Secret of Words

by Allyson Huber

  Then, Lucia turned upon her guard. “You are pathetic,” Lucia snapped. “You let a sixteen-year-old girl bully you into disobeying me? Do you know who I am? I am the leader of the Larta, the organization that has been giving the Ones of Within hell for thirty years. I can do a lot worse to you than they would.” Her eyes turned cold as she took the sword out of the soldier’s hilt before him and decapitated him with one swoop. His head rolled on the floor, and the helmet fell off, showing the soldier’s horrified expression. Mara stared at the head in shock, with dismay etched across her features. Mara knew it was her fault, Lucia could tell in the girl’s eyes. Maybe, this would be a lesson not to antagonize her further and to obey her orders. If she couldn’t get her daughter to love her, maybe they would have to start the fear route.

  “It looks like you are going to need another bodyguard, Mara. This time, he won’t be nearly so yielding.”

  “Why should I care?” Mara said, meeting Lucia's gray eyes in hatred. “You have taken everything from me.”

  Lucia’s eyebrow rose as she pointed at the head. “This is what happens to people who disobey me, Mara. Do you want to end up like this soldier? Beheaded, socially dishonored. Forgotten.”

  “You said that death was the only way to freedom I had left, but you won’t kill me. I care little for my reputation anyways. No one knows or cares where I am anymore.”

  “Let me make this clear to you,” Lucia snarled, “You can either do things my way or the hard way. So far, I’ve been accommodating enough. I give you anything you ask for, books on Jakost, fine jewelry, a set of armor, everything. I let you walk around these halls freely and speak to anyone you meet here. If you think you’re being imprisoned now, I can show you what real imprisonment is like if I have to.”

  “Fine then,” Mara said coldly.

  Lucia turned away from her and walked over to her general, who was trying to remain calm, but she could tell he was trembling in his boots. She knew Cadvair was a coward, but he was a useful one. He would have to suffice until a more competent alternative was found. At least he managed to understand her superiority; a concept Mara still couldn’t seem to grasp.

  “I will talk to Yolen in a moment. I need you to work on getting rid of this Coalition with Gruid. Make it violent, brutal public. Destroy this Conspirator in front of everyone as an example of what happens to those who interfere with my reign. Then, they shall think again to meddle with me. I want every last one of them hanged publicly. That sounds like an easy job for the likes of you.” Lucia tapped Cadvair’s cheek intimately before stalking out of the room and slamming the door. Everyone would soon know there were no bounds to how far she would go to maintain her power and to destroy the Ones of Within.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next week disappeared before my eyes, with each day spent training with my instructors and every day ending in a sore body and tired mind. Every moment that I wasn’t training, eating or sleeping was spent with my new group members. By the end of the week, I had practically memorized all of our group’s schedules.

  Over the past few days, I could already feel my strength improving and my sword fighting shaping up, much to my excitement. I had become accustomed to the ache in my legs and arms after a day of work, and I was in better shape than I had been in my entire life. I started to understand more about the Ones of Within and learned more about the strengths of a Vatra’s and their weaknesses. A Vatra was much easier to use than magic since Jakost needed to be recited to produce magic and in the correct conjugation and form. Vatra’s took time to become powerful and to be fully controlled. While I was itching to get my Vatra, I knew it would take at least a month or two to appear.

  During training with the group, I carefully watched my friends, learning their strengths and weaknesses. I still hadn’t successfully hit a target in archery or preformed a single flame of magic, but I just focused on trying as hard as possible still and getting tips from the more experienced members of our group. I found out that I had a lot of talent in sword fighting and enjoyed it even. In a week’s time, I started to become more confident, and it became normal to be surrounded with friends. It was a nice change as compared to my life on Earth.

  Patrick and Lyte ended up being pretty fun to hang out with for the most part. Patrick tended to be a natural leader, giving us instructions and showing us the ropes. It was clear he was actively working on his patience, but he had a way of cracking jokes and laughing that made all of us smile. He became as close to me as any of the other group members where. Patrick was easy to like. Lyte, however, tended to be harder to get to know due to her quiet and mysterious demeanor. Her answers to questions were full of riddle and strange meanings, and I often had a hard time understanding exactly where she was going with them. Despite that, she proved to be excel at everything we went over as a group, a feat that none of us could compete with.

  Both of them were much stronger than any of us, and it showed. It bugged me how weak I was in comparison to some of the other members of our group, but I knew I needed to be patient. I was jealous of their extensive knowledge and wished I had been in one of their footsteps. Why couldn’t I have been sent to Aughmortor earlier? Still, I often got a deep nostalgia for Earth and thought about my father everyday. I wished I could see him and know how he was doing.

  In the week after our group’s formation, I learned both of their Vatras. Lyte’s Vatra was healing. She showed us the Vatra when Kat fell on a rock during group training, and her knee started bleeding. In seconds, the wound disappeared after the simplest touch of Lyte’s hand. Even though healing was a common Vatra, it was very useful in many cases. The main weakness was that Lyte had to be able to physically touch the person to heal them.

  Patrick’s Vatra was more unique. He could transform into a huge fox with slavering jaws. When Patrick was in his fox form, he could understand us, but he couldn’t talk back. To talk, he would have to transform back into human form. He could understand foxes and communicate with them. I thought that it would be awesome to have a Vatra like Patrick’s and wondered if I would get to transform into a cat or something.

  It wasn’t too hard to figure out Emilie, Adam, Kat, and Austin’s strengths and weaknesses. Emilie was very good at archery, good at magic, but not as good at swordplay. Adam was a great swordsman, and he also was good at magic, but he wasn’t very talented in archery. Kat had grown in magic easily, and archery, but she was not very strong at sword fighting. Austin still hadn’t produced magic, like me, but he seemed to be a pretty average sword fighter and archer. Dominic was harder get, though because he tended to be quieter than he was when I first met him.Sometimes, I did manage to get Dominic out of his shell and talk to me, but not always. There was something about him that kept me trying, something intriguing about him. I knew that I was developing a crush on him and falling quickly, but I would never act upon it. It just wasn’t my style. I never focused on dating or love interests or anything like that. Besides, he also was just too hard to read, and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and cause problems within our group. Dominic was good at everything, which left me feeling a mix of envy and awe. It was sort of frustrating to see him succeed at things while I continued to fail, but it motivated me all the same.

  It was late in the day after a long set of training sessions. I felt more exhausted than normal; today, we attempted agility in armor, and my muscles ached from the exertion. Everyone would meet up soon to check out the prophecy, which my friends had promised to show me this evening.My room was glowing in the light of the torch. The workers came into everyone’s room in the afternoons to light the torches and clean them up.

  I stared at myself in the mirror for a few seconds, preparing to meet the others. My dark golden hair shined in the soft light while my bright blue eyes looked darker than normal. The pale tan on my face did not hide the light circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. Recently, my dreams were filled with old memories of Earth, despite how hard I tried to push them away. I thought
the strenuous training would help me sleep, but my mind has always refused to shut off. I wiped off a speck of dirt on my left cheek that I received from agility and took a brush through my windblown hair. Finally, when I felt I would suffice, I walked out of my room where Kat and Emilie were already waiting for me.

  “What took you so long?” Emilie didn’t wait for my answer and instead started heading towards the door down the hall.

  “I wonder when we will go on a patrol,” Kat said. “I mean we saw that the group with the eleven-year-old got to go today. How is that fair?”

  The anger that took over her face was unexpected and a little too strong for her normal demeanor. I gave her a strange glance, wondering what was up with her. While it sucked, we hadn’t been chosen for a patrol, her frustration seemed a little extreme.

  “We’ve only been here for a week,” I reminded her. “The eleven-year-old might have been here longer. Who knows?”

  Kat’s dark hair fell in her face. “I guess you’re right, but I hope we get to go on one soon. I’m dying to explore the places outside of Aughmortor.”

  “Patrols aren’t the only way to get out of Sybra. We can go out there if we let James know, and as long as we get back to Sybra before Stellah closes the doors at night.”

  I walked over to the other Zeleti members, standing next to Dominic. “Did you hear that? It would be fun to take some time out of Sybra. They probably would let us skip a day or so of training.”

  Patrick overheard my words. “You might want to wait a while for that. James might be hesitant to let Ones of Within members out with the Subdina Volcano calming down and all. I would like to, though.”

  “You’re probably right.” I sighed.

  “Of course, I am!” Patrick laughed, winking at me.

  I smiled back before turning to Austin. “You’ve seen the prophecy, right?” I was relieved that I would finally get to see it.

  “No, it will be new for me, too,” Austin replied.

  “The prophecy includes a few people in it. It also says that a war is coming and a few other things.” Patrick shrugged. “To be honest, I have never been one for riddles. The prophecies are hard to understand and easy to misconstrue anyways.” He was very different from Lyte, who seemed to be brimming full of them.

  Lyte overheard our conversation and walked over, dipping her head ever so slightly. “Perhaps it is not that it is hard,” Lyte said quietly, “But it’s the way that people want to comprehend it that is hard.”

  “So, we’re headed to the prophecy room. About time, right?” Dominic said to me, close beside me. I met his golden eyes, finding myself fixated on them like I always did when talking at him.

  “I’ve been waiting to go since we talked about it,” I replied, forcing myself to look away before I held his gaze too long.

  “Well, don’t take everything I said then seriously. Sometimes, I say things I don’t mean.”

  “Was there a part of our discussion you didn’t mean?” I asked, abruptly confused.

  “No, I guess I’m referring to our group discussion at the restaurant.”

  “Why? Every word you said was honest, brutally honest, but still honest,” I objected, thinking back to the group argument at the restaurant. It seemed so long ago even though it only had been a week ago.

  “I think I offended Emilie,” Dominic said, ruefully glancing over at Emilie, who was talking to Adam as usual.

  “She’ll get over it,” I replied. “Besides, she knows you hadn’t been here for a long time. Adam even admitted the Ones of Within did more talking than action, and he’s lived here a long time too. I think she’s just troubled about stuff that Shay probably told her.”

  “Your sword fighting is improving,” Dominic said lamely, trying to change the subject and keep it light.

  “Yeah,” I replied grimly. “My archery and magic need some serious work, though.”

  Patrick butted into our conversation. “Only your magic and archery. Your sword fighting is much better than mine was after a week of training. It is amazing how far all four of you have gotten in only a week.” Patrick’s words were full of earnest, but it rubbed the wrong way. We had improved, but I hated this feeling of dread when looking at Dominic and more experienced Ones of Within members. I wanted to prove myself more than anything, and I felt somehow I was failing.

  “It isn’t enough!” I disagreed, shaking my head. “I need to become stronger.” I was scared of the moment I was in battle and flopped all of my training. Being apart of the Ones of Within was no joke, and while everyone seemed calm about it, I wasn’t. Even though my hands were in my pockets, they clenched at my words. Patrick raised his hands above his shoulders, shrugging.

  “Of course you have to get better, and you will. Since it’s only halfway into November, we have plenty of time. You don’t need to be worried.” I think he was a bit shocked by my reaction, but I saw that Dominic wasn’t in the slightest. He was watching me, and I felt the butterflies in my stomach fluttering again. I really needed to stop thinking about Dominic. Still, I couldn’t help relishing the excitement I felt around him.

  “Let’s go!” Emilie walked through the door that has prophecies written on the top of it. Anticipation made my hands clench and unclench a few times. I had been waiting to read the prophecy for what seemed like forever. I entered the room after Emilie, feeling my heart soar as I looked inside. The torches in the prophecy room held vibrant blue fire, making the whole room glow in shades of blues. The ground was shadowed, the weak blue light unable to penetrate through it. The prophecy room was large, with stone tables held on the walls by invisible, magical forces. There was a desk in the center of the room that had some writing materials on it, but nothing else, making it a useless addition to the room.

  Emilie turned to me, knowingly. “Natalie, come here.” She could somehow tell how important this moment was to me. She took me through a long line of gray stone tablets with deep engravings in them and brought me to the largest stone tablet in the whole room.

  “Here it is,” Emilie whispered. She walked away to let me examine the prophecy in privacy, much to my relief. I wanted to be able to look at the prophecy and try to understand it myself. At the top of the long stone, tablet was “Secret of Words” in big, elegant lettering. My fingers traced the words in the sky, shivering. The room felt eerie, yet entrancing and I found myself drawn to the letters on the stone tablet, soaking in the words.

  #

  Trace the fallen petals of this day

  Touch the maker of its ray

  Gather our strength by a single touch

  Our inner spirits cannot hurt so much

  Among our heart, a traitor dies

  Treat them with the bloody skies

  Cannot see through this crime

  Parallel to our changing time

  That sits and waits to sing

  New dawn and more it will bring

  To cross among the face of battle

  And the dog inside will rattle

  The betrayal is close to the core

  While the savior burns, evermore

  The mind will evolve upon the face

  Fire will burn and shred its lace

  Look for words of the wise

  Before our dark troubles arise

  Only can everything be swept away

  If the glass in the mirror can convey

  The new task fallen upon our hands

  A warrior must travel upon these lands

  Towards certain death, it would seem

  To learn of a new cause to redeem

  Star, let the hate reign you mind

  Don’t think you will be treated kind

  As you fight for control to last

  Watch the shadow of the past

  Turn our lips into lies

  And let speech become strangled cries

  Because there are no second words

  The only sound will be the clash of swords

  Embrace the demise of your inner warr />
  The blood that spills will learn to soar

  The sight of pools will be many goodbyes

  Becoming scars to all of our naked eyes

  Every drop of blood the skies will rain

  And weather the land to show its pain

  But on this newly weathered land

  A new warrior will take its first stand

  At the shrivel of a bloodless heart

  Only they can bring this new start

  So let the new sun start to crest

  Now, perhaps, this land will learn rest

  I hadn’t realized Lyte joined me until she spoke next to me. “It foretells death and great pain that one person is supposed to wipe away with a finger. Is it possible?” Lyte gently rubbed her forefinger on the tablet over the words, my own fears reflected in her calm brown eyes.

  “No one will know until it happens. We’ll have to wait and see.” I was trying to grasp the concept that the prophecy was trying to tell us. It foretold great battling and war. The part involving the traitor disturbed me, but it was nothing I didn’t know. There had to be a traitor, at least one. After all, the Shadow Bringer hadn’t broken out on his own- he had help.

  “Lyte, I have a question. Who wrote these prophecies?”

  “No one has told you?” Lyte gave me a surprised glance when I shook my head. “It is a long story so that I will give you a shortened version. The first leader of the Ones of Within went by the name Kurtuam. He was a very powerful man, and he created Sybra and the Ones of Within! He figured out that the presence of Vatra was inside all of us and he made the ancient language Jakost with merely the help of a few others. They are frequently known as the Creators of Past and Present. Names are very important here. You will learn that in time. Kurtuam’s Vatra made him the prophet, the Creator. He received dreams about the future through poetry rather than imagery. He wrote all of his prophecies down, and these stone tablets are copies of his original work.” Lyte finished the story and folded her hands together. The purple and silver crescent tattoo on her right hand flashed in the blue glow of the room.