Kalena woke up and realized she was lying on the gra.s.s.Jin-si grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled somewhere. Slowly, very slowly everything became transparent again. They were in the woods. Seth sat leaning against a tree, deadly pale, he seemed unconscious. His face was slightly soiled on the left side as if he had fallen on damp ground.
"Never again!" shouted the princess, the most woke among them. "I will never come here again. I can"t believe they took us here on a trip!"
"What was it?" Kalena rose to a sitting position. "He reminded me of someone, but now I have a hollow mind."
"Whoever it was, he knows about the art we can"t master," Seth finally said. "These gusts and our strange feelings, then paralysis. May the G.o.ds protect us! This thing can do a lot and it is definitely not human."
So what is it then?"
"I think... it"s a ghost. Or a demon." The boy got up and rocked. "I just don"t understand why he didn"t balance his forces. I still feel the effects, and on Jin, it has hardly worked at all."
"You didn"t pa.s.s out?" Kalena asked, helping Seth stay upright.
"I stood a little further. I saw him reaching out to you and then you collapsed. I was so scared, I thought he killed you! And when I woke up, he was gone and you were still lying on the gra.s.s. I don"t know what I would do if it turned out that you"re dead, I don"t think I would cry myself to death!"
"Let"s go back now. I feel terrible. Masters probably already looking for us."
Seth was wrong because in the meeting place there was only Zarkin Mei and Mamina. Others were still busy doing their tasks, or they had already finished and wandered among the trees."
"Hey!" Galaspiael noticed them and went to greet Kalena. "I knew you would do it quickly. Mistress Asa.n.a.la has prepared the food, you can help yourself..." He paused, seeing that Jin-Si and Seth were staring at him intensely. "If you don"t want to, there"s no need, but she"s not a bad cook."
Kalena understood why they looked at him this way. She finally realized who the mysterious creature reminded her of. Not Galaspiael, but his ancestor, whose portrait she saw when she visited the palace. This was who they saw.
*
In the evening, when everyone was getting ready to go back, Galaspiael took Kalena for a walk. After her meeting with the ghost, she no longer wanted to continue exploring the Forbidden Zone. Fortunately, they did not venture deep into the forest, but only moved away from the camp enough to be able to talk without worrying that someone would overhear them.
"I"m sorry I couldn"t find you water nephrite," she began.
"Don"t worry," the boy replied and forced a smile. After spending some time with him, Kalena could recognize his sincere smile. She could also see the emotions he was trying to hide.
"I will help you with something else when we arrive at the quarters. I"m glad we"re finally coming back."
"why?" He picked up. "You didn"t like his training?"
"The training was fine, but this place is awfully scary." Kalena wanted to tell him everything, but she was afraid of how he would react and whether she would believe at all. "Since it"s so dangerous that people can"t come here, why are we training here?"
"Because the Forbidden Zone will not be forever abandoned. We will find a way to settle it and we have to get used to this place. People often twist what they hear, so it"s best to come here and see for yourself what is going on."
"Have you ever been there? In the heart of the Zone?"
"Maybe once? A large part of the abandoned city was destroyed during the war. It can"t be said how large it could have been, so I don"t know if I"ve ever crossed its borders."
"I"ve heard about it in cla.s.s," she said, "you know what the weapon the emperor used that it destroyed the city so much?"
"I have no idea. The Scribe a.s.sociation failed to save this story, and the Righteous Conspiracy found this knowledge so dangerous that even their most important people were not worthy of having it. All the scrolls were burned. I only know what it was supposedly, the emperor had somehow influenced his army. He took away their free will and failed to restore it. Legends say that he stayed here with his most faithful servants. Although they died, they cannot go beyond. Their souls are still under the control of the master."
When he said that, she felt cold sweat pouring over her. She knew for sure that she had experienced something real.
"This man is yours..." Kalena fell silent. Samin asked her not to attack Galaspiael with questions about it.
No grandfather, not even great grandfather." He knew what she meant. "But I can"t deny that I"m related to him. You have no idea how embarra.s.sed I feel. My subjects see my powerful ancestors, and I can only see the cursed dynasty. I hate my ancestors since I learned their story. One day I would like to wake up as someone else without this burden. I am afraid that one day I will become like him."
So that was the reason he despised life so much. Kalena was already beginning to understand everything.
"I don"t know what I have to tell you."
"Tell me something about your family," he changed the subject. "I could help you find your real parents if you want to."
"I don"t remember my father, and I was separated from my mother when I was a child. I don"t even remember her name. I asked Namia but she never wanted to tell me anything."
"Maybe that"s good. Sometimes it"s better not to know."
Kalena thought for a moment if she should ask the next question.
"I"m sorry, but how did your parents die? It"s a little unusual that they both pa.s.sed away at the same time. Was there a plague in Kagolania?"
"No," he said and shook his head. "In the year I started training, the winter was extremely cold. To be able to warm up faster, at night they moved from the royal bedrooms, which as you saw are very large, to a smaller chamber with a fireplace. The next day they were dead."
"How?"
"Many people wanted to sort it out. All I know is that n.o.body poisoned them for sure. Also, no one slipped into the room at night. There was no fight inside. The guards said they felt a strong smell of smoke that night, but the bodies did not burn. I experimented with a specially built model and... I think they were suffocated. The chimney had to be clogged and the smoke did not come out but went back to the chamber. That means father unwittingly saved my life by throwing me out of the palace that year."
"That"s terrible. If you were there..."
"They would have taken me with them to this chamber and we would all die," he finished. "The older I get, the more I miss them. Especially my father. I used to hate him for the way he treated me and his constant bits of advice. Now I would give everything for even one. I wish... " Galaspiael turned his head for a moment. "I wish I could learn from him. This is different than learning from books. Maybe this way I could become a good king."
They both drowned in silence. Once again a strong wind blew, but this time it felt purely natural.
Kalena reached out and took his hand in hers, slightly smaller and smiled.
"You will become a great king," she a.s.sured. "I know you will. Your parents would be proud of you."