Fear tasted metallic in my mouth, my heart rate uneven. “Why can’t you come with me?” I repeated the question. It seemed the most important one at the moment.
“Because they would know exactly who to track if I went missing. Everyone knows I live here, and I can’t leave an empty cottage. If I stay, I can keep them occupied for a while, and you can escape.”
My brows knitted. “Who? Who is coming?”
She stopped in front of me, her wrinkly face the only mother I had ever known. “Bad men, Calamity.”
“But why?”
“Ever since you were an infant and your mother brought you to my door, I knew you were special. You were soaked in magic, Cal. One only had to look at you to know. Your mother doesn’t have magic, and I was sure your father didn’t either. I couldn’t figure it out, so I took you to a seer in Alger.” She gripped my hands between her wrinkly ones. My heart beat fast as I waited to hear what she would say.
“Only you, Cal, can find where the magic is sealed, and you are the only one who can open it.”
I only stared at her blankly for many moments. Because she had officially lost it.
She gave me a reproachful look as if she knew of my thoughts. And then her eyes softened around the edges and my stomach took an uneasy dive. She squeezed my hand, and a cold chill ran down my arms as I saw the truth in her expression.
I swallowed hard and glanced at the table my mother was currently laid out in front of. She was too consumed with her pain to be aware of us. I never realized how true that was.
Why would I be able to find where the magic was sealed? Why would a farm girl be able to find something so important and yet so destructive if it was opened? I didn’t have any magic; my grandmother was wrong about that. I couldn’t even bring a pail of water back from the stream gracefully, and I was given the ability to open the seal?
“You are wrong, Grandmother,” I managed to finally say. She slowly shook her head, showing that she wished she were wrong, but she wasn’t. At least that’s what she believed.
“Anyone who wants the seal open will be looking for you. They could force you to find the magic and open it. The already powerful Mages would become more powerful. But those are the ones who will want you to find it. There will be some who would rather kill you than allow you to find it, Cal. That’s why it’s vital for you to leave. The cuffs protect you. It took two so that no one could sense where you were. Take one off, and anyone who wishes can find you. I wish I could explain more, but there isn’t time. You must get to Undaley City. They are good people and will protect you. Once everything settles down here, I can come find you.”
She dropped my hands and gave me the boots, but I didn’t take them. She narrowed her eyes and shoved them in my stomach. I complied but dawdled slipping them on, giving her time to rescind everything she’d said. When she never did, I let out a breath and braided my hair, tying a piece of leather at the end. My hands shook as I tucked the tail into my shirt. My grandmother’s anxiety was clouding the air in the small room and suffocating me.
I looked over at my mother’s sleeping form. Her face was scrunched up against the wooden floorboards, and a pile of vomit lay next to her head. My stomach rolled as I finally noticed the stench filling the cottage and found myself following my grandmother outside. Benji brushed past me, probably deciding he didn’t like the smell either.
Grandmother’s white nightgown blew softly in the breeze as she looked up at the dark sky. “See that star?” She pointed to a star several shades brighter than the rest. “It’s called the Star of Truth. If you have a destination in mind, that star will take you anywhere you need to go. And no, it has never worked to find the seal. You need a definite idea of where to go.” She silenced my question before I asked it. I’d hoped some of her story wouldn’t add up so that we could forget this and go back to sleep.
She walked to the small wooden stable while I continued to look at the bright star as if it would ground me he
re. When had my grandmother ever steered me wrong?
There was a battle being fought inside my head and a nausea churning in my stomach.
“Grandmother, I’m not leaving,” I blurted.
“You will do what I say.”
I sighed as I gazed up at the night sky. There I was, standing in men’s clothes as my mother who abandoned me lay sick on our cottage floor, and my grandmother prepared our horse while expecting me to travel across the country alone.
“I put a map in your pack in case you get mixed up during the day. You should head to Cameron City first. There are many men for hire there who could escort you to Undaley. I’ve put a substantial amount of money in your pack for this. It’s a ruthless city, Cal, so be very careful disguising yourself. An inconspicuous man won’t have an issue there,” she said as she proceeded to saddle our new horse. The purchase I hadn’t been able to figure out for the life of me.
But I understood now.
“You knew this was coming,” I said to the star-lit sky.
“I suspected, Calamity. A shift in the breeze warned me. This land is powerful, and it can tell you anything if you open your mind to it.”
“Why didn’t you take me to Undaley, then? Why make me go all alone?” She cast me a veiled glance but didn’t say anything. “Why—”
“Now, they will anticipate for you to go around the Red Forest and for that reason, you need to go through it.”
My jaw dropped, and I stared at my grandmother with wide eyes. I knew then that she was senile. “You have lost your mind!” I thought she couldn’t have shocked me more with this whole situation, but this was unbelievable. No one in their right mind would suggest traveling through the Red Forest at night.
She huffed. “Stop it, girl. I might have misplaced the sewing needle a few times, but that bugger is tiny. My mind is as clear as yours.”