Order of The Rose: Forsaken Petal (6 page)

Chapter 8:

Tom woke in a huge bed covered with the fine silk sheets and the softest blanket he had ever felt. The bed was canopied and had dark curtains drawn about it. There were hushed but urgent voices outside the curtains, talking back and forth.

“
He needs to be taken somewhere safe,” the man said firmly, “I can only trust you two to take him.”

Tom peered at the curtains trying to see through them.
Who are they talking about?

“
I want Cody to go with him. Cody can continue his studies with you and then can help Tom learn his as well,” the man said.

“
I can’t leave my apprentice and I don’t want her to be trained in seclusion,” Kristiana said.

“
You must be there to help with his training, he has the gift. There will be no more discussion on the matter.”

Tom shifted in the bed, it must have caught the attention of the others because at that point they stopped talking. Loud tapping noises faded away as someone hurried out the room. The curtains were drawn open and Tom sat back seeing Archelaus.

Archelaus moved to the edge of the bed. “Hi Tom, I hope that you have rested well. I regret to tell you that you must be leaving soon for your and the others safety. I’m sorry that I have not been able to meet with you. I had hoped to spend much time with you to prepare you more.”

Tom sat up in the bed. “Where will I be going, will John and Kristiana be going with me?”

Archelaus shifted and leaned closer. “You are very special and as such we will need to protect you.” He continued in that same sweet voice, but his eyes glittered as if he was excited about something. “You, Tom, will become a great leader and will be able to change the world that we now live in. You will need to learn your lessons well and you must trust me in every matter.”

Tom’s eyes widened as he listened to Archelaus.
Now I will show Jacob and Peanut. The headmaster will never know what hit him.

Archelaus leaned back and looking at the back of his hand said, “I will help you reach your full potential and help you gain your every dream. Never worry about those around you; they are only here to help you get you where you need to be.”

He smiled sweetly and then made a move to leave but stopped just as he was about to stand. He looked deep into Tom’s eyes and said in a matter of fact tone, “Tom, a warning though, you need me. Remember that, only I can help you reach your full potential in this new world.” He stood and patted Tom on the head before leaving.

John entered shortly after Archelaus left. “Hey there Tom, you took quite a beating last night. You were hit with a magical glove that causes a person to lose all of their strength.” He patted Tom on the shoulder. “You’re looking much better. We better get going before we lose the cover of night.”

“Night, what do you mean, have I been asleep all day?” Tom asked.

“
Well, off and on, like I said when the man hit you it caused you to become very weak, you’re lucky to be alive actually. If it hadn’t been for Cody, you would be dead right now,” John said. 

“
John.” Tom hesitated. “Archelaus seems to think that I am special, he said that I would need him to reach my potential. Why do I need him?”

John looked quickly toward the door and then back to Tom. “Archelaus is a powerful man and he has a lot of sway in the way things go.” He rubbed his chin for a moment. “You are special and that makes you useful to him.” John turned. “Tom it’s time to go. Your clothes are on the chair, hurry and get dressed and then meet me at the front door.”

“Uh, John where am I?” Tom asked.

“
There will be a guard outside your room, he will give you directions, just hurry it’s time to be gone.”

Tom listened to John walk down the hall as he got out of bed and started to dress. The clothes were dark and had a hooded cloak. There was no insignia like the clothes he had been wearing for the last week. There was a belt with a scabbard on one side and a holster on the other. He picked up the cloak. Underneath was a finely crafted short sword along with a pistol. In the belt several bullets were wedged in between leather loops. He looked over the weapons with fascination and then, remembering John’s urgency, hurriedly put them into their new homes.

Tom walked out the door and saw two guards. One of the guards started down the hallway in front of him, while the other one fell in line behind Tom. The guard led Tom to the front door of the mansion where they waited a few minutes until Kristiana and John came down the stairs. He saw the girl from the other day following behind Kristiana. She wore a long black robe with a hooded cloak tied around her neck.

Tom stared at the girl. Kristiana and John paid him no attention as they walked because they were deep in conversation. The girl, on the other hand, was staring back at him. It was as if they had made a connection as they looked at each other over the expanse of the room.

When Kristiana and John reached the bottom of the stairs Tom looked down quickly, turning bright red.

“
Are you ready? Cody should be waiting for us in the car,” John said, ignoring the fact that Tom had been gawking at the girl behind him.

Kristiana, on the other hand, gave Tom a stern look. “You’ll mind who you stare at, do you understand?”

“Yes ma’am,” Tom said as he tried to become as small as possible.

Kristiana, John and the young woman passed Tom heading for the door which a guard had opened for them. Tom turned and followed the three out the door toward the car that waited. A guard opened the door for them and closed it after they had all entered. This was only the third time he had ridden in one. The night his mom sent him off, the day he arrived at the mansion and now.

John pushed a button by his seat and said, “Let’s go.”

Tom sat next to Cody while John, Kristiana and the girl sat on the other side.

Tom looked over at Cody. “Hi Co....” His jaw dropped as he looked at Cody’s face. Cody’s face was almost completely healed, his nose still looked a little swollen and there was still some black under one of his eyes but other than that he looked good.

“
Cody what happened to your face, I mean, why is it so, so, I mean you are healed so fast,” Tom said.

“
Well you see Tom I am just super human,” Cody said laughing, “No, really, there are people that are able to use their faith to heal others. These people are very special and I was lucky enough that Archelaus had one close at hand.”

“
So they just pray or something and you are then healed?” Tom asked.

“
Something like that, but I think that it takes years of devotion and training to get to the point where they are able to actually do something like they did for me,” Cody said.

Cody paused briefly and then continued. “I have heard that some of their faith are actually able to bring people back to life, if they’ve been gone for only a short time.”

“Wow, that is amazing, why have I never heard of these people before?” Tom asked.

“
There are not many around anymore. Nobody really knows why. Some people believe it is because the council has been slowly killing them off one by one. Many have gone into hiding. Archelaus has always been a protector of their faith,” Cody said.

“
That’s so hard to believe. If I hadn’t seen it for myself I wouldn’t believe you,” Tom said. He had always had to rely on himself through all of his troubles. It was hard for him to imagine there being anything out there, let alone something that cared about him.
There’re a lot of times I could have used some extra help from a higher power. On the other hand maybe I had and just didn’t realize it. Look at me now.
Tom continued to think about this strange new idea of healers and the car sped down the road to a destination unknown.

After a while Tom’s gaze turned from the window to the young woman across from him. He was mysteriously drawn to her and felt as if he had known her before.
Where have I seen her before? Maybe we were friends when we were younger?
  Tom’s eyes narrowed.
Did she cast a spell on me?
His arms relaxed and the tension left as he grinned.
It’s probably just the simple fact that she’s so beautiful
.

Whenever she looked up from her book Tom looked down quickly his face on fire. During his secretive studying of her he noticed her deep green eyes and long black hair that was done up in a French twist. Her long black lashes fluttered each time she blinked. She wore strange rings that would glow slightly as she studied her book.

She closed her book abruptly and looked up at Tom. “Do you have a question?”

Tom turned an even brighter red. “A, hmm, no,” he stammered.

Tom looked away and Cody laughed. “Tom, the proper thing to do when you don’t know someone is to ask them their name and how they are doing.”

“
Cody, I was just looking out the window,” Tom said.

“
That’s odd Tom, I thought for sure you were staring at the young lady,” Cody continued with the teasing. In a serious tone Cody turned to the young woman, “Excuse me madam, my friend here seems to like you quite a bit and would like to get to know you better, might I give him your name?”

She glared at Cody. “I don’t have time for you or your friend. You can tell your friend that I am not interested and that if he does ever have a question he can call me Aithnea.”

Aithnea glanced at Tom and then continued to read her book.

“
Tom, her name is Aithnea and if you have any questions you can address her as such. Aithnea does not have time for you or I for that matter so don’t bother her again with your stares. Tom, do you understand?” Cody said. He burst out laughing almost falling onto the floor.

Aithnea started chanting and moving her hands at the same time. Kristiana quickly caught her hand and said, “Aithnea, no.”

Aithnea startled at the sudden loss of concentration, let out a sigh and went back to reading her book.

“
Cody, that’s enough,” John said.

Cody gained control and looked at Aithnea, serious now. “I’m sorry you deserve more respect.” He smiled at Tom, and asked, “Do you want to play a card game.”

“Sure,” Tom replied, glad that they were no longer talking about Aithnea or him. Tom took another quick glance at Aithnea and as he did she smiled. Tom feeling a little more courageous said, “Hi Aithnea, my name is Tom.”

“
I know who you are, it’s nice to meet you,” Aithnea replied. She smiled one last time and went back to her book.

Cody hit Tom in the shoulder. “Stop flirting and let’s play.”

Tom and Cody played cards for awhile but Tom could no longer stay awake. At which point they put the cards away and both of them laid back to sleep. Taking a chance he glanced one more time at Aithnea and saw that she was looking at him as well. He smiled and dreamed of Aithnea.

Chapter
9:

“Hey, wake up sleepy head. We’re here,” Cody said. He nudged Tom in the arm.

Tom opened his eyes and looked around. Kristiana and John had already stepped out of the car and Aithnea was following. He sat up and looked out the window of the car, seeing a large cottage surrounded by mature oak trees. The ground was covered with a fresh blanket of snow that glittered in the bright afternoon sunlight. Smoke was coming out of the chimney on top of a cabin. Cody climbed out of the car and Tom followed.

Kristiana, John and Aithnea were already heading over the bridge and up the path that led to the cottage. Cody stood looking at the cottage, whistling. “Wow, even his cottages are nicer than I have ever seen.”

Tom looked at the cottage. “They’re nicer than I have ever even dreamed of.”

“Well let’s get going, last one there is a rotten egg.”

Cody took off running and Tom tried to keep up but Cody was about twice as fast. Cody ran past Aithnea and she flicked her fingers ever so slightly. Cody fell on his face into a snow bank. His legs seemed to be stuck in the ground and he could not move them.

Tom caught up. “You shouldn’t run so fast you might slip.”

Aithnea laughed at Cody, watching him struggle in the deep snow. Tom reached the front porch. “Hey Cody, what’s your problem. Too much snow for ya?”

“Hah, you’re lucky that someone was looking out for you,” Cody said as he pointed at Aithnea.

“
I think she’ll make a good ally,” Cody said.

“
The best,” Tom whispered.

“
What was that?” Cody asked.

Tom just shook his head and smiled.

Aithnea batted her eyes and held her hands up. “Cody you just need to watch your footing. I wouldn’t use my magic on a silly race.”

This must be what family is all about.

Tom jumped as a door behind him opened. This sent Cody into another laughing fit. Tom glared at Cody and then smiled as a man from inside stepped out onto the porch. The man had white hair and a long white beard.

He smiled as he looked down at John. “It’s so good to see you. I guess Kristiana has kept you alive long enough to bring you home,” the old man said.

There doesn’t seem to be any resemblance between the two. What did he mean by home?
Tom shrugged.

John ran the rest of the way the two gave each other a strong embrace. “It’s so good to see you, Karman,” John said, pounding the older man’s back.

“And it is good too see you, John.”

Karman let go of the embrace and gestured for everyone to enter the cabin. “Everyone inside, we don’t want to let all the warm air out.”

Everyone entered the warm cabin and Karman shut the door. He led them to a dining room where food was piled high on a long oak table with ten chairs surrounding it.

Karman sat down at the far end of the table his large body making the chair creak. “You must all be hungry, let’s eat.”

Tom sat down and watched for the others to start eating before beginning himself. There was so much food that he didn’t know where to begin. Cody filled his plate to overflowing so Tom decided that he would just try a little of everything.
It looks like there’s plenty to eat.

“
So, I hear you had a pretty rough night the other night,” Karman said.

“
Yeah it was rough, the red dragons attacked in full force. We were lucky that we weren’t all killed,” John said. He swallowed a mouthful of food then continued. “They hit us suddenly and a witch was with them that trapped us inside the mansion.”

Karman looked up with his fork half way to his mouth. “A witch?”

John put his fork down. “Kris was able to knock down her defenses long enough for me to get a strike in. I don’t think that we killed her though. We couldn’t find her after the battle.”

Karman’s eyebrows went up as he looked at Kristiana. “Kristiana has always been able to hold her own hasn’t she?” Karman smiled at her for a second then went back to eating.

“The boys here,” John said pointing at Tom and Cody with his fork, “were pretty messed up by the time we reached them.” He swallowed hard as he continued. “We lost one of the older boys though.”

John gave a half hearted smile. “Luckily Cody and Tom were thinking and all the other boys made it out safe.”

Tom stopped, dropping his fork to his plate. “Who didn’t make it?”

Cody kept his head down as he spoke, “It was Joe. There were too many of them and when they overran us, they killed Joe and took me. I guess they figured they could use me for something.” He stopped eating.

John rubbed Cody’s back and spoke softly, “Cody, there was nothing more you could’ve done. You did exactly what you had been trained to do.”

“
I know but it doesn’t make it hurt any less,” Cody said. A tear rolled down his face. He wiped the tear from his face and looked up at the others. “He fought bravely and to the end. With his last bit of strength I saw him plunge his dagger into one of the guys. That’s probably what gave Tom the time he needed to get the kids out.”

“
He sounds like a strong and brave man,” Karman said.

Cody gave a weak smile and nodded slowly. Tom poked at his food losing his appetite as thought about Joe and how he had given his life for all of them. The others at the table were also slow to return to their food.

Karman still looking down at his food said, “Do you think that you were followed?”

“
I don’t think so,” John said, returning to his food. “Kris put a non-detect incantation on the car before we left and we used the fastest car available. Besides, I think that they thought they had us and weren’t thinking about tracking us.”

Karman nodded. “How is Archelaus doing? Is he able to gain the support that he needs?”

“He is doing well. There is support coming daily and he thinks that we should act soon,” John said.

Karman rubbed his chin. “I wonder if this isn’t happening a little too fast. Maybe we should be focusing more on using the legal system to get things turned around.”

“That won’t work, we have already tried and failed,” John said. “The system has become to corrupt and the council along with it.”

Karman sat back in his chair putting his hand behind his head and kicking his feet out. “Yes, that’s true but I don’t think a revolution is the answer, that’s all I’m saying.”

Kristiana set her fork down calmly and looked up. “Archelaus knows what he’s doing. I don’t think that we should question his plans.”

“
Yeah but…,” Karman started.

“
He has been there for us and has helped us beyond anything we could have done on our own,” Kristiana spoke over him. She leaned forward. “Look at what he has done for the healers, and they’re safer now than they have been in years.”

“
Don’t lecture me about all that. I’m the one that started it all. I just think that a revolution is going to hurt a lot of good people. There has to be another answer. There’s talk that this will change the world as we know it, but what to? That’s my worry.”

Kristiana leaned back and sighed. “Karman, it will be for the best. That’s enough of this talk.” She pushed her chair back and stood. “Thank you for the food. It was wonderful.” Motioning to Aithnea she said, “It’s time that we retire to our room.”

Aithnea immediately put her utensils down, pushed her chair back and stood. With Kristiana leading and Aithnea following, the two left the room without another word.

John started to get up as well but Karman put his hand on his wrist. “John, all I’m saying is we need to be careful. I worry about what will happen to those we care about and if this really will be a better world for us.”

John patted Karman’s hand affectionately. “I know Karman, you have given up much for this cause and you have done more than could be asked of anyone. Don’t worry, I will be careful.” John hesitated a moment longer, then spoke, “I agree that it’s hard to say how much we will have to sacrifice for the goodwill of this benefactor.” John stood and put his hand on Karman’s shoulder. “Thank you for your hospitality, it is so good to be home.”

“
It is good to have you home.”

John patted Karman on the back and then left the room.

“Well, I guess we all have had a long day and should probably get some rest before tomorrow,” Karman said. He took another bite of his food and stood. “Boys, it’s nice to have you with us. If you need anything or have any questions just let me know.” He winked at them and left the room.

“
What was that all about and who’s the benefactor?” Tom asked.

Cody took another bite of food before answering, “Hmmm, I think that they are talking about Archelaus. You see Tom, Karman started a group that wanted changes in how the council did things.” Cody took another bite before continuing. “I’m not sure of the details but I do know that their proposals were rejected by the council. I also know that this group fought for the healers when the council began rejecting them and killing them. Anyways, long story short, Karman and his group didn’t have the money to continue fighting the council and that’s when Archelaus came into the picture. He’s not only the one with the money but the one with the power and prestige to make things happen.”

“I see.” Tom said with his brow furrowed.

Cody started to get up as the servant cleared the table.

“But why are Karman and John worried about Archelaus? Isn’t he on our side?” Tom asked.

“
I’m not exactly sure, but I do know this, you don’t get something for nothing,” Cody said. He pushed his chair in and headed for the door. “Let’s find our rooms and leave the politics to the grownups.”

Who is Archelaus? I guess Cody’s right though, let the grownups deal with the politics.
Tom jumped up fearing he would get left behind. “Do you know who those guys were that attacked us the other night?”

“
I’ve been thinking about that, and it doesn’t make much sense. The symbol of the red dragon comes from a country on the other side of the sea. The thing about it is that they would have had to of traveled a long ways and to attack a councilman would cause war. Not sure what to make of it but they must have been pretty desperate.”

They entered a room filled with book cases that went from floor to ceiling. A circular ramp went up to a second floor and then back down in a wide arch. There was a table and chairs in the middle of the bottom floor under the stairs. On the top floor Aithnea sat in an overstuffed chair with her feet up on a table reading a book with an old decaying cover.

Cody headed up the ramp. “Hi Aithnea, I thought you were headed off to bed.”

Aithnea looked up from her book, “I wasn’t tired so I decided to read for a little longer,” she responded coolly.

Cody sat down opposite her. “Mind if we join you for awhile, we’re not tired either.”

Tom sat down into a third chair as she started to reply. She stopped. “I guess not,” Aithnea said, returning to her book.

“So what are you reading there?” Cody asked.

“
It’s called ‘The Lore and Magic of Deidra Blackthorn,’” Aithnea responded without looking up from the book.

“
Hmmm, sounds interesting, what’s it about?”

Aithnea put the book down on her lap and sighed. “It’s about the lore and magic of Deidra Blackthorn.”

“Ohhh, that explains it very clearly, right Tom?” Cody looked over at Tom and smiled.

Tom squirmed not wanting to get into the middle of it. “uhm.”

Cody snickered and looked back at Aithnea who was glaring at him. “So what is it about, give us some of the details?”

“
It’s just a book about a witch called Deidra and the different incantations that she used,” Aithnea explained.

Cody leaned a little forward, “So, are all witches evil, or are there good ones too?”

“Let’s see,” Aithnea said as she put her finger to her chin. “The first and only witch I met was the one that trapped us in the mansion. So they all seem pretty evil to me.”

“
No. Seriously, are witches evil and enchantresses good? What’s the difference between the two?” Cody asked.

He was now sitting forward in his chair staring intently at Aithnea. Aithnea looked at Cody and relaxed her hold on the book. “Well, witches and enchantresses gain their power from different sources. When Kristiana and I use our power, it comes from inside of us; we lose part of ourselves when we cast a spell. Witches, on the other hand, draw their power from those around them; it’s as if they are sucking life out of others to cast their spells.”

Cody nodded and Tom wondered what would have happened if Kristiana had not been at the mansion.

Aithnea said, “In my opinion, witches are evil because they destroy others for their own purposes. But enchantresses have to sacrifice some of their self to perform magic and to cast their spells. Does that make sense?”

“
Yes. I see what you are saying, but what if a person was willingly giving you life force to use, would that make you a witch?” Cody asked.