Of magic and blood

Chapter Nine

I was still deep in thought about my encounter with Caspar the next day. Mostly asking myself if I was really doing the right thing.

"Rosalee, did you hear me?" Mother drew me out of my turbulent thoughts as we stood on the steps of the palace, awaiting the carriage.

"Hmm?"

She rolled her eyes, "Really, you've had your head in the clouds since breakfast. Is something bothering you?"

I stared at her, wanting to laugh and scoff. Yes, I wanted to say, something was bothering me. The fact that Morgana had spies both in our court, her own son no less, and Alaric's court bothered me. The fact that I had to find out who the spy was and ensure my only brother married a woman he didn't love bothered me.

But I couldn't say any of those things. Caspar had strongly urged secrecy in this matter.

I forced a smile, "No, I'm fine, just a bit tired, that's all."

Mother narrowed her eyes as though she didn't believe me, but she didn't push the subject. The carriage appeared, coming to a stop in front of the steps with flags flying.

Papa and Evander came down the steps, Evander with a frustratingly unreadable look on his face and Papa looking grim.

Evander and I were very close, mainly because of our shared secret about his magic, but sometimes my brother hid things from me. It was obvious that for this trip, he didn't want me to know what he was thinking or feeling.

Papa opened the carriage door and Mother entered first, followed by myself, then Evander, and finally Papa last.

It would take three days to travel to Alaric's palace, and if Evander was going to be like this the whole time, the trip wasn't going to be pleasant.

The first day was uneventful. We sat in comfortable silence, Mother doing her needlepoint, Evander reading a book, Papa dozing, and I watched our land roll by in dull greens and browns.

It was the second day, however, when I saw it.

We were passing through our border villages, heading into Alaric's land, and the devastation was horrible. Buildings had been reduced to rubble, entire crop fields still smoldered from unnatural fire caused by magic, and mass graves had been made to burry the carnage of killed villagers.

We were all silent and grave as we rolled through, tears falling down Mother's cheeks and Evander's jaw clenched tight in anger.

This was what Morgana had done. Created widows and orphans, ripped people's lives apart completely, and caused a deep grief inside Papa and Mother's hearts.

And a burning rage inside mine.

The third day we traveled through Alaric's kingdom. His border villages looked as bad as ours did, and the villages spared from destruction had an air of deep fear. Despite this, the people took to the streets and cheered us through.