Page 49 of Sea of Stars

I continued the story: “The last of the divinares known to have the gift died long before we were born. All except for one. But no one believed she had the gift. She fled with her family before the Great Ravage. After her vision of the village being destroyed came true, everyone who survived believed once again in the gift of the Moira. They began to go on scouting expeditions, searching for the woman with the gift.”

“And that’s what we’re doing now?” Jeremody questioned excitedly. “Trying to find the woman? So the brutarians and humans won’t try to hurt us anymore?” He sounded so hopeful. Hope that only a child could hold onto in this world.

I stopped walking and knelt down. Jeremody slid off my back. I turned toward him, staying on my knees so that we were eye level. It was time to tell him the truth. “Not exactly…”

Jeremody quickly cut me off. “But Breghton, that’s what you said. You said we would find the last divinare with the gift. You promised!” He had a slight scowl on his face.

“And that was the truth. But that’s not the woman from the story. That woman is dead,” I said slowly.

Jeremody began to get tears in his eyes. I tried hard not to speak about death around him. He had never known our parents and he had been so young when our sister had burned to death. But I knew he remembered her death vividly. He would cry out her name in the middle of the night, sending chills down my back and making my hair stand on end. I would always blame myself for Rizelle’s death.

“But we are still going to find the last divinare with the gift, Jeremody. I believe her daughter lives. There were rumors about her mother being the chosen one, but I think it’s her. We’re going to rescue her from Mortwar. We’re going to be heroes.” I smiled reassuringly at him.

Jeremody's hair seemed to dance a little, and not due to the wind that was picking up. “Heroes?” he said, smiling. He leaned over and picked up a twig. He bent his knees and thrust his hand forward, as if the stick was a sword. Apparently he thought heroes were valiant knights that knew how to fight.

I nodded at him. “We have to keep moving, though. We can only travel at night or else the brutarians might see us coming.”

“But how do you know she’s there?” Jeremody was in an extra stubborn mood tonight.

“Remember that expedition I got selected for a few months ago?”

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He nodded his head.

“I got separated from the group.” I didn’t have to tell him this part. I knew he remembered. He had been worried when I didn't arrive back home with the rest of the party. “I saw her Jeremody. I met her. And I saw Mortwar take her. And that’s why we're traveling alone. No one believed me when I told them that I saw her mother die. And even if they did, they wouldn’t risk going after the girl. It’s rare that the gift would pass down to her after being absent from our race for so long. But I can just feel it Jeremody. She's the chosen one.”

He looked up at me and stared into my eyes. Eventually he nodded. “Let’s go save the princess,” he said, and dropped his stick in the snow. He tugged on my shirt.

I laughed and leaned over, letting Jeremody hop onto my back.

"Breghton?" he asked. His head was resting on my shoulder.

"Yeah, Jeremody?"

"What's the princess' name?"

"Mahlia." It had been a few months since I had seen her, but I remembered her light blue eyes and red hair. She would be easy to spot behind the Iron Gates.

For the next few hours, Jeremody made pretend clashing noises, as if he was battling an opponent with a sword. I couldn’t help but smile as we continued to trek onward.

Eventually we exited the forest. Without the leaves above, the snow began to fall faster. It was growing increasingly difficult to see. When I finally saw the mountains looming ahead, I knew we were almost upon the brutarian camp. The world was engulfed in darkness, so I hoped that the brutarians were still asleep. The tallest part of the mountain range, Vengeance Peak, was almost exactly in the middle. It rose up, twisted and gnarly, reaching toward the heavens. I shuddered, picturing a brutarian so close to the Lords. Right below Vengeance Peak was where Mortwar’s camp, the Iron Gates, was supposed to be located.

Jeremody had fallen asleep several miles ago. I tapped him on the back to awaken him.

“Jeremody, look,” I said, staring at the mountains in awe. “We’re almost there.” I took a deep breath and tried to regain the confidence I felt when we had first started our journey. When the mountains were just an image in my mind, it was easy not to be scared. But now, with the mountains, black as the night, growing with each step towards them, I was terrified.

“Breghton?” Jeremody asked, his voice faltering.

“Yeah, Jeremody?”

“How are we going to get the princess out of the camp?”

It was a good question, and one that I had thought about thoroughly. The camp was protected on three sides by mountains. And these weren’t like the mountains we climbed in the south at the start of our journey. Divinares could never climb these northern mountains. The rocks were sleek, with barely any places to grab onto. These were brutarian mountains, meant for their passage alone. That was why they had chosen to live there.

The fourth side of their camp, the front, was left exposed. But the brutarians had made sure no one could enter, or in Mahlia’s case, escape. They had built up a large gate, forged with iron. Atop each bar was a massive spike. The only way in and out of the camp was through the Iron Gates, hence the nickname of the camp amongst the divinares. The camp was rumored to have dozens of divinares enslaved behind that fence. That’s why I believed she would be there.

My master plan to break in, though, was based solely on hope. The hope that the brutarians’ well-known blacksmith skills weren’t as good as they were rumored to be. The fence had been built a very long time ago. I was hoping there would be a weak spot that I could infiltrate. Perhaps it had rusted. Or maybe Jeremody was small enough that he'd be able to climb through and go find her. I didn’t want Jeremody to know that my strategy relied on luck. I needed him to have as much confidence in our mission as I did.

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