Page 79 of Return of the Darkness
“I did not enter by conventional means,” Arabella said.
“If this is going to be a repeat of veiled information, I have no interest.” Sadira glared, dimming the brightness in Arabella’s eyes.
“I have been granted to speak freely, your Majesty.”Granted.Sadira was the queen, so who above her could grant Arabella permission to talk? Sadira recalled the conversation in the small cottage. Darragh’s warnings. He said she could not tell Sadira and Caellum too much as their deity prevented it.
“You have spoken with your deity,” Sadira said, raising her chin. Arabella nodded. “How lucky I am, that now, after I have lost my husband on the hunt for further information, that your deity deems it acceptable to offer answers through you.” Sadira glared, abandoning all attempts at maintaining the neutral and civil face of a queen.
“Your Majesty—”
“Speak,” Sadira snapped. Neither woman said anything. Arabella had the decency to glance down at the frustration on Sadira’s face. The queen did not apologise for her harsh tone. She merely waited.
“What do you wish to know first?” Arabella asked, despite thefact Sadira had just demanded to know how she appeared in her chambers. Arabella glanced at the open trinket box containing the three pins from Wren’s possessions. Did she want the queen to ask about them?
“You will tell me everything you were prevented from telling me the day Caellum and I last visited you,” Sadira commanded, determining such an ask would earn her as many answers as possible as opposed to thinking of specifics. Arabella extended her palm out and looked at the trinket box. Still clutching her dagger, Sadira slowly reached in to drop them into Arabella’s palm. She smiled softly as she looked at them.
“Before I begin, please understand… I did not know everything I was fated to reveal this evening. Some, I knew from the memories my father began recalling, others I knew from my deity when she appeared in dreams. I only know the rest now she has confirmed the link to the Isle of Gods is broken. The curse preventing her and others from telling us all they know is gone.” Sadira could not help the sigh of relief that escaped her lips. They had succeeded in one task. Learning all Arabella and Osiris knew would help them to understand Novisia’s history and Caligh’s role. They could gather armies to locate and end him. Sadira’s heart stuttered. It still did not confirm where she would call home in the months to come. Arabella held up each pin in the light.
“Shapeshifters, Sorcerers and Wiccan,” Arabella said. Sadira tilted her head. “Three races stemming from three deities. Three deities stemming from one god.” Arabella looked up from the pins to meet Sadira’s eye. “Your god, Garridon.” Sadira clenched her jaw to keep from reacting.
“What is the importance of the three races?” Sadira asked.
“A reverse, a reflection, a sister, a mirror. Find the truth beneath you and all will be clearer. Healing and prophecies, curses and spells. One abides, one rebels. For the cost of a curse, there must be a price. Find your reflection in the ancient and say goodbye.” Arabella recited the prophecy as clearly as Athena had. “TheWiccan lived in harmony for so long until Caligh infiltrated our clans—until he divided two sisters. His dark magic twisted her mind from healing and prophecies to curses and spells, instead, creating the Sorcerers. While the Wiccan abide by the laws of nature, the Sorcerers rebel.” Arabella sighed, as though pained at the information related to this prophecy.
“You spoke of a divide among the Wiccan people—a war. Is that what you reference?” Sadira asked.
“Yes. The War of Hearts. The pure, and the tainted. Wiccan and Sorcerers. Light and dark.”
“You’re bordering on convoluted again, Arabella,” Sadira warned. “What does this have to do with Novisia?”
“It was a Sorcerer that aided Caligh in entrapping Sonos. It was a Sorcerer that placed the curse on all lands, including the one that altered memories, and prevented anyone from finding you or revealing the truth.” Arabella was speaking quickly now, as though a weight lifted from her with every breath. “But every curse has a price. The curse to lock away the gods, linked it to Novisia. With the link broken, the gods are free. Free to...” Arabella trailed off, her eyes watering.
“Free to what?” Sadira pushed.
“Free to take revenge against those who aided Caligh and his Sorcerer in entrapping them and taking their father.” Sadira released the grip on her dagger. That had been the gods’ motive. They had knowingly forced Elisara to break the link to free themselves.
“Who aided Caligh, Arabella?” Sadira asked. The woman wiped a tear from her face and looked at her queen.
“The deities,” she said. “All eighteen of them.” Sadira placed the dagger down and rubbed her forehead.
“This is a lot to take in,” Sadira sighed. Eighteen deities, and if what she said about the three stemming from Garridon were true, Sadira could only assume the others descended from the other Novisian Gods. Sadira recalled Elisara’s account from Sallos. Threeraces on both Xyliar and Carvyre. Three races stemming from Sonos and Sitara. Larelle had shared the joined maps with them all, Thassena, Asynthos, Eresydon, Q’Ohar. Three deities for each land.
“My deity has told me little else. She said it was not your responsibility to uncover the rest.”
“Whose responsibility is it, then?” Sadira asked. Arabella looked out over the ocean.
“The Prince of Xyliar will answer that question tomorrow,” she said firmly, certain that Osiris would arrive in Novisia in the morning. “There is so much more I know she is not telling me, your Majesty, and more I know you will need Osiris for. She only grants me the knowledge she has because I am sworn to your family and our lineages are pure. She grants me this knowledge because war is coming, your Majesty.”
“War?” Sadira’s hand drifted to her stomach.
“The War of Gods is upon us,” Arabella said, her voice foreboding. “To answer your earlier question, I did not enter through conventional means. I entered because you called upon me through the pin clutched in your left hand,” Arabella said. Sadira did not respond, distracted by the worry of war. “Do you remember the first time we met in the tavern? I told you Wiccans were the first to learn to imbue things. We are powerful in it.” Sadira gave the smallest nod and recalled a passage on magical imbuement she had read that very day in the dim light of the tavern.Other items can be imbued with power, too: goblets with the ability to kill its drinker, clothing that allows the person to mimic their original owner, and books reciting to the reader what they wish to hear or transporting them to the places within.“The pin you clutch was imbued long ago by the Brodie Clan with the ability to summon a protector to the Mordane ruler’s side. To transport them.”
“Your family was close to the Brodie Clan, to the Mordanes?” Sadira finally asked. Arabelle inclined her head.
“They were, your Majesty. We have been designated protectorsof the Mordane family from the earliest days. It is my duty to serve at your side and protect you. My family were bred to oversee the three races, gifted with immense strength to aid us in our missions.” Arabella rose from her bench and stepped towards the queen. Slowly, she pulled a dagger from beneath her cloak and Sadira reached for her own in defence. Arabella lowered to her knees before her queen.
“I once told you there is power in a name and I would not share mine completely.” Sadira looked down at the woman, at the innocence in her face now as she raised a dagger to her hand and sliced across it, letting blood drop at her queen’s feet. “I share it now as I make this oath. I, Arabella Balfour, swear allegiance to the Mordane Family from this day until the day I die, protecting your life.”
Chapter Fifty-Three
