Unleashed

Acknowledgment:

Each spring, I donate baskets to help Canada Post raise money for the Children’s Foundation.

This year, I also donated a second draw item. The winner’s name would appear in one of my books. It worked out perfectly that a bookstore owner was the winner, and I had a scene with a bookstore in this one. Thanks, Troy. D. for fitting in perfectly with my Realms gang and for supporting the Children’s Foundation.

Jacqueline

As soon as she saw him coming toward her, Soren had the same reaction she did every time. Guilt. He really was nice, Prince Artesiam, her half-brother. Too often, she blamed him because he had privileges, she didn’t have. It wasn’t his fault. It was their father’s. How had he found her? She was on the most remote slice of land in their realm. No one came here.

Turning back to the little pond, she held her hand over it and lifted some of the water in the air. Wiggling her fingers, it sprinkled back down like a tiny rain cloud was above it. The fish swam up to the surface to investigate.

“That’s a cute trick.”

Art stopped beside her and smiled down at her.

Soren studied his face while he looked at the water. He looked tired.

“It’s relaxing.” She sat down on the rock beside it. No one was around, so she didn’t have to bow her head and be respectful to the future king.

Art squatted, put his fingers in the pond, and moved them around. Small wakes of minute waves spanned out from his hand, causing the fish to swim back down out of sight.

Leaning over, she looked at her reflection. Her long, dark hair appeared to be wavy because of his actions. She smiled, then sobered quickly before he saw it.

“How’s the training? Any good prospects with the last year students?”

He was referring to the teens she worked with. It was her job to teach them, over a three-year period, how to hone their ability to manipulate water. Her job because of the royal part of her blood, she was that good. She had skills greater than most others double her age, but that was still not good enough to give her another position in the palace. “Two have the natural ability to do well.” She flipped her hair back behind her shoulders. “The rest will get by with competent skill.” She hated saying it that way because she knew she had just handed them a sentencing that would have them doing menial tasks in Veiltide for the rest of their lives. She, better than anyone, knew how depressing that was.

“Send them to Elgar. He will get them into guard training. If they don’t have the stomach for that, we can always use help with Interealm and their constant water issues.” He sighed. “We’re going to need as many guards as can be readied.”

Soren turned and looked at him. “What’s going on?” She already knew some of it. She was very good at not being seen and overhearing things.

Glancing over his shoulder like anyone might be there. Sitting down, he sighed again, and his whole body slumped. “So much, I don’t think I can put it all into words.” He looked at her, amusement shone in his eyes. “Do you still lurk in the old escape tunnels around the palace?”

She bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh. He’d been the one to show her those tunnels when she was five and he fifteen. Squeezing her lips together, she nodded.

“Okay. Then you know how serious things are right now.”

“I know quite a bit.” She looked around, even though no one would ever come out this far from civilization. She leaned closer. “Is someone really trying to end the realms?” She had spent days pondering it when she’d heard him speaking with Elgar about it. How was that even possible?

He nodded.

“I don’t see the sense in it, Artie. Everything, in all, would cease to exist.”

He grinned. “No one said the perpetrators of this madness were above average intelligence.”

“You’re working with the other realms to stop it?” She already knew he was.

“Trying. Each time one piece is found, ten more come to light.” He took a deep breath and then exhaled. “Listen, I need your help. I can’t spare guards, and I just don’t have the time to do it now. I trust you to do it right.”

What pathetic task was he going to ask her to do this time? She knew most of them were their father’s wishes, but she would still end up resenting her brother for asking her. His facial expression changed several times as if he was trying to puzzle out how to ask her. “How bad can it be?” She put a hand on his arms. “Just say it, Artie. I won’t blame you.” Not forever, at least. With both of their mothers gone, they’d only had each other over the years. For over twenty years, they’d turned to one another when things got bad.

He patted her hand. “It’s not the kind of bad you’re thinking.” Closing his eyes, she could see the strain of everything on his face. He opened them and looked at her. “I don’t know how to explain it all to you.” He snorted. “To anyone.”

Soren searched his eyes and was surprised she saw there. Behind the exhaustion and confusion was fear. “What was going on?”

~

“Ren? Are you all right?”

She held up her hand, needing more time to process.

“Soren? You asked…”

“I know.” Shaking her head, Soren looked at him. “I was okay with everything you said because I’ve heard parts of it—” She looked at the pond and then shook her head again. “—until you got to the mixed DNA and Gemini—” She looked at him. “What are they called?”

“Gemini League.”

“Gemini League.” She nodded her head slowly. “I watched your face as you told me because, at first, you were making it up.”

“Is it really that hard to believe?” He lifted his hand in the air, and the water rose. “Our entire realm and existence is about water, Ren.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know that.” Puffing her cheeks out, she blew the air out of her mouth. “Okay, so there are fourteen women with mixed DNA who can do crazy things, crazier than Elgar and witches. And one evil one who’s the twin of one of the good ones who had insane powers.”

“Yes.”

“And the ones that are trying to end all the realms want them because, without them, they can’t be stopped?”

“They as well as all the others from Alterealm, some of ours—” he motioned in the air. “Some from each realm.”

“Okay. Big team effort. Got it.” She leaned closer and zeroed in on his eyes before she asked the next thing. “Part angel? Seriously?”

“Yes.”

He wasn’t kidding. It wasn’t a lie. He was telling the truth.

“Do I have water squirting out of my ears? Because I think my brain has sprung a leak.”

He chuckled. “No leaks.”

Soren got up and walked over to the edge of the small island, looking out at the vast water. “Father knows all this?” she glanced over her shoulder.

“He does.”

Turning back to the water, she tried to sort everything he’d just told her, and then her spine stiffened, and she turned around. “So, what is this thing you need me to do?” After all of that, it had better be good because she knew most of what he’d just shared with her was going to have to be a secret, and it was going to be a hard one not to run around and tell everyone because it was huge, fantastic and so incredibly hard to believe.

He stood up and came over to her. “With the Gemini ladies having such mixed genes, some may have abilities they’re unaware of. A few, so far that I know of, have Veiltide blood in their veins, including the next Queen of Solrelm…”

“I’m sorry. Of Solrelm? She has Veiltide blood but will be the queen of another realm?”

Art rubbed his hand over his face. “It’s complicated, but yes, Solrelm because she is the other, the mate of Prince Trendan of Solrelm.”

“Holy tidal wave. For real?”

“This is very real.” He nodded.

“Okay, I’m following, mostly.” She opened her hand and motioned, telling him to continue.

“As I was saying, with the mixed genes, any with Veiltide may be able to manipulate water, and we need to know if they can.”

“Right. All the help is good. I understood that part.”

Art nodded and then glanced out across the water. She turned to see what had his attention. The Whales were moving. “I need you to go to Interealm…”

“Yes.” Her whole body stiffened with excitement.

“I haven’t finished. I need you to go to Interealm and…”

“Yes. When do I leave?”

His smile was slow, but he eventually understood that she had never been anywhere but here. “There will be guards. You will be safe, but find out if any of these women possess our abilities. Jerika, the one who will be queen, also has human, FaTerra and Solrelm in her, but she was able to stop a river from flowing and part it.”

Soren’s eyes widened. “Without training?”

“Without training, although,” He paused and frowned. “Someone was trying to drown them by magically manipulating the water at the time…”

“My head is turning into a sprinkler now and leaking all over. This is so—” She sucked in a breath and then spit it out all at once. “I get to do something.” She nodded. “When do I leave?”

“I will arrange it. I just need to focus on finding Sem and somehow prevent the use of any more of the clay used to make our vessels.”

She frowned. “Sem the snake?”

“The one and only.”

She chuckled. “Good luck there. What about the clay?”

“Sem, I know it’s him. He was making vessels out of our clay so it could be used in other realms, thus allowing these maggots trying to do all of this to communicate without detection.”

Soren was almost regretting asking. “Get Elgar to place one of those spells things around it.” She made a face. “I know it’s a huge area, but he should be able to come up with something. Have only the authorized workers be allowed near it—” She stopped talking and shrugged, because it was not in her skill set to problem solve.

“I’ll see what he says.” He heaved a sigh of relief. “Come find me after I meet with Father, and I’ll take you over to Interealm.” He turned and took a step and then stopped. “Oh, you’ll have a porter bracelet from Alterealm that will allow you to go back and forth on your own.”

“For real?” If this was some kind of dream, she was going to be very upset when she woke up.

“Very real.” He grinned and then walked off the island and was gone from her sight.

Soren turned around and looked at the slice of earth and then shook her head. She was getting out of Veiltide. She didn’t care the reason, just that it was happening.