WeatherMaker Hearts Desire Prologue
Chapter 40: The Land across the Sea

Arlen stood on the deck, leaning forward against the wood, watching the waves lapping against the side of the ship as they sailed onwards.

Beside him Shawn stood.

‘Do we have to return?’ Shawn spoke after a time.

Arlen straightened and turned to him, his attention then sliding towards Annabel who sat on the deck further away on the ship. The tune she played on her violin was a beautiful one, yet sad. These sorts were all she played nowadays, she seemed to notice nothing around her, but was entranced by the melody that she created.

‘You love her don’t you?’

Shawn looked away in silence.

‘I know you want to protect her’ Arlen went on, ‘but you can’t.’

‘We dragged her into this’ Shawn replied at last. ‘She should not suffer because of us.’

‘The king dragged her into this’ Arlen answered. ’She suffers because of him.’

‘I only wish that at the end of all of this, she returns home to her family. Her parents don’t know where she is. Perhaps they even think her dead.’ Shawn took a deep and steady breath. ‘I just want her to return home safely’ he said. ‘I just want her to be happy.’

‘Yeah’ Arlen nodded. ‘Me too.’

‘Do you mean what you said earlier’ Shawn asked him, ‘about it being near impossible for us to succeed in our task, and that we were doomed from the start?’

Arlen barely glanced at him.

‘Do you really believe the words you spoke’ Shawn continued.

‘Yes’ Arlen replied sombrely. ‘I did.’

‘But…’ Shawn stammered uncertainly. ‘Why do you think that?’

‘She’s been gone for twelve years’ Arlen replied in a dead tone. ‘The odds of her being alive….’

‘But you…’ Shawn began, ‘then why are we still looking for her?’

‘Because’ Arlen said, ‘she is the last thing left in this world that I truly care about. Ramana’s daughter…the woman I love…. Even if there is only a glimmer of hope….as small as a drop in the ocean, then I would take it. I’ve already lost Ramana, that pain is bad enough…and I would willingly give my life for Amaia to be found alive and safe.’ Arlen began to blink several times. Shawn saw tears coming to his eyes. ‘I can’t put into words’ Arlen said his voice breaking, ‘how much she means to me, how desperately I wish to replace her.’ He gritted his teeth, gripping the wood of the ship beneath him with whitening fingers. ‘She is the last reminder I have of Ramana….the only woman I ever truly loved….’

Arlen turned away from Shawn to hide her grief, pulling from his coat a small tin that opened up. On one side there was a mirror, on the other, a thin tray of black paint and a small brush. Arlen began to apply this to his eyes after dabbing them dry.

‘Why do you paint your eyes like that?’ Shawn asked him. ‘You never used to.’

‘It hides who I used to be’ Arlen replied shortly. ‘I’m not the man I once was.’

‘That really is a beautiful tune’ Tala said to Annabel when she had finished her song.

Annabel lowered her violin, facing the woman now.

‘I replace you intriguing’ Tala went on, coming to sit next to her. ‘Who are you and what are you doing here?’

‘I could ask the same of you’ Annabel replied, resting her violin and bow on her lap.

Tala smirked at her. ‘You go first’ she said.

‘I lived with my parents until about a year ago. I was…how do I put this……my powers make me different from others. I was…’ Annabel chewed her lip in thought. ‘Some soldiers appeared in my village, they tried to kidnap me. I was saved by a group of mercenaries, Shawn…’ Annabel indicated him, standing beside Arlen a short distance away and watching her, ‘was one of them. I was taken away from my home. I cannot go back for fear of endangering my parents’ Annabel said. ‘I cannot go back, until all of this is over.’

‘Do your parents know where you are?’ Tala asked her.

‘No’ Annabel shook her head sadly. ‘I……left in a hurry……of sorts. They don’t know where I am.’

‘I’m sorry’ Tala said.

Annabel smiled at her. ‘What about you?’ she said. ‘I’ve never seen a woman like you before.’

Tala looked down herself.

She wore lamina armour, leather and plates of gold. Over the armour in places, around her waist, chest and shoulders she wore fabrics of red, maroon and blue, all imprinted with gold diamonds. At her waist there was a scimitar.

Tala glanced up at Annabel again.

‘It’s hotter in my country than it is in yours’ she explained.

‘I know’ Annabel nodded. ‘I’ve been there.’

‘Our country is very different from yours’ Tala went on. ‘In our country, it is normal for women to fight, in some cases it is even expected. We are or course not as strong as men, but we can still cause some lasting damage.’ She tilted her head at Annabel. ‘I’d say about one third of people in our kings army are women.’

‘Have you killed many people?’

‘Oh yes.’

‘I’d love to learn how to fight’ Annabel said with envy. ‘I’d love to learn how to use a sword.’

‘I’d love to be able to do what you do’ Tala said. ‘When I saw what happened earlier…’ she seemed lost for words for several seconds. ‘It took my breath away. I’ve never seen such a thing. The very earth answers your call.’ She sighed dreamily. ‘You could learn how to use a sword, but no one can learn how to do what you can do. How did you become so powerful?’

‘Practice’ Annabel answered. ‘Nothing more.’

‘Were you born with these powers?’

‘Yes. But they only developed when I began to mature and grow into a woman. After I left my home, they grew stronger still, as I was more often put into a position where I was forced to use them.’

‘Then perhaps it was a good thing you were taken’ Tala said.

Annabel smirked at this. ‘Life…’ she said, ‘takes us on strange paths.’

‘It does indeed’ Tala nodded. ‘I never thought I would see Cam again. I thought him to be dead.’

‘He is your husband?’

‘Yes, but he was taken from me.’

Annabel was about to speak, when there came a scream of terror from the deck below them, a scream that came from Cam.

Tala instantly tensed; then ran towards the source of the noise, as she went one of the other soldiers nearby grumbled to himself.

‘Not this again’ he said.

Annabel stayed where she was as Tala ran to the lower deck and burst into Cam’s room, rushing over to him.

‘Cam. Cam!’

‘No!’ he screamed again. ‘Get away from me! Please!’

‘Cam it’s me!’ Tala begged. ‘Wake up! Please!’

It took several seconds to calm him, but at last Cam fell silent, shaking, his skin beaded with sweat.

‘Oh my poor Cam’ Tala said miserably as she held his hands in hers. ‘What happened to you…?’

Arlen stared down at Cam without emotion, watching from the doorway as Tala worried and cried over her poor husband.

‘What do we do now?’ Shawn asked from beside him. ‘The money the prince gave us is swiftly running out.’

‘I have a friend in the foreign land where we are heading’ Arlen replied flatly. ‘He may be able to help us.’

‘May he?’ Shawn asked him. ‘How well do you know this man who lives so far away?’

‘A lot has happened since I left my home twelve years ago. In that absence….I’ve been busy….’

Shawn looked away from him, and back down to the couple before them.

He wondered what had happened to Arlen in his years of absence, what had happened to Cam that caused him to have such terrible dreams every night, what would happen to himself and Annabel in the future.

‘Is life always this uncertain?’ Shawn asked Arlen.

‘Life is always uncertain.’