Gifts

Chapter Fifteen: The Kingdom of Stonewall

Al took my hand and led me towards a ship that was docked at the shore.

"Are you ready?" He said softly.

I nodded, not actually sure if I was ready or not.

We boarded the ship and shortly after we were sailing towards the kingdom.

I took Marcus out of my backpack and looked at him. He knew what happened. He had tears streaming down his glass.

Al walked away to give Marcus and me some time to talk.

"Jaya..." He said through tears.

"Hi." I said barely above a whisper.

"Are you ok?"

How could I be ok. I just watched my sister die at the hands of the man who killed my mother and imprisoned my father. But instead of telling Marcus all of this, I just shook my head.

"It will be ok," he said, "Things will get better. For one, the Aari is gone now!"

"Yeah, I guess." I replied, having no more tears to cry.

Al walked towards us. "We are almost there." He stated plainly before walking away again.

I looked out to the water. The water looked to be the same as the water in my dream a few nights ago.

"We're here." Al said as the ship came to a stop.

I nodded and then got up to follow him to the palace.

A lady who looked to be in her early 50s came up to me.

"Hello, Jaya, I'm Rebecca and I'm going to help take care of you. Your mother and I were very close friends. I was her lady in waiting."

"Oh ok."

"Follow me. But peasants can't come." She said pointing at Al, making a face.

"He's coming. He saved my life. Get over it." I said to her.

"But, I mean... ok fine." She said looking a bit ticked off.

We followed Rebecca to a large castle.

"This your home." She said opening a large iron gate.

The castle was beautiful. It was made out of stone with ivy crawling down the sides. It had massive towers on either side of the main building. There was a huge courtyard filled with flowers of every kind and in the middle was a beautiful marble fountain.

"Wow." I said, not believing I got to live here now. It was gorgeous.

We continued to the large door and she knocked.

"Who is it and what is your business here?" A rough voice said.

"Rebecca, I have the queen."

The door slowly opened and a guard welcomed us.

"Queen Eska! The Chosen One!" He exclaimed. "I've wished so long to see the day you would come to rule the wonderful Kingdom of Stonewall!"

"Oh thanks, but I'm not Es-"

"Eska is very happy to be the ruler of this kingdom, thank you for your support." Rebecca replied, cutting me off. "We must go now, have a nice day."

The guard waved to us as we walked away. We got into a empty hallway and the lady in waiting whirled around.

"What was that?!" I demanded. "I'm Jaya, not Eska!"

"I know that obviously, but the people of Stonewall can not know that Eska is dead. It would crush them, she was the Chosen One, the only one who could save them."

"What about me then? Do they think I'm dead? And what do they need saving from?"

"No,no. They don't know you were born. Your mother had you when she was on the run from the Aari. No one in Stonewall knows you exist except for me." She said ignoring the last question.

I broke into tears again and Al put his arm around my shoulders in a comforting way.

"So are you saying that I have to be Eska?"

"Yes. You're not Jaya. You are Eska. No one can know the truth about what happened."