Excerpt: Willena's Tale

“What were you speaking of when I first arrived?” I spoke first, breaking the heavy silence.
Da looked at me searchingly, looked into my eyes, his deep blue one into my cat green ones. “Willa,” he said, softly. He held something in his hands, toying with it. The light of the torch glinted off of it making it shine like gold. He held it out to me. I took it, drawing my eyebrows together as I did. It was a necklace with a large pendant hanging from it. I held it up in the light. I gasped. It was gold. It had a crest on it. I still did not understand.
“You know your nightmares,” he said, rather than asked. “The man that lay dead at your feet. He was protecting you. That’s how he died. This was in his hand. It was yours. You are the Mistress of Avania.”
Mama looked stricken, but Da looked calm.
“It is time for you to know the truth,” he said.
“But the Mistress of Avania died 17 years ago,” I whispered. “She was murdered.”
“Your mother,” he said back. “Not before she gave birth to a little girl, a little girl who was secreted away by an old man, taken to the village of Da’ar, where they lived as beggars.”
“But I am not yet 16” I said.
He shook his head, “You were small for your age. You’ve always been small for your age; it made us think you were younger than you were - at first.”
“How long have you known?” I asked accusingly.
“I had my suspicions when I found the necklace, but I did not know, refused to believe until today.”
Now I looked at the man that had come. Karn, I reminded myself. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. He was huge. I looked into his dark eyes. They seemed so devoid of emotion.
“How did you find me? How do you know it’s me?” I whispered.