The Heartstone (8 page)

“That’s OK.” She looked around. “Uh, Thanks for the oatmeal.”

“You are welcome, my dear. I must apologize for my lack of manners yesterday. I am not usually so churlish.”

“It’s alright.” Ariana said.

“No it isn’t. There is no excuse for inhospitable behavior. Let me explain.”

“That’s OK. Jarod filled me in.” Ariana said. Cerynus lifted an eyebrow.

“Please, sit down.” He gestured to a chair “Don’t be nervous. Nothing here will harm you, all is warded.”

“So now what?” Ariana said.

“First how did you get here?” He leaned forward. She was silent. How much to tell him?

“I got the Heartstone as a birthday present from my Aunt Fiona. It used to be my mother’s. I put it on and it brought me here. Jarod found me and brought me to Dun Caer. They saw it, said I was the Stonebearer. So here I am. I never asked for this.”

“I understand. Do you know how your mother got the stone?”

“No.” She remembered the vision.

Cerynus looked intently at her, “Are you sure? You have no idea?”

Ariana squirmed. She wasn’t ready yet to let him know about her dreams. She hadn’t told anyone about them. They were private. “I have no idea.” She looked out the window.

He leaned back in his chair. He looked at his nails. “There’s something you aren’t telling me.” He sounded indifferent but she knew he was anything but.

“I don’t believe in magic. It’s not real.” She blurted.

“Then how did you get here? Why can’t you take off the Stone?” Cerynus pinned her to the chair with his eyes.

“I don’t know.”

“You’re keeping something back. I can’t help you if you don’t trust me. You are in grave danger. You need all the help you can get.” His gray eyes were gently questioning. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than to confide in someone. Maybe he could explain the vision.

“When I first came here I had a dream or something. “ She began haltingly. “It was my mother as a girl. She had the Heartstone cradled in her hands and she was running away from something. She was terrified. As she came closer she looked right at me. Then her face changed and there was a man. He was scary. He looked right at me. Then the face changed again and it was my face.”

“Show me.” Cerynus held out his hand.

She took it closing her eyes and she was Julia, running panicked from the destruction of all she’d ever known. Lightning flashed, rain pelted her as she fled up the mountain trail. She had to keep the Stone safe. Tear blinded she ran, heart pounding, hair a sodden mass down her back. She clutched the bundle in her arms tightly. The Stone flickered a warning. She glanced back. The soldiers were closing in. She put on a burst of speed, just a little further. The mountain was black with rain. Desperately she searched, wiping her eyes and pushing her hair back with one hand. There it was.

She scrambled up to the small cave hardly a crevice hidden by dead underbrush. She ducked inside, pulling the briars over the entrance. She huddled trembling in the darkness. Tenderly she opened one end of the bundle, a whimper greeted her. She soothed the baby and took the Heartstone out of the tightly wrapped swaddling. The light of the Heartstone burst forth. Grimly she looked out at the pounding rain.

There was no time. This might kill them but she had to do it. She held the baby tightly in one arm. There was a whimper that quickly died. She turned away from the cave’s entrance and took a deep breath. She brought the Heartstone up before her face. She focused and spoke the forbidden words. The world turned and heaved. She saw a young man’s face, black eyes wide mouth open in a silent scream. There was a flash of light and everything went black. Ariana opened her eyes. Tears streamed down her face.

“It was me. I was the baby, Oh my God.” She got up and went to the door.

“Ariana, wait.”

“No leave me alone,” she rushed out the door.

“Ariana!” Cerynus called.

She ran downstairs and outside. She swished blindly through the dewy grass. She ran until a stitch in her side stopped her. The cottage was out of sight. She heard the soft rushing stream and the sighing leaves. Ahead of her a pine tree beckoned. Large branches waited to hold her shielded from the world. She sank down on the lowest branch sobbing. Sandy wasn’t her real father. She’d always known that. Her real father was dead. Ariana had tried to ask once but her mother had looked so sad she stopped. But this was incredible.

The world she’d grown up in wasn’t her world. She’d been born here. The place she'd thought was home was as alien as this place seemed. Where did she belong?

Once the tears stopped and the panic receded she trudged back to the house. Cerynus was waiting by the door. “Come inside, my dear. Have some tea.” They went into the kitchen and he gave her a mug filled with hot sweet tea.

“Do you need to talk?”

“No.” She whispered, still stunned.

They sat quiet for a moment. “You are truly the Stonebearer. Only one of the blood can carry the Heartstone. Your mother saved it and you when Galancarrig was destroyed. Now it is your task to return it.”

She struggled to concentrate. All she could see was the terrible resolve on her mother’s face. The sadness and fear in here eyes and those words, they eluded her mind when she tried to recall them.

“First you have to learn how to use the Stone’s power.” He said. “It will be easier since you have the magic in your blood. Are you ready or do you need more time?”

“I’m ready.”

Cerynus stepped behind her and put his hand lightly on her head. His touch was the barest whisper on her hair. Then he murmured a word. The Heartstone flared white for a moment; an electric shock sizzled through her. She arched back, her mouth open gasping for air. She was naked. Every sordid petty thought, every illusion was exposed to the hot white glare of the Heartstone. She struggled against the tide for a moment, resisting, but Cerynus held her in the chair. The power blasted through her mind searching for the proper channel.

There was a tug as Cerynus guided the flow. She knew when he found the right conduit. The pain stopped. A shiver ran down her spine and she felt like she was underwater. With a final burst of energy Cerynus flooded her mind with images, words and all his hard earned knowledge of magic. Cerynus took his hand away. He was panting and trembling from the effort. Dully she looked up at Cerynus. The Heartstone lay on her breast like a coal.

Shattered thoughts swirled through her head. “What did you do to me?”

“I’m sorry my dear. But we have so little time that I judged it best to take drastic action. Drink this.” He handed her a cup filled with bitter tea. “This will help the headache. Go rest. Forgive me, my dear.”

Ariana ignored him. Rising like an old woman she tottered out the door, stumbled to her bed and passed out. When she woke, the headache was gone and she felt rejuvenated. She had accepted the truth of her origins.

Her dreaming mind had taken the flood of impressions and organized them. She understood the concepts Cerynus had given her, but doubted she could apply them. There was a great difference between theory and practice, as she had discovered after college.

She went back to the study; Cerynus had laid out the table, a candle, a ewer of water, a copper bowl of earth and a small brazier trickling smoke rested on the shiny black surface. He stood behind the table. Ariana looked at him warily.

“Now what? It better not hurt or I’m out of here. Don’t try anything like that again. What was that all about anyway?”

“I’m sorry. But I had no choice. We have limited time. It was necessary to undertake drastic measures. It is the only way you’ll survive.”
“Alright, I understand. But I still don’t like it.”

“I’m sorry. But we needed to open your potential up to the Heartstone and give you my knowledge to use your power. Are you ready to begin?

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I guess.”

“We should be able to go through these exercises easily. First, concentrate on the candle flame. Concentrate and focus.”

Ariana stared hard at the candle. The yellow flame danced in front of her. For a moment she didn’t know what to do. Then something clicked in her mind; the Heartstone glowed red giving her a small burst of power. She saw the flame in a different way. She felt the heat and light and she pushed it with her mind. There was a sense of pressure in her head like a sinus headache, and then it was gone. The flame flared up three inches.

“Oh my God! Did I do that?”

“Yes, The Stone helped to intuit the magic and channel the energy properly.” Cerynus smiled. “You had the latent talent already. The Stone tapped into and strengthened it. Now return to the candle. Look at the flame, become one with it…”

For an hour Ariana worked with the candle. Lighting and dousing it, making it flare and dim. Finally Cerynus was satisfied and let her move on to the water bowl. Ariana looked into the bowl. This time the Stone gleamed blue and icy on her breast. The water surrounded her, pattering down in droplets, running in rivulets then torrents into rivers to the sea. The water overflowed the brim, spilling out across the table.

“Good. Now dry it,” said Cerynus.

She visualized hot summers, dry cracked earth in the August sun and the desert. The water stopped, the level shrank. When Cerynus was satisfied they moved on to the smoking brazier.

She concentrated on the small wisp of smoke. The stone gleamed argent; there was a whisper of pain behind her eyes. The vapor coalesced before her. It created a small whirlwind that eddied around the study. It rifled through the parchments on the table and whipped Ariana’s hair into her eyes. Ariana laughed. She’d always loved wind: going out on the beach before a storm, feeling the salt spray lash her face. She twirled within the breeze.

“You seem to have an affinity for air. So we will move on.” Cerynus smiled looking ruefully at his disheveled study.

“Sorry about the mess.” She said.

Cerynus gestured to the copper pot filled with black earth. Ariana concentrated on the bowl. Nothing happened. Puzzled she glanced at Cerynus. He smiled. Putting her face down close to the pot, closing her eyes, she smelled the rich scent of fresh turned earth. Felt the warmth of a bee buzzing summer day. She thrust her hands into the moist soil. Heat filled her shoulders and crept down her fingers. The crystal shimmered green.

The pot overflowed with green tendrils, which spread onto the table below, entwining with the table legs. She took her hands out. But the plants kept growing, coming in from the walls, tendrils climbing out from between books searching for light. They encircled her, binding her legs with green tendrils, stronger than rope. She looked at Cerynus for help. He sat arms folded, watching. Vines reached her chest and the leaves began to cut off her vision. She struggled. They tied her like a mummy in a green straitjacket. She peered at Cerynus through the tendrils.

“Make it stop.” He waved his good arm. The growth paused for a moment then continued.

“Only you can free yourself. “ He left.

She felt the ivy waiting to continue its relentless growth and bring her unconscious to the earth whose power she had called up. She thought of ice, snow and threshing machines, cold fire flashed through her. The ivy quivered and slowed. She thought of scythes, dried and harvested crops and the sweet smoke of wood fires. The vines dropped to the floor. She thought of flames licking at dried tinder. When she opened her eyes, only a tiny shoot crept from the soil. She fell back into the chair. Cerynus came in. He smiled at her disheveled state.

“What happened? Why didn’t you help me?” she asked.

“Magic is a strong force. You must respect it. When it gets chaotic, you must be able to control it. I won’t always be there to help you.” Silver eyes locked with grey.

Ariana looked down first. “OK you’re right.”

“When you do magic, Ariana, nothing else can exist. Concentrate totally on what you’re doing. You can’t be distracted by fear or events around you.”

She sat back stretching. “I’m exhausted.”

“Magic draws on your life force. The more you do the more it drains you. Some people draw too much and it kills them. With the stone augmenting your own innate power that is a real danger. Never overextend, conserve your energy.” Ariana nodded.

“Now I’ll show you how to shield the Stone. Just think of a blanket covering light.” Obediently Ariana visualized the blanket covering the brilliance of the Heartstone, muffling the power, dousing the light. She still felt the Heartstone it seemed muffled but accessible.

“Very good. That’s what you need to do when we leave Shady Vale. Soon it will be as natural as breathing. That’s all for today. You need to replenish your reserve. As you develop more discipline, you’ll use less energy on small things. Until then we’ll go as slowly as possible.”

Ariana looked outside. It was dusk. She’d been here all day. No wonder she was so tired. She went downstairs to devour everything in sight and sit in an exhausted stupor in front of the fire. She wondered who did the cooking she hadn’t seen anyone but there was always food on the stove. She didn’t feel like solving the mystery, she was too tired. The memory of how the magic had felt when she touched it tingled through her like whisky. She could get used to the feeling; she hoped she didn’t become addicted to it.