as you start practicing again, your magic will be back. As well as your ability to foresee the future.”

  She hesitated.

  “I think we should give it a try,” Elu said, rubbing her back. “At least we will know what Clarions want from Tai.”

  “Okay,” Ami nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  “Then I will come back tomorrow morning and we will start the training, okay?”

  “Fine.” She rose to her feet and headed for the door. “I need to talk to Leno. See you all tomorrow.”

  “Good night, Ami,” her father said.

  “Eileen, why don’t you stay here for the night?” Elu asked. “It’s late. It can be dangerous to walk back to Dever in the night.”

  “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

  “You never told us why you came here tonight,” Songaa said.

  “Right.” With everything that happened to Tai and Amitola, I completely forgot about the reason for my late visit to the pueblo. “I wanted to ask you something,” I said to Songaa.

  “Shall I leave you two alone?” Elu asked.

  “Yes, please,” her husband said.

  She left the room and Songaa took a seat facing me. “So, what did you want to ask about, Eileen?”

  “Is it true that your clan has a special bond, a hereditary bond that doesn’t need magic to be created?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “I read about it in one of the books.”

  There was a long pause, then he said, “Hereditary bonds are stronger than magical ones. They are being created within your blood. It’s something like what children and their parents share. But the bond that we - the members of our clan - share is unique. It gives us powers that no one else has. Like dreaming about the death of one of the clan members. But we are not the only people who have this kind of a bond. Keepers have it too.”

  “Keepers?”

  “I mean the Keepers of seven gifts.”

  “I don’t understand… How are they different from the Keepers who protect our world from being disclosed?”

  “They are like a family, a circle of people who have certain duties. They can’t hurt each other, even if they try to kill one another with a death spell, they will fail. Their mission is to guard the origins of the gifts that we possess. If one of them dies without leaving an heir, their gift will die with them.”

  “Wow…that’s news to me. Have you ever met any of those Keepers?”

  Songaa smiled. “You are talking to one of them.”

  “Really? What gift do you guard? Wait, the gift of interpreting prophetic dreams, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Do you know who’s in charge of protecting the gift of magic?”

  Songaa didn’t respond.

  I watched him cautiously, until the realization hit me. “Oh, dear Lord… It’s Evan, isn’t it? Does he know?”

  “Not yet. His father was supposed to tell him about it, but he didn’t. And we – the other Keepers – always know who comes to replace the previous Keeper. So, when Evan’s father died, we knew he would be the next Keeper of magic.”

  “Why did no one tell him about that?”

  “Because the other Keepers thought it would be better to keep it that way. See, magic has always been the strongest of gifts. We thought it would be better to keep the new Keeper’s name a secret.”

  “So that no one – like those damn Clarions – tried to kill him, right?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But Evan could die so many times, and you not even once tried to save him. Why? Did you want magic to be gone?”

  “You are wrong, Eileen. Evan has always had a very good protection…” Songaa paused, obviously knowing that I would be able to put two and two together and guess what kind of protection he was talking about.

  “The bond… The bond that united me, Evan, Christian and Amanda. Evan’s protection was one of the reasons to create it, right? Because if one of us is hurt, he can be saved by one of the others.”

  “Yes.”

  “What about the other gifts and their Keepers? Where are they? Do I know anyone of them?”

  “I guess you do, since you are dating his son.”

  “Patrick Fairey? Unbelievable… But wait, does that mean that Christian or Amanda will take his place as the next Keeper?”

  “It will be the boy. Girls only inherit the duty of guarding the gift if there’s no boy in the family. But in my family, there’s only one heir, and it’s Ami.”

  Now I knew why Christian never minded me going to the pueblo. He should have known about the ‘secret’ Keepers. He knew that Songaa would never let anyone from the tribe hurt me, because he was one of them. And I was not just a girlfriend of the next Keeper, I was also a part of the bond that had been created to protect not only me, but also Evan and Christian – who would inherit another very important gift to guard – the duty of keeping our world a secret from human beings.

  “Why didn’t anyone tell me about it?” It was a rhetorical question, but Songaa still answered it.

  “Probably because your bond with Evan is very strong. It’s hard to keep something from him, especially considering how good he is in seeing lies. And since the other Keepers believe that it’s too early for him to know about his mission, telling you would only complicate things for everyone.”

  “Then why are you telling me this now?”

  “Because you came here and asked me about the hereditary bonds. Did it look like I have a choice to not tell you anything? Personally, I never supported the idea of keeping the truth from Evan. He needs to know how important the mission, as well as his life is. That’s why when you asked your question, I decided to be honest with you. But I shall ask you for a favor, Eileen…”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Evan what you have told me tonight.”

  “Thank you f
or understanding. I don’t want the other Keepers to think that I have betrayed their trust. I only want everyone to be safe and sound. And now that I know that you know about Evan and the other meaning of the bond that you share, I’m sure the gift of magic is in no danger.”

  Unless Clarions find a way to attack Evan when none of us is there to save him…

  That was the thought that I kept to myself. But something was telling me that Songaa knew how important it was to keep Evan as far away from Clarions as possible. At least until we were sure that nothing threatened him. And that was another reason for his desire to send Evan out of Dever...

  “Do you mind if I talk to Tai about the voices he can hear in his head?” I asked. “Not right now, of course. Tomorrow, maybe.”

  Songaa gave me a curious look. “Do you know something that I don’t?”

  “I was thinking… Elu said that her mother, Eileen, could hear the songs of the wind, and so do I. She also said that her mother could hear the voices telling about the upcoming death, correct?”

  “Correct.”

  “So, I thought, maybe I could use my ability to hear the wind to hear what those voices from Tai’s head are saying. In case we don’t have enough time to restore Ami’s ability to foresee the future.”

  “How exactly are you going to do this? You and Tai are not even related by blood.”

  “But there’s another bond that can help me get into his head.”

  “Is that why you wanted to take Dominick’s amulet with you?”

  I nodded. “I could try charming it, in Evan’s presence, and see if I could create a new bond, based on the one he and I share, and bind my mind with Tai’s. And then, when I come here again and you sing your songs, I will try to listen to Tai’s thoughts through the wind.”

  “Well, that sounds a little complicated, but…”

  “It is worth a try. Because something is telling me that we are running out of time, and that we don’t have days or weeks to wait for Ami to restore her powers. We need to have plan ‘B’, in case plan ‘A’ fails.”

  “All right. I will bring you the amulet.”

  Chapter 18

  As promised, I returned to Dever around midnight. First of all, I wanted to check on Evan. I was worried about him, or to be exact – about his mental state. I knew that whatever I could feel during our conversation today was just a small part of what he was actually feeling. Tara’s death shattered him more than he, or I, or anyone else could have ever imagined. I missed her too, but what she and Evan shared was very special.