Camelot

Sixteen - Restoring the Balance of Magic

Sixteen – Restoring the Balance of Magic

 

Madeline looked wild. Her eyes were slits and I could see the fiery blue that sat within them. Her hair was hastily thrown up and her cloak and red gown was torn and dirty. She looked as though she’d had a hell of a journey.

“You’re selfish Emalia,” she spat. “You know how much he cares about you. You knew that leaving him the way you did would make him do that! Yet you left anyway. You had no other thoughts on your mind other then power.”

Her words struck me like venom and I recoiled. I did not know what to say to her. Everything that had just come out of her mouth was the truth. I’d hoped that the way I’d left Leith would give him the clear hint that I did not want to be found, but clearly it had had the opposite effect.

“Madeline I -,”

“He almost died Emalia!” she yelled, cutting me off. “He spent weeks out in the most dangerous parts of the forest looking for you. I found him right near Wildeoren tunnels. Given another day he would have died from starvation or being killed by one of those awful beasts. What is wrong with you?”

“STOP!” I yelled.

I lost control of my power temporarily, causing her to go soaring backwards and into the cave wall. I immediately ran over to her, feeling sick for what I’d just done. Surely there was no way she could ever forgive me for this.

“I’m sorry…my powers…they’re stronger then I realised,” I whispered.

“You’ve changed Emalia,” she sighed. “You’re nothing like the girl I grew up with.”

She refused my hand as I tried to help her up and turned her back on me. I could tell by her stance that her head was down. I’d hurt her badly – emotionally and physically.

“I’m no longer the girl you grew up with Madeline,” I replied. “I’m a high priestess of the old religion. No mortal blade can harm me and there are none who are more powerful. I did this so that I could one day be the sorceress who stands beside Emrys summoning the lands of Albion. I did not do this out of selfishness.”

“Leith could have understood that Emalia,” she said softly. “He was a great, loyal man and I don’t understand how you could have left him like that.”

Her words had upset me before, but now the way she’d referred to Leith in past tense made my bones chill. She had told me before that he wasn’t dead, so why was she referring to him in past tense?

“Madeline, is Leith okay?” I asked, feeling my voice quiver.

“He’s been driven mad from the forest Emalia,” she said. “He is locked in the dungeons of your castle and spends most of his time screaming at the top of his lungs. There’s nothing I can do to fix him. The Leith we knew is gone.”

“No,” I sobbed, feeling tears fall down my cheeks.

She turned and looked at me, tear tracks on her dirty face. She was still glaring at me but somehow she was crying. This was all my doing.

“This is all your fault,” she said.

She turned back the other way and marched from the cave, her silver cloak billowing behind her as she moved. I couldn’t let her get away that easily.

“Wait!” I called after her.

“What Emalia?” she snapped.

She had stopped only metres before me, yet her back was still turned. I walked towards her until I was close enough to grab her hand and I spun her around to face me.