Lightning and Fire, page 13
There’s a knock on the bathroom door. I open it to see it’s Lola.
“I’ve given orders for the letters to be written and sent out the messengers,” she says. “Need help?”
“Water’s too cold.”
“I’ll warm some up for you.”
“That’s how you have been doing it all this time? Warming water and pouring it in.”
“You could always find someone that can control fire and have them warm it here.”
“I guess until then, we must do this the hard way,” I say.
“I’ll go heat a pot for you,” says Lola. “Aiden could have done this, but he’s not coming back.”
“I didn’t think so.”
I sit on the bed and wait for Lola to return, still wrapped in my towel. In a few minutes, Lola is back. She carries a large pot with her and takes it into the bathroom. I follow her in. She pours the water into the bath.
“I will leave you to it. Take some time to relax.”
“Thanks.”
I drop my towel and sink into the bath. The water is warm, and it feels good. The smells of the flower petals fill my nostrils. I lie in the tub and allow the water to cover my face and cover all of me while I hold my breath. When I’m almost out of air and can no longer stay down, I come up for air. I grab a sponge from the side of the bath and wash myself with it.
While I wash, I think of what will happen next. How I will get the people on my side, make them see I’m the right one to lead them. How did it come to this? I’m hurt by it all. The realization that I’m not the savior, I thought I was.
What makes her so unique? What disqualifies me from being the savior? Is there less good in me? Either way, none of this is my fault, and they will not punish me for it. The throne will be mine; by will or by force.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Calina
We are at the Savior’s Haven. “It’s magnificent,” says Ric. Taking the words right from my mouth. I can only imagine what it will look like in the spring. When the vegetation is alive and green. Now, everything is bare, but it still looks beautiful.
“So you healed someone?” says Aiden, appearing from behind me. “Way before you even defeated the Dark King and restored magic to Kollosnia?”
“I guess,” I say.
There were too many questions to answer and even more to ask. They all know a piece of information that I don’t. I’m the one who should be asking all the questions here. My mother is the best person to start with.
Ya says she will be back soon, and after giving me another hug, she beams away. Aiden takes us to where we will live for now. It’s not like the caverns in the Undas, which are like stone caves with smooth sides. The house isn’t even like the huts in the Conlis, made of wood and trunks from trees. It’s a pleasant house, like back home in Colorado. They made this house with bricks and polished wood. It seems modern; like they spent many months building it, making it perfect, years even.
I look around to see it’s the only one. Unlike the other havens where they were many living quarters for many people. “Where is everybody?” I ask.
“There’s no one else here. It’s just us,” says Aiden.
Cosmo smiles. “All of this land, this house, was all for the savior and the protector; though there are extra rooms.”
“So you’re the protector,” says Ric to Aiden.
Aiden clears his throat, “yes, it’s nice to meet you, Ric.”
“You know me?” asks Ric.
“Yes, your sister talks about you.”
“Are you two together or something? You’re both acting weird,” says Ric.
That’s my sister for you. Nosey and smart for her age. If she had a superpower, it would have been discernment. She has always been able to notice things most other kids wouldn’t. Sometimes, things most people wouldn’t even care to see.
My heart pounds in my chest and I shake my head in horror. She also has the power to embarrass me every chance she gets. “No, of course not,” I say before Aiden can answer. He nods in agreement.
“Okay,” she says slowly, almost in disbelief. Dragging her eyes from me to Aiden. Trying to see if we’re lying. “Cause you know you can tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell Ric,” I say. We walk up to the house and I open the door. It smells like honey, like my mother’s house. It makes me smile.
“Well, good, because he’s not your type anyway,” Ric finishes. My smile tries to grow bigger but I force it away.
“Wait, why do you say that?” asks Aiden.
The house is enormous, two stories, and it looks like it has many rooms. All over the place are lamps meant to be lit. Now it seems gloomy, a little cold. But I kind of like it. Not the cold; the serenity of it all. The peace that the darkness provides, the coziness of the fog inside.
“Because you appear a little arrogant and bad boyish,” says Ric.
I stifle a laugh.
“Maybe a little, before. I have to admit, but I’m different now.” Aiden powers up his hand and it burns bright with a flame in each. He walks over to each lamp and lights them, so it burns bright with his flame.
“Are you? Different how?” I ask.
“I know I wasn’t the best when,” he walks closer and closer still, until he’s about an inch away, a breath away. “I didn’t know who you were. It confused me. I should have gone with my first instinct,” he whispers the words. “But how was I supposed to go against everything they taught me, everything I believed, in an instant?”
I standstill. I don’t dare look into Aiden’s eyes, lest I succumb to his pull on me. The one he’s always had ever since I met him. But I’ve been burnt once. I’m never going to make that mistake again. Instead, I stare above my bottom eyelid at his chest, and when he’s done talking. I walk away.
“Oh, I see what this is,” says Ric, “You are in love with her.”
“Calina is the only person who I can love.”
“Calina’s got a boyfriend,” Ric sings.
“Mom, make her stop,” I say.
“Ric, stop it,” says my mother.
I stick my tongue out at Ric, who rolls her eyes. I wonder where she got that from. Cosmo and Murdo have gone to look about the rooms. Skyler is sitting on a chair in the far corner, chipping away at pieces of wood.
“Aiden,” Skyler says, “can you stop the flirting and light up this fireplace?” Aiden throws a fireball in the fireplace, and the wood blazes, catching fire. Skyler lurches back from it. “Careful.”
“That’s so cool,” says Ric.
“But not as cool as mine,” I say. I get my hands supercharged, and lightning sparks between my fingertips. I roll it up into a ball and let it bounce from one hand to the next. Ric looks amazed, and I’m pleased that she does. “See, mine is better than yours,” I say to Aiden.
“Lightning and fire seems fitting,” says Ric.
“Let’s go, Sherlock; see if we can get a room,” I say, dragging my sister by the collar.
“The middle room is yours,” says Aiden. “Your mom and sister can have any room they want.”
“Yes, thank you.”
My mother is quiet. She usually is. She sometimes came off as shy; reserved to the entire world but us. Now she’s changing, morphing before my very eyes. On the surface, she seems the same. But I don’t know who she is. I know she isn’t my actual mother. I always accepted that she had me very young. Now I know that wasn’t the case. I think about all the things we don’t know about her and how surprising it will be.
I’m sure there’s a lot on her mind. Thinking about what to say and how to say it. I don’t think I even believe it yet, that she’s not my mother. I’m not sure what explanation I’m hoping for, but somehow I want it to not be what I think.
We figure out where we will all sleep tonight and in the coming days. But I can wait no longer to have this conversation. I have to know it all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aiden
“See, mine is better than yours.” I’m shocked. One of the few things she has said to me. She tries to avoid my stares and any conversation I try to have with her. It might seem like nothing, but it’s progress.
I shouldn’t have lied to Calina, but I did. I didn’t want her to leave Kollosnia. Leave this mission, the throne, me. I don’t want her to leave me. At the moment, it felt necessary, but I know there will be repercussions. Once again, I’ve taken the selfish route and put myself above her. Now I can’t help thinking how upset she will be when she finds out. I’m afraid this will burn all bridges to reconciliation. She already despises me, the secrets I’ve held from her before. Will she ever forgive me, if she finds out?
Calina and her family leave the living area and go into one of the rooms. I wonder what her mother will say. As they disappeared into the room, I turn to Cosmo and Murdo. “Calina is going to want answers. How do we find them?”
“I took Anorvia to one of our ancient caves,” says Cosmo. “To help her learn about Kollosnia and the prophecy. There wasn’t anything that would show where this all went wrong. I don’t know, maybe she saw something, but I didn’t.”
“Well, if we want to know where this all went wrong, we have to start from the beginning. Look at what we know from before. Before the prophecy,” says Murdo.
“How will we do that? Remember, before the prophecy? It’s all we know now. The King’s reign, the worrying, the fighting, who can even remember how it all started? All we have is the watered-down versions of the stories from before.” I say.
“Well, there must be a way,” says Cosmo.
“Where did the prophecy come from?” asks Murdo.
“The caves, they were written on scrolls,” I say.
“Did they write themselves, or did someone put them there?” asks Cosmo.
“They just appeared,” I say.
“When I was a girl,” says Skyler, who was quietly sitting in the corner still next to the fire. “My grandmother used to tell me of a story of an oracle. Was that true?”
“An oracle? I’ve never heard of an oracle,” I say.
“Me either,” says Murdo.
“Yes; there was a man, a religious man. I don’t know his name. He used to stand in the middle of the square and shout out to everyone, that someone is coming to save us. How did I forget him?” Cosmo says with excitement.
“Well, that’s a start,” says Murdo.
“Is there any way to speak to your grandmother?” asks Cosmo.
“Yes, we can see what she knows.”
Skyler walks over to the middle of the room, and we walk to meet her. We each rest a hand on her shoulder. There’s a sharp pull, and when I blink again, we are somewhere else. We are in a small village. People busy themselves doing chores.
It’s somewhere at the edge of the forest. Which forest? That, I do not know. The town is in the thinnest part of the woods. There’s a small garden where the people here have herbs and vegetables planted. The group is small, with about twenty people and a few kids. A few huts sit close to each other.
Two boys grab a bucket and run over to a nearby stream and fill it with water. The stream doesn’t run straight through the path, but curves and I can hear it running, falling over a cliff. Here, they seem self-sufficient and happy.
Skyler walks over to one wooden hut and we follow her. People smile and wave as we pass, saying hi to each of us. We go into the cabin, and a small woman sits at the edge of a bed, knitting something. The hut is small, like most huts in Kollosnia. There is one bed, the one the woman sits on, and a few other furniture pieces. “Skyler,” says the woman, running up to meet her.
“Mom,” says Skyler, giving her a hug.
“We’ve missed you so much,” says the woman.
“Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been, you know, fighting in a war. These are my friends mom. Murdo, Aiden and Cosmo.” She points to each of us. “This is my mom, everyone.”
“Rosalin,” Skyler’s mom says to us.
“It’s nice to meet you,” says Murdo, reaching for her hand and kissing the back.
“Hello,” I say, and Cosmo gives her a nod of the head.
“Is Nana here? I wanted to see her,” says Skyler.
“Yes, she’s back there,” Rosalin points to a door behind a curtain.
Skyler walks over to the door and pulls back the curtain. The entry is already open and Skyler goes in. Her mother follows her and we go in after them. The room has one bed and a stool, and a large brown carpet on the floor. There is no window in this one, which draws attention to a strange odor in the room. One I can’t place but found displeasure in. I try to fix my face and ignore it.
A grim look covers Skyler’s face. “Nana, are you okay?” asks Skyler. She falls to her knees and kneels next to the bed an elderly woman lies on. The woman looks frail and weak.
The old woman looks like Skyler; Rosalin too. They all look alike. It feels strange looking at them all together; like seeing them through multiple mirrors. They all have hazel eyes and jet black hair, except Skyler has a blue streak in hers.
“Skyler, sweetheart,” says the old woman, “I’m okay now that I’ve seen you.”
“What’s wrong, nana?”
“She hasn’t been feeling well lately,” says Rosalin.
“A healer is coming by soon. She’ll make me well again,” says nana.
“This is my grandmother, Rose,” says Skyler.
Rose coughs, then she smiles at us. “Dry throat.”
“I’ll get you some water, mom,” says Rosalin. Rosalin walks out of the room, going through the open door and behind the curtain.
“We are here to ask you something, nana. Do you remember when I was younger, you told me a story?”
“I told you many stories,” says Rose.
“The one about an oracle,” says Skyler.
“The Oracle,” says Rose in a wispy voice, like she’s out of breath. “I told you that story so many years ago. How did you remember?”
“I remember everything you tell me, nana,” says Skyler.
“You know, I was the one who told your mother and father to name you Skyler?” says Rose. “She wanted to name you Rosalina. Follow the trend I started. My love, you were always different from the day you were born. Special and beautiful: like a star, like air, like the sky.”
“Yes, nana. The sky is beautiful. That’s why blue is my favorite color.”
“The blue streak looks great. It brings out the color of your eyes.”
“Thanks, nana; so back to the oracle. My friends and I are on an important mission, and we need to hear more about him,” says Skyler.
“Yes, the oracle. Sit, sit,” she motions for us to sit down. “You should all sit for this one.” We follow her instructions and sit on the mat against the wall. Cosmo sits on the only stool. “Long ago, it was in the place we now call Ruina, but it was called Juarez back then. It was a place where everyone passed through, a place of beauty and full of life.”
“Before they destroyed it,” I say.
“Yes. So, there was a man who called himself Ange. He used to speak wild stories of a day to come, what he calls the end. A time when there will be no peace, when there will be great wars and strive, and the people will suffer. No one believed him. He even spoke of a savior, but everyone used to laugh, and when he died, they forgot him. I found him fascinating; so I never forgot, and I always believed. Because one day, while I was on my way to the market, he came over to me and told me something no one could ever know.”
“What did he say?” asks Skyler.
Rose coughs again, and Rosalin comes into the room with a small cup of water. Rosalin hands it to Skyler, and she puts the brown cup to her grandmother’s mouth. The woman drinks some and then stops.
“Do you know how the scrolls came to be? Did Ange write them?” asks Cosmo.
“He sure did. He knew if people didn’t listen to him, when the time came they would need help, and they would seek it out.”
“So when the war started, someone must have seen the cave, and the word spread. That’s how we found the scrolls, and the caves became a place of information,” says Murdo.
“I heard you fought in the war. You helped bring us freedom,” Rose cups Skyler’s face. “I wish I could’ve seen you.”
“The war is no place for a girl,” says Rosalin. “You should have been home with your family.”
“Doing what? Wasting away? I’m meant for so much more,” says Skyler.
“Yes, you are,” says Rose.
“Mom, don’t encourage her. If you didn’t fill her mind with all those stories as a child, she would never get the idea to fight.”
“And look what she did, fighting side by side with the savior. The savior needed an army, and she was there. Is that why you’re here now?” asks Rose.
“We need to know where the savior came from, says Cosmo, jumping in.
“That one I don’t know. But you can always ask the queen about her family,” says Rose.
We all look at each other, and Skyler straightened her shoulders. “Nana, she isn’t the savior.”
“What do you mean? You fought by her side.”
“No, I fought by Calina’s side. She’s the real savior,” says Skyler.
