The Gifted Heart (Marks of Inheritance: The Orkeia Cycle #1)

8. A Muddy Start

Chapter eight

A Muddy Start

“ P leasure to meet you, Kenna,” Hanson said in a deep voice, his blue eyes shining in a strangely familiar way. “I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

“I have,” I said, struggling for words. “I was—well, we were hoping—what I mean is, I have this friend—”

“Gideon,” he said with a nod. “Sybil told me. I’m sorry I wasn’t already waiting for you before, but I lost track of time. I thought we were still on the thirteenth.”

I blinked. “What?”

“The thirteenth generation.”

When I didn’t respond, his look of confusion turned to understanding. “So you don’t know,” he muttered. “I assumed you would have Kindra’s records.”

“Only some of the stories survived,” I said. “If the records were still out there, the knights probably destroyed them.”

"Knights?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The knights of Orkeia—the ones who hunted us," Sybil explained.

Elizabeth nodded. "They want to destroy any trace of magic. That includes our records."

He looked to the two of them, his smile fading into a frown. "I knew there were witch hunts happening," he said somberly, "but I didn't realize it was so far spread. So none of you have had access to Kindra's writings? "

"My clan had some when I was a girl, but they were lost a long time ago," Sybil said.

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “That's…unfortunate."

There was a heaviness to his tone, and when he looked at me again, I saw some urgency in his eyes. "Well, now that you’re here I can tell you myself. Every fourteen generations, a sorcerer is born with power over the planets and universe. It is that sorcerer's calling from the Giftgiver to serve and protect mankind. The power is carried through the male blood line.”

My eyes grew wide. “So you’re—”

“Gideon’s thirteenth great-grandfather, yes,” he confirmed. “He inherited my gift, and in fourteen generations, his descendent will inherit it from him, just as I inherited it from Varan, the world-builder before me.”

He lifted his sleeve to show me his mark as evidence. It was identical to Gideon’s. I felt a rush of joy as my suspicions were confirmed, but I was still speechless. A chuckle came from the back of Hanson’s throat.

“So who figured it out? You or Gideon?”

I struggled to find my voice. “Well, it was my idea. He’s still not sure you exist.”

“I felt the same way about Varan,” he said with a smirk. “But Kindra just seemed to know he was real and that she could find him. It doesn’t surprise me that you’d play the same role as she did. You’ll be relaying messages to Gideon for me, yes?”

“That’s—yes,” I said, still in shock. “Assuming he agrees. I mean, I’m sure he will, it’s just—he really didn’t think I’d ever find you.”

Even though I was in spirit form, I felt the same sensation I did when my heart was pounding with nerves. I had hoped I would be able to help Gid, but I hadn’t imagined the scale of the task. If he didn’t learn how to use his gift in this life, he wouldn’t be able to teach the next world-builder, and somehow it was up to me to make sure he was prepared.

It looked like I wasn’t leaving the Grison clan after all.

“How old is he?” Hanson said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Seventeen. ”

He let out a breath. “I wish we'd been able to get started sooner," he muttered. "Let me know the moment he’s ready. I’ll be waiting near the gates.”

I was at a loss for words and simply nodded. When I looked into his eyes— Gideon’s eyes—I knew he would keep his word. As long as I could convince Gid to follow through with this, Hanson was clearly eager to take on the role of a mentor.

“Thank you,” I managed to stammer. “So much, I—I’ll be back soon.”

His expression softened, and he bid me farewell. Sybil and Elizabeth both gave me encouraging smiles and turned to make conversation with him as I stepped away. I kept looking back over my shoulder with disbelief at the three of them, my excitement growing more with each step.

I was right!

I broke into a run, reaching the front of the gates quickly so I could return to my body. Once back on Earth, I stumbled out my door and across the common area, walking straight to Gideon’s room and knocking on the door. Gid opened it, looking very confused.

“Kenna, what are you—?”

“I found him.”

***

To say Gideon was shocked would be an understatement. If I was being honest, it sounded crazy even to me. But when I described Hanson’s mark, as well as his other physical similarities, Gideon had no choice but to suspend his disbelief. Slowly, he sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the wall in deep thought.

“He’s real…” he said after a long silence.

“He’s real,” I echoed, sitting beside him and reaching for his hand. He let me take it and gave it a small squeeze, shaking his head and rubbing his face with his free hand.

“This is crazy, Kenna. Even if it’s all true, I—I don’t understand what all of this means.”

“Neither do I, but there’s only one way to find out.”

He let out a deep breath, but to my relief, he nodded. “Let me talk to my parents in the morning. Then we can make a plan on how to…”

“How to start teaching you how to use your gift,” I finished as his voice trailed off.

He tried to say something else, but couldn’t seem to find the words and instead just nodded. I squeezed his hand once more then, feeling a sudden surge of emotion, pulled him into a tight hug. He was stiff for a moment before returning it. When he did, he was shaking.

“Try to get some rest,” I said as I stood, knowing well enough that would be almost an impossibility for both of us. I beamed at him, and he returned my smile with some effort. I thought I saw his eyes watering, but I didn’t say anything, deciding it was best to let him be alone to process things for a while. I had enough to process myself.

By the time I awoke in the morning, the news had already spread through the clan. Gideon hadn’t intended on telling everyone about what we were about to try, but when Shae overheard him talking to his parents, that didn't matter. She immediately ran into the common area and blurted it out to everyone there.

Everyone wanted to hear the details about meeting Hanson, even Helen and Ethel. They seemed disappointed that I hadn’t met Kindra as well, but to be honest, the thought of asking about his wife hadn’t even occurred to me the night before. Gideon was clearly uncomfortable with all of the attention, but he was trying to hide it, staying close to me as questions started to be directed towards him as well.

Most of the clan seemed focused on what this meant for Gideon, but Neal kept bringing the conversation back to me and my role.

“It sounds exhausting, constantly going back and forth,” he said. There was a frown on his face as he looked between me and Gideon. “Aren’t you worried about over-exerting yourself?”

“I’m sure Kenna knows what her limits are,” Gideon said with a surprising amount of defensiveness. “And I’d never ask her to do anything she didn’t feel comfortable doing.”

I crossed my arms. “You didn’t ask me at all—I volunteered.”

“I’m just looking out for her,” Neal said, not seeming to hear me and keeping his eyes on Gideon as they narrowed. “I’m worried about her.”

“What, and you think I’m not?” Gid retorted.

The atmosphere in the room tensed, and everyone else was quiet as the two of them stared at each other. Uncomfortable, I moved to stand between them.

“I’ll be fine, and I know how to take care of myself,” I insisted, looking between them. “I promise, if things get too much, I’ll say something.”

Neal took a few steps back to stand next to Jonas. Thankfully, he dropped the subject, but he kept looking at Gideon with narrowed eyes. My shoulders tensed with some annoyance and I could feel Gideon next to me breathing heavily as he tried to calm down under so much scrutiny from Neal and the others. After fielding a few more questions, I managed to convince everyone to let us go on a walk and start making plans. It took Lyra’s help to get Shae to stay behind, but once she relented, I didn’t waste any time grasping Gid’s hand and leading him outside.

Once we were alone, he groaned, running his hand through his hair in frustration. “Shae and her big mouth.”

“It wasn’t going to stay a secret for long,” I said gently.

“Sure, but I would have liked to feel a little more confident that this is even going to work before everyone started expecting great things of me,” he said with a frown, looking up at the sky above us. Both of us stared at it for a moment, thinking about the implications of the legends we had been told.

“What if I can’t do it, Kenna?” he whispered.

“You can,” I said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. “It’s your gift, and Hanson’s your ancestor. ”

He squeezed my hand back, but pulled it away almost immediately and ran it through his hair. “How can we really know that? He could be wrong.”

“He seemed pretty confident. Besides, his mark…”

My voice trailed off as we both continued to stare up at the sky. I hadn’t thought much about it before, but according to Elizabeth, there were other worlds out there with their own suns, moons, and stars. She even seemed to believe that there might be people and civilizations living on those other worlds. My mind began to spin as I thought about the possible extent of Gideon’s power if that were true, and my head started to ache.

Then, another thought occurred to me. If Gideon could master this power, it was a greater power than any other sorcerer of our age. If he was able to do half of the things that Hanson had done in the legends, he could take on a whole army of knights on his own, not to mention the king. Something caught in my throat as I turned my head to look at him, the possibilities in my mind making my heart beat a bit quicker with hope and excitement.

Maybe he was the answer after all. Maybe—maybe my whole role was to make sure he got the training he needed.

But I kept my thoughts to myself. The last thing he needed right now was even more pressure.

He slowly tore his eyes from the sky as well and turned to meet my gaze. I realized we were still holding hands, but neither of us let go.

“Thank you,” he said at length. “For believing in me…whatever happens.”

My cheeks and neck felt warm as I smiled encouragingly. “Whatever happens, I promise I’ll be there for you…just like you were here for me when I lost everything.”

His eyes scanned my face as he returned my smile. The warmth I felt increased, and after another moment I pulled my hand back and cleared my throat, feeling suddenly awkward.

“So…when should we start?” I asked.

** *

I visited Hanson that night. Gid wanted to wait until the next day before beginning his training. While Hanson seemed eager to start, he also seemed to understand Gid's need to process everything. He told me that when we were ready, we needed to be outside in an open space. He also said that it would be easier for Gideon to learn to access his powers under the light of the sun, so if it was too cloudy we may need to postpone. Luckily, when the morning came, the sky was relatively clear.

As we left the shelter, Lyra ran interference with Shae once more, her and Julius both insisting that Gideon and I needed some privacy to be effective. Though he tried to hide it, the growing bounce in Gideon's step told me he was getting excited.

We moved inland a ways, and I set down my bag, pulling out my candles. Gid tried to help me set them up, unpacking them quickly and putting them in a random order. Chuckling, I rearranged them to the correct positions. Had I tried to enter the other worlds with the candles the way he had them, my spirit probably would have been separated from my body forever.

When I was done, I told him to sit outside the circle and wait. As I watched him take his place in the grass, I couldn’t help but be reminded of when we first met and I’d found him watching me. I felt that strange heat rush up my neck again, but I pushed it aside and closed my eyes.

I traced the pentagram over my chest and was soon in the other worlds once more. Hanson was waiting directly in front of the gates.

He beamed as I approached. “Is Gideon outside, ready for his first lesson?”

“As ready as he’s going to be.”

“Fantastic! Now, the first thing I need you to teach Gideon is that his gift includes power over the elements.”

I raised an eyebrow. “There’s a sorcerer in our clan with that power. ”

“Yes, Sybil already informed me, but what Gideon has is very different. The other sorcerer—Darius, was it?—uses his powers to manipulate existing elements, usually to build homes, cross water, or other such things. Gideon’s powers, on the other hand, are used to create elements in places that they were not before.”

My jaw dropped.

Hanson chuckled, a glint in his eye. “Incredible, isn’t it? Your friend is a human being who can actually create rivers, mountains, valleys, trees, plants—anything you can imagine!”

I felt an ache in my brain. “Okay.”

“I know it’s overwhelming," he said gently. "It was for me, too. But we’ll take it slow.”

I resisted the urge to rub my forehead, since I wouldn’t have been able to touch it anyway. “Please do.”

“The first we’re going to create is water. It’s the easiest element to produce. Where are you right now? In the mountains, in a forest—?”

“In the hills near a beach. We live on the Northern islands, in Orkeia.”

I thought I saw a twinkle in his eyes and almost asked him about the legend of the sea serpent, but he continued before I had the chance. “Then a small pond will do fine. We want to keep it inconspicuous, after all.”

He explained that Gideon had to understand what water was made out of and how the smallest parts of it—he called them molecules—fit and worked together. Most importantly, Gideon needed to clearly see the pond in his mind as he created it. If he didn’t have a clear vision of what he was trying to make, it wouldn’t appear as he wanted it to.

After repeating the instructions back to Hanson, I returned to my body and related them to Gideon. He made me repeat myself at least three times, overwhelmed at the possibility of being able to create water from nothing at all. Hanson had warned that it would probably take several hours, so he advised me to take a nap as Gideon practiced.

It took me a while to fall asleep, and it felt like once I did, shouts jerked me awake almost instantly. In a panic, I jumped to my feet, my eyes darting across the hills. There were no knights in sight, but my alarm only increased as I scanned the area.

Gideon was nowhere to be seen.

“Gid! Where are you?”

Muffled sounds came from behind, and I spun around. He was still nowhere in sight. My heart beat faster and my eyes darted this way and that. Just as I was about to run back to the shelter for help, I heard the sound again, coming from below the ground.

Where Gideon had been standing was a huge puddle of mud. Bubbles popped slowly on the surface.

“GID!” I exclaimed, rushing to the edge of the mud. Falling to my knees, I reached into the pit, grasping to find anything but the murky earth. After what seemed like an eternity, something solid brushed my fingertips. A hand wrapped around my wrist. I’d found one of his arms! Frantically, I felt around in the mud for the other one. After what felt like an eternity, I was able to grasp him by both arms and pull with all my strength.

His head broke the surface and he coughed up earth, gasping for air. I breathed a sigh of relief. With some effort, I heaved him out of the pit. We both lay panting on the ground, Gideon still coughing occasionally as he wiped the mud off his face.

“What—did—you—do?” I said in scattered breaths.

“I forgot to move the earth,” he coughed. “I mixed it with water.”

I turned my head to look at him. “Why were you standing on top of it?”

“I wasn’t! I meant to start small—it got big!”

I burst into laughter. After a couple seconds, he joined me, and we lay there on the ground, covered in mud, struggling for breath as we laughed harder than we ever had in our lives. All the tension and uncertainty that had been hanging over both of us was suddenly gone. Even if it hadn’t exactly been a successful attempt, now there was no way of denying the fact that this really was his gift.

“Let’s not tell your father about this,” I said as my laughter died down. “And I am never taking a nap while you practice again!”

He laughed even louder. We both struggled to gain enough hold on ourselves to stand and walk to the ocean. I turned my back as he undressed to wash himself and wiped the mud off my arms and dress on the other side of the beach. When he was completely submerged, I gathered his things and washed them as well, laughing all the while. I left them on the rocks for him and returned to my candles, moving them closer to the beach so Gideon wouldn’t have to work around the mud. By the time I’d set them up again, he was on his way back.

“Ready to try again?” I asked.

“I’ve got it this time,” he said, sounding a bit too sure of himself for someone who had just been buried in a giant pit of mud.

This time I watched him carefully as he worked. First he closed his eyes to focus, creating a picture of the pond in his mind. This took him a while—I think after the last incident, he wanted to make sure the image was complete. I stayed quiet, not wanting to distract him.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and extended his right hand towards the ground. The earth began to move, slowly forming a ditch. When the ditch wasabout the size of our shelter's common room, Gideon dropped his right hand and extended his left, hardening the earth.

He grinned at me as he finished that step. “At least I won’t fall in the mud again.”

I smiled, but the laughter was gone. I waited in anticipation, anxious to see him create water out of nothing. I’d seen Darius manipulate the earth before, and though I was proud of Gideon for accomplishing it, I knew it wasn’t the nature of his gift. He turned back around to face his work and I held my breath, afraid to blink.

Gideon’s shoulders tightened as he focused. He held out his hands in front of them and they shook. Slowly, the ditch began to fill. I could see the excitement in his eyes as water appeared, out of nowhere, exactly as he saw it. When the water reached the top of the pond, he crumpled to the ground, exhausted.

I sat next to him in awed silence. A bird flew in from the cliff’s edge and landed next to the water, surveying it for a moment before leaning over for a drink. Cautiously, moved forward and dipped my fingers into the pond, my heart pounding against my chest as the cool liquid ran through my fingers.

“Amazing,” I breathed.

With some effort, Gideon lifted his head. “How long did that take me?”

“This just now or including when you buried yourself in mud?”

He grinned. “Just now.”

“About thirty minutes.”

His eyes shone, but he soon closed them as he lay down. “Wake me up when Hanson tells me what to do next.”

I laughed. “I already know what he’s going to say.”

“What?”

“ Sleep ,” I teased, poking him.

He swatted my hand away, smiling the whole while. “Just go ask him, will you?”

As he let his breathing settle, I stepped into my circle and quickly made the transition from our world to the Land of the Saved. Hanson waited near the gates, talking to a woman on the other side. When he noticed me approaching, he raised his eyebrows and cut his conversation short, meeting me partway.

“Is everything all right?” he asked. “Did Gideon have a question?”

“Not about the pond,” I said. “He wants to know what he should do next.”

Hanson’s eyes widened. “He already finished the pond?”

“Yes.”

He whistled. “It took me six hours to create my first pond, and I got myself stuck in the mud a couple times.”

“Well, I didn’t say he didn’t get stuck in the mud,” I said with a smirk. "But it was only once."

Hanson laughed and his lips split into a grin. “And he did it perfectly the next time? The boy is a sorcery genius! "

I thought I saw his shoulders relax, the anxiety and eagerness I'd seen before melting away. He shook his head with another, almost relieved, laugh.

"Tell him to keep practicing with water until tomorrow afternoon,” he said. "We'll continue then."

With a wave, he turned to resume his conversation with the female spirit. Swelling with pride, I followed the path back to my body. I opened my eyes as rain began to fall and stepped out of the circle. Gideon sat up and looked at me with anticipation.

“What did Hanson say?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You could have been faster.”

His face began to fall until he noticed the glint of a smile on my face. He stood and punched me lightly on the arm. “You’ve been spending too much time with Neal. What did he really say?”

I smiled. “It took him six hours to make his first pond.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Really?”

“Really.”

He laughed, pulling me into a tight hug. I returned it, feeling our shared wonder and excitement. The rain fell steadily on my cheeks and the back of my neck, but it didn’t bother me.

“What do I learn next?” he said eagerly when we parted.

“Practice creating water formations and get some rest until tomorrow afternoon.”

For a moment he looked disappointed, but soon enough he smiled again. “I’m going to fill the well with water!”

I laughed as he ran toward the shelter. Kneeling on the ground, I gathered my candles and placed them in my pack before following him. It wasn’t until I was near the fire that I realized just how cold I was, and I sat, letting the warm flames thaw my body. Gideon stood over the well, concentrating. Soon, I heard water rising to the surface.

As Gideon relaxed, Neal came bounding through the front door, soaking wet and covered head to toe in mud. “There’s a huge bog out there!”

He never did figure out why we were laughing so hard.