Anathema - The Song of Eloh Saga, Book 2 (21 page)

I shook from head to toe. If I had run away
the moment I’d ripped off Ivy’s wig instead of staying to see her
punishment would all of this have been avoided? And Mark. Why
didn’t he tell me about this? I could have been prepared. That
man’s death might have been avoided. Even if he was my enemy, he
did nothing more than try to protect his wife.

“Reychel,” Grey yelled, running to my side.
Ella ran not far behind him.

A member of The Sons raised his sword in
pursuit.

“Leave them be,” I yelled. “They’re
Serenian, slaves.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as Grey jumped
to the dais and stood between myself and Ace. Ella grabbed my hand
on the opposite side.

“The prisoners?” I asked. “Were the
prisoners freed?”

Grey nodded, not taking his gaze from Ace.
“Ella told me everything after everyone entered the garden. I
helped get them out.”

“How many?”

“About forty,” she said. “Some of them live
here in town. They’re already on their way home. The hardy ones are
leaving town. The rest of them are on their way to Tania and Jon’s
house.”

“Roc?” I asked, looking around.

“He’s on his way home too. After everything
he’s been through he needed to see Bree and the girls.”

“But it’s a long walk alone,” I said.

Ella smiled. “We liberated a horse for
him.”

My eyebrows arched.

“He’s going to point it in the right
direction when he gets home,” Grey said. “He’s only borrowing it.
Not stealing it. We all knew you wouldn’t approve.”

“The prisoners are free?” Ace asked. “Then
our work here is done. Come with me.”

He grabbed my wrist and twisted it, forcing
me to follow him. A moan escaped my throat, the pain too much to
bear.

“Let her go,” Grey said, directing a hit to
Ace’s arm, forcing him to release his grasp on me. Grey followed up
with a backhand to his face.

Ace laughed, holding his bloody nose with
his hand. “You obviously don’t want our help to escape. I’ll be
sure to inform Mark that you’d rather stay here with our enemies
than come with him.”

I looked across the crowd, seeing the
frightened looks on everyone’s faces, not just the women. Sweat
rolled down Blorn’s face as the man holding him from behind moved
his sword a little closer to Blorn’s throat.

Ace bounded off the dais, as quickly as he
had arrived. With a snap of his fingers, the rest of his followers
withdrew their swords and ran off into the woods.

In the back, I saw Mark enter the garden
through the main hall’s door. He looked at me, his eyes penetrating
mine. I shrunk backwards from his gaze, not sure what to think. Why
didn’t he tell me he was planning this? Was this his goal all
along? If he was only here to cause a scene with The Sons, then was
everything we’d shared a lie?

Grey placed a protective arm around my
shoulders, but I was too numb to decide whether or not I wanted it
there. Mark’s eyes traveled to Grey’s arm. He had hurt me with this
unnecessary attack. If all he wanted was to attack people, then I
wanted to hurt him back.

I didn’t move from Grey’s embrace.

Mark’s head dropped and I gasped. I slid out
from under Grey’s arm and reached out to Mark. But he had already
turned and run into the woods with his brothers. The pain in my
chest echoed the hurt I’d seen in his eyes. For once I wished I had
another gift. One that allowed me to see into someone’s mind, to
know their true feelings.

I turned my back on the crowd, on Kandek,
whom I had forgotten about, and faced Nemison. My heart now
confused and broken, I took the only path left in front of me. A
path for which I had made my first gut wrenching sacrifice.

“Now?” I asked him. “Do we leave now?”

“Are you ready?” he asked.

I looked at Grey and Ella. He was confused,
obviously he hadn’t been filled in on all the details.

“Ella will explain everything when I’m gone.
I have to leave for…” I turned to Nemison. “How long?”

“As long as it takes.”

I hugged Ella, tightening my arms around
her, my true friend. Grey patted me on the back while Ella and I
embraced, his hand thumping once and then twice quickly. I glanced
up at his tentative smile. He didn’t know where our feelings stood
any more than I did. I only knew that the past few months had
changed me. Mark had changed me.

Blorn pushed his way up to the dais.

“I thought you said she was going to live
with you, Kandek. Now she says she’s leaving with a gifted slave.
What in Eloh’s name is going on here? I am your superior and you
will explain!”

His chest heaved as he shook his hands in
the air. Apparently he had recovered from his brush with death.

Kandek looked at me. He looked at
Nemison.

“If my daughter commands my new slave to go
with her, then he is allowed to go. I will find another gifted
slave. There are many waiting to rise so high.”

Blorn heaved a deep breath again, while
rubbing his neck.

“There will be an investigation, Kandek. Of
that you can be sure. And King Rafe will hear of this too! We will
need to know where your daughter has been hiding all these years
and why she chose to come back now. And, most importantly, how she
knew about your bride.”

“Ah yes,” Kandek said. “My dear bride. I
wonder how she’s enjoying her prison cell.”

I glared at Kandek, not sure whether to hug
him or punch him. “I’m sure she hates it. Those cells are so dark
and dank. Not what Ivy is used to.”

Ella and Grey slipped off the stage as Blorn
continued to yell at Kandek. Ignoring him, I returned to Nemison.
Obviously Blorn didn’t recognize me from the girl he was so rude to
those months ago. I didn’t have it in me to give him another moment
of my time, even if I was playing into the ruse that I was now a
noblewoman. Though it wasn’t a ruse, was it? If Kandek was my
father, then that made me his only heir. It was a position of
power, but one on shaky ground considering my other hidden heritage
as the daughter of a Serenian slave.

“He didn’t buy you as a slave, did he?” I
whispered to Nemison as we walked away from the dais. He smiled and
shook his head.

“Once Tania explained to me who he was when
we communicated an hour ago, I went directly to Kandek. Ivy was
already off in the far tent.” He pointed to the tent from which she
had emerged before walking to the dais, “preparing for her wedding.
It didn’t take much for me to convince Kandek to play his part. I
told him I knew the secret, a secret which would strip him of all
of his rank and wealth. A secret which would condemn him to death.
He is my pawn now. Do you still have the coin?”

I reached under my cloth belt into a secret
pocket I’d sewn within the folds of fabric. I held the coin in my
palm and studied it, much like I did the first time I’d found it
after Ivy’s disappearance.

“
You are both sides of the
coin. The baby and the anathema.”

“Johna said anathema means a curse, but she
also said it means an offering to Eloh.”

“You are both. You are the offering of the
Serenians and a curse to the Malborn. Reychel, you are everything
represented by the coin.”

“When was it made?” I asked, fingering the
word, my word, on the coin.

“Seven generations ago, these coins were
minted by Serenians who had escaped to the mountains in the south.
We safeguarded them until the time came to use them. For the last
fifteen years we have been liberating slaves and leaving the coins
as a warning to the Malborn. Most people had forgotten what they
meant and those who knew suppressed the truth,” Nemison said.

“And the baby with the parents?” I asked.
“They seem so happy. My parents weren’t happy. Kandek killed my
mother.”

Nemison sighed. “It is a tragedy that his
fear overcame his love for her. But I think you would be surprised
to know that he did love your mother once. And very deeply too. But
Kandek is a man ruled by power, not by love, and his true nature
took over when he discovered your gift.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Know what?”

“That I’m the one you’ve been waiting for?
The Prophet?”

Nemison sighed, shaking his head.

“You are the one because we believe it. Your
abilities match the prophecy.”

“That doesn’t prove anything,” I said,
rubbing my thumb on the coin.

“Haven’t you achieved a victory for your
people? Does it matter if it’s true? Let them believe in you as the
Prophet. Let them have hope. All you have to do is work on
believing in yourself.”

A bank of clouds caught my eyes as they
rolled in from the west. My eyes closed as I fell into a
trance.

Struggle. A war. A victory. But whose side
was I on? Did I stand next to my father or was it Nemison? And who
was holding my hand? His face, a blank slate. At the end, peace. A
victory. But whose? And confirmation that I was the Prophet?
Nothing. But I was willing to try to help my people.

I opened my eyes again, Nemison stood in
front of me, presumably waiting for me to come out of my vision. He
beckoned to me with one finger. Time to begin training. I looked
down at the coin once more. The baby winked at me and I winked
back.

Acknowledgements

When I began this book back in 2009, I
started a list of people I would need to thank when Anathema was
published. I’m glad I did because there are so many people who
helped this book come to life.

I must start with my daughter, Tessa,
without whom this book would not exist. We were driving to my
parents’ farm when, at the age of five, she said, “Mom, I can see
things in the clouds.” I asked her, “Really? What shapes do you
see?” Tessa sighed. “No, Mom, I can see the future.” While I’d
written three novels before this day, my daughter’s imagination
sparked something inside me that eventually morphed into Anathema.
Thanks to my little guy, Luke, who napped every day for at least
two hours, giving me the quiet time I needed to write this book. I
can’t forget my husband, Tim, who has always believed I could write
a novel and gave me the freedom to stay home with the kids and
pursue my dreams.

To my parents, who believed in me even when
I was a very weird little child with my nose stuck in a book or
holed up in my bedroom writing my own stories. They never asked me
to be anything other than what I was. To my sister, Jeannie, and my
brother, Rob, and their families for always listening to the crazy
things that come out of my mouth.

I held a web contest to name my main
character and as soon as I saw the name Reychel, I fell in love. A
million thanks to Cassie for naming Reychel! I’m so glad you could
be an integral part of this book!!!

I cannot forget any of my
writing friends, my tribe of colleagues who push me harder when I
think I can’t write one more word. To Carmela Martino, who
spearheaded the NYNN (New Novel New Year) group for those of us in
SCBWI who were too busy to write during NaNoWriMo (National Novel
Writing Month). I wrote Anathema during NYNN and without Marti’s
unwavering support, this book would not be in your hands today. To
my ever-changing SCBWI online critique group: Teresa Owens Smith,
Kim Winters, Paula Payton, April
Heide-Kracik
, David Wartik, Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford, Kate Gingold, and
Cherie Colyer, without them my drafts would be a hot mess. Without
my writer-friends Eugene Ramos, Chris Whigham, and Genevieve Ching,
I might not have had the courage to come so far.

And a huge bouquet of thanks to Karly
Kirkpatrick….you pushed me off a ledge and I flew.

About the Author

Megg Jensen has been a
freelance parenting journalist since 2003 and began writing YA
novels in 2009. She is a member of SCBWI, and blogs about writing
while juggling freelancing, volunteering, and family life. She
lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, two kids and their
miniature schnauzer, Ace.
For more information on Megg please visit her website at
http://www.meggjensen.com/
.