The Chosen (53 page)

She stiffened. “No one, in my entire life, has proven worthy of my trust, and anyone I have ever trusted has betrayed me.”

“Then perhaps you have trusted the wrong people too much and the right people too little?”

“And just who is right and who is wrong?” she countered.

Elyon spread his hands. “That is not for me to determine.”

“Then how are your words of wisdom helpful?”

“By making you think.”

“I already think.”

“Not on this matter you don’t. You made a decision as a child and have not revisited or revised it since that day in the Blackwood’s dungeon,” he rebuked her.

“Why should I revisit and revise it if no one has ever given me reason to?”

“Because you do not allow them the opportunity to give you cause to do so.” His eyes softened as he asked, “where is your faith, child?”

“Back in the Blackwood’s dungeon with my innocence and trust,” she retorted sharply.

“Not everyone is like Quint, Kathryn,” Elyon told her quietly. “Not everyone has a secret agenda.”

“My experience suggests otherwise,” she shot back, suppressing a shiver at the name that had haunted her as a child; the face that still haunted her.

“Jasmine? Jasse? David? Amy? Claude?” Elyon listed them on his fingers. “Surely they all don’t have hidden motives every time they deal with you?”

“They all have at one point or another,” she replied firmly.
Except maybe Claude.

Elyon shook his head. “That is the way of people, Kathryn. They are not perfect. You need to accept that at some time or another, they will desire something of you. But you can’t hold those few times against them for the rest of their lives.”

“I don’t.”

“Yes, you do. It’s how you rationalize your actions toward even the friendliest of people. By assuming that they want something from you, you give yourself the right to treat them coldly.”

“People are selfish, they
always
want something from someone else.”

“But sometimes that selfishness can lead to purer actions. Have you ever considered the possibility that all they desire from you is your friendship and companionship?”

“So that they can pry into my personal life? Force me to relive memories I would rather forget?”

“How can you make friends without sharing a part of yourself with others? Until they know your story, how can they know when they are getting close to your wounds? If they reach out blindly they are more likely to stick their finger in an open wound than if you give them an idea of where you’re injured and where they should tread cautiously.”

“They shouldn’t be poking around in the first place!”

“How can a healer gage the extent of a wound without first examining it? A little poking and prodding is necessary to determine the depth and severity of the wound before a treatment can be devised.”

She glared at him, unwilling to admit that in that point he was correct. She’d seen Jenna and Tyler in action enough times to know how a wound was treated.

“Think on what I’ve said,” Elyon said finally. “You’ve set one foot on the path of healing, I can help you with the second step but the third is up to you.”

“What is the second step?” She tried to remember how Jenna and Tyler treated injuries, but couldn’t manage to draw any similarities between her case and theirs.

“The first step in healing is to treat the injury,” Elyon told her softly. “The second is to prevent further injury by infection from setting in. Lastly, the victim must overcome the physical and psychological restrictions that injury placed on them.

“You have already done the first. You’ve faced your past. By facing the Blackwoods and your darkest secrets you’ve acknowledged and treated your injury. But a resentful fever still burns in your body over what happened to you. And it’s a fever you feed every time you touch your scars.”

“So what’s the cure for the fever?” she asked sarcastically. “Remove the scars?”

“Yes,” he replied calmly.

“Good luck,” she returned derisively. “The most gifted healers of the Guardians tried to remove them and couldn’t. What makes you think you can?”

“My gift of healing is stronger than that of the Council Guardians. I have the power to remove them.”

Kathryn reached up and fingered her shoulder, hardly daring to believe such a thing was possible...Could he live up to his claim?

“How?”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you have the power to remove them? The Council employs the strongest healers in the Kingdom. How can you surpass their power?”

“The Guardians rely on their natural gifts to supply their power. Not only is my power stronger than theirs, but I possess techniques long lost to the Guardians.”

“What kind of techniques?” she asked hesitantly.

“The Elves and Guardians were not the only ones with the power to heal,” he replied with a smile. “There was another group of people who were given healing powers.”

Kathryn felt her brow furrow as she tried to think. The answer hit her like a rock. “Wizards?”

He nodded.

“You know wizard magic?”

He nodded again.

“That’s impossible! They died out several millenia ago.”

“Just because they can no longer be found within the borders of Archaea, it doesn’t mean that they died out,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

And if the legends were true, wizard magic
could
remove scars. “You can really use wizard’s magic?” she asked again, slowly.

Elyon nodded. “Yes.”

“And what would you demand in return?”

“Nothing, child, it is a gift I will gladly give you.”

That raised alarm bells in the back of her mind. “Nothing in this world is free.”

“My child, a gift is free to all. If something is asked for in return then it is not a gift.”

Kathryn hesitated only a moment. “Then, please, I ask you to remove them.”

He placed one hand on her shoulder. “Do you that believe I can?”

His question made Kathryn pause. Did she believe that he, a stranger whom she’d only met twice before, could remove her scars? He radiated power and confidence that surpassed even that of King Darin. He was gifted, of that she was sure. And his calm responses to her questions told her that he was completely confident in everything he had revealed to her. It was his eyes, something in his eyes that prompted her response.  She was surprised to discover, that yes, she did believe that he could. “I do.”

Elyon laughed, it was a pleasant sound, nothing like the cold hard laugh of the Blackwood’s, but the warm comforting laugh of a father. It reminded her of Lord Jasse’s laugh. “Then reach up child, and see that you are healed.”

Kathryn immediately reached up and felt nothing but smooth skin. “But...but how?”

He smiled down at her. “I am a leader of men, this is true, but the one I serve is even stronger and it is his power that I call upon. It is by his authority that I am given the power to heal.” He cupped her chin in his hands and Kathryn could feel the intense power and calm that radiated from his touch. “I am not a king in the sense of your King Darin,” he said calmly. “I am a Dūta. I
serve
a King, much like you serve yours. My services are free to those within his kingdom.”

“But I’m not in his kingdom,” she protested.
And how can you call a kingdom
yours
if you aren’t a king?

He smiled again. “You are, child. You have been since you were born. All that is left is for you to realize it.”

“But how can a King give another magic? Magic is born not given,” she whispered, trying to sort through his confusing words.

Elyon smiled. “It is both,” he said with a light laugh.

“I have watched over you since your birth and will continue to do so,” Elyon promised her. “Remember that, child, for your next test has yet to begin.”

“What next test?” she asked warily as she stood, her mind returning to his warnings of the two paths her kingdom faced. She wasn’t ready to face those decisions yet.

“The trial that will tell you who you are,” Elyon put his hand on her shoulder and gazed into her eyes. “I fear it will not be an easy test for you, but you must have faith.”

“Faith? Faith in what?”

“Faith in yourself, faith in your family, but mostly faith in my king.”

Why would I have faith in a stranger?
“Why should I have faith in a king I’ve never met?” She demanded.

“Because my magic is that of a child compared to his.”

Now that was a disturbing thought. He’d already demonstrated abilities that would throw the Council into a tizzy, but the knowledge that someone
more
powerful than he existed…it would cause a full-blown panic. Time to change topics and return to the second most disturbing thing he’d said. “Will you be there during the trial?” Was it to be like the tests back at the school where a panel of instructors observed and graded each student’s abilities?

“I will be watching over you,” he reminded her. “Even though you cannot see me, I will be there.”

“How can you be there if I can’t see you?”

“You must trust me.”

“I already told you that I don’t trust others,” she replied a little heatedly. He may have just performed a miracle she’d never let herself dream of, but that didn’t give him the right to become presumptuous.

Elyon smiled. “You believed that I could heal you.”

“Trusting and believing aren’t the same thing.”

“I know child, which is why what I am about to ask you will be difficult for you.”

She arched an eyebrow. “What are you going to ask me?”

“To put all your trust in me and the one I serve and to believe me when I say I will never leave or abandon you. Even when it seems like everything and everyone else has.”

Kathryn stared at him a moment before shaking her head. “You ask too much,” she replied. “I don’t even know you. How can I trust you?”

Elyon chuckled. “You know me, Kathryn. Search your heart and you will find you know me.” He reached out to her and pulled her into an embrace.

Stunned and surprised by his sudden movement, she instinctively stiffened, but then another emotion took over and Kathryn finally knew what it was like to feel protected. She knew, deep down, she knew he was the one who would never betray her. How she knew she couldn’t say, but somehow she knew.

When Elyon let her go she nodded at him. It wasn’t a nod of trust, but one of a promise to try. It was all she could offer.

He smiled and laid his hand back on her shoulder. “Then go Kathryn, and know that you have been given a second chance
.”

As suddenly as he had appeared, Elyon disappeared. For a moment Kathryn stood motionless, then, fearing what she had seen and heard was a dream, she quickly reached her hands up towards her shoulder blades. Where there had been rough skin and long narrow scars there was now only smoothness, not even tenderness.  The tautness and dull ache that permeated her back and shoulders for years was gone.

“A path that leads to war and another to peace,” she mused over his words, turning them over and over in her mind, trying to make sense of it.
What in the stars is that supposed to mean?

“Kathryn!”

She turned to find David hurrying up behind her. “Who was that?” He demanded.

“You saw him too?”

“Of course I saw him, what did he say to you?” He peered at her. “Is everything okay? You look a little…I don’t know.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “I look a little what?”

He blinked hard several times before saying, “Never mind, I must have imagined it.”

“Imagined what?”

He shook his head emphatically. “Nothing. Who was that man?”

Kathryn debated how much to tell him. “A man I’ve met before,” she hedged.

“You willingly took part in a conversation with a strange man in the middle of the forest?” He was looking at her like she’d lost her mind. She was beginning to wonder the same thing.

Rolling her eyes she replied. “He’s not dangerous…just a little odd.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Lord Jasse knows him. In fact, he asked me to get to know him.”
Sort of
.

He hadn’t been expecting that reply. She could see the wheels turning in his head before he finally spoke. “Okay, fine. Lord Jasse is as good a reference as you can get, but you still haven’t told me his name or why he was here.”

Turning to look back at the spot where the stranger had disappeared she said, “His name was Elyon, he told me…he said… he said…things that didn’t make sense,” she didn’t want to set him off with Elyon’s talk of war, “and he took away my scars.”

“He took away your what?” David didn’t look, or sound, convinced.

She nodded. “My scars. He told me I had carried them long enough.”

David moved closer to view the miracle, but her tunic completely covered her back and shoulders. “And what was his price for removing them?”

“Nothing.”

One of his eyebrows shot upward toward his hairline. “Nothing is free.”

“That’s what I told him. He said that it was a gift.”
Or maybe I would just owe him one…

“I don’t like it.”

Kathryn turned and frowned at him. “I can take care of myself David.”

“I know you can, I just don’t like the idea of strangers approaching young women alone in the forest.”

“He wasn’t dangerous,” Kathryn insisted.

“How would you know that?”

As she sought an answer, she realized that she didn’t have any—just an indescribable knowledge that this man had truly wanted to help her. And it probably wouldn’t be wise to admit that he’d saved her life the previous winter. “He isn’t dangerous,” she said finally. Thinking about his words she added, “He may bring danger, but he himself isn’t dangerous.”

David opened his mouth with some prepared retort, but it died when her words reached him. “What? How can someone bring danger but not be dangerous?”

She shrugged. “I can’t explain it any other way.”

“What else did he want?”

She struggled with her reply.
Oh, we just talked about the fact that my family is still alive and that they thought I was dead all these years. And how our kingdom is probably headed for war, but good news there, I may be able to stop it if the special majority I’m a part of choses the path of peace.
Oh yeah, that would go over well
.
“He just wanted to talk.”

“And you obliged him?!”

She sort of understood his incredulity, after all, why would she talk to a stranger in the woods when there were fourteen of them living in her house? “I didn’t say that he wanted to get to know me,” she replied sourly. If Elyon was to be believed, there was no need for him to get to know her, he already did. “Just that he wanted to talk.”

“Talk about what?” David pushed.

“Random topics.” She figured that her family, her past, war, and the other myriad of topics they had covered during their whirlwind conversation counted as random. “I think he was lonely and just wanted someone to talk to.”

“So you just sat around and listened to him talk your ear off?”

She sighed. “Are you going to stand here and argue with me or was there a reason you tracked me down?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. It was blatantly obvious that he wanted to continue his interrogation, but she put some ice into her eyes and he backed down. “The rest of us are going into the village, Natalie wanted to know if you wanted to come too.”

Kathryn looked back at the waterfall, then, realizing she had already found her peace, turned back to David and said, “Sure.”

He looked genuinely surprised. “Really?”

“Why not?”

“You never have before.”

“So I can’t now?” she quirked an eyebrow at him.

“That’s not what I meant.”

They left the falls and walked back by the way of the meadow without commenting anymore about Elyon.

Natalie talked the entire way to the village, reminding David about his promise to stay the entire day.  Kathryn thought David looked like he regretted making that promise, but wisely didn’t comment. Immediately upon entering the village, Natalie and the rest of the girls headed toward the marketplace. Kathryn had no desire to see the market. Instead she wandered the streets aimlessly until she found herself standing before the village poorhouse.

She could hear children crying and the sound drew her to the source inside. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark interior she could make out about twenty children sitting on cots or scattered on the floor. Several bassinets stood nearby, their tiny occupants sleeping despite the clamor inside.

“We don’t got no room for any others!”

Kathryn turned at the harsh voice and found herself face to face with the elderly matron in charge of the children. “I’m not here to drop anyone off,” she quietly reassured the woman, “I’m here to help.”

“Elp?” the old woman scoffed. “An why would the likes of you elp dis brood not worth a bordar’s spittle?”

Kathryn, a little taken back looked around. “Surely not all these children were unwanted by their parents,” she exclaimed quietly.

The matron nodded to a small girl curled on a cot at the far end of the room, “That ‘un there, Pa beat ‘er ‘cause she weren’t a boy,” she nodded to twin boys at the far end of the room, “those were numbers nine and ten. Their pa decided he couldn’t wait till they were biggen enough to till the ground. Ten is to many mouths to feed.” She turned a sorrowful eye towards Kathryn, “most here got the same story—nobody wants em til they big enough to do a days work--then they want em.”

Kathryn moved slowly to where the small girl cowered on the bed. Gently she sat down and looked into the frightened child’s eyes. “Hello,” she said softly. She avoided staring at the child’s numerous scars that were visible all over her small body; scars that, until that morning, were similar to the very ones Kathryn had carried.

The child looked at her, but didn’t make a move to answer her.

“My name’s Caterina, do you have a name?”

The little girl nodded slowly.

Kathryn grinned. “Shall I try to guess it?” When the little girl nodded again, Kathryn pretended to think a moment, and then asked, “Is your name Evelyn?” As the little girl shook her head, Kathryn said, “Hmm…is it Elise?”

A tiny glimmer of a smile made its way to the corner of the child’s eyes. “Is it Magda? No? How about Gertrude? Wrong again? What about Marlee?”

The little girl let out a soft giggle. “Dawn.”

Kathryn smiled. “That’s a very pretty name.”

“Mum named me after her happy time of day,” the little girl told her proudly.

“Where is your mother?”

Casting her eyes to the floor she pursed her lips. “She died.  Taken in the great sickness—last year,” Dawn told her quietly. “After she gone, pa don’t want me round no more.”

“Do you like to play games?” Kathryn asked quickly, trying to distract the little girl.

“Mum made me a doll when I was this many,” she indicated by holding up three fingers. “Her name’s Starla.”

“That’s a very interesting name,” Kathryn said quietly. “Did you pick it for any special reason?”

Dawn nodded seriously. “I like stars, mum said it was a good name.”

“It is a good name,” Kathryn told her. “Can I meet Starla?”

Dawn hesitated for less than a second. “She’s sleeping, but she’s napped enough.” She hopped down from the bed and hurried into a back room.

“Well now,” the matron huffed behind Kathryn. “You ne’er told me you was a miracle worker.”

Kathryn looked up at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“Tha’ little en ain’t spoken a word since she showed last year. Thought her a mute, I did.”

“Do you know how old she is?”

“Her pa said she was four, but who knows.” The matron shrugged as she walked away.

Kathryn couldn’t stop from drawing similarities between Dawn and herself. Five, maybe six years old, abused by authority figures, and silent.

Dawn came hurrying back, carrying a well-worn doll. “Dis is Starla,” she announced as she crawled into Kathryn’s lap.

Kathryn stayed at the orphanage for the rest of the day, spending time with the children. It wasn’t often someone visited the orphanage and the children welcomed her presence. The girls invited her to play dolls and the boys asked her to judge their running games.

Later in the evening, as the sun sunk below the horizon Kathryn and Dawn sat on the steps outside and watched the greater light slowly disappear.

“Do you still hurt?” Dawn asked suddenly.

Startled, Kathryn looked down at the little girl who sat comfortably in her lap. “What do you mean?”

“Where dey hit you,” the little girl said. “Does it still hurt? Mine do.”

“What makes you think I was hit as a little girl?” Kathryn asked quietly.

“I watched your face when you said ello to me. You saw me scars but didn’t stare or say I was bad like errbody else.” The little girl sat up straighter, “When you said ello, your eyes said I know—I hurt too.”

It’s funny how the ones discarded by society end up learning the most about it. I didn’t even need to say anything, but she knew
. She smiled down at the expectant little girl. “No, they don’t hurt anymore. Although up until a few days ago they did.”

Tears filled the little girl’s eyes. “Will mine ever stop hurting?”

Kathryn closed her eyes and hugged her close. How often had she felt like Dawn after she had first been rescued? She had lost count. When the hurt had refused to leave, Kathryn had buried it deep, refusing to acknowledge it. Recent experience had only just vividly shown her that that hadn’t been the right solution. “I don’t know, Dawn. I hope so.”

Eventually David caught sight of the orphanage. When he and the others had started getting ready to leave, he had been surprised to learn that no one knew where Kathryn was. It was only after Jenna had mentioned seeing an orphanage that David knew where to find his second-in-command. His heart turned over at the sight of Kathryn still holding a little girl in her arms. He approached slowly, not wanting to be heard nor wanting to disturb them.

The little girl was sniffling, big tears rolling down her cheeks. Kathryn held her close to her chest like a mother would hold her child. He stood in the shadows, watching and waiting. He had never seen such tenderness from Kathryn and it surprised him.

After a while the little girl quieted and grew still, David guessed she had fallen asleep, but Kathryn refused to let go.

Slowly David approached, but for once Kathryn’s training seemed to be pushed aside for she startled when he sat down beside her.

“Who is she?” he asked softly.

“Her name is Dawn,” Kathryn replied softly. “She’s almost six years old.”

David didn’t know what to say. Looking down he got a closer look at the scars that covered the little girl’s body. Some leapt over her legs like flames; others were rounded and thin like a rod. Beneath the scars her skin was purple and yellow tinted from the bruises. Her arms resembled her legs and on the left side of her face a jagged scar ran from above her eyebrow to below her neck.

Carefully David brushed back the flame colored hair that had fallen across the little girl’s face, it was dirty and matted like it was rarely washed. He also noticed that her bottom lip had a scar and the top looked like it had been split multiple times.

“Who could do this to an innocent child?” he asked in disgust. Then, realizing that Kathryn had probably borne similar marks when she had been rescued, tried to send her an apologetic look.