Memory's Wake - Book One of the Memory's Wake Trilogy

Chapter 9

Roen’s body shivered in an ongoing tremble he couldn’t control. He was exhausted, but he often worked all night and it never left him like this. Why am I so anxious? His father looked grave, but smiled at Roen and patted him on the shoulder.

After the entire night spent listening in, seeking gossip and spying, Roen explained to his parents what he saw in town during the dark hours of morning. He’d finally managed to bring his parents something of such value it could change their hard lives. Pride mixed with bitter anxiety at the news he now delivered.

The princess burst through the curtain from the bedroom with a look on her face that made Roen shake harder. He gripped his hands together to still them.

Isabeth tried to herd the girls back into the bedroom. Eloryn ducked past her, straight to where Roen and his father were sitting at the table. They cut off their conversation.

“It’s not true. He couldn’t be,” Eloryn insisted.

Roen turned to his father, not sure how to respond. Brannon shook his head in the smallest of movements.

Eloryn came to a stop in the middle of the room, her chest rising and falling from sharp breaths. “No secrets, please. I know what you said, but you must be wrong. They couldn’t have caught him. Couldn’t have!”

“Princess, I’m sorry. I saw him myself.” Roen’s muscles still ached from the strain of moving unseen and unheard to get as close as he could to Alward’s cell. But all he could do was watch, blocked by too many guards and gates locked by magic instead of mechanisms that would click open for his fingers.

“He is nearby? I have to go to him.” Eloryn headed toward the front door.

With two huge steps Brannon moved in front of her. He held his only hand out in a calming gesture. “It is your safety that is most important, you know this.”

Eloryn shook her head in a way that made her blonde hair shiver around her.

Roen forced his words out, wishing there were some other messenger for this news. “Alward is alive, but they have poisons that block his magic and he is heavily guarded. The wizard hunters also had a good view of you both,” he said, looking from Eloryn to Memory. “They’re already heading back out to continue searching for you. Fifteen of them, some heading back into the forest, others onto the roadways. The rest have begun searching houses and farms around Maerranton.”

Isabeth dropped into a nearby seat as though her legs had been cut out from under her. “They won’t be safe here, will they?”

Brannon shook his head. “We need to get Eloryn away from here, as fast as possible.”

“And yourselves,” Roen added. “They are Thayl’s men. You can’t risk them recognizing you if they come this way.”

“No.” Eloryn eyed the door, hysteria in her eyes. “No, I can’t leave Alward.”

Brannon stood as a barrier between her and the exit. “There’s no doubt Thayl will come to see Alward himself, to be sure who it is. Once he is sure, he’ll do everything he can to find you. Did Alward have somewhere else for you to go, to someone else he trusted?”

“He considered at times going to others from the Wizards’ Council-”

“There are others still alive?”

“But we never did. I don’t know where to find them on my own. We were meant to go to our other home on Rhynn together, to be safe there. What must I do to get him back? I have to do something to free him.”

“Lory, that doesn’t sound like a good idea. Not if that Thayl guy might be coming. Remember the part about him being a crazy person?” Memory mumbled from the back of the room.