by Laura R Cole
*
Katya glanced up as Gareth’s familiar voice sounded at the window.
“Hungry?” he asked her and Katya’s stomach growled involuntarily in response. He chuckled, “I guess so, here.”
His hand extended through the bars, holding a half-loaf of bread. “You are a god, Gareth,” she told him in between bites.
“Hardly,” he disagreed. “I have some news for you.”
“Oh?” she asked curiously.
“We had two visitors today, two people from the Lost Lands.”
“And the Elders allowed them in?”
“What are you; daft? No, no, they met with them on the ground level, moving a few people down below to make it seem as though that’s where the real camp is, disguising the real number and location. They’re also saying that they are just up here collecting plants, that they are from Gelendan and this is just a temporary camp.”
“I see,” Katya finished chewing the bit of bread she was currently working on. “What do the strangers want?”
“They’re looking for a baby,” Gareth informed her, and she sucked in her breath. “A baby with a very distinctive marking on her right temple in the shape of a flame.”
“Oh no,” Katya said, “is it theirs?”
“Worse,” Gareth told her, “They claim that it’s the Princess of Gelendan in the Lost Lands, the heir to the throne.”
Katya choked, just as she was taking another bite. “What?”
“Yes, they say that the King and Queen were attacked and are currently in magical stasis, and that the baby suddenly disappeared the same day.”
“The baby that they’ve been experimenting on is Layna and Gryffon’s child?” Katya felt sick to her stomach. Could her curse be working long distance? Even though she had removed herself from their lives, had her friendship poisoned them?
“Layna and Gryffon?” Gareth repeated in surprise.
“Yes,” Katya started, and made the split-second decision to tell him everything. At this point he had proven that he wasn’t working for the Elders, “As you already guessed, I’m not from anywhere near here. My memory problems that you were helping me with are real, I don’t remember my life before age ten or so, but as far as I can remember I lived in Naoham, the capitol of Gelendan.”
Gareth seemed unfazed. “Go on.”
“It’s a long story, but I escaped from a life as a slave-”
“A slave?” Gareth interrupted her, his voice breaking. The concern in his tone both surprised and warmed her.
“Yes, there was a secret society called the Order which was experimenting on people they called ‘specimen’, people who bore the mark of the Dark King and therefore had special abilities to go along with it.” Gareth sucked in his breath. Katya didn’t know how much they knew or remembered up here so she elaborated, “The Dark King used the Bloodstone to make himself and his offspring more powerful and then put a mark into his bloodline so that those who bore it would be attracted to one another and breed an even more powerful offspring and so on and so forth.”
“They are experimenting on people in the Lost Lands? Perhaps the Elders are not so wrong in their feelings towards them,” he growled vehemently.
“Only the Order and a few unsavory individuals,” Katya assured him, “Plus the power of the Bloodstone has been seeping its evil out into the world, poisoning the people.”
Gareth paused in thought, and Katya waited patiently for him to form his question. “So are you saying that you have this mark?”
“Yes,” she confirmed, “You can’t see it because of the scar from removing my slave collar, but the Dark King’s blood runs in my veins.”
She could see Gareth shudder and she couldn’t tell if it was fear or anger. “Whatever you do,” he said forcibly, “do not tell the Elders you have the mark. With that on top of everything else…they will kill you.”
“Kill me? Why?”
“It is a symbol of everything they hate. They blame the Lost Lands for the deeds of the Dark King and want to eradicate the world of his bloodline. The original Forgotten ones, that’s what our ancestors called themselves when they escaped from the Dark King’s death camps and fled to start new lives in the chaos, tried to stop his bloodline then by killing his two sons and making it look like accidents, but they didn’t realize just how prolific he had been. He had illegitimate children everywhere.”
Katya remained silent, letting him continue, intrigued.
“For a while, they tried to find them all and rid the world of the Dark King’s taint, but there proved to be too many and too much interference from other organizations within the Lost Lands – possibly this Order you spoke of. They soon gave up trying to interfere with the Lost Lands’ marked, but any children born to the tribe that are tainted are immediately banished.” He sounded like the words left a bad taste in his mouth.
Katya took a moment to take all this in. “I will keep that in mind,” she said slowly.
“So you escaped these awful people,” he prompted.
“Yes, and I joined up with Layna and Gryffon to rid the world of the Bloodstone and Nuko, whose physical form was actually left here by the dragon gods in punishment.”
Gareth made an appreciative sound, but did not contradict her.
“His dragon form was entombed in the Fire Mountain until such time as the other dragons thought he had learned his lesson.”
“Lesson for what?”
“He apparently wanted to rule over us, whereas the rest of the dragons were content to help us along and then leave us to our own devices.”
“How do you know all this?” Gareth’s tone was curious, not disbelieving.
“We found the Kiani Stones, the essences of the Three, links to three of the dragons who helped to bring us to this world.”
“The Kiani Stones have been found?” he asked in astonishment. “We have been separated from the Lost Lands too long, the Elders should know of this!”
“What?” Katya could hear the hurt in her own voice.
“Of course I can’t tell them you told me,” he was saying even as she spoke. “Would you have an objection to my finding a way for it to come up in conversation with the strangers?”
Katya thought a moment, letting her heart slow to its normal pace after quickening at the thought of his betrayal. “No, I don’t see why not, would that change their minds?”
“It would help. How did you communicate with them?”
“They bonded with Layna and spoke to her in her head.”
“They actually actively participated in events? And they chose this Layna, who is the Queen of the Lost Land to commune with?”
“Well, she’s technically only Queen of part of the Lost Lands, Gelendan, but yes.”
“This could very well change a lot of people’s minds, and definitely make them think twice about having kidnapped her child. If only I knew exactly what their plan with it was…but please, go on.”
“So the three of us traveled to Fire Mountain where Nuko’s physical form was, and brought King Nathair,” Katya’s voice broke on his name, “because he had become the host of the Bloodstone. Both the physical form and the Bloodstone with his essence needed to be destroyed at the same moment to prevent him from gaining enough power to escape his prison. The Three had decided to intervene because it was their mistake which had allowed Nuko to interact with our world and spread his evil taint. Nuko secretly stored his essence in the Bloodstone, making it possible for him to make a deal with Nathair that if he reunited his essence with his body, they would share the powers that he would regain by doing so. Of course, this was a lie, and Nathair actually ended up sacrificing himself to give us a better chance at defeating Nuko. During the battle that ensued, the Bloodstone ended up being reunited with the dragon and Layna used the legendary sword, Leoht, to pierce the stone heart. I had to take it to use in order to transport the three of us out of the cavern before the volcano blew.”
“I did, but his presence was gone at that point and I think I used most of the magic within it up. There are some remnants still, and I used it a little more in the chaos to help stabilize the magic, but I don’t think that I was being tainted. It makes me feel closer to Nathair…”
Gareth gave her a puzzled look and she instantly regretted the comment. “The collar made me feel things strongly and combined with the draw to others with the mark that is in my blood, I could not help my feelings towards him. I know he was a bad person, but in the end he did help save the world. I am not perfect either. The Bloodstone corrupted him.”
Gareth didn’t comment.
“Layna and Gryffon are good people. They don’t deserve to have their child stolen, or to be attacked. We have to do something to help them.”
“What can we do?”
“Do you have access to the strangers?”
“I do.”
“They are looking for the baby, tell them where she is.”
“I don’t think that will help them. There are only two of them and an entire village of mages against them.”
“Can you think of any way that they could sneak in?” Katya paused in thought, “Slade brought me in through a secret entrance to see the baby the first night it was here to show off.” She had a bitter thought, wondering if he was doing that out of a real desire to spend time with her or if even then he had had another agenda.
“Yes,” Gareth said slowly, “I know of it. Only a handful of us do. It was made for access for the growing and meant to be covered up, but somehow got overlooked. I suppose it’s possible to get them in that far…” he paused, “but I have no idea what sort of enchantments they have in place to keep her there.”
“I know what they had on it, what are the chances they’d have added new spells afterwards? How long have they been planning this? No doubt they already had the spells they were going to use all planned out and put them on her the second she arrived.”
“That’s probably true,” Gareth relented, “and I suppose I could enchant something to help them break it – I don’t believe either is very talented.”
“I can’t use magic while in here,” Katya waved a hand around the cell, “but if I describe the enchantments, might you be able to come up with a charm to counter them?”
Gareth puffed out his chest. “I used to be one of the best mages in the tribe,” he told her proudly, “these young fools can’t make any spell I can’t break.”
They spent a fair amount of time wracking Katya’s brain for the specifics of the spells that guarded the child, and coming up with counter spells for the charm. By the time the sun was setting and Gareth had to retreat to not raise suspicion at the community center, they had almost finished.
He folded up the parchment he had been using to keep track of the spells and supplies that would be needed for the final preparations, and got creakily to his feet. He gave her a passing wave and bid her goodnight, turning away. Katya retreated farther into her cell, but his voice called her attention back to the window.
“Katya,” Gareth paused and turned back towards her, “Do you by any chance have a birthmark on your left hip?”
Katya looked at him curiously, “How in the world did you know that?”
Before he could answer, voices sounded and his shadow disappeared into the night. Katya was left wondering, and able to do nothing but wait.
