The Trials of Ildarwood: Spectres of the Fall Page 7

  “Eva,” Alder began after a long-drawn-out pause.

  “Ms. Verdani,” the woman insisted.

  “I’m sorry. Ms. Verdani . . . in my experience, that doesn’t really sound all that abnormal. A lot of children Aiden’s age go through this right around the time of their Trials. That’s what the Ildarwood’s for–it makes their whole transition a lot safer, for them and for us.”

  Pulling her ear away from the door, Telara was all but certain she had begun to hear things she was most assuredly not supposed to be hearing. At the same time, though, she and Aiden had gone to school together for three years, and after everything that had happened earlier that morning between Merielle and their mother, Telara felt all the more compelled to learn as much as she could about a potential threat while the opportunity still stood there in front of her.

  “Oh?” she heard Alder say as soon as she could hear his conversation again.

  “You obviously remember what happened during my daughter’s Trials.”

  “Vividly.”

  “Well, Aiden was born holding an emerald birthstone too.”

  “Mrs.–I’m sorry, Ms. Verdani, I realize there are a lot of people out there who still believe that the color of a child’s birthstone is somehow predictive of their personality when they grow up, but the fact of the matter is, in the vast majority of cases, that is simply not true. Personalities and spectral alignments diverge all the time, especially as a result of the Trials. Take me, for example–my parents told me I was born holding a dark brown stone, and they took it as some sort of sign that I was going to grow up to be cold and inflexible, so they went out of their way to make sure I felt loved and appreciated as a boy, and by the time I finished my Trials, my Homecoming stone looked like this.”

  In that moment, Telara struggled to peek through the keyhole to see what was happening. On one side of a small desk, she could see her father holding up his right hand and showing off his favorite ring, which had a sparkling amethyst-like stone, while on the other side of the desk, Aiden’s mother sat rigidly in her chair.

  “Please try to understand that I don’t mean to minimize your concerns,” Alder continued. “All I’m saying is that Aiden’s fate isn’t entirely set in stone, so to speak. The next several years may very well temper his spirit, either helping him to achieve the ideal state of balance we all work toward, or perhaps even changing his alignment entirely, just like what happened with me. And even if he does turn out to be an Iyonite when his Trials are over, the odds of us needing to Break or banish him because of it are incredibly low. After all, the world is full of great artists and philosophers, even kings, who have all proved that Iyonites aren’t always a serious threat to those around them.”

  That was when Telara began to hear more footsteps in the hallway, causing her stomach to tighten as she ran and hid beneath the Chancellor’s desk. Peering out from beneath its wooden frame, Telara could see shadows underneath the main office door, but a few moments later, the hall fell silent again, and Telara rushed back to the side door.

  “So now do you understand why we’re so concerned?” Evalina asked pointedly.

  “I do . . . and I promise, I will ask the Preceptors to keep an extra-close eye on him while he’s out there. I just can’t guarantee he’ll be watched all day, every day–we simply don’t have enough Preceptors or Ildarguards for that. But if anything does happen, and it turns out that he is in fact too dangerous to remain inside the Ildarwood with everyone else, then, well . . .”

  “Do whatever you need to do,” Evalina replied. “But I want to make sure this is absolutely clear: I will not be held responsible for the consequences if your people can’t control him. You know what his sister was capable of after she recovered from that attack, and if he turns out to be even half as dangerous as she was, then that’s on you, not me.”

  “Eva, please, I—”

  “Ms. Verdani!” Evalina demanded.

  “Fine. Ms. Verdani . . . you have made your point abundantly clear, but please try to look at this from my perspective. I meet with a whole lot of parents who are just as worried about their kids as you are, if not more so. Then I watch those kids walk out into the Ildarwood every year, and some of them exhibit behaviors a whole lot worse than anything you’ve described for me here today. Now, I realize there’s a family history here we need to consider, but I really need you to understand that—”

  “No!” Evalina shouted, slamming her hands on Alder’s desk with a thunderous clap. “You are not gonna sit there and tell me my son isn’t dangerous, just because he’s not as messed up as some of the other little Devients you’ve seen! I know what he’s capable of! I’ve seen it! And it’s only going to get worse if you and your beloved Mrs. Brent are either too busy or too oblivious to actually do something about it!”

  “Now hold on a second. I—”

  “No! I’ve heard enough! You people keep saying you want what’s best for our children, but none of you ever really seem to mean it. You’re just here to collect your Starlings and go home, regardless of how many lives get ruined in the process. It’s no wonder so many of these poor kids never make it back. You people don’t do a damn thing to keep them safe!”

  “Eva, please! You know that’s not true!” Alder implored, but Evalina refused to hear any of his arguments to the contrary.

  Rising from her chair, she said, “What I know is that you don’t deserve to sit there and make me feel like I’m the crazy one, okay? I am doing everything I can to get my son help before he ends up like . . . like—”

  “Excuse me!” Miss Yolande shouted, causing Telara to leap into the air. “I sure hope you didn’t think this was the little girls’ room, honey, or your daddy’s gonna have quite a mess to clean up when he’s done.”

  Telara’s heart nearly burst through her chest as Miss Yolande dragged her down the hall, a million different worries racing through her mind.

  “Are you going to tell my dad?” Telara asked upon reaching the library.

  “Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t?”

  “Have you met my mother?” Telara replied.

  “Oh, honey, everybody knows your mother,” Miss Yolande answered with a cackle, warming up for the very first time. “She once took me to task for smilin’ too long at your daddy, as if I was the type of woman who was gonna go and try to steal him. Can you believe that?”

  “So . . . does that mean you won’t say anything?”

  “Well, now, that depends on you, child. Did you hear or see anythin’ in there you weren’t supposed to?”

  Telara took a moment to remember her father’s advice, then said, “Nope,” and waited to see if it actually worked.

  “Well, okay, then,” Miss Yolande replied. “Then it sounds to me like I’ve got nothin’ to tell him. Now go sit back over there and do more of that pretendin’-to-read thing you think you’re so good at.”

  Alder did not say a word to his daughter when he retrieved her from the library that afternoon, and only once they were on their way back home did he finally break his silence.

  “I need you to do me a favor when we get home,” he said softly from his side of the carriage, his eyes avoiding his daughter’s.

  “Okay . . .” Telara answered, a bit surprised by the request.

  “Please don’t tell your mother you were listening in on my meeting.”

  For one brief moment, Telara was speechless. A flurry of lies surged to the forefront of her mind, each one desperate to find its way out. But instead of letting a single one break free, Telara mumbled, “H-how did you know? Did Miss Yolande—”

  “She didn’t need to say a thing, Lara,” Alder replied, his eyes finally finding hers. “You’re my little girl. You really think there’s any kind of trouble you can get into without either your mother or me knowing?”

  “I . . . um . . . apparently not . . .”
r />   “You know, I see this happen all the time,” Alder said with a weak smile. “For most of your lives, you kids just love being kids. Then one day, it’s like you all just suddenly decide that you’re ready for whatever’s out there. After that, no matter what we do, you all become determined to see and experience all the things we’ve tried to protect you from, just to see what we’ve been hiding all along. And for a parent, that entire experience is terrifying, because none of you have even the faintest idea what kinds of dangers are waiting for you. But we do, and that’s why we do everything in our power to protect you from them until we just can’t protect you anymore.”

  After pausing for a moment, Alder moved across the carriage to sit next to his daughter, then held her hands firmly in his own. “What I really need you to understand is that, from the moment you girls were born, your mother and I have shared a connection with each of you that you will never truly understand until you’ve got a beautiful little baby of your own. Everything you do and every emotion you have, we can sense in some indescribable way . . . maybe not enough to know what’s really happening, but enough to make us worry.

  “That’s why that woman in my office was so upset today. Nobody understands a child–and I mean truly understands them–better than the people who raised them. Some of that just comes from spending so much time with you kids when you’re growing up, but I think part of it is . . . we see a lot of ourselves in you too–the good things . . . and the bad ones, which maybe we just don’t want to admit to. That’s why it scares us. We don’t want you to make the same mistakes we made or get hurt in the same ways we’ve been hurt. We just want what’s best for you, or at the very least, something better than we had ourselves. Does that make any sense?”

  Nodding slowly as feelings of shame overwhelmed her, Telara only then noticed that tears of Silver had begun welling up in her father’s eyes.

  “When you begin your Trials,” he continued, “you’re going to pass through something called an Ildargate. From that point on, our connection to you will be weakened by all the spectral energy flowing inside the forest. That means we won’t know really what you’re up to out there, and we won’t know how you’re doing. At most, we’ll only have some vague sense of whether or not you’re okay, so we’ll just have to hope for the best and have faith that we raised you right. But you should know that if anything truly bad happens to you, it’ll feel like somebody’s plunged an Ildarglass dagger straight through our hearts, and we won’t be able to do a thing about it, so please, just . . . be careful, okay?”

  “Okay, Daddy,” Telara managed, a steady stream of tears pouring down her cheeks and evaporating into a shimmering mist. “I’m sorry.”

  “I know you are, baby girl,” Alder replied before taking her into his arms. “Just do me one more favor and stay a kid a little bit longer for me, okay?”

  “Okay,” Telara answered, her face buried in his chest. All the while, Alder sat there wishing that he could protect her from one thing more than anything else–the fact that she had been born holding an emerald birthstone too.

  III

  The Faces We Keep Hidden

  Aiden! Time to get up!” Evalina’s voice beckoned from the kitchen of her Ranewood home. But when no answer came, she tried once more, this time louder than before. “Aiden? Aiden, are you up?”

  “Yep,” he called back before burying his head beneath a pillow to block her out.

  By the third time his mother called him, though, her patience was all but exhausted. “Aiden Riley!” she shouted. “If you don’t get down here right now, I swear to the Heavens I’m gonna come up there and drag you out of bed myself!” That was the final wake-up call he needed.

  After stumbling down the stairs, Aiden could see that Rennie had only just gotten out of bed himself, as was evidenced by his wildly untamed hair. Torian, however, was already seated at the dining-room table and helping himself to the buffet their mother had set out for them. It was tradition, after all, for Evalina to make breakfast before she left for work. She always saw it as her opportunity to spend some quality time with her children ahead of a long day caring for the infirm.

  As Aiden claimed his usual seat at the table, it took him only an instant to notice that his share of bacon had mysteriously vanished from the plate his mother had set out. Glancing over at Torian, Aiden noticed a glistening sheen on his little brother’s lips and fingers.

  “Mom! Torrie stole my bacon!” he wailed into the kitchen.

  “Torrie also got out of bed the first time I called him,” Evalina replied, placing a plate of toast on the table before finally taking a seat herself.

  “I’m surprised you even needed to call him at all. He gets down here so fast I was startin’ to think he just came runnin’ downstairs every time he heard the icebox open.” It was a quip so stinging that Torian glared in the direction of his older brother, while Rennie, seated across from him, just erupted with laughter.

  “Be nice! He’s your little brother,” Evalina ordered, rushing to finish her meal.

  “Oh, Heavens forbid I upset your favorite child,” Aiden scoffed.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? Torian’s not my favorite. I love all three of you equally but differently, and I don’t like it when you make fun of each other. You’re brothers, and you’re supposed to take care of each other, remember?”

  At this, Aiden could not help but roll his eyes. “I still think he’s a pig,” he mumbled to himself, breaking their momentary truce. But Evalina did not even have a moment to reprimand him before Torian flew out of his chair and tackled Aiden to the floor.

  “Torian! Aiden! Stop it right now!” she demanded, rushing over to them and lifting Torian into the air while Rennie doubled over with laughter. “That’s enough! Both of you!” she shouted, struggling to keep them apart. “Aiden, apologize to Torrie!”

  “No way! He started it!”

  “He did not! You did!”

  “He stole my bacon! He always steals my bacon, and you never do anything about it! It’s not fair!”

  “I don’t care, Aiden! Apologize now!”

  Glaring at his little brother, Aiden could think only of a single suitable response: “Oink! Oink! Oink!”

  The sounds had barely left his mouth before his mother slapped him across the face. An instant later, she watched with nervous anticipation as Aiden tried to process what had happened. Standing firm in her response at first, Evalina felt her stomach tighten when Aiden’s eyes shifted suddenly from silver to a vibrant emerald green. “Go to your room!” she demanded, though her son did not move. “Aiden! I said go to your room right now!”

  “Make me!” Aiden shouted as his hands tightened into little fists.

  That was the final straw. Before anyone could blink, Evalina grabbed Aiden by his shirt and pulled his face directly up to hers. So close were the two that they could see themselves with absolute clarity in each other’s eyes. All the while, Torian and Rennie watched on breathlessly feet away, each of them terrified to witness whatever battle might come next.

  Yet much to their surprise, there was no further escalation. In spite of Aiden’s anger, he found his attention drawn away from the irate look upon his mother’s face and down toward the Ildarglass brooch that she had pinned to her blouse. It was shaped to resemble an amethyst flower with a golden starburst center and two emerald berries at its base. She had owned it for as long as Aiden could remember, but never before had he seen it start to glow. Staring down at it, Aiden gasped for air as his limbs grew numb and his vision began to blur. All the while, the brooch seemed to glow brighter and brighter.

  The next thing Aiden knew, every single drop of anger had drained out of him, and for one brief instant, everyone and everything in the room seemed to freeze. Then all became dark, and Aiden felt himself collapse onto the floor.

  “Go to your room,” Evalina repeated, this time inexp
licably winded. “You’re grounded until First Day.”

  Though Aiden could not explain what had happened to him, the one thing he knew for certain was that he no longer had any strength left to argue. So, with what meager remnants of power he could muster, he dragged himself out into the main hall and found his way back up to his room.

  For the next few hours, Aiden could not leave his bed, even as his hunger worsened. Though his body felt drained, his mind could not stop racing as he struggled to understand what exactly his mother had done to him.

  “Go away,” Aiden grumbled hours later when a knock came at his door. Intent on remaining by himself, he had no desire to be bothered while in such a weak and embarrassed state. Still, the threat of Aiden’s ire did not dissuade Rennie from entering without an invitation and plopping himself down on the bed right next to his brother. “I said, go away!” Aiden snapped, though Rennie did not particularly care.

  “Remind me again why you always feel the need to provoke her like that,” said Rennie, tossing a small root-bound ball into the air and catching it repeatedly. “You know it literally never ends well for you. Not that I care all that much. I mean, it’s actually kinda nice when she’s so mad at you that I actually look like the good kid for a change.”

  “I just wish I knew why she always lets Torrie get away with everything.”

  “You think maybe it’s because he’s her innocent little baby?”

  “So? What about us?”

  “Well, she keeps tellin’ me I’m the reason she’s goin’ gray, and you’re startin’ to act just like Levara right before she went all sorts of crazy, so that’s probably not helpin’ your cause any either.”