Traitors of the Realm - Kingmaker Book 1

Kaelan - Back from the dead Chapter 27

 The day slowly passed into midday. Kaelan walked beside the wagons with Arkron and Joslin walking ahead. Arkron suddenly stopped, he took up a dry leaf from off the ground, before proceeding to pull Kaelan aside. He places it upon his palm, watching Kaelan's eyes as it became flustered. "It's simple," said Arkron. "I can't really go into details, because fire magic is beyond my realm of expertise. It's like a thought, if you can't think it you can't summon it."

"Are you sure?" Kaelan asked. "You said I was summoning Jumbies but I can't remember thinking about anything."

"Jumbies is darkness," Arkron explained, "it's why you gravitated toward casting them. In that moment you felt hurt, betrayed."

"Angry," he confesses.

"Yes," his friend nodded. "Fire is different, it's not about feelings, it's the thought. If you believe that this leaf can burn and you imagine it in your mind first, it will happen."

Kaelan kept staring at the leaf, but no sparks or smoke appeared. The leaf eventually blew away, as a gust of wind came their way. "I can't," said Kaelan. "Maybe I'm not a Unique as you say. If I can control darkness, that's good enough for me."

"Maybe you're just awful at it," said Joslin, laughing.

"We'll work on it," Arkron swore. He then continued onward, walking with Joslin.

As Kaelan attempted to follow them, he felt a grip upon his arm. When he looked backward he saw the Princess of Elsinguard, offering a piece of fudge. Kaelan took it, as quickly as it was given. When he took the first bite, he closed his eyes and started chewing slower, savoring every bite. She laughed as he groaned as if he was having pleasure. She gave him another piece as he finished the first. "I haven't had sweets for many moons now," he confesses.

"I thought you'd say years," she said, smiling.

"No," he admitted. "I found out recently that Amiera use to send me things I needed, every few months. Nestor, that worm use to keep the majority for himself. Sweets were every two months."

"Nestor is a rat," she replied. "He only cares for himself."

"I see that now."

"You know I thought you'd look deformed. When I was in hiding I heard of your marriage. Some said it was a perfect marriage. She was cripple and you were ugly, no one was perfect."

"Many of them assumed I was deformed like my father," Kaelan admitted. "It's why they think my mother abandoned me."

"You had a stepmother didn't you?" she asked him.

"Yes, but she and I weren't all that close," Kaelan admitted. "She was good to my father and she loved her children, so that's all that counts."

"I'm guessing you being the heir made it difficult for her to like you."

"She wanted my little brother as the heir," said Kaelan. "I was seen as the outcast."

"Not anymore," she told him. "These people follow you, they believe in you. And it just so happens, you're the one Lobo died trying to protect."

"I still don't know why?" said Kaelan. "I'm afraid I'll only disappoint these people in the end."

"That's a possibility," she said, "but you might also surprise them by doing what's best for everyone."

"Maybe," he said.

"What will you do, when it's all done. Assuming we survive?"

"I don't know," he told her, trying to find an actual answer. "Be alone. I'm thinking being a husband and a father isn't meant for me."