Blood in the Fire

Chapter Five Ketya's Secret

Centream—96th Cycle of the Wizard Calendar

(Earth Year: 5,320 B.C.)

Anthe's Story

The two early afternoon suns cast golden hues across the small orange houses that lined the road. Ketya walked through the village with her head bowed. Long brown hair concealed her elfish face. Maroon eyes focused on the dust she kicked up with each brisk step. All she could think about was getting home.

An elderly merchant greeted her as he passed by on his way to sell his goods at the marketplace, but she didn't hear him as she drove forward, towards the edge of the village. Soon the orange houses became more and more spars as crop fields filled with fledgling yellow stalks took their place.

A cloud passed over the larger sun and cast a cold shadow down on the winter-weary land. Ketya pulled her worn shawl in tighter and refolded it over her stomach. I should have known better than to rely on fabric to hide my pregnancy, she admitted to herself.

The thin cloth she had patched together during her school days had been intended for an evening gown. When her teacher asked her why she wasn't following his instructions, she told him that two dresses were plenty enough for a girl her age and the shawl would be more practical. He'd grunted and moved on. A child with her lack of abilities was a waste of instruction. Ketya had returned to her needlework while the other children in class proceeded with their sewing spells.

In truth, she was disappointed at first that she couldn't produce the gown. The other kids in the class had used their powers to make beautiful garments. But with time, she came to appreciate the shawl. It was a testament to what she could accomplish without magic. Her classmates would have never been able to sew anything by hand. Finally, as if moved by some twisted humor, the shawl had proven to her that magic was in fact more valuable than handcraft. It had failed to hide her pregnancy from a probing spell.

Two weeks ago, she started to suspect that she was with child. But two weeks was a long time for Ketya to keep a secret in a town where almost everyone, save herself, had powers. Rothin hadn't even asked her if she were pregnant. He just looked at her flushed face, studied her stomach for a moment, and then performed the incantation to find out what he wanted to know: that she was pregnant, that it was a girl, and most importantly, that her daughter would be born without powers.

I should have asked him to stop, Ketya told herself. I should have asked him.... But she knew why she hadn't. It wasn't that she feared Rothin. He was older now, and he'd earned a powerful position as a town juror. To emphasize the change, he'd shed his former blond locks in favor of the crop-cut hairstyle the army used. However, that was just an intimidation tactic like everything else about him.

Ketya had lived with Rothin for several years, and she knew the true extent of his compassion. In fact, it was he who hid her in the schoolhouse when the small band of unruly soldiers came to 'cleanse' their town. Her mother and brother were killed during the attack. Her father was spared because he had powers, but he was not fit to raise her after that. The forbidden drink appealed to him more than the duties of a single parent. So instead, Rothin had beseeched his own father to take Ketya in and raise her. The newly formed family grew close, but half a decade later, that caused Rothin to feel that much more betrayed when she left their home to move in with Brovkyl.

Ketya was now seventeen years old, five years Rothin's junior. Ever since she left, they had butted heads whenever they encountered one another. More than one loud argument had taken place between them in the marketplace. Her friends warned her that Rothin was in a position to make her life difficult if he wished. They said she was too hot tempered for her own good. "He wouldn't hurt me," she'd told them.