Sometime later, music began to waft through the woods. The four children slowed to a stop, exchanging glances over heavy breathing. One of the boys said, “What’s Melete doing here?”
They shook their heads and all raced in the same direction, a certain shadow following amidst the trees with all due care. They slowed to a walk all at the same time just before entering a clearing. A multi-level treehouse was built into a number of large trees on the left side of the clearing. The offset levels were connected by ropes-bridges. Some were open platforms, but a couple were fully enclosed with doors and windows.
An older girl, high in her teens probably, sat on an old stump playing a harp. She wore a heavy brown coat over a green dress and brown boots. A grizzled man stood behind her with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. He wore dark leather armor studded with blackened beads. A gun and sword hung sheathed on his hips.
The four younger children waved to the girl as they suddenly raced up to her. The boy wondering what she was doing out in the forest called out, “Melete, I thought they weren’t letting you out? You still look pale.”
The girl laughed, her voice light and pleasant to hear. Sammy thought is sounded fragile though. “I told Mafu I would sneak away in the middle of the night if he didn’t let me come. Today is special, after all.”
“Thank you Mafu,” all four children chorused, grinning at the big man with his scraggly beard and rumpled hair.
He harrumphed and said in a grumpy voice, “Just hurry. If the master finds out, I’ll be the one who gets punished.”
“Okay,” they all sang and then laughed. The boy currently carrying the scarf offered it to Melete, who accepted it and put it around her neck with a smile and a wink. The boy turned beet red.
Sammy’s world spun for a moment and information overwhelmed her. She suddenly knew why all five of the children glowed. And she knew what she could do for them. She growled softly her dismayed disgruntlement. Stupid Count. Discovering new stuff was ninety percent of the fun, dad-burn-it-all. The crazy guy should have just given her hints, not just given her the detailed version.
And what the heck was with this weirdly hiding information in her brain? How the heck had he done that anyway? Sammy grinned, suddenly quite curious to discover how to implant information into someone’s head and make them “remember” it on this or that cue. She thought that might actually be useful, and fun both. The things she wanted to do to stupid Dista filled her mind for nearly a full minute. A new research project for her attention, that was for sure.
“Anyway,” she eventually muttered under her breath. “Focus, focus.”
Sammy dropped to the ground with the sound of rustling wind. She stepped out into the clearing, in view of Melete and the man, but to the back of the four younger children. Melete’s eyes widened a little and Mafu shifted his stance, his hand dropping to his holstered pistol. The four turned as one to look behind them.
“Hello everyone,” Sammy said, waving her hand in a circle once.
“Who, who are you,” the youngest girl asked, shifting to stand in front of Melete.
“Just a passerby.” Sammy laughed at the fierce determination on the children’s faces, fear clearly bleeding through.
“You better not be here to hurt Melete,” the boy who had handed the scarf to the older girl said in challenge.
“I’m not,” Sammy said, clasping her hands behind her back. “I’m here to give you five a gift. If I was out to hurt you, I could have done it in the past couple of hours while you played steal the scarf. That’s how long I’ve been following you.”
The children glanced at each other, the girl finally saying, “We don’t believe you. How long have you really been here?”
“I’ve been following you since you,” Sammy pointed at the girl, “made that awesomely cool tackle on him,” she pointed, “and he,” she shifted her finger, “stole the scarf before you could get it.”
The girl covered her mouth with trembling hands. “No way.”
Sammy pointed to herself dramatically, “Been shadowing people for years, people much better at detecting shadows than you lot. Like I said, I don’t mean anyone harm, but I do have a gift I can give you, if you want it. Well, gift might be stretching it, might not though. You do have to make a promise to me to get it though.”
Melete held her harp up and Mafu took it, still keeping a watchful eye on Sammy. The girl stood up, though the man had to steady her. “What kind of promise?”
Sammy nodded. “Just a moment, I have to collect them first.” Keeping a good distance between herself at the small group, she walked around them to one of the house trees. Jumping, she landed on one of the decks.
“Hey,” the boy who had ambushed the other three called out with a bit of heat. He took a step toward the tree, but Mafu stopped him with a word.
“Conall, be careful unless you can jump like that. That girl’s dangerous.”
The boy stopped, but his face looked quite rebellious.
Sammy disappeared inside the little shack structure for a moment. She collected the glowing item she sought and then jumped to another of the decks to collect another. After that, she dropped back to the ground and vanished into the trees for a few moments to collect the other three items she needed.
“This is quite exciting,” Melete said in a hushed voice. “Don’t you guys think? A strange girl suddenly appearing and offering us a mysterious gift for a promise. Doesn’t it sound romantic and cool?”
“Oh great,” Conall said, a hand spanning his forehead temple to temple. “She’s gone into romantic mode.” He looked at the other girl. “Nephele, please stop her.”
Nephele’s eyes were sparkling. “Melete, I agree, I agree. It’s way romantic.” She let out a big sigh. “It would be better if it was a prince doing it though.”
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Yes, yes,” Melete said, her eyes practically glowing as bright as twin moons.
“I kind of like the princess we got,” the ambush boy said, his head turned away slightly, his face red.
“Gareth!” The two girls and Conall all said at the same time, the girls with little squeals of delight, Conall with horrified shock.
The remaining boy laughed. “You’ve already lost Conall. I’m on Melete’s side.”
“You’re always on Melete’s side, Prium,” Conall said with a disgruntled puff. “That’s why I never look for you to use common sense around her. And she’s four years older than you. How can you chase an older woman?”
“Ooohh,” Nephele said, grinning. “Womaaaan. Maybe you want her for yourself, Conall?”
Conall turned bright red. “Stop twisting what I say.”
Nephele turned up her nose and declared, “Well, I don’t care, cause me and Gareth are getting married anyway.”
Gareth rolled his eyes. “I thought you were going to marry Mafu.”
Nephele looked shocked and brought a hand to cover her lips. “That was last week.”
They all laughed, even Conall, though he cut it short when he realized.
Sammy walked out from the trees. “You guys are fun. Okay, I got what I needed and I know your names now. Thanks for the introduction. My name’s Sammy Micael.” She held up five rocks, two in one hand, three in the other. She clenched her hands into fists.
Sammy took a deep breath and settled her heart for a moment before speaking again. “Here we go. Here is the promise I require. Are you ready?”
Melete came over to Conall and turned him by the shoulders to face Sammy and then forced him to sit down so she could drape her arms over him from behind. “We’re ready, oh dear princess.” For some reason, the older girl really liked this mysterious person.
“Don’t call me that,” Sammy said, frowning intensely. “Ever. Forbidden.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “Okay, here we go.”
“You said that already,” Nephele giggled.
Sammy nodded her agreement and admitted it readily enough. “You’re right. So, each of you must promise me this, that you will love your land and take care of it and those who live on it to the best of your ability. You will never wrong one to the benefit of the other if at all possible, and minimize it if you have no other choice. And that you will be my friends.”
“She just wants friends,” Conall said, his hands gripping Melete’s wrists in front of him.
Sammy grinned. “You cannot just agree, you have to say it. Well?”
Melete laughed. “You are not asking for something I don’t already fully intend to do, except being your friend I suppose. Very well, I promise to care for my land and those who live on it. I will never wrong my land, its residents, or my friends,” she waved to the other four and then pointed at Sammy, “including you, to the best of my ability and temper it as much as possible if unavoidable. I promise to be your friend too, Sammy Micael.”
Sammy grinned, weirdly happy as each of the others followed Melete’s lead. She was not sure and she really did not trust herself at all, but she really liked these five. Stranger still, she felt completely ambivalent toward the man. It was just the glowing youths that attracted her.
Once the five finished their little promises, Sammy answered them all in on go. “I promise to do my best to take care of you and my land, your land. I promise to be your friend to the best of my ability too, Melete, Conall, Gareth, Nephele, Prium. This then is my pledge.” Sammy tossed each of the stones to the child whose glow matched it. “Hold the stones out in your preferred hand like this.” Sammy held her hand out palm up.
Each of the children did, self-conscious grins exchanged over quizzical glances at each other. Sammy struck a dramatic pose, one hand in front of her with all five fingers pointing at the five children with their stones like a dragon’s claw. She said something, her other hand tracing out a simple pattern over her heart. Lines of power flashed where she drew them and then sank into her chest. A flame about four inches in height appeared above each of the five stones the youths held, each a different shade of blue.
With the lighting of the flames, Sammy’s full land contract blazed, the pattern showing on all exposed skin, even her hair shimmered and her clothing lit up from within. The five children and Mafu stared at her in wide eyed shock. Sammy half glowered, half something else at them. She could see the pattern on her arm so couldn’t really deny it.
Sammy then sighed, again half in resignation, half in something else, and said, “Those are the common flames for these lands. I believe you will be able to see the difference between your own and the others.” Sammy pointed to the point where she could see the five seams of the land coming together in the middle of the clearing. “You should build little holders for them and set ‘em there where they belong.”
“Com, common flames? How?” Nephele began to say, confused. The land of Iona had been flameless for ninety years. Not even their parents had ever seen one.
“What about the Count’s curse?” Prium demanded.
“That’s not right,” Sammy said, wagging a finger in the air. “The curse was General Fleming’s doing. Here, we should make holders for those,” she indicated the stones with the flames flickering over them. “I will tell you how the curse ended about two days ago.”
The children all gasped, exchanging glances.
“What?” Sammy demanded, a little scared by that reaction.
Nephele stumbled for lack of words, but then explained, “It’s just, two nights ago there was this huge flash of light and then, then,”
“Everything became lighter, nicer,” Gareth said.
“It became easier to move and think,” Mafu agreed, frowning his uncertainty.
“The curse lifted,” Melete declared, her eyes all a glitter.
“Come on, come on,” Sammy said, not sure what to think. Just how many people had she affected with that requiem? For the time being, she thought getting them distracted was the most productive course of action she could take. “We need to make holders.”
And they were quite willing to be distracted apparently. The children grinned at each other, each running this way and that to find something suitable to use as a holder for the little flames cupped in their hands.
Sammy watched Melete with a bit of relief. She could see that the weakness plaguing the girl had disappeared. She stepped closer to the older man, Melete’s guardian and said in a soft voice, “Mafu?”
The man blanched and then bowed deeply. “Yes my lady.”
“Stop that or I’ll deck you,” Sammy said, holding up a fist. She lowered the fist and glanced around.
Melete came running up. “Mafu, help me find something.”
“Stay here for a moment, Melete,” Sammy said. The girl looked at Sammy puzzled. “Are you aware you were poisoned?”
The girl stared at Sammy. “That’s not possible.”
Sammy shook her head and answered, “Possible or not, it’s true. I could see it from the trees it’s so obvious. Have you noticed that your strength has returned?”
Melete opened her mouth to deny it again, but then froze as she took stock. Her eyes widened in shock.
“The flame will burn away poison and heal you fairly instantaneously.” The information flowed into Sammy as she spoke and she frowned to herself in irritation. Just how much meddling did that stupid Count do anyway? “It will heal sickness too, and you won’t get sick easily no matter what now, but it works pretty dramatically against poison. If someone’s poisoning you, and they find out it’s not working anymore, they’ll use more direct ways to kill you.”
Melete crossed her arms, a look of defiance on her face.
“Sorry,” Sammy said, taking a step back. “Maybe I should have held out telling you at least until you made your holder.”
Melete shook her head and then looked off to the left at nothing in particular. “No, you’re right. I can see it now.” She looked down at the flame cupped in her hand. “Because of this? Ugh, I can totally see it all so clearly now.” She stiffened, straightening her back and said in a sing-song kind of voice. “I’ll deal with it later.” She turned around and ran away.
Mafu spoke before a silence could develop. “Her parents died of the same sickness that’s been afflicting her the last year. If it was poisoning, there is only one person who could have managed it, her uncle.”
Sammy nodded and said. “You should help her.”
“I will do what I can,” Mafu said is firm resolve.
Sammy gave him a look. “Stupid. I meant go help her make a holder.”
The man blushed and hustled after the girl. Sammy grinned. “Conall and Prium might both be out in the cold after all. Oh, the ways of a woman’s heart.” She put a finger on her chin and cocked her head to the side. Then she could not contain it anymore and snickered aloud.