What Once Was One (Book 2) (31 page)

“That many! That would explain it. Why so many?”

“Heartache,” I whispered. I grabbed her hand and intertwined her fingers with mine. “But I’m glad you’re here now.”

“Me too,” she said, squeezing my hand.

“I’ll let you get ready, and see you at dinner.”

“Hellsfire, there’s one last thing. I didn’t only want to come to Southern Shala as a representative of Alexandria or to even fulfill a childhood dream.”

“No?”

“No,” she said. “If we get the opportunity, I thought maybe this council of yours or other wizards might be able to help us.”

I cleared my parched throat. “I would like that. But what about your father? I’m still banished from Alexandria.”

“One problem at a time.”

I nodded. “There are a few spells I would like to try that I never got a chance to. They might work.”

“All right. After dinner. I know this is hard for you, Hellsfire, but it’s hard to be a ruler sometimes. You have to put the good of your people before your own desires.”

“I never asked you to choose between me or your people, Krystal.”

“I know that. Yet I have also learned that sometimes what’s best for the princess can be best for the kingdom.”

I met her eyes and we shared a smile.

During dinner, we told Krystal and the others what we planned. She agreed with where we should go.

Afterwards, I examined the princess and worked my magic. But all the rituals and spells I tried failed. My magic just couldn’t penetrate the nexus’s curse. Whatever Premier had done to alter the nexus’s magic allowed it to feed off my magic, using it to strengthen its own.

Early the next day, we said our goodbyes to King Sharald and left. Since we were headed south, there was one place I wanted to stop that I hadn’t been to for years—home.

CHAPTER 17

As we rode into my hometown of Sedah, I was thankful to have a chance to be back and see my mother again, but I was also worried. We rode as fast as we could travel without exhausting the horses, but even stopping here for only a day was wasting valuable time. Premier’s powers had already returned and with each passing day, he was getting farther away from us. And Renak’s warning of the gods’ war still loomed in my mind. I believed him, and if I ran into such a war, I would have to deal with it, and I might never see my mother again. She deserved to see her son, even if it was for one last time. There was also part of me that wanted to know if I could ever return home. Would being a wizard finally get people to respect me, or would they fear and hate me more?

The windmill marked the entrance to the dusty main road. We trotted our horses up the hill and onto the bridge over the gurgling brook. I smiled, remembering the hours I would spend at that brook, my feet dangling over the sides while I tried to catch fish.

Not long after, we rode through the farms on the outskirts of town. That old cow with the missing ear chewed on some grass as we passed. I was surprised she was still alive, but Mrs. Bishop loved that gangly cow.

On the left side was a flock of sheep, running away from the young boy chasing them. I recognized young Corwyn, who was yelling and screaming at the sheep as he tried to corral them. That would never work with Andrick’s sheep. I smiled at how much taller he was, how his brown hair got in his eyes as he ran, and how frustrated he became at that chore. I remembered cursing those dim-witted sheep. I turned my head away when Corwyn stopped and stared at us, fearful of him recognizing me.

“Corwyn!” Andrick yelled. “Get over here!”

Corwyn ran away from us and the sheep, heading back to the other backbreaking work Andrick had for him.

I hadn’t known how I would react actually seeing someone I knew that wasn’t my mother or a close friend. While I had nothing against them, Corwyn and Andrick reminded me of unhappy past memories and experiences I had been through.

I had been shunned by many of those in town. Shunned because I didn’t worship their one god, even though my mother did. There were only a handful in town who believed in the four gods. I chose to do so like my father did before me, in hopes of seeing him when I died.

I was also afraid. I had grown up being bullied by the children in town. Before I left, when my powers had just manifested themselves, I had unintentionally burned their leader, Nathan. Luckily, no one saw me do it, but I had always wondered whether he told them, and if they believed him about me. As much as he had picked on me, I had always felt bad about what I did to him. He was the first person that I had hurt with my powers, before I had learned to control them.

We passed through the surrounding farmlands and entered the town. At the edge of the northern entrance to town was the mayor’s house. It sat on top of a small hill, above the rest of the land, which had leveled out. His was the first house people saw when coming into Sedah, and he liked it that way. I stared at the waist-high wooden fence surrounding it and smirked.

The princess rode alongside me and asked, “Hellsfire, what is it?”

“I was just thinking. You see that fence over there?” I pointed to the mayor’s fence. “I broke that section jumping over it.” I left out the part about how I was running from Nathan and his friends at the time. It had been repaired sometime after I left, but it also seemed a lot smaller. I would have no problem jumping it now.

“And that beech tree we just passed,” I said. “I once fell out of it and broke my arm.”

“You were very clumsy in your youth,” Behast said.

Everyone laughed, and so did I. “I’m
still
clumsy.”

We continued our ride. It was unsettling. Nothing was as big or as tall as it had been before. The people we rode by were shorter, especially viewed from horseback, and the buildings were smaller. I had been in villages between here and Alexandria, but having spent so much time in Sharald and Alexandria, I had grown used to the multitudes of people and the gigantic buildings needed to accommodate them all.

There was one building that could rival those I saw in the cities and could hold everyone in the town. It was also the one place I hated to go—the church. It was the oldest building and even now, I saw its looming towers across town. Luckily, I didn’t ever have to go there again.

The sizzling sound of metal being dumped in water caught my attention. I told the others to wait while I climbed off my horse and crept towards the blacksmith. From his massive size, I thought he might be my old friend Dorian, but when he turned around, it wasn’t him.

I was ready to leave when an old man came out of the shop muttering about how incompetent and ungrateful his workers were. He wiped his dirty hands on his apron. “Do you need some help?” Emden asked.

“No. I was just looking for Dorian.”

“Bah. Did he forge something wrong?”

“No, I—”

Emden peered at me, his beady eyes becoming even smaller. “Do I know you? You look familiar.”

I kept my head down and said, “Sorry to bother you, sir. I’ll be going now.”

“Mmmm.”

Emden stared at me as I walked away. I turned and saw Kathleen exiting the baker’s shop across the road. My breath left me. Before our eyes met, I looked down at my feet and quickly strode back to the group.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Krystal asked.

I shook my head. “My friend wasn’t there. Sorry to keep you waiting. Let me escort you all to the inn before I head to my mother’s.”

I led my horse by her reins, using it to block Kathleen from seeing me in case she recognized me. As we walked, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was being watched, but I didn’t dare turn around in case I was.

When we reached the inn, a stable boy came and took our horses away. Jastillian and Behast went inside to get rooms for the night while Prastian and Demay headed for the marketplace. I was going to visit my mother and stay with her. I walked Krystal to the inn’s door. Ardimus and Rebekah hovered around Krystal, doing their best not to look obtrusive.

“Do you mind if I come with you, Hellsfire?” Krystal asked.

I stared at her, wondering if that would be a good idea. She didn’t understand where I came from and how poor I had been. She couldn’t. Hers was a life of privilege and battle. “Are you sure, Your Highness?”

She nodded.

I sighed. “If that’s what you want.”

“You two see to the supplies,” Krystal said. “I’ll be back later.”

“But Your Highness—” Ardimus said.

“I’ll be fine. Hellsfire will protect me until I return.”

Ardimus and Rebekah shared a glance. Ardimus nodded. “As you wish.”

“Good. Hellsfire, let’s go.”

We began our trek to my mother’s house. I kept glancing around, watching for both Dorian and Kathleen.

“Why did you dismiss them?” I asked. “They’re supposed to protect you. What if something happens?”

“Sedah’s a nice, quiet village. I’m sure nothing will happen.”

I raised an eyebrow and grinned. “Remember when I first met you?” I had rescued her from two men who had abducted her, in the forest just outside Sedah.

She brushed aside a lock of hair. “I remember. You protected me then.
 
Are you saying you can’t protect me now?”

“No, but—”

“Good.” She leaned against me, laying her head on my shoulder. “You worry too much, Hellsfire. All I want to do is meet your mother. I don’t want to scare her with a bunch of hardened warriors at her doorstep.”

“Says the woman with a deadly sword swinging on her hip.”

Krystal gave me a playful bump with that hip and I returned it.

We strolled to my home, leaving the main road and taking a smaller dirt path. I fidgeted with my robes the entire way, worrying about what the princess would think. Bringing her to Sedah was bad enough, but I hadn’t expected her to want to meet my mother and see my home.

My mother’s longhouse was at the end of town. The last time I was here, it had been in dire need of repairs. Without my father, my mother and I had to do everything ourselves and there was always another problem to deal with. We didn’t have the money to fix everything. I glanced at Krystal, trying to read her face. What would she think of where I came from, and what would she think of my mother? Would the princess judge us unworthy?

At the end of the small path was the longhouse. A large ash tree shaded part of it; its long branches had always kept our house cool in the summer. I opened the gate in the lavender fence that now surrounded it. That wasn’t supposed to be there, although my father had wanted to build one. He also had planned to expand the house, as they wanted more children. We had never been able to afford that either.

Now, though, there was a new stone path leading to the door. The roof sported new shingles and the hinges on the door were no longer hanging at an awkward angle. It seemed that my mother had spent the money I had given her before I left. Money that came from the princess—a reward for rescuing her. Or maybe there was a new man in my mother’s life? How would I feel about that?

Over the past few years, I had been worried about her. I was only able to see glimpses of her through a ritual—one that had nearly gotten me killed.

As relieved as I was over all the improvements to the house, I remembered I was bringing the Princess of Alexandria home. When I looked at Krystal and saw her exquisite sword on her hip, the price of which could feed my mother and me for a year, I thought once more that what she considered nice would be far different from what we did.

Krystal placed her hand on my arm. “We’re not going to stand here all day, are we? I’m anxious to meet the woman who raised you.”

So was I.

We walked to the door and I glanced down, seeing the small garden in front of the low brown building. Fresh tomatoes were ripe to be picked. I raised my free hand before I hesitated. Why was I going to knock? This was my home too, wasn’t it? I opened the door and went in before Krystal, wanting my face to be the first thing my mother saw.

The inside of the rectangular longhouse was more cramped than I remembered. If I raised my hand and stood on my toes, I could touch the ceiling. To the left were two small rooms separated by a thin open wall. The beds were in those, and I remembered shivering during winter nights when the wind crept through the cracks in the wood.

To the right of the door was a round table. I put a hand on the smooth, grained wood. This wasn’t our old table. I was sad that the initials I had carved into that table were no longer there.

My mother was beyond the table, standing over the kitchen counter as she hummed and chopped vegetables. A black pot was boiling on the hearth in the corner. The aroma of a home-cooked meal tickled my nose and I grinned.

When my mother realized someone was there, she quickly turned the knife in her hand and brandished it as a weapon. Her dark green eyes narrowed at me. “What do you want?”

I smiled. “Food would be nice.”

“Hellsfire? Hellsfire!” My mother dropped her knife and ran up to me. She smothered me with a hug and kiss. I returned them, trying not to feel embarrassed in front of Krystal. “I was so worried about you,” she said. “I heard what happened in Alexandria.”

“You heard about that?” I whispered.

“Yes, from travelers passing through town. I was so worried about you.”

“What did you hear?” I asked, concerned about what she might think of her son as a wizard, and what stories and rumors people had told of me.

“They said you were a powerful wizard and that you saved Alexandria from those vile creatures in the Wastelands.”