Queen of Jastain (4 page)

Avant had learn a long time ago how to use his Gift to superimpose his will on others. Only the stoutest of hearts could withstand him. Though he rarely used the dangerous Gift, now seemed an appropriate time.

He focused his energy. The power of his Implanting surged into her, filling her with a sense of confidence. She nodded and gazed deeply in his eyes, as if she tried to see behind them. Reaching for his energy source that touched her mind, she resisted the flow of ideas and emotions there, and the lightning shock of her Gift reverberated through him.

Her forehead creased as if she were thinking,
“My name is Abigail.”

A satisfied smile grazed his lips, and he inclined his head in greeting.
“I am pleased to meet you, Abigail.”

Avant watched Abigail's eyes round as she gasped. She clapped her hands and wiggled on her seat. He laughed and raised his eyebrows. If he hadn’t known her exuberance was in response to her accomplishment, he might have thought she needed to relieve herself.

A brilliant smile lit her face. Her eyes sparkled with joy at the small victory and warmed him from a chill the fire could not. He smiled in return and, for the first time in a long while, it reached his heart.

“I am Avant, Lord Ventium of the Freelands of Jastain. Welcome, Abigail. How did you come to be in this land?”

She squinted her eyes and schooled her face in concentration of her energy.
“I don’t know. I was driving my car, there was a flash of light, and suddenly I was here. It’s a mystery to me.”

He tapped his lip with his index finger. Had she accessed her Gift of Implanting without realizing? Certainly her shift indicated she had come from other lands. To think she accessed so powerful a Gift without knowing was… alarming. The power of her Gift must be something indeed and a manifestation of which he, or anyone, had limited knowledge.

“I'm from Dallas, Texas in the United States of America.”

His mind spun with imagination. A place of horseless carriages and other untold wonders filled him with anticipation. Though now was not the time, he intended to find out more about her world.

“I went to a party last night for my ex-boyfriend. I found out he and my best friend were getting married, barely a month after we broke-up.”
Her face pinched, and she scowled past him into the twilight. Remembering herself, she caught his gaze again.
“I was so upset that I drove my car off the road. But when I looked up, I was in that valley.”
Abigail pointed over the mountains toward Umbra.

“This boyfriend, he was your lover? He and your closest friend betrayed you?”

She squirmed where she sat, indicating she was uncomfortable with the question. Her cheeks flushed with color, and she barely maintained his gaze. Her modesty was endearing and encouraging. He was, after all, a stranger, and most women didn’t relish the idea of confiding their intimate lives with strange men.

“Lover? I guess he was, but that makes it sound glamorous …and yes, my best friend betrayed me.”

The pain from such a betrayal would be great. He, above all people, knew that.
“I can understand the hurt that comes from such a disloyalty….”
Avant drifted in thought, remembering how the king betrayed him and took his wife. “
We have a saying in this land—The Light protect me from my friends. From my enemies, I can protect myself.”

She rolled her eyes.
Oh, good. A philosopher.

Avant furrowed his brow. He'd heard her thought, but it didn’t seem she had intended to communicate it to him. Though her inflection held sarcasm, it masked a deeper hurt. The muscles in his arms flexed, and an inexplicable desire to hold her flooded his limbs. My Light, what was wrong with him? He clenched his jaw and pressed his arms uncomfortably against his body.

Her eyes sparkled with newly found confidence.
“My dad died of a heart attack six weeks ago.”
Her face fell.

“My condolences.”

She lifted her gaze.
“It's okay. He was a really important scientist. Except sometimes I think he wanted to be a priest. He made sure I was taken care of. I'm just sorry I didn't know him better.”

“So you grew up with only your mother?”

“No. Mom died when I was too young to remember. Although, they tell me I'm a lot like her.”

“Then she must have been a beautiful woman.”

Her face filled with mischief, and his heart flopped like a fish on a rock.
“She was drop-dead-gorgeous. The desire of every man and envy of every woman.”

He couldn't help himself. He laughed out loud.
“Indeed?”
Her impish ways were not to be ignored.
“And a bit of a trickster, no doubt?”

“No doubt.”
Her mind flitted to the next thing so quickly he had to blink.
“So anyway, when Chad and I broke up, I guess he decided my best friend was what he really wanted. It was a pretty quick turnaround. No sense letting the grass grow under him.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I just didn't know my best friend was the new yard he would be parking in.”

He chuckled at the colorful analogy though deep seeded hurt saturated her words.

“Then a blinding flash of light and 'Poof' I'm here in Jastain saving you from rabid horsemen, right?”

He pressed his lips together into a tight smile and furrowed his brow.
“It would seem so. And rabid is not far from the truth. A Darkness has crept into our land, corrupting all that is good.”

She'd been dealt several harsh circumstances in the past weeks. Her optimism and humor kept the evident emptiness at bay. Again, a compassion for the girl he could not explain washed over him. Perhaps the shocking similarities to his own circumstances caused a kinship with this young beauty. Or perhaps it was something else entirely, but on that thought he refused to dwell.

Based on her description, he believed she had used her Implanting. Unfortunately, without guidance from the Light, he would be unable to instruct her in that aspect of her Gift. Placement Implanting was a rare manifestation and had not shown itself in his lifetime. Even in the Annals of the Great Hall, Placement Implanting was a rare Gift and only bestowed in times of great Darkness. In all his studies, he’d found only two documented occurrences during the first age of Darkness, which was defeated by the great Prince Rheaboam.

“
Thank you for sharing your story, Abigail.”
The tears that pooled in her eyes pierced his heart and halted him from asking more questions.
“However you came to be in this land, it seems perhaps you will not be able to return so easily.”

She barely held back the flood of sorrow at his words. His fingers fisted as he stayed his hand from caressing her face. His heart pounded. It was not his place to comfort her. It was his place to train her and help her fulfill her destiny. This alone was his purpose.

Squaring his shoulders, Avant caught her gaze and held it.
“Seven nights ago, I had a dream that I should seek The One who will defeat the Darkness in this land. Abigail, I believe you are the Chosen One spoken of in my dream and that it is your destiny to restore the Crown of Light and find the missing prophecy. This is, I believe, the reason you have come to our land.”

Her brow arched, and she blinked several times. “
You had a dream about me?”

He nodded.
“You were the reason for my trip to the Valley of Umbra. I sought One in a carriage pulled by two-hundred-and-fifty horses, which I believe is your Esterra.”

Her face blanched. She shook her head.
“Just because I have a car doesn't mean I'm The One. Lots of people have cars.”

“Not in Jastain. And how do you explain your presence here? Only One of the Light could have come to this land from yours.”
She may not yet be ready to receive the call of the Light, but it beckoned nonetheless.

She tugged the wool blanket firmly around her and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I don't know how I got here, but I sure as hell don't think it's because I am this 'one' person.”

“And yet you most certainly manifest the Gift of Implanting or we could not be speaking. In fact, I believe it is your Implanting that brought you here.”

“Implanting, what's that?”

“The Implanting is what we call our Gift, which can manifest in an infinite possibility of ways. We can Implant our thoughts to one another as we are now. I can Implant direction into objects, causing them to move without touching them. Some are even able to Implant themselves from one place to another without the use of time or space. I believe it is how you came to be here, albeit unknowingly, and if you learn to command the power that is within you, you will find your way home.”

Abigail's head jerked up. She stared at him for a long moment then asked,
“You can help me go home?”

“That is my intention.”
He suppressed a smile. He would prevail upon her desire for home. Aside from that, the Light must reveal to her the way.

She stared out the mouth of the cave then looked back into his eyes.
“Can everybody here Implant?”

He shook his head.
“Only those who are chosen can Implant. It is considered a great honor. And so it is. But I also know it to be a great burden
.”

Framed with her beautiful blonde curls, Abigail’s face lit with interest as he recounted how Darkness invaded Jastain.

“After the destruction of the First Age of Darkness, laws and decrees were established. A theocracy was implemented that recognized a high priest and a king as joint rulers of the land. This balance of power allowed the Light to rule in Jastain for centuries. But Darkness crept in. Fifty years ago, the previous king murdered his own brother and, upon his own death, set an imposter on the throne. Today, the imposter seeks to unite the splintered kingdom under his evil rule. Until the Light is restored, Jastain and its people will continue to degrade.”

Avant studied Abigail as she listened. Her thoughts indicated gratitude. They also indicated her belief that he was touched in the mind. She seemed unaware of having communicated certain ideas, and he was unnerved by such an open window to her inner self. Her heart wasn't open to believe her purpose yet. However, unless his own Gift was wrong, and it was
never
wrong, she was The One. The days of Darkness were numbered.

“Tomorrow we will leave for my home, which is in a valley northwest of the mountains and across the river Itehris. I have a fief there, and you may stay until we decide what next to do.”

Abigail wondered if his fief included a wife. His chin tilted to his chest. She was unaware of the communication so he dared not answer her.

How was it he could hear her private musings without her knowledge? From the tenor of her thought, her romantic ideas of him clouded her mind. She found him attractive. A warmth poured over him from his head to ignite a flame in his lower regions. He threw his head back and let out a long sigh. She wasn't the only one with a clouded mind, and he must take care on this treacherous precipice. A fall would not only harm them both, but could destroy their chance of restoring the Crown of Light. It was a possibility he could not stomach.

Sun warmed Abby's face. The cave filled with the sounds of Avant milling quietly, but she couldn't pry open her eyes. After barely two hours sleep, her body ached as if the horsemen in her dreams had trampled her for real.

Even with Hots-A-Lot's blanket, she still froze her ass off. Her back and hips throbbed from laying all night on the rock, and she had to pee. If her legs hadn’t been so sore from the climb the day before, she would have shifted closer to the fire. But as it was, she couldn't move more than her eyelids, which finally fluttered opened.

Avant's long legs were bent in a squat as he stoked the fire, his ever-straight spine and the strength of his upper body evident even under the tunic. His muscular rear-end sat enticingly at eye level. Gasping breaths sounded in her ears, and she realized she was panting.

He looked like he was in his late twenties, but based on all he'd told her the night before, he was likely twice that. Or he was a loon, and she hadn't ruled out that possibility. Though noble and kind, he was also a little stiff and standoffish. Maybe she could help him loosen up. Without her permission, her mind hailed an erotic bus and sped down a road of desire straight to her core. Her cheeks burned. Thank God he couldn't read her mind.

Geez. She took in a slow breath. He was attractive, but she was stranded alone in some strange world.
A little restraint might be in order here, Abs.
Abby’s carnal cravings fought her common sense for dominance, but this was not the time or place for a show down. She needed to get home.

He'd spent hours explaining how the Darkness had far reaching consequences on the land and its inhabitants. The people of Jastain had lived under the Light for many centuries. Health and long life—according to Avant, two hundred years had been the average life span—blessed them and peace reigned. But a seed of Darkness was planted in the previous king.

As the Darkness grew, sickness and famine replaced goodness and purity. The pride and love with which Avant had described his land reminded her of all the reasons she wished for home. She needed to get back to her own time and place to pack and prepare for college. School would be starting in a couple of weeks. Her heart sank. She would need to find a new roommate.

Avant stood, muscles rippling and flexing under his tight leggings. Her mouth went dry, and she licked her lips. Maybe she could take him with her. Tamping down the unwanted desire, she hoped that she and her guide could be friends. Friend or not, she couldn't stay in this place with the evil king and the trespass police.