Chapter 19 #2
“One group. There are more, but I’m taking you to someone who can speak for the others, and will decide if they want to talk to you.”
“How do they stay in contact with each other?”
“Very carefully. The Ashenvale Knot often acts as messenger between the different settlements. But the less contact there is, the safer everyone stays.”
The path leads us toward what appears to be a farming village nestled against the side of a hill. Small cottages with thatched roofs, barns and outbuildings, fields that look like patchwork quilts, and smoke rises from chimneys.
“There.” Corwin points toward it. “That’s where we’re going.”
I study it, searching for some sign that people with magical abilities live there, but it looks completely ordinary.
“It doesn’t look special.”
“That’s the point. The best hiding place is in plain sight.”
When we reach the village and walk through, people stop what they’re doing to watch. A couple nod to Corwin, their eyes on me, but no one asks who I am, and Corwin doesn’t explain. Instead he guides me toward the largest building. A woman steps out once we’re a few feet away.
“Corwin.” Her voice is rich, almost musical, and makes the hairs on my arm stand on end.
“Kessa. I’ve brought someone to meet you.”
Her gaze shifts to me, and I feel that look in ways that aren’t normal. This woman is reading me, looking for threats, for deception, for anything that might endanger her people.
Whatever she sees, it sharpens her focus. Her back straightens, her head lifting a little higher. “Follow me.”
She turns and walks back inside, without looking back to see if we’re following her. I glance at Corwin, who nods and waves me forward. Taking a deep breath, I follow the woman.
The building she takes us into seems to be a common hall. There are tables and chairs, shelves holding parchment and jars, but something about the room feels off. Like nothing is quite what it appears to be.
“Sit, please.” Kessa waves a hand toward chairs arranged around a central table. “Why have you brought her here?”
“A proclamation has been issued out of the Lirien Spire.” He reaches into his cloak and pulls out a sheet of parchment. Unfolding it, he hands it to her. I catch a glimpse of the Authority sigil, and the sketches of me and Sacha.
Her eyes move over it, but her face remains blank.
“She has confirmed the rumors that he is alive and free.”
Her eyes flick to me, then back to Corwin. “Anyone could claim that. What proof do you have?”
“Would they issue a bounty if they thought it was rumor? The incident a while back. When they chased someone they claimed was a petty thief out of Ashenvale, followed by talk of the Shadowvein Lord being paraded through mountain settlements while he died.”
“There have been rumors of sightings before.”
“She carries power that matches the prophecy.”
Kessa’s eyes narrow. “Prove it.”
This is a test. If I fail, I will die. I know it as surely as I know my own name.
I force myself to meet her eyes, then reach inside and summon my familiar, hoping that it responds and doesn’t choose this moment to ignore me. To my relief, mist rises from my arm, twists and swirls, then slowly takes the form of the mist stalker.
Kessa’s eyes widen, and she stumbles back a step. She stares at the beast, and then at me, then turns on her heel and walks out.
I look at Corwin. “What is happening right now?”
“Stay still.” His lips barely move, and his eyes don’t leave the door Kessa disappeared through.
My heart is pounding, and lightning sparks between my fingers.
No more than five minutes pass before Kessa returns with three other people.
Two men and a woman, all moving with a kind of grace that suggests they’re anything but humble farmers.
But the way they walk isn’t what stops the breath in my lungs. It’s the woman.
Dark hair streaked with silver. Eyes with the same silver flecks that mark my own. The same face I’ve seen in dreams since coming to Meridian.
“You!” I lurch to my feet on unsteady legs.
“Elowen.” Her voice is as familiar to me as Sacha’s. “I am so pleased to finally meet you in person. My name is Vorith.”
The world spins around me.
How can that be possible?
“You’re supposed to be dead.” The words come out breathless. “How are you here?”
“As you can see, I am far from dead.”
“But Nyassa said—”
“Nyassa is alive?”
“Yes. The ritual sent her to Earth with me. She thought you all died.”
“Alive.” Her voice catches, and she takes a moment to compose herself. “We hoped, but had no way to know for sure.”
“You’ve been here all this time?”
She nods. “Protecting the families who escaped the purges. Keeping them safe while we wait.”
“While you wait for what?”
Her smile changes her entire face, turning it from severe to almost ethereal in its beauty.
“For you, and for our Vareth’el.” Her eyes when they meet mine shimmer with suppressed power. “For shadow and storm to finally unite.”
At the mention of prophecy, the air in the room changes, turning heavier. I try to ignore it and focus on the thousand questions spinning around my head.
“How many are there?”
“Hundreds, Elowen.” She smiles. “More than the Authority could even imagine.”
Dizziness overtakes me, and I grasp at the table’s edge. An entire hidden population of Veinbloods that everyone assumed had been destroyed.
“All this time you’ve been hiding?”
“We pose as farmers, merchants. We raise children who may look and act ordinary, but carry extraordinary heritage. We have been waiting for the day when we can stop pretending to be something we’re not.”