Birthright: The Crystal Throne - Book 1

by Kim Fedyk

  Now though, she was certain.

  Neve’s brother had told her that a person named Aedan was the rightful heir to the throne. And this morning she had seen this person and heard Absalom call him “Aedan Amara.” But that was nothing compared with what Zeeshan had told her and what she herself had witnessed in this room. There was no way that a man whose personal sorcerer was the Dread Mage who had massacred everyone in the orphanage was a good person.

  And now, both Absalom and the Dread Mage were looking for her. And they wanted to enchant her.

  Arleth didn’t know what “enchanting” was, but she didn’t have to, to be terrified. Just the way they had talked about having to find her brought chills to her spine.

  “All you had to do was keep an eye on her, and then collect her for me this morning.” Collect her, like she was a personal possession with no free will of her own.

  But why were they looking for her? She was just one of Absalom’s many servants. Why would they invest so much effort into finding her? Why was she so important to them? And even more puzzling, she had been in Absalom’s private chamber yesterday. Rogan had her in his thrall, he could have done anything to her at that moment; he could have “enchanted” her. She wouldn’t have had any idea. But they obviously hadn’t done this yesterday and they had made no effort to stop her from leaving. What had changed?

  She didn’t even begin to have an answer to any of these questions.

  But she had no intention of waiting around to find out. She had seen firsthand what happened to people when that Dread Mage was hunting for them. The death and destruction that followed in the creature’s wake. She only had one choice.

  She had to escape from the castle.

  But how?

  Absalom and Rogan were probably the two most powerful men in the universe. She had to somehow elude them, in their own castle, a castle that was probably covered in magical protections designed to prevent exactly what she was trying to do right now. On top of that, the castle and the grounds were crawling with Grekens. Even, by a miracle, if she somehow managed to get outside of the castle walls, there was still a huge open valley that she had to cross until she got to the mountains.

  And what then? She might be relatively safer from Absalom and Rogan there but she couldn’t stay their indefinitely. What would she eat?

  Or what would eat her. She realized she had virtually no idea what creatures were in this world, what plants were safe to eat, how far away or in which direction any other towns were, and even if any such towns she might come across would be friendly towards her.

  She sat down dejectedly on the floor. Tears began flowing freely down her face and she wiped at them with trembling fingers.

  What was she going to do?

  There was a rattling as Zeeshan attempted to move closer to her in a gesture of comfort. But his restraints barred his movements.

  “Don’t cry Arleth,” Zeeshan said as soothingly as possible. “You can still escape. Hide here maybe until dark. They have already looked here I doubt they will do so again. Perhaps when it is dark you will have a better chance of escaping.”

  Zeeshan! In her terrified stupor, she had momentarily forgotten about him. As scared as she was, she felt ashamed that she had not thought about the Talywag. How could she have thought about her escape plan and not remembered he was trapped here as well?

  His suggestion made sense, but only if she alone escaped and she couldn’t just leave him here. He was still just a child. Not only that, but he was the only friend she had on Oherra. She also knew that he would die or at the very least lead a horrible life if he stayed here and she couldn’t do that to him.

  Somehow, as impossible as it seemed, they would have to find a way to escape together.

  That brought her back to the question that she was still no closer to answering: But how to escape?

  With a bolt of excitement, Arleth suddenly remembered something. This was Zeeshan’s home world! He would know what creatures to look out for and what they could eat to survive! He would know where to go after they reached the mountains. Perhaps she could even live in Occa with him and the rest of the Talywags.

  “Zeeshan! I will get us both out of here!”

  Hope momentarily flashed in the young Talywag’s face but was gone a moment later.

  “How can you do that Arleth? I am restrained to the wall by this thick band around my waist. Not only that, but I am huge now. It would be much easier for someone your size to sneak out alone than to have me with you.”

  “Don’t be silly Zeeshan. I am not going to leave you. Besides you had a good plan. If I can get you out of your restraints, we can both hide here until it gets dark and then find a way to sneak out. We can make for the safety of the mountains together. When it is dark there will be less chance of being seen when we cross the open valley. Perhaps someone might even mistake you for a Greken in the dark? And as for me, I should blend in with the rest of the servants. Once in the mountains I think we should be safer, at least from Absalom and Rogan. Then hopefully you will be able to lead us back to Occa.”

  Zeeshan thought about it for a while, “I would like to hope that I really can escape with you Arleth, but how will you get me out of this?” He looked down at the heavy metal band across his waist.

  “Maybe it can be broken somewhere,” Arleth offered, walking over to him.

  She put her hands out to touch the metal. As soon as her fingers touched its surface, she jerked them back reflexively. It was cold! But not a cold that Arleth had ever experienced before. Just from the brief contact, the skin on her fingers had turned red, as though she had been out in the cold for hours. She balled up her hands in fists to warm up her fingers and looked up at Zeeshan curiously. This band was against his bare skin! How was he not shivering from the cold? Even with all the fur on his body, she found it hard to believe that he wouldn’t feel the cold even a little bit. But he didn’t seem to notice in the slightest. Instead he was just staring at her, hoping that she would find a way to release him.

  Shaking her head in wonder, and bracing for the cold, Arleth put her hands back on the metal and felt along its length as fast as possible while looking for any gaps or hinges that might allow her to open or even break the band. When she reached the spot where the band connected to the wall on the left side of Zeeshan’s body, she felt a rough indent. She removed her frozen hands and when she warmed them up in her armpits, she looked closely at the spot she had felt. She had originally thought that the band attached directly to the wall. But she now realized that there was small ring that connected the wall to the metal band. The ring didn’t look as sturdy as the rest of the band. If she could somehow break that ring, that side of the band would break free from the wall and Zeeshan would be released.

  Excitedly, she explained what she had found to Zeehsan. “Maybe if you pull your body as hard as you can away from the wall and if I also pull on the band at the same time, it will come free?”

  The Talywag was doubtful, but he wasn’t about to argue.

  “Ok, on the count of 3. 1....2.....3....” Arleth and Zeeshan both pulled as hard as they could, the Talywag grunting with the effort and Arleth clenching her teeth and putting her foot against the wall for leverage.

  After 10 seconds, both of them were exhausted from the effort. Arleth collapsed on the ground and let out a deep breath. Zeeshan slouched back against the wall breathing heavily.

  The band hadn’t budged.

  They rested for a minute or so until they had regained their breath and then they tried again. This time though, their energy had been reduced and so they pulled less strongly and gave up quicker.

  The ring attached to the band still remained firmly embedded in the wall.

  They both slumped against the wall in disappointed silence. The best plan Arleth had thought of, had failed horribly. She had no intention of giving up, but her desperate brain wasn’t helping her to find a new strategy.

  “Hey Arleth,” Zeeshan said suddenly. A pla
n had begun to form in his mind, it was a long shot but it was worth a try and they had no other plans. “Do you think that if you had a knife you could chip away enough of the wall around the ring that it would weaken enough that we could pull it out?”

  Arleth thought about it for a moment, “Ya!” She said sitting up straighter against the wall. “It would probably take a number of hours. But we can’t really sneak out of the castle safely until it is dark anyways. So I will try it!”

  Although neither of them would admit it to the other one, both Arleth and the Talywag realized their plan probably wouldn’t work. It was doubtful that Arleth could break away enough of the wall in weeks let alone a couple of hours to get the ring free. But they had thought of no other options and it was certainly better than just sitting there doing nothing.

  What would happen if nightfall came and Zeeshan was still trapped? Would she just leave him there? Arleth couldn’t bear to contemplate that thought. So she pushed it to the back of her mind and put on a brave face for the sake of the young Talywag.

  “I will sneak back up to the kitchen and get a couple of knives. It shouldn’t take me too long.” She smiled at him as reassuringly as she could.

  Zeeshan smiled back. “Be careful!”

  Arleth nodded, took one last look at the Talywag and hurried out of the room.

  Zeeshan watched her go, wondering how he would be able to convince her to leave him there when nightfall came and he was still trapped.

  Arleth poked her head of the room cautiously and looked in both directions down the hall. Seeing nothing, she tip-toed out the door and turning right, crept along the wall hiding herself in the shadows. For the third time today, she was glad that Neve’s brother had given her the concealing spell and that she had remembered to take it. She knew, as he had explained, that she wasn’t invisible and that if Rogan or Absalom spotted her she was done for. But she hoped that the shadows would hide her enough so that if she did pass them, they wouldn’t see her. She continued down the hall walking as softly as she could.

  All of a sudden she heard two sets of footsteps almost directly behind her.

  Arleth froze, her left foot extended in mid-step. As soundlessly as she could, she pivoted her body and pressed her back against the wall, wishing that she could melt into the bricks and disappear.

  The footsteps continued, getting a bit louder it sounded like the owners were only a few feet away. Cautiously, so as not to make any large movements that would give her away, Arleth moved her eyes left to see who it was. She had expected to see Absalom and Rogan just metres from her. But instead the hall was deserted. Surprised, Arleth turned her whole head to look at the hall behind her, but still she didn’t see anyone.

  Had she just imagined that she had heard footsteps? She supposed it was possible that her imagination and fear were playing tricks on her. Arleth smiled in the darkness, how foolish she was. She started to turn back around and continue down the hall when she heard the footsteps again. They were unmistakable this time.

  But why couldn’t she see anyone?

  Arleth heard a man’s whispered voice right beside her. It was so close that she could feel the breath on her neck.

  It was because whoever they were, they were creeping in the shadows like her.

  And they were practically on top of her.

  Her realization came too late. Before she had time to move even an inch, a heavy form bumped into her. She heard a man’s voice utter a curse, and then both of them went tumbling to the ground. Arleth, with the man’s weight pushing down on her, fell hard against the floor and rolled into the centre of the hall. The man in mid-fall had pushed himself off of her and had consequently fallen not on top of Arleth, but a bit off to the side. She had a second to see the man as he came into the light of the hall before a second body crashed on top of him. The man let out a deep grunt as the second form landed on him. And then almost quicker than Arleth would have thought possible had she not seen it with her own eyes, the second person flipped off the first man and spun around crouching in a defensive position right in front of Arleth.

  Arleth, still lying where she had fallen, looked up at the figure and saw that she was looking into the face of a beautiful blonde woman. She could tell by the woman’s clothes that she was not a servant; she was wearing light coloured pants, high boots, and a long cloak. But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t dangerous. Arleth raised up her arms to shield herself from the mysterious woman. But before she had raised them fully, she looked at the woman’s face, and then slowly, unsure if she was doing the right thing lowered them back down again. The woman was smiling at her.

  The woman hadn’t said anything to her, but looking into her calm face, Arleth felt soothed. She didn’t think this woman was a threat. Arleth sat up and crossed her legs in front of her, facing the woman. The woman opened her mouth to say something but at that instant the man who had fallen into Arleth reached out his hand to her. The woman turned, grabbed it and pulled the man up to sit beside her.

  The man was looking at the woman and as of yet still hadn’t looked at Arleth. The woman smiled at the man, and nodded her head in Arleth’s direction. The man followed her gaze and for the first time saw Arleth. He looked at her for a few seconds, blinked, and then stared at her in disbelief. He continued staring at her, as if taking in each feature and then a broad smile appeared on his face.

  He turned to the blonde woman again, “Talk about great luck.”

  “I know! This was supposed to be the hardest part of the plan.”

  Both of them turned back to face Arleth.

  “Is your name Arleth by any chance?” Said the man.

  “Yes,” responded Arleth absentmindedly, not really paying attention to what he was asking her. Her thoughts were busy elsewhere; she had just realized that she recognized this man! “I know who you are. I saw you earlier today, when Absalom captured you. He called you Aedan Amara. I was watching from.....” Arleth broke off in mid-sentence. She had just become conscious of what he had asked her.

  He had asked her if her name was Arleth. How would he know that?

  “Why.... How do you know my name?”

  Aedan looked at her for less than two seconds and then burst out “You are my younger sister Arleth.”

  Beside him Selene put the palm of her hand up to her forehead in amused disgust.

  Chapter 19

  “Really?” Selene said in disbelief, “Really? That is how you tell her?”

  “Well she already knew that I was Aedan Amara so I didn’t have to give her that whole background bit...... And well I was just excited.” Aedan smiled at her sheepishly

  Despite herself, Selene smiled back. Aedan Amara was the love of her life, and she respected him more than anyone else in the world. As a leader, he was brave, honourable, determined, and fair. One hundred percent devoted to the Oherran people. The fate of this whole world rested on his capable shoulders, where it had rested for most of his life. It was a heavy burden to carry, and she knew it took its toll on him, but as she looked at the expression on his face now, he seemed like an excited child with no cares in the world. She perhaps loved this quality most about him – despite everything and everyone that depended on him; despite all the hardships he had endured, he was still young at heart. Selene also knew how much he had wanted to find his sister and how happy he was to be able to see her in front of him right now. He had always regretted not knowing his sister, thinking, as they all had, that she had died all those years ago with their parents. Neither of them had imagined it would be this easy to find Arleth. But Selene was glad that she had been; she loved seeing the pure, overjoyed expression on Aedan’s face.

  But, she noticed, one person who did not seem to be as overjoyed as they were was Arleth. She looked shocked, shocked and a bit nauseous.

  “I am your si... you are my br... I am an Ama...” Arleth trailed off. The shock of everything she had witnessed today and now this proved too much for her to handle. Her head started to spin
and the corners of her vision blurred. She vaguely saw Aedan’s concerned face wavering dizzyingly in front of her and then all became dark.

  Arleth woke up a few minutes later. She had been moved to the side of the hall and was propped upright against the wall. Aedan and Selene were crouched in front of her. Selene was gently tapping Arleth’s cheek in an effort to bring her back to consciousness.

  “Ah,” Said Selene, when she saw that Arleth’s eyes had opened. “Welcome back.”

  “What...happened?” Said Arleth slowly, still disoriented.

  “You fainted.”

  “I fainted?...” Arleth knew that she was acting very stupid, but her mind wasn’t working the way it should. It seemed sluggish – she must be still struggling to return to normal consciousness.

  “Yes,” said Aedan, cutting in. “I am sorry Arleth, Selene is right, I shouldn’t have burst something like that on you so suddenly. It is no wonder that you reacted the way you did.”

  What is he talking about? Thought Arleth confused. What did he burst on me? Then all of a sudden it all rushed back to her.

  He had said that she was his sister. Arleth couldn’t believe it, she must have heard wrong.

  “But it is true Arleth,” continued Aedan, “You are my sister. You wouldn’t remember of course but both of us were born right here in this castle.” Aedan had a faraway look in his eye. “Mother was so happy when she found out she was having another baby and I was excited too. I was only ten when you were born, but I remember all the celebrations well.” Aedan’s expression all of a sudden turned dark and there was look of hatred in his eyes. “And then before you were even a couple of months old, there was the attack. I never saw you again... I assumed until recently that you had died.”