Page 22 of Secrets of the Lore Keepers
I heard a voice inside my head, speaking and yet not speaking. Words danced around me, and a grim tone rang out.
I am the goddess of death. Come to me, servants of evil. I summon snake and raven, orc and wood wright. Come, aid my escape.
No. The silent scream wailed upside me. I glanced at Kian; he lay face down, unconscious, much the way I’d found in the meadow. Tears stung my eyes, but pity for my plight, and fear for my family was replaced with one burning sensation. Rage.
I was happy; I had everything. A beautiful farm, a loving sister and the potential of an elven prince. And now the goddess of death would come to take it all away. I’d already lost my parents, and I wasn’t ready to let anything else change. The fear faded away into an icy determination. I aimed the knife toward the goddess and ran. The snake slithered closer, but I danced away. The goddess lunged, and I moved out of her reach, waving the sage in front of me as I moved. I needed a plan; the branch was losing its effectiveness, and I’d never get close enough to stab the goddess.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. The torchlight grew brighter, and I knew, even before I turned around, I knew my sister was coming to distract the goddess so I could stab her. We were the Lore Keepers, and this was our duty, our task. To keep the goddess of death from rising. I recalled her words before we touched the casket. What we did. We did together.
Blood of Lore Keepers.That voice hummed in my mind.Set me free. Creatures of death. Come to me.
The ground shook, and I lost my footing. The goddess, seeming to assume I meant nothing to her, threw back her head and held out her hands. A hum overcame the room, low deep tones as though calling, calling creatures out of bone and shadow, dark and root. Come forth to help her.
Terror constricted my heart, and words pulsed in my mind. My numb lips moved as the words burst out. Mama’s words came to me like a balm of peace, and I uttered them. As I did, the swirl of magic did not seem as dark, the bright red blood splashing on the stones did not seem as gruesome. The knife trembled in my hands but not from fright. Nay it was something else, something within me that had lain sleeping, waiting, resting, until it was time. Now it rose within me like a wave of water, and my mouth came open as words flew from my lips. I recalled I’d said it once before:There is no power in words, there is only the intent.And I realized what intent was. Perhaps intent and magic were one and the same, for the command that came out of my mouth was like one of dominant power.
Goddess of Death, I bind you to this place. You cannot rise nor rule the wildwood. The world is not yours; your powers are weak, you will never rise again. Your demons cannot help you, your creature aren’t coming, you will never rule another day.
The words poured out of me, but I still didn’t know if I could stab her. I’d killed harmless animals before. They made my heart turn over as I blessed them, thanked them for their sacrifice and gave what I did not need back to the ground. But this? She was dark and evil and would ruin everything. I pushed past the doubt just as Maraini hurled a sage stick at the goddess.
A raw scream filled the air as the goddess hissed and spun toward Maraini. She lifted her hand, and I saw the snake move. I pivoted and thrust the knife into her side, and everything went black.
A white glow in the distance caught my eyes. I lay on my stomach, my curls in my face. On one side of me I saw Kian’s prone body, and on the other was Maraini, blood dripping down her head. A sob rose in my throat. Were they alive?
But there was that light, and as it came closer, I realized it was a woman. She glided to the goddess who was transfixed as though she’d been paralyzed, and touched her, binding her with a black ribbon. When she was done she placed her hands on either side of the goddess head and closed her eyes. Power poured from her, and as I watched, the white light disappeared, replaced with something else dark and sinister. I smelled the acrid tang of it, watched it flow out of the goddess into the woman.
When she was done, she collapsed, and what had once been the ancient goddess was nothing more than bones which fell into the casket. The woman seemed to regain her strength, for she rose and closed the casket, latching it again. And then her eyes turned on mine. They were luminous and dark at the same time, as though she’d drunken more than her share. She opened her mouth and words came out. “I am the Queen of the Wildwood and you have saved many lives here. As the seer said, there is hidden power within you. Use it well, for one day I may need your help, and I shall call upon you again.”
Then she turned, the shadow of darkness flickering around her, and faded into shadow and story.
Chapter Fifteen
The ancient goddess was defeated.Often, my mind returned to the moment as the days and weeks passed. Was it possible that we had defeated her? Or had the power of the Queen of the Wildwood been enough to destroy her for eternity? The moment changed me and I took to writing. Writing down what I had seen and the questions that remained. Who was the goddess? Was she truly the goddess of death? Or a lesser goddess? Would we ever know the truth of it? It seemed the Queen of the Wildwood had come and drawn the power of the goddess into herself, and it was that knowledge that frightened me the most.
Kian and Maraini hadn’t seen what happened, but I knew what my eyes had seen, and it concerned me. Eventually, if one took so much darkness and evil into themselves, they became the very darkness they sought to rid the world from. I’d seen the shadows in the queen’s eyes, and I worried about her? Who was she? What was she becoming by taking over the evil in the wildwood? Would she be able to hold it back, or would she morph and shift, becoming one of those evil creatures, despite her best intentions?
But anxieties of the future and what truly had happened did not consume all of my thoughts. Maraini took to bed for a few days to heal from her wounds and Kian, nothing but bruised from the encounter, stayed.
He stayed while we cleaned the house, taking away the dead bodies. No matter how many times I cleaned the house with a blend of cloves, lemons, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary, I still shuddered, imagining those fouls creatures returning once again.
Kian stayed through the midsummer harvest, assisting with the trip to market and making repairs around the farm until I began to see how woefully we’d fallen. The work was too much for two women, and I appreciated his help. But more than that, I appreciated his calm presence. He knew what to do, and did it without question, and it was powerful for my scattered ways. It was a combination of both him, and writing that helped ease my soul, put away the grief from my parent’s death, and calm down, once and for all.
It wasn’t until I tasted the first tang of autumn in the air that I recalled Kian had a family, a place where he belonged, and yet he stayed. I let myself out that morning and made my way to the meadow, where Kian let the horses run, wild and free. I walked across the long grasses, a basket of bread and cheese tucked under my arm, but my hair, loose and free as usual. Some things had changed, but others would remain the same.
“Rae.” He lifted a hand in greeting.
I smiled. He stood, arms crossed, feet apart, watching the horses gallop, enjoying their freedom.
“You forgot breakfast again,” I told him, holding up the basket.
He raised an eyebrow and gave me a playful smirk. “Perhaps I simply wanted you to bring it to me,” he teased.
I handed him the basket. “Well, you have your wish then.”
“Rae,” his voice dipped lower. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
My heart clenched and just for a moment I squeezed my eyes shut. I had everything. Wealth, friendship, and love. I didn’t want any part of it to be taken away.
When I opened my eyes again, he was beside me, one arm stealing around my waist to tug me closer to him. I wrapped my arms around him, pressing my face against his chest until I could feel the rapid pulse of his heartbeat. I already knew it wasn’t going to be good news.
