The Ash Queen, page 7
“You all may have experienced some different form of dream or reality that night. Please write them down, and then we can look for the similarities that may nor may not explain what was seen.”
“Who will collate them?” the lord asked.
“I will,” Pip said, looking over the group.
“I’ll help,” Frayne said.
“Go,” the king directed and, still grumbling at the task they had been set, the Circle meandered from the room.
“I want to learn more of you,” the king said, indicating Lia step forward.
From the corner of his eye, Frayne was certain he could still see the shimmering red robe of the cardinal.
Chapter 9
The king looked over the girl. She appeared very different to Grace, yet similar in so many ways. She was a similar age, very beautiful, and yet she had dark hair, unsettling blue eyes, and a different confidence about her. Although, she appeared somewhat nervous as she stepped closer, she glanced at Heath and the confidence returned.
“What drew you here?” the king asked.
“I was asked to come, told that I would be safe.” Her voice carried the confidence that he thought he sensed in her.
“Heath assured you of that?” he asked.
She nodded, but her glance moved to the general.
“It is not my aim to make Sunsong a haven for witches,” the king replied, glancing at the general himself.
“And yet that is what it has become,” she said.
He sighed, tired at the idea of it. How could he explain this to anyone? That was not what he had intended; he did not want the kingdom’s witches coming to him for protection. He had only wanted to keep Nelda safe and Frayne happy, and his whole world had changed.
“There are not that many left,” Pip whispered from across the room. He wondered just what she had sensed. She had been in Frayne’s arms since she’d arrived, clinging tightly to him. The king stood slowly and walked past the girl before him to his son and the little witch in his arms.
“What have you seen?” he asked, looking about the room as fear prickled his skin.
“She isn’t telling,” Frayne said, holding her close.
“The world was always going to change with the return of Frayne,” Heath said, and the king turned towards him. He blushed and looked down. “Forgive me.”
“You can read me as well?” the king asked.
“I don’t think so,” Heath said, looking at the girl. “I just seem to be able to understand more.”
Frayne nodded slowly, and the little one gripped tighter. Then something red moved through the space, there but not. The girl, Lia, moved swiftly back to Heath’s side. Ymma, he noted, stood closer to West, Nelda closer to Frayne, and she reached for him as though to bring him into their circle.
It was the general who drew his sword first, a little way away from the rest of the group. The king wasn’t sure if he did so more easily, not that his right arm was as damaged as his left by the fire. But he appeared younger and stronger as a whole, just by removing the scarring on his face and neck. What other wonders could this girl perform?
“Something is here,” Heath whispered.
“Yes,” Pip returned, her voice just as low. The king could, with no skill of his own, sense the fear in her as though it radiated through the space. Perhaps after spending so much time with witches and Nelda’s healing, he had gained some skill of his own. “Would you want that?” Pip asked, looking directly at him.
There was something in the shadows, something that made him flinch. He wondered then at having them all together. Was it safer, or was it putting them at risk?
“Are they following the cardinal?” Frayne asked.
“I’m not sure that they are working together,” the king returned, standing slowly from the throne, although he was reluctant to release his hold on it. “They may have been, but he is something very different. He is here and solid, and then not, and then here again. What magic could he use to hide himself in such a way?”
“It is like there were many here and yet not, and then he held a different power,” Lia murmured. “How can he hold such a thing?”
Frayne sighed and shook his head. “Is this what you know?” he asked the girl in his arms.
She shook her head in return.
The shadows moved around the room. Lia squealed and clung to Heath. He had drawn his sword. Frayne tried to pry the child from his arms and do the same, but she wasn’t having it. She clung tighter.
“Pip,” the king said gently, “we need to be here, don’t we?”
“Yes,” she murmured from Frayne’s chest.
“Are we safe here?”
“Safer,” she said, glancing up at him. “Nowhere is safe.”
“I thought that much. Can you tell how close they are?”
“Very,” Lia said for her, and he turned as the girl was staring, her face pale, towards the image of his wife.
It was as though the image moved. The woman within, whose smile he had tried to cling to for so long, was becoming the dark and hateful woman she had become after the death of the child. Or had she always been that way and he had not seen it?
He had said she would return. He hadn’t thought it would be this quickly. The image shifted and her hair changed colour, becoming more blonde than grey, her face a little softer. Although she looked the same, he could see that this was someone very different.
The general stepped forward, fascinated by the change, and the shadows continued to move around it. Was someone trying to tell him something?
“A witch’s twin,” Heath murmured.
“This is the witch,” the general replied. Then he stepped forward with such speed, pushing his sword into the shadows around the painting, that the king stepped back in surprise.
They dissipated, and there was no indication that there had been anything there other than a shadow moving around the room. “Was this her doing?” the king asked.
The general shook his head. “Someone is trying to tell us something.”
“But you already knew,” Nelda said, speaking for the first time.
“I told you,” the general said, turning to the group.
“Not clearly,” Frayne replied.
“That endless night, I found her, the queen.” He glanced over his shoulder at the image that no longer depicted the queen it had for so many years. “There was something around her, something dark.”
“I sensed that,” Frayne replied.
“It is her sister,” the general said. “Only I don’t know if she is keeping her or is haunted by her.”
“Her sister?” the king asked, feeling as though he had no idea what was going on. “She was and is an only child.”
“A witch’s twin,” Nelda repeated. “And she killed the twin.”
“I think they were quite young; the family likely covered it up. Whether they knew her to be a witch or not.”
“Is that why she ran?” Lia asked. “Because you learnt what she was.”
“Because she wants to destroy all witches, as do the shadows, but whether they work together or against each other, I can’t determine. Pip?”
“It will all become clear,” she whispered. “I don’t want to see it anymore.”
“Shh,” Frayne whispered, holding her tight and patting her back. He looked like a man lost. The king had no idea where they went from here or how they could stop what it appeared was certainly coming.
The shadows moved and swirled around the room, making it darker and closing in on them. Lia squealed again, Heath holding her tight and gently shushing her. Everyone else moved in a little closer, trying to find a way to remain together, afraid that they would be separated again and that the events of that night would be repeated. They were all in a circle, their backs pressed together. West and the general had their swords out, and although Dunstan had his hand resting on his own sword, he wasn’t sure it would be useful.
He wondered if the soldiers were still at the door. He was trying to keep his soldiers closer, but he knew that it would make no difference in the long run—unless, like Frayne, they could cut into the shadows.
Something large loomed out towards them, and Dunstan bit down on his lip to prevent his own squeal of surprise. Nelda raised a fireball high above them, but the shadows continued to move on their own, no longer afraid of the fire. She sang out, but it was as though the shadows were moving into one, becoming larger and stronger, and then they were gone. The light returned to the room, and the fire went out above them.
“Were they returning?” West asked.
“Or are they testing us?” Frayne returned.
“Testing our defences,” the general added.
“He will return,” Pip said.
“Do we need to camp here?” the king asked. It hadn’t been too long ago that they were all in that room for what seemed like days. But it was the safest place in Sunsong, or at least he had thought it was until it had filled with shadows and a creature he could not understand. “Is he stronger?”
“The cardinal?” someone asked, and Dunstan glanced about trying to work out who.
“The cardinal wishes he was that strong,” Nelda said. “My song has no impact on them now.”
“Maybe you need a new one,” West said.
She looked at him with surprise, but he raised a shoulder in an awkward shrug, as though they were grasping at options. And they were.
Heath held Lia against his side, her face buried in his chest. They were offering something they hadn’t had before. Although Dunstan wasn’t sure if the grounding of the earth that she was so sure Heath had was anything like Grace’s, and he wasn’t really clear on what her skills had been. This girl had water. Was there not some way they could have helped?
“You have been working with the soldiers on your sword skills,” he said to Heath, who looked at him as though he wasn’t sure it was a question.
“Practice. I am reasonably good with a sword already.”
The king nodded. He was exceptional. With the magic the boy seemed to have developed, might he be able to do more? Have the same skills as Frayne?
“I think you should practice with Nelda.”
“I’m not very good with a sword,” she said, and when he swung around, she was smiling at him.
“Magic,” he responded, thankful she was at ease with him. But the world was never going to be what he needed it to be if the shadows were gaining force. In fact, it hadn’t been for some time. “You can work on his magic.”
“My own is not very clear,” she returned, her smile slipping and a nervousness appearing.
“We could work together,” Lia offered, her voice small as she looked at Nelda, her arms still around Heath. “He is strong. I understand my magic; I can help you find it,” she said, looking up at Heath.
“Men cannot have magic,” Heath murmured, looking at her with a worried expression, as though he might not want to explore what he had.
“You have something,” she said. “Something safe and strong.”
Chapter 10
Heath was sure this was a bad idea. They were fighting against men who had magic and yet shouldn’t, and now the king was encouraging him to find what he wasn’t sure he wanted to have. He sensed the need for it. He understood it was something that might help them defeat the shadows and win over the kingdom. Something to keep Nelda and Pip and Lia safe.
He looked across the expanse of the cathedral, the God looking down over his shoulder, and wondered whether this was truly the best place to do this. No one had entered after the disappearance of the monks, and yet he was sure they would return at any moment, whether good or bad, and he would pay the price for doing this here.
He sensed the fire in Nelda before it formed before her. She sighed, as though relieved that she could call it to her hand whenever she wanted. She appeared to be able to do that so easily.
“Listen for the call of the magic,” she whispered, and he wasn’t sure if she was telling him or telling herself. Either way, her voice carried with the feeling of fire, and then it was in her hand. As she hurled it into the air, he was momentarily lost to the wonder of it.
“I thought you were training,” West called from the doorway where he stood guard with the general. Pip and Ymma sat a little further along the wall, seeming to be deep in conversation. It was best that they were all together, although Frayne had remained with his father. Heath wasn’t sure if that was for the king or to ensure that if anything went wrong here, he couldn’t harm either of them.
“You won’t,” Pip called out, and he raised a hand in her direction.
“We aren’t sparring,” Nelda told him. “This isn’t like your practice with the soldiers. You need to understand what I do, so that you too can tap into your magic and do as needed.”
Heath nodded and closed his eyes. He understood the feeling she had, the thrum she heard. In a way, he had heard it with her, in the lead up to the magic she had performed. Despite his eyes being closed, he pointed towards Lia, who stood to the side watching. He felt something similar form, then opened his eyes as he was sprayed with water droplets.
Lia smiled at him and shrugged. He had known it was coming; perhaps he could have moved or defended himself. It was as though he could sense the magic around him now that he understood the thrum the women around him felt. Even the child, to a degree. She smiled at him too.
Earth and grounding, he thought. I have earth and grounding.
It was as though he could feel his heartbeat building in the back of his mind, and it directed him. He looked around the floor before him, and the stones lifted effortlessly into the air as though he stood on an island. He raised them higher, and he had the strange sensation that the magic both answered to what he needed and was asking him to lift the stones. It was a combined effort—he asked and the magic wanted. The earth was dry and packed hard in the jagged sea that had formed around him. He longed for the cool, sweet grass that Grace had grown for them to sleep on. It filled the space instantly, pushing up from what he had thought could contain no life.
His concentration slipped at the idea of Grace, and the large flagstones came crashing down around him. He held up a hand as West stepped towards him. The others waited. He wasn’t sure if that was faith in what he could do or fear at what he might do. He concentrated on the sound at the back of his mind again, the stones lifted into the air, locked together and then settled back in place. It was as though they hadn’t moved at all. Even the chips and cracks that had formed when they fell were invisible or repaired. He wasn’t sure which.
He wanted to go out into the garden and see if the trees would lean towards him. Not that they had in the forest when they were searching for the queen, but perhaps they had done something of the kind and he had not realised. He was not Grace; he did not long to remove his boots and feel the world around him. The floor around him appeared unchanged. He lifted a stone just a little, as though to peek beneath it. The grass had been pressed down but was still there.
He did not want this. Men were not meant to have magic. No man other than those who had stolen it had it, and he had seen what that could do to a man. The cardinal was something else; Heath was not sure if that was magic or not. He did not appear to have magic, and he wondered if others could sense it in him as he had that night when he had not quite seen the man who had stabbed the king.
“Breathe,” Nelda said softly, her hand on his arm. He sucked in a deep breath and focused on her standing before him. She smiled, but there was something behind the smile, a worry for him perhaps. “It is a lot to take in.”
“I understand it,” he said. “I feel it.” He motioned to the stones around him. It had been surprisingly easy, and he didn’t feel too worn by the experience. He wasn’t brimming with energy, but he didn’t want to lie down and sleep.
That worried him, that he could use it so easily. He looked back to Nelda, who nodded.
“What do I do with it?” he asked. Not that he wanted to use it. But what did he do with the knowledge that he could? That he could be a weapon to use against whatever was trying to destroy them, and with more than his sword. “Maybe I could use both,” he thought aloud.
But how he could do that, he wasn’t sure. He motioned Nelda to step back. She took too long before she let him go and did so. He drew his sword and closed his eyes. He did not fully understand what he had or what earth magic meant. He could move rocks, make the grass grow—how might he combine that with his sword?
He held the sword before him, the thrum of magic growing in the back of his mind, and yet nothing happened. He did not feel any connection to the sword or the earth. He lifted it up; nothing happened. He swung it around toward the other witches, and he felt the wall of water before he saw it. As he took a defensive move, a wall of stones formed before him, and the water splashed around it. He sheathed his sword, and the wall disappeared into the flooring of the cathedral as quickly as it had formed.
“Impressive,” the general said, but he was looking at Heath as though he were something to be wary off.
“It might be, if I understood how it happened,” Heath murmured. He could not recreate something he had no idea how he had formed it in the first place.
“You don’t seem comfortable with the skill,” Lia said.
“Men should not have magic. They can’t, and yet I do.” He shook his head. If it were not for the danger to them all, he might have wandered out into the square beyond and lost himself amongst the people.
“It appears very much like Grace’s magic,” Pip whispered.
“Is that a good thing?” he asked.
She shrugged.
“Did Grace do this to me?” He did not want to blame Grace. He would never think badly of her. And yet he could not get his head around it.
“More likely Frances gave you something,” Nelda murmured, studying him a little further back. “Although I think it more her connections, your connections.”
“Men have been around witches a long time,” West murmured, “and this has never happened before. If it had, then the cardinal’s men might not have taken what they did.”
