The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

44. No one says NO to Mother

       》Spring of 1987《

The shadows danced on the tunnel wall as Jack swung his lantern to the rhythm of his stride. As he turned the corner, he saw hag Rhine walking in his direction with a white goat leading the way. He stared the hag right in her black soulless eyes. The goat's bleat distracted him, and he momentarily lost eye contact. Right at that moment, Rhine extended her gnarly fingers in his direction. Staring her down again, he moved away from her reach and scraped his arm on the uneven rocky wall. She licked her lips and smiled, revealing only two bottom teeth. He kept walking backwards to keep an eye on her until she disappeared from view.

He didn't understand why the hags had been acting so strange lately. They kept sneaking glances at him as if they were waiting for something. Elsa said she didn't notice anything weird. Was he just imagining it?

As he got closer to his destination, he slowed down. He didn't want to go in, but there was no fighting this. No one said 'No' to Mother.

Every spring, Mother returned with the same plan—to teach them better control over their winter magic. He actually liked how little time she spent home during winter. It gave him a chance to play, do whatever he wanted, be himself, but then each year, winter would end and Mother would come back with the same project: more lessons, new challenges for him to fail.

It wasn't helping that he seemed to always disappoint her. He never learned how to create ice, and Mother finally accepted that his powers would always be different from his sister's, that he would always be the weaker twin. He thought that it would mean the end of the lessons, but no. Mother still called him in.

'Be strong this time,' he thought.

He had been repeating this to himself the whole winter. He promised himself that no matter what Mother said or did, he was not going to cry so she couldn't make fun of him. He would never let her words get to him again. He believed in himself. He could do this.

He stopped by the arched doorway, recognizing the strange symbols carved into it. He couldn't read them but knew that they marked the training chamber. He reluctantly knocked and went in, hoping the lesson would be quick.

Mother sat on a large stone bench which was carved to look as if it was a throne covered by icicles. In the winter, she made herself a real ice throne but the rest of the year she had to settle for this imitation. It was draped with a large brown and white pelt. It reminded him of one of the goats he'd seen in the pasture room a few months ago. He felt sorry for the poor animal.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Sit."

Mother was young again. Both Elsa and he wanted to know how she did it, how she made herself young every spring. He overheard hags talk about it among themselves, jealous of her. Mother had guarded this secret for many winters, long before the twins were born, and wouldn't make an exception for anyone.

He dared to look her in the eye to judge what mood she was in, but it was hard to tell today. She appeared bored. He supposed her mood would be determined by how well he did. No pressure.

She pointed at a small box placed on the ground and he shuffled to it unenthusiastically.

"Did I say shamble like an injured sloth? Ugh. What have I done to deserve this?!"

He sped up and sat down cross-legged obediently. This was not a good start to the lesson.

While Mother's side of the room was illuminated by sets of candles melting on plates, the center of the room was rather dark so he set his lantern on the ground next to him. It always made him feel a little better when there was a light source close by.