Korah: Heir of Gnamalea

CHAPTER TWO

Korah was preparing dinner when her brother William came back with a fresh supply of wood. It was the early afternoon. It was rare to cook steak on the stove as winter stock was running low throughout the season. The small amount paid to the family wasn't much with the part-time work down at the markets William ran whenever he could. The farmer's steak was quite an exorbitant price, so, of course, it is at the needs. William would get his hands on a piece if he could.

It was the anniversary of their mother's death. Eight years ago, her unexpected disappearance harrowed both Korah and William after her mother's body was found. As the years went by, it got more and more complex, and at the age of fourteen, for Korah, nothing had changed.

After a couple of years, they started to search our house for illegal Witchcraft, which the two knew their mother to have practised. From then on, the name Delevigne Lagnora had become famous. Korah's mother practised some magic when she and William were young, and she knew nothing except a thick book. She didn't know what it said in the book, but she did have a distinct memory of her mother using it.

Her mother's death left a hole in Korah's heart, and the only thing she had left of her mother was her brother. He was a comforting version of her. His grey-blue eyes and fair features were almost exact, apart from a darker trait to his blonde hair. Korah looked nothing like her mother and wondered if she looked like her father, who she never knew. Her mother had never spoken of him. Even though William was the eldest by two years, he still had no vivid memory of him. Her grey eyes – the only evident trait passed on from her mother, her onyx, blue hair was not. She felt out of place by her differences, especially after her aunt Kèla's death.

Dinner was quiet as it usually was on this day. Korah's chest ached at the expression on William's face. His eyes remained on his meal. He hadn't looked up since he walked through the door.

He was close to his mother. Closer than Korah ever was, and she knew that. Everyone despised the Lagnora family. The town's children gather in the public church and have the pope give English lessons from ages five to thirteen, but Korah had given it up by eight, not wanting to burden the other children. Instead, she taught herself.

Gnamalea was quite big for a population of twenty thousand. Most of the land was extensive forests and paddocks. Most of the population spoke Greek, and only five per cent spoke English.

After an era of peace, the King had died unexpectedly and replaced by a cold-hearted ruler. Korah lost her confidence. William had to become - not only her brother but also her guardian, even before our mother had disappeared.

Everyone always thought it was suicide. Korah and William's mother was alone when she left the house. They were both aware of that. She did not appear to be sick, or diseased, or have any weapon on her. After the Royal Captain of the Guard had paid a visit to them – not long after her disappearance – he notified them that she was stabbed through the chest. There was no trace of weapon or suspect. Korah wondered, did she suffer? Thoughts of her mother suffering through pain the last moments that she died were painful to Korah. That night she felt strange; William did mention that she was flustered, and Korah did remember she had a bad feeling about something.

She only noticed until now that William was staring at her. She could practically picture the gears moving in his mind.

"What are you thinking about?" she turned her full attention to now a cold and stiff piece of steak.

"How you haven't mentally gone crazy after these years," he said, shaking his head and shovelling a piece into his mouth. Korah frowned; she knew what he meant. He knew she replayed the same thing in her head every year. She always shared her thoughts with William, but he always shrugged off the subject like it wasn't a big deal. Korah felt responsible for keeping her thoughts to herself that night. The way her body ached and the nightmares the hours after. Why didn't she somehow think of what the possibilities were?