Kingdom of Ash and Flame

chapter four

"Hey what do you mean the war isn't over? Freya, stop!" I turn pushing him back. "Pomeline she has come to take down the mad king, our king. She is one of the gifted." His eyebrows raise."What?" I gawk. "She wnats me to join her, us." He turns and drives a fist into the wall.  "You better not be talking shit to me!" He jabs a finger at me. "So you think that I would just make this up. Really? My father died in this war. Thousands of innocents." He paces. "This is treason." He spits. "This is truth." I say inching closer to him. "You know you hate the mad king, you know what he did." Handrell's yes glaze over. I gulp, I went to far. "Leave my sister out of this!" He screeches. I can still remember his face as he told me the king forced himself on her and slit her throat in front of him for owning a spell book. "Handrell, I didn't mean to." I step towards him but he holds up his hand and walks away. My knees buckle. "Damn."

"So there are more of the gited across the black sea? Pomeline has come to take down the king? Where are her soldiers." I look at the bookshelf and run my fingers over the worn bindings. "I don't know, I only saw her mark and had the vision." I say.  Melisandre, Gideon, Mikal, and Derravan  look bemused. "This is real, this is happening. We need to take sides or she is jut going to kill us." Melisandre gets up and walks out. "So we are just going to die? " I shake my head. "No we can take sides." Gideon walks up to me. "I f we die it is on you."

I run through the rain and into the castle. "Freya?" I turn and see Xanthus, book in hand walking up to me. "I need to find Pomeline." He steps close and he looks into my eyes. "You look distraught, are you alright?" I grit my teeth. "Pomeline?" He studys me. "You know, her room." I spilt into a run, adrenaline racing through me. I am the new age, I am the night in the story books. I smile. "Freya?" I turn, to see Xanthus standing at the bottom of the stairs, I salute and continue.

"Pomeline?" I burst into her room. "I'll fight, we'll fight, my friends and I. We will join the new dawn. " She smiles. "Then you will be willing to come back with to Metamor? " I step towards her. "What happened to Akal can never happen agian." She nods. "I heard you, the pain you felt when  Akal collapsed. I am sorry." I step back. " My power, telapathy. I can read your mind." I sit in the chair. Why do I feel so violated. A wave of sadness passes over me and a tear slips from my eye. "All of my life I wanted peace, I wanted to live in peace with my family. I lost everyone dear to me because of the bastard who calls himself a king. After my father was declared a traitor and killed my mother was forced into exile, forced to leave everything. I was thirteen. THIRTEEN! Left without a family and most of all I lost hope. Then out of the blue you show up, saying you, we can end all of it. Then you hurt my friend, my BEST FRIEND and you want me to trust you. I was a fool for running in expecting everything to piece together. I don't want sympathy, I want to be strong for those who can't but I can't live my life without  a purpose." By now may tears have escaped my eyes and Pomeline is kneeling before me. "I know that loss you feel, that anger. I lost my brother in that war, the one person I could be real too. I know it seems odd to trust me, but I want to help you and your friends. Let me help you." She wraps her arms around me. "Thank you."

We walk out of the castle ignoring the questioning glances. We wear black hooded capes, that push behind us in the windy night. I swing the door of the hut  open  and we step inside. Everyone is huddled in the card room pacing. They look to us. We pull our hoods back. "Everyone I do not think you have ever formally met Pomeline. Queen of Metamor a Gifted descendent. You will be seeing her often, together we are going to defeat the mad king."