Light the Reign (The Forgotten: Book 3) (7 page)

She was rather impressed with Lady Aria’s
ability to have transitioned to the political woman she was. When
Layna had first met her, she had seemed content to stay out of the
politics that her father was so involved in. Obviously, she had
picked up on more than she had let on. The position seemed to suit
her, and her discussions were always calm and thought-out.

Layna felt the once-familiar twinge of
jealousy and swiftly pushed it from her mind. She squeezed
Gryffon’s knee under the table and gave him a fleeting smile. The
love in his eyes as he smiled back at her was enough to remind her
she had nothing to fear.

She turned her attention back to the
proceedings. Nothing to fear from the Lady Aria anyway. Plenty to
fear from the Bricrui.

*

Katya watched Kali sprint up the stairs, no
doubt to flee the tribe who would soon be demanding answers from
her. She moved to go after her, but the Dena’ina leader put a
restraining hand on her arm. “We are outsiders here,” he said
softly, “it is not our place to detain or punish, only to inform.”
Katya nodded and looked around the sea of faces.

Most were stilled trained on Slade, who was
telling them everything he had known about and done, including
having seduced her into parting with the information the Elders
wanted. She glanced at Hunter out of the corner of her eye. He was
wearing a carefully neutral expression, but he did step closer to
her and take her hand possessively. Normally such a display would
have bothered her, but she liked the idea of Hunter possessing
her.

She brought her wandering thoughts back to
the events as she heard Lorcan speak up. He told them of his
exploits with the other children to find out about the stones and
the curse. Katya was impressed at their resourcefulness. She was
also very proud of how quickly he had been able to let go of his
hate for the Dena’ina, and of his ability to express this to his
tribesmen. Even though the Dena’ina hadn’t killed his parents in
cold blood, they still had killed them. It took an extremely mature
mind to be able to look past this fact and accept that the Dena’ina
had been given no choice.

A few more of the Elders slunk away in the
commotion, only a handful staying behind to defend their actions.
It soon turned into a shouting match over whether or not what had
been done to the Lost Ones was justified. Some of the arguments
even sounded very convincing…if you could forget that they were
talking about people.

“How can we believe anything that this
outsider has said? Claiming to have been from the tribes and
bearing the Bloodstone.” The truth about her origins and her
adventure with Layna had come out during the conversations, with
the tribe bombarding both her and the Knights for information about
the events.

Lorcan spoke up, “She is from the tribes. She
is from
our
tribe, and furthermore is Gareth’s daughter. The
one that he went mad with guilt over, having to throw her out
because of our misguided customs. She is not evil. Because we
exiled her, much evil was done to her.”

Katya wondered how much of her past he
actually knew about. Whatever vague tidbits she had let on in his
presence was nothing compared to the actual truth. If he thought
the small portion he was aware of was bad...

Lorcan continued, “But still, she was the one
who helped Queen Layna of Gelendan,” Katya noticed the conspicuous
use of the actual names of these places rather than the tribe’s
usual ‘Lost Lands’. “She helped her to destroy Nuko, the evil
behind the Dark King. Queen Layna, who also bears his mark. Would
those following his path seek to destroy him? How can we say that
the marked are evil when they have done more than we have to get
rid of the true last traces of the Dark King on our world while we
have been here hiding and hating him? And them.” He paused for a
breath and Katya shifted uncomfortably at the attention his speech
was directing at her.

He went on, “Katya is the last of the
Greyclaw bloodline, our founding member and a family that has been
long respected. Despite the tribe throwing her out, she holds no
malice for us. Despite her own father allowing it to happen, she
welcomed him with open arms at the realization of who he was. And
despite the fact that
we
killed him, moments after she
discovered he was her father, she still comes to us speaking of
making us understand the faults in our thinking, instead of
vengeance. She is a very powerful talent, she was able to fool the
combined Elders of her origin, make no mistake that she could have
wreaked vengeance on us had she been so inclined. But she did not.”
He hung his head in shame, “which is more than I can say. In my own
quest for vengeance I ended up stabbing my friend – her. And yet
again, she didn’t even have to think twice about forgiving me. If
these are the qualities of the marked, it seems as though we should
be celebrating them, not throwing them out.”

A commotion broke out again and Lorcan held
up his hands for quiet. The corners of his mouth twitched a bit
with pride as he was immediately given it. “I’m not saying that all
those marked are like Katya. I’m trying to point out that being
marked means you have a certain bloodline. They were born that way.
They didn’t choose it, and that is the end of the meaning it
carries with it. The person they become is not influenced by it,
and they should not be judged because of it.”

A woman spoke up; one who had been hovering
protectively over Raina during the conversation who Katya assumed
was her mother. “They told us we needed to worry about the Dark
King and the Lost Lands. We did not want to bother with it
ourselves, so we were content to let them deal with it while we got
lost in our own issues. We should not have let it happen.”

This time, she was met with more agreement
than not. The tide of the debate seemed to be turning. After many
more comments along the same lines, one of the Elders finally came
forward, one who had seemed just as surprised as the rest of the
tribe over many of the dealings by his peers.

“We need to use the Myaamia powerstone to see
if we can break the curse. Without all the original members of the
circle, we will not be able to do so without its help. The stone
has been kept in a secret tower for generations, with only a select
few knowing of its existence. Getting the stone will also be
difficult without the other Elders, but with the combined knowledge
and power of everyone in the tribe, we should be able to do
it.”

The man looked around the crowd with regret
in his eyes. “I was caught up in the lies of Kali and the hatred we
have held onto for too long. But you all are right.”

Another Elder who had stayed for the debate,
a woman, came to stand next to him. “I agree. I too was seduced by
the thought that stopping the Dark King’s bloodline would rid the
world of evil, but you have opened our eyes and forced us to
realize the harsh truth that what
we
did was evil. I only
hope that you can forgive us.”

Katya followed with the rest of the tribe to
the secret place that the Myaamia powerstone was kept and watched
with fascination as one after another of its defenses were overcome
by the cooperation of the tribe. Finally, they arrived in the last
chamber of the giant tree where the stone was kept. The throng of
people massed forward, squeezing into the small room. Katya was
pressed up against the far wall and she took in her surroundings.
The room was largely empty, save for a tall pedestal in the center
of the room on top of which was perched a giant bird on an equally
giant nest.

It squawked loudly, peering down at the mass
of people beneath its nest with dark eyes. The enormous wings
spread and beat at the air, sending wind whooshing down at them.
The Elder who had first spoken up during the debate, admitting that
they had been wrong, held up his hands.

“This one is mine, I can take care of it,” he
stated calmly, and closed his eyes in concentration. The bird
bunched its legs and leapt from its perch, opening its beak wide as
it plummeted towards them. People screamed and pushed against each
other, trying to get out of the way of the sharp beak. All except
the Elder who still stood with his hands outstretched towards it.
Katya watched with trepidation.

The beak opened wider, enveloping the man,
but just as it was closing around him, it puffed into smoke. The
pedestal lurched into motion, grating against the floor as it
lowered. The stone that was held in the nest was magnificent. The
same moonstone of the Dena’ina’s powerstone, shining with different
colors depending on the angle. Everyone in the room stood staring
at it with awe for some time.

Then the woman Elder stepped forward and took
it gently from its nest. She handed the stone to Katya. “It is only
fitting that a Greyclaw should be the one to carry it.”

“And so it begins,” the Dena’ina leader
murmured softly.

Katya took it gently, cradling it to her
chest. She did not see the reasoning behind giving it to her to
carry back to the village, but didn’t care either as long as they
moved quickly to see what could be done about the curse. Though
normally having the population become sterile wouldn’t bother her
overly much, she knew that she would also be infected by its curse,
and for some reason since finding Hunter again this was much more
of an issue for her.

They marched back to the Chamber and Katya
set the stone out in front of them. The more powerful mages, along
with those of the Elders who had changed their stance and remained
to help, formed a circle around it. Katya followed the instruction
of the Elder who walked them through the spell to reopen the
channel between them and the child. Though Katya’s role was mainly
adding strength since she had not been involved in the original
spell, she did watch it carefully to make sure that no more harm
was being done. Finally, they dropped hands they had been holding,
and the Elder who had taken the role of leader of the spell sighed
heavily.

“The curse refused to be broken, even with
the stone,” the man told them sadly. “I fear that our horrible deed
cannot be undone.” He paused, obviously holding something back.

“Is there more?” Katya prodded.

“Yes,” he sighed, “it appears as though
another spell has combined with the one that the Circle performed.
It has warped the original so that instead of spreading the curse
of sterilization to all those of the Dark King’s line, it is now
spreading some sort of blood-magic ailment.”

Katya cursed, and many eyes turned to her.
“We need to contact Layna.”

*

Kali closed her eyes in concentration,
contemplating her next move. The unfortunate events which had
exposed her true intentions to the tribe had forestalled her
original plans, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She
already had a new direction in mind. The Lost Ones would pay; she
would make sure of it.

She looked into the scrying glass once more
and ran a hand over the surface, making the image of the giant dome
over the city of Naoham ripple.

So the Lost Ones thought they had it under
control by containing the spread with their little dome, did they?
She would have to disabuse them of this notion. Kali sent out her
probes, tasting the energies in the surrounding areas, sending her
tendrils of magic farther and farther in search. Hours passed, but
she paid no heed to the time. Finally, she found what she was
looking for, in a small village in what the Lost Ones called
Treymayne. She watched the image in the glass-like pool, a smile
forming on her face.

A young woman sat beside a bed, dabbing the
brow of a man as he tossed and turned in an uneasy sleep. His
feverish thralls threw the blankets off him, revealing his
sweat-covered body beneath. The young woman hastily restored them,
returning them to their position while the man continued his
flailing. The woman looked on, concern marring her pretty little
face.

Another woman walked into the room and handed
the sitting girl a new bowl of water, presumably cooler, and she
gratefully handed the old one back.

“How is he?” the newcomer asked, setting the
bowl down and moving across the floor to lay a hand on the man’s
forehead. He flinched at the touch, jerking his head back and
forth.

“Ever since he visited his mother in Naoham
he’s been getting sicker,” the young woman reported, biting her lip
in worry.”

“There’s gossip,” the other said hesitantly,
“that there is some sort of illness plaguing the citizens. It is
possible that he caught it while he was there.”

“It has to just be winter sickness,” the
young woman disagreed, shaking her head firmly, “people get them
all the time.”

“Not this bad,” the other whispered, then
raised her voice. “There is the very real possibility that he is
contagious with whatever it is. It would be best if we moved him up
to the caves.”

“You want me to leave him to die?” the young
woman shot at her, throwing her arms around the writhing man’s
neck.

“No,” the older woman said hastily, “but he
shouldn’t be in the center of town like this, what if we are
spreading it to everyone we know? Do you next want to see your
sister and your mother lying on the bed like this?” she gestured to
the man.

The young woman was silent a moment.
“No…”

“Good,” said the other, “We’ll move him in
the morning. But we won’t leave him alone out there to die. I will
stay with the two of you and travel back and forth to the village
for supplies when we need them.”

Kali withdrew from her observation. This was
exactly what she had been looking for. Now, she just had to find
the perfect person to give this information to.

CHAPTER 5

Layna and Gryffon sat with their Council in
the meeting room, staring into the mirror into the somber faces of
the Ieldran. It was a position that was becoming all too familiar,
but getting more and more uncomfortable every time. It seemed that
it was always bad news getting relayed rather than issues being
resolved.