Anais and the Broken War (The Blood Mage Chronicles Book 5) (23 page)

“I’ll take you,” Thomas said. “We can all go. I’d like to see these mages too. There is much to discuss.”

Although I didn’t want to go anywhere with Merdin, it seemed I had little choice. It would be faster if Thomas took us in his phaeton, and I had no wish to delay.
 

Once inside the main room of Rockside Tavern, I scanned the area. Most of the tables were empty as it was still hours before dinner would be served. In one corner, near a large fireplace, three men and three women, sat around a wooden table. The hood of one of the women’s capes was down, and her long curling blonde hair spilled onto her shoulders. Anabella. I walked in their direction, taking slow purposeful steps.

The people at the table stop talking as we approached and the blonde woman turned around. She gasped when our eyes met. Without a moment of hesitation, she walked up to me and enveloped me in her arms. “My dearest girl.”

“So you are my mother then? It’s really true?” I choked out the question.

“Yes, my dear. It is true.” She took my hand and held it. “I have missed you so much my darling girl. You cannot know.”

“How could you give me up?” I hadn’t meant to be so blunt, but the words fell out of my mouth unbidden.

She smiled sadly. “I had nothing to offer you. My family had disowned me. I had no money, no position, and I had been thrust unwilling into the sisterhood. There was also the matter of Robert. I feared if he found you, he would make you disappear. The lords never like a crimp in the line of descent. Magda and her husband agreed to spirit you out of Brightshire. They were good people, and I trusted they would take care of you.”

“You told my parents you would come back for me, but you never came.”

“But I did. Do you remember? I went with you to your friend’s funeral in Brightshire.”

I gasped. “That was you. Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell me you were my mother? Why didn’t you take me with you? I don’t understand.”

“I wanted to. I meant to. But it seemed selfish. You had a life of your own. You had just been given an opportunity to apprentice to a scribe. You were friends with young Cedric. You had the memories of a childhood with your parents and your brothers. How could I shatter your life?” She sighed. “I did mean to tell you. I was going to take you with me, so we could travel the world together. But, when the moment came, I couldn’t do it. It seemed horrifically unfair.”

“But what about the furies? You knew it wasn’t safe in Brightshire.”

“I didn’t know how bad it would get. When I heard that the furies had taken Brightshire, I despaired you must be lost. I feared I had made a terrible mistake in leaving you. A seer in Candel found you for me, but she could only give me a glimpse of you in Barriershire. Knowing you were unharmed consoled me.”

“Why did you leave? You could have stayed, even if you didn’t want to tell me who you really were.”

“Although I didn’t think the threat was imminent, I knew the border between Brightshire and the Southlands was fading. I went back to Candel to consult with the seers and to look for other mages. It took me years to find mages with real talent and convince them to help. Merdin thinks assembling this group was his work. But he merely showed up in Candel as we were ready to leave.”

“We met in the Abbey in Barriershire.”

She nodded. “I came back for a short time. I needed a book from the Abbey’s library. We’ve been studying how it can be done. How we can rebuild the border. It has taken some time and study to develop a workable plan. But we’re ready now. When I left you for the second time, I thought you would be safer in Barriershire’s Abbey than on the road with me. Again, I was foolhardy. I should have realized that Barriershire was no more secure than Brightshire.”

“It’s all my fault,” I whispered. “I practiced blood magic in Brightshire. I did this.”

“It wasn’t you, Anais. The border was damaged before you were born. I believe I may have been partially responsible for it. When I was young, I thought magic was some great toy to explore. I didn’t understand that there would be consequences. Everything comes at a cost. It’s also possible it would have torn apart even if you and I had never touched blood magic. The border wasn’t built to last forever. It was always going to weaken.”

“I can help,” I offered.
 

“I know you can, and we will need you.” She brushed my hair with her fingers. “There’s so much I need to tell you…”

The dull ache of Uthur’s loss was still with me. I would never forget him. I think it allowed me to understand how Anabella could have given me up so many years ago. Sometimes in a sea of uncertainty, there is no right choice.

One of the women at the table stood and almost floated toward us, her eyes closed. The hood of her cloak dropped as she moved and her long white hair flowed behind her. She looked impossibly old. When she reached us, she opened her eyes, which glowed a solid endless white. She pointed to a wrinkled finger at me.

Merdin smiled and stepped toward us, his teeth looking particularly sharp. “Finally, we’ll get our prediction. We’ve been dragging her around with us for months, and she’s said nothing.” He glared at her. “Talk.”

“She’s a seer, Merdin. A true one. She’ll only speak to one person,” Anabella corrected him. “And it seems like she’s chosen Anais.”

Merdin groaned. “Fine,” he hissed. “This prediction had better be useful. She’s been nothing but trouble.”

Anabella took Merdin by the elbow and pushed him towards the table. Once they were out of earshot, the woman took my hand in hers and leaned toward me and whispered in my ear. “When a man’s leg becomes infected, we cut it off. When a man’s heart becomes infected, we help him die.”

 
“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” I whispered.
 

Instead of answering, she closed her eyes and slumped to the floor. I fell to my knees and touched her throat. She had no pulse.

~ End of Part 5 ~

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THANK YOU FOR reading
Anais and the Broken War
. I hope you enjoyed the story. I am in the process of writing Book 6, tentatively titled
Anabella’s Story
.
 

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