The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (61 page)

Kevin was left with a dozen questions. What look? What was his mother talking about? How did they know about Rhianna? She’d spent less than an hour at the castle. Where did his parents get the idea there was something between them?

Kevin burrowed back down in his blanket and tried to shut out the nagging questions. As he finally fell into a fitful sleep, his last thoughts centered on Rhianna: Rhianna, who smiled at everyone, except him; Rhianna, who talked with everyone, except him; Rhianna, who got along with everyone, except him; Rhianna.

Chapter 55

The Next Week

Kevin wasn’t the only one who had a restless night. Serra spent more time pacing than she did sleeping, and it showed in her eyes the next morning. For once her room was closing in on her, so she went outside to think. Since most of the staff had the day off, the playground was empty. Serra sat down on one of the swings and gently pushed herself back and forth.

Darrell was looking for Marcus, but when he saw Serra he asked her if something had happened.

“You might say that,” Serra said with a shaky smile. “What brings you out here?”

“I’m looking for Marcus. Have you seen him?”

“Not for the past hour or so. Why?”

“We need to practice his defensive skills.”

“Myron’s not here this morning. Don’t you need him for that?”

Darrell shook his head. “He tries to be here for practice, but most of the time something comes up, so I’m going ahead without him.”

Serra’s eyebrows rose. “You’re going to let archers shoot at Marcus without Myron here to back him up? Are you crazy?”

Darrell laughed. “No, and I don’t have a death wish either. Look.” He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and handed it to her. “See? No tip. They’re all flat.” While she was looking at the arrow, Darrell continued. “I had Cryslyn make a vest with extra padding for him to wear. If one of those arrows gets through, it may leave a bruise, but that’s all.”

“Don’t let them aim at his face. It could put an eye out.”

Darrell sighed. “You sound just like my mother. It’s not going to hit him in the face.”

“Just be careful,” she said as she handed the arrow back.

Darrell noticed tears in her eyes. “All right. Something’s wrong.” He motioned to Brandon, who was standing outside the playground waiting for him. When Brandon reached them, Darrell said, “Something’s come up. I need to see Serra for a few minutes. We’ll find Marcus later.”

Darrell started to sit down in the swing next to her, but she shook her head. “Not here. If you want to talk, we need to go somewhere else.”

Darrell frowned. “Near the river? It should be quiet there.”

Serra nodded, so they headed in that direction.

When they reached the river, Darrell leaned back against a tree and said, “Okay, what gives?”

Serra frowned. “You have the strangest way of saying things, but yesterday I found out my life has been a lie.” Then she told Darrell about her conversation with Debra. “I can’t believe my mother’s not my mother. Nothing’s the way I thought it was. I thought I’d been born here, at the castle, that this was my home. Now I find out I was a slave? That I was bought like a sack of potatoes?”

Darrell knew it was the wrong thing to do, but he couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.

Serra spun towards him with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes.

Darrell held his hands out in self-defense and started apologizing. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny. Nothing about this is funny, but the way you put it …” The rest of his sentence was swallowed along with a new burst of laughter. Finally he cleared his throat. “Sorry. I know finding out about all of that knocked you for a loop, but nothing’s changed.”

“How can you say that?” Serra demanded, eyes flashing. “How can you stand there and say nothing’s changed? Everything’s changed! I’m not who I thought I was.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’? I’m not Debra’s daughter. I wasn’t born in Camden. I don’t know where I came from,” Serra spouted. She frowned and thought for a minute. “I really don’t know where I came from. One more thing I need to find out about me. Along with who my parents are and what kind of people they were.”

“Serra, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, but no, I’m not.”

“Look, Debra and Korman are your parents. They raised you. They took care of you. They did what parents do. They love you. What are you planning to do? Dump them in a trash heap because you don’t share the same blood?”

“Of course not.”

“Good. At least that’s settled. And you might want to let Debra know that. I have a feeling you didn’t leave her feeling all warm and fuzzy yesterday.”

Serra scrunched up her face as she tried to figure out what he meant, but before she could work it out, Darrell continued. “Do you still work here? At the castle?”

Serra rolled her eyes. “You know I do.”

“Are you planning to quit your job?”

“Of course not.”

“Then nothing’s changed.”

“Everything’s changed!” she yelled. She took a deep breath and sighed it out. “You just don’t understand.”

“Yes, I do, but you’re not getting my point. You found out that some things in your past are not the way you thought they were, but that’s the past. That’s over. The important stuff’s what’s going on right now, today, and that’s not changed. You have a family. You have people who love you and want to be your parents. They weren’t forced into it by an accident of birth. They chose to be your parents. And you have a brother and sister who adore you. Do you think it’s going to matter one bit to either one of them that you don’t share their blood? You didn’t anyway. Their father’s Korman, and you’ve known all along he’s not your father. Nothing’s changed.”

“But things are going to change. Didn’t you hear the part about the minister and his wife who want to meet me? What if they want me to go with them and live in Ridgeville, wherever that is?”

“Tell them no.”

Serra wrinkled her nose again and looked at Darrell like he’d lost his mind.

“Just because they want you to doesn’t mean you have to. You’re not a child. You’re an adult. You get to choose where you want to live. Say no if you don’t want to move.”

“But I owe it to my real mother to at least meet them, to get to know them, to let them get to know me.”

“The way I see it, Debra’s your real mother, but I get what you mean. If you feel you need to meet your birth mother’s family, do it. You might even find out you like them. And if you do, you’ll be part of two families instead of one. You don’t have to choose.”

Serra considered what Darrell had said. “It feels like I do though, and I don’t know how to do it.”

Darrell shook his head. “It’s the same thing as when you get married. You’ll have your family, his family, and the family the two of you make together. You won’t have to choose then and you don’t have to choose now.”

Serra looked at Darrell like he was one of the children in the playground. “It’s not that simple. It’s more complicated than that. I have to figure out where I belong.”

“Where do you want to belong?”

“Here, at this castle. I had my life all planned out. I was going to be the next Cryslyn, but that life’s gone now. I can’t just do whatever I want. I have to do the right thing but I’m not sure what that is.”

“You want to honor your birth parents, right?”

“It’s more than that. I need to figure out who I am, who they made me, who I’m supposed to be.”

Darrell sighed and tried again. “Okay. Say you’re your birth mother’s daughter. She would have raised you to be the same type of woman she is. What would she do in your place?”

Serra frowned, but this time she didn’t say anything.

“Let’s look at what you know about her. She and your birth father left the family home in, where did you say they were from? Ridgeville? They left looking for a new place to live, for a new home. I doubt her mother wanted her to leave, but she went anyway. She wanted a new life, somewhere else. And they found their spot, built a house, had a baby girl, and settled into their new life. Then, when slavers came along and threatened that life, she and your father both fought to the death to protect it. When your father fell, she kept fighting. She fought for the right to live as she wanted. She gave up her life rather than let someone else tell her where to live and what to do. Do you honestly think she’d want you to be some meek little mouse and let other people decide what you should do with your life?”

Serra didn’t say anything, but her eyes looked lighter. She turned and walked a couple of hundred feet down the river, stopped, looked out over the water for a while, and then walked back.

When she got back, she stopped in front of Darrell and studied his face for a minute. “Maybe you’re not so dumb after all.” Then she smiled. “Now we need to go back. You’ve got a sorcerer to train.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Darrell didn’t make it back to his office until nearly 5:00. When he couldn’t find Marcus that morning, he’d worked out with Chris until Marcus came back for lunch. Then, after a long session with Marcus, he’d sparred with each of the pages, including Petri, who was turning out to be quite a fighter.

As Darrell collapsed into his chair, he wiped his face with his hands and reminded himself he didn’t have to spar with everyone himself. He could delegate some of the training to the guards.

When Kort, who was at the main desk, reminded him of his 5:00 meeting with Cpt. Lawrence, he was tempted to postpone the meeting, but he didn’t. They needed to identify the spy, and since that wasn’t going to happen without a plan, he sent Kort to the kitchen for coffee, hoping that would revive him.

When Kort returned, he brought in a tray with a pot of coffee, two cups, and a plate of cheese, meat, and bread. “Thought you and Cpt. Lawrence might like some refreshments too, sir,” Kort said as he set the tray down on a small table near Darrell’s desk.

“Thanks.” Darrell poured a cup of coffee and picked up a piece of bread. “Good idea.”

Kort nodded and went back to his desk. When the captain arrived, Kort stood up, said, “Think I’ll stretch my legs a bit,” left the office, and pulled the door shut behind him.

“He’s good,” Darrell said. “Thanks for hiring him.”

Cpt. Lawrence laughed. “You’re the one who assigned him to that desk. I had him on patrol.” He poured a cup of coffee and sat down. “Have you figured out how we’re going to catch our spy?”

Darrell shook his head. “I’ve got a general idea but that’s all. We have six suspects. I think we need six different plans, one for each suspect. And, if Myron will agree to it, we need to get Landis here for another visit.”

Cpt. Lawrence frowned. “Isn’t that a bit risky?”

“Not if she doesn’t leave the castle.”

Cpt. Lawrence leaned back in his chair. “I’m listening.”

“We’ll need some input from Myron, but if we could come up with six places Landis might need to go while she’s here, we could send six messages out.”

“And have our suspects deliver them.”

Darrell nodded.

“And have someone at each of those places to watch for an assassin. That might work.”

“Well, that’s the easy part,” Darrell said. “Coming up with six errands is going to take some thought.”

Cpt. Lawrence pulled his chair up to the desk and picked up a pen. “Let’s get started.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Thursday morning when he met Glendymere at the canyon lands, Kevin reminded the dragon he wouldn’t be able to make it Sunday. Big mistake. Within minutes Kevin was dripping with sweat as energy bolts bombarded him from all directions. He felt like he was fighting half a dozen dragons instead of one.

Usually he thought of dodging and blocking Glendymere’s energy bolts as a game, but that morning he was haunted by the thought that one little slip, one moment’s lapse, and he’d be dead. Those energy bolts were real, and it would only take one to reduce him to a pile of ashes.

After half an hour, Glendymere stopped.
“What’s wrong with you today?”

“Huh?” Kevin answered as he wiped sweat off his face and slowly rose to the top of the butte where Glendymere was standing. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m picking up fear.”

Kevin shook his head. “I’m not sure why, but it hit me this morning those bolts are real. If I slip just one time, I could get killed.”

“Don’t ever forget that. I’m not doing this just to sharpen your reflexes. It’s also to remind you one moment’s distraction could be fatal.”

“Well, you have to admit people aren’t chunking energy bolts at me on a regular basis.”

“Only takes one. Now, let’s get back to it.”

As soon as Kevin was back on the canyon floor, the bolts started flying again.

Half an hour later, when Kevin felt like he was ready to drop, Glendymere stopped again.
“Enough for today. Come on up here and have a seat.”

Kevin floated to the ledge beside Glendymere and collapsed on the ground. “What?”

“How’s Rhianna coming?”

“Pretty well, especially considering how little time we’ve had to work.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I know. She’s pretty good with the wind, but she hasn’t been able to get a storm going yet. She loses her concentration before it’s completely formed, but we’ll work on it after the wedding’s over. Why?”

“I wanted to know when I can count on her for Landis. We need wind if I’m going to teach your apprentice to draw energy from it, and when she first starts, she’ll need lots of wind, the kind you get in thunderstorms.”

“If you need a tornado, we’re nowhere near that.”

Glendymere shook his head.
“That wind’s too complicated. Thunderstorms work better. So, I shouldn’t count on her until towards the end of December?”

“Probably. Is that going to cause a problem?”

“No. Landis is about ready to move on, but we can work with fire next and pick up wind later.”