Maggie of the Mist by Madeleine M. (best ebook reader for ubuntu txt) 📕

Quietly as he could, Keith hurried over and knelt beside her. Her face was in the blankets and her limbs were tangled. When he realized that she was only having a nightmare, Keith relaxed and set his blade down beside him. He moved to go and wake someone who might know how to deal with this better than him.

Then he stopped.

If he woke someone up, they would plainly see that he had been snooping. It would not end well for the lost, captured, disliked noble. Before he had decided what he was going to do, Maggie’s hand found his as she gripped it tight. At that moment the moon burst through the clouds almost rivalling the sun in brightness, and a fierce warm wind whipped through the trunks.

Keith, unsure of what he was supposed to do didn’t move. Even though, the light was probably coming through the leaves at different spots in the forest, it seemed to Keith that the entire moon’s light was falling on both of them.  Maggie’s lips were moving so he leaned closer to hear what she was saying.

“…me, you won’t die.” Keith moved to sit back up, she was muttering nonsense. Then her other hand slipped behind his ear and he froze. “Promise me, you won’t die until I get back.” She rubbed her thumb gently against his cheek. Keith gulped audibly and looked down into her face. Her hair was sprawled around her head in blond waves and her blue eyes, filled with tears, were glistening in the moon light. “Please,” a tear spilled from her eye. “Promise me, you won’t die yet.”

Keith wiped away the stray tear with his finger. He leaned closer and her eyes followed him. “I promise.” He smiled sadly down at her.

Maggie sighed and another tears rolled down her cheek. Keith caught it like the first. A small smile came to her lips. “I won’t be too long, okay?” She gripped his hand tighter.

“I’ll be waiting.” Keith replied. Maggie nodded and then her eyes closed and she was back asleep. Keith captured both of her hands and set them down gently. He noticed that the moon had dimmed somewhat as he collected his sword and returned it and Maggie’s things to what he thought was their proper places.

With an eerie sense of satisfaction, he woke Angus for his turn on watch and crawled into his blankets. Maggie had seemed awake. There wassomething about the way she spoke that made him think of the future. With heavy eyes, he looked up to the Maiden’s moon and thought of Maggie’s words and tears.

The last thought he had before drifting off to sleep was, Keith, what have you gotten yourself into?

*****

Thunder rolled across the sky above the Curtian capitol. Lightning lit up the black clouds like a falling torch with a jagged path; disappearing in the blink of an eye. The sudden flashes allowed Alec, the High Adviser, to glimpse the rain-soaked paths of the royal gardens. He stood by the grand windows of the Great Hall, watching the storm run its course over the sheltering homes of Koal. During an unusual combination of thunder and lightning, the king burst through the hidden door near the thrown. Alec turned to face his oldest friend.

“Good evening, Your Majesty.” Alec’s calm, cool voice was a startling contrast to the raging storm beyond the glass behind him and the brewing one in front of him.

“Veils!” Camshron swore as another clash of thunder made the room shutter slightly. “One girl. One girl is the only thing that stands in my way! What happened to those bounty hunters of yours?” He pointed an accusing finger at his adviser.

“No word as of yet, sire.” Alec glanced out the window in time to witness another spark of lightning.

“Mighty Warrior,” the king muttered under his breath. Sighing he ran his hand down his face. “What about Dominic? And Daileas? Have we heard of how they’re fairing?”

“I’m sorry, Camshron,” Alec’s grey eyes looked sad as another bolt of lightning illuminated them. “The messenger that you sent has returned, butneither of your nephews have–” Alec was cut off by someone banging against the large main doors.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want in there? I can help you.” A young female voice was slightly muffled by the thickness of the doors. There was a detectable lilt to her voice that was evidence of once having a thick accent.

“M-me? Oh, um, n-no no, I think I can manage.” Came the equally muffled response of a rather frightened young man. The door opened slightly.

“Oh, but I insist!” The doors flew open and a sopping wet heap of clothes slid across the expertly polished floor. “Majesty, I believe he’s one of yours?” A girl who looked no older than the eldest princess stalked into the Great Hall, a trail of puddles formed from every step she took.

“Why would you think that, Enya?” Camshron asked skeptically. He eyed the drenched waist length auburn hair that usually held many curls, but was now slack with rain. Her light blue eyes held flecks of white that seemed to flash with the same intensity of the lightning outside. She was dressed in boys clothing, but she was, by no means, a typical tomboy.

Enya held out a messengers’ bag with the King’s Seal embroidered in silver thread. Her face was a mixture of annoyance and satisfaction.

“Lady Enya,” Alec spoke up and let his chilly presence fill the large room. “If this man is, in fact, his Majesty’s loyal messenger, why did you treat him as such?”

Enya scowled at the old man, then at the dripping messenger as he picked himself up off the floor. “Peeping Tom ‘ere–”

“My name isn’t Tom!” scoffed the insulted messenger.

“–Likes peekin’ t'ru a princess’s window in t’e pourin’ rain.” Thegirl’s accent slipped out as her anger rose. Her knuckles turned white as she clenched her fists. Alec took a step back in surprise of her answer as thunder boomed and the rain came down harder. She took a deep breath and let it out, slightly moving the wet hair that fell across her face. She tossed the drenched messengers’ bag with controlled movements to the now standing, equally drenched messenger.

“Why are you soaked as well?” Camshron’s whole appearance was emotionless. His eyes didn’t betray the turmoil of emotions that were ragging inside him like the storm opposite the glass panes mere strides from him. “There is no need for you to be outside in weather like this. What would Victoria do if you were to fall ill?” The king crossed his arms, like a father scolding a child. “Don’t’ be foolish. Rain can be very dangerous to one’s health. Please do not do something like this again.”

“So I’ve been told…” Enya’s voice became distance for a moment. “But, I have signed a contract to protect Princess Victoria. Rain is an ideal time for people, such as Tom, to attack, so to speak.” She nodded towards the glaring messenger. Lightening flashed and a heartbeat later thunder cracked above in the dark clouds. “Besides, I love the rain.”

“I, personally, would never permit my daughter to be entrusted into the hands of such a disrespectful woman.” Alec looked down his nose at the princess’s young body guard. His stone like jaw jutted out in disapproval. “Guarding the princess like a stalker out in the rain! Your Majesty, as youradviser, I–” The grey haired man was cut off short by the sudden sound of a tree’s trunk cracking, then splitting and finally, falling. Several screams drifted from some other place within the royal palace.

“Sorry, Majesty, but as long as men like him are what you two call loyal, I will be standing guard on many more a rainy night.” She bowed at the waist to Camshron and nodded to Alec. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some princess and servants to calm.” With that she turned on her heel and marched out of the marble hall, disappearing around a corner. The only evidence of her was the massive puddle on the floor where she had stood.

“She’s in charge of Princess Victoria’s security? Sire, where, beyond the Veils, did you find someone like her?” The messenger attempted to straighten his damp clothing.

“Oh, and Majesty?” Enya’s head popped out from behind the doorway of the hall’s main entrance making all three men jump. “Please inform Tomthat if he wishes to insult my being a woman and the current position I hold,” a knowing smirk made the threatening air around her become dangerously calm. “I would be more than happy for him to face me like the man I doubt he is and tell me what he thinks. Well, then, goodnight.” Lightening flashed outside and illuminated the entire room. Enya was no longer in sight. The three men shivered simultaneously. The storm carried on throughout the city.

The king cleared his throat. “Right, first order of business, Shad what news do you have for me?”

“Oh yeah,” Shad stood up straight and bowed before ruffling through his wet bag and finding his papers to deliver his report. “According to our sources, High Adviser’s hunters are hot on her trail. Apparently, the girl’s headed for the Bogs, sire. This statement is from the main informant; ‘Motives are still unknown, but she couldn’t possibly know.’” Shad pulled a face and looked apologetically at the king. “Sorry, sire, I’m not all too sure what he means. He said that you’d understand though.”

Camshron thought for a moment then nodded and asked, “Any word of my nephews?”

“Nothing really, sire,” Shad pulled out another sheet of paper. “Only that they’ve split, but neither have sent word or have been spotted.”

“Yes, thank you.” Camshron cast a glance out the large windows and into the down pour. “Second,” the King looked the messenger straight in the eye as he rose to his full height. “Shad if I found out that Enya catches you again, you will wish it had never happened the first time. Understand?”

“Y-yes, sire,” Shad seemed to shrink a bit under the scrutinizing gaze of the head of the Tine’la family. “Regretting it already, sire.”

“Hmph. Scram Shad.” Camshron flared his nostrils and leaned over his messenger. The young man slipped with wet boots across the smooth floor and slammed the doors behind him as he scampered out of the Great Hall.

“The girl couldn’t possibly know what’s in the Bogs… Could she, Camshron?”

“I don’t think she knows, but if she finds out, it won’t be good.” Camshron cursed under his breath and punched a tall marble pillar. “Alec, send word to stop the operation. Until she’s caught, or at least driven away from the Bogs, we can’t leave any evidence. Dominic and Daileas should be in Koal soon, which should make things easier. We can’t risk the girl finding out what we’re planning, not if she’s trying to get home. I want it stopped immediately, Alec.”

“I will do my best.” The High Advisor bowed to the king and slipped through the same hidden door the king had used to come in. The rain sounded like it was coming down harder, with no other noise around.

Thunder rumbled, and lightning chased the loud noise across the black sky. Camshron stared out the rain streaked windows. The mountainouslandscape of the Boundary could barely be seen through the sheets of rain and the storm clouds that blotted out the moon and stars. “If you don’t know what’s hidden in the Bogs…”

A large bolt of lightning lit up the sky and Camshron might have sworn he saw the silhouette of a woman where the moon should have been.

“Then, why are you risking your life to get there?”

The storm raged on, the thunder deafening, the lightning blinding. But someone still saw and heard those words muttered by the head of the Tine’la family – The King of Curta.