Final part!
As night fell, Adalene and Skylar both made Luke actually sleep that night. In fact, Skylar made Adalene promise that he didn’t wake up and try to be on watch.
Adalene promised, and she watched over the children as the stars began to appear in the night sky.
Adalene stared at the fire as she thought about the events from the past few weeks. She knew that there’d be more challenges ahead, and a feeling of dread filled her as she thought of their next challenge. They would have to cross the Attalaitan Mountains.
Legend had said of the dangerous creatures that lived there, not to mention the severe weather and hostile conditions.
She looked down at her hand, only two rings left on her fingers where there once had been many. She had been a show queen her entire life, and now she was finally renouncing the tokens of her false queenhood.
But she stopped as she looked at her rings. Both of them were not only valuable in a money sense, but also in her own heart.
The one on her right middle finger was a gift from her mother for her twelfth birthday, a token to show the bravery she would have to have to be the next queen.
“You vill be brave, Adalene,” she heard her mother’s voice say, “And venever you feel afraid, just look at ze ring. Think of vat it symbolizes, vat it represents. Think of me,”
Adalene stared at the ring, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I don’t know if I can be brave, mother,” she whispered in the night, making her hand into a fist, “But I vill try my best. I vill make you proud, mother. I promise.”
She looked now at the ring on her left pointer finger, an intricate silver ring, heavy on her hand. The queen’s ring. She felt it always weighed her down, a constant reminder of the burden she had to carry. And a constant reminder of the guilt she felt. She had never felt worthy being queen, especially since the only way she became queen was because of her mother’s death. That was always the way it carried on to the next queen, in the death of the last one.
So much death, even with a prolonged life. But nobody ever knew the real pain of near immortality. Only the queens of the elfes.
Adalene had no choice but to stand by, helpless as each member of her family and friends died before her eyes, all without the ability for her to die herself.
How she longed to join her loved ones in the afterlife, always stuck in the life she had to lead.
But no, she thought, Adalene could not die just yet. Now she had a purpose. Now she had the lives of the people responsible for saving Iddenu. That was one of the reasons she taught Helen and Alice to defend themselves.
But she knew, deep in her heart, that she would not survive this journey. And even if she did, she’d most likely die shortly after, or be pushed to the side while the others were celebrated.
She wouldn’t mind that, actually. She’d always longed for a normal life, to live and to die free of the worries of the world. But that was not possible. Now she’d fight until her final breath to save the world, a burden she’d happily carry.
She felt bad for being so cold to the children. She’d never meant to be uncaring or distant, she’d only not wanted them to become attached to her. She knew what it was like to be attached to someone, only to lose them. That was the real reason she was so cold. She didn’t want the pain. So she’d tried to save the children from it.
But now she knew that she couldn’t do that. She had to be a mentor to these children, teaching them everything she knew.
She’d do her best to help these children, for her mother’s sake.
Adalene knew what she had to do, even if it ripped her from the inside out.
A shiver ran through her, the constant ache in her bones steadily growing worse. Even her breaths were coming shorter now, and she closed her eyes as she knew her time was steadily running out.
Just like her mother, Adalene was slowly dying.
…
The next morning she looked up at the sight above them. The Attalaitan Mountains towered above, mere miles away from them.
“They sure are tall,” Adalene heard Peter say, as he walked up behind her. “Yes,” Adalene answered, rubbing her cold hands together.
“What’s the matter?” Peter asked, “Are you cold?”
“I’m fine,” Adalene said, avoiding his eyes.
Peter shrugged in response, joining the others. That was another problem Adalene was running into. She no longer felt her age, instead feeling her physical age, twelve. She felt smaller now, and she was experiencing things like a twelve-year-old. She looked over at Peter, watching him laugh with Luke and Richard. His forest green eyes lit up with humor, his red hair blowing in the wind.
Adalene turned away from them, calming her mind. She couldn’t have this.
She had to keep her feelings from messing with the task at hand. And if her suspicions were correct, she couldn’t allow Peter to become attached to her.
She couldn’t.
It was Skylar who now walked over by Adalene. Having only known her a little, Adalene now saw why Luke loved her. She was strong and capable of handling herself, but also caring and loving, like an older sister to Helen and Alice.
Skylar stared up at the mountains, her yellow eyes assessing them. Adalene glanced at the moon shaped birthmark on her face, in a crescent moon. At first Adalene couldn’t believe her eyes, so she glanced at again and gasped. She’d never noticed it before.
“What? What is it?” Skylar asked, concern showing on her pale face.
“Nothing,” Adalene looked away from Skylar, a thousand thoughts filling her mind. That mark…she’d only seen it once before now. And if it was the same mark as she’d seen it before, this was either good or bad.
But then again it could be a coincidence. Maybe it wouldn’t change with the phases of the moon, maybe it’d stay in one place. But if not, Adalene thought about it over and over again.
If the children won this war, then in the end Skylar might find a person she’d either love or hate.
“Are you ready for the next part of this journey?” Skylar asked Adalene, looking over at her.
Adalene avoided her eyes, knowing so many things they did not. But she couldn’t possibly pass all the knowledge she possessed in the short time they had left, and if she did it might be too much for them to handle.
“I’m not sure…” Adalene answered, looking at the tall peaks of the mountains.
“Neither am I,” Skylar agreed with Adalene, and now she looked over at Skylar. Her suspicions were nearly confirmed. There was something about Skylar that was familiar, and it was almost frightening. A friend she’d known almost a hundred years ago had that same fiery passion and hope in her heart as Skylar, and the same birthmark as well. Although she had recently taken on a mortal life, Adalene knew she’d had a marriage with a Protector of the Moon, one which she had two children with.
And if Adalene was correct, she knew just who those children were. And she knew Skylar might not like it.
“Do you have hope?” Adalene asked Skylar.
Skylar looked at Adalene with her yellow eyes, and she nodded. “Yes.”
Adalene felt a smile tug at her lips then. “Zen zis var can be von.”
“Yes,” Skylar answered, “It can.”
And as Adalene stared at those mountains, the daunting task of crossing them and traveling through Dueglestein, she at last felt the hope the others had as well.
“It can,” Adalene said as Skylar had, staring at the Attalaitan Mountains.
They could win...
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To be continued...
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