"Heart of the Crown" Chapter 3

[seymoure]

Chapter 3

Cela of Tar

It was in far away Bahshrah that the King’s Master Mage was favored with a child named M’Cela. The sorcerer, called Tamaran, was in his ancient years and was so enraptured by the girl that he ignored his royal duties and spent all his time with her.

By the time she was 10 she could best most magicians in the land. But neither she nor her father could survive politics.

To the unknowing eye, the revolution came in with the suddenness and ravaging power of a desert sandstorm. But these hot winds were a long time in the building.

Tamaran had a brother in magic, if not in flesh, in his early days. That man was known as Robez.

Robez was to become a powerful wizard, but one without the moral base that a master mage must have, else he treads too near the evil forces that he might be called upon to hold in check.

When Robez was sent away he found neither a lofty position to practice his arcanery, nor the respect of a liege or his peers. This drove him deeper into the pits of anger and spite. He began to gather forces to his side that would work toward one goal: eradication of the man who had stolen what was rightly his.

A master of political puppetry and outright purchase of mercenary talent, Robez led his horde against the Lord of Tamaran and, in the end, overthrew the government.

He would have his revenge and wipe the memory of the wizard from the face of the planet. He began to remove every vestige of the regime that had rejected him.

In a purge of savage strains, the old man was slain and his offspring was barely secreted out of the castle and country with her life.

Passed from trusted hand to trusted hand, she was moved for nearly a year, until she landed in the agrarian surroundings of Tar.

The vendetta seemed done for some time, until, in the middle of the night, the family and the farm they owned were but scorched memories.

All thought the child was dead.

But a month later Mother unveiled a new addition to her brood. She was a raven-haired beauty with a hypnotic voice. They called her Cela of Tar.

They all knew she could sing.

What else she could do no one suspected.

© 2008 C. Wayne Owens
Chapter 4 is here.