The Destiny of Amalah (22 page)

Time went by quickly now that things were so good for everyone in Amalah; the celebrations came and went as did: birthdays and other gatherings. The celebrations went by quickly but the jubilant feelings remained. Oh how happiness is contagious and so is laughter and love. Good times!

Chapter 12

Good times. Good times that lasted, Amara had now found in Michael the confidante and friend that she really needed and she continued to smile and feel blessed and no longer an Empress alone. Life for her seemed lighter and brighter and although she had work and duties to attend to, she now made a deliberate effort to spend time on herself. Amara also spent more time with her sister and when she could, she would spend time with the five boys. Although Amara was busy, she enjoyed her life.

Amara spent time with Michael, Ellora, the five boys and with Gaerwen. Gaerwen taught her magic’s but more than that, Gaerwen’s kind and easygoing manner made her comfortable and somehow Gaerwen was able to be a friend, a matriarch and a teacher all at the same time to the young Empress.

A year had passed now and it was felt by all that Amara should now undertake travels to the nations to greet the leaders and the people. After much planning and preparation: Amara, Michael, Häkan, Raynor and Gaerwen set about on their travels to the nations.

Amara first made her way to Mantor to see where her father was born and raised; there she met the elders and leaders of the village and talked with the people who welcomed her warmly. She loved Mantor; she loved the people, the land and the beauty of the place. To her, it felt like a home from home; she had lived in Amalah all of her life but she felt an affinity with Mantor and its people, which was comforting and yet peculiar to her.

Amara and company travelled throughout Mantor and went on to Filine. Everywhere they went they were welcomed and warmly greeted and lavish parties and banquets were thrown in their honour. The people of the villages and the cities treated their guests with great warmth and hospitality. Always, there was entertainment, copious amounts of delicious food and fine wines, and exquisite gifts given to the esteemed visitors. When Amara and company moved on, the people were genuinely sad to see them go and Amara and her company were always, very sad to leave them.

Their journeying continued throughout the months and every now and then, riders would return to Amalah saddled with the gifts that the Empress and the others had received. They would secure the gifts, find Ellora and tell her news of her sister and give her the letters that Amara continued to write to her, and Ellora would hand them the letters that she had written to her sister. The riders would meet with the council before returning to their quarters and in the morning, head out to meet with the Empress once again.

The next morning when the rider’s departed Ellora watched them leave; she wondered where her sister was at this moment in time and what she was doing. She mused to herself for quite a while wondering about the world outside that she had never seen. She wondered what went on all across the nations and if anyone was thinking about the people of Amalah and then she thought of Amara again.

This was the longest time that the two of them had ever been apart, she missed her sister dearly but she hoped that she was having the time of her life – “besides there was always plenty to do in Amalah and she had the five boys for company,” she thought to herself.

While Amara was away Ellora and the five boys spent time at school and when they were not there, they were roaming the palace grounds and Amalah itself. Garrick had remained in the palace and as well as supervising Amalah, the palace and the guard; he took care of the six children. He seemed to have endless energy and he enjoyed his time with the children as much as they enjoyed their time with him.

At the weekends, he would arrange for them to have something to do. He and some of the guard would take them camping and they would go hunting, fishing and travelling. They would stay up late at night with the stars and a bonfire to keep light and Garrick and a guardsman would tell stories and tales of yester years.

When there was no school Garrick would take them adventuring for longer periods and in that time, the six of them grew in many ways. They were all growing taller now Rakan, Waldon and Kenaz considerably so. They were growing up physically and emotionally and signs of maturity were now showing among them. Both mentally and emotionally Garrick was there for all of them when they wanted to talk, or confide, or just ask his advice. They all loved Garrick dearly and Garrick loved them all back, they looked up to him and in return, never failed them once.

In the autumn months the six of them went travelling again, this time in the north of Mantor; they were to stay there for five days and see the amazing wildlife and forestry that Mantor had to offer. While there, the children were fascinated and in awe of the wildlife that they came across and when they weren’t observing the wildlife; they were swimming in the river or climbing the trees and generally having fun.

One day, while they were out on their travels, Kenaz and Waldon were climbing the highest trees while Garrick and Kalon were collecting wood for a fire. Ellora, Rakan and Rufus remained on the ground and looked on as the two boys larked about and raced each other to the top of the gigantic tree.

‘Come on Waldon,’ Kenaz shouted to his friend. ‘You’ve got ages to go yet,’ he said excitedly.

‘I’ll get there don’t worry,’ Waldon said motioning to his friend to continue ahead.

‘Hopefully today,’ Kenaz said cheekily. ‘I’ll see you at the top,’ he said to Waldon, not looking at what his hands were doing or where they were going, for if he had, he would have seen that the two branches he was grabbing onto with both hands, were rotten all the way through and when he grabbed them; he heard the unmistakeable sound of a branch snapping.

Kenaz looked to his hands in a flash, aghast as he felt them pull away from the rest of the tree with a branch in each hand and then he began to plummet down to the ground much to his horror. Waldon saw his friend plummet past him and screamed his friends name as he saw the look on Kenaz’s face and realised the inevitability of the whole situation, Ellora screamed loudly and Rakan and Rufus looked up in horror to see Kenaz plummeting towards them.

‘No,’ Rufus shouted. He was suddenly overwhelmed by fear and horror as he thought about the terrible fate that awaited his friend when he inevitably hit the ground. ‘No,’ he shouted again, as he stuck his right arm out and pointed at Kenaz and as his arm shot out, a screaming Kenaz froze in mid air about ten feet above the ground.

Waldon gaped as he saw Kenaz freeze on the spot and Rufus, Rakan and Ellora all looked at each other as their jaws dropped leaving their mouths wide open. They stared at each other in turn and then at Kenaz and then back at each other, and they did that a few more times until the sound of Waldon’s voice broke their pattern of behaviour.

‘What happened?’

‘Rufus,’ Rakan shouted up to Waldon.

‘How?’ Ellora asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Rufus said slowly and quietly.

‘He looks frozen,’ Rakan said.

‘He’s still in mid-air,’ Ellora reminded them both.

‘Yes but neither one of us can reach him,’ Rufus said again very slowly.

‘I can,’ Rakan said.

He closed his eyes and began to levitate upwards towards Kenaz, when his head was just below Kenaz’ body; he paused, opened his eyes, looked up at him and prodded him in the back. When Rakan was finished poking Kenaz and trying to figure out what had happened, he closed his eyes again before he rose a few more inches until Kenaz was at his waist and then he opened his eyes once more. When his eyes were open, he remained in the same place hovering next to Kenaz.

‘Gaerwen has taught you well?’ Ellora said, impressed with Rakan’s powers.

‘Yes she has, and she says there is still much to learn,’ Rakan said as he looked on Kenaz.

He was amazed by the state he was in and then to satisfy his curiosity he prodded him.

‘It is strange, he feels as though he was frozen through and through like the lakes we hear about in the North.’

Rakan was about to say something else but then he caught sight of his father and Kalon running through the woods and when they were feet away, Garrick and Kalon stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the frozen Kenaz and the levitating Rakan.

‘What happened?’ Garrick asked urgently, as he steeled himself to remain calm. ‘We heard screaming.’

‘Kenaz fell out of the tree and screamed and Rufus froze him on the way down before he hit the floor,’ Ellora explained, looking earnestly at Garrick.

‘Neither one of us could reach him father so I rose to retrieve him,’ Rakan said, as he took hold of Kenaz by the waist and brought him down to the ground with himself. Kenaz lay frozen on the ground his eyes wide and staring, while the five of them stared at him for a time but then Kalon broke the silence.

‘How did you freeze him Rufus?’

‘I do not know I just know I wanted him to stop and I stuck my arm out and he froze.’

‘Now it’s time to unfreeze him,’ Garrick said, as looked up at the top of the tree and shook his head. ‘It would have killed him for sure had he landed,’ Garrick said visibly relieved. ‘Well done Rufus you saved Kenaz’s life,’ Garrick said squeezing Rufus’ shoulder.

‘I’m not sure how to unfreeze him though.’

‘Do what you did in reverse,’ Kalon said simplistically.’ You wished him to stop now wish him to start and stick your hand out at the same time.’

Rufus looked at Kalon for a moment, his face was a mixture of doubt and indignation but he did as Kalon suggested. He wished hard and stuck his hand out towards Kenaz, the other four looked on expectantly but alas nothing happened and Kenaz remained frozen. Kenaz’ back was on the floor, his arms were vertical and his legs were at ninety degree angles and he was in the exact same position he had been in when he plummeted from the tree. Waldon had now climbed down from the tree and he ran to the circle; who were still staring at the frozen Kenaz.

‘Is Kenaz alright?’ he asked alarmed.

‘We think so,’ Garrick said.

‘What happened to him?’ Waldon asked

‘Rufus somehow froze him,’ Rakan replied.

‘Well why haven’t you unfrozen him yet?’ Waldon asked.

‘I tried,’ Rufus said slightly exasperated.

‘Try again!’ Waldon said.

‘It won’t work,’ Rufus began.

‘You only tried once Rufus try again, you never know.’

Rufus was beginning to get annoyed, he knew what he had done and he had no knowledge of how to undo it and everyone was assuming he could just click his fingers and solve the problem, but Rufus tried and tried and tried again to unfreeze his friend but it was of no avail. He tried for over half an hour and then an hour but it was all in vain and then Rakan tried, but he too failed.

‘Gaerwen says it is very rare for one to undo others magic,’ Rakan told them.

‘We can’t just leave him there,’ said a frustrated Waldon.

‘Really!’ Rufus responded. ‘Because I was going to turn him over and use him as a stool from now on,’ Rufus said with biting sarcasm.

Waldon glared at Rufus and Rufus glared back, in no way intimidated by Waldon.

‘Well – we could use him as a stool.’ Kalon said impishly which made everyone except Rufus giggle.

Ellora stepped in between Rufus and Waldon seeing that there was still friction between the two boys: ‘We will unfreeze him, we will. Rufus you just need to work out how you did this, what triggered it and how to trigger it again.’

‘I think he’s going to have almighty cramp when you do finally unfreeze him,’ Rakan added.

‘I do hope that you unfreeze Kenaz before his parents arrive back in Amalah Rufus. I do not think they will be too happy to return and find their son frozen,’ Waldon said.

‘No – I think they will,’ Rufus said acidly. ‘I know how much they like unusual furniture!’

‘What now?’ Ellora asked, interjecting and looking at Garrick.

‘Now it is too dark to go anywhere, except for where we have made camp. We return there, have supper and retire until first light. When we rise, we will return to Amalah and then perhaps Thaddeus can remedy this problem.’

Garrick picked up Kenaz’s frozen body and carried it to where they had made camp. Kalon and Ellora made a fire and Waldon and Rakan prepared the food while Rufus made several more futile attempts to unfreeze his friend.

At first light Garrick awoke and went to wake the others and he was surprised to see that Rufus was already awake sitting by Kenaz’s frozen side.

‘Rufus, why are you already up at this hour?’

‘I wanted to try and help Kenaz again and if I could not then I wanted to remain at his side.’

‘You have done all you can do Rufus.’

‘I have clearly not done enough,’ he said angrily.

‘Rufus do not be so hard on yourself, you saved Kenaz’s life,’ Garrick said, pointing at Kenaz. ‘I am sure we can repair this, had he fallen out of that tree and hit the ground we would be carrying his body back for a funeral – of that you can be sure.’

‘But look at him,’ Rufus said frustrated.

‘I am looking at him and I see a child alive because of you, frozen but alive and as far as magic’s go they can be undone. Do not beat yourself up over this Rufus,’ Garrick said grasping his shoulder to reassure him.