Darkness Kindled Novel

Prologue

The day my mother died, the heavens poured their grief, but I couldn’t shed a tear. Not that day, or even the long ones after that.

No. I didn’t shed a single tear.

My tears didn’t come until later when a grey man came to pull me away from my mother’s bedside, kicking and screaming, desperate to stay with her.

“She’s gone now, girl. Come away from her.”

My tiny frame clung to my mother’s face, her once-copper skin turning pallid blue and cold. My tears stained her cheeks, but no matter how much I screamed for her, she wouldn’t wake up. She wouldn’t move. The only thing I could see was the blood staining her pillow. No matter how I shook her, she stayed still.

“Leave us alone! She’s gonna wake up. She’s just sleeping. She’s just sleeping.”

I kept repeating it until I couldn’t anymore, ignoring the man who picked me up and carried me out the doorway, out into a new life. Eventually, when my voice faded, I just stopped talking entirely.

I was too young-only four years old. None of it made sense. She was just with me, talking to me, hugging me and kissing me goodnight.

My whole world fractured that day, that first crack in my heart that would grow wider and wider as the icy cold of life etched its way inside.

Without my mother, no one was left in the world to care for me, so the strange grey man ripped me out of the only place I’d ever known and threw me into the orphanage across town.

The towering, lifeless, stone walls would become the cage I remained in for three years.

It was run by Matrons in drab clothing. Every day was a parade of rules and classes that the other children and I were drudged through.

Most of them weren't sure what to think of the mute, mixed-race girl who'd just arrived. So they kept their distance and I kept mine. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted my mamae back.

The only solace I had left to me was in the little storybook I hid under my dirty, thin mattress so that the other matrons wouldn’t take it away from me. It was my mother’s final gift to me and, sometimes, when I closed my eyes, I thought I could hear her sweet voice reading it to me.

Full of stories of dragons, elves, fairies, and mighty warriors, I devoured the pictures every night and then, as I grew and learned, the words. Every time the lights went out, I escaped into a world of magic and fantasy.

Night was my closest and only friend in those first days.

Until he came.

The boy who ran in the moonlight under the small window.

Other moments have faded over the years, but he-well, he I remember perfectly, as if it was only yesterday.

A flash of dandelion-fluffy, white-blonde hair rushed past my window in my peripheral view. I jumped up, barely catching the last view of him, as he shot a grin over his shoulder and ran off. I watched for him again that night, but he didn’t return.

The next day, I saw him again and my soul ached to go outside to join him. He was wild and untamed, just like I longed to be. Even from a distance I could see that he was older than I. His lanky legs carried him across the stream and down to the fields on the horizon. When I saw him gracefully drifting across the dew-covered fields, I knew he would come to see me. And even though we never spoke, I was glad to see him.

Every night, he stood across the lawn and waved at me, a smile gracing his pale face.

“Come outside,” he mouthed expressively from outside the window. He put his hand against the glass and cocked his head to the side, smiling encouragingly. The glass chilled my hand as I pressed my palm to his, trembling in anxiety.

Each time, I shook my head, gesturing to the other girls, and back to the door. He always nodded sadly and ran off again to play with the animals.

Even though my room was on the lowest floor of the orphanage and the night watch Matron Kelly often fell asleep on the job, it took me weeks to get the courage to sneak outside to meet him.

The night was perfect when we finally met. I crept out of my bed late that night, putting my pillows carefully in place under my thin blanket. I left my book underneath the mattress without even opening it once.

The strangely warm night gave me the ideal opportunity to sneak out. I wriggled through my open window after the lights went out and they shut the heavy door.

The crunchy, dew-covered grass felt like freedom under my bare toes.

“Psst. Over here.”

The boy popped up over the bushes at the corner of the building and grinned widely.

“Cat got your tongue?” He teased.

I shook my head. He couldn’t know that I hadn’t spoken a word since my mother died.

“That’s okay. You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. I won’t get mad. I’m Aeldra.”

He bowed as gracefully as a summer's sunset and I was enthralled immediately. Had been since I'd first seen him playing in the grounds outside.

The carefully crafted face I put on cracked for the first time in months and a tiny smile showed through. I almost wanted to speak again.

Instead, I traced my name on the mossy wall and looked back to see if he was watching me.

“Althea? That’s your name?”

I shrugged, nodding towards the garden where the rabbit hopped around, chomping on the gardener’s carrot tops.

When he saw it, he raced off to join it. I didn’t think twice before following him.

That night, I didn’t look back at the orphanage, didn’t think about my future. Not until dawn had come. We leapt across lily-pads, danced with fireflies, and finally collapsed into the wet grass laughing.

I felt free and happy, like the magical world that I read about every night could really exist for me.

But my fun eventually came to an end as dawn arrived, and I snuck back through the window with only seconds to spare, cursed to another day in the orphanage.

Aeldra came and went often those days, bringing back the Althea underneath all my sadness. Gradually, he made me smile, made me laugh, and eventually even made me speak again.

One day, he didn’t come back. I waited by the window for hours, until I finally fell asleep on the floor. When my eyes opened, I saw the Matron standing over me, horribly angry. I never saw Aeldra again.

Eventually, he faded into the distant past and I decided he was just an illusion or a dream that I once had.

At least then, I wasn't being abandoned.

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3 Years Later

When I was 7 years old, a strange woman came to adopt me. It was a cold, rainy day when they came into the lower parlor. The cold sank into my bones and I thought it'd stay forever. Just like my sadness.

I hid my book under my dress and huddled in the corner, refusing to look up until I was forced to.

The woman introduced herself as Vilhemina. She was a gaudy, overdressed lady, who stood straight and proud, with a snobbish chin and glaring, hawkish eyes.

Matron Helen was on her best behavior, dressed impeccably in her finest grey dress with her hair pinned perfectly away. She was even smiling, against all the odds. It was rare for her to smile. At least at me anyway.

Vilhemina hovered in the doorway, picking at her sleeve. Her barely disguised disgust at the state of disarray plain on my features was obvious.

“Hello, Althea.” She said staunchly.

“Apologies, madam, but unfortunately Althea hasn’t spoken a word since she arrived. She's a mute. Althea, this lady has come to take you home with her. Aren’t you excited?” Matron Helen was using her fake voice to seem happier. Though she was clearly rejoicing at the thought of being rid of me for good, pawning me off onto this woman.

I glared down at the floor, hoping that the overly dressed lady would give up on me.

"She can hear, don't worry. She's just being difficult."

Vilhemina sighed and walked closer to me. I leaned away slightly but stood my ground.

“Your mother Esperanza was raised with my late husband Oscar. It was his final wish to have you come and be raised with our own children, Olympia and Bram.” She bent to whisper in my ear, but she didn't touch me. “There’s no one else coming for you, Althea. This is your lucky day.”

Matron Helen smirked, and I knew she’d heard Vilhemina. She just didn’t care.

Somehow, I thought that maybe after so many years, she would have cared about me, but with a sinking heart, I knew she didn't.

“Your family is finally here for you, Althea! This is great news. Madam Vilhemina, we’ll need you to sign a few papers and then you’ll be all set to go. Come into the office with me. Althea, go and grab your things.”

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There was no farewell party for me, not like the ones they did for the other girls. Matron Helen had already walked away by the time I got to the ugly, bubblegum carriage. I shambled slowly, dragging my feet.

Vilhemina had no sooner gotten me away from the door before she was snapping at me to hurry up.

Somehow, I’d imagined that the day I left this place, I’d feel happier. I was finally leaving the cage I’d lived in for years, the only place I could really remember. But it didn’t feel like I thought it would. A pit of dread settled in my stomach. I almost preferred to stay behind in my room.

“Sit on the back, girl. There's no room for you in here.”

The coach driver gave me a sympathetic look as I climbed onto the luggage and he handed me the few items I had left in the world.

With a crack of a whip as the carriage creaked to a start, I was thrown into another adventure.