CHAPTER EIGHT
Wendy wondered if what she was considering was the best course of action. It could be that she was just overreacting and Max really didn’t understand his own feelings for her. On the other hand he had broken her heart and still his mark was on her back. A mark that was supposed to stated his true feeling for her but he just wasn’t man enough to acknowledge them. Unfortunately there wasn’t a leeway in this case. She had to make a precise choice. One that could not be reversed. It was either tell him or get rid of the marking.
She had already made a choice though the moment Max had said that the wizard council would always be his first duty. As much as she admired his devotion she did not want their relationship to become the mirror image of Gorham’s and Sidney’s marriage. So, she had chosen to remove it but she hadn’t known how. Even if Henry succeeded, it would only replace one mark with another. There was hope though since now that she would be conscious as the mark was put on her, she would be able unravel the intricacies of the mark. She watched as Amber and Ken walked in. then Henry came in a moment later followed by Eli and George. Just how many wizards had to take part in this?
They didn’t seem to know what they were doing there but because Henry had ordered it, they came without any questions. Henry walked over to her. “There’s no other way to do this.”
“I said I would do it.”
“I know.” He took a deep breath and exhaled, “If any of the others could do this, I would let them but right now I’m the only one who can do it.” “I know.”
“I need to emphasis that this will be painful because you will not be distracted.” When Wendy nodded, he turned to the other wizards in the room. “George and Amber, I need a protective bubble. A small one, just as big as this room. David and Selena will be outside to prevent any interruption. Eli and Ken will hold Wendy down.” He turned back to Wendy, “You will need to undress.”
“What?” She asked in surprise. Looking around, she saw that the others were also as surprised as she was.
“It cannot be done in any other way. Contact is needed.” He signaled Eli and Ken to stand on either side of her. “If you want to back out, you can.” He stared at her as she considered. Then she started to undress. When she was done, she knelt between the two men and waited. They took her hands on either side and rested their hands and her shoulders to keep her down when she resisted.
Henry signaled to Amber and George and they started the bubble. He walked over to where she was and took off his shirt. As much as they wanted to ask what was going on, they simply watched. He knelt behind her and could feel her take a deep breath as she prepared herself for the pain. Instead of doing anything painful, he unbound her hair and passed his fingers through it. He did that for several minutes until he knew for certain that she had relaxed, then he pulled all her hair and dropped it on the left side of her face.
He trailed his fingers from her head to her neck. Then slowly dropped them down her back and caressed her. She started feeling the tingling and wondered if that was the pain Henry had meant. His hands never left her body not even for a single moment as the pain intensified. She finally felt it burn through her. With all the emphasis Henry had put on the amount of pain she was going to feel, what was happening to her did not come close to her imagination. How had she not felt it before? When Max had marked her? She couldn’t have felt this much and not remembered it.
She felt Ken and Eli’s hands straining against her. She was already struggling with them. She wanted to push them away and stop it but she didn’t think that would do any good right now. She wanted to do the only thing she has always done and hide from it. And then Henry’s strong hand went to her neck and then pulled her back against him. He whispered in her ear, “Don’t. Don’t hide.” He moved his other hand over her abdomen holding her firmly against him. “Scream if you must, but let the pain cleanse you.”
She screamed. She screamed more than she had ever had in her life. More than she ever thought she would ever scream again. All the while, Henry was murmuring that it was going to be alright and for once in the whole time she had known him, she didn’t believe him. His hand went over her body and left a trail of pain with it. His other hand still held her neck firmly forcing her to consider that if she tried to move away he would strangle her. The only thing that would be able to protect her now were her powers.
She let go of her control and her hair started to glow. She opened her eyes and they were glowing also. Eli who had never seen this faltered and his hold on her was lost. He was pushed away but before she could get free, Henry’s hand was holding her hand firmly in his. She screamed her rage out as she brightened even more. Heat seared Ken’s hand and soon he could not hold on any longer. He let go and stepped away.
They could tell that Henry’s hold was weakening but then he opened his eyes and Amber gasped in surprise as she was the one directly before them and saw it. Before the others could see what she had seen, Henry buried his head in her neck and they were engulfed in light then in darkness. As light warred with darkness, the others were left blind, not able to see what was going on in the middle of the changes. Amber and George held tight control of the bubble even though Wendy’s voice was no longer heard. They didn’t know how this would end.
Wendy found herself in her mind. She looked around and saw no one. Not even her spirits. ‘What the hell?’ then the shadow came and, in Henry’s voice, it said, ‘This was not planned for.’
‘What?’
‘Being in the spirit realm.’
‘I didn’t bring us here?’
‘I believe it was the combined energy we were emitting. Maybe our subconscious thought we would not be able to handle it.’
‘Why are you a shadow?’
‘I’m not sure. Although if I were asked to make an accurate guess, I would say, I’m at the brink of death.’
‘I’m killing you?’ she asked with horror in her voice.
‘No, I’m killing myself by holding on to you.’
‘Then let go.’
‘I cannot do that. I have to prove a point for this whole thing to work.’
Wendy felt like crying. She was killing him and yet she did not know how to stop. She did not know how to go back and stop everything. Perhaps Max was right. She was still acting like a child. She just jumped right into things without thinking of the consequences. ‘What point could you possibly want to prove? If you knew this was dangerous then why did you agree to do it?’
‘I didn’t know it would be dangerous and even so, I believe I have to go through this to prove a point.’
‘What point is that?’ she asked getting hysterical.
‘That I would do anything for you. That you are mine. All you have to do now is accept me and save me.’
‘I can’t…’
‘It’s now up to you. The choice is yours.’
‘I don’t think it is.’ But Henry’s shadow didn’t say anything. In fact he was getting lighter and lighter as if he was fading away. She had to make a choice and she made it. She pulled him to her and embraced him. He put his hand over her heart and she felt a tremor go through her. Then everything was blank.
Henry drifted into consciousness slowly. He took a mental assessment of his body and realized that while everything was alright, he was embracing Wendy, holding her firmly and possessively to him. He jerked away and found himself slamming onto the bureau as he heard Wendy slump down onto the floor. His mental assessment continued and he realized that his eyes were still black. It took a lot longer to change them back that he began to worry. Normally it would take only a couple of seconds but he had to admit that they had only ever turned for a few seconds.
Someone approached him and he shrunk back. “Don’t come any closer!” his voice came out as if several voices melded together. Everyone held their breaths as they waited until the tension dissipated. Henry took several deep breaths and eventually turned to look at the people in the room. His eyes were back to gray. He made a step forward then collapsed and lost consciousness too.
*
The days dragged for Amber as she waited for Wendy to wake up. Several people had already come asking for her but she hadn’t yet stirred. Nathan was sending messengers every now and again and Gorham was barely held from budging into the room. Somehow the council also knew that something was wrong and some had come to check for themselves if this was the end of the world as they know it. If Wendy didn’t wake up soon there would be chaos.
No sooner had she thought that, than Wendy stirred awake. She took so long waking up that Amber was prepared to coax her awake by slapping her. She opened her eyes and looked around then her eyes found Amber’s. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you to wake up.” “Yes,” she smiled at her then sat up.
“Are you feeling okay?” Amber asked worriedly.
“I feel better than okay.” she stretched and her grin enlarged. “I feel like I never discovered my parentage was false. When I never had my powers and all the complications that came with it.”
“Do you still have your powers?” Amber asked curiously. “Of course I do.”
“Just check for my peace of mind.”
Wendy narrowed her eyes at the latter. She looked around and spotted a vase next to the door. She whipped her hand towards and it smashed very loudly on the wall. She stared in shock. She had simply meant to nudge it to turn around and it seemed as if it had a mind of its own. “I guess I do have …”
Before she finished, Annie ran into the room and saw her seated on the bed and relief was written all over her face. “Finally!”
“Finally what?” she asked as she moved to put her legs on the floor. “Finally you are awake.”
“How long have I been passed out?” She asked frowning.
Annie and Amber glanced at each other before they both turned to her. Amber was the one to speak. “You’ve been out for almost two days.”
“Two days?”
“Initially you barely had a heart beat that could be detected. Then you started recovering before we sent someone to get a doctor, but still, you did not wake. You didn’t even stir and we thought that whatever Henry did to you was fatal…”
“Is he alright?” she asked as she suddenly remembered that he had said he was dying.
“I don’t know. I haven’t left your side since this all started. The guys haven’t come in to check on you or even to tell me what is going on.” Amber reported testily. Before Amber could react, Wendy was out of bed and throwing on her robe. “What do you think you are doing?”
“Going to see him.”
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“How many times do I have to tell you,” she paused and turned slowly to face Amber. “What is it that you are worried about?” She walked slowly towards the other and suddenly she detected fear coming from the other. “What happened that you think there maybe something wrong with me?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Liar! I can see it now. You are lying to me. Why are you lying to me?” It took an instant but she was holding Amber by the neck. She didn’t struggle.
“I’m sorry if you think I’m lying to you because the only thing that is true is that I am keeping my own counsel. Are you going to force me to tell you against my will?” Amber barely got the words out.
“What are you keeping from me?”
“Do you tell me everything that you know?” “No,” her hand relaxed but still she did not let go.
“Then I’m allowed to keep this to myself.” They maintained eye contact then Wendy let go only to pretend that nothing happened. She put on some slippers and went out passing a flabbergasted Annie at the door. Amber followed reluctantly. They met George guarding the door to Henry’s room. He was ready to stop her but reading through a barely visible shake of Amber’s head, he stepped out of the way.
She stepped into the dark room to find Ken and Eli watching Henry worriedly. They turned to look at her but they didn’t seem to have enough energy to send her from the room. “How is he?”
“We have no idea,” Eli admitted sourly. “He’s blocking us out. We can’t get in so we can’t tell what is wrong with him.”
“He’s a private person, isn’t he?” they grunted their agreement. “Why don’t you open the curtain?”
“If we do that, he acts like we are hurting him. We stopped getting a reaction that way.”
Wendy watched him on the bed for a moment before her eyes scanned the room taking note that it was darker than it should have been even with the curtains closed. She closed her eyes and felt it. It pulsed with the life that was ebbing away from Henry. She walked over to the bed and sat down next to him. He leaned over and felt the people in the room hold their breath. She was sure that this involved whatever Amber was hiding from her but she had no time for that. With her estimate, Henry should have already been dead with this much life force out of him instead of inside him.
She put her lips right next to his ears and whispered in them, “I once watched someone die because they had no idea how to balance what was inside of him with the added power that he received. I don’t know if it is the same thing that is happening to you or not. I can only assume as my powers seem to be more but I somehow know that isn’t the case. I have been overwhelmed with other things that even when my powers were growing I never noticed. I kept myself where I was because I had never thought for a moment that I had gotten even stronger. Maybe that is the case with you too. It isn’t a foreign power that you are struggling with but with your own. Whatever you did clarified things for me and I believe it may have done the same to you too.” She kissed his cheek and whispered, “Get well soon. I still need you.” And she stood up and left.
*
She walked into her conference room to find most of the council waiting there. They all turned to her with expectant looks on their faces. At the puzzled look on Wendy’s face Amon approached her. “Where in the world have you been?”
“I was dealing with a personal business.”
“The Astrakhan’s have decided to match on us. They are on their way to invade. You were missing. We need to march on them or we will find ourselves in a siege. The captains refused to give the order until you showed up.”
Wendy forced a smile, “Of course they are not allowed to give the order to march on the advancing enemy. Only I can give the order.”
“You changed the law?”
“I did not. It has always been there. I simply decided to enforce this one. It gives me the opportunity to place each and every one exactly where I want them. Prevents strategic mistakes.”
“So when were you planning to on move the army?” one of the other council members asked.
“When I am ready…”
“They are already moving in on us!” Amon objected cutting Wendy off.
Her pretense smile disappeared. “I am not going to move my army until it is time…”
“We are going to be unprepared if you do not…”
“Do I sit at your council and tell you how to do your job?” Wendy snapped. “I sit there and let you tell me what you think. I sit there and listen as you order me about and I bring in my reports every time you request it because it is your job to request it.” She took a step forward and came toe to toe with Amon. Her voice lowered but it could still be heard by everyone in the room. “Well, now you are in my tuff. I give the orders here and when I say jump,” she paused as she locked eyes with him, “Everyone jumps. Even you.”
They stood staring at each other at an impasse. Amon took the first step back giving Wendy the win. A female voice laughed. They all turned to the voice. It was Serena, next to her was Ella who was giving Wendy a pleased smile. “Finally.”
“Finally what?” Wendy asked confused.
“Finally you show your claws.” When the confusion failed to clear on Wendy’s face she continued, “You used to roar before, giving people orders here and there but there was no real power behind it. You shrunk back when this council approached. Female wizards are not given orders,” her eyes glanced at Amber, “Except for that one. We are asked very nicely because we are a power of our own. I had begun to think you were never going to bloom.”
“I am queen.”
“So was I,” she flounced out of the room.
“To be perfectly clear, she married into it.” Ella’s smile widened. “I am proud of you.”
“I haven’t won the war.”
“I have no doubt you will but at the moment, you have won something much more important to you. Your right.” She looked around then her eyes came back to Wendy.
“I’ll leave you to explain your reasons to them. It is your right but they need to understand.” She followed Serena out of the room.
Wendy heard someone ask how old this one was but no one answered. She sighed then said in a clear calm voice, “If we may have a seat or do you prefer to do this standing?” They went to have a seat. She started, “The Astrakhan army may have moved out but it takes an army a long time to get to where they are going. My captains and I have evaluated the best location for the battle to take place and cleared the people away from the Astrakhan path.” Someone was about to interrupt when Wendy raised her hand up to stop him. “We realized that this may portray that we are not ready or something but their army won’t move any faster than it did but it will prevent less carnage doing so. The citizens will be reimbursed as much as the kingdom can afford to enable us to move forward once it is done.
In return they helped us put up some traps which should slow down the army and reduce their numbers before the battle begins. It won’t change numbers drastically but it will still be to our advantage. We have selected a few battalions to be our advance party. These are people who show no signs of their powers being manifested. As they wait for the Astrakhan army to arrive, we will continue training the others.”
“What about the ones who have already showed to be of water? Shouldn’t they also be in the advance party?”
“We are not sure exactly sure if their dominant power is with water and they can’t be of much help if I am not with them to activate the stones. Nevertheless, they will be the second ones to move out. I received another Mantegna stone two days ago. We do not have time train them fully on the power of earth but we will do defensive tactics and control. Earth is not an easy element to master.
We know that the Astrakhan’s have at least one of the Mantegna stone. The reason they took Julius. He is to activate the stone for them. But to be on the cautious side, we have assumed they have both. We have been training all of them on the other three elements. Now that we have the stone of earth, we can be sure of that. Wind and fire are not the best to go into blindly but we have no choice. Like earth we will focus only on defense and control.
Both are hard elements to control. Wind requires precision and force. I’m told under normal circumstances it is hard to master it but it’s my dominant power so I don’t know. If they have the Wind Mantegna then we should count ourselves lucky. Most of their soldiers will not have mastered it which will feel like blowing air around. Fire on the other hand, has more to do with reining it in. Fire is destructive and even the person who has a little of it can cause a lot of damage.
We have determined that the Astrakhan soldiers will not have attained the control necessary. In that case, they will part from their groups and insert themselves among us and release it. In that way, even when they lose control, only our people will be dead. Therefore, we have drilled our own to take out those who seem to want to insert themselves among them.
When we will be done with the training, we will march out. The advance battalions will move back and allow those who could protect themselves from others with power to advance. I will activate the stones only when the Astrakhan’s activate theirs. That is why I said we were not ready.”
“That does not explain where you disappeared to.” Amon said while frowning. “I have been working on my own control.”
“They said you were asleep.” Amon pressed.
Wendy smiled politely at him, “I was in a trance. I don’t learn control in the field. Mine is of a more spiritual nature than physical.” She stood up. “Now, if you may excuse me, I have a war to prepare for.”
*
Henry gasped as he woke up. Ken and Eli went to him in an instance. “Are you alright sir?” Ken asked.
Henry pulled himself up and looked around the room, “I’m alive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And what about Wendy?” he asked as he looked at his arms. He could feel that he had changed but he did not see it.
“She’s fine. She woke up about a week ago.”
“A week?” he asked in surprise. He wasn’t surprised about the fact that Wendy was okay. He had been prepared to sacrifice himself so that she may live but he wasn’t so sure as to the effects on her. “I’ve been in bed for a week?”
“For a week and two days actually,” Eli said. “If it makes you feel better then you should know we thought you were about to die a couple of times.”
“It does not.” Henry said blandly.
He shrugged nonchalantly and addressed Ken, “I tried.” Henry stood up from the bed. “Hey, where do you think you are going?”
“To clean up.”
“I guess the sponge baths Serena gave you didn’t do it.”
Henry stopped and turned around. Neither Eli nor Ken could read the expression on his face. “You let Serena give me a sponge bath?”
“I don’t see the problem. You guys have sex so you have seen each other naked, right?” Eli asked in confusion.
“Not the point.”
“Then I don’t understand.”
“You wouldn’t.” he started walking to the closed off area in the room where the bath tub was located. He turned sharply back at them. “And for future reference, just because I sleep with a woman does not mean she has the right to give me a sponge bath.”
“Got it!” Both said.
*
An hour later, he was in clean clothes and full. He went outside and saw that the field had cleared out. The army had moved out. Wendy was standing near the stables giving instructions to some of the remaining men. She was dressed in a long white dress with beads woven to form flower patterns. Her hair was piled high with a crown sticking out of her head. The coronation ceremony had been done. So much for his vision of the future.
She turned and saw him. She smiled happily and started walking towards him. He took the time to soak in the sun’s energy. By the time she got to him he felt as good as he had before the whole mess with the claiming. He turned to her. “You look well.”
“So do you. How do you feel?”
“I haven’t established that yet.” He looked around again. “Your army is gone. Is the war over?”
Wendy laughed. “No, it hasn’t started.”
“Wrong. A war starts the moment it has been declared.” “Noted,” she said shaking her head. “Anything else?” “As a matter of fact, why aren’t you with your army?”
“I was waiting for you to wake up. If it didn’t happen today, I would have left to join them. Will you be joining us?”
“Do I seem like the person who would wait on the sidelines?”
“No, but you just woke up. It has taken me some time to get used to the strength of my power.”
“Your power has changed?” Henry asked in surprise. “Not changed exactly, but so has yours.”
“You think I’m stronger?”
“Haven’t you noticed something different?”
Henry thought about it for a moment then shrugged. “My powers are not any different than they were before. Yes they have increased somewhat but that is to be expected as I grow older.”
Wendy stared at him for a moment then asked, “What?” “As wizards grow older, our powers increase.”
“You’ve grown older in nine days?”
“Of course. I know that what I am capable of today, was not what I was capable of yesterday.” He sighed when he saw the disbelieving look on Wendy’s face. “It’s a matter of knowing your limit daily.”
“Whatever,” Wendy mumbled. Then she spoke up, “I suppose we should join the others.”
“Yes, we should.”
They headed back into the castle, “I have to ask, did you notice the crown?”
*