Page 4 of The Knight
Lamont and Ara were the best of people, and Emma would never really know them. That had always been a real possibility, and Lamont and Ara had made their wishes known if they were both to die. And although I told myself it would never happen. I would never allow their deaths. It was my entire purpose to keep them safe.
And you failed.
Pain pulsed through me at the loss, of my failings. Ancient magic let me know.
I looked at my hands in my lap and squeezed them into fists. Lamont had expressed that if they could not continue to shield her soul, she would need to be told about who she was, and most likely taken back to Terra—if such a thing could be done. I hadsearched for the cave where the portal to our realm was, and had never found it. There was a chance Prince Shad might know where it was, but I could not chance seeing him, and having him read in my soul that I had kept Emma from him.
He had been searching for her, his entire life.
It would only be a matter of time now, Shad was coming. I knew it was only a matter of time. When Emma’s parents died, every Terran on Earth could hear her. Including Prince Shad.
Chapter 3
On the night I drove her home from the hospital, she lay passed out in the passenger seat. She had no idea who she really was, just how special she was. If I could just find her a strong seeker’s crystal, then she could be safe—well, depending on the strength of the crystal. The problem was that the crystals in Earth’s realm, the ones that could actually work, were almost impossible to find anymore. Roseville used to be full of seekers’ crystals, decades before. That is what drew us there in the first place. Still, once we arrived, we soon discovered that the real useful ones—if there ever were any—were all gone. All that was left were the useless, non-soul-shielding crystals in the creek behind Mary’s flower shop, and over the years, I had searched that creek along with the area around it in vain, holding to the hope of finding just one strong enough to help.
I suspected, however, that I knew who might have one: Prince Shad. He, no doubt in preparation to find Emma, would have gone to great lengths to find one, and knowing him as I did, he probably had sweet-talked his way into having someone give it to him. I had known Prince Shad on Terra. We weren't exactlyfriends, for he reached his maturity long after I had reached mine. We were even distantly related. He was a prince of Embra, and his mother was a princess of Torren. His grandparents were the King and Queen of Torren. So, he was of my lineage, though distantly. I was a descendant of King Ronin, the first Guardian knight. But I was far removed from the royals. I had a prestigious family of Knights; we were legendary in our realm. We were trained in Torren, and many royals came to us in search of a guardian knight when they came of age. So, even though I was related to Prince Shad of Embra, I was no prince.
Still, throughout my life, his name often came up in the royal councils I attended. I never had a serious problem with Shad. Sure, the people of Torren as a whole, usually kept to themselves. But Shad’s father could not be trusted. The King of Torren was a vile man. His melody became corrupted early on in his life. There were often rumors and whispers spread regarding what really went on in the kingdom of Torren. What saved the Crown Prince was that he had a brilliant soul’s melody. His soul was always loud and strong. His melody actually made him stand out among the nobles of the heirs. It was even stronger than Lamont’s. Many of the kingdoms wanted to gain access to his melody’s strength through marriage. So even with the rumors of his father, and the secret nature of Torren at the time, he had his pick of princesses. They were all waiting for him to mature, marry, and align with a kingdom. He was the prize everyone wanted to win. Maybe that is what started my dislike of him. He was so widely talked about and so often praised—it irritated me.
So, I needed a crystal. If Shad had one, I knew Emma could use it and maybe even live out her entire life as an average human in this realm with it protecting her from any Terran threat here or elsewhere. But I knew what the prince really wanted. He was looking forher—he wantedhersoul's melody.Of course, his strong melody was not enough for him; he craved more. He couldn't have settled for the dozens of other princesses who would gladly have given their melodies and their right arms to him. No, he had to havemycharge; he had to want Emma. He would take her away, he would claim her, and I was determined not to allow him into her life if I could help it, not if he was going to take Emma away from Mary and me.
I watched the television for a moment bringing me back to the present as a commercial of a car driving along a winding road came on. As I watched, the images and the words started to blur on the screen, and my memory flashed back again. It continued to plague me, and would keep doing it until it was complete. So, I did not fight it, and let it play back again in my mind one final time.
I opened my side of the car and stepped out, placing the cold metal keys into my pocket. As I walked over to her side of the car, I saw a tall and large figure in the driveway. If I hadn't seen the figure so many times before and known that it belonged to Prince Glasson, I would have been on my guard. But Glasson, though strong and intimidating, was harmless to me—at least at that moment.
"I heard—" His voice paused, and he walked closer to me. "What happened?"
"Glasson—" I crossed my arms. I was not in the mood to talk with anyone, let alone Glasson. He was the well-known rebel, guardian knight and the Crown Prince of Torren. Shielding my melody so often made it harder for me to get a clear reading even on my own emotions, not to mention Emma's, so I definitely didn't know his, and he didn’t know mine. The pause in hisspeech caused me to think that he was on edge. Okay, sosometimes,I could read him.
"I just thought that you should know that word has gotten out abouther." He moved his head in the direction of where Emma was slumped over in the front seat, still asleep.
I started to worry that the drugs the doctors gave her to help her sleep were too strong; she shouldn't sleep her life away. “Thank you for the information. I assumed as much," I replied.
"Well, I will leave you alone then," Glasson started backing up. He could probably tell from my mood that I wasn't interested in talking much, and if that were so, our abilities to read each other without our melodies was improving. I wondered what that meant about our relationship. Were we friends? I wanted to laugh; no, we were, indeed,notfriends. Our relationship was more master and servant, with him being the master and me being the ungrateful, non-compliant servant.
"Meet me at my place, tomorrow. We need to go over some things. I have news that I can’t discuss at this moment," I demanded.
"I don't know why you assume I’m under your command," he snapped.
Princes, they are all alike, I thought. However, Shad did have a little more patience than Glasson. Still, Shad was in an annoying, irritating league of his own. And then, of course, there was Prince Lamont. He was—well, he was the exception to everything. Maybe he was why I didn’t care for anyone else in the royal lines. I was loyal to Lamont to a fault, it seemed.
"Who found Ashlyn?" I asked, raising my brow in a question, deciding to remind him of how much he owed me.
"Lucky guess, Rykerian—you’re lucky you are from the Dallard family line."
"What does that mean, Glasson?"
“Don’t forget your place.”
“Forgive me, it has been a trying time,” I said, bowing my head, remembering how I needed to act around Glasson, at least sometimes. He was, after all, my original prince. I was born and raised in the kingdom of Torren, and because of that, Glasson did deserve my respect.
Glasson nodded, “I do understand, but remember who you are, and remember our oaths.”
“May my melody never corrupt, may I break no vows, my soul never sing false, and may no heir die before my last breath.” I tried to remain calm as I said the last phrase. I knew I hadnotkept my Guardian knight oath in the most essential way.
“You honor your family.”
“I don’t care about my family honor, Glasson. I care about Emma, about Lamont and Ara; they were—are my family,” I snapped, so much for being more respectful or not letting on that they were both dead. I didn't have the energy then to have that conversation, a lecture from Glasson about my failure. I just wanted to get Emma inside.
