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

  Everyone gathered in close. There was nervous anticipation swirling about, but also confidence and strength from the Elder’s magic that was contagious as it jumped from one to the next. Halister stood next to Daegan on one side and Kaeleigh flanked him on the other. She joined her hand with his infusing her magic directly with his. His fingers squeezed hers in response. A breeze began to blow in the Great Hall. The sparkles on the cavern walls flared in bright erratic sparks. Magic consumed the air, thick with possibility and hope.

  “Release your magic. Sever the tie that binds.” Arileas muttered a few words in the language of the Ehsmia. The words held weight and the power for freedom: Thantül Kothnyte lan du ílleyll. “Daegan, you have the power within you to push her out. We are assisting, but it is you that must remove the anchor darkness holds inside you. She has no right to have this hold over you. FORCE her out!” Arileas’s voice boomed in the room, echoing throughout the Great Hall, reverberating on every surface. Intensity exploded in the room. Daegan’s face was pinched as if in pain. Kaeleigh sensed he was on the edge of something, and she squeezed his hand again, reminding him she was there with him. Daegan threw his head back and roared, shaking everything in the room. His roar surpassed the shout of the Elder before him. It rattled each of their souls. It was the sound of bondage, pain, regret, humiliation, possibility, hope, and freedom all wrapped into one. It was terrifying and liberating. There was an audible “snap” and then Daegan sagged to his knees, breathing deep, his chest rising and falling. Kaeleigh sank down beside him, still gripping his hand.

  “You are free,” Arileas whispered into the charged atmosphere. “You, young prince, are free.”

  “Yes. I can feel it,” Daegan whispered as he caught his breath. “Thank you.” Daegan breathed deep, relishing the freedom he felt.

  The room was quiet as they watched Daegan recover. The air was thick with a multitude of emotions and spent energy. Kaeleigh beamed up at Daegan, her grin reaching her teary eyes. Daegan started to move in close to her face, hesitated for Kaeleigh’s sake, then gave in to his heart’s desire and pulled her into him. He lightly brushed her lips, but then Daegan growled and crushed his lips against hers in exclamation and freedom.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Metrí, quiet up until then, still not wanting to interrupt Daegan’s newfound freedom, snuck up beside Arileas. She beckoned him down closer to her level and whispered, “So I’m hoping someone will explain what just happened later, but I’m curious about this prophecy. Is it possible to hear it, Elder Arileas, sir?”

  “I have an idea, if you will indulge an old man for a moment.” Arileas smiled conspiratorially at those still gathered. “Kaeleighnna, I would like to stretch your magic to see how you have grown.”

  Kaeleigh nodded and stepped up to where Arileas was standing. “What would you like me to do?”

  “Instead of me reciting an old text, I would like to see if you are able to show everyone. There is something to experiencing an event firsthand as opposed to hearing about it, do you not think?”

  “I am not sure how you want me to do that, sir. I did something similar once, making light in darkness to see, but I was able to envision it. I don’t know how to project something I have not experienced myself.” Kaeleigh scrunched up her nose in thought.

  “No, that would be most difficult,” Arileas said. He then turned to her right. “If you are able to channel the experience from me and push it into Kaeleighnna’s mind, I believe she will be able to externalize the vision for us all to see.”

  Kaeleigh didn’t even have to turn around to know that the Elder was addressing Daegan behind her. Who else did she know that could draw from others’ feelings, emotions, and apparently images?

  “Oh sure, why not? Easy peasy,” Chel muttered under her breath sarcastically.

  “I want to try. That is, if Daegan is willing to help.” Kaeleigh turned to him with questioning eyes. He looked curiously at her with eyes full of love, then nodded his head.

  “I will admit, I have not done what you are asking much, and only then it was attempted in smaller amounts of magic,” Daegan spoke humbly. “If you are projecting your memories loudly enough, then I should be able to draw them out. I am more uncertain of pushing them into Kaeleigh’s mind.” He turned to her. “It will not hurt, that I am aware, but I have never tried to send that big of a vision before.”

  “Then we will learn and try together,” Kaeleigh said matter-of-factly.

  “As Chel said, ‘easy peasy.’” Arileas winked at her.

  “Let us begin. I will call the ancient words from my mind, releasing the magic of the event so very long ago.” Arileas took a step or two back from the table. Everyone at the table watched him with bated breath, awaiting what might transpire.

  He closed his eyes and spread his hands wide. The Elder began to emit a low hum that was melodic and even haunting. A light breeze playfully swirled about the Great Hall, tickling the ears of each individual there before it rested around Arileas. This breeze was different from the previous, more deliberate wind. The air in the room chilled and silence weighed heavy like a blanket upon them. The brightness of the hall began to dim, allowing the glimmers of the cave walls to shimmer even more like millions of tiny diamonds embedded into the walls. And the lanterns that were lit slowly dimmed to barely a flicker. With just enough light to see, a thin mist rose into the air. It took a few minutes for Arileas to be ready, but when he was, the energy in the room shifted and built to an intensity that was strong, though not frightening.

  “Come, it is time,” he said with his eyes still closed. He reached out to grab Daegan’s arm.

  Daegan gripped the Elder’s arm in return. Daegan did not close his eyes, but he stared intently at Arileas as if through his eyes alone he could draw out the memories. Perhaps that was how it worked. The air in the Great Hall shifted once more. A crackle of energy pulsed throughout it, chasing the tails of the finicky breeze. A moment later, Daegan reached back and grabbed Kaeleigh’s hand, pulling her close to where he and Arileas stood.

  “Now, Kaeleigh,” Daegan said barely on a whisper.

  She turned so she faced the table and everyone that was waiting. Kaeleigh nervously clenched and unclenched her free hand over and over. She caught Chel’s eyes and when she winked at her, Kaeleigh took a deep breath, believing she could do this, she would do this... show them Arileas’s vision of the past. She nodded and closed her eyes. Kaeleigh could feel it channeling into her mind from Daegan. It was like she could individually pick out the different strands of energy in her head. This had gotten easier for her the more she practiced, but it was always people around her, not all in her head. She saw glimpses of Arileas’s energy as it wafted in her mind on the color purple and then she could of course feel Daegan, his strand the most familiar of them all. This time, though, she noticed it was different. Before, it was blue tangled with wisps of black and felt murky and inky. This time it was a clear, brilliant deep shade of blue. It felt solid and whole. The result of his new freedom.

  She took a deep breath and began to make sense of the disjointed pictures she was receiving in her mind. Her energy was stirring within her, building in her chest. It almost hurt, but mostly it was just pressure. She envisioned pushing her magic up into her mind, slowly and methodically gathering all the images and sorting them out like a puzzle. With great control she saw her magic pull the pieces together like a film strip and push it out of her mind. Kaeleigh felt a release. She knew it had worked. The confirmations of gasps from those in front of her helped too. Afraid to open her eyes, afraid she might lose it, she decided to trust her magic, trust her energy to finish what it began. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw what everyone else did. Like a movie, there was a vision playing out before them on the opaque screen of mist and fog. The image of Hunter stood in the air above the table. He looked much younger, but it was definitely him. Green eyes that she had recognized upon her first meeting with him were the same eyes that were now focused on anoth
er group before him in a very different land.

  Arileas’s voice reverberated through the room as he set the stage. He spoke the words and the cadence of a different time. It could also have been simply that it was a prophecy and the words flowed from him ensconced with a deep and ancient magic. It felt different than even what Kaeleigh had experienced in Alandria thus far.

  It was a different realm, the one before Alandria was even a conceived thought. It was home, the land from which we came. The beauty of it, even more otherworldly than this one. It was peace, it was serenity, it was Lenoria. Until the time when the darkness slowly crept in and then was unleashed. It was forceful and destructive and swept across our land with a vengeance that no one expected and has not been seen since. The only escape was to flee or be destroyed. The death toll was horrific. However, there were those who were able to flee to other realms, including the mortal realm. The Elders—the Orchids as they were called—gathered to bring their power together, to unite as they sought answers... a way to save their people and their land. They could not. In their time of desperation, a prophecy was brought forth...

  A storm of red stains the skies of Alandria.

  The darkness brings cleansing to a world run thick with confusion and conspiracy.

  Behold, a union of strength rises.

  Mystery comes with strength and compassion.

  The shadow gives way as the Orchids bloom.

  Seats of power are set to the right,

  As things once held in sleep and night

  Have now crossed over.

  Awake, Alandria!

  The sword is upon you.

  There is hope in the hidden,

  Destiny revealed in the unknown.

  Awake.

  There was an abrupt silence followed once more by Arileas’s voice as it echoed through the hall.

  The Elder that delivered it was extinguished with his last words. His soul, sent to the In-between for rebirth, which he was. Your grandfather, you knew him as Hunter. We always knew him as Ryek Sayaelíth of Lithnaí, the king of not only Adettlyn, but the head of the Orchids in our mother realm. He was given the inspiration and the magic to create—using all of our combined power and energy—a portal that would simultaneously create a new realm that had never before existed. Alandria. It would be what Lenoria failed to be in the end—an oasis.

  In Lenoria, the source of the darkness had been contained, as far as we knew. That realm, sealed off and destroyed by its own fire and darkness. We began again. To his, and all of our disappointment, darkness found its way in, once again, into the hearts of our people slowly saturating and growing until it could no longer remain hidden.

  The vision blinked out as Kaeleigh and her Ferrishyn conduit released their hold on the Elder. Arileas began to look tired and even older, if that was possible. Daegan helped Arileas back to his chair. Kaeleigh looked to him, worry etched on her face. She felt fatigued and drained, but surprisingly, nothing like she had experienced before when she used that much magic. Kaeleigh wondered if it had to do with the vision not being her own and she simply functioned as the funnel or if it was the fierce warrior who fed her the vision. She let him help her back to her chair, noting that he didn’t seemed fazed from his part of what had just happened.

  “Are you well?” he asked her.

  “Much better than before. Thank you.” Kaeleigh then looked once more at Arileas. “Elder? Are you all right?”

  “Yes, child. I will be replenished and fine in moments. I simply need to go sit in my garden and absorb life from the lovely Alandria. She heals me and rejuvenates me.”

  “So you were there? At the destruction of your other realm and the beginning of this one?” Chel asked.

  Arileas nodded with a twinkle in his eyes. “Yes, I am quite old, eh, Chelnáh?”

  The shock on Chel’s face was priceless. Kaeleigh watched her friend try to recover. No one ever used her given name. Kaeleigh almost forgot that she had one.

  “You know my name?”

  “Indeed. I know your parents as well. Did you know that you were actually born in Alandria?”

  Chel shook her head back and forth so fast, Kaeleigh worried it might fly off. “No. I mean I knew my parents are from here and left after Kaeleigh did, but I believed I was born on the outside.” Her expression was curious, as though she was counting the years. “How is that? Because I am only a little younger than Kaeleigh.”

  “Actually, Chel you are older than Kaeleigh by no more than a few days.” It was Ella, this time, that spoke. “Time moves differently—slower—here than in the mortal realm remember? Your parents adjusted to whatever age you would have appeared when you arrived in the mortal realm.”

  “Okay, that makes sense,” Chel said, nodding her head, but her expression still held confusion. “It is just hard to grasp. I guess it doesn’t really change anything.” She looked to Kaeleigh with a smirk. “Except now it makes sense why I am so much more mature and responsible than you.”

  The room filled with light laughter, breaking up the intensity of the moment to everyone’s apparent relief. “Of course, that’s it!” Kaeleigh smiled at her friend and grabbed her arm, giving it a squeeze. She noted that even Daegan grinned at the humor of the moment.

  After a moment or two of silence following the laughter, the three scholars put their heads close together and spoke quietly amongst themselves. They looked back to the Elder. “We will need to look at the scroll again and think on what the new addition could mean and how it could have come to be. Perhaps, the Sol-lumieth would join us, if she has the strength.” They all looked at Kaeleigh simultaneously, expecting her compliance.

  She looked to Arileas then to Daegan quickly, but their faces did not say anything so she assumed it was her choice. “Yes, I will do what I can to help.”

  They nodded.

  Arileas stood with the assistance of Ella under his arm. “Might I suggest we take a short rest and gather again for the evening meal. We shall discuss more. For now, I need rest.”

  “Finn, would you help me get Grandfather to the garden?” Ella asked.

  Finn quickly moved toward the Elder. He stopped at Kaeleigh’s chair briefly and touched her shoulder. “You sure you’re good, Kae?”

  “Yeah, thanks, Finn. Please help Ella.” Kaeleigh squeezed his hand on her shoulder before he pulled away.

  After they had escorted Arileas out of the Great Hall, the scholars all started talking at once. Others around the table joined in and Kaeleigh, along with her friends, simply listened. Confused by what they were saying, she tried to keep up with them. The main thing she took away from their words was they were confounded as to how anyone could have retrieved the scroll from where it was hidden and alter it to the state it was now in.

  “Do you think it was purposely given to Alandria in a shorter version to understand? Or are you saying you believe the Elder wasn’t truthful long ago?” Chel voiced the thoughts that were being expressed on many of the faces around that table. There was a heavy moment of silence.

  “No child, we are not saying the Elder was dishonest. More that a future was foreseen long, long ago and only part of the prophecy was given and transcribed for all of Alandria when they passed from Lenoria into this realm. The Orchids and those that traveled with them were deemed trustworthy with the future of the new realm. But, perhaps, it was King Ryek who saw something that would suggest to keep such truths hidden until an appointed time... this appointed time.” The scholar with the long face, the pointy ears, and ethereal beauty in a nerdish sort of way spoke for all three of them. The others nodded their agreement. Kaeleigh felt a weight lift off her that they weren’t going to have to debate the trustworthiness of one specific Elder. “The baffling part is that we have read this specific text before and witnessed that the new segments were not there before now.” They all frowned, deep in thought.

  “That, what we just heard, was similar to what Elder Arileas spoke to Daegan and myself when we visited here not too long
ago, before Daegan went to the mortal realm in search of you, Kaeleigh,” Halister said, thinking out loud.

  Kaeleigh cocked her eyebrow with a questioning expression as she looked to Daegan. “I thought Maleina sent you after me.”

  “She did. They both did.”

  “Care to elaborate on that?” Chel joined in as if showing she was on Kaeleigh’s side—not that there were any sides.

  Daegan sighed and gave Hal an annoyed look. Hal simply shrugged, not bothered by it one bit. “I’ll elaborate for him,” Hal began. “Mother dearest sent us looking for information on the Sol-lumieth which she had gotten wind of somehow. We found Ella, who brought us here saying her grandfather was waiting to speak with this handsome lad next to me.” He gestured at Daegan. “Arileas explained what the Sol-lumieth was and how he might go about finding her and that he should bring you here.” Hal looked all around with his arms spread wide as if it was obvious that was what they had done. But they hadn’t.

  “Wait. Are you telling me that we were supposed to come straight here all along? That had it not been for the way we went, we wouldn’t have encountered the Droch-Shúil in those caves? That we would never have gone to Elnye and had to be trapped in that detestable dungeon? That we could have avoided all encounters with that insufferable woman?!” Chel’s volume rose as she vented her anger and fears from the last many days spent in this land.

  Hal’s face blanched at her fury. He looked quickly to Daegan and then to Kaeleigh and then to anyone else’s eyes he could catch, searching for something, anything that could get him out of the hole he apparently dug for himself. He gulped audibly. “Chel...” he started, then his face fell.