Big-Black and I didn't rush back to the city of Gower, instead I simply enjoyed the stallion's company for a while and thanked The Mother that my depression had lifted.
I was still devastated that I had lost Brenda, and something told me that I always would be, but on some other level I was at least able to function.
An example of that was my reflections while in the valley of perils. I was able to calmly analyse the nature of the various challenges/perils and see that they had been carefully constructed to defeat all-comers.
There had been tests of strength, of magic and of mental agility. Given the number of tricks that had been flung into the mix, there were probably things that I hadn't even noticed! The existence of such a place asked a significant question of its own - who would create and maintain such a valley? What purpose would it serve?
I was able to puzzle over that off and on during my journey back to Gower, but I didn't come to any conclusions.
Mom and the King (I still couldn't bring myself to call him father) were relieved to see me. I had left without warning and it seems a massive manhunt had taken place to try to find me. The mood I had been in when I disappeared had clearly worried my parents, and rightly so. If I admitted it to myself, I had been verging on suicidal.
They both settled down eventually, as they came to realise I genuinely had recovered myself. That was a relief, as I didn't have to deal with Mom constantly fussing round me to make sure I was all right.
I again had both parents together when I decided to share my story about the valley of perils. Their eyes quickly widened in amazement and you could have heard a pin drop in the room. They hung on every detail, as I described my journey through the valley and by the time I had finished they were shaking their heads in wonder.
"I thought it was a thing of myth and legend," said the King at last.
Mom remained quiet, probably because she had never heard of the valley in her short time in Gael.
"It is described as a place created by The Mother, herself, for the sole purpose of safeguarding the last remaining Hazeldew tree. The tree was once common on Gael apparently, but the fact that it was useful for so many things meant that it was harvested too much. Eventually it died out completely.
"Legend has it that the mother was so fond of the tree that she saved the last one and created a special sanctuary for it. When she finished her task, she planted the tree and let it be known that it could only be reached by someone pure in heart and soul.
"Every so often one of the royals, or a wizard, takes a notion to go on a quest to find the tree. They are generally never heard of again. To hear you describe it is a wonder indeed."
I decided to keep the little sliver of the tree a secret for now, but otherwise let Mom and the King exhaust the questions they had about the various challenges I had met in the valley.
The next week or so was quite relaxing and enjoyable. I managed to do some painting in the palace gardens - renewing my acquaintance with Wallace the squirrel.
I took to discussing the politics on Gael. The King was not a good partner for such discussions, as he wouldn't hear of anything but the status quo. When I tried to point out how unhappy his subjects were, he dismissed it by saying that they could be a lot worse!
My entreaties that he had to see that the royals were living the life of the privileged while others suffered fell on deaf ears I'm afraid, but that didn't stop me holding to the 'American way'.
Mom was more open to a discussion about the various 'classes'. Her experiences (being banished with her mother, marrying her half-brother, returning to Gael, leaving again once I had been born) allowed her to take a more balanced view than the King.
She had also spent time in the 'other-world' of course, so her views were also influenced by that experience and she could see the massive disadvantages the common people on Gael were subjected to.
Given my passion for the poor and downtrodden of Gael, it was ironic that the next event of note in my life was sparked by my father looking to have me acknowledged as a Prince and as his heir.
"We need to organise it for you to meet the other royal families, Sean. Normally they would have witnessed your 'emergence' and you would have been recognised as my heir at that time.
"You will need to do enough to demonstrate that you are a 'royal' before you will be accepted."
I was confident that I would be able to convince anybody of what I was and agreed that the King should organise a banquet and invite the other royal families.
It took three weeks to make all the preparations and give the other royal families time to travel to Gower. Eventually the night of my feast arrived however. I was a complete bag of nerves.
Proving that I was a 'royal' wasn't what was causing my nervousness. No, it was the prospect of meeting Brenda. I knew that Prince Aiden had come to Gower and it was likely that he had brought his wife with him. I made a point of not trying to find out if Brenda was here or not, as it was still too painful for me. I had no idea how I was going to react to seeing Brenda after three years and to seeing her with another man at that.
When the King and I set out for the 'viewing' hall, I had no sense of Brenda being anywhere near and that calmed me somewhat. Dealing with the other royal families would be child's play so long as I didn't have to face 'my girl' as well.
We walked into the hall and my eyes were irresistibly drawn to Prince Aiden of Scania. I was expecting to see the same haughty and arrogant young man that I had met three years before, but something was different.
Aiden had an almost haunted look about him, a look of pain and suffering. That was certainly not how I remembered him at all. Neither did it fit with the picture of domestic bliss that Hassan had painted and I wondered what the cause could be.
Standing beside Aiden was a man who looked altogether different. I guessed that this must be Malcolm, King of Scania. He was tall, certainly over six feet, and to my delight he looked just like a villain should!
His eyes were small and deep-set which gave him a shifty, untrustworthy, appearance. I could only describe his mouth as being a cruel mouth. The lips were very thin, almost pencil-thin and there was an in-built sneer in the way that one side of the upper lip curled slightly upwards.
King Malcolm only had eyes for me. His glare would probably have been enough to frighten most people, but I met it with a steady look of my own. King Malcolm might suspect that I had killed his daughter, but without Hassan's body he couldn't know that for sure.
King Kenneth had told me that Scanian soldiers had been raiding into Axon with increased frequency. It seemed that King Malcolm had come to have a look at his enemies in the flesh and to try to intimidate.
Aiden on the other hand could well be here to gloat and crow over the fact that he had married Brenda, not I.
"Let's get this over with as quickly as possible," I said to Kenneth. Suddenly I wanted nothing more to do with the whole, sorry, occasion. I knew that I had to put on this demonstration for him so that I could be accepted as his heir and I just wanted to do that as quickly as possible and then leave.
Fortunately, the King could sense my change of mood and he acted quickly to do what I wanted.
"My friends! You have gathered for the rather belated recognition of my son and to bear witness to his station as Prince and heir of Axon. I give you ... Sean àn Tàcheart"
I hadn't planned anything, but I somehow managed to make the same connection to 'the Road' as I had back in the cabin.
As soon as it happened there was a rushing noise in my ears and a surge of raw energy to every single, little nerve ending in my body. I knew that I had joined and become part of 'the Road'. For a few moments there was once again nothing else but 'the Road' and the awesome feeling of power it was giving me.
Mom told me afterwards that people leapt back, startled by the transformation that had come over me. All of them had been to an 'emerging' before, but they had experienced nothing like this.
Eventually my senses returned and I became aware of the shrieks and screams in the hall. To end the 'entertainment', I focused deep within myself and simply cut everything off at once, creating a dramatic silence.
In an instant I went from being a human thunderstorm to looking like an ordinary twenty-one year old. All eyes in the hall were focused on me and there was a mixture of fear and awe behind them.
"I am Sean àn Tàcheart, Prince of Axon. Mind it well!"
With those words, I turned and marched out of the hall, looking neither right nor left. My blunt, almost arrogant, proclamation of whom I was had been aimed at King Malcolm and his son Prince Aiden.
King Kenneth rushed to keep up with me.
"Wonderful! Absolutely fantastic! What a display, son. I've never seen anything like it. I swear some of them wet their pants!"
Of course I had to attend the banquet that night, as it was being held in my honor. It turned out not to be as bad as I had feared. This was largely because, once again, Brenda wasn't there.
I began to suspect that Prince Aiden hadn't brought his wife with him after all and that was a bittersweet thought. While I had undoubtedly been nervous and dreaded meeting Brenda, the idea now that she wasn't here was also a disappointment. All right, I will admit it. I was still very confused about her!
King Malcolm continued to send malevolent looks in my direction and Aiden looked no happier than he had earlier in the day.
I was the center of attention, of course. The banquet was in my honor and my display earlier had impressed all of the guests. Not a few young, single, royal females flirted hopefully with me as the evening progressed, but I offered them no encouragement.
I picked at the food and sipped sparingly at a goblet of vina, refusing to dance even once. At last I thought I had done my duty and I signalled to the King that I had had enough.
I had no sooner reached my chambers than there was a knock at the door. A footman entered. Before he could speak, there was the noise of a commotion outside and the doors burst open. I could see Prince Aiden trying to fight his way through two guardsmen, a desperate expression on his face.
"Let him through!" I ordered.
The Prince made directly for me and I prepared myself in case he attacked. Instead his pained face cracked and he made a pitiful request of me.
"You are her only chance, you have to help her!" he pleaded.
"Aiden, what are you talking about?" I asked.
"For three years I've had to put up with her going on and on about you ... Sean could do this, Sean could do that. It almost drove me mad, now it just might be her last hope!"
"Damn it, Aiden. You're not making any sense!"
"She said you were a great healer, is that true?"
"I have some skill at healing, yes," I replied.
"Then you need to come and treat my wife, she has been in some kind of coma for weeks and my healers don't know what to do. If you don't try, I fear I will have lost her forever. Please, I know we don't see eye to eye, but do it for her. Please?"
Another painful moment, but at least it was not a difficult choice to make. Aiden clearly loved Brenda. While it was painful to think of them together, and despite the fact that she was with him, there was never any doubt that I would do everything I could to help her recover.
I ran for my pack of medicines, all the while firing questions at Prince Aiden.
"How long has she been unconscious? What was she doing when it happened? What have your healers tried on her? Why have you waited so long to speak to me - you've been in Gower for two days?"
The poor Prince didn't have a chance to answer any of the questions as I ran from the room. This time I remembered to tell my parents that I was leaving, to save them the worry and to avoid the huge manhunt they had mounted the last time.
Neither of them was at all happy about the idea of me going to Scania. Mom understood better than the King what Brenda meant to me, but even she was anxious and fearful for my safety.
"Sean, we are almost at war with Scania. If I was Malcolm and I had the chance to kill or capture you, then that's exactly what I would do!" Kenneth argued.
"Aiden has promised I will be safe," I said.
Like my parents, I knew I couldn't place any reliance on Aiden's promises of safe passage ... but this was Brenda. What else could I do but go to her? I had already tried to connect to her mentally and perhaps now I knew why that hadn't worked.
Mom and the King urged me to tell Prince Aiden to bring Brenda to Gower rather than take the trip into Scania.
"She might not have that long, it's too risky," was my response.
Having lost the argument, Kenneth ordered a troop of eighty cavalrymen to escort me on my journey. The captain of the troop was ordered to guarantee my safety at all times. I was pleased with this addition, as it meant I didn't need to share the company of Aiden, his father King Malcolm or any of the Scanians at all for the journey.
Mòr Dubh carried me of course. The big stallion could sense my worries over Brenda and he remained fairly quiet for the trip. His only grumbles were about how stony the ground was that we had to cover in riding through Scania.
King Malcolm's palace was built at the top of a large hill, overlooking his principal city of Gorg. We rode through the city to get to the palace and I was able to gauge the mood of its citizens.
I had thought that the people of Gower had looked tired and downtrodden, but the people of Gorg looked ten times worse. My concern for Brenda wouldn't let me dwell on their plight however, and I tried to put it from my mind.
When we reached the palace, I wouldn't even wait for quarters to be allocated to me. I grabbed my 'medicine pack' and demanded that Aiden take me to Brenda immediately. From the corner of my eye, I saw King Malcolm's smirk, but I ignored it.
On entering Aiden's quarters, I saw at once that there were too many people gathered around the bed on which Brenda was lying.
"Clear the room immediately!" I ordered.
Once I was able, I approached the bed and examined her. Her skin was much paler than it should be and there was a blueish tinge to her lips. Grabbing a hand mirror from the table beside the bed, I held it close to her mouth and thanked all the gods when I detected a faint puff of breath.
I took her hand and felt for a pulse too and again it was there. My physical contact with Brenda also caused an image to appear in my head. This had happened with both Mòr Dubh and with Brenda's mother - when I had 'seen' what was needed to help them recover.
This time it wasn't as straightforward. I was shown some fairly simple herbal requirements, but there was something else in the image, something obscured by a fog.
I searched through my pack and found the herbs I needed.
"I need to make a tea out of these. Where can I do that?" I asked.
Once the tea was made and I had allowed it to cool enough, I held Brenda's head up and spooned some of it into her mouth. It was painstaking work, but I eventually managed to get around a cupful down her throat.
The change in her color was almost immediate, but I could sense we weren't out of the woods just yet. There was something else at work here, something sinister and I couldn't put my finger on it.
"She looks better already. Is that it? Have you cured her?" Aiden asked anxiously.
"I'm afraid not. There is something deeper affecting her and the tea I've administered hasn't affected that."
I noticed a small golf-ball sized stone sitting on the bedside table where I had found the hand mirror. My birthstone! Picking it up, I placed it in Brenda's hand and curled her fingers round it.
"I need to get some rest and think about what else I can try," I said to Aiden.
He called for a footman and gave orders that I was to be shown to quarters close by. As soon as I could, I collapsed onto the bed in my room and sleep overtook me.
This time, my dreams were different. Brenda was there but her eyes were dull and lifeless and there was a black cord around her neck. Something was controlling her ... I could sense it. Something was forcing her mind to shut down, to turn away from the real world.
I awoke and found that I was shivering. The dream sequence was still vivid in my mind and I puzzled over it, trying to make some sense out of what could be happening to her.
The words 'turn away from the real world' caused me to remember my previous dream in the valley of perils. When I had linked with Charles there had been a sense that the council in dreamtime were plotting something, something bad and something that involved Brenda. Was this it? Was something in dreamtime controlling Brenda and stopping her from returning to the real world?
There was only one way I could think of to find out ... I would need to return to dreamtime myself. Charles had told me that only the young entered dreamtime, to prepare themselves for their coming of age, but somehow I needed to go back now.
I had missed my last visit, refusing to return after my 'informal' visit to Gael and my father's attempts to get me to marry Hassan. That meant that I had been only sixteen at the end of my last trip to dreamtime so perhaps there was some unfinished business there?
The quickest way to find out if I could do it was to try. I closed my eyes and reached inside myself, looking for the once familiar 'tap' that allowed me to control my connection to 'the Road'.
Amazingly, it worked! I found myself flying high above the old familiar Road and a series of squawks told me that the eagles were there to welcome my return. I followed the road and landed outside Gwendolin's cabin (which reminded me, Brenda and I had never solved that mystery).
The cabin was deserted, so I walked up the hillside towards the circle of standing stones. I saw Charles' ancient, weather-beaten, figure sitting on the bench inside the stones and I walked to meet him.
To say he was startled to see me would be an understatement.
"Sean! But how is this possible?"
"Don't ask me, but I think there is unfinished business that I need to attend to here in dreamtime. I've been connecting with you for weeks now and I sense you have worries about the council," I told him.
Charles shook his head, clearly amazed that I appeared able to reach into dreamtime at will. This was clearly another unusual thing that I could do. I sensed my teacher was still reluctant to tell me everything, but this time I wasn't going to take no as an answer.
"Charles, Brenda's life may be at stake here. This is not the time to be trying to keep the secrets of the council. They are obviously up to no good, so why are you protecting them?"
"The council and what they do in dreamtime is part of maintaining the balance in the real world, Sean. What you are doing shouldn't be possible. If people from the real world could enter dreamtime at will and change things, then there would be chaos."
"Somebody here in dreamtime has been doing things they shouldn't though, haven't they? That's what I sensed from you. You've just said that people from the real world shouldn't be able to interfere with dreamtime but it seems as if someone here doesn't have the same qualms about affecting things the other way!"
I could see that I had hit the mark with this comment. Charles face showed that he was worried about exactly that. I pressed home my argument.
"Should someone from dreamtime be affecting things in real-time on Gael?"
"No."
"Then help me put a stop to it!" I cried.
Charles seemed to make up his mind and a determined look appeared on his face.
"Bring your sword, you might need it."
There were clearly many things about dreamtime that I didn't understand. One second we were standing inside the stone circle and the next we were inside a long hall full of people.
"You won't have long, Sean. Once they realise who you are, they will all act as one to banish you from dreamtime.
I almost didn't hear his words. My entire focus was on two men at the far end of the hall. They looked as if they might be related - father and son perhaps - and the younger one was playing with a band of black leather.
"Who are they?" I demanded, gesturing down the hall.
"Oh dear. I feared as much," was Charles' response.
"Who are they?" I demanded again.
"That is King Regnald and his son, Prince Erik."
His answer was stunning. The ancient King of Scania and the son who had been killed by my ancestors. The prince whose death had sparked the war between Axon and Scania over three hundred years before.
"Sean! You have to act now. Already they know who you are," cried Charles.
There was no hesitation now. I raced down the hall and swung my sword with all of the strength that was in me. Erik's arm was severed cleanly from his body and the black braid fell from the lifeless fingers to the floor.
Instantly I was able to reach inside Brenda's mind, our connection through my birthstone now fully restored. I saw two things that filled my heart with joy, before a force took me and I was flung violently from dreamtime ... Brenda was conscious and back in the real world and somehow ... Brenda was a wizard!
"Sean!" she cried, "Sean Taggart! I love you."
I awoke and opened my eyes. Well, the shocks just kept coming. Charles had warned me once a long time ago, never to lie down to enter dreamtime unless my physical body was safe.
I had forgotten that and now I found Prince Aiden looming over me with a dagger raised in his hand. His desire to look into my eyes as he killed me was probably all that saved me. I had practised for hours in his sister's dungeon, practised waking up and instantly firing a surge of the power without even thinking about it.
That was the only way I could escape Hassan. Now, that same practice stood me in good stead again. Only this time, with Hassan's brother. My right hand didn't even rise up off of the bed. I simply let loose a surge of power from my index finger and his eyes widened in surprise as he was blown across the room.
When I leapt from the bed, it was clear that Aiden was dead. My next thoughts were all about Brenda and I ran from the room to find her.
Bursting into Aiden's quarters, I found my girl trying to get up from the bed.
Time seemed to stand still and we stared at each other. I crossed the room and took a seat on the bed beside her.
"Sean?"
"Brenda."
I was close enough to count her freckles. I could have reached out and stroked her brown hair. Instead I simply stared into her brown eyes.
"Aiden! He left the room, angry, he was very angry."
"Hush!"
"Sean. I woke up and said your name and that I loved you. Aiden heard and he ran from the room."
"Hush, Brenda. There's no need to worry about Aiden."
"Sean! Hassan told me you were dead, blown into a million tiny pieces. I thought my world had come to an end, I felt sure that I would die."
Something inside snapped and I was consumed with all the taunts that Hassan had used on me for three years. All the pain I had suffered, the depression ... it all came flooding back and I completely forgot myself.
"But you didn't, did you? Barely a year later you had recovered well enough that you were married. How fortunate to be able to forget so quickly, Brenda!
My words clearly stung her and she shrank away from me.
"Well, I didn't forget so easily, Brenda. I never gave up my love for you. Three years of torture in Hassan's dungeon. Three years of her poisonous words, her stories about your happy life, your marriage, HIS child! Yet still I never gave up on you!" I shouted, holding out my hand so that she could see the ring still on my finger.
Brenda gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. I could see that her tears were not far away and that realisation brought me back to my senses. I began to feel ashamed of myself for how I was treating her and I reached for her hand.
"Not HIS son, Sean. OUR son. That was the only reason I carried on. I was carrying a part of you inside me. And when he was born, what was I to do? I had nothing, no one. How was I supposed to bring up our child? It was clear that Aiden was besotted with me and it was as if the mother herself was providing for the baby.
"He admitted that he had watched me when we were here on the visit. He admitted that he had loved me from the first. What was I supposed to do? I believed you were dead and I had to find some way of providing for our son?"
She broke down and the tears really began to flow. I was staggered. Our son? Brenda had had our son? If Hassan had been in the room, I would gladly have killed her again. How bitter, how twisted? She had managed to take the birth of my own son and use it against me.
"Our son?"
"Yes, from that night before your birthday," she sobbed.
If I had any remaining anger, it disappeared in an instant and I pulled her to me. When she recovered sufficiently she told me her story. She had woken to find herself in a bed somewhere in the Scanian royal family's palace.
Hassan had told her that a portal had opened up and she had watched in horror as I 'emerged' and then simply exploded. She claimed that she had carried Brenda through the portal and then nursed her until she regained consciousness.
"Hassan said that when you did your 'thing' there was a massive surge of magical energy and that's what knocked me out. She even said that she had to bathe me as I was covered with your blood."
I could easily imagine Hassan's voice saying the words.
When Brenda had finished, I took my turn, and told her what had happened to me. She was soaked in tears before I had even reached the end of the first year. By the time I had reached the end of my story, she was like a shell of the girl I had known. There were no gold flecks in her brown eyes at that moment.
"Oh, Sean. What have I done to us?" she wailed.
I kissed away her tears, and fixed her with a look that I hoped conveyed just how much I loved her.
"Brenda Thomas, I love you."
"But, Sean. I married Aiden. What have I done to us?"
"Aiden's dead. You're not married any longer," I told her.
"Dead? How... ?"
I recounted what had happened when I woke to find her former husband (man, did I liked the sound of that phrase) ready to murder me in my bed. After that I decided that we had probably wasted enough time talking, already.
"Come on, Wizard Brenda. Let's find our son and get out of here."
Her puzzled look told me that she didn't know what I was talking about.
"Didn't you know?"
"Know what?" she asked.
I laughed.
"I don't know how it happened, but somehow, you've become a wizard."
Edited By TeNderLoin