The Lighter That Shone Like A Star (Story of The South) (19 page)

A gentle tapping on his bedroom door awoke Max. His head was pounding and he felt groggy, as though he had been up all night drinking cyder.

He had been dreaming, a familiar dream. His mother clutching her baby to her chest, his father screaming in anger at a tall rock, a midwife humming a tune and knocking over a small vial, a wisp of smoke rising from the liquid within… It had all seemed so real while he was sleeping, watching over the bizarre scenario.

“Enter,” he croaked, throat raspy and mouth dry.

One of the serving men opened the door carrying a tray of poached eggs on lightly toasted granary bread, a small glass of orange juice, a green apple, and a small pile of envelopes.

“Clemari, I have your breakfast and some letters from your council,” the serving man stated.

“Thank you… Sorry, what’s your name?”

“My name?” asked the smartly dressed man, startled.

“Yes, what do people call you?” asked Max, patiently.

“Hoik.”

“Thank you Hoik,” Max smiled, taking a bite from his apple. “Now what do you mean by letters?”

“Oh, well people of Naegis go to your council with requests and, how do you say, informations that they think is important. Your council give to you the letters that is, umm… most important,” explained Hoik in a thick Naegean accent.

“I see. Thank you, again.”

Hoik bowed his head and left Max alone to eat his breakfast.

Why does my head hurt so much?

After his shower, there was another knock at his door.

“Enter,” he barked.

Giorgie stepped through the door, saw Max with just a towel wrapped around his waist, and turned away.

“I’m sorry, Clem… Max! I thought…”

“No, it’s my fault; I thought it would just be Luc!” he blushed. “Why are you here?” Max asked, sounding far more abrupt than he had anticipated.

“It’s… It’s Joz.” Giorgie said, looking down.

Max did not need to ask anything else. He told Giorgie to wait for him outside, chucked on his favourite midnight blue robe, and the pair hurried to the west wing of the castle to Joz’s chamber.

“Do we have any more information on Anne-Alicia?” he asked.

“She refuses to talk to anyone, still. She said that you have put her in there unfairly and that she thought you were her friend. She doesn’t understand why she’s in the cell when she came to you desperate for help because Matthew had been killed.”

Max winced. The news of Matthew’s death was still so raw, so gut-wrenchingly painful.

“So, nothing new then,” he said. “She still won’t say who killed Matthew?”

“No.”

“She won’t say where they were?”

“No.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to try again.”

“Indeed,” Giorgie huffed as they reached Joz’s chamber.

Joz was lying in his bed, a flannel across his forehead and various pills and medicines on his desk. Max approached the Old Clemari and looked down upon the frail old man.

“Dorot,” he began. “What happened?”

“I am not sure. I was sleeping when I had a dream – a very bad dream. When I woke up, Joz was calling me, in my head. I ran here immediately but… I cannot do anything to help. It is time,” she explained.

“Get Luc.”
Max ordered.

“He is coming,” said Giorgie.

Without warning, a voice echoed around the room.
Everyone leave, except Max.

Max
looked at Joz, his eyes firmly shut and his slightly open mouth completely still. Dorot, Giorgie, and the nameless guard all left the room.

Max, there are some things you must know before I… go. Look at me.

It was as though Joz was whispering in his ear, but Max knew that he was speaking through his thoughts. He looked at the dying king’s closed eyes, but they suddenly shot open. The room exploded into hazy images – memories and thoughts.

You are not alone.

                                                                      Keep training…

             
The garden…

Luc is
your…

Secret weapon…
             

             
              Life and death…

             
                                                        Saviour…

Light on the Landing…

                                                                                    ScribblePads…

             
              They will know…

It’s you.
             

             
                                                                                    Prisoner…

Look after Luc.
             

             
                            Look after my wife.

Find them.

                                                                                    Save them.

I’m sorry…

                                                                                                  So sorry.

Goodbye.

Max was pulled back into the room as the door was thrown open. Luc swept to his father’s side, tears swimming in his dark eyes.

“I’m here, now,” he whispered to his father.

Joz took one last look at his son, breathed one final breath and slipped away, into the deepest of sleeps. Luc’s grip on his father’s hand faltered. He walked to the window and opened it slightly, bowing his head and lifting a hand to his face.

“Luc, I’m so sorry,” said Max, placing a comforting hand on Luc’s shoulder.

“It was time,” muttered Luc.

“But -”

“It was time.”

Max paused. “He loved you.”

Luc shrugged, Max’s hand faltering from his shoulder. “He regretted me.”

Max exited, leaving Luc alone with his father.

***

Four guards carried Joz’s body from his chamber. Luc, Max and the Clemari’s council followed behind. The small funeral procession walked around the castle, stopping in front of a door that Max did not want to be opened.

The Garden was different this time; the brilliant colours still clashed against the morbid shades, but the blacks and greys shone brightest.

Joz was placed delicately on a bed of soft grass, his hands crossed over his wooden staff. The guards stood back and looked down, placing their right hand over their hearts while their left hands cradled their foreheads. Max and the others followed suit. A silent salute to their fallen Clemari.

An icy breeze swept over the Garden of the Restless, turning all flowers, bushes, trees, and blades of grass a deep black.

Grey smoke danced around Joz’s corpse, delicately enveloping him. He rose slowly into the air, carried in a cocoon of mist, and disappeared into the Garden.

Suddenly, the bright skies plunged into complete darkness, as if somebody had extinguished the sun’s flames. Everybody in Naegis would know that Joz had died.

Everybody in the East and in the West. Eimaj would know.

***

There was a knock at Max’s door.

“Enter,” called Max.
“Oh, hi Luc.”

“Hello, Clemari.”

“How are you?” Max asked his friend.

“I am well, thank you,” replied Luc.

Max surveyed his friend of no emotion, gently lit by candlelight. He was sad, but he did not know that he was. “Good. Have you spoken to your mother?”

“Yes. She is very upset, but she and my father said their goodbyes a long time ago. This was how it was meant to be.”

“Right.” Max peered out of his window. He could not see the castle’s walls below him, nor could he see the forest nor the looming wall. He had no idea what the time was; the skies had been black for hours.

“Clemari, there are things we need to discuss,” said Luc.

“Oh, those letters I got this morning at breakfast? Yeah, I had a quick look through them. The Rysked situation is worrying. I should have been told before –“

“No, there are more urgent matters to attend to. You realise that Eimaj will know that my father has passed over?”

“I had an inkling, yes.”

Luc was unsettled, agitated. “This is bad news. Usually, the skies remain black until there is a New Clemari. When the Old Clemari, or should I say the Old
Old Clemari, passed over, the skies were black for over a week. Then my father officially took the throne and daylight was restored. We did not wait for my father to die before you were inaugurated, because the people of Naegis trusted him. Therefore, they would be sure to trust you, a stranger from as foreign land, immediately. However, this means that very soon the skies will change back. Eimaj will know that we have a New Clemari.”

“But that’s good, isn’t it? Then they’ll stop hunting for Freddie,” Max said happily.

“No, Clemari. It is bad. Eimaj still believes that we have the wrong man. But she cannot be sure, especially now we have made you Clemari. She is desperate to find Freddie, she is desperate to find you, and she is desperate to find out the truth. You are in danger, and so is Freddie. Whatever happens now, she will try to kill both of you.” The fear in Luc’s eyes was haunting.

“But how will she get here? The wall will stop her,” reasoned Max.

“That’s what we thought, but the wall is an illusion, conjured by magic. Although it appears to be a solid barrier, by sight and touch, there must be a way to break through it.”

“But how do we know this?”

“Because somebody already has. A week ago, you asked me to put Anne-Alicia in a cell. I think it’s time you speak to her, whether she is willing or not.”

He had lived his entire life not having any regrets but in the end, when he had expected his life to flash before him, all he could do was regret. For one, his wife was not with him. That had been the agreement since she moved to Pipton, but it was a mistake. He should have called her back, just for one day, so they could say a final farewell.

The decisions he had made when he first came into power had been difficult, unpopular, and arguably immoral. Stripping the whole of Naegis from their magic had turned the land into one of despair and anger.

Naegean folk had spent centuries living a certain way, relying on their magic and the magic of the land to survive. But they were no longer able to travel easily, flying from one town to another. They could not hunt or gather food as easily. They were not only stripped of their magic but also of their way of life, their identity, their spirit.

Joz had seen the effects of his decisions for three centuries. Naegis and its people struggled on, becoming weaker and weaker, while the other lands prospered. He would look down upon Terexe and see the most wonderful things: fire and water living in harmony, the souls of Terexians transforming into wild and beautiful spirits. .

And Salmont - its people finally living in harmony.
The language had been lost but wonderful magic linked the cracked communities together.

Red Sky saw a glorious transformation. Once the blood red had lifted from the skies, and the land saw sunshine and moonlight again, everyone had rejoiced. Rysked was the start of a new era; one of hopes and dreams instead of gloomy foreboding.

But not long ago, small communities began to hide themselves under their powers of invisibility, scared of what trouble was coming. Little by little, the people of Rysked began to disappear until nobody dared show themselves.

But it was Rysked that told Joz of a new danger, or rather a returning one. Red mist mingled with white and grey clouds. People were, once more, shrouded in fear. They had become unable to hide themselves, their magic fading along with their hope and belief. He should have told Max all of this, and of the latest rumours that came from Rysked.
Another regret.

Hurburt, though, had always been his favourite.
The ‘unmagical’ land of The South. But, really, it was the most magical. Even during The End, the war to end all wars, Hurburt had refused to fight. They would defend themselves, as any would, but there was never any offence. It was not their war, and they would not choose sides. And that’s why it remained unmagical, at least in their minds.

Hurburtans were so content, truly and completely, that they did not seek any change. But there were changes, and magnificent ones at that. Joz never doubted that they would be discovered, but not until it was necessary.

And so the four lands of The South saved him from his doubts. He would have no regrets while Terexe, Rysked, Salmont and Hurburt lived in harmony.

No, the regrets that surged through him in his final moments had all happened during the last sixteen years.

Max Myers.
The New Clemari. The Last Naegean.

It would be down to him to put a final end to the war. Eimaj was growing in strength and was determined to take Naegis as her own. She would reclaim the five lands of The South and wreak havoc, destroying all that Joz had created.

And Joz had acted irrationally in order to save The South from her dictatorship.

He created Max.

It was no accident that a boy from Pipton was born Naegean. And he regretted the ways in which he did this more than anything else. It had resulted in heartbreak and murder, as well as the biggest damage for Naegis - since Max was born, no other Naegean child had been. Couples struggled for sixteen years to have children, but they could not. And it was Joz’s fault.

It was Joz’s fault, too, that Max was so confused about everything. He had been offered no real explanations. Joz could not tell him the truth. The reason he could not have his friends with him was simple and stupid. Joz did not want Max to be distracted. He had to learn to fight, he had to win the war, and he had to stay alive.

Freddie provided a diversion and, if Joz was honest with himself, which he rarely was, Freddie would be collateral damage. A sacrifice.

As for Sofia, she should have been with Max. No Clemari is as strong without a queen, a Vraxen. But Eimaj’s army had prevented that from happening, it was out of anyone else’s control.

Matthew, Russell, Anne-Alicia, and Lornea were in the way. How could Joz have predicted that they would form such close bonds with Max just before he was needed? They did not matter to Joz, which was a mistake because they were important to Max.

In the end, his plan to prevent distractions coming to Naegis had backfired. Max was caring and in love. Until he knew his friends were safe and beside him, he would always be distracted.

Joz had spent a small amount of time with Max but it was valuable, to them both. They had strolled through the forest after a particularly productive training session (Max had managed to make Luc forget his name, which was the best mind-magic he had performed) and spoke about life and life’s natural foe, death.

“But, you said before that you were dying,” Max said. “Does that mean… Well, how long do you have left?”

“That is unknown. Like I say, I have been dying for some time.” Joz replied.

“Surely, though, someone who is dying has, like, weeks to live, or knows when they will die.”

“Everyone, at some point in time, makes a transition from living to dying. For some, that transition is the moment before their last breath. For others, it comes days, weeks, months, or even years before they part this world. Myself, I have been dying for decades,” explained Joz.

“What about those who fear death, or that wish death upon themselves?” wondered Max.

“To fear death, to feel its presence upon all of your days, is to stop living. And nobody lives out their life wishing they were dead.”

“What makes you say that?” enquired Max, not sure if Joz understood what he meant.

“Clemari,” Joz began. “If somebody truly wanted to be dead, be dead they will.”

They had spent the rest of the walk in silence, Max lamenting over Joz’s words, and Joz considering what death would be like: painful, relieving, frightening? And of course the biggest question: would he be ready?

It turned out to be peaceful, and he was prepared to pass over, but of course it was scary. How can anybody not fear the unknown?

The day that Joz had decided to die was the day after he realised he had regrets. When he found Max and Luc in his secret room, with the portals to several people in The South, he
panicked. Max was so close,
so close
, to learning his true magical potential. Yes, he struggled with mind-magic, but he excelled in everything else. He could not be distracted, not now.

Joz obliterated Max’s memory of the room altogether. That was it. The only clue Max had about his friends, about finally bringing them to him, had been forgotten. And Joz regretted that. He could have saved Freddie once and for all, as well as give Max all he wanted, but he was selfish. The way Luc looked at his father haunted him, and that was when he realised what he had become.

In his final moments, he was so relieved when Max was by his side. And he tried, oh how he tried, to tell Max everything – how to reach his friends, how he was planning to win over The South when the war came, why he had chosen Pipton, and why Luc was so important… but he was too far gone and it came out in blurred fragments of memory.

And his final memory, right before he passed over, was Luc clutching his hand. Despite everything, Luc still cared about his father. And Joz was certain that he did not deserve his son’s love.

With his last breath, his regrets disappeared along with everything else. He was free of guilt and remorse, unburdened from power and impossible decisions, liberated from himself.

He had allowed himself that final act of selfishness – to be taken to the garden that had been black for so long, and taken away from the world he had so recklessly created.