Freedom's Pyre ✓ [SAMPLE | Libertas Series | Book I]

Chapter One: Brothers

The tree beneath my hands is mossy and damp as I scrabble to find handholds. A dark smudge of bark stains my knee as I twist to reach the next branch. The branch creaks in the wind as I pull myself up to the spot I always think of as my own. My clothes are already damp as I reach for an apple. The autumn drizzle has soaked everything in a fine mist.

"Catch!"

I drop the apple carefully, just left of my brother's head. It won't hit him, won't hurt him in any way. I'm sure.

Kasper steps to the side, letting the apple hit the floor then stooping to pick it up. He squints up at me against the light drizzle. His deep brown skin has taken a somewhat greyish tone and I'm not sure if it's the weather or what's to come that makes him look so off-peak.

"I'm surprised mum let you out. Have you finished packing?" I ask, swinging my legs from the branch.

Kasper dusts off the apple in his hands, checks it over for damage and he bites out a huge chunk. He grins as he chews. "I might have forgotten to tell her I was going out, Kit."

I push down the surge of worry. I'm here, so Kasper isn't alone. He isn't unprotected. Even if there is danger, I'll fight it off. I shouldn't worry so much, not in Geudwood, but I still feel the tension along my shoulders.

I lean forward a little so I can better survey our surroundings. We are in a prime location, atop a small hill on our family's land. The only living things around us are sheep and birds, who are trying to take shelter along the tree line. I can see for miles in each direction, down to the village half a mile to the south, and north to the start of the foothills of the mountains.

Nothing can attack us here. Not without me knowing about it first.

"When you come back inside sopping wet, she's going to notice for sure," I point out. Kasper rolls his eyes, running a hand through his magic-bleached blond hair.

The rain intensifies as we fall into a companionable silence. How many more moments will there be like this for us? This evening, Kasper will leave home forever, go on to fulfil his destiny. These are our last few hours together as children.

"Why did you drag me out here anyway?" Kasper asks, scowling as he throws away his apple core and draws his cloak tighter around himself. His golden eyes are scrunched up as he turns his face up towards me again, grimacing as a large drop of water falls into his eye.

I gesture around us. The rolling hills give way to the craggy mountains above where quaint limestone drywalls crisscross our lands in a makeshift attempt to prevent sheep from escaping that never quite works. A line of trees to the south-east denotes the start of the forest that goes all the way to the town of Brockhampton.

"I just thought you'd want to say goodbye to all this."

Kasper clicks his fingers and a small flame dances to life in front of him. He warms his hands on it, muttering to himself. I resist the urge to jump down and crowd in close to the flame as well. I am not usually jealous of my brother's magic, though I can certainly appreciate its uses right about now.

"I'm not especially attached to the mountains. Bring too much rain," Kasper complains, though his eyes roam the landscape as he leans back against the tree trunk.

A drop of water runs down my dark brown hair, forming a droplet that drips onto my forehead. Even Kasper's hair is starting to look a little darker now, dirty blond instead of its usual golden colour.

"Do you think it'll be easy to make friends there?" Kasper says, just as I am about to jump down from the tree to urge him home before he catches a cold.

I tense on the branch. I don't understand my brother's doubts about this. He's the Chosen One. Of course, he's going to have no trouble at all making friends. What is there not to like about him? He's intelligent, kind, and he inherited our mother's good looks as well as her magic.

He's taller than me, he's broader than me, and he has that all-important blond hair and gold eyes that sets him apart as a mage. Even if we do have similar facial features, with our mother's high-cheek bones and father's broad nose, it doesn't change the fact that I am just a Brown Hair. Blue eyes and brown skin and brown hair.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

But Kasper? He's extraordinary.

"You're going to be fine, you worrying lump," I say, swinging myself off the branch to land on the ground. I let my knees buckle and drop into a roll to prevent myself getting injured.

"Show-off," Kasper teases as he heaves me up from the ground. His expression goes from fond to concerned though. "But what about you? Are you going to be okay once I'm gone?"

I dust leaves and twigs out of my clothes and hair. I don't want to tell him about the others in the village. Being an outsider, I don't attend school with the other children like Kasper. We don't play together.

I train.

I have a Purpose.

I have to protect Kasper.

"I'll be fine. You know me and dad. We'll just keep on like we have done all this time. And it'll only be a year before I can come down and we'll be together again," I remind him, pulling on one particularly stubborn twig and untangling it from the strands of hair it has embedded itself in.

I have begged my father to reconsider his choice to keep me here while Kasper leaves. I don't trust Kasper's protection to anyone else but myself. I have trained for this my whole life. Yet my father refuses to let me go. He says there are more preparations that I must make, whatever that means, and that I should wait until my 18th birthday next year before I join Kasper at the University at Brockhampton. I can't tell what difference a year will make, there's so little difference between me and Kasper, and we're only a year apart in age, but as always, my father's decisions are final.

The rain starts to ease a little. It really is now or never if we're going to run back to the house to get dried out before Lord Ifan arrives tonight.

"Reckon we should get back before they raise the alarm that you've been abducted?" I ask, reaching up to ruffle Kasper's wet hair. He grimaces and pushes me away, but starts walking down the hill, regardless.

I watch his back as he walks.

That is, after all, what I have been trained to do.