Prophecy's Promise (Prophecy of the Edges Book 1) (2 page)

I ran straight to my aunt’s quarters, refusing to let the tears fall. As the Lead Scholar, Nazarie had the authority to fix this. She had been more like a protective older sister than an aunt. Once I explained the situation, she would make Altis wait until after my Exams.

I pounded my fist against her door.

“It's open.” Nazarie sounded exhausted, but I was too angry to care. I flung open the door and stormed into her study. The windows were open, but no breeze moved through the room.

Nazarie’s normally fastidiously curled red hair was piled in a hasty knot, but she wore her formal Initiate uniform. I knew it meant that she’d had a crazy day. Only back-to-back meetings starting early in the morning would explain her appearance. She jumped up and wrapped me in her arms. “I know.” She said as she patted my head like I was twelve again. “Acrovena and I spoke. I know what you saw, and I know about the Exams.”

I sniffled and stepped back, “Why aren't you stopping it?”

“Hailey, sit down.” She pointed to my favorite chair. It was an old leather chair with soft cushioning. I remembered sitting there the first day I came to be a Mist Weaver and the first day I was accepted into the Scholar Track. I would not sit there the day my goals and plans were taken from me. I remained standing.

“I've been on the committee that has been studying the disappearing of the world. And as much as I hate it, Altis is right.” She sat down with a sigh.

“How can it be right if it keeps me from being a Scholar?”

“Maybe that's not what you are meant to be. Despite your abilities, obviously we were wrong when we accepted you into the Scholar Track. I had to convince the Warriors not to take you years ago. You always were very talented at horsemanship, grappling, and swordplay, especially with those daggers of yours, which I believe you still keep tucked into your boots.” She motioned to my feet.

Frustratingly, Nazarie was correct. Despite the lack of need, I normally kept the daggers with me. Often, when I needed a break from my studying, I’d weave Fortifications around the daggers. My friend Meena, also a Scholar Apprentice, had the same habit. But I think we were the only two Scholars to do so. “Mist Apparitions haven't appeared in centuries. Maybe I'm supposed to study it,” I retorted.

“Scholars have been studying them for hundreds of years.” Nazarie’s voice trailed off, and she looked off into the distance. “Do you remember when you and I were coming home to the Keep for the first time? We spoke about forest fires.”

I plopped down on the chair. “Fires are devastating, but new growth happens. You said my life was going to have new growth.”

“And?” she prompted.

I tried very hard not to roll my eyes like a child. “And you were right.” My life did have new growth after I came to the Keep, but that was different. I’d no memories of my life before the accident or what I’d left behind, but I’ve made a wonderful new life for myself.

She leaned forward and lowered her voice as if she were telling me a secret. “I’ve a theory that The Edge is also like a forest fire.”

“An all-consuming fire melting away our world,” I said slowly, unsure how I felt about that comparison. “It fits with the description in the dream in the sense that everything will be destroyed.”

“Maybe it is a cleansing force. Maybe it shouldn’t be stopped.”

“You think I’m
not
meant to stop it?”

“Perhaps you were meant to bring a fresh perspective and keep an open mind.” She paused for a while, and we sat in silence. “This is the first time in recorded history that Warriors have held so much power. Maybe you are to bring logic to the Warriors during this time.” She looked down at her hands. “Hailey, there's more. I convinced Altis to let me tell you myself. In one week, you will take the Warrior Journeyman Rite, and the day after you will set out for The Edge. Between now and then, you have been reassigned to assisting Altis.”

I stared at her, unblinking. “He stole your position from you! I won’t do it.” My voice rose in frustration.

“He didn’t steal anything from me.”

“You should have been Lead Initiate. He is only the Lead Initiate because he’s the queen’s nephew.”

The look on her face told me that I had gone too far. “He is your Lead Initiate and second in line for the throne. I don’t ever want to hear you say anything like that again.”

“Why are you defending him? You don’t even like him.”

“I don’t have to like him. I have to respect him. It’s beneficial for all of us Weavers that our leader is someone so close to the queen. Am I disappointed that I am not Lead Initiate? Of course.”

“Then why—” I started, but she cut me off.

“But I am able to see past my own selfish desires and understand what is best for our country and our people. You have no option. As the Lead Scholar, I cast you from our Track. You will not sit for the Exams. You are a Warrior Apprentice. I hope you learn to embrace your duty.”

Nothing made sense anymore. Feelings of betrayal washed over me. I couldn't speak; I could hardly breathe. It seemed ludicrous to suggest that I could do anything to fix The Edge. I closed and opened my mouth several times, trying to summon a convincing argument, but nothing came. I ran from the room.

Tears blurred my vision. Where could I go? Nazarie had abandoned me. Meena was teaching. I should have been teaching. All who lived in the quarters along this empty hallway had a purpose. A purpose of their choosing. What did I have? Tears cascaded down my cheeks. I tripped and fell crumpling to the ground. I lay there for a moment, feeling silly and helpless. I sat up and wiped my eyes. I wanted to study people who had adventures and shaped the course of history. I did not want to be one of them.

Whenever I felt stressed or needed to work through a problem, I would go to the sparring ground and lose myself in the Patterns of Warriors, but I didn’t want to give the impression that I was excited or even the least bit interested in this new direction for my life.

I could remember—which is a small miracle in itself since I had very few memories from before the accident—that as a child, I would hide with the horses when my father got in one of his tempers. That's where I had been hiding the day Nazarie rescued me. I picked myself up off the floor and walked purposefully toward the stables.

As I entered, the stable boy turned to gather tack. “I'm not going riding,” I told him. I simply wanted to sit idle amongst the horses, but I didn't want him to bother me. “Can I brush one of them?”

The boy—probably only a few years older than my students—eyed me for a minute and then, gesturing to a small horse, handed me a brush. “I still have to do that one.”

I took the brush and grabbed a bucket. I hadn't been out to the stables in over a year. I never seemed to find the time to come. I had forgotten how relaxing menial labor could be. I held my palm up for the horse to sniff. It snorted then turned to continue snacking on the hay, assuming that I was harmless enough. I let the motion of the task of grooming the horse take over me. Horses were bred to run, and yet here these stayed tethered, sentenced to a life where they were allowed to run only when others deem it acceptable.

I didn't hear Meena walk up behind me. “Nazarie said I might find you here.” Her words ripped me from my melancholy thoughts.

“Did she tell you?” I asked, not taking my eyes from the horse in fear that I’d start to cry the second I looked into her face. It didn’t help; I felt tears welling up. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

“Some.” Meena sat down on a hay bale. I could feel her silently watching me. “It's not all that awful,” she said after a time.

“How do you reckon?” I asked, my voice sounding angrier than I meant it to.

“Altis isn't horrible.” She held her hand up to prevent any retorts. “Despite whatever is between him and your aunt, Altis is good at his job. He’s the strongest Weaver in hundreds of years. That's why the Council broke from tradition and elected him as the Lead Initiate. Even Nazarie supports that decision.”

She ignored my humph. He was the nephew of the queen. Strong or not, nepotism was why he, and not my aunt, now held the rank.

“Nazarie said that she thought you’d add a different dimension to Altis’s mission.”

“I don't care. All I want to do is be a Scholar. I want to go down in history as the youngest Scholar Initiate. I want to be remembered for discovering strange and wonderful things about the Mist and how our world works.”

“How could you turn down a chance to save us all?”

“Meena, if I thought that somewhere deep inside me lay even the slightest potential to help—an iota of knowledge or insight—don't you think I'd jump to do so?” I glared at her, willing her to believe me. “The Guardians wouldn't pick a shy Scholar-to-be who is more interested in books than glory. There's no way.”

“If the Guardians did not pick you—which I highly doubt since you were sent the Mist Apparition—the Lead Initiate did pick you.”

“I wish he’d pick someone who could do it.”

“He did.” Meena put her arm around me. “I'm sure and so is Nazarie.” I loved Meena for her unrelenting confidence in me. My first night here, all the other girls had whispered amongst themselves and gawked at me. But Meena gave me one of her extra dolls and invited me to eat dinner with her. We’ve been fast friends ever since.

“You came here years later than any of us,” she continued, “with hardly a memory, and within two years, you had caught up, and then surpassed us. Now look at you. The youngest Apprentice to be invited to take the Exams, and internationally published for that stuff on Astronomical Calculus and how the stars and planets influences our Mist not to mention those textbooks for the Novice Apprentices you wrote. I’m smart, and you lost me three paragraphs in. I heard yesterday that Dybreakea’s nobility has their children follow the curriculum that you set forth in that series you wrote.”

“Really?” Bittersweet reality. “What a waste. Forced into being a Warrior without a clue how to save myself or anyone else.” Despite my words, I smiled and did feel a little better.

“You want to know the other thing Nazarie told me?”

“What?”

“To drag you to the library.”

I replaced the grooming tools and waved good-bye to the stable boy. From the stables, the fastest way to the library was to walk outside around the north part of the Keep, as the library was on the city-side of the complex. A covered limestone colonnade connected the library to the rest of the Keep. Clumps of studying students were interspersed with visitors. Per usual, several picnickers were present as well. Some laid their blankets under the colonnade while others had spread out onto the grass and gardens between the library and the rest of the Keep.

The moment that Meena and I entered the library’s foyer, Aleza, the senior librarian, rushed over. “I’ve been waiting for you, Hailey. The Lead Initiate himself dropped off a packet for you a few hours ago,” she said.

Annoyingly, I nearly started my sobbing all over again.

Aleza hugged me. “Oh, child.” She led me over to a worn blue chair and coaxed me to sit. The same familiar scents of binding paste, paper, and knowledge swirled around me.

“I’m sorry. I’m being silly.” I forced a smile. “Everything is fine.”

Aleza pursed her lips, obviously not believing me, but thankfully did not press the point. “I’ll fetch the packet,” she offered. Within the packet, I found instructions to write a report about the disappearing of the world along The Edge and the types of information I needed to gather. I was to work closely with Altis to prepare it, which was the worst part of the assignment. I have written hundreds of reports in my academic career. I didn’t need some Warrior analyzing every assertion over my shoulder.

Over the next few days, in addition to learning everything I could about The Edge, I learned that I hated everything about Altis. I hated his exaggerated motions that encroached on space he didn't need. I hated the condescending way that he spoke to me, like I was some silly little girl who didn't know anything.

Mostly, I hated being his assistant and knowing that, in a very short time, I would be forced to travel with him. Gods and Guardians willing, our party would be large enough that I wouldn’t have to interact with him much while we were on our journey. I hated how Altis assumed he knew everything about me. Like he had me figured out.

I handed Altis my latest assignment, a report for Queen Mauzaca on the rate of disappearance of
the world. For all I knew, this could be the last report I would write. I didn’t ask if I would be allowed to continue my studies after we healed The Edge, because I was afraid to hear the answer.

“This report is too stilted. The tone is too removed from the present. It doesn’t connect reality with the facts.” His tone was short, almost exhausted. I was exhausted, too, after our near constant bickering.

“Facts and reality are the same,” I replied, confused.

“Despite the tone, it looks thorough enough, although rather disturbing.” The rate of disappearance was growing faster by the week. I had never seen him look so utterly exhausted. For a moment, I almost didn’t hate him.

“I could still take my Exams,” I suggested. “I mean, will we even be leaving before the Exams would be over?”