The glow from his hands spread outward toward the wall, revealing a door hidden by magic. As the spell gave way, the door came into full view. Without speaking another word, Father lifted the latch and led us inside a large room.
As I stepped inside, I gasped.
My mother sat on one of the many beds inside the chamber. She held a baby in her arms. Other women were in the room also, and I found several cribs lining the walls. Sounds of babies cooing and softly whimpering came from the cribs. When my mom looked up, her eyes met mine. Surprise lit her face.
“Olive?” she gasped.
She handed the baby to one of the women and came to me. Without hesitation, she wrapped her arms around me, catching me by surprise. I had to remind myself that this was Kasandra Kennedy without the spells. The old Kasandra would have never hugged me so publicly, but the new mom, the real mom, did it without a second thought.
“You have no idea how happy I am to see you,” she said. As she pulled away, tears shone in her eyes, and she hastily brushed them away.
Unlike Dad, she looked younger than when I’d seen her last. Her auburn hair was longer and fell to her shoulders, and her eyes seemed brighter. She wore elven clothing—a leather tunic with a white peasant’s shirt and a long, sweeping skirt. I’d only ever seen her in name brand Earth clothing. Oddly, the new look suited her.
“What are you doing here?” Mom asked.
“They came to find out about the staff,” Father answered.
“The staff? Well, they’ve found a bit more than that, haven’t they?”
Mom took the baby she had been holding in her arms once again and cradled him to her chest. I stared in confusion at the infant when Father spoke up.
“Olive, this is what I meant to show you. This is why you haven’t heard from your mother and I for so long. We’ve discovered a secret that could bring down the queen if she knew about it.”
I glanced around the room. “Let me guess; it’s got something to do with these children?”
Mom took a step closer. “Yes. It’s got everything to do with them.”
“Do you notice anything odd about these children?” Father asked.
I scanned the baby Mom had in her arms. He seemed young, perhaps only a month old, and had the characteristic pointed elven ears. His two tiny hands were fisted near his face. As he slept, he kept his heart-shaped lips parted and made soft sighing sounds. An odd emotion came over me, something akin to a feeling of longing. I’d never exactly contemplated becoming a mother, but I supposed many women dealt with the emotion from time to time. It occurred to me then that someday, I wanted children.
At that thought, another emotion followed. Fear. If parenthood ever did happen, how would I raise a child with the crazy scary life I lived?
I pushed my thoughts aside in order to think logically. Obviously, there was something special about this baby. But what? He looked like an ordinary elven baby. I couldn’t find anything unusual. I had supposed that he must have been infected with some sort of virus or been born carrying deadly pathogens, but as I stretched my magical senses to encompass the baby, nothing stood out. I even used my elven hearing to listen to his heartbeat, but that sounded normal as well.
“He seems perfectly fine to me. I can’t find anything wrong with him.”
“Are you sure?” Mom asked. “Here. Hold him, and you might think differently.”
She placed the baby in my arms. The emotion I’d felt only moments ago came back even more strongly. Kull stood behind me and watched as I held the baby, and I couldn’t help but realize how natural it felt, to have him close while I held the baby.
But that wasn’t the reason Mom had let me hold him. My goodness, what on earth was wrong with my head? How could I even contemplate motherhood when I could barely take care of my cat?
I took the baby’s tiny fingers in mine, but all I could think was that he seemed perfect. Not a single flaw at all.
“There’s nothing wrong with him.”
“Look at his magic,” Mom said.
I did as she said, extending my magical senses to detect the baby’s magical color. Since the baby was elven, I expected to see the usual blue. As the magic appeared, I stared, shocked, as his powers turned gray.
“Gray magic,” I gasped.
“Yes,” Mom said.
“But how is that possible? Goblins use—used—gray magic. This child is elven.”
Father stepped closer. “We’ve learned that nature has a way of balancing itself out. Wiping out the goblins should have put an end to all gray magic, yet since their extermination, babies to elven parents have been born with gray magic.”
I tried to wrap my mind around the situation. “I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Neither did anyone else. That is, until now. For magic to stay balanced in Faythander, some believe it must be made up of five different parts. It could not survive with only four. Gray magic has found a way to return.”
“It’s amazing. Do you think these children will have the ability to control liquid elements like the goblins?”
“Yes, some of the older babies have already begun to exhibit characteristics that lead us to believe so.”
My heart clenched with fear as I contemplated what the queen would do once she found out. “How many are there?”
“Seventeen that we’ve discovered in the city so far.”
“Are they all hiding here?”
A pained look crossed Father’s face. “No. Only a few are here. Some parents opted to leave the city altogether. Everyone knows how dangerous it is to be found with a child who possesses the same sort of magic the queen had thought to eradicate.”
Mom spoke up. “But
