The Haunted Way (Champions of the Crystal Book 5)

Chapter 1.1

Word spread with amazing speed that the Queen was in labor. Selémahs and Aurora seemed to know without being told at all, and Sabrina wondered if the Great Crystal was somehow announcing the event. Aurora, as Chief Attendant to the Guardian, had to leave immediately to attend the birth. Scotty let himself be swept off by a group of his fellow graduates, partly, Sabrina thought, because he could tell how much Selémahs and Leran wanted to go join the Miahns who would be gathering near the Queen's apartments, eager to witness this most important birth. They invited Sabrina to go with them, but, as much as she would have liked to be there for Mara, she knew this was an event she could not really be a part of. She made an excuse and watched them go, trying not to be wistful.

Treva nar Mukryilla joined her a moment later. "I'm glad we all lived to see this day," she said. "I know your father would have been so proud of you both."

"I'm sure he would have liked to see this day," Sabrina said. "But he's here in spirit, I know." She looked around the room, remembering Rayland's funeral.

Mukryilla's green eyes grew distant. "I know. I can never enter this room without thinking of him." Then she smiled again. "It is a great day in more ways than one. Are you going up to the palace?"

"Not right away. It'll be crowded, and it's a day for Miahns to celebrate," Sabrina replied.

"You are part of us, Sabrina. Never think otherwise," Mukryilla assured her.

It's not thinking that makes the difference. It's biology, Sabrina sighed to herself as the Commander moved off. Then she shook herself. She was not going to feel sorry for herself today. Nothing must taint the celebration of Scotty's triumphant return to active military duty, and certainly not the birth of the Inheritor.

Looking around for familiar faces, she was startled to recognize a very elderly lady seated near the back of the hall. Sabrina hurried over to her. "Éllina! You didn't tell me you were planning to come!"

"I wasn't," Éllina Haaron replied, with one of her gentle smiles. "But when I woke this morning, I found that I had to."

"You must be exhausted," Sabrina said. Éllina had already lived beyond the normal age for non-Miahns; she had been a little older than Sabrina when they'd met, over ninety-four years ago. It had only been eleven for Sabrina and Scotty, who had come forward in time to help with the Stanosian crisis two years ago, and Éllina was the last survivor of Sabrina's original non-Miahn friends.

"I shall just rest a bit, and then go home."

"I'll go with you," Sabrina said.

Éllina grasped Sabrina's hand and held it firmly. "I wanted to see it, so I could describe it to Sehrian."

Sabrina nodded, and they shared a moment of silence, remembering. Haaron had seemed so young when they first met, all those years ago when Mara was still a Princess, just freed from captivity, with a lifetime's education and training to catch up on. Sabrina found it hard to believe she had ever been so young, herself. But she still thought of Haaron as that young man, and of Éllina as the pretty redhead he had married. "I know Scotty was thinking of him today. He's part of what made this possible."

"Both things. Yes, I know," Éllina smiled. "Such a legacy. His, and yours."

"It belongs to us all," Sabrina said. She hated it when people talked of her legacy. By her personal count, she was thirty-four years old—too young to have a legacy, or at least to be finished with it. It was strange that while people seemed to have so many expectations of Scotty, they always talked of her as if she had completed her work. It was a question to which she had not yet found an answer: after you've raised a Queen, ruled a planet, and helped save the galaxy, what do you do next? So far she had tried not to think about it, content to drift along and reacquaint herself with Praxatillus. But there had to be more to her life than what she had already achieved. She couldn't be finished yet.