Fractured Darkness: A YA Fantasy Adventure (The Age of Alandria Book 3) Read online

  Chel rolled her eyes and sagged her shoulders, dropping her arms in defeat. “Fine. There might be something about him that is capturing my attention, but it’s probably nothing more than my ability to admire fine art,” she said with a wink. “Plus I still have Samuel waiting for me at home—at least I think I still do,” Chel said with a slight frown.

  “Kaeleighnna, would you and your friend please come to the Great Hall? I have something to show you. Could you also retrieve Daegan from the training tent?” Arileas called from somewhere and nowhere all at once. The girls both looked around, unable to see where his great voice was booming from. Seeing some of the other Ehsmia not reacting at all to the voice, Kaeleigh looked at Chel with confusion.

  “I guess we’re being paged,” Kaeleigh giggled.

  “I guess I’m the ‘friend’ then, since I heard it too,” Chel grumbled. “I always thought when it came down to it, I would be the superhero and you would be my loyal sidekick. Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Chel elbowed her friend in the ribs and took off before Kaeleigh could grab her playfully back.

  Kaeleigh caught up to Chel quickly. “I bet Hal will be there when we get there. You know how he hates to miss out on anything.”

  “Go get your warrior, I’ll meet you there.” Chel winked and stuck her tongue out at Kaeleigh before she ducked off in the other direction.

  My warrior? Of course, Kaeleigh had thought of both Finn and Daegan as hers along the journey. But it sounded different when it came from someone else, even Chel.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Kaeleigh walked into the training arena where they had practiced earlier to find it almost empty. Almost... except the one Ferrishyn she happened to be looking for. His back was to her, but she knew he was aware of her presence.

  “Why, Daegan?” Kaeleigh slowly approached him. His shoulders stiffened. She didn’t need to explain her question; he knew exactly what she asked about.

  Without turning toward her, he sighed and hung his head for just a moment before looking up at the point in the ceiling where all the sides of the large expanse came together. “That should never have happened. There is no excuse for my behavior. I... I am truly sorry, Kaeleighnna.”

  Kaeleigh was now right behind him. “But why, Daegan? Why were you trying to force me to back down?”

  “I... I can’t protect you if I am not fully focused on what I’m doing. If you’re there, with me... in that place... I can’t...” His head was bowed and his breathing labored.

  She lightly placed a hand on his back. He flinched. Kaeleigh pulled back a fraction before he whispered, “Do not go... please.”

  Taking that as an invitation, she moved both hands to his shoulders, simply resting them there, while individually they took shallow breaths. Neither spoke. There was a slight tremble in Kaeleigh’s hands when she ran her them slowly from his shoulders down over his arms all the way to his hands. Neither breathed. Her own hands rested on his before she moved them underneath, lacing her fingers with his, holding them for a moment before gliding her hands back up his arms. Suddenly overwhelmed with emotion, Kaeleigh wrapped her arms around his stomach from behind and held tightly to him. An awkward moment passed before she felt his hands cover hers where they gripped his shirt at his stomach.

  “I remember being held only as a small child. It is... nice,” Daegan said almost at the level of a whisper. Kaeleigh’s heart broke and gripped him tighter. Then he stiffened, pulling her hands and arms away from him slowly. He stepped out of her embrace, putting distance between them.

  Kaeleigh straightened her shoulders and held her chin high. “Don’t do this. Don’t shut me out, Daegan.”

  “It is better this way.” He turned partially back toward her. His eyes were guarded, his expression hard.

  “Why?” Kaeleigh’s voice rose.

  “I cannot be the one for you. I need to protect you. That is my promise, that is my oath.”

  “Protect me from who?” she ground out of her teeth.

  “From the Droch-Shúil... from Maleina... from me.” It would have been easier if he had shouted at her. It would have justified her, but the stillness of his voice, flat and void of emotion, infuriated her.

  “I’m not asking you to protect me, Daegan. But I am asking you to open up to me, to not push me away from you.” Her voice lowered. It was almost pleading. “I don’t want to be away from you. I want you!”

  Daegan looked her in the eyes, searching as deep as he could see. He saw in her his equal match, a partner, but also something he could destroy. That was unacceptable. “I feel crazy in my head around you—I do not know if what I feel is from you or because of you. I cannot think. I am not free from the darkness inside me. It is a danger to you. I am a danger to you!” His voice raised, he paced with his hands on top of his head, fingers fisting through his hair. He stopped only to see her begin to walk out, anger mixed with pain etched in her face and tears threatening to spill from her eyes. He had hurt her. He meant to push her away. Make her angry enough to keep her distance, but never hurt her.

  “Kaeleigh, wait. Kaeleighnna!”

  She didn’t stop. Just before she got to the exit, he grabbed her arm. She spun and he pulled her none too gently back to his chest, holding her tightly in place. Kaeleigh wouldn’t look him in the eyes. She couldn’t or she would lose it.

  He reached out and tipped her chin up with his finger so he could look into her beautiful, otherworldly green eyes that brought him to his knees.

  “Kaeleighnna, please understand. It is not that I do not want you. I do. I want you, more than anything I have ever wanted before. That is why I cannot.” His eyes grew sad.

  One of her hands made its way up to the neck of his shirt. She played with the string there for a second while searching his eyes. Her fingers moved up his neck and to his cheek. He gasped at her attentions. “You distract me. I am not just the warrior when I am with you, but a man. We are about to enter danger unlike any we have seen so far and I need to know you are safe at all times.”

  “It won’t matter if I’m with you or not, I am not going to be safe. This is war, Daegan. It is dangerous. Even more reason to grab hold of the things that are important. The things that give us something to fight for. The people that give us hope.”

  “No. I will not see you risk your life because of my own selfish desires, my weakness.” He gently pushed her away from him. His breaths came deeply.

  “That is not a good enough reason, Daegan. I’m going to risk my life with you or without you,” she resolved with a whisper.

  “I cannot lose you,” she heard him whisper. “I have lost those I have held closest to me. They get taken away from me. She always took them from me. She will do it again,” His voice cracked, choked with emotion.

  Kaeleigh moved back to him. Just then she realized how broken he was... how lonely he had been. The self-inflicted isolation simply to protect everyone else, but also himself. Reaching up, she pulled his face down toward hers. She looked him in the eyes. Strongly and confidently, she spoke to his soul. “Not this time. This time we do it together. This time we fight back.” Then she kissed his lips brazenly with all the love she had within her, desperate to unleash it into his parched soul.

  Daegan hesitated as the explosion of Kaeleigh’s love blasted through him like a bomb. Kaeleigh sighed as his strong arms pulled her up into himself. He kissed her back and his returned passion washed over her, a passion he had been waiting to release his whole life. He held her tightly to him; she fit within his arms, against his body, like she was made for him. One of his hands found its way up her spine and held her at the base of her neck, the other secured against her lower back. Their mouths moved in sync as if they had been kissing forever. For the first time, he felt a hope that only love brought. They would fight, but they would fight together. She made him stronger. Her love and confidence made him feel invincible. With her, he realized, he could be the Ferrishyn he was always meant to be. He was home.

  CHAPTER
NINETEEN

  “You have now all heard the prophecy. I have seen some truths and I would like to look deeply into it to hopefully show it to you as well.” Arileas stood at the head of a long rectangular table. He addressed them all as equals, open to their opinions and suggestions.

  The Great Hall was much more ominous without all the carefree chatting they experienced during their meals. It was still beautiful and the sparkles in the ceiling shimmered, reflecting a brightness into the room and giving it a white look even though the walls were the brown of a typical Ehsmian cave. Of those present, some were in chairs made of spindly branches yet sturdy in their makeup, and some sat several to a bench. The natural elements were a lovely juxtaposition against the brightness and the white wood of the table. The gathering consisted of those in Kaeleigh’s group and the few Ehsmia that participated in their training sessions along with a group of others that Kaeleigh had not seen before. They reminded her of pious church elders with their heads held high; the only way for them to see you was by looking down their noses. Their dress was similar to Arileas’s with long robes of various natural linens, but theirs revealed the stains of judgment and gave off the stink of intimidation.

  Arileas did not seem fazed by their presence. They either answered to him, or he simply didn’t care. Kaeleigh only cared for what Arileas had to say and it was obvious that he was in charge. In light of this, she refused to let their roving eyes of dissent seer into her skin. Kaeleigh envisioned a curtain around her mind, but also around her body until she didn’t feel their eyes any longer. She could feel the magic buzzing under her skin so she knew something had happened. When she opened her eyes, she looked up to find not only one, but three pairs of those judgmental eyes watching her with haughty looks of surprise. She felt Daegan’s eyes also on her, reading her, but his were not of judgment but deep care and concern.

  “Well done, Kaeleighnna. You sensed a threat against you and you took care of it in a manner you thought appropriate. I assure you, these among me”—he gestured to the pious three—“are here at my request and are merely curious, though they may not come across that way. You always have the right to protect yourself as you feel needed. I have asked them here because they are among my greatest scholars of the ancient texts and have found a possible discrepancy amidst the written document of the prophecy we have.”

  At that, all eyes went to Arileas in confusion. Suddenly Kaeleigh’s insecurities faded away and she was trying to understand why the shift in the atmospheric intensity.

  “Elder, what do you mean there is a discrepancy?” one of the Ehsmia Kaeleigh hadn’t met yet asked.

  “I am not certain myself, but it appears there is a newly added variance in the script. The writing is the same as the original, which was scribed by one of the fallen Orchids. We possess the only copy and it has not been moved from where it was secretly kept.” His face turned red with a sudden fury. “It is a sacred text!” Arileas shouted, pounding his fist on the table in an uncharacteristic show of emotion. “I will not apologize for my rage. Foul deeds are at work here. I am most disturbed at this revelation. My blindness to this is shameful.” Arileas yelled with one hand on the wall as he looked out the opening at Ehsmia. Then his tone softened. “I know what I saw when I first received this ancient text. It is recollected in my memory from the day it was delivered, but I am an old man. It is possible that what is in my mind is not as it was originally delivered. I rely on these original texts of the past to ensure that which is in my mind is accurate. I do not know fully if I am in error or if the scroll we have is the one potentially polluted.”

  “What do you believe to be true, Grandfather?” Ella asked from several seats down.

  Arileas’s stern expression turned to a smile as he looked on his granddaughter. “You have always had a way of reminding me of truth. We should always believe our hearts and our spirits that guide us. I believe what is in my memory to be true and untampered with, but the fact still remains that we have or have had in our midst one who has betrayed us.” With heartache etched on his face, he looked out the window, taking a moment for himself.

  Everyone was silent, weighing the gravity of what was just said. “Sir?” one of the pious three spoke out. “You asked us to bring the scroll to read it against the original version in your memory to see where and why it might have been tampered with. Would you like us to reveal it now?”

  The fact that he alluded to the original version being what was in the Elder’s memory gained him points with Kaeleigh. He would not speak against the Elder and believed him solely on his word—that showed trust and loyalty to her. Still, she didn’t like how he carried himself, like he was above everyone else. Perhaps he was, for all she knew of this realm, but she didn’t have to like it. She let it go for now. Shaking herself out of her current train of thought, she watched as the three scholars hefted a large dusty and tattered scroll onto the table. At Arileas’s nod, they proceeded to place it lengthwise on the table and began to unroll it. It was longer than Kaeleigh thought it should be for the prophecy she had heard the Elder speak. Rapt with attention, everyone sat at the edge of their seats, waiting to get a look at the ancient passage.

  “There! That was not there before.” Arileas pointed to the end of the written text. “I cannot read it, for it is warded with magic!” Arileas’s shock was evident. “I need to think on this. I have not seen it.”

  As it slowly continued to unroll, Kaeleigh leaned forward. Her breath caught at the magic she could feel reaching off the scroll. The words were not in English, but the strange symbols embedded on the page and etched into Alandrian history slowly rose off the page and rearranged themselves into words she could understand. It still didn’t seem to be English, but Kaeleigh could understand it anyway. All except the last stanza, which remained indecipherable. She gasped when she realized she was reading it.

  Chel looked up at her from her seat next to Kaeleigh and pulled at her sleeve. “What is it? Can you read it?” Kaeleigh only nodded with a baffled look on her face.

  “All but the last bit,” she replied quietly.

  Halister had been quietly in attendance sitting across from Chel at the table. He had only acknowledged her with a slight smile when he caught her eyes questioning his state of well-being. Hal now stared at the ancient language with confusion etched on his face. “I cannot read it,” he simply said. Then he looked up at Daegan, who seemed to be lost in his own head by the vacant expression he wore. Daegan shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as the onset of another headache began.

  Arileas looked on with rapt attention as he watched the expressions of those all around the table. Something about others being able to read it must have been fascinating. Aidón, who had also been scarce since they had arrived in Ehsmia, looked on then back up to Arileas. “I cannot read it either. I was never the student as my brother was when it came to the ancient languages.”

  “Young Master Daegan, what about you? Are you able to decipher the ancient language?” Arileas asked.

  The question made Daegan squirm. There was a struggle in his eyes but he refused to look at the text. There was determination in his demeanor. “I will not try with the darkness still attached to me for the safety of this place.” He sighed in frustration. “I will not hold back my knowledge from you though. I am able to pick up quite a bit of it, or at least the essence of it, through Kaeleigh’s emotions. She tends to broadcast quite loudly though she has been instructed not to.” He looked at her pointedly with a scowl. Kaeleigh’s eyes flashed to his sharply and though she was angry, she could see the growing struggle in his features. She took a moment and closed off her emotions and magical release of energy. He nodded at her that she had done it.

  Arileas contemplated something as he looked to each of them. “I have foreseen this. I do not yet know what it will mean, but I want you to look at the document only and purposely open yourself to her... to Maleina.” Daegan threw a look of questioning frustration at what the Elder was aski
ng of him. “Show her,” was the only command Arileas gave, but Daegan stared long at the Elder, reading his resolve. He relented with a nod.

  Daegan took a deep breath and shut his eyes, moving closer to the table. Then he opened them upon the ancient text, absorbing it all into his mind. To his surprise he too could read the language. In his mind, he willed the prophecy to Maleina. He could almost sense her shock at him taking control of the connection—that he had figured out how to turn the tables on her—but her greed to know the entirety of the prophecy that had been hidden for too long outweighed her curiosity at this new discovery and how she could use it or how she could keep it from backfiring at her. Daegan could feel her greed, could feel her plans taking shape. He could feel her hatred for him and her desire for his power. His power? That was something he did not fully grasp nor took the time to weigh it in front of her. When he finished reading the scroll he prepared to shut her out with a final message that he hoped was loud and clear: I WILL NOT BE USED. In return, he felt almost as strongly as if he had heard it with his ears, her laughter born from evil itself. It sent chills up his spine.

  Halister move up beside him and turned Daegan’s face so that it was right in front of his alone and opened his soul to show his hurt, his anger, and his brokenness to his mother. He knew she would see him. He wanted her to see him, see what her quest for power had done to him and to their family—turned him against his own mother. Hal closed his eyes. So did Daegan as the connection was lost. Daegan looked back to Hal—his friend, his brother—and placed his hand on his shoulder. Words were not needed. Their bond was strong.

  “This ends now.” Arileas moved up beside Daegan. “May I?” the Elder asked, seeking Daegan’s eyes, letting him feel his intentions. At Daegan’s nod, Arileas placed his hands on the warrior’s shoulders. Daegan stood taller than the Elder, but somehow Arileas managed to look straight into his face. Without breaking contact, Arileas addressed the others. “Join your magic, join your energy. We break the connection that binds Master Daegan to the evil within the Paladin.”