A thousand years to wait, p.8
A Thousand Years to Wait, page 8
part #1 of The Tarrowburn Prophecies Series
“And your father was okay with that?”
Quinn chuckled. “He had plenty to say. He always does.”
I couldn’t hide a smile. That much was true.
“Actually, it was my mother who took more of an issue with it, but I managed to persuade both of them in the end.”
There was still something bothering me. “Quinn, didn’t you want to choose someone?” It was true I hadn’t wanted to have my entire future planned out for me, but most sixteen-year-olds looked forward to the ritual that so clearly defined the moment of their impending adulthood.
Quinn appeared to study the constellations before answering. “What I wanted wasn’t as important as what needed to be.”
“Well, that’s cryptic,” I said. When he didn’t elaborate, I finally asked the question that burned in my mind, “You didn’t not choose a girl because you’re like Curtis and Edward, right? Because they married last year while you were away.”
Quinn nearly choked on laughter. “What?!”
Well, I guess that answered that question. “Well, I just mean…” I let my voice trail off. There was no recovering now. Inwardly, I cringed.
“Are you really asking me if I prefer men?”
“It wouldn’t be a crime if you did!” I tried to defend my words.
Uncharacteristically, he roared with laughter. My face burned in response.
“No, Reina,” he said as he recovered. “No, I like women just fine.”
We lapsed into silence, which was probably for the best given my penchant for saying the wrong thing. Quinn sighed, pulled his sleeping roll from his pack, and reclined on it. I did the same.
“Sleep,” Quinn said as he adjusted onto his side. “There’ll be plenty of time in the morning for figuring out what comes next. We’re going to need the rest.”
My gaze drifted above to the dark velvety sky. Stellon was near peaking, ever persistent in his chase of Andra, who was close to setting. Both moons gleamed brightly, Andra’s fading glow casting a slightly pink shade to the ground while Stellon’s silvery hue threatened to outshine her as he did every evening.
As a child, I had been told the ancient myths of the two moons and even though I knew they weren’t true, I was fond of the familiar tales nonetheless.
The stories told of Stellon, the warrior, who fell in love with the king’s daughter, Andra. She, too, fell in love with Stellon, but the mighty king had other plans for his only daughter. Rather than see her married to a common warrior, he promised her to a powerful prince of a foreign land.
Ever true to Stellon, Andra refused to marry the prince, but when the king threatened to have Stellon killed, she relented to her father’s wishes in order to save the life of her one true love.
Andra knew she couldn’t tell Stellon about her betrothal for fear he would anger and challenge the prince in a duel. The prince was widely known for never having lost a duel, and though Andra loved Stellon dearly, she couldn’t stand the thought that she might be responsible for bringing about his death.
To spare Stellon’s life, she told him she no longer cared for him. He pleaded with her to see reason and begged her to tell him what was wrong, for even though his heart was breaking, he could believe only that the words she spoke were untrue.
Finally, she asked him if his love for her was pure. He replied his love shined brighter than any star ever could.
“Then if you truly love me,” she said, “please say no more and be on your way for tomorrow I marry another.”
Crushed, Stellon dropped to a knee and promised to respect her wishes, but, in that same moment, he vowed he would love her forever. He promised no matter where she ventured in her life, she should know he would be but a step behind. Should she ever need him, all that was required was to turn around and he would be waiting, arms open to her always.
And so, Stellon forever chased Andra in the sky, night after night, always shining bright with love, but never able to touch the one he adored so completely.
It was a silly story. Yet I still felt close to it, still felt the passion of the forbidden romance that could never be. As a young child, before I’d shown any real interest in healing, I often play-acted in the field behind the cottage, the same one Quinn and I later camped in. I pretended I was Andra and that Stellon had declared his love for me, claiming he would never leave me. I was faced with the task of making him believe I did not love him in order to save his life. Eventually, I became responsible for farm chores like milking goats and feeding chickens, until there was no longer time to play the way I once had.
Now, I let out a long sigh with the memories as I stared at the two moons above. It had been some time since I’d thought of my childhood. I replayed scenes in my head as I slowly drifted to sleep, the rhythmic sound of the ocean surf a lullaby quickly working magic on my fatigue.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Of Things Lost and Found
Quinn and I scouted for three days before we found a suitable path that would allow our party to safely travel to the cave. By the time we returned to camp to meet with the others, both moons were beginning to wane, and I was relieved we likely wouldn’t encounter the Brutales winds again.
The group broke down camp, eager to begin the final leg of the journey. It was mid-morning by the time we made it back to the bluff. Jinso volunteered to stay with the horses while the rest of our group headed down the path that would take us to the beach.
The tide was already moving out, and when we reached the cove, the water had receded enough to reveal the sand and the opening to the caves. It was later than we had intended to start, but eager to complete our journey, no one was willing to turn back.
We paused at the entrance of the cave to light several torches, and I allowed the candidates to walk ahead of me as I trailed behind. Quinn consulted his map from time to time and we navigated the turns from one passageway to the next, progressing to the giant cavern as quickly as we could.
It took an hour to arrive in the room with the cathedral ceiling. I doubted the water would ever fill the space entirely, but I wasn’t eager to tread icy water, waiting for the tide to lower. Please let the candidates find the talisman quickly.
The torches set the room aglow. Whether it was the number of people in the cavern or the fact that I could see more of it, the room was not as wide as I’d previously thought. We spanned it and began to search.
“Can you feel how the walls are warm?” Quinn asked one of the girls.
She placed a hand to the wall and looked puzzled. “No,” she said. “Feels cool.”
“And slimy!” added another voice.
Quinn’s eyes met mine. Why? he seemed to question. I shook my head, unable to explain it any more than he. Why I was able to feel the warmth of the stones at the surface and we were both able to feel the warmth below remained a mystery.
Torches were waved slowly back and forth to illuminate every crack and crevice. A large fissure opened along the floor against one wall, and I was glad Quinn and I had not ventured that direction a few days earlier. It widened along the one edge and could easily swallow a man—or woman—whole. I shivered.
“Where is it?” one of the girls exclaimed in frustration. I thought I recognized Nadine’s voice. “How do we even know it’s here?”
I was reluctant to admit how I was certain and was relieved when Quinn intervened. “It’s here.”
“Well, then why haven’t we found it? And how do you even know?” There was an unhappy murmur by many of the girls. “I’m tired of being led on a wild goose chase. We were told when we accepted this candidacy you knew where the talisman was. I’m starting to think no one here knows anything at all,” Nadine said.
I shook my head. I should have counted on Nadine being trouble. The girl had never done more than half an hour’s work in her life. This expedition was more than she’d bargained for. I searched the cavern for Selena, who still seemed to be preoccupied with scouring the lower crevices.
“Perhaps you need to stop complaining so much and concentrate more on searching,” one of the girls said as she thrust an arm deep into a rift in the stone wall. It was hard to tell from where I stood, but I thought it was Emylia.
Nadine’s jaw dropped, but Emylia’s comment had the desired effect. She returned to searching without another word.
I closed my eyes and focused on feeling some sort of pull from the talisman within my mind. I felt its presence but couldn’t pinpoint where its signal originated. Was it because of the rocks? It seemed almost as if there was an echo of the location, as though the talisman spoke to me from many directions all at once. I tilted my head from side to side, trying to home in on its location. At once, I realized why the feeling seemed to come from everywhere.
“It’s above us,” I said.
All eyes fell upon me.
“Where?” Nadine asked. I was glad she hadn’t asked how I knew instead.
I scanned as high as the torches would let me see. “I’m not sure exactly. I thought I saw something.”
“Why would she put it so high?”
“Wouldn’t want the ocean tides pulling it back out,” Niles said easily. “It makes sense. This room is probably the only one high enough to escape being flooded entirely, even with a double-spring tide.”
I nodded in agreement. Niles beckoned to the three soldiers for their torches, and they raised the flickering beacons as high as they could. The front wall of the cavern was nearly sheer, offering few places for hand or footholds, but a distinct niche was visible about two stories from the ground.
Niles noticed it, too, and he searched for a place to begin climbing. He pointed and directed two of his men to help him up. They handed their torches to Quinn and the remaining soldier and hoisted Niles up. Once he was at the point where he could grab hold of the wall, Niles quickly scaled it with agility that rivaled Quinn’s, pausing only when he reached the niche.
“Well?” one of the girls asked as Niles peered into the darkness. The single word echoed throughout the cavern.
“Can’t tell,” he said, as he repositioned himself. Carefully, he reached into the dark space and felt around.
He stilled and the expression on his face revealed all we needed to know. Slowly, he pulled the talisman from its thousand-year hiding place. It dangled from the chain, a teardrop shape glittering in the torchlight, as he held it out for all to see. The color wasn’t visible by our meager light, but I knew the exact aqua hue it possessed. The pendant sparked—a quick brilliant flash—with my thought.
At that moment, everything became a blur of motion. Niles’s foot slipped. He scrabbled at the rock to regain his balance. The talisman glinted in the torchlight, falling toward us. Several of the girls shot forward to grab it as it clattered to the ground. It flew from hand to hand, was lost in the shuffle as they argued, then reappeared briefly in the air as it was grabbed by another hand.
It all happened within seconds, but for a moment it seemed time itself stopped. My eyes widened as someone screamed and the pendant flew through the air at my face. I raised a hand to protect myself, squeezing my eyes shut and turning my head away…and felt it land squarely in my palm, an electric current shooting through my arm with the contact. When I opened my eyes, the pendant swung gently from the cool chain wrapped between my fingers.
In the dead silence, no one dared move a muscle. Slowly, I relaxed my arm, lowering it to examine the teardrop shaped tourmaline in my hand, flexing my fingers to coax feeling back into them after being shocked. What was that? Was that why no one had been able to hold it? Though the initial shock had dissipated, it vibrated on my skin.
I looked up and still no one moved, as though they were afraid to breathe. “What now?” I asked.
Wide eyes continued to stare. The only sound was the flickering whoosh of the torches and the click of Niles’s boots on stone as he jumped the last few feet to the floor.
“You’re it,” Selena whispered. “You’re the White Sorceress.”
“What?” I said incredulously.
There were nods all around as the girls confirmed they thought so, too. A murmuring of assent filled the room. It might have been the first time in days they’d agreed upon something.
“Don’t be daft!” I cried. “It was thrown at my face. I did what anyone would do!”
Ramus came to my side then and lowered his torch to the ground. “Not only did it choose you,” he said, “but had you not caught it, it would have been lost forever.”
“Just like the prophecy says,” someone uttered.
I looked to where he pointed the torch and stepped forward. I hadn’t realized that I’d been standing directly in front of the large fissure. Had I not been standing there, the talisman might still be falling into its depths. Had I taken half a step backward to duck from the object hurtling toward my face, I, too, might still be falling into its depths. I gave an involuntary shudder.
I returned my gaze to the group and found all eyes trained on me. Niles wore a half-smirk on his face as though he might have somehow suspected such an outcome all along, which was absurd. And Quinn looked as though he’d seen a ghost—a pallor that surely must have matched my own.
“All right,” I began, “let’s clear this up quickly. I am no more the White Sorceress than I am a soldier.” I held out the pendant, feeling the curious electric current tingle through my arm again. “So, maybe I should close my eyes and toss it into the air so one of the true candidates can be chosen.”
There were brief mutterings and the entire group as a whole shuffled a few steps back. I looked on in disbelief, mouth agape.
Niles shook his head and stepped toward me, holding his hands out, and clasping mine and the talisman within them. It sparked angrily, and I gave a jump at the sensation.
“I’m afraid you’re it, Moreina. No one could have predicted this strange turn of events, but the prophecy states that the talisman chooses its wearer. You are the White Sorceress.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I nearly hissed.
Quinn spoke up. “We could stay here and debate this all day, but I’d like to suggest that we continue this discussion back on the cliffs. The talisman won’t be much good to anyone if we all drown. The clock is ticking.”
It was enough for the group to shuffle back the way we had come, but instead of trailing as I had before, I moved to the front and pushed my way next to Quinn, talisman still clenched in my fist. Grabbing his hand, I pushed the talisman into his palm. He jumped at the contact and almost dropped it.
“What the blazes! It shocked me.”
“It seems to go away after a minute,” I said. “Hold this until it is claimed by the rightful sorceress.”
Letting go of the stone, he held it by the chain instead. Glancing at the pendant, then back at me, his eyes were dark and serious as he shook his head. “I can’t,” he said as he draped the chain around my neck. The stone fell heavy onto my chest, the unpleasant electric sensation settling into a low hum of current. “I’m sorry, Reina.”
Of all the people in the world to be influenced by silly and coincidental happenings, Quinn D’Arturio should not have been one of them. I refused to move until the rest of the group passed me by in a hurry to exit the caves. They avoided meeting my eyes as they passed. A feeling of unease settled deep in my bones.
Selena grabbed my hand and squeezed gently as she passed, a mix of compassion and disappointment showing in her face. “We’ll talk later,” she murmured.
I was struck with a sudden understanding of what the gray veil in my vision had meant. This was the unanticipated surprise, but I never could have guessed it was meant for me. The soldier who trailed the group stopped and nodded to me, waiting for me to begin walking again before following. I gritted my teeth as I walked.
The water lapped at our ankles long before we were near the mouth of the cave and a wave of anxiety rolled through my stomach, all thoughts of the humming talisman around my neck forgotten. Judging by the way the group hurried forward, I wasn’t alone.
Despite the increase in pace, the water continued to rise. By the time it reached our shins, some of the girls began to express their concerns, their voices echoing off cavern walls. Quinn pushed forward at a brutal pace while the water rolled in forcefully and pulled back out again with each wave.
“It won’t be long,” he said from the dimly lit passage ahead. “But if the water comes above our knees before we’ve reached the cove, I want everyone to link hands. No one will be separated.”
My heart pounded harder against my ribcage. We had anticipated the possibility of occupying the cave as the tide came in, but I hadn’t thought about the force of the water as it rolled into the cavern, not really. We should have waited for lower tides. The struggle exhausted everyone, but fear drove us on.
Moments later, hands were linked. My relief was nearly palpable when we reached the mouth of the cave and followed Quinn through the now waist-deep water around the edge of the rocks until we could see the path leading back to the bluff. My muscles had begun to seize with the cold and the sight of the path renewed my ability to keep moving forward.
But relief was short-lived when someone shrieked, and Selena lost her footing, dropped the hands of the two girls she’d been holding, and was quickly sucked out with the undertow. No!
Without a moment’s hesitation, Quinn leaped headfirst into the current in pursuit of the bobbing head and hands that were repeatedly dipping beneath the water farther and farther away. His strong strides were no match for the current. To my horror, Selena’s head appeared only one last time before disappearing beneath the surface. I knew the second she passed, a searing pain igniting in my bones with her last breath. Death, making its presence known. Ignoring the pain, I swallowed, biting back the scream that wanted to rip through my throat, and gripped the hands of those next to me even tighter.
